Delight in God’s Commands
"Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name."
Psalm 86:11
There flows from this godly fear a great delight in the holy com- mands of God; that is, a delight to be conformable unto them. “Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments” (Ps. 112:1). This confirms that which was said before, namely, that this fear provokes to a holy and reverent use of the means; for that cannot be, when there is not a holy, yea, a great delight in the commandments. Wherefore this fear makes the sinner to abhor that which is sin, because that is contrary to the object of his delight. A man cannot delight himself at the same time in things directly opposite one to another, as sin and the holy commandments are; therefore Christ says of the servant, he “cannot serve God and mammon” (Matt. 6:24); if he cleaves to the one, he must hate and despise the other: there cannot, at the same time, be service to both, because that they are at enmity one with the other: so are sin and the commandments; therefore, if a man delights him- self in the commandments, he hates that which is opposite, which is sin; how much more when he greatly delights in the command- ments! Now, this holy fear of God takes the heart and affections from sin, and sets them upon the holy commandments; therefore such a man is rightly esteemed blessed. For no profession makes a man blessed, but that which is accompanied with an alienation of the heart from sin; nor does any thing do that when this holy fear is wanting. It is from this fear, then, that love to and delight in the holy commandments flow; and so by that the sinner is kept from those falls and dangers of miscarrying that other professors are so subject to: he greatly delights in the commandments.
*Excerpted from Daily Readings – The Puritans (Christian Heritage, 2012).
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