◄ Psalm 119:165 ►
Abundant peace belongs to those who love Your law; nothing can make them stumble.
Study Bible
Abundant peace belongs to those who love Your law;

The phrase "abundant peace" suggests a profound sense of well-being and tranquility that surpasses mere absence of conflict. In the Hebrew context, "peace" (shalom) encompasses completeness, soundness, and welfare. This peace is not just internal but also relational, extending to one's community and relationship with God. The promise of peace is a recurring theme in the Old Testament, often associated with obedience to God's commandments (Isaiah 26:3, Proverbs 3:1-2). The "law" refers to the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, which were central to Jewish life and worship. Loving the law implies a deep reverence and commitment to God's instructions, reflecting a heart aligned with His will. This love for the law is not merely intellectual but involves a heartfelt devotion, as seen in Psalm 1:2, where the righteous delight in the law of the Lord.

Isa 48:18 If only you had paid attention to My commandments,…
Pro 3:1-2 My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart…
Psa 1:2-3 But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His law…

nothing can make them stumble.

The assurance that "nothing can make them stumble" indicates a spiritual stability and resilience. In biblical terms, to "stumble" often means to fall into sin or error (Proverbs 4:11-12). This promise suggests that those who love God's law are safeguarded against moral and spiritual pitfalls. The New Testament echoes this idea in Jude 1:24, where God is described as able to keep believers from stumbling. The imagery of walking without stumbling is also found in Psalm 37:23-24, where the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. This stability is not due to human effort alone but is a result of divine guidance and protection. The concept of not stumbling can also be seen as a type of Christ, who is the ultimate fulfillment of the law and the one who empowers believers to walk in righteousness (Romans 8:3-4).

Jud 1:24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling…
2Pe 1:10 Therefore, brothers, strive to make your calling and election sure.…
Pro 4:12 When you walk, your steps will not be impeded;…

Persons / Places / Events
1. Psalmist
The author of Psalm 119, traditionally believed to be King David, who expresses a deep love for God's law and instruction.

2. Israel
The nation to whom the law was originally given, serving as the context for the Psalmist's reflections on God's Word.

3. God's Law (Torah)
The divine instruction and commandments given to the people of Israel, central to the Psalmist's meditation and love.

4. Peace (Shalom)
A state of wholeness and well-being that the Psalmist associates with loving God's instruction.

5. Stumbling
A metaphor for falling into sin or error, which the Psalmist claims is avoided by those who love God's law.
Teaching Points
The Source of True Peace
True peace is found in a deep love and commitment to God's instruction. This peace is not dependent on external circumstances but is rooted in a relationship with God.

The Stability of the Righteous
Those who love God's law are less likely to stumble because their lives are grounded in divine truth. This stability is a result of aligning one's life with God's will.

The Role of Love in Obedience
Loving God's instruction is more than mere duty; it is a heartfelt devotion that transforms how we live and interact with the world.

Avoiding Spiritual Pitfalls
By immersing ourselves in God's Word, we are equipped to avoid the pitfalls of sin and error, leading to a life of integrity and righteousness.

Peace as a Fruit of the Spirit
The peace described in this verse is a reflection of the Holy Spirit's work in the believer's life, producing a calm assurance in God's promises.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does loving God's instruction lead to abundant peace in your life, and what practical steps can you take to deepen this love?

2. In what ways can you ensure that your love for God's Word prevents you from stumbling in your daily walk?

3. How does the peace described in Psalm 119:165 compare to the peace offered by the world, and how can you cultivate this divine peace?

4. Reflect on a time when your commitment to God's Word helped you avoid a spiritual or moral failure. What did you learn from that experience?

5. How can you encourage others in your community or church to find peace and stability through a love for God's instruction?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Psalm 1
This Psalm also highlights the blessings of delighting in the law of the Lord, drawing a parallel to the peace and stability found in Psalm 119:165.

Isaiah 26:3
This verse speaks of perfect peace for those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in God, echoing the theme of peace through devotion to God's Word.

