Psalm 119:19

(This is an entry from a devotional commentary I am working on from Psalm 119 entitled God and His Word.  The introduction can be found here, successive entries have covered the 22 sections of the Psalm, and following entries verse by verse.)

 

"I am a stranger in the earth;

Do not hide Your commandments from me.”

 

‘‘Think it not strange’ - that I would feel out of place, that opposition would be normal!  1 Peter 2:9-10, 1 Peter 4:12.  I am no longer bound for destruction, Psalm 119:87, Philippians 3:18-19.  Isn’t it interesting that Your people, who are to see the futility of life under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:14) provide the most benefit to it by seeking not it, but You!  Jeremiah 29:7, Philippians 2:14-15.

 

‘‘Upon earth we have no abiding resting-place, we sojourn here as in a strange land (Psa 119:19, Psa 39:13; 1Ch 29:15). Hence the poet prays in Psa 119:19 that God would keep His commandments, these rules of conduct for the journey of life, in living consciousness for him.’[1]

 

‘The Psalmist was a stranger for God's sake, else had he been as much at home as worldlings are; he was not a stranger to God, but a stranger to the world, a banished man so long as he was out of heaven…David implies that God's commands were his solace in his exile' they reminded him of home, and they showed him the way thither, and therefore he begged that they might never be hidden from him, by his being unable either to understand them or to obey them… What would be the use of opened eyes if the best object of sight were hidden from their view? While we wander here we can endure all the ills of this foreign land with patience if the word of God is applied to our hearts by the Spirit of God; but if the heavenly things which make for our peace were hid from our eyes we should be in an evil case, - in fact, we should be at sea without a compass, in a desert without a guide, in an enemy's country without a friend.’[2]

[1] Keil & Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, on Psalm 119:19, e-Sword edition

[2] Spurgeon, Charles Haddon, Treasury of David, on Psalm 119:19, e-Sword edition


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