Ps 15:7

“What the Lord is saying … is this: My knowledge, deepest thought and the inmost desire of my heart was with me, not only in my heavenly mansions but also when I dwelled in the night of this world and in darkness; it remained in me as man, and it instructed me and never left me, so that whatever the weakness of the flesh was unable to achieve, divine thought and power accomplished.”

“"I will bless the Lord, who has given Me understanding" [Psalm 16:7]: whereby this inheritance may be seen and possessed. "Yea moreover too even unto night my reins have chastened Me." Yea besides understanding, even unto death, My inferior part, the assumption of flesh, has instructed Me, that I might experience the darkness of mortality, which that understanding has not.”

“I will bless the Lord Until here, David prophesied concerning the Congregation of Israel, that she would say this, and now he says, “I, too, will bless the Lord, Who counseled me to choose life and to go in His ways.” even at night my conscience instructs me to fear Him and to love Him. Our Sages though, (Mid. Ps. 16:7) explained it as referring to our father Abraham, who learned Torah by himself before the Torah was given, but we must reconcile the verses according to their sequence.”

“1 will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel: – (in the same sense) as we have interpreted Thou maintainest my lot. Yea, by night: – This was the beginning (of help) for me from the Lord, that He gave me counsel and helped me when I chose this good part for my own; and likewise within me every day do my reins admonish me: – that I should not abandon this way, but hold to it with all my might. And he says by night, because at night a man is isolated from the preoccupations of the world and his mind is free. And he says my reins, for they are the counsellors, as they say (Babli, Berakhoth 61a) “The reins counsel an understanding heart.””

“This brief word belongs to David himself, who through the Holy Spirit unfolds to us the very gift of understanding given to us by the Holy Spirit, and he unfolds it to us with respect to the humble gratitude of the recipient and with respect to the liberal diffusion of the giver. The humble gratitude of the recipient is noted when he says: "I will bless the Lord"; the liberal diffusion of the giver is noted when he adds: "Who has bestowed upon me understanding." This gift requires that man be grateful to God, and brings it about that man recognizes himself and the gift and the source of the gift: and by understanding the source of the gift man recognizes himself, and so gives thanks. And then he blesses God and pours back the beauty of the gift upon the very author of the gift, and praises him, and does not assail the giver. Moreover, we dispose ourselves to receive this gift through three things: first, through holiness of life; second, through the docility of meekness; and third, through the captivation of the understanding, so that we may bless the author of this gift. All radiance of intelligence comes from that fountain of intelligence. And although the radiance of intelligence is manifold, understanding is the rule of moral circumspections, the gateway of scientific considerations, and the key of heavenly contemplations; and this is a gift.”

“"I will bless." Above, the Psalmist set forth the reason why he clings to God alone, namely because God is the portion of his inheritance; here he acknowledges benefits. And first he proposes benefits received; second, benefits to be hoped for, at "Moreover, also my flesh." Concerning the first, he does two things. First he commemorates benefits received; second he shows the joy he has from them, at "Therefore my heart has been glad." He commemorates, therefore, a twofold benefit: one in the attainment of good, another in being preserved against evils. As to the first he says, "I will bless the Lord," etc., that I may understand how splendid is that eternal inheritance. Ps. 118: "Give me understanding, and I will search out," etc. Ps. 31: "I will give you understanding, and I will instruct you." Sir. 51: "To him who gives me wisdom I will give glory." The Lord, moreover, gave man reason for wisdom, but did not totally remove infirmity; but this will be the case in glory. And first he proposes it; second he sets forth the remedy against it, at "I set the Lord before me." Every man has from God, according to reason, the light of the intellect, and the just man is reformed by the light of grace. But the infirmity of the flesh still remains; and therefore he says, "Moreover, even my reins have rebuked me, until the night," that is, my infirmities, namely faults or sins. And this "until the night," that is, until death, "my reins have rebuked me," that is, they have shown me to be blameworthy. Another reading says that because the incentive to lust has its seat in the loins, it thus disturbs by tempting with pleasure. 2 Cor. 12: "Lest the greatness of the revelations," etc. But in Christ there are no infirmities of fault or of infection, because his flesh does not resist his spirit; and therefore it is understood only of punishment. Heb. 4: "Tempted in all things," as to bodily infirmities. But if it is understood of us, it should be said that the man who has the gift of understanding, or grace, should say with the Apostle, Rom. 7: "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind." Or "reins," that is, the Jews related to him, "until the night," that is, until the passion, or until the passibility of the flesh.”