§ י
73 Thy hands have made me and fashioned me, Give me understanding that I may learn Thy commandments. 74 Let those who fear Thee see me and rejoice, For I have waited for Thy word. 75 I know, Jehovah, that Thy judgments are in righteousness, And that [in] faithfulness Thou hast afflicted me. 76 Oh let Thy lovingkindness be [sent] to comfort me, According to Thy promise to Thy servant. 77 Let Thy compassions come to me that I may live, For Thy law is my delight. 78 Let the proud be shamed, for they have lyingly dealt perversely with me; I, I meditate on Thy precepts. 79 Let those who fear Thee turn to me, And they shall know Thy testimonies. 80 Let my heart be sound in Thy statutes, That I be not shamed.
Prayer for illumination is confined to the first and last verses of this section, the rest of which is mainly occupied with petitions for gracious providences, based upon the grounds of the psalmist's love of the Law, and of the encouragement to others to trust, derivable from his experience. Ver. 73 puts forcibly the thought that man is evidently an incomplete fragment, unless the gift of understanding is infused into his material frame. God has begun by shaping it, and therefore is pledged to go on to bestow spiritual discernment, when His creature asks it. But that prayer will only be answered if the suppliant intends to use the gift for its right purpose of learning God's statutes. Ver. 74 prays that the psalmist may be a witness that hope in His word is never vain, and so that his deliverances may be occasions of widespread gladness. God's honour is involved in answering His servant's trust. Vv. 75-77 are linked together. "Judgments" (ver. 75) seem to mean here providential acts, not, as generally in this psalm, the Law. The acknowledgment of the justice and faithfulness which send sorrows precedes the two verses of petition for "lovingkindness" and "compassions." Sorrows still sting and burn, though recognised as sent in love, and the tried heart yearns for these other messengers to come from God to sustain and soothe. God's promise and the psalmist's delight in God's law are the double ground of the twin petitions. Then follow three verses which are discernibly connected, as expressing desires in regard to "the proud," the devout, and the psalmist himself. He prays that the first may be shamed--_i.e._, that their deceitful or causeless hostility may be balked--and, as in several other verses, contrasts his own peaceful absorption in the Law with their machinations. He repeats the prayer of ver. 74 with a slight difference, asking that his deliverance may draw attention to him, and that others may, from contemplating his security, come to know the worth of God's testimonies. In ver. 79_b_ the text reads "they shall know" (as the result of observing the psalmist), which the Hebrew margin needlessly alters into "those who know." For himself he prays that his heart may be sound, or thoroughly devoted to keep the law, and then he is sure that nothing shall ever put him to shame. "Who is he who will harm you, if ye be zealous for that which is good?"
§ כ
81 My soul has pined for Thy salvation, For Thy word have I waited. 82 My eyes have pined for Thy promise, Saying, When wilt Thou comfort me? 83 For I am become like a wine-skin in the smoke; Thy statutes have I not forgotten. 84 How many are the days of Thy servant? When wilt Thou execute judgment on my persecutors? 85 The proud have digged pits for me, --They who are not according to Thy law. 86 All Thy commandments are faithfulness, Lyingly they persecute me, help Thou me. 87 They had all but made an end of me on earth, But I, I have not forgotten Thy precepts. 88 According to Thy lovingkindness revive me, And I will observe the testimonies of Thy mouth.