God now accuses the wicked (verses 16-21). Some believe that the first line of verse 16 is a gloss, introduced later by a copyist. Such a conjecture makes sense, since the whole purpose of the psalm is to express God’s complaint against his people as a whole. But the words stand in our Hebrew text, as well as in the ancient versions, and must be retained in translation.

With two rhetorical questions God begins his accusation of these people. The point is that they were not really interested in obeying his statutes (see 18.22b and comments) or in being faithful to his covenant (see discussion in 25.10), so they should not be talking about them. Their constant references to them–perhaps involving promises made in public worship to obey them–were hypocritical, as amply demonstrated by their conduct. The expression recite my statutes may be rendered in some languages as “you learn and repeat the commands I gave you” or “you say over and over the words of the orders I gave you.”

Covenant is here used with the sense of “law or commandments” and is parallel to statutes in the previous line. The last two lines of this verse may be rendered “Why do you talk about my laws? Why do you discuss the commands I have given you?”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .