It is to be observed that of these three gifts--a right spirit, Thy Holy
Spirit, a free spirit--the central one alone is in the original spoken
of as God's; the 'Thy' of the last clause of the English Bible being an
unnecessary supplement. And I suppose that this central petition stands
in the middle, because the gift which it asks is the essential and
fundamental one, from which there flow, and as it were, diverge on the
right hand and on the left, the other two. God's Holy Spirit given to a
man makes the human spirit holy, and then makes it 'right' and 'free.'
Look then at the petitions, not in the order in which they stand in the
text, but in the order which the text indicates as the natural one.
Now as to that fundamental petition, 'Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me,'
one thing to notice is that David regards himself as possessing that
Spirit. We are not to read into this psalm the fully developed New
Testament teaching of a personal Paraclete, the Spirit whom Christ
reveals and sends. To do that would be a gross anachronism. But we are
to remember that it is an anointed king who speaks, on whose head there
has been poured the oil that designated him to his office, and in its
gentle flow and sweet fragrance, symbolised from of old the inspiration
of a divine influence that accompanied every divine call. We are to
remember, too, how it had fared with David's predecessor. Saul had been
chosen by God; had been for a while guided and upheld by God. But he
fell into sin, and--not because he fell into it, but because he
continued in it; not because he did wrong, but because he did not
repent--the solemn words are recorded concerning him, that 'the Spirit
of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord
troubled him.' The divine influence which came on the towering head of
the son of Kish, through the anointing oil that Samuel poured upon his
raven hair, left him, and he stood God-forsaken because he stood
God-forsaking. And so David looks back from the 'horrible pit and miry
clay' into which he had fallen, where, stained with blood and lust, he
lies, to that sad gigantic figure, remembered so well and loved by him
so truly--the great king who sinned away his soul, and bled out his life
on the heights of Gilboa. He sees in that blasted pine-tree, towering
above the forest but dead at the top, and barked and scathed all down
the sides by the lightning scars of passion, the picture of what he
himself will come to, if the blessing that was laid upon his ruddy locks
and his young head by the aged Samuel's anointing should pass from him
too as it had done from his predecessor. God had departed from Saul,
because Saul had refused His counsel and departed from Him; and Saul's
successor, trembling as he remembers the fate of the founder of the
monarchy, and of his vanished dynasty, prays with peculiar emphasis of
meaning, 'Take not Thy Holy Spirit from _me_!'
That Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, had descended upon him when he was
anointed king, but it was no mere official consecration which he had
thereby received. He had been fitted for regal functions by personal
cleansing and spiritual gifts. And it is the man as well as the king,
the sinful man much rather than the faulty king, that here wrestles with
God, and stays the heavenly Visitant whom his sin has made to seem as if
He would depart. What he desires most earnestly, next to that pardon
which he has already sought and found, is that his spirit should be made
holy by God's Spirit. That is, as I have said, the central petition of
his threefold prayer, from which the others come as natural
consequences.
And what is this 'holiness' which David so earnestly desires? Without
attempting any lengthened analysis of the various shades of meaning in
the word, our purpose will be served if I point out that in all
probability the primary idea in it is that of separation. God is
holy--that is, separated by all the glory of His perfect nature from His
creatures. Things are holy--that is, separated from common uses, and
appropriated to God's service. Whatever He laid His hand on and claimed
in any especial manner for His, became thereby holy, whether it were a
ceremony, or a place, or a tool. Men are holy when they are set apart
for God's service, whether they be officially consecrated for certain
offices, or have yielded themselves by an inward devotion based on love
to be His.
The ethical signification which is predominant in our use of the word
and has made it little more than a synonym for moral purity is certainly
not the original meaning, as is sufficiently clear from the fact that
the word is applied to material things which could have no moral
qualities, and sometimes to persons who were not pure, but who were in
some sense or other set apart for God's service. But gradually that
meaning becomes more and more completely attached to the word, and
'holiness' is not only separation for God, but separation from sin. That
is what David longs for in this prayer; and the connection of these two
meanings of the word is worth pointing out in a sermon, for the sake of
the great truth which it suggests, that the basis of all rightness and
righteousness in a human spirit is its conscious and glad devotion to
God's service and uses. A reference to God must underlie all that is
good in men, and on the other hand, that consecration to God is a
delusion or a deception which does not issue in separation from evil.
