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Psalm Fourteen
Psalm 14
Chapter Contents
A description of the depravity of human nature, and the
deplorable corruption of a great part of mankind.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. The
sinner here described is an atheist, one that saith there is no Judge or
Governor of the world, no Providence ruling over the affairs of men. He says
this in his heart. He cannot satisfy himself that there is none, but wishes
there were none, and pleases himself that it is possible there may be none; he
is willing to think there is none. This sinner is a fool; he is simple and
unwise, and this is evidence of it: he is wicked and profane, and this is the
cause. The word of God is a discerner of these thoughts. No man will say, There
is no God, till he is so hardened in sin, that it is become his interest that
there should be none to call him to an account. The disease of sin has infected
the whole race of mankind. They are all gone aside, there is none that doeth
good, no, not one. Whatever good is in any of the children of men, or is done
by them, it is not of themselves, it is God's work in them. They are gone aside
from the right way of their duty, the way that leads to happiness, and are
turned into the paths of the destroyer. Let us lament the corruption of our
nature, and see what need we have of the grace of God: let us not marvel that
we are told we must be born again. And we must not rest in any thing short of
union with Christ, and a new creation to holiness by his Spirit. The psalmist
endeavours to convince sinners of the evil and danger of their way, while they
think themselves very wise, and good, and safe. Their wickedness is described.
Those that care not for God's people, for God's poor, care not for God himself.
People run into all manner of wickedness, because they do not call upon God for
his grace. What good can be expected from those that live without prayer? But
those that will not fear God, may be made to fear at the shaking of a leaf. All
our knowledge of the depravity of human nature should endear to us salvation
out of Zion. But in heaven alone shall the whole company of the redeemed
rejoice fully, and for evermore. The world is bad; oh that the Messiah would
come and change its character! There is universal corruption; oh for the times
of reformation! The triumphs of Zion's King will be the joys of Zion's
children. The second coming of Christ, finally to do away the dominion of sin
and Satan, will be the completing of this salvation, which is the hope, and
will be the joy of every Israelite indeed. With this assurance we should
comfort ourselves and one another, under the sins of sinners and sufferings of
saints.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Psalms》
Psalm 14
Verse 1
[1] The
fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done
abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
The fool —
The wicked man.
Good —
That is, actions really good or pleasing to God.
Verse 2
[2] The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there
were any that did understand, and seek God.
Looked —
God knoweth all things without any enquiry: but he speaks after the manner of
men.
Upon —
Upon the whole Israelitish nation, and upon all mankind for he speaks of all
except his people, and the righteous ones, who are opposed to these, verse 4,5.
Verse 3
[3] They
are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that
doeth good, no, not one.
Gone —
From God, and from the rule which he hath given them.
Filthy —
Loathsome and abominable to God.
Verse 4
[4] Have
all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat
bread, and call not upon the LORD.
Bread —
With as little remorse, and with as much greediness.
Call not —
They are guilty not only of gross injustice towards men, but also of horrid
impiety and contempt of God.
Verse 5
[5] There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the
righteous.
There —
Upon the spot, where they practised these insolences, God struck them with a
panick fear.
For —
God is on their side, and therefore their enemies have cause to tremble.
Verse 6
[6] Ye
have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the LORD is his refuge.
Because —
This was the ground of their contempt, that he lived by faith in God's promise
and providence.
Verse 7
[7] Oh
that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the LORD bringeth back
the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
O that —
These words immediately concern the deliverance of Israel out of that sinful
state, in which they now were; which having described, he concludes, with a
prayer to God to help them out of Zion, where the ark then was, but principally
they design the spiritual redemption and salvation of all God's Israel by the
Messiah.
The captivity —
His captive people. The children of Jacob, as Aaron is named for his sons, 1 Chronicles 12:27.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Psalms》
Psalm 14
Exposition
Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings
Hints to the Village Preacher
TITLE. This
admirable ode is simply headed, "To the Chief Musician, by
David." The dedication to the Chief Musician stands at the head of
fifty-three of the Psalms, and clearly indicates that such psalms were
intended, not merely for the private use of believers, but to be sung in the
great assemblies by the appointed choir at whose head was the overseer, or
superintendent, called in our version, "the Chief Musician," and by
Ainsworth, "the Master of the Music." Several of these psalms have
little or no praise in them, and were not addressed directly to the Most High,
and yet were to be sung in public worship; which is a clear indication that the
theory of Augustine lately revived by certain hymn-book makers, that nothing
but praise should be sung, is far more plausible than scriptural. Not only did
the ancient Church chant hallowed doctrine and offer prayer amid her spiritual
songs, but even the wailing notes of complaint were put into her mouth by the
sweet singer of Israel who was inspired of God. Some persons grasp at any
nicety which has a gloss of apparent correctness upon it, and are pleased with
being more fancifully precise than others; nevertheless it will ever be the way
of plain men, not only to magnify the Lord in sacred canticles, but also,
according to Paul's precept, to teach and admonish one another in psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in their hearts unto the Lord.
As
no distinguishing title is given to this Psalm, we would suggest as an
assistance to the memory, the heading—CONCERNING PRACTICAL ATHEISM. The
many conjectures as to the occasion upon which it was written are so completely
without foundation, that it would be a waste of time to mention them at length.
The apostle Paul, in Romans 3, has shown incidentally that the drift of the
inspired writer is to show that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin; there
was, therefore, no reason for fixing upon any particular historical occasion,
when all of history reeks with terrible evidence of human corruption. With
instructive alterations, David has given us in Psalm 53 a second edition of
this humiliating psalm, being moved of the Holy Ghost thus doubly to declare a
truth which is ever distasteful to carnal minds.
DIVISION.
The world's foolish creed (verse 1); its practical influence in corrupting
morals, 1, 2, 3. The persecuting tendencies of sinners, 4; their alarms, 5;
their ridicule of the godly, 6; and a prayer for the manifestation of the Lord
to his people's joy.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. "The
fool." The Atheist is the fool pre-eminently, and a fool
universally. He would not deny God if he were not a fool by nature, and having
denied God it is no marvel that he becomes a fool in practice. Sin is always
folly, and as it is the height of sin to attack the very existence of the Most
High, so it is also the greatest imaginable folly. To say there is no God is to
belie the plainest evidence, which is obstinacy; to oppose the common consent
of mankind, which is stupidity; to stifle consciousness, which is madness. If
the sinner could by his atheism destroy the God whom he hates there were some
sense, although much wickedness, in his infidelity; but as denying the
existence of fire does not prevent its burning a man who is in it, so doubting
the existence of God will not stop the Judge of all the earth from destroying
the rebel who breaks his laws; nay, this atheism is a crime which much provokes
heaven, and will bring down terrible vengeance on the fool who indulges it. The
proverb says, "A fool's tongue cuts his own throat," and in this
instance it kills both soul and body for ever: would to God the mischief
stopped even there, but alas! one fool makes hundreds, and a noisy blasphemer
spreads his horrible doctrines as lepers spread the plague. Ainsworth, in his
"Annotations," tells us that the word here used is Nabal,
which has the signification of fading, dying, or falling away, as a withered
leaf or flower; it is a title given to the foolish man as having lost the juice
and sap of wisdom, reason, honesty, and godliness. Trapp hits the mark when he
calls him "that sapless fellow, that carcase of a man, that walking
sepulchre of himself, in whom all religion and right reason is withered and
wasted, dried up and decayed. Some translate it the apostate, and others
the wretch. With what earnestness should we shun the appearance of doubt
as to the presence, activity, power and love of God, for all such mistrust is
of the nature of folly, and who among us would wish to be ranked with the fool
in the text? Yet let us never forget that all unregenerate men are more or less
such fools.
