Psalm 119:167

We are making our way toward the end of the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Schin.

Psalms 119:167  My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly.

In verse 129 the psalmist said of God’s testimonies: “therefore doth my soul keep them.” In today’s verse he affirms again that his soul kept them. As I noted when commenting on verse 129, the psalmist did not merely keep God’s testimonies outwardly and on display for other men to see. Rather, his innermost self, his very soul, kept them. He “obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered” to him (Romans 6:17). Like the apostle Paul, he delighted “in the law of God after the inward man” (Romans 7:22).

In verse 129 the psalmist wrote in the present tense: “therefore doth my soul keep them.” In today’s verse he writes in the present perfect tense: my soul hath kept them. The present perfect tense of a verb refers to a past action the effects of which continue into the present. What the psalmist had done in the past he was continuing to do in the present and that was to keep the testimonies of the Lord. Furthermore, having kept God’s testimonies had this present effect upon him: and I love them exceedingly.

Repeatedly in this psalm the psalmist stated his love for God’s word (see verses 47-48, 97, 113, 119, 127, 140, 159, 163). The reason he kept God’s testimonies was because he loved them. He did not keep them merely because it was socially respectable, or because it was his duty, or because it secured him from punishment. He kept the testimonies because he loved them. Love of the testimonies themselves was the spring of his obedience to them. His obedience proceeded from the very affections of his soul. W. M. Statham’s comments on this point are insightful: “To keep it because we love it is to show that it is already part of us – has entered into the moral texture of our being.” 

As we keep the testimonies of the Lord from a principle of love, we come to love them more and more, even to the point of loving them exceedingly.

Exceedingly – Of degree: Above measure, extremely.

The psalmist’s love for God’s words was beyond his ability to measure. It was extreme. We generally tend to be critical of extremism. But this is one form of extremism we would all do well to develop and maintain.

Psalm 119:165

Are you a person that is often offended by others or that gets your feelings hurt easily? If so, then you have a serious problem that today’s meditation specifically addresses. God grant that it may prove helpful to your soul.

Psalms 119:165  Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.

As we consider this verse, let us be reminded that God’s law, His written word, is the truth (Psalm 119:142). Therefore, I shall speak of the law and the truth interchangeably throughout this meditation.

Let’s begin by seeing how the Oxford English Dictionary defines the word offend.

Offend – In Biblical use: To be a stumbling-block, or cause spiritual or moral difficulty, to (a person); to shock; to cause to stumble or to sin.

Oxford supplies another definition of the word offend that agrees with this Biblical use of the term.

Offend - To hurt or wound the feelings or susceptibilities of; to be displeasing or disagreeable to; to vex, annoy, displease, anger; now esp. To excite a feeling of personal annoyance, resentment, or disgust in (any one).

First off, people who love the law of God are not offended by the truth in that law even though it may be offensive. And there is plenty of truth in there that is offensive to all of us, especially painful truth about ourselves.

When the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the truth (John 14:6), was in this world and spoke among men, there were those that were offended by what they heard.

Matthew 15:12  Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?

John 6:60  ¶Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?

61  When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?

These were obviously people that did not truly love the law of God, although they professed to do so. You can always tell how much a person loves the Bible when you see how they react when the Bible crosses them!

When today’s verse speaks of those who love God’s law, it is not referring to some whim or passing fancy that they experience. It is talking about a love of the law of God that is constant, a love for the law even when it exposes one’s sins and infirmities. It is talking about a love of God’s law that leads one to submit to its commandments even when it is personally costly or painful to do so. When you love the law like that, you are going to experience the opposition of the devil and the world over which he is the god and prince (2Corinthians 4:4; John 14:30).

1 Peter 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour....

John 15:19  If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

20  Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

Our Lord was gracious enough to inform us of this hatred of the world in advance just so that we would not be offended when it happens.

John 16:1  These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.

Yet it happens that there are those who receive the truth with gladness, but whatever fondness they feel for it does not run deep. It is not the kind of love of the truth that endures. Therefore, when opposition comes for the truth’s sake, they are offended and fall away.

Mark 4:16  And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness;

17  And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended.

But whatever affliction or persecution comes to those who love God’s law, it is offset by the great peace they have. In the same discourse in which our Saviour forewarned us of the persecution that would come upon us “for the word’s sake,” He promised us His peace.

John 14:27  Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

John 16:33  These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

The same law of God that reveals to us what sinners we are and how deserving of God’s wrath we are, also reveals the Saviour from sin, the Lord Jesus Christ. It also reveals that those who love God’s law of truth are just the ones whom the Lord Jesus has loved and saved. As it is written:

1 John 4:19  We love him (which includes loving His law), because he first loved us.

And loving us first, God sent His only begotten Son to take away our sins and give us eternal life.

1 John 4:7  ¶Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

8  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

9  In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

10  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

11  Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

Now this passage commands us to love one another. Those who love God’s law will love one another since to love our neighbour as ourselves sums up that law.

