Preface
Greatly encouraged by the generous reception awarded to my first volume, I have laboured on with diligence, and am now able to present the reader with the second instalment of my work. Whether life and health shall be given me to complete my task, which will probably extend to six volumes, remains with the gracious Preserver of men; but with his aid and allowance, my face is set towards that design, and I pray that my purpose may be achieved, if it be for the divine glory, and for the good of his church.
In this volume, which contains thirty-one sacred odes, we have several of the more memorable and precious of Zion’s songs. In commenting upon some of them, I have been overwhelmed with awe, and said with Jacob, “How dreadful is this place, it is none other than the house of God.” Especially was this case with the fifty-first; I postponed expounding it week after week, feeling more and more my inability for the work. Often I sat down to it, and rose up again without having penned a line. It is a bush burning with fire yet not consumed, and out of it a voice seemed to cry to me, “Draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet.” The Psalm is very human, its cries and sobs are of one born of woman; but it is freighted with an inspiration all divine, as if the Great Father were putting words into his child’s mouth. Such a Psalm may be wept over, absorbed into the soul, and exhaled again in devotion; but, commented on—ah! where is he who having attempted it can do other than blush at his defeat?
I have followed the same plan as in the former volume, not only because I am committed to it by the law of uniformity, but also because it is on the whole advantageous. Some have suggested alterations, but many more have commended the very features which would have been improved away, and therefore I have continued in the selfsame method.
Greater use has, in this volume, been made of the Latin writers. Extracts have been made not only from those which are condensed in Pool’s Synopsis; but from many others. These works are a mine of exposition far too little known. If the index shall serve to introduce fresh expositions to my ministerial readers, I shall not have laboured in vain.
The acknowledgments of obligation made in Volume I. might very justly be repeated as concerning Volume II.; the reader will consider them as again recorded. It may also be needful to repeat the statement that as I give the name of each Author quoted, each authority is personally responsible for his own sentiments; and I do not wish it to be supposed that I endorse all that is inserted. It is often useful to us to know what has been said by authors whose views we could by no means accept.
More and more is the conviction forced upon my heart that every man must traverse the territory of the Psalms himself if he would know what a goodly land they are. They flow with milk and honey, but not to strangers; they are only fertile to lovers of their hills and vales. None but the Holy Spirit can give a man the key to the Treasury of David; and even he gives it rather to experience than to study. Happy he who for himself knows the secret of the Psalms.
If permitted by the Great Master whom I serve, I shall now proceed with another portion of this TREASURY OF DAVID; but the labour and research are exceedingly great, and my other occupations are very pressing, and therefore I must crave the patience of the Christian public.
C. H. Spurgeon
INDEX OF AUTHORS QUOTED OR REFERRED TO.
Adams, Thomas (1614), 11, 99, 116, 134, 136, 147, 148, 154, 167, 191, 195, 206, 229, 332, 382, 396, 397, 398
Adkins, Richard, 100
Æschylus, 286
Ainsworth, Henry (—1622), 18, 147, 152, 153, 181, 212, 242, 247, 323, 366, 452, 453, 459
Airay, Henry (1560-1610), 101
Alexander, Joseph Addison (1850), 100, 111, 115, 284, 367, 392, 394, 395, 408, 436, 437, 452
Alexander, Thomas (1861), 411, 414, 420, 423
Alexander, William Lindsay (1862), 219
Alford, Henry (1810-1871), 328
Alleine, Richard (1611-1681), 76, 87, 130
Ambrose, (340-397), 155, 307, 345
Ambrose, Isaac (1592-1674), 27, 357
Anderson, James (1846), 147, 185, 423, 482
Andrewes, Lancelot (1555-1626), 358
Angier, John (1647), 483
Aquinas, Thomas (1224-1274), 345
Aristotle, 189
Arndt, John (1555-1621), 75
Arnot, William (1858), 166
Arrowsmith, John (1600-1660), 470
Arvieux, Laurent d’ (1635-1702), 130
Arvine, K. (1859), 24, 378
Ash, Simeon (1642), 78
Athanasius, 329, 330
Augustine (353-429), 111, 112, 115, 116, 117, 150, 156, 333, 336, 358, 392, 428
Avrillon, Jean Baptiste Elias (1652-1729), 6, 8, 210
Ayguan, Michael (1416), 346, 457
Bacon, Francis (1560-1626), 438, 471
Bacon, William Thompson 113
Baker, Sir Richard (1568-1645), 6, 8, 14, 15, 18, 49, 54, 55, 111, 128, 129, 134, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 210, 211, 410, 412, 413, 415, 416, 420, 422
Ball, John (1585-1640), 118, 138, 414
Barclay, John (1734-1798), 35
Barlow, John (1618), 232, 283
Barnes, Albert (1798-1870), 12, 27, 38, 99, 100, 150, 209, 311, 366, 377, 453, 459, 469, 484
Barth, T. C. (1865), 192, 345
Basil (326-379), 36, 40, 128
Bate, Julius (1711-1771), 365
Baylie, Robert (1643), 183
Baxter, Richard (1615-1691), 71
Beddome, B. (1717-1795), 46, 146
Beecher, Henry Ward (1870), 481
Bellarmine, Robert (1542-1621), 16, 364
Benmohel, N. L. (1847), 244
Bernard (1091-1157), 345, 468
Bible, Berleb., 186
Bible, Pocket Commentary, 191
Biblical, Treasury, 119
Biddulph, Thomas Tregenna (1763-1838), 410, 415
Bingham, Charles H. (1836), 92
Binney, Thomas (1869), 131
Binnie, William (1870), 86, 115, 128, 150, 323, 346, 367, 485
Blackerby, Samuel (1673), 264, 461
Bogan, Zachary (1625-1659), 51, 130, 276, 287, 459
Bolton, Robert (1572-1631), 195
Bonar, Andrew A. (1859), 137, 146, 343, 355, 367, 391, 436, 481
Bonar, Horatius (1847), 228
Boothroyd, Benjamin (—1836), 395, 439
Bouchier, Barton (1855), 180, 263, 391, 395, 468
Bowes, G. S. (1860), 26, 55
Boys, John (1560-1643), 326, 332, 356, 357, 358, 421, 422, 479, 480, 482
Bradbury, Charles (1785), 6, 73
Bradford, John (1510-1555), 128
Bromiardus, Johannes de (1485), 264
Brooks, Thomas (1608-1680), 34, 51, 53, 150, 153, 156, 166, 188, 246, 248, 280, 288, 310
Browning, Robert (1849), 73
Bruce, Robert (1559-1631), 242
Buffon, Comte de (1707-1788), 116
Bunyan, John (1628-1688), 183, 209, 285, 382, 461, 469
Burder, George (1838), 114, 366
Burder, Samuel (1839), 165, 227, 365
Burgess, Daniel (1645-1712), 396
Burke, Edmund (1730-1797), 227
Burns, James D. (1823-1864), 185
Burroughs, Jeremiah (1599-1646), 332, 470, 481
Burroughs, Thomas (1657), 220
Burton, William (1602), 266
Bush, George (1796—), 115
Buxtorf, John (1564—), 153
Byfield, Nicholas (1579—), 180
Bythner, Victorinus (—1670), 244, 323, 374
Calamy, Edmund (1600-1666), 120, 473
Calmet, Augustine (1672-1757), 322
Calvin, John (1509-1564), 12, 17, 25, 36, 39, 48, 65, 71, 72, 74, 116, 119, 150, 153, 185, 186, 210, 211, 243, 245, 261, 264, 265, 267, 308, 359, 380, 419, 421, 422, 443, 444, 468, 480
Cameron, Richard (1680), 349
Capel, Richard (1586-1656), 263
Carbone, Ludovic de, 181
Carlyle, Thomas (18—), 70
Carmichael, Alexander (1677), 91
Carter, Charles (1869), 100, 220
Cartwright, Christopher (1602), 68
Caryl, Joseph (1602-1673), 34, 37, 39, 40, 118, 153, 162, 164, 190, 205, 310, 333, 348, 359, 374, 375, 377, 378, 380, 383, 394, 397, 398, 399, 430, 459, 462, 471, 479
Caswell, Edward (1861), 336
Cawdray, Robert (1609), 36, 71, 100
Chalmers, Thomas (1780-1847), 262, 408
Chandler, Samuel (1693-1766), 48, 49, 52, 128, 137, 409, 410, 414, 415, 417, 423, 429, 443, 481
Charnock, Stephen (1628-1680), 76, 89, 250, 395, 398, 469, 472, 473
Cheynell, Francis (1645), 382
Christian Treasury, The (1848), 100, 132
Christophers, S. W. (1866), 344
Chrysostom (347-407), 70
Clarke, Adam (1760-1832), 12, 17, 48, 65, 66, 88, 113, 118, 133, 136, 190, 245, 260, 263, 308, 344, 355, 357, 409, 414, 418, 429, 438, 454, 457, 458, 472
Clarke, Samuel (1599-1682), 35, 128
Clarke, Samuel (1675-1729), 283
Clarkson, David (1621-1686), 17, 114, 132, 165, 187, 192, 249, 250, 308, 383
Cobbett, Thomas (1608-1686), 14, 54, 230
Coetlogon, Charles de (1775), 409, 411
Cole, Thomas (1627-1697), 212
Coleman, John Noble (1863), 452
Collinge, John (1623-1690), 282, 346
Colvill, William (1655), 167
Conybeare, W. J. (1856), 95
Coombs, Jesse (1867), 211
Coore, Richard (1687), 324, 331, 348
Cowper, William (1566-1619), 416, 417, 419, 421
Cox, Francis Elizabeth (1864), 184
Crabbe, George (1754-1832), 262
Crates, 379
Craven, Isaac (1630), 92, 146
Cresswell, Daniel (1776-1844), 74, 147, 153, 168, 189, 243, 245, 265, 309, 365, 395, 438
Crichett, George (1870), 70
Cruso, Timothy (1657-1697), 13, 163, 167
Culverwell, Nathaniel (—1650), 277
D., J. (1608), 376
“Daily Telegraph” (1869), 131
Damiano, Peter (988-1072), 137
Davenant, John (1562-1641), 357
Davidson, David (1836), 191
Davidson, Samuel (1852), 444
Davies, Sir John (1569-1626), 131, 155, 164, 228, 457
Davey, Dr., 326
Day, John (1609), 9
De Burgh, William (1860), 116, 183, 307
Defoe, Daniel (1663-1731), 251
Delitzsch, Franz (1869), 212, 249, 485
De Wette, Wilhelm (1850), 310
Dickson, David (1583-1662), 26, 65, 69, 73, 76, 131, 162, 163, 168, 183, 187, 249, 251, 263, 264, 308, 309, 311, 312, 327, 332, 336, 442, 444, 452, 453, 459, 468, 470, 472, 484
Dimock, Henry (1791), 420
Diodati, John (1576-1649), 37, 47, 70, 112, 180, 250, 329, 397
Dolben, J. (1665), 443
Donne, John (1573-1631), 97, 98, 99, 100, 205, 206, 460
Doolittle, Samuel (1693), 119
Doolittle, Thomas (1630), 119
Duncan, Mary B. (1825-1865), 51, 189, 208
Dunlop, William (1692-1720), 76, 128, 244, 296, 381
Duns, John (1868), 115, 193, 209, 415
Duppa, Brian (1588-1662), 281
Dyke, Jeremiah (1620), 472, 480
Eadie, John (1868), 92
Edwards, John (1637-1716), 375
Edwards, Jonathan (1703-1758), 163, 349, 375
Elwin, Fountain (1842), 96
Ephraem Syrus (—379), 133
Erasmus, Desiderus (1467-1536), 68
Erskine, Ralph (1685-1752), 18, 247, 345, 346
Estley, George (1603), 418
Estwick, Nicholas (1644), 229
Eusebius, (267-338), 309
Evans, James Harrington (1785-1849), 90
Ewald, Henrich, 219
Farindon, Anthony (1596-1658), 186
Faussett, A. R. (1866), 457, 459, 469, 480
Fenner, William (1600-1640), 397
Firmin, Giles (1617-1697), 209
Flavel, John (1627-1691), 53, 75, 248, 310, 311, 329, 336, 478, 479, 481
Fletcher, Giles (1588-1623), 357
Forbes, A. P. (1857), 408
“Four Friends” (1867), 345, 458
Fowler, Christopher (1610-1678), 26, 101
Frame, James (1869), 243, 244, 248, 249, 250, 251
Francis, Philip (1765), 36
Frank, Mark (1613-1664), 246, 325
French, W. and Skinner G. (1842), 398, 418, 457
Fry, John (1842), 188, 277
Fuller, Andrews (1754-1815), 167
Fuller, Thomas (1608-1661), 100, 137, 263, 399, 411
Gadsby, John (1862), 154, 229, 243, 278, 471
Gataker, Thomas (1574-1654), 117, 133, 382
Geir, Martin (1614-1681), 66, 112, 249, 251, 265, 356, 391, 397, 452, 471
Genebrard, Gilbert (1537-1597), 163
Gerhard, Paul (1606-1676), 184
Gibbens, Nicholas (1602—), 439
Gill, John (1697-1771), 120, 127, 130, 134, 150, 152, 185, 261, 310, 345, 391, 396, 397, 453, 457, 469
Gilpin, Richard (1677), 52, 483
Ginsberg, Christian D. (1863), 166
Gipps, George (1645), 396
Glascock, John (1659), 188, 189
Good, John Mason (1764-1827), 379
Goodwin, John (1593-1665), 135, 247
Goodwin, Thomas (1600-1679), 14, 245, 251, 264, 333, 413, 414, 438, 481
Gore, J. (1633), 193
Gotthold (see Scriver)
Gouge, Wm. (1575-1653), 26, 65, 206, 336
Gray, Andrew (1805-1861), 11
Greenhill, William (1591-1677), 95, 165, 168, 190
Gregory, 92
Grenada, Lewis de (1504-1588), 153
Griffith, Matthew (1633), 191
Grosvenor, Benjamin (1675-1758), 484
Grotius, Hugo (1583-1645), 115
Grove, John (1802), 454
Gurnall, William (1617-1679), 12, 41, 74, 76, 90, 91, 93, 129, 154, 222, 228, 231, 282, 283, 289, 307, 349, 376, 394, 398, 420, 430, 453, 458, 469, 470, 483
Guyon, Jeanne Bouvier de la Mothe (1648-1717), 335
Hall, Joseph (1574-1656), 348
Halyburton, Thomas (1674-1711), 151
Hamilton, James (1814-1867), 33
Hammond, Henry (1605-1660), 25, 68, 137, 245, 265, 343, 366, 458, 460, 462
Hapstone, Dalman (1867), 166, 331
Hardy, Nathanael (1618-1670), 75, 92, 93, 94, 133, 134, 180, 183, 194, 212, 224, 411
Hare, Francis (1740), 165
Harmer, Thomas (1715-1788), 92, 311
Harpur, George (1862), 323, 324, 325, 327, 328, 331
Hart, Joseph (1762), 240 (Poetry)
Hawker, Robert (1753-1827), 131, 324, 336, 443, 471
Hengstenberg, E. W. (1845), 51, 112, 114, 131, 242, 308, 309, 313, 365, 459
Henry, Matthew (1662-1714), 27, 54, 73, 76, 133, 134, 181, 193, 250, 266, 324, 355, 365, 437, 458
Herbert, George (1593-1632), 228, 280
Hervey, James (1713-14—1758), 184
Heywood Oliver (1629), 154, 278
Hieron, Samuel (1572-1617), 413
Hiller, Prescott, 473
Holdsworth, Richard (1590-1649), 118
Holy David and his Old English Translators Cleared [Anon] (1706), 324
Homes, Nath. (—1678), 295, 297
Hood, E. Paxton (1865), 73, 263, 297
Hopkins, Ezekiel (1633-1690), 155, 382
Horace, 36
Horne, George (1730-1792), 26, 36, 38, 54, 136, 187, 192, 230, 242, 261, 265, 356, 365, 430, 460, 468
Horsley, Samuel (1733-1806), 15, 40, 100, 109, 346, 397, 398
Horton, Thomas (—1673), 13, 14, 277, 278, 282, 285, 288, 413
Howe, John (1630-1705), 40, 182, 287, 366
Howson, J. S. (1856), 95
Hughes, Joseph (1822), 232
Hugo, Cardinal, 307
Huntington, William (1744-1813), 285
Hurst, Henry (1661), 473
Huss, John (1376-1415), 66
Hyde, Edward (1658), 325
Jackson, Arthur (1593-1666), 185, 187, 191, 208, 220, 243, 264, 265, 309, 322, 328, 334, 415, 429
Jamieson, John (1758-1838), 162
Janeway, James (1636-1674), 75, 135, 189
Jay, William (1769-1853), 94, 118, 120, 252
Jebb, John (1846), 161, 203, 323, 428
Jermin, Michael (—1659), 190
Jerome, (331-422), 185
Jewell, John (1522-1571), 73
Justin, Martyr, 111
Keble, John (1792-1866), 380
Ken, Thomas (1637-1710), 18
Kennedy, Benjamin Hall (1860), 375
Kennicott, Ben. (1718-1783), 294, 365, 375
Kimchi, David (—1240), 150
King, John (1559-1621), 54, 223, 439
Kinwellmersh, 101
Kitchen, John (1660), 116, 195
Kitto, John (1804-1854), 92, 229, 309, 479
Kollock, Henry (1822), 289
La Combe, Father, 334
Lake, Arthur (—1626), 94
Lange, J. P. (1864), 68, 266, 280, 284, 297, 312
Lapide, Cornelius à (—1637), 357
Larrabee, W. C. (1851), 350
Lavington, Samuel (1726-1807), 297
Lawrence, Matthew (1657), 283, 417
Layfielde, Edmund (1630), 181, 222, 223, 224, 227
Lee, S. (1625-1691), 210, 244, 251, 334, 483
Lee, Samuel (1783-1852), 25
Leifchild, John (1860), 24, 379
Leighton, Robert (1611-1684), 86, 90, 94, 219, 222, 223, 227, 230
Lightfoot, John (1602-1675), 49
Littleton, Adam (1627-1694), 410
Lockyer, Nicholas (1612-1684-5), 210
Lorinus, John (1569-1634), 87, 96
Love, Christopher (1618-1651), 93, 203, 223, 281, 284
Lowth, Robert (1710-1787), 203, 375
Luther, Martin (1483-1546), 86, 190, 196, 333, 344, 412
M., D. (1678), 12
Macgregor, Duncan (1869), 335
McCheyne, Robert Murray (1813-1843), 33, 36, 38, 39, 420, 437, 470
Malan, Cæsar, 251
Manning, Henry Edward (1850), 454
Mant, Richard (1776-1849), 117, 130, 209, 331, 416, 431, 460
Manton, Thomas (1620-1677), 87, 88, 192, 230, 231, 313, 377
Marbury, Edward (1649), 50, 137
March, Henry (1823), 279, 280, 282, 284, 285, 286, 287, 290, 296, 298
Martyr, Peter (1500-1562), 438
Massillon, Jean Baptiste (1663-1742), 25, 26, 35, 36, 39
Mayer, John (1653), 11, 66, 307
Mede, Joseph (1586-1638), 246
Melancthon, Philip (1497-1560), 195
Melvill, Henry (1837), 99
Merrick, James (1720-1769), 15, 245
Metastasio, Pietro (1698-1782), 150
Michaelis, John Henry (1668-1738), 375
Milton, John (1608-1674), 365
Moll, Carl Bernard (1869), 250
Mollerus, D. H. (1639), 131, 166
Monastier, Antoine, (1859), 73
Montague, M. (1844), 86
Montgomery, James (1771-1854), 35
Morier, J. P. (1801), 326
Morison, John (1829), 150, 222, 285, 296, 344, 375, 414, 416, 438, 482
Mosschus, (B.C. 250), 461
Mossom, Robert (1657), 9, 461, 53, 181
Mudge, Zachary (1744), 162
Muis, Simon de (1587-1644), 168, 357, 391, 452, 480
Munster, Sebastian (1489-1552), 164
Murcot, John (1657), 415
Nalton, James (1664), 136
Neale, John Mason (1860), 53, 111, 128, 130, 133, 163, 228, 260, 264, 276, 355, 374, 396, 410, 461
Ness, Christoper (1621-1705), 277, 414
Newton, Adelaide (1824-1854), 54
Nicholls, Benjamin Elliott (1858), 155
Nicholson, W. (-1671), 161, 364, 365, 471
Noyes, George R. (1846), 265
Offor, George (1862), 382
Offord, John (1868), 296
Origen, 228, 366
Orton, Job (1717-1783), 327
Owen, John (1616-1683), 249, 366
Page, Samuel (1646), 91, 220, 410, 411, 412, 417, 421, 422
Paley, William (1743-1805), 114
Parkhurst, John (1728-1797), 181
Parr, Elnathan (1651), 298
Parre, Richard (1617-1691), 195
Parsons, Benjamin (1797-1855), 263
Patrick, Symon (1626-1707), 184, 472
Paxton, George (1762-1837), 40, 229, 327, 344, 348
Payson, Edward (1783-1827), 327, 328
Pearce, Edward (1673), 324
Peden, Alexander (1682), 132, 310
Pennington, John (1656), 182, 186
Perkins, William (1558-1602), 87
Perowne, J. J. Stewart (1864), 66, 117, 149, 164, 166, 209, 246, 249, 263, 267, 276, 284, 296, 308, 312, 381, 392, 423, 430, 458, 460
Peters, Hugh (1645), 77
Phillips, George (1846), 294
Philpot, J. C. (1802-1869), 209
Pierson, Thomas (1570-1633), 11, 15
Pinchbeck, Edmund (1652), 168
Pineda, John de (1577-1637), 113
Pinke, William (1631), 117
Piscator, John (1546-1626), 166
Pitcairn, David (1846), 330
Pitman, J. R. (1846), 135
Pitts, Joseph (1704), 311
Plain Commentary, A (1859), 365
Playfere, Thomas (1604), 51, 95, 96, 130
Pledger, Elias (1677), 52, 469
Plumer, William S. (1867), 6, 7, 66, 162, 185, 209, 227, 264, 275, 297, 308, 331, 355, 365, 408, 429, 438, 458, 468, 483
Plumptre, E. H. (1870), 267
Pollock, Robert (1799-1827), 163
Polycarp, 66
Pool, Matthew (1624-1679), 12, 137, 222, 228, 230, 266, 309, 326, 356, 392, 394, 397, 410, 479, 480
Pope, Alexander (1688-1744), 9
Porter, Ebenezer (1834), 230
Porter, J. L. (1867), 364
Power, Philip Bennet (1862), 23, 24
Preston, John (1587-1628), 51, 336
Pridham, Arthur (1869), 243, 408
Propertius, 382
Pusey, E. B. (1853), 228, 418
Quarles, F. (1592-1644), 65, 69, 70, 376
Ranew, Nathaniel (-1672), 74, 221
Rawlinson, John (1618), 456
Raworth, Francis (1656), 262
Rees, John, 24
Reeve, J. W. (1860), 91
Reyner, Edward (1600-1670), 220
Reynolds, Edward (1599-1676), 72, 358
Reynolds, William (1657), 224
Richardson, John (-1654), 364, 469
Rivet, Andrew (1572-1651), 211
Robertson, F. W. (1816-1853), 288, 409
Rogers, Mrs. (1856), 229
Rogers, Samuel (1763-1855), 262
Rogers, Timothy (1660-1729), 50, 55, 75, 280
Row, John (1677), 326
Russell, Michael, (1781-1848), 92
Rutherford, Samuel (1600-1661), 70, 129, 229, 325
Ryland, R. H., 436, 458, 461
“Sacramental Meditations on Psalm xxvii.” (1843), 6
Salter, H. G. (1840), 6, 289
Sanderson, Robert (1587-1662-3), 16
Sandys, George (1577-1643), 71
Saurin, James (1677-1730), 111
Scot, James (-1773), 358, 393
Scott, Thomas (1747-1821), 181, 188
Scriver, Christian [Gotthold] (1629-1693), 69, 74, 221
Secker, Thomas (1693-1768), 181
Secker, William (1660), 8, 17, 53, 75, 131, 227, 310, 356, 456
Sedgwick, Obadiah (1600), 15
Sedgwick, William (1609), 164
Segerson, Jeroninus (1551), 165
Seneca, 134
Shakspeare, W. (1564-1616), 71, 193, 227
Sharp, Thomas (1630-1693), 454, 457
Sheffield, John (1664), 8, 334
Sibbes, Richard (1577-1635), 7, 10, 11, 13, 14, 116, 279, 288, 297, 378
Sibree, J. (1830), 394
Skinner, G. (see French)
Skinner, Robert (-1670), 17
Smiles, Samuel, 289
Smith, David (1792-1867), 129
Smith, Henry (1560-1591), 136, 265, 280, 282, 418
Smith, J. Denham (1860), 289
Smith, Samuel (1588-), 410
Smyth, Zephaniah (1647), 152
Socrates, 219
Sophocles, 227
Spalding, John (1703), 136
“Spectator, The,” 115
Spencer, John (-1654), 50, 72, 120, 181
Spring, Gardiner, 195
Spurstowe, William (-1666), 102
Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn (1864), 415
Steele, Richard (-1692), 11, 192, 323
Stoughton, John (-1639), 8, 72
Streat, William (1654), 312
Strickland, John (1601-1670), 347
Strigelius, Victorinus (1524-1569), 408
Strong, William (1656), 482
Struther, William (1633), 9, 52, 164, 212, 220, 350, 399
Stuart, Moses (1780-1852), 247
Stuckley, Lewis (-1687), 332
Sturm, Christopher (1750-1786), 113
Sutton, Christopher (-1692), 221
Swinnock, George (1627-1673), 135, 166, 187, 280, 366, 379, 395, 414
Sylvester, Matthew (1636-1708), 290
Symonds, Joseph (1639), 116, 210, 228
Symson, Archibald (1638), 86, 88, 91, 97, 98, 101, 409, 410, 414, 416
Targum, 188, 285
Taylor, Jeremy (1613-1667), 8, 264
Taylor, Thomas (1576-1632), 88, 91, 97, 98
Teat, Faithful (1656), 222, 378
Theodoret, (393-457), 366
Thevenot, Melchisedek (1621-1692), 130
Tholuck, Augustus F. (1856), 34, 131, 307, 336, 415, 438, 478, 485
Thomé de Jesu, Fra (-1582), 67, 419, 457
Thomson, Andrew (1826), 295
Thomson, W. M. (1859), 276, 286, 364, 416, 456, 482
Trapp, John (1611-1669), 15, 16, 25, 27, 34, 36, 40, 66, 95, 113, 116, 117, 134, 135, 136, 148, 151, 155, 163, 181, 182, 186, 191, 192, 195, 229, 246, 307, 308, 323, 325, 347, 350, 364, 391, 392, 394, 408, 417, 429, 443, 453, 468, 471
Troughton, William (1656), 329, 334, 335, 336
Tucker, W. H. (1840), 442, 443, 444
Tuckney, Anthony (1599), 70, 458
Tymme, Thomas (1634), 181, 185, 377, 380
Udall, Ephraim (1642), 41
Underhill, E. B. (1850), 312
Vatablus, Francis (1545), 154
Venema, Hermann (1697-1787), 151, 265, 391, 396, 397, 428, 429, 430, 431, 443, 444, 457, 462, 473, 479, 482
Verschoyle, Hamilton (1843), 70
Victorinus, Hugo, 357
Vinet, Alexander Rodolph (1797-1847), 55
Virgil, 348
Volney, Constantine F. C. Comte de (1755-1820), 38
Votier, (1652), 379
Wagner, George (1862), 9
Walford, William (1837), 152, 191, 208, 399
Walton, Isaac (1593-1683), 186
Waterland, Daniel (1683), 135
Watson, Thomas (1660), 7, 15, 25, 54, 88, 92, 94, 111, 134, 192, 206, 222, 263, 311, 379, 399
Watts, Isaac (1674-1748), 278, 391
Weemse, John (-1636), 114
Weiss, Benjamin (1856), 155, 204, 308, 443
Welch, John (1576-1622), 412
Wells, John (-1676), 112, 357, 483
Wesley, Charles (1708-1788), 344
Wesley, John (1703-1791), 350
Westfield, Thomas (1644), 194
Westminister Assembly’s Annotations, 331, 460
White, Henry Kirke (1785-1806), 96
Whitecross, John, 101
Whitlock, John (1658), 195
Whitty, Dr., 92
Wilcocks, Thomas (1586), 181, 190, 308, 356
Wilcox, Daniel (1676-1733), 12, 67
Williams, Griffith (1636), 462
Willison, John (1680-1750), 18
Wilson, John (1847), 34
Wilson, W. (1860), 27, 186, 188, 192, 193, 247, 263, 264, 267, 313, 377, 417, 418, 419, 422, 471, 473
Witsius, Hermann (1636-1708), 207, 334
Wood, J. G. (1869), 349
Wordsworth, Christopher (1868), 36, 38, 40, 48, 68, 111, 137, 165, 180, 251, 307, 308, 322, 323, 328, 357, 380, 418, 437, 480
Wouter of Stoelwyk (1541), 189
Wright, Abraham (1661), 472
Wright, L. (1616), 461
Young, Edward (1681-1755), 2
Young, Richard (1655), 115, 132
Zinzendorf, Count Nicholas Louis (1684-1760), 325
PSALM XXVII.
TITLE AND SUBJECT.—Nothing whatever can be drawn from the title as to the time when this Psalm was written, for the heading, “A Psalm of David,” is common to so many of the Psalms; but if one may judge from the matter of the song, the writer was pursued by enemies, verses 2 and 3, was shut out from the house of the Lord, verse 4, was just parting from father and mother, verse 10, and was subject to slander, verse 12; do not all these meet in the time when Doeg, the Edomite, spake against him to Saul? It is a song of cheerful hope, well fitted for those in trial who have learned to lean upon the Almighty arm. The Psalm may with profit be read in a threefold way, as the language of David, of the Church, and of the Lord Jesus. The plenitude of Scripture will thus appear the more wonderful.
DIVISION.—The poet first sounds forth his sure confidence in his God, 1-3, and his love of communion with him, 4-6. He then betakes himself to prayer, 7-12, and concludes with an acknowledgment of the sustaining power of faith in his own case, and an exhortation to others to follow his example.
EXPOSITION.
The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh they stumbled and fell.
3 Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
1. “The Lord is my light and my salvation.”—Here is personal interest, “my light,” “my salvation;” the soul is assured of it, and therefore, declaring it boldly. “My light”—into the soul at the new birth divine light is poured as the precursor of salvation; where there is not enough light to see our own darkness and to long for the Lord Jesus, there is no evidence of salvation. Salvation finds us in the dark, but it does not leave us there; it gives light to those who sit in the valley of the shadow of death. After conversion our God is our joy, comfort, guide, teacher, and in every sense our light; he is light within, light around, light reflected from us, and light to be revealed to us. Note, it is not said merely that the Lord gives light, but that he “is” light; nor that he gives salvation, but that he is salvation; he, then, who by faith has laid hold upon God has all covenant blessings in his possession. Every light is not the sun, but the sun is the father of all lights. This being made sure as a fact, the argument drawn from it is put in the form of a question, “Whom shall I fear?” A question which is its own answer. The powers of darkness are not to be feared, for the Lord, our light, destroys them; and the damnation of hell is not to be dreaded by us, for the Lord is our salvation. This is a very different challenge from that of boastful Goliath, for it is based upon a very different foundation; it rests not upon the conceited vigour of an arm of flesh, but upon the real power of the omnipotent I AM. “The Lord is the strength of my life.” Here is a third glowing epithet, to show that the writer’s hope was fastened with a threefold cord which could not be broken. We may well accumulate terms of praise where the Lord lavishes deeds of grace. Our life derives all its strength from him who is the author of it; and if he deigns to make us strong we cannot be weakened by all the machinations of the adversary. “Of whom shall I be afraid?” The bold question looks into the future as well as the present. “If God be for us,” who can be against us, either now or in time to come?
2. This verse records a past deliverance, and is an instance of the way in which experience should be employed to reassure our faith in times of trial. Each word is instructive. “When the wicked.” It is a hopeful sign for us when the wicked hate us; if our foes were godly men it would be a sore sorrow, but as for the wicked their hatred is better than their love. “Even mine enemies and my foes.” There were many of them, they were of different sorts, but they were unanimous in mischief and hearty in hatred. “Came upon me”—advanced to the attack, leaping upon the victim like a lion upon its prey. “To eat up my flesh,” like cannibals they would make a full end of the man, tear him limb from limb, and make a feast for their malice. The enemies of our souls are not deficient in ferocity, they yield no quarter, and ought to have none in return. See in what danger David was; in the grip and grasp of numerous, powerful, and cruel enemies, and yet observe his perfect safety and their utter discomfiture! “They stumbled and fell.” God’s breath blew them off their legs. There were stones in the way which they never reckoned upon, and over these they made an ignominious tumble. This was literally true in the case of our Lord in Gethsemane, when those who came to take him went backward and fell to the ground; and herein he was a prophetic representative of all wrestling believers who, rising from their knees shall, by the power of faith, throw their foes upon their faces.
3. “Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.” Before the actual conflict, while as yet the battle is untried, the warrior’s heart, being held in suspense, is very liable to become fluttered. The encamping host often inspires greater dread than the same host in actual affray. Young tells us of some—
“Who feel a thousand deaths in fearing one.”
Doubtless the shadow of anticipated trouble is, to timorous minds, a more prolific source of sorrow than the trouble itself, but faith puts a strengthening plaister to the back of courage, and throws out of the window the dregs of the cup of trembling. “Though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.” When it actually comes to push of pike, faith’s shield will ward off the blow; and if the first brush should be but the beginning of a war, yet faith’s banners will wave in spite of the foe. Though battle should succeed battle, and one campaign should be followed by another, the believer will not be dismayed at the length of the conflict. Reader, this third verse is the comfortable and logical inference from the second, confidence is the child of experience. Have you been delivered out of great perils? Then set up your ensign, wait at your watch-fire, and let the enemy do his worst.
4 One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.
5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
6 And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.
4. “One thing.” Divided aims tend to distraction, weakness, disappointment. The man of one book is eminent, the man of one pursuit is successful. Let all our affection be bound up in one affection, and that affection set upon heavenly things. “Have I desired”—what we cannot at once attain, it is well to desire. God judges us very much by the desire of our hearts. He who rides a lame horse is not blamed by his master for want of speed, if he makes all the haste he can, and would make more if he could; God takes the will for the deed with his children. “Of the Lord.” This is the right target for desires, this is the well into which to dip our buckets, this is the door to knock at, the bank to draw upon; desire of men, and lie on the dunghill with Lazarus: desire of the Lord, and be carried of angels into Abraham’s bosom. Our desires of the Lord should be sanctified, humble, constant, submissive, fervent, and it is well if, as with the Psalmist, they are all molten into one mass. Under David’s painful circumstances we might have expected him to desire repose, safety, and a thousand other good things, but no, he has set his heart on the pearl, and leaves the rest. “That will I seek after.” Holy desires must lead to resolute action. The old proverb says, “Wishers and woulders are never good housekeepers,” and “wishing never fills a sack.” Desires are seeds which must be sown in the good soil of activity for they will yield no harvest. We shall find our desires to be like clouds without rain, unless followed up by practical endeavours. “That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.” For the sake of communion with the King, David longed to dwell always in the palace; so far from being wearied with the services of the Tabernacle, he longed to be constantly engaged in them, as his lifelong pleasure. He desired above all things to be one of the household of God, a home-born child, living at home with his Father. This is our dearest wish, only we extend it to those days of our immortal life which have not yet dawned. We pine for our Father’s house above, the home of our souls; if we may but dwell there for ever, we care but little for the goods or ills of this poor life. “Jerusalem the golden” is the one and only goal of our heart’s longings. “To behold the beauty of the Lord.” An exercise both for earthly and heavenly worshippers. We must not enter the assemblies of the saints in order to see and be seen, or merely to hear the minister; we must repair to the gatherings of the righteous, intent upon the gracious object of learning more of the loving Father, more of the glorified Jesus, more of the mysterious Spirit, in order that we may the more lovingly admire, and the more reverently adore our glorious God. What a word is that, “the beauty of the Lord!” Think of it, dear reader! Better far—behold it by faith! What a sight will that be when every faithful follower of Jesus shall behold “the King in his beauty!” Oh, for that infinitely blessed vision! “And to enquire in his temple.” We should make our visits to the Lord’s house enquirers’ meetings. Not seeking sinners alone, but assured saints should be enquirers. We must enquire as to the will of God and how we may do it; as to our interest in the heavenly city, and how we may be more assured of it. We shall not need to make enquiries in heaven, for there we shall know even as we are known; but meanwhile we should sit at Jesus’ feet, and awaken all our faculties to learn of him.
5. This verse gives an excellent reason for the Psalmist’s desire after communion with God, namely, that he was thus secured in the hour of peril. “For in the time of trouble,” that needy time, that time when others forsake me, “he shall hide me in his pavilion:” he shall give me the best of shelter in the worst of danger. The royal pavilion was erected in the centre of the army, and around it all the mighty men kept guard at all hours; thus in that divine sovereignty which almighty power is sworn to maintain, the believer peacefully is hidden, hidden not by himself furtively, but by the king, who hospitably entertains him. “In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me.” Sacrifice aids sovereignty in screening the elect from harm. No one of old dared to enter the most holy place on pain of death; and if the Lord has hidden his people there, what foe shall venture to molest them? “He shall set me up upon a rock.” Immutability, eternity, and infinite power here come to the aid of sovereignty and sacrifice. How blessed is the standing of the man whom God himself sets on high above his foes, upon an impregnable rock which never can be stormed! Well may we desire to dwell with the Lord who so effectually protects his people.
6. “And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me.”—He is quite sure of it. Godly men of old prayed in faith, nothing wavering, and spoke of the answer to their prayers as a certainty. David was by faith so sure of a glorious victory over all those who beset him, that he arranged in his own heart what he would do when his foes lay all prostrate before him; that arrangement was such as gratitude suggested. “Therefore will I offer in his tabernacles sacrifices of joy.” That place for which he longed in his conflict, should see his thankful joy in his triumphant return. He does not speak of jubilations to be offered in his palace, and feastings in his banqueting halls, but holy mirth he selects as most fitting for so divine a deliverance. “I will sing.” This is the most natural mode of expressing thankfulness. “Yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord.” The vow is confirmed by repetition, and explained by addition, which addition vows all the praise unto Jehovah. Let who will be silent, the believer when his prayer is heard, must and will make his praise to be heard also; and let who will sing unto the vanities of the world, the believer reserves his music for the Lord alone.
7 Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
8 When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.
9 Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.
10 When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.
11 Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.
12 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.
7. “Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice.”—The pendulum of spirituality swings from prayer to praise. The voice which in the last verse was turned to music is here turned to crying. As a good soldier, David knew how to handle his weapons, and found himself much at home with the weapon of “all prayer.” Note his anxiety to be heard. Pharisees care not a fig for the Lord’s hearing them, so long as they are heard of men, or charm their own pride with their sounding devotions; but with a genuine man, the Lord’s ear is everything. The voice may be profitably used even in private prayer; for though it is unnecessary, it is often helpful, and aids in preventing distractions. “Have mercy also upon me.” Mercy is the hope of sinners and the refuge of saints. All acceptable petitioners dwell much upon this attribute. “And answer me.” We may expect answers to prayer, and should not be easy without them any more than we should be if we had written a letter to a friend upon important business, and had received no reply.
8. In this verse we are taught that if we would have the Lord hear our voice, we must be careful to respond to his voice. The true heart should echo the will of God as the rocks among the Alps repeat in sweetest music the notes of the peasant’s horn. Observe, that the command was in the plural, to all the saints, “Seek ye;” but the man of God turned it into the singular by a personal application, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” The voice of the LORD is very effectual where all other voices fail, “When thou saidst,” then my “heart,” my inmost nature was moved to an obedient reply. Note the promptness of the response—no sooner said than done; as soon as God said “seek,” the heart said, “I will seek.” Oh, for more of this holy readiness! Would to God that we were more plastic to the divine hand, more sensitive of the touch of God’s Spirit.
9. “Hide not thy face far from me.” The word “far” is not in the original, and is a very superfluous addition of the translators, since even the least hiding of the Lord’s face is a great affliction to a believer. The command to seek the Lord’s face would be a painful one if the Lord, by withdrawing himself, rendered it impossible for the seeker to meet with him. A smile from the Lord is the greatest of comforts, his frown the worst of ills. “Put not thy servant away in anger.” Other servants had been put away when they proved unfaithful, as for instance, his predecessor Saul; and this made David, while conscious of many faults, most anxious that divine long-suffering should continue him in favour. This is a most appropriate prayer for us under a similar sense of unworthiness. “Thou hast been my help.” How truly can we join in this declaration; for many years, in circumstances of varied trial, we have been upheld by our God, and must and will confess our obligation. “Ingratitude,” it is said, “is natural to fallen man,” but to spiritual men it is unnatural and detestable. “Leave me not, neither forsake me.” A prayer for the future, and an inference from the past. If the Lord had meant to leave us, why did he begin with us? Past help is but a waste of effort if the soul now be deserted. The first petition, “leave me not,” may refer to temporary desertions, and the second word to the final withdrawal of grace, both are to be prayed against; and concerning the second, we have immutable promises to urge. “O God of my salvation.” A sweet title worthy of much meditation.
10. “When my father and my mother forsake me.” These dear relations will be the last to desert me, but if the milk of human kindness should dry up even from their breasts, there is a Father who never forgets. Some of the greatest of the saints have been cast out by their families, and persecuted for righteousness’ sake. “Then the Lord will take me up.” Will espouse my cause, will uplift me from my woes, will carry me in his arms, will elevate me above my enemies, will at last receive me to his eternal dwelling place.
11. “Teach me thy way, O Lord.” He does not pray to be indulged with his own way, but to be informed as to the path in which the righteous Jehovah would have him walk. This prayer evinces an humble sense of personal ignorance, great teachableness of spirit, and cheerful obedience of heart. “Lead me in a plain path.” Help is here sought as well as direction; we not only need a map of the way, but a guide to assist us in the journey. A path is here desired which shall be open, honest, straightforward, in opposition to the way of cunning, which is intricate, tortuous, dangerous. Good men seldom succeed in fine speculations and doubtful courses; plain simplicity is the best spirit for an heir of heaven: let us leave shifty tricks and political expediences to the citizens of the world—the New Jerusalem owns plain men for its citizens. Esau was a cunning hunter, Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents. “Because of mine enemies.” These will catch us if they can, but the way of manifest, simple honesty is safe from their rage. It is wonderful to observe how honest simplicity baffles and outwits the craftiness of wickedness. Truth is wisdom. “Honesty is the best policy.”
12. “Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies;” or I should be like a victim cast to the lions, to be rent to pieces and utterly devoured. God be thanked that our foes cannot have their way with us, or Smithfield would soon be on a blaze again. “For false witnesses are risen up against me.” Slander is an old-fashioned weapon out of the armoury of hell, and is still in plentiful use; and no matter how holy a man may be, there will be some who will defame him. “Give a dog an ill name, and hang him;” but glory be to God, the Lord’s people are not dogs, and their ill names do not injure them. “And such as breathe out cruelty.” It is their vital breath to hate the good; they cannot speak without cursing them; such was Paul before conversion. They who breathe out cruelty may well expect to be sent to breathe their native air in hell; let persecutors beware!
13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
13. Faintness of heart is a common infirmity; even he who slew Goliath was subject to its attacks. Faith puts its bottle of cordial to the lip of the soul, and so prevents fainting. Hope is heaven’s balm for present sorrow. In this land of the dying, it is our blessedness to be looking and longing for our fair portion in the land of the living, whence the goodness of God has banished the wickedness of man, and where holy spirits charm with their society those persecuted saints who were vilified and despised among men. We must believe to see, not see to believe; we must wait the appointed time, and stay our soul’s hunger with foretastes of the Lord’s eternal goodness which shall soon be our feast and our song.
14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.
14. “Wait on the Lord.” Wait at his door with prayer; wait at his foot with humility; wait at his table with service; wait at his window with expectancy. Suitors often win nothing but the cold shoulder from earthly patrons after long and obsequious waiting; he speeds best whose patron is in the skies. “Be of good courage.” A soldier’s motto. Be it mine. Courage we shall need, and for the exercise of it we have as much reason as necessity, if we are soldiers of King Jesus. “And he shall strengthen thine heart.” He can lay the plaister right upon the weak place. Let the heart be strengthened, and the whole machine of humanity is filled with power; a strong heart makes a strong arm. What strength is this which God himself gives to the heart? Read the “Book of Martyrs,” and see its glorious deeds of prowess; go to God rather, and get such power thyself. “Wait, I say, on the Lord.” David, in the words “I say,” sets his own private seal to the word which, as an inspired man, he had been moved to write. It is his testimony as well as the command of God, and indeed he who writes these scanty notes has himself found it so sweet, so reviving, so profitable to draw near to God, that on his own account he also feels bound to write, “Wait, I SAY, on the Lord.”
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.
Verse 1.—“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” Alice Driver, martyr, at her examination, put all the doctors to silence, so that they had not a word to say, but one looked upon another; then she said, “Have you no more to say? God be honoured, you be not able to resist the Spirit of God, in me, a poor woman. I was an honest poor man’s daughter, never brought up at the University as you have been; but I have driven the plough many a time before my father, I thank God; yet, notwithstanding, in the defence of God’s truth, and in the cause of my Master, Christ, by his grace I will set my foot against the foot of any of you all, in the maintenance and defence of the same; and if I had a thousand lives they should go for payment thereof.” So the Chancellor condemned her, and she returned to the prison joyful.—Charles Bradbury.
Verse 1.—“The Lord is my light,” etc. St. John tells us, that “in Christ was life; and the life was the light of men;” but he adds that “the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” John i. 4, 5. There is a great difference between the light and the eye that sees it. A blind man may know a great deal about the shining of the sun, but it does not shine for him—it gives him no light. So, to know that “God is light,” is one thing (1 John i. 5), and to be able to say, “The Lord is my light,” is quite another thing. The Lord must be the light by which the way of life is made plain to us—the light by which we may see to walk in that way—the light that exposes the darkness of sin—the light by which we can discover the hidden sins of our own hearts. When he is thus our light, then he is our salvation also. He is pledged to guide us right; not only to show us sin, but to save us from it. Not only to make us see God’s hatred of sin, and his curse upon it, but also to draw us unto God’s love, and to take away the curse. With the Lord lighting us along the road of salvation, who, or what need we fear? Our life is hid with Christ in God. Col. iii. 3. We are weak, very weak, but his “strength is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Cor. xii. 9. With the Lord himself pledged to be the strength of our life, of whom need we be afraid?—From Sacramental Meditations on the Twenty-seventh Psalm, 1843.
Verse 1.—“The Lord is my light.” “Light” which makes all things visible, was the first made of all visible things; and whether God did it for our example, or no, I know not; but ever since, in imitation of this manner of God’s proceeding, the first thing we do when we intend to do anything, is to get us “light.”—Sir Richard Baker.
Verse 1.—“The Lord is my light.” Adorable Sun, cried St. Bernard, I cannot walk without thee: enlighten my steps, and furnish this barren and ignorant mind with thoughts worthy of thee. Adorable fulness of light and heat, be thou the true noonday of my soul; exterminate its darkness, disperse its clouds; burn, dry up, and consume all its filth and impurities. Divine Sun, rise upon my mind, and never set.—Jean Baptiste Elias Avrillon, 1652-1729.
Verse 1.—“Whom shall I fear?” Neither spiritual nor military heroes do exploits through cowardice. Courage is a necessary virtue. In Jehovah is the best possible foundation for unflinching intrepidity.—William S. Plumer.
Verse 1.—“Of whom shall I be afraid?” I have no notion of a timid, disingenuous profession of Christ. Such preachers and professors are like a rat playing at hide-and-seek behind a wainscot, who puts his head through a hole to see if the coast is clear, and ventures out if nobody is in the way; but slinks back again if danger appears. We cannot be honest to Christ except we are bold for him. He is either worth all we can lose for him, or he is worth nothing.—H. G. Salter, A.M., in “The Book of Illustrations,” 1840.
Verse 2.—“When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.” There is no such dainty dish to a malicious stomach, as the flesh of an enemy; it goes down without chewing, and they swallow it up whole like cormorants. But though malice have a ravenous stomach, yet she hath but slow digestion; though her teeth be sharp, yet her feet are lame, at least apt to stumble; and this made well for David, for when his enemies came upon him to eat up his flesh, because they came upon the feet of malice, “they stumbled and fell.” A man may stumble and yet not fall; but to stumble and fall withal, is the proper stumbling of “the wicked,” and especially of the maliciously wicked; and such, it seems, was the stumbling of David’s enemies, because the enemies were such; and such I doubt not shall be the stumbling of mine enemies, because mine are such; and of what then, of whom now, should I be afraid?—Sir Richard Baker.
Verse 2.—“When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.” He describes his enemies by their malice, and by their ruin. 1. His enemies were cruel enemies, blood-suckers, eaters of flesh. We call them cannibals. As indeed men that have not grace, if they have greatness, and be opposed, their greatness is inaccessible, one man is a devil to another. The Scripture calls them “wolves, that leave nothing till morning.” Zeph. iii. 3. As the great fishes eat up the little ones, so great men they make no more conscience of eating up other men, than of eating bread; they make no more bones of overthrowing men and undoing them, than of eating bread. “They eat up my people as they eat bread.” Psalm xiv. 4. 2. But notwithstanding their cruelty, they were overthrown. Saith David, “When my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.” For, indeed, God’s children, when they are delivered, it is usually with the confusion of their enemies. God doth two things at once, because the special grievance of God’s children it is from inward and outward enemies. He seldom or never delivers them but with the confusion of their enemies. This will be most apparent at the day of judgment, when Satan, and all that are led by his spirit, all the malignant church, shall be sent to their own place, and the church shall be for ever free from all kind of enemies. When the church is most free, then the enemies of the church are nearest to destruction; like a pair of balances, when they are up at the one end, they are down at the other. So when it is up with the church, down go the enemies.—Richard Sibbes.
Verse 2.—“The wicked, mine enemies.” The wicked hate the godly; there is enmity between the seed of the woman and the serpent. Gen. iii. 15. As in nature there is an antipathy between the vine and the bay-tree, the elephant and the dragon. Vultures have an antipathy against sweet smells: so in the wicked there is an antipathy against the people of God; they hate the sweet perfumes of their graces. It is true the saints have their infirmities; but the wicked do not hate them for these, but for their holiness; and from this hatred ariseth open violence: the thief hates the light, therefore would blow it out.—Thomas Watson.
Verse 2.—There was great wisdom in the prayer of John Wesley: “Lord, if I must contend, let it not be with thy people.” When we have for foes and enemies those who hate good men, we have at least this consolation, that God is not on their side, and therefore it is essentially weak.—William S. Plumer.
Verse 3.—“Though an host should encamp against me,” etc. He puts the case of the greatest danger that can be. Though an host should encompass me, “my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this I will be confident.” Here is great courage for the time to come. Experience breeds hope and confidence. David was not so courageous a man of himself; but upon experience of God’s former comfort and assistance, his faith brake as fire out of the smoke, or as the sun out of a cloud. Though I was in such-and-such perplexities, yet for the time to come, I have such confidence and experience of God’s goodness, that I will not fear. He that seeth God by a spirit of faith in his greatness and power, he sees all other things below as nothing. Therefore, he saith here, he cares not for the time to come for any opposition; no, not of an army. “If God be with us, who can be against us?” Rom. viii. 31. He saw God in his power; and then, looking from God to the creature, alas! who was he? As Micah, when he had seen God sitting upon his throne; what was Ahab to him, when he had seen God once? So when the prophet David had seen God once, then “though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear,” etc.—Richard Sibbes.
Verse 3.—“Though an host should encamp against me,” etc. If I love my God, and I love him with a noble-spirited love, all my enemies will fight against me in vain; I shall never fear them, and the whole world cannot harm me. Charity cannot be offended, because she takes offence at nothing. Enemies, enviers, slanderers, persecutors, I defy you; if I love, I shall triumph over your attacks. Ye can take away my goods; but if my love has a generous spirit, I shall be always rich enough, and ye cannot take away my love, which alone makes all my riches and treasures. Ye may blacken my reputation; but as I hold you cheaply quit of all homage of praise and applause, I, with all my heart, give you a free leave to blame and to defame. Happily for me, ye cannot blacken me before my God, and his esteem alone makes amends to me, and rewards me, for all your contempt. Ye can persecute my body, but there I even will help you on by my penances; the sooner it shall perish, the sooner shall I be delivered from this domestic enemy, which is a burden to me. What harm, then, can ye do me? If I am resolved to suffer all and if I think I deserve all the outrages ye can do me, ye will only give more loftiness of spirit to my love, more brilliancy to my crown.—Jean Baptiste Elias Avrillon.
Verse 3.—Those who are willing to be combatants for God, shall also be more than conquerors through God. None are so truly courageous as those who are truly religious. If a Christian live, he knows by whose might he stands; and if he die, he knows for whose sake he falls. Where there is no confidence in God, there will be no continuance with God. When the wind of faith ceases to fill the sails, the ship of obedience ceases to plough the seas. The taunts of Ishmael shall never make an Isaac disesteem his inheritance.—William Secker.
Verses 3, 4.—The favourite grows great by the many favours, gifts, jewels, offices, the prince bestows on him. The Christian grows rich in experiences, which he wears as bracelets, and keeps as his richest jewels. He calls one Ebenezer—“hitherto God hath helped;” another Naphtali—“I have wrestled with God and prevailed;” another Gershom—“I was a stranger;” another Joseph—“God will yet add more;” and another, Peniel—“I have seen the face of God.” 1 Sam. vii. 12; Gen. xxx. 8; Ex. ii. 22; Gen. xxx. 24, and xxxii. 30. I have been delivered from the lion, therefore shall be from the bear; from lion and bear, therefore from the Philistines; from the Philistine, therefore from Saul; from Saul, therefore God will deliver me from every evil work, and preserve me blameless to his heavenly kingdom.—John Sheffield.
Verse 4.—“One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.” Some interpreters vary concerning what the Psalmist aims at; I understand thus much in a generality, which is clear, that he means a communion and fellowship with God, which is that one thing, which if a Christian had, he needs desire no more: that we should all desire and desire again and be in love with, and that is enough even to satisfy us, the fruition of God, and the beholding of him in his ordinances, in his temple, to have correspondency and fellowship and communion with him there. O God, vouchsafe us that! Now this is so infinitely sweet, that it was the Psalmist’s only desire, and the sum of all his desires here, and therefore much more in the tabernacle of heaven which doth make up the consummation and completeness of all our happiness.—John Stoughton.
Verse 4.—“One thing have I desired of the Lord,” etc. Seeing David would make but one request to God, why would he not make a greater? for, alas! what a poor request is this—to desire to dwell in God’s house? and what to do? but only to see? and to see what? but only a beauty, a fading thing, at most but to enquire; and what is enquiring? but only to hear news; a vain fancy. And what cause in any of these why David should make it his request to God? But mark, O my soul, what goes with it! Take altogether—“to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.” And now tell me, if there be, if there can be, any greater request to be made? any greater cause to be earnest about it? For though worldly beauty be a fading thing, yet “the beauty of the Lord,” shall continue when the world shall fade away; and though enquiring after news be a vain fancy, yet to enquire in God’s Temple is the way to learn there is no new thing under the sun, and there it was that Solomon learned that “all is vanity.” Indeed, this “one thing,” that David desires, is in effect that unum necessarium that Christ speaks of in the gospel; which Mary makes choice of there, as David doth here.—Sir Richard Baker.