Proverbs 3:1-2
These verses emphasize the life and peace that come from keeping God's commandments, reinforcing the connection between obedience and peace.

John 14:27
Jesus speaks of the peace He gives, which is not as the world gives, aligning with the peace described in Psalm 119:165 for those who love God's instruction.

Philippians 4:7
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guards the hearts and minds of believers, similar to the peace described in Psalm 119:165.
Sermons
Love of God's Law a Source of PeaceH. Melvill, B. D.Psalm 119:165
Of the Inward Peace and Pleasure Which Attends ReligionAbp. Tillotson.Psalm 119:165
Peace Amid TroublesW. M. Statham.Psalm 119:165
Submieeion and PeaceA. Maclaren, D. D.Psalm 119:165
The Glowing Testimony of the GoodHomilistPsalm 119:165
The Greatness of God's PeaceJohn Bruce, D. D.Psalm 119:165
The Happiness of HolinessC. O. Eldridge, B. A.Psalm 119:165
The Lover of God's Law Filled with PeacePsalm 119:165
The Steadying Influence of God's WordR. Tuck Psalm 119:165
Characteristics of the Word of God as Declared by the Various Names Given to it in This PsalmS. Conway Psalm 119:1-176
Introductory to Whole PsalmS. Conway Psalm 119:1-176
The Ever-Blessed WordS. Conway Psalm 119:161-168
People
Heth, Nun, Psalmist
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Abundant, Cause, Causes, Falling, Law, Love, Lovers, Loving, Nothing, Occasion, Offend, Peace, Stumble, Stumbling, Stumbling-block
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 119:165

     5058   rest, spiritual
     5186   stumbling
     5362   justice, believers' lives
     6703   peace, divine OT
     8322   perfection, human

Psalm 119:165-167

     6705   peace, experience

Library
Notes on the First Century:
Page 1. Line 1. An empty book is like an infant's soul.' Here Traherne may possibly have had in his mind a passage in Bishop Earle's "Microcosmography." In delineating the character of a child, Earle says: "His soul is yet a white paper unscribbled with observations of the world, wherewith at length it becomes a blurred note-book," Page 14. Line 25. The entrance of his words. This sentence is from Psalm cxix. 130. Page 15. Last line of Med. 21. "Insatiableness." This word in Traherne's time was often …
Thomas Traherne—Centuries of Meditations

Life Hid and not Hid
'Thy word have I hid in my heart.'--PSALM cxix. 11. 'I have not hid Thy righteousness in my heart.'--PSALM xl. 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 …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

A Cleansed Way
Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy word.'--PSALM cxix. 9. There are many questions about the future with which it is natural for you young people to occupy yourselves; but I am afraid that the most of you ask more anxiously 'How shall I make my way?' than 'How shall I cleanse it?' It is needful carefully to ponder the questions: 'How shall I get on in the world--be happy, fortunate?' and the like, and I suppose that that is the consideration …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Time for Thee to Work'
'It is time for Thee, Lord, to work; for they have made void Thy Law. 127. Therefore I love Thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold. 128. Therefore I esteem all Thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way.' --PSALM cxix. 126-128. If much that we hear be true, a society to circulate Bibles is a most irrational and wasteful expenditure of energy and money. We cannot ignore the extent and severity of the opposition to the very idea of revelation, even if we would; …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

A Stranger in the Earth
'I am a stranger in the earth: hide not Thy commandments from me.... 64. The earth, O Lord, is full of Thy mercy: teach me Thy statutes.' --PSALM cxix. 19, 64. There is something very remarkable in the variety-in-monotony of this, the longest of the psalms. Though it be the longest it is in one sense the simplest, inasmuch as there is but one thought in it, beaten out into all manner of forms and based upon all various considerations. It reminds one of the great violinist who out of one string managed …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

