Psalms 51:15

O Lord, open Thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise.

The lips Divinely opened

I. A humiliating fact implied. Sin seals the lips.

1. In our approaches to God, sin is a barrier to all spiritual freedom. When overwhelmed with guilt and shame, the soul is ready to exclaim with David (Psalms 77:4; Psalms 88:8).

2. Sin prevents us speaking for God as well as to God. When our conduct is consistent we say with Paul (2 Corinthians 6:11), and with David (Psalms 66:16). But when our conduct gives a lie to our profession, our admonitions will be retorted upon us, “Physician, heal thyself.” When a man sins thus he has but little to say for God.

II. An important request made. “O Lord, open Thou,” etc.

1. To whom was this prayer offered? To God. He only can unloose our tongues.

2. By whom was this request made? A convinced sinner. His heart was humbled.

3. The request itself. “Open,” etc. He knew the cause must be removed. Sins must be pardoned. Guilt cancelled. The Spirits must be imparted before there is an ability to praise God (Psalms 51:1; Psalms 51:4; Psalms 51:7; Psalms 51:15).

III. Delightful service pledged. “My lips shall praise Thee.”

1. A deep conviction of God’s mercy.

2. A sensibility of personal obligation.

3. A fixed determination. “My lips shall,” etc. Here observe--

(1) Praise is the least return we can make for so great a blessing. When overwhelmed with guilt, we were ready to say (Micah 6:6), God does not require this (Psalms 51:16). Surely we ought to praise Him.

(2) Praise is due to God alone. He has done the work, and the glory should be His (Psalms 34:1; 1 Peter 2:9).

(3) More praise is due for pardoning mercy than for all the blessings of this life. This comprehends all (Romans 8:32).

(4) A sense of forgiving love enlarges and fits the soul for acts of praise (Psalms 126:1; Isaiah 38:17).

(5) Forgiveness of sins furnishes matter for praise (Psalms 40:1; Psalms 103:1). (H. Woodcock.)

The right use of speech

I. The faculty of speech, and the power of employing it to its right end, are the gifts of God. Is there anything among the abounding proofs of the fallen state of man more conclusive than the virtual declaration of practical infidelity everywhere to be heard--“Our lips are our own, who is Lord over us”? What is the general tenor of conversation among those who bear the Christian name, and who, in church, offer with their lips the psalmist’s prayer--“O Lord, open Thou my lips”? “Is it in unison with the prayer they use; or rather, does it not discover a state of the affections diametrically opposed to the spiritual desires and devout aspirations breathed in the Liturgy in which they orally join?

II. The power of employing the faculty of speech to its right end, is lost to fallen creatures, and God only can renew it. The torpor, the pride, and the enmity of the human heart, in its unregenerated state, preclude the possibility of that devotion of the lips to the service of God, the restoration of which the penitent suppliant implored in the words of our text, But there is also a cause of sinful silence which continues to be operative after that the torpor of indifference has given place to spiritual sensibility. This cause is guilt--a consciousness of native and actual sin. The employment of the lips in praise must depend, therefore, on our apprehension of that atonement which alone can remove guilt from the conscience. “The Ephphatha” of a revealed Saviour is essential to the utterance of praise. Conviction of sin, and conversion to God, are the work of His Spirit; and these are necessary to the production of a grateful heart and its utterance in the new song of praise.

III. The renewal of this power ought to be the subject of earnest prayer to every fallen creature, and is so to every penitent sinner. Whatever may be the advancement made in knowledge and grace, all believers feel a remaining impediment in the spiritual faculty of speech, and long and wait for its removal. Our hearts are often dull and stupid, and never so grateful as we know they ought, and as we wish them to be. Sometimes a worldly spirit, and sometimes a sense of guilt, disqualifies us for the celebration of the praise which is due to our redeeming God. Our lips are too often closed again, after they have been once opened; and a repetition of the miracle of touching our tongue afresh with the finger of almighty love is as necessary as it was at first. The live coal, taken from the altar, must be continually laid on the mouth, in order that the lips may show forth the praise of Him who is the Lord of Hosts, the King of Glory. (T. Biddulph, M. A.)

