Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 143:10
Teach me to do thy will; for thou [art] my God: thy spirit [is] good; lead me into the land of uprightness.
10. Teach me to do thy will ] Cp. Psa 25:4-5; Psa 40:8.
for thou art my God ] Cp. Psa 31:14, and often; Psa 140:6.
thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness ] Better, though the construction is grammatically anomalous, let thy good spirit lead me in a level land. Cp. Neh 9:20, “Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them.” The geographical term ‘level land’ or ‘plain country’ (Deu 4:43) is here metaphorically applied to denote conditions of life free from the dangers and obstacles which now beset the Psalmist. Cp. Psa 26:12. Perhaps however we should read with the change of a single letter ( for ) in a level path, as in Psa 27:11. Cp. Isa 26:7, “The path for the righteous is plain: straight and level thou makest the way of the righteous.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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, Deu 3:10; Deu 4:43; Jos 13:9, Jos 13:16-17, Jos 13:21; 1Ki 20:23, 1Ki 20:25; Psa 27:11; Jer 21:13; Jer 48:8, Jer 48:21; Zec 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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 143:10
Teach me to do Thy will; for Thou art my God.
The delight of the godly
I. The godly mans prayer. Humility, teachableness, sense of his own ignorance should characterize the Christian; as also the greatness and glory, the wisdom and power of Him who is his God.
II. The godly mans delight.
1. What is the will of God?
(1) Our sanctification (1Th 4:3).
(2) He wills that we should render Him most hearty thanksgiving for all the mercies with which He so bountifully blesses us (1Th 5:18).
(3) He wills that by our well-doing we should adorn the Gospel (1Pe 2:15). The Christian is the true evidence of Christianity (Drummond). Adorn the Gospel. Let the jewels be set in gold.
2. Knowing His will, having learnt it, we must do it, and do it heartily.
3. The more we do what we have been taught, the more will the Lord our God reveal to us of His will. (H. B. Saxton.)
The supreme desire of the devout soul
I. The supreme aim of the devout soul. The tempest blows him to the throne of God; and when he is there, what does he ask? Deliverance? Scarcely. In one clause, and again at the end, as if by a kind of after-thought, he asks for the removal of the calamities. But the main burden of his prayer is for a closer knowledge of God, the sound of His lovingkindness in his inward ear, light to show him the way wherein he should walk, and the sweet sunshine of Gods face upon his heart. There is a better thing to ask than exemption from sorrows, even grace to bear them rightly. The river of the water of life that proceeds from the throne of God and the Lamb is not sent merely to refresh thirsty lips and to bring music into the silence of a waterless desert, but it is sent to drive the wheels of life. Action, not thought, is the end of Gods revelation and the perfecting of man.
II. The Divine teaching and touch which are required for this conformity. The psalmist betakes himself to prayer because he knows that of himself he cannot bring his will into this attitude of harmonious submission. And his prayer for teaching is deepened in the second clause of our text into a petition which sets the felt need and the coveted help in a still more striking light, in its cry for the touch of Gods good spirit to guide, as by a hand grasping the psalmists hand into the paths of obedience. You and I have Jesus Christ for our Teacher, the answer to the psalm. His teaching is inward, and deep, and real, and answers to all the necessities of the case. We have His example to stand as our perfect law. He comes into our hearts, He moulds our wills, His teaching is by inward impulses and communications of desire and power to do, as well as of light to know. A law has been given which can give life. As the modeller will take a piece of wax into his hand, and by warmth and manipulation make it soft and pliable, so Jesus Christ, if we let Him, will take our hard hearts into His hands, and by gentle, loving, subtle touches, will shape them into the pattern of His own perfect beauty, and will mould all their vagrant inclinations and aberrant distortions into one immortal feature of loveliness and perfection.
