Direct me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in them.
Parallel Translations
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Direct me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in them.
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Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.
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Make me to tread in the path of Thy commandments; for therein do I delight.
Cross-references (18)
Passages linked to Psalms 119:35 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Ezekiel 36:26-27 I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. You will keep my ordinances and do them.
- Psalms 23:3 He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
- Psalms 25:4 Show me your ways, Yahweh. Teach me your paths.
- Proverbs 4:11 I have taught you in the way of wisdom. I have led you in straight paths.
- Philippians 2:13 For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.
- Psalms 119:16 I will delight myself in your statutes. I will not forget your word.
- Psalms 119:27 Let me understand the teaching of your precepts! Then I will meditate on your wondrous works.
- Proverbs 8:20 I walk in the way of righteousness, in the middle of the paths of justice,
- Romans 7:22 For I delight in God’s law after the inward man,
- Hebrews 13:21 make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
- 1 John 5:3 For this is loving God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous.
- Isaiah 48:17 Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: “I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go.
- Psalms 119:36 Turn my heart toward your statutes, not toward selfish gain.
- Psalms 119:173 Let your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen your precepts.
- Proverbs 3:17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness. All her paths are peace.
- Proverbs 4:18 But the path of the righteous is like the dawning light that shines more and more until the perfect day.
- Isaiah 2:3 Many peoples shall go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For the law shall go out of Zion, and Yahweh’s word from Jerusalem.
- Isaiah 58:13-14 “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of Yahweh honorable; and honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you will delight yourself in Yahweh, and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father;” for Yahweh’s mouth has spoken it.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (10 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 35. Direct me in the path The frequent repetition…
35. Direct me in the path The frequent repetition of this phraseology by the prophet is not to be considered as redundant. Seeing that the end of man’s existence ought to consist in profiting in God’s school, we nevertheless perceive how the world distracts him by its allurements, and how he also forms for himself a thousand avocations calculated to withdraw his thoughts from the main business of his life. The next clause of the verse, in it I take pleasure, must be carefully attended to. For it is an indication of rare excellence when a person so arranges his sentiments and affections as to renounce all the enticements pleasant to the flesh, and take delight in nothing so much as in the service of God. The prophet had already attained to this virtue but he still perceives that he is not yet perfect. Therefore, that his desire may be fully accomplished, he solicits fresh assistance from God, according to the saying of Paul,
“It is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasures” Philippians 2:13.
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Let it be remembered, that he does not boast of the inherent working of his nature, but sets forth the grace he has received, that God may complete the work he has begun. “Lord, thou hast given me courage, grant me also strength.” Hence in the term pleasure there is an implied opposition to the lusts of the flesh, which keep the hearts of mankind lettered by their enticements.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 119:35 Make me to go in the path…
Psa 119:35 Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.
Ver. 35. Make me to go in the path] Which I shall soon forsake if thou guide me not.
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Te duce vera sequor, te duce falsa nego.
For therein do I delight] After the inward man, Rom 7:22. Thou hast given me to will, give me also to work what is well pleasing in thy sight.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Make me to go, by directing my mind into…
Make me to go, by directing my mind into the right way, by inclining my will, and strengthening my resolution.
For therein do I delight: forsake not him who delighteth in the: and in thy service; and as thou hast wrought in me to will work in me also to do.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain He had before prayed to God to enlighten his…
He had before prayed to God to enlighten his understanding, that he might know his duty, and not mistake concerning it; here he prays to God to bow his will, and quicken the active powers of his soul, that he might do his duty; for it is God that works in us both to will and to do, as well as to understand, what is good, Phi 2:13. Both the good head and the good heart are from the good grace of God, and both are necessary to every good work. Observe here,
I. The grace he prays for. 1. That God would make him able to do his duty: "Make me to go; strengthen me for every good work." Since we are not sufficient of ourselves, our dependence must be upon the grace of God, for from him all our sufficiency is. God puts his Spirit within us, and so causes us to walk in his statutes (Eze 36:27), and this is that which David here begs. 2. That God would make him willing to do it, and would, by his grace, subdue the aversion he naturally had to it: "Incline my heart to thy testimonies, to those things which thy testimonies prescribe; not only make me willing to do my duty, as that which I must do and therefore am concerned to make the best of, but make me desirous to do my duty as that which is agreeable to the new nature and really advantageous to me." Duty is then done with delight when the heart is inclined to it: it is God's grace that inclines us, and the more backward we find ourselves to it the more earnest we must be for that grace.
