in the Psalm; he began at once with his sin; he asks to hear pardon, and
then to hear joy. He seeks comfort at the right time and from the right
source. His ear has become heavy with sinning, and so he prays, “Make me
to hear.” No voice could revive his dead joys but that which quickeneth
the dead. Pardon from God would give him double joy—“joy and gladness.”
No stinted bliss awaits the forgiven one; he shall not only _have_ a
double-blooming joy, but he shall _hear_ it; it shall sing with
exultation. Some joy is felt but not heard, for it contends with fears;
but the joy of pardon has a voice louder than the voice of sin. God’s
voice speaking peace is the sweetest music an ear can hear. “_That the
bones which thou hast broken may rejoice._” He was like a poor wretch
whose bones are crushed, crushed by no ordinary means, but by
omnipotence itself. He groaned under no mere flesh wounds; his firmest
and yet tenderest powers were “broken in pieces all asunder;” his
manhood had become a dislocated, mangled, quivering sensibility. Yet if
he who crushed would cure, every wound would become a new mouth for
song, every bone quivering before with agony would become equally
sensible of intense delight. The figure is bold, and so is the
supplicant. He is requesting a great thing; he seeks joy for a sinful
heart, music for crushed bones. Preposterous prayer anywhere but at the
throne of God! Preposterous there most of all but for the cross where
Jehovah Jesus bore our sins in his own body on the tree. A penitent need
not ask to be an hired servant, or settle down in despairing content
with perpetual mourning; he may ask for gladness and he shall have it;
for if when prodigals return the father is glad, and the neighbours and
friends rejoice and are merry with music and dancing, what need can
there be that the restored one himself should be wretched?
9. “_Hide thy face from my sins._” Do not look at them; be at pains not
to see them. They thrust themselves in thy way; but, Lord, refuse to
behold them, lest if thou consider them, thine anger burn, and I die.
“_Blot out all mine iniquities._” He repeats the prayer of the first
verse with the enlargement of it by the word “all.” All repetitions are
not “vain repetitions.” Souls in agony have no space to find variety of
language: pain has to content itself with monotones. David’s face was
ashamed with looking on his sin, and no diverting thoughts could remove
it from his memory; but he prays the Lord to do with his sin what he
himself cannot. If God hide not his face from our sin, he must hide it
for ever from us; and if he blot not out our sins, he must blot our
names out of his book of life.
10. “_Create._” What! has sin so destroyed us, that the Creator must be
called in again? What ruin then doth evil work among mankind! “_Create
in me._” I, in outward fabric, still exist; but I am empty, desert,
void. Come, then, and let thy power be seen in a new creation within my
old fallen self. Thou didst make a man in the world at first; Lord, make
a new man in me! “_A clean heart._” In the seventh verse he asked to be
clean; now he seeks a heart suitable to that cleanliness; but he does
not say, “Make my old heart clean;” he is too experienced in the
hopelessness of the old nature. He would have the old man buried as a
dead thing, and a new creation brought in to fill its place. None but
God can create either a new heart or a new earth. Salvation is a
marvellous display of supreme power; the work _in_ us as much as that
_for_ us is wholly of Omnipotence. The affections must be rectified
first, or all our nature will go amiss. The heart is the rudder of the
soul, and till the Lord take it in hand we steer in a false and foul
way. O Lord, thou who didst once make me, be pleased to new make me, and
in my most secret parts renew me. “_Renew a right spirit within me._” It
was there once, Lord, put it there again. The law on my heart has become
like an inscription hard to read: new write it, gracious Maker. Remove
the evil as I have entreated thee; but, O replace it with good, lest
into my swept, empty, and garnished heart, from which the devil has gone
out for awhile, seven other spirits more wicked than the first should
enter and dwell. The two sentences make a complete prayer. “_Create_”
what is not there at all; “_renew_” that which is there, but in a sadly
feeble state.
11. “_Cast me not away from thy presence._” Throw me not away as
worthless; banish me not, like Cain, from thy face and favour. Permit me
to sit among those who share thy love, though I only be suffered to keep
the door. I deserve to be for ever denied admission to thy courts; but,
O good Lord, permit me still the privilege which is dear as life itself
to me. “_Take not thy Holy Spirit from me._” Withdraw not his comforts,
counsels, assistances, quickenings, else I am indeed as a dead man. Do
not leave me as thou didst Saul, when neither by Urim, nor by prophet,
nor by dream, thou wouldst answer him. Thy Spirit is my wisdom, leave me
not to my folly; he is my strength, O desert me not to my own weakness.
