Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/spurgeon/ps18.20

Text File | 1993-04-19 | 4KB | 67 lines

                           EXPOSITION.

        "_The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness_."
Viewing this Psalm as prophetical of the Messiah, these
strongly-expressed claims to righteousness are readily
understood, for his garments were white as snow; but considered
as the language of David they have perplexed many. Yet the case
is clear, and if the words be not strained beyond their original
intention, no difficulty need occur. Albeit that the
dispensations of divine grace are to the fullest degree sovereign
and irrespective of human merit, yet in the dealings of
Providence there is often discernible a rule of justice by which
the injured are at length avenged, and the righteous ultimately
delivered. David's early troubles arose from the wicked malice of
envious Saul, who no doubt prosecuted his persecutions under
cover of charges brought against the character of "the man after
God's own heart." These charges David declares to have been
utterly false, and asserts that he possessed a grace-given
righteousness which the Lord had graciously rewarded in defiance
of all his calumniators. Before God the man after God's own heart
was a humble sinner, but before his slanderers he could with
unblushing face speak of the "_cleanness of his hands_" and the
righteousness of his life. He knows little of the sanctifying
power of divine grace who is not at the bar of human equity able
to plead innocence. There is no self-righteousness in an honest
man knowing that he is honest, nor even in his believing that God
rewards him in providence because of his honesty, for such is
often a most evident matter of fact; but it would be
self-righteousness indeed if we transferred such thoughts from
the region of providential government into the spiritual kingdom,
for there grace reigns not only supreme but sole in the
distribution of divine favours. It is not at all an opposition to
the doctrine of salvation by grace, and no sort of evidence of a
Pharisaic spirit, when a gracious man, having been slandered,
stoutly maintains his integrity, and vigorously defends his
character. A godly man has a clear conscience, and knows himself
to be upright; is he to deny his own consciousness, and to
despise the work of the Holy Ghost, by hypocritically making
himself out to be worse than he is? A godly man prizes his
integrity very highly, or else he would not be a godly man at
all; is he to be called proud because he will not readily lose
the jewel of a reputable character? A godly man can see that in
divine providence uprightness and truth are in the long run sure
to bring their own reward; may he not, when he sees that reward
bestowed in his own case, praise the Lord for it? Yea rather,
must he not show forth the faithfulness and goodness of his God?
Read the cluster of expressions in this and the following verses
as the song of a good conscience, after having safely outridden a
storm of obloquy, persecution, and abuse, and there will be no
fear of our upbraiding the writer as one who set too high a price
upon his own moral character.

              EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

        Verse 20.--"_The Lord rewarded me according to my
righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he
recompensed me_." We must stand our ground, and be stiff for
ourselves against all misjudgings. It is good to be zealously
affected always in a good matter, whether it respects the glory
of God immediately and alone, or whether it respects the credit
of our brethren or our own. To desire to be famous in the world,
and as those giants in the old world (#Ge 6:4|), men of renown,
or, as the original text hath it, men of name, is a very great
vanity; but to protect and preserve our good name is a great and
necessary duty.--^Joseph Caryl.