We shall consider the Psalmist as here drawing a contrast between the unsatisfying character of what is finite and the power which there is in Divine things of filling all the desires of the soul.
I. David is speaking as a man who had made trial of created good, and had proved its insufficiency. He had not indeed exhausted the good, though its pursuit had exhausted him; but he had tried it to such a point as to ascertain that it was limited. He saw how far wealth or wisdom could go in filling the desires of man, and he ascertained their inadequacy; they would still leave him exhausted and panting. With the generality of men the opinion seems to be that the dissatisfaction arises from there remaining still so much unpossessed, but we maintain that the soul can be satisfied with nothing of which it can discover the limits. It will exhaust all which it can prove to be not inexhaustible. And therefore wherein can the soul be satisfied but in God, of whom alone we may affirm that He is not to be overtaken by the marching of the soul, not weighed in her balances, not comprehended within her horizon?
II. "I longed for Thy commandments." The whole Law is summed up in the injunction of love the love of our Maker and of all men for His sake. And if love be thus the fulfilling of the Law, we cannot wonder that David should set the commandments in contrast with all created things, as though you could not take the span of the one, though you might of the other. It is the surprising property of the law of God that, though condensed into few precepts, it spreads itself over every department of conduct, so that no possible ease is left unprovided for. And yet, notwithstanding this largeness of the commandment of God, the Divine law is not that which at first sight we should be disposed to compare, in respect of satisfying power, with finite perfection. We should have been inclined to fix on the favour of God, or on the joys which He communicates to His people, as affording that material of satisfaction which is so vainly sought in any earthly good. But let the matter be carefully examined, and we shall find that it is strictly for the commandment that the wearied soul ought to long. (1) Man's happiness lies in obedience to the commandment. (2) The commandments are summed up in love. In loving God, we throw down the burden which, if unremoved, must press us down everlastingly into the depths of wretchedness, and we take hold of immortality, as purchased for us, and prepared, and reserved.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 2380.