III. The Divine guarantee that this practical conformity shall be ours. The psalmist pleads with God a double motive–His relation to us and His own perfectness. Thou art my God; therefore teach me. Thy Spirit is good; therefore lead me, etc. Note, then, first, Gods personal relation to the devout soul as the guarantee that that soul shall be taught not merely to know, but also to do His will. If He be my God, there can be no deeper desire in His heart than that His will should be my will. And so desiring, He does it, not from any masterfulness or love of dominion, but only from love to us. And, on the other hand, if we have taken Him for ours, and have the bond knit from our side as well as from His, then the fact of our faith gives us a claim on Him which He is sure to honour. The soul that can say, I have taken Thee for mine, has a hold on God which God is only too glad to recognize and to vindicate. And whosoever, humbly trusting to that great Father in the heavens, feels that he belongs to God, and that God belongs to him, is warranted in saying, Teach me, and make me to do Thy will, and in being confident of an answer. And there is the other plea with Him and guarantee for us, drawn from Gods own moral character and perfectness. The last clause may either be read, Thy Spirit is good; lead me, or Let Thy good Spirit lead me. In either case the goodness of the Divine Spirit is the plea on which the prayer is grounded. The goodness here ,referred to is, as I take it, not merely beneficence and kindliness, but rather goodness in its broader and loftier sense of perfect moral purity. So that the thought just comes to this–we have the right to expect that we shall be made participant of the Divine nature. So sweet, to deep, so tender is the tie that knits a devout soul to God, that nothing short of conformity to the perfect purity of God can satisfy the aspirations of the creature or discharge the obligations of the Creator. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Active obedience to the will of God
I. Aspiration revealed. The great essential to a religious life is active obedience to Gods will. The knowledge is not in itself religion; but the Christian is that faithful and wise servant whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find so doing. Hence perfection of character consists not in knowledge, but obedience, because–
1. Obedience is superior to knowledge. It is possible for a man to have a Scriptural creed and to have an ungodly heart. The question must ever be, Is thine heart right? For if ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.
2. Knowledge alone is positively criminal. How vast the dishonour done to God, when, with a perfect knowledge of duty, the man is neglectful of his privilege, and refuses the obedience which of right he owes to God l The possession of the knowledge will be but an aggravation of the offence.
II. Deficiency acknowledged. It was a practical deficiency–
1. As the knowledge of Gods will in the particular circumstances of life.
2. As to the knowledge of the hindrances to the performance of Gods will.
3. As to the practical skill of doing the will of God.
III. Desire expressed. Like the psalmist, we must seek to be taught obedience to Gods will.
1. In the particular circumstances of life. It must be our prayer in the minute detail of life to fulfil the will of God. He that is faithful in that which is least, etc.
2. In dealing with the hindrances to its fulfilment. The best and holiest must feel that they have reason to prostrate themselves before the Lord. He knows the ills and difficulties of life, and He will help us to overcome them. The mysteries of life must quicken us to place ourselves under the guidance of our heavenly Father.
3. In its active fulfilment. Teach me to do Thy will. Self-reliance gives place to self-confidence, and hence the necessity to trust in God and not in self. (G. Bainton.)
Prayer for Divine teaching
I. The psalmists need.
1. He felt that he was ignorant, and needed Divine illumination. He desired that Gods will might be made clear to him (verse 8).
2. He felt that he was weak, and needed strength to do, as well as enlightening to know, Gods will.
II. The psalmists prayer. Teach me to do Thy will.
1. He felt it to be his duty to do so. He would observe that all nature, man only excepted, does the Divine will and never swerves from it.
2. He felt that Gods will was best. He knew that He had pleasure in the prosperity–spiritual and temporal–of His servants (Psa 35:27). He would seek to acquiesce in the will of God, who sometimes takes away temporal blessings that mans affections may be more completely fixed upon his Creator, and causes him to pass through the furnace of affliction that when he is tried he may come forth as gold (Job 23:10).
III. The psalmists plea. For Thou art my God.
1. He had realized to some extent Gods love towards him.
2. He rejoiced in His love and desired to have God for his portion for ever.
3. He loved God and sought to do the things that please Him. (H. P. Wright, B. A.)
At school: –
I. The prayer.
1. Its character.
(1) Holy.
(2) Humble.
(3) Docile.
