I have joy in thy word, as one that findeth great spoil.
The psalmist writes under pressure, hunted by powerful men without cause, and yet his heart is full of joy. He pictures a soldier finding a heap of plunder: why should God's word feel like sudden wealth rather than a duty?
What steadies him is not weak enemies. It is an authority higher than any prince.
The great ones of this world may persecute the godly without a cause. But for the believer, the authority of the Word of God is above the authority of man. He trembles at the Word of God rather than standing in awe of the power of princes. For him God's Word is supreme in its authority.
Spoil is the mixed haul a soldier carries off the field — coins, cloth, weapons, things he never worked for. One writer reads the image that way, and notices that the psalmist's next line shows the same word shaping his moral taste.
His heart stands in awe of that in which God Himself has spoken to his conscience. His heart also has responded to it, so that it has become to him like the rich and varied booty of the soldier. But more, his moral estimate of it is similar: it is the holiness of truth that attracts him in it, as he hates the falsehood which it also hates.
Another writer traces the same effect. The psalmist holds something real in his hands, so lying has nothing left to offer him.
It is God's Word that gives perfect rest. In it the believer finds great treasure (v. 162), so he might well rejoice. Having such a positive possession in his hands, how can he ever accept the hopeless negative of lying? (v. 163).
Plunder is not found lying in a field. It is taken from a defeated enemy, and commentators apply that to what a believer gains through spiritual struggle.
The victory is not merely a repulse of the enemy, but an actual gaining of fresh stores. Faith always gathers fresh riches from every conflict. The spoil of the enemy does not rightly belong to them, but to those who overcome them. This spoil may well remind us of the fresh views of Christ we gain from the very conflict we have entered for Him.
The joy of the verse belongs to someone who finds. Finding takes searching, and searching takes work.
Gold does not always lie on the surface of the earth. For the most part gold mining needs hard, steady work: digging, searching, setting aside all that is only soil, and watching for the precious ore. Let us search the Word of God with the same diligence. Below the surface lie rich nuggets of truth, ready to reward the earnest persistence of faith.
One writer sets joy in the Word beside trembling at it. Together they test how we handle Scripture.
Yes, we may rejoice in the Word "as much as in all riches"; "like one who finds great spoil"; "for they are the rejoicing of my heart" (Ps. 119:14, 162, 111). But the holy Word of God also speaks with authority to our hearts and consciences. Are we "trembling" at His Word, and trying to order our lives according to it? Or do we try to adjust God's Word to our behaviour when we have already departed from it to some degree?
History repeats this reaction. Martin Luther was a monk who thought the church's prayer books held everything God had said. Then he found a full Bible in a university library.
He read and read again, with ever-growing wonder. From that day it was to him the Book above all other books that the university, or even the world, had. In the language of the Book itself, he "rejoiced" at God's word, "like one who finds great spoil."
- Pressure — Princes persecute him without cause. Yet the believer's awe rests on the Word, not on the power of men.
- Plunder — "Great spoil" is the soldier's rich and varied haul. He did not earn it; the victory made it his.
- Conflict — Faith gathers fresh riches from every battle. What we win in conflict is a fresh view of Christ.
- Digging — Gold seldom lies on the surface. The joy of finding belongs to those who search, sift and persist.
- Trembling — Real joy in the Word goes with trembling at it. We adjust our lives to Scripture, not Scripture to our lives.
I hate and abhor falsehood; thy law do I love.
Just before this verse, the psalm writer says that God's word fills him with awe and with joy. That double attitude produces this line: a fierce hatred of one thing, and love for another.
This hatred is not a personality trait. It is what Scripture does to a person who lives under it. One writer lists it as the second result.
Second, it leads him to discern between good and evil, and so to abhor the false and love the truth (v. 163).
This part of the psalm pairs trembling at God's word with delight in it. One writer ties that pair to a heart that both hates and loves, and then praises.
The heart stands in awe of God's word — a godly feeling. It comes with God's authority; yet he rejoices in it as one who has found great spoil. This connection between the two marks the true, full grasp of the word. It is God's — a most solemn thing; the soul trembles at His word. It comes with divine and absolute authority. But it is God's word, we have a new nature, and God Himself teaches us. So we delight in it in a way words cannot express, because it is His and it reveals Him. And there is no blurring of good and evil… He hates and loves — he hates lying and loves the law. The law is not merely what is right; it is God's authoritative expression of what is right. And all this produces praise, because the heart rises up to the source of these things.
The verse uses two words where one would do. One writer explains the doubling by what the man already holds.
It is God's Word that gives perfect rest, and in it the believer finds great treasure (v. 162), so he has every reason to rejoice. Holding such a positive possession, how could he ever accept the hopeless emptiness of lying? (v. 163). In fact he hates lying, and he stresses it by saying he abhors it, which means intense hatred.
One writer widens what is hated to anything that fails the test of Scripture, and aims the hatred at the wrong, not at people.
We are to hate what the Lord hates — not the persons, but the deeds… Everything not according to Holy Scripture is a false way, empty, a lie. We should hate it, even if it can claim great age and comes to us from the church fathers.
One writer names the places where even honest men still allow lying, and warns Christians against thinking they are immune.
Some men of the world would be ashamed to lie in daily life, and they are hard on it in others. Yet they overlook it in politics and — religion! But "the righteous hates falsehood" wherever it is found, and most of all in what concerns Him who is the Truth. No wonder — the word of truth brought him forth, the truth sanctifies him, and he grows by it day by day… Yet no one is more tempted by Satan to betray the truth. No deception ever did more damage than the idea that a Christian is immune to falsehood and always speaks the truth.
One writer traces lying back to its source, and this hatred of it back to God's work in a person.
Satan is the father of lies. Those who are marked by lying in life and in speech may read their doom here, unless they come to the One who can save and sanctify them… Neither pride, nor deceit, nor lying will mark these servants. They take hold of the glorious name of the Lord and with true confidence rejoice in Him, in whom their righteousness is. Through God's work in them they are also able to say, "I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law."
- Source. The hatred is not native to the man. The Word he reveres teaches him to tell good from evil, and then he abhors the false and loves the truth.
- Pairing. Trembling at God's word and rejoicing in it belong together. That pair makes one heart that both hates and loves.
- Intensity. He doubles "hate" with "abhor" because he already holds great treasure. Lying is a hopeless emptiness he has no reason to accept.
- Reach. His hatred covers every false way: anything not according to Scripture, however old and respected — the deeds, never the persons.
- Result. Hating the lie and loving the law ends in praise, as the heart rises to the God whose word gave it both.
Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments.
Psalm 119 keeps circling one subject: God's word, under many different names. Here, near the psalm's close, that word breaks into song. The writer is under pressure from powerful enemies. Yet he fills his day with praise, not complaint, and the reason he gives is God's righteous rules.
The verse sits in a stanza that runs from verse 161 to 168. That stanza holds two things together: hostility from those in power, and a heart at rest in what God has said.
Verses 161-168. The leaders of God's earthly people were persecutors of the just, instead of being administrators of righteousness. But the hearts of the righteous rested on God's word. They rejoiced in it, had great peace, praised seven times a day, and hoped for the salvation of the Lord. Obedience and hatred of falsehood marked the faithful few, who lived under the eye of the Lord.
The praise here is not worked up. It is listed among the results that follow when a life is put under the authority of Scripture.
The psalmist recounts the blessings that flow to the one whose life is governed by the supreme authority of the Word... Third, it calls forth constant praise throughout the day (v. 164).
"Seven times" is not a rule about clock hours. One writer takes the number as a mark of completeness, and traces the praise back to the rest and treasure the believer finds in God's word.
It is God's Word that gives perfection of rest. In it the believer finds great treasure (v. 162), so that he might well rejoice... Seven times a day (a complete number) he praises the Lord because of His righteous judgments (v. 164).
The verse gives the reason for the praise. The ESV calls it God's "righteous rules"; older translations say "righteous judgments." So what are they?
