Psalms 119:32

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

for you enable me to do so. 1 

Psalms 119:45

119:45 I will be secure, 2 

for I seek your precepts.

Psalms 119:96-105

119:96 I realize that everything has its limits,

but your commands are beyond full comprehension. 3 

מ (Mem)

119:97 O how I love your law!

All day long I meditate on it.

119:98 Your commandments 4  make me wiser than my enemies,

for I am always aware of them.

119:99 I have more insight than all my teachers,

for I meditate on your rules.

119:100 I am more discerning than those older than I,

for I observe your precepts.

119:101 I stay away 5  from the evil path,

so that I might keep your instructions. 6 

119:102 I do not turn aside from your regulations,

for you teach me.

119:103 Your words are sweeter

in my mouth than honey! 7 

119:104 Your precepts give me discernment.

Therefore I hate all deceitful actions. 8 

נ (Nun)

119:105 Your word 9  is a lamp to walk by,

and a light to illumine my path. 10 

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.

2 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.”

3 tn Heb “to every perfection I have seen an end, your command is very wide.” God’s law is beyond full comprehension, which is why the psalmist continually studies it (vv. 95, 97).

4 tn The plural form needs to be revocalized as a singular in order to agree with the preceding singular verb and the singular pronoun in the next line. The Lord’s “command” refers here to the law (see Ps 19:8).

5 tn Heb “I hold back my feet.”

6 tn Heb “your word.” Many medieval Hebrew mss read the plural.

7 tn Heb “How smooth they are to my palate, your word, more than honey to my mouth.” A few medieval Hebrew mss, as well as several other ancient witnesses, read the plural “your words,” which can then be understood as the subject of the plural verb “they are smooth.”

8 tn Heb “every false path.”

9 tn Many medieval Hebrew mss read the plural (“words”).

10 tn Heb “[is] a lamp for my foot and a light for my path.”