Psalm 143:2

Verse 2. Enter not into judgment with thy servant. We read of a certain Dutch divine, who being to die, was full of fears and doubts. And when some said to him, "You have been so active and faithful, why should you fear?" Oh, said he, the judgment of man and the judgment of God are different. --John Trapp.

Verse 2. Enter not into judgment. A metaphor taken from the course pursued by those who seek to recover the very utmost to which they are entitled by strict legal process. Compare Job 22:4-5 . In a similar sense we are commanded to pray to God that he will forgive us our debts. --Daniel Cresswell.

Verse 2. There is probably here a tacit reference to the great transgression, the consequences of which followed David all his days. --William Walford.

Verse 2. Thy servant. A servant is one who obeys the will of another ... There were these four ways in which one might come to be a servant -- by birth, by purchase, by conquest, and by voluntary engagement. Some were servants in one of the ways, and some in another. There were servants who were born in the master's house, servants who were bought with the master's money, servants who were the captives of his sword and bow, and servants who had freely engaged themselves to do his work ... In the case of the believer there is something that is peculiar and remarkable. He is God's servant by birth. But he is more -- he is God's servant by purchase. And that is not all: he is God's servant by conquest. Yes, and by voluntary engagement too. He is the servant of God, not in some one of the four ways, but in all of them together. --Andrew Gray (1805-1861), in "Gospel Contrasts and Parallels."

Verse 2. Not only the worst of my sins, but the best of my duties speak me a child of Adam. --William Beveridge.

Verse 2. So far from being able to answer for my sins, I cannot answer even for my righteousness. --Bernard of Clairvaux, 1091-1153.

Verse 2. A young man once said to me: "I do not think I am a sinner." I asked him if he would be willing his mother or sister should know all he had done, or said, or thought, -- all his motions and all his desires. After a moment he said: "No, indeed, I should not like to have them know; no, not for the world." "Then can you dare to say, in the presence of a holy God, who knows every thought of your heart, `I do not commit sin'?" --John B. Gough, in "Sunlight and Shadow", 1881.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 2.