I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
Parallel Translations
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I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
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Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
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Thy word have I laid up in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee.
Cross-references (13)
Passages linked to Psalms 119:11 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 37:31 The law of his God is in his heart. None of his steps shall slide.
- Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.
- Psalms 40:8 I delight to do your will, my God. Yes, your law is within my heart.”
- Jeremiah 15:16 Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by your name, Yahweh, God of Armies.
- Psalms 1:2 but his delight is in Yahweh’s law. On his law he meditates day and night.
- Job 22:22 Please receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.
- Proverbs 2:10-11 For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you,
- Psalms 119:97 How I love your law! It is my meditation all day.
- Isaiah 51:7 “Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law. Don’t fear the reproach of men, and don’t be dismayed at their insults.
- Proverbs 2:1 My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you,
- Luke 2:19 But Mary kept all these sayings, pondering them in her heart.
- Psalms 19:13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I will be upright. I will be blameless and innocent of great transgression.
- Luke 2:51 And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth. He was subject to them, and his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (16 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 11. I have hid thy word in my heart.…
11. I have hid thy word in my heart. This psalm not being composed for the personal and peculiar use of the author only, we may therefore understand, that as frequently as David sets before us his own example, under this model he points out the course we ought to pursue. Here we are informed that we are well fortified against the stratagems of Satan when God’s law is deeply seated in our hearts. For unless it have a fast and firm hold there, we will readily fall into sin. Among scholars, those whose knowledge is confined to books, if they have not the book always before them, readily discover their ignorance; in like manner, if we do not imbibe the doctrine of God, and are well acquainted with it, Satan will easily surprise and entangle us in his meshes. Our true safeguard, then, lies not in a slender knowledge of his law, or in a careless perusal of it, but in hiding it deeply in our hearts. Here we are reminded, that however men may be convinced of their own wisdom, they are yet destitute of all right judgment, except as far as they have God as their teacher.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain If God’s word be graven in our hearts, we…
If God’s word be graven in our hearts, we shall be more able to resist the assaults of Satan: and therefore the Prophet desireth God to instruct him daily more and more therein.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine…
Psa 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
Ver. 11. Thy word have I hid in my heart] Ut peculium in apotheca; as treasure; or as an amulet in a case or chest; as the pot of manna in the ark.
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That I might not sin against thee] See but the commination against the temptation, and it will be a special preservative. Eve held the precept, but faltered in the threat. The Rabbis have a saying, In cuius corde est lex Dei, imaginatio mala non habet in eum dominium, He who hath the law of God in his heart is armed against evil lusts.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain I have not contented myself with bare hearing or…
I have not contented myself with bare hearing or reading thy word, but have received it in the love of it, have diligently pondered it, and laid it up in my mind and memory like a choice treasure, to be ready upon all occasions, to counsel, or comfort, or quicken, or caution me, as need requires; that by a diligent and affectionate consideration of thy precepts, and promises, and threatenings, I might be kept from sinful courses, against which these are the best antidote.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Here is, 1. The close application which David made…
Here is, 1. The close application which David made of the word of God to himself: He hid it in his heart, laid it up there, that it might be ready to him whenever he had occasion to use it; he laid it up as that which he valued highly, and had a warm regard for, and which he was afraid of losing and being robbed of. God's word is a treasure worth laying up, and there is no laying it up safely but in our hearts; if we have it only in our houses and hands, enemies may take it from us; if only in our heads, our memories may fail us: but if our hearts be delivered into the mould of it, and the impressions of it remain on our souls, it is safe. 2. The good uses he designed to make of it: That I might not sin against thee. Good men are afraid of sin, and are in care to prevent it; and the most effectual way to prevent is to hide God's word in our hearts, that we may answer every temptation, as our Master did, with, It is written, may oppose God's precepts to the dominion of sin, his promises to its allurements, and his threatenings to its menaces.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Blessed art thou, O Lord,.... In himself, in his…
Blessed art thou, O Lord,.... In himself, in his nature, persons, and perfections; the fountain of all happiness to angels and men, in time and to eternity; to whom all blessing, honour, and glory, are to be given. The psalmist takes this method of praising and ascribing blessing to God, for what he had received from him; particularly for teaching him what he had learned, Psa 119:7; in hopes of succeeding in his following request:
teach me thy statutes; the knowledge of the best is imperfect. Good men desire to know more of God, of his mind and will, even of his revealed will; and that they may have grace and strength to act in conformity to it; for it is not the bare theory of things they desire to be taught, but the practice of them; and though ministers, and the ministry of the word, and administration of ordinances, may be and are means of teaching; yet there is none teaches like the Lord, Father, Son, and Spirit. The Targum and Syriac versions render it, "teach me thy decrees".
