Psalms 51:18

Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto Thee.

The Christian’s great business

Sinners are all around us living in their sins. Some of these wandering ones are in great misery every day, as the result of their sins; and all, whether suffering or not, are robbing God of glory, and Christ of reward. Moreover, sinners are dying; every hour hurries a company of them into eternity.

I. Who are to teach transgressors that they may be converted unto God? The reply is easy.

1. Pardoned sinners, go and publish the story of what God’s grace has done for you. You are the men, and none others in the world, who can tell it to advantage. Tell it with the hope that your fellow-men will hear it and live.

2. While, however, all pardoned sinners ought to do this, we should remember that we are fittest for the doing of it when we are full of the joy of God’s salvation. Notice the prayer--“Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation. Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways.” While we believe in the joy of the Lord we shall not come to sinners with “ifs” and “buts,” but with a faith which will, by God’s grace, help them also to believe.

3. To prepare us to win souls, we must have the Holy Spirit resting upon us, for the text says, “Uphold me with Thy free Spirit.” O, pray for a revival in your own souls. Beseech the Holy Spirit to come upon you.

4. If we would bear good testimony for God to the conversion of souls, we must by the Spirit of God be upheld in consistency of life, “Uphold me with Thy free Spirit.” If you are inconsistent in your own daily lives, how can you hope to be useful to others? “Actions speak louder than words.” If we speak to men upon the evil of sin, and yet indulge in it, what can they infer from our conduct?

II. What the believer ought to aim at in his work with souls.

1. Our great aim is conversion--the conversion of transgressors. Their conversion; not reformation merely. It is a good thing to improve a man by reforming him; he is all the better for being sober, honest and industrious. Let us help them if we can, but it is a side issue; our business is a more radical one, the laying of the axe to the root of the tree by the change of the nature. Our object is more lasting; we have to do with immortal souls and their eternal future. Be content with nothing short of the conversion of men. But it must be their conversion to God. “Sinners shall be converted unto Thee.”

2. This work is to be accomplished by teaching. “Then will I teach,” etc. All the earnestness possible should go with the teaching, but there must be sound doctrine, real instruction, solemn truth made known; for it is by such means that sinners will be converted to God.

3. The most important teaching is that which dwells upon the Lord’s ways--God’s way of punishing sin, God’s way of forgiving sin, God’s way of mercy through a sacrifice, God’s way of pardon through faith in Jesus; God’s ways of wounding, and healing; God’s ways of sending forth the Eternal Spirit, and working as He wills among the sons of men, neither waiting for man nor tarrying for the sons of men.

III. Why we should seek the conversion of sinners.

1. Because it will save us from many ills. I believe that the not seeking to win souls brings many spiritual maladies upon Christians. For our own sakes, lest the canker get into our gold, and the rust into our silver, use it for doing good; yea, by all means, seek the souls of men for God. Some evil will befall you if you keep the Gospel to yourselves.

2. It will greatly add to your joy. Who does not like to be the hearer of good news? The pleasant tale of redeeming grace and dying love, the pleasant story of a Saviour who came from heaven to earth, to lift us up from earth to heaven, the story of our own conversion, the story of God’s goodness since our conversion--why, it must be delightful to tell it. And when you have spoken for Jesus, if you succeed in converting a sinner to God, then comes the pleasure. We will get out of these selfish motives into something higher.

3. Unless you tell abroad the Gospel, how will you prove the sincerity of your prayers? “Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” How can it be, if you never try to speak a word for Jesus, and never seek to bring new subjects into His kingdom? Our prayers--what can they be but hypocritical, if they are not supported by your actions?

4. Again, what proof is there of the sincerity of your love to Christy “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me?” Do you answer, “Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee”? Here, then, is the proof which He demands--“Feed My sheep. Feed My lambs. Distribute unto others the heavenly food which you receive from Me. What I tell you in the ear that speak ye upon the housetops.” Abundantly yield to your Lord this proof of your affection.

IV. How, then, are we to teach transgressors God’s ways, that sinners may be converted unto God? I would say to you, “Wait upon the Lord, for direction.” But one of the directions you need not wait for is this, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” Some of you who could not speak, at least not to many, can assist those who do. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The true teacher

I. The qualifications for a true teacher. Recalling to what the “then” refers, we find that a true teacher must be a man marked by--

1. Penitence and loathing for sin.

2. Purity of heart.

3. Fellowship with God.

II. The people a true teacher seeks to bless. “Transgressors,” men who have broken the Divine law. “Sinners,” a wider name describing all who neglect, as well as all who violate that law. What a school! Such was His who came “not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” The lost.

III. The theme a true teacher unfolds. “Thy ways.” This may mean, as it continually does--

1. God’s commandments, i.e. His ways for man to take; or--

2. God’s habits of grace, justice, mercy. “My ways are not your ways,” etc.

IV. The method a true teacher employs. Teaching is the noblest occupation, the highest art, the strongest agency of man. “We persuade men.”

V. The result the true teacher seeks. “Converted to Thee.” Turned back from evil; turned in thought, mind, will, character, towards God. (U. R. Thomas.)

The life of restored usefulness

In these verses (13-17) the psalm seems to take now a brighter turn. There is a mention of teaching, of a service of praise, of a sacrifice, as if the poor, crushed spiritual life were gaining strength again. Just as when a man is recovering from a serious illness, the very fact of his becoming impatient is a good sign. So here David is becoming impatient, as it were, of his low condition; he is thinking of work, he is making plans. David’s pardon, David’s restoration, shall be the great ground of hope and conversion for generations of penitents. It is a grand idea to utilize faults. God can do it. We have read of the painter who, in his rage and disappointment at not being able to represent the foam on the mouth of a Fury, threw his sponge at the picture, and so produced without design the effect for which he had laboured. But God can take our very faults and beautify them, as an architect seizes upon an uneven site as the opportunity for fresh picturesqueness of detail to his building. So that it has been said, the three great doctors of the Catholic Church are David the murderer, St. Peter the denier, and St. Paul the persecutor.

I. We all hope to do something more than save our own souls. We are here for this very purpose, to train ourselves that we may help others. It is a great fact that the key which unlocks the mysteries of God is, in many senses, a moral one (John 7:17). It is only too possible to wish some doctrines not to be true; it is perfectly impossible to understand many of them from the outside. And, therefore, let this Lent be, for all of us, the very foundation of our teaching power. “Then shall I teach.” It is thus we learn sympathy. Ah, here is a poor soul going through all which I have gone through. “I, too, was a stranger in the land of Egypt.” It is thus we acquire tenderness (Titus 3:3). It is thus that we acquire spiritual might (1 John 4:7). Do we yet know how God loves us?

II. Penitence is our preparation for the life of service in the sanctuary. Our people do not come to church; or, they are cold and indifferent spectators if they do come. Why is it? Sometimes, if we must speak the truth, services are terribly perfunctory, cold and slovenly. We clergy are in constant danger of deterioration. What a call upon us there is to live always in an atmosphere of prayer, if we know that we may he summoned at any moment to a death-bed, there to come close to the very opening gates of Paradise, or to administer the Viaticum to the traveller now almost departing. Is not all this something to be prepared for?

III. After all, there is nothing more powerful than the life of sacrifice. Just the troubled spirit, ruffled, freshened as it were every day by the breath from on high. Where the heart is sensitive to every heavenly influence; where the broken heart is full of affection towards God, while it always remembers the past; where the contrite heart is softened, bruised, pulverized into good receptive soil. May we not learn here, too, to offer a sacrifice like this? Have we learned yet to sacrifice inclination? It bakes a long time to do this. Pere Lacordaire tells us how, in spite of all his austerities, practised with a view of subduing the will, he took a long time before he could overcome his irritation at such a simple thing as being interrupted. Can we give up inclination deliberately? (Canon Newbolt.)

Joy of salvation necessary for teachers

A man must not only have salvation, but also the joy of it, before he can effectually teach transgressors the ways of God. Your acts, your looks, the tones of your voice, teach as much as your words, perhaps much more. A man going forth with gloom and sorrow in his heart, is not fib to teach others the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. (T. Alexander, M. A.)

The ways of God

1. First, God’s ways to us; they are His ways, as the subject of them, the ways in which Himself walks: David would teach these. There are some ways of God which are unsearchable, and past finding out; His way in the sea, and His paths in the great waters, and His footsteps are not known (Psalms 77:19). But the ways which are here spoken of are more especially His carriage and behaviour towards Christians, both as to their sins and repentance, in their falls and in their rising again. David did now take upon him to teach transgressors these ways, how severe God was against sin, and more especially in His own servants; how He would lay it more particularly upon their consciences above any others, and call them to an account for it; this David would now teach. And so again, how gracious He was also to all those who, by repentance, turned unto Him, so as to hide His face from their sins, and to east a comfortable eye upon them, and to restore them to favour again. Both these ways of God, both in His justice and also in His mercy, would David communicate to transgressors.

