Psalm 119:16

Verse 16 I will delight myself When righteousness, from a matter of constraint becomes a matter of choice, it instantly changes its whole nature, and rises to a higher moral rank than before. The same God whom it is impossible to move by law's authority, moves of his own proper and original inclination in the very path of the law's righteousness. And so, we, in proportion as we are like unto God, are alive to the virtues of that same law, to the terror of whose severities we are altogether dead. We are no longer under a schoolmaster; but obedience is changed from a thing of force into a thing of freeness. It is moulded to a higher state and character than before. We are not driven to it by the God of authority. We are drawn to it by the regards of a now willing heart to all moral and all spiritual excellence. Thomas Chalmers, 1780-1847.

Verse 16. Meditation must not be a dull, sad, and dispirited thing: not a driving like the chariots of the Egyptians when their wheels were taken off, but like the chariots of Amminadib ( Song of Solomon 6:12 ) that ran swiftly. So let us pray, -- Lord, in meditation make me like the chariots of Amminadib, that my swift running may evidence my delight in meditating. Holy David makes delight such an ingredient or assistant here, that sometimes he calls the exercise of meditation by the name of "delight," speaking in the foregoing verse of this meditation, "I will meditate of thy precepts," and in Psalms 119:16 , I will delight myself in thy statutes; which is the same with meditation, only with superadding the excellent qualification due meditation should have; the name of delight is given to meditation because of its noble concomitant -- holy joy and satisfaction. Nathanael Ranew.

Verse 16. Delight myself. The word is very emphatic: [f[tfa, eshtaasha, I will skip about and jump for joy. Adam Clarke.

Verse 16. I will not forget. Delight prevents forgetfulness: the mind will run upon that which the heart delighteth in; and the heart is where the treasure is ( Matthew 6:21 ). Worldly men that are intent upon carnal interests, forget the word, because it is not their delight. If anything displeases us, we are glad if we can forget it; it is some release from an inconvenience, to take off our thoughts from it; but it doubles the contentment of a thing that we are delighted in, to remember it, and call it to mind. In the outward school, if a scholar by his own averseness from learning, or by the severity and imprudence of his master, hath no delight in his book, all that he learns is lost and forgotten, it goeth in at one ear, and out at the other: but this is the true art of memory, to cause them to delight in what they learn. Such instructions as we take in with sweetness, they stick with us, and run in our minds night and day. So saith David here, I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word. Thomas Manton.

Verse 16. Forget. I never yet heard of a covetous old man, who had forgotten where he had buried his treasure. Cicero de Senectute.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 16. --