"Cleanse thou me from secret faults." Thou canst mark in me faults
entirely hidden from myself. It were hopeless to expect to see all my
spots; therefore, O Lord, wash away in the atoning blood even those sins
which my conscience has been unable to detect. Secret sins, like private
conspirators, must be hunted out, or they may do deadly mischief; it is well
to be much in prayer concerning them. In the Lateran Council of the Church
of Rome, a decree was passed that every true believer must confess his sins,
all of them, once a year to the priest, and they affixed to it this
declaration, that there is no hope of pardon but in complying with that
decree. What can equal the absurdity of such a decree as that? Do they
suppose that they can tell their sins as easily as they can count their
fingers? Why, if we could receive pardon for all our sins by telling every
sin we have committed in one hour, there is not one of us who would be able
to enter heaven, since, besides the sins that are known to us and that we
may be able to confess, there are a vast mass of sins, which are as truly
sins as those which we lament, but which are secret, and come not beneath
our eye. If we had eyes like those of God, we should think very differently
of ourselves. The transgressions which we see and confess are but like the
farmer's small samples which he brings to market, when he has left his
granary full at home. We have but a very few sins which we can observe and
detect, compared with those which are hidden from ourselves and unseen by
our fellow-creatures.
Verse 13. "Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not
have dominion over me." This earnest and humble prayer teaches us that
saints may fall into the worst of sins unless restrained by grace, and that
therefore they must watch and pray lest they enter into temptation. There
is a natural proneness to sin in the best of men, and they must be held back
as a horse is held back by the bit or they will run into it. Presumptuous
sins are peculiarly dangerous. All sins are great sins, but yet some sins
are greater than others. Every sin has in it the very venom of rebellion,
and is full of the essential marrow of traitorous rejection of God; but
there be some sins which have in them a greater development of the essential
mischief of rebellion, and which wear upon their faces more of the brazen
pride which defies the Most High. It is wrong to suppose that because all
sins will condemn us, that therefore one sin is not greater than another.
The fact is, that while all transgression is a greatly grievous and sinful
thing, yet there are some transgressions which have a deeper shade of
blackness, and a more double scarlet-dyed hue of criminality than others.
The presumptuous sins of our text are the chief and worst of all sins; they
rank head and foremost in the list of iniquities. It is remarkable that
though an atonement was provided under the Jewish law for every kind of sin,
there was this one exception: "But the soul that sinneth presumptuously
shall have no atonement; it shall be cut off from the midst of the people."
And now under the Christian dispensation, although in the sacrifice of our
blessed Lord there is a great and precious atonement for presumptuous sins,
whereby sinners who have erred in this manner are made clean, yet without
doubt, presumptuous sinners, dying without pardon, must expect to receive a
double portion of the wrath of God, and a more terrible portion of eternal
punishment in the pit that is digged for the wicked. For this reason is
David so anxious that he may never come under the reigning power of these
giant evils. "Then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the
great transgression." He shudders at the thought of the unpardonable sin.
Secret sin is a stepping-stone to presumptuous sin, and that is the
vestibule of "the sin which is unto death." He who is not wilful in his
sin, will be in a fair way to be innocent so far as poor sinful man can be;
but he who tempts the devil to tempt him is in a path which will lead him
from bad to worse, and from the worse to the worst.
Verse 14. "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be
acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my Redeemer." A sweet
prayer, and so spiritual that it is almost as commonly used in Christian
worship as the apostolic benediction. Words of the mouth are mockery if
the heart does not meditate; the shell is nothing without the kernel; but
both together are useless unless accepted; and even if accepted by man, it
is all vanity if not acceptable in the sight of God. We must in prayer
view Jehovah as our strength enabling, and our Redeemer saving, or we
shall not pray aright, and it is well to feel our personal interest so as to
use the word my, or our prayers will be hindered. Our near Kinsman's
name, our Goel or Redeemer, makes a blessed ending to the Psalm; it began
with the heavens, but it ends with him whose glory fills heaven and earth.
Blessed Kinsman, give us now to meditate acceptably upon thy most sweet love
and tenderness.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Whole Psalm. The magnificent scenery to which the poem alludes is derived
entirely from a contemplation of nature, in a state of pastoral seclusion;
and a contemplation indulged in, at noontide or in the morning, when the sun
was travelling over the horizon, and eclipsing all the other heavenly bodies
by his glory. On which account it forms a perfect contrast with the eighth
Psalm, evidently composed in the evening, and should be read in connection
with it, as it was probably written nearly at the same time; and as both are
songs of praise derived from natural phenomena, and therefore peculiarly
appropriate to rural or pastoral life.— John Mason Good.
