Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 119:50
This [is] my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.
50. This ] i.e. Thy word, if the rendering for is retained in the next line. But it is better to render, This is my comfort that thy word &c. Past experience of the life-giving sustaining power of God’s promise is his comfort in affliction.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
This is my comfort in my affliction – Compare Rom 15:4. The word here rendered comfort occurs only here and in Job 6:10. The obvious meaning is, that his only consolation in his affliction was derived from the word of God; the word which had caused him to hope, and the word by which he had been quickened or made alive. The particular design of this is to show the value of the word of God as a source of comfort in trouble.
For thy word hath quickened me – Has made me alive; or, caused me to live. That is, the word, the truth of God, had been the instrument of calling him from the death of sin, and of imparting to him new life, or had been the means of his regeneration. Compare Jam 1:18; 1Co 4:15; Heb 4:12; 1Pe 1:23. As it was by this word that he had been made alive, so his only comfort was in that word, and it was to him a just ground of consolation that God had brought him from the death of sin, and had imparted to him spiritual life.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 119:50
This is my comfort in my affliction: for Thy Word hath quickened me.
Comfort and quickening
I. In our affliction, the word of God quickens to comfort.
1. By leading us to God, who is able to bless.
2. By showing us that God is willing and waiting to bless.
3. By throwing a mild and beautiful light on Providence.
4. By spreading before us exceeding great and precious promises, which adapt themselves with a fine flexibility to all the varieties of our experience.
5. By establishing in our hearts the anticipation of another and a sorrowless life.
II. In our affliction the word of God not only quickens to comfort, but also comforts to quicken. First the Word becomes life, and then comfort; and then, through the comfort, the Word becomes further and fuller life. How?
1. By confirming our faith.
2. By giving new scope and ardour to gratitude and love. The Divine Word helps us to see that the Divine chastening is the sign and manifestation of the Divine mercy.
3. By stimulating the spirit of prayer.
4. By spiritualizing our tastes and aspirations.
5. By restraining our tendencies to wander from God. (J. P. Barnett.)
What is your comfort?
In some respects the same event happens to us all: to good men, to great men, to well-instructed men, as well as to the wicked, the obscure, and the ignorant. Each of these can speak of my affliction (Pro 14:10). It is a grand matter when my affliction is in each case balanced by my comfort. It was so in Davids case, and he is a fair representative of all believers.
I. Believers have their peculiar comfort. Each tried child of God can say, This is my comfort.
1. This, as different from others. Worldly men get their drops of comfort from such sources as they prefer; but the godly man looks to his experience of the Word, and says, This is my comfort (Psa 4:6).
2. This, as understanding what it is. He knew his consolation as well as he knew his tribulation. He was not like Hagar, who could not see the well which was so near her (Gen 21:19). This, as having it near at hand. He does not say that, as if he pointed it out in the distance; but this, as grasping it.
4. This, as pleading in prayer that which he had enjoyed; urging upon the Lord the mercy already received.
II. That comfort comes from a peculiar source. Thy Word hath quickened me.
1. In part it is outward.
(1) The Word of God, full of promises, is our comfort (Rom 15:4).
(2) The Word of God, full of records of His goodness, is the confirmation of our confidence (Psa 77:5-10).
(3) The Word of God, full of power, is our strength (Ecc 8:4).
2. In part it is inward: Thy Word hath quickened me.
(1) In past experience he had felt the power of the Word in raising him–Into life from death (Psa 116:8). Into energy from lethargy (Son 6:12). Into higher life from lower (Psa 119:67).
(2) In all things it had been a source of quickening to him.
(3) In present experience he was then feeling its power in making his mind less worldly. His heart more prayerful. His spirit more tender. His faith more simple.
