What Does Psalm 119:115 Mean?
Turn aside from me, you evildoers, so that I may keep watch over the commandments of my God.
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
Depart from me, ye evildoers: for I will keep the commandments of my God.THE KEY
The speaker guards what gives life by drawing a boundary around what can pull him from it.
THE MEANING
This verse names a choice that is alive now: your closeness to harmful influences can shape what you are able to keep. Here, turning them away and guarding God’s commandments are one movement, the boundary protects what is entrusted to you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that faithfulness requires keeping every influence close; here, guarding what is good includes refusing the nearness of evildoers.
THE ROOT
אֶצְּרָה
ʾeṣṣərâ
GROWS FROM
נצר
n-ṣ-r
Guard, watch over, preserve.
“keep watch over” in this verse is ʾeṣṣərâ. The verse’s “keep” carries the sense of guarding something entrusted to you, not merely complying with a rule. This root family also gives נֵצֶר (nēṣer), “shoot” or “branch”: keeping has the feel of preserving living growth.
ALSO GROWS
nōṣēr: One who guards or preserves.
נֹצֵר
Psalm 31:23 uses this form for the LORD, who “preserveth the faithful,” showing the same root at work as active protection.
nēṣer: A shoot or branch.
נֵצֶר
Isaiah 11:1 uses this word for the branch growing from Jesse’s roots; it brings a living image to the verse’s idea of what is preserved.
THE PATTERN
Guarding what gives life joins care for the inner life with a boundary around corrupting influence.
Flourishing is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of those who miss the mark, nor sit in the seat of the scoffers.Above every watch you keep, guard your heart, for from it flow the springs of life.Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves me, that one will guard my word, and my Father will love that one, and we will come to him and make a place to remain with him.THE THREAD
Flourishing are those who guard his testimonies, who seek him with the whole heart.The Hebrew word translated “keep” here comes from the same root, נצר (natsar), as “I will keep” in verse 115. This verse joins guarding God’s testimonies with seeking him wholeheartedly, revealing the attentive life protected by the speaker’s boundary.
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