Psalm 119:56

This I had, because I kept thy precepts.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(56) This I had, because . . .—Literally, This was to me, &c, i.e., this consoling recollection of the mercies of God, of His covenant grace, was to him, happened, or came to him, in consequence of his habitual obedience. Virtue is indeed then most its own reward, in times of quiet reflection, like the night, when to the guilty come remorse and apprehension, but to the good man “calm thoughts regular as infant’s breath.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

119:49-56 Those that make God's promises their portion, may with humble boldness make them their plea. He that by his Spirit works faith in us, will work for us. The word of God speaks comfort in affliction. If, through grace, it makes us holy, there is enough in it to make us easy, in all conditions. Let us be certain we have the Divine law for what we believe, and then let not scoffers prevail upon us to decline from it. God's judgments of old comfort and encourage us, for he is still the same. Sin is horrible in the eyes of all that are sanctified. Ere long the believer will be absent from the body, and present with the Lord. In the mean time, the statutes of the Lord supply subjects for grateful praise. In the season of affliction, and in the silent hours of the night, he remembers the name of the Lord, and is stirred up to keep the law. All who have made religion the first thing, will own that they have been unspeakable gainers by it.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

This I had, because I kept thy precepts - literally, "This was to me;" that is, This has happened to me; this has occurred. This joyful remembrance of thy law in the night of affliction Psalm 119:50; this stability and firmness on my part in keeping thy law when proud men have derided me Psalm 119:51; this comfort which I have derived from meditating on thy statutes Psalm 119:52; this solicitude for the welfare of others Psalm 119:53; this peace which I have enjoyed in thy law in the house of my pilgrimage Psalm 119:54; and this consolation which I have had in thee in the night-season Psalm 119:55; - all this has been granted to me because I have kept thy statutes; because I have sought to be obedient - to serve time - to find my happiness in thee. These are the proper fruits and effects of keeping the law of God. Such peace does it impart; so much does it do to sustain and comfort the soul.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

56. Rather, "This is peculiarly mine (literally, to me), that I keep Thy precepts" [Hengstenberg and Maurer].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

This I had, this comfortable and profitable remembrance and contemplation of thy name and statutes, of which he spoke Psalm 119:54,55, because I kept thy precepts; which if I had wilfully and wickedly broken, the remembrance of these things would have been sad and frightful to me, as now it is comfortable, because I kept them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

This I had, because I kept thy precepts. Either the comfort he had from the word, the pleasure and delight he had in it, being his songs in his pilgrimage, Psalm 119:50; see Psalm 119:165; or this knowledge of the name of God, and the remembrance of it, and his carefulness and diligence in it in the night season, were of the Lord, and gifts of his: or rather this he had from the Lord, that he kept the precepts and commands of God in the manner that he did; it was all owing to grace and strength received from him; for so the words may be rendered, "this was given unto me, that I have kept thy precepts" (k).

(k) "quod", Pagninus, Montanus.

Geneva Study Bible

{g} This I had, because I kept thy precepts.

(g) That is, all these benefits.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

56. Either, This I have had, all this comfort and steadfastness and joy in the midst of the trials and sorrows of life have been mine, because I have kept thy precepts: or, This I have had, that I have kept thy precepts;—whatever advantages others may have had which I have not enjoyed, this supreme privilege has been mine, the keeping of Thy precepts. If this is the meaning, it strikes the keynote of the next stanza.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 56. - This I had, because I kept thy precepts; rather, this I have, that I keep thy precepts; i.e. this one thing I have, and it is my best and dearest possession, that I keep thy commandments. Psalm 119:56

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The eightfold Zajin. God's word is his hope and his trust amidst all derision; and when he burns with indignation at the apostates, God's word is his solace. Since in Psalm 119:49 the expression is not דּברך but דּבר, it is not to be interpreted according to Psalm 98:3; Psalm 106:45, but: remember the word addressed to Thy servant, because Thou hast made me hope (Piel causat. as e.g., נשּׁה, to cause to forget, Genesis 41:51), i.e., hast comforted me by promising me a blessed issue, and hast directed my expectation thereunto. This is his comfort in his dejected condition, that God's promissory declaration has quickened him and proved its reviving power in his case. In הליצוּני (הליצוּני), ludificantur, it is implied that the זדים eht taht d are just לצים, frivolous persons, libertines, free-thinkers (Proverbs 21:24). משׁפּטיך, Psalm 119:52, are the valid, verified decisions (judgments) of God revealed from the veriest olden times. In the remembrance of these, which determine the lot of a man according to the relation he holds towards them, the poet found comfort. It can be rendered: then I comforted myself; or according to a later usage of the Hithpa.: I was comforted. Concerning זלעפה, aestus, vid., Psalm 11:6, and on the subject-matter, Psalm 119:21, Psalm 119:104. The poet calls his earthly life "the house of his pilgrimage;" for it is true the earth is man's (Psalm 115:16), but he has no abiding resting-place there (1 Chronicles 29:15), his בּית עולם (Ecclesiastes 12:5) is elsewhere (vid., supra, Psalm 119:19, Psalm 39:13). God's statutes are here his "songs," which give him spiritual refreshing, sweeten the hardships of the pilgrimage, and measure and hasten his steps. The Name of God has been in his mind hitherto, not merely by day, but also by night; and in consequence of this he has kept God's law (ואשׁמרה, as five times besides in this Psalm, cf. Psalm 3:6, and to be distinguished from ואשׁמרה, Psalm 119:44). Just this, that he keeps (observat) God's precepts, has fallen to his lot. To others something else is allotted (Psalm 4:8), to him this one most needful thing.