Evening, September 21
Go To Morning Reading
“Gather not my soul with sinners.”
Psalm 26:9
Fear made David pray thus, for something whispered, “Perhaps, after all, thou mayst be gathered with the wicked.” That fear, although marred by unbelief, springs, in the main, from
holy anxiety, arising from the recollection of past sin. Even the
pardoned man will enquire, “What if at the end my sins should be remembered, and I should be left
out of the catalogue of the saved?” He recollects his present unfruitfulness—so little grace, so little love, so little holiness, and looking forward
to the future, he considers his weakness and the many temptations
which beset him, and he fears that he may fall, and become a prey
to the enemy. A sense of sin and present evil, and his prevailing
corruptions, compel him to pray, in fear and trembling, “Gather not my soul with sinners.” Reader, if you have prayed this prayer, and if your character be
rightly described in the Psalm from which it is taken, you need not
be afraid that you shall be gathered with sinners. Have you the two
virtues which David had—the outward walking in integrity, and the inward trusting in the Lord?
Are you resting upon Christ’s sacrifice, and can you compass the altar of God with humble hope?
If so, rest assured, with the wicked you never shall be gathered,
for that calamity is impossible. The gathering at the judgment is
like to like. “Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn
them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” If, then, thou art like God’s people, thou shalt be with God’s people. You cannot be gathered with the wicked, for you are too
dearly bought. Redeemed by the blood of Christ, you are his forever,
and where he is, there must his people be. You are loved too much
to be cast away with reprobates. Shall one dear to Christ perish?
Impossible! Hell cannot hold thee! Heaven claims thee! Trust in thy
Surety and fear not!