Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/spurgeon/ps17.3

Text File | 1993-03-27 | 9KB | 181 lines

                           EXPOSITION.

        "_Thou hast proved mine heart_." Like Peter, David uses
the argument, "Thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love
thee." It is a most assuring thing to be able to appeal at once
to the Lord, and call upon our Judge to be a witness for our
defence. "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we
confidence towards God." "_Thou hast visited me in the night_."
As if he had said, "_Lord, thou hast entered my house at all
hours; and thou hast seen me when no one else was nigh; thou hast
come upon me unawares and marked my unrestrained actions, and
thou knowest whether or no I am guilty of the crimes laid at my
door." Happy man who can thus remember the omniscient eye, and
the omnipresent visitor, and find comfort in the remembrance. We
hope we have had our midnight visits from our Lord, and truly
they are sweet; so sweet that the recollection of them sets us
longing for more of such condescending communings. Lord, if,
indeed, we had been hypocrites, should we have had such
fellowship, or feel such hungerings after a renewal of it? "_Thou
hast tried me, and shalt find nothing_." Surely the Psalmist
means nothing hypocritical or wicked in the sense in which his
slanderers accused him; for if the Lord should put the best of
his people into the crucible, the dross would be a fearful sight,
and would make penitence open her sluices wide. Assayers very
soon detect the presence of alloy, and when the chief of all
assayers shall, at the last, say of us that he has found nothing,
it will be a glorious hour indeed--"They are without fault before
the throne of God." Even here, as viewed in our covenant Head,
the Lord sees no sin in Jacob, nor perverseness in Israel; even
the all-detecting glance of Omniscience can see no flaw where the
great Substitute covers all with beauty and perfection. "_I am
purposed that my mouth shall not transgress_." Oh those sad lips
of ours! we had need purpose to purpose if we would keep them
from exceeding their bounds. The number of diseases of the tongue
is as many as the diseases of all the rest of the man put
together, and they are more inveterate. Hands and feet one may
bind, but who can fetter the lips? iron bands may hold a madman,
but what chains can restrain the tongue? It needs more than a
purpose to keep this nimble offender within its proper range.
Lion-taming and serpent-charming are not to be mentioned in the
same day as tongue-taming, for the tongue can no man tame. Those
who have to smart from the falsehoods of others should be the
more jealous over themselves; perhaps this led the Psalmist to
register this holy resolution; and, moreover, he intended thereby
to aver that if he had said too much in his own defence, it was
not intentional, for he desired in all respects to tune his lips
to the sweet and simple music of truth. Nothwithstanding all this
David was slandered, as if to show us that the purest innocence
will be be mired by malice. There is no sunshine without a
shadow, no ripe fruit unpecked by the birds.

              EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

        Verse 3.--"_Thou hast proved mine heart:"--

        What! take it at adventure, and not try
        What metal it is made of? No, not I.
                Should I now lightly let it pass,
        Take sullen lead for silver, sounding brass,
                Instead of solid gold, alas!
        What would become of it in the great day
        Of making jewels, 'twould be cast away.

        The heart thou giv'st me must be such a one,
        As is the same throughout. I will have none
                But that which will abide the fire.
        Tis not a glitt'ring outside I desire,
                Whose seeming shows do soon expire:
        But real worth within, which neither dross,
        Nor base alloys, make subject unto loss.

        If, in the composition of thine heart,
        A stubborn, steely wilfulness have part,
                That will not bow and bend to me,
        Save only in a mere formality
                Of tinsel-trimm'd hypocrisy,
        I care not for it, though it show as fair
        As the first blush of the sun-gilded air.

        The heart that in my furnace will not melt,
        When it the glowing heat thereof hath felt,
                Turn liquid, and dissolve in tears
        Of true repentance for its faults, that hears
                My threat'ning voice, and never fears,
        Is not an heart worth having. If it be
        An heart of stone, 'tis not an heart for me.