Verse 4.—“One thing,” etc. A heavenly mind gathers itself up into one wish and no more. “One thing have I desired of the Lord, which I will require.” Grant me thyself, O Lord, and I will ask no more. The new creature asks nothing of God, but to enjoy God: give me this, O Lord, and for the rest, let Ziba take all. I will part with all to buy that one pearl, the riches of heavenly grace.—Jeremy Taylor.
Verse 4.—“One thing.” The first thing, then, is David’s choice, summarily described in the word, “one thing.” So Christ confirmeth the prophet’s word, while he called Mary’s choice, “one thing.” Luke x. 42. And that for these three reasons: First, because it is not a common but a chief good. If there be any good above it, it is not the chief good; and if there be any good equal unto it, it is not alone. Next, because it is the last end which we mind eternally to enjoy; if there be any end beyond it, it is not the last, but amids, and a degree to it. All mids and ends are used for it, but it is sought for itself, and, therefore, must be but one. Thirdly, it is a centre whereunto all reasonable spirits draw. As all lines from a circle meet in the centre, so every one that seeketh happiness aright meeteth in the chief good, as the only thing which they intend, and, therefore, must be one. William Struther, in “True Happiness, or King David’s Choice,” 1633.
Verse 4.—“One thing.” Changes, great changes, and many bereavements there have been in my life. I have been emptied from vessel to vessel. But one thing has never failed—one thing makes me feel that my life has been one; it has calmed my joys, it has soothed my sorrows, it has guided me in difficulty, it has strengthened me in weakness. It is the presence of God—a faithful and loving God. Yes, brethren, the presence of God is not only light, it is unity. It gives unity to the heart that believes it—unity to the life that is conformed to it. It was the presence of God in David’s soul that enabled him to say, “One thing have I desired of the Lord;” and in St. Paul’s that enabled him to say, “This one thing I do.”—George Wagner, in the “Wanderings of the Children of Israel,” 1862.
Verse 4.—“One thing”—
One master passion in the breast. Like Aaron’s serpent, swallows up the rest.
Alexander Pope.
Verse 4.—“That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.” To approach continually unto the temple, and thither continually to repair was the dwelling, no doubt, here meant; to dwell, to reside continually there, not to come for a spurt or a fit.... And thus dwelt Hannah, the daughter of Phanuel, who is said, in the second of Luke, for the space of four score and four years not to have gone out of the temple. Not that she was there always, but often, saith Lyra; and venerable Bede to the same purpose. Not that she was never absent, no, not an hour; but for that she was often in the temple. And the same St. Luke, speaking of our Saviour’s disciples, after they had seen him ascended into heaven—“They returned,” saith he, “to Jerusalem with great joy: and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God,” chapter xxiv. 52, 53. Thus, St. Austin’s mother, in her time too, might be said to dwell in God’s house, whereunto she came so duly and truly twice a day, “That she, in thy Scriptures,” saith St. Austin, “might hear, O God, what thou saidst to her, and thou, in her prayers, what she said to thee.” In a word, such were the Christians the same St. Austin speaks of in another place, whom he calleth the emmets of God. “Behold the emmet of God,” saith he, “it riseth early every day, it runneth to God’s church, it there prayeth, it heareth the lesson read, it singeth a Psalm, it ruminateth what it heareth, it meditateth thereupon, and hoardeth up within itself the precious corn gathered from that barn-floor.” John Day’s “David’s Desire to go to Church,” 1609.
Verse 4.—“That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.” In the beginning of the Psalm, David keeps an audit of his soul’s accounts, reckoning up the large incomes and lasting treasures of God’s bounty, grace, and mercy; the sum whereof is this: The Lord is my light and my life, my strength and my salvation. And now, where shall David design his presence, but where is his light? Where shall he desire his person, but where is his strength? Where shall he wish his soul, but where is his life? and where shall he fix his habitation, but where is his salvation? even in communion with his God; and this, especially, in the holy worship of his sanctuary. No wonder, then, if above all things he desires and seeks after this “one thing,” “to dwell in the house of the Lord,” etc.—Robert Mossom.
Verse 4.—“The house of the Lord.” It [the tabernacle, the sanctuary] is called the house of God because he is present there, as a man delights to be present in his house. It is the place where God will be met withal. As a man will be found in his house, and there he will have suitors come to him, where he reveals his secrets. A man rests, he lies, and lodgeth in his house. Where is a man so familiar as in his house? and what other place hath he such care to protect and provide for as his house? and he lays up his treasures and his jewels in his house. So God lays up all the treasures of grace and comfort in the visible church. In the church he is to be spoken with as a man in his house. There he gives us sweet meetings; there are mutual, spiritual kisses. “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” Cant. i. 2. A man’s house is his castle, as we say, that he will protect and provide for. God will be sure to protect and provide for his church. Therefore he calls the church of God, that is, the tabernacle (that was the church at that time), the house of God. If we apply it to our times, that that answers the tabernacle now, is particular visible churches under particular pastors, where the means of salvation are set up. Particular visible churches now are God’s tabernacle. The church of the Jews was a national church. There was but one church, but one place, and one tabernacle; but now God hath erected particular tabernacles. Every particular church and congregation under one pastor, their meeting is the church of God, a several church independent. Richard Sibbes.
Verse 4.—“To behold the beauty of the Lord.” That was one end of his desire, to dwell in the house of God; not to feed his eyes with speculations and goodly sights (as indeed there were in the tabernacle goodly things to be seen). No; he had a more spiritual sight than that. He saw the inward spiritual beauty of those spiritual things. The other were but outward things, as the apostle calls them. I desire to dwell in the house of the Lord, “to behold the beauty of the Lord,” the inward beauty of the Lord especially.—Richard Sibbes.
Verse 4.—“The beauty of the Lord.” In connection with these words, we would try to show that the character of God is attractive, and fitted to inspire us with love for him, and to make us, as it were, run after him. The discussion of our subject may be arranged under three heads. I. Some of the elements of the beauty of the Lord. II. Where the beauty of the Lord may be seen. III. Peculiar traits of the beauty of the Lord. I. Some of the elements of the beauty of the Lord. God is a Spirit. Hence his beauty is spiritual, and its elements must be sought for in spiritual perfection. 1. One of the elements of this beauty is holiness. 2. But the elements of the divine beauty on which we intend at this time to dwell, are those which are included under the general description of God’s mercy and grace. The attractiveness of these is more easily perceived, and their influence is sooner felt by persons in our fallen condition. It is mainly through the instrumentality of these that sinners are won over from their enmity against God, and that the Holy Ghost sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts. 3. Another thing, which we may call an element of beauty in God, is the combination of his various attributes in one harmonious whole. The colours of the rainbow are beautiful, when taken one by one: but there is a beauty in the rainbow, which arises not from any single tint; there is a beauty in it which would not exist if the several hues were assumed in succession—a beauty which is the result of their assemblage and collocation, and consists in their blended radiance. In like manner do the several perfections, which co-exist and unite in the nature of God, produce a glorious beauty. Holiness is beautiful; mercy is beautiful; truth is beautiful. But, over and above, there is a beauty which belongs to such combinations and harmonies as the Psalmist describes, when he tells us, “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” “Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep,” etc. II. We are next to enquire where the beauty of the Lord may be seen. It may so far be seen in the natural world. The throne of nature, although in some respects clouds and darkness are round about it, is not without its rainbow of beauty, any more than the throne of grace. The beauty of the Lord may be seen in the moral law. In the law! Even so. In the unbending law, with its terrible anathema, his beauty and amiableness shine forth. The law is full of love. The duties of the law are duties of love. Love is the fulfilling of the law. The curse of the law is designed and employed for the maintenance of love. Obedience to the law, and the reign of love, are but different aspects of the same state of things. And one of the sublimest lessons of the law is the fact, that God is love. Again, the beauty of the Lord may be seen in the gospel. We see it, as it were, by reflection, in the law; in the gospel, we see it directly. The law shows us the hearts of men, as God would have them to be; the gospel shows us God’s own heart. Again, the beauty of the Lord is seen in Christ. It is seen in Christ, for he is the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of his person; and he that hath seen Christ, hath seen the Father. The beauty of the Lord is seen in Christ, when we consider him as the Father’s gift, and when we look to his offices and to his character. The character of Christ was the finest spectacle of moral beauty which men or angels ever set their eyes on. III. We conclude by noticing some traits of the beauty of the Lord. 1. It never deceives. 2. It never fades. 3. It never loses its power. 4. It never disappoints.—Condensed from Andrew Gray (1805-1861), in “Gospel Contrasts and Parallels.”
Verse 4.—“The beauty of the Lord.” The Lord’s beauty, to be seen in his house, is not the beauty of his essence, for so no man can see God and live (Exod. xxxiii. 18, 20); before this glorious beauty the angels cover their faces with their wings (Isa. vi. 1, 2); but it is the beauty of his ordinances, wherein God doth reveal to the eyes of men’s minds, enlightened by his Spirit, the pleasant beauty of his goodness, justice, love, and mercy in Jesus Christ.—Thomas Pierson, M.A., 1570-1633.
Verse 4.—“The beauty of the Lord.”—“Beauty” is too particular a word to express the fulness of the Holy Ghost, the pleasantness or the delight of God. Take the word in a general sense, in your apprehensions. It may be the object of all senses, inward and outward. Delight is most transcendent for pleasantness; for indeed God in his ordinances, is not only “beauty” to the eye of the soul, but is ointment to the smell, and sweetness to the taste, and all in all to all the powers of the soul. God in Christ, therefore, he is delightful and sweet.... “The beauty of the Lord” is especially the amiable things of God, which is his mercy and love, that makes all other things beautiful that is in the church.—Richard Sibbes.
Verse 4.—“To enquire in his temple.” The more grace the more business ye will find ye have to do with God in his ordinances; little grace hath little to do, and much grace hath much to do; he hath always business with God, special earnest business. “To behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.” Oh, I have somewhat to enquire after; I am to do something by this duty, and therefore cannot trifle. He that comes to visit his friend in a compliment, he talks, he walks, he trifles, and goes home again; but he that comes upon business, he is full of it: he is like Abraham’s honest and faithful servant. Gen. xxiv. 33. “And there was set meat before him to eat: but he said, I will not eat, until I have told my errand.” I have great business with the Lord, about the church, and about my soul, and I will not eat, nor talk, nor think, nor dally about anything, till I have told mine errand, or heard my Maker’s errand unto me. And for this end it’s a rare thing to carry somewhat always on the spirit, to spread before God, a heart pregnant with some needful request or matter whereof to treat with God. Psalm xlv. 1.—Richard Steele’s “Antidote against Distractions,” 1673.
Verse 4.—It was David’s earnest prayer, “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.” There are many that pray David’s words, but not with David’s heart. Unum petii, one thing have I desired, de præterito, for the time past; et hoc requiram, this I will still seek after, de futuro, for the time to come: I have required it long, and this suit I will urge till I have obtained it. What? To dwell in some of the houses of God all the days of my life, and to leave them to my children after me; not to serve him there with devotion, but to make the place mine own possession? These love the house of God too well; they love it to have and to hold: but because the conveyance is made by the lawyer, and not by the minister, their title will be found nought in the end; and if there be not a nisi prius to prevent them, yet at that great day of universal audit, the Judge of all the world shall condemn them. By this way, the nearer to the church, the further from God. The Lord’s temple is ordained to gain us to him, not for us to gain it from him. If we love the Lord, we “will love the habitation of his house, and the place where his honour dwelleth;” that so by being humble frequenters of his temple below, we may be made noble saints of his house above, the glorious kingdom of Jesus Christ.—Thomas Adams.
Verse 4.—David being in this safe condition, what doth he now think upon or look at, as his main scope? Not as Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, to sit still and be merry, when he had overcome the Romans and all his enemies, as he sometime said to Cyneas, the philosopher, but to improve his rest to perpetual piety, in going from day to day to God’s house, as Hannah is said afterwards to have done. Luke ii. And this, first, for the solace of his soul, in seeing the beauty of his sanctuary. Secondly, that he might still be directed aright and be safe. Thirdly, that he might yet be more highly exalted in kingly glory. Fourthly, for all this, as he should have abundant cause, sacrificing and singing Psalms to God without ceasing: see verses 5, 6.—John Mayer.
Verse 4.—O my soul, what sights have I seen in the house of God! what provisions have I tasted! what entertainments have I had! what enlargements in prayer and answers thereto! what impressions under his word, what entertainment at his table, as he has sometimes brought me into his banqueting-house, and his banner over me has been love! And though I cannot, it may be, say so much of this as some others; yet what I have found, I cannot but remember with thankfulness, and desire more; and as this was in the house of God, here would I still desire to dwell.—Daniel Wilcox, 1676-1733.
Verse 5.—“The time of trouble.” Though God does not always deliver his people out of trouble, yet he delivers them from the evil of trouble, the despair of trouble, by supporting the spirit; nay, he delivers by trouble, for he sanctifies the trouble to cure the souls, and by less troubles delivers from greater.—From a Broad Sheet in the British Museum, dated, “London: printed for D.M., 1678.”
Verse 5.—“He shall hide me.” The word here used means to hide, to secrete, and then, to defend or protect. It would properly be applied to one who had fled from oppression, or from any impending evil, and who should be secreted in a house or cavern, and thus rendered safe from pursuers, or from the threatening evil.—Albert Barnes.
Verse 5.—“Pavilion” comes from papilio, a butterfly. It signifies a tent made of cloth stretched out on poles, which in form resembles in some measure the insect above named.—Adam Clarke.
Verse 5.—“In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me.” He alludes to the ancient custom of offenders, who used to flee to the tabernacle or altar, where they esteemed themselves safe. 1 Kings ii. 28.—Matthew Pool.
Verse 5.—“In the secret of his tabernacle.” Were there no other place, he would put me in the holy of holies, so that an enemy would not dare to approach me.—Adam Clarke.
Verse 6.—“Now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me.” A man cannot drown so long as his head is above water. Now, it is the proper office of hope to do this for the Christian in times of any danger. Luke xxi. 28. “When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads: for your redemption draweth nigh.” A strange time, one would think, for Christ then to bid his disciples lift up their heads in, when they see other men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth (verse 26); yet now is the time of the rising of their sun, when others’ is setting, and the blackness of darkness is overtaking others; because now the Christian’s feast is coming, for which hope hath saved its stomach so long. “Your redemption draweth nigh.” Two things make the head hang down—fear and shame; hope easeth the Christian’s heart of both these, and so forbids him to give any sign of a desponding mind by a dejected countenance.—William Gurnall.
Verse 6.—“Therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy.” “Surely,” some may say, “he could have called on God beyond the precincts of the temple. Wherever he wandered as an exile, he carried with him the precious promise of God, so that he needed not to put so great a value upon the sight of the external edifice. He appears, by some gross imagination or other, to suppose that God could be enclosed by wood and stones.” But if we examine the words more carefully, it will be easy to see, that his object was altogether different from a mere sight of the noble building and its ornaments, however costly. He speaks, indeed, of the temple, but he places that beauty not so much in the goodliness that was to be seen by the eye, as in its being the celestial pattern which was shown to Moses, as it is written in Exod. xxv. 40: “And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount.” As the fashion of the temple was not framed according to the wisdom of man, but was an image of spiritual things, the prophet directed his eyes and all his affections to this object. Their madness is, therefore, truly detestable who wrest this place in favour of pictures and images, which, instead of deserving to be numbered among temple ornaments, are rather like dung and filth, defiling all the purity of holy things.—John Calvin.
Verse 8.—“When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” In the former verse, David begins a prayer to God, “Hear, O Lord; have mercy upon me, and answer me.” This verse is a ground of that prayer, “Seek ye my face,” saith God. The heart answers again, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek;” therefore I am encouraged to pray to thee. In the words are contained God’s command and David’s obedience. God’s warrant and David’s work answerable, the voice and the echo: the voice, “Seek my face;” the rebound back again of a gracious heart, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” “When thou saidst.” It is not in the original. It only makes way to the sense. Passionate speeches are usually abrupt: “Seek my face:” “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”... God is willing to be known. He is willing to open and discover himself; God delights not to hide himself. God stands not upon state, as some emperors do that think their presence diminisheth respect. God is no such God, but he may be searched into. Man, if any weakness be discovered, we can soon search into the depth of his excellency; but with God it is clean otherwise. The more we know of him, the more we shall admire him. None admire him more than the blessed angels, that see most of him, and the blessed spirits that have communion with him. Therefore he hides not himself, nay, he desires to be known; and all those that have his Spirit desire to make him known. Those that suppress the knowledge of God in his will, what he performs for men, and what he requires of them, they are enemies to God and of God’s people. They suppress the opening of God, clean contrary to God’s meaning; “Seek my face;” I desire to be made known, and lay open myself to you. Therefore we may observe by the way, that when we are in any dark condition, that a Christian finds not the beams of God shining on him, let him not lay the blame upon God, as if God were a God that delighted to hide himself. Oh, no! it is not his delight. He loves not strangeness to his poor creatures. It is not a point of his policy. He is too great to affect[1] such poor things. No; the fault is altogether in us. We walk not worthy of such a presence; we want humility and preparation. If there be any darkness in the creature, that he finds God doth not so shine on him as in former times, undoubtedly the cause is in himself; for God saith, “Seek my face.” He desires to reveal himself.—Richard Sibbes.
Verse 8.—“When thou saidst, Seek ye my face,” etc. All the Spirit’s motions are seasonable, and therefore not to be put off; for delay is a kind of denial, and savours of such ungrateful contempt, as must needs be very displeasing to him. “When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” God does not only expect such an answer, but expects it immediately upon his call. Whenever he blows with his wind, he looks that we should spread our sails. If we refuse his offered help, we may deservedly want it when desired. As Christ withdrew himself from the spouse because she let him stand knocking so long at the door of her heart, and she still deferred to open, and tired out his loving forbearance with vain and frivolous excuses. Sol. Song, v. 2, etc. But as we must not omit the present performance of any duty which he excites unto, we must not check his influences by being weary of the duties which he assists us in: if we do not improve extraordinary aids by holding out the longer, we provoke him to depart.—Timothy Cruso.
Verse 8.—“When thou saidst, Seek ye my face,” etc. We see here thus much, that God must begin with us, before we can close with him; God must seek us, before we can seek him; God must first desire that we should draw near to him, before we for our particulars are able to draw near unto God. Thou saidst, Seek my face; and then, and not till then my heart said, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.—Thomas Horton.
Verse 8.—“When thou saidst,” etc. Now God then speaks to the heart to pray when not only he puts upon the duty by saying to the conscience, This thou oughtest to do; but God’s speaking to pray is such as his speech at first was, when he made the world, when he said, “Let there be light, and there was light:” so he says, let there be a prayer, and there is a prayer; that is, he pours upon a man a spirit of grace and supplication, a praying disposition; he puts in motives, suggests arguments and pleas to God; all which you shall find come in readily, and of themselves, and that likewise with a quickening heat and enlargement of affection, and with a lingering, and longing, and restlessness of spirit to be alone, to pour out the soul to God, and to vent and form those motions and suggestions into a prayer, till you have laid them together, and made a prayer of them. And this is a speaking to the heart. Observe such times when God doth thus, and neglect them not, then to strike whilst the iron is hot; thou hast then his ear; it is a special opportunity for that business, such a one as thou mayst never have the like. Suitors at court observe molissima fandi tempora, their times of begging when they have kings in a good mood, which they will be sure to take the advantage of; but especially if they should find that the king himself should begin of himself to speak of the business which they would have of him: and thus that phrase of Psalm x. 17, that God prepares the heart, is understood by some, that God prepares the heart, and causeth the ear to hear; that is, he fashions it and composeth it into a praying frame. And sure it is a great sign that God means to hear us when himself shall thus indite the petition.—Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 8.—“When thou saidst,” etc. And well may this be pleaded, in that God useth not so to stir up and strengthen us to seek him, but when he intendeth to be found of us. Psalm x. 17. “Thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear.” Jer. xxix. 13. “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” And God maketh it an argument to himself, that if he say to any inwardly as well as outwardly, “Seek my face,” he that speaketh righteousness cannot speak thus to them, and frustrate their prayers, and so bid them seek his face in vain. Isaiah xlv. 19, “I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain; I the Lord speak right things.” If Ahasuerus bid his spouse to ask, surely he will not fail to grant her petition (Esther vii. 2); so here. And as when Christ called the blind man to come to him to tell him his grievance, it was truly said to him by them, “Be of good comfort, rise, for he calleth thee.” Mark x. 49. So it is in this case.—Thomas Cobbett.
Verse 8.—“My heart said unto thee.” The heart is between God and our obedience, as it were, an ambassador. It understands from God what God would have done, and then it lays a command upon the whole man. The heart and conscience of man is partly divine, partly human. It hath some divinity in it, especially if the man be a holy man. God speaks, and the heart speaks. God speaks to the heart, and the heart speaks to us. And ofttimes when we hear conscience speaking to us, we neglect it; and as St. Augustine said of himself, “God spake often to me, and I was ignorant of it.” When there is no command in the word that the heart directly thinks of (as indeed many profane careless men scarce have a Bible in their houses), God speaks to them thus; conscience speaks to them some broken command, that they learn against their wills. They heed it not, but David did not so. God said, “Seek ye my face;” his heart answers, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” The heart looks upward to God, and then to itself, “My heart said.” It said to thee, and then to itself. First, his heart said to God, “Lord, I have encouragement from thee. Thou hast commanded that I should seek thy face.” So his heart looked to God, and then it speaks to itself, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” It looks first to God, and then to all things that come from itself.—Richard Sibbes.
Verse 8.—There are divers things considerable of us in this answer and compliance of David’s with God’s command or invitation to him. First, it was seasonable, and in due time; presently does David make this return: “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” This is the property and disposition of every wise and prudent Christian, to close with the very first opportunities of God’s invitation. Secondly, this answer, as it was seasonable and present, so it was also full and complete; the performance was proportionable to the injunction. Ye shall have some kind of people in the world that God bids them do one thing and they will be sure to do the quite contrary; or, at least, not do as much as they should do, but do it by halves. But, now, here David makes return to God in the full extent and proportion of obedience. God said, “Seek my face,” and he answered, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” Thirdly, it was real and entire, and sincere; “My heart said.” It is one thing to say it with the mouth, and it is another thing to say it with the heart. With the mouth it is both easy and ordinary, and nothing more usual. Lord, thy face will we seek, especially in any trouble or calamity, which is incident unto us; but for the heart to say it, that is not so frequent. Fourthly, it was settled, and peremptory, “Thy face will I seek;” there is nothing shall hinder me of it, or keep me from it, but I will do it against all opposition. Lastly, this protestation of David was absolute and indefinite and unlimited; “I will seek thy face;” without prescription of time, or place, or condition; not only now, but hereafter; not only for a time, but for ever, in all seasons, in all estates, in all circumstances, still I shall keep me to this—to hold my communion with thee. Then are we Christians, indeed, when we are so immutably and irreversibly and independently upon the opinions or practices of any other person.—Condensed from Thomas Horton.
Verse 8.—God hath promised his favour, and, therefore, his people may seek his favour. Nay, he hath commanded his people to seek his favour, and therefore they should seek it. It is an unadvised folly, during the suspension of God’s favour, to unson ourselves, and unpeople ourselves, i.e., by denying the grace and spiritual relation which exist between us and God. That is not the way to gain favour; for when we have undone our relation of children we exclude ourselves from the expectation of favour. No, the wisest and surest way is to seek the renewing of God’s loving countenance, and not to be driven away from God by our unbelief.—Obadiah Sedgwick, in “The Doubting Believer,” 1653.
Verse 9.—“Hide not thy face far from me.” When I seek thy face, vouchsafe, O God, not to hide thy face from me; for to what purpose should I seek it if I cannot find it? and what hope of finding it if thou be bent to hide it?—Sir Richard Baker.
Verse 9.—“Put not thy servant away in anger.” God puts away many in anger for their supposed goodness, but not any at all for their confessed badness.—John Trapp.
Verse 9.—“Thy servant.” It is a blessed and happy thing to be God’s true “servant.” Consider what the Queen of Sheba said of Solomon’s servants (1 Kings x. 8): “Happy are these thy servants,” etc. Now Christ Jesus is greater than Solomon (Matt. xii. 42), and so a better Master. Good earthly masters will honour good servants, as Prov. xxvii. 18, “He that waiteth on his master shall be honoured;” chap. xvii. 2, “A wise servant shall have a portion, or inheritance, among the brethren.” But however some earthly masters may be Nabals and Labans, yet God will not be so: John xii. 26: “Where I am, there shall also my servant be.” “If any man serve me, him will my Father honour,” see Luke xii. 37. The watchful servants are blessed; their master will make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them, as Matt. xxv. 21, 23: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”—Thomas Pierson.
Verse 9.—“Thou hast been my help; leave me not,” etc. One act of mercy engages God to another. Men argue thus: I have showed you kindness already, therefore trouble me no more; but because God has shown mercy he is more ready still to show mercy; his mercy in election makes him justify, adopt, glorify.—Thomas Watson.
Verse 9.—“Leave me not;” rather, “dismiss me not;” “let not go thy hold of me.” This is the proper sense of the Hebrew verb נָטַשׁ, to set a thing loose, to let it go, to abandon it.—Samuel Horsley.
Verse 10.—“When my father and my mother forsake me.” As there seems to be some difficulty in supposing the Psalmist’s parents to have “deserted” him, they might perhaps be said to have “forsaken” him (as Muis conjectures), that is, to have left him behind them, as being dead.—James Merrick, M.A., 1720-1769.
Verse 10.—“When my father and my mother forsake me.” It is indeed the nature of all living creatures, though never so tender of their young ones, yet when they are grown to a ripeness of age and strength, to turn them off to shift for themselves; and even a father and a mother, as tender as they are, have yet somewhat of this common nature in them; for while their children are young they lead them by the hand, but when they are grown up they leave them to their own legs, and if they chance to fall let them rise as they can. But God even then takes his children up, for he knows of what they are made; he knows their strength must be as well supported as their weakness be assisted; he knows they must as well be taken up when they fall, as be held up when they stand.—Sir Richard Baker.
Verse 10.—“Father and Mother.” First, who are they? Properly and chiefly our natural parents, of whom we were begotten and born; to whom (under God) we owe our being and breeding. Yet here, not they only; but by synecdoche all other kinsfolks, neighbours, friends, acquaintances, or, indeed, more generally yet, all worldly comforts, stays, and helps whatsoever. 2. But, then, why these named the rathest, and the rest to be included in these? Because we promise to ourselves more help from them than from any of the other. We have a nearer relation to, and a greater interest in them than any other; and they of all other are the unlikeliest to forsake us. The very brute creatures forsake not their young ones. A hen will not desert her chickens, nor a bear endure to be robbed of her whelps. 3. But, then, thirdly, why both named—father and mother too? Partly because it can hardly be imagined that both of them should forsake their child, though one should hap to be unkind. Partly because the father’s love being commonly with more providence, the mother’s with more tenderness; both together do better express than alone either would do, the abundant love of God towards us, who is infinitely dear over us, beyond the care of the most provident father, beyond the affection of the tenderest mother. 4. But, then, fourthly, when may they be said to forsake us? When at any time they leave us destitute of such help as we stand in need of; whether it be out of choice, when they list not to help us, though they might if they would; or out of necessity, when they cannot help us, though they would if they could.—Robert Sanderson.
Verse 10.—“Then the Lord will take me up.” But dictum factum: these are but words: Are there producible any deeds to make it good? Verily, there are, and that to the very letter. When Ishmael’s mother, despairing of his life, had forsaken him, and laid him down gasping (his last, for ought she knew or could do to help it), in the wilderness, the Lord took him up; he opened a new spring of water, and opened her eyes to see it, and so the child was preserved. Genesis xxi. When Moses’ parents had also forsaken him (for they durst not stand by him any longer), and laid him down among the rushy flags, the Lord took him up too. He provided him of a saviour, the king’s own daughter, and of a nurse the child’s own mother—and so he was preserved too. Exodus ii. 6-9. Take but two examples more, out of either Testament one. David and St. Paul, both forsaken of men, both taken up of God. How was David forsaken, in Psalm cxlii. 4, when he had looked upon his right hand, and saw no man that would know him; he had no place to fly unto, and no man cared for his soul. But all the while Dominus ad dextris, there was one at his right hand (though at first he was not aware of him), ready to take him up; as it there followeth, verse 5, “I cried unto thee, O Lord; I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.” And how St. Paul was forsaken; take it from himself, 2 Timothy iv. 16, “At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me:” a heavy case, and had been heavier had there not been one ready to take his part, at the next verse, “Nevertheless the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me,” etc. What need we any more witnesses? In ore duorum—in the mouth of two such witnesses the point is sufficiently established. But you will yet say, these two might testify what they had already found post factum. But David, in the text, pronounceth it de futuro, beforehand, and that somewhat confidently: “The Lord will take me up.” As he doth also elsewhere: “Sure I am that the Lord will avenge the poor, and maintain the cause of the helpless.” Psalm cxl. But is there any ground for that? Doubtless there is; a double ground; one in the nature, another in the promise of God. In his nature four qualities there are (we take leave so to speak, suitably to our own low apprehensions, for in the Godhead there are properly no qualities); but call them qualities or attributes, or what else you will; there are four perfections in God, opposite to those defects which in our earthly parents we have found to be the chief causes why they do so oft forsake us; which give us full assurance that he will take us up when all other succours fail us. Those are his love, his wisdom, his power, his eternity, and all in his nature. To which four, add his promise, and you have the fulness of all the assurance that can be desired.—Robert Sanderson.
Verse 10.—“The Lord will take me up;” Hebrew, will gather me, that is, take me into his care and keeping. In the civil law we find provision made for outcasts and friendless persons; some hospitals to entertain them, some liberties to comfort and compensate their trouble. ’Tis sure, that in God the forlorn and fatherless find mercy.—John Trapp.
Verse 11.—“Teach me thy way, O Lord.” Having compared himself to an exposed, deserted infant, adopted by God, he anon fairly asks to be shown how to walk. He asks the grace of being able to observe all his holy commandments, which he never loses sight of through the whole one hundred-and-fifty Psalms. What else could he do? when it was the only path to that heavenly house of God, which he had just declared to be the only wish and desire of his heart.—Robert Bellarmine (Cardinal), 1542-1621.
Verse 11.—“Lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.” If a man, travelling in the King’s highway, be robbed between sun and sun, satisfaction is recoverable upon the county where the robbery was made; but if he takes his journey in the night, being an unseasonable time, then it is at his own peril, he must take what falls. So, if a man keep in God’s ways, he shall be sure of God’s protection; but if he stray out of them, he exposeth himself to danger.—Robert Skinner (Bishop), 1636.
Verse 11.—“Because of mine enemies.” If once a man commence a professor, the eyes of all are upon him; and well they may, for his profession in the world is a separation from the world. Believers condemn those by their lives who condemn them by their lips. Righteous David saw many who were waiting to triumph in his mistakes. Hence the more they watched, the more he prayed: “Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.” It may be rendered, because of mine observers. Christian, if you dwell in the open tent of licentiousness, the wicked will not walk backward, like modest Shem and Japheth, to cover your shame: but they will walk forward, like cursed Ham, to publish it. Thus they make use of your weakness as a plea for their wickedness. Men are merciless in their censures of Christians; they have no sympathy for their infirmity: while God weighs them in more equal scales, and says, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” While a saint is a dove in the eyes of God, he is only a raven in the estimation of sinners.—William Secker.
Verse 13.—“I had fainted,” etc. Study much the all-sufficiency, the power, the goodness, the unchangeableness of God. 1. The all-sufficiency of God. What fulness there is in him to make up all you can lose for him; what refreshments there are in him to sweeten all you can suffer for him. What fulness! You may as well doubt that all the waters of the ocean cannot fill a spoon, as that the divine fulness cannot be enough to you, if you should have nothing left in this world; for all the waters that cover the sea are not so much as a spoonful, compared with the boundless and infinite fulness of all-sufficiency. What refreshments in him! One drop of divine sweetness is enough to make one in the very agony of the cruellest death to cry out with joy, “The bitterness of death is past.” Now in him there are not only drops, but rivers; not a scanty sprinkling, but an infinite fulness. 2. Eye much the power of God, how it can support under the cross, what it can bring to pass for you by the cross. No cross so sharp and grievous, but he can make it sweet and comfortable. No cross so heavy and intolerable, but he can make light and easy. No cross so ignominious and reproachful, but he can turn it to your honour. No cross so fastened to you, but he can easily remove it. 3. His goodness. His all-sufficiency and power make him able, his goodness makes him willing to do for his people under the cross what his all-sufficiency and almighty power can afford. His goodness sets his mighty power a-work for his suffering saints. His goodness sets his all-sufficiency, his fulness, abroach for them, so that it runs freely upon them; and never more freely than when they are under the cross. “I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord,” &c. What is it that makes you ready to faint under the cross, or thoughts and foresight of it? Look to the goodness of God, there is support.—Condensed from David Clarkson.
Verse 13.—“I had fainted.” The words in italics are supplied by our translators; but, far from being necessary, they injure the sense. Throw out the words I had fainted, and leave a break after the verse, and the elegant figure of the Psalmist will be preserved: “Unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living”——what! what, alas! should have become of me!—Adam Clarke.
Verse 13.—“Unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” In the Hebrew this verse is elliptical, as Calvin here translates it. In the French version he supplies the ellipsis, by adding to the end of the verse the words, “C’estoit fait de moy,” “I had perished.” In our English version, the words, “I had fainted,” are introduced as a supplement in the beginning of the verse. Both the supplement of Calvin, and that of our English version, which are substantially the same, doubtless explain the meaning of the passage; but they destroy the elegant abrupt form of the expression employed by the Psalmist, who breaks off in the middle of his discourse without completing the sentence, although what he meant to say is very evident.—Editorial Note to Calvin, in loc.
Verse 13.—Under sore trouble and distress, labour to exercise a strong and lively faith. It was a noble and heroic resolution in that holy man Job, under his singular trials (Job xiii. 15): “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him;” as if he had said, Let my strokes be never so sore and heavy, yet I will not let go my grips of his word and promises, I will not raze these foundations of my hope. It was the way the Psalmist kept himself from sinking under his heavy burdens: “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”... Faith brings new strength and auxiliary supplies of grace from heaven, when the former supply is exhausted and spent; whereof David had the sweet experience here. As God doth plant and actuate grace in the soul, so he is pleased to come in with seasonable supplies and reinforcements to the weak and decayed graces of his people, answerable to their present exigences and pressures; and thus he doth from time to time feed the believer’s lamp with fresh oil, give in more faith, more love, more hope, and more desires; and hereby he gives power to the faint, and strengthens the things which remain when ready to die.—John Willison.
Verse 13.—“Unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living:” a cordial made up of three sovereign ingredients—a hope to see; and to see the goodness of God; and the goodness of God in the land of the living.—Sir Richard Baker.
Verse 13.—“The land of the living.” Alas! what a land of the living is this, in which there are more dead than living, more under ground than above it; where the earth is fuller of graves than houses; where life lies trembling under the hand of death; and where death hath power to tyrannise over life! No, my soul, there only is the land of the living where there are none but the living; where there is a church, not militant, but triumphant; a church indeed, but no churchyard, because none dead, nor none that can die; where life is not passive, nor death active; where life sits crowned, and where death is swallowed up in victory.—Sir Richard Baker.
Verse 14.—“Wait on the Lord, be of good courage.” Be comfortable, hold fast (as the Greek hath), be manly, or, quit thee as a man; which word the apostle useth. 1 Cor. xvi. 13. These are the words of encouragement against remissness, fear, faintness of heart, or other infirmities.—Henry Ainsworth.
Verse 14.—“Wait on the Lord, be of good courage.”
Stand but your ground, your ghostly foes will fly— Hell trembles at a heaven-directed eye; Choose rather to defend than to assail— Self-confidence will in the conflict fail: When you are challenged you may dangers meet— True courage is a fixed, not sudden heat; Is always humble, lives in self-distrust, And will itself into no danger thrust. Devote yourself to God, and you will find God fights the battles of a will resigned. Love Jesus! love will no base fear endure— Love Jesus! and of conquest rest secure.
Thomas Ken (Bishop), 1637-1710-11.
Verse 14.—Think not the government is out of Christ’s hand, when men are doing many sad things, and giving many heavy blows to the work of God. No, no; men are but his hand; and it is the hand of God that justly and righteously is lying heavy upon his people. Look above men, then; you have not to do with them: there is a turn of matters, just as he is pleased to turn his hand.—Ralph Erskine, 1685-1752.
HINTS TO PREACHERS.
Verse 1 (first clause).—The relation of illumination to salvation, or the need of light if men would be saved.
Verse 1.—The Christian hero, and the secret springs of his courage.
Verse 1.—The believer’s fearless challenge.
Verse 2.—The character, number, power, and cruelty of the enemies of the church, and the mysterious way in which they have been defeated.
Verse 3.—Christian peace. I. Exhibited in the calm foresight of trouble. II. Displayed in the confident endurance of affliction. III. Sustained by divine help and past experience (verses 1, 2). IV. Producing the richest results, glory to God, etc.
Verse 4.—Model Christian life. I. Unity of desire. II. Earnestness of action.
III. Nearness of communion. IV. Heavenliness of contemplation. V. Progress in divine education.
Verse 4.—The affection of moral esteem towards God.—Thomas Chalmers.
Verse 4.—A breathing after God.—R. Sibbes’s Sermon.
Verse 4 (last clause).—Sabbath occupations and heavenly delights.
Verse 4 (final clause).—Matters for enquiry in the Temple of old opened up in the light of the New Testament.
Verse 5.—The threefold shelter. See Exposition.
Verse 6.—The saint’s present triumph over his spiritual foes, his practical gratitude, and his vocal praises.
Verse 7.—Prayer. To whom addressed? How? “Cry,” etc. When? Left indefinite. On what it is based? “Mercy.” What it needs? “Hear,” “answer.”
Verse 8.—The heart in tune with its God. Note, the promptness, heartiness, personality, unreservedness, accuracy, and resolution of the response to the precept.
Verse 8.—The successful seeker.—R. Sibbes’s Sermon.
Verse 8.—The echo. See Spurgeon’s Sermons. No. 767.
Verse 9.—I. Desertion deprecated in all its forms. II. Experience pleaded. III. Divine aid implored.
Verse 9.—The horror of saints at the hell of sinners.—James Scot.
Verse 10.—The portion of the orphan, the comfort of the persecuted, the paradise of the departing.
Verse 11.—The plain man’s pathway desired, described, divinely approved, “thy way,” “a plain way,” and divinely taught, “teach me, O Lord,” “lead me.”
Verse 13.—Faith, its precedence of sight, its objects, its sustaining power.
Verse 13.—Believing to see. See Spurgeon’s Sermons. No. 766.
Verse 14.—The believer’s position, “wait;” his condition, “good courage;” his support, “he shall,” etc.; his perseverance, “wait” repeated a second time; his reward.
Footnote 1:
Choose=love.
PSALM XXVIII.
TITLE AND SUBJECT.—Again, the title, “A Psalm of David,” is too general to give us any clue to the occasion upon which it was written. Its position, as following the twenty-seventh, seems to have been designed, for it is a most suitable pendant and sequel to it. It is another of those “songs in the night” of which the pen of David was so prolific. The thorn at the breast of the nightingale was said by the old naturalists to make it sing: David’s griefs made him eloquent in holy psalmody. The main pleading of this Psalm is that the suppliant may not be confounded with the workers of iniquity for whom he expresses the utmost abhorrence; it may suit any slandered saint who, being misunderstood by men, and treated by them as an unworthy character, is anxious to stand aright before the bar of God. The Lord Jesus may be seen here pleading as the representative of his people.
DIVISION.—The first and second verses earnestly entreat audience of the Lord in a time of dire emergency. From verses 2-5, the portion of the wicked is described and deprecated. In verses 6, 7, and 8, praise is given for the Lord’s mercy in hearing prayer, and the Psalm concludes with a general petition for the whole host of militant believers.
EXPOSITION.
Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me, lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.
2 Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle.
1. “Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock.”—A cry is the natural expression of sorrow, and is a suitable utterance when all other modes of appeal fail us; but the cry must be alone directed to the Lord, for to cry to man is to waste our entreaties upon the air. When we consider the readiness of the Lord to hear, and his ability to aid, we shall see good reason for directing all our appeals at once to the God of our salvation, and shall use language of firm resolve like that in the text, “I will cry.” The immutable Jehovah is our rock, the immovable foundation of all our hopes and our refuge in time of trouble: we are fixed in our determination to flee to him as our stronghold in every hour of danger. It will be in vain to call to the rocks in the day of judgment, but our rock attends to our cries. “Be not silent to me.” Mere formalists may be content without answers to their prayers, but genuine suppliants cannot; they are not satisfied with the results of prayer itself in calming the mind and subduing the will—they must go further and obtain actual replies from heaven, or they cannot rest; and those replies they long to receive at once, if possible; they dread even a little of God’s silence. God’s voice is often so terrible that it shakes the wilderness; but his silence is equally full of awe to an eager suppliant. When God seems to close his ear, we must not therefore close our mouths, but rather cry with more earnestness; for when our note grows shrill with eagerness and grief, he will not long deny us a hearing. What a dreadful case should we be in if the Lord should become for ever silent to our prayers! This thought suggested itself to David, and he turned it into a plea, thus teaching us to argue and reason with God in our prayers. “Lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.” Deprived of the God who answers prayer, we should be in a more pitiable plight than the dead in the grave, and should soon sink to the same level as the lost in hell. We must have answers to prayer: ours is an urgent case of dire necessity; surely the Lord will speak peace to our agitated minds, for he never can find it in his heart to permit his own elect to perish.
2. This is much to the same effect as the first verse, only that it refers to future as well as present pleadings. Hear me! Hear me! “Hear the voice of my supplications!” This is the burden of both verses. We cannot be put off with a refusal when we are in the spirit of prayer; we labour, use importunity, and agonise in supplications until a hearing is granted us. The word “supplications,” in the plural, shows the number, continuance, and variety of a good man’s prayers, while the expression, “hear the voice,” seems to hint that there is an inner meaning, or heart-voice, about which spiritual men are far more concerned than for their outward and audible utterances. A silent prayer may have a louder voice than the cries of those priests who sought to awaken Baal with their shouts. “When I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle:” which holy place was the type of our Lord Jesus; and if we would gain acceptance, we must turn ourselves evermore to the blood-besprinkled mercy seat of his atonement. Uplifted hands have ever been a form of devout posture, and are intended to signify a reaching upward towards God, a readiness, an eagerness to receive the blessing sought after. We stretch out empty hands, for we are beggars; we lift them up, for we seek heavenly supplies; we lift them towards the mercy seat of Jesus, for there our expectation dwells. O that whenever we use devout gestures, we may possess contrite hearts, and so speed well with God.
3 Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts.
4 Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert.
5 Because they regard not the works of the LORD, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up.
3. “Draw me not away with the wicked.”—They shall be dragged off to hell like felons of old drawn on a hurdle to Tyburn, like logs drawn to the fire, like fagots to the oven. David fears lest he should be bound up in their bundle, drawn to their doom; and the fear is an appropriate one for every godly man. The best of the wicked are dangerous company in time, and would make terrible companions for eternity; we must avoid them in their pleasures, if we would not be confounded with them in their miseries. “And with the workers of iniquity.” These are overtly sinful, and their judgment will be sure; Lord, do not make us to drink of their cup. Activity is found with the wicked even if it be lacking to the righteous. Oh! to be “workers” for the Lord. “Which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts.” They have learned the manners of the place to which they are going: the doom of liars is their portion for ever, and lying is their conversation on the road. Soft words, oily with pretended love, are the deceitful meshes of the infernal net in which Satan catches the precious life; many of his children are learned in his abominable craft, and fish with their father’s nets, almost as cunningly as he himself could do it. It is a sure sign of baseness when the tongue and the heart do not ring to the same note. Deceitful men are more to be dreaded than wild beasts: it were better to be shut up in a pit with serpents than to be compelled to live with liars. He who cries “peace” too loudly, means to sell it if he can get his price. “Good wine needs no bush:” if he were so very peaceful he would not need to say so; he means mischief, make sure of that.
4. When we view the wicked simply as such, and not as our fellow-men, our indignation against sin leads us entirely to coincide with the acts of divine justice which punish evil, and to wish that justice might use her power to restrain by her terrors the cruel and unjust; but still the desires of the present verse, as our version renders it, are not readily made consistent with the spirit of the Christian dispensation, which seeks rather the reformation than the punishment of sinners. If we view the words before us as prophetic, or as in the future tense, declaring a fact, we are probably nearer to the true meaning than that given in our version. Ungodly reader, what will be your lot when the Lord deals with you according to your desert, and weighs out to you his wrath, not only in proportion to what you have actually done, but according to what you would have done if you could? Our “endeavours” are taken as facts; God takes the will for the deed, and punishes or rewards accordingly. Not in this life, but certainly in the next, God will repay his enemies to their faces, and give them the wages of their sins. Not according to their fawning words, but after the measure of their mischievous deeds, will the Lord mete out vengeance to them that know him not.
5. “Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands.” God works in creation—nature teems with proofs of his wisdom and goodness, yet purblind atheists refuse to see him: he works in providence, ruling and overruling, and his hand is very manifest in human history, yet the infidel will not discern him: he works in grace—remarkable conversions are still met with on all hands, yet the ungodly refuse to see the operations of the Lord. Where angels wonder, carnal men despise. God condescends to teach, and man refuses to learn. “He shall destroy them:” he will make them “behold, and wonder, and perish.” If they would not see the hand of judgment upon others, they shall feel it upon themselves. Both soul and body shall be overwhelmed with utter destruction for ever and ever. “And not build them up.” God’s curse is positive and negative; his sword has two edges, and cuts right and left. Their heritage of evil shall prevent the ungodly receiving any good; the ephah shall be too full of wrath to contain a grain of hope. They have become like old, rotten, decayed houses of timber, useless to the owner, and harbouring all manner of evil, and, therefore, the Great Builder will demolish them utterly. Incorrigible offenders may expect speedy destruction: they who will not mend, shall be thrown away as worthless. Let us be very attentive to all the lessons of God’s word and work, lest being found disobedient to the divine will, we be made to suffer the divine wrath.
6 Blessed be the LORD, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications.
7 The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.
8 The LORD is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed.
6. “Blessed be the Lord.” Saints are full of benedictions; they are a blessed people, and a blessing people; but they give their best blessings, the fat of their sacrifices, to their glorious Lord. Our Psalm was prayer up to this point, and now it turns to praise. They who pray well, will soon praise well: prayer and praise are the two lips of the soul; two bells to ring out sweet and acceptable music in the ears of God; two angels to climb Jacob’s ladder; two altars smoking with incense; two of Solomon’s lilies dropping sweet-smelling myrrh; they are two young roes that are twins, feeding upon the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense. “Because he hath heard the voice of my supplications.” Real praise is established upon sufficient and constraining reasons; it is not irrational emotion, but rises, like a pure spring, from the deeps of experience. Answered prayers should be acknowledged. Do we not often fail in this duty? Would it not greatly encourage others, and strengthen ourselves, if we faithfully recorded divine goodness, and made a point of extolling it with our tongue? God’s mercy is not such an inconsiderable thing that we may safely venture to receive it without so much as thanks. We should shun ingratitude, and live daily in the heavenly atmosphere of thankful love.
7. Here is David’s declaration and confession of faith, coupled with a testimony from his experience. “The Lord is my strength.” The Lord employs his power on our behalf, and moreover, infuses strength into us in our hour of weakness. The Psalmist, by an act of appropriating faith, takes the omnipotence of Jehovah to be his own. Dependence upon the invisible God gives great independence of spirit, inspiring us with confidence more than human. “And my shield.” Thus David found both sword and shield in his God. The Lord preserves his people from unnumbered ills; and the Christian warrior, sheltered behind his God, is far more safe than the hero when covered with his shield of brass or triple steel. “My heart trusted in him, and I am helped.” Heart work is sure work; heart trust is never disappointed. Faith must come before help, but help will never be long behind-hand. Every day the believer may say, “I am helped,” for the divine assistance is vouchsafed us every moment, or we should go back unto perdition; when more manifest help is needed, we have but to put faith into exercise, and it will be given us. “Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.” The heart is mentioned twice to show the truth of his faith and his joy. Observe the adverb “greatly,” we need not be afraid of being too full of rejoicing at the remembrance of grace received. We serve a great God, let us greatly rejoice in him. A song is the soul’s fittest method of giving vent to its happiness, it were well if we were more like the singing lark, and less like the croaking raven. When the heart is glowing, the lips should not be silent. When God blesses us, we should bless him with all our heart.
8. “The Lord is their strength.”—The heavenly experience of one believer is a pattern of the life of all. To all the militant church, without exception, Jehovah is the same as he was to his servant David, “the least of them shall be as David.” They need the same aid and they shall have it, for they are loved with the same love, written in the same book of life, and one with the same anointed Head. “And he is the saving strength of his anointed.” Here behold king David as the type of our Lord Jesus, our covenant Head, our anointed Prince, through whom all blessings come to us. He has achieved full salvation for us, and we desire saving strength from him, and as we share in the unction which is so largely shed upon him, we expect to partake in his salvation. Glory be unto the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has magnified the power of his grace in his only begotten Son, whom he has anointed to be a Prince and a Saviour unto his people.
9 Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever.
9. This is a prayer for the church militant, written in short words, but full of weighty meaning. We must pray for the whole church, and not for ourselves alone. “Save thy people.” Deliver them from their enemies, preserve them from their sins, succour them under their troubles, rescue them from their temptations, and ward off from them every ill. There is a plea hidden in the expression, “thy people;” for it may be safely concluded that God’s interest in the church, as his own portion, will lead him to guard it from destruction. “Bless thine inheritance.” Grant positive blessings, peace, plenty, prosperity, happiness; make all thy dearly-purchased and precious heritage to be comforted by thy Spirit. Revive, refresh, enlarge and sanctify thy church. “Feed them also.” Be a shepherd to thy flock, let their bodily and spiritual wants be plentifully supplied. By thy word, and ordinances, direct, rule, sustain, and satisfy those who are the sheep of thy hand. “And lift them up for ever.” Carry them in thine arms on earth, and then lift them into thy bosom in heaven. Elevate their minds and thoughts, spiritualise their affections, make them heavenly, Christlike, and full of God. O Lord, answer this our petition, for Jesus’ sake.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.
Verse 1.—“Unto thee do I cry.” It is of the utmost importance that we should have a definite object on which to fix our thoughts. Man, at the best of times, has but little power for realising abstractions; but least of all in his time of sorrow. Then he is helpless; then he needs every possible aid; and if his mind wander in vacancy, it will soon weary, and sink down exhausted. God has graciously taken care that this need not be done. He has so manifested himself to man in his word, that the afflicted one can fix his mind’s eye on him, as the definite object of his faith, and hope, and prayer. “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” Jer. xxxiii. 3. This was what the Psalmist did; and the definiteness of God, as the object of his trust in prayer, is very clearly marked. And specially great is the privilege of the Christian in this matter. He can fix his eye on Jesus; he, without any very great stretch of imagination, can picture that Holy One looking down upon him; listening to him; feeling for him; preparing to answer him. Dear reader, in the time of your trouble, do not roam; do not send out your sighs into vacancy; do not let your thoughts wander, as though they were looking for some one on whom to fix; for some one to whom you could tell the story of your heart’s need and desolation. Fix your heart as the Psalmist did, and say, “Unto thee will I cry.”... Oh! how happy is that man, who feels and knows that when trouble comes, he cannot be bewildered and confused by the stroke, no matter how heavy it may be. Sorrow-stricken he will be, but he has his resource, and he knows it, and will avail himself of it. His is no vague theory of the general sympathy of God for man; his is a knowledge of God, as a personal and feeling God; he says with the Psalmist, “Unto thee will I cry.”—Philip Bennett Power.
Verse 1.—“My rock.” One day a female friend called on the Rev. William Evans, a pious minister in England, and asked how he felt himself. “I am weakness itself,” he replied; “but I am on the Rock. I do not experience those transports which some have expressed in the view of death; but my dependence is on the mercy of God in Christ. Here my religion began, and here it must end.”
Verse 1.—“My rock.” The Rev. John Rees, of Crown Street, Soho, London, was visited on his death-bed by the Rev. John Leifchild, who very seriously asked him to describe the state of his mind. This appeal to the honour of his religion roused him, and so freshened his dying lamp, that raising himself up in his bed, he looked his friend in the face, and with great deliberation, energy, and dignity, uttered the following words:—“Christ in his person, Christ in the love of his heart, and Christ in the power of his arm, is the Rock on which I rest; and now” (reclining his head gently on the pillow), “Death, strike!”—K. Arvine.
Verse 1.—“Be not silent to me.” Let us next observe what the heart desires from God. It is that he would speak. “Be not silent to me.” Under these circumstances, when we make our prayer, we desire that God would let us know that he hears us, and that he would appear for us, and that he would say, he is our Father. And what do we desire God to say? We want him to let us know that he hears us; we want to hear him speak as distinctly to us, as we feel that we have spoken to him. We want to know, not only by faith that we have been heard, but by God’s having spoken to us on the very subject whereupon we have spoken to him. When we feel thus assured that God has heard us, we can with the deepest confidence leave the whole matter about which we have been praying, in his hands. Perhaps an answer cannot come for a long time; perhaps things, meanwhile, seem working in a contrary way; it may be, that there is no direct appearance at all of God upon the scene; still faith will hold up and be strong; and there will be comfort in the heart, from the felt consciousness that God has heard our cry about the matter, and that he has told us so. We shall say to ourselves, “God knows all about it; God has in point of fact told me so; therefore I am in peace.” And let it be enough for us that God tells us this, when he will perhaps tell us no more; let us not want to try and induce him to speak much, when it is his will to speak but little: the best answer we can have at certain times is simply the statement that “he hears;” by this answer to our prayer he at once encourages and exercises our faith. “It is said,” said Rutherford, speaking of the Saviour’s delay in responding to the request of the Syrophenician woman, “‘he answered not a word,’ but it is not said, he heard not a word. These two differ much. Christ often heareth when he doth not answer—his not answering is an answer, and speaks thus—‘pray on, go on and cry, for the Lord holdeth his door fast bolted, not to keep you out, but that you may knock, and knock, and it shall be opened.’”—Philip Bennett Power.
Verse 1.—“Lest ... I become like them that go down into the pit.” Thou seest, great God, my sad situation. Nothing to me is great or desirable upon this earth but the felicity of serving thee, and yet the misery of my destiny, and the duties of my state, bring me into connection with men who regard all godliness as a thing to be censured and derided. With secret horror I daily hear them blaspheming the ineffable gifts of thy grace, and ridiculing the faith and fervour of the godly as mere imbecility of mind. Exposed to such impiety, all my consolation, O my God, is to make my cries of distress ascend to the foot of thy throne. Although for the present, these sacrilegious blasphemies only awaken in my soul emotions of horror and pity, yet I fear that at last they may enfeeble me and seduce me into a crooked course of policy, unworthy of thy glory, and of the gratitude which I owe to thee. I fear that insensibly I may become such a coward as to blush at thy name, such a sinner as to resist the impulses of thy grace, such a traitor as to withhold my testimony against sin, such a self-deceiver as to disguise my criminal timidity by the name of prudence. Already I feel that this poison is insinuating itself into my heart, for while I would not have my conduct resemble that of the wicked who surround me, yet I am too much biassed by the fear of giving them offence. I dare not imitate them, but I am almost as much afraid of irritating them. I know that it is impossible both to please a corrupt world and a holy God, and yet I so far lose sight of this truth, that instead of sustaining me in decision, it only serves to render my vacillation the more inexcusable. What remains for me but to implore thy help! Strengthen me, O Lord, against these declensions so injurious to thy glory, so fatal to the fidelity which is due to thee. Cause me to hear thy strengthening and encouraging voice. If the voice of thy grace be not lifted up in my spirit, reanimating my feeble faith, I feel that there is but a step between me and despair. I am on the brink of the precipice, I am ready to fall into a criminal complicity with those who would fain drag me down with them into the pit.—Jean Baptiste Massillon, 1663-1742, freely translated by C. H. S.