The judgments of His righteousness are the decisions He makes about right and wrong. Those decisions express the righteous character of God and carry it out. We have much to learn about His "judgments". We must learn that He always judges rightly. He never judges at random, and never with prejudice, as men do. We must learn from Him now, here on earth, how to judge as He judges. Then later, when we reign with Him for a thousand years, we will be able to put into practice what we have learned. Whatever He thinks best is good and right. That holds even when He must discipline us, as a tender and compassionate Father.
Praising God for His judgments would be strange if His commandments were only a threat. In this psalm they have become something else entirely.
Psalm 119 has 176 verses, and no less than 174 of them mention the law of God under different names — law, commandments, precepts, testimonies, judgments, statutes, ordinances, word, way, path. Whatever name the law may go by, it is no longer condemnation and the threat of death. It is perfect delight and liberty.
The same writer sets verse 164 beside the psalm's other time markers. The picture is a man whose praise runs from before dawn into the night.
He is ever at it. "Seven times a day" does he praise the Lord (v. 164). Before daybreak he cried, "I hoped in Your Word." At night he gives up sleep through the night hours, as he says, "that I might meditate in Your Word" (v. 148).
One writer calls this praise a sacrifice, and not one saved for special occasions. Kept up all day, it crowds out the moods that fill the gaps.
The sacrifice we offer as holy priests is praise — "praise to God continually." This is not an occasional thing. It is not just at some specially favoured moment, when all looks bright and smiling around us. It is not to be only in the glow and warmth of some unusually powerful public meeting, when the current of worship flows deep, wide, and fast. No; the word is, "praise continually." There is no room, no time for complaining and murmuring, for fretfulness and discontent, impatience and irritability. There is no time for lamenting about our surroundings, whatever these may be, or complaining about the weather. There is no time for finding fault with the people around us, whether in public or in private, whether in the congregation, in business, or in the family circle.
- Pressure — the stanza opens with powerful men persecuting the righteous. The praise of verse 164 rises inside that pressure, not after it lifts.
- Cause — praise here is an effect, not an effort. God's word gives perfect rest and great treasure, and rejoicing follows.
- Measure — "seven times" reads as a complete number; the praise is full, with nothing held back.
- Reason — the "righteous judgments" are God's decisions on right and wrong. He never judges at random or with prejudice, and He is training us to judge as He does.
- Result — praise runs from before dawn into the night hours. A day that full leaves no gap for murmuring.
Great peace have they that love thy law, and nothing doth stumble them.
After 164 verses about God's word, the psalm states the result of a life shaped by it: deep peace, and a path with nothing to trip over. The claim is startling, because this same psalm is full of persecution, lies and near-destruction. So what peace does God promise here, and who receives it?
Many readers hear "law" and think of a list of rules. One writer says it means far more, and also marks off what the verse is not saying:
The peace here is not exactly "peace with God." The "law" in this passage is far wider than the Ten Commandments. It was God's revelation of His ways, as far as He chose to make them known in those days. It showed man the way of wisdom, righteousness, and peace. Those whose hearts it shaped enjoyed the blessing that always comes with knowing God and His ways, however partial that knowledge had to be then.
The verse sits in a section that opens with princes persecuting the psalmist. One commentator lists the blessings that follow when a person puts God's word above every other voice:
The great ones of this world may persecute the godly without a cause. But for the believer the authority of the Word of God stands above the authority of man. He trembles at God's Word rather than standing in awe of the power of princes… The psalmist then recounts the blessings that flow to the one whose life is governed by the supreme authority of the Word. First, the Word becomes the joy of his heart, as he discovers the treasures it holds, like someone finding great spoil.
This peace does not mean an easy life. Commentators differ on whether it includes peace with God, and one states it plainly:
His life was full of outward troubles, and God did not keep him from them — but he was at peace. As someone who loved God's law he was at peace. He had peace with God and peace within himself.
The second half of the verse promises a path clear of obstacles. One writer links that clear path with a heart that praises God all day for His righteous judgments:
All through the day God's word lifts up his heart in praise, because of the judgments he sees to be those of divine righteousness… For "Great peace have those who love your law," and their path is free of the stumbling blocks that others fall over.