(4) Acquiescent.
(5) Believing.
(6) Practical.
2. Its compass. Lord, teach me to do Thy will, whether it is the will of the great ones of the earth, or the will of my influential friends, or the will of my loudtalking neighbours or not. Help me to do Thy will, to take my stand, and say, As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. It is a blessed prayer. The more we look at it the more we see in it.
3. How ought Gods will to be done?
(1) Thoughtfully.
(2) Immediately.
(3) Cheerfully.
(4) Constantly.
(5) Universally.
(6) Spiritually.
(7) Intensely.
II. The answer.
1. There is a reason for expecting it. Thou art my God.
2. It needs to be answered. No one but God can teach us His will.
3. It is answered.
(1) In Jesus Christ, as our Example.
(2) In sacred biographies.
(3) In every line of the Bible.
(4) By the teaching of the Holy Spirit. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Teach me
An argument to move God to teach him, because He is his God, and doth trust in none but in Him. As if David should say: Thou promised me help of Thy free favour, help me then in this my danger. Whereby he would teach us two principal lessons. First, by this that he desireth God to teach him to do His will, because He was his God, we learn that it is not in our own arbitrament or choice to do Gods will, but His special grace, who preventeth us by His favour, and becometh our God, and after frameth us to do His will and obey Him. Secondly, that if He be our God, and we will call upon Him in our troubles, it were requisite we should frame ourselves to obey Him. If He be our God, where is His love and obedience? If He be our Father, where is His honour? So he must of necessity be an atheist who saith in his heart, there is no God; who professeth God in his mouth, and in his works denieth Him; following his own pleasure in place of Gods will. (A. Symson.)
The doing of Gods will
Thy will be done is not a prayer of resignation only. Something is to be done. It calls for action, not passivity. The will is to be done by men. When we pray that men may do it, if we pray honestly, we mean that we are ready to do it. Are we? Are we doing it? Is what we have planned to do to-day just what we think is the will of God? (F. W. Faber.)
Thy Spirit is good.—
The good Spirit
I trust that we shall never fail to see that on Gods good Spirit we are dependent for all good things, and that that Church is doomed to waste away to absolute nothingness and uselessness which does not draw its fresh supplies of strength each day and hour from God the Holy Ghost.
I. First, we shall, I hope, be disposed to say Thy Spirit is good when we remember His relationships. Whence is the Spirit? from what quarter does He reach to us? With whom is He associated? from whom does He proceed? By whom has He been sent forth to dwell amidst the Church, and in Gods peoples hearts? The answer is of course familiar to you.
1. This Spirit is good because He is the Spirit of God, He is God Himself. He is good because God is good.
2. Moreover He is spoken of as the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of Gods Son. Now, Christ is good. His very enemies declared that they could discover no sort of fault in Him.
3. He is spoken of as the Spirit of promise. The Spirit of promise is bound to be a good Spirit, for He is Gods promise and Christs promise. Our earthly fathers, so far as their judgment goes, give good gifts unto their children; our heavenly Father cannot fail even in His judgment.
II. We shall be still surer of this fact, I hope, when we consider His attributes. I have only time, of course, to glance at them.
1. He is mighty, how mighty it is not for human tongues to try to say. He is almighty; there is no limit to His power. Thy Spirit is good we may well exclaim, when we think both of His terrible acts, and of the might of those acts of mercy which have made Him renowned and revered to every believer. Thy Spirit is good. He is as mighty now as He was then. What God hath done, God can do. We are straitened in ourselves. The Spirit is omnipotent still. Let us both test and trust His power.
