by Erik Jones

The psalmist here reminds us of two important points:

• Our ultimate hope is God’s salvation. The apostle Paul wrote that we need to put on “as a helmet the hope of salvation” (1 Thessalonians 5:8; see also Ephesians 6:17). In the ultimate sense, salvation is receiving eternal life in the Kingdom of God (Romans 13:11; 2 Timothy 2:10; Hebrews 9:28). This is our ultimate hope and what we are to seek first (Matthew 6:33).
• We must practice God’s 10 Commandments. A rudimentary knowledge of God’s commandments is not enough. James teaches us the insufficiency of being a “hearer of the word and not a doer” in James 1:23-24. James reinforces that we must do—practice, apply, live—the commandments: “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:25). It is also important to note that we must “do” God’s commandments in order to have “a good understanding” of God’s spiritual truths (Psalm 111:10).

To learn more about the biblical concept of salvation, read “Salvation: What Are We Saved From and How?”