david's desire to serve god.
Ps. cxix. 145 — 148. / cried with my whole heart; Hear me,
0 Lord : J will keep thy statutes. I cried unto thee ; save
me, and I shall keep thy testimonies. I prevented the dawning
of the morning, and cried : I hoped in thy ivord. Mine eyes
prevent the night loatches, that I might meditate in thy word.
IN reading the Psalms of David, we are of neces- sity led to contemplate the constant spirituality of his mind, and the extraordinary fervour of his devotions : but we are apt to overlook, or to notice only super- ficially, one of the most lovely features in his cha- racter, namely, his ardent desire to fulfil the whole will of God. If we were to read the psalm before us in this particular view, we should be surprised, that we had not been more forcibly struck with this sentiment before. He begins the psalm by declaring those persons pre-eminently blessed, who are most distinguished by their obedience to the laws of Goda. In this way alone had he any hope of avoiding shame and disappointment in the last dayb; and therefore he prayed with all imaginable earnestness, that he might be kept from ever deviating from the path of dutyc, and be enabled to " run the way of God's commandments with an enlarged heart d." The words which we have just read do not, on a superficial view, convey this idea very strongly to our minds : but on a closer inspection of them, we shall see, that a desire to serve and honour God was the primary object in
a ver. 1,2. b ver. 6. c ver. 10, 19, 20. d ver. 32.
o2