Psalms 119:144

The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting: give me understanding, and I shall live. THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THY TESTIMONIES IS EVERLASTING - (.) GIVE ME UNDERSTANDING, AND I SHALL LIVE - (; ; .) "Thy testimonies" do not disappoint the hopes of those who rest on the promises attached to them; therefore, spiritually to understand them brings with it life....

144._The righteousness of thy testimonies endureth forever. _The Psalmist repeats what he had already before stated, that there is a great dissimilarity between the righteousness of God’s testimonies and man’s inventions; the splendor of the last quickly vanishing away, whereas the other continues steadfast for ever. He repeats this twice; for although the world is forced to attribute the praise of righteousness to the law of God, yet the majority of mankind are carried away after their own speculations, so that there is nothing more difficult than to hold us fast in our obedience to God. David’s drift is to show that everlasting righteousness is not comprehended elsewhere than in God’s law, and that it is in vain to seek for it anywhere else; and there is accordingly here laid down a clearer definition of righteousness, which is, that righteousness consists in our keeping ourselves with...

89-96 The settling of God's word in heaven, is opposed to the changes and revolutions of the earth. And the engagements of God's covenant are established more firmly than the earth itself. All the creatures answer the ends of their creation: shall man, who alone is endued with reason, be the only unprofitable burden of the earth? We may make the Bible a pleasant companion at any time. But the word, without the grace of God, would not quicken us. See the best help for bad memories, namely, good affections; and though the exact words be lost, if the meaning remain, that is well. I am thine, not my own, not the world's; save me from sin, save me from ruin. The Lord will keep the man in peace, whose mind is stayed on him. It is poor perfection which one sees and end of. Such are all things in this world, which pass for perfections. The glory of man is but as the flower of the grass. The psa...

Verse Psalms 119:144. _THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THY TESTIMONIES_ IS _EVERLASTING_] Thy _moral law_ was not made for _one people_, or for one _particular_ _time_; it is as imperishable as thy _nature_, and of _endless_ _obligation_. It is that law by which all the children of Adam shall be judged. _GIVE ME UNDERSTANDING_] To know and practise it. _AND I SHALL LIVE._] Shall glorify thee, and live eternally; not for the _merit_ of having done it, but because thou didst fulfil the work of the law in my heart, having saved me from condemnation by it. ANALYSIS OF LETTER TSADDI. - _EIGHTEENTH DIVISION_ In this division the psalmist - I. Commends the law of God, from its Author, its equity, it

THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THY TESTIMONIES - The principles of righteousness on which they are founded. Those testimonies - those laws - are not arbitrary, or the mere expressions of will. They are founded on right and justice as seen by God, and his laws are his testimony as to what truth and justice are. IS EVERLASTING - See the notes at Psalms 119:142. GIVE ME UNDERSTANDING, AND I SHALL LIVE - Give me a right view of thy law, and thy truth, and I shall have real life. See the notes at Psalms 119:34....

EXPOSITION This is an "alphabetic psalm" of a more stringent character than any other. It consists of twenty-two stanzas, each of eight verses, every verse in each stanza beginning with its own proper letter—those of stanza 1 with _aleph_,_ _the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet; those of stanza 2 with _both_,_ _the second letter; and so on. The writer, having thus fettered himself, moves with some difficulty, but still has produced what has been justly called "a sweetly monotonous meditation" (Cheyne). He takes the Law for his one and only subject, and, further, seems to have bound himself, almost absolutely, to introduce the word "Law," or something which he regards as a synonym of "Law," into every verse. The synonyms are nine in number— 1. TORAH, "the Law"_ _itself; but not merely the Law given on Mount Sinai; rather, God's law in the widest sense, all whereby he

THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THY TESTIMONIES [IS] EVERLASTING,.... Or, "for ever" b. The righteousness which they require, or which they publish; the righteousness revealed in the Gospel, which is the righteousness of Christ; Psalms 119:142; GIVE ME UNDERSTANDING, AND I SHALL LIVE; an understanding of the testimonies of the Lord, of the word of God, the law of God, and Gospel of Christ; an understanding of divine and spiritual things; a clearer and larger understanding of them, which is the gift of God; both that itself at first, and an increase of it here prayed for, the end, issue, and effect of which is life. Such live spiritually, and by faith; they live cheerfully and comfortably, and "for ever", as Aben Ezra and Kimchi repeat from the former clause: for "this is life eternal know the only true God and Jesus Christ"; or to have spiritual understanding of them, and of t

Psalms 119:129. _Thy testimonies are wonderful: therefore doth my soul keep them._ It is very wonderful that God should speak to us at all, and still more marvellous that he should write to us such a book as this Bible is. The Book itself is full of wonders, and one of those wonders is that it reveals him whose name is «Wonderful.» Observe that the psalmist, having said to the Lord, «Thy testimonies are wonderful,» does not add, «Therefore do I sit down and wonder at them.» No, his appreciation was practical, let ours be the same: «Thy testimonies are wonderful: therefore doth my soul keep them.» Psalms 119:130. _The entrance of thy words giveth light;_ Those who are most ignorant, and have least confidence in their own abilities, will nevertheless becom

Psalms 119 The Law Written on Their Hearts and the Praise of the Word This is the longest and most perfect Psalm in the whole collection. It is an alphabetical acrostic. It is composed of 22 sections, each having eight verses, 176 verses in all. Each section begins with a different letter of the alphabet and each verse of the different sections begins also with the corresponding letter of the section. Eight times each letter of the alphabet is mentioned in the 22 sections. The number eight in the Word has the meaning of resurrection, death is gone and life has come. Israel has passed from death to life and now extols the Word and the Law of God. The time has come when it is fulfilled what the Lord spoke through Jeremiah concerning the new covenant, “I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts.” We behold then in this Psalm the joy of Israel in knowing the Word

CXIX. PRAISE OF THE LAW. This is the longest and most artificial Ps. in the whole collection. It is divided into twenty-two strophes, each beginning with one of the twenty-two letters of the Heb. alphabet in regular order. Again each strophe contains eight verses, and each verse begins with the same letter which introduces the strophe. The number of strophes then is determined by the number of the Heb. letters. But what of the eight verses in each strophe? The Psalmist had derived from a kindred Ps., viz. Psalms 19, the eight synonyms for the conception Word of God and impresses these terms on his readers by introducing them all into each stanza of his work. So Cheyne, in his _Book of Psalms_ (1904), following D. H. Mü ller. It is right, however, to bear in mind that this theory involves considerable, though by no means extravagant or arbitrary, changes in the received text both of Psalm...