Psalm 119:157

Many are my persecutors and mine enemies; yet do I not decline from thy testimonies.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Psalm 119:157-160. Many are my persecutors — David, being a public person, had many enemies. In this he was a type both of Christ and of his church. The enemies, the persecutors of both, are many, implacable and unwearied in their endeavours against them. Yet do I not decline from thy testimonies — Though they tempt me so to do, and persecute me because I will not do it: for I know while I adhere to them God is for me, and then I need not regard who is against me. A man that is steady in the way of his duty, though he may have many enemies, he needs to fear none. I beheld transgressors — I observed and considered their ungodly courses; and was grieved — Commiserating their sin and folly, and distressed to think of the misery they were bringing on themselves; because they kept not thy word — And thereby exposed themselves to thy wrath and indignation. Consider how I love thy precepts — My love to which is the cause of my grief for the violation of them. Thy word is true from the beginning — From the beginning of the world. “God’s word, and every article of his law, was, and ever will be, truth, first and last; what he spoke first was truth, and so will be every determination of his to the end of the world.” — Waterland.

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

Many are my persecutors and mine enemies - The thought here turns on the number of his enemies, and on the effect which numbers might have in turning one from the way of truth. We might meet one such enemy, and overcome him; we might resist the influence of one in endeavoring to turn us away from the truth, but the danger of falling is much increased when numbers are combined in persecuting us, or in seeking to turn us away from our religion - when it becomes unpopular to be a professed friend of God.

Yet do I not decline from thy testimonies - I still adhere to thee; I still maintain my integrity, notwithstanding all this. See the notes at Psalm 119:51.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

157. (Compare Ps 119:86, 87, 95).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 157. Though they tempt me to do so, and persecute me because I will not do it.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Many are my persecutors and mine enemies,.... Because they were his enemies, therefore they were his persecutors; and they became enemies to him, or hated him, because of his religion, and on that account persecuted him: and this has always been the lot and case of God's people in all ages; and whose persecutors are many, even the whole world, as well as fierce and furious;

yet do I not decline from thy testimonies; from reading and hearing the word of God; and from embracing and professing the doctrines contained in it; and from the worship of God according to it, for which he was hated and persecuted: yet none of these things moved him from them, which showed that his heart was principled with the grace of God; for otherwise, when persecution arises because of the word, carnal professors are offended, and apostatize from it; see Matthew 13:22.

Geneva Study Bible

Many are my persecutors and mine enemies; yet do I not decline from thy testimonies.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 157. - Many are my persecutors and mine enemies. Hitherto this had been implied (vers. 22, 23, 51, 61, etc.) rather than expressed. Now the thought of Psalm 25:18 comes over the writer, "Consider mine enemies, for they are many." Yet do I not decline from thy testimonies. Repeated from ver. 51. Psalm 119:157

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.