Psalms 37:27

Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore.

Man’s grand concern

I. Eschewing evil and doing good. “Depart from evil and do good.” Evil and good are correlative and coextensive terms. They are antagonistic principles, they are both in the world, and both incessantly working. Both are incarnate. Good in its perfect form is in Christ. “Depart from evil.” You are in it, as in a poisonous atmosphere, as in a foul disease, as in a miserable captivity; struggle to get out of it, leave the moral district, and strive after a more salubrious air. “Do good.” Good is a practical thing, not a thing for mere poetry or discussion, but a thing for practice. What is it to do good? Not the performance of any particular thing, for we have a thousand things to accomplish, but to do everything from a good motive--supreme love to God.

II. Speaking wisdom and judgment. “The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment.” It is the characteristic of a righteous man that his speech is wise and just. He allows “no corrupt communication to proceed out of his mouth.” Man’s speech has always a moral quality, it is always wise or foolish, just or unjust, good or bad.

III. Rectitude in heart and life. “The law of his God is in his heart, none of his steps shall slide.” It is one thing to have the law of his God in the book or the brain, and another thing to have it in the heart; to have it in the heart implies that it is cherished with love and obeyed with loyalty. It is in the heart as the moral monarch, holding empire over all the faculties of being and activities of life. Being in the heart, it directs the life. “None of his steps” (or “goings “) “shall slide.” There will be an unswerving adherence to the path of right.

IV. Waiting on the lord and keeping his commandments. “Wait on the Lord and keep His way.”

1. Waiting on the Lord implies

(1) Realization of His presence;

(2) Expectation of His commands, and

(3) Readiness to obey.

V. The special favour of heaven.

1. The special guardianship of God. “The Lord loveth judgment and forsaketh not His saints, they are preserved for ever.”

2. Deliverance from the power of the wicked. “The Lord will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged.” The truth of this is realized in the experience of all good men after death.

3. Exaltation and long life. (Homilist.)