He also [shall be] my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.
Ver. 16. He also shall be my salvation] So long as I judge myself God will not judge me, 1 Corinthians 11:32; nay, he will surely save me: for God will save the humble person, Job 22:29. What is humiliation but humility exercised? (Merlin in loc.) Non est igitur inanis electorum fides res evanida nec infirma, saith an interpreter here; Therefore the faith of God's elect is no empty or vain thing, but a light shining from the Spirit of God, and such as overcometh the very darkness of death. It is a sure testimony of God's good will toward us, and an infallible persuasion of our salvation, such as slighteth the world's false censures, overcometh temptations of all sorts, laugheth at death, and through the thickest darkness of affliction beholdeth the pleased face of God in Christ, through whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him, Ephesians 2:12 .
For an hypocrite shall not come before him] No, that is a privilege proper to the communion of saints; therefore I am no hypocrite, as you have charged me to be, Job 4:6; Job 8:13; for I dare both offer to maintain my ways before him to be upright for the main, and I doubt not but he will be my salvation, and that I shall appear before him in heaven: this no hypocrite shall ever do. Coram Deo dolus non ingreditur. How should he (say), when as he is an unclean wretch, as the Hebrew word signifieth; flagitious (so Vatablus rendereth it); a flagitious, impious person, a very fraud (so the Septuagint); a fair professor indeed, but a foul sinner, moiled all over, and even buried in a bog of wickedness. He is a wicked man in a godly man's clothes, saith one. He doth but assume religion, saith another, as the devils do dead bodies without a soul to animate them. He is like the painted grapes that deceived the living birds; or the golden apples with this motto, No further than colours; touch them, and they vanish. He knows that he is naught, and that God knows it too; how then should he approach him, or appear before his throne? No, he dare not, for the very show of his face doth testify against him, as the prophet speaks in another case; or if he do, he shall not be able to subsist there, Psalms 5:5; he shall not stand in judgment, Psalms 1:5, but shall run away with these or the like words in his mouth, "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" Isaiah 33:14. "Woe unto us! who shall deliver us out of the hands of this mighty God?" 1 Samuel 4:8. None, for he shall surely assign you a part with the devil and hypocrites, Matthew 24:51; when as the righteous shall give thanks unto God's name, and the upright only shall dwell in his presence, Psalms 140:13 .