Psalms 119:39

Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments are good. TURN AWAY MY REPROACH WHICH I FEAR. The reproach of the enemy makes the suppliant fear that he may come to a bad end at last (cf. ; ). Or, let not my sin and its chastisement turn to the reproach of the truth, and occasion blasphemy against God (Cocceius), on the part of the enemy, who will lay the blame on the judgments and statutes, and the profession of thy worship (Rivetus). FOR THY JUDGMENTS ARE GOOD - not destructive, but saving corrective to thy people....

39._Take away my reproach. _It is not certain to what reproach he alludes. Knowing that many calumniators were on the watch to find occasion for reviling him, should they happen to detect him in any offense, it is not without reason he dreaded lest he might fall into such disgrace, and that by his own fault. Probably he might be apprehensive of some other reproach, aware that wicked men shamefully and injuriously slander the good generally, and, by their calumnies, distort and pervert their good actions. The concluding clause, _Because the judgments of God are good, _is the reason why God should put to silence the mischievous tongues, which pour out the venom of their malice without shame against the innocent, who are reverently observing his law. If any be inclined to view the word _reproach _as directed against God himself, such an interpretation is by no means objectionable, That the...

33-40 Teach me thy statutes, not the mere words, but the way of applying them to myself. God, by his Spirit, gives a right understanding. But the Spirit of revelation in the word will not suffice, unless we have the Spirit of wisdom in the heart. God puts his Spirit within us, causing us to walk in his statutes. The sin here prayed against is covetousness. Those that would have the love of God rooted in them, must get the love of the world rooted out; for the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Quicken me in thy way; to redeem time, and to do every duty with liveliness of spirit. Beholding vanity deadens us, and slackens our pace; a traveller must not stand gazing upon every object that presents itself to his view. The promises of God's word greatly relate to the preservation of the true believer. When Satan has drawn a child of God into worldly compliances, he will reproach him...

Verse Psalms 119:39. _TURN AWAY MY REPROACH, WHICH I FEAR_] This may be understood of the reproach which a man may meet with in consequence of living a godly life, for such a life was never _fashionable_ in any _time_ or _country_. But I have found the following note on the passage: "I have done a _secret evil_; my soul is sorry for it: if it become _public_, it will be a heavy reproach to me. O God, turn it away, and let it never meet the eye of man!" - _Anon_....

TURN AWAY MY REPROACH - The reproach which is likely to come upon me from being a professed worshipper of God. In all ages good men have been exposed to this reproach. WHICH I FEAR - Which I have reason to apprehend will come upon me. This may not mean that he was personally afraid of it, but merely that he had reason to apprehend that he was exposed to it. The prayer is proper, for there is nothing which our nature makes us shrink back from more than reproach. Compare Psalms 119:22; Psalms 69:9, Psalms 69:20; Romans 15:3;...

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

TURN AWAY MY REPROACH WHICH I FEAR,.... Either for the sake of religion, which was disagreeable to him; and he might be afraid it would be too heavy for him to bear, and be a temptation to him to forsake the good ways of God: or rather by reason of sin, which brings a reproach on good men; and causes the enemy to speak reproachfully, and is therefore dreaded by them who desire to be kept from sin, for that reason as well as others; see Psalms 39:8. Jarchi and Kimchi think that David has some reference to his sins, in the case of Uriah and Bathsheba; lest they should be a perpetual reproach on his name and family, which he greatly feared; FOR THY JUDGMENTS [ARE] GOOD; the laws of God, and punishment of sin according to them; the Scriptures, and the doctrines contained in them; the ways of God, and true religion; which are evil spoken of, through the sins of the professors of

We have here some of the jottings from David's pocket-book, the notes of his experience as recorded in his diary. The whole Psalm is a great casket full of golden rings. They all fit one into the other; but each ring is also perfect in itself. Psalms 119:33. _Teach me, o Lord, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end._ We forget what others teach us, but we never forget what God truly teaches us. He who has been graciously taught will finally persevere. Psalms 119:34. _Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart._ This is the great point as to thorough godliness, to observe God's law with our whole heart. In these days, there is much slurring in religious matters; but they who love

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...