Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 119:20
My soul breaketh for the longing [that it hath] unto thy judgments at all times.
20. A plea for an answer to the prayer of Psa 119:19. His soul breaks, lit. is crushed, overwhelmed and consumed with longing for the fuller knowledge of God’s judgements, i.e. the authoritative declaration of His Will. See above, p. 704.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
My soul breaketh – This word means to break; to crush; to break in pieces by scraping, rubbing, or grating. The idea would seem to be, not that he was crushed as by a single blow, but that his soul – his strength – was worn away by little and little. The desire to know more of the commands of God acted continually on him, exhausting his strength, and overcoming him. He so longed for God that, in our language, it wore upon him – as any ungratified desire does. It was not the possession of the knowledge of God that exhausted him; it was the intenseness of his desire that he might know more of God.
For the longing – For the earnest desire.
That it hath unto thy judgments at all times – Thy law; thy commands. This was a constant feeling. It was not fitful or spasmodic. It was the steady, habitual state of the soul on the subject. He had never seen enough of the beauty and glory of the law of God to feel that all the needs of his nature were satisfied, or that he could see and know no more; he had seen and felt enough to excite in him an ardent desire to be made fully acquainted with all that there is in the law of God. Compare the notes at Psa 17:15.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 119:20-21
My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto Thy judgments at all times.
The right and the wrong
I. A hungering for the right. This hunger indicates:
1. The existence of rectitude. For every Divine instinct there is an objective provision.
2. The condition of healthfulness. As a rule, where there is hunger there is health. The soul that hungers for the right is not utterly diseased.
3. The certainty of supply. Physical hunger is not always satisfied, but spiritual always. Blessed are they that hunger, for they shall be filled.
II. A deploring for the wrong. Pride is a wrong.
1. That is Divinely rebuked and cursed.
2. Which turns men from the commandments of God. (Homilist.)
Holy longings
One of the best tests of a mans character will be found in his deepest and heartiest longings. You cannot always judge a man by what he is doing at any one time, for he may be under constraint which compel him to act contrary to his true self, or he may be under a transient impulse from which he will soon be free. He may for a while be held back from that which is evil, and yet he may be radically bad; or he may be constrained by force of temptation to that which is wrong, and yet his real self may rejoice in righteousness. A man may not certainly be pronounced to be good because for the moment he is doing good, nor may he be condemned as evil because under certain constraints he may be committing sin. A mans longings are more inward, and more near to his real self than his outward acts; they are more natural, in that they are entirely free, and beyond compulsion or restraint. As a man longeth in his heart, so is he.
I. The saints absorbing object. They long after Gods judgments, His revealed will.
1. The psalmist greatly reverenced the Word. All other books are at the best but as gold leaf, whereof it takes acres to make an ounce of the precious metal; but this book is solid gold; it contains ingots, masses, mines, yea, whole worlds of priceless treasure, nor could its contents be exchanged for pearls, rubies, or the terrible crystal itself. Even in the mental wealth of the wisest men there are no jewels like the truths of revelation.
2. He intensely desired to know its contents. He was not so well able to get at the truth as we are, since he had not the life of Christ to explain the types, nor apostolic explanations to open up the symbols of the law; therefore he sighed inwardly, and felt a killing heartbreak of desire to reach that which he knew was laid up in store for him. He saw the casket, but could not find the key.
3. He wished to feed upon Gods Word. The Word received into the heart changes us into its own nature, and by rejoicing in the decisions of the Lord we learn to judge after His judgment and to delight ourselves in that which pleases Him.
4. Doubtless, David longed be obey Gods Word–he wished in everything to do the will of God without fault either of omission or of commission. He prays in another place, Teach me Thy law perfectly.
II. The saints ardent longings.
1. They constitute a living experience, for dead things have no aspirations or cravings. You shall visit the graveyard, and exhume all the bodies you please, but you shall find neither desire nor craving. Where the heart is breaking with desire there is life.
2. The expression represents a humble sense of imperfection. The apostle of the Gentiles said, Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; and the man after Gods own heart, even David, when he was at his best, and I think he was so when he was writing this blessed psalm, says not so much that he had obtained anything as that he longed after it, not so much that he had yet grasped it, but sighed for it: my soul breaketh for the longing that it hath.
3. Furthermore, the expression of the text indicates an advanced experience. Augustine dwells upon this idea, for he rightly says, at first there is an aversion in the heart to Gods Word, and desire after it is a matter of growth. The more full a man is of grace the more he hungers for grace. Strange it is to say so, but the paradox is true, the more he drinks, and the more he is satisfied and ceases to thirst in one sense, the more is he devoured with thirst after the living God. It is an advanced experience, then.
