8.16.2012 INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 119

spurgeon's treasury of david..

the longest psalm (could serve as title)

..'nor is it long only;
for it equally excels in
breadth of thought
depth of meaning and
height of fervour.
it is like the celestial city which lieth four-square and the height and the breadth of it are equal...

..using only a few words, the writer has produced permutations and combinations of meaning which
display his holy familiarity with his subject and
the sanctified ingenuity of his mind.
he never repeats himself;
for if the same sentiment recurs it is placed in a fresh connection and so exhibits another interesting shade of meaning.
the more one studies it  the fresher it becomes. as those who drink the nile water like it better every time they take a draught, so does this psalm become the more full and fascinating the oftener you turn to it.
it contains no idle word; the grapes of this cluster are almost to bursting full with the new wine of the kingdom.
the more you look into this mirror of a gracious heart the more you will see in it.  placid on the surface as the sea of glass before the eternal throne, it yet contains within its depths an ocean of fire, and those who devoutly gaze into it shall not only see the brightness, but feel the glow of the sacred flame...

the psalm is alphabetical. 8 stannzas commence with one letter, and then another 8 with the next letter, and so the whole psalm proceeds by octonaries
(groups of 8)
quite though the 22 letters of the hebrew alphabet. besides which, there are multitudes of appositions of sense, and others of those structural formalities with which the oriental mind is pleased,- formalities very similar to those in which our older poets indulged.
the Holy Spirit thus deigned to speak to men in forms which were attractive to the attention and helpful to the memory.
he is often plain or elegant in his manner, but he does not disdain to be quaint or formal if thereby his design of instruction can be the more surely reached.
he does not despise even contracted and artificial mode of speech, if by their use he can fix his teaching upon the mind.iIssac taylor has worthily set forth the lesson of this fact:
'in the strictest sense this composition is conditioned; nevertheless in the highest sense is it an utterance of spiritual life...
..we believe that david wrote this psalm.
it is davidic in tone and expression, and
it tallies with david's experience in many interesting points.
in our youth our teacher called it 'david's pocket book',
and we incline to the opinion then expressed that
here we have the royal diary written at various times throughout a long life.

subject..the one theme is the word of the Lord.
the psalmist  sets his subject in many lights and
treats of it in divers ways,
but he seldom omits to mention the word of the Lord in each verse under some one or other of the many names by which he knows it;
and even if the name be not there,
the subject is still heartily pursued in every stanza.
he who wrote this wonderful song was saturated with those books of scripture which he possessed. andrew bonar tells of a simple christian in a farmhouse who had meditated the bible through three times.
this is precisely what this psalmist had done, he had gone past reading into meditation.
like, luther, david had shaken every fruit tree in God's garden and gather golden fruit therefrom. the most 'read their bibles like cows that stand in the thick grass and trample under their feet the finest flowers and herbs'.it is to be feared that we too often do the like
there is evident growth in the subject matter. the earlier verses are of such a character as to lend themselves to the hypothesis that the author was a young man, while many of the later passages could only have suggested themselves to age and wisdom.

the psalm is made up of three things, 1. prayers, 2. praises, 3. protestations.

in our german version it has the appropriate inscription, 'the christian's golden ABC of the praise, love, power and use of the word of God'. franz delitzsch, 1871

it is recorded of the celebrated st. augustine, who among his voluminous works left a comment on the book of psalms, that he delayed to comment on this one till he had finished the whole psalter; and then yielded only to the long and vehement urgency of his friends, 'because, he says, as often as i essayed to think thereon, it always exceed the powers of my intent thought and the utmost grasp of my faculties'.

in matthew henry's 'account of the life and death of his father, philip henry', he says: 'once, pressing the study of the scriptures, he advised us to take a verse of this psalm every morning to meditate upon, and so go over the psalm twice in the year; and that, saith he, will bring you to be in love with all the rest of the scriptures. he often said, 'all grace grows as love to the word of God grows'.

in order to be able to understand and to enjoy this remarkable psalm, and that we may not be repelled by its length and by its repetitions, we must have had, in some measure at least, the same experiences as its author, and, like him, have learned to love and practise the sacred word. moreover, this psalm is in some sort of touch stone
(test or criterion for the quality of a thing)
for the spiritual life of those who read it.

alphabetical arrangement
there may be something more than fancy in the remark, that Christ's name, 'the alpha and omega' -equivalent to declaring him all that which every letter of the alphabet could express- may have had a reference to the peculiarity of this psalm,- a psalm in which (with the exception of v 84 and122, exceptions that make the rule mare marked) every verse speaks of God's revelation of Himself to man. andrew a. bonar, 1859

origen says it is alphabetical because it contains the elements or principles of all knowledge and wisdom; and that it repeats each letter 8 times, because 8 is the number of perfection.

this is a psalm by itself, it excels them all, and shines brightest in this constellation. it is much longer than any of them; more than twice as long as any of them. it is not making long prayers that Christ censures; but making them for a pretence; which intimates that they are in themselves good and commendable. it seems to me to be a collection of david's pious and devout ejaculations, the short and sudden breathings of his soul to God, which he wrote down as they occurred, and towards the latter end of his time gathered them out of his day-book where they lay scattered, added to them many like words, and digested them into this psalm, in which there is seldom any coherence between the verses; but like solomon's proverbs, it is a chest of gold rings, not a chain of gold links. and we may not only learn by the psalmist's example to accustom ourselves to such pious ejaculations, which are an excellent means of maintaining constant communion with        God, and keeping the heart in frame for the more solemn exercises of religion; but we must make use of the psalmist's words, both for the exciting and the expressing of our devout affections. some have said of this psalm,
he that shall read it considerately, it will either warm him or shame him;
and this is true. matthew henry 1662-1714

..this poem, or rather collection of poems, is designed for private devotion alone; and we have here here no distinct reference to any historical or national event, to any public festival, or any place of congregational worship..it consists of the holy effusions of a devout soul, in a state of closet retirement, unbosoming itself in blessed communion with its God, and descanting
(to comment of discourse at great length)
on the holy cycle of His attributes and the consolations of His revealed will under every trial to which man can be exposed...
it is a set or collection of ..smaller poems..poetical collections of this kind are still common in the east and especially among the persian poets..by the arabian poet temoa they are happily denominated strings of pearls.


names given to the law of God in this psalm are
1. God's LAW, because they are enacted by Him as our sovereign
2. His WAY, because they are the rule both of His providence and of our obedience.
3. His TESTIMONIES, because they are solemnly declared to the world and attested beyond contradiction.
4. His COMMANDMENTS, because given with authority, and lodged with us as a trust.
5. His PRECEPTS, because prescribed to us, and cannot be considered non-essential.
6. His WORD or SAYING, because it is the declaration of His mind, and
Christ the essential, eternal word is all in all in it.
7. His JUDGMENTS, because framed in infinite wisdom and because by them we must both judge and be judged.
8. His RIGHTEOUSNESS, because it is all holy, just, and good, and the rule and standard of righteousness..
9. His STATUTES, because they are fixed and determined and of perpetual obligation.
10. His TRUTH or FAITHFULNESS, because the principles upon which divine law is built are eternal truths.  matthew henry