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Hid - I have laid it up in my…
Hid - I have laid it up in my mind like a choice treasure, to be ready upon all occasions to counsel, quicken or caution me.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 11. Thy word have I hid in my…
Verse 11. Thy word have I hid in my heart]
7. He must treasure up those portions of God's word in his mind and heart which speak against uncleanness of every kind; and that recommend purity, chastity, and holiness. The word of Christ should dwell richly in him. If God's word be only in his Bible, and not also in his heart, he may soon and easily be surprised into his besetting sin.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Thy word have I hid in mine heart -…
Thy word have I hid in mine heart - Compare the notes at Psa 37:31. The word rendered “hid” means properly to conceal, so that a thing may be secret, private, inaccessible; then, to lay up in private, to treasure up. to hoard - as money or jewels - commonly “hidden” from public view. Job 20:26; Psa 17:14. Then it means to lay up in one’s heart, as a secret, inaccessible place; to hide one’s thoughts; purposes, designs; or to lay up knowledge or wisdom in the heart as a treasure, Job 10:13; Pro 2:1; Pro 7:1. The meaning here is, that he had “treasured” up the word of God, as the most valuable thing, in his heart; it was “there,” though unseen; it constituted the secret power by which he was governed; it was permanently deposited there, as the most valuable of his treasures.
That I might not sin against thee - That it might protect me from sinning against thee. That I might be continually guided by its precepts; that I might be admonished of duty; that I might be deterred from going astray.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 11. have I hid] Better as R.V. have I…
11. have I hid] Better as R.V. have I laid up, stored up and treasured in my heart as a safeguard against sin. Cp. Job_23:12; Pro_2:1; Pro_7:1; Jer_31:33.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (11) Thy word.—A different term to that in Psa_119:9.…
(11) Thy word.—A different term to that in Psa_119:9. The two are interchanged throughout the psalm.
Hid . . .—As the Oriental hid treasures. (Comp Mat_13:44.)
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In mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.—The best comment on this is contained in our Lord’s words (Mat_15:19).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that…
Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee; rather, thy promise (imrah). To have God"s word of promise laid up in the heart is the only security against being surprised into sin.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Ver. 11. The praise of God"s Law.
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"Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
I THE GRANDEST AIM. "That I might not sin against thee.
1. This is the highest object of mans pursuit. Intrinsically the greatest object of life, as calling forth the greatest faculties, in the direction of the greatest object, for the grandest achievement. The assimilation of the human to the Divine mind. And we are bound to it by the greatest obligation.
2. Yet it is a practicable object. This proved from three considerations.
(1) That we are responsible for it. That is, we can attain the fundamental principles of all obedience. Faith and love. And we are capable of continued effort and attainment in connection with it.
(2) And that God"s love furnishes sufficient and adequate motives to it. These motives are the strongest spiritual forces which can act on man"s soul.
(3) And that God helps man in his efforts by his Spirit.
3. It is the most profitable object of human pursuit. In two ways. in the pure and ever-growing delight which the pursuit of it affords. And in the present and future rewards of every kind which are graciously connected with it.
II THE MEANS OF ITS ATTAINMENT. The hiding of God"s Word in the heart.
1. God"s Word is to be the light and guide of our lives. In opposition to all conventional standards of conduct, and to the casuistic reasonings of our own minds.
2. That a sacred passion is to be cherished towards the Divine Law. God"s Word is to be enthroned on the seat of the affections. "Oh, how I love thy Law!" He would hide it in his heart as the most valued treasure.
3. God"s Word is the nourishment of our spiritual nature. He would hide it in his heart as the vivifying principle of his nature, on account of its enlightening, strengthening, hope-giving properties. "I have inclined my heart to perform thy statutes always, even unto the end. S.
Scripture-stores.
"Thy Word have I laid up in mine heart." Another psalmist describes the righteous man in this way, "The Law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide". (Psa_37:31) The point of the text lies in the assertion that the Word of God is in the man"s heart because he had put it in, and put it in carefully.
I STORING THE MIND WITH SCRIPTURE AS THE DUTY OF TEACHERS. It is a primary duty of all who have to do with children. Storing the memory with the material of after-thought comes before the cultivation of the mind for using its material. And if we would have the after-thought of life inclusive of the highest things, we must take care that the mind is early stored with Scripture truth and fact and counsel. It is not suggested that the child-mind should be crammed even with that which is good, nor should Scripture ever be made a task. But that child is in an especially effective manner equipped for life who has God"s Word stored as a treasure in his memory. In modern times this hiding of Scripture in the heart is sadly under-estimated.
II STORING THE MIND WITH SCRIPTURE AS A MAN"S OWN DUTY. It will not, in his case, be a merely formal memorizing, as it must largely be in the case of the child. A man will store what the Scripture says to him, and not merely what the Scripture says. This involves:
1. A personal interest in the revealed Word of God.
2. Well-formed habits in relation to its study.
3. Careful attention to the relations of the Word to personal life and needs.
4. Such persistent habits of meditation as press the Word in, and lay it up on the secret places of the soul. It is not necessary to say any strong things concerning the "criticism" of the Bible, because of that the psalmist knew nothing. To him the Word of God was a book of practical directions for godly living. And we need to have its actual relation to life and conduct so deeply impressed on us, that we should feel impelled to store its truths and counsels.
