3265. Faith Tried and Triumphing

Though he kills me, yet I will trust in him. {Job 13:15}

For other sermons on this text:

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1244, “Faith’s Ultimatum” 1235}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3265, “Faith Tried and Triumphing” 3267}

1. There are some speeches which could not be made by ordinary men. As soon as you hear them, you feel that there is a ring about them which is by no means common. Certain expressions which have been heard and remembered could have been uttered only by great warriors, or by men who have navigated the vast ocean. Certain other even nobler expressions, because spiritual ones, could have been uttered only by those who have had to fight with spiritual foes, or have done business on the great waters of soul-trouble. When you hear the expression, “If there are as many demons at Worms as there were tiles on the house-tops, I will go there in God’s name,” you are quite certain the speaker is Martin Luther. No one else but he could have said it. And just as certainly, I think, I should have felt, if I had read the text tonight for the first time, that it was Job who said it, and no one else.

2. Job was a master sufferer. No man went deeper into grief than he: his children all dead, his wealth all swept away, his whole body covered with sore boils and blains, and the friends who pretended to comfort him, only accusing him of being a hypocrite; while his own wife tells him to, “curse God, and die.” He was brought lower than anyone; and, therefore, being a man of faith, having overcome and triumphed by faith, it was like him to utter such a noble speech as what our text brings before us. “Though he kills me, yet I will trust in him,” is not the utterance of any ordinary commonplace believer. It is a kind of word which, we are quite sure, could only come from a triumphant Job, — triumphant by victorious faith. However, I trust there are some here who could use this expression, now that another has fitted it for their lips, and I hope that all of us who have any faith at all, may have that faith so increased, that yet, without boasting, we may be able even more to say, “Though he kills me, yet I will trust in him.”

3. I. In speaking on this text I would note, first, THAT FAITH IS THE HABITUAL GRACE OF THE CHRISTIAN. To trust in God is his usual mode of life. He does not sometimes trust and sometimes cease to trust; but “the just shall live by faith.” Faith is not a grace of luxury but a grace of necessity. We must have it, and if we do not have it, we would not be the people of God at all. The common habit of the Christian then, is a habit of trusting. The Christian’s walk is faith, and his life is faith.

4. Faith is to the Christian all the spiritual senses, not one, but all. The natural man has his eyes, but by faith we see him who is invisible. The natural man has his hand and his feeling. We do not live by feeling, but our faith is the hand by which we take a firm hold on eternal realities. The natural man has his ear, and it is delighted with sweet sounds, or through it the language of friendship enters his heart. Our faith is the ear through which we hear the voice of God, and sometimes even catch stray notes from the harps of the angels. The natural man has the nose with which he becomes aware of sweet perfumes; and to our faith the name of Jesus is as choicest ointment poured out. If we receive Christ as our heart’s Lord, all the inlets by which we receive him and his grace are made of the agate of faith. Gates of carbuncle, windows of agate, are true faith. The light of God and the love of God come into our consciousness by our faith.

5. Faith, too, is with the Christian his first and his last. Faith looking to Christ is the very beginning of spiritual life. We began to live at the foot of the cross, when we looked up and saw the flowing of those founts of forgiveness, the five wounds of Christ. And just as faith was the first, so it will be the last. We expect to die looking for our Lord’s appearing, and still resting on his finished work. And all between the alpha and the omega — all the other letters, we read them all by faith. There is no time in our life in which it is safe for us to live by feeling, not even when our enjoyments run highest. On the mount, where Christ is transfigured, and where in the midst of the glory we shall fall asleep in amazement, we cannot live by sense. Even there, we can only enjoy the glory as faith shall continue to be in exercise. We must, all the way through, from the first to the last, look beyond ourselves, and look above the things which are seen, to grasp the things which are not seen, to be touched with the eternal hand, and realize what does not seem real to sense. This is the life of the Christian from the first to the last.

