Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 119:165
Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.
165. Those who love the law find it a spring of constant inward peace, even in the midst of outward persecution: and they have none occasion of stumbling (R.V.). Cp. 1Jn 2:10, and the LXX here, . “They walk firmly and safely on the clear path of duty” without stumbling and falling through sin. Cp. Eze 18:30, “Repent and iniquity shall not be a stumblingblock unto you.” They are not ‘scandalized,’ made to stumble and driven into scepticism by the sight of the anomalies of the world, such as suffering goodness and triumphant wickedness. “They are free from the ‘stumbling of heart’ (1Sa 25:31) the paralysing weakness which follows on the consciousness of having wronged, or of bearing ill-will to, a brother” (Kay). The P.B.V. and they are not offended at it appears to be Coverdale’s mistaken paraphrase of the Zrich Version, “und werdend sich niemermer stossen.”
166 a . From Gen 49:18, with the substitution of a later word sibbr for hope for the sake of the initial letter.
and have done thy commandments ] To the LXX the phrase seemed over-bold, and they substituted and loved (cp. Psa 119:163). The same feeling may have prompted Coverdale to render “done after thy commandments.”
167 a . Cp. 129 b.
and I love ] P.B.V. and loved is from LXX through Vulg. So also Jer.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Great peace have they – See the notes at Isa 26:3; compare the notes at Phi 4:6-7. They have great calmness of mind. They are not troubled and anxious. They believe and feel that all things are well-ordered by thee, and will be conducted to the best result. They, therefore, calmly leave all with thee. As a matter of fact, the friends of God have peace and calmness in their minds, even amidst the troubles, the disappointments, and the reverses of life. The love of God is the best – the only – way to secure permanent peace in the soul.
Which love thy law – It is the love of law, and the belief that the law of God is in accordance with justice, that gives peace to their minds. Gods government is a government of law, and therefore it is loved.
And nothing shall offend them – Margin, They shall have no stumbling-block. Hebrew, And to them no stumbling, or stumbling-block. See the notes at Mat 5:29-30; notes at Mat 18:6; notes at Mat 16:23; notes at 1Pe 2:8; notes at Jam 2:10. The meaning here is, that they would not fall into sin; they would be kept safe; they would be preserved from the power of temptation. The meaning is not, as it would seem to be in our version, that nothing would pain, grieve, or irritate them; but, as above, that as long as they were obedient to the law, and disposed to obey it, they would be safe from the power of temptation.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 119:165
Great peace have they which love Thy law: and nothing shall offend them.
The glowing testimony of the good
This is the testimony of–
I. Philosophy. Moral remorse, malign passions, dark forebodings, battling impulses, these are the source of all inner tumult; but, in the nature of the case, where the soul is in a loving ruling sympathy with Gods law, such elements of distress cannot exist.
II. Scripture (Pro 3:13; Php 4:7; Joh 14:27).
III. Experience. In proportion to the amount of the low of God in the heart of a man is his peace–with his own nature, his conscience, and God. (Homilist.)
The lover of Gods law filled with peace
I. A spiritual character. They which love Thy law.
1. Love lies deep, it is in the heart: it is not a thing of the surface, it is of the mans own self. As a man loveth so is he. To love Gods law is to have the very nature and essence of our manhood in a right condition.
2. This inward and spiritual love to Gods Word includes many other good things.
(1) A deep reverence for it.
(2) This advances to rejoicing in it.
(3) Further than this, we receive Holy Scripture with emotion.
(4) Great gratitude to God for His Word is formed in the believing heart.
3. This love is productive of many good things.
(1) Meditation on it.
(2) Courage in defence of it.
(3) Penitence for having sinned against it.
(4) Patience under suffering.
(5) Holiness.
4. If in any of us there is a love of the law of the Lord, this is a work of the Holy Spirit.
II. A special possession. When Orientals meet each other their usual salutation is Shalom–Peace be to thee. The word does not mean merely quiet and rest, but happiness or prosperity. Great peace means great prosperity. Those who love Gods law have great blessedness in this life as well as in that which is to come. In loving the law of God we have intense enjoyment and real success in life.
