Psalms 26 commentary

David here, by the Spirit of prophecy, speaks of himself as a type of Christ, of whom what he here says of his spotless innocence was fully and eminently true, and of Christ only, and to Him we may apply it. We are complete in him. The man that walks in his integrity, yet trusting wholly in the grace of God, is in a state of acceptance, according to the covenant of which Jesus was the Mediator, in virtue of his spotless obedience even unto death. This man desires to have his inmost soul searched and proved by the Lord. He is aware of the deceitfulness of his own heart; he desires to detect and mortify every sin; and he longs to be satisfied of his being a true believer, and to practise the holy commands of God. Great care to avoid bad company, is both a good evidence of our integrity, and a good means to keep us in it. Hypocrites and dissemblers may be found attending on God's ordinances; but it is a good sign of sincerity, if we attend upon them, as the psalmist here tells us he did, in the exercise of repentance and conscientious obedience. He feels his ground firm under him; and, as he delights in blessing the Lord with his congregations on earth, he trusts that shortly he shall join the great assembly in heaven, in singing praises to God and to the Lamb for evermore.

PSALM 26.

This psalm, for the most part, is similar to the preceding. The prophet, oppressed with numerous wrongs, and finding no succor in the world, implores the aid of God, entreating him to undertake the cause of a man unrighteously afflicted, and to assert his innocence. And as his contest was with hypocrites, he appeals to the judgment of God, sharply reproving them for making a false profession of God’s name. In the conclusion, as if he had obtained his wish, he promises a sacrifice of praise to God for his deliverance.

A Psalm of David.

Psalm 26:1-4

1. Judge me, O Jehovah! because I have walked in mine integrity, and trusted in Jehovah, I shall not stumble. 2. Prove me, O Jehovah! and try me; search my reins and my heart. 3. For thy goodness is before mine eyes: I have therefore walked in thy truth. 4. I have not sat with vain men, neither will I walk with deceitful men.

1. Judge me, O Jehovah! I have just said, that David betakes himself to the judgment of God, because he found neither equity nor humanity among men. The Hebrew word which is rendered to judge, signifies to undertake the cognisance of a cause. The meaning here, therefore, is as if David called upon God to be the defender of his right. Hammond renders the original word, “Plead for, or defend me;” and Green, “Vindicate me.” The word denotes both the act of a judge and of an advocate. This last view agrees very well with the scope of the psalm, which, from the strong assertions of innocence with which it abounds, appears to have been written by David in vindication of himself from various crimes which had been alleged against him; although the particular events to which it refers are not indicated. When God leaves us for a time to the injuries and petulance of our enemies, he seems to neglect our cause; but when he restrains them from assailing us at their pleasure he clearly demonstrates that the defense of our cause is the object of his care. Let us, therefore, learn from the example of David, when we are destitute of man’s aid, to have recourse to the judgment-seat of God, and to rely upon his protection. The clause which follows is variously explained by interpreters. Some read it in connection with the first clause, Judge me, O Jehovah! because I have walked in mine integrity; but others refer it to the last clause, Because I have walked in mine integrity, therefore I shall not stumble. In my opinion, it may be properly connected with both. As it is the proper work of God to maintain and defend righteous causes, the Psalmist, in constituting him his defender, summons him as the witness of his integrity and trust, and thus conceives the hope of obtaining his aid. If, on the other hand, any one thinks that the clauses should be separated, it seems most probable that this sentence, judge me, O Lord! should be read by itself; and then that the second prayer should follow, that God would not allow him to stumble, because he had behaved himself inoffensively and uprightly, etc. But there is a force in the possessive pronoun my, which interpreters have overlooked. For David does not simply aver that he had been upright, but that he had constantly proceeded in an upright course, without being driven from his purpose, however powerful the devices by which he had been assailed. When wicked men attack us with a view to overwhelm us, either by force or fraud, we know how difficult it is to preserve always the same fortitude. We place our hope of victory in endeavoring resolutely and vigorously to oppose force to force, and art to art. And this is a temptation which so much the more affects honest and steady men, who are otherwise zealous to do well, when the cruelty of their enemies compels them to turn aside from the right path. Let us, therefore, learn from the example of David, even when an opportunity of injuring our enemies is offered us, and when by various methods they force and provoke us, to remain firm in our course, and not suffer ourselves to be diverted in any manner from persevering in the path of our integrity.

PSALM 26

Psa 26:1-12. After appealing to God's judgment on his avowed integrity and innocence of the charges laid by his enemies, the Psalmist professes delight in God's worship, and prays for exemption from the fate of the wicked, expressing assurance of God's favor.

1. Judge--decide on my case; the appeal of innocence.

in mine integrity--freedom from blemish (compare Psa 25:21). His confidence of perseverance results from trust in God's sustaining grace.

2. He asks the most careful scrutiny of his affections and thoughts (Psa 7:9), or motives.

3. As often, the ground of prayer for present help is former favor.

4-8. As exemplified by the fruits of divine grace, presented in his life, especially in his avoiding the wicked and his purposes of cleaving to God's worship.

9. Gather not, &c.--Bring me not to death.

bloody men--(compare Psa 5:6).

10. Their whole conduct is that of violence and fraud.

11-12. But, &c.--He contrasts his character and destiny with that of the wicked (compare Psa 26:1, 2).

Judge me, O Lord - There are so many strong assertions in this Psalm concerning the innocence and uprightness of its author that many suppose he wrote it to vindicate himself from some severe reflections on his conduct or accusations relative to plots, conspiracies, etc. This seems to render the opinion probable that attributes it to David during his exile, when all manner of false accusations were brought against him at the court of Saul.

I have walked in mine integrity - I have never plotted against the life nor property of any man; I have neither coveted nor endeavored to possess myself of Saul's crown.

I have trusted - Had I acted otherwise, I could not have been prosperous, for thou wouldst not have worked miracles for the preservation of a wicked man.

I shall not slide - I shall be preserved from swerving from the paths of righteousness and truth.

Examine me, O Lord - To thee I appeal; and feel no hesitation in wishing to have all the motives of my heart dissected and exposed to thy view, and to that of the world.

For thy loving-kindness - A sense of thy favor and approbation was more to my heart than thrones and sceptres; and in order to retain this blessing, I have walked in thy truth.

I have not sat with vain persons - מתי שוא methey shav, men of lies, dissemblers, backbiters, etc.

Neither will I go in with dissemblers - נעלמים naalamim, the hidden ones, the dark designers, the secret plotters and conspirators in the state.

I have hated the congregation of evil doers - I have never made one in the crowds of discontented persons; persons who, under pretense of rectifying what was wrong in the state, strove to subvert it, to breed general confusion, to overturn the laws, seize on private property, and enrich themselves by the spoils of the country.

I will wash mine hands in innocency - Washing the hands was frequent among the Jews, and was sometimes an action by which a man declared his innocence of any base or wicked transaction. This Pilate did, to protest his innocence of the mal-treatment and death of Christ. I will maintain that innocence of life in which I have hitherto walked; and take care that nothing shall be found in my heart or life that would prevent me from using the most holy ordinance, or worshipping thee in spirit and truth.

So wilt I compass thine altar - It is a mark of respect among the Hindoos to walk several times round a superior, and round a temple.

That I may publish - I have endeavoured to act so as always to keep a conscience void of offense towards thee and towards man. I have made a profession of faith in thee, and salvation from thee, and my practice gives no lie to my profession.

Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house - I have carefully used thine ordinances, that I might obtain more grace to help me to persevere. And I have not been attentive to those duties, merely because they were incumbent on me; but I have loved the place where thine honor dwelleth; and my delight in thy ordinances has made my attendance as pleasant as it was profitable. This verse would be better translated, Jehovah, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place of the tabernacle of thy glory. The habitation must mean the holy of holies, where the Divine Presence was manifest; and the place of the tabernacle must refer to the mercy-seat, or the place where the glory of the Lord appeared between the cherubim, upon the lid or cover of the ark of the covenant. From his dwelling there, משכן mishcan, the place and the appearance were called שכינה shechinah; the dwelling of Jehovah, or that glorious appearance which was the symbol of the Divine Presence.

Gather not my soul with sinners - As I have never loved their company, nor followed their practice, let not my eternal lot be cast with them! I neither love them nor their ways; may I never be doomed to spend an eternity with them!

Their right hand is full of bribes - He speaks of persons in office, who took bribes to pervert judgment and justice.

But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity - Whatever I may have to do with public affairs, shall be done with the strictest attention to truth, justice, and mercy.

Redeem me - From all snares and plots laid against my life and my soul.

And be merciful unto me - I deserve no good, but thou art merciful; deal with me ever in thy mercy.

My foot standeth in an even place - On the above principles I have taken my stand: to abhor evil; to cleave to that which is good; to avoid the company of wicked men; to frequent the ordinances of God; to be true and just in all my dealings with men; and to depend for my support and final salvation on the mere mercy of God. He who acts in this way, his feet stand in an even place.

I will bless the Lord - In all my transactions with men, and in all my assemblings with holy people, I will speak good of the name of the Lord, having nothing but good to speak of that name.

Trusted - I have committed my cause and affairs to thee.

For - I dare appeal to thee, because thou knowest I have a deep sense of thy loving - kindness, by which I have been led to love and obey thee.

Sat - Continued with them. I have been so far from an imitation of their wicked courses, that I have avoided their company. Vain - With false and deceitful persons. Go in - Into their company.

Compass - Approach to thine altar with my sacrifices: which I could not do with any comfort, if I were conscious of those crimes, whereof mine enemies accuse me.

House - Thy sanctuary and worship. Honour - Thy glorious and gracious presence.

Gather not - Do not bind me up in the same bundle, or put me into the same accursed condition with them.

Standeth - I stand upon a sure and solid foundation, being under the protection of God's promise, and his almighty and watchful providence. Congregations - I will not only privately, but in the assemblies of thy people celebrate thy praise.

1 JUdge me, O LORD, for I have walked in mine integrity : I have trusted also in the LORD : therefore I shall not slide .

(i. e.) Plead my Cause, or give Sentence for me; as this Phrase is commonly used, as Psal. 10. 18▪ and 43. 1. and 72. 4. Isa. 1. 17. I can obtain no right from Men. The Supream and subordinate Magistrates, are mine implacable and resolved Enemies. Do thou therefore do me Justice against them.

For though they accuse me of many Crimes, they can prove none of them, and thou and mine own Conscience, and theirs too are Witnesses for me, that my Carriage towards them hath been innocent and unblameable.

I have committed my Cause and Affairs to thee, as to a just Judge and merciful Father, and my Hope and Trust is fixed upon thee alone.

Therefore thou wilst not deceive my Trust, but wilst uphold me against all mine Enemies. For thou hast Promised to save those that Trust in thee. Or, that I [illegible: 1 word] n[illegible: 1+ letters]t slide or fall. So this declares the matter of his Trust.

Marginal references: Psal. 7. 8▪

2. Examine me, O LORD, and prove me ; try my reins and my heart.

Because it is possible, that I may deceive my self, and be partial [illegible: 1 word] my Cause, or at least mine Enemies will so judge of me, I appeal to thee, O thou Judge of Hearts, and beg that thou would search and try me, by such wa[illegible: 1+ letters]s and means as thou seest fit, and make me known to my self, and to the World, and convince mine Enemies of mine Integrity.

Marginal references: Psal. 7. 8. & 17. 3. & 66. 10. & 139. 23. Zech. 13. 9.

3. For thy loving kindness is before mine eyes : and I have walked in thy truth .

I dare appeal to thee with this Confidence, because thou knowest that I have a true and deep Sence of thy Loving kindness to me upon mine Heart, by which I have been obliged, and in a manner constrained to Love and Obey thee, and in all things to approve my Heart and ways to thee, and to abstain from all such evil Practices, as mine Enemies Charge me with, whereby I should have forfeited thy Loving kindness, which I prize more than Life, Psal. 63. 3. and exposed my self to thy just Displeasure. My Experience of and Trust in thy Goodness, doth fully satisfie and support me, that I neither do no[illegible: 1+ letters] need to use any indirect or irregular Courses for my Relief.

(i. e.) According to thy Word, which is oft called Truth, as Psal. 119. 142. 151. Ioh. 17. 17: 19. believing its Promises, and observing its Precepts and Directions; and not according to the Course of the World, as it follows.

4. I have not sate with vain persons , neither will I go in with dissemblers .

(i. e. Chosen or used to Converse with them: for sitting is a posture of Ease and of Continuance. I have been so far from an Approbation, or Imitation of the wicked Courses (where with mine Enemies reproach me) that I have avoided even their Company, and if accidentally I came into it, yet I would not abi[illegible: 1+ letters]e in it.

(i. e.) With Lyars, or false and decei[illegible: 1+ letters]ul Persons, as the next Clause explains it. And Vanity is very frequently put for Fal[illegible: 1+ letters]hood or Lying.

Into their Com [illegible: 1+ letters] ▪ or with design to joyn in their Counsels or Courses, as the sa[illegible: 1+ letters]e Word is used, Ios. 23. 7. And Conversation is oft expressed by going out and coming in.

