Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 119:99
I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies [are] my meditation.
99. than all my teachers ] Who derive their learning from other sources. Delitzsch thinks that Psa 119:98-100 refer to teachers and elders who, like the Hellenizing Sadducees, were in danger of apostasy through their laxity, and persecuted the strict young zealot for God’s law. But clearly the Psalmist’s point is not the superiority of his own stricter interpretation of the law to the laxer interpretation of his teachers, but the superiority of the law to all other sources of instruction as a fountain of wisdom and prudence and discernment.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I have more understanding than all my teachers – Referring perhaps to those who had given him instruction in early life. By constant meditation on the law of God, he had, in the progress of years, advanced to a point beyond that to which they had arrived. He had improved upon their suggestions and instructions, until he had surpassed them in knowledge. His design in saying this was to set forth the excellency and the fullness of the law of God, and to show how the study of it was suited to enlarge the understanding. In early life the wisdom of teachers seems to be far beyond anything that we can hope to reach; yet a few years of study and meditation may place us far beyond them. What those teachers seemed to be to us, however, when we were young, may serve ever onward as a means of comparison when we wish to speak of the greatness of human attainments. So the psalmist says that he had now reached a point which seemed to him in early life to be wonderful, and to be beyond what he had then hoped ever to attain. He had now reached that point; he had gone beyond it.
For thy testimonies are my meditation – Compare Psa 1:2; 2Ti 3:15. All this knowledge he had obtained by meditation on the law of God; by the study of divine truth. The effect of that constant study was seen in the knowledge which he now possessed, and which seemed to surprise even himself as compared with the brightest anticipations of his early years.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 119:99-100
I have more understanding than all my teachers: for Thy testimonies are my meditation.
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Inward virtues to the truth of the Gospel
1. By obeying the commands of Scripture we learn that these commands really come from God; by trying we make proof; by doing we come to know. Now, how comes this to pass? It happens in several ways.
(1) The Bible tells us to be meek, humble, single-hearted, and teachable. Now, these are qualities of mind necessary for arriving at the truth in any subject, and in religious matters as well as others. On the other hand, impatient, proud, self-confident, obstinate men, are generally wrong in the opinions they form of persons and things. Prejudice and self-conceit blind the eyes and mislead the judgment, whatever be the subject inquired into.
(2) Those who are trained carefully according to the precepts of Scripture gain an elevation, a delicacy, refinement, and sanctity of mind, which is most necessary for judging fairly of the truth of Scripture. The pure in heart shall see God; whereas the proud provoke His anger, and the carnal are His abhorrence.
(3) Those who try to obey God will evidently gain a knowledge of themselves at least; and this is the first and principal step towards knowing God.
2. The Bible, then, seems to say, God is not a hard master to require belief, without affording grounds for believing; only follow your own sense of right, and you will gain from that very obedience to your Maker, which natural conscience enjoins, a conviction of the truth and power of that Redeemer whom a supernatural message has revealed; do but examine your thoughts and doings; do but attempt what you know to be Gods will, and you will most assuredly be led on into all the truth: you will recognize the force, meaning, and awful graciousness of the Gospel Creed; you will bear witness to the truth of one doctrine, by your own past experience of yourselves; of another, by seeing that it is suited to your necessity; of a third, by finding it fulfilled upon your obeying it. As the prophet says (Mal 3:10). (J. H. Newman, B. D.)
The intellectual power of revelation –
I. The power of religious knowledge.
II. The inferiority of mere intellectual attainments. The meanest student of Scripture is wiser than the most learned professor of scientific knowledge. He is wiser–
1. Scientifically. Boasted science is all chaff; after all, it comes back to the Scripture.
2. Morally. No system of ethics is perfect but the Scripture system.
3. Practically. No other writers can tell of what is beyond and what is the course to be pursued in relation thereto.
III. The power available, to all. Meditation on Gods testimonies. Meditation includes–
1. Reading. This is the first step.
2. Digesting. Dwelling on, feeding upon, making them part of our intellectual selves.
3. Carrying out in action. The real test of all consists in development and the outward proof of the inward principle. (Homilist.)
The only path to the highest wisdom
I. Meditation on the Divine. It is by meditation alone that men become philosophers and artists; by it they penetrate the veil of phenomena, descry and grasp the eternal principles that govern the universe. By it alone we can get mental nourishment. From the impressions that are made upon us, the observations we make, and the thoughts that flash through us from the works we read. It is the digestive faculty of the soul. As the best food taken into the stomach is not only useless, but injurious to the system if not digested, so the richest information rather encumbers than strengthens the soul if not reflected upon. But the subject of meditation must be Divine in order to reach the highest wisdom. Thy testimonies. Meditations upon human history, speculation, or enterprise, will conduct to a certain kind of wisdom, but not to the highest wisdom–the wisdom that cometh from on high.
