_COUNSEL AND MIGHT_
PSALM cxix. 33-40.
The psalmist prays for an _illumined understanding_. "Teach me, O Lord,
the way of Thy statutes." We are so prone to be children of the twilight,
and to see things out of their true proportions. Therefore do we need to
be daily taught. I must go into the school of the Lord, and in docility of
spirit I must sit at His feet. "O, teach me, Lord, teach even me!"
And the psalmist prays for _rectified inclinations_. "Incline my heart
unto Thy testimonies." We so often have the wrong bias, the fatal taste,
and our desires are all against the will of the Lord. If only my leanings
were toward the Lord how swift my progress would be! I strive to walk
after holiness, while my inclinations are in the realm of sin. And so I
need a clean mouth, with an appetite for the beautiful and the true.
"Blessed are they that hunger after righteousness."
And the psalmist prays for _a strenuous will_. "Make me to go in the path
of Thy commandments." He is praying for "go," for moral persistence, for
power to crash through all obstacles which may impede his heavenly
progress. And such is my need. Good Lord, endow me with a will like "an
iron pillar," and help me to "stand in the evil day."