My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly.
The soul's keeping of the divine testimonies belongs to a psalm that exalts the law of God as the ruling power of life. The Word of God lays out the principles of righteousness and draws a clear line between right and wrong and between truth and error. Keeping those testimonies is inseparably united with loving them to the highest degree, as was shown in David's experience. Such loyalty to the Word makes it a safer and more trustworthy guide than the counsel of even wise human advisers.
This keeping and deep love are joined with great peace for all who love the law, with freedom from stumbling, with hope for divine salvation, and with the doing of the commandments. That obedience and love stand in contrast to bold and defiant wickedness against the holy law at a time when the wickedness of the world has reached the point where the Lord will certainly step in and rise up to punish it. They are maintained while divine forbearance has been very great, so great as to cause marvel at the continual insult offered to the holy commandments. That long-suffering is a restraint upon the divine attributes themselves, omnipotence exerted over itself, in bearing long with ever-increasing defiance against the laws given to govern the human beings created by God, while giving continual light to those who remain obedient, even as life is seen becoming intolerable through cruelty because men have changed those laws.
The soul's keeping of the divine testimonies belongs to a psalm that exalts the law of God as the ruling power of life. The Word of God lays out the principles of righteousness and draws a clear line between right and wrong and between truth and error. Keeping those testimonies is inseparably united with loving them to the highest degree, as was shown in David's experience. Such loyalty to the Word makes it a safer and more trustworthy guide than the counsel of even wise human advisers.
This keeping and deep love are joined with great peace for all who love the law, with freedom from stumbling, with hope for divine salvation, and with the doing of the commandments. That obedience and love stand in contrast to bold and defiant wickedness against the holy law at a time when the wickedness of the world has reached the point where the Lord will certainly step in and rise up to punish it. They are maintained while divine forbearance has been very great, so great as to cause marvel at the continual insult offered to the holy commandments. That long-suffering is a restraint upon the divine attributes themselves, omnipotence exerted over itself, in bearing long with ever-increasing defiance against the laws given to govern the human beings created by God, while giving continual light to those who remain obedient, even as life is seen becoming intolerable through cruelty because men have changed those laws.