8. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
9. The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the LORD: but he loveth him that followeth after righteousness.
Let the reader ponder this awful question — ‘What am I — what is my service — when upon my knees before God? an abomination or a delight!’ Man judges by acts; God by principles. The sacrifice of the wicked, though it be part of God's own service, yet ‘will be found in his register in the catalogue of sins to be accounted for.’† At best little is said or done, where nothing would be lost. But it is “the sacrifice of fools” (Ecclesiastes 5:1) — heedless and unreflecting, performed without interest, with the heart asleep. Nay more — where the heart is deliberately and habitually absent (Isaiah 29:13) — it is the acting of a lie. And whether it be smoothly fashioned to impose on man, or whether it be forced by the sting of an awakened conscience — instead of possessing the virtue of a sacrifice, it is an insulting provocation; not only vain (Matthew 15:7-9), but abominable — yea abomination itself. (Chapter 21:27.) That is wanting, “without which it is impossible to please God;” the lack of which stamped the sacrifice of Cain as an abomination. (Genesis 4:3-5, with Hebrews 11:4.) It is a ‘work, that doth not flow from a lively faith, and therefore hath in it the nature of sin.’ (Art. xiii.)
Not that prayer itself is a sin. ‘It is,’ as Archbishop Usher expounds — ‘a good duty, but spoiled in the carriage.’† And far indeed would we be from discouraging the wicked from prayer. (Acts 8:22.) We would only press the awakening conviction, that it must be done in God's order and way; else never can it find his acceptance.
But not only the sacrifice but the way, of the wicked; not only his religion, but his common course, natural as well as moral, is abomination. (Chapter 21:4. Titus 1:15.) All is the course of a rebel against God. All his doings are the corrupt stream from a corrupt fountain. Awful, indeed, is the thought of every step of life as being hateful to God!
Is he then finally rejected? Far from it. His desire to seek the Lord would be the beginning of the prayer, that ensures acceptance. The prayer of the upright, from its first, feeblest utterance, is not only acceptable to the Lord, but his delight. (Song of Solomon 2:14; 4:11. Daniel 9:23; 10:12.) Here is that which brings acceptance — not the perfection, but the simplicity of uprightness. The man feelingly knows his own defilement. If he has not fathomed the depths of his corruptions, he has made the discovery, that to him at least they are unfathomable. (Jeremiah 17:9.) This consciousness of hidden sins only makes him more concerned to tear them from their hiding-place. His sacrifice therefore is that of truth, as contrasted with that of falsehood. That was the service of the outer — this of the inner — man. That seems what it is not, and covers what it is. This “cometh to the light,” and “the deed is made manifest,” with all its infirmities, “that it is wrought in God.” (John 3:21.) This prayer of the upright is the Lord's delight. It is suited to his own spiritual nature. “The father seeketh such to worship him.” (Ib. 4:23, 24.) The golden censer above (Hebrews 10:19-22), and the gracious intercession within (Romans 8:26, 27), combine with fragrant odour before our God. Never could we faint in prayer, did we realize more habitually this pure ground of acceptance. Not less pleasing to him is the course of the upright. He has given him a measure of righteousness, and an effort for more. And though he fulfills it not, he follows after it, cheered with the smile of his Father's gracious love. (Chapter 21:21. Philippians 3:12.)
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