Psalm 106:3

Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

106:1-5 None of our sins or sufferings should prevent our ascribing glory and praise to the Lord. The more unworthy we are, the more is his kindness to be admired. And those who depend on the Redeemer's righteousness will endeavour to copy his example, and by word and deed to show forth his praise. God's people have reason to be cheerful people; and need not envy the children of men their pleasure or pride.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Blessed are they that keep judgment - They are blessed, for their conduet is right, and it leads to happiness. The Hebrew is, "the keepers of judgment;" that is, they who observe the rules of justice in their conduct, or who are governed by the principles of integrity.

And he that doeth righteousness at all times - All who yield obedience to just law - whether a nation or an individual. The psalm is designed to illustrate this "by contrast;" that is, by showing, in the conduct of the Hebrew people, the consequences of "disobedience," and thus impliedly what would have been, and what always must be, the consequences of the opposite course. Compare Psalm 15:1-5.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. The blessing is limited to those whose principles and acts are right. How "blessed" Israel would be now, if he had "observed God's statutes" (Ps 105:45).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

That keep judgment; that observe and practise what is just and right towards God and men; which in the next clause he calls

doing righteousness. At all times; in adversity as well as in prosperity. And this clause may belong either,

1. To the last foregoing words, that doeth righteousness at all times, constantly and perpetually; or rather,

2. To the first words, they are blessed at all times, even in the day of their calamity, which therefore ought not to hinder us from this great and just duty of praising God. And so this verse coheres with the former.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Blessed are they that keep judgment,.... Or "observe" (k) it; the righteous judgment of God on wicked men; by which he is known in his justice, holiness, truth, and faithfulness; and by which the inhabitants of the earth observing it, learn to do righteousness, as follows: or else it may intend the word of God, his laws, statutes, and ordinances, after called his judgments, Psalm 19:9, which should be observed and kept, as the rule of our actions, walk, and conversation.

And he that doeth righteousness at all times; continually believes in Christ for righteousness, and puts on that as his justifying righteousness; whereby he becomes righteous as he is, 1 John 3:7, and performs acts of righteousness from a principle of grace, as a fruit of regeneration, and an evidence of it, 1 John 2:29, that does it with right views, aims, and ends; not to be justified and saved by it, but because God requires it; and it is for his glory, and to testify subjection to him, and thankfulness for favours received from him. And this is to be done at all times; we should never be weary of well doing, but be always abounding in good works; and happy are those that will be found so doing, such are "blessed" persons: not that their blessedness lies in or arises from righteousness done by them; but this is descriptive of such that are blessed in Christ with the remission of sins, and his justifying righteousness. And these are the proper persons to show forth the mighty acts and praise of the Lord; they are most capable of it, and more likely to perform it with acceptance than any other; see Psalm 50:14.

(k) "observarent", Junius & Tremellius; "observantium", Gejerus.

Geneva Study Bible

Blessed are they that {b} keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times.

(b) He shows that it is not enough to praise God with the mouth, unless the whole heart agrees to it, and all our life framed after it.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. From the thought of the mercy and the might of Jehovah which are the ground of Israel’s hope, the Psalmist passes to the conditions of participation in the blessing for which he looks. Happy those who obey the Divine command, given in view of the near approach of Jehovah’s Advent to redeem, “Keep judgement, and do righteousness” (Isaiah 56:1): who repent, and bring forth fruits worthy of their repentance, conforming their conduct to the demands and will of God. Cp. Psalm 105:45.

he that doeth] Probably we should read they that do (עשֵׂי for עשֵׂה, with LXX and other Versions).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times. No distinction of meaning is intended between "keeping judgment" and "doing righteousness." The second clause merely repeats the first. Psalm 106:3

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The Psalm begins with the liturgical call, which has not coined for the first time in the Maccabaean age (1 Macc. 4:24), but was already in use in Jeremiah's time (Psalm 33:11). The lxx appropriately renders טּוב by χρηστός, for God is called "good" not so much in respect of His nature as of the revelation of His nature. The fulness of this revelation, says Psalm 106:2 (like Psalm 40:6), is inexhaustible. גּבוּרות are the manifestations of His all-conquering power which makes everything subservient to His redemptive purposes (Psalm 20:7); and תּהלּה is the glory (praise or celebration) of His self-attestation in history. The proclaiming of these on the part of man can never be an exhaustive echo of them. In Psalm 106:3 the poet tells what is the character of those who experience such manifestations of God; and to the assertion of the blessedness of these men he appends the petition in Psalm 106:4, that God would grant him a share in the experiences of the whole nation which is the object of these manifestations. עמּך beside בּרצון is a genitive of the object: with the pleasure which Thou turnest towards Thy people, i.e., when Thou again (cf. Psalm 106:47) showest Thyself gracious unto them. On פּקד cf. Psalm 8:5; Psalm 80:15, and on ראה ב, Jeremiah 29:32; a similar Beth is that beside לשׂמח (at, on account of, not: in connection with), Psalm 21:2; Psalm 122:1. God's "inheritance" is His people; the name for them is varied four times, and thereby גּוי is also exceptionally brought into use, as in Zephaniah 2:9.