The Prayer of a Broken Heart, an Exposition of the 51st Psalm

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.comwww.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE PEAYEE OF A BEOKEN HEAET. III.?ITS PURPOSE OP REPARATION. Psalm li. 13-15. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Deliver me from blood- guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation; and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. The conclusion of the Psalmist's inward penitential exercise of soul brings forward its connection with the outer world. He has been confessing his sin, without reserve or guile. He has been seeking a thorough cure for a deep disease. He has been considering his case in all the views of it which a spiritually awakened conscience can suggest. His sin is ever before him; as now really painful and offensive to himself. It is seen in the light of the glory of God; his glory as?first, the sovereign Lord; secondly, the HolyOne; and thirdly, the righteous Judge. Sin is rebellion against his sovereignty. It is loathsome in his sight. It is righteously judged and condemned. Nor is this all. In its source and essence, this sin is original; birth-born; natural; inherent in the fallen constitution which he inherits. In all these views of it, he is enabled to pray for deliverance. He asks to be purged, cleansed, quickened. And now, with the restored joy of God's salvation, giving me the confidence of being upheld by a free spirit, I ask if anything can be done by me; if anything lies before me; that may prove my penitence for the past, and occupy my recovered strength of joy and liberty for service now? My own case might well engross, and must engross, my attention when I first awaken to a sense of what it really is; a case all but desperate; critical for weal or woe; and that for ever. But having spread out my case before God;...