And the LORD spake unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them: I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel. Num 18:20
​The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. Lam 3:24-25

IT IS a wonderful thing when we can look upon God as being our portion, when we can lay our hand upon all His nature and say there is nothing in God which will not in some way contribute to my strength and joy. It makes one think of the early days of the settlement of emigrants in the Far West of Canada or Australia. The settler and his family would slowly travel forward, with their implements and seeds, till they reached the plot of ground allocated to them by the Government. At first the family would encamp on the edge of it, then they would prospect it, and go to and fro over its acres with a sense that it all belonged to them, though it needed to be brought under cultivation. In the first year, within the fence hastily constructed, the farmer and his sons would begin to cultivate some small portion of their newly-acquired territory. This would yield the first crops; next year they would press the fences farther out, until at the end of a term of years the whole would have been brought under cultivation.
​
So it is with the mighty Nature of God. when first we are converted and led to know Him for ourselves, we can claim to apprehend but a small portion of the length and depth and breadth and height of His Love; but as the years go slowly on, amid the circumstances of trouble and temptation and the loss of earthly things, we are led to make more and more of God, until the immensity of our inheritance, which can never be fully explored or utilized, breaks upon our understanding. No wonder that the Psalmist breaks forth into thanksgiving in Psa_16:6-7, and Psalm 91.

Psa 16:6  The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. 
Psa 16:7  I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons. 

The devout soul rejoices in God as his great Inheritance. When He is always present to our mind, when we are constantly making use of Him, when we find ourselves naturally turning to Him through the hours of the day, then such quiet peace and rest settle down upon us that we cannot be moved by any anxiety of the present or future. Death itself will make no difference, except that the body which has obscured our vision will be left behind, and the emancipated soul will be able more fully to expatiate in its inheritance, which is incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading (1Pe_1:4-5).
​
1Pe 1:4  To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 
1Pe 1:5  Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 
​[Our Daily Walk]

I. The greatness of God’s mercy is to be seen in the great number of the saved.
II. The greatness of God’s mercy is to be seen in the great change which takes place in the great multitude.
III. The greatness of God’s mercy is to be seen in the greatness of the inheritance which He confers on the great multitude which have undergone the great change.
IV. The greatness of God’s mercy is to be seen in the greatness of the expense to which He went to be able to confer this great inheritance on the great multitude that have undergone the change.
V. The greatness of God’s mercy is to be seen, lastly, in the greatness of the power that is pledged to bring the great multitude to the possession of the inheritance secured for them at such a cost.
[J. C. Jones, Studies in First Peter]

"Scattered strangers! The designation is true of us all. Note the reference to the Trinity involved in the opening sentence. Our inheritance is prepared and kept for us, as we for it. We who believe may count on the guarding power of God. Not till our spirit is joined to a perfected body in the presence of Christ will our salvation be complete.
Trial is manifold. There is more or less of it in every true life. The best diamonds take longer in cutting and polishing. But, after all, compared to the eternity before us, it is but short-lived, and there is a needs-be for all. Hope in 1Pe_1:3, faith in 1Pe_1:7, love in 1Pe_1:8, blend in the joy that is unspeakable and full of the glory which is as yet hidden.
Notice that the prophets, angels and apostles are represented as deeply interested in that glorious salvation which God has declared unto mankind in the gospel, and by which we have been redeemed." [F.B. Meyer]

For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in thy truth.
​I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. 
I have hated the congregation of evil doers;
and will not sit with the wicked. Psa 26:3-5
​THE UPRIGHT MAN PLEADING FOR JUSTICE IN THE
​COURT OF HEAVEN

The wicked are here characterized as “vain persons,” “dissemblers,” “evil-doers.” These terms are terribly significant. They are revelations of the heart. They are proofs of a state of society utterly alien and hostile to the life of God. David, in vindication of himself, declares his entire separation from all such people. He expresses his repugnance to their society. A man is known by the company he keeps. There is a power, for good or for evil, in the society we love. To be allied with the good is a blessing and an honor, but to be confederate with the bad is to be doomed to infamy. David could appeal to his past life. He had no relish for the society of the bad. “I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers.” He expresses his hatred of their character. His language is very strong: “I have hated the congregation of evil-doers.” It was not that he hated them as men, but that he hated their spirit and conduct—their character. “To hate the person, the existence, of any man, is wrong; it is to hate the workmanship of God. But to hate the character of a bad man is right, and even obligatory. God made the person, man made the character; and a bad character is an offence to the Almighty, and an injury to the universe: therefore it is holy to hate it.”  (Dr. D. Thomas)

