Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 119:10
With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.
10. ’Orach, ‘path,’ a poetical synonym for derek; not in Deut., but common in Prov.
The attributes applied to the Law should also be studied. Like its Author ( Psa 119:137, cp. Deu 32:4) it is perfectly righteous. The note of righteousness is constantly repeated; in all its aspects the Law answers to that perfect standard which God is to Himself for all His works and words. Its faithfulness and truth correspond to the faithfulness and truth of His nature; it is sharply contrasted with all that is false in belief and conduct.
Other constantly recurring expressions should also be noted. The Psalmist’s repeated protestations that he has ‘observed’ or ‘kept’ the law, his resolutions to do so, and his prayers for strength to fulfil them, answer to the repeated injunctions of Deut. (Psa 4:2 &c.). ‘With a (my) whole heart,’ with entire devotion of thought and will, is a phrase characteristic alike of this Psalm and of the Book of Deut. [80] (Deu 4:29; Deu 6:5 &c.) where it is often coupled with ‘the whole soul,’ the organ of feeling and emotion. In Deut. the Israelites are repeatedly exhorted to learn the statutes and judgements (Deu 5:1) and to teach them to their children (Deu 4:10); and repeatedly the Psalmist prays that he may be taught. The Psalmist’s reiterated prayers for ‘understanding’ recall the language of Deu 4:6. ‘Life’ is held out in Deut. (Deu 4:1 &c.) as the reward of obedience; and for ‘life’ the Psalmist continually pleads ‘quicken thou me’ ‘let me live’ (Psa 25, 37, 40, 88, 107, 149, 154, 156, 159, 116, 144). The source of ‘life’ he finds in the law and promises of God (50, 93): and by ‘life’ he means not simply preservation from death, but liberation from all, whether within or without, that crushes and paralyses life, and hinders its proper use and enjoyment; for ‘life’ includes the ideas of light and joy and prosperity. It finds its fullest realisation in communion with God. The original promise of life to the nation is coupled with the promise of the possession of the land, but the latter now drops out of sight, and the conception of ‘life’ is approximating towards the higher meaning of the word in the N.T. Cp. Deu 8:3. Very noteworthy is the Psalmist’s enthusiastic love for the Law. The love which the Israelite was bidden to cherish for Jehovah (Deu 6:5 &c.) is kindled by the manifold revelation of His Will in the Law. “O how I love thy law: it is my meditation all the day” (97). It is no irksome restraint of his liberty, but his delight, his joy, his treasure, his comfort, the subject of his meditations by day and by night, the source of trust and hope amid all the perplexities and troubles of life. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”
[80] Deut. prefers the form lbb, the Psalm, except in Psa 119:7, uses lb.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
10. Cp. Psa 119:2 b.
O let me not wander &c.] Let me not err through ignorance or inadvertence ( Psa 119:67; Psa 19:12). My intention is good, but my knowledge is imperfect and my strength is small. “The self-mistrust of the second clause is a proof of the reality of the first” (Aglen).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
With my whole heart have I sought thee – See the notes at Psa 119:2. The psalmist in Psa 119:2 speaks of the blessedness of those who seek the Lord with the whole heart; in this verse he says that this blessedness was his. He could affirm that he had thus sought God. He had such a consciousness that this was the aim and purpose of his life that he could say so without hesitation. Every man who claims to be a religious man ought to be able to say this. Alas, how few can do it!
O let me not wander … – Keep me in this steady purpose; this fixed design. This is the language of a heart where there is a consciousness of its weakness, and its liability to err, strong as may be its purpose to do right. Such an apprehension is one of the best means of security, for such an apprehension will lead a man to pray, and while a man prays he is safe.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 119:10
With my whole heart have I sought Thee: O let me not wander from Thy commandments.
Mans distinguishing capacity and fearful liability
I. Mans distinguishing capacity. What is that? Power to wander from the Divine law. He can bound from his orbit, he has done so, is doing so. Sublimely awful power this, the power that makes us men and links us to moral government.
II. Mans fearful liability. The possession of this power is a dignity of our natures, the wrong use of this power is our crime and our ruin, and to the wrong use, alas, we are all fearfully liable. If I wander from Gods commandment I wander from the right into the wrong, from light into darkness, from liberty to thraldom, from happiness to misery. (Homilist.)
