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Psalm Thirty-one
Psalm 31
Chapter Contents
Confidence in God. (1-8) Prayer in trouble. (9-18) Praise
for God's goodness. (19-24)
Commentary on Psalm 31:1-8
(Read Psalm 31:1-8)
Faith and prayer must go together, for the prayer of
faith is the prevailing prayer. David gave up his soul in a special manner to
God. And with the words, ver. 5, our Lord Jesus yielded up his last breath on
the cross, and made his soul a free-will offering for sin, laying down his life
as a ransom. But David is here as a man in distress and trouble. And his great
care is about his soul, his spirit, his better part. Many think that while
perplexed about their worldly affairs, and their cares multiply, they may be
excused if they neglect their souls; but we are the more concerned to look to
our souls, that, though the outward man perish, the inward man may suffer no
damage. The redemption of the soul is so precious, that it must have ceased for
ever, if Christ had not undertaken it. Having relied on God's mercy, he will be
glad and rejoice in it. God looks upon our souls, when we are in trouble, to
see whether they are humbled for sin, and made better by the affliction. Every
believer will meet with such dangers and deliverances, until he is delivered
from death, his last enemy.
Commentary on Psalm 31:9-18
(Read Psalm 31:9-18)
David's troubles made him a man of sorrows. Herein he was
a type of Christ, who was acquainted with grief. David acknowledged that his
afflictions were merited by his own sins, but Christ suffered for ours. David's
friends durst not give him any assistance. Let us not think it strange if thus
deserted, but make sure of a Friend in heaven who will not fail. God will be
sure to order and dispose all for the best, to all those who commit their
spirits also into his hand. The time of life is in God's hands, to lengthen or
shorten, make bitter or sweet, according to the counsel of his will. The way of
man is not in himself, nor in our friend's hands, nor in our enemies' hands,
but in God's. In this faith and confidence he prays that the Lord would save
him for his mercies's sake, and not for any merit of his own. He prophesies the
silencing of those that reproach and speak evil of the people of God. There is
a day coming, when the Lord will execute judgment upon them. In the mean time,
we should engage ourselves by well-doing, if possible, to silence the ignorance
of foolish men.
Commentary on Psalm 31:19-24
(Read Psalm 31:19-24)
Instead of yielding to impatience or despondency under
our troubles, we should turn our thoughts to the goodness of the Lord towards
those who fear and trust in Him. All comes to sinners through the wondrous gift
of the only-begotten Son of God, to be the atonement for their sins. Let not
any yield to unbelief, or think, under discouraging circumstances, that they
are cut off from before the eyes of the Lord, and left to the pride of men.
Lord, pardon our complaints and fears; increase our faith, patience, love, and
gratitude; teach us to rejoice in tribulation and in hope. The deliverance of
Christ, with the destruction of his enemies, ought to strengthen and comfort
the hearts of believers under all their afflictions here below, that having
suffered courageously with their Master, they may triumphantly enter into his
joy and glory.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Psalms》
Psalm 31
Verse 1
[1] In
thee, O LORD, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy
righteousness.
Ashamed — Of
my confidence in thy promise.
Deliver me —
According to thy faithfulness and goodness.
Verse 5
[5] Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of
truth.
My spirit — My
soul or life; to preserve it from the malice of mine enemies.
For —
Thou hast delivered me formerly, and therefore I commit myself to thee for the
future.
O Lord, … —
Who hast shewed thyself so, in making good thy promise.
Verse 6
[6] I
have hated them that regard lying vanities: but I trust in the LORD.
Vanities —
Idols, which are often called Vanities, as Deuteronomy 32:21. Or, curious arts, and all
sorts of divinations.
Verse 7
[7] I
will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble;
thou hast known my soul in adversities;
Known —
Loved me, and cared for me.
Verse 8
[8] And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet
in a large room.
Room —
Made way for me to escape, when I was encompassed by them.
Verse 9
[9] Have
mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief,
yea, my soul and my belly.
Grief —
With continual weeping.
Verse 10
[10] For
my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth
because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed.
Iniquity —
For the punishment of mine iniquity.
Consumed —
The juice and marrow of them bring almost dried up with grief.
Verse 11
[11] I
was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and
a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me.
A fear —
They were afraid to give me any countenance or assistance.
Fled — To
prevent their own danger and ruin.
Verse 12
[12] I am
forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel.
A broken vessel —
Which is irreparable, and useless, and therefore despised by all.
Verse 13
[13] For
I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took
counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.
Fear —
Just cause of fear.
Verse 15
[15] My
times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them
that persecute me.
My times —
All the affairs and events of my life, are wholly in thy power.
Verse 19
[19] Oh
how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee;
which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!
Laid up —
His favour is not always manifested, to them, but it is laid up for them in his
treasure, whence it shall be drawn forth when they need it, and he sees it fit.
Before —
Publickly and in the view of the world.
Verse 20
[20] Thou
shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt
keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.
The secret —
Or, as in the secret of thy presence: either, 1. As if they were in thy
presence chamber, where thine own eye and hand girdeth them, from all the
assaults of their enemies; called his secret, partly, because the greatest part
of the world are strangers to God and his presence: and partly, because it is a
safe and secure place, such as secret and unknown places are. Or, 2. As if they
were in the secret of God's tabernacle, as it is called, Psalms 27:5, the place of God's special
presence, where none might enter save the high-priest. With thy secret favour
and providence, which saves them by hidden and unknown methods.
From —
From their vain-glorious boasting and threats, and from their bad and insolent
attempts.
Pavilion —
Or, tabernacle.
Strife —
From contentious and slandering tongues.
Verse 21
[21]
Blessed be the LORD: for he hath shewed me his marvellous kindness in a strong
city.
City — In
Keilah: where God wonderfully preserved me.
Verse 22
[22] For
I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou
heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.
Haste —
When my passion took away my consideration, and weakened my faith.
Cut off —
Cast out of thy sight, and out of the care of thy gracious providence.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Psalms》
Exposition
Explanatory Notes and
Quaint Sayings
Hints to the Village
Preacher
Other Works
TITLE. To the Chief
Musician—a Psalm of David. The dedication to the chief musician proves that
this song of mingled measures and alternate strains of grief and woe was
intended for public singing, and thus a deathblow is given to the notion that
nothing but praise should be sung. Perhaps the Psalms, thus marked, might have
been set aside as too mournful for temple worship, if special care had not been
taken by the Holy Spirit to indicate them as being designed for the public
edification of the Lord's people. May there not also be in Psalms thus
designated a peculiar distinct reference to the Lord Jesus? He certainly
manifests himself very clearly in the twenty-second, which bears this title;
and in the one before us we plainly hear his dying voice in the fifth verse. Jesus
is chief everywhere, and in all the holy songs of his saints he is the chief
musician. The surmises that Jeremiah penned this Psalm need no other answer
than the fact that it is "a Psalm of David."
SUBJECT. The psalmist
in dire affliction appeals to his God for help with much confidence and holy
importunity, and ere long finds his mind so strengthened that he magnifies the
Lord for his great goodness. Some have thought that the occasion in his
troubled life which led to this Psalm, was the treachery of the men of Keilah,
and we have felt much inclined to this conjecture; but after reflection it
seems to us that its very mournful tone, and its allusion to his iniquity
demand a later date, and it may be more satisfactory to illustrate it by the
period when Absalom had rebelled, and his courtiers were fled from him, while
lying lips spread a thousand malicious rumours against him. It is perhaps quite
as well that we have no settled season mentioned, or we might have been so busy
in applying it to David's case as to forget its suitability to our own.
DIVISION. There are no
great lines of demarcation; throughout the strain undulates, falling into
valleys of mourning, and rising with hills of confidence. However, we may for
convenience arrange it thus: David testifying his confidence in God pleads for
help, Ps 31:1-6; expresses gratitude for mercies received, Ps 31:7-8;
particularly describes his case, Ps 31:9-13; vehemently pleads for deliverance,
Ps 31:14-18; confidently and thankfully expects a blessing, Ps 31:19-22; and
closes by showing the bearing of his case upon all the people of God.
Verse
1. In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Nowhere else do I fly
for shelter, let the tempest howl as it may. The psalmist has one refuge, and
that the best one. He casts out the great sheet anchor of his faith in the time
of storm. Let other things be doubtful, yet the fact that he relies on Jehovah,
David lays down most positively; and he begins with it, lest by stress of trial
he should afterwards forget it. This avowal of faith is the fulcrum by means of
which he labours to uplift and remove his trouble; he dwells upon it as a
comfort to himself and a plea with God. No mention is made of merit, but faith
relies upon divine favour and faithfulness, and upon that alone. Let me
never be ashamed. How can the Lord permit the man to be ultimately put to
shame who depends alone upon him? This would not be dealing like a God of truth
and grace. It would bring dishonour upon God himself if faith were not in the
end rewarded. It will be an ill day indeed for religion when trust in God
brings no consolation and no assistance. Deliver me in thy righteousness.
Thou are not unjust to desert a trustful soul, or to break thy promises; thou
wilt vindicate the righteousness of thy mysterious providence, and give me
joyful deliverance. Faith dares to look even to the sword of justice for
protection: while God is righteous, faith will not be left to be proved futile
and fanatical. How sweetly the declaration of faith in this first verse sounds,
if we read it at the foot of the cross, beholding the promise of the Father as
yea and amen through the Son; viewing God with faith's eye as he stands
revealed in Jesus crucified.
Verse
2. Bow down thine ear to me. Condescend to my low estate;
listen to me attentively as one who would hear every word. Heaven with its
transcendent glories of harmony might well engross the divine ear, but yet the
Lord has an hourly regard to the weakest moanings of his poorest people. Deliver
me speedily. We must not set times or seasons, yet in submission we may ask
for swift as well as sure mercy. God's mercies are often enhanced in value by
the timely haste which he uses in their bestowal; if they came late they might
be too late—but he rides upon a cherub, and flies upon the wings of the wind
when he intends the good of his beloved. Be thou my strong rock. Be my
Engedi, my Adullam; my immutable, immovable, impregnable, sublime, resort. For
an house of defence to save me, wherein I may dwell in safety, not
merely running to thee for temporary shelter, but abiding in thee for eternal
salvation. How very simply does the good man pray, and yet with what weight of
meaning! he uses no ornamental flourishes, he is too deeply in earnest to be
otherwise than plain: it were well if all who engage in public prayer would
observe the same rule.
Verse
3. For thou art my rock and my fortress. Here the tried soul
avows yet again its full confidence in God. Faith's repetitions are not vain.
