In the first place, David sums up his advice in one grand affection, which he calls the fear of the Lord. Then he proceeds to detail what is comprehended in "the fear of the Lord."
I. Notice, first, the details of the prescription. (1) "Keep thy tongue from evil." The tongue is a great mischief-maker, and not easily ruled. The root of this ill-governed member is in the unseen world of the soul; the force which animates and moves the tongue is generated in our spiritual nature. When the spirit which excites and controls the tongue is not love to God and love to man, the speaker by his words sows a curse in his own constitution. It is one of the laws of thy health that thou "keep thy tongue from speaking evil." (2) "And thy lips, that they speak no guile." The absence of guile exceedingly endears a man or a woman to Heaven. No sin is imputed where there is no guile. Except ye become as guileless as babes, your friends in the kingdom of God will behold you afar off, as persons who are unable to come nigh. (3) "Depart from evil, and do good." We cleave to a delight, and we abhor that which is contrary thereto. Let it be the fixed purpose of your will to be transparently good, and to do good; and by the instinct of your affections you will depart from the whole art and circle of evil. The currents which will flow into you from the infinite sources of good will leave no room in you for the deceitful ungood. (4) "Seek peace, and pursue it." Peace is the eternal health of goodness. No one can perfect peace except in the perfect good. When the joy of God and of heaven flows into and through the whole man, that is salvation, that is health, that is peace.
II. Notice the unity of these details in the spirit. If the spirit of man be fully and cordially open to God, so that the Divine and human wills become one will, and if the soul of the man be open to his God-filled spirit, and if his natural body be open to the influx and irradiation both of his soul and spirit, his renewal in eternal health is in daily, actual process. The spirit of glory and of God in a man's soul, and thence in his body, must be the most ethereal and health-giving virtue that the soul and body can have. Farther, the indwelling of the glowing Divine essence must give to all the senses and emotions a new intensity.
III. This law of human renewal and health is the very law by which all evil will be ultimately expelled from our planet. The energies which flow from God through His renewed sons and daughters, as their numbers increase, will purge and renew the soil, the atmosphere, and both vegetable and animal races.
J. Pulsford, Our Deathless Hope,p. 50.
The teaching and training which the Christian needs is such as will not only carry him through things temporal, but may also fit him for things eternal, a training such as will enable him not only to do his part well here and live respectably and die peacefully, but such as may be an earnest and preparation for heaven. And what alone can do either? Godliness.
I. In the world the days are always evil days; in God they are always good days. What have we to do but to trust to His promise that so long as we are followers of Him and that which is good, imitating His example and keeping His commandments, nothing shall harm us, nothing shall really hurt us, which does not separate us from Him? The end of the Christian, the true end of his love of life and of his desire to see good days, is simply the sight of Christ. And his training and education amidst a world of trial and temptation must be the training of an immortal soul for life and immortality, the training of a child of God in this world to be a child of the resurrection in the next.
II. How inexpressibly touching and solemn are the words of the text as addressed to the children of God, old or young, by their God and Saviour: some who, though disobedient children, are called His children still; others who are yet His. Has not the fear of the Lord, which might have been an affectionate, filial, reverential fear, now become to many of us what we by our sins have made it: a fear which hath torment? Is not what should have been the loving, confiding fear of a tender Father now the fear of a righteous Judge? Yet well were it for such to understand the terror of the Lord, so that it may bring them to repentance, and lead them back, like the prodigal, to His fear and love.
III. In the training of children we must remember that they have not only minds and memories to read and understand, but hearts and consciences to mark and inwardly digest what they learn by heart, not only minds and memories to make them scholars, but hearts and consciences to make them Christians, Christian disciples. They have hearts,which need careful and tender nurture to train them in the loveof God, and consciences,which need watchful examination and strict admonition to awaken them and lead them on in His holy fear.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times"vol. vii., p. 172.
References: Psalms 34:12-14. Homiletic Magazine,vol. viii., p. 121.Psalms 34:15; Psalms 34:16. G. Moberly, Sermons in Winchester College,2nd series, p. 1.