Charles Spurgeon

Cast me not away from Your presence; take not Your Holy Spirit from me.

“Cast me not away from thy presence. Throw me not away as worthless; banish me not, like Cain, from thy face and favour. Permit me to sit among those who share thy love, though I only be suffered to keep the door.”

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit.

“Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Salvation he had known, and had known it as the Lord's own; he had also felt the joy which arises from being saved in the Lord, but he had lost it for a while, and therefore he…”

Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will return to You.

“Then will I teach transgressors thy ways. It was his fixed resolve to be a teacher of others; and assuredly none instruct others so well as those who have been experimentally taught of God themselves. Reclaimed poachers make the best gamekeepers. Huntingdon's degree of S.”

Deliver me from bloodguilt, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing of Your righteousness.

“DAVID had been grossly guilty towards his faithful and veteran friend Uriah. He had given instructions that Uriah should be led into the hottest part of the fight and then suddenly deserted so that he might be struck by the sword of the Syrians, and…”

Deliver me from bloodguilt, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing of Your righteousness.

“Deliver me from bloodguiltiness. He had been the means of the death of Uriah, the Hittite, a faithful and attached follower, and he now confesses that fact.”

O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise.

“O Lord, open thou my lips. He is so afraid of himself that he commits his whole being to the divine care, and fears to speak till the Lord unstops his shame silenced mouth.”

For You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You take no pleasure in burnt offerings.

“For thou desirest not sacrifice. This was the subject of the last Psalm. The psalmist was so illuminated as to see far beyond the symbolic ritual; his eye of faith gazed with delight upon the actual atonement. Else would I give it.”

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. All sacrifices are presented to thee in one, by the man whose broken heart presents the Saviour's merit to thee.”

In Your good pleasure, cause Zion to prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem.

“Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion. Let blessings according to thy wont be poured upon thy holy hill and chosen city. Zion was David's favourite spot, whereon he had hoped to erect a temple.”

Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices, in whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on Your altar.

“In those days of joyful prosperity thy saints shall present in great abundance the richest and holiest thank offerings to thee, and thou shalt be pleased to accept them.”

Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man? The loving devotion of God endures all day long.

“Why boasteth thyself in mischief, O mighty man? Doeg had small matter for boasting in having procured the slaughter of a band of defenceless priests. A mighty man indeed to kill men who never touched a sword!”

Your tongue devises destruction like a sharpened razor, O worker of deceit.

“Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs. Thou speakest with an ulterior design. The information given was for Saul's assistance apparently, but in very deed in his heart the Edomite hated the priests of the God of Jacob.”

You love evil more than good, falsehood more than speaking truth. Selah

“Thou lovest evil more than good. He loved not good at all. If both had been equally profitable and pleasant, he would have preferred evil. And lying rather than to speak righteousness. He was more at home at lying than at truth.”

You love every word that devours, O deceitful tongue.

“Thou lovest. Thou hast a taste, a gusto for evil language. All devouring words. There are words that, like boa constrictors, swallow men whole, or like lions, rend men to pieces; these words evil minds are fond of. Their oratory is evermore furious and bloody.”

Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin; He will snatch you up and tear you away from your tent; He will uproot you from the land of the…

“God shall likewise destroy thee for ever. Fain would the persecutor destroy the church, and therefore God shall destroy him, pull down his house, pluck up his roots, and make an end of him. He shall take thee away.”

The righteous will see and fear; they will mock the evildoer, saying,

“The righteous —the object of the tyrant's hatred—shall outlive his enmity, and also shall see, before his own face, the end of the ungodly oppressor. God permits Mordecai to see Haman hanging on the gallows.”

“Look at the man who did not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his wealth and strengthened himself by destruction.”

“Lo. Look ye here, and read the epitaph of a mighty man, who lorded it proudly during his little hour, and set his heel upon the necks of the Lord's chosen. This is the man that made not God his strength. Behold the man!”

But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in the loving devotion of God forever and ever.

“But I, hunted and persecuted though I am, am like a green olive tree. I am not plucked up or destroyed, but am like a flourishing olive, which out of the rock draws oil, and amid the drought still lives and grows.”

I will praise You forever, because You have done it. I will wait on Your name— for it is good— in the presence of Your saints.

“I will praise thee for ever. Like thy mercy shall my thankfulness be. While others boast in their riches I will boast in my God; and when their glorying is silenced for ever in the tomb, my song shall continue to proclaim the lovingkindness of…”

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt; their ways are vile. There is no one who does good.

“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. And this he does because he is a fool. Being a fool he speaks according to his nature; being a great fool he meddles with a great subject, and comes to a wild conclusion.”

God looks down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if any understand, if any seek God.

“God looked down from heaven upon the children of men. He did so in ages past, and he has continued his steadfast gaze from his all surveying observatory. To see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.”

All have turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

“Every one of them is gone back. The whole mass of manhood, all of it, is gone back. In the fourteenth Psalm it was said to turn aside, which was bad enough, but here it is described as running in a diametrically opposite direction.”

Will the workers of iniquity never learn? They devour my people like bread; they refuse to call upon God.

“Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? They have no wisdom, certainly, but even so common a thing as knowledge might have restrained them. Can they not see that there is a God? that sin is an evil thing?”

There they are, overwhelmed with dread, where there was nothing to fear. For God has scattered the bones of those who besieged you.

“There were they in great fear, where no fear was. David sees the end of the ungodly, and the ultimate triumph of the spiritual seed. The rebellious march in fury against the gracious, but suddenly they are seized with a causeless panic.”

Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come from Zion! When God restores His captive people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad!

“Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion. Would God the final battle were well over. When will the Lord avenge his own elect? When will the long oppression of the saints come to its close, and glory crown their heads?”