PSALMS 119:135 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; and teach me thy statutes.”
The psalmist appeals to God to make His face shine upon the servant and teach His statutes, combining blessing language with petition for instruction. This verse evokes the Aaronic benediction wherein God's shining face represents divine favor and presence. The request for teaching while already experiencing blessing illustrates the continuity of spiritual growth: even recipients of divine favor remain students of God's law. The identification as servant maintains the humility established earlier in the psalm, preventing spiritual confidence from devolving into arrogance. The shining face represents the experiential dimension of grace, the felt presence of God alongside the objective instruction in statutes. This verse completes the Pe stanza's exploration of how God's word mediated through speech, writing, and teaching becomes the means of illumination and blessing.
Church Fathers on Psalms 119:135
1. From its commencement, dearly beloved, does this great Psalm exhort us unto bliss, which there is no one who desires not....And therefore this is the lesson which he teaches, who says, “Blessed are those that are undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord” Psalm 118:1. As much as to say, I know what you wish, you are seeking bliss: if then you would be blessed, be undefiled. For the former all desire, the latter fear: yet without it what all wish cannot be…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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