P
S A L M S
PSALM XXVI.
Holy
David is in this psalm putting himself upon a solemn trial, not by God and his
country, but by God and his own conscience, to both which he appeals touching
his integrity (ver. 1, 2), for the proof of which he alleges, I. His constant
regard to God and his grace, ver. 3. II. His rooted antipathy to sin and
sinners, ver. 4, 5. III. His sincere affection to the ordinances of God, and
his care about them, ver. 6-8. Having thus proved his integrity, 1. He
deprecates the doom of the wicked, ver. 9, 10. 2. He casts himself upon the
mercy and grace of God, with a resolution to hold fast his integrity, and his
hope in God, ver. 11, 12. In singing this psalm we must teach and admonish
ourselves, and one another, what we must be and do that we may have the favour
of God, and comfort in our own consciences, and comfort ourselves with it, as
David does, if we can say that in any measure we have, through grace, answered
to these characters. The learned Amyraldus, in his argument of his psalm,
suggests that David is here, by the spirit of prophecy, carried out to speak
of himself as a type of Christ, of whom what he here says of his spotless
innocence, was fully and eminently true, and of him only, and to him we may
apply it in singing this psalm. "We are complete in him."
A psalm of David.
1 Judge me, O LORD;
for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the LORD;
therefore I shall not slide. 2 Examine me, O LORD,
and prove me; try my reins and my heart. 3 For thy lovingkindness is
before mine eyes: and I have walked in thy truth. 4 I have not sat
with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. 5 I have
hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked.
It is probable that David penned this psalm when he was persecuted by Saul and
his party, who, to give some colour to their unjust rage, represented him as a
very bad man, and falsely accused him of many high crimes and misdemeanors,
dressed him up in the skins of wild beasts that they might bait him. Innocency
itself is no fence to the name, though it is to the bosom, against the darts
of calumny. Herein he was a type of Christ, who was made a reproach of men,
and foretold to his followers that they also must have all manner of evil said
against them falsely. Now see what David does in this case.
I. He appeals to God's righteous sentence (v. 1): "Judge me, O
God! be thou Judge between me and my accusers, between the persecutor and
the poor prisoner; bring me off with honour, and put those to shame that
falsely accuse me." Saul, who was himself supreme judge in Israel, was
his adversary, so that in a controversy with him he could appeal to no other
than to God himself. As to his offences against God, he prays, Lord, enter
not into judgment with me (Ps. cxliii. 2), remember not my
transgressions (Ps. xxv. 7), in which he appeals to God's mercy; but, as
to his offences against Saul, he appeals to God's justice and begs of him to
judge for him, as Ps. xliii. 1. Or thus: he cannot justify himself against the
charge of sin; he owns his iniquity is great and he is undone if God, in his
infinite mercy, do not forgive him; but he can justify himself against the
charge of hypocrisy, and has reason to hope that, according to the tenour of
the covenant of grace, he is one of those that may expect to find favour with
God. Thus holy Job often owns he has sinned and yet he holds fast his
integrity. Note, It is a comfort to those who are falsely accused that there
is a righteous God, who, sooner or later, will clear up their innocency, and a
comfort to all who are sincere in religion that God himself is a witness to
their sincerity.
II. He submits to his unerring search (v. 2): Examine me, O Lord!
and prove me, as gold is proved, whether it be standard. God knows every
man's true character, for he knows the thoughts and intents of the heart, as
sees through every disguise. David prays, Lord, examine me, which
intimates that he was well pleased that God did know him and truly desirous
that he would discover him to himself and discover him to all the world. So
sincere was he in his devotion to his God and his loyalty to his prince (in
both which he was suspected to be a pretender) that he wished he had a window
in his bosom, that whoever would might look into his heart.
III. He solemnly protests his sincerity (v. 1): "I have walked
in my integrity; my conversation had agreed with my profession, and one
part of it has been of a piece with another." It is vain to boast of our
integrity unless we can make it out that by the grace of God we have walked in
our integrity, and that our conversation in the world has been in simplicity
and godly sincerity. He produces here several proofs of his integrity, which
encouraged him to trust in the Lord as his righteous Judge, who would
patronise and plead his righteous cause, with an assurance that he should come
off with reputation (therefore I shall not slide), and that those
should not prevail who consulted to cast him down from his excellency, to
shake his faith, blemish his name, and prevent his coming to the crown, Ps.
lxii. 4. Those that are sincere in religion may trust in God that they shall
not slide, that is, that they shall not apostasize from their religion.
