Christ’s Glory Turned to Shame

Christ's Glory Turned to Shame

(No. 3276)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1911.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
OCTOBER 1, 1865.

"O you sons of men, how long will you turn My Glory into shame?" Psalm
4:2.

DAVID had many times been the subject of cruel mockery and, therefore,
while writing this Psalm probably in the first place about himself, he
also described in it one of the bitterest of our Savior's sufferings.
What an illustration this is of the union which exists between Christ
and His people in the matter of experience! He had a Cross to bear and
so have they. He was "despised and rejected of men," and so are they.
The Church of God is not like the image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his
dream, which had a head of gold and feet of iron and clay, but as is
the Head, such are also the members. As the Head had to endure cruel
mocking, the members must not expect to be exempted from similar
treatment. This is why so many of the Psalms of David are equally
applicable to David and to his Lord. And I believe that we have, in
this verse, a reference not only to David, himself, but also to "great
David's greater Son." In the case of both of them, the sons of men
turned their glory into shame, but I want especially to call to your
remembrance the sufferings of our Savior in this respect.

I. So, in the first place, notice that EVERYTHING ABOUT OUR SAVIOR THAT
WAS GLORIOUS WAS MADE THE SUBJECT OF SCORN.

Begin with His glorious Person, and think how shamefully that was
treated by the sons of men in the time of His humiliation. He was
betrayed, but the betrayer was one who had been His disciple and who,
in the very act of betrayal called Him, "Master." This was shameful
cruelty on the part of Judas, not only to betray Him to His enemies,
but to hail Him as "Master," in mockery and to kiss Him in scorn. There
was shame even in the way in which they went to Gethse-mane to arrest
the Savior–with swords and staves, lanterns and torches–as though He
had been some desperate malefactor who would resist to the utmost the
officers of the law. No lanterns or torches were needed to show the way
to the Light of the World! And their swords and staves would have
availed them nothing if He had chosen to put forth His Omnipotent
power! When He was dragged before Annas and Caiaphas, Pilate and Herod,
His precious Person was the constant subject of scorn, so that He could
truly say, "I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that
plucked off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting." "The
soldiers platted a crown of thorns and put it on His head. They put on
Him a purple robe and said, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' And they struck
Him with their hands." And when Pilate brought Him forth to the people
and cried, "Behold the Man!" instead of pitying Him in His distress,
they shouted, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" His agonies upon the Cross
provided further subjects for their contempt and scorn. He could
truthfully employ the language of the 22nd Psalm–"All they that see Me
laugh Me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver Him: let Him deliver Him,
seeing He delighted in Him." They looked upon His Person as being so
utterly contemptible that they desired that He should suffer death in
its most ignominious form, "even the death of the Cross."

And while they treated thus shamefully the Human Person of our Lord, we
cannot forgot the jeers and taunts with which they assailed His Deity.
When He said, "Hereafter shall you see the Son of Man sitting on the
right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of Heaven," the high
priest tore his clothes and charged Him with being a blasphemer, while
the whole assembly declared that He was guilty of death! And to show
their contempt for Him, "then did they spit in His face, and buffeted
Him; and others struck Him with the palms of their hands." Even when He
was enduring all the agony of the crucifixion, we read that, "they that
passed by reviled Him, wagging their heads, and saying, If you are the
Son of

God, come down from the Cross." Was it not sufficient to degrade His
spotless Humanity? No, the Glory of His Deity must also be turned into
shame–in both His Natures, as Son of God and Son of Man, He must be
"despised and rejected of men." Alas that for so long the Prophet's
words were true concerning us, "we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised and we esteemed Him not."