Heb. with such as hide [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word], covering their Crafty and wicked Designs with fair Pre[illegible: 1+ letters]nces. I abhor such Persons and Practises; though I am accused to be such an one.

Marginal references: Psal. 1. 1[illegible: 1+ letters] Jer. 15. 17.; Heb. clos[illegible: 1+ letters] [illegible: 1+ letters]ersons.

5. I have hated the congregation of evil doers : and will not sit with the wicked.

Either, 1. Their whole Ranck or Society. I have an Antipathy against all such Persons, without any Exception. Or, 2. To meet and joyn with them, in their Assemblies and Consultations, or sit with them, as it follows.

6. I will wash mine hands in innocency : so will I compass thine altar , O LORD.

Or, with Integrity, Or with a pure Heart and Conscience. I will not do, as my Hypocritical Enemies do, who Content themselves with those outward washings of their Hands, Or Bodies prescribed in the Law, Exod. 29. 4. &c. Deut. 21. 6. Heb. 9. 10. whilst their Hearts and Lives are filthy and abominable. But I will wa[illegible: 1+ letters]h or I have washed my Hands, and withal purged my Heart and Conscience from dead Works. Compare Isa. 1. 15, 16. 1 Tim. 2. 8.

(i. e.) Approach to thine Altar with my Sacrifices: which I could not do with any Comfort or Confidence, if I were Conscious to my self of those Crimes, whereof mine Enemies accuse me. For the Phrase of Compassing the Altar, Either, 1. He alludes to some L[illegible: 1+ letters]vitical Custom of going about the Altar, as the Priests did in the Oblation of their Sacrifices, and the People, especially those of them who were most devout and Zealous, who possibly moved from place to place, but still within their own Court, that they might better discern what was done on the several sides of the Altar, and so be the more affected with it. Or rather, 2. He implies that he would offer many Sacrifices together, which would employ the Priests round about the Altar, and so he is said to Compass it, because the Priests did it in his Name, and upon his Account, as Persons are very oft said in Scripture to Offer those Sacrifices, which the Priests offer for them.

Marginal references: Exod. 30. 20. Psal. 73. 13.

7. That I may publish with the voyce of thanksgiving , and tell of all thy wondrous works.

Or, Proclaim, to wit, thy wondrous works, as it here follows.

Accompanying my Sacrifices, with my own solemn Thanksgivings and Songs of Praise.

8. LORD, I have loved the habitation of thy house , and the place where thine honour dwelleth.

(i. e.) This Sanctuary and Worship: which is an Evidence of my Piety to thee, as I have given many Proofs of my Justice and Integrity towards men. Nothing is more grievous to me then to be hindred, from seeing and serving thee there.

Or, thy Glory, Either, 1. The Ark so called, 1 Sam. 4. 22. Psal. 78. 61. Or 2. Thy glorious and gracious Presence, Or the manifestation of thy Glory, or of thy glorious Power, and Faithfulness, and Goodness.

Marginal references: Heb. of the [illegible: 1 word] of thy [illegible: 1 word].

9. Gather not my soul with sinners , nor my life with bloody men.

(i. e.) My Life, as it is explained in the next Clause. Do not bind me up in the same Bundle, nor put me into the same accursed, and miserable Condition with them. Seeing I have had so great an Antipathy against them, in the whole Course of my Life, v. 4. 5. let me not dye their Death, as Balaam on the contrary desired to dye the Death of the Righteous, Numb. 23. 10. And seeing I have loved thy House and Worship, and indeavoured to serve thee acceptably, not only with Ceremonial cleanness, but with moral purity of Heart and Life, v. 6, 7, 8. do not deal with me as thou wilst with those that are filled with ungodlyness and unrighteousness, do not destroy me with them, the Righteous with the wicked, Gen 18. 23. but save me in the common Calamity, as thou hast promised and used to do in like Cases. The Hebrew word, Asaph, rendred gathering, is oft put for taking away, as Gen. 30. 23. Isa. 4. 1. Ier. 8. 13. and 16. 5. and that by Destruction or Death, as 1 Sam. 15. 6. I[illegible: 1+ letters]a. 57. 1. Ier. 8. 13. Ezek. 34. 29. H[illegible: 1+ letters]ea 4. 3. The ground of which Phrase may be either, because by death mens Souls or Spirits are gathered and returned to God, Eccles. 12. 7. who had dispersed them all the World over: or because the several sorts of Men, good and bad, which live here together Promiscuously, are there severed, and all of one sort of them gathered together, unto their Fathers or People, as i[illegible: 1+ letters] is expressed, Gen. 15. 15. Numb. 20. 24. 2 Kings 22. 20. Comp. Heb. 12. 23.

Profligate and O[illegible: 1+ letters]stinate sinners, as the following Words describe them, such being oft called sinners by way of Eminency, as 1 Sa[illegible: 1+ letters]. 15. 18. Psal. 1. 1. and 104. 35. Isa. 1. 28. and 33. 14.

Marginal references: Or, Take not away, Psal. [illegible: 1+ letters]8. 3.; Heb. men of Blood.

10. In whose▪ hands is mischief : and their right hand is full of bribes.

Who not only imagine Mischief in their Hearts, but persist in it, and execu[illegible: 1+ letters]e it with their Hands.

Which should be stretched out to execute Justice, and punish Offenders.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word] with.

12. My foot standeth in an even place : in the congregations will I bless the LORD▪

Heb. in R[illegible: 1+ letters]ctitude, or in a Right or Streight, or Plain, or ev[illegible: 1+ letters]n Place. Which may be understood, Either, 1. Civilly, or in regard of his outward Condition. So this is opposed to the slippery places, in which wicked men are said to be, Psal. 35. 6. and 73. 18. Ier. 23. 12. and the Sence is, I stand upon a sure and solid Foundation, where I fear no fall, nor to be overthrown by the assaults of mine Enemies, being under the Protection of God's promise, and his Almighty and watchful Providence. Or, 2. Morally, or in regard of his Conversation. So the Sence is, I do and will persist or continue (which is oft signified by standing, as Psal. 1. 1.) in my plain, and righteous, and streight Course of Life, not using those Frauds and wicked Arts, and perverse and crooked Paths, which mine Enemies chuse and walk in, or whereof they do falsly accuse me. And so this is the same thing for Substance, with his walking in his Integrity, expressed in the foregoing Verse, as also v. 1. I will not only privately acknowledge, but publickly, and in the Assemblies of thy People celebrate thy Praises, both for thy Grace, inabling and inclining to chuse and Love, and persevere in the ways of Holiness and Righteousness, and for thy Protection hitherto afforded to me, in the midst of all my Dangers and Troubles, and for that well-grounded assurance which thou hast given me, of thy Favour, and of my future Deliverance.

Marginal references: Psal. 27. 11.

The Longing of the One Who Is Persecuted innocently, to Give Thanks to God in His House

Ps. 25 and Psa 26:1-12 are bound together by similarity of thought and expression. In the former as in this Psalm, we find the writer’s testimony to his trust in God (בּטחתּי, Psa 25:2; Psa 26:1); there as here, the cry coming forth from a distressed condition for deliverance (פּדה, Psa 25:22; Psa 26:11), and for some manifestation of mercy (חנּני Psa 26:11; Psa 25:16); and in the midst of theses, other prominent points of contact (Psa 26:11; Psa 25:21; Psa 26:3; Psa 25:5). These are grounds sufficient for placing these two Psalms close together. But in Psa 26:1-12 there is wanting the self-accusation that goes hand in hand with the self-attestation of piety, that confession of sin which so closely corresponds to the New Testament consciousness (vid., supra p. 43), which is thrice repeated in Ps 25. The harshness of the contrast in which the psalmist stands to his enemies, whose character is here more minutely described, does not admit of the introduction of such a lament concerning himself. The description applies well to the Absolomites. They are hypocrites, who, now that they have agreed together in their faithless and bloody counsel, have thrown off their disguise and are won over by bribery to their new master; for Absolom had stolen the hearts of the men of Israel, 2Sa 15:6. David at that time would not take the Ark with him in his flight, but said: If I shall find favour in the eyes of Jahve, He will bring me back, and grant me to see both it and His habitation, 2Sa 15:25. The love for the house of God, which is expressed herein, is also the very heart of this Psalm.

Psa 26:1-2

The poet, as one who is persecuted, prays for the vindication of his rights and for rescue; and bases this petition upon the relation in which he stands to God. שׁפטני, as in Psa 7:9; Psa 35:24, cf. Psa 43:1. תּם (synon. תמים, which, however, does not take any suffix) is, according to Gen 20:5., 1Ki 22:34, perfect freedom from all sinful intent, purity of character, pureness, guilelessness (ἀκακία, ἀπλότης). Upon the fact, that he has walked in a harmless mind, without cherishing or provoking enmity, and trusted unwaveringly (לא אמעד, an adverbial circumstantial clause, cf. Psa 21:8) in Jahve, he bases the petition for the proving of his injured right. He does not self-righteously hold himself to be morally perfect, he appeals only to the fundamental tendency of his inmost nature, which is turned towards God and to Him only. Psa 26:2 also is not so much a challenge for God to satisfy Himself of his innocence, as rather a request to prove the state of his mind, and, if it be not as it appears to his consciousness, to make this clear to him (Psa 139:23.). בּחן is not used in this passage of proving by trouble, but by a penetrating glance into the inmost nature (Psa 11:5; Psa 17:3). נסּה, not in the sense of πειράζειν, but of δοκομάζειν. צרף, to melt down, i.e., by the agency of fire, the precious metal, and separate the dross (Psa 12:7; Psa 66:10). The Chethîb is not to be read צרוּפה (which would be in contradiction to the request), but צרופה, as it is out of pause also in Isa 32:11, cf. Jdg 9:8, Jdg 9:12; 1Sa 28:8. The reins are the seat of the emotions, the heart is the very centre of the life of the mind and soul.

Psa 26:3

Psa 26:3 tells how confidently and cheerfully he would set himself in the light of God. God’s grace or loving-kindness is the mark on which his eye is fixed, the desire of his eye, and he walks in God’s truth. חסד is the divine love, condescending to His creatures, and more especially to sinners (Psa 25:7), in unmerited kindness; אמת is the truth with which God adheres to and carries out the determination of His love and the word of His promise. This lovingkindness of God has been always hitherto the model of his life, this truth of God the determining line and the boundary of his walk.

Psa 26:4-5

He still further bases his petition upon his comportment towards the men of this world; how he has always observed a certain line of conduct and continues still to keep to it. With Psa 26:4 compare Jer 15:17. מתי שׁוא (Job 11:11, cf. Psa 31:5, where the parallel word is מרמה) are “not-real,” unreal men, but in a deeper stronger sense than we are accustomed to use this word. שׁוא (= שׁוא, from שׁוא) is aridity, hollowness, worthlessness, and therefore badness (Arab. su') of disposition; the chaotic void of alienation from God; untruth white-washed over with the lie of dissimulation (Psa 12:3), and therefore nothingness: it is the very opposite of being filled with the fulness of God and with that which is good, which is the morally real (its synonym is און, e.g., Job 22:15). נעלמים, the veiled, are those who know how to keep their worthlessness and their mischievous designs secret and to mask them by hypocrisy; post-biblical צבוּעים, dyed (cf. ἀνυπόκριτος, Luther “ungefärbt,” undyed). (את) בּוא עם, to go in with any one, is a short expression for: to go in and out with, i.e., to have intercourse with him, as in Pro 22:24, cf. Gen 23:10. מרע (from רעע) is the name for one who plots that which is evil and puts it into execution. On רשׁע see Psa 1:1.

