psalm 119 introduction 29 sep 2014
psalm 119:1-16 chiastic structure 30 sep 2014
Read Psalm 119 at Bible Gateway.
1a) Psa 119:17 gimel Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live and keep Your word;
1b) Psa 119:18-23, My soul longs to understand Your wonderful law:
1) Psa 119:18-22, Your wonderful law + my soul’s longing + remove rebuke from me:
1) Psa 119:18, Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law;
2) Psa 119:19-20, My soul breaks with longing as I seek out Your commandments:
19 I am a stranger in the earth; do not hide Your commandments from me;
20 My soul breaks with longing for Your judgments at all times;
3) Psa 119:21-22, Remove rebuke from me, for I have kept Your testimonies:
21 You rebuke the proud—the cursed, who stray from Your commandments;
22 Remove from me reproach and contempt, for I have kept Your testimonies;
2) Psa 119:23, Princes also sit and speak against me, but Your servant meditates on Your statutes;
central axis) Psa 119:24, Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors; {p}
2b) Psa 119:25-31 daleth When my soul clings to the dust, I cling to Your law / Make me understand Your precepts + Your wonderful works!
1a) Psa 119:25, My soul clings to the dust; revive me according to Your word;
central axis) Psa 119:26-30, Male me understand of Your precepts + Your wonderful works:
2) Psa 119:26, I have declared my ways, and You answered me; teach me Your statutes;
1) Psa 119:27-30, Your wonderful works + my soul’s heaviness + remove lying from me:
1) Psa 119:27, Make me understand the way of Your precepts; so shall I meditate on Your wonderful works;
2) Psa 119:28, My soul melts from heaviness; strengthen me according to Your word;
3) Psa 119:29-30, Remove lying from me, and grant me Your law:
29 Remove from me the way of lying, and grant me Your law graciously.
30 I have chosen the way of truth; Your judgments I have laid before me.
2a) Psa 119:31, I cling to Your testimonies; O Lord, do not put me to shame!
2a) Psa 119:32, I will run the course of Your commandments, for You shall enlarge my heart. {p}
In the A pair, King David asks the Lord to deal bountifully with him, that is, to increase His goodness to him, that he may live and keep His word. Conversely, he will run in the way of the Lord’s commandments, because the Lord has enlarged or increased the capacity of his heart. The meaning is that from the core of his being, King David’s love, delight in, and understanding of the Law of the Lord increases, as the Lord increases His teaching to him, as King David increases his meditation of them, and King David’s experiences of the Lord’s deliverance in accordance with His promises increases to him.
The B pair is in two sections, and these two sections are in reverse order in the 2B pair. Section 1 is furthermore subdivided into 3 parts. Part 1, Open my eyes /make me understand the wonderful things in Your law /Your wonderful works. There is the pairing of the Lord’s words and works, which we have seen before in Psalms. Part 2, My soul breaks with longing / my soul melts with heaviness as I search out Your commandments / as I need strengthening according to Your word. Part 3, Remove rebuke from me / remove lying from me, for I have kept Your testimonies / I have chosen Your way of truth.
In the second section, my sense is that even though princes make a confession against him, he continues to meditate on the Lord’s statutes. As he does so, it is like he is looking into the mirror of God’s perfect Law, and seeing in that mirror the places in his life which do not match up to it (Jam 1:25). Therefore he makes his own confession of his ways before the Lord, to repent of them, and asks to be taught His statutes more fully.
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