2. He is gracious and gentle.
3. He is wise.
4. He is true.
5. He is holy. All that is sweet, and lovely, and pure, and of good report pertains to Him.
III. Further, I want to call to your mind His several offices, for these are proofs that He is good. What He does, as well as what He is and whence He comes, substantiates this fact. He creates. By Jesus Christ the world was made, and without Him was not anything made that was made, but the Spirit co-operated with Him. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. In the creation of man, as in all else, God the Spirit was engaged, as well as God the Father and Christ the Son. Is He not a good Spirit, then? Now, the Holy Ghost is still engaged in this sacred service, creating, recreating, making hearts new, bringing chaos out of the void, brooding over the darkness and disorder and transforming them into brightness and beauty. Proceed, good Spirit, with this good work, till all things are made new. Tis He who quickens and illuminates, tis He who teaches and leads. It was the Holy Ghost who led the children of Israel in the wilderness. The fiery cloudy pillar was the outward sign of Divine guidance, hut it is written, Thou gavest also Thy good Spirit to instruct them. In special cases, where much wisdom and judgment were required, the Holy Ghost was the Author of these good things. Still He seals His saints, still He is the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry, Abba, Father. It is even now His blessed function to bear witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. He has not forsaken His task of comforting the sorrowful: He is to this day the Paraclete.
IV. The same truth is exhibited or rather illustrated by the various emblems by which the Holy Spirit is described in the Word of God. He is spoken of as a fire. In such guise He sat upon the heads of the disciples. He is the Spirit of burning. You know that fire is a good servants, if a bad master, but the Holy Ghost as fire is good both as master and servant. He is willing to serve us as well as to employ us, and as fire He lights, and cheers, and warms us. The Holy Spirit may be compared to dew-cheering, beautifying, fertilizing. The Holy Ghost is compared to a dove, that gentlest of feathered fowl. In this semblance He lighted upon Jesus. Listen to the voice of this celestial turtle dove as it is heard in our land, for it speaks of spring-time come and summer-time about to appear. He is compared to the wind, a mighty rushing wind. Get into the draught of that wind, I beseech you, it is a trade wind that wafts us to our desired haven. True, it destroys, but it destroys only what we are better rid of Dead wood, broken branches, withered leaves, these He sweeps away as with a bosom. They are better gone. Thy Spirit is good. In whatever form He works or acts upon us He is welcome. (Thomas Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 10. Teach me to do thy will] 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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
To do thy will; to continue in faithful obedience to thee, notwithstanding all temptations to the contrary.
Thy spirit is good, lead me; or rather, as it is exactly in the Hebrew, and as many both ancient and modern translators render it,
let thy good Spirit lead me. Leave me not to my own blind and vain mind, or corrupt affections, neither give me up to the evil spirit, as thou didst Saul, but conduct me in all my ways by thy good, i.e. gracious and holy, Spirit. Into the land of uprightness; or, in plain or even land, or ground; in a straight and smooth path, that I may not stumble nor fall, either into sin or mischief. This is opposed to the crooked and rugged ways, in which sinners are said to walk. See Psa 125:5; Pro 2:15; Isa 40:4.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. (Compare Psa 5:8;Psa 27:11).
land ofuprightnessliterally, “an even land” (Ps26:12).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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 Jer 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, 2Pe 3:13; and to this the Spirit of God is the leader and guide of his people, Ps 48:14.
z So the Tigurine version, Musculus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius. a “per terram planam”, Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
10. 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, (Phi 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, (254) (1Sa 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.
(254) “ Je confesse bien que le mauvais esprit de Dieu agite et transporte les reprouvez, (car Dieu execute ses jugemens par les diables,)” etc. — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(10) Thy spirit is good; lead me.Or, rather, let thy good spirit lead me. (For the omission of the article with the adjective after the determinative noun, comp. Gen. 37:2.)
Land of uprightness.Better, level land (Deu. 4:43, plain country; comp. Jer. 48:21), here metaphorically of tranquility and happiness. (Comp. Isa. 26:10; Psa. 27:11.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. Thy spirit is good Probably it is better to read: “Let thy Spirit, which is good, lead me,” etc. “Land of uprightness” is Hebrew for “a level country,” one in which he can see a long distance, and determine his course with ease and safety.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 143:10. Thy Spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness Let thy good Spirit lead me through plain ground. Mudge: Who observes, “I have translated it so, as the clause before leads to this sense; and there is an expression much the same, Psa 27:11 in which he prays God to conduct him in a plain and level way. Such was that of God’s law; because, if he went out of that, he would be liable to stumble, and his enemies would take advantage to his prejudice.” But, considering the particular circumstances of the Psalmist in these two psalms, I am inclined to think that he prays to God to be safely conducted into the plain country out of that rude mountainous wild where he was now forced to secrete himself.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 143:10 Teach me to do thy will; for thou [art] my God: thy spirit [is] good; lead me into the land of uprightness.
