A Commentary on the Book of Psalms: Psalm 118 — Of the Excellence of Virtue Consisting in the Love and Observance of the Commandments of God
7 He adds that not only will he not be confounded, but he will even return thanks to God for having, through his grace and assistance, learned how to observe his law. “I will praise thee,” and give thee thanks, “with uprightness of heart,” with a pure and upright heart, “when I shall have learned,” for having the good luck to learn, “the judgments of thy justice;” your most just judgments and laws. The word “learned” conveys more than simple knowledge; it implies an amount of approbation and persuasion on the part of those who have come at the truth, and, therefore, determine to observe it; in which sense we are to understand it in Jn. 6, where the Lord says, “Everyone that hath heard of the Father and hath learned, cometh to me.” Now, they learn of the Father, who, by the infusion of the Holy Spirit in their hearts, are firmly persuaded that it is a good thing to believe, to be converted, or to observe the law. Such persuasion springs from uprightness of heart; for God is looked upon as thoroughly good by those who have an upright heart, as Psalm 72 has it, “How good is God to Israel, to them that are of a right heart.” Now, they who are pleased with God, cannot but be pleased with everything that declares his will, and as it is through the commandments his will is declared, they must take great pleasure in obeying his commandments. By the “judgments of justice” we understand the same precepts of the divine law, that are sometimes called judgments, sometimes the “judgments of justice.” They are called judgments, inasmuch as they are certain opinions judged by God to be most perfect, or certain divine statutes and decrees; they are called justices, as being the rules containing justice; and, finally, they are called the judgments of justice, as being most just judgments and decrees. Thus, the meaning of the verse is, I will praise you with an upright heart, because I am persuaded that your laws are most just, and should be most faithfully observed; all of which I acknowledge proceeds not from me, but from thy grace.
8 This is the conclusion of the first octave, if we may so call the eight verses composing the divisions of the Psalm, and indicated by the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, for which division no satisfactory reason can be assigned. The meaning is, Whereas the observance of your law tends to the happiness of those who keep it, and whereas it has been proposed by you, the supreme legislator, and its observance most strictly ordered, “I will keep thy justifications;” I determined and resolved with all my strength to keep them; but do you, on your part, withhold not your grace and your assistance, without which I can do nothing; and if, perchance, in your justice, you shall have to desert me for a while, so that I may feel my own weakness, and learn to fly to thee, and to confide in thee, do not, at all events, “utterly forsake me,” that is, altogether and forever.
Beth
9 Having praised the law of God, by reason of its object and of its author, he now praises it by reason of the advantage of it to the person to whom it is given. And as nobody needs the law more than one beginning the world, such as a young man, he speaks in particular of such. The young man needs the law of God, first, because it is in such persons the law of the members is strongest; secondly, because they have not yet learned prudence by experience; thirdly, as it is of the utmost consequence to a traveler to strike upon the right path in the beginning of his journey, as it may save him the labor of retracing his steps, and beginning it over again; thus, it is of the highest importance to the young man, who means to preserve his innocence, to accustom himself in early life to the observance of the commandments. “It is good for a man when he hath borne the yoke from his youth,” says Jeremias. Who are we to understand by “a young man?” I don’t imagine David means such a young man as the prodigal, for such a one would need the grace of repentance to correct such faults, and a knowledge or observance of the latter would not suffice; nor do I think that he speaks of a young man renovated by grace, as opposed to an old man; for there is question here of the correction of errors, which are not supposed to be found in one renovated. I imagine, then, that David speaks of a young man, in the plain acceptation of the words, who requires a remedy against the natural impulses of corrupt nature, “that is prone to evil from his youth.”—“By what doth a young man correct his way?” By what means, manner, or art doth a young man correct his way? that is, his actions, or his life, corrupted by natural depravation through original sin, and prone to evil. He answers, “by observing thy words;” for, he that from his youth has been accustomed to fear God, and, under the influence of such holy fear, to observe God’s words, that is, his divine laws, will, undoubtedly, avoid many errors. Take, for example, Tobias the younger, whom his father “taught from his infancy to fear God, and to abstain from all sin.”
