Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 119:141
I [am] small and despised: [yet] do not I forget thy precepts.
141. small and despised ] Insignificant in the eyes of men (not, as LXX, young, ), and despised for his strict adherence to the law; but neither the glamour of worldly power nor the sting of worldly contempt can move him from his allegiance.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I am small and despised – The word here rendered small may mean small in respect to number – that is, few, Mic 5:2; Isa 60:22; or in respect to age – young, Gen 19:31; or in respect to dignity – low; least in rank or esteem. The language here may be applied to the church as comparatively few; to one who is young; or to one in humble life. Either of these may be a reason why one is regarded as of little consequence, or may be subject to reproach and ridicule. It is not possible to determine in which of these senses the word is used here, or in which sense it was applicable to the psalmist. The word despised means treated as unworthy of notice; passed by; looked upon with contempt. This might be on account of age, or poverty, or ignorance, or humble rank: or it might be simply on account of his religion, for the friends of God have been, and often are, despised simply because they are religious. The Saviour was despised by people; the apostles were; the most excellent of the earth in all ages have been. Compare Heb 11:36-38; 1Co 4:13.
Yet do not I forget thy precepts – I am not ashamed of them. I am not deterred from keeping them, and from avowing my purpose to obey them, because I am despised for it. This is often one of the severest tests of religion, and to be faithful in such circumstances is one of the clearest proofs of true attachment to God. There are few things which we are less able to bear than contempt, and one of the best evidences of attachment to principle is when we adhere to what we regard as right and true, though we are despised for it by the frivolous, the worldly, the rich – by those who claim to be wise. He who can bear contempt on account of his opinions, can usually bear anything.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 119:141
I am small and despised: yet do not I forget Thy precepts.
The common lot
I wish to speak of our own separate lives. To the most wearied of you all, I would teach that there is hope. I would say, in spite of every trial which Gods disguised mercy may send you, in spite of every humiliation which mans undisguised malice may inflict upon you, Respect yourselves! Value at its true estimate the soul which God has given to you; believe in the splendour of its possibilities and the glory of its immortality. He, says Milton, who holds himself in reverence and due esteem both for the dignity of Gods image upon him and for the price of his redemption, which he thinks to be possibly marked upon his forehead, accounts himself a fit person to do the noblest and godliest deeds, and much better worth than to deject and defile with such debasement and pollution as sin, is himself so highly ransomed and ennobled to new friendship and filial relationship with God; nor can he fear so much the offence and reproach of others as he dreads and would blush at the reflection of his own severe and modest eye upon himself, if it should see him doing or imagining that which is sinful, were it even in the deepest secrecy. Thus, then, should we view our personal lives in that inherent grandeur which man can neither bestow upon them nor diminish. And we need thus to feel the sanctity of our beings. Do I net interpret the thoughts of many of you aright when I say that they are very often weighed down by depression and discontent. I ask whether many of you are not secretly saying in your hearts, Oh that I had a higher position, a wider influence, a larger scope? What boots it for me, some of you will say, to come day after day through the weary streets to the dingy office, to copy and east up accounts till I am grey-headed and cast aside, or retire upon some miserable pension? Or, Why am I a humble tradesman, harassed by incessant anxiety about my business? Or, Why is no higher lot assigned to me in life than that of standing behind a counter to weigh sugar or measure ribbons? Or, Why am I a poor, lonely woman who has apparently missed many of the natural ends of life, whom there are none to praise and very few to love? And so, more or less, all but a few of us have a lot in life, as has been described, all the harder to bear because in the pathos of it everything is below the level of tragedy, except the passionate egotism of the sufferer. Ah! how many of these discontented murmurs rise from false notions and exaggerated claims; how many of them would vanish if, having food and raiment, we would be therewith content! Our complaints and miseries rise in no small measure from our failure to grasp the real meaning, and to understand the universal experience of life; they rise because, dropping the substance we grasp at the shadow; they rise because we take for solid realities the bubbles which burst at a touch. A child crying because it cannot have the moon is not more foolish and ignorant than we are when we suffer ourselves to be unhappy because wealth, and rank, and success, and power come to others and not to us. Keep Gods commandments, and you, small and of no reputation as you may be, are much greater, and bettor, and happier than another who has all earthly gifts, and does not make his moral being his primo cars, as heaven is greater and better than earth. You sigh for riches; the Book in which you profess to believe pours silent contempt on gold. You wish for rank; the man who has the longest ancestry has no longer ancestry than yourselves. He and you are descended alike from the gardener of the lost Eden. You wish for genius, but he who increaseth knowledge very often increaseth sorrow. It is one of the most elementary lessons in life to know that these little earthly distinctions dwindle into absolute insignificance compared with real things, as time dwindles into nothing when compared to eternity. The world may, perhaps, hold you to be commonplace and insignificant people; but