by Charles Spurgeon
1. Blessed are the undefiled in
the way, who walk in the law of
the LORD.
2. Blessed are they that keep his
testimonies, and that seek
him with the whole heart.
3. They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.
4. Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.
5. O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!
6. Then shall I not be ashamed,
when I have respect unto all
thy commandments.
7. I will praise thee with uprightness
of heart, when I shall
have learned thy righteous judgments.
8. I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly.
These first eight verses are taken
up with a contemplation of the
blessedness which comes through
keeping the statutes of the Lord. The
subject is treated in a devout
manner rather than in a didactic style. Heart-
fellowship with God is enjoyed
through a love of that word which is God’s
way of communing with the soul
by his Holy Spirit. Prayer and praise and
all sorts of devotional acts and
feelings gleam through these verses like
beams of sunlight through an olive
grove. You are not only instructed, but
influenced to holy emotion, and
helped to express the same.
Lovers of God’s Holy Word are blessed,
because they are preserved from
defilement: (verse 1), because
they are made practically holy (verses 2 and
3), and are led to follow after
God sincerely and intensely (verse 2). It is
made clear that holy walking must
be desirable, because God commands it
(verse 4); therefore the pious
soul prays for it: (verse 5), and feels that its
comfort and courage must depend
upon obtaining it (verse 6). In the
prospect of answered prayer, yea,
while the prayer is being answered, the
heart is full of thankfulness (verse
7), and is fixed in solemn resolve not to
miss the blessing if the Lord will
give enabling grace (verse 8).
The changes are rung upon the words
“way”— “undefiled in the way,”
“walk in his ways,” “O that my
ways were directed”: “keep”— “keep
his testimonies,” “keep thy precepts
diligently,” “directed to keep,” “I
will keep”: and “walk”— “walk in
the law,” “walk in his ways.” Yet
there is no tautology; nor is the
same thought repeated, though to the
careless reader it may seem so.
The change from statements about
others and about the Lord to more
personal dealing with God begins
in the fourth verse, and becomes more
clear as we advance, till in the
later verses the communion becomes most
intense and soul moving. “I will
praise thee. I will keep thy statutes. O
forsake me not utterly.” O that
every reader may feel the glow of personal
devotion while studying this first
section of the psalm!
1. “Blessed are the undefiled in
the way, who walk in the law of the
Lord.”
“Blessed.” The Psalmist is so enraptured
with the law of the Lord, that he
regards it as his highest ideal
of blessedness to be conformed to it. He has
gazed on the beauties of the perfect
law; and, as if this verse were the sum
and outcome of all his emotions,
he exclaims, “Blessed is the man whose
life is the practical transcript
of the will of God.” True religion is not cold
and dry; it has its exclamations
and raptures. We not only judge the
keeping of God’s law to be a wise
and proper thing, but we are warmly
enamoured of its holiness, and
cry out in adoring wonder, “Blessed are
the undefiled!” meaning thereby,
that we eagerly desire to become such
ourselves. We wish for no greater
happiness than to be perfectly holy. It
may be that the writer labored
under a sense of his own faultiness, and
therefore envied the blessedness
of those whose walk had been more pure
and clean; indeed, the very contemplation
of the perfect law of the Lord
upon which he now entered was quite
enough to make him bemoan his
own imperfections, and sigh for
the blessedness of an undefiled walk.
True religion is always practical,
for it does not permit us to delight
ourselves in a perfect rule without
exciting in us a longing to be conformed
to that rule in our daily conduct.
A blessing belongs to those who hear and
read and understand the word of
the Lord: yet is it a far greater blessing; to
be actually obedient to it, and
to carry out in our walk and conversation
what we learn in our searching
of the Scriptures. Purity in our way and
walk is the truest blessedness.
This first verse is not only a preface
to the whole psalm, but it may also be
regarded as the text upon which
the rest is a discourse. It is similar to the
benediction of the first psalm,
which is set in the forefront of the entire
book: there is a likeness between
this 119th Psalm and the Psalter, and this
is one point of it, that it begins
with a benediction. In this, too, we see
some foreshadowings of the Son
of David, who began his great sermon as
David began his great psalm. It
is well to open our mouth with blessings.
