Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 119

ALEPH.

Undefiled. —Better, blameless or perfect.

Way. —See the same use without a qualifying epithet in Psalm 2:12. There was only one way of safety and peace for an Israelite, here by the parallelism defined as “the law of Jehovah.” But even pagan ethics bore witness to the same truth: “Declinandum de viâ sit modo ne summa turpitudo sequatur” (Cicero, De Amicitia, 17).

Directed ... —So Septuagint and Vulgate. The Hebrew is perhaps slightly different, established, or settled. (See Proverbs 4:26.)

Have respect to. —Literally, look upon, or into, as in a mirror. (Compare to James 1:23.) The Divine Law is like a mirror, which shows man his defects; the faithful, in looking into it, have no cause to blush.

Judgments. —Not here in the common sense of visitations for sin, but rather one of the various synonyms for law. (See this use in Exodus 21:1; Exodus 24:3, and so on.)

BETH.

Wherewithal. —There can be little question that the right rendering of this verse is By what means can a young man purify his way, so as to keep it according to Your word? but from Joshua 6:18 we might render keep himself. The English rendering, which follows the Septuagint and Vulgate, is, of course, possible, but the other is more natural and more in accordance with the general drift of the psalm.

The answer is supposed, or rather left to be inferred, from the whole tenor of the psalm. The psalm implies that men, and especially young men, whose passions and temptations are strong in proportion to their inexperience, can do nothing on their own but are dependent on the grace of God. The omission of a direct answer rather strengthens than impairs the impression on the reader.

We must not, from the mention of youth, conclude that this psalm was written in that period of life. Perhaps, on the contrary, it is one who, like Browning’s Rabbi ben Ezra, while seeking how best to spend old age, looks back on youth, not with remonstrance against its follies, but with the satisfaction that even then he aimed at the best he knew.

With my whole heart ... —The self-mistrust of the second clause is a proof of the reality of the first. Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief, is another form of this.