Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 119:162
I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil.
162. Holy awe is not inconsistent with holy joy. Cp. Psa 119:119-120; Mat 28:8.
as one &c.] Cp. Isa 9:3.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil – Plunder in a camp; prey; booty: as the hunter or the warrior, when he lights on great and unexpected success.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 119:162
I rejoice at Thy Word, as one that findeth great spoil.
Great spoil
How often is this idea repeated in Scripture! It is developed by our Lord in several of His parables, and touches us all very nearly.
I. The discovery of the unexpected. Religion is full of surprises. A flash of Divine light will startle us with some new meaning in every line. The religious man is ever finding.
1. He finds new depths of his own possibilities.
2. He finds new regions of intense existence.
3. He finds new glories in all he sees.
4. He finds the unfathomable height of infinite love.
5. He finds the unspeakable wisdom of almighty purposes. The deeper he digs the more he discovers.
II. The obtaining great possessions–Finding great spoil.
1. Finding implies obtaining without cost. He who obtains eternal life does so without money and without price.
2. Finding implies activity. It may not mean seeking, for we may find without seeking. But no man can find unless he has his eyes open. The possession discovered is great. There is nothing mean in Gods kingdom–all is great. What is greater than soul-life? What is greater than heaven? What is greater than eternity? Great spoil! (Homilist.)
Great spoil
It is a figure taken from men of war, who, after they have overcome their enemy, divide the plunder among them. This expression is most natural as coming from David. David had been a soldier from his youth up, and he knew personally and literally what it was to divide the spoil. How I like to hear men both in prayer and praise speak like themselves! So must it be with the soldier: if cold, dead propriety rules him you will not know whether he is a soldier or a citizen; but let him grow enthusiastic, and his speech betrayeth him; wars and rumours of wars are in his utterances; he sings and prays to martial music.
I. This great joy is sometimes aroused by the fact that there is a Word of God.
1. This is true if we regard the Scriptures as a revealing of God. After going up and down in the world searching after Deity it is a great delight to come upon a book in which the one only living and true God has unveiled Himself to those who care to behold Him. It is a great find for a man to discover that after all he is not left in a fog to grope his way, but that God has kindled a sun that honest hearts may walk in the light of it and in that light see all things clearly.
2. We also prize it as the guide of our life. This Book tells us the right and bids us follow it; it teaches us the way of wisdom, and the path of understanding, and supplies motives for walking therein.
3. More than this, a word from God apprehended in the soul is a sure pledge of mercy. Consider what words those words of God are; how full of love, and grace, and tenderness.
4. Holy Scripture, when it comes to us with power as the Word of God, is the beginning of communion with God.
II. Frequently the joy of the believer in the Word arises out of his having had to battle to obtain a grasp of it.
1. We have had to fight over certain doctrines before we could really come at them.
2. What a fight there is sometimes over a promise.
3. Sometimes the hardest fight is round a precept.
4. A sharp warfare often goes on over the threatenings.
5. Yet, once more, this is true about the Word which reveals Christ. We know not Christ aright till we are conformed to what we know of Him. If Christ be lovely we shall not understand that loveliness till we are in a measure lovely ourselves. We must get to be like Him; and oh, when we do, then every lineament of that dear face will be conspicuously and transcendentally charming to us, because we have come to it through suffering.
III. At times the joy of the believer lies in enjoying Gods Word without any fighting at all.
1. The Word of the Lord is often as spoil found, not fought for. The promise lies before me on the way, and I find it, and by the law of the kingdom of grace it becomes mine for the finding. What joy is this?
2. The spoil, however, must have cost somebody else most dear, though it has cost us nothing. Ah, what a fight–Gethsemane and Calvary! Life, light, peace, joy, holiness, immortality, heaven,–all these are brought back by our great Conqueror, who has taken the prey from the mighty, and brought back the lawful captives, leading captivity captive. O, brethren, we do rejoice when we get a hold of the precious treasures of the Word as Jesus Christs spoil, fought for by Himself, and then distributed to us.
IV. There is a joy arising out of the very fact that Holy Scripture may be considered to be a spoil.
1. A spoil is the end of the uncertainty. When a man has in experience fought up to confidence in the Word of the Lord, or has had it effectually laid home by the Holy Spirit to his own soul, then he reaches the end of the controversy so far as he himself is concerned: he is dividing the spoil, for he says, We have known and believed the love which God hath, etc.
2. It is the weakening of the adversary for any future attacks; for when they divide the spoil they say to one another, The invaders will be here again, no doubt, before long; but they will not have this great gun to turn upon us; we have spiked it. They may again take up arms; but their force is broken. Every doubt a man conquers by resting on the infallible Word has weakened the power of unbelief within him, and strengthened his faith.
3. In dividing the spoil there is always a sense of victory, and so there is in believing Gods Word. In getting firm hold upon the faithful testimony of our God, we achieve a conquest over doubts, fears, disquietudes, and all our proud judgments of God.