The
fool "hath said in his heart." May a man with his mouth
profess to believe, and yet in heart say the reverse? Had he hardly become
audacious enough to utter his folly with his tongue? Did the Lord look upon his
thoughts as being in the nature of words to Him though not to man? Is this
where man first becomes an unbeliever?—in his heart, not in his head? And when
he talks atheistically, is it a foolish heart speaking, and endeavouring to
clamour down the voice of conscience? We think so. If the affections were set
upon truth and righteousness, the understanding would have no difficulty in
settling the question of a present personal Deity, but as the heart dislikes
the good and the right, it is no wonder that it desires to be rid of that
Elohim, who is the great moral Governor, the Patron of rectitude and the
Punisher of iniquity. While men's hearts remain what they are, we must not be
surprised at the prevalence of scepticism; a corrupt tree will bring forth
corrupt fruit. "Every man," says Dickson, "so long as he lieth
unrenewed and unreconciled to God is nothing in effect but a madman." What
wonder then if he raves? Such fools as those we are now dealing with are common
to all time, and all countries; they grow without watering, and are found all
the world over. The spread of mere intellectual enlightenment will not diminish
their number, for since it is an affair of the heart, this folly and great
learning will often dwell together. To answer sceptical cavillings will be
labour lost until grace enters to make the mind willing to believe; fools can
raise more objections in an hour than wise men can answer in seven years,
indeed it is their mirth to set stools for wise men to stumble over. Let the
preacher aim at the heart, and preach the all-conquering love of Jesus, and he
will by God's grace win more doubters to the faith of the gospel than any hundred
of the best reasoners who only direct their arguments to the head.
"The
fool hath said in his heart, There is no God," or "no
God." So monstrous is the assertion, that the man hardly dared to put
it as a positive statement, but went very near to doing so. Calvin seems to
regard this saying, "no God," as hardly amounting to a syllogism,
scarcely reaching to a positive, dogmatical declaration; but Dr. Alexander clearly
shows that it does. It is not merely the wish of the sinner's corrupt nature,
and the hope of his rebellious heart, but he manages after a fashion to bring
himself to assert it, and at certain seasons he thinks that he believes it. It
is a solemn reflection that some who worship God with their lips may in their
hearts be saying, "no God." It is worthy of observation that he does
not say there is no Jehovah, but there is no Elohim; Deity in the abstract is
not so much the object of attack, as the covenant, personal, ruling and
governing presence of God in the world. God as ruler, lawgiver, worker,
Saviour, is the butt at which the arrows of human wrath are shot. How impotent
the malice! How mad the rage which raves and foams against Him in whom we live
and move and have our being! How horrible the insanity which leads a man who
owes his all to God to cry out, "No God"! How terrible the
depravity which makes the whole race adopt this as their hearts desire,
"no God!"
"They
are corrupt." This refers to all men, and we have the warrant of the
Holy Ghost for so saying; see the third chapter of the epistle to the Romans.
Where there is enmity to God, there is deep, inward depravity of mind. The
words are rendered by eminent critics in an active sense, "they have done
corruptly:" this may serve to remind us that sin is not only in our nature
passively as the source of evil, but we ourselves actively fan the flame and
corrupt ourselves, making that blacker still which was black as darkness itself
already. We rivet our own chains by habit and continuance.
"They
have done abominable works." When men begin with renouncing the Most
High God, who shall tell where they will end? When the Master's eyes are put
out, what will not the servants do? Observe the state of the world before the
flood, as pourtrayed in Genesis 6:12, and remember that human nature is
unchanged. He who would see a terrible photograph of the world without God must
read that most painful of all inspired Scriptures, the first chapter of the
epistle to the Romans. Learned Hindoos have confessed that the description is
literally correct in Hindostan at the present moment; and were it not for the
restraining grace of God, it would be so in England. Alas! it is even here but
too correct a picture of things which are done of men in secret. Things
loathsome to God and man are sweet to some palates.
"There
is none that doeth good." Sins of omission must abound where
transgressions are rife. Those who do the things which they ought not to have
done, are sure to leave undone those things which they ought to have done. What
a picture of our race is this! Save only where grace reigns, there is none that
doeth good; humanity, fallen and debased, is a desert without an oasis, a night
without a star, a dunghill without a jewel, a hell without a bottom.
Verse
2. "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men."
As from a watchtower, or other elevated place of observation, the Lord is
represented as gazing intently upon men. He will not punish blindly, nor like a
tyrant command an indiscriminate massacre because a rumour of rebellion has
come up to his ears. What condescending interest and impartial justice are here
imaged! The case of Sodom, visited before it was overthrown, illustrates the
careful manner in which Divine Justice beholds the sin before it avenges it,
and searches out the righteous that they perish not with the guilty. Behold
then the eyes of Omniscience ransacking the globe, and prying among every
people and nation, "to see if there were any that did understand and
seek God." He who is looking down knows the good, is quick to discern
it, would be delighted to find it; but as he views all the unregenerate
children of men his search is fruitless, for of all the race of Adam, no
unrenewed soul is other than an enemy to God and goodness. The objects of the
Lord's search are not wealthy men, great men, or learned men; these, with all
they can offer, cannot meet the demands of the great Governor: at the same
time, he is not looking for superlative eminence in virtue, he seeks for any
that understand themselves, their state, their duty, their destiny, their
happiness; he looks for any that seek God, who, if there be a God, are
willing and anxious to find him out. Surely this is not too great a matter to
expect; for if men have not yet known God, if they have any right
understanding, they will seek him. Alas! even this low degree of good is not to
be found even by him who sees all things: but men love the hideous negation of
"No God," and with their backs to their Creator, who is the sun of
their life, they journey into the dreary region of unbelief and alienation,
which is a land of darkness as darkness itself, and of the shadow of death
without any order and where the light is as darkness.
Verse
3. "They are all gone aside." Without exception, all men have
apostatized from the Lord their Maker, from his laws, and from all the eternal
principles of right. Like stubborn heifers they have sturdily refused to
receive the yoke, like errant sheep they have found a gap and left the right
field. The original speaks of the race as a whole, as a totality; and humanity
as a whole has become depraved in heart and defiled in life. "They have
altogether become filthy;" as a whole they are spoiled and soured like
corrupt leaven, or, as some put it, they have become putrid and even stinking.
The only reason why we do not more clearly see this foulness is because we are
accustomed to it, just as those who work daily among offensive odours at last
cease to smell them. The miller does not observe the noise of his own mill, and
we are slow to discover our own ruin and depravity. But are there no special
cases, are all men sinful? "Yes," says the Psalmist, in a manner not
to be mistaken, "they are." He has put it positively, he repeats it
negatively, "There is none that doeth good, no, not one." The
Hebrew phrase is an utter denial concerning any mere man that he of himself
doeth good. What can be more sweeping? This is the verdict of the all-seeing
Jehovah, who cannot exaggerate or mistake. As if no hope of finding a solitary
specimen of a good man among the unrenewed human family might be harboured for
an instant. The Holy Spirit is not content with saying all and
altogether, but adds the crushing threefold negative, "none, no, not
one." What say the opponents to the doctrine of natural depravity to
this? Rather what do we feel concerning it? Do we not confess that we by
nature are corrupt, and do we not bless the sovereign grace which has renewed
us in the spirit of our minds, that sin may no more have dominion over us, but
that grace may rule and reign?
Verse
4. Hatred of God and corruptness of life are the motive forces which produce
persecution. Men who having no saving knowledge of divine things, enslave
themselves to become workers of iniquity, have no heart to cry to the Lord for
deliverance, but seek to amuse themselves with devouring the poor and despised
people of God. It is hard bondage to be a "worker of iniquity;"
a worker at the galleys, or in the mines of Siberia, is not more truly degraded
and wretched; the toil is hard and the reward dreadful: those who have no
knowledge choose such slavery, but those who are taught of God cry to be
rescued from it. The same ignorance which keeps men bondsmen to evil, makes
them hate the freeborn sons of God; hence they seek to eat them up "as
they eat bread,"—daily, ravenously, as though it were an ordinary,
usual, every-day matter to oppress the saints of God. As pikes in a pond, eat
up little fish, as eagles prey on smaller birds, as wolves rend the sheep of
the pasture, so sinners naturally and as a matter of course, persecute, malign,
and mock the followers of the Lord Jesus. While thus preying, they forswear all
praying, and in this act consistently, for how could they hope to be heard
while their hands are full of blood?
