21 These things thou wickedly hast done, Thou thought'st that I was like thyself, But I will sharply thee reprove, Thy sins and thy transgressions His life and conversation. ་་་་་་་་ self-condemned who do not reduce to practise in their own conduct what they inculcate upon others. The charge brought in here against the unbelieving Jews, they filled up in their treatment of our Lord; and he and his humble followers meet a similar usage from mere professors, who give their mouth to evil, and their tongue to frame deceit; while they deliberately speak against their brethren, and slander their own mother's sons, as the Jews did Christ, who was faithful in all God's house, as a Son of that church. Such things they wickedly did towards him, as viewing him, altogether such a one as themselves. But he sharply reproved them, and set their evil deeds in order before their eyes, or so wrote their sin in its punishment, that he who ran might read it. This will he fulfil in the best sense when that nation shall be born to him at once; and finally in the case of every sinner. What he addresses to the unbelieving Jews, ver. 22. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver, with equal force admonishes all that bear the Christian name. The former he hath torn in pieces, as the lion of the tribe of Judah; and will the latter escape should they tread in the steps of their Jewish brethren? But, alas! we are fallen already, after the same example of unbelief. The psalm concludes with a summary of acceptable worship, whether by Jews or Christians; the want of which no external observances can supply. It inculcates Paul's observation, already referred to; He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew, who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, tn the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God The same rule applies to Christians, and should be so understood. PSALM LIA. THE mournful occasion upon which David penned this Psalm is well known, that of the unhappy affair of Uriah aud Bathsheba. It presents a perfect model of penitential devotion, and as such hath been blessed to thousands since the days of David. In it we see the royal penitent laying aside his robes of state, clothed with sackcloth, and lying in ashes; and in this self-abazing state, supplicating the exercise of Divine mercy, as his only refuge. The message sent by Nathan, accompanied with power from on high, was blessed in restoring his soul to the melting frame expressed in this Psalm; and of that word in season, he says elsewhere— Such smiting shall not wound my head. As Peter was brought to repentance by remembering Christ's words, when he gave him a look of compassion, so was this noted penitent. Let us frequently recollect his words with the like view, that sin may find no refuge in us, and that we may hook upon him whom we have pierced, and mourn. 1. AFTER thy loving-kindness, LORD, For thy compassions great, blot out 2 Me cleanse from sin, and throughly wash From mine iniquity: Notes on Psalm LI. Verse 1. Have mercy upon me, O God, according: to thy loving-kindness; &c. A sense of misery, and of the power of mercy to relieve from it, is the moving spring of true repentance. A firm per suasion of God's love, expressing itself in tender pity to the miserable, stimulates to the exercise of repentance towards God, and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.-He pleads the Lord would blot out his transgressions, according to the multitude of his tender mercies; a language full and emphatic. The word rendered mercy denotes the yearnings of a parent's bowels, yet is it here put in the plural, prefixed by the epithet tender, and yet a multitude of these unite in the pardon of one sinner, or one sin. Pardon is expressed by blotting out the lamented trangressions, in allusion to the erasing of an hand-writing which entails a debt upon a person. As the reflowing tide covers the multitude of sands on the seashore, so the blood of Jesus, in the hand of the Spirit, applied to the conscience by faith, blotteth out all sins. Verse 2. Wash me ceremonial ablutions. thoroughly &c. This is spoken in allusion to the When sin is blotted out by a free-pardon, then 3 For my transgressions I confess; My sin 1 ever see. 4 'Gainst thee, thee only, have I sinn'd, That when thou speak'st thou may'st be just,, And clear in judging still. 5 Behold, I in iniquity Was form'd the womb within; the penitent sinner is washed. But true penitence leads to be as anxious, for renewing and confirming grace, to make and preserve the soul holy, as for forgiveness to remove contracted guilt; and the believer is complete in his Lord in both respects. Verse 3. For I acknowlege my transgressions, &c. The Psalmist here pleads for mercy upon the ground, that he does not go about to deny, or extenuate his crimes; but takes shame to himself by confessing them candidly, with all their aggravations, and recording that confession for the inspection, admonition, and example of every succeeding generation. Would we hope that God will cast our sins behind his back, we must, like David, place them ever before us, and humbly confess them in the divine presence.. Verse 4. Against, or, to thee, thee only have I sinned, &c. It is urged as a farther reason for the exercise of mercy, that his pardon must come from that very Being, against whom his sins were committed, and who consequently, possessed the right of extending pardon. Our laws vest in the king power to forgive treason and rebellion, because crimes committed directly against his own authority, as the civil head of the community. Whatever concern others had in the Psalmist's transgressions, this vanished when contrasted with this