Psalm 119:60 NKJV
60
I made haste, and did not delay
To keep Your commandments.
The Urgency of Obeying God’s Commands
My Notes
David gives a reminder as valuable today as it was when he wrote it, Don’t delay, don’t put off the leading of the Holy Spirit, thinking there will be time later; tomorrow isn’t promised. For older people, this is obvious, but it is just as true for younger people.
The example David gives is to not delay, don’t make excuses. Once we are convicted of what the right thing is to do, we should do it immediately. He believed what God said because he knew that it is impossible for God to lie; therefore, until we have done what the Holy Spirit is telling us to do then we are in danger of sin.
Make haste, don’t delay. It doesn’t matter if it’s sin where repenting is needed or if the Holy Spirit is moving you to do something, the message is to not delay. We need to be as swift to obey the Lord as we are to disobey and fall into sin.
When we are convicted and repent of our mistakes, we are led to the place we need to be. This is when we should eagerly make up for the time we’ve lost by turning to the Lord.
The verse emphasizes the importance of urgency in following God’s commandments and avoiding procrastination, as illustrated in Psalm 119:60. The commentaries below warn against the dangers of delay in obedience, highlighting that such procrastination can lead to spiritual ruin. Conversion involves acting swiftly upon conviction, much like David who expressed eagerness to return to God’s ways. The text encourages readers to respond promptly to divine inspiration, reinforcing the idea that immediate action in faith brings true fulfillment and growth. Ultimately, neglecting to act can hinder one’s spiritual progress and connection with God.
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 60, which is in the 8th section, which is called “Heth ח”. According to the hebrews4christians.com website has this letter is listed as “CHET where the NKJV lists it as “HETH”, the letter Heth ח is the 8th letter of the Aleph-Bet, having the numeric value of eight. The pictograph for Heth ח looks like a wall or fence, whereas the classical Hebrew script is constructed of the preceding two letters, Vav and Zayin, joined at the top with a thin connecting line.
Hebrewtoday.com list this as the letter “HET” and has this to say:
The Hebrew letter Het is associated with a number of positive character traits. For example, the Hebrew word “hohma” (חוכמה), meaning “wisdom,” begins with the letter Het, as does the word “hasidut” (חסידות), which means “righteousness,” and “hen” (חן), meaning “grace.” The numerical value of the letter Het is eight, which is often associated with super-spirituality or holiness, as it is one more than seven, which represents the holy realm of the Sabbath. When Jewish boys are circumcised and enter into their faith’s holy ancient covenant, it is commanded to be performed on the eighth day.
……..Bill
Commentaries:
James Nalton
Take heed of delays and procrastination, of putting it off from day to day, by saying there will be time enough hereafter; it will be time enough for me to look after heaven when I have got enough of the world; if I do it in the last year of my life, in the last month of the last year, in the last week of the last month, it will serve. O take heed of delays; this putting off repentance hath ruined thousands of souls; shun that pit into which many have fallen, shun that rock upon which many have suffered shipwreck; say with David, “I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.”
—James Nalton, 1664.
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Charles Spurgeon
“I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.” He made all speed to get back into the royal road from which he had wandered, and to run in that road upon the King’s errands. Speed in repentance and speed in obedience are two excellent things. We are too often in haste to sin; O that we may be in a greater hurry to obey. Delay in sin is increase of sin. To be slow to keep the commands is really to break them. There is much evil in a lagging pace when God’s command is to be followed. A holy alacrity in service is much to be cultivated. It is wrought in us by the Spirit of God, and the preceding verses describe the method of it: we are made to perceive and mourn our errors, we are led to return to the right path, and then we are eager to make up for lost time by dashing forward to fulfill the precept.
Whatever may be the slips and wanderings of an honest heart, there remains enough of true life in it to produce ardent piety when once it is quickened by the visitations of God. The Psalmist entreated for mercy, and when he received it he became eager and vehement in the Lord’s ways. He had always loved them, and hence, when he was enriched with grace, he displayed great vivacity and delight in them. He made double speed; for positively he “made haste,” and negatively he refused to yield to any motive which suggested procrastination,—he “delayed not.” Thus, he made rapid advances and accomplished much service, fulfilling thereby the vow which is recorded in Psa 119:57: “I said that I would keep thy words.” The commands which he was so eager to obey were not ordinances of man, but precepts of the Most High. Many are zealots to obey custom and society, and yet they are slack in serving God. It is a crying shame that men should be served post haste, and that God’s work should have the go by, or be performed with dreamy negligence.
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Enduring Word
I made haste, and did not delay to keep Your commandments: Once on the right path (with the feet having been turned), the psalmist can now speed his way in the course of obedience. (Guzik)
i. “Delay is the word used of Lot as he ‘lingered’, reluctant to leave Sodom [Genesis 19:16].” (Kidner)
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Albert Barnes
I made haste – This language further describes the process of conversion. There was no delay; there was no excuse offered. He acted at once under his conviction of what was right. He did not ask permission to defer it to a future time; he did not attempt to avoid the duty; not plead inability; he did not give himself merely to the “use of means;” he did not rely on prayer, and reading, and reflection; but “he did the thing, and he did it at once.” This is conversion; and if all convicted sinners would follow this example, and do at once that which they are commanded to do, and which they know they ought to do, there would be in no case any difficulty about conversion, for the main difficulty in conversion lies in the fact that the sinner is not willing to obey God at once; that he will not break away from his sins; that he endeavors to excuse himself; that he pleads for delay; that he waits for God to do what he himself ought to do.
