3482. Struggling Against Sin

A Sermon Published On Thursday, October 21, 1915.

I cried with my whole heart; hear me, oh Lord: I will keep your statutes. I cried to you; save me, and I shall keep your testimonies. {Ps 119:145,146}

1. The fear of punishment leads many people to think about their sins, and a dread of hell in the future fills the retrospect of their past life with gloom and remorse. This is natural. It may happen to anyone, as it has happened to tens of thousands, that the peril has haunted them until at length the penalty has overtaken them. Although they have been constantly terrified with a sense of the divine wrath, they have never penitently looked to the divine mercy. So they have continued to be despondent, and they have gone on to despair, and that utter desperation has curdled into a bitter remorse, which has been the forecast of their eternal retribution. But it appears to me that there is a work of grace in the heart where there is a fear of sin rather than a fear of hell—where the desire of the soul is not so much to escape from the punishment, as to escape from the guilt which is the cause of the punishment. What thief, what murderer, when he has been arrested, convicted, sentenced, and brought to the gallows, does not wish he had not committed the crime that sealed his doom? Yet there is a wide difference between a dread of suffering for the wrong you have done, and a dread of doing wrong. Judge yourselves, if you are under religious impressions of any kind, whether you have merely a fear of punishment, for that is an instinct of nature, or whether you have a fear and abhorrence of sin, for that is a work of divine grace.

2. Now our text exhibits to us the frame of mind of one whose chief prayer was that he might keep God’s statutes, and his chief anxiety lest he should fail to observe them. Oh! that you might be brought to this state of heart, those of you who are not saved! And may those of you who are saved have this state of heart perpetually in exercise! A tender heart, a scrupulous conscience, a tenacity of offending God in thought, in word, or in deed, should hold us in check every day and every hour. Let us continually cry to God to save us from violating his precepts, and constrain us to keep his testimonies. I address myself very indiscriminately to all who hear my voice, desiring that the text may prove a test by which every one should examine himself. Do we, or do we not, desire to get rid of every evil way? Are we anxious to be sincere and without offence, holy in our character, and obedient to God’s statutes in our lives? The man who really does desire this will be sure to pray for it. “I cried,” says the psalmist; and then again he says, “I cried.” Moreover, he combines his prayer with strong resolution. “I cried to you; hear me, oh Lord; I will keep your statutes.” Still further he seasons his prayer with a deep sense of his own weakness, for he puts it like this, “I cried to you; save me, and I shall keep your statutes.”

3. I. Well then:—EVERY MAN WHO DESIRES PURITY OF HEART AND CHARACTER WILL PRAY.

4. While struggling after purity, he will soon discover that he is unable to reach it by himself. Have you never thought that you had destroyed an evil tendency in your disposition, and then found in an unguarded moment that you fell into the temptation, from the coils of which you supposed you had escaped? You have resolved in the morning, may be at the hour of prayer, that throughout the day your temper should be calm and quiet. Yet very likely before breakfast was over, you were more ruffled than usual. Where you imagined you had set a double guard, there it was that you were taken by surprise. You thought yourself weak in one point, but you were not tempted there. Where you said to yourself, “I am safe,” there you were betrayed. You must have found this out, if you are striving against sin. When it has occurred many times, you will have a habitual suspicion of yourself. If it happens several times, you will be driven by a sense of your own incompetence to call in the sacred might of God, so that, with the arms of the Eternal, you may defeat the infernal adversary, prevail over your evil passions, and conquer your besetting sin. “I cried to you,” says David; not as though it were a trifling skirmish, but as one who felt that he was perilously besieged. “I cried to you with my whole heart, for I must vanquish this sin, or be vanquished by it. I could not conquer it by myself, so I cried to you, oh my God, and I said, Oh! display your power, and by the irresistible might of your Holy Spirit crush this dragon within my nature; beat it down, that it may rise up no more.”

