Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 119:139
My zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words.
139. Cp. Psa 69:9.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
My zeal hath consumed me – Margin, cut me off. The word which is here translated consumed is rendered cut off in Lam 3:53; Job 23:17; Psa 54:5; Psa 88:16; Psa 94:23; Psa 101:5; Psa 143:12; vanish, Job 6:17; destroyed, Psa 73:27; 2Sa 22:41; Psa 18:40; Psa 101:8; Psa 69:4. It means here, that he pined away; that his strength was exhausted; that he was sinking under the efforts which he had put forth as expressive of his deep interest in the cause of God and of truth. On the sentiment here expressed, see the notes at Psa 69:9.
Because mine enemies have forgotten thy words – Thy law; thy commands. It was not because they were his foes – not because he was endeavoring to destroy them, or to take vengeance on them – but because they were unmindful of God, and of the claims of his law. It is a great triumph which religion gains over a mans soul, when, in looking on the conduct of persecutors, calumniators, and slanderers – of those who are constantly doing us wrong – we are more grieved because they violate the law of God than because they injure us; when our solicitude is turned from ourselves, and terminates on our regard for the honor of God and his law. Yet that is the nature of true religion; and that we should be able to find in ourselves in such circumstances. A man should doubt the evidence of his personal religion, if all his feelings terminate on the wrong done to himself by the wicked conduct of others; if he has no feeling of solicitude because the law of God has been violated, and God has been dishonored. Compare the notes at Psa 119:136.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 139. My zeal hath consumed me] My earnest desire to promote thy glory, and the pain I feel at seeing transgressions multiplied, have worn down both my flesh and spirits.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Hath consumed me; I am tormented and cut to the heart with grief and anger at it.
Have forgotten thy words, i.e. despise and disobey them; which in Scripture use is oft called a forgetting of them, as the remembering of them is oft put for loving and practising them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
139. (Ps69:9).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
My zeal hath consumed me,…. Zeal for God and his glory, for his word and ordinances and worship; which is a fervour of the mind, burning love, and flaming affections for God, shown in a holy indignation against sin and sinners. This was a zeal according to knowledge, sincere and hearty, and what continued; and which was shown in embracing and defending the truths of the word, and resenting every indignity cast upon them; to such a degree, that it ate up his spirit, wore away his flesh, and almost consumed him; see Ps 69:9;
because mine enemies have forgotten thy words; not merely through an indifference to them, and inattention in hearing them; nor through want of an earnest heed to keep and retain them; nor through negligence in laying them up, and a carelessness in making use of proper means to recollect them; but through an aversion to them, an hatred of them, and a spiteful malicious contempt of them, casting them away and despising them; which stirred up the spirit of the psalmist, and raised such an emotion in him as was almost too much for him.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
139 My zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words.
Here is, 1. The great contempt which wicked men put upon religion: My enemies have forgotten thy words. They have often heard them, but so little did they heed them that they soon forgot them, they willingly forgot them, not only through carelessness let them slip out of their minds, but contrived how to cast them behind their backs. This is at the bottom of all the wickedness of the wicked, and particularly of their malignity and enmity to the people of God; they have forgotten the words of God, else those would give check to their sinful courses. 2. The great concern which godly men show for religion. David reckoned those his enemies who forgot the words of God because they were enemies to religion, which he had entered into a league with, offensive and defensive. And therefore his zeal even consumed him, when he observed their impieties. He conceived such an indignation at their wickedness as preyed upon his spirits, even ate them up (as Christ’s zeal, John ii. 17), swallowed up all inferior considerations, and made him forget himself. My zeal has pressed or constrained me (so Dr. Hammond reads it), Acts xviii. 5. Zeal against sin should constrain us to do what we can against it in our places, at least to do so much the more in religion ourselves. The worse others are the better we should be.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
139. My zeal hath consumed me. (17) The Psalmist speaks of his persecutors, by whom it is certain he had been subjected to much trouble. But although they were virulent and cruel towards him, he avows that it was not so much his own private wrongs which offended him as the violation of God’s law; yea rather, that he was so consumed with grief on that account as not to be affected at all with his own individual troubles. This is an example from which much profit may be derived. We are too tender and delicate in bearing wrongs; and hence it is that if we are but touched with a finger, we are instantly inflamed with anger, whilst at the same time we are but coldly affected at the most grievous offenses committed against God. But if we are animated with the zeal that inspired the Prophet it will carry us away to another kind of sorrow, which will take entire possession of our souls.
(17) “ Hath consumed me. The strong term here made use of corresponds very well with the forcible language of the preceding verse. My zeal for thy word is so great, that when I see how my enemies disregard it, I am overpowered by feelings of shame at their neglect.” — Phillips.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Psa 119:139. My zeal hath consumed me See Psa 69:9. “My zeal towards thy law, which my enemies violate and contemn.” The original of very pure, in the next verse, is, tried in the fire; an allusion to metals, which are perfectly refined in the furnace and purified from all dross. Thus, in a spiritual sense, God’s word is very pure; i.e. perfectly good, without any mixture of error, or indulgence of vice.
KOPH.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 119:139 My zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words.
Ver. 139. My zeal hath consumed me ] Hath meagred and impaired me much. In the Hebrew the last letter is doubled, to increase the signification. Hebrew Text Note Zeal is the extreme heat of all the affections.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
zeal: Psa 69:9, 1Ki 19:10, 1Ki 19:14, Joh 2:17
consumed me: or, cut me off
because: Psa 53:4, Mat 9:13, Mat 12:3-5, Mat 15:4-6, Mat 21:13, Mat 21:16, Mat 21:42, Mat 22:29, Act 13:27, Act 28:23-27
Reciprocal: Num 25:13 – zealous Deu 26:13 – forgotten Hos 4:6 – seeing Mat 15:6 – Thus 2Co 7:11 – zeal Gal 4:18 – it is 2Pe 2:8 – in seeing
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 119:139-141. My zeal hath consumed me My zeal toward thy law, which my enemies violate and contemn. Zeal is a high degree of love; and when the object of that love is ill treated, it vents itself in a mixture of grief and indignation, which are sufficient to wear and consume the heart. This will be the case when men rightly conceive of that dishonour which is continually done to God by creatures whom he hath made and redeemed. But never could the verse be uttered with such fulness of truth and propriety by any one, as by the Son of God, who had such a sense of his Fathers glory, and of mans sin, as no person else ever had. And, accordingly, when his zeal had exerted itself in purging the temple, St. John tells us, his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up. Horne. Thy word is very pure Without the least mixture of any falsehood or sin; therefore thy servant loveth it Because of that exact purity and holiness of it; although, for that very reason, ungodly men either despise or hate it. I am small Hebrew, , a little one; not for age, but, in respect of my condition in the world, mean and obscure; yet do I not forget thy precepts As my conscience bears me witness. If we are small and despised, we have the more need to remember Gods precepts, that we may have them to support us under the pressures of a low condition.