YeR. 13.] SERMONS UPON PSAL51 CXIX. 119
the tongue will drop what is savoury. I say, certainly if it be within, it will break out. The word is to be hid, but not like a talent in u napkin, but like gold in a treasury, to be laid out upon all meet occa- sions. Thus referring it to the 11th verse, there may be a fair connection.
Or if you refer it to the 12th verse, ' Blessed art thou, 0 Lord : teach me thy statutes:' teach me that I may teach others. Our requests for knowledge are like to speed when we are willing to exer- cise this knowledge for the glory of God and the good of others. Talents thrive by their use : ' To him that hath shall be given,' Mat. XXV. 29 ; that is, to him that useth his talents. Trading brings increase ; and so it may be used as an argument to back that petition, Lord, teach me ; for I have been ever declaring with my lips all the judgments of thy mouth.
Again, none can speak of God with such savour and affection as he that is taught by God : Teach me, and I have or will declare (it may be read either may) all the judgments of thy mouth. A heathen could say, Non hquendum de Deo sine lumine — we must not speak of God without light. The things of God are best represented with the light of his own grace. David shows that he would perform the duty of a good disciple ; that he would teach others if God should teach him.
In the words two things are to be explained —
1. What he will declare, all tlie judgments of thy mouth.
% In what sense he will declare them.
First, What he will declare. God's will, revealed in the scripture, is called ' The judgments of his mouth,' his judgments. I have showed that, ver. 7, at large. Briefly now I will add two reasons : — First, Because it is the rule according to which we must judge of all spiritual truth : Isa. viii. 20, ' To the law and to the testimony : if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.' Secondly, It is the rule according to which we must look to be judged both here and hereafter. Here, ' I will chastise them (or judge them) as their congregation hath heard/ Hosea vii. 12. Accord- ing to the sentence of the word, so will the course of his providence be, and according to which we shall be judged hereafter : John xii. 48, ' The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.' God's providences are a comment upon the scriptures. The scripture is not only a record of what is past, but a calendar and prognostication of what is to come. You may read your doom, your judgment there ; for the statutes of the Lord are all called judgments, because of an answerable proceeding in the course of God's provi- dence : if men escape here, they will not escape the judgment of the last day, when the sentence of that God shall infallibly be made good. Now, the verdict of the word is called the judgments of his mouth, as if God himself had pronounced by oracle, and judged from heaven in the case ; and these judgments of his mouth the Psalmist saith shall be the matter of his discourse and conference with others.
Secondly, In what sense it is said that he will declare all the judg- ments of his mouth. In this speech David may be considered as a king, as a prophet, or as a private believer.
120 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XIY.
1. As a king ; so some conceive that whenever lie judged or gave sentence upon the throne, he would declare the judgments of God's mouth ; that is, decree in the case according to the sentence of the law. In favour of this sense it may be alleged —
[1.] That certainly the king was bound to study the law of Grod, as you shall see, Dent. xvii. 18, 19, ' When he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests the Levites ; and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life.' Every king was bound to have a copy of the law, the Eabbis say, written with his own hand, carried about with him wheresoever he went, in city or camp.
[2.] That the kings of Judah were bound up by the judicials of Moses, ' out of that which is before the priests and Levites ; ' that is, according to thy judicial laws, so will I pass sentence upon malefactors.
[3.] That, proceeding according to this rule, their declarations in court were the judgments of God's mouth : 2 Chron. xix. 6, ' He said to the judges, Take heed what ye do ; for ye judge not for man but for the Lord, who is with you in the judgment.' If this sense did prevail, we might observe hence, that a godly man useth the word to season the duties of all his relations. And again, that a good magistrate is so to judge upon the throne that his sentences there may be as the judg- ments of God's own mouth. But that which caused this misconceit was the word judgments, which is not of such a limited import and signification as those that pitched upon this interpretation did conceive, and therefore mistook the meaning of this place.