Tehillim 119:30
דֶּרֶךְ-אֱמוּנָה בָחָרְתִּי מִשְׁפָּטֶיךָ שִׁוִּיתִי
derech-emunah vacharti mishpateicha shiviti
I have chosen the way of faithfulness; Your ordinances have I set before me.
In matters of belief and opinion, David Hamelech did not choose the path of the philosophers. Rather, "I have chosen the way of faithfulness; Your ordinances have I set before me." I have set the words of Your Torah before my eyes, and believed in reward and punishment.
A different interpretation is based on the reading of שויתי as "I have equated." David Hamelech says, regarding the commandments between man and man, "Your ordinances have I equated." I saw everyone as equal, the small and the great, the rich and the impoverished.
"I have chosen the way of faithfulness." I myself chose freely what to believe. But "Your ordinances have I equated." I set them all equal. One is not to say that some mitzvot are reasonable and others are puzzling. They are all commands of G-d.
I asked You to "remove from me the way of falsehood" (119:29), for I had already "chosen the way of faithfulness." One who comes to be purified is helped. I asked that You "favor me with the grace of Your Torah" (ibid.), because previously I had already come to value (שויתי) "Your ordinances." It is thus fitting that deliverance be granted me, and that You favor me with grace through the Torah.
A related interpretation says, "I have chosen the way" of simple faith to accept everything with love. "Your ordinances" - Your decrees, both for good and for better - "I have set equal" in my eyes, to accept them all with love equally.
Some explain the present verse in accordance with the well known story about the man who came to a Sage asking for a way to repent. The Sage said to him, "Accept upon yourself to speak only the truth. Then you will find yourself keeping away from whatever transgression comes your way. For you will realize that later you will not be able to deny having committed that transgression." That is what David Hamelech says here, "I have chosen the way of faithfulness (truth); Your ordinances have I set before me."
A person's primary free choice is in this matter itself, for one who merits to choose true life, he chooses primarily through faith and prayer, in the aspect of: "I have chosen the way of faithfulness." Then, when one has complete faith, and prays and speaks to G-d abundantly, that He should allow him to merit to return to Him in truth, through which he sweetens and annuls all the evil forces and the sitra achra (other side). Then G-d helps him to merit serving Him through Torah and Mitzvot, and enlightens his eyes to understand the Torah, until one merits to understand concerning Torah and Avodah, what is possible for a mortal mind to understand, and through this one defeats and annuls all the evil husks and the sitra achra, which are rooted in the aspect of the Breaking of the Vessels, and raises up from there all the sparks of holiness. (Rabbi Yisroel Odeser)
“I have chosen the path of emunah.” (119:30) Just as Hashem chooses the “far,” He also chooses the “near”—
The tzaddikim who serve Hashem from “near”—in the inner aspect — reveal what it means to be “close.” They demonstrate that, “the thing is very near to you, in your mouth and your heart, to do it.” (Devarim 30:14)
They show that Hashem is always with us, that He is orchestrating all the events of our lives, and we have no reason to fear at all. They teach us that we need to abandon ourselves to Him at every step along the way, and to turn to Him and pray at every moment. Then, we can be confident that Hashem will lead us on the path that will bring us to true rectification, completion, and repentance — and there is no real possibility of failure. Anyone who believes that the Shechinah presents any challenge or obstacle that does not have the power to bring him to realize all of his spiritual potential makes light of her honor. The truth is that the Shechinah is the only power that exists in the world [and so naturally there is no source of challenge to a person that is not an expression of Hashem’s will and that doesnot have the potential to bring him to completion]. It is about such tzaddikim that Hashem declares through the prophet, “Peace to the near.”
The inner pathway of devekut (closeness; attachment to G-d) is the type that Adam HaRishon and Avraham Avinu both followed, which we can see from the fact that they observed all of the Torah’s laws even before they were revealed in the world through Hashem’s command. (Bereishit 2:15; Zohar I:27a; Kiddushin 4:14)
Since they constantly turned to Hashem and cleaved to Him, Hashem caused them to intuitively fulfill all of the mitzvot. Even if a person has sinned, as long as he sincerely chooses to seek the point of emunah, Hashem will not abandon him and will guide him along the path of truth.
Just as Hashem chooses the “far,” He also chooses the “near”—“I have chosen the path of
emunah.” (Tehillim 119:30) He wants to be discovered through the inner path of emunah by all of the Jewish people. This is why Hashem used the term emunah when He censured Moshe and Aharon for failing to reveal this pathway:
“Because you did not have emunah in Me, to sanctify Me before the eyes of the entire Jewish people.” (Bamidbar 20:12) This path is very deep, and one must simultaneously bear in mind that while avodat Hashem is difficult and far from us, nevertheless it is also easy and near to us. One need do nothing but sincerely repent of wrongdoing and turn to Hashem constantly, seeking emunah, and everything will be repaired as a matter of course and one will attain all of the holiness that he needs to. This is on the condition that he never lets his mind stray from Malchut, which is also called “a path,” or derech. (Sefer Halikutim, Tehillim 77)
This path will lead a person up to the King’s palace.
- Me'am Lo'ez; Rabbi Yisroel Odeser; De'ei Chochmah L'Nafshechah
