Human Uprightness
“With an Upright Man thou wilt shew thy self Upright” (Ps 18:25).
1. The Psalm’s Context
Let whoever would be wise read Proverbs, and whoever would be holy read the Psalms. Every line in this book breathes a distinctive holiness.
Although this psalm is placed among the first, it was written among the last, as its opening heading tells us. It remains as an epitome of the general history of David’s life.
It is recorded twice in Scripture, in 2 Samuel 22 and here in the book of Psalms, because of its excellence and sweetness. Surely this means that we should take double notice of it.
Holy David, drawing near the shore of life, looks back here upon his former dangers and deliverances with a thankful heart. He writes this psalm to bless the Lord. In the same way, those of you who have grown old should review your lives and observe God’s wonderful goodness and providence toward you. Then sit down and write a modest memorial of his most remarkable mercies, for the comfort of yourselves and your descendants.
This is an excellent practice. What a comfort it would be to read how good your God was to your father or grandfather, now dead and gone! In the same way, your children would rejoice in the Lord when they read of his goodness to you. You cannot have a better pattern for this than holy David, who wrote this psalm when he was sixty-seven years old. He had outlived most of his troubles and was almost ready for his journey to his Father in heaven, so he resolved to leave this good report of God upon the earth.
Notice how he begins. He does not set up trophies to himself but triumphs in his God: “I will love thee, O Lord my strength” (Ps 18:1). As the love of God is the beginning of all our mercies, so love for God should be the end and effect of them all. As a stream leads us to its spring, all God’s gifts must lead us to their giver.
Lord, you have saved me from sickness; I will love you. You have saved me from death and hell; I will love you. You have bestowed grace and comfort upon me: “I will love thee, O Lord my strength.” After he has heaped upon God all the sweet names he can devise in Psalm 18:2, as a true saint believes he can never speak too well of God or too badly of himself, David begins his narrative.
1. His dangers. In Psalm 18:4-5 he speaks of “Snares of death, Flouds of ungodly men, Sorrows of Hell.” Hell and earth combine against every holy person. If they cannot keep him out of a better world, they will trouble him sufficiently in this one.
2. His retreat. His retreat was earnest prayer to God in Psalm 18:6: “I called upon the Lord, and cryed unto my God.” When our prayers become ardent and urgent cries, they succeed: “my Cry came before him, even into his ears” (Ps 18:6).
A mother delays while her child merely whimpers. But when he raises his voice, strains every nerve, and exerts every vein, she throws everything aside and gives him what he desires. While our prayers are only whispers, our God can take his rest. But when we begin to cry, “now will I arise, saith the Lord.”
3. His rescue. Psalm 18:7-20 describes his rescue by the powerful and terrible arm of the Lord. In lofty language, God is presented as coming to his servant’s aid, as though he would mingle heaven and earth together rather than leave his child in the lion’s paws.
4. The reason for God’s gracious treatment of him. In Psalm 18:20 and the verses that follow, David explains that he was a righteous person and had a righteous cause. Therefore he turns to God and says, in effect, “You have dealt with me just as you are accustomed to do”: “For with the merciful, thou wilt shew thy self merciful; and with the upright man thou wilt shew thy self upright” (Ps 18:25).
2. The Meaning of the Text
We have now arrived at the text itself. When analyzed, it forms a complete proposition containing two parts:
1. A subject: an upright man.
2. A predicate, or what is said about him: God will show himself upright to him, or with him.
For explanation, consider its principal words.
“With.” This may also be translated “before” or “unto.”
“An upright man.” The same word is often translated perfect. He is good throughout, though not thoroughly perfect. He does not merely act the part of a religious man; he truly is one. He is perfect because he desires to be perfect.
Noah is described in this way: “Noah was a just man, and perfect” (that is, upright) “in his Generation” (Gen 6:9). He was a good man in a bad age, like a glowing spark of fire in a sea of water. This is complete goodness of its kind.
Therefore the Holy Spirit dwells upon Noah’s name as though he could not bear to leave it. An excellent preacher observed this repetition beginning in verse 8: “But Noah was a just man, and perfect in his Generations, and Noah walked with God. And Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. These are the Generations of Noah. Noah begat three Sons” (Gen 6:8-10). Noah, Noah, Noah! I love the sound of your name. In the same way, all your names are precious to God, though hated by men, if God’s name is dear and sweet to you.
