Faith Tried and Triumphing

Faith Tried and Triumphing

(No. 3265)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 1911.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Though He slays me, yet will I trust in Him." Job 13:15.

THERE are some speeches which could not be made by ordinary men. As
soon as you hear them, you feel that there is a ring about them which
is by no means common. Certain expressions which have been heard and
remembered could have been uttered only by great warriors, or by men
who have navigated the vast ocean. Certain other still nobler
expressions, because spiritual ones, could have been uttered only by
those who have had to fight with spiritual foes, or have done business
on the great waters of soul trouble. When you hear the expression, "If
there are as many devils at Worms as there are tiles on the housetops,
I will go there in God's name," you are quite certain the speaker is
Martin Luther. No other than he could have said it! And just as
certainly, I think, I would have felt if I had read tonight's text for
the first time, that it was Job who said it and nobody else.

Job was a master sufferer. No man went deeper into grief than he–his
children all dead, his wealth all swept away, his whole body covered
with sore boils and blisters and the friends who pretended to comfort
him, only accusing him of being a hypocrite, while his own wife bids
him, "curse God, and die." He was brought lower than any and,
therefore, being a man of faith, having overcome and triumphed by
faith, it was like he to utter such a noble speech as that which our
text brings before us. "Though He slays me, yet will I trust in Him,"
is not the utterance of any ordinary commonplace Believer! It is a sort
of word which, we are quite sure, could only come from a triumphant
Job–triumphant by victorious faith! However, I trust there are some
here who could use this expression, now that another has fitted it for
their lips, and I hope that all of us who have any faith at all, may
have that faith so increased that yet, without boasting, we may still
be able to say, "Though He slays me, yet will I trust in Him."

I. In speaking upon this text I would note, first, THAT FAITH IS THE
HABITUAL GRACE OF THE CHRISTIAN. To trust in God is his usual mode of
life. He does not sometimes trust and sometimes cease to trust, but,
"the just shall live by faith." Faith is not a Grace of luxury but a
Grace of necessity. We must have it and if we have it not, we would not
be the people of God at all! The common habit of the Christian, then,
is a habit of trusting. The Christian's walk is faith and his life is
faith!

Faith is to the Christian all the spiritual senses, not one, but all.
The natural man has his eyes, but by faith we see Him who is invisible!
The natural man has his hands and his feelings. We live not by feeling,
but our faith is the hand by which we take fast hold upon eternal
realities! The natural man has his ears, and they are delighted with
sweet sounds, or through them the language of friendship enters his
heart. Our faith is the ear through which we hear the voice of God and,
sometimes, even catch stray notes from the harps of the angels! The
natural man has the nostrils with which he becomes aware of sweet
perfumes–and to our faith the name of Jesus is as choicest ointment
poured forth! If we receive Christ as our heart's Lord, all the inlets
by which we receive Him and His Grace are made of the agate of faith.
Gates of carbuncle, windows of agate are true faith. The Light of God
and the Love of God come into our consciousness by our faith.

Faith, too, is with the Christian his first and his last Faith looking
to Christ is the very beginning of spiritual life! We began to live at
the foot of the Cross when we looked up and saw the flowing of those
founts of forgiveness–the five wounds of Christ! And as faith was the
first, so it will be the last. We expect to die looking for our Lord's
appearing and still resting upon His finished work. And all between the
alpha and the omega–all the other letters–we read them all by faith!
There is no period of our life in which it is safe for us to live by
feeling, not even when our enjoyments run high-

est. On the mountain where Christ is transfigured and where, in the
midst of the Glory we shall fall asleep in amazement, we cannot live by
sense! Even there we can only enjoy the Glory as faith shall continue
to be in exercise. We must all the way through, from the first to the
last, look out of ourselves and look above to the things which are
seen, to grasp the things which are not seen, to be touched with the
eternal hand and realize that which does not seem real to sense. This
is the life of the Christian from the first to the last!

