An Alphabet of Devotion That Ends with a Lost Sheep

The first word, ashrei, is the word that opens the whole Psalter (Psalm 1:1), and the longest chapter in the Bible begins with it: twenty two stanzas, one for each Hebrew letter, eight lines to a stanza, every line opening with that stanza’s letter. “Undefiled” is tamim, whole, the word for Noah (Genesis 6:9) and for an unblemished sacrifice.

“Testimonies” is edot, witness terms, from the same family as “the ark of the testimony” (Exodus 25:22) where the tablets were kept. “With the whole heart” appears six times in the psalm (verses 2, 10, 34, 58, 69, 145), and the first time it is attached to seeking God himself, not the rules.

“Iniquity” is avlah, crookedness, the natural opposite of a way that runs straight. This is the last line of the psalm spoken about other people in the third person. From the next verse the speaker turns to God as “thou” and almost never turns away again.

“Thou” begins the line and the conversation. “Precepts” is piqqudim, from paqad, to appoint or oversee: charges given by someone who checks on them. The word occurs only in the Psalms, twenty four times, and twenty one of those are in this psalm.

“O that” renders achalai, a wishing cry found in only one other place, 2 Kings 5:3, where the captive Israelite girl says “Would God my lord were with the prophet”. “Statutes” is chuqqim, from a root meaning to engrave: decrees cut into stone.

“Have respect unto” means to look closely at, as the Hebrew nabat does. “Ashamed” is the fear that runs underneath the whole psalm, returning at verses 31, 46, 78, 80 and 116. “Commandments” is mitsvot, the orders of someone with the right to give them.

“Righteous judgments” is literally “judgments of thy righteousness”, mishpatim, the rulings of a judge. Praise is promised for a future day, once the learning is done, and the verb lamad, learn, marks this as a student’s psalm from its first stanza.

The Hebrew puts the object first, “thy statutes I will keep”, so the stanza’s last line can still open on its letter. Then comes a fear that the first seven lines never hinted at: “forsake me not utterly”, ad me’od, to the uttermost. The blessed man of verse 1 has become a man afraid of being left.

The second stanza opens with a question, bammeh, “by what?” Na’ar can mean a boy or a young man of marrying age. “Cleanse” is zakah, to make clean or pure. “Taking heed” is shamar, to guard, the verb the whole psalm uses for keeping the law.

“Wander” is shagah, the verb of unintended sin, straying by mistake, which the sacrificial law treats in Leviticus 4:13 and Numbers 15:22. The fear is not of open rebellion but of drifting without noticing, which is why the whole heart is invoked.

“Hid” is tsafan, to store up as treasure is hidden, the verb of Proverbs 2:1, “hide my commandments with thee”. “Thy word” here is imrah, a saying, the second of the psalm’s two words for word, alongside davar. The stored saying works as a guard at the door.

Two different Hebrew words are both rendered “blessed” in the King James. Verse 1 used ashrei, the happiness of a person; here it is barukh, the word used when God himself is blessed. “Blessed art thou, O LORD” became the opening formula of Jewish prayer, and it is the only such benediction in the psalm.

“Declared” is sippar, to recount, to tell over in order, a word related to counting. The “judgments of thy mouth” are rulings God has spoken, and the speaker’s lips repeat them aloud. The law passes from one mouth to another.

This is the first of the psalm’s comparisons with wealth, which return at verses 72, 127 and 162. “Rejoiced” is sas, the glad excitement of someone who has come into money. The comparison is not that the testimonies are like riches, but that the joy is.

“Meditate” is siach, to muse, rehearse, talk under one’s breath. The verb and its noun turn up eight times in this psalm, more than in any other single chapter. “Have respect unto thy ways” is again nabat, look closely, and “ways” here is orchot, trodden paths.

“Delight myself” is sha’ashua, the delight of play; Isaiah 11:8 uses the verb for a nursing child playing over the cobra’s hole. “I will not forget” is the first of a refrain that returns at verses 61, 83, 93, 109, 141, 153 and in the very last line of the psalm.

“Deal bountifully” is gemol, the gimel word that opens this stanza, the same verb as Psalm 116:7. Life is asked for with a purpose attached: that I may live, and keep. The prayer for life will be repeated through the psalm, often in the old word “quicken”.

“Open” is gal, uncover, as a veil is lifted. “Wondrous things” is niphla’ot, the word for the wonders in Egypt (Exodus 3:20). The speaker assumes the law already holds marvels and that the problem is his sight, not the text.

“Stranger” is ger, a resident foreigner with no land of his own, as Abraham called himself at Hebron (Genesis 23:4) and David in Psalm 39:12. An alien depends on knowing the local law, and he has no claim on anyone to tell him it. Hence: hide not.

“Breaketh” is garas, a rare verb for being crushed or ground; Lamentations 3:16 uses it for teeth broken on gravel. The longing is described as grinding the soul down, and “at all times” gives it no rest.