Not only was Christ's blessed Person thus despised, but all His offices
were the subject of scorn. I do but tell you what you all well know. I
do but point you to the picture upon which you have often gazed.
Remember how they mocked Him as a Prophet. "When they had blindfolded
Him, they struck Him on the face and asked Him, saying, Prophesy, who
is it that struck you?" They treated His prophetic office as though it
had only been worthy of a jest or a jeer. He claimed to be the King of
the Jews, so with ribald shouts they cried, "A king! Bring here His
throne and seat Him upon it! Bring His royal robes and let Him be fitly
adorned." Their idea of fitness was some soldier's discarded mantle
cast over His shoulders in mockery of the royal purple. They put a reed
into His hand as a mock scepter. And the only crown they thought worthy
for Him to wear was made of thorns! To show their contempt for His
royalty, they mockingly bowed the knee before Him and rendered Him only
the semblance of homage. The only gifts they brought to Him were cruel
blows and coarse insults which must have been peculiarly trying to His
gentle, gracious spirit. I must not stay to tell how they turned the
Glory of His office as our Great High Priest into shame, but all His
offices were treated with the utmost contempt and scorn.

They even laughed contemptuously at His deeds of love. "The chief
priests mocking Him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved
others. Himself He cannot save." It seems to me that they meant thus to
cast contempt upon His miracles of mercy. "He saved others." Yes, that
He did, He saved the famishing by multiplying the loaves and fishes and
feeding thousands of people! He saved the sick by touching them or by
speaking the word which made them perfectly whole! He saved even the
dead by calling them back from the unseen world to live again in the
abodes where they had before lived! Yet all these miracles of mercy are
now to have contempt poured upon them because He does not choose to
come down from the Cross at the mocking call of the scoffing priests
and scribes and elders! "O you sons of men, how long will you turn His
Glory into shame?" It was His Glory that He had saved others and it was
also His Glory that He could not save Himself–yet both of these were
turned into subjects for shame by those who had no pity for Him even
when they had hounded Him to His death!

Perhaps it was worst of all when these wicked men scoffed at Christ's
pangs and prayers. If you have hurt yourself and someone laughs at the
accident, you feel indignant. If you are tossing to and fro upon a bed
of sickness and someone sneers at your pains, you know how such
unkindness cuts you to the quick. If you were dying and in your agony
you cried aloud to God–and somebody ridiculed your prayer–it would be
a terrible trial to you. So must it have been to Christ when He was
dying upon the Cross, forsaken by His friends, forsaken even by His
Father because He was then occupying the place that we ought to have
occupied. Then, when He uttered that heart-melting cry, "Eloi, Eloi,
lama Sabachtha-ni?"–"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"–the
heartless spectators made a sort of pun upon His words and mockingly
said that He was calling Elijah, though many of them must have
recognized the quotation from the beginning of the 22nd Psalm! To mock
a man's prayers when he is dying seems to me the very lowest depth of
cruel contempt! I do not remember ever reading of any other mob but
this one that was so brutal as to turn into mockery the last cries of
One who was in his death agony! Yet, at Calvary, the last expiring
groans of our blessed Savior were the subject of the mocking mirth of
the rabble around the Cross. How all this must have pained His
sensitive spirit and made Him cry out with David, "O you sons of men,
how long will you turn My Glory into shame?"

II. NOW, secondly, THE GLORY WHICH CHRIST OUGHT TO HAVE RECEIVED AMONG
MEN WAS RENDERED TO HIM ONLY IN SHAME.

A German writer has given us an outline of the way in which worldlings
mockingly honored Christ. First of all, he says, they gave Him a
procession of honor. When a victorious general returns from the wars,
he rides through the streets amidst the plaudits of the crowds that
gather to welcome him. And when Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was to be
honored by the world, He also had a procession, and what a procession
it was! "He bearing His Cross went forth"…"and there followed Him a
great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented
Him." That weeping and wailing company of the daughters of Jerusalem
was the only element of real honor in the whole procession–all the
rest was mockery and shame–and what a shameful thing it was! O men of
the world, if you had known that He was the King