5. The persistence of this prayer shows his estimate of the value he set on the blessing he craved. Read the verses in Ps 119:145-147, and you will perceive how he repeats himself—“I cried”; “I cried to you”; “I rose before the dawn of the morning, and cried.” Three times he repeats it. He was not to be put off. He felt he must get the mastery over sin. Hence, in sheer desperation, the good man cries again, and again, and again, “Oh God, deliver me, so that I may keep your testimonies.” Pray often, beloved, for sin will tempt often. Cry mightily, for Satan will tempt mightily. He will place in your path innumerable snares; let your countless entreaties outnumber his devices.

6. The expression by which he memorialises his prayer shows us the intensity of it. “I cried”; “I cried”; “I cried.” I do not know a better form of prayer than crying. It implies that the whole nature is full of anguish. Crying is the consequence of pain. His entire soul was stirred up. A cry is the expression of desire. It is a natural unpremeditated utterance. There is no affectation about it. A man that knows no Latin or Greek can cry. He who cannot speak with eloquence may still give eloquent vent to his feelings in tears and entreaties. Oh! there are some with whom prayer is a ceremony. They call the servants together; they march in, and they march out to the routine of family worship. They read out of a book some form of words, or else they compose a little piece themselves, and say it; and that is their idea of prayer! Not so. Prayer is crying, laying hold on God, and spreading our needs before him with an earnest entreaty that he would not reject us, but would give us what we ask from him. It is a wrestling with the covenant angel; it is a sacred resolve, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” If you want to conquer sin, know that it cannot be overcome by cold prayers, muttered in a heartless manner; it will not yield to empty ceremonies. Sin only flees before the blood of Christ and the power of the Eternal Spirit. These come to our rescue when, with cries and tears, we entreat the Lord to help us. “I cried”; “I cried”; “I cried.” Three times he repeats the words. His whole heart cried to God that he might be delivered from sin.

7. Wherever there is a real and true prayer about this matter, it must be a prayer of faith. God can, in answer to prayer, help me to conquer sin. Beloved, you pray in vain unless you steadfastly believe that there is no sin which you cannot overcome. I meet men who say, “I can never give up drinking.” My dear friend, God can make you. I meet a man who has a violent temper; and he thinks he never can curb or subdue it. Surely you do not think of taking it to heaven with you! They have no passionate people in that happy clime. You will have to get that anger put away, and God can accomplish it. Do you say, “It would be like turning a lion into a lamb?” That is just what his grace is able to do. He can bring you from darkness to light. He can work such a transformation in you that you would not know yourself if you could see yourself after you have passed under the divine hand. Resolve in your soul that sin must be conquered, believe that it is possible, and cry to God with a full conviction that he is able to save you from it. Yet I think there are some who would not like to have their prayers answered. They ask for a humble heart. Well, I question whether they would like it, if it was sent to them—whether they would not want to send it back. They pray that they may have a pure conscience; but how, then, could they carry on that business of theirs? They ask that they may be upright in God’s statutes, and they know very well that they prefer following their own crooked devices. There are thousands of prayers that are insults to heaven; but where the Spirit of God is really at work, the man who wants to be pure prays sincerely, and cries mightily to God for purity; nor will he be content to tolerate anything else; either in his disposition or in his daily life, which would be inconsistent with the perfect holiness of God. Oh! that God might implant in all of us this desire, and then motivate us to pray so that we might secure the blessing we crave!