Psa 26:6-8

The poet supports his petition by declaring his motive to be his love for the sanctuary of God, from which he is now far removed, without any fault of his own. The coloured future ואסבבה, distinct from ואסבבה (vid., on Psa 3:6 and Psa 73:16), can only mean, in this passage, et ambiam, and not et ambibam as it does in a different connection (Isa 43:26, cf. Jdg 6:9); it is the emotional continuation (cf. Psa 27:6; Sol 7:12; Isa 1:24; Isa 5:19, and frequently) of the plain and uncoloured expression ארחץ. He wishes to wash his hands in innocence (בּ of the state that is meant to be attested by the action), and compass (Psa 59:7) the altar of Jahve. That which is elsewhere a symbolic act (Deu 21:6, cf. Mat 27:24), is in this instance only a rhetorical figure made use of to confess his consciousness of innocence; and it naturally assumes this form (cf. Psa 73:13) from the idea of the priest washing his hands preparatory to the service of the altar (Exo 32:20.) being associated with the idea of the altar. And, in general, the expression of Psa 26:6. takes a priestly form, without exceeding that which the ritual admits of, by virtue of the consciousness of being themselves priests which appertained even to the Israelitish laity (Exo 19:16). For סבב can be used even of half encompassing as it were like a semi-circle (Gen 2:11; Num 21:4), no matter whether it be in the immediate vicinity of, or at a prescribed distance from, the central point. לשׁמע is a syncopated and defectively written Hiph., for להשׁמיע, like לשׁמד, Isa 23:11. Instead of לשׁמע קול תּודה, “to cause the voice of thanksgiving to be heard,” since השׁמיע is used absolutely (1Ch 15:19; 2Ch 5:13) and the object is conceived of as the instrument of the act (Ges. §138, 1, rem. 3), it is “in order to strike in with the voice of thanksgiving.” In the expression “all Thy wondrous works” is included the latest of these, to which the voice of thanksgiving especially refers, viz., the bringing of him home from the exile he had suffered from Absolom. Longing to be back again he longs most of all for the gorgeous services in the house of his God, which are performed around the altar of the outer court; for he loves the habitation of the house of God, the place, where His doxa, - revealed on earth, and in fact revealed in grace, - has taken up its abode. ma`own does not mean refuge, shelter (Hupfeld), - for although it may obtain this meaning from the context, it has nothing whatever to do with Arab. ‛ân, med. Waw, in the signification to help (whence ma‛ûn , ma‛ûne , ma‛âne, help, assistance, succour or support), - but place, dwelling, habitation, like the Arabic ma‛ân, which the Kamus explains by menzil, a place to settle down in, and explains etymologically by Arab. mḥll 'l - ‛ı̂n, i.e., “a spot on which the eye rests as an object of sight;” for in the Arabic ma‛ân is traced back to Arab. ‛ân , med. Je, as is seen from the phrase hum minka bi - ma‛ânin, i.e., they are from thee on a point of sight (= on a spot where thou canst see them from the spot on which thou standest). The signification place, sojourn, abode (Targ. מדור) is undoubted; the primary meaning of the root is, however, questionable.

Psa 26:9-11

It is now, for the first time, that the petition compressed into the one word שׁפטני (Psa 26:1) is divided out. He prays (as in Psa 28:3), that God may not connect him in one common lot with those whose fellowship of sentiment and conduct he has always shunned. אנשׁי דּמים, as in Psa 5:7, cf. ἄνθρωποι αἱμάτων, Sir. 31:25. Elsewhere זמּה signifies purpose, and more particularly in a bad sense; but in this passage it means infamy, and not unnatural unchastity, to which בּידיהם is inappropriate, but scum of whatever is vicious in general: they are full of cunning and roguery, and their right hand, which ought to uphold the right - David has the lords of his people in his eye - is filled (מלאה, not מלאה) with accursed (Deu 27:25) bribery to the condemnation of the innocent. He, on the contrary, now, as he always has done, walks in his uprightness, so that now he can with all the more joyful conscience intreat God to interpose judicially in his behalf.

Psa 26:12

The epilogue. The prayer is changed into rejoicing which is certain of the answer that shall be given. Hitherto shut in, as it were, in deep trackless gorges, he even now feels himself to be standing בּמישׁור,The first labial of the combination בם, בף, when the preceding word ends with a vowel and the two words are closely connected, receives the Dagesh contrary to the general rule; on this orthophonic Dag. lene, vid., Luth. Zeitschr., 1863, S. 414. upon a pleasant plain commanding a wide range of vision (cf. בּמּרחב, Psa 31:9), and now blends his grateful praise of God with the song of the worshipping congregation, קהל (lxx ἐν ἐκκλησίαις), and its full-voiced choirs.

Devout Appeals.

1 Judge me, O Lord ; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the Lord ; therefore I shall not slide. 2 Examine me, O Lord , and prove me; try my reins and my heart. 3 For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in thy truth. 4 I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. 5 I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked.

It is probable that David penned this psalm when he was persecuted by Saul and his party, who, to give some colour to their unjust rage, represented him as a very bad man, and falsely accused him of many high crimes and misdemeanors, dressed him up in the skins of wild beasts that they might bait him. Innocency itself is no fence to the name, though it is to the bosom, against the darts of calumny. Herein he was a type of Christ, who was made a reproach of men, and foretold to his followers that they also must have all manner of evil said against them falsely. Now see what David does in this case.

I. He appeals to God's righteous sentence (v. 1): "Judge me, O God! be thou Judge between me and my accusers, between the persecutor and the poor prisoner; bring me off with honour, and put those to shame that falsely accuse me." Saul, who was himself supreme judge in Israel, was his adversary, so that in a controversy with him he could appeal to no other then to God himself. As to his offences against God, he prays, Lord, enter not into judgment with me (Ps. cxliii. 2), remember not my transgressions (Ps. xxv. 7), in which he appeals to God's mercy; but, as to his offences against Saul, he appeals to God's justice and begs of him to judge for him, as Ps. xliii. 1. Or thus: he cannot justify himself against the charge of sin; he owns his iniquity is great and he is undone if God, in his infinite mercy, do not forgive him; but he can justify himself against the charge of hypocrisy, and has reason to hope that, according to the tenour of the covenant of grace, he is one of those that may expect to find favour with God. Thus holy Job often owns he has sinned and yet he holds fast his integrity. Note, It is a comfort to those who are falsely accused that there is a righteous God, who, sooner or later, will clear up their innocency, and a comfort to all who are sincere in religion that God himself is a witness to their sincerity.

II. He submits to his unerring search (v. 2): Examine me, O Lord! and prove me, as gold is proved, whether it be standard. God knows every man's true character, for he knows the thoughts and intents of the heart, as sees through every disguise. David prays, Lord, examine me, which intimates that he was well pleased that God did know him and truly desirous that he would discover him to himself and discover him to all the world. So sincere was he in his devotion to his God and his loyalty to his prince (in both which he was suspected to be a pretender) that he wished he had a window in his bosom, that whoever would might look into his heart.

III. He solemnly protests his sincerity (v. 1): "I have walked in my integrity; my conversation had agreed with my profession, and one part of it has been of a piece with another." It is vain to boast of our integrity unless we can make it out that by the grace of God we have walked in our integrity, and that our conversation in the world has been in simplicity and godly sincerity. He produces here several proofs of his integrity, which encouraged him to trust in the Lord as his righteous Judge, who would patronise and plead his righteous cause, with an assurance that he should come off with reputation (therefore I shall not slide), and that those should not prevail who consulted to cast him down from his excellency, to shake his faith, blemish his name, and prevent his coming to the crown, Ps. lxii. 4. Those that are sincere in religion may trust in God that they shall not slide, that is, that they shall not apostasize from their religion.

1. He had a constant regard to God and to his grace, v. 3. (1.) He aimed at God's good favour as his end and chief good: Thy loving-kindness is before my eyes. This will be a good evidence of our sincerity, if what we do in religion we do from a principle of love to God, and good thoughts of him as the best of beings and the best of friends and benefactors, and from a grateful sense of God's goodness to us in particular, which we have had the experience of all our days. If we set God's loving-kindness before us as our pattern, to which we endeavour to conform ourselves, being followers of him that is good, in his goodness (1 Pet. iii. 13),—if we set it before us as our great engagement and encouragement to our duty, and are afraid of doing any thing to forfeit God's favour and in care by all means to keep ourselves in his love,—this will not only be a good evidence of our integrity, but will have a great influence upon our perseverance in it. (2.) He governed himself by the word of God as his rule: "I have walked in thy truth, that is, according to thy law, for thy law is truth." Note, Those only may expect the benefit of God's loving-kindness that live up to his truths, and his laws that are grounded upon them. Some understand it of his conforming himself to God's example in truth and faithfulness, as well as in goodness and loving-kindness. Those certainly walk well that are followers of God as dear children.

2. He had no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, nor with the workers of those works, v. 4, 5. By this it appeared he was truly loyal to his prince that he never associated with those that were disaffected to his government, with any of those sons of Belial that despised him, 1 Sam. x. 27. He was in none of their cabals, nor joined with them in any of their intrigues; he cursed not the king, no, not in his heart. And this also was an evidence of his faithfulness to his God, that he never associated with those who he had any reason to think were disaffected to religion, or were open enemies, or false friends, to its interests. Note, Great care to avoid bad company is both a good evidence of our integrity and a good means to preserve us in it. Now observe here, (1.) That this part of his protestation looks both backward upon the care he had hitherto taken in this matter, and forward upon the care he would still take: "I have not sat with them, and I will not go in with them." Note, Our good practices hitherto are then evidence of our integrity when they are accompanied with resolutions, in God's strength, to persevere in them to the end, and not to draw back; and our good resolutions for the future we may then take the comfort of when they are the continuation of our good practices hitherto. (2.) That David shunned the company, not only of wicked persons, but of vain persons, that were wholly addicted to mirth and gaiety and had nothing solid or serious in them. The company of such may perhaps be the more pernicious of the two to a good man because he will not be so ready to stand upon his guard against the contagion of vanity as against that of downright wickedness. (3.) That the company of dissemblers is as dangerous company as any, and as much to be shunned, in prudence as well as piety. Evil-doers pretend friendship to those whom they would decoy into their snares, but they dissemble. When they speak fair, believe them not. (4.) Though sometimes he could not avoid being in the company of bad people, yet he would not go in with them, he would not choose such for his companions nor seek an opportunity of acquaintance and converse with them. He might fall in with them, but he would not, by appointment and assignation, go in with them. Or, if he happened to be with them, he would not sit with them, he would not continue with them; he would be in their company no longer than his business made it necessary: he would not concur with them, not say as they said, nor do as they did, as those that sit in the seat of the scornful, Ps. i. 1. He would not sit in counsel with them upon ways and means to do mischief, nor sit in judgment with them to condemn the generation of the righteous. (5.) We must not only in our practice avoid bad company, but in our principles and affections we must have an aversion to it. David here says, not only "I have shunned it," but, "I have hated it," Ps. cxxxix. 21. (6.) The congregation of evil-doers, the club, the confederacy of them, is in a special manner hateful to good people. I have hated ecclesiam malignantium—the church of the malignant; so the vulgar Latin reads its. As good men, in concert, make one another better, and are enabled to do so much the more good, so bad men, in combination, make one another worse, and do so much the more mischief. In all this David was a type of Christ, who, though he received sinners and ate with them, to instruct them and do them good, yet, otherwise, was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, particularly from the Pharisees, those dissemblers. He was also an example to Christians, when they join themselves to Christ, to save themselves from this untoward generation, Acts ii. 40.

Delight in Divine Ordinances.

6 I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O Lord : 7 That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works. 8 Lord , I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth. 9 Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men: 10 In whose hands is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes. 11 But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity: redeem me, and be merciful unto me. 12 My foot standeth in an even place: in the congregations will I bless the Lord .

In these verses,

I. David mentions, as further evidence of his integrity, the sincere affection he had to the ordinances of God, the constant care he took about them, and the pleasure he took in them. Hypocrites and dissemblers may indeed be found attending on God's ordinances, as the proud Pharisee went up to the temple to pray with the penitent publican; but it is a good sign of sincerity if we attend upon them as David here tells us he did, v. 6-8.

1. He was very careful and conscientious in his preparation for holy ordinances: I will wash my hands in innocency. He not only refrained from the society of sinners, but kept himself clean from the pollutions of sin, and this with an eye to the place he had among those that compassed God's altar. "I will wash, and so will I compass the altar, knowing that otherwise I shall not be welcome." This is like that (1 Cor. xi. 28), Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat, so prepared. This denotes, (1.) Habitual preparation: "I will wash my hands in innocency; I will carefully watch against all sin, and keep my conscience pure from those dead works which defile it and forbid my drawing nigh to God." See Ps. xxiv. 3, 4. (2.) Actual preparation. It alludes to the ceremony of the priests' washing when they went in to minister, Exod. xxx. 20, 21. Though David was no priest, yet, as every worshipper ought, he would look to the substance of that which the priests were enjoined the shadow of. In our preparation for solemn ordinances we must not only be able to clear ourselves from the charge of reigning infidelity or hypocrisy, and to protest our innocency of that (which was signified by washing the hands, Deut. xxi. 6), but we must take pains to cleanse ourselves from the spots of remaining iniquity by renewing our repentance, and making fresh application of the blood of Christ to our consciences for the purifying and pacifying of them. He that is washed (that is, in a justified state) has need thus to wash his feet (John xiii. 10), to wash his hands, to wash them in innocency; he that is penitent is pene innocens—almost innocent; and he that is pardoned is so far innocent that his sins shall not be mentioned against him.

2. He was very diligent and serious in his attendance upon them: I will compass thy altar, alluding to the custom of the priests, who, while the sacrifice was in offering, walked round the altar, and probably the offerers likewise did so at some distance, denoting a diligent regard to what was done and a dutiful attendance in the service. "I will compass it; I will be among the crowds that do compass it, among the thickest of them." David, a man of honour, a man of business, a man of war, thought it not below him to attend with the multitude on God's altars and could find time for that attendance. Note, (1.) All God's people will be sure to wait on God's altar, in obedience to his commands and in pursuance of his favour. Christ is our altar, not as the altar in the Jewish church, which was fed by them, but an altar that we eat of and live upon, Heb. xiii. 10. (2.) It is a pleasant sight to see God's altar compassed and to see ourselves among those that compass it.

