Psalm 119:1-7

Psalm 119 could certainly be called a devotion - indeed, David's own devotion. One can hardly read a verse of it without being moved. Jeff Adams points out, in his commentary "Psalm 119 A Journey Into The Heart of God", that David is called a man after God's own heart because it was in God's heart to choose David and use him. While this is true, it is certainly also true that David's heart was after the heart of God in that he was ever longing for the heart of his God and truly desired to please him. I began reading Adams' commentary some time ago and read less than 50 of the 400 + pages. It is I that is at fault. It is a moving and enlightening study of the psalm. I highly recommend it. I own somewhere between 1500 to 2000 books. I have read maybe 600 books, if that many. The true count might be closer to 400. I am not sure. I have read some books 2 and 3 times. That doesn't include the twenty something times through the Bible. It is certain that I have spent a lot of time reading. And I am fairly certain that with the exception of the Bible, no book has moved me like the EXPOSITION OF PSALM CXIX by THE REV. C. BRIDGES, M.A., VICAR OF OLD NEWTON, SUFFOLK. This commentary's publication date for the sixteenth edition is 1843. The Subtitle is AS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE CHARACTER AND EXERCISES OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.



Psalm 119:1


Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD.


This most interesting and instructive Psalm, like the Psalter itself, ‘opens with a Beatitude for our comfort and encouragement, directing us immediately to that happiness, which all mankind in different ways are seeking and inquiring after. All would secure themselves from the incursions of misery; but all do not consider that misery is the offspring of sin, from which therefore it is necessary to be delivered and preserved, in order to become happy or “blessed”.’

The undefiled character described in this verse marks, in an evangelical sense, “an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile” – not one who is without sin, but one who in the sincerity of his heart can say – “that which I do I allow not”. As his way is, so is his “walk” – “in the law of the Lord.” He is “strengthened in the Lord, and he walks up and down in his name” – his “ears hearing a word behind him, saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it”, when he is turning to the right hand or to the left”. And if pardon of sin, imputation of righteousness, the communion of saints, and a sense of acceptance with God – if protection in providence and grace, and finally and for ever the beatific vision, are the sealed privileges of his upright people, then there can be no doubt, that “blessed are the undefiled in the way”. And if temporal prosperity, spiritual renovation and fruitfulness, increasing illumination, intercourse with the Saviour, peace within, and throughout eternity a right to the tree of life, are the privileges of incalculable value; then surely “the walk in the law of the Lord” is “the path of pleasantness and peace”. “Truly” – indeed may we say – “God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart”.

But let each of us ask – What is the “way” of my heart with God? Is it always an “undefiled way”? Is “iniquity” never “regarded in the heart”? Is all that God hates habitually lamented, abhorred, forsaken? “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Again – What is my “walk”? Is it from the living principle of union with Christ? This is the direct – the only source of spiritual life. We are first quickened in him. Then we walk in him and after him. Oh! that this my walk may be steady, consistent, advancing! Oh! that I may be ever listening to my Father’s voice – “I am the Almighty God; walk before me and be thou perfect!

Is there not enough of defilement in the most “undefiled way”, and enough inconsistency in the most consistent “walk” to endear to us the gracious declaration of the gospel – “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous”?

Psalms 119:2

Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.


The “testimony”, in the singular number, usually denotes the whole canon of the inspired writings – the revelation of the will of God to mankind – the standard of their faith. “Testimonies” appear chiefly, to mark the perceptive part of Scripture – that part, in which this man of God always found his spiritual delight and perfect freedom. Mark his language: “I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches. Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart.” Not however that this blessedness belongs to the mere outward act of obedience; but rather to that practical habit of mind, which seeks to know the will of God in order to “keep” it. This habit is under the influence of the promise of God – “And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” And in thus “keeping the testimonies of God”, the believer maintains the character of one that “seeks him with the whole heart”.

Oh! how many seek, and seek in vain, for no other reason, than because they do not “seek him with the whole heart”! The worldling’s “heart is divided; now shall he be found faulty”. The professors “with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.” The backslider “hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD.” The faithful, upright believer alone brings his heart, his whole heart, to the Lord – “When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.” For he only has found an object that attracts and fills his whole heart – and if he had a thousand hearts, would attract and fill them all. He has found his way to God by faith in Jesus. In that way he continues to seek. His whole heart is engaged to know and love more and more. Here alone the blessing is enjoyed, and the promise made good – “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”

But let me not shrink from the question – Do I “keep his testimonies” from constraint or from love? Surely when I consider my own natural aversion and enmity to the law of God, and the danger of self-deception in the external service of the Lord, I have much need to pray – “Incline my heart unto thy testimonies. Give me understanding - save me, and I shall keep thy testimonies.” And if they are blessed, who seek the Lord with their whole heart, how am I seeking him? Alas! with how much distraction; with how little heart-work! Oh! let me “seek his strength” in order to “seek his face”.