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II. The sin he prays against, and that is covetousness: "Incline my heart to keep thy testimonies, and restrain and mortify the inclination there is in me to covetousness." That is a sin which stands opposed to all God's testimonies; for the love of money is such a sin as is the root of much sin, of all sin. Those therefore that would have the love of God rooted in them must get the love of the world rooted out of them; for the friendship of the world is enmity with God. See in what way God deals with men, not by compulsion, but he draws with the cords of a man, working in them an inclination to that which is good and an aversion to that which is evil.
III. His plea to enforce this prayer: "Lord, bring me to, and keep me in, the way of thy commandments, for therein do I delight; and therefore I pray thus earnestly for grace to walk in that way. Thou hast wrought in me this delight in the way of thy commandments; wilt thou not work in me an ability to walk in them, and so crown thy own work?"
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity,.... As the…
Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity,.... As the things of this world, the riches, honours, and pleasures of it, which are all vanity and vexation of spirit; and yet these catch the eye, and allure the heart: and all false doctrines, glided over with the specious pretence of truth; and all false worship and superstition, set off with pomp and pageantry, with which the eyes of the body or the eyes of the mind are taken, and by which the heart is ensnared; and therefore it is desirable to have the eyes turned away from such objects unto better;
and quicken thou me in thy way; so as to walk and even run in the path of truth, in the way of true religion and godliness; and, instead of looking upon vanity, press towards the mark for the prize; keep Christ in view, while running the race; and look to things unseen, and not things that are seen; and set the affections on things above, and serve the Lord fervently; all which is done when God quickens the hearts of his people, and the graces of his Spirit in them.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Make me to go in the path ... -…
Make me to go in the path ... - That is, Incline me to it; so direct me that I shall thus walk. It is an acknowledgment of his dependence on God, that he might be able to carry out the cherished purposes of his soul.
For therein do I delight - See Psa 119:16. I am conscious of having pleasure in thy commandments; of having a strong desire to keep them, and I pray for grace that I may be able to do it. Real delight in the law of God is one of the best means of securing its observance; one of the best evidences that it will be kept.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (35) Path.—From root to tread, the trodden way, plain…
(35) Path.—From root to tread, the trodden way, plain with the track of all the pious pilgrims’ feet of past times.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Make me to go in the path of thy…
Make me to go in the path of thy commandments. Keep me, i.e., from straying out of the right path, through ignorance or negligence. For therein do I delight (comp. vers. 16, 24, 47, 70, 77, 111, 174).
A path for our goings.
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"Make me to go in the path of thy commandments." To go is to keep moving, to keep advancing. The earnest man wants to progress in the Divine life. The Christian stamp is put on this truth by the apostle, when he says, "I count not myself to have apprehended;" "I press toward the mark." The good man wants
I PROGRESS IN THE APPREHENSION OF GOD"S COMMANDMENTS. All the command-meats of God cannot be made clear even to the understanding of a child or of a young Christian. They concern spheres and things which are known only through the experience of life, and cannot be made plain to the child or the young Christian. And it is a deeper thought that only the formality and externality of Divine Law can ever come to any man at first; he must grow into the spirituality of it. Contrast the spheres for which the young Christian needs Divine rules, with the spheres for which the advanced and experienced Christian needs the guidance of the Divine eye, and the progression will at once be manifest.
II PROGRESS IN FIXING THE RELATION OF THE COMMANDMENTS TO LIFE. At first the commands seem outside us, and are interesting studies. As we "go in the path" of them we gradually recognize their personal relations; they directly concern us; they fit to unfolding circumstances and conditions. Getting God"s will applied to cherished moods of mind, to fixed habits of conduct, to unfolding relations and responsibilities, to unexpected times of strain, comes to be the most real work of the religious life. Life is the path which God"s revealed will marks out for us, and it is our work to keep the path.
