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Psalm Twelve
Psalm 12
Chapter Contents
The psalmist begs help of God, because there were none
among men whom he durst trust.
This psalm furnishes good thoughts for bad times; a man
may comfort himself with such meditations and prayers. Let us see what makes
the times bad, and when they may be said to be so. Ask the children of this
world, What makes the times bad? they will tell you, Scarcity of money, decay
of trade, and the desolations of war, make the times bad: but the Scripture
lays the badness of the times on causes of another nature, 2 Timothy 3:1, & c.: perilous times shall
come, for sin shall abound; and of this David complains. When piety decays
times really are bad. He who made man's mouth will call him to an account for
his proud, profane, dissembling, or even useless words. When the poor and needy
are oppressed, then the times are very bad. God himself takes notice of the
oppression of the poor, and the sighing of the needy. When wickedness abounds,
and is countenanced by those in authority, then the times are very bad. See with
what good things we are here furnished for such bad times; and we cannot tell
what times we may be reserved for. 1. We have a God to go to, from whom we may
ask and expect the redress of all our grievances. 2. God will certainly punish
and restrain false and proud men. 3. God will work deliverance for his
oppressed people. His help is given in the fittest time. Though men are false,
God is faithful; though they are not to be trusted, God is. The preciousness of
God's word is compared to silver refined to the highest degree. How many proofs
have been given of its power and truth! God will secure his chosen remnant,
however bad the times are. As long as the world stands, there will be a
generation of proud and wicked men. But all God's people are put into the hands
of Christ our Saviour; there they are in safety, for none can pluck them
thence; being built on Him, the Rock, they are safe, notwithstanding temptation
or persecution come with ever so much force upon them.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Psalms》
Psalm 12
Verse 4
[4] Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips
are our own: who is lord over us?
Prevail — By raising and spreading evil reports concerning him.
Our own — At our own disposal to speak what we please, who can
control or restrain us?
Verse 5
[5] For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the
needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that
puffeth at him.
Puffeth — From him that despises him, and hopes to destroy him
with a puff of breath.
Verse 6
[6] The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in
a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
Pure — Without the least mixture of falsehood; and therefore
shall infallibly be fulfilled.
Verse 7
[7] Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them
from this generation for ever.
Thou shalt keep them — Thy words or
promises: these thou wilt observe and keep, both now, and from this generation
for ever.
Verse 8
[8] The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are
exalted.
Walk — They fill all places, and go about boldly and
securely.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Psalms》
Psalm 12
Exposition
Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings
Hints to the Village Preacher
Other Work
TITLE. This
Psalm is headed "To the Chief Musician upon Sheminith, a Psalm of
David," which title is identical with that of the sixth Psalm, except
that Neginoth is here omitted. We have nothing new to add, and therefore refer
the reader to our remarks on the dedication of Psalm VI. As Sheminith signifies
the eighth, the Arabic version says it is concerning the end of the world,
which shall be the eighth day, and refers it to the coming of the Messiah:
without accepting so fanciful an interpretation, we may read this song of
complaining faith in the light of His coming who shall break in pieces the
oppressor. The subject will be the better before the mind's eye if we entitle
this Psalm: "GOOD THOUGHTS IN BAD TIMES." It is supposed to
have been written while Saul was persecuting David, and those who favoured his
cause.
DIVISION.
In the first and second verses David spreads his plaint before the Lord
concerning the treachery of his age; verses 3 and 4 denounce judgments upon
proud traitors; in verse 5, Jehovah himself thunders out his wrath against
oppressors; hearing this, the Chief Musician sings sweetly of the faithfulness
of God and his care of his people, in verses 6 and 7; but closes on the old key
of lament in verse 8, as he observes the abounding wickedness of his times.
Those holy souls who dwell in Mesech, and sojourn in the tents of Kedar, may
read and sing these sacred stanzas with hearts in full accord with their
mingled melody of lowly mourning and lofty confidence.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. "Help,
Lord." A short but sweet, suggestive, seasonable, and serviceable
prayer; a kind of angel's sword, to be turned every way, and to be used on all
occasions. Ainsworth says the word rendered "help," is largely used
for all manner of saving, helping, delivering, preserving, etc. Thus it seems
that the prayer is very full and instructive. The Psalmist sees the extreme
danger of his position, for a man had better be among lions than among liars;
he feels his own inability to deal with such sons of Belial, for "he who
shall touch them must be fenced with iron;" he therefore turns himself to his
all-sufficient Helper, the Lord, whose help is never denied to his servants,
and whose aid is enough for all their needs. "Help, Lord," is
a very useful ejaculation which we may dart up to heaven on occasions of
emergency, whether in labour, learning, suffering, fighting, living, or dying.
