Psalms 54
RileyPsalms 54:1-7
AND FROM SIN Psalms 51-60 IN continuing the study of this second Book in the Psalter Pentateuch we come now to the question of the centuries, the sin question. This is not the first time that we have had to face it. From Genesis 3:6, it has been the ever-present and never-solved problem. This study is marvelously near the middle of our Book Divine; and the same question that has rung through the pages, already turned, will present itself in some form on practically every page of the Book till we come to Revelation 22:21. There are certain manifest suggestions in these ten chapters; but in a large way they are directly associated with the confession of sin, contrition for sin, and recovery from sin.THE OF SIN Chapter 51 “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy loving kindness: according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. “Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. “For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight: that Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest. “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive five. “Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part Thou shalt make me to know wisdom. “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. “Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice. “Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. “Create in me a clean heart, O God: and renew a right spirit within me. “Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. “Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation; and uphold me with Thy free Spirit. “Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto Thee. “Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of Thy righteousness. “O Lord, open Thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth Thy praise. “For Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it; Thou delightest not in burnt-offering. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. “Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion: build Thou the walls of Jerusalem. “Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt-offering and whole burnt-offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon Thine altar”. Here we have the acknowledgment of a personal transgression. We believe absolutely with those who hold that David was thinking upon his own past and reflecting with grief upon the Bathsheba incident, involving as it did, a practical combination of murder and lust.As is usual with sin, the horror of it is only felt after the deed is effected; and for every prayer, such as our Lord taught us to say, “Lead us not into temptation’’, a prayer that looks to avoiding the iniquitous, there are a hundred petitions of the sort here recorded“Have mercy upon me, O God, according unto Thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. “Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. “For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight: that Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest”. Too few of our prayers anticipate danger; too many of them confess damnable acts already done.There are those who see in this acknowledgment a corporate, rather than an individual confession. They think that this is the prophetic language of Israel when at last she realizes the iniquity of her rejection of Jesus. But such an interpretation, if it be at all possible, can only be accepted as an inference from David the type. The simple truth is that every word in this fifty-first Psalm fits exactly the spiritual experience of the speaker. The whole history of David shows him a man of tender conscience, unusually affectionate, and with a keen discernment of right and wrong. We are not in the least surprised, therefore, to hear from his lips this pathetic plea.
It is a proof of conscious wrong on the part of a conscientious believer. It is the saint’s abhorrence of his own sin; and incidently, it introduces some of the most natural features of soul-experience.
Take, for instance, the sentence, “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight: that Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest” (Psalms 51:4).Grant, in “The Numerical Bible” argues that such a confession, in David’s lips, would not have been true, even, since he had sinned against Uriah, against himself, and against Bathsheba; and so Grant sees in this, an application to repentant Israel.But the argument is poorly based and far-fetched. The simple fact is, and millions of saved men would bear testimony to it, when the soul is convicted of sin that conviction seldom takes the form of conscious wrong to individual victims, or even that of willful transgression of the Law. The truth is as Delitzsch argues, “Every relation in which man stands to his fellow-men, and to created things in general, is but the manifest form of his fundamental relationship to God”; and as even Grant himself admits, “At every point at which we touch His creatures, we touch God Himself; every blow struck at them is struck at Him.* * The guilt of every sin is fundamentally the same, revolt against God. This is, in a true sense, the only sin.”We knew a man well; in fact, we preached to him the truths that effected his salvation, and with our hands we laid him beneath the baptismal wave, who before his confession was a highway man, a gambler, a drunkard, an adulterer, and at the last, a would-be murderer. But his confession, following his salvation, was to this effect, “When on that morning, the very day I had fixed upon for the destruction of my wife and children, and suicide, the Spirit of God came upon me with overwhelming conviction; and, as I walked out from my home, to fall on the grass of the back yard, face down, to cry for mercy, I had no sense of wrong concerning my past indolence, my past gambling, my past drunkenness, my past lusts; not even was I painfully sensible of the intention of murder and suicide. One great, overwhelming thought surged through my brain as loud as the siren’s whistle, “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight”.It is interesting also to study the psychology of the sentence that follows, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity: and in sin did my mother conceive me” This was not intended by the Psalmist in self-defense.
He had passed that point and had admitted that God would be justified when He spake, and clearly defensible when He judged. It was said, rather, in explanation; it was an admission, “I have always been wrong!
