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P S A L M S
PSALM XXVI.
Holy David is in this psalm putting himself upon a solemn trial, not by
God and his country, but by God and his own conscience, to both which
he appeals touching his integrity
(ver. 1, 2),
for the proof of which he alleges,
I. His constant regard to God and his grace,
II. His rooted antipathy to sin and sinners,
III. His sincere affection to the ordinances of God, and his care about
them,
Having thus proved his integrity,
1. He deprecates the doom of the wicked,
2. He casts himself upon the mercy and grace of God, with a resolution
to hold fast his integrity, and his hope in God,
In singing this psalm we must teach and admonish ourselves, and one
another, what we must be and do that we may have the favour of God, and
comfort in our own consciences, and comfort ourselves with it, as David
does, if we can say that in any measure we have, through grace,
answered to these characters. The learned Amyraldus, in his argument of
his psalm, suggests that David is here, by the spirit of prophecy,
carried out to speak of himself as a type of Christ, of whom what he
here says of his spotless innocence, was fully and eminently true, and
of him only, and to him we may apply it in singing this psalm. “We are
complete in him.”
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A psalm of David.
1 Judge me, O LORD; for I have walked
in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the LORD; therefore I
shall not slide.
2 Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.
3 For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes: and I have
walked in thy truth.
4 I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with
dissemblers.
5 I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit
with the wicked.
It is probable that David penned this psalm when he was persecuted by
Saul and his party, who, to give some colour to their unjust rage,
represented him as a very bad man, and falsely accused him of many high
crimes and misdemeanors, dressed him up in the skins of wild beasts
that they might bait him. Innocency itself is no fence to the name,
though it is to the bosom, against the darts of calumny. Herein he was
a type of Christ, who was made a reproach of men, and foretold to his
followers that they also must have all manner of evil said against them
falsely. Now see what David does in this case.
I. He appeals to God’s righteous sentence
(v. 1):
“Judge me, O God! be thou Judge between me and my accusers,
between the persecutor and the poor prisoner; bring me off with honour,
and put those to shame that falsely accuse me.” Saul, who was himself
supreme judge in Israel, was his adversary, so that in a controversy
with him he could appeal to no other then to God himself. As to his
offences against God, he prays, Lord, enter not into judgment with
me
remember not my transgressions
(Ps. xxv. 7),
in which he appeals to God’s mercy; but, as to his offences against
Saul, he appeals to God’s justice and begs of him to judge for him, as
Or thus: he cannot justify himself against the charge of sin; he owns
his iniquity is great and he is undone if God, in his infinite mercy,
do not forgive him; but he can justify himself against the charge of
hypocrisy, and has reason to hope that, according to the tenour of the
covenant of grace, he is one of those that may expect to find favour
with God. Thus holy Job often owns he has sinned and yet he holds fast
his integrity. Note, It is a comfort to those who are falsely accused
that there is a righteous God, who, sooner or later, will clear up
their innocency, and a comfort to all who are sincere in religion that
God himself is a witness to their sincerity.
II. He submits to his unerring search
(v. 2):
Examine me, O Lord! and prove me, as gold is proved, whether it
be standard. God knows every man’s true character, for he knows the
thoughts and intents of the heart, as sees through every disguise.
David prays, Lord, examine me, which intimates that he was well
pleased that God did know him and truly desirous that he would discover
him to himself and discover him to all the world. So sincere was he in
his devotion to his God and his loyalty to his prince (in both which he
was suspected to be a pretender) that he wished he had a window in his
bosom, that whoever would might look into his heart.
III. He solemnly protests his sincerity
(v. 1):
“I have walked in my integrity; my conversation had agreed with
my profession, and one part of it has been of a piece with another.” It
is vain to boast of our integrity unless we can make it out that by the
grace of God we have walked in our integrity, and that our conversation
in the world has been in simplicity and godly sincerity. He produces
here several proofs of his integrity, which encouraged him to trust in
the Lord as his righteous Judge, who would patronise and plead his
righteous cause, with an assurance that he should come off with
reputation (therefore I shall not slide), and that those should
not prevail who consulted to cast him down from his excellency, to
shake his faith, blemish his name, and prevent his coming to the crown,
Those that are sincere in religion may trust in God that they shall not
slide, that is, that they shall not apostasize from their religion.
