This is a prayer, expressing the deep feelings of an afflicted and agonizing conscience. The Psalmist, being in the midst of the sense and peril of sin, and terrified at the judgment of God, begs of God not to enter into judgment with him, and firmly cleaves to the promise of mercy, and of the remission of sins. He complains, on the other hand, of hypocrites and teachers of the law and of works; by means of whom, as his instruments, the devil terribly harasses the godly, and loads them with various trials and straits of mind and conscience, and endeavours to draw them away from the certainty of the divine promise unto doubt; in which state, consciences are horribly shaken with fear and darkness, and the dread of the wrath of an unappeased God. “The enemy,” saith David, “hath persecuted my soul; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead; therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me.” Here David refers to those straits into which consciences are cast by those who lay upon them burdens too heavy to be borne, (as Christ saith concerning the Pharisees, Matt. xxiii.) And yet will not so much as touch them with one of their fingers. And hence this Psalm blessedly shows that there is no sure or solid consolation for consciences, save for those who depend on the promise of the free remission of sins, and on the word of God’s grace: “Enter not,” saith David, “into judgment with thy servant, O Lord, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.” That afflicted hearts and consciences can find rest in no other way than this, all the scriptural histories bear witness. All the holy patriarchs, from the beginning of the world, were justified before God by the free, unmerited imputation of righteousness, and not by their own works; as Peter also testifies (Acts xv.) concerning the law, “Why tempt ye God; to lay upon us a yoke which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear. But we believe that by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved, as they.” “I remember,” says David again, “the days of old, I meditate on the works of thy hands;” as if he had added, ‘By these, thy works from the beginning, I comfort and support myself in all my temptations: for all the great saints from the beginning were saved, not by any merit of their own righteousness, but by grace alone: they were delivered from sin and from the wrath of God, by faith in Christ the promised seed: as Abraham also was, by the same grace of God in Christ, called out of idolatry.’ Joshua xxiv. 2, 3. Therefore God leaves here no ground for any mortal’s boasting in his own works and merits: and yet, by this doctrine of works Satan hath never ceased to distress and torment consciences, contrary to the manifest words and works of God. PSALM CXLIV.