Psalms 119:160

Verse Psalms 119:160. Thy word is true from the beginning] ראש rosh, the head or beginning of thy word, is true. Does he refer to the first word in the Book of Genesis, בראשית bereshith, "in the beginning?" The learned reader knows that ראש rash, or raash, is the root in that word. Every word thou hast spoken from the first in Bereshith (Genesis) to the end of the law and prophets, and all thou wilt yet speak, as flowing from the fountain of truth, must be true; and all shall have in due time, their fulfillment. And all these, thy words endure for ever. They are true, and ever will be true.

ANALYSIS OF LETTER RESH. - Twentieth Division

I. 1. The psalmist begins with a petition: "Consider my affliction."

2. Begs that God would help him: "Deliver me."

3. The reason for both: "I do not forget thy law."

4. He begs God to be his Advocate: 1. "Plead my cause." At the bar of men a just cause often miscarries for want of an able advocate, and is borne down by an unjust judge. Be thou my Advocate, and I shall not fail. 2. "Quicken me:" Revive my hopes, give new life to my soul.

II. He believes he shall be heard, because -

1. "Salvation is far from the wicked:" But he does not forget God's law.

2. "They seek not God's statutes:" But he meditates in God's law day and night.

III. If he ever miscarries, or comes short, he flees to God for mercy.

1. On God's mercies he bestows two epithets: 1. They are great or many, and they endure for ever. 2. They are tender; they are misericordiae, q.d., miseria cordis, feelings which occasion pain and distress to the heart. רחמים rachamim, such as affect and flow from the tender yearnings of the bowels. The word signifies what a mother feels for the infant that lay in her womb, and hangs on her breast.

2. He prays to be quickened. Let me not die, but live.

IV. He complains of his adversaries: -

1. They are many: Many devils, many men; many visible, more invisible.

2. Yet he continued steadfast: "I do not decline," c.

3. They were "transgressors:" Not simple sinners, but workers of iniquity.

4. He was greatly distressed on their account: "I beheld them, and was grieved."

V. He brings this as a proof of his attachment to God.

1. "Consider how I love:" No man dare say to God, "Look upon me," but he who is persuaded that when God looks upon him he will like him. This was a sure proof of the psalmist's sincerity.

2. He loves not merely the blessings he receives from God, but he loves God's law and none will love this, who does not delight in obedience. And how few are there of this character, even in the Church of God!

3. And because he loves he prays to be quickened. The soul only which is spiritually alive, can obey.

VI. He concludes with a commendation of God's word.

1. "Thy word is true," in its principle and in all its details, from Adam to Moses; from Moses to Christ, from Christ to the present time; and from the present time to the end of the world.

2. For it "endures for ever:" All other things wear out or decay; lose their testimony, and become obsolete. But God will ever bear testimony to his own word, and continue to support its veracity by fulfilling it to all successive generations.