Hints to Preachers

Verse 1.—Gospel benedictions. Take the first Psalm with thirty-second, show the doctrinal and practical harmoniously blended. Or, take the first, the thirty-second, and the forty-first, and show how we go from reading the word, to feeling its power, and thence to living charitably towards men.

Verse 1.—Evangelical Blessedness. I. The original condition of its possessor. II. The nature of the benefit received. III. The channel by which it came. IV. The means by which it may be obtained by us.

Verses 1, 2.—The nature of sin and the modes of pardon.

Verse 2.—Non-imputation, a remarkable doctrine. Prove, explain, and improve it.

Verse 2.—“No guile.” The honesty of heart of the pardoned man.

Verse 3.—Retention of our griefs to ourselves. Natural tendency of timidity and despair; danger of it; means of divulging grief; encouragements to do so; the blessed person who is ready to hear confession.

The silent mourner the greatest sufferer.

Verses 3, 4.—“Terrible Convictions and Gentle Drawings.” See “Spurgeon’s Sermons,” No. 313.

Verse 4.—The sorrows of a convinced soul. Daily, nightly, from God, heavy, weakening, destroying.

Verse 4 (last clause).—Spiritual drought.

Verse 5.—The gracious results of a full confession; or, confession and absolution scripturally explained.

Verse 6.—The godly man’s picture, drawn with a Scripture pencil.—Thomas Watson.

Verse 6.—The experience of one, the encouragement of all.

Verse 6 (first clause).—The day of grace, how to improve it.

Verse 6 (whole verse).—Pardon of sin the guarantee that other mercies shall be given.

Verse 6 (last clause).—Imminent troubles, eminent deliverances.

Verse 6 (last clause).—The felicity of the faithful.—Thomas Playfere.

Verse 7.—Danger felt, refuge known, possession claimed, joy experienced.

Verse 7 (first sentence).—Christ, a hiding-place from sin, Satan, and sorrow, in death, and at judgment.

Verse 7 (second sentence).—Troubles from which saints shall be preserved.

Verse 7 (last sentence).—The circle of song—who draws the circle, what is the circumference, who is in the centre.

Verse 7.—“Songs of deliverance.” From guilt, hell, death, enemies, doubts, temptations, accidents, plots, etc.

The divine schoolmaster, his pupils, their lessons, their chastisements and their rewards.

Verse 8.—The power of the eye.—Henry Melvill. In which he vainly tries to prove infant baptism and episcopacy, which he admits are not expressly taught in Scripture, but declares them to be hinted at as with the divine eye.

Verse 9.—God’s bits and bridles, the mules who need them, and reasons why we ought not to be of the number.

Verse 9.—How far in our actions we are better, and how far worse than horses and mules.

Verse 10.—The many sorrows which result from sin. The encompassing mercy of the believer’s life even in his most troublous times.

The portion of the wicked, and the lot of the faithful.

Verse 11.—A believer’s gladness. Its spring, “in the Lord;” its vivacity, “shout;” its propriety, it is commanded; its beneficial results and its abundant reasons.

Verse 11.—“Upright in heart,” an instructive description. Not horizontal or grovelling, nor bent, nor inclined, but vertical in heart.