Drive me not away from thee, neither do thou go away from me. Keep up
the union between us, which is my only hope of salvation. It will be a
great wonder if so pure a Spirit deigns to stay in so base a heart as
mine; but then, Lord, it is all wonder together, therefore do this, for
thy mercy’s sake, I earnestly entreat thee.
12. “_Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation._” Salvation he had
known, and had known it as the Lord’s own; he had also felt the joy
which arises from being saved in the Lord, but he had lost it for
awhile, and therefore he longed for its restoration. None but God can
give back this joy; he can do it; we may ask it; he will do it for his
own glory and our benefit. This joy comes not first, but follows pardon
and purity: in such order it is safe, in any other it is vain
presumption or idiotic delirium. “_And uphold me with thy free Spirit._”
Conscious of weakness, mindful of having so lately fallen, he seeks to
be kept on his feet by power superior to his own. That royal Spirit,
whose holiness is true dignity, is able to make us walk as kings and
priests, in all the uprightness of holiness; and he will do so if we
seek his gracious upholding. Such influences will not enslave but
emancipate us; for holiness is liberty, and the Holy Spirit is a free
Spirit. In the roughest and most treacherous ways we are safe with such
a keeper; in the best paths we stumble if left to ourselves. The praying
for joy and upholding go well together; it is all over with joy if the
foot is not kept; and, on the other hand, joy is a very upholding thing,
and greatly aids holiness; meanwhile, the free, noble, loyal Spirit is
at the bottom of both.
13 _Then_ will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be
converted unto thee.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation:
_and_ my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy
praise.
16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give _it_: thou
delightest not in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God _are_ a broken spirit: a broken and a
contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of
Jerusalem.
19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,
with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer
bullocks upon thine altar.
13. “_Then will I teach transgressors thy ways._” It was his fixed
resolve to be a teacher of others; and assuredly none instruct others so
well as those who have been experimentally taught of God themselves.
Reclaimed poachers make the best gamekeepers. Huntingdon’s degree of
S.S., or Sinner Saved, is more needful for a soul-winning evangelist
than either M.A. or D.D. The pardoned sinner’s matter will be good, for
he has been taught in the school of experience, and his manner will be
telling, for he will speak sympathetically, as one who has felt what he
declares. The audience the Psalmist would choose is memorable—he would
instruct transgressors like himself; others might despise them, but, “a
fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind.” If unworthy to edify saints, he
would creep in along with the sinners, and humbly tell them of divine
love. The mercy of God to one is an illustration of his usual procedure,
so that our own case helps us to understand his “ways,” or his general
modes of action: perhaps, too, David under that term refers to the
preceptive part of the word of God, which, having broken, and having
suffered thereby, he felt that he could vindicate and urge upon the
reverence of other offenders. “_And sinners shall be converted unto
thee._” My fall shall be the restoration of others. Thou wilt bless my
pathetic testimony to the recovery of many who, like myself, have turned
aside unto crooked ways. Doubtless this Psalm and the whole story of
David, have produced for many ages the most salutary results in the
conversion of transgressors, and so evil has been overruled for good.
14. “_Deliver me from bloodguiltiness._” He had been the means of the
death of Uriah, the Hittite, a faithful and attached follower, and he
now confesses that fact. Besides, his sin of adultery was a capital
offence, and he puts himself down as one worthy to die the death. Honest
penitents do not fetch a compass and confess their sins in an elegant
periphrasis, but they come to the point, call a spade a spade, and make
a clean breast of all. What other course is rational in dealing with the
Omniscient? “_O God, thou God of my salvation._” He had not ventured to
come so near before. It had been, “O God,” up till now, but here he
cries, “_Thou God of my salvation._” Faith grows by the exercise of
prayer. He confesses sin more plainly in this verse than before, and yet
he deals with God more confidently: growing upward and downward at the
same time are perfectly consistent. None but the King can remit the
death penalty, it is therefore a joy to faith that God is King, and that
he is the author and finisher of our salvation. “_And my tongue shalt
sing aloud of thy righteousness.”_ One would rather have expected him to
say, I will sing of thy mercy; but David can see the divine way of
justification, that righteousness of God which Paul afterwards spoke of
by which the ungodly are justified, and he vows to sing, yea, and to
sing lustily of that righteous way of mercy. After all, it is the
righteousness of divine mercy which is its greatest wonder. Note how
David would preach in the last verse, and now here he would sing. We can
never do too much for the Lord to whom we owe more than all. If we could
be preacher, precentor, doorkeeper, pewopener, footwasher, and all in
one, all would be too little to show forth all our gratitude. A great
sinner pardoned makes a great singer. Sin has a loud voice, and so
should our thankfulness have. We shall not sing our own praises if we be
saved, but our theme will be the Lord our righteousness, in whose merits
we stand righteously accepted.
