Psalm 17:3

The heart that vapours out itself in smoke, And with these cloudy shadows thinks to cloak Its empty nakedness, how much Soever thou esteemest, it is such As never will endure my touch.

I will bring it to my furnace, and there see What it will prove, what it is like to be. If it be gold, it will be sure The hottest fire that can be to endure, And I shall draw it out more pure. Affliction may refine, but cannot waste That heart wherein my love is fixed fast.

Verse 3. Thou hast visited me in the night, etc. In the night the soul is free from business with the world, and therefore freest for business with God; and then did God prove and visit David, that is, examine and sift him, by calling to his mind all his ways and works in former passages; and the issue of this trial was, he found nothing; not that his soul was empty of good things, or that there was nothing evil in him; but God, upon examination, found nothing of that evil in him which some men suspected him of; namely either any ill will or evil design against Saul, in reference to whom he called his cause a righteous cause, or the right ( Psalms 17:1 ); "Hear the right, O Lord." Joseph Caryl.

Verse 3. (third clause, New Translation.) Thou hast smelted me, and found in me no dross. A metaphor taken from the smelting of metals to purify them from extraneous matter. Geddes.

Verse 3. Proved... visited in the night... tried. Tribulation whereby, when examined, I was found righteous, is called not only night, in that it is wont to disturb with fear, but fire in that it actually burns. Augustine.

Verse 3. I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. Wherefore, if thou be upon a mountain, look not backward again unto Sodom as Lot's wife did; if thou be within the ark, fly not out again into the world as Noah's crow did; if thou be well washed, return not again to the mire as the hog doth; if thou be clean, run not again to thy filth, as the dog doth; if thou be going towards the land of Canaan, think not on the flesh pots of Egypt; if thou be marching against the host of Midian, drink not of the waters of Harod; if thou be upon the housetop, come not down; if thou have set thy hand to the plough, look not behind thee; remember not those vices which are behind thee. Thomas Playfere.

Verse 3-5. Where there is true grace, there is hatred of all sin, for hatred is pros to genod. Can a man be resolved to commit what he hates? No, for his inward aversion would secure him more against it than all outward obstacles. As this inward purpose of a good man is against all sin, so more particularly against that which doth so easily beset him. David seems in several places to be naturally inclined to lying, but he takes up a particular resolution against it: ( Psalms 17:3 ), "I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress;" (ytmz) -- I have contrived to waylay and intercept the sin of lying when it hath an occasion to approach me. A good man hath not only purposes, but he endeavours to fasten and strengthen those purposes by prayer; so David ( Psalms 17:5 ), "Hold up my goings in the paths, that my footsteps slip not." He strengthens himself by stirring up a liveliness in duty, and by avoiding occasions of sin; ( Psalms 17:4 ), "I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer;" whereas, a wicked man neither steps out of the way of temptation, nor steps up to God for strength against it. Stephen Charnock.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 3. Thou hast proved mine heart. The metal, the furnace, the refiner, etc.

Verse 3. Thou hast visited me in the night.

Verse 3. (last sentence). Transgressions of the lip, and how to avoid them.