The treasury of David, Volume 1 (of 6), Psalm 1-26 (part 5 of 5)

The treasury of David, Volume 1 (of 6), Psalm 1-26 (part 5 of 5)

“It is Jehovah, strong and mighty— Jehovah mighty in battle.”

which the second chorus then repeats in like manner as before, closing it with the grand universal chorus,

“He is the King of glory! He is the King of glory!”

We must now suppose the instruments to take up the same notes, and continue them to the entrance to the court of the tabernacle. There the king again begins—

“Lift up your heads, O ye gates; And be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; And the King of glory shall come in.”

This is followed and answered as before—all closing, the instruments sounding, the chorus singing, the people shouting—

“He is the King of Glory!”

John Kitto’s “Daily Bible Illustrations.”

Whole Psalm.—The coming of the Lord of glory, the high demands upon his people proceeding from this, the absolute necessity to prepare worthily for his arrival, form the subject-matter of this Psalm.—E. W. Hengstenberg.

Whole Psalm.—We learn from the rabbins, that this was one of certain Psalms which were sung in the performance of Jewish worship on each day in the week:—

The 24th Psalm on the 1st, the Lord’s-day, our Sunday.

48th “ 2nd ”

82nd “ 3rd ”

94th “ 4th ”

81st “ 5th ”

93rd “ 6th ”

92nd “ 7th, the Jewish Sabbath.

This Psalm, then, appropriated to the Lord’s-day, our Sunday, was intended to celebrate the resurrection of Messiah, and his ascension into heaven, there to sit as a priest upon God’s throne, and from thence to come down bringing blessings and mercies to his people.—R. H. Ryland.

Whole Psalm.—Anthem of praise, performed when the heads of the gates of Jerusalem were lifted up to receive the ark; and those of the Israelites who were ceremoniously clean, were alone permitted to accompany it into the court of the tabernacle. A Psalm of David. Verses 1, 2, chorus. 3. First voice. 4, 5. Second voice. 6. Chorus. 7. Semi-chorus accompanying the ark. 8. Voice from within the gates. 8. Chorus of priests accompanying the ark. 9. Chorus of priests and people with the ark. 10. Voice within the gates. 10. Grand chorus.—From “The Psalms, with Prefatory Titles, etc., from the Port Royal Authors,” by Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, 1825.

Whole Psalm.—How others may think upon this point, I cannot say, nor pretend to describe, but for my own part, I have no notion of hearing, or of any man’s ever having seen or heard, anything so great, so solemn, so celestial, on this side the gates of heaven.—Patrick Delany, D.D., 1686-1768.

Verse 1.—“The earth is the Lord’s,” that is, Christ’s, who is the “Lord of lords” (Rev. xix. 16); for the whole world and all the things therein are his by a twofold title. First, by donation of God his Father, having “all power given unto him in heaven and in earth” (Matt. xxviii. 18), even whatsoever things the Father hath are his (John xvi. 15); and so consequently “made heir of all things.” Heb. i. 2. Secondly, the earth is Christ’s and all that therein is, by right of creation, for “he founded it,” saith our prophet, and that after a wonderful manner, “upon the seas and floods.” ... All things then are Christ’s, in respect of creation, “by whom all things were made” (John i. 3); in respect of sustentation, as upholding all things by his mighty word (Heb. i. 3); in respect of administration, as reaching from one end to another, and ordering all things sweetly (Wis. viii. 1); in one word—“Of him, and through him, and to him, are all things.” Rom. xi. 36. From hence we may learn (1), That Christ is “the King of glory,” “Lord of Hosts,” even Almighty God. For he that made all, is “Lord over all;” he that is the Creator of heaven and earth is Almighty (saith our Creed); able to do whatsoever he will, and more than he will too—more by his absolute power, than he will by his actual—“able to raise up children unto Abraham” out of the very stones of the street, though he doth not actually produce such a generation. His almightiness evidently proves him to be God, and his founding of the world his almightiness; for “The gods that have not made the heaven and earth shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.” Jer. x. 11. (2). Seeing the compass of the world and all they that dwell therein are the Lord’s, it is plain that the church is not confined within the limits of one region, or glued, as it were, to one seat only. The Donatists in old time, would tie the church only to Cartenna in Africa, the Papists in our time to Rome in Italy; but the Scriptures plainly affirm that the golden candlesticks are removed from one place to another, and that the kingdom of God is taken away from one nation and given unto another country that brings forth the fruit thereof; in every region he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him. Acts x. 35.—John Boys.

Verse 1.—“The earth is Jehovah’s.”—The object of the beginning of the Psalm is to show that the Jews had nothing of themselves which could entitle them to approach nearer or more familiarly to God than the Gentiles. As God by his providence preserves the world, the power of his government is alike extended to all, so that he ought to be worshipped by all, even as he also shows to all men, without exception, the fatherly care he has about them.—J. Calvin.

Verse 1.—“The earth is the Lord’s.” It is Christ’s by creation (verse 2; John i. 1, 2), and it is his by resurrection (Matt. xxviii. 18), and by his glorious ascension into heaven, where he is enthroned King of the world in his human nature. This Psalm takes up the language of the first Ascension Psalm (Psalm viii.)—Christopher Wordsworth, D.D. in loc.

Verse 1.—St. Chrysostom, suffering under the Empress Eudoxia, tells his friend Cyriacus how he armed himself beforehand: εἰ μὲν βούλεται ἡ βασίλισσα ἐξορίσαι μέ, etc. “I thought, will she banish me? ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.’ Take away my goods? ‘Naked came I into the world, and naked must I return.’ Will she stone me? I remembered Stephen. Behead me? John Baptist came into my mind,” etc. Thus it should be with every one that intends to live and die comfortably: they must, as we say, lay up something for a rainy day; they must stock themselves with graces, store up promises, and furnish themselves with experiences of God’s lovingkindness to others and themselves too, that so, when the evil day comes, they may have much good coming thereby.—John Spencer.

Verse 1.—“The earth is the Lord’s.” As David, in his youthful days, was tending his flocks on Bethlehem’s fertile plains, the spirit of the Lord descended upon him, and his senses were opened, and his understanding enlightened, so that he could understand the songs of the night. The heavens proclaimed the glory of God, the glittering stars formed the general chorus, their harmonious melody resounded upon earth, and the sweet fulness of their voices vibrated to its utmost bounds.

“Light is the countenance of the Eternal,” sung the setting sun: “I am the hem of his garment,” responded the soft and rosy twilight. The clouds gathered themselves together and said, “We are his nocturnal tent.” And the waters in the clouds, and the hollow voices of the thunders, joined in the lofty chorus, “The voice of the Eternal is upon the waters, the God of glory thundereth in the heavens, the Lord is upon many waters.”

“He flieth upon my wings,” whispered the winds, and the gentle air added, “I am the breath of God, the aspirations of his benign presence.” “We hear the songs of praise,” said the parched earth; “all around is praise; I alone am sad and silent.” Then the falling dew replied, “I will nourish thee, so that thou shalt be refreshed and rejoice, and thy infants shall bloom like the young rose.” “Joyfully we bloom,” sang the refreshed meads; the full ears of corn waved as they sang, “We are the blessing of God, the hosts of God against famine.”

“We bless thee from above,” said the gentle moon; “We, too, bless thee,” responded the stars; and the lightsome grasshopper chirped, “Me, too, he blesses in the pearly dew-drop.” “He quenched my thirst,” said the roe; “And refreshed me,” continued the stag; “And grants us our food,” said the beasts of the forest; “And clothes my lambs,” gratefully added the sheep.

“He heard me,” croaked the raven, “when I was forsaken and alone;” “He heard me,” said the wild goat of the rocks, “when my time came, and I brought forth.” And the turtle-dove cooed, and the swallow and other birds joined the song, “We have found our nests, our houses, we dwell upon the altar of the Lord, and sleep under the shadow of his wing in tranquillity and peace.” “And peace,” replied the night, and echo prolonged the sound, when chanticleer awoke the dawn, and crowed with joy, “Open the portals, set wide the gates of the world! The King of glory approaches. Awake! Arise, ye sons of men, give praises and thanks unto the Lord, for the King of glory approaches.”

The sun arose, and David awoke from his melodious rapture. But as long as he lived the strains of creation’s harmony remained in his soul, and daily he recalled them from the strings of his harp.—From the “Legend of the Songs of the Night,” in the Talmud, quoted in “Biblical Antiquities.” By F. A. Cox, D.D., LL.D., 1852.

Verse 1.—The pious mind views all things in God, and God in all things.—Ingram Cobbin, 1839.

Verse 2.—“He hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.” This founding the land upon the seas, and preparing it upon the floods, is so wonderfully wonderful, that Almighty God asked his servant Job, “Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened?” Job xxxviii. 6. Xerxes commanded his soldiers to fetter the waters of Hellispontus; and so God bindeth, as it were, the floods in fetters, as St. Basil plainly, Ligatum est mare præcepto Creatoris quasi compedibus; he saith unto the sea, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, there shall it stay thy proud waves.” “He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap; he layeth up the depth in storehouses” (Job xxxviii. 11; Psalm xxxiii. 7); so that without his leave not so much as one drop can overflow the land.—John Boys.

Verse 2. (New translation.)—“For he hath founded it upon the seas, and upon streams doth he make it fast.” The reference is no doubt to the account of the Creation, in Genesis, the dry land having emerged from the water, and seeming to rest upon it. (Comp. cxxxvi. 6; Prov. viii. 29.) It would, however, be quite out of place to suppose that in such language we have the expression of any theory, whether popular or scientific, as to the structure of the earth’s surface: Job says (xxvi. 7), “He hangeth the earth upon nothing.” Such expressions are manifestly poetical. See Job xxxviii. 6.—J. J. Stewart Perowne.

Verse 2.—“Upon the seas:” that is, upon the great abyss of waters which is under the earth, enclosed in great hollow places, whence the heads of rivers do spring, and other waters bubble out upon the earth.—John Diodati.

Verse 2.—“Above the floods he hath established it.” Both the words עַל (Al) in the two clauses of this verse mean either “above” as we have rendered it, and refer to Gen. i. 9, 10, denoting that Jehovah hath called forth dry land from the midst of the seas, and established it above the floods, and hath set a boundary to the latter never to turn and overflow it (see Job xxxviii. 8; Psalm civ. chronologically Psalm vii. 9); or “by, or at,” as they often denote, and refer to the same subject of the omnipotence of God in relation to the same quoted passages, i.e., that though our globe is situated at or by the floods—is surrounded with mighty waters whose single wave could bury it for ever, still the Lord has so established it that this never can happen. This is a mighty reason why the earth and all its fulness and inhabitants belong to Jehovah.—Benjamin Weiss.

Verse 2.—Hereby is mystically meant, that he hath set his church above the waters of adversities, so that how high soever they arise, it is kept still above them in safety, and so shall be for evermore; or it may agree thus—he will take in all nations to be his in grace, because all be his creatures; he made them so admirable an habitation at the first, and upholds it still, showing hereby how much he regards them; therefore he will now extend his favour further towards them, by taking them in to be his people.—Augustine, quoted by Mayer.

Verse 3.—“Who shall ascend?” Indeed, if none must ascend but he that is clean and pure, and without vanity and deceit, the question is quickly answered, None shall, for there is none so: dust is our matter, so not clean; defiled is our nature, so not pure; lighter, the heaviest of us, than vanity, and deceitful upon the balance the best of us; so no ascending so high for any of us. Yet there is One we hear of, or might have heard of to-day, that rose and ascended up on high, was thus qualified as the Psalmist speaks of, all clean and pure, no chaff at all, no guile found in his mouth. 1 Pet. ii. 22. Yea, but it was but One that was so; what’s that to all the rest? Yes, somewhat ’tis. He was our Head, and if the Head be once risen and ascended, the members will all follow after in their time.—Mark Frank.

Verse 3.—“The hill of the Lord,” can be no other than a hill of glory. His holy place is no less than the very place and seat of glory. And being such, you cannot imagine it but hard to come by, the very petty glories of the world are so. This is a hill of glory, hard to climb, difficult to ascend, craggy to pass up, steep to clamber, no plain campagnia to it, the broad easy way leads some whither else (Matt. vii. 13); the way to this is narrow (verse 14); ’tis rough and troublesome. To be of the number of Christ’s true faithful servants is no slight work; ’tis a fight, ’tis a race, ’tis a continual warfare; fastings and watchings, and cold and nakedness, and hunger and thirst, bonds, imprisonments, dangers and distresses, ignominy and reproach, afflictions and persecutions, the world’s hatred and our friends’ neglect, all that we call hard or difficult is to be found in the way we are to go. A man cannot leave a lust, shake off bad company, quit a course of sin, enter upon a way of virtue, profess his religion or stand to it, cannot ascend the spiritual hill, but he will meet some or other of these to contest and strive with. But not only to ascend, but to stand there, as the word signifies; to continue at so high a pitch, to be constant in truth and piety, that will be hard indeed, and bring more difficulties to contest with.—Mark Frank.

Verses 3, 4.—The Psalm begins with a solicitous enquiry, subjoins a satisfactory answer, and closes with a most pertinent but rapturous apostrophe. This is the enquiry, “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?” This is the answer, “He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart;” “he shall receive the blessing” of plenary remission “from the Lord, and righteousness also from the God of his salvation:” even that perfect righteousness which is not acquired by man, but bestowed by Jehovah; which is not performed by the saint, but received by the sinner; which is the only solid basis to support our hopes of happiness, the only valid plea for an admission into the mansions of joy. Then follows the apostrophe: the prophet foresees the ascension of Christ and his saints into the kingdom of heaven. He sees his Lord marching at the head of the redeemed world, and conducting them into regions of honour and joy. Suitably to such a view, and in a most beautiful strain of poetry, he addresses himself to the heavenly portals. “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory,” with all the heirs of his grace and righteousness, shall make their triumphant entry; “shall enter in,” and go out no more.—James Hervey.

Verses 3, 4.—It is not he who sings so well or so many Psalms, nor he who fasts or watches so many days, nor he who divides his own among the poor, nor he who preaches to others, nor he who lives quietly, kindly and friendly; nor, in fine, is it he who knows all sciences and languages, nor he who works all virtuous and all good works that ever any man spoke or read of, but it is he alone, who is pure within and without.—Martin Luther.

Verse 4.—“He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart.” Shall I tell you, then, who is a moral man in the sight of God? It is he that bows to the divine law as the supreme rule of right; he that is influenced by a governing regard to God in all his actions; he that obeys other commands spontaneously, because he has obeyed the first and great command, “Give me thy heart.” His conduct is not conformed to custom or expediency, but to one consistent, immutable standard of duty. Take this man into a court of justice, and call on him to testify, and he will not bear false witness. Give him the charge of untold treasures, he will not steal. Trust him with the dearest interests of yourself or family, you are safe, because he has a living principle of truth and integrity in his bosom. He is as worthy of confidence in the dark as at noonday; for he is a moral man, not because reputation or interest demands it, not because the eye of public observation is fixed upon him, but because the love and fear of God have predominant ascendancy in his heart.—Ebenezer Porter, D.D., 1834.

Verse 4.—Conditions that suit none but Christ. [Bellarmine.] “He that hath clean hands;” “the clean of hands,” Marg.:—those hands from which went forth virtue and healing; hands ever lifted up in prayer to God, or in blessing to man; hands stretched forth on the cross for the cleansing of the whole world.—Isaac Williams, in loc.

Verse 4.—“Who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity,” is read by Arius Montanus, “He that hath not received his soul in vain.” Oh! how many receive their souls in vain, making no more use of them than the swine, of whom the philosopher observes, cujus anima pro sale, their souls are only for salt to keep their bodies from stinking. Who would not grieve to think that so choice a piece should be employed about so vain a use!—George Swinnock.

Verse 4.—“Nor sworn deceitfully;” or inured his tongue to any other kind of the language of hell’s rotten communication, to the dishonouring of God, or deceiving of others. Perjury is here instanced for the rest, as one of the most heinous. But Peraldus reckoneth up four-and-twenty several sins of the tongue, all which every burgess of the New Jerusalem is careful to avoid, as the devil’s drivel, no way becoming his pure lip.—John Trapp.

Verse 4.—Now we come to the four conditions requisite to render such an ascent possible. 1. Abstinence from evil doing: “He that hath clean hands.” 2. Abstinence from evil thought: “and a pure heart.” 3. Who does that duty which he is sent into the world to do: “That hath not lift up his mind unto vanity;” or, as it is in the Vulgate, “Who hath not received his soul in vain.” And, 4. Remembers the vows by which he is bound to God: “nor sworn to deceive.” And in the fullest sense, there was but One in whom all these things were fulfilled; so that in reply to the question, “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?” he might well answer, “No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.” John iii. 13. “Therefore it is well written,” says St. Bernard, “that such an High Priest became us, because he knows the difficulty of that ascent to the celestial mountain, he knows the weakness of us that have to ascend.”—Lorinus and Bernard, quoted by J. M. Neale.

Verse 4.—Heaven is not won with good words and a fair profession. The doing Christian is the man that shall stand, when the empty boaster of his faith shall fall. The great talkers of religion are often the least doers. His religion is in vain whose profession brings not letters testimonial from a holy life.—William Gurnall.

Verse 5.—“He shall receive the blessing;” as before, “Thou shalt set him to be a blessing.” Psalm xxi. 6. His name is never without blessing. In him shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. On the mount of his beatitudes, on the heavenly Mount Sion, crowned as “the Son of the blessed.” “From the Lord;” even the “God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Eph. i. 3.—Isaac Williams.

Verse 5.—“He shall receive ... righteousness.” As for our own righteousness which we have without him, Esay telleth us, “it is a defiled cloth;” and St. Paul, that it is but “dung.” Two very homely comparisons, but they be the Holy Ghost’s own; yet nothing so homely as in the original, where they be so odious, as what manner of defiled cloth, or what kind of dung we have not dared to translate. Our own then being no better, we are driven to seek for it elsewhere. “He shall receive his righteousness,” saith the prophet; and “the gift of righteousness,” saith the apostle. Phil. iii. 8, 9; Rom. v. 17. It is then another, to be given us, and to be received by us, which we must seek for. And whither shall we go for it? Job alone dispatcheth this point (chap. xv. 15; iv. 18; xxv. 5.). Not to the heavens or stars, they are unclean in his sight. Not to the saints, for in them he found folly. Not to the angels, for neither in them found he steadfastness. Now, if none of these will serve, we see a necessary reason why Jehovah must be a part of this name, “the LORD our righteousness.” Jer. xxiii. 6.—Lancelot Andrewes.

Verse 6.—“This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face.” Christians must be seekers. This is the generation of seekers. All mankind, if ever they will come to heaven, they must be a generation of seekers. Heaven is a generation of finders, of possessors, of enjoyers, seekers of God. But here we are a generation of seekers. We want somewhat that we must seek. When we are at best, we want the accomplishment of our happiness. It is a state of seeking here, because it is a state of want; we want something alway. But to come more particularly to this seeking the face of God, or the presence of God.... The presence of God meant here is, that presence that he shows in the time of need, and in his ordinances. He shows a presence in need and necessity, that is, a gracious presence to his children, a gracious face. As in want of direction, he shows his presence of light to direct them; in weakness he shows his strength; in trouble and perplexity he will show his gracious and comfortable presence to comfort them. In perplexity he shows his presence to set the heart at large, answerable to the necessity. So in need God is present with his children, to direct them, to comfort them, to strengthen them, if they need that.—Richard Sibbes.

Verse 6.—“This is the generation.” By the demonstrative pronoun “this,” the Psalmist erases from the catalogue of the servants of God all counterfeit Israelites, who, trusting only to their circumcision and the sacrifice of beasts, have no concern about offering themselves to God; and yet, at the same time, they rashly thrust themselves into the church.—John Calvin.

Verse 6.—“That seek thy face, O Jacob.” In Prov. vii. 15, and xxix. 26, we have “seeking the face of” in the sense of seeking the favour of, or showing delight in. Their delight is not in Esau, who got “the fatness of earth” (Gen. xxvii. 39) as his portion. And those writers may be right who consider Jacob as a name for Messiah, to whom belong the true birthright and blessing.—Andrew A. Bonar.

Verse 6.—“That seek thy face, O Jacob.” He is “the seed of Jacob;” he is “the Holy One of Israel;” “the face of thine Anointed” is the face of him who is both God and man; for “we shall see him as he is.”—Isaac Williams.

Verse 6.—“O Jacob,” or, O God of Jacob. As the church is called Christ (1 Cor. xii. 12), so God is here called “Jacob;” such a near union there is betwixt him and his people. Or, this is Jacob. So the true seekers are fitly called, first, because Israelites indeed (John i. 47; Rom. ix. 6); secondly, because they see God face to face, as Jacob did at Peniel (Gen. xxxii. 24-30); thirdly, because they also, as he, do bear away a blessing (Hos. xii. 4), even “righteousness from the God of their salvation,” as in the verse aforegoing.—John Trapp.

Verse 7.—“Lift up your heads, O ye gates.” The gates of the temple were indeed as described, very lofty and magnificent, in proportion to the gigantic dimensions of that extraordinary edifice. But the phrase, “Lift up your heads,” refers not so much to their loftiness, as to the upper part being formed so as to be lifted up; while the under portion opened in folding doors.—Robert Jamieson, in Paxton’s “Illustrations of Scripture.”

Verse 7.—“Lift up your heads, O ye gates.” At the castle of Banias, in Syria, are the remains of an ancient gate which was drawn up, like a blind, the gate fitting in grooves. This will fully explain the term.—John Gadsby.

Verse 7.—“Lift up.” A phrase or term taken from triumphal arches or great porticoes, set up, or beautified and adorned for the coming in of great, victorious, and triumphant captains.—John Diodati.

