Psalms 119:96
in Psalms 119I have seen a limit to all perfection, but Your commandment is without limit.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
I have seen an end of all perfection; But thy commandment is exceeding broad. מ MEM.
KJV
I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment is exceeding broad.
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This verse in Psalms 119
Commentary
12 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
I have seen an end of all perfection - The word which is here rendered “perfection” - תכלה tiklâh - occurs only in this place; but a similar word from the same root - תכלית taklı̂yth - occurs in the following places: in Neh 3:21, and Job 26:10, rendered “end;” in Job 11:7; Job 28:3, rendered “perfection;” and in Psa 139:22, rendered “perfect.” It means properly “completion, perfection;” or, as others suppose, “hope, confidence.” It is rendered, in the Septuagint and Latin Vulgate, “consummation.” Luther renders it, “of all things.” It is proper here to apply it to character; to perfect virtue, or to claims to perfect virtue - either in one’s-self or in others. The word rendered “end” here refers not to the fact of its existence, or to its duration, but to a limit or boundary as to its extent. To all claims to perfection made by man, he had seen an end or limit. He had examined all which claimed to be perfect; he had found it defective; he had so surveyed and examined the matter, as to be able to say that there could be no claim to perfection which would prove good. All claim to perfection on the part of man must be abandoned forever. But thy commandment is exceeding broad - The word but is not in the original, and enfeebles the sense. The idea is, that the law of God, as he now saw it, was of such a nature - was so “broad” - as to demonstrate that there could be no just claim to perfection among people. All claims to perfection had arisen from the fact that the law was not properly understood, that its true nature was not seen. People thought that they were perfect, but it was because they had no just view of the extent and the spirituality of the law of God. […]
This site's exposition
Your word, O LORD, is everlasting
on Psalms 119:89-96
Verse 89 calls the word everlasting and fixed in the heavens, and verse 90 gives the same permanence to God's faithfulness through all generations. All things serve God, and the ordinances stand to this day. Verse 96 sets a limit on everything perfect and none on the commandment.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers4 voices
Lastly, he next saith, "I have seen an end of all consummation: but Thy commandment is exceeding broad" (ver. 96). For he had entered into the sanctuary of God, and had understood the end. Now "all consummation" appeareth to me in this place to signify, the striving even unto death for the truth, and the endurance of every evil for the true and chief good: the end of which consummation is to excel in the kingdom of Christ, which hath no end; and there to have without death, without pain, and with great honour, life, acquired by the death of this life, and by sorrows and reproaches. But in what he hath added, "Thy commandment is exceeding broad;" I understand only love. For what would it have profited him, whatever death impended over him, in the midst of whatsoever torment, to confess those testimonies, if love were not in the confessor? ...Broad therefore is the commandment of charity, that twofold commandment, whereby we are enjoined to love God and our neighbour. But what is broader than that, "on" which "hang all the Law and the Prophets"?
We answer them: You have the Baptism of Christ; come that you may also have the Spirit of Christ. Fear what is written: But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. You have put on Christ in the form of the sacrament; put Him on by the imitation of His example. Because Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, so that we might follow in His steps. Do not be those who have a form of godliness but deny its power. And what greater virtue of godliness is there than the love of unity? It is said in the Psalms: I have seen an end to all perfection: your commandment is exceedingly broad. What commandment, unless it is the one about which it is said: A new commandment I give you, that you love one another. Why is it broad, unless because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts? Why is it the end of all perfection, unless because the fullness of the law is love; and the entire law is summed up in this word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself? And so you love your neighbors as yourselves, such that when some evil, which has neither been seen nor proved, is believed about you, you do not want it to be believed; yet, what you have neither seen nor proved, you believe about the whole world.
A commentator
Augustine of HippoTen Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Homily 10 · Written in the 5th century.
proposed
Let us run then, my brethren, let us run, and love Christ. What Christ? Jesus Christ. Who is He? The Word of God. And how came He to the sick? "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us." It is complete then, which the Scripture foretold, "Christ must suffer, and rise again the third day from the dead." His body, where is it? His members, where toil they? Where must thou be, that thou mayest be under thine Head? "And that repentance and remission of sins be preached in His name through all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." There let thy charity be spread abroad. Christ saith, and the Psalm, i.e. the Spirit of God, "Thy commandment is exceeding broad:" and for-sooth some man will have charity to be confined to Africa! Extend thy charity over the whole earth if thou wilt love Christ, for Christ's members are over all the earth. If thou lovest but a part, thou art divided: if thou art divided, thou art not in the body; if thou art not in the body, thou art not under the Head. What profiteth it thee that thou believest and blasphemest? Thou adorest Him in the Head, blasphemest Him in the Body. He loves His Body. If thou hast cut thyself off from His Body, the Head hath not cut itself off from its Body....
A commentator
Augustine of HippoTen Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Homily 10 · Written in the 5th century.
proposed
Ye have heard in the Psalm, "I have seen the end of all perfection." He hath said, I have seen the end of all perfection: what had he seen? Think we, had he ascended to the peak of some very high and pointed mountain, and looked out thence and seen the compass of the earth, and the circles of the round world, and therefore said, "I have seen the end of all perfection"? If this be a thing to be praised, let us ask of the Lord eyes of the flesh so sharp-sighted, that we shall but require some exceeding high mountain on earth, that from its summit we may see the end of all perfection. Go not far: lo, I say to thee, it is here; ascend the mountain, and see the end. Christ is the Mountain; come to Christ: thou seest thence the end of all perfection. What is this end? Ask Paul: "But the end of the commandment is charity, from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned:" and in another place, "Charity is the fullness," or fulfillment, "of the law." What so finished and terminated as "fullness"? For, brethren, the apostle here uses end in a way of praise. Think not of consumption, but of consummation....