II. Practising the Divine. I keep Thy precepts. it is only as a man translates his ideas into actions that they become part of himself. The greatest ideas of God are comparatively worthless unless embodied in life. In temporal matters the highest philosophy helps on the world just as its theories are reduced to practice. Genuine work alone, says Carlyle, what thou workest faithfully, that is eternal as the Almighty Founder and World Builder Himself. (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 99. I have more understanding than all my teachers] As he had entered into the spiritual nature of the law of God, and saw into the exceeding breadth of the commandment, he soon became wiser than any of the priests or even prophets who instructed him.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Understanding: he speaks not here of notional, but of spiritual, and practical, and experimental knowledge.
Than all my teachers; than all or most (for that general word is oft so understood) of those who taught me formerly, or of the public teachers in Sauls time; which probably were for the generality of them neither so knowing nor so good as they should have been.
My meditations; the matter of my constant and most diligent study.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
99. understandingis practicalskill (Psa 2:10; Psa 32:8).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I have more understanding than all my teachers,…. Such as had been or would have been his teachers, who were bad ones in religious matters; especially such might be the religious teachers in Saul’s time, when David was a young man: as the priests, whose lips should keep knowledge, and deliver it to the people, were in the times of Malachi; and as the Scribes and Pharisees, who, sat in Moses’s chair, were in Christ’s time; and as those legal teachers were in the apostles’ times, who would be teachers of the law, not knowing what they said, nor whereof they affirmed; such as these David exceeded in spiritual understanding. Or his good teachers are meant; and though in common it is true that “a disciple is not above his master”, Mt 10:24; yet there are sometimes instances in which scholars exceed their teachers in knowledge and learning; and this is no reproach to a master to have such scholars: no doubt Apollos so improved in knowledge as to excel Aquila and Priscilla, of whom he learned much; as the Apostle Paul excelled Ananias; and so David excelled his teachers: and which is said by him, not in an ostentatious way of himself, nor in contempt of his teachers; but to commend the word of God, the source of his knowledge; and to magnify the grace of God, to whom he attributes all his wisdom, as in Ps 119:98. Kimchi interprets it,
“of them all I have learned and received instruction; and from them I have understood the good way, and they have taught me;”
for thy testimonies [are] my meditation; what he learned of his teachers he compared with the word, the Scriptures, which testify of the mind and will of God; he searched into them, he meditated upon them, and considered whether what his instructors taught him were agreeable to them or and by this means he got more understanding than they had.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(99) More understanding . . .The Rabbinical writers disliked the idea of a scholar professing wisdom above his teachers, and rendered, from all my teachers I got wisdom, which was certainly far more in keeping with the process by which the Talmud grew into existence.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 119:99 I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies [are] my meditation.
Ver. 99. I have more understanding than all my teachers ] i.e. I have understood by much reading more than they ever taught me, while I referred all to practice; and so came to know more of God’s mind than they did. A friend, saith Chrysostom, that is acquainted with his friend, will get out the meaning of a letter or phrase which another could not that is a stranger; so it is in the Scripture. And here, Indocti rapiunt coelum, a pious swain is better learned than a proud philosopher, saith a certain devout Dominican. Our King Alfred was held the best in all his kingdom, both for understanding and for interpreting the Holy Scriptures.
For thy testimonies are my meditation
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
than all my teachers. Because Divinely taught Divine wisdom.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
than all: Deu 4:6-8, 2Sa 15:24-26, 1Ch 15:11-13, 2Ch 29:15-36, 2Ch 30:22, Jer 2:8, Jer 8:8, Jer 8:9, Mat 11:25, Mat 13:11, Mat 15:6-9, Mat 15:14, Mat 23:24-36, Heb 5:12
for thy: Psa 119:24, 2Ti 3:15-17
Reciprocal: Jos 1:8 – thou shalt 1Sa 18:30 – behaved himself Pro 2:9 – General Dan 1:20 – in all Dan 9:2 – understood Mic 2:7 – do not Mat 7:24 – a wise Luk 2:47 – General Act 8:28 – and sitting 1Co 14:20 – not Col 1:9 – wisdom 1Ti 4:15 – Meditate
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
119:99 I have more {b} understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies [are] my meditation.
(b) Whoever submits himself only to God’s word will not only be safe against the practises of his enemies, but also learn more wisdom than they who profess it, and are men of experience.