Diligently Keeping God’s Precepts: A Reflection on Psalm 119:4

Psalm 119:4 NKJV

You have commanded us
To keep Your precepts diligently.

My Thoughts

The first thing that came to me when reading Psalm 119:4 is that I need to prioritize learning what is in the Word. How else can I emphasize God’s command for diligent observance of His precepts, highlighting the importance of careful obedience as fundamentally essential for the faithful. The psalmist reflects on this command, acknowledging it as a guiding principle of life and devotion. The commentaries below stress that true virtue stems from divine obligation, advocating for zealous and unwavering adherence to God’s laws. They argue that God’s commands require more than mere acknowledgment—they demand heartfelt commitment. The call to diligence serves as a reminder of the blessings connected to obedience, urging believers to uphold their spiritual responsibilities consistently and wholeheartedly.

Psalm 119 is an acrostic pattern. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet; each of the 22 sections is given a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and each line in that section begins with that letter. Today, we’re looking at the 4th verse in the section of ALEPH. Matthew Henry was introduced to Psalm 119 as a child. His father, Philip Henry, told his children to take one verse of Psalm 119 every morning to meditate on, and thereby go through the entire psalm twice in the year. Philip said to his children, “That will bring you to be in love with all the rest of the Scriptures.”

…..Bill

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Commentaries:

Charles Spurgeon

Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. So that when we have done all, we are unprofitable servants, we have done only that which it was our duty to have done, seeing we have our Lord’s command for it. God’s precepts require careful obedience: there is no keeping them by accident. Some give to God a careless service, a sort of hit or miss obedience, but the Lord has not commanded such service, nor will he accept it. His law demands the love of all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; and a careless religion has none of these. We are also called to zealous obedience. We are to keep the precepts abundantly: the vessels of obedience should be filled to the brim, and the command carried out to the full of its meaning. As a man diligent in business arouses himself to do as much trade as he can, so must we be eager to serve the Lord as much as possible. Nor must we spare pains to do so, for a diligent obedience will also be laborious and self-denying. Those who are diligent in business rise up early and sit up late, and deny themselves much of comfort and repose. They are not soon tired, or if they are they persevere even with aching brow and weary eye. So should we serve the Lord. Such a Master deserves diligent servants; such service he demands, and will be content with nothing less. How seldom do men render it, and hence many through their negligence miss the double blessing spoken of in this Psalm.

Some are diligent in superstition and will worship; be it ours to be diligent in keeping God’s precepts. It is of no use traveling fast if we are not in the right road. Men have been diligent in a losing business, and the more they have traded, the more they have lost: this is bad enough in commerce; we cannot afford to have it so in our religion.

God has not commanded us to be diligent in making precepts, but in keeping them. Some bind yokes upon their own necks, and make bonds and rules for others, but the wise course is to be satisfied with the rules of holy Scripture, and to strive to keep them all, in all places, towards all men, and in all respects. If we do not this, we may become eminent in our own religion, but we shall not have kept the command of God; nor shall we be accepted of him.

The Psalmist began with the third person: he is now coming near home, and has already reached the first person plural, according to our version; we shall soon hear him crying out personally and for himself. As the heart glows with love to holiness, we long to have a personal interest in it. The word of God is a heart-affected book, and when we begin to sing its praises, it soon comes home to us and sets us praying to be ourselves conformed to its teachings.

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Enduring Word

You have commanded us to keep Your precepts diligently: The psalmist connects commanded obedience with the blessings to the obedient. He shows that the reason God commanded us to keep His precepts diligently is not only because it honors Him, but also because it is the path to blessing. (Guzik)

i. With the words “You have commanded us,” we see that the psalmist begins to address God in prayer; a position he will hold through most of the psalm. This shows that he was not only a student of Scripture but also a man of prayer. (Guzik)

ii. “Because it was a hard thing to rightly understand this word in all its parts, and harder to put it in practice, he therefore intermixed many prayers to God for his help therein, thereby directing and encouraging others to take the same course.” (Poole)

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Albert Barnes

Thou hast commanded – All this is here traced to the command of God; to the fact that he has required it. It is not mere human prudence; it is not mere morality; it is not because it will be for our interest; it is because God requires it. This is the foundation of all true virtue, and until a man acts from this motive, it cannot be said that he is in the proper sense a righteous man.