The word is also sometimes translated plain: “Jacob was a plain,” that is, an upright, “man dwelling in Tents” (Gen 25:27). Esau was a cunning hunter, but Jacob was a plain man without ornamental trim. You could know his heart by his tongue, except on the one occasion when Rebekah put a cunning trick into his head. Otherwise, he was a thoroughly upright and straightforward man.
Its plain meaning, then, is a simple, wholehearted, genuine, and exact man. This is the man for whom we are looking.
“Man.” The Hebrews commonly let this noun be absorbed into the adjective, but here the Holy Spirit supplies a particular and excellent word. It signifies a strong and valiant man. The same word appears in Psalm 45: “O mighty man!” (Ps 45:3). This refers to our Lord Christ, the strongest and most valiant man, who could confront the wrath of God, the malice of the devil, and the sin of man face-to-face, and emerge in triumph.
Accordingly, the Dutch translation renders this clause in 2 Samuel 22: “With the right valiant person, thou behavest thy self upright.”
In short, if the words were translated literally, they would read, “a man of uprightnesses.” That is, however you look at him, he is an upright man. He is like an even die: cast him whichever way you will, and he will be found square and true. He is a firm and strong man who treads down both the lusts within and the temptations outside. He is an Athanasius against the world, a Luther against Rome. This is a man of an excellent spirit, and such is our upright man.
“Thou wilt shew thy self upright.” This may also be rendered, “You will be upright with him,” for a single Hebrew word expresses all six English words: “You will act uprightly with him.”
If people deal plainly with God, he will deal plainly with them. Whoever is upright in performing his duty will find God upright in performing his promises. It is God’s way to deal with people as they deal with him. If your purpose is to please him, his purpose will be to please you. If you answer him when he calls, he will answer you when you call.
On the other hand, if someone wrestles with God, God will wrestle with him. If you play fast and loose with him and walk perversely toward him, you will receive as good as you bring. If you provoke him with never-ending sins, he will pursue you with never-ending torments. If you sin in your eternity, you must suffer in his eternity. Every person will receive like for like.
3. The Doctrine
It is now time to gather instruction from the text. Let this be the lesson we learn from it:
Doctrine: Wherever God finds an upright man, he shows himself to be an upright God.
It is true that God finds no upright people except those whom he makes upright. He finds them as the work of his own hands. Yet wherever such a person is found, whether on a throne, in a prison, or on a dunghill, he will find a God who is his own and who will deal uprightly with him.
God remains upright, whatever people may be. Whatever contrary motions occur in the lower spheres, the first mover maintains its even and constant motion and is never diverted from its course. So it is with our God. However crookedly vain hypocrites may walk, the holy God will still “be justified when he speaketh, and clear when he judgeth.”
He will deal uprightly with you by carrying out his threats if you obstruct the course of his uprightness in fulfilling his promises. A filthy dunghill cannot infect the glorious sun that shines upon it all day. In the same way, no person’s evil can cause God to cease from being good.
But the doctrine means that God shows himself graciously upright toward the upright person. A true-hearted person on earth will find a true-hearted God in heaven.
The most suitable and profitable way I can think of to handle this doctrine within the intended limits is:
1. To show what human uprightness consists in.
2. To explain how God shows himself to be an upright God.
3. To draw some inferences and applications from it.
We begin with the first.
4. Biblical Names for Uprightness
Scripture uses four words in particular to express uprightness. Considering them will give us some view of this radiant jewel.
1. Truth. Uprightness is called truth: “Serve him in truth” (1 Sam 12:24). Moral truth is the conformity of the mind and heart to the things a person says and does. Therefore, when the heart prays along with the tongue, when the heart obeys along with the hand, and when we do the things of God “heartily as to the Lord,” we serve him in truth and uprightly.
This is surely also the meaning of the words, “Let us draw near with a true heart” (Heb 10:22). It is our sin and folly to keep our distance from God, both in his service and outside it, because we are either afraid or unwilling to approach. It is God’s will that we should draw near, and then nearer still, with a true heart. One true-hearted person at prayer accomplishes the work while many people who make a great appearance merely beat the air.
The same principle applies when we deal with other people: “Let us not love in word, or in tongue [only] but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). We must have a principle of genuine love in our hearts toward everyone, producing words and deeds of pure charity.
