Psalm 119:113; Psalm 94:11,12; Psalm 119:67,71
I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.
The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law.
Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word…It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.
STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): Thoughts are the words of the mind.
CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): How lightly do most men think of the responsibility of their thoughts! as if they were their own, and they might indulge them without restraint or evil.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): It is profoundly true that “As a man thinketh, so is he,” Proverbs 23:7. Our characters are largely made by our estimates of what is good or bad, desirable or undesirable.
THOMAS SCOTT (1747-1821): There is no better test of our true character, than the habitual effect of “vain thoughts” upon our minds—whether we love and indulge them, or abhor and watch and pray against them.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): As long as we think of sin only in terms of things actually done, we fail to understand it…Thoughts, motives, and desires are equally important―Take that statement: “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,” and so on, Matthew 15:19―Our Lord always includes evil thoughts with murders, and such things as strife, enmity, deceit, and many other things.
THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): Our greatest sins are those of the mind.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Some of our thoughts are specially vain in the sense of vain glory, pride, conceit, and self trust; others in the sense of bringing disappointment, such as fond ambition, sinful dreaming, and confidence in man; others in the sense of emptiness and frivolity, such as the idle thoughts and vacant romancing in which so many indulge; and, yet once more, too many of our thoughts are vain in the sense of being sinful, evil, and foolish.
WILLIAM JAY: Vain thoughts are foolish thoughts, wandering thoughts, unbelieving thoughts, worldly thoughts, self-righteous thoughts, sinful thoughts. Vain thoughts here do not mean empty ones, but evil ones.
THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): The sins that do most usually engross and take up our thoughts are: First, Uncleanness. There is a polluting ourselves by our thoughts, and this sin usually works that way.
Secondly, Revenge. Liquors are soured when long kept; so, when we dwell upon discontents, they turn to revenge. Purposes of revenge are most sweet and pleasant to carnal nature: “Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually,” Proverbs 6:14; that is to say, he is full of revengeful and spiteful thoughts.
Thirdly, Envy. It is a sin that feeds upon the mind. Those songs of the women, that Saul had slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands; they ran in Saul’s mind, therefore he hated David, I Samuel 18:9. Envy is an evil disease that dwelleth in the heart, and betrays itself mostly in thoughts.
Fourthly, Pride. Either pride in the desires or pride in the mind, either vain glory or self conceit; this is entertaining our hearts with whispers of vanity―proud men are full of imaginations.
Fifthly, Covetousness, which is nothing but vain musings and exercises of the heart: “A heart they have exercised with covetous practices,” 2 Peter 2:14. And it withdraws the heart in the very time of God’s worship: “Their heart goeth after their covetousness,” Ezekiel 33:31.
Sixthly, Distrust is another thing which usually takes up our thoughts―distracting motions against God’s providence.
JOHN ROBINSON (1575-1625): Every thought of evil is not an evil thought, but only such as to which we adjoin either consent of will, or, at least, a delight of affection.
WILLIAM JAY: David had vain thoughts: and who has not? Who on earth are free from vain thoughts? Who can say, “I have made my heart clean; I am free from sin?” Proverbs 20:9. Why, “there is not a just man upon earth that does good, and sinneth not,” Ecclesiastes 7:20; “in many things we offend all,” James 3:2…Secondly, there is something else: David not only had vain thoughts—but he hated them.
WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): He likes their company no better than one would a pack of thieves that break into his house.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): He did not countenance them, nor give them any entertainment, but did what he could to keep them out, or at least to keep them under.
WILLIAM JAY: This is the difference between the naturally and spiritually minded man. Evil thoughts are common to both; but let us mark the distinction. The natural man loves these thoughts; he therefore encourages them: the spiritually minded man hates them. But how can a man evince that, though he has vain thoughts, he hates them? Why, he will be sure to be humbled before God; and then he will be sure to pray against them; and if these prayers be sincere and importunate, then he will strive against them.
STEPHEN CHARNOCK: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts,” Isaiah 55:7; Galatians 5:24. Mortification must extend to these: affections must be crucified, and all the little brats of thoughts which beget them, or are begotten by them.
THOMAS MANTON: “A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good things: and an evil man, out of the evil treasure, bringeth forth evil things,” Matthew 12:35. The workings of our spirits are as our treasure and stock. The mind works upon what it finds in itself, as a mill grinds whatsoever is put into it, be it chaff or corn. Therefore, if we would prevent wicked thoughts, and musings of vanity all the day long, we must hide the Word in our heart—“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee,” Psalm 119:11.
MATTHEW HENRY: “Thy law do I love.” The more we love the law of God the more we shall get mastery over our vain thoughts, the more hateful they will be to us, as being contrary to the whole law, and the more watchful we shall be against them.
KATHARINA VON BORA* (1499-1558): “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.” I had never known what such and such things meant, in such and such Psalms, such complaints and workings of spirit: I had never understood the practice of Christian duties, had not God brought me under some affliction.
THOMAS BROOKS (1608-1680): If, by outward afflictions, thy soul be brought more under the inward teachings of God, doubtless thy afflictions are in love.
RICHARD BAXTER (1615-1691): Suffering unbolts the door of the heart that the Word hath easier entrance.
JOHN MASON (1646-1694): By affliction God separates the sin which He hates from the soul which He loves.
MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): I have always found it one of my best schoolmasters.
DANIEL DYKE (1617-1688): “Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law.” The first schoolmaster is affliction. The second schoolmaster is God Himself. Afflictions of themselves, though severe schoolmasters, yet can do us no good, unless God come by His Spirit, and teach our hearts inwardly. And for the second point, the lessons taught, they are included generally in those words, “in thy law.”—“Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.” God doth not willingly afflict us, but being necessarily thereunto enforced, by that strength of corruption in us, which otherwise will not be subdued. Let us therefore pray, that as in the ministry of God’s Word, so also of His works and judgments, we may be all taught of God.
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*Editor’s Note: Katharina Von Bora was Martin Luther’s wife.
