Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices, in whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on Your altar. Sermons I. HE WHO BY HIS EXAMPLE HAD TAUGHT OTHERS TO SIN WILL NOW SEEK TO CONVERT THEM TO THE WAY OF OBEDIENCE. (Ver. 13.) To the ways of God's commandment. We cannot undo all the evil which our example has done; but we can in part repair it if we renew our lives. II. DELIVERED FROM HIS SIN, HE WOULD PROCLAIM THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN PUNISHING AND DELIVERING HIM. (Ver. 14.) God is good and righteous in both - in punishing and saving from sin. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." III. THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF PARDONED SIN UNCLOSES THE LIPS WHICH SIN HAD SEALED, AND HE CAN NOW TRULY PRAISE GOD. (Ver. 15.) God opens the lips by giving the sense of forgiveness; then we can preach and sing with a full heart. IV. THE TRUEST SACRIFICE WE CAN OFFER TO GOD FOR OUR SIN IS REPENTANCE. (Vers. 16, 17.) Not blood or burnt offering; the cleansing of the heart by sorrow and renewal of mind - the work of God's Spirit. V. WHEN A MAN HAS BEEN TRULY RESTORED HIMSELF, HIS SYMPATHIES WIDEN OUT WITH PRAYER FOR THE NATION AND THE WORLD. (Vers. 18, 19.) Genuine concern for others is founded upon the regeneration of our own spiritual nature. Zeal for others is spurious if we have not been zealous about ourselves; like those philosophers Cowper speaks of - "Giving lives to distant worlds, And trifling in our own." I. IT IS A GREAT BLESSING WHEN THE SERVICES WHICH MEN PRESENT AND TENDER UNTO GOD DO FIND ACCEPTANCE WITH HIM, AND ARE APPROVED BY HIM. 1. Touching the state of the person, he must be one who is himself in favour with God. A man's person must be first accepted before his gift can please. If there be any one thing which thou knowest to be an evil; nay, if there be any one particular in thy practice, which thou art not sure is lawful in God's sight, surely God loathes thy person, and He cannot but even abhor all the devotions. 2. Concerning the substance of that which is offered unto good, and what he requireth of thee. This rule may well put the greatest part out of all hope of acceptance with God. There are two branches of will-worship, of one of which the greatest part be guilty. First is, when that which is used in worshipping God is grounded only upon man's invention, and cannot at all be proved out of God's Word to be of his ordaining. Secondly, when though it may be that which is done, is in itself simply of God's appointing; yet that it is so is more than he knows, or cares to know, that useth it. 3. The third is for the manner of using. For that is as necessary as the two former. That which is in itself good may yet be spoiled and made distasteful to God by the usage thereof. There were of the Israelites many, who were baptized under Moses in the cloud and in the sea, did eat of the same spiritual meat, and drink of the same spiritual drink, yet with them God was not pleased. Now, the special matter in the manner of using God's ordinances is that spoken of by David, In Thy fear will I worship towards Thine holy temple. Let us have grace whereby we may serve God, pleasing Him with reverence and fear. Now, this fear moveth a man to two things. One in respect of his carriage before he cometh into the presence of God; the other in respect of his behaviour there. Before he comes, this fear causeth him to consider with himself into whose presence he is going, and who it is with whom he must have to do, and what a weighty business it is which he must discharge. Then, when a man is in, and now the action is begun, that fear which moved him to prepare, continueth still with him, and causeth him to do reverence before God; that is, to demean himself with a kind of diligent watchfulness over his own thoughts, that he may keep them together, and may prevent those roving and unfitting imaginations, which are wont to fall in most, when a man is best employed, and are like the fowls which fell on the sacrifices which Abraham offered to God, and were driven away by him, It is fit to this purpose that which we find (Malachi 3:16). II. IT IS A GREAT MERCY OF GOD, WHEN THERE IS A GENERAL FREEDOM AND FORWARDNESS IN THE PEOPLE, IN RESPECT OF THE PUBLIC ACTS AND EXERCISES OF DEVOTION. We must thus, for the declaring of this doctrine, conceive of this place; that David reckoneth up here a twofold good, which shall follow that twofold