of kings and Lord of lords, would you have crucified the Lord of Glory?
Instead of a band of children and a fickle mob strewing palm branches
in His way and crying, "Hosanna to the Son of David," kings and
princes, judges and senators ought to have felt honored by being
allowed to cast their royal robes and costly garments in His road, that
He might ride in state over them amid the welcoming shouts of the whole
race of mankind! Instead of that, see the poor weary Man of Sorrows
painfully toiling on and presently sinking beneath the burden of the
Cross on which He was about to die in ignominy and shame–while all
around Him the clamorous multitude is hoarsely crying, "Away with Him!
Crucify Him!!" That was the kind of procession of honor that men gave
to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Next, they gave Him a cup of honor. When a great man comes as a visitor
from a foreign country, it is the custom to honor him with a grand
banquet and other marks of hospitality. But when Christ came to this
earth on a mission of mercy, what did they give Him? First, a
stupefying draft which He would not drink, for He would not have any of
His powers deadened by any drug. And then, when He was so parched that
He cried, "I thirst," "they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it
upon hyssop, and put it to His mouth." And Luke expressly says that
this was done in mockery by the soldiers, who at the same time
tauntingly said to the Savior , "If you are the King of the Jews, save
Yourself." Thus again men turned His Glory into shame.

Then, they gave Him a guard of honor Men who have performed deeds of
renown often have a bodyguard allotted to them to attend them wherever
they go and to ensure their safety where they stay. But what bodyguard
did the world allot to the Savior–a guard of gamblers! The soldiers
parted His other garments among them, and then cast lots– probably
throwing dice–to see which of them should have His seamless coat,
little thinking that they were thus fulfilling the prophecy that had
been written hundreds of years before! But what a guard was this for
Him who was King of kings, and Lord of lords–rough, cruel men whose
hearts had been shriveled and in whose breasts no sign of tenderness
remained! Thus also was His Glory turned into shame.

Then, they gave Him a seat of honor. We are accustomed to conduct our
noble visitors to the platform at the end of the hall and to lead them
to the chair of state or the most honorable position we can find. And
the world conducted its honored Guest down the Via Dolorosa with a
bodyguard of gamblers around Him up to the seat of honor! There it is–
the accursed tree! He will have little rest there, for the great nails
will be roughly thrust through the most tender parts of His hands and
feet, making every nerve in His body quiver with pain! And then, as
they brutally jerk the Cross down into the hole prepared for it, His
whole frame will be so jarred and shaken that He will cry out, in the
language of the Psalmist, "I am poured out like water, and all My bones
are out ofjoint." Thus they turned His Glory into shame.

Then, once more, they gave Him a title of honor When the Queen wishes
to put special honor upon any of her subjects, she makes them knights,
or baronets, or peers of the realm. But the world only thought Christ
worthy of the title of "King of thieves." You will perhaps tell me that
they called Him, "the King of the Jews." It was Pilate who did that,
and he would not alter it even when the chief priest asked him not do
so. But the Jewish and Gentile world practically called Him "King of
thieves" by crucifying Him between two thieves as though He had been
the worst of the three. He was no thief. He had never injured anyone,
but had scattered blessings broadcast with both His hands. He had given
Himself and all that He had to save the lost, yet their called Him,
"King of thieves," by their actions if not by their words. Thus again
they turned His Glory into shame.

O Beloved, I wish I could speak upon this theme in appropriate
language! Yet I feel that there is no tongue that can adequately
describe the Savior's griefs, and no pen or pencil that can worthily
depict Him in His agonies! You must yourselves sit down at the foot of
the Cross and look, and look, and look again at your blessed Lord and
Master as He hung there for your sakes. It used to be more common than
it is now for godly men and women to spend hour after hour in solemn
meditation upon the agonies of Christ upon the Cross. I tried, one day
when I was alone, to get a vivid realization of that awful tragedy–and
I succeeded to the breaking of my own heart–but I cannot describe the
scene to you. That is a matter for private meditation rather than for
public speech. So, when many of us gather presently around the Table of
our Lord in obedience to one of His last commands, let us try to
realize what it meant to Him when wicked men turned His Glory into
shame even when He was in the very throes of His death agony.