the world needs these hardly less than its gifted ones. It would be a woeful thing for the human race if all that is insignificant and all the commonplace were to be thrust to stand there or sit there, under others footstools, for the commonplace and the insignificant are the vast majority. Ninety-nine out of every hundred of us are in this sense, in the sense of the world, altogether commonplace and insignificant. Is it not the masses and the million who make mankind? What else have been the countless generations who lie under the miles of gravestones and ever extend-hag pavements of tombs and sepulchres? How many of all those who lie in the catacombs or in the cemetery, in the marble monument or mountain cave, have left even the shadow of a name? Our lot, then, is nothing exceptional, nothing to complain of, nothing to be depressed at. It is just the common, the all-but-universal lot. It has nothing to do with the essential meaning of life. (Dean Farrar.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 141. I am small and despised] And on these accounts have every thing to fear. Being small, I cannot resist; being despised, I am in danger; but even all this does not induce me to start aside, or through the fear of man to be unfaithful to thee.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Small; or, a little one; not for age, but in respect of my condition in the world; mean and obscure.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
141. The pious, however despisedof men, are distinguished in God’s sight by a regard for His law.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I [am] small and despised,…. Or, “I have been” x. Some versions render it “young” y; as if it had respect to the time of his anointing by Samuel, when he was overlooked and despised in his father’s family, 1Sa 16:11; but the word here used is not expressive of age, but of state, condition, and circumstances; and the meaning is, that he was little in his own esteem, and in the esteem of men, and was despised; and that on account of religion, in which he was a type of Christ, Ps 22:6; and which is the common lot of good men, who are treated by the world as the faith of it, and the offscouring of all things;
[yet] do not I forget thy precepts; to observe and keep them: the ill treatment of men on account of religion did not cause him to forsake it, or to leave the ways, word, and worship of God; see
Ps 119:83.
x “ego fui, et adhuc sum”, Michaelis. y , Sept. “adolescentulus”, V. L.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
141 I am small and despised: yet do not I forget thy precepts.
Here is, 1. David pious and yet poor. He was a man after God’s own heart, one whom the King of kings did delight to honour, and yet small and despised in his own account and in the account of many others. Men’s excellency cannot always secure them from contempt; nay, it often exposes them to the scorn of others and always makes them low in their own eyes. God has chosen the foolish things of the world, and it has been the common lot of his people to be a despised people. 2. David poor and yet pious, small and despised for his strict and serious godliness, yet his conscience can witness for him that he did not forget God’s precepts. He would not throw off his religion, though it exposed him to contempt, for he knew that was designed to try his constancy. When we are small and despised we have the more need to remember God’s precepts, that we may have them to support us under the pressures of a low condition.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
141. I am, insignificant and despised. The meaning is, that although he was tried with poverty and many other calamities, he steadily persevered in the exercise of true godliness, and in the observance of the law. On that account, as he states, he was despised by wicked men. Every man gives praise to God just in proportion as he is gorged with his benefits; and very few will be found applying their minds to the service of God, unless they have all their wishes gratified. Hence it comes to pass that hypocrites, as long as they are pampered to the full, accumulate riches and increase in power, are very lavish in praising God. But let them be treated in some degree roughly, and immediately the blessed name of God is heard of no more. Since then men are ordinarily mercenary in serving God, let us learn from the Prophet’s example that true godliness is disinterested, so that when under its influence we cease not to praise God, although he may afflict us with adversity and make us despised in the eyes of the world. These upbraiding words of Christ in Joh 6:26, ought, no doubt, to be carefully attended to,
“
Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.” (Joh 6:26)
The persons then who serve God ingenuously and sincerely, are such as continue steadfast in his fear, although their condition in this world may be mean and despised; in short, they are such as seek not their reward on earth, but through heat and cold, poverty and danger, slanders and mockeries, persevere with unwearied steps in the course of their warfare.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(141) These words are hardly applicable to an individual, while to the struggling Israel, in relation to the great Eastern Powers, they are peculiarly suitable.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 119:141 I [am] small and despised: [yet] do not I forget thy precepts.
Ver. 141. I am small and despised ] Minutus, a worm and no man, an abject and outcast, nullificamen hominis, &c.
Yet do I not forget thy precepts
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
small = insignificant. Compare Jdg 6:15.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
small: Psa 22:6, Psa 40:17, Pro 15:16, Pro 16:8, Pro 19:1, Isa 53:3, Luk 6:20, Luk 9:58, 2Co 8:9, Jam 2:5
yet do: Psa 119:109, Psa 119:176, Pro 3:1
Reciprocal: Deu 26:13 – forgotten 1Sa 18:23 – and lightly Psa 119:16 – not forget Psa 119:153 – for I Gal 4:14 – ye
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
119:141 I [am] {c} small and despised: [yet] do not I forget thy precepts.
(c) This is the true trial to praise God in adversity.