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 whosoever 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.” 1 John i. 7. We account it charity in mothers to feed their
children with their own milk: how dear is the love of Christ, that both
washeth 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; ’tis 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.” Rev. i. 5,
6. But yet ’tis 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 rebaptisation, giving strength and effect to
the first washing. And it implies a threefold 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 washeth 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_;[18] 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. Prov. ii. 14. Where there is no
satisfaction, “_Non agitur sed fingitur pænitentia_,” 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. Matt. ii.
13.—_Isaac Bargrave’s Sermon before the House of Commons, 1623._
_Verse 6.—“I will wash my 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 it 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 φυσιόλογοι 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 own 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, indulgencies, 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._
_Verse 6.—“I will wash my 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, נִקָּיוֹן _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._
_Verse 6.—“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._
_Verse 6.—“In innocency.”_ The very ἀκμὴ 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.” James
iv. 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._
_Verse 6 (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._” Psalm li.
7.—_Christian Scriver (1629-1693)_, in “_Gotthold’s Emblems_.”
_Verse 6.—“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_.”
_Verse 6._—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 the 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
Pool._
_Verse 8.—“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._
_Verse 9.—“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 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,” says he, “Gather not my soul
with sinners.” 2. The wicked themselves have a horror of it. Numb.
xxiii. 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._
_Verse 9.—“Gather not my soul with sinners.”_ Bind me not up in the same
bundle with them, like the tares for the fire. Matt. xiii. 30. The
contrast to this is seen in the following Psalm (verse 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._
_Verse 9.—“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._
_Verse 9.—“Gather not my soul with sinners.”_ After all, it may be
objected that this concern seems to be common to saints and sinners.
Even a wicked Balaam said, “Let me die the death of the righteous, and
let my last end be like his.” Numb. xxiii. 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.” 1 John iii. 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, verse
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 (verse
12), “His foot stood in an even place;” or, as some read it, “My foot
standeth in righteousness.”—_William Gurnall._
_Verse 10.—“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 patronship. 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 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,”
quoth 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,” quoth 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,” quoth 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,” quoth 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._
_Verse 10.—“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 the charges of a golden earpick, or
she cannot be heard!—_Thomas Adams._
_Verse 10._—
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 III. Canto I.
_Verse 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
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, loth
to put it down.—_William Gurnall._
_Verse 12.—“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._
HINTS TO PREACHERS.
_Verse 1._—I. _Two inseparable companions_—faith and holiness. II. _The
blessedness of the man who possesses them._ He needs not fear the
judgment, nor the danger of the way. III. _The only means of procuring
them._
_Verse 1 (last sentence)._—The upholding power of trust in God.
_Verse 2.—Divine examinations._ Their variety, severity, searching
nature, accuracy, certainty: when to be desired, and when to be dreaded.
_Verse 3._—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.
_Verse 3.—“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:—I. As a subject of contemplation. II.
As the source of encouragement. III. As an incitement to praise. IV. As
an example for imitation.—_William Jay._
_Verse 4.—“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.
_Verse 5.—Bad company._ Cases of its evil results, excuses for it
answered, warnings given, motives urged for relinquishing.
_Verse 6._—The necessity of personal holiness in order to acceptable
worship.
_Verse 7._—I. The believer’s calling—a publisher. II. The author
selected, and the quality of his works. “_Thy wondrous works._” III. The
mode of advertising—“_voice of thanksgiving_,” “_tell_,” etc.
_Verse 8._—God’s house. Why we love it. What we love in it. How we show
our love. How our love will be rewarded.
_Verse 9._—See “Spurgeon’s Sermons,” No. 524. “The Saints’ Horror at the
Sinners’ Hell.”
_Verse 11._—The best men needing redemption and mercy; or the outward
walk before men, and the secret walk with God.
_Verse 12._—Secure standing, honoured position, grateful praise.
_Verse 12 (last clause)._—Congregational Psalmody, and our personal
share in it.
Footnote 18:
Augustine.
HUNT, BARNARD & CO., LTD., Printers, London and Aylesbury.
● Transcriber’s Notes:
○ Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
○ Footnotes have been moved to follow the psalms in which they are
referenced.