1. Great restfulness of the intellect.
2. A pacified conscience.
3. Peace in heart.
4. Peace as to our desires.
5. Peace in resignation to God, acquiescence in His will, and conformity to it.
6. A happy confidence in God as to all things in the past, the present, and the future.
III. A singular preservation. Nothing shall offend them.
1. Intellectual stumbling-blocks are gone.
2. No moral duty shall be a cross to them.
3. They can stand alone. Solitude does not offend them. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The greatness of Gods peace
Its greatness appears from–
I. Its being the result of love to the Divine law.
II. Its being identically that peace which Christ bestows upon His own, which He designated His peace, and which none but He can bestow.
III. Whether, therefore, you contemplate the agent or the agency, you behold here a peace so grand and so elevating, that the possessors of it must embrace the whole law with their whole souls. They can except against none of all the gracious commandments. There is not one thing you can put them on, whether to do or to suffer, which, in the strength of that heavenly love, and by the help of that grace, they will not go into for their Saviour. (John Bruce, D. D.)
The happiness of holiness
I. We are surrounded by law. The law holds our entire being in its grasp–our heart, our secret acts, our words, our life, and there is no escape: nor is there any breaking of the law with impunity.
II. We can have no true peace while out of harmony with law. The consciousness of wrong-doing brings a weight upon the soul (Psa 32:4; Psa 38:4). An unwillingness to submit creates internal strife (Rom 7:12-24): therefore there is no peace to the wicked.
III. How can harmony with Divine law be attained? By pardon through the atonement. By the renovation of our nature, so that the law is written on the heart (Heb 8:10)–so that the heart delights in that which the law enjoins (Eze 36:25-27).
IV. Great peace results from this harmony.
1. Absolutely perfect peace with and in God: the King is now our friend: loyalty is natural–perfect love casteth out fear.
2. Peace with ourselves–the internal war is ended. Conscience is at rest, duty is a delight.
3. Peace with all mankind so far as lies in our power.
4. Peace with the universe, for when we are in harmony with law we are in harmony with God, and therefore with the whole God-pervaded universe. (C. O. Eldridge, B. A.)
Submieeion and peace
Loving the law of God, not only with delight in the vehicle of its expression, but with inward submission to its behests, we shall have–
I. The peacefulness of a restful heart. Such a heart has found an adequate and worthy object for the outgoings of its affections. Base things loved always disturb. Noble things loved always tranquillize. For our hearts are like the creatures in some river, of which they tell us that they change their colour according to the hue of the bed of the stream in which they float and of the food of which they partake. The heart that lives on the will of God will be calm and steadfast, and ennobled into reposeful tranquillity like that which it grasps and grapples.
II. The calm of a submitted will. If you were ever on board a sailing ship you know the difference between its motion when it is beating up against the wind and when it is running before it. In the one case all is agitation and uneasiness, in the other all is smooth, and frictionless, and delicious. So, when we go with the great stream, in not ignoble surrender, then we go quietly. It is Gods great intention, in all that befalls us in this life, to bring our wills into conformity with His. Blessed is the ministry of sorrow, and of pain, and of loss, if it does that for us. And disastrous and accursed is the ministry of joy and success if it does not.
III. The peace of an obedient life. When once we have taken it (and faithfully adhere to the choice) as our supreme desire to do Gods will, we are delivered from almost all the things that distract and disturb us. Away go all the storms of passion, and we are no more at the mercy of vagrant inclinations. And as thus we may be delivered from all the agitations and cross-currents of conflicting wishes, inclinations, aims, which otherwise would make a jumble and a chaos of our lives, so, on the other hand, if for us the supreme desire is to obey God, then we are delivered from the other great enemy to tranquillity–namely, anxious forecasting of possible consequences of our actions, which robs so many of us of so many quiet days. I do the little I can do, said Faber, and leave the rest with Thee. And that will bring peace.
IV. The peace of freedom from temptations. Nothing shall offend them. The higher love casts out the lower. Which is best, to overcome our temptations, or to live away up in the high regions to which the malaria of the swamps never climbs, and where no disease-germs can ever reach? That elevation is possible for us, if only we keep in close touch with God, and love the law because our hearts are knit to the Law-giver. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Of the inward peace and pleasure which attends religion
I. Religion is apt to remove the chief causes of inward trouble and disquiet.
1. Doubt and anxiety of mind.
2. Guilt of conscience.
II. Religion ministers to us all the true causes of peace and tranquillity of mind. Whoever lives according to the rules of religion, lays these three great foundations of peace and comfort to himself:–
1. He is satisfied that in being religious he doth that which is most reasonable.
2. That he secures himself against the greatest mischiefs and dangers by making God his friend.
3. That upon the whole matter he does in all respects most effectually consult and promote his own interest and happiness.
