Accept, I beseech you, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O LORD, and teach me your judgments.
All Commentaries on Psalms 119:108 Go To Psalms 119
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
107. "Make the freewill offerings of my mouth well pleasing, O Lord" (ver. 108): that is, let them please Thee; do not reject, but approve them. By the freewill offerings of the mouth are well understood the sacrifices of praise, offered up in the confession of love, not from the fear of necessity; whence it is said, "a freewill offering will I offer Thee." But what doth he add? "and teach me Thy judgments"? Had he not himself said above, "From Thy judgments I have not swerved"? How could he have done thus, if he knew them not? Moreover, if he knew them, in what sense doth he here say, "and teach me Thy judgments"? Is it as in a former passage, "Thou hast dealt in sweetness with Thy servant:" presently after which we find, "teach me sweetness"? This passage we explained as the words of one who was gaining in grace, and praying that he might receive in addition to what he had received.