Lord, I have hoped for Thy salvation, and done Thy commandments.
A justifiable hope
There is a true hope and a false hope, a justifiable and an unjustifiable hope--the words direct us to the former.
I. Here is a hope that has a justifiable object. What is the object? “Thy salvation.” What does the real salvation of man involve?
1. Restoration to lost holiness. The soul was created in the image of God, that is, in moral perfection. That image it has lost, the restoration of that is salvation. The restoration of purity, love, spiritual freedom, loyalty.
2. The restoration of lost usefulness. The soul was made to be useful, to render by its true thoughts, pure sympathies, and wise counsels, service to other souls. But this usefulness it has lost. As a rule, men are injurious to each other. Salvation is the restoration of this usefulness. All souls ministering and inter-ministering to the good of one another. Now, is not this a justifiable object of hope? This is the hope which God has set before us in the Gospel.
II. Hero is a hope that has a justifiable reason. The reason here assigned for this hope is devotion to the right. A man who is loyally and livingly devoted to the right has undoubtedly a justifiable reason for “hoping for salvation.” It cannot be purchased, it cannot be given, it must grow out of the soul devoted to rectitude. (Homilist.)
The doing of God’s commandments
Set upon the practice of what you read. A student in physic doth not satisfy himself to read over a system or body of physic, but he falls upon practising physic. The life-blood of religion lies in the practical part. Christians should be walking Bibles. Xenophon said, “Many read Lycurgus’s laws, but few observe them.” The Word written is not only a rule of knowledge, but a rule of obedience; it is not only to mend our sight, but to mend our pace. David calls God’s Word “a lamp unto his feet” (verse 105). It was not only a light to his eyes to see by, but to his feet to walk by. By practice we trade with the talent of knowledge, and turn it to profit. This is a blessed reading of Scripture, when we fly from the sins which the Word forbids, and espouse the doctrines which the Word commands. Reading without practice will be but a torch to light men to hell. (T. Watson.)