Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Psalm 119:1-8 Moral law Homilist. I. THERE IS A DIVINE MORAL LAW FOR THE REGULATION OF MORAL LIFE. The Creator has given a law to every creature He has made, and to every creature its own law. This law Christ reduced to two primary obligations — right affection for God, right affection for man. II. GENUINE OBEDIENCE TO THIS LAW ENSURES HUMAN HAPPINESS. "Blessed," etc. 1. The nature of true obedience. (1) Sincere. (2) Cordial. (3) Assiduous. (4) Divinely inspired. (5) Spiritual rather than literal, constant rather than occasional. 2. The happiness consequent upon true obedience. (1) Freedom from shame. This implies consciousness of virtue. Sin is the shameful thing. (2) Heartiness in worship. The highest happiness of man consists in worshipping with the whole heart. ( Homilist. ) Well-doing Homilist. I. HUMAN HAPPINESS CONSISTS IN WELL-DOING. "Blessed are the undefiled in the way." It is not in theories, professions, ceremonies, but in right-doing. There is true blessedness for man only in his deed, not in his mere thoughts or emotions, but in his actions. Inaction is torpor, wrong action is misery, right action is bliss. II. WELL-DOING HAS RESPECT TO THE DIVINE. "Who walk in the law of the Lord." If there really be an atheistic world, that world knows nothing of well-doing. Well-doing can only grow out of a practical regard for the Supreme Existence. III. THE RESPECT FOR THE DIVINE MUST BE THOROUGH. "With the whole heart." God must become the Moral Monarch of the soul, inspiring and controlling the whole. ( Homilist. ) God's beatitudes and the world' s John Watson, D. D. The world has its own idea of blessedness. Blessed is the man who is always right. Blessed is the man who is satisfied with himself. Blessed is the man who is strong. Blessed is the man who rules. Blessed is the man who is rich. Blessed is the man who is popular. Blessed is the man who enjoys life. These are the beatitudes of sight and this present world. It comes with a shock and opens a new realm of thought that not one of these men entered Jesus' mind when He treated of blessedness. ( John Watson, D. D. ) The truly happy man The Young Man. The happiest life is that of the man who accepts Christ as his friend and model. Good Matthew Henry says, "You have heard the dying words of many — these are mine: 'I have found a life of communion with Christ the happiest life in the world.'" This is the testimony of all who have tried it. Hear what Coleridge says: "The Bible, and only the Bible, shows clearly and certainly what happiness is, and the way to its attainment." Philosophy may culture the mind and uplift the emotions, but it cannot heal a sore heart. Socialism may improve a man's environment, but it cannot give him happiness. True, deep rest of heart can only come as the result of knowing, loving and following Christ. ( The Young Man. ) Blessed are they that keep His testimonies, and that seek Him with the whole heart. Psalm 119:2 The best pursuit Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons. I. THE PURSUIT SPECIFIED. 1. The object proposed. They "seek" God — His enlightening truth — His pardoning mercy — His sanctifying grace — His indwelling presence — His communicable fulness — and His eternal fruition beyond the grave ( Psalm 17:15 ; Romans 2:7 ). 2. The conduct described. "With the whole heart" — not hypocritically and. lukewarmly; but with all the powers and energies of the soul, the understanding, the will, the conscience, and the affections; supremely, above every other object; diligently, in all the means of salvation; immediately, without delay, or procrastination; earnestly, with zealous and undivided hearts; continually, being faithful unto death, etc. ( Psalm 27:4 ; Isaiah 55:6, 7 ; Jeremiah 29:13 , etc.). II. THE OBEDIENCE REQUIRED. 1. It must be regulated by His Word, the only perfect and infallible standard of Christian faith and practice. 2. It must be conformable to His will. The Divine testimonies must be kept in our memories — in our affections — and in our practices. We must keep them sincerely, not in name and profession only; believingly, in the exercise of a lively and vigorous faith; affectionately, from a principle of love filling and ruling the heart; universally, having impartial respect unto all His commandments; faithfully, through all opposition, and indefatigable perseverance in well-doing ( 1 Corinthians 15:58 ). III. THE HAPPINESS ENJOYED. 1. They have blessed enjoyments. They are blessed with inconceivable peace — unspeakable joy — the testimony of a good conscience, and the witness of the Holy Spirit. 2. They have blessed anticipations. The present holiness is an earnest of their future blessedness. ( Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons. ) Right use of the Bible B. A. Millard. A workman has the plan of the house he is to build; but he must use plumb-line and spirit-level and foot-rule if he is to build securely. The engineer has his beautiful engine, his marvellously constructed piece of mechanism; but it is useless to him unless it is joined up with the lathe it is to turn or the loom it is to work. Your electric generating station is a place of wonder and mystery, a marvel of skill and knowledge; but it is useless if it is only kept to look at and wonder about; it only becomes effective as the electricity generated there is carried to your electric motors for power, to your filaments of carbon for light. And what we so often forget is that, in the same way, the Gospel of Jesus is of no practical use to us while we keep it isolated from our daily life; it is no use in a book, or in theological syllogisms; it only becomes of use as it becomes the power of God in our daffy lives. We must take it as the guide of our daily conduct, as the inspiration of thought and emotion, as the determining factor in our daily actions, as the light to lead us along life's dark and difficult ways, As the food upon which the soul is nourished it must affect all our thought and feeling, speech and action; it must penetrate to the remotest corners of our life and give form and colour and character to every experience. ( B. A. Millard. ) They also do no iniquity: they walk in His ways. Psalm 119:8 Negative and positive goodness David Thomas, D. D. I. NEGATIVE goodness. "They do no iniquity." In their external conduct, and to the eye of society, they appear faultless. 1. It is socially valuable. He who in society practically respects the social rights of others, who is free from falsehood, chicanery, and debauchery is certainly a more valuable man than he who is guilty of all these enormities. 2. It is morally worthless. There is no virtue in the not doing of wrong, but there is sin in not doing the right. II. POSITIVE GOODNESS. "They walk in His ways." To walk in His ways implies three things — 1. Spiritual life. A dead man cannot walk. There is no walking in the Divine way unless the soul is quickened into spiritual life — a life of supreme sympathy with God. 2. Spiritual vigour. A man may live and yet be too weak in the frame to raise himself from his couch or take one step. The man who walks in the right way has moral vigour — a vigour that grows with every effort. 3. Spiritual progress. A constant advance from one point to another. Every holy volition and aspiration are steps onward. ( David Thomas, D. D. ) Thou hast commanded us to keep Thy precepts diligently. Psalm 119:4 Reasons for diligence in obeying God Bishop Cowper. In worldly affairs no weighty thing can be done without diligence; far less in spiritual. For three causes should we keep the commandments of the Lord with diligence: first, because our adversary, that seeks to snare us by the transgression of them, is diligent in tempting; next, because we ourselves are weak and infirm; by the greater diligence have we need to take heed to ourselves; thirdly, because of the great loss we sustain by every advantage Satan gets over us. For we find by experience that as a wound is sooner made than it is healed, so guiltiness of conscience is easily contracted, but not so easily done away. ( Bishop Cowper. ) O that my ways were directed to keep Thy statutes! Psalm 119:5 Virtuous solicitude A. Gerard, D. D. A solicitude to perform our duty, to practise holiness at all times, and to make a constant progress in it, is an essential ingredient in a virtuous temper, a necessary qualification of our obedience, and a powerful means of our becoming active and steadfast in it. It implies — 1. A lively sense of the supreme importance of holiness. 2. A settled love of goodness, and hatred of iniquity. 3. A vigorous, constant, and prevailing desire to keep God's statutes. 4. A firm resolution to keep them. 5. A prevailing bias of the whole soul towards virtuous practice. 6. Fervent desire of God's assistance in the practice of holiness. ( A. Gerard, D. D. ) The temporal lot of a good man subservient to the advancement of his personal religion Essex Remembrancer. I. A TRULY GOOD MAN WILL BE CONCERNED TO KEEP THE STATUTES OF GOD. He is as much concerned to avoid secret as open sins; he seeks intently a temper devout and spiritual; he finds an unutterable pleasure in striving, and watching, and praying that not a single particular in the Christian temper or conduct may be found absent from him. II. A GOOD MAN WILL AT SOME PERIODS BE ESPECIALLY CONCERNED TO KEEP THE STATUTES OF GOD. 1. Perhaps an extensive and an affecting sight of the Divine holiness is instrumental in producing this improvement. 2. A fixed and an admiring contemplation of the grace of the Gospel is sometimes productive of a similar effect. 3. Affliction is sometimes the forerunner of this enlarged concern. III. WHEN A GOOD MAN IS THUS ESPECIALLY CONCERNED TO KEEP THE STATUTES OF GOD, HIS TEMPORAL LOT WILL BE RENDERED SUBSERVIENT TO THE PROMOTION OF HIS PERSONAL RELIGION. "O that my ways," my general circumstances, and the daily and hourly incidents which occur, "were directed to keep Thy statutes," to advance my personal religion. IV. IN ORDER TO THE TEMPORAL LOT OF A GOOD MAN BECOMING THUS SUBSERVIENT TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF HIS PERSONAL RELIGION, HE MUST BE AIDED BY A DIVINE INTERPOSITION. 1. In the form of a wise and benevolent appointment. 2. In the form of a gracious influence. ( Essex Remembrancer. ) Longings J. P. Gladstone. A longing after the good, after anything higher and better than the sinner has, what is it but the beginning of the new life, its first pulsation, its first and feeblest cry? It is the confession of sin and want. This need may give expression to itself in the quiet, trustful prayer of childhood, saying to God, "My Father, wilt Thou not from henceforth be the guide of my youth?" This need may be spoken with a heavy heart and a downcast face by the young prodigal, as he stands in presence of the shame and poverty which his own sin has created. This need may be spoken by the philosopher who, having sought for rest for heart and intellect in every theory of the universe and in every method of life but the Divine, and sought in vain, turns at last to the Fountain of living waters. It is a longing which may be quickened by very diverse things, or it may move of itself, as we think; yet in all is there the presence and power of the Spirit of God. Nor when the soul has come to the knowledge of God, when its first longing has been spoken and has been met by the bestowal of a heavenly gift, is there an end of longing and desiring. In fact, it may be said that longings do but then begin. By giving pardon and cleansing, God does but open the door to the demand for a perfect righteousness. The soul sees above it an ever higher ideal than it has yet attained to, and, therefore, longs and prays for it. Our longings are like the wings of the soul upon which it is borne, if only for a moment, into a purer and heavenlier clime. They set us in motion Godward. Call not the wishes of the heart vain and useless; for they are the spirit of our prayers, they turn our wills and fix our resolutions; they are the beginnings of the kingdom of heaven. Impalpable, and coming even