Psalms 119:41-48

ו (Vav)

119:41 May I experience your loyal love, ¹  O Lord,

and your deliverance, ²  as you promised. ³ 

119:42 Then I will have a reply for the one who insults me, ⁴ 

for I trust in your word.

119:43 Do not completely deprive me of a truthful testimony, ⁵ 

for I await your justice.

119:44 Then I will keep ⁶  your law continually

now and for all time. ⁷ 

119:45 I will be secure, ⁸ 

for I seek your precepts.

119:46 I will speak ⁹  about your regulations before kings

and not be ashamed.

119:47 I will find delight in your commands,

which I love.

119:48 I will lift my hands to ¹⁰  your commands,

which I love,

and I will meditate on your statutes.

[119:41]  ¹ tn Heb “and may your loyal love come to me.”

[119:41]  ² tn Or “salvation” (so many English versions).

[119:41]  ³ tn Heb “according to your word.”

[119:42]  ⁴ tn Heb “and I will answer [the] one who insults me a word.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the jussive (see v. 41).

[119:43]  ⁷ tn Heb “do not snatch from my mouth a word of truth to excess.” The psalmist wants to be able to give a reliable testimony about the Lord’s loyal love (vv. 41-42), but if God does not intervene, the psalmist will be deprived of doing so, for the evidence of such love (i.e., deliverance) will be lacking.

[119:44]  ¹⁰ tn The cohortative verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the negated jussive (see v. 43).

[119:44]  ¹¹ tn Or “forever and ever.”

[119:45]  ¹³ tn Heb “and I will walk about in a wide place.” The cohortative with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive gives a further consequence of the anticipated positive divine response (see vv. 43-44). Another option is to take the cohortative as expressing the psalmist’s request. In this case one could translate, “and please give me security.”

[119:46]  ¹⁶ tn The series of four cohortatives with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive in vv. 46-48 list further consequences of the anticipated positive divine response to the request made in v. 43.

[119:48]  ¹⁹ 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).