The same writer applies the verse elsewhere to the worry of not seeing results in God's service:
But when we walk in God's path — and know that we are there — results are in His hand… The servant of God can be sure that the power to carry out the purposes of unfailing wisdom is in His hand. So he may be at rest.
This peace belongs to a life of obedience. One commentator adds that it holds even when others misjudge that life:
Nothing in all this world is more deeply blessed than the path and portion of an obedient soul. "Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble." The lowly disciple, who finds his food and drink in doing the will of his beloved Lord and Master, has a peace the world can neither give nor take away. True, others may misunderstand him and misrepresent him. They may call him narrow and bigoted, and things like that. But none of these things move him.
The New Testament has a verse that sounds similar. Whoever loves his brother "abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling." One commentator says the two promises are not the same:
Compare also Psalm 119:165 and 1 John 2:10, and note the difference in the character of the blessing. In the Psalm, and the legal blessing to the righteous man, there is nothing that makes him fall — and a true blessing it is. But in John, where grace is in question, and we walk in love, there is nothing in us that causes another to fall.
- Love first. God promises this peace to those who love His law, not just to those who know it.
- Wider than rules. "Law" here means God's revealed ways as a whole — the way of wisdom, righteousness and peace for man. Commentators differ on whether the verse speaks of peace with God itself.
- Peace inside, storm outside. God did not spare the psalmist his enemies, lies or robbery. The peace held anyway, because it did not depend on circumstances.
- A clear path. Those who live by the word walk free of the obstacles that trip up others. That includes the worry over results, which are in God's hand.
- Obedience is the road. The peace belongs to the obedient soul. It holds even when others misunderstand him.
I have hoped for thy salvation, O Jehovah, and have done thy commandments.
Powerful men are hunting the psalmist, and his answer is to look ahead to God's rescue while he keeps obeying. What is the "salvation" he hopes for, and how does obedience fit with waiting?
The salvation these songs ask for has a clear shape and a clear deliverer:
The believers in the Psalms hope and pray for salvation — which means to be saved from their enemies. This salvation will come about through the intervention of Messiah and the destruction of those enemies.
A few lines earlier, the psalmist names his trouble: powerful men hunt him without cause. Hope of salvation is his reply:
Salvation is a theme running throughout Scripture... In many cases salvation appears where enemies are present. In fact the first time the word appears, it comes in the face of the enemy's attack and the setback that follows. Facing that, Jacob exclaims, "I wait for your salvation, O LORD" (Genesis 49:18). The Psalmist cries out, "Princes persecute me without cause." Then he finds rejoicing and peace as he adds, "I hope for your salvation, O LORD" (Psalm 119:161 and 166).
Hope lifts the eyes above two things at once — hostile rulers and hard circumstances:
Fifth, it leads the soul to look beyond the opposition of princes, and the trials of circumstances, and wait in hope for the salvation of the Lord (v. 166).
The same writer sets hope among the other things that grow when God's Word rules a life:
So the Word holds its place of supremacy over his soul. The godly man then has joy in the Word, hatred of evil, continual praise, great peace, hope in the Lord, obedience to the Lord, and openness before the Lord.
The verse puts hope and obedience side by side. One writer explains why that hope can never end in disappointment:
The believer sets his hope firmly on God's salvation. Of course such hope will never be disappointed (v. 166), for it goes with a settled purpose of heart to do God's commandments.
Running through this whole psalm is a man in trouble who never once considers another door:
Notice here that all the way through there is no thought of looking, in difficulty or trial, to anything but God. The faithful ask for help to keep the law and for deliverance from trial because of it. But they have not the smallest idea of turning anywhere else; it does not even occur to them. This is true integrity of heart. God in truth, God in His will, God in mercy, God Himself as the object: they seek God alone, nothing outside or away from Him... And they trusted the word He had sent to us as well as obeyed it.
