| Back to Home Page | Back to Book Index
|
Psalm Ten
Psalm 10
Chapter Contents
The psalmist complains of the wickedness of the wicked.
(1-11) He prays to God to appear for the relief of his people. (12-18)
Commentary on Psalm 10:1-11
(Read Psalm 10:1-11)
God's withdrawings are very grievous to his people,
especially in times of trouble. We stand afar off from God by our unbelief, and
then complain that God stands afar off from us. Passionate words against bad
men do more hurt than good; if we speak of their badness, let it be to the Lord
in prayer; he can make them better. The sinner proudly glories in his power and
success. Wicked people will not seek after God, that is, will not call upon
him. They live without prayer, and that is living without God. They have many
thoughts, many objects and devices, but think not of the Lord in any of them;
they have no submission to his will, nor aim for his glory. The cause of this
is pride. Men think it below them to be religious. They could not break all the
laws of justice and goodness toward man, if they had not first shaken off all
sense of religion.
Commentary on Psalm 10:12-18
(Read Psalm 10:12-18)
The psalmist speaks with astonishment, at the wickedness
of the wicked, and at the patience and forbearance of God. God prepares the
heart for prayer, by kindling holy desires, and strengthening our most holy
faith, fixing the thoughts, and raising the affections, and then he graciously
accepts the prayer. The preparation of the heart is from the Lord, and we must
seek unto him for it. Let the poor, afflicted, persecuted, or tempted believer
recollect, that Satan is the prince of this world, and that he is the father of
all the ungodly. The children of God cannot expect kindness, truth, or justice
from such persons as crucified the Lord of glory. But this once suffering
Jesus, now reigns as King over all the earth, and of his dominion there shall
be no end. Let us commit ourselves unto him, humbly trusting in his mercy. He
will rescue the believer from every temptation, and break the arm of every
wicked oppressor, and bruise Satan under our feet shortly. But in heaven alone
will all sin and temptation be shut out, though in this life the believer has a
foretaste of deliverance.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Psalms》
Psalm 10
Verse 3
[3] For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and
blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth.
Boasteth — He glorieth in his very sins which are his shame, and
especially in the satisfaction of his desires.
Verse 4
[4] The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will
not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
Countenance — So called, because though pride
be properly seated in the heart, yet it is manifest in the countenance.
Verse 5
[5] His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far
above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.
Judgments — Thy threatenings denounced
against, and punishments inflicted upon sinners.
Are far — He doth not regard or fear them: yea he despises them,
being confident that he can blow them away with a breath. This is a gesture of
contempt or disdain, both in scripture, and other authors.
Verse 7
[7] His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under
his tongue is mischief and vanity.
Tongue — Under his fair and plausible speeches, mischief is hid
and covered.
Vanity — Or, injury, the vexation or oppression of other men.
Verse 8
[8] He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the
secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the
poor.
Sitteth — Not within the villages, but in the ways bordering
upon them, or leading to them, as robbers use to do.
Are set — Heb. Are hid. He watches and looks out of his
lurking-place. He alludes still to the practices of robbers.
Verse 10
[10] He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may
fall by his strong ones.
Croucheth — Like a lion (for he continues the
same metaphor) which lies close upon the ground, partly that he may not be
discovered, and partly that he may more suddenly and surely lay hold on his
prey.
Verse 13
[13] Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in
his heart, Thou wilt not require it.
Contemn — Why dost thou by giving them impunity, suffer and
occasion them to despise thee?
Verse 14
[14] Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and
spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou
art the helper of the fatherless.
Requite — Heb. to give (to restore or pay the mischief which
they have done to others) with thy hand, by thy own extraordinary providence,
because the oppressed were destitute of all other succours.
Fatherless — Of such as have no friend or
helper, one kind of them being put for all.
Verse 15
[15] Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek
out his wickedness till thou find none.
Seek — Search for it, and punish these wicked atheists.
'Till — No such wickedness be left in the world, or at least
in the church.
Verse 16
[16] The LORD is King for ever and ever: the heathen are
perished out of his land.
Is king — To whom it belongs to protect his subjects. Therefore
his peoples case is never desperate, seeing he ever lives to help them.
The heathen — The Canaanites; whom God, as king
of the world, expelled, and gave their land to his people. By which great
example he confirms his faith and hope for the future.
His land — Out of Canaan, which God calls his land, because he
gave it to them, and fixed his presence and dwelling in it.
Verse 17
[17] LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou
wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:
Prepare — By thy grace and good spirit, that they may so pray as
thou wilt hear.
Verse 18
[18] To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man
of the earth may no more oppress.
To judge — To give sentence for them, and against their enemies.
The man — Earthly and mortal men, who yet presume to contend
with thee their maker.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Psalms》
Psalm 10
Exposition
Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings
Hints to the Village Preacher
Since
this Psalm has no title of its own, it is supposed by some to be a fragment of
Psalm 9. We prefer, however, since it is complete in itself, to consider it as
a separate composition. We have had instances already of Psalms which seem
meant to form a pair (Psalm 1 and 2, Psalm 3 and 4) and this, with the ninth,
is another specimen of the double Psalm.
The
prevailing theme seems to be the oppression and persecution of the wicked, we
will, therefore, for our own guidance, entitle it, THE CRY OF THE
OPPRESSED.
DIVISION.
The first verse, in an exclamation of surprise, explains the intent of the
Psalm, viz., to invoke the interposition of God for the deliverance of his poor
and persecuted people. From verse 2 to 11, the character of the oppressor is
described in powerful language. In verse 12, the cry of the first verse bursts
forth again, but with a clearer utterance. In the next place (verses 13-15),
God's eye is clearly beheld as regarding all the cruel deeds of the wicked; and
as a consequence of divine omniscience, the ultimate judgment of the oppressed
is joyously anticipated (verses 16-18). To the Church of God during times of
persecution, and to individual saints who are smarting under the hand of the
proud sinner, this Psalm furnishes suitable language both for prayer and
praise.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. To the
tearful eye of the sufferer the Lord seemed to stand still, as if he
calmly looked on, and did not sympathize with his afflicted one. Nay, more, the
Lord appeared to be afar off, no longer "a very present help in
trouble," but an inaccessible mountain, into which no man would be able to
climb. The presence of God is the joy of his people, but any suspicion of his
absence is distracting beyond measure. Let us, then, ever remember that the
Lord is nigh us. The refiner is never far from the mouth of the furnace when
his gold is in the fire, and the Son of God is always walking in the midst of
the flames when his holy children are cast into them. Yet he that knows the
frailty of man will little wonder that when we are sharply exercised, we find
it hard to bear the apparent neglect of the Lord when he forbears to work our
deliverance.
"Why
hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?" It is not the trouble, but
the hiding of our Father's face, which cuts us to the quick. When trial and
desertion come together, we are in as perilous a plight as Paul, when his ship
fell into a place where two seas met (Acts 27:41). It is but little wonder if
we are like the vessel which ran aground, and the fore-part stuck fast, and
remained unmoveable, while the hinder part was broken by the violence of the
waves. When our sun is eclipsed, it is dark indeed. If we need an answer to the
question, "Why hidest thou thyself?" it is to be found in the fact
that there is a "needs-be," not only for trial, but for heaviness of
heart under trial (1 Peter 1:6); but how could this be the case, if the Lord
should shine upon us while he is afflicting us? Should the parent comfort his
child while he is correcting him, where would be the use of the chastening? A
smiling face and a rod are not fit companions. God bares the back that the blow
may be felt; for it is only felt affliction which can become blest
affliction. If we were carried in the arms of God over every stream, where
would be the trial, and where the experience, which trouble is meant to teach
us?
Verse
2. The second verse contains the formal indictment against the wicked: "The
wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor." The accusation divides
itself into two distinct charges,—pride and tyranny; the one the root and cause
of the other. The second sentence is the humble petition of the oppressed: "Let
them be taken in the devices that they have imagined." The prayer is
reasonable, just, and natural. Even our enemies themselves being judges, it is
but right that men should be done by as they wished to do to others. We only
weigh you in your own scales, and measure your corn with your own bushel.
Terrible shall be thy day, O persecuting Babylon! when thou shalt be made to
drink of the winecup which thou thyself hast filled to the brim with the blood
of saints. There are none who will dispute the justice of God, when he shall
hang every Haman on his own gallows, and cast all the enemies of his Daniels
into their own den of lions.
Verse
3. The indictment being read, and the petition presented, the evidence is now
heard upon the first count. The evidence is very full and conclusive upon the
matter of pride, and no jury could hesitate to give a verdict against
the prisoner at the bar. Let us, however, hear the witnesses one by one. The
first testifies that he is a boaster. "For the wicked boasteth of his
heart's desire." He is a very silly boaster, for he glories in a mere
desire: a very brazen-faced boaster, for that desire is villainy; and a most
abandoned sinner, to boast of that which is his shame. Bragging sinners are the
worst and most contemptible of men, especially when their filthy desires,—too
filthy to be carried into act,—become the theme of their boastings. When Mr.
Hate-Good and Mr. Heady are joined in partnership, they drive a brisk trade in
the devil's wares. This one proof is enough to condemn the prisoner at the bar.
Take him away, jailor! But stay, another witness desires to be sworn and heard.
This time, the impudence of the proud rebel is even more apparent; for he "blesseth
the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth." This is insolence, which is
pride unmasked. He is haughty enough to differ from the Judge of all the earth,
and bless the men whom God hath cursed. So did the sinful generation in the
days of Malachi, who called the proud happy, and set up those that worked
wickedness (Malachi 3:15). These base pretenders would dispute with their Maker;
they would—
"Snatch
from his hand the balance and the rod,
Rejudge his justice, be the god of God."
