Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.
Psalm 119 belongs to praise that lifts up divine law as the governing rule for living, setting out the principles of righteousness and drawing the line between right and wrong. Within it stands David's plea for God to teach the way of His statutes, to grant understanding, and to cause the petitioner to walk in the path of His commandments. That path is loved and delighted in, not merely endured.
The cry for guidance is bound to a cry for understanding so that the law may be kept with the whole heart and fully observed. To pray in this way is to ask God for power to obey, since willing obedience rests upon His direction. The prayer expresses consecration of heart and mind to God and a desire to heed the way of the Lord, which is what God requires.
It stands together with keeping His testimonies, seeking Him with the whole heart, doing no iniquity, walking in His ways, keeping His precepts diligently, learning His righteous judgments, keeping His law continually forever and ever, walking at liberty, speaking of His testimonies without shame, lifting the hands to His commandments, and meditating in His statutes all the day, a course that makes wise and gives understanding beyond enemies, teachers, and ancients. The commandments are the path of life, and obeying God's will as far as it is understood brings one safely into that way. Such words will be the speech of every truly obedient and sanctified heart, opposite to those who vent bitterness against the law and follow Satan, so that delight in the path of the commandments evidences freedom from iniquity and transgression of God's law.
Delight in that path agrees with refusing to listen to false teachers who draw away from obedience or set human laws in the place of God's law. Finding the treasures of truth involves offering this prayer from delight in the path. God's servants should offer this prayer continually, and young men and women should study it to foster that spirit of consecration. One is to choose the light upon the evidence God has given rather than wait until every doubt vanishes.
Psalm 119 belongs to praise that lifts up divine law as the governing rule for living, setting out the principles of righteousness and drawing the line between right and wrong. Within it stands David's plea for God to teach the way of His statutes, to grant understanding, and to cause the petitioner to walk in the path of His commandments. That path is loved and delighted in, not merely endured.
The cry for guidance is bound to a cry for understanding so that the law may be kept with the whole heart and fully observed. To pray in this way is to ask God for power to obey, since willing obedience rests upon His direction. The prayer expresses consecration of heart and mind to God and a desire to heed the way of the Lord, which is what God requires.
It stands together with keeping His testimonies, seeking Him with the whole heart, doing no iniquity, walking in His ways, keeping His precepts diligently, learning His righteous judgments, keeping His law continually forever and ever, walking at liberty, speaking of His testimonies without shame, lifting the hands to His commandments, and meditating in His statutes all the day, a course that makes wise and gives understanding beyond enemies, teachers, and ancients. The commandments are the path of life, and obeying God's will as far as it is understood brings one safely into that way. Such words will be the speech of every truly obedient and sanctified heart, opposite to those who vent bitterness against the law and follow Satan, so that delight in the path of the commandments evidences freedom from iniquity and transgression of God's law.
Delight in that path agrees with refusing to listen to false teachers who draw away from obedience or set human laws in the place of God's law. Finding the treasures of truth involves offering this prayer from delight in the path. God's servants should offer this prayer continually, and young men and women should study it to foster that spirit of consecration. One is to choose the light upon the evidence God has given rather than wait until every doubt vanishes.