Psalms 119:100

Psa 119:100 I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.

Ver. 100. I understand more than the ancients] Whom yet age, use, and experience have taught much; but by the practical study of the word I outgo them all; with reference to those hoary heads, the seniors of the Synedrion, be it spoken, Non prolixa facit sapientem barba.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

100. (Psa 119:100) (More) than old men I understand, because thy precepts I have kept. The first verb is the same, and has the same sense as in Psa 119:95. The ambiguous Hebrew words here cannot be expressed by any one in modern English, as it may mean either old men in the proper sense, whose greater experience entitled them to be considered wiser than their juniors; or the ancients, those of former generations, who are popularly looked upon as wiser than their children and successors. One of these senses suits the personal, the other the national design and application of the psalm. In either case, there is really no boast of superior intelligence, as a distinguishing endowment, but merely an assertion, in a striking form, that the highest wisdom is to do the will of God. See above, on Psa 111:10.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 100. I understand more than the ancients] God had revealed to him more of that hidden wisdom which was in his law than he had done to any of his predecessors. And this was most literally true of David, who spoke more fully about Christ than any who had gone before him; or, indeed, followed after him. His compositions are, I had almost said, a sublime Gospel.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(100) Ancients.—Or, more probably, as the LXX. and Vulg., and the old versions generally took it, old men.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

100. I have more discernment than the aged] It is not official ‘elders’ who are meant, but those whose long life has given them opportunity to learn by experience.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Through thy precepts I get understanding,.... Of the will of God; of his worship, the nature and manner of it; of his ordinances, their use and importance; and of his doctrines, and the excellency of them;

therefore I hate every false way; of worship; all superstition and will worship, the commandments and inventions of men, and every false doctrine; all lies in hypocrisy, for no lie is of the truth; every thing that is contrary to the word of God, and is not according to truth and godliness. The Targum is,

"I hate every lying man.''

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

I understand more than the ancients - Hebrew, The old men. It does not refer, as the word “ancients” does with us, to the people of former times, but to aged men. They have treasured up wisdom. They have had the advantage of experience, of study, and of observation. They, therefore, like teachers, become a standard by which we measure our own attainments, as the boy hardly hopes to gain that amount of knowledge which he observes in people who are venerable in years, and who are remarkable for their acquirements. Compare Job 12:12 : “With the ancient is wisdom, and in length of days understanding.” Job 32:7 : “I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.” Compare 1Ki 4:30-31. Yet the psalmist says that he “had” reached this point, and had even gone beyond what he had once thought he could never attain.

Because I keep thy precepts - It is all the result of an honest endeavor to do right; to observe law; to keep the commands of God. Obedience to the law of God will do more than any mere human teaching to make a man truly wise.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

By which reason he intimates that the practice of religion is the best way to understand it, and that men’s vicious hearts and lives are the greatest hinderances of all true and solid knowledge of it.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 100. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. The men of old age, and the men of old time, were outdone by the holier and more youthful learner. He had been taught to observe in heart and life the precepts of the Lord, and this was more than the most venerable sinner had ever learned, more than the philosopher of antiquity had so much as aspired to know. He had the word with him, and so outstripped his foes; lie meditated on it, and so outran his friends; he practised it, and so outshone his elders. The instruction derived from Holy Scripture is useful in many directions, superior from many points of view, unrivalled everywhere and in every way. As our soul may make her boast in the Lord, so may we boast in his word. "There is none like it: give it me, "said David as to Goliath's sword, and we may say the same as to the word of the Lord. If men prize antiquity they have it here. The ancients are had in high repute, but what did they all know compared with that which we perceive in the divine precepts? "The old is better" says one: but the oldest of all is the best of all, and what is that but the word of the Ancient of days

Ver. 100. I understand...because l keep. Would we know the Lord? Let us keep his commandments. "By thy precepts, "saith David, that is, by the observance of thy precepts, "I get understanding." "If any man do my will" (saith our blessed Saviour, Joh 7:17), "he shall know my doctrine." boulei yeololov lenesyai? tav entolav fulasse, saith Nazienzen: Wouldst thou be a divine? do the commandments; for action is (as it were) the basis of contemplation. It is St. Gregory's observation concerning the two disciples who, whilst Christ talked with them, knew him not; but in performing an act of hospitality towards him, to wit, breaking bread with him, they knew him, that they were enlightened, not by hearing him, but by doing divine precepts, Quisquis ergo vult audita intelligere; festinet ea quae jam audire potuit, opere implere, Whosoever therefore will understand, let him first make haste to do what he heareth. Nathanael Hardy, 1618-1670.

Ver. 100. I understand more than the ancients. The ordinary answer of ignorant people is, "What! must we be wiser than our forefathers?" And yet those same people would be richer than their forefathers were. The maximum quod sic of a Christian is this, he must grow in grace, till his head reach up to heaven, till grace is perfected in glory. Christopher Love, 1618-1651.