III THE AVAILABLENESS OF SCRIPTURE-STORES FOR THE EMERGENCIES OF LIFE. From those stores our Lord readily fetched effective weapons in the time of his temptations. We have often fetched our best comfortings in time of trouble; our best warnings in times of danger; our best answers when the enemies of faith and righteousness assailed. "He who hides can find;" and if the laying up has been carefully done, the recovery for use is sure to be prompt and easy. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 11. When a godly man sues for a…
Ver. 11. When a godly man sues for a favour from God he should carefully use every means for obtaining it, and accordingly, as the Psalmist had asked to be preserved from wandering, he here shows us the holy precaution which he had taken to prevent his falling into sin.
Thy word have I hid in mine heart. His heart would be kept by the word because he kept the word in his heart. All that he had of the word written, and all that had been revealed to him by the voice of God, all, without exception, he had stored away in his affections, as a treasure to be preserved in a casket, or as a choice seed to be buried in a fruitful soil: what soil more fruitful than a renewed heart, wholly seeking the Lord? The word was God's own, and therefore precious to God's servant. He did not wear a text on his heart as a charm, but he hid it in his heart as a rule. He laid it up in the place of love and life, and it filled the chamber with sweetness and light. We must in this imitate David, copying his heart work as well as his outward character. First, we must mind that what we believe is truly God's word; that being done, we must hide or treasure it each man for himself; and we must see that this is done, not as a mere feat of the memory, but as the joyful act of the affections.
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That I might not sin against thee. Here was the object aimed at. As one has well said, Here is the best thing "thy word"; hidden in the best place, "in my heart; "for the best of purposes, "that I might not sin against thee." This was done by the Psalmist with personal care, as a man carefully hides away his money when he fears thieves, in this case the thief dreaded was sin. Sinning "against God" is the believer's view of moral evil; other men care only when they offend against men. God's word is the best preventive against offending God, for it tells us his mind and will, and tends to bring our spirit into conformity with the divine Spirit. No cure for sin in the life is equal to the word in the seat of life, which is the heart. There is no hiding from sin unless we hide the truth in our souls.
A very pleasant variety of meaning is obtained by laying stress upon the words "thy" and "thee." He speaks to God, he loves the word because it is God's word, and he hates sin because it is sin against God himself. If he vexed others, he minded not so long as he did not offend his God. If we would not cause God displeasure we must treasure up his own word.
The personal way in which the man of God did this is also noteworthy: "With my whole heart have I sought thee." Whatever others might choose to do he had already made his choice and placed the Word in his innermost soul as his dearest delight, and however others might transgress, his aim was after holiness: "That I might not sin against thee." This was not what he purposed to do, but what he had already done: many are great at promising, but the Psalmist had been true in performing: hence he hoped to see a sure result. When the word is hidden in the heart the life shall be hidden from sin.
The parallelism between the second octave and the first is still continued. Ps 119:3 speaks of doing no iniquity, while this verse treats of the method of not sinning. When we form an idea of a blessedly holy man (Ps 119:3) it becomes us to make an earnest effort to attain unto the same sacred innocence and divine happiness, and this can only be through heart piety founded on the Scriptures.
Ver. 11. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. There laid up in the heart the word has effect. When young men only read the letter of the Book, the word of promise and instruction is deprived of much of its power. Neither will the laying of it up in the mere memory avail. The word must be known and prized, and laid up in the heart; it must occupy the affection as well as the understanding; the whole mind requires to be impregnated with the word of God. Revealed things require to be seen. Then the word of God in the heart the threatenings, the promises, the excellencies of God's word and God himself realized, the young man would be inwardly fortified; the understanding enlightened, conscience quickened he would not sin against his God. John Stephen.
Ver. 11. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. In proportion as the word of the King is present in the heart, "there is power" against sin (Ec 8:4). Let us use this means of absolute power more, and more life and more holiness will be ours. Frances Ridley Havergal, 1836-1879.
Ver. 11. Thy word have I hid in mine heart. It is fit that the word, being "more precious than gold, yea, than much fine gold, "a peerless pearl, should not be laid up in the porter's lodge only the outward ear; but even in the cabinet of the mind. Dean Boys, quoted by James Ford.
Ver. 11. Thy word have I hid in mine heart. There is great difference between Christians and worldlings. The worldling hath his treasures in jewels without him; the Christian hath them within. Neither indeed is there any receptacle wherein to receive and keep the word of consolation but the heart only. If thou have it in thy mouth only, it shall be taken from thee; if thou have it in thy book only, Thou shalt miss it when thou hast most to do with it; but if thou lay it up in thy heart, as Mary did the words of the angel, no enemy shall ever be able to take it from thee, and thou shalt find it's comfortable treasure in time of thy need. William Cowper.
