Psalm 119:117

Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe: and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

119:113-120 Here is a dread of the risings of sin, and the first beginnings of it. The more we love the law of God, the more watchful we shall be, lest vain thoughts draw us from what we love. Would we make progress in keeping God's commands, we must be separate from evil-doers. The believer could not live without the grace of God; but, supported by his hand, his spiritual life shall be maintained. Our holy security is grounded on Divine supports. All departure from God's statutes is error, and will prove fatal. Their cunning is falsehood. There is a day coming which will put the wicked into everlasting fire, the fit place for the dross. See what comes of sin Surely we who fall so low in devout affections, should fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into heavenly rest, any of us should be found to come short of it, Heb 4:1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Hold thou me up - Keep me from falling in the trials and temptations of life. The Hebrew word means to prop, uphold, support. The Septuagint is, "Aid me."

And I shall be safe - And I shall be saved; or, that I may be saved. It is an acknowledgment of entire dependence on God for salvation - temporal and eternal.

And I will have respect ... - I will look to thy statutes; I will have them always in my eye. Compare the notes at Psalm 119:6.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

115-117. Hence he fears not wicked men, nor dreads disappointment, sustained by God in making His law the rule of life.

Depart from me—Ye can do nothing with me; for, &c. (Ps 6:8).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 117. And being freed from those distractions and diversions which my pressing dangers occasion, I will wholly devote myself to the study and practice of thy blessed word.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe,.... As all are, and none but such, who are in the hands of Christ; enclosed in the arms of everlasting love, upheld with the right hand of Jehovah, supported by his promises and grace, surrounded by his power, sustained by his love, and preserved in Christ Jesus;

and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually; for nothing can more strongly engage a constant regard unto them than a sense of divine love, and a view of safety and security in the arms of it; or better enable to keep them than fresh communications of grace and strength: being upheld, saints hold on and out to the end; they go from strength to strength, run and are not weary, walk and faint not; and, having a supply of the Spirit, walk on in the judgments of the Lord, and keep his statutes, and do them. Or, "and I will rejoice" (l) in them, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi; or, "employ myself" in them, as Jarchi.

(l) "solatiabor", Montanus; "delectabor", Pagninus, Musculus; so Ainsworth; "voluptatem capiam", Tigurine version.

Geneva Study Bible

{c} Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe: and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually.

(c) He desires God's continual assistance, lest he should faint in this race, which he had begun.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

117. Cp. Psalm 18:35; Psalm 20:2; Psalm 41:3; Psalm 94:18.

and I will have respect unto] R.V. and shall have respect unto. The Ancient Versions appear to have read will take delight in, as in Psalm 119:16; Psalm 119:47.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 117. - Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe; i.e. from falling away. And I will have respect unto thy commandments continually (comp. ver. 112). Psalm 119:117

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The eightfold Samech. His hope rests on God's word, without allowing itself to be led astray by doubters and apostates. סעפים (the form of nouns which indicate defects or failings) are those inwardly divided, halting between two opinions (סעפּים), 1 Kings 18:21, who do homage partly to the worship of Jahve, partly to heathenism, and therefore are trying to combine faith and naturalism. In contrast to such, the poet's love, faith, and hope are devoted entirely to the God of revelation; and to all those who are desirous of drawing him away he addresses in Psalm 119:115 (cf. Psalm 6:9) an indignant "depart." He, however, stands in need of grace in order to persevere and to conquer. For this he prays in Psalm 119:116-117. The מן in משּׁברי is the same as in בּושׁ מן. The ah of ואשׁעה is the intentional ah (Ew. 228, c), as in Isaiah 41:23. The statement of the ground of the סלית, vilipendis, does not mean: unsuccessful is their deceit (Hengstenberg, Olshausen), but falsehood without the consistency of truth is their self-deceptive and seductive tendency. The lxx and Syriac read תּרעיתם, "their sentiment;" but this is an Aramaic word that is unintelligible in Hebrew, which the old translators have conjured into the text only on account of an apparent tautology. The reading השּׁבתּ or חשׁבתּ (Aquila, Symmachus, and Jerome; lxx ἐλογισάμην, therefore חשׁבתי) instead of חשׁבתּ might more readily be justified in Psalm 119:119; but the former gives too narrow a meaning, and the reading rests on a mistaking of the construction of השׁבית with an accusative of the object and of the effect: all the wicked, as many of them as are on the earth, dost Thou put away as dross (סגים( ssor). Accordingly משׁפטיך in Psalm 119:120 are God's punitive judgments, or rather (cf. Psalm 119:91) God's laws (judgments) according to which He judges. What is meant are sentences of punishment, as in Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28. Of these the poet is afraid, for omnipotence can change words into deeds forthwith. In fear of the God who has attested Himself in Exodus 34:7 and elsewhere, his skin shudders and his hair stands on end.