blessing, for which he was a suitor in the former verse. If God should please to receive Zion into favour, and to forgive that sin by which the prosperity of the Church was now endangered, then it could not be, but the sacrifices which were offered by the children of Zion should find grace; and then, withal, if He should vouchsafe to continue and establish the peace of the state, then they, being encouraged by so many evidences of God's favour, and enjoying such sweet quiet, should be frequent in public duties, and keep the altar of the Lord in continual use by multitudes of sacrifices. This teacheth us, first at what a high rate we ought to value this freedom and liberty of serving God publicly in peace, which David here conceived as one of the blessings which would ensue his prayer, and therefore, no doubt, was a matter principally aimed at by him in his request. And in the second place let us learn, as of David, to be glad of his freedom, so of the people here touching whom he speaks, to make use of this freedom; while we have the light let us walk in the light; while the way lieth open to the Lord's altars, let us beat the path that leadeth to them. Remember ever the good use which the Churches of old made of their peace (Acts 9:31). (S. Hieron.) I. THE BURNT-OFFERING. You know what that means. It is that sacrifice where all is burned and consumed — a type of the complete exhaustion of wrath against sin. It must be taken from the herd and from the flock, things ready to hand, just round about the home, and be killed, flayed, cut into pieces, and burnt. Is not this the sacrifice which we fain would offer, the vengeance on ourselves, the sorrow after a godly sort, with its carefulness, its clearing of ourselves, etc.? (2 Corinthians 8:11). Are we dead to the old temptation, are we mortified? II. THE OBLATION, the peace-offering — that offering which the soul can make when it is at peace with God. Ours is to be the life of oblation, the life in which there is the perpetual offering up of self. This, too, is a lesson to learn on Calvary, to offer ourselves to God, and to whatever work He may give us to do. III. But he goes higher still. YOUNG BULLOCKS will be offered on the altar. This means the best and the costliest offering. It is the sacrifice of a life which God demands from the priest. It is the sacrifice of a life which God asks us to contemplate on Calvary. "Be ye therefore perfect." Is this an idle dream? He was perfect. "Which of you convinceth Me of sin?" He asks, without fear of the answer. Can we be perfect too? At least, we are bound to try. We can make a resolution never to put up with that which is imperfect, whether it be something which we shrink back from, beaten and hopeless, saying, "I cannot attain unto it"; whether it be some disposition or some habit, whose attainment ever eludes it; whether it be those little traits of Christianity, which more than anything else give the likeness to the ideal, which we are seeking to reproduce. (Canon Newbolt.). Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? Homilist. This psalm may be regarded as presenting to us a social betrayer in a variety of aspects. Doeg was an "informer," one whom Webster defines as "a man who informs against others from base or unworthy motives."I. The social betrayer DEPICTED. 1. Pride (ver. 1). Proud of the secret he holds. He feels he has the reputation and destiny of some one entrusted to him. 2. Malice (ver. 2). 3. Craft (ver. 2). He is a moral assassin; moves in the dark, and carries his javelin under the costume of deception. Dishonesty (ver. 3). He runs more readily with the false than with the true; with the wrong than with the right; with the cruel than with the kind. The base man, what careth he whom he betrays, how he betrays, or what sufferings he entails upon the innocent and even the holy, in order to advance his own personal and selfish ends? II. The social betrayer DOOMED (ver. 5). What is his punishment? Destruction. Not annihilation; but — 1. A removal: "He shall take thee away." Hengstenberg renders it, "take thee away as a coal." Fling thee away as an intolerable brand. He has been as fire in society, inflaming others with bad passions, devouring the true, the good, and the happy. God will fling him away as a hissing coal. "Pluck thee out of thy dwelling-place" (or tent). His present dwelling-place is a scene of discipline, grace, redemption: hope is taken from him, he is taken from it for ever. 2. An