Verse
5. Oppressors have it not all their own way, they have their fits of trembling
and their appointed seasons of overthrow. There—where they denied God
and hectored against his people; there—where they thought of peace and
safety, they were made to quail. "There were they"—these very
loud-mouthed, iron-handed, proud-hearted Nimrods and Herods, those heady,
high-minded sinners—"there were they in great fear." A panic
terror seized them: "they feared a fear," as the Hebrew puts it; an
undefinable, horrible, mysterious dread crept over them. The most hardened of
men have their periods when conscience casts them into a cold sweat of alarm.
As cowards are cruel, so all cruel men are at heart cowards. The ghost of past
sin is a terrible spectre to haunt any man, and though unbelievers may boast as
loudly as they will, a sound is in their ears which makes them ill at ease.
"For
God is in the generation of the righteous." This makes the company of
godly men so irksome to the wicked because they perceive that God is with them.
Shut their eyes as they may, they cannot but perceive the image of God in the
character of his truly gracious people, nor can they fail to see that he works
for their deliverance. Like Haman, they instinctively feel a trembling when
they see God's Mordecais. Even though the saint may be in a mean position,
mourning at the gate where the persecutor rejoices in state, the sinner feels the
influence of the believer's true nobility and quails before it, for God is
there. Let scoffers beware, for they persecute the Lord Jesus when they molest
his people; the union is very close between God and his people, it amounts to a
mysterious indwelling, for God is in the generation of the righteous.
Verse
6. Notwithstanding their real cowardice, the wicked put on the lion's skin and
lord it over the Lord's poor ones. Though fools themselves, they mock at the
truly wise as if the folly were on their side; but this is what might be
expected, for how should brutish minds appreciate excellence, and how can those
who have owl's eyes admire the sun? The special point and butt of their jest
seems to be the confidence of the godly in their Lord. What can your God do for
you now? Who is that God who can deliver out of our hand? Where is the reward
of all your praying and beseeching? Taunting questions of this sort they thrust
into the faces of weak but gracious souls, and tempt them to feel ashamed of
their refuge. Let us not be laughed out of our confidence by them, let us scorn
their scorning and defy their jeers; we shall need to wait but a little, and
then the Lord our refuge will avenge his own elect, and ease himself of his
adversaries, who once made so light of him and of his people.
Verse
6. Natural enough is this closing prayer, for what would so effectually
convince atheists, overthrow persecutors, stay sin, and secure the godly, as
the manifest appearance of Israel's great Salvation? The coming of Messiah was
the desire of the godly in all ages, and though he has already come with a
sin-offering to purge away iniquity, we look for him to come a second time, to
come without a sin-offering unto salvation. O that these weary years would have
an end! Why tarries he so long? He knows that sin abounds and that his people
are down-trodden; why comes he not to the rescue? His glorious advent will
restore his ancient people from literal captivity, and his SPIRITUAL seed from
spiritual sorrow. Wrestling Jacob and prevailing Israel shall alike rejoice
before him when he is revealed as their salvation. O that he were come! What
happy, holy, halcyon, heavenly days should we then see! But let us not count
him slack, for behold he comes, he comes quickly! Blessed are all they that
wait for him.
EXPLANATORY
NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Whole Psalm. There is a
peculiar mark put upon this Psalm, in that it is twice in the Book of psalms.
The fourteenth Psalm and the fifty-third Psalm are the same, with the
alteration of one or two expressions at most. And there is another mark put
upon it, that the apostle transcribes a great part of it. Romans 3:10-12.
It
contains a description of a most deplorable state of things in the world—ay, in
Israel; a most deplorable state, by reason of the general corruption that was
befallen all sorts of men, in their principles, and in their practices, and in
their opinions.
First,
it was a time when there was a mighty prevalent principle of atheism got
into the world, got among the great men of the world. Saith he, "That is
their principle, they say in their hearts, 'There is no God.'" It is true,
they did not absolutely profess it; but it was the principle whereby all their
actings were regulated, and which they conformed unto. "The fool,"
saith he, "hath said in his heart, There is no God." Not this
or that particular man, but the fool—that is, those foolish men; for in the
next word he tells you, "They are corrupt;" and verse 3, "They
are all gone aside." "The fool" is taken indefinitely for
the great company and society of foolish men, to intimate that whatsoever they
were divided about else, they were all agreed in this. "They are all a
company of atheists," saith he, "practical atheists."
Secondly,
their affections were suitable to this principle, as all men's
affections and actions are suitable to their principles. What are you to expect
from men whose principle is, that there is no God? Why, saith he, for their
affections, "They are corrupt;" which he expresseth again (verse 3),
"They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy."
"All gone aside." The word in the original is, "They are all
grown sour;" as drink, that hath been formerly of some use, but when grown
vapid— lost all its spirits and life—it is an insipid thing, good for nothing. And,
saith he, "They are altogether become filthy"— "become
stinking," as the margin hath it. They have corrupt affections, that have
left them no life, no savour; but stinking, corrupt lusts prevail in them
universally. They say, "There is no God;" and they are filled with
stinking, corrupt lusts.
Thirdly,
if this be their principle and these their affections, let us look after their actions,
to see if they be any better. But consider their actions. They be of two sorts;
1. How they act in the world, 2. How they act toward the people of God.
1.
How do they act in the world? Why, consider that, as to their duties which they
omit, and as to the wickednesses which they perform. What good do they do? Nay,
saith he, "None of them doeth good." Yea, some of them. "No,
not one." Saith he, verses 1, 3, "There is none that doeth good,
no, not one." If there was any one among them that did attend to what was
really good, and useful in the world, there was some hope. "No,"
saith he, "their principle is atheism, their affections are corrupt; and
for good, there is not one of them doeth any good—they omit all duties."
What
do they do for evil? Why, saith he, "They have done abominable
works"—"works," saith he, "not to be named, not to be
spoken of—works which God abhors, which all good men abhor."
"Abominable works," saith he, "such as the very light of nature
would abhor;" and give me leave to use the expression of the
psalmist—"stinking, filthy works." So he doth describe the state and
condition of things under the reign of Saul, when he wrote this Psalm.
2.
"If thus it be with them, and if thus it be with their own ways, yet they
let the people of God alone; they will not add that to the rest of their
sins." Nay, it is quite otherwise, saith he, "They eat up my
people as they eat bread." "Those workers of iniquity have no
knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the
Lord." What is the reason why he brings it in in that manner? Why could he
not say, "They have no knowledge that do such abominable things;" but
brings it in thus, "They have no knowledge who eat up my people as they
eat bread?" "It is strange, that after all my dealings with them and
declaration of my will, they should be so brutish as not to know this would be
their ruin. Don't they know this will devour them, destroy them, and be called
over again in a particular manner? In the midst of all the sins, and greatest
and highest provocations that are in the world, God lays a special weight upon
the eating of his people. They may feed upon their own lusts what they will;
but, "Have they no knowledge, that they eat up my people as they eat
bread?"
There
are very many things that might be observed from all this; but I aim to give
but a few hints from the Psalms.
Well,
what is the state of things now? You see what it was with them. How was it with
the providence of God in reference unto them? Which is strange, and a man would
scarce believe it in such a course as this is, he tells you (verse 5),
notwithstanding all this, they were in great fear. "There were they in
great fear," saith he. May be so, for they saw some evil coming upon
them. No, there was nothing but the hand of God in it; for in Psalm 53:5, where
these words are repeated, it is, "There were they in great fear, where no
fear was"—no visible cause of fear yet they were in great fear.
God
by his providence seldom gives an absolute, universal security unto men in
their height of sin, and oppression, and sensuality, and lusts; but he will
secretly put them in fear where no fear is: and though there be nothing seen
that should cause them to have any fear, they shall act like men at their wits'
end with fear.
But
whence should this fear arise? Saith he, it ariseth from hence, "For
God is in the generation of the righteous." Plainly they see their
work doth not go on; their meat doth not digest with them; their bread doth not
go well down. "They were eating and devouring my people, and when they
came to devour them, they found God was among them (they could not digest their
bread); and this put them in fear; quite surprised them." They came, and
thought to have found them a sweet morsel: when engaged, God was there filling
their mouth and teeth with gravel; and he began to break out the jawbone of the
terrible ones when they came to feed upon them. Saith he, "God was
there." (Verse 5.)
