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I. THE EXPOSURE OF SIN IS INEVITABLE. Iniquity delights in cunning, and is itself a masterpiece of cunning. It may succeed in deluding its victims, and for a time escape detection. But there is One to whom every detail of the plot is fully known. Sin is often its own detective. An unguarded word, a suspicious sign, an unconscious oversight, will unmask the most skilfully disguised plans, and lead to exposure and misery. It is the theme of many a ballad, how the cranes aided in the discovery of the assassins of Idycus, the poet. Recently the house of the Caliph of the Ben Oreazen in Algeria was entered by a band of robbers, and a box containing 25,000 francs stolen. In their haste to escape the thieves left behind them an Arab cake bearing a particular mark, which one of the bakers of the town recognised as the sign used by Ben Xerafas, it being the custom for each family, in sending their bread to the oven, to mark it so as to distinguish the loaves. The police acted on the information, and, descending on a certain hut, caught the robbers asleep, with a portion of the plunder still in their possession. A simple Arab cake was the insignificant agent of discovery and exposure.

II. THE EXPOSURE OF SIN WILL EXTEND TO THE INMOST FEELINGS OF THE HEART. "Those that hate Thee." That sin is not always the worst which is most apparent.

III. THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN WILL BE TERRIBLE AND COMPLETE.

1. It will be terrible. The sins of the impenitent wicked will supply fuel to the fire of their own sufferings, and perhaps be used as an instrument for punishing others.

2. It will be complete. "Swallow them up in His wrath." Nations are an example — Antediluvians, Sodomites, Jews. Individuals are an example — Korah, Dathan, Abiram, Saul, and Judas.

(Homiletic Commentary.)

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KJV: Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee.

WEB: Your hand will find out all of your enemies. Your right hand will find out those who hate you.