161 Princes have persecuted me without a cause, But at Thy words my heart stands in awe. 162 I rejoice over Thy promise, As one that finds great booty. 163 Lying I hate and abhor, Thy law do I love. 164 Seven times a day I praise Thee, Because of Thy righteous judgments. 165 Great peace have they that love Thy law, And they have no stumbling-block. 166 I have hoped for Thy salvation, Jehovah, And Thy commandments have I done. 167 My soul has observed Thy testimonies, And I love them exceedingly. 168 I have observed Thy precepts and Thy testimonies, For all my ways are before Thee. The tone of this section is in striking contrast with that of the preceding. Here, with the exception of the first clause of the first verse, all is sunny, and the thunder-clouds are hull down on the horizon. Joy, peace, and hope breathe through the song. Beautifully are reverential awe and exuberant gladness blended as contemporaneous results of listening to God's word. There is rapture in that awe; there is awe in that bounding gladness. To possess that Law is better than to win rich booty. The spoils of the conflict, which we wage with our own negligence or disobedience, are our best wealth. The familiar connection between love of the Law and hatred of lives which depart from it, and are therefore lies and built on lies, re-appears, yet not as the ground of prayer for help, but as part of the blessed treasures which the psalmist is recounting. His life is accompanied by music of perpetual praise. Seven times a day--_i.e._, unceasingly--his glad heart breaks into song, and "the o'ercome of his song" is ever God's righteous judgments. His own experience gives assurance of the universal truth that the love of God's law secures peace, inasmuch as such love brings the heart into contact with absolute good, inasmuch as submission to God's will is always peace, inasmuch as the fountain of unrest is dried up, inasmuch as all outward things are allies of such a heart and serve the soul that serves God. Such love saves from falling over stumbling-blocks, and enables a man "to walk firmly and safely on the clear path of duty." Like the dying Jacob, such a man waits for God's salvation, patiently expecting that each day will bring its own form of help and deliverance, and his waiting is no idle anticipation, but full of strenuous obedience (ver. 166), and of watchful observance, such as the eyes of a servant direct to his master (ver. 167_a_). Love makes such a man keen to note the slightest indications of God's will, and eager to obey them all (vv. 167_b_, 168_a_). All this joyous profession of the psalmist's happy experience he spreads humbly before God, appealing to Him whether it is true. He is not flaunting his self-righteousness in God's face, but gladly recounting to God's honour all the "spoil" that he has found, as he penetrated into the