The grandest pursuit and the greatest peril
I. The grandest pursuit of man.
1. The object of pursuit–God. Not merely His works, but Himself. Not a mere knowledge of Him, but the possession of Him. To obtain God as the Father of the soul is the grandest end of being.
2. The mode of pursuit. Unless it is done with the whole heart, the concentration of the soul, it is never done.
II. The greatest peril of man. To wander from Gods commandments is to wander from light into darkness, from order into confusion, from plenty into pauperism, from happiness into misery, from life into death. (Homilist.)
Keeping to the path
Old Humphrey has a good paper against wandering from the path of duty, suggested by a notice at the entrance of a park:–Take notice. In walking through these grounds, you are requested to keep the foot-path. Bunyan has supplied the same theme for solemn warning, in the pilgrim straying into Bye-path meadow. (Bowes.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 10. With my whole heart have I sought thee]
4. He must seek God; make earnest prayer and supplication to him for Divine light, for a tender conscience, and for strength to walk uprightly.
5. His whole heart; all his affections must be engaged here, or he cannot succeed. If he keep any affection for the idol or abomination; if his heart do not give it before the Lord, he may make many prayers, but God will answer none of them.
6. He must take care to keep in the path of duty, of abstinence and self-denial; not permitting either his eye, his hand, or his heart to wander from the commandments of his Maker.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Deny me not thy grace and assistance, which I have so sincerely and earnestly desired, and laboured to obtain.
Let me not wander, Heb. do not make me to wander, to wit, by leading me into temptation, by withdrawing thy grace, which is necessary to keep me from wandering.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10-16. We must carefullytreasure up the word of God, declare it to others, meditate on it,and heartily delight in it; and then by His grace we shall actaccording to it.
GIMEL.(Ps 119:17-24).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
With my whole heart have I sought thee,…. Not himself, his own honour and applause, as formal worshippers and self-righteous persons do; but the Lord and his glory, his face, his presence, and communion with him, his grace, and fresh supplies of it, to help in time of need; his doctrine, as the Targum; and to know more of it, and of him, and of his mind and will; and this he did in the most sincere manner, with all his heart and soul. The character of the good man, in
Ps 119:2; the psalmist applies to himself; see Isa 26:9; and uses it as an argument to obtain the following request:
O let me not wander from thy commandments; the way of them. Good men are apt to go astray, as David, Ps 119:176; their hearts, their affections, and their feet, wander from, the way of their duty: there are many things which lead them aside, and cause them to turn to the right hand or the left, at least solicit them to do so; as a corrupt nature, an evil heart, a body of sin and death, the snares of the world, and the temptations of Satan; and, what is worst of all, when God leaves them to themselves, withdraws the influences of his grace, and brings them into such circumstances as expose them to going astray, which the psalmist here deprecates; “suffer me not to wander”, but uphold my goings in thy ways; preserve me by thy grace, and keep me by thy power; hold me by thy right hand, and guide and direct me. Or, “cause me not to wander” q c. a like petition to those in Ps 141:3 Mt 6:13 with which last Kimchi compares these words.
q “ne errare facias me”, Pagninus, Montanus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.
Here is, 1. David’s experience of a good work God had wrought in him, which he takes the comfort of and pleads with God: “I have sought thee, sought to thee as my oracle, sought after thee as my happiness, sought thee as my God; for should not a people seek unto their God? If I have not yet found thee, I have sought thee, and thou never saidst, Seek in vain, nor wilt say so to me, for I have sought thee with my heart, with my whole heart, sought thee only, sought thee diligently.” 2. His prayer for the preservation of that work: “Thou that hast inclined me to seek thy precepts, never suffer me to wander from them.” The best are sensible of their aptness to wander; and the more we have found of the pleasure there is in keeping God’s commandments the more afraid we shall be of wandering from them and the more earnest we shall be in prayer to God for his grace to prevent our wanderings.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
10. With my whole heart Conscious of the integrity of his heart, the prophet still implores the help of God, that he might not stumble by reason of his infirmity. He makes no boast of self-preparation, as if he had spontaneously begun to inquire after God, but in praising the grace which he had experienced, he at the same time aspires after steadfastness to persevere in walking in his ways. It is folly on the part of the Papists to seize upon this and similar passages, as if the saints, of their own free will, anticipated the grace of the Holy Spirit, and afterwards were favored with his aid. The prophet does not make a division between God and himself, but rather prays God to continue his work till it is completed, agreeably with what we are generally taught, to keep God mindful of his benefits until he accomplish them.
