51:12 Let me again experience the joy of your deliverance!
Sustain me by giving me the desire to obey! 1
81:8 I said, 2 ‘Listen, my people!
I will warn 3 you!
O Israel, if only you would obey me! 4
103:20 Praise the Lord, you angels of his,
you powerful warriors who carry out his decrees
and obey his orders! 5
א (Alef)
119:1 How blessed are those whose actions are blameless, 7
who obey 8 the law of the Lord.
1 tn Heb “and [with] a willing spirit sustain me.” The psalmist asks that God make him the kind of person who willingly obeys the divine commandments. The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.
2 tn The words “I said” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Verses 8-10 appear to recall what the
3 tn Or perhaps “command.”
4 tn The Hebrew particle אִם (“if”) and following prefixed verbal form here express a wish (GKC 321 §109.b). Note that the apodosis (the “then” clause of the conditional sentence) is suppressed.
5 tn Heb “[you] mighty ones of strength, doers of his word, by listening to the voice of his word.”
6 sn Psalm 119. The psalmist celebrates God’s law and the guidance it provides his people. He expresses his desire to know God’s law thoroughly so that he might experience the blessings that come to those who obey it. This lengthy psalm exhibits an elaborate acrostic pattern. The psalm is divided into twenty-two sections (corresponding to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet), each of which is comprised of eight verses. Each of the verses in the first section (vv. 1-8) begins with the letter alef (א), the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This pattern continues throughout the psalm as each new section highlights a successive letter of the alphabet. Each verse in section two (vv. 9-16) begins with the second letter of the alphabet, each verse in section three (vv. 17-24) with the third letter, etc. This rigid pattern creates a sense of order and completeness and may have facilitated memorization.
7 tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness of those who are blameless of way.”
8 tn Heb “walk in.”