This is an upright person, whose inward heart does not contradict his words and actions. Examine his duties toward God and other people: they are devout, just, and charitable. Open his heart, and you will find piety, righteousness, and love written there. He resembles the man who declared that, if he could have fashioned himself, light would have been his body and truth his soul.
2. Sincerity. Another word for uprightness is sincerity. The word is taken from pure honey that is without wax, meaning unmixed. Uprightness exists when the new man has as little of the old man mixed with him as possible.
This word is used in the command, “That ye may be sincere” (Phil 1:10). The Greek word there signifies something that is sun-proof, like merchandise that can bear examination when held between you and the sun. Bring an upright person to Scripture, and he is sound. Bring him to any reliable tests, and he can stand before them. Put him in the scales, and he has weight. In any case, he is genuine gold, though he may be short by a few grains.
He comes from the true breed of eagle. Though he may be young or weak, he can look at the sun without being daunted. A hypocrite can look other people in the face, but an upright person can look God in the face: “As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness” (Ps 17:15). None but a righteous and upright person can do this.
3. Singleness of heart. Another expression with this meaning is singleness of heart: “They did eat their meat with gladness, and singleness of heart” (Acts 2:46). That is, they ate with wholehearted cheerfulness and generosity.
The words in Luke refer to the same thing: “When thine eye is single,” when your heart is wholly directed toward honoring and serving God, “the whole body will be full of light” (Luke 11:34). The whole life will reflect the character of that ruling principle. But if the heart deals deceitfully with God, the life will not be consistent before other people.
This is also understood to be the meaning of the promise of one heart in Ezekiel 11:19. The hypocrite, by contrast, has a heart and a heart and a heart and a heart, one for every lust. “A double minded man is unstable in all his wayes” (Jas 1:8). He has not settled the end he pursues, so his desires and actions directed toward that end are also unstable.
The upright person’s heart is one. Everything in him goes the same way. He is what he appears to be: one intention, one delight, one face, and one tongue. In a word, he is entirely one man: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and ALL that is within me praise his holy Name” (Ps 103:1).
4. Integrity. The fourth word signifying uprightness is integrity: “And if thou wilt walk before me, as David walked, in Integrity of heart and in uprightness” (1 Kgs 9:4). Integrity exists when the whole soul, in every faculty, is resolved and directed toward God and his glory.
In a hypocrite, judgment opposes the will, conscience opposes affection, and reason opposes appetite. But in the upright person, all the faculties agree and unite with one another. His opposition is directed outward against a common enemy. He is a whole person devoted to the whole will of God.
You can see, then, that an upright person is true-hearted, sincere-hearted, single-hearted, and whole-hearted.
5. An Upright Heart and Life
Uprightness concerns both God and man. The former may be called uprightness of heart, and the latter uprightness of life. Both must be explained, for where they meet, we find an upright person.
Concerning uprightness of heart, we must affirm that it is not so much a distinct grace, existing by itself, as it is the quality of every grace. It stamps reality upon every other grace. Without it, “Love itself is not to be loved, faith itself is not to be trusted, and no good hope can be placed in hope itself.” We cannot trust our faith, love our love, or hope well of our hope itself.
Uprightness and watchfulness are universal graces and are generally necessary. Uprightness is necessary to the being and truth of grace, and watchfulness is necessary to the preservation and exercise of grace. Perhaps this is why sincerity is called a girdle: “having your loyns girt about with truth” (Eph 6:14).
Religion is like a cloak to many people, though it will prove the costliest cloak ever worn. They put it on in public when it serves their purposes and put it off at home when it interferes with their lusts. Sincerity, however, is like a girdle that fastens religion closely to us. It makes all our garments fit closely, and to be ungirded here is to be unblessed.
Uprightness of heart may be described as that grace, or gracious disposition, by which the soul is unreservedly resigned to God and heartily determined to walk with him without deceit. In short, it is to be a person after God’s own heart. Truth is simply the agreement of things with their first principles. Therefore, when the human heart plainly agrees with the heart and will of God, it is an upright heart.
The same thing is meant by an “honest heart” (Luke 8:15), one resolved to deal honorably with God. In that passage, this honesty appears in hearing God’s Word, when the heart moves freely with the current of God’s will, without exception or pretense. An honest person is governed by reason and equity in a matter without looking sideways at personal opinions and interests. In the same way, an upright heart honestly surrenders its reason and will to the will of God, even when that will opposes its own ideas and interests. Thus, considering human frailty, such a person is as much like God as he can possibly be.