III. The reflection upon a religious and virtuous course of life doth afterwards yield a mighty pleasure and satisfaction. (Abp. Tillotson.)
Love of Gods law a source of peace
I. The character of those whom the psalmist describes. They love Gods law. At the outset of religion our thoughts are generally fixed on God as a God of mercy and compassion. We almost lose sight of His other perfections: but this cannot last. And when we come to survey Him as the Just One, the Holy One, the Faithful One, as well as the Merciful One; the more we consider God as a combination of perfections–oh, we shall presently see that there is no safety for us unless and until those perfections are all and each on our side. But when this feeling is engendered, and we are brought naturally to love the law just as we do the redemption, we satisfy the law. The law is not merely admired, not merely reverenced, the law is loved–loved as what it was worthy of God to give–what it was worthy of Christ to fulfil, and what Christ has fulfilled by a Suretyship which leaves not one jot to be exacted from the sinner. And why have they great peace? Because there is no attribute of God to which they who love the law cannot find themselves reconciled.
II. Take the character thus deciphered, and examine why it happens that there are not stumbling-blocks to those who possess it. Suppose we take certain of the hindrances which men meet with in following Christ, and endeavour to show you in each how, through loving the law, the obstacle is surmounted. For instance, the unequal distribution both of good and of evil in this life is often a perplexing thing to the righteous. But now observe–he who loves the law is exactly equipped for surmounting this offence. In being brought to love the law, a man has been brought into acquaintance with each and every attribute of God. Therefore he is quite assured of the justice of God; he is quite assured of the faithfulness of God. Again, when afflictions come thick on the godly man, they have a tendency to stagger him, or to serve as a stumbling-block. But it will certainly be the man who loves Gods law who is best prepared to meet such impediments; for it is required by the terms of the law that we should know Gods attributes, and take delight in them all. Knowing each attribute, loving each attribute, he will be meekly confident that the issue must be right, though the process may be dark. And there are other kinds of offence, or stumbling-blocks, which may be met with by the Christian. Living, as we all must live, in some considerable degree, in association with our fellow-men, we are necessarily exposed to an influence, direct or indirect, excited by their conduct; for you can scarcely find the man of whom it can be truly said, that he is independent of the behaviour of others; that is, in the sense that his own moral character is not likely to be either advantaged or prejudiced by the deportment of those about him. Look, for example, at the faults and inconsistencies of religious professors. The faults of any one religious professor–covetousness, for example–ambition–the love of show–the ready association with the world–the facility in keeping piety out of sight, when it is likely to keep him out of favour–all these inconsistencies, put forth in the name of one professor of godliness, are calculated to damp the ardour of a hundred others, and bring into disrepute all those realities of religion, which, being removed, there remains nothing but the skeleton of Christianity. Who, we want to know, is best prepared to meet this offence? He who is a lover of the law. If I have reached the point of loving the law, if I love God because He hates sin, if I love God because He will punish sin, if I love God because He requires holiness in the inward parts–and all this, yea, and a vast deal more is love of Gods law–then I have such an acquaintance with God as puts me far beyond the reach of accidents or contingencies. I know God–if the expression may be allowed–thoroughly; I know Him too well, under those very aspects with which the generality of Christians are least familiar, to render it necessary that I should infer His properties from what is done by others, or from what happens to others; and thus my love of the law gives me practically independence on the conduct or intercourse of my fellow-Christians; and I can overleap the obstacles which their failures may have thrown in my way; and thus I can verify the assertion Nothing shall offend those who love the law of their God. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Peace amid troubles
I. A possession.
1. There may be peace without great peace. But Christians have great peace. It appertains to a great subject, the soul; it eases great anxieties, those which have to do with our relation to God, and it has an abiding greatness of power, for no man taketh it away.
2. This peace is connected with obedience. The renewed spirit is under the law of the spirit of life. A living Christ rules as truly as a code! He says, thou shelf not more successfully. Take the spirit of true love. If I really love, shall I injure in thought, word, look, deed? Not
I. The law will rule me everywhere; it will be the law of the spirit of life.
3. Love will be the affectional bond. Here is the strength of the Christian man l Sin becomes distasteful to him–its bread bitter, its waters brackish. In fact, duty is like drawing a triumphal ear; and wearing the thorn-crown is like bearing some insignia of highest order.
