HEBREW
PSALM 119
In praise of the divine Law
ה, Expound to me the way of Your statutes, Yahweh,
and I will always respect them.
Explain to me how to respect Your Law
and how to observe it wholeheartedly.
Guide me in the path of Your commandments,
since my delight is there.
Turn my heart to Your decrees
and away from getting money.
Avert my eyes from lingering on inanities,
give me life by Your Word.
Keep Your promise to Your servant,
so that others in turn may fear You.
Avert the insults that I fear,
in the kindness of Your rulings.
Look how I yearn for Your precepts:
give me life by Your righteousness.
ו, For, Yahweh, visited by Your love
and saving help, as You have promised,
I can find an answer to the insults,
since I rely on Your Word.
Do not deprive me of that faithful Word,
since my hope has always lain in Your rulings.
Let me observe Your Law unfailingly
for ever and ever.
So, having sought Your precepts,
I shall walk in all freedom.
I shall proclaim Your decrees to kings
without fear of disgrace.
Your commandments fill me with delight
I love them deeply.
I stretch out my hands to Your beloved commandments,
I meditate on Your statutes.
ז, Remember the word You pledged Your servant,
on which You have built my hope.
This has been my comfort in my suffering:
that Your promise gives me life.
Endlessly the arrogant have jeered at me,
but I have not swerved from Your Law.
Remembering Your rulings in the past,
Yahweh, I take comfort.
Fury grips me when I see the wicked
abandoning Your Law.
Where I live in exile,
Your statutes are psalms for me.
All night, Yahweh, I remember Your name
and observe Your Law.
Surely it will count to my credit:
that I respect Your precepts.
ח, Have I not said, Yahweh, that my task
is to observe Your words?
Wholeheartedly I now entreat You,
take pity on me as You have promised!
After reflecting on my behavior,
I turn my feet to Your decrees.
Wasting no time, I hurry
to observe Your commandments.
Though the nooses of the wicked tighten around me,
I do not forget Your Law.
I get up at midnight to thank You
for the righteousness of Your rulings.
I am a friend to all who fear You
and observe Your precepts,
Yahweh, Your love fills the earth:
teach me Your statutes.
ט, In accordance with Your Word, Yahweh,
You have been good to Your servant.
Teach me good sense and knowledge,
for I rely on Your commandments.
In earlier days I had to suffer, I used to stray,
but now I remember Your promise.
You, so good and kind,
teach me Your statutes.
Though the arrogant tell foul lies about me,
I wholeheartedly respect Your precepts.
Their hearts are gross as fat,
but my delight is in Your Law.
It was good for me to have to suffer,
the better to learn Your statutes.
I put the Law You have given
before all the gold and silver in the world.
י, Yahweh, my Maker, my Preserver,
explain Your commandments for me to learn.
Seeing me, those who fear You will be glad,
since I put my hope in Your Word.
I know that Your rulings are righteous, Yahweh,
that You make me suffer out of faithfulness.
Now, please let Your love comfort me,
as You have promised Your servant.
Treat me tenderly, and I shall live,
since Your Law is my delight.
Shame seize the arrogant who defame me,
when I meditate on Your precepts!
May those who fear You rally to me,
all those familiar with Your decrees!
Blameless in Your statutes be my heart:
no such shame therefore for me!
כ, Keeping my hope in Your Word,
I have worn myself out waiting for You to save me,
and have strained my eyes, waiting for Your promise:
when, I want to know, will You console me?
Though smoked as dry as a wineskin,
I do not forget Your statutes.
How much longer has Your servant to live,
when will You condemn my persecutors?
The arrogant have dug pitfalls for me
in defiance of Your Law.
Your commandments epitomize faithfulness;
when liars hound me, You must help me.
Though these wretches have almost done for me,
I have never abandoned Your precepts.
Lovingly intervene, give me life,
and I will observe Your decrees.
ל, Lasting to eternity, Your Word,
Yahweh, unchanging in the heavens:
Your faithfulness lasts from age to age;
You founded the earth to endure.
Creation is maintained by Your rulings,
since all things are Your servants.
Had Your Law not been my delight
I should have perished in my suffering.
I shall never forget Your precepts;
by these You have kept me alive.
I am Yours, save me,
since I study Your precepts.
The wicked may hope to destroy me,
but I am scrupulous about Your decrees.
I have noticed limitations to all perfection,
but Your commandments have no limits at all.
מ, Meditating all day on Your Law,
how I have come to love it!
By Your commandment, ever mine,
how much wiser You have made me than my enemies!
How much subtler than my teachers,
through my meditating on Your decrees!
How much more perceptive than the elders,
as a result of my respecting Your precepts!
I refrain my feet from every evil path,
the better to observe Your Word.
I do not turn aside from Your rulings,
since You Yourself teach me these.
Your promise, how sweet to my palate!
Sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Your precepts endow me with perception;
I hate all deceptive paths.
Next… Day 26 — Psalm 119:105-176
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