by Charles Spurgeon
THE TREASURY OF DAVID, in seven
large volumes, is to be found in
thousands of libraries, but it
is too huge a work to be commonly known
among the thousands of Israel,
Hence it came into my mind to publish
certain parts of it in smaller
books, that many more might be profited by it.
The One Hundred and Nineteenth
Psalm is of such a size as to stand out
from all the rest, and claim a
separate treatment. It is known among the
Germans as “The Christians’ golden
A B C of the praise, love, power, and
use of the Word of God”; and from
them I have borrowed the title of this
volume. Each portion of the Psalm
begins with a letter of the Hebrew
alphabet. As a specimen, we would
show how the first eight verses may be
so rendered as to begin in each
case with the letter A, or Aleph.
“A blessing is on them that are
undefiled in the way;
...............and
walk in the law of Jehovah;
A blessing is on them that keep
his testimonies,
...............and
seek him with their whole heart;
Also on them that do no wickedness,
...............but
walk in his ways.
A law hast thou given unto us,
...............that
we should diligently keep thy commandments.
Ah, Lord! that my ways were so
directed
...............that
I might keep thy statutes!
And then shall I not be confounded,
...............while
I have respect unto all thy commandments.
As for me, I will thank thee with
an unfeigned heart,
...............when
I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.
An eye will I have unto thy statutes:
...............O
forsake me not utterly.”
This psalm is a wonderful composition.
Its expressions are many as the
waves, but its testimony is one
as the sea. It deals all along with one
subject only; but although it consists
of a considerable number of verses,
some of which are very similar
to others, yet throughout its one hundred
and seventy-six stanzas the self-same
thought is not repeated: there is
always a shade of difference, even
when the color of the. thought appears
to be the same. Some have said
that in it there is an absence of variety; but
that is merely the observation
of those who have not studied it. I have
weighed each word, and looked at
each syllable with lengthened
meditation; and I bear witness
that this sacred song has no tautology in it,
but Is charmingly varied from beginning
to end. Its variety is that of a
kaleidoscope: from a few objects
innumerable permutations and
combinations are produced. In the
kaleidoscope you look once, and there
is a strangely beautiful form you
shift the glass a very little, and another
shape, equally delicate and beautiful,
is before your eyes. So it is here.
What you see is the same, and yet
never the same: it is the same truth, but
it is always placed in a new light,
put in a new connection, or in some way
or other invested with freshness.
I do not believe that any subject
other than a heavenly one would have
allowed of such a psalm being written
upon it; for the themes of this world
are narrow and shallow. Neither
could such a handling have been given
even to a sacred subject by any
mind less than divine; inspiration alone can
account for the fullness and freshness
of this psalm.
The best compositions of men are
soon exhausted; they are cisterns, and
not springing fountains. You enjoy
them very much at the first
acquaintance, and you think you
could hear them a hundred times over; but
you could not: you soon find them
wearisome. Very speedily a man eats
too much honey: even children at
length are cloyed with sweets. All human
books grow stale after a time;
but with the Word of God the desire to
study it increases, while the more
you know of it the less you think you
know. The Book grows upon you:
as you dive into its depths you have a
fuller perception of the infinity
which remains unexplored. You are still
sighing to enjoy more of that which
it is your bliss to taste. All this is true
even of the psalm which is in itself
nothing more than the eulogy of the
divine testimony.
This wonderful psalm, from its great
length, helps us to wonder at the
immensity of Scripture. From its
keeping to the same subject it helps us to
adore the unity of Scripture, for
it is but one. Yet, from the many turns it
gives to its one thought, it helps
us to see the variety of Scripture. How
manifold are the words and thoughts
of God I In his Word, just as in
creation, the wonders of his skill
are displayed in many ways.
I admire in this psalm the singular
commingling of testimony, prayer, and
praise. In one verse the Psalmist
bears witness; in a second verse he
praises; in a third verse he prays.
It is an incense made up of many spices;
but they are wonderfully compounded
and worked together, so as to form
one perfect sweetness. The blending
greatly increases the value of the
whole. You would not like to have
one-third of the psalm composed of
prayer — marked up to the sixtieth
verse, for instance; and then another
part made up exclusively of praise;
and yet a third portion of unmixed
testimony. It is best to have all
these divinely-sweet ingredients intermixed,
and wrought into a sacred unity,
as you have them in this thrice-hallowed
psalm. Its prayers bear testimony,
and its testimonies are fragrant with
praise.