II. An exemption. Nothing shall offend them.
1. Circumstances do not hurt them, or are not a stumbling-block to them. They are not too careless to despise them, or too heartless, in a human sense, to refuse to extract all the honey out of lifes flowers that they can. Things present, as well as things to come, are theirs.
2. Temptations do not hurt them. Arrows glance harmlessly aside from the impenetrable shield of the Christ-filled soul.
3. Death does not hurt them. How can it? They surely have been meetening for it. It is not always longed for, but it is prepared for. (W. M. Statham.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 165. Great peace have they] They have peace in their conscience, and joy in the Holy Spirit; and
Nothing shall offend] Stumble, or put them out of the way.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Great peace; either outward prosperity and happiness, which God in his law hath expressly promised to good men; or at least inward peace, satisfaction and tranquility of mind, arising from the sense of Gods love to them and watchful care over them in all the concerns of this life and of the next.
Have they, Heb. is to them, or shall be to them; for the verb being not expressed, it may be understood either way. Although they may meet with some disturbance, yet their end shall be peace, as is said, Psa 37:37.
Nothing shall offend them, Heb. they shall have no stumbling-block, to wit, such at which they shall stumble and fall into mischief and utter ruin, as ungodly men have, before whom God doth oft lay stumbling-blocks, or occasions of sin and destruction, as it is affirmed by God himself, Jer 6:21; Eze 3:20; Rom 9:33, out of Isa 8:14.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
165. nothing shall offend themor,”cause them to offend” (compare Margin).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Great peace have they which love thy law,…. The Targum adds,
“in this world.”
Great prosperity, especially prosperity of soul, inward peace, peace of conscience, peace in Christ, and from him, flowing from his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice, and a view of interest therein; which is usually enjoyed in a way of believing, and frequently had in the ways, worship, and ordinances of God. Such as love the law of God, his word, precepts, and doctrines, have a large share of it; a peace so great, that it passes the understanding of unregenerate men, and cannot be fully expressed by the saints themselves; there is none to the wicked, it is peculiar to them that love the Lord, and what belong to him: the Arabic and Ethiopic versions render it, “which love thy name”;
and nothing shall offend them; the Targum is,
“in the world to come.”
Nothing shall disturb their minds, and break their peace; nothing from without, though sin, temptations, and desertions do; not outward afflictions, the reproaches and persecutions of wicked men, nor the reproof of good men; nor what God does to them in a providential way: though in the world they have tribulation, in Christ they have peace, which the world can neither give nor take away. “There is no stumbling block unto them” l, as it may be rendered; nothing that shall cause them to be offended and depart out of the good ways of God, which is the case of carnal formal professors, Mt 13:21; such stumble not at the word, as others do, at any of the doctrines of it; and the true light shining in them, and the word without being a light unto them, there is no occasion of stumbling in them; they see their way, and what lies in it, and so avoid that at which they might stumble, 1Jo 2:10. Moreover, such do not easily either give or take offence; they are possessed of that charity or love, which is not suspicious or easily provoked; and they endeavour to give no offence to any, but live without it, in the midst of a perverse generation, 1Co 13:5 Php 2:15.
l “non est ipsis offendiculum”, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.
Here is an account of the happiness of good men, who are governed by a principle of love to the word of God, who make it their rule and are ruled by it. 2. They are easy, and have a holy serenity; none enjoy themselves more than they do: Great peace have those that love thy law, abundant satisfaction in doing their duty and pleasure in reflecting upon it. The work of righteousness is peace (Isa. xxxii. 17), such peace as the world can neither give nor take away. They may be in great troubles without and yet enjoy great peace within, sat lucis intus–abundance of internal light. Those that love the world have great vexation, for it does not answer their expectation; those that love God’s word have great peace, for it outdoes their expectation, and in it they have sure footing. 2. They are safe, and have a holy security: Nothing shall offend them; nothing shall be a scandal, snare, or stumbling-block, to them, to entangle them either in guilt or grief. No event of providence shall be either an invincible temptation or an intolerable affliction to them, but their love to the word of God shall enable them both to hold fast their integrity and to preserve their tranquility. They will make the best of that which is, and not quarrel with any thing that God does. Nothing shall offend or hurt them, for every thing shall work for good to them, and therefore shall please them, and they shall reconcile themselves to it. Those in whom this holy love reigns will not be apt to perplex themselves with needless scruples, nor to take offence at their brethren, 1Co 13:6; 1Co 13:7.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
165. Great peace have they who love thy law. If we take the word peace for a prosperous or happy condition of life — a sense in which the Hebrews often employ it — the word rendered stumbling-block, to correspond with it, will be used for adversity; as if it had been said, that those who love God’s law shall continually prosper and retain their position, although the whole world should fall into ruins. But a different interpretation will be equally appropriate, namely, that they have great peace, because, being persuaded that both their persons and their life are acceptable to God, they calmly repose themselves on a good conscience. This tranquil state of conscience, this serenity of mind, is justly reckoned the chief point of a happy life, that is to say it is so, when it proceeds from God’s being reconciled to us, and from his fatherly favor shining in our hearts. The Prophet justly teaches that we attain this peace from the love of the law; for whoever would make it to depend upon anything else, will be from time to time trembling at every little blast. If this sense is adopted, the word stumbling-block, in the second clause, will signify all the troubles and disquietudes of mind with which all who lean not upon God’s word are miserably distressed and tormented, and with which they are driven about either by their own depraved passions, or by the caprice of other men. But in whatever way understand these two words, peace and stumbling-block, the design of the Prophet will remain the same, which is to show, that those who are not devoted to God are miserable; for although they may applaud themselves for a time, yet they will meet with many stumbling-blocks to drive them suddenly out of their course. From the term love, we gather that this peace is not acquired by a slavish observance of the law, but proceeds from faith; for the law has no sweetness to attract us to it, unless it exhibit to us God in the character of a father, and tranquilize our minds by the assurance of eternal salvation. So far from enjoying peace, all worldly men and despisers of God are justly punished by their own depravity and obdurate rebellion; for each of them is his own executioner, and the more fiercely they rage against the word of God, the sorer are they tormented, until they bring upon themselves utter destruction. The godly, it is true, are also tormented or distressed, but this inward consolation wipes away all their sorrow, or, raising them up, enables them to surmount all stumbling-blocks, or so relieves them, that they faint not.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(165) Nothing shall offend them.See margin. Perhaps the verse should take the form of a wish: great peace to the lovers of Thy law; no stumbling-block to them. Or, it may be, great peace have they who love Thy word and who find no hindrance. It was not the fact that the faithful did not stumble.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 119:165. Nothing shall offend them Or, according to the original, There is no scandal to them: i.e. “They shall fall upon no stumbling-block, into no snare which their enemies lay for them;” or, “They shall be in no danger from those snares and temptations which the world is full of, and which frequently bring other men to sin and ruin.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 713
BLESSEDNESS OF THOSE WHO LOVE GODS LAW
Psa 119:165. Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.
THE force of principle is exceeding great, even where the principle itself is erroneous and vicious, but much more where it is founded upon the unerring word of God. It produces in our conduct, promptitude, uniformity, decision: and, whilst it stimulates to action, it supports the mind in case of failure and disappointment. Now of all principles, that of love to God and to his revealed will is the strongest. We see in the saints of every age what wonders it is able to effect In the words before us, David informs us what peace it will bring into the soul amidst the heaviest trials, and what stability amidst the greatest difficulties. But for the more full elucidation of his words, we will consider,
I.
The character here described
The law of God generally throughout the Psalms means the whole revealed will of God. It is not to be confined to the moral, or the ceremonial law; it comprehends the Gospel also: it is the law which should go forth out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; even, as St. Paul calls it, the law of faith.
To love this law is a strong expression, importing much more than a mere obedience to it: for we may conceive persons to obey it through fear; whereas those who love it, see an excellency in it, and cordially approve of it in all its parts. They love it,
1.
As a mirror of truth
[In this view it is spoken of by an inspired Apostle [Note: Jam 1:23-25.]; and it is justly so represented, because it reflects with perfect fidelity every feature of the human heart. It never flatters, never distorts; but shews, to every one who will look into it, precisely what character he bears in the sight of the heart-searching God. An insincere person does not like it; he turns away from it: he will not come to it, because it presents to his view his own deformities. But the true Christian loves it on this very account. He desires to know the worst of himself. He sees that it will be to no purpose for him to deceive his own soul: he is assured that God will not form his estimate according to the partial views which he himself may take: and therefore he desires to see himself just as God sees him. True it is, that he never looks into this glass without finding deeper and deeper cause for humiliation but still he loves it; yea, he loves it on this very account; even as David did, when he said, Thy word is very pure; therefore thy servant loveth it.]
2.
