NOTES RELATING TO THE PSALM AS A WHOLE. Eulogium upon the whole Psalm.-This psalm shines and shows itself among the rest, Velut inter ignes a star in the firmament of the psalms, of the first and greatest magnitude. This will readily appear if you consider either the manner it is composed in, or the matter it is composed of. The manner it is composed in is very elegant. The matter it is composed of is very excellent. 1. The manner it is composed in is very elegant; full of art, rule, method: theological matter in a logical manner, a spiritual alphabet framed and formed according to the Hebrew alphabet. 2. The matter it is composed of is very excellent; full of rare sublimities, deep mysteries, gracious activities, yea, glorious ecstacies. The psalm is made up of three things,-1. prayers, 2. praises, 3. protestations. Prayers to God; praises of God; protestations unto God.-Rev. W. Simmons, in a sermon in the " Morning Exercises," 1661. Eulogium. This psalm is called the Alphabet of Divine Love, the Paradise of all the Doctrines, the Storehouse of the Holy Spirit, the School of Truth, also the deep mystery of the Scriptures, where the whole moral discipline of all the virtues shines brightly. And as all moral instruction is delightsome, therefore this psalm, because excelling in this kind of instruction, should be called delightsome, inasmuch as it surpasses the rest. The other psalms, truly, as lesser stars shine somewhat; but this burns with the meridian heat of its full brightness, and is wholly, resplendent with moral loveliness.-Johannes Paulus Palanterius, 1600. Eulogium. In our German version it has the appropriate inscription, "The Christian's golden A B C of the praise, love, power, and use of the Word of God."-Franz Delitzsch, 1871. Eulogium. 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 exceeded the powers of my intent thought and the utmost grasp of my faculties." While one ancient father entitles this psalm "the perfection of teaching and instruction"; another says that "it applies an all-containing medicine to the varied spiritual discases of men-sufficing to perfect those who long for perfect virtue, to rouse the slothful, to refresh the dispirited, and to set in order the relaxed"; to which might be added many like testimonies of ancient and modern commentators on it.— William De Burgh, 1860. Eulogium.-In proportion as this psalm seemeth more open, so much the more deep doth it appear to me; so that I cannot show how deep it is. For in others, which are understood with difficulty, although the sense lies hid in obscurity, yet the obscurity itself appeareth; but in this, not even this is the case; since it is superficially such, that it seemeth not to need an expositor, but only a reader and listener.-Augustine, 354-430. Eulogium.-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." Eulogium. It is strange that of all the pieces of the Bible which my mother taught me, that which cost me most to learn, and which was to my child's mind most repulsive-the 119th Psalm has now become of all the most precious to me in its overflowing and glorious passion of love for the law of God.-John Ruskin, in "Fors Clavigera." Eulogium.-This psalm is a prolonged meditation upon the excellence of the word of God, upon its effects, and the strength and happiness which it gives to a man in every position. These reflections are interspersed with petitions, in which the psalmist, deeply feeling his natural infirmity, implores the help of God for assistance to walk in the way mapped out for him in the divine oracles. 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 a touch-stone for the spiritual life of those who read it. The sentiments expressed in it perfectly harmonise with what the historical books and other psalms teach concerning David's obedience and his zeal for God's glory. There are, however, within it words which breathe so elevated a piety, that they can have their full sense and perfect truthfulness only in the mouth of Him of whom the prophet-king was the type.-From the French of Armand de Mestral, 1856. Eulogium.-The 119th psalm has been spoken of by a most distinguished living rationalistic critic (Professor Reuss) as "not poetry at all, but simply a litany a species of chaplet." Such does not seem to be the opinion c the angels of God, and of the redeemed spirits, when that very poem supplies with the language of praise-the paan of victory, "Just and true are thy ways" (Rev. xv. 3); the cry of the angel of the waters, "Thou art righteous, O Lord!" (Rev. xvi. 5); the voice of much people in heaven, "True and righteous are his judgments" (Rev. xix. 2); what is this but the exclamation of him, whoever he may have been, who wrote the psalm-Righteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgments" (Psalm cxix. 137).—William Alexander, in "The Quiver," 1880. Incident. In the midst of a London season; in the stir and turmoil of a political crisis, 1819; William Wilberforce writes in his Diary-" Walked from Hyde Park Corner repeating the 119th Psalm in great comfort."William Alexander, in "The Witness of the Psalms." 1877. "the great Incident.