3. In all his attendance on God's ordinances he aimed at the glory of God and was much in the thankful praise and adoration of him. He had an eye to the place of worship as the place where God's honor dwelt (v. 8), and therefore made it his business there to honour God and to give him the glory due to his name, to publish with the voice of thanksgiving all God's wondrous works. God's gracious works, which call for thanksgiving, are all wondrous works, which call for our admiration. We ought to publish them, and tell of them, for his glory, and the excitement of others to praise him; and we ought to do it with the voice of thanksgiving, as those that are sensible of our obligations, by all ways possible, to acknowledge with gratitude the favours we have received from God.

4. He did this with delight and from a principle of true affection to God and his institutions. Touching this he appeals to God: "Lord, thou knowest how dearly I have loved the habitation of thy house (v. 8), the tabernacle where thou art pleased to manifest thy residence among thy people and receive their homage, the place where thy honour dwells." David was sometimes forced by persecution into the countries of idolaters and was hindered from attending God's altars, which perhaps his persecutors, that laid him under that restraint, did themselves upbraid him with as his crime. See 1 Sam. xx. 27. "But, Lord," says he, "though I cannot come to the habitation of thy house, I love it; my heart is there, and it is my greatest trouble that I am not there." Note, All that truly love God truly love the ordinances of God, and therefore love them because in them he manifests his honour and they have an opportunity of honoring him. Our Lord Jesus loved his Father's honour, and made it his business to glorify him; he loved the habitation of his house, his church among men, loved it and gave himself for it, that he might build and consecrate it. Those who love communion with God, and delight in approaching him, find it to be a constant pleasure, a comfortable evidence of their integrity, and a comfortable earnest of their endless felicity.

II. David, having given proofs of his integrity, earnestly prays, with a humble confidence towards God (such as those have whose hearts condemn them not), that he might not fall under the doom of the wicked (v. 9, 10). Gather not my soul with sinners, Here, 1. David describes these sinners, whom he looked upon to be in a miserable condition, so miserable that he could not wish the worst enemy he had in the world to be in a worse. "They are bloody men, that thirst after blood and lie under a great deal of the guilt of blood. They do mischief, and mischief is always in their hands. Though they get by their wickedness (for their right hand is full of bribes which they have taken to pervert justice), yet that will make their case never the better; for what is a man profited if he gain the world and lose his soul?" 2. He dread having his lot with them. He never loved them, nor associated with them, in this world, and therefore could in faith pray that he might not have his lot with them in the other world. Our souls must shortly be gathered, to return to God that gave them and will call for them again. See Job xxxiv. 14. It concerns us to consider whether our souls will then be gathered with saints or with sinners, whether bound in the bundle of life with the Lord for ever, as the souls of the faithful are (1 Sam. xxv. 29), or bound in the bundle of tares for the fire, Matt. xiii. 30. Death gathers us to our people, to those that are our people while we live, whom we choose to associate with, and with whom we cast in our lot, to those death will gather us, and with them we must take our lot, to eternity. Balaam desired to die the death of the righteous; David dreaded dying the death of the wicked; so that both sides were of that mind, which if we be of, and will live up to it, we are happy for ever. Those that will not be companions with sinners in their mirth, nor eat of their dainties, may in faith pray not to be companions with them in their misery, nor to drink of their cup, their cup of trembling.

III. David, with a holy humble confidence, commits himself to the grace of God, v. 11, 12. 1. He promises that by the grace of God he would persevere in his duty: "As for me, whatever others do, I will walk in my integrity." Note, When the testimony of our consciences for us that we have walked in our integrity is comfortable to us this should confirm our resolutions to continue therein. 2. He prays for the divine grace both to enable him to do so and to give him the comfort of it: "Redeem me out of the hands of my enemies, and be merciful to me, living and dying." Be we ever so confident of our integrity, yet still we must rely upon God's mercy and the great redemption Christ has wrought out, and pray for the benefit of them. 3. He pleases himself with his steadiness: "My foot stands in an even place, where I shall not stumble and whence I shall not fall." This he speaks as one that found his resolutions fixed for God and godliness, not to be shaken by the temptations of the world, and his comforts firm in God and his grace, not to be disturbed by the crosses and troubles of the world. 4. He promises himself that he should yet have occasion to praise the Lord, that he should be furnished with matter for praise, that he should have a heart for praises, and that, though he was now perhaps banished from public ordinances, yet he should again have an opportunity of blessing God in the congregation of his people. Those that hate the congregation of evil-doers shall be joined to the congregation of the righteous and join with them in praising God; and it is pleasant doing that in good company; the more the better; it is the more like heaven.

PSAL. XXVI.

A Psalme of David.

IVdge me, Iehovah, for I walke in my perfection, and doe trust in Iehovah I shall not stagger. Prove me, Iehovah, and tempt mee: trie my reines and my heart. For thy mercie is before mine eyes, and I walk in thy truth. I doe not sit with mortall men of false vanity, and with the hidden I enter not. I hate the Church of evill doers, and with the wicked I sit not. I will wash my hands with cleannesse, and compasse thine altar, Iehovah. To cause to heare with voice of confession, and to tell all thy marvellous workes. Iehovah, I love the mansion of thy house, and the place of the habitation of thy glory. Gather not my soule with sinners, and my life with men of blouds. In whose hands is a mischievous purpose, & their right hand is full of bribes. And I doe walke in my perfection, redeeme thou me, and be gracious to me. My foot standeth in righteousnesse, in the Churches I will blesse Iehovah.

Annotations. IN my perfection] or, integritie, simplicitie: and that is, when a man meaneth not, nor witteth of any evill, 2 Sam. 15. 11. Such a walker walketh confidently, and blessed shall be his children after him, Prov. 10. 9. and 20. 7. in Iehovah] Chaldee, in the word of the Lord. Vers. 2. try my reines] examine as in the fire my inmost affections. Thus Iob also offered himselfe to triall, Iob. 31. 6. Vers. 3. I walke] to wit, continually, (as the forme of this word importeth,) or converse. The Greeke saith, I have pleased: so to walke with God, is to please God, Heb. 11. 5. Vers. 4. men of false vanitie] that is, vaine mortall men, or false persons, Iob 11. 11. So Ieremie saith, he sate not in the secret assemblie of mockers, Ier. 15. 17. the hidden] that is, hypocrites, dissemblers, secret evill doers: as the Chaldee saith, with them that hide themselves to doe evill. I enter not] or come not, that is, have no company, or conversation. So the word is also used, Ios 23. 7. Vers. 5. church of evill doers] the malignant church; or congregation. Vers. 6. my hands with cleannesse] or palms in innocency. He hath respect to the washing which God appointed for such as came to his altar, Exod. 40 32. Hereupon we are willed to lift up pure hands when we pray unto God, 1 Tim. 2. 8. See also Esai. 1. 15, 16. Vers. 7. To cause to heare] that is, to sound forth, or proclaime so as may be heard. So Psal. 66. 8. and 106. 2. And in 1 Chron. 15. 16. David appointed Levites with instruments, to cause to heare, or to resound, lifting up the voice with joy. Vers. 8. mansion] or habitation. This name is given to the tabernacle which Moses made, and God dwelt in, 1 Sā 2. 29. 32. & afterward to Solomons temple, 2 Chron. 36. 15. And heaven it selfe is also thus called, Deut. 26. 15. where there are many mansions, Ioh. 14. 2. of the habitation] or the habitacle, the tabernacle. The tent which Moses made, was thus called, Exod. 26. 1. 6. and Solomons house, 2 Chron. 29. 6. In Exod. 40. 34, 35. it is shewed, how Gods glory filled that tabernacle, when he first tooke possession of it; whereupon it is here called the habitacle of his glory (or honour:) and elsewhere, the habitacle of the Lord, Levit. 17. 4. and of his name, Psal. 74. 7. Vers. 9 Gather not my soule] Gathering is used for taking away, as Ier. 16. 5. Esa. 4. 1. and so for death, Esa. 57. 1. 1 Sam. 15. 6. Ezek. 34. 29. and sometime is expressed, to whom they are gathered; as, to their fathers, to their people, to the grave, 2 King. 22. 20. Num. 20. 24. 26. and what is gathered, the soule, as here; or the ghost, the spirit, as Psal. 104. 29. So David here desireth that God would not take away his life among sinners, that is, with such as for their crimes deserve to die: as 1 King. 1. 21. Contrariwise, gathering is sometime used for gracious receiving or succouring, as Psal. 27. 10. men of blouds] bloud-guiltie persons. See Psal. 5. 7. The Chaldee expoundeth it, with men that shed innocent bloud. Vers. 10. a mischievous purpose] craftily devised evill. The Chaldee translateth it, counsell of sinne; the Greeke, iniquities. See Psal. 10. 2. Sometime this word is generally used for any abominable evill, Levit. 18. 17. and 19. 29. and 20. 14. full of bribes] and consequently, of injustice; for bribes cause justice to be perverted, Deut. 16. 19. Contrariwise, Gods right hand is full of justice, Psal. 48. 11. Vers. 12. in righteousnesse] or, in a right, even and plaine place, as the word signifieth, Deut. 3. 10. Ier. 21. 13. the Apostle expresseth the word by righteousnesse, Heb. 1. 8. from Ps. 45. 7. it is opposed to crookednesse, Esa. 40. 4. See also Ps. 27. 11. in the churches] or cōgregations, assemblies, church-meetings, called in Greeke ecclesiais; and so in the new testament, 1 Cor. 14. 34. So also Psal. 68. 27. The Chaldee translateth, the congregation of just men.

PSAL. XXVI.

VErſ. 1. Judge me, O Lord] i.e. Judge betwixt me and mine enemies; not betwixt me and thee, as R. David expoundeth it; for then I am ſure to bee found faulty.

For I have walked in mine integrity] viz. Toward Saul, whatever his pickthank Courtiers ſuggeſt againſt me; as Pſal. 7. which is much like this, and made as it may ſeem about the ſame time as this, viz. about the beginning of Sauls perſecution raiſed againſt David, 1 Sam. 22.7. &c. who thereupon appealeth here to Gods juſt Judgment, and ſtands upon his Juſtification, as holding faſt faith and a good conſcience,

Therefore I ſhall not ſlide] Or, not farre; I ſhall not be greatly moved, Pſal. 62.2. Moved I may be, but not removed; ſhaken, but not ſhivered; thruſt at, but not thrown down, &c. becauſe bottomed and built upon the rock of Ages, Iſa. 26.4, 2 Cor. 4.8.

Verſ. 2. Examine me O Lord, and prove me] It muſt needs be a good Conſcience that thus boldly offereth it ſelf to Gods trial; ſo Job 31.6.

Try my reins and my heart] i.e. Mine affections and thoughts; for theſe are ſibi mutuò cauſa. Whilſt I muſed, the fire kindled, Pſal. 39. David was neither ambitious nor factious, as his adverſaries repreſented him.

Verſ. 3. For thy loving kindneſs is before mine eyes] And that's a ſtrong tye upon my Conſcience. The cords of love are the cords of a man, Hoſ. 11.4. To ſin againſt Mercy is to ſin againſt Humanity, it is no leſs than beſtial, than devilliſh. When therefore I am tempted to recompence evil for evil, thy loving kindneſs comes before me, and reigneth me in.

And I have walked in thy truth] i.e. according to thy Word: I have led a Bible-converſation, though ſollicited to do otherwiſe by the Courtiers, and Politicians, with that prophane Proverb of their [non-Latin text not transcribed], comply with the times,Theog. and be not ſo ſtraight-laced: Religioſum eportet eſſe, ſed non Religentem.

Verſ. 4. I have not ſate with vain perſons] who are voyd of Gods holy fear, but filled with all unrighteouſneſs, wickedneſs, covetouſneſs, maliciouſneſs, &c. Rom. 3.29. Courtiers are ſuch for moſt part, and David never delighted in ſuch company, to ſit with them, eſpecially when they were acting miſchief; which whiles Gromwell did at the condemnation of Lambert Martyr, and Sir John Cheek, at other ſuch like meetings, they were caſt upon no ſmall ſnares and inconveniences. See Jer. 15.17.

Neither will I go in with diſſemblers] Heb. cloſe workers of iniquity,Qui ſecreto malè agunt, Chald. ſecret and ſly Sirs, ſuch as hide themſelves to do evil, as the Chaldee hath it, and can carry their wickedneſs cleanly and cloſely, ſo as that the World ſhall be little the wiſer, Verſatiles & verſutili, multiplices, Protei; ſuch as can ſerve the times, and ſhift their ſails to the ſitting of every Wind, Machiavellians, Ahitophels, Jonadabs, 2 Sam. 13.3. Theſe mens wiſdom may ſerve them, as the Oſtriches wings, to make them out-run others upon earth, though it be into Hell-mouth, but help them never a whit toward Heaven; David therefore would have nothing to do with them, he would neither enter, walk, nor ſit with any ſuch (Confer Pſal. 1.1.) they ſhould not ſprinkle him with their Court-holy-water.