1. He had a constant regard to God and to his grace,
v. 3.
(1.) He aimed at God’s good favour as his end and chief good: Thy
loving-kindness is before my eyes. This will be a good evidence of
our sincerity, if what we do in religion we do from a principle of love
to God, and good thoughts of him as the best of beings and the best of
friends and benefactors, and from a grateful sense of God’s goodness to
us in particular, which we have had the experience of all our days. If
we set God’s loving-kindness before us as our pattern, to which we
endeavour to conform ourselves, being followers of him that is
good, in his goodness
–if we set it before us as our great engagement and encouragement to
our duty, and are afraid of doing any thing to forfeit God’s favour and
in care by all means to keep ourselves in his love,–this will not only
be a good evidence of our integrity, but will have a great influence
upon our perseverance in it.
(2.) He governed himself by the word of God as his rule: “I have
walked in thy truth, that is, according to thy law, for thy law is
truth.” Note, Those only may expect the benefit of God’s
loving-kindness that live up to his truths, and his laws that are
grounded upon them. Some understand it of his conforming himself to
God’s example in truth and faithfulness, as well as in goodness and
loving-kindness. Those certainly walk well that are followers of God as
dear children.
2. He had no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, nor with
the workers of those works,
By this it appeared he was truly loyal to his prince that he never
associated with those that were disaffected to his government, with any
of those sons of Belial that despised him,
1 Sam. x. 27.
He was in none of their cabals, nor joined with them in any of their
intrigues; he cursed not the king, no, not in his heart. And this also
was an evidence of his faithfulness to his God, that he never
associated with those who he had any reason to think were disaffected
to religion, or were open enemies, or false friends, to its interests.
Note, Great care to avoid bad company is both a good evidence of our
integrity and a good means to preserve us in it. Now observe here,
(1.) That this part of his protestation looks both backward upon the
care he had hitherto taken in this matter, and forward upon the care he
would still take: “I have not sat with them, and I will not
go in with them.” Note, Our good practices hitherto are then
evidence of our integrity when they are accompanied with resolutions,
in God’s strength, to persevere in them to the end, and not to draw
back; and our good resolutions for the future we may then take the
comfort of when they are the continuation of our good practices
hitherto.
(2.) That David shunned the company, not only of wicked persons, but of
vain persons, that were wholly addicted to mirth and gaiety and had
nothing solid or serious in them. The company of such may perhaps be
the more pernicious of the two to a good man because he will not be so
ready to stand upon his guard against the contagion of vanity as
against that of downright wickedness.
(3.) That the company of dissemblers is as dangerous company as any,
and as much to be shunned, in prudence as well as piety. Evil-doers
pretend friendship to those whom they would decoy into their snares,
but they dissemble. When they speak fair, believe them not.
(4.) Though sometimes he could not avoid being in the company of bad
people, yet he would not go in with them, he would not choose
such for his companions nor seek an opportunity of acquaintance and
converse with them. He might fall in with them, but he would not, by
appointment and assignation, go in with them. Or, if he happened to be
with them, he would not sit with them, he would not continue with them;
he would be in their company no longer than his business made it
necessary: he would not concur with them, not say as they said, nor do
as they did, as those that sit in the seat of the scornful,
Ps. i. 1.
He would not sit in counsel with them upon ways and means to do
mischief, nor sit in judgment with them to condemn the generation of
the righteous.
(5.) We must not only in our practice avoid bad company, but in our
principles and affections we must have an aversion to it. David here
says, not only “I have shunned it,” but, “I have hated it,”
(6.) The congregation of evil-doers, the club, the confederacy of them,
is in a special manner hateful to good people. I have hated
ecclesiam malignantium–the church of the malignant; so the
vulgar Latin reads its. As good men, in concert, make one another
better, and are enabled to do so much the more good, so bad men, in
combination, make one another worse, and do so much the more mischief.
