Psalm 119:69 NKJV
69
The proud have forged a lie against me,
But I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart.
The Power of Obedience Amidst Slander
My Notes
In Psalm 119:69, David, feeling the weight of false accusations from the proud, emphasizes a commitment to obey God’s commandments wholeheartedly despite facing slander. The proud, envious of the psalmist’s righteousness, resort to lies to tarnish his character, yet he remains undeterred. David understands that malicious words may wound, but cannot defeat his integrity. Instead of retaliating, he focuses on his duty, believing that a life of holiness serves as the best defense against such calumnies. The text reassures that adherence to God’s precepts fosters resilience and strengthens one’s faith amid adversity. Ultimately, righteousness prevails over deceit.
The word “proud” in this psalm is translated from the Hebrew word “zed” (Strongs H2086 ), which means arrogant. And the word “forged” is translated from the Hebrew word “taphal” (Strongs H2950), which means “to stick on as a patch; figuratively to impute falsely”. So another way to look at the beginning of this verse is they patched up a lie against me and tried to make it stick. In today’s terms, they slandered him in an attempt to damage his reputation. But the Lord is always with us, and He gives us this promise:
No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their righteousness is from Me,” Says the Lord. Isaiah 54:17 NKJV
David’s answer is to renew his resolve to keep the Lord’s commandments letting the attack from the enemy drive him to a determined and obedient life, one that gives strength to be loyal to truth, not as a show to convince men, but with sincerity that makes it obvious that it was a lie that was created to harm him, this is the best answer to liars and slanderers. A lot of times if we try and defend ourselves, we end up being defeated, but a life filled with seeking the Lord and holiness is one that the enemy has no answer for.
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 69, which is in the 9th section, which is called “Teth ט”. According to the hebrews4christians.com website, this letter is listed as “TET where the NKJV lists it as “TETH”, the letter Teth ט is the 9th letter of the Aleph-Bet, having the numeric value of nine. The pictograph for Teth ט looks like a snake coiled inside a basket.
The website https://www.abarim-publications.com/Hebrew_Alphabet_Meaning.html defines the meaning of the letter TETH as:
“The origin of the teth is a bit of a mystery. Klein derives from טות (twh), spin, and renders teth to knot, knot together, to twist into each other, to interweave. The letter teth indeed looks like a little vortex or spiral.”
……..Bill
Commentaries
Charles Spurgeon
“The proud have forged a lie against me.” They first derided him (Psa 119:51), then defrauded him (Psa 119:61), and now they have defamed him. To injure his character, they resorted to falsehood, for they could find nothing against him if they spoke the truth. They forged a lie as a blacksmith beats out a weapon of iron, or they counterfeited the truth as men forge false coin. The original may suggest a common expression—”They have patched up a lie against me.” They were not too proud to lie. Pride is a lie, and when a proud man utters lies, “he speaketh of his own.” Proud men are usually the bitterest opponents of the righteous: they are envious of their good fame and are eager to ruin it. Slander is a cheap and handy weapon if the object is the destruction of a gracious reputation; and when many proud ones conspire to concoct, exaggerate, and spread abroad a malicious falsehood, they generally succeed in wounding their victim, and it is no fault of theirs if they do not kill him outright. Oh, the venom which lies under the tongue of a liar! Many a happy life has been embittered by it, and many a good repute has been poisoned as with the deadliest drug. It is painful to the last degree to hear unscrupulous men hammering away at the devil’s anvil, forging a new calumny; the only help against it is the sweet promise, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that riseth against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.” (Isa 54:17)
“But I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart.” My one anxiety shall be to mind my own business and stick to the commandments of the Lord. If the mud which is thrown at us does not blind our eyes or bruise our integrity, it will do us little harm. If we keep the precepts, the precepts will keep us in the day of contumely and slander. David renews his resolve—“I will keep,” he takes a new look at the commands, and sees them to be really the Lord’s—“thy precepts;” and he arouses his entire nature to the work “with my whole heart.” When slanders drive us to more resolute and careful obedience, they work our lasting good; falsehood hurled against us may be made to promote our fidelity to the truth, and the malice of men may increase our love to God. If we try to answer lies by our words, we may be beaten in the battle; but a holy life is an unanswerable refutation of all calumnies. Spite is balked if we persevere in holiness despite all opposition.
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Enduring Word
The proud have forged a lie against me: In reading of the godly and humble character of the psalmist, it is almost shocking to hear that he has enemies who carefully forged a lie against him. Yet he explains how this is possible: they are the proud, who are no doubt convicted in conscience and spiteful of his humble, obedient, teachable life before God. (Guzik)
i. “If the Lord does us good, we must expect Satan to do us evil…he readily puts it into the hearts of his children to forge lies against the children of God!” (Bridges)
ii. “To such slanders and calumnies, a good life is the best answer. When a friend once told Plato what scandalous stories his enemies had propagated concerning him, – I will live so, replied the great Philosopher, that nobody shall believe them.” (Horne)
But I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart: The lies of the proud did not distract or overly discourage the psalmist. Instead, he dedicated himself to greater obedience and honor of God, pledging to obey Him with his whole heart. (Guzik)
i. “If the mud which is thrown at us does not blind our eyes or bruise our integrity, it will do us little harm. If we keep the precepts, the precepts will keep us in the day of [insults] and slander.” (Spurgeon)
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Albert Barnes
The proud – The psalmist had before referred to the “proud” as those from whom he had suffered injury, or as having been exposed to their derision. Compare Psalms 119:51. He here reverts to another form in which he had suffered from them.
