Psalms 119:44 NKJV
44
So shall I keep Your law continually,
Forever and ever.
A Life of Obedience
My Thoughts
The text reflects on Psalms 119:44, emphasizing a commitment to consistently adhere to God’s law throughout one’s life and beyond. The commentaries below highlight that this dedication arises from God’s grace and truth, enabling continual obedience. It stresses the significance of steadfastness in faith and the importance of passing on the scriptural teachings to future generations. David expresses a fervent desire to keep God’s commandments with unwavering resolve, illustrating how gratitude for God’s mercies inspires an enduring commitment to righteousness. The commentary underscores the necessity of God’s support in maintaining this dedication over time, both in this life and the next.
It appears that when David wrote this verse, his goal was to strive to obey God’s laws consistently and with perseverance forever. And that he would also spread the word so that coming generations would know the Word as well. For me, this also speaks of God’s mercies because I strive here on this earth to do the right thing, but I also fail and come short of God’s glory. But through the redeeming power of God, I am able to get back up and keep trying. Our goal, like David’s, should be to strive to be the kind of people that we will be in heaven while we are here on earth. To be sure, there will be setbacks and even failure, but that’s when we should run to God and ask for his help and guidance to get us back on the right path.
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 44, which is in the 6th section, which is called “VAV.ו”. According to the hebrews4christians.com website, the letter Vav (“WAW” in several versions of the Bible) is the 6th letter of the Aleph-Bet, having the numeric value of six. The pictograph for VAV looks like a tent peg. Since VAV represents the number six, it has long been associated as the number of man in the Jewish tradition:
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Man was created on the sixth day
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Man works for six days
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The “beast” is identified as the “number of a man” – 666 (Revelation 13:18)
Since it looks like a tent peg, it is also used for connecting things. So, in it, we can think of the connection between spiritual and earthly matters.
……..Bill
Commentaries:
Matthew Henry
He professes his resolution to adhere to his duty in the strength of God’s grace: “So shall I keep thy law continually. If I have thy word not only in my heart, but in my mouth, I shall do all I should do, stand complete in thy whole will.” Thus shall the man of God be perfect, thoroughly furnished for every good word and work, 2 Tim. 3:17; Col. 3:16. Observe how he resolves to keep God’s law,
[1.] Continually, without trifling. God must be served in a constant course of obedience every day, and all the day long.
[2.] For ever and ever, without backsliding. We must never be weary of well-doing. If we serve him to the end of our time on earth, we shall be serving him in heaven to the endless ages of eternity; so shall we keep his law forever and ever. Or thus: “Lord, let me have the word of truth in my mouth, that I may commit that sacred deposit to the rising generation (2 Tim. 2:2) and by them it may be transmitted to succeeding ages; so shall thy law be kept for ever and ever,” that is, from one generation to another, according to that promise (Isa. 59:21), My word in thy mouth shall not depart out of the mouth of thy seed, nor thy seed’s seed.
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Charles Spurgeon
“So shall I keep thy law continually forever and ever.” Nothing more effectually binds a man to the way of the Lord than an experience of the truth of his word, embodied in the form of mercies and deliverances. Not only does the Lord’s faithfulness open our mouths against his adversaries, but it also knits our hearts to his fear and makes our union with him more and more intense. Great mercies lead us to feel an inexpressible gratitude which, falling to utter itself in time, promises to engross eternity with praises. To a heart on flame with thankfulness, the “always, unto eternity and perpetuity,” of the text will not seem to be redundant; yea, the hyperbole of Addison in his famous verse will only appear to be solid sense:—
Through all eternity to thee
A joyful song I will raise;
But oh! eternity’s too short
To utter all thy praise.
—Addison.
God’s grace alone can enable us to keep his commandments without break and without end; eternal love must grant us eternal life, and out of this will come everlasting obedience. There is no other way to ensure our perseverance in holiness but by the word of truth abiding in us, as David prayed it might abide with him.
The verse begins with “So,” as did Psa 119:42. When God grants his salvation we are so favored that we silence our worst enemy and glorify our best friend. Mercy answereth all things. If God doth but give us salvation we can conquer hell and commune with heaven, answering reproaches and keeping the law, and that to the end, world without end.
