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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 119:33 - 119:33
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The eightfold He. He further prays for instruction and guidance that he may escape the by-paths of selfishness and of disavowal. The noun עֵקֶב, used also elsewhere as an accus. adverb., in the signification ad extremum (Psa 119:33 and Psa 119:112) is peculiar to our poet. אֱצֳּרֶנָּה (with a Shebâ which takes a colouring in accordance with the principal form) refers back to דֶּרֶךְ. In the petition “give me understanding” (which occurs six times in this Psalm) חֵבִין is causative, as in Job 32:8, and frequently in the post-exilic writings. בֶּצַע (from בָּצַע, abscindere, as κέρδος accords in sound with κείρειν) signifies gain and acquisition by means of the damage which one does to his neighbour by depreciating his property, by robbery, deceit, and extortion (1Sa 8:3), and as a name of a vice, covetousness, and in general selfishness. שָׁוְא is that which is without real, i.e., without divine, contents or intrinsic worth, - God-opposed teaching and life. בִּדְרָכֶךָ
(Note: Heidenheim and Baer erroneously have בִּדְרָכֶיךָ with Jod. plural., contrary to the Masora.)
is a defective plural; cf. חֲסָדֶךָ, Psa 119:41, וּמִשְׁפָּטֶךָ, Psa 119:43, and frequently. Establishing, in Psa 119:38, is equivalent to a realizing of the divine word or promise. The relative clause אֲשֶׁר לְיִרְאָתֶךָ is not to be referred to לְעַבְדְּךָ according to Psa 119:85 (where the expression is different), but to אִמְרָתֶךָ: fulfil to Thy servant Thy word or promise, as that which (quippe quae) aims at men attaining the fear of Thee and increasing therein (cf. Psa 130:4; Psa 40:4). The reproach which the poet fears in Psa 119:39 is not the reproach of confessing, but of denying God. Accordingly מִשְׁפָּטֶיךָ are not God's judgments i.e., acts of judgment, but revealed decisions or judgments: these are good, inasmuch as it is well with him who keeps them. He can appeal before God to the fact that he is set upon the knowledge and experience of these with longing of heart; and he bases his request upon the fact that God by virtue of His righteousness, i.e., the stringency with which He maintains His order of grace, both as to its promises and its duties, would quicken him, who is at present as it were dead with sorrow and weariness.