What Does Psalm 119:6 Mean?
Then I am not shamed when I gaze upon all your commands.
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
Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.THE KEY
The verse ties freedom from shame to a gaze that takes in the whole instruction, not a selective glance.
THE MEANING
Shame does not have to be met by turning your attention away from what confronts you. As you look toward the whole of the instruction, you can stand before it without hiding. The verse holds unashamedness and undivided regard together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that shame can be escaped only by looking away; here, the unashamed stance is joined to looking fully at the whole charge.
THE ROOT
אֵבוֹשׁ
ʾēvōsh
GROWS FROM
בושׁ
To be ashamed or disgraced.
“ashamed” in this verse is ʾēvōsh. The verse links being free of disgrace with turning your gaze toward the whole of the instruction. The same root returns in Psalm 119:31, where attachment to the testimonies is placed beside a plea not to be put to shame.
ALSO GROWS
bosh: To be ashamed.
בּוֹשׁ
This is the root verb beneath “I shall not be ashamed.”
tevisheni: Put me to shame; disgrace me.
תְּבִישֵׁנִי
This form appears in Psalm 119:31, where the same shame-root is spoken alongside sticking to the testimonies.
הַבִּיטִי
habbiṭi
GROWS FROM
נבט
To look or gaze.
“gaze upon” in this verse is habbiṭi. “Respect” here is expressed as looking toward the commandments. The verse describes an attentive gaze directed toward all of them, not merely an inward feeling of esteem.
ALSO GROWS
nabat: To look or regard.
נָבַט
This is the verb’s root sense: the reader’s regard is an act of seeing toward the instruction.
mabbat: A look or view.
מַבָּט
This related noun makes the visual sense explicit: the verse’s “respect” is a way of directing one’s view.
מִצְוֹתֶיךָ
mitzvotekha
GROWS FROM
צוה
To command, charge, or direct.
“commands” in this verse is mitzvotekha. The commandments grow from the language of a charge given. Paired with “look,” the verse presents the whole charge as something brought into view, rather than a fragment to be glanced at selectively.
ALSO GROWS
mitzvah: A commandment or charge.
מִצְוָה
This is the singular form behind the verse’s “commandments.”
tsav: A command or directive.
צַו
This related form keeps the sense of a charge or direction present in the word family.
THE PATTERN
Turning the gaze toward God without concealment opens a path from shame to confidence.
They gaze upon him and flow with light, and their faces are never exposed.And now, little children, remain in him, so that when he is brought into the light, we may have open speech, and not turn our faces away from him at his coming.But we all, with uncovered faces, mirror the weight of the LORD, and are being reshaped into the same image, ever increasing in weight, even as from the breath of the LORD.THE THREAD
I cling to your testimonies, LORD. Do not put me to shame.“Shame” here and “put me not to shame” in verse 31 grow from the same Hebrew root, בושׁ (bosh), meaning to be ashamed or disgraced. Verse 31 places that same root beside sticking to the testimonies, echoing verse 6’s link between regard for the whole instruction and an unashamed stance.
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