When we cannot bestow them, we
can show the way of obtaining them,
and even if we do not yet possess
them ourselves, it may be profitable to
contemplate them, that our desires
may be excited, and our souls moved to
seek after them. Lord, if I am
not yet so blessed as to be among the
undefiled in thy way, yet I will
think much of the happiness which these
enjoy, and set it before me as
my life’s ambition.
As David thus begins his psalm,
so should young men begin their lives, so
should new converts commence their
profession, so should all Christians
begin every day. Settle it in your
hearts as a first postulate and sure rule of
practical science, that holiness
is happiness, and that it is our wisdom first
to seek the kingdom of God and
his righteousness. Well begun is half done.
To start with a true idea of blessedness
is beyond measure important. Man
began with being blessed in his
innocence, and if our fallen race is ever to
be blessed again, it must find
blessedness where it lost it at the beginning,
namely, in conformity to the command
of the Lord.
“The undefiled in the way.” They
are in the way, the right way, the way,
of the Lord, and they keep that
way, walking with holy carefulness, and
washing their feet daily, lest
they be defiled by contact with the world.
They enjoy great blessedness in
their own souls; indeed, they have a
foretaste of heaven, where the
blessedness lieth much in being absolutely
undefiled; and could they continue
utterly and altogether without
defilement, doubtless they would
have the days of heaven upon earth.
Outward evil would little hurt
us if we were entirely rid of the evil of sin,
an attainment which, with the best
of us, lies still in the region of desire,
and is not yet fully reached, though
we have so clear a view of it that we
see it to be blessedness itself;
and therefore we eagerly press towards it.
He whose life is in a gospel sense
undefiled, is blessed, because he could
never have reached this point if
a thousand blessings had not already been
bestowed on him. By nature we are
defiled and out of the way, and we
must therefore have been washed
in the atoning blood to remove
defilement, and we must have been
converted by the power of the Holy
Ghost, or we should not have been
turned into the way of peace, nor be
undefiled in it. Nor is this all;
for the continual power of grace is needed to
keep a believer in the right way,
and to preserve him from pollution. All the
blessings of the covenant must
have been in a measure poured, upon those
who from day to day have been enabled
to perfect holiness in the fear of
the Lord. Their way is the evidence
of their being the blessed of the Lord.
David speaks of a high degree of
blessedness; for some are in the way, and
are true servants of God; but they
are as yet faulty in many ways, and bring
defilement upon themselves. Others
who walk in the light more fully, and
maintain closer communion with
God, are enabled to keep themselves
unspotted from the world; and these
enjoy far more peace and joy than
their less watchful brethren. Doubtless,
the more complete our
sanctification the more intense
our blessedness. Christ is our way, and we
are not only alive in Christ, but
we are to live in Christ: the sorrow is, that
we bespatter his holy way with
our selfishness, self-exaltation, willfulness,
and carnality, and so we miss a
great measure of the blessedness which is in
him as our way. A believer who
errs is still saved, but the joy of his
salvation is; not experienced by
him; he is rescued, but not enriched;
greatly borne with, but not greatly
blessed.
How easily may defilement come upon
us even in our holy things, yea,
even in the way! We may even come
from public or private worship with
defilement upon the conscience
gathered when we were on our knees.
There was no floor to the tabernacle
but the desert sand, and hence the
priests at the altar were under
frequent necessity to wash their feet, and by
the kind foresight of their God
the laver stood ready for their cleansing,
even as for us our Lord Jesus still
stands ready to wash our feet, that we
may be clean every whit. Thus our
text sets forth the blessedness of the
apostles in the upper room when
Jesus had said of them, “Ye are clean.”