upon him who has them as the breeze comes upon the still lake and stirs it with life and motion, these yearnings and longings anticipate and determine a man's destiny. When a man says, "I wish to pray; I wish to know God; I wish to be a new man," he speaks weightier words than when kings or statesmen issue manifestoes and proclamations. That is the opening up of his case with his Father and Saviour. "Sir, we would see Jesus," said some Greeks to Philip, who had come up to the feast to worship, and that wish of theirs caused a response on the part of Jesus, the effect of which is felt in the words of Jesus in multitudes of souls to-day, and shall be for ever and ever. ( J. P. Gladstone. ) Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all Thy commandments. Psalm 119:6 A clear conscience We are not under the law, but under grace, yet are we not lawless, since we have become servants of God. Nay, but we are under another law, which works upon us after another fashion. The child may be quite clear of the police court, but there is a rod at home. There is a father's smile; there is a father's frown. I. THE UNIVERSALITY OF BELIEVING OBEDIENCE. The esteem in which we hold, and the tribute we pay to, all God's commandments is spoken of. Not picking and choosing — paying attention to this, because it pleases me, and omitting that, because it is not equally pleasurable. What do we mean by having respect to all God's commandment I reply that, whatever there is that the Lord has spoken in any part of His Word we desire to hold in devout esteem, and to have respect to every utterance of His will. "Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all Thy commandments" — to the foundation commandments, striving to dig deep; to the high soaring commandments, seeking to rise into the utmost fellowship with God; to those commandments that need stern labour, like the rugged walls upon which much toil must be spent, and upon those which are a delight and a beauty, like the golden aureole windows that require fine taste and delicate skill. Oh that we were enamoured of this perfection, and were seeking after it! II. THE EXCELLENCY OF ITS RESULT. "Then shall I not be ashamed." That means, first, that as sin is removed, shame is removed. Sin and shame came into this world together. Unless sin gets to a high head, which it will not do in the believer, shame is sure always to go with sin. Excessive sin or habitual transgression at last kills shame, so that the hardened culprit knows not how to blush. It is an awful thing when a man is no longer conscious of shame, but a more awful thing still when he comes to glory in his shame; for then his damnation is not far off. But as sin is cast out of the believer, shame is cast out of him in proportion, and it thence comes to pass that courage rises with a consciousness of rectitude. The man that has respect unto God's commands is no longer ashamed of men. He is not abashed by their scorn, or disconcerted by their ridicule. There is nothing to be ashamed of in keeping God's commands. Then, again, before men we shall not be ashamed of our profession. "I am a Christian. Look me up and down and examine my conduct. I do not boast of it, but I know that I have sought honestly and sincerely to walk before God in righteousness." Or, when an accusation is brought against you falsely, meet it in the same spirit. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) Unlimited obedience to the Divine commands J. Dorrington. I. THE PSALMIST MADE LITTLE ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD'S OPINION. II. HIS PROFOUND OBEDIENCE TO GOD. III. THE CONCERN HE WAS UNDER AT FAILING IN SOME PARTICULARS. IV. HIS EARNEST DESIRE TO OBEY ALL THE DIVINE COMMANDS. V. THAT PEACE WHICH WOULD FOLLOW UPON HIS KEEPING ALL THE COMMANDMENTS. 1. A peace that is built upon the most solid foundation — the promises of God. 2. A peace that is most pure and genuine, having no mixture of baseness and alloy. 3. A peace that secures the mind from all the accusations of Satan, who would willingly disturb us; and that prepares us for setting light by the molestations which others may endeavour to give us.Conclusion — 1. In what light do you view the world's opinion? Are you not too much biased by it? 2. Inquire into your obedience, and ask if it does not differ from that of the psalmist, who objected not to any of God's commandments, but had respect unto all. 3. Have you not had respect to every commandment? You cannot surely look back upon the fact with indifference, or unaffectedness, etc. 4. What must be said of those who instead of being grieved that they keep not all the commandments of the Lord, keep none; but wilfully break them all, and glory in doing so, etc. ( J. Dorrington. ) The effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever T. Newlin, M. A. Consider the advantages that we shall receive, from a regular, uniform obedience to God's commandments. I. AS IT GIVES US PEACE OF MIND. The man that makes this his care is approved by his besom-witness, and satisfied from himself. God has wisely ordered it, that as soon as we have done well, we should be encouraged to continue in well-doing, by the approbation of right reason; and whensoever we sin against Him, we should also offend ourselves, and be condemned by our own impartial sentence. II. AS IT ENCOURAGES US TO LOOK CHEERFULLY UPON THE WORLD. Having no design but to satisfy his conscience, to do justice to his brother, and to please his God, he wishes that his actions were as clear as the light, and his dealings as the noonday: for he wants no pretences, no private reserves. And he takes the easiest, the safest, and the most satisfactory course of life. His way is plain before him, and he needs not trouble himself with any inquiry but this, Whether the action that he is going to commit is consistent with his duty to God. And if the tongue of censure should endeavour to fix its calumnies upon him, and shoot forth its poisonous arrows, even bitter words, they cannot disturb the harmony of his thoughts, or make any impression upon him. He is safe in his integrity, and beats off their furious onsets with a fixed and unmovable resolution. III. AS IT GIVES US A LIVELY HOPE AND CONFIDENCE IN GOD. Blessed is the man that has thus made God his friend, and by the actions of an unblameable life has presented himself, his soul and body, a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice to God. Being entirely devoted to Him, he can resort to Him in every danger and difficulty, and truly ask for His counsel to direct, and His assistance to deliver him. ( T. Newlin, M. A. ) I will praise Thee with uprightness of heart. Psalm 119:7 The duty of thankfulness Bp. Cowper. Thankfulness is a duty wherein we are all obliged to the Lord. It is good in regard of the equity of it. Since the Lord gives us good things, shall not we give Him praises again? especially seeing the Lord is content so to part all His works between His majesty and us, that the good of them be ours, the glory of them be His own. It is good to praise the Lord in regard of Himself, who is the object of our praises. Since He is the treasure of all good, the Author of all blessings, it cannot be but a good thing to bless Him. 3. It is good in respect of our associates and companions in this exercise: the angels, cherubim and seraphim delight continually in His praises. Our elder brethren, that glorious congregation of the first-born, are described unto us falling down on their faces, casting their crowns at the feet of the Lord, to give Him the glory of their redemption. Now, seeing we pray that the will of God may be done in earth, as it is in heaven, why do we not delight in these exercises of praising God, by which we have fellowship with them who are glorified in Him? 4. It is good in respect of the great benefits we receive by it; nothing thereby accrues to the Lord, all the advantage is our own. ( Bp. Cowper. ) I will keep Thy statutes. Psalm 119:8 Good resolutions Bp. Cowper. It is a great help to godliness to resolve that we will live godly; for that which is not, concluded, how shall it be performed? Or what hope is there we should attain to the end — that is, to the perfection of piety — when we are careless of the beginnings thereof, which are purposes, intentions, and resolutions that we will be godly? Where, when of weakness we fail in following forth our resolution, it shall be well done again to renew it; for, by often renewing of our resolution to do any good, we become the stronger to accomplish it. ( Bp. Cowper. ) Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to Thy Word. Psalm 119:9 How a young man may cleanse his way A. Maclaren, D. D. I. THIS IS THE GREAT PRACTICAL PROBLEM FOR LIFE. It is more especially the question for young people. 1. You are under special temptations not to ask it. There are so many other points in your future unresolved that you are only too apt to put aside the consideration of this one in favour of those which seem to be of more immediate importance. And you have the other temptation, common to us all, of living without any plan of life at all. At your age, judgment and experience are not so strong as inclination and passion; and everything has got the fresh gloss of novelty upon it, and it seems to be sometimes sufficient delight to live and get hold of the new joys that are flooding in upon you. 2. It is worth while for you to ask it. For you have got the prerogative that some of us have lost, of determining the shape that your life's course is to take. 3. You have special temptations to make your ways unclean. II. WE CAN ONLY MAKE OUR WAY CLEAN ON CONDITION OF CONSTANT WATCHFULNESS. "Take heed to thyself" is the only condition of a pure and noble life. That such a condition is necessary will appear very plain from two considerations. First, it is clear that there must be constant watchfulness, if we consider what sort of a world this is that we have got into. And it is also plain if we consider what sort of creatures we are that have got into it. We are creatures evidently made for self-government. Our whole nature is like a monarchy. There are things in each of us that are never meant to rule, but to be kept well down under control, such as strong passions, desires rooted in the flesh which are not meant to get the mastery of a man. And there are parts of our nature which are as obviously intended to be supreme and sovereign; the reason, the conscience, the will. III. THIS CONSTANT WATCHFULNESS, TO BE OF ANY USE, MUST BE REGULATED BY GOD'S WORD. The guard on the frontier who is to keep the path must have instructions from head-quarters, and not choose add decide according to his own phantasy, but according to the King's orders. Or, to use another metaphor, it is no use having a guard unless the guard has a lantern. In the Word of God, in its whole sweep, and eminently and especially in Christ, who is the Incarnate Word, we have an all-sufficient Guido. A guide of conduct must be plain — and whatever doubts and difficulties there may be about the doctrines of Christianity, there are none about its morality. A guide of conduct must be decisive — and there is no faltering in the utterance of the Book as to right and wrong. A guide of conduct must be capable of application to the wide diversities of character, age, circumstance — and the morality of the New Testament especially, and of the Old in a measure, secures that, because it does not trouble itself about minute details, but deals with large principles. A guide for morals must be far in advance of the followers, and it has taken generations and centuries to work into men's consciences, and to work out in men's practice, a portion of the morality of that Book. If the world kept the commandments of the New Testament, the world would be in the millennium; and all the sin and crime, and ninety-nine hundredths of all the sorrow of earth would have vanished like an ugly dream. Here is the guide for you, and if you take it you will not err. IV. ALL THIS CAN ONLY BE DONE EFFECTUALLY IF YOU ARE A CHRISTIAN. My psalm goes as far as the measure of revelation granted