As small ships can sail into harbours which larger vessels, drawing more water,
cannot enter, so our brief cries and short petitions may trade with heaven when
our soul is wind-bound, and business-bound, as to longer exercises of devotion,
and when the stream of grace seems at too low an ebb to float a more laborious
supplication. "For the godly man ceaseth;" the death,
departure, or decline of godly men should be a trumpet-call for more prayer.
They say that fish smell first at the head, and when godly men decay, the whole
commonwealth will soon go rotten. We must not, however, be rash in our judgment
on this point, for Elijah erred in counting himself the only servant of God
alive, when there were thousands whom the Lord held in reserve. The present
times always appear to be peculiarly dangerous, because they are nearest to our
anxious gaze, and whatever evils are rife are sure to be observed, while the
faults of past ages are further off, and are more easily overlooked. Yet we expect
that in the latter days, "because iniquity shall abound, the love of many
shall wax cold," and then we must the more thoroughly turn from man, and
address ourselves to the Churches' Lord, by whose help the gates of hell shall
be kept from prevailing against us. "The faithful fail from among the
children of men;" when godliness goes, faithfulness inevitably
follows; without fear of God, men have no love of truth. Common honesty is no
longer common, when common irreligion leads to universal godlessness. David had
his eye on Doeg, and the men of Ziph and Keilah, and perhaps remembered the
murdered priests of Nob, and the many banished ones who consorted with him in
the cave of Adullam, and wondered where the state would drift without the
anchors of its godly and faithful men. David, amid the general misrule, did not
betake himself to seditious plottings, but to solemn petitionings; nor did he
join with the multitude to do evil, but took up the arms of prayer to withstand
their attacks upon virtue.
Verse 2. "They
speak vanity every one with his neighbour." They utter that which is
vain to hear, because of its frivolous, foolish, want of worth; vain to believe,
because it was false and lying; vain to trust to, since it was deceitful
and flattering; vain to regard, for it lifted up the hearer, filling him
with proud conceit of himself. It is a sad thing when it is the fashion to talk
vanity. "Ca'me, and I'll ca'thee." is the old Scotch proverb; give me
a high sounding character, and I will give you one. Compliments and fawning
congratulations are hateful to honest men; they know that if they take they
must give them, and they scorn to do either. These accommodation-bills are most
admired by those who are bankrupt in character. Bad are the times when every
man thus cajoles and cozens his neighbour. "With flattering lips and
with a double heart do they speak." He who puffs up another's heart,
has nothing better than wind in his own. If a man extols me to my face, he only
shows me one side of his heart, and the other is black with contempt for me, or
foul with intent to cheat me. Flattery is the sign of the tavern where
duplicity is the host. The Chinese consider a man of two hearts to be a very
base man, and we shall be safe in reckoning all flatteries to be such.
Verses 3, 4. Total
destruction shall overwhelm the lovers of flattery and pride, but meanwhile how
they hector and fume! Well did the apostle call them "raging waves of the
sea, foaming out their own shame." Free-thinkers are generally very
free-talkers, and they are never more at ease than when railing at God's
dominion, and arrogating to themselves unbounded license. Strange is it that
the easy yoke of the Lord should so gall the shoulders of the proud, while the
iron bands of Satan they bind about themselves as chains of honour: they
boastfully cry unto God, "Who is lord over us?" and hear not the
hollow voice of the evil one, who cries from the infernal lake, "I am your
lord, and right faithfully do ye serve me." Alas, poor fools, their pride
and glory shall be cut off like a fading flower! May God grant that our soul
may not be gathered with them. It is worthy of observation that flattering
lips, and tongues speaking proud things, are classed together: the fitness of
this is clear, for they are guilty of the same vice, the first flatters
another, and the second flatters himself, in both cases a lie is in their right
hands. One generally imagines that flatterers are such mean parasites, so
cringing and fawning, that they cannot be proud; but the wise man will tell you
that while all pride is truly meanness, there is in the very lowest meanness no
small degree of pride. Caesar's horse is even more proud of carrying Caesar,
than Caesar is of riding him. The mat on which the emperor wiped his shoes,
boasts vaingloriously, crying out, "I cleaned the imperial boots."
None are so detestably domineering as the little creatures who creep into
office by cringing to the great; those are bad times, indeed, in which these
obnoxious beings are numerous and powerful. No wonder that the justice of God
in cutting off such injurious persons is matter for a psalm, for both earth and
heaven are weary of such provoking offenders, whose presence is a very plague
to the people afflicted thereby. Men cannot tame the tongues of such boastful
flatterers; but the Lord's remedy if sharp is sure, and is an unanswerable
answer to their swelling words of vanity.