What blessedness awaits those who
follow the Lamb whithersoever he
goeth, and are preserved from the
evil which is in the world through lust I
These shall be the envy of all
mankind “in that day.” Though now they
despise them as precise fanatics
and Puritans, the most prosperous of
sinners shall then wish that they
could change places with them. O my soul,
seek thou thy blessedness in following
hard after thy Lord, who was holy,
harmless, undefiled; for there
hast thou found peace hitherto, and there wilt
thou find it for ever.
“Who walk in the law of the Lord.”
In them is found habitual holiness.
Their walk, their common everyday
lift:, is obedience unto the Lord. They
live by rule, that rule the command
of the Lord God. Whether they eat or
drink, or whatsoever they do, they
do all in the name of their great Master
and Exemplar. To them religion
is nothing out of the way, it is their
everyday walk; it moulds their
common actions as well as their special
devotions. This ensures blessedness.
He who walks in God’s law walks in
God’s company, and he must be blessed;
he has God’s smile, God’s
strength, God’s secret with him,
and how can he be otherwise than
blessed?
The holy life is a walk, a steady
progress, a quiet advance, a lasting
continuance. Enoch walked with
God. Good men always long to be better,
and hence they go forward. Good
men are never idle, and hence they do
not lie down or loiter, but they
are still walking onward to their desired
end. They are not hurried, and
worried, and flurried, and so they keep the
even tenor of their way, walking
steadily towards heaven; and they are not
in perplexity as to how to conduct
themselves, for they have a perfect rule,
which they are happy to walk by.
The law of the Lord is not irksome to
them; its commandments are not
grievous, and its restrictions are not
slavish in their esteem. It does
not appear to them to be an impossible law,
theoretically admirable, but practically
absurd; but they walk by it and in it.
They do not consult it now and
then as a sort of rectifier of their
wanderings, but they use it as
a chart for their daily sailing, a map of the
road for their life-journey. Nor
do they ever regret that they have entered
upon the path of obedience, else
they would leave it, and that without
difficulty, for a thousand temptations
offer them opportunity to return;
their continued walk in the law
of the Lord is their best testimony to the
blessedness of such a condition
of life. Yes, they are blessed even now. The
Psalmist himself bore witness to
the fact: he had tried and proved it, and
wrote it down as a fact which defied
all denial. Here it stands in the
forefront of David’s magnum opus,
written on the topmost line of his
greatest Psalm —“BLESSED ARE THEY
WHO WALK IN THE LAW
OF THE LORD.” Rough may be the
way, stern the rule, hard the discipline
— all these we know, and more —
but a thousand heaped-up blessednesses
are still found in godly living,
for which we bless the Lord.
We have in this verse blessed persons
who enjoy five blessed things: A
blessed way, blessed purity, a
blessed law, given by a blessed Lord, and a
blessed walk therein; to which
we may add the blessed testimony of the
Holy Ghost given in this very passage
that they are in very deed the blessed
of the Lord.
The blessedness which is thus set
before us we must aim at, but we must
not think to obtain it without
earnest effort. David has a great deal to say
about it; his discourse in this
Psalm is long and solemn, and it is a hint to us
that the way of perfect obedience
is not learned in a day; there must be
precept upon precept, line upon
line, and after efforts long enough to be
compared with the 176 verses of
this Psalm, we may still have to cry, “I
have gone astray like a lost sheep;
seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy
commandments.”
It must, however, be our plan to
keep the word of the Lord much upon our
minds; for this discourse upon
blessedness has for its pole-star the
testimony of the Lord, and only
by daily communion with the Lord by his
word can we hope to learn his way,
to be purged from defilement, and to
be made to walk in his statutes.
We set out upon this exposition with
blessedness before us; we see the
way to it, and we know where the law of
it is to be found: let us pray
that as we pursue our meditation we may grow
into the habit and walk of obedience,
and so feel the blessedness of which
we read.
2. “Blessed are they that keep his
testimonies, and that seek him with the
whole heart.”
“Blessed are they that keep his
testimonies.” What! A second blessing?
Yes, they are doubly blessed whose
outward life is supported by an inward
zeal for God’s glory. In the first
verse we had an undefiled way, and it was
taken for granted that the purity
in the way was not mere surface work, but
was attended by the inward truth
and life which comes of divine grace.
