Psalm 119:127

Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

119:121-128 Happy is the man, who, acting upon gospel principles, does justice to all around. Christ our Surety, having paid our debt and ransom, secures all the blessings of salvation to every true believer. The psalmist expects the word of God's righteousness, and no other salvation than what is secured by that word, which cannot fall to the ground. We deserve no favour form God; we are most easy when we cast ourselves upon God's mercy, and refer ourselves to it. If any man resolve to do God's will as his servant, he shall be made to know his testimonies. We must do what we can for the support of religion, and, after all, must beg of God to take the work into his own hands. It is hypocrisy to say we love God's commandments more than our worldly interests. The way of sin is a false way, being directly contrary to God's precepts, which are right: those that love and esteem God's law, hate sin, and will not be reconciled to it.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Therefore I love thy commandments ... - The more people break them Psalm 119:126, the more I see their value; the more precious they are to me. The fact that they make thy law void, and that evil consequences result from their conduct, only impresses my mind the more with a sense of the value of the law, and makes my heart cling to it the more. There is almost nothing that will so impress upon our minds the importance of law as the sight of the effects which follow when it is disregarded.

Above gold ... - See the notes at Psalm 119:72. Compare Psalm 19:10.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

127, 128. Therefore—that is, In view of these benefits, or, Because of the glory of Thy law, so much praised in the previous parts of the Psalm.

I love … [and] Therefore (repeated)—All its precepts, on all subjects, are estimable for their purity, and lead one imbued with their spirit to hate all evil (Ps 19:10). The Word of God admits of no eclecticism; its least title is perfect (Ps 12:6; Mt 5:17-19).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 127. Partly, because it is one evidence of their excellency, that they are disliked by the vilest of men; partly, out of a just indignation and opposition against my sworn enemies; and partly, because the great and general apostacy of others makes this duty more necessary to prevent their own and other men’s relapses.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Therefore I love thy commandments,.... Because he was the Lord's servant, as Aben Ezra; or rather because the wicked made void the law. His love was the more inflamed and increased towards it by the contempt it was had in by others; he preferred it

above gold, yea, above fine gold; or gold of Phez, a place where the best gold was, as was thought: the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions render it "the topaz"; and the Syriac and Arabic versions, "precious stones" or "gems"; see Psalm 119:72.

Geneva Study Bible

Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

127. Therefore] The more men break God’s commandments, the more the Psalmist will love them. Cp. Psalm 19:10. P.B.V. precious stone comes through the Vulg. from the LXX.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 127. - Therefore I love thy commandments. Because the wicked "make void" thy commandments and cast them aside, "therefore" I all the more "love" them. Above gold; yea, above fine gold (comp. ver. 72). Psalm 119:127

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The eightfold Ajin. In the present time of apostasy and persecution he keeps all the more strictly to the direction of the divine word, and commends himself to the protection and teaching of God. In the consciousness of his godly behaviour (elsewhere always צדק וּמשׁפּט, here in one instance משׁפט וצדק) the poet hopes that God will surely not (בּל) leave him to the arbitrary disposal of his oppressors. This hope does not, however, raise him above the necessity and duty of constant prayer that Jahve would place Himself between him and his enemies. ערב seq. acc. signifies to stand in any one's place as furnishing a guarantee, and in general as a mediator, Job 17:3; Isaiah 38:14; לטוב similar to לטובה, Psalm 86:17, Nehemiah 5:19 : in my behalf, for my real advantage. The expression of longing after redemption in Psalm 119:123 sounds like Psalm 119:81. "The word of Thy righteousness" is the promise which proceeds from God's "righteousness," and as surely as He is "righteous" cannot remain unfulfilled. The one chief petition of the poet, however, to which he comes back in Psalm 119:124., has reference to the ever deeper knowledge of the word of God; for this knowledge is in itself at once life and blessedness, and the present calls most urgently for it. For the great multitude (which is the subject to הפרוּ) practically and fundamentally break God's law; it is therefore time to act for Jahve (עשׂה ל as in Genesis 30:30, Isaiah 64:4, Ezekiel 29:20), and just in order to this there is need of well-grounded, reliable knowledge. Therefore the poet attaches himself with all his love to God's commandments; to him they are above gold and fine gold (Psalm 19:11), which he might perhaps gain by a disavowal of them. Therefore he is as strict as he possibly can be with God's word, inasmuch as he acknowledges and observes all precepts of all things (כּל־פּקּוּדי כל), i.e., all divine precepts, let them have reference to whatsoever they will, as ישׁרים, right (ישּׁר, to declare both in avowal and deed to be right); and every false (lying) tendency, all pseudo-Judaism, he hates. It is true Psalm 119:126 may be also explained: it is time that Jahve should act, i.e., interpose judicially; but this thought is foreign to the context, and affords no equally close union for על־כן; moreover it ought then to have been accented עת לעשׂות ליהוה. On כּל־פּקּוּדי כל, "all commands of every purport," cf. Isaiah 29:11, and more as to form, Numbers 8:16; Ezekiel 44:30.

The expression is purposely thus heightened; and the correction כל־פקודיך (Ewald, Olshausen, and Hupfeld) is also superfluous, because the reference of what is said to the God of revelation is self-evident in this connection.