How
often have we heard the wicked man speaking in terms of honour of the covetous,
the grinder of the poor, and the sharp dealer! Our old proverb hath it,—
"I wot
well how the world wags;
He is most loved that hath most bags."
Pride
meets covetousness, and compliments it as wise, thrifty, and prudent. We say it
with sorrow, there are many professors of religion who esteem a rich man, and
flatter him, even though they know that he has fattened himself upon the flesh
and blood of the poor. The only sinners who are received as respectable are
covetous men. If a man is a fornicator, or a drunkard, we put him out of the
church; but who ever read of church discipline against that idolatrous
wretch,—the covetous man? Let us tremble, lest we be found to be partakers of
this atrocious sin of pride, "blessing the covetous, whom Jehovah
abhorreth."
Verse
4. The proud boastings and lewd blessings of the wicked have been received in
evidence against him, and now his own face confirms the accusation, and his
empty closet cries aloud against him. "The wicked, through the pride of
his countenance, will not seek after God." Proud hearts breed proud
looks and stiff knees. It is an admirable arrangement that the heart is often
written on the countenance, just as the motion of the wheels of a clock find
their record on its face. A brazen face and a broken heart never go together.
We are not quite sure that the Athenians were wise when they ordained that men
should be tried in the dark lest their countenances should weigh with the
judges; for there is much more to be learned from the motions of the muscles of
the face than from the words of the lips. Honesty shines in the face, but
villainy peeps out at the eyes.
See
the effect of pride; it kept the man from seeking God. It is hard to pray with
a stiff neck and an unbending knee. "God is not in all his
thoughts:" he thought much, but he had no thoughts for God. Amid heaps
of chaff there was not a grain of wheat. The only place where God is not is in
the thoughts of the wicked. This is a damning accusation; for where the God of
heaven is not, the Lord of hell is reigning and raging; and if God be not in
our thoughts, our thoughts will bring us to perdition.
Verse
5. "His ways are always grievous." To himself they are hard.
Men go a rough road when they go to hell. God has hedged-up the way of sin: O
what folly to leap these hedges and fall among the thorns! To others, also, his
ways cause much sorrow and vexation; but what cares he? He sits like the idol
god upon his monstrous car, utterly regardless of the crowds who are crushed as
he rolls along. "Thy judgments are far above out of his sight:"
he looks high, but not high enough. As God is forgotten, so are his judgments.
He is not able to comprehend the things of God; a swine may sooner look through
a telescope at the stars than this man study the Word of God to understand the
righteousness of the Lord. "As for all his enemies, he puffeth at
them." He defies and domineers; and when men resist his injurious
behaviour, he sneers at them, and threatens to annihilate them with a puff. In
most languages there is a word of contempt borrowed from the action of puffing
with the lips, and in English we should express the idea by saying, "He
cries, 'Pooh! Pooh!' at his enemies." Ah! there is one enemy who will not
thus be puffed at. Death will puff at the candle of his life and blow it out,
and the wicked boaster will find it grim work to brag in the tomb.
Verse
6. The testimony of the sixth verse concludes the evidence against the prisoner
upon the first charge of pride, and certainly it is conclusive in the highest
degree. The present witness has been prying into the secret chambers of the
heart, and has come to tell us what he has heard. "He hath said in his
heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity." O
impertinence runs to seed! The man thinks himself immutable, and omnipotent
too, for he, he is never to be in adversity. He counts himself a
privileged man. He sits alone, and shall see no sorrow. His nest is in the
stars, and he dreams not of a hand that shall pluck him thence. But let us remember
that this man's house is built upon the sand, upon a foundation no more
substantial than the rolling waves of the sea. He that is too secure is never
safe. Boastings are not buttresses, and self-confidence is a sorry bulwark.
This is the ruin of fools, that when they succeed they become too big, and
swell with self-conceit, as if their summer would last for ever, and their
flowers bloom on eternally. Be humble, O man! for thou art mortal, and thy lot
is mutable.
The
second crime is now to be proved. The fact that the man is proud and arrogant
may go a long way to prove that he is vindicative and cruel. Haman's pride was
the father of a cruel design to murder all the Jews. Nebuchadnezzar builds an
idol; in pride he commands all men to bow before it; and then cruelly stands
ready to heat the furnace seven times hotter for those who will not yield to
his imperious will. Every proud thought is twin brother to a cruel thought. He
who exalts himself will despise others, and one step further will make him a
tyrant.
Verse
7. Let us now hear the witnesses in court. Let the wretch speak for himself,
for out of his own mouth he will be condemned. "His mouth is full of
cursing and deceit and fraud." There is not only a little evil there,
but his mouth is full of it. A three-headed serpent hath stowed away its coils
and venom within the den of its black mouth. There is cursing which he
spits against both God and men, deceit with which he entraps the unwary,
and fraud by which, even in his common dealings, he robs his neighbours.
Beware of such a man: have no sort of dealing with him: none but the silliest
of geese would go to the fox's sermon, and none but the most foolish will put
themselves into the society of knaves. But we must proceed. Let us look under
this man's tongue as well as in his mouth; "under his tongue is
mischief and vanity." Deep in his throat are the unborn words which
shall come forth as mischief and iniquity.
Verse
8. Despite the bragging of this base wretch, it seems that he is as cowardly as
he is cruel. "He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the
secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the
poor." He acts the part of the highwayman, who springs upon the
unsuspecting traveller in some desolate part of the road. There are always bad
men lying in wait for the saints. This is a land of robbers and thieves; let us
travel well armed, for every bush conceals an enemy. Everywhere there are traps
laid for us, and foes thirsting for our blood. There are enemies at our table
as well as across the sea. We are never safe, save when the Lord is with us.
Verse
9. The picture becomes blacker, for here is the cunning of the lion, and of the
huntsman, as well as the stealthiness of the robber. Surely there are some men
who come up to the very letter of this description. With watching, perversion,
slander, whispering, and false swearing, they ruin the character of the
righteous, and murder the innocent; or, with legal quibbles, mortgages, bonds,
writs, and the like, they catch the poor, and draw them into a net. Chrysostom
was peculiarly severe upon this last phase of cruelty, but assuredly not more
so than was richly merited. Take care, brethren, for there are other traps
besides these. Hungry lions are crouching in every den, and fowlers spread
their nets in every field.
Quarles
well pictures our danger in those memorable lines,—
"The close
pursuers' busy hands do plant
Snares in thy substance; snares attend thy wants;
Snares in thy credit; snares in thy disgrace;
Snares in thy high estate; snares in thy base;
Snares tuck thy bed; and snares surround thy board;
Snares watch thy thoughts; and snares attack thy word;
Snares
in thy quiet; snares in thy commotion;
Snares in thy diet; snares in thy devotion;
Snares lurk in thy resolves; snares in thy doubt;
Snares lie within thy heart; and snares without;
Snares are above thy head, and snares beneath;
Snares in thy sickness; snares are in thy death.
O
Lord! keep thy servants, and defend us from all our enemies!
Verse
10. "He croucheth and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his
strong ones." Seeming humility is often armour-bearer to malice. The
lion crouches that he may leap with the greater force, and bring down his
strong limbs upon his prey. When a wolf was old, and had tasted human blood,
the old Saxon cried, "Ware, wolf!" and we may cry, "Ware fox!"
They who crouch to our feet are longing to make us fall. Be very careful of
fawners; for friendship and flattery are deadly enemies.
Verse
11. As upon the former count, so upon this one; a witness is forthcoming, who
has been listening at the keyhole of the heart. Speak up, friend, and let us
hear your story. "He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he
hideth his face; he will never see it." This cruel man comforts
himself with the idea that God is blind, or, at least, forgetful: a fond and
foolish fancy, indeed. Men doubt Omniscience when they persecute the saints. If
we had a sense of God's presence with us, it would be impossible for us to
ill-treat his children. In fact, there can scarcely be a greater preservation
from sin than the constant thought of "Thou, God, seest me."
Thus
has the trial proceeded. The case has been fully stated; and now it is but
little wonder that the oppressed petitioner lifts up the cry for judgment,
which we find in the following verse:—
Verse
12. With what bold language will faith address its God! and yet what unbelief
is mingled with our strongest confidence. Fearlessly the Lord is stirred up to
arise and lift up his hand, yet timidly he is begged not to forget the humble;
as if Jehovah could ever be forgetful of his saints. This verse is the
incessant cry of the Church, and she will never refrain therefrom until her
Lord shall come in his glory to avenge her of all her adversaries.
Verse
13. In these verses the description of the wicked is condensed, and the evil of
his character traced to its source, viz., atheistical ideas with regard to the
government of the world. We may at once perceive that this is intended to be
another urgent plea with the Lord to show his power, and reveal his justice.
When the wicked call God's righteousness in question, we may well beg him to
teach them terrible things in righteousness. In verse 13, the hope of the
infidel and his heart-wishes are laid bare. He despises the Lord, because he
will not believe that sin will meet with punishment: "he hath said in
his heart, Thou wilt not require it." If there were no hell for other
men, there ought to be one for those who question the justice of it.
Verse
14. This vile suggestion receives its answer in verse 14. "Thou hast
seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy
hand." God is all-eye to see, and all-hand to punish his enemies. From
Divine oversight there is no hiding, and from Divine justice there is no
fleeing. Wanton mischief shall meet with woeful misery, and those who harbour
spite shall inherit sorrow. Verily there is a God which judgeth in the earth.
