See how I have loved thy precepts quicken me, O Jehovah, according to thy loving-kindness.
By verse 159 the writer is surrounded by people who ignore God's word. He asks God to look at his love for His precepts — then asks for life on a completely different ground.
He asks God Himself to look. One writer traces the path that leads to that request:
His adversaries are many, but they have not turned him aside from the path of His testimonies, from recognising things as He has declared them. He had watched with grief the faithlessness of those who did not keep these sayings. And he invites the Lord Himself to see how he loves His precepts — whatever the slowness of his nature, for which, for the third time, he asks that he may know His quickening power.
The verses just before this one grieve over people who break God's word. One writer traces that grief back to its root:
If the evil of transgressors is hated, it is because the truth is loved. So the psalmist can say, "I love your precepts." The evil that he hates will pass away; the truth that he loves will endure for ever.
Older translations read "quicken me." One writer explains why nothing less will do, and what the word means:
God must act. But how must He act? Will reformation, education or instruction meet our case? Not at all: there can be nothing until He quickens, for quickening simply means the giving of life. The very word translated "quicken" in the New Testament is made up of the noun "life" and the verb "to make" — to make to live.
The same writer weighs that repetition, and settles where quickening belongs in God's work:
The psalmist says that God's word has quickened him in verse 50, yet again and again he desires to be quickened. The word is clearly used more in the sense of being revived, of being restored to more vigorous life. … Until God quickens us by His power we are dead. Quickening is the very beginning of His work in us, not the climax.
He asks for life three times in this short section, each time on a different ground. Our verse holds the third:
Certainly God fully answers such a prayer as "Consider how I love your precepts." Yet the flesh is weak. So for the third time in this section he asks the Lord to revive him — this time according to His lovingkindness. The first time (v. 154) he asks according to God's word, and the second time according to His judgments (v. 156). So he admits his own weakness and need, and yet this is the true character of the overcomer.
So his love for the precepts is what he asks God to notice; God's own steadfast love is what he asks God to act by.
Love like this is not natural to man. One writer traces it to a work of God in the heart:
How different is the spirit of Psalm 119. At Sinai the law came to men in the flesh, and they loathed it and rebelled against it; in Psalm 119 the writer delights in the law of God. Clearly he is the subject of the new birth. He anticipates in himself the blessing Israel will know in a future day, when the Lord will say, "I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds" (Hebrews 10:16).
Another writer brings the same delight into the present day:
Though we are not "under law but under grace," yet we delight in it and fulfil its righteous requirements as we walk according to the Spirit. The believer can even now sing, "Oh how I love your law!" For he is brought to rejoice in the One who has magnified it, and in the One who has borne its curse for him upon the tree.
- Love — Delight in God's precepts is not natural. It marks a heart God has changed. That same heart grieves over those who break His word.
- Look — "Consider" invites God Himself to inspect that love. The psalmist is willing to have his inner life examined.
- Ask — Even so, he asks for life a third time in this section, admitting the slowness of his own nature.
- Ground — He appeals to God's lovingkindness, not to his own love. The three pleas rest on God's word, then His judgments, then His steadfast love.
- Life — The word behind "give me life" means "to make to live." Here it asks for revival — a restoring to more vigorous life.
The sum of thy word is truth, and every righteous judgment of thine is for ever.
The psalmist ends this section of Psalm 119 with a verdict rather than a plea: God's word, taken as a whole, is truth. Older translations read "your word is true from the beginning," while the ESV has "the sum of your word is truth" — both treat the verse as a claim about the whole Bible, not about one part of it.
One writer ties the two halves of the verse together — the word as a whole, and the judgments that rest on God's own nature:
The whole of His word is truth. Every one of His righteous judgments has its foundation in His own nature, and each one lasts as long as He Himself lasts.
Another writer shows what happens when a reader keeps part of it and drops the rest:
And His word is absolute truth. Weak belief in one part of the truth means weak belief in all of it. Though it holds sixty-six books written by almost as many writers over many centuries, it forms one single whole. It is like an arch. Take out one stone and the whole thing is weakened.
Why is God's word true? One commentator answers from who God is:
Jehovah's word is what Jehovah is: if He is righteous, so are His judgments. And so too are His testimonies, whatever their nature: He cannot be anything but a faithful witness, in whatever it has pleased Him to give any testimony.
The verse says God's rulings last forever. One writer sets God's word beside everything that fades:
Man fades, and his glory passes so quickly. Is it not a great blessing to know that God has given us something that endures? It is His own word, which lives and abides forever. That gives our souls a solid resting place, while we feel surrounded by quicksand and an endless swamp of human opinion and man-made religion. We have this word, thank God. When the created heavens and earth have passed away, it will shine as brightly as ever, in all its lasting clearness and worth. When the saved are enjoying eternal happiness without a break, and the wicked are shut up in everlasting punishment, the word of the Lord will still be the same.
Love for the truth and hatred of evil belong together. One writer draws the link:
If a person hates the evil that wrongdoers do, it is because he loves the truth. So the psalmist can say, "I love your precepts." The evil that he hates will pass away; the truth that he loves will endure for ever.
How much of the Bible is true? One commentator leaves no room to negotiate:
But God's word IS true. Every single word as originally given is true. Nothing in it is or can be false; we can rely on it and its truthfulness completely.
If it is all true, its authority reaches into every part of life. Another writer turns that into a prayer:
Oh, for a deeper sense of the fullness, majesty, and authority of the Word of God! We very much need strengthening on this point. We want a deep, bold, vigorous, influential, and lasting sense of the supreme authority of what God has written. We want to be sure it is completely enough for every age, every place, every position, every area — personal, social, and church-related. Then we can withstand every effort by the enemy to lower the value of that priceless treasure.
- Source. God's word is what God is. A righteous God cannot give unrighteous judgments, and He can only be a faithful witness.
- Sum. The truth is the whole of His word, not selected parts — sixty-six books forming one arch, and pulling out one stone weakens the whole.
- Stability. His judgments rest on His own nature, so they last as long as He does. When heaven and earth have gone, His word will shine as brightly as ever.
- Strength. The psalmist hated the evil around him because he loved the truth. That evil will pass; the truth he loved endures forever.
- Submission. Every word is true, and nothing in it can be false. So its authority covers every age, place and position — personal, social and church-related alike.