PSALMS 119:171 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“My lips shall utter praise, when thou hast taught me thy statutes.”
Lips will utter praise and the psalmist will be taught God's statutes, expressing the fruit of petition: when God teaches, the response is inevitable praise. This verse anticipates that divine instruction will produce vocal response, that meditation on Scripture naturally overflows in utterance. The pairing of praise and learning suggests that they are inseparable: discovery of God's truth generates praise. The verse emphasizes the external expression of internal transformation: lips give voice to what the heart has apprehended. This verse illustrates the contemplative outcome: silent meditation ripens into vocal praise. The vocal utterance indicates that keeping faith is not merely private matter but participation in communal worship and witness.
Church Fathers on Psalms 119:171
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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