Psalms 18:26

With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure,.... None of Adam's posterity are pure by nature; they are all defiled with sin; and though some are pure in their own eyes, they are far from being cleansed

With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward. And with the froward thou wilt show thyself froward - not that God is really so; but to the froward God seems so.

Pure; free from the least mixture or appearance of unrighteousness, or unfaithfulness, or unkindness; or simply and sincerely, such as thou usest and hast promised to be to them that are such; for purity is oft put for sincerity. Froward, or perverse, i.e. thou wilt cross him, and walk contrary to him, as thou hast threatened, ,24. See also . Man’ s perverseness here is moral and sinful, but God’ s perverseness is judicial and penal.

Psalms 18:26 With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward.Ver. 26. With the pure, &c.] Cum candido candide agere soles. The pure shall have all that heart can wish. And with the froward thou wilt show thyself froward] Or, thou wilt wrestle, viz. with such cross pieces, as proudly and perversely err from thy precepts, as it were, on purpose to thwart thee, or to try masteries with thee. Against such stubborn persons God threateneth not eight degrees (which are the highest notes in music and degrees in qualities, as the philosopher distinguisheth them), but twenty and eight degrees of wrath, Leviticus 26:18; Leviticus 26:21; Leviticus 26:24; Leviticus 26:28. Exiget ab iis rationem minutissimorum, saith R. Obad. Gaon upon this text; he will reckon with them for their least offences, and not bate them an ace of their due punishment. He will pay them home in their own coin, over shoot them in their own bow, fill them with their own ways, be as cross as they are, for the hearts of them; yet still in a way of justice, though he break the necks of them in wrestling, and send them packing to their place in hell. Ainsworth rendereth it, With the froward thou wilt show thyself wry. It is a similitude taken from wrestlers, and noteth a writhing of one’ s self against an adversary. Compare herewith Deuteronomy 32:5. They are a perverse and crooked generation (the same two words that are here in this text); the latter importeth, that they wriggled and writhed after the manner of wrestlers that wave up and down, and wind the other way, when one thinks to have them here or there. But all will not serve their turn to save them from punishment. God will be sure to meet with them, his word will lay hold on them, and their sin shall find them out.

(26) Froward . . . froward.—The use of this one word to render two different Hebrew terms is so far correct, as they both come from roots meaning primarily to twist. Both are combined in Proverbs 8:8, “froward (margin, twisted) or perverse,” and both are contrasted with “righteousness.” Plainly the metaphor might apply-either to the character itself, “twisted round,” “awry,” “perverse,” or to the line of conduct pursued, “bent,” “crooked,” or “wrong,” the opposite of “straight,” or “right.” “Froward” =from ward (opposite to “toward”), seems to have more of the latter idea, but may combine both—a disposition turned away from good. The poet therefore says, “God will turn away from those who turn away from him,” a thought which even with the Christian revelation we must admit true, for still it is true that— “He that shuts love out, in turn shall be Shut out from love.”—.

Verse 26. With the froward] עקש ikkesh, the perverse man; he that is crooked in his tempers and ways. Thou wilt show thyself froward.] תתפתל tithpattal, thou wilt set thyself to twist, twine, and wrestle. If he contend, thou wilt contend with him. Thou wilt follow him through all his windings; thou wilt trace him through all his crooked ways; untwist him in all his cunning wiles; and defeat all his schemes of stubbornness, fraud, overreaching, and deceit. My old Psalter has, With the wiked thow sal be wike. Here the term wicked is taken in its true original sense, crooked, or perverse. With the wiked, the perverse, thou wilt show thyself wike, i.e., perverse; from [Anglo-Saxon], to draw back, to slide. As he draws back from thee, thou wilt draw back from him. It may, as before intimated, come from [A.S.], to seek for enchantments; leaving God, and going to devils; to act like a witch: but here it must mean as above. The plain import is, "If thou perversely oppose thy Maker, he will oppose thee: no work or project shall prosper that is not begun in his name, and conducted in his fear."

26. With the pure &c.] Lit. one who purifies himself, cp. 1 John 3:3. Cp. Psalms 24:4, Psalms 73:1. Matthew 5:8 is the N.T. commentary on the words. and with the froward &c.] Better, as R.V., and with the perverse thou wilt shew thyself froward. The ‘perverse’ man, whose character is morally distorted, is given over by God to follow his own crooked ways, till they bring him to destruction. God must needs be at cross purposes with the wicked, frustrating their plans, and punishing their wickedness. See Leviticus 26:23-24; Job 5:12-13; Isaiah 29:9 ff.; Proverbs 3:34; Romans 1:28; Revelation 22:11; and for an illustration camp. the history of Balaam (Numbers 22:20.).

With the pure - Those who are pure in their thoughts, their motives, their conduct.