As a revelation of mercy
[In this view it is particularly delightful to him. The plan of salvation which it unfolds is so grand, so wonderful, so suitable in all its parts, and so sufficient for all his necessities, that he can never sufficiently admire it It is his meditation, and his song, all the day. The Scripture represents the Gospel as a feast of fat things, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined: and such indeed he finds it to his soul. In comparison of it, and of the knowledge of it, he counts all things in the universe but dross and dung ]
3.
As a rule of life
[From the moment of his having found the way of salvation by a crucified Redeemer, the one desire of his soul has been to live to Him who died for us and rose again. What wilt thou have me to do? has been his constant inquiry at the throne of grace: and he delights exceedingly in this word as a sure directory under every situation and circumstance of life. From day to day he reads it with this particular view, that he may know how to walk and to please God. He perceives that men are always endeavouring to lower the requisitions of this law: but he strives rather to have his attainments raised to that perfect standard. Not one of all its commandments is regarded by him as grievous. Nothing is grievous, but his own want of conformity to them. Could he have his hearts desire, it would be to walk in all things as Christ walked, and to stand perfect and complete in all the will of God ]
In proportion as this character exists in any, is,
II.
The blessedness of those in whom it is found
This, as might well be expected, is exceeding great. We notice it in two respects;
1.
The happiness of their minds
[Peace, in the Scripture use of the term, is not a mere absence of trouble, but an actual state of very sublime enjoyment. The person who loves Gods law in the way before described, has, as the very first-fruits of his faith in Christ, a sense of reconciliation with God: being justified by faith, he has peace with God: God has said to him, both by his word and Spirit, Peace, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee. Combined with this, he has the testimony of a good conscience. Though he sees nothing in himself but what furnishes him with grounds for humiliation and self-abasement, he cannot be insensible of the change that has been wrought in him: he dares not deny the work of God in his soul. He has the witness of the Holy Spirit, and the testimony of his own spirit, concurring to assure him, that old things have passed away within him, and all things become new: and though he cannot attain that measure of perfection that he aspires after, he is conscious that, if he could, he would be pure as God is pure, and perfect as God is perfect. His daily and hourly employment brings in an abundance of peace to his soul. He is engaged in doing what he believes to be the will of God; and he finds by sweet experience the truth of that saying, The work of righteousness is peace, and the effect of righteousness is quietness and assurance for ever [Note: Isa 32:17. See also Psa 19:11 and Pro 3:17.]. Nor has he less comfort in looking forward to the eternal state. He is not left to be a prey to fears and apprehensions about his future destiny. He knows in whom he has believed, and that his God and Saviour is able to keep him unto that great and awful day. He sees also, that he has in Christ a right and title to the heavenly inheritance; and that, when the earthly house of this tabernacle shall be dissolved, he has a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Hence, instead of dreading the approach of death, he looks forward to it as the consummation of all his wishes, and the completion of all his happiness; and desires to depart, that he may be with Christ. Such is the peace which it is the privilege of all who love the Gospel to enjoy, and which Christ himself has left them as a most invaluable legacy, saying, Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you: and verily it is a peace which passeth all understanding.]
2.
The stability of their goings
[Those who have not this divine principle within them, are liable to be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, and to be moved from their steadfastness by every temptation. But not so the true Christian, in whose heart the law of God is engraven. He, though still assaulted with manifold temptations, is enabled to withstand them all. At the very moment of the assault, he says, with Joseph, How shall I do this wickedness, and sin against God? And throughout the whole course of his life he experiences, on the whole, the truth of that promise, God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it [Note: 1Co 10:13.]. If he be tried with the most formidable persecutions, he does not, like the stony-ground hearers, presently desist from following the Lord, but takes up his cross manfully, and makes up his mind to suffer the loss even of life itself, rather than dishonour and deny his Lord. Be his trials ever so numerous, he says concerning them, None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto me: I am ready, not to be bound only, but also to die, for the Lords sake. Perhaps one of the greatest stumbling-blocks which lie in the way of the sincere, is the fall of many who once appeared to run well. These, in their fall, sweep away, as it were with their tail, many, very many, of the stars of heaven [Note: Rev 12:4.]. But those who truly love Gods law are fixed as the sun in the firmament [Note: Psa 72:5.]. They know that the truth and excellence of religion does not depend on those who profess it: and therefore, whatever be the conduct of others, he determines, through Gods assistance, to hold it fast even to the end. Thus does he surmount the obstacles which sin and Satan place in his way; and is finally made more than a conqueror through Him that loved him.]