Verse 7.—“Be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” Some interpret this of the doors of our heart, according to that (Rev. iii. 20), “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him,” etc. In the gospel history, we find that Christ had a fourfold entertainment among men. Some received him into house, not into heart, as Simon the Pharisee (Luke vii. 44), who gave him no kiss nor water to his feet; some into heart, but not into house, as the faithful centurion (Matt. viii. 8), esteeming himself unworthy that Christ should come under his roof; some neither into house nor heart, as the graceless Gergesites (Matt. viii. 34); some both into house and heart, as Lazarus, Mary, Martha. John iii. 15; Luke x. 38. Now that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith, and that our bodies may be temples of his Holy Spirit, we must as our prophet exhorts here, lift up our souls, that is, in the words of St. Paul (Col. iii. 2), our affections must be set on things which are above, and not on things which are on earth: if we desire to lift up our hearts unto Christ’s verity, we may not lift them up unto the world’s vanity; that is, we must not fasten our love too much upon the things of this life, but on those pleasures at God’s right hand which are evermore; that as we have borne the image of the first Adam, who was earthly, so we should bear the image of the second Adam, which is heavenly. 1 Cor. xv. 49. The prophane worldling sings a Nunc dimittis unto Christ, and saith as the devils, “Ah! what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Narazeth?” (Mark i. 24); and as Job reports his words, “Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.” Job xxi. 14. On the contrary, the religious soul, enjoying the possession of the Saviour, chanteth a merry Magnificat, and a pleasant Te Deum: she saith unto Christ, as Ruth unto Naomi (Ruth i. 16), “Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee.” Nay, death itself shall not part us, for when I am loosed out of my body’s prison, I hope to be with Christ; as Ittai then unto David, I say unto Jesus, “As the Lord liveth, and as my Lord the king liveth, surely in what place the lord my king shall be, whether in death, or life, even there also will thy servant be.” 2 Sam. xv. 21. O Lord, which art the God of my salvation, I lift my heart to thee, desirous to seek thee, both in the right ubi—where thou mayst be found, and in the right quando—while thou mayst be found. Psalm xviii. 47; xxv. 1. Open my dull ears and hard heart, that thy Son my Saviour may come in and dwell with me. Grant me grace that I may still hear while he calleth, open while he knocketh, and hold him also when I have him; that I may both ascend thine hill, and stand in thine holy places; that I may not only sojourn in thy tabernacle, but also rest and dwell upon the mountain of thine holiness.—John Boys.

Verse 7.—“Everlasting doors.” Heaven’s gates are called “everlasting,” because they shall endure for ever, or because they be the doors unto the life which is everlasting.—John Boys.

Verse 7.—Whatever we may think of these things, David thought it high time for him to bid such a messenger welcome, and to open his heart for the receiving his God. Hear what he saith to his own heart and others: “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” And because the door of men’s hearts is locked, and barred and bolted, and men are in a deep sleep, and will not hear the knocking that is at the gate, though it be loud, though it be a king; therefore David knocks again, “Lift up, ye everlasting doors.” Why, what haste, saith the sinner? What haste? Why, here’s the King at your gates; and that not an ordinary king neither; he is a glorious King, that will honour you so far, if you open quickly, as to lodge within, to take up his abode in your house, to dwell with you. But the soul for all this doth not yet open, but stands still questioning, as if it were an enemy rather than a friend that stood there, and asks, “Who is this King of glory?” Who? He answers again, “It is the Lord of Hosts;” he, that if you will not open quickly and thankfully too, can easily pull your house down about your ears; he is the Lord of hosts, that King who hath a mighty army always at his command, who stand ready for their commission, and then you should know who it is you might have had for your friend; “Lift up, therefore, your heads, O ye gates.” Open quickly, ye that had rather have God for your friend than for your enemy. Oh, why should not the soul of every sinner cry out, Lord, the door is locked, and thou hast the key; I have been trying what I can do, but the wards are so rusty that I cannot possibly turn the key? But, Lord, throw the door off the hinges, anything in the world so thou wilt but come in and dwell here. Come, O mighty God, break through doors of iron, and bars of brass, and make way for thyself by thy love and power. Come, Lord, and make thyself welcome; all that I have is at thy service; O fit my soul to entertain thee!—James Janeway.

Verse 7.—He hath left with us the earnest of the Spirit, and taken from us the earnest of our flesh, which he hath carried into heaven as a pledge that the whole shall follow after.—Tertullian.

Verse 7.—Christ is gone to heaven as a victor; leading sin, Satan, death, hell, and all his enemies in triumph at his chariot wheels. He has not only overcome his enemies for himself, but for all his people, whom he will make conquerors, yea, “more than conquerors.” As he has overcome, so shall they also overcome; and as he is gone to heaven a victor, they shall follow in triumph. He is in heaven as a Saviour. When he came from heaven it was in the character of a Saviour; when on earth he obtained eternal salvation; in heaven he lives as a Saviour; when he comes again from heaven he will come as a Saviour; and when he will return, he will return as a Saviour. He is also gone to heaven as the rightful heir. He is not gone to heaven as a sojourner, but as “the heir of all things.” He is the heir of heavenly glory and happiness, and believers are “heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.”—Henry Pendlebury, 1626-1695.

Verse 7.—“O clap your hands together, all ye people; sing unto God with the voice of melody. God is gone up with a merry noise, and the Lord with the sound of the trump.” Psalm xlvii. 1, 5. This Ark, which has saved the world from destruction, after floating on a deluge of blood, rests at length on the mountain. This innocent Joseph, whose virtue had been oppressed by the synagogue, is brought out of the dungeon to receive a crown. This invincible Samson has carried away the gates of hell, and goes in triumph to the everlasting hills. This victorious Joshua has passed over Jordan with the ark of the covenant, and takes possession of the land of the living. This Sun of righteousness, which had gone down ten degrees, returns backward to the place which it had left. He who was “a worm” at his birth, a Lamb in his passion, and a Lion in his resurrection, now ascends as an Eagle to heaven, and encourages us to follow him thither. This day heaven learns to endure man’s presence, and men to walk above the stars; the heavenly Jerusalem receives its rightful King, the church its High Priest, the house of God its Heritor, the whole world its Ruler. “O sing praises, sing praises unto our God: O sing praises, sing praises unto our King.” Psalm xlvii. 6-8. “God reigneth over the heathen, God sitteth upon his holy seat.” “The princes of the people are joined unto” him; “he is very highly exalted” above them.—From “The Life of Jesus Christ in Glory,” translated from the French of James Nouet.

Verses 7, 8.—Christ being now arrived at heaven’s doors, those heavenly spirits that accompanied him began to say, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in!” to whom some of the angels that were within, not ignorant of his person, but admiring his majesty and glory, said again, “Who is the King of glory?” and then they answered, “The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle;” and thereupon those twelve gates of the holy city, of new Jerusalem, opened of their own accord, and Jesus Christ with all his ministering spirits entered in. O my soul, how should this heighten thy joy and enlarge thy comforts, in that Christ is now received up into glory? Every sight of Christ is glorious, and in every sight thou shouldst wait on the Lord Jesus Christ for some glorious manifestations of himself. Come, live up to the rate of this great mystery; view Christ as entering into glory, and thou wilt find the same sparkles of glory on thy heart. Oh! this sight is a transforming sight: “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Cor. iii. 18.—Isaac Ambrose.

Verses 7, 8.—Ye that are thus the living temples of the Lord, and have already entertained his sanctifying Spirit into you, do you lift up your hearts in the use of holy ordinances through faith, in joyful desires and assured expectation of him; yea, be you abundantly lift up by faith in the use of holy means, who are the everlasting habitation of an everlasting God, with a joyful and assured welcome of him; for so shall you invite and undoubtedly entertain the high and mighty Potentate, the Lord Christ into your souls, with the glorious manifestation and ravishing operation of his love, benefits, and graces. And know, O all ye faithful and obedient ones, for your courage and comfort, who, and of what quality this glorious King, the Lord Jesus is, whom the world despises but you honour. Why, he is the Almighty God, of power all-sufficient to preserve and defend his people and church, that in trust of him do love and serve him, against all the strength and power of men and devils that do or shall malign or oppose themselves against them, and to put them to the foil, as we his Israel in the letter have found by experience for your instruction and corroboration that are his people in spirit.—George Abbot, in “Brief Notes upon the whole Book of Psalms,” 1651.

Verses 7-10.—Oh, what tongue of the highest archangel of heaven can express the welcome of thee, the King of glory, into these blessed regions of immortality? Surely the empyreal heaven never resounded with so much joy: God ascended with jubilation, and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet. It is not for us, weak and finite creatures, to wish to conceive those incomprehensible, spiritual, divine gratulations, that the glorious Trinity gave to the victorious and now glorified human nature. Certainly, if, when he brought his only-begotten Son into the world, he said, “Let all the angels worship him;” much more now that he “ascends on high, and hath led captivity captive, hath he given him a name above all names, that at the name of Jesus all knees should bow.” And if the holy angels did so carol at his birth, in the very entrance into that state of humiliation and infirmity with what triumph did they receive him now returning from the perfect achievement of man’s redemption? and if, when his type had vanished Goliath, and carried his head into Jerusalem, the damsels came forth to meet him with dances and timbrels, how shall we think those angelical spirits triumphed in meeting of the great Conqueror of hell and death? How did they sing, “Lift up your heads, ye gates! and be lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” Surely as he shall come, so he went; and, “Behold, he shall come with thousands of his holy ones; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand thousands stood before him;” from all whom, methinks I hear that blessed applause, “Worthy is the Lamb that was killed, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and praise: praise and honour, and glory, and power, be to him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb for evermore.” And why dost not thou, O my soul, help to bear thy part with that happy choir of heaven? Why art not thou rapt out of my bosom, with an ecstacy of joy, to see this human nature of ours exalted above all the powers of heaven adored of angels, archangels, cherubim, seraphim, and all those mighty and glorious spirits, and sitting there crowned with infinite glory and majesty?—Joseph Hall.

Verses 7-10.—In the twenty-fourth Psalm, we have an account of the actual entrance of Christ into heaven. When the King of England wishes to enter the city of London, through the Temple Bar, the gate being closed against him, the herald demands entrance. “Open the gate.” From within a voice is heard, “Who is there?” The herald answers, “The King of England!” The gate is at once opened, and the king passes, amidst the joyful acclamations of his people. This is an ancient custom, and the allusion is to it in this Psalm. “The Lord ascended with a shout;” he approached the heavenly portal—the herald in his escort demanded an entrance, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” The celestial watchers within ask, “Who is the King of glory?” The heralds answer, “The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.” The question and answer being repeated once more, the gates lift up their heads, and the everlasting doors are lifted up. The Prince enters his Father’s palace, greeted with the acclamations of heaven, all whose inhabitants unite in one shout of Joy ineffable: “The Lord of Hosts, he is the King of glory!”—Christmas Evans.

Verses 7-10.—If we follow our Redeemer in his ascension and session at the right hand of God, where he is constituted Lord of all, angels, principalities, and powers being made subject to him, and where he sits till his enemies are made his footstool, we shall observe the tide of celestial blessedness rise higher and higher still. The return of a great and beloved prince, who should by only hazarding his life, have saved his country, would fill a nation with ecstacy. Their conversation in every company would turn upon him, and all their thoughts and joys concentrate in him. See then the King of kings, after having by death abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light; after spoiling the powers of darkness, and ruining all their schemes; see him return in triumph! There was something like triumph when he entered into Jerusalem. All the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?” And the multitude answered, It is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth; and the very children sung, Hosannah to the Son of David: blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord; hosannah in the highest! How much greater then must be the triumph of his entry into the heavenly Jerusalem! Would not all the city be “moved” in this case, saying “Who is this?” See thousands of angels attending him, and ten thousand times ten thousand come forth to meet him! The entrance of the ark into the city of David was but a shadow of this, and the responsive strains which were sung on that occasion would on this be much more applicable.—Andrew Fuller.

Verses 7-10.—Why is the song repeated? Why are the everlasting gates invited to lift up their heads a second time? We may not pretend here, or in any place, to know all the meaning of the divine Psalms. But what if the repetition of this verse was meant to put us in mind that our Saviour’s ascension will be repeated also? He will not indeed die any more; death can no more have any dominion over him; “there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin.” Neither of course can he rise again any more. But as he will come again at the end of the world, to judge the quick and the dead, so after that descent he will have to ascend again. And I say, this second ascension may be signified by the Psalmist calling on the everlasting doors to lift up their heads a second time, and make way for the King of glory. Now observe the answer made this second time, “Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.” Before, it was “the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle;” now it is “The Lord of Hosts.” Christ ascending the first time, to intercede for us at his Father’s right hand, is called “The Lord mighty in battle.” But Christ, ascending the second time, after the world hath been judged, and the good and bad separated for ever, is called “the Lord of hosts.” Why this difference in his divine titles? We may reverently take it, that it signifies to us the difference between his first and second coming down to earth, his first and second ascension into heaven. As in other respects his first coming was in great humility, so in this, that he came, in all appearance, alone. The angels were indeed waiting round him, but not visibly, not in glory. “He trode the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with him.” He wrestled with death, hell and Satan, alone. Alone he rose from the dead: alone, as far as man could see, he went up to heaven. Thus he showed himself “the Lord mighty in battle,” mighty in that single combat which he, as our champion, our David, victoriously maintained against our great enemy. But when he shall come down and go up the second time, he will show himself “the Lord of hosts.” Instead of coming down alone in mysterious silence, as in his wonderful incarnation, he will be followed by all the armies of heaven. “The Lord my God will come, and all his saints with him.” “The Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints.” “The Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father, and all the holy angels with him.” “Thousand thousands will stand around him, and ten thousand times ten thousand will minister unto him.” Instead of the silence of that quiet chamber at Nazareth, and of the holy Virgin’s womb, there will be the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God accompanying him. Thus he will come down as the Lord of hosts, and as the Lord of hosts he will ascend again to his Father. After the judgment, he will pass again through the everlasting doors, with a greater company than before; for he will lead along with him, into the heavenly habitation, all those who shall have been raised from their graves and found worthy. Hear how the awful sight is described by one who will doubtless have a high place in that day near the Judge. The great apostle and prophet, St. Paul, says, “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”—John Keble, M.A.

Verses 7-10.—

In his blessed life I see the path, and in his death the price, And in his great ascent the proof supreme Of immortality. And did he rise? Hear, O ye nations! hear it, O ye dead! He rose! He rose! He burst the bars of death. Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates! And give the King of glory to come in. Who is the King of glory? He who left His throne of glory for the pangs of death. Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates! And give the King of glory to come in. Who is the King of glory? He who slew The ravenous foe that gorged all human race. The King of glory, he whose glory filled Heaven with amazement at his love to man, And with divine complacency beheld Powers most illumined ’wildered in the theme.

Edward Young.

Verses 7-10.—

Lift up your heads, ye gates, and, O prepare, Ye living orbs, your everlasting doors, The King of glory comes! What King of glory? He whose puissant might Subdued Abaddon, and the infernal powers Of darkness bound in adamantine chains: Who, wrapp’d in glory, with the Father reigns, Omnipotent, immortal, infinite!

James Scott.

Verse 8.—“Who is the King of glory?” Christ in two respects is “the King of glory.” 1. For that all honour and glory belong properly to him—his is “the kingdom, the power, and the glory” (Matt. vi. 13), called in this regard, “The Lord of glory.” 1 Cor. ii. 8. 2. For that Christ maketh us partakers of his glory, termed in this respect our glorious Lord Jesus. James ii. 1. If the Lord of hosts, strong and mighty in battle, be the King of glory, then Christ, (having conquered all his enemies, and made them his footstool, triumphing over death, and the devil which is the founder of death, and sin which is the sting of death, and the grave which is the prison of death, and hell itself which is the proper dominion of the devil and death) is doubtless in himself, “the King of glory.” And for as much as he died for our sins, and is risen again for our justification, and is ascended on high to give gifts unto men—in this life grace, in the next glory—what is he less than a “King of glory” towards us, of whom and through whom alone we that fight his battles are delivered from the hands of all that hate us, and so made victors (1 Cor. xv. 57), yea, “more than conquerors.” Rom. viii. 37.—John Boys.

Verse 8.—“The Lord strong and mighty.” “Strong and mighty,” in subduing all adversaries; and overcoming death and the devil who had the power of death.—Ludolphus, quoted by Isaac Williams.

Verse 10.—“Jehovah of hosts,” or, as the Hebrew is, Jehovah Tsebaoth, for so the word is used by the apostles, untranslated in the Greek, Sabaoth. Rom. ix. 29. It signifieth hosts or armies standing ready in martial order, and in battle array, and comprehendeth all creatures in heaven and in earth, which are pressed to do the will of God.—Henry Ainsworth.

HINTS TO PREACHERS.

Verse 1.—The great Proprietor, his estates and his servants, his rights and wrongs.

Verse 1.—“The earth is the Lord’s.” I. Mention other claimants—idols: pope, man, devil, etc. II. Try the suit. III. Carry out the verdict. Use our substance, preach everywhere, claim all things for God. IV. See how glorious the earth looks when she bears her Master’s name.

Verse 1 (last clause).—All men belong to God. His sons or his subjects, his servants or his serfs, his sheep or his goats, etc.

Verse 2.—Divine purposes accomplished by singular means.

Verse 2.—Founded on the seas. Instability of terrestrial things.

Verse 3.—The all-important question.

Verse 4 (first clause).—Connection between outward morality and inward purity.

Verse 4 (second clause).—Men judged by their delights.

Verse 4.—“Clean hands.” 1. How to get them clean. II. How to keep them clean. III. How to defile them. IV. How to get them clean again.

Verses 4, 5.—Character manifested and favour received.

Verse 5 (second clause).—The good man receiving righteousness and needing salvation, or the evangelical meaning of apparently legal passages.

Verse 6.—Those who truly seek fellowship with God.

Verse 7.—Accommodate the text to the entrance of Jesus Christ into our hearts. I. There are obstacles, “gates,” “doors.” II. We must will to remove them: “lift up.” III. Grace must enable us: “be ye lift up.” IV. Our Lord will enter. V. He enters as “King,” and “King of glory.”

Verse 7.—The ascension and its teachings.

Verses 7-10.—I. His title—the Lord of hosts. II. His victories, implied in the expression, The Lord strong and mighty in battle. III. His mediatorial title, The King of glory. IV. His authoritative entrance into the holy place.—John Newton’s “Messiah.”

Verse 8.—The mighty Hero. His pedigree, his power, his battles, his victories.

Verse 10.—The sovereignty and glory of God in Christ.

PSALM XXV.

TITLE.—A Psalm of David. David is pictured in this Psalm as in a faithful miniature. His holy trust, his many conflicts, his great transgressions, his bitter repentance, and his deep distresses are all here; so that we see the very heart of “the man after God’s own heart.” It is evidently a composition of David’s later days, for he mentions the sins of his youth, and from its painful references to the craft and cruelty of his many foes, it will not be too speculative a theory to refer it to the period when Absalom was heading the great rebellion against him. This has been styled the second of the seven Penitential Psalms. It is the mark of a true saint that his sorrows remind him of his sins, and his sorrow for sin drives him to his God.

SUBJECT AND DIVISION.—The twenty-two verses of this Psalm begin in the original with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in their proper order. It is the first instance we have of an inspired acrostic or alphabetical song. This method may have been adopted by the writer to assist the memory; and the Holy Spirit may have employed it to show us that the graces of style and the arts of poetry may lawfully be used in his service. Why should not all the wit and ingenuity of man be sanctified to noblest ends by being laid upon the altar of God? From the singularity of the structure of the Psalm, it is not easy to discover any marked divisions; there are great changes of thought, but there is no variation of subject; the moods of the writer’s mind are twofold—prayer and meditation; and as these appear in turns, we shall thus divide the verses. Prayer from verses 1 to 7; meditation, verses 8, 9, 10; prayer, verse 11; meditation, verses 12-15; prayer, verses 16 to end.

EXPOSITION.

Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul.

2 O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.

3 Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.

4 Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.

5 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.

6 Remember, O LORD, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old.

7 Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O LORD.

1. “Unto thee, O Lord.”—See how the holy soul flies to its God like a dove to its cote. When the storm-winds are out, the Lord’s vessels put about and make for their well-remembered harbour of refuge. What a mercy that the Lord will condescend to hear our cries in time of trouble, although we may have almost forgotten him in our hours of fancied prosperity. “Unto thee, O Jehovah, do I lift up my soul.” It is but mockery to uplift the hands and the eyes unless we also bring our souls into our devotions. True prayer may be described as the soul rising from earth to have fellowship with heaven; it is taking a journey upon Jacob’s ladder, leaving our cares and fears at the foot, and meeting with a covenant God at the top. Very often the soul cannot rise, she has lost her wings, and is heavy and earth-bound; more like a burrowing mole than a soaring eagle. At such dull seasons we must not give over prayer, but must, by God’s assistance, exert all our power to lift up our hearts. Let faith be the lever and grace be the arm, and the dead lump will yet be stirred. But what a lift it has sometimes proved! With all our tugging and straining we have been utterly defeated, until the heavenly loadstone of our Saviour’s love has displayed its omnipotent attractions, and then our hearts have gone up to our Beloved like mounting flames of fire.

