David here tells us what he had experienced, 1. Of the temptations of a
prosperous condition: "Before I was afflicted, while I lived in peace
and plenty, and knew no sorrow, I went astray from God and my duty."
Sin is going astray; and we are most apt to wander from God when we are
easy and think ourselves at home in the world. Prosperity is the
unhappy occasion of much iniquity; it makes people conceited of
themselves, indulgent of the flesh, forgetful of God, in love with the
world, and deaf to the reproofs of the word. See Ps. xxx. 6. It is good
for us, when we are afflicted, to remember how and wherein we went
astray before we were afflicted, that we may answer the end of the
affliction. 2. Of the benefit of an afflicted state: "Now have I kept
thy word, and so have been recovered from my wanderings." God often
makes use of afflictions as a means to reduce those to himself who have
wandered from him. Sanctified afflictions humble us for sin and show us
the vanity of the world; they soften the heart, and open the ear to
discipline. The prodigal's distress brought him to himself first and
then to his father.