8. II. Now, secondly:—THE MAN WHO DESIRES TO WALK IN GOD’S WAY NOT ONLY MERELY PRAYS, BUT HE RESOLVES.

9. “I cried with my whole heart; hear me, oh Lord. I will keep your statutes.” He puts his whole heart into it. His prayer is no deceit. Then he throws that same heart into a strong resolution that he will find out what God’s statutes are; and when he has found them out, he will keep them, whatever it may cost. Need I say that no one becomes holy against his will? No man keeps God’s statutes without exercising a resolve to do so. The very essence of obedience to God lies in the heart, so the heart must be set on obedience. It must be a sincere, willing, cheerful obedience, or else it is not a genuine submission to the Almighty. Do I address anyone who is living in sin, and yet saying, “I wish I could get rid of it”? I have often heard such a wish expressed by people who must themselves have known that they were uttering an untruth. A man says, “I wish I could be set free from sin tonight,” and tomorrow he will mix with carefree associates and loose companions, and go to places of amusement, where he is as sure he will be led into sin as he would be sure that his coat would burn if he put it into the fire. He goes into the middle of the mischief; he takes the tinder of his heart where he knows there are sparks, and he says, “No harm will come of it.” He puts a candle near the gunpowder, and he hopes he will not be blown away. That is what he says; but it cannot be so. If you do not want to be besmeared, do not go among the pitch and the tar. If you do not want to be defiled, avoid all ungodly fellowships.

10. The man who intends to conquer sin, and resolves to conquer it, will keep himself out of mischief’s way, so that he may be clean before the living God. Such a man will give up everything that tempts him. If there is anything in which he knows he has a weak point, he will just mortify himself rather than offend his conscience. He cuts off his right arm, and plucks out his right eye, according to the gospel, which means, I suppose, whatever he is fond of, if it becomes a temptation to sin, he will immediately stop it once and for all. It does not matter what it is—whether it is drunkenness or gluttony, or lust—whatever is his besetting sin—he just says, “No; this may be allowable to some men to go just so far, but I cannot go as far, without going further; therefore, I will have nothing to do with it.” He is ready to deny himself anything and everything. He completely reforms his habits, lest he should be led into sin. “I will keep your testimonies.” Oh! what a blessed thing happens when a man really resolves to do this! when he says, “I will keep out of the way of temptation, and I will deny myself what tempts me, lest by any means I grieve the Holy Spirit of God.” And he will be sure, if his resolution is of the true metal, to follow what helps it. He knows that to hear the gospel helps it; therefore, he will not waste the morning hours of the Lord’s Day in slothful sleep, but he will welcome the assembly of the saints and rejoice in the preaching of the Word. He knows that reading good books will often be helpful to him; that he prefers them to light literature. He knows that association with Christian people will help him, so he likes to get among them. He knows that to lift up his heart in prayer to God, not occasionally, but regularly at set intervals, has often proved a help to him, and he accordingly endeavours to maintain such engagements as strictly as he finds it possible. If there is anything of good repute to help him to get rid of sin, he seeks after it; and when he prays to God to keep him pure he takes care to choose all such means as God may put in his way, to resist evil, and to follow after holiness.

11. Such a man will achieve his purpose. You may laugh at him for being too precise. His heart will not be wounded by your ridicule. He will lose the Sabbath trade if by it he loses half his living, rather than break God’s command. It may be that his association with some worldly people contributed much to his prosperity, though it involved him in serious temptations; he does not falter, for he would sooner run the risk of losing all the world than stake his reputation, or jeopardise his soul, for he is bent on getting rid of sin. Sin is the plague he hates. He would sooner be poor as Lazarus, and even covered with sores, and licked by dogs, than have the sins of the rich man on him. He wants to be completely delivered from every foul thing and every false way. He has asked for one thing from the Lord, and he has set his heart on that one thing—that he may possess himself in righteousness, that he may be without offence, that he may maintain his integrity. To obtain this, through the power of the Holy Spirit, being cleansed by the blood of Jesus, he will cheerfully suffer any imaginable deprivation.

