3 For your mercy is before my eyes; and I have gone in the way of your good faith.
For it is the love of Christ which is moving us; because we are of the opinion that if one was put to death for all, then all have undergone death; And that he underwent death for all, so that the living might no longer be living to themselves, but to him who underwent death for them and came back from the dead.
For it gave me great joy when some of the brothers came and gave witness that you had the true faith and were walking in the true way. I have no greater joy than to have news that my children are walking in the true way.
We have the power of loving, because he first had love for us. If a man says, I have love for God, and has hate for his brother, his words are false: for how is the man who has no love for his brother whom he has seen, able to have love for God whom he has not seen? And this is the word which we have from him, that he who has love for God is to have the same love for his brother.
My loved ones, let us have love for one another: because love is of God, and everyone who has love is a child of God and has knowledge of God. He who has no love has no knowledge of God, because God is love. And the love of God was made clear to us when he sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. And this is love, not that we had love for God, but that he had love for us, and sent his Son to be an offering for our sins. My loved ones, if God had such love for us, it is right for us to have love for one another. No man has ever seen God: if we have love for one another, God is in us and his love is made complete in us:
As saints of God, then, holy and dearly loved, let your behaviour be marked by pity and mercy, kind feeling, a low opinion of yourselves, gentle ways, and a power of undergoing all things; Being gentle to one another and having forgiveness for one another, if anyone has done wrong to his brother, even as the Lord had forgiveness for you:
For this was not the teaching of Christ which was given to you; If in fact you gave ear to him, and were given teaching in him, even as what is true is made clear in Jesus: That you are to put away, in relation to your earlier way of life, the old man, which has become evil by love of deceit; And be made new in the spirit of your mind, And put on the new man, to which God has given life, in righteousness and a true and holy way of living. And so, putting away false words, let everyone say what is true to his neighbour: for we are parts one of another.
But I say to you, Have love for those who are against you, and make prayer for those who are cruel to you; So that you may be the sons of your Father in heaven; for his sun gives light to the evil and to the good, and he sends rain on the upright man and on the sinner. For if you have love for those who have love for you, what credit is it to you? do not the tax-farmers the same? And if you say, Good day, to your brothers only, what do you do more than others? do not even the Gentiles the same? Be then complete in righteousness, even as your Father in heaven is complete.
Mercy and faith have come together; righteousness and peace have given one another a kiss. Faith comes up from the earth like a plant; righteousness is looking down from heaven. The Lord will give what is good; and our land will give its increase. Righteousness will go before him, making a way for his footsteps.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 26
Commentary on Psalms 26 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 26
Holy David is in this psalm putting himself upon a solemn trial, not by God and his country, but by God and his own conscience, to both which he appeals touching his integrity (v. 1, 2), for the proof of which he alleges,
In singing this psalm we must teach and admonish ourselves, and one another, what we must be and do that we may have the favour of God, and comfort in our own consciences, and comfort ourselves with it, as David does, if we can say that in any measure we have, through grace, answered to these characters. The learned Amyraldus, in his argument of his psalm, suggests that David is here, by the spirit of prophecy, carried out to speak of himself as a type of Christ, of whom what he here says of his spotless innocence, was fully and eminently true, and of him only, and to him we may apply it in singing this psalm. "We are complete in him.'
A psalm of David.
Psa 26:1-5
It is probable that David penned this psalm when he was persecuted by Saul and his party, who, to give some colour to their unjust rage, represented him as a very bad man, and falsely accused him of many high crimes and misdemeanors, dressed him up in the skins of wild beasts that they might bait him. Innocency itself is no fence to the name, though it is to the bosom, against the darts of calumny. Herein he was a type of Christ, who was made a reproach of men, and foretold to his followers that they also must have all manner of evil said against them falsely. Now see what David does in this case.
Psa 26:6-12
In these verses,