Psalms 119:31-41

31 Lord, I cleaved to thy witnessings; do not thou shame me. (Lord, I have held fast to thy teachings, or thy commands; do not let me be shamed.)

32 I ran the way of thy commandments; when thou alargedest mine heart. (I shall go the way of thy commandments; for thou hast enlarged my heart.)

33 [He]. Lord, set thou to me a law, the way of thy justifyings; and I shall seek it ever[more]. (Lord, set thou thy Law before me, yea, the way of thy statutes; and I shall follow it forevermore.)

34 Give thou understanding to me, and I shall seek thy law; and I shall keep it in all mine heart. (Give thou understanding to me, and I shall follow thy Law; yea, I shall obey it with all my heart.)

35 Lead me forth in the path of thy behests; for I would it. (Lead me forth on the path of thy commandments; for I delight in them/for that is what I desire.)

36 Bow down mine heart into thy witnessings; and not into avarice. (Turn my heart to thy teachings, or thy commands; and not to greed.)

37 Turn thou away mine eyes, that they see not vanity; quicken thou me in thy way. (Turn thou away my eyes from the empty, and the worthless; grant thou me life in thy way.)

38 Ordain thy speech to thy servant; (who is) in thy dread. (Ordain thy word to thy servant; who feareth thee/who hath reverence for thee.)

39 Cut away my shame, which I supposed; for thy dooms be merry. (Turn away the shame, or the rebuke, which I fear; for thy judgements be good.)

40 Lo! I coveted thy commandments; quicken thou me in thine equity. (Lo! I desired to obey thy precepts; grant thou me life in thy righteousness.)

41 [Vau]. And, Lord, thy mercy come [up]on me; thine health come by thy speech. (And, Lord, let thy love come to me; let thy salvation, or thy deliverance, come according to thy word.)

Psalms 119:31-41 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 119

This psalm is generally thought to be written by David, but when is uncertain; very probably towards the decline of life; and, as some think, for the sake or his son Solomon. It seems to be a collection of observations on the word of God and its precepts, the usefulness and excellency of it, he had made in the course of his life; interspersed with various petitions for the grace of God, to enable him to observe it. The psalm is a very extraordinary one; partly on account of the unusual length of it, it being more than double the length of the longest psalm in the whole book; and partly on account of its curious composition. It consists of twenty two parts, according to the number of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet; the names of which letters stand between each part; and every part consists of eight verses, all of which begin with the same letter: thus, for instance, the first eight verses begin with the letter a, "aleph", and the second eight verses begin with the letter b, "beth", and so on throughout; hence the Masorah calls this psalm the Great Alphabet. This the psalmist did, perhaps to excite attention to what he said, and also to help the memory. And it is observable that there are very few verses in the whole, not more than one or two, but what has something in it concerning the word of God, and its precepts and ordinances; there are nine or ten different words used relative to it, which signify much one and the same thing; as laws, statutes, judgments, testimonies Luther {m} observes, that neither Cicero, nor Virgil, nor Demosthenes, are to be compared with David for eloquence, as we see in the hundred nineteenth Psalm, where he divideth one sense and meaning into twenty two sorts. And it may also be remarked, that there is nothing in it concerning the tabernacle worship, or the rites and ceremonies of the legal dispensation; so that it seems to be calculated for, and is suited to, the word of God, and the ordinances of it, as we now have them in their full perfection: and the design of the whole is to show the fervent affection the psalmist had for the word of God, and to stir up the same in others.

{m} Mensal. Colloqu. c. 32. p. 365.

a, \\ALEPH.--The First Part\\.