When the Savior was nailed to the accursed tree, there was a great
crowd before Him composed of all sorts of people from the chief priests
and scribes and Pharisees down to the lowest rabble of Jerusalem. And
there were doubtless, as on the day of Pentecost, "Parthians, and
Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and
Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and
in the parts of Lybia about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and
proselytes, Cretes and Arabians." How did this great mixed multitude
treat the august Sufferer upon the Cross? I have already quoted to you
our Lord's own words, "All they that see Me laugh Me to scorn." And
Mark further says, "They that passed by railed at Him, wagging their
heads, and saying, Ah, You that destroys the Temple, and builds it in
three days, save Yourself, and come down from the Cross." With the
exception of a little band of timid disciples, all that vast crowd
exerted itself to the utmost by hideous gestures and grimaces and by
cruel taunts and jeers, to show its contempt and scorn for the Christ
of God, His only-begotten and well-beloved Son! I suppose this great
congregation now gathered in the Tabernacle is but a mere handful in
comparison with the enormous throngs that assembled to see that great
sight, but if I had to be the unhappy victim of the malice and scorn of
all of you–if you were all seeking by some word of contempt or
expression of loathing and hatred, to set me at nothing and mock
me–what a dreadful position mine would be! But this was not the
treatment accorded to a man in full vigor of health and strength, as I
am just now, who might be able to defy his foes to do their worst, or
who might stand unmoved amidst the hail of calumny and obloquy!
Christ's was the case of One who was dying in indescribable agony,
forsaken even of His God–and you can hardly conceive how such an
experience as that takes all one's strength away. Yet, do you know? As
I meditated upon this sad scene–while my eyes were streaming with
tears on the Savior's account, it seemed to me that the ribald crowd
was unconsciously honoring Him, after all, because contempt from such
people was true honor for Jesus. If they had applauded Him, He might
have blushed at the disgrace of being praised by such miscreants! But
when they despised and rejected Him, it brought Him true honor! Thus
virtue received the homage of vice and the beauty of holiness was the
more plainly manifested in contrast with the ugliness of sin! They must
have felt that although they seemed to be victorious over Him, Christ
was really the Conqueror, or they would not have been so anxious to
show how much they despised Him. They must have had some sort of
consciousness of the true dignity of His Character or they would not
have vented their malice so ferociously in mocking Him.

While I have been trying to bring before your minds this picture of the
suffering Savior, as it has been all vividly present to my own mental
vision, I wonder if anyone here has been saying, "Oh, Sir, I also have
to endure the cruel mocking of the ungodly! They call me this name and
that, and I feel that I cannot endure it." What? Are you–

"A soldier of the Cross, A follower ofthe Lamb"–

and do you need to turn coward when they mete out to you something of
the treatment that they gave to Him? Look at your Master in the hour of
His agony on the Cross and never be afraid again! Remember how He
forewarned His followers concerning this very matter–"The disciple is
not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for
the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If
they have called the master of the house, Beelzebub, how much more
shall they call them of his household?" Cheerfully accept all the
contempt and scorn that the world pleases to pour upon you–take it as
a tribute to the likeness to Christ that even worldlings can see in
you–and praise the Lord that you are counted worthy to suffer for
Christ's name's sake!

Perhaps some self-righteous person says, "I wish I had been there. I
would have taught those miserable wretches not to treat the Savior in
such a shameful fashion!" Ah, that is the way one of our English kings
once talked. "I wish," said he, "that I had been there with my
soldiers–I would have cut them in pieces!" But somebody who stood by
said, "Ah, that speech shows that you have not yet learned how to be
like He." He could have cut them all in pieces in a moment! He could
have asked for more than 12 legions of angels to come to His rescue!
But how, then, could He have accomplished the purpose for which He came
to this earth? And how would the Scriptures have been fulfilled? It was
written concerning Him, seven centuries before His birth, "He was
oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is
brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers
is dumb, so He opens not His mouth." And that prophecy was literally
fulfilled when He stood silent before Caiaphas and before Pilate, and
when He endured without a murmur all the insults of the mocking crowd
at Calvary!