“Rebuked” is ga’ar, the verb for God rebuking the Red Sea in Psalm 106:9. “The proud” are the zedim, the insolent and presumptuous, who appear six times as the psalm’s chief opponents. The King James links “cursed” to the proud; others divide the line “cursed are they which do err”.

“Remove” is gal again, the very syllable that opened verse 18, but from a different root: galal, to roll away, as at Gilgal where God “rolled away the reproach of Egypt” (Joshua 5:9). The veil was rolled off his eyes; now he asks for the disgrace to be rolled off his back.

Princes, sarim, are court officials, and they “sit” as a council sits to deliberate. The one accused sits too, meditating. The contrast recalls Psalm 1:1 and its “seat of the scornful”: two ways of sitting, and the servant has chosen his.

“My counsellors” is literally “men of my counsel”, the advisers a king keeps at court. Against the council of princes in the previous verse, he has his own: the testimonies. “Delight” is the plural of sha’ashua, the play word of verse 16.

“Cleaveth” is davaq, the verb of Genesis 2:24, where a man cleaves to his wife; here the soul cleaves to dust, the stuff of the grave (Genesis 3:19). “Quicken” meant make alive in 1611, as in “the quick and the dead” (Acts 10:42). The psalm uses the word eleven times.

“I have declared my ways” uses sippar again, to recount: he has given God an account of his life, and been answered. The request that follows is not for anything new but for the same lesson as verse 12, teach me thy statutes.

“Make me to understand” is a causative verb from bin, to discern between things. “Talk” is siach, the meditation word of verse 15, now turned outward. The wondrous works are the niphla’ot of verse 18, the things he asked to have his eyes opened to.

“Melteth” is dalaf, to drip or leak, the word for a roof letting in water (Ecclesiastes 10:18). The soul is draining away drop by drop with grief. “Strengthen” is qum, make me stand, the reverse of lying in the dust of verse 25.

“The way of lying” could be his own tendency or the pressure of liars around him; the Hebrew does not say which. “Grant me thy law graciously” is literally “be gracious to me with thy law”: torah is asked for as a gift of favour, not a yoke.

“The way of truth” is derekh emunah, the way of faithfulness, a road chosen. “Laid before me” is shivviti, the verb of Psalm 16:8, “I have set the LORD always before me”: a reference point kept in view, as a builder keeps his line.

“Stuck” is davaq, the same verb as “cleaveth” in verse 25. The stanza has turned around: the soul that clung to the dust now clings to the testimonies. The fear of shame from verse 6 is back, spoken as a prayer.

The stanza that began lying in the dust ends running. “Enlarge my heart” is from rachav, to make broad, the opposite of a narrow strait; 1 Kings 4:29 speaks of Solomon’s “largeness of heart”. Room inside is what lets the feet move.

“Teach me” is horeni, from yarah, the verb from which torah takes its name: torah is instruction before it is legislation. “Unto the end” translates eqev, which can also mean reward or consequence; some read “I will keep it as its reward”.

Almost every line of this stanza opens with a causative verb, because the letter he is how Hebrew forms them: teach me, make me understand, make me go, incline, turn away. “Observe” is shamar once more, and the whole heart makes its third appearance.

“Path” is netiv, a narrow footpath rather than a highway. “Make me to go” is literally “make me tread”. The second half is telling: “therein do I delight”. The desire is already there; what he asks for is the legs.

“Covetousness” is betsa, profit made by cutting a corner or cutting a throat; Judah uses the word when he asks “What profit is it if we slay our brother?” (Genesis 37:26). The heart is pictured as something that leans, and he asks God to bend it the other way.

“Vanity” is shav, emptiness, the word in the commandment against taking God’s name “in vain” (Exodus 20:7). Numbers 15:39 warns against going “after your own eyes”. The eyes are asked to be made to pass over worthless sights, and life is asked for in their place.

“Stablish” is haqem, make stand, the verb for God confirming a covenant or promise. The last clause is ambiguous in Hebrew: “which is for thy fear” can describe the word that produces reverence, as many modern versions take it, or the servant, as the King James does.

Two fears sit side by side: the fear of God in the previous line and the fear of disgrace in this one. What reproach he dreads is not specified; it may be the shame of failing, or the taunts of verse 42. The reason offered is simple: thy judgments are good.

“Behold” is hinneh, the he word, and it presents his longing as evidence. “Longed” is ta’av, a rare verb that returns in the last stanza (verse 174). The plea for life is now grounded in God’s righteousness rather than in the speaker’s record.

Very few Hebrew words begin with vav, the stanza’s letter, so nearly every line begins with vav as “and”. “Mercies” is plural, chasadim, and “even thy salvation” explains what those mercies would look like in practice: rescue, according to the promise.

“Reproacheth” is charaf, to taunt or defy, the verb for Goliath defying the ranks of Israel (1 Samuel 17:10). The speaker wants an answer to throw back, and he wants it to be a word, davar, borrowed from God’s own, since his own would not hold.

