Verse 38
Stablish thy word - Fulfil the promises thou hast made to me.
Verse 39
Turn away my reproach, which I fear - This may be understood of the reproach which a man may meet with in consequence of living a godly life, for such a life was never fashionable in any time or country. But I have found the following note on the passage: "I have done a secret evil; my soul is sorry for it: if it become public, it will be a heavy reproach to me. O God, turn it away, and let it never meet the eye of man!" - Anon.
Verse 40
Behold, I have longed - Thou searchest the heart; thou knowest that I have long desired thy salvation; thou seest that this desire still remains. Behold it! it is thy work; and through thy mercy I breathe after thy mercy.
Quicken me - I am dying; O give me the spirit of life in Christ Jesus!
Verse 41
Let thy mercies come - Let me speedily see the accomplishment of all my prayers! Let me have thy salvation - such a deliverance as it becomes thy greatness and goodness to impart. Let it be according to thy word - thy exceeding great and precious promises.
Verse 42
So shall I have wherewith to answer - Many say, "My hope in thy mercy is vain;" but when thou fulfillest thy promises to me, then shall I answer to the confusion of their infidelity.
Verse 43
Take not the word of truth - Grant that the assurances which thy prophets have given to the people of approaching deliverance may not fall to the ground; let it appear that they have spoken thy mind, and that thou hast fulfilled their word.
Verse 45
I will walk at liberty - When freed from the present bondage, we shall rejoice in obedience to thy testimonies; we shall delight to keep all thy ordinances.
Verse 46
I will speak - before kings - Dr. Delaney supposes that this is spoken in reference to Achish, king of Gath, whom David had instructed in the Jewish religion; but we have already seen that it is most likely that the Psalm was compiled under the Babylonish captivity. But the words may with more propriety be referred to the case of Daniel, and other bold and faithful Israelites, who spoke courageously before Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius. See the books of Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah.
Verse 47
Thy commandments, which I have loved - O shame to Christians who feel so little affection to the Gospel of Christ, when we see such cordial, conscientious, and inviolate attachment in a Jew to the laws and ordinances of Moses, that did not afford a thousandth part of the privileges!
Verse 48
My hands also will I lift up - I will present every victim and sacrifice which the law requires. I will make prayer and supplication before thee, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.
Verse 49
Remember the word - Thou hast promised to redeem us from our captivity; on that word we have built our hope. Remember that thou hast thus promised, and see that we thus hope.
Verse 50
This is my comfort - While enduring our harsh captivity, we anticipated our enlargement; and thy word of promise was the means of keeping our souls alive.
Verse 51
The proud have had me - We have been treated, not only with oppressive cruelty, but also with contempt, because we still professed to trust in thee, the living God, who because of our transgressions hadst been greatly displeased with us; jet we have not declined from thy law.
Verse 52
I remembered thy judgments of old - The word judgments is here taken for providential dealing; and indeed kind treatment; that which God showed to the Hebrews in bearing with and blessing them. And it was the recollection of these judgments that caused him to comfort himself.
Verse 53
Horror hath taken hold upon me - The word זלעפה zilaphah, which we render horror, is thought to signify the pestilential burning wind called by the Arabs simoom. Here it strongly marks the idea that the psalmist had of the destructive nature of sin; it is pestilential; it is corrupting, mortal.
Verse 54
Thy statutes have been my songs - During our captivity all our consolation was derived from singing thy praises, and chanting among our fellow-captives portions of thy law, and the precepts it contains.
Verse 55
I have remembered thy name - Thou art Jehovah; and as our God thou hast made thyself known unto us. In the deepest night of our affliction this has consoled me.
Verse 56
This I had, because I kept thy precepts - Though thou didst leave us under the power of our enemies, yet thou hast not left us without the consolations of thy Spirit.
Verse 57
Thou art my portion, O Lord - From the fifty-seventh to the sixtieth verse may be seen the progress of the work of grace on the human heart, from the first dawn of heavenly light till the soul is filled with the fullness of God. But as I consider this Psalm as notes selected from diaries of past experience, formed at different times; and that the author has been obliged, for the support of his acrostic plan, to interchange circumstances, putting that sometimes behind which in the order of grace comes before; because, to put it in its right place, the letters would not accord with the alphabetical arrangement; I shall therefore follow what I conceive to be its order in the connection of grace, and not in the order in which the words are here laid down.
Verse 59
First. I thought on my ways - חשבתי chashabti, I deeply pondered them; I turned them upside down; I viewed my conduct on all sides. The word, as used here, is a metaphor taken from embroidering, where the figure must appear the same on the one side as it does on the other; therefore, the cloth must be turned on each side every time the needle is set in, to see that the stitch be fairly set. Thus narrowly and scrupulously did the psalmist examine his conduct; and the result was, a deep conviction that he had departed from the way of God and truth.
Secondly. And turned my feet unto thy testimonies - Having made the above discovery, and finding himself under the displeasure of God, he abandoned every evil way, took God's word for his directory, and set out fairly in the way of life and salvation.
Verse 60
Thirdly. I made haste, and delayed not - He did this with the utmost speed; and did not trifle with his convictions, nor seek to drown the voice of conscience.
The original word, which we translate delayed not, is amazingly emphatical. ולא התמהמהתי velo hithmahmahti, I did not stand what-what-whating; or, as we used to express the same sentiment, shilly-shallying with myself: I was determined, and so set out. The Hebrew word, as well as the English, strongly marks indecision of mind, positive action being suspended, because the mind is so unfixed as not to be able to make a choice.