Verse 2.—“I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle.” Called דְּבִיר, debhir, because there-hence God spake and gave answer. Toward this (a type of Christ, the Word essential), David lifteth up his hands, that it might be as a ladder, whereby his prayer might get up to heaven.—John Trapp.
Verse 3.—“Draw me not away with the wicked ... which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts.” The godly man abhors dissimulation towards men; his heart goes along with his tongue, he cannot flatter and hate, commend and censure. “Let love be without dissimulation.” Romans xii. 9. Dissembled love is worse than hatred; counterfeiting of friendship is no better than a lie (Psalm lxxviii. 36), for there is a pretence of that which is not. Many are like Joab: “He took Amasa by the beard to kiss him, and smote him with his sword in the fifth rib, that he died.” There is a river in Spain, where the fish seem to be of a golden colour, but take them out of the water, and they are like other fish. All is not gold that glitters; there are some pretend much kindness, but they are like great veins which have little blood; if you lean upon them they are as a leg out of joint. For my part, I much question his truth towards God, that will flatter and lie to his friend. “He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander is a fool.” Proverbs x. 18.—Thomas Watson.
Verse 3.—“Draw me not out with.” An allusion, I conceive, to a shepherd selecting out a certain portion of his flock. “Reckon me not among.”—Professor Lee.
Verse 3.—“Draw me not away.” אַל־תִּמְשְׁכֵנִי from מָשַׁךְ; that signifies, both to draw and apprehend, will be best rendered here, seize not on me, as he that seizeth on any to carry or drag him to execution.—Henry Hammond.
Verse 4.—“Give them according to their deeds,” etc. Here, again, occurs the difficult question about praying for vengeance, which, however, I shall despatch in a few words. In the first place, then, it is unquestionable, that if the flesh move us to seek revenge, the desire is wicked in the sight of God. He not only forbids us to imprecate evil upon our enemies in revenge for private injuries, but it cannot be otherwise than that all those desires which spring from hatred must be disordered. David’s example, therefore, must not be alleged by those who are driven by their own intemperate passion to seek vengeance. The holy prophet is not inflamed here by his own private sorrow to devote his enemies to destruction; but laying aside the desire of the flesh, he gives judgment concerning the matter itself. Before a man can, therefore, denounce vengeance against the wicked, he must first shake himself free from all improper feelings in his own mind. In the second place prudence must be exercised, that the heinousness of the evils which offend us drive us not to intemperate zeal, which happened even to Christ’s disciples, when they desired that fire might be brought from heaven to consume those who refused to entertain their Master. Luke ix. 54. They pretended, it is true, to act according to the example of Elias, but Christ severely rebuked them, and told them that they knew not by what spirit they were actuated. In particular, we must observe this general rule, that we cordially desire and labour for the welfare of the whole human race. Thus it will come to pass, that we shall not only give way to the exercise of God’s mercy, but shall also wish the conversion of those who seem obstinately to rush upon their own destruction. In short, David, being free from every evil passion, and likewise endued with the spirit of discretion and judgment, pleads here not so much his own cause as the cause of God. And by this prayer, he further reminds both himself and the faithful, that although the wicked may give themselves loose reins in the commission of every species of vice with impunity for a time, they must at length stand before the judgment-seat of God.—John Calvin.
Verse 4.—“Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours.” Yes, great God, since thou hast from the beginning been only occupied in saving men, thou wilt surely strike with an eternal malediction these children of iniquity who appear to have been born only to be lost themselves, and to destroy others. Thy very benevolence towards mankind solicits thy thunders against these corrupters of society. The more thou hast done for our race, the more surely will the severity of thy justice reveal itself in destroying the wretches whose only study is to counteract thy goodness towards mankind. They labour incessantly to put men far away from thee, O my God, and in return thou wilt put them far away from thee for ever. They count it great gain to make their fellows thine enemies, and they shall have the desperate consolation of being such themselves to all eternity. What more fitting punishment for the wretches who desire to make all hearts rebel against thine adorable Majesty, than to lie through the baseness of their nature, under the eternal and frightful necessity of hating thee for ever.—Jean Baptiste Massillon, rendered, very freely by C. H. S.
Verse 4.—“Give them according to their deeds.” The Egyptians killed the Hebrew male children, and God smote the firstborn of Egypt. Sisera, who thought to destroy Israel with his iron chariots, was himself killed with an iron nail, stuck through his temples. Adoni-bezek, Judges i. 5-7. Gideon slew forty elders of Succoth, and his sons were murdered by Abimelech. Abimelech slew seventy sons of Gideon upon one stone, and his own head was broken by a piece of millstone thrown by a woman. Samson fell by the “lust of the eye,” and before death the Philistines put out his eyes. Agag, 1 Sam. xx. 33. Saul slew the Gibeonites, and seven of his sons were hung up before the Lord. 2 Sam. xxi. 1-9. Ahab, after coveting Naboth’s vineyard, 1 Kings xxi. 19, fulfilled 2 Kings ix. 24-26. Jeroboam, the same hand that was stretched forth against the altar was withered, 1 Kings xiii. 1-6. Joab having killed Abner, Amasa, and Absalom, was put to death by Solomon. Daniel’s accusers thrown into the lions’ den meant for Daniel. Haman hung upon the gallows designed for Mordecai. Judas purchased the field of blood, and then went and hanged himself. So in the history of later days, Bajazet was carried about by Tamerlane in an iron cage, as he intended to have carried Tamerlane. Mazentius built a bridge to entrap Constantine, and was overthrown himself on that very spot. Alexander VI. was poisoned by the wine he had prepared for another. Charles IX. made the streets of Paris to stream with Protestant blood, and soon after blood streamed from all parts of his body in a bloody sweat. Cardinal Beaton condemned George Wishart to death, and presently died a violent death himself; he was murdered in bed, and his body was laid out in the same window from which he had looked upon Wishart’s execution.—G. S. Bowes, in “Illustrative Gatherings.”
Verse 4.—“Render to them their desert.” Meditate on God’s righteousness, that it is not only his will, but his nature to punish sin; sin must damn thee without Christ, there is not only a possibility or probability that sin may ruin, but without an interest in Christ it must do so; whet much upon thy heart that must; God cannot but hate sin, because he is holy; and he cannot but punish sin, because he is righteous. God must not forego his own nature to gratify our humours.—Christopher Fowler, in “Morning Exercises,” 1676.
Verse 4.—He prayeth against his enemies, not out of any private revenge, but being led by the infallible spirit of prophecy, looking through these men to the enemies of Christ, and of his people in all ages.—David Dickson.
Verses 4, 5.—In these verses, as indeed in most of the imprecatory passages, the imperative and the future are used promiscuously: “Give them——render them——he shall destroy them.” If therefore, the verbs, in all such passages, were uniformly rendered in the “future,” every objection against the Scripture imprecations would vanish at once, and they would appear clearly to be what they are, namely, prophecies of the divine judgments, which have been since executed against the Jews, and which will be executed against all the enemies of Jehovah, and his Christ; whom neither the “works” of creation, nor those of redemption, can lead to repentance.—George Horne.
Verse 6.—“He hath heard.” Prayer is the best remedy in a calamity. This is indeed a true catholicum, a general remedy for every malady. Not like the empiric’s catholicum, which sometimes may work, but for the most part fails: but that which upon assured evidence and constant experience hath its probatum est; being that which the most wise, learned, honest, and skilful Physician that ever was, or can be, hath prescribed—even he that teacheth us how to bear what is to be borne, or how to heal and help what hath been borne.—William Gouge.
Verse 7.—“The Lord is my strength.” Oh, sweet consolation! If a man have a burthen upon him, yet if he have strength added to him, if the burthen be doubled, yet if his strength be trebled, the burden will not be heavier, but lighter than it was before to his natural strength; so if our afflictions be heavy, and we cry out, Oh, we cannot bear them! yet if we cannot bear them with our own strength, why may we not bear them with the strength of Jesus Christ? Do we think that Christ could not bear them? or if we dare not think but that Christ could bear them, why may not we come to bear them? Some may question, can we have the strength of Christ? Yes; that very strength is made over to us by faith, for so the Scripture saith frequently, The Lord is our strength; God is our strength; The Lord Jehovah is our strength; Christ is our strength (Psalm xxviii. 7; xliii. 2; cxviii. 14; Isaiah xii. 2; Hab. iii. 19; Col. i. 11); and, therefore, is Christ’s strength ours, made over unto us, that we may be able to bear whatsoever lies upon us.—Isaac Ambrose.
Verse 7.—“The Lord is my strength” inwardly, “and my shield” outwardly. Faith finds both these in Jehovah, and the one not without the other, for what is a shield without strength, or strength without a shield? “My heart trusted in him, and I am helped:” the idea of the former sentence is here carried out, that outward help was granted to inward confidence.—W. Wilson, D.D.
Verse 7.—“My heart trusted in him, and I am helped.” Faith substantiateth things not yet seen; it altereth the tenses, saith one, and putteth the future into the present tense as here.—John Trapp.
Verse 8.—“The Lord is their strength:” not mine only, but the strength of every believer. Note—the saints rejoice in their friends’ comforts as well as their own; for as we have not the less benefit by the light of the sun, so neither by the light of God’s countenance, for others sharing therein; for we are sure there is enough for all, and enough for each. This is our communion with all saints, that God is their strength and ours; Christ their Lord and ours. 1 Cor. i. 2. He is their strength, the strength of all Israel, because he is the saving strength of “his anointed,” i.e., 1. Of David in the type: God in strengthening him that was their king and fought their battles, strengthened the whole kingdom. He calls himself God’s anointed, because it was the unction he had received that exposed him to the envy of his enemies, and therefore entitled him to the divine protection. 2. Of Christ, his Anointed, his Messiah, in the antitype. God was his “saving strength,” qualified him for his undertaking, and carried him through it.—Matthew Henry.
Verse 9.—“Lift them up.” The word here used may mean sustain them, or support them; but it more properly means bear, and would be best expressed by a reference to the fact, that the shepherd carries the feeble, the young, and the sickly of his flock in his arms, or that he lifts them up when unable themselves to rise.—Albert Barnes.
HINTS TO PREACHERS.
Verse 1 (first clause).—A sinner’s wise resolution in the hour of despondency.
Verse 1.—The saint’s fear of becoming like the ungodly.
Verse 1.—God’s silence—what terror may lie in it.
Verse 1 (last clause).—How low a soul may sink when God hides his face.
Verses 1, 2.—Prayer. I. Its nature—a “cry.” 1. The utterance of life. 2. The expression of pain. 3. The pleading of need. 4. The voice of deep earnestness. II. Its object—“O Lord, my rock.” God is our Foundation, Refuge, and immutable Friend. III. Its aim—“Hear,” “Be not silent.” We expect an answer, a clear and manifest answer, a speedy answer, a suitable answer, an effectual answer. IV. Its medium—“Toward thy holy oracle.” Our Lord Jesus, the true mercy seat, etc.
Verse 3.—The characters to be avoided, the doom to be dreaded, the grace to keep us from both.
Verse 4.—Measure for measure, or punishment proportioned to desert.
Verse 4.—Endeavour the measure of sin rather than mere result. Hence some are guilty of sins which they were unable to commit.
Verse 5.—Culpable negligence constantly persisted in, losing much blessing, and involving terrible condemnation.
Verse 6.—Answered prayers, a retrospect and song.
Verse 7.—The heart’s possessions, confidence, experience, joy, and music.
Verse 7.—Adoring God for his mercies. I. What God is to the believer. II. What should be the disposition of our hearts towards him?—_C. Simeon._
Verse 8.—All power given to believers because of their union with Jesus.
Verse 9.—“A prayer for the church militant.” See Exposition and Spurgeon’s Sermons, No. 768.
PSALM XXIX.
TITLE.—A Psalm of David. The title affords us no information beyond the fact that David is the author of this sublime song.
SUBJECT.—It seems to be the general opinion of modern annotators, that this Psalm is meant to express the glory of God as heard in the pealing thunder, and seen in an equinoctial tornado. Just as the eighth Psalm is to be read by moonlight, when the stars are bright, as the nineteenth needs the rays of the rising sun to bring out its beauty, so this can be best rehearsed beneath the black wing of tempest, by the glare of the lightning, or amid that dubious dusk which heralds the war of elements. The verses march to the tune of thunderbolts. God is everywhere conspicuous, and all the earth is hushed by the majesty of his presence. The word of God in the law and gospel is here also depicted in its majesty of power. True ministers are sons of thunder, and the voice of God in Christ Jesus is full of majesty. Thus we have God’s works and God’s word joined together: let no man put them asunder by a false idea that theology and science can by any possibility oppose each other. We may, perhaps, by a prophetic glance, behold in this Psalm the dread tempests of the latter days, and the security of the elect people.
DIVISION.—The first two verses are a call to adoration. From 3 to 10 the path of the tempest is traced, the attributes of God’s word are rehearsed, and God magnified in all the terrible grandeur of his power; and the last verse sweetly closes the scene with the assurance that the omnipotent Jehovah will give both strength and peace to his people. Let heaven and earth pass away, the Lord will surely bless his people.
EXPOSITION.
Give unto the LORD, O ye mighty, give unto the LORD glory and strength.
2 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
1. “Give,” i.e., ascribe. Neither men nor angels can confer anything upon Jehovah, but they should recognise his glory and might, and ascribe it to him in their songs and in their hearts. “Unto the Lord,” and unto him alone, must honour be given. Natural causes, as men call them, are God in action, and we must not ascribe power to them, but to the infinite Invisible who is the true source of all. “O ye mighty.” Ye great ones of earth and of heaven, kings and angels, join in rendering worship to the blessed and only Potentate; ye lords among men need thus to be reminded, for ye often fail where humbler men are ardent; but fail no longer, bow your heads at once, and loyally do homage to the King of kings. How frequently do grandees and potentates think it beneath them to fear the Lord; but, when they have been led to extol Jehovah, their piety has been the greatest jewel in their crowns. “Give unto the Lord glory and strength,” both of which men are too apt to claim for themselves, although they are the exclusive prerogatives of the self-existent God. Let crowns and swords acknowledge their dependence upon God. Not to your arms, O kings, give ye the glory, nor look for strength to your host of warriors, for all your pomp is but as a fading flower, and your might is as a shadow which declineth. When shall the day arrive when kings and princes shall count it their delight to glorify their God? “All worship be to God only,” let this be emblazoned on every coat of arms.
2. “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name.” A third time the admonition is given, for men are backward in glorifying God, and especially great men, who are often too much swollen with their own glory to spare time to give God his rightful praise, although nothing more is asked of them than is most just and right. Surely men should not need so much pressing to give what is due, especially when the payment is so pleasant. Unbelief and distrust, complaining and murmuring, rob God of his honour; in this respect, even the saints fail to give due glory to their King. “Worship the Lord,” bow before him with devout homage and sacred awe, and let your worship be such as he appoints. Of old, worship was cumbered with ceremonial, and men gathered around one dedicated building, whose solemn pomp was emblematic of “the beauty of holiness;” but now our worship is spiritual, and the architecture of the house and the garments of the worshippers are matters of no importance; the spiritual beauty of inward purity and outward holiness being far more precious in the eyes of our thrice holy God. O for grace ever to worship with holy motives and in a holy manner, as becometh saints! The call to worship in these two verses chimes in with the loud pealing thunder, which is the church bell of the universe ringing kings and angels, and all the sons of earth to their devotions.
3 The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the Lord is upon many waters.
4 The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.
5 The voice of the LORD breaketh the cedars; yea, the LORD breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He maketh them also to skip like a calf, Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.
7 The voice of the LORD divideth the flames of fire.
8 The voice of the LORD shaketh the wilderness; the LORD shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.
9 The voice of the LORD maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests: and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory.
10 The LORD sitteth upon the flood; yea, the LORD sitteth King for ever.
3. “The voice of the Lord is upon the waters.” The thunder is not only poetically but instructively called “the voice of God,” since it peals from on high; it surpasses all other sounds, it inspires awe, it is entirely independent of man, and has been used on some occasions as the grand accompaniment of God’s speech to Adam’s sons. There is peculiar terror in a tempest at sea, when deep calleth unto deep, and the raging sea echoes to the angry sky. No sight more alarming than the flash of lightning around the mast of the ship; and no sound more calculated to inspire a reverent awe than the roar of the storm. The children of heaven have often enjoyed the tumult with humble joy peculiar to the saints, and even those who know not God have been forced into unwilling reverence while the storm has lasted. “The God of glory thundereth.” Thunder is in truth no mere electric phenomenon, but is caused by the interposition of God himself. Even the old heathen spake of Jupiter Tonans; but our modern wise men will have us believe in laws and forces, and anything or nothing so that they may be rid of God. Electricity of itself can do nothing, it must be called and sent upon its errand; and until the almighty Lord commissions it, its bolt of fire is inert and powerless. As well might a rock of granite, or a bar of iron fly in the midst of heaven, as the lightning go without being sent by the great First Cause. “The Lord is upon many waters.” Still the Psalmist’s ear hears no voice but that of Jehovah, resounding from the multitudinous and dark waters of the upper ocean of clouds, and echoing from the innumerable billows of the storm-tossed sea below. The waters above and beneath the firmament are astonished at the eternal voice. When the holy Spirit makes the divine promise to be heard above the many waters of our soul’s trouble, then is God as glorious in the spiritual world as in the universe of matter. Above us and beneath us all is the peace of God when he gives us quiet.
4. “The voice of the Lord is powerful.” An irresistible power attends the lightning of which the thunder is the report. In an instant, when the Lord wills it, the force of electricity produces amazing results. A writer upon this subject, speaks of these results as including a light of the intensity of the sun in his strength, a heat capable of fusing the compactest metals, a force in a moment paralysing the muscles of the most powerful animals; a power suspending the all-pervading gravity of the earth, and an energy capable of decomposing and recomposing the closest affinities of the most intimate combinations. Well does Thompson speak of “the unconquerable lightning,” for it is the chief of the ways of God in physical forces, and none can measure its power.
As the voice of God in nature is so powerful, so is it in grace; the reader will do well to draw a parallel, and he will find much in the gospel, which may be illustrated by the thunder of the Lord in the tempest. His voice, whether in nature or revelation, shakes both earth and heaven; see that ye refuse not him that speaketh. If his voice be thus mighty, what must his hand be! beware lest ye provoke a blow. “The voice of the Lord, is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.” The King of kings speaks like a king. As when a lion roareth, all the beasts of the forest are still, so is the earth hushed and mute while Jehovah thundereth marvellously.
“Tis listening fear and dumb amazement all.”
As for the written word of God, its majesty is apparent both in its style, its matter, and its power over the human mind; blessed be God, it is the majesty of mercy wielding a silver sceptre; of such majesty the word of our salvation is full to overflowing.
5. “The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars.”
“Black from the stroke above, the smouldering pine Stands a sad shatter’d trunk.”
Noble trees fall prostrate beneath the mysterious bolt, or stand in desolation as mementoes of its power. Lebanon itself is not secure, high as it stands, and ancient as are its venerable woods: “Yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.” The greatest and most venerable of trees or men, may not reckon upon immunity when the Lord is abroad in his wrath. The gospel of Jesus has a like dominion over the most inaccessible of mortals; and when the Lord sends the word, it breaks hearts far stouter than the cedars.
6. “He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.” Not only the trees, but the mountains themselves move as though they frisked and leaped like young bulls or antelopes. As our own poets would mention hills and valleys known to them, so the Psalmist hears the crash and roar among the ranges of Libanus, and depicts the tumult in graphic terms. Thus sings one of our own countrymen:—
“Amid Carnarvon’s mountains rages loud The repercussive roar: with mighty crash Into the flashing deep, from the rude rocks Of Penmaen Mawr, heap’d hideous to the sky. Tumble the smitten cliffs; and Snowdon’s peak, Dissolving, instant yields his wintry load. Far seen, the heights of heathy Cheviot blaze, And Thulè bellows through her utmost isles.”
The glorious gospel of the blessed God has more than equal power over the rocky obduracy and mountainous pride of man. The voice of our dying Lord rent the rocks and opened the graves: his living voice still works the like wonders. Glory be to his name, the hills of our sins leap into his grave, and are buried in the red sea of his blood, when the voice of his intercession is heard.
7. “The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire.” As when sparks fly from the anvil by blows of a ponderous hammer, so the lightning attends the thundering strokes of Jehovah.
“At first heard solemn o’er the verge of heaven, The tempest growls; but as it nearer comes, And rolls its awful burden on the wind, The lightnings flash a larger curve, and more The noise astounds: till overhead a sheet Of livid flame discloses wide; then shuts And opens wider; shuts and opens still Expansive, wrapping ether in a blaze.”
The thunder seems to divide one flash from another, interposing its deepening roar between the flash which precedes it and the next. That the flashes are truly flames of fire is witnessed by their frequently falling upon houses, churches, etc., and wrapping them in a blaze. How easily could the Lord destroy his rebellious creatures with his hot thunderbolts! how gracious is the hand which spares such great offenders, when to crush them would be so easy!
Flames of fire attend the voice of God in the gospel, illuminating and melting the hearts of men; by these he consumes our lusts and kindles in us a holy flame of ever-inspiring love and holiness. Pentecost is a suggestive commentary upon this verse.
8. As the storm travelled, it burst over the desert. “The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness; the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.” God courts not the applause of men—his grandest deeds are wrought where man’s inquisitive glance is all unknown. Where no sound of man was heard, the voice of God was terribly distinct. The vast and silent plains trembled with affright. Silence did homage to the Almighty voice. Low lying plains must hear the voice of God as well as lofty mountains; the poor as well as the mighty must acknowledge the glory of the Lord. Solitary and barren places are to be gladdened by the gospel’s heavenly sound. What a shaking and overturning power there is in the word of God! even the conservative desert quivers into progress when God decrees it.
9. “The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve,” those timid creatures, in deadly fear of the tempest, drop their burdens in an untimely manner. Perhaps a better reading is, “the oaks to tremble,” especially as this agrees with the next sentence, and “discovereth the forests.” The dense shades of the forest are lit up with the lurid glare of the lightning, and even the darkest recesses are for a moment laid bare.
“The gloomy woods Start at the flash, and from their deep recess Wide-flaming out, their trembling inmates shake.”
Our first parents sought a refuge among the trees, but the voice of the Lord soon found them out, and made their hearts to tremble. There is no concealment from the fire-glance of the Almighty—one flash of his angry eye turns midnight into noon. The gospel has a like revealing power in dark hearts, in a moment it lights up every dark recess of the heart’s ungodliness, and bids the soul tremble before the Lord.
“In his temple doth every one speak of his glory.” Those who were worshipping in the temple, were led to speak of the greatness of Jehovah as they heard the repeated thunder-claps. The whole world is also a temple for God, and when he rides abroad upon the wings of the wind, all things are vocal in his praise. We too, the redeemed of the Lord, who are living temples for his Spirit, as we see the wonders of his power in creation, and feel them in grace, unite to magnify his name. No tongue may be dumb in God’s temple when his glory is the theme. The original appears to have the force of “every one crieth Glory,” as though all things were moved by a sense of God’s majesty to shout in ecstasy, “Glory, glory.” Here is a good precedent for our Methodist friends and for the Gogoniants of the zealous Welsh.
10. “The Lord sitteth upon the flood.” Flood follows tempest, but Jehovah is ready for the emergency. No deluge can undermine the foundation of his throne. He is calm and unmoved, however much the deep may roar and be troubled: his government rules the most unstable and boisterous of created things. Far out on the wild waste of waters, Jehovah “plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm,” “Yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever.” Jesus has the government upon his shoulders eternally: our interests in the most stormy times are safe in his hands. Satan is not king, but Jehovah Jesus is; therefore let us worship him, and rejoice evermore.
11 The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace.
Power was displayed in the hurricane whose course this Psalm so grandly pictures; and now, in the cool calm after the storm, that power is promised to be the strength of the chosen. He who wings the unerring bolt, will give to his redeemed the wings of eagles; he who shakes the earth with his voice, will terrify the enemies of his saints, and give his children peace. Why are we weak when we have divine strength to flee to? Why are we troubled when the Lord’s own peace is ours? Jesus the mighty God is our peace—what a blessing is this to-day! What a blessing it will be to us in that day of the Lord which will be in darkness and not light to the ungodly!
Dear reader, is not this a noble Psalm to be sung in stormy weather? Can you sing amid the thunder? Will you be able to sing when the last thunders are let loose, and Jesus judges quick and dead? If you are a believer, the last verse is your heritage, and surely that will set you singing.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.
Whole Psalm.—In this Psalm, the strength of Jehovah is celebrated; and the exemplification of it is evidently taken from a thunder-storm in Lebanon. The Psalm seems to be addressed to the angels. See Psalm lxxxix. 7. It thus begins:—
“Render unto Jehovah, ye sons of the mighty, Render unto Jehovah glory and strength; Render to Jehovah the glory of his name; Bow down to Jehovah in the majesty of holiness!”
Immediately follows the description of the thunder-storm, in which it does not seem fanciful to observe the historical progression which is usual on such occasions. The first lines seem to describe only the noise of the thunder, the description growing more intense as the rumbling draws nearer.
“The voice of Jehovah is above the waters; The God of glory thundereth Jehovah is louder than many waters, The voice of Jehovah in strength, The voice of Jehovah in majesty!”
But now the effects become visible; the storm has descended on the mountains and forests:—
“The voice of Jehovah shivers the cedars, Even shivers Jehovah the cedars of Lebanon; And makes them to skip, like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion, like a young buffalo, The voice of Jehovah forketh the lightning’s flash!”
From the mountains the storm sweeps down into the plains, where, however, its effects are not so fearful as on the mountains—
“The voice of Jehovah causeth the desert to tremble— The voice of Jehovah causeth to tremble the desert of Kadesh— The voice of Jehovah causeth the oaks to tremble, And lays bare the forests! Therefore, in his temple every one speaks of his glory.”
The description of the swollen torrents closes the scene—
“Jehovah upon the rain-torrent sitteth. Yea, sitteth Jehovah a king for ever.”
And the moral or application of the whole is—
“Jehovah to his people will give strength. Jehovah will bless his people with peace.”
Robert Murray M’Cheyne, 1813-1843.
Whole Psalm.—There is no phenomenon in nature so awful as a thunder-storm, and almost every poet from Homer and Virgil down to Dante and Milton, or rather down to Grahame and Pollok, has described it. In the Bible, too, we have a thunder-storm, the twenty-ninth Psalm—the description of a tempest, which, rising from the Mediterranean, and travelling by Lebanon and along the inland mountains, reaches Jerusalem, and sends the people into the temple-porticoes for refuge; and, besides those touches of terror in which the geographical progress of the tornado is described, it derives a sacred vitality and power from the presence of Jehovah in each successive peal.—James Hamilton, D.D., in “The Literary Attractions of the Bible,” 1849.
Whole Psalm.—A glorious Psalm of praise sung during a tempest, the majesty of which shakes universal nature, so much so that the greatness of the power of the Lord is felt by all in heaven and on earth. This Lord is the God of his people, who blesses them with strength and peace. To rightly appreciate the feelings of the bard, one ought to realise an Oriental storm, especially in the mountainous regions of Palestine, which, accompanied by the terrific echoes of the encircling mountains, by torrents of rain-like waterspouts, often scatters terror on man and beast, destruction on cities and fields. Wilson, the traveller, describes such a tempest in the neighbourhood of Baalbek: “I was overtaken by a storm, as if the floodgates of heaven had burst; it came on in a moment, and raged with a power which suggested the end of the world. Solemn darkness covered the earth: the rain descended in torrents, and sweeping down the mountain side, became by the fearful power of the storm transmuted into thick clouds of fog.” Compare also our Lord’s parable, taken from life, in Matt. vii. 27.—Augustus F. Tholuck, in loc.
Verse 1.—“Give unto the Lord.” Give, give, give. This showeth how unwilling such are usually to give God his right, or to suffer a word of exhortation to this purpose.—John Trapp.
Verse 1.—“O ye mighty.” The Septuagint renders it, O ye sons of rams! These bell-wethers should not cast their noses into the air, and carry their crest the higher, because the shepherd hath bestowed a bell upon them, more than upon the rest of the flock.—John Trapp.
Verses 1, 2.—There are three gives in these two verses:—“Give unto the Lord, give unto the Lord, give unto the Lord the glory that is due unto his name.” Glory is God’s right, and he stands upon his right; and this the sincere Christian knows, and therefore he gives him his right, he gives him the honour and the glory that is due unto his name. But pray do not mistake me. I do not say that such as are really sincere do actually eye the glory of Christ in all their actions. Oh, no! This is a happiness desirable on earth, but shall never be attained till we come to heaven. Bye and base ends and aims will be still ready to creep into the best hearts, but all sincere hearts sigh and groan under them. They complain to God of them, and they cry out for justice, justice upon them; and it is the earnest desire and daily endeavours of their souls to be rid of them; and therefore they shall not be imputed to them, nor keep good things from them. But now take a sincere Christian in his ordinary, usual, and habitual course, and you shall find that his aims and ends in all his actions and undertakings are to glorify God, to exalt God, and to lift up God in the world. If the hypocrite did in good earnest aim at the glory of God in what he does, then the glory of God would swallow up his bye-aims and carnal ends, as Aaron’s rod swallowed up the magicians’ rods. Exod. vii. 10-12. Look, as the sun puts out the light of the fire, so the glory of God, where it is aimed at, will put out and consume all bye and base ends. This is most certain, that which is a man’s great end, that will work out all other ends. He that sets up the glory of God as his chief end, will find that his chief end will by degrees eat out all low and base ends. Look, as Pharaoh’s lean kine ate up the fat (Gen. xli. 4), so the glory of God will eat up all those fat and worldly ends that crowd in upon the soul in religious work. Where the glory of God is kept up as a man’s greatest end, there all bye and base ends will be kept at an under.—Thomas Brooks.
Verse 2.—“Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name.” Which yet you cannot do, for his name is above all praise (Psalm cxlviii. 13); but you must aim at it. The Rabbins observe that God’s holy name is mentioned eighteen several times in this Psalm; that great men especially may give him the honour of his name, that they may stand in awe and not sin, that they may bring presents to him who ought to be feared, and those also the very best of the best, since he is a great king, and standeth much upon his seniority. Mal. i. 14.—John Trapp.
Verse 2.—“Worship the Lord.” If any should ask, Why is the Lord to be worshipped? Why must he have such high honours from those that are high? What doth he in the world that calls for such adoration? David answereth meteorologically as well as theologically, he answers from the clouds (verses 3, 4), “The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty;” as if he had said, Although the Lord Jesus Christ will not set up an outward, pompous, political kingdom, such as that of Cyrus, Alexander, etc., yet by the ministry of the gospel he will erect a spiritual kingdom, and gather to himself a church that shall abide for ever, out of all the nations of the earth; for the gospel shall be carried and preached, to not only the people of Israel, the Jews, but to the Gentiles, all the world over, that the minds of men may be enlightened, awakened, and moved with that unheard of doctrine of salvation by Christ, which had been hid from ages and generations.—Joseph Caryl.
Verse 3.—“The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the Lord is upon many waters.” Yes, great God, these torrents of tears which flow down from my eyes announce thy divine presence in my soul. This heart hitherto so dry, so arid, so hard; this rock which thou hast struck a second time, will not resist thee any longer, for out of it there now gushes healthful waters in abundance. The selfsame voice of God which overturns the mountains, thunders, lightens, and divides the heaven above the sinner, now commands the clouds to pour forth showers of blessings, changing the desert of his soul into a field producing a hundredfold; that voice I hear.—J. B. Massillon.
Verses 3-10.—“The Lord,” etc. All things which we commonly say are the effects of the natural powers of matter and laws of motion, are, indeed (if we will speak strictly and properly), the effects of God’s acting upon matter continually and at every moment, either immediately by himself, or mediately by some created intelligent being. Consequently there is no such thing as the cause of nature, or the power of nature.—Samuel Clarke,[2] 1675-1729.
Verses 3-10.—
The voice of the Lord on the ocean is known, The God of eternity thundereth abroad; The voice of the Lord from the depth of his throne Is terror and power;—all nature is awed.
The voice of the Lord through the calm of the wood Awakens its echoes, strikes light through its caves, The Lord sitteth King on the turbulent flood, The winds are his servants, his servants the waves.
James Montgomery, 1771-1854.
Verses 3-11.—
Messiah’s voice is in the cloud, The God of glory thunders loud. Messiah rides along the floods, He treads upon the flying clouds. Messiah’s voice is full of power, His lightnings play when tempests lower. Messiah’s voice the cedars breaks, While Lebanon’s foundation quakes. Messiah’s voice removes the hills, And all the plains with rivers fills. The voice of their expiring God, Shall make the rocks to start abroad; Mount Zion and Mount Sirion, Shall bound along with Lebanon: The flames of fire shall round him wreathe, When he shall on the ether breathe. Messiah’s voice shall shake the earth, And, lo! the graves shall groan in birth, Ten thousand thousand living sons Shall be the issue of their groans. The peace of God, the gospel sounds; The peace of God, the earth rebounds; The gospel everlasting shines A light from God that ne’er declines. This is the light Jehovah sends, To bless the world’s remotest ends.
Barclays Paraphrase.
Verse 4.—“The voice of the Lord.” These vehement repetitions resemble a series of thunder-claps; one seems to hear the dread artillery of heaven firing volley after volley, while peal on peal the echo follows the sound.—C. H. S.
Verse 4.—“The voice of the Lord is powerful.” I would render unto God the glory due unto his name, for the admirable change which he has wrought in my heart. There was nothing to be found in me but an impious hardness and inveterate disorder. From this helpless state he changed me into a new man and made resplendent the glory of his name and the power of his grace. He alone can work such prodigies. Unbelievers who refuse to acknowledge the hand of God in creation must surely in this case admit, that “this is the finger of God.” Yes, great God, chaos knows not how to resist thee, it hears thy voice obediently, but the obdurate heart repels thee, and thy mighty voice too often calls to it in vain. Thou art not so great and wonderful in creating worlds out of nothing as thou art when thou dost command a rebel heart to arise from its abyss of sin, and to run in the ways of thy commandments. To disperse a chaos of crime and ignorance by the majesty of thy word, to shed light on the direst darkness, and by the Holy Ghost to establish harmonious order where all was confusion, manifests in far greater measure thine omnipotence than the calling forth of heavenly laws and celestial suns from the first chaos.—J. B. Massillon.
Verse 4.—O may the evangelical “Boanerges” so cause the glorious sound of the gospel to be heard under the whole heaven, that the world may again be made sensible thereof; before that voice of the Son of Man, which hath so often called sinners to repentance, shall call them to judgment.—George Horne.
Verse 4.—Where the word of a king is, there is power, but what imperial voice shall be likened unto the majestic thunder of the Lord?—C. H. S.
Verse 5.—“The voice of Jehovah.” Philosophers think not that they have reasoned skilfully enough about inferior causes, unless they separate God very far from his works. It is a diabolical science, however, which fixes our contemplations on the works of nature, and turns them away from God. If any one who wished to know a man, should take no notice of his face, but should fix his eyes only on the points of his nails, his folly might justly be derided. But far greater is the folly of those philosophers, who, out of mediate and proximate causes, weave themselves vails lest they should be compelled to acknowledge the hand of God, which manifestly displays itself in his works.—John Calvin.
Verse 5.—“The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars,” etc. Like as tempests when they arise, and lightning, quickly and in a trice, hurl down and overturn mountains and the highest trees; even so doth the Lord bring down with a breakneck fall, the proud, haughty, arrogant, and insolent, who set themselves against God, and seek the spoil of those that be quiet and godly.—Robert Cawdray.
Verse 5.—“The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars.” The ancient expositors remind us that the breaking of the cedar trees by the wind, is a figure of the laying low of the lofty and proud things of this world, by the rushing mighty wind of the Holy Spirit, given on that day. Confringit cedros Deus, hoc est humiliat superbos. (S. Jerome, and so S. Basil.)—Christopher Wordsworth.
Verse 5.—“The Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.”—What a shame is it then that our hard hearts break not, yield not, though thunder-struck with the dreadful menaces of God’s mouth!—John Trapp.
Verse 5.—“Breaketh the cedars of Lebanon:”—
When high in air the pine ascends, To every ruder blast it bends. The palace falls with heavier weight, When tumbling from its airy height; And when from heaven the lightning flies. It blasts the hills that proudest rise.
Horace, translated by Philip Francis, D.D., 1765.
Verse 5.—“The cedars of Lebanon.” These mighty trees of God, which for ages have stood the force of the tempest, rearing their ever-green colossal boughs in the region of everlasting snow, are the first objects of the fury of the lightning, which is well known to visit first the highest objects.—Robert Murray M’Cheyne.
Verse 6.—“He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn;” that is, the Lord by his thundering, powerful voice, first, will make them skip, as frighted with fear; and secondly, as revived with joy. Yet more (verse 7), “The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire;” that is, will send and divide to every one as they need (1 Cor. xii. 11), the Holy Spirit, who is compared to and called fire (Matt. iii. 11), and who came as with a thunder-storm of a rushing mighty wind, and with the appearance of cloven tongues, like as of fire, and sat upon each one of the apostles. Acts ii. 2, 3. Nor did this voice of thunder, accompanied with divided flames of fire reach Jerusalem only; for, as it follows (verse 8), “The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness; the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh;” that is, the Lord by the voice of the gospel shall go forth with power to those Gentiles, who are like a wilderness, barren of goodness, and unmanured in spirituals, though they dwell in well-governed cities, and are well furnished with morals. It shall go forth also to those Gentiles who inhabit waste wildernesses, and are not so much as reduced to civility. These wildernesses, the thundering voice of the Lord hath shaken heretofore, and doth shake at this day, and will yet further shake, that the fulness of the Gentiles may come in. Many of these wildernesses hath the Lord turned into fruitful fields, and pleasant lands, by the voice of the gospel sounding among them. For in these wildernesses (as it followeth, verse 9), “The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve;” that is, they that were as wild, as untaught, and untamed as the hind, or any beast in the forest, he brings to the sorrows of their new birth, to repentance and gospel humiliation, and in doing this, “he (as the Psalmist goes on), discovereth the forests;” that is, opens the hearts of men, which are as thick set and full grown with vanity, pride, hypocrisy, self-love, and self-sufficiency, as also with wantonness and sensuality, as any forest is overgrown with thickets of trees and bushes, which deny all passage through, till cleared away with burning down or cutting up. Such an opening, such a discovery, doth the Lord make in the forests of men’s hearts, by the sword and fire, that is, by the word and spirit of the gospel; and when all this is done, the forest becomes a temple, and as that verse concludes, “In his temple doth every one speak of his glory.” And if the floods of ungodliness rise up against this people, whom the thunder and lightning of the gospel have subdued to Christ, and framed into a holy temple, then the Psalmist assureth us (verse 10), “The Lord sitteth upon the flood,” that is, ’tis under his power, he ruleth and overruleth it; “Yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever;” and (verse 11), “The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace.” Thus, the Lord “thundereth marvellously” (Job xxxvii. 5), and these are glorious marvels which he thundereth; he converts sinners.
Thus, though I like not their way who are given to allegorise the Scriptures, yet I doubt not but we may make a profitable use of this and many other Scriptures by way of allegory. This being an undeniable truth, which is the ground of it—that the Lord puts forth, as it were, the power of thunder and lightning in the preaching of his Word; these two things are to be marked.—Joseph Caryl.
Verse 6.—“He maketh them also to skip like a calf.” That is to say, he hath made the splinters and broken pieces of trees that have been struck with lightning, to fly up into the air, or when they have been shaken by the wind, storms, or by earthquakes.—John Diodati.
Verse 6.—The original is—
“And makes them skip like a calf, Lebanon and Sirion, like a young buffalo.”
At first sight it might appear that the cedars were still meant, and that Lebanon and Sirion were used by metonymy for the cedars which grew upon them. But, 1. We never hear of cedars growing upon Sirion, or Shenir, or Hermon, for it has all these names; and, 2. There is a parallel passage where this interpretation will hardly answer in Psalm cxiv. Describing the exodus of Israel, it says—
“The mountains skipped like rams, And the little hills like lambs.”
The same verb occurs here, the verb which means “to skip, to dance,” used in Nahum iii. 2, to signify the jolting of chariots, and also in Joel ii. 5. In both these instances, rough motion, accompanied with noise, seems intended. Now, though this may very well be understood as a highly figurative description, as it undoubtedly is, of the usual effects of a thunder-storm; yet it is interesting to compare it with the following passage of Volney, which describes certain phenomena as frequent in Mount Lebanon, which may give a new meaning to the “skipping of the mountains:”—
“When the traveller,” says he, “penetrates the interior of these mountains, the ruggedness of the roads, the steepness of the declivities, the depth of the precipices, have at first a terrific effect; but the sagacity of the mules which bear him soon inspires him with confidence, and enables him to examine at his ease the picturesque scenes which succeed one another, so as almost to bewilder him. There, as in the Alps, he sometimes travels whole days to arrive at a spot which was in sight when he set out. He turns, he descends, he winds round, he climbs; and under the perpetual change of position, one is ready to think that a magical power is varying at every step the beauties of the landscapes. Sometimes villages are seen, ready as it were to slide down the deep declivities, and so disposed that the roofs of the one row of houses serve as a street to the row above. At another time, you see a convent seated on an isolated cone, like Marshaia in the valley of Tigré. Here a rock is pierced by a torrent, forming a natural cascade as at Nahr-el-Leban; there another rock assumes the appearance of a natural wall! Often on the sides, ledges of stones, washed down and left by the waters, resemble ruins disposed by art. In some places, the waters meeting with inclined beds, have undermined the intermediate earth, and have formed caverns, as at Nahr-el-Kelb, near Antoura. In other places, they have worn for themselves subterranean channels, through which flow little rivulets during part of the year, as at Mar Hama. Sometimes these picturesque circumstances have become tragical ones. Rocks loosened or thrown off their equilibrium by thaw or earthquake, have been known to precipitate themselves on the adjacent dwellings, and crush the inhabitants. An accident of this kind, about twenty years ago, buried a whole village near Mar Djordos, so as to leave no trace of its existence. More recently, and near the same spot, the soil of a hill planted with mulberry trees and vines detached itself by a sudden thaw, and, sliding over the surface of the rock which it had covered, like a vessel launched from the stocks, established itself entire in the valley below,”—Robert Murray M’Cheyne.
Verse 7.—“The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire.” By the power of God, the “flames of fire” are “divided” and sent abroad from the clouds upon the earth, in the terrible form of lightning, that sharp and glittering sword of the Almighty, which no substance can withstand. The same power of God goeth forth by his word, “quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,” penetrating, melting, enlightening, and inflaming the hearts of men. Acts ii. 3, Heb. iv. 12.—George Horne.
Verse 7.—“The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire.” The voice of the Lord is here said to divide the flames; literally, to hew out flames, λατομεῖν φλόγας. The Sept. has διακόπτει φλόγα πυρός. In the words of Gesenius, “The voice of Jehovah cutteth out flames of fire, i.e., sendeth out divided flames of fire.” This is (as Theodoret has observed) very descriptive of the divine action at Pentecost, sending forth divided flames, like “tela trisulca,” in the tongues of fire which were divided off from one heavenly source or fountain of flame, and sat upon the heads of the apostles, and which filled them with the fire of holy zeal and love.—Christopher Wordsworth.
Verse 7.—“Divideth the flames of fire.” Marg., cutteth out. The Hebrew word חֹצֵב khatzab means properly to cut, to hew, to hew out; as for example, stones. The allusion here is undoubtedly to lightning; and the image is either that it seems to be cut out, or cut into tongues and streaks—or, more probably, that the clouds seem to be cut or hewed, so as to make openings or paths for the lightning. The eye is evidently fixed on the clouds, and on the sudden flash of lightning, as if the clouds had been cleaved or opened for the passage of it. The idea of the Psalmist is, that the “voice of the Lord,” or the thunder, seems to cleave or open the clouds for the flames of fire to play amidst the tempest.—Albert Barnes.
Verse 8.—“The Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.” That Kadesh-Naphtali is meant, the geographical position of Lebanon would make us believe, though this is not necessary. And, although Syria is much exposed to earthquakes—as, for example, that of Aleppo, in 1822, which was sensibly felt at Damascus—yet it does not seem necessary to imagine anything farther than the usual effects of a thunder-storm. The oaks and forests of verse 9, suit well with the description given of the lower limbs of Lebanon, which abound in “thickets of myrtle, woods of fir, walnut trees, carob trees, and Turkish oaks.” And the rain-torrent of verse 10 is admirably descriptive of the sudden swell of the thousand streams which flow from Lebanon. According to modern travellers, the number of water-courses descending from Lebanon is immense; and the suddenness of the rise of these streams may be gathered from the contradictions in their accounts. The Nahr-el-Sazib is described by one as “a rivulet, though crossed by a bridge of six arches;” by another it is called “a large river.” The Damour (the ancient Tamyras), which flows immediately from Lebanon, is “a river,” says Mandrell, “apt to swell much upon sudden rains; in which case, precipitating itself from the mountains with great rapidity, it has been fatal to many a passenger.” He mentions a French gentleman, M. Spon, who, a few years before, in attempting to ford it, was hurried down by the stream, and perished in the sea. This is one instance of very many in the mountains of Lebanon, where the brook, which is usually nearly dry, becomes all at once an impassable torrent. When Volney looked upon the rivers of Syria in summer, he doubted whether they could be called rivers. But had he ventured to cross them after a thunder-storm, his scepticism would no longer have had room or time to exercise itself, and he would have felt the propriety of the Psalmist’s painting, where he says—
“Jehovah sitteth on the rain-torrents, Jehovah sitteth a King for ever.”
Robert Murray M’Cheyne.
Verse 8.—“The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness.” Great God, I have laboured to escape thee! I sought refuge for my remorse in a retreat where nothing might recall me to my God. Far away from the succours of religion, remote from all the channels which bring to me the waters of grace, apart from all whose reproving witness might restrain me from iniquity; yet even there, Great God, where I believed that I had found an asylum inaccessible to thine eternal mercy, wherein I could sin with impunity, even there, in that wilderness, thy voice arrested me and laid me at thy feet.—J. B. Massillon.
Verse 9.—“The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve.” With respect to the sense conveyed by the common reading, it may be observed, that hinds bring forth their young with great difficulty and pain, “bowing themselves, bruising their young ones, and casting out their sorrows” (Job xxxix. 4, 6); and it therefore heightens the description given of the terrific character of the thunder-storm, when the thunder which is here called “the voice of God” is represented as causing, through the terror which it inspires, the hinds in their pregnant state prematurely to drop their young; although, according to our ideas of poetical imagery, this may not accord so well with the other images in the passage, nor appear so beautiful and sublime as the image of the oaks trembling at the voice of Jehovah.—John Calvin.
Verse 9.—“The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve.” The care and tenderness of God towards beasts turns to his praise, as well as the care which he hath of, and the tenderness which he shows to believers. As it doth exceedingly advance the glory of God, that he takes care of wild beasts, so it may exceedingly strengthen the faith of man that he will take care of him. Doth the Lord take care of hinds? then certainly he takes care of those that particularly belong to him. There is a special providence of God towards these and such like creatures for the production of their young. He—if I may so speak with reverence—shows his midwifery in helping these savage beasts when their pains come upon them. As the Lord takes man, in an eminent manner, “out of the womb” (Psalm xxii. 9), so in a manner he takes beasts out of the womb too. “The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness; the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh;” so we translate it; but the word which we render “shaketh” is the same with that in Job xxxix. 2, which signifieth to bring forth; and hence, some very learned in the Hebrew tongue do not render as we, “The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness,” but “The voice of the Lord maketh the wilderness to bring forth; the Lord maketh the wilderness of Kadesh to bring forth;” which is not to be understood of the vegetative creatures (that’s a truth, the Lord makes the trees of the forest to bring forth both leaves and fruit), but it is meant of animals or living creatures there. And then when he saith, “The voice of the Lord maketh the wilderness to bring forth,” the meaning is, the Lord makes the wild beast of the wilderness to bring forth; which seems to be the clear sense of the place by that which followeth; for the Psalmist having said this in general at the eighth verse, “The voice of the Lord maketh the wilderness to bring forth,” he in the ninth verse gives the special instance of the hind: “The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve.”—Joseph Caryl.
Verse 9.—“The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve.” It is with great propriety, says one of the ancients, that Jehovah demands, “The birth of the hinds dost thou guard?” (Job xxxix. 1), for since this animal is always in flight, and with fear and terror always leaping and skipping about, she could never bring her young to maturity without such a special protection. The providence of God, therefore, is equally conspicuous in the preservation of the mother and the fawn; both are the objects of his compassion and tender care; and, consequently, that afflicted man has no reason to charge his Maker with unkindness, who condescends to watch over the goats and the hinds. It seems to be generally admitted, that the hind brings forth her young with great difficulty; and so much appears to be suggested in the verse, “They bow themselves, they bring forth their young ones, they cast out their sorrows.” But if Pliny, and other naturalists are worthy of credit, divine providence has been graciously pleased to provide certain herbs, which greatly facilitate the birth; and by instinct, he directs the hind to feed upon them, when the time of gestation draws towards a close. Whatever truth there may be in this assertion, we know from higher authority, that providence promotes the parturition of the hind, by awakening her fears, and agitating her frame by the rolling thunder:—“The voice of Jehovah (a common Hebrew phrase, denoting thunder) maketh the hinds to calve.” Nor ought we to wonder, that so timorous a creature as the hind, should be so much affected by that awful atmospheric convulsion, when some of the proudest men that ever existed, have been known to tremble. Augustus, the Roman Emperor, according to Suetonius, was so terrified when it thundered, that he wrapped a seal-skin round his body, with the view of defending it from the lightning, and concealed himself in some secret corner till the tempest ceased. The tyrant Caligula, who sometimes affected to threaten Jupiter himself, covered his head, or hid himself under a bed; and Horace confesses he was reclaimed from atheism by the terror of thunder and lightning, the effects of which he describes with his usual felicity. (Odes, b. i. 34.)—George Paxton’s “Illustrations of Scripture.”
Verse 9.—“The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve.” “Cervi sunt predicatores” says S. Jerome, who bring forth souls to Christ by the gospel which is God’s voice; and the stripping of the leaves of the forest by the voice of the Lord, represents their work in humbling the strong oaks and lofty cedars of the world by the power of the gospel, and in stripping the souls of the worldly-minded of their manifold disguises (S. Basil). Others apply it to the act of the preachers of God’s word, disclosing the dark thickets of divine mysteries in the holy Scriptures by evangelical light set forth by the Holy Ghost (S. Jerome).—Christopher Wordsworth.
Verse 9 (first clause).—“The voice of Jehovah makes havoc of the oaks, and strippeth bare the forests.”—Samuel Horsley.
Verse 9.—“In his temple.”—Some conceive that this Psalm was appointed by David to be sung in the temple in time of thunder, which is not unlikely. There are writers who make God to be the nominative case to the verb speaketh; and render it thus, in his temple doth he utter all his glory. As much as to say, much of his glory God uttereth in his thunder, but all in his temple, for whatsoever there he speaketh with his mouth he fulfilleth it with his hand.—John Trapp.
Verse 9 (last clause).—David speaking in the former part of the Psalm of the effects of natural thunder only, towards the close of the Psalm applieth it to the Word of God, while he saith, “And in his temple doth every one speak of his glory;” that is, the word and ordinances of God, ministered in his church or temple, will put every one to acknowledge and speak of the glorious power of God, even much more than the mighty thunder which soundeth in our ears, or the subtle lightning which flasheth in our eyes. There is far more royal power in the thunder of the Word, than in the word of thunder. This terrifieth only to conviction, but that terrifieth to salvation; for after God speaks terror there in his threatenings, he speaks comfort in the promises; and when he hath affrighted us with a sense of our sins and of his wrath due to us for our sins, as with an horrible tempest, he presently refresheth us with the gentle gales of revealed grace, and with the pleasant amiable sunshine of his favour by Jesus Christ.—Joseph Caryl.
Verse 11.—“The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace;” i.e., he is in war their strength, and their felicity in peace; in war he is the Author of all that power wherewith they are enabled to oppose and overcome potent enemies; and in peace, he is their truly felicitating good, and makes them, by his own vouchsafed presence, a truly blessed people.—John Howe.
Verse 11.—“The Lord will bless his people with peace.” Though some precious souls that have closed with Christ, and embraced the gospel, be not at present brought to rest in their own consciences, but continue for awhile under some dissatisfaction and trouble in their own spirits, yet even then they have peace of conscience in a threefold respect; in pretio, in promisso, in semine. First, every true believer hath peace of conscience in pretio; the gospel puts that price into his hand, which will assuredly purchase it, and that is the blood of Christ. We say that is gold which is worth gold, which we may anywhere exchange for gold; such is the blood of Christ; it is peace of conscience, because the soul that hath this may exchange it for this. God himself cannot deny the poor creature that prays on these terms: Lord, give me peace of conscience; here is Christ’s blood, the price of it. That which could pay the debt, surely can procure the receipt. Peace of conscience is but a discharge under God’s hand, that the debt due to divine justice is fully paid. The blood of Christ hath done that the greater for the believer, it shall therefore do this the less. If there were such a rare potion that did infallibly procure health to every one that takes it, we might safely say, as soon as the sick man hath drunk it down, that he hath drunk his health, it is in him, though at present he doth not feel himself to have it: in time it will appear. Secondly, In promisso. Every true believer hath peace of conscience in the promise, and that we count as good as ready money in the purse, which we have sure bond for. “The Lord will bless his people with peace.” He is resolved on it, and then who shall hinder it? It is worth your reading the whole Psalm, to see what weight the Lord gives to this sweet promise, for the encouragement of our faith in expecting the performance thereof. Nothing more hard to enter into the heart of a poor creature (when all is in an uproar in his bosom, and his conscience threatening nothing but fire and sword, wrath, vengeance, from God for his sins), than thoughts or hopes of peace and comfort. Now the Psalm is spent in showing what great things God can do, and that with no more trouble to himself than a word speaking, “The voice of the Lord is full of majesty” (verse 4), “It breaks the cedars, it divides the flames, it shakes the wilderness, it makes the hinds to calve.” This God that doth all this, promiseth to bless his people with peace, outward and inward; for without this inward peace, though he might give them peace, yet could he never bless them with peace as he there undertakes. A sad peace, were it not, to have quiet streets, but cutting of throats in our houses? yet infinitely more sad to have peace both in our streets and houses, but war and blood in our guilty consciences. What peace can a poor creature taste or relish, while the sword of God’s wrath lies at the throat of conscience? not peace with God himself. Therefore Christ purchased peace of pardon, to obtain peace of conscience for his pardoned ones, and accordingly hath bequeathed it in the promise to them, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.” John xiv. 27. Where you see he is both the testator to leave, and the executor of his own will, to give out with his own hands what his love hath left believers; so that there is no fear but his will shall be performed to the full, seeing himself lives to see it done. Thirdly, In semine. Every believer hath this inward peace in the seed. “Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.” Psalm xcvii. 11. Where sown, but in the believer’s own bosom, when principles of grace and holiness were cast into it by the Spirit of God? Hence it is called “the peaceable fruit of righteousness.” Heb. xii. 11. It shoots as naturally from holiness, as any fruit in its kind doth from the seed proper to it. It is, indeed, most true, that the seed runs and ripens into this fruit sooner in some than it doth in others. This spiritual harvest comes not alike soon to all, no more than the other that is outward doth; but here is the comfort—whoever hath a seed-time of grace pass over his soul, shall have his harvest-time also of joy.—William Gurnall.
