superfluous prayer of David; for whereas in charity it may and must be
presumed that David long since had begged pardon for his youthful sins,
that upon his begging God had granted it, that upon his granting God
never revoked it. What need now had David to prefer this petition for
pardon of antiquated sin, time out of mind committed by him, time out of
mind remitted by God? To this objection I shape a fourfold answer.
_First_, though David no doubt long since had been truly sorrowful for
his youthful sins, yet he was sensible in himself, that if God would be
extreme to mark what was done amiss, though he had repented of those
sins, yet he had sinned in that his repentance. _Secondly_, though God
had forgiven David’s sins so far forth as to pardon him eternal
damnation, yet he had not remitted unto him temporal afflictions which
perchance pressing upon him at this present, he prayeth in this Psalm
for the removing or mitigating of them. So then the sense of his words
sounds thus, “_Remember not, Lord, the sins of my youth_,” that is,
Lord, lighten and lessen the afflictions which lie upon me in this mine
old age, justly inflicted on me for my youthful sins. _Thirdly_, God’s
pardon for sins past, is ever granted with this condition, that the
party so pardoned is bound to his good behaviour for the time to come,
which if he breaks, he deserves in the strictness of justice to forfeit
the benefit of his pardon. Now David was guilty afterward in that grand
transgression of Bathsheba and Uriah, which might in the extremity of
justice have made all his youthful sins to be punished afresh upon him.
_Lastly_, grant David certainly assured of the pardon of his youthful
sins, yet God’s servants may pray for those blessings they have in
possession, not for the obtaining of that they have—that is needless—but
for the keeping of what they have obtained, that is necessary. Yea, God
is well pleased with such prayers of his saints, and interprets them to
be praises unto him, and then these words, “_Remember not the sins of my
youth_,” amount to this effect: blessed be thy gracious goodness, who
hast forgiven me the sins of my youth.—_Thomas Fuller._
_Verse 7.—“Remember not the sins of my youth.”_ David, after he was
called by the power of the word, cries out, “_Lord, remember not_,”
etc.; that gravelled and galled his conscience, the _sins_ of his
_youth_ before his call. O beloved, the sins of your youth, though you
should be Jobs converted, yet they will bring great disquietness and
great horror when you come to age. The lusts of youth, and the vanities
of youth, and the sensual pleasures of your youthful days, they will lay
a foundation of sorrow when you come to grey hairs to be near your
graves. So Job. xx. 11.—_Christopher Love, 1654._
_Verse 7.—“Remember not the sins of my youth;”_ let them not move thee
to punish or be avenged on me for them; as men, when they remember
injuries, seek to be avenged on those who have done them.—_William
Greenhill._
_Verse 7.—“Remember not the sins of my youth.”_ It is not safe to be at
odds with the “Ancient of days.”—_John Trapp._
_Verse 7.—“The sins of my youth.”_ Before we come to the principal point
we must first clear the text from the incumbrance of a double objection.
The first is this:—It may seem (may some say) very improbable that David
should have any sins of his youth, if we consider the principals
whereupon his youth was past. The first was _poverty_. We read that his
father Jesse passed for an _old_ man, we read not that he passed for a
_rich_ man; and probably his seven sons were the principal part of his
wealth. Secondly, _painfulness_. David, though the youngest, was not
made a darling, but a drudge; sent by his father to follow the ewes big
with young; where he may seem to have learned innocence and simplicity
from the sheep he kept. Thirdly, _piety_ (Psalm lxxi. 5), “For thou art
my hope, O Lord God; thou art my trust from my youth.” And again in the
seventeenth verse of the same Psalm, “O God, thou hast taught me from my
youth:” David began to be good betimes, _a young saint_, and yet crossed
that pestilent proverb, was no _old devil_. And what is more still, he
was constantly in the furnace of affliction. Psalm lxxxviii. 15. “Even
from my youth up, thy terrors have I suffered with a troubled mind.” The
question then will be this, How could that water be corrupted which was
daily clarified? How could that steel gather rust which was daily filed?
How could David’s soul in his _youth_ be sooty with sin, which was
constantly scoured with suffering? But the answer is easy; for though
David for the main were a man after God’s own heart (the best transcript
of the best copy), yet he, especially in his youth, had his faults and
infirmities, yea, his sins and transgressions. Though the Scripture
maketh mention of no eminent sin in his youth, the business with
Bathsheba being justly to be referred to David’s reduced and elder age.