The avowal of our reliance upon God in times of adversity is a principle method
of glorifying him. Active service is good, but the passive confidence of faith
is not one jot less esteemed in the sight of God. The words before us appear to
embrace and fasten upon the Lord with a fiducial grip which is not to be
relaxed. The two personal pronouns, like sure nails, lay hold upon the
faithfulness of the Lord. O for grace to have our heart fixed in firm
unstaggering belief in God! The figure of a rock and a fortress may be
illustrated to us in these times by the vast fortress of Gibraltar, often
besieged by our enemies, but never wrested from us: ancient strongholds, though
far from impregnable by our modes of warfare, were equally important in those
remoter ages—when in the mountain fastnesses, feeble bands felt themselves to
be secure. Note the singular fact that David asked the Lord to be his rock Ps
31:2 because he was his rock; and learn from it that we may pray to enjoy in
experience what we grasp by faith. Faith is the foundation of prayer. Therefore
for thy name's sake lead me, and guide me. The psalmist argues like a
logician with his fors and therefores. Since I do sincerely trust thee, saith
he, O my God, be my director. To lead and to guide are two things very like
each other, but patient thought will detect different shades of meaning,
especially as the last may mean provide for me. The double word
indicates an urgent need—we require double direction, for we are fools, and the
way is rough. Lead me as a soldier, guide me as a traveller! lead me as a babe,
guide me as a man; lead me when thou art with me, but guide me even if thou be
absent; lead me by thy hand, guide me by thy word. The argument used is one
which is fetched from the armoury of free grace: not for my own sake, but for
thy name's sake guide me. Our appeal is not to any fancied virtue in our
own names, but to the glorious goodness and graciousness which shines
resplendent in the character of Israel's God. It is not possible that the Lord
should suffer his own honour to be tarnished, but this would certainly be the
case if those who trusted him should perish. This was Moses' plea, "What
wilt thou do unto thy great name?"
Verse
4. Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me.
The enemies of David were cunning as well as mighty; if they could not conquer
him by power, they would capture him by craft. Our own spiritual foes are of
the same order—they are of the serpent's brood, and seek to ensnare us by their
guile. The prayer before us supposes the possibility of the believer being
caught like a bird; and, indeed, we are so foolish that this often happens. So
deftly does the fowler do his work that simple ones are soon surrounded by it.
The text asks that even out of the meshes of the net the captive one may be delivered;
and this is a proper petition, and one which can be granted; from between the
jaws of the lion and out of the belly of hell can eternal love rescue the
saint. It may need a sharp pull to save a soul from the net of
temptation, and a mighty pull to extricate a man from the snares of malicious
cunning, but the Lord is equal to every emergency, and the most skilfully
placed nets of the hunter shall never be able to hold his chosen ones. Woe unto
those who are so clever at net laying: they who tempt others shall be destroyed
themselves. Villains who lay traps in secret shall be punished in public. For
thou art my strength. What an inexpressible sweetness is to be found in
these few words! How joyfully may we enter upon labours, and how cheerfully may
we endure sufferings when we can lay hold upon celestial power. Divine power
will rend asunder all the toils of the foe, confound their politics and
frustrate their knavish tricks; he is a happy man who has such matchless might
engaged upon his side. Our own strength would be of little service when
embarrassed in the nets of base cunning, but the Lord's strength is ever
available; we have but to invoke it, and we shall find it near at hand. If by
faith we are depending alone upon the strength of the strong God of Israel, we
may use our holy reliance as a plea in supplication.
Verse
5. Into thine hand I commit my spirit. These living words of
David were our Lord's dying words, and have been frequently used by holy men in
their hour of departure. Be assured that they are good, choice, wise, and
solemn words; we may use them now and in the last tremendous hour. Observe, the
object of the good man's solicitude in life and death is not his body or his
estate, but his spirit; this is his jewel, his secret treasure; if this be
safe, all is well. See what he does with his pearl! He commits it to the hand
of his God; it came from him, it is his own, he has aforetime sustained it, he
is able to keep it, and it is most fit that he should receive it. All things
are safe in Jehovah's hands; what we entrust to the Lord will be secure, both
now and in that day of days towards which we are hastening. Without reservation
the good man yields himself to his heavenly Father's hand; it is enough for him
to be there; it is peaceful living and glorious dying to repose in the care of
heaven. At all times we should commit and continue to commit our all to Jesus'
sacred care, then, though life may hang on a thread, and adversities may
multiply as the sands of the sea, our soul shall dwell at ease, and delight
itself in quiet resting places. Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.
Redemption is a solid base for confidence. David had not known Calvary as we
have done, but temporal redemption cheered him; and shall not eternal
redemption yet more sweetly console us? Past deliverances are strong pleas for
present assistance. What the Lord has done he will do again, for he changes
not. He is a God of veracity, faithful to his promises, and gracious to his
saints; he will not turn away from his people.
Verse
6. I have hated them that regard lying vanities. Those who
will not lean upon the true arm of strength, are sure to make to themselves
vain confidences. Man must have a god, and if he will not adore the only living
and true God, he makes a fool of himself, and pays superstitious regard to a
lie, and waits with anxious hope upon a base delusion. Those who did this were
none of David's friends; he had a constant dislike to them: the verb includes
the present as well as the past tense. He hated them for hating God; he would
not endure the presence of idolaters; his heart was set against them for their
stupidity and wickedness. He had no patience with their superstitious
observances, and calls their idols vanities of emptiness, nothings of nonentity.
Small courtesy is more than Romanists and Puseyists deserve for their
fooleries. Men who make gods of their riches, their persons, their wits, or
anything else, are to be shunned by those whose faith rests upon God in Christ
Jesus; and so far from being envied, they are to be pitied as depending upon
utter vanities. But I trust in the Lord. This might be very
unfashionable, but the psalmist dared to be singular. Bad example should not
make us less decided for the truth, but the rather in the midst of general
defection we should grow the more bold. This adherence to his trust in Jehovah
is the great plea employed all along: the troubled one flies into the arms of
his God, and ventures everything upon the divine faithfulness.
Verse
7. I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy. For mercy past he
is grateful, and for mercy future, which he believingly anticipates, he is
joyful. In our most importunate intercessions, we must find breathing time to
bless the Lord: praise is never a hindrance to prayer, but rather a lively
refreshment therein. It is delightful at intervals to hear the notes of the
high sounding cymbals when the dolorous sackbut rules the hour. Those two
words, glad and rejoice, are an instructive reduplication, we
need not stint ourselves in our holy triumph; this wine we may drink in bowls
without fear of excess. For thou hast considered my trouble. Thou hast
seen it, weighed it, directed it, fixed a bound to it, and in all ways made it
a matter of tender consideration. A man's consideration means the full exercise
of his mind; what must God's consideration be? Thou hast known my soul in
adversities. God owns his saints when others are ashamed to acknowledge
them; he never refuses to know his friends. He thinks not the worse of them for
their rags and tatters. He does not misjudge them and cast them off when their
faces are lean with sickness, or their hearts heavy with despondency. Moreover,
the Lord Jesus knows us in our pangs in a peculiar sense, by having a deep
sympathy towards us in them all; when no others can enter into our griefs, from
want of understanding them experimentally, Jesus dives into the lowest depths
with us, comprehending the direst of our woes, because he has felt the same.
Jesus is a physician who knows every case; nothing is new to him. When we are
so bewildered as not to know our own state, he knows us altogether. He has
known us and will know us: O for grace to know more of him! "Man, know
thyself, "is a good philosophic precept, but "Man, thou art known of
God, "is a superlative consolation. Adversities in the
plural—"Many are the afflictions of the righteous."
Verse
8. And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. To be
shut up in one's hand is to be delivered over absolutely to his power; now, the
believer is not in the hand of death or the devil, much less is he in the power
of man. The enemy may get a temporary advantage over us, but we are like men in
prison with the door open; God will not let us be shut up, he always provides a
way of escape. Thou hast set my feet in a large room. Blessed be God for
liberty: civil liberty is valuable, religious liberty is precious, spiritual
liberty is priceless. In all troubles we may praise God if these are left. Many
saints have had their greatest enlargements of soul when their affairs have
been in the greatest straits. Their souls have been in a large room when their
bodies have been lying in Bonner's coal hole, or in some other narrow dungeon.
Grace has been equal to every emergency; and more than this, it has made the emergency
an opportunity for displaying itself.
Verse
9. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble. Now, the
man of God comes to a particular and minute description of his sorrowful case.
He unbosoms his heart, lays bare his wounds, and expresses his inward
desolation. This first sentence pithily comprehends all that follows, it is the
text for his lamenting discourse. Misery moves mercy—no more reasoning is
needed. "Have mercy" is the prayer; the argument is as prevalent as
it is plain and personal, "I am in trouble." Mine eye is consumed
with grief. Dim and sunken eyes are plain indicators of failing health.
Tears draw their salt from our strength, and floods of them are very apt to
consume the source from which they spring. God would have us tell him the
symptoms of our disease, not for his information, but to show our sense of
need. Yea, my soul and my belly (or body). Soul and body are so
intimately united, that one cannot decline without the other feeling it. We, in
these days, are not strangers to the double sinking which David describes; we
have been faint with physical suffering, and distracted with mental distress:
when two such seas meet, it is well for us that the Pilot at the helm is at
home in the midst of the water floods, and makes storms to become the triumph
of his art.
Verse
10. For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing.
It had become his daily occupation to mourn; he spent all his days in the
dungeon of distress. The sap and essence of his existence was being consumed, as
a candle is wasted while it burns. His adversities were shortening his days,
and digging for him an early grave. Grief is a sad market to spend all our
wealth of life in, but a far more profitable trade may be driven there than in
Vanity Fair; it is better to go to the house of mourning than the house of
feasting. Black is good wear. The salt of tears is a healthy medicine. Better
spend our years in sighing than in sinning. The two members of the sentence
before us convey the same idea; but there are no idle words in Scripture, the
reduplication is the fitting expression of fervency and importunity. My
strength faileth because of mine iniquity. David sees to the bottom of his
sorrow, and detects sin lurking there. It is profitable trouble which leads us
to trouble ourselves about our iniquity. Was this the psalmist's foulest crime
which now gnawed at his heart, and devoured his strength? Very probably it was
so. Sinful morsels, though sweet in the mouth, turn out to be poison in the
bowels: if we wantonly give a portion of our strength to sin, it will by and by
take the remainder from us. We lose both physical, mental, moral, and spiritual
vigour by iniquity. And my bones are consumed. Weakness penetrated the
innermost parts of his system, the firmest parts of his frame felt the general
decrepitude. A man is in a piteous plight when he comes to this.
Verse
11. I was a reproach among all mine enemies. They were pleased
to have something to throw at me; my mournful estate was music to them, because
they maliciously interpreted it to be a judgment from heaven upon me. Reproach
is little thought of by those who are not called to endure it, but he who
passes under its lash knows how deep it wounds. The best of men may have the
bitterest foes, and be subject to the most cruel taunts. But especially
among my neighbours. Those who are nearest can stab the sharpest. We feel
most the slights of those who should have shown us sympathy. Perhaps David's
friends feared to be identified with his declining fortunes, and therefore
turned against him in order to win the mercy if not the favour of his
opponents. Self interest rules the most of men: ties the most sacred are soon
snapped by its influence, and actions of the utmost meanness are perpetrated
without scruple. And a fear to mine acquaintance. The more intimate
before, the more distant did they become. Our Lord was denied by Peter,
betrayed by Judas, and forsaken by all in the hour of his utmost need. All the
herd turn against a wounded deer. The milk of human kindness curdles when a
despised believer is the victim of slanderous accusations. They that did see
me without fled from me. Afraid to be seen in the company of a man so
thoroughly despised, those who once courted his society hastened from him as
though he had been infected with the plague. How villainous a thing is slander
which can thus make an eminent saint, once the admiration of his people, to
become the general butt, the universal aversion of mankind! To what extremities
of dishonour may innocence be reduced!