Ad me’od, “utterly”, returns from verse 8. The fear this time is of being struck dumb: of having the word of truth taken out of his mouth when he needs to answer. The mouth is where the word lives for this speaker; losing it there would be losing it.

Three words for time are stacked in a row: tamid, continually; le’olam, for ever; va’ed, and ever. The Hebrew piles them up because one would not be enough. The verse is a promise with no end date, spoken by someone who has just admitted his fear of failing.

“At liberty” is barchavah, in a broad place, from the same root as “enlarge” in verse 32. Freedom is imagined as room to walk. The surprise is the reason given: he walks freely because he seeks the precepts, the charges, of verse 4.

The Augsburg Confession, read before the Emperor Charles V in 1530, carried this verse on its title page. “Before kings” gives the courage of the Vav stanza a setting: the testimonies spoken aloud in a royal court, without shame, which verse 6 had feared.

The first time in the psalm that the speaker says he loves the commandments. Love for the law returns again and again, as at verses 97, 113, 127 and 167. “Delight myself” is sha’asha again, the verb of a child’s play.

Lifted hands were the posture of prayer and of oath (Psalm 28:2, Genesis 14:22). Here the hands are raised toward the commandments themselves, an image with no exact parallel. “Which I have loved” is repeated from the previous line, and the stanza ends in meditation.

Zekhor, “remember”, opens the zayin stanza, and remembering runs through it (verses 49, 52, 55): God is asked to remember as the speaker does. “Caused me to hope” puts the hope to God’s account. The promise was his idea in the first place.

“Comfort” is nechamah, a word found only here and in Job 6:10, where Job says his one consolation is that he has not denied the words of the Holy One. “Affliction” is oni, the psalm’s word for being brought low. The word has already given life; the verb is past.

“Had me in derision” is from lits, the verb behind the scorner of Psalm 1:1 and of Proverbs, who mocks what he will not learn. “Declined” is natah, to turn aside or swerve off the road, a picture the psalm keeps using for faithfulness as a straight line.

“Thy judgments of old” are rulings from long ago, me’olam, the cases on record. The speaker finds comfort in precedent: what God has judged before, he will judge again. The reflexive “comforted myself” shares its root with the nechamah of verse 50.

“Horror” is zal’afah, a burning, scorching heat. Psalm 11:6 uses the same root for the “horrible tempest”, a burning wind, and Lamentations 5:10 for the fever of famine. The feeling described is less like fear than like a flush of hot indignation.

“Songs” is zemirot, songs sung to strings. “The house of my pilgrimage” is the house where he lodges as a sojourner; Jacob uses the same word for the whole of his life before Pharaoh, “the days of the years of my pilgrimage” (Genesis 47:9). The statutes have been set to music, as this psalm sets them.

Remembering the name in the night is remembering in the dark, when there is nothing to read and no one to hear. The name stands in for the person. The second half ties the memory to practice: he remembered, and he kept.

“This I had” is zot hayetah li, “this has been mine”. What “this” is the Hebrew leaves open. It echoes the zot of verse 50, “this is my comfort”, so the stanza is framed by the word, and the comfort of the night appears to be the possession he means.

“Portion” is chelek, a share of land. The Levites received no territory because “the LORD is their inheritance” (Deuteronomy 10:9, Numbers 18:20). The Hebrew line is compressed and can be read “My portion is the LORD; I have said I will keep thy words”.

“I intreated thy favour” is literally “I have made thy face sweet” or stroked thy face, an idiom for pleading with a superior. Moses does it on the mountain after the golden calf (Exodus 32:11), and Saul claims to have done it at Gilgal (1 Samuel 13:12).

“I thought on” is chishavti, I reckoned it up, as a man adds his accounts. The reckoning produces a movement of the feet: he turned them. Taking stock and changing direction are two halves of one sentence.

The second verb, hitmahmah, is the word for dithering. It describes Lot lingering in Sodom while the angels dragged him out (Genesis 19:16) and the Levite dawdling at his father-in-law’s house (Judges 19:8). The speaker claims the opposite of Lot.

“Bands” is chevlei, which can mean ropes or a company of people; 1 Samuel 10:5 uses it for a “company of prophets”. Either the gangs of the wicked have closed round him or their cords have. The King James “robbed” follows one reading of an uncertain verb.

Midnight was the hour of the last plague in Egypt (Exodus 12:29) and the hour Paul and Silas sang in prison (Acts 16:25). The Talmud (Berakhot 3b) says a harp hung over David’s bed and the north wind played it at midnight, waking him to study, and later Jewish midnight prayer grew out of this verse.

“Companion” is chaver, an associate or fellow, the word later taken up by the Pharisaic fellowships for their members. The company is defined by what its members share, fear of God and the keeping of the precepts, and not by family or tribe.