Lord! search – teach – incline – uphold me. Help me to plead thy gracious promise – “I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.”

Psalms 119:3

They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.


This was not their character from their birth. Once they were doing nothing but iniquity. It was without mixture, without cessation – from the fountain-head. Now it is written of them – “they do no iniquity”. Once they walked, even as others, in the way of their own hearts – “enemies to God by wicked works”. Now “they walk in his ways”. They are “a new creatures in Christ; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new”. This is their highly-privileged state – Sin shall not have dominion over them: for they are not under the law, but under grace. They are “born of God, and they cannot commit sin; for his seed remaineth in them: and they cannot sin, because they are born of God”. Their hatred and resistance of sin are therefore now as instinctive, as was their former enmity and opposition to God. Not indeed that the people of God are as “the saints made perfect”, who “do no iniquity”. This is a dream of perfection – unscriptural and self-deluding. The unceasing advocacy of their Heavenly Friend evidently supposes the indwelling power of sin, to the termination of our earthly pilgrimage. The supplication also in the prayer of our Lord teaches them to ask for daily pardon and deliverance from “temptation”, as for “daily bread”. Yes – to our shame be it spoken – we are sinners still; yet – praised be God! – not “walking after the course”, not “fulfilling the desires” of sin. The acting of sin is now like the motion of a stone upward, violent and unnatural. If it is not cast out, it is dethroned. We are not, as before, “its willing people”, but its reluctant, struggling captives. It is not “the day of its power”.

And here lies the holy liberty of the Gospel – not, as some have feigned, - a liberty to “continue in sin, that grace may abound”; but a deliverance from the guilt and condemnation of abhorred, resisted, yet still indwelling sin. When our better will hath cast it off – when we can say in the sight of an heart-searching God, “What we hate, that do we” – the responsibility is not ours – “It is not we that do it, but sin that dwelleth in us”. Still let us inquire, is the promise of deliverance from sin “sweet to us”? And does our successful resistance in the spiritual conflict realize the earnest of its complete fulfillment? Blessed Jesus! what do we owe to thy cross for the present redemption from its guilt and curse, and much more for the blissful prospect of the glorified state, when this hated guest shall be an inmate no more! O let us take the very print of thy death into our souls in the daily crucifixion of sin. Let us know the “power of thy resurrection” in an habitual “walk in newness of life”.

Psalms 119:4

Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.


We have seen the character of the Man of God. Let us mark the authority of God, commanding him to a diligent obedience. The very sight of the command is enough for him. He obeys for the command’s sake, however contrary it may be to his own will. But has he any reason to complain of the yoke? Even under the dispensation which “gendereth unto bondage” most encouraging were the obligations to obedience – “that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever”. Much more, then, we, under a dispensation of love, can never want a motive for obedience! Let the daily mercies of Providence stir up the question – “What shall I render unto the Lord?” Let the far richer mercies of grace produce “a living sacrifice” to be “presented to the Lord”. Let “the love of Christ constrain us”. Let the recollection of the “price with which we were bought”, remind us of the Lord’s property in us, and of our obligations to “glorify him in our body, and in our spirit, which are his”. Let us only “behold the Lamb of God “; let us hear his wrestling supplications, his deserted cry, his expiring agonies – the price of our redemption; and then let us ask ourselves, Can we want a motive?

But what is the scriptural character of Evangelical obedience? It is the work of the Spirit, enabling us to “obey the truth”. It is the end of the purpose of God, who “hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love”. It is the only satisfactory test of our profession.

Then let me begin my morning with the inquiry – “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” “Teach me thy way, O Lord: I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.” Let me trade with all my talents for thee; ever watchful, that I may be employed in thy work; setting a guard upon my thoughts, my lips, my tempers, my pursuits, that nothing may hinder, but rather every thing may help me, in keeping thy precepts diligently.

