My hands also will I lift up unto your commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in your statutes.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
49. "And I meditated," he saith, "on Thy commandments, which I have loved" (ver. 47). "My hands also have I lifted up unto Thy commandments, which I have loved" (ver. 48); or, as some copies read, "which I have loved exceedingly," or "too much," or "vehemently," as they have chosen to render the Greek word sfodra. He then loved the commandments of God because he walked at liberty; that is, through the Holy Spirit, through whom love itself is shed abroad, and enlargeth the hearts of the faithful. But he loved, both in thought and in acts. With a view to thought, he saith, "And I meditated:" as to action, "My hands also have I lifted up." But to both sentences, he hath annexed the words, "which I have loved:" for "the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart." ...The following words, "And my study was in Thy statutes," relate to both. This expression most of the translators have preferred to this, "I rejoiced in," or "I talked of," a version which some have given from the Greek...
Hands. To pray, labour, or rather to swear an eternal fidelity. (Calmet)
Confessors rejoice in meditating on God's words, which they show forth in all their actions. (Worthington)