Ver. 100. More than the ancients. Understanding gotten by the precepts of the word is better than understanding gotten by long experience. It is better in four regards. First, It is more exact. Our experience reacheth but to a few things; but the word of God reacheth to all cases that concern true happiness. The word is the result of God's wisdom, who is the Ancient of days; therefore exceeds the wisdom of the ancients, or experience of any men, or all men. Secondly, as it is more exact, so a more sure way of learning wisdom, whereas experience is more uncertain. Many have much experience, yet have not a heart to see and to gather wisdom from what they feel: De 29:2-4. Thirdly, it is a safer and cheaper way of learning, to learn by rule, than to come home by weeping cross, and to learn wisdom by our own smart. Experience is too expensive a way; and, if we had nothing else to guide us, into how many thousand miseries should we run! Fourthly, it is shorter. The way by age and experience is a long way; and so, for a long time, all a man's younger age must needs be miserable and foolish. Now, here you may come betimes to be wise by studying the word of God. It concerns a man, not only to be wise at length, but to be wise betimes. The foolish virgins were wise too late: but never were any wise too soon. Condensed from Thomas Manton.

Ver. 100. If this way the Word of God were thus perfect in David's time, what is it by the addition of so many parcels of Scripture since? If it then gave wisdom to the simple (Ps 14:7); if it made David, being brought up but as a shepherd, wiser than his enemies, than his ancients, than his teachers; as an angel of God in discerning right from wrong (1Sa 14:17); able to guide the people by the skilfulness of his hands (Ps 78:72); what kind of wisdom is there, which we may not now gather from thence? What depth of natural philosophy have we in Genesis and Job! What flowers of rhetoric in the prophets! What force of logic in Saint Paul's epistles! what art of poetry in the psalms! What excellent moral precepts, not only for private life, but for the regulation of families and commonwealth in the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes! To which may be added in a second rank as very useful, though apocryphal, the Book of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus. What reasonable and just laws have we in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, which moved the great Ptolemy to hire the Septuagints to translate them into Greek: what unmatchable antiquity, variety, and wonderful events, and certainty of story, in the books of Moses, Joshua, the Judges, Samuel, the Kings, and Chronicles, together with Ruth and Esther, Ezra and Nehemiah, and, since Christ, in the sacred Gospels and Acts of the Apostles. And, lastly, what profound mysteries have we in the prophecies of Ezekiel and Daniel, and the Revelation of Saint John. But in this it infinitely exceeds the wisdom of all human writings, that it is alone "able to make a man wise unto salvation" (2Ti 3:15). Upon these considerations, Charles the Fifth of France, surnamed The Wise, not only caused the Bible to be translated into French, but was himself very studious in the Holy Scriptures. And Alphonsus, King of Arragon, is said to have read over the whole Bible fourteen several times, with Lyra's notes upon it; though he were otherwise excellently well learned, yet was the law of God his delight, "more desired of him than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb." George Hakewell, 1579-1649.

Ver. 100. Antiquity no security for truth as contrasted with revelation: old age no proof of wisdom as contrasted with holy living: open confession no evidence of boasting as contrasted with sullen pride.

Ver. 100. Obedience the high road to understanding. W.B.H.

Ver. 100. Obedience the key of knowledge. Joh 7:17.

Psalms 119:101*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

I understand more than the ancients; or, "the aged." Advanced age does not necessarily give wisdom. (see Job_32:7-9) "Antiquity is no help against stupidity" (Luther). Because I keep thy precepts . (comp. ver. 104 and Joh_7:17)

Human teachers and the Bible itself.

"I understand more than the aged, because I have kept thy precepts." This is no mere boasting, no invidious comparison. It is the recognition of the fact that the man who is taught of God knows what no human teacher can teach. The human teacher has a limited range; the Divine Teacher transcends it. But the Word of God, the Scriptures of the Divine revelations, are the agencies God uses for imparting the higher knowledge. It is necessary to say that what God teaches is not a mere advance on what man teaches. It is other than man teaches. Man deals with the surface of things; God deals with the inmost of things. Man keeps within the agency of limited human language; God can teach through spiritual sensibilities. It is true that he uses the written Word; but it is not true that he confines himself to the formality of the Word. He teaches through the spiritual feeling which the Word excites. There is much made of a comprehensive, all-round education, but it is not enough insisted on that this must include the Divine teaching.

I THE NECESSARY LIMITS OF HUMAN TEACHINGS.

1. They are limited by the mental capacity of those who teach and those who are taught.

2. They are limited by the imperfection of the vehicle by which human knowledge is conveyed. No human word has the same connotation for every one who uses it, and few words keep the same connotation for one man through a long life.

3. They are limited by the variableness of the material at their command. New facts are continually displacing old ones, and new theories condemning old ones. In science, a book ten years old is comparatively useless.

4. They are limited by the range over which they extend, which is compelled to keep away from all knowledge of God and the things of God. "Who by searching can find out God?" And yet it is in that higher range of knowledge alone that man"s true nature can be unfolded. The queen of sciences is theology.

II THE DIVINE TEACHINGS BEYOND THE HUMAN LIMITS. Is man only a mind? Many seem to think of him as having no more than a mental organization. A man is a spiritual being, kin to God, having for his present agency and use a body and a mind. The Divine range is the soul, which is the man himself. R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Because - The practice of religion is the best way to understand it.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.