Psa 119:92, 94 | TDavid | STEP | EXPOSITION Verse 92 . Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction. That word which has preserved the heavens and the earth also preserves the people of God in their time of trial. With that word we are charmed; it is a mine of delight to us. We take a double and treble delight in it, and derive a multiplied delight from it, and this stands us in good stead when all other delights are taken from us. We should have felt ready to lie down and die of our griefs if the spiritual comforts of God's word had not uplifted us; but by their sustaining influence we have been borne above all the depressions and despairs which naturally grow out of severe affliction. Some of us can set our seal to this statement. Our affliction, if it had not been for divine grace, would have crushed us out of existence, so that we should have perished. In our darkest seasons nothing has kept us from desperation but the promise of the Lord: yea, at times nothing has stood between us and self destruction save faith in the eternal word of God. When worn with pain until the brain has become dazed and the reason well nigh extinguished, a sweet text has whispered to us its heart cheering assurance, and our poor struggling mind has reposed upon the bosom of God. That which was our delight in prosperity has been our light in adversity; that which in the day kept us from presuming has in the night kept us from perishing. This verse contains a mournful supposition "unless"; describes a horrible condition -- "perished in mine affliction"; and implies a glorious deliverance, for he did not die, but live to proclaim the honours of the word of God. EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS Verse 92 . -- Unless thy law had been my delights , etc. This text sets out the great benefit and comfort which David found in the law of God in the time of his affliction. It kept him from perishing: "Had not thy law been my delights, I had perished in ray affliction"...David speaks this (saith Musculus) of the distressful condition he was in when persecuted by Saul, forced to fly to the Philistines, and sometimes to hide himself in the rocks and caves of the earth. It is very likely (saith he) that he had the book of God's law with him, by the reading of which he mitigated and allayed his sorrows, and kept himself pure from communicating with the heathen in their superstitions. The Greek scholiasts say that David uttered these words when driven from Saul, and compelled to live among the Philistines, etc. For he would have been allured to have communicated with them in their impieties had he not carried about him the meditation of the word of God. The word of God delighted in is the afflicted saint's antidote against ruin and destruction. The word of God is the sick saint's salve, the dying saint's cordial, a precious medicine to keep God's people from perishing in time of affliction. This upheld Jacob from sinking, when his brother Esau came furiously marching to destroy him ( ). He pleaded, "And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good," etc. Thus the promise of God supported him. This also upheld Joshua and enabled him courageously to fight the Lord's battles, because God had said, "He would never leave him nor forsake him" ( ). Melanethon saith that the Landgrave of Hesse told him at Dresden that it had been impossible for him to have borne up under the manifold miseries of so long an imprisonment, Nisi habuisset consolationem verbo divino in suo corde, but for the comfort of the Scriptures in his heart. --Edmund Catamy (1600-1666) in "The Godly Man's Ark." Verse 92 . -- Certainly the reading of most part of the Scriptures must needs be a very comfortable thing; and I think a godly heart (disposed as it ought to be) can hardly tell how to be sad while it does it . For what a comfort is it for a man to read an earthly father's letters sent to him, though they were written long ago? With what care do we keep such letters in our chests? With how much delight do we ever and anon take them out and look upon them? and with how much sorrow do we lose them? Is my love to my earthly father so great, and shall my love to my heavenly Father be less? Can my heart choose but rejoice and my bones flourish like an herb, as oft as I look upon my Redeemer's last will and testament, whereby I know that he me so much and that he doth so for me continually, and that I shall be ever with him. How is David ever and anon talking of his delight in the law of God, and in his statutes and testimonies. It was to him instead of all other delights; standing by him when all delights else left him; "Unless thy law had been my delight (or, my very great delight), I should then have perished in mine affliction," . Let princes sit and speak against him never so much; yet will he meditate in God's statutes, . Let him have never so many persecutors and enemies; yet will he not decline from God's testimonies, . Let him be in a strange place, there shall God's statutes be his song, . Let him be a stranger in the earth all his life; so that he be not a stranger to God's commandments he cares not, . Although he should have never so much contempt cast upon him, yet will he not forget God's precepts, . Although his soul should be continually in his hand, yet that should not make him forget God's law. Yea, although he became like a bottle in the smoke, yet will he not forget God's precepts, . And therefore was it that he rejoiced, because he had been afflicted upon this account, that it made him learn God's statutes. He cared for no other wealth. "Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart," Ps 119:111. Neither cared he much for life, but only to keep God's word, . Whatever he had said before, or meant to say next, he still cries, "Teach me thy statutes," and, "I have longed for thy precepts," &c.; or some such expression or other. He could not forbear to speak