Let those that fear thee turn unto me, and those that have known thy testimonies.
Those who reverence God and know His law are asked to turn toward the speaker in fellowship and company. The testimonies they know are the Ten Commandments, the one moral law of God's government spoken by His own mouth at Sinai. The prayer seeks not the friendship of the wicked but the fellowship of the faithful who love truth, while shunning the evil, the proud, the slanderous and the cruel. Even one who enjoys much of God's presence, inward joy and communion with Him still needs such Christian fellowship, and it is grief when the friends of God turn away or doubt. That law is everlasting righteousness and truth, holy and just and good, expressing God's own character and reaching even to the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Psalm's Form and Terms
Psalm 119 is built as an acrostic in twenty-two sections of eight verses each, with every verse in a section beginning in Hebrew with that section's letter, making 176 verses in all. It is a highly poetic composition almost unrivaled as a production and the delight of every reverent heart. Every verse refers directly in some way to God's law, and the psalm is especially noted for setting forth the excellencies of that law. That reference comes under terms including testimonies, commandments, statutes, word, precepts, ways, judgments, and law.
The testimonies named in Psalm 119:79 are the Ten Commandments, the one moral law for God's government growing out of His attributes. They are the moral law, the law of the Lord given by the voice of God and uttered by the mouth of God at Sinai, also called His ways, precepts, statutes, commands, judgments, and word. Those who have known the testimonies are people who know that law. The word commandments is used as a synonym for God's law, with the context determining whether it means the moral law or a particular command that may be local or ceremonial.
The psalm was written by Daniel in Babylon and expresses his experience as God's prophet there, and its verses reflect Daniel's experiences. Those who held this with less certainty put it that the psalm may have been written by Daniel while a captive in Babylon. The verse does not belong to any one dispensation but serves worshipers in every age and dispensation, for all time and for all classes of true worshipers.
Law's Character and Permanence
The law spoken by His mouth is perfect, very pure, and exceeding broad, better than thousands of gold and silver and loved above gold, yea fine gold. It reaches to the very thoughts and intents of the heart, so that he who hates his brother is a murderer. It is truth and everlasting righteousness, and the righteousness of its testimonies is everlasting. All its commandments are truth and righteousness, true from the beginning, founded forever, with every righteous judgment enduring forever. It is good for all time, perpetual, eternal, and immutable, never needing to be abolished, changed, or improved, but to be kept rather than changed or set aside.
It expresses God's character and is joined with righteousness, holiness, justice, truth, and faithfulness. It is holy, just, and good, a perfect rule of holiness defining human duty. It reveals duty and God's standard of righteousness, exposes sin and the corruption of the heart, and is a source of light and understanding. To have God's law in the heart is to do God's will by obeying His moral law, while the gospel reveals God's grace and points to Jesus as the way to eternal life.
Obedience or disobedience to this one moral law decides all good and evil, life and death, and the psalm's declarations about the law apply to these commandments and to no other law. It is the law on which the first covenant was based as its condition, perfect, holy, just and good, though the first covenant itself was not faultless because its condition of entire obedience was not kept. The psalm gives blessed instruction and exhortation to devotion, teaches the permanency of God's holy law, and prophesies the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It expresses sincere and earnest devotion, an exalted spiritual condition and true spirit of piety that none in this age of gospel light excels, showing the religion of past dispensations as exalted and spiritual as the present. It is full of sober and serious resolutions made before God in prayer, in which the soul makes holy stipulations and compacts of obedience.
Fellowship of the Faithful
The prayer is that those who fear God and have known His testimonies should turn to the speaker, placing his fellowship among those who reverence God and know His law and seeking their company. It belongs to a humble response to reproof in which the speaker clings to God's testimonies as delight and counsel, seeks God wholeheartedly, and turns his conduct toward them in trust in Jehovah's faithfulness to those who delight in His testimonies. Even one who has much of the presence of God, many inward joys, communion with God, and many evidences of His love and favor still needs Christian fellowship.
It is a prayer for the fellowship of the good, that those who fear God and have known and love His testimonies would turn to the praying one. It is also the cry of sorrow and grief when the friends of God turn away and those who fear the Lord doubt, which is painful when holy men doubt the sincerity of repentance after sin and keep aloof, and when persecution by enemies who injure character leaves no redress except in God and causes good men to doubt whether the Lord is with the persecuted. What is sought is not the friendship of the wicked but the fellowship of the faithful, loving truth and mutual confidence as men of truth, while abhorring and avoiding the company of the evil, the froward, the slanderous, the proud, and the cruel and revengeful. God's law remains a delight to those who follow it even when obedience sets them apart from others.
To speak freely of one's own experience as in this psalm is not egotistical, for personal testimony is not self-praise when it gives glory to God.