And I would add, as it is his first and last, so faith is the
Christian's highest and his lowest. If we ever get upon the mountain
summit and bask our foreheads in the sunlight of fellowship with God,
we stand there only by faith! It is because our faith is strong and in
active exercise that we realize the things not seen as yet, and behold
the God whom mortal eyes cannot gaze upon! Our very noblest, happiest
and most heavenly times are those which are the results of faith. And
so in our lowest. We can only live there by faith. Have you never lain
shattered and broken, crushed and destroyed, expecting something yet
more terrible? And have you not felt that now in your faintness you
could fall back into the Savior's arms? That now in your brokenness you
could drop into His hands? That now in your abject nothingness He must
be All-in-All to you, or else there will be an utter end to you? Oh,
the faith that is as wings to us when we fly, becomes a lifebuoy to us
when we sink! The faith which bears us up to the gates of Heaven, also
lifts us up from the very gates of Hell! 'Tis our first and our last!
'Tis our highest and our lowest! It is all the senses of our spiritual
nature. We must have it and always have it. We must trust in the Lord!

The matters about which the true Christian is to trust are very many,
but they are chiefly these.

We trust for the pardon of our sins to our God in Christ Jesus. The
only hope that any Christian has for the forgiveness of his iniquity
lies in the Sacrifice presented on Calvary by the Lamb of God whom God
has given for the sins of the world. If any shall ask us whether we
trust that our sins are forgiven us because of our repentance, or
because of a long life of active Christian service, we shall reply that
we are thankful if God has given us these things, but our sole reliance
is in our dear Lord and Master who was once fastened to the Cross, but
now sits in power in the highest heavens! Our trust for the pardon of
sin in every degree and every respect lies in Christ, the Son of
God–and there only! In this matter we can use the language of Job and
say, "Though He slays me, yet will I trust in Him," for the fact is,
the more fully we are slain, the more truly we trust! When we see
ourselves to be utterly dead, slain by the two edged sword of the Lord,
and all hope of our own self-salvation to be a corpse–then it is more
easy than ever to come and cast ourselves upon the Christ of God and
rest there for all our salvation from the guilt of sin!

But in God also we trust for the purification of our spirits from all
the indwelling power of sin. Some Christians do not appear to make this
a matter of faith and, therefore, they do not succeed therein. You can
no more conquer sin in yourself–really conquer it by your own
strength–than you can remove the guilt of it by your own merits. The
same Christ who is made unto us "justification" and "redemption," is
also made unto us "sanctification," and we must never forget that while
we wash our robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb as to
pardon, we also overcome our sins through the blood of the Lamb! The
same Savior who takes away the guilt, takes away the power and the
defiling power of sin. Well has Toplady put it–

"Let the water and the blood From Your riven side which flowed, Be of
sin the double cure– Cleanse me from its guilt andpower." Now, the
true Christian can say that he trusts in God for his effectual
purification and his final perfection. He does not hope to drive out
one of these Canaanites by his own arm. He does not think that he shall
slay one of his corruptions in his own strength. But his eyes are unto
the hills from where comes his help and he believes that the Eternal
Spirit will, like refining fire, go through and through his soul till
everything in him shall be burnt up except that which is of God– that
which will endure the fire and be well-pleasing in Jehovah's sight!

The matters upon which we rely upon God, then, are as far as I have yet
gone, the finished work of Jesus Christ and the power that there is in
Christ and in the Blessed Spirit to sanctify us–spirit, soul and body.

But our trust is in God in another sense, namely, first– we trust Him
believing that He always must be just. It does not occur to us now that
God could be unjust. In the days of our flesh we used to think, if we
suffered some extreme pain, or if we passed suddenly from wealth to
poverty, that God had dealt very harshly with us, but now we feel that
His strokes are fewer than our crimes and lighter than our guilt. And
it does not occur to us in any way to impeach the Jus-

tice of God, let Him do what He will. We feel that if He not only
should slay us, but if He should cast us into Hell forever–remembering
what we are in ourselves and standing on our own footing, we could not
complain against Him. This is our firm confidence, that whatever our
position is, God has always dealt justly with us, that He will never
deal unjustly with us and we shall never have to say of any one
transaction that we have with Him, "This is not according to the rule
of right."

But we go a great deal further. Having believed in Christ Jesus, and
having become His children, we trust, believing that God will never do
anything to us but that which is full of love. We are assured that His
eternal love does not only come forth, now and then, that it does not
only permeate and infuse itself into a few of His actions–but that all
His conduct towards His children are actuated by the motive power of
love. He is always Love towards those who put their trust in Him. We
are sure that He never gives us a pain more than is necessary and that
He never lets us suffer a loss more than is necessary. "Though for a
season, if necessary, we are in heaviness through manifold
temptations," we know and are convinced that there is a necessity for
it. We trust His Justice and we trust His Goodness.

And, more, we trust His Wisdom mingled with all this. He has said that
"all things work together for good to them that love God," and we
believe it. We have had some bitters in our cup, but we still believe
it. We may yet have a great many more, but we are assured that through
the help of God's Spirit we shall still believe this–that come what
may, expected or unexpected, in the ways of grief and sorrow, still
that ultimate good shall come out of the whole! God's purpose of love
shall not be thwarted, but rather shall be answered by every
circumstance of our history. Therefore do we trust in God that He is
just and cannot do us an unrighteous action! That He is loving and
cannot do a cruel thing to us! That He is wise and loving and just–and
will make all things work together for good!

In fine, we trust Him as a child trusts its parent, that is, for
everything. There are many things about Him that we cannot
understand–as there were about our parents in our childhood–but we
trust Him and know that there is none like He. "There is none like unto
the God of Jeshurun." We trust Him in all that He does. We cannot
understand Him, for His way is in the sea and His footsteps are not
known. But we are sure that they are footsteps of holiness and they are
ways of righteousness. We trust Him for all the past and all the
present, yes, and for all the future, too–that future which sometimes
looms before us in the mist–and half alarms us till we are ready to
shrink back from it. We gather up the skirts of our robe, again, and
though we fear as we enter into the cloud, yet are we comforted with
the full conviction that He who has done so well in the past, will be
with us even to life's close.

Thus have I tried to show you that the whole tenor of the Christian's
life is trust–that, as in the text, "Though He slays me, yet will I
trust in Him."

II. Now the second point shall be that those of us who have learned to
trust in God expect that OUR FAITH SHALL BE TRIED. The text holds the
plain supposition that it shall be extremely tried. He does not say,
"Though I die"–that would be a great trial. Death is not a pleasant
thing. It is no child's play even to the strongest Believer. Job does
not say, "Though I die," but, "Though He slays me." That is more. He
does not say, "Though He permit me to be slain," but, "Though He slays
me–though He should seem to be so much my enemy as to turn round and
kill me! Though I may not believe His action, I will believe Him–I
will believe His Infallible Word. "Even though He slays me." It is not,
"Though He makes me hunger." Or, "Though He puts me in prison, though
He allows me to be mocked, though He allows me to be banned from all my
friends and to live a solitary and wretched life." No, it is more than
that–"Though He slays me." And mark, it is not, "Though He slays my
children. Though He takes away my wife. Though He removes all my dear
kindred." It is more than that. "Though He slays me. Though it comes
right home to myself."

Ah, Job knew what He meant, for all other things had been done except
the slaying of him! His children were dead and the house in which they
had met was a ruin. All he had was gone–his health had gone and he
could not rest by reason of the disease which was all over him–most
painful and most acute. He had nothing left on earth that was worth
having. He was even friendless and he was worse than wifeless, for his
wife had turned against him. Yet he says there is but one thing more
that can be done–and God has kept Satan back from that. He said, "Only
you shall not take his life." But if the Lord chose to let loose the
dog without even the link of a chain upon him–though He allows me now
to lose my life itself–

"Though He slays me, I will trust, Praise Him even from the dust–

Prove, and sing it as Iprove, His eternal gracious love."

Now, the text evidently implies that faith will be tried and tried
severely. Let us think a moment about this. Has it not been always the
case that if any man has had a faith beyond his fellow men, it has met
with trial? If you go a step beyond the ordinary rank and file, you
will be shot at for that very reason! Columbus believes that there is
another part of the world undiscovered–what ridicule is heaped upon
him! Galileo says the world moves–he must be put into the
Inquisition–the poor old man must be forced to deny what he was quite
sure was the truth. It was dangerous in those days to know too much and
to believe a little more than other people. And in spiritual things it
is just the same. The world is against the true faith. The faith of
God's elect is not a flower that men delight to admire and praise–it
is a thing which, wherever they see it, they count as a speckled bird
and they are sure to be against it! If you have faith in God, remember
that this is not the world of faith, but the world of unbelief–and the
darkness that is in the world will try to quench your Light!