Here that which was implied is
expressed. Blessedness is ascribed to those
who treasure up the testimonies
of the Lord; in which is implied that they
search the Scriptures, that they
come to an understanding of them, that
they love them, and then that they
continue the practice of them. We must
first get a thing before we can
keep it. In order to keep it wel1 we must get
a :firm grip of it: we cannot keep
in the heart that which we have not
heartily embraced by the affections.
God’s word is his witness or testimony
to grand and important truths which
concern himself and our relation to
him: this we should desire to know;
knowing it, we should believe it;
believing it, we should love it;
and loving it, we should hold it fast against
all comers. There is a doctrinal
keeping of the word when we are ready to
die for its defense, and a practical
keeping of it when we actually live under
its power. Revealed truth is precious
as diamonds, and should be kept or
treasured up in the memory and
in the heart as jewels in a casket, or as the
law was kept in the ark; this,
however, is not enough; for it is meant for
practical use, and therefore it
must be kept or followed, as men keep to a
path, or to a line of business.
If we keep God’s testimonies they will keep
us; they will keep us right in
opinion, comfortable in spirit, holy in
conversation, and hopeful in expectation.
If they were ever worth having,
and no thoughtful person will question
that, then they are worth keeping;
their designed effect does not
come through a temporary seizure of them,
but by a persevering keeping of
them: “in keeping of them there is great
reward.”
We are bound to keep with all care
the word of God, because it is his
testimonies, He gave them to us,
but they are still his own. We are to keep
them as a watchman guards his master’s
house, as a steward husbands his
lord’s goods, as a shepherd keeps
his employer’s flock. We shall have to
give an account, for we are put
in trust with the gospel, and woe to us if
we be found unfaithful. We cannot
fight a good fight, nor finish our course,
unless we keep the faith! To this
end the Lord must keep us: only those
who are kept by the power of God
unto salvation will ever be able to keep
his testimonies. What a blessedness
is therefore evidenced and testified by a
careful belief in God’s word, and
a continual obedience thereunto God
has blessed them, is blessing them,
and will bless them for ever. That
blessedness which David saw in
others he realized for himself, for in verse
168 he says, “I have kept thy precepts
and thy testimonies,” and in verses
54 to 56 he traces his joyful songs
and happy memories to this same
keeping of the law, and he confesses,
“This I had because I kept thy
precepts.” Doctrines which we teach
to others we should experience for
ourselves.
“And that seek Him with the’ whole
heart.” Those who keep the Lord’s
testimonies are sure to seek after
himself. If his word is precious, we may
be sure that he himself is still
more so. Personal dealing with a personal
God is the longing of all those
who have allowed the word of the Lord to
have its full effect upon them.
If we once really know the power of the
gospel, we must seek the God of
the gospel. “O that I knew where I might
find HIM,” will be our wholehearted
cry. See the growth which these
sentences indicate first, in the
way, then walking in it, then finding and
keeping the treasure of truth,
and, to crown all, seeking after the Lord of
the way himself. Note also, that
the further a soul advances in grace the
more spiritual and divine are its
longings: an outward walk does not
content the gracious soul, nor
even the treasured testimonies; it reaches out
in due time after God himself,
and when it in a measure finds him, still
yearns for more of him, and seeks
him still.
Seeking after God signifies a desire
to commune with him more closely, to
follow him more fully, to enter
into more perfect union with his mind and
will, to promote his glory, and
to realize completely all that he is to holy
hearts. The blessed man has God
already, and for this reason he seeks him.
This may seem a contradiction:
it is only a paradox.