Ver. 11. Thy word have I hid in mine heart. This saying, to hide, imports that David studied not to be ambitious to set forth himself and to make a glorious show before men; but that he had God for a witness of that secret desire which was within him. He never looked to worldly creatures; but being content that he had so great a treasure, he knew full well that God who had given it him would so surely and safely guard it, as that it should not be laid open to Satan to be taken away. Saint Paul also declareth unto us (1Ti 1:19) that the chest wherein this treasure must be hid is a good conscience. For it is said, that many being void of this good conscience have lost also their faith, and have been robbed thereof. As if a man should forsake his goods and put them in hazard, without shutting a door, it were an easy matter for thieves to come in and to rob and spoil him of all; even so, if we leave at random to Satan the treasures which God hath given us in his word, without it be hidden in this good conscience, and in the very bottom of, our heart as David here speaketh, we shall be spoiled thereof. John Calvin.
Ver. 11. Thy word have I hid in mine heart. Remembered, approved, delighted in it. William Nicholson on (1671), in "David's Harp Strung and Tuned."
Ver. 11. Thy word. The saying, thy oracle; any communication from God to the soul, whether promise, or command, or answer. It means a direct and distinct message, while "word" is more general, and applies to the whole revelation. This is the ninth of the ten words referring to the revelation of God in this Psalm. James G. Murphy, 1875.
Ver. 11. In my heart. Bernard observes, bodily bread in the cupboard may he eaten of mice, or moulder and waste: but when it is taken down into the body, it is free from such danger. If God enable thee to take thy soul food into thine heart, it is free from all hazards. George Swinnock, 1627-1673.
Ver. 11. That I might not sin against thee. Among many excellent virtues of the word of God, this is one: that if we keep it in our heart, it keeps us from sin, which is against God and against ourselves. We may mark it by experience, that the word is first stolen either out of the mind of man, and the remembrance of it is away; or at least out of the affection of man; so that the reverence of it is gone, before that a man can be drawn to the committing of a sin. So long as Eve kept by faith the word of the Lord, she resisted Satan; but from the time she doubted of that, which God made most certain by his word, at once she was snared. William Cowper.
Ver. 11. The best thing, in the best place, for the best of purposes.
Psalms 119:12*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that…
Psa_119:11
Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee.
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Gods Word in the heart
Such was Davids wise precaution against temptation, but we have a far higher example of the use of such precaution in the history of the temptation of our Lord. The holy Redeemer made his appeal to the Word of God, and in so doing He teaches us where to find succour and strength against temptation. The text shows us--
I. A view of the internal principle which actuates a good man. It is a heart inspired with love to God.
II. One of the efforts of that principle--he hides Gods Word in his heart. Not merely in his memory, not in the intellectual powers of the mind, but in the city and citadel, where the affections dwell, where reason governs, the home of motive, of principle, and feeling. The memory should be the storehouse of the Divine truth; it is often the very quiver of God, from which He draws His arrows of conviction, and the storehouse where He draws comfort and peace for His people. I believe the human mind never forgets; what it seizes, it never lets go. The mind acquires, retains, hides up, and in a moment brings back past thoughts. This is a power of vast importance in a moral point of view. How well, then, that our minds should be stored with Divine truth. The Holy Ghost brings thence those things concerning God and so teaches us. Children should learn the very words of Scripture, even when they cannot fully understand them. But they will have their use some future day. But not in the memory alone did David hide Gods Word, but in his heart. Love needed to understand Gods Word. Suitable dispositions are like proper lights to a painting--it cannot else be rightly seen. Now with the Word of God hid in our hearts, lovingly treasured up, we shall find a preservative against temptation, as did our Lord. What raises such a barrier against sin of all kinds as the Word of God lovingly remembered? You know how a pebble from a poor shepherd boy slew, in days of old, a most powerful and defiant giant; but then the pebble was taken from the brook in the spirit of confidence in God. And so we must take forth the teachings of Gods Word in a spirit of confidence that God will give us His promised strength. Then hide up Gods Word in your heart, and pray the Holy Spirit to visit you as the remembrancer in your moments of need. (C. J. Phipps Eyre, M. A.)
The Word of God in the heart
I. The great desire and aim of a good man. Not to sin against God.
1. His views of God give this desire and aim.
2. His love of God.
3. His views of sin in its nature and its consequences.
II. The means which, a good man adopts to realize this desire. The Word must be in the heart as power and life; controlling the thoughts--the motives--the principles. In the heart. Hid in the heart. Laid up there; made secure there against the robbery of sin, Satan, scepticism, etc. The Word of God, in its doctrines, precepts, promises, threatenings, examples, is a power in man which no other word can be. It teaches; it restrains; it warns; it guides; it saves. Things which we value; which are essential for certain ends, we preserve in the most secure places; as deeds, jewels, wills, etc. So a good man hides the Word of God in his heart; so that in times of danger it is safe. A Roman priest once took a Bible from a boy, and burnt it. The boy said to him, You cannot burn the Word which I have in my heart. It was the Word of God hid in the heart that made the apostles so courageous in work and sufferings; that made martyrs so true and faithful; that now makes Christians so unyielding to the worlds jeers, persecution, and atheism. Heaven and earth shall pass away; but Gods Word, hid in the heart, endureth for ever. (Anon.)