'Holiness' is a loftier and a truer word than 'morality,' 'virtue,' or
the like; it differs from these in that it proclaims that surrender to
God is the very essence of all good, while they seek to construct a
standard for human conduct, and to lay a foundation for human goodness,
without regard to Him. Hence, irreligious moralists dislike the very
word, and fall back upon pale, colourless phrases rather than employ it.
But these are inadequate for the purpose. Man's duties can never be
summed up in any expression which omits man's relation to God. How do I
stand to Him? Do I belong to Him by joyous yielding of myself to be His
instrument? That, my friends! is the question, the answer to which
determines everything about me. Rightly answered, there will come all
fruits of grace and beauty in the character as a natural consequence;
'whatsoever things are lovely and of good report,' every virtue and
every praise grow from the root of consecration to God. Wrongly
answered, there will come only fruits of selfishness and evil, which may
simulate virtue, but the blossom shall go up in dust, and the root in
stubble. Do you seek purity, nobleness, strength, and beauty of soul?
Learn that all these inhere in and flow from the one act of giving up
yourself to God, and in their truest perfection are found only in the
spirit that is His. Holiness considered as moral excellence is the
result of holiness considered as devotion to God. And learn too that
holiness in both aspects comes from the operation and indwelling in our
spirits of a divine Spirit, who draws away our love from self to fix it
on Him, which changes our blindness into sight, and makes us by degrees
like Himself, 'holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.' The
Spirit of the Lord is the energy which produces all righteousness and
purity in human spirits.
Therefore, all our desires after what is good and true should shape
themselves into the desire for that Spirit. Our prayer should be, 'Make
me separate from evil, and that I may be so, claim and keep me for Thine
own. As Thou hast done with the Sabbath amongst the days, with the bare
summit of the hill of the Lord's house among the mountains, with Israel
amidst the nations, so do with me; lay Thine hand upon me for Thine own.
Let my spirit, O God! know its destination for Thee, its union with
Thee. Then being Thine, it will be clean. Dwell in me, that I may know
myself Thine. Seal me with that gracious influence which is the proof
that Thou possessest me, and the pledge that I possess Thee. "Take not
Thy Holy Spirit from me."'
So much for the chief of these petitions, which gives the ideal
character in its deepest relations. There follow two other elements in
the character, which on either side flow from the central source. The
_holy_ spirit in a man will be a _right_ spirit and a _free_ spirit.
Consider these further thoughts in turn.
'A right spirit.' You will observe that our translators have given an
alternative rendering in the margin, and as is not seldom the case, it
is a better one than that adopted in the text. 'A constant or firm
spirit' is the Psalmist's meaning. He sees that a spirit which is
conscious of its relation to God, and set free from the perturbations of
sin, will be a spirit firm and settled, established and immovable in its
obedience and its faith. For Him, the root of all steadfastness is in
consecration to God.
And so this collocation of ideas opens the way for us to important
considerations bearing upon the practical ordering of our natures and of
our lives. For instance, there is no stability and settled persistency
of righteous purpose possible for us, unless we are made strong because
we lay hold on God's strength, and stand firm because we are rooted in
Him. Without that hold-fast, we shall be swept away by storms of
calamity or by gusts of passion. Without that to steady us, our own
boiling lusts and desires will make every fibre of our being quiver and
tremble. Without that armour, there will not be solidity enough in our
character to bear without breaking the steady pressure of the world's
weight, still less the fierce hammering of special temptation. To stand
erect, and in that sense to have a right spirit--one that is upright and
unbent--we must have sure footing in God, and have His energy infused
into our shrinking limbs. If we are to be stable amidst earthquakes and
storms, we must be built on the rock, and build rock-like upon it. Build
thy strength upon God. Let His Holy Spirit be the foundation of thy
life, and then thy tremulous and vagrant soul will be braced and fixed.
