Psalms 119:57

Thou art my portion, O LORD: I have said that I would keep thy words. (THOU ART) MY PORTION, O LORD: I HAVE SAID (MENTALLY, AS MY FIXED RESOLVE) THAT I WOULD KEEP THY WORDS - (; ; ; .) Let the unbelieving world choose worldly goods as their portion. I choose the Lord and His words as mine....

57._Thou art my portion, O Jehovah! _The meaning of this clause is doubtful, because the term _Jehovah _may be rendered either in the nominative or vocative case, and the phrase, _I have said, _may relate either to the former or latter part of the verse. One lection then is, _Jehovah is my portion, _and, therefore, _I have resolved to observe thy law. _Another is, _O God! who art my portion, I have resolved to observe thy law. _A third is, _I have said, or have resolved, that God is my portion, in order to observe _his _law. _A fourth is, _I have said, or have resolved, O Lord! that my portion is to observe thy law; _and this is the reading of which I approve. The following interpretation is quite applicable, That God being our portion, ought to animate and encourage us to observe his law. We have already noticed in several other passages, that God is denominated the heritage of the fait...

57-64 True believers take the Lord for the portion of their inheritance, and nothing less will satisfy them. The psalmist prayed with his whole heart, knowing how to value the blessing he prayed for: he desired the mercy promised, and depended on the promise for it. He turned from by-paths, and returned to God's testimonies. He delayed not. It behoves sinners to hasten to escape; and the believer will be equally in haste to glorify God. No care or grief should take away God's word out of our minds, or hinder the comfort it bestows. There is no situation on earth in which a believer has not cause to be thankful. Let us feel ashamed that others are more willing to keep from sleep to spend the time in sinful pleasures, than we are to praise God. And we should be more earnest in prayer, that our hearts may be filled with his mercy, grace, and peace....

LETTER ח CHETH. - _EIGHTH DIVISION_ Verse Psalms 119:57. THOU ART _MY PORTION, O LORD_] From the _fifty-seventh_ to the _sixtieth_ verse may be seen the _progress_ of the work of grace on the human heart, from the first dawn of heavenly light till the soul is filled with the fulness of God. But as I consider this Psalm as _notes_ selected from _diaries_ of past experience, formed at different times; and that the author has been obliged, for the support of his _acrostic_ plan, to interchange circumstances, putting that sometimes _behind_ which in the order of grace comes _before_; because, to put it in its right place, the _letters_ would not accord with the _alphabetical arrangement_; I shall therefore follow what I conceive to be its _order_ in the connex

THOU ART MY PORTION, O LORD - This begins a new division of the psalm, indicated by the Hebrew letter Cheth (ח _ch_), which may be represented in English by “ch.” On the meaning of the language here, see the notes at Psalms 16:5. God was to him what other people seek in wealth, honor, pleasure, fame. To him, God was all and in all. He asked nothing else. I HAVE SAID - I have formed the purpose, and have expressed it. It is the deliberate and settled design of my life. THAT I WOULD KEEP THY WORDS - That I would obey thee at all times; that I would keep all thy commandments....

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

x, CHETH.--THE EIGHTH PART. Ver. 57. CHETH. [THOU ART] MY PORTION, O LORD,.... Which he chose and preferred to all others; to the riches, honours, and profits of this world; the grant of which was made to him in the covenant of grace; the first discovery of it was from the Lord himself; and the choice and claim were made under the influence of his grace; and a great act of faith it is to assert this, and a wonderful blessing to enjoy it. This is a large portion indeed, immense and inconceivable, soul satisfying, safe, and for ever! see Psalms 73:26; I HAVE SAID THAT I WOULD KEEP THY WORDS; keep his commandments, lay up his promises, observe his doctrines, profess and retain them; this he determined within himself to do, under a sense of the love of God to him, in being his portion and inheritance. Some render the words, in connection with the former, t

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...

The division is better made thus, dispensing with the supposed Ellipsis:. have said "Jehovah is my portion, That. might keep Thy word. ...