2. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies. They are doubly blessed whose outward life is supported by an inward zeal for God’s glory. Blessedness is ascribed to those who treasure up the testimonies of the Lord: in which is implied that they search the Scriptures, that they come to an understanding of them, that they love them, and then that they continue in the practice of them. We must first get a thing before we can keep it. We cannot keep in the heart that which we have not heartily embraced by the affections. God’s Word is his witness or testimony to grand and important truths which concern himself and our relation to him: this we should desire to know; knowing it, we should believe it; believing it, we should love it; and loving it, we should hold it fast against all comers. There is a doctrinal keeping of the Word when we are ready to die for its defense, and a practical keeping of it when we actually live under its power. If we keep God’s testimonies they will keep us right in opinion, comfortable in spirit, holy in conversation, and hopeful in expectation. The designed effect does not come through a temporary seizure of them, but by a persevering keeping of them.
And that seek him with the whole heart. Those who keep the Lord’s testimonies are sure to seek after himself. If his Word is precious we may be sure that he himself is still more so. Personal dealing with a personal God is the longing of all those who have allowed the Word of the Lord to have its full effect upon them. If we once really know the power of the Gospel we must seek the God of the Gospel. See the growth which these sentences indicate: first, in the way, then walking in it, then finding and keeping the treasure of faith, and to crown all, seeking after the Lord of the way himself. Note also that the further a soul advances in grace the more spiritual and divine are its longings: an outward walk does not content the gracious soul, nor even the treasured testimonies; it reaches out in due time after God himself, and when it in a measure finds him, still yearns for more of him, and seeks him still.
Seeking after God signifies a desire to commune with him more closely, to follow him more fully, to enter into more perfect union with his mind and will, to promote his glory, and to realize completely all that he is to holy hearts. The blessed man has God already, and for this reason he seeks him. This may seem a contradiction; it is only a paradox.
That which the psalmist admires in this verse he claims in the tenth, where he says, “With my whole heart have I sought thee.” It is well when admiration of a virtue leads to the attainment of it. Those who do not believe in the blessedness of seeking the Lord will not be likely to arouse their hearts to the pursuit, but he who calls another blessed because of the grace which he sees in him is on the way to gaining the same grace for himself.
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