Whole Psalm. The world resembleth a divinity-school, saith Plutarch, and
Christ, as the Scripture telleth, is our doctor, instructing us by his
works, and by his words. For as Aristotle had two sorts of writings, one
called exoterical, for his common auditors, another acromatical, for his
private scholars and familiar acquaintance: so God hath two sorts of books,
as David intimates in this Psalm; namely, the book of his creatures, as a
common-place book for all men in the world: "The heavens declare the glory
of God," verses 1-6; the book of his Scriptures as a statute-book for his
domestic auditory, the church: "The law of the Lord is an undefiled law,"
verses 7, 8. The great book of the creatures in folio, may be termed aptly
the shepherd's kalendar, and the ploughman's alphabet, in which even the
most ignorant may run (as the prophet speaks) and read. It is a letter
patent, or open epistle for all, as David, in our text, Their sound is gone
out into all lands, and their words unto the ends of the world; there is
neither speech nor language but have heard of their preaching. For albeit,
heaven, and the sun in heaven, and the light in the sun are mute, yet their
voices are well understood, catechising plainly the first elements of
religion, as, namely, that there is a God, and that this God is but one God,
and that this one God excelleth all other things infinitely both in might
and majesty. Universus mundus (as one pithily) nihil aliud est quam Deus
explicatus: the whole world is nothing else but God expressed. So St.
Paul, Romans 1:20: God's invisible things, as his eternal power and
Godhead, "are clearly seen" by the creation of the world, "being understood
by the things that are made." The heavens declare this, and the firmament
showeth this, and the day telleth this, and the night certifieth this, the
sound of the thunder proclaimeth, as it were, this in all lands, and the
words of the whistling wind unto the ends of the world. More principally
the sun, which as a bridegroom cometh out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as
a giant to run his course. The body thereof (as mathematicians have
confidently delivered) is one hundred and sixty-six times bigger than the
whole earth, and yet it is every day carried by the finger of God so great a
journey, so long a course, that if it were to be taken on the land, it
should run every several hour of the day two hundred and twenty-five German
miles. It is true that God is incapable to sense, yet he makes himself, as
it were, visible in his works; as the divine poet (Du Bartas) sweetly:—
"Therein our fingers feel, our nostrils smell,
Our palates taste his virtues that excel,
He shows him to our eyes, talks to our ears,
In the ordered motions of the spangled spheres."
So "the heavens declare," that is, they make men declare the glory of God,
by their admirable structure, motions, and influence. Now the preaching of
the heavens is wonderful in three respects. 1. As preaching all the night
and all the day without intermission: verse 2. One day telleth another,
and one night certifieth another. 2. As preaching in every kind of
language: verse 3. There is neither speech, nor language, but their voices
are heard among them. 3. As preaching in every part of the world, and in
every parish of every part, and in every place of every parish: verse 4,
Their sound is gone into all lands, and their words unto the ends of the
world. They be diligent pastors, as preaching at all times; and learned
pastors, as preaching in all tongues; and catholic pastors, as preaching in
all towns. Let us not then in this University (where the voices of so many
great doctors are heard), be like to truants in other schools, who gaze so
much upon the babies, (the pictures or illustrations of a book), and gilded
cover, and painted margent of their book, that they neglect the text and
lesson itself. This is God's primer, as it were, for all sorts of people;
but he hath another book proper only for his domestic auditory the church:
"He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.
He hath not dealt so with any nation, neither have the heathen knowledge of
his laws." Psalm 147:19, 20. Heathen men read in his primer, but Christian
men are well acquainted with his Bible. The primer is a good book, but it
is imperfect; for after a man hath learned it he must learn more; but "the
law of the Lord," that is, the body of the Holy Scriptures, is a most
absolute canon of all doctrines appertaining either to faith or good
manners; it is a perfect law, converting the soul, giving wisdom to the
simple, sure, pure, righteous, and rejoicing the heart," etc.— John Boys.
Whole Psalm. Saint Chrysostom conjectures that the main intention of the
greatest part of this Psalm consists in the discovery of divine providence,
which manifests itself in the motions and courses of the heavenly bodies,
concerning which the psalmist speaketh much, from verse 1 to verse 7. Saint
Austin upon the place, is of a quite different opinion, who conjectures that
Christ is the whole subject of this Psalm; whose person is compared to the
sun for excellency and beauty, and the course of whose doctrine was
dispersed round about the world by his apostles to which Saint Paul alludes
(Romans 10:18); "Have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound went into
all the earth," etc., and the efficacy of whose gospel is like the heat of
the sun, which pierceth into the very heart of the earth, so that into the
secrets of the soul. I confess this allegorical exposition is not
altogether impertinent, neither is that literal exposition of Saint
Chrysostom to be blamed, for it hath its weight. But to omit all variety of
conjecture, this Psalm contains in it:
1. A double kind of the knowledge of God, of which one is by the
book of the creature; and this divines call a natural knowledge: there is
not any one creature but it is a leaf written all over with the description
of God; his eternal power and Godhead may be understood by the things that
are seen, saith the apostle. Romans 1:20. And, as every creature, so
especially "the heavens" do lead us to the knowledge of a God; so verse 1
of this Psalm: "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament
sheweth his handywork;" they are the theatres, as it were, of his wisdom,
and power, and glory. Another is by the book of Scripture; and this
knowledge is far more distinct and explicit: with the other even the heathen
do grope after a deity, but with this Christians do behold God, as it were,
with open face. The characters here are now fresh, spiritual, complete, and
lively. The word of God is the singular means to know God aright. Look, as
the light which comes from the sun, so that word of God, which is light, is
the clearest way to know God who is light itself. Hence it is that the
psalmist stands much upon this from verse 7 to verse 12, where he sets open
the word in its several encomiums and operations; namely, in its perfection,
its certainties, and firmness; its righteousness, and purity, and truth; and
then in its efficacy—that it is a converting word, an enlightening word,