2. “O my God.” This title is more dear and near than the name Jehovah, which is used in the first sentence. Already the sweet singer has drawn nearer to his heavenly helper, for he makes bold to grasp him with the hand of assured possession, calling him, my God. Oh the more than celestial music of that word—“my God!” It is to be observed that the Psalmist does not deny expression to those gracious feelings with which God had favoured him; he does not fall into loathsome mock modesty, but finding in his soul a desire to seek the Lord he avows it; believing that he had a rightful interest in Jehovah he declares it, and knowing that he had confidence in his God he professes it; “O my God, I trust in thee.” Faith is the cable which binds our boat to the shore, and by pulling at it we draw ourselves to the land; faith unites us to God, and then draws us near to him. As long as the anchor of faith holds there is no fear in the worst tempest; if that should fail us there would be no hope left. We must see to it that our faith is sound and strong, for otherwise prayer cannot prevail with God. Woe to the warrior who throws away his shield; what defence can be found for him who finds no defence in God? “Let me not be ashamed.” Let not my disappointed hopes makes me feel ashamed of my former testimonies to thy faithfulness. Many were on the watch for this. The best of men have their enemies, and should pray against them that they may not see their wicked desires accomplished. “Let not mine enemies triumph over me.” Suffer no wicked mouth to make blasphemous mirth out of my distresses by asking “Where is thy God?” There is a great jealousy in believers for the honour of God, and they cannot endure that unbelievers should taunt them with the failure of their expectations from the God of their salvation. All other trusts will end in disappointment and eternal shame, but our confidences shall never be confounded.

3. “Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed.” Suffering enlarges the heart by creating the power to sympathize. If we pray eagerly for ourselves, we shall not long be able to forget our fellow-sufferers. None pity the poor like those who have been or are still poor, none have such tenderness for the sick as those who have been long in ill health themselves. We ought to be grateful for occasional griefs if they preserve us from chronic hard-heartedness; for of all afflictions, an unkind heart is the worst, it is a plague to its possessor, and a torment to those around him. Prayer when it is of the Holy Ghost’s teaching is never selfish; the believer does not sue for monopolies for himself, but would have all in like case to partake of divine mercy with him. The prayer may be viewed as a promise; our Heavenly Father will never let his trustful children find him untrue or unkind. He will ever be mindful of his covenant. “Let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.” David had given his enemies no provocation; their hatred was wanton. Sinners have no justifiable reason or valid excuse for transgressing; they benefit no one, not even themselves by their sins; the law against which they transgress is not harsh or unjust; God is not a tyrannical ruler, providence is not a bondage: men sin because they will sin, not because it is either profitable or reasonable to do so. Hence shame is their fitting reward. May they blush with penitential shame now, or else they will not be able to escape the everlasting contempt and the bitter shame which is the promotion of fools in the world to come.

4. “Shew me thy ways, O Lord.” Unsanctified natures clamour for their own way, but gracious spirits cry, “Not my will, but thine be done.” We cannot at all times discern the path of duty, and at such times it is our wisdom to apply to the Lord himself. Frequently the dealings of God with us are mysterious, and then also we may appeal to him as his own interpreter, and in due time he will make all things plain. Moral, providential and mental forms of guidance are all precious gifts of a gracious God to a teachable people. The second petition, “teach me thy paths,” appears to mean more than the first, and may be illustrated by the case of a little child who should say to his father, “Father, first tell me which is the way, and then teach my little trembling feet to walk in it.” What weak dependent creatures we are! How constantly we cry to the Strong for strength!

5. “Lead me in thy truth, and teach me.” The same request as in the last verse. The little child having begun to walk, asks to be still led onward by its parent’s helping hand, and to be further instructed in the alphabet of truth. Experimental teaching is the burden of this prayer. Lead me according to thy truth, and prove thyself faithful; lead me into truth that I may know its preciousness, lead me by the way of truth that I may manifest its spirit. David knew much, but he felt his ignorance and desired to be still in the Lord’s school; four times over in these two verses he applies for a scholarship in the college of grace. It were well for many professors if instead of following their own devices, and cutting out new paths of thought for themselves, they would enquire for the good old ways of God’s own truth, and beseech the Holy Ghost to give them sanctified understandings and teachable spirits. “For thou art the God of my salvation.” The Three-One Jehovah is the Author and Perfector of salvation to his people. Reader, is he the God of your salvation? Do you find in the Father’s election, in the Son’s atonement, and in the Spirit’s quickening all the grounds of your eternal hopes? If so, you may use this as an argument for obtaining further blessings; if the Lord has ordained to save you, surely he will not refuse to instruct you in his ways. It is a happy thing when we can address the Lord with the confidence which David here manifests, it gives us great power in prayer, and comfort in trial. “On thee do I wait all the day.” Patience is the fair handmaid and daughter of faith; we cheerfully wait when we are certain that we shall not wait in vain. It is our duty and our privilege to wait upon the Lord in service, in worship, in expectancy, in trust all the days of our life. Our faith will be tried faith, and if it be of the true kind, it will bear continued trial without yielding. We shall not grow weary of waiting upon God if we remember how long and how graciously he once waited for us.

6. “Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving-kindnesses.” We are usually tempted in seasons of affliction to fear that our God has forgotten us, or forgotten his usual kindness towards us; hence the soul doth as it were put the Lord in remembrance, and beseech him to recollect those deeds of love which once he wrought towards it. There is a holy boldness which ventures thus to deal with the Most High, let us cultivate it; but there is also an unholy unbelief which suggests our fears, let us strive against it with all our might. What gems are those two expressions, “tender mercies and loving-kindnesses”! They are the virgin honey of language; for sweetness no words can excel them; but as for the gracious favours which are intended by them, language fails to describe them.

“When all thy mercies, O my God, My rising soul surveys, Transported with the view, I’m lost In wonder, love and praise.”

If the Lord will only do unto us in the future as in the past, we shall be well content. We seek no change in the divine action, we only crave that the river of grace may never cease to flow.

“For they have been ever of old.” A more correct translation would be “from eternity.” David was a sound believer in the doctrine of God’s eternal love. The Lord’s loving-kindnesses are no novelties. When we plead with him to bestow them upon us, we can urge use and custom of the most ancient kind. In courts of law men make much of precedents, and we may plead them at the throne of grace. “Faith,” saith Dickson, “must make use of experiences and read them over unto God out of the register of a sanctified memory, as a recorder to him who cannot forget.” With an unchangeable God it is a most effectual argument to remind him of his ancient mercies and his eternal love. By tracing all that we enjoy to the fountain-head of everlasting love we shall greatly cheer our hearts, and those do us but sorry service who try to dissuade us from meditating upon election and its kindred topics.

7 “Remember not the sins of my youth.” Sin is the stumbling-block. This is the thing to be removed. Lord, pass an act of oblivion for all my sins, and especially for the hot-blooded wanton follies of my younger years. Those offences which we remember with repentance God forgets, but if we forget them, justice will bring them forth to punishment. The world winks at the sins of young men, and yet they are not so little after all; the bones of our youthful feastings at Satan’s table will stick painfully in our throats when we are old men. He who presumes upon his youth is poisoning his old age. How large a tear may wet this page as some of us reflect upon the past! “Nor my transgressions.” Another word for the same evils. Sincere penitents cannot get through their confessions at a gallop; they are constrained to use many bemoanings, for their swarming sins smite them with so innumerable griefs. A painful sense of any one sin provokes the believer to repentance for the whole mass of his iniquities. Nothing but the fullest and clearest pardon will satisfy a thoroughly awakened conscience. David would have his sins not only forgiven, but forgotten.

“According to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O Lord.” David and the dying thief breathe the same prayer, and doubtless they grounded it upon the same plea, viz, the free grace and unmerited goodness of Jehovah. We dare not ask to have our portion measured from the balances of justice, but we pray to be dealt with by the hand of mercy.

8 Good and upright is the LORD: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.

9 The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.

10 All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

These three verses are a meditation upon the attributes and acts of the Lord. He who toils in the harvest field of prayer should occasionally pause awhile and refresh himself with a meal of meditation.

8. “Good and upright is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.” Here the goodness and the rectitude of the divine character are beheld in friendly union; he who would see them thus united in bonds of perfect amity must stand at the foot of the cross and view them blended in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. It is no less true than wonderful that through the atonement the justice of God pleads as strongly as his grace for the salvation of the sinners whom Jesus died to save. Moreover, as a good man naturally endeavours to make others like himself, so will the Lord our God in his compassion bring sinners into the way of holiness and conform them to his own image; thus the goodness of our God leads us to expect the reclaiming of sinful men. We may not conclude from God’s goodness that he will save those sinners who continue to wander in their own ways, but we may be assured that he will renew transgressors’ hearts and guide them into the way of holiness. Let those who desire to be delivered from sin take comfort from this. God himself will condescend to be the teacher of sinners. What a ragged school is this for God to teach in! God’s teaching is practical; he teaches sinners not only the doctrine, but the way.

9. “The meek will he guide in judgment.” Meek spirits are in high favour with the Father of the meek and lowly Jesus, for he sees in them the image of his only-begotten Son. They know their need of guidance, and are willing to submit their own understandings to divine will, and therefore the Lord condescends to be their guide. Humble spirits are in this verse endowed with a rich inheritance; let them be of good cheer. Trouble puts gentle spirits to their wits’ ends, and drives them to act without discretion, but grace comes to the rescue, enlightens their mind to follow that which is just, and helps them to discern the way in which the Lord would have them to go. Proud of their own wisdom fools will not learn, and therefore miss their road to heaven, but lowly hearts sit at Jesu’s feet, and find the gate of glory, for “the meek will he teach his way.” Blessed teacher! Favoured scholar! Divine lesson! My soul, be thou familiar with the whole.

10. This is a rule without an exception. God is good to those that be good. Mercy and faithfulness shall abound towards those who through mercy are made faithful. Whatever outward appearances may threaten we should settle it steadfastly in our minds that while grace enables us to obey the Lord’s will we need not fear that Providence will cause us any real loss. There shall be mercy in every unsavoury morsel, and faithfulness in every bitter drop; let not our hearts be troubled, but let us rest by faith in the immutable covenant of Jehovah, which is ordered in all things and sure. Yet this is not a general truth to be trampled upon by swine, it is a pearl for a child’s neck. Gracious souls, by faith resting upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus, keep the covenant of the Lord, and, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit, they walk in his testimonies; these will find all things co-working for their good, but to the sinner there is no such promise. Keepers of the covenant shall be kept by the covenant; those who follow the Lord’s commands shall find the Lord’s mercy following them.

11 For thy name’s sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.

This sentence of prayer would seem out of place were it not that prayer is always in its place, whether in season or out of season. Meditation having refreshed the Psalmist, he falls to his weighty work again, and wrestles with God for the remission of his sin. “For thy name’s sake, O Lord.” Here is a blessed, never-failing plea. Not for our sakes or our merits’ sake, but to glorify thy mercy, and to show forth the glory of thy divine attributes. “Pardon mine iniquity.” It is confessed, it is abhorred, it is consuming my heart with grief; Lord forgive it; let thine own lips pronounce my absolution. “For it is great.” It weighs so heavily upon me that I pray thee remove it. Its greatness is no difficulty with thee, for thou art a great God, but the misery which it causes to me is my argument with thee for speedy pardon. Lord, the patient is sore sick, therefore, heal him. To pardon a great sinner will bring thee great glory, therefore for thy name’s sake pardon me. Observe how this verse illustrates the logic of faith, which is clean contrary to that of a legal spirit; faith looks not for merit in the creature, but hath regard to the goodness of the Creator; and instead of being staggered by the demerits of sin it looks to the precious blood, and pleads all the more vigorously because of the urgency of the case.

12 What man is he that feareth the LORD? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.

13 His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth.

14 The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.

15 Mine eyes are ever toward the LORD; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.

12. “What man is he that feareth the Lord?” Let the question provoke self-examination. Gospel privileges are not for every pretender. Art thou of the seed royal or no? “Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.” Those whose hearts are right shall not err for want of heavenly direction. Where God sanctifies the heart he enlightens the head. We all wish to choose our way; but what a mercy is it when the Lord directs that choice, and makes free-will to be good-will! If we make our will God’s will, God will let us have our will. God does not violate our will, but leaves much to our choice; nevertheless, he instructs our wills, and so we choose that which is well-pleasing in his sight. The will should be subject to law; there is a way which we should choose, but so ignorant are we that we need to be taught, and so wilful that none but God himself can teach us effectually.

13. He who fears God has nothing else to fear. “His soul shall dwell at ease.” He shall lodge in the chamber of content. One may sleep as soundly in the little bed in the corner as in the Great Bed of Ware; it is not abundance but content that gives true ease. Even here, having learned by grace both to abound and to be empty, the believer dwells at ease; but how profound will be the ease of his soul for ever! There he will enjoy the “otium cum dignitate;” ease and glory shall go together. Like a warrior whose battles are over, or a husbandman whose barns are full, his soul shall take its ease, and be merry for ever. “His seed shall inherit the earth.” God remembers, Isaac for the sake of Abraham, and Jacob for the sake of Isaac. Good men’s sons have a goodly portion to begin the world with, but many of them, alas! turn a father’s blessing into a curse. The promise is not broken because in some instances men wilfully refuse to receive it; moreover, it is in its spiritual meaning that it now holds good; our spiritual seed do inherit all that was meant by “the earth,” or Canaan; they receive the blessing of the new covenant. May the Lord make us the joyful parents of many spiritual children, and we shall have no fears about their maintenance, for the Lord will make each one of them princes in all the earth.

14. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.” Some read it “the friendship:” it signifies familiar intercourse, confidential intimacy, and select fellowship. This is a great secret. Carnal minds cannot guess what is intended by it, and even believers cannot explain it in words, for it must be felt to be known. The higher spiritual life is necessarily a path which the eagle’s eye hath not known, and which the lion’s whelp has not travelled; neither natural wisdom nor strength can force a door into this inner chamber. Saints have the key of heaven’s hieroglyphics; they can unriddle celestial enigmas. They are initiated into the fellowship of the skies; they have heard words which it is not possible for them to repeat to their fellows. “And he will shew them his covenant.” Its antiquity, security, righteousness, fulness, graciousness and excellence shall be revealed to their hearts and understandings, and above all, their own part in it shall be sealed to their souls by the witness of the Holy Spirit. The designs of love which the Lord has to his people in the covenant of grace, he has been pleased to show to believers in the Book of Inspiration, and by his Spirit he leads us into the mystery, even the hidden mystery of redemption. He who does not know the meaning of this verse, will never learn it from a commentary; let him look to the cross for the secret lies there.

15. “Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord.” The writer claims to be fixed in his trust, and constant in his expectation; he looks in confidence and waits in hope. We may add to this look of faith and hope the obedient look of service, the humble look of reverence, the admiring look of wonder, the studious look of meditation and the tender look of affection. Happy are those whose eyes are never removed from their God. “The eye,” says Solomon, “is never satisfied with seeing,” but this sight is the most satisfying in the world. “For he shall pluck my feet out of the net.” Observe the conflicting condition in which a gracious soul may be placed, his eyes are in heaven and yet his feet are sometimes in a net; his nobler nature ceases not to behold the glories of God, while his baser parts are enduring the miseries of the world. A net is the common metaphor for temptation. The Lord often keeps his people from falling into it, and if they have fallen he rescues them. The word “pluck” is a rough word, and saints who have fallen into sin find that the means of their restoration are not always easy to the flesh; the Lord plucks at us sharply to let us feel that sin is an exceeding bitter thing. But what a mercy is here! Believer, be very grateful for it. The Lord will deliver us from the cunning devices of our cruel enemy, and even if through infirmity we have fallen into sin, he will not leave us to be utterly destroyed but will pluck us out of our dangerous state; though our feet are in the net, if our eyes are up unto God, mercy certainly will interpose.

16 Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted.

17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses.

18 Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.

19 Consider mine enemies; for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred.

20 O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee.

21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee.

22 Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.

16. His own eyes were fixed upon God, but he feared that the Lord had averted his face from him in anger. Oftentimes unbelief suggests that God has turned his back upon us. If we know that we turn to God we need not fear that he will turn from us, but may boldly cry, “Turn thee unto me.” The ground of quarrel is always in ourselves, and when that is removed there is nothing to prevent our full enjoyment of communion with God. “Have mercy upon me.” Saints still must stand upon the footing of mercy; notwithstanding all their experience they cannot get beyond the publican’s prayer, “Have mercy upon me.” “For I am desolate and afflicted.” He was lonely and bowed down. Jesus was in the days of his flesh in just such a condition; none could enter into the secret depths of his sorrows, he trod the winepress alone, and hence he is able to succour in the fullest sense those who tread the solitary path.

“Christ leads me through no darker rooms Than he went through before; He that into God’s kingdom comes, Must enter by this door.”

17. “The troubles of my heart are enlarged.” When trouble penetrates the heart it is trouble indeed. In the case before us, the heart was swollen with grief like a lake surcharged with water by enormous floods; this is used as an argument for deliverance, and it is a potent one. When the darkest hour of the night arrives we may expect the dawn; when the sea is at its lowest ebb the tide must surely turn; and when our troubles are enlarged to the greatest degree, then may we hopefully pray, “O bring thou me out of my distresses.”

18. “Look upon mine affliction and my pain.” Note the many trials of the saints; here we have no less than six words all descriptive of woe. “Desolate, and afflicted, troubles enlarged, distresses, affliction, and pain.” But note yet more the submissive and believing spirit of a true saint; all he asks for is, “Lord, look upon my evil plight;” he does not dictate or even express a complaint; a look from God will content him, and that being granted he asks no more. Even more noteworthy is the way in which the believer under affliction discovers the true source of all the mischief, and lays the axe at the root of it. “Forgive all my sins,” is the cry of a soul that is more sick of sin than of pain, and would sooner be forgiven than healed. Blessed is the man to whom sin is more unbearable than disease, he shall not be long before the Lord shall both forgive his iniquity and heal his diseases. Men are slow to see the intimate connection between sin and sorrow, a grace-taught heart alone feels it.

19. “Consider mine enemies.” Watch them, weigh them, check them, defeat them. “For they are many.” They need the eyes of Argus to watch them, and the arms of Hercules to match them, but the Lord is more than sufficient to defeat them. The devils of hell and the evils of earth are all vanquished when the Lord makes bare his arm. “They hate me with cruel hatred.” It is the breath of the serpent’s seed to hate; their progenitor was a hater, and they themselves must needs imitate him. No hate so cruel as that which is unreasonable and unjust. A man can forgive one who has injured him, but one whom he has injured he hates implacably. “Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves,” is still our Master’s word to us.

20. “O keep my soul” out of evil, “and deliver me” when I fall into it. This is another version of the prayer, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

“Let me not be ashamed.” This is the one fear which like a ghost haunted the Psalmist’s mind. He trembled lest his faith should become the subject of ridicule through the extremity of his affliction. Noble hearts can brook anything but shame. David was of such a chivalrous spirit, that he could endure any torment rather than to be put to dishonour. “For I put my trust in thee.” And therefore the name of God would be compromised if his servants were deserted; this the believing heart can by no means endure.

21. “Let integrity and uprightness preserve me.” What better practical safeguards can a man require? If we do not prosper with these as our guides, it is better for us to suffer adversity. Even the ungodly world admits that “honesty is the best policy.” The heir of heaven makes assurance doubly sure, for apart from the rectitude of his public life, he enlists the guardian care of heaven in secret prayer: “for I wait on thee.” To pretend to wait on God without holiness of life is religious hypocrisy, and to trust to our own integrity without calling upon God is presumptuous atheism. Perhaps the integrity and uprightness referred to are those righteous attributes of God, which faith rests upon as a guarantee that the Lord will not forfeit his word.

22. “Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.” This is a very comprehensive prayer, including all the faithful and all their trials. Sorrow had taught the Psalmist sympathy, and given him communion with the tried people of God; he therefore remembers them in his prayers. Israel, the tried, the wrestling, the conquering hero, fit representative of all the saints. Israel in Egypt, in the wilderness, in wars with Canaanites, in captivity, fit type of the church militant on earth. Jesus is the Redeemer from trouble as well as sin, he is a complete Redeemer, and from every evil he will rescue every saint. Redemption by blood is finished: O God, send us redemption by power. Amen and Amen.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

Whole Psalm.—This is the first of the seven alphabetical Psalms, the others being the 34th, 37th, 111th, 112th, 119th, and 145th. They are specimens of that acrostic mode of writing which seems to have been once so fashionable among the Jews, as is testified by numerous instances of such composition, which are to be met with in their works. Other poetic artifices were likewise adopted. We find many instances of poems being so constructed, that a prayer name, or some particular sentiment, would be not unfrequently expressed by the initial letters of the verses. See Bartolocci’s “Bibliotheca Rabbinica,” vol. ii. p. 260, where examples of such artifices are cited.—George Phillips, B.D., in “The Psalms in Hebrew with a Commentary,” 1846.

Whole Psalm.—This is the first fully alphabetic Psalm.... The only lesson which the use of the alphabetic form may teach is this:—that the Holy Spirit was willing to throw his words into all the moulds of human thought and speech; and whatever ingenuity man may exhibit in intellectual efforts, he should consecrate these to his Lord, making him the “Alpha and Omega” of his pursuits.—Andrew A. Bonar.

Whole Psalm.—Saving grace is a secret that no man knows but the elect and the elect cannot know it neither without special illumination:—1. Special showing—“Shew me thy ways, O Lord,” saith David. 2. Barely showing will not serve the turn, but there must be a special teaching—“Teach me thy paths,” ver. 4. 3. Bare teaching will not avail neither, but there must be a special inculcative teaching—“Teach me in thy ways,” to ver. 8. 4. Inculcative teaching will not do the deed neither, but there must be a special directive teaching—“Guide in judgment and teach,” ver. 9. 5. Directive teaching will not be sufficient neither, but there must be a special manu-ductive teaching—“Lead me forth in thy truth, and teach me,” ver. 5. 6. Manu-ductive teaching will not be effectual, but there must be also a special, choice teaching, a determination of the very will, an elective teaching—“Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose,” verse 12. And what secret is this? not common grace, for that is not the secret of the elect, but special and peculiar grace. 1. The special grace of prayer—“Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul,” verse 1. 2. A special grace of faith—“My God, I trust in thee,” ver. 2. 3. A special grace of repentance—“Remember not the sins of my youth,” etc., verse 7. 4. A special grace of hope—“My hope is in thee,” verse 21. 5. A special grace of continual living in God’s sight, and dependence upon God—“Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord,” verse 15. 6. Which is the root of all God’s special and eternal favour and mercy—“Remember, O Lord thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old,” verse 6; even God’s special mercy to him in particular, verse 11.—William Fenner, in “Hidden Manna,” 1626.

