Psalms 1:2

But his delight [is] in the law of the Lord,.... Not the law of nature, which was inscribed on Adam's heart in innocence, but now greatly impaired by sin, and become very imperfect and very

But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

In the law, i.e. in the study and practice of it, as appears from the context. The law of God may be here understood of the whole doctrine delivered by God to the church, consisting of doctrines, precepts, promises, and threatening, &c.; as it is taken 58:1 ; or more particularly of the preceptive part of it, which is commonly so called; and so this is noted as the peculiar character of a good man, that he delighteth himself not only in the promises, which a bad man may do, , but even in the commands of God, 119:47 127 143 , which are unwelcome and burdensome to a wicked man. The word meditate implies a deep, and serious, and affectionate thoughtfulness about it: see 49:3 . Day and night; not seldom and slightly, as hypocrites do; but diligently, frequently, constantly, and upon all occasions.

Psalms 1:2 But his delight [is] in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.Ver. 2. But his delight is in the law of the Lord] i.e. In the whole doctrine of the Holy Scriptures, that invariable rule of truth, as Irenaeus rightly calleth it, Kανωντηςαληθειαςακλινης. He findeth rest nowhere, nisi in angulo cum libello, in a nook with this book, as Thomas Kempis was wont to say, who also with his own hand wrote out the Bible. King Alphonsus read it over fourteen times, together with such commentaries as those times afforded. Luther said he would not live in paradise without the word, as with it he could live well enough in hell. Magdalen, wife to Dr Paraeus, after she was married, and forty years of age, out of love to the Scriptures, learned to read, and took such delight in it, and especially in the Psalms, that she got them almost all by heart (Par. in Epist. ad Ja. Newer. Pastor. Heidelb.). Beza, being above fourscore years old, could say perfectly by heart any Greek chapter in St Paul’ s Epistles. Cranmer and Ridley had all the New Testament by heart; the former had learned it in his journey to Rome, the latter in the walks of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge. And in his law doth he meditate day and night] Hoc primus repetens opus, hoc postremus omittens (Horat.). Having gathered with the bees the sweet of those heavenly flowers, he doth by meditation work his honeycomb within his hive; and at this work he is perdius et pernox, till he feel it to become an ingrafted word, yea, till he hath turned it in succum et sanguinem, and is after a sort transformed into it, 2 Corinthians 3:18. The Hebrew word Hagah here signifieth both to speak with the mouth and with the heart, to read and to meditate; because to read is not to run over a chapter, as a child at school, but to muse upon the matter, and to make some benefit of it. It is said of Pythagoras that he lived in a cave for a whole year together, that, being sequestered from the society of men, he might the better meditate upon the abstruser parts of philosophy; he used also with a thread to tie the hair of his head to a beam over him, that so when he did but nod by reason of sleep he might be awakened thereby. Is not this check to our drowsiness and carelessness of searching the Scriptures, and making them our daily and nightly study? Jerome exhorted some godly women to whom he wrote not to lay the Bible out of their hands until, being overcome with sleep, and not able any longer to hold up their heads, they bowed them down, as it were, to salute the leaves below them with a kiss. (Jerome ad Eust. De custod. Virgin.)

(2) But.—The Hebrew is an elliptical expression implying a strong contrast, “nay but,” “on the contrary.” The positive side of a good man’s character is now described according to the standard which prevailed when the written law first came truly into force. In the law of Jehovah is his delight.—Or, to the law of Jehovah is his inclination. The Hebrew word means primarily “to bend.” Meditate.—Literally, murmur (of a dove, Isaiah 38:14; of men lamenting, Isaiah 16:7; of a lion growling, Isaiah 31:4; of muttered charms, Isaiah 8:19). (Comp. Joshua 1:8, which might have suggested this).

Verse 2. But his delight is in the law of the Lord] חפצו chephtso, his will, desire, affection, every motive in his heart, and every moving principle in his soul, are on the side of God and his truth. He takes up the law of the Lord as the rule of his life; he brings all his actions and affections to this holy standard. He looketh into the perfect law of liberty; and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word; and is therefore blessed in his deed. He not only reads to gain knowledge from the Divine oracles, but he meditates on what he has read, feeds on it; and thus receiving the sincere milk of the word, he grows thereby unto eternal life. This is not an occasional study to him; it is his work day and night. As his heart is in it, the employment must be frequent, and the disposition to it perpetual.

2. The positive principle and source of the righteous man’s life. The law of the Lord is his rule of conduct. It is no irksome restriction of his liberty but the object of his love and constant study (Deuteronomy 6:6-9). True happiness is to be found not in ways of man’s own devising, but in the revealed will of God. “The purpose of the Law was to make men happy.” Kay. Cp. Deuteronomy 33:29. his delight] The religion of Israel was not an external formalism, but an obedience of the heart. Cp. Psalms 37:31; Psalms 40:8; Psalms 112:1; Psalms 119:35; Psalms 119:97. the law of the Lord] The Hebrew word tôrâh has a much wider range of meaning than law, by which it is always rendered in the A.V. It denotes (1) teaching, instruction, whether human (Proverbs 1:8), or divine; (2) a precept or law; (3) a body of laws, and in particular the Mosaic law, and so finally the Pentateuch. The parallel to the second clause of the verse in Joshua 1:8 suggests a particular reference to Deuteronomy; but the meaning here must not be limited to the Pentateuch or any part of it. Rather as in passages where it is parallel to and synonymous with the word of the Lord (Isaiah 1:10; Isaiah 2:3) it should be taken to include all Divine revelation as the guide of life. meditate] The Psalmists meditate on God Himself (Psalms 63:6); on His works in nature and in history (Psalms 77:12; Psalms 143:5).

But his delight - His pleasure; his happiness. Instead of finding his happiness in the society and the occupations of the wicked, he finds it in the truth of God.

2. The writer advances from negative to positive statements. But—In the Hebrew two particles stand here as a double disjunctive, as but, on the contrary, as if to prepare for the strongest possible contrast.