        The heart, that, cast into my furnace, spits
        And sparkles in my face, falls into fits
                Of discontented grudging, whines
        When it is broken of its will, repines
                At the least suffering, declines
        My fatherly correction, is an heart
        On which I care not to bestow mine art.

              *     *     *     *     *

        The heart that vapours out itself in smoke.
        And with these cloudy shadows thinks to cloke
                Its empty nakedness, how much
        Soever thou esteemest, it is such
                As never will endure my touch.
        I'll bring it to my furnace, and there see
        What it will prove, what it is like to be.
                If it be gold, it will be sure
        The hottest fire that can be to endure.
                And I shall draw it out more pure.
        Affliction may refine, but cannot waste
        That heart wherein my love is fixed fast.

^Francis Quarles.

        Verse 3.--"_Thou hast visited me in the night_," etc. In
the night the soul is free from business with the world, and
therefore freest for business with God; and then did God prove
and visit David, that is, examine and sift him, by calling to his
mind all his ways and works in former passages; and the issue of
this trial was _he found nothing_; not that his soul was empty of
good things, or that there was nothing evil in him; but God, upon
examination, found nothing of that evil in him which some men
suspected him of; namely, either any ill will or evil design
against Saul, in reference to whom he called his cause a
righteous cause, or "_the right_" (verse #1|); "Hear the right, O
Lord."--^Joseph Caryl.

        Verse 3 (third clause, New Translation).--"_Thou hast
smelted me, and found in me no dross_." A metaphor taken from the
smelting of metals to purify them from extraneous
matter.--^Geddes.

        Verse 3.--"_Proved ... visited in the night ... tried_."
Tribulation, whereby, when examined, I was found righteous, is
called not only night, in that it is wont to disturb with fear,
but fire in that it actually burns.--^Augustine.

        Verse 3.--"_I am purposed that my mouth shall not
transgress_."--Wherefore, if thou be upon a mountain, look not
backward again unto Sodom as Lot's wife did; if thou be within
the ark, fly not out again into the world as Noah's crow did; if
thou be well washed, return not again to the mire as the hog
doth; if thou be clean, run not again to thy filth, as the dog
doth; if thou be going towards the land of Canaan, think not on
the flesh-pots of Egypt; if thou be marching against the host of
Midian, drink not of the waters of Harod; if thou be upon the
housetop, come not down; if thou have set thy hand to the plough,
look not behind thee; remember not those vices which are behind
thee.--_Thomas Playfere_.

        Verses 3,4,5.--Where there is true grace, there is hatred
of all sin, for hatred is _pro's to' ge'nos_. Can a man be
resolved to commit what he hates? No, for his inward aversion
would secure him more against it than all outward obstacles. As
this inward purpose of a good man is against all sin, so more
particularly against that which doth so easily beset him. David
seems in several places to be naturally inclined to lying, but he
takes up a particular resolution against it: (verse #3|), "_I am
purposed that my mouth shall not transgress_;" _zâmam_ <02161>
--I have contrived to waylay and intercept the sin of lying when
it hath an occasion to approach me. A good man hath not only
purposes, but he endeavours to fasten and strengthen those
purposes by prayer; so David (verse #5|), "_Hold up my goings in
thy paths, that my footsteps slip not_." He strengthens himself
by stirring up a liveliness in duty, and by avoiding occasions of
sin; (verse #4|), "_I have kept me from the paths of the
destroyer_;" whereas, a wicked man neither steps out of the way
of temptation, nor steps up to God for strength against
it.--^Stephen Charnock.

                       HINTS TO PREACHERS.

        Verse 3.--"_Thou hast proved mine heart_." The metal, the
furnace, the refiner, etc.

        Verse 3.--"_Thou hast visited me in the night_." I.
Glorious visitor. II. Favoured individual. III. Peculiar season.
IV. Refreshing remembrance. V. Practical result.

        Verse 3 (last sentence).--Transgressions of the lip, and
how to avoid them.