Psalms 119:173-175

Let Thine hand help me; for I have chosen Thy precepts.

The character and requests of a truly godly man

I. His character.

1. His choice is the precepts of God.

2. His object of desire is God’s salvation. With respect to earthly things, nature is contented with a little, and grace with less. Not so in spiritual things. Here grace is insatiable; the more it has received, the more it desires.

3. His source of joy is God’s law. Here he chooses the term “law” for denoting the whole revelation of God’s will, to remind us of the inseparable connection between privilege and duty, faith and obedience, holiness and comfort; and to teach us that we ought to be thankful to God for the direction tie hath given us in the road to heaven, no less than for the promises by which we are assured of the possession of it.

II. His leading requests. He prays--

1. For strengthening and upholding grace. “Let Thine hand help me.”

2. For quickening grace. “Let my soul live.” This was the life for which David prayed; a confirmed sense of pardoning mercy, larger measures of sanctifying grace, communion with his God in a present world, and the full and everlasting enjoyment of Him in heaven. The life for which he prays is no other than the salvation for which he longed. He had tasted of its sweetness, and he thirsted for more. “Let my soul live,” saith he; to which he subjoins, “and it shall praise Thee.”

III. The ultimate end for which David was so earnest in his requests for help and life, and the improvement he proposed to make of both. He prayed for upholding and quickening grace, that he might be better qualified for the service of his God, to whom he had devoted himself and his all. Thus he prays (Psalms 51:12; Psalms 51:18; Psalms 51:15). And the principal reason for which he was desirous to obtain Divine consolation appears from the use he intended to make of it (verse 32). (R. Walker.)