Verses 12-14. “Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my heart in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.” Look! See! Consider! Here is the standing enigma! The crux of Providence! The stumbling-block of faith! Here are the unjust rewarded and indulged, and that not for a day or an hour, but perpetually. From their youth up these men who deserve perdition, revel in prosperity. They deserve to be hung in chains, and chains are hung about their necks; they are worthy to be chased from the world, and yet the world becomes all their own. Poor half-blinded sense cries, behold this! Wonder, and be amazed, and make this square with providential justice, if you can. “Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain.” Poor Psalmist! He questions the value of holiness when its wages are paid in the coin of affliction. To no effect has he been sincere; no advantage has come to him through his purity, for the filthy hearted are exalted and fed on the fat of the land. Thus foolishly will the wisest of men argue, when faith is napping. “For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.” This was a vivid contrast to the lot of the ungodly. There were crowns for the reprobates and crosses for the elect. Strange that the saints should sigh and the sinners sing. But here is the case stated in the plainest manner, and many a Christian will herein recognise his own experience. Such knots have we also sought to untie, and have sorely worn our fingers and broken our teeth. But, henceforth, we cease to fret because of evil-doors, for the Lord has showed us what their end will be.
C. H. Spurgeon
Verse 15. “If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.” The Psalmist now reaches a vital turning-point in his thoughts when he begins to realise that such thoughts are dishonouring to God Himself, and also, troublesome and offensive for his fellow-believers. As Christopher Wordsworth paraphrases the verse, “I would have been guilty of treason to Thee, and to Thy people, if I had said that it is vain to serve God, because the wicked often prosper, and the righteous often suffer in this world”
Verses 16-17. “When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end”. As the Book of the Law was laid up in the Sanctuary, and as this was the true way of acquiring profitable instruction, David very properly puts entering into the sanctuary, for coming to the school of God. He as much as says, “Until God becomes my Schoolmaster, and until I learn by His word what otherwise my mind cannot comprehend, I stop short all at once, and understand nothing about the subject.
John Calvin
Verse 24. “Thou shall guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.” Afterward! After all our toil in labour and duty; after all our crosses and afflictions; after all our doubts and fears that we should never receive it; after all the hidings of His face, and after all our battles and fightings for it, Oh, then, how seasonably will the reception of this reward come in. Oh, blessed afterward! When all your work is done.
John Spalding
Verse 25. “Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none on earth that I desire beside Thee.” When the great Jonathan Edwards was dying, having taken leave of his family, he looked around him and said, “Now, where is Jesus of Nazareth, my true and never-failing friend?” And so he fell asleep, and went to the Lord he loved. How unfailing is the instinct that leads the pious heart to cry out for Jesus in the last hour. The mighty Edwards, after all his acquisitions during a life of usefulness, must then lean upon the Saviour's arm with the same helpless dependence as a young child, just able to syllable that precious Name.
Anon.
Verse 28. “But it is good for me to draw near to God ...” The grand conclusion to the chastening course; not joyous at the time, but afterward yielding the peaceable fruits.