4. It is an experience which I cannot quite describe to you, except by saying that it is a bitter sweet; or, rather, a sweet bitter, if the adjective is to be stronger than the noun. There is a bitterness about being crushed with desire; it is inevitable that there should be, but the aroma of this bitter herb is inexpressibly sweet, no perfume can excel it. After all, a bruised heart knows more peace and rest than a heart filled with the worlds delights. How safe such a soul is.
III. A few cheering reflections. Methinks this morning some heart has been saying, There are comforting thoughts for me in all this. I am a poor thing, I have not grown much, I have not done much, I wish I had; but I have strong longings, I am very dissatisfied, and I am almost ready to die with desire after Christ. My dear soul, listen–let this encourage you.
1. God is at work in your soul. Never did a longing after Gods judgments grow up in the soul of itself. Weeds come up of themselves, but the rarer kind of plants I warrant you will never be found where there has been no sowing: and this flower, called love-lies-bleeding, this plant of intense eagerness after God, never sprang up in the human breast of itself. God alone has placed it there.
2. The result of Gods work is very precious. Thank Him for it. Though thou caner get no further than holy longing, be grateful for that longing.
3. Not only is the desire precious, but it is leading on to something more precious. The desire of the righteous shall be granted. Rest you sure of that, and cry mightily to Him with strong faith in His goodness.
4. Meanwhile, the desire itself is doing you good. It is driving you out of yourself, it is making you feel what a poor creature you are, for you can dig no well in your own nature, and find no supplies within your own spirit. It is compelling you to look alone to God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 20. My soul breaketh] We have a similar expression: It broke my heart, That is heart-breaking, She died of a broken heart. It expresses excessive longing, grievous disappointment, hopeless love, accumulated sorrow. By this we may see the hungering and thirsting which the psalmist had after righteousness, often mingled with much despondency.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Breaketh; fainteth, as it frequently doth, when a thing vehemently desired is denied or delayed. Compare Pro 13:12.
Unto thy judgments; to a more sound knowledge and serious practice of them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
My soul breaketh for the longing,…. His heart was just ready to break, and his soul fainted; he was ready to die, through a vehement desire of enjoying the object longed for, after mentioned; “hope deferred makes the heart sick”, Pr 13:1; the phrase is expressive of the greatness, vehemence, and eagerness of his mind after the thing he desired, which follows:
[that it hath] unto thy judgments at all times; not the judgments of God on wicked men, though these are desirable for the glorifying of his justice; nor his dark dispensations of providence, though good men cannot but desire and long for the time when these judgments shall be made manifest: but rather the righteous laws and precepts of God are designed, which he desired to have a more perfect knowledge of, and yield a more constant obedience unto; or, best of all, the doctrines of grace and righteousness, that should be more clearly revealed in the times of the Messiah; who was to set judgment in the earth, his Gospel; and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and glorify the justice of God; than which nothing was more earnestly and importunately wished and longed for by Old Testament saints; see Ps 119:81.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
20 My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.
David had prayed that God would open his eyes (v. 18) and open the law (v. 19); now here he pleads the earnestness of his desire for knowledge and grace, for it is the fervent prayer that avails much. 1. His desire was importunate: My soul breaketh for the longing it hath to thy judgments, or (as some read it) “It is taken up, and wholly employed, in longing for thy judgments; the whole stream of its desires runs in this channel. I shall think myself quite broken and undone if I want the word of God, the direction, converse, and comfort of it.” 2. It was constant–at all times. It was not now and then, in a good humour, that he was so fond of the word of God; but it is the habitual temper of every sanctified soul to hunger after the word of God as its necessary food, which there is no living without.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
(20) Breaketh.The Hebrew is peculiar to this place and Lam. 3:16. The LXX., Vulg., and Aquila have greatly desired; Symmachus, was perfect; Theodotion, had confidence; Jerome, longed, all which point either to a different reading or to a different sense from that which is given in the lexicons to the word.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 119:20. My soul breaketh, &c. This may be rendered, is taken up, or wholly employed, in longing for, or love to thy judgments.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 698
DAVIDS DESIRE AFTER GODS WORD
Psa 119:20. My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.
IN general, there is no other connexion between the different verses of this psalm, than the accidental one of their beginning with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet: yet possibly the collocation of them may occasionally have been determined by their bearing upon some particular point. The whole psalm is an eulogy upon the word of God, and a declaration of the love which David bare towards it. And, whilst we apprehend that every distinct sentence was put down as it occurred to the Psalmists mind, without any particular dependence on its context, we suppose that, in the arrangement of some parts, there may have been a design in placing some observations so as to confirm or enforce others which had preceded them. In the 18th verse, David had said, Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy Law: and in the two following verses, as they stand, he may be considered as enforcing that petition; first, by the consideration of the shortness of his continuance here; and, then, by the exceeding greatness of his wish to obtain the desired blessing: I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me. My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times. Now, this expression being so exceeding strong, I will take occasion from it to point out,
I.