uprootal. "And root thee out of the land of the living." The roots of a wicked man's life are in this world, they don't strike into the spiritual and the eternal; the present and the palpable are everything to him: their roots shall be destroyed. All these are figures, but they mean something terrible; and reason, analogy, conscience, and the Bible tell us that something terrible is before such a man as this'. III. The social betrayer DERIDED (vers. 6, 7). "There is a twofold laughter," says Arndt. "One, when a man out of an evil spirit of revenge laughs at his enemy. This no Christian, virtuous mind does, but exercises compassion towards an enemy. But the other sort of laughing arises from a consideration of the wonderful judgment and righteousness of God, as when a man says; like Pharaoh, "I ask nothing after the Lord, nor will I let Israel go," and soon thereafter is made to sink in the Red Sea. This is for just derision. Is it not a matter of ridicule for a man to fight against God? IV. The social betrayer DEFEATED. Doeg, by his betrayal, considered perhaps that he had ruined David; but instead of this, whilst he himself got destroyed, uprooted from the land of the living, his victim was like "a green olive-tree." David here indicates that his own life was — 1. A growing life. "A green olive-tree." Well nourished and well protected. 2. A trusting life. "I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever." God's goodness is a tide that must bear everything before it and will outlive the universe itself. Therefore it is wise to trust in it. 3. A thankful life: "I will praise Thee for ever." Divine praise is the heaven of the soul. It employs all its faculties harmoniously, and gratifies all its moral cravings fully and for ever. 4. An obedient life. "I will wait on Thy name." This is the highest attitude of an intelligent creature; it is the attitude of the greatest angel. (Homilist.) I. DOEG MADE NOT GOD HIS STRENGTH. To make God our strength implies that we regard the Almighty as the author of all our blessings; that we repose an implicit trust in Him in every situation; that we own our dependence on Him for everything which we enjoy; and that we live under the habitual influence of these convictions. The conduct of Doeg was the very reverse of this.II. HE TRUSTED IN THE ABUNDANCE OF HIS RICHES. The only true felicity of man is in God; but the love of the world seduces the heart from God, and leads it, like Doeg, to trust in the abundance of riches, instead of making God its strength. When the love of riches becomes thus predominant, how baneful must be its influence to the principles and affections of the soul! It darkens the understanding; it deadens the conscience; it chills and hardens the heart. But why should men trust to their wealth, when its influence is so baneful and destructive? The accumulated treasures of the world cannot arrest the arm of death, or purchase from him a moment's reprieve. Are riches necessary to the enjoyment of life? This depends on health of body and contentment of mind, and neither of these can wealth bestow. III. HE STRENGTHENED HIMSELF IN HIS WICKEDNESS. The first resource of an abandoned sinner is debauchery; and to it he betakes himself, not so much to gratify sensual appetite and licentious desire, as to drown thought, to bury reflection, to lull the cow, science. His only joys are intemperance, riot and dissipation. The best principles of his nature are entirely perverted, and his heart is hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Having thus succeeded in corrupting or silencing the faithful guardians of innocence and virtue, he triumphs in the imaginary security with which he may now indulge in licentiousness and vice, and strengthens himself still farther in wickedness. IV. THIS CHARACTER IS RECORDED FOR OUR INSTRUCTION. It is intended as a beacon to point out to us the dangerous consequences of sin. It is preserved as a memorial, to all ages of the world, of this important; and impressive truth, that sin and misery are most closely united. Would we avoid Doeg's fate, then let us avoid his conduct. With this view, let us guard most anxiously against the first deviations from piety and virtue. (G. Goldie.) British Weekly. This psalm is a bold and outspoken challenge to a big sinner — a proud personage who "trusted in the abundance of his riches"; and, as often happens to men — and to women, too — luxury had made him slanderous and foul-mouthed, and