May the Fourth a Healthy Palate
"How sweet are Thy words unto my taste." --PSALM cxix. 97-104. Some people like one thing, and some another. Some people appreciate the bitter olive; others feel it to be nauseous. Some delight in the sweetest grapes; others feel the sweetness to be sickly. It is all a matter of palate. Some people love the Word of the Lord; to others the reading of it is a dreary task. To some the Bible is like a vineyard; to others it is like a dry and tasteless meal. One takes the word of the Master, and it …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Inward Witness to the Truth of the Gospel.
"I have more understanding than my teachers, for Thy testimonies are my study; I am wiser than the aged, because I keep Thy commandments."--Psalm cxix. 99, 100. In these words the Psalmist declares, that in consequence of having obeyed God's commandments he had obtained more wisdom and understanding than those who had first enlightened his ignorance, and were once more enlightened than he. As if he said, "When I was a child, I was instructed in religious knowledge by kind and pious friends, who …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII

A Bottle in the Smoke
First, God's people have their trials--they get put in the smoke; secondly, God's people feel their trials--they "become like a bottle in the smoke;" thirdly, God's people do not forget God's statutes in their trials--"I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do I not forget thy statutes." I. GOD'S PEOPLE HAVE THEIR TRIALS. This is an old truth, as old as the everlasting hills, because trials were in the covenant, and certainly the covenant is as old as the eternal mountains. It was never designed …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856

The Dryness of Preachers, and the Various Evils which Arise from their Failing to Teach Heart-Prayer --Exhortation to Pastors to Lead People Towards this Form Of
If all those who are working for the conquest of souls sought to win them by the heart, leading them first of all to prayer and to the inner life, they would see many and lasting conversions. But so long as they only address themselves to the outside, and instead of drawing people to Christ by occupying their hearts with Him, they only give them a thousand precepts for outward observances, they will see but little fruit, and that will not be lasting. When once the heart is won, other defects are …
Jeanne Marie Bouvières—A Short Method Of Prayer And Spiritual Torrents

Of Deeper Matters, and God's Hidden Judgments which are not to be Inquired Into
"My Son, beware thou dispute not of high matters and of the hidden judgments of God; why this man is thus left, and that man is taken into so great favour; why also this man is so greatly afflicted, and that so highly exalted. These things pass all man's power of judging, neither may any reasoning or disputation have power to search out the divine judgments. When therefore the enemy suggesteth these things to thee, or when any curious people ask such questions, answer with that word of the Prophet, …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

Seven-Fold Joy
"Seven times a day do I praise Thee because of Thy righteous judgments."--Ps. cxix. 164. Mechthild of Hellfde, 1277. tr., Emma Frances Bevan, 1899 I bring unto Thy grace a seven-fold praise, Thy wondrous love I bless-- I praise, remembering my sinful days, My worthlessness. I praise that I am waiting, Lord, for Thee, When, all my wanderings past, Thyself wilt bear me, and wilt welcome me To home at last. I praise Thee that for Thee I long and pine, For Thee I ever yearn; I praise Thee that such …
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen and Others (Second Series)

And in Jeremiah He Thus Declares his Death and Descent into Hell...
And in Jeremiah He thus declares His death and descent into hell, saying: And the Lord the Holy One of Israel, remembered his dead, which aforetime fell asleep in the dust of the earth; and he went down unto them, to bring the tidings of his salvation, to deliver them. [255] In this place He also renders the cause of His death: for His descent into hell was the salvation of them that had passed away. And, again, concerning His cross Isaiah says thus: I have stretched out my hands all the day long …
Irenæus—The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching

The Christian Described
HAPPINESS OF THE CHRISTIAN O HOW happy is he who is not only a visible, but also an invisible saint! He shall not be blotted out the book of God's eternal grace and mercy. DIGNITY OF THE CHRISTIAN There are a generation of men in the world, that count themselves men of the largest capacities, when yet the greatest of their desires lift themselves no higher than to things below. If they can with their net of craft and policy encompass a bulky lump of earth, Oh, what a treasure have they engrossed …
John Bunyan—The Riches of Bunyan

