5). He Hears God's Voice Again Promising to Lead Him in The Right Way, Although Requiring That He Respond to His Guiding Hand (8-9).
‘I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you will go,
I will guide you with my eye.'
God now speaks to David (it is YHWH who gives David counsel - Psalms 25:8; Psalms 25:12; Psalms 16:7; Psalms 73:24). We have only to recall other mentions of His silence (Psalms 28:1; Psalms 35:22; Psalms 39:12; Psalms 83:1; Psalms 109:1) to recognise how much it meant to David to be aware that God was speaking to him. For a while He had been silent as David had refused to acknowledge his sin and failure, but now that reconciliation had been made God can speak to him again.
His promise is that He will instruct him and teach him in His way. We can compare here Deuteronomy 17:18-20 in order to recognise that this includes the idea that David will receive his guidance through God's word.
‘I will guide you with my eye.' The idea in mind here is where the servants of the king are watching him awaiting his instructions, so that he has but to indicate with His eyes and they know exactly what to do. So David had to keep his eye on YHWH and be open to His instruction in the same way. We too, if we wish to walk in His ways must allow Him to guide us with His eye.
Others suggest that it is indicating that God's eye is upon him, as in Psalms 33:13; Psalms 33:18, ‘YHWH looks from heaven, He beholds all the sons of men, from the place of His habitation He looks down on all who dwell on earth -- behold the eye of YHWH is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy.' ‘The eyes of YHWH are towards the righteous, and His ear is open to their cry' (Psalms 34:15). Compare Jeremiah 24:6; Jeremiah 32:19.
‘Do not be as the horse, or as the mule,
Which have no understanding,
Whose trappings must be bit and bridle to hold them in,
Else they will not come near you.'
God then warns him against not responding to Him freely. He does not want him to be like a horse or an ass which because of their lack of understanding have to be brought to bridle. Unless such experience the bit and bridle they will avoid their duties. But David is to have understanding, and is to respond freely without bit or bridle, simply in response to God's eye.
‘Do not be as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding.' Elsewhere the unrighteous nations are seen as being like wild beasts, in contrast with God's people who are like ‘a son of man' (e.g. Daniel 9). The whole idea is that man in his sin is like a brute beast. He has no genuine awareness of God or of divine things.