We should also be practical Christians. To think that we can be interested in the mercy of God whilst we are continu- ing in sin, is a horrible, a fatal delusion. Let not any one enter- tain such an idea for one moment. Christ's work is finished indeed as it respects himself; but not as it respects us : there is a work to be wrought in us, as well as that which has been wrought for us : and whatever we may imagine about the secret purposes of God, this is revealed as an immutable decree, that ** without holiness no man shall see the Lord" ]
To crown the whole, we must be consistent Christians. To harbour any sin, of whatever kind it be, will prove us hypocrites. ^' If we regard iniijuity in our hearts, God will never hear us," never accept us. The right hand or right eye must be sacrificed,
jas well as those sins which may be more easily put away
O let us seek to be " Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile," and to be " sincere and without offence until the day of Christ!"]
440 tSALMS, GXIX. 145 — 148. [428^
Ps. cxix. 145 — 148. / cried with my whole heart ; Hear me, 0 Lord I I will keep thy statutes. I cried unto thee ; Save me, and I shall keep thy testimonies. I prevented the dawn-^ ing of the morning, and cried : I hoped in thy luord. Mine eyes prevent the night-watches <^ that I might meditate in thif word.
IN reading the Psalms of David, we are of ne- cessity led to contemplate the constant spirituality of his mind, and the extraordinary fervour of his devotions : but we are apt to overlook, or to notice only superficially, one of the most lovely features in his character, namely, his ardent desire to fulfil the whole will of God. If we were to read the psalm before us in this particular view, we should be sur- prised, that we had not been more forcibly struck with this sentiment before. He begins the psalm by declaring those persons pre-eminently blessed, who are most distinguished by their obedience to the laws of God ^ . In this way alone had he any hope of avoiding shame and disappointment in the last day''; and therefore he prayed with all imaginable earnestness, that he might be kept from ever de- viating from the path of duty% and be enabled to ** run the way of God's commandments with an enlarged heart ''." The words which we have just read do not, on a superficial view, convey this idea very strongly to our minds : but on a closer inspec- tion of them, we shall see, that a desire to serve and honour God was the primary object in his petitions, and that even salvation itself was chiefly sought by him on account of the sanctifying and transforming efficacy with which it would be accompanied. Bearing this in mind, we will notice,
I. The object of his desires —
There is no reason to suppose that David alludes to any particular distress or difficulty in these peti- tions : he seems rather to refer to the whole work
of
* ver. 1,2. '' ver. 6. ' ver. 10, 19, 20. , ^ ver, 32.
428.] David's desire to serve god. 441
of grace and salvation, which he wished to have for- warded in his soul : and he does not merely engage to make a practical improvement of the grace that shall be given him, but rather expi'esses the satisfaction he felt in looking fonvard to its effects. Had he merely prayed to God for the salvation of his soul, we should not have disapproved his petitions ; because it is proper and necessary for every man to seek above all things the salvation of his soul. But the having such respect to holiness, and the desiring of salvation itself chiefly in reference to that, is a higher style of piety ; as we propose more distinctly under this head to shew.