Verſ. 5. I have hated the Congregation of evil-doers] The Church Malignant, whoſe lives are a Mystery of iniquity, as Joſephus ſaith of Antipater; qui emnia turbant & miſcent, tantum ut ipſi croſsere poſſint, as Ariſtophanes ſaith of Cleon; care not whom they ruine, ſo they may raiſe themſelves, nor what miſchief they work to others, ſo they may drive on their own ſinful deſigns. Luther ſaid of the Monks in Germany, that they were ſo bad, tam deſperate malitiae, ut nihil cogitent quod non idem patrare auſint, that they would ſtick at no villany whatſoever. David held it a hell to be in company with ſuch incarnate devils. It was once the prayer of a good Gentlewoman when ſhe was to dye, being in much trouble of Conſcience, O Lord, let me not go to Hell where the wicked are, for Lord, thou knoweſt I never loved their company here.

And will not ſit with the wicked] But hate the very garment ſpotted by the fleſh, Jude 2, 3. that is, a voyd evil company, ſaith Mr. Perkins, as Levit. 15.4. ſo Deut. 22.12. It is not ſafe coming near ſtinking Catrion, except one have the wind of it. Sin is as catching as the plague.

Verſ. 6. I will waſh mine hands in innocency] As Exod. 40.32. So 1 Tim. 2.8.Sic Egyptii ſacerdotes apud Herod in Euterpe, tertio quo que die corpus eradunt, &c. See Deut. 21.6. Iſa. 1.15. Iam. 5.8. If in our addreſſes to God we cannot waſh our hands in innocency, yet we muſt waſh them in tears; Quem pocnitet peccaſſe, penè eſt innocens, ſaith Soneca; Penitency is well-nigh as good as innocency; but one way or other be ſure to come clean when you come to Gods Altar, when you draw nigh to him in holy duties. We waſh our hands every day, and often, but when we are to ſit with ſome great perſon, we ſcoure them with balls; ſo here, we muſt be always holy, but eſpecially when we preſent our ſelves to the holy eyes of our Creator; And hereby David differenceth himſelf from the wicked in the uſe of Ordinances, wherein they were as forward as the beſt (Doeg may ſet his foot as farre into the Sanctuary as David, and cry, the Temple of the Lord, &c.) but cared not to come clear thereunto; their hands were full of bloud, their hearts full of wickedneſs.

So will I compaſs thine Altar, O Lord] i.e. I will cover it with Sacrifices and Oblations, and perform what is required of me diligently and cheerfully. The people might not touch the Altar, but only ſee afar off what was done there by the Prieſts.D. Am. Howbeit, thoſe that were more zealous among them, to the end that they might have a full view of the ſervices, ſtood not ſtill in one place, but ſtirred up and down on all ſides of the Altar; and ſome ſuch thing David did, when he is ſaid to have danced before the Lord, 2 Sam. 6.14.

Verſ. 7. That I may publiſh] This was the end David propounded to himſelf in all his ſolemn ſervices; that he might ſet up God, and not ſerve himſelf upon God.

And tell of all thy wondrous Works] All Gods Mercies to his are Wonders, if well weighed in their ſeveral circumſtances. But we commonly deal by them, as Solomon did by the braſs of the Temple, it was ſo much that hee weighed it not.

Verſ. 8. Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy houſe] Much more the people, and the Ordinances there, but moſt of all the Lord himſelf of that houſe (as if a man love the School-maſter for his Childes ſake, he loveth his Childe much more) and hence it is that I ſo hate the Society of the ungodly; For what communion hath Chriſt with Belial? The word rendred habitation, ſome derive from a word that ſignifieth the eye, and therefore render it ſight, or beauty; the Seventy [non-Latin text not transcribed] comlineſs. The Proteſtants at Lions in France called their publick meeting-place Paradiſe.

And the place where thine honour dwelleth] i.e. Where thou thy ſelf dwelleſt, or thine Ark, which is called Gods glory, 1 Sam. 4.21. Pſal. 78.61. yea Gods ſelf, Pſal. 132.5. and Gods face, Pſal. 105.4.

Verſ. 9. Gather not my ſoul with ſinners] I have loved thy Houſe, which ſinners never delighted in; therefore gather not my ſoul with ſinners; ſo the Syriack ſenſeth it. Let me not dye the death of Sinners, for I never cared for their company; ſo the Rabbines. See the Note on verſ. 5. Let me not ſhare with them in puniſhment, for I could never abide their practice. Balaam would dye the death of the righteous, but he liked not of their life. Euchrites would be Craeſus vivens, & Socrates mortuus. Sir Walter Rawleigh would live a Papiſt (there being no Religion like that for Licentious liberty, and laſciviouſneſs) but dye a Proteſtant. We have ſome that would gladly dance with the Devil all day, and then ſup with Chriſt at night; live all their lives long in Dalilaes lap, and then go to Abrahams boſome when they dye. But this cannot be, as David well underſtood; and therefore both eſchewed the life of a wicked perſon, and deprecated his death; Gather not, or take not away, &c. The righteous is taken away (Heb. gathered, Iſa. 57.1. as men gather Flowers and candy them, preſerve them) with ſuch to be gathered, David would hold it an happineſs, but not with ſinners, with ſanguinaries; for ſuch are gathered but as houſe-duſt, to be caſt out of doors.

Verſ. 10. In whoſe hands is miſchief] Wicked contrivance. Here we have the true portracture of a corrupt Courtier, ſuch as Sauls were.

Verſ. 11. But as for me, I will walk] Whatever others do, their example ſhall be no rule to me to deviate. See my Righteous mans recompence, D. 1.

Redeem me, &c.] For I am likely to ſuffer deeply, for my ſingularity.

Verſ. 12. My foot ſtandeth in an even place] i.e. Mine affections are in an equal tenour. A good man is [non-Latin text not transcribed] the ſcales of his minde neither riſe up toward the beam through their own lightneſs, or their over-weening opinion of proſperity; nor are too much depreſſed with any load of ſorrow, but hanging equal and unmoved between both, give him liberty in all occurrences to enjoy himſelf.

I will bleſs the Lord] For performance of promiſes; chiefly in that great Panegyris, Heb. 12.

Judge me, O Jehovah. A solemn appeal to the just tribunal of the heart searching God, warranted by the circumstances of the writer, so far as regarded the particular offences with which he was wrongly charged. Worried and worn out by the injustice of men, the innocent spirit flies from its false accusers to the throne of Eternal Right. He had need have a clear case who dares to carry his suit into the King's Bench of heaven. Such an appeal as this is not to be rashly made on any occasion; and as to the whole of our walk and conversation, it should never be made at all, except as we are justified in Christ Jesus: a far more fitting prayer for a sinful mortal is the petition, "Enter not into judgment with thy servant." For I have walked in mine integrity. He held integrity as his principle, and walked in it as his practice. David had not used any traitorous or unrighteous means to gain the crown, or to keep it; he was conscious of having been guided by the noblest principles of honour in all his actions with regard to Saul and his family. What a comfort it is to have the approbation of one's own conscience! If there be peace within the soul, the blustering storms of slander which howl around us are of little consideration. When the little bird in my bosom sings a merry song, it is no matter to me if a thousand owls hoot at me from without. I have trusted also in the Lord. Faith is the root and sap of integrity. He who leans upon the Lord is sure to walk in righteousness. David knew that God's covenant had given him the crown, and therefore he took no indirect or unlawful means to secure it; he would not slay his enemy in the cave, nor suffer his men at arms to smite him when he slept unguarded on the plain. Faith will work hard for the Lord, and in the Lord's way, but she refuses so much as to lift a finger to fulfil the devices of unrighteous cunning. Rebecca acted out a great falsehood in order to fulfil the Lord's decree in favour of Jacob —this was unbelief; but Abraham left the Lord to fulfil his own purposes, and took the knife to slay his son —this was faith. Faith trusts God to accomplish his own decrees. Why should I steal when God has promised to supply my need? Why should I avenge myself when I know that the Lord has espoused my cause? Confidence in God is a most effectual security against sin. Therefore I shall not slide. Slippery as the way is, so that I walk like a man upon ice, yet faith keeps my heels from tripping, and will continue to do so. The doubtful ways of policy are sure sooner or later to give a fall to those who run therein, but the ways of honesty, though often rough, are always safe. We cannot trust in God if we walk crookedly; but straight paths and simple faith bring the pilgrim happily to his journey's end.

There are three modes of trial here challenged, which are said in the original to refer to trial by touch, trial by smell, and trial by fire. The psalmist was so clear from the charge laid against him, that he submitted himself unconditionally to any form of examination which the Lord might see fit to employ. Examine me, O Lord. Look me through and through; make a minute survey; put me to the question, cross examine my evidence. And prove me. Put me again to trial; and see if I would follow such wicked designs as my enemies impute to me. Try my reins and my heart. Assay me as metals are assayed in the furnace, and do this to my most secret parts, where my affections hold their court; see, O God, whether or no I love murder, and treason, and deceit. All this is a very bold appeal, and made by a man like David, who feared the Lord exceedingly, it manifests a most solemn and complete conviction of innocence. The expressions here used should teach us the thoroughness of the divine judgment, and the necessity of being in all things profoundly sincere, lest we be found wanting at the last. Our enemies are severe with us with the severity of spite, and this a brave man endures without fear; but God's severity is that of unswerving right. Who shall stand against such a trial? The sweet singer says "Who can stand before his cold?" and we may well enquire, "Who can stand before the heat of his justice?"

For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes. An object of memory and a ground of hope. A sense of mercy received sets a fair prospect before the faithful mind in its gloomiest condition, for it yields visions of mercies yet to come, visions not visionary but real. Dwell, dear reader, upon that celestial word lovingkindness. It has a heavenly savour. Is it not an unmatchable word, unexcelled, unrivalled? The goodness of the Lord to us should be before our eyes as a motive actuating our conduct; we are not under the bondage of the law, but we are under the sweet constraints of grace, which are far more mighty, although far more gentle. Men sin with the law before their eyes, but divine love, when clearly seen, sanctifies the conversation. If we were not so forgetful of the way of mercy in which God walks toward us, we should be more careful to walk in the ways of obedience toward him. And I have walked in thy truth. The psalmist was preserved from sin by his assurance of the truthfulness of God's promise, which truth he endeavoured to imitate as well as to believe. Observe from this verse that an experience of divine love will show itself in a practical following of divine truth; those who neglect either the doctrinal or practical parts of truth must not wonder if they lose the experimental enjoyment of it. Some talk of truth, it is better to walk in it. Some vow to do well in future, but their resolutions come to nothing; only the regenerate man can say "I have walked in thy truth."

Verses 4-5. So far from being himself an open offender against the laws of God, the psalmist had not even associated with the lovers of evil. He had kept aloof from the men of Belial. A man is known by his company, and if we have kept ourselves apart from the wicked, it will always be evidence in our favour should our character be impugned. He who was never in the parish is not likely to have stolen the corn. He who never went to sea is clearly not the man who scuttled the ship.

I have not sat with vain persons. True citizens have no dealings with traitors. David had no seat in the parliament of triflers. They were not his boon companions at feasts, nor his advisers in council, nor his associates in conversation. We must needs see, and speak, and trade, with men of the world, but we must on no account take our rest and solace in their empty society. Not only the profane, but the vain are to be shunned by us. All those who live for this life only are vain, chaffy, frothy men, quite unworthy of a Christian's friendship. Moreover as this vanity is often allied with falsehood, it is well to save ourselves altogether from this untoward generation, lest we should be led from bad to worse and from tolerating the vain should come to admire the wicked. Neither will I go in with dissemblers. Since I know that hypocritical piety is double iniquity, I will cease all acquaintance with pretenders. If I must need walk the same street, I will not enter the same door and spend my time in their society. The congregation of the hypocrites is not one with which we should cultivate communion; their ultimate rendezvous will be the lowest pit of hell, let us drop their acquaintance now! for we shall not desire it soon. They hang their beads around their necks and carry the devil in their hearts. This clause is in the future tense, to indicate that the writer felt no desire to begin an acquaintance with the characters whom up till then he had shunned. We must maintain the separated path with more and more circumspection as we see the great redemption day approaching. Those who would be transfigured with Jesus, must not be disfigured by conformity to the world. The resolution of the psalmist suggests, that even among professed followers of truth we must make distinctions, for as there are vain persons out of the church, so there are dissemblers in it and both are to be shunned with scrupulous decision.