Psalm 33:5 says the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD; here it is full of his chesed, loyal love. A world that full still leaves the speaker asking for lessons: “teach me thy statutes” is a refrain of this psalm, heard at verses 12, 26, 64, 68, 124 and 135.

“Thou hast dealt well” is literally “good thou hast done”. The teth stanza leans on the word tov, good, which opens five of its eight lines. It begins with thanks for a promise already kept, before the stanza explains what that good involved.

“Good judgment” is tuv ta’am, literally goodness of taste: a sense of discernment, like a palate. Abigail’s “advice” is praised with the same word ta’am (1 Samuel 25:33), and David’s feigned madness is a change of it (1 Samuel 21:13).

“Went astray” is from shagag, the drifting of unintentional sin, cousin of the verb in verse 10. The confession is that ease led him off the road and hardship brought him back. The word “before”, terem, gives the stanza its letter.

“Thou art good, and doest good” is tov attah umetiv: character, then action, in three words. The second half is the refrain again, teach me thy statutes. The verse sits at the centre of the stanza devoted to goodness and names its source.

“Forged a lie” is tafelu sheqer, smeared a lie over me, from tafal, to plaster or whitewash. Job uses the same phrase of his friends: “ye are forgers of lies” (Job 13:4). The slander is painted on, and the speaker’s answer is his whole heart, the fifth use of the phrase.

A heart “as fat as grease” is a heart sealed in fat, dull and unfeeling. Isaiah 6:10 speaks of making “the heart of this people fat” so that it cannot understand. The proud are not only hostile; they have lost the capacity to be moved.

Tov again, and the affliction of verse 67 is revisited as a benefit. The verb for affliction, anah, means to be bowed down or humbled. The purpose clause states the gain precisely: that I might learn, the student’s verb of verse 7.

“Thousands of gold and silver” are thousands of pieces, a fortune counted in coin or weight. The idols of Psalm 115:4 were made of exactly these metals. The law is called “of thy mouth”, spoken law, and the stanza of goodness closes on the word “better”, tov once more.

Job says nearly the same: “Thine hands have made me and fashioned me” (Job 10:8), and Deuteronomy 32:6 asks “hath he not made thee, and established thee?” The craftsman is asked to finish the work: a made thing needs understanding before it can learn.

His survival will cheer others who fear God. The speaker thinks of himself as evidence: when they see him still standing, they will know hoping in the word was not foolish. The fearers are the company of verse 63.

The confession goes further than verse 71. Affliction was not only useful; God sent it “in faithfulness”, emunah, the same word used for God’s reliability. The speaker calls God right in what hurt him.

“Let, I pray thee” is yehi na. Hebrew builds its wishes with a verb form that begins with yod, the stanza’s letter, and five of these eight lines start with “let”. “Merciful kindness” is chesed, and “comfort” takes up the nechamah of verses 50 and 52.

“Tender mercies” is rachamim, from rechem, the womb: the love of a mother for the child she carried. Isaiah 49:15 asks whether a woman can forget her nursing child. “That I may live” is the simplest statement of what he needs from those mercies.

“Dealt perversely” is ivvetuni, they twisted me, a verb used for bending justice; Lamentations 3:36 speaks of subverting “a man in his cause”. “Without a cause” is literally “with falsehood”. The case against him was bent, and he retreats into meditation.

“Turn unto me” may imply that the God-fearers had kept away during his disgrace; that is an inference, not stated. The written Hebrew reads “and they shall know thy testimonies”; the scribes’ marginal reading, which the King James follows, is “those that have known”.

“Sound” is tamim, the same word as “undefiled” in verse 1. The speaker asks to become what the opening beatitude describes. The fear of shame, from verse 6, rounds off the stanza.

“Fainteth” is kaltah, is spent, used up, finished. The kaph stanza opens in exhaustion and the root kalah returns twice more (verses 82 and 87). Hope still holds, but the speaker is at the end of his reserves.

Eyes “fail” from watching for something that does not arrive, like a lookout staring down a road. The question “When wilt thou comfort me?” is the first time the psalm asks God how long. The comfort of verse 50 has become a thing waited for.

A wineskin hung in a tent with no chimney would blacken, dry and crack in the smoke. The speaker feels shrivelled and useless, like an old skin no one would pour new wine into. Even so, he has not forgotten the statutes, the refrain of verse 16.

“How many are the days of thy servant?” means “how few”: he has not long to wait. “Judgment” here is mishpat, but as a verdict carried out on his persecutors, not as one of God’s ordinances, which is why some counts treat this as a verse without a word for the law.

Pits were dug to trap game. “Which are not after thy law” is pointed: the law made a man liable for an uncovered pit that an animal fell into (Exodus 21:33). The proud dig pits for a person, flouting the very law the speaker keeps.

“Faithful” is emunah again: every commandment can be relied on, while the persecutors pursue him “wrongfully”, with falsehood, sheqer. The cry at the end, “help thou me”, is one Hebrew word, azreni.