12. Observe how David sought after a thorough allegiance and a perfect conformity to the will of God. He says, “I cried with my whole heart; I will keep your statutes”; not some of the statutes that were agreeable to him, but all of the statutes that had the divine sanction. I do not intend to be uncharitable when I suspect that some Christians do not wish to know too much, or to enquire too minutely into the Lord’s demands on their resources. I have noticed a great many people recently who have looked at perfection as a prize within their reach, and even as an attainment to which they have already come. This is getting rather common. They profess to be perfectly sanctified. But what can I think of some of them who, to the best of my knowledge, have fortunes to the extent of two or three hundred thousand pounds? If they were perfectly sanctified, could they look at the outlying world, living in vice and ignorance, out of which a chosen people are being saved by the gospel, without supporting those agents and agencies that have the divine blessing obviously resting on them to the utmost of their ability? They would come nearer to the kind of consecration which was revealed in that poor widow who gave “all her living” into the Lord’s treasury. I do not believe in a perfect sanctification which allows a man to lay up so much treasure on earth, while so many works for the Lord Jesus need his help. Systematic hoarding of wealth, to my mind, does not indicate a perfect character. I am not judging ordinary Christian men, but only those who talk about full consecration, and I will never believe in it until I see their gold, and their silver, dedicated to a larger degree, indeed, to a perfect degree. Do not let them boast, but give. As for those who are satisfied that they are perfect in spirit, soul, and body, we wait for their last testament, to see what their wills look like when they die. A man who is perfect before the Lord lays out his substance for God’s cause, depend on that. He does not merely attend conferences, and talk about good things, of spirituality of mind, and sanctification by faith, and all those glittering subjects; but he lives for Jesus in some practical work, and gives himself up, and his substance too, for the honour of the Redeemer’s name and the diffusion of the glorious gospel. I have no leading one of these brethren in my mind’s eye, but certain of their disciples; and I do not even condemn those, but I do ask them to reconcile their large wealth with their still larger professions of perfect consecration.

13. The true seeker for holiness is one who, while he resolves on obedience to God, will dare to be different, if no man will accompany him in it. “I cried with my whole heart: I will keep your statutes.” He meant to do it, though he should be without companion. He was prepared to stand alone. I always admire that speech of Athanasius, when he, seeing others had turned aside to Arianism, {a} said, “I, Athanasius, against the world.” He is a true man who can be a true man by himself. Give me no semidetached cottage, but a house that stands totally on its own foundation, and give me such a man as can let the wind blow all around him, and yet stand upright. He will hold his own whether men will bear or forebear. Let his fellow creatures applause or hiss him, he will remain true to his own convictions. If they bear him on their shoulders in triumph, it is the truth he has espoused that they honour; or if they trample him under their feet in contempt, it is for righteousness’ sake he suffers. But, like Luther, he will defy devil, death, and hell, to withstand his purpose to keep God’s statutes. Now the Word of God animates a man’s soul, and the work of God is the enterprise of his life when this is the strong desire of his spirit. He prays to God, and invokes his aid; yet at the same time he records his vow with a mind that is not given to vacillation. He has put his foot down where he meant to stand. He has knit his brow and clenched his teeth, and set all his features to the aspect of defiance, for he intents to hold out until he does achieve the victory. He is not going to compromise himself, nor to tolerate any wrong thing. He will foil temptation, master evil propensities, and slay the sin that offends, and grieves, and harasses him. In the armour of God he arrays himself, and, through the grace of God, he will prevail.

14. III. So the man who is seeking purity, while he prays and resolves, if he is really wise and taught by the Spirit:—WILL HAVE A DEEP SENSE OF HIS OWN WEAKNESS AND DEPRAVITY.