of them, for they were still before him, . No wonder, then, that he meditated upon them so often, as he saith he did. "O how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day," . And "Thy testimonies are my meditation," . God's commandments were to David sweeter in his mouth than honey, to talk and discourse of them, . --Zachary Bogan, 1653. Verse 92 . -- The persons to whose delight the word of God actually conduces are the children of God , and none else. None but they are prepared to take in the consolation of the word. As they only are spiritually enlightened to discern the great and comfortable things contained in it, enlightened in a manner in which no others are: "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" ( ). As they have the highest value for the word of God, this prepares them for receiving consolation from it. As they have their hearts and ways suited to the word of God, this is another reason of the delight they fetch from it. "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh," and take pleasure in them; "but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit" ( ). The comforts of the word are spiritual; and only the spiritual heart, as it is renewed by grace, can taste and relish them. The delight which the people of God have from the word, is a privilege peculiar to themselves: and this word hath enough to give delight to all of their numbers --Daniel Wilcox, 1676-1733. Verse 92 . -- My delights . The word signifieth delights in the plural number. Many were the sorrows of David's life; but against them all he found as many comforts and delectations in God's word. With such variety of holy wisdom hath God penned his word, that it hath convenient comfort for every state of life, and therefore the children of God account nothing so dear as it; they prefer it to their appointed food. --William Cowper. Verse 92 . -- Thy law ...my delights...in mine affliction. I happened to be standing in a grocer's shop one day in a large manufacturing town in the west of Scotland, when a poor, old, frail widow came in to make a few purchases. There never was, perhaps, in that town a more severe time of distress. Nearly every loom was stopped. Decent and respectable tradesmen, who had seen better days, were obliged to subsist on public charity. So much money per day (but a trifle at most) was allowed to the really poor and deserving. The poor widow had received her daily pittance, and she had now come into the shop of the grocer to lay it out to the best advantage. She had but a few coppers in her withered hands. Carefully did she expend her little stock -- a pennyworth of this and the other necessary of life nearly exhausted all she had. She came to the last penny, and with a singular expression of heroic contentment and cheerful resignation on her wrinkled face, she said, "Now I must buy oil with this, that I may see to read my Bible during these long dark nights, for it is my only comfort now when every other comfort has gone away." -- Alexander Wallace, in "The Bible and the Working Classes," 1853. Verse 92 . -- This verse I may call a Perfume against the Plague; The Sick Man's Salve; The Afflicted Man's Consolation; and a blessed Triumph , in and over all troubles. -- Richard Greenham. HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS Verse 92 . -- The sustaining power of joy in God. Verse 92 . -- The word of God as a sustaining power amid the greater sorrows of life. Its necessity. (a) For want of it, men have become drunkards to drown their sorrows, have become suicides because life was unbearable, have become broken and hopeless because they had no strength to struggle against misfortune, have become atheists in creed as, alas, they were before in practice; all, in fact, become subject to sorrow's worst bitterness and calamity's worst effects. (b) Nothing can supply the place of God's word. Nature throws no light on the mystery of suffering. Human philosophy is at best cold comfort, and when most needed most fails. Its efficiency. Proved -- (a) In the experience of those who have tried it. (b) By the character of its promises. (c) By the discovery it makes of a beneficent providence working through calamity and sorrow. (d) By the revelation it gives of the pity of God and the sympathy of Christ. (e) By its record of the "Man of sorrows," who through suffering wrought out man's salvation, and entered into glory. (f) By its teaching concerning the Incarnate Word; thus showing a suffering God, which may well be a solace to suffering men. (g) By displaying the glory of heaven and the eternal felicity awaiting those who overcome through the blood of the Lamb. --J.F. Verse 92 . -- The Godly Man's Ark; or, City of Refuge in the day of his Distress. Discovered in divers (five) Sermons...By Edmund Calamy, B.D...Eighteenth edition. 1709. 12mo. Verse 92 . -- We have here set before us by the Psalmist, The case which he had been in, and which he now refers to -- one sad and sinking. He was under such affliction that he was ready to perish; which seems to include inward and outward trouble at once; trials without and pressure within. What it was that gave him relief, and this when nothing else could, etc., the law of God. How he looked back upon this relief received, namely, with thankfulness to God, to whom he speaks, and records it for the encouragement and direction of others: "Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction." -- Daniel Wilcox, 1676-1733. Verse 92 . -- The life buoy. Under the form of the narrative of a shipwrecked mariner, describe the experience of the soul struggling in the sea of affliction; almost overwhelmed: yet buoyed up over each successive billow: and finally saved by clinging to the Word of God. --C.A.D. Verse 92 . -- The Psalmist's shudder at recollected danger. Sore peril: affliction tending to despair and ruin. Fearful crisis: "then." Many handed help: "thy law my delights." --W.B.H.