I have hated the congregation of evil doers. A severe sentence, but not too severe. A man who does not hate evil terribly, does not love good heartily. Men, as men, we must always love, for they are our neighbours, and therefore to be loved as ourselves; but evil doers, as such, are traitors to the Great King, and no loyal subject can love traitors. What God hates we must hate. The congregation or assembly of evil doers, signifies violent men in alliance and conclave for the overthrow of the innocent; such synagogues of Satan are to be held in abhorrence. What a sad reflection it is that there should be a congregation of evil doers as well as a congregation of the upright, a church of Satan as well as a church of God; a seed of the serpent as well as a seed of the woman; an old Babylon as well as a new Jerusalem: a great whore sitting upon many waters, to be judged in wrath, as well as a chaste bride of the Lamb to be crowned at his coming. And will not sit with the wicked. Saints have a seat at another table, and will never leave the King's dainties for the husks of the swine trough. Better to sit with the blind, and the halt, and the lame, at the table of mercy, than with the wicked in their feasts of ungodliness, yea, better to sit on Job's dunghill than on Pharaoh's throne. Let each reader see well to his company, for such as we keep in this world, we are likely to keep in the next.

I will wash mine hands in innocency. He would publicly avow himself to be altogether clear of the accusations laid against him, and if any fault in other matters could be truthfully alleged against him, he would for the future abstain from it. The washing of the hands is a significant action to set forth our having no connection with a deed, as we still say, "I wash my hands of the whole business." As to perfect innocence, David does not here claim it, but he avows his innocence of the crimes whereof he was slanderously accused; there is, however, a sense in which we may be washed in absolute innocency, for the atoning blood makes us clean every whit. We ought never to rest satisfied short of a full persuasion of our complete cleansing by Jesus' precious blood. So will I compass thine altar, O Lord. Priests unto God must take great care to be personally cleansed; the brazen laver was as needful as the golden altar; God's worship requires us to be holy in life. He who is unjust to man cannot be acceptably religious towards God. We must not bring our thank offerings with hands defiled with guilt. To love justice and purity is far more acceptable to God, than ten thousands of the fat of fed beasts. We see from this verse that holy minds delight in the worship of the Lord, and find their sweetest solace at his altar; and that it is their deepest concern never to enter upon any course of action which would unfit them for the most sacred communion with God. Our eye must be upon the altar which sanctifies both the giver and the gift, yet we must never draw from the atoning sacrifice an excuse for sin, but rather find in it a most convincing argument for holiness.

That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving. David was so far instructed that he does not mention the typical offering, but discerns the spiritual offering which was intended thereby, not the groans of bullocks, but songs of gratitude the spiritual worshipper presents. To sound abroad the worthy praises of the God of all grace should be the everyday business of a pardoned sinner. Let men slander us as they will, let us not defraud the Lord of his praises; let dogs bark, but let us like the moon shine on. And tell of all thy wondrous works. God's people should not be tongue tied. The wonders of divine grace are enough to make the tongue of the dumb sing. God's works of love are wondrous if we consider the unworthiness of their objects, the costliness of their method, and the glory of their result. And as men find great pleasure in discoursing upon things remarkable and astonishing, so the saints rejoice to tell of the great things which the Lord hath done for them.

Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house. Into the abodes of sin he would not enter, but the house of God he had long loved, and loved it still. We were sad children if we did not love our Father's dwelling place. Though we own no sacred buildings, yet the church of the living God is the house of God, and true Christians delight in her ordinances, services, and assemblies. O that all our days were Sabbaths! And the place where thine honour dwelleth. In his church where God is had in honour at all times, where he reveals himself in the glory of his grace, and is proclaimed by his people as the Lord of all. We come not together as the Lord's people to honour the preacher, but to give glory to God; such an occupation is most pleasant to the saints of the Most High. What are those gatherings where God is not honoured, are they not an offence to his pure and holy eyes, and are they not a sad stumbling block to the people of God? It brings the scalding tear upon our cheek to hear sermons in which the honour of God is so far from being the preacher's object, that one might almost imagine that the preacher worshipped the dignity of manhood, and thought more of it than of the Infinite Majesty of God.

Gather not my soul with sinners. Lord, when, like fruit, I must be gathered, put me not in the same basket with the best of sinners, much less with the worst of them. The company of sinners is so distasteful to us here, that we cannot endure the thought of being bound up in the same bundle with them to all eternity. Our comfort is, that the Great Husbandman discerns the tares from the wheat, and will find a separate place for distinct characters. In the former verses we see that the psalmist kept himself clear of profane persons, and this is to be understood as a reason why he should not be thrust into their company at the last. Let us think of the doom of the wicked, and the prayer of the text will forcibly rise to our lips; meanwhile, as we see the rule of judgment by which like is gathered to its like, we who have passed from death unto life have nothing to fear. Nor my life with bloody men. Our soul sickens to hear them speak; their cruel dispatches, in which they treat the shooting of their fellow men as rare sport, are horrifying to us; Lord, let us not be shut up in the same prison with them; nay, the same paradise with such men would be a hell, if they remained as they are now.

In whose hands is mischief. They have both hands full of it, plotting it and carrying it out. And their right hand, with which they are most dexterous, is full of bribes; like thieves who would steal with impunity, they carry a sop for the dogs of justice. He who gives bribes is every way as guilty as the man who takes them, and in the matter of our parliamentary elections the rich villain who give the bribe is by far the worse. Bribery, in any form or shape, should be as detestable to a Christian as carrion to a dove, or garbage to a lamb. Let those whose dirty hands are fond of bribes remember that neither death nor the devil can be bribed to let them escape their well earned doom.

Here is the lover of godliness entering his personal protest against unrighteous gain. He is a Nonconformist, and is ready to stand alone in his Nonconformity. Like a live fish, he swims against the stream. Trusting in God, the psalmist resolves that the plain way of righteousness shall be his choice, and those who will, may prefer the tortuous paths of violence and deceit. Yet, he is by no means a boaster, or a self righteous vaunter of his own strength, for he cries for redemption and pleads for mercy. Our integrity is not absolute nor inherent, it is a work of grace in us, and is marred by human infirmity; we must, therefore, resort to the redeeming blood and to the throne of mercy, confessing that though we are saints among men, we must still bow as sinners before God.

The song began in the minor, but it has now reached the major key. Saints often sing themselves into happiness. The even place upon which our foot stands is the sure, covenant faithfulness, eternal promise and immutable oath of the Lord of Hosts; there is no fear of falling from this solid basis, or of its being removed from under us. Established in Christ Jesus, by being vitally united to him, we have nothing left to occupy our thoughts but the praises of our God. Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, and when assembled, let us not be slow to contribute our portion of thanksgiving. Each saint is a witness to divine faithfulness, and should be ready with his testimony. As for the slanderers, let them howl outside the door while the children sing within.

Whole Psalm. This Psalm is coupled on to the foregoing by thoughts and words. At the close of the foregoing the psalmist had prayed for integrity Ps 26:1. Unless this Psalm is regarded as a sequel to the preceding one, it will seem vainglorious; but being combined with the penitential acknowledgments of sin, and with the earnest supplications for pardon and grace, and with the earnest profession of faith that God has heard his prayer, which breathe forth in the foregoing Psalm, it will be seen that the declarations which the psalmist now makes of integrity, are not assertions of human merit, but acknowledgments of divine mercy. As Augustine says, "Non merita mea, sed misericordia tua, ante oculos meos est." Christopher Wordsworth.

Judge me, O Lord; for I have walked in mine integrity. A good cause, a good conscience, and a good deportment, are good grounds of appeal to God. Ingram Cobbin.

Judge me, O Lord. Nothing is so pleasing to him that is upright as to know that God knoweth he is so. As it is a small matter with those who are sincere to be condemned by men, so it is not much with them to be condemned or approved by them; for indeed neither "he that commendeth himself, "as the apostle speaks 2Co 10:18, nor he that is commended by others, "is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth." The testimony, or letters commendatory of all the men in the world will do us no good, unless God give us his also. Joseph Caryl.

Judge me, O Lord. As an instance of appeal to heaven, we quote that mighty preacher of the word, George Whitfield. "However some may account me a mountebank and an enthusiast, one that is only going to make you methodically mad; they may breathe out their invectives against me, yet Christ knows all; he takes notice of it, and I shall leave it to him to plead my cause, for he is a gracious Master. I have already found him so, and am sure he will continue so. Vengeance is his, and he will repay it." George Whitfield, 1714-1770.

"Integrity." (Mh), or (Mymt) is used of whatever is uninjured, or is free from any spot or blemish; and hence we find the term applied to an unblemished animal offering in sacrifice. Le 1:3 3:9. George Phillips.

Mine integrity. There is a force in the possessive pronoun "my, "which must be attended to. The psalmist intimates that he had proceeded in one uniform course, notwithstanding all the devices of his enemies. W. Wilson, D.D.

I have trusted in the Lord. Trust in God is the fountain of "integrity." Whoever places his hope in God need not seek to advance his worldly interests by violating his duty towards his neighbour: he waits for everything from above, and is, at the same time, always determined that he will not be deprived of the favour of his heavenly Father through violating his commandments. E. W. Hengstenberg.

I shall not slide. It is a striking word, as fully expressive of the completeness of God's protection and the security of his upholding hand as the psalmist's language of the integrity of his walk and trust in God. It is not, as in our Prayer book version, "I shall not fall, "but it is, "I shall not even slide; "not even make a false step or stumble. Barton Bouchier.

The psalmist uses three words, examine, prove, try. These words are designed to include all the modes in which the reality of anything is tested; and they imply together that he wished the most thorough investigation to be made; he did not shrink from any test. Albert Barnes.

Examine —prove —try. As gold, by fire, is severed and parted from dross, so singleness of heart and true Christian simplicity is best seen and made most evident in troubles and afflictions. In prosperity every man will seem godly, but afflictions do draw out of the heart whatsoever is there, whether it be good or bad. Robert Cawdray.

Prove me. The work of conscience within us doth prove us. God hath set up a light within us, and when this is enlightened by the Word, then it makes a man's breast full of light. Now a faithful godly man loveth that this should be tender, active, speaking out of God's Word for every duty, and against every sin. You see the quickness of it in David, when it is said, "His heart smote him; "and 1 John 3., "If thy heart condemn thee, God is greater than thy heart." Alas! if thou within thine own self judgest thyself to sin thus and thus, God doth much more. Try thy integrity; art thou willing to have a tender conscience, and an informed conscience? Dost thou love to hear what that speaks out of God's Word? whether peace or duty? this is comfortable. But on the other side, if thou art a man that rebellest against the light of it, wouldst fain put out the sting of it, wouldst be glad to feel no such living thing in thy breast, then thou hast cause to suspect thyself. Oh, it is to be feared that there are many that give themselves to lusts, and carnal pleasures, that so they may put a foggy mist between their conscience and themselves. Others dig into the world, labouring to become senseless, that so there may be an eclipse of this light by the interposition of the earth. Others run to damnable heresies, denying Scriptures, God, heaven, hell; pleading for an universal salvation of all. What are these but refuges of guilty consciences? We must distinguish between our carnal concupiscence, and conscience; between deluded imaginations, and conscience; between an erroneous and scrupulous conscience, and a well grounded and truly informed conscience; and when we have done so, we must follow conscience as far as that follows the Word. Anthony Burgess.

Reins...heart. The "reins, "as the seat of the lower animal passions; the "heart, "as comprising not only the higher affections, but also the will and the conscience. He thus desires to keep nothing back; he will submit himself to the searching flame of the Great Refiner, that all dross of self deception may be purged away. J. J. Stewart Perowne.

The practical effect of divine goodness is seen in this text. As the chief thing communicated from God is the divine nature, whereby we are made to resemble him, so the promises of God set home upon the soul are the means of communication; they are the milk and honey of the Scripture, which do not cherish the old man, but support the new; they are no pillows for sinful sloth, but spurs to holy diligence. The promises of grace animate the soul to duty; and when we thus see the goodness of the Lord, it encourages our subjection to his government. Timothy Cruso.

Verses 3-4. I have walked in thy truth, I have not sat with vain persons. Be as careful as thou canst, that the persons thou choosest for thy companions be such as fear God. The man in the gospel was possessed with the devil, who dwelt among the tombs, and conversed with graves and carcasses. Thou art far from walking after the good Spirit, if thou choosest to converse with open sepulchres, and such as are dead in sins and trespasses. God will not shake the wicked by the hand, as the Vulgate reads Job 8:20, neither must the godly man. David proves the sincerity of his course, by his care to avoid such society: I have walked in thy truth; I have not sat with vain persons.

There is a twofold "truth." 1. Truth of doctrine. Thy law is the truth, free from all dross of corruption and falsehood of error. 2. Truth of affection, or of the inward parts. This may be called "thy truth, "or God's truth, though man be the subject of it, partly because it proceedeth from him, partly because it is so pleasant to him; in which respect a broken heart is called the "sacrifice of God." Ps 51:6. As if he had said, I could not have walked in the power of religion, and in integrity, if I had associated with vile and vain company; I could never have walked in thy precepts if I had "sat with vain persons."

