“He lays up” or “hides away.” 1. That the wicked may not find it. 2. That the righteous may have to dig to get it (the verb is the same as that from which “hid treasures” is derived in Verse 4). 3. That it may be safe from the evil one.—Miller.
He walks uprightly who lives with the fear of God as his principle, and the Word of God as his rule, and the glory of God as his end.—Wardlaw.
The most dreadful enemies of those who walk uprightly are those who endeavour to turn aside the way of their paths; but against these enemies God defends, for He keepeth the paths of wisdom and righteousness.—Lawson.
Verse 8. Well may they walk uprightly that are so strongly supported. God’s hand is ever under his; they cannot fall beneath it.—Trapp.
“Paths of judgment” or “justice” are here, by the substitution of the abstract for the concrete expression, paths of the just, and therefore synonymous with “the way of His saints.”—Lange’s Commentary.
We have certain vicarious rights. One is, to come out all well at last. Another is, that all things shall work together for our good. Another is, that we shall grow up into Christ, increasing day by day. To realise each and all is required of God. The track this takes Him into for all is, as to each man, His path of judgment. Each such path He must walk in strictly. To do so, He must watch the saints.—Miller.
He is not the guardian of the broad way—the way of the world and of sin. That way Satan superintends, “the god of this world”—doing everything in his power, by all his various acts of enticement and intimidation, to keep his wretched subjects and victims from leaving it.—Wardlaw.
He preserveth the way of His saints both from being drawn out of that way, and from all evil while they walk in it.—Jackson.
If men will not keep their bounds, God will keep His. There is a right way for the saints to walk in. 1. Because else it were worse living in God’s kingdom than in any other kingdom. For all kingdoms have rules of safety and of living. 2. God would be in a worse condition than the meanest master of a family. He would have no certain service.—Francis Taylor.
Verse 9. Not as standing in speculation, but as a rule of life. Knowledge is either apprehensive only, or effective also. This differs from that as much as the light of the sun, wherein is the influence of an enlivening power, from the light of torches.—Trapp.