Psalms 119:100
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
I understand more than the ancients, because I keep your precepts.
American King James Version (AKJV)
I understand more than the ancients, because I keep your precepts.
American Standard Version (ASV)
I understand more than the aged, Because I have kept thy precepts.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
I have more wisdom than the old, because I have kept your orders.
Webster's Revision
I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.
World English Bible
I understand more than the aged, because I have kept your precepts.
English Revised Version (ERV)
I understand more than the aged, because I have kept thy precepts.
Clarke's Psalms 119:100 Bible Commentary
I understand more than the ancients - God had revealed to him more of that hidden wisdom which was in his law than he had done to any of his predecessors. And this was most literally true of David, who spoke more fully about Christ than any who had gone before him; or, indeed, followed after him. His compositions are, I had almost said, a sublime Gospel.
Barnes's Psalms 119:100 Bible Commentary
I understand more than the ancients - Hebrew, The old men. It does not refer, as the word "ancients" does with us, to the people of former times, but to aged men. They have treasured up wisdom. They have had the advantage of experience, of study, and of observation. They, therefore, like teachers, become a standard by which we measure our own attainments, as the boy hardly hopes to gain that amount of knowledge which he observes in people who are venerable in years, and who are remarkable for their acquirements. Compare Job 12:12 : "With the ancient is wisdom, and in length of days understanding." Job 32:7 : "I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom." Compare 1 Kings 4:30-31. Yet the psalmist says that he "had" reached this point, and had even gone beyond what he had once thought he could never attain.
Because I keep thy precepts - It is all the result of an honest endeavor to do right; to observe law; to keep the commands of God. Obedience to the law of God will do more than any mere human teaching to make a man truly wise.
Wesley's Psalms 119:100 Bible Commentary
119:100 Because - The practice of religion is the best way to understand it.