Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; [and] quicken thou me in thy way.
Ver. 37. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity] Lest looking cause liking and lusting, 1 John 2:16. In Hebrew the same word signifieth both an eye and a fountain; to show that from the eye, as from a fountain, floweth much mischief and by that window Satan oft winds himself into the soul. This David found by experience, and therefore prays here, Turn away, transfer, make to pass mine eyes, 2 Samuel 11:12. Job steppeth one degree farther, viz. from a prayer to a vow, Psalms 31:1; yea, from a vow to an inprecation, Psalms 119:7. He knew the danger of irregular glancing and inordinate gazing.
And quicken thou me in thy way] Who shall else die of the wound in the eye. Alexander called the Persian maids Oculorum dolores; Ut vidi, ut perii. Grief of the eyes so that to be seen is to be ruined. The Israelites were appointed to make them fringes with blue ribbons to lock upon, that they might remember all God's commandments and do them, and not seek after their own heart and their own eyes, after which they used to go a whoring, Numbers 15:39 .