We may not overlook another sense which suggests itself here. David prayed that the word of truth might not be taken out of his mouth, and so would he keep God’s law: that is to say, by public testimony as well as by personal life, he would fulfill the divine will, and confirm the bonds which bound him to his Lord for ever. Undoubtedly, the grace which enables us to bear witness with the mouth is a great help to ourselves as well as to others: we feel that the vows of the Lord are upon us, and that we cannot run back.
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Albert Barnes
So shall I keep thy law continually forever and ever – At all times and in all places; in this world and the world to come. This indicates a purpose to do it, and an assurance that he would do it if God should enable him to retain even the slightest hold on the truth.
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John Gill
So shall I keep thy law continually,…. Which denotes not the perfection of keeping the law, but the constancy of it: the psalmist was persuaded, that so long as he had the word of truth in his mouth, and the judgments of God in his view, he should be diligent and constant in the discharge of his duty, which these directed and encouraged him unto;
forever and ever; in this life and that to come; when the law of God will be kept, and his will done perfectly by the saints, as it now is by the angels in heaven; or this may be connected with the law of God; which law is for ever and ever, being of eternal duration and obligation. The whole may be understood of the law of faith, or doctrine of the Gospel, and be rendered, “so shall I observe thy doctrine continually”; contained in the word of truth; which doctrine is forever and ever, it is the everlasting Gospel.
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Miscellaneous Notes
“So shall I keep.” Mark, the promise of obedience is brought in by way of argument; “So shall I keep,” “so,” that is, this will encourage me, this will enable me.
First, the granting of his requests would give him encouragement: when God answers our hope and expectation, gratitude should excite and quicken us to give all manner of obedience. If he will give us a heart, and a little liberty to confess his name, and serve him, we should not be backward or uncertain, but walk closely with him.
Secondly, this would give him assistance and strength. If God does daily give assistance, we shall stand; if not, we fall and falter; this will be a means of his perseverance, not only to engage and oblige him, but to help him to hold on to the end.
Then mark the consistency of this obedience, “Continually, and forever and ever.” David would not keep it for a fit, or for a few days, or a year, but always, even to the end of his life. Here are three words to the same sense: “continually,” “forever,” “and ever.” And the Septuagint expresses it thus: “I shall keep thy law always, and forever, and forever, and ever;” four words there. This heaping of words is not in vain.
1. It shows the difficulty of perseverance: unless believers do strongly persist in the resistance of temptation, they will soon be turned out of the way; therefore, David binds his heart firmly: we must do it now, yea, always, unto the end.
2. He expresses his vehemence of affection: those that are deeply affected with anything are wont to express themselves as largely as they can. As Paul, who had a deep sense of God’s power: “Exceeding greatness of his power, according to the working of his mighty power“ (Eph 1:19). He heaps up several words, because his sense of them was so great: so David here doth heap up words—“continually, and forever, and ever, and ever.”
3. Some think the words are so many that they may express not only this life, but that which is to come. I will keep them continually, and forever, and ever; that is, all the days of my life, and in the other world. So Chrysostom, “I will keep them continually,” etc., points out the other life, where there will be pure and exact keeping of the law of God. Here we are every hour in danger, but then we shall be put out of all danger, and without fear of sinning, we shall remain in a full and perfect righteousness; we hope for that which we have not attained unto, and this doth encourage us for the present: so would he make David express himself.
4. If we must distinguish these words, I suppose they imply the continuity and perpetuity of obedience; the continuity of obedience, that he would serve God continually, without intermission; and the perpetuity of obedience, that he would serve God for ever and ever, without defection or revolt, at all times, and to the end. Constancy and perseverance in obedience is the commendation of it.
—Thomas Manton.
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Cross-References
Psalm 119:33 (KJV)
HE.
33 Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes;
And I shall keep it unto the end.
Deuteronomy 6:25 (KJV)
25 And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us.
Psalm 119:43 (KJV)
43 And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth;
For I have hoped in thy judgments.
Revelation 22:11 (KJV)
11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
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Closing Thoughts
Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. Psalm 119:105 NKJV
ו VAV – Connecting spiritual and earthly matters.
41
Let Your mercies come also to me, O Lord—
Your salvation according to Your word.
42
So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me,
For I trust in Your word.
43
And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth,
For I have hoped in Your ordinances.
44
So shall I keep Your law continually,
Forever and ever.
45
And I will walk at liberty,
For I seek Your precepts.
46
I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings,
And will not be ashamed.
47
And I will delight myself in Your commandments,
Which I love.
48
My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments,
Which I love,
And I will meditate on Your statutes.
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