10. With my whole heart have I sought thee. His heart had gone after God himself: he had not only desired to obey his laws, but to commune with his person. The surest mode of cleansing the way of our life is to seek after God himself, and to endeavor to abide in fellowship with him. Up to the good hour in which he was speaking to his Lord, the psalmist had been an eager seeker after the Lord, and if faint, he was still pursuing. Had he not sought the Lord he would never have been so anxious to cleanse his way. He so powerfully feels the presence of his God that he speaks to him, and prays to him as to one who is near. A true heart cannot long live without fellowship with God. His petition is founded on life’s purpose: he is seeking the Lord, and he prays the Lord to prevent his going astray in or from his search. It is by obedience that we follow after God, hence the prayer, O let me not wander from thy commandments; for if we leave the ways of God’s appointment we certainly shall not find the God who appointed them. The more our whole heart is set upon holiness, the more do we dread falling into sin; we are not so much fearful of deliberate transgression as of inadvertent wandering.
Two things may be very like and yet altogether different: saints are “strangers” (verse 19), but they are not wanderers: they are passing through an enemy’s country, but their route is direct; they are seeking their Lord while they traverse this foreign land. Their way is hidden from people; but yet they have not lost their way.
The man of God exerts himself, but does not trust himself: his heart is in his walking with God; but he knows that even his whole strength is not enough to keep him right unless his King is his keeper; hence the prayer, O let me not wander.
Where verse 2 pronounces that man blessed who seeks the Lord with his whole heart, the present verse claims the blessing by pleading the character: With my whole heart have I sought thee.
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