Ps. iv. 4, 5. Stand in awe, and sin not : commune tvith your own heart upon your bed, and he still. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness : and put your trust in the Lord.
IN the Psalms of David there is a great diversity ; some being expressive of his own experience, and abounding in petitions or thanksgivings, as the occa- sion required ; others being simply historical, for the information of the Church ; others prophetic of Christ and his kingdom in the world ; and others again being merely instructive, for the benefit of mankind. Of this last kind is the psalm before us ; in which, after declaring the comfort he had found in God, and offering a petition for the continuance of it (v. 1.), he reproves those who derided religion, and sought happiness in the world (v. 2.). He assures them, that God is the friend and portion of all who seek him (v. 3.) ; and recommends them to seek him in a becoming manner (v. 4, 5.) ; and from his own ex- perience attests, that no increase of worldly pros- perity can ever afford them so rich a recompence as His presence (v. 6, 7.), in which all who enjoy it find perfect rest (v. 8.).
As there is no certainty respecting the occasion on which it was written, we may take the text in a general view, and found upon it a general exhorta- tion. Nor will there be any occasion for an artificial arrangement of it, because the different parts of the exhortation lie in an easy and natural order, and may be most profitably noticed as they arise in the text.
Beware, then, of sin ; or, as the text expresses it, " Stand in awe, and sin not" —
[The words " Stand in awe" are, in the Septuagint Trans- lation, rendered, " Be ye angry:" and it seems that the Apostle Paul referred to them, when he said, " Be ye angry, and sin not^." The original imports a violent commotion of the mind; and Bishop Home translates it, " tremble." Certainly sin ought to be an object of extreme fear and dread: we can never " stand in awe" of it too much. See what it has done in the world, how it has deformed the whole face of nature, and more especially the soul of man, which was originally made in the image of God himself! See what was necessary for the expia- tion of it ! Could nothing but the blood of God's co-equal, co-eternal Son make an atonement for it, and shall it appear
a Eph. iv. 26.