The
scope of this short but excellent psalm is to show us the way to heaven, and
to convince us that, if we would be happy, we must be holy and honest.
Christ, who is himself the way, and in whom we must walk as our way, has
also shown us the same way that is here prescribed, Matt. xix. 17. "If
thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." In this psalm, I. By
the question (ver. 1) we are directed and excited to enquire for the way.
II. By the answer to that question, in the rest of the psalm, we are
directed to walk in that way, ver. 2-5. III. By the assurance given in the
close of the psalm of the safety and happiness of those who answer these
characters we are encouraged to walk in that way, ver. 5.
A psalm of David.
1 LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy
hill? 2 He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness,
and speaketh the truth in his heart. 3 He that backbiteth
not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a
reproach against his neighbour. 4 In whose eyes a vile person is
contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD.
He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.
5 He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward
against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be
moved.
Here is, I. A very serious and weighty question concerning the characters of
a citizen of Zion (v. 1): "Lord, who shall abide in thy
tabernacle? Let me know who shall go to heaven." Not, who by name
(in this way the Lord only knows those that are his), but who by
description: "What kind of people are those whom thou wilt own and
crown with distinguishing and everlasting favours?" This supposes that
it is a great privilege to be a citizen of Zion, an unspeakable honour and
advantage,--that all are not thus privileged, but a remnant only,--and that
men are not entitled to this privilege by their birth and blood: all shall
not abide in God's tabernacle that have Abraham to their father, but,
according as men's hearts and lives are, so will their lot be. It concerns
us all to put this question to ourselves, Lord, what shall I be, and do,
that I may abide in thy tabernacle? Luke xviii. 18; Acts xvi. 30. 1.
Observe to whom this enquiry is addressed--to God himself. Note, Those that
would find the way to heaven must look up to God, must take direction from
his word and beg direction from his Spirit. It is fit he himself should give
laws to his servants, and appoint the conditions of his favours, and tell
who are his and who not. 2. How it is expressed in Old-Testament language.
(1.) By the tabernacle we may understand the church militant,
typified by Moses's tabernacle, fitted to a wilderness-state, mean and
movable. There God manifests himself, and there he meets his people, as of
old in the tabernacle of the testimony, the tabernacle of meeting. Who shall
dwell in this tabernacle? Who shall be accounted a true living member of
God's church, admitted among the spiritual priests to lodge in the courts of
this tabernacle? We are concerned to enquire this, because many pretend to a
place in this tabernacle who really have no part nor lot in the matter. (2.)
By the holy hill we may understand the church triumphant, alluding to
Mount Zion, on which the temple was to be built by Solomon. It is the
happiness of glorified saints that they dwell in that holy hill; they are at
home there: they shall be for ever there. It concerns us to know who shall
dwell there, that we may make it sure to ourselves that we shall have a
place among them, and may then take the comfort of it, and rejoice in
prospect of that holy hill.
II. A very plain and particular answer to this question. Those that desire
to know their duty, with a resolution to do it, will find the scripture a
very faithful director and conscience a faithful monitor. Let us see then
the particular characters of a citizen of Zion.
1. He is one that is sincere and entire in his religion: He walketh
uprightly, according to the condition of the covenant (Gen. xvii. 1),
"Walk before me, and be thou perfect" (it is the same word
that is here used) "and then thou shalt find me a God
all-sufficient." He is really what he professes to be, is sound at
heart, and can approve himself to God, in his integrity, in all he does; his
conversation is uniform, and he is of a piece with himself, and endeavours
to stand complete in all the will of God. His eye perhaps is weak, but it is
single; he has his spots indeed, but he does not paint; he is an Israelite
indeed in whom is no guile, John i. 47; 2 Cor. i. 12. I know no religion
but sincerity.
2. He is one that is conscientiously honest and just in all his dealings,
faithful and fair to all with whom he has to do: He worketh
righteousness; he walks in all the ordinances and commandments of the
Lord, and takes care to give all their due, is just both to God and man;
and, in speaking to both, he speaks that which is the truth in his heart;
his prayers, professions, and promises, to God, come not out of feigned
lips, nor dares he tell a lie, or so much as equivocate, in his converse or
commerce with men. He walks by the rules of righteousness and truth, and
scorns and abhors the gains of injustice and fraud. He reckons that that
cannot be a good bargain, nor a saving one, which is made with a lie, and
that he who wrongs his neighbour, though ever so plausibly, will prove, in
the end, to have done the greatest injury to himself.
3. He is one that contrives to do all the good he can to his neighbours, but
is very careful to do hurt to no man, and is, in a particular manner, tender
of his neighbour's reputation, v. 3. He does no evil at all to
his neighbour willingly or designedly, nothing to offend or grieve his
spirit, nothing to prejudice the health or ease of his body, nothing to
injure him in his estate or secular interests, in his family or relations;
but walks by that golden rule of equity, To do as he would be done by. He is
especially careful not to injure his neighbour in his good name, though
many, who would not otherwise wrong their neighbours, make nothing of that.