“They had almost consumed me” is kim’at killuni, they had nearly finished me, the third use of kalah in the stanza. “Upon earth” can also be “in the land”. The line records how close it came and what he did not let go of.

The stanza of exhaustion ends asking for life according to chesed. “The testimony of thy mouth” is singular here, edut, a rare form in the psalm, as though the whole body of testimonies were one statement spoken aloud.

The lamed stanza lifts its eyes from the persecutors to the heavens. “Settled” is nitsav, stationed, standing firm like a pillar or an officer at his post. After the question about how few his days are (verse 84), the first word here is le’olam, for ever.

“Unto all generations” is ledor vador, generation after generation. The earth “abideth”, literally stands, because it was established. Some counts treat this as one of the few verses without one of the psalm’s words for the law, since “faithfulness” is not among them.

Heaven and earth stand “according to thine ordinances”, mishpatim, the same word as “judgments” elsewhere in the psalm. “All are thy servants” sets the whole of creation in the same household as the speaker, who calls himself “thy servant” again and again.

“Unless” is lulei, “had it not been”. The verse imagines a past that did not happen: without the law’s delight, he would have died in the affliction. “Delights” is the plural sha’ashuim again, the playful delight of verse 24.

“I will never forget” is le’olam lo eshkach, the for ever of verse 89 applied to his own memory. The reason is historical: the precepts have already given him life once, and he is not about to forget what saved him.

“I am thine, save me” is two Hebrew words and a verb: lekha ani, hoshi’eni. Ownership is offered as the grounds for rescue, as a servant belongs to a house and the house is bound to protect him.

“Waited for me” is qivvu, the same verb as waiting on the LORD in Psalm 27:14, turned to ambush. The wicked are patient too. “Consider” is etbonan, to give close attention; while they watch him, he studies.

“Perfection” is tikhlah, a word found only here, meaning completeness or finish. Everything complete has a limit; the speaker has seen the edge of every perfect thing. The commandment alone is “exceeding broad”, and he finds no edge to it.

Mah ahavti, “how I love”, opens the mem stanza with an exclamation rather than a statement. “Meditation” is sichah, the noun of the siach of verse 15, and “all the day” makes it the running content of his thoughts, not an hour set aside.

Wisdom here is practical and even strategic: wiser than enemies, able to see what they are about. The Hebrew uses a singular, “for it is ever with me”, treating the commandments as one companion he carries everywhere.

Hebrew makes its comparisons with the little word min, “from”, which begins with mem, and this stanza leans on it: than my enemies, than my teachers, than the ancients, from every evil way. The teachers presumably had the same testimonies; the difference claimed is that he meditates on them.

“The ancients” are zeqenim, the elders, whose age was supposed to give them wisdom. Job 12:12 states the common view, “With the ancient is wisdom”, and Elihu disputes it in Job 32:9. Here understanding comes from keeping the precepts, not from years.

“Refrained” is kala, to hold back or restrain, the verb Genesis 8:2 uses when the rain from heaven was restrained after the flood. His feet are held in, as a gate holds in a flock, so that they go only where the word goes.

The Hebrew makes “thou” emphatic: for thou, thou hast taught me. After the human teachers of verse 99 and the elders of verse 100, the speaker names the teacher who matters. Horetani is from yarah, the root of torah itself.

The palate is the organ of judgment in this psalm; verse 66 asked for “good taste”. Psalm 19:10 also calls God’s judgments sweeter than honey, and Ezekiel eats a scroll that is “as honey for sweetness” (Ezekiel 3:3). Words here are imrah, sayings.

Understanding comes from the precepts, and hatred of false ways comes from understanding: the order is deliberate. “False way” is orach sheqer, a path that lies about where it goes. The same line closes the ayin stanza at verse 128.

A ner was a small clay oil lamp, light enough to see the next step or two on a dark path, not the whole road. Proverbs 6:23 uses the same pair: “the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light.” It lights the feet, not the horizon.

“Sworn” is an oath, nishba’ti, and “perform it” is qiyyamti, I have made it stand, confirmed it. This is the vow language of Psalm 116:14 applied to obedience itself. The righteous judgments are the thing sworn to.

After the oath comes collapse: “afflicted very much”, ad me’od, the “utterly” of verses 8 and 43. A man who has just sworn to keep God’s judgments admits the next line that he is barely alive, and asks for life on the strength of the promise.

“Freewill offerings” are nedavot, the voluntary sacrifices given beyond what the law required (Leviticus 22:18). Here they are offerings of the mouth, praise given freely. Hosea 14:2 speaks the same way of rendering “the calves of our lips”.

To have one’s soul in one’s hand is to carry one’s life where it can easily be lost. Jephthah uses the idiom when he risked battle alone (Judges 12:3), and the medium of Endor when she risked death for Saul (1 Samuel 28:21). “Continually” makes the danger a way of life.