Nor is this the only instance of the presence of God in the world; for while he
chastises the oppressor, he befriends the oppressed. "The poor
committeth himself unto thee." They give themselves up entirely into
the Lord's hands. Resigning their judgment to his enlightenment, and their
wills to his supremacy, they rest assured that he will order all things for the
best. Nor does he deceive their hope. He preserves them in times of need, and
causes them to rejoice in his goodness. "Thou art the helper of the
fatherless." God is the parent of all orphans. When the earthly father
sleeps beneath the sod, a heavenly Father smiles from above. By some means or
other, orphan children are fed, and well they may when they have such a Father.
Verse
15. In this verse we hear again the burden of the psalmist's prayer: "Break
thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man." Let the sinner lose his
power to sin; stop the tyrant, arrest the oppressor, weaken the loins of the
mighty, and dash in pieces the terrible. They deny thy justice: let them feel
it to the full. Indeed, they shall feel it; for God shall hunt the sinner for
ever: so long as there is a grain of sin in him it shall be sought out and
punished. It is not a little worthy of note, that very few great persecutors
have ever died in their beds: the curse has manifestly pursued them, and their
fearful sufferings have made them own that divine justice at which they
could at one time launch defiance. God permits tyrants to arise as thorn-hedges
to protect his church from the intrusion of hypocrites, and that he may teach
his backsliding children by them, as Gideon did the men of Succoth with the
briers of the wilderness; but he soon cuts up these Herods, like the thorns,
and casts them into the fire. Thales, the Milesian, one of the wise men of
Greece, being asked what he thought to be the greatest rarity in the world,
replied, "To see a tyrant live to be an old man." See how the Lord
breaks, not only the arm, but the neck of proud oppressors! To the men who had
neither justice nor mercy for the saints, there shall be rendered justice to
the full, but not a grain of mercy.
Verses
16, 17, 18. The Psalm ends with a song of thanksgiving to the great and
everlasting King, because he has granted the desire of his humble and oppressed
people, has defended the fatherless, and punished the heathen who trampled upon
his poor and afflicted children. Let us learn that we are sure to speed well,
if we carry our complaint to the King of kings. Rights will be vindicated, and
wrongs redressed, at his throne. His government neglects not the interests of
the needy, nor does it tolerate oppression in the mighty. Great God, we leave
ourselves in thine hand; to thee we commit thy church afresh. Arise, O God, and
let the man of the earth—the creature of a day—be broken before the majesty of
thy power. Come, Lord Jesus, and glorify thy people. Amen and Amen.
EXPLANATORY
NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Whole Psalm. There is not,
in my judgment, a Psalm which describes the mind, the manners, the works, the
words, the feelings, and the fate of the ungodly with so much propriety,
fulness, and light, as this Psalm. So that, if in any respect there has not
been enough said heretofore, or if there shall be anything wanting in the
Psalms that shall follow, we may here find a perfect image and representation
of iniquity. This Psalm, therefore, is a type, form, and description of that
man, who, though he may be in the sight of himself and of men more excellent
than Peter himself, is detestable in the eyes of God; and this it was that
moved Augustine, and those who followed him, to understand the Psalm of
ANTICHRIST. But as the Psalm is without a title, let us embrace the most
general and common understanding of it (as I said), and let us look at the
picture of ungodliness which it sets before us. Not that we would deny the
propriety of the acceptation in which others receive it, nay, we will, in our
general acceptation of the Psalm, include also its reference to ANTICHRIST.
And, indeed, it will not be at all absurd if we join this Psalm with the
preceding, in its order thus. That David, in the preceding, spoke of the
ungodly converted, and prayed for those who were to be converted. But that here
he is speaking of the ungodly that are still left so, and in power prevailing
over the weak ALMUTH, concerning whom he has no hope, or is in a great
uncertainty of mind, whether they ever will be converted or not. Martin
Luther.
Verse 1. "Why
hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?" The answer to this is not
far to seek, for if the Lord did not hide himself it would not be a time of
trouble at all. As well ask why the sun does not shine at night, when for
certain there could be no night if he did. It is essential to our thorough
chastisement that the Father should withdraw his smile: there is a needs be not
only for manifold temptations, but that we be in heaviness through them. The
design of the rod is only answered by making us smart. If there be no pain,
there will be no profit. If there be no hiding of God, there will be no
bitterness, and consequently no purging efficacy in his chastisements. C. H.
S.
Verse 1. (last
clause). "Times of trouble" should be times of confidence;
fixedness of heart on God would prevent fears of heart. Psalm 112:7. "He
shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed." How?
"Trusting in the Lord. His heart is established, he shall not be
afraid." Otherwise without it we shall be as light as a weather-cock,
moved with every blast of evil tidings, our hopes will swim or sink according
to the news we hear. Providence would seem to sleep unless faith and prayer
awaken it. The disciples had but little faith in their Master's accounts, yet
that little faith awakened him in a storm, and he relieved them. Unbelief doth
only discourage God from showing his power in taking our parts. Stephen
Charnock.
Verse 2. "The
wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor." THE OPPRESSOR'S PLEA. I
seek but what is my own by law; it was his own free act and deed—the execution
lies for goods and body; and goods or body I will have, or else my money. What
if his beggardly children pine, or his proud wife perish? they perish at their
own charge, not mine; and what is that to me? I must be paid, or he lie by it
until I have my utmost farthing, or his bones. The law is just and good; and,
being ruled by that, how can my fair proceedings be unjust? What is thirty in
the hundred to a man of trade? Are we born to thrum caps or pick straws? and
sell our livelihood for a few tears, and a whining face? I thank God they move
me not so much as a howling dog at midnight. I'll give no day if heaven itself
would be security. I must have present money, or his bones. . . . . Fifteen
shillings in the pound composition! I'll hang first. Come, tell me not of a
good conscience: a good conscience is no parcel in my trade; it hath made more
bankrupts than all the loose wives in the universal city. My conscience is no
fool: it tells me my own is my own, and that a well crammed bag is no deceitful
friend, but will stick close to me when all my friends forsake me. If to gain a
good estate out of nothing, and to regain a desperate debt which is as good as
nothing, be the fruits and signs of a bad conscience, God help the good. Come,
tell me not of griping and oppression. The world is hard, and he that hopes to
thrive must gripe as hard. What I give I give, and what I lend I lend. If the
way to heaven be to turn beggar upon earth, let them take it that like it. I
know not what you call oppression, the law is my direction; but of the two, it
is more profitable to oppress than to be oppressed. If debtors would be honest
and discharge, our hands were bound: but when their failing offends my bags,
they touch the apple of my eye, and I must right them. Francis Quarles.
Verse 2. That famous
persecutor, Domitian, like others of the Roman emperors, assumed divine
honours, and heated the furnace seven times hotter against Christians because
they refused to worship his image. In like manner, when the popes of Rome
became decorated with the blasphemous titles of Masters of the World,
and, Universal Fathers, they let loose their blood-hounds upon the
faithful. Pride is the egg of persecution. C. H. S.
Verse 2. "Pride,"
is a vice which cleaveth so fast unto the hearts of men, that if we were to
strip ourselves of all faults one by one, we should undoubtedly find it the
very last and hardest to put off. Richard Hooker, 1554-1600.
Verse 3. "The
wicked boasteth," etc. He braggeth of his evil life, whereof he maketh
open profession; or he boasteth that he will accomplish his wicked designs; or
glorieth that he hath already accomplished them. Or it may be understood that
he commendeth others who are according to the desires of his own soul; that is,
he respecteth or honoureth none but such as are like him, and them only he
esteemeth. Psalm 36:4, and 49:18; Romans 1:32. John Diodati, 1648.
Verse 3. "The
wicked . . . . . . blesseth the covetous." Like will to like, as the
common proverb is. Such as altogether neglect the Lord's commandments not only
commit divers gross sins, but commend those who in sinning are like themselves.
For in their affections they allow them, in their speeches they flatter and
extol them, and in their deeds they join with them and maintain them. Peter
Muffet, 1594.
Verse 3. "The
covetous." Covetousness is the desire of possessing that which we have
not, and attaining unto great riches and worldly possessions. And whether this
be not the character of trade and merchandise and traffic of every kind, the
great source of those evils of over-trading which are everywhere complained of,
I refer to the judgment of the men around me, who are engaged in the commerce
and business of life. Compared with the regular and quiet diligence of our
fathers, and their contentment with small but sure returns, the wild and
wide-spread speculation for great gains, the rash and hasty adventures which
are daily made, and the desperate gamester-like risks which are run, do reveal
full surely that a spirit of covetousness hath been poured out upon men within
the last thirty or forty years. And the providence of God corresponding
thereto, by wonderful and unexpected revolutions, by numerous inventions for
manufacturing the productions of the earth, in order to lead men into
temptation, hath impressed upon the whole face of human affairs, a stamp of
earnest worldliness not known to our fathers: insomuch that our youth do enter
life no longer with the ambition of providing things honest in the sight of
men, keeping their credit, bringing up their family, and realising a
competency, if the Lord prosper them, but with the ambition of making a
fortune, retiring to their ease, and enjoying the luxuries of the present life.
Against which crying sin of covetousness, dearly beloved brethren, I do most
earnestly call upon you to wage a good warfare. This place is its seat, its
stronghold, even this metropolitan city of Christian Britain; and ye who are
called by the grace of God out of the great thoroughfare of Mammon, are so
elected for the express purpose of testifying against this and all other
backslidings of the church planted here; and especially against this, as being
in my opinion, one of the most evident and the most common of them all. For who
hath not been snared in the snare of covetousness? Edward Irving, 1828.
