Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me Thy law graciously.
Lying
I. The faculty of lying. Man has a faculty for misrepresenting facts and for deceiving men. The mere possession of this faculty is not necessarily wrong; all depends upon the motives that inspire it, and the uses to which it is directed.
II. The professity of lying. Most venal lies spring from the following wrong states of heart.
1. Fear.
2. Vanity.
3. Greed.
4. Ambition.
III. The habit of lying.
1. Popular. How rare are true men in this world of shams!
2. Dangerous. It is inimical to moral health, beset with perils, and leading to moral ruin. (Homilist.)
But had not David the law already?
No doubt he wanted not the Book of the Law: he heard it, he read it, he professed it; yea, someway he understood it. What, then, is it he craves? Surely, that the law might be so imprinted in his heart, that it might abolish that natural vanity, and deceit of sin, which carrieth him to the offence of God. A necessary petition for these days; wherein the knowledge of the Word is exceeding great, but the zeal, spiritual life, and feeling of the hearts of men is not answerable unto it. They think all is welt, in that publicly they profess it. They hear it with their ears; they speak of it with their mouths; they read it in their books finely bound; though in that duty many fail also. But certainly when they think they have it, they want it; so long as it is not printed in the table of their heart, to frame their motions, affections and actions conformable to it. And this is it which David here craves. (Bishop Cowper.)