A pach is a bird trap, the snare of Psalm 124:7. “I erred not” is ta’iti, the same verb as the last verse of the psalm, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep”. The speaker who here claims not to have strayed will confess at the end that he has.

“Taken as an heritage” is nachalti, the verb for inheriting family land. The stranger of verse 19, with no land of his own, holds the testimonies as his estate, and holds them for ever, which is more than any inherited field could promise.

“I have inclined mine heart” answers verse 36, where he asked God to incline it. The same verb, natah, is used both times. “Unto the end” is eqev again, as in verse 33, where it may also mean “for the reward”.

“Vain thoughts” is se’afim, the divided or double-minded, people who waver between two positions. It is from the same root as Elijah’s question at Carmel, “How long halt ye between two opinions?” (1 Kings 18:21). The samech stanza begins by refusing the split mind.

“Hiding place” is seter, a covert or secret place, the word of Psalm 32:7 and of “the secret place of the most High” (Psalm 91:1). The magen, shield, recalls Psalm 115:9–11. Concealment and armour together describe a refuge that hides and defends at once.

The words recall Psalm 6:8, “Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity”, which Jesus quotes in Matthew 7:23. “My God” here is Elohai, the only time the psalm uses Elohim; everywhere else it addresses God by the covenant name.

“Uphold me” is samkheni, prop me up, support me: samakh is also the verb for leaning one’s hand on the head of an offering (Leviticus 1:4). “Ashamed of my hope” means disappointed in it, left looking foolish for having waited.

“Hold thou me up” is sa’adeni, sustain me, the verb for bread strengthening the heart (Genesis 18:5, Psalm 104:15). He asks to be propped up as a meal props up a traveller. “Have respect unto” is the careful looking of verse 6.

“Trodden down” is salita, made light of, spurned, the verb Lamentations 1:15 uses of the Lord treading down Judah’s warriors. “Their deceit is falsehood” is a pointed tautology: all their cunning comes to nothing but a lie.

“Dross” is sigim, the scum skimmed from the top of molten silver in the refiner’s pot (Isaiah 1:22, Ezekiel 22:18). The wicked are the impurity removed. The verse draws love out of judgment: because God purges, the speaker loves his testimonies.

“Trembleth” is samar, to bristle, the hair standing up. Eliphaz uses it of the spirit that passed before his face: “the hair of my flesh stood up” (Job 4:15). The stanza that began with love and refuge ends with the body’s involuntary fear.

“Judgment and justice” is mishpat and tsedaqah, the pair that describes a just ruler; David “executed judgment and justice unto all his people” (2 Samuel 8:15). The speaker claims to have done what a king should, and asks not to be handed to his oppressors.

“Be surety” is arov, to stand as pledge for a debtor, as Judah became surety for Benjamin before his father (Genesis 43:9). By the old scribal count this is the one verse in the psalm that uses none of its words for the law.

The eyes that failed in verse 82 fail again, now for salvation. “The word of thy righteousness” is imrat tsidqekha, the promise that God’s righteousness will act. The eyes are worn out with looking for it.

“Deal” is aseh, act, the ayin word that opens the line. He asks to be treated according to chesed rather than according to his own record, and then comes the refrain: teach me thy statutes, the fifth of its six appearances.

“I am thy servant” is avdekha ani, an echo of verse 94, “I am thine”, with the relationship now named. The ayin stanza says “servant” three times in five lines (verses 122, 124, 125), resting the whole appeal on that relationship.

Literally “it is time to act for the LORD”. The Mishnah (Berakhot 9:5) read it in that sense to justify extraordinary measures when the law was being made void. “Made void” is heferu, broken, the verb for breaking a covenant (Genesis 17:14).

“Therefore” is al ken, and it answers the previous line: because others have broken the law, he loves it more. “Fine gold” is paz, refined gold; Psalm 19:10 uses the same word for the judgments of the LORD, “more to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold”.

Al ken again, the second “therefore” in a row. The Hebrew phrase behind “concerning all things” is awkward, and many scholars read a slightly different text: “by all thy precepts I walk straight”. The last clause repeats verse 104 word for word.

“Wonderful” is pela’ot, wonders, the pe word, the same family as the “wondrous things” of verse 18. The testimonies are marvels, and the keeping follows from the marvel, “therefore doth my soul keep them”, not from obligation alone.

“Entrance” is petach, an opening or doorway. The unfolding of the words is a door that lets light into a dark room. “The simple”, petayim, are the naive of Psalm 116:6. Both key words start with pe, the letter of the stanza.

“Panted” is sha’af, to gasp or snuff the air; Jeremiah 14:6 uses it of wild asses in a drought. “Longed” is ya’av, found nowhere else in the Old Testament. The speaker describes himself like a thirsty animal with its mouth open.

“As thou usest to do” is kemishpat, “according to the custom”: mishpat, the word for God’s judgments throughout the psalm, here means simply his habit toward those who love his name. For that reason some counts list this among the verses with no word for the law.