Verse 3. "The
covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth." Christ knew what he spake when he
said, "No man can serve two masters." Matthew 6:24. Meaning God and
the world, because each would have all. As the angel and the devil strove for
the body of Moses (Jude 9), not who should have a part, but who should have the
whole, so they strive still for our souls, who shall have all. Therefore, the
apostle saith, "The love of this world is enmity to God (James 4:4),
signifying such emulation between these two, that God cannot abide the world
should have a part, and the world cannot abide that God should have a part.
Therefore, the love of the world must needs be enmity to God, and therefore the
lovers of the world must needs be enemies to God, and so no covetous man is
God's servant, but God's enemy. For this cause covetousness is called idolatry
(Ephesians 5:5), which is the most contrary sin to God, because as treason sets
up another king in the king's place, so idolatry sets up another god in God's
place. Henry Smith.
Verse 4. "The
wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God."
He is judged a proud man (without a jury sitting on him), who when condemned
will not submit, will not stoop so low as to accept of a pardon. I must indeed
correct myself, men are willing to be justified, but they would have their
duties to purchase their peace and the favour of God. Thousands will die and be
damned rather than they will have a pardon upon the sole account of Christ's
merits and obedience. Oh, the cursed pride of the heart! When will men cease to
be wiser than God? To limit God? When will men be contented with God's way of
saving them by the blood of the everlasting covenant? How dare men thus to
prescribe to the infinitely wise God? Is it not enough for thee that thy
destruction is of thyself? But must thy salvation be of thyself too? Is it not
enough that thou hast wounded thyself, but wilt thou die for ever, rather than
be beholden to a plaister of free grace? Wilt be damned unless thou mayest be
thine own Saviour? God is willing ("God so loved the world that he gave
his only Son"), art thou so proud as that thou wilt not be beholden to
God? Thou wilt deserve, or have nothing. What shall I say? Poor thou art, and
yet proud; thou hast nothing but wretchedness and misery, and yet thou art
talking of a purchase. This is a provocation. "God resisteth the
proud," especially the spiritually proud. He that is proud of his clothes
and parentage, is not so contemptible in God's eyes as he that is proud of his
abilities, and so scorns to submit to God's methods for his salvation by
Christ, and by his righteousness alone. Lewis Stuckley.
Verse 4. "The
wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God."
The pride of the wicked is the principal reason why they will not seek after
the knowledge of God. This knowledge it prevents them from seeking in various
ways. In the first place, it renders God a disagreeable object of contemplation
to the wicked, and a knowledge of him as undesirable. Pride consists in an
unduly exalted opinion of one's self. It is, therefore, impatient of a rival,
hates a superior, and cannot endure a master. In proportion as it prevails in
the heart, it makes us wish to see nothing above us, to acknowledge no law but
our own wills, to follow no rule but our own inclinations. Thus it led Satan to
rebel against his Creator, and our first parents to desire to be as gods. Since
such are the effects of pride, it is evident that nothing can be more painful
to a proud heart than the thoughts of such a being as God; one who is
infinitely powerful, just, and holy; who can neither be resisted, deceived, nor
deluded; who disposes, according to his own sovereign pleasure, of all
creatures and events; and who, in an especial manner, hates pride, and is
determined to abase and punish it. Such a being pride can contemplate only with
feelings of dread, aversion, and abhorrence. It must look upon him as its
natural enemy, the great enemy, whom it has to fear. But the knowledge of God
directly tends to bring this infinite, irresistible, irreconcilable enemy full
to the view of the proud man. It teaches him that he has a superior, a master,
from whose authority he cannot escape, whose power he cannot resist, and whose
will he must obey, or be crushed before him, and be rendered miserable for
ever. It shows him what he hates to see, that, in despite of his opposition,
God's counsel shall stand, that he will do all his pleasure, and that in all
things wherein men deal proudly, God is above them. These truths torture the
proud unhumbled hearts of the wicked, and hence they hate that knowledge of God
which teaches these truths, and will not seek it. On the contrary, they wish to
remain ignorant of such a being, and to banish all thoughts of him from their
minds. With this view, they neglect, pervert, or explain away those passages of
revelation which describe God's true character, and endeavour to believe that
he is altogether such a one as themselves.
How
foolish, how absurd, how ruinous, how blindly destructive of its own object,
does pride appear! By attempting to soar, it only plunges itself in the mire,
and while endeavouring to erect for itself a throne, it undermines the ground
on which it stands and digs its own grave. It plunged Satan from heaven into
hell; it banished our first parents from paradise; and it will, in a similar
manner, ruin all who indulge in it. It keeps us in ignorance of God, shuts us
out from his favour, prevents us from resembling him, deprives us in this world
of all the honour and happiness which communion with him would confer; and in
the next, unless previously hated, repented of, and renounced, will bar for
ever against us the door of heaven, and close upon us the gates of hell. O
then, my friends, beware, above all things, beware of pride! Beware, lest you
indulge it imperceptibly, for it is perhaps, of all sins, the most secret,
subtle, and insinuating. Edward Payson, D.D., 1783-1827.
Verse 4. David
speaks in Psalm 10 of great and potent oppressors and politicians, who see none
on earth greater than themselves, none higher than they, and think therefore
that they may impuns prey upon the smaller, as beasts use to do; and in
the fourth verse this is made the root and ground of all, that God is not in
all his thoughts. "The wicked, through the pride of his countenance,
will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts." The words
are diversely read, and all make for this sense. Some read it, "No God in
all his crafty presumptuous purposes;" others, "All his thoughts are,
there is no God." The meaning whereof is not only that among the swarm and
crowd of thoughts that fill his mind, the thought of God is seldom to be found,
and comes not in among the rest, which yet is enough for the purpose in hand;
but further, that in all his projects and plots, and consultations of his heart
(the first reading of the words intends), whereby he contrives and lays the
plot, form, and draught of all his actions, he never takes God or his will into
consideration or consultation, to square and frame all accordingly, but
proceeds and goes on in all, and carries on all as if there were no God to be
consulted with. He takes not him along with him, no more than if he were no
God; the thoughts of him and his will sway him not. As you use to say, when a
combination of men leave out someone they should advise with, that such a one
is not of their counsel, is not in the plot; so nor is God in their purposes
and advisings, they do all without him. But this is not all the meaning, but
farther, all their thought is, that there is no God. This is there made the
bottom, the foundation, the groundwork and reason of all their wicked plots and
injurious projects, and deceitful carriages and proceedings, that seeing there
is no God or power above them to take notice of it, to regard or requite them,
therefore they may be bold to go on. Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 4. "Of
his countenance." Which pride he carrieth engraven in his very
countenance and forehead, and makes it known in all his carriages and gestures.
"Will not seek," namely, he contemneth all divine and human
laws, he feareth not, respecteth not God's judgments; he careth for nothing, so
he may fulfil his desires; enquires after, nor examines nothing; all things are
indifferent to him. John Diodati.
Verse 4. "All
his thoughts are, there is no God;" thus some read the passage.
Seneca says, there are no atheists, though there would be some; if any say
there is no God, they lie; though they say it in the day time, yet in the night
when they are alone they deny it; howsoever some desperately harden themselves,
yet if God doth but show himself terrible to them, they confess him. Many of
the heathens and others have denied that there is a God, yet when they were in
distress, they did fall down and confess him, as Diagoras, that grand atheist,
when he was troubled with the strangullion, acknowledged a deity which he had
denied. These kind of atheists I leave to the tender mercies of God, of which I
doubt it whether there be any for them. Richard Stock.
Verse 4. "God
is not in all his thoughts." It is the black work of an ungodly man or
an atheist, that God is not in all his thoughts. What comfort can be had in the
being of God without thinking of him with reverence and delight? A God
forgotten is as good as no God to us. Stephen Charnock.
Verse 4. Trifles
possess us, but "God is not in all our thoughts," seldom the
sole object of them. We have durable thoughts of transitory things, and
flitting thoughts of a durable and eternal good. The covenant of grace engageth
the whole heart to God, and bars anything else from engrossing it; but what
strangers are God and the souls of most men! Though we have the knowledge of
him by creation, yet he is for the most part an unknown God in the relations
wherein he stands to us, because a God undelighted in. Hence it is, as one
observes, that because we observe not the ways of God's wisdom, conceive not of
him in his vast perfections, nor are stricken with an admiration of his
goodness, that we have fewer good sacred poems than of any other kind. The wits
of men hang the wing when they come to exercise their reasons and fancies about
God. Parts and strength are given us, as well as corn and wine to the
Israelites, for the service of God, but those are consecrated to some cursed
Baal, Hosea 2:8. like Venus in the poet, we forsake heaven to follow after some
Adonis. Stephen Charnock.
Verses 4, 5. The
world hath a spiritual fascination and witchcraft, by which, where it hath once
prevailed, men are enchanted to an utter forgetfulness of themselves and God,
and being drunk with pleasures, they are easily engaged to a madness and height
of folly. Some, like foolish children, are made to keep a great stir in the
world for very trifles, for a vain show; they think themselves great,
honourable, excellent, and for this make a great bustle, when the world hath
not added one cubic to their stature of real worth. Others are by this Circe
transformed into savage creatures, and act the part of lions and tigers.