This blessed uprightness may be considered in three respects:
1. Its foundation. 2. Its nature. 3. Its object.
The Foundation of Uprightness
The foundation and root of uprightness of heart consists in the heart’s receiving Christ completely and surrendering itself completely to him. When this is done, a good foundation has been laid for sincerity of soul.
First, there must be a complete receiving of Jesus Christ as he is offered in the gospel. You must take hold of the Lord Jesus and “cleave to him with purpose of heart,” as Barnabas urged the believers at Antioch (Acts 11:23). Many have some inclination toward Christ, some faint desires and wishes. But will you have him and cling to him with a settled purpose of heart? Sincerity means receiving a whole Christ with a whole heart.
You must receive not only Christ the Savior and refuge, as most people would be willing to do, but also Christ the Prince and the portion “in the land of the living.” David could say, “O Lord, I said thou art my refuge, and my portion in the land of the living” (Ps 142:5). How many would gladly have the Lord Jesus Christ as their refuge when conscience torments them, affliction presses them, or death stares them in the face! Yet how few choose him as their portion and happiness while surrounded by outward comforts. The hypocrite does not dare to die without him; the upright believer cannot live without him. “The upright love thee” (Song 1:4), and love cannot remain content without enjoying the one it loves.
To consent to receive Christ because of some present need for him is one thing, and it is nothing if that is all. But to choose him as the fairest among ten thousand, and to do so with an entire heart, is the way of the upright heart. The mind, will, conscience, and affections must all agree, and they must embrace Christ’s yoke as well as his crown, his Spirit as well as his merit, and his rule as well as his righteousness.
The hypocrite has some attraction to Jesus Christ but will not receive him. One thing pleases him, but another does not. He endlessly evades the decision, parleying with Christ through the window while bolting the door and keeping him outside forever. Oh, that a holy, just, and offended God should pursue such miserable sinners with a bleeding Christ in his arms, and that such wretches should refuse him!
Second, there must be a complete surrender of the heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. In this surrender, you cordially, deliberately, and freely give your souls and bodies to him and to his service. This is called engaging the heart to approach the Lord: “Who is this that ingaged his heart to approach unto me, saith the Lord?” (Jer 30:21). On this basis, the happy covenant is declared in the next verse: “ye shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Jer 30:22).
Who is this? God asks. Who in the world? Who in this congregation? Who in this family? Who in this seat? Where is the man, the woman, or the child? Oh, let each one answer quickly, “It is I.”
But you must engage, not merely linger, incline, desire, or intend. Bidding will not make this pearl your own; buying will. Sadly, people commonly stand at a distance and do nothing but negotiate. But, friends, will you commit yourselves? Is it a settled agreement, and will you stand by it? Whether you gain or lose by Christ, will you have him? This must be the engagement of the heart.
You signed with your hands in baptism. This very covenant was sealed in your name and on your behalf when you were small children, and your failure to revoke it affirms it. But now we come seeking your hearts. Where is the mind, the conscience, the will? Oh, where is the will that submits, resolves, and engages to belong to the Lord?
Happy will this day and this message be, and happy will you be, if one now says, “I am the Lord’s, and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel” (Isa 44:5). You already belong to the Lord by your Christian names. Oh, when will you be his by your surname also?
This is the gospel’s great purpose and our errand here. We have come for you, and we are reluctant to leave without you. We beseech you by the mercies of God to present yourselves as a living sacrifice to God.
Poor sinners are like besieged rebels whom Christ Jesus will either win or starve into surrender. His artillery is positioned and begins its assault. A breach is made in the judgment, but the sinner will not yield. Another breach is made in the conscience, yet he is still reluctant to surrender. The white flag of mercy is raised, but for a long time the stubborn sinner refuses even to negotiate. Then the red flag is displayed, divine wrath advances, and a storm is preparing. God’s artillery is positioned again. If this shot strikes its mark and a breach is made in the will, Christ is victorious, the city is won, and the sinner yields.
Then the sinner’s words change: “O Lord, truly I am thy servant, I am thy servant” (Ps 116:16). Notice how the psalmist repeats it: I am, I am, truly I am. Repeated refusals call for repeated submissions.
