Whereby he would teach us two principal lessons. For what other than the Spirit of kindness ever does lead any one into those open fields of truth and honesty? And so desiring, He does it, not from any masterfulness or love of dominion, but only from love to us. We have no righteousness of our own to plead, therefore must plead God's righteousness, and the word of promise which he has freely given us, and caused us to hope in... View the entire commentary. And therefore it is a usual phrase in Romans 8:1-39 , and Galatians 4:1-31 , our being led by the Spirit. 10. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jfb/psalms-143.html. 2. 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. 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. I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done. "Commentary on Psalms 143:10". First, we shall, I hope, be disposed to say “Thy Spirit is good” when we remember His relationships. Let us both test and trust His power. 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. He is good because God is good. Matthew Henry :: Commentary on Psalms 143 ← Back to Matthew Henry's Bio & Resources. Now he prayeth for his soul’s health; and would be as well delivered from his corruptions within as from his enemies without. (Read Psalm 143:1-6) We have no righteousness of our own to plead, therefore must plead God's righteousness, and the word of promise which he has freely given us, and caused us to hope in. 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. The answer is of course familiar to you. The psalmist betakes himself to prayer because he knows that of himself he cannot bring his will into this attitude of harmonious submission. I. (2) Be sure of your motive. It shows what indeed God is to the soul in all its many moods. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jfu/psalms-143.html. His teaching goes deeper than example. Thy Spirit is good - The Author of every good desire and holy purpose. God is no hard Taskmaster who sets us to make bricks without straw. The Biblical Illustrator. 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. Psalm 143:3 also recalls Psalm 7:6, but as to the words it sounds like Lamentations 3:6 (cf. Verse 10. Action, not thought, is the end of God’s revelation and the perfecting of man. 1. 1871-8. ‘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. God is all spirit and all good. The Story of Psalm 143. Who else can teach me as thou canst? by Frank Gaebelein [Zondervan], 5:852) explains, “Both expressions are valid, depending on the context in which one finds himself. 1. Romans 8:1-3 . “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. --Thomas Shepherd, in "The Sound Believer", 1671. (l) That is, justly and aright, for as soon as we decline from God's will, we fall into error. 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." Psalms 143:10 Context. Grant me “that” spirit, and I shall be certain that I am going in the right path. Ephesians 5:9 , "The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth." https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bnb/psalms-143.html. Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible. II. who so good a scholar as David? He saith not, Teach me to know thy will, but to do thy will. 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 mysteries of life must quicken us to place ourselves under the guidance of our heavenly Father. So that the thought just comes to this--we have the right to expect that we shall be made participant of the Divine nature. Lastly, note the divine guarantee that this practical conformity shall be ours. This immense variety of mood, and subject, and occasion, with which reverence and hope are always combined, is the further point in the work of the Book of. It was as when we say, "God is love," and feel that we have got down to the very rock of the foundation of everything. We may call this sentence a description of David's school; and it is a very complete one; at least, it hath in it the three best things that belong to a school. There is no inheritance like a portion in the land of promise, the land of precept, the land of perfectness. He desired to be led, as it were, into a “level” country where he might be safe. “Teach me to do thy will” A Psalm of David. Knowing His will, having learnt it, we must do it, and do it heartily. How undivided in obedience—"to do thy will"! 1859. land. It is a vain thing to imagine that our obedience is to have no other rule but the Spirit, without an attendance to the law: the Spirit is indeed the efficient cause of our obedience, and hence we are said to be "led by the Spirit" ( Romans 8:14 ); but it is not properly the rule of our obedience, but the will of God revealed in his word, especially in the law, is the rule; the Spirit is the wind that drives us in our obedience; the law is our compass, according to which it steers our course for us: the Spirit and the law, the wind and the compass, can stand well together. But be that as it may, whosoever wrote the psalm, was a man in extremest misery and peril, and as he says of himself, ‘persecuted,’ ‘overwhelmed,’ ‘desolate.’ The tempest blows him to the Throne of God, and when he is there, what does he ask? Brother! Commentary for Psalms 143 . Truth's land must be Christ's land, because Christ is truth; and therefore the Gospel must be "the land of uprightness.". “Thou art my God.”. Verse 10. Aspiration revealed. Matthew Henry Bible Commentary (complete) << Psalm 142 | Psalm 143 | Psalm 144 >> (Read all of Psalm 143) Complete Concise This psalm, as those before, is a prayer of David, and full of complaints of the great distress and danger he was in, probably when Saul persecuted him. 1. 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. 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. Teach me to do thy will. Find Top Church Sermons, Illustrations, and Preaching Slides on Psalm 143:10. Something is to be done. He felt that God’s will was best. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/mac/psalms-143.html. 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. His teaching is inward, and deep, and real, and answers to all the necessities of the case. See Psalms 125:5 Proverbs 2:15 Isaiah 40:4. 2. 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. Simple doing is not enough; the deed must be the fruit of love. 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. II. BibliographyClarke, Adam. Please enter your email address associated with your Salem All-Pass account, then click Continue. 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. After addressing the Lord (verses 1-2), he pours out his lament (verses 3-6), recalls God’s help in former distresses (verse 5), and offers his petition to the only One who can correct the matter (verses 6-12). I emphasize that this is a lesson for those who, like David, can say, “You are my God” (v. 10) and “I am your servant” (v. 12; cf. Ver. Chapter 143 This psalm, as those before, is a prayer of David, and full of complaints of the great distress and danger he was in, probably when Saul persecuted him. "Commentary on Psalms 143:10". Deliverance? Into the land of uprightness - "Into a right land," Chaldee. My brother! (Thomas Spurgeon.). ), Land of uprightness.—Better, level land (Deuteronomy 4:43, “plain country;” comp. His essence is goodness, kindness, holiness: it is his nature to do good, and what greater good can he do to us than to hear such a prayer as that which follows -- Lead we into the land of uprightness? (2) With this faith in the soul has come the stirring and enlightening conscience. He loved God and sought to do the things that please Him. "Commentary on Psalms 143:10". 2. He is spoken of as the Spirit of promise. "Commentary on Psalms 143:10". III. Psalm 143:10, ESV: "Teach me to do your will, for you are my God!Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground!" The divine Guide, -- "thy Spirit is good. So high we may rise by like means. ‘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. The Lord doth no sooner call his people to, himself, but as soon as ever he hath thus crowned them with these glorious privileges, and given them any sense and feeling of them, them they immediately cry out, O Lord, what shall I now do for thee? (F. W. 2. To do thy will; to continue in faithful obedience to thee, notwithstanding all temptations to the contrary. 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. Psalm 143:10, ESV: "Teach me to do your will, for you are my God!Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground!" Bainton.). The godly man’s prayer. "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged". Psalm 119:5-7,12,35 O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes! Bible Commentaries / The Treasury of David / Psalm / Psalm 143 / Psalm 143:1; Share Tweet. Because his life was filled with so much activity and danger, it is impossible to link this psalm to any one particular point of crisis. This psalm of David most aptly answereth to that psalm which precedes it; for in Ps 142:1-7 he showeth that he prayed, repeating it twice (Ps 143:1); and here he twice saith, "Hear my prayer, give ear to my supplication." ‘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. 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. Scarcely. (H. B. Thoughts on Today's Verse... We want the Spirit to be at work in us to make us like Jesus. As you know, there are several psalms where David pleads with God on the basis of his own innocence (Ps. (1) Ezekiel is emphatically the prophet of the moral significance of the Law and of personal responsibility. Derived from the root "yashar", "even, level plain", it naturally came to be used figuratively for equity, right, righteous, and uprightness. 5. 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. The Spirit is omnipotent still. Teach me to do thy will. Psalm 143:10 Parallel Verses [⇓ See commentary ⇓] Psalm 143:10, NIV: "Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground." The later writer maybe did this to make the psalm better. BibliographyTorrey, R. A. "Calvin's Commentary on the Bible". (2) In the awful volume of Isaiah, in which thought and imagination are allowed to master the vision of the world, wherein is embodied all that most concerns man in the present and the future, and in which the tremendous severity of judgment mingles so strangely with a gracious and inexpressible sweetness which even still takes us by surprise—through all these Divinely inspired utterances we may trace, with a fulness, and richness, and depth unequalled in the Old Testament, the personal lineaments of one who not only by faith and self-discipline, but also by thought, and reason, and knowledge, had become fitted to be one of the company of that Redeemer whose person, whose coming, whose life of suffering and glory, he was going to foretell, and in whose perfection man was to be made perfect. ... Psalm 143:10 Psalm 143:12 Read Psalm 143:11. Kings. Deficiency acknowledged. Learn more. Proud member for thou art. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/tsk/psalms-143.html. Teach me to do Thy will; for Thou art my God. Scarcely. He is spoken of as a fire. 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. 1801-1803. BibliographyCoke, Thomas. Perhaps we have not sufficiently considered the lovingness of the character of the Third Person in the Holy Trinity. He would seek to acquiesce in the will of God, who sometimes takes away temporal blessings that man’s 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). In Psalm 143, David laments his circumstances and feels that every step he takes is under attack from his enemies, who are persecuting his soul. 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