Psalms 119:61

The bands of the wicked have robbed me: but I have not forgotten thy law. THE BANDS OF THE WICKED HAVE ROBBED ME: BUT I HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN THY LAW. So Kimchi takes the verb from a Chaldee root [`aawad,] to rob [or from `ad (H5704), a spoil, Genesis 49:27 ]. But Gesenius takes it, 'surround' [`eeweed, from `uwd (H5749), to repeat]. Buxtorf supports the English version. Hengstenberg, for "bands," i:e., companies, translates, "the snares." [But in that sense it would not be chebleey (H2256), but chableey (H2556), as in...

61._The cords of the wicked have caught hold of me. _Those who translate חבלי _, cheblei, _by _sorrows, _bring out no natural meaning, and perplex themselves as well as wrest the passage. Two readings then remain, either of which may be admitted: _The cords of the wicked have caught hold of me, _or _The companies of the wicked have robbed me _(423) Whether we adopt the one or the other of these readings, what the prophet intends to declare is, that when Satan assailed the principles of piety in his soul, by grievous temptations, he continued with undeviating steadfastness in the love and practice of God’s law. _Cords _may, however, be understood in two ways; either, first, as denoting the deceptive allurements by which the wicked endeavored to get him entangled in their society; or, secondly, the frauds which they practiced to effect his ruin. If the

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....

Verse Psalms 119:61. _THE BANDS OF THE WICKED HAVE ROBBED ME_] חבלי _chebley_, the _cables, cords_, or _snares_ of the wicked. They have _hunted_ us like wild beasts; many they have taken for prey, and many they have destroyed....

THE BANDS OF THE WICKED - Margin, “companies.” The Hebrew word properly means a cord, a rope; then a snare, gin, net; then, a band or a company of men. The reference is to some time in the life of the psalmist when he was surrounded by wicked men. HAVE ROBBED ME - Rather, have surrounded me; have environed me - for so the Hebrew word means. BUT I HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN THY LAW - I have not been deterred from keeping it by the dangers to which I have been exposed....

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

THE BANDS OF THE WICKED HAVE ROBBED ME,.... Very probably Saul and his ministers seized on his effects, when he fled from him; and the Amalekites plundered him of all his substance, when they took Ziklag; and Absalom and the conspirators with him robbed him, when he was obliged, because of them, to flee from his palace and court, which they entered and took possession of. But Aben Ezra rejects this sense of the word, which Jarchi and Kimchi espouse, and we follow, and renders it, "took hold of me"; and so the Targum, "the company of the wicked were gathered together against me:'' they surrounded him and put him into fear, great numbers of them encompassing him about; see Psalms 18:4; [BUT] I HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN THY LAW; this was written in his heart; he kept it in his memory, and retained an affection for it; and could not be deterred from obedience

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...

ROBBED. surrounded. Compare Sennacherib's investment of Hezekiah. See App-67....