Psalms 119:78

78 Let the proud be ashamed; for they have acted perversely towards me with falsehood: as for me, I meditate in thy precepts.

Psalms 119:78 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 119:78

Let the proud be ashamed
The same persons he before speaks of as accursed, who had him in derision, and forged a lie against him. Here he prays that they might be ashamed of their scoffs and jeers, of their lies and calumnies, the evils and injuries they had done him; that they might be brought to a sense of them, and repentance for them; when they would be ashamed of them in the best manner: or that they might be disappointed of their ends, in what they had done, and so be confounded and ashamed, as men are when they cannot gain their point; or be brought to shame and confusion eternally;

for they dealt perversely with me without a cause;
or, "they perverted me [with] falsehood" F23; that is, they endeavoured to pervert him with lies and falsehood, and lead him out of the right way; or they attempted, by their lies and calumnies, to make him out to be a perverse and wicked man, and pronounced and condemned him as such, without any foundation or just cause for it;

[but] I will meditate in thy precepts;
he was determined, in the strength of grace, that those ill usages should not take off his thoughts from religious things, or divert him from his duty to his God: none of these things moved him; he still went on in the ways of God, in his worship and service, as Daniel did, when in like circumstances.


FOOTNOTES:

F23 (ynwtwe rqv) "mendacio me opprimere quaerunt", Tigurine version; "mendaciis", Piscator, Cocceius, Michaelis.

Psalms 119:78 In-Context

76 Oh let thy loving-kindness be for my comfort, according to thy ·word unto thy servant.
77 Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live; for thy law is my delight.
78 Let the proud be ashamed; for they have acted perversely towards me with falsehood: as for me, I meditate in thy precepts.
79 Let those that fear thee turn unto me, and those that know thy testimonies.
80 Let my heart be perfect in thy statutes, that I be not ashamed.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Or 'have subverted:' see Ps. 146.9; Lam. 3.36.
The Darby Translation is in the public domain.