Psalms 119:38-48

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.)

42 And I shall answer a word to men saying shame to me; for I hoped in thy words. (And then I shall answer a word to those shaming me; for I put my trust in thy words.)

43 And take thou not away from my mouth the word of truth utterly; for I hoped above in thy dooms. (And never take away the word of truth from my mouth; for I put my hope in thy judgements, or in thy decrees.)

44 And I shall keep thy law ever[more]; into the world, and into the world of world. (And I shall obey thy Law forevermore; yea, forever and ever.)

45 And I went in largeness; for I sought thy commandments. (And I shall walk in freedom; for I have sought out thy commandments.)

46 And I spake of thy witnessings in the sight of kings; and I was not shamed. (And I shall speak of thy teachings, or thy commands, before kings; and I shall not be ashamed.)

47 And I bethought in thy behests; which I loved. (And I delight myself in thy commandments; which I love.)

48 And I raised mine hands to thy commandments, which I loved; and I shall be exercised in thy justifyings. (And I shall raise up my hands to thy commandments, which I love; and I shall think about thy statutes.)

Psalms 119:38-48 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\\.