Psalms 139:24

If there be any wicked way - דרך עצב derech otseb: a way of idolatry or of error. Any thing false in religious principle; any thing contrary to piety to thyself, and love and benevolence to man. And he needed to offer such prayer as this, while filled with indignation against the ways of the workers of iniquities; for he who hates, utterly hates, the practices of any man, is not far from hating the man himself. It is very difficult

"To hate the sin with all the heart,

And yet the sinner love."

Lead me in the way everlasting - בדרך עולם bederech olam, in the old way - the way in which our fathers walked, who worshipped thee, the infinitely pure Spirit, in spirit and in truth. Lead me, guide me, as thou didst them. We have ארח עולם orach olam, the old path, Job 22:15. "The two words דרך derech and ארח orach, differ," says Bishop Horsley, "in their figurative senses: derech is the right way, in which a man ought to go; orach is the way, right or wrong, in which a man actually goes by habit." The way that is right in a man's own eyes is seldom the way to God.

And see if there be any wicked way in me - Margin, "way of pain," or "grief." The Hebrew word properly means an image, an idol Isaiah 48:5, but it also means pain, 1 Chronicles 4:9; Isaiah 14:3. The word in the form used here does not occur elsewhere. Gesenius (Lexicon) renders it here idol-worship. DeWette, "way of idols." Prof. Alexander, "way of pain." The Septuagint and Vulgate, "way of iniquity." So Luther. The Syriac, "way of falsehood." Rosenmuller, "way of an idol." According to this, the prayer is that God would search him and see if there was anything in him that partook of the nature of idolatry, or of defection from the true religion; any tendency to go back from God, to worship other gods, to leave the worship of the true God. As idolatry comprehends the sum of all that is evil, as being alienation from the true God, the prayer is that there might be nothing found in his heart which tended to alienate him from God - would indicate unfaithfulness or want of attachment to him.

And lead me in the way everlasting - The way which leads to eternal life; the path which I may tread forever. In any other way than in the service of God his steps must be arrested. He must encounter his Maker in judgment, and be cut off, and consigned to woe. The path to heaven is one which man may steadily pursue; one, in reference to which death itself is really no interruption - for the journey commenced here will be continued through the dark valley, and continued forevermore. Death does not interrupt the journey of the righteous for a moment. It is the same journey continued - as when we cross a narrow stream, and are on the same path still.