He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
Ver. 4. He that hath clean hands] The clean in hands, that is, of innocent and unblamable conversation; debet esse purus corde, ore, opere, saith Kimchi; he must not touch that unclean thing, 2 Corinthians 6:17. Non magna munera, sed immunis manus mensque sincera Deo placent. Men must lift up pure hands in prayer, 1 Timothy 2:8, or else their incense will stink of the hand that offereth it, Isaiah 1:13. Immunis aram si tetigit manus (Horat.). Those that draw near to God must not only have their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, but their bodies also washed with pure water, Hebrews 10:22 .
And a pure heart] Which, while Pilate wanted, it nothing profited him to wash his hands in the presence of the people. Heaven is a holy place; and they that would go thither must cleanse themselves from "all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God," 2 Corinthians 7:1. The serpent could screw himself into Paradise; but no unclean creature ever came into God's kingdom. The citizens of heaven must here affect purity of heart, aim at it, and in some measure attain to it too; the old frame of impure motions being dissolved, &c.
Who hath not lift up his soul unto vanity] i.e. Ad idols vel opes, saith one, that is, to idols or riches, Jeremiah 22:27, but hath lifted it up in the ways of the Lord, as Jehoshaphat did, 2 Chronicles 17:6, and David, Psalms 25:1, not heeding or hankering after the world's delights or the devil's delusions. Some write the word Shau, signifying vanity, with a little Vau, ad indicandum quod minima vanitas est vitanda, &c., to show that he who would dwell in God's holy mountain must carefully avoid the least vanity, that is, keeping God's commandment as the apple of his eye, that will bear no jests, Proverbs 7:2. Some, for his soul, read my soul; he hath not taken in vain my soul, that is, saith R. Obadiah, That soul inspired by God (which I also have received), he taketh not in vain, he misemployeth not to iniquity, but consecrateth to the service of God, whose image and superscription it beareth.
Nor hath sworn deceitfully] Or inured his tongue to any other kind of the language of hell, rotten communication, to the dishonouring of God, or deceiving of others. Perjury is here instanced for the rest, as one of the most heinous. But Geraldus reckoneth up four and twenty different sins of the tongue; all which every inhabitant of the new Jerusalem is careful to avoid, as the devil's drevil, no way becoming his pure lip.