“I will be neither my own master nor my own servant. I now make a deed of gift of my entire self to you, without reservation and without power of revocation.”
It is not enough to say this during a sudden surge of affection or merely as a courtesy, as we commonly say to others, “Your servant, sir.” Such a person is a servant without service. God has many servants of that kind: they call themselves his servants while remaining their own masters.
Holy David was not such a man. “I am thy servant, truly I am thy servant. I am surrendered to you and resolved to be yours. ‘Thou hast boar’d my ears’ (Ps 40:6) and bound me to you forever. I will be yours both totally and finally.”
When you thus “give your Own selves to the Lord” (2 Cor 8:5), you possess the foundation and root of uprightness.
6. The Nature of an Upright Heart
The nature of this uprightness of heart is best understood through the expressions the Holy Spirit uses concerning it. Some have already been noted, and they may be arranged under the following five descriptions. An upright heart is:
1. Single, without division. 2. Sound, without rottenness. 3. Pure, without mixture. 4. Perfect, without reservation. 5. Plain, without deceit.
1. Single, Without Division
To a hypocrite, there are “Gods many, and Lords many,” so he must have a heart for each of them. To the upright person, however, there is only “one God the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ,” and one heart is sufficient for them both.
Anyone who fixes his heart upon created things must have a heart for every creature, and the division of his heart destroys him (Hos 10:2). Worldly profits knock at the door, so he must have a heart for them. Carnal pleasures present themselves, and he must have a heart for them also. Sinful advancements appear, and they too must have a heart. “Necessary objects are few, but needless vanities are endless.” The upright person has chosen God and has enough.
A single Christ is enough for a single heart. Therefore holy David prays, “Unite my heart to fear thy Name” (Ps 86:11). In other words, let me have only one heart and mind, and let it be yours.
Thousands of beams and rays all meet and center in the sun. In the same way, though an upright person has a thousand thoughts, he desires them all to meet in God. He has many subordinate purposes, such as earning a living, preserving his reputation, and providing for his children, but he has no supreme purpose except God alone.
From this come the steadfastness of his resolutions, the freedom from distraction in his holy duties, the consistency of his actions, and the even disposition of his heart, all of which miserable hypocrites cannot attain.
2. Sound, Without Rottenness
An upright heart is sound without rottenness: “Let my heart be sound in thy statutes, that I may not be ashamed” (Ps 119:80). The more sincerity there is, the less shame there will be. Integrity is the great source of confidence. Every frost shakes an unhealthy body, and every trial shakes an unhealthy soul.
An upright person may not always have as pure an appearance as a hypocrite, but his color is natural. It is his own and is not painted on, for his constitution is firm. The hypocrite’s beauty is borrowed, and the fire of trial will melt it away.
An upright person has infirmities and diseases, but his new nature works to expel them because he is sound within. Leprosy spreads over the hypocrite, but he hides it: “He flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful” (Ps 36:2). He tries to hide himself from God, still more from other people, and most of all from himself. Whatever else happens, he desperately wants to remain on good terms with himself, and he continues this practice “until his iniquity be found to be hateful.”
The upright person, by contrast, is always examining and testing himself: “Am I sound? Am I right? Are my acts of worship performed rightly? Are my infirmities consistent with integrity?”
An upright believer is like an apple with rotten spots, but a hypocrite is like an apple with a rotten core. The sincere Christian has a spot of passion here, worldliness there, and pride elsewhere. But cut him open and examine him closely, and he is sound at heart. Christ and Christianity live and reign there.
The hypocrite resembles an apple that is smooth and lovely outside but rotten within. His words are exact, his devotions appear earnest, and his life seems blameless. But look within, and his heart is a pigsty of sin and a den of Satan.
3. Pure, Without Mixture
An upright heart is pure without mixture. It is not absolutely pure, for that happiness is reserved for heaven. It is pure, however, in comparison with the pollution and vile mixture that constitute a hypocrite.
Though the upright person’s hand cannot do everything God commands, his heart is sincere in everything he does. His soul is inclined toward perfect purity, and from this he receives his name: “Blessed are the pure in heart” (Matt 5:8). He sometimes fails in his words, thoughts, and actions. But open his heart, and you will find love, desire, purpose, and effort directed toward real and absolute purity.
He is not legally pure, meaning free from all sin. He is evangelically pure, meaning free from the reign of every sin, especially hypocrisy, which is directly contrary to the covenant of grace. In this sense, the upright person is the Scripture’s Puritan and is therefore further from hypocrisy than anyone else. He is genuinely glad that God searches hearts, for he knows that God will find the upright person’s name and nature in that person’s own heart.
Yet the most upright person in the world has some hypocrisy within him: “Who can say I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?” (Prov 20:9). But he detects, resists, and hates this hypocrisy. Therefore, it cannot give him the name of hypocrite in this world or condemn him as one in the next.
His purposes generally aim purely at God’s glory. The disposition of his heart and thoughts is pure and is generally better than his outward appearance. The further you trace him, the better he is. He is free from dishonesty in his dealings, purer still in his family and free from every appearance of evil, purer in private, and purest in his heart. Sin is present there, but so is an aversion to it that refuses to mingle with it.
The hypocrite chooses sin. The upright person would choose to have no sin at all if the choice were his. A traveler certainly meets with mud along the road, but he avoids it as well as he can and does not mingle with it. If he is soiled, he cleans it off as soon as possible. A pig, however, delights in mud and cannot be content without it. This is precisely the difference between the upright person and the hypocrite.
The most upright believer on earth is sometimes covered with the mud of sin, but he did not plan it in the morning, nor does he go to sleep with it at night. The hypocrite plans sin, delights in it, and is never so content as when committing it. In short, a hypocrite may avoid sin, but no one except the upright person can abhor it.
4. Perfect, Without Reservation
An upright person is perfect and entire without reservation: “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright” (Ps 37:37). You may see both qualities together. His heart is entirely devoted to God’s will and ways.
The hypocrite always has exceptions and reservations: “I must not leave this particular sin. I cannot love this particular grace. I will not practice this particular duty. I will yield this far but no farther. I will go this far because it agrees with my carnal purposes, but all the world will not persuade me to go beyond it.”
The hypocrite’s judgment will drive him further than his will, and his conscience further than his affections. He is not whole. His heart is divided, and therefore he wavers back and forth.
The upright person has only one happiness, the enjoyment of God; one rule, God’s holy will; and one work, pleasing his Maker. Consequently, he is whole and settled in his choice, desires, ways, and plans. Though he may experience delays while pursuing his main business, he does not hesitate or waver between two objects. He is entirely fixed and resolved upon his chosen object. In this sense, he may be called perfect and entire, lacking nothing.
Every hypocrite has some fortress or stronghold that has never yielded to the sovereignty and dominion of God’s will. Some lust fortifies itself within his will. But where integrity enters, it brings “every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”
The upright person says, “Lord, I am wholly yours. Do what you will with me, say what you will to me, and write what you will upon me. ‘Other Lords have had dominion over me, but by thee onely will I make mention of thy name’” (Isa 26:13). Here is the upright person.
5. Plain, Without Deceit
An upright heart is plain without deceit: “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no Guile” (Ps 32:2). This is indeed a blessed word.
Sadly, our iniquities are both great and numerous. Would it not be happiness for us to be regarded as if we had never sinned? Non-imputation will serve us as well as if there had been no transgression. Sins remitted are treated as though they had not been committed. A debt crossed out of the account book is as good as one never entered.
But who is this blessed person? It is the one “in whose spirit there is no Guile.” This means, first, that he has no fundamental deceit and has not dealt dishonestly in covenanting with God. Second, he has no approved deceit. He does not approve or yield to any way of wickedness. He does not play false with God, other people, or his own conscience. He does not hide his idols beneath him while God searches his tent. Instead, as the psalm continues in verse 5, he acknowledges, hates, and abandons his sin (Ps 32:5).
When an upright person confesses his sin, his heart aches and he is deeply troubled by it. He does not pretend. The hypocrite proclaims open war against his lusts while secretly maintaining friendly relations with them.
When the upright person prays for any grace, he earnestly desires it and also labors to obtain it. He is sincere and does not pretend. The hypocrite is afraid that his prayers may be answered exactly as he speaks them, for he does not truly love God’s image or grace at all.
The same is true in everything else. The hypocrite is filled with deceit, for anyone who will act deceitfully toward God will act deceitfully toward any person in the world.
