Psalm 119:51

Verse 51. -- Greatly. The word notes "continually," the Septuagint translates it by afczra, the vulgar Latin by "usque valde", and "usque longe". They derided him with all possible bitterness; and day by day they had their scoffs for him, so that it was both a grievous and a perpetual temptation. --Thomas Manton.

Verse 51. -- Derision. David tells that he had been jeered for his religion, but yet he had not been jeered out of his religion. They laughed at him for his praying and called it cant, for his seriousness and called it mopishness, for his strictness and called it needless preciseness. --Matthew Henry.

Verse 51. -- It is a great thing in a soldier to behave well under fire; but it is a greater thing for a soldier of the cross to be unflinching in the day of his trial. It does not hurt the Christian to have the dogs bark at him. --William S. Plumer.

Verse 50-51. -- The life and rigour infused into me by the promise which "quickened me," caused me "not to decline from thy law," even though "the proud did iniquitously altogether"; doing all in their power, through their jeering at me, to deter me from its observance. --Robert Bellarmine.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 51. -- The proud man's contumely, and the gracious man's constancy.

Verse 51. -- Fidelity in the face of contempt.