15. “_O Lord, open thou my lips._” He is so afraid of himself that he
commits his whole being to the divine care, and fears to speak till the
Lord unstops his shame-silenced mouth. How marvellously the Lord can
open our lips, and what divine things we poor simpletons pour forth
under his inspiration! This prayer of a penitent is a golden petition
for a preacher. Lord, I offer it for myself and my brethren. But it may
stand in good stead any one whose shame for sin makes him stammer in his
prayers, and when it is fully answered, the tongue of the dumb begins to
sing. “_And my mouth shall shew forth thy praise._” If God opens the
mouth he is sure to have the fruit of it. According to the porter at the
gate is the nature of that which comes out of man’s lips; when vanity,
anger, falsehood, or lust unbar the door, the foulest villanies troop
out; but if the Holy Spirit opens the wicket, then grace, mercy, peace,
and all the graces come forth in tuneful dances, like the daughters of
Israel when they met David returning with the Philistine’s head.
16. “_For thou desirest not sacrifice._” This was the subject of the
last Psalm. The Psalmist was so illuminated as to see far beyond the
symbolic ritual; his eye of faith gazed with delight upon the actual
atonement. “_Else would I give it._” He would have been glad enough to
present tens of thousands of victims if these would have met the case.
Indeed, anything which the Lord prescribed he would cheerfully have
rendered. We are ready to give up all we have if we may but be cleared
of our sins; and when sin is pardoned our joyful gratitude is prepared
for any sacrifice. “_Thou delightest not in burnt offering._” He knew
that no form of burnt sacrifice was a satisfactory propitiation. His
deep soul-need made him look from the type to the antitype, from the
external rite to the inward grace.
17. “_The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit._” All sacrifices are
presented to thee in one, by the man whose broken heart presents the
Saviour’s merit to thee. When the heart mourns for sin, thou art better
pleased than when the bullock bleeds beneath the axe. “A broken heart”
is an expression implying deep sorrow, embittering the very life; it
carries in it the idea of all but killing anguish in that region which
is so vital as to be the very source of life. So excellent is a spirit
humbled and mourning for sin, that it is not only a sacrifice, but it
has a plurality of excellencies, and is pre-eminently God’s
“_sacrifices_.” “_A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not
despise._” A heart crushed is a fragrant heart. Men contemn those who
are contemptible in their own eyes, but the Lord seeth not as man seeth.
He despises what men esteem, and values that which they despise. Never
yet has God spurned a lowly, weeping penitent, and never will he while
God is love, and while Jesus is called the man who receiveth sinners.
Bullocks and rams he desires not, but contrite hearts he seeks after;
yea, but one of them is better to him than all the varied offerings of
the old Jewish sanctuary.
18. “_Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion._” Let blessings according
to thy wont be poured upon thy holy hill and chosen city. Zion was
David’s favourite spot, whereon he had hoped to erect a temple. The
ruling passion is so strong on him, that when he has discharged his
conscience he must have a word for Zion. He felt he had hindered the
project of honouring the Lord there as he desired, but he prayed God
still to let the place of his ark be glorious, and to establish his
worship and his worshipping people. “_Build thou the walls of
Jerusalem._” This had been one of David’s schemes, to wall in the holy
city, and he desires to see it completed; but we believe he had a more
spiritual meaning, and prayed for the prosperity of the Lord’s cause and
people. He had done mischief by his sin, and had, as it were, pulled
down her walls; he, therefore, implores the Lord to undo the evil, and
establish his church. God can make his cause to prosper, and in answer
to prayer he will do so. Without his building we labour in vain;
therefore are we the more instant and constant in prayer. There is
surely no grace in us if we do not feel for the church of God, and take
a lasting interest in its welfare.
19. In those days of joyful prosperity thy saints shall present in great
abundance the richest and holiest thank offerings to thee, and thou
shalt be pleased to accept them. A saved soul expects to see its prayers
answered in a revived church, and then is assured that God will be
greatly glorified. Though we bring no more sacrifices for sin, yet as
priests unto God our solemn praises and votive gifts are thank offerings
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. We bring not the Lord our least
things—our doves and pigeons; but we present him with our best
possessions—our bullocks. We are glad that in this present time we are
able to fulfil in person the declaration of this verse: we also,
forecasting the future, wait for days of the divine presence, when the
church of God, with unspeakable joy, shall offer gifts upon the altar of
God, which will far eclipse anything beheld, in these less enthusiastic
days. Hasten it, O Lord.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.