Verse
12. I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind. All David's
youthful prowess was now gone from remembrance; he had been the saviour of his
country, but his services were buried in oblivion. Men soon forget the deepest
obligations; popularity is evanescent to the last degree: he who is in every
one's mouth today may be forgotten by all tomorrow. A man had better be dead
than be smothered in slander. Of the dead we say nothing but good, but in the
psalmist's case they said nothing but evil. We must not look for the reward of
philanthropy this side of heaven, for men pay their best servants but sorry
wages, and turn them out of doors when no more is to be got out of them. I
am like a broken vessel, a thing useless, done for, worthless, cast aside,
forgotten. Sad condition for a king! Let us see herein the portrait of the King
of kings in his humiliation, when he made himself of no reputation, and took
upon him the form of a servant.
Verse
13. For I have heard the slander of many. One slanderous viper
is death to all comfort—what must be the venom of a whole brood? What the ear
does not hear the heart does not rue; but in David's case the accusing voices
were loud enough to break in upon his quiet—foul mouths had grown so bold, that
they poured forth their falsehoods in the presence of their victim. Shimei was
but one of a class, and his cry of "Go up, thou bloody man, "was but
the common speech of thousands of the sons of Belial. All Beelzebub's pack of
hounds may be in full cry against a man, and yet he may be the Lord's anointed.
Fear was on every side. He was encircled with fearful suggestions,
threatenings, remembrances, and forebodings; no quarter was clear from
incessant attack. While they took counsel together against me, they devised
to take away my life. The ungodly act in concert in their onslaughts upon
the excellent of the earth: it is to be wondered at that sinners should often
be better agreed than saints, and generally set about their wicked work with
much more care and foresight than the righteous exhibit in holy enterprises.
Observe the cruelty of a good man's foes! they will be content with nothing
less than his blood—for this they plot and scheme. Better fall into the power
of a lion than under the will of malicious persecutors, for the beast may spare
its prey if it be fed to the full, but malice is unrelenting and cruel as a
wolf. Of all fiends the most cruel is envy. How sorely was the psalmist bestead
when the poisoned arrows of a thousand bows were all aimed at his life! Yet in
all this his faith did not fail him, nor did his God forsake him. Here is
encouragement for us.
Verses
14-18. In this section of the Psalm he renews his prayers, urging the
same pleas as at first: earnest wrestlers attempt over and over again the same
means of gaining their point.
Verse
14. But I trusted in thee, O Lord. Notwithstanding all
afflicting circumstances, David's faith maintained its hold, and was not turned
aside from its object. What a blessed saving clause is this! So long as our
faith, which is our shield, is safe, the battle may go hard, but its ultimate
result is no matter of question; if that could be torn from us, we should be as
surely slain as were Saul and Jonathan upon the high places of the field. I
said, Thou art my God. He proclaimed aloud his determined allegiance to
Jehovah. He was no fair weather believer, he could hold to his faith in a sharp
frost, and wrap it about him as a garment fitted to keep out all the ills of
time. He who can say what David did need not envy Cicero his eloquence:
"Thou art my God, "has more sweetness in it than any other utterance
which human speech can frame. Note that this adhesive faith is here mentioned
as an argument with God to honour his own promise by sending a speedy
deliverance.
Verse
15. My times are in thy hand. The sovereign arbiter of destiny
holds in his own power all the issues of our life; we are not waifs and strays
upon the ocean of fate, but are steered by infinite wisdom towards our desired
haven. Providence is a soft pillow for anxious heads, an anodyne for care, a
grave for despair. Deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them
that persecute me. It is lawful to desire escape from persecution if it be
the Lord's will; and when this may not be granted us in the form which we
desire, sustaining grace will give us deliverance in another form, by enabling
us to laugh to scorn all the fury of the foe.
Verse
16. Make thy face to shine upon thy servant. Give me the
sunshine of heaven in my soul, and I will defy the tempests of earth. Permit me
to enjoy a sense of thy favour, O Lord, and a consciousness that thou art
pleased with my manner of life, and all men may frown and slander as they will.
It is always enough for a servant if he pleases his master; others may be
dissatisfied, but he is not their servant, they do not pay him his wages, and
their opinions have no weight with him. Save me for thy mercies' sake.
The good man knows no plea but mercy; whoever might urge legal pleas David
never dreamed of it.
Verse
17. Let me not be ashamed, O Lord; for I have called upon thee.
Put not my prayers to the blush! Do not fill profane mouths with jeers at my
confidence in my God. Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in
the grave. Cause them to their amazement to see my wrongs righted and their
own pride horribly confounded. A milder spirit rules our prayers under the
gentle reign of the Prince of Peace, and, therefore, we can only use such words
as these in their prophetic sense, knowing as we do full well, that shame and
the silence of death are the best portion that ungodly sinners can expect. That
which they desired for despised believers shall come upon themselves by a
decree of retributive justice, at which they cannot cavil—"As he loved
mischief, so let it come upon him."
Verse
18. Let the lying lips be put to silence. A right good and
Christian prayer; who but a bad man would give liars more license than need be?
May God silence them either by leading them to repentance, by putting them to
thorough shame, or by placing them in positions where what they may say will
stand for nothing. Which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously
against the righteous. The sin of slanderers lies partly in the matter of
their speech; "they speak grievous things; "things cutting deep into
the feelings of good men, and wounding them sorely in that tender place—their
reputations. The sin is further enhanced by the manner of their speech; they
speak proudly and contemptuously; they talk as if they themselves were the
cream of society, and the righteous the mere scum of vulgarity. Proud thoughts
of self are generally attended by debasing estimates of others. The more room
we take up ourselves, the less we can afford our neighbours. What wickedness it
is that unworthy characters should always be the loudest in railing at good
men! They have no power to appreciate moral worth of which they are utterly
destitute, and yet they have the effrontery to mount the judgment seat, and
judge the men compared with whom they are as so much chaff. Holy indignation
may well prompt us to desire anything which may rid the world of such
unbearable impertinence and detestable arrogance.
Verses
19-22. Being full of faith, the psalmist gives glory to God for the
mercy which he is assured will be his position.
Verse
19. Oh how great is thy goodness. Is it not singular to find
such a joyful sentence in connection with so much sorrow? Truly the life of
faith is a miracle. When faith led David to his God, she set him singing at
once. He does not tell us how great was God's goodness, for he could not; there
are no measures which can set forth the immeasurable goodness of Jehovah, who
is goodness itself. Holy amazement uses interjections where adjectives utterly
fail. Notes of exclamation suit us when words of explanation are of no avail.
If we cannot measure we can marvel; and though we may not calculate with
accuracy, we can adore with fervency. Which thou hast laid up for them that
fear thee. The psalmist in contemplation divides goodness into two parts,
that which is in store and that which is wrought out. The Lord has laid up in
reserve for his people supplies beyond all count. In the treasury of the
covenant, in the field of redemption, in the caskets of the promises, in the
granaries of providence, the Lord has provided for all the needs which can
possibly occur to his chosen. We ought often to consider the laid up goodness
of God which has not yet been distributed to the chosen, but is already
provided for them: if we are much in such contemplations, we shall be led to feel
devout gratitude, such as glowed in the heart of David. Which thou hast
wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men. Heavenly mercy
is not all hidden in the storehouse; in a thousand ways it has already revealed
itself on behalf of those who are bold to avow their confidence in God; before
their fellow men this goodness of the Lord has been displayed, that a faithless
generation might stand rebuked. Overwhelming are the proofs of the Lord's
favour to believers, history teems with amazing instances, and our own lives
are full of prodigies of grace. We serve a good Master. Faith receives a large
reward even now, but looks for her full inheritance in the future. Who would
not desire to take his lot with the servants of a Master whose boundless love
fills all holy minds with astonishment?
Verse
20. Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the
pride of man. Pride is a barbed weapon: the proud man's contumely is iron
which entereth into the soul; but those who trust in God, are safely housed in
the Holy of holies, the innermost court, into which no man may dare intrude;
here in the secret dwelling place of God the mind of the saint rests in peace,
which the foot of pride cannot disturb. Dwellers at the foot of the cross of
Christ grow callous to the sneers of the haughty. The wounds of Jesus distil a
balsam which heals all the scars which the jagged weapons of contempt can
inflict upon us; in fact, when armed with the same mind which was in Christ
Jesus, the heart is invulnerable to all the darts of pride. Thou shalt keep
them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. Tongues are more to
be dreaded than beasts of prey—and when they strive, it is as though a whole
pack of wolves were let loose; but the believer is secure even in this peril,
for the royal pavilion of the King of kings shall afford him quiet shelter and
serene security. The secret tabernacle of sacrifice, and the royal pavilion of
sovereignty afford a double security to the Lord's people in their worst
distresses. Observe the immediate action of God, "Thou shalt hide,
""Thou shalt keep, "the Lord himself is personally
present for the rescue of his afflicted.
Verse
21. Blessed be the Lord. When the Lord blesses us we cannot do
less than bless him in return. For he hath shewed me his marvellous kindness
in a strong city. Was this in Mahanaim, where the Lord gave him victory
over the hosts of Absalom? Or did he refer to Rabbath of Ammon, where he gained
signal triumphs? Or, best of all, was Jerusalem the strong city where he most
experienced the astonishing kindness of his God? Gratitude is never short of
subjects; her Ebenezers stand so close together as to wall up her path to
heaven on both sides. Whether in cities or in hamlets our blessed Lord has
revealed himself to us, we shall never forget the hallowed spots: the lonely
mount of Hermon, or the village of Emmaus, or the rock of Patmos, or the
wilderness of Horeb, are all alike renowned when God manifests himself to us in
robes of love.
Verse
22. Confession of faults is always proper; and when we reflect upon
the goodness of God, we ought to be reminded of our own errors and offences. For
I said in my haste. We generally speak amiss when we are in a hurry. Hasty
words are but for a moment on the tongue, but they often lie for years on the
conscience. I am cut off from before thine eyes. This was an unworthy
speech; but unbelief will have a corner in the heart of the firmest believer,
and out of that corner it will vent many spiteful things against the Lord if
the course of providence be not quite so smooth as nature might desire. No
saint ever was, or ever could be, cut off from before the eyes of God, and yet
no doubt many have thought so, and more than one has said so. For ever be such
dark suspicions banished from our minds. Nevertheless thou heardest the
voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee. What a mercy that if we
believe not, yet God abideth faithful, hearing prayer even when we are
labouring under doubts which dishonour his name. If we consider the hindrances
in the way of our prayers, and the poor way in which we present them, it is a
wonder of wonders that they ever prevail with heaven.
Verse
23. O love the Lord, all ye his saints. A most affecting
exhortation, showing clearly the deep love of the writer to his God: there is
the more beauty in the expression, because it reveals love toward a smiting
God, love which many waters could not quench. To bless him who gives is easy,
but to cling to him who takes away is a work of grace. All the saints are
benefited by the sanctified miseries of one, if they are led by earnest
exhortations to love their Lord the better. If saints do not love the Lord, who
will? Love is the universal debt of all the saved family: who would wish to be
exonerated from its payment? Reasons for love are given, for believing love is
not blind. For the Lord preserveth the faithful. They have to bide their
time, but the recompense comes at last, and meanwhile all the cruel malice of
their enemies cannot destroy them. And plentifully rewardeth the proud doer.
