Psalm 119:145

KOPH. I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O LORD: I will keep thy statutes.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

119:145-152 Supplications with the whole heart are presented only by those who desire God's salvation, and who love his commandments. Whither should the child go but to his father? Save me from my sins, my corruptions, my temptations, all the hinderances in my way, that I may keep thy testimonies. Christians who enjoy health, should not suffer the early hours of the morning to glide away unimproved. Hope in God's word encourages us to continue in prayer. It is better to take time from sleep, than not to find time for prayer. We have access to God at all hours; and if our first thoughts in the morning are of God, they will help to keep us in his fear all the day long. Make me lively and cheerful. God knows what we need and what is good for us, and will quicken us. If we are employed in God's service, we need not fear those who try to set themselves as far as they can out of the reach of the convictions and commands of his law. When trouble is near, God is near. He is never far to seek. All his commandments are truth. And God's promises will be performed. All that ever trusted in God have found him faithful.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I cried with my whole heart ... - This commences a new division of the psalm, indicated by the Hebrew letter Koph (ק q), answering to our letter "k." The expression "I cried with my whole heart" means that he did it earnestly, fervently. He had no divided wishes when he prayed. Not always is this so, even with good people. They sometimes offer a form of prayer, that they may be spiritually-minded, when their hearts are intensely worldly, and they would be unwilling to be otherwise; or that religion may be revived, when their hearts have no lively interest in it, and no wish for it; or that they may live wholly to God, when they are making all their arrangements to live for the world, and when they would be greatly disappointed if God should take means to make them live entirely to him; or that they may be humble, childlike, sincere, when they have no wish to be any otherwise than they are now, and when they would regard it as an affront if it should be assumed by any that they are not so now, and if they were exhorted to change their course of life. Often it would be a great surprise - perhaps grief - even to professedly religious persons, if God should answer their prayers, and should make them what they professedly desire to be, and what they pray that they may be. See the notes at Psalm 9:1; compare Psalm 111:1; Psalm 138:1; Psalm 119:2, Psalm 119:10, Psalm 119:34, Psalm 119:58, Psalm 119:69; Jeremiah 24:7.

I will keep thy statutes - It is my purpose and desire to keep thy law perfectly.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

KOPH. (Ps 119:145-152).

145-149. An intelligent devotion is led by divine promises and is directed to an increase of gracious affections, arising from a contemplation of revealed truth.

The Treasury of David

145 I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O Lord, I will keep thy statutes.

146 I cried unto thee; save me, and I shall keep thy testimonies.

147 I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried, I hoped in thy word.

148 Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.

149 Hear my voice according unto thy lovingkindness, O Lord, quicken me according to thy judgment.

150 They draw nigh that follow after mischief: they are far from thy law.

151 Thou art near, O Lord; and all thy commandments are truth.

152 Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever.

This section is given up to memories of prayer. The Psalmist describes the time and the manner of his devotions, and pleads with God for deliverance from his troubles. He who has been with God in the closet will find God with him in the furnace. If we have cried we shall be answered. Delayed answers may drive us to importunity; but we need not fear the ultimate result, since God's promises are not uncertain, but are "founded for ever." The whole passage shows us: How he prayed (Psalm 119:145). What he prayed for (Psalm 119:146). When he prayed (Psalm 119:147). How long he prayed (Psalm 119:148). What he pleaded (Psalm 119:149). What happened (Psalm 119:150). How he was rescued (Psalm 119:151). What was his witness as to the whole matter (Psalm 119:152).

Psalm 119:145

"I cried with my whole heart." His prayer was a sincere, plaintive, painful, natural utterance, as of a creature in pain. We cannot tell whether at all times he used his voice when he thus cried; but we are informed of something which is of much greater consequence, he cried with his heart. Heart-cries are the essence of prayer. He mentions the unity of his heart in this holy engagement. His whole soul pleaded with God, his entire affections, his united desires all went out towards the living God. It is well when a man can say as much as this of his prayers: it is to be feared that many never cried to God with their whole heart in all their lives. There may be no beauty of elocution about such prayers, no length of expression, no depth of doctrine, nor accuracy of diction; but if the whole heart be in them they will find their way to the heart of God. "Hear me, O Lord." He desires of Jehovah that his cries may not die upon the air, but that God may have respect to them. True supplicants are not satisfied with the exercise itself, they have an end and object in praying, and they look out for it. If God does not hear prayer we pray in vain. The term "hear" is often used in Scripture to express attention and consideration. In one sense God hears every sound that is made on earth, and every desire of every heart; but David meant much more; he desired a kindly, sympathetic hearing, such as a physician gives to his patient when he tells him his pitiful story. He asked that the Lord would draw near, and listen with friendly ear to the voice of his complaint, with the view of pitying him and helping him. Observe, that his whole-hearted prayer goes to the Lord alone; he has no second hope or help. "Hear me, O Lord," is the full range of his petition and expectation. "I will keep thy statutes." He could not expect the Lord to hear him if he did not hear the Lord, neither would it be true that he prayed with his whole heart unless it was manifest that he laboured with all his might to be obedient to the divine will. His object in seeking deliverance was that he might be free to fulfil his religion and carry out every ordinance of the Lord. He would be a free man that he might be at liberty to serve the Lord. Note well that a holy resolution goes well with an importunate supplication: David is determined to be holy, his whole heart goes with that resolve as well as with his prayers. He will keep God's statutes in his memory, in his affections, and in his actions. He will not wilfully neglect or violate any one of the divine laws.