10 David, influenced by such advantages, now asks God for grace to observe his commandments, decides firmly on observing them, and teaches us by his example to do the same, and first assigns a reason, the very one assigned in the Gospel, “Seek, and you shall find.”—“Everyone that seeketh findeth,” why he should be heard. “With my whole heart have I sought after thee.” Such is the reason he assigns for his being heard, for having sought after God with his whole heart, that is, for having asked his grace, for having desired to please him, and to carry out his will; a truly wonderful petition, as if God, who commanded his “commandments” to be kept most “diligently,” could wish to repel anyone from observing them. This mode of speaking, however, only implies the necessity of grace, a thing known to those only, who are desirous of observing the commandments, while they are conscious of their own weakness.
11–12 Another reason for his being heard, and a fresh petition for grace to keep his law; and the reason is, his great desire to avoid sin, and thus to keep the law. “Thy words have I hidden in my heart.” I have placed your words, that is, your law, in the inmost recesses of my heart, so that I may never forget them; and my object in doing so was, “that I may not sin against thee;” thus, my desire of avoiding sin makes me wish I should never forget God’s law; and, for fear I should possibly forget it, I have hidden it in the recesses of my heart, so that nothing can possibly wrest it from me. Having thus premised his reason for being heard, he presents the petition, “Blessed art thou, O Lord, teach me thy justifications.” The words, “teach me,” as we observed on the seventh verse, convey more than the simple imparting of knowledge, for he said before he had such, when he said he hid God’s words in his heart; and in verse seven he said he “had learned the judgments of his justice;” it includes grace to observe his law. God teaches his justifications when he, through his grace, causes one to delight in his law, and fully persuades one to wish to keep it exactly. The words, “Blessed art thou,” contain another argument for his being heard. It means, Do, O Lord, who art blessed by all created things, for you fill all things with your blessing, teach me your justifications. “For the lawgiver shall give a blessing.” Thus God is blessed, and he in turn blesses; he is blessed when he is praised, and he blesses when he pours down his favors.
13–16 In those four verses he expresses his love for God’s law, possibly by reason of his having got that benediction of the lawgiver, that he had just asked for. He says he has the law of God in his mouth, his will, his understanding, and his memory, and thus, in every part of his soul. As to his mouth he says, “With my lips I have pronounced all the judgments of thy mouth.” I have constantly spoken of, and constantly preached, your commandments to all who may choose to hear them; “judgments,” here, mean commandments, and he adds, “of thy mouth,” to remind us they are not the precepts of man, but of God, having been declared by his mouth. In regard of his will, he says, “I have been delighted in the way of thy testimonies, as in all riches.” I have taken a great delight in walking in the way of thy testimonies, as misers take in amassing riches. Great and rare is such affection, when man, in general, for a very trifling lucre, is wont to despise all God’s commandments. As to his understanding or reflection he says, “I will meditate on thy commandments: I will consider thy ways.” I will be constantly occupied in meditation and turning over in my mind all you have commanded or prohibited; and, as regards another affection of the heart, he says, “I will think of thy justifications.” The Hebrew here implies that he will be delighted in chanting them. Having previously said that “I have been delighted in the way of thy testimonies, as in all riches,” where his delight seems to arise from the utility of the subject, he now says that he will be delighted with them by reason of the pleasure to be derived from them, just as the law of the Lord is compared in Psalm 18, to gold and to honey, as being both useful and agreeable. The meaning of the passage, then, is, “I will think of thy justifications;” I will occupy myself in chanting the praises of your commandments, in order to delight myself, as I would with sweet and pleasant songs. He now ultimately comes to the memory, saying, “I will not forget thy words;” because, by frequent meditation on them, and pleasing chant of them, I cannot possibly forget “thy words,” or your law. Hence, we infer that to those who have the benediction of the lawgiver, that is, the spirit of true charity, the law of the Lord is neither heavy nor severe, but that it is, as the Lord himself said, “a sweet yoke and a light burden.”