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Psalm Eleven
Psalm 11
Chapter Contents
David's struggle with, and triumph over a strong
temptation to distrust God, and betake himself to indirect means for his own
safety, in a time of danger.
Those that truly fear God and serve him, are welcome to
put their trust in him. The psalmist, before he gives an account of his
temptation to distrust God, records his resolution to trust in Him, as that by
which he was resolved to live and die. The believer, though not terrified by
his enemies, may be tempted, by the fears of his friends, to desert his post,
or neglect his work. They perceive his danger, but not his security; they give
him counsel that savours of worldly policy, rather than of heavenly wisdom. The
principles of religion are the foundations on which the faith and hope of the
righteous are built. We are concerned to hold these fast against all
temptations to unbelief; for believers would be undone, if they had not God to
go to, God to trust in, and future bliss to hope for. The prosperity of wicked
people in their wicked, evil ways, and the straits and distresses which the
best men are sometimes brought into, tried David's faith. We need not say, Who
shall go up to heaven, to fetch us thence a God to trust in? The word is nigh
us, and God in the word; his Spirit is in his saints, those living temples, and
the Lord is that Spirit. This God governs the world. We may know what men seem
to be, but God knows what they are, as the refiner knows the value of gold when
he has tried it. God is said to try with his eyes, because he cannot err, or be
imposed upon. If he afflicts good people, it is for their trial, therefore for
their good. However persecutors and oppressors may prosper awhile, they will
for ever perish. God is a holy God, and therefore hates them. He is a righteous
Judge, and will therefore punish them. In what a horrible tempest are the
wicked hurried away at death! Every man has the portion of his cup assigned
him. Impenitent sinner, mark your doom! The last call to repentance is about to
be addressed to you, judgement is at hand; through the gloomy shade of death
you pass into the region of eternal wrath. Hasten then, O sinner, to the cross
of Christ. How stands the case between God and our souls? Is Christ our hope,
our consolation, our security? Then, not otherwise, will the soul be carried
through all its difficulties and conflicts.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Psalms》
Psalm 11
Verse 1
[1] In the LORD put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee
as a bird to your mountain?
Ye — Mine enemies.
Verse 2
[2] For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready
their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in
heart.
For lo — David having directed his speech to his enemies, now
turns it to God, and pours out before him his complaints.
Ready — They lay designs for my destruction and make all
things ready to execute them.
Verse 3
[3] If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous
do?
Foundations — Piety, justice, fidelity, and
mercy, which are the pillars or foundations of a state or kingdom.
What — The condition of all righteous men will be desperate.
Verse 4
[4] The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD's throne is in
heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.
Temple — In heaven; which is mentioned as an evidence of his
glorious majesty, of his sovereign power and dominion over all men and things,
and of his accurate inspection into all men and their actions.
Throne — Where he sits to examine all causes, and to give
righteous sentence according to every man's works.
Try — He throughly discerns all men, their most inward and
secret actions: and therefore he sees and will reward my innocency,
notwithstanding all the calumnies of mine enemies; and withal he sees all their
secret designs, and will discover and defeat them.
Verse 5
[5] The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him
that loveth violence his soul hateth.
Trieth — He chastens even righteous persons, yet still he loves
them, and therefore will in due time deliver them. But as for the wicked, God
hates them, and will severely punish them.
Verse 6
[6] Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and
brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.
Rain — Send them plentifully, swiftly, and suddenly, as rain
commonly falls from heaven.
Snares — Grievous plagues or judgments, which are called snares,
because wicked men are often surprized with them when they least expect them.
And because they cannot escape them, or get out of them; but are held fast and
destroyed by them.
Horrible tempests — Dreadful judgments so
called, in allusion to the destruction of Sodom by these means. But this he
seems to speak not so much of present calamities, as of eternal punishments.
This — Is their portion, and as it were the meat and drink
appointed them by God.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Psalms》
Psalm 11
Exposition
Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings
Hints to the Village Preacher
SUBJECT. Charles
Simeon gives an excellent summary of this Psalm in the following
sentences:—"The Psalms are a rich repository of experimental knowledge.
David, at the different periods of his life, was placed in almost every
situation in which a believer, whether rich or poor, can be placed; in these
heavenly compositions he delineates all the workings of the heart. He
introduces, too, the sentiments and conduct of the various persons who were
accessory either to his troubles or his joys; and thus sets before us a
compendium of all that is passing in the hearts of men throughout the world.
When he penned this Psalm he was under persecution from Saul, who sought his
life, and hunted him 'as a partridge upon the mountains.' His timid friends
were alarmed for his safety, and recommended him to flee to some mountain where
he had a hiding-place, and thus to conceal himself from the rage of Saul. But
David, being strong in faith, spurned the idea of resorting to any such
pusillanimous expedients, and determined confidently to repose his trust in
God."
To
assist us to remember this short, but sweet Psalm, we will give it the name of
"THE SONG OF THE STEADFAST."
DIVISION.
From 1 to 3, David describes the temptation with which he was assailed, and
from 4 to 7, the arguments by which his courage was sustained.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. These
verses contain an account of a temptation to distrust God, with which David
was, upon some unmentioned occasion, greatly exercised. It may be, that in the
days when he was in Saul's court, he was advised to flee at a time when this
flight would have been charged against him as a breach of duty to the king, or
a proof of personal cowardice. His case was like that of Nehemiah, when his
enemies, under the garb of friendship, hoped to entrap him by advising him to
escape for his life. Had he done so, they could then have found a ground of
accusation. Nehemiah bravely replied, "Shall such a man as I flee?"
and David, in a like spirit, refuses to retreat, exclaiming, "In the
Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your
mountain?" When Satan cannot overthrow us by presumption, how craftily
will he seek to ruin us by distrust! He will employ our dearest friends to
argue us out of our confidence, and he will use such plausible logic, that
unless we once for all assert our immovable trust in Jehovah, he will make us
like the timid bird which flies to the mountain whenever danger presents
itself.
