The Covenanter Village Voice

This psalm is a collection of David’s precious thoughts, sorrowful complaints, humble petitions, and holy resolutions, which, it seems he had written down as they occurred, and which, in the end of his life, he digested into the form in which they now stand, consisting of as many parts as there are letters in the Hebrew alphabet, the eight verses of each always beginning with the same letter in the original. The general scope of it is to magnify God’s word, and make it honourable. To intimate that it informs us of whatever we ought to expect from God in the way of gracious donation, and of whatever he may expect from us in the way of grateful returns of duty, it is represented under ten different characters, one or other of which is to be found in every verse, except the 122nd and 132nd: As God’s Law, because framed and published by him as our Sovereign ­ His Commandments, because given with authority, and lodged with us as a trust ­ His Precepts, because peremptorily prescribed, and not left as a thing indifferent ­ His Statutes, because fixed and determined, and of perpetual obligation ­ His Word, because it is the declaration of his mind, and Christ, his essential Word, is all and in all therein ­ His Way, because it represents Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and is the rule of our faith and obedience ­ His Testimonies, because therein God, upon his word, his oath, and writ, declares to men the truths necessary to be known, in order to his honour and their salvation, as ratified in the death of his Son ­ His Judgments, because it is framed in infinite wisdom, and by it we must both judge and be judged (but in verses 75, 84, 121, judgment denotes righteous conduct) ­ His Righteousness, because it is holy, just, and good, and is the perfect standard of righteousness ­ And his Truth, or Faithfulness, because its leading truths are eternal, and the faithfulness of God is pledged in every point thereof.

While I sing, let me all along enter into the spirit of the psalm. Let my delight be in God’s testimonies; my desires after God’s presence; and my endeavours to have God honoured. Let God’s word be my rule, my food, my armour, my wealth, my comfort; and God himself, as therein revealed and bestowed, be my everlasting and infinite all.