PSA 119

Psalm 119:143

WEB

Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me. Your commandments are my delight.

BSB

Trouble and distress have found me, but Your commandments are my delight.

KJV

Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments are my delights.

Matthew Henry

Verses 143–144

Psalms 119:143–144

These two verses are almost a repetition of the two foregoing verses, but with improvement. 1. David again professes his constant adherence to God and his duty, notwithstanding the many difficulties and discouragements he met with. He had said (Psa 119:14), I am small and despised, and yet adhere to my duty. Here he finds himself not only mean, but miserable, as far as this world could make him so: Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me - trouble without, anguish within; they surprised him, they seized him, they held him. Sorrows are often the lot of saints in this vale of tears; they are in heaviness through manifold temptations. There he had said, Yet do I not forget thy precepts; here he carries his constancy much higher: Yet thy commandments are my delights. All this trouble and anguish did not put his mouth out of taste for the comforts of the word of God, but he could still relish them and find that peace and pleasure in them which all the calamities of this present time could not deprive him of. There are delights, variety of delights, in the word of God, which the saints have often the sweetest enjoyment of when they are in trouble and anguish, Co2 1:5. 2. He again acknowledges the everlasting righteousness of God's word as before (Psa 119:142): The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting and cannot be altered; and, when it is admitted in its power into a soul, it is there an abiding principle, a well of living water, Joh 4:14. We ought to meditate much and often upon the equity and the eternity of the word of God. Here he adds, by way of inference, (1.) His prayer for grace: Give me understanding. Those that know much of the word of God should still covet to know more; for there is more to be known. He does not say, "Give me a further revelation," but, Give me a further understanding; what is revealed we should desire to understand, and what we know to know better; and we must go to God for a heart to know. (2.) His hope of glory: "Give me this renewed understanding, and then I shall live, shall live for ever, shall be eternally happy, and shall be comforted, for the present, in the prospect of it." This is life eternal, to know God, Joh 17:3.

Cross-references: Ps 119:14 · 2Cor 1:5 · Ps 119:142 · John 4:14 · John 17:3

Hebrew interlinear

H6862

צַרtsar/tsar/

a n-m — narrow, tight, trouble, pebble, opponent, crowding

Derivation: or צָר; from 6887;

narrow; (as a noun) a tight place (usually figuratively, i.e. trouble); also a pebble (as in 6864); (transitive) an opponent (as crowding)

KJV: adversary, afflicted(-tion), anguish, close, distress, enemy, flint, foe, narrow, small, sorrow, strait, tribulation, trouble.

צַר

n.[m.] — pebble

צַר n.[m.] hard pebble, flint;—Is 5:28

צַר

n.[m.] — straits

צַר n.[m.] straits, distress

צַר

n.m — adversary

צַר 68 n.m. adversary, foe

צַר

adj — narrow

צַר adj. narrow, tight

H4689

מָצוֹקmâtsôwq/maw-tsoke'/

n-m — narrow place, confinement, disability

Derivation: from 6693;

a narrow place, i.e. (abstractly and figuratively) confinement or disability

KJV: anguish, distress, straitness.

מָצוֹק

n.[m.] — straitness

מָצוֹק n.[m.] straitness, straits, stress

H4672

מָצָאmâtsâʼ/maw-tsaw'/

v — come, appear, exist, attain, find, acquire, occur, meet, be present

Derivation: a primitive root;

properly, to come forth to, i.e. appear or exist; transitively, to attain, i.e. find or acquire; figuratively, to occur, meet or be present

KJV: be able, befall, being, catch, × certainly, (cause to) come (on, to, to hand), deliver, be enough (cause to) find(-ing, occasion, out), get (hold upon), × have (here), be here, hit, be left, light (up-) on, meet (with), × occasion serve, (be) present, ready, speed, suffice, take hold on.

מָצָא

vb — attain to

מָצָא 452 vb. attain to, find

Qal

1. find

2. find out

3. = come upon, light upon

4. noteworthy phrases

Niph. pass. of Qal, be found

Hiph.

1. cause to find, attain

2. cause to light upon, come upon, come

3. cause to encounter

4. present unto

H4687

מִצְוָהmitsvâh/mits-vaw'/

n-f — command, Law

Derivation: from 6680;

a command, whether human or divine (collectively, the Law)

KJV: (which was) commanded(-ment), law, ordinance, precept.

מִצְוָה

n.f — commandment

מִצְוָה 181 n.f. commandment

H8191

שַׁעְשֻׁעַshaʻshuaʻ/shah-shoo'-ah/

n-m — enjoyment

Derivation: from 8173;

enjoyment

KJV: delight, pleasure.

שַׁעֲשֻׁעִים

n.[m.]pl.intens — delight

[שַׁעֲשֻׁעִים], שׁוּעִים– n.[m.]pl.intens. delight

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