God is not truly sought by the cold
researches of the brain: we must seek
him with the heart. Love reveals
itself to love: God manifests his heart to
the heart of his people. It is
in vain that we endeavor to comprehend him
by reason; we must apprehend him
by affection. But the heart must not be
divided with many objects if the
Lord is to be sought by us. God is one,
and we shall not know him till
our heart is one. A broken heart need not be
distressed at this, for no heart
is so whole in its seekings after God as a
heart which is broken, whereof
every fragment sighs and cries after the
great Father’s face. It is the
divided heart which the doctrine of the text
censures, and, strange to say,
in scriptural phraseology, a heart may be
divided and not broken, and it
may be broken but not divided; and yet
again it may be broken and be whole,
and it never can be whole until it is
broken. When our whole heart seeks
the holy God in Christ Jesus it has
come to him of whom it is written,
“As many as touched him were made
perfectly whole.”
That which the Psalmist admires
in this verse he claims in the tenth, where
he says, “With my whole heart have
I sought thee.” It is well when
admiration of a virtue leads to
the attainment of it. Those who do not
believe in the blessedness of seeking
the Lord will not be likely to arouse
their hearts to the pursuit; but
he who calls another blessed because of the
grace which he sees in him is on
the way to gaining the same grace for
himself.
If those who seek the Lord are blessed,
what shall be said of those who
actually dwell with him and know
that he is theirs?
“To those who fall, how kind thou
art!
How good to those who seek!
But what to those who find? Ah!
this
Nor tongue nor pen can show:
The love of Jesus — what it is,
None but his loved ones know.”
3. “They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.”
“They also do no iniquity.” Blessed
indeed would those men be of whom
this could be asserted without
reserve and without explanation: we shall
have reached the region of pure
blessedness when we altogether cease
from sin. Those who follow the
word of God do no iniquity; the rule is
perfect, and if it be constantly
followed no fault will arise. Life, to the
outward observer, at any rate,
lies much in doing, and he who in his doings
never swerves from equity, both
towards God and man, has hit upon the
way of perfection, and we may be
sure that his heart is right. See how a
whole heart leads to the avoidance
of evil; for the Psalmist says, “That
seek him with the whole heart.
They also do no iniquity.” We fear that no
man can claim to be absolutely
without sin; and yet we trust there are many
who do not designedly, willfully,
knowingly, and continuously do anything
that is wicked, ungodly, or unjust.
Grace keeps the life righteous as to act
even when the Christian has to
bemoan the transgressions of the heart.
Judged as men should be judged
by their fellows, according to such just
rules as men make for men, the
true people of God do no iniquity: they are
honest, upright, and chaste, and
touching justice and morality they are
blameless. Therefore are they happy.
“They walk in his ways.” They attend
not only to the great main highway
of the law, but to the smaller
paths of the particular precepts. As they will
perpetrate no sin of commission,
so do they labor to be free from every sin
of omission. It is not enough to
them to be blameless, they wish also to be
actively righteous. A hermit may
escape into solitude that he may do no
iniquity, but a saint lives in
society that he may serve his God by walking in
his ways. We must be positively
as well as negatively right: we shall not
long keep the second unless we
attend to the first; for men will be walking
one way or another, and if they
do not follow the path of God’s law they
will soon do iniquity. The surest
way to abstain from evil is to be fully
occupied in doing good. This verse
describes believers as they exist among
us: although they have their faults
and infirmities, yet they hate evil, and
will not permit themselves to do
it; they love the ways of truth, right and
true: godliness, and habitually
they walk therein. They do not claim to be
absolutely perfect except in their
desires, and there they are pure indeed;
for they pant to be kept from all
sin, and to be led into all holiness. Could
they but always walk according
to the desire of their renewed hearts, they
would follow the Lord Jesus in
every thought, and word, and deed of life:
yea, their whole being would be
incarnate holiness.
4. “Thou hast commanded us to keep
thy precepts diligently.” So that
when we have done all, we are unprofitable
servants, we have done only
that which it was our duty to have
done, seeing we have our Lord’s
command for it. God’s precepts
require careful obedience: there is no
keeping them by accident. Some
give to God a careless service, a sort of
hit-or-miss obedience; but the
Lord has not commanded such service, nor
will he accept it. His law demands
the love of all our heart, soul, mind, and
strength; and a careless religion
has none of these. We are also called to
zealous obedience. We are to keep
the precepts abundantly: the vessels of
obedience should be filled to the
brim, and the command carried out to the
full of its meaning. As a man diligent
in business arouses himself to do as
much trade as he can, so must we
be eager to serve the Lord as much as
possible. Nor must we spare pains
to do so, for a diligent obedience will
also be laborious and self-denying.