If any man, in this matter, bridles not his tongue, his religion is vain. He
knows the worth of a good name, and therefore he backbites not,
defames no man, speaks evil of no man, makes not others' faults the subject
of his common talk, much less of his sport and ridicule, nor speaks of them
with pleasure, nor at all but for edification. He makes the best of every
body, and the worst of nobody. He does not take up a reproach, that
is, he neither raises it nor receives it; he gives no credit nor countenance
to a calumny, but frowns upon a backbiting tongue, and so silences it, Prov.
xxv. 23. If an ill-natured character of his neighbour be given him, or an
ill-natured story be told him, he will disprove it if he can; if not, it
shall die with him and go no further. His charity will cover a multitude
of sins.
4. He is one that values men by their virtue and piety, and not by the
figure they make in the world, v. 5. (1.) He thinks the better of no
man's wickedness for his pomp and grandeur: In his eyes a vile person is
contemned. Wicked people are vile people, worthless and good for nothing
(so the word signifies), as dross, as chaff, and as salt that has lost its
savour. They are vile in their choices (Jer. ii. 13), in their practices,
Isa. xxxii. 6. For this wise and good men contemn them, not denying them
civil honour and respect as men, as men in authority and power perhaps (1
Pet. ii. 17, Rom. xiii. 7), but, in their judgment of them, agreeing with
the word of God. They are so far from envying them that they pity them,
despising their gains ( Isa. xxxiii. 15), as turning to no account, their
dainties (Ps. cxli. 4), their pleasures (Heb. xi. 24, 25) as sapless and
insipid. They despise their society (Ps. cxix. 115; 2 Kings iii. 14); they
despise their taunts and threats, and are not moved by them, nor disturbed
at them; they despise the feeble efforts of their impotent malice (Ps. ii.
1, 4), and will shortly triumph in their fall, Ps. lii. 6, 7. God despises
them, and they are of his mind. (2.) He thinks the worse of no man's piety
for his poverty and meanness, but he knows those that fear the Lord.
He reckons that serious piety, wherever it is found, puts an honour upon a
man, and makes his face to shine, more than wealth, or wit, or a great name
among men, does or can. He honours such, esteems them very highly in love,
desires their friendship and conversation and an interest in their prayers,
is glad of an opportunity to show them respect or do them a good office,
pleads their cause and speaks of them with veneration, rejoices when they
prosper, grieves when they are removed, and their memory, when they are
gone, is precious with him. By this we may judge of ourselves in some
measure. What rules do we go by in judging of others?
5. He is one that always prefers a good conscience before any secular
interest or advantage whatsoever; for, if he has promised upon oath to do
any thing, though afterwards it appear much to his damage and prejudice in
his worldly estate, yet he adheres to it and changes not, v.
4. See how weak-sighted and short-sighted even wise and good men may be;
they may swear to their own hurt, which they were not aware of when
they took the oath. But see how strong the obligation of an oath is, that a
man must rather suffer loss to himself and his family than wrong his
neighbour by breaking his oath. An oath is a sacred thing, which we must not
think to play fast and loose with.
6. He is one that will not increase his estate by any unjust practices, v.
5. (1.) Not by extortion: He putteth not out his money to usury, that
he may live at ease upon the labours of others, while he is in a capacity
for improving it by his own industry. Not that it is any breach of the law
of justice or charity for the lender to share in the profit which the
borrower makes of his money, any more than for the owner of the land to
demand rent from the occupant, money being, by art and labour, as improvable
as land. But a citizen of Zion will freely lend to the poor, according to
his ability, and not be rigorous and severe in recovering his right from
those that are reduced by Providence. (2.) Not by bribery: He will not take
a reward against the innocent; if he be any way employed in the
administration of public justice, he will not, for any gain, or hope of it,
to himself, do any thing to the prejudice of a righteous cause.
III. The psalm concludes with a ratification of this character of the
citizen of
Zion
. He is like Zion-hill itself, which cannot be moved, but abides for ever,
Ps. cxxv. 1. Every true living member of the church, like the church itself,
is built upon a rock, which the gates of hell cannot prevail against: He
that doeth these things shall never be moved; shall not be moved for
ever, so the word is. The grace of God shall always be sufficient for
him, to preserve him safe and blameless to the heavenly kingdom. Temptations
shall not overcome him, troubles shall not overwhelm him, nothing shall rob
him of his present peace nor his future bliss.
In singing this psalm we must teach and admonish ourselves, and one another,
to answer the characters here given of the citizen of Zion, that we may
never be moved from God's tabernacle on earth, and may arrive, at last, at
that holy hill where we shall be for ever out of the reach of temptation and
danger.
