Psalm 119:66 NKJV
66
Teach me good judgment and knowledge,
For I believe Your commandments.
The Spiritual Taste of Discernment in Faith
My Notes
Meaning of “Judgment” (Hebrew: ta’am)
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The word “ta’am” (Strong’s H2940) literally means “taste,” implying perception and intelligence.
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Spiritually, it suggests a deep discernment—a “taste” for what is godly and true.
David’s Prayer for Judgment and Knowledge
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David, though blessed, didn’t rely on his own heart but sought divine teaching.
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He recognized that only the Holy Spirit can teach true discernment and help us grow to spiritual maturity.
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This kind of judgment is a refined spiritual “taste”—the ability to sense and choose what’s excellent, holy, and truthful.
Faith Anchored in the Word
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David trusted in God’s guidelines, believing they were the foundation of true wisdom and discernment.
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By living according to God’s Word, believers grow stronger in faith and understanding.
Spiritual Insight
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True believers develop a spiritual palate—able to distinguish good from evil, truth from error.
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This discernment leads to deeper intimacy with God and shapes the believer’s conduct and affections.
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Anything that glorifies God and draws us closer to Him naturally captivates a heart born of the Spirit.
Declaration of the Day
“For I have believed thy commandments… therefore, Lord, teach me.” This captures the heart of spiritual growth—submission to divine truth leads to divine teaching.
Summary
Psalm 119:66 highlights David’s prayer for divine teaching in good judgment and knowledge, rooted in his belief in God’s commandments. The Hebrew term “ta’am” embodies spiritual discernment akin to taste, emphasizing the need for a deeper understanding of divine truths. David seeks guidance from the Holy Spirit to cultivate a refined spiritual taste that distinguishes between truth and falsehood. By living according to God’s Word, believers can achieve greater faith and understanding. True spiritual insight fosters intimacy with God, leading to lives that glorify Him. This plea reflects humility and the acknowledgment that wisdom begins with submission to divine instruction.
Note: Psalm 119 is an acrostic pattern. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet; each of the 22 sections is given a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and each line in that section begins with that letter. Today, we’re looking at verse 66, which is in the 9th section, which is called “Teth ט”. According to the hebrews4christians.com website, this letter is listed as “TET where the NKJV lists it as “TETH”, the letter Teth ט is the 9th letter of the Aleph-Bet, having the numeric value of nine. The pictograph for Teth ט looks like a snake coiled inside a basket.
The website https://www.abarim-publications.com/Hebrew_Alphabet_Meaning.html defines the meaning of the letter TETH as:
“The origin of the teth is a bit of a mystery. Klein derives from טות (twh), spin, and renders teth to knot, knot together, to twist into each other, to interweave. The letter teth indeed looks like a little vortex or spiral.”
……..Bill
Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
“Teach me good judgment and knowledge.” Again, he begs for teaching, as in verse 64, and again he uses God’s mercy as an argument. Since God had dealt well with him, he is encouraged to pray for judgment to appreciate the Lord’s goodness. Good judgment is the form of goodness which the godly man most needs and most desires, and it is one which the Lord is most ready to bestow. David felt that he had frequently failed in judgment in the matter of the Lord’s dealings with him: from want of knowledge, he had misjudged the chastening hand of the heavenly Father, and therefore he now asks to be better instructed, since he perceives the injustice which he had done to the Lord by his hasty conclusions. He means to say—Lord, thou didst deal well with me when I thought thee hard and stern, be pleased to give me more wit, that I may not a second time think so ill of my Lord. A sight of our errors and a sense of our ignorance should make us teachable. We are not able to judge, for our knowledge is so sadly inaccurate and imperfect; if the Lord teaches us knowledge, we shall attain to good judgment, but not otherwise. The Holy Ghost alone can fill us with light and set the understanding upon a proper balance: let us ardently long for his teachings, since it is most desirable that we should be no longer mere children in knowledge and understanding.
“For I have believed thy commandments.” His heart was right, and therefore, he hoped his head would be made right. He had faith, and therefor,e he hoped to receive wisdom. His mind had been settled in the conviction that the precepts of the word were from the Lord, and were therefore just, wise, kind, and profitable; he believed in holiness, and as that belief is no mean work of grace upon the soul, he looked for yet further operations of divine grace. He who believes the commands is the man to know and understand the doctrines and the promises. If, in looking back upon our mistakes and ignorance, we can yet see that we heartily loved the precepts of the divine will, we have good reason to hope that we are Christ’s disciples, and that he will teach us and make us men of good judgment and sound knowledge. A man who has learned discernment by experience and has thus become a man of sound judgment is a valuable member of a church and the means of much edification to others. Let all who would be greatly useful offer the prayer of this verse: “Teach me good judgment and knowledge.”
