Psalm 119:156

Great are thy tender mercies, O LORD: quicken me according to thy judgments.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

119:153-160 The closer we cleave to the word of God, both as our rule and as our stay, the more assurance we have of deliverance. Christ is the Advocate of his people, their Redeemer. Those who were quickened by his Spirit and grace, when they were dead in trespasses and sins, often need to have the work of grace revived in them, according to the word of promise. The wicked not only do not God's statutes, but they do not even seek them. They flatter themselves that they are going to heaven; but the longer they persist in sin, the further it is from them. God's mercies are tender; they are a fountain that can never be exhausted. The psalmist begs for God's reviving, quickening grace. A man, steady in the way of his duty, though he may have many enemies, needs to fear none. Those that hate sin truly, hate it as sin, as a transgression of the law of God, and a breaking of his word. Our obedience is only pleasing to God, and pleasant to ourselves, when it comes from a principle of love. All, in every age, who receive God's word in faith and love, find every saying in it faithful.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Great are thy tender mercies, O Lord - They are many, or multiplied. The word rendered "tender mercies" is the same which occurs in Psalm 40:11; Psalm 51:1; Psalm 69:16; Psalm 79:8; Psalm 103:4. See the notes at Psalm 25:6.

Quicken me ... - See Psalm 119:149.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

156. (See on [634]Ps 119:149).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 156. According to the manner of thy administrations towards thy people, as Psalm 119:149.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Great are thy tender mercies, O Lord,.... Not his providential mercies only, which are many and undeserved, and constantly repeated; but his special mercies in Christ, which flow from the tenderness of his heart; and his merciful lovingkindness to his people, and which are great or many (f), as to quantity; there being a multitude of them, not to be reckoned up: and for quality they are wonderful beyond expression and conception; proceed from unmerited love, rich, free, sovereign grace, and last for ever;

quicken me according to that judgments; See Gill on Psalm 119:149.

(f) "multae", Pagninus, Montanus, Musculus, Michaelis.

Geneva Study Bible

Great are thy tender mercies, O LORD: quicken me according to thy {b} judgments.

(b) According to your promise made in the law, which because the wicked lack they have no hope of salvation.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

156. Great are thy tender mercies] Thy compassions (Psalm 119:77). Cp. 2 Samuel 24:14; Nehemiah 9:19; Nehemiah 9:27; Nehemiah 9:31 (A.V. thy manifold mercies); Daniel 9:18.

quicken me &c.] Cp. Psalm 119:149 b.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 156. - Great are thy tender mercies, O Lord; rather, many (comp. Psalm 25:6, and note the antithesis between this verse and the next, "Many are thy mercies:" "Many are my persecutors"). Quicken me according to thy judgments (comp. ver. 149). Psalm 119:156

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The eightfold Resh. Because God cannot suffer those who are faithful to His word to succumb, he supplicates His help against his persecutors. ריבה is Milra before the initial (half-guttural) Resh, as in Psalm 43:1; Psalm 74:22. The Lamed of לאמרתך is the Lamed of reference (with respect to Thine utterance), whether the reference be normative ( equals כאמרתך, Psalm 119:58), as in Isaiah 11:3, or causal, Isaiah 25:2, Isaiah 55:5; Job 42:5. The predicate רחוק, like ישׂר in Psalm 119:137, stands first in the primary, as yet indefinite form. Concerning Psalm 119:156 vid., on Psalm 119:149. At the sight of the faithless he felt a profound disgust; ואתקוטטה, pausal aorist, supply בּהם, Psalm 139:21. It is all the same in the end whether we render אשׁר quippe qui or siquidem. ראשׁ in Psalm 119:160 signifies the head-number of sum. If he reckons up the word of God in its separate parts and as a whole, truth is the denominator of the whole, truth is the sum-total. This supplicatory חיּני is repeated three times in this group. The nearer it draws towards its end the more importunate does the Psalm become.