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
33 In the next eight verses he asks, in a certain order, first, for a desire of observing the law; secondly, for light to understand it; thirdly, for grace to observe it; and fourthly, for the removal of all obstacles thereto. In this very long Psalm David, for the purpose of touching the affections, and of guarding against tedium, repeats the same matter frequently, but in different phraseology. The meaning of this verse is, Grant, O Lord, that I may desire to keep no other law than yours. “Set before me for a law the way of thy justifications, O Lord;” that is, put a desire for your law alone in my heart. Two questions arise, how can he ask for a law when the law was already given? second, why does the just man ask for a law when the Apostle says, “The law is not made for the just man?” The prophet does not absolutely ask for a law, but he asks that the law of sin, or of the world, or of the flesh, may not please him, but the law of God alone; and, through God’s grace, he desires that it alone should find a place in his heart, his desires, and his affections, and, therefore, he adds, “and I will always seek after it;” which means, if, through your grace, I shall look for it alone, I will never do anything but what is commanded by it.
34 After having asked for a desire or affection for the law, he also asks for understanding; that he may rightly comprehend it, and inquire into its utility, excellence, and other advantages, so that he may “keep it with my whole heart;” thereby implying that it was not through curiosity, but for its better observance, that he seeks to understand the law.
35 He now, in the third place, asks for grace to observe the law. “Lead me in the path of thy commandments;” make me observe them. They are termed “the paths,” because paths are narrow, short, straight, clean passages for people on foot only, and not for horses and carriages; and such is the way of the Lord, as compared with that of the flesh and of the world, all the ways of which are broad, filthy, and crooked, trodden by the brute beasts, the type of carnal, animal man. He assigns a reason for being heard when he says, “For this same I have desired;” because, through God’s grace, I have chosen this path, and desired to walk in it, and it is only meet that he who gives the will should give the grace to accomplish, as St. Paul says, “Who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish.”
36 This verse is nearly a repetition of the first of this octave. In that verse he prayed for affection to the law of God, in this he prays for the exclusion of avarice, which is a great obstacle to such affection. “Incline my heart unto thy testimonies.” Pour an abundant shower of grace into my heart, so as to incline to the observance of thy law, “and not to covetousness;” do not incline my heart to avarice. God is said to incline one to evil when, by the withdrawal of his grace, he allows him to incline to evil; and the Scripture, in using such language, merely means to show the power of God’s grace; for God, strictly speaking, cannot incline anyone to evil. Similar expressions frequently occur in the Scriptures; thus, in Romans, where it is said, “God delivereth them unto a reprobate sense,” and in Isaias; “Why hast thou caused us to stray from thy way?”
37 This verse corresponds with the second in this division, for in that he asked for the gift of understanding, to reflect upon the law; here he asks, that his mind’s eye may not be averted from the law to vanity. “Turn away thy eyes that they may not behold vanity,” that I may not be taken up in reflecting on the things of this world, that are all vanity, but rather make me apply myself entirely to your laws; and so “quicken me in thy way,” enliven, refresh, and preserve me, while I walk in thy way, the way of thy commandments.
38 Through a holy fear of you, establish, confirm, and so ground your law in thy servant, that it may remain and persevere most firmly with him. This verse corresponds with the third in this section, in which he asks for grace to observe the law, and here he asks for the grace of perseverance.
39 The not having persevered in the observance of the law of God, when it is not only our own advantage to have done so, but is also sweet and pleasant to observe it, will be a great reproach on the day of judgment, as it is at present in the sight of the Angels; and, therefore, having asked for the grace of perseverance, he assigns a reason for such request; and that is, his fear of the reproach that will follow those who will not persevere. “Turn away thy reproach which I have apprehended,” that I feared, should I not persevere in the observance of your law, that is so good in itself.
40 He concludes the petitions of this section by saying, that it is now sufficiently clear that he heartily desires to observe the commandments. “Behold, I have longed after thy precepts;” behold how evident it is that I have seriously desired to observe them; and, therefore, “quicken me,” increase and preserve my spiritual life “in thy justice,” in thy commandments; that is, in the observance of them, for the “just man is still made more just” so long as he observes them.
Vau
41 In the commencement of the next eight verses the prophet begs for God’s mercy; and in the remaining verses of it explains the effect of his mercy, as far as they regard the observance of God’s law, which is the whole scope and object of the Psalm. He, therefore, says, “Let thy mercy come upon me,” let your grace and mercy descend from on high upon me; and he tells in what that mercy consists, when he adds, “thy salvation according to thy word;” that is to say, thy salvation, or thy mercy that saves the soul, “according to thy word,” the promise you made of mercy and salvation to those that trust in thee.
42 And when your mercy, according to your promise, shall have come upon me, I will not fear my enemies when they will reproach me with having feared God in vain, for “so shall I answer them,” in a manner they will not be able to contradict, “that I have trusted in thy words,” because you can keep your promise, by reason of your omnipotence, and you wish to keep it, by reason of your goodness.
43 I pray that you “take not the word of truth,” in which I glory over those who reproach me, “out of my mouth;” that is to say, that you may not, by depriving me of your grace, so enervate me that I may not have the courage to speak out, that you may not close the mouth of one who has such confidence in you, and so ready to record your promises; or if you choose to withdraw your grace for awhile, in order to prove me, yet do not withdraw it “utterly,” altogether, forever, “for in thy words I have hoped exceedingly,” for I have had the greatest confidence in your justice and faithfulness.
44 He now tells us the effect of the mercy that so heals the soul, and that is the perpetual observance of God’s law.
45–48 In these four verses he explains, in what the observance of the law consists; a thing he promised, when he said, in the fourth verse of this division, that he would observe God’s law in his heart, in his words, in his mind, and in his acts; and the prophet seems, all at once, as having been heard, to have changed his mode of speaking, for he says, “And I walked at large.” When God’s mercy visited me, I did not walk in the narrow ways of fear, but in the wide ones of love; that is to say, I observed the law willingly, joyfully, with all the affections of my heart, “because I have sought after thy commandments” as a thing of great value, and most important to come at; “and I spoke” openly and fearlessly on the justice of your most holy law, even “before kings, and I was not ashamed;” and I constantly turned the law in my mind, and made its mysteries the subject of my meditation, “and I lifted up my hands,” to carry out his high and sublime commands; that is, his extremely perfect and arduous commands. Finally, in all manner of ways, in heart, mind, word, and deed, “I was exercised in thy justifications.”
Zain
In the next eight verses the prophet celebrates the eternal reward promised by God to those who observe his law; and says that it induced him to observe the law, that it consoled him in trouble, and made him grieve for the prevarication of the wicked.
49 God is not subject to forgetfulness, nor to fickleness, nor to retracting what he says; but he is, by a figure of speech, said to forget when he defers the execution of a promise, as if he had altogether forgotten it. Now, that he does designedly; and, though determined on carrying out his decrees, he still wishes his faithful servants to ask him to carry them out; and thus, prayer becomes one of the means through which God decreed to fulfill his promises. David, then, in his own person, and of the faithful in general, prays to God, saying, “Be thou mindful of thy word;” that is, of thy promise “in which thou hast given me hope,” when you said to Abraham, and through him to all his children, “Walk before me, and be perfect;” I will be “thy reward exceedingly great.”
50 The first word in the verse, “This,” does not refer to the hope alluded to in the preceding verse; it refers to the concluding portion of this verse, as is evident from the Hebrew; and the meaning of the whole verse is, one thing was a source of great comfort to me in my humiliation, or my affliction, that “your word,” meaning your promise, “hath enlivened me;” gave me life and spirit, strengthened and fortified me.