Those who are diligent in business rise
up early and sit up late, and deny
themselves much of comfort and repose.
They are not soon tired, or, if
they are, they persevere even with aching
brow and weary eye. So should we
serve the Lord. Such a Master deserves
diligent servants; such service
he demands, and will be content with
nothing less. How seldom do men
render it and hence many through their
negligence miss the double blessing
spoken of in this psalm.
Some are diligent in superstition
and will worship; be it ours to be diligent
in keeping God’s precepts. It is
of no use travelling fast if we are not in the
right road. Men have been diligent
in a losing business, and the more they
have traded the more they have
lost: this is bad enough in commerce, we
cannot afford to have it so in
our religion.
God has not commanded us to be diligent
in making precepts, but in
keeping them. Some bind yokes upon
their own necks, and make bonds
and rules for others: but the wise
course is to be satisfied with the rules of
holy Scripture, and to strive to
keep them all, in all places, towards all men,
and in all respects. If we do not
this, we may become eminent in our own
religion, but we shall not have
kept the command of God, nor shall we be
accepted of him.
The Psalmist began with the third
person: “Blessed are the undefiled.” He
is now coming near home, and has
already reached the first person plural,
according to our version: “Thou
hast commanded us.” We shall soon hear
him crying out personally and for
himself: “O that my ways were
directed!” As the heart glows with
love to holiness, we long to have a
personal interest in it. The word
of God is a heart-affecting book, and
when we begin to sing its praises
it soon comes home to us, and sets us
praying to be ourselves conformed
to its teachings. Would not the reader
do well to pause here, and by devout
meditation impress his own heart
with the divine authority of the
Scriptures, that so he may devote himself
personally to the careful, prayerful,
constant, punctual, and cheerful
keeping of the precepts of the
Lords?
5. “O that my ways were directed
to keep thy statutes!” Divine commands
should direct us in the subject
of our prayers. We cannot of ourselves keep
God’s statutes as he would have
them kept, and yet we long to do so: what
resort have we but prayer? We must
ask the Lord to work our works in us,
or we shall never work out his
commandments. This verse is a sigh of
regret because the Psalmist feels
that he has not kept the precepts
diligently, it is a cry of weakness
appealing for help to one who can aid, it
is a request of bewilderment from
one who has lost his way and would fain
be directed in it, and it is a
petition of faith from one who loves God and
trusts in him for grace.
Our ways are by nature opposed to
the way of God, and must be turned by
the Lord’s direction in another
direction from that which they originally
take, or they will lead us down
to destruction. God can direct the mind and
will without violating our free
agency, and he will do so in answer to
prayer; in fact, he has begun the
work already in those who are heartily
praying after the fashion of this
verse. It is for present holiness that the
desire arises in the heart: oh,
that it were so now with me! But future
persevering holiness is also meant;
for he longs for grace to keep
henceforth and for ever the statutes
of the Lord.
The sigh of the text is really a
prayer, though it does not exactly take that
form. Desires and longings are
of the essence of supplication, and it little
matters what shape they take. “Oh,
that’” is as acceptable a prayer as
“Our Father.”
One would hardly have expected a
prayer for direction; rather should we
have looked for a petition for
enabling. Can we not direct ourselves? What
if we cannot row, we can steer.
The Psalmist herein confesses that even for
the smallest part of his duty he
felt unable without grace. He longed for the
Lord to influence his will, as
well as to strengthen his hands. We want a
rod to point out the way as much
as a staff to support us in it.
The longing of the text is prompted
by admiration of the blessedness of
holiness, by a contemplation of
the righteous man’s beauty of character,
and by a reverent awe of the command
of God. It is a personal application
to the writer’s own case of the
truths which he had been considering. “0
that my ways were directed to keep
thy statutes!” It were well if all who
hear the word would copy this example
and turn all that they hear into
prayer. We should have more keepers
of the statutes if we had more who
sigh and cry after the grace which
alone can keep them from wandering.
