Psalms 5:7

I will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy mercy.

Sanctuary worship

This noble resolution. It manifests--

I. An independence of character. “As for me.” How many there are who follow the crowd! Whether for evil or good, where the multitude go they will go. Hundreds stay away from the house of God either because it is not fashionable to go there or because they are afraid of being singular. Such was not David’s course.

II. A noble determination. “I will come into Thy house.” Two or three thoughts will show the nature of the act.

1. David was a king. He might have thought it beneath him to leave his throne and humble himself before God in the worship of the temple. But kings as well as subjects need the pardon of their sins, the help of the Holy Spirit, and the Divine favour. And no king could do a more noble act than show an example of pious devotion.

2. David was a man of war. He was constantly engaged in bitter contests. But he did not, therefore, abstain from attending the house of God.

3. David was a busy man. He had to manage the affairs of a large and distracted kingdom; yet he still found time for attending the house of God.

4. David was a clever man. He was also a good man. He might have said, “What good can I get from the temple? I know the services,” etc. But humility always attends those who have real merit, while those who have little to boast of fail to avail themselves of opportunities of improvement because of their self-conceit. A real Christian feels his deficiencies.

III. A worthy object. “I will come into Thy house.” Public worship is the most important part of Christian life.

1. It is obeying the Divine command. The duty of gathering ourselves together is imposed upon us in many parts of the Scriptures. Not only was it insisted upon in the Old Testament, but it is still more urged in the New.

2. It is the means of developing the Christian life. In the assemblies of the saints the Holy Spirit was given at first, and is still bestowed. Here spirituality is deepened and the work of conversion carried on.

3. It is the appointed means of communing with God. We can pray in private; but we have particular access in the house of prayer. (Homilist.)

The tribute of worship

From the sense the Psalmist had of God’s manifold, repeated favours to him, from the multitude of the Divine mercies towards him, he would be always glad and ready to resort to the house of God; there to prostrate himself with all humble reverence, and there to pay Him the tribute of a public and solemn worship.

I. The reasonableness of this resolution. His reason in this instance was indeed occasional and particular, and but one of the many motives which persuade to the discharge of this important duty. Consider well the intrinsic grounds of that fitness which it is so generally agreed there is in the worship of our Maker. Moral duties have, besides His will and pleasure, reasons of their own. How doth the relation of a reasonable creature to an all-perfect Creator, infinite in wisdom, goodness, and power, introduce the fitness of any application from the one to the other, in the offices of religious worship? How should it appear, if God had not commanded it, that He would either expect or accept such a service from us? With what view do we lay our wants before Him? Doth He not know them beforehand much better than we do? Or doth His goodness want solicitation to induce Him to be yet more gracious than He is? Or when we deprecate the punishment of our sins, and implore His merciful pardon, do we intend to make our impressions upon the tenderness of His nature? Or when we approach Him with the charity of our intercessions for His mercies and blessings to our fellow creatures, is it that we are better than they? Are we more mindful of their interests than He is? Or when we praise Him for His benefits with joyful lips, do we mean by the pleasing sound of our eucharistical oblations to engage ‘His goodness in the more and further largesses of His favour? If these are improper regards, what more proper reason will be left for the support of our worship? Why are we commanded to pray? Because prayer recognises and settles upon our minds a sense of those several attributes and perfections in God, the dutiful and cordial acknowledgment whereof is most likely to maintain and preserve us in the state of dependence and subjection we were made for. When we approach God in the humble strains of penitential sorrow, what a scene of melting and moving considerations must open to our minds! What indignation that we have not yet approved, what fear that we may not, what vehement desire that we may approve our hearts before Him in all holy obedience. Do we engage in the charitable office of intercession for others? The seeds of mutual benevolence are fostered hereby and greatly cultivated. We cannot ask with any decency the forgiveness of their sins at the hands of God, whose trespasses against ourselves we should not be willing to remit or pardon. Finally, the offices of praise and thanksgiving add the motives of gratitude to the sense of our dependence, and inspire us with a more generous and honourable principle of obedience.

II. The fitness of the place He chose for it. The palace of God’s holiness where numbers resorted for the purposes of public prayer and thanksgiving. An appropriate place is necessary to the purposes of public worship.

III. The manner of executing the pious resolution. In the fear of God with an awful sense of His wisdom, goodness, and power. With reverence and godly fear. This every attribute of God, when duly improved to us by proper reflections, may help to enforce and to inculcate. Even the forgiveness that there is with Him, by the manner and method wherein we partake of it, was, with our holy Psalmist, a motive to the fear of Him. (N. Marshall, D. D.)

In Thy fear will I worship toward Thy holy temple.

The Christian worshipping in God’s temple

Two qualifications of a right worshipper of Jehovah are here set before us.

1. “I will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy mercy.” He seems to trace all the multitudinous streams of the Divine goodness to one great fountain, and then as he looks at that fountain overflowing on every side, and pouring out its waters in those numberless streams, he calls it a multitudinous fountain; he says, “The multitude of Thy mercy.” He will go to God’s house -

(1) With a thankful remembrance of the Lord’s great mercies past.

(2) With a lively sense of God’s great mercy now. And

(3) With great expectations from His mercy.