But why do I ever find the precepts to be “grievous” to me? Is it not that some indolence is indulged; or some “iniquity regarded in my heart”; or some principle of unfaithfulness divides my service with two masters, when I should ought to be “following the Lord fully”? Oh! for the spirit of “simplicity and godly sincerity” in the precepts of God. Oh! for that warm and constant love, which is the main-spring of devoted diligence in the service of God. Oh! for a larger supply of that “wisdom which is from above” and which is “without partiality and without hypocrisy!”

Psalms 119:5

O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!


The Lord has indeed “commanded us to keep his precepts”. But, alas! where is our power? Satan would make the sense of our weakness an excuse for indolence. The Spirit of God convinces us of it, as an incitement to prayer, and an exercise of faith. If, Reader, your heart is perfect with God, you “consent to the law that it is good”; you “delight in it after the inner man” you would not have one jot or tittle altered, mitigated, or repealed, that it might be more conformed to your own will, or allow you more liberty and self-indulgence in the ways of sin. But do you not sigh to think, that, when you aim at the perfect standard of holiness, you should, at your best moments, and in your highest attainments, fall so far below it; seeing indeed the way before you, but feeling yourself without ability to walk in it? Then let a sense of your helplessness for the work of the Lord lead you to the throne of grace, to pray, and watch, and wait, for the strengthening and refreshing influences of the Spirit of grace. Here let your faith realize at one and the same view your utter insufficiency, and your complete All-sufficiency. Her behold Him, who is ever presenting himself before God as our glorious Head, receiving in himself, according to the good pleasure of the Father, the full supply for this and every successive amount of inexpressible need. Our work is not therefore left upon our own hands, or wrought out at our “own charges”. So long as “He hath the residue of the Spirit”, “grace” will be found “sufficient”, - Divine “strength made perfect in weakness”. Without him we can do nothing, - “Through Him all things”. Even the “worm Jacob shall thresh the mountains” when the Lord says – “Fear not, I will help thee”.

In connecting this verse with the preceding, how accurately is the middle path preserved, equally distant from the idea of self-sufficiency to “keep the Lord’s statutes”, and self-justification in neglecting them! The first attempt to render spiritual obedience will quickly convince us of our utter helplessness. We might as soon create a world, as create in our hearts one pulse of spiritual life. And yet our inability does not cancel our obligation. Shall God lose his right, because sin has palsied our ability? Is not a drunken servant still under his Master’s law? and is not the sin which prevents him from performing his duty, not his excuse, but his aggravation? Thus our weakness is that of an heart, which “cannot be subject to the law of God”, only because it is “carnal, enmity against God”. The obligation therefore remains in full force. Our inability is our sin, our guilt, and condemnation.

What then remains for us, but to return the mandate to heaven, accompanied with an earnest prayer, that the Lord would write upon our hearts those statutes, to which he requires obedience in his word? – “Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.” We acknowledge, Lord, our obligation; but we feel our impotency. Lord, help us: we look unto thee, “O that our ways were directed to keep thy statutes!” “Give what thou commandest; and then command what thou wilt.” Now as if to exhibit the fulness and suitableness of the promises of the gospel, the commands and prayers are returned back again from heaven with promises of quickening and directing grace. Thus does the Lord fully answer his end with us. He did not issue the commands, expecting that we could turn our own hearts to them; but that the conviction of our entire helplessness might be cast upon him, who loves to be sought, and never will be thus sought in vain. And indeed this is a part of “the mystery of godliness”, that in proportion as we depend upon him, who is alike “the Lord our righteousness” and our strength, our desires after holiness will increase, and our prayers become more fervent. He who commands our duty, perfectly knows our weaknesses. And he who feels his own weakness is fully encouraged to depend upon the power of his Saviour. Faith is then the principle of evangelical obedience, and the promises of his grace enable us for duty, at the very time that we are commanded to it. In this view are brought together the supreme authority of the Lawgiver, the total insufficiency of the creature, the full provisions of the Saviour, and the all-sufficiency of “the God of all grace”. We pray for what we want; we are thankful for what we have; we trust for what is promised. Thus “all is of God”. Christ “is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last”. Thus “grace reigns” triumphant. The foundation is laid in grace, and the head-stone will be brought forth with shoutings, crying, “Grace, grace unto it!” – The Saviour’s work is finished, and Jesus is crowned Lord of all for ever.

Psalms 119:6

Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.