Observe the phrase, "I have not sat with vain persons." 1. Sitting is a posture of choice. It is at a man's liberty, whether he will sit or stand. 2. Sitting is a posture of pleasure. Men sit for their ease, and with delight; therefore, the glorified are said to "sit in heavenly places." Eph 2:6. 3. Sitting is a posture of staying or abiding. 2Ki 5:3. Standing is a posture of going, but sitting of staying. The blessed, who shall forever be with the Lord and his chosen, are mentioned "to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." Mt 8:11. David in neither of these senses durst sit with vain persons. He might, as his occasions required, use their company, but durst not knowingly choose such company. They could not be the object of his election who were not the object of his affection. "I hate the congregation of evil doers, "saith he. As siting is a posture of pleasure, he did not sit with vain persons. He was sometimes amongst them to his sorrow, but not to his solace. They were to him, as the Canaanites to the Israelites, pricks in his eyes, and thorns in his sides. "Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!" Ps 120:5. It caused grief, not gladness, that he was forced to be amongst the profane. George Swinnock.

Verses 3-4. I have walked in thy truth, I have not sat with vain persons. See Psalms on "Ps 26:3" for further information.

I have not sat with vain persons. There is a necessary commerce with men in buying and selling, or as the apostle says, "We must needs go out of the world, "but do not voluntarily choose the company of the wicked. 1Co 5:10. "I have written unto you not to keep company, "etc. 1Co 5:11. Do not be too familiar with them. What do Christ's doves among birds of prey? What do virgins among harlots? The company of the wicked is very defiling, it is like going among them that have the plague. "They were mingled among the heathen and learned their works." If you mingle bright armour with rusty, the bright armour will not brighten the rusty, but the rusty armour will spoil the bright. Pharaoh taught Joseph to swear, but Joseph did not teach Pharaoh to pray. Thomas Watson.

Neither will I go with dissemblers. Chaldee: "I will not go in with those that hide themselves to do evil." Wickedness is not candid, and loves concealment, while truth and righteousness are open, and seek scrutiny. Job 24:13-17 Joh 3:20-21. None will deny that the candid man has far fewer troubles with his own conduct than the tortuous and deceitful. The righteous shun the wicked both for the sin and for the misery that are in their ways. William S. Plumer.

Dissemblers. The hypocrite has much angel without, more devil within. He fries in words, freezes in works; speaks by ells, doth good by inches. He is a stinking dunghill, covered over with snow; a loose hung mill that keeps great clacking, but grinds no grist; a lying hen that cackles when she hath not laid. Thomas Adams.

Dissemblers. Perhaps when the bright sunbeams of an early spring have robed all nature in a smiling garb, you have taken your little baskets, and gone in quest of a bank of sweet smelling modest violets, and you may have found flowers so like them, in form and colour, that you have been deceived, and eagerly grasped you prize; but alas! the sweet odour which should have scented the gale, was found wanting, and betrayed the dog violet. An apt emblem this of those, who, "having the form of godliness, deny the power thereof." 2 Ti 3:5. Mrs. Rogers, in "The Shepherd King."

Verses 4-5. As rotten apples corrupt those sound ones that do touch them and lie close to them, even so the evil manners and bad conditions of the ungodly do infect those that keep them company. Robert Cawdray.

Verses 4-5. "It is difficult (saith a late ingenious writer) even to a miracle to keep God's commandments and evil company too." How suddenly after your soul refreshments in your closet communion have you lost all your heats and spiritual fervencies, which you had in secret, and have instantly cooled by going forth into cold and corrupt air! When a saint hath been in private ravished with the love of God and the joys of heaven, and afterwards meets with company, which neither doth nor can speak one word of such matters, what a damp it is to him! What a quenching, as it were, of the Spirit of God in him! Nay, is not that true which one saith, that "the people of God do generally lose more by worldly men, that are of a blameless conversation before men, than they lose by wicked and profane men"? Lewis Stuckley.

Verses 4-5, 9. He that would not be found among sinners in the other world, must take heed that he do not frequent their company in this. Those whom the constable finds wandering with vagrants, may be sent with them to the house of correction. "Lord, "said a good woman, on her death bed, when in doubt of her salvation, "send me not to hell amongst wicked men, for thou knowest I never loved their company all my life long." David deprecates their future doom upon the like ground, and argues it as a sign of his sincerity: I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked...O gather not my soul with sinner. Lord, I have not loved the wicked so well as to sit with them for a little time, and shall I live with them forever? I have not lain amongst them rotting on the earth; and wilt thou gather my soul with those sticks for the unquenchable fire of hell? Lord, I have been so far from liking, that thou knowest I have loathed the congregation of evil doers. Do not I hate them that hate thee? Yea, I hate them with perfect hatred; and shall thy friends fare as thy foes? I appeal to thy Majesty, that my great comfort is in thy chosen. I rejoice only to be amongst thy children here, and shall I be excluded their company hereafter? "O do not gather my soul with sinners, "for the wine press of thine eternal anger! Marcion, the heretic, seeing Polycarp, wondered that he would not own him. Do you not know me, Polycarp? Yes, saith Polycarp, "Scio te esse primogenitum diaboli; " "I know thee to be the firstborn of the devil, "and so despised him. George Swinnock.

I have hated the congregation of evil doers, etc. The hatred of God's enemies, qua his enemies —"yea, I hate them right sore" so entirely opposed to the indifferentism of the present day, has always been one distinguishing mark of his ancient servants. Witness Phinehas Ps 106:41; "And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore; " Samuel with Agag; Elias with the priests of Baal. And notice the commendation of the angel of Ephesus, "Thou canst not bear them that are evil." Re 2:2. J. M. Neale.

I have hated the congregation of evil doers. We consider them as God's enemies, so we hate them; not their persons, but their vices; for that, as Augustine defines it, is odium perfectum, a perfect hatred. And indeed it is the hatred that God beareth to his enemies; for "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men" Ro 1:18; not against their persons —they are his workmanship, and carry his image in some sort, though much disfigured; but against the unrighteousness and ungodliness of men, by which their persons do stand obnoxious to his displeasure. And thus I find the saints of God have triumphed over the wicked, as Israel over Pharaoh, and the Gileadites over the children of Ammon; not rejoicing in the destruction of God's creatures, but of God's enemies; and wishing with Deborah and Barak, "So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord." This is no more but an applauding of the judgment of God, and a celebration of his justice. Edward Marbury.

I have hated, etc. Consider that there can be no true friendship betwixt a godly and a wicked person; therefore it concerneth thee to be the more wary in thy choice. He that in factions hath an eye to power, in friendship will have an eye to virtue. Friendship, according to the philosopher, is one soul in two bodies. But how can they ever be of one soul that are as different as air and earth, and as contrary as fire and water? All true love is, motus animi ad fruendum Deo propter ipsum; se et proximo propter Deum —a motion of the soul towards the enjoyment of God for himself, and his neighbours for God's sake; so that he can never truly love man who doth not love his Maker. God is the only foundation upon which we can build friendship; therefore such as live without him, cannot love us in him. That building which is loose, without this foundation can never stand long. A wicked man may call that profession he maketh to his brother by the name of love, but heathens can tell us that virtue alone is the hand which can twist the cords of love; that other combinations are but a confederacy, and all other but conjunctions in hypocrisy. George Swinnock.

Wheresoever we perceive any people to worship God truly after his word, there we may be certain the church of Christ to be, unto the which we ought to associate ourselves, and to desire, with the prophet David, to praise God in the midst of this church. But if we behold, through the iniquity of time, congregations to be made with counterfeit religion, otherwise than the word of God doth teach, we ought then, if we be required to be companions thereof, to say again with David, "I have hated the synagogue of the malignant, and will not sit with the wicked." In the Apocalypse, the church of Ephesus is highly commended, because she tried such as said they were apostles and were not in deed, and therefore would not abide the company of them. Further, God commanded his people that they should not seek Bethel, neither enter into Galgala, where idolatry was used, by the mouth of his prophet Amos. John Philpot (Martyr). Burnt at Smithfield, 1555.

How few consider how they harden wicked men by an intimacy with them, whereas withdrawal from them might be a means to make them ashamed! Whilst we are merry and jovial with them, we make them believe their condition is not deplorable, their danger is not great; whereas if we shunned them, as we would a bowed wall, whilst they remain enemies to the Lord, this might do them good, for the startling of them, and rousing of them out of their unhappy security and strong delusions wherein they are held. Lewis Stuckley.

I will wash mine hands in innocency. There are two eminent lavers in the gospel; the first, Christ's bath, a hot bath, lavacrum sanguinis, the laver of Christ's blood; the second, our bath, a cold bath, lavacrum lachrimarum, the laver of repentance. These two mixed together will prove a sovereign composition, wrought first by Christ himself when he sweat water and blood. The first is as that pool of Bethesda into which whoever enters with faith, is healed; the blood of Christ is the true laver of regeneration, a fountain set open for Judah and Jerusalem to wash in. "The blood of Christ purgeth us from all sins." 1Jo 1:7. We account it charity in mothers to feed their children with their own milk: how dear is the love of Christ, that both washes and feeds us with his own blood! No sooner are we born in Christ, but just as our mother's, so Christ's blood is turned into milk, nourishing us to everlasting salvation. What is calamus benjamini, or storax, or a thousand rivers of oil, to make us clean, except the Lord purge and cleanse us? No; it is his blood "that speaks better things than the blood of Abel." "Unto him, therefore, that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests to God and his Father: to him be glory and dominion for ever." Re 1:5-6. But yet it is the second bath, the laver of repentance, that must apply and make the first operative. This bath of Mary Magdalene's repentance, it is a kind of rebaptism, giving strength and effect to the first washing. And it implies a three fold act: first, to bruise our hearts by contrition; secondly, to lay our wounds open by confession to God; thirdly, to wash our hands in innocency, by satisfaction to men...Wash now and wash all; from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot there is nothing in us but wounds and sores; yet above all there is something here in it that David washes his "hands." Indeed it is not enough to come with wet eyes, if we come with foul hands to offer with unwashen hands; the Gentiles would not do it. Contrition and confession to God make not up complete repentance without satisfaction to men. Non remittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum: (Augustine), it is as true as old, and in old father Latimer's English it is "Either there must be restitution, open or secret, or else hell." Whoever repairs not the wrong, rejoiceth in the sin. Pr 2:14. Where there is no satisfaction, Non agitur sed fingitur paenitentia, saith St. Augustine; and those who restore not all, wash not their whole hands, they dip only the tips of their fingers. Extortion, rapine, bribery, these are the sins of the hands (sins so proper to the Jews, that they may well conceive as they do that the devil lies all night on their hands, and that is it makes them so diligent in washing); but as for us Christians, unless these vipers be shaken off our hands, though ye cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, yet if you continue in your pollutions, God regards not your offering any more, nor will he receive it with good will at your hands. Mt 2:13. Isaac Bargrave's Sermon before the House of Commons, 1623.

I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O Lord. If greatness might have privileged this person from impurity, David was a king; if the grace of his soul might have freed him from the soil of sin, he was "a man after God's own heart." But let not great men put too much trust in their greatness; the longer the robe is the more soil in contracts: great power may prove the mother of great damnation. And as for purity, there is a generation that say there's no sin in them, but they deceive themselves; there is no truth in them. Whatever Rome's rusiologyi pretend for the power of nature, and of free will, we wretched sinners are taught to conceive more truly of our own infirmity. Christ's own apostle, stout Thomas, failed in the faith of his resurrection; Peter (whose chair is now the pretended seat of infallibility) denied his Master; David, "a man after God's own heart, "hath need of washing; and who can say, I am pure in the sight of the Lord? Certainly, O Lord, no flesh is righteous in thy sight. No; this is the best ground of Christian felicity, if with David we fall to a sight of our own sins; if with the Publican we strike our own breasts, and not with the Pharisee, cast our eye so much upon other men's faults. Why should we, like tailors, measure all men but ourselves? as if the best of us had not sin enough of his own to think on. See how David calls himself to account for his own sins; "O Lord, I know mine iniquity, and my sin is ever before me." Oh, the powerful effect of Christian devotion, when by the reflective act of the understanding, science is turned into conscience, and our knowledge is but the glass of our imperfection, the glass wherein the sight of our sins sends us presently to God, as it did David here, who makes this account only betwixt God and his own soul, "I, O Lord." First, he takes his rise from humility and the sight of his own sins, and he soars up by the wings of faith to the throne of God's mercy: "I, O Lord." He sees with his own eyes, and not only with the church, or the priest's spectacles; he is his own penitentiary and confessor; here's no intercession by saints, no masses, merits, indulgences, trentals, dirges: all's done betwixt God and him: "I, O Lord." With the eye of humility he looks to himself and his own misery; then with the eye of faith to God and his mercy, and from both these results a third virtue of repentance in the act of preparation, washing the soil of sin in the bath of sorrow: "I will wash mine hands, "etc. Isaac Bargrave.