Ver. 10. Teach me to do thy will ] Orat nunc pro salute animae, ut ante pro corporis, saith Kimchi. Now he prayeth for his soul’s health; and would be as well delivered from his corruptions within as from his enemies without. Lord, save me from that naughty man myself, said an ancient.
Thy spirit is good
Into the land of uprightness Psalms
THE PRAYER OF PRAYERS
Psa 143:10 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.
I. Notice, then, first, the supreme desire of the devout soul.
Christianity is a revelation of truth, but to accept it as such is not enough. Christianity brings to me exemption from punishment, escape from hell, deliverance from condemnation and guilt, and by some of us, that is apt to be regarded as the whole Gospel; but pardon is only a means to an end. Christianity brings to us the possibility of indulgence in sweet and blessed emotions, and a fervour of feeling which to experience is the ante-past of heaven, and for some of us, all our religion goes off in vaporous emotion; but feeling alone is not Christianity. Our religion brings to us sweet and gracious consolations, but it is a poor affair if we only use it as an anodyne and a comfort. Our Christianity brings to us glorious hopes that flash lustre into the darkness, and make the solitude of the grave companionship, and the end of earth the beginning of life, but it is a poor affair if the mightiest operation of our religion be relegated to a future, and flung on to the close. All these things, the truth which the Gospel brings, the pardon and peace of conscience which it ensures, the joyful emotion which it sets loose from the ice of indifference, the sweet consolations with which it pillows the weary head and bandages the bleeding heart, and the great hopes which flash light into glazing eyes, and make the end glorious with the rays of a beginning, and the western heaven bright with the promise of a new day-all these things are but subservient means to this highest purpose, that we should do the will of God, and be conformed to His image. They whose religion has not reached that apex have yet to understand its highest meaning. The river of the water of life that proceeds from the Throne of God and the Lamb is not sent merely to refresh thirsty lips, and to bring music into the silence of a waterless desert, but it is sent to drive the wheels of life. Action, not thought, is the end of God’s revelation, and the perfecting of man.
But, then, let us remember that we shall most imperfectly apprehend the whole sweep and blessedness of this great supreme aim of the devout soul, if we regard this doing of God’s will as merely the external act of obedience to an external command. Simple doing is not enough; the deed must be the fruit of love. The aim of the Christian life is not obedience to a law that is recognised as authoritative, but joyful moulding of ourselves after a law that is felt to be sweet and loving. ‘I delight to do Thy will, yea! Thy law is within my heart.’ Only when thus the will yields itself in loving and glad conformity to the will of God is true obedience possible for us. Brother! is that your Christianity? Do you desire, more than anything besides, that what He wills you should will, and that His law should be stamped upon your hearts, and all your rebellious desires and purposes should be brought into a sweet captivity which is freedom, and an obedience to Christ which is kingship over the universe and yourselves?
II. Note, secondly, the divine teaching and touch which are required for this conformity.
We may learn from this prayer, then, that practical conformity to God’s will can never be attained by our own efforts. Remember all the hindrances that rise between us and it; these wild passions of ours, this obstinate gravitating of tastes and desires towards earth, these animal necessities, these spiritual perversities, which make up so much of us all-how can we coerce these into submission? Our better selves sit within like some prisoned king, surrounded and ‘fooled by the rebel powers’ of his revolted subjects; and our best recourse is to send an embassy to the Over-lord, the Sovereign King, praying Him to come to our help. We cannot will to will as God wills, but we can turn ourselves to Him, and ask Him to put the power within us which shall subdue the evil, conquer the rebels, and make us masters of our own else anarchic and troubled spirits. For all honest attempts to make the will of God our wills, the one secret of success is confident and continual appeal to Him. A man must have gone a very little way, very superficially and perfunctorily, on the path of seeking to make himself what he ought to be, unless he has found out that he cannot do it, and unless he has found out that there is only one way to do it, and that is to go to God and say, ‘O Lord! I am baffled and beaten. I put the reins into Thy hand; do Thou inspire and direct and sanctify.’
