The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 1 — Section 384

with such childlike faith in God's pardoning mercy. If the dark record of David's crime bad been silently omitted, we should have been utterly at a loss to understand this pee.Im. Who could he.ve thought that from the same harp which uttered the sweet strain of Ps. xxiii. could proceed so deep a wail of grief and self-abasement? Yet it is just because David's joy in God and love to God were so real that his repentance was so bitter. No hypocrite could have penned this psalm. Any one who calls David e. hypocrite shows dense ignorance of human nature. I. THE PENTTENT's PLEA FOB PARDON. "According to thy loving.kindness [or, 'mercy']; according to the multitude of thy tender mercies [or, 'compassions ']." He has nothing to plead in defence or palliation. God's mercy and pity are his sole hope. What warrant has he to expect them? Answer: God's covenant with Israel. Such sins as David's (murder and adultery) could not be pnrged by sacrifice (see Heb. x. 28). And while under the condemnation of such guilt, it would have been vain presumption to offer peace offerings. Ver. 16 may include both. But the whole law of sacrifice revealed God's delight in mercy, while it foreshadowed the true atonement. 'fhe gospel puts this plea in our mouth in a new form. It supplies an incomparably more glorious warrant and encouragement than the Old Testament believer possessed-the atonement which God himself has provided (2 Cor. v. 21; Eph. i. 7; Rom. v. 8). II. THE UNLIMITED EFFIOA0Y OF THIS PLEA. It is difficult to imagine sins more heinous than those of which David had been guilty. Their guilt was enormously aggravated by the fact that he was the divinely chosen king of the chosen people, an inspired prophet, and the object of signal nnd unrivalled blessings from God. Perhaps we have sometimes wished this dark pagA of Scripture had remained unwritten. But there it stands, to teach us that no sinner need despair of God's mercy. The door at which David entered ie wide enough for every true penitent. So St. Paul points to his own case as an encouragement to all (1 Tim. i. 15, 16). Ill. THE EXOLUBIVE ADEQUACY OF 1·ms PLEA. It admits no addition, no partner- ship, no substitute. It is this or none (Rom. iii. 23-26). By one sin, St. James teaches us, God's Law is as completely broken as by many (Jas. ii. 10). Therefore only the blood which cleanses from all sin (1 John i. 7) can cleanse from any (Titus iii. 4-7). In the heavenly world there will be immense differences in glory and happiness, according to attainment and service. But in this respect-the ground of pardon nnd salvation-all stand on one level; all join in one song (Rev. i. 5, 6 ; v. 9). 'l'he folly and guilt of impenitence appear most of all in this-that it is a despising of God's mercy and compassion (Rom. ii 4). Ver. 10.-Prayer for a pure heart. "C1·eate in me,n etc. Human life belongs to two different worlds, distinct, yet inseparnbly interwoven-the world of outward nature, and the world of inward experience. Since this psalm was written, amazing changes have passed on outward nature in relation to man's !He; but the world of inward experience is enbstantie.lly unchanged, Even within half e. century or Ieee, human labour, discovery, and invention have so modified our relations to the globe we inhabit, and to the forces of nature, that we sometimes say we live in a different world. But the great inner world of joy and sorrow, love and hate, faith and uabolief, nobleness and baseness, holiness and sin, is the same in Eoglnnd to-day as in J udroa. three thousand years ago. It bas not ceased to be true that "As in water," etc. (Prov. xxvii. 19). There is still the same room and need for the prayer of the text. It is still true that it is a prayer which only the Spirit of God could iuspire, can fulfil, or can interpret. I. A PilAYER WHICH ONLY THE HOLY SPIRIT COULD INSPIRE. How else can it ho rationally accounted for? A prayer to God as Creator, for spiritual purity and recti- tude: "a clean heart and a right spirit." Whence came tbese ideas? SLill more, whence came these desires? It is easy to answer-They were suggested by the purifi- cations ordained by the Law of Moses; sprinkling with blood, with the water of purifica- tion in which the ashes of the heifer had been steeped, and "divers washings." llut even supposing these rite~ could have originated the notion of inward purity and spiritual holiness, how could they create any corresponding desire? But, iu fact, these spiritual ideas were the very meaning of those rites, for the sako of which they were 898 THE BOOK OF PS.ALMS, [18. LI, 1-19,