Prayer hindered by allowed sin.
"If I regard iniquity," etc. If we read the text as in the margin of Revised Version, "If I had regarded … God would not hear [or, 'have heard'];"—this makes no practical difference. It only substitutes a special for a general statement. The lesson taught is the same—Sin allowed in the heart a fatal hindrance to our prayers being answered.
I. SIN CONSCIOUSLY INDULGED DISABLES FROM PRAYER. Inconsistent with that sincerity essential to the reality of prayer (1 John 3:19-21). One has known men who were afterwards discovered to have been living in secret a wicked life, fluent in the language of what seemed fervent prayer. But such prayer is "abomination" (Proverbs 21:27; Proverbs 28:9). It is a fearful aggravation of guilt.
II. EVEN SINS IGNORANTLY, OR WITH PARTIAL KNOWLEDGE, indulged, put the spirit out of tune for prayer; grieve and quench the Holy Spirit, by whose teaching alone we can pray aright; put coldness between the heart and God.
III. SIN INDULGED HINDERS THE ANSWERS TO PRAYER.
1. By rendering us incapable of spiritual blessing. As long as David refused to confess his sin to God, forgiveness and spiritual joy were impossible (Psalms 32:3-5).
2. By rendering it often unwise for God to grant the temporal blessings we ask. God could not grant David's prayer for the life of his child, even after he had repented, because of the scandal his crimes had brought on religion (2 Samuel 13:1-39, etc.). All David's great after troubles sprang from his sin. A Christian who has sinned, repented, and been forgiven is not to regard his troubles as punishment—except, indeed, that they may be sin's inevitable fruit and consequence. But they may be a wise and needful, though merciful, chastisement (1 Corinthians 11:31, 1 Corinthians 11:32).
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH