Prayer for understanding and the path of life

He asks for understanding, he says, and promises that it will not be without fruit. For I will not only learn, he says, but I will also keep your statutes (Psalm 118:7-8, 119:7-8) (Psalm 119:8).

Aquila says, “Do not let me go astray in ignorance.” Using his desire for the law, he fears the lack of understanding that turns many people’s zeal to the opposite. Even in what they think they are doing rightly, they have stumbled, as Solomon says: “There is a way that seems right to people, but its end goes down to the bottom of Hades” (Proverbs 14:12).

For understanding does not come immediately from memory but from divine illumination. The statutes are the things that can make righteous (Psalm 118:12, 119:12).

Pride is the mother of lawlessness. Because of it they refuse to obey God’s commands, like the disobedient people who say, “We shall not be mastered, and we will not come to you any longer.” He says this to show his own eagerness before God for obedience to the commandments. Because God understands them to be guilty, he will rebuke those who are disobedient and unsubmissive through pride (Psalm 118:21, 119:21).

He prays to escape true dishonor in the sight of God, which the Lord shows to be most fearful, saying that those who put him to shame will be put to shame (Psalm 119:22; LXX 118:22). Showing the opposite of this, this man of the law says here that though he is mocked by great and proud people, he does not turn away from the study of the sacred oracles and from correction by them (Psalm 119:23; LXX 118:23). And a little later he says, “I spoke of your testimonies before kings and was not ashamed” (Psalm 118:22-23, 119:22-23). Such is Paul when he says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel” (Romans 1:16).

What he himself says is a sacrifice to God—a broken and humbled heart—he now says he has fulfilled by bringing his soul down as if to the ground and humbling himself willingly (Psalm 119:25). About the unwilling humiliation he says, “Our soul was humbled to the dust; our belly clung to the earth” (Psalm 43:26 (44:25)). So having brought himself forward as humbled as is fitting, he seeks from God as recompense a lawful way of life and life according to God’s word. And this very thing is also a mark of humility: not to place the good life in one’s own power but to seek it from God (Psalm 118:25, 119:25).

It is a great thing to do everything as in the sight of God, and to say these things and recount them, and to ask for revelation about them that corrects or confirms (Psalm 119:26-27; LXX 118:26-27). And he will also gain benefit for others by speaking from more divine understanding and proclaiming the wonderful kindness of God that is stored up for those who act in holiness. For the one who teaches about righteousness also teaches about its end, which is stored up for it—something wonderful and unexpected, because God rewards greatly and beyond what is deserved. Paul also spoke about self-control and righteousness and the coming judgment, so that the governor became afraid (Acts 24:25). Instead of “I will meditate,” Aquila says “I will converse,” and Symmachus says “I will explain” (Psalm 118:26-27, 119:26-27).

Since the human heart lies intently upon evil from youth, God is needed to move it toward righteous commands—that is, to lead our faculty of choice by dispensations and deeds, and by the illumination of the divine Spirit (Psalm 118:36, 119:36).

Vanity is the madness about sights, the contemplation of things that do not even exist, and also the disordered imagination in the mind. Paul clarifies this when he says, “In the vanity of their mind, being darkened in understanding, alienated from the life of God” (Ephesians 4:17-18). See how it is called vanity of mind when someone has a mind and does not use it for the contemplation of realities, but hands it over to Satan who binds it. So praying for this he says, “Turn away my eyes from seeing vanities” (Psalm 118:37, 119:37). For this is the grace of God. In this way, having turned away from such contemplation, he will be able to live in the way of God, walking in it and being made alive by it. For the way is at the same time life. Therefore the Savior says, “I am the way and the life” (John 14:6).

And since the Son is the righteousness of the Father, the one who wishes to live in the Son says this: “For the righteousness of God is revealed in him from faith to faith” (Romans 1:17) (Psalm 118:40, 119:40).

He says that the only thing sufficient to comfort us in afflictions is to have the promise of true life. Bring this to completion for us. For if we have hoped in Christ only in this life, we are more pitiable than all people, because we are afflicted now and have no hope of the life to come (Psalm 118:50, 119:50; 1 Corinthians 15:19).