Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 119:109
My soul [is] continually in my hand: yet do I not forget thy law.
109. ‘To put one’s life in one’s hand’ is a metaphor for hazarding it (Jdg 12:3; 1Sa 19:5 ; 1Sa 28:21; Job 13:14), apparently because a treasure carried in the hand instead of being concealed is liable to be lost or snatched away. The reading of some MSS of the LXX in thy hands is doubtless a correction of a phrase which was not understood.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
My soul is continually in my hand – The Septuagint renders this, My soul is always in thy hands, but the Hebrew will not admit of this construction. The idea in the original is that his soul – his life – was always in jeopardy. The expression seems to be proverbial. Anything taken in the hand is liable to be rudely snatched away. Thus a casket of jewels, or a purse of gold in the hand, may at any moment be seized by robbers. See the notes at Job 13:14. Compare 1Sa 19:5; Jdg 12:3. The meaning here is, that his life was constantly in danger.
Yet do I not forget thy law – Notwithstanding the danger to which I am exposed, and the care necessary to defend my life, I do not allow my mind to be turned from meditating on thy law, nor do I suffer any danger to deter me from obeying it. Compare the notes at Psa 119:61.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 119:109-112
My soul is continually in my hand.
Religion
Religion is here presented in three aspects.
I. As a deeply felt need in the immediate prospect of death. My soul is continually in my hand. That is, my life is in constant danger: death confronts me.
II. As a spirit of persevering faithfulness through all trials.
1. It is a persevering spirit. Yet I do not forget Thy law.
2. It holds on through all trials. The wicked have laid a snare for me, still I erred not.
3. It holds on through all trials to the end, Even unto the end.
III. As a precious inheritance and a permanent joy.
1. Genuine religion is an inheritance. A heritage for ever. It is the only intrinsic, inalienable inheritance.
2. Genuine religion is a permanent joy. For they are the rejoicing of my heart. True goodness never fails to flood the soul with joy. It is indeed a well of water. (Homilist.)
Mans bodily life
Let soul here stand for mans bodily life, and then we have two thoughts suggested.
I. It is something outside of himself. The human frame, with its complicated parts and various organs is no more the man than the house is the resident, the costume the wearer, the harp the lyrist. We carry it in our hand.
II. It is sometimes that he must surrender. This implies–
1. A sense of temporariness.
2. A sense of obligation. We should always be ready to present our bodies, as well as our souls and spirits, a sacrifice unto God. (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 109. My soul is continually in my hand] naphshi, my life; that is, it is in constant danger, every hour I am on the confines of death. The expression signifies to be in continual danger. So Xenarchus in Athenaeus, lib. xiii., c. 4: , “having the life in the hand;” which signifies continual danger and jeopardy. There is some thing like this in the speech of Achilles to Ulysses, HOM. Il. ix., ver. 322: –
“Always presenting my life to the dangers of the fight.”
My soul is in thy hand, is the reading of the Syriac, Septuagint, AEthiopic, and Arabic; but this is a conjectural and useless emendation.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In my hand; exposed to perpetual and extreme danger, as any precious and frail thing is which a man carrieth openly in his hand, whence it may easily fall or be snatched away by a violent hand. See the same or like phrase, Jdg 12:3; 1Sa 19:5; Job 13:14.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
109, 110. In the midst of deadlyperils (the phrase is drawn from the fact that what we carry in ourhands may easily slip from them, Jdg 12:3;1Sa 28:21; Job 13:14;compare 1Sa 19:5), and exposedto crafty enemies, his safety and guidance is in the truth andpromises of God.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
My soul [is] continually in my hand,…. In the utmost jeopardy, always exposed to danger, ever delivered unto death; killed all the day long, or liable to be so: this is the sense of the phrase; see Jud 12:3; for what is in a man’s hands may easily fall, or be taken out of them: so the Targum,
“my soul is in danger upon the back of my hands continually;”
the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions, read, “in thy hands”; but wrongly;
yet do I not forget thy law; it was written on his heart, and fixed in his mind; he had a true affection for it, and a hearty desire to keep it; and no danger could divert him from his duty; as Daniel, though he carried his life in his hand, yet continued to pray to his God as usual; nor could anything move the Apostle Paul from the doctrine of the Gospel, and preaching it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
109 My soul is continually in my hand: yet do I not forget thy law. 110 The wicked have laid a snare for me: yet I erred not from thy precepts.
