2 But his delight is in Jehovah's law, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
This book of the law shall not depart from thy mouth; and thou shalt meditate upon it day and night, that thou mayest take heed to do according to all that is written therein; for then shalt thou have good success in thy ways, and then shalt thou prosper.
Make me to walk in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.
Unless thy law had been my delight, I should then have perished in mine affliction.
For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man:
I will meditate upon thy precepts, and have respect unto thy paths. I delight myself in thy statutes; I will not forget thy word.
MEM. Oh how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day. Thy commandments make me wiser than mine enemies; for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers; for thy testimonies are my meditation.
Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have laid up the words of his mouth more than the purpose of my own heart.
Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy words were unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by thy name, O Jehovah, God of hosts.
ALEPH. Blessed are the perfect in the way, who walk in the law of Jehovah.
Occupy thyself with these things; be wholly in them, that thy progress may be manifest to all.
And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved; And I will lift up my hands unto thy commandments, which I have loved, and I will meditate in thy statutes.
The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.
And shall not God at all avenge his elect, who cry to him day and night, and he bears long as to them?
I am thankful to God, whom I serve from [my] forefathers with pure conscience, how unceasingly I have the remembrance of thee in my supplications night and day,
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 1
Commentary on Psalms 1 Matthew Henry Commentary
An Exposition, With Practical Observations, of
The Book of Psalms
Psalm 1
This is a psalm of instruction concerning good and evil, setting before us life and death, the blessing and the curse, that we may take the right way which leads to happiness and avoid that which will certainly end in our misery and ruin. The different character and condition of godly people and wicked people, those that serve God and those that serve him not, is here plainly stated in a few words; so that every man, if he will be faithful to himself, may here see his own face and then read his own doom. That division of the children of men into saints and sinners, righteous and unrighteous, the children of God and the children of the wicked one, as it is ancient, ever since the struggle began between sin and grace, the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, so it is lasting, and will survive all other divisions and subdivisions of men into high and low, rich and poor, bond and free; for by this men's everlasting state will be determined, and the distinction will last as long as heaven and hell. This psalm shows us,
Whoever collected the psalms of David (probably it was Ezra) with good reason put this psalm first, as a preface to the rest, because it is absolutely necessary to the acceptance of our devotions that we be righteous before God (for it is only the prayer of the upright that is his delight), and therefore that we be right in our notions of blessedness and in our choice of the way that leads to it. Those are not fit to put up good prayers who do not walk in good ways.
Psa 1:1-3
The psalmist begins with the character and condition of a godly man, that those may first take the comfort of that to whom it belongs. Here is,
In singing these verses, being duly affected with the malignant and dangerous nature of sin, the transcendent excellencies of the divine law, and the power and efficacy of God's grace, from which our fruit is found, we must teach and admonish ourselves, and one another, to watch against sin and all approaches towards it, to converse much with the word of God, and abound in the fruit of righteousness; and, in praying over them, we must seek to God for his grace both to fortify us against every evil word and work and to furnish us for every good word and work.
Psa 1:4-6
Here is,
In singing these verses, and praying over them, let us possess ourselves with a holy dread of the wicked man's portion, and deprecate it with a firm and lively expectation of the judgment to come, and stir up ourselves to prepare for it, and with a holy care to approve ourselves to God in every thing, entreating his favour with our whole hearts.