Psalm 119:19-21 NIV

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Psalms 119:19

Here we have, 1. The acknowledgment which David makes of his own condition: I am a stranger in the earth. We all are so, and all good people confess themselves to be so; for heaven is their home, and the world is but their inn, the land of their pilgrimage. David was a man that knew as much of the world, and was as well known in it, as most men. God built him a house, established his throne; strangers submitted to him, and people that he had not known served him; he had a name like the names... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Psalms 119:20

David had prayed that God would open his eyes (Ps. 119:18) and open the law (Ps. 119:19); now here he pleads the earnestness of his desire for knowledge and grace, for it is the fervent prayer that avails much. 1. His desire was importunate: My soul breaketh for the longing it hath to thy judgments, or (as some read it) ?It is taken up, and wholly employed, in longing for thy judgments; the whole stream of its desires runs in this channel. I shall think myself quite broken and undone if I want... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Psalms 119:21

Here is, 1. The wretched character of wicked people. The temper of their minds is bad. They are proud; they magnify themselves above others. And yet that is not all: they magnify themselves against God, and set up their wills in competition with and opposition to the will of God, as if their hearts, and tongues, and all, were their own. There is something of pride at the bottom of every wilful sin, and the tenour of their lives is no better: They do err from thy commandments, as Israel, that... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 119:19

I am a stranger in the earth ,.... As all his fathers were, and all the saints are; not to divine and spiritual things; to God, and communion with him; to Christ, and the knowledge of him; to the Spirit, and his operations in their hearts; to their own hearts, and the plague of them; to the Gospel, and its truths; nor to the people of God, and fellowship with them: but to the world, among whom they are, not being known, valued, and respected by them; and they also behaving as strangers to... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 119:20

My soul breaketh for the longing ,.... His heart was just ready to break, and his soul fainted; he was ready to die, through a vehement desire of enjoying the object longed for, after mentioned; "hope deferred makes the heart sick", Proverbs 13:1 ; the phrase is expressive of the greatness, vehemence, and eagerness of his mind after the thing he desired, which follows: that it hath unto thy judgments at all times ; not the judgments of God on wicked men, though these are desirable... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 119:21

Thou hast rebuked the proud ,.... Which some understand of the fallen angels, who, in proud wrath, left their habitations, because they would not be subject to the Son of God in human nature; wherefore he scattered them in the imaginations of their hearts, and cast down these mighty ones into hell, where they are reserved in chains of darkness to the judgment of the great day. Others of the Scribes and Pharisees in Christ's time, this psalm being suited, as is thought, to Gospel times; who... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 119:19

I am a stranger in the earth - In the land. Being obliged to wander about from place to place, I am like a stranger even in my own country. If it refer to the captives in Babylon, it may mean that they felt themselves there as in a state of exile; for, although they had been seventy years in it, they still felt it as a strange land, because they considered Palestine their home. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 119:20

My soul breaketh - We have a similar expression: It broke my heart, That is heart-breaking, She died of a broken heart. It expresses excessive longing, grievous disappointment, hopeless love, accumulated sorrow. By this we may see the hungering and thirsting which the psalmist had after righteousness, often mingled with much despondency. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 119:21

Thou hast rebuked the proud - This was done often in the case of David; and was true also in reference to the Babylonians, who held the Israelites in subjection, and whose kings were among the proudest of human beings. Instead of זדים zedim , the proud, some MSS. read זרים zarim , strangers, and one reads גוים goyim , the heathen; and so the Syriac. read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 119:19

Verse 19 19.I am a stranger on the earth. It is proper to inquire into the reason for his calling himself a sojourner and stranger in the world. The great concern of the unholy and worldly is to spend their life here easily and quietly; but those who know that they have their journey to pursue, and have their inheritance reserved for them in heaven, are not engrossed nor entangled with these perishable things, but aspire after that place to which they are invited. The meaning may be thus summed... read more

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Psalms 119:19

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Psalms 119:20

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Psalms 119:21

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 119:19

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 119:20

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 119:21

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 119:19

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 119:20

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 119:21

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 119:19

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