In all this David was a type of Christ, who, though he received sinners
and ate with them, to instruct them and do them good, yet, otherwise,
was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, particularly
from the Pharisees, those dissemblers. He was also an example to
Christians, when they join themselves to Christ, to save themselves
from this untoward generation,
Acts ii. 40.
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6 I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine
altar, O LORD:
7 That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell
of all thy wondrous works.
8 LORD, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place
where thine honour dwelleth.
9 Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men:
10 In whose hands is mischief, and their right hand is full
of bribes.
11 But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity: redeem me, and
be merciful unto me.
12 My foot standeth in an even place: in the congregations will
I bless the LORD.
In these verses,
I. David mentions, as further evidence of his integrity, the sincere
affection he had to the ordinances of God, the constant care he took
about them, and the pleasure he took in them. Hypocrites and
dissemblers may indeed be found attending on God’s ordinances, as the
proud Pharisee went up to the temple to pray with the penitent
publican; but it is a good sign of sincerity if we attend upon them as
David here tells us he did,
1. He was very careful and conscientious in his preparation for holy
ordinances: I will wash my hands in innocency. He not only
refrained from the society of sinners, but kept himself clean from the
pollutions of sin, and this with an eye to the place he had among those
that compassed God’s altar. “I will wash, and so will I compass the
altar, knowing that otherwise I shall not be welcome.” This is like
that
Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat, so prepared. This
denotes,
(1.) Habitual preparation: “I will wash my hands in innocency; I
will carefully watch against all sin, and keep my conscience pure from
those dead works which defile it and forbid my drawing nigh to God.”
See
(2.) Actual preparation. It alludes to the ceremony of the priests’
washing when they went in to minister,
Though David was no priest, yet, as every worshipper ought, he would
look to the substance of that which the priests were enjoined the
shadow of. In our preparation for solemn ordinances we must not only be
able to clear ourselves from the charge of reigning infidelity or
hypocrisy, and to protest our innocency of that (which was signified by
washing the hands,
Deut. xxi. 6),
but we must take pains to cleanse ourselves from the spots of remaining
iniquity by renewing our repentance, and making fresh application of
the blood of Christ to our consciences for the purifying and pacifying
of them. He that is washed (that is, in a justified state) has need
thus to wash his feet
to wash his hands, to wash them in innocency; he that is penitent is
pene innocens–almost innocent; and he that is pardoned is so
far innocent that his sins shall not be mentioned against him.
2. He was very diligent and serious in his attendance upon them: I
will compass thy altar, alluding to the custom of the priests, who,
while the sacrifice was in offering, walked round the altar, and
probably the offerers likewise did so at some distance, denoting a
diligent regard to what was done and a dutiful attendance in the
service. “I will compass it; I will be among the crowds that do
compass it, among the thickest of them.” David, a man of honour, a man
of business, a man of war, thought it not below him to attend with the
multitude on God’s altars and could find time for that attendance.
Note,
(1.) All God’s people will be sure to wait on God’s altar, in obedience
to his commands and in pursuance of his favour. Christ is our altar,
not as the altar in the Jewish church, which was fed by them, but an
altar that we eat of and live upon,
Heb. xiii. 10.
(2.) It is a pleasant sight to see God’s altar compassed and to see
ourselves among those that compass it.
3. In all his attendance on God’s ordinances he aimed at the glory of
God and was much in the thankful praise and adoration of him. He had an
eye to the place of worship as the place where God’s honor dwelt
(v. 8),
and therefore made it his business there to honour God and to give him
the glory due to his name, to publish with the voice of thanksgiving
all God’s wondrous works. God’s gracious works, which call for
thanksgiving, are all wondrous works, which call for our admiration. We
ought to publish them, and tell of them, for his glory, and the
excitement of others to praise him; and we ought to do it with the
voice of thanksgiving, as those that are sensible of our obligations,
by all ways possible, to acknowledge with gratitude the favours we have
received from God.