The second half of the verse — "I do your commandments" — describes a life shaped by Scripture and lived in God's sight:
This word has been worked into his everyday life. He has waited in hope for the salvation it promises. He has obeyed its commandments. He loves the testimonies it gives, and loves them deeply. He keeps its precepts as a man open in all things to Him before whom he walks. It is a blessing beyond words to walk like this in the Eternal Light of that glorious Presence, before we enter the joy of His presence itself.
Hope in the Bible is not a wish that might fail. One commentator shows what a Christian is still waiting for, and why it is certain:
The hope which is ours is the "hope of salvation." Scripture never speaks of the Christian as hoping for forgiveness of sins, but it does speak of him as hoping for salvation. Salvation is a word of large meaning. It takes in the final deliverance which will reach us at the coming of the Lord. For that we hope; that is, we await it with expectation. It is certain to arrive at the right time, because no hope founded on God and His word has any element of uncertainty in it.
- Pressure. The cry for salvation rises where enemies are real. Princes persecute without cause, and hope in the Lord is the answer.
- Rescue. In the Psalms, "salvation" means rescue from enemies, and the Messiah brings it.
- Lift. Hope raises the eyes above hostile rulers and hard circumstances. It waits for the Lord's deliverance.
- Work. Waiting is never idle. Real hope carries a settled purpose to obey, and the Word gets worked into daily life.
- Certainty. A hope founded on God and His word has no element of uncertainty in it — it is sure to arrive in its season.
My soul hath kept thy testimonies, and I love them exceedingly.
Powerful men are hounding the writer of this psalm. His answer is not to fight back but to hold on, and that raises two questions: what does it mean to keep God's word with the soul, and why is love named after the keeping?
He does not only say that he obeyed. He names the part of him that did the obeying.
He does not only keep God's testimonies with his body. He keeps them in his soul, which involves his inmost affections and motives. He underlines this when he says that he loves those testimonies exceedingly.
Awe and delight sound like opposites. Here they meet in the same heart, over the same word.
The heart stands in awe of God's word — a godly feeling. It comes with God's authority, yet he rejoices in it like someone who has found great spoil. Holding these two together marks the true, full grasp of the word. Because it is God's word, and we have a new nature and are taught of God, we delight beyond words in what is His and reveals Him. He hates and he loves — he hates lying and loves the law; not merely what is right, but God's authoritative expression of it. And all this produces praise, because the heart rises up to the source of these things.
Verse 166 says he hopes for salvation; verse 167 says he has kept the testimonies. The salvation has not yet arrived, and obedience is what fills the waiting.
Fifth, it leads the soul to look past the opposition of princes and the trials of circumstances. It leads him to wait in hope for the salvation of the Lord (v. 166). Sixth, while he waits for the Lord's deliverance, he submits and obeys the Lord's words (v. 167).
The verses here move as one piece: hoping, obeying, loving, then living openly before God. One writer traces how the word reached this man's daily practice.
This word has been worked into his practical life. He has waited in hope for the salvation it assures him of. He has obeyed its commandments. He loves the testimonies it gives exceedingly. He keeps its precepts as a man who is open in all things before the God in whose sight he walked. What unspeakable blessedness to walk like this in the Eternal Light of that glorious Presence, before we enter the joy of the presence-chamber itself.
The verse names keeping first and love second. The Lord Jesus joined the two in both directions.
Love and obedience are the great qualifications for entrance into these deeper experiences. Already the Lord has said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." Now He says, "Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me." It has been truly said that the first presents love as the spring of obedience, and the second presents obedience as the proof of love.
This verse is one link in a chain. The whole section shows what follows when Scripture holds the highest place in a life.
So the Word holds its place of supremacy over his soul. The result is that the godly man has joy in the Word, hatred of evil, continual praise, great peace, hope in the Lord, obedience to the Lord, and openness before the Lord.
- Supremacy first. God's Word outranks the princes who oppose him. Everything else in these verses grows out of that one settled place given to Scripture.
- Soul, then hands. He keeps the testimonies in his soul — in his affections and motives. Obedience here is not outward only. The inner life moves the same way as the outward act.