Verse
5. In due season the Lord will hear his elect ones, who cry day and night unto
him, and though he bear long with their oppressors, yet will he avenge them
speedily. Observe that the mere oppression of saints, however silently they
bear it, is in itself a cry to God: Moses was heard at the Red Sea, though he
said nothing; and Hagar's affliction was heard despite her silence. Jesus feels
with his people, and their smarts are mighty orators with him. By-and-by,
however, they begin to sigh and express their misery, and then relief
comes post-haste. Nothing moves a father like the cries of his children; he
bestirs himself, wakes up his manhood, overthrows the enemy, and sets his
beloved in safety. A puff is too much for the child to bear, and the foe
is so haughty, that he laughs the little one to scorn; but the Father comes,
and then it is the child's turn to laugh, when he is set above the rage of his
tormentor. What virtue is there in a poor man's sighs, that they should move
the Almighty God to arise from his throne. The needy did not dare to speak, and
could only sigh in secret, but the Lord heard, and could rest no longer, but girded
on his sword for the battle. It is a fair day when our soul brings God into her
quarrel, for when his bare arm is seen, Philistia shall rue the day. The
darkest hours of the Church's night are those which precede the break of day.
Man's extremity is God's opportunity. Jesus will come to deliver just when his
needy ones shall sigh, as if all hope had gone for ever. O Lord, set thy now
near at hand, and rise up speedily to our help. Should the afflicted reader be
able to lay hold upon the promise of this verse, let him gratefully fetch a
fulness of comfort from it. Gurnall says, "As one may draw out the wine of
a whole hogshead at one tap, so may a poor soul derive the comfort of the whole
covenant to himself through one promise, if he be able to apply it." He
who promises to set us in safety, means thereby preservation on earth, and
eternal salvation in heaven.
Verse
6. What a contrast between the vain words of man, and the pure words of
Jehovah. Man's words are yea and nay, but the Lord's promises are yea and amen.
For truth, certainty, holiness, faithfulness, the words of the Lord are pure as
well-refined silver. In the original there is an allusion to the most
severely-purifying process known to the ancients, through which silver was
passed when the greatest possible purity was desired; the dross was all
consumed, and only the bright and precious metal remained; so clear and free
from all alloy of error or unfaithfulness is the book of the words of the Lord.
The Bible has passed through the furnace of persecution, literary criticism,
philosophic doubt, and scientific discovery, and has lost nothing but those
human interpretations which clung to it as alloy to precious ore. The
experience of saints has tried it in every conceivable manner, but not a single
doctrine or promise has been consumed in the most excessive heat. What God's
words are, the words of his children should be. If we would be Godlike in
conversation, we must watch our language, and maintain the strictest purity of
integrity and holiness in all our communications.
Verse
7. To fall into the hands of an evil generation, so as to be baited by their
cruelty, or polluted by their influence, is an evil to be dreaded beyond
measure; but it is an evil foreseen and provided for in the text. In life many
a saint has lived a hundred years before his age, as though he had darted his
soul into the brighter future, and escaped the mists of the beclouded present:
he has gone to his grave unreverenced and misunderstood, and lo! as generations
come and go, upon a sudden the hero is unearthed, and lives in the admiration
and love of the excellent of the earth; preserved for ever from the generation
which stigmatised him as a sower of sedition, or burned him as a heretic. It
should be our daily prayer that we may rise above our age as the mountain-tops
above the clouds, and may stand out as heaven-pointing pinnacle high above the
mists of ignorance and sin which roll around us. O Eternal Spirit, fulfil in us
the faithful saying of this verse! Our faith believes those two assuring words,
and cries, "Thou shalt," "thou shalt."
Verse
8. Here we return to the fount of bitterness, which first made the psalmist run
to the wells of salvation, namely, the prevalence of wickedness. When those in
power are vile, their underlings will be no better. As a warm sun brings out
noxious flies, so does a sinner in honour foster vice everywhere. Our turf
would not so swarm with abominables if those who are styled honourables did not
give their countenance to the craft. Would to God that the glory and triumph of
our Lord Jesus would encourage us to walk and work on every side; as like acts
upon like, since an exalted sinner encourages sinners, our exalted Redeemer
must surely excite, cheer, and stimulate his saints. Nerved by a sight of his
reigning power we shall meet the evils of the times in the spirit of holy
resolution, and shall the more hopefully pray, "Help, Lord."
EXPLANATORY
NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Verse 1. "Help,
Lord." 'Twas high time to call to heaven for help, when Saul cried,
"Go, kill me up the priests of Jehovah" (the occasion as it is
thought of making this Psalm), and therein committed the sin against the Holy
Ghost, as some grave divines are of opinion. 1 Samuel 22:17. David, after many
sad thoughts about that slaughter, and the occasion of it, Doeg's malicious
information, together with the paucity of his fast friends, and the multitude
of his sworn enemies at court, breaks forth abruptly into these words, "Help,
Lord," help at a dead lift. The Arabic version hath it, Deliver me
by main force, as with weapons of war, for "the Lord is a man of
war." Exodus 15:3. John Trapp.