Have forged a lie against me – Compare Job 13:4. The word rendered “forged,” means to patch together; and then it is applied to charges or accusations against anyone, perhaps from their being made up (as they often are) of shreds and patches – hints, small matters, things having no necessary connection in themselves, but brought together as if they pertained to the same transaction – words dropped here and there in conversation, which, being artfully woven together, seem to make out a plausible case against a man. Most slanders are formed and sustained in this way, for it is rare that an absolutely forged slander is uttered against a man, or that a charge is brought which cannot be made to have plausibility from such circumstances as those referred to above. Even the most pure and circumspect cannot always avoid this, for there is something in every man’s life of which a malignant and cunning enemy may take advantage, and which he may weave into a story which some will believe, and which it may not be easy to confute. A malicious man may thus start a slander which may require years to correct, and which may even operate injuriously against a man all his life.
But I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart – Notwithstanding their accusations, and their attempts to turn me away from thee, or to represent me as false and hypocritical. Whatever they may do, whatever reports they may start to my disadvantage, it is my fixed purpose to obey entirely and always thy law. Compare Psalms 119:51.
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John Gill
The proud have forged a lie against me,…. Or, “sewed a lie to him”; fastened a lie upon him, or sewed and added one lie to another. Either with respect to politics, as the proud and haughty courtiers of Saul, who represented David to him as a traitor, that had treasonable designs against him to take away his life, and seize his crown and kingdom, 1 Samuel 24:9; or with respect to religion; so some proud scornful men, that derided him for his piety, and scoffed at his seriousness, gave out that it was all grimace and hypocrisy; raised calumnies upon him, and laid things to his charge he knew nothing of; and which were all lies, forged out of their own brains, and artfully and purposely put together to blacken his character, and lessen his esteem among men: and it is no unusual thing for wicked men to speak all manner of evil falsely against the people of God;
[but] I will keep thy precepts with [my] whole heart; observe the commands of God sincerely, heartily, and affectionately, and not in show and appearance only; and so make it evident that it was a lie that was forged against him; and this is the best way of answering such liars and defamers; see 1 Peter 3:16.
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Matthew Henry
David here tells us how he was affected as to the proud and wicked people that were about him.
He did not fear their malice, nor was he by it deterred from his duty: They have forged a lie against me. Thus, they aimed to take away his good name. Nay, all we have in the world, even life itself, may be brought into danger by those who make no conscience of forging a lie. Those that were proud envied David’s reputation because it eclipsed them, and therefore did all they could to blemish him. They took pride in trampling upon him. They therefore persuaded themselves it was no sin to tell a deliberate lie if it might but expose him to contempt. Their wicked wit forged lies, invented stories for which there was not the least color, to serve their wicked designs. And what did David do when he was thus belied? He will bear it patiently; he will keep that precept which forbids him to render railing for railing, and will with all his heart sit down silently. He will go on in his duty with constancy and resolution: “Let them say what they will, I will keep thy precepts, and not dread their reproach.”
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Miscellaneous Comments
“Forged a lie.” Vatablus translates it, “coneinnarunt mendacta“. So Tremellius: they have trimmed up lies. As Satan can transform himself into an angel of light, so he can trim up his lies under coverings of truth, to make them the more plausible unto men. And indeed this is no small temptation, when lies made against the godly are trimmed up with the shadows of truth, and wicked men cover their unrighteous dealings with appearances of righteousness. Thus, not only are the godly unjustly persecuted, but simple ones are made to believe that they have most justly deserved it. In this case, the godly are to sustain themselves by the testimony of a good conscience.
—William Cowper.
“Forged“ expresses the essential meaning of the Hebrew word, but not its figurative form, which seems to be that of sewing, analogous to that of weaving, as applied to the same thing, both in Hebrew and in other languages. We may also compare our figurative phrase, to patch up, which, however, is not so much suggestive of artifice or skill as of the want of it. The connection of the clauses is, that all the craft and malice of his enemies should only lead him to obey God, with a more undivided heart than ever.
—Joseph Addison Alexander.
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Cross-References
Psalm 119:51 (KJV)
51 The proud have had me greatly in derision:
Yet have I not declined from thy law.
Psalm 35:11 (KJV)
11 False witnesses did rise up;
They laid to my charge things that I knew not.
Psalm 119:58 (KJV)
58 I intreated thy favour with my whole heart:
Be merciful unto me according to thy word.
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Closing Thoughts
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Matthew 5:11-12 (KJV)
New King James Version
ט TETH: God’s word brings benefit from a time of affliction.
65
You have dealt well with Your servant,
O Lord, according to Your word.
66
Teach me good judgment and knowledge,
For I believe Your commandments.
67
Before I was afflicted I went astray,
But now I keep Your word.
68
You are good, and do good;
Teach me Your statutes.
69
The proud have forged a lie against me,
But I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart.
70
Their heart is as fat as grease,
But I delight in Your law.
71
It is good for me that I have been afflicted,
That I may learn Your statutes.
72
The law of Your mouth is better to me
Than thousands of coins of gold and silver.
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