Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/spurgeon/ps5.7

Text File | 1993-03-16 | 4KB | 75 lines

                           EXPOSITION.

        With this verse the first part of the Psalm ends. The
Psalmist has bent his knee in prayer: he has described before
God, as an argument for his deliverance, the character and the
fate of the wicked; and now he contrasts this with the condition
of the righteous. "_But as for me, I will come into thy house_."
I will not stand at a distance, I will come into thy sanctuary,
just as a child comes into his father's house. But I will not
come there by my own merits; no, I have a multitude of sins, and
therefore I will come _in the multitude of thy mercy_. I will
approach thee with confidence because of thy immeasurable grace.
God's judgments are all numbered, but his mercies are
innumerable; he gives his wrath by weight, but without weight his
mercy. "_And in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy
temple_,"--towards the temple of thy holiness. The temple was not
built on earth at that time; it was but a tabernacle; but David
was wont to turn his eyes spiritually to that temple of God's
holiness where between the wings of the Cherubim Jehovah dwells
in light ineffable. Daniel opened his window towards Jerusalem,
but we open our hearts towards heaven.

              EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

        Verse 7.--"_In thy fear will I worship_." As natural fear
makes the spirits retire from the outward parts of the body to
the heart, so a holy fear of miscarrying, in so solemn a duty,
would be a means to call thy thoughts from all exterior carnal
objects, and fix them upon the duty in hand. As the sculpture is
on the seal, so will the print on the wax be; if the fear of God
be deeply engraven on thy heart, there is no doubt but it will
make a suitable impression on the duty thou performest. ^William
Gurnall.

        Verse 7.--David saith, "_In thy fear will I worship
toward thy holy temple_." The temple did shadow forth the body of
our Lord Christ, the Mediator, in whom only our prayers and
services are accepted with the Father which Solomon respected in
looking towards the temple.--^Thomas Manton, D.D., 1620-1677.

        Verse 7.--"_But as for me_," etc. A blessed verse this! a
blessed saying! The words and the sense itself, carry with them a
powerful contrast. For there are two things with which this life
is exercised, HOPE and FEAR, which are, as it were, those two
springs of #Jud 1:15|, the one from above, the other from
beneath. _Fear_ comes from beholding the threats and fearful
judgments of God; as being a God in whose sight no one is clean,
every one is a sinner, every one is damnable. But _hope_ comes
from beholding the promises, and the all-sweet mercies of God; as
it is written (#Ps 25:6|), "Remember, O Lord, thy
lovingkindnesses, and thy tender mercies which have been ever of
old." Between these two, as between the upper and nether
millstone, we must always be ground and kept, that we never turn
either to the right hand or to the left. For this turning is the
state peculiar to hypocrites, who are exercised with the two
contrary things, security and presumption. ^Martin Luther.

                       HINTS TO PREACHERS.

        Verse 7.--"_Multitude of thy mercy_." Dwell upon the
varied grace and goodness of God.

        Verse 7.--The devout resolution.

        Verse 7.--I. Observe the _singularity_ of the resolution.
II. Mark the _object_ of the resolution. It regards the service
of God in the sanctuary. "I will come into thine _house_ .....in
thy fear will I _worship_ towards thy _holy temple_." III. The
manner in which he would accomplish the resolution. (1) Impressed
with a sense of the divine goodness: "I will come into thy house
in _the multitude of thy mercy_." (2) Filled with holy
veneration: "And _in thy fear_ will I worship."--^William Jay,
1842.