But remember that true faith scorns trial and outlives it It is not
worth having if it does not. If I believe in the friendship of my
friend and yet it cannot bear a little trial, it is not real
friendship. Perhaps in your youth, as with most of us, there was
someone exceedingly dear to you. In your boyish or girlish days you
would walk with some companion and you swore inseparable friendship.
Ah, how many of those friendships did you make–and they were broken?
Since then, perhaps, we have thought that someone with whom we took
sweet counsel could never, by any possibility, betray us–but there
came a test of our friendship. We were not worth as much as we once
were, or we were not as much esteemed as we used to be, or there
happened to be a misunderstanding–and in a little tiff, the friendship
was marred. But that faith which a man has in his fellow men that is
worth having will not yield so easily. No, says the man, "If you say
anything to me against my friend, I do not believe you! I think there
is some other way of reading it. If you speak the truth, you do not
know all about it–there is something else that would change the
complexion of it. And even if you were to convict him of a fault, I
would still love him, for there are many virtues in him and if he did
this thing, he must have made a mistake. I will defend him."

Now, transfer this from common life to faith in God. If a man says, "I
trust in God," and it is all smooth sailing, and his children are about
him and he has plenty upon the table, his body in full health and he
has all that heart could wish– well, we will see what sort of faith
that is! It is not yet proven–will the man believe his God when God
begins to take away all he loves? Will he believe Him when the wife
pines away with a long and painful sickness? Will he believe Him when
child after child is taken to the tomb? Will he believe Him when he
sees his property taken away before his eyes? Will he believe his God
when he, himself, can scarcely move hand or foot upon the bed off
sickness? Will he still be able to bless the name of the Lord when he
is stripped of everything? If he can, then this is faith worth having!
But if he cannot, then it is not the faith that is worthy of God and it
is well it does give way, for then it may drive the man to seek the
true faith which would bear these tests!

You see, then Brothers and Sisters, if we have faith, we must expect to
have it tried by reason of faith being an unusual thing in the world
and because if it would not bear trial it would not be worth having!
History tells us that the best servants of God have had their
trials–and why should we expect to escape? We turn over the historical
pages of this Book which are so full of instruction to us and we find
that all the Lord's children have had to do battle for the preservation
of their faith. There is no smooth road to Heaven! Steam rollers can be
used for the earth, for our common roads, but you shall find flint
stones on the road to Glory! They have never been rolled smooth and
they never will be–

"Thepath of sorrow, and that path alone Leads to the land where sorrow
is unknown." Faith must and shall be tried as surely as it is the faith
of God's people! And if the best of saints have been obliged to say
that through much tribulation they have inherited the Kingdom, we must
not expect that God will change His rule in His treatment of us. I
would not, however, encourage one thing which I have sometimes noticed,
namely, the fear which comes into some Christians that they are not
God's people because they have not been much tried. All the saints meet
with trial. I know a dear friend who is suffering just now, who says
that he was occasionally afflicted with a fear that he could not be a
child of God because he was so long without a sickness or without a
trial. Ah, you will have that case met quite soon enough! Do not run
after trouble–remember troubles of our own seeking would not be
genuine strokes of

the rod. You may leave that in God's hands. Do not fret yourself there.
Only when the trials do come to you, let this console you, that–

"Bastards may escape the rod, Plunged in sensual vain delight! But the
true-born child of God Must not–would not, if he might!"

In our peace of soul, if God has given it to us by lot and by
inheritance, some thorns and thistles must and will spring up in this
present world.

Moreover, dear Brothers and Sisters, the trial is greatly for our good
and greatly for God's Glory. Our faith could never grow, neither could
we be sure of it, if it had not been tested. They do not send steam
vessels out to sea at once. Often you see on the Clyde, vessels being
tried–tried on the Gairloch–before they go out to sea. And God tries
us here, before we take the great ocean of judgment–before we come to
the time of death. We have our trials here and we grow by our trials.
Among the best mercies we have ever received are those mercies that
have come to us dressed in the somber garb of mourning which have
carried treasures in both their hands. God be thanked for the fire! God
be thanked for the refiner's furnace and the crucible! They have been
among the best things we have inherited from His mercy!

