Hints to Preachers

[See the Hints of Psalm XIV.]

Verse 1.—The fool’s inside and outside.

Verse 1.—I. The folly of atheism. He who says there is no God is a fool. 1. No reason for the assertion. 2. All reason against it. II. The seat of atheism is the heart; it is a moral unbelief not an intellectual, the language of the will not of the understanding. III. Cause of atheism. 1. Loving evil. 2. Hating good.—G. R.

Verse 2.—I. God has not left the world to itself. II. He takes particular notice of all that is in it. III. The only thing he values in it is the knowledge of himself.—G. R.

Verse 4.—How far knowledge is and is not a restraint upon ungodliness.

Verse 4.—It is a sin not to call upon God. I. What is it to call upon God? Three things required in it. 1. A drawing near to him. 2. A speaking to him. 1 Sam. i. 12, 13. 3. A praying to him. II. How should we call upon God? 1. Reverently, considering (1) God’s holiness and greatness; (2) our own sin and weakness. Gen. xviii. 27. 2. Understandingly. 1 Cor. xiv. 15. (1) Of what we ask. (2) Of whom we ask it. 3. Submissively. 4. Believingly. Mark xi. 24; James i. 6. 5. Sincerely. James iv. 3. 6. Constantly. (1) So as to be always in a praying frame. (2) So as to take all occasions of pouring forth our souls in prayer to God. (3) So as to let no day slip without prayer. III. How it appears to be a sin not to call upon God. 1. He hath commanded it. Isa. lv. 6; 1 Tim. ii. 8. 2. Because praying is one of the principal parts of worship we owe to God. IV. Who are guilty of this sin? 1. All who pray to any one else but God. 2. All who neglect either public, private, or family prayer. 3. All who pray, but not aright.—William Beveridge (1636-1708), in “Thesaurus Theoligicus.”

Verse 5.—I. What persecutors are to themselves—their own tormentors, full even of groundless fears. II. What they are to one another—though in concert here, their bones are scattered hereafter. III. What they are to those whom they persecute—made ashamed before them. IV. What they are to God—a contempt and derision.—G. R.

Verse 6.—I. There is salvation for Israel. II. That salvation is in Zion. III. Their salvation remains there when they are banished from it. IV. Their joy becomes greater when they return.—G. R.