Those who reverence God and know His law are asked to turn toward the speaker in fellowship and company. The testimonies they know are the Ten Commandments, the one moral law of God's government spoken by His own mouth at Sinai. The prayer seeks not the friendship of the wicked but the fellowship of the faithful who love truth, while shunning the evil, the proud, the slanderous and the cruel. Even one who enjoys much of God's presence, inward joy and communion with Him still needs such Christian fellowship, and it is grief when the friends of God turn away or doubt. That law is everlasting righteousness and truth, holy and just and good, expressing God's own character and reaching even to the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Psalm's Form and Terms
Psalm 119 is built as an acrostic in twenty-two sections of eight verses each, with every verse in a section beginning in Hebrew with that section's letter, making 176 verses in all. It is a highly poetic composition almost unrivaled as a production and the delight of every reverent heart. Every verse refers directly in some way to God's law, and the psalm is especially noted for setting forth the excellencies of that law. That reference comes under terms including testimonies, commandments, statutes, word, precepts, ways, judgments, and law.
The testimonies named in Psalm 119:79 are the Ten Commandments, the one moral law for God's government growing out of His attributes. They are the moral law, the law of the Lord given by the voice of God and uttered by the mouth of God at Sinai, also called His ways, precepts, statutes, commands, judgments, and word. Those who have known the testimonies are people who know that law. The word commandments is used as a synonym for God's law, with the context determining whether it means the moral law or a particular command that may be local or ceremonial.
The psalm was written by Daniel in Babylon and expresses his experience as God's prophet there, and its verses reflect Daniel's experiences. Those who held this with less certainty put it that the psalm may have been written by Daniel while a captive in Babylon. The verse does not belong to any one dispensation but serves worshipers in every age and dispensation, for all time and for all classes of true worshipers.
Law's Character and Permanence
The law spoken by His mouth is perfect, very pure, and exceeding broad, better than thousands of gold and silver and loved above gold, yea fine gold. It reaches to the very thoughts and intents of the heart, so that he who hates his brother is a murderer. It is truth and everlasting righteousness, and the righteousness of its testimonies is everlasting. All its commandments are truth and righteousness, true from the beginning, founded forever, with every righteous judgment enduring forever. It is good for all time, perpetual, eternal, and immutable, never needing to be abolished, changed, or improved, but to be kept rather than changed or set aside.
It expresses God's character and is joined with righteousness, holiness, justice, truth, and faithfulness. It is holy, just, and good, a perfect rule of holiness defining human duty. It reveals duty and God's standard of righteousness, exposes sin and the corruption of the heart, and is a source of light and understanding. To have God's law in the heart is to do God's will by obeying His moral law, while the gospel reveals God's grace and points to Jesus as the way to eternal life.
Obedience or disobedience to this one moral law decides all good and evil, life and death, and the psalm's declarations about the law apply to these commandments and to no other law. It is the law on which the first covenant was based as its condition, perfect, holy, just and good, though the first covenant itself was not faultless because its condition of entire obedience was not kept. The psalm gives blessed instruction and exhortation to devotion, teaches the permanency of God's holy law, and prophesies the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It expresses sincere and earnest devotion, an exalted spiritual condition and true spirit of piety that none in this age of gospel light excels, showing the religion of past dispensations as exalted and spiritual as the present. It is full of sober and serious resolutions made before God in prayer, in which the soul makes holy stipulations and compacts of obedience.
Fellowship of the Faithful
The prayer is that those who fear God and have known His testimonies should turn to the speaker, placing his fellowship among those who reverence God and know His law and seeking their company. It belongs to a humble response to reproof in which the speaker clings to God's testimonies as delight and counsel, seeks God wholeheartedly, and turns his conduct toward them in trust in Jehovah's faithfulness to those who delight in His testimonies. Even one who has much of the presence of God, many inward joys, communion with God, and many evidences of His love and favor still needs Christian fellowship.
It is a prayer for the fellowship of the good, that those who fear God and have known and love His testimonies would turn to the praying one. It is also the cry of sorrow and grief when the friends of God turn away and those who fear the Lord doubt, which is painful when holy men doubt the sincerity of repentance after sin and keep aloof, and when persecution by enemies who injure character leaves no redress except in God and causes good men to doubt whether the Lord is with the persecuted. What is sought is not the friendship of the wicked but the fellowship of the faithful, loving truth and mutual confidence as men of truth, while abhorring and avoiding the company of the evil, the froward, the slanderous, the proud, and the cruel and revengeful. God's law remains a delight to those who follow it even when obedience sets them apart from others.
To speak freely of one's own experience as in this psalm is not egotistical, for personal testimony is not self-praise when it gives glory to God.