Whole Psalm.—In these four Psalms which immediately follow one another we may find the soul of David presented in all the several postures of piety—lying, standing, sitting, kneeling. In the twenty-second Psalm, he is lying all along, falling flat on his face, low grovelling on the ground, even almost entering into a degree of despair. Speaking of himself in the history of Christ in the mystery, “My God. why hast thou forsaken me?” In the twenty-third Psalm, he is standing, and through God’s favour, in despite of his foes, trampling and triumphing over all opposition; “The Lord is my shepherd, therefore shall I lack nothing.” In the twenty-fourth Psalm he is sitting, like a doctor in his chair, or a professor in his place, reading a lecture of divinity, and describing the character of that man—how he must be accomplished—“who shall ascend into the holy hill,” and hereafter be partaker of happiness. In this twenty-fifth Psalm, he is kneeling, with hands and voice lifted up to God, and on these two hinges the whole Psalm turneth; the one is a hearty beseeching of God’s mercy, the other a humble bemoaning of his own misery.—Thomas Fuller.

Verse 1.—“Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.” The lifting up of the heart presupposeth a former dejection of his soul. The soul of man is pressed down with sin and with the cares of this world, which, as lead doth the net, draweth it so down, that it cannot mount above till God send spiritual prayers, as cork to the net, to exalt it; which arise out of faith, as the flame doth out of the fire, and which must be free of secular cares, and all things pressing down, which showeth unto us that worldlings can no more pray than a mole is able to fly. But Christians are as eagles which mount upward. Seeing then the heart of man by nature is fixed to the earth, and of itself is no more able to rise therefrom than a stone which is fixed in the ground, till God raises it by his power, word, and workmen; it should be our principal petition to the Lord, that it would please him to draw us, that we might run after him; that he would exalt and lift up our hearts to heaven, that they may not lie still in the puddle of this earth.—Archibald Symson.

Verse 1.—“Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.” A godly man prays as a builder builds. Now a builder first layeth a foundation, and because he cannot finish in one day, he comes the second day, and finds the frame standing that he made the first day, and then he adds a second day’s work; and then he comes a third day and finds his two former days’ work standing; then he proceeds to a third day’s work, and makes walls to it, and so he goes on till his building be finished. So prayer is the building of the soul till it reach up to heaven; therefore a godly heart prays, and reacheth higher and higher in prayer, till at last his prayers reach up to God.—William Fenner.

Verse 1.—“Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul:” unto thee in the fulness of thy merits, unto thee in the riches of thy grace; unto thee in the embraces of thy love and comforts of thy Spirit; unto thee, that thy thorns may be my crown, thy blood my balsam, thy curse my blessing, thy death my life, thy cross my triumph. Thus is my “life hid with Christ in God;” and if so, then where should be my soul, but where is my life? And, therefore, “unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.” ... O make good thy name of Lord unto me; as Lord, rebuke Satan and restrain all earthly and carnal affections, that they do not once dare to whisper a temptation to my soul, a distraction to my thoughts, whilst I am in communion with thee, in prayer at thy holy ordinance. Do thou as Lord, rule me by thy grace, govern me by thy Spirit, defend me by thy power, and crown me with thy salvation. Thou Lord, the preserver of heaven and earth, “thou openest thy hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.” Psalm cxlv. 16. O open now thine hand, thy bosom, thy bounty, thy love, and satisfy the desires of my longing soul, which I here “lift up unto thee.”—Robert Mossom, 1657.

Verse 1.—“Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.” Cyprian saith, that in the primitive times the minister was wont to prepare the people’s minds to pray, by prefacing, Sursum corda, lift up your hearts. The Jews at this day write upon the walls of their synagogues these words, Tephillah belo cavannah ceguph belo neshamah; that is, A prayer without the intention of the affection is like a body without a soul. And yet their devotion is a mere outside, saith one—a brainless head and a soulless body: “This people draweth nigh to me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” Isaiah xxix. 13. A carnal man can as little lift up his heart in prayer, as a mole can fly. A David finds it a hard task; since the best heart is lumpish, and naturally beareth downwards, as the poise of a clock, as the lead of a net. Let us therefore “lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us;” and pray to God to draw us up to himself, as the loadstone doth the iron.—John Trapp.

Verse 1.—“Unto thee I lift up my soul.” This follows by a natural consequence after the sublime appeal in the foregoing Psalm to the gates of heaven to lift up their heads to receive Christ, the Lord of hosts and the King of glory, ascending into heaven. As the Collect for Ascension-day expresses it, “Grant, O Lord, that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to have ascended into the heavens, so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend;” and for the Sunday after Ascension, “O God, who hast exalted thine only Son with great triumph to thy kingdom in heaven, send thy Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us to the same place, whither our Saviour Christ is gone before.”—Christopher Wordsworth, in loc.

Verse 1.—“I lift up my soul,” alluding to the sacrifices, which were wont to be lifted up. Hence prayers not answered, not accepted, are said to be stopped from ascending. Lam. iii. 44. When you met with such expressions in the Old Testament concerning prayer, you must still understand them to be allusions to the sacrifices, because the sacrifices were lifted up and did ascend.—Joseph Caryl.

Verse 1.—“My soul.” But how shall I call it mine, seeing it is thine, thine by purchase, thine having bought it with thy blood? Yea, is it not thy spouse whom thou hast wedded to thyself by thy Spirit through faith? And is not this holy sacrament the marriage feast? If so, sure then, my Jesus, I was lost in myself, till found in thee; and therefore my soul is now, and not till now, truly mine, in being wholly thine; so that I can say with confidence, “I lift up my soul unto thee.”—Robert Mossom.

Verse 2, 3.—When David had prayed, “O my God, I trust in thee; let me not be ashamed!” In the next verse, as if conscious to himself that his prayers were too restrictive, narrow, and niggardly, he enlargeth the bounds thereof, and builds them on a broader bottom, “Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed.” Thus it is that charity in the midst of our religious devotions must have rehoboth (room enough to expatiate in). Our petitions must not be pent or confined to our own private good, but extended to the benefit of all God’s servants, in what condition soever.—Thomas Fuller.

Verse 3.—“Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed.” To wit, neither by their own disappointments, nor mine. For this last some add, because if he should fail of his hopes, he knew this would be a great discouragement of others.—Arthur Jackson, M.A., 1593-1666.

Verse 3.—“Let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.” All persons who transgress, do it, in some sense, without cause; since they cannot excuse or justify their conduct. God is so amiable and excellent in every part of his great name, that he deserves our constant reverence and love. His law is so holy, just, and good, and all his precepts concerning all things so righteous and calculated to make us happy, that the mouth of every transgressor must be stopped. Hence we all must be covered with shame, if dealt with according to our deserts, for all have sinned. But since God has promised to be merciful to those who truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy gospel, shame will be the portion of those only who wilfully persist in their wickedness, and refuse to return to God by Jesus Christ. These then are the persons whom the Psalmist speaks of as transgressing without cause, and doubtless these have no cloak for their sin.—William Richardson, 1825.

Verse 3.—“Let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.” Let shame be sent to the right owner, even to those that deal disloyally, unprovoked on my part. And so it was; for Achitophel hanged himself, Absalom was trussed up by the hand of God, and dispatched by Joab; the people that conspired with him, partly perished by the sword, and partly fled home, much ashamed of their enterprise. Oh, the power of prayer! what may not the saints have for asking?—John Trapp.

Verse 4.—“Shew me thy ways, O Lord,” etc. There are the “ways” of men, and the “ways” of God; the “paths” of sin, and the “paths” of righteousness: there are “thy ways,” and there are my ways; thine the ways of truth, mine the ways of error; thine which are good in thine eyes, and mine which are good in mine eyes; thine which lead to heaven, mine which lead to hell. Wherefore, “Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths,” lest I mistake mine own ways for thine; yea, lead me in the truth, and teach me, lest I turn out of thy ways into mine own: “shew me thy ways,” by the ministry of thy word; “teach me thy paths,” in the guidance of thy Spirit, “lead me in thy truth,” by the assistance of thy grace.—Robert Mossom.

Verses 4, 5, 9.—Do what you know, and God will teach you what to do. Do what you know to be your present duty, and God will acquaint you with your future duty as it comes to be present. Make it your business to avoid known omissions, and God will keep you from feared commissions. This rule is of great moment, and therefore I will charge it upon you by express Scripture. “Shew me thy ways, O Lord,” i.e., those way wherein I cannot err. “Teach me thy paths,” i.e., that narrow path which is too commonly unknown, those commands that are most strict and difficult, verse 5. “Lead me in thy truth, and teach me,” i.e., teach me evidently, that I may not be deceived; so teach me, that I may not only know thy will, but do it. Here’s his prayer, but what grounds hath he to expect audience? “For thou art the God of my salvation,” q.d., thou Lord, wilt save me, and therefore do not refuse to teach me. “On thee do I wait all the day,” i.e., the whole day, and every day. Other arguments are couched in the following verses, but what answer? verse 9, “The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way,” i.e., those that submit their neck to his yoke, those that are not conceited that they can guide themselves; in necessary, great, and weighty matters they shall not err.—Samuel Annesley, D.D., (1620-1696), in “Morning Exercises at Cripplegate.”

Verse 5.—“Lead me in thy truth, and teach me.” The soul that is unsatiable in prayer, he proceeds, he gets near to God, he gains something, he winds up his heart higher. As a child that seeth the mother have an apple in her hand, and it would fain have it, it will come and pull at the mother’s hand for it: now she lets go one finger, and yet she holds it, and then he pulls again; and then she lets go another finger, and yet she keeps it, and then the child pulls again, and will never leave pulling and crying till it hath got it from its mother. So a child of God, seeing all graces to be in God, he draws near to the throne of grace begging for it, and by his earnest and faithful prayers he opens the hands of God to him; God dealing as parents to their children, holds them off for awhile; not that he is unwilling to give, but to make them more earnest with God, to draw them the nearer to himself.—William Fenner.

Verse 5.—“On thee do I wait all the day.” We must “wait all the day.” 1. Though it be a long day, though we be kept waiting a great while, quite beyond our own reckoning; though when we have waited long, we are still put to wait longer, and are bid, with the prophet’s servant, to go yet seven times (1 Kings xviii. 43), before we perceive the least sign of mercy coming.... 2. Though it be a dark day, yet let us wait upon God “all the day.” Though while we are kept waiting for what God will do, we are kept in the dark concerning what he is doing, and what is best for us to do, yet let us be content to wait in the dark. Though we see not our signs, though there is none to tell us how long, yet let us resolve to wait, how long soever it may be; for though what God doth we know not now, yet we shall know hereafter when the mystery of God shall be finished.... 3. Though it be a stormy day, yet we must wait upon God “all the day.” Though we are not only becalmed, and do not get forward, but though the wind be contrary, and drive us back; nay, though it be boisterous, and the church be tossed with tempests, and ready to sink, yet we must hope the best, yet we must wait, and weather the storm by patience. It is some comfort that Christ is in the ship; the church’s cause is Christ’s own cause, he has espoused it, and he will own it; he is embarked in the same bottom with his people, and therefore why are you fearful?... To wait on God, is—1. To live a life of desire towards God; to wait on him as the beggar waits on his benefactor, with earnest desires to receive supplies from him, as the sick and sore at Bethesda’s pool waited for the stirring of the water, and attended in the porches with desire to be helped in and healed.... 2. It is to live a life of delight in God, as the lover waits on his beloved. Desire is love in motion, as a bird upon the wing; delight is love at rest, as a bird upon the nest; now, though our desire must still be so towards God, as that we must be wishing for more of God, yet our delight must be so in God, as that we must never wish for more than God.... 3. It is to live a life of dependence on God, as the child waits on his father, whom he has confidence in, and on whom he casts all his care. To wait on God is to expect all good to come to us from him, as the worker of all good for us and in us, the giver of all good to us, and the protector of us from all evil. Thus David explains himself (Psalm lxii. 5), “My soul, wait thou only upon God,” and continue still to do so, for “my expectation is from him.”.... 4. It is to live a life of devotedness to God, as the servant waits on his master, ready to observe his will, and to do his work, and in everything to consult his honour and interest. To wait on God is entirely and unreservedly to refer ourselves to his wise and holy directions and disposals, and cheerfully to acquiesce in them, and comply with them. The servant that waits on his master, chooseth not his own way, but follows his master step by step. Thus must we wait on God, as those that have no will of our own but what is wholly resolved into his, and must therefore study to accommodate ourselves to his.—Condensed from Matthew Henry, on “Communion with God.”

Verse 5.—“On thee do I wait all the day.” “On thee,” whose hand of bounty, whose bosom of love, yea, whose bowels of mercy are not only opened, but enlarged to all humble penitents. “On thee do I wait,” wait to hear the secret voice of thy Spirit, speaking peace unto my conscience, wait to feel the reviving vigour of thy grace, quickening mine obedience; wait to see the subduing power of thy Holy Spirit quelling my rebellious sin; wait to feel the cheering virtue of thy heavenly comforts, refreshing my fainting soul; for all these thy blessings, “O thou God of my salvation, on thee do I wait all the day.” “All the day:” being never satisfied with thy goodness, as not more eagerly to long after thy heavenly fulness; wherefore now refresh my faintings, quench not my desires; but the more freely thou givest, let me the more eagerly covet; the more sweet is thy mercy, let be the more eager my longings, that so my whole life on earth may be a continual breathing after that eternal fellowship and communion with thee in heaven; thus, thus, let me wait, even all my life, all the day.—Robert Mossom.

Verse 6.—“Thy tender mercies.” Oh, how does one deep call upon another! The depth of my multiplied miseries, calls, loudly calls, upon the depth of thy manifold mercies; even that mercy whereby thou dost pardon my sin and help mine infirmities; that mercy whereby thou dost sanctify me by thy grace, and comfort me by thy Spirit; that mercy whereby thou dost deliver me from hell, and possess me of heaven. “Remember, O Lord,” all those thy mercies, thy tender mercies, which have been “of old” unto thy saints.—Robert Mossom.

Verse 6.—“Thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses ... have been ever of old.” Let the ancientness of divine love draw up our hearts to a very dear and honourable esteem of it. Pieces of antiquity, though of base metal, and otherwise of little use or value, how venerable are they with learned men! and ancient charters, how careful are men to preserve them; although they contain but temporary privileges, and sometimes but of trivial moment! How then should the great charter of heaven, so much older than the world, be had in everlasting remembrance, and the thoughts thereof be very precious to us; lying down, rising up, and all the day long accompanying of us!... That which is from everlasting shall be to everlasting; if the root be eternal, so are the branches.... Divine love is an eternal fountain that never leaves running while a vessel is empty or capable of holding more; and it stands open to all comers: therefore, come; and if ye have not sufficient of your own, go and borrow vessels, empty vessels, not a few; “pay your debts out of it, and live on the rest” (2 Kings iv. 7), to eternity.—Elisha Coles on “God’s Sovereignty,” 1678.

Verse 7.—“Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions.” In the first place, considering that he had not begun only of late to commit sin, but that he had for a long time heaped up sin upon sin, he bows himself, if we may so speak, under the accumulated load; and, in the second place, he intimates, that if God should deal with him according to the rigour of the law, not only the sins of yesterday, or of a few days, would come into judgment against him, but all the instances in which he had offended, even from his infancy, might now with justice be laid to his charge. As often, therefore, as God terrifies us by his judgments and the tokens of his wrath, let us call to our remembrance, not only the sins which we have lately committed, but also all the transgressions of our past life, proving to us the ground of renewed shame and renewed lamentation.—John Calvin.

Verse 7.—“Remember not the sins of my youth.” This may seem but a superfluous prayer of David; for whereas in charity it may and must be presumed that David long since had begged pardon for his youthful sins, that upon his begging God had granted it, that upon his granting God never revoked it. What need now had David to prefer this petition for pardon of antiquated sin, time out of mind committed by him, time out of mind remitted by God? To this objection I shape a fourfold answer. First, though David no doubt long since had been truly sorrowful for his youthful sins, yet he was sensible in himself, that if God would be extreme to mark what was done amiss, though he had repented of those sins, yet he had sinned in that his repentance. Secondly, though God had forgiven David’s sins so far forth as to pardon him eternal damnation, yet he had not remitted unto him temporal afflictions which perchance pressing upon him at this present, he prayeth in this Psalm for the removing or mitigating of them. So then the sense of his words sounds thus, “Remember not, Lord, the sins of my youth,” that is, Lord, lighten and lessen the afflictions which lie upon me in this mine old age, justly inflicted on me for my youthful sins. Thirdly, God’s pardon for sins past, is ever granted with this condition, that the party so pardoned is bound to his good behaviour for the time to come, which if he breaks, he deserves in the strictness of justice to forfeit the benefit of his pardon. Now David was guilty afterward in that grand transgression of Bathsheba and Uriah, which might in the extremity of justice have made all his youthful sins to be punished afresh upon him. Lastly, grant David certainly assured of the pardon of his youthful sins, yet God’s servants may pray for those blessings they have in possession, not for the obtaining of that they have—that is needless—but for the keeping of what they have obtained, that is necessary. Yea, God is well pleased with such prayers of his saints, and interprets them to be praises unto him, and then these words, “Remember not the sins of my youth,” amount to this effect: blessed be thy gracious goodness, who hast forgiven me the sins of my youth.—Thomas Fuller.

Verse 7.—“Remember not the sins of my youth.” David, after he was called by the power of the word, cries out, “Lord, remember not,” etc.; that gravelled and galled his conscience, the sins of his youth before his call. O beloved, the sins of your youth, though you should be Jobs converted, yet they will bring great disquietness and great horror when you come to age. The lusts of youth, and the vanities of youth, and the sensual pleasures of your youthful days, they will lay a foundation of sorrow when you come to grey hairs to be near your graves. So Job. xx. 11.—Christopher Love, 1654.

Verse 7.—“Remember not the sins of my youth;” let them not move thee to punish or be avenged on me for them; as men, when they remember injuries, seek to be avenged on those who have done them.—William Greenhill.

Verse 7.—“Remember not the sins of my youth.” It is not safe to be at odds with the “Ancient of days.”—John Trapp.

Verse 7.—“The sins of my youth.” Before we come to the principal point we must first clear the text from the incumbrance of a double objection. The first is this:—It may seem (may some say) very improbable that David should have any sins of his youth, if we consider the principals whereupon his youth was past. The first was poverty. We read that his father Jesse passed for an old man, we read not that he passed for a rich man; and probably his seven sons were the principal part of his wealth. Secondly, painfulness. David, though the youngest, was not made a darling, but a drudge; sent by his father to follow the ewes big with young; where he may seem to have learned innocence and simplicity from the sheep he kept. Thirdly, piety (Psalm lxxi. 5), “For thou art my hope, O Lord God; thou art my trust from my youth.” And again in the seventeenth verse of the same Psalm, “O God, thou hast taught me from my youth:” David began to be good betimes, a young saint, and yet crossed that pestilent proverb, was no old devil. And what is more still, he was constantly in the furnace of affliction. Psalm lxxxviii. 15. “Even from my youth up, thy terrors have I suffered with a troubled mind.” The question then will be this, How could that water be corrupted which was daily clarified? How could that steel gather rust which was daily filed? How could David’s soul in his youth be sooty with sin, which was constantly scoured with suffering? But the answer is easy; for though David for the main were a man after God’s own heart (the best transcript of the best copy), yet he, especially in his youth, had his faults and infirmities, yea, his sins and transgressions. Though the Scripture maketh mention of no eminent sin in his youth, the business with Bathsheba being justly to be referred to David’s reduced and elder age. I will not conclude that David was of a wanton constitution because of a ruddy complexion. It is as injurious an inference to conclude all bad which are beautiful, as it is a false and flattering consequence to say all are honest who are deformed. Rather we may collect David’s youth guilty of wantonness from his having so many wives and concubines. But what go I about to do? Expect not that I should tell you the particular sins, when he could not tell his own. Psalm xix. “Who can tell how oft he offendeth?” Or how can David’s sins be known to me, which he confesseth were unknown to himself, which made him say, “O Lord, cleanse me from secret sins”? But to silence our curiosity, that our conscience may speak:—If David’s youth, which was poor, painful, and pious, was guilty of sins, what shall we say, of such whose education hath been wealthy, wanton, and wicked? And I report the rest to be acted with shame, sorrow, and silence in every man’s conscience.—Thomas Fuller.

Verse 7.—“The sins of my youth.” Two aged disciples, one eighty-seven years old, one day met. “Well,” enquired the younger of his fellow pilgrim, “how long have you been interested in religion?” “Fifty years,” was the old man’s reply. “Well, have you ever regretted that you began when young to devote yourself to religion?” “Oh, no!” said he, and the tears trickled down his furrowed cheeks; “I weep when I think of the sins of my youth; it is this which makes me weep now.”—From K. Arvine’s “Cyclopædia of Moral and Religious Anecdotes,” 1859.

Verse 7.—“According to THY mercy,” not mine; for I have forsaken those mercies thou madest mine own (Jonah ii. 8; Psalm lix. 10, 17), in being cruel to myself by my sin, through distrust of thy promise, and upon presumption in thy mercy; yea, let it be, “for THY goodness’ sake,” not mine, for in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no manner of thing that is good. Let thy goodness, then, be the motive, thy mercy the rule of all that grace, and of all those blessings thou vouchsafest unto my soul.—Robert Mossom.

