Psalms 51:14

Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation; and my tongue shall sing aloud of Thy righteousness.

Soul murder--who is guilty

Some may question whether such a text as this should be chosen for an ordinary congregation, No one here is guilty of blood. But there are more ways than one of incurring this guilt. And one chief way is in the destroying of souls.

I. A startling crime. We are all guilty of such crime in the death of our Lord; in anger without cause; by youthful transgressions which have led others into sin; by false teaching, insinuating doubts, and causing men to err from the truth and perish. It is a dastardly thing to poison the wells of a city, but what is it to poison the well of truth and make soul-thirst the medium of soul-ruin? Others actually trade in luring men to sin; by this craft they get their wealth. And these are those who delight to lead others astray. Ill example; neglect of religion at home; indifference as to saving souls general want of earnestness--all these bring us under the guilt here told of.

II. Let us make earnest confession of our sin and pray for deliverance from it.

III. A commendable vow. David says if God will deliver him he will sing aloud, etc. Oh, to be clear of others’ blood. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Blood-guiltiness

I. Who is guilty of it?

1. Those who neglect the atonement of Christ, and continue obstinately to persevere in sin until they lose their own souls.

2. Those who teach principles that lead others to trample upon the blood of Christ.

3. Those who set an example that leads others to disregard religion and die in their sins.

4. Those who neglect to do for others what might promote their salvation.

5. Those who hold their peace when they see prevailing any iniquities that are destroying the souls of men.

II. What it involves.

1. It stains deep.

2. It corrodes fearfully.

3. Oh, what a view this subject gives us of this world’s guilty population I We walk the streets of our city with a multitude of murderers, who will have all this train of blood-guiltiness upon them in the last day.

4. Why, then, are we so surprised that so few are saved, and so many destroyed? (D. A. Clark.)

Blood-guiltiness

Like enough that David at first beguiled himself with this, that inasmuch as Uriah was slain in the field, therefore he was clear; but now he saw this was but a poor shift; God, who was greater than his heart, had now raised up his heart to be a witness against him, and to charge him not only with desiring Uriah’s death, but with devising which way closely to bring him to his end. And thus he was guilty of blood who shed no blood; and so may this be found true in many others. A magistrate may be guilty of the sins of the people by not punishing, or by too slight and easy punishing; a man of rule and reckoning in the world may be chargeable with the evils of his inferiors, because his example hath enboldened them. A minister may make himself a party in the enormities of his parish by not preaching against them, or by being too sparing, or too covert, or too gentle in reproving them. It may be I persuade not my people to be ignorant, to be superstitious, to be profaners of the Sabbath; yet, inasmuch as I labour not against these evils in them, my silence, my slighting over of these things, strengtheneth their hands and their hearts to a continuance therein; by this I become guilty before God. Men of ability may be guilty of others perishing, albeit they do to them no kind of actual violence; as by not inquiring into the necessities of those that want, by not making them partakers of their plenty. (S. Hieron.)

Thou God of my salvation.--

God is the God of our salvation

David now comes to God to free him from the guilt of a particular sin, which was his blood-guiltiness; and how, now, does he both persuade God and also satisfy and comfort himself in this particular? Namely, from this consideration, that he was the God of his salvation in the latitude and full extent of it. As if he bad said, Thou which wilt save me from all other sins besides, save me also from this. And Thou which hast been my help and Saviour in times past, be Thou now also so unto me. That which we may observe from it is this, that the way to have particular help from God is to have a general interest in Him; He must be our God and the God of our salvation before we can expect that He should actually and particularly save us. God does not do anything to His servant in this kind for a mere fit, but upon a more general principle. All God’s goodness to His servants in the particular dispensation of mercy is founded in His relations to them, and theirs to Him, and the particular flows from the general. And so, if we would have any comfort from Him at any time to this purpose, we must first of all be sure to lay this for a ground and foundation of it. The consideration of this point shows the misery and unhappiness of such persons as are in a state of strangeness to God, and have not as yet made their peace with Him, why they can expect nothing comfortably from Him while they are in that condition, neither pardon of sin, nor power against it, nor at last eternal salvation itself. Why? Because God is not yet theirs, which relation is the ground of all comfort. What I do we think that God saves a man at the very first of His dealings with him? No such matter, but there is somewhat else which goes before it; God makes us sons before He gives us the inheritance; and He plucks us out of the state of nature before he brings us into the condition of glory; and he is the God of our salvation before He saves in such a particular. (Thomas Horton, D. D.)

My tongue shall sing aloud of Thy righteousness.--

David’s promise to sing of God’s righteousness

I. Whoso receives or expects any mercy or favour from God must know himself bound to return somewhat back by way of thankfulness unto God.

II. The exercise and act of singing is a duty well becoming God’s people, for the declaration of their due acknowledgment of God’s kindness. And that we might not conceive of this duty as of a service ceremonial, and so ceasing in Christ, who is the body of all ancient types; St. Paul commended it to the practice of Christians in the New Testament; persuading them to psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs; and it is St. James’s rule, that if any man have a disposition to discover the inward rejoicing of his heart in the feeling of God’s mercies, he should sing. It is an excellent means to quicken and enliven the dulness of man’s spirits. It is very effectual both to discover and stir up joy.

III. The tongue and voice of man ought to be used by him for the declaring of God’s praise. It is called a man’s glory, both because it is one of the excellencies and prerogatives of man over other creatures, that he is enabled to use his tongue to the expressing of his hand; and because it is the instrument ordained to the setting forth of God’s glory, in the advancement whereof the glory of man as God’s principal creature doth consist. The special matter of praising God is conveyed unto us by the tongue. The knowledge of salvation through Christ is the main ground of glorifying God. And is it not the tongue of man, which God hath consecrated to the begetting of it within us? Now, as God, by the tongues of those whom He hath appointed to be vessels of bearing His name to the world, conveyeth the matter of His praise into our hearts, so by our tongues He requires a testification thereof. By the tongue we receive good, by the tongue we ought to manifest that good we have received; neither can there be a more fitting means for us to be instruments of good to others, than the well-using of our tongues; those duties of admonition, exhortation, comfort, whereby one Christian is bound to further the salvation of another, how shall they be so well performed as by the tongue? That law of grace, which is in the tongue of God’s children, is that which must minister grace unto those which hear us, according to the apostle’s rule. There is a certain holy salt in the tongue of a godly man, by which others may be seasoned; whereupon it is said, that the lips of a righteous man do feed many; many do receive refreshing and comfort by his talk. Then again, whether it is not a matter of equity that the tongue should be employed for His honour, by whom it is endued with that faculty with which it is accomplished? (S. Hieron.)