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I. DAVID HERE PRAYS FOR DEADNESS IN ONE DIRECTION, — deadness to the world, that he may be so dead to it that he will not even look at it: "Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity."

1. What, think you, does the psalmist mean here by vanity? I think he probably means four things, or one thing which may be seen under four aspects.

(1)  Frivolity.

(2)  Carnality.

(3)  Falsehood.

(4)  Wickedness in every form.

2. He felt that his eves were inclined to go this way. Alas! we seem to drink up sin readily enough; but we have with care to put good and true thoughts into our minds. This river of our life brings down plenty of snags, the old dead trees from the evil country come floating down the stream; but seldom does it bring to our door a log of the cedars of Lebanon. Such good wood is scarce in this river; but its torrent seems to bear along all that is base and vile. We find another law in our members, warring against the law of our mind, and bringing us into captivity to the law of sin and death, so that we have to cry, with Paul, "O wretched man that I am!" and with David, "Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity." The psalmist knew the evil of a growing familiarity with vanity. For the most part, men do not fall into great sin by sudden surprises. It is sometimes so; but, usually, there are several descending platforms, and the descent is made by slow degrees.

3. He craved Divine help.

4. He expects God to help him in a particular way. He does not say, "Put out my eyes, O Lord!" but he prays, "Let me look another way, — a better way." The way not to be affected by sin is to look at something else. If you have fixed your eyes on Christ the crucified, the risen, the exalted, the soon to come, if your eyes are taken up with Him, you shall find that passage true in many senses, "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth."

II. Having prayed for deadness in one direction, DAVID PRAYS FOR LIFE IN ANOTHER DIRECTION.

1. He was in God's way. If you are not, may He bring you into it at once!

2. Those who are in God's way are to pray that they may have increasing life while they are in that way.

3. Nobody but God can give us this life in God's way.

4. We need this quickening often. "Quicken me, quicken me, quicken me," is the prayer of the soul when first it begins to live. It is the prayer of the Christian when he gets into the stern struggles of life, and the poisonous damps of the world; and the prayer of the Christian when he is about to die is still, "Quicken me, O Lord, quicken me in Thy way! O Life of life, be life to me! O Spirit of God, breathe into me power, vigour, force, energy! Give me all these by giving me Thyself to be my life."

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

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KJV: Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.

WEB: Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things. Revive me in your ways.