consideration, Messiah was represented by the royal prophet; and therefore the message by Nathan, Sam. xii. 12. came in his name with the greater propriety. Hence the last clause is: rendered, therefore thou wilt be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.. Verse 5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, &c. This part of his confession is meant to aggravate his guilt, but not to extenuate or excuse it. As mercy and grace alone can dry up the fountain of original corruption, whence all actual transgressions spring, he is theuce led to implore the exercise of the former, and the communication of the latter. As lifer and righteousness come only by Jesus Christ, the Second Adam, the birth we derive from the first cannot include these. Death is derived from him, and a new birth only secures the life that comes from the other. A man 'must be born again before he can enter the kingdom e: heaven, or be an actual member of Christ's household. Τ 6 Behold, thou in the inward parts And wisdom thou shalt make me know Do thou with hyssop sprinkle me, I shall be cleansed so; Yea, wash thou me, and then I shall 8 Of gladness and of joyfulness That so these very bones which thou 9 All mine iniquities blot out, Thy face hide from my sin. Verse 6. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward part, Heb. the reins; &c. While God requires this in every true penitent, and David felt and owned the truth, may we not infer that he will finally produce in every case what he so requires and prefers? Without this how can what we find, Ps. cxi. 7, 8, universally hold? The works of his hands are or shall be verity and judgment, all his commandments are sure, sure in their effect as well as in their injunction. They stand, or are established for ever, and are, or shall be, done in truth and uprightness. As all men are the works of his hands, and as he hath made them all in wisdom, and shall so make them hereafter; (Ps. civ. 24.) so the conclusion is obvious, Verse 7. Purge me with hyssop, &c. This request is expressed in language borrowed from the Mosaic ritual, probably, from Numb. xix. Of this rite the apostle gives us an explanation, Heb. ix. 13, 14. From the latter clause of the verse, I shall be whiter than snow, we learn that the pardoned penitent is arrayed in garments pure as innocence itself; which cannot intend his inherent holiness, but must refer to that righteousness in which he stands acquitted in the sight of God, and entitled to, the heavenly inheritance, Verse 8. Make me to hear joy and gladness, &c. Next to the pardon of sin is the blessing of peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Spirit, which are to be prayed for from above, whence every good gift descends. The inward man may be said to have its bones, these divine graces, and pious resolutions, which are necessary to holy conduct; and these bones may be said to be broken when the soul is in a deranged state, and loses the power of spiritual activity. These are healed and made to rejoice when a sense of forgiveness inspires joy and consolation, and restores the lost vigour of the inward man, decayed through a painful sense of guilt. At the resurrection the bones, so long broken and mouldered in the dust,. will be made to rejoice and flourish as an herb, Isa. Ixiv. 14. Verse 9. Hide thy face from my sins; &c. God is said to set our ini 10 Create a clean heart, LORD, renew A right Sp'rit me within. 11 Cast me not from thy sight, nor take, 12 Restore me thy salvation's joy, 13 Then will I teach thy ways unto And those that sinners are shall then Be turned unto thee. 14 O God, of my salvation God, Me from blood-guiltiness quities before him, our secret sins in the light of his countenance, (Ps. xc. 8.) when he determines to punish for them: and to hide his face 'from them, and blot them out, when he graciously pardons the penitent, acting like a creditor who blots out the record of a debt, so that it can no more be read. Verse 10. Create in me a clean heart, O God; &c. The renewing of a right, or constant spirit within us, and the restoring of the wandering and misplaced affections to God, may be called creation in the secondary sense of that term. This renovation of the inward man, and purifica tion of the soul, with all its powers, faculties and affections, constitute a work to which divine power alone is adequate. Thus restored, the soul returns to God as its rest and centre. Verse 11. Cast me not away from thy presence; &c. To be denied the gracious presence of God, and deserted by his good Spirit, a true penitent dreads above any earthly calamity. Verse 12. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation: &c. That joy cannot dwell with an impenitent heart, of which David so often sang in his dìvine compositions. The Spirit that he calls free, princely or liberal, and by whom he prays he may be upheld, is that divine Spirit by whom saints are guided to the land of uprightness. By this divine agent he prays he may be kept in a state of salvation, and enabled to act as became a prophet and a king of Israel, delivered from every desire, and lust that derogate from the dignity of such sacred characters. By the Verse 13. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, &c. Truth is best inforced by the pious example of its teachers. When thou art converted, said our Lord to Peter, strengthen thy brethren. Luke xxii. 32. history of David's life, and by his Book of Psalms, many thousands, we have reason to think, have been converted from the error of their ways, and will continue to be so while sinners exist. Verse 14. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, &c. A hand in the blood of men's souls or bodies will one time or other lie heavy or |