- Love that takes sides. Loving God's law and hating lying are one response, not two. The heart that delights in His word turns from what is false.
- Obedience in the waiting room. He still hopes for salvation; it has not come yet (v. 166). He fills the wait by keeping His words.
- Exceedingly, then openly. Love carried this far ends in a life with nothing hidden. He walks in the light of God's presence before he ever enters it.
I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies; for all my ways are before thee.
Psalm 119 closes its twenty-first section with two claims at once. The writer has kept what God commanded — and he knows God has watched him do it. Obedience and God's watching eye stand together here. Does that all-seeing gaze threaten an honest heart, or comfort it?
The verses just before this one name the blessings of a life under God's word: joy, praise, peace, hope, hatred of what is false. One writer reads verses 162 to 168 as a single chain:
The psalmist recounts the blessings that flow to the one whose life is governed by the supreme authority of the Word.
Verse 168 is the seventh and final link in that chain, and it moves from what the man does to what God sees:
Seventh, walking in obedience to the Lord, there is nothing in his life hidden from God. He can say, "All my ways are before you" (v. 168).
"Precepts" and "testimonies" are two of this psalm's words for what God has said. Another writer explains what keeping them means, and ties it to God's watching eye:
So God's testimonies and precepts are not treated carelessly, but kept as permanent possessions. How could a believer ever give up such riches in glory? Indeed, he adds, "all my ways are before you." The very aim of every step he takes is the pleasure of the God before whom he walks.
Obedience alone is not the whole of the verse. Another writer finds a second mark of a godly walk here, and traces the same principle into Paul's words:
Here is another element of a godly walk besides obedience. "All my ways are before you" — this leads to obedience, but the heart and conscience are all before God too. It is a most important principle. So Paul says, "We are made manifest to God"; only this goes further... Paul himself was made manifest, as all men will be, before the judgment seat of Christ, who as Son of man judges perfectly every secret feeling, bringing the heart itself out.
Commentators differ in emphasis. One reads the line as a life with nothing hidden. The other presses it further, into the searching of motives and inward feelings.
This confidence is not spoken from a comfortable life. One summary of this whole section describes who held power at the time:
The leaders of God's earthly people should have administered righteousness. Instead they were found persecuting the just. But the hearts of the righteous rested on God's word. They rejoiced in it, had great peace, praised seven times a day, and hoped for the salvation of Jehovah. Obedience and hatred of what is false marked the remnant, who lived under the eye of the Lord.
When human judges are unjust, God's all-seeing eye stops being a threat. It becomes the sufferer's comfort.
God knows our ways whether we think about it or not. One writer points to David's prayer, and to what that knowledge does to a life:
David cries out to God, "Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!" The fact is, of course, that God knows all about me at all times, whether I am sleeping or waking, whether I am conscious that His eyes are upon me or not. But once I grasp the truth that God knows everything, as the psalmist did, I shall want, like him, to walk always in the awareness of it. My heart will cry out to God that day by day I may walk with the light of His face shining on me. Then, in all I do and say, I shall have the happy assurance that God Himself is before me and all around me at every step of the way.
That awareness shows itself as honesty — nothing held back from God:
The child of God is only truly happy when he really lives in the light, before God, according to what God is. It is of the highest importance for spiritual prosperity that he keeps nothing back from his Father, and has no secrets before Him. God, who knows all things, knows our hearts, and in His presence we come to know for ourselves what our hearts really are.
- Authority first. The verse is the last of seven blessings that flow to a life governed by the supreme authority of God's word.
- Kept, not admired. Hold precepts and testimonies as permanent possessions, and let every step aim at pleasing the God who watches.
- Open, not only obedient. Obedience is not the whole of it. The heart and conscience are open before God too — the principle Paul carries further: "We are made manifest to God."
- Under pressure. The psalmist said this while unjust rulers persecuted him. Living under God's eye was his rest, not his fear.
- Conscious daily. God sees all our ways anyway. The blessing comes when we walk aware of it, keeping no secrets from our Father.