| Barnes' Notes on the Bible Thy word is very pure - Margin, "tried or refined." See the word explained in the notes at Psalm 18:30. Therefore thy servant loveth it - Therefore I love it. I love it because it is pure, holy, true; not merely because it will save me. Apart from all reference to myself. I love thy truth as truth; I love purity as purity; I love law as law; I love holiness as holiness. This is true religion. Clarke's Commentary on the BibleThy word is very pure - צרופה tseruphah, it is purification. It is not a purified thing, but a thing that purifies. "Now ye are clean," said Christ, "by the word I have spoken unto you." God's word is a fire to purify as well as a hammer to break. Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleThy word is very pure,.... Or, "exceedingly purified" (w): as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times, Psalm 12:6; free from, all drossy matter; from any mixtures, or the corruptions and doctrines of men; and which tends and leads to purity of heart and life; therefore thy servant loveth it; that which carnal men hate the word of God for, because it forbids and condemns all impurity of flesh and spirit, all impure thoughts, words, and actions; that a good man loves it for, and which is an evidence of a sanctified heart. (w) "purificatum valde", Montanus; "liquatum, vel expurgatum valde", Gejerus. Geneva Study BibleThy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it. Wesley's Notes 119:140 Pure - Without the least mixture of falsehood. King James Translators' Notespure: Heb. tried, or, refined Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary140. very pure-literally, "refined," shown pure by trial. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary119:137-144 God never did, and never can do wrong to any. The promises are faithfully performed by Him that made them. Zeal against sin should constrain us to do what we can against it, at least to do more in religion ourselves. Our love to the word of God is evidence of our love to God, because it is designed to make us partake his holiness. Men's real excellency always makes them low in their own eyes. When we are small and despised, we have the more need to remember God's precepts, that we may have them to support us. The law of God is the truth, the standard of holiness, the rule of happiness; but the obedience of Christ alone justifies the believer. Sorrows are often the lot of saints in this vale of tears; they are in heaviness through manifold temptations. There are delights in the word of God, which the saints often most sweetly enjoy when in trouble and anguish. This is life eternal, to know God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, Joh 17:3. May we live the life of faith and grace here, and be removed to the life of glory hereafter. Matthew Henry's Whole Bible CommentaryVerse 140 Here is, 1. David's great affection for the word of God: Thy servant loves it. Every good man, being a servant of God, loves the word of God, because it lets him know his Master's will and directs him in his Master's work. Wherever there is grace there is a warm attachment to the word of God. 2. The ground and reason of that affection; he saw it to be very pure, and therefore he loved it. Our love to the word of God is then an evidence of our love to God when we love it for the sake of its purity, because it bears the image of God's holiness and is designed to make us partakers of his holiness. It commands purity, and, as it is itself refined from all corrupt mixture, so if we receive it in the light and love of it it will refine us from the dross of worldliness and fleshly-mindedness. |