2. Secondly, ours also to Him, which are His ways likewise; the ways which He has commanded us that we should walk in them; they are in Scripture-language called the ways of God, the ways of duty, and obedience and thankfulness. What is to be done by us answerably to God’s dealing with us, this was the matter of David’s teaching in his converse with others. (Thomas Horton, D. D.)

“Then shall I teach”

That means infinitely more than giving a lesson through the medium of speech. Our best teachers have sometimes been dumb. “I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, for Thou didst it.” What lessons we have learned from dumb beauty, from loving patience, from quiet, bright heroism, from the uncomplaining temper, from the abounding willingness, from a man’s calm, strong grappling with stupendous difficulty I “Then shall I teach.” He will teach, not by one way only, but by many. He will become a minister, an influence, a power of grace. Now, mark the ascent of the teaching. Related to Christi Instructed! Disciplined! A teacher! And of such a one it will be said by his fellow-men, “We know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these things that thou doest, except God be with him.” (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)

And sinners shall be converted unto Thee.

The converted will labour to convert others

David, as he could not choose but promise thankfulness to God, upon the restoring of him to his ancient state; so, because he knew that his goodness could not reach to the person of God, therefore he could not conceive wherein better to discover it, than in labouring to do others good, by endeavouring their conversion. The talent of mercy which he hoped to receive, he vowed to employ to others’ edifying. The Scripture confirms the being of this disposition in all whom God hath truly turned by variety of examples. When Andrew had found Christ he had no rest until he had called Simon. Neither could Philip forbear until he had brought Nathaniel. What haste did the woman of Samaria make to run into the town to call her neighbours! How earnestly did Paul wish that others were in religion, in the knowledge and obedience thereof, like unto him! The jailor’s joy was not full till he perceived that his household as well as himself believed upon Christ. When Christ had called Matthew, he invited Christ to his house, and there were a great company of publicans and of others. Can we think they came into Matthew’s house without his leave, or that Matthew invited them with any other intent, than that they might get that good by Christ which his soul reaped? This was prophesied of old, that it should be the disposition of those which should be gathered in by the Gospel to the Christian Church; one should provoke and call upon another, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, etc. They which dwell in one city, shall go to another, saying, Up, let us go and pray before the Lord of Hosts. Christ laid it as a task upon Peter, “When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” Indeed, God gives no man any spiritual good for his own private benefit alone, but that he might be a good disposer and steward of the grace of God for others’ good. Like as the apostle saith, that God comforted him, that he might comfort others with the same comfort which himself had received. Wheresoever there is true conversion, there is true faith; for, how shall we suppose a man converted in the state of grace who hath no faith? And faith worketh by love; and how can love (which is said to be bountiful) be barren and unfruitful in this special evidence of love, the saving of a soul from death? We would reckon it a barbarous and a cruel act (and well we might) if two men in their travel by the way should fall into a pit, and the other, being by some means rescued thence, should go his way without respect to him that was in the same danger. Is it possible, think ye, that there should be such an heart in a man, in whom God hath wrought a work of grace, that being himself recovered from that pit of destruction, into which we are all plunged by Adam’s disobedience, he should not care what became of others that are enwrapped in the same misery? God’s children are no niggards, nay, it grieveth them to eat their spiritual morsels alone; when they have received any mercy from God, they are as the vessel whereto Elihu compared himself, which must needs have vent. Come, hearken, said David, and I will tell you what God hath done to my soul. (S. Hieron.)

Psalms 51:18

Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion.

Prayer for Zion

I. The place prayed for. Under the name “Zion” David here prays for the whole Church, whose practice is herein considerable for our example.

1. Considered as a godly man, he prays for it so; whereby he shows us the nature and disposition of every good Christian besides, as also the duty of every one that pretends to an interest in the Church. This may be made out unto us upon this ground and consideration; because, namely, of that near relation which they bear unto it, and benefit which they receive by it. There is not a greater nearness of the members of a natural body one to another, than there is in the members of the mystical. And yet, if we well consider it, how few are there which lay this to heart, which take care of the prosperity of Zion, and which are affected with good-will to it? Most men seek their own advantage, the enlarging and settling of themselves, but they are but few which do lay out their thoughts and endeavours for the good of the Church. Nay, it were well if some now and then were not employed in that which is contrary, which are haters and ill-willers to it (Psalms 129:5).

