I just finished reading Charles Bridges' comments on Psalm 119:80; "Let my heart be sound in Thy statutes. that I be not ashamed". The Spirit of my God has really spoken to my heart in this verse, and would like to share a few of the morsels that are contained in it.
The perverseness of the proud will be sure to put them to shame.(v78). As the preservative from this shame, David prays therefore for a sound heart- filled with solid principle- delivered into the mould of the word (Rom 6:17)- like the sacrifices of the law-entire for God. Often had he prayed for divine teaching,(v 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" (1Tim. 1:19), from 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 rightousness that is of the law, blameless" (Phil. 3:6)
Alas! how common is it to profess to take Christ for a Savior, while the heart is evidently worshipping Mammon as its God! constrained, not inclined to the Lord's statutes. How possible is it to be carnally minded in the daily routine of spiritual exercises! How important is recollection, that no change of place, of company, or of circumstances, can of itself effect a change of heart!"Saul among the prophets" was still Saul; with "another heart"(1Sam 10:9-12) indeed, but not a new heart. Sin was restrained but not crucified. He went out therefore, as one of his progenitors, "from the presence of the Lord",Gen. 6:16), and perished, a miserable apostate from the statutes of his God. Will profession, knowledge, gifts, feelings, privileges, avail for a sound heart? Need we speak of Judas, a follower, nay, even an apostle of Jesus Christ, living in familiar intercourse with his Lord, yet with all his privelges, all his profession, "gone to his own place".(Acts 1:25), the melancholy victim of his own self-deceitfulness. Need we bring to the minds eye, Ananias and Sapphira? Alexander or Demas? and others of like stamp, all of whom once shone as stars in the fermament of the church.(Rev. 12:4) Need we speak of the end of these men to give energy to the prayer, "Let my heart be sound in thy statutes."
How fearful a thought of being "a branch in the true vine", only by profession, to be taken away at length, "cast forth as a branch withered, gathered, cast into the fire, burned. (John 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 light and help of God to ascertain the soundness of his heart. "Search me oh 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, and no manefested change of temper and conduct? Can that heart, which is found upon inquiry to be earthy, unprofitable under the power of the word(Heb. 6:8) regarding "secret iniquity" (Ps. 66:18) seeking bye ends of praise, reputation,(John 12:43), or gain, (John 6:26; 1Tim 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.
