Moreover by them is thy servant warned: [and] in keeping of them [there is] great reward.
Ver. 11. Moreover by them is thy servant warned] Clearly admonished, or furbished and brightened, Daniel 12:3, made circumspect. God's testimonies were David's counsellors, Psalms 119:24, better than ever was Polybius to Scipio, Agrippa to Augustus, Seneca to Nero, Anaxagoras to Themistocles, Plato to Dio, Aristotle to Alexander or Nigidius to Cicero; princes of old had their Mαημονες, Monitores, remembrancers. David desired no better than God's statutes for his learned counsel, and by them he resolved to be ruled; for so it followeth,
And in keeping of them] Xenophon writes that in Lycurgus's laws this was much to be admired, that whereas all men commended them, yet no other city besides that of Sparta would ever observe them. Men do rather praise right things than practise them; as it was said of Demosthenes. But David was of another strain; he, after a large encomium of God's commandments, is set upon the keeping of them; and the rather because
In keeping of them there is great reward] Not only for keeping, but in keeping of them. As every flower hath its sweet smell, so every good action hath its sweet reflection upon the soul; and as Cardan saith, that every precious stone hath some egregious virtue, so here, righteousness is its own reward, though few men think so and act accordingly:
Haud facile invenies multis e millibus unum,
Virtutem pretium qui putet esse sui.
Howbeit, the chief reward is not till the last cast, till we come to heaven. The word here rendered reward signifieth the heel, and, by a metaphor, the end of a work, and the reward of it, which is not till the end. Gnekebh sic τελος apud Graecos. Sicut opus non est usque ad mortem perfectum, sic nec merecs, saith R. David here; As the work is not done till death, so neither is full wages till then to be had.