Psalmen 119:78

78 Laat de hovaardigen beschaamd worden, omdat zij mij met leugen nedergestoten hebben; doch ik betracht Uw geboden.

Psalmen 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Psalmen 119:78 In-Context

76 Laat toch Uw goedertierenheid zijn om mij te troosten, naar Uw toezegging aan Uw knecht.

77 Laat mij Uw barmhartigheden overkomen, opdat ik leve, want Uw wet is al mijn vermaking.

78 Laat de hovaardigen beschaamd worden, omdat zij mij met leugen nedergestoten hebben; doch ik betracht Uw geboden.

79 Laat hen tot mij keren, die U vrezen, en die Uw getuigenissen kennen.

80 Laat mijn hart oprecht zijn tot Uw inzettingen, opdat ik niet beschaamd worde.