4. He did this with delight and from a principle of true affection to
God and his institutions. Touching this he appeals to God:
“Lord, thou knowest how dearly I have loved the habitation of
thy house
(v. 8),
the tabernacle where thou art pleased to manifest thy residence among
thy people and receive their homage, the place where thy honour
dwells.” David was sometimes forced by persecution into the
countries of idolaters and was hindered from attending God’s altars,
which perhaps his persecutors, that laid him under that restraint, did
themselves upbraid him with as his crime. See
“But, Lord,” says he, “though I cannot come to the habitation of thy
house, I love it; my heart is there, and it is my greatest trouble that
I am not there.” Note, All that truly love God truly love the
ordinances of God, and therefore love them because in them he
manifests his honour and they have an opportunity of honoring him. Our
Lord Jesus loved his Father’s honour, and made it his business to
glorify him; he loved the habitation of his house, his church among
men, loved it and gave himself for it, that he might build and
consecrate it. Those who love communion with God, and delight in
approaching him, find it to be a constant pleasure, a comfortable
evidence of their integrity, and a comfortable earnest of their endless
felicity.
II. David, having given proofs of his integrity, earnestly prays, with
a humble confidence towards God (such as those have whose hearts
condemn them not), that he might not fall under the doom of the wicked
(v. 9, 10).
Gather not my soul with sinners, Here,
1. David describes these sinners, whom he looked upon to be in a
miserable condition, so miserable that he could not wish the worst
enemy he had in the world to be in a worse. “They are bloody
men, that thirst after blood and lie under a great deal of the
guilt of blood. They do mischief, and mischief is always in their
hands. Though they get by their wickedness (for their right hand is
full of bribes which they have taken to pervert justice), yet that
will make their case never the better; for what is a man profited if
he gain the world and lose his soul?”
2. He dread having his lot with them. He never loved them, nor
associated with them, in this world, and therefore could in faith pray
that he might not have his lot with them in the other world. Our souls
must shortly be gathered, to return to God that gave them and will call
for them again. See
It concerns us to consider whether our souls will then be gathered with
saints or with sinners, whether bound in the bundle of life with the
Lord for ever, as the souls of the faithful are
or bound in the bundle of tares for the fire,
Death gathers us to our people, to those that are our people while we
live, whom we choose to associate with, and with whom we cast in our
lot, to those death will gather us, and with them we must take our lot,
to eternity. Balaam desired to die the death of the righteous; David
dreaded dying the death of the wicked; so that both sides were of that
mind, which if we be of, and will live up to it, we are happy for ever.
Those that will not be companions with sinners in their mirth, nor eat
of their dainties, may in faith pray not to be companions with them in
their misery, nor to drink of their cup, their cup of trembling.
III. David, with a holy humble confidence, commits himself to the grace
of God,
1. He promises that by the grace of God he would persevere in his duty:
“As for me, whatever others do, I will walk in my
integrity.” Note, When the testimony of our consciences for us that
we have walked in our integrity is comfortable to us this should
confirm our resolutions to continue therein.
2. He prays for the divine grace both to enable him to do so and to
give him the comfort of it: “Redeem me out of the hands of my
enemies, and be merciful to me, living and dying.” Be we ever so
confident of our integrity, yet still we must rely upon God’s mercy and
the great redemption Christ has wrought out, and pray for the benefit
of them.
3. He pleases himself with his steadiness: “My foot stands in an
even place, where I shall not stumble and whence I shall not fall.”
This he speaks as one that found his resolutions fixed for God and
godliness, not to be shaken by the temptations of the world, and his
comforts firm in God and his grace, not to be disturbed by the crosses
and troubles of the world.
4. He promises himself that he should yet have occasion to praise the
Lord, that he should be furnished with matter for praise, that he
should have a heart for praises, and that, though he was now perhaps
banished from public ordinances, yet he should again have an
opportunity of blessing God in the congregation of his people. Those
that hate the congregation of evil-doers shall be joined to the
congregation of the righteous and join with them in praising God; and
it is pleasant doing that in good company; the more the better; it is
the more like heaven.
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