Verse
2. How forcibly the case is put! The bow is bent, the arrow is fitted to the
string: "Flee, flee, thou defenceless bird, thy safety lies in flight;
begone, for thine enemies will send their shafts into thy heart; haste, haste,
for soon wilt thou be destroyed!" David seems to have felt the force of
the advice, for it came home to his soul; but yet he would not yield,
but would rather dare the danger than exhibit a distrust in the Lord his God.
Doubtless the perils which encompassed David were great and imminent; it was
quite true that his enemies were ready to shoot privily at him.
Verse
3. It was equally correct that the very foundations of law and justice
were destroyed under Saul's unrighteous government: but what were all
these things to the man whose trust was in God alone? He could brave the
dangers, could escape the enemies, and defy the injustice which surrounded him.
His answer to the question, "What can the righteous do?" would be the
counter-question, "What cannot they do?" When prayer engages God on
our side, and when faith secures the fulfillment of the promise, what cause can
there be for flight, however cruel and mighty our enemies? With a sling and a
stone, David had smitten a giant before whom the whole hosts of Israel were
trembling, and the Lord, who delivered him from the uncircumcised Philistine,
could surely deliver him from King Saul and his myrmidons. There is no such
word as "impossibility" in the language of faith; that martial grace
knows how to fight and conquer, but she knows not how to flee.
Verse
4. David here declares the great source of his unflinching courage. He borrows
his light from heaven—from the great central orb of deity. The God of the
believer is never far from him; he is not merely the God of the mountain
fastnesses, but of the dangerous valleys and battle plains.
"Jehovah
is in his holy temple." The heavens are above our heads in all regions
of the earth, and so is the Lord ever near to us in every state and condition.
This is a very strong reason why we should not adopt the vile suggestions of
distrust. There is one who pleads his precious blood in our behalf in the
temple above, and there is one upon the throne who is never deaf to the
intercession of his Son. Why, then, should we fear? What plots can men devise
which Jesus will not discover? Satan has doubtless desired to have us, that he
may sift us as wheat, but Jesus is in the temple praying for us, and how can
our faith fail? What attempts can the wicked make which Jehovah shall not
behold? And since he is in his holy temple, delighting in the sacrifice of his
Son, will he not defeat every device, and send us a sure deliverance?
"Jehovah's
throne is in the heavens;" he reigns supreme. Nothing can be done in
heaven, or earth, or hell, which he doth not ordain and over-rule. He is the
world's great Emperor. Wherefore, then, should we flee? If we trust this King
of kings, is not this enough? Cannot he deliver us without our cowardly
retreat? Yes, blessed be the Lord our God, we can salute him as Jehovah-nissi;
in his name we set up our banners, and instead of flight, we once more raise
the shout of war.
"His
eyes behold." The eternal Watcher never slumbers; his eyes never know
a sleep. "His eyelids try the children of men:" he narrowly inspects
their actions, words, and thoughts. As men, when intently and narrowly
inspecting some very minute object, almost close their eyelids to exclude every
other object, so will the Lord look all men through and through. God sees each
man as much and as perfectly as if there were no other creature in the
universe. He sees us always; he never removes his eye from us; he sees us
entirely, reading the recesses of the soul as readily as the glancings of the
eye. Is not this a sufficient ground of confidence, and an abundant answer to
the solicitations of despondency? My danger is not hid from him; he knows my
extremity, and I may rest assured that he will not suffer me to perish while I
rely alone on him. Wherefore, then, should I take wings of a timid bird, and
flee from the dangers which beset me?
Verse
5. "The Lord trieth the righteous:" he doth not hate them, but
only tries them. They are precious to him, and therefore he refines them with
afflictions. None of the Lord's children may hope to escape from trial, nor,
indeed, in our right minds, would any of us desire to do so, for trial is the
channel of many blessings.
"Tis my
happiness below
Not to live without the cross;
But the Saviour's power to know,
Sanctifying every loss.
* *
* * * * * *
Trials
make the promise sweet;
Trials give new life to prayer;
Trials bring me to his feet—
Lay me low, and keep me there.
Did
I meet no trials here—
No chastisement by the way—
Might I not, with reason, fear
I should prove a cast-away?
Bastards
may escape the rod,
Sunk in earthly vain delight;
But the true-born child of God
Must not—would not, if he might."
William
Cowper.
Is
not this a very cogent reason why we should not distrustfully endeavour to shun
a trial?—for in so doing we are seeking to avoid a blessing.
Verse
6. "But the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth:"
why, then, shall I flee from these wicked men? If God hateth them, I will not
fear them. Haman was very great in the palace until he lost favour, but when
the king abhorred him, how bold were the meanest attendants to suggest the
gallows for the man at whom they had often trembled! Look at the black mark
upon the faces of our persecutors, and we shall not run away from them. If God
is in the quarrel as well as ourselves, it would be foolish to question the
result, or avoid the conflict. Sodom and Gomorrah perished by a fiery hail, and
by a brimstone shower from heaven; so shall all the ungodly. They may gather
together like Gog and Magog to battle, but the Lord will rain upon them "an
overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone:" Ezekiel
38:22. Some expositors think that in the term "horrible tempest,"
there is in the Hebrew an allusion to that burning, suffocating wind, which
blows across the Arabian deserts, and is known by the name of Simoom. "A
burning storm," Lowth calls it, while another great commentator reads it
"wrathwind;" in either version the language is full of terrors. What
a tempest will that be which shall overwhelm the despisers of God! Oh! what a
shower will that be which shall pour out itself for ever upon the defenceless
heads of impenitent sinners in hell! Repent, ye rebels, or this fiery deluge
shall soon surround you. Hell's horrors shall be your inheritance, your
entailed estate, "the portion of your cup." The dregs of that cup you
shall wring out, and drink for ever. A drop of hell is terrible, but what must
a full cup of torment be? Think of it—a cup of misery, but not a drop of mercy.
