Psalms 119:32

119:32 I run along the path of your commands,

for you enable me to do so. ¹ 

Psalms 119:35

119:35 Guide me ²  in the path of your commands,

for I delight to walk in it. ³ 

Psalms 119:60

119:60 I keep your commands

eagerly and without delay. ⁴ 

Psalms 119:73

י (Yod)

119:73 Your hands made me and formed me. ⁵ 

Give me understanding so that I might learn ⁶  your commands.

Psalms 119:86

119:86 All your commands are reliable.

I am pursued without reason. ⁷  Help me!

Psalms 119:127

119:127 For this reason ⁸  I love your commands

more than gold, even purest gold.

Psalms 119:143

119:143 Distress and hardship confront ⁹  me,

yet I find delight in your commands.

Psalms 119:151

119:151 You are near, O Lord,

and all your commands are reliable. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 119:6

119:6 Then I would not be ashamed,

if ¹¹  I were focused on ¹²  all your commands.

Psalms 119:19

119:19 I am like a foreigner in this land. ¹³ 

Do not hide your commands from me!

Psalms 119:48

119:48 I will lift my hands to ¹⁴  your commands,

which I love,

and I will meditate on your statutes.

Psalms 119:172

119:172 May my tongue sing about your instructions, ¹⁵ 

for all your commands are just.

[119:32]  ¹ tn Heb “for you make wide my heart.” The “heart” is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s volition and understanding. The Lord gives the psalmist the desire and moral understanding that are foundational to the willing obedience depicted metaphorically in the preceding line. In Isa 60:5 the expression “your heart will be wide” means “your heart will swell with pride,” but here the nuance appears to be different.

[119:35]  ² tn Or “make me walk.”

[119:35]  ³ tn Heb “for in it I delight.”

[119:60]  ³ tn Heb “I hurry and I do not delay to keep your commands.”

[119:73]  ⁴ tn Heb “made me and established me.” The two verbs also appear together in Deut 32:6, where God, compared to a father, is said to have “made and established” Israel.

[119:73]  ⁵ tn The cohortative verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding imperative.

[119:86]  ⁵ sn God’s commands are a reliable guide to right and wrong. By keeping them the psalmist is doing what is right, yet he is still persecuted.

[119:127]  ⁶ 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.

[119:143]  ⁷ tn Heb “find.”

[119:151]  ⁸ tn Or “truth.”

[119:6]  ⁹ tn Or “when.”

[119:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I gaze at.”

[119:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I am a resident alien in the land.” Resident aliens were especially vulnerable and in need of help. They needed to know the social and legal customs of the land to avoid getting into trouble. The translation (note the addition of “like”) assumes the psalmist is speaking metaphorically, not literally.

[119:48]  ¹¹ tn Lifting the hands is often associated with prayer (Pss 28:2; 63:4; Lam 2:19). (1) Because praying to God’s law borders on the extreme, some prefer to emend the text to “I lift up my hands to you,” eliminating “your commands, which I love” as dittographic. In this view these words were accidentally repeated from the previous verse. (2) However, it is possible that the psalmist closely associates the law with God himself because he views the law as the expression of the divine will. (3) Another option is that “lifting the hands” does not refer to prayer here, but to the psalmist’s desire to receive and appropriate the law. (4) Still others understand this to be an action praising God’s commands (so NCV; cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).

[119:172]  ¹² tn Heb “your word.”