The Harmony of Holiness
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834—1892), the great 19th century Prince of Preachers, was often called "the last Puritan." The spirit of Puritanism was certainly alive and well in his ministry.
Spurgeon wrote the following exposition of Psalm 119:54 in The Golden Alphabet.
Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.
Psalm 119:54
Happy is the heart which finds its joy in the commands of God, and makes obedience its recreation!
Like others of God’s servants, David knew that he was not at home in this world, but a pilgrim through it, seeking a better country. He did not, however, sigh over this fact, but he sang about it. He tells us nothing about his pilgrim sighs, but speaks of his pilgrim songs. Even the palace in which he dwelt was but “the house of his pilgrimage,” the inn at which he rested, the station at which he halted for a little while. Men are won’t to sing when they come to their inn, and so did this godly sojourner; he sang the songs of Zion, the statutes of the great King. The commands of God were as well known to him as the ballads of his country, and they were pleasant to his taste, and musical to his ear. Happy is the heart which finds its joy in the commands of God, and makes obedience its recreation! When religion is set to music it goes well. When we sing in the ways of the Lord it shows that our hearts are in them. Ours are pilgrim psalms, or Songs of Degrees; but they are such as we may sing throughout eternity; for the statutes of the Lord are the psalmody of the highest heaven.
Saints find horror in sin, and harmony in holiness.
Saints find horror in sin, and harmony in holiness. The wicked shun the law, and the righteous sing of it. In past days we have sung the Lord’s statutes, and in this fact we may find comfort in present affliction. Since our songs are so very different from those of the proud, we may expect to join a very different choir at the last from that in which they sing, and to make music in a place far removed from their abode.