Verse 7.—“According to thy mercy.” Moses was the first that brought up this happy expression, “According to thy mercy” (I know not where it is used by any other man), that is, according to the infinite mercy that is in thy heart and nature. David did next use it (Psalm xxv.), and in the great case of his sin and adultery (Psalm li. 1), “that he would be merciful to him, according to the multitude of his mercies,” And as he needed all the mercies in God, so he confessed the sin of his nature, and hath recourse to the mercies in God’s nature. But it is Psalm xxv. 7, I pitch on; there he doth not content himself only with this expression, “According to thy mercy,” but he adds another phrase, “For thy mercy’s sake,” and “goodness’ sake.” Muis observes in this coherence, “Good and upright is the Lord” (verse 8), that he centres in his nature. Thou hast a merciful nature; deal with me according to that, and for the sake of that, “according to thy mercy,” “for thy goodness’ sake.” The meditation of that attribute was the foundation of his faith and prayer herein. When he hath done, he referreth himself to Moses, verse 11, “For thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.” He refers to that name proclaimed before Moses. Exodus xxxiv. 6, 7. But you will say, How do these expressions, “for thy name’s sake,” “for thy goodness’ sake,” “for thy mercy’s sake,” imply the same as “for himself,” “for his own sake”? how do they involve the Godhead? Look to Isaiah xliii. 25, “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake,” that is, for myself. Isaiah xlviii. 11. “For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it.” You have it twice in one verse; and that which is “for mercy’s sake” in one place, is “for mine own sake” in another, and behold it is I, I am he, as I am God, who doth it. What is this, but “Jehovah, Jehovah, God merciful”?—Thomas Goodwin.

Verse 8.—“Good and upright is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.” As election is the effect of God’s sovereignty, our pardon the fruit of his mercy, our knowledge a stream from his wisdom, our strength an impression of his power; so our purity is a beam from his holiness. As the rectitude of the creature at the first creation was the effect of his holiness, so the purity of the creature by a new creation, is a draught of the same perfection. He is called the Holy One of Israel more in Isaiah, that evangelical prophet, in erecting Zion, and forming a people for himself, than in the whole Scripture besides.—Stephen Charnock.

Verse 8.—“Good and upright is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.” Will not the Lord, who is good, be as gracious to his enemies as he requires us to be to ours? It is his own law, “If thou meet thine enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.” Exodus xxiii. 4. Now God meets us sinners, and all sinners as such are his enemies; he meets us straying like the beast without understanding; and what? will he not bring us again unto himself, the sole proprietary, by that first right of creation, and that more firm right of redemption?—Robert Mossom.

Verse 9.—“The meek will he guide in judgment;” or, the poor (namely, in spirit), will he make to tread in judgment, to foot it aright, to walk judiciously, to behave themselves wisely, as David did (1 Sam. xxiv.), so that Saul feared him. Natural conscience cannot but stoop to the image of God, shining in the hearts and lives of the really religious.—John Trapp.

Verse 9.—“The meek will he guide in judgment.” They have been made meek, i.e., desirous of being taught, and praying to be so; but, being now sensible of unworthiness, they are afraid that God will not teach them. This may be done to other sinners but not to them. Therefore they are told who may expect teaching, even they who desire and pray for teaching.—John Berridge, 1716-1793.

Verse 9.—“He will guide the poor in judgment.” Never will this docility be found in any man, until the heart, which is naturally elated and filled with pride, has been humbled and subdued. As the Hebrew word denotes the poor or afflicted, and is employed in a metaphorical sense, to denote the meek and humble, it is probable that David, under this term, includes the afflictions which serve to restrain and subdue the frowardness of the flesh, as well as the grace of humility itself; as if he had said, When God has first humbled them, then he kindly stretches forth his hand to them, and leads and guides them throughout the whole course of their life.—John Calvin.

Verse 9.—“The meek,” etc. Pride and anger have no place in the school of Christ. The Master himself is “meek and lowly of heart;” much more, surely, ought the scholars to be so. He who hath no sense of his ignorance, can have no desire, or capability of knowledge, human or divine.—George Horne.

Verse 9 (last clause).—The Lord will teach the humble his secrets, he will not teach proud scholars.—Thomas Goodwin.

Verse 9 (last clause).—Such as lie at his feet and say, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth,” such whose hearts are supple and soluble, tractable, and teachable, so that a little child may lead them. (Isaiah xi. 6.) Austin was such an one. Saith he, “I am here an old man ready to learn of a young man, my coadjutor in the ministry, who hath scarce been one year in the service.”—John Trapp.

Verse 10.—“All the paths of the Lord,” אָדְהוֹה orchoth signifies the tracks or ruts made by the wheels of wagons by often passing over the same ground. Mercy and truth are the paths in which God constantly walks in reference to the children of men; and so frequently does he show them mercy, and so frequently does he fulfil his truth, that his paths are easily discerned. How frequent, how deeply indented, and how multiplied are those tracks to every family and individual! Wherever we go, we see that God’s mercy and truth have been there by the deep tracks they have left behind them. But he is more abundantly merciful to those who keep his covenant and his testimonies; i.e., those who are conformed, not only to the letter, but to the spirit of his pure religion.—Adam Clarke.

Verse 10.—“All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth.”—As his nature is love and truth, so all his ways are mercy and truth. They are “mercy” in respect of aiming at our good, and “truth” in respect of fulfilling his promises and faithful carriage to us; therefore whatsoever befalls thee, though it be clean contrary to thy expectation, interpret it in love. Many actions of men are such as a good interpretation cannot be put upon them, nor a good construction made of them; therefore interpreters restrain those sayings of love, that it believes all, etc.; that is, credibilia, all things believable, otherwise to put all upon charity, will eat out charity. But none of God’s ways are such, but love and faith may pick a good meaning out of these. A bono Deo nil nisi bonum, from a good God there comes nothing but what is good; and therefore says Job, “Though he kill me, I will trust in him.” Endeavour to spy out some end of his for good at the present, and if none ariseth to thy conjecture, resolve it into faith, and make the best of it.—Thomas Goodwin.

Verse 10.—“Unto such as keep,” etc.: he is never out of the road of mercy unto them.—Thomas Goodwin.

Verse 11.—“For thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.” I cannot do better than quote one of those beautiful passages of the great Vieyra, which gave him the character of the first preacher of his age:—“I confess, my God, that it is so; that we are all sinners in the highest degree.” He is preaching on a fast on occasion of the threatened destruction of the Portuguese dominion in Brazil by the Dutch. “But so far am I from considering this any reason why I should cease from my petition, that I behold in it a new and convincing argument which may influence thy goodness. All that I have said before is based on no other foundation than the glory and honour of thy most holy Name. Propter nomen tuum. And what motive can I offer more glorious to that same Name, than that our sins are many and great? For thy name’s sake, O Lord, be merciful unto my sin, for it is great. I ask thee, saith David, to pardon, not every-day sins, but numerous sins, but great sins: multum est enim. O motive worthy of the breast of God! Oh, consequence which can have force only when it bears on supreme goodness! So that in order to obtain remission of his sins, the sinner alleges to God that they are many and great. Verily so; and that not for love of the sinner nor for the love of sin, but for the love of the honour and glory of God; which glory, by how much the sins he forgives are greater and more numerous, by so much the more ennobles and exalts itself. The same David distinguishes in the mercy of God greatness and multitude: greatness, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam; multitude, et secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum. And as the greatness of the divine mercy is immense, and the multitude of his lovingkindnesses infinite; and forasmuch as the immense cannot be measured, nor the infinite counted, in order that the one and the other may in a certain manner have a proportionate material of glory, it is necessary to the very greatness of mercy that the sins to be pardoned should be great and necessary to the very multitude of lovingkindnesses that they should be many. Multum est enim. Reason have I then, O Lord, not to be dismayed because our sins are many and great. Reason have I also to demand the reason from thee, why thou dost not make haste to pardon them?”—Vieyra, quoted by J. M. Neale.

Verse 11.—“For thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity.” It is a very usual notion by “name” to understand honour and glory. When God saith to David, “I have made thee a name like the name of men that are in the earth;” when the church saith to God, “Thou didst get thee a name as it is this day;” it is manifest that by name glory is intended. Suitable to this it is that famous men are called by the Hebrews, אַנשֵׁי הַשֵּׁם (Gen. vi. 4), and by the Latins, viri nominum, men of name, in which sense the poet adorneth it with these epithets—

“Magnum et memorabile nomen,”

or great and memorable. Thus, when God forgiveth sin, he doth it for his name’s sake, that is, for his own honour and glory. Indeed, God’s own glory is the ultimate end of all his actions. As he is the first, so he is the last, the efficient, and the final cause; nor is there anything done by him which is not for him. The end of our actions must be his glory, because both our being and working are from him; but the end of his work is his own glory, because his being and acting are of and from himself. Among all divine works, there is none which more setteth forth his glory than this of remission. Sin, by committing it, brings God a great deal of dishonour, and yet, by forgiving it, God raiseth to himself a great deal of honour. “It is the glory of a man,” and much more of God, “to pass by an offence;” as acts of power, so acts of grace, are exceeding honourable. The attributes of God’s grace, mercy, goodness, clemency, shine forth in nothing so much as in pardoning sins. Paul speaks of riches of goodness which attend God’s forbearance; how much greater riches must there needs be in forgiveness? Nay, indeed, God hath so ordered the way of pardon, that not only the glory of his mercy, but justice, yea, of his wisdom in the wonderful contemporation of both these, is very illustrious. Nomen quasi notamen, quia notificat, the name is that which maketh one known; and by remission of sins, God maketh known his choice and glorious attributes; and for this end it is that he vouchsafeth it. It is a consideration that may be our consolation. Since God forgiveth sins for his name’s sake, he will be ready to forgive many sins as well as few, great as small; indeed, the more and greater our sins are, the greater is the forgiveness, and, consequently, the greater is God’s glory; and therefore David, upon this consideration of God’s name and glory, maketh the greatness of his iniquity a motive of forgiveness. Indeed, to run into gross sins, that God may glorify himself by forgiving them, is an odious presumption, but to hope that those gross sins we have run into may, and will, be forgiven by God to us, being truly penitent, for his name’s sake, is a well grounded expectation, and such as may support our spirits against the strongest temptations to despair.—Nathanael Hardy.

Verse 11.—“Pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.” He pleads the greatness of his sin, and not the smallness of it: he enforces his prayer with this consideration, that his sins are very heinous. But how could he make this a plea for pardon? I answer, Because the greater his iniquity was, the more need he had of pardon. It is as much as if he had said, Pardon mine iniquity, for it is so great that I cannot bear the punishment; my sin is so great that I am in necessity of pardon; my case will be exceedingly miserable, unless thou be pleased to pardon me. He makes use of the greatness of his sin, to enforce his plea for pardon, as a man would make use of the greatness of calamity in begging for relief. When a beggar begs for bread, he will plead the greatness of his poverty and necessity. When a man in distress cries for pity, what more suitable plea can be urged than the extremity of his case? And God allows such a plea as this: for he is moved to mercy towards us by nothing in us, but the miserableness of our case. He doth not pity sinners because they are worthy, but because they need his pity.... Herein doth the glory of grace by the redemption of Christ much consist; namely, in its sufficiency for the pardon of the greatest sinners. The whole contrivance of the way of salvation is for this end, to glorify the free grace of God. God had it on his heart from all eternity to glorify this attribute; and therefore it is, that the device of saving sinners by Christ was conceived. The greatness of divine grace appears very much in this, that God by Christ saves the greatest offenders. The greater the guilt of any sinner is, the more glorious and wonderful is the grace manifested in his pardon. Rom. v. 20. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” The apostle, when telling how great a sinner he had been, takes notice of the abounding of grace in his pardon, of which his great guilt was the occasion. 1 Tim. i. 13, 14. “Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.” The Redeemer is glorified, in that he proves sufficient to redeem those who are exceeding sinful, in that his blood proves sufficient to wash away the greatest guilt, in that he is able to save men to the uttermost, and in that he redeems even from the greatest misery. It is the honour of Christ to save the greatest sinners, when they come to him, as it is the honour of a physician that he cures the most desperate diseases or wounds. Therefore, no doubt, Christ will be willing to save the greatest sinners, if they come to him; for he will not be backward to glorify himself, and to commend the value and virtue of his own blood. Seeing he hath so laid out himself to redeem sinners, he will not be unwilling to show that he is able to redeem to the uttermost.—Jonathan Edwards.

Verse 11.—“Pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.” Is any man miserable, are his miseries great, are they spiritual, are they temporal? Undoubtedly, if he be humbled in the sense of them, and see himself unworthy of any mercy, he may still be assured of mercy. Though there be spiritual evils, yet if a man see himself wretched, and miserable, the more heavy he finds his iniquity to be, the more hope of mercy there is for him: the Lord’s mercy is over all his works, therefore is he much more merciful to such. If a man hath a feeling of his miseries and unworthiness then he may use this argument for mercy, my miseries are great: even as David did, “O Lord, be merciful to me, and pardon my iniquity, for it is great.” And the more miserable men are in their own sense, the fitter objects they are for God to show mercy unto. Thus it was with the publican, and so with the prodigal; therefore never doubt, though thy iniquities be never so great, there is a sea of mercy in God. Bernard well observes the difference between justice and mercy; justice requires that there should be desert, but mercy looks upon them that are miserable; and, saith the father, true mercy doth affect misery; mercy doth not stand upon inquisition, but it is glad to find occasion of exercising itself.—Richard Stock.

Verse 11.—“Mine iniquity ... is great.” Such who come to God to have their sins pardoned, they look upon them as great sins. “Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.” The original word as well signifies many as great—“My sins are great and many,” many great sins lie upon me, pardon, oh! pardon them, O Lord, &c.... In the opening of this point, I would show why such as come in a right way for pardon do look upon their sins as great sins. 1. Sinners that come to God for pardon and find it, do look upon their sins as great sins, because against a great God, great in power, great in justice, great in holiness. I am a worm, and yet sin, and that boldly against a God so great; for a worm to lift up himself against a great and infinite God; oh! this makes every little sin great, and calls for great vengeance from so great a God. 2. Because they have sinned against great patience, despising the goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering of God, which is called, “treasuring up wrath.” Rom. ii. 4, 5.... 3. Sins do appear great because against great mercies. Oh! against how many mercies and kindnesses do sinners sin, and turn all the mercies of God into sin!... 4. That which greatens sin in the eyes of poor sinners that cry for pardon, is, that they have sinned against great light—light in the conscience; this heightens sin exceedingly, especially to such as are under gospel means; and is indeed the sin of all in this nation; there’s nothing more abaseth a soul than this, nothing makes it more difficult to believe pardon, when humbled for it.... 5. Continuance in sin much greatens sin to a poor soul that is after pardon; especially such as are not very early converted. Psalm lxviii. 21. Oh! I added sin unto sin, saith a poor soul, spending the choice time of my youth in sin, when I might have been getting the knowledge of Jesus Christ and honouring of God. This lay close upon David’s spirit, as appears from the seventh verse: “Oh! remember not the sins of my youth.” Yet we do not find that David’s youth was notoriously sinful; but inasmuch as he spent not his youth to get knowledge, and to serve the Lord fully, ’twas his burden and complaint before the Lord; much more such whose youth was spent in nothing but vanity, profaneness, lying, swearing, profaning of the Sabbath, sports, pastimes, excess of riot, and the like, when God lays it in upon their consciences, must be grievous and abominable to their souls.... 6. Multitudes of sins do make sin appear great; this made David cry out for “multitude of mercies.” Psalm li., and xl. 12.... 7. Another thing that greatens sin is, that it was against purposes and resolutions of forsaking such and such sins; and yet all broken, sometimes against solemn vows, against prayers.... 8. Sin appears great when seen by a poor soul, because it was reigning sin. Rom. v. 6. “Sin reigned unto death,” etc. Oh! saith a poor humbled sinner, I did not only commit sin, but I was the servant and slave of sin.... 9. Sin in the fountain makes it great. As it may be said, there is more water in the fountain than in the pools and streams it makes.... So in the nature, in the heart, is there, as in the fountain, and therefore ’tis more there than in the breakings forth of it in the outward man.... 10. A sinner drawing nigh to God for pardon sees his sin as great, because thereby he was led captive by the devil at his will.... 11. Sin appears great, because great is the wrath of God against sin. Rom. ii. 12. The way of any sinner’s deliverance from such wrath shows sin to be exceeding great in the price and ransom that is paid for the salvation of him from his sins—the price of the blood of the eternal Son of God.... 13. Lastly, this consideration also greatens sin, inasmuch as a poor creature hath drawn and tempted others to sin with him, especially such as have lived more vainly and loosely, and it lies hard upon many a poor soul after thorough conviction.—Anthony Palmer (——1678), in “The Gospel New-creature.”

Verse 11.—I plead not, Lord, my merits, who am less than the least of thy mercies and as I look not upon my merit, so nor do thou look upon my demerit; as I do not view my worthiness, so nor do thou view my unworthiness; but thou who art called the God of mercy, be unto me what thou art called; make good the glory of thine own name in being merciful unto my sin, of which I cannot say as Lot of Zoar, “Is it not a little one?” No, it is great, for that it is against thee so great a God and so good to me: great, for that my place, my calling, my office, is great. The sun, the higher it is, the less it seems; but my sins, the higher I am the greater they are, even in thine and others’ eyes.—Robert Mossom.

Verse 11.—Plead we the greatness of our sins not to keep us from mercy, but to prevail for it: “Pardon mine iniquity;” why so? “for it is great.” “Heal my soul for I have sinned against thee.” Psalm xli. 4. “Do thou it for thy name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.” Jer. xiv. 7. This is a strong plea, when sincerely urged by an humble and contrite spirit. It glorifleth God as one that is abundant in goodness, rich in mercy, and one with whom are forgivenesses and plenteous redemption; and it honoureth Christ as infinite in mercy. Hence also the Lord himself, when he would stir up himself to choice acts of mercy to his poor people, he first aggravateth their sin against him to the highest, and then he expresseth his royal act of grace to them. So Isaiah xliii. 22-25. “Thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob, but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel; thou hast not honoured me with thy sacrifices, but thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities. I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.”—Thomas Cobbet, 1608-1686.

Verse 11.—“Oh,” says Pharaoh, “take away these filthy frogs, this dreadful thunder!” But what says holy David? “Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant!” The one would be freed from punishment, the effect of sin; the other from sin, the cause of punishment. And it is most true that a true Christian man is more troubled at sin than at frogs and thunder; he sees more filthiness in sin than in frogs and toads, more horror than in thunder and lightning.—Jeremiah Dyke’s “Worthy Communicant,” 1645.

Verse 11.—Pharaoh more lamented the hard strokes that were upon him, than the hard heart which was within him. Esau mourned not because he sold the birthright, which was his sin, but because he lost the blessing, which was his punishment. This is like weeping with an onion; the eye sheds tears because it smarts. A mariner casts overboard that cargo in a tempest, which he courts the return of when the winds are silenced. Many complain more of the sorrows to which they are born, than of the sins with which they were born: they tremble more at the vengeance of sin, than at the venom of sin; one delights them, the other affrights them.—William Secker.

Verse 12.—“What man is he that feareth the Lord?” Blessed shall he be—1. In the sacred knowledge of Christ’s will; “Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.” 2. Blessed shall he be in the quiet peace of a good conscience; “His soul shall dwell at ease.” 3. Blessed he shall be in the present comfort of a hopeful progeny; “His seed shall inherit the earth.”—Robert Mossom.

Verse 12.—“What man is he that feareth the Lord?” There is nothing so effectual to obtain grace, to retain grace, as always to be found before God not over wise, but to fear: happy art thou, if thy heart be replenished with three fears; a fear for received grace, a greater fear for lost grace, a greatest fear to recover grace.—Bernard.

Verse 12.—“He that feareth the Lord.” Present fear begetteth eternal security: fear God, which is above all, and no need to fear man at all.—Augustine.

Verse 12.—“Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose,” i.e., that the good man shall pitch upon. God will direct him in all dealings to make a good choice, and will give good success. This is not in a man’s own power to do. Jer. x. 23.—John Trapp.

Verse 13.—“His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth.” The holy fear of God shall destroy all sinful fears of men, even as Moses’ serpent devoured all those serpents of the magicians. The fear of God hath this good effect that it makes other things not to be feared; so that the soul of him who feareth the Lord doth dwell, as in rest, so in goodness; as in peace, so in patience, till this moment of time be swallowed up in the fulness of eternity, and he change his earthly dwelling for an heavenly mansion, and his spiritual peace for an everlasting blessedness.—Robert Mossom.

Verse 13.—“His soul shall dwell at ease.” Shall tarry in good things, as it is in the Vulgate. Unlike the soul of Adam, who, being put into possession of the delights of paradise, tarried there but a few days or hours.—Gerhohus, quoted by J. M. Neale.

Verse 13.—“His soul shall dwell at ease.” He expresses with great sweetness spiritual delectation, when he says, “His soul shall tarry in good things.” For whatever is carnally sweet yields without doubt a delectation for the time to such as enjoy it, but cannot tarry long with them; because, while by its taste it provokes appetite, by its transit it cheats desire. But spiritual delights, which neither pass away as they are tasted, nor decrease while they refresh, nor cloy while they satiate, can tarry for ever with their possessors.—Hugo Victorinus (1130), quoted by J. M. Neale.

Verse 13 (first clause).—In the reception of the gifts of God, they do not devour them without feeling a sense of their sweetness, but really relish them, so that the smallest competency is of more avail to satisfy them that the greatest abundance is to satisfy the ungodly. Thus, according as every man is contented with his condition, and cheerfully cherishes a spirit of patience and tranquility, his soul is said to dwell in good.—John Calvin.

Verse 13.—“The earth,” or the land, to wit, Canaan; which was promised and given, as an earnest of the whole covenant of grace, and all its promises, and therefore it is synecdochically put for all of them. The sense is, his seed shall be blessed.—Matthew Pool.