O people of God, how foolish is it to fear the faces of men who shall soon be
faggots in the fire of hell! Think of their end, their fearful end, and all
fear of them must be changed into contempt of their threatenings, and pity for
their miserable estate.
Verse
7. The delightful contrast of the last verse is well worthy of our observation,
and it affords another overwhelming reason why we should be stedfast,
unmoveable, not carried away with fear, or led to adopt carnal expedients in
order to avoid trial. "For the righteous Lord loveth
righteousness." It is not only his office to defend it, but his nature
to love it. He would deny himself if he did not defend the just. It is
essential to the very being of God that he should be just; fear not, then, the
end of all your trials, but "be just, and fear not." God approves,
and, if men oppose, what matters it? "His countenance doth behold the
upright." We need never be out of countenance, for God countenances
us. He observes, he approves, he delights in the upright. He sees his own image
in them, an image of his own fashioning, and therefore with complacency he
regards them. Shall we dare to put forth our hand unto iniquity in order to
escape affliction? Let us have done with by-ways and short turnings, and let us
keep to that fair path of right along which Jehovah's smile shall light us. Are
we tempted to put our light under a bushel, to conceal our religion from our
neighbours? Is it suggested to us that there are ways of avoiding the cross,
and shunning the reproach of Christ? Let us not hearken to the voice of the
charmer, but seek an increase of faith, that we may wrestle with principalities
and powers, and follow the Lord, fully going without the camp, bearing his
reproach. Mammon, the flesh, the devil, will all whisper in our ear, "Flee
as a bird to your mountain;" but let us come forth and defy them all.
"Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." There is no room or
reason for retreat. Advance! Let the vanguard push on! To the front! all ye
powers and passions of our soul. On! on! in God's name, on! for "the Lord
of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge."
EXPLANATORY
NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Whole Psalm. The most
probable account of the occasion of this Psalm is that given by Amyraldus. He
thinks it was composed by David while he was in the court of Saul, at a time
when the hostility of the king was beginning to show itself, and before it had
broken out into open persecution. David's friends, or those professing to be
so, advised him to flee to his native mountains for a time, and remain in
retirement, till the king should show himself more favourable. David does not
at that time accept the counsel, though afterwards he seems to have followed
it. This Psalm applies itself to the establishment of the church against the
calumnies of the world and the compromising counsel of man, in that confidence
which is to be placed in God the Judge of all. W. Wilson, D.D., in loc.,
1860.
Whole
Psalm. If one may offer to make a modest conjecture, it is not
improbable this Psalm might be composed on the sad murder of the priests by
Saul (1 Samuel 22:19), when after the slaughter of Abimelech, the high priest,
Doeg, the Edomite, by command from Saul, "slew in one day fourscore and
five persons which wore a linen ephod." I am not so carnal as to build the
spiritual church of the Jews on the material walls of the priests' city at Nob
(which then by Doeg was smitten with the edge of the sword), but this is most
true, that "knowledge must preserve the people;" and (Malachi 2:7),
"The priests' lips shall preserve knowledge;" and then it is easy to
conclude, what an earthquake this massacre might make in the foundations of
religion. Thomas Fuller.
Whole
Psalm. Notice how remarkably the whole Psalm corresponds with the
deliverance of Lot from Sodom. This verse, with the angel's exhortation,
"Escape to the mountains, lest thou be consumed," and Lot's reply,
"I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil take me and I die."
Genesis 19:17-19. And again, "The Lord's seat is in heaven, and upon
the ungodly he shall rain snares, fire, brimstone, storm and tempest,"
with "Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire out
of heaven:" and again "His countenance will behold the thing that
is just," with "Delivered just Lot . . . for that righteous man
vexed his righteous soul with their ungodly deeds." 2 Peter 2: 7, 8. Cassidorus
(A.D., 560) in John Mason Neal's "Commentary on the Psalms, from
Primitive and Mediaeval Writers," 1860.
Whole
Psalm. The combatants at the Lake Thrasymene are said to have been so
engrossed with the conflict that neither party perceived the convulsions of
nature that shook the ground—
"An
earthquake reeled unheedingly away,
None felt stern nature rocking at his feet."
From
a nobler cause, it is thus with the soldiers of the Lamb. They believe, and,
therefore, make no haste; nay, they can scarcely be said to feel earth's
convulsions as other men, because their eager hope presses forward to the issue
at the advent of the Lord. Andrew A. Bonar.
Verse 1. "I
trust in the Lord: how do ye say to my soul, Swerve on to your mountain like a
bird?" (others, "O thou bird.") Saul and his
adherents mocked and jeered David with such taunting speeches, as conceiving
that he knew no other shift or refuge, but so betaking himself unto wandering
and lurking on the mountains; hopping, as it were, from one place to another
like a silly bird; but they thought to ensnare and take him well enough for all
that, not considering God who was David's comfort, rest and refuge. Theodore
Haak's "Translation of the Dutch Annotations, as ordered by the Synod of
Dort, in 1618." London, 1657.
Verse 1. "With
Jehovah I have taken shelter; how say ye to my soul, Flee, sparrows, to your
hill?" "Your hill," that hill from which you say your
help cometh: a sneer. Repair to that boasted hill, which may indeed give you
the help which it gives the sparrow: a shelter against the inclemencies of a
stormy sky, no defence against our power. Samuel Horsley, in loc.
Verse 1. "In
the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your
mountain?" The holy confidence of the saints in the hour of great
trial is beautifully illustrated by the following ballad which Anne Askew, who
was burned at Smithfield in 1546, made and sang when she was in Newgate:—
Like as the
armed knight,
Appointed to the field,
With this world will I fight,
And Christ shall be my shield.
Faith
is that weapon strong,
Which will not fail at need:
My foes, therefore, among,
Therewith will I proceed.
As
it is had in strength
And force of Christe's way,
It will prevail at length,
Though all the devils say nay.
Faith
in the fathers old
Obtained righteousness;
Which makes me very bold
To fear no world's distress.
I
now rejoice in heart,
And hope bids me do so;
For Christ will take my part,
And ease me of my woe.
Thou
say'st Lord, whoso knock,
To them wilt thou attend:
Undo therefore the lock,
And thy strong power send.
More
enemies now I have
Than hairs upon my head:
Let them not me deprave,
But fight thou in my stead.
On
thee my care I cast,
For all their cruel spite:
I set not by their haste;
For thou art my delight.
I
am not she that list
My anchor to let fall
For every drizzling mist,
My ship substantial.
Not
oft use I to write,
In prose, nor yet in rhyme;
Yet will I shew one sight
That I saw in my time.
I
saw a royal throne,
Where justice should have sit,
But in her stead was one
Of moody, cruel wit.
Absorbed
was righteousness,
As of the raging flood:
Satan, in his excess,
Sucked up the guiltless blood.
Then
thought I, Jesus Lord,
When thou shall judge us all,
Hard it is to record
On these men what will fall.
Yet,
Lord, I thee desire,
For that they do to me,
Let them not taste the hire
Of their iniquity.
Verse 1. "How
say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?" We may observe,
that David is much pleased with the metaphor in frequently comparing himself to
a bird, and that of several sorts: first, to an eagle (Psalm 103:5), "My
youth is renewed like the eagle's;" sometimes to an owl (Psalm 102:6),
"I am like an owl in the desert;" sometimes to a pelican, in the same
verse, "Like a pelican in the wilderness;" sometimes to a sparrow
(Psalm 102:7), "I watch, and am as a sparrow;" sometimes to a
partridge, "As when one doth hunt a partridge." I cannot say that he
doth compare himself to a dove, but he would compare himself (Psalm 55:6),
"O that I had the wings of a dove, for then I would flee away and be at
rest." Some will say, How is it possible that birds of so different a
feather should all so fly together as to meet in the character of David? To
whom we answer, That no two men can more differ one from another, that the same
servant of God at several times differeth from himself. David in prosperity,
when commanding, was like an eagle; in adversity, when contemned, like
an owl; in devotion, when retired, like a pelican; in
solitariness, when having no company, (of Saul), like a partridge.
This general metaphor of a bird, which David so often used on himself,
his enemies in the first verse of this Psalm used on him, though not
particularising the kind thereof: "Flee as a bird to your
mountain;" that is, speedily betake thyself to thy God, in whom thou
hopest for succour and security.
Seeing
this counsel was both good in itself, and good at this time, why doth David
seem so angry and displeased thereat? Those his words, "Why say you to
my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?" import some passion, at
leastwise, a disgust of the advice. It is answered, David was not offended with
the counsel, but with the manner of the propounding thereof. His enemies did it
ironically in a gibing, jeering way, as if his flying thither were to no
purpose, and he unlikely to find there the safety he sought for. However, David
was not hereby put out of conceit with the counsel, beginning this Psalm with
this his firm resolution, "In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye then
to my soul," etc. Learn we from hence, when men give us good counsel
in a jeering way, let us take the counsel, and practice it; and leave them the
jeer to be punished for it. Indeed, corporal cordials may be envenomed by being
wrapped up in poisoned papers; not so good spiritual advice where the good
matter receives no infection from the ill manner of the delivery thereof. Thus,
when the chief priests mocked our Saviour (Matthew 27:43), "He trusted in
God, let him deliver him now if he will have him." Christ trusted in God
never a whit the less for the fleere and flout which their profaneness was
pleased to bestow upon him. Otherwise, if men's mocks should make us to
undervalue good counsel, we might in this age be mocked out of our God, and
Christ, and Scripture, and heaven; the apostle Jude, verse 18, having foretold
that in the last times there should be mockers, walking after their own lusts. Thomas
Fuller.
Verse 1. It is as
great an offence to make a new, as to deny the true God. "In the Lord
put I my trust;" how then "say ye unto my soul" (ye
seducers of souls), "that she should fly unto the mountains as a
bird;" to seek unnecessary and foreign helps, as if the Lord alone
were not sufficient? "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and he that
delivereth me, my God, and my strength; in him will I trust: my shield, the
horn of my salvation, and my refuge. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy
to be praised, so shall I be safe from mine enemies." "Whom have I in
heaven but thee," amongst those thousands of angels and saints, what
Michael or Gabriel, what Moses or Samuel, what Peter, what Paul? "and
there is none in earth that I desire in comparison of thee." John King,
1608.
Verse 1. In
temptations of inward trouble and terror, it is not convenient to dispute the
matter with Satan. David in Psalm 42:11, seems to correct himself for his
mistake; his soul was cast down within him, and for the cure of that
temptation, he had prepared himself by arguments for a dispute; but perceiving
himself in a wrong course, he calls off his soul from disquiet to an immediate
application to God and the promises, "Trust still in God, for I shall yet
praise him;" but here he is more aforehand with his work; for while his
enemies were acted by Satan to discourage him, he rejects the temptation at
first, before it settled upon his thoughts, and chaseth it away as a thing that
he would not give ear to. "In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my
soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?" And there are weighty reasons
that should dissuade us from entering the lists with Satan in temptation of
inward trouble. Richard Gilpin.
Verse 1. The shadow
will not cool except in it. What good to have the shadow though of a mighty
rock, when we sit in the open sun? To have almighty power engaged for us, and
we to throw ourselves out of it, by bold sallies in the mouth of temptation!
The saints' falls have been when they have run out of their trench and
stronghold; for, like the conies, they are a weak people in themselves, and
their strength lies in the rock of God's almightiness, which is their
habitation. William Gurnall.