The intensity of his desire after the word of God
Often does he say that he has longed for Gods word [Note: ver. 40, 131, 174.]; but here he says, My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath. To enter into the force of this expression, let us compare his desire after Gods word with the desire felt by others in cases of extreme emergency.
Let us compare it with the desire of,
1.
A hunted deer
[Let us conceive of a deer that has for many hours been fleeing from its pursuers, till its strength is altogether exhausted, and it is ready to faint with fatigue. Let us suppose that its fears are raised to the uttermost, by the rapid advance of its enemies, ready to seize and tear it in pieces. How intense must be its thirst! How gladly would it pause a few moments at a water-brook, to revive its parched frame, and to renovate its strength for further flight! Of this we may form some conception: and it may serve in a measure to convey to us an idea of Davids thirst after the judgments of his God. O God, says he, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee; my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is [Note: Psa 63:1.]. My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God [Note: Psa 84:2.]. As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night; while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God [Note: Psa 42:1-3.]?]
2.
An endangered mariner
[Mariners for the most part are men of great intrepidity: but when ready to be overwhelmed in the tempestuous ocean, they sink like other men. When God commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves of the sea, the mariners mount up to the heaven; they go down again to the depths; their soul is melted because of the trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits end [Note: Psa 107:25-27.]. Such is the description given of them by God himself. But let us take an instance upon record. When Paul was sailing by Crete, there arose a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon; and the ship becoming unmanageable, they let her drive; and fearing they should fall into the quicksands, they strake sail, and so were driven. Being exceedingly tossed with the tempest, they lightened the ship, casting out with their own hands the very tackling which they had stowed up for the management of the ship. In this perilous condition they continued a whole fortnight, not having taken during all that time so much as one regular meal. St. Paul, in the immediate prospect of having the ship dashed to pieces, and no hope remaining to any of them of safety unless on broken pieces of the ship, said to them, This is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing: wherefore I pray you to take some meat; for this is for your health; he administered to them some bread, and then cast into the sea the very wheat with which the ship was provisioned; and soon the ship ran aground, and was broken in pieces by the violence of the waves [Note: Act 27:14-41.]. How must all this crew have longed for safety! How must their soul have broken for the longing which they had to escape from their peril! Yet not even this exceeded the desire which David had for the word of God.]
3.
A deserted soul
[This will come nearer to the point. The feelings of a hunted deer or an endangered mariner are merely natural: but those of a deserted soul are spiritual, and therefore more suited to illustrate those which David speaks of in our text. See the state of a deserted soul in Job: O that my grief were thoroughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together! for now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea; therefore my words are swallowed up. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me [Note: Job 6:2-4.]. Or take the case recorded in the 88th Psalm: Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction. Lord, I have called daily upon thee; I have stretched out my hands unto thee. Lord, why casteth thou off my soul? Why hidest thou thy face from me? I am afflicted, and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors, I am distracted. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off [Note: Psa 88:6-7; Psa 88:9; Psa 88:14-16.]. Here we see what is meant by the soul breaking for the longing that it hath after God. And there is in this psalm another verse, which, to one who has ever felt what it is to have an overwhelming desire after God, will convey the true import of my text: I opened my mouth and panted: for I longed for thy commandments [Note: ver. 131. This is sadly weakened by Commentators, who interpret it as referring to a person running or oppressed with heat. The sigh of one overwhelmed with a desire after God, expresses the very thing.].
Nor was this a sudden emotion on some extraordinary occasion: no; it was the constant habit of Davids mind: it was what he felt at all times: My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.]
I am aware that this may appear extravagant. But we must remember that this expression was not a poetic fiction, but an argument solemnly addressed to the heart-searching God. And that it was not stronger than the occasion called for, will appear whilst I shew you,
II.
The reason of his so longing for Gods blessed word
The reasons that might be assigned are numberless. But I will confine myself to three. He so longed for Gods word, because,
1.
