Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 119:140
Thy word [is] very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.
140. pure ] Lit. tried, or, refined: like pure gold without any admixture of dross. Cp. Psa 18:30; Psa 12:6.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thy word is very pure – Margin, tried or refined. See the word explained in the notes at Psa 18:30.
Therefore thy servant loveth it – Therefore I love it. I love it because it is pure, holy, true; not merely because it will save me. Apart from all reference to myself. I love thy truth as truth; I love purity as purity; I love law as law; I love holiness as holiness. This is true religion.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 119:140
Thy Word is very pure; therefore Thy servant loveth it.
Religious affections spring from love to Divine things
1. A love to Divine things for the beauty of their moral excellency is the spring of all holy affections.
2. There is given to believers a new, supernatural sense, which perceives the beauty of holiness and is affected thereby. A holy object calls out a holy affection. The beauty and sweetness of holiness as found in God forms the grand object of a spiritual taste and appetite.
3. This moral beauty in God leads to the adoration of God by saint and angel.
Conclusions.
1. By this all may try their affections, their love and their joy. Graceless persons see no beauty in holy things.
2. The natural mind may have a great sense of Gods greatness, wisdom and power: that is, of His natural attributes.
3. This sense of the natural mind may affect men in various ways–fill them with awe and terror, or with joy and praise. Hence too much stress may be placed upon the mere natural discoveries of the natural attributes in God. Man may be overwhelmed by a sense of Gods greatness and majesty, and yet be without a particle of love to Divine things. But to the spiritual mind the natural attributes of God are all the more engaging because they are supplemented by His moral attributes.
4. And so, I may add, what love to Divine things do those possess who seem to be filled with worldliness, and are so fond of operas, theatres and frivolous amusements? (Homiletic Review.)
Gods Word tried to the uttermost
(P. B. Version:–Notice a few of the ways in which the Word of God has been tried and found perfect.
I. By prophecy. Things, and events, and persons have been foretold and described in it with the minutest detail, and they have all in due time been accomplished; as the seed of the woman predicted in Paradise, the deluge, the birth of Isaac, and Abrahams numerous posterity, the respective characters of Jacob and Esau, the future history of the twelve tribes, foretold by Jacob on his death-bed, the prophet like unto Moses, the 430 years of Israels wanderings, the deliverance from Egypt, and possession of Palestine, etc.
II. By miracles. Tried to the uttermost has the Word of God been by miracles of every variety, performed on every element, on the living and the dead, on fire and water, on Satan and his legions, on disease, the brute creation, and especially by the Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord.
III. By persecution. Satan and wicked men have often tried to quench this spirit from Heaven. As Ahab hated Michaiah, and for the same reason, because he told him the truth, men have fettered and silenced and destroyed the Word of God. Jehoiakim was not the only one who cut and burnt the sacred Scriptures. It has been tried to the uttermost in the furnace of persecution, and the result is that it is very pure, proved more manifestly than ever to be from heaven.
IV. By science.
V. By experience. Thousands, millions have proved it to be Gods power unto salvation. It has enlightened, renewed, comforted, and saved them. (John Harding, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 140. Thy word is very pure] tseruphah, it is purification. It is not a purified thing, but a thing that purifies. “Now ye are clean,” said Christ, “by the word I have spoken unto you.” God’s word is a fire to purify as well as a hammer to break.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Very pure; without the least mixture of any falsehood or sin, both which are frequent in the words or precepts of men.
Therefore; because of that exact purity and holiness of it, for which very reason ungodly men either despise or hate it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
140. very pureliterally,”refined,” shown pure by trial.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thy word is very pure,…. Or, “exceedingly purified” w: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times, Ps 12:6; free from, all drossy matter; from any mixtures, or the corruptions and doctrines of men; and which tends and leads to purity of heart and life;
therefore thy servant loveth it; that which carnal men hate the word of God for, because it forbids and condemns all impurity of flesh and spirit, all impure thoughts, words, and actions; that a good man loves it for, and which is an evidence of a sanctified heart.
w “purificatum valde”, Montanus; “liquatum, vel expurgatum valde”, Gejerus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
140 Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.
Here is, 1. David’s great affection for the word of God: Thy servant loves it. Every good man, being a servant of God, loves the word of God, because it lets him know his Master’s will and directs him in his Master’s work. Wherever there is grace there is a warm attachment to the word of God. 2. The ground and reason of that affection; he saw it to be very pure, and therefore he loved it. Our love to the word of God is then an evidence of our love to God when we love it for the sake of its purity, because it bears the image of God’s holiness and is designed to make us partakers of his holiness. It commands purity, and, as it is itself refined from all corrupt mixture, so if we receive it in the light and love of it it will refine us from the dross of worldliness and fleshly-mindedness.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
140. Thy word is exceedingly refined. In this verse he intimates that the cause of his zeal was the love which he bore to heavenly doctrine. For to be displeased with or severely to condemn the contempt of divine truth, unless we are bound to it by the cords of love, is pure hypocrisy. And he affirms that his love to God’s word was not a rash, or a blind and inconsiderate affection, but that he loved it, because like gold or silver which has been refined, it was pure and free from all dregs and dross. This is the idea contained in the metaphorical term צרופה , tseruphah, translated refined; (18) and though it seems to be commonplace, yet, vindicating God’s word from all perverse and malicious judgments, it expresses graphically the true obedience of faith. How few are there who are not guilty, either by their distrust, or waywardness, or pride, or voluptuousness, of casting upon God’s word some spot or stain! The flesh then being so rebellious, it is no small commendation of revealed truth, when it is compared to gold well refined, so that it shines pure from all defilement. Farther, it serves not a little to show the truth of this testimony, that the Prophet confirms it by his own experience. The more effectually to repress the foolish rashness with which we are chargeable whenever we imagine that there is any fault in God’s word, he declares that in commending it he gives utterance to the unfeigned feeling of his heart, having experienced a blissful pleasure in that purity of which he speaks.
(18) Dr. Adam Clarke translates צרופה, tseruphah, by purification. This rendering conveys a beautiful idea. God’s word is not only a purified thing, but a thing that purifies. It cleanses from sin every heart with which it comes into contact.
“
Now ye are clean,” said Christ, “by the word which I have spoken unto you.” (Joh 15:3.)
This tendency of the word to impart a measure of its own purity to such as yield to its influence, endears it to all God’s people; and for this reason they make it the subject of their constant meditation.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(140) Pure.More literally, purged by trial. LXX. and Vulg., fired. It is not only the excellence, but the proved excellence, of the Divine Word, which is the object of love and adoration here.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 119:140 Thy word [is] very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.
Ver. 140. Thy word is very pure ] And calleth for purity. Hence wicked men slight it; but saints the rather embrace it, desirous to be conformed to the heavenly pattern.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
very pure = refined.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Thy word: Gold has need to be refined; but thy word is purity itself, reflecting the holiness of Jehovah’s character and government, and requiring and leading to purity of heart and life.
pure: Heb. tried, or refined, Psa 119:128, Psa 12:6, Psa 18:30, Psa 19:8, Pro 30:5, Rom 7:12, Rom 7:16, Rom 7:22, 1Pe 2:2, 2Pe 1:21
Reciprocal: 2Sa 22:31 – the word Psa 119:47 – which Rom 3:2 – the oracles 1Jo 5:3 – and