Verse 1. The saints
of old would not accept deliverances on base terms. They scorned to fly away
for the enjoyment of rest except it were with the wings of a dove, covered with
silver innocence. As willing were many of the martyrs to die as to dine. The
tormentors were tired in torturing Blandina. "We are ashamed, O Emperor!
The Christians laugh at your cruelty, and grow the more resolute," said
one of Julian's nobles. This the heathen counted obstinacy; but they knew not
the power of the Spirit, nor the secret armour of proof, which saints wear about
their hearts. John Trapp.
Verse 2. "For,
lo, the wicked bend their bow," etc. This verse presents an unequal
combat betwixt armed power, advantaged with policy, on the one side; and
naked innocence on the other. First, armed power: "They bend
their bows, and make ready their arrows," being all the artillery of
that age; secondly, advantaged with policy: "that they may privily
shoot," to surprise them with an ambush unawares, probably pretending
amity and friendship unto them; thirdly, naked innocence: if innocence
may be termed naked, which is its own armour; "at the upright in
heart." Thomas Fuller.
Verse 2. "For,
lo, the ungodly bend their bow, and make ready their arrows within the quiver:
that they may privily shoot at them which are true of heart." The
plottings of the chief priests and Pharisees that they might take Jesus by
subtlety and kill him. They bent their bow, when they hired Judas Iscariot for
the betrayal of his Master; they made ready their arrows within the quiver when
they sought "false witnesses against Jesus to put him to death."
Matthew 26:59. "Them which are true of heart." Not alone the
Lord himself, the only true and righteous, but his apostles, and the long line
of those who should faithfully cleave to him from that time to this. And as
with the Master, so with the servants: witness the calumnies and the revilings
that from the time of Joseph's accusation by his mistress till the present day,
have been the lot of God's people. Michael Ayguan, 1416, in J. M.
Neale's Commentary.
Verse 2. "That
they may secretly shoot at them which are upright in heart." They bear
not their bows and arrows as scarecrows in a garden of cucumbers, to fray, but to
shoot, not at stakes, but men; their arrows are jacula mortifera
(Psalm 7), deadly arrows, and lest they should fail to hit, they take advantage
of the dark, of privacy and secrecy; they shoot privily. Now this is the
covenant of hell itself. For what created power in the earth is able to
dissolve that work which cruelty and subtlety, like Simeon and
Levi, brothers in evil, are combined and confederate to bring to pass? Where
subtlety is ingenious, insidious to invent, cruelty barbarous to execute,
subtlety giveth counsel, cruelty giveth the stroke. Subtlety ordereth the time,
the place, the means, accomodateth, concinnateth circumstances; cruelty
undertaketh the act: subtlety hideth the knife, cruelty cutteth the throat:
subtlety with a cunning head layeth the ambush, plotteth the train, the
stratagem; and cruelty with as savage a heart, sticketh not at the
dreadfullest, direfullest objects, ready to wade up to the ankles, the neck, in
a whole red sea of human, yea, country blood: how fearful is their plight that
are thus assaulted! John King.
Verse 3. "If
the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" But now we
are met with a giant objection, which with Goliath must be removed, or else it
will obstruct our present proceedings. Is it possible that the foundations
of religion should be destroyed? Can God be in so long a sleep, yea, so long
a lethargy, as patiently to permit the ruins thereof? If he looks on, and yet
doth not see these foundations when destroyed, where then is his omnisciency?
If he seeth it, and cannot help it, where then is his omnipotency? If he
seeth it, can help it, and will not, where then is his goodness and mercy?
Martha said to Jesus (John 11:21), "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my
brother had not died." But many will say, Were God effectually present in
the world with his aforesaid attributes, surely the foundations had not died,
had not been destroyed. We answer negatively, that it is impossible that
the foundations of religion should ever be totally and finally
destroyed, either in relation to the church in general, or in reference to
every true and lively member thereof. For the first, we have an express promise
of Christ. Matthew 16:18. "The gates of hell shall not prevail against
it." Fundamenta tamen stant inconcussa Sionis. And as for every
particular Christian (2 Timothy 2:19), "Nevertheless, the foundation of
God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his."
However, though for the reasons aforementioned in the objections (the
inconsistency thereof with the attributes of God's omnipotency, omnisciency,
and goodness), the foundations can never totally and finally, yet may
they partially be destroyed, quoad gradum, in a fourfold degree, as
followeth. First, in the desires and utmost endeavours of wicked men,
They
bring their—
1. Hoc
velle,
2. Hoc agere,
3. Totum posse.
If
they destroy not the foundations, it is no thanks to them, seeing all
the world will bear them witness they have done their best (that is, their
worst), what their might and malice could perform. Secondly, in their
own vainglorious imaginations: they may not only vainly boast, but also
verily believe that they have destroyed the foundations. Applicable to
this purpose, is that high rant of the Roman emperor (Luke 2:1): "And it
came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus,
that all the world should be taxed." All the world! whereas he had, though
much, not all in Europe, little in Asia, less in Africa, none in America, which
was so far from being conquered, it was not so much as known to the Romans. But
hyperbole is not a figure, but the ordinary language of pride; because
indeed Augustus had very much he proclaimeth himself to have all the world. . .
. Thirdly, the foundations may be destroyed as to all outward visible
illustrious apparition. The church in persecution is like unto a ship in a
tempest; down go all their masts, yea, sometimes for the more speed they are
forced to cut them down: not a piece of canvas to play with the winds, no sails
to be seen; they lie close knotted to the very keel, that the tempest may have
the less power upon them, though when the storm is over, they can hoist up
their sails as high, and spread their canvas as broad as ever before. So the
church in the time of persecution feared, but especially felt,
loseth all gayness and gallantry which may attract and allure the eyes of
beholders, and contenteth itself with its own secrecy. In a word, on the
work-days of affliction she weareth her worst clothes, whilst her best are laid
up in her wardrobe, in sure and certain hope that God will give her a holy
and happy day, when with joy she shall wear her best garments. Lastly,
they may be destroyed in the jealous apprehensions of the best
saints and servants of God, especially in their melancholy fits. I will
instance in no puny, but in a star of the first magnitude and greatest
eminency, even Elijah himself complaining (1 Kings 19:10): "And I, even I
only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away." Thomas Fuller.