Psalm 119:146

"I cried unto thee." Again he mentions that his prayer was unto God alone. The sentence imports that he prayed vehemently, and very often; and that it had become one of the greatest facts of his life that he cried unto God. "Save me." This was his prayer; very short, but very full. He needed saving, none but the Lord could save him, to him he cried, "Save me" from the dangers which surround me, from the enemies that pursue me, from the temptations which beset me, from the sins which accuse me. He did not multiply words, and men never do so when they are in downright earnest. He did not multiply objects, and men seldom do so when they are intent upon the one thing needful: "save me" was his one and only prayer. "And I shall keep thy testimonies." This was his great object in desiring salvation, that he might be able to continue in a blameless life of obedience to God, that he might be able to believe the witness of God, and also to become himself a witness for God. It is a great thing when men seek salvation for so high an end. He did not ask to be delivered that he might sin with impunity; his cry was to be delivered from sin itself. He had vowed to keep the statutes or laws, here he resolves to keep the testimonies or doctrines, and so to be sound of head as well as clean of hand. Salvation brings all these good things in its train. David had no idea of a salvation which would allow him to live in sin, or abide in error: he knew right well that there is no saving a man while he abides in disobedience and ignorance.

Psalm 119:147

continued...

Matthew Poole's Commentary

KOPH

Ver. 145. No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

KOPH.--The Nineteenth Part.

KOPH. I cried with my whole heart,.... Prayer is often expressed by crying; which sometimes signifies mental, and sometimes vocal prayer; and generally supposes the person praying to be in distress, either outward or inward. This prayer of the psalmists was hearty and cordial, not with his mouth and lips only, but with his heart also; it did not proceed from feigned lips, but was put up in sincerity and truth; yea, it was with his whole heart, with all the powers and faculties of his soul employed; his affections set on God, the desires of his soul after him, and his will submitted to his; it denotes the intenseness, earnestness, and fervency of prayer;

hear me, O Lord: the prayer he had put up, and answer it. Some persons pray, and that is enough; they do not concern themselves whether their prayers are heard or not: but David desired an answer, and looked after that;

I will keep thy statutes; not in his own strength, but in the strength of the Lord; and it is to be understood not merely as a resolution what he would do; nor as a promise, which he uses as a plea, argument, or motive to be heard; but rather it expresses the end of his being heard, or the thing for which he desires to be heard: for so it may be rendered, "that I may keep thy statutes"; hear me, and give me grace and strength to enable me to observe them.

Geneva Study Bible

KOPH. I {a} cried with my whole heart; hear me, O LORD: I will keep thy statutes.

(a) He shows that all his affection and whole heart were bent toward God to have help in his dangers.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

145. I have called with my whole heart; answer me, Jehovah] The perfect tense expresses the habit of his whole life.

145–152. Qôph. Unceasing prayer to be kept faithful in the midst of faithlessness is the rule of the Psalmist’s life.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 145. - I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O Lord. "Earnest and patient prayer for grace" (Kay) seems to be intended, not mere prayer for deliverance. I will keep thy statutes. If thou hearest and answerest my prayer, I shall have both the will and the power to keep thy commandments. Psalm 119:145

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The eightfold Koph. Fidelity to God's word, and deliverance according to His promise, is the purport of his unceasing prayer. Even in the morning twilight (נשׁף) he was awake praying. It is not הנּשׁף, I anticipated the twilight; nor is קדּמתּי, according to Psalm 89:14, equivalent to קדמתיך, but ואשׁוּע...קדּמתּי is the resolution of the otherwise customary construction קדמתי לשׁוּע, Jonah 4:2, inasmuch as קדּם may signify "to go before" (Psalm 68:26), and also "to make haste (with anything):" even early before the morning's dawn I cried. Instead of לדבריך the Ker (Targum, Syriac, Jerome) more appropriately reads לדברך after Psalm 119:74, Psalm 119:81, Psalm 119:114. But his eyes also anticipated the night-watches, inasmuch as they did not allow themselves to be caught not sleeping by any of them at their beginning (cf. לראשׁ, Lamentations 2:19). אמרה is here, as in Psalm 119:140, Psalm 119:158, and frequently, the whole word of God, whether in its requirements or its promises. In Psalm 119:149 בּמשׁפּטך is a defective plural as in Psalm 119:43 (vid., on Psalm 119:37), according to Psalm 119:156, although according to Psalm 119:132 the singular (lxx, Targum, Jerome) would also be admissible: what is meant is God's order of salvation, or His appointments that relate thereto. The correlative relation of Psalm 119:150 and Psalm 119:151 is rendered natural by the position of the words. With קרבוּ (cf. קרב) is associated the idea of rushing upon him with hostile purpose, and with קרוב, as in Psalm 69:19; Isaiah 58:2, of hastening to his succour. זמּה is infamy that is branded by the law: they go forth purposing this, but God's law is altogether self-verifying truth. And the poet has long gained the knowledge from it that it does not aim at merely temporary recompense. The sophisms of the apostates cannot therefore lead him astray. יסדתּם for יסדתּן, like המּה in Psalm 119:111.