Address
1.
To those who possess not this character
[It is indeed a great thing to love Gods law. Let not any imagine, that a general approbation of it is that which will either satisfy God, or bring peace into the soul. We love it not aright, if we do not love it universally, in every thing that it requires, and supremely, above all that the world can give or take away. Nor let any one who does not thus love it, expect peace to his soul; for God has said that there is no peace unto him [Note: Isa 57:20-21.]: nor can he have stability, seeing that he is in darkness even until now [Note: 1Jn 2:10-11.]. You must inquire for the good old way, and walk therein, if ever you would taste this inestimable blessing [Note: Jer 6:16.] ]
2.
To those who, whilst they profess to have attained this character, enjoy not the blessings connected with it
[Gods word is true; nor shall any who trust in it be disappointed of their hope. Hear his sayings [Note: Psa 23:1-2. Jer 31:9.] and, if you experience not the accomplishment of them in your own souls, know that the fault is in yourselves alone. As sure as ever the character is yours, so most assuredly shall the blessedness also be. He will keep his saints in peace and holiness, even to the end [Note: Isa 26:3. 1Sa 2:9.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 119:165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.
Ver. 165. Great peace have they which love thy law ] The fruit of righteousness shall be peace, Isa 32:17 , even the peace of God, the joy of faith, a heaped up happiness.
And nothing shall offend them
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psalms
SUBMISSION AND PEACE
Psa 119:165
The marginal note says ‘they shall have no stumbling block.’
We do great injustice to this psalm-so exuberant in its praises of ‘the law of the Lord’-if we suppose that that expression means nothing more than the Mosaic or Jewish revelation. It does mean that, of course, but the psalm itself shows that the writer uses the expression and its various synonyms as including a great deal more than any one method by which God’s will is made known to man. For he speaks, for instance, in one part of the psalm of God’s ‘word,’ as being settled for ever in the heavens, and of the heavens and earth as continuing to this day, ‘according to Thine ordinances.’
So we are warranted in giving to the thought of our text the wider extension of taking the divine ‘law’ to include not only that directory of conduct contained in Scripture, but the expressed will of God, involving duties for us, in whatever way it is made known. The love of that uttered will, the Psalmist declares, will always bring peace. Such an understanding of the text does not exclude the narrower reference, which is often taken to be the only thought in the Psalmist’s mind, nor does it obliterate the distinction between the written law of God and the disclosures of His will which we collect by the exercise of our faculties on events around and facts within us. But it widens the horizon of our contemplations, and bases the promised peace on its true foundation, the submission of the human to the divine will.
Let us then consider how true love to the will of God, however it is made known to us, either in the Book or in our consciousness, or in daily providences, or by other people’s hints, is the talisman that brings to us, in all circumstances, and in every part of our nature, a tranquillity which nothing can disturb.
Of course, by ‘love’ here is meant, not only delight in the expression of, but the submission of the whole being to, God’s will; and we love the law only when, and because, we love the Lawgiver.
I. Thus loving the law of God, not only with delight in the vehicle of its expression, but with inward submission to its behests, we shall have, first of all, the peacefulness of a restful heart.
Little boats which are made fast to the sides of a ship rise and fall with the tide, as does that to which they are attached. And our hearts, if they be roped to the fleeting, the visible, the creatural, the finite, partake of the fluctuations, and finally are involved in the destruction, of that which they have made their supreme good. And contrariwise, they who love that which is eternal shine with a light thrown by reflection from the object of their love, and ‘he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever,’ like the will which he doeth. ‘Great peace’-the peace of a restful heart-’have they that love Thy law.’
II. Then again, such love brings the calm of a submitted will.
If you were ever on board a sailing-ship you know the difference between its motion when it is beating up against the wind and when it is running before it. In the one case all is agitation and uneasiness, in the other all is smooth and frictionless and delicious. So, when we go with the great stream, in not ignoble surrender, then we go quietly. It is God’s great intention, in all that befalls us in this life, to bring our wills into conformity with His. Blessed is the ministry of sorrow and of pain and of loss, if it does that for us, and disastrous and accursed is the ministry of joy and success if it does not. There is no joy but calm, and there is no calm but in-not the annihilation, but-the intensest activity of will, in the act of submitting to that higher will, which is discerned to be ‘good,’ and is gratefully taken as ‘acceptable,’ and will one day be seen to have been ‘perfect.’ The joy and peace of a submitted will are the secret of all true tranquillity.