I think I hear someone say, "If I had been there, I would not have
mocked the Savior as they did." Ah my Friend, I am not so sure that you
would not! Do you love Him now? Do you love His people? Do you love His
ways? Do you love His Word? Do you love His House? Do you love Him? If
you do not, I do not see why you should imagine that you would have
behaved better than most of the men and women at that time did. You
would not have known the Lord of Life and

Glory any more than they did, and you would probably have joined them
in heaping scorn and contumely upon Him! His stern rebukes of your sin
would have made you as angry as they were. "He that is not with Me is
against Me," is still one of the infallible tests by which He tries the
sons of men! And if you are not with Him, you are against Him! If you
are not out-and-out for Him, you are mocking Him in your way even as
the Jews did in theirs!

Possibly somebody asks, "Why did the Savior endure all that mockery and
scorn?" Ah, some of us can tell! We once mocked religion and perhaps
even poured contempt upon the name of Jesus, so He was mocked even
while He was making Atonement for our sin of mockery! Besides, sin is
always so contemptible a thing that it ought to be held up to derision
by all sane men–and as Christ took upon Himself the sins of all His
people–it was necessary that He should be despised even when He was
only by imputation bearing the sins of others–

"For sins not His own He came to atone"

and, therefore, as the Sin-Bearer, the Substitute for His people, He
had to bear all the scorn that their sins deserved.

Now, in closing, I say to you, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, your
Master has been despised for your sakes, mind that you greatly honor
Him. He was made nothing of, as far as that was possible to men–see
that you make much of Him. For every thorn that pierced His blessed
temples, give Him some precious pearl that you highly prize. For every
hiss of scorn that greeted His holy ears, give Him a song of grateful
praise. Oh, how I wish that we could continually lift Him up higher and
higher before the sons and daughters of men! If He would but make us as
the dust beneath His feet so that He might be exalted so much more in
the eyes of sinners, we would count it our highest Glory to be trampled
beneath His feet. Oh, for more crowns to put upon His blessed head!–

"Crown Him with many crowns, The Lamb upon His throne."

It shall be the Heaven of Heaven to us when He gives us the crown of
life, the crown of righteousness and the crown of glory, and we cast
them all at His feet crying, "Not unto us, O Lord, be the Glory," but,
"unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood,
and has made us kings and priests unto God and His Father. To Him be
Glory and dominion forever and ever." But why not begin to honor Him
here? I hope many of us are doing so already, but let us do it more and
more! O Lamb of God, bleeding, languishing, despised, rejected, what
can I do to honor You more than I have ever done before? Is not that
the language of your heart, my Brother, my Sister? Come to His Table
and honor Him by obeying this as well as all His other commandments,
"Do this in remembrance of Me." And then go tomorrow into the world
wherever your business and your duty call you, and say–

"Now for the love I bear His name

What was my gain I count my loss.

My former pride I call my shame,

And nail my glory to His Cross.

Yes, and I must and will esteem

All things but loss for Jesus' sake–

Oh, may my soul be found in Him,

And of His righteousness partake." Is there anyone here who has
despised and rejected the Lord Jesus Christ? Alas, I fear that many,
even in this assembly, have done so. Have you set Him at nothing? Have
you thought nothing of Him? Have you mocked Him? Have you put a crown
of thorns upon His head? Oh, if you have hitherto been numbered among
His enemies, quit their ranks this very hour, bend your knees before
Him in true homage and submission, give Him your hearts to be His royal
throne, give Him yourselves to be His loyal subjects and servants
forever! Look unto Him as He was upon the Cross and as He is upon the
Throne of God! Trust Him with your whole heart, for whoever believes in
Him has everlasting life! God bless you all, for Jesus Christ's sake!
Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALMS 4; 5.

Verse 1. Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: You have
enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my
prayer.Good men want to be heard when they pray. They are not satisfied
with merely praying– they must have God's answers to their
supplications. See how David pleads the past mercy received from
God–"You have enlarged me when I was in distress." Cannot my own heart
look back to God's loving kindness to me in days gone by? Oh, yes!
Then, as He is the same God, what He has done in the past is an
argument for what He will do in the future! There are some of us here
who can adopt the Psalmist's language and say, "You have enlarged me
when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer."

2. O you sons of men, how long will you turn my glory into shame?How
long will you slander me, how long will you slander God, how long will
you turn the Gospel into ridicule, how long will you resist the Spirit
of God?

2. How long will you love vanity, and seek leasing?That is, after
falsehood, after lying. Why do men seek after falsehood? What
attraction can it have for them? Why, only this attraction–that it
suits a fool's heart to feed on falsehood.

3. But know that the LORD has set apart him that is godly for Himself
[See Sermon #2530, Volume 43–"a peculiar people"–.] You cannot hurt
him, for God has hedged him about. You may

say what you please against him, but God loves him and will take care
of him.

3. The LORD will hear when I call unto Him. What a sweet assurance! O
Brothers and Sisters, the Mercy Seat is always open to us! It will be a
blessed thing if everyone of us can say with David, "The Lord will hear
when I call unto

Him."

4. Stand in awe, and sin not This is good advice to ungodly men! Let
them feel aright the awe of God's Presence and they must turn from sin.
Holy reverence is a great preservative from sin.

4. Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still Hold private
communion with yourself, in a private place, at a private hour. "Be
still." We are far too noisy–most of us talk too much. It would often
make men wiser if they were more still. If a still tongue does not make
a wise head, yet it tends that way.

5. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the
LORD. This is a capital rule for the whole of life. Serve God and trust
in Him–do what is right, and rest in the God of Right.

6. There are many that say, who will show us any good?We all need to
see anything that is really good, we do not care who shows it to us,
even if it is the devil himself. "Who will show us any good?" That
question may have another meaning, for there are some who have no
desire for spiritual good–for such good as God calls good.

6. LORD, lift up the light of Your Countenance upon us. David began the
Psalm with a personal petition, "Hear me when I call," but now he
begins to glow in spirit and, as his prayer burns more vehemently, he
prays for others, also– "Lord, lift up the light of Your Countenance
upon us." This is our highest joy, this is our greatest good–to walk
in the light or God's Countenance! If we have the favor of God, and
know that we have it, we need ask for nothing else, for every other
blessing is assured to those who have the favor of God!

7. You have put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their
corn and their wine increased. The harvest and the vintage were the two
seasons of greatest joy in the East. They shouted, "Harvest Home," with
gladness that the fruits of the earth had again been ingathered, and
they drank the new wine and danced for joy. But David says to the Lord,
"You have put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their
corn and their wine increased." When God puts gladness in the heart, it
is real gladness, for God is not the Giver of a sham joy! It is lasting
gladness, for God does not give temporary gifts.

David says, "You have put gladness in my heart," and then he compares
it with the gladness of the sons of men, and he says that his joy was
greater than theirs when their earthly stores were increased. Boaz went
to sleep on the threshing-floor, but he that sleeps upon the bosom of
God has a far softer bed than that!

8. I will lay me down both in peace, and sleep: for You, LORD, only
make me dwell in safety. [See Sermon #2033, Volume

34–PLAIN DIRECTIONS TO THOSE WHO WOULD BE SAVED FROM SIN.] He

who has Jehovah as his God is at home even when he is abroad! He is
well guarded even when he has none upon earth to protect him! And he
can go to sleep in calm confidence when others would be disturbed in
mind and too timid to close their eyes!

Psalm 5. Verse 1. Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation.
Sometimes we pray right off, as David did when he cried to the Lord,
"Hear me when I call." At other times, we sit down to meditate, and
think over what we

want to say to the Lord in prayer, as David did when he said, "'O Lord,
consider my meditation.' What I have considered do You consider." A
well-considered prayer is very likely to succeed with God.

