Deal bountifully with your servant,that I may live and keep your word. Psalm 119:17 ESV With this verse, we begin Psalm 119’s third stanza, which is titled gimel because each verse begins that Hebrew letter. Like Beth (verses 9-16), Gimel (verses 17-24) continues the psalmist’s prayer for God’s instructing grace to guard him, while also …
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I will delight in your statutes;I will not forget your word. Psalm 119:16 ESV The psalmist concludes the second eight-verse stanza of Psalm 119 with this two-fold resolution, which he begins by reiterating the theme of verse 14. Just as the psalmist previously resolved to rejoice in God’s testimonies more highly than in all riches, …
I will meditate on your preceptsand fix my eyes on your ways. Psalm 119:15 ESV In the penultimate verse of this stanza, the psalmist continues to his resolutions for how he will store God’s Word in his heart and guard his way with it. Just as he has determined to declare and delight in the …
In the way of your testimonies I delightas much as in all riches. Psalm 119:14 ESV Continuing this stanza’s theme of how we are to guard our way with God’s Word that we may not wander from His commandments, the psalmist has declared his resolution to seek the LORD, to store up His Word within …
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With my lips I declareall the rules of your mouth. Psalm 119:13 ESV Moving into the second half of our present stanza, the psalmist continues the theme of obtaining purity through clinging to God’s Word, yet while verses 9-12 focused upon current resolve to seek the LORD through the Scriptures and upon the necessity of …
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Blessed are you, O LORD;teach me your statutes! Psalm 119:12 ESV As verse 11 paralleled with verse 9 by both expressing the necessity of God’s Word in order to fight against our sin, verse 12 also parallels verse 10 by crying out to God for His help. Thus, the first four verses of this stanza …
I have stored up your word in my heart,that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119:11 ESV We come now to one of the verses for which Psalm 119 is best known. As we mentioned previously, the driving theme of this second stanza is the psalmist’s pursuit and quest for purity, which he notes …
With my whole heart I seek you;let me not wander from your commandments! Psalm 119:10 ESV Having addressed the nature of this second stanza in its introductory verse (i.e. obtaining purity through guarding oneself with God’s Word), the psalmist proceeds to describe this process. He begins in this verse with a prayer of his intention …
How can a young man keep his way pure?By guarding it according to your word. Psalm 119:9 ESV Psalm 119, as we have seen, is a unique poem. First, it is the longest chapter in the Bible (longer than many entire books in the Bible, in fact). Second, the entire poem is built around one theme: …
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I will keep your statutes;do not utterly forsake me! Psalm 119:8 ESV This verse concludes the first stanza of Psalm 119 in which every verse begins with the Hebrew letter, aleph. It immediately also concludes the two part pledge of action that began in verse 7, but it further parallels verse 4, which began his …
B. C. Newton 