(This is an entry from a devotional commentary I am workingon from Psalm 119 entitled ‘God and His Word’. Theintroduction can be found here, successive entries have covered the 22sections of the Psalm, and following entries verse by verse.)

 

"May the arrogant be ashamed, for they subvert me with alie;

But I shall meditate on Your precepts."

 

Similarto Psalm 119:69, the Psalmist replaces a lie with Your law.  Lying is apparently one of the results ofarrogance; it is the arrogant who forge lies and subvert the righteous (seealso Proverbs 17:15).  In these days, asin all times, it seems to be done with impunity and with no shame.  And so we pray - for our sake and for theirs- that shame would come upon them, and upon us if we follow the same path.  Psalm 101:6-7 is a wonderful meditation here;they may attack from the outside, but we don’t allow them inside ourhearts.  It is God’s thoughts, not ours,which dominate our thinking and our hearts, Isaiah 55:8-11.  What hope it is that ‘the mouths of those whospeak lies will be stopped’ (Psalm 63:11) and ‘Truthful lips will beestablished forever, But a lying tongue is only for a moment.’ (Proverbs 12:19).

 

‘Howlittle he valued the will - will of sinners… Even those that deal most fairlymay meet with those that deal perversely… it does not hurt us, and thereforeshould not move us… God's dealing favourably with him might make them ashamedto think that they had dealt perversely with him.’

 

‘Hewould leave the proud in God's hands, and give himself up to holy studies andcontemplations… The proud are not worth a thought. The worst injury they can dous is to take us away from our devotions; let us baffle them by keeping all thecloser to our God when they are most malicious in their onslaughts.’

 

Henry, Matthew, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Psalm 119:78, e-Swordedition

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon, Treasury of David, on Psalm 119:78, e-Swordedition

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