Excursus on the Choir Offices of the Early Church.
Nothing is more marked in the lives of the early followers of Christ than the abiding sense which they had of the Divine Presence. Prayer was not to them an occasional exercise but an unceasing practice. If then the Psalmist sang in the old dispensation "Seven times a day do I praise thee" (Ps. cxix. 164), we may be quite certain that the Christians would never fall behind the Jewish example. We know that among the Jews there were the "Hours of Prayer," and nothing would be, à priori, more …
Philip Schaff—The Seven Ecumenical Councils

The Daily Walk with Others (I. ).
When the watcher in the dark Turns his lenses to the skies, Suddenly the starry spark Grows a world upon his eyes: Be my life a lens, that I So my Lord may magnify We come from the secrecies of the young Clergyman's life, from his walk alone with God in prayer and over His Word, to the subject of his common daily intercourse. Let us think together of some of the duties, opportunities, risks, and safeguards of the ordinary day's experience. A WALK WITH GOD ALL DAY. A word presents itself to be …
Handley C. G. Moule—To My Younger Brethren

The Talking Book
In order that we may be persuaded so to do, Solomon gives us three telling reasons. He says that God's law, by which I understand the whole run of Scripture, and, especially the gospel of Jesus Christ, will be a guide to us:--"When thou goest, it shall lead thee." It will be a guardian to us: "When thou sleepest"--when thou art defenceless and off thy guard--"it shall keep thee." And it shall also be a dear companion to us: "When thou awakest, it shall talk with thee." Any one of these three arguments …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871

How to Read the Bible
I. That is the subject of our present discourse, or, at least the first point of it, that IN ORDER TO THE TRUE READING OF THE SCRIPTURES THERE MUST BE AN UNDERSTANDING OF THEM. I scarcely need to preface these remarks by saying that we must read the Scriptures. You know how necessary it is that we should be fed upon the truth of Holy Scripture. Need I suggest the question as to whether you do read your Bibles or not? I am afraid that this is a magazine reading age a newspaper reading age a periodical …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 25: 1879

The Obedience of Faith
"Is there a heart that will not bend To thy divine control? Descend, O sovereign love, descend, And melt that stubborn soul! " Surely, though we have had to mourn our disobedience with many tears and sighs, we now find joy in yielding ourselves as servants of the Lord: our deepest desire is to do the Lord's will in all things. Oh, for obedience! It has been supposed by many ill-instructed people that the doctrine of justification by faith is opposed to the teaching of good works, or obedience. There …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891

Faith
HABAKKUK, ii. 4. "The just shall live by faith." This is those texts of which there are so many in the Bible, which, though they were spoken originally to one particular man, yet are meant for every man. These words were spoken to Habakkuk, a Jewish prophet, to check him for his impatience under God's hand; but they are just as true for every man that ever was and ever will be as they were for him. They are world-wide and world-old; they are the law by which all goodness, and strength, and safety, …
Charles Kingsley—Twenty-Five Village Sermons

What the Truth Saith Inwardly Without Noise of Words
Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth.(1) I am Thy servant; O give me understanding that I may know Thy testimonies. Incline my heart unto the words of Thy mouth.(2) Let thy speech distil as the dew. The children of Israel spake in old time to Moses, Speak thou unto us and we will hear, but let not the Lord speak unto us lest we die.(3) Not thus, O Lord, not thus do I pray, but rather with Samuel the prophet, I beseech Thee humbly and earnestly, Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth. Let not Moses …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

That the Body and Blood of Christ and the Holy Scriptures are Most Necessary to a Faithful Soul
The Voice of the Disciple O most sweet Lord Jesus, how great is the blessedness of the devout soul that feedeth with Thee in Thy banquet, where there is set before it no other food than Thyself its only Beloved, more to be desired than all the desires of the heart? And to me it would verily be sweet to pour forth my tears in Thy presence from the very bottom of my heart, and with the pious Magdalene to water Thy feet with my tears. But where is this devotion? Where the abundant flowing of holy …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

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