6. And I would add, just as it is his first and last, so faith is the Christian’s highest and his lowest. If we ever get on the mountain summit and bask our foreheads in the sunlight of fellowship with God, we stand there only by faith. It is because our faith is strong and in active exercise that we realize the things not seen as yet, and behold the God whom mortal eyes cannot gaze at. Our very noblest, happiest, and most heavenly feelings are those that are the results of faith. And so in our lowest. We can only live there by faith. Have you never lain shattered and broken, crushed and destroyed, expecting something even more terrible; and have you not felt that now in your faintness you could fall back into the Saviour’s arms; that now in your brokenness you could drop into his hand; that now in your abject nothingness he must be all in all to you, or else there will be an utter end to you? Oh! the faith that is as wings to us when we fly, becomes a life-jacket to us when we sink. The faith which bears us up to the gates of heaven, also lifts us up from the very gates of hell. It is our first and our last; it is our highest and our lowest. It is all the senses of our spiritual nature. We must have it, and always have it. We must trust in the Lord.

7. The matters about which the true Christian is to trust are very many, but they are chiefly these.

8. We trust for the pardon of our sins in our God in Christ Jesus. The only hope that any Christian has for the forgiveness of his iniquity, lies in the sacrifice presented on Calvary by the Lamb of God whom God has given for the sins of the world. If anyone shall ask us, whether we trust that our sins are forgiven us because of our repentance, or because of a long life of active Christian service, we shall reply that we are thankful if God has given us these things, but our sole reliance is in our dear Lord and Master who was once fastened to the cross, but now sits in power in the highest heavens. Our trust for the pardon of sin in every degree and every respect, lies in Christ the Son of God and only there. In this matter we can use the language of Job and say, “Though he kills me, yet I will trust in him,” for the fact is, the more fully we are slain the more truly we trust. When we see ourselves to be utterly dead, slain by the two-edged sword of the Lord, and all hope of our own self-salvation to be a corpse, then it is more easy than it ever was before to come and cast ourselves on the Christ of God, and rest there, for all our salvation from the guilt of sin.

9. But in God we trust also for the purification of our spirits from all the indwelling power of sin. Some Christians do not appear to make this a matter of faith, and therefore they do not succeed in it. You can no more conquer sin in yourself — really conquer it, by your own strength, than you can remove the guilt of it by your own merits. The same Christ who is made to us “justification” and “redemption,” is also made to us “sanctification,” and we must never forget, that while we wash our robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb as for pardon, we also overcome our sins through the blood of the Lamb. The same Saviour who takes away the guilt, takes away the power, and the defiling power, of sin. Well has Toplady put it: — 

   Let the water and the blood,

   From thy riven side which flowed,

   Be of sin the double cure, — 

   Cleanse me from its guilt and power.

Now, the true Christian can say that he trusts in God for his effective purification and his final perfection. He does not hope to drive out one of these Canaanites by his own arm. He does not think that he shall slay one of his corruptions in his own strength. But his eyes are to the hills from where his help comes, and he believes that the eternal Spirit will, like refining fire, go through and through his soul, until everything in him shall be burned up except what is from God, what will endure the fire and be well-pleasing in Jehovah’s sight.

10. The matters on which we rely on God, then, are, as far as I have yet gone, the finished work of Jesus Christ, and the power that there is in Christ and in the blessed Spirit to sanctify us, spirit, soul, and body.

11. But our trust is in God in another sense, namely: first, we trust him, believing that he always must be just. It does not occur to us now that God could be unjust. In the days of our flesh we used to think, if we suffered some extreme pain, or if we passed suddenly from wealth to poverty, that God had dealt very harshly with us; but now we feel that his strokes are fewer than our crimes and lighter than our guilt; and it does not occur to us in any way to impeach the justice of God let him do what he wishes. We feel that if he not only should kill us, but if he should cast us into hell for ever, remembering what we are in ourselves and standing on our own footing, we could not complain against him. This is our firm confidence, that whatever our position is, God has always dealt justly with us, that he never will deal unjustly with us, and we shall never have to say of any one transaction that we have with him, “This is not according to the rule of right.”

12. But, we go a great deal further. Having believed in Christ Jesus, and having become his children, we trust, believing that God will never do anything to us, but what is full of love. We are assured that his eternal love does not only come out now and then, that it does not only permeate and infuse itself into a few of his actions; but that all his conduct towards his children is actuated by the motive power of love. He is always love towards those who put their trust in him. We are sure that he never gives us a pain more than is necessary, that he never lets us suffer a loss more than is necessary. “Though for a time, if needs be, we are in heaviness through manifold temptations,” we know and are convinced that there is a “needs-be” for it. We trust his justice and we trust his goodness.

