34Give me understanding, that I may observe Your law
         And keep it with all my heart.

35Make me walk in the path of Your commandments,
         For I delight in it.

36Incline my heart to Your testimonies
         And not to dishonest gain.

37Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity,
         And revive me in Your ways.

38Establish Your word to Your servant,
         As that which produces reverence for You.

39Turn away my reproach which I dread,
         For Your ordinances are good.

40Behold, I long for Your precepts;
         Revive me through Your righteousness.

Vav.

41May Your lovingkindnesses also come to me, O LORD,
         Your salvation according to Your word;

42So I will have an answer for him who reproaches me,
         For I trust in Your word.

43And do not take the word of truth utterly out of my mouth,
         For I wait for Your ordinances.

44So I will keep Your law continually,
         Forever and ever.

45And I will walk at liberty,
         For I seek Your precepts.

46I will also speak of Your testimonies before kings
         And shall not be ashamed.

47I shall delight in Your commandments,
         Which I love.

48And I shall lift up my hands to Your commandments,
         Which I love;
         And I will meditate on Your statutes.

Zayin.

49Remember the word to Your servant,
         In which You have made me hope.

50This is my comfort in my affliction,
         That Your word has revived me.

51The arrogant utterly deride me,
         Yet I do not turn aside from Your law.

52I have remembered Your ordinances from of old, O LORD,
         And comfort myself.

53Burning indignation has seized me because of the wicked,
         Who forsake Your law.

54Your statutes are my songs
         In the house of my pilgrimage.

55O LORD, I remember Your name in the night,
         And keep Your law.

56This has become mine,
         That I observe Your precepts.

Heth.

57The LORD is my portion;
         I have promised to keep Your words.

58I sought Your favor with all my heart;
         Be gracious to me according to Your word.

59I considered my ways
         And turned my feet to Your testimonies.

60I hastened and did not delay
         To keep Your commandments.

61The cords of the wicked have encircled me,
         But I have not forgotten Your law.

62At midnight I shall rise to give thanks to You
         Because of Your righteous ordinances.

63I am a companion of all those who fear You,
         And of those who keep Your precepts.

64The earth is full of Your lovingkindness, O LORD;
         Teach me Your statutes.

Teth.

65You have dealt well with Your servant,
         O LORD, according to Your word.

66Teach me good discernment and knowledge,
         For I believe in Your commandments.

67Before I was afflicted I went astray,
         But now I keep Your word.

68You are good and do good;
         Teach me Your statutes.

69The arrogant have forged a lie against me;
         With all my heart I will observe Your precepts.

70Their heart is covered with fat,
         But I delight in Your law.

71It is good for me that I was afflicted,
         That I may learn Your statutes.

72The law of Your mouth is better to me
         Than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

Yodh.

73Your hands made me and fashioned me;
         Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments.

74May those who fear You see me and be glad,
         Because I wait for Your word.

75I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are righteous,
         And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.

76O may Your lovingkindness comfort me,
         According to Your word to Your servant.

77May Your compassion come to me that I may live,
         For Your law is my delight.

78May the arrogant be ashamed, for they subvert me with a lie;
         But I shall meditate on Your precepts.

79May those who fear You turn to me,
         Even those who know Your testimonies.

80May my heart be blameless in Your statutes,
         So that I will not be ashamed.

Kaph.

81My soul languishes for Your salvation;
         I wait for Your word.

82My eyes fail with longing for Your word,
         While I say, “When will You comfort me?”

83Though I have become like a wineskin in the smoke,
         I do not forget Your statutes.

84How many are the days of Your servant?
         When will You execute judgment on those who persecute me?

85The arrogant have dug pits for me,
         Men who are not in accord with Your law.

86All Your commandments are faithful;
         They have persecuted me with a lie; help me!

87They almost destroyed me on earth,
         But as for me, I did not forsake Your precepts.

88Revive me according to Your lovingkindness,
         So that I may keep the testimony of Your mouth.

NASB ©1995

American Standard Version
Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; Yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Give me understanding, and I will search thy law ; and I will keep it with my whole heart.

Darby Bible Translation
Give me understanding, and I will observe thy law; and I will keep it with my whole heart.

English Revised Version
Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.

Webster's Bible Translation
Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yes, I shall observe it with my whole heart.

World English Bible
Give me understanding, and I will keep your law. Yes, I will obey it with my whole heart.

Young's Literal Translation
Cause me to understand, and I keep Thy law, And observe it with the whole heart.Notes on the First Century:
Page 1. Line 1. An empty book is like an infant's soul.' Here Traherne may possibly have had in his mind a passage in Bishop Earle's "Microcosmography." In delineating the character of a child, Earle says: "His soul is yet a white paper unscribbled with observations of the world, wherewith at length it becomes a blurred note-book," Page 14. Line 25. The entrance of his words. This sentence is from Psalm cxix. 130. Page 15. Last line of Med. 21. "Insatiableness." This word in Traherne's time was often …
Thomas Traherne—Centuries of Meditations

Life Hid and not Hid
'Thy word have I hid in my heart.'--PSALM cxix. 11. 'I have not hid Thy righteousness in my heart.'--PSALM xl. 10. Then there are two kinds of hiding--one right and one wrong: one essential to the life of the Christian, one inconsistent with it. He is a shallow Christian who has no secret depths in his religion. He is a cowardly or a lazy one, at all events an unworthy one, who does not exhibit, to the utmost of his power, his religion. It is bad to have all the goods in the shop window; it is just …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

A Cleansed Way
Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy word.'--PSALM cxix. 9. There are many questions about the future with which it is natural for you young people to occupy yourselves; but I am afraid that the most of you ask more anxiously 'How shall I make my way?' than 'How shall I cleanse it?' It is needful carefully to ponder the questions: 'How shall I get on in the world--be happy, fortunate?' and the like, and I suppose that that is the consideration …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Time for Thee to Work'
'It is time for Thee, Lord, to work; for they have made void Thy Law. 127. Therefore I love Thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold. 128. Therefore I esteem all Thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way.' --PSALM cxix. 126-128. If much that we hear be true, a society to circulate Bibles is a most irrational and wasteful expenditure of energy and money. We cannot ignore the extent and severity of the opposition to the very idea of revelation, even if we would; …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

A Stranger in the Earth
'I am a stranger in the earth: hide not Thy commandments from me.... 64. The earth, O Lord, is full of Thy mercy: teach me Thy statutes.' --PSALM cxix. 19, 64. There is something very remarkable in the variety-in-monotony of this, the longest of the psalms. Though it be the longest it is in one sense the simplest, inasmuch as there is but one thought in it, beaten out into all manner of forms and based upon all various considerations. It reminds one of the great violinist who out of one string managed …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

May the Fourth a Healthy Palate
"How sweet are Thy words unto my taste." --PSALM cxix. 97-104. Some people like one thing, and some another. Some people appreciate the bitter olive; others feel it to be nauseous. Some delight in the sweetest grapes; others feel the sweetness to be sickly. It is all a matter of palate. Some people love the Word of the Lord; to others the reading of it is a dreary task. To some the Bible is like a vineyard; to others it is like a dry and tasteless meal. One takes the word of the Master, and it …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Inward Witness to the Truth of the Gospel.
"I have more understanding than my teachers, for Thy testimonies are my study; I am wiser than the aged, because I keep Thy commandments."--Psalm cxix. 99, 100. In these words the Psalmist declares, that in consequence of having obeyed God's commandments he had obtained more wisdom and understanding than those who had first enlightened his ignorance, and were once more enlightened than he. As if he said, "When I was a child, I was instructed in religious knowledge by kind and pious friends, who …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII

A Bottle in the Smoke
First, God's people have their trials--they get put in the smoke; secondly, God's people feel their trials--they "become like a bottle in the smoke;" thirdly, God's people do not forget God's statutes in their trials--"I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do I not forget thy statutes." I. GOD'S PEOPLE HAVE THEIR TRIALS. This is an old truth, as old as the everlasting hills, because trials were in the covenant, and certainly the covenant is as old as the eternal mountains. It was never designed …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856

The Dryness of Preachers, and the Various Evils which Arise from their Failing to Teach Heart-Prayer --Exhortation to Pastors to Lead People Towards this Form Of
If all those who are working for the conquest of souls sought to win them by the heart, leading them first of all to prayer and to the inner life, they would see many and lasting conversions. But so long as they only address themselves to the outside, and instead of drawing people to Christ by occupying their hearts with Him, they only give them a thousand precepts for outward observances, they will see but little fruit, and that will not be lasting. When once the heart is won, other defects are …
Jeanne Marie Bouvières—A Short Method Of Prayer And Spiritual Torrents

Of Deeper Matters, and God's Hidden Judgments which are not to be Inquired Into
"My Son, beware thou dispute not of high matters and of the hidden judgments of God; why this man is thus left, and that man is taken into so great favour; why also this man is so greatly afflicted, and that so highly exalted. These things pass all man's power of judging, neither may any reasoning or disputation have power to search out the divine judgments. When therefore the enemy suggesteth these things to thee, or when any curious people ask such questions, answer with that word of the Prophet, …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

Seven-Fold Joy
"Seven times a day do I praise Thee because of Thy righteous judgments."--Ps. cxix. 164. Mechthild of Hellfde, 1277. tr., Emma Frances Bevan, 1899 I bring unto Thy grace a seven-fold praise, Thy wondrous love I bless-- I praise, remembering my sinful days, My worthlessness. I praise that I am waiting, Lord, for Thee, When, all my wanderings past, Thyself wilt bear me, and wilt welcome me To home at last. I praise Thee that for Thee I long and pine, For Thee I ever yearn; I praise Thee that such …
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen and Others (Second Series)

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