PSALMS 119:166 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“Lord, I have hoped for thy salvation, and done thy commandments.”
The psalmist hopes for salvation and does God's commandments, expressing the integration of aspiration and action that characterizes mature faith. This verse reveals that salvation is simultaneously object of hope (requiring divine gift) and goal toward which obedience aims (requiring human response). The coordination of hoping for salvation and doing commandments prevents interpreting salvation as either passive reception or autonomous achievement. The psalmist simultaneously depends upon God's redemptive work and exercises responsibility through obedience. This verse captures the paradox of covenant: salvation is God's gracious work, yet it comes to those who do God's commandments. The Sin/Shin stanza concludes with affirmation that burning intensity of commitment to God's law produces both peace and authentic hope.
Church Fathers on Psalms 119:166
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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