Treasure safely kept
I. thy Implying Jehovahs presence. Omniscience. This eye ever looks you through! In His dread presence you this moment are.
II. Thy word. Better than thousands of, etc. Sweeter than honey, etc. A light, guide, chart. The power of God unto salvation. Christ is its fulness and glory.
III. Thy Word have. Not will, intend, purpose. An act already done. Let us change our intentions into deeds, our purposes into facts.
IV. Thy Word have I. The individual stands out. We are individuals, not congregations, before God.
V. Thy Word have I hid. Not as the miser. As leaven. As seed. For personal use. For wide and extended use.
VI. Thy Word have I hid in. If all of Gods Word that is not in us was taken from us, how much should we have left? The Pharisees wore it outside. It must be in us a living power. In us a spring of action.
VII. Thy Word have I hid in my. Parents, you wish to hide it in your children. How about yourselves? Sunday-school teachers, etc.? All of you wish it to be hid in those who sit next to you, etc.
VIII. Thy Word have I hid in my heart Must be in the heart. With the heart we feel, believe, love. (R. Berry.)
A sure preventive of sin
I. The Word of God is in its very nature expulsive of sin and cleansing therefrom (Joh_15:3.)
II. Hid like a sword in its sheath to be drawn out at a moments notice. Christs answer to Satan: It is written. Hid like a guard in a house, a sentinel in a fort, to watch diligently against the approach of temptation. (Homiletic Monthly.)
Three great things in human life
I. A great revelation. Thy Word. A word is a revelation of intelligent moral mind. The value of a word depends up the intellectual and moral worth of the mind it expresses. The words of thoughtless men are wind and nothing more. The words of corrupt men are the channels of impurity. The words of the holy and the strong are amongst the most elevating forces in society. But what is a human word compared with the Word of God? The revelation of a mind infinitely wise, immaculately holy, boundlessly loving and almighty in strength. This Word we have here, and it is given us in order to work our spiritual renovation, and to restore us to the moral image of its Author.
II. A great act. Thy Word have I hid in mine heart.
1. There are many wrong uses of this Word.
(1) The infidel uses it in order to throw doubt upon its contents, invalidate its authority and caricature its discoveries.
(2) The sectarian uses it in order to sustain his own crotchets and justify his own exclusiveness.
(3) The worldly-minded uses it in order by writing or preaching, or profession, to promote his secular gains and advance his social influence.
2. What is the right use of it.? To hide it in the heart. Hide it as golden grain in the soil that it may germinate and grow, and produce abundant fruit. It is a wonderful thought that God has given man the capacity to take into his nature the Word, and profoundly solemn is the thought that it is only as he takes in this Word into the depths of his nature and hides it there that he can reach a happy destiny.
III. A great purpose. That I might not sin against Thee.
1. Sin is a terrible evil. It is worse than hell, for it is the cause and spirit of it.
2. There is a propensity in man to fall into this evil. This, alas, is true to all history universal. Experience and our own consciousness.
3. Gods Word in the heart is the efficient counteractive. (Homilist.)
The best thing in the best place
I. The word of God is the rest thing.
1. Because it is Divine.
2. It is good throughout.
3. It is the root of all good.
4. It is most prized at last.
II. Put it in the best place. It is of no good to any of us until it is there,--that is, in the heart.
III. Here is the best purpose, That I might not sin against Thee. Does some one fancy that there could be a higher reason, a nobler purpose, than that? If you will think it over you will come to the conclusion that the Christian has no nobler ambition than to live without sin. That I might not sin against Thee!--there is no higher ambition than to live on earth the life of heaven. But, how does hiding Gods Word in the heart promote holiness, how does it prevent sin?
1. It discovers sin. If you know Gods Word well, you are on the high road to the easy discovery of Gods will, for it is the revelation of the Divine will. By these testimonies you will know what God approves and delights in. It will be equally plain what He abhors and detests. These are the balances of the sanctuary.
2. It announces sin. It tells you where the evil is, and when you may expect it. It is a sort of tocsin that warns you of impending danger; an alarum timed to startle you just when the danger is close, and there is yet time to escape.
3. It points out the way of escape, it reveals the secret door in the wall, when your only safety is in flight. It is the chart on which is marked every shoal, and every quicksand, and every rock; and the safe channels, too.
4. It arms us against the danger. If kept in the heart, it keeps the heart.
5. It strengthens and nerves the spirit.
6. It reveals to us the path of duty. (T. Spurgeon.)
Gods Word hidden in the heart
I. What the psalmist hid. Thy Word--the Word of God, the message He has sent to us for our instruction and guidance, for our encouragement and consolation and delight. It is a Word which has reached us through the ministry of men who were themselves enlightened and inspired by God, that they might teach us all that we most need to know. Do not, on any account, neglect the Bible. It contains all that is essential, and the man who knows it has the essence of all wisdom. It is, indeed, light to guide, a beacon to warn, a mine of gold, a well of ever-living water, and the bread of eternal life. For all our deepest needs there is, as Sir Walter Scott said on his death-bed, but One book, and that book is the Word of God.
