Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.
Teach me to do thy will (Psalms 40:9 ); for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness. The parallelism to the two former clauses is better kept up in the English version, which divides the latter half of the verse into two clauses, than by making one clause, as Hengstenberg translates, 'Let thy spirit, the good, lead me upon a plain land.' Palpably the fourth clause corresponds to the first, as the third answers to the second. The whole is a prayer for spiritual guidance, the necessary condition for receiving the temporal as well as the spiritual deliverance which David prays for himself, his seed, and the elect nation. In other psalms similarly we have prayers for deliverance from calamities joined with prayers for spiritual teaching, so as to walk in the ways of holiness (Psalms 86:11; Psalms 139:23-24; Psalms 25:4-5; Psalms 27:11; Psalms 26:12). 'An even place' is an image for stedfastness spiritually, as distinguished from a land or footing beset with difficulties and pitfalls.