Verse 3. "If."
It is the only word of comfort in the text, that what is said is not positive,
but suppositive; not thetical, but hypothetical. And yet this comfort which
is but a spark (at which we would willingly kindle our hopes), is quickly
sadded with a double consideration. First, impossible suppositions produce
impossible consequences, "As is the mother, so is the daughter."
Therefore, surely God's Holy Spirit would not suppose such a thing but what was
feasible and possible, but what either had, did, or might come to pass.
Secondly, the Hebrew word is not the conditional im, si, si forte, but chi,
quia, quoniam, because, and (although here it be favourably rendered if),
seemeth to import, more therein, that the sad case had already happened in
David's days. I see, therefore, that this if, our only hope in the text,
is likely to prove with Job's friends, but a miserable comforter. Well, it is
good to know the worst of things, that we may provide ourselves accordingly;
and therefore let us behold this doleful case, not as doubtful, but as done;
not as feared, but felt; not as suspected, but at this time really come to
pass. Thomas Fuller.
Verse 3. "If
the foundations," etc. My text is an answer to a tacit objection which
some may raise; namely, that the righteous are wanting to themselves, and by
their own easiness and inactivity (not daring and doing so much as they might
and ought), betray themselves to that bad condition. In whose defence David
shows, that if God in his wise will and pleasure seeth it fitting, for reasons
best known to himself, to suffer religion to be reduced to terms of extremity,
it is not placed in the power of the best man alive to remedy and redress the
same. "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous
do?" My text is hung about with mourning, as for a funeral
sermon, and contains: First, a sad case supposed, "If the foundations
be destroyed." Secondly, a sad question propounded, "What can
the righteous do?" Thirdly, a sad answer implied, namely, that they
can do just nothing, as to that point of re-establishing the destroyed
foundation. Thomas Fuller.
Verse 3. "If
the foundations be destroyed," etc. The civil foundation of a nation
or people, is their laws and constitutions. The order and power that's among
them, that's the foundation of a people; and when once this foundation is
destroyed, "What can the righteous do?" What can the best, the
wisest in the world, do in such a case? What can any man do, if there be not a
foundation of government left among men? There is no help nor answer in such a
case but that which follows in the fourth verse of the Psalm, "The Lord
is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his
eyelids try, the children of men;" as if he had said, in the midst of
these confusions, when as it is said (Psalm 82:5), "All the foundations of
the earth are out of course;" yet God keeps his course still, he is where
he was and as he was, without variableness or shadow of turning. Joseph
Caryl.
Verse 3. "The
righteous." The righteous indefinitely, equivalent to the righteous
universally; not only the righteous as a single arrow, but in the whole sheaf;
not only the righteous in their personal, but in their diffusive capacity. Were
they all collected into one body, were all the righteous living in the same age
wherein the foundations are destroyed, summoned up and modelled into one
corporation, all their joint endeavours would prove ineffectual to the
re-establishing of the fallen foundations, as not being man's work, but
only God's work to perform. Thomas Fuller.
Verse 3. "The
foundations." Positions, the things formerly fixed, placed, and
settled. It is not said, if the roof be ruinous, or if the side walls be
shattered, but if the foundations.
Verse 3. "Foundations
be destroyed." In the plural. Here I will not warrant my skill in
architecture, but conceive this may pass for an undoubted truth: it is possible
that a building settled on several entire foundations (suppose them pillars)
close one to another, if one of them fall, yet the structure may still stand,
or rather hang (at the least for a short time) by virtue of the complicative,
which it receiveth from such foundations which still stand secure. But in case
there be a total rout, and an utter ruin of all the foundations,, none
can fancy to themselves a possibility of that building's subsistence. Thomas
Fuller.
Verse 3. "What
CAN the righteous?" The can of the righteous is a limited can,
confined to the rule of God's word; they can do nothing but what they can
lawfully do. 2 Corinthians 13:8. "For we can do nothing against the
truth, but for the truth:" Illud possumus, quod jure possumus.
Wicked men can do anything; their conscience, which is so wide that it is none
at all, will bear them out to act anything how unlawful soever, to stab,
poison, massacre, by any means, at any time, in any place, whosoever standeth
betwixt them and the effecting of their desires. Not so the righteous; they
have a rule whereby to walk, which they will not, they must not, they dare not,
cross. If therefore a righteous man were assured, that by the breach of one of
God's commandments he might restore decayed religion, and re-settle it statu
quo prius, his hands, head, and heart are tied up, he can do
nothing, because their damnation is just who say (Romans 3:8), "Let
us do evil that good may come thereof."
Verse 3. "Do."
It is not said, What can they think? It is a great blessing which God
hath allowed injured people, that though otherwise oppressed and straitened,
they may freely enlarge themselves in their thoughts. Thomas Fuller.
Verse 3. Sinning
times have ever been the saints' praying times: this sent Ezra with a heavy
heart to confess the sin of his people, and to bewail their abominations before
the Lord. Ezra 9. And Jeremiah tells the wicked of his degenerate age, that
"his soul should weep in secret places for their pride." Jeremiah 13:17.