2. “In Thy fear will I worship.” Fear, as we generally experience it, is a humiliating and painful feeling. We suffer under it, and are ashamed of it. And because of this, we cannot disconnect the ideas of pain and humiliation from it. But fear is not necessarily a painful thing. Real godliness is called a “holy fear of God.” Perfect love does indeed cast out fear; but what fear? Only the fear that hath torment; servile fear. The fear David means here, is that feeling which naturally arises in the human mind from the contemplation of any object immensely superior to ourselves. It is made up of admiration, awe, and reverence. The phrase “worship toward His holy temple,” is taken from a custom among the Jews of always turning towards the temple or tabernacle when they prayed.

3. See these two things conjoined. They may be conjoined; and it is good for us to have these two things conjoined. The union qualifies us for the service and worship of God in His house. And these feelings must correspond with God’s character. Let us all, then, seek to cultivate these holy feelings. (C. Bradley.)

Worship, a sight of God

Belief in God is the great regenerating force of the world. The loss which the unbeliever suffers is enormous. For it does matter what God a man believes in, for his character will be as his faith. Darwin says, “That with the existence of the more civilised races the conviction of the existence of an all-seeing Deity has had a potent influence in the advancement of morality.” But morality means the highest welfare of mankind. Faith in God depends upon culture: we are not born believers. There are races who seem to have no such faith; and there seems, alas, in too many Christian countries, a tendency to revert to primitive barbarism in this respect! Its beginning may be detected in the neglect of public religious service. When a man begins to neglect his church, he loses one of the things which keep faith in God alive within him. But if such faith is to be a power, it must have some finer education than can be had from mere formal attendance at church; it must, in fact, be a sight of God. This is the highest act of religious service, it is the act and state of worship. What is worship? It does not mean all sorts of religious services, but it is one particular state of mind. And this not a self-regarding one. It seeks not to get something for itself, though indeed it gains much. But that is not its object, which is the looking upon that which attracts the mind by its own intrinsic worth or worthiness. This is the real meaning of the word “worship.” Of the self-regarding states are our appetites and passions. They are for self. And prayer, whilst it looks to God, is yet that it may gain for self. Its two great words are, Give and Forgive. But there are states of mind which look quite away from self. Nature, in her highest moods, and Art, in some of its grandest expressions, are able to thus absorb us and hold us spellbound. The mind is taken out of itself and placed in a strange mysterious atmosphere. And so worship is the mind entranced, fascinated, spellbound by the sight of what God is in Himself. Thus worship implies a sight of God. But not any sight. Some views of God are so oppressive and terrifying as to palsy the mind with fear. For many practically hold God to be the author of evil rather than of good, and think of Him only to find out how they may appease Him. They come before Him in awful dread. But the highest form of religious service--seen with such lofty pathos in the worship of our Lord and Master, and presented to us as the absorbing occupation of heaven--is the beatific vision of God and the dwelling upon Him until earthly pains and sorrows and sins fall off from us and all is tranquil as a dreamless sleep.

“In such access of mind, in such high hour

Of visitation from the living God,
Thought was not; in enjoyment it expired.
No thanks he breathed, he proffered no request,
Rapt into still communion that transcends

The imperfect offices of prayer and praise.”

Now we might and should have more of this Divine elevation in our religious services. If there were there would be no fear of the neglect of public worship. But for this we must prepare ourselves. Like David we should sit still for a while. We should come as he says, here in the text, that he will come. In praise we have the best opportunity of rising to adoration, as in the “Te Deum” and in the “Gloria in Excelsis.” But we cannot drop into a grand view of God as we drop into our seats at church. To such an elevation we must climb. This is the ideal after which we should reach. It is no sterile contemplation. It gives tone to the character, and dignity to the life. (W. Page Roberts.)

The solemn service of God

I. The motives we have to join in the solemn service of God. One leading object which we ought to have in view is to promote the glory of God by the conversion or confirmation of others; but still it is in consideration of His mercy that we magnify Jehovah in His other attributes. The Psalmist considered it to be an invaluable privilege that he was permitted to take part in the solemn and public worship of God. He knew the comfort and benefit which flowed from that privilege.

II. The dispositions to be acquired in order that it may be an acceptable sacrifice. The value to ourselves depends on the use we make of it, and on the state of our own hearts. The true worshipper is studious.

1. To bring into the sanctuary a purified heart, at least a heart that seeks to be purified and to experience, in the serious and faithful use of the appointed means of grace, the renewing and refreshing influences of that Spirit who helpeth our infirmities.

2. The spirit of purity requires a spirit of fear. “In Thy fear will I worship.” We are invited, by the Sabbath bell, to an act of solemn and direct intercourse with our Maker, our Redeemer, our Sanctifier, and our Judge. Is that an employment which we can presume to take in hand without the most serious consideration, the most entire collectedness of thought, the warm glow of thankfulness and love?

3. The worship must be attended with faith and hope. The experience of mercies past, and the sure promise of their continuance, the gracious invitations and affectionate expostulations of Him who has described Himself as hearing and answering prayer, should fill us with the spirit of supplication. God loves to listen to the united praises of those who are met together in His name. (Bishop Bloomfield.)