In the meantime, there is good cause for presenting our supplication to God, to stretch out his hand towards us when he sees our minds so settled, that we are solicitous of nothing so much as acting uprightly. And as he elevates us with confidence to ask the gift of perseverance, when he inspires our hearts with proper affection towards him, so also does he entreat us for the future not to sink into a careless and languid state like soldiers who have been discharged, but seek to be constantly directed by the spirit of wisdom, and to be sustained by the principles of fortitude and virtue. David here, from his own example, points out to us a rule, that by how much a man finds himself succored by God, by so much ought he to be induced the more carefully and earnestly to implore the continuance of his aid; for unless he restrain us, we will instantly wander and go astray. This sentiment is more explicitly stated in the original word תשגני, tashqeni, which is in the passive voice, and signifies, to be led astray (403) From the import of the term, I do not mean to establish the doctrine that God secretly incites us to commit sin, but only to let my readers know, that such is our liability to err, that we immediately relapse into sin the instant he leaves us to ourselves. This passage also admonishes us that the man who swerves but a little from God’s commandments is guilty of going astray.
(403) “The Hebrew תשגני is here in the conjugation Hiphil, from שגה, to be ignorant or err. Now of that conjugation the Hebrews observe, that as it signifies sometimes no more than to permit, so it sometimes notes to cause, sometimes to occasion, that which the verb imports.” — Hammond
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(10) With my whole heart . . .The self-mistrust of the second clause is a proof of the reality of the first. Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief, is another form of this.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
After the explanation which I endeavored very humbly to offer in the first part, concerning the several words there made use of and which we meet with again here: it will only be necessary to examine the terms with reference to these devout breathings, to see their correspondence. And I pray the great Teacher of his people to give both him that writes, and him that reads, a right understanding in all things. Blessed Lord! I would say for both, grant us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, that we may never forget thy word, but may be everlastingly feasting our souls upon the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 119:10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.
Ver. 10. With my whole heart have I sought thee ] And that of a child little, being nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, 1Ti 4:6 . I did all the wills of God, and so became a man after his own heart, Act 13:22 .
O let me not wander
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
my whole: Psa 119:2, Psa 119:34, Psa 119:58, Psa 119:69, Psa 78:37, 1Sa 7:3, 2Ch 15:15, Jer 3:10, Hos 10:2, Zep 1:5, Zep 1:6, Mat 6:24, Col 3:22, 1Jo 2:15
O let me: Psa 119:21, Psa 119:118, Psa 119:133, Psa 119:176, Psa 23:3, Psa 125:5, Psa 143:8-10, Pro 2:13, Pro 21:16, Isa 35:8, Eze 34:6, 2Pe 2:15-22
Reciprocal: Deu 4:29 – with all 1Ki 8:48 – And so return 1Ch 28:8 – keep 2Ch 14:4 – to do Psa 5:8 – Lead Psa 18:21 – For I Psa 27:11 – Teach Psa 119:19 – hide Psa 119:110 – yet I erred Psa 119:145 – cried Pro 11:23 – desire Isa 63:17 – why Jer 29:13 – with Joh 7:17 – General Col 3:23 – whatsoever Heb 10:22 – a true Heb 11:6 – diligently
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 119:10-11. With my whole heart have I sought thee Deny me not that aid of thy grace which I have so sincerely and earnestly desired and laboured to obtain. O let me not wander Hebrew, , do not make me to wander, namely, by leading me into temptation, or by withdrawing thy grace, which is necessary to keep me from wandering. Thy word have I hid in my heart I have not contented myself with merely hearing or reading thy word, but have received it in the love of it, have diligently considered it, and have laid it up in my mind, like a choice treasure, to be ready upon all occasions to counsel, quicken, or caution me, as need may require. That I might not sin against thee That by a diligent and affectionate consideration of thy precepts, promises, and threatenings, I might be kept from all sinful practices.