Psalms 119:150

They draw nigh that follow after mischief: they are far from thy law. THEY DRAW NIGH THAT FOLLOW AFTER MISCHIEF: THEY ARE FAR FROM THY LAW. The more they draw nigh me for mischief-literally, premeditated wickedness [ zimaah (H2154)] - the further they are from thy law....

150._The pursuers of malice have drawn near. _As the Hebrew word רודפי _rodphee, _translated _the pursuers of, _is put in the construct state, that is to say, as it is so related to the word זמה, _zimmah, _rendered _wickedness, _that in Latin the latter would be put in the genitive ease, I expound the clause as denoting that they draw near to do mischief. I wonder what could move interpreters to translate — The _pursuers have approached, _or _drawn near to wickedness; _which the idiom of the language will not admit, to say nothing of the fact that זמה, _zimmah, _signifies rather _perversity _or _malice, _than _wickedness. _David therefore says, that those who are vehemently bent on malice are pursuing him close behind, and that they rush upon him with such violence in order to do him mischie

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 119:150. _THEY DRAW NIGH_] They are just at hand who seek to destroy me. _THEY ARE FAR FROM THY LAW._] They are _near_ to all _evil_, but _far_ from _thee_....

THEY DRAW NIGH - They follow me; they press hard upon me. THAT FOLLOW AFTER MISCHIEF - That seek to do me wrong. THEY ARE FAR FROM THY LAW - They yield no obedience to it; they are not influenced by it in their conduct toward me....

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

THEY DRAW NIGH THAT FOLLOW AFTER MISCHIEF,.... Or "evil" c; that which is sinful in itself, and injurious to others. Some cannot sleep unless they do mischief; they are bent upon it, and proceed from evil to evil: they are eager in their pursuit of it, as the huntsman after his sport, to which the allusion is; though it is to their ruin, even to their death, Proverbs 11:19; These the psalmist says "draw nigh"; not unto God, unless feignedly and with their mouths only; but to him they drew nigh, to David, in an hostile way they pursued after him, in order to take away his life, and they had very nearly overtaken him, and were just ready to seize him; his life drew nigh to those destroyers, and those destroyers drew nigh to that, so that he was in great danger; and the more as these were abandoned creatures, that neither feared God nor regarded man, as follows: they are far

Psalms 119:137. _Righteous art thou, O LORD, and upright are thy judgments._ It is well to be able to say this when you are being tried, when the hand of God lies heavy upon you; it is hard to kick against the pricks, but it is very sweet to submit, and to say, «Righteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgments.» Psalms 119:138. _Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful._ «Righteous» for the present, «faithful» for the future. There is no mistake about God's Word, it will never fail, we may trust it implicitly, and we shall never be disappointed. Psalms 119:139. _My zeal hath consumed me,_ The

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...