Others, like swine, wallow in the lusts of uncleanness. Others are unmanned,
putting off all natural affections, care not who they ride over, so they may
rule over or be made great. Others are taken with ridiculous frenzies, so that
a man that stands in the cool shade of a sedate composure would judge them out
of their wits. It would make a man admire to read of the frisks of Caius
Caligula, Xerxes, Alexander, and many others, who because they were above many
men, thought themselves above human nature. They forgot they were born and must
die, and did such things as would have made them, but that their greatness
overawed it, a laughing-stock and common scorn to children. Neither must we
think that these were but some few or rare instances of worldly intoxication,
when the Scripture notes it as a general distemper of all that bow down to
worship this idol. They live "without God in the world," saith the
apostle, that is, they so carry it as if there were no God to take notice of
them to check them for their madness. "God is not in all his
thoughts." Verse 4. "The judgments of God are far above out of
his sight;" he puffs at his enemies (verse 5), and saith in his heart,
he "shall never be moved," Verse 6. The whole Psalm describes
the worldling as a man that hath lost all his understanding, and is acting the
part of a frantic bedlam. What then can be a more fit engine for the devil to
work with than the pleasures of the world? Richard Gilpin.
Verse 5. "Grievous,"
or troublesome; that is, all his endeavours and actions aim at nothing but at
hurting others. "Are far above," for he is altogether carnal,
he hath not any disposition nor correspondence with the justice of thy law,
which is altogether spiritual; and therefore cannot lively represent unto
himself thy judgments, and the issue of the wicked according to the said law.
Romans 7:14; 1 Corinthians 2:14. "He puffeth;" he doth most
arrogantly despise them, and is confident he can overthrow them with a puff. John
Diodati.
Verse 5. "Thy
judgments are far above out of his sight." Because God does not
immediately visit every sin with punishment, ungodly men do not see that in due
time he judges all the earth. Human tribunals must of necessity, by promptness
and publicity, commend themselves to the common judgment, but the Lord's modes
of dealing with sin are sublimer and apparently more tardy, hence the bat's
eyes of godless men cannot see them, and the grovelling wits of men cannot
comprehend them. If God sat in the gate of every village and held his court
there, even fools might discern his righteousness, but they are not capable of
perceiving that for a matter to be settled in the highest court, even in heaven
itself, is a far more solemn matter. Let believers take heed lest they fall in
a degree into the same error, and begin to criticise the actions of The Great Supreme,
when they are too elevated for human reason to comprehend them. C. H. S.
Verse 5. "The
judgments of God are far above out of his sight." Out of his sight, as
an eagle at her highest towering so lessens herself to view, that he sees not
the talons, nor fears the grip. Thus man presumes till he hath sinned, and then
despairs as fast afterwards. At first, "Tush, doth God see it?" At
last, "Alas! will God forgive it?" But if a man will not know his
sins, his sins will know him; the eyes which presumption shuts, commonly
despair opens. Thomas Adams.
Verse 5. "As
for all his enemies, he puffeth at them." David describeth a proud
man, puffing at his enemies: he is puffed up and swelled with high
conceits of himself, as if he had some great matter in him, and he puffs at
others as if he could do some great matter against them, forgetting that
himself is but, as to his being in this world, a puff of wind which passeth
away. Joseph Caryl.
Verse 5. "As
for all his enemies, he puffeth at them;" literally, "He
whistles at them." He is given over to the dominion of gloomy
indifference, and he cares as little for others as for himself. Whosoever may
be imagined by him to be an enemy he cares not. Contempt and ridicule are his
only weapons; and he has forgotten how to use others of a more sacred
character. His mental habits are marked by scorn; and he treats with contempt
the judgments, opinions, and practices of the wisest of men. John Morison.
Verse 6. "He
hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in
adversity." Carnal security opens the door for all impiety to enter
into the soul. Pompey, when he had in vain assaulted a city, and could not take
it by force, devised this stratagem in way of agreement; he told them he would
leave the siege and make peace with them, upon condition that they would let in
a few weak, sick, and wounded soldiers among them to be cured. They let in the
soldiers, and when the city was secure, the soldiers let in Pompey's army. A
carnal settled security will let in a whole army of lusts into the soul. Thomas
Brooks.
Verse 6. "He
hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in
adversity." To consider religion always on the comfortable side; to
congratulate one's self for having obtained the end before we have made use of
the means; to stretch the hands to receive the crown of righteousness before
they have been employed to fight the battle; to be content with a false peace,
and to use no effort to obtain the graces to which true consolation is annexed:
this is a dreadful calm, like that which some voyagers describe, and which is a
very singular forerunner of a very terrible event. All on a sudden, in the wide
ocean, the sea becomes calm, the surface of the water clear as a crystal,
smooth as glass—the air serene; the unskilled passenger becomes tranquil and
happy, but the old mariner trembles. In an instant the waves froth, the winds
murmur, the heavens kindle, a thousand gulfs open, a frightful light inflames
the air, and every wave threatens sudden death. This is an image of many men's
assurance of salvation. James Saurin, 1677-1730.
Verse 7. "Under
his tongue is mischief and vanity." The striking allusion of this
expression is to certain venomous reptiles, which are said to carry bags of
poison under their teeth, and, with great subtlety to inflict the most deadly
injuries upon those who come within their reach. How affectingly does this
represent the sad havoc which minds tainted with infidelity inflict on the
community! By their perversions of truth, and by their immoral sentiments and
practices, they are as injurious to the mind as the deadliest poison can be to
the body. John Morison.
Verse 7. Cursing men
are cursed men. John Trapp.
Verses 7, 9. In Anne
Askew's account of her examination by Bishop Bonner, we have an instance of the
cruel craft of persecutors: "On the morrow after, my lord of London sent
for me at one of the clock, his hour being appointed at three. And as I came
before him, he said he was very sorry of my trouble, and desired to know my
opinion in such matters as were laid against me. He required me also boldly in
any wise to utter the secrets of my heart; bidding me not to fear in any point,
for whatsoever I did say within his house, no man should hurt me for it. I
answered, 'For so much as your lordship hath appointed three of the clock, and
my friends shall not come till that hour, I desire you to pardon me of giving
answer till they come.'" Upon this Bale remarks: "'In this preventing
of the hour may the diligent perceive the greediness of this Babylon bishop, or
bloodthirsty wolf, concerning his prey. 'Swift are their feet,' saith David,
'in the effusion of innocent blood, which have fraud in their tongues, venom in
their lips, and most cruel vengeance in their mouths.' David much marvelleth in
the spirit that, taking upon them the spiritual governance of the people, they
can fall into such frenzy or forgetfulness of themselves, as to believe it
lawful thus to oppress the faithful, and to devour them with as little compassion
as he that greedily devoureth a piece of bread. If such have read anything of
God, they have little minded their true duty therein. 'More swift,' saith
Jeremy, 'are our cruel persecutors than the eagles of the air. They follow upon
us over the mountains, and lay privy wait for us in the wilderness.' He that
will know the crafty hawking of bishops to bring in their prey, let them learn
it here. Judas, I think, had never the tenth part of their cunning
workmanship.'" John Bale, D.D., Bishop of Ossory, 1495-1563, in
"Examination of Anne Askew." Parker Society's Publications.
Verse 8. "He
sitteth in the lurking places of the villages," etc. The Arab robber
lurks like a wolf among these sand heaps, and often springs out suddenly upon
the solitary traveller, robs him in a trice, and then plunges again into the
wilderness of sand-hills and reedy downs, where pursuit is fruitless. Our
friends are careful not to allow us to straggle about, or lag behind, and yet
it seems absurd to fear a surprise here—Kaifa before, Acre in the rear, and
travellers in sight on both sides. Robberies, however, do often occur, just
where we now are. Strange country! and it has always been so. There are a
hundred allusions to just such things in the history, the Psalms, and the
prophets of Israel. A whole class of imagery is based upon them. Thus, in Psalm
10:8-10, "He sits in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret
places doth he murder the innocent: he lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his
den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he
draweth him into his net; he croucheth and humbleth himself, that the poor may
fall by his strong ones." And a thousand rascals, the living originals of
this picture, are this day crouching and lying in wait all over the country to
catch poor helpless travellers. You observe that all these people we meet or
pass are armed; nor would they venture to go from Acre to Kaifa without their
musket, although the cannon of the castles seem to command every foot of the
way. Strange, most strange land! but it tallies wonderfully with its ancient
story. W. M. Thompson, D.D., in "The Land and the Book," 1859.
Verse 8. My
companions asked me if I knew the danger I had escaped. "No," I
replied; "What danger?" They then told me that, just after they
started, they saw a wild Arab skulking after me, crouching to the ground, with
a musket in his hand; and that, as soon as he had reached within what appeared
to them musket-shot of me, he raised his gun; but, looking wildly around him,
as a man will do who is about to perpetrate some desperate act, he caught sight
of them and disappeared. Jeremiah knew something of the ways of these Arabs
when he wrote (chapter 3:2) "In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the
Arabian in the wilderness;" and the simile is used in Psalm 10:9, 10, for
the Arabs wait and watch for their prey with the greatest eagerness and
perseverance. John Gadsby, in "My Wanderings," 1860.
Verse 8. "He
sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he
murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor." All
this strength of metaphor and imagery is intended to mark the assiduity, the
cunning, the low artifice, to which the enemies of truth and righteousness will
often resort in order to accomplish their corrupt and vicious designs. The
extirpation of true religion is their great object; and there is nothing to
which they will not stoop in order to effect that object. The great powers
which have oppressed the church of Christ, in different ages, have answered to
this description. Both heathen and papistical authorities have thus
condescended in infamy. They have sat, as it were, in ambush for the poor of
Christ's flock; they have adopted every stratagem that infernal skill could
invent; they have associated themselves with princes in their palaces, and with
beggars on their dunghill; they have resorted to the village, and they have
mingled in the gay and populous city; and all for the vain purpose of
attempting to blot out a "name which shall endure for ever, and which
shall be continued as long as the sun." John Morison.
