Verse 23. Search me, O God] Investigate my conduct, examine my
heart, put me to the test, and examine my thoughts.
Verse 24. If there be any wicked way] 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.] 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 orach olam, the old path,
Job 22:15. "The two words
derech and 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.
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