Verse 1. "The
faithful." "A faithful man," as a parent, a reprover,
an adviser, one "without guile," "who can find?"
Proverbs 20:6. Look close. View thyself in the glass of the word. Does thy
neighbour or thy friend, find thee faithful to him? What does our daily
intercourse witness? Is not the attempt to speak what is agreeable oft made at
the expense of truth? Are not professions of regard sometimes utterly
inconsistent with our real feelings? In common life, where gross violations are
restrained, a thousand petty offences are allowed, that break down the wall
between sin and duty, and, judged by the divine standard, are indeed guilty steps
upon forbidden ground. Charles Bridges, 1850.
Verse 1. A "faithful"
man must be, first of all, faithful to himself; then, he must be faithful to
God; and then, he must be faithful to others, particularly the church of God.
And this, as it regards ministers, is of peculiar importance. Joseph Irons,
1840.
Verse 1. Even as a
careful mother, seeing her child in the way when a company of unruly horses run
through the streets in full career, presently whips up her child in her arms
and taketh him home; or as the hen, seeing the ravenous kite over her head,
clucks and gathers her chickens under her wings; even so when God hath a
purpose to bring a heavy calamity upon a land, it hath been usual with him to
call and cull out to himself such as are his dearly beloved. He takes his
choice servants from the evil to come. Thus was Augustine removed a little
before Hippo (wherein he dwelt) was taken; Paroeus died before Heidelburg was
sacked; and Luther was taken off before Germany was overrun with war and
bloodshed. Ed. Dunsterville in a Sermon at the Funeral of Sir Sim. Harcourt,
1642.
Verse 1. "Help,
Lord; for the godly man ceaseth," etc.:—
Back, then,
complainer, loathe thy life no more,
Nor deem thyself upon a desert shore,
Because the rocks the nearer prospect close.
Yet in fallen Israel are there hearts and eyes,
That day by day in prayer like thine arise;
Thou knowest them not, but their Creator known.
Go, to the world return, nor fear to cast
Thy bread upon the waters, sure at last
In joy to find it after many days.
John
Keble, 1792-1866.
Verses 1, 2, 4.
Consider our markets, our fairs, our private contracts and bargains, our shops,
our cellars, our weights, our measures, our promises, our protestations, our
politic tricks and villainous Machiavelism, our enhancing of the prices of all
commodities, and tell, whether the twelfth Psalm may not as fitly be applied to
our times as to the days of the man of God; in which the feigning, and lying,
and facing, and guile, and subtlety of men provoked the psalmist to cry out, "Help,
Lord; for there is not a godly man left: for the faithful are failed from among
the children of men: they speak deceitfully every one with his neighbour,
flattering with their lips, and speak with a double heart, which have said,
With our tongue we will prevail; our lips are our own: who is Lord over
us?" R. Wolcombe, 1612.
Verse 2. "They
speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a
double heart do they speak." The feigned zeal is just like a waterman,
that looks one way and rows another way; for this man pretends one thing
and intends another thing; as Jehu pretended the zeal of God's glory,
but his aim was at his master's kingdom; and his zeal to God's service was but
to bring him to the sceptre of the kingdom. So Demetrius professed great love
unto Diana, but his drift was to maintain the honour of his profession; and so
we have too many that make great show of holiness, and yet their hearts aim at
other ends; but they may be sure, though they can deceive the world and destroy
themselves, yet not God, who knoweth the secrets of all hearts. Gr.
Williams, 1636.
Verse 2. "They
speak vanity."—
Faithless is
earth, and faithless are the skies!
Justice is fled, and truth is now no more!
Virgil's
Æneid, IV. 373.
Verse 2. "With
a double heart." Man is nothing but insincerity, falsehood, and
hypocrisy, both in regard to himself and in regard to others. He does not wish
that he should be told the truth, he shuns saying it to others; and all these
moods, so inconsistent with justice and reason, have their roots in his heart. Blaise
Pascal.