6. “Then shall I not be ashamed,
when I have respect unto all thy
commandments.”
“Then shall I not be ashamed.” He
had known shame, and here he
rejoices in the prospect of being
freed from it. Sin brings shame, and when
sin is gone, the reason for being
ashamed is banished. What a deliverance
this is; for to some men death
is preferable to shame! “When I have
respect unto all thy commandments.”
When he respects God he shall
respect himself and be respected.
Whenever we err we prepare ourselves
for confusion of face and sinking
of heart: if no one else is ashamed of me,
I shall be ashamed of myself if
I do iniquity. Our first parents never knew
shame till they made the acquaintance
of the old serpent, and it never left
them till their gracious God had
covered them with sacrificial skins.
Disobedience made them naked and
ashamed. We, ourselves, will always
have cause, for shame till every
sin is vanquished, and every duty is
observed. When we pay a continual
and universal respect to the will of the
Lord, then we shall be able to
look ourselves in the face in the looking-
glass of the law, and we shall
not blush at the sight of men or devils,
however eager their malice may
be to lay somewhat to our charge.
Many suffer from excessive diffidence,
and this verse suggests a cure. An
abiding sense of duty will make
us bold, we shall be afraid to be afraid. No
shame in the presence of man will
hinder us when the fear of God has taken
full possession of our minds. When
we are on the king’s highway by
daylight, and are engaged upon
royal business, we need ask no man’s
leave. It would be a dishonor to
a king to be ashamed of his livery and his
service; no such shame should ever
crimson the cheek of a Christian, nor
will it if he has due reverence
for the Lord his God. There is nothing to be
ashamed of in a holy life: a man
may be ashamed of his pride, ashamed of
his wealth, ashamed of his own
children; but he will never be ashamed of
having in all things regarded the
will of the Lord his God.
It is worthy of remark that David
promises himself no immunity from
shame till he has carefully paid
homage to all the precepts. Mind that word
“all,” and leave not one command
out of your respect. Partial obedience
still leaves us liable to be called
to account for those commands which we
have neglected. A man may have
a thousand virtues, and yet a single failing
may cover him with shame.
To a poor sinner who is buried in
despair, it may seem a very unlikely thing
that he should ever be delivered
from shame. He blushes, and is
confounded, and feels that he can
never lift up his face again. Let him read
these words: “Then shall I not
be ashamed.” David is not dreaming, nor
picturing an impossible case. Be
assured, dear friend, that the Holy Spirit
cart renew in you the image of
God, so that you shall yet look up without
fear. O for sanctification, to
direct us in God’s way; for then shall we have
boldness both towards God and his
people, and shall no more crimson with
confusion.
Dr. Watts turns this passage into admirable rhyme: let us sing with him —
“Then shall my heart have inward
joy,
And keep my face from shames
When all thy statutes I obey,
And honor all thy name.”
7. “I will praise thee with uprightness
of heart, when I shall have learned
thy righteous judgments.”
“I will praise thee.” From prayer
to praise is never a long or a difficult
journey. Be sure that he who prays
for holiness will one day praise for
happiness. Shame having vanished,
silence is broken, and the formerly
silent man declares, “I will praise
thee.” He cannot but promise praise
while he seeks sanctification.
Mark how well he knows upon what head to
set the crown. “I will praise thee.”
He would himself be praiseworthy, but
he counts God alone worthy of praise.
By the sorrow and shame of sin he
measures his obligations to the
Lord, who would teach Him the: art of
living so that he should clean
escape from his former misery.
“With uprightness of heart.” His
heart would be upright if the Lord
would teach him, and then it would
praise its teacher. There is such a thing
as false and reigned praise, and
this the Lord abhors; but there is no music
like that which comes from a pure
soul which standeth in its integrity.
