PSALMS 119:156 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“Great are thy tender mercies, O Lord: quicken me according to thy judgments.”
God's mercies are great and God quickens according to divine justice, completing the appeal for revival with renewed confidence in divine compassion and righteous judgment. This verse synthesizes key themes: God's hesed (covenantal mercy) is described with superlatives—great, manifold—while also being coordinated with divine justice. The tension between mercy and justice is resolved through recognition that they are not contradictory but aspects of single divine character: God judges justly and shows mercy greatly. The quickening (revival) represents both spiritual resurrection and renewed strength for continued obedience. This verse reassures the psalmist that both mercy and justice work toward the same end: restoration of covenant relationship. The Resh stanza continues to alternate between petition acknowledging need and affirmation acknowledging divine character.
Church Fathers on Psalms 119:156
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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