Tehillim 119:17
גְּמֹל עַל-עַבְדְּךָ אֶחְיֶה וְאֶשְׁמְרָה דְבָרֶךָ
gemol al-avdecha echye veeshmera devarecha
Gimel. Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live and keep Your word.
He begins with the first obstacle to the attainment of saintliness, namely illness. He pleads, "Deal bountifully with Your servant that I may live." Let me always be in good health, so "I will keep Your word."
He asks for life, not in order to indulge in pleasures, but in order to "keep" the mitzvot whereby the human being achieves perfection in the World to Come. The reward is reaped there; here one works towards the reward.
"Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live." Remove from me the burden of providing my sustenance. But grant e just enough to sustain me, so "that I may live" without pain "and keep Your word."
The singular form - "word" - refers to the Ten Commandments that were divinely spoken as a single utterance.
David asked further for the removal of those obstructions that beset him as king. He had to deal with matters of state and engage in wars, so he asked for a long life in order to fully accomplish his purpose.
"Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live." Grant me life that is a bountiful gift, not life that is punishment. Let it be a good, upright life that deserves the name "life." Sometimes, most of one's life is an affliction because it is wasted. For this person, death would have been the better thing.
Accordingly, David pleads: Let mine be the kind of life where "I will keep Your word."
Tehillim 119:1 - Tehillim 119:2 - Tehillim 119:3 - Tehillim 119:4 - Tehillim 119:5 - Tehillim 119:6 - Tehillim 119:7 - Tehillim 119:8 - Tehillim 119:9 - Tehillim 119:10 - Tehillim 119:11 - Tehillim 119:12 - Tehillim 119:13 - Tehillim 119:14 - Tehillim 119:15 - Tehillim 119:16
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