Verse 11.—“Peace.” There is a threefold “peace,” externa, interna, æterna; temporal, spiritual, celestial peace. There is outward peace, the blessing; inward peace, the grace; and everlasting peace, of glory. And as in a stately palace there is a lodge or court that leads into the inmost goodly rooms, so external peace is the entrance or introduction to the inward lodgings of the sweet peace of conscience and of that eternal rest in which our peace in heaven shall be happy, inasmuch as external peace affords us many accommodations and helps to the gaining and obtaining both the one and the other.—Ephraim Udall, 1642.
HINTS TO PREACHERS.
Verse 1.—The duty of ascribing our strength and the honour of it to God; the penalty of neglecting to do so; the pleasure of so doing.
Verse 1.—National glorying should be in the Lord.
Verse 2 (first clause).—Royal dues, the royal treasury, loyal subjects paying their dues, the king receiving them. Smugglers and preventive men.
Verse 2 (second clause).—Inspired ritualism. What to do? “Worship.” Whom? “The Lord.” How? “In the beauty of holiness.” Absence of all allusions to place, time, order, words, form, vestments, etc.
Verse 3.—God’s voice heard in trouble and above trouble, or in great personal and national calamities.
Verse 4.—Power and majesty of the gospel. Illustrated by succeeding verses.
Verse 4 (last clause).—“The majestic voice.” See Spurgeon’s Sermons, No. 87.
Verse 5.—The breaking power of the gospel.
Verse 6.—The unsettling power of the gospel.
Verse 7.—The fire which goes with the word. This is a wide subject.
Verse 8.—The arousing and alarming of godless places by the preaching of the word.
Verse 9.—The revealing power of the word of God in the secrets of man’s heart, and its regenerating force.
Verse 9 (last clause).—I. Matchless temple. II. Unanimous worship. III. Forcible motive. IV. General enthusiasm, “glory.” See Comment.
Verse 10.—The ever-present and undisturbed government of God.
Verse 11.—The twin blessings from the same source; their connection, and their consummation.
Verse 11.—The two wills, the two blessings, the one people, the one Lord.
Footnote 2:
“The friend and disciple of Newton.”
PSALM XXX.
TITLE.—A Psalm and Song at the Dedication of the House of David; or rather, A Psalm; a Song of Dedication for the House. By David. A song of faith since the house of Jehovah, here intended, David never lived to see. A Psalm of praise, since a sore judgment had been stayed, and a great sin forgiven. From our English version it would appear that this Psalm was intended to be sung at the building of that house of cedar which David erected for himself, when he no longer had to hide himself in the Cave of Adullam, but had become a great king. If this had been the meaning, it would have been well to observe that it is right for the believer when removing, to dedicate his new abode to God. We should call together our Christian friends, and show that where we dwell, God dwells, and where we have a tent, God has an altar. But as the song refers to the temple, for which it was David’s joy to lay by in store, and for the site of which he purchased in his later days the floor of Ornan, we must content ourselves with remarking the holy faith which foresaw the fulfilment of the promise made to him concerning Solomon. Faith can sing—
“Glory to thee for all the grace I have not tasted yet.”
Throughout this Psalm there are indications that David had been greatly afflicted both personally and relatively, after having, in his presumption, fancied himself secure. When God’s children prosper one way, they are generally tried another, for few of us can bear unmingled prosperity. Even the joys of hope need to be mixed with the pains of experience, and the more surely so when comfort breeds carnal security and self-confidence. Nevertheless, pardon soon followed repentance, and God’s mercy was glorified. The Psalm is a song, and not a complaint. Let it be read in the light of the last days of David, when he had numbered the people, and God had chastened him, and then in mercy had bidden the angel sheathe his sword. On the floor of Ornan, the poet received the inspiration which glows in this delightful ode. It is the Psalm of the numbering of the people, and of the dedication temple which commemorated the staying of the plague.
DIVISION.—In verses 1, 2, and 3, David extols the Lord for delivering him. Verses 4 and 5 he invites the saints to unite with him in celebrating divine compassion. In 6 and 7 he confesses the fault for which he was chastened, 8-10 repeats the supplication which he offered, and concludes with commemorating his deliverance and vowing eternal praise.
EXPOSITION.
I will extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me.
2 O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.
3 O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit.
1. “I will extol thee.” I will have high and honourable conceptions of thee, and give them utterance in my best music. Others may forget thee, murmur at thee, despise thee, blaspheme thee, but “I will extol thee,” for I have been favoured above all others. I will extol thy name, thy character, thine attributes, thy mercy to me, thy great forbearance to my people; but, especially will I speak well of thyself; “I will extol thee,” O Jehovah, this shall be my cheerful and constant employ. “For thou hast lifted me up.” Here is an antithesis, “I will exalt thee, for thou hast exalted me.” I would render according to the benefit received. The Psalmist’s praise was reasonable. He had a reason to give for the praise that was in his heart. He had been drawn up like a prisoner from a dungeon, like Joseph out of the pit, and therefore he loved his deliverer. Grace has uplifted us from the pit of hell, from the ditch of sin, from the Slough of Despond, from the bed of sickness, from the bondage of doubts and fears: have we no song to offer for all this? How high has our Lord lifted us? Lifted us up into the children’s place, to be adopted into the family; lifted us up into union with Christ, “to sit together with him in heavenly places.” Lift high the name of our God, for he has lifted us above the stars. “And hast not made my foes to rejoice over me.” This was the judgment which David most feared out of the three evils; he said, let me fall into the hand of the Lord, and not into the hand of man. Terrible indeed were our lot if we were delivered over to the will of our enemies. Blessed be the Lord, we have been preserved from so dire a fate. The devil and all our spiritual enemies have not been permitted to rejoice over us; for we have been saved from the fowler’s snare. Our evil companions, who prophesied that we should go back to our old sins, are disappointed. Those who watched for our halting, and would fain say, “Aha! Aha! So would we have it!” have watched in vain until now. O happy they whom the Lord keeps so consistent in character that the lynx eyes of the world can see no real fault in them. Is this our case? let us ascribe all the glory to him who has sustained us in our integrity.
2. “O Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.” David sent up prayers for himself and for his people when visited with the pestilence. He went at once to head-quarters, and not roundabout to fallible means. God is the best physician, even for our bodily infirmities. We do very wickedly and foolishly when we forget God. It was a sin in Asa that he trusted to physicians and not to God. If we must have a physician, let it be so, but still let us go to our God first of all; and, above all, remember that there can be no power to heal in medicine of itself; the healing energy must flow from the divine hand. If our watch is out of order, we take it to the watchmaker; if body or soul be in an evil plight, let us resort to him who created them, and has unfailing skill to put them in right condition. As for our spiritual diseases, nothing can heal these evils but the touch of the Lord Christ: if we do but touch the hem of his garment, we shall be made whole, while if we embrace all other physicians in our arms, they can do us no service. “O Lord my God.” Observe the covenant name which faith uses—“my God.” Thrice happy is he who can claim the Lord himself to be his portion. Note how David’s faith ascends the scale; he sang “O Lord” in the first verse, but it is “O Lord my God,” in the second. Heavenly heart-music is an ascending thing, like the pillars of smoke which rose from the altar of incense. “I cried unto thee.” I could hardly pray, but I cried; I poured out my soul as a little child pours out its desires. I cried to my God: I knew to whom to cry; I did not cry to my friends, or to any arm of flesh. Hence the sure and satisfactory result—“Thou hast healed me.” I know it. I am sure of it. I have the evidence of spiritual health within me now: glory be to thy name! Every humble suppliant with God who seeks release from the disease of sin, shall speed as well as the Psalmist did, but those who will not so much as seek a cure, need not wonder if their wounds putrefy and their soul dies.
3. “O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave.” Mark, it is not, “I hope so;” but it is, “Thou hast; thou hast; thou hast”—three times over. David is quite sure, beyond a doubt, that God has done great things for him, whereof he is exceeding glad. He had descended to the brink of the sepulchre, and yet was restored to tell of the forbearance of God; nor was this all, he owned that nothing but grace had kept him from the lowest hell, and this made him doubly thankful. To be spared from the grave is much; to be delivered from the pit is more; hence there is growing cause for praise, since both deliverances are alone traceable to the glorious right hand of the Lord, who is the only preserver of life, and the only Redeemer of our souls from hell.
4 Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.
5 For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
4. “Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his.” “Join my song; assist me to express my gratitude.” He felt that he could not praise God enough himself, and therefore he would enlist the hearts of others. “Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his.” David would not fill his choir with reprobates, but with sanctified persons, who could sing from their hearts. He calls to you, ye people of God, because ye are saints: and if sinners are wickedly silent, let your holiness constrain you to sing. You are his saints—chosen, blood-bought, called, and set apart for God; sanctified on purpose that you should offer the daily sacrifice of praise. Abound ye in this heavenly duty. “Sing unto the Lord.” It is a pleasing exercise; it is a profitable engagement. Do not need to be stirred up so often to so pleasant a service. “And give thanks.” Let your songs be grateful songs, in which the Lord’s mercies shall live again in joyful remembrance. The very remembrance of the past should tune our harps, even if present joys be lacking. “At the remembrance of his holiness.” Holiness is an attribute which inspires the deepest awe, and demands a reverent mind; but still give thanks at the remembrance of it. “Holy, holy, holy!” is the song of seraphim and cherubim; let us join it not dolefully, as though we trembled at the holiness of God, but cheerfully, as humbly rejoicing in it.
5. “For his anger endureth but a moment.” David here alludes to those dispensations of God’s providence which are the chastisement ordered in his paternal government towards his erring children, such as the plague which fell upon Jerusalem for David’s sins; these are but short judgments, and they are removed as soon as real penitence sues for pardon and presents the great and acceptable sacrifice. What a mercy is this, for if the Lord’s wrath smoked for a long season, flesh would utterly fail before him. God puts up his rod with great readiness as soon as its work is done; he is slow to anger and swift to end it. If his temporary and fatherly anger be so severe that it had need be short, what must be the terror of eternal wrath exercised by the Judge towards his adversaries? “In his favour is life.” As soon as the Lord looked favourably upon David, the city lived, and the king’s heart lived too. We die like withered flowers when the Lord frowns, but his sweet smile revives us as the dews refresh the fields. His favour not only sweetens and cheers life, but it is life itself, the very essence of life. Who would know life, let him seek the favour of the Lord. “Weeping may endure for a night;” but nights are not for ever. Even in the dreary winter the day-star lights his lamp. It seems fit that in our nights the dews of grief should fall. When the Bridegroom’s absence makes it dark within, it is meet that the widowed soul should pine for a renewed sight of the Well-beloved. “But joy cometh in the morning.” When the Sun of Righteousness comes, we wipe our eyes, and joy chases out intruding sorrow. Who would not be joyful that knows Jesus? The first beams of the morning bring us comfort when Jesus is the day-dawn, and all believers know it to be so. Mourning only lasts till morning: when the night is gone the gloom shall vanish. This is adduced as a reason for saintly singing, and forcible reason it is; short nights and merry days call for the psaltery and harp.
6 And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.
7 LORD, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.
6. “In my prosperity.” When all his foes were quiet, and his rebellious son dead and buried, then was the time of peril. Many a vessel founders in a calm. No temptation is so bad as tranquility. “I said, I shall never be moved.” Ah! David, you said more than was wise to say, or even to think, for God has founded the world upon the floods, to show us what a poor, mutable, movable, inconstant world it is. Unhappy he who builds upon it! He builds himself a dungeon for his hopes. Instead of conceiving that we shall never be moved, we ought to remember that we shall very soon be moved altogether. Nothing is abiding beneath the moon. Because I happen to be prosperous to-day, I must not fancy that I shall be in my high estate to-morrow. As in a wheel, the uppermost spokes descend to the bottom in due course, so is it with mortal conditions. There is a constant revolution; many who are in the dust to-day shall be highly elevated to-morrow; while those who are now aloft shall soon grind the earth. Prosperity had evidently turned the Psalmist’s head, or he would not have been so self-confident. He stood by grace, and yet forgot himself, and so met with a fall. Reader, is there not much of the same proud stuff in all our hearts? let us beware lest the fumes of intoxicating success get into our brains and make fools of us also.
7. “Lord, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong.” He ascribed his prosperity to the Lord’s favour—so far good, it is well to own the hand of the Lord in all our stability and wealth. But observe that the good in a good man is not unmingled good, for this was alloyed with carnal security. His state he compares to a mountain, a molehill would have been nearer—we never think too little of ourselves. He boasted that his mountain stood strong, and yet he had before, in Psalm xxix., spoken of Sirion and Lebanon as moving like young unicorns. Was David’s state more firm than Lebanon? Ah, vain conceit, too common to us all! How soon the bubble bursts when God’s people get conceit into their heads, and fancy that they are to enjoy immutability beneath the stars, and constancy upon this whirling orb. How touchingly and teachingly God corrected his servant’s mistake: “Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.” There was no need to come to blows, a hidden face was enough. This proves, first, that David was a genuine saint, for no hiding of God’s face on earth would trouble a sinner; and, secondly, that the joy of the saint is dependent upon the presence of his Lord. No mountain, however firm, can yield us rest when our communion with God is broken, and his face is concealed. However, in such a case, it is well to be troubled. The next best thing to basking in the light of God’s countenance, is to be thoroughly unhappy when that bliss is denied us.
“Lord, let me weep for nought for sin! And after none but thee! And then I would—O that I might, A constant weeper be!”
8 I cried to thee, O LORD; and unto the LORD I made supplication.
9 What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?
10 Hear, O LORD, and have mercy upon me: LORD, be thou my helper.
8. “I cried to thee, O Lord.” Prayer is the unfailing resource of God’s people. If they are driven to their wits’ end, they may still go to the mercy-seat. When an earthquake makes our mountain tremble, the throne of grace still stands firm, and we may come to it. Let us never forget to pray, and let us never doubt the success of prayer. The hand which wounds can heal: let us turn to him who smites us, and he will be entreated of us. Prayer is better solace than Cain’s building a city, or Saul’s seeking for music. Mirth and carnal amusements are a sorry prescription for a mind distracted and despairing: prayer will succeed where all else fails.
9. In this verse we learn the form and method of David’s prayer. It was an argument with God, an urging of reasons, a pleading of his cause. It was not a statement of doctrinal opinions, nor a narration of experience, much less a sly hit at other people under pretence of praying to God, although all these things and worse have been substituted for holy supplication at certain prayer-meetings. He wrestled with the angel of the covenant with vehement pleadings, and therefore he prevailed. Head and heart, judgment and affections, memory and intellect were all at work to spread the case aright before the Lord of love. “What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit?” Wilt thou not lose a songster from thy choir, and one who loves to magnify thee? “Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?” Will there not be one witness the less to thy faithfulness and veracity? Spare, then, thy poor unworthy one for thine own name sake!
10. “Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me.” A short and comprehensive petition, available at all seasons, let us use it full often. It is the publican’s prayer; be it ours. If God hears prayer, it is a great act of mercy; our petitions do not merit a reply. “Lord, be thou my helper.” Another compact, expressive, ever fitting prayer. It is suitable to hundreds of the cases of the Lord’s people; it is well becoming in the minister when he is going to preach, to the sufferer upon the bed of pain, to the toiler in the field of service, to the believer under temptation, to the man of God under adversity; when God helps, difficulties vanish. He is the help of his people, a very present help in trouble. The two brief petitions of this verse are commended as ejaculations to believers full of business, denied to those longer seasons of devotion which are the rare privilege of those whose days are spent in retirement.
11 Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness.
12 To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.
11. Observe the contrast, God takes away the mourning of his people; and what does he give them instead of it? Quiet and peace? Ay, and a great deal more than that. “Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing.” He makes their hearts to dance at the sound of his name. He takes off their sackcloth. That is good. What a delight to be rid of the habiliments of woe! But what then? He clothes us. And how? With some common dress? Nay, but with that royal vestment which is the array of glorified spirits in heaven. “Thou hast girded me with gladness.” This is better than to wear garments of silk or cloth of gold, bedight with embroidery and bespangled with gems. Many a poor man wears this heavenly apparel wrapped around his heart, though fustian and corduroy are his only outward garb; and such a man needs not envy the emperor in all his pomp. Glory be to thee, O God, if, by a sense of full forgiveness and present justification, thou hast enriched my spiritual nature, and filled me with all the fulness of God.
12. “To the end”—namely, with this view and intent—“that my glory”—that is, my tongue or my soul—“may sing praise to thee, and not be silent.” It would be a shameful crime, if, after receiving God’s mercies, we should forget to praise him. God would not have our tongues lie idle while so many themes for gratitude are spread on every hand. He would have no dumb children in the house. They are all to sing in heaven, and therefore they should all sing on earth. Let us sing with the poet:—
“I would begin the music here, And so my soul should rise: Oh for some heavenly notes to bear My passions to the skies.”
“O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.”
“I’ll praise him in life; I’ll praise him in death; I’ll praise him as long as he lendeth me breath; And say when the death-dew lies cold on my brow. If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.”
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.
Title.—“A Psalm and Song,” etc. It is thought that when these two words of Psalm and Song are both put in the title of a Psalm, it is meant that the sound of instruments was to be joined with the voice when they were sung in the Temple, and that the voice went before when it is said Song and Psalm, and did come after when it is said Psalm and Song.—John Diodati.
Title.—At the dedication of it. חֲנֻכַּת הַבַּיִת The original word חָנַךְ signifies initiari, ἐγκαινίζειν, rei novæ primam usurpationem. So Cocceius, to initiate, or the first use that is made of anything. It was common, when any person had finished a house and entered into it, to celebrate it with great rejoicing, and keep a festival, to which his friends were invited, and to perform some religious ceremonies, to secure the protection of heaven. Thus, when the second temple was finished, the Priests and Levites, and the rest of the captivity, kept the dedication of the house of God with joy, and offered numerous sacrifices. Ezra vi. 16. We read in the New Testament (John x. 22), of the feast of the dedication appointed by Judas Maccabæus, in memory of the purification and restoration of the temple of Jerusalem, after it had been defiled and almost laid in ruins by Antiochus Epiphanes; and celebrated annually, to the time of its destruction by Titus, by solemn sacrifices, music, songs, and hymns, to the praises of God, and feasts, and everything that could give the people pleasure, for eight days successively. Josephus Ant. i. xii. § 7. Judas ordained, that “the days of the dedication should be kept in their season, from year to year, with mirth and gladness.” 1 Mac. iv. 59. And that this was customary, even amongst private persons, to keep a kind of religious festival, upon their first entrance into a new house, appears from the order of God (Deut. xx. 5), that no person who had built a new house should be forced into the army. “if he had not dedicated the house,” i.e., taken possession of it according to the usual ceremonies practised on such occasions; a custom this that hath more or less prevailed amongst all nations. Thus the Romans dedicated their temples, their theatres, their statues, and their palaces and houses. Suet. Octav. c. xliii. § 13; c. xxxi. § 9.—Samuel Chandler.
Title.—The present Psalm is the only one that is called a shir, or song, in the first book of the Psalms, i.e., Psalms i.-xli. The word שִׁיר shir is found in the titles of Psalms xlv., xlvi., xlviii., lxv.-lxviii., lxxv., lxxxiii., lxxxvii., lxxxviii., xcii., cviii., cxx.-cxxxiv. Psalm xviii. is entitled, “a shirah (or song) of deliverance from his enemies,” and the present shir may be coupled with it.—Christopher Wordsworth.
Title.—As by offering the first fruits to God they acknowledged that they received the increase of the whole year from him, in like manner, by consecrating their houses to God, they declared that they were God’s tenants, confessing that they were strangers, and that it was he who lodged, and gave them a habitation there. If a levy for war, therefore, took place, this was a just cause of exemption, when any one alleged that he had not yet dedicated his house. Besides, they were at the same time admonished by this ceremony, that every one enjoyed his house aright and regularly, only when he so regulated it that it was as it were a sanctuary of God, and that true piety and the pure worship of God reigned in it. The types of the law have now ceased, but we must still keep to the doctrine of Paul, that whatsoever things God appoints for our use are still “sanctified by the word of God and prayer.” 1 Tim. iv. 4, 5.—John Calvin.
Whole Psalm.—Calmet supposes it to have been made by David on the dedication of the place which he built on the threshing-floor of Araunah, after the grievous plague which had so nearly desolated the kingdom. 2 Sam. xxiv. 25; 1 Chron. xxi. 26. All the parts of the Psalm agree to this: and they agree to this so well, and to no other hypothesis, that I feel myself justified in modelling the comment on this principle alone.—Adam Clarke.
Whole Psalm.—In the following verses I have endeavoured to give the spirit of the Psalm, and to preserve the frequent antitheses.
I will exalt thee, Lord of hosts, For thou’st exalted me; Since thou hast silenced Satan’s boasts, I’ll therefore boast in thee.
My sins had brought me near the grave, The grave of black despair; I look’d but there was none to save, Till I look’d up in prayer.
In answer to my piteous cries, From hell’s dark brink I’m brought: My Jesus saw me from the skies, And swift salvation wrought.
All through the night I wept full sore, But morning brought relief; That hand, which broke my bones before, Then broke my bonds of grief.
My mourning he to dancing turns, For sackcloth joy he gives, A moment, Lord, thine anger burns, But long thy favour lives.
Sing with me then, ye favoured men, Who long have known his grace; With thanks recall the seasons when Ye also sought his face.
C. H. S.
Verse 1.—“I will extol thee, O Lord; for thou hast lifted me up.” I will lift thee up, for thou hast lifted me up.—Adam Clarke.
Verse 1.—“Thou hast lifted me up.” דִּלִּיתָנִי. The verb is used, in its original meaning, to denote the reciprocating motion of the buckets of a well, one descending as the other rises, and vice versa; and is here applied with admirable propriety, to point out the various reciprocations and changes of David’s fortunes, as described in this Psalm, as to prosperity and adversity; and particularly that gracious reverse of his afflicted condition which he now celebrates, God having raised him up to great honour and prosperity; for having built his palace, he “perceived that the Lord had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Israel’s sake.”—2 Sam. v. 12.—Samuel Chandler.
Verse 2.—“Thou hast healed me.” תִּרְפָּאֵנִי. The verb is used, either for the healing of bodily disorders (Psalm ciii. 3), or to denote the happy alteration of any person’s affairs, either in private or public life, by the removal of any kind of distress, personal or national. Psalm cvii. 20; Isaiah xix. 22. So in the place before us: “Thou hast healed me,” means, Thou hast brought me out of my distresses, hast restored my health, and rendered me safe and prosperous. Under Saul, he was frequently in the most imminent danger of his life, out of which God wonderfully brought him, which he strongly expresses by saying, “Thou hast brought up my soul from Hades: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.” I thought myself lost, and that nothing could prevent my destruction, and can scarce help looking on the deliverance thou hast vouchsafed me otherwise than as a kind of restoration from the dead: Thou hast revived me, or recovered me to life, from amongst those who go down to the pit; according to the literal rendering of the latter clause.—Samuel Chandler.
Verse 4.—“Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his.” If it were to sing of another thing, I should require the whole quire of God’s creatures to join in the singing; but now that it is to sing of God’s “holiness,” what should profane voices do in the concert? None but “saints” are fit to sing of “holiness,” and specially of God’s holiness; but most specially with songs of holiness.—Sir Richard Baker.
Verse 4.—“Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his.” As God requires outward and inward worship, so a spiritual frame for inward worship may be forwarded by the outward composure. Gazing drowsiness hinders the activity of the soul, but the contrary temper furthers and helps it. Singing calls up the soul into such a posture, and doth, as it were, awaken it: it is a lively rousing up of the heart. Singing God’s praise is a work of the most meditation of any we perform in public. It keeps the heart longest upon the thing spoken. Prayer and hearing pass quick from one sentence to another; this sticks long upon it. Meditation must follow after hearing the word, and praying with the minister—for new sentences, still succeeding, give not liberty, in the instant, well to muse and consider upon what is spoken: but in this you pray and meditate. God hath so ordered this duty, that, while we are employed in it, we feed and chew the cud together. “Higgaion,” or “Meditation,” is set upon some passages of the Psalms, as Psalm ix. 16. The same may be writ up the whole duty, and all parts of it; namely, “Meditation.” Set before you one in the posture to sing to the best advantage: eyes lifted to heaven, denote his desire that his heart may be there too; he hath before him a line or verse of prayer, mourning, praise, mention of God’s works; how fairly now may his heart spread itself in meditation on the thing, while he is singing it over! Our singing is measured in deliberate time not more for music than meditation. He that seeks not, finds not, this advantage in singing Psalms—hath not yet learned what it means.—John Lightfoot, 1602-1675.
Verse 5.—“His anger.” Seeing God is often angry with his own servants, what cause have those of you who fear him, to bless him that he is not angry with you, and that you do not feel his displeasure! He sets up others as his mark against which he shoots his arrows; you hear others groaning for his departure, and yet your hearts are not saddened as theirs are; your eyes can look up towards heaven with hope, whilst theirs are clouded with a veil of sorrow; he speaks roughly to them, but comfortable words to you; he seems to set himself against them as his enemies, whilst he deals with you as a loving friend; you see a reviving smile in his face and they can discern nothing there but one continued and dreadful frown. O admire, and for ever wonder at the sovereign, distinguishing grace of God. Are you that are at ease better than many of his people that are now thrown into a fiery furnace? Have you less dross than they? Have they sinned, think you, at a higher rate than you have ever done? He is angry with them for their lukewarmness, for their backsliding; and have your hearts always burned with love? Have your feet always kept his way and not declined? Have you never wandered? Have you never turned aside to the right hand or to the left? Surely you have; and therefore, what a mercy is it, that he is not angry with you as well as with them.... Do not presume for all this; for though he is not angry yet with you, he may be so. This was the fault of David: “In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved;” but it immediately follows, “Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.” The sun shines now upon you, the candle of the Lord does refresh your tabernacle; but you may meet with many storms, and clouds, and darkness before you come to your journey’s end. The disciples were once greatly pleased with the glory of the transfiguration; and during the delightful interview between Christ, and Moses, and Elias, they thought themselves as in heaven; but a cloud came and obscured the preceding glory, and then the poor men were afraid. It is true the anger of God endureth but for a moment; but even that moment is very sad, and terrible beyond expression. Weeping endureth for “a night;” but it may be a very bitter and doleful night for all this. It is a night like that of the Egyptians: when they arose they saw all their first-born slain, and there was a hideous, universal cry and mourning throughout all the land. So this night of the anger of the Lord may destroy all our comforts, and make the first-born of our strength, the confidence and pleasure of our hopes to give up the ghost.—Timothy Rogers.
Verse 5.—“In his favour is life.”—Let us see wherein the weight of the blessing and cursing of sheep and goats doth lie. It is not the gift of eternal life that is our happiness in heaven; but as David saith, “in his favour is life.” If a damned soul should be admitted to the fruition of all the pleasures of eternal life without the favour of God, heaven would be hell to him. It is not the dark and horrid house of woe that maketh a soul miserable in hell, but God’s displeasure, ite maledicti. If an elect soul should be cast thither, and retain the favour of God, hell would be an heaven to him, and his joy could not all the devils of hell take from him; his night would be turned into day.—Edward Marbury.
Verse 5.—As an apprentice holds out in hard labour and (it may be) bad usage for seven years together or more, and in all that time is serviceable to his master without any murmuring or repining, because he sees that the time wears away, and that his bondage will not last always, but he shall be set at large and made a freeman in the conclusion: thus should everyone that groaneth under the burthen of any cross or affliction whatsoever, bridle his affections, possess his soul in patience, and cease from all murmuring and repining whatsoever, considering well with himself, that the rod of the wicked shall not always rest upon the lot of the righteous; that weeping may abide at evening, but joy cometh in the morning; and that troubles will have an end, and not continue for ever.—John Spencer.
Verse 5.—How often have we experienced the literal truth of that verse, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning!” How heavily does any trouble weigh on us at night! Our wearied nerve and brain seem unable to bear up under the pressure. Our pulse throbs, and the fevered restless body refuses to help in the work of endurance. Miserable and helpless we feel; and passionately weep under the force of the unresisted attack. At last sleep comes. Trouble, temptation, whatever it be that strives to overcome us, takes the one step too far which overleaps its mark, and by sheer force drives our poor humanity beyond the present reach of further trial. After such a night of struggle, and the heavy sleep of exhaustion, we awake with a vague sense of trouble. Our thoughts gather, and we wonder over our own violence, as the memory of it returns upon us. What was it that seemed so hopeless—so dark? Why were we so helpless and despairing? Things do not look so now—sad indeed still, but endurable—hard, but no longer impossible—bad enough perhaps, but we despair no more. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” And so, when life with its struggles and toils and sins, bringing us perpetual conflict, ends at last in the fierce struggle of death, then God “giveth his beloved sleep.” They sleep in Jesus, and awake to the joy of a morning which shall know no wane—the morning of joy. The Sun of Righteousness is beaming on them. Light is now on all their ways. And they can only wonder when they recall the despair and darkness, and toil, and violence of their earthly life, and say, as they have often said on earth, “Weeping has endured only for the night, and now it is morning, and joy has come!” And our sorrows, our doubts, our difficulties, our long looks forward, with despair of enduring strength for so long a night of trial—Where are they? Shall we not feel as is so beautifully described in the words of one of our hymns—
“When in our Father’s happy land We meet our own once more, Then we shall scarcely understand Why we have wept before.”
Mary B. M. Duncan, 1825-1865.
Verse 5.—“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Their mourning shall last but till morning. God will turn their winter’s night into a summer’s day, their sighing into singing, their grief into gladness, their mourning into music, their bitter into sweet, their wilderness into a paradise. The life of a Christian is filled up with interchanges of sickness and health, weakness and strength, want and wealth, disgrace and honour, crosses, and comforts, miseries and mercies, joys and sorrows, mirth and mourning; all honey would harm us, all wormwood would undo us; a composition of both is the best way in the world to keep our souls in a healthy constitution. It is best and most for the health of the soul that the south wind of mercy, and the north wind of adversity, do both blow upon it; and though every wind that blows shall blow good to the saints, yet certainly their sins die most, and their graces thrive best, when they are under the drying, nipping north wind of calamity, as well as under the warm, cherishing south wind of mercy and prosperity.—Thomas Brooks.
Verse 5.—“Joy cometh in the morning.” The godly man’s joy “cometh in the morning,” when the wicked man’s goeth; for to him “the morning is even as the shadow of death.” Job xxiv. 17. He is not only afraid of reproof and punishment, but he grieves and suffers sufficiently, though nobody should know of his actions, for the impair and loss, and misspence of his strength and his time and his money.—Zachary Bogan.
Verse 5.—In the second half of the verse, “weeping” is personified, and represented by the figure of a wanderer, who leaves in the morning the lodging, into which he had entered the preceding evening. After him another guest arrives, namely, “joy.”—E. W. Hengstenberg.
Verse 5.—The princely prophet says plainly, “heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” As the two angels that came to Lot lodged with him for a night, and when they had despatched their errand, went away in the morning; so afflictions, which are the angels or the messengers of God. God sendeth afflictions to do an errand unto us; to tell us we forget God, we forget ourselves, we are too proud, too self-conceited, and such like; and when they have said as they were bid, then presently they are gone.—Thomas Playfere.
Verses 5-10.—When a man’s heart is set upon the creatures, there being thorns in them all, therefore if he will grasp too much of them, or too hard, he shall find it. God’s children are trained up so to it, that God will not let them go away with a sin; if they be too adulterously affected, they shall find a cross in such a thing. You may observe this in the thirtieth Psalm; there you may see the circle God goes in with his children. David has many afflictions, as appeareth by the fifth verse: I cried, and then God returned to me, and joy came. What did David then? “I said, I shall never be moved:” his heart grew wanton, but God would not let him go away so: “God turned away his face, and I was troubled.” At the seventh verse he is, you see, in trouble again: well, David cries again, at the eighth and tenth verses, and then God turned his mourning into joy again. And this to be his dealing you shall find in all the Scriptures; but because we find this his dealing set so close together in this Psalm, therefore I name it.—John Preston, D.D. (1587-1628), in “The Golden Scepter held forth to the Humble.”
Verse 6.—“In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.” Our entering upon a special service for God, or receiving a special favour from God, are two solemn seasons which Satan makes use of for temptation.... We are apt to get proud, careless, and confident, after or upon such employments and favours; even as men are apt to sleep or surfeit upon a full meal, or to forget themselves when they are advanced to honour. Job’s great peace and plenty made him, as he confesseth, so confident, that he concluded he should “die in his nest.” Chap. xxix. 18. David enjoying the favour of God in a more than ordinary measure, though he was more acquainted with vicissitudes and changes than most of men, grows secure in his apprehension that he “should never be moved;” but he acknowledgeth his mistake, and leaves it upon record as an experience necessary for others to take warning by, that when he became warm under the beams of God’s countenance, then he was apt to fall into security; and this it seems was usual with him in all such cases—when he was most secure he was nearest some trouble or disquiet. “Thou didst hide thy face”—and then to be sure the devil will show him his—“and I was troubled.” Enjoyments beget confidence; confidence brings forth carelessness; carelessness makes God withdraw, and gives opportunity to Satan to work unseen. And thus, as armies after victory growing secure, are oft surprised; so are we oft after our spiritual advancements thrown down.—Richard Gilpin.
Verse 6.—“In my prosperity.” בְּשַׁלְוִי The word denotes peace and tranquility, arising from an affluent, prosperous condition. When God had settled him quietly on the throne, he thought all his troubles were over, and that he should enjoy uninterrupted happiness; and that God “had made his mountain so strong, as that it should never be moved;” i.e., placed him as secure from all danger as though he had taken refuge upon an inaccessible mountain; or made his prosperity firm, and subject to no more alteration, than a mountain is liable to be removed out of its place; or, raised him to an eminent degree of honour and prosperity; a mountain, by its height, being a very natural representation of a very superior condition, remarkable for power, affluence, and dignity. He had taken the fortress of Mount Sion, which was properly his mountain, as he had fixed on it for his dwelling. It was strong by nature, and rendered almost impregnable by the fortifications he had added to it. This he regarded as the effect of God’s favour to him, and promised himself that his peace and happiness for the future should be as undisturbed and unshaken as Mount Sion itself.—Samuel Chandler.
Verse 6.—“In my prosperity.” Prosperity is more pleasant than profitable to us. Though in show it look like a fair summer, yet it is indeed a wasting winter, and spendeth all the fruit we have reaped in the harvest of sanctified affliction. We are never in greater danger than in the sunshine of prosperity. To be always indulged of God, and never to taste of trouble, is rather a token of God’s neglect than of his tender love.—William Struther.
Verse 7.—It is rare to receive much of this world, and not as the prodigal to go afar off; ’tis hard to keep close to God in prosperity, when we have much of this world to live upon and content ourselves with; to live upon God, and make him our content and stay, as if we had no other life nor livelihood but in him; we are very apt in such a case to contract a carnal frame, let go our hold of God, discustom ourselves to the exercise of faith, abate and estrange our affections from God. See how it was with David: “I said, I shall never be moved, thou hast made my mountain so strong.” I solaced myself on these outward accommodations, as if I needed no other support, strength, or content, and there were no fear of a change; no care now to make God my constant joy and stay, and reckon upon God only for my portion, and that I must follow him with a cross, and be conformed to my Saviour, in being crucified to the world. What comes of this? “Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled;” namely, because he had too much indulged a life of sense. Children that are held up by their nurses’ hand, and mind not to feel their feet and ground when the nurses let them go, they fall, as if they had no feet or ground to stand upon. Or thus: we are like children, who, playing in the golden sunshine, and following their sport, stray so far from their father’s house, that night coming upon them ere they are aware, they are as it were lost, and full of fears, not knowing how to recover home. The world steals away our hearts from God, gives so few opportunities for the exercise of the life of faith, and such advantages to a life of sense, wears off the sense of our dependence on God, and need thereof, so that when we are put to it by affliction, we are ready to miscarry ere we can recover our weapon or hold. Faith is our cordial (Psalm xxvii. 13); now if it be not at hand (as in health, when we have no need of it, it use to be) we may faint ere we recover the use of it.—Elias Pledger’s Sermon in “The Morning Exercises,” 1677.
Verse 7.—“Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.” What soul can be deserted and not be afflicted? Certainly his absence cannot but be lamented with greatest grief, whose presence the soul prizeth above all earthly joy; when the evidence of salvation is obscured, the light of God’s countenance darkened, the comforts of the Spirit detained, then the heavens appear not so clear, the promises taste not so sweet, the ordinances prove not so lively, yea, the clouds which hang over the soul gather blackness, doubts arise, fears overflow, terrors increase, troubles enlarge, and the soul becomes languishingly afflicted, even with all variety of disquietments.—Robert Mossom.
Verse 7.—“Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.” A believer puts on the sackcloth of contrition, for having put off the garment of perfection. As the sugar-loaf is dissolved, and weeps itself way, when dipped in wine; so do our hearts melt under a sense of divine love.—William Secker.
Verse 7 (last clause).—No verse can more plainly teach us that glorious and comforting truth on which the mediæval writers especially love to dwell, that it is the looking, or not looking, of God upon his creature, that forms the happiness or the misery of that creature; that those secret springs of joy which sometimes seem to rise up of themselves, and with which a stranger intermeddleth not, are nothing but God’s direct and immediate looking on us; while the sorrow for which we cannot assign any especial cause—call it melancholy, or low spirits, or by whatever other name—is nothing but his turning away his face from us.—John Mason Neale.
Verse 7 (last clause).—Is spiritual desertion and the hiding of God’s face matter of affliction, and casting down to believers? Yes, yes; it quails their hearts, nothing can comfort them. “Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.” Outward afflictions do but break the skin, this touches the quick; they like rain fall only upon the tiles, this soaks into the house; but Christ brings to believers substantial matter of consolation against the troubles of desertion: he himself was deserted of God for a time, that they might not be deserted for ever.—John Flavel.
Verse 7 (last clause).—If God be thy portion, then there is no loss in all the world that lies so hard and so heavy upon thee as the loss of thy God. There is no loss under heaven that doth so affect and afflict a man that hath God for his portion, as the loss of his God. David met with many a loss, but no loss made so sad and so great a breach upon his spirit as the loss of the face of God, the loss of the favour of God: “In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. Lord, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.” The Hebrew word בָהַל bahal signifies to be greatly troubled, to be sorely terrified, as you may see in that 1 Sam. xxviii. 21, “And the woman came unto Saul, and saw that he was sore troubled.” Here is the same Hebrew word bahal. Saul was so terrified, affrighted, and disanimated with the dreadful news that the devil in Samuel’s likeness told him, that his very vital spirits so failed him, that he fell into a deadly swoon. And it was even so with David upon God’s hiding of his face. David was like a withered flower that had lost all its sap, life, and vigour, when God had wrapped himself up in a cloud. The life of some creatures lieth in the light and warmth of the sun; and so doth the life of the saints lie in the light and warmth of God’s countenance. And, as in an eclipse of the sun, there is a drooping in the whole frame of nature, so when God hides his face, gracious souls cannot but droop and languish, and bow down themselves before him. Many insensible creatures, some by opening and shutting, as marigolds and tulips, others by bowing and inclining the head, as the solsequy[3] and mallow-flowers, are so sensible of the presence and absence of the sun, that there seems to be such a sympathy between the sun and them, that if the sun be gone or clouded, they wrap up themselves or hang down their heads, as being unwilling to be seen by any eye but his that fills them: and just thus it was with David when God had hid his face in a cloud.—Thomas Brooks.
Verse 8.—“I cried to thee, O Lord; and unto the Lord I made supplication.” Bernard, under a fiction, proposeth a fable well worthy our beholding: therein the kings of Babylon and Jerusalem, signifying the state of the world and the church, always warring together; in which encounter, at length it fell out, that one of the soldiers of Jerusalem was fled to the castle of Justice. Siege laid to the castle, and a multitude of enemies entrenched round about it, Fear gave over all hope, but Prudence ministered her comfort. “Dost thou not know,” saith she, “that our king is the King of glory; the Lord strong and mighty, even the Lord mighty in battle? Let us therefore despatch a messenger that may inform him of our necessities.” Fear replieth, “But who is able to break through? Darkness is upon the face of the earth, and our walls are begirt with a watchful troop of armed men, and we, utterly inexpert of the way into so far a country.” Whereupon Justice is consulted. “Be of good cheer,” saith Justice, “I have a messenger of especial trust, well known to the king and his court, Prayer by name, who knoweth to address herself by ways unknown in the stillest silence of the night, till she cometh to the secrets and chamber of the King himself.” Forthwith she goeth, and findeth the gates shut, knocketh amain, “Open, ye gates of righteousness, and be ye opened, ye everlasting doors, that I may come in and tell the King of Jerusalem how our case standeth.” Doubtless the trustiest and effectuallest messenger we have to send is Prayer. If we send up merits, the stars in heaven will disdain it, that we which dwell at the footstool of God dare to presume so far, when the purest creatures in heaven are impure in his sight. If we send up fear and distrustfulness, the length of the way will tire them out. They are as heavy and lumpish as gads of iron; they will sink to the ground before they come halfway to the throne of salvation. If we send up blasphemies and curses, all the creatures betwixt heaven and earth will band themselves against us. The sun and the moon will rain down blood; the fire, hot burning coals; the air, thunderbolts upon our heads. Prayer, I say again, is the surest ambassador; which neither the tediousness of the way, nor difficulties of the passage, can hinder from her purpose; quick of speed, faithful for trustiness, happy for success, able to mount above the eagles of the sky, into the heaven of heavens, and as a chariot of fire bearing us aloft into the presence of God to seek his assistance.—John King.
Verse 9.—“What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit?” Implying that he would willingly die, if he could thereby do any real service to God, or his country. Phil. ii. 17. But he saw not what good could be done by his dying in the bed of sickness, as might be if he had died in the bed of honour. Lord, saith he, wilt thou sell one of “thine own people for nought, and not increase thy wealth by the price?” Psalm xliv. 12.—Matthew Henry.
Verse 9.—“What profit is there in my blood,” etc. The little gain that the Lord would have by denying his people in the mercies they request, may also be used as a plea in prayer. David beggeth his own life of God, using this plea, “What profit is there in my blood?” So did the captive church plead (Psalm xliv. 12); “Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price.” So then, poor saints of God when they come and tell the Lord in their prayers that indeed he may condemn, or confound, or cut or cast them off; he may continue to frown upon them; he may deny such-and-such requests of theirs, for such-and-such just causes in them; but what will he gain thereby? He may gain many praises, etc., by hearing them, and helping them; but what good will it do him to see them oppressed by the enemies of their souls? or what delight would it be to him to see them sighing and sinking, and fainting under sad pressures, etc.? this is an allowed and a very successful kind of pleading.—Thomas Cobbet.
Verse 9.—“Shall the dust praise thee?” Can any number be sufficient to praise thee? Can there ever be mouths enough to declare thy truth? And may not I make one—a sinful one I know—but yet one in the number, if thou be pleased to spare me from descending into the pit?—Sir Richard Baker.
Verse 9.—Prayer that is likely to prevail with God must be argumentative. God loves to have us plead with him and overcome him with arguments in prayer.—Thomas Watson.
Verse 11.—“Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness.” This might be true of David, delivered from his calamity; it was true of Christ, arising from the tomb, to die no more; it is true of the penitent, exchanging his sackcloth for the garments of salvation; and it will be verified in us all, at the last day, when we shall put off the dishonours of the grave, to shine in glory everlasting.—George Horne.
Verse 11.—“Thou hast turned.” I do so like the ups and downs in the Psalms.—Adelaide Newton.
Verse 11.—“Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness.” I say with the apostle, “Overcome evil with good,” sorrow with joy. Joy is the true remedy for sorrow. It never had, never could have any other. We must always give the soul that weeps reason to rejoice; all other consolation is utterly useless.—Alexander Rodolph Vinet, D.D., 1797-1847.
Verse 11.—“Thou hast girded me with gladness.” My “sackcloth” was but a loose garment about me, which might easily be put off at pleasure, but my “gladness” is girt about me, to be fast and sure, and cannot leave me though it would; at least none shall be able to take it from me.—Sir Richard Baker.
Verse 12.—Even as the Chaldeans formerly measured their natural day differently from the Israelites; they put the day first and the night after; but the Israelites, on the contrary, according to the order that was observed in the creation; for in the beginning darkness was upon the face of the deep, and of every one of the six days it is said, “The evening and the morning were the first day,” etc. So the times of the world and of the church are differently disposed; for the world begins hers by the day of temporal prosperity, and finishes it by a night of darkness and anguish that is eternal; but the church, on the contrary, begins hers by the night of adversity, which she suffers for awhile, and ends them by a day of consolation which she shall have for ever. The prophet in this Psalm begins with the anger of God, but ends with his favour: as of old, when they entered into the tabernacle they did at first see unpleasant things, as the knives of the sacrifices, the blood of victims, the fire that burned upon the altar, which consumed the offerings; but when they passed a little farther there was the holy place, the candlestick of gold, the shew-bread, and the altar of gold on which they offered perfumes; and in fine, there was the holy of holies, and the ark of the covenant, and the mercy-seat and the cherubims, which was called the face of God.—Timothy Rogers.
Verse 12.—“I will give thanks.” What is praise? The rent we owe to God; and the larger the farm the greater the rent should be.—G. S. Bowes, 1863.
HINTS TO PREACHERS.
Title.—House dedication, and how to arrange it.
Whole Psalm.—In this ode we may see the workings of David’s mind before, and under, and after, the affliction. I. Before the affliction: 6. II. Under the affliction: 7—10. III. After the affliction: 11, 12.—William Jay.
Verse 1 (first clause).—God and his people exalting each other.
Verse 1 (second clause).—The happiness of being preserved so as not to be the scorn of our enemies.
Verse 1.—The disappointments of the devil.
Verse 2.—The sick man, the physician, the night-bell, the medicine, and the cure; or, a covenant God, a sick saint, a crying heart, a healing hand.
Verse 3.—Upbringing and preservation, two choice mercies; made the more illustrious by two terrible evils, “grave,” and “pit”; traced immediately to the Lord, “thou hast.”
Verse 4.—Song, a sacred service; “saints” especially called to it; divine holiness, a choice subject for it; Memory, an admirable aid in it.
Verse 5.—The anger of God in relation to his people.
Verse 5.—The night of weeping, and the morning of joy.
Verse 5.—“Life” in God’s “favour.”
Verse 5.—The transient nature of the believer’s trouble, and the permanence of his joy.
Verse 6.—The peculiar dangers of “prosperity.”
Verses 6-12.—David’s prosperity had lulled him into a state of undue security: God sent him this affliction to rouse him from it. The successive frames of his mind are here clearly marked; and must successively be considered as they are here presented to our view. I. His carnal security. II. His spiritual dereliction. III. His fervent prayers. IV. His speedy recovery. V. His grateful acknowledgments.—Charles Simeon.
Verse 7 (first clause).—Carnal security; its causes, dangers, and cures.
Verse 7 (last clause).—The gracious bemoanings of a soul in spiritual darkness.
Verse 8, in connection with verse 3, prayer the universal remedy.
Verse 9 (first clause).—Arguments with God for continued life and renewed favour.
Verse 9 (last clause).—The resurrection, a time in which the “dust” shall “praise” God, and “declare” his “truth.”
Verse 10.—Two gems of prayer; short, but full and needful.
Verse 10.—“Lord, be thou my helper.” I see many fall; I shall fall too except thou hold me up. I am weak; I am exposed to temptation. My heart is deceitful. My enemies are strong. I cannot trust in man; I dare not trust in myself. The grace I have received will not keep me without thee. “Lord, be thou my helper.” In every duty; in every conflict; in every trial; in every effort to promote the Lord’s cause; in every season of prosperity; in every hour we live, this short and inspired prayer is suitable. May it flow from our hearts, be often on our lips, and be answered in our experience. For if the Lord help us, there is no duty which we cannot perform; there is no foe which we cannot overcome; there is no difficulty which we cannot surmount.—James Smith’s Daily Remembrancer.
Verse 11.—Transformations. Sudden; complete; divine, “thou;” personal, “for me;” gracious.
Verse 11.—Holy dancing: open up the metaphor.
Verse 11.—The believer’s change of raiment: illustrate by life of Mordecai or Joseph; mention all the garbs the believer is made to wear, as a mourner, a beggar, a criminal, etc.
Verse 12.—Our “glory,” and its relation to God’s glory.
Verse 12.—The end of gracious dispensations.
Verse 12.—Silence—when sinful.
Verse 12 (last clause).—The believer’s vow, and the time for making it. See the whole Psalm.
Footnote 3:
The early name of the “sun-flower.” The solsequium of Linnæus.
PSALM XXXI.
TITLE.—To the chief Musician—a Psalm of David. The dedication to the chief musician proves that this song of mingled measures and alternate strains of grief and woe was intended for public singing, and thus a deathblow is given to the notion that nothing but praise should be sung. Perhaps the Psalms, thus marked, might have been set aside as too mournful for temple worship, if special care had not been taken by the Holy Spirit to indicate them as being designed for the public edification of the Lord’s people. May there not also be in Psalms thus designated a peculiarly distinct reference to the Lord Jesus? He certainly manifests himself very clearly in the twenty-second, which bears this title; and in the one before us we plainly hear his dying voice in the fifth verse. Jesus is chief everywhere, and in all the holy songs of his saints he is the chief musician. The surmises that Jeremiah penned this Psalm need no other answer than the fact that it is “a Psalm of David.”
SUBJECT.—The Psalmist in dire affliction appeals to his God for help with much confidence and holy importunity, and ere long finds his mind so strengthened that he magnifies the Lord for his great goodness. Some have thought that the occasion in his troubled life which led to this Psalm, was the treachery of the men of Keilah, and we have felt much inclined to this conjecture; but after reflection it seems to us that its very mournful tone, and its allusion to his iniquity demand a later date, and it may be more satisfactory to illustrate it by the period when Absalom had rebelled, and his courtiers were fled from him, while lying lips spread a thousand malicious rumours against him. It is perhaps quite as well that we have no settled season mentioned, or we might have been so busy in applying it to David’s case as to forget its suitability to our own.
DIVISION.—There are no great lines of demarcation; throughout the strain undulates, falling into valleys of mourning, and rising with hills of confidence. However, we may for convenience arrange it thus: David testifying his confidence in God pleads for help, 1-6; expresses gratitude for mercies received, 7, 8; particularly describes his case, 9-13; vehemently pleads for deliverance, 14-18; confidently and thankfully expects a blessing, 19-22; and closes by showing the bearing of his case upon all the people of God.
EXPOSITION.
In thee, O LORD do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness.
2 Bow down thine ear to me; deliver me speedily; be thou my strong rock, for an house of defence to save me.
3 For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name’s sake lead me, and guide me.
4 Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my strength.
5 Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth.
6 I have hated them that regard lying vanities; but I trust in the LORD.
1. “In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust.” Nowhere else do I fly for shelter, let the tempest howl as it may. The Psalmist has one refuge, and that the best one. He casts out the great sheet anchor of his faith in the time of storm. Let other things be doubtful, yet the fact that he relies upon Jehovah, David lays down most positively; and he begins with it, lest by stress of trial he should afterwards forget it. This avowal of faith is the fulcrum by means of which he labours to uplift and remove his trouble; he dwells upon it as a comfort to himself and a plea with God. No mention is made of merit, but faith relies upon divine favour and faithfulness, and upon that alone. “Let me never be ashamed.” How can the Lord permit the man to be ultimately put to shame who depends alone upon him? This would not be dealing like a God of truth and grace. It would bring dishonour upon God himself if faith were not in the end rewarded. It will be an ill day indeed for religion when trust in God brings no consolation and no assistance. “Deliver me in thy righteousness.” Thou art not unjust to desert a trustful soul, or to break thy promises; thou wilt vindicate the righteousness of thy mysterious providence, and give me joyful deliverance. Faith dares to look even to the sword of justice for protection: while God is righteous, faith will not be left to be proved futile and fanatical. How sweetly the declaration of faith in this first verse sounds, if we read it at the foot of the cross, beholding the promise of the Father as yea and amen through the Son; viewing God with faith’s eye as he stands revealed in Jesus crucified.
2. “Bow down thine ear to me.” Condescend to my low estate; listen to me attentively as one who would hear every word. Heaven with its transcendent glories of harmony might well engross the divine ear, but yet the Lord has an hourly regard to the weakest moanings of his poorest people. “Deliver me speedily.” We must not set times and seasons, yet in submission we may ask for swift as well as sure mercy. God’s mercies are often enhanced in value by the timely haste which he uses in their bestowal; if they came late they might be too late—but he rides upon a cherub, and flies upon the wings of the wind when he intends the good of his beloved. “Be thou my strong rock.” Be my Engedi, my Adullam; my immutable, immovable, impregnable, sublime, resort. “For an house of defence to save me,” wherein I may dwell in safety, not merely running to thee for temporary shelter, but abiding in thee for eternal salvation. How very simply does the good man pray, and yet with what weight of meaning! he uses no ornamental flourishes, he is too deeply in earnest to be otherwise than plain: it were well if all who engage in public prayer would observe the same rule.
3. “For thou art my rock and my fortress.” Here the tried soul avows yet again its full confidence in God. Faith’s repetitions are not vain. The avowal of our reliance upon God in times of adversity is a principal method of glorifying him. Active service is good, but the passive confidence of faith is not one jot less esteemed in the sight of God. The words before us appear to embrace and fasten upon the Lord with a fiducial grip which is not to be relaxed. The two personal pronouns, like sure nails, lay hold upon the faithfulness of the Lord. O for grace to have our heart fixed in firm unstaggering belief in God! The figure of a rock and a fortress may be illustrated to us in these times by the vast fortress of Gibraltar, often besieged by our enemies, but never wrested from us: ancient strongholds, though far from impregnable by our modes of warfare, were equally important in those remoter ages—when in the mountain fastnesses, feeble bands felt themselves to be secure. Note the singular fact that David asked the Lord to be his rock (verse 2) because he was his rock; and learn from it that we may pray to enjoy in experience what we grasp by faith. Faith is the foundation of prayer. “Therefore for thy name’s sake lead me, and guide me.” The Psalmist argues like a logician with his fors and therefores. Since I do sincerely trust thee, saith he, O my God, be my director. To lead and to guide are two things very like each other, but patient thought will detect different shades of meaning, especially as the last may mean provide for me. The double word indicates an urgent need—we require double direction, for we are fools, and the way is rough. Lead me as a soldier, guide me as a traveller! lead me as a babe, guide me as a man; lead me when thou art with me, but guide me even if thou be absent; lead me by thy hand, guide me by thy word. The argument used is one which is fetched from the armoury of free grace: not for my own sake, but for thy name’s sake guide me. Our appeal is not to any fancied virtue in our own names, but to the glorious goodness and graciousness which shine resplendent in the character of Israel’s God. It is not possible that the Lord should suffer his own honour to be tarnished, but this would certainly be the case if those who trusted him should perish. This was Moses’ plea, “What wilt thou do unto thy great name?”