2. Hearken unto the voice of my cry "When I have not confidence or
comfort enough to present a well-ordered prayer to You–but, like a
child in pain, cry unto You, 'Hearken unto the voice of my cry'"–

2. My King, and my God.What? Will a king hearken to a cry? Men
generally prepare elaborate petitions when they come into the presence
of royalty, but although the Lord is far greater than all earthly
sovereigns, He is far more condescending than they are.

2. For unto You will I pray. I trust that we all pray. I am sure that
all Believers do, but let us pray more, let us pray much more than we
have done and let us, each one truly say to the Lord, "Unto You will I
pray." He is a King, so serve Him with your prayers! He is God, so
adore Him with your prayers! And if you can put both your hands on Him
and say, as David did, "My King, and my God," what abundant motives you
have for abounding in prayer to Him!

3. My voice shall You hear in the morning, O LORD. "When the dew is on
all Nature, and on my spirit, too, then shall You hear my voice in
prayer. Before I go out into the world, my first thoughts shall be of
You." Never see the face of man, Beloved, until you have seen the face
of God.

3. In the morning will I direct my prayer unto You, and will look up.
Adjust your prayer as the archer fits his arrow on the bow. Look up as
you shoot it and keep on looking up and looking out for an answer to
your supplication. You cannot expect God to open the windows of Heaven
to pour you out a blessing if you do not open the windows of your
expectation to look for it! If you look up in asking, God will look
down in answering. It is always well to take good aim in prayer. Some
prayers are like random shots, they cannot be expected to hit the
target. But David's prayer was well aimed and he expected it to prevail
with God–"In the morning will I direct my prayer unto You, and will
look up."

4. For you are not a God that has pleasure in wickedness: neither shall
evil dwell with You. In both of these Psalms there is a clear line
drawn between the righteous and the wicked, this is a line which still
needs to be kept very clear, and we must all seek to know on which side
of that line we are.

5. 6. The foolish shall not stand in Your sight: You hate all workers
ofiniquity. You shall destroy them that speak lies: the LORD will abhor
the bloody and deceitful man. These are strong words, but not too
strong–God is not tolerant of evil and those who are most like He in
other respects will be like He in this matter, also.

7. But as for me, I will come into Your House in the multitude of Your
mercy. "I will be like a child who goes in and out of his father's door
as often as he pleases because he is at home. I will not go there on my
own merits, but 'in the multitude of Your mercy.'"

7. And in Your fear will I worship toward Your holy Temple. There was
no temple on earth when David wrote this Psalm, but God was his Temple,
and so the pious Jew opened his window and looked towards Jerusalem. So
do we look towards God upon the Throne of Grace in Heaven and seek to
worship Him in the beauty of holiness.

8. Lead me, O LORD, in Your righteousness because of my enemies, make
Your way straight before my face. David does not say, "Make my way
straight." He does not want to have his own way, but he wants to walk
in God's way. Thus sweet submission blends with a desire for perfect
obedience. "Make Your way straight before my face."

9. For there is no faithfulness in their mouth. You cannot expect
ungodly men to speak that which is right. "There is no faithfulness in
their mouth."

9. Their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open
sepulcher. Pouring out foul, putrid gas. They cannot speak without
using filthy or blasphemous expressions, or if they do, there is
falsehood lurking behind their words, for deceit and evil of all kinds
are in their hearts.

9. They flatter with their tongue. Always beware of people who flatter
you, and especially when they tell you that they do notflatter you and
that they know you cannot endure flattery–for you are then being most
fulsomely flat-tered–so be on your guard against the tongue of the
flatterer!

10. Destroy You them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast
them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have
rebelled against You."It does not matter what they do against me, but O
Lord, 'they have rebelled against You.'" David speaks here like a judge
pronouncing sentence upon the guilty–not out of malice, but out of
loyalty and devotion to God!

11, 12. But let all those that put their trust in You rejoice: let them
always shout for joy because You defend them: let them also that love
Your name be joyful in You. For You, LORD, will bless the righteous;
with favor will You compass him as with a shield.