Psalms 119:52

I remembered thy judgments of old, O LORD; and have comforted myself. I REMEMBERED THY JUDGMENTS OF OLD ... AND HAVE COMFORTED MYSELF. God's past judicial vindications of His people by mighty deliverances gives Israel sure hope for the future, however discouraging be her present state. "Of old" - Hebrew, 'from (of) old.' Thou hast always had the same principle of dealing with the godly and the ungodly respectively, and shalt ever have the same....

52._I called to mind thy judgments of old, O Jehovah! _In this psalm, _the judgments of God _are generally taken for his statutes and decrees, that is, his _righteousness. _(417) In this place, in consequence of the qualifying phrase, _of old, _it is more probable that they refer to the examples by which God has made himself known as the righteous Judge of the world. Why does he say that the law of God has been from everlasting? This may to some extent be accounted for from the righteousness here mentioned not being of recent growth, but truly everlasting, because the written law is just an attestation of the law of nature, through means of which God recalls to our memory that which he has previously engraved on our hearts. I am rather inclined to adopt another interpretation, That David remembered the judgments of God, by which he testified that he had established his law perpetually in

49-56 Those that make God's promises their portion, may with humble boldness make them their plea. He that by his Spirit works faith in us, will work for us. The word of God speaks comfort in affliction. If, through grace, it makes us holy, there is enough in it to make us easy, in all conditions. Let us be certain we have the Divine law for what we believe, and then let not scoffers prevail upon us to decline from it. God's judgments of old comfort and encourage us, for he is still the same. Sin is horrible in the eyes of all that are sanctified. Ere long the believer will be absent from the body, and present with the Lord. In the mean time, the statutes of the Lord supply subjects for grateful praise. In the season of affliction, and in the silent hours of the night, he remembers the name of the Lord, and is stirred up to keep the law. All who have made religion the first thing, will o...

Verse Psalms 119:52. _I REMEMBERED THY JUDGMENTS OF OLD_] The word _judgments_ is here taken for _providential dealing_; and indeed _kind treatment_; that which God showed to the Hebrews in bearing with and blessing them. And it was the recollection of _these judgments_ that caused him to _comfort_ himself....

I REMEMBERED - In my troubles. THY JUDGMENTS OF OLD - The word “judgments” here seems to refer to the divine dealings, whether expressed in the law of God, or in the actual administration of his government over the world. The words “of old” do not seem here to refer to the “eternity past,” as the phrase sometimes does now, but to the constancy and uniformity of the principles of the divine administration. The psalmist remembered that the principles of that administration had been always the same; that the law of God was always the same; and that, therefore, he might confide in God. What God had done formerly he would do now; the favor which he had shown in times past he would continue to show now. In the trials of life, in the changes which occur, in the apparent wreck of things, in the fearful prospect of disaster and ruin at any time, it is well for us to think of the unchanging princi...

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

I REMEMBERED THY JUDGMENTS OF OLD, O LORD,.... Either the judgments of God executed on wicked men; as the bringing a flood on the world of the ungodly; the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah; the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea; the cutting off of the Canaanites, and dispossessing them of their land: or the providential dispensations of God towards his own people; who sometimes chastises and corrects them, and brings them very low, and then raises them up again, as in the case of Job. These things the psalmist called to remembrance, and revolved them in his mind, which gave him pleasure and comfort: AND HAVE COMFORTED MYSELF; with such thoughts as these, that that God, who had cast down the mighty from their seats, and had scattered the proud in the imaginations of their hearts, and destroyed them, could easily rebuke the proud that had him in derision; and he that had sho...

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...

DISCOURSE: 703 COMFORT UNDER PERSECUTION Psalms 119:51. _The proud have had me greatly in derision; yet have I not declined from thy Law. I remembered thy judgments of old, O Lord; and have comforted myself_. THERE is not, throughout the whole Scriptures, any woe so little feared, so little thought of, so little credited, as that which was denounced by our blessed Lord, “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you [Note: Luke 6:26.]!” But, in truth, there is no denunciation more certain to be executed than that: for there is nothing that can more infallibly prove us to be the enemies of God, than the approbation and love of an ungodly world. If it be asked, Whence this should be? I answer, that “the things which are highly esteemed amongst men are an abomination in the sight of God