4. “Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me.” The enemies of David were cunning as well as mighty; if they could not conquer him by power, they would capture him by craft. Our own spiritual foes are of the same order—they are of the serpent’s brood, and seek to ensnare us by their guile. The prayer before us supposes the possibility of the believer being caught like a bird; and, indeed, we are so foolish that this often happens. So deftly does the fowler do his work that simple ones are soon surrounded by it. The text asks that even out of the meshes of the net the captive one may be delivered; and this is a proper petition, and one which can be granted; from between the jaws of the lion and out of the belly of hell can eternal love rescue the saint. It may need a sharp pull to save a soul from the net of temptation, and a mighty pull to extricate a man from the snares of malicious cunning, but the Lord is equal to every emergency, and the most skilfully placed nets of the hunter shall never be able to hold his chosen ones. Woe unto those who are so clever at net laying: they who tempt others shall be destroyed themselves. Villains who lay traps in secret shall be punished in public. “For thou art my strength.” What an inexpressible sweetness is to be found in these few words! How joyfully may we enter upon labours, and how cheerfully may we endure sufferings when we can lay hold upon celestial power. Divine power will rend asunder all the toils of the foe, confound their politics and frustrate their knavish tricks; he is a happy man who has such matchless might engaged upon his side. Our own strength would be of little service when embarrassed in the nets of base cunning, but the Lord’s strength is ever available; we have but to invoke it, and we shall find it near at hand. If by faith we are depending alone upon the strength of the strong God of Israel, we may use our holy reliance as a plea in supplication.
5. “Into thine hand I commit my spirit.” These living words of David were our Lord’s dying words, and have been frequently used by holy men in their hour of departure. Be assured that they are good, choice, wise, and solemn words; we may use them now and in the last tremendous hour. Observe, the object of the good man’s solicitude in life and death is not his body or his estate, but his spirit; this is his jewel, his secret treasure; if this be safe, all is well. See what he does with his pearl! He commits it to the hand of his God: it came from him, it is his own, he has aforetime sustained it, he is able to keep it, and it is most fit that he should receive it. All things are safe in Jehovah’s hands; what we entrust to the Lord will be secure, both now and in that day of days towards which we are hastening. Without reservation the good man yields himself to his heavenly Father’s hand; it is enough for him to be there; it is peaceful living and glorious dying to repose in the care of heaven. At all times we should commit and continue to commit our all to Jesus’ sacred care, then, though life may hang on a thread, and adversities may multiply as the sands of the sea, our soul shall dwell at ease, and delight itself in quiet resting places. “Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.” Redemption is a solid basis for confidence. David had not known Calvary as we have done, but temporal redemption cheered him; and shall not eternal redemption yet more sweetly console us? Past deliverances are strong pleas for present assistance. What the Lord has done he will do again, for he changes not. He is a God of veracity, faithful to his promises, and gracious to his saints; he will not turn away from his people.
6. “I have hated them that regard lying vanities.” Those who will not lean upon the true arm of strength, are sure to make to themselves vain confidences. Man must have a god, and if he will not adore the only living and true God, he makes a fool of himself, and pays superstitious regard to a lie, and waits with anxious hope upon a base delusion. Those who did this were none of David’s friends; he had a constant dislike to them: the verb includes the present as well as the past tense. He hated them for hating God; he would not endure the presence of idolaters; his heart was set against them for their stupidity and wickedness. He had no patience with their superstitious observances, and calls their idols vanities of emptiness, nothings of nonentity. Small courtesy is more than Romanists and Puseyites deserve for their fooleries. Men who make gods of their riches, their persons, their wits, or anything else, are to be shunned by those whose faith rests upon God in Christ Jesus; and so far from being envied, they are to be pitied as depending upon utter vanities. “But I trust in the Lord.” This might be very unfashionable, but the Psalmist dared to be singular. Bad example should not make us less decided for the truth, but the rather in the midst of general defection we should grow the more bold. This adherence to his trust in Jehovah is the great plea employed all along: the troubled one flies into the arms of his God, and ventures everything upon the divine faithfulness.
7 I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities;
8 And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room.
7. “I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy.” For mercy past he is grateful, and for mercy future, which he believingly anticipates, he is joyful. In our most importunate intercessions, we must find breathing time to bless the Lord: praise is never a hindrance to prayer, but rather a lively refreshment therein. It is delightful at intervals to hear the notes of the high-sounding cymbals when the dolorous sackbut rules the hour. Those two words, glad and rejoice, are an instructive reduplication, we need not stint ourselves in our holy triumph; this wine we may drink in bowls without fear of excess. “For thou hast considered my trouble.” Thou hast seen it, weighed it, directed it, fixed a bound to it, and in all ways made it a matter of tender consideration. A man’s consideration means the full exercise of his mind; what must God’s consideration be? “Thou hast known my soul in adversities.” God owns his saints when others are ashamed to acknowledge them; he never refuses to know his friends. He thinks not the worse of them for their rags and tatters. He does not misjudge them and cast them off when their faces are lean with sickness, or their hearts heavy with despondency. Moreover, the Lord Jesus knows us in our pangs in a peculiar sense, by having a deep sympathy towards us in them all; when no others can enter into our griefs, from want of understanding them experimentally, Jesus dives into the lowest depths with us, comprehending the direst of our woes, because he has felt the same. Jesus is a physician who knows every case; nothing is new to him. When we are so bewildered as not to know our own state, he knows us altogether. He has known us and will know us: O for grace to know more of him! “Man, know thyself,” is a good philosophic precept, but “Man, thou art known of God,” is a superlative consolation. Adversities in the plural—“Many are the afflictions of the righteous.”
8. “And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy.” To be shut up in one’s hand is to be delivered over absolutely to his power; now, the believer is not in the hand of death or the devil, much less is he in the power of man. The enemy may get a temporary advantage over us, but we are like men in prison with the door open; God will not let us be shut up, he always provides a way of escape. “Thou hast set my feet in a large room.” Blessed be God for liberty: civil liberty is valuable, religious liberty is precious, spiritual liberty is priceless. In all troubles we may praise God if these are left. Many saints have had their greatest enlargements of soul when their affairs have been in the greatest straits. Their souls have been in a large room when their bodies have been lying in Bonner’s coalhole, or in some other narrow dungeon. Grace has been equal to every emergency; and more than this, it has made the emergency an opportunity for displaying itself.
9 Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly.
10 For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed.
11 I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me.
12 I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel.
13 For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.
9. “Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble.” Now, the man of God comes to a particular and minute description of his sorrowful case. He unbosoms his heart, lays bare his wounds, and expresses his inward desolation. This first sentence pithily comprehends all that follows, it is the text for his lamenting discourse. Misery moves mercy—no more reasoning is needed. “Have mercy” is the prayer; the argument is as prevalent as it is plain and personal, “I am in trouble.” “Mine eye is consumed with grief.” Dim and sunken eyes are plain indicators of failing health. Tears draw their salt from our strength, and floods of them are very apt to consume the source from which they spring. God would have us tell him the symptoms of our disease, not for his information, but to show our sense of need. “Yea, my soul and my belly [or body].” Soul and body are so intimately united, that one cannot decline without the other feeling it. We, in these days, are not strangers to the double sinking which David describes; we have been faint with physical suffering, and distracted with mental distress; when two such seas meet, it is well for us that the Pilot at the helm is at home in the midst of the waterfloods, and makes storms to become the triumph of his art.
10. “For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing.” It had become his daily occupation to mourn; he spent all his days in the dungeon of distress. The sap and essence of his existence was being consumed, as a candle is wasted while it burns. His adversities were shortening his days, and digging for him an early grave. Grief is a sad market to spend all our wealth of life in, but a far more profitable trade may be driven there than in Vanity Fair; it is better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting. Black is good wear. The salt of tears is a healthy medicine. Better spend our years in sighing than in sinning. The two members of the sentence before us convey the same idea; but there are no idle words in Scripture, the reduplication is the fitting expression of fervency and importunity. “My strength faileth because of mine iniquity.” David sees to the bottom of his sorrow, and detects sin lurking there. It is profitable trouble which leads us to trouble ourselves about our iniquity. Was this the Psalmist’s foulest crime which now gnawed at his heart, and devoured his strength? Very probably it was so. Sinful morsels, though sweet in the mouth, turn out to be poison in the bowels: if we wantonly give a portion of our strength to sin, it will by-and-by take the remainder from us. We lose both physical, mental, moral, and spiritual vigour by iniquity. “And my bones are consumed.” Weakness penetrated the innermost parts of his system, the firmest parts of his frame felt the general decrepitude. A man is in a piteous plight when he comes to this.
11. “I was a reproach among all mine enemies.” They were pleased to have something to throw at me: my mournful estate was music to them, because they maliciously interpreted it to be a judgment from heaven upon me. Reproach is little thought of by those who are not called to endure it, but he who passes under its lash knows how deep it wounds. The best of men may have the bitterest foes, and be subjected to the most cruel taunts. “But especially among my neighbours.” Those who are nearest can stab the sharpest. We feel most the slights of those who should have shown us sympathy. Perhaps David’s friends feared to be identified with his declining fortunes, and therefore turned against him in order to win the mercy if not the favour of his opponents. Self interest rules the most of men: ties the most sacred are soon snapped by its influence, and actions of the utmost meanness are perpetrated without scruple. “And a fear to mine acquaintance.” The more intimate before, the more distant did they become. Our Lord was denied by Peter, betrayed by Judas, and forsaken by all in the hour of his utmost need. All the herd turn against a wounded deer. The milk of human kindness curdles when a despised believer is the victim of slanderous accusations. “They that did see me without fled from me.” Afraid to be seen in the company of a man so thoroughly despised, those who once courted his society hastened from him as though he had been infected with the plague. How villainous a thing is slander which can thus make an eminent saint, once the admiration of his people, to become the general butt, the universal aversion of mankind! To what extremities of dishonour may innocence be reduced!
12. “I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind.” All David’s youthful prowess was now gone from remembrance: he had been the saviour of his country, but his services were buried in oblivion. Men soon forget the deepest obligations; popularity is evanescent to the last degree: he who is in every one’s mouth to-day may be forgotten by all to-morrow. A man had better be dead than be smothered in slander. Of the dead we say nothing but good, but in the Psalmist’s case they said nothing but evil. We must not look for the reward of philanthropy this side of heaven, for men pay their best servants but sorry wages, and turn them out of doors when no more is to be got out of them. “I am like a broken vessel,” a thing useless, done for, worthless, cast aside, forgotten. Sad condition for a king! Let us see herein the portrait of the King of kings in his humiliation, when he made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant.
13. “For I have heard the slander of many.” One slanderous viper is death to all comfort—what must be the venom of a whole brood? What the ear does not hear the heart does not rue; but in David’s case the accusing voices were loud enough to break in upon his quiet—foul mouths had grown so bold, that they poured forth their falsehoods in the presence of their victim. Shimei was but one of a class, and his cry of “Go up, thou bloody man,” was but the common speech of thousands of the sons of Belial. All Beelzebub’s pack of hounds may be in full cry against a man, and yet he may be the Lord’s anointed. “Fear was on every side.” He was encircled with fearful suggestions, threatenings, remembrances, and forebodings; no quarter was clear from incessant attack. “While they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.” The ungodly act in concert in their onslaughts upon the excellent of the earth: it is to be wondered at that sinners should often be better agreed than saints, and generally set about their wicked work with much more care and foresight than the righteous exhibit in holy enterprises. Observe the cruelty of a good man’s foes! they will be content with nothing less than his blood—for this they plot and scheme. Better fall into the power of a lion than under the will of malicious persecutors, for the beast may spare its prey if it be fed to the full, but malice is unrelenting and cruel as a wolf. Of all fiends the most cruel is envy. How sorely was the Psalmist bestead when the poisoned arrows of a thousand bows were all aimed at his life! Yet in all this his faith did not fail him, nor did his God forsake him. Here is encouragement for us.
14 But I trusted in thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my God.
15 My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.
16 Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for thy mercies’ sake.
17 Let me not be ashamed, O LORD; for I have called upon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.
18 Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.
In this section of the Psalm he renews his prayers, urging the same pleas as at first: earnest wrestlers attempt over and over again the same means of gaining their point.
14. “But I trusted in thee, O Lord.” Notwithstanding all afflicting circumstances, David’s faith maintained its hold, and was not turned aside from its object. What a blessed saving clause is this! So long as our faith, which is our shield, is safe, the battle may go hard, but its ultimate result is no matter of question; if that could be torn from us, we should be as surely slain as were Saul and Jonathan upon the high places of the field. “I said, Thou art my God.” He proclaimed aloud his determined allegiance to Jehovah. He was no fair-weather believer, he could hold to his faith in a sharp frost, and wrap it about him as a garment fitted to keep out all the ills of time. He who can say what David did need not envy Cicero his eloquence: “Thou art my God,” has more sweetness in it than any other utterance which human speech can frame. Note that this adhesive faith is here mentioned as an argument with God to honour his own promise by sending a speedy deliverance.
15. “My times are in thy hand.” The sovereign arbiter of destiny holds in his own power all the issues of our life; we are not waifs and strays upon the ocean of fate, but are steered by infinite wisdom towards our desired haven. Providence is a soft pillow for anxious heads, an anodyne for care, a grave for despair. “Deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.” It is lawful to desire escape from persecution if it be the Lord’s will; and when this may not be granted us in the form which we desire, sustaining grace will give us deliverance in another form, by enabling us to laugh to scorn all the fury of the foe.
16. “Make thy face to shine upon thy servant.” Give me the sunshine of heaven in my soul, and I will defy the tempests of earth. Permit me to enjoy a sense of thy favour, O Lord, and a consciousness that thou art pleased with my manner of life, and all men may frown and slander as they will. It is always enough for a servant if he pleases his master; others may be dissatisfied, but he is not their servant, they do not pay him his wages, and their opinions have no weight with him. “Save me for thy mercies’ sake.” The good man knows no plea but mercy; whoever might urge legal pleas, David never dreamed of it.
17. “Let me not be ashamed, O Lord; for I have called upon thee.” Put not my prayers to the blush! Do not fill profane mouths with jeers at my confidence in my God. “Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.” Cause them to their amazement to see my wrongs righted and their own pride horribly confounded. A milder spirit rules our prayers under the gentle reign of the Prince of Peace, and, therefore, we can only use such words as these in their prophetic sense, knowing as we do full well, that shame and the silence of death are the best portion that ungodly sinners can expect. That which they desired for despised believers shall come upon themselves by a decree of retributive justice, at which they cannot cavil. “As he loved mischief, so let it come upon him.”
18. “Let the lying lips be put to silence.” A right good and Christian prayer; who but a bad man would give liars more license than need be? May God silence them either by leading them to repentance, by putting them to thorough shame, or by placing them in positions where what they may say will stand for nothing. “Which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.” The sin of slanderers lies partly in the matter of their speech; “they speak grievous things;” things cutting deep into the feelings of good men, and wounding them sorely in that tender place—their reputations. The sin is further enhanced by the manner of their speech; they speak proudly and contemptuously; they talk as if they themselves were the cream of society, and the righteous the mere scum of vulgarity. Proud thoughts of self are generally attended by debasing estimates of others. The more room we take up ourselves, the less we can afford our neighbours. What wickedness it is that unworthy characters should always be the loudest in railing at good men! They have no power to appreciate moral worth of which they are utterly destitute, and yet they have the effrontery to mount the judgment seat, and judge the men compared with whom they are as so much draff. Holy indignation may well prompt us to desire anything which may rid the world of such unbearable impertinence and detestable arrogance.
19 Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!
20 Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.
21 Blessed be the LORD: for he hath shewed me his marvellous kindness in a strong city.
22 For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.
Being full of faith, the Psalmist gives glory to God for the mercy which he is assured will be his position.
19. “Oh how great is thy goodness.” Is it not singular to find such a joyful sentence in connection with so much sorrow? Truly the life of faith is a miracle. When faith led David to his God, she set him singing at once. He does not tell us how great was God’s goodness, for he could not; there are no measures which can set forth the immeasurable goodness of Jehovah, who is goodness itself. Holy amazement uses interjections where adjectives utterly fail. Notes of exclamation suit us when words of explanation are of no avail. If we cannot measure we can marvel; and though we may not calculate with accuracy, we can adore with fervency. “Which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee.” The Psalmist in contemplation divides goodness into two parts, that which is in store and that which is wrought out. The Lord has laid up in reserve for his people supplies beyond all count. In the treasury of the covenant, in the field of redemption, in the caskets of the promises, in the granaries of providence, the Lord has provided for all the needs which can possibly occur to his chosen. We ought often to consider the laid-up goodness of God which has not yet been distributed to the chosen, but is already provided for them: if we are much in such contemplations, we shall be led to feel devout gratitude, such as glowed in the heart of David. “Which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men.” Heavenly mercy is not all hidden in the storehouse; in a thousand ways it has already revealed itself on behalf of those who are bold to avow their confidence in God; before their fellow men this goodness of the Lord has been displayed, that a faithless generation might stand rebuked. Overwhelming are the proofs of the Lord’s favour to believers, history teems with amazing instances, and our own lives are full of prodigies of grace. We serve a good Master. Faith receives a large reward even now, but looks for her full inheritance in the future. Who would not desire to take his lot with the servants of a Master whose boundless love fills all holy minds with astonishment?
20. “Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man.” Pride is a barbed weapon: the proud man’s contumely is iron which entereth into the soul; but those who trust in God, are safely housed in the Holy of holies, the innermost court, into which no man may dare intrude; here in the secret dwelling place of God the mind of the saint rests in peace, which the foot of pride cannot disturb. Dwellers at the foot of the cross of Christ grow callous to the sneers of the haughty. The wounds of Jesus distil a balsam which heals all the scars which the jagged weapons of contempt can inflict upon us; in fact, when armed with the same mind which was in Christ Jesus, the heart is invulnerable to all the darts of pride. “Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.” Tongues are more to be dreaded than beasts of prey—and when they strive, it is as though a whole pack of wolves were let loose; but the believer is secure even in this peril, for the royal pavilion of the King of kings shall afford him quiet shelter and serene security. The secret tabernacle of sacrifice, and the royal pavilion of sovereignty afford a double security to the Lord’s people in their worst distresses. Observe the immediate action of God, “Thou shalt hide,” “Thou shalt keep,” the Lord himself is personally present for the rescue of his afflicted.
21. “Blessed be the Lord.” When the Lord blesses us we cannot do less than bless him in return. “For he hath showed me his marvellous kindness in a strong city.” Was this in Mahanaim, where the Lord gave him victory over the hosts of Absalom? Or did he refer to Rabbath of Ammon, where he gained signal triumphs? Or, best of all, was Jerusalem the strong city where he most experienced the astonishing kindness of his God? Gratitude is never short of subjects: her Ebenezers stand so close together as to wall up her path to heaven on both sides. Whether in cities or in hamlets our blessed Lord has revealed himself to us, we shall never forget the hallowed spots: the lonely mount of Hermon, or the village of Emmaus, or the rock of Patmos, or the wilderness of Horeb, are all alike renowned when God manifests himself to us in robes of love.
22. Confession of faults is always proper; and when we reflect upon the goodness of God, we ought to be reminded of our own errors and offences. “For I said in my haste.” We generally speak amiss when we are in a hurry. Hasty words are but for a moment on the tongue, but they often lie for years on the conscience. “I am cut off from before thine eyes.” This was an unworthy speech; but unbelief will have a corner in the heart of the firmest believer, and out of that corner it will vent many spiteful things against the Lord if the course of providence be not quite so smooth as nature might desire. No saint ever was, or ever could be, cut off from before the eyes of God, and yet no doubt many have thought so, and more than one have said so. For ever be such dark suspicions banished from our minds. “Nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.” What a mercy that if we believe not, yet God abideth faithful, hearing prayer even when we are labouring under doubts which dishonour his name. If we consider the hindrances in the way of our prayers, and the poor way in which we present them, it is a wonder of wonders that they ever prevail with heaven.
23 O love the LORD, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer.
24 Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.
23. “O love the Lord, all ye his saints.” A most affecting exhortation, showing clearly the deep love of the writer to his God: there is the more beauty in the expression, because it reveals love towards a smiting God, love which many waters could not quench. To bless him who gives is easy, but to cling to him who takes away is a work of grace. All the saints are benefited by the sanctified miseries of one, if they are led by earnest exhortations to love their Lord the better. If saints do not love the Lord, who will? Love is the universal debt of all the saved family: who would wish to be exonerated from its payment? Reasons for love are given, for believing love is not blind. “For the Lord preserveth the faithful.” They have to bide their time, but the recompense comes at last, and meanwhile all the cruel malice of their enemies cannot destroy them. “And plentifully rewardeth the proud doer.” This also is cause for gratitude: pride is so detestable in its acts that he who shall mete out to it its righteous due, deserves the love of all holy minds.
24. “Be of good courage.” Keep up your spirit, let no craven thoughts blanch your cheek. Fear weakens, courage strengthens. Victory waits upon the banners of the brave. “And he shall strengthen your heart.” Power from on high shall be given in the most effectual manner by administering force to the fountain of vitality. So far from leaving us, the Lord will draw very near to us in our adversity, and put his own power into us. “All ye that hope in the Lord.” Every one of you, lift up your heads and sing for joy of heart. God is faithful, and does not fail even his little children who do but hope, wherefore then should we be afraid?
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.
Verse 1.—“In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust.” Let us therefore shun mistrust; doubt is death, trust alone is life. Let us make sure that we trust the Lord, and never take our trust on trust. “Let me never be ashamed.” If David prays against being ashamed, let us strive against it. Lovers of Jesus should be ashamed of being ashamed.—C. H. S.
Verse 1.—“Deliver me in thy righteousness.” For supporting thy faith, mark well whereon it may safely rest; even upon God’s righteousness, as well as upon his mercy. On this ground did the apostle in faith expect the crown of righteousness (2 Tim. iv. 7, 8), because the Lord from whom he expected it is a righteous judge; and the Psalmist is bold to appeal to the righteousness of God. Ps. xxxv. 24. For we may be well assured that what God’s goodness, grace, and mercy moved him to promise, his truth, his faithfulness, and righteousness will move him to perform.—William Gouge.
Verses 1, 2, 3:—
Shadows are faithless, and the rocks are false; No trust in brass, no trust in marble walls; Poor cots are e’en as safe as princes’ halls.
Great God! there is no safety here below; Thou art my fortress, thou that seem’st my foe, ’Tis thou, that strik’st the stroke, must guard the blow.
Thou art my God, by thee I fall or stand; Thy grace hath giv’n me courage to withstand All tortures, but my conscience and thy hand.
I know thy justice is thyself; I know, Just God, thy very self is mercy too; If not to thee, where, whither shall I go?
Francis Quarles.
Verse 2.—“Bow down thine ear.” Listen to my complaint. Put thy ear to my lips, that thou mayest hear all that my feebleness is capable of uttering. We generally put our ear near to the lips of the sick and dying that we may hear what they say. To this the text appears to allude.—Adam Clarke.
Verse 2.—“Deliver me speedily.” In praying that he may be delivered speedily there is shown the greatness of his danger, as if he had said, All will soon be over with my life, unless God make haste to help me.—John Calvin.
Verses 2, 3.—“Be thou my strong rock,” etc. What the Lord is engaged to be unto us by covenant, we may pray and expect to find him in effect. “Be thou my strong rock,” saith he, “for thou art my rock.”—David Dickson.
Verse 3.—“For thy name’s sake.” If merely a creature’s honour, the credit of ministers or the glory of angels were involved, man’s salvation would indeed be uncertain. But every step involves the honour of God. We plead for his name’s sake. If God should begin and not continue, or if he should carry on but not complete the work, all would admit that it was for some reason that must bring reproach on the Almighty. This can never be. God was self-moved to undertake man’s salvation. His glorious name makes it certain the top-stone shall be laid in glory.—William S. Plumer.
Verse 3.—“For thy name’s sake.” On account of the fame of thy power, thy goodness, thy truth, etc. “Lead me.” As a shepherd an erring sheep, as a leader military bands, or as one leads another ignorant of the way. See Gen. xxiv. 27; Neh. ix. 12, 13; Ps. xxiii. 3; lxxiii. 24. Govern my counsels, my affections, and my thoughts.—Martin Geier, 1614-1681.
Verse 4.—“Pull me out of the net:” that noted net, as the Hebrew hath it.—John Trapp.
Verse 4.—“Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me.” By these words, he intimateth that his enemies did not only by open force come against him, but by cunning and policy attempted to circumvent him, as when they put him on, as Saul instructed them, to be the king’s son-in-law, and to this end set him on to get two hundred foreskins of the Philistines for a dowry, under a pretence of good-will, seeking his ruin; and when wait also was laid for him to kill him in his house. But he trusted in God, and prayed to be delivered, if there should be any the like enterprise against him hereafter.—John Mayer.
Verse 4.—“For thou art my strength.” Omnipotence cuts the net which policy weaves. When we poor puny things are in the net, God is not. In the old fable the mouse set free the lion, here the lion liberates the mouse.—C. H. S.
Verse 5.—“Into thine hand I commit my spirit.” These were the last words of Polycarp, of Bernard, of Huss, of Jerome of Prague, of Luther, Melancthon, and many others. “Blessed are they,” says Luther, “who die not only for the Lord, as martyrs, not only in the Lord, as all believers, but likewise with the Lord, as breathing forth their lives in these words, ‘Into thine hand I commit my spirit.’” J. J. Stewart Perowne.
Verse 5.—“Into thine hand I commit my spirit.” These words, as they stand in the Vulgate, were in the highest credit among our ancestors; by whom they were used in all dangers, difficulties, and in the article of death. In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum, was used by the sick when about to expire, if they were sensible; and if not, the priest said it in their behalf. In forms of prayer for sick and dying persons, these words were frequently inserted in Latin, though all the rest of the prayer was English; for it was supposed there was something sovereign in the language itself. But let not the abuse of such words hinder their usefulness. For an ejaculation nothing can be better; and when the pious or the tempted with confidence use them, nothing can exceed their effect.—Adam Clarke.
Verse 5.—“Into thine hand I commit my spirit,” etc. For what are the saints to commit their spirits into the hands of God by Jesus Christ?
1. That they may be safe; i.e., preserved in their passage to heaven, from all the enemies and dangers that may stand in the way. When saints die, the powers of darkness would, doubtless, if possible, hinder the ascending of their souls to God. As they are cast out of heaven, they are filled with rage to see any out of our world going thither. One thing, therefore, which the saint means in committing his spirit into the hands of God, is, that the precious depositum may be kept from all that wish or would attempt its ruin. And they are sure that almighty power belongs to God: and if this is engaged for their preservation, none can pluck them out of his hand. The Redeemer hath spoiled principalities and powers, and proved it by his triumphant ascension to glory; and hath all his and the believer’s enemies in a chain, so that they shall be more than conquerors in and through him. Angels, for order’s sake, are sent forth to minister to them and be their guard, who will faithfully attend them their charge, till they are brought to the presence of the common Lord of both. “I know,” saith the apostle, “whom I have believed; and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”
2. They commit their soul into the hands of God, that they may be admitted to dwell with him, even in that presence of his where there is fulness of joy, and where there are pleasures for evermore: where all evil is excluded, and all good present, to fill their desires, and find them matter of praise to all eternity.
3. They commit their departing spirits into the hands of God, that their bodies may be at length raised and reunited to them, and that so they may enter at last into the blessedness prepared for them that love him....
The grounds on which they may do this with comfort, i.e., with lively hopes of being happy for ever, are many. To mention only two:—
1. God’s interest in them, and upon the most endearing foundation, that of redemption. “Into thine hand I commit my spirit: for thou hast redeemed me.”
Redeemed me from hell and the wrath to come, by giving thy Son to die for me. Lord, I am not only thy creature, but thy redeemed creature, bought with a price, saith the saint.
Redeemed me from the power of my inward corruption, and from love to it, and delight in it; and with my consent hast drawn me to be thine, and thine for ever. Lord, I am thine, save me unchangeably.
2. His known faithfulness. “Into thine hand I commit my spirit, O Lord God of truth.” Into thine hand I commit my spirit, who hast been a God of truth, in performing thy promises to all thy people that are gone before me out of this world; and hast been so to me hitherto, and, I cannot doubt, wilt continue so to the end.—Daniel Wilcox.
Verse 5.—“Into thine hand.” When those hands fail me, then am I indeed abandoned and miserable! When they sustain and keep me, then am I safe, exalted, strong, and filled with good.
Receive me, then, O Eternal Father, for the sake of our Lord’s merits and words; for he, by his obedience and his death, hath now merited from thee everything which I do not merit of myself. Into thy hands, my Father and my God, I commend my spirit, my soul, my body, my powers, my desires. I offer up to thy hands, all; to them I commit all that I have hitherto been, that thou mayest forgive and restore all; my wounds, that thou mayest heal them; my blindness, that thou mayest enlighten it; my coldness, that thou mayest inflame it; my wicked and erring ways, that thou mayest set me forth in the right path; and all my evils, that thou mayest uproot them all from my soul. I commend and offer up into thy most sacred hands, O my God, what I am, which thou knowest far better than I can know, weak, wretched, wounded, fickle, blind, deaf, dumb, poor, bare of every good, nothing, yea, less than nothing, on account of my many sins, and more miserable than I can either know or express. Do thou, Lord God, receive me and make me to become what he, the divine Lamb, would have me to be. I commend, I offer up, I deliver over into thy divine hands, all my affairs, my cares, my affections, my success, my comforts, my labours, and everything which thou knowest to be coming upon me. Direct all to thy honour and glory; teach me in all to do thy will, and in all to recognise the work of thy divine hands; to seek nothing else, and with this reflection alone to find rest and comfort in everything.
O hands of the Eternal God, who made and still preserve the heavens and earth for my sake, and who made me for yourselves, suffer me not ever to stray from you. In those hands I possess my Lamb, and all I love; in them therefore must I be also, together with him. Together with him, in these loving hands I shall sleep and rest in peace, since he in dying left me hope in them and in their infinite mercies, placed me within them, as my only and my special refuge. Since by these hands I live and am what I am, make me continually to live through them, and in them to die; in them to live in the love of our Lord, and from them only to desire and look for every good; that from them I may at last, together with the Lord, receive the crown.—Fra Thomé de Jesu.
Verse 5.—“Into thine hand I commit my spirit.” No shadowy form of a dark destiny stands before him at the end of his career, although he must die on the cross, the countenance of his Father shines before him. He does not behold his life melting away into the gloomy floods of mortality. He commends it into the hands of his Father. It is not alone in the general spirit of humanity, that he will continue to live. He will live on in the definite personality of his own spirit, embraced by the special protection and faithfulness of his Father. Thus he does not surrender his life despondingly to death for destruction, but with triumphant consciousness to the Father for resurrection. It was the very centre of his testament; assurance of life; surrender of his life into the hand of a living Father. With loud voice he exclaimed it to the world, which will for ever and ever sink into the heathenish consciousness of death, of the fear of death, of despair of immortality and resurrection, because it for ever and ever allows the consciousness of the personality of God, and of personal union with him, to be obscured and shaken. With the heart of a lion, the dying Christ once more testified of life with an expression which was connected with the word of the Old Testament Psalm, and testified that the Spirit of eternal life was already operative, in prophetic anticipation, in the old covenant. Thus living as ever, he surrendered his life, through death, to the eternally living One. His death was the last and highest fact, the crown of his holy life.—J. P. Lange, D.D., in “The Life of the Lord Jesus Christ,” 1864.
Verse 5.—“Into thine hand I commit my spirit.” David committed his spirit to God that he might not die, but Christ and all Christians after him, commit their spirit to God, that they may live for ever by death, and after death. This Psalm is thus connected with the twenty-second Psalm. Both of these Psalms were used by Christ on the cross. From the twenty-second he derived those bitter words of anguish, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” From the present Psalm he derived those last words of love and trust which he uttered just before his death. The Psalter was the hymn-book and prayer-book of Christ.—Christopher Wordsworth.
Verse 6.—“I have hated.” Holy men have strong passions, and are not so mincing and charitable towards evil doers as smooth-tongued latitudinarians would have them. He who does not hate evil does not love good. There is such a thing as a good hater.—C. H. S.
Verse 6.—“They that regard lying vanities.” The Romanists feign miracles of the saints to make them, as they suppose, the more glorious. They say that the house wherein the Virgin Mary was when the angel Gabriel came unto her was, many hundred years after, translated, first, out of Galilee into Dalmatia, above 2,000 miles, and thence over the sea into Italy, where also it removed from one place to another, till at length it found a place where to abide, and many most miraculous cures, they say, were wrought by it, and that the very trees when it came, did bow unto it. Infinite stories they have of this nature, especially in the Legend of Saints, which they call “The Golden Legend,” a book so full of gross stuff that Ludovicus Vives, a Papist, but learned and ingenuous, with great indignation cried out, “What can be more abominable than that book?” and he wondered why they should call it “golden,” when as he that wrote it was a man “of an iron mouth and of a leaden heart.” And Melchior Canus, a Romish bishop, passed the same censure upon that book, and complains (as Vives also had done before him), that Laertius wrote the lives of philosophers, and Suetonius the lives of the Cæsars, more sincerely than some did the lives of the saints and martyrs.
They are most vain and superstitious in the honour which they give to the relics of the saints; as their dead bodies, or some parts of them; their bones, flesh, hair; yea, their clothes that they wore, or the like. “You may now, everywhere,” saith Erasmus, “see held out for gain, Mary’s milk, which they honour almost as much as Christ’s consecrated body; prodigious oil; so many pieces of the cross, that if these were all gathered together a great ship would scarce carry them. Here Francis’s hood set forth to view; there the innermost garment of the Virgin Mary; in one place, Anna’s comb; in another place, Joseph’s stocking; in another place, Thomas of Canterbury’s shoe; in another place, Christ’s foreskin, which, though it be a thing uncertain, they worship more religiously than Christ’s whole person. Neither do they bring forth these things as things that may be tolerated, and to please the common people, but all religion almost is placed in them.”[4]—Christopher Cartwright.
Verse 6.—The sense lies thus, that heathen men, when any danger or difficulty approacheth them, are solemnly wont to apply themselves to auguries and divinations, and so to false gods, to receive advice and direction from them: but doing so and observing their responses most superstitiously, they yet gain nothing at all by it. These David detests, and keeps close to God, hoping for no aid but from him.—H. Hammond, D.D.
Verse 7.—“I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy.”—In the midst of trouble faith will furnish matter of joy, and promise to itself gladness, especially from the memory of by-past experiences of God’s mercy; as here, “I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy.”... The ground of our gladness, when we have found a proof of God’s kindness to us should not be in the benefit so much as in the fountain of the benefit; for this giveth us hope to drink again of the like experience from the fountain which did send forth that benefit. Therefore David says, “I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy.”—David Dickson.
Verse 7.—“Thou hast considered my trouble:”
Man’s plea to man, is, that he never more Will beg, and that he never begg’d before: Man’s plea to God, is, that he did obtain A former suit, and, therefore sues again. How good a God we serve; that when we sue, Makes his old gifts the examples of his new!
Francis Quarles.
Verse 7.—“Thou hast known my soul in adversities.” One day a person who, by the calamities of war, sickness, and other affliction, had been reduced from a state of affluence to penury, came to Gotthold in great distress. He complained that he had just met one of his former acquaintances, who was even not distantly related to him, but that he had not condescended to bow, far less to speak to him, and had turned his eyes away, and passed him as if he had been a stranger. O sir, he exclaimed with a sigh, how it pained me! I felt as if a dagger had pierced my heart! Gotthold replied, Don’t think it strange at all. It is the way of the world to look high, and to pass unnoticed that which is humble and lowly. I know, however, of One who, though he dwelleth on high, humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth (Ps. cxiii. 5, 6), and of whom the royal prophet testifies: “Thou hast known my soul in adversities.” Yes; though we have lost our rich attire, and come to him in rags; though our forms be wasted because of grief, and waxed old (Ps. vi. 7, Luth. Ver.); though sickness and sorrow have consumed our beauty like a moth (Ps. xxxix. 11); though blushes, and tears, and dust, overspread our face (Ps. lxix. 7), he still recognises, and is not ashamed to own us. Comfort yourself with this, for what harm will it do you at last, though men disown, if God the Lord have not forgotten you?—Christian Scriver.
Verse 8.—He openeth and no man shutteth. Let us bless the Lord for an open door which neither men nor devils can close. We are not in man’s hands yet, because we are in the hands of God: else had our feet been in the stocks and not in the large room of liberty. Our enemies, if they were as able as they are willing, would long ago have treated us as fowlers do the little birds when they enclose them in their hand.—C. H. S.
Verse 9.—“Mine eye is consumed with grief.” This expression seems to suggest that the eye really suffers under the influence of grief. There was an old idea, which still prevails amongst the uninstructed, that the eye, under extreme grief, and with a constant profuse flow of tears, might sink away and perish under the ordeal. There is no solid foundation for this idea, but there is a very serious form of disease of the eyes, well known to oculists by the title of Glaucoma, which seems to be very much influenced by mental emotions of a depressing nature. I have known many striking instances of cases in which there has been a constitutional proneness to Glaucoma, and in which some sudden grief has brought on a violent access of the disease and induced blindness of an incurable nature. In such instances the explanation seems to be somewhat as follows. It is essential to the healthy performance of the functions of the eye, that it should possess a given amount of elasticity, which again results from an exact balance between the amount of fluid within the eye, and the external fibrous case or bag that contains or encloses it. If this is disturbed, if the fluid increases unduly in quantity, and the eye becomes too hard, pain and inflammation may be suddenly induced in the interior of the eye, and sight may become rapidly extinguished. There are a special set of nerves that preside over this peculiar physical condition, and keep the eye in a proper state of elasticity; and it is a remarkable fact, that through a long life, as a rule, we find that the eye preserves this elastic state. If, however, the function of these nerves is impaired, as it may readily be under the influence of extreme grief, or any depressing agent, the eye may become suddenly hard. Until a comparatively recent date, acute Glaucoma, or sudden hardening of the eye, attended with intense pain and inflammation, caused complete and hopeless blindness; but in the present day it is capable of relief by means of an operation. The effect of grief in causing this form of blindness seems to be an explanation of the text, “Mine eye is consumed with grief.”[5]
Verses 9, 10:—
If thou wouldst learn, not knowing how to pray, Add but a faith, and say as beggars say: _Master, I’m poor, and blind, in great distress, Hungry, and lame, and cold, and comfortless; O succour him that’s gravell’d on the shelf Of pain, and want, and cannot help himself; Cast down thine eye upon a wretch, and take Some pity on me, for sweet Jesus’ sake_: But hold! take heed this clause be not put in, I never begged before, nor will again.
Francis Quarles.
Verse 10.—“Mine iniquity:” Italian version, “my pains;” because that death and all miseries are come into the world by reason of sin, the Scripture doth often confound the names of the cause and of the effects.—John Diodati.
Verse 10.—I find that when the saints are under trial and well humbled, little sins raise great cries in the conscience; but in prosperity, conscience is a pope that gives dispensations and great latitude to our hearts. The cross is therefore as needful as the crown is glorious.—Samuel Rutherford.
Verse 11.—“I was a reproach among all mine enemies.” If anyone strives after patience and humility, he is a hypocrite. If he allows himself in the pleasures of this world, he is a glutton. If he seeks justice, he is impatient; if he seeks it not, he is a fool. If he would be prudent, he is stingy; if he would make others happy, he is dissolute. If he gives himself up to prayer, he is vainglorious. And this is the great loss of the church, that by means like these many are held back from goodness! which the Psalmist lamenting says, “I became a reproof among all mine enemies.”—Chrysostom, quoted by J. M. Neale.
Verse 11.—“They that did see me without fled from me.” I once heard the following relation from an old man of the world, and it occurs to me, as illustrative of what we are now considering. He was at a public assembly, and saw there an individual withdrawing herself from the crowd, and going into a corner of the room. He went up to her, she was an old and intimate friend of his; he addressed himself to her—she, with a sigh, said, “Oh, I have seen many days of trouble since we last met.” What does the man of the world do? Immediately he withdrew himself from his sorrow-stricken friend and hid himself in the crowd. Such is the sympathy of the world with Christ or his servants.—Hamilton Verschoyle.
Verse 12.—“I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind.” A striking instance of how the greatest princes are forgotten in death is found in the deathbed of Louis XIV. “The Louis that was, lies forsaken, a mass of abhorred clay; abandoned ‘to some poor persons, and priests of the Chapelle Ardente,’ who make haste to put him ‘in two lead coffins, pouring in abundant spirits of wine.’ The new Louis with his court is rolling towards Choisy, through the summer afternoon: the royal tears still flow; but a word mispronounced by Monseigneur d’Artois sets them all laughing, and they weep no more.”—Thomas Carlyle in “The French Revolution.”
Verse 12.—“I am forgotten,” etc. As a dying man with curtains drawn, whom friends have no hope of, and therefore look off from; or rather like a dead man laid aside out of sight and out of mind altogether, and buried more in oblivion than in his grave; when the news is, “she is dead, trouble not the Master.” Luke viii. 49.—Anthony Tuckney, D.D., 1599-1670.
Verse 12.—“I am like a broken vessel.” As a vessel, how profitable soever it hath been to the owner, and how necessary for his turn, yet, when it is broken is thrown away, and regarded no longer: even so such is the state of a man forsaken of those whose friend he hath been so long as he was able to stand them in stead, to be of advantage to them.—Robert Cawdray.
Verses 12-15:—
Forgot as those who in the grave abide, And as a broken vessel past repair, Slandered by many, fear on every side, Who counsel take and would my life ensnare.
But, Lord, my hopes on thee are fixed: I said, Thou art my God, my days are in thy hand; Against my furious foes oppose thy aid. And those who persecute my soul withstand.
George Sandys.
Verse 13.—“I have heard the slander of many.” From my very childhood, when I was first sensible of the concernments of men’s souls, I was possessed with some admiration to find that everywhere the religious, godly sort of people, who did but exercise a serious care of their own and other men’s salvation, were made the wonder and obloquy of the world, especially of the most vicious and flagitious men; so that they that professed the same articles of faith, the same commandments of God to be their law, and the same petitions of the Lord’s prayer to be their desire, and so professed the same religion, did everywhere revile those that endeavoured to live in good earnest in what they said. I thought this was impudent hypocrisy in the ungodly, worldly sort of men—to take those for the most intolerable persons in the land who are but serious in their own religion, and do but endeavour to perform what all their enemies also vow and promise. If religion be bad, and our faith be not true, why do these men profess it? If it be true and good, why do they hate and revile them that would live in the serious practice of it, if they will not practise it themselves? But we must not expect reason when sin and sensuality have made men unreasonable.
But I must profess that since I observed the course of the world, and the concord of the word and providence of God, I took it for a notable proof of man’s fall, and of the truth of the Scripture, and of the supernatural original of true sanctification, to find such a universal enmity between the holy and the serpentine seed, and to find Cain and Abel’s case so ordinarily exemplified, and he that is born after the flesh persecuting him that is born after the Spirit. And methinks to this day it is a great and visible help for the confirmation of our Christian faith.—Richard Baxter.
Verse 13.—“Slander.” Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.—William Shakespeare.
Verse 13.—“They took counsel together against me,” etc. While they mangled his reputation, they did it in such a manner as that they covered their wickedness under the appearance of grave and considerate procedure, in consulting among themselves to destroy him as a man who no longer ought to be tolerated on the earth. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that his mind was wounded by so many and so sharp temptations.—John Calvin.
Verse 14.—“But I trusted in thee, O Lord.” The rendering properly is, And I have trusted in thee, but the Hebrew copulative particle ו, vau, and, is used here instead of the adversitive particle yet, or nevertheless. David, setting the steadfastness of his faith in opposition to the assaults of the temptations of which he has made mention, denies that he had ever fainted, but rather maintains, on the contrary, that he stood firm in his hope of deliverance from God. Nor does this imply that he boasted of being so magnanimous and courageous that he could not be overthrown through the infirmity of the flesh. However contrary to one another they appear, yet these things are often joined together, as they ought to be, in the same person, namely, that while he pines away with grief, and is deprived of all strength, he is nevertheless supported by so strong a hope that he ceases not to call upon God. David, therefore, was not so overwhelmed in deep sorrow, and other direful sufferings, as that the hidden light of faith could not shine inwardly in his heart; nor did he groan so much under the weighty load of his temptations, as to be prevented from arousing himself to call upon God. He struggled through many obstacles to be able to make the confession which he here makes. He next defines the manner of his faith, namely, that he reflected with himself thus—that God would never fail him nor forsake him. Let us mark his manner of speech: I have said, Thou art my God. In these words he intimates that he was so entirely persuaded of this truth, that God was his God, that he would not admit even a suggestion to the contrary. And until this persuasion prevails so as to take possession of our minds, we shall always waver in uncertainty. It is, however, to be observed, that this declaration is not only inward and secret—made rather in the heart than with the tongue—but that it is directed to God himself, as to him who is the alone witness of it. Nothing is more difficult, when we see our faith derided by the whole world, than to direct our speech to God only, and to rest satisfied with this testimony which our conscience gives us, that he is our God. And certainly it is an undoubted proof of genuine faith, when, however fierce the waves are which beat against us, and however sore the assaults by which we are shaken, we hold fast this as a fixed principle, that we are constantly under the protection of God, and can say to him freely, Thou art our God.—John Calvin.
Verse 14.—“Thou art my God.” How much it is more worth than ten thousand mines of gold, to be able to say, God is mine! God’s servant is apprehensive of it, and he seeth no defect, but this may be complete happiness to him, and therefore he delights in it, and comforts himself with it. As he did sometime who was a great courtier in King Cyrus’s court, and one in favour with him; he was to bestow his daughter in marriage to a very great man, and of himself he had no great means; and therefore one said to him, O Sir, where will you have means to bestow a dowry upon your daughter proportionable to her degree? Where are your riches? He answered, What need I care, ὅπου Κυρος μοι φίλος, Cyrus is my friend. But may not we say much more, ὅπου Κυριος μοι φίλος, where the Lord is our friend, that hath those excellent and glorious attributes that cannot come short in any wants, or to make us happy, especially we being capable of it, and made proportionable.—John Stoughton’s “Righteous Man’s Plea to True Happinesse,” 1640.
Verse 15.—“My times are in thy hand.” It is observable that when, of late years, men grew weary of the long and tedious compass in their voyages to the East Indies, and would needs try a more compendious way by the North-West passage, it ever proved unsuccessful. Thus it is that we must not use any compendious way; we may not neglect our body, nor shipwreck our health, nor anything to hasten death, because we shall gain by it. He that maketh haste (even this way) to be rich shall not be innocent; for our times are in God’s hands, and therefore to his holy providence we must leave them. We have a great deal of work to do, and must not, therefore, be so greedy of our Sabbath-day, our rest, as not to be contented with our working-day, our labour. Hence it is that a composed frame of heart, like that of the apostle’s (Phil. i. 21), wherein either to stay and work, or to go and rest, is the best temper of all.—Edward Reynolds, in J. Spencer’s “Things New and Old.”
Verse 15.—“My times.” He does not use the plural number, in my opinion, without reason; but rather to mark the variety of casualties by which the life of man is usually harassed.—John Calvin.
Verse 15.—“In thy hand.” The watch hangs ticking against the wall, when every tick of the watch is a sigh, and a consciousness, alas! Poor watch! I called once to see a friend, the physician and the secretary of one of the most noble and admirable of the asylums for the insane in this country. A poor creature, with a clear, bright intelligence, only that some of its chords had become unstrung, who had usually occupied itself innocently by making or unmaking watches, had just before I called, exhibited some new, alarming symptoms, dashing one and then another upon the stone floor, and shivering them. Removed into a more safe room, I visited him with the secretary. “How came you to destroy your favourite watches, so much as you loved them, and so quiet as you are?” said my friend; and the poor patient replied, in a tone of piercing agony, “I could not bear the tick, tick, ticking, and so I dashed it on the pavement.” But when the watch is able to surrender itself to the maker, to the hand holding the watch, and measuring out the moments, it becomes a sight affecting indeed, but very beautiful, very sublime. We transfer our thought from the watch to the hand that holds the watch. “My times,” “Thy hand;” the watch and the hour have a purpose, and are not in vain. God gives man permission to behold two things. Man can see the whole work, the plan’s completeness, also the minutest work, the first step towards the plan’s completeness. Nothing is more certain, nothing are men more indisposed to perceive than this. We have to
“Wait for some transcendent life. Reserved by God to follow this.”[6]
To this end God’s real way is made up of all the ways of our life. His hand holds all our times. “My times;” “Thy hand.” Some lives greatly differ from others. This we know; but see, some lives fulfil life’s course, gain life’s crown—life in their degree. This, on the contrary, others quite miss. Yet, for even human strength there must be a love meted out to rule it. It is said, there is a moon to control the tides of every sea; is there not a master power for souls? It may not always be so, apparently, in the more earthly lives, but it is so in the heavenly: not more surely does the moon sway tides than God sways souls. It does seem sometimes as if man found no adequate external power, and stands forth ordained to be a law to his own sphere; but even then his times are in the hands of God, as the pathway of a star is in the limitations of its system—as the movements of a satellite are in the forces of its planet. But while I would not pause on morbid words or views of life, so neither do I desire you to receive or charge me with giving only a moody, morbid view of the world, and an imperfect theology; but far other. “My times are in thy hand”—the hand of my Saviour.
“I report as a man may of God’s work—all’s love, but all’s law. In the Godhead I seek and I find it, and so it shall be A face like my face that receives thee, a Man like to me Thou shalt love and be loved by for ever, a hand like this hand Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee: _See the Christ stand!_”[7]
And now he is “the restorer of paths to dwell in.” The hand of Jesus is the hand which rules our times. He regulates our life-clock. Christ for and Christ in us. My times in his hand. My life can be no more in vain than was my Saviour’s life in vain.—E. Paxton Hood, in “Dark Sayings on a Harp,” 1865.
Verse 15.—When David had Saul at his mercy in the cave, those about him said, This is the time in which God will deliver thee. 1 Sam. xxiv. 4. No, saith David, the time is not come for my deliverance till it can be wrought without sin, and I will wait for that time; for it is God’s time, and that is the best time.—Matthew Henry.
Verse 16.—“Make thy face to shine upon thy servant.” When the cloud of trouble hideth the Lord’s favour, faith knoweth it may shine again, and therefore prayeth through the cloud for the dissolving of it. “Make thy face to shine upon thy servant.”—David Dickson.
Verse 18.—“Lying lips ... which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.” The primitive persecutors slighted the Christians for a company of bad, illiterate fellows, and therefore they used to paint the God of the Christians with an ass’s head and a book in his hand, saith Tertullian; to signify, that though they pretended learning, yet they were silly and ignorant people. Bishop Jewel, in his sermon upon Luke xi. 15, cites this out of Tertullian and applies it to his times. Do not our adversaries the like, saith he, against all that profess the gospel? Oh! say they, who are those that favour this way? None but shoemakers, tailors, weavers, and such as never were at the University. These are the bishop’s own words. Bishop White said in open court, that the Puritans were all a company of blockheads.—Charles Bradbury.
Verse 18.—“Lying lips ... which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.” In that venerable and original monument of the Vaudois Church, entitled “The Golden Lesson,” of the date 1100, we meet with a verse, which has been thus translated:—
“If there be any one who loves and fears Jesus Christ, Who will not curse, nor swear, nor lie, Nor be unchaste, nor kill, nor take what is another’s, Nor take vengeance on his enemies; They say that he is a Vaudès, and worthy of punishment.”
Antoine Monastier, in “A History of Vaudois Church,” 1859.
Verse 19.—“Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee.” As a provident man will regulate his liberality towards all men in such a manner as not to defraud his children or family, nor impoverish his own house, by spending his substance prodigally on others; so God, in like manner, in exercising his beneficence to aliens from his family, knows well how to reserve for his own children that which belongs to them, as it were by hereditary right; that is to say, because of their adoption.—John Calvin.
Verse 19.—“Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee.”—Mark the phrase, “Laid up for them;” his mercy and goodness it is intended for them, as a father that lays by such a sum of money, and writes on the bag, “This is a portion for such a child.” But how comes the Christian to have this right to God, and all that vast and untold treasure of happiness which is in him? This indeed is greatly to be heeded; it is faith that gives him a good title to all this. That which maketh him a child, makes him an heir. Now, faith makes him a child of God. John i. 12, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” As therefore, if you would not call your birthright into question, and bring your interest in Christ and those glorious privileges that come along with him, under a sad dispute in your soul, look to your faith.—William Gurnall.
Verse 19.—“How great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee.” When I reflect upon the words of thy prophet, it seems to me that he means to depict God as a father who, no doubt, keeps his children under discipline, and subjects them to the rod; but who, with all his labour and pains, still aims at nothing but to lay up for them a store which may contribute to their comfort when they have grown to maturity, and learned the prudent use of it. My Father, in this world thou hidest from thy children thy great goodness, as if it did not pertain to them. But being thy children, we may be well assured that the celestial treasure will be bestowed upon none else. For this reason, I will bear my lot with patience. But, oh! from time to time, waft to me a breath of air from the heavenly land, to refresh my sorrowful heart; I will then wait more calmly for its full fruition.—Christian Scriver.
Verse 19.—“Oh how great is thy goodness.” Let me, to set the crown on the head of the duty of meditation, add one thing over and above—let meditation be carried up to admiration: not only should we be affected, but transported, rapt up and ravished with the beauties and transcendencies of heavenly things; act meditation to admiration, endeavour the highest pitch, coming the nearest to the highest patterns, the patterns of saints and angels in heaven, whose actings are the purest, highest ecstacies and admirations. Thus were these so excellent artists in meditation, David, an high actor of admiration in meditation, as often we see it in the Psalms; so in Psalm viii. 1, 9; Psalm xxxi. 19; “Oh how great is thy goodness,” etc.; Psalm civ. 24; “O Lord, how manifold are thy works,” etc.; and in other places David’s meditation and admiration were as his harp, well tuned, and excellently played on, in rarest airs and highest strains; as the precious gold, and the curious burnishing; or the richest stone, and the exquisitest polishing and setting of it. So blessed Paul, who was a great artist in musing, acted high in admiration, his soul was very warm and flaming up in it: it was as a bird with a strong and long wing that soars and towers up aloft, and gets out of sight.—Nathaniel Ranew.
Verse 19.—“Before the sons of men,” i.e., openly. The Psalmist here perhaps refers to temporal blessings conferred on the pious, and evident to all. Some, however, have supposed the reference to be to the reward of the righteous, bestowed with the utmost publicity on the day of judgment; which better agrees with our interpretation of the former part of the verse.—Daniel Cresswell, D.D., F.R.S. (1776-1844), in loc.
Verse 19.—Believe it, Sirs, you cannot conceive what a friend you shall have of God, would you but be persuaded to enter into covenant with him, to be his, wholly his. I tell you, many that sometimes thought and did as you do now, that is, set light by Christ and hate God, and see no loveliness in him, are now quite of another mind; they would not for ten thousand worlds quit their interest in him. Oh, who dare say that he is a hard Master? Who that knows him will say that he is an unkind friend? Oh, what do poor creatures all, that they do entertain such harsh, sour thoughts of God? What, do they think that there is nothing in that scripture, “Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee!” Doth the Psalmist speak too largely? Doth he say more than he and others could prove? Ask him, and he will tell you in verse 21, that he blesseth God. These were things he could speak to, from his own personal experience; and many thousands as well as he, to whom the Lord had showed his marvellous kindness, and therefore he doth very passionately plead with the people of God to love him, and more highly to express their sense of his goodness, that the world might be encouraged also to have good thoughts of him.—James Janeway.