13. And, more, we trust his wisdom mixed with all this. He has said that “all things work together for good for those who love God,” and we believe it; we have had some bitters in our cup, but we still believe it; we may yet have a great many more, but we are assured that through the help of God’s Spirit we shall still believe this, — that come what may, expected or unexpected, in the ways of grief and sorrow, still that ultimate good shall come out of the whole. God’s purpose of love shall not be thwarted, but rather shall be answered by every circumstance of our history. Therefore we do trust in God that he is just and cannot do us an unrighteous action; that he is loving and cannot do an unkind thing to us; that he is wise and loving and just, and will make all things work together for good.

14. In conclusion, we trust him as a child trusts his parent, that is, for everything. There are many things about him that we cannot understand, as there were about our parents in our childhood, but we trust him and know that there is no one like him. “There is no one like the God of Jeshurun.” We trust him in all that he does. We cannot understand him, for his way is in the sea and his footsteps are not known; but we are sure that they are footsteps of holiness, and they are ways of righteousness. We trust him for all the past and all the present, indeed, and for all the future too; that future which sometimes looms before us in the mist, and half alarms us, until we are ready to shrink back from it. We gather up the skirts of our robe again, and though we fear as we enter into the cloud, yet we are comforted with the full conviction, that he who has done so well in the past, will be with us even to life’s close.

15. So I have tried to show you, that the whole tenor of the Christian man’s life is trust, — that, as in the text, “Though he kills me, yet I will trust in him.”

16. II. Now the second point shall be, that those of us who have learned to trust in God expect that OUR FAITH SHALL BE TRIED.

17. The text holds the plain supposition that it shall be tried extremely. He does not say, “Though I die“; that would be a great trial. Death is not a pleasant thing, it is no child’s play even for the strongest believer. Job does not say, “Though I die,” but “Though he kills me.” That is more. He does not say, “Though he permits me to be slain,” but, “Though he kills me; though he should seem to be so much my enemy as to turn around and kill me, though I may not believe his action, I will believe him; I will believe his infallible word. Even though he kills me.” It is not, “Though he makes me hungry, or, though he puts me in prison, though he allows me to be mocked, though he allows me to be banished from all my friends, and to live a solitary and wretched life.” No, it is more than that: “Though he kills me.” And, notice, it is not, “Though he kills my children; though he takes away my wife; though he removes all my dear kindred.” It is more than that. “Though he kills me; though it comes right home to me.”

18. Ah! Job knew what he meant, for all other things had been done except the killing of him. His children were dead, and the house in which they had met was a ruin. All he had was gone, health had gone, and he could not rest by reason of the disease which was all over him, most painful and most acute. He had nothing left on earth that was worth having. He was even friendless; and he was worse than wifeless, for his wife had turned against him. Yet, he says, there is only one more thing that can be done, and God has kept Satan back from that. He said, “Only you shall not take his life.” But if the Lord chooses to let loose the dog without even the link of a chain on him, — though he allows me now to lose my life itself, — 

   Though he slay me, I will trust,

   Praise him even from the dust, — 

   Prove, and sing it as I prove,

   His eternal gracious love.

19. Now, the text evidently implies that faith will be tried, and tested severely. Let us think for a moment about this. Has it not always been the case, that if any man has had a faith beyond his fellow men, it has met trial? If you go a step beyond the ordinary rank and file, you will be shot at for that very reason. Columbus believes that there is another part of the world undiscovered; what ridicule is heaped on him! Galileo says the world moves; he must be put into the inquisition; the poor old man must be forced to deny what he was quite sure was the truth. It was dangerous in those days to know too much, and to believe a little more than other people. And in spiritual things it is just the same. The world is against the true faith. The faith of God’s elect is not a flower that men delight to admire and praise. It is a thing which, wherever they see it, they count as a speckled bird, and they are sure to be against it. If you have faith in God, remember, that this is not the world of faith, but the world of unbelief, and the darkness that is in the world will try to quench your light.

