e gave
him a right to go wrong, he thought that his trouble laid on him a duty
to go right, more right than he had ever gone before; and that going
right was the only possible way of getting out of his troubles.

"Take from me," he cries, "the way of lying, and cause Thou me to make
much of Thy law.

"I have chosen the way of truth, and Thy judgments have I laid before me.

"Incline mine heart unto Thy testimonies, and not unto covetousness.

"Oh turn away mine eyes, lest they behold vanity, and quicken Thou me in
Thy way.

"Thy word is my comfort in my trouble; for Thy word hath quickened me.

"The proud have had me exceedingly in derision, yet have I not shrunk
from Thy law.

"For I remembered Thine everlasting judgments, O God, and received
comfort.

"Thy statutes have been my songs, in the house of my pilgrimage.

"I have thought upon Thy name, O Lord, in the night-season, and have kept
Thy law."

This was the Psalmist's plan for delivering himself out of trouble. A
very singular plan, which very few persons try, either now, or in any
age. And therefore it is, that so many persons are not delivered out of
their troubles, but sink deeper and deeper into them, heaping new
troubles on old ones, till they are crushed beneath the weight of their
own sins.

What the special trouble was, in which the Psalmist found himself, we are
not told. But it is plain from his words, that it was just that very
sort of trouble, in which the world is most ready to excuse a man for
lying, cringing, plotting, and acting on the old devil's maxim that
"Cunning is the natural weapon of the weak." For the Psalmist was weak,
oppressed and persecuted by the great and powerful. But his method of
defending himself against them was certainly not the way of the world.

Princes, he says, sat and spoke against him. But; instead of fawning on
them, excusing himself, entreating their mercy: he was occupied in God's
statutes.

The proud had him exceedingly in derision--as I am afraid too many
worldly men, poor as well as rich, working men as well as idlers, would
do now--seeing him occupied in God's statutes, when he might have been
occupied in winning money, and place, and renown for himself.

But he did not shrink from God's law. If it was true, he could afford to
be laughed at for obeying it.

The congregation of the ungodly robbed him. But he did not forget God's
law. If they did wrong, that was no reason why he should do