“Order my steps” is hakhen, make firm my footsteps, so they do not slip. “Have dominion” is shalat, to rule as a master, the root from which sultan was later borrowed. Iniquity is pictured as a would-be tyrant, and the prayer is not to be its subject.

“Deliver” is padah, to ransom or redeem by paying a price, the verb for redeeming a firstborn (Exodus 13:13). “Oppression of man” is oshek adam, human extortion. Rescue from it would free him to keep the precepts.

The priestly blessing, “the LORD make his face shine upon thee” (Numbers 6:25), is turned into a personal request. It is joined to the refrain “teach me thy statutes” for the sixth and last time: the shining face is asked for as a teacher’s face.

“Rivers of waters” is palgei mayim, irrigation channels, the same phrase as the “rivers of water” beside which the blessed man’s tree is planted (Psalm 1:3). The tears are shed not for his own trouble but because others do not keep the law.

Tsaddiq attah YHWH, “righteous art thou, O LORD”, is exactly how Jeremiah opens his complaint in Jeremiah 12:1. Words from the tsedeq family, righteousness, recur in four lines of this stanza, which is built on the sound of its own letter.

The testimonies are “righteous and very faithful”, tsedeq and emunah me’od. Hebrew reads “thou hast commanded thy testimonies in righteousness”: righteousness is the manner of the commanding as well as the character of what is commanded.

“Consumed” is tsimmetatni, silenced or destroyed me. “Zeal” is qin’ah, jealous passion. Psalm 69:9 uses a different verb for a similar thought, “the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up”, which John 2:17 applies to Jesus. The zeal here is spent on enemies who have forgotten.

“Very pure” is tserufah, refined, tested in fire as metal is smelted. Psalm 12:6 calls the words of the LORD silver tried in a furnace, and Psalm 18:30 says his word is tried. What has been through the fire is loved, not feared.

“Small” is tsa’ir, young, least, the word used of the younger twin in “the elder shall serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23) and of Gideon’s protest that he was least in his father’s house (Judges 6:15). Despised and junior, he still remembers.

Tsedeq is doubled: thy righteousness is righteousness for ever. The second half states that the law is emet, truth, faithfulness. Righteousness is placed in time (everlasting) and law in reliability (true), and both are called God’s own.

“Trouble and anguish” is tsar umatsoq, a sounding pair built from the root for narrowness, kin to the distress of Psalm 118:5. The Hebrew verb is “have found me”, as though distress went looking for him. The delights are sha’ashuim again.

The line returns to verse 142: the righteousness of the testimonies is everlasting. The request that closes the stanza joins understanding and life as if they were one thing: give me understanding, and I shall live.

Qarati, “I cried”, opens the qoph stanza, and the whole heart makes its sixth and last appearance in the psalm. The first time (verse 2) it was the mark of the blessed who seek God; now it is the volume of a man calling for an answer.

The cry is repeated with two things changed: “hear me” becomes “save me”, and “statutes” becomes “testimonies”. The shape of the line is the same, and the pressure has gone up. Hoshi’eni, save me, is the verb of verse 94.

Qiddamti, “I prevented”, is the qoph word. “Dawning” is neshef, twilight, which in Hebrew can mean the dusk of evening as well as the grey before sunrise; context decides, and here it is the morning. He is up and calling before the light.

The same verb opens a second line running. Israel divided the night into watches (Judges 7:19 speaks of “the middle watch”, Lamentations 2:19 of “the beginning of the watches”), and his eyes are open before each is called. The meditation word siach returns here.

Qoli, “my voice”, supplies the letter. The two requests are grounded differently: hearing according to chesed, loyal love, and life according to mishpat, which here, as in verse 132, can mean God’s customary way of acting as much as a legal ruling.

“They draw nigh” is qarevu. “Mischief” is zimmah, a deliberate wicked scheme, a word often used for depraved plots (Proverbs 21:27). Near to the speaker and far from the law: the verse measures the enemies in two distances at once.

Qarov attah, “near art thou”, uses the same root as the enemies’ approach in the line before, so the sound answers the sound. Emet, truth, is claimed for “all” the commandments: not one of them is unreliable.

“Of old” is qedem, from long ago, and “founded” is yesadtam, laid their foundations, the verb used for the founding of the earth (Psalm 104:5) and of the temple (Ezra 3:10). The testimonies are pictured as a building sunk into bedrock.

Re’eh onyi, “see my affliction”, uses the same two words as God’s own statement at the burning bush: “I have surely seen the affliction of my people” (Exodus 3:7). The speaker asks God to do for him what he once did for Israel in Egypt.

“Plead my cause” is rivah rivi, argue my case, the language of a lawsuit. “Deliver me” here is ga’aleni, act as my go’el, the kinsman who buys back land or a relative sold into debt (Leviticus 25:25). Jeremiah 50:34 joins the same two roles: Israel’s Redeemer will “thoroughly plead their cause”.