This also is cause for gratitude: pride is so detestable in its acts that he
who shall mete out to it its righteous due, deserves the love of all holy
minds.
Verse
24. Be of good courage. Keep up your spirit, let no craven
thoughts blanch your cheek. Fear weakens, courage strengthens. Victory waits
upon the banners of the brave. And he shall strengthen your heart. Power
from on high shall be given in the most effectual manner by administering force
to the fountain of vitality. So far from leaving us, the Lord will draw very
near to us in our adversity, and put his own power into us. All ye that hope
in the Lord. Every one of you, lift up your heads and sing for joy of
heart. God is faithful, and does not fail even his little children who do but hope,
wherefore then should we be afraid?
EXPLANATORY
NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Verse
1. In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Let us therefore shun
mistrust; doubt is death, trust alone is life. Let us make sure that we trust
the Lord, and never take our trust on trust. Let me never be ashamed. If
David prays against being ashamed, let us strive against it. Lovers of Jesus
should be ashamed of being ashamed. C. H. S.
Verse
1. Deliver me in thy righteousness. For supporting thy faith,
mark well whereon it may safely rest; even upon God's righteousness, as
well as upon his mercy. On this ground did the apostle in faith expect the
crown of righteousness 2Ti 4:7-8, because the Lord from whom he expected it is
a righteous judge; and the psalmist is bold to appeal to the righteousness of
God. Ps 35:24. For we may be well assured that what God's goodness, grace, and
mercy moved him to promise, his truth, his faithfulness, and righteousness will
move him to perform. William Gouge.
Verses
1-3.
Shadows
are faithless, and the rocks are false;
No trust in brass, no trust in marble walls;
Poor cots are even as safe as princes' halls.
Great God! there is no safety here below;
Thou art my fortress, thou that seemest my foe,
It is thou that strik'st the stroke, must guard the blow.
Thou art my God, by thee I fall or stand;
Thy grace hath given me courage to withstand
All tortures, but my conscience and thy hand.
I know thy justice is thyself; I know,
Just God, thy very self is mercy too;
If not to thee, where, whither shall I go?
—Francis Quarles.
Verse
2. Bow down thy ear. Listen to my complaint. Put thy ear to
my lips, that thou mayest hear all that my feebleness is capable of
uttering. We generally put our ear near to the lips of the sick and dying that we
may hear what they say. To this the text appears to allude. Adam Clarke.
Verse
2. Deliver me speedily. In praying that he might be delivered
speedily there is shown the greatness of his danger, as if he had said,
All will soon be over with my life, unless God makes haste to help me. John
Calvin. Verses 2-3. Be thou my strong rock, etc. What the Lord is
engaged to be unto us by covenant, we may pray and expect to find him in
effect. "Be thou my strong rock," saith he, "for thou
art my rock." David Dickson.
Verse
3. For thy name's sake. If merely a creature's honour, the
credit of ministers, or the glory of angels were involved, man's salvation
would indeed be uncertain. But every step involves the honour of God. We plead
for his name's sake. If God should begin and not continue, or if he
should carry on but not complete the work, all would admit that it was for some
reason that must bring reproach on the Almighty. This can never be. God was
self moved to undertake man's salvation. His glorious name makes it certain the
top stone shall be laid in glory. William S. Plumer.
Verse
3. For thy name's sake. On account of the fame of thy power,
thy goodness, thy truth, &c. Lead me. As a shepherd an erring sheep,
as a leader military bands, or as one leads another ignorant of the way. See Ge
24:27 Ne 9:12-13 Ps 23:3 73:24. Govern my counsels, my affections, and my
thoughts. Martin Geier, 1614-1681.
Verse
4. Pull me out of the net: that noted net, as the
Hebrew hath it. John Trapp.
Verse
4. Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me.
By these words, he intimates that his enemies did not only by open force come
against him, but by cunning and policy attempted to circumvent him, as when
they put him on, as Saul instructed them, to be the king's son-in-law, and to
this end set him on to get two hundred foreskins of the Philistines for a
dowry, under a pretence of goodwill, seeking his ruin; and when wait also was
laid for him to kill him in his house. But he trusted in God, and prayed to be
delivered, if there should be any the like enterprise against him hereafter. John
Mayer.
Verse
4. For thou art my strength. Omnipotence cuts the net which
policy weaves. When we poor puny things are in the net, God is not. In the old
fable the mouse set free the lion, here the lion liberates the mouse. C. H.
S.
Verse
5. Into thine hand I commit my spirit. These were the last
words of Polycarp, of Bernard, of Huss, of Jerome of Prague, of Luther, of
Melancthon, and many others. "Blessed are they, "says Luther,
"who die not only for the Lord, as martyrs, not only in the
Lord, as all believers, but likewise with the Lord, as breathing forth
their lives in these words, 'Into thine hand I commit my spirit.'" J.
J. Stewart Perowne.
Verse
5. Into thine hand I commit my spirit. These words, as they
stand in the Vulgate, were in the highest credit among our ancestors; by
whom they were used on all dangers, difficulties, and in the article of death. In
manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum, was used by the sick when about
to expire, if they were sensible; and if not, the priest said it in their
behalf. In forms of prayer for sick and dying persons, these words were
frequently inserted in Latin, though all the rest of the prayer was English;
for it was supposed there was something sovereign in the language
itself. But let not the abuse of such words hinder their usefulness. For an
ejaculation nothing can be better; and when the pious or the tempted with
confidence use them, nothing can exceed their effect. Adam Clarke.
Verse
5. Into thine hand I commit my spirit, etc. For what are the
saints to commit their spirits into the hands of God by Jesus Christ? 1. That
they may be safe; i.e., preserved in their passage to heaven, from all
the enemies and dangers that may stand in the way. When saints die, the powers
of darkness would, doubtless, if possible, hinder the ascending of their souls
to God. As they are cast out of heaven, they are filled with rage to see any
out of our world going thither. One thing, therefore, which the saint means in
committing his spirit into the hands of God, is, that the precious depositum
may be kept from all that wish or would attempt its ruin. And they are sure
that almighty power belongs to God: and if this is engaged for their
preservation, none can pluck them out of his hand. The Redeemer hath spoiled
principalities and powers, and proved it by his triumphant ascension to glory;
and hath all his and the believer's enemies in a chain, so that they shall be
more than conquerors in and through him. Angels, for order's sake, are sent
forth to minister to them and be their guard, who will faithfully attend them
their charge, till they are brought to the presence of the common Lord of both.
"I know, "saith the apostle, "whom I have believed; and I am
persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against
that day."
2.
They commit their soul into the hands of God, that they may be admitted to
dwell with him, even in that presence of his where there is fulness of joy, and
where there are pleasures for evermore: where all evil is excluded, and all
good present, to fill their desires, and find them matter of praise to all
eternity.
3.
They commit their departing spirits into the hands of God, that their bodies
may be at length raised and reunited to them, and that so they may enter at
last into the blessedness prepared for them that love him...The grounds on
which they may do this with comfort, i.e., with lively hopes of being
happy for ever, are many. To mention only two:
(a)
God's interest in them, and upon the most endearing foundation, that of
redemption. Into thine hand I commit my spirit; for thou hast redeemed me.
Redeemed me from hell and the wrath to come, by giving thy Son to die for me.
Lord, I am not only thy creature, but thy redeemed creature, bought with a
price, saith the saint. Redeemed me from the power of my inward corruption, and
from love to it, and delight in it; and with my consent hast drawn me to be
thine, and thine for ever. Lord, I am thine, save me unchangeably.
(b)
His known faithfulness. Into thine hand I commit my spirit, O Lord God of
truth. Into thine hand I commit my spirit, who hast been a God of truth,
in performing thy promises to all thy people that are gone before me out of
this world; and has been so to me hitherto, and, I cannot doubt, wilt continue
so to the end. Daniel Wilcox.
Verse
5. Into thine hand. When those hands fail me, then I am
indeed abandoned and miserable! When they sustain and keep me, then am I safe,
exalted, strong, and filled with good. Receive me then, O Eternal Father, for
the sake of our Lord's merits and words; for he, by his obedience and his
death, hath now merited from thee everything which I do not merit of myself.
Into thy hands, my Father and my God, I commend my spirit, my soul, my body, my
powers, my desires. I offer up to thy hands, all; to them I commit all that I
have hitherto been, that thou mayest forgive and restore all; my wounds, that
thou mayest heal them; my blindness, that thou mayest enlighten it; my coldness,
that thou mayest inflame it; my wicked and erring way, that thou mayest set me
forth in the right path; and all my evils, that thou mayest uproot them all
from my soul. I commend and offer up into thy most sacred hands, O my God, what
I am, which thou knowest far better than I can know, weak, wretched, wounded,
fickle, blind, deaf, dumb, poor, bare of every good, nothing, yea, less than
nothing, on account of my many sins, and more miserable than I can either know
or express. Do thou, Lord God, receive me and make me to become what he, the
divine Lamb, would have me to be. I commend, I offer up, I deliver over into
thy divine hands, all my affairs, my cares, my affections, my success, my
comforts, my labours, and everything which thou knowest to be coming upon me.
Direct all to thy honour and glory; teach me in all to do thy will, and in all
to recognise the work of thy divine hands; to seek nothing else, and with this
reflection alone to find rest and comfort in everything.
O
hands of the Eternal God, who made and still preserve the heavens and earth for
my sake, and who made me for yourselves, suffer me not ever to stray from you.
In those hands I possess my Lamb, and all I love; in them therefore must I be
also, together with him. Together with him, in these loving hands shall I sleep
and rest in peace, since he in dying left me hope in them and in their infinite
mercies, placed me within them, as my only and my special refuge. Since by
these hands I live and am what I am, make me continually to live through them,
and in them to die; in them to live in the love of our Lord, and from them only
to desire and look for every good; that from them I may at last, together with
the Lord, receive the crown. Fra Thome de Jesu.
Verse
5. Into thine hand I commit my spirit. No shadowy form of a
dark destiny stands before him at the end of his career, although he must die
on the cross, the countenance of his Father shines before him. He does not
behold his life melting away into the gloomy floods of mortality. He commends
it into the hands of his Father. It is not alone in the general spirit of
humanity, that he will continue to live. He will live on in the definite
personality of his own spirit, embraced by the special protection and
faithfulness of his Father. Thus he does not surrender his life despondingly to
death for destruction, but with triumphant consciousness to the Father for
resurrection. It was the very centre of his testament: assurance of life;
surrender of his life into the hand of a living Father. With loud voice he
exclaimed it to the world, which will for ever and ever sink into the
heathenish consciousness of death, of the fear of death, of despair of
immortality and resurrection, because it for ever and ever allows the
consciousness of the personality of God, and of personal union with him, to be
obscured and shaken. With the heart of a lion, the dying Christ once more
testified of life with an expression which was connected with the word of the
Old Testament Psalm, and testified that the Spirit of eternal life was already
operative, in prophetic anticipation, in the old covenant. Thus living as ever,
he surrendered his life, through death, to the eternally living One. His death
was the last and highest fact, the crown of his holy life. J.P. Lange, D.D.,
in "The Life of the Lord Jesus Christ." 1864.