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Enduring Word
Teach me good judgment and knowledge: This prayer for wisdom comes from a blessed life. Having received this well-dealing from God, the psalmist understood the need to live in good judgment and knowledge. The blessings were given to him for wise and obedient living to the glory of God. (Guzik)
i. Good judgment: “…Hebrew, the goodness of taste, an experimental sense and relish of divine things.” (Poole)
ii. “Judgment, here, is literally ‘taste’, not in our sense of artistic judgment, but of spiritual discrimination: ‘for the ear tests words as the palate tastes food’ (Job 34:3). Cf. Hebrews 5:14.” (Kidner)
iii. We far too easily forget our great need to learn good judgment and knowledge, and are far too ready to trust our own heart and conscience. “The faculty of conscience partakes, with every other power of man, of the injury of the fall; and therefore, with all its intelligence, honesty, and power, it is liable to misconception…. Conscience, therefore, must not be trusted without the light of the word of God; and most important is the prayer – Teach me good judgment and knowledge.” (Bridges)
iv. “No school, but the school of Christ, no teaching, but the teaching of the Spirit – can ever give this good judgment and knowledge.” (Bridges)
For I believe Your commandments: He wanted God to teach him because he really did believe the commands and words of God. If we really do believe His word, then we should want Him to teach us to live wisely and obediently. (Guzik)
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Albert Barnes
Teach me good judgment – The word here rendered “judgment” means, properly, “taste,” that power by which we determine the quality of things as sweet, bitter, sour, etc. Then it is applied to the mind or understanding, as that by which we determine the moral quality of things, or decide what is right or wrong; wise or foolish; good or evil. Here, it means that he desired to have in full exercise the faculty of appreciating what is right, and of distinguishing it from what is wrong.
And knowledge – Knowledge of the truth; knowledge of thy will; knowledge of duty.
For I have believed thy commandments – I have confided in thy commandments. He believed that such a keeping of the law of God would be connected with a correct view of things. The keeping of the commands of God is one of the best means of growing in true knowledge, and of cultivating the understanding, of promoting a just taste or perception of what is true, and of developing the powers of the soul in the best proportions. Compare John 7:17.
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John Gill
Teach me good judgment and knowledge,…. Or, “a good taste”: of the Lord himself, how good and gracious he is; of his grace and love, which is better than wine; of his word and the truths of it, which are sweeter to a spiritual taste than honey or the honeycomb; and of the things of the Spirit of God, which are seventy to a spiritual man, a distinguishing taste of things; for as “the taste discerns perverse things” in food, so a man of a spiritual taste distinguishes good from evil, truth from error; discerns things that differ, and approves of those that are most excellent, and abides by them. Or, “a good sense“, as it may be rendered; a good sense of the Scriptures, the true and right sense of them; and to have the mind of God and of Christ, and of the Spirit of Christ, in the word; and to have distinguishing light in it, and a well established judgment in the truths of it, is very desirable: as is also a spiritual and experimental “knowledge” of them, a growing and increasing one; a knowledge of God in Christ, and of his will; a knowledge of Christ, his person and offices, and the mysteries of his grace; which a truly gracious and humble soul desires to be taught, and is taught of God more or less;
for I have believed thy commandments; the whole word of God, and all that is said in it; that it is of God, is the word of God and not the word of man; and therefore he was desirous of being taught the true meaning of it, and to be experimentally acquainted with it; the word of God is called his commandment, Psalm 19:7. Or the precepts of the word; he believed these were the commandments of God, and not of men; delivered out by him, and enforced by his authority; and therefore he gave credit to them, and loved them, and desired better to understand and do them: or the promises and threatenings annexed to them, which he believed would be punctually fulfilled upon the doers or transgressors of them; and as for himself, he cheerfully yielded the obedience of faith unto them.
