Spurgeon PS0507

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.