7 The law of the Lord is good, giving new life to the soul: the witness of the Lord is certain, giving wisdom to the foolish.
The works of his hands are faith and righteousness; all his laws are unchanging.
The opening of your words gives light; it gives good sense to the simple.
To make the simple-minded sharp, and to give the young man knowledge, and serious purpose:
<NUN> Your word is a light for my feet, ever shining on my way.
He is the Rock, complete is his work; for all his ways are righteousness: a God without evil who keeps faith, true and upright is he.
How long, you simple ones, will foolish things be dear to you? and pride a delight to the haters of authority? how long will the foolish go on hating knowledge? Be turned again by my sharp words: see, I will send the flow of my spirit on you, and make my words clear to you.
Let the word of Christ be in you in all wealth of wisdom; teaching and helping one another with songs of praise and holy words, making melody to God with grace in your hearts.
And that from the time when you were a child, you have had knowledge of the holy Writings, which are able to make you wise to salvation, through faith in Christ Jesus. Every holy Writing which comes from God is of profit for teaching, for training, for guiding, for education in righteousness: So that the man of God may be complete, trained and made ready for every good work.
For this reason, putting away all dirty behaviour and the overweight of evil, take into your souls without pride the word which, being planted there, is able to give you salvation. But be doers of the word, and not only hearers of it, blinding yourselves with false ideas. Because if any man is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a glass; For after looking at himself he goes away, and in a short time he has no memory of what he was like. But he who goes on looking into the true law which makes him free, being not a hearer without memory but a doer putting it into effect, this man will have a blessing on his acts.
Now those things which were put down in writing before our time were for our learning, so that through quiet waiting and through the comfort of the holy Writings we might have hope.
And let not your behaviour be like that of this world, but be changed and made new in mind, so that by experience you may have knowledge of the good and pleasing and complete purpose of God.
I have taken your unchanging word as an eternal heritage; for it is the joy of my heart.
The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver.
Keep these words, which I say to you this day, deep in your hearts; Teaching them to your children with all care, talking of them when you are at rest in your house or walking by the way, when you go to sleep and when you get up. Let them be fixed as a sign on your hand, and marked on your brow; Have them lettered on the pillars of your houses and over the doors of your towns.
But God's strong base is unchanging, having this sign, The Lord has knowledge of those who are his: and, Let everyone by whom the name of the Lord is named be turned away from evil.
If we take the witness of men to be true, the witness of God is greater: because this is the witness which God has given about his Son. He who has faith in the Son of God has the witness in himself: he who has not faith in God makes him false, because he has not faith in the witness which God has given about his Son. And his witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who has not the Son of God has not the life.
Have no feeling of shame, then, for the witness of our Lord or for me, his prisoner: but undergo all things for the good news in the measure of the power of God;
Let this book of the law be ever on your lips and in your thoughts day and night, so that you may keep with care everything in it; then a blessing will be on all your way, and you will do well.
As for God, his way is completely good; the word of the Lord is tested; he is a breastplate for all those who put their faith in him.
I have taken as much delight in the way of your unchanging word, as in all wealth.
I have seen that nothing on earth is complete; but your teaching is very wide. <MEM> O what love I have for your law! I give thought to it all the day. Your teaching has made me wiser than my haters: for it is mine for ever. I have more knowledge than all my teachers, because I give thought to your unchanging word. I have more wisdom than the old, because I have kept your orders.
Let my teaching be kept secret: and my words be given to my disciples only.
Every good and true thing is given to us from heaven, coming from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change or any shade made by turning.
<BETH> How may a young man make his way clean? by guiding it after your word.
<Maschil. Of Asaph.> Give ear, O my people, to my law; let your ears be bent down to the words of my mouth. Opening my mouth I will give out a story, even the dark sayings of old times; Which have come to our hearing and our knowledge, as they were given to us by our fathers. We will not keep them secret from our children; we will make clear to the coming generation the praises of the Lord and his strength, and the great works of wonder which he has done. He put up a witness in Jacob, and made a law in Israel; which he gave to our fathers so that they might give knowledge of them to their children; So that the generation to come might have knowledge of them, even the children of the future, who would give word of them to their children; So that they might put their hope in God, and not let God's works go out of their minds, but keep his laws;
And when he has taken his place on the seat of his kingdom, he is to make in a book a copy of this law, from that which the priests, the Levites, have in their care: And it is to be with him for his reading all the days of his life, so that he may be trained in the fear of the Lord his God to keep and do all the words of this teaching and these laws: So that his heart may not be lifted up over his countrymen, and he may not be turned away from the orders, to one side or the other: but that his life and the lives of his children may be long in his kingdom in Israel.
And I went on my face before his feet to give him worship. And he said to me, See you do it not: I am a brother-servant with you and with your brothers who keep the witness of Jesus: give worship to God: for the witness of Jesus is the spirit of the prophet's word.
I have long had knowledge that your unchanging word is for ever.
He gives witness of what he has seen and of what has come to his ears; and no man takes his witness as true. He who so takes his witness has made clear his faith that God is true.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Psalms 19
Commentary on Psalms 19 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
PSALM 19
Ps 19:1-14. After exhibiting the harmonious revelation of God's perfections made by His works and His word, the Psalmist prays for conformity to the Divine teaching.
1. the glory of God—is the sum of His perfections (Ps 24:7-10; Ro 1:20).
firmament—another word for "heavens" (Ge 1:8).
handywork—old English for "work of His hands."
2. uttereth—pours forth as a stream; a perpetual testimony.
3. Though there is no articulate speech or words, yet without these their voice is heard (compare Margin).
4. Their line—or, "instruction"—the influence exerted by their tacit display of God's perfections. Paul (Ro 10:18), quoting from the Septuagint, uses "sound," which gives the same sense.
5, 6. The sun, as the most glorious heavenly body, is specially used to illustrate the sentiment; and his vigorous, cheerful, daily, and extensive course, and his reviving heat (including light), well display the wondrous wisdom of his Maker.
7-9. The law is described by six names, epithets, and effects. It is a rule, God's testimony for the truth, His special and general prescription of duty, fear (as its cause) and judicial decision. It is distinct and certain, reliable, right, pure, holy, and true. Hence it revives those depressed by doubts, makes wise the unskilled (2Ti 3:15), rejoices the lover of truth, strengthens the desponding (Ps 13:4; 34:6), provides permanent principles of conduct, and by God's grace brings a rich reward.
12-14. The clearer our view of the law, the more manifest are our sins. Still for its full effect we need divine grace to show us our faults, acquit us, restrain us from the practice, and free us from the power, of sin. Thus only can our conduct be blameless, and our words and thoughts acceptable to God.