The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 3 — Section 129

that, according to God's Word, he was forgiven, even as he knew he was an altered man. God had pardoned him and renewed him. Why, then, should he think or speak of himself as if neither of these blessed facts was true? And for ourselves, if the blood of Jesus Christ is keeping me cleansed from all sin-and if I am sincere and walking in the light, I am so cleansed, not once for all, but hour by hour, Then if I assert this, and confess it, I am not, any more than the psalmist, condemned as a'self- decei ~er, anci without the truth, because of such confession. And this psalm is a perpetual and precious protestation and assertion· of deliverance from sin. 'l'his last verse, then, tells of his sad circumstances, and not of sinful character. But it implie~ these three facts- I. MAN'S HELPLESSNESS. We cannot make one hair white or black (Matt. v. 36) " We are crushed before the moth." II. GoD's LOVING, SHEPHERD-LIKE CARE OF us. He will be sure to come after us when in peril, and see that we come to no real harm. "I am the good Shepherd." lIL THE INWARD GUARANTEE AND PLEDGE THAT Goo WILL DO THIS FOR US. "I do not forget thy commandments." God has begun a good work in us or this would not be true. Therefore, etc. (Phil. i. 6)- ' "His honour is engaged to save The meanest of his sheep." s.c. Ver. 1.-Sincerity is perfectness. The word "undefiled" in the Authorized Version is rendered "perfect" in the Revised Version; and the terms "sincere" and "upright" are marginal suggestions. The term "perfect" includes a variety of meanings, and the Old Testament use materially differs from that of the New 'l'estament. The apostles express the idea of wholeness, completeness; their word is well represented by "entire," i.e. having every part and faculty according to standard, and every part and faculty in full health, vigour, harmonious development, and activity. The older writers have in mind rather what we understand by "simplicity," "genuineness," "sincerity." To the pious mind the supreme evil was doubleness, the divided heart, fearing God and worshipping other gods-the man whose body was in God's temple, but whose soul was absorbed in self-interests. And therefore, to the pious mind, the perfect became the sincere-the man who was what he seemed to be. '!'his readily becomes the "undefiled," the man who is not stained by self-seeking motives or a spirit of hypocrisy; the man who professes to walk in the Law of the Lord, and does. The psalm affirms, in its opening verse, the blessedness of walking genuinely in the way of God's Word, and thus gives the key-note of the whole psalm, with which may be usefully compared the composition of Tennyson's 'In Memoriam.' Like that poem, the psalm represents a variety of moods in which a poetic soul may meditate on some leadiug thought or fact. It is not only that tho subject is dealt with all round; it is that it is approached from a variety of points of view; and the points are decided by the mental and spiritual moods of the poet. It has· been well said that in the first three verses we have described the three elements of obedience to the Law. (1) Purity of intention ; (2) reverence in treasuring up; (3) anrl, as a result, freedom from the power of sin. Absolute perfection, that is perfection tested by comparison with the sublime idea we have of God, is necessarily unattainable by the creature. The perfec- tion of a creature must be in the range of possible attainment for the creature. We can think of a man reaching the standard or ideal of manhood. We know that the standard manhood has been presented to us historically in the lire of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that life helps us to realize the point before us now-that, for the created being, man, who must stand in dependent relations to his Creator, perfection is sfocerity. We may recall the saying of Shakespeare- "To thine own self be trne, and it shall follow . , , Thou canst not then be false to any man." I. lNBINCERITY LIMITS PERFECTION IN THE SIGHT OF MEN. Some advantage is gained by putting the truth before us in this negative form, because we are so muoh quicker to discern the evil than the good, to condemn insincerity than to prais«i PB. CXIX. 1-176.] THE BOOK OF PS.ALMS. 143