The psalmist has made a vow to God- to follow all of God's commands. And the psalmist recognizes that there are no excuses to following God's commands. There is a great scene in the Crusader movie "Kingdom of Heaven," where the main character (a knight) is playing chess with his king. And the King of Jerusalem tells him that people play and move other people, but, "Remember that howsoever you are played or by whom, your soul is in your keeping alone, even though those who presume to play you be kings or men of power. When you stand before God, you cannot say, 'But I was told by others to do thus,' or that virtue was not convenient at the time. This will not suffice. Remember that." I have always been struck by those words. When virtue is convenient and commendable, it is easy to pick the virtuous path. Jesus tells us that anyone will do good for those who do good in return. But the difficult path is when you are in chains (as the psalm says) or when virtue is inconvenient. What will we do then?
Take heart, for the psalmist reminds us of three (there are more) places for encouragement as we try to live out the virtues. One is in God- the Lord is your portion. The second is in others- friends who fear the Lord. The third is in creation- the world is filled with the love of God. May we have eyes and ears to sense God's encouragement in these places.
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