The eyes which have God’s loving kindness ever before them are endowed with penetrative clearness of vision into the true hollowness of most of the objects pursued by men, and with a terrible sagacity which detects hypocrisy and shame. Association with such men is necessary, and leaven must be in contact with dough in order to do its transforming work; but it is impossible for a man whose heart is truly in touch with God not to feel ill at ease when brought into contact with those who have no share in his deepest convictions and emotions. No doubt separateness from evil-doers is but part of a godly man’s duty, and has often been exaggerated into selfish withdrawal from a world which needs good men’s presence all the more the worse it is; but it is a part of his duty: “Come out from among them and be separate” is not yet an abrogated command. No man will ever mingle with “men of vanity” so as to draw them from the shadows of earth to the substance in God, unless his loving association with them rests on profound revulsion from their principles of action. None comes so near to sinful men as the sinless Christ; and if He had not been ever “separate from sinners” He would never have been near enough to redeem them. We may safely imitate His free companionship, which earned Him the glorious name of their Friend, if we imitate His remoteness from their evil.
​(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Treasury of David
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
​​I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. 
I have hated the congregation of evil doers;
and will not sit with the wicked. Psa 26:4-5

Psa 26:4 “I have not sat with vain persons.” - True citizens have no dealings with traitors. David had no seat in the parliament of triflers. They were not his boon companions at feasts, nor his advisers in council, nor his associates in conversation. We must needs see, and speak, and trade, with men of the world, but we must on no account take our rest and solace in their empty society. Not only the profane, but the vain are to be shunned by us. All those who live for this life only are vain, chaffy, frothy men, quite unworthy of a Christian's friendship. Moreover, as this vanity is often allied with falsehood, it is well to save ourselves altogether from this untoward generation lest we should be led from bad to worse, and from tolerating the vain, should come to admire the wicked. “Neither will I go in with dissemblers.” Since I know that hypocritical piety is double iniquity, I will cease all acquaintance with pretenders. If I must needs walk the same street, I will not enter the same door and spend my time in their society. The congregation of the hypocrites is not one with which we should cultivate communion; their ultimate rendezvous will be the lowest pit of hell, let us drop their acquaintance now! for we shall not desire it soon. They hang their beads around their necks, and carry the devil in their hearts. This clause is in the future tense, to indicate that the writer felt no desire to begin an acquaintance with characters whom up till then he had shunned. We must maintain the separated path with more and more circumspection as we see the great redemption day approaching. Those who would be transfigured with Jesus, must not be disfigured by conformity to the world. The resolution of the Psalmist suggests, that even among professed followers of truth we must make distinctions, for as there are vain persons oat of the church, so there are dissemblers in it, and both are to be shunned with scrupulous decision.
Psa_26:5 “I have hated the congregation of evil doers.” - A severe sentence, but not too severe. A man who does not hate evil terribly, does not love good heartily. Men, as men, we must always love, for they are our neighbors, and therefore to be loved as ourselves; but evil doers, as such, are traitors to the Great King, and no loyal subject can love traitors. What God hates we must hate. The congregation or assembly of evil doers, signifies violent men in alliance and conclave for the overthrow of the innocent; such synagogues of Satan are to be held in abhorrence. What a sad reflection it is that there should be a congregation of evil doers as well as a congregation of the upright, a church of Satan as well as a church of God; a seed of the serpent as well as a seed of the woman; an old Babylon as well as a new Jerusalem; a great whore sitting upon many waters, to be judged in wrath, as well as a chaste bride of the Lamb to be crowned at his coming. “And will not sit with the wicked.” Saints have a seat at another table, and will never leave the King's dainties for the husks of the swine-trough. Better to sit with the blind, and the halt, and the lame, at the table of mercy, than with the wicked in their feasts of ungodliness, yea, better to sit on Job's dunghill than on Pharaoh's throne.
​Let each reader see well to his company, for such as we keep in this world, we are likely to keep in the next.