4. In dividing the spoil there is profit, pleasure, and honour. When we can say that the things which God has revealed are ours, then we are rich beyond a misers dream; and when we can hold them against all comers, then that which we believe becomes our honour and gives glory to us, and glory to faith, and chief glory to Him who wrought our faith in us by His almighty Spirit.
5. The spoil is a prophecy of rest, and so is that delightful dividing up of the Word of God, and the appropriation thereof by faith. Ah, said the Romans when they spoiled old Carthage, we shall never see another Hannibal at our gates, nor dread the ships of Carthage in our seas. They had overcome their most potent adversary when they utterly spoiled her, and when they looked for a long period of peace. And that is the joy of receiving the Word. When we can believe that Jesus took our sins, and suffered for them on the tree, we are no more troubled as to the guilt of sin. When we believe that our heavenly Father overrules all things for the good of His people, then sorrow and sighing, fear and fretting flee away. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 162. As one that findeth great spoil.] shalal rab. This appears to refer to such spoil as is acquired by stripping the dead in a field of battle, taking the rich garments of the slain chiefs; or it may refer to plunder in general. As God opened his eyes he beheld wonders in his law; and each discovery of this kind was like finding a prize.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
162. (Compare Mat 13:44;Mat 13:45). Though persecuted bythe mighty, the pious are not turned from revering God’s authority toseek their favor, but rejoice in the possession of this “pearlof great price,” as great victors in spoils. Hating falsehoodand loving truth, often, every day, praising God for it, they findpeace and freedom from temptation.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil. At having it, which is a distinguishing blessing; all are not favoured with it; and is an inestimable treasure, a field in which a treasure lies; which those that find rejoice at, and especially at the understanding of it, as Kimchi notes: for such only delight in it who spiritually understand it, or have an application of it to them; find it, and eat it, and then it is the joy and rejoicing of their hearts. The doctrines of it are matter of great joy, particularly which concern the grace of God, the person of Christ, and peace, pardon, righteousness, and salvation by him; and each of its promises, which are exceeding great and precious; and, when opened and applied in a time of need, occasion great joy; such as is expressed at finding a great spoil, when much substance comes into the hands of the conqueror, as well as victory. The word is a part of the believer’s spiritual armour, by which he overcomes his enemies; as well as it acquaints him with the conquest Christ has obtained over them, and made him a sharer in; and directs him to unsearchable riches, to things more valuable than thousands of gold and silver; so that he has great reason to rejoice at it in such a manner indeed! see Isa 9:2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
162 I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil.
Here is, 1. The pleasure David took in the word of God. He rejoiced at it, rejoiced that God had made such a discovery of his mind, that Israel was blessed with that light when other nations sat in darkness, that he was himself let into the understanding of it and had had experience of the power of it. He took a pleasure in reading it, hearing it, and meditating on it, and every thing he met with in it was agreeable to him. He had just now said that his heart stood in awe of his word, and yet here he declares that he rejoiced in it. The more reverence we have for the word of God the more joy we shall find in it. 2. The degree of that pleasure–as one that finds great spoil. This supposes a victory over the enemy. It is through much opposition that a soul comes to this, to rejoice in God’s word. But, besides the pleasure and honour of a conquest, there is great advantage gained by the plunder of the field, which adds much to the joy. By the word of God we become more than conquerors, that is, unspeakable gainers.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
162. I have rejoiced at thy word as one who hath found great spoil No gain, it is well known, brings greater joy than that which conquerors acquire from the spoil of their enemies; for to the gain there is added the glory of triumph; and when profit comes on a sudden, the delight experienced is from that circumstance the greater. This is the reason why David compares the knowledge he had obtained of heavenly doctrine with spoils rather than with other riches; for by these words he intimates that his greatest joy was derived from the word of God, to which no gain however desirable could at all approach. From this was learn that he was contented with the word of God as a thing in which was all his delight, and in which he found solid felicity; which could not be, but, in the way of his first withdrawing his heart from all depraved desires. Nor is it wonderful to find David placing the whole sum of a happy life in the word of God, in which he well knew the treasure of eternal life to be included and offered to him by means of free adoption.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(162) Comp. Isa. 9:3.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 119:162 I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil.
Ver. 162. I rejoice at thy word ] Libenter omnibus omnes opes concesserim, &c., I would gladly leave all the wealth in the world to others, saith Cicero (Epist. lib. 9), so that I might without disturbance live and die in the study of learning. What marvel, then, that David was so taken with heavenly learning?
As one that findeth great spoil
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
word. Same word as in Psa 119:11. Some codices with Septuagint and Vulgate, read “words” (plural)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
rejoice: Psa 119:72, Psa 119:111, Jer 15:16
as one: 1Sa 30:16, Pro 16:19, Isa 9:3
Reciprocal: Psa 60:6 – rejoice Psa 119:14 – rejoiced Psa 119:24 – testimonies Psa 119:45 – for I seek Psa 119:131 – I longed Psa 119:174 – and thy law Pro 2:10 – General Pro 3:14 – General Pro 8:10 – General Pro 22:18 – it is Luk 18:30 – manifold more