The psalmist believes God is righteous and has spoken words in Torah that are right and that can guide God’s people. But those two convictions are at odds with others: they evidently don’t believe either of his convictions. How does he respond? Here are his words:
139 My zeal wears me out,
for my enemies ignore your words.
140 Your promises have been thoroughly tested,
and your servant loves them.
141 Though I am lowly and despised,
I do not forget your precepts.
143 Trouble and distress have come upon me,
but your commands give me delight.
His utter zeal — undeterred commitment — wears him down, annihilates him because his enemies ignore God’s words. He is grieved by the ignorance of others.
In spite of his enemies’ approach to the words of God, the psalmist tests the promises of the Torah and loves them. He tests the words of God.
Tested as he might be, he will not forget the precepts. He will not forget.
Distress leads him back to the righteous God and he finds God’s commands utter delight — delight in delight, delightful delight, or delightful delightfulness. He delights in God’s right laws.
A God who is right prompts in the psalmist a love for the right things — the right people, the right laws, the right God, and to a grief over what is not right.