The text brings before us:
I. A melancholy fact: "Men have made void Thy law." This might at first view seem impossible, as if it were the defeat of Omnipotence itself by the creature it has made; but there is a sphere in which even the function of Omnipotence itself becomes restrained or transformed, in order that there may exist created wills, and that there may be a kingdom in which subjects obey not because they must, but because they choose. The sphere and sweep of these laws and their action are not to be without the man, but within him. God stands related to us now chiefly through these laws. In conscience, in the Decalogue, and in the Gospel of His Son, the law of the Spirit of life in all that expresses the Divine will He speaks to us. They together make up that law which, in the words of our text, "men have made void." If it be inquired how men have made void the law of God, we answer: (1) By assailing its authority (a) in denying the personality of its source; (b) in palliating the gravity of its transgression; (c) in restricting the area of its rule. (2) By disparaging its sufficiency.
II. The urgent appeal, "It is time for Thee, Lord, to work." There is a wonderful boldness, I might say audacity, in this language of the Psalmist a summons of God to the rescue of His own world. And yet such challenge is the privilege of earnest men. It is the violence which takes heaven by force. God does not resent it; He hears it; He invites it; He answers it. When God arises to work, we know not what will be the form and fashion of His operations. If the Lord begins to work, we may expect a wondrous effusion of the Holy Spirit both upon His Church and the world, which is still estranged from His law and love. With the outpouring of the Spirit the Church in reality began. In the New Testament the work of Christ has no meaning except as it is unfolded by the Holy Spirit; it has no power except as it is applied by the Holy Spirit. The Gospel is as much the Gospel of the Holy Spirit as it is the Gospel of the Son of God.
E. Mellor, The Hem of Christ's Garment,p. 19.
I. Look, first, at the complaint. A law is made void: (1) by misinterpretation; (2) by being encumbered with contradictory or inconsistent requirements; (3) when, being understood, it is in practice ignored and accounted a dead letter; (4) when the obligation is denied; (5) when, the obligation being acknowledged, the penalty is incurred and braved, and the lawgiver defied.
II. The appeal, "It is time for Thee, Lord, to work." What in such a case can God do? (1) Vindicate His law by punishment. This He did in the Flood. (2) Bring forward His law by republishing it. Thus did He work at Sinai. (3) Pardon the transgression and rewrite His law on the heart. This is the work of God alone. Creature may punish creature; man may republish God's law, and call to it universal attention; but who can forgive sins but God alone? who can write his law so as to secure obedience upon the heart? Pardon is God's prerogative, and purification is God's own work.
S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit,3rd series, No. xvii.
References: Psalms 119:126-128. A. Maclaren, The Secret of Power,p. 81, and Old Testament Outlines,p. 146.