Key Verse Spotlight
Psalms 119:139 - Meaning and Application
Understand how this verse speaks to what you're facing and how to apply it today
Translation: World English Bible — Catholic Edition
" My zeal wears me out, because my enemies ignore your words. "
Psalms 119:139
Verse in Context
Understanding the surrounding verses prevents misinterpretation:
137 You are righteous, LORD. Your judgments are upright.
138 You have commanded your statutes in righteousness. They are fully trustworthy.
139 My zeal wears me out, because my enemies ignore your words.
140 Your promises have been thoroughly tested, and your servant loves them.
141 I am small and despised. I don’t forget your precepts.
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Here, first, we see the great disregard wicked people show for religion: “My enemies have forgotten your words.” They have heard God’s words often, but they paid so little attention to them that they soon forgot them. They did not just drift away from them through carelessness. They chose to put them out of mind. That is the root of all the evil in the wicked, and especially of their hatred toward God’s people. If they remembered God’s words, those words would stop them from going on in sin.
Second, we see how deeply godly people care about religion. David counted as enemies all who forgot God’s words, because they were enemies of the faith, the cause he had joined in both defense and support. That is why his zeal, his strong devotion for God, even consumed him when he saw their sins. Their evil stirred such anger in him that it wore on his spirit and seemed to eat him up, as Christ’s zeal did (John 2:17). It pushed aside lesser concerns and made him forget himself. “My zeal has constrained me,” as Dr. Hammond renders it (Acts 18:5). Our zeal against sin should press us to do what we can against it in our own place. At the very least, it should make us all the more earnest in our own religion. The worse others are, the better we should be.
From This Chapter
Psalms 119:1
"Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the LORD’s law."
Psalms 119:2
"Blessed are those who keep his statutes, who seek him with their whole heart."
Psalms 119:3
"Yes, they do nothing wrong. They walk in his ways."
Psalms 119:4
"You have commanded your precepts, that we should fully obey them."
Psalms 119:5
"Oh that my ways were steadfast to obey your statutes!"
Psalms 119:6
"Then I wouldn’t be disappointed, when I consider all of your commandments."
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