2. As a guilty man, David now reflected on the mischief he had done to the Church of God by his sin; and now, therefore, to make it some amends, he puts it into his prayer, that God would do good unto it, as that which was the only recompense and satisfaction which he was able to make it. We may hence judge of the work of repentance and conversion what is in us. He who truly repents of his sin, will endeavour to do good answerably to the evil which has been done by him.

II. The thing prayed for about it; viz. that it have good done unto it. We must take it in the latitude, and full extent, which is of good in all kinds, but more especially of such good as is proper and peculiar to the Church, considered as such, within its own circle and compass, which is spiritual and eternal good. Where, for the ordering of our prayers aright upon such occasions, we may take notice of these particulars.

1. The free enjoyment of the ordinances and means of grace. These make up a great part of the good of Zion, and we should be instant with God for His Church in this regard, that He would vouchsafe, and uphold, and maintain the ministry of it.

2. The extirpation of errors and heresies, and the promoters of them, this is likewise conducing to the good. It can never be well with the Church, any further than as God is pleased to convert it by His overruling power. Therefore, as ever we desire the welfare of it, we must bend our prayers to this particular.

3. The multiplication of converts, that’s another thing pertinent hereunto. The welfare of Zion lies much in the number of those which belong unto it.

4. The concord and agreement of believers amongst themselves; this is another thing of the same nature with it; it was well with Zion in those days when they were all of one accord in one place (Acts 2:1). This is as much for the good of the Church as anything else, and does as much need and require our prayers and petitions for it.

III. The modification of the request. “In Thy good pleasure.”

1. It is a word of special influence, and does denote unto us the rise and spring of all good to be expected to the Church, which is the love and good-will of God. David does not now come to God for his Church upon terms of merit or desert, but only upon terms of favour and free grace, “Do good in Thy good pleasure.” And this is that which all must still do, even the best that are; they must thus make their addresses to God even in the behalf of the Church itself. And the reason of it is this, because we are all debtors to God, and stand obnoxious to Him; we deserve no good from Him; and that good which already we have, we have in a manner forfeited by our miscarriages; therefore it must be free grace and favour that must set us right, there’s nothing else which will be helpful to us.

2. It is a word of limitation; a limitation not of God, but indeed of His own prayer and request. As if he had said, Lord, I do very earnestly beg of Thee that Thou wouldst do good to Thy Church; but I do not herein go about to limit Thee, or confine Thee, or prescribe Thee, but I leave it wholly to Thyself; “Do good in Thy good pleasure,” that is, as shall seem good and best in Thine own eyes to do.

3. It is a word of insinuation, as it seems to carry the force of an argument in it, and thai thus, Lord, Thou bearest a special love and affection to Zion, which is Thy Church above all others besides. Now, therefore, according to this affection which is in Thee towards it, be pleased to do good to it; as the sister of Lazarus to Christ (John 11:3), whereby she would persuade Him to be active for his recovery. So does David here now to God in behalf of the Church, “Do good of Thy good pleasure to Zion”; that is, according to Thy wonted favour and lovingkindness towards her. It is a great encouragement in our addresses to God at any time for His poor Church to have the advantage of His own affections to it, which will prevail with Him so much the easier to goodness upon it. The reason of it is this, because God delights to be like Himself; He is good, and doeth good; and He is yesterday, and to-day, the same for ever. Therefore those bowels which persuade Him to do good to the Church at first, persuade Him still to the continuance of its. (Thomas Horton, D. D.)

“Do good unto Zion”

Though a popular and prevalent, it is a false or at least very defective form of Christianity, which, if personal salvation is attained, or supposed to be attained, is indifferent to the interests of truth, the welfare of the Church, and the public cause of Christ. The more profoundly we are interested in, and the more sensibly we are assured of our own salvation, the better fitted are we for being, and the more likely are we to be “valiant for the truth upon the earth.” We should seek that God would do good unto Zion--

I. In the way of increasing the number of her genuine converts. It is not in the number, or wealth, or worldly influence of her nominal members, but in the number of true believers, “called and chosen and faithful,” loving the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth, who are found within her pale, that her strength and stability and beauty consist. In proportion as she is destitute of these latter, may Ichabod--the glory is departed--be written on her brow. It is they alone, of all her members, who show forth the transforming power of Divine grace, and the condescension of Divine love, and who reflect the purity of her glorious Head.

