(160) Beginning.--Heb., head; but here, as in Psalm 139:17, it might be rendered sum. (Comp. Proverbs 1:7.) The translation "from the beginning," of the Authorised Version must at all events be abandoned.

Verse 160. - Thy Word is true from the beginning; rather, the sum of thy Word is truth. (So Hengstenberg, Kay, Cheyne, and the Revised Version.) "After examining the Divine Word, and estimating the value of its several parts, the psalmist found that the final sum was 'truth - pure, absolute truth" (Kay). And every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever. An emphatic repetition of the statement made in ver. 144.

119:153-160 The closer we cleave to the word of God, both as our rule and as our stay, the more assurance we have of deliverance. Christ is the Advocate of his people, their Redeemer. Those who were quickened by his Spirit and grace, when they were dead in trespasses and sins, often need to have the work of grace revived in them, according to the word of promise. The wicked not only do not God's statutes, but they do not even seek them. They flatter themselves that they are going to heaven; but the longer they persist in sin, the further it is from them. God's mercies are tender; they are a fountain that can never be exhausted. The psalmist begs for God's reviving, quickening grace. A man, steady in the way of his duty, though he may have many enemies, needs to fear none. Those that hate sin truly, hate it as sin, as a transgression of the law of God, and a breaking of his word. Our obedience is only pleasing to God, and pleasant to ourselves, when it comes from a principle of love. All, in every age, who receive God's word in faith and love, find every saying in it faithful.Thy word is true from the beginning,.... Every word of promise God made from the beginning of the world, and in any period of time; as to Adam, to Abraham, to the Israelites, or to any other person or persons; was true in itself, and faithfully performed, not one ever failed; particularly the promise concerning the Messiah, made to Adam in Eden; and which has been spoken of by all the prophets which have been since the world began, Genesis 3:15. Or it maybe rendered, as the Targum,

"the beginning of thy word is truth (h):''

which a man finds to be so as soon as ever he enters upon the reading of it. Some refer this to the first chapter of Genesis; others to the first part of the decalogue, concerning the unity of God and his worship; so Aben Ezra, and R. Jeshua, as cited by him, and Jarchi; the same is mentioned by Kimchi as one of the senses, though the first he gives is agreeable to our version: but there is no need to restrain the sense to those particulars, or to the first part of the Scriptures, since the whole is truth; and the meaning may be, "the sum of thy word is truth" (i): so the word here used is sometimes taken for the sum of anything, Numbers 26:2; all that is contained in the word of God is truth; its promises, precepts and doctrines, histories, prophecies and proverbs, all the sayings of it are faithful and true;

and everyone of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever; every precept of the word, and doctrine of it; see Psalm 119:152.

(h) "principium verbi tui veritas", Pagninus, Musculus; "vel verborum tuorum", V. L. (i) "Summa verbi tui est veritas", Cocceius, Schmidt.