Verse
5. Into thine hand I commit my spirit. David committed his
spirit to God that he might not die, but Christ and all Christians after him,
commit their spirit to God, that they may live for ever by death, and after
death. This Psalm is thus connected with the twenty-second Psalm. Both of these
Psalms were used by Christ on the cross. From the twenty-second he derived
those bitter words of anguish, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" From
the present Psalm he derived those last words of love and trust which he
uttered just before his death. The Psalter was the hymn book and prayer book of
Christ. Christopher Wordsworth.
Verse
6. I have hated. Holy men have strong passions, and are not
so mincing and charitable towards evil doers as smooth tongued latitudinarians
would have them. He who does not hate evil does not love good. There is such a
thing as a good hater. C. H. S
Verse
6. They that regard lying vanities. The Romanists feign
miracles of the saints to make them, as they suppose, the more glorious. They
say that the house wherein the Virgin Mary was when the angel Gabriel came unto
her was, many hundred years after, translated, first, out of Galilee into
Dalmatia, above 2,000 miles, and thence over the sea into Italy, where also it
removed from one place to another, till at length it found a place where to
abide, and many most miraculous cures, they say, were wrought by it, and that
the very trees when it came, did bow unto it. Infinite stories they have of this
nature, especially in the Legend of Saints, which they call "The Golden
Legend, "a book so full of gross stuff that Ludovicus Vives, a Papist, but
learned and ingenuous, with great indignations cried out, "What can be
more abominable than that book?" and he wondered why they should call it
"golden, "when as he that wrote it was a man "of an iron mouth
and of a leaden heart." And Melchior Canus, a Romish bishop, passed the
same censure upon that book, and complains (as Vives also had done before him),
that Laertius wrote the lives of philosophers, and Suetonius the lives of the
Caesars, more sincerely than some did the lives of the saints and martyrs. They
are most vain and superstitious in the honour which they give to the relics of
the saints; as their dead bodies, or some parts of them; their bones, flesh,
hair; yea, their clothes that they wore, or the like. "You may now,
everywhere, "saith Erasmus, "see held out for gain, "Mary's
milk, which they honour almost as much as Christ's consecrated body; prodigious
oil; so many pieces of the cross, that if they were all gathered together a
great ship would scarce carry them. Here Francis's hood set forth to view;
there the innermost garment of the Virgin Mary; in one place, Anna's comb; in
another place, Joseph's stocking; in another place, Thomas of Canterbury's
shoe; in another place, Christ's foreskin, which, though it be a thing
uncertain, they worship more religiously than Christ's whole person. Neither do
they bring forth these things as things that may be tolerated, and to please
the common people, but all religion almost is placed in them. (Erasmus, on Mt
23:5). Christopher Cartwright.
Verse
6. The sense lies thus, that heathen men, when any danger or
difficulty approacheth them, are solemnly wont to apply themselves to auguries
and divinations, and so to false gods, to receive advice and direction from
them: but doing so and observing their responses most superstitiously, they yet
gain nothing at all by it. These David detests, and keeps close to God, hoping
for no aid but from him. H. Hammond, D.D.
Verse
7. I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy. In the midst of
trouble faith will furnish matter of joy, and promise to itself gladness,
especially from the memory of by past experiences of God's mercy; as here, I
will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy. ...The ground of our gladness, when
we have found a proof of God's kindness to us should not be in the benefit so
much as in the fountain of the benefit; for this giveth us hope to drink again
of the like experience from the fountain which did send forth that benefit.
Therefore David says, I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy. David
Dickson.
Verse
7. Thou hast considered my trouble:
Man's
plea to man, is, that he never more
Will beg, and that he never begged before:
Man's plea to God, is, that he did obtain
A former suit, and, therefore sues again.
How good a God we serve, that when we sue,
Makes his old gifts the examples of his new!
—Francis Quarles.
Verse
7. Thou hast known my soul in adversities. One day a person
who, by the calamities of war, sickness, and other affliction, had been reduced
from a state of affluence to penury, came to Gotthold in great distress. He
complained that he had just met one of his former acquaintances, who was even
not distantly related to him, but that he had not condescended to bow, far less
to speak to him, and he had turned his eyes away, and passed him as if he had
been a stranger. O sir, he exclaimed with a sigh, how it pained me! I felt as
if a dagger had pierced my heart! Gotthold replied, Do not think it strange at
all. It is the way of the world to look high, and to pass unnoticed that which
is humble and lowly. I know, however, of One who, though he dwelleth on
high, humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth
Ps 113:5-6, and of whom the royal prophet testifies: Thou hast known my soul
in adversities. Yes; though we have lost our rich attire, and come to him
in rags; though our forms be wasted because of grief, and waxed old (Ps 6:7, Luther's
Version); though sickness and sorrow have consumed our beauty like a moth Ps
39:11; though blushes, and tears, and dust, overspread our face Ps 69:7, he
still recognises, and is not ashamed to own us. Comfort yourself with this, for
what harm will it do you at last, though men disown, if God the Lord have not
forgotten you? Christian Scriver.
Verse
8. He openeth and no man shutteth. Let us bless the Lord for an open
door which neither men nor devils can close. We are not in man's hands yet,
because we are in the hands of God; else had our feet been in the stocks and
not in the large room of liberty. Our enemies, if they were as able as they are
willing, would long ago have treated us as fowlers do the little birds when
they enclose them in their hand. C. H. S.
Verse
9. Mine eye is consumed with grief. This expression seems to
suggest that the eye really suffers under the influence of grief. There was an
old idea, which still prevails amongst the uninstructed, that the eye, under
extreme grief, and with a constant profuse flow of tears, might sink away and
perish under the ordeal. There is no solid foundation for this idea, but there
is a very serious form of disease of the eyes, well known to oculists by the
title of Glaucoma, which seems to be very much influenced by mental emotions of
a depressing nature. I have know many striking instances of cases in which
there has been a constitutional proneness to Glaucoma, and in which some sudden
grief has brought on a violent access of the disease and induced blindness of
an incurable nature. In such instances the explanation seems to be somewhat as
follows. It is essential to the healthy performance of the functions of the
eye, that it should possess a given amount of elasticity, which again results
from an exact balance between the amount of fluid within the eye, and the
external fibrous case or bag that contains or encloses it. If this is
disturbed, if the fluid increases unduly in quantity, and the eye becomes too
hard, pain and inflammation may be suddenly induced in the interior of the eye,
and sight may become rapidly extinguished. There are a special set of nerves
that preside over this peculiar physical condition, and keep the eye in a
proper state of elasticity; and it is a remarkable fact, that through a long
life, as a rule, we find that the eye preserves this elastic state. If,
however, the function of these nerves is impaired, as it may readily be under
the influence of extreme grief, or any depressing agent, the eye may become
suddenly hard. Until a comparatively recent date, acute Glaucoma, or sudden
hardening of the eye, attended with intense pain and inflammation, caused
complete and hopeless blindness; but in the present day it is capable of relief
by means of an operation. The effect of grief in causing this form of blindness
seems to be an explanation of the text, Mine eye is consumed with grief.
On application for information to the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, as to
the effect of grief upon the eye, we received the above, with much other
valuable information, from GEORGE CRITCHETT, Esq., the senior medical officer.
The courtesy of this gentleman, and of the secretary of that noble institution,
deserves special mention.
Verses
9-10.
If
thou wouldst learn, not knowing how to pray,
Add
but a faith, and say as beggars say: Master, I am poor, and blind, in great
distress, Hungry, and lame, and cold, and comfortless; O succour him that's
gravelled on the shelf Of pain, and want, and cannot help himself Cast down
thine eye upon a wretch, and take Some pity on me for sweet Jesus' sake: But
hold! take heed this clause be not put in, I never begged before, nor will
again.—Francis Quarles.
Verse
10. Mine iniquity. Italian version, "my pains; "because
that death and all miseries are come into the world by reason of sin, the
Scripture doth often confound the names of the cause and of the effects. John
Diodati.
Verse
10.. I find that when the saints are under trial and well humbled,
little sins raise great cries in the conscience; but in prosperity, conscience
is a pope that gives dispensations and great latitude to our hearts. The cross
is therefore as needful as the crown is glorious. Samuel Rutherford.
Verse
11. I was a reproach among all mine enemies. If anyone strives
after patience and humility, he is a hypocrite. If he allows himself in the
pleasures of this world, he is a glutton. If he seeks justice, he is impatient;
if he seeks it not, he is a fool. If he would be prudent, he is stingy; if he
would make others happy, he is dissolute. If he gives himself up to prayer, he
is vainglorious. And this is the great loss of the church, that by means like
these many are held back from goodness! which the psalmist lamenting says, I
became a reproof among all mine enemies. Chrysostom, quoted by J.M. Neale.
Verse
11. They that did see me without fled from me. I once heard
the following relation from an old man of the world, and it occurs to me, as
illustrative of what we are now considering. He was at a public assembly, and
saw there an individual withdrawing herself from the crowd, and going into a
corner of the room. He went up to her, she was an old and intimate friend of
his; he addressed himself to her—she, with a sigh, said, "Oh, I have seen
many days of trouble since we last met." What does the man of the world
do? Immediately he withdrew himself from his sorrow stricken friend and hid
himself in the crowd. Such is the sympathy of the world with Christ or his
servants. Hamilton Verschoyle.
Verse
12. I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind. A striking
instance of how the greatest princes are forgotten in death is found in the
deathbed of Louis XIV. "The Louis that was, lies forsaken, a mass of
abhorred clay; abandoned `to some poor persons, and priests of the Chapelle
Ardente, 'who make haste to put him `in two lead coffins, pouring in
abundant spirits of wine.' The new Louis with his court is rolling towards
Choisy, through the summer afternoon: the royal tears still flow; but a word
mispronounced by Monseigneur d'Artois sets them all laughing, and they weep no
more." Thomas Carlyle in "The French Revolution."
Verse
12. I am forgotten, etc. As a dying man with curtains drawn,
whom friends have no hope of, and therefore look off from; or rather like a
dead man laid aside out of sight and out of mind altogether, and buried more in
oblivion than in his grave; when the news is, "she is dead, trouble not
the Master." Lu 8:49. Anthony Tuckney, D.D., 1599-1670.
Verse
12. I am like a broken vessel. As a vessel, how profitable
soever it hath been to the owner, and how necessary for his turn, yet, when it
is broken is thrown away, and regarded no longer: even so such is the state of
a man forsaken of those whose friend he hath been so long as he was able to
stand them in stead to be of advantage to them. Robert Cawdray.
Verse
13. I have heard the slander of many. From my very childhood
when I was first sensible of the concerns of men's souls, I was possessed with
some admiration to find that everywhere the religious, godly sort of people,
who did but exercise a serious care of their own and other men's salvation,
were made the wonder and obloquy of the world, especially of the most vicious
and flagitious men; so that they that professed the same articles of faith, the
same commandments of God to be their law, and the same petitions of the Lord's
prayer to be their desire, and so professed the same religion, did everywhere
revile those that endeavoured to live in good earnest in what they said. I
thought this was impudent hypocrisy in the ungodly, worldly sort of men—to take
those for the most intolerable persons in the land who are but serious in their
own religion, and do but endeavour to perform what all their enemies also vow
and promise. If religion be bad, and our faith be not true, why do these men
profess it? If it be true, and good, why do they hate and revile them that
would live in the serious practise of it, if they will not practise it
themselves? But we must not expect reason when sin and sensuality have made men
unreasonable. But I must profess that since I observed the course of the world,
and the concord of the word and providence of God, I took it for a notable
proof of man's fall, and of the truth of the Scripture, and of the supernatural
original of true sanctification, to find such a universal enmity between the
holy and the serpentine seed, and to find Cain and Able's case so ordinarily
exemplified, and he that is born after the flesh persecuting him that is born
after the Spirit. And I think to this day it is a great and visible help for the
confirmation of our Christian faith. Richard Baxter.