Mr. Charles Bridges has written
upon this psalm a peculiarly delightful
work. I do not seek to rival him;
but I would attempt the edification of the
Lord’s people in the same way as
he has done, for he has made no effort to
display learning, but has aimed
at promoting devotion. Several notable
authors traversed this heavenly
country before Mr. Bridges, and I am one
of those who follow after him:
the succession will not end till the Lord
comes.
I commend my labor to my Lord’s
acceptance, and pray that his Holy
Spirit may make these praises of
Holy Scripture to ring as sweet bells in
the ears of his own people evermore.
Dear Reader, pray for
Thy brother in Christ,
C. H. Spurgeon
Westwood, July 1887.
There is no special title to
this. Psalm, neither is any author’s name
mentioned. It is THE LONGEST
PSALM, and this is a sufficiently distinctive
name for it. It equals in bulk
twenty-two psalms of the average length of
the Songs of Degrees. Nor is
it long only; for it equally excels in breadth
of thought, depth of meaning,
and height of fervor. It is like the celestial
city which lieth four-square,
and the height and the breadth of it are equal
Many superficial readers have
imagined that it harps upon one string,
and abounds in pious repetitions
and redundancies; but this arises from
the shallowness of t he reader’s
own mind: those who have studied this
divine hymn, and carefully noted
each line of it, are amazed at the variety
and profundity of the thought.
Using only a few words, the writer has
produced permutations and combinations
of meaning which display his
holy familiarity with his subject,
and the sanctified ingenuity of his mind.
He never repeats himself; for
if the same sentiment recurs it is placed in a
fresh connection, and so exhibits
another interesting shade of meaning.
The more one studies it the
fresher it becomes. As those who drink the
Wile water like it better every
time they take a draught, so does this Psalm
become the more full and fascinating
the oftener you turn to it. It contains
no idle word; the grapes of
this cluster are almost to bursting full with the
new wine of the kingdom. The
more you look into this mirror of a gracious
heart the more you will see
in it. Placid on the surface as the sea of glass
before the eternal throne, it
yet contains within its depths an ocean of fire,
and those who devoutly gaze
into it shall not only see the brightness, but
feel the glow of the sacred
flame. It is loaded with holy sense, and is as
weighty as it is bulky. Again
and again have we cried while studying it,
“Oh the depths!” Yet these depths
are hidden beneath an apparent
simplicity, as Augustine has
well and wisely said, and this makes the
exposition all the more difficult.
Its obscurity is hidden beneath a veil of
light, and hence only those
discover it who are in thorough earnest, not
only to look on the word, but,
like the angels, to look into it.
The Psalm is alphabetical Eight
stanzas commence with one letter, and
then another eight with the
next letter, and so the whorl., Psalm proceeds
by octonaries quite through
the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
Besides which, there are multitudes
of oppositions of sense; and others of
those structural formalities
with which the oriental mind is pleased, —
formalities very similar to
those in which our older poets indulged.
The Holy Spirit thus deigned
to speak to men in forms which were
attractive to the attention
and helpful to the memory. He is often plain or
elegant in his manner, but he
does not disdain to be quaint or formal if
thereby his design of instruction
can be the more surely reached. He does
not despise even contracted
and artificial modes of speech, if by their use
he can fix his teaching upon
the mind. Isaac Taylor has worthily set forth
the lesson of this fact: — “In
the strictest sense this composition is
conditioned; nevertheless in
the highest sense is it an utterance of
spiritual life; and in thus
finding these seemingly opposed elements,
intimately commingled as they
are throughout this Psalm, a lesson full of
meaning is silently conveyed
to those who shall receive it — that the
conveyance of the things of
God to the human spirit is in no way damaged
or impeded, much less is it
deflected or vitiated, by its subjugation to
those modes of utterance which
most of all bespeak their adaptation to the
infancy and the childlike capacity
of the recipient.”