I will not conclude that David was of a wanton constitution because of a
ruddy complexion. It is as injurious an inference to conclude all bad
which are beautiful, as it is a false and flattering consequence to say
all are honest who are deformed. Rather we may collect David’s youth
guilty of wantonness from his having so many wives and concubines. But
what go I about to do? Expect not that I should tell you the particular
sins, when he could not tell his own. Psalm xix. “Who can tell how oft
he offendeth?” Or how can David’s sins be known to me, which he
confesseth were unknown to himself, which made him say, “O Lord, cleanse
me from secret sins”? But to silence our curiosity, that our conscience
may speak:—If David’s youth, which was poor, painful, and pious, was
guilty of sins, what shall we say, of such whose education hath been
wealthy, wanton, and wicked? And I report the rest to be acted with
shame, sorrow, and silence in every man’s conscience.—_Thomas Fuller._
_Verse 7.—“The sins of my youth.”_ Two aged disciples, one eighty-seven
years old, one day met. “Well,” enquired the younger of his fellow
pilgrim, “how long have you been interested in religion?” “Fifty years,”
was the old man’s reply. “Well, have you ever regretted that you began
when young to devote yourself to religion?” “Oh, no!” said he, and the
tears trickled down his furrowed cheeks; “I weep when I think of the
sins of my youth; it is this which makes me weep now.”—_From K. Arvine’s
“Cyclopædia of Moral and Religious Anecdotes,” 1859._
_Verse 7._—“_According to_ THY _mercy_,” _not mine_; for I have forsaken
those _mercies_ thou madest _mine own_ (Jonah ii. 8; Psalm lix. 10, 17),
in being cruel to myself by my sin, through distrust of thy promise, and
upon presumption in thy mercy; yea, let it be, “_for_ THY _goodness’
sake_,” _not mine_, for in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no manner
of thing that is good. Let thy goodness, then, be the motive, thy mercy
the rule of all that grace, and of all those blessings thou vouchsafest
unto my soul.—_Robert Mossom._
_Verse 7.—“According to thy mercy.”_ Moses was the first that brought up
this happy expression, “_According to thy mercy_” (I know not where it
is used by any other man), that is, according to the infinite mercy that
is in thy heart and nature. David did next use it (Psalm xxv.), and in
the great case of his sin and adultery (Psalm li. 1), “that he would be
merciful to him, according to the multitude of his mercies,” And as he
needed all the mercies in God, so he confessed the sin of his nature,
and hath recourse to the mercies in God’s nature. But it is Psalm xxv.
7, I pitch on; there he doth not content himself only with this
expression, “_According to thy mercy_,” but he adds another phrase, “For
thy mercy’s sake,” and “_goodness’ sake_.” Muis observes in this
coherence, “_Good and upright is the Lord_” (verse 8), that he centres
in his nature. Thou hast a merciful nature; deal with me according to
that, and for the sake of that, “according to thy mercy,” “for thy
goodness’ sake.” The meditation of that attribute was the foundation of
his faith and prayer herein. When he hath done, he referreth himself to
Moses, verse 11, “_For thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity;
for it is great_.” He refers to that name proclaimed before Moses.
Exodus xxxiv. 6, 7. But you will say, How do these expressions, “for thy
name’s sake,” “for thy goodness’ sake,” “for thy mercy’s sake,” imply
the same as “for himself,” “for his own sake”? how do they involve the
Godhead? Look to Isaiah xliii. 25, “I, even I, am he that blotteth out
thy transgressions for mine own sake,” that is, for myself. Isaiah
xlviii. 11. “For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it.”
