Mazmur 112:1

Psalm 112 ¹ 

112:1 Praise the Lord!

How blessed is the one ²  who obeys ³  the Lord,

who takes great delight in keeping his commands. ⁴ 

Mazmur 119:16

119:16 I find delight ⁵  in your statutes;

I do not forget your instructions. ⁶ 

Mazmur 119:35

119:35 Guide me ⁷  in the path of your commands,

for I delight to walk in it. ⁸ 

Roma 7:22

7:22 For I delight in the law of God in my inner being.

[112:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 112. This wisdom psalm lists some of the benefits of living a godly life. The psalm is an acrostic. After the introductory call to praise, every poetic line (twenty-two in all) begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[112:1]  ² tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The individual is representative of a larger group, called the “godly” in vv. 3-4. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” The generic masculine pronoun is used in the following verses.

[112:1]  ³ tn Heb “fears.”

[112:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “in his commands he delights very much.” The words “in keeping” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Taking delight in the law is metonymic here for obeying God’s moral will. See Ps 1:2.

[119:16]  ⁵ tn The imperfects in this verse emphasize the attitude the psalmist maintains toward God’s law. Another option is to translate with the future tense, “I will find delight…I will not forget.”

[119:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “your word.” Many medieval Hebrew mss as well as the LXX read the plural here.

[119:35]  ⁷ tn Or “make me walk.”

[119:35]  ⁸ tn Heb “for in it I delight.”