I came from my mother’s womb with a frightful twist in my moral nature and from the days when my steps toddled in uncertain paths I have been nothing but a sinner!”The phrases that follow indicate further “Your eyes have searched my inward parts in vain. No truth is in them. You have looked for wisdom but it was not mine by nature; and if I am ever cleansed you must accomplish it; and if my soul is ever white, the cleansing must come from above! And then, as if to appeal if possible to the tenderness of God, he cries, “Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice”. And that he may escape just judgment, he adds,“Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities”. And he pleads,“Create in me a. clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. “Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me”. Rather,“Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation; and uphold me with Thy free Spirit. “Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto Thee”. Alas, as if such a thought was too good to be true, he breathes and begins again, “Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation”—remember against me no more Uriah’s death; free my conscience from that whole subject by speaking my absolution. And then, “My tongue shall sing aloud of Thy righteousness”.It looks now as if he had reached a higher table land; as if his heart would not sink again nor his feet mire; and he concludes the Psalm with these words,“Oh Lord, open Thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth Thy praise. “For Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it; Thou delightest not in burnt-offering. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. “Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion; build Thou the walls of Jerusalem. “Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt-offering and whole burnt-offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon Thine altar”. Sweeping aside that whole school of interpreters who see in this Israel’s confession, we stand absolutely with those who believe it to be the utterance of a believer’s heart, broken with the sense of sin, conscious of just condemnation, and yet daring to hope in a merciful God. The verses 18 and 19 do not militate against that view. Few saints ever deplore their own sins, and forget the sanctuary. They grieve personal sin, lest it hinder the general cause, and so David prays for Zion, for Jerusalem, and for cleansing and consecration as symbolized in the temple ceremonies.We now go to the study of another chapter, chapter fifty-two, and here we are tracing the history that led David into disappointment and difficulty.“Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man! The lovingkindness of God endureth continually; “Thy tongue deviseth very wickedness, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully; “Thou lovest evil more than good, and lying rather than to speak righteousness. “Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue. “God will likewise destroy thee for ever: He will take thee up, and pluck thee out of thy tent, and root thee out of the land of the living. “The righteous also shall see it, and fear, and shall laugh at him, “Saying, Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness. “But as for me, I am like a green olive-tree in the house of God; I trust in the lovingkindness of God for ever and ever. “I will give Thee thanks for ever, because Thou hast done it; and I will hope in Thy Name, for it is good, in the presence of Thy saints”. (Psalms 52:1-9). Here again, there are those who see in this Psalm a prophetic picture of the man of sin, the Anti-Christ to come. This view they rest in the phraseology of the Psalm. The boastful one if spoken of as “mighty man”, and the circumstance that he is a lying, “deceitful man”, is supposed to point to the great deceiver of prophetic Scriptures.In our judgment such an interpretation is farfetched, and Psalms 52 is a natural sequence of Psalms 51. The whole setting of the Psalm is accounted for and explained in the incident of David meeting Doeg, the Edomite, the servant of Saul, when he visited Ahimelech, the priest, as recorded in 1 Samuel 21 :l-9. It will be remembered that this information led to a fearful massacre, in which Doeg was a leader, and in which boastfulness and lying deceit played conspicuous part. Doeg was a mighty man, the chief of the herdmen.
His arrogance is as great as his eventual ruin was eternal. When contemplating upon the former, David clearly prophesied the latter. “God will likewise destroy thee for ever, He will take thee up, and pluck thee out of thy tent, and root thee out of the land of the living” (Psalms 52:5, A.
S. V.).Then he moralizes: “The righteous also shall see it, and fear, and shall laugh at him, saying, Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness” (Psalms 52:6-7, A. S. V.). The record of that destruction is written into 1 Samuel 22:17-19. There are those who profess astonishment at David’s language.
They are shocked by what they call gloating over the evil end of an enemy. But let it not be forgotten that true righteousness always rejoices in the overthrow, of the sinful, and the truly humble are, of necessity, glad to see the boastfully proud brought low.What men call the “imprecatory Psalms’’ are not, as they imagine, merely curses of the self-confident, the malignant prayers of the man who imagines himself above and beyond his fellows; they are, instead, a legitimate expression of a heart that delights in good and hates evil.