to its author admitted; but if a person had no more to say than that, it would be a weary business. It is no use to tell a man, "Guard yourself; guard yourself." Nor even to tell him, "Guard yourself according to God's Word," if God's Word is only a law. The fatal defect of all attempts at keeping my heart by my own watchfulness is that keeper and kept are one and the same. And so there may be mutiny in the garrison, and the very forces that ought to subdue the rebellion may have gone over to the rebels. You want a power outside of you to steady you The only way to haul a boat up the rapids is to have some fixed point on the shore to which a man may fasten a rope and pull at that. You get that eternal guard and fixed point on which to hold in Jesus Christ, the dear Son of His love, who has died for you. ( A. Maclaren, D. D. ) On cleansing our ways S. Cox, D. D. The picture in his mind was of this sort. There stood before him a young man who had not long set out on the journey of life; and who yet, to his own deep surprise and disgust, found many shins of travel already upon him. He had not meant to go wrong; as yet, perhaps, he was not gone very far wrong. And yet where did all this filth come from? And how is it to be got rid of? How is he to make his way clean, and keep it clean? I. IF WE ARE TO MAKE OUR LIFE PURE, NOBLE, SATISFYING, WE ARE TO TAKE HEED TO IT: We are to think about it, and to force ourselves to walk according to our best thoughts and aims. Carlyle sums up the whole teaching of Goethe in the brief citation, "Think of living." Many never look forward and think of their life as a whole, and of how they may make the best of it. God has put this great and solemn gift of life into their hands: yet they never really think of it as His gift, nor ask themselves what they mean to do with it, what they have done with it, or how they may so use it as to show that they are not unworthy to be trusted with it. Nay, more; many of them do not even think of it bit by bit, day by day, step by step. So far from considering what they can make of their life as a whole, how they may make it pure and fair and bright; they do not so much as ask, "What shall I do with my life to-day, so as to make it as clean, as fair, as useful as I can?" Is it any wonder that they often wander round and round without making any real advance; and sink, again and again, into the very sloughs from which, again and again, they have been drawn out; or fall, again and again, into the very traps from which they have been set free? But to think is not enough. We want a high and true standard to which to refer, by which we may measure and direct our thoughts. II. And this standard the psalmist gives us when he tells us to TAKE HEED TO OUR WAYS ACCORDING TO THE WORD OF GOD. It bids you remember that you have a soul as well as a body; that moral virtues and graces are still more valuable than mental gains and shining parts; that there is a world above and beyond this present world, a life above and beyond this mortal life; and it warns you to provide for that as well as for this. It asks you to believe that God is more than man, the soul more than the body, virtue better than pleasure, goodness better than gain, and the life to come more and better than the life which now is. It demands that when the claims of God clash with those of man, as they sometimes will, or the claims of the soul clash with those of the body, or the claims of virtue and goodness with those of gain and pleasure, or the claims of eternity with those of time, that you sacrifice the lower claims to the higher, that you sacrifice passing and inferior interests to interests which are noble and enduring. ( S. Cox, D. D. ) Moral culture of young men Homilist. I. YOUNG MEN REQUIRE CLEANSING. Somehow or other, from the very commencement of moral agency, impure thoughts enter the mind, and impure emotions are awakened. So that cleansing is required almost at the beginning, because spiritual uncleanness is — (1) Inimical to peace of conscience. (2) A hindrance to true soul growth. (3) An obstruction to Divine fellowship. II. MORAL CLEANSING REQUIRES CIRCUMSPECTION IN LIFE. "By taking heed thereto." If you tread the path of vanity, avarice, sensuality, selfishness, you will go down deeper and deeper in moral filth. If you tread the path of virtue as trod by Jesus of Nazareth, you must take heed that you tread that path constantly and not turn to the right hand or to the left. "Take heed." There are many on all hands who will try to turn you from the path. III. CIRCUMSPECTION OF LIFE SHOULD BE GUIDED BY THE DIVINE WORD. "Thy Word," that contains the map; Thy Word, there burns the lamp; Thy Word, there dwells the inspiration. ( Homilist. ) Young manhood: its peril and its rescue C. H. Parkhurst, D. D. I. ITS PERIL. One thing that makes it hard for a young man to succeed in his manhood is the prevalence among us of influences that work distractingly and scatteringly. It takes time and a certain amount of leisure if a man is going to be at his best. We are torn hither and thither by multiplicity of interest. 2. Another disadvantage under which our young men are suffering is that they have so largely slipped their old anchorages. They have cut adrift from the past. Hereditary tastes, ideas and methods are ignored. The age to which a custom or doctrine has attained is taken as measure of its inherent absurdity. To be old-fashioned is, with them, to be silly. 3. Another tooth in the jaw of the Babylonian lion is the rum-shop and the wine-cup. 4. Still another incisor that pricks into and tears the life of our young manhood is the prevalence among us of so much that works personal impurity, in the shape of coarse literature, dirty pictures and houses of ill-repute. 5. Another obstacle that obstructs the efforts of our young men to maintain their manliness is the engrossing love of money. II. THE SERVICE OF SUCCOUR THAT WE CAN RENDER. 1. Prayer. Christ teaches us that He not only regards the prayer of faith when offered by those who need help, but that He regards the prayer of faith when offered in behalf of those who need help. Prayer generates work, and so makes us co-operate with God in bringing the answer to our own prayer. 2. Another thing we can do is to contribute in a material way to the work of the Young Men's Christian Association that has the interests of our un-homed young men in particular charge. 3. But we must not relegate to organization the work and responsibility that devolves upon us in our character of individual Christians. ( C. H. Parkhurst, D. D. ) The young man's conduct Homilist. I. It requires MORAL CLEANSING. 1. There are several elements more or less impure in a young man's life that must be cleansed: — (1) Animalism. The senses are likely to control him. (2) Illusion. His imagination creates fictitious joys and dignities. (3) Vanity. The tendency of the young to overrate themselves is all but universal. 2. From these elements of impurity he must be cleansed. The animal must give way to the spiritual, the fictitious to the real, the vain to the sober and the humble. II. Its moral cleansing REQUIRES PERSONAL CIRCUMSPECTION. "By taking heed thereto according to Thy Word." "Sanctify them through Thy truth: for Thy Word is truth," said Christ. "Now ye are clean through the Word I spoke unto you." By personal circumspection the Word must be applied — (1) For correction; (2) for guidance. ( Homilist. ) A young man's way A. Macleod, D. D. I. THE BIBLE MAKES A GREAT DEAL IN ITS TEACHING ABOUT THE WAYS OF MEN. 1. There is the way of the transgressor, which is hard; and the way of the fool, which is right in his own eyes; and the way of the slothful, which is a hedge of thorns; and the way of the wicked, which is as darkness. And there is the way of the righteous, which is plain, and which the Lord knows; and the way of the saint, which is preserved; and the way which is like the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. 2. There is variety in the ways of individual men at different periods of their life. There is the peculiar bent and passion of the old man, the characteristic of the man in middle life, and, differing from these, the way of a young man. II. WHAT IS MEANT BY "CLEANSING THE WAY." It is something very deep and pure which is intended, or Job would never have said, "What is man that he should be clean?" It is something v

Benson Commentary Psalm 119:1 ALEPH. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD. ALEPH. Psalm 119:1-3 . Blessed are the undefiled — Hebrew, ????? , temimee, the perfect, or sincere, as the word properly and most frequently signifies; namely, those whose hearts and lives agree with their profession; in the way — The way of the Lord, as it is explained by the next clause; who walk in the law of the Lord — Who order their lives according to the rule of God’s word. That keep his testimonies — Who, in mind and heart, carefully and diligently observe his precepts. And that seek him — Namely, the Lord: that seek his presence and favour, with the whole heart — Sincerely, diligently, and earnestly, above all other things. They also do no iniquity — That is, knowingly: they make it their constant care to shun every known sin. They walk in his ways — In the paths which God hath prescribed to them. Psalm 119:2 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart. Psalm 119:3 They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways. Psalm 119:4 Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. Psalm 119:4-6 . Thou hast commanded us, &c. — Nor is it strange that thy people do so exactly and diligently observe thy precepts, because they are commanded so to do by thee, their sovereign Lord. O that my ways were directed — Hebrew, ???? , established, namely, by thy grace and Holy Spirit, for the direction of God’s word he had already. Then shall I not be ashamed — Either of my actions, or of my hope and confidence in thy favour, but shall lift up my head with courage and boldness, both before men, when they accuse or persecute me, and even before God in the day of judgment, as is said 1 John 4:17 . When I have respect — A due respect, which implies hearty affection, diligent study, and constant practice; unto all thy commandments — So as not to be partial in my obedience, nor to allow myself in the commission of any known sin, nor in the neglect of any known duty. Psalm 119:5 O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes! Psalm 119:6 Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments. Psalm 119:7 I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments. Psalm 119:7-8 . I will praise thee — That is, worship and serve thee; with uprightness of heart — With a single eye to thy glory, and with a sincere desire to know and do thy will; when I shall have learned, &c. — When, by thy good Spirit, I shall be more fully instructed in the meaning of thy word. I will keep thy statutes — It is my full purpose so to do, whatsoever it may cost me. O forsake me not utterly — For then I should fall into the foulest sins. Not that he was contented to be forsaken in the least degree, but this he more especially deprecates, as he had great reason to do. Psalm 119:8 I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly. Psalm 119:9 BETH. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. BETH. Psalm 119:9 . Wherewith shall a young man — Or, any man. But he names the young man, because such are commonly void of wisdom and experience, and exposed to many and great temptations. Cleanse his way — Reform his life, or purge himself from all filthiness of flesh and spirit. By taking heed thereto — By diligently and circumspectly watching over himself, and examining and regulating all his dispositions and actions by the rule of thy word. Psalm 119:10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. Psalm 119:10-11 . With my whole heart have I sought thee — Deny me not that aid of thy grace which I have so sincerely and earnestly desired and laboured to obtain. O let me not wander — Hebrew, ?? ?????? , do not make me to wander, namely, by leading me into temptation, or by withdrawing thy grace, which is necessary to keep me from wandering. Thy word have I hid in my heart — I have not contented myself with merely hearing or reading thy word, but have received it in the love of it, have diligently considered it, and have laid it up in my mind, like a choice treasure, to be ready upon all occasions to counsel, quicken, or caution me, as need may require. That I might not sin against thee — That by a diligent and affectionate consideration of thy precepts, promises, and threatenings, I might be kept from all sinful practices. Psalm 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119:12 Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes. Psalm 119:13 With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth. Psalm 119:13-15 . With my lips have I declared, &c. — If thou wilt teach me, I will teach others, as I have already done. I have rejoiced in thy testimonies — In the study and practice of them. I will meditate, &c. — Will seriously consider the nature, and design, and extent of thy precepts, and especially so far as they concern my own duty; and have respect — Hebrew, ?????? , I will look unto thy ways — As workmen constantly and carefully look to their rule to guide themselves by it. Psalm 119:14 I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches. Psalm 119:15 I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. Psalm 119:16 I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word. Psalm 119:17 GIMEL. Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word. GIMEL. Psalm 119:17-18 . Deal bountifully with thy servant — I plead no merit, but only thy free grace and rich mercy; that I may live — Safely and comfortably; and keep thy word — For I do not desire life that I may satisfy my own lusts, but that I may spend it in thy service. Open thou mine eyes — Enlighten my mind by thy Holy Spirit, and dispel all ignorance and error. That I may behold wondrous things out of thy law — Those great and marvellous depths of divine wisdom and goodness, and those profound mysteries of Christ, and of God’s grace to mankind, and that everlasting state, which are not to be known but by divine illumination. Psalm 119:18 Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Psalm 119:19 I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me. Psalm 119:19-20 . I am a stranger in the earth — Or, a sojourner. I am not here as in my home, but as a pilgrim travelling homeward in a strange land: a condition which calls for thy pity and help: see note on Psalm 39:12 . Hide not thy commandments from me — Which are my chief support and guide in my pilgrimage, My soul breaketh, &c. — Fainteth, as the soul frequently does, when a thing vehemently desired is denied or delayed. Or, as ???? ????? is rendered by some, my soul is taken up, or wholly employed, in longing for, or in love to, thy judgments. The whole stream of its desires runs in this channel. I shall think myself quite broken and undone, if I want the word of God to conduct and comfort me. Psalm 119:20 My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times. Psalm 119:21 Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from thy commandments. Psalm 119:21 . Thou hast rebuked — Or, dost rebuke, that is, reprove and punish, the proud — Obstinate and presumptuous sinners, who sin with a high hand; that are cursed — That are under the wrath and curse of God, and have his curse upon them in all that they do or possess, Deuteronomy 28:16-19 . Which, do err — Hebrew, ?????? , hashogim, wander, or stray, from thy commandments — Namely, knowingly, or wilfully, as proud sinners are wont to do. Psalm 119:22 Remove from me reproach and contempt; for I have kept thy testimonies. Psalm 119:22-24 . Remove from me reproach — Which I suffer, and that unjustly, for thy sake; for I have kept thy testimonies — And therefore I am innocent of those things for which they censure and reproach me: or, and therefore thou wilt maintain mine honour and interest, according to thy promise made to such as keep thy testimonies. Princes also did sit and speak, &c. — Did continually speak against me; for sitting denotes continuance. When they sat upon their seats of judicature, or sat together in companies, they entertained one another with discourses to my prejudice. But thy servant did meditate, &c. — All their contumelies and reproaches did not discourage, nor divert me from the study, belief, and practice of thy word. Thy testimonies also are my delight — My chief comfort under all their censures and persecutions; and my counsellors — To teach me how to conduct myself under them. Psalm 119:23 Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes. Psalm 119:24 Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellers. Psalm 119:25 DALETH. My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word. DALETH. Psalm 119:25 . My soul cleaveth unto the dust — That is, as some understand it, I am in danger of present death: I am like one laid in the grave; so this phrase is used Psalm 22:15 . Quicken thou me — Preserve my life, or raise me out of the dust; according to thy word — According to thy promise. But the psalmist, probably, rather complains in these words of his affections being apt to cleave to worldly objects, which are but dust, and prays for quickening and purifying grace to render him more spiritually minded. And every one whose affections are set on things below has reason to make a similar confession, and to pray, as he did, for quickening and regenerating grace, to raise him to those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Psalm 119:26 I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes. Psalm 119:26-27 . I have declared my ways — My manner of life, my sins, my temptations, my sorrows, my wants, dangers, fears, cares, and concerns; my designs, undertakings, and pursuits: I have spread them all before thee, by way of sincere confession, humble supplication, or solemn appeal. And thou heardest me — Heardest patiently all I had to say, tookest cognizance of my case, and didst grant my petitions and accept my praises. Make me to understand, &c. — Namely, more thoroughly and practically, the meaning of thy precepts — Which are exceeding broad; and how I may walk according to them. Or, how I may demean myself in all the varieties of my condition, and in all my affairs and actions, so as is most agreeable to thy precepts. So shall I talk of thy wondrous works — Of the wonders of thy law, mentioned Psalm 119:18 . Psalm 119:27 Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works. Psalm 119:28 My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word. Psalm 119:28 . My soul melteth — Like wax before the fire, through godly sorrow for sin; or sinks under the weight of my affliction. Strengthen thou me — That so I may bear my burdens patiently and cheerfully, and may vanquish all temptations, and may not bring fresh trouble and distress upon myself by relapsing into sin. Psalm 119:29 Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously. Psalm 119:29-30 . Remove from me the way of lying — Hebrew, ???? ???? , dereech sheker, the way of falsehood or deceit, of guile or dissimulation. Let me neither practise it myself, nor countenance, nor be deceived by it in others. The LXX. render it, ???? ??????? , the way of unrighteousness. “It is plain,” says Dr. Horne, “that the way of truth, in the latter of these two verses, is opposed to the way of lying, or of falsehood, in the former. The one comprehends every thing in doctrine and practice that is right, and therefore true; the other denotes every thing which is wrong, and therefore false. Of these two ways man hath his choice. God points out to him the former by his word, and offers to conduct him in it by his Spirit. Satan shows him the latter, and endeavours to seduce him into it by his temptations. The psalmist declares himself to have chosen God’s way, and to have laid the Scriptures before him, as the chart by which to direct his course. He therefore prays that the other way may be far removed from him; and that God would vouchsafe him such thorough acquaintance with the way of truth as might prevent him from ever wandering into the path of error. How much depends upon the road we choose! How difficult is it, in a divided and distracted world, to choose aright! Yet this choice, so important, so difficult, frequently remains to be made by us, when we have neither judgment to choose, nor strength to travel!” Psalm 119:30 I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me . Psalm 119:31 I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O LORD, put me not to shame. Psalm 119:31 . I have stuck, &c. — I have resolutely persisted in the practice of thy precepts, in spite of all temptations to the contrary, whether from prosperity or adversity, from honour or dishonour, from health or sickness, from pleasure or pain; whether from visible or invisible foes. “The psalmist does not say only, I have followed, but, I have stuck unto thy testimonies — That is, I have adhered so closely and firmly to them, that temptation has in vain essayed to allure, and persecution as vainly attempted to force me from them.” In this the psalmist is an example for our imitation. “Having once chosen our road, we must persevere in it; since better had it been for us never to have known the way of truth, than to forsake it when known.” We must therefore pray with him, O Lord, put me not to shame — By giving me over to apostacy or transgression, which would bring shame: but so continue thy grace and favour to me, that I may never, by falling from my steadfastness, disgrace my heavenly Master, his cause, my brethren, myself, nor be put to shame at the last day. Psalm 119:32 I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart. Psalm 119:32 . I will run the way of thy commandments — I will obey thy precepts with all readiness, fervency, and diligence; when thou shalt enlarge my heart — When thou shalt replenish my heart with more knowledge of, love to, and delight in, thy law: when thou shalt knock off those fetters of remaining corruption, and give me a more noble and generous disposition toward thee, and establish me with thy free Spirit, Psalm 51:12 . Thus David both owns his duty, and asserts the absolute necessity of divine grace to enable him to perform it. Psalm 119:33 HE. Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end. HE. Psalm 119:33-35 . Teach me, &c., and I will keep it — Or, that I may keep it; that I may persevere; for apostacy proceeds from the want of wisdom and understanding; unto the end — Hebrew, ??? , to the heel, that is, quite through, from head to foot. Make me to go, &c., in thy commandments — By directing my mind into the right way, by inclining my will, and strengthening my resolution. For therein do I delight — Forsake not him who delighteth in thee, and in thy service; and as thou hast wrought in me to will, do thou also work in me to do. Psalm 119:34 Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Psalm 119:35 Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight. Psalm 119:36 Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness. Psalm 119:36 . Incline my heart, &c. — As the wisdom of man may conceive, and his tongue utter, great things of God and holiness, while his heart is averse from both; therefore David saith, not only, Give me understanding, but, incline my heart unto thy testimonies — To the love and practice of them; and not to covetousness — He mentions this in particular, because it is most opposite to God’s testimonies, and does most commonly hinder men from receiving his word, and from profiting by it; and because it is most pernicious, as being the root of all evil. Psalm 119:37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way. Psalm 119:37-38 . Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity — The vain things of this world, such as riches, honours, pleasures; from beholding them with desire or affection. Quicken thou me in thy way — Make me lively, vigorous, and fervent in thy service. Establish thy word — Confirm and perform thy promises; unto thy servant — Who is subject to thy authority, obedient to thy laws, and devoted to thy fear — Those are indeed God’s servants who, though they have infirmities and defects, yet are sincerely devoted to his fear, and have all their affections and motions governed thereby. Psalm 119:38 Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear. Psalm 119:39 Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments are good. Psalm 119:39-40 . Turn away my reproach which I fear — For my instability in thy ways; which, in respect to my own weakness, I have great cause to fear; I have longed after thy precepts — After a more solid knowledge and constant performance of them. Quicken me — Do thou preserve and maintain both my natural and spiritual life; in thy righteousness — According to thy faithfulness, which obligeth thee to make good thy promises. Psalm 119:40 Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness. Psalm 119:41 VAU. Let thy mercies come also unto me, O LORD, even thy salvation, according to thy word. VAU. Psalm 119:41-44 . Let thy mercies, &c. — Let thy promised mercies be performed to me. So shall I answer him that reproacheth me — That chargeth me with folly for my piety and trust in thy promises. And take not the truth, &c. — Deal not so with me, that I shall be altogether ashamed to mention thy word, which I have so often affirmed to be a word of truth, and infallible certainty. “The judgments of God,” says Mudge, “were that word of truth in which he trusted; to pray God, therefore, not to take them out of his mouth, is the same as to pray that God would act agreeably to his word, for otherwise he could no longer, with any grace, make use of it, or derive any consolation from it.” Or, he may mean, Let the word of truth be always in my mouth; let me have that wisdom and courage which are necessary to enable me both to use my knowledge for the instruction of others, and to make profession of my faith, whenever I am called to it. We have indeed need to pray that we may never be afraid or ashamed to own God’s truths and ways, nor deny him before men. So shall I keep thy law — So shall I be encouraged, as well as obliged, to the constant study and observation of thy laws. Psalm 119:42 So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me: for I trust in thy word. Psalm 119:43 And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth; for I have hoped in thy judgments. Psalm 119:44 So shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever. Psalm 119:45 And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts. Psalm 119:45-48 . And I will walk at liberty — Having then no such encumbrances upon me as I now have in these straits and difficulties which beset and burden me, I shall enjoy great freedom and comfort in thy ways, and will do my duty with cheerfulness and joy. I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings — Who commonly entertain all godly discourses with scorn and contempt. I will delight myself, &c. — Whereas other princes place their delight in the glories and vanities of this world, and the study and practice of religion are generally irksome and disagreeable to them, thy law shall be my chief delight and pleasure. My hands also will I lift up — To receive and embrace thy precepts and promises, by faith and love, and cheerfully and vigorously to put them in practice. Psalm 119:46 I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed. Psalm 119:47 And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved. Psalm 119:48 My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes. Psalm 119:49 ZAIN. Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. ZAIN. Psalm 119:49-50 . Remember the word — That is, thy promises; upon which thou hast caused me to hope — By thy command requiring it of me, and by thy grace working it in me. This — Namely, thy word, as is evident both from the foregoing and following words; is my comfort in my affliction — Being the ground of my confidence and hope. “A comfort divine, strong, lasting; a comfort that will not, like all others, fail us when we most want it, in the day of sickness, and at the hour of death, but will always keep pace with our necessities, increasing in proportion as the pleasures of the world and the flesh decrease, and then becoming complete, when they are no more. So powerful is the word of God to revive us when dead, either in sins or in sorrows!” Psalm 119:50 This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me. Psalm 119:51 The proud have had me greatly in derision: yet have I not declined from thy law. Psalm 119:51-52 . The proud have had me in derision — For my fear of thee and trust in thy word; yet have I not declined from thy law — From faith in, or obedience to, thy revealed will, in order to avoid that derision. I remembered thy judgments of old — Thy former and ancient dispensations to the children of men, in punishing the ungodly, and protecting and delivering thy faithful servants, and this has been my support and encouragement. Here then we have the great remedy against that temptation which arises from the reproaches of the ungodly and unbelieving, namely, a remembrance of God’s judgments of old; “whether we understand thereby the judgments of his mouth, or those of his hand; his righteous decrees for the punishment of bad and reward of good men, or the many and wonderful instances of his executing those decrees, from the beginning of the world, recorded in the sacred history. These are sources of real comfort upon such occasions; because nothing can happen to us which hath not happened to God’s people of old; no case of which there is not a precedent in Scripture, where we may read the process of similar trials, their issue, and the final sentence of the Judge, who is still the same, and whose rule of procedure and determination is invariable.” — Horne. Psalm 119:52 I remembered thy judgments of old, O LORD; and have comforted myself. Psalm 119:53 Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law. Psalm 119:53 . Horror hath taken hold upon me — A mixed passion, made up of abhorrence of their sins, and dread and sorrow at the consideration of the judgments of God coming upon them; because of the wicked, &c. — For the dishonour which they bring to God, the scandal and mischief to others, and their own certain ruin. Psalm 119:54 Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. Psalm 119:54-56 . Thy statutes have been my songs — The matter of my songs, my delight and recreation; in the house of my pilgrimage — In this present world, wherein I am a pilgrim, as all my fathers were. I have remembered thy name — Thy holy nature and attributes; thy blessed word and thy wonderful works; in the night — When darkness causeth fear to others, I took pleasure in remembering thee; and when others gave themselves up to sleeps my thoughts and affections were working toward thee; and have kept thy law — This was the fruit of my serious remembrance of thee. This I had — This comfortable and profitable remembrance of thy name and statutes; because I kept thy precepts — Which if I had wilfully and wickedly broken, the remembrance of these would have been a cause of grief and terror to me, as now it is a source of peace and comfort. Psalm 119:55 I have remembered thy name, O LORD, in the night, and have kept thy law. Psalm 119:56 This I had, because I kept thy precepts. Psalm 119:57 CHETH. Thou art my portion, O LORD: I have said that I would keep thy words. CHETH. Psalm 119:57-58 . Thou art my portion, O Lord — Whereas other men place their portion and happiness in worldly things, I have chosen thee for my portion and chief treasure: and thou art an all-sufficient and excellent portion for me: see notes on Psalm 16:5 ; Psalm 73:26 . I have said that I would keep thy words — I have not only purposed it in my own heart, but have professed it before others, and I do not repent of it. I entreated thy favour, &c. — Thy gracious presence and merciful assistance. Psalm 119:58 I intreated thy favour with my whole heart: be merciful unto me according to thy word. Psalm 119:59 I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies. Psalm 119:59-61 . I thought on my ways — I seriously considered both my former conduct, and my duty in all my future actions; and turned my feet unto thy testimonies — And finding my feet had too often swerved from the rule thou hast given us to walk by, I turned them to it. And although the ways of sinful pleasure and advantage were presented to my mind, yet I rejected them, and turned myself wholly to thy ways. I made haste, &c. — Being fully convinced of the necessity and excellence of obedience, I immediately resolved upon it, and began to execute my resolution. The bands of the wicked have robbed me — Or, made a prey of me; done me many injuries for my respect to thy law. The LXX. render it, ??????? ????????? ????????????? ??? , the cords, or snares of sinners have entangled me; with which the Vulgate and Houbigant agree. Psalm 119:60 I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments. Psalm 119:61 The bands of the wicked have robbed me: but I have not forgotten thy law. Psalm 119:62 At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments. Psalm 119:62-64 . At midnight I will rise — To praise thee in a solemn manner; not being contented with those short ejaculations he might have used lying in his bed; because of thy righteous judgments — That is, thy laws, which are so useful to direct and comfort me. I am a companion of all that fear thee — Not excepting the poorest and meanest, the society of whom other princes disdain. The earth is full of thy mercy — Thou satisfiest the just desires and necessities of all men, and of all creatures, with the fruits of thy goodness. Teach me thy statutes — But spiritual blessings, and not the good things of this life, are what I chiefly esteem and desire; and therefore I pray that thou wouldst teach me to know, and incline and enable me to love and practise thy law. Psalm 119:63 I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts. Psalm 119:64 The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy: teach me thy statutes. Psalm 119:65 TETH. Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O LORD, according unto thy word. Psalm 119:66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed thy commandments. TETH. Psalm 119:66 . Teach me good judgment — Whereby I may rightly discern between truth and falsehood, good and evil; that so I may be kept from those errors in which many are involved, and may clearly understand what thy law requires or permits, and what it forbids. The Hebrew, ???? ???? , properly signifies goodness of taste, referring to the palate; and it is only figuratively and by way of analogy that it signifies goodness of judgment, or the good sense and discernment of the mind. And knowledge — A spiritual and experimental knowledge, added to that sense of, and relish for, divine things, implied in the former clause. For I have believed thy commandments — I have believed the divine authority of them, and the truth and certainty of those promises and threatenings wherewith thou hast enforced them. Psalm 119:67 Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word. Psalm 119:67-68 . Before I was afflicted I went astray — As men too generally do in their prosperity. Thou art good — Gracious and bountiful in thy nature; and dost good — To all men, both good and bad, ( Matthew 5:45 ,) and in all things, yea, even when thou afflictest. Teach me thy statutes — Which is the good I chiefly desire. Psalm 119:68 Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes. Psalm 119:69 The proud have forged a lie against me: but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart. Psalm 119:69-70 . The proud have forged a lie against me — A slander, charging me with hypocrisy toward God, and other sins. But I will keep thy precepts — My practice shall confute their calumnies. “Every disciple of Christ, who, like his Master, goeth contrary to the ways of the world, and condemneth them, must expect to be, like that Master, slandered and calumniated by the world. To such slanders and calumnies, a good life is the best answer.” — Horne. Their heart is as fat as grease — Hebrew, ????? ???? , tapash chacheleb, which Dr. Waterland renders, is gross, as with fat: and Houbigant, gross as fat. The sense is, either, 1st, They are dull, stupid, insensible, and past feeling, neither affected with the terrors nor comforts of God’s word: so a similar phrase signifies, Isaiah 6:10 , compared with John 12:40 . Or, 2d, They prosper exceedingly, and are even glutted with the wealth and comforts of this life. But I delight in thy law — I do not envy them their prosperity and pleasure: for I have as much delight in God’s law as they have in worldly things. Psalm 119:70 Their heart is as fat as grease; but I delight in thy law. Psalm 119:71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes. Psalm 119:71-72 . It is good for me — Necessary and very beneficial; that I have been afflicted — He repeats what, in effect, he said before, ( Psalm 119:67 ,) partly to intimate the certainty and importance of this truth, and partly because it is a great paradox to worldly men, who generally esteem afflictions to be evils, yea, the worst of evils. The law of thy mouth — Not only thy promises, but even thy precepts, which are so unpleasant and disagreeable to ungodly men; are better unto me — More needful and profitable, and therefore more desirable; than thousands of gold and silver — Because they not only give me abundant satisfaction and comfort in this life, but also conduct me with safety and delight unto that eternal and most blessed life, where gold and silver bear no price. Psalm 119:72 The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. Psalm 119:73 JOD. Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments. JOD. Psalm 119:73 . Thy hands have made me, &c. — Desert not then thy own workmanship, that neither has nor hopes for any thing but from thy almighty power. Being thy creature, I know that, as such, I am obliged to serve and obey thee with all my might: which that I may do aright, give me the understanding and aid of which I stand in need. Psalm 119:74 They that fear thee will be glad when they see me; because I have hoped in thy word. Psalm 119:74 . They that fear thee will be glad, &c. — This verse is thus paraphrased by Bishop Patrick: “It will be a very great comfort and encouragement to all good men, when they see me delivered out of all these troubles; for thereby they will be confirmed in their belief of thy faithfulness to thy promises, on which it will appear I have not vainly depended.” Certainly, as they who fear God, that is, who are truly pious, are naturally glad when they see one like themselves, so they are more especially so “when it is one whose faith and patience have carried him through troubles, and rendered him victorious over temptations; one who hath hoped in God’s word, and hath not been disappointed. Every such instance affords fresh encouragement to all those who, in the course of their warfare, are to undergo like troubles, and to encounter like temptations.” — Horne. Psalm 119:75 I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. Psalm 119:75-77 . I know, O Lord — By the convictions of my own conscience, and by experience; that thy judgments are right — That thy corrections, as the next clause explains this, are just and proper, and that thou, in faithfulness, hast afflicted me — That is, in order to the accomplishment of thy faithful promises, and for my present and eternal good. Let thy merciful kindness, &c. — Yet, in judgment, remember mercy, and give me that support in, and deliverance out of my troubles which thou hast promised. Let thy tender mercies — Thy tender compassion, and pardoning grace; come unto me — Let me have the evidence that I indeed possess them, and experience their blessed efficacy in my own heart; that I may live — That, being passed from death unto life, I may live

Expositor's Bible Commentary Psalm 119:1 ALEPH. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD. Psalm 119:1-176 IT is lost labour to seek for close continuity or progress in this psalm. One thought pervades it-the surpassing excellence of the Law; and the beauty and power of the psalm lie in the unwearied reiteration of that single idea. There is music in its monotony, which is subtilely varied. Its verses are like the ripples on a sunny sea, alike and impressive in their continual march, and yet each catching the light with a difference, and breaking on the shore in a tone of its own. A few elements are combined into these hundred and seventy-six gnomic sentences. One or other of the usual synonyms for the Law- viz., word, saying, statutes, commandments, testimonies, judgments-occurs in every verse, except Psalm 119:122 and Psalm 119:132 . The prayers "Teach me, revive me, preserve me-according to Thy word," and the vows "I will keep, observe, meditate on, delight in-Thy law," are frequently repeated. There are but few pieces in the psalmist’s kaleidoscope, but they fall into many shapes of beauty; and though all his sentences are moulded after the same general plan, the variety within such narrow limits is equally a witness of poetic power which turns the fetters of the acrostic structure into helps, and of devout heartfelt love for the Law of Jehovah. The psalm is probably of late date; but its allusions to the singer’s circumstances, whether they are taken as autobiographical or as having reference to the nation, are too vague to be used as clues to the period of its composition. An early poet is not likely to have adopted such an elaborate acrostic plan, and the praises of the Law naturally suggest a time when it was familiar in an approximately complete form. It may be that the rulers referred to in Psalm 119:23 , Psalm 119:46 , were foreigners, but the expression is too general to draw a conclusion from. It may be that the double-minded ( Psalm 119:113 ), who err from God’s statutes ( Psalm 119:118 ), and forsake His law ( Psalm 119:53 ), are Israelites who have yielded to the temptations to apostatise, which came with the early Greek period, to which Baethgen, Cheyne, and others would assign the psalm. But these expressions, too, are of so general a nature that they do not give clear testimony of date. The first three verses are closely connected. They set forth in general terms the elements of the blessedness of the doers of the Law. To walk in it -i.e., to order the active life in conformity with its requirements-ensures perfectness. To keep God’s testimonies is at once the consequence and the proof of seeking Him with whole-hearted devotion and determination. To walk in His ways is the preservative from evil doing. And such men cannot but be blessed with a deep sacred blessedness, which puts to shame coarse and turbulent delights, and feeds its pure fires from God Himself. Whether these verses are taken as exclamation or declaration, they lead up naturally to Psalm 119:4 , which reverently gazes upon the loving act of God in the revelation of His will in the Law, and bethinks itself of the obligations bound on us by that act. It is of God’s mercy that He has commanded, and His words are meant to sway our wills, since He has broken the awful silence, not merely to instruct us, but to command; and nothing short of practical obedience will discharge our duties to his revelation. So the psalmist betakes himself to prayer, that he may be helped to realise the purpose of God in giving the Law. His contemplation of the blessedness of obedience and of the Divine act of declaring His will moves him to longing, and his consciousness of weakness and wavering makes the longing into prayer that his wavering may be consolidated into fixity of purpose and continuity of obedience. When a man’s ways are established to observe, they will be established by observing, God’s statutes. For nothing can put to the blush one whose eye is directed to these. "Whatever record leap to light, He never shall be shamed." Nor will he cherish hopes that fail, nor desires that, when accomplished, are bitter of taste. To give heed to the commandments is the condition of learning them and recognising how righteous they are; and such learning makes the learner’s hear righteous like them, and causes it to run over in thankfulness for the boon of knowledge of God’s will. By all these thoughts the psalmist is brought to his fixed resolve in Psalm 119:8 , to do what God meant him to do when He gave the Law; and what the singer had just longed that he might be able to do-namely, to observe the statutes. But in his resolve he remembers his weakness, and therefore he glides into prayer for that Presence without which resolves are transient and abortive. The inference drawn from Psalm 119:9 , that the psalmist was a young man, is precarious. The language would be quite as appropriate to an aged teacher desirous of guiding impetuous youth to sober self-control. While some verses favour the hypothesis of the author’s youth ( Psalm 119:141 , and perhaps Psalm 119:99-100 ), the tone of the whole, its rich experience and comprehensive grasp of the manifold relations of the Law to life imply maturity of years and length of meditation. The psalm is the ripe fruit of a life which is surely past its spring. But it is extremely questionable whether these apparently personal traits are really so. Much rather is the poet "thinking of the individuals of different ages and spiritual attainments who may use his works" (Cheyne, i n loc .). The word rendered "By taking heed" has already occurred in Psalm 119:4-5 ("observe’). The careful study of the Word must be accompanied with as careful study of self. The object observed there was the Law; here, it is the man himself. Study God’s law, says the psalmist, and study Thyself in its light; so shall youthful impulses be bridled, and the life’s path be kept pure. That does not sound so like a young man’s thought as an old man’s maxim, in which are crystallised many experiences. The rest of the section intermingles petitions, professions, and vows, and is purely personal. The psalmist claims that he is one of those whom he has pronounced blessed, inasmuch as he has "sought" God with his "whole heart." "Such longing is no mere idle aspiration, but must be manifested in obedience, as Psalm 119:2 has declared. If a man longs for God, he will best find Him by doing His will. But no heart desire is so rooted as to guarantee that it shall not die, nor is past obedience a certain pledge of a like future. Wherefore the psalmist prays, not in reliance on his past, but in dread that he may falsify it, "Let me not wander." He had not only sought God in his heart, but had there hid God’s law, as its best treasure, and as an inward power controlling and stimulating. Evil cannot flow from a heart in which God’s law is lodged. That is the tree which sweetens the waters of the fountain. But the cry "Teach me Thy statutes" would be but faltering, if the singer could not rise above himself, and take heart by gazing upon God, whose own great character is the guarantee that He will not leave a seeking soul in ignorance. Professions and vows now take the place of petitions. "From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," and the word hid in it will certainly not be concealed. It is buried deep, that it may grow high. It is hidden, that it may come abroad. Therefore Psalm 119:13 tells of bold utterance, which is as incumbent on men as obedient deeds. A sane estimate of earthly good will put it decisively below the knowledge of God and of His will. Lives which despise what the world calls riches, because they are smitten with the desire of any sort of wisdom, are ever nobler than those which keep the low levels. And highest of all is the life which gives effect to its conviction that man’s true treasure is to know God’s mind and will to rejoice in His testimonies is to have wealth that cannot be lost and pleasures that cannot wither. That glad estimate will surely lead to happy meditation on them, by which their worth shall be disclosed and their sweep made plain. The miser loves to tell his gold; the saint, to ponder his wealth in God. The same double direction of the mind, already noted, reappears