Verse 19.—Very observable is that expression of the Psalmist, “Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought before the sons of men for them that trust in thee.” In the former clause, God’s goodness is said to be laid up; in the latter, to be wrought. Goodness is laid up in the promise, wrought in the performance; and that goodness which is laid up is wrought for them that trust in God; and thus, as God’s faithfulness engageth us to believe, so our faith, as it were, engageth God’s faithfulness to perform the promise.—Nathanael Hardy.
Verse 20.—“Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.” This our beloved God does secretly, so that no human eyes may or can see, and the ungodly do not know that a believer is, in God, and in the presence of God, so well protected, that no reproach or contempt, and no quarrelsome tongues can do him harm.—Arndt, quoted by W. Wilson, D.D.
Verse 22.—“I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications.” Who would have thought those prayers should ever have had any prevalency in God’s ears which were mixed with so much infidelity in the petitioner’s heart!—William Secker.
Verse 22.—“I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes.”—No, no, Christian; a prayer sent up in faith, according to the will of God, cannot be lost, though it be delayed. We may say of it, as David said of Saul’s sword and Jonathan’s bow, that they never return empty. So David adds, “Nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.”—John Flavel.
Verse 22.—“I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes,” etc. Let us with whom it was once night, improve that morning joy that now shines upon us. Let us be continual admirers of God’s grace and mercy to us. He has prevented us with his goodness, when he saw nothing in us but impatience and unbelief, when we were like Jonas in the belly of hell, his bowels yearned over us, and his power brought us safe to land. What did we to hasten his deliverance, or to obtain his mercy? If he had never come to our relief till he saw something in us to invite him, we had not yet been relieved. No more did we contribute to our restoration than we do to the rising of the sun, or the approach of day. We were like dry bones without motion, and without strength. Ezek. xxxvii. 1-11. And we also said, that ‘we were cut off for our parts, and our hope was gone, and he caused breath to enter into us, and we live.’ Who is a God like to our God that pardoneth iniquity, transgression, and sin? that retains not his anger for ever? that is slow to wrath and delights in mercy? that has been displeased with us for a moment, but gives us hope of his everlasting kindness? Oh! what love is due from us to Christ, that has pleaded for us when we ourselves had nothing to say! That has brought us out of a den of lions, and from the jaws of the roaring lion! To say, as Mrs. Sarah Wright did, “I have obtained mercy, that thought my time of mercy past for ever; I have hope of heaven, that thought I was already damned by unbelief; I said many a time, there is no hope in mine end, and I thought I saw it; I was so desperate, I cared not what became of me. Oft was I at the very brink of death and hell, even at the very gates of both, and then Christ shut them. I was as Daniel in the lion’s den, and he stopped the mouth of those lions, and delivered me. The goodness of God is unsearchable; how great is the excellency of his majesty, that yet he would look upon such a one as I; that he has given me peace that was full of terror, and walked continually, as amidst fire and brimstone.”—Timothy Rogers.
Verse 22.—“I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes:”—i.e., Thou has quite forsaken me, and I must not expect to be looked upon or regarded by thee any more. I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul, and so be cut off before thine eyes, be ruined while thou lookest on (1 Sam. xxvii. 1). This he said in his flight (so some read it), which notes the distress of his affairs: Saul was just at his back, and ready to seize him, which made the temptation strong; in his haste (so we read it), which notes the disturbance and discomposure of his mind, which made the temptation surprising, so that it found him off his guard. Note, it is a common thing to speak amiss, when we speak in haste and without consideration; but what we speak amiss in haste, we must repent of at leisure, particularly that which we have spoken distrustfully of God.—Matthew Henry.
Verse 22.—“I said in my haste.”—Sometimes a sudden passion arises, and out it goes in angry and froward words, setting all in an uproar and combustion: by-and-by our hearts recur upon us, and then we wish, “O that I had bit my tongue, and not given it such an unbridled liberty.” Sometimes we break out into rash censures of those that it may be are better than ourselves, whereupon when we reflect, we are ashamed that the fools’ bolt was so soon shot, and wish we had been judging ourselves when we were censuring our brethren.—Richard Alleine.
Verse 22.—“Nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.” As if he had said, when I prayed with so little faith, that I, as it were, unprayed my own prayer, by concluding my case in a manner desperate; yet God pardoned my hasty spirit, and gave me that mercy which I had hardly any faith to expect; and what use doth he make of this experience, but to raise every saint’s hope in a time of need? “Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.”—William Gurnall.
Verse 22.—He confesseth the great distress he was in, and how weak his faith was under the temptation; this he doth to his own shame acknowledge also, that he may give the greater glory to God. Whence learn, 1.—The faith of the godly may be slackened, and the strongest faith may sometimes show its infirmity. “I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes.” 2.—Though faith be shaken, yet it is fixed in the root, as a tree beaten by the wind keeping strong grips of good ground. Though faith seem to yield, yet it faileth not, and even when it is at the weakest, it is uttering itself in some act, as a wrestler, for here the expression of David’s infirmity in faith, is directed to God, and his earnest prayer joined with it, “I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications.” 3.—Praying faith, how weak soever, shall not be misregarded of God; for “nevertheless” saith he, “thou heardest the voice of my supplications.” 4.—There may be in a soul at one time, both grief oppressing, and hope upholding; both darkness of trouble, and the light of faith; both desperately doubting, and strong gripping of God’s truth and goodness; both a fainting and a fighting; a seeming yielding in the fight, and yet a striving of faith against all opposition; both a foolish haste, and a settled stayedness of faith; as here, “I said in my haste” etc.—David Dickson.
Verse 22.—David vents his astonishment at the Lord’s condescension in hearing his prayer. How do we wonder at the goodness of a petty man in granting our desires! How much more should we at the humility and goodness of the most sovereign Majesty of heaven and earth!—Stephen Charnock.
Verse 23.—“O love the Lord, all ye his saints.” The holy Psalmist in the words does, with all the warmth of an affectionate zeal, incite us to the love of God, which is the incomparably noblest passion of a reasonable mind, its brightest glory and most exquisite felicity; and it is, as appears evident from the nature of the thing, and the whole train of divine revelation, the comprehensive sum of that duty which we owe to our Maker, and the very soul which animates a religious life, that we “love the Lord with all our heart, and strength, and mind.”—William Dunlop, A.M., 1692-1720.
Verse 23.—“O love the Lord, all ye his saints,” etc. Some few words are to be attended in the clearing of the sense. “Saints” here in the text is or may be read, ye that feel mercies. “Faithful,” the word is sometimes taken for persons, sometimes things; and so the Lord is said to preserve true men, and truths, faithful men, and faithfulnesses. “He plenteously rewardeth the proud doer;” or, the Lord rewardeth plenteously; the Lord, who doth wonderful things. Plenteously is either in cumulum, abunde, or in nepotes, as some would have it; but I would rather commend, than go about to amend translations: though I could wish some of my learned brethren’s quarrelling hours were spent rather upon clearing the originals, and so conveying over pure Scripture to posterity, than in scratching others with their sharpened pens, and making cock-pits of pulpits.—Hugh Peters’ “Sermon preached before both Houses of Parliament, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London, and the Assembly of Divines, at the last Thanksgiving Day, April 2. For the recovering of the West, and disbanding 5,000 of the King’s Horse, etc., 1645.”
23. “And plentifully rewardeth the proud doer.” The next query is, how God rewardeth the proud doer? in which, though the Lord’s proceedings be diverse, and many times his paths in the clouds, and his judgments in the deep, and the uttermost farthing shall be paid the proud doer at the great day; yet so much of his mind he hath left unto us, that even in this life he gives out something to the proud which he calls “the day of recompense,” which he commonly manifests in these particulars:—1. By way of retaliation—for Adoni-bezek that would be cutting off thumbs, had his thumbs cut off. Judges i. 7. So the poor Jews that cried so loud, “Crucify him, crucify him,” were so many of them crucified, that if you believe Josephus, there was not wood enough to make crosses, nor in the usual place room enough to set up the crosses when they were made. Snares are made and pits are digged by the proud for themselves commonly, to which the Scripture throughout gives abundant testimony. 2. By shameful disappointments, seldom reaping what they sow, nor eating what they catch in hunting, which is most clear in the Jewish State when Christ was amongst them. Judas betrays him to get money, and hardly lived long enough to spend it. Pilate, to please Cæsar, withstands all counsels against it, and gives way to that murder, by which he ruined both himself and Cæsar. The Jewish priests, to maintain that domination and honour (which they thought the son of Joseph and Mary stole from them) cried aloud for his death, which proved a sepulchre to them and their glory. And the poor people that crucified him (through fear of the Romans taking their city) by his death had their gates opened to the Romans—yea, Cæsar himself, fearing a great change in his government by Christ living near him (which to-day sets all the kingcraft in the world to work) met such a change that shortly he had neither crown nor sceptre to boast of, if you read the story of Titus and Vespasian, all which dealings of God with the proud is most elegantly set forth unto us by the Psalmist. “Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which be made.”—Hugh Peters.
24. “Be of good courage.” Christian courage may thus be described. It is the undaunted audacity of a sanctified heart in adventuring upon difficulties and undergoing hardships for a good cause upon the call of God. The genus, the common nature of it is an undaunted audacity. This animosity, as some phrase it, is common both unto men and to some brutes. The lion is said to be the strongest among beasts, that turneth not away from any. Prov. xxx. 30. And there is an elegant description of the war horse in regard of boldness. Job xxxix. 19, etc. And this boldness that is in brutes is spoken of as a piece of this same courage that God is pleased to give to men. Ezek. iii. 9. This is the Lord’s promise—“As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead.” The word “harder” is the same in the Hebrew that is here in my text—fortiorem petra—the rock that is not afraid of any weather, summer or winter, sun and showers, heat and cold, frost and snow; it blusheth not, shrinketh not, it changeth not its complexion, it is still the same. Such a like thing is courage, in the common nature of it. Secondly, consider the subject, it is the heart, the castle where courage commands and exerciseth military discipline; (shall I so say) it’s within the bosom, it is the soul of a valiant soldier. Some conceive our English word courage to be derived from cordis actio, the very acting of the heart. A valiant man is described (2 Sam. xvii. 10) for to be a man whose heart is as the heart of a lion. And sometimes the original translated courageous, as Amos ii. 16, may most properly be rendered a man of heart. Beloved, valour doth not consist in a piercing eye, in a terrible look, in big words; but it consists in the mettle, the vigour that is within the bosom. Sometimes a coward may dwell at the sign of a roaring voice and of a stern countenance; whereas true fortitude may be found within his breast whose outward deportment promises little or nothing in that kind. Thirdly, note the qualification of this same subject; I said a sanctified heart; for I am not now speaking of fortitude as a moral virtue, whereof heathens that have not God are capable, and for which many among them that are not Christians, have been worthily commended. But I am now discoursing of courage as a virtue theological, as a gracious qualification, put upon the people of God by special covenant. And there are three things that do characterise it, and which do distinguish it from the moral virtue of fortitude. (1) The root, whence it ariseth; (2) the rule, whereby it is directed; (3) the end, to which it is referred. The root, whence it ariseth, is love to God: all the saints of God that love the Lord be of good courage. The love of Christ constraineth me to make these bold and brave adventures, saith the apostle. 2 Cor. v. 14. The rule, whereby it is directed, is the word of God—what the Lord hath pleased to leave on record for a Christian’s guidance in holy pages. 1 Chron. xxii. 12, 13. “Only the Lord give thee wisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning Israel, that thou mayest keep the law of the Lord thy God. Then shalt thou prosper, if thou takest heed to fulfil the statutes and judgments which the Lord charged Moses with concerning Israel: be strong, and of good courage: dread not, nor be dismayed.” Be a man of mettle, but let thy mettle be according to my mind, according to this rule. And the end, to which it refers, is God. For every sanctified man being a self-denying and a God-advancing man, his God is his centre, wherein his actings, his undertakings rest; and his soul is not, yea, it cannot be satisfied but in God.—Simeon Ash’s “Sermon preached before the Commanders of the Military Forces of the renowned Citie of London, 1642.”
Verse 24. “Be of good courage.”—Shall I hint some of the weighty services that are charged upon all our consciences? The work of mortification, to pick out our eyes, to chop off our hands, to cut off our feet; do you think that a milksop, a man that is not a man of a stout spirit, will do this? Now to massacre fleshly lusts, is (as it were) for a man to mangle and dismember his own body; it is a work painful and grievous, as for a man to cut off his own feet, to chop off his own hands, and to pick out his own eyes, as Christ and the apostle Paul do express it. Besides this, there are in Christians’ bosoms strongholds to be battered, fortifications to be demolished; there are high hills and mountains that must be levelled with the ground; there are trenches to be made, valleys to be filled. O beloved, I may not mention the hills that lie before us in heaven way, which we must climb up, and craggy rocks that we must get over; and without courage certainly the work put upon our hands will not be discharged. There are also the walls of Jerusalem to be repaired, and the temple to be re-edified. If Nehemiah had not been a man of a brave spirit he would never have gone through stitch with that church work, those weighty services which he did undertake. How this is applicable to us for the present time, the time of our begun reformation, I speak not, but rather do refer it to your considerations. I beseech you to read Neh. iv. 17, 18, “They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded, and he that sounded the trumpet was by me.” While they were at work, they were all ready for war.—Simeon Ash.
Verse 24.—“And he shall strengthen thy heart.” Put thou thyself forth in a way of bold adventure for him, and his providence shall be sweetly exercised for thy good. A worthy commander, how careful is he of a brave blade, a man that will fight at a cannon’s mouth! Doth he hear from him that a bone is broken? Send for the bone-setter. Is he like to bleed to death? Call for the surgeon; let him post away to prevent that peril. Doth he grow weaker and weaker? Is there anything in the camp that may restore his spirit? withhold nothing; nothing is too good, too costly; would he eat gold he should have it. Thus it is with God. Oh, what letters of commendation doth he give in manifestation of his own love to them in Pergamos upon this very ground. “Thou, saith the Lord, thou hast held forth my name, and not denied it, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth!” thou didst fight for Christ in the cave where the devil commanded; thou didst stand and appear for him when other men did lose heart and courage. Here is a man that God will own; such a one shall have God’s heart and hand to do him honour, to yield him comfort. And therefore I appeal to your consciences, is not this courage worth the having? worth the seeking?—Simeon Ash.
HINTS TO PREACHERS.
Verse 1.—Faith expressed, confusion deprecated, deliverance sought.
Verse 1 (first clause).—Open avowal of faith. 1. Duties which precede it, self-examination, etc. 2. Modes of making the confession. 3. Conduct incumbent on those who have made the profession.
Verse 1 (last clause).—How far the righteousness of God is involved in the salvation of a believer.
Verse 2 (first clause).—God’s hearing prayer a great condescension.
Verse 2 (second clause).—How far we may be urgent with God as to time.
Verses 2, 3 (last and first clauses).—That which we have we may yet seek for.
Verse 3.—Work out the metaphor of God as a rocky fastness of the soul.
Verse 3 (last clause).—1. A blessing needed, “lead me.” 2. A blessing obtainable. 3. An argument for its being granted, “for thy name’s sake.”
Verse 4.—The rescue of the ensnared. 1. The fowlers. 2. The laying of the net. 3. The capture of the bird. 4. The cry of the captive. 5. The rescue.
Verse 4 (last clause).—The weak one girt with omnipotence.
Verse 5.—I. Dying, in a saint’s account, is a difficult work. II. The children of God, when considering themselves as dying, are chiefly concerned for their departing immortal spirits. III. Such having chosen God for their God, have abundant encouragement when dying, to commit their departing spirits into his hand, with hopes of their being safe and happy for ever with him.—Daniel Wilcox.
Verse 5.—The believer’s requiem.
Redemption the foundation of our repose in God.
I. What we do—commit ourselves to God. II. What God has done—redeemed us.
Verse 6.—Holy detestation, as a virtue discriminated from bigotry: or, the good hater.
Verse 7.—I. An endearing attribute rejoiced in. II. An interesting experience related. III. A directly personal favour from God delighted in.
Verse 7 (centre clause).—Consider the measure, the effects, the time, the tempering, the ending, and the recompense.
Verse 7 (last clause).—The Lord’s familiarity with his afflicted.
Verse 8.—Christian liberty, a theme for gladness.
Verse 9.—The mourner’s lament.
Verse 9 (last clauses).—Excessive sorrow, its injurious effects on the body, the understanding, and the spiritual nature. Sin of it, cure of it.
Verses 9, 10.—The sick man’s moan, a reminder to those who enjoy good health.
Verse 10.—My strength faileth because of mine iniquity. The weakening influence of sin.
Verse 11.—The good man evil spoken of.
Verse 12.—The world’s treatment of its best friends.
Verse 14.—Faith peculiarly glorious in seasons of great trial.
The casting forth of the sheet anchor in the storm.
Verse 15.—The believer the peculiar care of providence.
Verse 15 (first clause).—I. The character of the earthly experience of the saints, “My times,” that is, the changes I shall pass through, etc. II. The advantage of this variety. 1. Changes reveal the various aspects of the Christian character. 2. Changes strengthen the Christian character. 3. Changes lead us to admire an unchanging God. III. Comfort for all seasons. 1. This implies that changes of life are subject to the divine control. 2. That God will support his people under them. 3. And, consequently, they shall result in our being abundantly profited. IV. The deportment which should characterise us. Courageous devotion to God in times of persecution; resignation and contentment in times of poverty and suffering; zeal and hope in times of labour.—From Stems and Twigs, or Sermon Framework.
Verse 16.—A sense of divine favour. 1. Its value. 2. How to lose it. 3. How to obtain a renewal of it. 4. How to retain it.
The heavenly servant’s best reward.
Verse 16 (last clause).—A prayer for saints in all stages. Note its object, “save me;” and its plea, “thy mercies’ sake.” Suitable to the penitent, the sick, the doubting, the tried, the advanced believer, the dying saint.
Verse 17.—The shame and silence of the wicked in eternity.
The silence of the grave, its grave eloquence.
Verse 19.—See “Spurgeon’s Sermons,” No. 773. “David’s Holy Wonder at the Lord’s Great Goodness.”
Verse 20.—The believer preserved from the sneers of arrogance by a sense of the divine presence, and kept from the bitterness of slander by the glory of the King whom he serves.
Verse 21.—Marvellous kindness. Marvellous that it should come to me in such a way, at such a time, in such a measure, for so long.
Verse 21.—Memorable events in life to be observed, recorded, meditated on, repeated, made the subject of gratitude, and the ground of confidence.
Verse 22.—Unbelief confessed and faithfulness adored.
The mischief of hasty speeches.
Verse 23.—An exhortation to love the Lord. 1. The matter of it, “love the Lord.” 2. To whom addressed, “all ye his saints.” 3. By whom spoken. 4. With what arguments supported, “for the Lord preserveth,” etc.
Verse 24.—Holy courage. Its excellences, difficulties, encouragements, and triumphs.
Footnote 4:
Erasmus, on Matthew xxiii. 5.
Footnote 5:
On application for information to the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, as to the effect of grief upon the eye, we received the above, with much other valuable information, from GEORGE CRITCHETT, Esq., the senior medical officer. The courtesy of this gentleman, and of the secretary of that noble institution, deserves especial mention.
Footnote 6:
Robert Browning.
Footnote 7:
Robert Browning.
PSALM XXXII.
TITLE.—A Psalm of David, Maschil. That David wrote this gloriously evangelic Psalm is proved not only by this heading, but by the words of the apostle Paul, in Romans iv. 6, 7, 8. “Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,” etc. Probably his deep repentance over his great sin was followed by such blissful peace, that he was led to pour out his spirit in the soft music of this choice song. In the order of history it seems to follow the fifty-first. Maschil is a new title to us, and indicates that this is an instructive or didactic Psalm. The experience of one believer affords rich instruction to others, it reveals the footsteps of the flock, and so comforts and directs the weak. Perhaps it was important in this case to prefix the word, that doubting saints might not imagine the Psalm to be the peculiar utterance of a singular individual, but might appropriate it to themselves as a lesson from the Spirit of God. David promised in the fifty-first Psalm to teach transgressors the Lord’s ways, and here he does it most effectually. Grotius thinks that this Psalm was meant to be sung on the annual day of the Jewish expiation, when a general confession of their sins was made.
DIVISION.—In our reading we have found it convenient to note the benediction of the pardoned, verses 1, 2; David’s personal confession, 3, 4, 5; and the application of the case to others, 6, 7. The voice of God is heard by the forgiven one in 8, 9; and the Psalm then concludes with a portion for each of the two great classes of men, 10, 11.
EXPOSITION.
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile.
1. “Blessed.” Like the sermon on the mount, this Psalm begins with beatitudes. This is the second Psalm of benediction. The first Psalm describes the result of holy blessedness, the thirty-second details the cause of it. The first pictures the tree in full growth, this depicts it in its first planting and watering. He who in the first Psalm is a reader of God’s book, is here a suppliant at God’s throne accepted and heard. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven.” He is now blessed, and ever shall be. Be he ever so poor, or sick, or sorrowful, he is blessed in very deed. Pardoning mercy is of all things in the world most to be prized, for it is the only and sure way to happiness. To hear from God’s own Spirit the words, “absolvo te” is joy unspeakable. Blessedness is not in this case ascribed to the man who has been a diligent lawkeeper, for then it would never come to us, but rather to a lawbreaker, who by grace most rich and free has been forgiven. Self-righteous Pharisees have no portion in this blessedness. Over the returning prodigal, the word of welcome is here pronounced, and the music and dancing begin. A full, instantaneous, irreversible pardon of transgression turns the poor sinner’s hell into heaven, and makes the heir of wrath a partaker in blessing. The word rendered forgiven is in the original taken off, or taken away, as a burden is lifted or a barrier removed. What a lift is here! It cost our Saviour a sweat of blood to bear our load, yea, it cost him his life to bear it quite away. Samson carried the gates of Gaza, but what was that to the weight which Jesus bore on our behalf? “Whose sin is covered.” Covered by God, as the ark was covered by the mercy-seat, as Noah was covered from the flood, as the Egyptians were covered by the depths of the sea. What a cover must that be which hides away for ever from the sight of the all-seeing God all the filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit! He who has once seen sin in its horrible deformity, will appreciate the happiness of seeing it no more for ever. Christ’s atonement is the propitiation, the covering, the making an end of sin; where this is seen and trusted in, the soul knows itself to be now accepted in the Beloved, and therefore enjoys a conscious blessedness which is the antepast of heaven. It is clear from the text that a man may know that he is pardoned: where would be the blessedness of an unknown forgiveness? Clearly it is a matter of knowledge, for it is the ground of comfort.
2. “Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.” The word blessed is in the plural, oh, the blessednesses! the double joys, the bundles of happiness, the mountains of delight! Note the three words so often used to denote our disobedience: transgression, sin, and iniquity, are the three-headed dog at the gates of hell, but our glorious Lord has silenced its barkings for ever against his own believing ones. The trinity of sin is overcome by the Trinity of heaven. Non-imputation is of the very essence of pardon: the believer sins, but his sin is not reckoned, not accounted to him. Certain divines froth at the mouth with rage against imputed righteousness, be it ours to see our sin not imputed, and to us may there be as Paul words it, “Righteousness imputed without works.” He is blessed indeed who has a substitute to stand for him to whose account all his debts may be set down. “And in whose spirit there is no guile.” He who is pardoned, has in every case been taught to deal honestly with himself, his sin, and his God. Forgiveness is no sham, and the peace which it brings is not caused by playing tricks with conscience. Self-deception and hypocrisy bring no blessedness, they may drug the soul into hell with pleasant dreams, but into the heaven of true peace they cannot conduct their victim. Free from guilt, free from guile. Those who are justified from fault are sanctified from falsehood. A liar is not a forgiven soul. Treachery, double-dealing, chicanery, dissimulation, are lineaments of the devil’s children, but he who is washed from sin is truthful, honest, simple, and childlike. There can be no blessedness to tricksters with their plans, and tricks, and shuffling, and pretending: they are too much afraid of discovery to be at ease; their house is built on the volcano’s brink, and eternal destruction must be their portion. Observe the three words to describe sin, and the three words to represent pardon, weigh them well, and note their meanings. (See note at the end.)
3 When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
4 For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.
5 I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
David now gives us his own experience: no instructor is so efficient as one who testifies to what he has personally known and felt. He writes well who like the spider spins his matter out of his own bowels.
3. “When I kept silence.” When through neglect I failed to confess, or through despair dared not to do so, “my bones,” those solid pillars of my frame, the strongest portions of my bodily constitution, “waxed old,” began to decay with weakness, for my grief was so intense as to sap my health and destroy my vital energy. What a killing thing is sin! It is a pestilent disease! A fire in the bones! While we smother our sin it rages within, and like a gathering wound swells horribly and torments terribly. “Through my roaring all the day long.” He was silent as to confession, but not as to sorrow. Horror at his great guilt, drove David to incessant laments, until his voice was no longer like the articulate speech of man, but so full of sighing and groaning, that it resembled the hoarse roaring of a wounded beast. None know the pangs of conviction but those who have endured them. The rack, the wheel, the flaming fagot are ease compared with the Tophet which a guilty conscience kindles within the breast: better suffer all the diseases which flesh is heir to, than lie under the crushing sense of the wrath of almighty God. The Spanish inquisition with all its tortures was nothing to the inquest which conscience holds within the heart.
4. “For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me.” God’s finger can crush us—what must his hand be, and that pressing heavily and continuously! Under terrors of conscience, men have little rest by night, for the grim thoughts of the day dog them to their chambers and haunt their dreams, or else they lie awake in a cold sweat of dread. God’s hand is very helpful when it uplifts, but it is awful when it presses down: better a world on the shoulder, like Atlas, than God’s hand on the heart, like David. “My moisture is turned into the drought of summer.” The sap of his soul was dried, and the body through sympathy appeared to be bereft of its needful fluids. The oil was almost gone from the lamp of life, and the flame flickered as though it would soon expire. Unconfessed transgression, like a fierce poison, dried up the fountain of the man’s strength, and made him like a tree blasted by the lightning, or a plant withered by the scorching heat of a tropical sun. Alas! for a poor soul when it has learned its sin but forgets its Saviour, it goes hard with it indeed. “Selah.” It was time to change the tune, for the notes are very low in the scale, and with such hard usage, the strings of the harp are out of order: the next verse will surely be set to another key, or will rehearse a more joyful subject.
5. “I acknowledged my sin unto thee.” After long lingering, the broken heart bethought itself of what it ought to have done at the first, and laid bare its bosom before the Lord. The lancet must be let into the gathering ulcer before relief can be afforded. The least thing we can do, if we would be pardoned, is to acknowledge our fault; if we are too proud for this we doubly deserve punishment. “And mine iniquity have I not hid.” We must confess the guilt as well as the fact of sin. It is useless to conceal it, for it is well known to God; it is beneficial to us to own it, for a full confession softens and humbles the heart. We must as far as possible unveil the secrets of the soul, dig up the hidden treasure of Achan, and by weight and measure bring out our sins. “I said.” This was his fixed resolution. “I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord.” Not to my fellow men or to the high priest, but unto Jehovah; even in those days of symbol the faithful looked to God alone for deliverance from sin’s intolerable load, much more now, when types and shadows have vanished at the appearance of the dawn. When the soul determines to lay low and plead guilty, absolution is near at hand; hence we read, “And thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.” Not only was the sin itself pardoned, but the iniquity of it; the virus of its guilt was put away, and that at once, so soon as the acknowledgment was made. God’s pardons are deep and thorough: the knife of mercy cuts at the roots of the ill weed of sin. “Selah.” Another pause is needed, for the matter is not such as may be hurried over.
“Pause, my soul, adore and wonder, Ask, O why such love to me? Grace has put me in the number Of the Saviour’s family. Hallelujah! Thanks, eternal thanks, to thee.”
6 For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.
7 Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.
6. “For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found.” If the Psalmist means that on account of God’s mercy others would become hopeful, his witness is true. Remarkable answers to prayer very much quicken the prayerfulness of other godly persons. Where one man finds a golden nugget others feel inclined to dig. The benefit of our experience to others should reconcile us to it. No doubt the case of David has led thousands to seek the Lord with hopeful courage who, without such an instance to cheer them, might have died in despair. Perhaps the Psalmist meant for this favour or the like all godly souls would seek, and here, again, we can confirm his testimony, for all will draw near to God in the same manner as he did when godliness rules their heart. The mercy seat is the way to heaven for all who shall ever come there. There is, however, a set time for prayer, beyond which it will be unavailing; between the time of sin and the day of punishment mercy rules the hour, and God may be found, but when once the sentence has gone forth pleading will be useless, for the Lord will not be found by the condemned soul. O dear reader, slight not the accepted time, waste not the day of salvation. The godly pray while the Lord has promised to answer, the ungodly postpone their petitions till the Master of the house has risen up and shut to the door, and then their knocking is too late. What a blessing to be led to seek the Lord before the great devouring floods leap forth from their lairs, for then when they do appear we shall be safe. “Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.” The floods shall come, and the waves shall rage, and toss themselves like Atlantic billows; whirlpools and waterspouts shall be on every hand, but the praying man shall be at a safe distance, most surely secured from every ill. David was probably most familiar with those great land-floods which fill up, with rushing torrents, the beds of rivers which at other times are almost dry: these overflowing waters often did great damage, and, as in the case of the Kishon, were sufficient to sweep away whole armies. From sudden and overwhelming disasters thus set forth in metaphor the true suppliant will certainly be held secure. He who is saved from sin has no need to fear anything else.
7. “Thou art my hiding place.” Terse, short sentences make up this verse, but they contain a world of meaning. Personal claims upon our God are the joy of spiritual life. To lay our hand upon the Lord with the clasp of a personal “my” is delight at its full. Observe that the same man who in the fourth verse was oppressed by the presence of God, here finds a shelter in him. See what honest confession and full forgiveness will do! The gospel of substitution makes him to be our refuge who otherwise would have been our judge. “Thou shalt preserve me from trouble.” Trouble shall do me no real harm when the Lord is with me, rather it shall bring me much benefit, like the file which clears away the rust, but does not destroy the metal. Observe the three tenses, we have noticed the sorrowful past, the last sentence was a joyful present, this is a cheerful future. “Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.” What a golden sentence! The man is encircled in song, surrounded by dancing mercies, all of them proclaiming the triumphs of grace. There is no breach in the circle, it completely rings him round; on all sides he hears music. Before him hope sounds the cymbals, and behind him gratitude beats the timbrel. Right and left, above and beneath, the air resounds with joy, and all this for the very man who, a few weeks ago, was roaring all the day long. How great a change! What wonders grace has done and still can do! “Selah.” There was need of a pause, for love so amazing needs to be pondered, and joy so great demands quiet contemplation, since language fails to express it.
8 I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go; I will guide thee with mine eye.
9 Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.
8. “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go.” Here the Lord is the speaker, and gives the Psalmist an answer to his prayer. Our Saviour is our instructor. The Lord himself deigns to teach his children to walk in the way of integrity, his holy word and the monitions of the Holy Spirit are the directors of the believer’s daily conversation. We are not pardoned that we may henceforth live after our own lusts, but that we may be educated in holiness and trained for perfection. A heavenly training is one of the covenant blessings which adoption seals to us: “All thy children shall be taught by the Lord.” Practical teaching is the very best of instruction, and they are thrice happy who, although they never sat at the feet of Gamaliel, and are ignorant of Aristotle, and the ethics of the schools, have nevertheless learned to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. “I will guide thee with mine eye.” As servants take their cue from the master’s eye, and a nod or a wink is all that they require, so should we obey the slightest hints of our Master, not needing thunderbolts to startle our incorrigible sluggishness, but being controlled by whispers and love-touches. The Lord is the great overseer, whose eye in providence overlooks everything. It is well for us to be the sheep of his pasture, following the guidance of his wisdom.
9. “Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding.” Understanding separates man from a brute—let us not act as if we were devoid of it. Men should take counsel and advice, and be ready to run where wisdom points them the way. Alas! we need to be cautioned against stupidity of heart, for we are very apt to fall into it. We who ought to be as the angels, readily become as the beasts. “Whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.” It is much to be deplored that we so often need to be severely chastened before we will obey. We ought to be as a feather in the wind, wafted readily in the breath of the Holy Spirit, but alas! we lie like motionless logs, and stir not with heaven itself in view. Those cutting bits of affliction show how hard-mouthed we are, those bridles of infirmity manifest our headstrong and wilful manners. We should not be treated like mules if there were not so much of the ass about us. If we will be fractious, we must expect to be kept in with tight rein. Oh for grace to obey the Lord willingly, lest like the wilful servant, we are beaten with many stripes. Calvin renders the last words, “Lest they kick against thee,” a version more probable and more natural, but the passage is confessedly obscure—not, however, in its general sense.
10 Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about.
11 Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.
10. “Many sorrows shall be to the wicked.” Like refractory horses and mules, they have many cuts and bruises. Here and hereafter the portion of the wicked is undesirable. Their joys are evanescent, their sorrows are multiplying and ripening. He who sows sin will reap sorrow in heavy sheaves. Sorrows of conscience, of disappointment, of terror, are the sinner’s sure heritage in time, and then for ever sorrows of remorse and despair. Let those who boast of present sinful joys, remember the shall be of the future, and take warning. “But he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about.” Faith is here placed as the opposite of wickedness, since it is the source of virtue. Faith in God is the great charmer of life’s cares, and he who possesses it, dwells in an atmosphere of grace, surrounded with a body-guard of mercies. May it be given to us of the Lord at all times to believe in the mercy of God, even when we cannot see traces of its working, for to the believer, mercy is as all-surrounding as omniscience, and every thought and act of God is perfumed with it. The wicked have a hive of wasps around them, many sorrows; but we have a swarm of bees storing honey for us.
11. “Be glad.” Happiness is not only our privilege, but our duty. Truly we serve a generous God, since he makes it a part of our obedience to be joyful. How sinful are our rebellious murmurings! How natural does it seem that a man blest with forgiveness should be glad! We read of one who died at the foot of the scaffold of overjoy at the receipt of his monarch’s pardon; and shall we receive the free pardon of the King of kings and yet pine in inexcusable sorrow? “In the Lord.” Here is the directory by which gladness is preserved from levity. We are not to be glad in sin, or to find comfort in corn, and wine, and oil, but in our God is to be the garden of our soul’s delight. That there is a God and such a God, and that he is ours, ours for ever, our Father and our reconciled Lord, is matter enough for a never-ending Psalm of rapturous joy. “And rejoice, ye righteous,” redouble your rejoicing, peal upon peal. Since God has clothed his choristers in the white garments of holiness, let them not restrain their joyful voices, but sing aloud and shout as those who find great spoil. “And shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.” Our happiness should be demonstrative; chill penury of love often represses the noble flame of joy, and men whisper their praises decorously where a hearty outburst of song would be far more natural. It is to be feared that the church of the present day, through a craving for excessive propriety, is growing too artificial; so that enquirers’ cries and believers’ shouts would be silenced if they were heard in our assemblies. This may be better than boisterous fanaticism, but there is as much danger in the one direction as the other. For our part, we are touched to the heart by a little sacred excess, and when godly men in their joy overleap the narrow bounds of decorum, we do not, like Michal, Saul’s daughter, eye them with a sneering heart. Note how the pardoned are represented as upright, righteous, and without guile; a man may have many faults and yet be saved, but a false heart is everywhere the damning mark. A man of twisting, shifty ways, of a crooked, crafty nature, is not saved, and in all probability never will be; for the ground which brings forth a harvest when grace is sown in it, may be weedy and waste, but our Lord tells us it is honest and good ground. Our observation has been that men of double tongues and tricky ways are the least likely of all men to be saved: certainly where grace comes it restores man’s mind to its perpendicular, and delivers him from being doubled up with vice, twisted with craft, or bent with dishonesty.
Reader, what a delightful Psalm! Have you, in perusing it, been able to claim a lot in the goodly land? If so, publish to others the way of salvation.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.
Title.—The term Maschil is prefixed to thirteen Psalms. Our translators have not ventured to do more, in the text, than simply print the word in English characters; in the margin however they render it, as the Geneva version had done before them, “to give instruction.” It would be going too far to affirm that this interpretation is subject to no doubt. Some good Hebraists take exception to it; so that, perhaps, our venerable translators did well to leave it untranslated. Still, the interpretation they have set down in the margin, as it is the most ancient, so it is sustained by the great preponderance of authority. It agrees remarkably with the contents of the thirty-second Psalm, which affords the earliest instance of its use, for that Psalm is pre-eminently didactic. Its scope is to instruct the convicted soul how to obtain peace with God, and be compassed about with songs of deliverance.—William Binnie, D.D., in “The Psalms: their History, Teachings, and Use,” 1870.
Whole Psalm.—This is a Didascalic Psalm, wherein David teacheth sinners to repent by his doctrine, who taught them to sin by his example. This science is universal and pertaineth to all men, and which necessarily we must all learn; princes, priests, people, men, women, children, tradesmen; all, I say, must be put to this school, without which lesson all others are unprofitable. But to the point. This is a mark of a true penitent, when he hath been a stumbling block to others, to be as careful to raise them up by his repentance as he was hurtful to them by his sin; and I never think that man truly penitent who is ashamed to teach sinners repentance, by his own particular proof. The Samaritan woman, when she was converted, left her bucket at the well, entered the city, and said, “Come forth, yonder is a man who hath told me all that I have done.” And our Saviour saith to St. Peter, “When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” John iv. 29; Luke xxii. 32. St. Paul also, after his conversion is not ashamed to call himself chiefest of all sinners, and to teach others to repent of their sins by repenting for his own. Happy, and thrice happy, is the man who can build so much as he hath cast down.—Archibald Symson.
Whole Psalm.—It is told of Luther that one day being asked which of all the Psalms were the best, he made answer, “Psalmi Paulini,” and when his friends pressed to know which these might be, he said, “The 32nd, the 51st, the 130th, and 143rd. For they all teach that the forgiveness of our sins comes, without the law and without works, to the man who believes, and therefore I call them Pauline Psalms; and David sings, ‘There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared,’ this is just what Paul says, ‘God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.’ Rom. xi. 32. Thus no man may boast of his own righteousness. That word, ‘That thou mayest be feared,’ dusts away all merit, and teaches us to uncover our heads before God, and confess gratia est, non meritum: remissio, non satisfactio; it is mere forgiveness, not merit at all.”—Luther’s Table Talk.
Whole Psalm.—Some assert that this Psalm used to be sung on the day of expiation.—Robert Leighton.
THE PENITENTIAL PSALMS.—When Galileo was imprisoned by the Inquisition at Rome, for asserting the Copernican System, he was enjoined, as a penance, to repeat the Seven Penitential Psalms every week for three years. This must have been intended as extorting a sort of confession from him of his guilt, and acknowledgment of the justice of his sentence; and in which there certainly was some cleverness and, indeed, humour, however adding to the iniquity (or foolishness) of the proceeding. Otherwise it is not easy to understand what idea of painfulness or punishment the good fathers could attach to a devotional exercise such as this, which, in whatever way, could only have been agreeable and consoling to their prisoner.—M. Montague, in “The Seven Penitential Psalms in Verse ... with an Appendix and Notes,” 1844.
Verse 1.—“Blessed.” Or, O blessed man; or, Oh, the felicities of that man! to denote the most supreme and perfect blessedness. As the elephant, to denote its vast bulk, is spoken of in the plural number, Behemoth.—Robert Leighton.
Verse 1.—Notice, this is the first Psalm, except the first of all, which begins with Blessedness. In the first Psalm we have the blessing of innocence, or rather, of him who only was innocent: here we have the blessing of repentance, as the next happiest state to that of sinlessness.—Lorinus, in Neale’s Commentary.
Verse 1.—“Blessed is the man,” saith David, “whose sins are pardoned,” where he maketh remission of sins to be true felicity. Now there is no true felicity but that which is enjoyed, and felicity cannot be enjoyed unless it be felt; and it cannot be felt unless a man know himself to be in possession of it; and a man cannot know himself to be in possession of it, if he doubt whether he hath it or not; and therefore this doubting of the remission of sins is contrary to true felicity, and is nothing else but a torment of the conscience. For a man cannot doubt whether his sins be pardoned or not, but straightway, if his conscience be not seared with a hot iron, the very thought of his sin will strike a great fear into him; for the fear of eternal death, and the horror of God’s judgment will come to his remembrance, the consideration of which is most terrible.—William Perkins.
Verse 1.—“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” Get your sins hid. There is a covering of sin which proves a curse. Prov. xxviii. 13. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper;” there is a covering it, by not confessing it, or which is worse, by denying it—Gehazi’s covering—a covering of sin by a lie; and there is also a covering of sin by justifying ourselves in it. I have not done this thing; or, I did no evil in it. All these are evil coverings: he that thus covereth his sin shall not prosper. But there is a blessed covering of sin: forgiveness of sin is the hiding it out of sight, and that is the blessedness.—Richard Alleine.
Verse 1.—“Whose transgression is forgiven.” We may lull the soul asleep with carnal delights, but the virtue of that opium will be soon spent. All those joys are but stolen waters, and bread eaten in secret—a poor sorry peace that dares not come to the light and endure the trial; a sorry peace that is soon disturbed by a few serious and sober thoughts of God and the world to come; but when once sin is pardoned, then you have true joy indeed. “Be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.” Matt. ix. 2.—Thomas Manton.
Verse 1.—“Forgiven.” Holy David, in the front of this Psalm shows us wherein true happiness consists; not in beauty, honour, riches (the world’s trinity), but in the forgiveness of sin. The Hebrew word to forgive, signifies to carry out of sight; which well agrees with that Jer. l. 20, “In those days, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found.” This is an incomprehensible blessing, and such as lays a foundation for all other mercies. I shall but glance at it, and lay down these five assertions about it. 1. Forgiveness is an act of God’s free grace. The Greek word to forgive, deciphers the original of pardon; it ariseth not from anything inherent in us, but is the pure result of free grace. Isa. xliii. 25: “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake.” When a creditor forgives a debtor, he doeth it freely. Paul cries out, “I obtained mercy.” 1 Tim. i. 13. The Greek signifies, “I was be-mercied;” he who is pardoned, is all bestrewed with mercy. When the Lord pardons a sinner, he doth not pay a debt, but give a legacy. 2. God in forgiving sin, remits the guilt and penalty. Guilt cries for justice: no sooner had Adam eaten the apple, but he saw the flaming sword, and heard the curse; but in remission God doth indulge the sinner; he seems to say thus to him: Though thou art fallen into the hands of my justice, and deservest to die, yet I will absolve thee, and whatever is charged upon thee shall be discharged. 3. Forgiveness of sin is through the blood of Christ. Free grace is the impulsive cause; Christ’s blood is the meritorious. “Without shedding of blood is no remission.” Heb. ix. 22. Justice would be revenged either on the sinner or the surety. Every pardon is the price of blood. 4. Before sin is forgiven it must be repented of. Therefore repentance and remission are linked together. “That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name.” Luke xxiv. 47. Not that repentance doth in a Popish sense merit forgiveness; Christ’s blood must wash our tears; but repentance is a qualification, though not a cause. He who is humbled for sin will the more value pardoning mercy. 5. God having forgiven sin, he will call it no more into remembrance. Jer. xxxi. 34. The Lord will make an act of indemnity, he will not upbraid us with former unkindnesses, or sue us with a cancelled bond. “He will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” Mic. vii. 19. Sin shall not be cast in as a cork which riseth up again, but as lead which sinks to the bottom. How should we all labour for this covenant blessing!—Thomas Watson.
Verse 1.—“Sin is covered.” Every man that must be happy, must have something to hide and cover his sins from God’s eyes; and nothing in the world can do it, but Christ and his righteousness, typified in the ark of the covenant, whose cover was of gold, and called a propitiatory, that as it covered the tables that were within the ark, so God covers our sins against those tables. So the cloud covering the Israelites in the wilderness, signified God’s covering us from the danger of our sins.—Thomas Taylor’s “David’s Learning: or the Way to True Happinesse,” 1617.
Verse 1.—“Sin covered.” This covering hath relation to some nakedness and filthiness which should be covered, even sin, which defileth us and maketh us naked. Why, saith Moses to Aaron, hast thou made the people naked? Ex. xxxii. 25. The garments of our merits are too short and cannot cover us, we have need therefore to borrow of Christ Jesus his merits and the mantle of his righteousness, that it may be unto us as a garment, and as those breeches of leather which God made unto Adam and Eve after their fall. Garments are ordained to cover our nakedness, defend us from the injury of the weather, and to adorn us. So the mediation of our Saviour serveth to cover our nakedness, that the wrath of God seize not upon us—he is that “white raiment” wherewith we should be clothed, that our filthy nakedness may not appear—to defend us against Satan—he is “mighty to save,” etc.—and to be an ornament to decorate us, for he is that “wedding garment:” “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Rev. iii. 18; Isa. lxiii. 1; Matt. xxii. 11; Rom. xiii. 14.—Archibald Symson.
Verse 1.—The object of pardon—about which it is conversant, is set forth under divers expressions—iniquity, transgression, and sin. As in law, many words of like import and signification are heaped up and put together, to make the deed and legal instrument more comprehensive and effectual. I observe it the rather, because when God proclaims his name the same words are used, Exod. xxxiv. 7, “Taking away iniquity, transgression, and sin.” Well, we have seen the meaning of the expression. Why doth the holy man of God use such vigour and vehemency of inculcation, “Blessed is the man!” and again, “Blessed is the man!” Partly with respect to his own case. David knew how sweet it was to have sin pardoned; he had felt the bitterness of sin in his own soul, to the drying up of his blood, and therefore he doth express his sense of pardon in the most lively terms. And then, partly, too, with respect to those for whose use this instruction was written, that they might not look upon it as a light and trivial thing, but be thoroughly apprehensive of the worth of so great a privilege. Blessed, happy, thrice happy they who have obtained pardon of their sins, and justification by Jesus Christ.—Thomas Manton.
Verses 1, 2.—In these verses four evils are mentioned: 1. Transgression, פֶשַׁע pesha. 2. Sin, חֲטָאָה chataah. 3. Iniquity, עָוֹן avon. 4. Guile, רְמִיָּה remiyah. The first signifies the passing over a boundary, doing what is prohibited. The second signifies the missing of a mark, not doing what was commanded; but it is often taken to express sinfulness, or sin in the nature, producing transgression in the life. The third signifies what is turned out of its proper course or situation; anything morally distorted or perverted. Iniquity, what is contrary to equity or justice. The fourth signifies fraud, deceit, guile, etc. To remove these evils, three acts are mentioned: forgiving, covering, and not imputing. 1. TRANSGRESSION, פֶשַׁע pesha, must be forgiven, נְשׂוּי nesui, borne away, i.e., by a vicarious sacrifice; for bearing sin, or bearing away sin, always implies this. 2. SIN, חֲטָאָה chataah, must be covered, כְּסוּי kesui, hidden from the sight. It is odious and abominable, and must be put out of sight. 3. INIQUITY, עָוֹן avon, what is perverse or distorted, must not be imputed, לֹא יַחְשֹׁב lo yachshobh, must not be reckoned to his account. 4. GUILE, רְמִיָּה remiyah, must be annihilated from the soul. In whose spirit there is no GUILE. The man whose transgression is forgiven; whose sin is hidden, God having cast it as a millstone into the depths of the sea; whose iniquity and perversion is not reckoned to his account; and whose guile, the deceitful and desperately wicked heart, is annihilated, being emptied of sin, and filled with righteousness, is necessarily a happy man.—Adam Clarke.
Verses 1, 2.—Transgression. Prevarication. Some understand by it sins of omission and commission.
Sin. Some understand those inward inclinations, lusts, and motions, whereby the soul swerves from the law of God, and which are the immediate cause of external sins.
Iniquity. Notes original sin, the root of all.
Levatus, forgiven, eased, signifies to take away, to bear, to carry away. Two words in Scripture are chiefly used to denote remission, to expiate, to bear or carry away: the one signifies the manner whereby it is done, namely, atonement, the other the effect of this expiation, carrying away; one notes the meritorious cause, the other the consequent.
Covered. Alluding to the covering of the Egyptians in the Red Sea. Menochius thinks it alludes to the manner of writing among the Hebrews, which he thinks to be the same with that of the Romans; as writing with a pencil upon wax spread upon tables, which when they would blot out they made the wax plain, and drawing it over the writing, covered the former letters. And so it is equivalent with that expression of “blotting out sin,” as in the other allusion it is with “casting sin into the depths of the sea.”
Impute. Not charging upon account. As sin is a defection from the law, so it is forgiven; as it is offensive to God’s holiness, so it is covered; as it is a debt involving man in a debt of punishment, so it is not imputed; they all note the certainty, and extent, and perfection of pardon; the three words expressing sin here, being the same that are used by God in the declaration of his name.—Stephen Charnock.
Verses 1, 2, 6, 7.—Who is blessed? Not he who cloaks, conceals, confesses not his sin. As long as David was in this state he was miserable. There was guile in his spirit (2), misery in his heart, his very bones waxed old, his moisture was dried up as the drought in summer (3, 4). Who is blessed? He that is without sin, he who sins not, he who grieves no more by his sin the bosom on which he reclines. This is superlative blessedness, its highest element, the happiness of heaven. To be like God, to yield implicit, ready, full, perfect obedience, the obedience of the heart, of our entire being; this is to be blessed above all blessedness. But among those who live in a world of sin, who are surrounded by sin, who are themselves sinners, who is blessed? “He whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity;” and especially does he feel it to be so, who can, in some degree, enter into the previous state of David’s soul (3, 4). Ah, in what a wretched state was the Psalmist previously to this blessedness! How must sin have darkened and deadened his spiritual faculties, to have guile in the spirit of one who could elsewhere exclaim, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me,” any way of pain or grief, any way of sin which most surely leads to these. Ps. cxxxix. 23, 34. What a mournful condition of soul was his, who while he roared all the day long, yet kept silence before God, had no heart to open his heart unto God, was dumb before him, not in submission to his will, not in accepting the punishment of his iniquity (Lev. xxvi. 46), not in real confession, and honest, upright, and sincere acknowledgment of his iniquity to him against whom he had committed it. “I kept silence,” not merely I was silent, “I kept silence,” resolutely, perseveringly; I kept it notwithstanding all the remembrance of my past mercies, notwithstanding my reproaches of conscience, and my anguish of heart. I kept it notwithstanding “thy hand was heavy upon me day and night,” notwithstanding “my moisture,” all that was spiritual in me, my vital spirit, all that was indicative of spiritual life in my soul, seemed dried up and gone. Yes, Lord, notwithstanding all this, I kept it. But Nathan came, thou didst send him. He was to me a messenger full of reproof, full of faithfulness, but full of love. He came with thy word, and with the word of a King there was power. I acknowledged my sin unto him, and my iniquity did I not hide, but this was little. Against thee, thee only, did I sin, and to thee was my confession made. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, O Lord. I solemnly said that I would do so, and I did it. I confessed my transgression unto the Lord, “and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.”
“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven.” Behold the man who is blessed; blessed in the state of his mind, his guileless spirit, his contrite heart, the fruit of the spirit of grace; blessed in the forgiveness of a forgiving God; a forgiveness, perfect, entire, lacking nothing, signified by sin “covered,” “iniquity not imputed” of the Lord; blessed in the blessings which followed it. “Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.” Beneath the hollow of that hand which was once so heavy upon me, I can now repose. Thou art my hiding place, I dread thee no more; nay, I dwell in thee as my habitation, and my high tower, my covert, my safety, my house. Safe in thy love, whatever trouble may be my portion, and by the mouth of Nathan thy servant thou hast declared that trouble shall be my portion, I shall yet be preserved; yea, more, so fully wilt thou deliver me that I believe thou wilt encompass me so with the arms of thy mercy, as to call forth songs of grateful praise for thy gracious interposition.
Behold the blessedness of him whom God forgives! No wonder, then, that the Psalmist adds, “for this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.” As much as if he said, Surely after this thy gracious conduct towards me, all that truly love and fear thee, “every one that is godly,” when he hears of thy dealings with me, “will pray unto thee.” Encouraged by my example, he will not keep silence as I foolishly and sinfully did, but will confess and supplicate before thee, since thou art to be “found,” and hast so wondrously shown that thou art, of all that truly seek thee, since there is the place of finding, as I lay my hand upon the victim, and look through that victim to him the promised Seed; since there is the time of finding, declared in thy word, and manifested by the secret drawing of my heart to thee by thy grace: since the unwillingness is not in thee, but in thy sinning creature to come to thee; “for this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee,” then, however deep the waterfloods may be, however fierce the torrent, and headlong the stream, they shall not even come nigh unto him, much less shall they overwhelm him.—James Harrington Evans, M.A., 1785-1849.
Verse 2.—“Unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.” Aben-Ezra paraphrases it, of whose sins God does not think, does not regard them, so as to bring them into judgment, reckoning them as if they were not; οὐ μὴ λογιζεται does not count or calculate them; does not require for them the debt of punishment. To us the remission is entirely free, our Sponsor having taken upon him the whole business of paying the ransom. His suffering is our impunity, his bond our freedom, and his chastisement our peace; and therefore the prophet says, “The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.”—Robert Leighton.
Verse 2.—“In whose spirit there is no guile.” In the saint’s trouble, conscience is full of Scripture sometimes, on which it grounds its verdict, but very ill interpreted. Oh, saith the poor soul, this place is against me! “Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.” Here, saith he, is a description of a sincere soul, to be one in whose spirit there is no guile; but I find much guile in me, therefore I am not the sincere one. Now this is a very weak yea, false inference. By a spirit without guile, is not meant a person that hath not the least deceitfulness and hypocrisy remaining in his heart. To be without sin, and to be without guile, in this strict sense are the same—a prerogative here on earth peculiar to the Lord Christ (1 Pet. ii. 22), “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.” And therefore when we meet with the same phrase attributed to the saints, as to Levi, Mal. ii. 6: “Iniquity was not found in his lips;” and to Nathanael, John i. 47: “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” we must sense it in an inferior way, that may suit with their imperfect state here below, and not put that which was only Christ’s crown on earth, and is the glorified saint’s robe in heaven, on the weak Christian while militant here on earth, not only with a devil without, but with a body of sin within him. Wipe thine eyes again, poor soul, and then if thou readest such places, wherein the Spirit of God speaks so highly and hyperbolically of his saints’ grace, thou shalt find he doth not assert the perfection of their grace, free from all mixture of sin, but rather to comfort poor drooping souls, and cross their misgiving hearts, which, from the presence of hypocrisy, are ready to overlook their sincerity as none at all, he expresseth his high esteem of their little grace, by speaking of it as if it were perfect, and their hypocrisy none at all.—William Gurnall.
Verse 2. “In whose spirit there is no guile.” When once pardon is realised the believer has courage to be truthful before God: he can afford to have done with “guile” in the spirit. Who would not declare all his debts when they are certain to be discharged by another? Who would not declare his malady when he was sure of a cure? True faith knows not only that “guile” before God is impossible, but also that it is no longer necessary. The believer has nothing to conceal: he sees himself as before God, stripped, and laid open, and bare; and if he has learned to see himself as he is, so also has he learned to see God as he reveals himself. There is no guile in the spirit of one who is justified by faith; because in the act of justification truth has been established in his inward parts. There is no guile in the spirit of him who sees the truth of himself in the light of the truth of God. For the truth of God shows him at once that in Christ he is perfectly righteous before God, and in himself he is the chief of sinners. Such a one knows he is not his own, for he is bought with a price, and therefore he is to glorify God. There is no guile in the spirit of him whose real object is to glorify Christ and not himself. But when a man is not quite true to Christ, and has not quite ceased to magnify self, there may be guile, for he will be more occupied with thoughts about himself than with the honour of Christ. But if the truth, and honour, and glory of Christ be his supreme care, he may leave himself out of the question, and, like Christ, “commit himself to him that judgeth righteously.”—J. W. Reeve, M.A., in “Lectures on the Thirty-second Psalm,” 1860.