III. That comfort is valuable under peculiar trials.
1. Hope deferred. Quickening enables us to hope on.
2. Trial endured (verse 50). Comfort is most needed in trouble, and there is no comfort like quickening.
3. Scorn suffered (verse 51). We care nothing for mockers when we are lively in spiritual things.
4. Sin of others (verse 53). More grace will enable us to bear up under abounding sin.
5. Changes (verse 54). The Bible has a song for all seasons, and a psalm for all places.
6. Darkness (verse 55). There is no night-light like the Word, enlightening and enlivening the heart.
IV. That the form of our comfort is a test of character.
1. Some look to wealth: when their corn and their wine are increased, they say, This is my comfort. They mind the main chance: they are worldly (Luk 12:19).
2. Some seek to dreams and visions, omens and fancies, impressions and presentiments: they are superstitious.
3. Some run to sin, drink, gaming, worldly company, dissipation, opium: they are wicked.
4. Some resort to their fellow-men for advice and assistance: they are unwise, and will be disappointed (Jer 17:5).
(1) What is your comfort?
(2) Has this blessed volume quickened you?
(3) If so, look to it under all trials, for it wilt never fail you. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Spiritual quickening
I. Effected by the Divine word. How does Gods Word quicken the soul into supreme love? By presenting Him–
1. As the supremely Kind. This quickens it into gratitude.
2. As the supremely Beautiful. This quickens it into admiration.
3. As the supremely Great. This quickens it into adoration.
II. Supplying comfort under trial. The soul quickened into supreme love for God can bear up under all the trials of life. Whom have I in heaven but Thee? (Homilist.)
Quickening by the Word
What energy a text will breathe into a man l There is more in one Divine sentence than in huge folios of human composition. There are tinctures of which one drop is more powerful than large doses of the common dilutions. The Bible is the essence of truth; it is the mind of God, the wisdom of the Eternal. By every word of God men are made to live, and are kept in life. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 50. This is my comfort] While enduring our harsh captivity, we anticipated our enlargement; and thy word of promise was the means of keeping our souls alive.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This, to wit, thy word, as is evident both from the foregoing and following words.
Hath quickened me; hath preserved my life in manifold dangers, and hath revived and cheered my spirit.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
50. forrather, “This ismy comfort . . . that,” &c. [MAURER].
hath quickenedWhat theWord has already done is to faith a pledge of what it shallyet do.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
This [is] my comfort in my affliction,…. David had his afflictions, and so has every good man; none are without; it is the will and pleasure of God that so it should be; and many are their afflictions, inward and outward: the word of God is often their comfort under them, the written word, heard or read; and especially a word of promise, powerfully applied: this is putting underneath everlasting arms, and making their bed in sickness. This either respects what goes before, concerning the word of promise hoped in, or what follows:
for thy word hath quickened me; not only had been the means of quickening him when dead in am, as it often is the means of quickening dead sinners, being the savour of life unto life; but of reviving his drooping spirits, when in affliction and distress; and of quickening the graces of the Spirit of God in him, and him to the exercise of them, when they seemed ready to die; and to the fervent and diligent discharge of duty, when listless and backward to it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
50 This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.
Here is David’s experience of benefit by the word. 1. As a means of his sanctification: “Thy word has quickened me. It made me alive when I was dead in sin; it has many a time made me lively when I was dead in duty; it has quickened me to that which is good when I was backward and averse to it, and it has quickened me in that which is good when I was cold and indifferent.” 2. Therefore as a means of his consolation when he was in affliction and needed something to support him: “Because thy word has quickened my at other times, it has comforted me then.” The word of God has much in it that speaks comfort in affliction; but those only may apply it to themselves who have experienced in some measure the quickening power of the word. If through grace it make us holy, there is enough in it to make us easy, in all conditions, under all events.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
ZAIN.
(50) Comfort.As in Job. 6:10, where the same noun occurs, its only other use. We might render, This is my comfort, that thy word quickeneth me.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 119:50 This [is] my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.
