Expositions of Holy Scripture: Psalms — John Shaqi
Expositions of Holy Scripture: PsalmsMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Psalms
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Psalms -- Commentaries
He will deliver us from the power of these secret faults, giving to us
that divine Spirit which is 'the candle of the Lord,' to search us, and
to convince of our sins, and to drag our evil into the light; and giving
us the help without which we can never overcome. The only way for us to
be delivered from the dominion of our unconscious faults is to increase
the depth and closeness and constancy of our communion with Jesus
Christ; and then they will drop away from us. Mosquitoes and malaria,
the one unseen in their minuteness, and the other, 'the pestilence that
walketh in darkness,' haunt the swamps. Go up on the hilltop, and
neither of them are found. So if we live more and more on the high
levels, in communion with our Master, there will be fewer and fewer of
these unconscious sins buzzing and stinging and poisoning our lives, and
more and more will His grace conquer and cleanse.
They will all be manifested some day. The time comes when He shall bring
to light the hidden things and darkness and the counsels of men's
hearts. There will be surprises on both hands of the Judge. Some on the
right, astonished, will say, 'Lord, when saw we Thee?' and some on the
left, smitten to confusion and surprise, will say, 'Lord, Lord, have we
not prophesied in Thy name?'
Let us go to Him with the prayer, 'Search me, O God! and try me; and see
if there be any wicked way in me; and lead me in the way everlasting.'
OPEN SINS
'Keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not
have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be
innocent from the great transgression.'--PSALM xix. 13.
Another psalmist promises to the man who dwells 'in the secret place of
the Most High' that' he shall not be afraid for the terror by night, nor
for the arrow that flieth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh at
noonday,' but shall 'tread upon the lion and adder.' These promises
divide the dangers that beset us into the same two classes as our
Psalmist does--the one secret; the other palpable and open. The former,
which, as I explained in my last sermon, are sins hidden, not from
others, but from the doer, may fairly be likened to the pestilence that
stalks slaying in the dark, or to the stealthy, gliding serpent, which
strikes and poisons before the naked foot is aware. The other resembles
the 'destruction that wasteth at noonday,' or the lion with its roar and
its spring, as, disclosed from its covert, it leaps upon the prey.
Our present text deals with the latter of these two classes.
'Presumptuous sins' does not, perhaps, convey to an ordinary reader the
whole significance of the phrase, for it may be taken to define a single
class of sins--namely, those of pride or insolence. What is really meant
is just the opposite of 'secret sins'--all sorts of evil which, whatever
may be their motives and other qualities, have this in common, that the
doer, when he does them, knows them to be wrong.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account