I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done [that which is] good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
Ver. 3. I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now.] Obsecro Domine, memento quaeso. Words full of incitation. The first word Ana - affectum significat et impetum - is very affectionate and forcible.
How I have walked before thee.] Indesinenter ambulavi, I have constantly walked before thee, and not by fits, or for a few turns. One interpreter noteth that the word here used signifieth, I have made myself to walk; implying his own dulness, sluggishness, averseness to that duty.
In truth, and with a perfect heart,] i.e., In sincerity and integrity. Uprightness hath boldness; Subeo bona (per gratiam Dei) conscientia tribunal Christi, said dying Oeeolampadius, I go before Christ's tribunal with a good conscience. This is my comfort, said Mr Deering, that I have faithfully served my Lord God, and with an upright conscience. I am neither ashamed to live, nor afraid to die, said another saint. Let him fear death who is passing from this death to the second death. a
And have done that which is good.] For matter, manner, and motive. I have known, said a worthy doctor, b now with God, some godly men, whose comfort upon their deathbeds hath been, not from the inward acts of their mind - which apart considered, might be subject to misapprehensions, - but from the course of obedience in their lives issuing from there.
And Hezekiah wept sore.] Heb., With a great weeping. See on 2 Kings 20:2. Now if the message of death made this good man weep sore, and the approach of it was mar mar, bitter bitterness, Isa 38:17 what marvel if such a one as Saul swoon quite away at it, and fall to the earth in his full length, as in 1Sa 28:20 ? Death is dreadful in his best looks, as is the lion, though his teeth and claws be beaten out; or as the hawk to the partridge; or as a serpent's skin, though but stuffed with straw. To the wicked, death is a trap door to hell: they may say of it, as once Elisha did, 2Ki 6:32 Behold, the murderer is at hand; and is not the sound of his master's feet - the devil - behind him? hence their loath to depart, &c. But why should a saint be fond of life, or afraid of death, since to him it is but as his father's horse, to carry him to his father's house, or as Joseph's chariot rattling with its wheels, to carry old Jacob to his son Joseph, so him to Christ?
a Mori timeat qui ad secundam mortem de hac morte transibit. - Cyprian.
b Church's Carriage, by Dr Preston.