The eightfold Phe. The deeper his depression of spirit concerning those who despise the word of God, the more ardently does he yearn after the light and food of that word. The testimonies of God are פּלאות, wonderful and strange (paradoxical) things, exalted above every-day life and the common understanding. In this connection of the thoughts נצרתם is not intended of careful observance, but of attentive contemplation that is prolonged until a clear penetrating understanding of the matter is attained. The opening, disclosure (פּתח, apertio, with Tsere in distinction from פּתח, porta) of God's word giveth light, inasmuch as it makes the simple (פּתיים as in Proverbs 22:3) wise or sagacious; in connection with which it is assumed that it is God Himself who unfolds the mysteries of His word to those who are anxious to learn. Such an one, anxious to learn, is the poet: he pants with open mouth, viz., for the heavenly fare of such disclosures (פּער like פּער פּה in Job 29:23, cf. Psalm 81:11). יאב is a hapaxlegomenon, just as תּאב is also exclusively peculiar to the Psalm before us; both are secondary forms of אבה. Love to God cannot indeed remain unresponded to. The experience of helping grace is a right belonging to those who love the God of revelation; love in return for love, salvation in return for the longing for salvation, is their prerogative. On the ground of this reciprocal relation the petitions in Psalm 119:133-135 are then put up, coming back at last to the one chief prayer "teach me." אמרה, Psalm 119:133, is not merely a "promise" in this instance, but the declared will of God in general. כּל־און refers pre-eminently to all sin of disavowal (denying God), into which he might fall under outward and inward pressure (עשׁק). For he has round about him those who do not keep God's law. On account of these apostates (על לא as in Isaiah 53:9, equivalent to על־אשׁר לא) his eyes run down rivers of water (ירד as in Lamentations 3:48, with an accusative of the object). His mood is not that of unfeeling self-glorying, but of sorrow like that of Jeremiah, because of the contempt of Jahve, and the self-destruction of those who contemn Him.

Psalm 119:136 Parallel Commentaries

Psalm 119:53,158 Horror has taken hold on me because of the wicked that forsake your law...

1 Samuel 15:11 It repents me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments...

Jeremiah 9:1,18 Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears...

Jeremiah 13:17 But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and my eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears...

Jeremiah 14:17 Therefore you shall say this word to them; Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease...

Ezekiel 9:4 And the LORD said to him, Go through the middle of the city, through the middle of Jerusalem...

Luke 19:41 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,

Romans 9:2,3 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart...