Psalms 119:158

Psalms 119:158

Consider what there is in the breaking of God's law to justify such manifestation of grief as you read of in the writings of David.

I. Look, first, at the dishonour done to God by the violation of His law. Every one who reflects at all on his relationship to his Maker and the accuracy with which that Maker has written Himself in His laws must readily acknowledge that it is to insult the Supreme Being to set at nought His precepts. If a man loves God, zeal for the glory of God will be necessarily the chief and dominant feeling of his mind. Can it then be with indifference, can it be without emotions of the most lively concern, that he beholds this Being dishonoured by his fellow-men?

II. Consider the ruin which transgressors are bringing upon themselves. The good man is not void of affection for his fellow-men, but, on the contrary, feels for them a love which true religion is sure to produce. He must feel for the wicked as he beholds them following courses which he is sure will issue in destruction.

III. Think of the injury which transgressors are causing to others. Let the Law be universally kept, and all that is most glorious in prophecy would be rapidly realised. And shall it not, then, be with a genuine and deep sorrow that the righteous man, eager for a period of universal happiness, beholds the transgressors who are deferring that period and prolonging the reign of confusion and misery? Let none, therefore, rest till, having sorrowed deeply for their own sins, they feel themselves made sorrowful by the sins also of others. "This," as Archbishop Leighton says, "is perhaps a stronger evidence of sincerity. There seems to be more of God in it, because less of ourselves and our own particular interest."

H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 2053.