III. Then again, there comes by such a love the peace of an obedient life.
And as thus we may be delivered from all the agitations and cross-currents of conflicting wishes, inclinations, aims, which otherwise would make a jumble and a chaos of our lives, so, on the other hand, if for us the supreme desire is to obey God, then we are delivered from the other great enemy to tranquillity-namely, anxious forecasting of possible consequences of our actions, which robs so many of us of so many quiet days. ‘I do the little I can do,’ said Faber, ‘and leave the rest with Thee,’ and that will bring peace. Instead of wondering what is to come of this step and that, whether our plans will turn out as we hope, and so being at the mercy of contingencies impossible to be forecasted, we cast all upon Him and say, ‘I have nothing to do with the far end of my actions. Thou givest them a body as it has pleased Thee. I have to do with this end of my actions-their motive; and I will make that right, and then it is Thy business to make the rest right.’ And so, ‘great peace have they which love Thy law.’
An obedient life not only delivers us from the distractions of miscellaneous desires, and from the anxiety of unforeseen results, but it contributes to tranquillity in another way. The thing that makes us most uneasy is either sin done or duty neglected. Either of these, however small it may appear, is like a horse-hair upon the sheets of a bed, or a little wrinkle in that on which a man lies, disturbing all his repose. No man is really at rest unless his conscience is clear. ‘The wicked is like the troubled sea, which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.’ But if the uttered will of the Lord is our supreme object, then in this direction, too, tranquillity is ours.
IV. Lastly, such a love gives the peace of freedom from temptations.
To take a very homely illustration, whether is it better for a man to steel himself, and walk past the door of a public-house, though the fumes appeal to his sense, and stir his inclinations; or to go past, and never know any attraction to enter? Which is best, to overcome our temptations, or to live away up in the high regions to which the malaria of the swamps never climbs, and where no disease-germs can ever reach?
That elevation is possible for us, if only we keep in close touch with God, and love the law because our hearts are knit to the Law-giver. ‘There shall be no occasion of stumbling in him,’ as the Apostle John varies the expression of my text. Within, there will be no traitors to surrender the camp to the enemy without. So Paul in the letter to the Philippians attributes to ‘the peace of God which passeth understanding’ a military function, and says that it will ‘garrison the heart and mind,’ and keep them ‘in Christ Jesus,’ which is but the Christian way of saying, ‘Great peace have they which love Thy law; and there is no occasion of stumbling in them.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
peace. Put by Figure of speech Synecdoche (of Part), App-6, for every blessing connected with peace.
offend them = make them stumble.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Great: Pro 3:1, Pro 3:2, Pro 3:17, Isa 32:17, Isa 57:21, Joh 14:27, Gal 5:22, Gal 5:23, Gal 6:15, Gal 6:16, Phi 4:7
nothing shall offend them: Heb. they shall have no stumbling block, Isa 8:13-15, Isa 28:13, Isa 57:14, Mat 13:21, Mat 24:24, 1Pe 2:6-8
Reciprocal: Psa 37:11 – delight Psa 119:56 – because Psa 119:97 – O how Pro 4:12 – thou shalt Pro 13:13 – rewarded Isa 48:18 – then had Isa 54:13 – great Eze 3:20 – and I lay Heb 12:11 – peaceable
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 119:165. Great peace have they which love thy law Hebrew, great peace is, or shall be, to the lovers of thy law, that is, great inward peace, satisfaction, and tranquillity of mind, arising from the sense of thy love to them, and of thy watchful care over them. In other words: amidst the storms and tempests of the world, there is a perfect calm in the breasts of those who not only do the will of God, but love to do it. They are at peace with God by the blood of reconciliation; at peace with themselves by the answer of a good conscience and the subjection of those desires which war against the soul; at peace with all men by the spirit of charity; and the whole creation is so at peace with them, that all things work together for their good. And nothing shall offend them Hebrew, , to them is no stumbling-block, namely, such as they shall stumble at, and fall by, into sin and misery. No external troubles can rob them of this great peace, no offences or stumbling-blocks, which are thrown in their way by persecution or temptation, by the malice of enemies, or the apostacy of friends, by any thing which they see, hear of, or feel, can detain or divert them from their course. Heavenly love surmounts every obstacle, and runs with delight the way of Gods commandments. Horne.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
119:165 Great peace have they which {c} love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.
(c) For their conscience assures them that they please you, whereas they who do not love you have the contrary.