What Does Psalm 119:108 Mean?
Please accept the willing gifts of my mouth, LORD, and teach me your judgments.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Accept, I beseech thee, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O LORD, and teach me thy judgments.THE KEY
Your words rise as a willing offering, even as you remain a learner of the judgments you ask to know.
THE MEANING
The words coming from your mouth can be a freely given offering to the LORD. You ask that they be received, while also asking to be taught by God’s judgments. The offering and the learning belong together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that spoken devotion is complete in the act of offering: the one who offers still asks to be taught by God’s judgments.
THE ROOT
נִדְבוֹת
nidvot
GROWS FROM
נדב
To offer willingly or volunteer.
“willing gifts” in this verse is nidvot. The seed of “freewill offerings” also names the willing person and the act of offering oneself freely. The verse presents words as something given willingly, a real offering from the mouth.
ALSO GROWS
nādîv: Willing, generous, or noble.
נָדִיב
The willing person shares the root of the offerings, showing the disposition carried in the gift.
hitnaddēv: To volunteer or offer oneself willingly.
הִתְנַדֵּב
This verb makes the root’s willingness active: the offering is given freely.
לַמְּדֵנִי
lammedeni
GROWS FROM
למד
To learn or teach; to become or make instructed.
“teach me” in this verse is lammedeni. The same root carries both learning and teaching: the learner and the act of instruction belong to one word-family. The request is for God’s judgments to reach and shape the one who asks.
ALSO GROWS
lamad: To learn or become instructed.
לָמַד
This is the learner’s side of the root behind “teach me.”
melammed: One who teaches or instructs.
מְלַמֵּד
This is the teaching side of the same root, showing the close link between instruction given and learning received.
מִשְׁפָּטֶיךָ
mishpatekha
GROWS FROM
שפט
To judge, decide, or govern by judgment.
“Judgments” belongs to a family of words for judging and decision. The verse asks to be taught God’s discerning decisions, so judgment here is something to understand, not merely a verdict to hear.
ALSO GROWS
shafat: To judge or decide.
שָׁפַט
The verb is the root action beneath the judgments the speaker asks to learn.
shofet: A judge, one who decides.
שֹׁפֵט
The person who judges shares the root of the judgments, connecting the decision to the one who makes it.
THE PATTERN
Scripture receives spoken praise as an offering that can be accepted by God.
Let the words of my mouth be received, and the murmur of my heart before your face. O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.Through him, then, let us always carry up a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.You also, as living stones, are built up into a house of breath, a set-apart priesthood, to carry up sacrifices of breath, well received by God through Jesus, the Anointed One.THE THREAD
With a willing gift I will slaughter to you; I will extend my hands to your nature, O LORD, for it is good.The Hebrew behind “freely” comes from the same root as the freewill offerings here. In this verse, the willing gift is joined to praise, making the mouth a place where an offering rises.
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