Psalms 119:92

EXPOSITION

Verse 92. Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction. That word which has preserved the heavens and the earth also preserves the people of God in their time of trial. With that word we are charmed; it is a mine of delight to us. We take a double and treble delight in it, and derive a multiplied delight from it, and this stands us in good stead when all other delights are taken from us. We should have felt ready to lie down and die of our griefs if the spiritual comforts of God's word had not uplifted us; but by their sustaining influence we have been borne above all the depressions and despairs which naturally grow out of severe affliction. Some of us can set our seal to this statement. Our affliction, if it had not been for divine grace, would have crushed us out of existence, so that we should have perished. In our darkest seasons nothing has kept us from desperation but the promise of the Lord: yea, at times nothing has stood between us and self destruction save faith in the eternal word of God. When worn with pain until the brain has become dazed and the reason well nigh extinguished, a sweet text has whispered to us its heart cheering assurance, and our poor struggling mind has reposed upon the bosom of God. That which was our delight in prosperity has been our light in adversity; that which in the day kept us from presuming has in the night kept us from perishing. This verse contains a mournful supposition "unless"; describes a horrible condition -- "perished in mine affliction"; and implies a glorious deliverance, for he did not die, but live to proclaim the honours of the word of God.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 92. -- Unless thy law had been my delights, etc. This text sets out the great benefit and comfort which David found in the law of God in the time of his affliction. It kept him from perishing: "Had not thy law been my delights, I had perished in ray affliction"...David speaks this (saith Musculus) of the distressful condition he was in when persecuted by Saul, forced to fly to the Philistines, and sometimes to hide himself in the rocks and caves of the earth. It is very likely (saith he) that he had the book of God's law with him, by the reading of which he mitigated and allayed his sorrows, and kept himself pure from communicating with the heathen in their superstitions. The Greek scholiasts say that David uttered these words when driven from Saul, and compelled to live among the Philistines, etc. For he would have been allured to have communicated with them in their impieties had he not carried about him the meditation of the word of God.

The word of God delighted in is the afflicted saint's antidote against ruin and destruction. The word of God is the sick saint's salve, the dying saint's cordial, a precious medicine to keep God's people from perishing in time of affliction. This upheld Jacob from sinking, when his brother Esau came furiously marching to destroy him (Genesis 32:12). He pleaded, "And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good," etc. Thus the promise of God supported him. This also upheld Joshua and enabled him courageously to fight the Lord's battles, because God had said, "He would never leave him nor forsake him" (Joshua 1:5). Melanethon saith that the Landgrave of Hesse told him at Dresden that it had been impossible for him to have borne up under the manifold miseries of so long an imprisonment, Nisi habuisset consolationem verbo divino in suo corde, but for the comfort of the Scriptures in his heart. --Edmund Catamy (1600-1666) in "The Godly Man's Ark."

Verse 92. -- Certainly the reading of most part of the Scriptures must needs be a very comfortable thing; and I think a godly heart (disposed as it ought to be) can hardly tell how to be sad while it does it. For what a comfort is it for a man to read an earthly father's letters sent to him, though they were written long ago? With what care do we keep such letters in our chests? With how much delight do we ever and anon take them out and look upon them? and with how much sorrow do we lose them? Is my love to my earthly father so great, and shall my love to my heavenly Father be less? Can my heart choose but rejoice and my bones flourish like an herb, as oft as I look upon my Redeemer's last will and testament, whereby I know that he me so much and that he doth so for me continually, and that I shall be ever with him.

How is David ever and anon talking of his delight in the law of God, and in his statutes and testimonies. It was to him instead of all other delights; standing by him when all delights else left him; "Unless thy law had been my delight (or, my very great delight), I should then have perished in mine affliction," Psalms 119:92. Let princes sit and speak against him never so much; yet will he meditate in God's statutes, Psalms 119:23. Let him have never so many persecutors and enemies; yet will he not decline from God's testimonies, Psalms 119:157. Let him be in a strange place, there shall God's statutes be his song, Psalms 119:54. Let him be a stranger in the earth all his life; so that he be not a stranger to God's commandments he cares not, Psalms 119:19. Although he should have never so much contempt cast upon him, yet will he not forget God's precepts, Psalms 119:141. Although his soul should be continually in his hand, yet that should not make him forget God's law. Yea, although he became like a bottle in the smoke, yet will he not forget God's precepts, Psalms 119:83. And therefore was it that he rejoiced, because he had been afflicted upon this account, that it made him learn God's statutes. He cared for no other wealth. "Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart," Ps 119:111. Neither cared he much for life, but only to keep God's word, Psalms 119:17. Whatever he had said before, or meant to say next, he still cries, "Teach me thy statutes," and, "I have longed for thy precepts," &c.; or some such expression or other. He could not forbear to speak of them, for they were still before him, Psalms 119:30. No wonder, then, that he meditated upon them so often, as he saith he did. "O how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day," Psalms 119:97. And "Thy testimonies are my meditation," Psalms 119:99. God's commandments were to David sweeter in his mouth than honey, to talk and discourse of them, Psalms 119:103. --Zachary Bogan, 1653.

Verse 92. -- The persons to whose delight the word of God actually conduces are the children of God, and none else. None but they are prepared to take in the consolation of the word.

Verse 92. -- My delights. The word signifieth delights in the plural number. Many were the sorrows of David's life; but against them all he found as many comforts and delectations in God's word. With such variety of holy wisdom hath God penned his word, that it hath convenient comfort for every state of life, and therefore the children of God account nothing so dear as it; they prefer it to their appointed food. --William Cowper.

Verse 92. -- Thy law...my delights...in mine affliction. I happened to be standing in a grocer's shop one day in a large manufacturing town in the west of Scotland, when a poor, old, frail widow came in to make a few purchases. There never was, perhaps, in that town a more severe time of distress. Nearly every loom was stopped. Decent and respectable tradesmen, who had seen better days, were obliged to subsist on public charity. So much money per day (but a trifle at most) was allowed to the really poor and deserving. The poor widow had received her daily pittance, and she had now come into the shop of the grocer to lay it out to the best advantage. She had but a few coppers in her withered hands. Carefully did she expend her little stock -- a pennyworth of this and the other necessary of life nearly exhausted all she had. She came to the last penny, and with a singular expression of heroic contentment and cheerful resignation on her wrinkled face, she said, "Now I must buy oil with this, that I may see to read my Bible during these long dark nights, for it is my only comfort now when every other comfort has gone away." -- Alexander Wallace, in "The Bible and the Working Classes," 1853.

Verse 92. -- This verse I may call a Perfume against the Plague; The Sick Man's Salve; The Afflicted Man's Consolation; and a blessed Triumph, in and over all troubles. -- Richard Greenham.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 92. -- The sustaining power of joy in God.