15. Therefore, he supplicates the Lord in the language of the one hundred and forty-sixth verse: “I cried to you; hear me; I shall keep your testimonies.” His tender misgivings are an incentive to his restless vexations. As though he should say, “Oh! Lord, I am praying and resolving, but my prayers need your answers, and my resolutions need your might to fulfil them. My prayers—what are they? My resolves—what can they do? I am a frail leaf, and I bend before the wind of temptation. My righteousness is like the sere leaf of autumn: it is soon carried away; yes, it is like a filthy rag that ought to be set aside and hidden from view. My God, I need sifting, I need sifting. Oh! save me, and then I shall keep your testimonies.” There is no holiness in any man by nature, and never will be. Some ingenious author has said that man is not dead like a stone, but dead like an egg. There was some disposition to life in him who needed brooding over to develop. Well, I should not like to be the hen that had to sit on that egg until it has hatched! That a long eternity of disappointed hopes would spread out before me, I am quite certain. It is a stone egg, this humanity of ours. There is no real spiritual life whatever in it. Who shall bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one. And they may sit on that unclean egg as long as they like, but a vile, unclean chick will be the only result of it.

16. Before we can ever keep God’s testimonies, we must be saved. We must be saved first from the guilt of the past. By substitution, by redemption, by the application of the precious blood of Jesus, by that expiatory sacrifice in which our blessed Lord bore for us the vengeance of God that was due to our sin, must our salvation be procured. Sinner, you will never go out of the Egypt of your bondage to sin, until the blood of the Paschal Lamb has been sprinkled on the lintel and the two side-posts. You may strive against sin as you wish, but you will never overcome it, except through the blood of the Lamb. Enquire of those in heaven who have conquered sin, and now wear the snow-white garments.

   I asked them whence their victory came?

      They, with united breath,

   Ascribe their conquest to the Lamb,

      Their triumph to his death.

Never until you see a bleeding Saviour will you be able to put your sins to death. They may be crucified on the cross. They will die nowhere else than there. “Save me, and I shall keep your testimonies.”

17. We need to be saved, however, not only from the guilt of sin, but saved from our sinful selves. We, whose nature is evil, cannot do much with so bad a nature to baffle all our efforts to cleanse our way. This nature must be removed, and a new nature implanted, or else, while the old nature is extant, the old evil will assert itself. There are different ways of treating diseases. A man has a bad malady in him, and it breaks out in his flesh. He goes to a quack, who gives him an ointment, which he applies outwardly to heal the sore until the morbid appearances vanish, and he congratulates himself on the cure, and commends the charlatan for his skill. “What a capital doctor he is, and how well my money was spent,” he says; “he has taken away all that eruption.” Eventually, the man is lying so grievously sick and ill that he does not know what to do. “Oh!” he thinks to himself, “have I made a mistake?” And when the true physician comes he says, “What have your symptoms been?” He tells about an eruption on his skin, and the remedies he resorted to. “Ah!” says the physician, “the disease is driven inwards; you have taken the wrong course; your present symptoms are fatal; you will die. It was good that it should come out on your flesh, since it lurked in your constitution. When you have a disease, you need to lay the axe at the root, and not at the branches. It is not the disfigurement of the skin that is so alarming, as the blood-poisoning that caused it.” Immediately he begins to deal with the real evil.

18. So, my dear friends, you are only tinkering with the symptoms, the mere eruption on the skin, while you aim at outward reformation. You must be born again: that is the only cure for the leprosy of sin. I am glad to hear of people insisting on the importance of reforming every kind of vicious custom and evil habit; but they do not go to the root of the upas tree {b} unless they resort to the gospel, which lays the axe right at the root of all kinds of sin and blasphemy with its imperative demand that you repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. This is the vital and vitalising process that will turn out to be a radical blessing. Lord, save me, save me; change my heart; renew my spirit; make the fountain clean; set the mainspring right! Oh! Holy Spirit, regenerate me, and if you do this, then, not until then, shall I keep your testimonies.

19. The same is true in respect to every Christian, beloved. We require God to keep on sifting us. Unless his spiritual work shall be carried on every day in us, we shall be unable to keep his testimonies. We are to be resolved against sin: I have told you that. We are to pray against it: I have enlarged on that. Still, we must fall back on the naked fact that a real conquest of sin is the work of God himself. “I cried to you; hear me: I shall keep your testimonies.”