The
Holy Ghost gives an account of the state of things that was between those two
sorts of people he had described—between the fool and the people of God—them
that were devouring, and them that had been utterly devoured, had not God been
among them. Both were in fear—they that were to be devoured, and those that did
devour. And they took several ways for their relief; and he showeth what those
ways were, and what judgment they made upon the ways of one another. Saith he, "Ye
have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge."
There
are the persons spoken of—they are "the poor;" and that is those who
are described in the verses foregoing, the people that were ready to be eaten
up and devoured.
And
there is the hope and refuge that these poor had in such a time as this, when
all things were in fear; and that was "the LORD." The poor maketh the
Lord his refuge.
And
you may observe here, that as he did describe all the wicked as one man,
"the fool," so he describes all his own people as one man, "the
poor"—that is, the poor man: "Because the LORD is his refuge."
He keeps it in the singular number. Whatsoever the people of God may differ in,
they are all as one man in this business.
And
there is the way whereby these poor make God their refuge. They do it by
"counsel," saith he. It is not a thing they do by chance, but they
look upon it as their wisdom. They do it upon consideration, upon advice. It is
a thing of great wisdom.
Well,
what thoughts have the others concerning this acting of theirs? The poor make
God their refuge; and they do it by counsel. What judgment, now, doth the world
make of this counsel of theirs? Why, they "shame it;" that is, they
cast shame upon it, contemn it as a very foolish thing, to make the Lord their
refuge. "Truly, if they could make this or that great man their refuge, it
were something; but to make the Lord their refuge, this is the foolishest thing
in the world," say they. To shame men's counsel, to despise their counsel
as foolish, is as great contempt as they can lay upon them.
Here
you see the state of things as they are represented in this Psalm, and spread
before the Lord: which being laid down, the psalmist showeth what our duty is
upon such a state of things—what is the duty of the people of God, things thus
being stated. Saith he, "Their way is to go to prayer:" verse 7, "O
that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the Lord bringeth back
the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be
glad." If things are thus stated, then cry, then pray, "O that
the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion," etc. There shall a revenue
of praise come to God out of Zion, to the rejoicing of his people. John
Owen.
Verse 1. "The
fool." That sapless fellow, that carcase of a man, that walking
sepulchre of himself, in whom all religion and right reason is withered and
wasted, dried up and decayed. That apostate in whom natural principles are
extinct, and from whom God is departed, as when the prince is departed,
hangings are taken down. That mere animal that hath no more than a reasonable
soul, and for little other purpose than as salt, to keep his body from
putrefying. That wicked man hereafter described, that studieth atheism. John
Trapp.
Verse 1. "The
fool," etc. The world we live in is a world of fools. The far greater
part of mankind act a part entirely irrational. So great is their infatuation,
that they prefer time to eternity, momentary enjoyments to those that shall
never have an end, and listen to the testimony of Satan in preference to that
of God. Of all folly, that is the greatest, which relates to eternal objects,
because it is the most fatal, and when persisted in through life, entirely
remediless. A mistake in the management of temporal concerns may be afterwards
rectified. At any rate, it is comparatively of little importance. But an error
in spiritual and eternal matters, as it is in itself of the greatest moment, if
carried through life, can never be remedied; because after death there is no
redemption. The greatest folly that any creature is capable of, is that of
denying or entertaining unjust apprehensions of the being and perfections of
the great Creator. Therefore in a way of eminence, the appellation of fool
is given by the Spirit of God, to him who is chargeable with this guilt. "The
fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." John Jamieson, M.A.,
1789.
Verse 1. "The
fool," a term in Scripture signifying a wicked man, used also by the
heathen philosophers to signify a vicious person, (Heb.) as coming from (Heb.)
signifies the extinction of life in men, animals, and plants; so the word
(Heb.) is taken Isaiah 40:7, (Heb.) "the flower fadeth" (Isaiah
28:1), a plant that hath lost all that juice that made it lovely and useful.
So, a fool is one that hath lost his wisdom and right notion of God and divine
things, which were communicated to man by creation; one dead in sin, yet one
not so much void of rational faculties, as of grace in those faculties; not one
that wants a reason, but abuses his reason. Stephen Charnock.
Verse 1. "The
fool hath said," etc. This folly is bound up in every heart. It is
bound, but it is not tongue-tied; it speaks blasphemous things against God, it
says there is "no God." There is a difference indeed in
the language: gross sins speak this louder, there are crying sins; but though
less sins speak it not so loud, they whisper it. But the Lord can hear the
language of the heart, the whisperings of its motions, as plainly as we hear
one another in our ordinary discourse. Oh, how heinous is the least sin, which
is so injurious to the very being of the great God! David Clarkson.
Verse 1. "The
fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." If you will turn over
some few leaves, as far as the fifty-third Psalm, you shall not only find my
text, but this whole Psalm, without any alteration, save only in the fifth
verse, and that not at all in the sense neither. What shall we say? Took the
Holy Spirit of God such especial particular notice of the sayings and deeds of
a fool, that one expression of them would not serve the turn? Or, does
that babbling and madness of a fool so much concern us, as that we need to have
them urged upon us once and again, and a third time in the third of the Romans?
Surely not any one of us present here, is this fool! Nay, if one of us could
but tell where to find such a fool as this, that would offer to say, though in
his heart, "There is no God," he should not rest in quiet, he
should soon perceive we were not of his faction. We that are able to tell David
an article or two of faith more than ever he was acquainted with! Nay, more;
can we with any imaginable ground of reason be supposed liable to any suspicion
of atheism, that are able to read to David a lecture out of his own Psalms, and
explain the meaning of his own prophecies much clearer than himself which held
the pen to the Holy Spirit of God? Though we cannot deny but that in other
things there may be found some spice of folly and imperfection in us, but it
cannot be imagined that we, who are almost cloyed with heavenly manna of God's
word, that can instruct our teachers, and are able to maintain opinions and
tenets, the scruples whereof not both the universities in this land, nor the
whole clergy are able to resolve, that it should be possible for us ever to
come to that perfection and excellency of folly and madness, as to entertain
thought that there is no God: nay, we are not so uncharitable as to
charge a Turk or an infidel with such a horrible imputation as this.
Beloved
Christians, be not wise in your own conceits: if you will seriously examine the
third of Romans (which I mentioned before), you shall find that Paul, out of
this Psalm, and the like words of Isaiah, doth conclude the whole posterity of
Adam (Christ only excepted), under sin and the curse of God; which inference of
his were weak and inconcluding, unless every man of his own nature were such a
one as the prophet here describes; and the same apostle in another place expresses,
"Even altogether without God in the world," i.e., not
maintaining it as an opinion which they would undertake by force of argument to
confirm. That there is no God: for we read not of above three or four among the
heathens, that were of any fashion, which went this far; but such as though in
their discourse and serious thoughts they do not question a deity, but would
abhor any man that would not liberally allow unto God all his glorious
attributes, yet in their hearts and affections they deny him; they live as if
there was no God, having no respect at all to him in all their projects, and
therefore, indeed and in God's esteem, become formally, and in strict propriety
of speech, very atheists. William Chillingworth, 1602-1643.
Verse 1. "The
fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." Why do men resist God's
authority, against which they cannot dispute? and disobey his commands, unto
which they cannot devise to frame an exception? What but the spirit of enmity,
can make them regret "so easy a yoke," reject so "light a
burden," shun and fly off from so peaceful and pleasant paths? yea, and
take ways that so manifestly "take hold of hell, and lead down to the
chambers of death," rather choosing to perish than obey? Is not this the
very height of enmity? What further proof would we seek of a disaffected and
implacable heart? Yet to all this we may cast in that fearful addition, their
saying in their heart, "No God;" as much as to say, "O
that there were none!" This is enmity not only to the highest pitch of wickedness,
to wish their common parent extinct, the author of their being, but even unto madness
itself. For in the forgetful heat of this transport, it is not thought on that
they wish the most absolute impossibility; and that, if it were possible, they
wish, with his, the extinction of their own and of all being; and that the
sense of their hearts, put into words, would amount to no less than a direful
and most horrid execration and curse upon God and the whole creation of God at
once! As if, by the blasphemy of their poisonous breath, they would wither all
nature, blast the whole universe of being, and make it fade, languish, and drop
into nothing. This is to set their mouth against heaven and earth, themselves,
and all things at once, as if they thought their feeble breath should overpower
the omnipotent Word, shake and shiver the adamantine pillars of heaven and
earth, and the Almighty fiat be defeated by their nay, striking
at the root of all! So fitly is it said, "The fool hath in his
heart" muttered thus. Nor are there few such fools; but this is plainly
given us as the common character of apostate man, the whole revolted race, of
whom it is said in very general terms, "They are all gone back, there is
none that doeth good." This is their sense, one and all, that is,
comparatively; and the true state of the case being laid before them, it is
more their temper and sense to say, "No God," than to repent,
"and turn to him." What mad enmity is this! Nor can we devise into
what else to resolve it. John Howe.
