(56) This I had, because . . .—Literally, This was to me, &c, i.e., this consoling recollection of the mercies of God, of His covenant grace, was to him, happened, or came to him, in consequence of his habitual obedience. Virtue is indeed then most its own reward, in times of quiet reflection, like the night, when to the guilty come remorse and apprehension, but to the good man “calm thoughts regular as infant’s breath.”

119:49-56 Those that make God's promises their portion, may with humble boldness make them their plea. He that by his Spirit works faith in us, will work for us. The word of God speaks comfort in affliction. If, through grace, it makes us holy, there is enough in it to make us easy, in all conditions. Let us be certain we have the Divine law for what we believe, and then let not scoffers prevail upon us to decline from it. God's judgments of old comfort and encourage us, for he is still the same. Sin is horrible in the eyes of all that are sanctified. Ere long the believer will be absent from the body, and present with the Lord. In the mean time, the statutes of the Lord supply subjects for grateful praise. In the season of affliction, and in the silent hours of the night, he remembers the name of the Lord, and is stirred up to keep the law. All who have made religion the first thing, will own that they have been unspeakable gainers by it.This I had, because I kept thy precepts - literally, "This was to me;" that is, This has happened to me; this has occurred. This joyful remembrance of thy law in the night of affliction Psalm 119:50; this stability and firmness on my part in keeping thy law when proud men have derided me Psalm 119:51; this comfort which I have derived from meditating on thy statutes Psalm 119:52; this solicitude for the welfare of others Psalm 119:53; this peace which I have enjoyed in thy law in the house of my pilgrimage Psalm 119:54; and this consolation which I have had in thee in the night-season Psalm 119:55; - all this has been granted to me because I have kept thy statutes; because I have sought to be obedient - to serve time - to find my happiness in thee. These are the proper fruits and effects of keeping the law of God. Such peace does it impart; so much does it do to sustain and comfort the soul. 56. Rather, "This is peculiarly mine (literally, to me), that I keep Thy precepts" [Hengstenberg and Maurer]. This I had, this comfortable and profitable remembrance and contemplation of thy name and statutes, of which he spoke Psalm 119:54,55, because I kept thy precepts; which if I had wilfully and wickedly broken, the remembrance of these things would have been sad and frightful to me, as now it is comfortable, because I kept them.

This I had, because I kept thy precepts. Either the comfort he had from the word, the pleasure and delight he had in it, being his songs in his pilgrimage, Psalm 119:50; see Psalm 119:165; or this knowledge of the name of God, and the remembrance of it, and his carefulness and diligence in it in the night season, were of the Lord, and gifts of his: or rather this he had from the Lord, that he kept the precepts and commands of God in the manner that he did; it was all owing to grace and strength received from him; for so the words may be rendered, "this was given unto me, that I have kept thy precepts" (k).

(k) "quod", Pagninus, Montanus.

{g} This I had, because I kept thy precepts.

(g) That is, all these benefits.