Verse 14.—“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him,” etc. It is the righteous that is God’s friend, it is to him that God is joined in a loving familiarity, it is to him that God revealeth his secret, telling him what misery and torments he hath reserved for them who by wickedness flourish in this world. And indeed the Lord doth not more hate the wicked than he loves the godly: if he keeps far from the froward, as being an abomination unto him, his very secret shall be with the righteous, as with his dearest friend. It is an honour to him to whom a secret is committed by another, a greater honour to him to whom the king shall commit his own secret; but how is he honoured to whom God committeth his secret? for where the secret of God is, there is his heart and there is himself. Thus was his secret with St. John, of whom St. Bernard saith, by occasion of the beginning of his gospel, “Doth he not seem unto thee to have dived into the bowels of the divine Word, and from the secrets of his breast, to have drawn a sacred pith of concealed wisdom?” Thus was his secret with St. Paul, who saith, “We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which none of the princes of this world knew.” 1 Cor. ii. 7, 8. St. Gregory reads, for the secret of God, as the Vulgar Latin doth sermocinatio Dei, the communication of God is with the righteous; but then addeth, Dei sermocinari est per illustrationem suæ præsentiæ humanis mentibus arcana revelare, God’s communication is, by the illustration of his presence, to reveal secrets to the minds of men. But to consider the words somewhat more generally. There is no less a secret of godliness, than there is of any other trade or profession. Many profess an art or a trade, but thrive not by it, because they have not the secret and mystery of it; and many profess godliness, but are little the better for it, because they have not the true secret of it: he hath that, with whom God is in secret in his heart; and he that is righteous in secret, where no man sees him, he is the righteous man with whom the secret of the Lord is.—Michael Jermin, D.D., 1591-1659.

Verse 14.—“The secret of the Lord, is with them that fear him,” etc. There is a vital sense in which “the natural man discerneth not the things of the Spirit of God;” and in which all the realities of Christian experience are utterly hid from his perceptions. To speak to him of communion with God, of the sense of pardon, of the lively expectation of heaven, of the witness of the Holy Ghost, of the struggles of the spiritual life, would be like reasoning with a blind man about colours, or with one deaf about musical harmony.—John Morison.

Verse 14.—“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him,” etc. Albeit the Lord’s covenant with the visible church be open, and plain in itself to all men in all the articles thereof, yet it is a mystery to know the inward sweet fellowship which a soul may have with God by virtue of this covenant; and a man fearing God shall know this mystery, when such as are covenanters only in the letter do remain ignorant thereof; for to the fearers of God only is this promise made—that to them the Lord will show his covenant.—David Dickson.

Verse 14.—“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.” The gospel, though published to all the world, yet it is entitled a mystery, and a mystery hid, for none know it but the saints, who are taught of God, and are his scholars. John vi. 45. That place shows that there must be a secret teaching by God, and a secret learning. “If they have heard, and been taught of God.” Now God teacheth none but saints, for all that are so taught come unto him: “Every one who hath heard, and learned of the Father, cometh unto me.” Ay, but you will say, Do not many carnal men know the gospel, and discourse of things in it, through strength of learning, etc.? I answer out of the text (Col. i. 26, 27), that though they may know the things which the gospel reveals, yet not the riches and glory of them, that same rich knowledge spoken of in the word, they want, and therefore know them not; as a child and a jeweller looking upon a pearl, both look upon it, and call it by the same name; but the child yet knows it not as a pearl in the worth and riches of it as the Jeweller doth, and therefore cannot be said to know it. Now in Matt. xiii. 45, a Christian only is likened to a merchantman, that finds a pearl of great price, that is, discovered to be so, and sells all he hath for it, for he knows the worth of it. But you will say, Do not carnal men know the worth of the things in the gospel, and can they not discourse of the rich grace of Christ, and of his worth? I answer, yes, as a man who hath gotten an inventory by heart, and the prices also, and so may know it; yet never was he led into the exchequer and treasury, to see all the jewels themselves, the wardrobe of grace, and Christ’s righteousness, to see the glory of them; for these are all “spiritually discerned,” as the apostle says expressly, 1 Cor. ii. 14.—Thomas Goodwin.

Verse 14.—“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.” The truth and sincerity of God to his people appears in the openness and plainness of his heart to them. A friend that is close and reserved, deservedly comes under a cloud in the thoughts of his friend; but he who carries, as it were, a window of crystal in his breast, through which his friend may read what thoughts are writ in his very heart, delivers himself from the least suspicion of unfaithfulness. Truly, thus open-hearted is God to his saints: “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.” He gives us his key, that will let us into his very heart, and acquaint us what his thoughts are, yea, were, towards us, before a stone was laid in the world’s foundation; and this is no other than his Spirit (1 Cor. ii. 10, 11), “One who knows the deep things of God;” for he was at the council-table in heaven, where all was transacted. This, his Spirit, he employed to put forth and publish in the Scriptures, indited by him, the substance of those counsels of love which had passed between the Trinity of Persons for our salvation; and that nothing may be wanting for our satisfaction, he hath appointed the same Holy Spirit to abide in his saints, that as Christ in heaven presents our desires to him, so he may interpret his mind out of his word to us; which word answers the heart of God, as face answers face in the glass.—William Gurnall.

Verse 14.—“The secret of the Lord.” This “secret” is called a secret three ways. 1. Secret to the eye of sole nature, and thus it is not meant; for so the grace of Christ is a secret only to heathens and such as are blind as they, for common Christians know it—the rind of it. 2. Secret to the eye of taught nature, nor thus is it meant; for so the grace of Christ is a secret only to the ignorant sort of Christians; many carnal gospellers that sit under a good ministry know it and the bark of it. 3. Secret to the eye of enlightened nature, and thus it is meant; for so the grace of Christ is a secret to all unsanctified professors, whether learned or unlearned, namely, the pith of it; for though great doctors and profound clerks, and deep studied divines unconverted, know the doctrine of grace, and the truth of grace; though they can dispute of grace and talk of the glory of grace, yea, and taste a little the good word of grace, yea, and understand it generally, it may be as well as St. Paul and St. Peter, as Judas did, yet the special and the spiritual knowledge thereof, for all their dogmatical illumination, is a secret unto them.—William Fenner.

Verse 14.—“The secret.” Arminius and his company ransack all God’s secrets, divulge and communicate them to the seed of the woman, and of the serpent all alike; they make God’s eternal love of election no secret, but a vulgar idea; they make the mystery of Christ, and him crucified, no secret, but like an apothecary’s drug, catholical; they make the especial grace of God no secret, but a common quality; faith no secret, but a general virtue; repentance and the new creature no secret, but an universal gift; no secret favour to St. Peter, but make God a party unto, not to love St. Peter more than Judas; no secret intent to any one person more than another; but that Christ might have died for all him, and never a man saved; no secret working of the Lord in any more than other; but for anything that either God the Father hath done by creating, God the Son by redeeming, or God the Holy Ghost by sanctifying, all the world were left to their scrambling—take it if you will, if you will not, refuse. They say God would have men to be saved, but that he will not work it for his own part, rather for this man or that man determinatively that he be saved.—William Fenner.

Verse 14.—“He will shew them his covenant,” or, and he will make them to know (for the infinitive is here thought to be put for the future tense of the indicative, as it is Eccles. iii. 14, 15, 18; Hos. ix. 13; xii. 3), his covenant, i.e., he will make them clearly to understand it, both its duties or conditions, and its blessings or privileges; neither of which ungodly men rightly understand. Or, he will make them to know it by experience, or by God’s making it good to them; as, on the contrary, God threatens to make ungodly men to know his breach of promise. Numb. xiv. 34. Or, as it is in the margins of our Bibles, and his covenant (is, i.e., he hath engaged himself by his promise or covenant) to make them know it, to wit his secret, i.e., that he will manifest either his word or his favour to them.—Matthew Pool.

Verse 14.—It is neither learning nor labour that can give insight into God’s secrets, those Arcana imperii, “The mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. xiii. 11. “The mind of Christ.” 1 Cor. ii. 16. These things come by revelation rather than by discourse of reason, and must therefore be obtained by prayer. Those that diligently seek him shall be of his Cabinet Council, shall know his soul secrets, and be admitted into a gracious familiarity and friendship. “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” John xv. 15.—John Trapp.

Verse 14.—Walking with God is the best way to know the mind of God; friends who walk together impart their secrets one to another: “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.” Noah walked with God, and the Lord revealed a great secret to him, of destroying the old world, and having him in the ark. Abraham walked with God, and God made him one of his privy council: “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” Gen. xxiv. 40, and xviii. 17. God doth sometimes sweetly unbosom himself to the soul in prayer, and in the holy supper, as Christ made himself known to the disciples in the breaking of bread. Luke xxiv. 35.—Thomas Watson.

Verse 15.—“Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord.” Though we cannot see him by reasons of our present distance and darkness, yet we must look towards him, towards the place where his honour dwells, as those that desire the knowledge of him and his will, and direct all to his honour as the mark we aim at, labouring in this, that “whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.”—Matthew Henry.

Verse 15.—“Mine eyes.” As the sense of sight is very quick, and exercises an entire influence over the whole frame, it is no uncommon thing to find all the affections denoted by the term “eyes.”—John Calvin.

Verse 15.—“He shall pluck my feet out of the net.” An unfortunate dove, whose feet are taken in the snare of the fowler, is a fine emblem of the soul, entangled in the cares or pleasures of the world; from which she desires, through the power of grace, to fly away, and to be at rest, with her glorified Redeemer.—George Horne.

Verse 17.—“The troubles of my heart are enlarged.” Let no good man be surprised that his affliction is great, and to him of an unaccountable character. It has always been so with God’s people. The road to heaven is soaked with the tears and blood of the saints.—William S. Plumer.

Verse 17.—“O bring thou me out of my distresses.” We may not complain of God, but we may complain to God. With submission to his holy will we may earnestly cry for help and deliverance.—William S. Plumer.

Verse 18.—“Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.” We may observe here, that sickness and weakness of the body come from sin, and is a fruit of sin. Some are weak, and some are sick, “for this cause.” I shall not need to be long in the proof of that, which you have whole chapters for, as Deut. xxviii. 27, seq.; and many Psalms, cvii., and others. It is for the sickness of the soul that God visits with the sickness of the body. He aims at the cure of the soul in the touch of the body. And therefore in this case, when God visits with sickness, we should think our work is more in heaven with God than with men or physic. Begin first with the soul. So David (Psa. xxxii. 5), till he dealt roundly with God, without all kind of guile and confessed his sins, he roared; his moisture was turned into the thought of summer. But when he dealt directly and plainly with God, and confessed his sins, then God forgave him them, and healed his body too. And therefore the best method, when God visits us in this kind, is to think that we are to deal with God. Begin the cure there with the soul. When he visits the body, it is for the soul’s sake: “Many are weak and sickly among you.”—Richard Sibbes.

Verse 18.—“Look upon mine affliction and my pain.” In sickness of body trust to Jesus, he is as powerful and as willing to help us now as he was to help others in the days of his flesh. All things are possible to us if we believe. It is but a word for him to rebuke all storms and tempests whatsoever. Let us not do like Asa, trust only in the physician, or in subordinate means, but know that all physic is but dead means without him. 2 Chron. xvi. 12. Therefore, with the means, run to Christ, that he may work with them, and know that virtue and strength comes from him to bless or curse all sort of means.—Richard Sibbes.

Verse 19.—“Consider mine enemies,” etc. Or look upon them; but with another kind of look; so as he looked through the pillar of fire upon the Egyptians, and troubled them (Exod. xiv. 24), with a look of wrath and vengeance. The arguments he uses are taken both from the quantity and quality of his enemies, their number and their nature, “For they are many;” the hearts of the people of Israel, in general, being after Absalom (2 Sam. xv. 12, 13); and so the spiritual enemies of the Lord’s people are many; their sins and corruptions, Satan, and his principalities and powers, and the men of this world. “And they hate me with cruel hatred;” like that of Simeon and Levi (Gen. xliv. 7); their hatred broke out in a cruel manner, in acts of force and cruelty; and it was the more cruel, inasmuch as it was without cause; and such is the hatred of Satan and his emissaries against the followers of Christ; who breathe out cruelty, thirst after their blood, and make themselves drunk with it; even their tender mercies are cruel, and much more their hatred.—John Gill.

Verse 19.—“Consider mine enemies.” God needeth not hound out many creatures to punish man, he doeth that on himself. There is no kind of creature so hurtful to itself as he. Some hurt other kinds and spare their own, but mankind in all sorts of injuries destroyeth itself. Man to man is more crafty than a fox, more cruel than the tiger, and more fierce than a lion, and in a word, if he be left to himself man unto man is a devil.—William Struther’s “Christian Observations,” 1629.

Verses 19, 20.—“Consider mine enemies.... O keep my soul and deliver me.” We may say of original concupiscence, strengthened and heightened by customary transgressions, its name is legion, for it is many. Hydra-like, it is a body with many heads; and when we cut off one head, one enormous impiety, there presently sprouts up another of like monstrous nature, like venomous guilt. From the womb then it is of original sin and sinful custom, as from the belly of the Trojan horse, there does issue forth a whole army of unclean lusts, to surround the soul in all its faculties, and the body too in all its members.—Robert Mossom.

Verse 20.—“Let me be not ashamed; for I put my trust in thee.” When David reaches verse 20, we are reminded of Coriolanus betaking himself to the hall of Attius Tullus, and sitting as a helpless stranger there, claiming the king’s hospitality, though aware of his having deserved to die at his hands. The Psalmist throws himself on the compassions of an injured God with similar feelings; “I trust in thee!”—Andrew A. Bonar.

Verse 21.—“For I trust in, or wait on thee.” As preservation is a continued creation, so is waiting a continued trusting; for, what trust believes by faith, it waits for by hope; and thus is trust a compound of both.—Robert Mossom.

Verse 22.—“Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.” If thou wilt not pity and help me, yet spare thy people, who suffer for my sake, and in my sufferings.—Matthew Pool.

Verse 22.—“Redeem Israel,” etc. In vita vel post mortem meam,[17] either whiles I live, or after my death. This is every good man’s care and prayer. None is in case to pray for the church, that hath not first made his own peace with God.—John Trapp.

Verse 22.—This most beautiful of “Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” closes with a sweet petition—such an one, as every one of the true Israel of God would wish to depart with on his lips, “Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.” It breathes the same holy aspiration as the aged Simeon’s, “Lord! now lettest thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.”—Barton Bouchier.

HINTS TO PREACHERS.

Verse 1.—Heavenly machinery for uplifting an earthbound soul.

Verse 1.—Genuine devotion described and commended.

Verse 2.—The soul at anchor, and the two rocks from which it would be delivered.

Verse 3.—Shame out of place and in place.

Verse 4.—Practical divinity the best study; God the best teacher; Prayer the mode of entrance into the school.

Verses 4, 5.—“Shew.” “Teach.” “Lead.” Three classes in the school of grace.

Verse 5.—I. Sanctification desired. II. Knowledge sought. III. Assurance enjoyed. IV. Patience exercised.

Verse 5.—“Thou art the God of my salvation.” A rich and overflowing text.

Verse 5 (last clause).—How to spend the day with God.—Matthew Henry.

Verse 6.—The antiquity of mercy.

Verses 6, 7.—The three Remembers.

Verse 7 (first clause).—The best Act of Oblivion.—Thomas Fuller.

Verse 7.—Oblivion desired and remembrance entreated. Note “my,” and “thy.”

Verse 8.—Opposing attributes co-working. God teaching sinners—a great wonder.

Verse 9.—“The meek.” Who they are? What are their privileges? How to be like them?

Verse 9 (first clause).—Moral purity needful to a well-balanced judgment.

Verse 10.—God’s mercy and faithfulness in providence, and the persons who may derive comfort therefrom.

Verse 11.—A model prayer. Confession, argument, entreaty, etc.

Verse 11.—Great guilt no obstacle to the pardon of the returning sinner.—Jonathan Edwards.

Verse 12.—Holiness the best security for a well ordered life. Free-will at school, questioned and instructed.

Verse 13.—A man at ease for time and eternity.

Verse 14.—I. A secret, and who know it. II. A wonder, and who see it.

Verse 15. I. What we are like. A silly bird. II. What is our danger? “Net.” III. Who is our friend? “The Lord.” IV. What is our wisdom? “Mine eyes,” etc.

Verse 16.—A desolate soul seeking heavenly company, and an afflicted spirit crying for divine mercy. Our God the balm of all our wounds.

Verses 16-18.—David is a petitioner as well as a sufferer; and those sorrows will never injure us that bring us near to God. Three things he prays for:—I. Deliverance. This we are called to desire, consistently with resignation to the divine will. II. Notice. A kind look from God is desirable at any time, in any circumstances; but in affliction and pain, it is like life from the dead. III. Pardon. Trials are apt to revive a sense of guilt.—William Jay.

Verse 17.—Special seasons of trouble and special resort to prayer for special deliverance.

Verse 18.—Two things are here taught us:—I. That a kind look from God is very desirable in affliction. II. That the sweetest cordial under trouble would be an assurance of divine forgiveness. I. That a kind look, etc. (subdivisions), 1. It is a look of special observation. 2. It is a look of tender compassion. 3. It is a look of support and assistance (with God, power and compassion go together). II. That the sweetest cordial, etc. (subdivisions), 1. Because trouble is very apt to bring our sins to remembrance. 2. Because a sense of pardon will in great measure remove all distressing fears of death and judgment. Improvement. 1. Let us adore the goodness of God, that one so great and glorious should bestow a favourable look upon any of our sinful race. 2. Let the benefit we have received from the Lord’s looking upon us in former afflictions, engage us to pray, and encourage us to hope, that he will now look upon us again. 3. If a kind look from God be so comfortable, what must heaven be!—Samuel Lavington.

Verse 18.—I. It is well when our sorrows remind us of our sins. II. When we are as earnest to be forgiven as to be delivered. III. When we bring both to the right place in prayer. IV. When we are submissive about our sorrows—“Look,” etc.—but very explicit about our sins—“Forgive,” etc.

Verse 19.—The spiritual enemies of the saint. Their number, malice, craft, power, etc.

Verse 20.—Soul preservation. I. Its twofold character, “Keep,” and “deliver.” II. Its dreadful alternative, “Let me not be ashamed.” III. Its effectual guarantee, “I put my trust in thee.”

Verse 20.—A superhuman keeping, a natural fear, a spiritual trust.

Verse 21.—The open way of safety in action, and the secret way of safety in devotion.

Verse 22.—Jacob’s life, as typical of ours, may illustrate this prayer.

Verse 22.—A prayer for the church militant.

Footnote 17:

Rabbi David

PSALM XXVI.

TITLE.—A Psalm of David. The sweet singer of Israel appears before us in this Psalm as one enduring reproach; in this he was the type of the great Son of David, and is an encouraging example to us to carry the burden of slander to the throne of grace. It is an ingenious surmise that this appeal to heaven was written by David at the time of the assassination of Ish-bosheth, by Baanah and Rechab, to protest his innocence of all participation in that treacherous murder; the tenor of the Psalm certainly agrees with the supposed occasion, but it is not possible with such a slender clue to go beyond conjecture.

DIVISION.—Unity of subject is so distinctly maintained, that there are no sharp divisions. David Dickson has given an admirable summary in these words:—“He appealeth to God, the supreme Judge, in the testimony of a good conscience, bearing him witness; first, of his endeavour to walk uprightly as a believer, verses 1, 2, 3; secondly, of his keeping himself from the contagion of the evil counsel, sinful courses, and example of the wicked, verses 4, 5; thirdly, of his purpose still to behave himself holily and righteously, out of love to the partaker of the public privileges of the Lord’s people in the congregation, verses 6, 7, 8. Whereupon he prayeth to be free of the judgment coming upon the wicked, verses 9, 10, according as he had purposed to eschew their sins, verse 11; and he closeth his prayer with comfort and assurance of being heard, verse 12.”

EXPOSITION.

Judge me, O LORD; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the Lord; therefore I shall not slide.

2 Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.

3 For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in thy truth.

1. “Judge me, O Jehovah.”—A solemn appeal to the just tribunal of the heart-searching God, warranted by the circumstances of the writer, so far as regarded the particular offences with which he was wrongly charged. Worried and worn out by the injustice of men, the innocent spirit flies from its false accusers to the throne of Eternal Right. He had need have a clear case who dares to carry his suit into the King’s Bench of heaven. Such an appeal as this is not to be rashly made on any occasion; and as to the whole of our walk and conversation, it should never be made at all, except as we are justified in Christ Jesus: a far more fitting prayer for a sinful mortal is the petition, “Enter not into judgment with thy servant.” “For I have walked in mine integrity.” He held integrity as his principle, and walked in it as his practice. David had not used any traitorous or unrighteous means to gain the crown, or to keep it; he was conscious of having been guided by the noblest principles of honour in all his actions with regard to Saul and his family. What a comfort it is to have the approbation of one’s own conscience! If there be peace within the soul, the blustering storms of slander which howl around us are of little consideration. When the little bird in my bosom sings a merry song, it is no matter to me if a thousand owls hoot at me from without. “I have trusted also in the Lord.” Faith is the root and sap of integrity. He who leans upon the Lord is sure to walk in righteousness. David knew that God’s covenant had given him the crown, and therefore he took no indirect or unlawful means to secure it; he would not slay his enemy in the cave, nor suffer his men-at-arms to smite him when he slept unguarded on the plain. Faith will work hard for the Lord, and in the Lord’s way, but she refuses so much as to lift a finger to fulfil the devices of unrighteous cunning. Rebecca acted out a great falsehood in order to fulfil the Lord’s decree in favour of Jacob—this was unbelief; but Abraham left the Lord to fulfil his own purposes, and took the knife to slay his son—this was faith. Faith trusts God to accomplish his own decrees. Why should I steal when God has promised to supply my need? Why should I avenge myself when I know that the Lord has espoused my cause? Confidence in God is a most effectual security against sin. “Therefore I shall not slide.” Slippery as the way is, so that I walk like a man upon ice, yet faith keeps my heels from tripping, and will continue to do so. The doubtful ways of policy are sure sooner or later to give a fall to those who run therein, but the ways of honesty, though often rough, are always safe. We cannot trust in God if we walk crookedly; but straight paths and simple faith bring the pilgrim happily to his journey’s end.

