Charles Spurgeon

“Gather to Me My saints, who made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.”

“Gather my saints together unto me. Go, ye swift winged messengers, and separate the precious from the vile. Gather out the wheat of the heavenly garner.”

And the heavens proclaim His righteousness, for God Himself is Judge. Selah

“And the heavens shall declare his righteousness. Celestial intelligences and the spirits of just men made perfect, shall magnify the infallible judgment of the divine tribunal.”

“Hear, O My people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you: I am God, your God.

“The address which follows is directed to the professed people of God. It is clearly, in the first place, meant for Israel; but is equally applicable to the visible church of God in every age.”

I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices, and your burnt offerings are ever before Me.

“I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been ever before me.”

I have no need for a bull from your stall or goats from your pens,

“I will take no bullock out of thy house. Foolishly they dreamed that bullocks with horns and hoofs could please the Lord, when indeed he sought for hearts and souls.”

Sacrifice a thank offering to God, and fulfill your vows to the Most High.

“Offer unto God thanksgiving. No longer look at your sacrifices as in themselves gifts pleasing to me, but present them as the tributes of your gratitude; it is then that I will accept them, but not while your poor souls have no love and no…”

Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”

“And call upon me in the day of trouble. Oh blessed verse! Is this then true sacrifice? Is it an offering to ask an alms of heaven? It is even so. The King himself so regards it.”

To the wicked, however, God says, “What right have you to recite My statutes and to bear My covenant on your lips?

“But unto the wicked God saith. To the breakers of the second table he now addresses himself; he had previously spoken to the neglectors of the first. What hast thou to do to declare my statutes?”

For you hate My instruction and cast My words behind you.

“Seeing thou hatest instruction. Profane professors are often too wise to learn, too besotted with conceit to be taught of God.”

When you see a thief, you befriend him, and throw in your lot with adulterers.

“When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him. Moral honesty cannot be absent where true grace is present. Those who excuse others in trickery are guilty themselves; those who use others to do unjust actions for them are doubly so.”

You unleash your mouth for evil and unharness your tongue for deceit.

“Thou givest thy mouth to evil. Sins against the ninth commandment are here mentioned. The man who surrenders himself to the habit of slander is a vile hypocrite if he associates himself with the people of God.”

You sit and malign your brother; you slander your own mother’s son.

“Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother. He sits down to it, makes it his meat, studies it, resolves upon it, becomes a master of defamation, occupies the chair of calumny. His nearest friend is not safe, his dearest relative escapes not.”

You have done these things, and I kept silent; you thought I was just like you. But now I rebuke you and accuse you to your face.

“These things hast thou done, and I kept silence. No swift judgment overthrew the sinner—longsuffering reigned; no thunder was heard in threatening, and no bolt of fire was hurled in execution. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself.”

Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:

“Now or oh! it is a word of entreaty, for the Lord is loath even to let the most ungodly run on to destruction.”

He who sacrifices a thank offering honors Me, and to him who rights his way, I will show the salvation of God.”

“Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me. Praise is the best sacrifice; true, hearty, gracious thanksgiving from a renewed mind. Not the lowing of bullocks bound to the altar, but the songs of redeemed men are the music which the ear of Jehovah delights in.”

Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your loving devotion; according to Your great compassion, blot out my transgressions.

“Have mercy upon me, O God. He appeals at once to the mercy of God, even before he mentions his sin. The sight of mercy is good for eyes that are sore with penitential weeping.”

Wash me clean of my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

“Wash me throughly. It is not enough to blot out the sin; his person is defiled, and he fain would be purified. He would have God himself cleanse him, for none but he could do it effectually.”

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.

“For I acknowledge my transgressions. Here he sees the plurality and immense number of his sins, and makes open declaration of them. He seems to say, I make a full confession of them.”

Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be proved right when You speak and blameless when You judge.

“Against thee, thee only have I sinned. The virus of sin lies in its opposition to God: the psalmist's sense of sin towards others rather tended to increase the force of this feeling of sin against God.”

Surely I was brought forth in iniquity; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.

“Behold, I was shapen in iniquity. He is thunderstruck at the discovery of his inbred sin, and proceeds to set it forth. This was not intended to justify himself, but it rather meant to complete the confession.”

Surely You desire truth in the inmost being; You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

“Behold. Here is the great matter for consideration. God desires not merely outward virtue, but inward purity, and the penitent's sense of sin is greatly deepened as with astonishment he discovers this truth, and how far he is from satisfying the divine demand.”

Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

“Purge me with hyssop. Sprinkle the atoning blood upon me with the appointed means. Give me the reality which legal ceremonies symbolise. Nothing but blood can take away my blood stains, nothing but the strongest purification can avail to cleanse me.”

Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have crushed rejoice.

“Make me to hear joy and gladness. He prays about his sorrow late in the Psalm; he began at once with his sin; he asks to hear pardon, and then to hear joy. He seeks comfort at the right time and from the right source.”

Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.

“Hide thy face from my sins. Do not look at them; be at pains not to see them. They thrust themselves in the way; but, Lord, refuse to behold them, lest if thou consider them, thine anger burn, and I die.”

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

“Create. What! has sin so destroyed us, that the Creator must be called in again? What ruin then doth evil work among mankind! Create in me. I, in my outward fabric, still exist; but I am empty, desert, void.”