Psalm 119:84

How many are the days of thy servant? when wilt thou execute judgment on them that persecute me?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(84) As in Psalm 89:47-48, the psalmist here utters what was the dread of each generation of Israel, a dread lest it should have passed away before the day of deliverance should arrive.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

119:81-88 The psalmist sought deliverance from his sins, his foes, and his fears. Hope deferred made him faint; his eyes failed by looking out for this expected salvation. But when the eyes fail, yet faith must not. His affliction was great. He was become like a leathern bottle, which, if hung up in the smoke, is dried and shrivelled up. We must ever be mindful of God's statutes. The days of the believer's mourning shall be ended; they are but for a moment, compared with eternal happiness. His enemies used craft as well as power for his ruin, in contempt of the law of God. The commandments of God are true and faithful guides in the path of peace and safety. We may best expect help from God when, like our Master, we do well and suffer for it. Wicked men may almost consume the believer upon earth, but he would sooner forsake all than forsake the word of the Lord. We should depend upon the grace of God for strength to do every good work. The surest token of God's good-will toward us, is his good work in us.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

How many are the days of thy servant? - I cannot hope to live long. I am sinking under my burdens. If I am, therefore, to see the accomplishment of my desires - my deliverance from my enemies and my troubles - it must be soon. This is not a desire to be told how long he was to live, as if it were an object of desire to know this, but it is a method of saying that he could not live long under these circumstances, and therefore he offered this earnest prayer that God would interpose and save him soon.

When wilt thou execute judgment on them that persecute me? - How long shall this be delayed? I look for this; I expect it; I rely on thy promise that it shall be done; but if done so that I shall see it, it must soon be done, for I shall soon sink into the grave. It is a prayer that God would come and do quickly what he felt assured he would do, in delivering him from his foes.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

84-87. The shortness of my life requires that the relief afforded to me from mine enemies should be speedy.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The days; either,

1. The days of my life, as the word days is commonly used, Genesis 6:3 Job 7:1,6 Psa 39:5,6. I have but a little while to live in the world, give me some respite before I die, and help me speedily, otherwise it will be too late. Or rather,

2. The days of my misery, as the next clause implies, and as days are taken, Psalm 37:13 116:2, and elsewhere. How long, Lord, shall my miseries last? for ever?

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

How many are the days of thy servant?.... If this is to be understood of the days of his life, they were very few, as the days of every man be; and if of his days of joy and comfort, peace and prosperity, they were fewer still; but if of days of adversity and affliction, which seems to be the sense, they were many indeed;

when wilt thou execute judgment on them that persecute me? good men have their persecutors; there is a judgment that will be executed on them, if not here, yet hereafter; it is a righteous thing with God to do it; it is often deferred when the saints, through zeal for the glory of God, and the honour of his justice, as well as for their own deliverance and comfort, are at times somewhat impatient for it, and earnestly solicit it, as the psalmist here; see Revelation 6:9.

Geneva Study Bible

How many are the {c} days of thy servant? when wilt thou execute judgment on them that persecute me?

(c) How long will you afflict your servant.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

84. How many &c.] Few at the most. The brevity of life is an argument for the speedy punishment of the Psalmist’s persecutors, otherwise he may not live to see God’s justice vindicated. Cp. Psalm 89:47; Psalm 102:11 ff.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 84. - How many are the days of thy servant? i.e. How little of my life is left! If thou delayest much longer, my days will all be gone. When writ thou execute judgment on them that persecute me? (see the comment on ver. 82b). Psalm 119:84

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The eightfold Kaph. This strengthening according to God's promise is his earnest desire (כּלה) now, when within a very little his enemies have compassed his ruin (כּלּה). His soul and eyes languish (כּלה as in Psalm 69:4; Psalm 84:3, cf. Job 19:27) for God's salvation, that it may be unto him according to God's word or promise, that this word may be fulfilled. In Psalm 119:83 כּי is hypothetical, as in Psalm 21:12 and frequently; here, as perhaps also in Psalm 27:10, in the sense of "although" (Ew. ֗362, b). He does not suffer anything to drive God's word out of his mind, although he is already become like a leathern bottle blackened and shrivelled up in the smoke. The custom of the ancients of placing jars with wine over the smoke in order to make the wine prematurely old, i.e., to mellow it (vid., Rosenm׬ller), does not yield anything towards the understanding of this passage: the skin-bottle that is not intended for present use is hung up on high; and the fact that it had to withstand the upward ascending smoke is intelligible, notwithstanding the absence of any mention of the chimney. The point of comparison, in which we agree for the most part with Hitzig, is the removal of him who in his dungeon is continually exposed to the drudgery of his persecutors. כּמּה in Psalm 119:84 is equivalent to "how few." Our life here below is short, so also is the period within which the divine righteousness can reveal itself. שׁיחות (instead of which the lxx erroneously reads שׂיחות), pits, is an old word, Psalm 57:7. The relative clause, Psalm 119:85, describes the "proud" as being a contradiction to the revealed law; for there was no necessity for saying that to dig a pit for others is not in accordance with this law. All God's commandments are an emanation of His faithfulness, and therefore too demand faithfulness; but it is just this faithfulness that makes the poet an object of deadly hatred. They have already almost destroyed him"in the land." It is generally rendered "on earth;" but "in heaven" at the beginning of the following octonary is too far removed to be an antithesis to it, nor does it sound like one (cf. on the other hand ἐν τοῖς ouranoi's, Matthew 5:12). It is therefore: in the land (cf. Psalm 58:3; Psalm 73:9), where they think they are the only ones who have any right there, they have almost destroyed him, without shaking the constancy of his faith. But he stands in need of fresh grace in order that he may not, however, at last succumb.