Psalms 119:69

Next he says, "The iniquity of the proud has been multiplied upon me" [Psalm 119:69]: of those, that is, whom it profited not that human nature was humbled after it went wrong. "But I will search Your commandments with my whole heart." Howsoever, he says, iniquity shall abound, love shall not grow cold in me. [Matthew 24:12] He, as it were, says this, who in His sweetness learns the righteousnesses of God. For in proportion as the commandments of Him who aids us are the more sweet, so much the more does he who loves Him search after them, that he may perform them when known, and may learn them by doing them; because they are more perfectly understood when they are performed.

The proud have forged a lie against me,.... Or, "sewed a lie to him" (r); fastened a lie upon him, or sewed and added one lie to another.

"The proud have forged a lie against me." They first derided him (Psa 119:51), then defrauded him (Psa 119:61), and now they have defamed him. To injure his character they resorted to falsehood, for they could find nothing against him if they spoke the truth. They forged a lie as a blacksmith beats out a weapon of iron, or they counterfeited the truth as men forge false coin. The original may suggest a common expression—"They have patched up a lie against me." They were not too proud to lie. Pride is a lie, and when a proud man utters lies "he speaketh of his own." Proud men are usually the bitterest opponents of the righteous: they are envious of their good fame and are eager to ruin it. Slander is a cheap and handy weapon if the object is the destruction of a gracious reputation; and when many proud ones conspire to concoct, exaggerate, and spread abroad a malicious falsehood, they generally succeed in wounding their victim, and it is no fault of theirs if they do not kill him outright. O the venom which lies under the tongue of a liar! Many a happy life has been embittered by it, and many a good repute has been poisoned as with the deadliest drug. It is painful to the last degree to hear unscrupulous men hammering away at the devil's anvil forging a new calumny; the only help against it is the sweet promise, "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that riseth against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn." (Isa 54:17) "But I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart." My one anxiety shall be to mind my own business and stick to the commandments of the Lord. If the mud which is thrown at us does not blind our eyes or bruise our integrity it will do us little harm. If we keep the precepts, the precepts will keep us in the day of contumely and slander.

The proud have forged a lie - The poor captives in Babylon had their conduct and motives continually misrepresented, and themselves belied and calumniated.

The proud - The psalmist had before referred to the “proud” as those from whom he had suffered injury, or as having been exposed to their derision. See the notes at Psa 119:51. He here reverts to another form in which he had suffered from them. Have forged a lie against me - Compare Job 13:4. The word rendered “forged,” means to patch together; and then it is applied to charges or accusations against anyone, perhaps from their being made up (as they often are) of shreds and patches - hints, small matters, things having no necessary connection in themselves, but brought together as if they pertained to the same transaction - words dropped here and there in conversation, which, being artfully woven together, seem to make out a plausible case against a man. Most slanders are formed and sustained in this way, for it is rare that an absolutely forged slander is uttered against a man, or that a charge is brought which cannot be made to have plausibility from such circumstances as those referred to above. Even the most pure and circumspect cannot always avoid this, for there is something in every man’s life of which a malignant and cunning enemy may take advantage, and which he may weave into a story which some will believe, and which it may not be easy to confute. A malicious man may thus start a slander which may require years to correct, and which may even operate injuriously against a man all his life. But I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart - Notwithstanding their accusations, and their attempts to turn me away from thee, or to represent me as false and hypocritical. Whatever they may do; whatever reports they may start to my disadvantage, it is my fixed purpose to obey entirely and always thy law. See the notes at Psa 119:51.