-George Wishart, the chaplain and biographer of Marquis of Montrose," as he was called, would have shared the fate of his illustrious patron but for the following singular expedient. When upon the scaffold, he availed himself of the custom of the times, which permitted the condemned to choose a psalm to be sung. He selected the 119th Psalm, and before two-thirds of the psalm had been sung, a pardon arrived, and his life was preserved. It may not be out of place to add that the George Wishart, Bishop of Edinburgh, above referred to, has been too often confounded with the godly martyr of the same name who lived and died a century previously. We only mention the incident because it has often been quoted as a singular instance of the providential escape of a saintly personage; whereas it was the very ingenious device of a person who, according to Woodrow, was more renowned for shrewdness than for sanctity. The length of this psalm was sagaciously employed as the means of gaining time, and, happily, the expedient succeeded.-C. H. S. Alphabetical Arrangement. It is observed that the 119th Psalm is disposed according to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, perhaps to intimate that children, when they begin to learn their alphabet, should learn that Psalm.-Nathanael Hardy, 1618-1670. Alphabetical Arrangement.—True it is that the verses indeed begin not either with the English or yet the Latin letters, but with the Hebrew, wherein David made and wrote this psalm. The will and purpose of the Holy Ghost is to make us to feel and understand that the doctrine herein contained is not only set down for great clerks which have gone to school for ten or twenty years; but also for the most simple; to the end none hould pretend any excuse of ignorance.-From Calvin's Two-and-Twenty Sermons upon the cxixth Psalm, 1580. 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 expressmay have had a reference to the peculiarity of this psalm, -a psalm in which (with the exception of ver. 84 and 122, exceptions that make the rule more marked) every verse speaks of God's revelation of himself to man.— Andrew A. Bonar, 1859. Alphabetical Arrangement.-Origen says it is alphabetical because it contains the elements or principles of all knowledge and wisdom; and that it repeats each letter eight times, because eight is the number of perfection. Alphabetical Arrangement.-That the unlearned reader may understand what is meant by the psalm being alphabetical, we append the following specimen upon the section Aleph : A blessing is on them that are undefiled in the way A blessing is on them that keep his testimonies, Also on them that do no wickedness, but walk in his ways. A law hast thou given unto us, that we should diligently keep thy commandments. Ah! Lord, that my ways were made so direct that I might keep thy statutes! And then shall I not be confounded, while I have respect unto all thy commandments. As for me, I will thank thee with an unfeigned heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments. An eye will I have unto thy ceremonies, O forsake me not utterly. - From "The Psalms Chronologically Arranged. By Four Friends." 1867. Author and Subject.—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. Author and Subject.—This very singular poem has descended to us without name or title; and with some difficulty in fixing its date. It is by many critics supposed to have been written by King David; and there is in it so much of the peculiar language and strain of feeling that distinguish his compositions, with so perpetually shifting a complication of every condition of life through the whole scale of adversity and prosperity, that seems to distinguish his own history from that of every other individual, as to afford much reason for adopting this opinion, and for inducing us to regard it as a series of poems composed originally by David, at different times under different circumstances, or collected by him, and arranged in their present form, from floating passages of antecedent bards, that were in danger of being lost or forgotten. If this view of the subject approaches to correctness, it may constitute one of the poems which Josephus tells us David gave to the public on the re-establishment of tranquillity after the discomfiture of the traitor Sheba, and the return of the ten refractory tribes to a state of loyalty. This poem, or rather collection of poems, is designed for private devotion, alone; and we have, here, no distinct reference to any historical or national event, to any public festival, or any place of congregational worship; though a few general hints are occasionally scattered upon one or two of these points. We have nothing of David or Solomon, of Moses or Aaron, of Egypt or the journey through the wilderness; nothing of Jerusalem, or Mount Zion, or Ephrata; of the temple, or the altar, of the priests or the people. 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 on the holy cycle of his attributes, and the consolations of his revealed will under every trial to which man can be exposed. The form of this psalm is singular; and, though alphabetical, it is without an exact parallel in any of the others. It is, in truth, a set or collection of canticles, or smaller poems, each forming a literal octrain or range of eight couplets; the first octrain taking the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet for the opening letter of every line; the second, the second letter, and in the same manner proceeding through the whole extent of the twenty-two letters that constitute the alphabet of the Hebrew tongue; and consequently extending the entire poem to twenty-two octrains or discourses of eight lines each. Poetical collections of this kind are still common in the East, and especially among the Persian poets, who distinguish their separate poems, or canticles, by the name of gazels, and the entire set or fasciculus