II. In the way of causing the graces of the spirit to flourish in her true members. It would be a token for good were believers generally constrained to long for the reviving influences of the Spirit, as the chased roe pants for the cooling stream, or as the parched ground thirsts for the refreshing shower--were they in the same frame of mind as the Spouse in Canticles when she cried, “Awake, O north wind, and come thou south: blow upon my garden that the spices may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits.”

III. In the way of enabling her to be faithful to her Lord. And this faithfulness we shall only notice here as it bears upon her testifying for His truths, preserving the purity of His ordinances, and enforcing the laws of His house. According as she fulfils or fails in fulfilling these functions, does she prove faithful or faithless to her high mission as “the pillar and ground of the truth,” and as a witness for God in the world.

IV. In the way of healing her divisions. These are her weakness, her shame, her sin. The armies of Israel are spending in intestine conflict that strength which is needed against, and which would powerfully tell upon, their common foes.

V. By extending her boundaries. There are still many “dark places of the earth,” which are “full of the habitations of horrid cruelty.” There are hundreds of millions of our race sitting in the shadow of moral and spiritual darkness and death, athwart which a beam from the Sun of Righteousness has never shone. They are perishing for lack of knowledge. In darkness they live, in darkness they die, and to the blackness of darkness at death they descend. So long, however, as this is the case, the promise of the Divine Father to His Son shall not be fully performed, “I will give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession”--numerous predictions of Scripture shall remain unfulfilled--and the Church shall not have attained her destined and promised position of glory in our world. But all these events shall yet take place, however impossible they may now appear to the eye of sense. Every obstacle to this--physical, political, ecclesiastical, or moral--shall be removed. In asking these blessings from God for Zion, we should do so in a spirit of entire dependence upon Him for their bestowal; under a sense of personal unworthiness; in a spirit of resignation to the Divine will; from a supreme desire for the Divine glory; and under a deep sense of personal obligation to active exertion on our part, in order to their being obtained. (Original Secession Magazine.)

A prayer for the welfare of Zion

I. The matter of the prayer.

1. The first petition hath an obvious reference to the tribes of Israel, considered in their spiritual state, as a religious community, or the true Church of God.

2. The other petition hath a reference to the civil state of the Jews as a commonwealth or kingdom, and is a prayer for their national safety and prosperity.

II. The order in which the petitions are placed. He begins with praying for the good of Zion, and then offers his supplication in behalf of Jerusalem. Nor is this an accidental or arbitrary arrangement. The same subordination of temporal to spiritual blessings is uniformly observed through the whole of the sacred record, both in the promises of God, and in the accepted prayer of His people.

III. The temper of mind with which they appear to have been accompanied.

1. David had a just impression of his absolute dependence on God, and did not trust in the arm of flesh, but looked for help from God alone.

2. The form of his address likewise discovers the deep conviction he had of his own unworthiness. (R. Walker.)

Intercession for Zion

“Zion,” in this verse, means the hill on which the temple stood, and is therefore taken for the temple itself; and the temple, again, means God’s worshipping Church, with God Himself dwelling in the midst of it. He prays for good to this worshipping assembly of God’s people, under the designation first of Zion, second of Jerusalem. In the second aspect the Church is figured by a city, a metropolitan city, a walled city. The Church is brought before us as a city, and her members as citizens. They are members of the heavenly polity. Jerusalem stands for the gathered assembly of God’s people worshipping and dwelling secure in their quiet habitations (Hebrews 12:22). It is the rich grace of God, and His free love and unchangeable good-will to His people, that are the sole causes of the welfare of His Church God alone can do good unto Zion; He alone can build up the walls of Jerusalem. But to this work God has a good-will. Zion lies near His heart. When we are seeking this, when we are labouring for this, we are sure to find favour with God. God alone can do it; still our duty is to labour, to teach transgressors God’s ways, that sinners may be converted unto Him. All that befalls the Church is according to the good pleasure of God’s will. This is the ground of our calling, election, justification, glorification. Whatever we seek must ever be sought under this restriction, “Thy good pleasure.” Build Thou; but do it in Thine own wise time, in Thine own good way. Build Thou the walls of separation, that divide the Church from the world; let them be in it, not of it: keep them from its evil. (T. Alexander, M. A.)