That practical conformity to the will of God requires divine teaching, but yet that teaching must be no outward thing. It is not enough that we should have communicated to us, as from without, the clearest knowledge of what we ought to be. There must be more than that. Our Psalmist’s prayer was a prophecy. He said, ‘Teach me to do Thy will.’ And he thought, no doubt, of an inward teaching which should mould his nature as well as enlighten it; of the communication of impulses as well as of conceptions; of something which should make him love the divine will, as well as of something which should make him know it.
You and I have Jesus Christ for our Teacher, the answer to the psalm. His teaching is inward and deep and real, and answers to all the necessities of the case. We have His example to stand as our perfect law. If we want to know what is God’s will, we have only to turn to that life; and however different from ours His may have been in its outward circumstances, and however fragmentary and brief its records in the Gospels may sometimes seem to us, yet in these little booklets, telling of the quiet life of the carpenter’s Son, there is guidance for every man and woman in all circumstances, however complicated, and we do not need anything more to teach us what God’s will is than the life of Jesus Christ. His teaching goes deeper than example. He comes into our hearts, He moulds our wills. His teaching is by inward impulses and communications of desire and power to do, as well as of light to know. A law has been given which can give life. As the modeller will take a piece of wax into his hand, and by warmth and manipulation make it soft and pliable, so Jesus Christ, if we let Him, will take our hard hearts into His hands, and by gentle, loving, subtle touches, will shape them into the pattern of His own perfect beauty, and will mould all their vagrant inclinations and aberrant distortions into ‘one immortal feature of loveliness and perfection.’ ‘The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly,’ controlling ourselves, ‘righteously,’ fulfilling all our obligations to our fellows, ‘and godly,’ referring everything to Him, ‘in this present world.’
That practical conformity to the divine will requires, still further, the operation of the divine Spirit as our Guide. ‘Thy Spirit is good lead me into the land of uprightness.’ There is only one power that can draw us out of the far-off land of rebellious disobedience, where the prodigals and the swine’s husks and the famine and the rags are, into the ‘land of uprightness,’ and that is, the communicated Spirit of God, which is given to all them that desire Him, and will lead them in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. It is He that works in us, the willing and the doing, according to His own good pleasure. ‘He shall guide you,’ said the Master, ‘into all truth’-not merely into its knowledge, but into its performance, not merely into truth of conception, but into truth of practice, which is righteousness, and the fulfilling of the Law.
III. Lastly, note the divine guarantee that this practical conformity shall be ours.
Note, then, first, God’s personal relation to the devout soul, as the guarantee that that soul shall be taught, not merely to know, but also to do His will. If He be ‘my God,’ there can be no deeper desire in His heart, than that His will should be my will. And this He desires, not from any masterfulness or love of dominion, but only from love to us. If He be my God, and therefore longing to have me obedient, He will not withhold what is needed to make me so. God is no hard Taskmaster who sets us to make bricks without straw. Whatsoever He commands He gives, and His commandments are always second and His gifts first. He bestows Himself and then He says, ‘For the love’s sake, do My will.’ Be sure that the sacred bond which knits us to Him is regarded by Him, the faithful Creator, as an obligation which He recognises and respects and will discharge. We have a right to go to Him and to say to Him, ‘Thou art my God; and Thou wilt not be what Thou art, nor do what Thou hast pledged Thyself to do, unless Thou makest me to know and to do Thy will.’
And on the other hand, if we have taken Him for ours, and have the bond knit from our side as well as from His, then the fact of our faith gives us a claim on Him which He is sure to honour. The soul that can say, ‘I have taken Thee for mine,’ has a hold on God which God is only too glad to recognise and to vindicate. And whoever, humbly trusting to that great Father in the heavens, feels that he belongs to God, and that God belongs to him, is warranted in praying, ‘Teach me, and make me, to do Thy will,’ and in being confident of an answer.
