Psalms 119:144

Your testimonies are righteous forever. Give me understanding, that I may live.

World English Bible
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Other translations

WEBBE

Your testimonies are righteous forever. Give me understanding, that I may live.

BSB

Your testimonies are righteous forever. Give me understanding, that I may live.

KJV

The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting: give me understanding, and I shall live.

ASV

Thy testimonies are righteous for ever: Give me understanding, and I shall live.

BBE

The righteousness of your unchanging word is eternal; give me wisdom so that I may have life.

Original Hebrew

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The early church

"Thy testimonies are righteousness unto everlasting: O grant me understanding, and I shall live" (ver. 144). This younger one prayeth for understanding; which if he had not, he would not be "wiser than the aged;" but he prayeth for it in trouble and hardships, that he may thereby understand how contemptible is all that his persecuting enemies can take from him, by whom he saith he hath been despised. Therefore he hath said, "and I shall live:" because if trouble and heaviness reached such a pitch, that his life should be terminated by the hands of his persecuting enemies, he will live for ever, who preferreth to temporal things, righteousness which remaineth for evermore. This righteousness in trouble and hardship are the Martyria Dei, that is, the testimonies of God, for which Martyrs have been crowned.
Augustine of Hippo · d. 430Expositions on the Psalms

Commentary

Matthew Henry · Verses 137–144

God never did, and never can do wrong to any. The promises are faithfully performed by Him that made them. Zeal against sin should constrain us to do what we can against it, at least to do more in religion ourselves. Our love to the word of God is evidence of our love to God, because it is designed to make us partake his holiness. Men's real excellency always makes them low in their own eyes. When we are small and despised, we have the more need to remember God's precepts, that we may have them to support us. The law of God is the truth, the standard of holiness, the rule of happiness; but the obedience of Christ alone justifies the believer. Sorrows are often the lot of saints in this vale of tears; they are in heaviness through manifold temptations. There are delights in the word of God, which the saints often most sweetly enjoy when in trouble and anguish. This is life eternal, to know God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, Joh 17:3. May we live the life of faith and grace here, and be removed to the life of glory hereafter.

Read Matthew Henry on Psalm 119 →

Cross-references

23

Topics

Cross-references: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. Hebrew and Greek data from STEPBible.org (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0. Library: sources.