Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 119:39
Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments [are] good.
39. my reproach ] Here, as in Psa 119:22-23 ; Psa 119:42, the scorn which he has to bear for his loyalty to God’s law.
for thy judgments are good ] And therefore I ought not to suffer for observing them. For judgments see Psa 119:13 ; Psa 119:20 ; Psa 119:30.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Turn away my reproach – The reproach which is likely to come upon me from being a professed worshipper of God. In all ages good men have been exposed to this reproach.
Which I fear – Which I have reason to apprehend will come upon me. This may not mean that he was personally afraid of it, but merely that he had reason to apprehend that he was exposed to it. The prayer is proper, for there is nothing which our nature makes us shrink back from more than reproach. Compare Psa 119:22; Psa 69:9, Psa 69:20; Rom 15:3; 2Co 12:10. The word repreach in the original is the same which denotes shame or dishonor.
For thy judgments are good – Thy statutes; thy laws. I know they are good. I feel that I desire to obey them. I pray, therefore, that obedience on my part to that which is good may not subject me to shame; that people may see that thy laws are good, and that it is not a matter of reproach to obey them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 119:39-40
Turn away my reproach which I fear; for Thy judgments are good.
The dreaded and the desired
I. What is here dreaded (verse 39).
1. Reproach is of two kinds.
(1) The deserved. The man who is false, mean, corrupt, deserves reproach.
(2) The undeserved.
2. Now, whether reproach is deserved or undeserved, it is a thing to be dreaded. In fact, it is more to be dreaded when deserved than when undeserved. The best men have been reproached. Even the Son of God Himself was reproached. But undeserved reproach may be well borne.
II. What is here desired? (verse 40).
1. Gods precepts are desirable things. Thy judgments are good. They are good in every sense. Good in their origin, in their essence, in their results.
2. A righteous life is a desirable thing. Quicken me in Thy righteousness. Mans well-being consists in living in the righteousness of God. (Homilist.)
Reproach rolled away
A man who had lived for many years the Christian life told me how there was a place in a street in Edinburgh which was associated with a sin. Every time in his early life he passed it, it brought back again the keen remorse and shame. It seemed to stain his life afresh whenever he saw the very place. But when he came to God and gave his heart and life to Christ, the first time he passed that place afterwards his soul, he told me, was filled by a great transport of joy that all that was done, that it was no longer part of his life, that God had forgiven and forgotten and cast it behind His back. And he entered, he told me, for a moment at least in foretaste, into the perfect joy of soul, and he forgot the shame of his youth and remembered the reproach no more. (Hugh Black.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 39. Turn away my reproach, which I fear] This may be understood of the reproach which a man may meet with in consequence of living a godly life, for such a life was never fashionable in any time or country. But I have found the following note on the passage: “I have done a secret evil; my soul is sorry for it: if it become public, it will be a heavy reproach to me. O God, turn it away, and let it never meet the eye of man!” – Anon.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Turn away my reproach; either,
1. For the shameful disappointment of my hopes and confident boastings concerning the truth and certainty of thy promises; or,
2. For my manifold failings, and particularly for that shameful matter about Uriah and Bathsheba; or,
3. For my instability in or apostacy from thy ways; which in respect of mine own weakness and folly I have great cause to fear. For thy judgments are good: this may be a reason either,
1. Why he prayed and hoped that God would turn away reproach from him, because Gods word and statutes were good, and therefore it was not fit for any to suffer reproach in and for his diligent observation of them; or,
2. Why he feared reproach, because he had, and feared he might hereafter, transgress those judgments or statutes of God which were, and he very well knew to be, good, i.e. just, and holy, and excellent, and therefore it was a shameful thing to violate them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
39, 40. Our hope of freedom fromthe reproach of inconsistency is in God’s power, quickening usto live according to His Word, which He leads us to love.
for thy judgments aregoodThe time must therefore be at hand when Thy justice willturn the “reproach” from Thy Church upon the world (Isa 25:8;Isa 66:5; Zep 2:8-10).