1. He had a constant regard to God and to his grace, v. 3. (1.) He
aimed at God's good favour as his end and chief good: Thy loving-kindness
is before my eyes. This will be a good evidence of our sincerity, if what
we do in religion we do from a principle of love to God, and good thoughts of
him as the best of beings and the best of friends and benefactors, and from a
grateful sense of God's goodness to us in particular, which we have had the
experience of all our days. If we set God's loving-kindness before us as our
pattern, to which we endeavour to conform ourselves, being followers of him
that is good, in his goodness (1 Pet. iii. 13), --if we set it before us
as our great engagement and encouragement to our duty, and are afraid of doing
any thing to forfeit God's favour and in care by all means to keep ourselves
in his love,--this will not only be a good evidence of our integrity, but will
have a great influence upon our perseverance in it. (2.) He governed himself
by the word of God as his rule: "I have walked in thy truth, that
is, according to thy law, for thy law is truth." Note, Those only may
expect the benefit of God's loving-kindness that live up to his truths, and
his laws that are grounded upon them. Some understand it of his conforming
himself to God's example in truth and faithfulness, as well as in goodness and
loving-kindness. Those certainly walk well that are followers of God as dear
children.
2. He had no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, nor with the
workers of those works, v. 4, 5. By this it appeared he was truly loyal
to his prince that he never associated with those that were disaffected to his
government, with any of those sons of Belial that despised him, 1 Sam.
x. 27. He was in none of their cabals, nor joined with them in any of their
intrigues; he cursed not the king, no, not in his heart. And this also was an
evidence of his faithfulness to his God, that he never associated with those
who he had any reason to think were disaffected to religion, or were open
enemies, or false friends, to its interests. Note, Great care to avoid bad
company is both a good evidence of our integrity and a good means to preserve
us in it. Now observe here, (1.) That this part of his protestation looks both
backward upon the care he had hitherto taken in this matter, and forward upon
the care he would still take: "I have not sat with them, and I will
not go in with them." Note, Our good practices hitherto are then
evidence of our integrity when they are accompanied with resolutions, in God's
strength, to persevere in them to the end, and not to draw back; and our good
resolutions for the future we may then take the comfort of when they are the
continuation of our good practices hitherto. (2.) That David shunned the
company, not only of wicked persons, but of vain persons, that were wholly
addicted to mirth and gaiety and had nothing solid or serious in them. The
company of such may perhaps be the more pernicious of the two to a good man
because he will not be so ready to stand upon his guard against the contagion
of vanity as against that of downright wickedness. (3.) That the company of
dissemblers is as dangerous company as any, and as much to be shunned, in
prudence as well as piety. Evil-doers pretend friendship to those whom they
would decoy into their snares, but they dissemble. When they speak fair,
believe them not. (4.) Though sometimes he could not avoid being in the
company of bad people, yet he would not go in with them, he would not
choose such for his companions nor seek an opportunity of acquaintance and
converse with them. He might fall in with them, but he would not, by
appointment and assignation, go in with them. Or, if he happened to be with
them, he would not sit with them, he would not continue with them; he would be
in their company no longer than his business made it necessary: he would not
concur with them, not say as they said, nor do as they did, as those that sit
in the seat of the scornful, Ps. i. 1. He would not sit in counsel with
them upon ways and means to do mischief, nor sit in judgment with them to
condemn the generation of the righteous. (5.) We must not only in our practice
avoid bad company, but in our principles and affections we must have an
aversion to it. David here says, not only "I have shunned it," but,
"I have hated it," Ps. cxxxix. 21. (6.) The congregation of
evil-doers, the club, the confederacy of them, is in a special manner hateful
to good people. I have hated ecclesiam malignantium--the church of the
malignant; so the vulgar Latin reads its. As good men, in concert, make
one another better, and are enabled to do so much the more good, so bad men,
in combination, make one another worse, and do so much the more mischief. In
all this David was a type of Christ, who, though he received sinners and ate
with them, to instruct them and do them good, yet, otherwise, was holy,
harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, particularly from the
Pharisees, those dissemblers. He was also an example to Christians, when they
join themselves to Christ, to save themselves from this untoward
generation, Acts ii. 40.
