While this is primarily designed to show all the posts in my current series of meditations on Psalm 119 one verse at a time, which started in November, 2024, it also includes any other posts that are tagged Psalm 119.
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Psalm 119:36 – What’s Your Inclination
Turn my mind to your testimonies,And not to ill-gotten gain. How about some alternatives. Hearten my mind to your testimoniesand not to extortion. Bob MacDonald, Seeing the Psalter, 382 Dispose my heart towards your instruction,not towards love of gain. Psalm 119:36 (REB) Christians frequently speak of the Hebrew scriptures (the Old Testament) as a book…
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Psalm 119:37 – Futility!
Turn my eyes away from looking at what is futile;Give me life in your pathway. This one seems pretty obvious. Recently we looked at Isaiah 55:2 – “Why spend your money on what is not food, and your labor for what doesn’t satisfy.” The question becomes exactly what is vain? What is futile? There are…
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Psalm 119:39 – Taunts and Shame
Turn away from me my reproachwhich I fearfor your judgments are good. You’ll find lots of translations for the word I’ve translated as “reproach” if you compare a few versions. That’s because it’s a word with a good range of meanings and the verse doesn’t help a great deal with the context. For example, is…
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Psalm 119:40 – Grant Me Life
I long for your precepts.By your righteousness give me life. I spent a good deal of time thinking about the phrase “by your righteousness.” It could be understood in a number of different ways. Two of these would be “in your righteousness” and “with your righteousness.” The second of these might lead Christians into a…
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Psalm 119:41 – Grace, Rescue, and Response
Let your grace (chesed) come to me;Rescue me according to your word. I’m sure you can see where the “grace” and “rescue” come from in my title, but what is this matter of “response”? We’ve already talked about grace and rescue, and will do so again before I’m finished with these verse-by-verse meditations. But what…
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Psalm 119:42 – Whose Word Counts Most?
Now I can return my taunter a word,For I trust in your word. The lesson here is both simple and profound. Some of my background thoughts on it are in my post on Psalm 119:38. In Hebrew poetry, making a thought parallel by using synonyms is common, as for example in Psalm 119:30, “I have…
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Psalm 119:43 – Power to Speak Truth
Never take the word of truth from my mouthfor I place my hope in your judgments. Tomorrow morning I’ll be leading a discussion of John Wesley in my Sunday School class. The notes in the book we’re using point especially to Wesley’s view of prevenient grace and to Christian perfection. It’s interesting to take these…
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Psalm 119:44 – Keep it Forever
And I will keep your instruction (Torah) continuallyforever and ever. For another sense of Hebrew parallelism, note the short 2nd line here, “forever and ever.” This is parallel with “continually” and suggests a combined “all the time for all time.” If we hadn’t just read a number of verses in which the Psalmist expresses dependence…
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Psalm 119:45 – Walk in Liberty
So I will walk in libertyfor I seek your precepts. I must credit Mitchell Dahood in his 3 volume commentary on Psalms in the Anchor Bible (vol 1, vol 2, vol 3) for the word “liberty.” I was struggling for a translation that I felt lived up to the context. I think that one does.…
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Psalm 119:45 – Speaking Before Kings
I will speak of your testimonies before Kingsand will not be ashamed. Do you speak of your faith to other people? For many, this is a question specifically about making religious statements. Can you attempt to “bring someone to Christ?” Can you make a new disciple? What I wonder is whether we can talk about…