Psalms 119:17

Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word. DEAL BOUNTIFULLY - literally, 'reward;' namely, not as a matter of debt, but of grace, according to thy promise to them that seek thee. Already the Lord had "dealt bountifully with" the Psalmist (); he prays Him to continue to do so. THAT I MAY LIVE, AND KEEP THY WORD. He seeks life, not for gratification of the flesh, but that he may serve the Lord in keeping His Word. As Saint Paul, "to me to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21; ). The preservation of Israel's national life is primarily meant. Compare ;...

17._Do good to thy servant _The term גמל _gamal, _which some render _to requite, _does not, among the Hebrews, import mutual recompense, but frequently signifies _to confer a benefit, _as in Psalms 116:7, and many other passages. Here it must be viewed as expressive of free favor. The words, however, may admit of two senses. They may be read as a separate clause, in this manner: O God! display thy goodness to thy servant, and thus I shall live, or then I shall esteem myself happy. Or the verse may form one connected statement: O God! grant to thy servant the favor that, while I live, I may keep thy commandments. If the former lection is adopted, then, by these words, the prophet declares that, without the favor of God, he is like a dead man; that though he might abound in every thing else, yet he could not subsist without feeling that

17-24 If God deals in strict justice with us, we all perish. We ought to spend our lives in his service; we shall find true life in keeping his word. Those that would see the wondrous things of God's law and gospel, must beg him to give them understanding, by the light of his Spirit. Believers feel themselves strangers on earth; they fear missing their way, and losing comfort by erring from God's commandments. Every sanctified soul hungers after the word of God, as food which there is no living without. There is something of pride at the bottom of every wilful sin. God can silence lying lips; reproach and contempt may humble and do us good, and then they shall be removed. Do we find the weight of the cross is above that we are able to bear? He that bore it for us will enable us to bear it; upheld by him we cannot sink. It is sad when those who should protect the innocent, are their betr...

LETTER ג GIMEL. - _THIRD DIVISION_ Verse Psalms 119:17. _DEAL BOUNTIFULLY_] גמל _gemol, reward_ thy servant. Let him have the return of his faith and prayers, that the Divine _life_ may be preserved in his soul! Then he will keep thy word. From גמל _gamal_, to reward, c., comes the name of ג _gimel_, the _third_ letter in the Hebrew alphabet, which is prefixed to every verse in this _part_, and commences it with its own name. This is a stroke of the psalmist's _art_ and _ingenuity_....

DEAL BOUNTIFULLY ... - This commences the next portion of the psalm, indicated by the letter _Gimel _(ג _g_), the third letter of the Hebrew alphabet, answering to our letter “g.” Each verse of this portion Psalms 119:17 begins with this letter. There is a resemblance between the first word of this verse - גמל _g__e__mol_ - and the letter - “Gimel” - which commences the eight verses of this portion of the psalm. The noun (derived from the verb) - גמל _gâmâl_ - means a camel, and the letter _gimel_ has been supposed to have derived its name from its having originally a resemblance to the camel’s neck. In some of the Phenician inscriptions, and in the Ethiopic alphabet, it has this form (Gesenius, “Lex”). The verb used here m

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

g, GIMEL.--THE THIRD PART. Ver. 17. GIMEL. DEAL BOUNTIFULLY WITH THY SERVANT,.... Which character is mentioned, not by way of plea or argument for favour, but as expressive of modesty, sense of duty, and obligation to it. He pleads not his services by way of merit; but prays that God would deal bountifully with him, in a way of grace and mercy: or "render good" unto him, as the Targum; bestow it on him as a free gift. The Lord deals bountifully with men, when he gives himself unto them as their portion and inheritance; his Son, and all things along with him; his Spirit, and the graces of it; and every daily needful supply of grace; [THAT] I MAY LIVE, AND KEEP THY WORD; life natural is the bounty of God; he grants life and favour, he grants life as a favour, and all the mercies and blessings of it; and through the gracious dealings of God with his people, they live spiritually and live...

It is not easy to see the special subjects that are spoken of by David in each of the short portions of eight verses, yet I do not doubt that if each portion were very carefully examined, we should see that there is some thread running through. We have not here simply a number of pious sentences about the excellency of God's Word, but we have choice gems set, each of them in a golden ring of spiritual intent and purpose. I think the first eight verses, all of which begin with that letter Aleph, or A, set forth the excellence of abiding in holiness, and walking continually in the way of the Lord. Not so much the restoring and comforting power of the word, as the blessedness of that word in leading us to conduct ourselves in consistency of character at all times. Psalms 119:1. _Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD._ There is another bles

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...