The fashion among modern writers
is, as far as possible, to take every one
of the Psalms from David. As
the critics of this school are usually
unsound in doctrine and unspiritual
in tone, we gravitate in the opposite
direction, from a natural suspicion
of everything which comes from so
unsatisfactory a quarter. We
believe that David wrote this Psalm. It is
Davidic in tone and expression,
and it tallies with David’s experience in
many interesting points. In
our youth our teacher called it “David’s
pocket-book,” and we incline
to the opinion then expressed, that here we
have the royal diary written
at various times throughout a long life. No,
we cannot give up this Psalm
to the enemy. “This is David’s spoil.” After
long reading an author, one
gets to know his style, and a measure of
discernment is acquired by which
his composition is detected even if his
name be concealed: we feel a
kind of critical certainty that the hand of
David is in this thing, yea,
that it is altogether his own.
The one theme of this Psalm is
the word of the Lord. The Psalmist sets his
subject in many lights, and
treats of it in divers ways, but he seldom omits
to mention the word of the Lord
in each verse under some one or other of
the many names by which he knows
it; and even if the name be not there,
the subject is still heartily
pursued in every stanza. He who wrote this
wonderful song was saturated
with those books of Scripture which he
possessed. Andrew Bonar tells
of a simple Christian in a farmhouse who
had meditated the Bible through
three times. This is precisely what this
Psalmist had done, — he had
gone past reading into meditation. Like
Luther, David had shaken every
fruit-tree in Gowns garden, and gathered
golden fruit therefrom. “The
most,” says Martin Boos, “read their
Bibles like caws that stand
in the thick grass, and trample under their feet
the finest flowers and herbs.”
It is to be feared that we too often do the
like. This is a miserable way
of treating the pages of inspiration. May the
Lord prevent us from repeating
that sin while reading this priceless
Psalm.
There is an evident growth in
the subject-matter. The earlier verses are of
such a character as to lend
themselves to the hypothesis that the author
was a young man, while many
of the later passages could only have
suggested themselves to age
and wisdom. In every portion, however, it is
the fruit of deep experience,
careful observation, and earnest meditation.
If David did not write it, there
must have lived another believer of exactly
the same order, of mind as David,
and he must have addicted himself to
psalmody with equal ardor, and
have been an equally hearty lover of Holy
Writ.
Our best improvement of this
sacred composition will come through
getting our minds into intense
sympathy with its subject. In order to this,
we might do well to commit it
to memory. Philip Henry’s daughter wrote
in her diary, “I have of late
taken some pains to learn by heart Psalm
119, and have made some progress
therein.” She was a sensible, godly
woman.
Having rehearsed the subject-matter
of this golden Psalm, we should still
further consider the fullness,
certainty, clearness, and sweetness of the
word of God, since by such reflections
we are likely to be stirred up to a
warm affection for it. What
favored beings are those to whom the Eternal
God has written a letter in
his own hand and style! What ardor of
devotion, what diligence of
composition, can produce a worthy eulogium
for the divine testimonies!
If ever one such has fallen from the pen of man
it is this 119th Psalm, which
might well be called the holy soul’s soliloquy
before an open Bible.
This sacred ode is a little Bible,
the Scriptures condensed, a mass of
Bibline, Holy Writ rewritten
in holy emotions and actions. The Germans
called it “The Christian’s golden
A B C of the praise, love, power, and
use of the Word of God. Blessed
are they who can read and understand
these saintly aphorisms: they
shall find golden apples in this true
Hesperides, and come to reckon
that this Psalm, like the whole Scripture
which it praises, is a pearl
island, or, better still, a garden of sweet
flowers.
The study of this sacred song
has often proved helpful to holy men. Henry
Martyn mentions it again and
again in his diary; as for instance — “I
experienced a solemn gladness
in learning this part, MEM, of the 119th
Psalm.” William Wilberforce
makes this record during a time of political
trouble: “Walked from Hyde Park
Corner repeating the 119th Psalm in
great comfort.” Pascal, in the
reading of this holy song, seemed to pass
out of himself in holy rapture.
May those who shall read the
Psalm, accepting the help of our
exposition, feel their hearts
burn within them! To this end, at the very
outset let our prayer ascend
to God, that his Holy Spirit may rest upon us
while we devoutly peruse the
volume.
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