Verse
13. Slander. Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure a snow, thou
shalt not escape calumny. William Shakespeare.
Verse
13. They took counsel together against me, etc. While they
mangled his reputation, they did it in such a manner as that they covered their
wickedness under the appearance of grave and considerate procedure, in
consulting among themselves to destroy him as a man who no longer ought to be
tolerated on the earth. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that his mind
was wounded by so many and so sharp temptations. John Calvin.
Verse
14. But I trusted in thee, O Lord. The rendering properly is, And
I have trusted in thee, but the Hebrew copulative particle (K), vau,
and, is used here instead of the adversative particle yet, or nevertheless.
David, setting the steadfastness of his faith in opposition to the assaults of
the temptations of which he has made mention, denies that he had ever fainted,
but rather maintains, on the contrary, that he stood firm in his hope of
deliverance from God. Nor does this imply that he boasted of being so
magnanimous and courageous that he could not be overthrown through the
infirmity of the flesh. However contrary to one another they appear, yet these
things are often joined together, as they ought to be, in the same person,
namely, that while he pines away with grief, and is deprived of all strength,
he is nevertheless supported by so strong a hope that he ceases not to call
upon God. David, therefore, was not so overwhelmed in deep sorrow, and other
direful sufferings, as that the hidden light of faith could not shine inwardly
in his heart; nor did he groan so much under the weighty load of his
temptations, as to be prevented from arousing himself to call upon God. He
struggled through many obstacles to be able to make the confession which he
here makes. He next defines the manner of his faith, namely, that he reflected
with himself thus—that God would never fail him nor forsake him. Let us mark
his manner of speech: I have said, Thou art my God. In these words he
intimates that he was so entirely persuaded of this truth, that God was his
God, that he would not admit even a suggestion to the contrary. And until this
persuasion prevails so as to take possession of our minds, we shall always
waver in uncertainty. It is, however, to be observed, that this declaration is
not only inward and secret—made rather in the heart than with the tongue—but
that it is directed to God himself, as to him who is the alone witness of it.
Nothing is more difficult, when we see our faith derided by the whole world,
than to direct our speech to God only, and to rest satisfied with this
testimony which our conscience gives us, that he is our God. And
certainly it is an undoubted proof of genuine faith, when, however fierce the
waves are which beat against us, and however sore the assaults by which we are
shaken, we hold fast this as a fixed principle, that we are constantly under
the protection of God, and can say to him freely, Thou art our God. John
Calvin.
Verse
14. Thou art my God. How much it is more worth than ten
thousand mines of gold, to be able to say, God is mine! God's servant is
apprehensive of it, and he seeth no defect, but this may be complete happiness
to him, and therefore he delights in it, and comforts himself with it. As he
did sometime who was a great courtier in King Cyrus's court, and one in favour
with him; he was to bestow his daughter in marriage to a very great man, and of
himself he had no great means; and therefore one said to him, O Sir, where will
you have means to bestow a dowry upon your daughter proportionable to her
degree? Where are your riches? He answered, What need I care, opou Kuros moi
filos Cyrus is my friend. But may not we say much more, opou Kurios moi
filos, where the Lord is our friend, that hath those excellent and glorious
attributes that cannot come short in any wants, or to make us happy, especially
we being capable of it, and made proportionable. John Stoughton's
"Righteous Man's Plea to True Happiness," 1640.
Verse
15. My times are in thy hand. It is observable that when, of
late years, men grow weary of the long and tedious compass in their voyages to
the East Indies, and would needs try a more compendious way by the North west
passage, it ever proved unsuccessful. Thus it is that we must not use any
compendious way; we may not neglect our body, nor shipwreck our health, nor
anything to hasten death, because we shall gain by it. He that maketh haste
(even this way) to be rich shall not be innocent; for our times are in God's
hands, and therefore to his holy providence we must leave them. We have a great
deal of work to do, and must not, therefore, be so greedy of our Sabbath day,
our rest, as not to be contented with our working day, our labour. Hence it is
that a composed frame of mind, like that of the apostle's Php 1:21, wherein
either to stay and work, or to go and rest, is the best temper of all. Edward
Reynolds, in J. Spencer's "Things New and Old."
Verse
15. My times. He does not use the plural number, in my
opinion, without reason; but rather to mark the variety of casualties by which
the life of man is usually harassed. John Calvin.
Verse
15. In thy hand. The watch hangs ticking against the wall,
when every tick of the watch is a sigh, and a consciousness, alas! Poor watch!
I called once to see a friend, the physician and the secretary of one of the
most noble and admirable of the asylums for the insane in this country. A poor
creature, with a clear, bright intelligence, only that some of its chords had
become unstrung, who had usually occupied itself innocently by making or
unmaking watches, had just before I called, exhibited some new, alarming
symptoms, dashing one and then another upon the stone floor, and shivering
them. Removed into a more safe room, I visited him with the secretary.
"How came you to destroy your favourite watches, so much as you loved
them, and so quiet as you are?" said my friend; and the poor patient
replied, in a tone of piercing agony, "I could not bear the tick, tick,
ticking, and so I dashed it on the pavement." But when the watch is able
to surrender itself to the maker, to the hand holding the watch, and measuring
out the moments, it becomes a sight affecting indeed, but very beautiful, very
sublime. We transfer our thoughts from the watch to the hand that holds
the watch. My times, Thy hand; the watch and the hour have a purpose,
and so are not in vain. God gives man permission to behold two things. Man can
see the whole work, the plan's completeness, also the minutest work, the first
step towards the plan's completeness. Nothing is more certain, nothing are men
more indisposed to perceive than this. We have to
"Wait
for some transcendent life,
Reserved by God to follow this."
—Robert Browning.
To
this end God's real way is made up of all the ways of our life. His hand holds
all our times. My times; ""Thy hand." Some lives
greatly differ from others. This we know; but see, some lives fulfil life's
course, gain life's crown—life in their degree. This, on the contrary, others
quite miss. Yet, for even human strength there must be a love meted out to rule
it. It is said, there is a moon to control the tides of every sea; is there not
a master power for souls? It may not always be so, apparently, in the more
earthly lives, but it is so in the heavenly; not more surely does the moon sway
tides, than God sways souls. It does not seem sometimes as if man found no
adequate external power, and stands forth ordained to be a law to his own
sphere; but even then his times are in the hands of God, as the pathway of a
star is in the limitations of its system—as the movements of a satellite are in
the forces of its planet. But while I would not pause on morbid words or views
of life, so neither do I desire you to receive or charge me with giving only a
moody, morbid view of the world, and an imperfect theology; but far other. My
times are in thy hand—the hand of my Saviour."
"I
report as a man may of God's work—all's love, but all's law. In the Godhead I
seek and I find it, and so it shall be
A face like my face that receives thee, a Man like to me Thou shalt love and be
loved by for ever, a hand like this hand Shall throw open the gates of new life
to thee: See the Christ stand!"—Robert Browning.
And
now he is "the restorer of paths to dwell in." The hand of Jesus is
the hand which rules our times. He regulates our life clock. Christ for and
Christ in us. My times in his hand. My life can be no more in
vain than was my Saviour's life in vain. E. Paxton Hood, in "Dark Sayings
on a Harp," 1865.
Verse
15. When David had Saul at his mercy in the cave, those about him
said, This is the time in which God will deliver thee. 1Sa 24:4. No,
saith David, the time is not come for my deliverance till it can be wrought
without sin, and I will wait for that time; for it is God's time, and that is
the best time. Matthew Henry.
Verse
16. Make thy face to shine upon thy servant. When the cloud of
trouble hideth the Lord's favour, faith knoweth it may shine again, and
therefore prayeth through the cloud for the dissolving of it. Make thy face
to shine upon thy servant. David Dickson.
Verse
18. Lying lips...which speak grievous things proudly and
contemptuously against the righteous. The primitive persecutors slighted
the Christians for a company of bad, illiterate fellows, and therefore they
used to paint the God of the Christians with an ass's head and a book in his
hand, saith Tertullian; to signify, that though they pretended learning, yet
they were silly and ignorant people. Bishop Jewel, in his sermon upon Lu 11:15,
cites this out of Tertullian and applies it to his times. Do not our
adversaries the like, saith he, against all that profess the gospel? Oh! say
they, who are those that favour this way? None but shoemakers, tailors, weavers,
and such as never were at the University. These are the bishop's own words.
Bishop White said in open court, that the Puritans were all a company of
blockheads. Charles Bradbury.
Verse
18. Lying lips...which speak grievous things proudly and
contemptuously against the righteous. In that venerable and original
monument of the Vaudois Church, entitled "The Golden Lesson, " of the
date 1100, we meet with a verse, which has been thus translated:—
"If
there be anyone who loves and fears Jesus Christ,
Who will not curse, nor swear, nor lie,
Nor be unchaste, nor kill, nor take what is another's.
Nor take vengeance on his enemies;
They say that he is a Vaudes, and worthy of punishment."
—Antoine Monastier, in "A History of Vaudois Church," 1859.
Verse
19. Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them
that fear thee. As a provident man will regulate his liberality towards all
men in such a manner as not to defraud his children or family, nor impoverish
his own house, by spending his substance prodigally on others; so God, in like
manner, in exercising his beneficence to aliens from his family, knows well how
to reserve for his own children that which belongs to them, as it were by
hereditary right; that is to say, because of their adoption. John Calvin.
Verse
19. Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them
that fear thee. Mark the phrase "Laid up for them; "his mercy and
goodness it is intended for them, as a father that lays by such a sum of money,
and writes on the bag, "This is a portion for such a child." But how
comes the Christian to have this right to God, and all that vast and untold
treasure of happiness which is in him? This indeed is greatly to be heeded; it
is faith that gives him a good title to all this. That which maketh him a
child, makes him an heir. Now, faith makes him a child of God. Joh 1:12,
"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of
God, even to them that believed on his name." As therefore if you would
not call your birthright into question, and bring your interest in Christ and
those glorious privileges that come along with him, under a sad dispute in your
soul, look to your faith. William Gurnall.
Verse
19. How great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them
that fear thee. When I reflect upon the words of thy prophet, it seems to
me that he means to depict God as a father who, no doubt, keeps his children
under discipline, and subjects them to the rod; but who, with all his labours
and pains, still aims at nothing but to lay up for them a store which may
contribute to their comfort when they have grown to maturity, and learned the
prudent use of it. My Father, in this world thou hidest from thy children thy
great goodness, as if it did not pertain to them. But being thy children, we
may be well assured that the celestial treasure will be bestowed upon none
else. For this reason, I will bear my lot with patience. But, oh! from time to
time, waft to me a breath of air from the heavenly land, to refresh my
sorrowful heart; I will then wait more calmly for its full fruition. Christian
Scriver.