Verse 2.—“No guile.” Sincerity is that property to which pardoning mercy is annexed. True, indeed, it is that Christ covers all our sins and failings; but it is only the sincere soul over which he will cast his skirt. “Blessed is he whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.” None will doubt this; but which is the man? The next words tell us his name; “And in whose spirit there is no guile.” Christ’s righteousness is the garment which covers the nakedness and shame of our unrighteousness; faith the grace that puts this garment on; but what faith? None but the faith unfeigned, as Paul calls it. 2 Tim. i. 5. “Here is water,” said the eunuch, “what doth hinder me to be baptized?” Acts viii. 36. Now mark Philip’s answer, ver. 37: “If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest;” as if he had said, Nothing but an hypocritical heart can hinder thee. It is the false heart only that finds the door of mercy shut.—William Gurnall.
Verse 2.—“Guile.” The guile of the spirit is an inward corruption in the soul of man, whereby he dealeth deceitfully with himself before God in the matter of salvation.—Thomas Taylor.
Verse 3.—“My bones waxed old.” God sporteth not at the sins of his elect, but outwardly doth deal with them more hardly, and chastise them more rigorously than he doth the reprobate. David’s troubles and pains were partly external, partly internal: external I call those that were cast on his body; internal upon his conscience. And in the body there were torments and vexations, seizing sometimes on his flesh—which was less painful—sometimes on his bones, which was more grievous, yea, almost intolerable, as experience teacheth. And this is God’s just recompence; when we bestow our strength on sin, God abateth it, and so weakeneth us. Samson spent his strength on Delilah, but to what weakness was he brought! Let us, therefore, learn, that God hath given us bones and the strength thereof for another use, that is, to serve him, and not waste or be prodigal of them in the devil’s service.—Archibald Symson.
Verse 3.—“My bones waxed old.” By bones, the strength of the body, the inward strength and vigour of the soul is meant. The conscience of sin, and the terror of judgment doth break the heart of a true penitent, so long as he beholdeth his sin deserving death, his judge ready to pronounce the sentence of it, hell open to receive him for it, and the evil angels, God’s executioners, at hand to hurry him to it.—Samuel Page, in “David’s Broken Heart,” 1646.
Verse 3.—“My bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.” David here not only mourns for sin as a man, but he roars, as it were, like a pained beast. He seems fitter for a wilderness to cry out, than for a secret chamber to weep in; at other times he can “water his couch” in the night, now he “roars” all the day long; at other times “his moisture is dried,” now his “bones,” the pillars of his house, shake and wax old.—Alexander Carmichael, 1677.
Verse 4.—“Thy hand.” A correcting hand, whereby God scourgeth and buffeteth his own children. Now the sense of God’s power punishing or correcting, is called God’s hand, as 1 Sam. v. 11. The hand of God was sore at Ekron, because of the ark; and a heavy hand in resemblance, because when men smite they lay their hand heavier than ordinary. Hence, we may note three points of doctrine: first, that all afflictions are God’s hand; secondly, that God lays his hand heavily often upon his dear children; thirdly, that God often continues his heavy hand night and day on them.—Thomas Taylor.
Verse 4.—“My moisture is turned into the drought of summer.” Another meaning may be attributed to these words. We may suppose the Psalmist to be referring to spiritual drought.—Charles H. Bingham, B.A., in “Lectures on the Thirty-second Psalm,” 1836.
Verse 4.—“My moisture is turned into the drought of summer.” The summer is from the middle of August to the middle of November. The intensity of the heat is great, and almost intolerable.... Up to the beginning or middle of September there are no showers, rain being as scarce in summer as snow.... The dry grass of the fields sometimes takes fire, and produces desolating conflagrations, and the parched earth is cleft and broken into chasms.—John Eadie, D.D., LL.D., in Biblical Cyclopædia, 1868.
Verse 4.—“The drought of summer.” Dr. Russell, in his account of the weather at Aleppo, which very much resembles that of Judæa, says that the verdure of the spring fades before the middle of May, and before the end of that month the whole country puts on so parched and barren an aspect that one would scarce think it capable of producing anything, there being but very few plants that have vigour enough to resist the extreme heat.—Thomas Harmer’s “Observations,” 1775.
Verse 4.—“The drought of summer.” During the twelve years from 1846 to 1859 only two slight showers fell in Jerusalem between the months of May and October. One fell in July, 1858, another in June, 1859.—Dr. Whitty’s “Water Supply of Jerusalem,” quoted in Kitto’s Cyclopædia.
Verse 4.—If God striketh those so sore whom he favoureth, how sharply and sore will he strike them whom he favoureth not.—Gregory.
Verses 4, 5.—If our offences have been not gnats, but camels, our sorrow must be not a drop, but an ocean. Scarlet sins call for bloody tears; and if Peter sin heinously he must weep bitterly. If, then, thy former life hath been a cord of iniquity, twisted with many threads, a writing full of great blots, a course spotted with various and grievous sins, multiply thy confessions and enlarge thy humiliation; double thy fastings and treble thy prayers; pour out thy tears, and fetch deep sighs; in a word, iterate and aggravate thy acknowledgments, though yet, as the apostle saith in another case, I say in this, “Grieve not as without hope,” that upon thy sincere and suitable repentance divine goodness will forgive thee thy sins.—Nathanael Hardy.
Verse 5.—“Selah.” See Vol. I., pp. 22, 23, 25, 27, 29.
Verse 5.—“I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid.” The godly man is ingenuous in laying open his sins. The hypocrite doth vail and smother his sin; he doth not abscindere peccatum, but abscondere; like a patient that hath some loathsome disease in his body, he will rather die than confess his disease; but a godly man’s sincerity is seen in this—he will confess and shame himself for sin. “Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly.” 2 Sam. xxiv. 17. Nay a child of God will confess sin in particular; an unsound Christian will confess sin by wholesale; he will acknowledge he is a sinner in general, whereas David doth, as it were, point with his finger to the sore: “I have done this evil” (Psalm li. 4); he doth not say I have done evil, but this evil. He points at his blood-guiltiness.—Thomas Watson.
Verse 5.—“I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.” Be thine own accuser in the free confession of thy sins. Peccavi pater (as the prodigal child), “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight.” For it fares not in the court of heaven as it doth in our earthly tribunals. With men a free confession makes way for a condemnation; but with God, the more a sinner bemoans his offence the more he extenuates the anger of his Judge. Sin cannot but call for justice, as it is an offence against God; yet, when once ’tis a wound to the soul it moveth him to mercy and clemency. Wherefore, as David having but resolved to confess his sins, was accosted eftsoon with an absolution: so, Tu agnosce, et Dominus ignoscet.[8] Be thou unfeigned in confessing, and God will be faithful in forgiving. 1 John i. 9. Only let confessio peccati be professio desinendi[9]—the acknowledgment of thy sin an obligation to leave it; and then thou mayest build upon it. “He that confesseth and forsaketh shall have mercy.” Prov. xxviii. 13.—Isaac Craven’s Sermon at Paul’s Cross, 1630.
Verse 5.—“I said, I will confess,” etc. Justified persons, who have their sins forgiven, are yet bound to confess sin to God.... There are many queries to be despatched in the handling of this point. The first query, is, what are the reasons why persons justified and pardoned are yet bound to make confession of sin unto God in private? The reasons are six. First, they are to confess sin unto God because holy confession gives a great deal of ease and holy quiet unto the mind of a sinner: concealed and indulged guilt constracts horror and dread on the conscience. Secondly, because God loves to hear the complaints and the confessions of his own people. Lying on the face is the best gesture, and the mourning weed the best garment that God is well pleased with. A third reason is, because confession of sin doth help to quicken the heart to strong and earnest supplication to God (see verse 6). Confession is to the soul as the whetstone is to the knife, that sharpens it and puts an edge on it; so doth confession of sin. Confessing thy evils to God doth sharpen and put an edge on thy supplication; that man will pray but faintly that doth confess sin but slightly. A fourth reason is, because confession of sin will work a holy contrition and a godly sorrow in the heart. (Psalm xxxviii. 18). Declaration doth work compunction. Confession of sin is but the causing of sin to recoil on the conscience, which causeth blushing and shame of face, and grief of heart. A fifth reason is, because secret confession of sin doth give a great deal of glory to God. It gives glory to God’s justice. I do confess sin, and do confess God in justice may damn me for my sin. It gives glory to God’s mercy. I confess sin, yet mercy may save me. It gives glory to God’s omnisciency. In confessing sin I do acknowledge that God knoweth my sin. A sixth reason why justified persons must confess sin unto God is, because holy confession of sin will embitter sin, and endear Christ to them, when a man shall let sin recoil on his conscience by a confession.—Condensed from Christopher Love’s “Soul’s Cordiall,” 1683.
Verse 5.—“I said I will confess ... and thou forgavest.” It remaineth as a truth, remission is undoubtedly annexed to confession. Tantum valent tres syllabæ PEC-CA-VI, saith St. Austin, of so great force are those three syllables in the Latin, three words in the English, when uttered with a contrite heart, “I have sinned.”—Nathanael Hardy.
Verse 5.—“Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.” This sin seems very probably to have been his adultery with Bathsheba, and murder of Uriah. Now David to make the pardoning mercy of God more illustrious, saith he did not only forgive his sin, but the iniquity of his sin; and what was that? Surely the worst that can be said of that, his complicated sin, is that there was so much hypocrisy in it, he woefully juggled with God and man in it; this, I do not doubt to say, was the iniquity of his sin, and put a colour deeper on it than the blood which he shed. And the rather—I lay the accent there—because God himself, when he would set out the heinousness of this sin, seems to do it rather from the hypocrisy in the fact than the fact itself, as appears by the testimony given this holy man (1 Kings xv. 5): “David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.” Were there not other false steps which David took besides this? Doth the Spirit of God, by excepting this, declare his approbation of all that else he ever did? No, sure the Spirit of God records other sins that escaped this eminent servant of the Lord; but all those are drowned here, and this mentioned as the only stain of his life. But why? Surely because there appeared less sincerity, yea, more hypocrisy in this one sin than in all his others put together; though David in them was wrong as to the matter of his actions, yet his heart was more right in the manner of committing them. But here his sincerity was sadly wounded, though not to the total destruction of the habit, yet to lay it in a long swoon, as to any actings thereof. And truly the wound went very deep when that grace was stabbed in which did run the life blood of all the rest. We see, then, God hath reason, though his mercy prompted him, yea, his covenant obliged him, not to let his child die of this wound, yet so to heal it that a scar might remain upon the place, a mark upon the sin, whereby others might know how odious hypocrisy is to God.—William Gurnall.
Verse 5.—“Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.” We must observe the matter forgiven, and the manner of forgiving. The matter forgiven is the iniquity of his sin. It is disputed what is meant here by iniquity, whether culpa or pœna. Some understand pœnam, and think that an allusion is made in this word unto the message of Nathan, wherein God doth remit the heaviest stroke of his wrath, but yet retains some part in punishing the child, and permitting Absalom to rebel and abuse king David’s concubines: so Theodoret, Deus non condigna pœna Davidem punivit. Some understand culpam, and will have this phrase to be an amplification of that, as if superbia defendens, or taciturnitas celans, or impietas contra Deum assurgens, or some such great guilt were meant by this phrase. But as I do not censure these opinions, which may well stand, so I think the phrase looks back unto that word which was in the confession. The sin confessed was פֶּשַׁע, and this is but an analysis of this word; for עֲוֹן חַטָּאתִי, what is it, word for word, but the perverseness of my aberration? חֲטָּאָה is an aberration from the scope or mark whereat we aim; all men aim at felicity, but most men stray from it, because they are not led by the law that guides unto it, the violating whereof is called חֲטָּאָה. But some do stray out of mere ignorance, and they only break the law; some out of stubbornness, which will not submit themselves to the Lawgiver; these men’s sin is called perverseness, which God is said here to forgive. So that David did not confess more against himself than God includes in his pardon. Well may God exceed our desire; he never doth come short thereof if it do concern our spiritual, our eternal good. As he doth exclude no sinner that doth confess, so doth he except against no sin that is confessed.—Arthur Lake.
Verse 6.—“For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found,” etc. Seeing he is such a God, who should refuse or delay his return! Surely every rational and pious mind will, without delay, invoke so gentle and mild a Lord; will pray to him while he is exorable, or, as the Hebrew expresses it, in a time of finding. For he who promises pardon, does not promise to-morrow. There are tempora fandi—certain times in which he may be spoken with, and a certain appointed day of pardon and of grace, which if a man by stupid perverseness despise, or by sloth neglect, surely he is justly overwhelmed with eternal might and misery, and must necessarily perish by the deluge of divine wrath; since he has contemned and derided that Ark of salvation which was prepared and in which whoever enters into it shall be safe, while the world is perishing.—Robert Leighton.
Verse 6.—“For this shall every one that is godly pray to thee,” said David. “For this!” What? Because of his sins. And who? Not the wickedest, but the “godly,” in this respect, have cause to pray. And for what should he pray? Surely, for renewed pardon, for increase of grace, and for the perfection of glory. We cannot say we have no sin. Oh then, let us pray with David, “Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord!” Where there is a double emphasis observable it is not ab hoste, but a servo. Though God’s servant, yet he would not have God to enter into judgment with him. And again, ne intres, it is the very entrance into judgment that he dreads and prayeth against; not only do not proceed, but not so much as enter.—Nathanael Hardy.
Verse 6.—“For this shall every one that is godly.” We are here furnished with a fact which does not appear in the history of David. It is commonly supposed that after his grievous fall, till Nathan reproved him, he had been careless and stupefied; and this has often been adduced as a proof of the hardening nature of sin. But the thing was far otherwise. He was all the while tortured in his mind yet unwilling to humble himself before God, and condemn himself before men, as he ought to have done. He kept silence, and endeavoured to pass off the distress by time, palliation, and excuse. But the repression and concealment of his anguish preyed not only upon his peace, but his health, and endangered life itself. At length he was reduced to the deepest penitence, and threw himself, by an unqualified confession, on the compassion of God. “For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee.” Here we see not only that all the godly pray, but every one of them prays for pardon. This is the very thing which our Saviour teaches his disciples: “When ye pray, say, Forgive us our trespasses.” And this praying does not only regard the manifestation of forgiving mercy, as some would have it but the exercise of it.—William Jay.
Verse 6.—“Godly.” A godly man is like God, he hath the same judgment with God! he thinks of things as God doth; he hath a God-like disposition; he partakes of the divine nature. 2. Peter i. 4. A godly man doth bear God’s name and image: godliness is Godlikeness.—Thomas Watson.
Verse 6.—“A time.” There be seasons, which, if taken, sweeten actions, and open the door for their better entertainment: Prov. xxv. 11, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver;” the Hebrew is, A word spoken upon its wheels: fit times and seasons are wheels to carry words with great advantage. And so for actions; when things are done in due time they are beautiful, acceptable. When God gives rain to a land in season, how acceptable is it! when a tree bears fruit in its season, it is grateful: so when angels or men do things seasonably, it is pleasing to the Lord Christ: there are fit times, which, if we miss, actions are unlovely, and miss of their aims. “For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found.” There are times, if we have the wisdom to discern them, when prayer will be seasonable, acceptable, effectual.—William Greenhill.
Verse 6.—“Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.” The effects of prayer heretofore have been wonderful. Prayer hath sent down hailstones from heaven to overcome five kings with their armies. Prayer hath shut up the windows of heaven that it should not rain, and again hath opened them that the earth might give her increase. Prayer hath stayed the swift course of the sun and caused it to go backward fifteen degrees. Prayer hath held God’s hands that he could not strike when he was ready to plague his people. Prayer without any other help or means hath thrown down the strong walls of Jericho. Prayer hath divided the sea that the floods thereof could not come near the Israelites. In this place it delivereth the faithful man from all the dangers of this world. “Surely in the floods of many waters they shall not come nigh unto him.” The sum is this, That no calamity of this world, no troubles of this life, no terrors of death, no guiltiness of sin, can be so great, but that a “godly” man by means of his faith and felicity in Christ shall wade out of them well enough. For howsoever other things go, still he shall have such a solace in his soul, such a comfort in his conscience, such a heaven in his heart, knowing himself reconciled to God and justified by faith, that “Surely in the floods of many waters they shall not come nigh unto him.” Which, that it may better appear, I shall desire you to observe two things, the danger, the deliverance. The danger is in these words, “In the floods of many waters;” where the tribulations that the godly man is subject to in this life are likened, first, to waters; then, to many waters; thirdly, to a flood of many waters. The deliverance is in these words, “Surely they shall not come near him;” where the deliverance of the godly man hath three degrees also. First, “they shall not come near;” secondly, him, “they shall not come near him;” then, surely—“surely they shall not come near him.”—Thomas Playfere.
Verse 6.—“The floods of great waters.” The afflictions of the faithful are likened to waters. Fire and water have no mercy, we say. But of the two water is the worst. For any fire may be quenched with water; but the force of water, if it begins to be violent, cannot by any power of man be resisted. But these our tribulations which are “waters,” are “many waters.” Our common proverb is, “Seldom comes sorrow alone:” but as waters come rolling and waving many together, so the miseries of this life.—Thomas Playfere.
Verse 6.—“Floods of great waters.”—Unfamiliar with the sudden flooding of thirsty water-courses, we seldom comprehend the full force of some of the most striking images in the Old and New Testaments.—W. J. Conybeare, and J. S. Howson, in “Life and Epistles of St. Paul.”
Verse 6.—“In the floods,” etc.—Washed he may be, as Paul was in the shipwreck, but not drowned with those floods of great waters: be they never so great they are bounded.—Joseph Trapp.
Verse 6.—“Him.” This word must in no case be omitted; it helpeth us to answer a very strong objection. For it may be said, Many holy men have lost their goods, have suffered great torments in their body, have been troubled also in mind; how then did not the “floods of many waters” come near them? The word “him” helps us to answer. The very philosophers themselves reckoned their goods pertained no more to them, than, be it spoken with reverence and regard, the parings of their nails. Zenon hearing news he had lost all he had by sea, said only thus, Thou hast done very well, Fortune, to leave me nothing but my cloak. Another, called Anaxarchus, when as Nicocreon the tyrant commanded he should be beaten to death in a mortar, spake thus to the executioner, Beat and bray as long as thou wilt Anaxarchus his bag or satchel (so he called his own body), but Anaxarchus thou canst not touch. Yet these, making so small reckoning of their goods and body, set their mind notwithstanding at a high rate. The mind of a man is himself, say they. Hence it is that Julius Cæsar, when Amyclas the pilot was greatly afraid of the tempest, spake to him thus: What meanest thou to fear, base fellow? dost thou not know thou earnest Cæsar with thee? As if he should say, Cæsar’s body may well be drowned, as any other man’s may; but his mind, his magnanimity, his valour, his fortitude, can never be drowned. Thus far went philosophy; but divinity goeth a degree further. For philosophy defineth him, that is, a man, by his reason, and the moral virtues of the mind; but divinity defineth a Christian man by his faith, and his conjunction thereby with Christ. Excellently saith Saint Austin: Whence comes it that the soul dieth? Because faith is not in it. Whence that the body dieth? Because a soul is not in it. Therefore the soul of thy soul is faith. So that if we would know what is a faithful man, we must define him, not by his natural soul, as he is reasonable, but by the soul of his soul, which is his faith. And then we easily answer the objection, that a flood may come near a faithful man’s goods, near his body, near his reasonable soul; but to his faith, that is, to HIM, it can never come near.—Thomas Playfere.
Verse 6.—Few verses in the Psalms are harder to be understood than this: and none has given rise to more varied expositions among the commentators. “For this.” Some will have it: encouraged by this example, that after so foul a fall God so readily forgave. Others again: “for this,” namely, warned by this example, they who are holy shall make their prayers that they may not be permitted to fall as David did. Whichever be the sense, they well argue from this passage, that the state of absolute and enduring perfection is impossible to a Christian in this life.—Lorinus, and Cajetan (1469-1534), quoted by Neale.
Verse 7.—“Thou art my hiding place.” David does not say, “Thou art a hiding-place” merely as one among many; or the “hiding-place,” as the only one; but, “Thou art my hiding-place.” There lies all the excellency of the text. “He is mine; I have embraced the offer of his salvation,” says David; “I have applied to him in my own person: I have, as a sinner, taken shelter in his love and compassion; I have placed myself under his wings; I have covered myself with the robe of his righteousness; and now, therefore, I am safe.” “Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” This is having a part and a lot in the matter, having the personal and individual benefit of the Saviour’s work of atonement. How different is an appropriating from a speculative faith! Men tell us that they believe the doctrine, that they acknowledge the truth, that they assent to our creed; and they say, that to declare to them the character of Christ, as the sinner’s only help and safety, is merely putting before them what they already know. Now, follow up the idea suggested by the figure in our text, and see the folly and danger of acting thus. Suppose a traveller upon a bleak and exposed heath to be alarmed by the approach of a storm. He looks out for shelter. But if his eye discern a place to hide him from the storm, does he stand still and say, “I see there is a shelter, and therefore I may remain where I am”? Does he not betake himself to it? Does he not run, in order to escape the stormy wind and tempest? It was a “hiding-place” before; but it was his hiding-place only when he ran into it, and was safe. Had he not gone into it, though it might have been a protection to a thousand other travellers who resorted there, to him it would have been as if no such place existed. Who does not see at once, from this simple illustration, that the blessings of the gospel are such only in their being appropriated to the soul? The physician can cure only by being applied to; the medicine can heal them by being taken; money can enrich only by being possessed; and the merchantman in the parable would have been none the wealthier for discovering that there was a “pearl of great price,” had he not made it his. So with the salvation of the gospel: if Christ is the “Balm in Gilead,” apply the remedy; if he is the “Physician there,” go to him; if he is the “pearl of great price,” sell all that you have and buy it; and if he is the “hiding-place,” run into it and be safe; there will be no solid joy and peace in the mind until he is your “hiding-place.”—Fountain Elwin, 1842.
Verse 7.—“Thou art my hiding-place.”—An allusion, probably, to the city of refuge.—Adam Clarke.
Verse 7.—“Hiding place.” Kirke White has a beautiful hymn upon this word, beginning, “Awake, sweet harp of Judah, wake.” We have no room to quote it, but it will be found in “Our Own Hymn Book,” No. 381.
Verse 7.—“Thou shalt preserve me from trouble.” If we content ourselves with that word which our translators have chosen here, “trouble,” we must rest in one of these two senses; either that God shall arm, and indue those that are his with such a constancy, as those things that trouble others shall not trouble them; but, “As the sufferings of Christ abound in them, so their consolation also aboundeth by Christ:” “As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things” (2 Cor. i. 5; vi. 9); for God uses both these ways in the behalf of his servants—sometimes to suspend the working of that that should work their torment, as he suspended the rage of the lions for Daniel, and the heat of the fire in the furnace for the others; sometimes by imprinting a holy stupefaction and insensibleness in the person that suffers; so St. Laurence was not only patient, but merry and facetious when he lay broiling upon the fire, and so we read of many other martyrs that have been less moved, less affected with their torments than their executioners or their persecutors have been. That which troubled others never troubled them; or else the phrase must have this sense, that though they be troubled with their troubles, though God submit them so far to the common condition of men, that they be sensible of them, yet he shall preserve them from that trouble so as that it shall never overthrow them, never sink them into a dejection of spirit, or diffidence in his mercy! they shall find storms, but a stout and strong ship under foot; they shall feel thunder and lightning, but garlands of triumphant bays shall preserve them; they shall be trodden into earth with scorns and contempts, but yet as seed is buried, to multiply to more. So far this word of our translators assists our devotion, “Thou shalt preserve me from trouble,” thou shalt make me insensible of it, or thou shalt make me victorious in it.—John Donne.
Verse 7.—“Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.” In these words the prophet David riseth up by a gradation, and goeth beyond that which he had formerly said concerning his confidence in God. First, he had said that God was his hiding-place; secondly, that he would preserve him in trouble; and now, thirdly, that the Lord would make him joyful, and to triumph over his troubles and enemies, by compassing him, instead of troubles, with mercies.... Learn to acknowledge God’s goodness to thyself with particular application, as David saith here, “Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.” Not only confess his goodness to others, as to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; nor only his deliverance of Noah, Daniel, Lot; but also his mercies to and deliverance of thyself, as Paul did: “Christ gave himself for me, and died for me.” Gal. ii. 20. This will exceedingly whet up thankfulness; whereas only to acknowledge God good in himself, or to others, and not to thyself, will make thee murmur and repine.—Thomas Taylor.
Verse 7.—“Thou shalt compass me about.” This word importeth that as we are besieged on every side with troubles, so we are compassed with as many comforts and deliverances; as our crosses grow daily, so our consolations are augmented day by day. We are on every side offended and on every side defended; therefore we ought on every side to sound God’s praise, as David saith, “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me.” Ps. ciii. 1.—Archibald Symson.
Verse 7.—“Songs of deliverance.” In that he will not be content only with thanks, but also will have them conjoined with “songs,” he letteth us see how high all the strings of his heart are bended that he cannot contain himself for the mercies of God to his church, and for his manifold deliverances for the same. Many sing praises to God with an half-open mouth; and, albeit, they can sing aloud any filthy ballad in their house, they make the mean, I warrant you, in the church, that scarce can they hear the sound of their own voice. I think they be ashamed to proclaim and show forth God’s praises, or they fear to deafen God by their loud singing; but David bended all his forces within and without to praise his God.—Archibald Symson.
Verse 8.—“I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go.” No other than God himself can undertake so much as is promised in the text. For here is faith, a rectifying of the understanding, “I will instruct thee,” and in the original there is somewhat more than our translation reaches to; it is there, Intelligere faciam te, I will make thee understand. Man can instruct, God only can make us understand. And then it is Faciam te, I will make thee, thee, understand; the work is the Lord’s, the understanding is the man’s: for God does not work in man as the devil did in idols and in pythonissis, and in ventriloquis, in possessed persons, who had no voluntary concurrence with the action of the devil, but were merely passive; God works so in man as that he makes man work too, faciam te, I will make thee understand; that that shall be done shall be done by me, but in thee; the power that rectifies the act is God’s, the act is man’s; Faciam te, says God, I will make thee, thee, every particular person (for that arises out of this singular and distributive word, thee, which threatens no exception, no exclusion), I will make every person to whom I present instruction, capable of that instruction; and if he receive it not, it is only his, and not my fault. And so this first part is an instruction de credendis, of such things, as by God’s rectifying of our understanding we are bound to believe. And then, in a second part, there follows a more particular instructing, Docebo, “I will teach thee,” and that in via, “in the way;” it is not only de via, to teach thee which is the way, that thou mayst find it, but in via, how to keep the way when thou art in it; he will teach thee, not only ut gradiaris, that thou mayst walk in it and not sleep, but quomodo gradieris, that thou mayst walk in it and not stray; and so this second part is an institution de agendis, of those things which thine understanding being formerly rectified, and deduced into a belief, thou art bound to do. And then in the last words of the text, “I will guide thee with mine eye,” there is a third part, an establishment, a confirmation, by an incessant watchfulness in God; he will consider, consult upon us (for so much the original word imports) he will not leave us to contingencies, to fortune; no, nor to his own general providence, by which all creatures are universally in his protection and administration, but he will ponder us, consider us, study us; and that with his eye, which is the sharpest and most sensible organ and instrument, soonest feels if anything be amiss, and so inclines him quickly to rectify us; and so this third part is an instruction de sperandis, it hath evermore a relation to the future, to the constancy and perseverance of God’s goodness towards us; to the end, and in the end he will guide us with his eye: except the eye of God can be put out we cannot be put out of his sight and his care. So that, both our freight which we are to take in, that is, what we are to believe concerning God; and the voyage which we are to make, how we are to steer and govern our course, that is, our behaviour and conversation in the household of the faithful; and then the haven to which we must go, that is, our assurance of arriving at the heavenly Jerusalem, are expressed in this chart, in this map, in this instruction, in this text.—John Donne.
Verse 8.—This threefold repetition, “I will instruct thee,” “I will teach thee,” “I will guide thee,” teaches us three properties of a good teacher. First, to make the people understand the way of salvation; secondly, to go before them; thirdly, to watch over them and their ways.—Archibald Symson.
Verse 8.—“The way.” If we compare this way with all other ways, it will whet our care to enter into and continue in it; for, first, this is the King’s highway, in which we have promise of protection. Ps. xci. 11. Secondly, God’s ways are the cleanest of all. 2 Sam. xxii. 31. Thirdly, God’s ways are the rightest ways; and, being rightest, they be also the shortest ways. Hosea xiv. 9. Fourthly, God’s ways are most lightsome and cheerful. Prov. iii. 17. Therefore, God’s ways being the safest, cleanest, rightest, shortest, and lightsomest ways, we must be careful to walk in them.—Condensed from Thomas Taylor.
Verse 8.—“I will guide thee with mine eye.” We read in natural story[10] of some creatures, Qui solo oculorum aspectu fovent ova,[11] which hatch their eggs only by looking upon them. What cannot the eye of God produce and hatch in us? Plus est quod probatur aspectu, quam quod sermone.[12] A man may seem to commend in words, and yet his countenance shall dispraise. His word infuses good purposes into us; but if God continue his eye upon us it is a further approbation, for he is a God of pure eyes, and will not look upon the wicked. “This land doth the Lord thy God care for, and the eyes of the Lord are always upon it from the beginning of the year, even to the end thereof.” Deut. xi. 12. What a cheerful spring, what a fruitful autumn hath that soul, that hath the eye of the Lord always upon her! The eye of the Lord upon me makes midnight noon; it makes Capricorn Cancer, and the winter’s the summer’s solstice; the eye of the Lord sanctifies, nay, more than sanctifies, glorifies all the eclipses of dishonour, makes melancholy cheerfulness, diffidence assurance, and turns the jealousy of the sad soul into infallibility.... This guiding us with his eye manifests itself in these two great effects; conversion to him, and union with him. First, his eye works upon ours; his eye turns ours to look upon him. Still it is so expressed with an Ecce; “Behold the eye of the Lord is upon all them that fear him; his eye calls ours to behold that; and then our eye calls upon his, to observe our cheerful readiness.... When, as a well made picture doth always look upon him that looks upon it, this image of God in our soul is turned to him, by his turning to it, it is impossible we should do any foul, any uncomely thing in his presence.... The other great effect of his guiding us with his eye, is, that it unites us to himself; when he fixes his eye upon us, and accepts the return of ours to him, then he ‘keeps’ us as the ‘apple’ of his eye.” Zech. ii. 8.... These are the two great effects of his guiding us by his eye, that first, his eye turns us to himself, and then turns us into himself; first, his eye turns ours to him, and then, that makes us all one with himself, so as that our afflictions shall be put upon his patience, and our dishonours shall be injurious to him; we cannot be safer than by being his; but thus we are not only his, but he—to every persecutor, in every one of our behalf, he shall say, Cur me? Why persecutest thou me? And as he is all power, and can defend us, so here he makes himself all eye, which is the most tender part, and most sensible of our pressures.—Condensed from John Donne.
Verse 8.—“I will guide thee with mine eye.” Marg., I will counsel thee, mine eye shall be upon thee. The margin expresses the sense of the Hebrew. The literal meaning is, “I will counsel thee; mine eye shall be upon thee.” De Wette: “my eye shall be directed towards thee.” The idea is that of one who is telling another what way he is to take in order that he may reach a certain place; and he says he will watch him, or will keep an eye upon him; he will not let him go wrong.—Albert Barnes.
Verse 8.—“Mine eye.” We may consider mercies as the beamings of the Almighty’s eye when the light of his countenance is lifted up upon us; and that man as guided by the eye, whom mercies attract and attach to his Maker. But oh! let us refuse to be guided by the eye, and it will become needful that we be curbed with the hand. If we abuse our mercies, if we forget their Author, and yield him not gratefully the homage of our affections, we do but oblige him, by his love for our souls, to apportion us disaster and trouble. Complain not, then, that there is so much of sorrow in your lot; but consider rather how much of it you may have wilfully brought upon yourselves. Listen to the voice of God. “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye”—mine eye, whose glance gilds all that is beautiful, whose light disperses all darkness prevents all danger, diffuses all happiness. And why, then, is it that ye are sorely disquieted? why is it that “fear and the pit” are so often upon you; that one blessing after another disappears from your circle; and that God seems to deal with you as with the wayward and unruly, on whom any thing of gentleness would be altogether lost? Ah! if you would account for many mercies that have departed, if you would insure permanence to those that are yet left, examine how deficient you may hitherto have been, and strive to be more diligent for the future, in obeying an admonition which implies that we should be guided by the soft lustres of the eye, if our obduracy did not render indispensible the harsh constraints of the rein.—Henry Melvill.
Verse 9.—“Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule,” etc. How many run mad of this cause, inordinate and furious lusts! The prophet Jeremiah, chap. ii. 24, compareth Israel to “a swift dromedary, traversing her ways,” and to a “wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure.” “Be ye not,” saith the Psalmographer, “as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle.” Men have understanding, not beasts; yet when the frenzy of lust overwhelmeth their senses, we may take up the word of the prophet and pour it on them: “Every man is a beast by his own knowledge.” And therefore “man that is in honour and understandeth not, is like unto beasts that perish” (Ps. xlix. 20). Did not the bridle of God’s overruling providence restrain their madness, they would cast off the saddle of reason, and kick nature itself in the face.—Thomas Adams.
Verse 9.—“Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule,” etc. According to the several natures of these two beasts, the fathers and other expositors have made several interpretations; at least, several allusions. They consider the horse and the mule to admit any rider, any burden, without discretion or difference, without debatement or consideration; they never ask whether their rider be noble or base, nor whether their load be gold for the treasure, or roots for the market. And those expositors find the same indifference in an habitual sinner to any kind of sin; whether he sin for pleasure, or sin for profit, or sin but for company, still he sins. They consider in the mule, that one of his parents being more ignoble than the other, he is likest the worst, he hath more of the ass than of the horse in him; and they find in us, that all our actions and thoughts taste more of the ignobler part of earth than of heaven. St. Hierome thinks fierceness and rashness to be presented in the horse, and sloth in the mule. And St. Augustine carries these two qualities far; he thinks that in this fierceness of the horse the Gentiles are represented, which ran far from the knowledge of Christianity; and by the laziness of the mule the Jews, who came nothing so fast, as they were invited by their former helps to the embracing thereof. They have gone far in these allusions and applications; and they might have gone as far further as it had pleased them; they have sea-room enough, that will compare a beast and a sinner together; and they shall find many times, in the way, the beast the better man.—John Donne.
Verse 9.—“Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule,” etc. Consider the causes why a broken leg is incurable in a horse, and easily curable in a man. The horse is incapable of counsel to submit himself to the farrier; and therefore in case his leg be set he flings, flounces, and flies out, unjointing it again by his misemployed mettle, counting all binding to be shackles and fetters unto him: whereas a man willingly resigns himself to be ordered by the surgeon, preferring rather to be a prisoner for some days, than a cripple all his life. “Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding;” but “let patience have its perfect work in thee.” James i. 4.—Thomas Fuller.
Verse 9.—“Bit and bridle.” מֶתֶג־וָרֶסֶן. The LXX render the first of these two words by χαλινῷ, the second by κημῷ. The word χαλινός signifies the iron of the common bridle, which is put into the horse’s mouth, the bit, or curb. But κημός was something like a muzzle, which was put upon mischievous horses or mules to hinder them from biting. Xenophon says, that it allowed them to breathe, but kept the mouth shut, so that they could not bite. Not knowing the term of art for this contrivance, I call it a muzzle. The verb קְרֹב is a military term, and signifies to advance, as an enemy, to attack. The “coming near,” therefore, intended here, is a coming near to do mischief. The admonition given by the Psalmist to his companions, is to submit to the instruction and guidance graciously promised from heaven, and not to resemble, in a refractory disposition, those ill-conditioned colts which are not to be governed by a simple bridle; but, unless their jaws are confined by a muzzle, will attack the rider as he attempts to mount, or the groom as he leads them to the pasture and the stable.—Samuel Horsley.
Verse 9.—“Lest they come near unto thee.” The common version of this clause would be suitable enough in speaking of a wild beast, but in reference to a mule or a horse the words can only mean, because they will not follow or obey thee of their own accord; they must be constantly coerced, in the way both of compulsion and restraint.—J. A. Alexander.
Verse 9.—“Be ye not like a horse or mule, which have no understanding, and whose ornament is a bridle and bit, to hold them: they do not come unto thee of themselves.”—Charles Carter, in “The Book of Psalms.” 1869. [A new Translation.]
Verse 10.—“He that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about.” Even as in the midst of the sphere is the centre, from which all lines being drawn do tend towards their circumference: so a good Christian man hath God for his circumference; for whatever he thinketh, speaketh, or doth, it tendeth to Christ, of whom he is compassed round about.—Robert Cawdray.
Verse 10.—“Mercy shall compass him about.” He shall be surrounded with mercy—as one is surrounded by the air, or by the sunlight. He shall find mercy and favour everywhere—at home, abroad; by day, by night; in society, in solitude; in sickness, in health; in life, in death; in time, in eternity. He shall walk amidst mercies; he shall die amidst mercies; he shall live in a better world in the midst of eternal mercies.—Albert Barnes.
Verse 10.—“Mark that text,” said Richard Adkins to his grandson Abel, who was reading to him the thirty-second Psalm. “Mark that text, ‘He that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about.’ I read it in my youth and believed it; and now I read it in my old age, thank God, I know it to be true. Oh! it is a blessed thing in the midst of the joys and sorrows of the world, Abel, to trust in the Lord.”—The Christian Treasury, 1848.
Verse 11.—“Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.” This exhortation containeth three parts. First, what he doth exhort unto, to rejoice. Secondly, whom, the righteous, and upright men. Thirdly, the limitation, “in the Lord.” He exhorteth them three times—be glad, rejoice, and be joyful; and as he made mention of a threefold blessing, so doth he of a threefold joy. Wherein we have two things necessary to be observed. First, the dulness of our natures, who as slow horses need many spurs and provocations to spiritual things, whereas we are naturally overmuch bent to carnal things, that we need no incitations thereunto. But by the contrary in spiritual things, we are cast into a deep sleep, who cannot be awakened at the first cry; but as men after drink have need to be roused often, that they may behold the light; so men drunken with the pleasures of sin, as Nazianzen saith, must be wakened by divers exhortations; as this same prophet in the subsequent Psalm redoubleth his exhortations for the same effect. And the apostle to Philippians saith: “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice” (chap. iv. 4). Next, perceive that this exhortation grows; for the word be glad, properly in the original signifieth an inward and hearty joy, by the presence or hope at least of a thing desirable or good. The word rejoice, to express our joy by some outward gesture, sometimes used for dancing, as, “The hills skip for gladness.” Ps. lxv. 12. The word be joyful, to cry for gladness, as the dumb man’s tongue shall sing. This gradation teacheth us, that this is the nature of spiritual joy—that it still increaseth in us by certain degrees, until it come to the perfection of all joy, which is signified by the last word, importing, as it were, a triumph and shouting after victory. So that they are truly penitent who have overcome sin and Satan in their spiritual combat, and have triumphed over them as vanquished enemies.—Archibald Symson.
Verse 11.—“Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous.” There is never a joyful man alive but a believer. Will you say that men take pleasure in their sins? Why, that is the Devil’s joy; or that they rejoice in full barns and bags? That is the fool’s joy; or that they rejoice in wine, that is, all dainties that gratify the palate? That is a Bedlam joy. Read and believe Eccl. ii. 3; indeed, from the first verse to the eleventh, the whole book, but especially that chapter, is the divinest philosophy that ever was or will be.—Christopher Fowler (1610-1678), in “Morning Exercises.”
Verse 11.—“Shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart,” When the poet Carpani enquired of his friend Haydn, how it happened that his church music was so cheerful, the great composer made a most beautiful reply. “I cannot,” he said, “make it otherwise, I write according to the thoughts I feel: when I think upon God, my heart is so full of joy that the notes dance and leap, as it were, from my pen: and, since God has given me a cheerful heart, it will be pardoned me that I serve him with a cheerful spirit.”—John Whitecross’s Anecdotes.
Verse 11.—Here the sensual man, that haply would catch hold when it is said, “Rejoice,” by-and-by, when it is added, “in the Lord,” will let his hold go. But they that, by reason of the billows and waves of the troublesome sea of this world, cannot brook the speech when it is said, “Rejoice,” are to lay sure hold fast upon it when it is added, “Rejoice in the Lord.”—Henry Airay.
Verse 11.
O sing unto this glittering, glorious King; O praise his name, let every living thing; Let heart and voice, like bells of silver ring The comfort that this day doth bring.
Kinwellmersh, quoted by A. Moody Stuart.
Verse 11.—It is storied by the famous Tully concerning Syracuse, that there is no day throughout the whole year so stormy and tempestuous in which the inhabitants have not some glimpse and sight of the sun. The like observation may be truly made on all those Psalms of David in which his complaints are most multiplied, his fears and pressures most insisted on; that there is not any of them so totally overcast with the black darkness of despair, but that we may easily discern them to be here and there intervened and streaked with some comfortable expressions of his faith and hope in God. If in the beginning of a Psalm we find him restless in his motions, like Noah’s dove upon the overspreading waters; yet in the close we shall see him like the same dove returning with an olive branch in its mouth, and fixing upon the ark. If we find him in another Psalm staggering in the midst of his distresses, through the prevalency of carnal fears, we may also in it behold him recovering himself again, by fetching arguments from faith, whose topics are of a higher elevation than to be shaken by the timorous suggestions that arise from the flesh. If at another time we behold him like to a boat on drift, that is, tossed and beaten by the inconstant winds and fierce waves; yet we shall still find all his rollings and agitations to be such as carry him towards the standing shore, where he rides at last both in peace and safety.—William Spurstowe.
HINTS TO PREACHERS.
Verse 1.—Gospel benedictions. Take the first Psalm with thirty-second, show the doctrinal and practical harmoniously blended. Or, take the first, the thirty-second, and the forty-first, and show how we go from reading the word, to feeling its power, and thence to living charitably towards men.
Verse 1.—Evangelical Blessedness. I. The original condition of its possessor. II. The nature of the benefit received. III. The channel by which it came. IV. The means by which it may be obtained by us.
Verses 1, 2.—The nature of sin and the modes of pardon.
Verse 2.—Non-imputation, a remarkable doctrine. Prove, explain, and improve it.
Verse 2.—“No guile.” The honesty of heart of the pardoned man.
Verse 3.—Retention of our griefs to ourselves. Natural tendency of timidity and despair; danger of it; means of divulging grief; encouragements to do so; the blessed person who is ready to hear confession.
The silent mourner the greatest sufferer.
Verses 3, 4.—“Terrible Convictions and Gentle Drawings.” See “Spurgeon’s Sermons,” No. 313.
Verse 4.—The sorrows of a convinced soul. Daily, nightly, from God, heavy, weakening, destroying.
Verse 4 (last clause).—Spiritual drought.
Verse 5.—The gracious results of a full confession; or, confession and absolution scripturally explained.
Verse 6.—The godly man’s picture, drawn with a Scripture pencil.—Thomas Watson.
Verse 6.—The experience of one, the encouragement of all.
Verse 6 (first clause).—The day of grace, how to improve it.
Verse 6 (whole verse).—Pardon of sin the guarantee that other mercies shall be given.
Verse 6 (last clause).—Imminent troubles, eminent deliverances.
Verse 6 (last clause).—The felicity of the faithful.—Thomas Playfere.
Verse 7.—Danger felt, refuge known, possession claimed, joy experienced.
Verse 7 (first sentence).—Christ, a hiding-place from sin, Satan, and sorrow, in death, and at judgment.
Verse 7 (second sentence).—Troubles from which saints shall be preserved.
Verse 7 (last sentence).—The circle of song—who draws the circle, what is the circumference, who is in the centre.
Verse 7.—“Songs of deliverance.” From guilt, hell, death, enemies, doubts, temptations, accidents, plots, etc.
The divine schoolmaster, his pupils, their lessons, their chastisements and their rewards.
Verse 8.—The power of the eye.—Henry Melvill. In which he vainly tries to prove infant baptism and episcopacy, which he admits are not expressly taught in Scripture, but declares them to be hinted at as with the divine eye.
Verse 9.—God’s bits and bridles, the mules who need them, and reasons why we ought not to be of the number.
Verse 9.—How far in our actions we are better, and how far worse than horses and mules.
Verse 10.—The many sorrows which result from sin. The encompassing mercy of the believer’s life even in his most troublous times.
The portion of the wicked, and the lot of the faithful.
Verse 11.—A believer’s gladness. Its spring, “in the Lord;” its vivacity, “shout;” its propriety, it is commanded; its beneficial results and its abundant reasons.
Verse 11.—“Upright in heart,” an instructive description. Not horizontal or grovelling, nor bent, nor inclined, but vertical in heart.
Footnote 8:
Augustine.
Footnote 9:
Hilary.
Footnote 10:
A reviewer remarks upon the bad natural history which we quote. We reply that to alter it would be to spoil the allusions, and we are making a book for men, not for babes. No person in his senses, is likely at this day to believe the fables which in former ages passed current for facts.
Footnote 11:
Pliny.
Footnote 12:
Ambrose.
PSALM XXXIII.
TITLE.—This song of praise bears no title or indication of authorship; to teach us, says Dickson, “to look upon holy Scripture as altogether inspired of God, and not put price upon it for the writers thereof.”
SUBJECT AND DIVISIONS.—The praise of Jehovah is the subject of this sacred song. The righteous are exhorted to praise him, verses 1-3; because of the excellency of his character, 4, 5; and his majesty in creation, 6, 7. Men are bidden to fear before Jehovah because his purposes are accomplished in providence, 8-11. His people are proclaimed blessed, 12. The omniscience and omnipotence of God, and his care of his people are celebrated, in opposition to the weakness of an arm of flesh, 13-19; and the Psalm concludes with a fervent expression of confidence, 20, 21, and an earnest prayer, 22.
EXPOSITION.
Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright.
2 Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.
3 Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.
1. “Rejoice in the Lord.” Joy is the soul of praise. To delight ourselves in God is most truly to extol him, even if we let no notes of song proceed from our lips. That God is, and that he is such a God, and our God, ours for ever and ever, should wake within us an unceasing and overflowing joy. To rejoice in temporal comforts is dangerous, to rejoice in self is foolish, to rejoice in sin is fatal, but to rejoice in God is heavenly. He who would have a double heaven must begin below to rejoice like those above. “O ye righteous.” This is peculiarly your duty, your obligations are greater, and your spiritual nature more adapted to the work, be ye then first in the glad service. Even the righteous are not always glad, and have need to be stirred up to enjoy their privileges. “For praise is comely for the upright.” God has an eye to things which are becoming. When saints wear their choral robes, they look fair in the Lord’s sight. A harp suits a blood-washed hand. No jewel more ornamental to a holy face than sacred praise. Praise is not comely from unpardoned professional singers; it is like a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout. Crooked hearts make crooked music, but the upright are the Lord’s delight. Praise is the dress of saints in heaven, it is meet that they should fit it on below.
2. “Praise the Lord with harp.” Men need all the help they can get to stir them up to praise. This is the lesson to be gathered from the use of musical instruments under the old dispensation. Israel was at school, and used childish things to help her to learn; but in these days, when Jesus gives us spiritual manhood, we can make melody without strings and pipes. We who do not believe these things to be expedient in worship, lest they should mar its simplicity, do not affirm them to be unlawful, and if any George Herbert or Martin Luther can worship God better by the aid of well-tuned instruments, who shall gainsay their right? We do not need them, they would hinder than help our praise, but if others are otherwise minded, are they not living in gospel liberty? “Sing unto him.” This is the sweetest and best of music. No instrument like the human voice. As a help to singing the instrument is alone to be tolerated, for keys and strings do not praise the Lord. “With the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.” The Lord must have a full octave, for all notes are his, and all music belongs to him. Where several pieces of music are mentioned, we are taught to praise God with all the powers which we possess.
3. “Sing unto him a new song.” All songs of praise should be “unto him.” Singing for singing’s sake is nothing worth; we must carry our tribute to the King, and not cast it to the winds. Do most worshippers mind this? Our faculties should be exercised when we are magnifying the Lord, so as not to run in an old groove without thought; we ought to make every hymn of praise a new song. To keep up the freshness of worship is a great thing, and in private it is indispensable. Let us not present old worn-out praise, but put life, and soul, and heart, into every song, since we have new mercies every day, and see new beauties in the work and word of our Lord. “Play skilfully.” It is wretched to hear God praised in a slovenly manner. He deserves the best that we have. Every Christian should endeavour to sing according to the rules of the art, so that he may keep time and tune with the congregation. The sweetest tunes and the sweetest voices, with the sweetest words, are all too little for the Lord our God; let us not offer him limping rhymes, set to harsh tunes, and growled out by discordant voices. “With a loud noise.” Heartiness should be conspicuous in divine worship. Well-bred whispers are disreputable here. It is not that the Lord cannot hear us, but that it is natural for great exultation to express itself in the loudest manner. Men shout at the sight of their kings: shall we offer no loud hosannahs to the Son of David?
4 For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth.
5 He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.
4. “For the word of the Lord is right.” His ordinances both natural, moral, and spiritual, are right, and especially his incarnate Word, who is the Lord our righteousness. Whatever God has ordained must be good, and just, and excellent. There are no anomalies in God’s universe, except what sin has made; his word of command made all things good. When we look at his word of promise, and remember its faithfulness, what reasons have we for joy and thankfulness! “And all his works are done in truth.” His work is the outflow of his word, and it is true to it. He neither doth nor saith anything ill; in deed and speech he agrees with himself and the purest truth. There is no lie in God’s word, and no sham in his works; in creation, providence, and revelation, unalloyed truth abounds. To act truth as well as to utter it is divine, let not children of God ever yield their principles in practice any more than in heart. What a God we serve! The more we know of him, the more our better natures approve his surpassing excellence; even his afflicting works are according to his truthful word.
“Why should I complain of want or distress, Affliction or pain? he told me no less; The heirs of salvation, I know from his word, Through much tribulation must follow their Lord.”
God writes with a pen that never blots, speaks with a tongue that never slips, acts with a hand which never fails. Bless his name.
5. “He loveth righteousness and judgment.” The theory and the practice of right he intensely loves. He doth not only approve the true and the just, but his inmost soul delights therein. The character of God is a sea, every drop of which should become a wellhead of praise for his people. The righteousness of Jesus is peculiarly dear to the Father, and for its sake he takes pleasure in those to whom it is imputed. Sin, on the other hand, is infinitely abhorrent to the Lord, and woe unto those who die in it; if he sees no righteousness in them, he will deal righteously with them, and judgment stern and final will be the result. “The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.” Come hither, astronomers, geologists, naturalists, botanists, chemists, miners, yea, all of you who study the works of God, for all your truthful stories confirm this declaration. From the midge in the sunbeam to leviathan in the ocean all creatures own the bounty of the Creator. Even the pathless desert blazes with some undiscovered mercy, and the caverns of ocean conceal the treasures of love. Earth might have been as full of terror as of grace, but instead thereof it teems and overflows with kindness. He who cannot see it, and yet lives in it as the fish lives in the water, deserves to die. If earth be full of mercy, what must heaven be where goodness concentrates its beams?
6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
7 He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.
6. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made.” The angelic heavens, the sidereal heavens, and the firmament or terrestrial heavens, were all made to start into existence by a word; what if we say by the Word, “For without him was not anything made that is made.” It is interesting to note the mention of the Spirit in the next clause, “and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth;” the word “breath” is the same as is elsewhere rendered Spirit. Thus the three persons of the Godhead unite in creating all things. How easy for the Lord to make the most ponderous orbs, and the most glorious angels! A word, a breath could do it. It is as easy for God to create the universe as for a man to breathe, nay, far easier, for man breathes not independently, but borrows the breath in his nostrils from his Maker. It may be gathered from this verse that the constitution of all things is from the infinite wisdom, for his word may mean his appointment and determination. A wise and merciful Word has arranged, and a living Spirit sustains all the creation of Jehovah.
7. “He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap.” The waters were once scattered like corn strewn upon a threshing floor: they are now collected in one spot as an heap. Who else could have gathered them into one channel but their great Lord, at whose bidding the waters fled away? The miracle of the Red Sea is repeated in nature day by day, for the sea which now invades the shore under the impulse of sun and moon, would soon devour the land if bounds were not maintained by the divine decree. “He layeth up the depth in storehouses.” The depths of the main are God’s great cellars and storerooms for the tempestuous element. Vast reservoirs of water are secreted in the bowels of the earth, from which issue our springs and wells of water. What a merciful provision for a pressing need? May not the text also refer to the clouds, and the magazines of hail, and snow, and rain, those treasuries of merciful wealth for the fields of earth? These aqueous masses are not piled away as in lumber rooms, but in storehouses for future beneficial use. Abundant tenderness is seen in the foresight of our heavenly Joseph, whose granaries are already filled against earth’s time of need. These stores might have been, as once they were, the ammunition of vengeance, they are now a part of the commissariat of mercy.
8 Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
9 For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
10 The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect.
11 The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
8. “Let all the earth fear the Lord.” Not only Jews, but Gentiles. The Psalmist was not a man blinded by national prejudice, he did not desire to restrict the worship of Jehovah to the seed of Abraham. He looks for homage even to far-off nations. If they are not well enough instructed to be able to praise at least let them fear. There is an inferior kind of worship in the trembling which involuntarily admits the boundless power of the thundering God. A defiant blasphemer is out of place in a world covered with tokens of the divine power and Godhead: the whole earth cannot afford a spot congenial for the erection of a synagogue of Atheism, nor a man in whom it is becoming to profane the name of God. “Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.” Let them forsake their idols, and reverently regard the only living God. What is here placed as a wish may also be read as a prophecy: the adoration of God will yet be universal.
9. “For he spake, and it was done.” Creation was the fruit of a word. Jehovah said, “Light be,” and light was. The Lord’s acts are sublime in their ease and instantaneousness. “What a word is this?” This was the wondering enquiry of old, and it may be ours to this day. “He commanded, and it stood fast.” Out of nothing creation stood forth, and was confirmed in existence. The same power which first uplifted, now makes the universe to abide; although we may not observe it, there is as great a display of sublime power in confirming as in creating. Happy is the man who has learned to lean his all upon the sure word of him who built the skies!
10. “The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought.” While his own will is done, he takes care to anticipate the wilfulness of his enemies. Before they come to action he vanquishes them in the council-chamber; and when, well armed with craft, they march to the assault, he frustrates their knaveries, and makes their promising plots to end in nothing. Not only the folly of the heathen, but their wisdom too, shall yield to the power of the cross of Jesus: what a comfort is this to those who have to labour where sophistry, and philosophy, falsely so called, are set in opposition to the truth as it is in Jesus. “He maketh the devices of the people of none effect.” Their persecutions, slanders, falsehoods, are like puff-balls flung against a granite wall—they produce no result at all; for the Lord overrules the evil, and brings good out of it. The cause of God is never in danger: infernal craft is outwitted by infinite wisdom, and Satanic malice held in check by boundless power.