_Title.—“After he had gone in to Bathsheba.”_ This was the devil’s
nest-egg that caused many sins to be laid, one to, and upon another. See
the woful chain of David’s lust, 2 Sam. xi. and xii.—_John Trapp._
_Title.—“When Nathan the prophet came unto him as he_ (_i.e._, David)
_had come unto Bathsheba.”_ The significant repetition of the phrase
_came unto_, is lost in the English and most other versions. “_As_” is
not a mere particle of time, simply equivalent to _when_, but suggests
the ideas of analogy, proportion, and retaliation.—_J. A. Alexander._
_Whole Psalm._—This Psalm is the brightest gem in the whole book, and
contains instruction so large, and doctrine so precious, that the tongue
of angels could not do justice to the full development.—_Victorinus
Strigelius, 1524-1569._
_Whole Psalm._—This Psalm is often and fitly called THE SINNER’S GUIDE.
In some of its versions it often helps the returning sinner. Athanasius
recommends to some Christians, to whom he was writing, to repeat it when
they awake at night. All evangelical churches are familiar with it.
Luther says, “There is no other Psalm which is oftener sung or prayed in
the church.” This is the first Psalm in which we have the word _Spirit_
used in application to the Holy Ghost.—_William S. Plumer._
_Whole Psalm._—I cannot doubt the prophetic bearing of this Psalm upon
the nation of Israel. In the latter day they shall consider their ways:
repentance and self-loathing will be the result. Blood-guiltiness
heavier than that of David has to be removed from that nation. They will
become the teachers of the Gentiles when first the iniquity of their own
transgression has been purged away.—_Arthur Pridham._
_Whole Psalm._—This is the most deeply affecting of all the Psalms, and
I am sure the one most applicable to me. It seems to have been the
effusion of a soul smarting under the sense of a recent and great
transgression. My God, whether recent or not, give me to feel the
enormity of my manifold offences, and remember not against me the sins
of my youth. What a mine of rich matter and expression for prayer! Wash,
cleanse me, O Lord, and let my sin and my sinfulness be ever before me.
Let me feel it chiefly as sin against thee, that my sorrow may be of the
godly sort. Give me to feel the virulence of my native corruption, purge
me from it thoroughly, and put truth into my inward parts, that mine may
be a real turning from sin unto the Saviour. Create me anew, O God.
Withdraw not thy Spirit. Cause me to rejoice in a present salvation.
Deliver me, O God, from the blood-guiltiness of having offended any of
thy little ones; and so open my lips that I may speak of the wondrous
things thou hast done for my soul! May I offer up spiritual sacrifices;
and oh! let not any delinquencies of mine bring a scandal upon thy
church; but do thou so purify and build her up, that even her external
services, freed from all taint of corruption or hypocrisy, may be
well-pleasing in thy sight.—_Thomas Chalmers._
_Verse 1.—“Have mercy upon me, O God.”_ I tremble and blush to mention
my name, for my former familiarities with thee only make me more
confounded at being recognised by thee after my guilt. I therefore say
not, “Lord, remember David,” as on a happier occasion; nor as
propitiating thee, I used to say, to thy “servant,” or, “to the son of
thy handmaid.” I suggest nothing that should recall my former relation
to thee, and so enhance my wickedness. Ask not, then, Lord, who I am,
but only forgive me who confess my sin, condemn my fault, and beseech
thy pity. “_Have mercy upon me, O God._” I dare not say _my_ God, for
that were presumption. I have lost thee by sin, I have alienated myself
from thee by following the enemy, and therefore am unclean. I dare not
approach thee, but standing afar off and lifting up my voice with great
devotion and contrition of heart, I cry and say, “_Have mercy upon me, O
God._”—_From “A Commentary on the Seven Penitential Psalms, chiefly from
ancient sources.” By the Right Rev. A. P. Forbes, Bishop of Brechin,
1857._
_Verse 1.—“Have mercy.”_ The Hebrew word here translated _have mercy_,
signifieth without cause or desert; Psalm xxxv. 19; lxix. 4; Ezekiel
xiv. 23; and freely, without paying any price, Exodus xxi. 11. And it is
made use of in Lev. vi. 8, where Noah is said to have found _grace_ in
the eyes of the Lord, that is special favour, such as the Lord beareth
to his chosen in Christ Jesus.—_Charles de Coetlogon, A.M., in “The
Portraiture of the Christian Penitent,” 1775._
_Verse 1.—“Mercy,” “lovingkindness,” “tender mercies.”_ I cannot but
observe here, the gradation in the sense of the three words made use of,
to express the divine compassion, and the propriety of the order in
which they are placed, which would be regarded as a real excellence and
