5. I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked.

6. I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass Thine altar, O Lord :

7. That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all Thy wondrous works.

8. Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honour dwelleth.

9. Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men:

10. In whose hands is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes.

11. But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity redeem me, and be merciful

unto me.

:

12. My foot standeth in an even place : in the congregations will I bless the Lord.

WAS David, then, a self-righteous man? Did he pride himself on his own goodness? Never

man less. In many of his other psalms we see most fully his deep humility; and even here we find words that show plainly that his trust was not in himself: "I have trusted also in the Lord; therefore I shall not slide;" and again, "Redeem me, and be merciful unto me."

Yet we certainly do find in this psalm a kind of justifying of himself, an appeal to God that he had walked with integrity, and had not been like the wicked. How are we to understand this?

He had many enemies, wicked men, enemies to God, as well as to him; and these enemies are evidently here in his mind. They had spoken much against him, and had laid to his charge many things of which he was innocent. In his thoughts and prayers he appeals to God against them: " Judge me, O Lord; for I have walked in mine integrity. . Examine me, O Lord, reins and my heart. For

and prove me; try my reins and

Thy loving-kindness is before mine eyes; and I have walked in Thy truth." Thus he appeals from the judgment of men to the judgment of God. His enemies accused him falsely. He

lays his cause before the Searcher of hearts.

But does he venture to make this appeal, as if he were pure in God's sight, and free from sin? Not so. He speaks throughout as one in need of mercy. However free he might be from those crimes of which his enemies accused him, yet he knew himself to be a sinner in the sight of God. We all are. None can approach God in any other character. Men may accuse us falsely, and we may appeal to Him who knows our hearts for our innocence. But we must still draw near to God as sinful and unworthy creatures, wanting His pardoning mercy, and His strengthening grace.

Yet David does venture, in all humility, to appeal to God as to three things; his integrity or sincerity, his forsaking the company of the wicked, and his delight in the worship of God.

Many around him had no religion but in form; thus in their worship they were but pretenders, hypocrites, dissemblers with God. But David was not such. He was no hypocrite or dissembler. At least he was sincere. He could appeal to God Himself for this: "Judge me, O Lord; for I have walked in mine integrity."

Again, he had shunned the company of the

wicked, the careless, and the false: "I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. I have hated the congregation of evil-doers; and will not sit with the wicked." The very persons who accused him were of this number. He had refused to join himself to them; and perhaps on that very account they were his enemies. For so it often is. But he chose rather to bear their ill-will than to join them in their sinful life; and now he humbly prays to God not to reckon him among their number, or to deal with him as with them: "Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men; in whose hands is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes." He had never loved the company of the ungodly; he prays to be preserved from their fate. We too, if we would not share their condemnation, must not walk in their ways. Balaam's wish was, "Let me die the death of the righteous." But David's was a far better wish. He would have neither the death nor the life of the wicked.

Another thing about which he humbly appeals to God is his love for His house and worship: Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house,

and the place where Thine honour dwelleth." This was a main point in David's character. To worship God in His temple was his greatest delight; to be shut out from doing so, was his greatest sorrow. If we at any time are kept from the house of God by sickness or any other cause, it is comforting to look back upon the great pleasure and profit we have found there in times gone by. The benefit of public worship, and of the hearing of the Gospel, is not past when we leave the house of God. A sweet savour of prayer, and of praise, and of God's Word still remains in the mind; and long after, we can recall such times. It is grievous when the case is otherwise, and when he, who is now cut off from the means of grace, has to look back upon past neglect of them. Many a sick person thinks sadly of years gone by, when he was called continually to the house of God, but seldom or never went. He cannot go now. Such a person is

unable to address God as David did: "Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house." He must come in a far different way: "Lord, forgive me for my past neglect. For Jesus Christ's sake pardon me, that I have turned away from