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Tehillim 119:5 achalai yikonu derachai lishmor chukeicha
My hopes: that my ways be directed to observe Your statutes!

"My hopes" - these are my pleas that I place before You: "That my ways be directed" so I should also "observe Your statues" whose reason elude us.

"[These are] my [fervent] prayers (hopes)," I desire nothing else but this. (Ibn Ezra)

Because the reasons for the statutes are not known, ha-satan and the other peoples condemn us.  But I say: "My hopes" and pleas are "that my ways be directed to observe Your statues" as well.

The mitzvah must be made possessions of the soul.  Therefore, I plead and petition that "my ways be directed to observe Your statutes."  Let none of my mundane affairs beset me.  I implore You to protect me from the diversions of the world, so that my heart and being are free "to observe Your statutes."

Let "my ways be directed to observe Your statutes." Let them not be directed towards bodily needs or towards any other diversion.

R’ Shmuel Shmelke Güntzler z”l (1838-1911; rabbi of Oyber-Visheve, Hungary for 45 years) writes: We read in Tehilim (119:5-6), “My prayer is: ‘May my ways be firmly guided to keep Your decrees; then I will not be ashamed when I gaze at all your commandments’.” In these verses, King David is noting the tension between our obligation to try to understand G-d’s Will, on the one hand, and our duty to serve Him as subjects, i.e., not because we understand or approve of His mitzvot but simply because they are His commandments. How can a person evaluate whether he is serving Hashem for the right reason (as a subject) or the wrong reason (because the person has evaluated the mitzvot and decided they make sense to him, in which case he is serving himself, not G-d)?

The answer is that one should look at how he performs those mitzvot that do not seem to be logical. If a person performs the decrees with the same enthusiasm with which he performs the “logical” mitzvot, then he knows that he is behaving as a subject. This is what King David meant: If I am firm in my commitment to Your decrees, then I will not be ashamed when I perform the “logical” commandments. Rather, I will know that those mitzvot, as well, I am performing as a subject and not because they make sense to me. (Meishiv Nefesh)

Tehillim 119:4
Tehillim 119:3
Tehillim 119:2
Tehillim 119:1


MeAm Lo'ez
Chazal

Tehillim 119:4 atah tzivitah fikudeicha lishmor meod
You have ordained Your commands, that we should observe them diligently.

King David now goes on to explain why the Holy One has commanded that we fulfill 613 Mitzvot.   If when we simply "do no wrong," we also "walk in His ways" (v119:3).  Why has the Holy One commanded that we fulfill 613 mitzvot?  The answer is, "You have ordained Your commands, that we should observe them diligently."  When there are many mitzvot to keep, there are always occasions for performing any number of them!

It is "that we should observe them diligently" in order to make them part of our souls.  Thereafter, we will perform them with heart and soul.



Tehillim 119:3
Tehillim 119:2
Tehillim 119:1


MeAm Lo'ez
Chazal

Tehillim 119:3 af lo faalu avlah bidrachav halakhu
Yes, they do no wrong; they walk in His ways.

Those who earnestly follow G-d's precepts receive special Divine assistance to avoid doing any iniquity.

"Those who seek" the Torah "with the whole heart" (v119:2), will merit to "do no wrong" any time.  All their lives they will "walk in His ways."  For the one who comes to purify himself is helped from on high.

"Happy are they whose way is integrity" (v119:1) refers to those who have merited not only to "do no wrong," but also to keep the affirmative mitzvot through actual performance.  Thus it says, "Happy are they who" actually "walk in His ways" (ibid.).  They not only "depart from evil" (v34:15), but "do good" (ibid.).  If, however, they only commit no transgressions and "do no wrong," that is not enough.  It is also necessary that "they" actively "walk in His ways."


Tehillim 119:2
Tehillim 119:1



-MeAm Lo'ez
-Schottenstein Sefer Tehillim