We are here taught, 1. To own ourselves under the highest obligations
to walk in God's law. The tempter would possess men with an opinion
that they are at their liberty whether they will make the word of God
their rule or no, that, though it may be good, yet it is not so
necessary as they are made to believe it is. He taught our first
parents to question the command: Hath God said, You shall not eat? And
therefore we are concerned to be well established in this (v. 4): Thou
hast commanded us to keep thy precepts, to make religion our rule; and
to keep them diligently, to make religion our business and to mind it
carefully and constantly. We are bound, and must obey at our peril. 2.
To look up to God for wisdom and grace to do so (v. 5): O that my ways
were directed accordingly! not only that all events concerning us may
be so ordered and disposed by the providence of God as not to be in any
thing a hindrance to us, but a furtherance rather, in the service of
God, but that our hearts may be so guided and influenced by the Spirit
of God that we may not in any thing transgress God's commandments--not
only that our eyes may be directed to behold God's statutes, but our
hearts directed to keep them. See how the desire and prayer of a good
man exactly agree with the will and command of a good God: "Thou
wouldest have me keep thy precepts, and, Lord, I fain would keep them."
This is the will of God, even our sanctification; and it should be our
will. 3. To encourage ourselves in the way of our duty with a prospect
of the comfort we shall find in it, v. 6. Note, (1.) It is the
undoubted character of every good man that he has a respect to all
God's commandments. He has a respect to the command, eyes it as his
copy, aims to conform to it, is sorry wherein he comes short; and what
he does in religion he does with a conscientious regard to the command,
because it is his duty. He has respect to all the commandments, one as
well as another, because they are all backed with the same authority
(Jam. ii. 10, 11) and all levelled at the same end, the glorifying of
God in our happiness. Those who have a sincere respect to any command
will have a general respect to every command, to the commands of both
testaments and both tables, to the prohibitions and the precepts, to
those that concern both the inward and the outward man, both the head
and the heart, to those that forbid the most pleasant and gainful sins
and to those that require the most difficult and hazardous duties. (2.)
Those who have a sincere respect to all God's commandments shall not be
ashamed, not only they will thereby be kept from doing that which will
turn to their shame, but they shall have confidence towards God and
boldness of access to the throne of his grace, 1 John iii. 21. They
shall have credit before men; their honesty will be their honour. And
they shall have clearness and courage in their own souls; they shall
not be ashamed to retire into themselves, nor to reflect upon
themselves, for their hearts shall not condemn them. David speaks this
with application to himself. Those that are upright may take the
comfort of their uprightness. "As, if I be wicked, woe to me; so, if I
be sincere, it is well with me."