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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadSpurgeon Verse Expositions - Psalms 119:33 - 119:40
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
We have here some of the jottings from David’s pocket-book, the notes of his experience as recorded in his diary. The whole Psalm is a great casket full of golden rings. They all fit one into the other; but each ring is also perfect in itself.
Psa_119:33. Teach me, o Lord, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end.
We forget what others teach us, but we never forget what God truly teaches us. He who has been graciously taught will finally persevere.
Psa_119:34. Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.
This is the great point as to thorough godliness,—to observe God’s law with our whole heart. In these days, there is much slurring in religious matters; but they who love God aright love him with their whole heart, and they are careful even in what others call “little things.” Live unto God with the utmost heartiness, exactness, and precision, every moment. “The Lord thy God is a jealous God;” therefore, serve thou him with great jealousy and sincerity of spirit.
Psa_119:35. Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.
And when a man delights to do that which is right, God will help him to do it. The psalmist seems to speak like a little child who has not found the use of his limbs yet. He says, “Make me to go; take hold of me, as a nurse does of her charge, and enable me to take my first trembling, tottering footsteps. Make me to go, for I delight to go. Lord, help me to carry out my soul’s desire.”
Psa_119:36. Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.
“Make me covetous for holiness; let that passion which, in other men, goes after gold and silver, in me run after obedience and fellowship with thee, my God. Incline my heart in another way than nature would incline it; nature puts it on the left hand, and makes me covetous; my God, put thou my heart on my right side, that I may seek only after thee and after holiness.”
Psa_119:37. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.
The psalmist commends all his nature to the care of his God. Just now, he prayed about his feet; then, about his heart; now, about his eyes. We need the sanctifying grace of God in every faculty of our spiritual manhood, lest we go astray one way when we are watching against sin in another direction. It matters little at which gate a city is captured; if it be taken at all, it is taken. Oh, for grace to watch every portal of the town of Mansoul, lest we be overcome at any point!
Psa_119:38. Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear.
“Lord, make thy Word to stand fast to me, for I do love thee, I am in thy fear. Thy fear has become part of myself.” If you notice, the words “is devoted” are put in by the translators. The verse should read, “Who to thy fear,” as if his whole self had run into the mould and shape of a God-fearing man. He asks God therefore to establish his Word unto him, and so he did; what David asked, David’s God gave.
Psa_119:39. Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments are good.
“Lord, never let me sin, so as to bring a reproach upon thy holy name! Keep me from doing anything that would grieve thee, and cause thine enemies to blaspheme.”
Psa_119:40. Behold, I have longed after thy precepts:
That is a sure sign of a true child of God. Hypocrites may long after the promises, but only the true-born child of God longs after the precepts. If your chief desire is to be holy, that is a desire which comes of the Spirit of God. A bad man may desire to go to heaven; a desperately wicked man may wish to die the death of the righteous; but he who intensely longs to live a godly, righteous life is indeed the subject of divine grace. I am sure that there are some of us here who can say that we have made no bargains with God, nor put in any conditions whatever; if he will but help us to live holy lives, he may do what he wills with us. Our one desire is this: “Behold, I have longed after thy precept.”
Psa_119:40. Quicken me in thy righteousness.
Let that be the prayer of every one of us. Amen.
Psa_119:33. Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes; —
The psalmist is constantly talking about “the way.” We have that expression in the 27th verse, then in the 29th, the 30th, and the 32nd; and now again we have it here: “Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes;” —
Psa_119:33-34. And I shall keep it unto the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.
That is not true or right understanding which permits us to go into sin; those who are really wise in heart hate evil and love righteousness.
Psa_119:35. Make me to go in the path —
Or, say —
Psa_119:35. Of thy commandment; for therein do I delight.
“Make me to go.” Not only show me the way, but make me to go, like a nurse does with a child when she puts her hands under its arms, and strengthens its tottering footsteps. This is a very beautiful expression: “Make me to go.” Lord, we are very weak; we are like little children; make us to go in the path of thy commandments, for therein do we delight.
Psa_119:36. Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.
The heart must love something; it will either love that which is good, or that which is evil. “O Lord,” the psalmist seems to pray, “incline my heart in the right direction. Make it lean towards that which is good; cause me to count thy grace better than all the riches of the world.”
Psa_119:37. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity;
“Do not let me even look at it, for one may look at an ugly thing until the sense of its deformity gradually disappears, and it becomes attractive. Lord, never let me so fix my eyes upon sin that, at last, I come to reckon it a desirable thing.”
Psa_119:37. And quicken thou me in thy way.
A man who travels quickly has not time to stop and look at the things in the road. Lord, let me go so fast to heaven that, when the devil hangs his baubles in his shop-window, I may not have time even to stop and look at them: ‘Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.’
Psa_119:38. Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear.
That is, “Make thy word to me real and true. Put away my natural skepticism, my proneness to question, my tendency to doubt.” “Stablish thy word.” “Make me to know how firm, how true, how real it is, for I would love it more and more. I do believe it, for I am devoted to thy fear, but I long to be still further established in the faith.”
Psa_119:39. Turn away my reproach which I fear:
Are any of you fearing reproach? If so, you may well fear it, for you deserve it; yet, even then, you may ask the Lord to turn it away from you.
Psa_119:39-40. For thy judgments are good. Behold, I have longed after thy precepts:
Some people, whom I know, long after the promises, and others long after the doctrines. I hope that they will all get an equal longing for the precepts, for true believers love the precepts as much as they love the promises or the doctrines: “Behold, I have longed after thy precepts.”
Psa_119:40. Quicken me in thy righteousness.
This exposition consisted of readings from Genesis 32. and Psa_119:33-40.