Verse 92. -- The word of God as a sustaining power amid the greater sorrows of life.

(a) For want of it, men have become drunkards to drown

their sorrows, have become suicides because life was

unbearable, have become broken and hopeless because they

had no strength to struggle against misfortune, have become

atheists in creed as, alas, they were before in practice;

all, in fact, become subject to sorrow's worst bitterness

and calamity's worst effects.

(b) Nothing can supply the place of God's word. Nature

throws no light on the mystery of suffering. Human

philosophy is at best cold comfort, and when most needed

most fails.

(a) In the experience of those who have tried it. (b) By the character of its promises. (c) By the discovery it makes of a beneficent providence

working through calamity and sorrow. (d) By the revelation it gives of the pity of God and the

sympathy of Christ. (e) By its record of the "Man of sorrows," who through

suffering wrought out man's salvation, and entered into

glory. (f) By its teaching concerning the Incarnate Word; thus

showing a suffering God, which may well be a solace to

suffering men. (g) By displaying the glory of heaven and the eternal

felicity awaiting those who overcome through the blood of

the Lamb. --J.F.

Verse 92. -- The Godly Man's Ark; or, City of Refuge in the day of his Distress. Discovered in divers (five) Sermons...By Edmund Calamy, B.D...Eighteenth edition. 1709. 12mo.

Verse 92. -- We have here set before us by the Psalmist,

Verse 92. -- The life buoy. Under the form of the narrative of a shipwrecked mariner, describe the experience of the soul struggling in the sea of affliction; almost overwhelmed: yet buoyed up over each successive billow: and finally saved by clinging to the Word of God. --C.A.D.

Verse 92. -- The Psalmist's shudder at recollected danger.