11. “The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever.” He changes not his purpose, his decree is not frustrated, his designs are accomplished. God has a predestination according to the counsel of his will, and none of the devices of his foes can thwart his decree for a moment. Men’s purposes are blown to and fro like the thread of the gossamer or the down of the thistle, but the eternal purposes are firmer than the earth. “The thoughts of his heart to all generations.” Men come and go, sons follow their sires to the grave, but the undisturbed mind of God moves on in unbroken serenity, producing ordained results with unerring certainty. No man can expect his will or plan to be carried out from age to age; the wisdom of one period is the folly of another, but the Lord’s wisdom is always wise, and his designs run on from century to century. His power to fulfil his purposes is by no means diminished by the lapse of years. He who was absolute over Pharaoh in Egypt is not one whit the less to-day the King of kings and Lord of lords; still do his chariot wheels roll onward in imperial grandeur, none being for a moment able to resist his eternal will.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
12. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” Israel was happy in the worship of the only true God. It was the blessedness of the chosen nation to have received a revelation from Jehovah. While others grovelled before their idols, the chosen people were elevated by a spiritual religion which introduced them to the invisible God, and led them to trust in him. All who confide in the Lord are blessed in the largest and deepest sense, and none can reverse the blessing. “And the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.” Election is at the bottom of it all. The divine choice rules the day; none take Jehovah to be their God till he takes them to be his people. What an ennobling choice this is! We are selected to no mean estate, and for no ignoble purpose: we are made the peculiar domain and delight of the Lord our God. Being so blessed, let us rejoice in our portion, and show the world by our lives that we serve a glorious Master.
13 The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men.
14 From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
15 He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.
16 There is no king saved by the multitude of an host; a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.
17 An horse is a vain thing for safety; neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.
18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;
19 To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
13. “The Lord looketh from heaven.” The Lord is represented as dwelling above and looking down below; seeing all things, but peculiarly observing and caring for those who trust in him. It is one of our choicest privileges to be always under our Father’s eye, to be never out of sight of our best Friend. “He beholdeth all the sons of men.” All Adam’s sons are as well watched as was Adam himself, their lone progenitor in the garden. Ranging from the frozen pole to the scorching equator, dwelling in hills and valleys, in huts and palaces, alike doth the divine eye regard all the members of the family of man.
14. “From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.” Here the sentiment is repeated: it is worth repeating, and it needs repeating, for man is most prone to forget it. As great men sit at their windows and watch the crowd below, so doth the Lord; he gazeth intently upon his responsible creatures, and forgets nothing of what he sees.
15. “He fashioneth their hearts alike.” By which is meant that all hearts are equally fashioned by the Lord, kings’ hearts as well as the hearts of beggars. The text does not mean that all hearts are created originally alike by God, such a statement would scarcely be true, since there is the utmost variety in the constitutions and dispositions of men. All men equally owe the possession of life to the Creator, and have therefore no reason to boast themselves. What reason has the vessel to glorify itself in presence of the potter? “He considereth all their works.” Not in vain doth God see men’s acts: he ponders and judges them. He reads the secret design in the outward behaviour, and resolves the apparent good into its real elements. This consideration foretokens a judgment when the results of the divine thoughts will be meted out in measures of happiness or woe. Consider thy ways, O man, for God considers them!
16. “There is no king saved by the multitude of an host.” Mortal power is a fiction, and those who trust in it are dupes. Serried ranks of armed men have failed to maintain an empire, or even to save their monarch’s life when a decree from the court of heaven has gone forth for the empire’s overthrow. The all-seeing God preserves the poorest of his people when they are alone and friendless, but ten thousand armed men cannot ensure safety to him whom God leaves to destruction. “A mighty man is not delivered by much strength.” So far from guarding others, the valiant veteran is not able to deliver himself. When his time comes to die, neither the force of his arms nor the speed of his legs can save him. The weakest believer dwells safely under the shadow of Jehovah’s throne, while the most mighty sinner is in peril every hour. Why do we talk so much of our armies and our heroes? the Lord alone has strength, and let him alone have praise.
17. “An horse is a vain thing for safety.” Military strength among the Orientals lay much in horses and scythed chariots, but the Psalmist calls them a lie, a deceitful confidence. Surely the knight upon his gallant steed may be safe, either by valour or by flight? Not so, his horse shall bear him into danger or crush him with its fall. “Neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.” Thus the strongest defences are less than nothing when most needed. God only is to be trusted and adored. Sennacherib with all his cavalry is not a match for one angel of the Lord, Pharaoh’s horses and chariots found it vain to pursue the Lord’s anointed, and so shall all the leaguered might of earth and hell find themselves utterly defeated when they rise against the Lord and his chosen.
18. “Behold.” For this is a greater wonder than hosts and horses, a surer confidence than chariots or shields. “The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him.” That eye of peculiar care is their glory and defence. None can take them at unawares, for the celestial watcher foresees the designs of their enemies, and provides against them. They who fear God need not fear anything else; let them fix their eye of faith on him, and his eye of love will always rest upon them. “Upon them that hope in his mercy.” This one would think to be a small evidence of grace, and yet it is a valid one. Humble hope shall have its share as well as courageous faith. Say, my soul, is not this an encouragement to thee? Dost thou not hope in the mercy of God in Christ Jesus? Then the Father’s eye is as much upon thee as upon the elder born of the family. These gentle words, like soft bread, are meant for babes in grace, who need infants’ food.
19. “To deliver their soul from death.” The Lord’s hand goes with his eye; he sovereignly preserves those whom he graciously observes. Rescues and restorations hedge about the lives of the saints; death cannot touch them till the King signs his warrant and gives him leave, and even then his touch is not so much mortal as immortal; he doth not so much kill us as kill our mortality. “And to keep them alive in famine.” Gaunt famine knows its master. God has meal and oil for his Elijahs somewhere. “Verily thou shalt be fed” is a divine provision for the man of faith. The Preserver of men will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish. Power in human hands is outmatched by famine, but God is good at a pinch, and proves his bounty under the most straitened circumstances. Believer, wait upon thy God in temporals. His eye is upon thee, and his hand will not long delay.
20 Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield.
21 For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.
20. “Our soul waiteth for the Lord.” Here the godly avow their reliance upon him whom the Psalm extols. To wait is a great lesson. To be quiet in expectation, patient in hope, single in confidence, is one of the bright attainments of a Christian. Our soul, our life, must hang upon God; we are not to trust him with a few gewgaws, but with all we have and are. “He is our help and our shield.” Our help in labour, our shield in danger. The Lord answereth all things to his people. He is their all in all. Note the three “ours” in the text. These holdfast words are precious. Personal possession makes the Christian man; all else is mere talk.
21. “For our hearts shall rejoice in him.” The duty commended and commanded in the first verse is here presented to the Lord. We, who trust, cannot but be of a glad heart, our inmost nature must triumph in our faithful God. “Because we have trusted in his holy name.” The root of faith in due time bears the flower of rejoicing. Doubts breed sorrow, confidence creates joy.
22 Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.
Here is a large and comprehensive prayer to close with. It is an appeal for “mercy,” which even joyful believers need; and it is sought for in a proportion which the Lord has sanctioned. “According to your faith be it unto you,” is the Master’s word, and he will not fall short of the scale which he has himself selected. Yet, Master, do more than this when hope is faint, and bless us far above what we ask or even think.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.
Whole Psalm.—A thanksgiving of the church triumphant in the latter ages, for her final deliverance, by the overthrow of Antichrist and his armies.—Samuel Horsley.
Whole Psalm.—Let us follow the holy man a moment in his meditation. His Psalm is not composed in scholastic form, in which the author confines himself to fixed rules; and, scrupulously following a philosophical method, lays down principles, and infers consequences. However, he establishes principles, the most proper to give us sublime ideas of the Creator; and he speaks with more precision of the works and attributes of God than the greatest philosophers have spoken of them.
How absurdly have the philosophers treated of the origin of the world! How few of them have reasoned conclusively on this important subject! Our prophet solves the important question by one single principle; and, what is more remarkable, this principle, which is nobly expressed, carries the clearest evidence with it. The principle is this: “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth,” verse 6. This is the most rational account that was ever given of the creation of the world. The world is the work of a self-efficient will, and it is this principle alone that can account for its creation. The most simple appearances in nature are sufficient to lead us to this principle. Either my will is self-efficient, or there is some other being whose will is self-efficient. What I say of myself, I say of my parents; and what I affirm of my parents I affirm of my more remote ancestors, and of all the finite creatures from whom they derived their existence. Most certainly, either finite beings have a self-efficient will, which it is impossible to suppose, for a finite creature with a self-efficient will is a contradiction: either, I say, a finite creature has a self-efficient will, or there is a First Cause who has a self-efficient will; and that there is such a Being is the principle of the Psalmist; “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.”
If philosophers have reasoned inconclusively on the origin of the world, they have spoken of its government with equal uncertainty. The Psalmist determined this question with great facility, by a single principle, which results from the former, and which, like the former, carries its evidence with it. “The Lord looketh from heaven; he considereth all the works of all the inhabitants of the earth,” verses 13, 14. This is the doctrine of providence. And on what is the doctrine of providence founded? On this principle: God “fashioneth their hearts alike,” verse 15. Attend a moment to the evidence of this reasoning, my brethren. The doctrine of providence expressed in these words, “God considereth the works of the inhabitants of the earth,” is a necessary consequence of his principle, “God fashioneth their hearts alike;” and this principle is a necessary consequence of that which the Psalmist had before laid down to account for the origin of the world. Yes, from the doctrine of God the Creator of men, follows that of God the inspector, the director, rewarder, and the punisher of their actions. One of the most specious objections that has ever been opposed to the doctrine of providence, is a contrast between the grandeur of God and the meanness of men. How can such an insignificant creature as man be the object of the care and attention of such a magnificent being as God? No objection can be more specious, or, in appearance, more invincible. The distance between the meanest insect and the mightiest monarch, who treads and crushes reptiles to death without the least regard to them, is a very imperfect image of the distance between God and man. That which proves that it would be beneath the dignity of a monarch to observe the motions of ants, or worms, to interest himself in their actions, to punish, or to reward them, seems to demonstrate, that God would degrade himself were he to observe, to direct, to punish, to reward mankind, who are infinitely inferior to him. But one fact is sufficient to answer this specious objection: that is, that God has created mankind. Does God degrade himself more by governing than by creating mankind? Who can persuade himself that a wise Being has given to intelligent creatures faculties capable of obtaining knowledge and virtue, without willing that they should endeavour to acquire knowledge and virtue? Or who can imagine, that a wise Being, who wills that his intelligent creatures should acquire knowledge and virtue, will not punish them if they neglect those acquisitions; and will not show by the distribution of his benefits that he approves their endeavours to obtain them?
Unenlightened philosophers have treated of the attributes of God with as much abstruseness as they have written of his works. The moral attributes of God, as they are called in the schools, were mysteries which they could not unfold. These may be reduced to two classes; attributes of goodness, and attributes of justice. Philosophers, who have admitted these, have usually taken that for granted which they ought to have proved. They collected together in their minds all perfections; they reduced them all to one object which they denominated a perfect being: and supposing, without proving, that a perfect being existed, they attributed to him, without proof, everything that they considered as a perfection. The Psalmist shows by a surer way that there is a God supremely just and supremely good. It is necessary, in order to convince a rational being of the justice and goodness of God, to follow such a method as that which we follow to prove his existence. When we would prove the existence of God, we say, there are creatures, therefore there is a Creator. In like manner, when we would prove that a Creator is a just and a good being, we say, there are qualities of goodness and justice in creatures, therefore he, from whom these creatures derive their existence, is a being just and good. Now, this is the reasoning of the Psalmist in this Psalm: “The Lord loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord” (verse 5); that is to say, it is impossible to consider the works of the Creator, without receiving evidence of his goodness. And the works of nature which demonstrate the goodness of God, prove his justice also; for God has created us with such dispositions, that we cannot enjoy the gifts of his goodness without obeying the laws of his righteousness. The happiness of an individual who procures a pleasure by disobeying the laws of equity, is a violent happiness, which cannot be of long duration; and the prosperity of public bodies, when it is founded in iniquity, is an edifice which, with its basis, will be presently sunk and gone.
But what we would particularly remark is, that the excellent principles of the Psalmist, concerning God, are not mere speculations; but truths from which he derives practical inferences; and he aims to extend their influence beyond private persons, even to legislators and conquerors. One would think, considering the conduct of mankind, that the consequences, which are drawn from the doctrines of which we have been speaking, belong to none but to the dregs of the people; that lawgivers and conquerors have a plan of morality peculiar to themselves, and are above the rules to which other men must submit. Our prophet had other notions. What are his maxims of policy? They are all included in these words: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance,” verse 12. What are his military maxims? They are all included in these words: “There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength,” verses 16, 17. Who proposes these maxims? A hermit, who never appeared on the theatre of the world? or a man destitute of the talents necessary to shine there? No: one of the wisest of kings; one of the most bold and able generals: a man whom God has self-elected to govern his chosen people, and to command those armies which fought the most obstinate battles, and gained the most complete victories. Were I to proceed in explaining the system of the Psalmist, I might prove, that as he had a right to infer the doctrine of providence from the works of nature, and that of the moral attributes of God from the works of creation; so from the doctrines of the moral attributes of God, of providence, and of the works of creation, he had a right to conclude, that no conquerors or lawgivers could be truly happy but those who acted agreeably to the laws of the just and good Supreme.—James Saurin.
Verse 1.—“Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous.” Exult, ye righteous, in Jehovah! The Hebrew verb, according to the etymologists, originally means to dance for joy, and is therefore a very strong expression for the liveliest exultation.—J. A. Alexander.
Verse 1.—“Rejoice, O ye righteous:” not in yourselves, for that is not safe, but “in the Lord.”—Augustine.
Verse 1.—“Praise is comely for the upright.” Praise is not comely for any but the godly. A profane man stuck with God’s praise is like a dunghill stuck with flowers. Praise in the mouth of a sinner is like an oracle in the mouth of a fool: how uncomely is it for him to praise God, whose whole life is a dishonouring of God? It is as indecent for a wicked man to praise God, who goes on in sinful practices, as it is for an usurer to talk of living by faith, or for the devil to quote Scripture. The godly are only fit to be choristers in God’s praise; it is called, “the garment of praise.” Isaiah lxi. 3. The garment sits handsome only on a saint’s back.—Thomas Watson.
Verse 1.—This Psalm is coupled with the foregoing one by the catchword with which it opens, which is a repetition of the exhortation with which the preceding ends, “Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous;” “Shout for joy, all ye upright.”—Christopher Wordsworth.
Verse 1.—He pleaseth God whom God pleaseth.—Augustine.
Verse 2.—“Praise the Lord with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.” Here we have the first mention of musical instruments in the Psalms. It is to be observed that the early fathers almost with one accord protest against their use in churches; as they are forbidden in the Eastern church to this day, where yet, by the consent of all the singing is infinitely superior to anything that can be heard in the West.—J. M. Neale.
Verse 2.—“Harp;” “Psaltery,” etc. Our church does not use musical instruments, as harps and psalteries, to praise God withal, that she may not seem to Judaise.—Thomas Aquinas. It was only permitted to the Jews, as sacrifice was, for the heaviness and grossness of their souls. God condescended to their weakness, because they were lately drawn off from idols: but now instead of organs, we may use our own bodies to praise him withal.—Chrysostom. The use of singing with instrumental music was not received in the Christian churches as it was among the Jews in their infant state, but only the use of plain song.—Justin Martyr.
Verse 2 (last clause).—It is said that David praised God upon “an instrument of ten strings;” and he would never have told how many strings there were, but that without all doubt he made use of them all. God hath given all of us bodies, as it were, instruments of many strings; and can we think it music good enough to strike but one string, to call upon him with our tongues only? No, no; when the still sound of the heart by holy thoughts, and the shrill sound of the tongue by holy words, and the loud sound of the hands by pious works, do all join together, that is God’s concert, and the only music wherewith he is affected.—Sir Richard Baker.
Verse 3.—“Sing unto him.” I. Singing is the music of nature. The Scriptures tell us the mountains sing (Isa. lv. 12); the valleys sing (Ps. lxv. 13); the trees of the wood sing (1 Chron. xvi. 33); nay, the air is the bird’s music room, they chant their musical notes. II. Singing is the music of ordinances. Augustine reports of himself, that when he came to Milan and heard the people sing, he wept for joy in the church to hear that pleasing melody. And Beza confesses that at his first entrance into the congregation, and hearing them sing the ninety-first Psalm, he felt himself exceedingly comforted, and did retain the sound of it afterwards upon his heart. The Rabbins tell us that the Jews, after the feast of the Passover was celebrated, sang the hundred-and-eleventh and five following Psalms; and our Saviour and his apostles sang a hymn immediately after the blessed Supper. Matt. xxvi. 30. III. Singing is the music of saints. 1. They have performed this duty in their greatest numbers. Ps. cxlix. 1, 2. 2. In their greatest straits. Isa. xxvi. 19. 3. In their greatest flight. Isa. xlii. 10, 11. 4. In their greatest deliverances. 5. In their greatest plenties. Isa. lxv. 14. In all these changes singing hath been their stated duty and delight. And indeed it is meet that the saints and servants of God should sing forth their joys and praises to the Lord Almighty: every attribute of him can set both their song and their tune. IV. Singing is the music of angels. Job tells us, “the morning stars sang together,” chap. xxxviii. 7. Now these “morning stars,” as Pineda tells us, are the angels; to which the Chaldee paraphrase accords, naming these morning stars, aciem angelorum, an host of angels. Nay, when this heavenly host was sent to proclaim the birth of our dearest Jesus, they deliver their message in this raised way of duty. Luke ii. 13. They were αἰνούντες, delivering their messages in a laudatory singing, the whole company of angels making a musical quire. Nay, in heaven there is the angels’ joyous music; they there sing hallelujahs to the Most High, and to the Lamb who sits upon the throne. Rev. v. 11. V. Singing is the music of heaven; the glorious saints and angels accent their praises this way, and make one harmony in their state of blessedness; and this is the music of the bride-chamber. The saints who were tuning here their Psalms, are now singing their hallelujahs in a louder strain, and articulating their joys, which here they could not express to their perfect satisfaction; here they laboured with drowsy hearts, and faltering tongues; but in glory these impediments are removed, and nothing is left to jar their joyous celebration.—John Wells, in “Morning Exercises.”
Verse 3.—“A new song.” That is to say, a new and recent composition on account of recent benefits; or constantly new songs, song succeeding song as daily new material for divine praise offers itself to the attentive student of the works of God. Or new, that is, always fresh and full of life, and renewed as new occasions offer themselves: as Job says, “My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.” Or new, i.e., not common but rare and exquisite; as the new name in Rev. ii. 17; the new commandment, John xiii. 34. Or this respects the gospel state, wherein is a new covenant (Heb. viii. 8), a new Jerusalem (Rev. xxi. 2), a new man (Eph. ii. 15), and all things new. 2 Cor. v. 17. New, on account of its matter being unknown of men: as in Rev. xiv. 3, “They sung a new song, and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.” New may be used in opposition to old. The song of Moses is old, and of the Lamb is new.—Martin Geier (1614-1681), in “Poli Synopsis Criticorum.”
Verse 3.—“Sing unto him a new song.” Put off oldness: ye know the new song. A new man, a New Testament, a new song. A new song belongeth not to men that are old; none learn that but new men, renewed through grace from oldness, and belonging now to the New Testament, which is the kingdom of heaven.—Augustine.
Verse 3.—“A new song;” namely, sung with such fervency of affections as novelties usually bring with them; or, always new, seeing God’s graces never wax old; or, sung by the motion of this new spirit of grace, which doth not so much look after the old benefits of the creation as after the new benefit of the redemption in Christ, which reneweth all things. Ps. xl. 3, and xcvi. 1; Rev. v. 9, and xiv. 3.—John Diodati.
Verse 3.—“Sing unto him a new song.” It is a melancholy proof of the decline of the church, when the exhortation to sing a new song is no longer attended to: in such a case, there is need of the greatest care to prevent the old ones falling into oblivion.—E. W. Hengstenberg.
Verse 3.—“Play skilfully.” It is not an easy matter to praise God aright; it must be done corde, ore, opere, with the very best of the best.—John Trapp.
Verse 4.—“The word of the Lord is right.” His word of promise given to the church. The divine revelation to all setting forth what is to be believed, hoped for, and done. The decrees of God and his penal judgments. The whole counsel and determination of God in the creation and government of the world. “Is right,” without defect or error. The word right is opposed to tortuous; it means true or certain.—John de Pineda (1577-1637); D. H. Mollerus (1639), and others, in Synopsis.
Verse 4.—“All his works are done in truth.”
Truth is in each flower As well as in the solemnest things of God: Truth is the voice of nature and of time— Truth is the startling monitor within us— Nought is without it, it comes from the stars, The golden sun, and every breeze that blows— Truth, it is God! and God is everywhere!
William Thomas Bacon.
Verse 5.—“The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.” If we reflect on the prodigious number of human beings who constantly receive their food, raiment, and every pleasure they enjoy, from their mother earth, we shall be convinced of the great liberality with which nature dispenses her gifts; and not only human beings, but an innumerable quantity of living creatures besides—inhabitants of the air, the waters, and the earth—are daily indebted to nature for their support. Those animals which are under our care are still indebted to the earth for their subsistence; for the grass, which nature spontaneously produces, is their chief food. The whole race of fishes, except those which men feed for their amusement, subsist without any of their aid. The species of birds which is perhaps the most despised and most numerous, is the sparrow. What they require for their support is incredible, but nature takes care to feed them; they are however but the smallest part of her children. So great is the quantity of insects, that ages may pass before even their species and classes can be known. How many and how diversified the sorts of flies that play in the air! The blood taken from us by the gnat is very accidental food for them; and we may suppose that where there is one gnat that lives upon it, there are millions that have never tasted human blood, or that of any other animal. On what can all these creatures subsist? Perhaps every handful of earth contains living insects; they are discovered in every drop of water; their multiplying and means of support are incomprehensible. While nature is thus prolific in children, she is also fruitful in means for their subsistence; or, rather, it is the God of nature who has poured into her bosom this inexhaustible store of riches. He provides each creature with its food and dwelling. For them he causes the grass and other herbs to grow, leaving each to select its proper food. And, however mean many creatures may appear to us, he feeds and assists them all.
O Almighty God, how manifest is thy greatness! Thou dost what the united efforts of all mankind would fail to accomplish. Thou hast given life, and breath, and being to all creatures that live in the air, the waters, or the earth. Surely thou wilt do for thy believing people what thou dost for animals and insects! When we are filled with doubts and fears, let us consider the ravens whom the Lord feeds when they cry. Let them and all creatures beside, which man takes no care of, teach us the art of contentment. The great Author of nature knows all our wants. Let us cast our every care on him, for he careth for us; and may we come boldly to the throne of grace in faith and sincerity that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help us in every time of need.—Christopher Christian Sturm.
Verse 5.—“The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.” To hear its worthless inhabitants complain, one would think that God dispensed evil, not good. To examine the operation of his hand, everything is marked with mercy, and there is no place where his goodness does not appear. The overflowing kindness of God fills the earth. Even the iniquities of men are rarely a bar to his goodness: he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends his rain upon the just and the unjust.—Adam Clarke.
Verse 5.—“The goodness of the Lord.” In discoursing on the glorious perfections of God, his goodness must by no means be omitted; for though all his perfections are his glory, yet this is particularly so called, for when Moses, the man of God, earnestly desired to behold a grand display of the glory of Jehovah, the Lord said, in answer to his petition, “I will make all my goodness pass before thee;” thus intimating that he himself accounted his goodness to be his glory (Exod. xxxiii. 19; xxxiv. 7); and it includes that mercy, grace, longsuffering, and truth, which are afterwards mentioned. When it relieves the miserable, it is mercy; when it bestows favours on the worthless, it is grace; when it bears with provoking rebels, it is longsuffering; when it confers promised blessings, it is truth; when it supplies indigent beings, it is bounty. The goodness of God is a very comprehensive term; it includes all the forms of his kindness shown to men; whether considered as creatures, as sinners, or as believers.—George Burder, 1838.
Verse 5.—“The goodness of the Lord.” He might, if he had pleased, have made everything we tasted bitter, everything we saw loathsome, everything we touched a sting, every smell a stench, every sound a discord.—William Paley, D.D., 1743-1805.
Verse 6.—“By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.” That the רוּחַ is not spirit, but breath, is evident from the words “of his mouth” (compare Isaiah xi. 4), and from the parallelism with “word.” Simple word is simple breath; both together, they stand in contrast to that exercise of strength, that labour, that use of means and instruments without which feeble man can bring nothing to perfection. Then there are the parallel passages, “All the while my breath is in me, and the Spirit of God is in my nostrils,” Job xxvii. 3. “The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.” Job xxxiii. 4. “Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust, thou sendest forth thy breath, they are created.” Psalm civ. 29, 30. On the other hand, however, the exposition which would interpret רוּחַ פִיו, without reference to the Spirit of God, cannot be a correct one. In the history of the creation, to which the verse before us, as well as verses seven and nine, generally refer, the creation is described as the work of the SPIRIT of God, and his WORD. First, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of waters, then God said. We may also suppose that the Spirit and the power of God are here represented by the figure of breath, because that in man is the first sign of life.—E. W. Hengstenberg.
Verse 6.—“By the word of the Lord.” May be understood of the hypostatic Word, as John teaches us. John i. 1. (John Cocceius, 1603-1669). This is an illustration of the old saying, that while Grotius finds Christ nowhere, Cocceius finds Christ everywhere.—C. H. S.
Verse 6.—Let any make a world, and he shall be a God, saith Augustine; hence is it that the church maketh it the very first article of her Creed to believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.—John Weemse.
Verses 6, 9.—It is all one with God to do as to say, to perform as to promise; it is as easy, he is as willing, as able, to do the one as the other. There is no such distance betwixt God’s saying and doing, as amongst men. His saying is doing. “He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.” “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made.” “The worlds were framed by the word of God.” Heb. xi. 3. There is omnipotency in his word, both of command and promise; therefore called, “The word of his power.” Heb. i. 3. One word of his can do more in an instant than the united powers of heaven and earth can do to eternity. This consideration removes at once the chief discouragements that hinder the lively actings of faith; for what is it that weakens our confidence of the promises’ performance, but because we look upon the accomplishment as uncertain or difficult, or future and afar off! Now from hence faith may conclude the performance is certain, easy, and present.—David Clarkson.
Verse 7.—“He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap,” etc. “God called the gathering together of the waters, seas.” Gen. i. 10. This unstable element must, like all other elements, be put under law, and confined within bounds, that there might be a habitable earth for man and all the creatures around him. Thus the Psalmist sings, “He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.” The boundary was such as to cause his servants to wonder. They looked from the shore, as we do, and under the influence of a well-known law, the billows in their heaving swells, seemed as if they would, as if they did, touch the sky itself; and as if they were so much higher than the shore, that they were in danger of leaving their basin and stretching over the land. Just such an impression, we, with all our science, popularly hold. The prophets thus looked as we do, and under the same kind of feeling. How wonderful, they thought, is all this! A low barrier of sand is made Jehovah’s agent for bounding the deep. “The Lord hath placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it.” Jer. v. 22.—John Duns, D.D., in “Science and Christian Thought,” 1868.
Verse 7.—“The waters of the sea.” Of all objects that I have ever seen, there is none which affects my imagination so much as the sea or ocean. I cannot see the heavings of this prodigious bulk of waters, even in a calm, without a very pleasing astonishment; but when it is worked up in a tempest, so that the horizon on every side is nothing but foaming billows and floating mountains, it is impossible to describe the agreeable horror that rises from such a prospect. A troubled ocean, to a man who sails upon it, is, I think, the biggest object that he can see in motion, and consequently gives his imagination one of the highest kinds of pleasure that can arise from greatness. I must confess it is impossible for me to survey this world of fluid matter without thinking on the hand that first poured it out, and made a proper channel for its reception. Such an object naturally raises in my thoughts the idea of an Almighty Being, and convinces me of his existence as much as a metaphysical demonstration. The imagination prompts the understanding, and by the greatness of the sensible object, produces in it the idea of a Being who is neither circumscribed by time nor space.—Spectator.
Verse 7.—“As a heap.” Dealing with fluids as if they were solids, with an obvious allusion to Ex. xv. 8. “Depths,” masses of water. The main point of the description is God’s handling these vast liquid masses, as men handle solid substances of moderate dimensions, heaping the waves up, and storing them away, as men might do with stones or wheat.—J. A. Alexander.
Verse 7.—The vast mass of waters which had hitherto covered the entire surface of the globe, was on the third day of creation brought within narrower compass, and large tracts of the submerged earth reclaimed and rendered habitable ground.... The waters were, for the most part, congregated together in one vast body, instead of being universally diffused over the face of the earth. This is the state of things which we now contemplate; the various great seas and oceans constituting in fact but one body of water called in different regions by different names, as the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Southern, etc., oceans.—George Bush, on Gen. i. 9.
Verse 8.—“Let all the earth.” For who can doubt that God can do as he wills upon earth, since he so tamed the unconquerable nature of the sea?—Hugo Grotius, 1583-1645.
Verse 8.—“Let all the earth fear the Lord,” etc. Let them not fear another instead of him. Doth a wild beast rage? Fear God. Doth a serpent lie in wait? Fear God. Doth man hate thee? Fear God. Doth the devil fight against thee? Fear God. For the whole creation is under him whom thou art commanded to fear.—Augustine.
Verse 9.—“He spake and it was done.” As we say in Latin, Dictum factum, SAID DONE, no delay having interposed.—Hugo Grotius.
Verse 9.—“He spake, and it was done;” so that the creatures were not emanations from the divine nature, but effects of the divine will, the fruits of intelligence, and design, and counsel.—William Binnie, D.D.
Verse 10.—“The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought,” etc. The more the Pharisees of old, and their successors the prelates of late, opposed the truth, the more it prevailed. The Reformation in Germany was much furthered by the Papists’ opposition; yea, when two kings (amongst many others), wrote against Luther, namely Henry VIII. of England, and Ludovicus of Hungary, this kingly title being entered into the controversy (making men more curious to examine the matter), stirred up a general inclination towards Luther’s opinions.—Richard Younge’s Christian Library, 1655.
Verse 11.—“The counsel of the Lord.” Note the contrast between the counsel of the heathen in the last verse, and the counsel of the Lord in this.—C. H. S.
Verse 11.—“The thoughts.” The same word as devices in the preceding verse.—William de Burgh, D.D., in loc.
Verse 11.—The wheels in a watch or a clock move contrary one to another, some one way, some another, yet all serve the intent of the workman, to show the time, or to make the clock to strike. So in the world, the providence of God may seem to run cross to his promises; one man takes this way, another runs that way; good men go one way, wicked men another, yet all in conclusion accomplish the will, and centre in the purpose of God the great Creator of all things.—Richard Sibbes.
Verse 11 (last clause).—Think not, brethren, because he said, “The thoughts of his heart,” that God as it were sitteth down and thinketh what he should do, and taketh counsel to do anything, or not to do anything. To thee, O man, belongs such tardiness.—Augustine.
Verse 12.—“Blessed—whom he hath chosen.” A man may have his name set down in the chronicles, yet lost; wrought in durable marble, yet perish; set upon a monument equal to a Colossus, yet be ignominious; inscribed on the hospital gates, yet go to hell; written in the front of his own house, yet another come to possess it; all these are but writings in the dust, or upon the waters, where the characters perish so soon as they are made; they no more prove a man happy than the fool could prove Pontius Pilate because his name was written in the Creed. But the true comfort is this, when a man by assurance can conclude with his own soul that his name is written in those eternal leaves of heaven, in the book of God’s election, which shall never be wrapped up in the cloudy sheets of darkness, but remain legible to all eternity.—Thomas Adams.
Verse 12.—“The people whom he hath chosen.” Some read it, The people which hath chosen him for their inheritance. It cometh all to one. See Deut. xxvi. 17-19.—John Trapp.
Verse 12.—It is an happiness to have an interest in one greater than ourselves; an interest in a beggar is of no worth, because he is of no power; but interest in a prince all men seek, therefore it is said, “Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord.”—Joseph Symonds.
Verse 12.—Lest it should be thought that men obtain so great a good by their own efforts and industry, David teaches us expressly that it proceeds from the fountain of God’s gracious, electing love that we are accounted the people of God.—John Calvin.
Verse 12.—I have sometimes compared the great men of the world, and the good men of the world to the consonants and vowels in the alphabet. The consonants are the most and the biggest letters; they take up most room, and carry the greatest bulk; but, believe it, the vowels though they are the fewest and least of all the letters, yet they are most useful; they give the greatest sound of all; there is no pronunciation without vowels. O beloved, though the great men of the world take up room, and make a show above others, yet they are but consonants, a company of mute and dumb consonants for the most part; the good men they are the vowels that are of the greatest use and most concernment at every turn: a good man to help with his prayers; a good man to advise with his counsels; a good man to interpose with his authority; this is the loss we lament, we have lost a good man; death has blotted out a vowel; and I fear me there will be much silence where he is lacking; silence in the bed, and silence in the house, and silence in the shop, and silence in the church, and silence in the parish; for he was everywhere a vowel, a good man in every respect.—John Kitchin, M.A., in a Funeral Sermon, 1660.
Verse 15.—“He fashioneth their hearts alike.” As an illustration of the passage as it stands in our version, we append the following:—“Every circumstance concurs in proving that mankind are not composed of species essentially different from each other; that, on the contrary, there was originally but one species, which, after multiplying and spreading over the whole surface of the earth, has undergone various changes from the influence of climate, food, mode of living, diseases, and mixture of dissimilar individuals; that at first these changes were not so conspicuous, and produced only individual varieties; that these varieties became afterwards more specific, because they were rendered more general, more strongly marked, and more permanent, by the continual action of the same causes; and that they are transmitted from generation to generation.”—G. L. Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, 1707-1788.
Verse 15.—The Creator of all things “fashioneth their hearts alike;” the word יַחַד, which signifies together at once, intimating that the hearts of all men though separated from one another by never so vast a gulf of time or place, are as exactly alike in respect of their original inclinations, as if they had been all moulded at the same time. The worship of a God and then some kind of religion, is necessary to us, we cannot shift it off.—William Pinke, 1631.
Verse 15 (last clause).—Two men give to the poor, one seeketh his reward in heaven, the other the praise of men. Thou in two seest one thing, God understandeth two. For he understandeth what is within, and knoweth what is within; their ends he seeth, their base intentions he seeth. “He understandeth all their works.”—Augustine.
Verse 16.—“There is no king saved by the multitude of an host.” At the battle of Arbela, the Persian hosts numbered between five hundred thousand and a million men, but they were utterly put to the rout by Alexander’s band of fifty thousand; and the once mighty Darius was soon vanquished. Napoleon led more than half-a-million of men into Russia—
“Not such the numbers, nor the host so dread, By northern Bren, or Scythian Timour led.”
But the terrible winter left the army a mere wreck, and their leader was soon a prisoner on the lone rock of St. Helena. All along the line of history this verse has been verified. The strongest battalions melt like snowflakes when God is against them.—C. H. S.
Verse 16.—“A mighty man;” or, a giant; Goliath for instance. As the most skilful swimmers are often drowned, so here.—John Trapp.
Verses 16, 17:—
Not the chief his serried lances, Not his strength secures the brave: All in vain the war-horse prances. Weak his force his lord to save.
Richard Mant.
Verses 16, 17.—The weakness and insufficiency of all human power, however great, as before of all human intellect.—J. J. Stewart Perowne.
Verses 16, 17.—As a passenger in a storm, that for shelter against the weather, steppeth out of the way, betaketh him to a fair spread oak, standeth under the boughs, with his back close to the body of it, and findeth good relief thereby for the space of some time; till at length cometh a sudden gust of wind, that teareth down a main arm of it, which falling upon the poor passenger, either maimeth or mischieveth him that resorted to it for succour. Thus falleth it out with not a few, meeting in the world with many troubles, and with manifold vexations, they step aside out of their own way, and too, too often out of God’s, to get under the wing of some great one, and gain, it may be, some aid and shelter thereby for a season; but after awhile, that great one himself coming down headlong, and falling from his former height of favour, or honour, they are also called in question, and to fall together with him, that might otherwise have stood long enough on their own legs, if they had not trusted to such an arm of flesh, such a broken staff that deceived them.—Thomas Gataker.
Verse 17.—“An horse.” If the strength of horses be of God, or be his gift (Job xxxix. 19), then trust not in the strength of horses: use the strength of horses, but do not trust the strength of horses. If you trust that strength which God hath given to horses, you make them your god. How often doth God forbid trusting in the strength of horses, as knowing that we are apt to trust in anything that is strong, though but a beast. “An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.” As if God had said, you think a horse can save you, but know he is a vain thing. And when the Psalmist saith, “A horse is a vain thing,” he doth not mean it of a weak horse, but of a horse of the greatest strength imaginable; such a horse is a vain thing to save a man, neither can he deliver any by his strength; and therefore the Lord, when he promised great deliverances to his people, lest they should expect it by the strength of horses, saith (Hos. i. 7), “I will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen;” as if he had told them, do not look after creature strength to be saved by; a horse will be a vain thing to save you, and I can save you effectually without horses, and I will.—Joseph Caryl.
Verses 17-20.—Man is sensible of his want of earthly blessings, and will never cease, with excessive care, diligence, and vexation, to hunt after them, till he come to know that God will provide for him. When one hath great friends which they are known to lean upon, we say of them, such need take no care, they know such-and-such will see to them. On the contrary, come to one who knows no end of toiling and caring, ask him, Why will you thus tire yourself out? He will answer, I must needs do it, I have none but myself to trust to. So Christ followeth his disciples’ carefulness to this door, their unbelief, which did not let them consider our heavenly Father cared for them. No present estate, though never so great, can free the heart from distraction, because it is subject to decay and vanishing: we shall never cast the burden of care off our own shoulders, till we learn by faith to cast it upon the Lord, whose eye is over us for good. He will never renounce carnal supports who makes not God the stay of his soul for outward things. He will trust in the abundance of his riches, wisdom, friends, or strength, that makes not God his strength. The heart of man, being aware of his inability to sustain himself if he be not underset, will seek out some prop, true or false, sound or rotten, to lean unto. They will go down to Egypt for help, and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, who look not to the Holy One of Israel, and seek not the Lord.—John Ball.
Verse 18.—“Behold,” etc. Hitherto he hath given a proof of God’s providence towards all men, but now he descends to a particular proof of it, by his care over his church, which he wonderfully guides, defends, and protects in all dangers and assaults and that notice may be taken of it, he begins with, “Behold!”—Adam Clarke.
Verse 18.—“The eye of the Lord is upon.” Look upon the sun, how it casts light and heat upon the whole world in its general course, how it shineth upon the good and the bad with an equal influence; but let its beams be but concentred in a burning-glass, then it sets fire on the object only, and passeth by all others: and thus God in the creation looketh upon all his works with a general love, erant omnia valde bona, they pleased him very well. Oh! but when he is pleased to cast the beams of his love, and cause them to shine upon his elect through Christ, then it is that their hearts burn within them, then it is that their affections are inflamed; whereas others are but as it were a little warmed, have a little shine of common graces cast upon them.—Richard Holdsworth, 1651.
Verse 18.—“Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy.” This is a very encouraging character. They who cannot claim the higher distinctions of religion, may surely know that they “fear God, and hope in his mercy.” Some may wonder at the combination; and suppose that the qualities are incompatible with each other. But the first Christians “walked in the fear of the Lord, and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost.” They may think that the fear will injure the hope, or the hope the fear. But these are even mutually helpful; and they are, not only never so beautiful, but never so influential as when they are blended. The fear promotes hope by the evidence it affords; and by keeping us from loose and careless walking, which must always affect our peace and pleasure. And hope no less befriends this fear. For never is God seen so glorious, so worthy of all our devotedness to him as when we hope in his mercy; and even the more assured we are of his regard, the more we shall enquire, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? The more we shall tremble at the thought of offending and grieving him, the more we shall continue upon our knees, praying, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer.” It is called “a lively hope:” and Christians know, by experience, that upon all their principles and duties it has the same influence as Spring has upon the fields and the gardens.—William Jay.
Verse 18.—“Who hope in his mercy.” When thou canst not get assurance, make as much improvement of the grounds upon which thou mayst build hopes of salvation. The probable grounds thou hast, thou wouldst not part with for all the world. If thy heart is not full of joy through sense of God’s love, yet thine eyes are full of tears, and thy soul full of sorrow, through the sense of thy sin: wouldst thou change thy condition with any hypocrite whatsoever, with the richest man that hath no grace? I would not have thee rest satisfied with a probability, but yet bless God for a probability of salvation. Is it nothing that one that hath deserved hell most certainly, should have a probability that he should escape it? Would not this be a little ease to the torments of the damned, if they had but a strong probability that they should be saved? but no hope makes it heavy. When thou art sick, thou enquirest of the physician. Sir, what do you think of me? Shall I live, or shall I die? If he reply it is not certain, but there is good hopes, it is probable you will live and do well; this is some support unto thee in thy sickness.—Thomas Doolittel, M.A. (1630-1707), in “Morning Exercises.”
Verse 18.—The weakest believer, the least of saints, hath ground to hope. The gospel is so ordered, the covenant so methodised, God hath made such ample provision, that every one may “have good hope through grace” (1 Thess. ii. 16); and all that bear this character are allowed, encouraged, nay, commanded to hope: their hoping is as mighty a pleasure to God, as it is a comfort to themselves.—Samuel Doolittle’s “Righteous Man’s Hope in Death,” 1693.
Verses 18, 19.—During the siege of Rochelle, which was endured with unexampled bravery for nearly fifteen months, the inhabitants were reduced by famine to the misery of being obliged to have recourse to the flesh of horses, asses, mules, dogs, cats, rats, and mice; and a single peck of corn is said to have been sold for a sum equivalent to about twenty-five pounds sterling of our money in the present day. There were numerous examples of great and liberal generosity among the inhabitants. Some dispensed their charity so secretly that their names were never discovered. Among the rest, the following example is narrated:—“The Sieur de la Goute, an honorary king’s advocate, had a sister, the widow of a merchant named Prosni, who, being a very religious and benevolent woman, at the time when the famine became more severe than it had before been, freely assisted the poor with her present surplus. Her sister-in-law, the wife of her brother, De la Goute, being differently inclined, reproved her for her conduct, asking her in anger, ‘What she would do when her all should be expended?’ Her reply was, ‘My sister, the Lord will provide for me.’ The siege was continued, and the famine increased its fearful ravages; and poor widow Prosni, who had four children, found herself in a great strait—all her store of provisions being exhausted. She applied to her sister for relief, who, in the stead of comforting, reproached her for her improvidence; tauntingly adding that, as she had done mighty well to be so reduced under all her great faith and fine words, that ‘the Lord would provide for her,’ so in good time he might provide for her.
“Wounded to the heart by these words, poor widow Prosni returned to her house in sad distress; resolving, nevertheless, to meet death patiently. On reaching her home, her children met her with gladdened hearts and joyous faces, and told her that a man, to them an entire stranger, had knocked at the door, it being late; and, on its being opened, he threw in a sack of about two bushels of wheat; and then, without saying a word, suddenly departed.
“The widow Prosni, scarcely able to believe her own eyes, with an overflowing, grateful heart towards her gracious benefactor, immediately ran to her sister-in-law as quickly as her famished condition would allow; and, upon seeing her, exclaimed aloud, ‘My sister, the Lord HATH provided for me;’ and, saying no more, returned home again.
“By means of this unexpected relief, conveyed to her so opportunely, she was enabled to support herself and family until the end of the siege, and she never knew to whom she was instrumentally indebted for this timely and merciful assistance.”—The Biblical Treasury, Vol. IX.
Verse 20.—“Our soul waiteth for the Lord.” There is an emphasis on the word soul which should be attended to; for although this is a common mode of speech among the Hebrews, yet it expresses earnest affections; as if believers should say, We sincerely rely upon God with our whole heart, accounting him our shield and help.—John Calvin.
Verse 20.—“Our soul.” Not our souls, but “our soul,” as if they all had only one. And what is the language of God by the prophet? “I will give them one heart and one way.” And thus the two disciples going to Emmaus exclaimed, upon their discovery and surprise, “Did not our heart burn within us?” And thus in the beginning of the gospel it was said, “The multitude of them that believed were of one heart, and of one soul.” We have seen several drops of water on the table, by being brought to touch, running into one. If Christians were better acquainted with each other, they would easily unite.—William Jay.
Verse 20.—“He is our help.” Antigonus, king of Syria, being ready to give battle near the Isle of Andreos, sent out a squadron to watch the motions of his enemies, and to descry their strength: return was made that they had more ships, and better manned than he was. “How?” says Antigonus, “that cannot be; quam multis meipsum opponis (for how many dost thou reckon me?)” intimating that the dignity of a general weighed down many others, especially when poised with valour and experience. And where is valour, where is experience to be found, if not in God? He is the Lord of Hosts; with him alone is strength and power to deliver Israel out of all her troubles. He may do it, he can do it, he will do it; he is wise in heart and mighty in strength; besides him there is no Saviour, no deliverer; he is a shield to the righteous, strength to the weak, a refuge to the oppressed. He is instar omnium (all in all), and who is like unto him in all the world?—John Spencer.
Verse 20.—There is an excellent story of a young man, that was at sea in a mighty raging tempest; and when all the passengers were at their wits’ end for fear, he only was merry; and when he was asked the reason of his mirth, he answered, “That the pilot of the ship was his father, and he knew his father would have a care of him.” The great and wise God, who is our Father, hath from all eternity decreed what shall be the issue of all wars, what the event of all troubles; he is our pilot, he sits at the stern; and though the ship of the church or state be in a sinking condition, yet be of good comfort, our Pilot will have a care of us. There is nothing done in the lower house of Parliament on earth, but what is first decreed in the higher house in heaven. All the lesser wheels are ordered and overruled by the upper. Are not five sparrows, saith Christ, sold for a farthing? One sparrow is not worth half a farthing. And there’s no man shall have half a farthing’s worth of harm more than God hath decreed from all eternity.—Edmund Calamy.
Verse 22.—“According as we hope in thee;” not according to any merits of theirs, but according to the measure of grace, of the grace of hope which God had bestowed on them, and encouraged them to exercise on him, in expectation of finding grace and mercy with him.—John Gill.
HINTS TO PREACHERS.
Whole Psalm.—This Psalm is eucharistic: the contents are:—I. An exhortation to praise God (1, 2, 3). II. The arguments to enforce the duty (4-19). III. The confidence of God’s people in his name, their happiness, and petition. (20-22).—Adam Clarke.
Verse 1.—Rejoicing—the soul of praise; the Lord—a well-spring of joy. Character—indispensable to true enjoyment.
Verse 1 (last clause).—Praise comely. What? Vocal, meditative, habitual praise. Why? It is comely as wings to an angel, we mount with it; as flowers to a tree, it is our fruit; as a robe to a priest, it is our office; as long hair to a woman, it is our beauty; as a crown to a king, it is our highest honour. When? Evermore, but chiefly amid blasphemy, persecution, sickness, poverty, death. Whom? Not from the ungodly, hypocritical, or thoughtless. To be without praise is to miss our comeliest adornment.
Verse 2.—Instrumental music. Is it lawful? Is it expedient? If so, its uses, limits, and laws. A sermon to improve congregational music.
Verse 3 (first clause).—The duty of maintaining the freshness of our devotions.
Freshness, skill, and heartiness, to be combined in our congregational psalmody.
Verse 4.—God’s word and works, their rightness, and agreement, and our view of both.
Verse 4 (first clause).—The word doctrinal, preceptive, historical, prophetic, promissory, and experimental, always right, i.e., free from error or evil.
Verse 4 (second clause).—God’s work of creation, providence, and grace, always in conformity with truth. His hatred of everything like a sham.
Verses 4, 5.—A fourfold argument for praise, from the truth, the faithfulness, the justice, and goodness of God: I. “For the word of the Lord is right.” II. “All his works are done in truth.” III. “He loveth righteousness and judgment.” IV. “The earth is full of his goodness.”—Adam Clarke.
Verse 5.—Justice and goodness equally conspicuous in the divine action.
Verse 5 (last clause).—A matchless theme for an observant eye and an eloquent tongue.
Verse 6.—The power of the Word and the Spirit in the old and new creations.
Verse 7.—God’s control of destructive and re-constructive agencies.
Verse 7.—The storehouses of the Great Husbandman.
Verse 8.—Reasons for universal worship, obstacles to it, future prospects of it, our duty in relation to it.
Verse 8 (last clause).—Awe—the soul of worship.
Verse 9.—The irresistible word of Jehovah in creation, in calling his people, in their comfort and deliverance, in their entrance to glory.
Verse 10.—Educated and philosophical heathen within the reach of missions.
Verses 10, 11.—The opposing counsels.
Verse 11.—The eternity, immutability, efficiency, and wisdom of the divine decrees. God’s purposes, “the thoughts of his heart,” hence their wisdom, and yet more their love.
Verse 12.—Two elections made by a blessed people and a gracious God, and their happy result.
The happiness of the church of God.
God’s delight in his people, and their delight in him.
Verse 13.—Omniscience and its lessons.
Verses 13, 14, 15.—The doctrine of providence.
Verse 15.—God’s acquaintance with men’s hearts, and his estimate of their actions.
The similarity of human nature.
Verse 16, 17, 18.—The fallacy of human trust, and the security of faith in God.
Verse 18.—Hoping in the mercy of God—false and true forms distinguished.
Verses 18.—I. The eyes of God’s knowledge are upon them. II. The eyes of his affection are upon them. III. The eyes of his providence are upon them.—William Jay.
Verse 19.—Life in famine, natural and spiritual, specially a famine of inward hope and legal satisfaction.
Verse 20.—“Waiting for the Lord” includes: I. Conviction—a persuasion that the Lord is the supreme good. II. Desire—it is expressed by hungering and thirsting after righteousness, etc. III. Hope. IV. Patience.—God is never slack concerning his promise.—William Jay.
Verse 20 (first clause).—The believer’s hourly position.
Verse 21.—Joy, the outflow of faith.
Verse 22.—A prayer for believers only.
Verse 22.—Measure for measure, or mercy proportioned to faith.
PSALM XXXIV.
TITLE.—A Psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed. Of this transaction, which reflects no credit upon David’s memory, we have a brief account in 1 Samuel xxi. Although the gratitude of the Psalmist prompted him thankfully to record the goodness of the Lord in vouchsafing an undeserved deliverance, yet he weaves none of the incidents of the escape into the narrative, but dwells only on the grand fact of his being heard in the hour of peril. We may learn from his example not to parade our sins before others, as certain vainglorious professors are wont to do who seem as proud of their sins as old Greenwich pensioners of their battles and their wounds. David played the fool with singular dexterity, but he was not so real a fool as to sing of his own exploits of folly. In the original, the title does not teach us that the Psalmist composed this poem at the time of his escape from Achish, the king or Abimelech of Gath, but that it is intended to commemorate that event, and was suggested by it. It is well to mark our mercies with well carved memorials. God deserves our best handiwork. David in view of the special peril from which he was rescued, was at great pains with this Psalm, and wrote it with considerable regularity, in almost exact accordance with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This is the second alphabetical Psalm, the twenty-fifth being the first.
DIVISION.—The Psalm is split into two great divisions at the close of verse 10, when the Psalmist having expressed his praise to God turns in direct address to men. The first ten verses are A HYMN, and the last twelve A SERMON. For further assistance to the reader we may subdivide thus: In verses 1 to 3, David vows to bless the Lord, and invites the praise of others; from 4 to 7 he relates his experience, and in 8, 9, 10, exhorts the godly to constancy of faith. In verses 11-14, he gives direct exhortation, and follows it up by didactic teaching from verses 15 to the close.
EXPOSITION.
I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.
3 O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.
1. “I will bless the Lord at all times.”—He is resolved and fixed, “I will;” he is personally and for himself determined, let others do as they may; he is intelligent in head and inflamed in heart—he knows to whom the praise is due, and what is due, and for what and when. To Jehovah, and not to second causes our gratitude is to be rendered. The Lord hath by right a monopoly in his creatures’ praise. Even when a mercy may remind us of our sin with regard to it, as in this case David’s deliverance from the Philistine monarch was sure to do, we are not to rob God of his meed of honour because our conscience justly awards a censure to our share in the transaction. Though the hook was rusty, yet God sent the fish, and we thank him for it. “At all times,” in every situation, under every circumstance, before, in and after trials, in bright days of glee, and dark nights of fear. He would never have done praising, because never satisfied that he had done enough; always feeling that he fell short of the Lord’s deservings. Happy is he whose fingers are wedded to his harp. He who praises God for mercies shall never want a mercy for which to praise. To bless the Lord is never unseasonable. “His praise shall continually be in my mouth,” not in my heart merely, but in my mouth too. Our thankfulness is not to be a dumb thing; it should be one of the daughters of music. Our tongue is our glory, and it ought to reveal the glory of God. What a blessed mouthful is God’s praise! How sweet, how purifying, how perfuming! If men’s mouths were always thus filled, there would be no repining against God, or slander of neighbours. If we continually rolled this dainty morsel under our tongue, the bitterness of daily affliction would be swallowed up in joy. God deserves blessing with the heart, and extolling with the mouth—good thoughts in the closet, and good words in the world.
2. “My soul shall make her boast in the Lord.” Boasting is a very natural propensity, and if it were used as in this case, the more it were indulged the better. The exultation of this verse is no mere tongue bragging, “the soul” is in it, the boasting is meant and felt before it is expressed. What scope there is for holy boasting in Jehovah! His person, attributes, covenant, promises, works, and a thousand things besides, are all incomparable, unparalleled, matchless; we may cry them up as we please, but we shall never be convicted of vain and empty speech in so doing. Truly he who writes these words of comment has nothing of his own to boast of, but much to lament over, and yet none shall stop him of his boast in God so long as he lives. “The humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.” They are usually grieved to hear boastings; they turn aside from vauntings and lofty speeches, but boasting in the Lord is quite another matter; by this the most lowly are consoled and encouraged. The confident expressions of tried believers are a rich solace to their brethren of less experience. We ought to talk of the Lord’s goodness on purpose that others may be confirmed in their trust in a faithful God.
3. “O magnify the Lord with me.” Is this request addressed to the humble? If so it is most fitting. Who can make God great but those who feel themselves to be little? He bids them help him to make the Lord’s fame greater among the sons of men. Jehovah is infinite, and therefore cannot really be made greater, but his name grows in manifested glory as he is made known to his creatures, and thus he is said to be magnified. It is well when the soul feels its own inability adequately to glorify the Lord, and therefore stirs up others to the gracious work; this is good both for the man himself and for his companions. No praise can excel that which lays us prostrate under a sense of our own nothingness, while divine grace like some topless Alp rises before our eyes, and sinks us lower and lower in holy awe. “Let us exalt his name together.” Social, congregated worship is the outgrowth of one of the natural instincts of the new life. In heaven it is enjoyed to the full, and earth is likest heaven where it abounds.
4 I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
5 They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.
6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.
4. “I sought the Lord, and he heard me.” It must have been in a very confused manner that David prayed, and there must have been much of self-sufficiency in his prayer, or he would not have resorted to methods of such dubious morality as pretending to be mad and behaving as a lunatic; yet his poor limping prayer had an acceptance and brought him succour: the more reason for them celebrating the abounding mercy of the Lord. We may seek God even when we have sinned. If sin could blockade the mercy-seat it would be all over with us, but the mercy is that there are gifts even for the rebellious, and an advocate for men who sin. “And delivered me from all my fears.” God makes a perfect work of it. He clears away both our fears and their causes, all of them without exception. Glory be to his name, prayer sweeps the field, slays all the enemies and even buries their bones. Note the egoism of this verse and of those preceding it; we need not blush to speak of ourselves when in so doing we honestly aim at glorifying God, and not at exalting ourselves. Some are foolishly squeamish upon this point, but they should remember that when modesty robs God it is most immodest.