Psalm 119:159

Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, O LORD, according to thy lovingkindness.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

119:153-160 The closer we cleave to the word of God, both as our rule and as our stay, the more assurance we have of deliverance. Christ is the Advocate of his people, their Redeemer. Those who were quickened by his Spirit and grace, when they were dead in trespasses and sins, often need to have the work of grace revived in them, according to the word of promise. The wicked not only do not God's statutes, but they do not even seek them. They flatter themselves that they are going to heaven; but the longer they persist in sin, the further it is from them. God's mercies are tender; they are a fountain that can never be exhausted. The psalmist begs for God's reviving, quickening grace. A man, steady in the way of his duty, though he may have many enemies, needs to fear none. Those that hate sin truly, hate it as sin, as a transgression of the law of God, and a breaking of his word. Our obedience is only pleasing to God, and pleasant to ourselves, when it comes from a principle of love. All, in every age, who receive God's word in faith and love, find every saying in it faithful.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Consider how I love thy precepts - Search me. Behold the evidence of my attachment to thy law. This is the confident appeal of one who was conscious that he was truly attached to God; that he really loved his law. It is similar to the appeal of Peter to the Saviour John 21:17, "Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee." A man who truly loves God may make this appeal without impropriety. He may be so confident - so certain - that he has true love for the character of God, that he may make a solemn appeal to him on the subject - as he might appeal to a friend, to his wife, to his son, to his daughter, with the utmost confidence that he loved them. A man "ought" to have such love for "them," that he could affirm this without hesitation or doubt; a man "ought" to have such love for God, that he could affirm this with equal confidence and propriety.

Quicken me ... - See the notes at Psalm 119:25.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

159. (Compare Ps 119:121-126, 153-155).

quicken me, O Lord, according to thy lovingkindness—(Ps 119:88). This prayer occurs here for the ninth time, showing a deep sense of frailty.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 159. I love thy precepts; which was the cause of my grief for their violation of them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Consider how I love thy precepts,.... How ardently and affectionately, how cordially and sincerely, Psalm 119:127; and that was the reason why he was so grieved and distressed when wicked men transgressed and despised them;

quicken me, O Lord, according to thy loving kindness; See Gill on Psalm 119:88.

Geneva Study Bible

Consider how I {d} love thy precepts: quicken me, O LORD, according to thy lovingkindness.

(d) It is a sure sign of our adoption, when we love the Law of God.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

159. Consider how &c.] Lit. see that &c.; or possibly (cp. Psalm 119:153), look upon me, for I love thy precepts.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 159. - Consider how I love thy precepts (comp. vers. 97, 113, 119, 127, 163). Quicken me, O Lord, according to thy loving-kindness. Slightly varied from ver. 149. Psalm 119:159

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The eightfold Resh. Because God cannot suffer those who are faithful to His word to succumb, he supplicates His help against his persecutors. ריבה is Milra before the initial (half-guttural) Resh, as in Psalm 43:1; Psalm 74:22. The Lamed of לאמרתך is the Lamed of reference (with respect to Thine utterance), whether the reference be normative ( equals כאמרתך, Psalm 119:58), as in Isaiah 11:3, or causal, Isaiah 25:2, Isaiah 55:5; Job 42:5. The predicate רחוק, like ישׂר in Psalm 119:137, stands first in the primary, as yet indefinite form. Concerning Psalm 119:156 vid., on Psalm 119:149. At the sight of the faithless he felt a profound disgust; ואתקוטטה, pausal aorist, supply בּהם, Psalm 139:21. It is all the same in the end whether we render אשׁר quippe qui or siquidem. ראשׁ in Psalm 119:160 signifies the head-number of sum. If he reckons up the word of God in its separate parts and as a whole, truth is the denominator of the whole, truth is the sum-total. This supplicatory חיּני is repeated three times in this group. The nearer it draws towards its end the more importunate does the Psalm become.