Indeed, sometimes sin comes to such a height, that this is almost all the godly
can do, to get into a corner, and bewail the general pollutions of the age. "If
the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" Such dismal
days of national confusion our eyes have seen, when foundations of government
were destroyed, and all hurled into military confusion. When it is thus with a
people, "What can the righteous do?" Yes, this they may, and
should do, "fast and pray." There is yet a God in heaven to be sought
to, when a people's deliverance is thrown beyond the help of human policy or
power. Now is the fit time to make their appeal to God, as the words following
hint: "The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in
heaven;" in which words God is presented sitting in heaven as a
temple, for their encouragement, I conceive, in such a desperate state of
affairs, to direct their prayers thither for deliverance. And certainly this
hath been the engine that hath been instrumental, above any, to restore this
poor nation again, and set it upon the foundation of that lawful government
from which it had so dangerously departed. William Gurnall.
Verse 4. The
infinite understanding of God doth exactly know the sins of men; he knows so as
to consider. He doth not only know them, but intently behold them: "His
eyelids try the children of men," a metaphor taken from men, that
contract the eyelids when they would wistly and accurately behold a thing: it
is not a transient and careless look. Stephen Charnock.
Verse 4. "His
eyes behold," etc. God searcheth not as man searcheth, by enquiring
into that which before was hid from him; his searching is no more but his
beholding; he seeth the heart, he beholdeth the reins; God's very sight is
searching. Hebrews 4:13. "All things are naked, and opened unto his
eyes," tetrachlidmena, dissected or anatomised. He hath at once as
exact a view of the most hidden things, the very entrails of the soul, as if
they had been with never so great curiosity anatomised before him. Richard
Alleine, 1611-1681.
Verse 4. "His
eyes behold," etc. Consider that God not only sees into all you do,
but he sees it to that very end that he may examine and search into it. He doth
not only behold you with a common and indifferent look, but with a searching,
watchful, and inquisitive eye: he pries into the reasons, the motives, the ends
of all your actions. "The Lord's throne is in heaven: his eyes behold,
his eyelids try, the children of men." Revelation 1:14, where Christ
is described, it is said, his eyes are as a flame of fire: you know the
property of fire is to search and make trial of those things which are exposed
unto it, and to separate the dross from the pure metal: so, God's eye is like
fire, to try and examine the actions of men: he knows and discerns how much
your very purest duties have in them of mixture, and base ends of formality,
hypocrisy, distractedness, and deadness: he sees through all your specious
pretenses, that which you cast as a mist before the eyes of men when yet thou art
but a juggler in religion: all your tricks and sleights of outward profession,
all those things that you use to cozen and delude men withal, cannot possibly
impose upon him: he is a God that can look through all those fig-leaves of
outward profession, and discern the nakedness of your duties through them. Ezekiel
Hopkins, D.D.
Verse 4. "His
eyes behold," etc. Take God into thy counsel. Heaven overlooks hell.
God at any time can tell thee what plots are hatching there against thee. William
Gurnall.
Verse 4. "His
eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men." When an offender,
or one accused for any offence, is brought before a judge, and stands at the
bar to be arraigned, the judge looks upon him, eyes him, sets his eye upon him,
and he bids the offender look up in his face: "Look upon me," saith
the judge, "and speak up:" guiltiness usually clouds the forehead and
clothes the brow; the weight of guilt holds down the head! the evil doer
hath an ill look, or dares not look up; how glad is he if the judge looks
off him. We have such an expression here, speaking of the Lord, the great Judge
of heaven and earth: "His eyelids try the children of men," as
a judge tries a guilty person with his eye, and reads the characters of his
wickedness printed in his face. Hence we have a common speech in our language,
such a one looks suspiciously, or, he hath a guilty look. At that
great gaol-delivery described in Revelation 6:16, All the prisoners cry out to
be hid from the face of him that sat upon the throne. They could not look
upon Christ, and they could not endure Christ should look upon them; the
eyelids of Christ try the children of men. . . . Wickedness cannot endure to be
under the observation of any eye much less of the eye of justice. Hence the
actors of it say, "Who seeth us?" It is very hard not to show
the guilt of the heart in the face, and it is as hard to have it seen there. Joseph
Caryl.
Verse 5. "The
Lord trieth the righteous." Except our sins, there is not such plenty
of anything in all the world as there is of troubles which come from sin, as
one heavy messenger came to Job after another. Since we are not in paradise,
but in the wilderness, we must look for one trouble after another. As a bear
came to David after a lion, and a giant after a bear, and a king after a giant,
and Philistines after a king, so, when believers have fought with poverty. they
shall fight with envy; when they have fought with envy, they shall fight with
infamy; when the have fought with infamy, they shall fight with sickness; they
shall be like a labourer who is never out of work. Henry Smith.
Verse 5. "The
Lord trieth the righteous." Times of affliction and persecution will
distinguish the precious from the vile, it will difference the counterfeit
professor from the true. Persecution is a Christian's touchstone, it is a lapis
lydius that will try what metal men are made of, whether they be silver or
tin, gold or dross, wheat or chaff, shadow or substance, carnal or spiritual,
sincere or hypocritical. Nothing speaks out more soundness and uprightness than
a pursuing after holiness, even then when holiness is most afflicted, pursued,
and persecuted in the world: to stand fast in fiery trials argues much
integrity within. Thomas Brooks.
Verse 5. Note the
singular opposition of the two sentences. God hates the wicked, and therefore
in contrast he loves the righteous; but it is here said that he tries them:
therefore it follows that to try and to love are with God the same thing. C.
H. S.
Verse 6. "Upon
the wicked he shall rain snares." Snares to hold them; then if they be
not delivered, follow fire and brimstone, and they cannot escape. This is the
case of a sinner if he repent not; if God pardon not, he is in the snare of
Satan's temptation, he is in the snare of divine vengeance; let him therefore
cry aloud for his deliverance, that he may have his feet in a large room. The
wicked lay snares for the righteous, but God either preventeth them that their
souls ever escape them, or else he subverteth them: "The snares are broken
and we are delivered." No snares hold us so fast as those of our own sins;
they keep down our heads, and stoop us that we cannot look up: a very little
ease they are to him that hath not a seared conscience. Samuel Page,
1646.