You have it twice in one verse; and that which is “for mercy’s sake” in
one place, is “for mine own sake” in another, and behold it is I, I am
he, as I am God, who doth it. What is this, but “Jehovah, Jehovah, God
merciful”?—_Thomas Goodwin._
_Verse 8.—“Good and upright is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners
in the way.”_ As election is the effect of God’s sovereignty, our pardon
the fruit of his mercy, our knowledge a stream from his wisdom, our
strength an impression of his power; so our purity is a beam from his
holiness. As the rectitude of the creature at the first creation was the
effect of his holiness, so the purity of the creature by a new creation,
is a draught of the same perfection. He is called the Holy One of Israel
more in Isaiah, that evangelical prophet, in erecting Zion, and forming
a people for himself, than in the whole Scripture besides.—_Stephen
Charnock._
_Verse 8.—“Good and upright is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners
in the way.”_ Will not the Lord, who is good, be as gracious to his
enemies as he requires us to be to ours? It is his own law, “If thou
meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring
it back to him again.” Exodus xxiii. 4. Now God meets us sinners, and
all sinners as such are his enemies; he meets us straying like the beast
without understanding; and what? will he not bring us again unto
himself, the sole proprietary, by that first right of creation, and that
more firm right of redemption?—_Robert Mossom._
_Verse 9.—“The meek will he guide in judgment;”_ or, _the poor_ (namely,
in spirit), will he make to tread in judgment, to foot it aright, to
walk judiciously, to behave themselves wisely, as David did (1 Sam.
xxiv.), so that Saul feared him. Natural conscience cannot but stoop to
the image of God, shining in the hearts and lives of the really
religious.—_John Trapp._
_Verse 9.—“The meek will he guide in judgment.”_ They have been made
meek, _i.e._, desirous of being taught, and praying to be so; but, being
now sensible of unworthiness, they are afraid that God will not teach
them. This may be done to other sinners but not to them. Therefore they
are told who may expect teaching, even they who desire and pray for
teaching.—_John Berridge, 1716-1793._
_Verse 9.—“He will guide the poor in judgment.”_ Never will this
docility be found in any man, until the heart, which is naturally elated
and filled with pride, has been humbled and subdued. As the Hebrew word
denotes the _poor_ or _afflicted_, and is employed in a metaphorical
sense, to denote _the meek and humble_, it is probable that David, under
this term, includes the afflictions which serve to restrain and subdue
the frowardness of the flesh, as well as the grace of humility itself;
as if he had said, When God has first humbled them, then he kindly
stretches forth his hand to them, and leads and guides them throughout
the whole course of their life.—_John Calvin._
_Verse 9.—“The meek,”_ etc. Pride and anger have no place in the school
of Christ. The Master himself is “meek and lowly of heart;” much more,
surely, ought the scholars to be so. He who hath no sense of his
ignorance, can have no desire, or capability of knowledge, human or
divine.—_George Horne._
_Verse 9 (last clause)._—The Lord will teach the humble his secrets, he
will not teach proud scholars.—_Thomas Goodwin._
_Verse 9 (last clause)._—Such as lie at his feet and say, “Speak, Lord,
for thy servant heareth,” such whose hearts are _supple_ and _soluble_,
tractable, and teachable, so that a _little child_ may _lead them_.
(Isaiah xi. 6.) Austin was such an one. Saith he, “I am here an old man
ready to learn of a young man, my coadjutor in the ministry, who hath
scarce been one year in the service.”—_John Trapp._
_Verse 10.—“All the paths of the Lord,”_ אָדְהוֹה _orchoth_ signifies
the tracks or ruts made by the wheels of wagons by often passing over
the same ground. Mercy and truth are the paths in which God constantly
walks in reference to the children of men; and so frequently does he
show them mercy, and so frequently does he fulfil his truth, that his
paths are easily discerned. How frequent, how deeply indented, and how
multiplied are those tracks to every family and individual! Wherever we
go, we see that God’s mercy and truth have been there by the deep tracks
they have left behind them. But he is more abundantly merciful to those
who keep his covenant and his testimonies; _i.e._, those who are
conformed, not only to the letter, but to the spirit of his pure
religion.—_Adam Clarke._
_Verse 10.—“All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth.”_—As his
_nature_ is _love and truth_, so all his _ways_ are _mercy and truth_.
