Path to a God Pleasing Life - Psalm 118

Path to a God pleasing life - Psalm 118

The path for a God pleasing life can be found in the first eight verses of Psalm 118.

The first three verses call us to blessedness. It involves a path, a way, that is according to God’s law.

Blessed are the blameless in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.Blessed are they that search out His testimonies; with their whole heart shall they seek after Him.For they that work iniquity have not walked in His way.

Saint Ambrose says,

He who walks blamelessly in the law of the Lord never stops walking on this path. To avoid losing blamelessness, he does not deviate either to the right or the left; he does not look around, he does not stand still, as if waiting for something, but moves ahead, ‘forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before..., directing his way towards a known destination, ‘for the prize of high calling' (Phil 3:13,14).

We must seek and search out God’s testimonies, His law. We can begin intellectually and then follow by deed. However, we cannot remain satisfied with our own intellectual theories about God’s law and be satisfied with only our understandings. Experimentation like in science is necessary, advises Saint Theophan. 
He says, 

Those who are satisfied with only this type (intellectual) of knowledge cannot be called blessed.

But there will come a time during intellectual studies that grace will raise a desire to put them into action. 
He says, 

All the previously accumulated knowledge from God’s word will serve as ready material for the formation of the inner man... 

Once we begin to experiment we must never waver making His word our law. He says those on the path to blessedness study God's law, 

“feed themselves on it, and make it a law for themselves to do or to undertake only what has its testimony in the word of God.

Those who seek will become blessed.
He further says,

The unswerving fulfillment of the commandments leads to purification of the heart. A pure heart opens to a mind a window into the spiritual life, and it observes there objects, just like the eye looks at things externally visible... 

Begin by reading God’s word with the intent of following it.

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These next two verses of the Psalm show the forces of zeal and grace will be aroused:

Thou hast enjoined Thy commandments, that we should keep them most diligently.
Souls that my ways were directed to keep Thy statues.

Patriarch Anthimos says,

Such diligent observance, [as outlined in the previous verse], requires us to keep the commandments with all our effort and constant zeal, without grumbling or distraction. In this zeal we need to be careful that both our heart and mind are congruent with our actions. Our works must be genuine and not forced. 

Saint Theophan says,

”Continuous, ardent zeal for the keeping of God’s commandments, beyond any doubt, is the work of God’s Grace.” 

This grace will not help if we dot respond with our own efforts. 
Saint Theophan says, 

“It is the union of freedom and grace that accomplish the task. We cannot rely only on our own will but be watchful for the help of God’s grace,"

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The next three verses guide us in what is necessary for progress in the God pleasing life. The key elements are attention, diligence, and courage.
The Psalm:

Then shall I not be ashamed, when I look on all thy commandments.I will confess Thee with uprightness of heart, when I have learned the judgments of Thy righteousness.I will keep Thy statues; do not utterly forsake me.

The Psalmist highlights that when we deviate from the path we have chosen, we have regret and shame that we have allowed ourselves to be misled. This points us to the critical need for attentiveness. 
Saint Theophan says, 

One must watch what occurs inside, what has occurred, and what is expected. 

Only with attention can mistakes be avoided. To live by the commandments as required by a God pleasing life, we need to be attentive to all the teachings and how we put them into action.

Saint Augustine says, 

Whether you read, or bring God’s commandments to mind, you should, according to apostle James, look as into a mirror, to be not hearers only, but doers (Jas 1:22-23).

In addition to attention we need to acquire dilegence, the habit “of recognizing the judgements of God’s righteousness.” These are “God’s decisions and determination as to what ought to be done...” This habit is acquired gradually.

 Saint Theophan says,

Being thus under the scrutiny of God’s eyes, we cannot act haphazardly, but should consider what in fact God does want from us, in this or that situation, and act accordingly. Strict attention to the circumstances of our own life, and reacting to them in a spirit of selfless devotion to God's will, at last gives us the habit of determining correctly God’s intentions for us.

We also need courage to be successful. 
Saint Theophan says, 

“Without courage, one cannot begin such a life, as it is full of difficulties and surrounded by enemies of salvation.” 

This courage comes from our hope in the Lord knowing that He will protect those who choose to walk this path. 
The Saint writes,

The enthusiastic courage of the beginner on the path of pleasing God can have no other meaning. He is not inspired by his own presumption, but by a strong trust in God and the conviction that he is already walking or will be walking in the right way, knowing these are God's ordinances which are right; that is the Lord's law, which is blameless; that this is the Lord’s testimony which is true (Psalm 18:8-9).

In simple form, the beginning of Psalm 118 shows us the general path for a God pleasing life and our salvation.

Reference: Psalm 118: A Commentary by Saint Theophan the Recluse, pp 9-30.

Ten Points for an Orthodox Way of Life