Psalm 16:7

Verse 7. My reins. Common experience shows that the workings of the mind, particularly the passions of joy, grief, and fear, have a very remarkable effect of the reins or kidneys, and from their retired situation in the body, and their being hid in fat, they are often used in Scripture to denote the most secret working of the soul and affections. John Parkhurst.

Verse 7. My reins also instruct me in the night seasons. This shows that God, who, he says, was always present to him, had given him some admonition in his dreams, or at least his waking thoughts by night, from whence he gathered a certain assurance of his recovery; possibly he might be directed to some remedy. Antonine thanks the gods for directing him in his sleep to remedies. Z. Mudge, in loc, 1744.

Verse 7. My reins also instruct me in the night seasons. We have a saying among ourselves, that "the pillow is the best counsellor;" and there is much truth in the saying, especially if we have first committed ourselves in prayer to God, and taken a prayerful spirit with us to our bed. In the quiet of its silent hours, undisturbed by the passions, and not harassed by the conflicts of the world, we can commune with our own heart, and be instructed and guarded as to our future course even in the night season. David especially seems to have made these seasons sources of great profit as well as delight. Sometimes he loved to meditate upon God, as he lay upon his bed; and it was no doubt as he meditated on the Lord's goodness, and on the way by which he had led him, that he was, as it were, constrained, even at midnight, to arise and pray. While, therefore, we acknowledge the pillow to be a good counsellor, let us with David here acknowledge also that it is the Lord who gives the counsel, and sends the instruction in the night season. Burton Bouchier.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 7. Taking counsel's opinion. Of whom? Upon what? Why? When? How? What then?

Verse 7. Upward and inward, or two schools of instruction.