Verse 9 "He
doth catch the poor." The poor man is the beast they hunt, who must
rise early, rest late, eat the bread of sorrow, sit with many a hungry meal,
perhaps his children crying for food, while all the fruit of his pains is
served into Nimrod's table. Complain of this while you will, yet, as the orator
said of Verres, pecuniosus nescit damnari. Indeed, a money-man may not
be damnified, but he may be damned. For this is a crying sin, and the wakened
ears of the Lord will hear it, neither shall his provoked hands forbear it. Si
tacuerint pauperes loquentur lapides. If the poor should hold their peace,
the very stones would speak. The fines, rackings, enclosures, oppressions,
vexations, will cry to God for vengeance. "The stone will cry out of the
wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it." Habakkuk 2:11. You
see the beasts they hunt. Not foxes, not wolves, nor boars, bulls, nor tigers.
It is a certain observation, no beast hunts its own kind to devour it. Now, if
these should prosecute wolves, foxes, &c., they should then hunt their own
kind; for they are these themselves, or rather worse than these, because here homo
homini lupus. But though they are men they hunt, and by nature of the same
kind, they are not so by quality, for they are lambs they persecute. In them
there is blood, and flesh, and fleece to be had; and therefore on these do they
gorge themselves. In them there is weak armour of defence against their cruelties;
therefore over these they may domineer. I will speak it boldly: there is not a
mighty Nimrod in this land that dares hunt his equal; but over his inferior
lamb he insults like a young Nero. Let him be graced by high ones, and he must
not be saluted under twelve score off. In the country he proves a termagant;
his very scowl is a prodigy, and breeds an earthquake. He would be a Caesar,
and tax all. It is well if he prove not a cannibal! Only Macro salutes Sejanus
so long as he is in Tiberius's favour; cast him from that pinnacle, and the dog
is ready to devour him. Thomas Adams.
Verse 9. "He
draweth him into his net." "They hunt with a net." Micah
7:2. They have their politic gins to catch men; gaudy wares and dark shops (and
would you have them love the light that live by darkness, as many shopkeepers?)
draw and tole customers in, where the crafty leeches can soon feel their
pulses: if they must buy they shall pay for their necessity. And though they
plead, We compel none to buy our ware, caveat emptor; yet with fine
voluble phrases, damnable protestations, they will cast a mist of error before
an eye of simple truth, and with cunning devices hunt them in. So some among us
have feathered their nests, not by open violence, but politic circumvention.
They have sought the golden fleece, not by Jason's merit, but by Medea's
subtlety, by Medea's sorcery. If I should intend to discover these hunter's
plots, and to deal punctually with them, I should afford you more matter than
you would afford me time. But I limit myself and answer all their plans with
Augustine. Their tricks may hold in jure fori, but not in jure poli—in
the common-pleas of earth, not before the king's bench in heaven. Thomas
Adams.
Verse 9. Oppression
turns princes into roaring lions, and judges into ravening wolves. It is an
unnatural sin, against the light of nature. No creatures do oppress them of
their own kind. Look upon the birds of prey, as upon eagles, vultures, hawks,
and you shall never find them preying upon their own kind. Look upon the beasts
of the forest, as upon the lion, the tiger, the wolf, the bear, and you shall
ever find them favourable to their own kind; and yet men unnaturally prey upon
one another, like the fish in the sea, the great swallowing up the small. Thomas
Brooks.
Verse 10. "He
croucheth, and humbleth himself," etc. There is nothing too mean or
servile for them, in the attempt to achieve their sinister ends. You shall see
his holiness the Pope washing the pilgrims' feet, if such a stratagem be
necessary to act in the minds of the deluded multitude; or you shall see him
sitting on a throne of purple, if he wishes to awe and control the kings of the
earth. John Morison.
Verse 10 If you take
a wolf in a lambskin, hang him up; for he is the worst of the generation. Thomas
Adams.
Verse 11. "He
hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten." Is it not a senseless
thing to be careless of sins committed long ago? The old sins forgotten by men,
stick fast in an infinite understanding. Time cannot raze out that which hath
been known from eternity. Why should they be forgotten many years after they
were acted, since they were foreknown in an eternity before they were
committed, or the criminal capable to practice them? Amalek must pay their
arrears of their ancient unkindness to Israel in the time of Saul, though the
generation that committed them were rotten in their graves. 1 Samuel 15:2. Old
sins are written in a book, which lies always before God; and not only our own
sins, but the sins of our fathers, to be requited upon their posterity.
"Behold it is written." Isaiah 65:6. What a vanity is it then to be
regardless of the sins of an age that went before us; because they are in some
measure out of our knowledge, are they therefore blotted out of God's remembrance?
Sins are bound up with him, as men do bonds, till they resolve to sue for the
debt. "The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up." Hosea 13:12. As his
foreknowledge extends to all acts that shall be done, so his remembrance
extends to all acts that have been done. We may as well say, God foreknows
nothing that shall be done to the end of the world, as that he forgets anything
that hath been done from the beginning of the world. Stephen Charnock.
Verse 11. "He
hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never
see it." Many say in their hearts, "God seeth them not,"
while with their tongues they confess he is an all-seeing God. The heart hath a
tongue in it as well as the head, and these two tongues seldom speak the same
language. While the head tongue saith, "We cannot hide ourselves from the
sight of God," the heart-tongue of wicked men will say, "God will
hide himself from us, he will not see." But if their heart speak not thus,
then as the prophet saith (Isaiah 29:15), "They dig deep to hide their
counsel from the Lord;" surely they have a hope to hide their counsels,
else they would not dig deep to hide them. Their digging is not proper, but
tropical; as men dig deep to hide what they would not have in the earth, so
they by their wits, plots, and devices, do their best to hide their counsels
from God, and they say, "Who seeth, who knoweth? We, surely, are not seen
either by God or man." Joseph Caryl.
Verse 11. The
Scripture everywhere places sin upon this root. "God hath forgotten: he
hideth his face; he will never see it." He hath turned his back upon
the world. This was the ground of the oppression of the poor by the wicked,
which he mentions, verses 9, 10. There is no sin but receives both its birth
and nourishment from this bitter root. Let the notion of providence be once
thrown out, or the belief of it faint, how will ambition, covetousness, neglect
of God, distrust, impatience, and all other bitter gourds, grow up in a night!
It is from this topic all iniquity will draw arguments to encourage itself; for
nothing so much discountenances those rising corruptions, and puts them out of
heart, as an actuated belief that God takes care of human affairs. Stephen
Charnock.
Verse 11. "He
hath said in his heart," etc. "Because sentence against an evil
work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully
set in them to do evil." Ecclesiastes 8:11. God forbears punishing,
therefore men forbear repenting. He doth not smite upon their back by
correction, therefore they do not smite upon their thigh by humiliation.
Jeremiah 31:19. The sinner thinks thus,: "God hath spared me all this
while, he hath eked out patience into longsuffering; surely he will not
punish." "He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten."
God sometimes in infinite patience adjourns his judgments and puts off the
sessions a while longer, he is not willing to punish. 2 Peter 3:9. The bee
naturally gives honey, but stings only when it is angered. The Lord would have
men make their peace with him. Isaiah 27:5. God is not like a hasty creditor
that requires the debt, and will give no time for the payment; he is not only
gracious, but "waits to be gracious" (Isaiah 30:18); but God by his
patience would bribe sinners to repentance; but alas! how is this patience abused.
God's longsuffering hardens: because God stops the vials of his wrath, sinners
stop the conduit of tears. Thomas Watson.
Verse 11. "He
hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never
see it." Because the Lord continues to spare them, therefore they go
on to provoke him. As he adds to their lives, so they add to their lusts. What
is this, but as if a man should break all his bones because there is a surgeon
who is able to set them again?. . . . . . Because justice seems to wink,
men suppose her blind; because she delays punishment, they imagine she
denies to punish them; because she does not always reprove them for their sins,
they suppose she always approves of their sins, But let such know, that the
silent arrow can destroy as well as the roaring cannon. Though the patience of
God be lasting, yet it is not everlasting. William Secker.
Verses 11, 12, 13.
The atheist denies God's ordering of sublunary matters. "Tush, doth the
Lord see, or is there knowledge in the Most High?" making him a maimed
Deity, without an eye of providence, or an arm of power, and at most
restraining him only to matters above the clouds. But he that dares to confine
the King of heaven, will soon after endeavour to depose him, and fall at last
flatly to deny him. Thomas Fuller.
Verse 13. "He
hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it." As when the
desperate pirate, ransacking and rifling a bottom was told by the master, that
though no law could touch him for the present, he should answer it at the day
of judgment, replied, "If I may stay so long ere I come to it, I will take
thee and thy vessel too." A conceit wherewith too many land-thieves and
oppressors flatter themselves in their hearts, though they dare not utter it
with their lips. Thomas Adams.
Verses 13, 14. What,
do you think that God doth not remember our sins which we do not regard? for
while we sin the score runs on, and the Judge setteth down all in the table of
remembrance, and his scroll reacheth up to heaven. Item, for lending to usury;
item, for racking of rents; item, for starching thy ruffs; item, for curling
thy hair; item, for painting thy face; item, for selling of benefices; item,
for starving of souls; item, for playing at cards; item, for sleeping in the
church; item, for profaning the Sabbath-day, with a number more hath God to
call to account, for everyone must answer for himself. The fornicator, for
taking of filthy pleasure; the careless prelate, for murthering so many
thousand souls; the landlord, for getting money from his poor tenants by
racking of his rents; see the rest, all they shall come like very sheep when
the trumpet shall sound and the heaven and the earth shall come to judgment
against them; when the heavens shall vanish like a scroll, and the earth shall
consume like fire, and all the creatures standing against them; the rocks shall
cleave asunder, and the mountains shake, and the foundation of the earth shall
tremble, and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us, fall upon us, and hide
us from the presence of his anger and wrath whom we have not cared to offend.