In it he found God himself
[In the works of creation somewhat of God may be discerned; but it is in his word alone that all his perfections are displayed, and all his eternal counsels are made known. In this respect, God has magnified his word above all his name, and all the means whereby he has made himself known to men [Note: Psa 138:2.]. There he met Jehovah, as Adam met him, amidst the trees of the garden in Paradise. There he walked with God, and conversed with him as a friend. There he had such fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ, and such communion with the Holy Ghost, as he could never find in any other field, nor ever attain but by meditation on the word of God. Can we, then, wonder that he so longed for that word, and that his very soul brake for the longing that he had for it? The wonder rather is, that there should be a person upon earth who could have access to that sacred volume, and not so value it ]
2.
From it he obtained all that his necessities required
[Did he desire the forgiveness of all his sins? There he found a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness, a fountain capable of washing him from all the guilt he had contracted in the matter of Bathsheba and Uriah. In reference to those very transactions, and to the efficacy of the atoning blood of Christ, he cries, Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow [Note: Psa 51:7.]. Did he need direction in difficulty, support in trouble, and strength for an unreserved obedience? There he found it all, and from thence derived it in the very hour of need, to the full extent of his necessities. Such were the refreshments which he found there, that corn and wine and oil, and all the delicacies of the universe, could but faintly shadow forth: and thence he derived such treasures as were absolutely unsearchable. Can we wonder, then, that the word of God was, in his estimation, sweeter than honey and the honey-comb, and infinitely more precious than the finest gold [Note: Psa 19:10.]?]
3.
By it he gained a foretaste of heaven itself
[The word was to him as Jacobs ladder, by which he held intercourse with heaven itself. By it he ascended to Mount Pisgah, and surveyed the Promised Land in all its length and breadth. In it he beheld his Saviour, as it were, transfigured before his eyes, yea, and seated on his throne of glory, surrounded by myriads of saints and angels; yea, and beheld the very throne reserved for himself, and the crown of glory prepared for him, and the golden harp already tuned for him to bear his part amongst the heavenly choir.
I forbear to speak more on this subject; because, if what I have already spoken do not justify the language of my text, nothing that I can add can be of any weight. Only let any person read this psalm, in which no less than one hundred and seventy-six times the excellency of the sacred volume is set forth in every variety of expression that David could invent; and he will see, that the language of my text was no other than what every child of man should both feel and utter.]
But from all this, who does not see
1.
That religion is not a mere form, but a reality?
[Religion, if it be genuine, occupies, not the head, but the heart and soul, every faculty of which it controls and regulates. Religion is in the soul, what the soul is in the body O that we all felt it so! But indeed, Brethren, so it is; and so it must be, if ever we would enjoy the benefits it is intended to convey ]
2.
That we all have very abundant occasion for shame in a review both of our past and present state?
[We are not, like the unhappy papists, debarred from Gods blessed word. The very least and meanest amongst us has free access to it, and may read it for himself; yea, and derive still greater advantage from it than ever David himself reaped; by reason of the rich additions which have been made to it since his day, and the fuller discovery it gives us of Gods mind and will. Yet how many of us read it not at all, or only in a formal cursory manner, without any such feeling as that which is expressed in my text! My dear Brethren, we suffer loss, exceeding great loss, by our negligence in this respect. Did we but read the word, and meditate on it day and night, and pray over it, and converse with God by it, what might we not obtain, and what might we not enjoy? WellI leave it, with commending you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified [Note: Act 20:32.]. Certain I am that it is profitable for all that your souls can desire; and that if you improve it aright, it shall render you perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works [Note: 2Ti 3:17.], and shall make you wise unto salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus [Note: 2Ti 3:15.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 119:20 My soul breaketh for the longing [that it hath] unto thy judgments at all times.
Ver. 20. My soul breaketh ] The Seventy render it, My soul hath desired to desire thy judgments. How many broken spirits do even spend and exhale themselves in continual sallies, as it were, and egressions of affection to God and his judgments! Comminuitur, debilior fit. The stone will fall down to come to its own place, though it break itself in many pieces; so the good souls.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
soul. Hebrew. nephesh. App-13.
breaketh for = hath broken owing to. Occurring again only in Lam 3:16.
longing = fervent desire; same word as verses: Psa 119:40, Psa 119:174, but not Psa 119:131.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
soul: Psa 119:40, Psa 119:131, Psa 119:174, Psa 42:1, Psa 63:1, Psa 84:2, Pro 13:12, Son 5:8, Rev 3:15, Rev 3:16
at all times: Psa 106:3, Job 23:11, Job 23:12, Job 27:10, Pro 17:17
Reciprocal: Gen 34:8 – The soul Lev 20:22 – judgments Deu 12:20 – I will 2Sa 13:39 – longed 1Ch 16:12 – the judgments Psa 64:9 – fear Psa 119:39 – for thy Psa 119:81 – fainteth Rom 7:24 – wretched Gal 5:17 – the flesh