Verse 6. "He
shall rain snares." As in hunting with the lasso, the huntsman casts a
snare from above upon his prey to entangle its head or feet, so shall the Lord
from above with many twistings of the line of terror, surround, bind, and take
captive the haters of his law. C. H. S.
Verse 6. "He
shall rain snares," etc. He shall rain upon them when they least think
of it, even in the midst of their jollity, as rain falls on a fair day. Or, he
shall rain down the vengeance when he sees good, for it rains not always.
Though he defers it, yet it will rain. William Nicholson, Bishop of
Gloucester, in "David's Harp Strung and Tuned," 1662.
Verse 6. "Upon
the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible
tempest." The strange dispensation of affairs in this world is an
argument which doth convincingly prove that there shall be such a day wherein
all the involucra and entanglements of providence shall be clearly
unfolded. Then shall the riddle be dissolved, why God hath given this and that
profane wretch so much wealth, and so much power to do mischief: is it not that
they might be destroyed for ever? Then shall they be called to a strict
account for all that plenty and prosperity for which they are now envied; and
the more they have abused, the more dreadful will their condemnation be. Then
it will be seen that God gave them not as mercies, but as "snares."
It is said that God "will rain on the wicked snares, fire and
brimstone, and an horrible tempest:" when he scatters abroad the
desirable things of this world, riches, honours, pleasures, etc., then he rains
"snares" upon them; and when he shall call them to an account
for these things, then he will rain upon them "fire and brimstone, and
an horrible tempest" of his wrath and fury. Dives, who caroused on
earth, yet, in hell could not obtain so much as one poor drop of water to cool
his scorched and flaming tongue: had not his excess and intemperance been so
great in his life, his fiery thirst had not been so tormenting after death; and
therefore, in that sad item that Abraham gives him (Luke 16:25), he bids him "remember
that thou, in thy lifetime, receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus
evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented." I look
upon this as a most bitter and a most deserved sarcasm; upbraiding him for his
gross folly, in making the trifles of this life his good things. Thou hast
received thy good things, but now thou art tormented. Oh, never call Dive's
purple and delicious fare good things, if they thus end in torments! Was
it good for him to be wrapped in purple who is now wrapped in flames? Was it
good for him to fare deliciously who was only thereby fatted up against the day
of slaughter? Ezekiel Hopkins.
Verse 6. "Snares,
fire and brimstone, storm and tempest: this shall be the portion of their
cup." After the judgment follows the condemnation: pre-figured as we
have seen, by the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah. "Snares:"
because the allurements of Satan in this life will be their worst punishments
in the next; the fire of anger, the brimstone of impurity, the tempest of
pride, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. "This
shall be their portion;" compare it with the psalmist's own saying,
"The Lord himself is the portion of my inheritance and my cup." Psalm
16:5. Cassidorus, in J. M. Neale's Commentary.
Verse 6. "The
portion of their cup." Hebrew, the allotment of their cup. The
expression has reference to the custom of distributing to each guest his mess
of meat. William French and George Skinner, 1842.
Verse 7. That God
may give grace without glory is intelligible; but to admit a man to communion
with him in glory without grace, is not intelligible. It is not agreeable to
God's holiness to make any inhabitant of heaven, and converse freely with him
in a way of intimate love, without such a qualification of grace: "The
righteous Lord loveth righteousness;" his countenance doth behold the
upright;" he looks upon him with a smiling eye, and therefore he
cannot favourably look upon an unrighteous person; so that this necessity is
not founded only in the command of God that we should be renewed, but in the
very nature of the thing, because God, in regard to his holiness, cannot
converse with an impure creature. God must change his nature, or the sinner's
nature must be changed. There can be no friendly communion between two of
different natures without the change of one of them into the likeness of the
other. Wolves and sheep, darkness and light, can never agree. God cannot love a
sinner as a sinner, because he hates impurity by a necessity of nature as well
as a choice of will. It is as impossible for him to love it as to cease to be
holy. Stephen Charnock.
HINTS TO THE
VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1. Faith's
bold avowal, and brave refusal.
Verse 1. Teacheth us
to trust in God, how great soever our dangers be; also that we shall be many
times assaulted to make us put far from us this trust, but yet that we must
cleave unto it, as the anchor of our souls, sure and steadfast. Thomas
Wilcocks.
Verse 1. The advice
of cowardice, and the jeer of insolence, both answered by faith. Lesson—Attempt
no other answer.
Verse 2. The
craftiness of our spiritual enemies.
Verse 3. This may
furnish a double discourse.
I.
If God's oath and promise could remove, what could we do? Here the
answer is easy.
II.
If all earthly things fail, and the very State fall to pieces, what can we
do? We can suffer joyfully, hope cheerfully, wait patiently, pray earnestly,
believe confidently, and triumph finally.
Verse 3. Necessity
of holding and preaching foundation truths.
Verse 4. The
elevation, mystery, supremacy, purity, everlastingness, invisibility, etc., of
the throne of God.
Verses 4, 5. In these
verses mark the fact that the children of men, as well as the righteous, are
tried; work out the contrast between the two trials in their designs and
results, etc.
Verse 5. "The
Lord trieth the righteous."
I.
Who are tried?
II.
What in them is tried?—Faith, love, etc.
III.
In what manner?—Trials of every sort.
IV.
How long?
V.
For what purpose?
Verse 5. "His
soul hateth." The thoroughness of God's hatred of sin. Illustrate by
providential judgments, threatenings, sufferings of the Surety, and the terrors
of hell.
Verse 5. The trying
of the gold, and the sweeping out of the refuse.
Verse 6. "He
shall rain." Gracious rain and destroying rain.
Verse 6. The portion
of the impenitent.
Verse 7. The Lord
possesses righteousness as a personal attribute, loves it in the abstract, and
blesses those who practise it.
── C.H. Spurgeon《The Treasury of David》