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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 119:129 - 119:129
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The eightfold Phe. The deeper his depression of spirit concerning those who despise the word of God, the more ardently does he yearn after the light and food of that word. The testimonies of God are פְּלָאֹות, wonderful and strange (paradoxical) things, exalted above every-day life and the common understanding. In this connection of the thoughts נְצָרָתַם is not intended of careful observance, but of attentive contemplation that is prolonged until a clear penetrating understanding of the matter is attained. The opening, disclosure (פֵּתַח, apertio, with Tsere in distinction from פֶּתַח, porta) of God's word giveth light, inasmuch as it makes the simple (פְּתָיִים as in Pro 22:3) wise or sagacious; in connection with which it is assumed that it is God Himself who unfolds the mysteries of His word to those who are anxious to learn. Such an one, anxious to learn, is the poet: he pants with open mouth, viz., for the heavenly fare of such disclosures (פָּעַר like פָּעַר פֶּה in Job 29:23, cf. Psa 81:11). יָאַב is a hapaxlegomenon, just as תָּאַב is also exclusively peculiar to the Psalm before us; both are secondary forms of אָבָה. Love to God cannot indeed remain unresponded to. The experience of helping grace is a right belonging to those who love the God of revelation; love in return for love, salvation in return for the longing for salvation, is their prerogative. On the ground of this reciprocal relation the petitions in Psa 119:133-135 are then put up, coming back at last to the one chief prayer “teach me.” אִמְרָה, Psa 119:133, is not merely a “promise” in this instance, but the declared will of God in general. כָּל־אָוןֶ refers pre-eminently to all sin of disavowal (denying God), into which he might fall under outward and inward pressure (עֹשֶׁק). For he has round about him those who do not keep God's law. On account of these apostates (עַל לֹא as in Isa 53:9, equivalent to על־אשׁר לא) his eyes run down rivers of water (יָרַד as in Lam 3:48, with an accusative of the object). His mood is not that of unfeeling self-glorying, but of sorrow like that of Jeremiah, because of the contempt of Jahve, and the self-destruction of those who contemn Him.