Charles Bridges
Psalm 119:80. Let my heart be sound in thy statutes, that I be not ashamed.
The perverseness of the proud will be sure to put them to shame (v 78). David prays therefore for a sound heart as the preservative from this shame – a heart filled with solid principle, delivered into the mould of the
1Taken with editing from Psalms 119, an exposition by Bridges.
Word (Rom 6:17, Greek) – like the sacrifices of the law, entire for God (Lev 22:22,23, compare Mal 1:8). Often had he prayed for divine teaching (vv 12, 33,64,68); now he begs for soundness in the Lord’s statutes. How many “have made shipwreck of faith and of a good conscience” (1 Tim 1:19) because of an unsound heart! Ignorant of the spirituality of God’s requirements and resting in an outward obedience, they falsely conceive themselves to be “alive without the law” (Rom 7:9) and, “touching the righteousness that is of the law, blameless” (Phil 3:6).
Others go a little beyond the surface; while the lack of “simplicity and godly sincerity”, of brokenness of heart, love to the Saviour and dependence on His grace sooner or later reveals, to their eternal confusion, that “the root of the matter is” not in them. “Their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust” (Is 5:24). Their “goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away” (Hos 6:4, compare Mt 13:20,21). An unsound professing Christian, like beautiful fruit, may attract the careless eye; but a more careful inspection will show a worm at the core, which has spoiled the fruit nearly to the surface. Such religion is only a shrivelled mass of inactive formality – a dead image of a living thing.
Alas, how common it is to profess to take Christ for a Saviour, while the heart is evidently worshipping mammon as its God! It is constrained – not inclined – to the Lord’s statutes! How possible it is to be “carnally minded” in the daily routine of spiritual duties! How important to recollect that no change of place, of company, or of circumstances can of itself effect a change of heart! Saul “among the prophets” was Saul still – with “another heart” indeed (1 Sam 10:9-12) but not a new heart. Sin was restrained but not crucified. He “went out” therefore, as one of his ancestors had, “from the presence of the Lord” (Gen 4:16) and perished, a miserable apostate from the statutes of his God.
Will profession, knowledge, gifts, feelings, or privileges avail without a sound heart? Need we speak of Judas, a follower of Jesus Christ, even an apostle, living in a close contact with his Master – yet, with all his privileges, all his profession, gone “to his own place” (Acts 1:25), the sad victim of his own self-deceitfulness? Need we allude to Balaam, the man whose eyes were open, who heard the words of God, who “saw the vision of the Almighty”, who could mark the goodness of the Lord’s inheritance and, even on the distant horizon, catch a glimpse of Jacob’s star and sceptre, and yet he “loved the wages of unrighteousness”? (Num 24:2-5,17; 2 Pet 2:15). Need we bring to the mind’s eye Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-10), Alexander (1 Tim 1:20, 2 Tim 4:14) and Demas (2 Tim 4:10) and others of like stamp, all of whom once shone as stars (Rev 12:4) in the firmament of the Church?
Need we speak of the end of these men, in order to give energy to the prayer, Let my heart be sound in Thy statutes?
How fearful the thought of only being by profession “a branch in the true vine”, to be taken away at length, cast forth as a branch, withered, gathered, cast into the fire, burned! (Jn 15:2,6). It is in the inner man that hypocrisy sets up its throne, whence it commands the outward acts into whatever shape or form may be best suited to effect its purpose. The upright Christian will therefore begin with calling in the help and light of God to ascertain the soundness of his heart. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me” (Ps 139: 23,24). Can there be a true and solid work where there is a professed change of heart but no manifested change of temper and conduct? Can that heart which, on inquiry, is found to be earthly, unprofitable under the power of the Word (Heb 6:8), which regards secret iniquity (Ps 66:18), seeking by-ends of praise (2 Ki 10:16), reputation (Jn 12:43), or gain (Jn 6:26, 1 Tim 6:5), and for the attainment of these ends shrinking from the appointed cross – can that heart be sound in the Lord’s statutes? Impossible.
But, on the other hand, do you find that your trust in God is sincere, your desire towards Him supreme, your obedience to Him entire? Prize those evidences of soundness of heart. Thank God for them. They are the workings of His mighty Spirit in your heart, perhaps the answer to the prayer which that same Spirit had indited. “Let my heart be sound in Thy statutes”. Make diligent use of all the means of grace for keeping your heart in a vigorous state. Abide daily – indeed, continually – in the vine, receiving life and health from its fullness (John 15:4,5.). Be very familiar with the Word of God, loving it for itself, its holiness, its practical influences. Be afraid chiefly of inward decay – of a barren, sapless notion of experimental truth – remembering that unless your profession is constantly watered at the root, the things that remain in you will be ready to die (Rev 3:2).
Specially “commune with your own heart”. Watch it jealously, because of its proneness to live upon itself, its own graces or fancied goodness (a sure symptom of unsoundness), instead of living “by the faith of the Son of God”. Examine your settled judgement, your deliberate choice, your outgoing affections, your habitual, allowed practice; applying the blood of Christ to every unsoundness you detect, for the blood is the sovereign remedy for the diseases of a heart that is “deceitful and desperately wicked”.
But it may be said, Will these exercises of godly jealousy not hinder our Christian assurance? Far from it. They will efficiently preserve from carnal security. They will induce increasing tenderness, activity and care in our daily walk; thus, instead of retarding the enjoyment of our heavenly privilege,
they will settle the foundation of a peaceful temperament (v 6, 1 John 3:20,21). A light and careless frame is the real hindrance to confidence. An unsound professor knows nothing of the true spirit of adoption, nothing of that holy familiarity with which a child of God unbosoms himself to his heavenly Father. And if he preserves an empty name in the Church, he will be put to shame before the universe of God (see Dan 12:2, Luke 12:1,2).
But the sound heart is connected with “a hope that maketh not ashamed”, the full blessing of scriptural confidence. For the heart is made sound by the “sprinkling of the blood of Christ”; and if thus “sprinkled from an evil conscience”, we “have boldness” to “draw near”, even to “enter into the holiest”, “in full assurance of faith” (see Heb 10:19-22). Blessed privilege of access and communion with a reconciled God! Every moment endears the Saviour to our souls, and enlivens the hope of His glorious coming, as the joyful consummation of all the prospects of faith. “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgement” (1 Jn 4:17).