Verse 2. "With
flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak." There is no
such stuff to make a cloak of as religion; nothing so fashionable, nothing so
profitable: it is a livery wherein a wise man may serve two masters, God and
the world, and make a gainful service by either. I serve both, and in both
myself, by prevaricating with both. Before man none serves his God with more
devotion; for which, among the best of men, I work my own ends, and serve
myself. In private, I serve the world; not with so strict devotion, but with
more delight; where fulfilling of her servants' lusts, I work my end and serve
myself. The house of prayer who more frequents than I? In all Christian duties
who more forward than I? I fast with those who fast, that I may eat with those
that eat. I mourn with those that mourn. No hand more open to the cause than
mine, and in their families none prays longer and with louder zeal. Thus when
the opinion of a holy life hath cried the goodness of my conscience up, my
trade can lack no custom, my wares can want no price, my words can need no
credit, my actions can lack no praise. If I am covetous, it is interpreted
providence; if miserable, it is counted temperance; if melancholy, it is
construed godly sorrow; if merry, it is voted spiritual joy; if I be rich, it
is thought the blessing of a godly life; if poor, supposed the fruit of
conscionable dealing; if I be well spoken of, it is the merit of holy
conversation; if ill, it is the malice of malignants. Thus I sail with every
wind, and have my end in all conditions. This cloak in summer keeps me cool, in
winter warm, and hides the nasty bag of all my secret lusts. Under this cloak I
walk in public fairly with applause, and in private sin securely without
offence, and officiate wisely without discovery. I compass sea and land to make
a proselyte; and no sooner made, but he makes me. At a fast I cry Geneva, and
at a feast I cry Rome. If I be poor, I counterfeit abundance to save my credit;
if rich, I dissemble poverty to save charges. I most frequent schismatical
lectures, which I find most profitable; from thence learning to divulge and
maintain new doctrines; they maintain me in suppers thrice a week. I use the
help of a lie sometimes, as a new stratagem to uphold the gospel; and I colour
oppression with God's judgments executed upon the wicked. Charity I hold an
extraordinary duty, therefore not ordinarily to be performed. What I openly
reprove abroad, for my own profit, that I secretly act at home, for my own
pleasure. But stay, I see a handwriting in my heart which damps my soul. It is
charactered in these sad words, "Woe be to you, hypocrites." Matthew
23:13. Francis Quarle's "Hypocrite's Soliloquy."
Verse 2. "With
flattering lips," etc. The world indeed says that society could not
exist if there were perfect truthfulness and candour between man and man; and
that the world's propriety would be as much disturbed if every man said what he
pleased, as it was in those days of Israelitish history, when every man did
that which was right in his own eyes. The world is assuredly the best judge of
its own condition and mode of government, and therefore I will not say what a
libel does such a remark contain, but oh, what a picture does it present of the
social edifice, that its walls can be cemented and kept together only by
flattery and falsehood! Barton Bouchier.
Verse 2. "Flattering
lips." The philosopher Bion being asked what animal he though the most
hurtful, replied, "That of wild creatures a tyrant, and of tame ones a
flatterer." The flatterer is the most dangerous enemy we can have.
Raleigh, himself a courtier, and therefore initiated into the whole art of
flattery, who discovered in his own career and fate its dangerous and deceptive
power, its deep artifice and deeper falsehood, says, "A flatterer is said
to be a beast that biteth smiling. But it is hard to know them from
friends—they are so obsequious and full of protestations: for as a wolf
resembles a dog, so doth a flatterer a friend." The Book of Symbols,
1844.
Verse 2. "They
speak with a double heart." The original is, "A heart and a
heart:" one for the church, another for the change; one for Sundays,
another for working-days; one for the king, another for the pope. A man without
a heart is a wonder, but a man with two hearts is a monster. It is said of
Judas, "There were many hearts in one man;" and we read of the
saints, "There was one heart in many men." Acts 4:32. Dabo illis
cor unum; a special blessing. Thomas Adams.
Verse 2. When men
cease to be faithful to their God, he who expects to find them so to each
other, will be much disappointed. The primitive sincerity will accompany the
primitive piety in her flight from the earth; and then interest will succeed
conscience in the regulation of human conduct, till one man cannot trust
another farther than he holds him by that tie. Hence, by the way, it is, that
though many are infidels themselves, yet few choose to have their families and
dependents such; as judging, and rightly judging, that true Christians are the
only persons to be depended on for the exact discharge of social duties. George
Horne.
Verse 3. "The
Lord shall cut off all flattering lips," etc. They who take pleasure
in deceiving others, will at the last find themselves most of all deceived,
when the Sun of truth, by the brightness of his rising, shall at once detect
and consume hypocrisy. George Horne.
Verse 3. "Cut
off lips and tongues." May there not be here an allusion to those
terrible but suggestive punishments which Oriental monarchs were wont to
execute on criminals? Lips were cut off and tongues torn out when offenders
were convicted of lying or treason. So terrible and infinitely more so are the
punishments of sin. C. H. S.
Verses 3, 4. It need
not now seem strange to tell you that the Lord is the owner of our bodies, that
he has so much propriety therein that they are more his than ours. The apostle
tells us as much. 1 Corinthians 6:20. "Glorify God in your bodies which
are his." Our bodies, and every member thereof, are his; for if the whole
be so, no part is exempted. And therefore they speak proud things, and
presumptuously usurped the propriety of God, who said, "Our lips are
our own;" as though their lips had not been his who is Lord and Owner
of all, but they had been lords thereof, and might have used them as they list.
This provoked God to show what right he had to dispose of such lips and
tongues, by cutting them off. David Clarkson.