II. Where he hid its--in my heart--in the very lowest depths, the most secure and secret places of his nature. No external possession or hiding of the Bible is of the slightest use here. It is not having, but using that tells. The Bible is ours only so far as we know and understand and love it. Pray that the Holy Spirit may open your heart that you may attend to the things written and spoken!
III. Why he hid it--that I might not sin against Thee. That was, indeed, a good purpose. To sin is to do wrong, to go astray, to miss the true mark of our life--the mark at which we ought to aim. It weakens and degrades us, mars our nature, and destroys our happiness both for this world arid the next. We are all in danger of falling into it. If left to ourselves, to our own ideas and inclinations and desires, we shall fall into it. We need to be ever on our guard, and to pray, Hold Thou me up. If we remember and rightly love the Bible we shall not sin against God. It will make us wise unto salvation. (James Stuart.)
The bane and antidote of souls
I. The bane of souls. What is the bane? Sin. A little word, but a terrible thing. The Bible represents it as a slavery, a diseases a pollution, a poison, etc. It is loathsome to the Creator, it is the curse of the creature. This is the bane.
II. The antidote of souls. Gods Word contains the power, and the only power, to destroy sin. (Homilist.)
Hiding and not hiding
(with Psa_40:10):--Those two texts seem to contradict, but really complete, each other. There is a hiding, without which a Christian life is scarcely possible, and cannot be vigorous. There is a not hiding, which is equally indispensable. The latter is the consequence of the former. Unless a man can say, Thy Word have I hid in my heart, depend upon it, he will never say, I have not hid Thy righteousness from the great congregation; and, conversely, unless a man can declare that he has hid his deepest convictions, his deepest convictions will be very shallow.
1. The deep, inward secret of all noble, and especially of all deep, real, Christian life. Thy Word have I hid in my heart. This means, first, familiarity with your Bible. Do not let any notion that God speaks at sundry times and in divers manners, not only in Scripture, but otherwise, in providences, and in the world, and in our own hearts, cause us to neglect, as this generation does neglect, the systematic, diligent, daily perusal of Holy Scripture. You cannot hide the Word of God in your heart if you neglect, as so many of us do, the most articulate utterance of that Word in that Book, which, whatever may be the theories about the way it came into being, is the Word of the living God. Then there is another way by which we hide the Word in our hearts. It is, to cultivate the habit of referring everything to Gods will. There must also be loving submission to what we know to be Gods will. Put the will of God into your heart, and it will be like a bit of camphor wrapped up in some fur garment; it will keep all the moths off.
II. A not hiding, which increases possession. I have not hid Thy righteousness within my heart, etc. That life of which I have been speaking, the deep, secret life of communion with the will of God, will he hidden, but it will not be hidden. No man can smother up and bury his deepest convictions. If there be a bulb in the ground, and there be life in the bulb, the flower will force its way up through the earth when the spring days come. And every one of us, although unconsciously, declares the secret of our hidden lives by our conduct in the world. But there is more than that. No Christian man that has in his heart the Word and will of God but will know the impulse to impart it, and that in proportion as his own possession of Jesus Christ, who, as the embodiment of the will, is the Word of God--is deep and vital. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Word in the heart a defence
The early settlers in America had to keep their guns within reach while about their work on the farm, for the Indians might come upon them unawares. Our foe, the devil, is quite as likely to take us when off guard. We need to have our weapon at all times within reach. It is not probable that our Saviour had the Scriptures in His hands when Satan came to Him in the wilderness, but He had laid up the truth in His heart so that no surprise was possible.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain Psa 119:11. - Psa 40:10.
Psalms
LIFE HID AND NOT HID
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Psa 119:11. - Psa 40:10.
Then there are two kinds of hiding-one right and one wrong: one essential to the life of the Christian, one inconsistent with it. He is a shallow Christian who has no secret depths in his religion. He is a cowardly or a lazy one, at all events an unworthy one, who does not exhibit, to the utmost of his power, his religion. It is bad to have all the goods in the shop window; it is just as bad to have them all in the cellar. There are two aspects of the Christian life-one between God and myself, with which no stranger intermeddles; one patent to all the world. My two texts touch these two.
I. ‘I have hid Thy word within my heart.’ There we have the word hidden, or the secret religion of the heart.
Now, I have often had occasion to remind you that the Old Testament use of the word ‘heart’ is much wider than our modern one, which limits it to being the seat and organ of love, affection, or emotion; whereas in the Old Testament the ‘heart’ is the very vital centre of the personal self. As the Book of Proverbs has it, ‘out of it are the issues of life,’ all the outgoings of activity of every kind, both that which we ascribe to the head, and that which we ascribe to the heart. These come, according to the Old Testament idea, from this central self. And so, when the Psalmist says, ‘I have hid Thy word within my heart,’ he means ‘I have buried it deep in the very midst of my being, and put it down at the very roots of myself, and there incorporated it with the very substance of my soul.’