Thus I have brought out two ideas of the text. The Christian lives by
faith and he expects that faith to be tried.

III. But now the next point is the main point of the text–that A TRUE
FAITH, PUT ON TRIAL, WILL CERTAINLY BEAR IT. "Though He slays me." It
is an extreme expression. "Though He does His worst. Though He gives
the last and uttermost stroke that can be taken, yet will I believe
Him. Though He slays me."

Faith will be justified to the uttermost. It is very easy to believe
the creature too much. It is a common fault. It is impossible to trust
the Creator too much! To trust Him too little is one of the most usual
of sins. Faith in the creature is hardly ever warranted. Faith in the
Creator can be warranted, push it as far as ever you like. You know
that there is a point where faith in the creature must stop. Our
dearest friends can go with us only to the Jordan's brink and then they
can help us no longer. But though we go through the Valley of the
Shadow of Death, God is with us and we need fear no evil. Though it
actually comes to the slaying and to the death, still we may trust in
Him–for He cannot–He will not fail us!

Why is it that the Believer is warranted in trusting in God to the very
last extremity? The answer is because He is always the same God. If He
is worth trusting one day, He is worth trusting another. He cannot
change. His Character is such that if it is infinitely worthy of my
confidence today, it will be just the same in the rough weather that
may come tomorrow! Could He change, then my faith in Him ought to
change–but if He is always the same true, faithful, loving and tender
God, ruling all things by His power–there can be no reason why my
faith should make a change. I ought to trust Him, who at all times is
the same!

I ought to trust Him, also, to the last, because outward Providences
prove nothing to us about God. We cannot read outward events
correctly–they are written in hieroglyphics. The book of God is
readable–it is written in human language! But the works of God are
often unreadable–

"Blind unbelief is sure to err,

And scan His work in vain.

God is His own interpreter,

And He will make it plain."

We begin spelling God's works and making mischief out of them because
we do not know the letters or understand the alphabet, and cannot
readily know what He means. If the Lord says He loves us, do we believe
it though He smites us? Do we believe that–

"Behind a frowning Providence He hides a smiling face?"

Be wise, then, and believe in the God you cannot see–not in the
outward Providence which you can see–for if you could see that outward
Providence aright as God sees it, you would see it to be as full of
love as assuredly God's heart is to you if you are a Believer in Him!
Therefore, since the outward is no sign to us, let us, when it gathers
all the black it can, still believe in Him. When it shall seem most
severe and deep calls unto deep at the noise of God's waterspouts, let
us still hope in Him, for He is the health of our countenance and our
God!

Moreover, Brothers and Sisters, there is another cause why we should
always trust in Him. To whom else can we go? We are shut up to this.
When it comes to slaying, to cutting, to striking and to killing work,
what can the soul do but fall into the Creator's arms? When it comes to
dying, what words shall fit these lips so well as these–"Father, into
Your hands I commit my spirit." The course of the Christian's life is
such that he feels it more necessary to trust every day he lives. He
does not get off the line of faith–he gets more into the middle of it
as he feels his weakness more. And at the last, when his weakness will
be more apparent, he will need faith more than ever–and he will have
it! He shall be able to say, "My flesh and my heart fails, but God is
the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Ah, I ask again–To
whom should we go in our trouble but unto God? All other sources are
then dried up! The world mocks us, it seems to be a howling wilderness.
'Tis only from Heaven the manna can come–only from the Rock, Christ
Jesus, the living water can gush forth!