Verse 1. "The
fool hath said in his heart, there is no God." He that shall deny
there is a God, sins with a very high hand against the light of nature; for
every creature, yea, the least gnat and fly, and the meanest worm that crawls
upon the ground will confute and confound that man that disputes whether there
be a God or no. The name of God is written in such full, fair, and shining
characters upon the whole creation, that all men may run and read that there is
a God. The notion of a deity is so strongly and deeply impressed upon the
tables of all men's hearts, that to deny a God is to quench the very principles
of common nature; yea, it is formally deicidium, a killing of God, as
much a sin the creature lies. There are none of these atheists in hell, for the
devils believe and tremble. James 2:19. The Greek word priddoudi, that is here
used, signifies properly the roaring of the sea; it implies such an extreme
fear, as causeth not only trembling, but also a roaring and screeching out.
Mark 6:49; Acts 16:29. The devils believe and acknowledge four articles of our
faith. Matthew 8:29. (1.) They acknowledge God; (2.) Christ; (3.) The day of
judgment; (4.) That they shall be tormented then; so that he doth not believe
that there is a God, is more vile than a devil. To deny there is a God, is a
sort of atheism that is not to be found in hell.
"On earth
are atheists many,
In hell there is not any."
Augustine,
speaking of atheists, saith, "That albeit there be some who think, or
would persuade themselves, that there is no God, yet the most vile and
desperate wretch that ever lived would not say, there was no God." Seneca
hath a remarkable speech, Mentiuntur qui dicunt se non sentire Deum esse:
nam etsi tibi affirmant interdi— noctu tamen dubitant. They lie, saith he,
who say they perceive not there is a God; for although they affirm it to thee
in the daytime, yet by night they doubt of it. Further, saith the same author,
I have heard of some that deny that there was a God; yet never knew the man,
but when he was sick he would seek unto God for help; therefore they do but lie
that say there is no God; they sin against the light of their own consciences;
they who most studiously go about to deny God, yet cannot do it but some check
of conscience will fly in their faces. Tully would say that there was never any
nation under heaven so barbarous as to deny that there was a God. T. Brooks.
Verse 1. "The
fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." Popery has not won to
itself so great wits as atheism; it is the superfluity of wit that makes
atheists. These will not be beaten down with impertinent arguments; disordered
hail-shot of Scriptures will never scare them; they must be convinced and
beaten by their own weapons. "Hast thou appealed to Caesar? To Caesar thou
shalt go." Have they appealed to reason? Let us bring reason to them, that
we may bring them to reason. We need not fear the want of weapons in that
armoury, but our own ignorance and want of skill to use them. There is enough
even in philosophy to convince atheism, and make them confess, "We are
foiled with our own weapons;" for with all their wit atheists are fools. Thomas
Adams.
Verse 1. As there is
no wound more mortal than that which plucketh forth man's heart or soul; so,
likewise, is there no person or pestilence of greater force suddenly in men to
kill all faith, hope, and charity, with the fear of God, and consequently to
cast them headlong into the pit of hell, than to deny the principle and
foundation of all religion—namely, that there is a God. Robert Cawdray's
"Treasury or Storehouse of Similes," 1609.
Verse 1. "The
fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." Who in the world is a
verier fool, a more ignorant, wretched person, than he that is an atheist? A
man may better believe there is no such man as himself, and that he is not in
being, than that there is no God; for himself can cease to be, and once was
not, and shall be changed from what he is, and in very many periods of his life
knows not that he is; and so it is every night with him when he sleeps; but
none of these can happen to God; and if he knows it not, he is a fool. Can
anything in this world be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric
of heaven and earth can come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able
to make an oyster? To see rare effects, and no cause; an excellent government
and no prince; a motion without an immovable; a circle without a centre; a time
without eternity; a second without a first; a thing that begins not from
itself, and therefore, not to perceive there is something from whence it does
begin, which must be without beginning; these things are so against philosophy
and natural reason, that he must needs be a beast in his understanding that
does not assent to them; this is the atheist: "The fool hath said in
his heart, There is no God." That is his character; the thing framed,
says that nothing framed it; the tongue never made itself to speak, and yet
talks against him that did; saying, that which is made, is, and that which made
it, is not. But this folly is as infinite as hell, as much without light or
bound, as the chaos or the primitive nothing. Jeremy Taylor, 1613-1667.
Verse 1. "The
fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." A wise man, that lives
up to the principles of reason and virtue, if one considers him in his solitude
as taking in the system of the universe, observing the mutual dependence and
harmony by which the whole frame of it hangs together, beating down his
passions, or swelling his thoughts with magnificent ideas of providence, makes
a nobler figure in the eye of an intelligent being, than the greatest conqueror
amidst the pomp and solemnities of a triumph. On the contrary, there is not a
more ridiculous animal than an atheist in his retirement. His mind is incapable
of rapture or elevation: he can only consider himself as an insignificant
figure in a landscape, and wandering up and down in a field or a meadow, under
the same terms as the meanest animals about him, and as subject to as total a
mortality as they, with this aggravation, that he is the only one amongst them
who lies under the apprehension of it. In distresses he must be of all
creatures the most helpless and forlorn; he feels the whole pressure of a
present calamity, without being relieved by the memory of anything that is
past, or the prospect of anything that is to come. Annihilation is the greatest
blessing that he proposes to himself, and a halter or a pistol the only refuge
he can fly to. But if you would behold one of these gloomy miscreants in his poorest
figure, you must consider him under the terrors or at the approach of death.
About thirty years ago, I was a shipboard with one of these vermin, when there
arose a brisk gale, which could frighten nobody but himself. Upon the rolling
of the ship he fell upon his knees, and confessed to the chaplain, that he had
been a vile atheist, and had denied a Supreme Being ever since he came to his
estate. The good man was astonished, and a report immediately ran through the
ship, that there was an atheist upon the upper deck. Several of the common
seamen, who had never heard the word before, thought it had been some strange
fish; but they were more surprised when they saw it was a man, and heard out of
his own mouth, "That he never believed till that day that there was a
God." As he lay in the agonies of confession, one of the honest tars
whispered to the boatswain, "That it would be a good deed to heave him
overboard." But we were now within sight of a port, when of a sudden the
wind fell, and the penitent relapsed, begging all of us that were present, as
we were gentlemen, not to say anything of what had passed. He had not been
ashore above two days, when one of the company began to rally him upon his
devotion on shipboard, which the other denied in so high terms, that it
produced the lie on both sides, and ended in a duel. The atheist was run
through the body, and after some loss of blood, became as good a Christian as
he was at sea, till he found that his wound was not mortal. He is at present
one of the free-thinkers of the age, and now writing a pamphlet against several
received opinions concerning the existence of fairies. Joseph Addison
(1671 - 1719), in "The Tattler."
Verse 1:—
"'There is
no God,' the fool in secret said:
There is no God that rules or earth or sky.'
Tear off the band that binds the wretch's head,
That God may burst upon his faithless eye!
Is there no God?—The stars in myriads spread,
If he look up, the blasphemy deny;
While his own features, in the mirror read,
Reflect the image of Divinity.
Is there no God?—The streams that silver flows,
The air he breathes, the ground he treads, the trees,
The flowers, the grass, the sands, each wind that blows,
All speak of God; throughout, onne voice agres,
And, eloquent, his dread existence shows:
Blind to thyself, ah, see him, fool, in these!"
Giovanni
Cotta.
