10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Teach me that I may do thy will. He now rises to something higher, praying not merely for deliverance from outward troubles, but, what is of still greater importance, for the guidance of God's Spirit, that he might not decline to the right hand or to the left, but be kept in the path of rectitude. This is a request which should never be forgotten when temptations assail us with great severity, as it is peculiarly difficult to submit to God without resorting to unwarrantable methods of relief. As anxiety, fear, disease, languor, or pain, often tempt persons to particular steps, David's example should bad us to pray for divine restraint, and that we may not be hurried, through impulses of feeling, into unjustifiable courses. We are to mark carefully his way of expressing himself, for what he asks is not simply to be taught what the will of God is, but to be taught and brought to the observance, and doing of it. The former kind of teaching is of less avail, as upon God's showing us our duty we by no means necessarily follow it, and it is necessary that he should draw out our affections to himself. God therefore must be master and teacher to us not only in the dead letter, but by the inward motions of his Spirit; indeed there are three ways in which he acts the part of our teacher, instructing us by his word, enlightening our minds by the Spirit, and engraving instruction upon our hearts, so as to bring us observe it with a true and cordial consent. The mere hearing of the word would serve no purpose, nor is it enough that we understand it; there must be besides the willing' obedience of the heart. Nor does he merely say, Teach me that I may be capable of doing, as the deluded Papists imagine that the grace of God does no more than make us flexible to what is good, but he seeks something to be actually and presently done. He insists upon the same thing in the next clause, when he says, Let thy good Spirit lead me, etc., for he desires the guidance of the Spirit not merely as he enlightens our minds, but as he effectually influences the consent of our hearts, and as it were leads us by the hand. The passage in its connection warns us of the necessity of being sedulously on our guard against yielding to inordinate passions in any contests we may have with wicked persons, and as we have no sufficient wisdom or power of our own by which to check and restrain these passions, that we should always seek the guidance of God's Spirit, to keep them in moderation. More generally, the passage teaches us what we are to think of free will; for David here denies the will to have the power of judging rightly, till our hearts be formed to a holy obedience by the Spirit of God. The term leading, which I have already adverted to, proves also that David did not hold that middle species of grace which Papists talk so much about, and which leaves man in a state of suspension or indecision, but asserts something much more effectual, agreeably to what Paul says, (Philippians 2:13,) that "it is God who works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure." By the words right hand, I understand, figuratively, uprightness; David's meaning being, that we are drawn into error whenever we decline from what is agreeable to the will of God. The term Spirit is tacitly opposed to that corruption which is natural to us; what he says being tantamount to this, that all men's thoughts are polluted and perverted, till reduced to right rule by the grace of the Spirit. It follows that nothing which is dictated by the judgment of the flesh is good or sound. I grant that wicked men are led away by an evil spirit sent from God, for he executes his judgments by the agency of devils, (1 Samuel 16:14;) but when David in this place speaks of God's good Spirit, I do not imagine that he has any such strained allusion, but rather that he takes here to himself the charge of corruption, and assigns the praise of whatever is good, upright, or true, to the Spirit of God. When he says, Because thou art my God, he shows that his confidence of obtaining his request was founded entirely upon the free favor and promises of God. It is not a matter lying within our own power to make him our God, but it rests with his free preventing grace.
Teach me to do thy will - To do that which will be agreeable or pleasing to thee; which will meet with thy approbation. That is, Teach me in the present emergency to do that which thou wilt approve; which will be wise; which will be best adapted to secure my deliverance and my safety.
Thy spirit is good - The spirit which guides those who trust in thee; the spirit with which "thou" dost guide people. That spirit is wise, prudent, judicious, reliable. It will not lead astray. Grant me "that" spirit, and I shall be certain that I am going in the right path. There is no certain evidence that the psalmist here refers distinctively to the Holy Spirit, considered as the Third Person of the Trinity; but the prayer is one for guidance from on high in the day of darkness and trouble. It is an acknowledgment of dependence on God for direction, and the expression of confidence that under the divine guidance he would not go astray.
Lead me into the land of uprightness - Or rather here, "land of evenness;" level ground; ground where I may walk without the dangers to which I am exposed where I am now, in a place of ambuscades, caverns, rocks, where I may be assailed at any moment without the power of seeing my enemy, or of defending myself. See this use of the word in the following places where it is rendered "plain," meaning a level country, Deuteronomy 3:10; Deuteronomy 4:43; Joshua 13:9, Joshua 13:16-17, Joshua 13:21; 1-Kings 20:23, 1-Kings 20:25; Psalm 27:11; Jeremiah 21:13; Jeremiah 48:8, Jeremiah 48:21; Zac 4:7. He desired to be led, as it were, into a "level" country where he might be safe. It is not a prayer, as would seem from our translation, to be so guided that he might lead an upright life. Such a prayer is proper, but it is not the prayer offered here.
Teach me to do thy will - רצונך retsonecha, thy pleasure. To be found doing the will of God is the only safe state for man.
Thy Spirit is good - The Author of every good desire and holy purpose.
Lead me - Let it lead me by its continued inspirations and counsels.
Into the land of uprightness - "Into a right land," Chaldee. Into the place where I shall be safe. The old Psalter has, Thi goste gude sal lede me into rygt lande.
(k) Teach me to (l) do thy will; for thou [art] my God: thy spirit [is] good; lead me into the land of uprightness.
(k) He confesses that both the knowledge and obedience of God's will comes by the Spirit of God, who teaches us by his word, gives understanding by his Spirit, and frames our hearts by his grace to obey him.
(l) That is, justly and aright, for as soon as we decline from God's will, we fall into error.
Teach me to do thy will,.... Revealed in the word; which saints desire a greater knowledge of in order to do it, and in which they delight; and also are desirous of being taught, and to practise submission to the will of God under afflictions; which was now the case of the psalmist;
for thou art my God; his covenant God; and from whom all his afflictions came in a covenant way, and therefore desires to be instructed by him in them; see Jeremiah 31:18;
thy Spirit is good; thy holy good Spirit, as the Targum; the Spirit of thy holiness, as the Arabic version: the Holy Spirit of God is meant, the third Person in the Trinity; who is "good" essentially, being of the same nature and essence with the Father and Son, with God, who is only good; and effectively is the author of the good work of grace upon the heart, and of the several particular graces there implanted, and who performs many good offices to the saints;
lead me into the land of uprightness; or, "let thy good Spirit lead me into the land of uprightness" (z): either into a right land, as the Targum, where honesty prevails, and honest and upright men live; or, "through a plain way" (a), easy to be found, in which he should not err, and where would be no occasion of stumbling; or, "through the way of life", as the Syriac version; the way to eternal life, to heaven and happiness; the land where only truly righteous and upright persons dwell: such will be the new heavens and the new earth, as well as the ultimate state of glory, 2-Peter 3:13; and to this the Spirit of God is the leader and guide of his people, Psalm 48:14.
(z) So the Tigurine version, Musculus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius. (a) "per terram planam", Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
(Compare Psalm 5:8; Psalm 27:11).
land of uprightness--literally, "an even land" (Psalm 26:12).
*More commentary available at chapter level.