Chapter 1. Showing that Negative Goodness Is but a broken Title To Heaven.
Chapter 1.
Showing that Negative Goodness Is but a broken Title To Heaven.
Just as the book of the Canticles is called the Song of Songs by a Hebraism (being the most excellent of songs), so Psalm 1 may not unfitly be entitled, the Psalm of Psalms, for it contains in it the very pith and quintessence of Christianity. What Jerome says of Paul's epistles I may say of this psalm: it is short for the composition, but full of length and strength for the matter. This psalm carries blessedness in the frontispiece; it begins where we all hope to end. It may well be called A Christian's Guide, for it reveals the quicksands where the wicked sink down in perdition, verse 1; and the firm ground on which the saints tread to glory, verse 2. The text is an epitome and breviary of religion:
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night." Psa 1.2
Every word has its emphasis; I begin with the first word, But. This But is full of spiritual wine; we will broach it and taste a little, then proceed. But is a term of opposition. The godly man is described in verse 1, 1. By way of negation, in three particulars.
(1) "He does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly;" he is none of their council; he neither gives bad counsel, nor takes it.
(2) "He does not stand in the way of sinners." He will not stand among those who will not be able to "stand in the judgment," verse
(3) "He does not sit in the seat of the scornful." Let it be a chair of state, he will not sit in it; he knows it will prove very uneasy at the last. The word sitting implies,
a. A habit in sin, Psa 50.20. "You sit and speak against your brother." b. Familiarity with sinners. "I have not sat with vain persons"
(Psa 26.4); 12 that is, I do not haunt their company. The godly man shakes off all intimacy with the wicked. He may traffic with them, but not associate; he may be civil to them as neighbours, but not twist into a cord of friendship. Diamonds and stones may lie together, but they will not solder and cement together.
2. In verse 2, the godly man is described by way of position, or rather opposition, "But his delight is in the law of the Lord." From this word
But, observe that negative goodness is not sufficient to entitle us to heaven. To be no scorner, is good, but it is not enough. There are some in the world whose religion runs all upon negatives; they are not drunkards, they are not swearers, and for this they bless themselves. See how that Pharisee speaks in Luk 18.11: "God, I thank you that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers," etc. Alas, not being scandalous will no more make a good Christian than a number will make a sum. The godly man goes further, "he does not sit in the seat of the scorner, but his delight is in the law of the Lord." We are bid not only to "cease from evil, but to do good,"
Psa 34.14. It will be a poor plea at the last, to say, 'Lord, I kept myself from being spotted with gross sin. I did no hurt.' But what good is there in you? It is not enough for the servant of the vineyard that he does no harm there, that he does not break the trees or destroy the hedges. If he does not work in the vineyard, he loses his pay. It is not enough for us to say at the last day, that we have done no hurt, that we have not lived in gross sin. But what good have we done in the vineyard? Where is the grace we have gotten? If we cannot show this, we shall lose our pay, and miss salvation.
USE. Do not content yourselves with the negative part of religion; many build their hopes for heaven on this cracked foundation: they are given to no vice; none can charge them with any foul miscarriages. These are the credentials they have to show. To such persons I say three things.
1. You may not be outwardly bad, and yet you are not inwardly good. You may be as far from grace as you are from vice.
Though none can say your eye is black, yet your soul may be dyed black. Though your hands are not working iniquity, your heads may be plotting it. Though you do not hang out your bush,13 yet you may secretly vend your commodity. A tree may be full of vermin, and yet the fair leaves may cover them so they are not seen — so too, the fair leaves of civility may hide you from the eye of man, but God sees the vermin of pride, unbelief, and covetousness in your heart. "You are those," says Christ, "who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts," Luk 16.15. A man may not be morally evil, and yet not be spiritually good. He may be free from gross enormity, and yet full of secret enmity against God — like the snake which, though it has a fine colour, yet it has its fangs.
2. If you are only negatively good, God takes no account of you. You are like so many numbers in God's Arithmetic, and he writes down no numbers in the Book of Life. Take a piece of brass: though it is not as bad a metal as lead or iron, yet not being as good as silver, there is little reckoning made of it; it will not pass for current coin. Even if you are not profane, not being of the right metal, lacking the stamp of holiness upon you, you will never pass current 14: God slights you, because you are but a brass Christian.
3. A man may go to hell for not doing good, as well as for doing evil. The one who does not bear good fruit is as much fuel for hell, as the one who bears bad fruit. Mat 3.10. "Every tree which does not bear good fruit, is cut down and thrown into the fire." One may die as well from not eating food, as eating poison; a ground may be spoiled as well for lack of good seed as for having tares sown in it.
Those who were not active in works of charity, were sadly sentenced:
"Depart from me you cursed, etc. for I was hungry, and you gave me no food," Mat 25. 41, 42. It does not say, "You took away my food from me," but "you gave me no food." Why were the foolish virgins shut out? They had done no harm; they had not broken their lamps
— true, but they "took no oil in their lamps," Mat 25.3. Lacking oil was their indictment. Therefore do not let any man build his hope for
heaven on negatives. This is building upon the sand. The sand is bad to build on; it won't hold together. But suppose a man were to finish a house on it; what is the issue? The flood comes, namely persecution, and the force of this flood will drive away the sand and make the house fall. And the wind blows, the breath of the Lord like a mighty wind — it will blow such a sandy building into hell. Be afraid then, to rest in the privative 15 part of religion; launch forth further, and be eminently holy.
So I come to the next words, "but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night."