And there is one other word I will say before I leave this point–we
may depend upon it, God will always justify our faith if we do trust
Him. There was never one who in the long run had to say, "I was a fool
to trust in God." Many have said to us, in time of trouble, "He trusted
in God that He would deliver him, let Him deliver him," and they have
hissed between their teeth that hideous taunt, "Where is their God
now?" But God has not left the righteous to be ashamed and to be
offended forever! They have had, perhaps, a blush on the cheek for a
moment, for the flesh is weak, but they have not been confounded for
long. Faith has come to the rescue and God has fulfilled their faith!
Many a man has trusted in himself and been deceived. Many have trusted
in their wealth and been disappointed. Thousands have relied on friends
and have been betrayed. But blessed is the man, O Lord of Hosts, who
stays Himself on You! You can go beyond your friend's line and
measure–you may readily expect too much of him. You can try the temper
of the dearest one you have on earth and at last feel that you have
tried it too much. But you can never go beyond the line of God! Your
sin will rather be in limiting the Holy One of Israel! You will never
open your mouth too wide for Him! You will never ask too much at His
hands! You will never expect too much! You will never believe too much!
Has He not, Himself, said, "I am the Lord your God which brought you
out of the land of Egypt, open your mouth wide and I will fill it"? The
wider you open it, the better! The larger your expectations, the
better, for according to your faith so shall it be done unto you!

Now, in closing I would observe that if we say the text, it will take a
good deal of sayingand, if it is true, it will need the power of God,
Himself, to make it true. You can stand up tonight and say, "Though He
slays me, yet will I trust in Him." But how would it be if He took you
at your word? Did you ever question yourself thus, Christian Brothers
and Sisters? You have said, "Well, I hope I have a faith that will bear
me safely into the Presence of God." Did you ever put yourself in the
posture of a dying man and think whether you could look Death in the
face? You have said, "I hope when I am weighed in the balances I shall
not be found wanting." Did you ever get in the scales and try? Have you
made a self-examination, an earnest praying, testing, trying of
yourself? They do not send out a gun from the foundry without putting
it into the proof-house to see whether it will bear the discharge of
the powder. Have you ever put yourself into the proof-house?

But beware, above all things, of religious boasting! Remember that God
does not care for our words–it is the heart, it is the reality and
truth of what we say–not the verbiage–that commends us to Him. Many a
man says very boldly, "Though God should slays me, I will trust Him,"
and yet when God denies him a week's work, he does not trust Him! If he
had a sick child, his faith would begin to waver. A little puff of wind
will alter some people's faith, for heaviest the heart is in the heavy
air! O for a faith that can stand the test! Seek such faith, look to
the Strong for strength in this matter and cry loudly unto Him who is
the Author and the Finisher of faith, that He would strengthen it in
you. Say, "Lord, I believe; help You my unbelief and bring me to
this–that I can look anything in the face." And then say, "Let all the
floods of earth, and all the out-flowing from Hell, and even the
drenching trials that come from Heaven, itself, come upon me, yet will
I stay myself on the Lord, for He will not fail me, neither will He
leave me! His mercy cannot depart from His chosen. He will keep to the
end those who have rested in Him.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM26.

No doubt this Psalm was written by David when his cruel persecutor,
Saul, the more effectually to stab at him, spread false reports
concerning his character. When the wicked can use no other weapons,
they always have their quivers full of slanderous reports. Let us
learn, here, that the best of men must expect to be misrepresented and
to have the worst of crimes laid to their charge. Let us learn, also,
from the example of David, to carry our case to the highest court at
once, not to meddle with the lower courts of earth, but to go at once
to the Court of King's Bench in Heaven and there plead our cause before
the Eternal Throne.

Verse 1. Judge me, O LORD As if he turned away from all other judges,
bribed and false as they had proved themselves to be in his case, and
put himself on trial before God. "Judge me, O Lord–

1. For I have walked in my integrity: I have trusted also in the LORD;
therefore I shall not slide. He pleads two things. First the outward
life and second the inward faith, which as it is the main-spring and
source of the outer life of integrity, is also the more important of
the two. Mark that as the case is between himself and his accusers, he
pleads his life, for though we are justified before God by faith and
not by works, yet before men we must be justified by our works, rather
than by our faith. It is in vain for me to plead my faith when I am
slandered. The only answer that can effectually shut the mouth of the
adversary is to point to a blameless life. Hence in this case he not
only brings his faith before his God, but he also brings the fruit of
his faith. Note the inference which he draws from God's mercy to him in
enabling him to walk uprightly and to trust Him–"therefore I shall not
slide." He rests for the future upon his God! His position was
slippery, his enemies were always busy trying to trip up his heels, but
he says–"I shall not slide."

2. Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart This is
a wonderful verse. One would hardly dare to pray it. Here are three
kinds of trial. According to the etymology of the Hebrew, the first is
the trial by touch– "Examine me." The next is the trial by
smell–"Prove me." And the next is the trial by fire–"Try my reins and
my heart." You see how anxious he is to really have the matter decided
by God. "Lord, search me through and through. You know I am not a
hypocrite." Now who dares to say this but that true man of God whose
soul is wholly fixed upon the Lord? The reins and the heart are
mentioned because those were believed to be the seat of the
affections–and when the affections are right the whole man is right.
The heart is the fountain from which issue streams of life and if the
fountain is pure, the streams cannot be impure–hence he asks chiefly
that the examination may be directed to his reins and to his heart.

3. For your loving kindness is before my eyes–Right straight before
his eyes he had God's loving kindness. Some people appear to have their
miseries, their sorrows, their sins before their eyes, but happy is
that Believer who always has God's loving kindness before him!

Come, my Brothers and Sisters, forget for a little while the burden of
your business cares–now for a little season let the sickness that is
in your house be left in the hands of your God and let His loving
kindness be before your eyes. Loving kindness–pull the word to pieces.
Remember the ancientness of it, the constancy of it, the variety of
ways in which it shows itself and the lavish bounties which it bestows
upon you! Do not turn your back to God's goodness, but now, right
straight before you sets the loving kindness of your God!

3. And I have walked in Your truth.By which he may mean two things.
First that he endeavored to hold fast to the Truths of God both in
Doctrine and in practice. Or, secondly, that by God's truthfulness in
giving him the promised Grace, he had been enabled to walk uprightly.

4. I have not sat with vain persons–I never took counsel with them.
They never were my choice companions.

4. Neither will I go in with dissemblers.He makes a vow for the future
that all crafty, lying, and foolish men shall never have his
companionship.

5. I have hated the congregation of evildoers, and will not sit with
the wicked. By which he does not mean that he does not associate with
them in any way, for we must go out of the world if we will not have
communion with sinners– but he means that he did not seektheir
company, found no pleasure in it and never went in it to abet them in
their evil deeds.

6. I will wash my hands in innocence. Pilate did this, but alas, the
water was very dirty in which he washed his hands! This was an old
Jewish rite when a man was found murdered–if the people in the valley
in which he was found would be free from the crime of murder, they took
a heifer, slew it, and then washed their hands in water over the head
of the victim. They were then clear. So here he says–"I will wash my
hands in innocence."

6. So will I compass Your altar, O LORD. He is innocent as far as men
are concerned, but he still confesses that he is a sinner, for he goes
to God's altar. Perfect men need no altars. It is the sinner that needs
a sacrifice. So let the saint always know that though he can plead
innocence against the charges of men–yet before God his hope lies in
the blood-sprinkled altar of which Jesus Christ is the great High
Priest!

7, 8. That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of
all Your wondrous works. LORD, I have loved the habitation of Your
House, and the place where Your honor dwells. I am sure many of us can
say this, that when the Sabbath comes round, it is the best day of all
the week! And that hour in the week-night when we can get to the House
of God–what an inexpressible relief is that! It is to us like a green
oasis in the midst of the sandy desert. There are no beauties in Nature
and no changes to be perceived in traveling that I think can ever
compensate for the loss of the constant means of Grace–after all,
God's House is the fairest spot on earth! Zion, I will prefer you above
my chiefjoy! If I forget you, let my right hand forget her cunning. "I
have loved the habitation of Your House, and the place where Your honor
dwells."

9, 10. Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men: in
whose hands is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes. See,
he so loves God's House that he cannot bear the thought of being shut
in with sinners! And this is our comfort–that if we have loved God's
House on earth, we shall dwell in His House forever!

11. But as for me, I will walk in my integrity: redeem me, and be
merciful unto me. See again, my Beloved, how in the Christian's
practice, good works and faith are seen happily blended. He declares
that he will walk in his integrity, but still, still note, he prays as
one that is conscious of a thousand imperfections–"Redeem me and be
merciful unto me." We rest on Christ, alone, but still we desire to
walk in holiness with as much exactness as though our salvation
depended upon our good works!

12. My foot stands in an even place: in the congregations will I bless
the LORD.