Psalms 119:127-131

119:127 For this reason ¹  I love your commands

more than gold, even purest gold.

119:128 For this reason I carefully follow all your precepts. ² 

I hate all deceitful actions. ³ 

פ (Pe)

119:129 Your rules are marvelous.

Therefore I observe them.

119:130 Your instructions are a doorway through which light shines. ⁴ 

They give ⁵  insight to the untrained. ⁶ 

119:131 I open my mouth and pant,

because I long ⁷  for your commands.

[119:127]  ¹ tn “For this reason” connects logically with the statement made in v. 126. Because the judgment the psalmist fears (see vv. 119-120) is imminent, he remains loyal to God’s law.

[119:128]  ² tn Heb “for this reason all the precepts of everything I regard as right.” The phrase “precepts of everything” is odd. It is preferable to take the kaf (כ) on כֹּל (kol, “everything) with the preceding form as a pronominal suffix, “your precepts,” and the lamed (ל) with the following verb as an emphatic particle. See L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 138.

[119:128]  ³ tn Heb “every false path.”

[119:130]  ³ tn Heb “the doorway of your words gives light.” God’s “words” refer here to the instructions in his law (see vv. 9, 57).

[119:130]  ⁴ tn Heb “it [i.e., the doorway] gives.”

[119:130]  ⁵ tn Or “the [morally] naive,” that is, the one who is young and still in the process of learning right from wrong and distinguishing wisdom from folly. See Pss 19:7; 116:6.

[119:131]  ⁴ tn The verb occurs only here in the OT.