To keep thy precepts diligently – Hebrew, “very much;” that is, to do it constantly; faithfully. Each one of his laws is to be observed, and to be observed always, and in all circumstances.

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John Gill

Thou hast commanded [us] to keep thy precepts diligently. Here, and in the following verses, the psalmist expresses his great regard to the precepts, commandments, statutes, and judgments of God; and that as such, because they were commanded by him; were not the precepts of men, but the commands of God; who had a right to command, as Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, and King; and whose commands are not to be reckoned as indifferent things, that are at the option and choice of a creature, to be done or let alone at his pleasure; but are what God has enjoined, and are binding upon men; and which love should and does constrain the saints to have a regard unto, and to keep them diligently or vehemently; with all a man’s might and strength, as the word is used in Deuteronomy 6:5. These are not at any time to be dispensed with, but, to be kept always constantly and steadily.

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Matthew Henry

To own ourselves under the highest obligations to walk in God’s law. The tempter would possess men with an opinion that they are at their liberty whether they will make the word of God their rule or no, that, though it may be good, yet it is not so necessary as they are made to believe it is. He taught our first parents to question the command: Hath God said, You shall not eat? And therefore we are concerned to be well established in this (v. 4): Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts, to make religion our rule; and to keep them diligently, to make religion our business, and to mind it carefully and constantly. We are bound and must obey at our peril.

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Adam Clarke

Thy precepts diligently. — מאד meod, “superlatively, to the uttermost.” God has never given a commandment, the observance of which he knew to be impossible. And to whatsoever he has commanded, He requires obedience; and his grace is sufficient for us. We must not trifle with God.

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The Pulpit Commentaries

Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently; rather, thou hast ordained thy precepts for diligent observance, or for men to observe them diligently. Men sometimes give precepts which they do not care to have obeyed; but God’s precepts are intended for careful, diligent, and continual observance. The “thou” at the beginning (attah) is emphatic.

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Miscellaneous Quotes

“Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.” It is not a matter ἁδιάφορος and left to the discretion of men, either to hear, or to neglect sacred discourses, theological readings, and expositions of the Sacred Book; but God has commanded, and not commanded cursorily when speaking of another matter, but מְאֹד, earnestly and greatly he has commanded us to keep his precepts. There should be infixed in our mind the words found in Deu 6:6, “My words shall be in thy heart:” in Mat 17:5, “Hear ye him.” in John 5:39, “Search the Scriptures.” Above all things, students of theology should remember the Pauline rule in 1Ti 4, “Give attention to reading.” (1Tit 4:13)

—Solomon Gesner.

Diligently. For three causes should we keep the commandments of the Lord with diligence:

first, because our adversary that seeks to snare us by the transgression of them is diligent in tempting, for he goes about, night and day, seeking to devour us;

next, because we ourselves are weak and infirm, by the greater diligence have we need to take heed to ourselves;

thirdly, because of the great loss we sustain by every vantage Satan gets over us; for we find by experience, that as a wound is sooner made than it is healed, so guiltiness of conscience is easily contracted, but not so easily done away.

—William Cowper.

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Cross-References

Psalm 19:8 (KJV )

⁸ The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart:

The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

Nehemiah 9:13 (KJV )

¹³Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments:

Deuteronomy 4:9 (KJV )

⁹Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;

Joshua 1:7 (KJV )

⁷Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.

John 14:15 (KJV )

¹⁵If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Philippians 4:9 (KJV )

⁹Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

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Closing Thoughts

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Rom 8:11 NKJV

Meditations on the Excellencies of the Word of God

א ALEPH

119

Blessed are the undefiled in the way,
Who walk in the law of the Lord!

Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,
Who seek Him with the whole heart!

They also do no iniquity;
They walk in His ways.

You have commanded us
To keep Your precepts diligently.

Oh, that my ways were directed
To keep Your statutes!

Then I would not be ashamed,
When I look into all Your commandments.

I will praise You with uprightness of heart,
When I learn Your righteous judgments.

I will keep Your statutes;
Oh, do not forsake me utterly!