The Lord expects our obedience to be not only “diligent”, but universal. Willingly to dispense with the least of the commandments proves that we have yet to learn the spirit of acceptable obedience. Grace is given and suited for all, no less than for one of them, “that we might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing”. One t “regarded in he heart” is sufficient to keep possession for the tyrant, however others may be restrained. Even Herod could “do many things”; and yet his adulterous wife cherished in his bosom, too plainly proved the sovereignty of sin to be undisturbed. Saul slew all the Amalekites but one; and that single exception to universal obedience marked his unsoundness, cost him the loss of his throne, and brought him under the awful displeasure of his God. Reserves are the canker upon godly sincerity. A secret indulgence – “the rolling of the sweet morsel under the tongue” – “the part of the price kept back” – stamps our service as a robbery, not as an offering. We may be free, sincere, and earnest in many parts of our prescribed duty; but this “root of bitterness” renders the whole an abomination.

Sincerity therefore must be the stamp of my Christian profession. Though utterly unable to render perfect obedience to the least of the commandments, yet my desire and purpose will have respect unto them all. I shall no more venture to break the least than the greatest of them; much less shall I ever think of attempting to atone for the breach of one by the performance of the rest. They are indeed many commandments; yet – like links in a chain – they form but one law; and I know who has said – “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” However the professor may confine his regard to the second table (as if the first were ceremonial, or obsolete, or the regulation of the outward man was the utmost extent of the requirement), I would fix my eye with equal regard to both; yet specially marking any command in either of them, that may appear most directly opposed to my besetting corruptions. Thus “walking in the fear of the Lord”, I may hope to walk “in the comfort of the Holy Ghost”; and “hereby shall I know that I am of the truth, and shall assure my heart before God”.

But where, in my strictest walk, is my hope of acceptance, but in Him, whose obedience has “fulfilled all righteousness” in my stead, and whose death “has redeemed me from the curse” of my unrighteousness, when repentance, prayers, and years would have been to no avail? Yet it is only in the path of holiness that we can realize our acceptance. The heart occupied with this world’s pleasure knows nothing of this heavenly joy. Its brightness is dimmed – its freshness fades – its life withers – in the very breath of an unholy world. A godly assurance of the present favor of God must be weakened by self-indulgence, unwatchfulness, allowance of secret sins, or neglect of secret duties. “If thou return to the Almighty”, said a wise man, “thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles. For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God.”

Let us then carefully examine the character of our assurance. Does it rest simply and exclusively upon the testimony of the Gospel? Will it abide the test of the word of God? Is it productive of tenderness of conscience, watchfulness, and circumspection of conduct? Does it exercise our diligence in adding grace to grace, that we may “make our calling and election sure”, and that “an entrance may be ministered to us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”? How boldly can we plead our Christian confidence in the path of godliness. “I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O LORD, put me not to shame. Let my heart be sound in thy statutes; that I be not ashamed.”

Psalms 119:7

I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.


The righteous judgments of God include the whole revelation of his word – so called – as the rule by which he judges our present state, and will pronounce our final sentence. David’s attainments here seem to be as nothing. So much remained unlearned and unknown that he could only anticipate the time when he should have learned them. “Thy commandment” he exclaims “is exceeding broad”. When the Apostle, after twenty years acquaintance with the gospel, expressed it as the one desire of his heart – “That I may know Christ” – evidently he entertained the same humbling views of his high attainments, and the same exalted apprehensions of the value of treasures yet unexplored, and progressively opening before him. Thus the wisest saints are only students in the Divine School. Yet whatever their learning be, it casts them into the mould and spirit of their doctrine. Conceit however of knowledge is the greatest enemy to knowledge, and the strongest proof of ignorance; so that, “if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know”. “He deceiveth himself.”

But what is the motive that enlivens the believer in this holy learning? Is it that he may live upon the airy breath of human applause? No, rather that he may “praise his God with uprightness of heart”. When our mind is dark, our lips are sealed. But when “opens our understandings” to “learn his judgments”, he will next “open our lips, and our mouths will show forth his praise”. And this indeed is the end for which his people are formed; for which they “are called out of darkness into marvelous light”. This is the daily frame in which our God will be glorified. Yet must we live as well as sing his praise. The praise of the upright heart will be shown in the holy walk and conversation.

But let us watch that our praise really flows out of the abundance of what our hearts have learned of his righteous judgments. For do we not sometimes speak of our Saviour with a secret lurking after self-exaltation? May we not really be seeking and serving ourselves in the very act of seeming to serve and honour him? Surely the very thought of the selfishness that defiles our holiest earthly praise may well quicken our longings after that world of praise, where the flame burns active, bright, incessant; where we shall offer our sacrifices without defilement, without intermission, without weariness, without end.