by that of diwan. By the Arabian poet Temoa they are happily denominated strings of pearls: an idea which the Persian poets have caught hold of, and playfully illustrated in various ways. From this peculiarity of construction the couplets of Psalm cxix. may, in the Hebrew tongue, be committed to memory with far more case than in any modern language: for, as each versicle under every octrain commences with the same letter, and the progressive octrains follow up the order of the alphabet, the letter becomes a powerful help to the memory of the learner, and enables him to go through the whole without hesitation.John Mason Good, 1764-1827. Author and Subject. It is at least possible that the plaited work of so long a psalm, which, in connection with all that is artificial about it from beginning to end gives us a glimpse of the subdued, afflicted mien of a confessor, is the work of one in prison, who whiled away his time with this plaiting together of his complaints and his consolatory thoughts.-Franz Delitzsch, 1871. Subject. The 119th Psalm is the appropriate sermon, after the Hallel, on the text which is its epitome (Ps. i. 1, 2), "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly but his delight is in the law of the Lord." Except in two verses (122, 132), the law is expressly extolled in every verse.-Andrew Robert Fausset, in "Studies in the CL. Psalms," 1876. Subject.-Every verse contains in it either a praise of God's word, from some excellent quality of it; or a protestation of David his unfeigned affection towards it; or else a prayer for grace, to conform himself unto it; for unto one of these three,-praises, prayers, or protestations, may all the verses of this psalm be reduced.- William Couper. Subject.-I know of no part of the Holy Scriptures where the nature and evidences of true and sincere godliness are so fully and largely insisted on and delineated as in the 119th Psalm. The Psalmist declares his design in the first verses of the psalm, keeps his eye on it all along, and pursues it to the end. The excellency of holiness is represented as the immediate object of a spiritual taste and delight. God's law-that grand expression and emanation of the holiness of God's nature, and prescription of holiness to the creature is all along represented as the great object of the love, the complacence, and the rejoicing of the gracious nature, which prizes God's commandments "above gold, yea, the finest gold ;" and to which they are "sweeter than honey and the honey-comb.”—Jonathan Edwards, 1703–1758. Subject and Connection of its parts.-This psalm, no less excellent in virtue than large in bulk, containeth manifold reflections on the nature, the properties, the adjuncts, and effects of God's law; many sprightly ejaculations about it, conceived in different forms of speech; some in way of petition, some of thanksgiving, some of resolution, some of assertion or aphorism; many useful directions, many zealous exhortations to the observance of it; the which are not ranged in any strict order, but, like a variety of wholesome herbs in a fair field, do with a grateful confusion lie dispersed, as they freely did spring in the heart, or were suggested by the devout spirit of him who indited this psalm, where no coherence of sentences being designed, we may consider any one of them absolutely, or by itself. -Isaac Barrow, 1630-1677. Subject and Connection.-Upon considering the matter of this psalm, it will be found that the stanzas beginning with the same letter have very little, and sometimes not the least connection with each other; and the praises of Jehovah, the excellencies of his law, and supplications, are mingled together without order or coherence. Hence I have been led to think, that the psalm was never intended for an ode to be performed at one time, tout de suite, but was a collection of stanzas of prayer and praise arranged in alphabetical order, from which the pious worshipper might select such as suited his situation and circumstances, using, as he saw fit, either one line or two lines of each stanza, and uniting them together so as to make a connected and coherent composition proper for the occasion and the circumstances in which he was.-Stephen Street, 1790. Subject and Connection.-In view of the alphabetic or acrostic arrangement of this psalm, Dr. Adam Clarke ventures the following remark :-" All connection, as might naturally be expected, is sacrificed to this artificial and methodical arrangement." This is hardly probable, as Dr. Clarke himself felt when he endeavoured in his Analysis "to shew the connection which the eight verses of each part have among themselves." Each group of eight verses seems to have a theme or subject common to itself, and while the peculiar structure of the psalm has obscured this arrangement, so that it is sometimes difficult to trace, it must not be said that the connection is destroyed.-F. G. Marchant, of Hitchin, 1879. Subject and Connection.-In stanza Aleph the blessedness of walking in the way of God's word is declared; in Beth, that word is pronounced to be the only safeguard of the young against sin; in Gimel, is a pious resolve to cleave to the word, in spite of the sneers of the world. Daleth expresses a longing for the consolation of God's word to fortify good resolutions; He declares an earnest desire for grace to obey the word; Vau expresses firm trust and intense delight in God's word, and an earnest desire to see its full accomplishment; Zain describes the blessed comfort derived from God's |