It is doubtful if there is ever a case in history in which the iniquitous are overthrown, but the righteous justly rejoice. As some one has said, “The cross as the hope and refuge of repentant sinners, is God’s chief witness against sin”.The conclusion of this chapter “I am like a green olive-tree in the house of God; I trust in the lovingkindness of God for ever and ever. I will give Thee thanks for ever, because Thou hast done it; and I will hope in Thy Name, for it is good, in the presence of Thy saints” (Psalms 52:8-9, A. S. V.) is not a mere expression of Phariseeism. On the contrary, it is the voice of gratitude that one has been kept, and of decision, concerning continued trust, together with that natural burst of praise that breaks from the lips of him, who rightly pleads and rightly interprets God’s acts in dealing with men.From this review of the end of the evil man and this personal appreciation of Divine favor it is easy for the Psalmist to pass to theF OF FOLLY Psalms 53—54 deal with that subject.“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity; there is none that doeth good. “God looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. “Every one of them is gone back; they are together become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. “Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up My people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God. “There were they in great fear, where no fear was; for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee; thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them. “Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the captivity of His people Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. “Save me, O God, by Thy Name, and judge me by Thy strength. “Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth; “For strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul; they have not set God before them. Selah. “Behold, God is mine helper; the Lord is with them that uphold my soul. “He shall reward evil unto mine enemies; cut them off in Thy truth. “I will freely sacrifice unto Thee. I will praise Thy Name, O Lord, for it is good. “For He hath delivered me out of all trouble; and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies” (Psalms 53-54). There are those who would imagine that the Psalmist forgot himself, and on occasions did what the average preacher does, ‘palmed off’ an old sermon. If you make a comparison between this fifty-third Psalm and Psalm fourteen, you will discover more than resemblance. There is practical identity, clear repetition; but the fifty-fourth Psalm presents entirely new material; and its pathetic plea for salvation, follows logically from the evident effects of infidelity. The man who sees others swelled with skepticism, begs to be saved from a kindred experience. The man who sees others plunging into corruption, and consuming even saints in their mad course of immorality, longs for deliverance from all such danger. God and God alone is his help, and God and God alone is his adequate defense.
The grace of the past is his ground of hope for the future; and as he reflects upon the multitude of times that he himself has been delivered out of trouble, he can but praise the Name of the Lord.Beyond all question, this chapter voices a memory of dark days for David. It is supposed to have been written about the time of Absalom’s rebellion, when a conspiracy was formed against him, and to have involved the participation in that rebellion of his most familiar and trusted friend, Ahithophel.
Those unhappy incidents of life explain many of the pathetic expressions—“the voice of the enemy”, “the oppression of the wicked”, the betrayal of a friend, “a man mine equal, my guide and mine acquaintance”, one with whom he had “taken sweet counsel” and with whom he “had walked to the house of God”. The whole setting fits the circumstance of Absalom’s rebellion and Ahithophel’s betrayal.Few men ever occupy positions of importance without suffering after a kindred manner. The oppression of natural enemies is comparatively easy to be borne; but the betrayal of friends, that, indeed, is a grief that takes the heart out of one and tends to shake his confidence in humanity itself; tempts one to say, “No man can be trusted”, and to doubt the reality of unselfish and untarnished affection.Such an experience, however, leads the truly intelligent to fall back on God and God alone. That’s what the Psalmist does. Listen to his language and learn well the lesson. The words fall hard, upon disappointment, deception, betrayal.“As for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord shall save me” (Psalms 55:16). “Evening and morning and at noon will I pray, and cry aloud; and He shall hear my voice. “He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me: for there were many with me. “God shall hear and afflict them. * * “Cast thy burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. “But Thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction: bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in Thee” (Psalms 55:17-23). After all, it’s a good conclusion! The man who can take his eyes off the perfidy of his fellows and turn them to the faithfulness of his Heavenly Father, will never be fully discouraged.From the old Baptist Hymnal, we used to sing, “Zion stands with hills surrounded,— Zion, kept by power Divine; All her foes shall be confounded, Though the world in arms combine; Happy Zion, What a favored lot is thine!
“Every human tie may perish; Friend to friend unfaithful prove; Mothers cease their own to cherish; Heaven and earth at last remove; But no changes Can attend Jehovah’s love.
“In the furnace God may prove thee, Thence to bring thee forth more bright, But can never cease to love thee; Thou art precious in His sight; God is with thee,— God, thine everlasting light.” This leads to a pledge of further praise (Psalms 56-57). Each of these opens with a prayer for mercy, but each of them moves to a burst of praise.“Be merciful unto me, O God; for man would swallow me up” (Psalms 56:1). About a moment later“In God I have put my trust; I will not fear; what flesh can do unto me” (Psalms 56:4). “Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me; for my soul trusteth in Thee; yea, in the shadow of Thy wings will I make my refuge. “Until these; calamities be overpast” (Psalms 57:1). “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise. “Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp; I myself will awake early. “I will praise Thee, O Lord, among the people; I will sing unto Thee among the nations” (Psalms 57:7-9). H. M. Lischer was thinking along kindred lines with the Psalmist, when he wrote: “Upward I lift mine eyes; From God is all my aid; The God who built the skies, And earth and nature made; God is the tower to which I fly; His grace is nigh in every hour.
“My feet shall never slide And fall in fatal snares, Since God, my guard and guide, Defends me from my fears; Those wakeful eyes that never sleep Shall Israel keep when dangers rise.