I will wash mine hands in purity. Referring in these words, to the ordinary use of the sacrifices, he makes a distinction between himself and those who professed to offer the same divine worship, and thrust themselves forward in the services of the sanctuary, as if they alone had the sole right to perform them. As David, therefore, and these hypocrites were one in this respect, that they entered the sanctuary, and surrounded the sacred altar together, he proceeds to show that he was a true worshipper, declaring that he not only diligently attended to the external rites, but came to worship God with unfeigned devotion. It is obvious that he alludes to the solemn rite of washing which was practised under the law. He, accordingly, reproves the gross superstition of hypocrites, who, in seeking only the purification of water, neglected true purification; whereas it was God's design, in the appointment of the outward sign, to put men in mind of their inward pollution, and thus to encourage them to repentance. The outward washing alone, instead of profiting hypocrites, kept them at a greater distance from God. When the psalmist, therefore, says, "I will wash my hands in innocence, "he intimates that they only gather more pollution and filth by their washings. The Hebrew word (Nwyqn) nikkayon, signifies the cleanness of anything, and is figuratively used for innocence. We thus see, that as hypocrites derive no moral purity whatever from their washings, David mocks at the labour with which they vainly toil and torment themselves in such rites. John Calvin.

"I will wash mine hands, "etc. David willing to express his coming with a pure heart to pray to God, doth it by this similitude of a priest: that as a priest washes his hands, and then offers oblation, so had he constantly joined purity and devotion together. Henry Hammond.

In innocency. The very akmt and crown of all our preparation, the purest water we can wash in, is innocency; and innocency is a virtue of the heart as well as of the hand. "Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded." Jas 4:8. I could wish our washing might be like Cyprian's baptising, ad tincturam, even till we were dyed in repentance and the blood of Christ. Let the quantity of thy sins be the measure of thy repentance. First offer thine innocency, then thy sacrifice. It is not enough that you come this day by order, you must come with innocency. God requires the duty of the second table, as well as of the first; he abhors the outward act of piety where he finds no conscience and practice of innocency. Isaac Bargrave.

(first clause). One morning, as Gotthold was pouring water into a basin, he recollected the words of Scripture: I will wash my hands in innocency, a text which shows how diligently the royal prophet had endeavoured to lead a blameless life, and walk habitually in the fear of God. Upon this he mused, and said, Henceforth, my God, every time I pour out water to wash with, I will call to mind that it is my duty to cleanse my hands from wicked actions, my mouth from wicked words, and my heart from wicked lusts and desires, that so I may be enabled to lift holy hands unto thee, and with unspotted lips and heart worship thee, to the best of my ability. What will it profit me to strive after outward purity, if my heart is filthy and abominable in thy sight? Can the food nourish me which I have earned with polluted hands, or seized with violence and injustice, or eaten with insensibility and ingratitude? Ah! no, my God; far from me be food like this. My first care shall be to maintain a blameless walk; my next, when I have thoughtlessly defiled myself, to cleanse and wash away the stain, and remove mine iniquity from thine eyes. "Purge me, O my God, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." Ps 51:7. Christian Scriver (1629-1693), in "Gotthold's Emblems."

I will compass thine altar, O Lord. On the next day after this feast (the Feast of Tabernacles), the people compassed the altar seven times, with palm boughs in their hands, in the remembrance of the overthrow of Jericho...Not only the boughs, but the days of this whole Feast of Tabernacles, were termed Hosannoth, from the usual acclamation of the people whilst they carried the boughs up and down. Thomas Godwyn, B.D. (1587-1643), in "Moses and Aaron."

By the phrase compassing the altar, either he alludes to some Levitical custom of going about the altar, as the priests did in the oblation of their sacrifices; and the people, especially those of them who were more devout and zealous, who possibly moved from place to place, but still within their own court, that they might discern what was done on the several sides of the altar, and so be more affected with it; or rather he implies that he would offer many sacrifices together, which would employ the priests round about the altar. Matthew Poole.

Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, etc. "I have in my congregation, "said a venerable minister of the gospel, "a worthy, aged woman, who has for many years been so deaf as not to distinguish the loudest sound, and yet she is always one of the first in the meeting. On asking the reason of her constant attendance (as it was impossible for her to hear my voice), she answered, `Though I cannot hear you, I come to God's house because I love it, and would be found in his ways; and he gives me many a sweet thought upon the text when it is pointed out to me: another reason is, because there I am in the best company, in the more immediate presence of God, and among his saints, the honourable of the earth. I am not satisfied with serving God in private; it is my duty and privilege to honour him regularly in public.'" What a reproof this is to those who have their hearing, and yet always come to a place of worship late, or not at all! K. Arvine.

Gather not my soul with sinners. Now is the time that people should be in care and concern, that their souls be not gathered with sinners in the other world. In discoursing from this doctrine we shall —1. Consider some things implied in it. 2. Show who are the sinners, that we are to have a horror of our souls being gathered with in the other world. 3. What it is for one's soul to be gathered with sinners in the other world. 4. Consider this care and concern, or show what is implied in this earnest request, "Gather not my soul with sinners" 5. Give the reasons why we should be in such care and concern. 6. Make application. Death is the gathering time, which the psalmist has in view in the text. Ye have a time here that ye call the gathering time, about the term when the servants are going away, wherein ye gather your strayed sheep, that every one may get their own again. Death is God's gathering time wherein he gets the souls belonging to him, and the devil those belonging to him. They did go long together, but then they are parted, and the saints are taken home to the congregation of saints, and sinners to the congregation of sinners. And it concerns us to say, "Gather not my soul with sinners." Whoever be our people here, God's people or the devil's, death will gather our souls to them. It is a horrible thing to be gathered with sinners in the other world. To think of our souls being gathered with them there, may make the hair of one's head stand up. Many now like no gathering like the gathering with sinners; it is the very delight of their hearts, it makes a brave jovial life in their eyes. And it is a pain to them to be gathered with saints, to be detained before the Lord on a Sabbath day. But to be gathered with them in the other world, is a horror to all sorts. 1. The saints have a horror of it, as in the text. To think to be staked down in their company in the other world would be a hell of itself to the godly. David never had such a horror of the society of the diseased, the persecuted, etc., as of sinners. He is content to be gathered with saints of whatever condition; but, "Lord, "say he, "Gather not my soul with sinners." 2. The wicked themselves have a horror of it. Nu 23:10. "Let me die the death of the righteous, "said the wicked Balaam, "and let my last end be like his." Though they would be content to live with them, or be with them in life, their consciences bear witness that they have a horror of being with them in death. They would live with sinners, but they would die with saints. A poor, unreasonable, self condemning thought. Thomas Boston.

Gather not my soul with sinners. Bind me not up in the same bundle with them, like the tares for the fire. Mt 13:30. The contrast to this is seen in the following Ps 27:10, "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up; " literally, will gather me to his fold. Christopher Wordsworth.

Gather not my soul with sinners. The Lord hath a harvest and a gleaning time also, set for cutting down and binding together, in the fellowship of judgments, God's enemies, who have followed the same course of sinning: for here we are given to understand that God will "gather their souls, "and so will let none escape. David Dickson.

Gather not my soul with sinners. After all, it may be objected that this concern seems to be common with saints and sinners. Even a wicked Balaam said, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." Nu 23:10. Take a few differences between them in this matter. 1. It is separation from Christ that makes the saints to have a horror at being gathered with sinners hereafter. Separation from Christ is the main ground of the believer's horror: but if other things were to be right with the sinner in the other world, he would be easy under separation from Christ. 2. The believer has a horror at being gathered with sinners on account of their filthiness; but the thing that makes the sinner concerned is the prospect of punishment. No doubt, a principle of self preservation must make punishment frightful to all; but abstracted from that, the saints have a concern not to be gathered with sinners in the other world, upon account of their unholiness and filthiness. "He who is filthy, let him be filthy still, "is enough to make a saint abhor the lot of sinners in the life to come. 3. The concern of the saints has a mighty influence upon them, to make them study holiness here; but sinners live unholy for all their concern. "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." 1Jo 3:3. What hope? The hope of seeing Christ as he is, and of being perfectly like him, of being separated from sinners. 4. Lastly, the concern of the saints is such, that they do with purpose of heart come out from among sinners more and more in this world; but sinners are not concerned to be separated from sinners here. Balaam wished to die the death of the righteous; but he had no concern to live the life of the righteous, and to be separated from sinners here. James Scot, 1773.

Verses 9-12. David prays that God would not "gather his soul with sinners, whose right hand is full of bribes; "such as, for advantage, would be bribed to sin, to which wicked gang he opposeth himself, Ps 26:11; "But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity; "where he tells us what kept him from being corrupted and enticed, as they were; from God —it was his integrity. A soul walking in its integrity will take bribes neither from men, nor sin itself: and therefore he saith Ps 26:12, "His foot stood in an even place; "or, as some read it, "My foot standeth in righteousness." William Gurnall.

Their right hand is full of bribes. If the great men in Turkey should use their religion of Mahomet to sell, as our patrons commonly sell benefices here (the office of preaching, the office of salvation), it should be taken as an intolerable thing; the Turk would not suffer it in his commonwealth. Patrons be charged to see the office done, and not to seek a lucre and a gain by their patronage. There was a patron in England that had a benefice fallen into his hand, and a good brother of mine came unto him, and brought him up thirty apples in a dish, and gave them to his man to carry them to his master. It is like he gave one to his man for his labour, to make up the gain, and so there was thirty-one. This man cometh to his master, and presented him with the dish of apples, saying, "Sir, such a man hath sent you a dish of fruit, and desireth you to be good unto him for such a benefice." "Tush, tush, "said he, "this is no apple matter, I will none of his apples, I have as good as these (or any he hath) in mine own orchard." The man came to the priest again, and told him what his master said. "Then, "said the priest, "desire him yet to prove one of them for my sake, he shall find them much better than they look for." He cut one of them, and found ten pieces of gold in it. "Marry, "said he, "this is a good apple." The priest standing not far off, hearing what the gentleman said, cried out and answered, "they are all one apples, I warrant you, sir; they grew all on one tree, and have all one taste." "Well, he is a good fellow, let him have it, "said the patron, etc. Get you a graft of this same tree, and I warrant you it shall stand you in better stead than all St. Paul's learning. Hugh Latimer.

Bribes. They that see furthest into the law, and most clearly discern the cause of justice, if they suffer the dust of bribes to be thrown into their sight, their eyes will water and twinkle, and fall at last to blind connivance. It is a wretched thing when justice is made a hackney that may be backed for money, and put on with golden spurs, even to the desired journey's end of injury and iniquity. Far be from our souls this wickedness, that the ear which should be open to complaints should be stopped with the earwax of partiality. Alas! poor truth, that she must now be put to charges of a golden ear pick, or she cannot be heard! Thomas Adams.

What makes all doctrines plain and clear?

About two hundred pounds a year,

And that which was proved true before

Proved false again? Two hundred more. —Samuel Butler (1600-1680), in Hudibras. Part 3. Canto 1.

Verses 12 (first clause). The upright man's foot, is said to stand in an even place; he walks not haltingly and uncomely, as those who go in unequal ways, which are hobbling, and up and down, or those whose feet and legs are not even (as Solomon saith), "The legs of the lame are not equal, "and so cannot stand in an even place, because one is long and the other short; the sincere man's feet are even, and the legs of a length, as I may say; his care alike conscientious to the whole will of God. The hypocrite, like the badger, hath one foot shorter than another; or, like a foundered horse, he doth not stand, as we say, right of all four; one foot at least you shall perceive he favours, loath to put it down. William Gurnall.

On an even place. As a man whose feet are firmly fixed upon even ground is apprehensive of no fall, so the pious worshippers of Jehovah feel no dread lest their adversaries should finally triumph over them. William Walford.

1. Two inseparable companions —faith and holiness.

2. The blessedness of the man who possesses them. He needs not fear the judgment, nor the danger of the way.

3. The only means of procuring them.

(last sentence). The upholding power of trust in God.

Divine examinations. Their variety, severity, searching nature, accuracy, certainty: when to be desired, and when to be dreaded.

Delight for the eyes and safety for the feet; or the good man's sweet contemplation and holy practice; or the heavenly compound of godliness —motive, and motion, enjoying and acting, love and truth, free grace and good works.

Thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes. It might be well to follow David and to keep the lovingkindness of God before our eyes. This should be done in four ways: —1. As a subject of contemplation.

2. As the source of encouragement.

3. As an incitement to praise.

4. As an example for imitation. —William Jay.

Vain persons. Who they are. Why they are to be avoided. What will become of them. Dissemblers. Describe this numerous family. Show what their objects are. The mischief done to believers by their craftiness. The need of shunning them, and their fearful end.

Bad company. Cases of its evil results, excuses for it answered, warnings given, motives urged for relinquishing.

The necessity of personal holiness in order to acceptable worship.

1. The believer's calling —a publisher.

2. The author selected, and the quality of his works. "Thy wondrous works."

3. The mode of advertising —"voice of thanksgiving", "tell", etc.

God's house. Why we love it. What we love in it. How we show our love. How our love will be rewarded.

See "Spurgeon's Sermons, "No. 524. "The Saints' Horror at the Sinners' Hell."

The best men needing redemption and mercy; or the outward walk before men, and the secret walk with God.

Secure standing, honoured position, grateful praise.

Verse 12 (last clause). Congregational Psalmody, and our personal share in it.