The first commendation of the law of God is, that it is perfect.
By this word David means, that if a man is duly instructed in the law of
God, he wants nothing which is requisite to perfect wisdom. In the writings of
heathen authors there are no doubt to be found true and useful sentences
scattered here and there; and it is also true, that God has put into the minds
of men some knowledge of justice and uprightness; but in consequence of the
corruption of our nature, the true light of truth is not to be found among men
where revelation is not enjoyed, but only certain mutilated principles which
are involved in much obscurity and doubt.
David, therefore, justly claims this praise for the law of
God, that it contains in it perfect and absolute wisdom. As the conversion
of the soul, of which he speaks immediately after, is doubtless to be
understood of its restoration, I have felt no difficulty in so rendering
it. There are some who reason with too much subtilty on this expression, by
explaining it as referring to the repentance and regeneration of man. I admit
that the soul cannot be restored by the law of God, without being at the same
time renewed unto righteousness; but we must consider what is David’s proper
meaning, which is this, that as the soul gives vigor and strength to the body,
so the law in like manner is the life of the soul. In saying that the soul is
restored, he has an allusion to the miserable state in which we are all born.
There, no doubt, still survive in us some small remains of the first creation;
but as no part of our constitution is free from defilement and impurity, the
condition of the soul thus corrupted and depraved differs little from death,
and tends altogether to death. It is, therefore, necessary that God should
employ the law as a remedy for restoring us to purity; not that the letter of
the law can do this of itself, as shall be afterwards shown more at length, but
because God employs his word as an instrument for restoring our souls. (Commentaries)
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