20. But remember that true faith scorns trial and outlives it. It is not worth having if it does not. If I believe in the friendship of my friend, and yet it cannot bear a little trial, it is not real friendship. Perhaps, in your youth, as with most of us, there was some one very dear to you. In your boyish or girlish days you would walk with some companion, and you swore inseparable friendship. Ah, how many of those friendships did you make, and they were broken! Since then, perhaps, we have thought that someone with whom we took sweet counsel never by any possibility could betray us; but there came a test of our friendship. We were not worth so much as we once were, or we were not so much esteemed as we used to be, or there happened to be a misunderstanding; and in a little tiff, the friendship was marred. But that faith which a man has in his fellow men that is worth having, will not yield so easily. No, says the man, “If you say anything to me against my friend I do not believe you, I think there is some other way of reading it. If you do speak the truth you do not know all about it; there is something else that would change the complexion of it. And even if you were to convict him of a fault, I would still love him, for there are many virtues in him, and if he did this thing, he must have made a mistake. I will defend him.”

21. Now, transfer this from common life to faith in God. If a man says, “I trust in God,” and it is all smooth sailing, and his children are around him and he has plenty on the table, his body in full health, and he has all that heart could wish for, — we will see what kind of faith that is. It is not proved yet; but will the man believe his God when God begins to take away all he loves? Will he believe him when the wife pines away with a long and painful sickness? Will he believe him when child after child is taken to the tomb? Will he believe him when he sees his property taken away before his eyes? Will he believe his God when he himself can scarcely move hand or foot on the bed of sickness? Will he still be able to bless the name of the Lord when he is stripped of everything? If he can, then this is faith worth having, but if he cannot, then it is not the faith that is worthy of God, and it is good that it does give way, for it may drive the man then to seek the true faith, which would bear the tests.

22. You see, then brethren, if we have faith we must expect to have it tried, by reason of faith being an unusual thing in the world, and because if it would not bear trial it would not be worth having. History tells us that the best servants of God have had their trials, and why should we expect to escape? We look over the historical pages of this Book, which are so full of instruction for us, and we find that all the Lord’s children have had to do battle for the preservation of their faith. There is no smooth road to heaven. Steam rollers can be used for the earth, for our common roads, but you shall find the flint stones on the road to glory. They have never been rolled smooth yet, and they never will be.

   The path of sorrow, and that path alone

   Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.

Faith must and shall be tried, as surely as it is the faith of God’s people; and if the best of saints have been obliged to say that through much tribulation they have inherited the Kingdom, we must not expect that God will change his rule in his treatment of us. I would not, however, encourage one thing which I have sometimes noticed, namely, the fear which comes into some Christians, that they are not God’s people because they have not been much tried. All the saints experience trial. I know a dear friend who is suffering just now, who says that he was occasionally afflicted with a fear that he could not be a child of God because he was so long without a sickness or without a trial. Ah, you will have that case met quite soon enough. Do not run after trouble, remember troubles of our own seeking would not be genuine strokes of the rod. You may leave that in God’s hand. Do not fret yourself there. Only, when the trials do come to you, let this console you, that — 

   Bastards may escape the rod,

   Plunged in sensual vain delight,

   But the true-born child of God

   Must not, — would not, if he might.

In our peace of soul, if God has given it to us by lot and by inheritance, some thorns and thistles must and will spring up in this present world.

23. Moreover, dear brethren, the trial is greatly for our good, and greatly for God’s glory. Our faith could never grow, neither could we be sure of it, if it had not been tested. They do not send steam vessels out to sea at once. Often you see on the Clyde vessels being tried — tried on the {a} Gairloch — before they go out to sea. And God tries us here, before we take the great ocean of judgment — before we come to the time of death. We have our trials here, and we grow by our trials. Among the best mercies we have ever received, are those mercies that have come to us dressed in the sombre garb of mourning, which have carried treasures in both their hands. May God be thanked for the fire! May God be thanked for the refiner’s furnace and the crucible! They have been among the best things we have inherited from his mercy.