They are “_mercy_” in respect of aiming at our good, and “_truth_” in
respect of fulfilling his promises and faithful carriage to us;
therefore whatsoever befalls thee, though it be clean contrary to thy
expectation, interpret it in love. Many actions of men are such as a
good interpretation cannot be put upon them, nor a good construction
made of them; therefore interpreters restrain those sayings of love,
that it believes all, etc.; that is, _credibilia_, all things
believable, otherwise to put all upon charity, will eat out charity. But
none of God’s ways are such, but love and faith may pick a good meaning
out of these. _A bono Deo nil nisi bonum_, from a good God there comes
nothing but what is good; and therefore says Job, “Though he kill me, I
will trust in him.” Endeavour to spy out some end of his for good at the
present, and if none ariseth to thy conjecture, resolve it into faith,
and make the best of it.—_Thomas Goodwin._
_Verse 10.—“Unto such as keep,”_ etc.: he is never out of the road of
mercy unto them.—_Thomas Goodwin._
_Verse 11.—“For thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is
great.”_ I cannot do better than quote one of those beautiful passages
of the great Vieyra, which gave him the character of the first preacher
of his age:—“I confess, my God, that it is so; that we are all sinners
in the highest degree.” He is preaching on a fast on occasion of the
threatened destruction of the Portuguese dominion in Brazil by the
Dutch. “But so far am I from considering this any reason why I should
cease from my petition, that I behold in it a new and convincing
argument which may influence thy goodness. All that I have said before
is based on no other foundation than the glory and honour of thy most
holy Name. _Propter nomen tuum._ And what motive can I offer more
glorious to that same Name, than that our sins are many and great? _For
thy name’s sake, O Lord, be merciful unto my sin, for it is great._ I
ask thee, saith David, to pardon, not every-day sins, but numerous sins,
but great sins: _multum est enim_. O motive worthy of the breast of God!
Oh, consequence which can have force only when it bears on supreme
goodness! So that in order to obtain remission of his sins, the sinner
alleges to God that they are many and great. Verily so; and that not for
love of the sinner nor for the love of sin, but for the love of the
honour and glory of God; which glory, by how much the sins he forgives
are greater and more numerous, by so much the more ennobles and exalts
itself. The same David distinguishes in the mercy of God greatness and
multitude: greatness, _secundum magnam misericordiam tuam_; multitude,
_et secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum_. And as the greatness of
the divine mercy is immense, and the multitude of his lovingkindnesses
infinite; and forasmuch as the immense cannot be measured, nor the
infinite counted, in order that the one and the other may in a certain
manner have a proportionate material of glory, it is necessary to the
very greatness of mercy that the sins to be pardoned should be great and
necessary to the very multitude of lovingkindnesses that they should be
many. _Multum est enim._ Reason have I then, O Lord, not to be dismayed
because our sins are many and great. Reason have I also to demand the
reason from thee, why thou dost not make haste to pardon them?”—_Vieyra,
quoted by J. M. Neale._
_Verse 11.—“For thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity.”_ It is a
very usual notion by “_name_” to understand honour and glory. When God
saith to David, “I have made thee a name like the name of men that are
in the earth;” when the church saith to God, “Thou didst get thee a name
as it is this day;” it is manifest that by name glory is intended.
Suitable to this it is that famous men are called by the Hebrews,
אַנשֵׁי הַשֵּׁם (Gen. vi. 4), and by the Latins, _viri nominum_, men of
name, in which sense the poet adorneth it with these epithets—
“Magnum et memorabile nomen,”
or great and memorable. Thus, when God forgiveth sin, he doth it _for
his name’s sake_, that is, for his own honour and glory. Indeed, God’s
own glory is the ultimate end of all his actions. As he is the first, so
he is the last, the efficient, and the final cause; nor is there
anything done by him which is not for him. The end of our actions must
be his glory, because both our being and working are from him; but the
end of his work is his own glory, because his being and acting are of
and from himself. Among all divine works, there is none which more
setteth forth his glory than this of remission. Sin, by committing it,
brings God a great deal of dishonour, and yet, by forgiving it, God
raiseth to himself a great deal of honour. “It is the glory of a man,”
and much more of God, “to pass by an offence;” as acts of power, so acts
of grace, are exceeding honourable. The attributes of God’s grace,
mercy, goodness, clemency, shine forth in nothing so much as in
pardoning sins. Paul speaks of riches of goodness which attend God’s
forbearance; how much greater riches must there needs be in forgiveness?
