Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 119:23
Princes also did sit [and] speak against me: [but] thy servant did meditate in thy statutes.
23. A further proof of his fidelity. Though those in authority sit in council and devise plans for his ruin, he continues to meditate on Jehovah’s statutes. Cp. Dan 6:4 ff. It has been maintained that foreign princes must be meant, and consequently that the Psalmist must be speaking in the name of the nation, and not as an individual. But princes was the title commonly given to the Israelite nobles in post-exilic times, and the Psalmist was evidently persecuted by wealthy and powerful countrymen. Cp. Psa 119:161, and see above, p. 702.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Princes also did sit and speak against me – This would have been applicable to David many times in his life, but it was also applicable to many others, and there is nothing in the language which would limit it to David. It is evident that the author of the psalm had been subject to reproach from those who were of exalted rank; it is clear also that he felt this keenly. It is natural, whether proper or not, that we should feel the reproach and contempt of those in elevated life – the rich, the honored, the learned – more than of those in humbler life. Their good opinion can be of value only as they may be better qualified than others to judge of what constitutes true excellence, or as they may have it in their power to do us more harm, or to do more to aid us in doing good, than others have; but truth and principle are never to be sacrificed that we may secure their favor; and if, in the faithful discharge of our duty, and the zealous adherence to the principles of our religion, we incur their frowns, we are to bear it – as the great Lord and Saviour of his people did. Heb 13:13.
But thy servant did meditate in thy statutes – I was engaged in this; I continued to do it; I was not deterred from it by their opposition; I found comfort in it, when they sat and talked against me. This would seem to have reference to some occasion when they were together – in public business, or in the social circle. They, the princes and nobles engaged in the ordinary topics of conversation, or in conversation connected with revelry, frivolity, or sin. Unwilling to participate in this – having different tastes – feeling that it was improper to be one of their companions in such a mode of spending time, or in such subjects of conversation, he withdrew, he turned his thoughts on the law of God, he sought comfort in meditation on that law and on God. He became, therefore, the subject of remark – perhaps of their jests – because he thus refused to mingle with them, or because he put on what seemed to be hypocritical seriousness, and was (what they deemed) stern, sour, unsocial, as if he thus publicly, though tacitly, meant to rebuke them. Nothing will be more likely to subject one to taunting remarks, to rebuke, to contempt, than to manifest a religious spirit, and to introduce religion in any way in the circles of the worldly and the frivolous.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 119:23
Princes also did sit and speak against me.
1. It is a hard temptation when the godly are troubled by any wicked men; but much harder when they are troubled by men of honour and authority.
(1) First, by reason of their place: the greater power they have, the greater peril to encounter with their displeasure; therefore saith Solomon, The wrath of a king is the messenger of death.
(2) Next, because authorities and powers are ordained by God, not for the terror of the good, but of the evil. And therefore it is no small grief to the godly, when they find them abused to a contrary end; that where a ruler should be to good men like rain to the fields new mown; on the contrary, he becomes a favourer of evil men, and a persecutor of the good. Then justice is turned into wormwood; that which should bring comfort to such as fear God, is abused to oppress them.
2. And therefore, it should be accounted a great benefit of God, when He gives a people good and religious rulers. The Christians in the primitive Church, being sore troubled by the bloody persecutions of Nero and Domitian, thought it a great benefit unto them, when under Nerva the persecution was relented. Albeit he did not profess Christ with them, yet he did not persecute them. What then should we account of such a king, as is not only a protector of the Church, but a professor himself? so far from persecuting Christian religion; that for professing of it, many times hath his majesty been persecuted to the death, but blessed be the Lord, who hath given many glorious deliverances to His anointed. (Bp. Cowper.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 23. Princes also did sit] It is very likely that the nobles of Babylon did often, by wicked misrepresentations, render the minds of the kings of the empire evil affected towards the Jews.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Did sit and speak; did speak against me continually, (for sitting notes continuance,) and when they sat upon their seats of judicature, and when they sat together in companies, entertaining one another with discourses.
Did meditate in thy statutes; all their contumelies and reproaches did not discourage nor divert me from the study, belief, and practice of thy word.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Princes also did sit [and] speak against me,…. The princes in the court of Saul, who suggested to him that David sought his hurt; the princes of his own court, Absalom, his own son, a prince of the blood, and Ahithophel, a counsellor of state: or the princes of the Gentiles, as Jarchi; so the princes of the Philistines spake against him in a very disdainful manner, “make this fellow return to his place again”, 1Sa 29:4. Such as these might speak against him, as they sat and rode in their chariots; when at their tables, conversing together; or at their council boards, forming schemes against him: the phrase denotes their constant practice, as Kimchi observes; see Ps 50:20; herein David was a type of Christ, whom the princes of this world conspired against, and whose life they took away, Ps 2:2;
[but] thy servant did meditate in thy statutes; what the princes did or said against him did not divert his mind, or take off his thoughts from the word of God, and the ordinances of it; he thought of them, he spoke and discoursed of them; he declared them, as the word w sometimes signifies, and so the Targum takes it here; he was not afraid nor ashamed to profess his regard unto them: as Daniel, when he knew that the presidents and princes had obtained a royal decree, and the writing was signed; yet went into his chamber, as at other times, and kneeled down and prayed to God, Da 6:10.
w “disserit”, Tigurine version, Vatablus, Musculus; “loquitur”, Piscator, Gejerus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
23 Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes.
See here, 1. How David was abused even by great men, who should have known better his character and his case, and have been more generous: Princes did sit, sit in council, sit in judgment, and speak against me. What even princes say is not always right; but it is sad when judgment is thus turned to wormwood, when those that should be the protectors of the innocent are their betrayers. Herein David was a type of Christ, for they were the princes of this world that vilified and crucified the Lord of glory, 1 Cor. ii. 8. 2. What method he took to make himself easy under these abuses: he meditated in God’s statutes, went on in his duty, and did not regard them; as a deaf man, he heard not. When they spoke against him, he found that in the word of God which spoke for him, and spoke comfort to him, and then none of these things moved him. Those that have pleasure in communion with God may easily despise the censures of men, even of princes.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
(23) Speak.Comp. Psa. 50:20 for the same implied sense in this verb. This verse reads as if Israel, and not a mere individual, were the subject of the psalms.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 119:23. Princes also did sit and speak Though princes are continually consulting against me, thy servant will make thy ordinances his theme: Psa 119:24. For thy testimonies are my delight, thy statutes my counsellors. See Mudge, Houbigant, and Psa 50:20.
DALETH.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 119:23 Princes also did sit [and] speak against me: [but] thy servant did meditate in thy statutes.
Ver. 23. Princes also did sit, &c. ] By public invectives; such as were those of our Henry VIII, and of Lewis, king of Hungary and Bohemia (two very potent princes), against Luther. Denotat continuum clamorem (Kimchi).
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Princes: Psa 2:1, Psa 2:2, 1Sa 20:31, 1Sa 22:7-13, Luk 22:66, Luk 23:1, Luk 23:2, Luk 23:10, Luk 23:11
thy servant: Psa 119:15
Reciprocal: Psa 119:78 – but I will Psa 119:161 – Princes Isa 38:12 – he will cut 1Ti 4:15 – Meditate
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
119:23 {d} Princes also did sit [and] speak against me: [but] thy servant did meditate in thy statutes.
(d) When the powers of the world gave false sentence against me, your word was a guide and counsellor to teach me what to do, and to comfort me.