Ver. 50. This is my comfort ] The promises yield strong consolation. Philosophical comforts are of little force, as Plato acknowledgeth, and Cicero bewaileth in his Epistle to Octavius
For thy word hath quickened me
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
comfort. The word occurs (as a noun) elsewhere only in Job 6:10.
quickened me = kept me alive. See note on Psa 119:25.
proud = insolent (like Rabshakeh).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
This: Psa 27:13, Psa 28:7, Psa 42:8, Psa 42:11, Psa 94:19, Jer 15:16, Rom 5:3-5, Rom 15:4, Heb 6:17-19, Heb 12:11, Heb 12:12
for thy: Psa 119:25, Eze 37:10, Joh 6:63, Jam 1:18, 1Pe 1:3, 1Pe 2:2
Reciprocal: Psa 119:93 – will never Psa 138:7 – thou wilt Col 2:13 – he
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
COMFORT AND LIFE
The same is my comfort in my trouble: for Thy word hath quickened me.
Psa 119:50 (Prayer Book Version)
When we study the Psalms with a religious purpose, we would know something of the writers, and it is unfortunate that we know very little about them.
I. My comfort in my trouble.It is quite clear that the words are emphatic, that the Psalmist meant to draw attention to himself, both in reference to his trouble and in reference to his comfort. And so you and I must also be emphatic, and devote our attention to our trouble and our comfort. Let us see, then, in what way he speaks of Gods revelation as his comfort.
(a) He would distinguish it from the comfort that other persons receive. The man of the world finds comfort in various sources. But this saint of God speaks of Gods Word as my comfort. It tells of that spiritual experience which is peculiar to each one of us when we with all our hearts strive to serve God, and it speaks of that comfort and joy which we can recollect we have received in reading with faith and with love Gods Word, and deriving from it that help which we well know we need in the hour of our trouble.
(b) It is my comfort as revealing to me the cause of my trouble. The servant of God looks to Gods Word, and there he finds that God has allowed this trouble to come upon him to try him, to see whether he really loves Him, to see whether that heart of the pilgrim responds to the heart of Him Who is its King, its Guide. And therefore he begins to feel that the trouble is, after all, one allowed to come upon him by God for some good reason of His own, and in that he receives comfort.
(c) It is my comfort, because it is one always present with me wherever I go. Wherever I am, there is that message from God which I recollect, remember imperfectly perhaps in reference to the exact words, but there it is. I store it up in my memory: it is an ever-present comfort.
II. Thy Word hath quickened me.The result of this comfort which God gives to His striving and faithful soldier, in these messages which He conveys through His revealed Word to His soul, gives him new life, quickens him.
This quickening of our spiritual life, this quickening of our effort in the affairs of our daily life, comes to us in two distinct ways.
(a) First of all it comes to us from outside, it comes to us from our reading of Gods Word. Holy Scripture is full of comfort and encouragement to those who strive with a good heart. Only be strong and of a good courage. When the apostles thought they were overwhelmed with the waves of the storm on the lake, Jesus was present with them, and when, in their fear, they saw Him coming, He cried out, Be not afraid! it is I. And we see in every page of Gods Word how God was the comfort and support of His servants of old.
(b) And it gives us new life from within. For we recall, in reference to that moment of our spiritual wakening, many a time when God was very good to us.
Rev. Canon Holmes.
Illustration
When we look into so long a psalm as the 119th we seem to see somewhat of the circumstances of the writers life. It is a late psalm, a psalm written by one who lived in times when the Jewish nation was being influenced by the heathen nations around, and it seemed almost as if the persecution had gone further in reference to him who wrote the psalm, as if they had actually placed him in durance vile. Yet, clinging more strongly to the words of God revealed to him and to his nation by the prophets of old, they were the sole comfort to him in his distress. The same is my comfort in my trouble: for Thy word hath quickened me. Now we come to the application to ourselves. Does it ever happen that we are similarly situated? Has it never occurred to us that we have been under influences which we felt were influences which tended to weaken the hold of the Christian faith upon our souls and our hearts? Certainly, we are from time to time brought face to face with persecution. Have we had recourse to Gods promises, written and preserved to us in Gods Word, and can we say with this pious Jew, The same is my comfort in my trouble?