Psalms 28:8

Draw me not away with the wicked.

A prayer against identification with ungodly men

I. the character Of ungodly society.

1. Apostates--gone away from truth, virtue, God.

2. Rebels--wrong in relation to their own nature, society, God.

3. Hypocrites.

II. the attractiveness of ungodly society.

1. In its numerical force. As the little spring from the mountain is drawn to the river, individuals are drawn to the multitude.

2. In its social resources. It has the prizes of fortune and the delights of pleasure at its disposal. All this is attractive. Why should these things be attractive to a good man? Simply, because his goodness is not perfect; remnants of depravity are still in his heart, and these incline him thitherward. To a thoroughly pure soul the power of ungodly society is repulsion, not attraction.

III. the banefulness of ungodly society.

1. Detrimental to the higher interests of human nature. It cannot appease a guilty conscience, or cleanse a polluted heart.

2. Doomed to ruin.

(1) By the moral constitution of the universe.

(2) By the express Word of God, (Homilist.)

Unhook from wicked men

A guard’s van, attached to some loaded coal trucks, was shunted down an incline towards a siding. On the way, the guard was dismayed to find that the brake in his van was not able to lessen the speed at which they were going. He and his companion mounted the next truck, and tried to let down the brake there, but found that impossible. The guard then proposed to jump off, but his companion thought that that would be certain death. “I know what to do!” the guard exclaimed, and he seized a huge coal hammer which lay on the truck, went back to the van, and, smashing through the end, lie unhooked the couplings. The van soon stopped, and the two men saw the rest of the train run at great speed into the siding, and the trucks dashed into a shapeless mass. So with bad companions. Unless you throw them off and have nought to do with them they will carry you to the same destruction to which they themselves are hastening.

Psalms 28:8

My heart trusted in Him; and I am helped.

The earlier and the later song

There are two actions of the heart--prophecy and memory. In the morning of life I look forward, “my heart trusted”; in the afternoon I look back, “my heart rejoiceth.” The morning trust comes before help; it is the prospect of the West seen from the crimson dawn. The afternoon joy follows help: it is the memory of the East seen from the setting sun. My heart is like the migration of the swallows. Every swallow makes its first migration in faith; but at the second its prophecy is turned into a memory. It is no more the heart trusting, but the heart rejoicing. My soul, which of thy migrations is the nobler? Is it the trusting or the rejoicing, the prophecy or the memory, thy journey from East to West, or thy travelling from West to East? The psalmist prefers Shy evening song--the song of memory. It is the swallow after migration. It is a song in spite of storm. It is a praise of life as it is. Faith may sing of the rose behind the thorn; but love sits upon the rose bush and smiles back upon the thorn. Faith journeys from Egypt to seek the promised land; love rests in the promised land, and blesses the journey from Egypt. Faith vows all worship if it shall come without pain to the Father’s house; love reposes in the Father’s house and says: “It was good for me to have been afflicted.” The song of memory is a song of praise. (G. Matheson, D. D.)