But they shall not be covered and hid; but then shall they go the back way, to
the snakes and serpents, to be tormented of devils for ever. Henry Smith.
Verse 14. "Thou
hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy
hands," etc. This should be a terror to the wicked, to think that
whatsoever they do, they do it in the sight of him that shall judge
them, and call them to a strict account for every thought conceived against his
majesty; and therefore, it should make them afraid to sin; because that when
they burn with lust, and toil with hatred, when they scorn the just and wrong
the innocent, they do all this, not only in conspectu Dei, within the
compass of God's sight, but also in sinu divinitatis, in the bosom of
that Deity, who, though he suffered them for a time to run on, like "a
wild ass used to in the wilderness," yet he will find them out at the
last, and then cut them off and destroy them. And as this is terror unto the
wicked, so it may be a comfort unto the godly to think that he who should hear
their prayers and send them help, is so near unto them; and it should move them
to rely still upon him, because we are sure of his presence wherever we are. G.
Williams, 1636.
Verse 14. "The
poor committeth himself unto thee." The awkwardness of our hearts to
suffer comes much from distrust. An unbelieving soul treads upon the promise as
a man upon ice; at first going upon it he is full of fears and tumultuous
thoughts lest it should crack. Now, daily resignation of thy heart, as it will
give thee an occasion of conversing more with the thoughts of God's power,
faithfulness, and other of his attributes (for want of familiarity with which,
jealousies arise in our hearts when put to any great plunge), so also it will
furnish thee with many experiences of the reality both of his attributes and
promises; which, though they need not any testimony from sense, to gain them
credit with us, yet so much are we made of sense, so childish and weak is our
faith, that we find our hearts much helped by those experiences we have had, to
rely on him for the future. Look, therefore, carefully to this; every morning
leave thyself and ways in God's hand, as the phrase is. Psalm 10:14. And at
night look again how well God hath looked to his trust, and sleep not till thou
hast affected thy heart with his faithfulness, and laid a stronger charge on
thy heart to trust itself again in God's keeping in the night. And when any
breach is made, and seeming loss befalls thee in any enjoyment, which thou hast
by faith insured of thy God, observe how God fills up that breach, and makes up
that loss to thee; and rest not till thou hast fully vindicated the good name
of God to thy own heart. Be sure thou lettest no discontent or dissatisfaction
lie upon thy spirit at God's dealings; but chide thy heart for it, as David did
his. Psalm 42. And thus doing, with God's blessing, thou shalt keep thy faith
in breath for a longer race, when called to run it. William Gurnall.
Verse 14. "Thou
art the helper of the fatherless." God doth exercise a more special
province over men, as clothed with miserable circumstances; and therefore among
his other titles this is one, to be a "helper of the fatherless."
It is the argument the church used to express her return to God; Hosea 14:3,
"For in thee the fatherless find mercy." Now what greater comfort is
there than this, that there is one presides in the world who is so wise he
cannot be mistaken, so faithful he cannot deceive, so pitiful he cannot neglect
his people, and so powerful that he can make stones even to be turned into
bread if he please! . . . . . . God doth not govern the world only by his will
as an absolute monarch, but by his wisdom and goodness as a tender father. It
is not his greatest pleasure to show his sovereign power, or his inconceivable
wisdom, but his immense goodness, to which he makes the other attributes
subservient. Stephen Charnock.
Verse 14. "Thou
hast seen it," etc. If God did not see our ways, we might sin and go
unpunished; but foreasmuch as he seeth them with purer eyes than to behold
iniquity and approve it, he is engaged both in justice and honour to punish all
that iniquity of our ways which he seeth or beholdeth. David makes this the
very design of God's superintendency over the ways of men: "Thou hast
seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand:
the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the
fatherless." Thus the psalmist represents the Lord as having taken a
view or survey of the ways of men. "Thou hast seen." What hath
God seen? Even all that wickedness and oppression of the poor spoken of in the
former part of the Psalm, as also the blasphemy of the wicked against himself
(verse 13), "Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his
heart, Thou wilt not require it." What saith the psalmist concerning
God, to this vain, confident man? "Thou," saith he, "beholdest
mischief and spite;" but to what purpose? the next words tell us that—
"to requite it with thy hand." As thou hast seen what mischief
they have done spitefully, so in due time thou wilt requite it righteously. The
Lord is not a bare spectator, he is both a rewarder and an avenger. Therefore,
from the ground of this truth, that the Lord seeth all our ways, and counteth
all our steps, we, as the prophet exhorts (Isaiah 3:10, 11), may "say to
the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of
their doings." We may also say, "Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill
with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him." Only idols
which have eyes and see not, have hands and strike not. Joseph Caryl.
Verse 14. "Thou
hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy
hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the
fatherless." Let the poor know that their God doth take care of them,
to visit their sins with rods who spoil them, seeing they have forgotten that
we are members one of another, and have invaded the goods of their brethren;
God will arm them against themselves, and beat them with their own staves;
either their own compassing and over-reaching wits shall consume their store,
or their unthrifty posterity shall put wings upon their riches to make them
fly; or God shall not give them the blessing to take use of their wealth, but
they shall leave to such as shall be merciful to the poor. Therefore let them
follow the wise man's counsel (Ecclesiastes 10:20), "Curse not the rich,
no, not in thy bedchamber;" let no railing and unchristian bitterness
wrong a good cause; let it be comfort enough to them that God is both their
supporter and avenger. Is it not sufficient to lay all the storms of discontent
against their oppressors, that God sees their affliction, and cometh down to
deliver and avenge them? Edward Marbury.
Verse 14. "Thou
hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy
hand," etc. God considers all your works and ways, and will not you
consider the works, the ways of God? Of this be sure, whether you consider the
ways of God, his word-ways, or work-ways, of this be sure, God will consider
your ways, certainly he will; those ways of yours which in themselves are not
worth the considering or looking upon, your sinful ways, though they are so
vile, so abominable, that if yourselves did but look upon them and consider
them, you would be utterly ashamed of them; yea, though they are an abomination
to God while he beholds them, yet he will behold and consider them. The Lord
who is of purer eyes than to behold any the least iniquity, to approve it, will
yet behold the greatest of your iniquities, and your impurest ways to consider
them. "Thou," saith David, "beholdest mischief and
spite, to requite it:" God beholdeth the foulest, dirtiest ways of
men, their ways of oppression and unrighteousness, their ways of intemperance
and lasciviousness, their ways of wrath and maliciousness, at once to detest,
detect, and requite them. If God thus considereth the ways of men, even those filthy
and crooked ways of men, should not men consider the holy, just, and righteous
ways of God? Joseph Caryl.
Verses 14-18. "God
delights to help the poor." He loves to take part with the best,
though the weakest side. Contrary to the course of most, who when a controversy
arises use to stand in a kind of indifferency or neutrality, till they see
which part is strongest, not which is justest. Now if there be any
consideration (besides the cause) that draws or engages God, it is the weakness
of the side. He joins with many, because they are weak, not with any, because
they are strong; therefore he is called the helper of the friendless, and
with him the fatherless, (the orphans) find mercy. By fatherless we
are not to understand such only whose parents are dead, but any one that is in
distress; as Christ promised his disciples; "I will not leave you
orphans," that is, helpless, and (as we translate) comfortless;
though ye are as children without a father, yet I will be a father to you. Men
are often like those clouds which dissolve into the sea; they send presents to
the rich, and assist the strong; but God sends his rain upon the dry land, and
lends his strength to those who are weak. . . . The prophet makes this report
to God of himself (Isaiah 30:4): "Thou hast been a strength to the
poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the
storm," etc. Joseph Caryl.
Verse 16. "The
Lord is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land."
Such confidence and faith must appear to the world strange and unaccountable.
It is like what his fellow citizens may be supposed to have felt (if the story
be true) toward that man of whom it is recorded, that his powers of vision were
so extraordinary, that he could distinctly see the fleet of the Carthaginians
entering the harbour of Carthage, while he stood himself at Lilyboeum, in
Sicily. A man seeing across an ocean, and able to tell of objects so far off!
he could feast his vision on what others saw not. Even thus does faith now
stand at its Lilyboeum, and see the long tossed fleet entering safely the
desired haven, enjoying the bliss of that still distant day, as if it were
already come. Andrew A. Bonar.
Verse 17. There is a
humbling act of faith put forth in prayer. Others style it praying in humility;
give me leave to style it praying in faith. In faith which sets the soul in the
presence of that mighty God, and by the sight of him, which faith gives us, it
is that we see our own vileness, sinfulness, and abhor ourselves, and profess
ourselves unworthy of any, much less of those mercies we are to seek for. Thus
the sight of God had wrought in the prophet (Isaiah 6:5), "Then said I,
Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips: for mine eyes
have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." And holy Job speaks thus (Job
42:5, 6), "Now mine eye seeth thee: wherefore I abhor myself, and repent
in dust and ashes." This is as great a requisite to prayer as any other
act; I may say of it alone, as the apostle (James 1:7), that without it we
shall receive nothing at the hands of God! God loves to fill empty vessels, he
looks to broken hearts. In the Psalms how often do we read that God hears the
prayers of the humble; which always involves and includes faith in it. Psalm
9:12, "He forgetteth not the cry of the humble," and Psalm 10:17, "Lord,
thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou
wilt cause thine ear to hear." To be deeply humbled is to have the
heart prepared and fitted for God to hear the prayer; and therefore you find
the psalmist pleading sub forma pauperis, often repeating, "I am
poor and needy." And this prevents our thinking much if God do not grant
the particular thing we do desire. Thus also Christ himself in his great
distress (Psalm 22), doth treat God (verse 2), "O my God, I cry in the
day-time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season am not silent. Our
fathers trusted in thee. They cried unto thee, and were delivered. But I am a
worm, and no man; reproached of men, and despised of the people; (verse
6)" and he was "heard" in the end "in what he feared."