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Matthew Henry
Upon these experiences, he grounds a petition for divine instruction: “Teach me good judgment and knowledge, that, by thy grace, I may render again, in some measure, according to the benefit done unto me.” Teach me a good taste (so the word signifies), a good relish, to discern things that differ, to distinguish between truth and falsehood, good and evil; for the ear tries words, as the mouth tastes meat. We should pray to God for a sound mind, that we may have spiritual senses exercised, Heb. 5:14. Many have knowledge who have little judgment; those who have both are well fortified against the snares of Satan and well furnished for the service of God and their generation.
This petition is backed with a plea: “For I have believed thy commandments, received them, and consented to them that they are good, and submitted to their government; therefore, Lord, teach me.” Where God has given a good heart, a good head, too many in faith be prayed for.
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Miscellaneous Comments
“For I have believed thy commandments.” The commandments of God are not alone; but they have promises of grace on the right hand, and threatenings of wrath on the left: upon both of these faith exercises itself, and without such faith no one will be able to render obedience to God’s commands.
—Wolfgang Musculus.
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“Teach me good judgment,” etc. David, who discovered a holy taste (Psa 19:10; 104:34; 119:103) and recommended it to others (Psa 34:8), requests in our text to have it increased. For the word rendered “judgment,” properly signifies taste, and denotes that relish for divine truth, and for the divine goodness and holiness, which is peculiar to true saints. I propose, therefore, to consider the nature and objects of that spiritual taste which is possessed by every gracious soul, and which all true saints desire to possess in a still greater degree.
The original word, which is often applied to those objects of sense which are distinguished by the palate, is here used in a metaphorical sense, as the corresponding term frequently is in our own language. “Doth not the ear try words? and the mouth taste his meat?” (Job 12:11). Our translators in this place render it “judgment,” which is nearly the same thing; yet as the terms are applied among us, there is a difference between them. Taste is that which enables a man to form a more comprehensive judgment. Judgment is slower in its operations than taste; it forms its decisions in a more circuitous way. So we apply the term taste to many objects of mental decision, to the beauty of a poem, to excellence of style, to elegance of dress or of deportment, to painting, to music, etc., in which a good taste will lead those who possess it, to decide speedily, and yet accurately, on the beauty, excellence, and propriety of the objects with which it has long been conversant without laborious examination.
Just so, true saints have a power of receiving pleasure from the beauty of holiness, which shines forth resplendently in the word of God, in the divine character, in the law, in the gospel, in the cross of Christ, in the example of Christ, and in the conduct of all his true followers, so far as they are conformed to his lovely image. I do not mean by this that they are influenced by a blind instinct, for which they can assign no sufficient reason: the genuine feelings of a true Christian can all of them be justified by the soundest reason: but those feelings which were first produced by renewing grace, are so strengthened by daily communion with God, and by frequent contemplation of spiritual things, that they acquire a delicacy and readiness of perception, which no one can possess who has never tasted how gracious the Lord is. You cannot touch, as it were, a certain string, but the renewed heart must needs answer to it. Whatever truly tends to exalt God, to bring the soul near to him, and to ensure his being glorified and enjoyed, will naturally attract the notice, excite the affections, and influence the conduct of one who is born of God. “Sweeter also than honey, and the honeycomb.” “My meditation of thee shall be sweet.” “How sweet are thy words to my taste! sweeter than honey to my mouth.” “O taste and see that the Lord is good.”
—John Ryland, 1753-1825.
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Cross-References
Philippians 1:9 (KJV)
9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;
Luke 17:5 (KJV)
5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.
Matthew 13:11 (KJV)
11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
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Closing Thoughts
Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise, And apply your heart to my knowledge; For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you; Let them all be fixed upon your lips, So that your trust may be in the Lord; I have instructed you today, even you. Have I not written to you excellent things Of counsels and knowledge, That I may make you know the certainty of the words of truth, That you may answer words of truth To those who send to you? Proverbs 22:17-21 NKJV
New King James Version
ט TETH: God’s word brings benefit from a time of affliction.
65
You have dealt well with Your servant,
O Lord, according to Your word.
66
Teach me good judgment and knowledge,
For I believe Your commandments.
67
Before I was afflicted I went astray,
But now I keep Your word.
68
You are good, and do good;
Teach me Your statutes.
69
The proud have forged a lie against me,
But I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart.
70
Their heart is as fat as grease,
But I delight in Your law.
71
It is good for me that I have been afflicted,
That I may learn Your statutes.
72
The law of Your mouth is better to me
Than thousands of coins of gold and silver.
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