24. So I have brought out two ideas of the text. The Christian lives by faith, and he expects that faith to be tried.

25. III. But now the next point is the main point of the text, — that A TRUE FAITH, PUT ON TRIAL, WILL CERTAINLY BEAR IT. “Though he kills me.” It is an extreme expression. “Though he does his worst, though he gives the last and uttermost stroke that can be taken, yet I will not doubt him. Though he kills me.”

26. Faith will be justified to the uttermost. It is very easy to believe the creature too much. It is a common fault. It is impossible to trust the Creator too much. To trust him too little is one of the most common of sins. Faith in the creature is hardly ever warranted. Faith in the Creator can be warranted, push it as far as you ever like. You know that there is a point where faith in the creature must stop. Our dearest friends can go with us only to the Jordan’s brink, and then they can help us no longer. But though we go through the valley of the shadow of death, God is with us, and we need fear no evil. Though it comes actually to the killing and to the death, still we may trust in him, for he cannot — he will not — fail us.

27. Why is it that the believer is warranted in trusting in God to the very last extremity? The answer is, because he is always the same God. If he is worth trusting one day he is worth trusting another. He cannot change. His character is such, that if it is infinitely worthy of my confidence today, it will be just the same in the rough weather that may come tomorrow. Could he change, then my faith in him ought to change; but if he is always the same true, faithful, loving and tender God, ruling all things by his power, there can be no reason why my faith should make a change. I ought to trust him, who at all times is the same.

28. I ought to trust him also to the last, because outward providences prove nothing to us about God. We cannot read outward events correctly; they are written in hieroglyphics. The book of God is readable; it is written in human language; but the works of God are often unreadable.

   Blind unbelief is sure to err,

   And scan his work in vain.

   God is his own interpreter,

   And he will make it plain.

We begin spelling God’s works and making mischief out of them, because we do not know the letters or understand the alphabet, and cannot readily know what he means. If the Lord says he loves us, do we believe it though he strikes us? Do we believe that — 

   Behind a frowning providence

   He hides a smiling face?

Be wise, then, and believe in the God you cannot see, and not in the outward providence which you can see; for if you could see that outward providence properly as God sees it, you would see it to be as full of love as assuredly God’s heart is for you, if you are a believer in him. Therefore, since the outward is no sign to us, let us, when it gathers all the black it can, still believe in him. When it shall seem most severe, and deep calls to deep at the noise of God’s waterspouts, let us still hope in him, for he is the health of our countenance and our God.

29. Moreover, brethren, there is another reason why we should always trust in him. To whom else can we go? We are restricted to this. When it comes to slaying, to cutting, to striking, and to killing work, what can the soul do, but fall into the Creator’s arms? When it comes to dying, what words shall suit these lips so well as those, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” The course of the Christian’s life is such, that he feels it is more necessary to trust every day he lives. He does not get off the line of faith, he gets more into the middle of it, as he feels his weakness more, and at the last, when his weakness will be more apparent, he will need faith more than ever, and he will have it too. He shall be able to say, “My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.” Ah! I say again, to whom should we go in our trouble but to God? All other sources are then dried up. The world mocks us, it seems to be a howling wilderness. It is only from heaven the manna can come; only from the rock Christ Jesus, the living water can gush out.

30. And there is one other word I will say before I leave this point; we may depend on it, God will always justify our faith if we trust him. There was never one who in the long run had to say, “I was a fool to trust in God.” Many have said to us, in times of trouble, “he trusted in God that he would deliver him; let him deliver him,” and they have hissed between their teeth that hideous taunt, “Where is their God now?” But God has not left the righteous to be ashamed and to be offended for ever. They have had perhaps a blush on the cheek for a moment, for the flesh is weak, but they have not been confounded for long. Faith has come to the rescue, and God has fulfilled their faith. Many a man has trusted in himself and been deceived; many have trusted in their wealth and been disappointed; thousands have relied on friends, and have been betrayed; but blessed is the man, oh Lord of hosts, who sustains himself on you. You can go beyond your friend’s limit and measure; you may readily expect too much of him; you can try the patience of the dearest one you have on earth, and at last feel that you have tried it too much; but you can never go beyond the limit of God. Your sin will rather be in limiting the Holy One of Israel. You will never open your mouth too wide for him; you will never ask too much from him, you will never expect too much; you will never believe too much. Has he not himself said, “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.” The wider you open it the better; the larger your expectations the better, for, according to your faith so shall it be done for you.

