Psalms 119:20
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
My soul breaks for the longing that it has to your judgments at all times.
American King James Version (AKJV)
My soul breaks for the longing that it has to your judgments at all times.
American Standard Version (ASV)
My soul breaketh for the longing That it hath unto thine ordinances at all times.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
My soul is broken with desire for your decisions at all times.
Webster's Revision
My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath to thy judgments at all times.
World English Bible
My soul is consumed with longing for your ordinances at all times.
English Revised Version (ERV)
My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.
Clarke's Psalms 119:20 Bible Commentary
My soul breaketh - We have a similar expression: It broke my heart, That is heart-breaking, She died of a broken heart. It expresses excessive longing, grievous disappointment, hopeless love, accumulated sorrow. By this we may see the hungering and thirsting which the psalmist had after righteousness, often mingled with much despondency.
Barnes's Psalms 119:20 Bible Commentary
My soul breaketh - This word means to break; to crush; to break in pieces by scraping, rubbing, or grating. The idea would seem to be, not that he was crushed as by a single blow, but that his soul - his strength - was worn away by little and little. The desire to know more of the commands of God acted continually on him, exhausting his strength, and overcoming him. He so longed for God that, in our language, "it wore upon him" - as any ungratified desire does. It was not the possession of the knowledge of God that exhausted him; it was the intenseness of his desire that he might know more of God.
For the longing - For the earnest desire.
That it hath unto thy judgments at all times - Thy law; thy commands. This was a constant feeling. It was not fitful or spasmodic. It was the steady, habitual state of the soul on the subject. He had never seen enough of the beauty and glory of the law of God to feel that all the needs of his nature were satisfied, or that he could see and know no more; he had seen and felt enough to excite in him an ardent desire to be made fully acquainted with all that there is in the law of God. Compare the notes at Psalm 17:15.
Wesley's Psalms 119:20 Bible Commentary
119:20 Breaketh - Faints, as it frequently does, when a thing vehemently desired is delayed. Judgments - To a more sound knowledge and serious practice of them.