Nay, indeed, God hath so ordered the way of pardon, that not only the
glory of his mercy, but justice, yea, of his wisdom in the wonderful
contemporation of both these, is very illustrious. _Nomen quasi notamen,
quia notificat_, the name is that which maketh one known; and by
remission of sins, God maketh known his choice and glorious attributes;
and for this end it is that he vouchsafeth it. It is a consideration
that may be our consolation. Since God forgiveth sins _for his name’s
sake_, he will be ready to forgive many sins as well as few, great as
small; indeed, the more and greater our sins are, the greater is the
forgiveness, and, consequently, the greater is God’s glory; and
therefore David, upon this consideration of God’s name and glory, maketh
the _greatness of his iniquity_ a motive of forgiveness. Indeed, to run
into gross sins, that God may glorify himself by forgiving them, is an
odious presumption, but to hope that those gross sins we have run into
may, and will, be forgiven by God to us, being truly penitent, _for his
name’s sake_, is a well grounded expectation, and such as may support
our spirits against the strongest temptations to despair.—_Nathanael
Hardy._
_Verse 11.—“Pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.”_ He pleads the
greatness of his sin, and not the smallness of it: he enforces his
prayer with this consideration, that his sins are very heinous. But how
could he make this a plea for pardon? I answer, Because the greater his
iniquity was, the more _need_ he had of pardon. It is as much as if he
had said, Pardon mine iniquity, for it is so great that I cannot bear
the punishment; my sin is so great that I am in necessity of pardon; my
case will be exceedingly miserable, unless thou be pleased to pardon me.
He makes use of the greatness of his sin, to enforce his plea for
pardon, as a man would make use of the greatness of calamity in begging
for relief. When a beggar begs for bread, he will plead the greatness of
his poverty and necessity. When a man in distress cries for pity, what
more suitable plea can be urged than the extremity of his case? And God
allows such a plea as this: for he is moved to mercy towards us by
nothing in us, but the miserableness of our case. He doth not pity
sinners because they are worthy, but because they need his pity....
Herein doth the _glory of grace_ by the redemption of Christ much
consist; namely, in its sufficiency for the pardon of the _greatest_
sinners. The whole contrivance of the way of salvation is for this end,
to glorify the free grace of God. God had it on his heart from all
eternity to glorify this attribute; and therefore it is, that the device
of saving sinners by Christ was conceived. The greatness of divine grace
appears very much in this, that God by Christ saves the _greatest_
offenders. The _greater_ the guilt of any sinner is, the more glorious
and wonderful is the grace manifested in his pardon. Rom. v. 20. “Where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” The apostle, when telling how
great a sinner he had been, takes notice of the abounding of grace in
his pardon, of which his great guilt was the occasion. 1 Tim. i. 13, 14.
“Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I
obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace
of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in
Christ Jesus.” The Redeemer is glorified, in that he proves sufficient
to redeem those who are exceeding sinful, in that his blood proves
sufficient to wash away the greatest guilt, in that he is able to save
men to the uttermost, and in that he redeems even from the greatest
misery. It is the honour of Christ to save the greatest sinners, when
they come to him, as it is the honour of a physician that he cures the
most desperate diseases or wounds. Therefore, no doubt, Christ will be
willing to save the greatest sinners, if they come to him; for he will
not be backward to glorify himself, and to commend the value and virtue
of his own blood. Seeing he hath so laid out himself to redeem sinners,
he will not be unwilling to show that he is able to redeem to the
uttermost.—_Jonathan Edwards._
_Verse 11.—“Pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.”_ Is any man
miserable, are his miseries great, are they spiritual, are they
temporal? Undoubtedly, if he be humbled in the sense of them, and see
himself unworthy of any mercy, he may still be assured of mercy. Though
there be spiritual evils, yet if a man see himself wretched, and
miserable, the more heavy he finds his iniquity to be, the more hope of
mercy there is for him: the Lord’s mercy is over all his works,
therefore is he much more merciful to such. If a man hath a feeling of
his miseries and unworthiness then he may use this argument for mercy,
_my miseries are great_: even as David did, “_O Lord, be merciful to me,
and pardon my iniquity, for it is great._” And the more miserable men
are in their own sense, the fitter objects they are for God to show
mercy unto. Thus it was with the publican, and so with the prodigal;
therefore never doubt, though thy iniquities be never so great, there is
a sea of mercy in God. Bernard well observes the difference between
justice and mercy; justice requires that there should be desert, but
mercy looks upon them that are miserable; and, saith the father, true
mercy doth affect misery; mercy doth not stand upon inquisition, but it
is glad to find occasion of exercising itself.—_Richard Stock._