Galatians 5:14  For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

So we learn from this passage (1John 4:7-11) that our love for God’s law is an evidence of our eternal salvation and security in the love of God from which nothing can separate us (Romans 8:35-39). And being at peace in the knowledge of our salvation in Christ, we can better endure whatever persecutions or slights come our way since we know we deserve so much worse. When you think you deserve worse and you are thankful for the salvation God has freely given you by His grace, then you are less prone to be offended.

It is clear from today’s verse that the way to avoid being offended is to cultivate your love of the law of God. And the more you love the law of God, the more out of love you will be with yourself. You see, that is where so many of our personal offenses arise. We just think too highly of ourselves and, therefore, we are offended by whatever anyone says or does that does not square with our estimation of ourselves. We need to learn that the world does not revolve around us. Everyone is not going to crouch down before our every little whim. People will cross us, even unintentionally. We live in a hurting world, or have you noticed? And it also happens among Christians, even the best of them. So if your petty little feelings are always being hurt, pay more attention to what God’s law says about you. The most important thing is not what others think of you, but what Almighty God thinks of you, which you will discover in His law of truth. When you see how bad you really are under the searchlight of that law and when you see how loved you are by God notwithstanding all, then your feelings should calm down into a settled peace that will set light by the negative judgments of others whilst you bask in the strong and constant love of God in Christ.

Psalm 119:166

The next verse we take up in this octave of Psalm 119 entitled Schin sums up the life of a servant of God, who is called a Christian in the New Testament (Acts 11:26).

Psalms 119:166  LORD, I have hoped for thy salvation, and done thy commandments.

Everything in this verse turns on that word hope. Our holy religion is all about hope. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ which we believe is the message of hope.

Colossians 1:5  For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel….

Without hope, we would have long since abandoned our faith. So let’s begin by defining that word hope.

Hope – To entertain expectation of something desired; to look (mentally) with expectation.

In this verse the auxiliary verb have is attached to both of the past participles of the two verbs hope and do: I have hoped...and done. The psalmist had been both hoping and doing. His life as a servant of God consisted of what he hoped for and what he did, and so should our lives as Christians.

In this case, the psalmist hoped for God’s salvation and as he hoped he obeyed God’s commandments. Think about it. As a Christian do you not spend your life trying to keep God’s commandments whilst at the same time praying to God and expecting Him to deliver you, both now and in the end? And if you are praying to and trusting God to deliver you, aren’t you hoping for His salvation? As the psalmist wrote: I have hoped for thy salvation.


That we hope for God’s salvation, implies that we believe in God and trust Him to save us. Hope is faith in operation. It is faith that gives substance to our hope.

Hebrews 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Why would anyone expect deliverance from someone he did not trust? Find what a person trusts in, and you will see wherein his hope lies. If you put your trust in man, then you will expect salvation from man. You will expect him to rescue you and preserve you. But the Scriptures straightly warn us against trusting in man.

Psalms 146:3  Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.

4  His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

5  Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God:

6  Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever….

How is that for a passage warning you against putting your trust in the promises of politicians (princes) and expecting them to save you, as so many do? There is no help in them. To put your trust in man and expect your salvation from him is to invite a curse upon yourself.

Jeremiah 17:5  Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.

6  For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.

7  Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.

8  For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

If you truly trust in the Lord, then He is your hope. Your expectation is from him. He only is your salvation.

Psalms 62:5  My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.

6  He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved.

Now the psalmist’s hope for God’s salvation had already been granted to him as is evidenced in the fact that he had done God’s commandments. Without God working salvation in our lives, the devil, the world, and our own corrupt flesh would long since have drawn us away from God’s commandments. How many times has God saved us from a temptation we could not bear? Or how many times has God made a way of escape for us so that we could bear a temptation?

1 Corinthians 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Now there is a connection between hoping for God’s salvation and doing His commandments as today’s verse suggests. This should be evident in the following two passages.

Acts 24:14  But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:

15  And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.

16  And herein (in this hope) do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.

1 John 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

3  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

And, interestingly, if you are diligent in doing God’s commandments, you will gain more assurance of your hope.

Hebrews 6:10  For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

11  And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:

12  That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

So the more you hope the more you obey and the more you obey the more you hope. Hope and obedience thrive on each other. 1Corinthians 15 is the great resurrection chapter of Paul’s epistles. In it he vividly sets forth the believer’s hope in Christ. It is interesting to note that he concludes that chapter with an exhortation to obedience to God.

1 Corinthians 15:58  Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

The historically verified doctrine of the resurrection lets us know that we serve a risen Saviour Who will raise us up also. Our hope is founded in that which is real. We are not wasting our time on a fairy tale. Our work in serving Christ in not in vain. Therefore, we hope and obey!

On the other hand, those who abandon hope will give up on God and do whatever they want with no regard for what He has commanded.

Jeremiah 18:12  And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.

And so let me urge you to hold fast your hope of God’s salvation and be not moved away from it. As you do so, it will spur you to serve the God of hope all the more so that your testimony will be: LORD, I have hoped for thy salvation and done thy commandments.