Psalm 119:24 NKJV
24
Your testimonies also are my delight
And my counselors.
My Thoughts
How many times, when we face issues and problems, either worldly or spiritual, do we go to men first instead of the scriptures? I recently listened to a minister who pointed out that the Word is God’s manual that covers every situation that we have and will face. We can go to men for advice and counsel, but the places we should turn to first at all times, but especially in times of trouble, are the Word of the Lord and prayer.
Psalm 119:24 highlights David’s deep affection for God’s testimonies, considering them both a source of delight and guidance. In the context of trials and adversities, David prioritizes divine counsel over the opinions of earthly rulers. The commentary elaborates on the transformative power of God’s word, emphasizing its role in providing comfort, direction, and strength during difficult times. David’s reflections reveal a longing for deeper understanding and connection with God’s law, asserting that true wisdom and joy stem from embracing the Scriptures. This verse captures the interlacing of joy and guidance found in divine testimonies.
Note: Psalm 119 is an acrostic pattern. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet; each of the 22 sections is given a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and each line in that section begins with that letter. Today, we’re looking at verse 24, which is the last verse in the 3rd section which is called Gimel ג. According to the hebrews4christians.com website: “the letter Gimmel is the third letter of the ‘Aleph-Bet’, having the numerical value of three. The pictograph for Gimmel is a camel. In the Talmud, it is said that the Gimmel symbolizes a rich man running after a poor man (the next letter Dalet) to give him tzedakah (charity).”
…..Bill
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Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
“Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors.” They were not only themes for meditation, but also sources of delight and means of guidance. While his enemies took counsel with each other, the holy man took counsel with the testimonies of God. The fowlers could not drive the bird from its nest with all their noise. It was their delight to slander, and his delight to meditate. The words of the Lord serve us for many purposes; in our sorrows, they are our delight, and in our difficulties, they are our guide; we derive joy from them and discover wisdom in them. If we desire to find comfort in the Scriptures, we must submit ourselves to their counsel, and when we follow their counsel, it must not be with reluctance but with delight. This is the safest way of dealing with those who plot for our ruin; let us give more heed to the true testimonies of the Lord than to the false witness of our foes. The best answer to accusing princes is the word of the justifying King.
In Psa 119:16, David said, “I will delight in thy statutes,” and here he says, “they are my delight.” Thus, resolutions formed in God’s strength come to fruit, and spiritual desires ripen into actual attainments. Oh that it might be so with all the readers of these lines.
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Enduring Word
Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors: The psalmist delighted and trusted in God’s word much more than in the high people of this earth (such as princes).
In this section, the psalmist saw many things that hindered his reception of the word of God and his fellowship with God, and he prayed to be protected from them.
· He saw the danger of a dead soul and a cold heart; therefore, he prayed, “Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live and keep Your word.”
· He saw the danger of darkened understanding; therefore, he prayed, “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.”
· He saw the danger of living as a stranger in a strange land; therefore, he prayed, “Do not hide Your commandments from me.”
· He saw his own weakness and instability; therefore, he prayed, “My soul breaks with longing.”
· He saw the danger of pride, evident in those who attacked him; therefore, he recognized that the proud are “the cursed, who stray from Your commandments.”
· He saw the reproach and contempt that came upon him, and how those could shake his standing; therefore, he prayed, “Remove from me reproach and contempt.”
· He saw rulers plotting against him; therefore, he prayed, “Your testimonies are my delight.”
(David Guzik)
My counselors: “Yet a mere cursory reading will never realize to us its holy delight or counsel. It must be brought home to our own experiences, and consulted on those trivial occasions of every day, when, unconscious of our need of Divine direction, we are too often inclined to lean to our own counsel.” (Bridges)
“He rises superior to these sorrowful circumstances by keeping the testimonies, meditating on the statutes, and so finding delight therein.” (Morgan)
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Albert Barnes
Thy testimonies also are my delight – See the notes at Psalms 119:16. He found his main happiness in the word of God.
And my counselors – Margin, as in Hebrew, “men of my counsel.” He sought direction and advice from them as from a friend who would give him counsel. He looked to the revealed law of God to ascertain what was right; to know how he should act in the emergencies of life.
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John Gill
Thy testimonies also [are] my delight,…. Or “delights”; exceeding delightful to me. The whole of Scripture is so to a good man; he delights in the law of God, after the inward man; the Gospel is a joyful sound to him; the doctrines of peace, pardon, righteousness, and salvation by Christ, are very pleasant; the promises of it give more joy than the finding of a great spoil; and the precepts and ordinances of it are not grievous, but ways of pleasantness and peace;
[and] my counsellors; or, “the men of my counsel”; though David took counsel with men about affairs of state; yet concerning spiritual ones, or what related to his soul, and the concerns of that, not they, but the Scriptures, were the men of his counsel. The Gospel is the whole counsel of God relating to salvation; in it Christ, the wonderful Counsellor, gives advice to saints and sinners: the whole word of God may be profitably consulted on every occasion, and in every circumstance in which a child of God may be; all Scripture, being divinely inspired, is profitable for doctrine, for correction, and instruction in righteousness, 2 Timothy 3:16.
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Matthew Henry
Here, David explains his meditating in God’s statutes (v. 23), which was of such use to him when princes sat and spoke against him.
1. Did the affliction make him sad? The word of God comforted him, and was his delight, more his delight than any of the pleasures either of court or camp, of city or country. Sometimes it proves that the comforts of the word of God are most pleasant to a gracious soul when other comforts are embittered.
2. Did it perplex him? Was he at a loss what to do when the princes spoke against him? God’s statutes were his counselors, and they counseled him to bear it patiently and commit his cause to God. God’s testimonies will be the best counselors both to princes and private persons. They are the men of my counsel; so the word is. There will be found more safety and satisfaction in consulting them than in the multitude of other counselors. Observe here, those that would have God’s testimonies to be their delight must take them for their counselors and be advised by them; and let those that take them for their counselors in close walking take them for their delight in comfortable walking.
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Miscellaneous Quotes
“Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors.” His delight and his counsellors, that is, his delight because his counsellors; his counsellors, and therefore his delight. We know how delightful it is to any to have the advantage of good counsel, according to the perplexities and distractions in which they may be. “Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel,” says Solomon, Pro 27:9. Now this is the sweetness of Divine communion, and of meditation on God and his word; it employs a man with seasonable counsel, which is a very great refreshment to us.
—T. Horton, 1673.
“Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors.” What could we want more in a time of difficulty than comfort and direction. David had both these blessings. As the fruit of his “meditation in the Lord’s statutes,” in his distress they were his “delight;” in his seasons of perplexity they were his “counsellors,” directing his behavior in the perfect way.
—Charles Bridges.
“My counsellors.” See here a sentence worthy to be weighed of us, when David calleth the commandments of God his “counsellors.” For, in the first place, he meaneth that he might scorn all the wisdom of the most able and most expert men in the world, since he was conducted by the word of God, and governed thereby. In the second place, he meaneth that when he shall be so governed by the word of God, he would not only be truly wise, but that it would be as if he had all the wisdom of all the men in the world, yea, and a great deal more.
—John Calvin.
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Cross-References
Psalm 119:92 (KJV )
92 Unless thy law had been my delights,
I should then have perished in mine affliction.
Joshua 1:8 (KJV )
8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
Isaiah 8:20 (KJV )
20 To the law and to the testimony:
If they speak not according to this word,
It is because there is no light in them.
Colossians 3:16 (KJV )
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Deuteronomy 17:18–20 (KJV )
18 And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites: 19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them: 20 That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.
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Closing Thoughts
My son, keep my words, And treasure my commands within you. Keep my commands and live, And my law as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” And call understanding your nearest kin, Proverbs 7:1-4 NKJV
Gimel ג: The word of God and the trials of life.
17
Deal bountifully with Your servant,
That I may live and keep Your word.
18
Open my eyes, that I may see
Wondrous things from Your law.
19
I am a stranger in the earth;
Do not hide Your commandments from me.
20
My soul breaks with longing
For Your judgments at all times.
21
You rebuke the proud—the cursed,
Who stray from Your commandments.
22
Remove from me reproach and contempt,
For I have kept Your testimonies.
23
Princes also sit and speak against me,
But Your servant meditates on Your statutes.
24
Your testimonies also are my delight
And my counselors.
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