Heart praise is required, uprightness
in that heart, and teaching to make the
heart upright. An upright heart
is sure to bless the Lord; for grateful
adoration is a part of its uprightness:
no man can be right unless he is
upright towards God, and this involves
the rendering to him the praise
which is his due.
“When I shall have learned thy righteous
judgments.” We must learn to
praise, learn that we may praise,
and praise when we have learned. If we
are ever to learn the Lord must
teach us, and especially upon such a subject
as his judgments, for they are
a great deep. While these are passing before
our eyes, and we are learning from
them, we ought to praise God; for the
original is not, “when I have learned,”
but, “in my learning.” While yet I
am a scholar I will be a chorister:
my upright heart shall praise thine
uprightness, my purified judgment
shall admire thy judgments. God’s
providence is a book full of teaching,
and to those whose hearts are right
it is a music-book, out of which
they chant to Jehovah’s praise. God’s
word is full of the record of his
righteous providences, and as we read it
we feel compelled to burst forth
into expressions of holy delight and ardent
praise. When we both read of God’s
judgments and become joyful
partakers in them, we are doubly
moved to song — song in which there is
neither formality, nor hypocrisy,
nor lukewarmness; for the heart is upright
in the presentation of its praise.
8. “I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly.”
“I will keep thy statutes.” A calm
resolve. When praise calms down into
solid resolution it is well with
the soul. Zeal which spends itself in singing,
and leaves no practical residuum
of holy living, is little worth: “I will
praise” should be coupled with
“I will keep.” This firm resolve is by no
means boastful, like Peter’s “though
I should die with thee, yet will I not
deny thee”; for it is followed
by a humble prayer for divine help: “O
forsake me not utterly.” Feeling
his own incapacity, he trembles lest he
should be left to himself, and
this fear is increased by the horror which he
has of falling into sin. The “I
will keep” sounds rightly enough now that
the humble cry is heard with it.
This is a happy amalgam: resolution and
dependence. We meet with those
who to all appearance humbly pray, but
there is no force of character,
no decision in them, and consequently the
pleading of the closet is not embodied
in the life: on the other hand, we
meet with abundance of resolve
attended with an entire absence of
dependence upon God, and this makes
as poor a character as the former.
The Lord grant us to have such
a blending of excellences that we may be
“perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”
This prayer is one which is certain
to be heard; for assuredly it must be
highly pleasing to God to see a
man set upon obeying his will, and
therefore it must be most agreeable
to him to be present with such a
person, and to help him in his
endeavors. How can he forsake one who
does not forsake his law?
The peculiar dread which tinges
this prayer with a somber hue is the fear of
utter forsaking. Well may the soul
cry out against such a calamity. To be
left, that we may discover our
weakness, is a sufficient trial: to be
altogether forsaken would be ruin
and death. Hiding the face in a little
wrath for a moment brings us very
low: an absolute desertion would
plunge us ultimately in the lowest
hell. But the Lord never has utterly
forsaken his servants, and he never
will, blessed be his name. If we long to
keep his statutes he will keep
us; yea, his grace will keep us keeping his
law.
There is rather a sharp descent
from the mount of benediction, with which
the first verse began, to the almost
wail of this eighth verse, yet this is
spiritually and experimentally
a decided and gracious growth; for from
admiration of goodness we have
come to a burning longing after God,
pining after communion with him,
and an intense horror lest it should not
be enjoyed. The sigh of verse 5
is now supplanted by an actual prayer from
the depths of a heart conscious
of its undesert, and sensible of its entire
dependence upon divine love. The
two “I wills” — “I will praise
thee,” and “I will keep thy statutes”
— needed to be seasoned with some
such lowly petition, or it might
have been thought that the good man’s
dependence was in some degree fixed
upon his own determination. He
presents his resolutions like a
sacrifice, but he cries to heaven for the fire,
To will is present with him, but
he cannot perform that which he would
unless the Lord will abide with
him.
This last verse of the first octave
has a link with the first of the next in this
fashion: Lord, do not forsake me,
for wherewith shall I cleanse my way if
thou be gone from me, and thy law
ceases to have power over me.
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