And there is the other plea with Him and guarantee for us, drawn from God’s own moral character and perfectness. The last clause of my text may either be read as our Bible has it, ‘Thy Spirit is good; lead me,’ or ‘Let Thy good Spirit lead me.’ In either case the goodness of the divine Spirit is the plea on which the prayer is grounded. The goodness here referred to is, as I take it, not merely beneficence and kindliness, but rather goodness in its broader and loftier sense of perfect moral purity. So that the thought just comes to this-we have the right to expect that we shall be made participant of the divine nature for so sweet, so deep, so tender is the tie that knits a devout soul to God, that nothing short of conformity to the perfect purity of God can satisfy the aspirations of the creature, or discharge the obligations of the Creator.
It is a daring thought. The Psalmist’s desire was a prophecy. The New Testament vindicates and fulfils it when it says ‘We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.’ Since He now dwells in ‘the land of uprightness,’ who once dwelt among us in this weary world of confusion and of sin, then we one day shall be with Him. Christ’s heart cannot be satisfied, Christ’s Cross cannot be rewarded, the divine nature cannot be at rest, the purpose of redemption cannot be accomplished, until all who have trusted in Christ be partakers of divine purity, and all the wanderers be led by devious and yet by right paths, by crooked and yet by straight ways, by places rough and yet smooth, into ‘the land of uprightness.’ Where and what He is, there and that shall also His servants be.
My brother! if to do the will of God is to dwell in the land of uprightness, disobedience is to dwell in a dry and thirsty land, barren and dreary, horrid with frowning rocks and jagged cliffs, where every stone cuts the feet and every step is a blunder, and all the paths end at last on the edge of an abyss, and crumble into nothingness beneath the despairing foot that treads them. Do you see to it that you walk in ways of righteousness which are paths of peace; and look for all the help you need, with assured faith, to Him who shall ‘guide us by His counsel and afterwards receive us to His glory.’
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 143:10-12
10Teach me to do Your will,
For You are my God;
Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.
11For the sake of Your name, O Lord, revive me.
In Your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble.
12And in Your lovingkindness, cut off my enemies
And destroy all those who afflict my soul,
For I am Your servant.
Psa 143:10 Teach me to do Your will This is a different word (BDB 540, KB 531, cf. Deu 4:1; Deu 6:1; Deu 20:18; Jer 12:16) from the teach of Psa 143:8 c. YHWH wants to teach us His will so that His faithful followers can model it for the lost world!
Also note the sovereign God must reveal His will but humans must choose to act (and continue to act) on this revelation. The covenant involves both God and humans!
NASBYour good Spirit
NKJVYour Spirit is good
NRSV, LXXYour good spirit
NJByour generous spirit
JPSOA, REBYour gracious spirit
PESHITTAYour gentle spirit
As is obvious from the English translations there are two theological issues.
1. how to view spirit
a. imagery of God’s agency (i.e., Gen 1:2; Num 11:17; Num 11:25; Num 11:29; Psa 139:7; Hag 2:5)
b. as a characterization of God Himself (cf. Psa 51:11; Isa 63:10-11)
2. the definition of good (BDB 373 III), which is a common verb with a wide semantic field; the general sense is
a. pleasing, good (verb)
b. pleasant, agreeable, good (adjective)
c. good thing, goodness (masculine noun)
d. welfare, benefit, good thing (feminine noun)
For #1 please look at Special Topic: The Personhood of the Spirit and SPECIAL TOPIC: THE TRINITY .
level ground The OT uses the imagery of a path/road/way to describe one’s life (cf. Psa 5:8; Psa 26:12; Psa 27:11).
