'Teach me to do Thy will; for Thou art my God! Thy spirit is good;
lead me into the land of uprightness.'--PSALM cxliii. 10.
These two clauses mean substantially the same thing. The Psalmist's
longings are expressed in the first of them in plain words, and in the
second in a figure. 'To do God's will' is to be in 'the land of
uprightness.' That phrase, in its literal application, means a stretch
of level country, and hence is naturally employed as an emblem of a
moral or religious condition. A life of obedience to the will of God is
likened to some far stretching plain, easy to traverse, broken by no
barren mountains or frowning cliffs, but basking, peaceful and fruitful,
beneath the smile of God. Into such a garden of the Lord the Psalmist
prays to be led.
In each case his prayer is based upon a motive or plea. 'Thou art my
God'; his faith apprehends a personal bond between him and God, and
feels that that bond obliges God to teach him His will. If we adopt the
reading in our Bibles of our second clause a still deeper and more
wonderful plea is presented there. 'Thy Spirit is good,' and therefore
the trusting spirit has a right to ask to be made good likewise. The
relation of the believing spirit to God not only obliges God to teach it
His will, but to make it partaker of His own image and conformed to His
own purity. So high on wings of faith and desire soared this man, who,
at the beginning of his psalm, was crushed to the dust by enemies and by
dangers. So high we may rise by like means.