I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid
before me (Ps. 119:30).
In this and the following verse he affirms that he was so
disposed as to desire nothing more than to follow righteousness and truth. It
is, therefore, with great propriety he employs the term to choose. The old
adage, that man’s life is as it were at the point where two ways meet, refers
not simply to the general tenor of human life, but to every particular action
of it. For no sooner do we undertake any thing, no matter how small, than we
are grievously perplexed, and as if hurried off by a tempest, are confounded by
conflicting counsels. Hence the prophet declares, that in order constantly to
pursue the right path, he had resolved and fully determined not to relinquish
the truth. And thus he intimates that he was not entirely exempted from temptations,
yet that he had surmounted them by giving himself up to the conscientious
observance of the law.
The last clause of the verse, “I have set thy judgments
before me,” relates to the same subject. There would be no fixed choice on the
part of the faithful, unless they steadily contemplate the law, and did not
suffer their eyes to wander to and fro. In the subsequent verse he not only
asserts his entertaining this holy affection for the law, but also combines it
with prayer, that he might not become ashamed and enfeebled under the derision
of the ungodly, while he gave himself wholly to the law of God. Here he employs
the same term as formerly, when he said his soul cleaved to the dust, and, in
doing so, affirms he had so firmly taken hold of God’s law, that he cannot be
separated from it. From his expressing a fear lest he might be put to shame or
overwhelmed with reproach, we learn that the more sincerely a man surrenders
himself to God, the more will he be assailed by the tongues of the vile and the
venomous. (Commentaries)
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