Praise dependent on God’s assistance

1. When we say that without God’s assistance none can be able to praise Him, we must take it with two qualifications.

(1) Cannot do it commendably, in a holy and spiritual manner, as it becomes Christians to do it.

(a) There is a general aversion in our natures to any good work in s spiritual manner to be performed; there is no work of grace whatsoever but of ourselves we are indisposed much unto it; and without Christ we can do nothing at all (John 15:5).

(b) There is a more special averseness in our natures to this good works of thanksgiving in particular. Sometimes out of pride, because we will not acknowledge our dependence, which in thanksgiving is emphatically done; sometimes out of discontent and repining, as not thinking we have so much given us as we could expect or desire to have; and sometimes also out of a natural dulness, and sluggishness, and stupidity upon us; these things make the work averse unto us; and because they do so, they therefore convince us that without the help and assistance of God Himself, they cannot do it. Cannot do it, i.e. do it commendably, in an holy spiritual manner, as becometh Christians.

(2) Cannot do it acceptably, so as God Himself may be well-pleased with us in the doing of it. Those whose lips God Himself does not open, they cannot utter His praise so as He may accept of it, and take it well at their hands. All kind of praising of God, and from all persons, is not acceptable to Him (Proverbs 15:8; Isaiah 1:11; Psa 1:16). Therefore Scripture, when it speaks of giving thanks, and showing forth praise, it still makes Christ to be the only medium and conveyance of it (Ephesians 5:20; Colossians 3:17; Hebrews 13:15). Those that give thanks, and not in Christ, they cannot give thanks acceptably, which is consequently the condition of those whose lips God will not open for it; so as none partake of the Spirit of Christ, but those who are indeed the servants of Christ.

2. We see here, then, what great cause we have in all our undertakings of this service, to go to God Himself for it, and to desire Him to help us herein, and not to go about such a duty as this is in our own strength.

3. There is a double qualification considerable as to the performing of the work of praise among other good works. First, a general qualification of the person, sanctifying his lips and mouth for such a service at large. And, secondly, a particular qualification of the person, as enabling him to this particular performance and service which he is now undertaking; and this latter is that which David refers to in this particular place; God had opened his lips in general before, in his first conversion, when He had framed him according to His heart, and so fitted him for all the duties of religion to be performed by him, and this duty of praise amongst the rest. (Thomas Horton, D. D.)

Man’s inability to praise without God’s help

There is naturally a kind of pollutedness in the lips of man, whereof Esau complained, a certain uncircumcisedness which, until it is reformed and taken away, no such thing can come through them by which God may be glorified. “We are not sufficient of ourselves, to think anything as of ourselves,” saith the apostle; and, “Without Me ye can do nothing,” saith our Saviour. The apprehension of this native unableness made David to commend unto God this request; and then there was another, a more particular reason, which moved David to say thus; and that was the effect which he felt in himself of his great sin. We have had often occasion in this psalm to note the havoc of the graces of God in him made by this noisome trespass. He felt himself much disabled by it every way. Never, indeed, can a man praise God aright until he hath matter for it ministered to him out of his own experience; when his soul is satisfied with marrow and fatness, which proceedeth from the love of God shed abroad into the heart; then shall his mouth sound out praise with joyful lips. It is but a cold, barren and superficial service, whatsoever a man doth herein, if he be not furnished with matter for it, out of the store-house of his own heart. If one have not within that joy which David terms joy of heart, and Paul joy in the Holy Ghost, he can never show forth the praise of God to any purpose. It is the inward feeling which must give life and being to this business. Thus there is a double reason by which this point is proved, that no man can be an utterer of God’s praise unless God enable him; the first reason is drawn from the consideration of the general insufficiency which is naturally in man for good performances; the second, from the nature of this act of praising God; which is such as can never be well discharged, unless a man’s spirit within do rejoice in God, and have sweet peace sealed up unto it in the assurance of God’s favour. Now, this is natural to no man, it is God’s only free and gracious gift, and until the Lord be pleased to afford comfort to a man’s soul, by some good testimony to him that his sins are pardoned, all his attempts and undertakings to be a praiser of God are utterly in vain. (S. Hieron.)