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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 19:10 - 19:10
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(Heb.: 19:10-14) With הַנֶּֽחֱמָדִים (for which, preferring a simple Shebâ with the gutturals, Ben-Naphtali writes הַנֶּחְמָּמדִים) the poet sums up the characteristics enumerated; the article is summative, as in הַשִּׁשִּׁי at the close of the hexahemeron, Gen 1:31. פָּז is the finest purified gold, cf. 1Ki 10:18 with 2Ch 9:17. נֹפֶת צוּפִים “the discharge (from נפת = Arab. nft) of the honeycombs” is the virgin honey, i.e., the honey that flows of itself out of the cells. To be desired are the revealed words of God, to him who possesses them as an outward possession; and to him who has received them inwardly they are sweet. The poet, who is himself conscious of being a servant of God, and of striving to act as such, makes use of these words for the end for which they are revealed: he is נִזְהָר, one who suffers himself to be enlightened, instructed, and warned by them. גַּם belongs to נזהר (according to the usual arrangement of the words, e.g., Hos 6:11), just as in Psa 19:14 it belongs to חֲשׂךְ. He knows that בְּשָׁמְרָם (with a subjective suffix in an objective sense, cf. Pro 25:7, just as we may also say:) in their observance is, or is included, great reward. עֵקֶב is that which follows upon one's heels (עָקֵב), or comes immediately after anything, and is used here of the result of conduct. Thus, then, inasmuch as the Law is not only a copy of the divine will, but also a mirror of self-knowledge, in which a man may behold and come to know himself, he prays for forgiveness in respect of the many sins of infirmity, - though for the most part unperceived by him, - to which, even the pardoned one succumbs. שְׁנִיאָה (in the terminology of the Law, שְׁנָנָה, ἀγνόημα) comprehends the whole province of the peccatum involuntarium, both the peccatum ignoranitiae and the peccatum infirmitatis. The question delicta quis intelligit is equivalent to the negative clause: no one can discern his faults, on account of the heart of man being unfathomable and on account of the disguise, oftentimes so plausible, and the subtlety of sin. Hence, as an inference, follows the prayer: pronounce me free also מִנִּסְתָּרֹות, ab occultis (peccatis, which, however, cannot be supplied on grammatical grounds), equivalent to mee`alumiym (Psa 90:8), i.e., all those sins, which even he, who is most earnestly striving after sanctification, does not discern, although he may desire to know them, by reason of the ever limited nature of his knowledge both of himself and of sin.
(Note: In the Arab proverb, “no sin which is persisted in is small, no sin great for which forgiveness is sought of God,” Arab. ṣgı̂rt, directly means a little and Arab. kbı̂rt, a great sin, vid., Allgem. Literar. Zeitschr. 1844, No. 46, p. 363.)
נִקָּה, δικαιοῦν, is a vox judicialis, to declare innocent, pronounce free from, to let go unpunished. The prayer for justification is followed in Psa 19:14 by the prayer for sanctification, and indeed for preservation against deliberate sins. From זוּד, זִיד, to seethe, boil over, Hiph. to sin wilfully, deliberately, insolently, - opp. of sin arising from infirmity, Exo 21:14; Deu 18:22; Deu 17:12, - is formed זֵד an insolent sinner, one who does not sin בִּשְׁנָנָה, but בְּזָדֹון (cf. 1Sa 17:28, where David's brethren bring this reproach against him), or בְּיָר רָמָה, and the neuter collective זֵדִים (cf. סֵטִים, Psa 101:3; Hos 5:2) peccata proaeretica or contra conscientiam, which cast one out of the state of grace or favour, Num 15:27-31. For if זדים had been intended of arrogant and insolent possessors of power (Ewald), the prayer would have taken some other form than that of “keeping back” (חָשַׂךְ as in 1Sa 25:39 in the mouth of David). זדים, presumptuous sins, when they are repeated, become dominant sins, which irresistibly enslave the man (מָשַׁל with a non-personal subject, as in Isa 3:4, cf. Psa 103:19); hence the last member of the climax (which advances from the peccatum involuntarium to the proaereticum, and from this to the regnans): let them not have dominion over me (בִי with Dechî in Baer; generally wrongly marked with Munach).
Then (אָז), when Thou bestowest this twofold favour upon me, the favour of pardon and the grace of preservation, shall I be blameless (אֵיתָם 1 fut. Kal, instead of אִתַּם, with י as a characteristic of ē) and absolved (וְנִקֵּיתִי not Piel, as in Psa 19:13, but Niph., to be made pure, absolved) from great transgression. פֶּשַׁע
(Note: The Gaja with מִפֶּשַֽׁע is intended in this instance, where מפשׁע רב are to be read in close connection, to secure distinctness of pronunciation for the unaccented ע, as e.g., is also the case in Psa 78:13, יָם בָּֽקַע (bāḳa‛jām).)
from פָּשַׁע (root פש), to spread out, go beyond the bounds, break through, trespass, is a collective name for deliberate and reigning, dominant sin, which breaks through man's relation of favour with God, and consequently casts him out of favour, - in one word, for apostasy. Finally, the psalmist supplicates a gracious acceptance of his prayer, in which both mouth and heart accord, supported by the faithfulness, stable as the rock (צוּרִי), and redeeming love (גֹּואֲלִי redemptor, vindex, root גל, חל, to loose, redeem) of his God. הָיָה לְרָצֹון is a standing expression of the sacrificial tôra, e.g., Lev 1:3. The לְפָנֶיךָ, which, according to Exo 28:38, belongs to לרצון, stands in the second member in accordance with the “parallelism by postponement.” Prayer is a sacrifice offered by the inner man. The heart meditates and fashions it; and the mouth presents it, by uttering that which is put into the form of words.