31. Now, in closing, I would observe, that if we say the text, it will take a good deal of saying, and if it is true, it will require the power of God himself to make it true. You can stand up tonight and say, “Though he kills me, yet I will trust in him.” But how would it be if he took you at your word? Did you ever question yourself like this, Christian brethren? You have said, “Well, I hope I have a faith that will bear me safely into the presence of God.” Did you ever put yourself in the position of a dying man, and think whether you could look death in the face? You have said, “I hope when I am weighed in the balances I shall not be found wanting.” Did you ever get in the scales and try? Have you made a self-examination, an earnest proving, testing, trying of yourself? They do not send out a gun from the foundry without putting it into the Proof House {b} to see whether it will handle the discharge of the powder. Have you ever put yourself into the Proof House?

32. But beware, above all things, of religious boasting. Remember that God does not care for our words; it is the heart, it is the reality and truth of what we say, not the verbiage, that commends us to him. Many a man says very boldly, “Though God should kill me, I will trust him,” and yet when God stops him from working for a week he does not trust him. If he had a sick child his faith would begin to waver. A little puff of wind will alter some people’s faith, for the heart is heaviest in the heavy air. Oh for a faith that can stand the test! Seek such faith, look to the strong for strength in this matter, and cry loudly to him who is the author and the finisher of faith, that he would strengthen it in you. Say, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief, and bring me to this, that I can look anything in the face.” And say: “Let all the floods of earth, and all the outflowings from hell, and even the drenching trials that come from heaven itself, happen to me, yet I will sustain myself on the Lord, for he will not fail me, neither will he leave me.” His mercy cannot depart from his chosen. He will keep to the end those who have rested in him.

{a} Gairloch: A loch in Scotland.
{b} Proof House: The Birmingham Gun Barrel Proof House was established in 1813 by an act of Parliament at the request — and expense — of the then prosperous Birmingham Gun Trade. Its remit was to provide a testing and certification service for firearms in order to prove their quality of construction, particularly in terms of the resistance of barrels to explosion under firing conditions. Such testing prior to sale or transfer of firearms is made mandatory by the Gun Barrel Proof Act of 1868, which made it an offence to sell, offer for sale, transfer, export or pawn an unproofed firearm, with certain exceptions for military organizations. See Explorer "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Proof_House"

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Ps 26}

No doubt this Psalm was written by David when his cruel persecutor, Saul, all the more effectively to stab him, spread false reports concerning his character. When the wicked can use no other weapons, they always have their quivers full of slanderous reports. Let us learn here that the best of men must expect to be misrepresented, and to have the worst of crimes laid to their charge. Let us learn, also, from the example of David, to carry our case to the highest court at once! not to meddle with the lower courts of earth, but to go at once to the Court of King’s Bench in heaven, and there plead our cause before the eternal throne.

1. Judge me, oh LORD; — 

As if he turned away from all other judges, bribed and false as they had proved themselves to be in his case, and put himself on trial before God: “Judge me, oh Lord”; — 

1. For I have walked in my integrity: I have trusted also in the LORD; therefore I shall not slide.

He pleads two things: first, the outward life, and second, the inward faith, which, just as it is the mainspring and source of the outer life of integrity, is also the more important of the two. Note, that since the case is between himself and his accusers he pleads his life, for though we are justified before God by faith and not by works, yet before men we must be justified by our works, rather than by our faith. It is in vain for me to plead my faith when I am slandered. The only answer that can effectively shut the mouth of the adversary, is to point to a blameless life. Hence in this case he not only brings his faith before his God, but he also brings the fruit of his faith. Note, the inference which he draws from God’s mercy to him in enabling him to walk uprightly and to trust him — ”therefore I shall not slide.” He rests for the future on his God. His position was slippery; his enemies were always busy trying to trip up his heels, but he says — ”I shall not slide.”