1. the good/godly life is
a. smooth
b. level
c. unobstructed
d. straight
2. the wicked life is
a. crooked
b. unlevel
c. obstructed
d. slippery
Psa 143:11-12 The psalmist bases his request, not on his own merit (cf. Psa 143:2), but on
1. God’s good name, Psa 143:11 a
2. God’s righteousness, Psa 143:11 b
3. God’s lovingkindness, Psa 143:12 a
Psa 143:11 For the sake of Your Name See Special Topic: The Name of YHWH .
NASB, NKJV,
TEV, REBrevive me
NRSV, JPSOApreserve my life
NJBgive me life
LXXquicken me
The verb (BDB 310, KB 309, Piel imperfect) is the common term life (noun), live (verb), alive, or living (adjective). This Piel stem is used often in the Psalter (cf. Psa 80:18; Psa 85:6; Psa 119:25; Psa 119:37; Psa 119:40; Psa 119:50; Psa 119:88; Psa 119:93; Psa 119:107; Psa 119:149; Psa 119:154; Psa 119:156; Psa 119:159). It is often parallel to BDB 996, KB 1427, cf. Psa 80:3; Psa 80:17; Psa 80:19. It can refer to
1. physical life
2. spiritual life
Psa 143:12 Your servant This can mean
1. a faithful follower
2. an honorific title for leaders
a. Moses
b. Joshua
c. David (i.e., Kings of Judah)
d. Messiah/Israel (i.e., Servant Songs of Isaiah 41-53)
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
This is a study guide commentary which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk n the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.
These discussion questions are provided to help you think through the major issues of this section of the book. They are meant to be thought provoking, not definitive.
1. Since all humans are sinful, on what basis does the psalmist ask for God to hear and help him?
2. Who is the enemy?
3. Define dark places in Psa 143:3.
4. What is the implication of YHWH hiding His face?
5. Does Psa 143:10 refer to the Holy Spirit?
6. Define servant.
will = good pleasure.
God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4.
Spirit. Hebrew. ruach. App-9.
lead, &c. = It will lead.
land. Some codices, with one early printed edition, read “way”; others, with Syriac, read “path”. Compare Psa 27:11.
Teach: Psa 25:4, Psa 25:5, Psa 25:8, Psa 25:9, Psa 25:12, Psa 119:5-7, Psa 119:12, Psa 119:35, Psa 139:24, Mic 4:2, Mat 28:20, Col 1:9, Col 1:10, 1Th 4:1, 1Th 4:2, Heb 13:21, 1Jo 2:27
for thou art: Psa 22:1, Psa 31:14, Psa 63:1, Psa 118:28, Psa 140:6
thy spirit: Neh 9:20, Isa 63:14, Joh 14:26, Joh 16:13-15, Rom 5:5, Rom 8:2, Rom 8:14-16, Rom 8:26, Rom 15:13, Rom 15:30, Gal 5:22, Gal 5:23, Eph 4:30, Eph 5:9, 2Ti 1:7
the land: Isa 29:10
Reciprocal: Exo 4:12 – General Num 9:22 – abode Psa 31:3 – lead Psa 43:3 – lead Psa 119:7 – when Psa 119:124 – teach Psa 139:10 – General Psa 143:8 – cause me Isa 26:10 – in the Joh 9:31 – and doeth 1Co 12:8 – is given 1Th 4:3 – this Heb 10:29 – the Spirit 1Pe 4:2 – the will 1Jo 2:17 – but
Psa 143:10; Psa 143:12. Teach me to do thy will To continue in faithful obedience to thee, notwithstanding all temptations to the contrary. Thy Spirit is good, lead me, &c. Or rather, as it is exactly in the Hebrew, and as many, both ancient and modern translators, render the clause, Let thy good Spirit lead me. Leave me not to mine own blind or vain mind, or corrupt affections; neither give me up to the evil spirit, as thou didst Saul, but conduct me in all my ways by thy good, or gracious, and holy Spirit; into the land of uprightness In a straight, plain, and level way, that I may not stumble nor fall either into sin or mischief. This is opposed to the crooked and rugged ways in which sinners are said to walk, Psa 125:5; Pro 2:15. And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul That is, out of thy mercy to me, whose life they seek.
143:10 {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.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes