MEM.
Psalms 119:97. O how I love thy law! O Lord, thou knowest my love to it is inexpressible: to then I appeal herein against all the censures and calumnies of my enemies to the contrary. It is my meditation all the day Because I desire to know and do thy will, which it declares in all things. Thou, through thy commandments Which direct me into, and preserve me in, the way of righteousness; hast made me wiser than my enemies Who pursue a different course, and take their own will or fancy, and not thy word, for the rule of their actions. I have more understanding More true wisdom; than all my teachers All those priests and Levites, or doctors of the law, of whom I have formerly learned; for, pursuing other knowledge, and secular objects, they neglect to make themselves acquainted with thy law: but thy testimonies are my meditation The matter of my constant and most diligent study. I understand more than the ancients Those elders and grave counsellors, who rely more on their own wisdom and sagacity than on that wisdom which springs from a meditation on thy truth; because I keep thy precepts By which he intimates, that to practise religion is the best way to understand it, and that the corruption of men's hearts and lives is the greatest hinderance of all true and solid knowledge of it. Thus our Lord, If any man will do his
(God's) will, he shall known of the doctrine whether it be of God.