2. There are three modes of trial here challenged, which are said in the original to refer to trial by touch, trial by smell, and trial by fire. The Psalmist was so clear from the charge laid against him, that he submitted himself unconditionally to any form of examination which the Lord might see fit to employ. “Examine me, O Lord.” Look me through and through; make a minute survey; put me to the question, cross-examine my evidence. “And prove me.” Put me again to trial; and see if I would follow such wicked designs as my enemies impute to me. “Try my reins and my heart.” Assay me as metals are assayed in the furnace, and do this to my most secret parts, where my affections hold their court; see, O God, whether or no I love murder, and treason, and deceit. All this is a very bold appeal, and made by a man like David, who feared the Lord exceedingly, it manifests a most solemn and complete conviction of innocence. The expressions here used should teach us the thoroughness of the divine judgment, and the necessity of being in all things profoundly sincere, lest we be found wanting at the last. Our enemies are severe with us with the severity of spite, and this a brave man endures without a fear; but God’s severity is that of unswerving right, who shall stand against such a trial? The sweet singer asks “Who can stand before his cold?” and we may well enquire, “Who can stand before the heat of his justice?”

3. “For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes.”—An object of memory and a ground of hope. A sense of mercy received sets a fair prospect before the faithful mind in its gloomiest condition, for it yields visions of mercies yet to come, visions not visionary but real. Dwell, dear reader, upon that celestial word lovingkindness. It has a heavenly savour. Is it not an unmatchable word, unexcelled, unrivalled? The goodness of the Lord to us should be before our eyes as a motive actuating our conduct; we are not under the bondage of the law, but we are under the sweet constraints of grace, which are far more mighty, although far more gentle. Men sin with the law before their eyes, but divine love when clearly seen, sanctifies the conversation. If we were not so forgetful of the way of mercy in which God walks towards us, we should be more careful to walk in the ways of obedience towards him. “And I have walked in thy truth.” The Psalmist was preserved from sin by his assurance of the truthfulness of God’s promise, which truth he endeavoured to imitate as well as to believe. Observe from this verse, that an experience of divine love will show itself in a practical following of divine truth; those who neglect either the doctrinal or practical parts of truth must not wonder if they lose the experimental enjoyment of it. Some talk of truth, it is better to walk in it. Some vow to do well in future, but their resolutions come to nothing; only the regenerate man can say “I have walked in thy truth.”

4 I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers.

5 I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked.

So far from being himself an open offender against the laws of God, the Psalmist had not even associated with the lovers of evil. He had kept aloof from the men of Belial. A man is known by his company, and if we have kept ourselves apart from the wicked, it will always be evidence in our favour should our character be impugned. He who was never in the parish is not likely to have stolen the corn. He who never went to sea is clearly not the man who scuttled the ship.

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 out of the church, so there are dissemblers in it, and both are to be shunned with scrupulous decision.

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 neighbours, 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.

6 I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O LORD:

7 That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works.

8 LORD, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth.

6. “I will wash mine hands in innocency.”—He would publicly avow himself to be altogether clear of the accusations laid against him, and if any fault in other matters could be truthfully alleged against him, he would for the future abstain from it. The washing of the hands is a significant action to set forth our having no connection with a deed, as we still say, “I wash my hands of the whole business.” As to perfect innocence, David does not here claim it, but he avows his innocence of the crimes whereof he was slanderously accused; there is, however, a sense in which we may be washed in absolute innocence, for the atoning blood makes us clean every whit. We ought never to rest satisfied short of a full persuasion of our complete cleansing by Jesus’ precious blood. “So will I compass thine altar, O Lord.” Priests unto God must take great care to be personally cleansed; the brazen laver was as needful as the golden altar; God’s worship requires us to be holy in life. He who is unjust to man cannot be acceptably religious towards God. We must not bring our thank offerings with hands defiled with guilt. To love justice and purity is far more acceptable to God than ten thousands of the fat of fed beasts. We see from this verse that holy minds delight in the worship of the Lord, and find their sweetest solace at his altar; and that it is their deepest concern never to enter upon any course of action which would unfit them for the most sacred communion with God. Our eye must be upon the altar which sanctifieth both the giver and the gift, yet we must never draw from the atoning sacrifice an excuse for sin, but rather find in it a most convincing argument for holiness.

7. “That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving.” David was so far instructed that he does not mention the typical offering, but discerns the spiritual offering which was intended thereby, not the groans of bullocks, but songs of gratitude the spiritual worshipper presents. To sound abroad the worthy praises of the God of all grace should be the every-day business of a pardoned sinner. Let men slander us as they will, let us not defraud the Lord of his praises; let dogs bark, but let us like the moon shine on. “And tell of all thy wondrous works.” God’s people should not be tongue-tied. The wonders of divine grace are enough to make the tongue of the dumb sing. God’s works of love are wondrous if we consider the unworthiness of their objects, the costliness of their method, and the glory of their result. And as men find great pleasure in discoursing upon things remarkable and astonishing, so the saints rejoice to tell of the great things which the Lord hath done for them.

8. “Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house.” Into the abodes of sin he would not enter, but the house of God he had long loved, and loved it still. We were sad children if we did not love our Father’s dwelling-place. Though we own no sacred buildings, yet the church of the living God is the house of God, and true Christians delight in her ordinances, services, and assemblies. O that all our days were Sabbaths! “And the place where thine honour dwelleth.” In his church where God is had in honour at all times, where he reveals himself in the glory of his grace, and is proclaimed by his people as the Lord of all. We come not together as the Lord’s people to honour the preacher, but to give glory to God; such an occupation is most pleasant to the saints of the Most High. What are those gatherings where God is not honoured, are they not an offence to his pure and holy eyes, and are they not a sad stumbling-block to the people of God? It brings the scalding-tear upon our cheek to hear sermons in which the honour of God is so far from being the preacher’s object, that one might almost imagine that the preacher worshipped the dignity of manhood, and thought more of it than of the Infinite Majesty of God.

9 Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men:

10 In whose hand is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes.

9. “Gather not my soul with sinners.”—Lord, when, like fruit, I must be gathered, put me not in the same basket with the best of sinners, much less with the worst of them. The company of sinners is so distasteful to us here, that we cannot endure the thought of being bound up in the same bundle with them to all eternity. Our comfort is, that the Great Husbandman discerns the tares from the wheat, and will find a separate place for distinct characters. In the former verses we see that the Psalmist kept himself clear of profane persons, and this is to be understood as a reason why he should not be thrust into their company at the last. Let us think of the doom of the wicked, and the prayer of the text will forcibly rise to our lips; meanwhile, as we see the rule of judgment by which like is gathered to its like, we who have passed from death unto life have nothing to fear. “Nor my life with bloody men.” Our soul sickens to hear them speak; their cruel dispatches, in which they treat the shooting of their fellow-men as rare sport, are horrifying to us; Lord, let us not be shut up in the same prison with them; nay, the same paradise with such men would be a hell, if they remained as they now are.

10. “In whose hands is mischief.”—They have both hands full of it, plotting it and carrying it out. “And their right hand,” with which they are most dexterous, “is full of bribes;” like thieves who would steal with impunity, they carry a sop for the dogs of justice. He who gives bribes is every way as guilty as the man who takes them, and in the matter of our parliamentary elections the rich villain who gives the bribe is by far the worse. Bribery, in any form or shape, should be as detestable to a Christian as carrion to a dove, or garbage to a lamb. Let those whose dirty hands are fond of bribes remember that neither death nor the devil can be bribed to let them escape their well-earned doom.

11 But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity: redeem me, and be merciful unto me.

Here is the lover of godliness entering his personal protest against unrighteous gain. He is a Nonconformist, and is ready to stand alone in his Nonconformity. Like a live fish, he swims against the stream. Trusting in God, the Psalmist resolves that the plain way of righteousness shall be his choice, and those who will, may prefer the tortuous paths of violence and deceit. Yet he is by no means a boaster, or a self-righteous vaunter of his own strength, for he cries for redemption and pleads for mercy. Our integrity is not absolute nor inherent, it is a work of grace in us, and is marred by human infirmity; we must, therefore, resort to the redeeming blood and the throne of mercy, confessing that though we are saints among men, we must still bow as sinners before God.

12 My foot standeth in an even place: in the congregations will I bless the LORD.

The song began in the minor, but it has now reached the major key. Saints often sing themselves into happiness. The even place upon which our foot stands is the sure, covenant faithfulness, eternal promise and immutable oath of the Lord of Hosts; there is no fear of falling from this solid basis, or of its being removed from under us. Established in Christ Jesus, by being vitally united to him, we have nothing left to occupy our thoughts but the praises of our God. Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, and when assembled, let us not be slow to contribute our portion of thanksgiving. Each saint is a witness to divine faithfulness, and should be ready with his testimony. As for the slanderers, let them howl outside the door while the children sing within.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

Whole Psalm.—This Psalm is coupled on to the foregoing by thoughts and words. At the close of the foregoing the Psalmist had prayed for integrity (verse 1). Unless this Psalm is regarded as a sequel to the preceding one, it will seem vainglorious; but being combined with the penitential acknowledgments of sin, and with the earnest supplications for pardon and grace, and with the earnest profession of faith that God has heard his prayer, which breathe forth in the foregoing Psalm, it will be seen that the declarations which the Psalmist now makes of integrity, are not assertions of human merit, but acknowledgments of divine mercy. As Augustine says, “Non merita mea, sed misericordia tua, ante oculos meos est.”—Christopher Wordsworth.

Verse 1.—“Judge me, O Lord; for I have walked in mine integrity.”—A good cause, a good conscience, and a good deportment, are good grounds of appeal to God.—Ingram Cobbin.

Verse 1.—“Judge me, O Lord.” Nothing is so pleasing to him that is upright as to know that God knoweth he is so. As it is a small matter with those who are sincere to be condemned by men, so it is not much with them to be commended or approved by them; for indeed neither “he that commendeth himself,” as the apostle speaks (2 Cor. x. 18), nor he that is commended by others, “is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.” The testimony, or letters commendatory of all the men in the world will do us no good, unless God give us his also.—Joseph Caryl.

Verse 1.—“Judge me, O Lord.” As an instance of appeal to heaven, we quote that mighty preacher of the Word, George Whitfield. “However some may account me a mountebank and an enthusiast, one that is only going to make you methodically mad; they may breathe out their invectives against me, yet Christ knows all; he takes notice of it, and I shall leave it to him to plead my cause, for he is a gracious Master. I have already found him so, and am sure he will continue so. Vengeance is his, and he will repay it.”—George Whitfield, 1714-1770.

Verse 1.—“Integrity.” תֹּם, or תָּמִים is used of whatever is uninjured, or is free from any spot or blemish; and hence we find the term applied to an unblemished animal offered in sacrifice. Lev. i. 3; iii. 9.—George Phillips.

Verse 1.—“Mine integrity.” There is a force in the possessive pronoun “my,” which must be attended to. The Psalmist intimates that he had proceeded in one uniform course, notwithstanding all the devices of his enemies.—W. Wilson, D.D.

Verse 1.—“I have trusted in the Lord.” Trust in God is the fountain of “integrity.” Whoever places his hope in God need not seek to advance his worldly interests by violating his duty towards his neighbour: he waits for everything from above, and is, at the same time, always determined that he will not be deprived of the favour of his heavenly Father through violating his commandments.—E. W. Hengstenberg.

Verse 1.—“I shall not slide.” It is a striking word, as fully expressive of the completeness of God’s protection and the security of his upholding hand as the Psalmist’s language of the integrity of his walk and trust in God. It is not, as in our Prayer-book version, “I shall not fall,” but it is, “I shall not even slide;” not even make a false step or stumble.—Barton Bouchier.

Verse 2.—The Psalmist uses three words, “examine,” “prove,” “try.” These words are designed to include all the modes in which the reality of anything is tested; and they imply together that he wished the most thorough investigation to be made; he did not shrink from any test.—Albert Barnes.

Verse 2.—“Examine”—“prove”—“try.” As gold, by fire, is severed and parted from dross, so singleness of heart and true Christian simplicity is best seen and made most evident in troubles and afflictions. In prosperity every man will seem godly, but afflictions do draw out of the heart whatsoever is there, whether it be good or bad.—Robert Cawdray.

Verse 2.—“Prove me.” The work of conscience within us doth prove us. God hath set up a light within us, and when this is enlightened by the Word, then it makes a man’s breast full of light. Now a faithful godly man loveth that this should be tender, active, speaking out of God’s Word for every duty, and against every sin. You see the quickness of it in David, when it is said, “His heart smote him;” and 1 John iii., “If thy heart condemn thee, God is greater than thy heart.” Alas! if thou within thy own self judgest thyself to sin thus and thus, God doth much more. Try thy integrity; art thou willing to have a tender conscience, and an informed conscience? Dost thou love to hear what that speaks out of God’s Word? whether peace or duty? this is comfortable. But on the other side, if thou art a man that rebellest against the light of it, wouldst fain put out the sting of it, wouldst be glad to feel no such living thing in thy breast, then thou hast cause to suspect thyself. Oh, it is to be feared that there are many that give themselves to lusts, and carnal pleasures, that so they may put a foggy mist between their conscience and themselves. Others dig into the world, labouring to become senseless, that so there may be an eclipse of this light by the interposition of the earth. Others run to damnable heresies, denying Scriptures, God, heaven, hell; pleading for an universal salvation of all. What are these but refuges of guilty consciences? We must distinguish between our carnal concupiscence, and conscience; between deluded imaginations, and conscience; between an erroneous and scrupulous conscience, and a well-grounded and truly informed conscience; and when we have done so, we must follow conscience as far as that follows the Word.—Anthony Burgess.

Verse 2.—“Reins ... heart.”—The “reins,” as the seat of the lower animal passions; the “heart,” as comprising not only the higher affections, but also the will and the conscience. He thus desires to keep nothing back; he will submit himself to the searching flame of the Great Refiner, that all dross of self-deception may be purged away.—J. J. Stewart Perowne.

Verse 3.—The practical effect of divine goodness is seen in this text. As the chief thing communicated from God is the divine nature, whereby we are made to resemble him, so the promises of God set home upon the soul are the means of communication; they are the milk and honey of the Scripture, which do not cherish the old man, but support the new; they are not pillows for sinful sloth, but spurs to holy diligence. The promises of grace animate the soul to duty; and when we thus see the goodness of the Lord, it encourages our subjection to his government.—Timothy Cruso.

Verses 3, 4.—“I have walked in thy truth, I have not sat with vain persons.” Be as careful as thou canst, that the persons thou choosest for thy companions be such as fear God. The man in the gospel was possessed with the devil, who dwelt amongst the tombs, and conversed with graves and carcases. Thou art far from walking after the good Spirit, if thou choosest to converse with open sepulchres, and such as are dead in sins and trespasses. God will not shake the wicked by the hand, as the Vulgate reads (Job viii. 20), neither must the godly man. David proves the sincerity of his course, by his care to avoid such society: “I have walked in thy truth; I have not sat with vain persons.” There is a twofold “truth.” 1. Truth of doctrine. Thy law is the truth, free from all dross of corruption and falsehood of error. 2. Truth of affection, or of the inward parts. This may be called “thy truth,” or God’s truth, though man be the subject of it, partly because it proceedeth from him, partly because it is so pleasant to him; in which respect a broken heart is called the “sacrifice of God.” Psalm li. 6. As if he had said, I could not have walked in the power of religion, and in integrity, if I had associated with vile and vain company; I could never have walked in thy precepts if I had “sat with vain persons.” Observe the phrase, “I have not sat with vain persons.” 1. Sitting is a posture of choice. It is at a man’s liberty, whether he will sit or stand. 2. Sitting is a posture of pleasure. Men sit for their ease, and with delight; therefore, the glorified are said to “sit in heavenly places.” Eph. ii. 6. 3. Sitting is a posture of staying or abiding. 2 Kings v. 3. Standing is a posture of going, but sitting of staying. The blessed, who shall for ever be with the Lord and his chosen, are mentioned “to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. viii. 11. David in neither of these senses durst sit with vain persons. He might, as his occasions required, use their company, but durst not knowingly choose such company. They could not be the object of his election who were not the object of his affection. “I hate the congregation of evil doers,” saith he. As sitting is a posture of pleasure, he did not sit with vain persons. He was sometimes amongst them to his sorrow, but not to his solace. They were to him, as the Canaanites to the Israelites, pricks in his eyes, and thorns in his sides. “Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!” Psalm cxx. 5. It caused grief, not gladness, that he was forced to be amongst the profane.—George Swinnock.

Verse 4.—“I have not sat with vain persons.” There is a necessary commerce with men in buying and selling, or as the apostle says, “We must needs go out of the world,” but do not voluntarily choose the company of the wicked. 1 Cor. v. 10. “I have written unto you not to keep company,” etc. 1 Cor. v. 11. Do not be too familiar with them. What do Christ’s doves among birds of prey? What do virgins among harlots? The company of the wicked is very defiling, it is like going among them that have the plague. “They were mingled among the heathen and learned their works.” If you mingle bright armour with rusty, the bright armour will not brighten the rusty, but the rusty armour will spoil the bright. Pharaoh taught Joseph to swear, but Joseph did not teach Pharaoh to pray.—Thomas Watson.

Verse 4.—“Neither will I go in with dissemblers.” Chaldee: “I will not go in with those that hide themselves to do evil.” Wickedness is uncandid, and loves concealment, while truth and righteousness are open, and seek scrutiny. Job xxiv. 13-17; John iii. 20, 21. None will deny that the candid man has far fewer troubles with his own conduct than the tortuous and deceitful. The righteous shun the wicked both for the sin and for the misery that are in their ways.—William S. Plumer.

Verse 4.—“Dissemblers.” The hypocrite has much angel without, more devil within. He fries in words, freezes in works; speaks by ells, doth good by inches. He is a stinking dunghill, covered over with snow; a loose-hung mill that keeps great clacking, but grinds no grist; a lying hen that cackles when she hath not laid.—Thomas Adams.

Verse 4.—“Dissemblers.” Perhaps when the bright sunbeams of an early spring have robed all nature in a smiling garb, you have taken your little baskets, and gone in quest of a bank of sweet-smelling modest violets, and you may have found flowers so like them, in form and colour, that you have been deceived, and eagerly grasped your prize; but alas! the sweet odour which should have scented the gale, was found wanting, and betrayed the dog violet. An apt emblem this of those, who, “having the form of godliness, deny the power thereof.” 2 Tim. iii. 5.—Mrs. Rogers, in “The Shepherd King.”

Verses 4, 5.—As rotten apples corrupt those sound ones that do touch them and lie close to them, even so the evil manners and bad conditions of the ungodly do infect those that keep them company.—Robert Cawdray.

Verses 4, 5.—“It is difficult (saith a late ingenious writer) even to a miracle to keep God’s commandments and evil company too.” How suddenly after your soul-refreshments in your closet communion have you lost all your heats and spiritual fervencies, which you had in secret, and have instantly cooled by going forth into cold and corrupt air! When a saint hath been in private ravished with the love of God and the joys of heaven, and afterwards meets with company, which neither doth nor can speak one word of such matters, what a damp is it to him! What a quenching, as it were, of the Spirit of God in him! Nay, is not that true which one saith, that “the people of God do generally lose more by worldly men, that are of a blameless conversation before men, than they lose by wicked and profane men?”—Lewis Stuckley.

Verses 4, 5, 9.—He that would not be found amongst sinners in the other world, must take heed that he do not frequent their company in this. Those whom the constable finds wandering with vagrants, may be sent with them to the house of correction. “Lord,” said a good woman, on her death bed, when in some doubt of her salvation, “send me not to hell amongst wicked men, for thou knowest I never loved their company all my life long.” David deprecates their future doom upon the like ground, and argueth it as a sign of his sincerity: “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.... O gather not my soul with sinners.” Lord, I have not loved the wicked so well as to sit with them for a little time, and shall I live with them for ever? I have not lain amongst them rotting on the earth; and wilt thou gather my soul with those sticks for the unquenchable fire of hell? Lord, I have been so far from liking, that thou knowest I have loathed the congregation of evil doers. Do not I hate them that hate thee? Yea, I hate them with perfect hatred; and shall thy friends fare as thy foes? I appeal to thy Majesty, that my great comfort is in thy chosen. I rejoice only to be amongst thy children here, and shall I be excluded their company hereafter? “O do not gather my soul with sinners,” for the wine-press of thine eternal anger! Marcion, the heretic, seeing Polycarp, wondered that he would not own him. Do you not know me, Polycarp? Yea, saith Polycarp, “Scio te esse primogenitum diaboli;” “I know thee to be the firstborn of the devil,” and so despised him.—George Swinnock.

Verse 5.—“I have hated the congregation of evil doers,” etc. The hatred of God’s enemies, quà his enemies—“yea, I hate them right sore” so entirely opposed to the indifferentism of the present day, has always been one distinguishing mark of his ancient servants. Witness Phinehas (Psalm cvi. 31); “And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore;” Samuel with Agag; Elias with the priests of Baal. And notice the commendation of the angel of Ephesus, “Thou canst not bear them that are evil.” Rev. ii. 2.—J. M. Neale.

