Psalms 52:3
Verse 3. Thou lovest evil] This was a finished character. Let us note the particulars: 1. He boasted in the power to do evil. 2. His tongue devised, studied, planned, and spoke mischiefs. 3. He was a deceitful worker. 4. He loved evil and not good. 5. He loved lying; his delight was in falsity. 6. Every word that tended to the destruction of others he loved. 7. His tongue was deceitful; he pretended friendship while his heart was full of enmity, Ps 52:1-4. Now behold the punishment:- Psalms 119:29
Verse 29. The way of lying] The propensity to falsity and prevarication, whatsoever is contrary to truth. Remove me from its solicitations, and remove it from me. "Grant me thy law graciously;" give it to me as a rule of moral conduct; but give it to me graciously through the Gospel; and then it will not be the letter that killeth, but will be sanctified to me, so as to become to me holy, just, and GOOD. Psalms 119:69
Verse 69. The proud have forged a lie] The poor captives in Babylon had their conduct and motives continually misrepresented, and themselves belied and calumniated. Psalms 119:104
Verse 104. Through thy precepts I get understanding] Spiritual knowledge increases while we tread in the path of obedience. Obedience is the grand means of growth and instruction. Obedience trades with the talent of grace, and thus grace becomes multiplied. ANALYSIS OF LETTER MEM.-Thirteenth Division In this division we see,- I. The affection of the psalmist to the law of God. II. The great benefits he derived from it. I. 1. "O how I love thy law." God alone knows how great that love is which I feel. 2. As true love always seeks opportunities of conversing with the beloved object, the psalmist shows his in meditation on God's law by day and night. He gives us several encomiums on God's word:- 1. The wisdom he derived from it. It made him wiser than his enemies. It taught him how to conduct himself towards them, so as to disappoint many of their plans, and always insure his own peace. 2. It made him wiser than his teachers. Many, even of the Jewish teachers, took upon them to teach that to others which they had never learned themselves. He must have been wiser than these. Many in the present day take upon themselves the character of ministers of Jesus Christ, who have never felt his Gospel to be the power of God to their salvation. A simple woman, who is converted to God, and feels the witness of his Spirit that she is his child, has a thousand times more true wisdom than such persons, though they may have learned many languages and many sciences. 3. It made him wiser than the ancients-than any of the Jewish elders, who had not made that word the subject of their deep study and meditation. A second enconium. God's word gives power over sin: "I have refrained:" and the psalmist was no speculatist; he was in every respect a practical man. A third encomium is, the more a man resists evil forbidden by that law, and practices righteousness commanded by it, the stronger he grows. The psalmist refrained from every evil way, that he might keep God's word. Lest any one should think that he pretends to have acquired all these excellencies by his own study and industry, he asserts that he had nothing but what he had received: "I have not departed," &c.; "for THOU hast taught me." A fourth encomium is, that God's law gives indescribable happiness to them who love and obey it: "How sweet are thy words," &c. II. In the last verse he proves all that he said by the blessed effects of God's word upon himself. 1. He got understanding by it. He became learned, wise, and prudent. 2. He was enabled to hate every false way-false religion, lying vanities, empty pleasures; and every thing that did not tend to and prepare for an eternity of blessedness. Psalms 119:163
Verse 163. I-abhor lying] Perhaps they might have made the confessions which the Chaldeans required, and by mental reservation have kept an inward firm adherence to their creed; but this, in the sight of the God of truth, must have been lying; and at such a sacrifice they would not purchase their enlargement, even from their captivity. Psalms 144:8
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