Verse 1:—
"The
owlet, Atheism,
Sailing on obscene wings across the noon,
Drops his blue-fringed lids, and shuts them close,
And, hooting at the glorious sun in heaven,
Cries out, 'Where is it'"
Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, 1772-1834.
Verse 1. "They
are corrupt, they have done abominable works." Sin pleaseth the flesh.
Omne simile nutrit simile. Corruption inherent is nourished by the
accession of corrupt actions. Judas's covetousness is sweetened with unjust
gain. Joab is heartened and hardened with blood. 1 Kings 2:5. Theft is fitted
to and fatted in the thievish heart with obvious booties. Pride is fed with the
officious compliments of observant grooms. Extortion battens in the usurer's
affections by the trolling in of his moneys. Sacrilege thrives in the
church-robber by the pleasing distinctions of those sycophant priests, and
helped with their not laborious profit. Nature is led, is fed with sense. And
when the citadel of the heart is once won, the turret of the understanding will
not long hold out. As the suffumigations of the oppressed stomach surge up and
cause the headache, or as the thick spumy mists, which vapour up from the dark
and foggy earth, do often suffocate the brighter air, and to us more than
eclipse the sun, the black and corrupt affections, which ascend out of the
nether part of the soul, do no less darken and choke the understanding. Neither
can the fire of grace be kept alive at God's altar (man's heart), when the
clouds of lust shall rain down such showers of impiety on it. Perit omne
judicium, cum res transit ad affectum. Farewell the perspicuity of
judgment, when the matter is put to the partiality of affection. Thomas
Adams.
Verse 1. " They
are corrupt, they have done abominable things: there is none that doeth
good." "Men," says Bernard, "because they are corrupt
in their minds, become abominable in their doings: corrupt before
God, abominable before men. There are three sorts of men of which none
doeth good. There are those who neither understand nor seek God, and they are
the dead: there are others who understand him, but seek him not, and they are
the wicked. There are others that seek him but understand him not, and they are
the fools." "O God," cries a writer of the middle ages,
"how many are here at this day who, under the name of Christianity,
worship idols, and are abominable both to thee and to men! For every man
worships that which he most loves. The proud man bows down before the idol of
worldly power; the covetous man before the idol of money; the adulterer before
the idol of beauty; and so of the rest." And of such, saith the apostle,
"They profess that they know God, but in works deny him, being abominable
and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." Titus 1:16. "There
is none that doeth good." Notice how Paul avails himself of this
testimony of the psalmist, among those which he heaps together in the third
chapter of the epistle to the Romans, where he is proving concerning "both
Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin." Romans 3:9. John Mason
Neale, in loc.
Verse 1. The
argument of my text is the atheist's divinity, the brief of his belief couched
all in one article, and that negative too, clean contrary to the fashion of all
creeds, "There is no God." The article but one; but so many
absurdities tied to the train of it, and itself so irreligious, so prodigiously
profane, that he dares not speak it out, but saith it softly to himself, in
secret, "in his heart." So the text yields these three points;
Who is he? A "fool." What he saith, "no God."
How he speaks it, "in his heart." A fool, his bolt, and his
draught. I will speak of them severally. . . . . . . . There is a child in
years, and there is a child in manners, aetate et moribus, saith
Aristotle. So there is a fool; for fools and children both are called nhpioi.
There is a fool in wit, and there is a fool in life; stultus in scientia, et
stultus in conscientia, a witless and a graceless fool. The latter is
worthy of the title as the first; both void of reason; not of the faculty but
of the use. Yea, the latter fool is indeed the more kindly of the twain; for
the sot would use his reason if he could; the sinner will not though he may. It
is not the natural, but the moral fool that David means, the wicked and
ungracious person, for so is the sense of the original term. . . . . . . It is
time we leave the person, and come unto the act. What hath this fool done?
Surely nothing; he hath only said. What hath he said? Nay,
nothing either; he hath only thought: for to say in heart, is but
to think. There are two sorts of saying in the Scripture, one meant
indeed so properly, the other but in hope; one by word of mouth, the other by
thought of heart. You see the psalmist means here the second sort. The bolt the
fool here shoots is atheism: he makes no noise at the loss of it, as bowmen
use; he draws and delivers closely, and stilly, out of sight, and without
sound: he saith "God is not," but "in heart."
The heart hath a mouth; intus est os cordis, saith Augustine. God, saith
Cyprian, is cordis auditor, he hears the heart; then belike it hath some
speech. When God said to Moses, quare clamas? why criest thou? we find
no words he uttered: silens auditor, saith Gregory, he is heard through
saying nothing. There is a silent speech (Psalm 4:4), "Commune with your
own heart," saith David, "and be still." Speech is not the
heart's action, no more than meditation is the mouth's. But sometimes the heart
and mouth exchange offices; lingua mea meditabitur, saith David. Psalm
35:28. There is lingua meditans, a musing tongue; here is cor
loquens, a speaking heart. And to say the truth, the philosopher saith
well, it is the heart doth all things, mens videt, mens audit, mens
loquitur. It is the heart that speaks, the tongue is but the instrument to
give the sound. It is but the heart's echo to repeat the words after it. Except
when the tongue doth run before the wit, the heart doth dictate to the mouth;
it suggests what it shall say. The heart is the soul's herald: look what she
will have proclaimed, the heart reads it, and the mouth cries it. The tongue
saith nought but what the heart saith first. Nay, in very deed, the truest and
kindest speech is the heart's. The tongue and lips are Jesuits, they lease, and
lie, and use equivocations: flattery, or fear, or other by-respect, other wry
respect adulterate their words. But the heart speaks as it means, worth twenty
mouths, if it could speak audibly. Richard Clerke, D.D.,—1634 (one of the
translators of our English Bible).
Verses 1, 4. The
Scripture gives this as a cause of the notorious courses of wicked men, that
"God is not in all their thoughts." Psalm 10:4. They forget there is
a God of vengeance and a day of reckoning. "The fool" would
needs enforce upon his heart, that "there is no God," and what
follows: "Corrupt they are, there is none doth good: they eat up my
people as bread," etc. They make no more bones of devouring men and
their estates, than they make conscience of eating a piece of bread. What a
wretched condition hath sin brought man unto, that the great God who
"filleth heaven and earth" (Jeremiah 23:24) should yet have no place
in the heart which he hath especially made for himself! The sun is not so clear
as this truth, that God is, for all things in the world are because God is. If
he were not, nothing could be. It is from him that wicked men have that
strength they have to commit sin, therefore sin proceeds from atheism,
especially these plotting sins; for if God were more thought on, he would take
off the soul from sinful contrivings, and fix it upon himself. Richard
Sibbes.
Verse 2. To see
if there were any that did understand. . . . . seek God." None seek
him aright, and as he ought to be sought, nor can do while they live in sin:
for men in seeking God fail in many things: as, First, men seek him not for
himself. Secondly, they seek him not alone, but other things with him. Thirdly,
they seek other things before him, as worldlings do. Fourthly, they seek him
coldly or carelessly. Fifthly, they seek him inconstantly; example of Judas and
Demas. Sixthly, they seek him not in his word, as heretics do. Seventhly, they
seek him not in all his word, as hypocrites do. Lastly, they seek him not
seasonably and timely, as profane, impenitent sinners do; have no care to depend
upon God's word, but follow their own lusts and fashions of this world. Thomas
Wilson, 1653.
Verses 2, 3. What was
the issue of God's so looking upon men? "They are all gone aside,"
that is, from him and his ways; "They are altogether become filthy;"
their practices are such as make then stink; "There is none that doeth
good, no, not one;" of so many millions of men that are upon the
earth, there is not one doeth good. There were men of excellent parts then in
the world, men of soul, but not one of them did know God, or seek after God:
Paul therefore hath laid it down for a universal maxim, that the animal,
natural, or intellectual man, receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for
they are foolishness unto him, and so are rejected by him. William
Greenhill.