20. Brethren, beloved in Christ, live near to God; live at the foot of the cross. Go every day to Jesus. Never get away from the place on which you stood when you first believed. Then and there you looked, as sinners, to find everything in him, and nothing in yourselves. Do not expect to overcome sin by any other means but by faith in the atoning blood. Do not seek anything like perfection apart from Jesus Christ, who “is made to us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” Oh! I would charge the members of this church to labour after holy walking. It cuts me to the quick when I hear it said of any one of the members of this church, “Well, they may be professors of religion, but they are not honest in their dealings, or they are not choice in their language, or they do not govern their tempers. They may be saints at the prayer meeting, but they are devils at home. They may look very amiable at the communion table, but they are very cross at their own tables.” Do not let it be so; please, give no reason for such an evil report. I invite everyone who attends my ministry, who are truly converted, to cast in their lot with us and join the church, for so you ought to do; but oh! do not bring dishonour—I will not say on us; that is of little consequence—but do not bring dishonour on the gospel that we preach, and the Christ whom we love.

21. The world will not say, “There, that is a false professor.” They ought to say it, and if they were honest, that is how they would put it; but, in general, they will say, “That is your religion!” and the cross of Christ will be evil spoken of; and many a poor believer, who has trouble enough as it is, finds it more difficult to give an answer to the scoffer through having the inconsistencies of others thrown in his teeth. Better die than deny the Saviour! Better that we lie sick at home, covered with boils and blains, than that we go around the world grieving the Holy Spirit, and putting an evil word into the mouth of the ungodly. Follow after holiness, I charge you. You are not saved by works. We give no uncertain sound about that doctrine. We have told you, and we constantly do tell you, that you are only to be saved by the blood of Jesus; but, remember, Jesus came to save us from our sins. If we hug our sins, we cannot have Christ for our Saviour. Christ and you must part, unless you and your sins part. Jesus Christ will take any sinner to heaven, but he will not take any sin to heaven. He will spare the sinner, but he will not spare his sin. If you want to spare your own sins, depend on it you will lose your souls.

22. Watch, please, against what are called “little” sins. Remember, when thieves want to get into the house, if they cannot find a ready entrance, they will often put a child through a little window, and then he opens the front or the backdoor. So a little sin will often open the door to a big sin. Watch, please—watch against secret sins. We have heard of some who barred the door at night, and fastened the window, but there was a thief under the bed. Take care that it is not so with you—some hidden evil—some secret lust. Watch, pray, resolve, but still come back to this, “Lord, help me; Lord, save me; Lord, keep me.” The old ploughman whom I sometimes used to talk with before he went to heaven said to me, “Depend on it, if you and I get one inch above the ground, we shall get one inch too high.” There is much truth in his plain remark. If we get any high notions of what we are, we shall soon sink below what we should be. Lie low; aspire high; be nothing; take Christ to be your all in all; renounce self-confidence, and have faith in God. In this way you shall conquer sin. Your prayer shall be accepted, your resolution shall be carried out, the purpose of your heart shall be verified. “I will keep your statutes.” May it be so with every one of us. Amen, and amen.

{a} Arian: Of, pertaining to, or adhering to the doctrine of, Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria in the 4th c., who denied that Jesus Christ was consubstantial, or of the same essence or substance with God. His opinions were embraced by large sections of Christendom, and the dissensions by which the church was rent lasted for nearly a century. OED.
{b} Upas: A fabulous tree alleged to have existed in Java, at some distance from Batavia, with properties so poisonous as to destroy all animal and vegetable life to a distance of fifteen or sixteen miles around it. OED.

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Ps 119:145-168}

145. I cried with my whole heart: hear me, oh Lord: I will keep your statutes.

In the time of trouble there is no resort like that of prayer, but it must be intense and earnest. “I cried with my whole heart.” And sometimes it should be accompanied with a resolve to profit by the affliction. “I will keep your statutes.” Just as the child under the rod prays to be spared because he hopes in future to be obedient, so the psalmist here says, “Hear me, oh Lord; I will keep your statutes.” This ought to be the result of every affliction, to make us more careful in our obedience. It is not always so, but so it ought always to be.