III PROGRESS IN THE CHARACTER AND SPIRIT OF THE OBEDIENCE OFFERED. At first the service of God, and obedience to his holy Law, is a strain. Perhaps not absolutely at first, because the waves of early impulse bear young souls for a while into an easy obedience. Just after the first a rebound comes, a time of dullness, and then obedience is the strain of constant effort. The will battles with the feeling. But we go in the path, and gradually the strain passes, the love dominates the will, and bears it to an obedience that says, "I delight to do thy will, O God. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 35. Make me to go in the path…
Ver. 35. Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight. "To will is present with me; but how to perform that which good I find not." Thou hast made me to love the way, now make me to move in it. It is a plain path, which others are treading through thy grace; I see it and admire it; cause me to travel in it. This is the cry of a child that longs to walk, but is too feeble; of a pilgrim who is exhausted, yet pants to be on the march; of a lame man who pines to be able to run. It is a blessed thing to delight in holiness, and surely he who gave us this delight will work in us the yet higher joy of possessing and practising it. Here is our only hope; for we shall not go in the narrow path till we are made to do so by the Maker's own power. O thou who didst once make me, I pray thee make me again: thou hast made me to know; now make me to go. Certainly I shall never be happy till I do, for my sole delight lies in walking according to thy bidding.
The Psalmist does not ask the Lord to do for him what he ought to do for himself: he wishes himself to "go" or tread in the path of the command. He asks not to be carried while he lies passive; but to be made "to go." Grace does not treat us as stocks and stones, to be dragged by horses or engines, but as creatures endowed with life, reason, will, and active powers, who are willing and able to go of themselves if once made to do so. God worketh in us, but it is that we may both will and do according to his good pleasure. The holiness we seek after is not a forced compliance with command, but the indulgence of a whole hearted passion for goodness, such as shall conform our life to the will of the Lord. Can the reader say, "therein do I delight"? Is practical godliness the very jewel of your soul, the coveted prize of your mind? If so, the outward path of life, however rough, will be clean, and lead the soul upward to delight ineffable. He who delights in the law should not doubt but what he will be enabled to run in its ways, for where the heart already finds its joy the feet are sure to follow.
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Note that the corresponding verse in the former eight (Ps 119:35) was "Make me to understand, "and here we have "Make me to go." Remark the: order, first understanding and then going; for a clear understanding is a great assistance towards practical action.
During the last few octaves the fourth has been the heart verse:see Ps 119:20, 28, and now Ps 119:36. Indeed in all the preceding fourths great heartiness is observable. This also marks the care with which this sacred song was composed.
Ver. 35. THE WORD SET BEFORE THE FEET. The word ygkwddh is from drd "to tread with the feet, ""to trample." Hence, "Make me to go, "alludes here to the very act of walking in the divine way, in distinction from mere perception of the way with the eyes and with the understanding. It is in this matter of practical walking that the actual difficulties of the way seem to come more forcibly into sight; hence we no longer have Kdd used (as in Ps 119:33) which may mean a broad open way, but bytg, which (says Gesenius) "never denotes a public and royal road, such as was raised up and formed by art, but always a footpath." So the younger Buxtorf renders the word by Semita. When the feet really come to tread it, the way of truth is ever found to be "the narrow way."
Ver. 35. Make me to go in the path of thy commandments. David, in the former verses, had begged for light, now for strength to walk according to this light. We need not only light to know our way, but a heart to walk in it. Direction is necessary because of the blindness of our minds; and the effectual impulsions of grace are necessary because of the weakness of our hearts. It will not answer our duty to have a naked notion of truths, unless we embrace and pursue them. So, accordingly, we need a double assistance from God; the mind must be enlightened, the will moved and inclined. The work of a Christian lies not in depth of speculation, but in the height of practice. The excellency of Divine grace consisteth in this, That God doth first teach what is to be done, and then make us to do whet is taught: "Make me to go in the path of thy commandments." Thomas Marten.