And delayed not to keep thy commandments – I did not continue to go on in a course of sin, but I forsook my sin and obeyed.
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John Gill
I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments. As soon as he was sensible of his duty, he immediately complied with it; he consulted not with flesh and blood, but at once yielded a cheerful obedience to the commands of God. Instances of evangelical obedience of this kind we have in the three thousand converts, in Saul, and in the jailer and his house, Acts 2:41.
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Matthew Henry
He did this immediately and without demur (v. 60): I made haste and delayed not. When we are under convictions of sin, we must strike while the iron is hot, and not think to defer the prosecution of them, as Felix did, to a more convenient season. When we are called to duty, we must lose no time, but set about it today, while it is called today. Now this account which David here gives of himself may refer either to his constant practice every day (he reflected on his ways at night, directed his feet to God’s testimonies in the morning, and what his hand found to do that was good he did it without delay), or it may refer to his first acquaintance with God and religion, when he began to throw off the vanity of childhood and youth, and to remember his Creator; that blessed change was, by the grace of God, thus wrought. Note,
(1.) Conversion begins in serious consideration, Eze. 18:28; Lu. 15:17.
(2.) Consideration must end in a sound conversion. To what purpose have we thought on our ways if we do not turn our feet with all speed to God’s testimonies?
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Adam Clarke
I made haste, and delayed not — He did this with the utmost speed; and did not trifle with his convictions, nor seek to drown the voice of conscience.
The original word, which we translate delayed not, is amazingly emphatical. ולא התמהמהתי velo hithmahmahti, I did not stand what-what-whating; or, as we used to express the same sentiment, shilly-shallying with myself: I was determined, and so set out. The Hebrew word, as well as the English, strongly marks indecision of mind, positive action being suspended, because the mind is so unfixed as not to be able to make a choice.
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The Pulpit Commentaries
I made haste. Men are apt to put off their repentance—to delay it to a more “convenient season” (Acts 24:25). The psalmist was not so foolish—he “made haste,” he says; and delayed not to keep God’s commandments. This was wise, for “now is the accepted time” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
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Miscellaneous Comments
“I made haste, and delayed not.” Sound faith is neither suspicious nor curious; it believes what God says, without sight, without examining. For since it is impossible for God to lie (for how should truth lie?) it is fit his word be credited for itself’s sake. It must not be examined with hows and whys. That which the Psalmist says of observing the law, that must the Christian say of receiving the gospel. לא הִתְמַהְמָהְתִּי, “I disputed not, “saith David; I argued not with God. The word is very elegant in the original tongue, derived in the Hebrew from the pronoun מָתּ, which signifieth quid. Faith reasons not with God, asketh no quids, no quares, no quomodos, no whats, no hows, no wherefores: it moveth no questions. It meekly yields assent, and humbly says Amen to every word of God. This is the faith of which our Saviour wondered in the centurion’s story.
—Richard Clerke, 1634.
“Avoid all delay in the performance of this great work of believing in Christ. Until we have performed it, we continue under the power of sin and Satan, and under the wrath of God; and there is nothing between hell and us besides the breath of our nostrils. It is dangerous for Lot to linger in Sodom, lest fire and brimstone come down from heaven upon him. The manslayer must fly with all haste to the city of refuge, lest the avenger of blood pursue him, while his heart is hot, and slay him. We should make haste, and not delay to keep God’s commandments.—Walter Marshall.
If convictions begin to work, instantly yield to their influence. If any worldly or sinful desire is touched, let this be the moment for its crucifixion. If any affection is kindled towards the Savior, give immediate expression to its voice. If any grace is reviving, let it be called forth into instant duty. This is the best, the only, expedient to fix and detain the motion of the Spirit now striving in the heart; and who knoweth but the improvement of the present advantage, may be the moment of victory over difficulties hitherto found insuperable, and may open our path to heaven with less interruption and more steady progress?—Charles Bridges.
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Cross-References
28 Because he considers and turns away from all the transgressions which he committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. Eze. 18:28 (NKJV)
Now as he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and answered, “Go away for now; when I have a convenient time I will call for you.” Acts 24:25 (NKJV)
2 For He says:
“In an acceptable time I have heard you,
And in the day of salvation I have helped you.”
Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
2 Corinthians 6:2 (NKJV)
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Closing Thoughts
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 NKJV
ח HETH – Hurrying to God with all my heart.
57
You are my portion, O Lord;
I have said that I would keep Your words.
58
I entreated Your favor with my whole heart;
Be merciful to me according to Your word.
59
I thought about my ways,
And turned my feet to Your testimonies.
60
I made haste, and did not delay
To keep Your commandments.
61
The cords of the wicked have bound me,
But I have not forgotten Your law.
62
At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You,
Because of Your righteous judgments.
63
I am a companion of all who fear You,
And of those who keep Your precepts.
64
The earth, O Lord, is full of Your mercy;
Teach me Your statutes.
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