Psalm 119:175

Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgments help me.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

119:169-176 The psalmist desired grace and strength to lift up his prayers, and that the Lord would receive and notice them. He desired to know more of God in Christ; to know more of the doctrines of the word, and the duties of religion. He had a deep sense of unworthiness, and holy fear that his prayer should not come before God; Lord, what I pray for is, what thou hast promised. We have learned nothing to purpose, if we have not learned to praise God. We should always make the word of God the rule of our discourse, so as never to transgress it by sinful speaking, or sinful silence. His own hands are not sufficient, nor can any creature lend him help; therefore he looks up to God, that the hand that had made him may help him. He had made religion his deliberate choice. There is an eternal salvation all the saints long for, and therefore they pray that God would help their way to it. Let thy judgments help me; let all ordinances and all providences, (both are God's judgments,) further me in glorifying God; let them help me for that work. He often looks back with shame and gratitude to his lost estate. He still prays for the tender care of Him who purchased his flock with his own blood, that he may receive from him the gift of eternal life. Seek me, that is, Find me; for God never seeks in vain. Turn me, and I shall be turned. Let this psalm be a touchstone by which to try our hearts, and our lives. Do our hearts, cleansed in Christ's blood, make these prayers, resolutions and confessions our own? Is God's word the standard of our faith, and the law of our practice? Do we use it as pleas with Christ for what we need? Happy those who live in such delightful exercises.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee - I desire life that I may praise thee; if I do live, I will praise thee. My life is consecrated to thy service; if lengthened out, and as far as it shall be lengthened out, it shall be devoted to thee.

And let thy judgments help me - The dealings of thy hand; the interpositions of thy providence. Let them all be such as will be favorable to the great purpose of my soul - the service of my God.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

175. Save me that I may praise Thee.

thy judgments—as in Ps 119:149, 156.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 175. Either,

1. Thy providential dispensation, whereby thou judgest and rulest the world, punishing the wicked, and protecting and delivering the godly. Or,

2. Thy word or testimonies, as this word most commonly signifies in this Psalm, which are the only ground of my hope in thy help.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee,.... The psalmist desires the continuance of his natural life, not for his own personal advantage, nor for the sake of his family, nor with any worldly, sinister, and selfish views; but for the glory of God, and for the sake of praising him: or his desire is, that his soul might be lively and comfortable; or that he might be in a lively and cheerful frame of spirit, and so be in fit and proper circumstances to praise the Lord; for it is the living man in both senses, natural and spiritual, that is capable of praising the Lord, Isaiah 38:19;

and let thy judgments help me; that is, to praise him: meaning either judgments on his enemies, as Aben Ezra; which furnish out matter and occasion of praise and thanksgiving; see Revelation 15:3; or the word of God, the doctrines and precepts of it; see Psalm 119:164.

Geneva Study Bible

Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy {d} judgments help me.

(d) That is, your provident care over me, and with which you will judge my enemies.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

175. and it shall praise thee] Or, that it may praise thee. The object of the life for which he has prayed so often—life prolonged, revived, invigorated, freed from the persecutions and trials which impede and prevent the exercise of its full activities—is just this, that his whole self may praise God (Psalm 146:2).

and let thy judgments help me] Either the ordinances which are the rule of his life (102, 106), or acts of judgement, by which his enemies are punished.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 175. - Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; i.e. "quicken me; give me true life in my soul and spirit - my real self - and then my praise shall be ever of thee." And let thy judgments help me. Let the course of thy providence be such as to help me to praise thee. Psalm 119:175

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The eightfold Tav. May God answer this his supplication as He has heard his praise, and interest Himself on behalf of His servant, the sheep that is exposed to great danger. The petitions "give me understanding" and "deliver me" go hand-in-hand, because the poet is one who is persecuted for the sake of his faith, and is just as much in need of the fortifying of his faith as of deliverance from the outward restraint that is put upon him. רנּה is a shrill audible prayer; תּחנּה, a fervent and urgent prayer. ענה, prop. to answer, signifies in Psalm 119:172 to begin, strike up, attune (as does ἀποκρίνεσθαι also sometimes). According to the rule in Psalm 50:23 the poet bases his petition for help upon the purpose of thankful praise of God and of His word. Knowing how to value rightly what he possesses, he is warranted in further supplicating and hoping for the good that he does not as yet possess. The "salvation" for which he longs (תּאב as in Psalm 119:40, Psalm 119:20) is redemption from the evil world, in which the life of his own soul is imperilled. May then God's judgments (defective plural, as in Psalm 119:43, Psalm 119:149, which the Syriac only takes a singular) succour him (יעזּרני, not יעזרני). God's hand, Psalm 119:173, and God's word afford him succour; the two are involved in one another, the word is the medium of His hand. After this relationship of the poet to God's word, which is attested a hundredfold in the Psalm, it may seem strange that he can say of himself תּעיתי כּשׂה אבד; and perhaps the accentuation is correct when it does not allow itself to be determined by Isaiah 53:6, but interprets: If I have gone astray - seek Thou like a lost sheep Thy servant. שׂה אבד is a sheep that is lost (cf. אבדים as an appellation of the dispersion, Isaiah 27:13) and in imminent danger of total destruction (cf. Psalm 31:13 with Leviticus 26:38). In connection with that interpretation which is followed by the interpunction, Psalm 119:176 is also more easily connected with what precedes: his going astray is no apostasy; his home, to which he longs to return when he has been betrayed into by-ways, is beside the Lord.