Biblion Bible Commentary
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Your Word Is Very Pure
Psalms 119:121-144
121 I have done what is just and righteous. Don’t leave me to my oppressors. · WEB
A man weeping over other people's disregard for the law, and the observation that the door itself gives light.
My eyes fail looking for your salvation, for your righteous word Psalms 119:123.
The waiting continues, and the psalm keeps reporting the physical cost of it.
It is time to act, Yahweh, for they break your law Psalms 119:126.
A man telling God that the moment has come. It is the boldest sentence in the psalm and its ground is not his own suffering; the reason given is that the law is being broken by others.
Therefore I love your commandments more than gold, yes, more than pure gold Psalms 119:127.
The money comparison for the last time, and it has escalated to refined gold. It is placed as a therefore — because the law is being broken everywhere, he values it more, which is the opposite of the usual reaction to watching a rule become unfashionable.
The entrance of your words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple Psalms 119:130.
One of the finest verses in the psalm. The word rendered entrance means an opening or unfolding — the doorway itself is what illuminates, before anything inside has been examined. And the beneficiary named is the simple: the same inexperienced, easily-deceived person the hundred and sixteenth psalm said God preserves.
What the verse claims is that the text does not require expertise to begin working. Opening it is the qualification.
I opened my mouth wide and panted, for I longed for your commandments Psalms 119:131.
The image is an animal gasping, and the psalm is not embarrassed by it.
Establish my footsteps in your word. Don't let any iniquity have dominion over me Psalms 119:133.
The request is not to be kept from sinning but to be kept from being ruled — the difference between an act and a master, and the psalm asks about the second.
Streams of tears run down my eyes, because they don't observe your law Psalms 119:136.
The verse that answers a suspicion this psalm invites. A man this attached to a rule might be expected to be pleased when others break it and are caught. What he does instead is weep, and the grief is for them.
I am small and despised. I don't forget your precepts Psalms 119:141.
The writer's own estimate of his standing, given in three words and set against the enormous claims of the previous stanza. Both are his.
Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me. Your commandments are my delight Psalms 119:143.
The two halves of the psalm's whole situation, in one verse, joined by nothing at all.
settled What this mark means