Rachoq, “far”, stands against the qarov, “near”, of verse 151. The wicked are distant from salvation for a stated reason: they do not seek the statutes. Darash, seek, is the verb the speaker used of himself in verses 45 and 94.

“Great” is rabbim, which also means many. David chose to fall into God’s hands in 2 Samuel 24:14 “for his mercies are great”, using the same pair. The next line opens with the same word for his enemies: many mercies set against many persecutors.

Rabbim again, now of persecutors and enemies. “Decline” is natah, the swerve of verse 51. The resh stanza has made the numbers even: the persecutors are many, but so were the mercies one line earlier.

“Transgressors” is bogedim, the treacherous, those who break faith, the word Jeremiah uses for “treacherous Judah” (Jeremiah 3:8). “Was grieved” is a verb for loathing or disgust, the one in Psalm 139:21. What sickens him is their failure to keep the word.

Re’eh, “consider” or “see”, returns from verse 153, but what God is asked to look at has changed: first the affliction, now the love. The speaker offers his love for the precepts as evidence in the case he asked God to plead in verse 154.

“True from the beginning” renders rosh devarkha emet. Rosh means head, and it can mean beginning or the sum total, as when a census takes “the sum” of Israel (Numbers 1:2). Many translators read it as “the sum of thy word is truth”: add it up, and it comes to truth.

“Without a cause” is chinnam, for nothing, gratis, the word behind “they hated me without a cause” (Psalm 35:19, 69:4), which Jesus applies to himself in John 15:25. The princes who sat in council against him in verse 23 are back, and now they have moved to pursuit.

Spoil was the plunder shared out after a battle; the mother of Sisera imagines her son dividing it (Judges 5:30), and Isaiah 9:3 describes the joy of men dividing the spoil. The one who finds it has not laboured for it. That is the kind of gladness he claims.

Two verbs of revulsion are stacked: hate, and abhor. The second, ta’av, is related to to’evah, the word for an abomination in the law. Verse 113 made the same turn from hatred to love; there it was the double-minded he hated, here it is lying itself.

Seven is the number of completeness, so the phrase may mean “all through the day” rather than a timetable. The Rule of St Benedict (chapter 16) took it literally, citing this verse for the seven daytime offices of monastic prayer and verse 62 for the night office.

This is the one line in the psalm where love of the law is credited to others rather than claimed by the speaker. “Great peace” is shalom rav. The stumbling block, mikhshol, is the obstacle Leviticus 19:14 forbids putting before the blind.

“Hoped” is sibbarti, a verb for waiting in expectation. Jacob breaks off his blessings with nearly the same words, “I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD” (Genesis 49:18). The second half pairs the hope with doing: the waiting was not idle.

The shin stanza goes on sounding its letter: shamerah nafshi, “my soul hath kept”. Here the soul itself is the one keeping. “Exceedingly” is me’od, the same intensifier that elsewhere measured his affliction; now it measures love.

“All my ways are before thee” is not a boast but an explanation: he keeps the precepts because nothing he does is out of God’s sight. Proverbs 5:21 says the same of everyone: “the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD.”

“Let my cry come near” is tiqrav rinnati, using qarav, the verb from which qorban, an offering brought near to God, is made (Leviticus 1:2). The cry is presented like a sacrifice. Rinnah usually means a ringing shout of joy; here it rings with need.

The line is built exactly like the one before it: let my supplication come before thee, deliver me according to thy word. “Supplication” is techinnah, a plea for favour, from chen, grace. “Deliver” is natsal, to snatch out of danger.

“Utter” is naba, to pour out or bubble up like a spring, the verb of Psalm 19:2, “day unto day uttereth speech”, and of Proverbs 18:4, “the wellspring of wisdom”. The praise is promised as an overflow once the teaching has been received.

“Speak of” is ta’an, to answer or sing in response. The tongue responds to what it has been given. The final clause states the conclusion the whole psalm has been working toward: all thy commandments are righteousness.

The hand of God is asked to become a helper, le’ozreni. “I have chosen” is bachar, the verb of verse 30, “I have chosen the way of truth”. Nearly one hundred and fifty lines later he stands by the choice.

Ta’avti, “I have longed”, is the rare verb of verse 40, and delight, sha’ashuim, is used for the last time. The two strongest words of desire in the psalm meet in the last stanza, attached to salvation and to the law.

Life is asked for so that praise can continue, which recalls Psalm 115:17: the dead praise not the LORD. The judgments, which have been studied, kept and loved for a hundred and seventy lines, are now asked to act as helpers themselves.

“Lost” is oved, perishing, the word for the lost animals of Jeremiah 50:6, “My people hath been lost sheep.” Isaiah 53:6 has “All we like sheep have gone astray.” The Hebrew psalm ends on lo shakhachti, “I have not forgotten”, and the speaker who sought God in verse 2 asks at the last to be sought.