Ver. 35. The path of thy commandments. They are termed "the paths, "because paths are narrow, short, straight, clean passages for people on foot only, and not for horses and carriages; and such is the way of the Lord, as compared with that of the flesh and of the world, all the ways of which are broad, filthy, and crooked, trodden by the brute beasts, the type of carnal, animal man. He assigns a reason for being heard when he says, For this same I have desired; because, through God's grace, I have chosen this path, and desired to walk in it, and it is only meet that he who gives the will should give the grace to accomplish, as St. Paul says, "Who worketh in you both to will and to do." Robert Bellarmine.
Ver. 35. The path is "the path of thy commandments." Not any new way, but the old and pathed way wherein all the servants of God have walked before him, and for which the Grecians (as Euthymius notes) called it tribon quasi viam tritam. But howsoever this way be pathed, by the walking and treading of many in it, yet he acknowledgeth it is but one, yea, and a narrow and difficult path to keep, and therefore seeks he to be guided into it. William Cowper.
Ver. 35. The path. It is a "path" not a public road; a path where no beast goes, and men seldom. Adam Clarke.
Ver. 35, 37. The path. Thy way: The Hindus call panth or way the line of doctrine of any sect followed, in older to attain to mukti, or deliverance from sin. Way signifies the chief means to an end, and is applied to the Scriptures, Ps 119:27, to God's counsels, to God's works. This spiritual way is (1) easy to find, Isa 35:8, (2) clean, no mud of sin; (3) never out of repair. Christ the same now as 6,000 years ago; (4) no lion or wild beasts on; (5) costly, the blood of Christ made it; (6) not lonely, many believers on it, Heb 12:1; (7) no toll, all may come; (8) wide. The way to the cities of refuge was forty-eight feet wide. The map of the Bible shows this path; (9) the end pleasant Heaven. J. Long, in "Eastern Proverbs and Maxims illustrating old Truths, " 1881.
Ver. 35-36. Therein do I delight. Incline my heart unto thy testimonies. A child of God hath not the bent of his heart so perfectly fixed towards God but it is ever and anon returning to its old bent and bias again. The best may find that they cannot keep their affections as loose from the world when they have houses, and lands, and all things at their will, as they could when they are kept low and bare. The best may find that their love to heavenly things is on the wane as worldly things are on the increase. It is reported of Pius Quintus that he should say of himself that, when he first entered into orders, he had some hopes of his salvation; when he came to be a cardinal, he doubted of it; but since he came to be pope, he did even almost despair. Many may find a very great change in themselves, much decay of zeal for God's glory, and love to and relish of God's word, and mindfulness of heavenly things, as it fares better with them in the world. Now it is good to observe this before the mischief increaseth. Look, as jealousy and caution are necessary to prevent the entrance and ginning of this mischief, so observation is necessary to prevent the increase of it. When the world doth get too deep an interest in our hearts, when it begins to insinuate and entice us from God, and weaken our delight in the ways of God and zeal for his glory, then we need often to tell you how it is for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Thomas Manton.
Ver. 35. The prayer of a child, and the delight of a child. Or, Our pleasure in holiness a plea for grace.
Ver. 35.
1. Delight avowed.
2. Disinclination implied.
3. Constraint implored. W. W.
Psalms 119:36*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Guide me in the path of your commandments
Guide me in the path of your commandments
"Guide me according to your commandments" or "Teach me to obey your commandments." God's commandments are compared to a path that a person walks in obedience to God. (See: Metaphor)
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Direct my heart toward
This is an idiom. The "heart" here refers to the will, desires, and choices that directs one's life. AT: "Make me want" (See: Idiom)
your covenant decrees
"to obey your covenant decrees." This is referring to obeying the Law of Moses.
unrighteous gain
"the desire for riches." This is referring to wealth gained by illegal methods or wrongdoing towards others.
translationWords
command
walk
heart
covenant
decree
righteous
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.