Now, I venture to take that expression, ‘Thy word,’ in a somewhat wider sense than the Psalmist employed it. There are three ideas conveyed by that expression in Scripture; and two of them are distinctly found in this psalm.
First, there is the plain, obvious one, which means by ‘the word,’ written revelation. The Bible of the Psalmist was a very small volume compared with ours. The Pentateuch, and perhaps some of the historical books, possibly also one or two of the prophets-and these were about all. Yet this fragmentary word he ‘hid in his heart.’ Now, dear brethren! I wish to say a very practical thing or two, and I begin with this. If you want to be strong Christian people, hide the Bible in your heart. When I was a boy the practice of good Christian folk was to read a daily chapter. I wonder if that is kept up. I gravely suspect it is not. There are, no doubt, a great many causes contributing to the comparative decay amongst professing Christians, of Bible reading and Bible study. There is modern ‘higher criticism,’ which has a great deal to say about how and when the books were made, especially the books that composed this Psalmist’s Bible. But I want to insist that no theories, were they ever so well established-as I take leave to say they are not-no theories about these secondary questions touch the value of Scripture as a factor in the development of the Christian life. Whatever a man may think about these, he will be none the less alive, if he is wise, to the importance of the daily devotional study of Scripture.
Then there is another set of reasons for the neglect of Scripture, in the multiplication of other forms of literature. People have so many other books to read now, that they have not much time for reading their Bibles, or if they have, they think they have not. No literature will ever take the place of the old Book. Why, even looked at as a mere literary product there is nothing in the world like it! And no religious literature, sermons, treatises, still less magazines and periodicals, will do for Christian men what the Bible will do for them. You make a tremendous mistake, for your own souls’ sake, if your religious reading consists in what people have said and thought about Scripture, more than in the Scripture itself. Why should you dip your pitchers into the reservoir, when you can take them up to where the spring comes gushing out of the hillside, pure and limpid and living?
Then there is the drive of our modern life which crowds out the word. Get up a quarter of an hour earlier and you will have time to read your Bible. It will be well worth the sacrifice, if it is a sacrifice. I do not mean by reading the Bible what, I am afraid, is far too common, reading a scrap of Scripture as if it were a kind of charm. But I would most earnestly press upon you that muscle and fibre will distinctly atrophy and become enfeebled, if Christian people neglect the first plain way of hiding the word in their heart, which is to make the utterances of Scripture as if incorporated with their very being, and part of their very selves.
But there is another use of the expression, ‘Thy word,’ which is not without example in this great psalm of praise of the word. In one place in it we read, ‘For ever, O Lord! Thy word is settled in heaven’; that is not the Bible. ‘Thy faithfulness is unto all generations. They continue this day according to Thy ordinances’; these are not the Bible-’for all are Thy servants.’ ‘Unless Thy law had been my delight, I should have perished in my afflictions’; I think that is not the Bible either, but it is the utterance of God’s will, as expressed in the Psalmist’s affliction. God’s word comes to us in His providences and in many other ways. It is the declaration of His character and purposes, however they are declared, and the expression of His will and command, however expressed. In that wider sense of the phrase, I would say, ‘Hide that manifested will of God in your hearts.’ Let us cultivate the habit of bringing all ‘the issues of life’-the streams that bubble up from that fountain in the centre of our being-into close relation to what we know to be God’s will concerning us. Let the thought of the will of God sit sovereign arbiter, enthroned in the very centre of our personality, ruling our will, bending it and making it yielding and conformed to His, governing our affections, regulating our passions, restraining our desires, stimulating our slothfulness, quickening our aspirations, lifting heavenwards our hopes, and bringing the whole of the activities that well up from our hearts into touch with the will of God. Cast the healing branch into the very eye of the fountain, and then all the streams will partake of the cleansing. Let that known will of God be as the leaven hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened. A fanciful interpretation of that emblem makes the three measures to mean the triple constituents of humanity, body, soul, and spirit. We may smile at the fantastic exposition, but let us take heed to obey the exhortation. When God’s will is deeply planted within, it will work quickening change on the heavy dough of our sluggish natures. It is when we bring the springs of our actions-namely, our motives, which are our true selves-into touch with His uttered will, that our deeds become conformed to it. Look after the motives, and the deeds will look after themselves. ‘I have hid Thy word within my heart.’