Verse 4. "Who
have said, With our tongues will we prevail; who is Lord over us?" So
it was: twelve poor and unlearned men on the one side, all the eloquence of
Greece and Rome arrayed on the other. From the time of Tertullus to that of
Julian the apostate, every species of oratory, learning, wit, was lavished
against the church of God; and the result, like the well-known story of that
dispute between the Christian peasant and the heathen philosopher, when the
latter, having challenged the assembled fathers of a synod to silence him, was
put to shame by the simple faith of the former "In the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, I command thee to be dumb." "Who is lord over
us?" "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel
go?" Exodus 5:2. "What is the Almighty, that we should serve
him?" Job 21:15. "Who is that God that shall deliver you?"
Daniel 3:15. Michael Ayguan, in J. M. Neale's Commentary.
Verse 4. "Our
lips are our own." If we have to do with God, we must quit claim to
ourselves and look on God as our owner; but this is fixed in the hearts of men,
We will be our own; we will not consent to the claim which God makes to us: "Our
lips are our own." Wicked men might as well say the same thing of
their whole selves; our bodies, strength, time, parts, etc., are our own, and
who is Lord over us? John Howe.
Verse 4. From the
faults of the wicked we must learn three contrary lessons; to wit: 1. That
nothing which we have is our own. But, 2. Whatsoever is given to us of God is
for service to be done to him. 3. That whatsoever we do or say, we have a Lord
over us to whom we must be answerable when he calleth us to account. David
Dickson.
Verse 5. "For
the oppression of the poor," etc. When oppressors and persecutors do
snuff and puff at the people of God, when they defy them, and scorn them, and
think that they can with a blast of their breath blow them away, then God will
arise to judgment, as the Chaldee has it; at that very nick of time when all
seems to be lost, and when the poor, oppressed, and afflicted people of God can
do nothing but sigh and weep, and weep and sigh, then the Lord will arise and
ease them of their oppressions, and make their day of extremity a glorious
opportunity to work for his own glory, and his people's good. Matthew 22:6, 7.
"And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and
slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his
armies and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city." Thomas
Brooks.
Verse 5. Fear ye,
whosoever ye be, that do wrong the poor; you have power and wealth, and the
favour of the judges, but they have the strongest weapons of all, sighings and
groanings, which fetch help from heaven for them. These weapons dig down
houses, throw up foundations, overthrow whole nations. Chrysostom.
Verse 5. "For
the sighings of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord." God is
pleased to take notice of every grace, even the least and lowest, and
every gracious inclination in any of his servants. To fear his name is
no great matter, yet these have a promise. To think on his name less,
yet set down in a "book of remembrance." God sets down how many good thoughts
a poor soul hath had. As evil thoughts in wicked men are taken notice of—they
are the first fruits of the evil heart (Matthew 15:19)—so good thoughts are they
which lie uppermost, and best discover a good heart. A desire is a small
matter, especially of the poor man, yet God regards the desire of the poor, and
calls a good desire the greatest kindness; "The desire of a man is his
kindness." A tear makes no great noise, yet hath a voice, "God
hath heard the voice of my weeping." It is no pleasant water, yet God
bottles it up. A groan is a poor thing, yet is the best part of a prayer
sometimes (Romans 8:26); a sigh is less, yet God is awakened and
raised up by it. Psalm 12:5. A look is less than all these, yet this
is regarded (Jonah 2:4); breathing is less, yet (Lamentations 3:56), the
church could speak of no more; panting is less than breathing, when one
is spent for lack of breath, yet this is all the godly can sometimes boast of.
Psalm 42:1. The description of a godly man is ofttimes made from his least quod
sic. Blessed are the poor, the meek, they that mourn,
and they who hunger and thirst. Never did Hannah pray better than
when she could get out never a word, but cried, "Hard, hard heart."
Nor did the publican, than when he smote his breast and cried, "Lord, be
merciful to me a sinner." Nor Mary Magdalene, than when she came behind
Christ, sat down, wept, but kept silence. How sweet is music upon the waters!
How fruitful are the lowest valleys! Mourning hearts are most musical, lowest
most fruitful. The good shepherd ever takes most care of his weak lambs and
feeble sheep. The father makes most of the least, and the mother looks most
after the sick child. How comfortable is that of our Saviour, "It is not
the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should
perish!" And that heaven is not to be entered but by such as are like the
little child. John Sheffield, 1654.
Verse 5. "The
oppression of the poor." Insolent and cruel oppressing of the poor is
a sin that brings desolating and destroying judgments upon a people. God sent
ten wasting judgments one after another upon Pharaoh, his people, and land, to
revenge the cruel oppression of his poor people. "Rob not the poor,
because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate: for the Lord
will plead their cause." Proverbs 22:22, 23. To rob and oppress the rich
is a great sin; but to rob and oppress the poor is a greater; but to rob and
oppress the poor because he is poor, and wants money to buy justice, is the top
of all inhumanity and impiety. To oppress anyone is sin; but to oppress the
oppressed is the height of sin. Poverty, and want, and misery, should be
motives to pity; but oppressors make them the whetstone of their cruelty and
severity, and therefore the Lord will plead the cause of his poor oppressed
people against their oppressors without fee or fear; yea, he will plead their
cause with pestilence, blood, and fire. Gog was a great oppressor of the poor
(Ezekiel 38:8-14), and God pleads against him with pestilence, blood, and fire
(verse 22); "and I will plead against him, with pestilence and with blood;
and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are
with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Thomas
Brooks.
