Love and hatred are the leading affections of the soul; if those be
fixed aright, the rest move accordingly. Here we have them fixed aright
in David. 1. He had a rooted antipathy to sin; he could not endure to
think of it: I hate and abhor lying, which may be taken for all sin,
inasmuch as by it we deal treacherously and perfidiously with God and
put a cheat upon ourselves. Hypocrisy is lying; false doctrine is
lying; breach of faith is lying. Lying, in commerce or conversation, is
a sin which every good man hates and abhors, hates and doubly hates,
because of the seven things which the Lord hates one is a lying tongue
and another is a false witness that speaks lies, Prov. vi. 16. Every
man hates to have a lie told him; but we should more hate telling a lie
because by the former we only receive an affront from men, by the
latter we give an affront to God. 2. He had a rooted affection to the
word of God: Thy law do I love. And therefore he abhorred lying, for
lying is contrary to the whole law of God; and the reason why he loved
the law of God was because of the truth of it. The more we see of the
amiable beauty of truth the more we shall see of the detestable
deformity of a lie.