146. I cried to you: save me, and I shall keep your testimonies.

As if he felt that the force of gratitude would constrain him to obedience. He did not merely promise it, but he prophesied it as a matter of certainty that he should keep the Lord’s testimony.

147. I rose before the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in your word.

Early prayers seem seasonable. Before we have gone into the world, should we not first go to our God? Prayer ought to be the key of the morning to open it, as well as the key of the night to close it. And notice what should always be associated with prayer, namely, hope. “I hoped in your word.” There is no prayer like a hopeful prayer, in which a man hopes, believes, expects, that God will send him a blessing.

148. My eyes are awake in the night-watches, so that I might meditate on your word.

Before the watchman can cry the hour of night, my eyes are on the Word of God, and I am studying that. Oh! it is good when we prove our love for the Word of God by our meditation on it, our constant, searching into it.

149. Hear my voice according to your lovingkindness:

Not according to my earnestness, much less according to my merit, but “Hear my voice, according to your lovingkindness.” Oh! what a large measure this is, for who can tell how boundless is the lovingkindness of God? May such be the answer to my prayer, oh my Lord.

149. Oh Lord, quicken me according to your judgment.

As you do try me, quicken me. Just as you see that I have need of it, give me more spiritual life.

150. They draw near who follow after mischief: they are far from your law.

Dogs are at my heels. I have heard their long ago pursuing me, but now they are getting closer to me than ever.

151. You are near, oh Lord;

Is that not a blessed sentence, that, when the adversaries are near, the Friend of friends is near too? What if he is like a hunted stag, and the dogs are at his heels, yet the omnipotent Lord, the Intervener, can come between and save his darling from the power of the dogs.

151, 152. And all your commandments are truth. Concerning your testimonies, I have known of old that you have founded them for ever.

It is an old story with me that your love is without beginning, your covenant from all eternity, your grace immutable, not fickle, changeable as if it were founded yesterday on the sand, but “You have founded them for ever.”

153-155. Consider my affliction, and deliver me: for I do not forget your law. Plead my cause, and deliver me: quicken me according to your word. Salvation is far from the wicked: for they do not seek your statutes.

If they sought that salvation, they would cease to be wicked; they would find salvation; but while they follow their wicked ways they get further and further away from anything like salvation.

156-158. Great are your tender mercies, oh Lord: quicken me according to your judgments. Many are my persecutors and my enemies; yet I do not decline from your testimonies. I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; because they did not keep your word.

It is enough to make any man grieve that the Word of God, which is so right, so just, so good, should be despised. What madness is this which is in the hearts of men, that they despise the best of the best?

159. Consider how I love your precepts: quicken me, oh Lord, according to your lovingkindness.

It is a good argument; as a friend may say to another, “Consider how I love you”; as a child might say to his angry father when he is about to chasten him, “My father, I love you, although I have transgressed; look at my heart, and see how I love you, notwithstanding all the mistakes of my character, and even the faults that I have committed.”

160, 161. Your word is true from the beginning: and every one of your righteous judgments endures for ever. Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart stands in awe of your word.

“Princes have persecuted me without a cause; but my heart stands in awe of”—them? No, but “of your Word.”

162-166. I rejoice at your word, as one who finds great spoil. I hate and abhor lying: but I love your law. Seven times a day I praise you because of your righteous judgments. Great peace have those who love your law: and nothing shall offend them. Lord, I have hoped for your salvation, and done your commandments.

Present duty, future expectation. It is no use our hoping for great things unless we ourselves cultivate good things. God will make tomorrow bright: let us make today holy.

167, 168. My soul has kept your testimonies; and I love them greatly. I have kept your precepts and your testimonies: for all my ways are before you.