Verse 6. "The
words of the Lord are pure words," etc. How beautifully is this verse
introduced, by way of contrast to what was said before concerning! Do sinners
talk of vanity? let saints then speak of Jesus and his gospel. Do they talk
impure words? then let the faithful use the pure words of God, which like
silver, the more used, the more melted in the fire, the more precious will they
be. It is true, indeed, despisers will esteem both God and his word as
trifling; but oh, what an unknown treasure doth the word, the promises, the
covenant relation of the divine things of Jesus contain! They are more to be
desired than gold, yea, than pure gold; sweeter also than honey and the
honeycomb. Robert Hawker.
Verse 6. "The
words of the Lord are pure words," etc. They that purify silver to the
purpose, use to put it in the fire again and again, that it may be thoroughly
tried. So is the truth of God; there is scarce any truth but hath been tried
over and over again, and still if any dross happens to mingle with it, then God
calls it in question again. If in former times there have been Scriptures
alleged that have not been pertinent to prove it, that truth shall into the
fire again, that what is dross may be burnt up; the Holy Ghost is so curious,
so delicate, so exact, he cannot bear that falsehood should be mingled with the
truths of the gospel. This is the reason, therefore, why that God doth still,
age after age, call former things in question, because that there is still some
dross one way or other mingled with them; either in the stating the opinions
themselves, or else in the Scriptures that are brought and alleged for them,
that have passed for current, for he will never leave till he have purified
them. The doctrine of God's free grace hath been tried over and over, and over
again. Pelagius begins, and he mingles his dross with it: he saith, grace is
nothing but nature in man. Well, his doctrine was purified, and a great deal of
dross purged out. Then come the semi-Pelagians, and they part stakes; they say,
nature can do nothing without grace, but they make nature to concur with grace,
and to have an influence as well as grace; and the dross of that was burnt up.
The Papists, they take up the same quarrel, but will neither be Pelagians nor
semi-Pelagians, yet still mingle dross. The Arminians, they come, and they
refine popery in that point anew; still they mingle dross. God will have this
truth tried seven times in the fire, til he hath brought it forth as pure as
pure may be. And I say it is because that truth is thus precious. Thomas
Goodwin.
Verse 6. The
Scripture is the sun; the church is the clock. The sun we know to be sure, and
regularly constant in his motions; the clock, as it may fall out, may go too
fast or too slow. As then, we should condemn him of folly that should profess
to trust the clock rather than the sun, so we cannot but justly tax the
credulity of those who would rather trust to the church than to the Scripture. Bishop
Hall.
Verse 6. "The
words of the Lord are pure words." Men may inspect detached portions
of the Book, and please themselves with some things, which at first view, have
the semblance of conniving at what is wrong. But let them read it, let them
read the whole of it; let them carry along in their minds the character of the
persons to which the different portions of it were addressed; the age of the
world, and the circumstances under which the different parts of it were written,
and the particular objects which even those portions of it have in view, which
to an infidel mind appear the most exceptionable; and they may be rationally
convinced that, instead of originating in the bosom of an impostor, it owes its
origin to men who wrote "as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Let
them scrutinise it with as much severity as they please; only let their
scrutiny be well informed, wisely directed, and with a fair and ingenuous mind,
and we have no fears for the issue. There are portions of it on which ignorance
and folly have put constructions that are forced and unnatural, and which
impure minds have viewed in shadows reflected from their own impurity.
Montesquieu said of Voltaire, Lorsque Voltaire lit un livre, il le fait,
puis il ècrit contre ce qu'il a fait: "When Voltaire reads a book, he
makes it what he pleases, and then writes against what he has made." It is
no difficult matter to besmear and blot its pages and then impute the foul
stains that men of corrupt minds have cast upon it, to its stainless Author.
But if we honestly look at it as it is, we shall find that like its Author, it
is without blemish and without spot. Gardiner Spring, D.D.
Verse 6. "The
words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified
seven times." The expression may import two things: first, the
infallible certainty of the word; and, secondly, the exact purity. First, the
infallible certainty of the word, as gold endureth in the fire when the dross
is consumed. Vain conceits comfort us not in a time of trouble: but the word of
God, the more it is tried, the more you will find the excellency of it—the
promise is tried, as well as we are tried, in deep afflictions; but when it is
so, it will be found to be most pure. "The word of the Lord is tried; he
is a buckler to all those who trust in him" (Proverbs 30:5); as pure gold
suffers no loss by the fire, so the promises suffer no loss when they are
tried, but stand to us in our greatest troubles. Secondly, it notes the exact
perfection of the word: there is no dross in silver and gold that hath been
often refined; so there is no defect in the word of God. Thomas Manton.
