Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 119:143
Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: [yet] thy commandments [are] my delights.
143. have taken hold on me ] Have befallen me, lit. found me.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Trouble and anguish – The word rendered trouble means affliction of any kind; the word rendered anguish would probably express that which results from being pressed, compressed, straitened. It properly refers to a situation where there is no room to move, and where we are pent up in a narrow place. The two words denote deep affliction.
Have taken hold on me – Margin, as in Hebrew, found me. That is, they were in pursuit of me, and have at last apprehended me. Trouble, anguish, death, are in pursuit of us all our lives, and are never very far in the rear of us. Often, when we least expect them, they come suddenly up to us, and make us their victims.
Yet thy commandments are my delights – Notwithstanding this trouble, and in this trouble – no matter what comes – I have the same unfailing source of comfort, the truth of God; and notwithstanding what may occur, I still make God and his law the source of my happiness. See the notes at Psa 119:24.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 143. Trouble and anguish] I am exercised with various trials from men and devils.
Have taken hold on me] But still I cleave to my God, and am delighted with his law.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Outward troubles and anguish of spirit, or great anguish or distress.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me,…. Or, “found me” a. Outward troubles and inward distress; troubles arising from his enemies, the men of the world, that hated and persecuted him; and from a body of sin and death, from the temptations of Satan, and divine desertions; some from without, and others from within; troubles both of body and mind, which is what all good men are liable to;
[yet] thy commandments [are] my delights; so far from being grievous, that they were a pleasure to him; yea, exceedingly delighted him, and cheered and refreshed his spirits amidst all his troubles.
a “invenerunt me”, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Musculus, Gejerus, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
143 Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments are my delights. 144 The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting: give me understanding, and I shall live.
These two verses are almost a repetition of the two foregoing verses, but with improvement. 1. David again professes his constant adherence to God and his duty, notwithstanding the many difficulties and discouragements he met with. He had said (v. 141), I am small and despised, and yet adhere to my duty. Here he finds himself not only mean, but miserable, as far as this world could make him so: Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me–trouble without, anguish within; they surprised him, they seized him, they held him. Sorrows are often the lot of saints in this vale of tears; they are in heaviness through manifold temptations. There he had said, Yet do I not forget thy precepts; here he carries his constancy much higher: Yet thy commandments are my delights. All this trouble and anguish did not put his mouth out of taste for the comforts of the word of God, but he could still relish them and find that peace and pleasure in them which all the calamities of this present time could not deprive him of. There are delights, variety of delights, in the word of God, which the saints have often the sweetest enjoyment of when they are in trouble and anguish, 2 Cor. i. 5. 2. He again acknowledges the everlasting righteousness of God’s word as before (v. 142): The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting and cannot be altered; and, when it is admitted in its power into a soul, it is there an abiding principle, a well of living water, John iv. 14. We ought to meditate much and often upon the equity and the eternity of the word of God. Here he adds, by way of inference, (1.) His prayer for grace: Give me understanding. Those that know much of the word of God should still covet to know more; for there is more to be known. He does not say, “Give me a further revelation,” but, Give me a further understanding; what is revealed we should desire to understand, and what we know to know better; and we must go to God for a heart to know. (2.) His hope of glory: “Give me this renewed understanding, and then I shall live, shall live for ever, shall be eternally happy, and shall be comforted, for the present, in the prospect of it.” This is life eternal, to know God, John xvii. 3.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Psa 119:143 Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: [yet] thy commandments [are] my delights.
Ver. 143. Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me ] Heb. have found me. Those (as we say of foul weather) come before they are sent for; yet are they not without the Lord. It is he that putteth his under the black rod.
Yet thy commandments, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
taken hold. Figure of speech Prosopopoeia. App-6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Trouble: Psa 119:107, Psa 18:4, Psa 18:5, Psa 88:3-18, Psa 116:3, Psa 130:1, Mar 14:33, Mar 14:34
taken hold on me: Heb. found me
yet thy: Psa 119:16, Psa 119:47, Psa 119:77, Job 23:12, Joh 4:34
Reciprocal: Gen 44:34 – come on Job 15:24 – anguish Psa 19:8 – rejoicing Psa 112:1 – delighteth Psa 119:24 – testimonies Psa 119:92 – thy law Rom 7:24 – wretched