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Delight
in Divine Ordinances.
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6 I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will
I compass thine altar, O LORD:
7 That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy
wondrous works. 8 LORD,
I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour
dwelleth. 9 Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with
bloody men: 10 In whose hands is mischief, and their right
hand is full of bribes. 11 But as for me, I will walk in mine
integrity: redeem me, and be merciful unto me. 12 My foot standeth
in an even place: in the congregations will I bless the LORD.
In these verses,
I. David mentions, as further evidence of his integrity, the sincere affection
he had to the ordinances of God, the constant care he took about them, and the
pleasure he took in them. Hypocrites and dissemblers may indeed be found
attending on God's ordinances, as the proud Pharisee went up to the temple to
pray with the penitent publican; but it is a good sign of sincerity if we
attend upon them as David here tells us he did, v. 6-8.
1. He was very careful and conscientious in his preparation for holy
ordinances: I will wash my hands in innocency. He not only refrained
from the society of sinners, but kept himself clean from the pollutions of
sin, and this with an eye to the place he had among those that compassed God's
altar. "I will wash, and so will I compass the altar, knowing that
otherwise I shall not be welcome." This is like that (1 Cor. xi. 28), Let
a man examine himself, and so let him eat, so prepared. This denotes, (1.)
Habitual preparation: "I will wash my hands in innocency; I will
carefully watch against all sin, and keep my conscience pure from those dead
works which defile it and forbid my drawing nigh to God." See Ps. xxiv.
3, 4. (2.) Actual preparation. It alludes to the ceremony of the priests'
washing when they went in to minister, Exod. xxx. 20, 21. Though David was no
priest, yet, as every worshipper ought, he would look to the substance of that
which the priests were enjoined the shadow of. In our preparation for solemn
ordinances we must not only be able to clear ourselves from the charge of
reigning infidelity or hypocrisy, and to protest our innocency of that (which
was signified by washing the hands, Deut. xxi. 6), but we must take
pains to cleanse ourselves from the spots of remaining iniquity by renewing
our repentance, and making fresh application of the blood of Christ to our
consciences for the purifying and pacifying of them. He that is washed (that
is, in a justified state) has need thus to wash his feet (John xiii.
10), to wash his hands, to wash them in innocency; he that is penitent is pene
innocens--almost innocent; and he that is pardoned is so far innocent that
his sins shall not be mentioned against him.
2. He was very diligent and serious in his attendance upon them: I will
compass thy altar, alluding to the custom of the priests, who, while the
sacrifice was in offering, walked round the altar, and probably the offerers
likewise did so at some distance, denoting a diligent regard to what was done
and a dutiful attendance in the service. "I will compass it; I
will be among the crowds that do compass it, among the thickest of them."
David, a man of honour, a man of business, a man of war, thought it not below
him to attend with the multitude on God's altars and could find time for that
attendance. Note, (1.) All God's people will be sure to wait on God's altar,
in obedience to his commands and in pursuance of his favour. Christ is our
altar, not as the altar in the Jewish church, which was fed by them, but an
altar that we eat of and live upon, Heb. xiii. 10. (2.) It is a
pleasant sight to see God's altar compassed and to see ourselves among those
that compass it.
3. In all his attendance on God's ordinances he aimed at the glory of God and
was much in the thankful praise and adoration of him. He had an eye to the
place of worship as the place where God's honor dwelt (v. 8), and
therefore made it his business there to honour God and to give him the glory
due to his name, to publish with the voice of thanksgiving all God's wondrous
works. God's gracious works, which call for thanksgiving, are all wondrous
works, which call for our admiration. We ought to publish them, and tell of
them, for his glory, and the excitement of others to praise him; and we ought
to do it with the voice of thanksgiving, as those that are sensible of our
obligations, by all ways possible, to acknowledge with gratitude the favours
we have received from God.
