The Bible is clear, “true believers” are to have no part in “worldly” affairs. However, this does not mean we are to abstain from the world completely. To completely separate ourselves from the world in every aspect would mean disregarding the Biblical commands to Make Disciples and to Render unto Caesar… The exposition of our text for today explains this “separation” as not one of physical avoidance but the avoidance of all forms of evil/sin. This is accomplished not through hiding from the world but through obedience to the Commandments/Law of God.
CONTEXT:
This [whole] Psalm is so very peculiar and distinguished from every other, that it would form a long chapter of contents to give the summary of it. Before the Reader enters upon it, I beg him to remark some of its most striking particulars. As, first, its great length, being more than double in point of quantity, the longest of all the Psalms besides. Next, the Reader should remark the division of it into twenty-two portions, corresponding to the Hebrew Alphabet, each portion consisting of eight verses, and beginning with the Hebrew letters, regular and in order as they stand in the grammar. The third particularity to be remarked, and which deserves much to be noticed, for the better apprehension of the Psalm throughout, is, that there are ten words, which every verse but one (namely the 122d) hath one or other of them in it: namely, the words WAY, LAW, TESTIMONIES, COMMANDMENTS PRECEPTS, STATUTES, JUDGMENTS, WORD, RIGHTEOUSNESS, TRUTH. Fourthly, and above all; one verse in it (namely, the 139th) demands the first and greatest attention, because it contains the words of Christ, My zeal hath consumed me; the well known words of Jesus. See John, 2:17. Psalm 69:9. And it should seem as if the Holy Ghost had graciously designed, by the introduction of these memorable words in the midst of this Psalm, to lead the church to perceive the Lord Christ in and through every part of it. With these several particularities in view, and especially this last, let us enter upon the perusal, and may He who hath the Key of David open its blessed contents to our diligent researches after Him, that we may have expounded to us, by that infallible Teacher, the things herein contained concerning himself.
Robert Hawker, Poor Man’s Old Testament Commentary: Job–Psalms, vol. 4 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2013), 552.
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Ps 119:1–176. This celebrated Psalm has several peculiarities. It is divided into twenty-two parts or stanzas, denoted by the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Each stanza contains eight verses, and the first letter of each verse is that which gives name to the stanza. Its contents are mainly praises of God’s Word, exhortations to its perusal, and reverence for it, prayers for its proper influence, and complaints of the wicked for despising it. There are but two verses (Ps 119:122, 132) which do not contain some term or description of God’s Word. These terms are of various derivations, but here used, for the most part, synonymously, though the use of a variety of terms seems designed, in order to express better the several aspects in which our relations to the revealed word of God are presented. The Psalm does not appear to have any relation to any special occasion or interest of the Jewish Church or nation, but was evidently “intended as a manual of pious thoughts, especially for instructing the young, and its peculiar artificial structure was probably adopted to aid the memory in retaining the language.”
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 1 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 382.
Ver. 115. Depart from me, ye evil-doers, &c.] The same with the evil-thinkers, ver. 113. According to Aben Ezra, they that think evil commonly do it; as they devise it, they commit it. This describes such persons whose course of life is, and who make it their constant business to do, iniquity; such the psalmist desires to depart his presence, to keep at a distance from him, as being very disagreeable to him; and who would be a great hinderance to him in keeping the commandments of God, as follows: these same words will be spoken by David’s son and antitype, at the great day of account, Matt. 7:23. For I will keep the commandments of my God; of God who has a right to command, and not of men, especially when opposed to the commands of God; of God, who is the covenant God and Father of his people; and whose covenant, grace, and favour, in choosing, redeeming, regenerating, and adopting them, lay them under greater obligations still to keep his commandments; and whose commandments are not grievous: and though they cannot be perfectly kept by good men, yet they are desirous of keeping them as well as they can, and determine in the strength of divine grace so to do; and which they do out of love to God, and with a view to his glory, without any selfish or mercenary ends. The Syriac version renders it, that I may keep, &c. to which end he desires to be rid of the company of wicked men; who are both a nuisance to good men, and an hinderance in religious duties.
John Gill, An Exposition of the Old Testament, vol. 4, The Baptist Commentary Series (London: Mathews and Leigh, 1810), 230.
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119:113–20 Samekh: Loathing of the Wicked Contrasted with Love and Fear of God
CHRIST TESTS OUR FAITH. MARTIN LUTHER: He does not say “according to my merit above others,” but “because you have promised to send Christ, whom I await and in whom you will uphold us.” As the blessed Virgin said: “He has helped his servant Israel.” As I have said, he is speaking throughout the psalm in the first sense literally about Christ’s advent against the unjust corrupters of the law, but in a mystical sense about the heretics and the mystical advent through the revelation of the truth of faith. And morally about the coming of grace into the soul against the temptations of the outer person and the world. Wherever there are temptations, he causes them to arise and be expected, and he tests the faith in his coming. Thus as the remnant of Israel prayed for Christ to be revealed in the flesh, and as they hated the unjust self-righteous people, so the Christian remnant hates the holy heretics and expects the truth of Christ to be revealed, so that they are not put to shame. While these people triumph and boast. So also the soul in temptations awaits the visitation of his grace, lest it be confounded by the victorious flesh to sin or by the devil, conquering or fighting through the flesh. LECTURES 1513–1515.
FEAR AS BEGINNING OF LOVE. JOHN CALVIN: At first sight the prophet seems to contradict himself. He had just now said that, by God’s severity, he was gently drawn to love his testimonies; now he declares that he was seized with terror. But although these two effects differ widely from each other, yet, if we consider by what kind of discipline God forms us to reverence his law, we will perceive that they entirely harmonize. We require to be subdued by fear that we may desire and seek after the favor of God. Since fear, then, is the beginning of love, the prophet testifies that he was awakened by a heartfelt fear of God to look well to himself. Nor is the mortification of the flesh so easy a matter, as that everyone should consent to enter on it, without the constraint of violent means; and, therefore, it is not wonderful if God struck his servant with terror that, in this way, he might bend his mind to a holy fear of him. It is an evidence of no common wisdom to tremble before God when he executes his judgments, of which the majority of humankind take no notice. We are then taught by these words of the prophet, that we ought to consider attentively the judgments of God, that they may not only gently instruct us, but that they may also strike us with such terror as will lead us to true repentance. COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS.
Herman J. Selderhuis and Timothy George, eds., Psalms 73–150: Old Testament, vol. VIII, Reformation Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2018), 277–278
DEVOTIONAL
Distancing Ourselves from Evil
Depart from me, ye evildoers: for I will keep the commandments of my God. Psalm 119:115
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Ephesians 5:1–21To follow the way of the Lord without stumbling, we must endeavor to keep the greatest possible distance from worldly and wicked people, not in terms of physical separation but in terms of interacting and conversing with them.
The dangerous influence of wicked people is well evident from observing that few people keep their integrity to the end of life. The world is fraught with corruption. In addition, the extreme infirmity of our nature makes it easy for us to be infected and polluted by evil, even from the slightest contact with evildoers.
With good reason, the prophet bids the wicked to depart from him, so he may progress in the fear of God without obstruction. This statement agrees with the admonition of Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.” It is beyond the prophet’s power to chase the wicked away from him, but by these words he intimates that, from now on, he will have no more interaction with them. He emphatically designates God as his God, to testify that he counts him to be more worthy than all of mankind. Finding extreme wickedness universally prevalent on the earth, he chooses to separate himself from evildoers so that he might join himself wholly to God.
So that bad examples may not tempt us to evil, we are well advised to put God on our side and to abide constantly in him, for he is ours.FOR MEDITATION: To engage with a wicked world while remaining separate from evildoers can be difficult; yet it must be done. We cannot abandon sinners in their plight, but we must ensure that their evil does not rub off on us. This requires constant prayer for wisdom and a heart and mind full of Christ and his Word.
John Calvin and Joel R. Beeke, 365 Days with Calvin (Leominster; Grand Rapids, MI: Day One Publications; Reformation Heritage Books, 2008), 105.
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