Verse
19. Oh how great is thy goodness. Let me, to set the crown on
the head of the duty of meditation, add one thing over and above—let
meditation be carried up to admiration: not only should we be affected,
but transported, rapt up and ravished with the beauties and transcendencies of
heavenly things; act meditation to admiration, endeavour the highest pitch,
coming the nearest to the highest patterns, the patterns of saints and angels
in heaven, whose actings are the purest, highest ecstasies and admirations.
Thus were these so excellent artists in meditation, David, an high actor of
admiration in meditation, as often we see it in the psalms; so in Ps 8:1,9
31:19; "Oh how great is thy goodness, "etc.: Ps 104:24 "O
Lord, how manifold are thy works, "etc; and in other places David's
meditation and admiration were as his harp, well tuned, and excellently played
on, in rarest airs and highest strains; as the precious gold, and the curious
burnishing; or the richest stone, and the most exquisite polishing and setting
of it. So blessed Paul, who was a great artist in musing, acted high in
admiration, his soul was very warm and flaming up in it: it was as a bird with
a strong and long wing that soars and towers up aloft, and gets out of sight. Nathanael
Ranew.
Verse
19. Before the sons of men, i.e., openly. The psalmist
here perhaps refers to temporal blessings conferred on the pious, and evident
to all. Some, however, have supposed the reference to be to the reward of the
righteous, bestowed with the utmost publicity on the day of judgment; which
better agrees with our interpretation of the former part of the verse. Daniel
Cresswell, D.D., F.R.S. (1776-1844), in loc.
Verse
19. Believe it, Sirs, you cannot conceive what a friend you shall
have of God, would you be but persuaded to enter into covenant with him, to be
his, wholly his. I tell you, many that sometimes thought and did as you do now,
that is, set light by Christ and hate God, and see no loveliness in him, are
now quite of another mind; they would not for ten thousand worlds quit their
interest in him. Oh, who dare say that he is a hard Master? Who that knows him
will say that he is an unkind friend? Oh, what do poor creatures all, that they
do entertain such harsh sour thoughts of God? What, do they think that there is
nothing in that scripture, Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast
laid up for them that fear thee! Doth the psalmist speak too largely? Doth
he say more than he and others could prove? Ask him, and he will tell you in
verse 21, that he blesseth God. These were things he could speak to, from his
own personal experience; and many thousands as well as he, to whom the Lord had
showed his marvellous kindness, and therefore he doth very passionately plead
with the people of God to love him, and more highly to express their sense of
his goodness, that the world might be encouraged also to have good thoughts of
him. James Janeway.
Verse
19. Very observable is that expression of the psalmist, Oh how
great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which
thou hast wrought before the sons of men for them that trust in thee. In
the former clause, God's goodness is said to be laid up; in the latter,
to be wrought. Goodness is laid up in the promise, wrought in the
performance; and that goodness which is laid up is wrought for them that trust
in God; and thus, as God's faithfulness engages us to believe, so our faith, as
it were, engages God's faithfulness to perform the promise. Nathanael Hardy.
Verse
20. Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of
tongues. This our beloved God does secretly, so that no human eyes may or
can see, and the ungodly do not know that a believer is, in God, and in the
presence of God, so well protected, that no reproach or contempt, and no
quarrelsome tongue can do him harm. Arndt, quoted by W. Wilson, D.D.
Verse
22. I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes:
nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications. Who would have
thought those prayers should ever have had any prevalence in God's ears which
were mixed with so much infidelity in the petitioner's heart! William
Secker.
Verse
22. I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes.
No, no, Christian; a prayer sent up in faith, according to the will of God,
cannot be lost, though it be delayed. We may say of it, as David said of Saul's
sword and Jonathan's bow, that they never return empty. So David adds, Nevertheless
thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee. John
Flavel.
Verse
22. I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes,
etc. Let us with whom it was once night, improve that morning joy that now
shines upon us. Let us be continual admirers of God's grace and mercy to us. He
has prevented us with his goodness, when he saw nothing in us but impatience
and unbelief, when we were like Jonas in the belly of hell, his bowels yearned
over us, and his power brought us safe to land. What did we to hasten his
deliverance, or to obtain his mercy? If he had never come to our relief till he
saw something in us to invite him, we had not yet been relieved. No more did we
contribute to our restoration than we do to the rising of the sun, or the
approach of day. We were like dry bones without motion, and without strength.
Eze 37:1-11. And we also said, that `we were cut off for our parts, and our
hope was gone, and he caused breath to enter into us, and we live.' Who is a
God like to our God that pardoneth iniquity, transgression, and sin? that
retains not his anger for ever? that is slow to wrath and delights in mercy?
that has been displeased with us for a moment, but gives us hope of his
everlasting kindness? Oh! what love is due from us to Christ, that has pleaded
for us when we ourselves had nothing to say! That has brought us out of a den
of lions, and from the jaws of the roaring lion! To say, as Mrs. Sarah Wright
did, "I have obtained mercy, that thought my time of mercy past for ever;
I have hope of heaven, that thought I was already damned by unbelief; I said
many a time, there is no hope in mine end, and I thought I saw it; I was so
desperate, I cared not what became of me. Oft was I at the very brink of death
and hell, even at the very gates of both, and then Christ shut them. I was as
Daniel in the lion's den, and he stopped the mouth of those lions, and
delivered me. The goodness of God is unsearchable; how great is the excellency
of his majesty, that yet he would look upon such a one as I; that he has given
me peace that was full of terror, and walked continually as amidst fire and
brimstone." Timothy Rogers.
Verse
22. I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes:—i.e.,
Thou hast quite forsaken me, and I must not expect to be looked upon or
regarded by thee any more. I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul, and so
be cut off from before thine eyes, be ruined while thou lookest on 1Sa 27:1.
This he said in his flight (so some read it), which notes the distress of his
affairs: Saul was just at his back, and ready to seize him, which made the
temptation strong; in his haste (so we read it), which notes the
disturbance and discomposure of his mind, which made the temptation surprising,
so that it found him off his guard. Note, it is a common thing to speak amiss,
when we speak in haste and without consideration; but what we speak amiss in
haste, we must repent of at leisure, particularly that which we have spoken
distrustfully of God. Matthew Henry.
Verse
22. I said in my haste. Sometimes a sudden passion arises, and
out it goes in angry and froward words, setting all in an uproar and
combustion: by and by our hearts recur upon us, and then we wish, "O that
I had bit my tongue, and not given it such an unbridled liberty." Sometimes
we break out into rash censures of those that it may be are better than
ourselves, whereupon when we reflect, we are ashamed that the fools' bolt was
so soon shot, and wish we had been judging ourselves when we were censuring our
brethren. Richard Alleine.
Verse
22. Nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when
I cried unto thee. As if he had said, when I prayed with so little faith,
that I, as it were, unprayed my own prayer, by concluding my case in a manner
desperate; yet God pardoned my hasty spirit, and gave me that mercy which I had
hardly any faith to expect; and what use doth he make of this experience, but
to raise every saint's hope in time of need? "Be of good courage and he
shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord." William
Gurnall.
Verse
22. He confesseth the great distress he was in, and how weak his
faith was under the temptation; this he doth to his own shame acknowledge also,
that he may give the greater glory to God. Whence learn, 1.—The faith of the
godly may be slackened, and the strongest faith may sometimes show its
infirmity. I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes.
2.—Though faith be shaken, yet it is fixed in the root, as a tree beaten by the
wind keeping strong grips of good ground. Though faith seem to yield, yet it
faileth not, and even when it is at the weakest, it is uttering itself in some
act, as a wrestler, for here the expression of David's infirmity in faith, is
directed to God, and his earnest prayer joined with it, I am cut off from
before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications.
3.—Praying faith, how weak soever, shall not be misregarded of God; for nevertheless,
saith he, thou heardest the voice of my supplications. 4.—There may be
in a soul at one time, both grief oppressing, and hope upholding; both darkness
of trouble, and the light of faith; both desperately doubting, and strong
gripping of God's truth and goodness; both a fainting and a fighting; a seeming
yielding in the fight, and yet a striving of faith against all opposition; both
a foolish haste, and a settled staidness of faith; as here, I said in my
haste, etc. David Dickson.
Verse
22. David vents his astonishment at the Lord's condescension in
hearing his prayer. How do we wonder at the goodness of a petty man in granting
our desires! How much more should we at the humility and goodness of the most
sovereign Majesty of heaven and earth! Stephen Charnock.
Verse
23. O love the Lord, all ye his saints. The holy psalmist in
the words does, with all the warmth of an affectionate zeal, incite us to the
love of God, which is the incomparably noblest passion of a reasonable mind,
its brightest glory and most exquisite felicity; and it is, as appears evident
from the nature of the thing, and the whole train of divine revelation, the
comprehensive sum of that duty which we owe to our Maker, and the very soul
which animates a religious life, that we "love the Lord with all our
heart, and strength, and mind." William Dunlap. A.M., 1692-1720.
Verse
23. O love the Lord, all ye his saints, etc. Some few words
are to be attended in the clearing of the sense. Saints here in the text
is or may be read, ye that feel mercies. "Faithful, "
the word is sometimes taken for persons, sometimes things; and so
the Lord is said to preserve true men, and truths, faithful men, and
faithfulnesses. He plenteously rewardeth the proud doer; or, the Lord
rewardeth plenteously; the Lord, who doth wonderful things. Plenteously
is either in cumulum, abunde, or in nepotes, as some would have
it; but I would rather commend, than go about to amend
translations: though I could wish some of my learned brethren's quarrelling
hours were spent rather upon clearing the originals, and so conveying over pure
Scripture to posterity, than in scratching others with their sharpened pens,
and making cockpits of pulpits. Hugh Peter's "Sermon preached
before both Houses of Parliament, "the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City
of London, and the Assembly of Divines, at the last Thanksgiving Day, April 2.
For the recovering of the West, and disbanding of 5,000 of the King's Horse,
etc., 1645.
Verse
23. And plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. The next query
is, how God rewardeth the proud doer? in which, though the Lord's
proceedings be diverse, and many times his paths in the clouds, and his
judgments in the deep, and the uttermost farthing shall be paid the proud doer
at the great day; yet so much of his mind he hath left unto us, that even in
this life he gives out something to the proud which he calls "the day of
recompense, "which he commonly manifests in these particulars:
1.
By way of retaliation—for Adonibezek that would be cutting off
thumbs, had his thumbs cut off. Jud 1:7. So the poor Jews that cried so loud,
"Crucify him, crucify him, "were so many of them crucified, that if
you believe Josephus, there was not wood enough to make crosses, nor in the
usual place room enough to set up the crosses when they were made. Snares are
made and pits are digged by the proud for themselves commonly, to which
the Scripture throughout gives abundant testimony.
2.
By shameful disappointments, seldom reaping what they sow, nor eating
what they catch in hunting, which is most clear in the Jewish State when Christ
was amongst them. Judas betrays him to get money, and hardly lived long
enough to spend it. Pilate, to please Caesar, withstands all counsels
against it, and gives way to that murder, by which he ruined both himself and
Caesar. The Jewish priests, to maintain that domination and honour (which they
thought the son of Joseph and Mary stole from them) cried loud for his death,
which proved a sepulchre to them and their glory. And the poor people that
crucified him (through fear of the Romans taking their city) by his
death had their gates opened to the Romans—yea, Caesar himself,
fearing a great change in his government by Christ living near him (which today
sets all the king craft in the world to work) met such a change that shortly he
had neither crown nor sceptre to boast of, if you read the story of Titus and
Vespasian, all which dealings of God with the proud is most elegantly set forth
unto us by the psalmist. "Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath
conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. He made a pit, and digged it,
and is fallen into the ditch which he made." Hugh Peters.