brutal and monstrous: "he strengthened himself in his wickedness." The psalm challenges the "big man": "Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man?" but it tries also to convert him: "The goodness of God is from day to day." What is the connection between these two clauses of verse 17 The big sinner, wicked and proud, is shut up, as it were, in a close and ill-smelling room — shut up with his ugly thoughts, shut up with his own evil, selfish self. Let him come out, says the psalmist, out into the sunshine of God's mercies, out into the open where the winds blow fresh o'er the world; let him think of God's goodness, and may it lead him to repentance. Old Testament piety haunts the open air for its images (ver. 8). We of to-day may not be big men, and have psalms written about us, but we need the same teaching. Let a man be ever-reached in business, let him come home and brood over it, and how soon will arise the thought and plan of revenge! Let another come to him with her prattling lips, and how easily does she convince him that he is a hero and a martyr I Why not the rather, reaching a hand for God's Book, remember His goodness, which is from day to day? Young men may not know amassed wealth, but they know how, in act or in fancy, they pass into the house of passion, where the blinds are drawn and the windows dimmed by heat, and the sounds are pleasing, and sweet desire arises. Young men, come forth — into the open, out from your narrow selves to God, out into His love's free atmosphere. You are not alone (ver. 9). Here are the saints, the heroes, the men of faith; and above the helmets of salvation which they wear, see the Captain, Christ Himself, beckoning you onwards to glory and to God.(British Weekly.) The goodness of God endureth continually. There is not so much sin in man as there is goodness in God. There is a vaster proportion between sin and grace than between a spark and an ocean. Who would doubt whether a spark could be quenched in an ocean? Thy thoughts of disobedience towards God have been within the compass of time, but His goodness hath been bubbling up towards thee from all eternity.(W. Culverwell.) People Bathsheba, David, Doeg, Nathan, Psalmist, SaulPlaces JerusalemTopics 52, Altar, Beasts, Bullocks, Bulls, Burned, Burnt, Burnt-offering, Chief, David, Delight, Desirest, Doeg, Edomite, Maschil, Musician, Offer, Offered, Offering, Offerings, Oxen, Pleased, Psalm, Righteous, Righteousness, Sacrifices, Saul, WiltOutline 1. David prays for remission of sins, whereof he makes a deep confession6. He prays for sanctification 16. God delights not in sacrifice, but in sincerity 18. He prays for the church Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 51:19Library David's Cry for Pardon... Blot out my transgressions. 2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.'--PSALM li. 1, 2. A whole year had elapsed between David's crime and David's penitence. It had been a year of guilty satisfaction not worth the having; of sullen hardening of heart against God and all His appeals. The thirty-second Psalm tells us how happy David had been during that twelvemonth, of which he says, 'My bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night Thy hand … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture David's Cry for Purity January the Twenty-Seventh the Confession of Sin Unimpeachable Justice The Wordless Book Praying Saints of the Old Testaments (Continued) Period iv. The Age of the Consolidation of the Church: 200 to 324 A. D. Some Helps to Mourning The Songs of the Fugitive. Transcriber's Note. How God Answered Donald's Prayer David and Nathan Out of the Deep of Sin. Cleansing. All are Sinners. God the Holy Spirit the Love which Dwells in the Heart. Original Sin St. Malachy Becomes Bishop of Connor; He Builds the Monastery of iveragh. In Fine, Supplication for Pardon, with Humble and Ingenuous Confession of Guilt... But Regard the Troops of virgins, Holy Boys and Girls... Moral Depravity. The Sinfulness of Original Sin. How Shall one Make Use of Christ as the Life, when Wrestling with an Angry God Because of Sin? That a Man Ought not to Reckon Himself Worthy of Consolation, but More Worthy of Chastisement Links Psalm 51:19 NIVPsalm 51:19 NLT Psalm 51:19 ESV Psalm 51:19 NASB Psalm 51:19 KJV Psalm 51:19 Bible Apps Psalm 51:19 Parallel Psalm 51:19 Biblia Paralela Psalm 51:19 Chinese Bible Psalm 51:19 French Bible Psalm 51:19 German Bible Psalm 51:19 Commentaries Bible Hub |