1. Be good to your servant while I live, that I may obey your word.
Verse 17 
Be good to your servant while I live, that I may obey your word. 

2. The Hebrew translated ‘word’ is ‘dabar’.
This means something spoken. It often means something said to Moses or one of the prophets, so that it can be communicated to God’s people.

3. Verse 18 
Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. 

4. The word for ‘law’ is ‘mishpat’
The word for ‘law’ is ‘mishpat’. This means God expressing his mind about what is right and wrong.  

5. The initial latters TNK are pronounced Tanakh
The Law, the Prophets
and the Writings
In Hebrew this is
Torah, Nevi’im, Ketuvim
The initial latters TNK are pronounced Tanakh

6. Verse 19 
I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me. 

7. 1 Pet.1:17
Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 

8. Heb,11: ‘All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth...Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.’

9. Verse 19b Do not hide your commands from me.
‘Miswah’ is another word for God’s commands. It emphasises doing what we’re told.

10. Verse 20 
My soul is consumed with longing for your laws (mishpat) at all times. 

11. Verse 21 
You rebuke the arrogant, who are accursed, those who stray from your commands (miswah). 

12. Verse 22 
Remove from me their scorn and contempt, for I keep your statutes. 

13. God’s statutes. Here the word is ‘edoth’ and it means to bear witness
God’s statutes. Here the word is ‘edoth’ and it means to bear witness. In his statutes God bears witness to his own nature. By keeping those statutes we bear witness to him.

14. Verse 23 
Though rulers sit together and slander me, your servant will meditate on your decrees. 

15. The word for decrees is ‘hoq’ which comes from the word ‘to engrave’
The word for decrees is ‘hoq’ which comes from the word ‘to engrave’. This is connected with the 10 commandments being engraved on two tablets of stone. It carries the idea of permanence. Those decrees will not be altered.

16. Your statutes (edoth)are my delight; they are my counsellors.
Verse 24 
Your statutes (edoth)are
my delight; they are my counsellors.