4. He did this with delight and from a principle of true affection to God and
his institutions. Touching this he appeals to God: "Lord, thou
knowest how dearly I have loved the habitation of thy house (v.
8), the tabernacle where thou art pleased to manifest thy residence among thy
people and receive their homage, the place where thy honour dwells."
David was sometimes forced by persecution into the countries of idolaters and
was hindered from attending God's altars, which perhaps his persecutors, that
laid him under that restraint, did themselves upbraid him with as his crime.
See 1 Sam. xx. 27. "But, Lord," says he, "though I cannot come
to the habitation of thy house, I love it; my heart is there, and it is my
greatest trouble that I am not there." Note, All that truly love God
truly love the ordinances of God, and therefore love them because in
them he manifests his honour and they have an opportunity of honouring him.
Our Lord Jesus loved his Father's honour, and made it his business to glorify
him; he loved the habitation of his house, his church among men, loved it and
gave himself for it, that he might build and consecrate it. Those who love
communion with God, and delight in approaching him, find it to be a constant
pleasure, a comfortable evidence of their integrity, and a comfortable earnest
of their endless felicity.
II. David, having given proofs of his integrity, earnestly prays, with a
humble confidence towards God (such as those have whose hearts condemn them
not), that he might not fall under the doom of the wicked (v. 9, 10). Gather
not my soul with sinners, Here, 1. David describes these sinners, whom he
looked upon to be in a miserable condition, so miserable that he could not
wish the worst enemy he had in the world to be in a worse. "They are bloody
men, that thirst after blood and lie under a great deal of the guilt of
blood. They do mischief, and mischief is always in their hands. Though they
get by their wickedness (for their right hand is full of bribes which
they have taken to pervert justice), yet that will make their case never the
better; for what is a man profited if he gain the world and lose his soul?"
2. He dread having his lot with them. He never loved them, nor associated with
them, in this world, and therefore could in faith pray that he might not have
his lot with them in the other world. Our souls must shortly be gathered, to
return to God that gave them and will call for them again. See Job xxxiv. 14.
It concerns us to consider whether our souls will then be gathered with saints
or with sinners, whether bound in the bundle of life with the Lord for ever,
as the souls of the faithful are (1 Sam. xxv. 29), or bound in the bundle of
tares for the fire, Matt. xiii. 30. Death gathers us to our people, to those
that are our people while we live, whom we choose to associate with, and with
whom we cast in our lot, to those death will gather us, and with them we must
take our lot, to eternity. Balaam desired to die the death of the righteous;
David dreaded dying the death of the wicked; so that both sides were of that
mind, which if we be of, and will live up to it, we are happy for ever. Those
that will not be companions with sinners in their mirth, nor eat of their
dainties, may in faith pray not to be companions with them in their misery,
nor to drink of their cup, their cup of trembling.
III. David, with a holy humble confidence, commits himself to the grace of
God, v. 11, 12. 1. He promises that by the grace of God he would
persevere in his duty: "As for me, whatever others do, I will
walk in my integrity." Note, When the testimony of our consciences
for us that we have walked in our integrity is comfortable to us this should
confirm our resolutions to continue therein. 2. He prays for the divine grace
both to enable him to do so and to give him the comfort of it: "Redeem
me out of the hands of my enemies, and be merciful to me, living
and dying." Be we ever so confident of our integrity, yet still we must
rely upon God's mercy and the great redemption Christ has wrought out, and
pray for the benefit of them. 3. He pleases himself with his steadiness:
"My foot stands in an even place, where I shall not stumble and
whence I shall not fall." This he speaks as one that found his
resolutions fixed for God and godliness, not to be shaken by the temptations
of the world, and his comforts firm in God and his grace, not to be disturbed
by the crosses and troubles of the world. 4. He promises himself that he
should yet have occasion to praise the Lord, that he should be furnished with
matter for praise, that he should have a heart for praises, and that, though
he was now perhaps banished from public ordinances, yet he should again have
an opportunity of blessing God in the congregation of his people. Those that
hate the congregation of evil-doers shall be joined to the congregation of the
righteous and join with them in praising God; and it is pleasant doing that in
good company; the more the better; it is the more like heaven.
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