The feeling of pious souls concerning self-will.
"A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person." The idea in the word "froward" is "twisted,", or "perverse." The idea in the word "wicked" is "wilful," "self-willed," "lawlessness." "What David, therefore, disclaims is the reckless self-will, acknowledging no law of right, which is the temptation of despotic royalty, and was hereafter the secret of his own great sin."
I. PIOUS SOULS SEE SELF-WILL AS THE ROOT OF SIN. Take man as the creature of God. Manifestly he is dependent on God. He has no independent rights, and no independent will. He has a free will within the necessary limits of the creature, but as that free will finds exercise, it can get no better standard than the sovereign and perfect will of the Creator. The supreme triumph of man's free will is his full, loving, hearty acceptance of the Divine will. Adam sinned when he put his self-will in opposition to God's will. Describe how you may the various forms that human iniquity can take (Galatians 5:19-21), the informing spirit of them all is self-pleasing, self-will. Therefore pious souls see clearly that their witness and work is not the mere cleansing of conduct, but the rooting out of the very fibres of self-will, which thread their souls as couch grass threads the fields, or cancers thread the body. Parents must deal with self-will in their children; kings must deal With self-will in their officials; Christians must deal with self-will in themselves and in the world.
II. PIOUS SOULS SEE SELF-WILL AS THE ONE THING TO RESIST. Many may be occupied with special forms of temptation, and with what they discover to be their "easily besetting sins." So they are occupied with the expressions of things rather than with the causes. Illustrate from the various treatment of skin diseases. That treatment alone is hopeful which deals with the fountain of mischief. But the psalmist is dealing with self-will in others rather than in himself. There is a self-reliance which is good, if kept within due bounds. It is the spring of enterprise; it is the spirit of the man who conquers circumstance. But it may easily become masterfulness, tyranny, pursuit of ends irrespective of means, and then pious souls feel repugnance, and may rightly show repugnance. The self-willed man is not a God-fearing man.—R.T.