Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 119:53
Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.
53. Horror &c.] Hot indignation seizes me. It was not unmingled with sorrow, Psa 119:136.
that forsake thy law ] Careless or apostate Israelites are clearly meant.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Horror hath taken hold upon me – Has seized me; has overpowered and overwhelmed me. I shudder; I tremble; I am afraid; I am filled with distress. Luther, I am burnt up. The Hebrew word – zalaphah – is from a verb meaning to be hot; to glow; and the idea in the word is that of violent heat; then, a glow or burning, as of a wind – the simoom of the desert. See Psa 11:6, where the word is translated horrible tempest, in the margin, burning. The word occurs only in that passage, in the one before us, and in Lam 5:10, where it is rendered terrible (famine), in the margin, terrors, or storms. The state referred to here is that of one who sees the storm of burning wind and sand approaching; who expects every moment to be overcome and buried; whose soul trembles with consternation.
Because of the wicked … – Their conduct alarms me. Their danger appals me. Their condition overwhelms me. I see them rebelling against God. I see them exposed to his wrath. I see the grave just before them, and the awful scenes of judgment near. I see them about to be cast off, and to sink to endless woe, and my soul is transfixed with horror. The contemplation overwhelms me with uncontrollable anguish. Can such things be? Can people be thus in danger? And can they be calm and composed, when so near such awful horrors? No man can look on the world of despair without horror; no one can truly realize that his fellow-men are exposed to the horrors of that abode without having his soul filled with anguish. Strange that all people do not feel thus – that impenitent people can walk along on the verge of the grave and of hell without horror – that pious people, good people, praying people, can look upon their friends in that condition without having their souls filled with unutterable anguish. Compare Psa 119:136; Rom 9:1-4; Luk 19:41.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 119:53
Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake Thy law.
The most horrible
Of all the horrible things in the universe wickedness is the most horrible.
I. It is most revolting to our sense of the beautiful. The aesthetical element exists in a greater or less degree in all moral minds. And the Creator has provided for it by flooding, the universe with beauty. The hideous and the ugly shock it with inexpressible pain, but what is so incongruous, so horrible as to see puny creatures rising in rebellion against the mighty Creator?
II. It is most revolting to our sense of the reasonable. What is more reasonable than for the greatest Being to be reverenced the most, the kindest Being to be thanked the most, the best Being to be adored the most? Yet wickedness is in antagonism to all this, it is an outrage on all the principles of moral propriety.
III. It is most revolting to our sense of the benevolent. In all moral minds there is implanted by the benevolent Creator a desire for the well-being of self and others. But wickedness strikes right against it, it breathes misery to all. (Homilist.)
The folly of forsaking the Divine law
The wicked that forsake Thy law. Men are like four-year-old children, that, going down to the sea-shore, and finding there a boat with its various appliances, think they will try their hand at navigation. It has been the custom of their elders to have, as a means of navigating boats, sails and oars and a tiller, with a rudder attached; but these children say, Let us not be bound to our fathers notions. And so with might and main they heave the mast and sails overboard, cast away the oars, and, unfastening the boat, they climb into it. And then, laughing and saying, Now for S voyage of the newest fashion, they push off, and when once the boat is set free the tide takes her, and as there is nothing to steer her she goes whirling round and round, or drifting in this direction or that, at the mercy of the waves. And when they are far from the land, and night is coming on, and the sea begins to get turbulent, then, without sails, without oars, without rudder, and without the capacity to manage the boat, with their little palms they try, over the side, to paddle her back. But what can these children do towards paddling that masterly boat with the wind and tide against them, and with no power but that of their little palms? And yet they are mighty to manage that boat, compared to men who unharness faith and throw off its spars, its oars, its ordinary means of navigation, and say, Now, having got rid of these superstitions, we will paddle our new views and systems in our own way. (H. W. Beecher.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 53. Horror hath taken hold upon me] The word zilaphah, which we render horror, is thought to signify the pestilential burning wind called by the Arabs simoom. Here it strongly marks the idea that the psalmist had of the destructive nature of sin; it is pestilential; it is corrupting, mortal.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Horror; a mixed passion made up of indignation at their persons as sinful, and abhorrency of their sins, and dread and sorrow at the consideration of the judgments of God coming upon them.
Because of the wicked that forsake thy law; for the dishonour which they bring to God, the scandal and mischief to others, and their own certain ruin.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
53. Horrorrather, “vehementwrath” [HENGSTENBERG].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Horror hath taken hold upon me,…. Trembling, sorrow, and distress, to a great degree, like a storm, or a blustering, scorching, burning wind, as the word h signifies, which is very terrible;
because of the wicked that forsake thy law: not only transgress the law of the Lord, as every man does, more or less; but wilfully and obstinately despise it, and cast it behind their backs, and live in a continued course of disobedience to it; or who apostatize from the doctrine of the word of God; wilfully deny the truth, after they have had a speculative knowledge of it, whose punishment is very grievous,
Heb 10:26; and now partly on account of the daring impiety of wicked men, who stretch out their hands against God, and strengthen themselves against the Almighty, and run upon him, even on the thick bosses of his bucklers; because of the shocking nature of their sins, the sad examples thereby set to others, the detriment they are of to themselves, and dishonour they bring to God; and partly because of the dreadful punishment that shall be inflicted on them here, and especially hereafter, when a horrible tempest of wrath will come upon them. Hence such trembling seized the psalmist; and often so it is, that good men tremble more for the wicked than they do for themselves; see Ps 119:120.
h “procella”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Schmidt “horror tanquam procella”, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
53 Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.
