If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?
Ver. 3. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities] This and the next verse contains, saith one, the sum of all the Scriptures. Twice he here nameth the Lord, as desirous to take hold of him with both his hands. Extremity of justice he deprecateth; he would not be dealt with in rigour and rage. Extrema, fateor; commeritus sum, Deus; Quid enim aliud dixero? It is confessed I have deserved the extremity of thy fury; but yet let me talk with thee, as Jer 12:1 or reason the case.
O Lord, who shall stand?] Stand in judgment, as Psalms 1:5, and not fall under the weight of thy just wrath, which burneth as low as hell itself? How can any one escape the damnation of hell, which is the just hire of the least sin, Romans 6:23; and the best man's life is fuller of sins than the firmament is of stars, or the furnace of sparks? Hence that of an ancient, Vae hominum vitae, quantumvis laudabili, si, remota misericordia, iudicetur, Woe to the best man alive should he be strictly dealt with! surely if his faults were but written in his forehead it would make him pull his hat over his eyes.