The building will become like the foundation, and will grow into 'a
tower of strength that stands four-square to every wind.' Rooted in God,
thou shalt be unmoved by 'the loud winds when they call'; or if still
the tremulous leaves are huddled together before the blast, and the
swaying branches creak and groan, the bole will stand firm and the
gnarled roots will not part from their anchorage, though the storm-giant
drag at them with a hundred hands. The spirit of holiness will be a firm
spirit.
But there is another phase of connection between these two points of the
ideal character--if my spirit is to be holy and to preserve its
holiness, it must be firm. That is to say, you can only get and keep
purity by resistance. A man who has not learned to say 'No!'--who is not
resolved that he _will_ take God's way in spite of every dog that can
bay or bark at him, in spite of every silvery voice that woos him
aside--will be a weak and a wretched man till he dies. In such a world
as this, with such hearts as ours, weakness _is_ wickedness in the long
run. Whoever lets himself be shaped and guided by anything lower than an
inflexible will, fixed in obedience to God, will in the end be shaped
into a deformity and guided to wreck and ruin. Dreams however rapturous,
contemplations however devout, emotions however deep and sacred, make no
man pure and good without hard effort, and that to a large extent in the
direction of resistance. Righteousness is not a mere negative idea, and
Scripture morality is something much deeper than prohibitions. But there
is no law for us without prohibitions, and no righteousness without
casting out evil that is strong in us, and fighting against evil that is
attractive around us. Therefore we need firmness to guard holiness, to
be the hard shell in which the rich fruit matures. We need a wholesome
obstinacy in the right that will neither be bribed nor coaxed nor
bullied, nor anyhow persuaded out of the road in which we know that we
should walk. 'Add to your faith manly vigour.' Learn that an
indispensable requisite of holiness is prescribed in that command, 'Whom
resist, steadfast in the faith.' And remember that the ground of all
successful resistance and the need for it are alike taught in that
series of petitions, which makes a holy spirit the foundation of a
constant spirit, and a constant spirit the guard of a holy spirit.
Then consider, for a moment, the third element in the character which
David longs to possess--a _free_ spirit. He who is holy because full of
God's Spirit, and constant in his holiness, will likewise be 'free.'
That is the same word which is in other places translated 'willing'--and
the scope of the Psalmist's desire is, 'Let my spirit be emancipated
from sin by _willing_ obedience.' This goes very deep into the heart of
all true godliness. The only obedience which God accepts is that which
gladly, and almost as by an instinctive inward impulse, harmonises the
human will with the divine. 'Lo! I come: in the volume of the book it is
written of me, I delight to do Thy will, and Thy law is within my
heart.' That is a blessed thought, that we may come to do Him service
not because we must, but because we like; not as serfs, but as sons; not
thinking of His law as a slave-driver that cracks his whip over our
heads, but as a friend that lets us know how we may please Him whom it
is our delight to obey. And so the Psalmist prays, 'Let my obedience be
so willing that I had rather do what Thou wilt than anything besides.'
'_Then_,' he thinks, 'I shall be free.' Of course--for the correlative
of freedom is lawful authority, and the definition of freedom is willing
submission. If for us duty is joy, and all our soul's desires flow with
an equable motion parallel to the will of God, then there is no sense of
restraint in keeping within the limits beyond which we do not seek to
go. The willing spirit sets us free, free from the 'ancient solitary
reign' of the despot Self, free from the mob rule of passions and
appetites, free from the incubus of evil habits, free from the authority
of men's voices and examples. Obedience is freedom to them that have
learned to love the lips that command. We are set free that we may
serve: 'O Lord! truly I am Thy servant; Thou hast loosed my bonds.' We
are set free in serving: 'I will walk at liberty, for I keep Thy
precepts.' Let a willing, free spirit uphold me.