Verse 3. The ungodly
are "vile" persons (Nahum 1:14). "I will make thy grave; for
thou art vile." Sin makes men base, it blots their name, it taints their
blood: "They are altogether become filthy;" in the Hebrew it
is, they are become stinking. Call wicked men ever so bad, you cannot call them
out of their name; they are "swine" (Matthew 7:6); "vipers"
(Matthew 3:7); "devils" (John 6:70). The wicked are the dross and
refuse (Psalms 119:119); and heaven is too pure to have any dross mingle with
it. Thomas Watson.
Verse 3. "Altogether
become filthy." Thus the Roman satirist describes his own age:
"Nothing
is left, nothing, for future times
To add to the full catalogue of crimes;
The baffled sons must feel the same desires,
And act the same mad follies as their sires,
Vice has attained its zenith."
Juvenal,
Sat. 1.
Verse 3. "There
is none that doeth good, no, not one." Origen maketh a question, how
it could be said that there was none, neither among the Jews nor Gentiles, that
did any good; seeing there were many among them which did clothe the naked,
feed the hungry, and did other good things: he hereunto maketh this
answer:—That like as one that layeth a foundation, and buildeth upon it a wall
or two, yet cannot be said to have built a house till he have finished it; so
although these might do some good things, yet they attained not unto perfect
goodness, which was only to be found in Christ. But this is not the apostle's
meaning only to exclude men from the perfection of justice; for even the faithful
and believers were short of that perfection which is required; he therefore
showeth what men are by nature, all under sin and in the same state of
damnation, without grace and faith in Christ: if any perform any good work,
either it is of grace, and so not of themselves, or if they did it by the light
of nature, they did it not as they ought, and so it was far from a good work
indeed. Andrew Willet (1562-1621), on Romans 3:10.
Verse 4. "Have
the workers of iniquity no knowledge?" Men's ignorance is the reason
why they fear not what they should fear. Why is it that the ungodly fear not
sin? Oh, it's because they know it not. "Have the workers of iniquity
no knowledge?" Sure enough they have none, for "they eat up my
people as they eat bread;" such morsels would scald their mouths, they
would not dare to be such persecutors and destroyers of the people of God; they
would be afraid to touch them if they did but know what they did. Richard
Alleine.
Verse 4. "Who
eat up my people as they eat bread." That is, quotidiŠ, daily,
saith Austin; as duly as they eat bread; or, with the same eagerness and
voracity. These man-eaters, these Laobomoi, cruel cannibals, make no
more conscience to undo a poor man, than to eat a good meal when they are
hungry. Like pickerels in a pond, or sharks in the sea, they devour the poorer,
as those do the lesser fishes; and that many times with a plausible, invisible
consumption; as the usurer, who like the ostrich, can digest any metal; but
especially money. John Trapp.
Verse 4. "Who
eat up my people as the eat bread." Oh, how few consult and believe
the Scriptures setting forth the enmity of wicked men against God's people! The
Scripture tells us "they eat up God's people as bread," which
implies a strange inclination in them to devour the saints, and that they take
as great delight therein as a hungry man in eating, and that it is natural to
them to molest them. The Scripture compares them, for their hateful qualities,
to the lions, and bears, to foxes for subtlety, to wild bulls, to greedy swine,
to scorpions, to briers and thorns (grievous and vexing things). The Scripture
represents them as industrious and unwearied in their bloody enterprises, they
cannot sleep without doing mischief. Herodias had rather have the blood of a saint
than half a kingdom. Haman would pay a great fine to the king that the
scattered Jews (who keep not the king's laws) may be cut off. Wicked men will
run the hazard of damning their own souls, rather than not fling a dagger at
the apple of God's eye. Though they know what one word—aha!!—cost, yet they
will break through all natural, civil, and moral obligations, to ruin God's
people. The Holy Ghost calls them "implacable" men, fierce and
headstrong; they are like the hot oven for fury, like the sea for boundless
rage; yet, "who hath believed" this Scripture "report?" Did
we believe what enemies all wicked men are unto all saints, we should not lean
to our own prudence and discretion to secure us from any danger by these men;
we would get an ark to secure us from the deluge of their wrath; if at any time
we be cast among them and delivered, we would bless God with the three children
that the hot fiery oven did not consume us; we would not wonder when we hear of
any of their barbarous cruelty, but rather wonder at God's restraining them
every day; we would be suspicious of receiving hurt when cast among light and
frothy companions; we would shun their company as we do lions and scorpions; we
would never commit any trust or secret into their hands; we would not be
light-hearted whilst in their society; we would not rely on their promises any
more than we would on the promise of the devil, their father; we would long for
heaven, to be delivered from "the tents of Kedar;" we would not count
any of the saints secured from danger, though related to any great wicked man;
we would not twist ourselves with them by matching ourselves or children to
these sons and daughters of Belial; neither would we make choice of devils to
be our servants. Lewis Stuckley.
Verse 4. This is an
evil world. It hates the people of God. "Because ye are not of the world,
therefore the world hateth you." John 15:19. Haman's hatred was against
the whole seed of the Jews. When you can find a serpent without a sting, or a
leopard without spots, then may you expect to find a wicked world without
hatred to the saints. Piety is the target which is aimed at. "They are
mine adversaries because I follow the thing that good is." Psalm 38:20.
The world pretends to hate the godly for something else, but the ground of
their quarrel is holiness. The world's hatred is implacable: anger may be
reconciled, hatred cannot. You may as soon reconcile heaven and hell as the two
seeds. If the world hated Christ, no wonder that it hates us. "The world
hated me before it hated you." John 15:18. Why should any hate Christ?
This blessed Dove had no gall, this rose of Sharon did send forth a most sweet
perfume; but this shows the world's baseness, it is a Christ- hating and a saint-eating
world. Thomas Watson.
Verse 5. "There
were they in great fear." That we may not mistake the meaning of the
point, we must understand that this faintheartedness and cowardliness doth not
always come upon presumptuous sinners when they behold imminent dangers, for
though none of them have true courage and fortitude, yet many of them have a
kind of desperate stoutness and resolution when they do, as it were, see death
present before their faces; which proceedeth from a kind of deadness, that is
upon their hearts, and a brawniness that hath overgrown their consciences to
their greater condemnation. But when it pleaseth the Lord to waken them out of
the dead slumber, and to set the worm of conscience awork within them, then
this doctrine holdeth true without any exception, that the boldest sinners
prove at length the basest cowards: and they that have been most audacious in
adventuring upon the most mischievous evils, do become of all others most
timorous when God's revenging hand seizeth upon them for the same. John Dod,
1547-1645.
Verse 5. "God
is in the generation of the righteous;" that is, he favours that
generation or sort of men; God is in all generations, but such he delights in
most: the wicked have cause enough to fear those in whom God delights. Joseph
Caryl.
Verse 5. The King of
Glory cannot come into the heart (as he is said to come into the hearts of his
people as such; Psalm 24:9,10), but some glory of himself will appear; and as
God doth accompany the word with majesty because it is his word, so he doth
accompany his own children, and their ways, with majesty, yea, even in their
greatest debasements. As when Stephen was brought before the council, as a
prisoner at the bar for his life, then God manifested his presence to him, for
it is said, "His face shone as the face of an angel of God" (Acts
6:15); in a proportionable manner it is ordinarily true what Solomon says of
all righteous men, "A man's wisdom makes his face to shine."
Ecclesiastes 8:1. Thus Peter also speaks (1 Peter 4:14): "If you be
reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you, for the Spirit," not
only of God, or of grace, but "of glory, resteth upon you." And so in
the martyrs; their innocency, and carriage, and godly behaviour, what majesty
had it with it! What an amiableness in the sight of the people, which daunted,
dashed, and confounded their most wretched oppressors; so that although the
wicked persecutors "did eat up God's people as bread" (verse
4), yet it is added that they were in great fear upon this very account, that "God
is in the generation of the just." God stands, as it were, astonished
at their dealings: "Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge,"
(so in the words afore) "that they eat up my people as bread,"
and make no more ado of it that a man doth that heartily eats of his meat? They
seem to do thus, they would carry it and bear it out; but for all that they are
in great fear whilst they do thus, and God strikes their hearts with terror
when they most insult. Why? For, "God is in the generation of, or
dwelleth in the just," and God gives often some glimmerings, hints,
and warnings to the wicked (such as Pilate had concerning Christ), that his
people are righteous. And this you may see in Philippians 1:28: "And in
nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of
perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God." In that latter
passage, I observe that an assurance of salvation, and a spirit of terror, and
that of God, is given either. In the Old Testament it is recorded of David (1
Samuel 18:12), that although Saul hated him (verse 9), and sought to destroy
him (verse 10,11), "yet Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was
with him, and was departed from Saul;" which is the reason in hand. God
manifested his presence in David, and struck Saul's conscience with his godly
and wise carriage, and that made him afraid. Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 6. "Ye
have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge."