Here is, 1. The character of wicked people; he means those that are openly and grossly wicked: They forsake thy law. Every sin is a transgression of the law, but a course and way of wilful and avowed sin is downright forsaking it and throwing it off. 2. The impression which the wickedness of the wicked made upon David; it frightened him, it put him into an amazement. He trembled to think of the dishonour thereby done to God, the gratification thereby given to Satan, and the mischiefs thereby done to the souls of men. He dreaded the consequences of it both to the sinners themselves (and cried out, O gather not my soul with sinners! let my enemy be as the wicked) and to the interests of God’s kingdom among men, which he was afraid would be thereby sunk and ruined. He does not say, “Horror has taken hold on me because of their cruel designs against me,” but “because of the contempt they put on God and his law.” Sin is a monstrous horrible thing in the eyes of all that are sanctified, Jer 5:30; Jer 23:14; Hos 6:10; Jer 2:12.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
53. Terror seized me (418) This verse may be understood in two senses; either that the prophet was grievously afflicted when he saw God’s law violated by the wicked, or that he was horror-struck at the thought of their perdition. Some would render it ardor, which does not so properly agree with the nature of the passage; I therefore abide by the term fear, by which I think his ardent zeal is pointed out, in that he was not only deeply grieved at the transgressions of the law, but held in the utmost detestation the impious boldness of those who lightly esteemed the law of God. At the same time, it is worthy of notice, that it is no new ground of offense to the faithful, if numbers throw off God’s yoke, and set up the standard of rebellion against him. This, I repeat, must be attended to, because many derive flimsy and frivolous pretexts for it, from the degeneracy of the age, as if they must needs howl while they live among wolves. In the days of David, we see there were many who apostatized from the faith, and yet, so far was he from being discouraged or dismayed by these things, that the fear of God rather kindled a holy indignation in his bosom. What is to be done, then, when surrounded by bad examples, but that we should vie with each other in holding them up to detestation? And here a contrast, if not directly stated, is implied, between the flattering unction which we apply to ourselves, believing that all is lawful which is common, and the horror with which the prophet tells us he was seized. If the wicked, haughtily and without restraint, set themselves in opposition to God, in consequence of our not being alive to his judgments, we convert that into an occasion of perverse confidence and insensibility. On the contrary, the prophet asserts that he was seized with horror, because, though he considered the long-suffering of God, on the one hand, yet, on the other, he was fully persuaded that he must, sooner or later, call for condign punishment.
(418) The Hebrew word here used for terror is זלעפה, zalaphah, and is supposed to refer to the blasting or scorching wind, called the Simoom, well known to the Eastern nations. Accordingly, Michaelis reads, “A deadly East wind seizes me.” Cocceius reads, “Horror, as a tempest, has seized upon me.” “The sacred writer,” says he, “represents the vehement commotion of his mind as resembling a violent commotion in the air.” According to Dimock, זלעפה denotes, in this place, the burning fever which the pestilential winds in the East occasioned. The word occurs only three times in Scripture; here, in Psa 11:7, and in Lam 5:10. Our translators have rendered it, in Psa 11:7, by storm, and in Lam 5:10, in the margin, plurally by terrors or storms. See volume 1, page 168, note.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(53) Horror.Rather, violent indignation, a storm of rage, hot and fierce as the simoon. For the word, see Psa. 11:6, Note.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 119:53 Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.
Ver. 53. Horror hath taken hold upon me ] Horripilatio, turbo, vortex, a horrible tempest, Psa 11:6 , such as surpriseth holy Habakkuk, Hab 3:16 .
Because of the wicked
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Horror = Indignation.
wicked = lawless. Hebrew. rasha’.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
horror: Zilaphah properly signifies the pestilential burning wind called by the Arabs Simoom (see Psa 11:6). It is here used in a figurative sense for the most horrid mental distress; and strongly marks the idea the Psalmist had of the corrupting, pestilential, and destructive nature of sin. Psa 119:136, Psa 119:158, Ezr 9:3, Ezr 9:14, Ezr 10:6, Jer 13:17, Dan 4:19, Hab 3:16, Luk 19:41, Luk 19:42, Rom 9:1-3, 2Co 12:21, Phi 3:18
Reciprocal: Psa 89:30 – forsake Psa 119:120 – My flesh Jer 4:19 – My bowels Jer 9:13 – General Eze 9:4 – that sigh 2Co 11:3 – I fear
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 119:53. Horror hath taken hold upon me A mixed passion, made up of abhorrence of their sins, and dread and sorrow at the consideration of the judgments of God coming upon them; because of the wicked, &c. For the dishonour which they bring to God, the scandal and mischief to others, and their own certain ruin.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
119:53 {d} Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.
(d) That is, a vehement zeal to your glory and indignation against the wicked.