tion," the psalmist passes on t.o prayer ; enemies as the souroe" (Canon Oook). and is content to ask the.t God will bo in And let not the hand of the wioked remove the future such aa he he.s been in the po.et- me i or, drive me away (Revised Version), i.e. that he will " lengthen out," prolong, or force me into exile, e.e Absalom'e party "continue his loving-kindness" to his succeeded for e. time in doing (2 Sam. xv. faithful scrrnnts, dealing with them e.s he 13-30). has hitherto dealt with them (vers. 5, 7), Ver. 12.-There are the workers of meroifully, graciously, and lovingly. His iniquity fallen; or, yonder (Kay). It is faithful servants are" those that know him," as if the psalmist suddenly s,iw e. vision. beoouse, as Heugstenberg observes, "the "There "-on e. spot that presents itself to true and essential knowledge of God is to his eyes-are the wicked actually "fallen:" be found only in e. sanctified mind." And they lie prostrate iu the dust. They a.re thy righteousness to the upright in heart. cast down, e.nd shall not be able to rise ; Continue, i.e~ to deal justly with those or, to rise up again (comp. Ps. xviii. 38). whose heart is right with thee-who, in Whereas tl;e righteous may fa.II into mis- spite of occasional lapses, a.re really in heart fortune repeatedly, and recover themselves sincere, (Prov. xxiv. 16), the workers of iniquity, Ver, 11,-Let not the foot of pride oome when their time comes to fall, usually against me. The mention of "the foot of perish. At any rate, this would be the pride" is noted as a mark of D11vidical result of the overtbrow which the psalmist authorship. "Every psalm of David which sees in a sort of vision. speaks of danger points to the pride of bis
HOMILETICS. Ver. 4.-The portrait of the godl,ess man. "He abhorreth not evil." This dark trait is the crowning stroke in the portrait here drawn of the godless man. If a man does not hate evil, it is certain he loves not good. Those twin precepts are like stems from one root (Rom. xii. 9, "Abhor ... cleave"). What a. man loves and follows shows what he will be; but what he hates shows what he is. !. lliTRED OF SIN IS A MORE SEARCHING MORAL TEST THAN ADMIRATION OF GOOD· NESS. True, any real love for goodness, desire after righteousness and holiness, shows a man not yet hopelessly bad. But there is a weak approval of good, with no earnest effort to follow it, which only amounts to self-condemnation. 'l'o recognize the right, true, good, kind, honourable path, and yet not choose it, is even a distinct step down- ward. Power to say "No" is the decisive test of strength of moral character. Good, if followed at all, must be pursued actively-uphill. But to go wrong you need but yield, and drift with the stream. "'!'he kingdom of heaven euffereth violence" (Matt. xi.12). II. Hence HATRED OF SIN 18 AN ESSENTIAL AND GLORIOUS FEATURE OF GoD's CHARACTER. (Hab. i. 13; J er. xliv. 4; Prov. vi. 16.) If men had power to stop the mischief and suffering caused by sin, they would think lightly of sin itself. It is because God does not think lightly of sin that he does not interfere to prevent the misery. If the stream is to flow clean, the fountain must be cleansed. God will not make an evil tree bear good fruit. SuITering is the divinely ordained penalty, warning men off from sin, tracking men out in their sins, calling men to repent o~ sin, witnessino- to God's hatred of sin (Rom. vi. 23). But this is only one side. Misery, sufferino- "death, are no arbitrary infliction; no artificially contrived punishment. They ar~• sin's natural result. Want of love to God and to man, ripenin~ into." enmity against God" (Rom. viii. 7) ; and that self-indu)gence ~nd sel~-worsh1p which prac- tically are enmity to men, cannot but bear the bitter fruit of misery and death (Hom. vi. 21; Gal. v. 19-21). A world of perfect joy and la.sting happiness must be a world from which sin is eternally shut out (Rev. xxi. 27; xxii. 15). III. Thie note of warnicg is one SPECIALLY NEEDED BY THE TIMES WE LIVE IN. Modern society is strong (stronger than at any past epoch) in benevolence, kindli!1ess; pity for the suffering, the fallen, even the guilty. It is weak on the sterner s1de-;- mdignation against wrong, contempt of falsehood, stern zeal for justice, hatred of e"!'il. We may see this in social iife, in commercial life, in political life, in Ohurch _hf~, in theology. We like to" make things pleasant." We persuade ourselves that sin IB no such very great evil; that God will not be very hard on it. W o forget that the rs. xx.xvi. 1-12.J THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 277
most tremendous denunciations of sin and or sinners are from the loving lips of our Saviour himself. "Ye that love the Lord, hate em1/" (Pe. xcvii.10).