We are treated to the Wonder of Moral Vision. It is as if someone came into his soul and turned on the light for the first time. Suddenly, everything was vivid and bright, and the world made sense.
The psalmist marvels at the power of God’s testimonies. How could he not surrender his entire being to keeping them? He recalls how it was when he first approached them, standing in the doorway and rubbing his eyes at the brilliance and color. Once upon that threshold, it mattered not a whit what a man brought to them, they made the man. He was a peer to the wisest on earth.
Perhaps the third verse would be better translated with the image of a man who sucks it all up like someone who stumbled upon a spring after crossing a dry desert. This wasn’t a restriction in his fun; it was life itself. He begs to be counted among those who are known as God’s cheering section; it would be the sweetest mercy itself.
He never knew what it meant to walk until his feet were set upon the path of God’s Word. Anything less is a wasted life pursuing nothing. Walking by human wisdom is the worst predation, like a ball and chain dragging behind him. He begs to be set free from mere human concerns to keep his heart on God’s precepts.
The attention of God shines brighter than the sun, even when it requires the goading discipline of God’s ways. His heart breaks and his eyes melt into tears at the mere thought of people avoiding God’s Law.