And now I venture upon a further application of this phrase, of which the Psalmist had no notion, but which, in God’s great mercy, in the progress of revelation, we can make. There is a better word of God than the Bible; there is a better word of God than any will uttered in His providences and the like. There is the Incarnate Word of God, who ‘was from the beginning with God, and was God,’ and is manifested in these last times unto us. I am keeping well within the analogy of Scripture teaching when I see the perfecting of revelation by the spoken Word as reached in the revelation by the personal word; and when, in addition to the exhortation, to hide the Scripture in your hearts, and to hide the uttered will of God, however uttered, in your hearts, I add, let us hide Christ in our hearts. For He will ‘dwell in our hearts by faith,’ and if He is shrined within the curtains of the secret place within us, which is ‘the secret place of the Most High,’ then, in the courts of the sanctuary, there will be a pure sacrifice and a priest clad ‘in the beauties of holiness.’
II. The word not hidden, or the religion of the outward life.
Our second text brings into view the outer side of the devout life, that which is turned to the world. The word is to be hidden in the heart, for this very end of being then revealed in the life. For what other purpose is it to be set in the centre of our being and applied to the springs of action, than to mould action, and so to be displayed in conduct? It is not to be hid like some forgotten and unused treasure in a castle vault, but to be buried deep in a living person, that it may affect all that person’s character and acts. ‘There is nothing hidden, but that it should come abroad.’ The deepest, sacredest, most secret Christian experiences are to be operative on the outward life. A man may be caught up into the third heavens and there hear words which mortal speech cannot utter, but the incommunicable vision should tell on his patience and fortitude, and influence his Christian work. Nor is our manifestation of the springs of our action to be confined to conduct. However eloquent it is, it will be all the more intelligible for the commentary supplied by confession with the mouth. Speech for Christ is a Christian obligation. ‘What ye hear in the ear, that proclaim ye on the housetops.’ True, there is a legitimate reticence as to the depths of personal religion, which needs very strong reasons to warrant its being broken through. Peter told Mark nothing of the interview which he had with Christ on the Resurrection morning, but he must have told the fact. We shall do well to be silent as to what passes between Jesus and us in secret; but we shall not do well if, coming from our private communion with Him, we do not ‘find’ some to whom we can say, ‘We have found the Messiah,’ and so bring them to Jesus.
The word, if hid in the heart, will certainly be manifest in the life. For not only is it impossible for a man who deeply and continually realises God’s will, and lives in touch with Jesus Christ, to prevent these experiences from visibly affecting His life and conduct, but also in the measure in which we have that conscious inward possession of the divine word and the divine Christ we shall be impelled to manifest them to our fellows by every means in our power. What, then, is the inference to be drawn from the fact that there are thousands of professing Christian people in Manchester, who never felt the slightest touch of a necessity to make known the Master whom they say they serve? They must be very shallow Christians, having no depth of experience, or that experience would insist on coming out. True Christian emotion is like a fire smouldering within some substance, that never rests till it burns its way to the outside. As one of the prophets puts it, ‘I said I will speak no more in Thy name’; he goes on to tell how his resolve of silence gave way under the pressure of the unuttered speech-’Thy word shut up in my bones was like a fire, and I was weary of forbearing and I could not stay.’ So it will always be. Every genuine conviction demands utterance. A full heart needs the relief of speech. If you feel no need to show your allegiance and love to Christ by speech as well as by life, I shrewdly suspect you have little love or allegiance to hide.
Further, the more we show it, the more need there is for us to cultivate the hidden element in our religion. If I were talking to ministers I should have a great deal to say about that. There are preachers who preach away their own religion. The two attitudes of mind in imparting and in receiving are wholly different; and if one is allowed to encroach upon the other, nothing but harm can come. ‘As thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone,’-that is the short account of the decay of personal religion in many a life outwardly diligent in Christian work. If there is a proportionate cultivation of the hidden self, then the act of manifesting will tend to strengthen it. It is meant that our Christian convictions and affections should grow in strength and in transforming power upon ourselves, by reason of utterance; just as when you let air in, the fire burns brighter. But it is quite possible that we may dissipate and scatter our feeble religion by talking about it; and some of us may be in danger of that. The loftier you mean to build your tower, the deeper must be the foundation that you dig. The more any of us are trying to do for Jesus Christ, the more need there is that we increase our secret communion with Jesus Christ.
We may wrongly hide our religion so that it evaporates. Too many professing Christians put away their religion as careless housewives might do some precious perfume, and when they go to take it out, they find nothing but a rotten cork, a faint odour, and an empty flask. Take care of burying your religion so deep, as dogs do bones, that you cannot find it again, or if you do discover, when you open the coffin, that it holds only a handful of dry dust. The heart has two actions. In one it opens its portals and expands to receive the inflowing blood which is the life. In the other it contracts to drive the life through the veins. For health there must be both motions; the receptiveness, in the secret ‘hiding of the word in the heart’; the expulsive energy in the ‘not hiding Thy righteousness in my heart.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 I have stored up your word in my heart
I have stored up your word in my heart
"I have put your words in my heart." This is a metaphor that means "I have memorized your word." The heart is pictured as a container that can hold what people think. (See: Metaphor)
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translationWords
word of God
sin
bless
Yahweh
statute
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.