My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
The verse speaks as a father's charge to a son to retain divine sayings and to store up divine precepts inwardly as a treasured possession. Its force does not stand alone but is carried by the companion images around it of keeping them as carefully as sight, of fastening them closely to oneself, and of inscribing them upon the affections and memory of the heart. Taken together, these homely figures bring divine favor near and make it intelligible in everyday terms. They likewise strip away all show and complexity, presenting genuine piety as a plain and direct holding fast to what God has spoken.
The verse speaks as a father's charge to a son to retain divine sayings and to store up divine precepts inwardly as a treasured possession. Its force does not stand alone but is carried by the companion images around it of keeping them as carefully as sight, of fastening them closely to oneself, and of inscribing them upon the affections and memory of the heart. Taken together, these homely figures bring divine favor near and make it intelligible in everyday terms. They likewise strip away all show and complexity, presenting genuine piety as a plain and direct holding fast to what God has spoken.