2Co 6:17  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 
2Co 6:18  And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. 

And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Luke 11:2

WHY IS THIS PETITION PUT BY OUR SAVIOUR FIRST INTO
​OUR MOUTHS?
Hallowed be Thy Name

The reason is, because the glory of God or honor of His name is the chief end of our being and of all others. And therefore it should lie nearest our hearts (Rom_11:36). Inferences--
1. The dishonour done to God by one’s own sin and the sins of others must needs go near the heart of a saint (Psa_51:4).
2. Habitual profaners of that holy name are none of the children of God, whose main care is to get that name hallowed.
3. Holiness is the creature’s glory, and its greatest glory, for it is God’s glory, and therefore unholiness is its disgrace and dishonour. (T. Boston, D. D.)

What the first petition implies
I. We must pray that God will enable us to sanctify Him in our hearts, in our words, and in our actions.
1. In our hearts. We must pray that holiness to the Lord, the holy Lord God, may be engraved there. We must pray further: that we may always maintain in our hearts a reverent esteem of God, as a Being of infinite, unblemished purity.
2. We must likewise pray, that we may sanctify the name of God with the tongue.
3. We are here directed to pray, that we may sanctify the name of God by practical obedience.

We must likewise pray, that God by His providence will dispose of all things for His own glory, as the universal Lord and Ruler, of whom, and through whom, and to whom are all things, and whose throne is for ever and ever; who has the hearts of all in His hand, universal nature at His command, from the meanest worm or insect to the highest of all the angelic orders in heaven; and who has wisdom and power sufficient to govern all in the best manner and to promote the best end. [John Whitty]

THE TERMS OF THE PRAYER. To implore that God’s name may be hallowed, is to ask that it may be treated with due reverence, as befits the holy. In heaven it is so treated (Isa_6:3). But what is God’s “name”? It stands for His character, and includes all those signs and deeds by which God makes known to us His moral essence;—all the manifestations which He has given of His nature and purposes;—as well as in the narrower sense of the titles and appellations which He has chosen to proclaim as His own. As His Scripture, or His Word, is a fuller and clearer manifestation of His character than is contained in this material structure—the handiwork of God, the visible Creation; so, consequently, this volume of Divine Scripture and the revelation there made are an important part of His name. As the Son, in His incarnation, yet more clearly” and yet more nearly manifested God, He, the embodying Messiah, is called the Word of God.
[Biblical Illustrator]

IN ONE of those sublime flights with which the Epistles of St. Paul abound, he tells us that the time is coming when the Son shall deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father, when He shall abolish all rule, and authority, and power. From this we are at liberty to infer that the Kingdom was originally the Father's; that by man's sin and fall it has been alienated from His control.
​
The Lord Jesus became incarnate for the purpose of regaining the Kingdom by His agony, blood, and tears; though it is not as yet His, it is being acquired. When, therefore, we pray: "Father, Thy Kingdom come," we are asking that the complete victory of Jesus Christ may be hastened; that He may speedily triumph over all obstacles and enemies; that truth may reign in government, art, and science; that trade may be free from chicanery and fraud; that tyranny may be extinguished, corruption exposed; that He may send forth His Angels to gather out of His Kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity, destroying that last enemy, death, and bringing in the golden age when all men shall know and love the Father, and become His obedient children.

There are many explanations of the Kingdom of Heaven. Perhaps as a rough and ready way of interpreting the phrase, we may say Divine Kingship. When we grasp that idea, it becomes the dominant note of life. It is the master-key which opens every lock. Just to believe, deep down in your soul, that the Father of Jesus—our Father—is King. That the God who is moved by the fall of a little bird from its nest, who is described in the parables of the lost sheep and the lost son, is King of the world and all its forces, and of everything in human life. To know and believe this is to get something which is worth everything else.

Will you not, here and now, place yourself under the government of the King? Let Him govern your heart, that you may love only within the limits which His pure and holy Spirit can permit. Let Him govern your mind, that no unholy thought be allowed to lodge and strike root within you. Let Him govern the books you read, the companionships and friendships you form, the methods of your business, the investment of your money, the way in which you spend your leisure—all must be under the government of His Kingdom, for He will not be King at all unless He is King in all.
[Our Daily Walk]