beauty in any classical writer. The first, הָנֵּנִי, denotes that kind
of affection which is expressed by moaning over any object that we love
and pity that στοργὴ, natural affection and tenderness, which even brute
creatures discover to their young ones, by the several noises which they
respectively make over them; and particularly the shrill noise of the
camel, by which it testifies its love to its foal. The second,
כְּחַסְדֶּךָ, denotes a strong proneness, a ready, large, and liberal
disposition to goodness and compassion powerfully prompting to all
instances of kindness and bounty; flowing as freely and plentifully as
milk into the breasts, or as waters from a perpetual fountain. This
denotes a higher degree of goodness than the former. The third,
רַחֲמֶיךָ, denotes what the Greeks express by σπλαγχνίζεσθαι; that most
tender pity which we signify by the moving of the heart and bowels,
which argues the highest degree of compassion of which human nature is
susceptible. And how reviving is the belief and consideration of these
abundant and tender compassions of God to one in David’s circumstances,
whose mind laboured under the burthen of the most heinous complicated
guilt, and the fear of the divine displeasure and vengeance!—_Samuel
Chandler._
_Verse 1.—“According to the multitude.”_ Men are greatly terrified at
the multitude of their sins, but here is a comfort—our God hath
multitude of mercies. If our sins be in number as the hairs of our head,
God’s mercies are as the stars of heaven; and as he is an infinite God,
so his mercies are infinite; yea, so far are his mercies above our sins,
as he himself is above us poor sinners. By this that the Psalmist
seeketh for multitude of mercies, he would show how deeply he was
wounded with his manifold sins, that one seemed a hundred. Thus it is
with us, so long as we are under Satan’s guiding, a thousand seem but
one; but if we betake ourselves to God’s service, one will seem a
thousand.—_Archibald Symson._
_Verse 1.—“Tender mercies,”_ or, according to Zanchy in his treatise
upon the attributes of God, such a kind of affection as parents feel
when they see their children in any extremity. 1 Kings iii. 26.—_Charles
de Coetlogon._
_Verse 1.—“Blot out my transgressions.”_ מְחֵה, _mecheh_, _wipe out_.
There is reference here to an _indictment_: the Psalmist knows what it
contains; he pleads guilty, but begs that the writing may be _defaced_;
that a proper fluid may be applied to the parchment, _to discharge the
ink_, that no record of it may ever appear against him: and this only
the _mercy, lovingkindness, and tender compassions_ of the Lord can
do.—_Adam Clarke._
_Verse 1.—“Blot out my transgressions.”_ What the Psalmist alludes to is
not, as Mr. LeClerc imagines, _debts entered into a book_, and so
blotted out of it when forgiven; but the wiping or cleansing of a dish,
so as nothing afterwards remains in it. The meaning of the petition is,
that God would entirely and absolutely forgive him, so as that no part
of the guilt he had contracted might remain, and the punishment of it
might be wholly removed.—_Samuel Chandler._
_Verse 1.—“Blot out,”_ or, as it is used in Exod. xvii. 14, _utterly
extirpate_, so as that there shall not be any remembrance of them for
ever. Isaiah xliii. 25; xliv. 22.—_Charles de Coetlogon._
_Verse 1._—“MY _transgressions_.” Conscience, when it is healthy, ever
speaks thus: “MY _transgressions_.” It was not the guilt of them that
tempted you: they have theirs; but each as a separate agent, has his own
degree of guilt. Yours is your own: the violation of your own and not
another’s sense of duty; solitary, awful, unshared, adhering to you
alone of all the spirits of the universe.—_Frederick William Robertson._
_Verses 1, 2.—“Transgressions” ... “iniquity” ... “sin.”_ 1. It is
_transgression_, פֶּשַׁע, _pesha_, rebellion. 2. It is _iniquity_,
עָוֹן, _avon_, crooked dealing. 3. It is sin, הַטָּאת, _chattath_, error
and wandering.—_Adam Clarke._
_Verse 2.—“Wash me.”_ David prays that the Lord would _wash_ him;
therefore sin defiles, and he was made foul and filthy by his sin; and
to wash him much, and to rinse and bathe him, to show that sin had
exceedingly defiled him and stained him both in soul and body, and made
him loathsome, and therefore he desireth to be washed, and cleansed, and
purged from the pollution of sin. Hence we may learn what a vile,
filthy, and miserable thing sin is in the sight of God: it staineth a
man’s body, it staineth a man’s soul, it maketh him more vile than the
vilest creature that lives: no toad is so vile and loathsome in the
sight of man, as a sinner, stained and defiled with sin, is in the sight
of God, till he be cleansed and washed from it in the blood of
Christ.—_Samuel Smith._