Verse 6. Fry thus
translates this verse:—
The words of
Jehovah are pure words—
Silver refined in the crucible—
Gold, seven times washed from the earth.
(Heb.)
though sometimes applied to express the purity of silver, is more strictly an
epithet of gold, from the peculiar method made use of in separating it from the
soil by repeated washings and decantations. John Fry, in loc.
Verse 6. "Seven
times." I cannot but admit that there may be a mystic meaning in the
expression "seven times," in allusion to the seven periods of the
church, or to that perfection, implied in the figure seven, to which it is to
be brought at the revelation of Jesus Christ. This will be more readily allowed
by those who admit of the prophetic interpretation of the seven epistles of the
Book of Revelation. W. Wilson, D. D., in loc.
Verse 8. "When
the vilest men are exalted:" Hebrew, vilities, outidanoi the
abstract for the concrete, quisquiliae, outidanoi. Oft, empty vessels
swim aloft, rotten posts are gilt with adulterate gold, the worst weeds spring
up bravest. Chaff will get to the top of the fan, when good corn, as it lieth
at the bottom of the heap, so it falls low at the feet of the fanner. The
reason why wicked men "walk" on every side, are so brisk, so
busy (and who but they?) is given to be this, because losels and rioters were
exalted. See Proverbs 28:12, 18 and 29:2. As rheums and catarrhs fall from the
head to the lungs, and cause a consumption of the whole body, so it is in the
body politic. As a fish putrefies first in the head and then in all the parts,
so here. Some render the text thus, "When they (that is, the
wicked) are exalted," it is a "shame for the sons of
men," that other men who better deserve preferment, are not only slighted,
but vilely handled by such worthless ambitionists, who yet the higher they
climb, as apes, the more they discover their deformities." John Trapp.
Verse 8. Good thus
translates this verse:—
Should the
wicked advance on every side;
Should the dregs of the earth be uppermost?
The
original is given literally. (Heb.) means "foeces, foeculences, dregs.
(Heb.) is here an adverb, and imports uppermost, rather than exalted.
J. Mason Good, in loc.
HINTS TO THE
VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1. "Help,
Lord."
I.
The Prayer itself, short, suggestive, seasonable, rightly directed, vehement.
II.
Occasions for its use.
III.
Modes of its answer.
IV.
Reasons for expecting gracious reply.
Verse 1. First
two clauses. Text for funeral of an eminent believer.
Verse 1. Whole
verse.
I.
The fact bewailed—describe godly and faithful, and show how they fail.
II.
The feeling excited. Mourning the loss, fears for church, personal need
of such companions, appeal to God.
III.
The forebodings aroused. Failure of the cause, judgments impending, etc.
IV.
The faith remaining: "Help, Lord."
Verse 1. Intimate
connection between yielding honour to God and honesty to man, since they
decline together.
Verse 2. (first
clause). A discourse upon the prevalence and perniciousness of vain talk.
Verse 2. The
whole verse. Connection between flattery and treachery.
Verse 2. "A
double heart." Right and wrong kinds of hearts, and the disease of
duplicity.
Verse 3. God's
hatred of those twin sins of the lips—Flattery and Pride (which is self
flattery). Why he hates them. How he shows his hatred. In whom he hates them
most. How to be cleansed from them.
Verses 3, 4.
I.
The revolt of the tongue. Its claim of power, self-possession, and
liberty. Contrast this and the believer's confession, "we are not our
own."
II.
The method of its rebellion— "flattery, and speaking proud
things."
III.
The end of its treason—"cut off."
Verse 5. The Lord
aroused—How! Why! What to do! When!
Verse 5. Last
clause. Peculiar danger of believers from those who despise them and their
special safety. Good practical topic.
Verse 6. The purity,
trial, and permanency of the words of the Lord.
Seven
crucibles in which believers try the word. A little thought will suggest these.
Verse 7.
Preservation from one's generation in this life and for ever. A very suggestive
theme.
Verse 8. Sin in
high places specially infectious. Call to the rich and prominent to
remember their responsibility. Thankfulness for honourable rulers.
Discrimination to be used in choice of our representatives, or civic
magistrates.
WORK UPON THE
TWELFTH PSALM
In "A
Godly Meditation upon XX select Psalms . . . . . . . . By Sir ANTHONY COPE,
Knight, 1547," a thin black letter 4to., is an Exposition, or rather Meditation,
on this Psalm. Reprinted 1848.
── C.H. Spurgeon《The Treasury of David》