69. The proud have forged a lie against me. They first derided him (verse 51), then defrauded him (verse 61), and now they have defamed him. To injure his character they resorted to falsehood, for they could find nothing against him if they spoke the truth. Proud people are usually the bitterest opponents of the righteous: they are envious of their good fame and are eager to ruin it. Slander is a cheap and handy weapon if the object is the destruction of a gracious reputation. It is painful to the last degree to hear unscrupulous people hammering away at the devil’s anvil forging a new calumny; the only help against it is the sweet promise, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that riseth against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.”
But I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart. My one anxiety will be to mind my own business and stick to the commandments of the Lord. If we keep the precepts, the precepts will keep us in the day of contumely and slander. David renews his resolve—I will keep; he takes a new look at the commands, and sees them to be really the Lord’s—thy precepts; and he arouses his entire nature to the work—with my whole heart. When slanders rouse us to more resolute and careful obedience they work our lasting good. If we try to answer lies by our words we may be beaten in the battle; but a holy life is an unanswerable refutation of all calumnies.
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