Psalm 119:102 | “I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me.”

The psalmist has not turned aside from the Lord’s rules because his life is submitted to God’s authority. This faithfulness does not come from personal brilliance, discipline, or resolve, but from divine instruction. God himself has taught him. Calvin writes, “But we must attend to the manner of teaching to which the Psalmist refers; for though all, without exception, to whom God’s word is preached, are taught, yet scarce one in ten so much as tastes it; yea, scarce one in a hundred profits to the extent of being enabled, thereby, to proceed in a right course to the end. A peculiar manner of teaching is, therefore, here pointed out that which consists in God’s drawing his chosen people to himself. I have been brought, as if the Psalmist had said, into the way of salvation, and preserved in it by the secret influence of the Holy Spirit.” If you love God’s word and desire to obey it, it is because God has taught you. Left to your own devices, you would turn aside. That you remain in the path of obedience even through difficulty is itself evidence of his gracious intervention in your life. The God who teaches his people keeps his people.