In the fifty-third Psalm it is, "Thou hast put them to shame, because God
hath despised them." Of course, the allusion is totally different in each;
in this Psalm it is the indignant remonstrance of the Psalmist with "the
workers of iniquity" for undervaluing and putting God's poor to shame; the
other affirms the final shame and confusion of the ungodly, and the contempt in
which the Lord holds them. In either case it sweetly illustrates God's care of
his poor, not merely the poor in spirit, but literally the poor and low ones,
the oppressed and the injured. It is this character of God which is so
conspicuously delineated in his word. We may look through all the Shasters and
Vedas of the Hindoo, the Koran of the Mahometan, the legislation of the Greek,
and the code of the Roman, aye, and the Talmud of the Jew, the bitterest of
all; and not in one single line or page shall we find a vestige or trace of
that tenderness, compassion, or sympathy for the wrongs, and oppressions, and
trials, and sorrows of God's poor, which the Christian's Bible evidences in
almost every page. Barton Bouchier.
Verse 6. "Ye
have shamed." Every fool that saith in his heart there is no God, hath
out of the same quiver a bolt to shoot at goodness. Barren Michal hath too many
sons, who, like their mother, jeer at holy David. John Trapp.
Verse 6. "Ye
have shamed," saith he, "the counsel of the poor."
There is nothing that wicked men do so despise as the making God a
refuge—nothing which they scorn in their hearts like it. "They shame
it," saith he, "It is a thing to be cast out of all consideration.
The wise man trusts in his wisdom, the strong man in his strength, the rich man
in his riches; but this trusting in God is the foolishest thing in the
world." The reasons of it are—1. They know not God; and it is a foolish
thing to trust one knows not whom. 2. They are enemies to God, and God is their
enemy; and they account it a foolish thing to trust their enemy. 3. They know
not the way of God's assistance and help. And—4. They seek for such help, such
assistance, such supplies, as God will not give; to be delivered, to serve
their lusts; to be preserved, to execute their rage, filthiness, and folly.
They have no other design or end of these things; and God will give none of
them. And it is a foolish thing in any man to trust God to be preserved in sin.
It is true, their folly is their wisdom, considering their state and condition.
It is a folly to trust in God to live in sin, and despise the counsel of the
poor. John Owen.
Verse 6. "Ye
have made a mock of the counsel of the poor:" and why? "because
the Lord is his trust." This is the very true cause, whatsoever other
pretenses there be. Whence observe this doctrine; that true godliness is that
which breeds the quarrel between God's children and the wicked. Ungodly men may
say what they list, as, namely, that they hate and dislike them for that they
are proud and saucy in meddling with their betters; for that they are so
scornful and disdainful towards their neighbours; for that they are malcontent,
and turbulent, and I know not what; but the true reason is yielded by the Lord
in this place, to wit, because they make him their stay and their confidence,
and will not depend upon lying vanities as the men of the world do. John
Dod.
Verse 6. "The
Lord is his refuge." Be persuaded actually to hide yourselves with
Jesus Christ. To have a hiding-place and not to use it, is as bad as to want
one; fly to Christ; run into the holes of this Rock. Ralph Robinson,
1656.
Verse 7. "O
that salvation," etc. Like as when we be in quiet, we do pray either
nothing at all, or very coldly unto God; so in adversity and trouble, our
spirit is stirred up and enkindled to prayer, whereof we do find examples
everywhere in the Psalms of David; so that affliction is as it were the sauce
of prayer, as hunger is unto meat. Truly their prayer is usually unsavoury who
are without afflictions, and many of them do not pray truly, but do rather
counterfeit a prayer, or pray for custom. Wolfgang Musculus, 1497-1563.
Verse 7. "Out
of Zion." Zion, the church is no Saviour, neither dare we trust in her
ministers or ordinances, and yet salvation comes to men through her. The hungry
multitudes are fed by the hands of the disciples, who delight to act as the
servitors of the gospel feast. Zion becomes the site of the fountain of healing
waters which shall flow east and west till all nations drink thereat. What a
reason for maintaining in the utmost purity and energy all the works of the
church of the living God! C. H. S.
Verse 7. "When
the Lord turneth the captivity of his people: then shall Jacob rejoice, and
Israel shall be glad." Notice that by Israel we are to understand
those other sheep which the Lord has that are not of this fold, but which he
must also bring, that they may hear his voice. For it is Israel, not Judah;
Sion, not Jerusalem. "When the Lord turneth the captivity of his people."
"Then," as it is in the parallel passage, "were we
like unto them that dream." A glorious dream indeed, in which, fancy
what we may, the half of the beauty, the half of the splendour, will not be
reached by our imagination. "The captivity" of our souls to
the law of concupiscence, of our bodies to the law of death; the captivity of
our senses to fear; the captivity, the conclusion of which is so beautifully
expressed by one of our greatest poets: namely, Giles Fletcher (1588-1623),
in his "Christ's Triumph over Death."
"No sorrow
now hangs clouding on their brow;
No bloodless malady impales their face;
No age drops on their hairs his silver snow;
No nakedness their bodies doth embase;
No poverty themselves and theirs disgrace;
No fear of death the joy of life devours;
No unchaste sleep their precious time deflower;
No loss, no grief, no change, wait on their winged hours."
John
Mason Neale, in loc.
HINTS TO THE
VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1 (first
clause). The folly of atheism.
Verse 1. Atheism of
the heart. Jamieson's Sermons on the Heart.
Verse 1 (whole
verse). Describe:
I.
The creed of the fool.
II.
The fool who holds the creed: or thus, Atheism.
I.
Its source: "the heart."
II.
Its creed: "no God."
III.
Its fruits: "corrupt," etc.
Verse 1.
I.
The great source of sin—alienation from God.
II.
Its place of dominion—the heart.
III.
Its effect upon the intellect— makes man a fool.
IV.
Its manifestations in the life—acts of commission and omission.
Verse 1 (last
clause). The lantern of Diogenes. Hold it up upon all classes, and denounce
their sins.
Verse 2.
I.
Condescending search.
II.
Favoured subjects.
III.
Generous intentions.
Verse 2. What God
looks for, and what we should look for. Men usually are quick to see things
congruous to their own character.
Verses 2, 3. God's
search for a naturally good man; the result; lessons to be learned therefrom.
Verse 3. Total
depravity of the race.
Verse 4. "Have
all the workers of iniquity no knowledge?" If men rightly knew God,
his law, the evil of sin, the torment of hell, and other great truths, would
they sin as they do? Or if they know these and yet continue in their
iniquities, how guilty and foolish they are! Answer the question both
positively and negatively, and it supplies material for a searching discourse.
Verse 4 (first
clause). The crying sin of transgressing against light and knowledge.
Verse 4 (last
clause). Absence of prayer, a sure mark of a graceless state.
Verse 5. The foolish
fears of those who have no fear of God.
Verse 5. The Lord's
nearness to the righteous, its consequences to the persecutor, and its
encouragement to saints.
Verse 6. The wisdom
of making the Lord our refuge. John Owen.
Verse 6. Describe,
I.
The poor man here intended.
II.
His counsel.
III.
His reproach.
IV.
His refuge.
Verse 6. Trust in
God, a theme for mockery to fools only. Show its wisdom.
Verse 7. Longings
for the advent.
Verse 7. "Out
of Zion." The church, the channel of blessings to men.
Verse 7. Discourse
to promote revival.
I.
Frequent condition of the church, "captivity."
II.
Means of revival—the Lord's coming in grace.
III.
Consequences, "rejoice," "be glad."
Verse 7. Captivity
of soul. What it is. How provided for. How accomplished. With what results.
── C.H. Spurgeon《The Treasury of David》