(2.) Before others; and so our shame maybe occasioned by our scandals or our punishment : it is hard to say which is intended here.
(1st.) By scandals. When the heart is not sound with God, dis- orders break out before men, and many that make a fair show for a while afterwards shipwreck themselves and all their credit ; for God will at length uncase the hypocrite, Prov. xxvi. 26 ; God will pull off his disguise one time or other, and that which is counterfeit cannot long be hidden ; there will a time of dissection come, when that which is hidden shall be made manifest. The apostle telleth us that ' that which is lame is soon turned out of the way,' Heb. xii. 13. Men of an unsound heart have some temptations or other to carry them quite off from God, and then, as old Eli, they fall back, and break the neck of their profession, whereby they dishonour God and shame themselves. As Christ telleth us of the builders, that the house fell, and great was the fall of it ; so these, by some shameful and scandal- ous fall, discover themselves to the world.
(2d.) There is a shame before others by their punishment and dis- appointment of their hopes. God's punishment, in the language of scripture, is a putting to shame : Ezek. xxxvi. 7, ' When the heathens that are about you shall bear their shame.' So Jer. xiii. 26, ' I will dis- cover thy skirts that thy shame may appear.' So when God visits his people for scandalous and enormous offences : Ps. xliv. 9, ' Thou hast cast us off, and put us to shame.' The reason of that expression is this : A man in misery is a laughing-stock to others, and exposed
VeR. 80.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 347
to contempt and ignominy. Especially is this a shame to God's people, when they seem to be disappointed in the hope of protection and assistance which they expected from God ; then God puts them to shame, makes them to be a despised people. And this is their portion whose hearts are not sound and upright with God ; they are rejected of the Lord, and grow des])icable. Well, then, the point is made good by what hath already been said ; but now the other circum- stance.
Secondly, Here is the qualification of the person asking, David.
1. David was a holy, good man, Acts xiii. 22. He goes and begs ' Let my heart be sound.' The hearts of the best men are so per- verted with natural corruption, which is not fully abolished in any, that they have need to pray for a sound heart : Eph. iv. 22, ' Put off the old man with his deceitful lusts.' The old man is not so put off but there will be many warpings and deceitful workings still, and therefore David prays thus. The more upright any man is, the more sensible of his weakness, and the more suspicious of his own heart's deceitful- ness. The best have lodged sin, vanity, and pleasures, and the world in their hearts, which are the closets that should be kept entirely for the Lord. They find their purposes towards that wdiich is good very Aveak, their resolutions variable, their inclinations to evil very strong : Prov. xx. 9, ' Who can say, My heart is clean ? ' And there- fore they go to God, if there be any degree of insincerity, any spared sin, any remainings of lust not striven against and not bewailed, that he would discover it, and mortify it, that they may be more steadfast, being sensible of their fickleness and turning aside in the several conditions they pass through.
2. This was the request of David, who was so much in the knowledge and study of God's law, and had so often said, ' Teach me thy statutes,' now ' Make me sound in thy statutes.' Sound knowledge of the statutes of God, and a sound purpose of heart to follow them, must be joined together. Affection without knowledge is not good, much less knowledge without affection and practice. All our knowledge will but increase our punishment, Luke xii. 48, and take away all pretences of excuse. First a heart enlightened, and then a heart bent : David often prays for both in this psalm ; so must we pray, that as we have greater linowledge than others, so we may have better affections than others, and our hearts more upright. ' If ye know these things, happy are you if you do them,' John xiii. 17. God's scope in giving the law, was not to make trial of men's wits, who could most sharply conceive ; nor of their memories, who could most faithfully retain ; nor of their eloquence, who could most neatly discourse ; but of their hearts, who could most obediently submit to his statutes. Stars were not made for sight only, but influence. So man was not created to know only, but to walk according to his knowledge. God's precepts are best learned when most circumspectly practised.
3. This was the request of David, a man afflicted, opposed , and per- secuted. Compare the text with the 78th verse, ' Let the proud be ashamed ; for they have dealt perversely with me.' ' Let my heart be sound in thy statutes, that I be not ashamed.' Above all things we should study to be sincere in our carriage and defence of a good cause.