The Medieval Church1 voice
A commentator
BonaventureCollationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 2 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
When the heart is enlarged through love, then man easily keeps the commandments of God. I have seen an end of all perfection; thy commandment is exceedingly broad. He says that the way of God's commandments is broad, yet to some it seems to be …
5 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Commandment - Thy word; one part of it being put for the whole. Broad - Or, large, both for extent, and for continuance: it is useful to all persons: it is of everlasting truth and efficacy; it will never deceive those who trust to it, as all worldly things will, but will make men happy both here and forever.
I have seen an end of all perfection,.... An end, limit, or border, to every country, as the Syriac version; as there is to every kingdom and state, and to the whole world; but none to the commandment of God: or an end of all created beings, the finished works of God, the most perfect in their kind.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
"I have seen an end of all perfection." He had seen its limit, for it went but a little way; he had seen its evaporation under the trials of life, its detection under the searching glance of truth, its exposure by the confession of the penitent. There is no perfection beneath the moon. Perfect men, in the absolute sense of the word, live only in a perfect world. Some men see no end to their own perfection, but this is because they are perfectly blind.
"I have seen an end of all perfection." He had seen its limit, for it went but a little way; he had seen its evaporation under the trials of life, its detection under the searching glance of truth, its exposure by the confession of the penitent. There is no perfection beneath the moon. Perfect men, in the absolute sense of the word, live only in a perfect world. Some men see no end to their own perfection, but this is because they are perfectly blind. The experienced believer has seen an end of all perfection in himself, in his brethren, in the best man's best works. It would be well if some who profess to be perfect could even see the beginning of perfection, for we fear they cannot have begun aright, or they would not talk so exceeding proudly. Is it not the beginning of perfection to lament your imperfection? There is no such thing as perfection in anything which is the work of man. "But thy commandment is exceeding broad." When the breadth of the law is known the notion of perfection in the flesh vanishes: that law touches every act, word, and thought, and is of such a spiritual nature that it judges the motives, desires, and emotions of the soul. It reveals a perfection which convicts us for shortcomings as well as for transgressions, and does not allow us to make up for deficiencies in one direction by special carefulness in others. The divine ideal of holiness is far too broad for us to hope to cover all its wide arena, and yet it is no broader than it ought to be. Who would wish to have an imperfect law? Nay, its perfection is its glory; but it is the death of all glorying in our own perfection. There is a breadth about the commandment which has never been met to the full by a corresponding breadth of holiness in any mere man while here below; only in Jesus do we see it fully embodied.
I have seen an end of all perfection - Literally, “Of all consummations I have seen the end:” as if one should say, Every thing of human origin has its limits and end, howsoever extensive, noble, and excellent. All arts and sciences, languages, inventions, have their respective principles, have their limits and ends; as they came from man and relate to man, they shall end with man: but thy law, thy revelation, which is a picture of thy own mind, an external manifestation of thy own perfections, conceived in thy infinite ideas, in reference to eternal objects, is exceeding broad; transcends the limits of creation; and extends illimitably into eternity! This has been explained as if it meant: All the real or pretended perfection that men can arrive at in this life is nothing when compared with what the law of God requires. This saying is false in itself, and is no meaning of the text. Whatever God requires of man he can, by his grace, work in man.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לְֽכָל | lekhol | to all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| תִּ֭כְלָה | tikhlah | perfection | H8502 → | |
| רָאִ֣יתִי | raiti | I have seen | H7200 → | 1300 times |
| קֵ֑ץ | ketz | an end | H7093 → | |
| רְחָבָ֖ה | rechavah | [is] broad | H7342 → | 21 times |
| מִצְוָתְךָ֣ | mitzvatekha | commandment your | H4687 → | 181 times |
| מְאֹֽד׃ | meod | exceedingly | H3966 → | 300 times |
לְֽכָלto all
lekholH3605 →5413 times
תִּ֭כְלָהperfection
tikhlahH8502 →
רָאִ֣יתִיI have seen
raitiH7200 →1300 times
קֵ֑ץan end
ketzH7093 →
רְחָבָ֖ה[is] broad
rechavahH7342 →21 times
מִצְוָתְךָ֣commandment your
mitzvatekhaH4687 →181 times
מְאֹֽד׃exceedingly
meodH3966 →300 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Matthew 24:35Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.
it leads to
- Isaiah 40:8
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- 1 Peter 1:25
but the word of the Lord stands forever.” And this is the word that was proclaimed to you.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Numbers 23:19
God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?
- Isaiah 55:11
so My word that proceeds from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and it will prosper where I send it.
- Matthew 5:18
For I tell you truly, until heaven and earth pass away, not a single jot, not a stroke of a pen, will disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
- Isaiah 40:8
Through
Matthew 5:18For I tell you truly, until heaven and earth pass away, not a single jot, not a stroke of a pen, will disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
it leads to
- Luke 16:17
But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for a single stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.
- Psalms 119:89–90
Your word, O LORD, is everlasting; it is firmly fixed in the heavens.
- Matthew 24:34–35
Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened.
- Luke 16:17
Where this verse is studied
About Psalms
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 119; Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 269; Augustine of Hippo, Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Homily 10; Bonaventure, Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 2; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 6; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.