David had prayed that God would open his eyes (v. 18) and open the law
(v. 19); now here he pleads the earnestness of his desire for knowledge
and grace, for it is the fervent prayer that avails much. 1. His desire
was importunate: My soul breaketh for the longing it hath to thy
judgments, or (as some read it) "It is taken up, and wholly employed,
in longing for thy judgments; the whole stream of its desires runs in
this channel. I shall think myself quite broken and undone if I want
the word of God, the direction, converse, and comfort of it." 2. It was
constant--at all times. It was not now and then, in a good humour, that
he was so fond of the word of God; but it is the habitual temper of
every sanctified soul to hunger after the word of God as its necessary
food, which there is no living without.