119:86 All your commands are reliable.
I am pursued without reason. 1 Help me!
119:96 I realize that everything has its limits,
but your commands are beyond full comprehension. 2
119:127 For this reason 3 I love your commands
more than gold, even purest gold.
119:128 For this reason I carefully follow all your precepts. 4
I hate all deceitful actions. 5
1 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.
2 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).
3 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.
4 tn Heb “for this reason all the precepts of everything I regard as right.” The phrase “precepts of everything” is odd. It is preferable to take the kaf (כ) on כֹּל (kol, “everything) with the preceding form as a pronominal suffix, “your precepts,” and the lamed (ל) with the following verb as an emphatic particle. See L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 138.
5 tn Heb “every false path.”