“Hast Thou not given Thy Word To save my soul from death? And I can trust Thee, Lord, To keep my mortal breath; I’ll go and come, nor fear to die, Till from on high Thou call me home.” FROM SINPsalms 56, 59, 60 of this Book present the solemn phases of sin, but the grace and justice of God in saving His own not alone from sin but from the sinful.In Psalms 58 God’s judgment rejoices the righteous. From Psalms 58:2 to Psalms 58:9 there is a picture of the wicked and of their wickedness; and a prayer that God will bring them to judgment. In Psalms 58:10 and Psalms 58:11 the Psalmist anticipates the question and declares “the righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily He is a God that judgest in the earth”.This figure may seem revolting to a people who are living at peace with their fellows, but it comes to have its meaning in the day when the violent seem about to capture the earth, and the wicked smite with the poison of the serpent.Under all ordinary circumstances we grieve when a man is slain and his blood stains the earth but when such conditions arise as exist in Chicago now, when gangsters will line up men against the wall, seven in number, and shoot them dead as they stand huddled in fear and obedient to the command of a bandit, who will grieve if those men are overtaken and sent to the gallows; or even if the righteousness of the law obtain and they fall before the officers’ bullets? Gentleness, compassion and tears, these are for times of peace; but justice is essential when the violent threaten society and the wicked work their will against the same.God’s judgment avenges the righteous. Hear Psalms 59 :“Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise up against me. “Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody men. “For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord. “They run and prepare themselves without my fault: awake to help me, and behold. “Thou therefore, O Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah. “They return at evening: they make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city. “Behold, they belch out with their mouth: swords are in their lips: for who, say they, doth heart “But Thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them; Thou shalt have all the heathen in derision. “Because of his strength will I wait upon Thee: for God is my defense. “The God of my mercy shall prevent me: God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies. “Slay them not, lest my people forget: scatter them by Thy power; and bring them down, O Lord our shield. “For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak. “Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be: and let them know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth. Selah. “And at evening let them return, and let them make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city. “Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied. “But I will sing of Thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of Thy mercy in the morning: for Thou hast been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble. “Unto Thee, O my strength, will I sing: for God is my defense, and the God of my mercy”. Here again the exercise of Divine power in judgment in behalf of the righteous is not only defensible, ‘but is essential to the justification of Deity itself. The God who permits wickedness to stalk the land without speaking its rebuke, or smiting its head, would be a questionable God. There are instances in history that tend to show that God is “the same yesterday, and to day and for ever”. Narcissus was Bishop of Jerusalem, a man of faultless life, so John Foster tells us, faithful in rebuking vice of every kind, but was falsely accused. His first accuser, in closing his testimony on one occasion said, “If these things are not so, may I be consumed by fire.” A second accuser said, “If these things are not so, may I be overtaken by some horrible disease.” A third said, “If these things are not so, may God smite me blind.” And Foster continues, “The day came when the house of the first was consumed by fire and he and his family perished in flames, and yet another day when the second was smitten and suffered long under a loathsome disease; and the third seeing the terrible end of his companions confessed his iniquity and wept over his crimes until his sight was utterly gone.”Finally, God’s power shall bring victory to the righteous.“O God, Thou hast cast us off, Thou hast been displeased; O turn Thyself to us again. “Thou hast made the earth to tremble; Thou hast broken it: heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh. “Thou hast shewed Thy people hard things: Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment. “Thou hast given a banner to them that fear Thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah. “That Thy beloved may be delivered; save with Thy right hand, and hear me. “God hath spoken in His holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Suecoth. “Gilead is Mine, and Manasseh is Mine; Ephraim also is the strength of Mine head; Judah is My lawgiver. “Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe; Philistia, triumph thou because of Me. “Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom? “Wilt not Thou, O God, which hadst cast us off? and Thou, O God, which didst not go out with our armies? “Give us help from trouble; for vain is the help of man. “Through God we shall do valiantly: for He it is that shall tread down our enemies” (Psalms 60:1-12). It is a glorious conclusion! Through God we shall be victorious; for it is He that shall tread down our enemies. In all the conflicts of life, the one thing that men need beyond all things else is the favor of God. If conquest is to be ours, if we are to come through victorious against them that would persecute and hurt us, if we are to triumph against trouble, vain is the help of man, he will fail us, but our God, never! If we are to have a victory against that impersonal enemy, and yet that most terrible of all, sin, He alone can give it to us.“God of our strength, enthroned above,The source of life, the fount of love;O let devotion’s sacred flame,Our souls awake to praise Thy Name“To Thee we lift our joyful eyes,To Thee on wings of faith we rise;Come Thou, and let Thy courts on earth Ring out Thy praise in holy mirth.“God of our strength from day to day,Direct our thoughts and guide our way;O may our hearts united be,In sweet communion, Lord, with Thee.“God of our strength, on Thee we call;God of our hope, our light, our all, Thy Name we praise, Thy love adore,Our Rock, our Shield for evermore.”