VAU.(Ps 119:41-48).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Turn away my reproach which I fear,…. Either for the sake of religion, which was disagreeable to him; and he might be afraid it would be too heavy for him to bear, and be a temptation to him to forsake the good ways of God: or rather by reason of sin, which brings a reproach on good men; and causes the enemy to speak reproachfully, and is therefore dreaded by them who desire to be kept from sin, for that reason as well as others; see Ps 39:8. Jarchi and Kimchi think that David has some reference to his sins, in the case of Uriah and Bathsheba; lest they should be a perpetual reproach on his name and family, which he greatly feared;
for thy judgments [are] good; the laws of God, and punishment of sin according to them; the Scriptures, and the doctrines contained in them; the ways of God, and true religion; which are evil spoken of, through the sins of the professors of them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
39 Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments are good.
Here, 1. David prays against reproach, as before, v. 22. David was conscious to himself that he had done that which might give occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, which would blemish his own reputation and turn to the dishonour of his family; now he prays that God, who has all men’s hearts and tongues in his hands, would be pleased to prevent this, to deliver him from all his transgressions, that he might not be the reproach of the foolish, which he feared (Ps. xxxix. 8); or he means that reproach which his enemies unjustly loaded him with. Let their lying lips be put to silence. 2. He pleads the goodness of God’s judgments: “Lord, thou sittest in the throne, and thy judgments are right and good, just and kind, to those that are wronged, and therefore to thee I appeal from the unjust and unkind censures of men.” It is a small thing to be judged of man’s judgment, while he that judges us is the Lord. Or thus: “Thy word, and ways, and thy holy religion, are very good, but the reproaches cast on me will fall on them; therefore, Lord, turn them away; let not religion be wounded through my side.”
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
39. Take away my reproach. It is not certain to what reproach he alludes. Knowing that many calumniators were on the watch to find occasion for reviling him, should they happen to detect him in any offense, it is not without reason he dreaded lest he might fall into such disgrace, and that by his own fault. Probably he might be apprehensive of some other reproach, aware that wicked men shamefully and injuriously slander the good generally, and, by their calumnies, distort and pervert their good actions. The concluding clause, Because the judgments of God are good, is the reason why God should put to silence the mischievous tongues, which pour out the venom of their malice without shame against the innocent, who are reverently observing his law. If any be inclined to view the word reproach as directed against God himself, such an interpretation is by no means objectionable, That the prophet, whose aim it was to stand approved as to his life in God’s sight, merely desired, when he appeared before his tribunal, not to be judged as a reprobate man; just as if, with great zeal and magnanimity, he would despise all the empty talk of the men of the world, provided he stood upright in God’s sight. Above all, it becomes holy men to dread the reproach of being suffused with shame at God’s judgment-seat.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(39) My reproach which I fear.The word for fear is an unusual one, used in Deu. 9:19; Deu. 28:60, for very strong dread. The reproach may be either the disgrace in Gods sight of violating His commands, or, as the context (Psa. 119:42) suggests, a reproach from men for keeping Gods law.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 119:39 Turn away my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments [are] good.
Ver. 39. Turn away my reproach ] Cover it, cure it, suffer it not to break forth, to my disgrace among men.
For thy judgments are good
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
fear = dread.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Turn: Psa 119:22, Psa 119:31, Psa 39:8, Psa 57:3, 2Sa 12:14, 1Ti 3:7, 1Ti 5:14, Tit 2:8
for thy: Psa 119:20, Psa 119:43, Psa 119:75, Psa 119:123, Psa 119:131, Psa 19:9, Deu 4:8, Isa 26:8, Rom 2:2, Rev 19:2
Reciprocal: Jos 5:9 – I rolled away Pro 25:10 – thine
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 119:39-40. Turn away my reproach which I fear For my instability in thy ways; which, in respect to my own weakness, I have great cause to fear; I have longed after thy precepts After a more solid knowledge and constant performance of them. Quicken me Do thou preserve and maintain both my natural and spiritual life; in thy righteousness According to thy faithfulness, which obligeth thee to make good thy promises.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
119:39 Turn away {e} my reproach which I fear: for thy judgments [are] good.
(e) Let me not fall to your dishonour but let my heart still delight in your gracious word.