Here is, 1. David in danger of losing his life. There is but a step between him and death, for the wicked have laid a snare for him; Saul did so many a time, because he hated him for his piety. Wherever he was he found some design or other laid against him to take away his life, for it was that they aimed at. What they could not effect by open force they hoped to compass by treachery, which made him say, My soul is continually in my hand. It was so with him, not only as a man (so it is true of us all; wherever we are we lie exposed to the strokes of death; what we carry in our hands is easily snatched away from us by violence, or if sandy, as our life is, it easily of itself slips through our fingers), but as a man of war, a soldier, who often jeoparded his life in the high places of the field, and especially as a man after God’s own heart, and, as such, hated and persecuted, and always delivered to death (2 Cor. iv. 11), killed all the day long. 2. David in no danger of losing his religion, notwithstanding this, thus in jeopardy every hour and yet constant to God and his duty. None of these things move him; for, (1.) He does not forget the law, and therefore he is likely to persevere. In the multitude of his cares for his own safety he finds room in his head and heart for the word of God, and has that in his mind as fresh as ever; and where that dwells richly it will be a well of living water. (2.) He has not yet erred from God’s precepts, and therefore it is to be hoped he will not. He had stood many a shock and kept his ground, and surely that grace which had helped him hitherto would not fail him, but would still prevent his wanderings.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
109. My soul is continually in my hand. He declares, that no calamities, afflictions, or dangers, which he had experienced: had withdrawn him from the service of God, and the observance of his law. To bear his soul in his hand, is equivalent to his being in danger of his life, so that the soul was, as it were abandoned to the wind. Thus Job, (Job 13:14,) when he pines in his miseries: and is looking for death every moment, and dreading it, complains that his soul was in his hand; as if he had said, It is plucked from its own dwelling-place: and is under the dominion of death. (434) This form of expression is therefore unhappily wrested to an absurd meaning by ignorant people, who understand the prophet as intimating, that it was in his own power to govern his life as he pleased. So far from intending to convey such an idea, by this circumstance he commends his own piety, declaring, that although he was tossed among shipwrecks, and death in a hundred forms hovered before his eyes, so that he could not rest in security for a single moment, yet he had not cast from him the love and study of the Divine law. Here, again, it is well to notice the severe and arduous conflicts by which the fathers, under the law, were tried, that dangers and fears may not frighten us, or, by the weariness they produce, deprive us of courage, and thus prevent the remembrance of the Divine law from remaining impressed on our hearts.
(434) This proverbial expression occurs in several other places of Scripture, in all of which it undoubtedly signifies, that the life of the person who employs it is in danger; as in Jud 12:3, “And when I saw that ye delivered me not, I put my life in my hands, and passed over against the children of Ammon;” 1Sa 19:5, “ He put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistines;” and 1Sa 28:21, “And the woman came unto Saul, and said, I have put my life in my hand. ” Phillips thus explains the figure: “We are accustomed to say, that an affair is in a person’s hands when the management and issue of it rest entirely with him, and so we speak when that affair is the life or death of an individual. Hence, similarly, when the Hebrews spoke of a person’s life being in his own hands, they might mean, that the preservation of his life was entirely with him, that he was destitute of all external assistance, and that consequently his life was in danger. This is particularly the case with military men, who, as they fight bravely, or otherwise, may preserve or lose their lives: so Jephthah, as appears from the passages above cited.” The figure may, however, be taken from the circumstance, that what a man carries openly in his hand is in danger of taking, or of being snatched away by violence. “The LXX. have changed the person of the pronoun, ἐν ταῖς χερσι σου; in thy hands; as also the Syriac. It is probable that these ancient interpreters did not understand the phrase, and so expressed it according to what they thought might be the original reading, thus affording a very obvious sense. Augustine says, that many MSS. in his time had the second person. However, no such MSS. are known now, and there is no doubt whatever of the correctness of the present text. The Psalmist states that, though his life was in danger, yet he did not forget God’s law.” — Ibid
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(109) My soul.For this figure of peril see Jdg. 12:3; 1Sa. 19:5, &c.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 119:109. My soul is continually in my hand See Job 13:14. Some copies read thy hand, and they are followed by Appolinarius, and the Ethiopic and Arabic versions: but the present seems the more proper reading, as the expression denotes a state of constant danger. See 1Sa 28:21.
SAMECH.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 119:109 My soul [is] continually in my hand: yet do I not forget thy law.
Ver. 109. My soul (or life) is continually in my hand] i.e. Continually hazarded and ready to be laid down for righteousness’ sake. I am neither fond of life nor afraid of death in this case; I make no more of life than a child doth of his bird, which he carrieth in the palm of his hand held open. See Jdg 12:3 Job 13:14 .
Yet do I not forget thy law
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
in my hand. An idiom for great danger. Compare Jdg 12:3. 1Sa 19:5; 1Sa 28:21. Job 13:14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
My soul: Rather, “My life naphshee is continually in my hand;” i.e., it is in constant danger; every hour I am on the confines of death. The LXX, Syriac, and Ethiopic read, “in thy hand;” but this is a conjectural and useless alteration. Jdg 12:3, 1Sa 19:5, 1Sa 20:3, Job 13:14, Rom 8:36, 1Co 15:31, 2Co 11:23
yet do I not: Psa 119:83, Psa 119:117, Psa 119:152
Reciprocal: Psa 119:16 – not forget Psa 119:141 – yet do Psa 119:153 – for I Jer 26:21 – the king sought Heb 12:5 – ye have forgotten
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 119:109-110. My soul is continually in my hand Exposed to perpetual and extreme danger, as any precious and frail thing is which a man carries openly in his hand, and which he may easily let fall, or be deprived of by violence. This is true of us all: we stand in jeopardy every hour, and there is but a step between us and death. But David considered himself as being peculiarly in danger, because, as he says in the next verse, the wicked had laid a snare for him Intending, probably, Saul and his courtiers, who were unwearied in their endeavours to get him into their power, that they might take away his life.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
119:109 My {d} soul [is] continually in my hand: yet do I not forget thy law.
(d) That is, I am in continual danger of my life.