in Psalm 119:15 , where quiet meditation on God’s statutes is associated with attention to the ways which are called His, as being pointed out by, and pleasing to, Him, but are ours, as being walked in by us. Inward delight in, and practical remembrance of, the Law are vowed in Psalm 119:16 , which covers the whole field of contemplative and active life. In Psalm 119:17 the psalmist desires continued life, mainly because it affords the opportunity of continued obedience. He will "observe Thy Word," not only in token of gratitude, but because to him life is precious chiefly because in its activities he can serve God. Such a reason for wishing to live may easily change to a willingness to die, as it did with Paul, who had learned that a better obedience was possible when he had passed through the dark gates, and therefore could say, "To die is gain." Psalm 119:18-19 are connected in so far as the former desires subjective illumination and the latter objective revelation. Opened eyes are useless, if commandments are hidden; and the disclosure of the latter is in vain unless there are eyes to see them. Two great truths lie in the former petition-namely, that scales cover our spiritual vision which only God can take away, and that His revelation has in its depths truths and treasures which can only be discerned by His help. The cognate petition in Psalm 119:19 is based upon the pathetic thought that man is a stranger on earth, and therefore needs what will take away his sense of homelessness and unrest. All other creatures are adapted to their environments, but he has a consciousness that he is an exile here, a haunting, stinging sense, which vaguely feels after repose in his native land. "Thy commandments" can still it. To know God’s will, with knowledge which is acceptance and love, gives rest, and makes every place a mansion in the Father’s house. There may possibly be a connection between Psalm 119:20 and Psalm 119:21 -the terrible fate of those who wander from the commandments, as described in the latter verse, being the motive for the psalmist’s longing expressed in the former. The "judgments" for which he longed, with a yearning which seemed to bruise his soul, are not, as might be supposed, God’s judicial acts, but the word is a synonym for "commandments," as throughout the psalm. The last three verses of the section appear to be linked together. They relate to the persecutions of the psalmist for his faithfulness to God’s law. In Psalm 119:22 he prays that reproach and shame, which wrapped him like a covering, may be lifted from him; and his plea in Psalm 119:22 b declares that he lay under these because he was true to God’s statutes. In Psalm 119:23 we see the source of the reproach and shame, in the conclave of men in authority, whether foreign princes or Jewish rulers, who were busy slandering him and plotting his ruin; while, with wonderful beauty, the contrasted picture in b shows the object of that busy talk, sitting silently absorbed in meditation on the higher things of God’s statutes. As long as a man can do that, he has a magic circle drawn round him, across which fears and cares cannot step. Psalm 119:24 heightens the impression of the psalmist’s rest. Also Thy testimonies are my delight"-not only the subjects of his meditation, but bringing inward sweetness, though earth is in arms against him; and not only are they his delights, but "the men of his counsel," in whom he, solitary as he is, finds companionship that arms him with resources against that knot of whispering enemies. The exigencies of the acrostic plan are very obvious in this section, five of the verses of which begin with "way" or "ways," and two of the remaining three with "cleaves." The variety secured under such conditions is remarkable. The psalmist’s soul cleaves to the dust -i.e., is bowed in mourning; {cf. Psalm 44:25 } but still, though thus darkened by sorrow and weeping itself away for grief ( Psalm 119:28 ), it cleaves to "Thy testimonies" ( Psalm 119:31 ). Happy in their sorrow are they who, by reason of the force which bows their sensitive nature to the dust, cling the more closely in their true selves to the declared will of God! Their sorrow appeals to God’s heart, and is blessed if it dictates the prayer for His quickening ( Psalm 119:25 ). Their cleaving to His law warrants their hope that He will not put them to shame. The first pair of verses in which "way" is the acrostic word ( Psalm 119:26-27 ) sets "my ways" over against "the way of Thy precepts." The psalmist has made God his confidant, telling Him all his life’s story, and has found continual answers, in gifts of mercy and inward whispers. He asks, therefore, for further illumination, which will be in accordance with these past mutual communications. Tell God thy ways and He will teach thee His statutes. The franker our confession, the more fervent our longing for fuller knowledge of His will. "The way of Thy precepts" is the practical life according to these, the ideal which shall rebuke and transform "my ways." The singer’s crooked course is spread before God, and he longs to see clearly the straight path of duty, on which he vows that he will meditate, and find wonders in the revelation of God’s will. Many a sunbeam is wasted for want of intent eyes. The prayer for understanding is vain without the vow of pondering. The next pair of "way-" verses ( Psalm 119:29-30 ) contrasts ways of "lying" and of "faithfulness" -i.e., sinful life which is false towards God and erroneous in its foundation maxims, and life which is true in practice to Him and to man’s obligations. The psalmist prays that the former may be put far from him; for he feels that it is only too near, and his unhelped feet too ready to enter on it. He recognises the inmost meaning of the Law as an outcome of God’s favour. It is not harsh, but glowing with love, God’s best gift. The prayer in Psalm 119:29 has the psalmist’s deliberate choice in Psalm 119:30 as its plea. That choice does not lift him above the need of God’s help, and it gives him a claim thereon. Our wills may seem fixed, but the gap between choice and practice is wide, and our feebleness will not bridge it, unless He strengthens us. So the last verse of this section humbly vows to transform meditation and choice into action, and to "run the way of God’s commandments," in thanksgiving for the joy with which, while the psalmist prays, he feels that his heart swells. Psalm 119:33 and Psalm 119:34 are substantially identical in their prayer for enlightenment and their vow of obedience. Both are based on the conviction that outward revelation is incomplete without inward illumination. Both recognise the necessary priority of enlightened reason as condition of obedient action, and such action as the test and issue of enlightenment. Both vow that knowledge shall not remain barren. They differ in that the former verse pledges the psalmist to obedience unlimited in time and the latter to obedience without reservation. But even in uttering his vow the singer remembers his need of God’s help to keep it, and turns it, in Psalm 119:35 , into petition, which he very significantly grounds on his heart’s delight in the Law. Warm as that delight may be, circumstances and flesh will cool it, and it is ever a struggle to translate desires into deeds. Therefore we need the sweet constraint of our Divine Helper to make us walk in the right way. Again, in Psalm 119:36 the preceding profession is caught up and modulated into petition. "Incline my heart" stands to "In it I delight," just as "Make me walk" does to "I will observe it." Our purest joys in God and in His Will depend on Him for their permanence and increase. Our hearts are apt to spill their affection on the earth, even while we would bear the cup filled to God. And one chief rival of "Thy testimonies" is worldly gain, from which there must be forcible detachment in order to, and as accompaniment of, attachment to God. All possessions which come between us and Him are "plunder," unjust gain. The heart is often led astray by the eyes. The senses bring fuel to its unholy flames. Therefore, the next petition ( Psalm 119:37 ) asks that they may be made, as it were, to pass on one side of tempting things, which are branded as being "vanity," without real substance or worth, however they may glitter and solicit the gaze. To look longingly on earth’s good makes us torpid in God’s ways; and to be earnest in the latter makes us dead to the former. There is but one real life for men, the life of union with God and of obedience to His commandments. Therefore, the singer prays to be revived in God’s ways. Experience of God’s faithfulness to His plighted word will do much to deliver from earth’s glamour, as Psalm 119:38 implies. The second clause is elliptical in Hebrew, and is now usually taken as above, meaning that God’s promise fulfilled leads men to reverence Him. But the rendering "who is [devoted] to Thy fear" is tenable and perhaps better. The "reproach" in Psalm 119:39 is probably that which would fall on the psalmist if he were unfaithful to God’s law. This interpretation gives the best meaning to Psalm 119:39 b, which would then contain the reason for his desire to keep the "judgments" -i.e., the commandments, not the judicial acts-which he feels to be good. The section ends with a constantly recurring strain. God’s righteousness, His strict discharge of all obligations, guarantees that no longing, turned to Him, can be left unsatisfied. The languishing desire will be changed into fuller joy of more vigorous life. The necessary precursor of deeper draughts from the Fountain of Life is thirst for it, which faithfully turns aside from earth’s sparkling but drugged potions. There are practically no Hebrew words beginning with the letter required as the initial in this section, except the copula "and." Each verse begins with it, and it is best to retain it in translation, so as to reproduce in some measure the original impression of uniformity. The verses are aggregated rather than linked. "And" sometimes introduces a consequence, as probably in Psalm 119:42 , and sometimes is "superfluous in regard to the sense. A predominant reference to the duty of bearing witness to the Truth runs through the section. The prayer in Psalm 119:41 for the visits of God’s lovingkindnesses which, in their sum, make salvation, and are guaranteed by His word of promise, is urged on the ground that, by experience of these, the psalmist will have his answer ready for all carpers who scoff at him and his patient faith. Such a prayer is entirely accordant with the hypothesis that the speaker is the collective Israel, but not less so with the supposition that he is an individual. "Whereas I was blind, now I see" is an argument that silences sarcasm. Psalm 119:43 carries on the thought of witnessing and asks that "the word of truth" -i.e., the Law considered as disclosure of truth rather than of duty-may not be snatched from the witness’s mouth, as it would be if God’s promised lovingkindnesses failed him. The condition of free utterance is rich experience. If prayers had gone up in vain from the psalmist’s lips, no glad proclamation could come from them. The verbs at the beginnings of Psalm 119:44-46 are best taken as optatives, expressing what the psalmist would fain do, and, to some extent, has done. There is no true religion without that longing for unbroken conformity with the manifest will of God. Whoever makes that his deepest desire, and seeks after God’s precepts, will "walk at liberty," or at large, for restraints that are loved are not bonds, and freedom consists not in doing as I would, but in willing to do as I ought. Strong in such emancipation from the hindrances of one’s own passions, and triumphant over external circumstances which may mould, but not dominate, a God-obeying life, the psalmist would fain open his mouth unabashed before rulers. The "kings" spoken of in Psalm 119:46 may be foreign rulers, possibly the representatives of the Persian monarch, or later alien sovereigns, or the expression may be quite general and the speaker be a private person, who feels