And these deep humblings of ourselves, being joined with vehement implorations
upon the mercy of God to obtain, is reckoned into the account of praying by
faith, both by God and Christ. Matthew 8. Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 17. "Lord,
thou hast heard the desire of the humble." A spiritual prayer is a humble
prayer. Prayer is the asking of an alms, which requires humility. "The
publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven,
but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner." Luke
18:13. God's incomprehensible glory may even amaze us and strike a holy
consternation into us when we approach nigh unto him: "O my God, I am
ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee." Ezra 9:6. It is comely to
see a poor nothing lie prostrate at the feet of its Maker. "Behold now, I
have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes."
Genesis 18:27. The lower the heart descends, the higher the prayer ascends. Thomas
Watson.
Verse 17. "Lord,
thou hast heard the desire of the humble," etc. How pleasant is it,
that these benefits, which are of so great a value both on their own account,
and that of the divine benignity from whence they come, should be delivered
into our hands, marked, as it were, with this grateful inscription, that
they have been obtained by prayer! Robert Leighton.
Verse 17. "The
desire of the humble." Prayer is the offering up of our desires to God
in the name of Christ, for such things as are agreeable to his will. It is an
offering of our desires. Desires are the soul and life of prayer; words
are but the body; now as the body without the soul is dead, so are prayers
unless they are animated with our desires: "Lord, thou hast heard the
desire of the humble." God heareth not words, but desires. Thomas
Watson.
Verse 17. God's
choice acquaintances are humble men. Robert Leighton.
Verse 17. He that
sits nearest the dust, sits nearest heaven. Andrew Gray, of Glasgow,
1616.
Verse 17. There is a
kind of omnipotency in prayer, as having an interest and prevalency with God's
omnipotency. It hath loosed iron chains (Acts 16:25, 26); it hath opened iron
gates (Acts 12:5-10); it hath unlocked the windows of heaven (1 Kings 18:41);
it hath broken the bars of death (John 11:40, 43). Satan hath three titles
given in the Scriptures, setting forth his malignity against the church of God:
a dragon, to note his malice; a serpent, to note his subtlety; and a lion, to
note his strength. But none of all these can stand before prayer. The greatest
malice of Haman sinks under the prayer of Esther; the deepest policy, the
counsel of Ahithophel, withers before the prayer of David; the largest army, a
host of a thousand Ethiopians, run away like cowards before the prayer of Asa. Edward
Reynolds, 1599-1676.
Verse 18. "To
judge the fatherless and the oppressed," etc. The tears of the poor
fall down upon their cheeks, et ascendunt ad coelum, and go up to heaven
and cry for vengeance before God, the judge of widows, the father of widows and
orphans. Poor people be oppressed even by laws. Woe worth to them that make
evil laws against the poor, what shall be to them that hinder and mar good
laws? What will ye do in the day of great vengeance when God shall visit you?
he saith he will hear the tears of the poor women, when he goeth on visitation.
For their sake he will hurt the judge, be he never so high, he will for widows'
sakes change realms, bring them into temptation, pluck the judges' skins over
their heads. Cambyses was a great emperor, such another as our master is, he
had many lord deputies, lord presidents, and lieutenants under him. It is a
great while ago since I read the history. It chanced he had under him in one of
his dominions a briber, a gift-taker, a gratifier of rich men; he followed
gifts as fast as he that followed the pudding; a handmaker in his office, to
make his son a great man, as the old saying is, "Happy is the child whose
father goeth to the devil." The cry of the poor widow came to the emperor's
ear, and caused him to slay the judge quick, and laid his skin in his chair of
judgment, that all judges that should give judgment afterward, should sit in
the same skin. Surely it was a goodly sign, a goodly monument, the sign of the
judges skin. I pray God we may once see the sign of the skin in England. Ye
will say, peradventure, that this is cruelly and uncharitably spoken. No, no; I
do it charitably, for a love I bear to my country. God saith, "I will
visit." God hath two visitations; the first is when he revealeth his word
by preachers; and where the first is accepted, the second cometh not. The
second visitation is vengeance. He went to visitation when he brought the
judges skin over his ears. If this word be despised, he cometh with the second
visitation with vengeance. Hugh Latimer, 1480 - 1555.
Verse 18. "Man
of the earth," etc. In the eighth Psalm (which is a circular Psalm,
ending as it did begin, "O Lord our God, how excellent is thy name in all
the world!" That whithersoever we turn our eyes, upwards or downwards, we
may see ourselves beset with his glory round about), how doth the prophet base
and discountenance the nature and whole race of man; as may appear by his
disdainful and derogatory interrogation, "What is man that thou art mindful
of him; and the Son of Man, that thou regardest him?" In the ninth Psalm,
"Rise, Lord; let not man have the upper hand; let the nations be judged in
thy sight. Put them in fear, O Lord, that the heathen may know themselves to be
but men." Further, in the tenth Psalm, "Thou judgest the fatherless
and the poor, that the man of the earth do no more violence."
The
Psalms, as they go in order, so, methinks they grow in strength, and each hath
a weightier force to throw down our presumption. 1. We are "men," and
the "sons of men," to show our descent and propagation. 2. "Men
in our own knowledge," to show that conscience and experience of infirmity
doth convict us. 3. "Men of the earth," to show our original matter
whereof we are framed. In the twenty-second Psalm, he addeth more disgrace; for
either in his own name, regarding the misery and contempt wherein he was held,
or in the person of Christ, whose figure he was, as if it were robbery for him
to take upon him the nature of man, he falleth to a lower style, at ego sum
vermis et non vir; but I am a worm, and no man. For as corruption is the
father of all flesh, so are the worms his brethren and sisters according to the
old verse—
"First
man, next worms, then stench and loathsomeness,
Thus man to no man alters by changes."
Abraham,
the father of the faithful (Genesis 18), sifteth himself into the coarsest man
that can be, and resolveth his nature into the elements whereof it first rose:
"Behold I have begun to speak to my Lord, being dust and ashes." And
if any of the children of Abraham, who succeed him in the faith, or any of the
children of Adam, who succeed him in the flesh, thinketh otherwise, let him
know that there is a threefold cord twisted by the finger of God, that shall
tie him to his first original, though he contend till his heart break. "O
earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord" (Jeremiah 22); that is,
earth by creation, earth by continuance, earth by resolution. Thou camest
earth, thou remainest earth, and to earth thou must return. John King.
Verse 18. "The
man of the earth." Man dwelling in the earth, and made of earth. Thomas
Wilcocks.
HINTS TO THE
VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1. The answer
to these questions furnishes a noble topic for an experimental sermon. Let me
suggest that the question is not to be answered in the same manner in all
cases. Past sin, trials of graces, strengthening of faith, discovery of
depravity, instruction, etc., etc., are varied reasons for the hiding of our
Father's face.
Verse 2. Religious
persecution in all its phases based on pride.
Verse 3. God's
hatred of covetousness: show its justice.
Verse 4. Pride the
barrier in the way of conversion.
Verse 4 (last
clause). Thoughts in which God is not, weighed and condemned.
Verse 5. "Thy
judgments are far above out of his sight." Moral inability of men to
appreciate the character and acts of God.
Verse 6. The vain
confidence of sinners.
Verse 8. Dangers of
godly men, or the snares in the way of believers.
Verse 9. The
ferocity, craftiness, strength, and activity of Satan.
Verse 9 (last
clause). The Satanic fisherman, his art, diligence, success, etc.
Verse 10. Designing
humility unmasked.
Verse 11. Divine
omniscience and the astounding presumption of sinners.
Verse 12. "Arise,
O Lord." A prayer needful, allowable, seasonable, etc.
Verse 13 (first
clause). An astounding fact, and a reasonable enquiry.
Verse 13. Future
retribution: doubts concerning it.
I.
By whom indulged: "the wicked."
II.
Where fostered: "in his heart."
III.
For what purpose: quieting of conscience, etc.
IV.
With what practical tendency: "contemn God." He who
disbelieves hell, distrusts heaven.
Verses
13, 14. Divine government in the world.
I.
Who doubt it? and why?
II.
Who believe it? and what does this faith cause them to do?
Verse 14 (last
clause). A plea for orphans.
Verse 16. The
Eternal Kingship of Jehovah.
Verse 17 (first
clause).
I.
The Christian's character— "humble."
II.
An attribute of the Christian's whole life—"desire:" he
desires more holiness, communion, knowledge, grace, and usefulness; and then he
desires glory.
III.
The Christian's great blessedness—"Lord, thou hast heard the desire of
the humble."
Verse 17 (whole
verse).
I.
Consider the nature of gracious desires.
II.
Their origin.
III.
Their result.
The
three sentences readily suggest these divisions, and the subject may be very
profitable.
── C.H. Spurgeon《The Treasury of David》