Psalms 119:94

EXPOSITION Verse 94 . I am thine, save me. A comprehensive prayer with a prevailing argument. Consecration is a good plea for preservation. If we are conscious that we are the Lord's we may be confident that he will save us. We are the Lord's by creation, election, redemption, surrender, and acceptance; and hence our firm hope and assured belief that he will save us. A man will surely save his own child: Lord, save me. The need of salvation is better seen by the Lord's people than by any others, and hence their prayer -- "save me"; they know that only God can save them, and hence they cry to him alone; and they know that no merit can be found in themselves, and hence they urge a reason fetched from the grace of God, -- "I am thine." "For I have sought thy precepts." Thus had he proved that he was the Lord's. He might not have attained to all the holiness which he desired, but he had studiously aimed at being obedient to the Lord, and hence he begged to be saved even to the end. A man may be seeking the doctrines and the promises, and yet be unrenewed in heart; but to seek the precepts is a sure sign of grace; no one ever heard of a rebel or a hypocrite seeking the precepts. The Lord had evidently wrought a great work upon the Psalmist, and he besought him to carry it on to completion. Saving is linked with seeking, "save me, for I have sought"; and when the Lord sets us seeking he will not refuse us the saving. He who seeks holiness is already saved: if we have sought the Lord we may be sure that the Lord has sought us, and will certainly save us. EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS Verse 94 . -- I am thine , save me. David, a man after God's own heart, would be saved, but not after the manner of the men of this world, that would be saved to be their own and to enjoy themselves at their own will; but he in being saved would be God's, and at his disposing: "I am thine, save me." There is a threefold strength in this argument. The law of nature, which obliges a father to be good to his child, the husband to his wife, etc., and God hath subjected himself more unto the law of nature, he lies more under it, than any of these; and doth more perfectly, fully, and gloriously fulfil this law of nature than any; there is no father like him, no friend, no husband like him. "Can a woman forget her sucking child? Yet will I not forget thee:" Isaiah 44:15 . A mother can hardly do it; nature teacheth her to have bowels, and a merciful remembrance towards her child; much, note will I, saith God. When we can say to God, "I am thine," we plead the covenant which God hath made with us, wherein he is become our father and friend: and this is that which was pleaded in Isaiah 63:16 : "Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not (because they are gone, and so have no cognizance of us now); yet thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer; thy name is from everlasting." See what a conclusion here is made; doubtless thou art our Father, and therefore we call to thee for help. There is this encouragement and strength that the spirit of, a man receives in thus arguing with God, that if he can say in truth, "I am thine," God much more will say to the creature, "I am thine." If we have so much love to offer ourselves to God, to become his; much more will the love of God make him to become ours; for God loves first, and most, and surest. If mine heart rise toward God, much more is the heart of God toward me; because there love is in the fountain. Never did a spouse speak to her husband, whom her soul loved to the highest, more willingly, and say, "I am thine," than the spirit of an upright man saith to God, "Lord, I am thine." And he loves him with a love of thankfulness. Hast thou given thyself to me, saith he, and shall I then withhold myself from thee? Hast thou, who art so great, done all this for me, and shall I stand out against thee? The gracious man will willingly acknowledge himself to be the Lord's. The saints often do this: David above twenty times comes with this acknowledgment in this psalm, and in Psalms 116:16 : "I am thy servant; I am thy servant." To say it once was not enough; he saith it again, to show the sincerity of his spirit, and to witness that his heart was fully pleased with this, that he was not his own, but the Lord's. The knowledge of our interest in God doth much further our approaches to God. When a man is once assured, and can say with a clear spirit, "I am thine," he will naturally cry, "Save me." Such a man is a man of prayer, he is much in addresses to God, and conversing with him. -- Joseph Symonds, 1653. Verse 94 . -- I am thine . This is an excellent motive to draw from the Lord help in trouble, - - "I am thine." Thine by creation, I was made by thee; thine by adoption, I was assigned over to thee; thine by donation, I was given to thee; thine by marriage, I was espoused to thee; thine by redemption, I was purchased by thee; thine by stipulation, I have vowed myself unto thee. --Richard Greenham. Verse 94 . -- For I have sought thy precepts . See here how David qualifies his protestation: from his earnest affection to l he word of God, he proves that he was God's man and not his own servant. It is not words, but affections and actions which must prove us to be the Lord's. Tuus sum, quia id solum qued tuum est quaesivi: I am thine because I sought nothing but that which is thine, and how I might please thee. Mihi in tuis justificationibus est omne poatrimonium: in the observance of thy precepts is all my patrimony. -- William Cowper. Verse 94. -- David claims relation to God: "I am thine" -- devoted to thee, and owned by thee, thine in covenant. He proves his claim: "I am thine, save me; for Y have sought thy precepts"; i.e., I have carefully enquired concerning my duty, and diligently endeavoured to do it. He Improves. His claim: "I am thine, save me." Save me from sin, save me from ruin. - -Mr. Henry. Verse 94 -- A great prayer: "Save me." A grand prayer: "I am thine." A gracious experience: "I have sought," etc. Verse 94. -- Relation: "I am thine." Preservation: "save me." Obligation: "I have sought," etc. --G.R. Verse 94. -- God's child humbly points out to him his responsibility: "I am thine." Ventures to urge his own sincerity: he has at least "sought." With these two hands extended, he utters a sharp cry for help: "save me." -- W.B.H. Verse 94 . -- Multum in parvo . A profession. A prayer. A plea. --C.A.D. Verse 94. -- God's interest in us. Our interest in God. --W.D. Verse 94 . -- The characteristics of personal religion . Personal devotedness to God: "I am thine." Personal obedience rendered: "I have sought thy precepts." Personal expectation cherished: "save me." --J.F. Verse 94 . -- The courage obedience gives . It emboldens us to a firm assurance: "I am thine, for I have," etc. We become God's by faith alone. (b) But the assurance of being his cannot exist without obedience; obedience proves the faith to ourselves; satisfies us concerning grace received. (c) Poor obedience always interferes with assurance. It emboldens us to pray, and in prayer: "Save me." (a) The Christian's prayers are only of faith and offered in faith. (b) Yet disobedience makes: him shrink from approaching God in prayer, and renders him feeble in petitioning. (c) Obedience is humble but bold. The middle clause of the text applies equally to the first and third clauses. --J.F.