Verse
24. Be of good courage. Christian courage may thus be
described. It is the undaunted audacity of a sanctified heart in adventuring
upon difficulties and undergoing hardships for a good cause upon the call of God.
The genus, the common nature of it is an undaunted audacity. This
animosity, as some phrase it, is common both unto men and to some brutes. The
lion is said to be the strongest among beasts, that turneth not away from any.
Pr 30:30. And there is an elegant description of the war horse in regard of
boldness. Job 39:19, etc. And this boldness that is in brutes is spoken of as a
piece of this same courage that God is pleased to give to men. Eze 3:9.
This is the Lord's promise—"As an adamant harder than flint have I made
thy forehead." The word "harder" is the same in the Hebrew that
is here in my text—fortiorem petra—the rock that is not afraid of any
weather, summer or winter, sun and showers, heat and cold, frost and snow; it
blushes not, shrinks not, it changes not its complexion, it is still the same.
Such a like thing is courage, in the common nature of it. Secondly,
consider the subject, it is the heart, the castle where courage commands
and exerciseth military discipline; (shall I so say) it's within the bosom, it
is the soul of a valiant soldier. Some conceive our English word courage
to be derived from cordis actio, the very acting of the heart. A valiant
man is described 2Sa 17:10 for to be a man whose heart is as the heart of a
lion. And sometimes the original translated courageous, as Am 2:16, may
most properly be rendered a man of heart. Beloved, valour doth not
consist in a piercing eye, in a terrible look, in big words; but it consists in
the mettle, the vigour that is within the bosom. Sometimes a coward may dwell
at the sign of a roaring voice and of a stern countenance; whereas true
fortitude may be found within his breast whose outward deportment promises
little or nothing in that kind. Thirdly, note the qualification of this same
subject; I said a sanctified heart; for I am not now speaking of fortitude as a
moral virtue, whereof heathens that have not God are capable, and for which
many among them that are not Christians, have been worthily commended. But I am
now discoursing of courage as a virtue theological, as a gracious
qualification, put upon the people of God by special covenant. And there are
three things that do characterize it, and which do distinguish it from the
moral virtue of fortitude. (1) The root, whence it ariseth; (2) the rule,
whereby it is directed; (3) the end, to which it is referred. The root,
whence it ariseth, is love to God: all the saints of God that love the
Lord be of good courage. The love of Christ constraineth me to make these bold
and brave adventures, saith the apostle. 2Co 5:14. The rule, whereby it
is directed, is the word of God—what the Lord hath pleased to leave on
record for a Christian's guidance in holy pages. 1Ch 22:12-13. "Only the
Lord give thee wisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning
Israel, that thou mayest keep the law of the Lord thy God. Then shalt thou
prosper, if thou takest heed to fulfil the statutes and judgments which the
Lord charged Moses with concerning Israel: be strong, and of good courage;
dread not, nor be dismayed." Be a man of mettle, but let thy mettle be
according to my mind, according to this rule. And the end, to which it
refers, is God. For every sanctified man being a self denying and a God
advancing man, his God is his centre, wherein his actings, his undertakings
rest; and his soul is not, yea, it cannot be satisfied but in God. Simeon
Ash's "Sermon preached before the Commanders of the Military Forces of the
renowned Citie of London, 1642."
Verse
24. Be of good courage. Shall I hint some of the weighty services
that are charged upon all our consciences? The work of mortification, to pick
out our eyes, to chop off our hands, to cut off our feet; do you think that a
milksop, a man that is not a man of a stout spirit, will do this? Now to
massacre fleshly lusts, is (as it were) for a man to mangle and dismember his
own body; it is a work painful and grievous, as for a man to cut off his own
feet, to chop off his own hands, and to pick out his own eyes, as Christ and
the apostle Paul do express it. Besides this, there are in Christian's bosoms
strongholds to be battered, fortifications to be demolished; there are high
hills and mountains that must be levelled with the ground; there are trenches
to be made, valleys to be filled. O beloved, I may not mention the hills that
lie before us in heaven way, which we must climb up, and craggy rocks that we
must get over; and without courage certainly the work put upon our hands will
not be discharged. There are also the walls of Jerusalem to be repaired, and
the temple to be edified again. If Nehemiah had not been a man of a brave
spirit he would never have gone through stitch with that church work, those
weighty services which he did undertake. How this is applicable to us for the
present time, the time of our begun reformation, I speak not, but rather do
refer it to your considerations. I beseech you to read Ne 4:17-18, "They
which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded,
every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand
held a weapon. For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side,
and so builded, and he that sounded the trumpet was by me." While they
were at work, they were all ready for war. Simeon Ash.
Verse
24. And he shall strengthen your heart. Put thou thyself forth
in a way of bold adventure for him, and his providence shall be sweetly
exercised for thy good. A worthy commander, how careful he is of a brave blade,
a man that will fight at a cannon's mouth! Doth he hear from him that a bone is
broken? Send for the bone setter. Is he like to bleed to death? Call for the
surgeon; let him post away to prevent that peril. Doth he grow weaker and
weaker? Is there anything in the camp that may restore his spirit? withhold
nothing; nothing is too good, too costly; would he eat gold he should have it.
Thus it is with God. Oh, what letters of commendation doth he give in
manifestation of his own love to them in Pergamos upon this very ground.
"Thou, saith the Lord, thou hast held forth my name, and not denied it,
even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among
you, where Satan dwelleth!" thou didst fight for Christ in the cave where
the devil commanded; thou didst stand and appear for him when other men did
lose heart and courage. Here is a man that God will own; such a one shall have
God's heart and hand to do him honour, to yield him comfort. And therefore I
appeal to your consciences, is not this courage worth the having? worth the
seeking? Simeon Ash.
Verse
1. Faith expressed, confusion deprecated, deliverance sought.
Verse
1. (first clause). Open avowal of faith. 1. Duties
which precede it, self examination, etc.
2.
Modes of making the confession.
3.
Conduct incumbent on those who have made the profession.
Verse
1. (last clause). How far the righteousness of God is
involved in the salvation of a believer.
Verse
2. (first clause). God's hearing prayer a great
condescension.
Verse
2 (second clause). How far we may be urgent with God as to
time.
Verses
2-3 (last and first clauses). That which we have we may yet
seek for.
Verses
2-3. (last and first clauses). That which we have we may yet
seek for.
Verse
3. Work out the metaphor of God as a rocky fastness of the soul.
Verse
3. (last clause). 1. A blessing needed, lead me.
2.
A blessing obtainable.
3.
An argument for its being granted, for thy name's sake.
Verse
4. The rescue of the ensnared.
1.
The fowlers.
2. The laying of the net.
3. The capture of the bird.
4. The cry of the captive.
5. The rescue.
Verse
4. (last clause). The weak one girt with omnipotence.
Verse
5. 1. Dying, in a saint's account, is a difficult work.
2.
The children of God, when considering themselves as dying, are chiefly
concerned for their departing immortal spirits.
3.
Such having chosen God for their God, have abundant encouragement when dying,
to commit their departing spirits into his hand, with hopes of their being safe
and happy for ever with him. —Daniel Wilcox.
Verse
5. The believer's requiem. Redemption the foundation of our repose
in God.
1.
What we do—commit ourselves to God.
2.
What God has done—redeemed us.
Verse
6. Holy detestation, as a virtue discriminated from bigotry: or, the
good hater.
Verse
7. 1. An endearing attribute rejoiced in.
2.
An interesting experience related.
3.
A directly personal favour from God delighted in.
Verse
7. (centre clause). Consider the measure, the effects,
the time, the tempering, the ending, and the recompense.
Verse
7. (last clause). The Lord's familiarity with his afflicted.
Verse
8. Christian liberty, a theme for gladness.
Verse
9. The mourner's lament.
Verse
9. (last clause). Excessive sorrow, its injurious effects on
the body, the understanding, and the spiritual nature. Sin of it, cure of it.
Verses
9-10. The sick man's moan, a reminder to those who enjoy good health.
Verses
9-10. The sick man's moan, a reminder to those who enjoy good health.
Verse
10. My strength faileth because of mine iniquity. The
weakening influence of sin.
Verse
11.. The good man evil spoken of.
Verses
12-15.
Forgot
as those who in the grave abide,
And as a broken vessel past repair,
Slandered by many, fear on every side.
Who counsel take and would my life ensnare.
But, Lord, my hopes on thee are fixed: I said,
Thou art my God, my days are in thy hand;
Against my furious foes oppose thy aid,
And those who persecute my soul withstand.
—George Sandys.
Verse
12. The world's treatment of its best friends.
Verse
14. Faith peculiarly glorious in season of great trial.
Verse
15. The believer the peculiar care of providence.
Verse
15. (first clause). 1. The character of the earthly experience
of the saints, "My times, "that is, the changes I shall pass through,
etc.
2.
The advantage of this variety.
(a)
Changes reveal the various aspects of the Christian character.
(b)
Changes strengthen the Christian character.
(c)
Changes lead us to admire an unchanging God.
3.
Comfort for all seasons.
(a)
This implies the changes of life are subject to the divine control.
(b)
That God will support his people under them.
(c)
And, consequently, they shall result in our being abundantly profited.
4.
The deportment which should characterise us. Courageous devotion to God in
times of persecution; resignation and contentment in times of poverty and
suffering; zeal and hope in times of labour. —From Stems and Twigs, or
Sermon Framework.
Verse
16. A sense of divine favour.
1.
Its value.
2. How to lose it.
3. How to obtain a renewal of it.
4. How to retain it.
The
heavenly servant's best reward.
Verse
16. (last clause). A prayer for saints in all stages. Note its
object, save me; and its plea, Thy mercies' sake. Suitable to the
penitent, the sick, the doubting, the tried, the advanced believer, the dying
saint.
Verse
17. The shame and silence of the wicked in eternity. The silence of
the grave, its grave eloquence.
Verse
19. See "Spurgeon's Sermons," No. 773." David's Holy
Wonder at the Lord's Great Goodness."
Verse
20. The believer preserved from the sneers of arrogance by a sense of
the divine presence, and kept from the bitterness of slander by the glory of
the King whom he serves.
Verse
21. Marvellous kindness. Marvellous that it should come to me
in such a way, at such a time, in such a measure, for so long.
Verse
21. Memorable events in life to be observed, recorded, meditated on,
repeated, made the subject of gratitude, and the ground of confidence.
Verse
22. Unbelief confessed and faithfulness adored. The mischief of hasty
speeches.
Verse
23. An exhortation to love the Lord. 1. The matter of it, love the
Lord.
2.
To whom addressed, all ye his saints.
3.
By whom spoken.
4.
With what arguments supported, for the Lord preserveth, etc.
Verse
24. Holy courage. Its excellences, difficulties, encouragements, and
triumphs.
── C.H. Spurgeon《The Treasury of David》