Verse 5.—“I have hated the congregation of evil doers.” We consider them as God’s enemies, so we hate them; not their persons, but their vices; for that, as Augustine defineth, it is odium perfectum, a perfect hatred. And indeed it is the hatred that God beareth to his enemies; for “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” (Rom. i. 18); not against their persons—they are his workmanship, and carry his image in some sort, though much disfigured; but against the unrighteousness and ungodliness of men, by which their persons do stand obnoxious to his displeasure. And thus I find the saints of God have triumphed over the wicked, as Israel over Pharaoh, and the Gileadites over the children of Ammon; not rejoicing in the destruction of God’s creatures, but of God’s enemies; and wishing with Deborah and Barak, “So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord.” This is no more but an applauding of the judgment of God, and a celebration of his justice.—Edward Marbury.

Verse 5.—“I have hated,” etc. Consider that there can be no true friendship betwixt a godly and a wicked person; therefore it concerneth thee to be the more wary in thy choice. He that in factions hath an eye to power, in friendship will have an eye to virtue. Friendship, according to the philosopher, is one soul in two bodies. But how can they ever be of one soul that are as different as air and earth, and as contrary as fire and water? All true love is, motus animi ad fruendum Deo propter ipsum; se et proximo propter Deum—a motion of the soul towards the enjoyment of God for himself, and his neighbours for God’s sake; so that he can never truly love man who doth not love his Maker. God is the only foundation upon which we can build friendship; therefore such as live without him, cannot love us in him. That building which is loose, without this foundation can never stand long. A wicked man may call that profession he maketh to his brother by the name of love, but heathens can tell us that virtue alone is the hand which can twist the cords of love; that other combinations are but a confederacy, and all other but conjunctions in hypocrisy.—George Swinnock.

Verse 5.—Wheresoever we perceive any people to worship God truly after his word, there we may be certain the church of Christ to be, unto the which we ought to associate ourselves, and to desire, with the prophet David, to praise God in the midst of this church. But if we behold, through the iniquity of time, congregations to be made with counterfeit religion, otherwise than the word of God doth teach, we ought then, if we be required to be companions thereof, to say again with David, “I have hated the synagogue of the malignant, and will not sit with the wicked.” In the Apocalypse, the church of Ephesus is highly commended, because she tried such as said they were apostles and were not in deed, and therefore would not abide the company of them. Further, God commanded his people that they should not seek Bethel, neither enter into Galgala, where idolatry was used, by the mouth of his prophet Amos.—John Philpot (Martyr). Burnt at Smithfield, 1555.

Verse 5.—How few consider how they harden wicked men by an intimacy with them, whereas withdrawment from them might be a means to make them ashamed! Whilst we are merry and jovial with them, we make them believe their condition is not deplorable, their danger is not great; whereas if we shunned them, as we would a bowed wall, whilst they remain enemies to the Lord, this might do them good, for the startling of them, and rousing of them out of their unhappy security and strong delusions wherein they are held.—Lewis Stuckley.

Verse 6.—“I will wash mine hands in innocency.” There are two eminent lavers in the gospel; the first, Christ’s bath, a hot bath, lavacrum sanguinis, the laver of Christ’s blood; the second, our bath, a cold bath, lavacrum lachrimarum, the laver of repentance. These two mixed together will prove a sovereign composition, wrought first by Christ himself when he sweat water and blood. The first is as that pool of Bethesda into which whosoever enters with faith, is healed; the blood of Christ is the true laver of regeneration, a fountain set open for Judah and Jerusalem to wash in. “The blood of Christ purgeth us from all sins.” 1 John i. 7. We account it charity in mothers to feed their children with their own milk: how dear is the love of Christ, that both washeth and feeds us with his own blood! No sooner are we born in Christ, but just as our mother’s, so Christ’s blood is turned into milk, nourishing us to everlasting salvation. What is calamus benjamini, or storax, or a thousand rivers of oil, to make us clean, except the Lord purge and cleanse us? No; ’tis his blood “that speaks better things than the blood of Abel.” “Unto him, therefore, that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests to God and his Father: to him be glory and dominion for ever.” Rev. i. 5, 6. But yet ’tis the second bath, the laver of repentance, that must apply and make the first operative. This bath of Mary Magdalene’s repentance, it is a kind of rebaptisation, giving strength and effect to the first washing. And it implies a threefold act: first, to bruise our hearts by contrition; secondly, to lay our wounds open by confession to God; thirdly, to wash our hands in innocency, by satisfaction to men.... Wash now and wash all; from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot there is nothing in us but wounds and sores; yet above all there is something here in it that David washeth his “hands.” Indeed it is not enough to come with wet eyes, if we come with foul hands, to offer with unwashen hands; the Gentiles would not do it. Contrition and confession to God make not up complete repentance without satisfaction to men. Non remittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum;[18] it is as true as old, and in old father Latimer’s English it is, “Either there must be restitution, open or secret, or else hell.” Whoever repairs not the wrong, rejoiceth in the sin. Prov. ii. 14. Where there is no satisfaction, “Non agitur sed fingitur pænitentia,” saith St. Augustine; and those who restore not all, wash not their whole hands, they dip only the tips of their fingers. Extortion, rapine, bribery, these are the sins of the hands (sins so proper to the Jews, that they may well conceive as they do that the devil lies all night on their hands, and that is it makes them so diligent in washing); but as for us Christians, unless these vipers be shaken off our hands, though ye cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, yet if you continue in your pollutions, God regards not your offering any more, nor will he receive it with good will at your hands. Matt. ii. 13.—Isaac Bargrave’s Sermon before the House of Commons, 1623.

Verse 6.—“I will wash my hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O Lord.” If greatness might have privileged this person from impurity, David was a king; if the grace of his soul might have freed him from the soil of sin, he was “a man after God’s own heart.” But let not great men put too much trust in their greatness; the longer the robe is, the more soil it contracts: great power may prove the mother of great damnation. And as for purity, there is a generation that say there’s no sin in them, but they deceive themselves; there is no truth in them. Whatever Rome’s φυσιόλογοι pretend for the power of nature, and of free will, we wretched sinners are taught to conceive more truly of our own infirmity. Christ’s own apostle, stout Thomas, failed in the faith of his resurrection; Peter (whose chair is now the pretended seat of infallibility) denied his Master; David, “a man after God’s own heart,” hath need of washing; and who can say, I am pure in the sight of the Lord? Certainly, O Lord, no flesh is righteous in thy sight. No; this is the best ground of Christian felicity, if with David we fall to a sight of our own sins; if with the Publican we strike our own breasts, and not with the Pharisee, cast our eye so much upon other men’s faults. Why should we, like tailors, measure all men but ourselves? as if the best of us had not sin enough of his own to think on. See how David calls himself to account for his own sins; “O Lord, I know mine iniquity, and my sin is ever before me.” Oh, the powerful effect of Christian devotion, when by the reflective act of the understanding, science is turned into conscience, and our knowledge is but the glass of our own imperfection, the glass wherein the sight of our sins sends us presently to God, as it did David here, who makes this account only betwixt God and his own soul, “I, O Lord.” First, he takes his rise from humility and the sight of his own sins, and he soars up by the wings of faith to the throne of God’s mercy: “I, O Lord.” He sees with his own eyes, and not only with the church, or the priest’s spectacles; he is his own penitentiary and confessor; here’s no intercession by saints, no masses, merits, indulgencies, trentals, dirges: all’s done betwixt God and him: “I, O Lord.” With the eye of humility he looks to himself and his own misery; then with the eye of faith to God and his mercy, and from both these results a third virtue of repentance in the act of preparation, washing the soil of sin in the bath of sorrow: “I will wash mine hands,” etc.—Isaac Bargrave.

Verse 6.—“I will wash my hands in purity.” Referring in these words, to the ordinary use of the sacrifices, he makes a distinction between himself and those who professed to offer the same divine worship, and thrust themselves forward in the services of the sanctuary, as if they alone had the sole right to perform them. As David, therefore, and these hypocrites were one in this respect, that they entered the sanctuary, and surrounded the sacred altar together, he proceeds to show that he was a true worshipper, declaring that he not only diligently attended to the external rites, but came to worship God with unfeigned devotion. It is obvious that he alludes to the solemn rite of washing which was practised under the law. He, accordingly, reproves the gross superstition of hypocrites, who, in seeking only the purification of water, neglected true purification; whereas it was God’s design, in the appointment of the outward sign, to put men in mind of their inward pollution, and thus to encourage them to repentance. The outward washing alone, instead of profiting hypocrites, kept them at a greater distance from God. When the Psalmist, therefore, says, “I will wash my hands in innocence,” he intimates that they only gather more pollution and filth by their washings. The Hebrew word, נִקָּיוֹן nikkayon, signifies the cleanness of anything, and is figuratively used for innocence. We thus see, that as hypocrites derive no moral purity whatever from their washings, David mocks at the labour with which they vainly toil and torment themselves in such rites.—John Calvin.

Verse 6.—“I will wash mine hands,” etc. David willing to express his coming with a pure heart to pray to God, doth it by this similitude of a priest; that as a priest washes his hands, and then offers oblation, so had he constantly joined purity and devotion together.—Henry Hammond.

Verse 6.—“In innocency.” The very ἀκμὴ and crown of all our preparation, the purest water we can wash in, is innocency; and innocency is a virtue of the heart as well as of the hand. “Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” James iv. 8. I could wish our washing might be like Cyprian’s baptising, ad tincturam, even till we were dyed in repentance and the blood of Christ. Let the quantity of thy sins be the measure of thy repentance. First offer thine innocency, then thy sacrifice. It is not enough that you come this day by order, you must come with innocency. God requires the duty of the second table, as well as of the first; he abhors the outward act of piety where he finds no conscience and practice of innocency.—Isaac Bargrave.

Verse 6 (first clause).—One morning, as Gotthold was pouring water into a basin, he recollected the words of Scripture: “I will wash my hands in innocency,” a text which shows how diligently the royal prophet had endeavoured to lead a blameless life, and walk habitually in the fear of God. Upon this he mused, and said, Henceforth, my God, every time I pour out water to wash with, I will call to mind that it is my duty to cleanse my hands from wicked actions, my mouth from wicked words, and my heart from wicked lusts and desires, that so I may be enabled to lift holy hands unto thee, and with unspotted lips and heart worship thee, to the best of my ability. What will it profit me to strive after outward purity, if my heart is filthy and abominable in thy sight? Can the food nourish me which I have earned with polluted hands, or seized with violence and injustice, or eaten with insensibility and ingratitude? Ah! no, my God; far from me be food like this. My first care shall be to maintain a blameless walk; my next, when I have thoughtlessly defiled myself, to cleanse and wash away the stain, and remove mine iniquity from thine eyes. “Purge me, O my God, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Psalm li. 7.—Christian Scriver (1629-1693), in “Gotthold’s Emblems.”

Verse 6.—“I will compass thine altar, O Lord.” On the next day after this feast [the Feast of Tabernacles], the people compassed the altar seven times, with palm boughs in their hands, in the remembrance of the overthrow of Jericho.... Not only the boughs, but the days of this whole Feast of Tabernacles, were termed Hosannoth, from the usual acclamation of the people whilst they carried the boughs up and down.—Thomas Godwyn, B.D. (1587-1643), in “Moses and Aaron.”

Verse 6.—By the phrase compassing the altar, either he alludes to some Levitical custom of going about the altar, as the priests did in the oblation of their sacrifices; and the people, especially those of them who were more devout and zealous, who possibly moved from place to place, but still within their own court, that they might discern what was done on the several sides of the altar, and so be the more affected with it; or rather he implies that he would offer many sacrifices together, which would employ the priests round about the altar.—Matthew Pool.

Verse 8.—“Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house,” etc. “I have in my congregation,” said a venerable minister of the gospel, “a worthy, aged woman, who has for many years been so deaf as not to distinguish the loudest sound, and yet she is always one of the first in the meeting. On asking the reason of her constant attendance (as it was impossible for her to hear my voice), she answered, ‘Though I cannot hear you, I come to God’s house because I love it, and would be found in his ways; and he gives me many a sweet thought upon the text when it is pointed out to me: another reason is, because there I am in the best company, in the more immediate presence of God, and among his saints, the honourable of the earth. I am not satisfied with serving God in private; it is my duty and privilege to honour him regularly in public.’” What a reproof this is to those who have their hearing, and yet always come to a place of worship late, or not at all!—K. Arvine.

Verse 9.—“Gather not my soul with sinners.” Now is the time that people should be in care and concern, that their souls be not gathered with sinners in the other world. In discoursing from this doctrine we shall—1. Consider some things implied in it. 2. Show who are the sinners, that we are to have a horror of our souls being gathered with in the other world. 3. What it is for one’s soul to be gathered with sinners in the other world. 4. Consider this care and concern, or show what is implied in this earnest request, “Gather not my soul with sinners.” 5. Give the reasons why we should be in such care and concern. 6. Make application.

Death is the gathering time, which the Psalmist has in view in the text. Ye have a time here that ye call the gathering time, about the term when the servants are going away, wherein ye gather your strayed sheep, that every one may get their own again. Death is God’s gathering time wherein he gets the souls belonging to him, and the devil those belonging to him. They did go long together, but then they are parted; and saints are taken home to the congregation of saints, and sinners to the congregation of sinners. And it concerns us to say, “Gather not my soul with sinners.” Whoever be our people here, God’s people or the devil’s, death will gather our souls to them.

It is a horrible thing to be gathered with sinners in the other world. To think of our souls being gathered with them there, may make the hair of one’s head stand up. Many now like no gathering like the gathering with sinners; it is the very delight of their hearts, it makes a brave jovial life in their eyes. And it is a pain to them to be gathered with saints, to be detained before the Lord on a Sabbath-day. But to be gathered with them in the other world, is a horror to all sorts. 1. The saints have a horror of it, as in the text. To think to be staked down in their company in the other world would be a hell of itself to the godly. David never had such a horror of the society of the diseased, the persecuted, etc., as of sinners. He is content to be gathered with saints of whatever condition; but, “Lord,” says he, “Gather not my soul with sinners.” 2. The wicked themselves have a horror of it. Numb. xxiii. 10. “Let me die the death of the righteous,” said the wicked Balaam, “and let my last end be like his.” Though they would be content to live with them, or be with them in life, their consciences bear witness that they have a horror of being with them in death. They would live with sinners, but they would die with saints. A poor, unreasonable, self-condemning thought.—Thomas Boston.

Verse 9.—“Gather not my soul with sinners.” Bind me not up in the same bundle with them, like the tares for the fire. Matt. xiii. 30. The contrast to this is seen in the following Psalm (verse 10), “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up;” literally, will gather me to his fold.—Christopher Wordsworth.

Verse 9.—“Gather not my soul with sinners.” The Lord hath a harvest and a gleaning time also, set for cutting down and binding together, in the fellowship of judgments, God’s enemies, who have followed the same course of sinning: for here we are given to understand that God will “gather their souls,” and so will let none escape.—David Dickson.

Verse 9.—“Gather not my soul with sinners.” After all, it may be objected that this concern seems to be common to saints and sinners. Even a wicked Balaam said, “Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.” Numb. xxiii. 10. Take a few differences between them in this matter. 1. It is separation from Christ that makes the saints to have a horror at being gathered with sinners hereafter. Separation from Christ is the main ground of the believer’s horror: but if other things were to be right with the sinner in the other world, he would be easy under separation from Christ. 2. The believer has a horror at being gathered with sinners on account of their filthiness; but the thing that makes the sinner concerned is the prospect of punishment. No doubt, a principle of self-preservation must make punishment frightful to all; but abstracted from that, the saints have a concern not to be gathered with sinners in the other world, upon account of their unholiness and filthiness. “He who is filthy, let him be filthy still,” is enough to make a saint abhor the lot of sinners in the life to come. 3. The concern of the saints has a mighty influence upon them, to make them study holiness here; but sinners live unholy for all their concern. “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” 1 John iii. 3. What hope? The hope of seeing Christ as he is, and of being perfectly like him, of being separated from sinners. 4. Lastly, the concern of the saints is such, that they do with purpose of heart come out from among sinners more and more in this world; but sinners are not concerned to be separated from sinners here. Balaam wished to die the death of the righteous; but he had no concern to live the life of the righteous, and to be separated from sinners here.—James Scot, 1773.

Verses 9-12.—David prays that God would not “gather his soul with sinners, whose right hand is full of bribes;” such as, for advantage, would be bribed to sin, to which wicked gang he opposeth himself, verse 11: “But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity;” where he tells us what kept him from being corrupted and enticed, as they were, from God—it was his integrity. A soul walking in its integrity will take bribes neither from men, nor sin itself; and therefore he saith (verse 12), “His foot stood in an even place;” or, as some read it, “My foot standeth in righteousness.”—William Gurnall.

Verse 10.—“Their right hand is full of bribes.” If the great men in Turkey should use their religion of Mahomet to sell, as our patrons commonly sell benefices here (the office of preaching, the office of salvation), it should be taken as an intolerable thing; the Turk would not suffer it in his commonwealth. Patrons be charged to see the office done, and not to seek a lucre and a gain by their patronship. There was a patron in England that had a benefice fallen into his hand, and a good brother of mine came unto him, and brought him thirty apples in a dish, and gave them to his man to carry them to his master. It is like he gave one to his man for his labour, to make up the gain, and so there was thirty-one. This man cometh to his master, and presented him with the dish of apples, saying, “Sir, such a man hath sent you a dish of fruit, and desireth you to be good unto him for such a benefice.” “Tush, tush,” quoth he, “this is no apple matter, I will none of his apples, I have as good as these (or any he hath) in mine own orchard.” The man came to the priest again, and told him what his master said. “Then,” quoth the priest, “desire him yet to prove one of them for my sake, he shall find them much better than they look for.” He cut one of them, and found ten pieces of gold in it. “Marry,” quoth he, “this is a good apple.” The priest standing not far off, hearing what the gentleman said, cried out and answered, “they are all one apples, I warrant you, sir; they grew all on one tree, and have all one taste.” “Well, he is a good fellow, let him have it,” quoth the patron, etc. Get you a graft of this same tree, and I warrant you it shall stand you in better stead than all St. Paul’s learning.—Hugh Latimer.

Verse 10.—“Bribes.” They that see furthest into the law, and most clearly discern the cause of justice, if they suffer the dust of bribes to be thrown into their sight, their eyes will water and twinkle, and fall at last to blind connivance. It is a wretched thing when justice is made a hackney that may be backed for money, and put on with golden spurs, even to the desired journey’s end of injury and iniquity. Far be from our souls this wickedness, that the ear which should be open to complaints should be stopped with the earwax of partiality. Alas! poor truth, that she must now be put to the charges of a golden earpick, or she cannot be heard!—Thomas Adams.

Verse 10.—

What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a-year, And that which was proved true before Proved false again? Two hundred more.

Samuel Butler (1600-1680), in “Hudibras.” Part III. Canto I.

Verse 12 (first clause).—The upright man’s “foot,” is said to “stand in an even place;” he walks not haltingly and uncomely, as those who go in unequal ways, which are hobbling, and up and down, or those whose feet and legs are not even (as Solomon saith), “The legs of the lame are not equal,” and so cannot stand in an even place, because one is long and the other short; the sincere man’s feet are even, and legs of a length, as I may say; his care alike conscientious to the whole will of God. The hypocrite, like the badger, hath one foot shorter than another; or, like a foundered horse, he doth not stand, as we say, right of all four; one foot at least you shall perceive he favours, loth to put it down.—William Gurnall.

Verse 12.—“On an even place.” As a man whose feet are firmly fixed upon even ground is apprehensive of no fall, so the pious worshippers of Jehovah feel no dread lest their adversaries should finally triumph over them.—William Walford.

HINTS TO PREACHERS.

Verse 1.—I. Two inseparable companions—faith and holiness. II. The blessedness of the man who possesses them. He needs not fear the judgment, nor the danger of the way. III. The only means of procuring them.

Verse 1 (last sentence).—The upholding power of trust in God.

Verse 2.—Divine examinations. Their variety, severity, searching nature, accuracy, certainty: when to be desired, and when to be dreaded.

Verse 3.—Delight for the eyes and safety for the feet; or the good man’s sweet contemplation and holy practice; or the heavenly compound of godliness—motive, and motion, enjoying and acting, love and truth, free grace and good works.

Verse 3.—“Thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes.” It might be well to follow David and to keep the lovingkindness of God before our eyes. This should be done in four ways:—I. As a subject of contemplation. II. As the source of encouragement. III. As an incitement to praise. IV. As an example for imitation.—William Jay.

Verse 4.—“Vain persons.” Who they are. Why they are to be avoided. What will become of them. “Dissemblers.” Describe this numerous family. Show what their objects are. The mischief done to believers by their craftiness. The need of shunning them, and their fearful end.

Verse 5.—Bad company. Cases of its evil results, excuses for it answered, warnings given, motives urged for relinquishing.

Verse 6.—The necessity of personal holiness in order to acceptable worship.

Verse 7.—I. The believer’s calling—a publisher. II. The author selected, and the quality of his works. “Thy wondrous works.” III. The mode of advertising—“voice of thanksgiving,” “tell,” etc.

Verse 8.—God’s house. Why we love it. What we love in it. How we show our love. How our love will be rewarded.

Verse 9.—See “Spurgeon’s Sermons,” No. 524. “The Saints’ Horror at the Sinners’ Hell.”

Verse 11.—The best men needing redemption and mercy; or the outward walk before men, and the secret walk with God.

Verse 12.—Secure standing, honoured position, grateful praise.

Verse 12 (last clause).—Congregational Psalmody, and our personal share in it.

Footnote 18:

Augustine.

HUNT, BARNARD & CO., LTD., Printers, London and Aylesbury.

● Transcriber’s Notes: ○ Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (italics). ○ Footnotes have been moved to follow the psalms in which they are referenced.

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