his courage rising as he enters into the liberty of perfect submission. Psalm 119:47-48 are general expressions of delight in the Law. Lifting the hands towards the commandments seems to be a figure for reverent regard, or longing, as one wistfully stretches them out towards some dear person or thing that one would fain draw closer. The phrase "which I love" in Psalm 119:48 overweights the clause, and is probably a scribe’s erroneous repetition of Psalm 119:47 b. This section has only one verse of petition, the others being mainly avowals of adherence to the Law in the face of various trials. The single petition ( Psalm 119:49 ) pleads the relation of servant, as giving a claim on the great Lord of the household, and adduces God’s having encouraged hope as imposing on Him an obligation to fulfil it. Expectations fairly deduced from His word are prophets of their own realisation. In Psalm 119:50 , "This" points to the fact stated in b-namely, that the Word had already proved its power in the past by quickening the psalmist to new courage and hope-and declares that that remembered experience solaces his present sorrow. A heart that has been revived by life-giving contact with the Word has a hidden warmth beneath the deepest snows, and cleaves the more to that Word. Psalm 119:51-53 describe the attitude of the lover of the Law in presence of the ungodly. He is as unmoved by shafts of ridicule as by the heavier artillery of slander and plots ( Psalm 119:23 ). To be laughed out of one’s faith is even worse than to be terrified out of it. The lesson is not needless in a day when adherence and obedience to the Word are smiled at in so many quarters as indicating inferior intelligence. The psalmist held fast by it, and while laughter, with more than a trace of bitterness, rung about him, threw himself back on God’s ancient and enduring words, which made the scoffs sound very hollow and transient ( Psalm 119:52 ). Righteous indignation, too, rises in a devout soul at sight of men’s departure from God’s law ( Psalm 119:53 ). The word rendered "fiery anger" is found in Psalm 11:6 ("a wind of burning"), and is best taken as above, though some would render horror. The wrath was not unmingled with compassion ( Psalm 119:136 ), and, whilst it is clearly an emotion belonging to the Old Testament rather than to the Christian type of devotion, it should be present, in softened form, in our feelings towards evil. In Psalm 119:54 the psalmist turns from gainsayers. He strikes again the note of Psalm 119:19 , calling earth his place of transitory abode, or, as we might say, his inn. The brevity of life would be crushing, if God had not spoken to us. Since He has, the pilgrims can march "with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads," and all about their moving camp the sound of song may echo. To its lovers, God’s law is not "harsh and crabbed but musical as is Apollo’s lute." This psalm is one of the poet’s songs. Even those of us who are not singers can and should meditate on God’s law, till its melodious beauty is disclosed and its commandments, that sometimes sound stern, set themselves to rhythm and harmony. As God’s words took bitterness out of the thought of mortality, so His name remembered in the night brought light into darkness, whether physical or other. We often lose our memory of God and our hold of His hand when in sorrow, and grief sometimes thinks that it has a dispensation from obedience. So we shall be the better for remembering the psalmist’s experience, and should, like him, cling to the Name in the dark, and then we shall have light enough to "observe Thy law." Psalm 119:56 looks back on the mingled life of good and evil, of which some of the sorrows have just been touched, and speaks deep contentment with its portion. Whatever else is withheld or withdrawn, that lot is blessed which has been helped by God to keep His precepts, and they are happy and wise who deliberately prefer that good to all beside. Psalm 119:57 goes to the root of the matter in setting forth the resolve of obedience as the result of the consciousness of possessing God. He who feels, in his own happy heart, that Jehovah is his portion will be moved thereby to vow to keep His words. This psalmist had learned the evangelical lesson that he did not win God by keeping the Law, but that he was moved to keep the Law because he had won God; and he had also learned the companion truth, that the way to retain that possession is obedience. Psalm 119:58 corresponds in some measure to Psalm 119:57 , but the order of clauses is inverted, a stating the psalmist’s prayer, as Psalm 119:57 b did his resolve, and b building on his cry the hope that God would be truly his portion and bestow His favour on him. But the true ground of our hope is not our most whole-hearted prayers, but God’s promise. The following five verses change from the key of petition into that of profession of obedience to, and delight in, the Law. The fruit of wise consideration of one’s conduct is willing acceptance of God’s law as His witness of what is right for us. The only "ways" which sober consideration will approve are those marked out in mercy by Him, and meditation on conduct is worthless if it does not issue in turning our feet into these. Without such meditation we shall wander on byways and lose ourselves. Want of thought ruins men ( Psalm 119:59 ). But such turning of our feet to the right road has many foes, and chief among them is lingering delay. Therefore resolve must never be let cool, but be swiftly carried into action ( Psalm 119:60 ). The world is full of snares, and they lie thick round our feet whenever these are turned towards God’s ways. The only means of keeping clear of them is to fix heart and mind on God’s law. Then we shall be able to pick our steps among traps and pits ( Psalm 119:61 ). Physical weariness limits obedience, and needful sleep relaxes nervous tension, so that many a strenuous worker and noble aspirant fails beneath his daylight self in wakeful night seasons. Blessed they who in the night see visions of God and meditate on His law, not on earthly vanities or aims ( Psalm 119:62 ). Society has its temptations as solitude has. The man whose heart has fed in secret on God and His law will naturally gravitate towards like minded people. Our relation to God and His uttered will should determine our affinities with men, and it is a bad sign when natural impulses do not draw us to those who fear God. Two men who have that fear in common are liker each other in their deepest selves, however different they may be in other respects, than either of them is to those to whom he is likest in surface characteristics and unlike in this supreme trait. ( Psalm 119:63 ). One pathetic petition closes the section. In Psalm 119:19 the psalmist had based his prayer for illumination on his being a stranger on earth; here he grounds it on the plentitude of God’s lovingkindness, which floods the world. It is the same plea in another form. All creatures bask in the light of God’s love, which fails on each in a manner appropriate to its needs. Man’s supreme need is the knowledge of God’s statutes; therefore, the same all-embracing Mercy, which cares for these happy, careless creatures, will not be implored in vain, to satisfy his nobler and more pressing want. All beings get their respective boons unasked; but the preeminence of ours is partly seen in this, that it cannot be given without the cooperation of our desire. It will be given wherever that condition is fulfilled ( Psalm 119:64 ). The restrictions of the acrostic structure are very obvious in this section, five of the eight verses of which begin with "Good." The epithet is first applied in Psalm 119:65 to the whole of God’s dealings with the psalmist. To the devout soul all life is of one piece, and its submission and faith exercise transmuting power on pains and sorrows, so that the psalmist can say- "Let one more attest, I have lived, seen God’s hand through a lifetime, And all was for best." The epithet is next applied ( Psalm 119:66 ) to the perception (lit. taste) or faculty of discernment of good and evil, for which the psalmist prays, basing his petition on his belief of God’s word. Swift, sure, and delicate apprehension of right and wrong comes from such belief. The heart in which it reigns is sensitive as a goldsmith’s scales or a thermometer which visibly sinks when a cloud passes before the sun. The instincts of faith work surely and rapidly. The settled judgment that life had been good includes apparent evil ( Psalm 119:67 ), which is real evil in so far as it pains, but is, in a deeper view, good, inasmuch as it scourges a wandering heart back to true obedience and therefore to well-being. The words of Psalm 119:67 are specially appropriate as the utterance of the Israel purified from idolatrous tendencies by captivity, but may also be the expression of individual experience. The epithet is next applied to God Himself ( Psalm 119:68 ). How steadfast a gaze into the depths of the Divine nature and over the broad field of the Divine activity is in that short, all-including clause, containing but three words in the Hebrew, "Good art Thou and doing good"! The prayer built on it is the one which continually recurs in this psalm, and is reached by many paths. Every view of man’s condition, whether it is bright or dark, and every thought of God, bring the psalmist to the same desire. Here God’s character and beneficence, widespread and continual, prompt to the prayer, both because the knowledge of His will is our highest good, and because a good God cannot but wish His servants to be like Himself, in loving righteousness and hating iniquity. Psalm 119:69 and Psalm 119:70 are a pair, setting forth the antithesis, frequent in the psalm, between evil men’s conduct to the psalmist and his tranquil contemplation of, and delight in, God’s precepts. False slanders buzz about him, but he cleaves to God’s Law, and is conscious of innocence. Men are dull and insensible, as if their hearts were waterproofed with a layer of grease, through which no gentle rain from heaven could steal; but the psalmist is all the more led to open his heart to the gracious influences of that law, because others close theirs. If a bad man is not made worse by surrounding evil, he is made better by it. Just as in Psalm 119:65 and Psalm 119:68 the same thought of God’s goodness is expressed, Psalm 119:71 repeats the thought of Psalm 119:67 , with a slight deepening. There the beneficent influence of sorrow was simply declared as a fact; here it is thankfully accepted, with full submission and consent of the will. "Good for me" means not only good in fact, but in my estimate. The repetition of the phrase at the beginning of the next verse throws light on its meaning in Psalm 119:71 . The singer thinks that he has two real goods, preeminent among the uniform sequence of such, and these are, first, his sorrows, which he reckons to be blessings, because they have helped him to a firmer grasp of the other, the real good for every man, the Law which is sacred and venerable, because it has come from the very lips of Deity. That is our true wealth. Happy they whose estimate of it corresponds to its real worth, and who have learned, by affliction or anyhow, that material riches are dross, compared with its solid preciousness! Prayer for illumination is confined to the first: and last verses of this section, the rest of which is mainly occupied with petitions for gracious providences, based upon the grounds of the psalmist’s love of the Law, and of the encouragement to others to trust, derivable from his experience. Psalm 119:73 puts forcibly the thought that man is evidently an incomplete fragment, unless the gift of understanding is infused into his material frame. God has begun by shaping it, and therefore is pledged to go on to bestow spiritual discernment, when His creature asks it. But that prayer wilt only be answered if the suppliant intends to use the gift for its right purpose of learning God’s statutes. Psalm 119:74 prays that the psalmist may be a witness that hope in His word is never vain, a