Psalms 119:96

Verse Psalms 119:96. I have seen an end of all perfection] Literally, "Of all consummations I have seen the end:" as if one should say, Every thing of human origin has its limits and end, howsoever extensive, noble, and excellent. All arts and sciences, languages, inventions, have their respective principles, have their limits and ends; as they came from man and relate to man, they shall end with man: but thy law, thy revelation, which is a picture of thy own mind, an external manifestation of thy own perfections, conceived in thy infinite ideas, in reference to eternal objects, is exceeding broad; transcends the limits of creation; and extends illimitably into eternity! This has been explained as if it meant: All the real or pretended perfection that men can arrive at in this life is nothing when compared with what the law of God requires. This saying is false in itself, and is no meaning of the text. Whatever God requires of man he can, by his grace, work in man.

ANALYSIS OF LETTER LAMED. - Twelfth Division

This section contains an encomium of the WORD of GOD; of its perfection and immutability; and of the comfort the psalmist received from it.

I. In the three first verses the psalmist shows that God's word is immutable, by an instance in the creatures.

1. In the HEAVENS. They continue to this day as he made them in the beginning.

2. In the EARTH. As it was established in the beginning, so it abideth.

3. So also of the other heavenly bodies. They also abide as they were created; and answer still, most exactly, the ends for which they were made.

4. The reason of which is, "All are God's servants," made to obey his will: and from obedience they never swerve.

II. He shows the excellence of this word by a rare effect it had on himself: "Unless thy law had been my delight, I should have perished." No such comfort in trouble as God's word and promise. This he remembers with gratitude.

1. "I will never forget thy precepts." Only those forget them who reap no good from them.

2. This word had quickened him, i.e., God speaking and working by that word.

3. He will therefore be the Lord's servant for ever: "I am thine."

4. He knows he cannot continue so, but by Divine help: "Save me!"

5. He shows his love to God's word: "He seeks his precepts," that he may obey them.

III. He needed the help of God, because he had inveterate enemies. These he describes:

1. By their diligence: "The wicked have waited for me."

2. By their cruelty: "They waited to destroy me."

3. His defence against them. I will consider אתבנן ethbonen, I will set myself to consider. I will use all proper means to enable me to understand them.

IV. Having shown the perfection of God's word, -

1. In establishing and upholding the frame of the world.

2. In bringing comfort to the soul. In the close,

3. He compares it to all other things which we esteem as excellent and perfect, - riches, honours, crowns, sceptres, kingdoms, c., over which the word of God has still the pre-eminence they perish, but it endures for ever: "I have seen an end of all perfection." Jonah's gourd was smitten by a worm; the golden head had feet of clay; the most beautiful form shall dissolve into dust; Babylon, the wonder of the world, has perished from the face of the earth; the fairest day is succeeded by midnight; and so of other things: "but the commandment is exceeding broad:" all the principles of justice are contained in it; no just notion of God without it; all the rules of a holy life, and all the promises of life eternal, are found in it. It is the word of God, and it endureth for ever. When the heavens and the earth are no more, this word shall stand up and flourish.