2. Examine me, oh LORD, and prove me; try my mind and my heart.

This is a wonderful verse. One would hardly dare to pray it. Here are three kinds of trial. According to the etymology of the Hebrew the first is the trial by touch — ”Examine me”; the next is the trial by smell — ”Prove me”; and the next is the trial by fire — ”Assay my mind and my heart.” You see how anxious he really is to have the matter decided by God. “Lord, search me through and through; you know I am not a hypocrite.” Now who dares to say this but that true man of God whose soul is entirely fixed on the Lord? The mind and the heart are mentioned because those were believed to be the seat of the affections, and when the affections are right the whole man is right. The heart is the fountain from which issue streams of life, and if the fountain is pure, the streams cannot be impure; hence he asks chiefly that the examination may be directed to his mind and to his heart.

3. For your lovingkindness is before my eyes: — 

Right straight before his eyes, he had God’s lovingkindness. Some people appear to have their miseries, their sorrows, their sins, before their eyes; but happy is that believer who always has God’s lovingkindness before him!

Come, my brother, forget for a little while the burden of your business cares; now for a little while let the sickness that is in your house be left in the hand of your God, and let his lovingkindness be before your eyes. Lovingkindness — pull the word to pieces. Remember the antiquity of it, the constancy of it, the variety of ways in which it shows itself, and the lavish bounties which it bestows on you. Do not turn your back to God’s goodness, but now, set the lovingkindness of your God right straight before you.

3. And I have walked in your truth.

By which he may mean two things, first that he endeavoured to hold firmly to truth both in doctrine and in practice; or, secondly, that by God’s truthfulness in giving him the promised grace, he had been enabled to walk uprightly.

4. I have not sat with vain people, — 

I never took counsel with them; they never were my choice companions.

4. Neither I will go in with hypocrites.

He makes a vow for the future that all crafty, lying, and foolish men shall never have his companionship.

5. I have hated the congregation of evildoers; and will not sit with the wicked.

By which he does not mean that he does not associate with them in any way, for we need to get out of the world if we will not have communion with sinners; but he means that he did not seek their company, found no pleasure in it, and never went in it to encourage them in their evil deeds.

6. I will wash my hands in innocency:

Pilate did this, but alas! the water was very dirty in which he washed his hands. This was an old Jewish rite when a man was found murdered; if the people in the valley in which he was found would be free from the crime of murder they took a heifer, slew it, and then washed their hands in water over the head of the victim. They were then clear. So here he says — ”I will wash my hands in innocency”:

6. So I will go about your altar, oh LORD:

He is innocent as far as men are concerned, but he still confesses that he is a sinner, for he goes to God’s altar. Perfect men need no altars. It is the sinner who needs a sacrifice. So let the saint always know that though he can plead innocency against the charges of men yet before God, his hope lies in the blood-sprinkled altar of which Jesus Christ is the great High Priest.

7, 8. That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all your wondrous works. LORD, I have loved the habitation of your house, and the place where your honour dwells.

I am sure many of us can say this, that when the Sabbath comes around, it is the best day of all the week, and that hour in the week-night when we can get to the house of God — what an inexpressible relief that is! It is to us like a green oasis in the midst of the sandy desert. There are no beauties in nature and no changes to be perceived in travelling that I think can ever compensate for the loss of the constant means of grace; after all God’s house is the fairest place on earth. Zion, I will prefer you more than my chief joy! If I forget you let my right hand forget her cunning. “I have loved the habitation of your house, and the place where your honour dwells.”

9, 10. Do not gather my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men: in whose hands is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes.

See, he so loves God’s house that he cannot bear the thought of being shut in with sinners; and this is our comfort, that if we have loved God’s house on earth we shall dwell in his house for ever.

11. But as for me, I will walk in my integrity: redeem me, and be merciful to me.

See again, my beloved, how in the Christian’s practice, good works and faith are seen happily blended. He declares that he will walk in his integrity, but still, still note, he prays as one who is conscious of a thousand imperfections — ”Redeem me and be merciful to me.” We rest on Christ alone, but still we desire to walk in holiness with as much exactness as though our salvation depended on our good works.

12. My foot stands in an even place: in the congregations I will bless the LORD.