Here is, 1. David's state and condition; he was in the house of his pilgrimage, which may be understood either as his peculiar trouble (he was often tossed and hurried, and forced to fly) or as his lot in common with all. This world is the house of our pilgrimage, the house in which we are pilgrims; it is our tabernacle; it is our inn. We must confess ourselves strangers and pilgrims upon earth, who are not at home here, nor must be here long. Even David's palace is but the house of his pilgrimage. 2. His comfort in this state: "Thy statutes have been my songs, with which I here entertain myself," as travellers are wont to divert the thoughts of their weariness, and take off something of the tediousness of their journey, by singing a pleasant song now and then. David was the sweet singer of Israel, and here we are told whence he fetched his songs; they were all borrowed from the word of God. God's statutes were as familiar to him as the songs which a man is accustomed to sing; and he conversed with them in his pilgrimage-solitudes. They were as pleasant to him as songs, and put gladness into his heart more than those have that chant to the sound of the viol, Amo 6:5. Is any afflicted then? Let him sing over God's statutes, and try if he cannot so sing away sorrow, Psa 138:5.

This I had, because I kept thy precepts. Either the comfort he had from the word, the pleasure and delight he had in it, being his songs in his pilgrimage, Psa 119:50; see Psa 119:165; or this knowledge of the name of God, and the remembrance of it, and his carefulness and diligence in it in the night season, were of the Lord, and gifts of his: or rather this he had from the Lord, that he kept the precepts and commands of God in the manner that he did; it was all owing to grace and strength received from him; for so the words may be rendered, "this was given unto me, that I have kept thy precepts" (k).

(k) "quod", Pagninus, Montanus.