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Psalm Thirty-eight
Psalm 38
Chapter Contents
God's displeasure at sin. (1-11) The psalmist's
sufferings and prayers. (12-22)
Commentary on Psalm 38:1-11
(Read Psalm 38:1-11)
Nothing will disquiet the heart of a good man so much as
the sense of God's anger. The way to keep the heart quiet, is to keep ourselves
in the love of God. But a sense of guilt is too heavy to bear; and would sink
men into despair and ruin, unless removed by the pardoning mercy of God. If
there were not sin in our souls, there would be no pain in our bones, no
illness in our bodies. The guilt of sin is a burden to the whole creation,
which groans under it. It will be a burden to the sinners themselves, when they
are heavy-laden under it, or a burden of ruin, when it sinks them to hell. When
we perceive our true condition, the Good Physician will be valued, sought, and
obeyed. Yet many let their wounds rankle, because they delay to go to their
merciful Friend. When, at any time, we are distempered in our bodies, we ought
to remember how God has been dishonoured in and by our bodies. The groanings
which cannot be uttered, are not hid from Him that searches the heart, and
knows the mind of the Spirit. David, in his troubles, was a type of Christ in
his agonies, of Christ on his cross, suffering and deserted.
Commentary on Psalm 38:12-22
(Read Psalm 38:12-22)
Wicked men hate goodness, even when they benefit by it.
David, in the complaints he makes of his enemies, seems to refer to Christ. But
our enemies do us real mischief only when they drive us from God and our duty.
The true believer's trouble will be made useful; he will learn to wait for his
God, and will not seek relief from the world or himself. The less we notice the
unkindness and injuries that are done us, the more we consult the quiet of our
own minds. David's troubles were the chastisement and the consequence of his
transgressions, whilst Christ suffered for our sins and ours only. What right
can a sinner have to yield to impatience or anger, when mercifully corrected
for his sins? David was very sensible of the present workings of corruption in
him. Good men, by setting their sorrow continually before them, have been ready
to fall; but by setting God always before them, they have kept their standing.
If we are truly penitent for sin, that will make us patient under affliction.
Nothing goes nearer to the heart of a believer when in affliction, than to be
under the apprehension of God's deserting him; nor does any thing come more
feelingly from his heart than this prayer, "Be not far from me." The
Lord will hasten to help those who trust in him as their salvation.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Psalms》
Psalm 38
Verse 2
[2] For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth
me sore.
Arrows — Thy judgments outward and inward.
Verse 3
[3] There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine
anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.
Sin — Which hath provoked thee to deal thus severely with
me.
Verse 4
[4] For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy
burden they are too heavy for me.
Iniquities — Or, the punishment of mine iniquities,
as this word is frequently used.
Are gone — Like deep waters wherewith I am overwhelmed.
Verse 5
[5] My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my
foolishness.
Foolishness — Sin.
Verse 7
[7] For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and
there is no soundness in my flesh.
Disease — The disease might be some burning fever, breaking
forth outwardly in carbuncles, or boils. It is true, this and the other
expressions may be taken figuratively, but we should not forsake the literal
sense of the words without necessity.
Verse 12
[12] They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and
they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the
day long.
Deceit — They design mischief, but cover it with fair
pretences.
Verse 13
[13] But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man
that openeth not his mouth.
Dumb — Was silent, to testify his humiliation for his sins,
and his acceptation of the punishment which he had brought upon himself.
Verse 16
[16] For I said, Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice
over me: when my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me.
When — When I fall into any misery, they triumph in the
accomplishment of their desires.
Verse 17
[17] For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually
before me.
To halt — just falling into destruction.
Before me — I am constantly sensible of thy
just hand, and of my sins the cause of it.
Verse 18
[18] For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my
sin.
Declare — To thee.
Verse 19
[19] But mine enemies are lively, and they are strong: and
they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied.
Strong — Are thriving and flourishing.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Psalms》
Psalm 38 - The Penitent Plea Of A Sick Man
OBJECTIVES IN STUDYING THIS PSALM
1) To note the physical consequences that may often follow sin 2) To consider the connection David made between his illness and God's chastening for sin SUMMARY
This is a penitential psalm, a prayer for deliverance from God'schastening for his sins. Physical ailments have come upon David becauseof sin, which he perceived as God's righteous anger (3). The impact ofthe illness on his body was devastating (5-10). It affected hisrelationship with family and loved ones (11), while his enemies used itas opportunity to plot against him (12,16,19-20). The heading says "To Bring To Remembrance." This may mean to remind Godof His mercy, as its preface here and in Psalm 70 both introduce pleasfor God to make haste in providing deliverance (cf. 22; 70:1,5).Leupold suggests that Psalms 38 may have been written after Psalms 51and 32, following the events surrounding David's sin with Bathsheba.While forgiven of his sin, David was told he would still sufferconsequences (2 Sam 12:10-14). If David contracted a venereal diseasedue to his sin (7), he may have viewed it as a form of chastening fromwhich he sought deliverance. Whatever the nature of his illness, thispsalm is the penitent plea of a sick man who understood that he wassuffering because of his sin and God's anger. OUTLINE
INTRODUCTORY PLEA FOR MERCY (38:1-2)
A. THAT THE LORD NOT... (1) 1. Rebuke him in His wrath 2. Chasten him in His hot displeasure B. FOR THE LORD HAS... (2) 1. Pierced him deeply with His arrows 2. Pressed him down with His hand I. THE WRETCHEDNESS OF HIS CONDITION (38:3-12)
A. ILLNESS BECAUSE OF SIN AND GOD'S ANGER (3-10) 1. Because of his foolish sin and God's anger... a. There is no soundness in his flesh, no health in his bones b. His iniquities are a heavy burden c. His wounds are foul and festering 2. Description of his illness a. Troubled, bowed down greatly, mourning all day long b. Loins full of inflammation, no soundness in his flesh c. Feeble and broken, groaning because the turmoil of his heart d. Heart pants, strength fails him e. The light of his eyes has gone from him B. MISTREATMENT BY FRIENDS AND ENEMIES (11-12) 1. Forsaken by those close to him a. Loved ones and friends stand aloof from his plague b. Relatives stand far off 2. Plotted against by his enemies a. Those who seek his life lay snares b. Those who seek his hurt speak of destruction II. THE BASIS FOR HIS HOPE THAT GOD WILL HEAR (38:13-20)
A. OTHERWISE ENEMIES WILL REJOICE (13-16) 1. His response to this abuse a. Like a deaf man he does not hear b. Like a mute he does not respond 2. His hope is the Lord that He will hear a. Since his enemies will rejoice if he falls b. Since they will exalt themselves if he slips B. SORROW AND CONFESSION OF SIN (17-18) 1. He is ready to fall, his sorrow continually before him 2. He will declare his iniquity, be in anguish over his sin C. PERSISTENCE IN DOING GOOD (19-20) 1. His enemies are strong, those who hate him wrongfully are multiplied 2. They render evil for good, they are his adversaries because he follows what is good CONCLUDING PLEA FOR HELP (38:21-22)
A. TO NOT FORSAKE HIM NOR BE FAR FROM HIM (21) B. TO MAKE HASTE TO HELP HIM (22) REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE PSALM
1) What are the main points of this psalm?
- Introductory plea for mercy (1-2) - The wretchedness of his condition (3-12) - The basis for his hope that God will hear (13-20) - Concluding plea for help (21-22) 2) For what does David plead? Yet what has already occurred? (1-2)
- For God not to rebuke or chasten him in His wrath - The Lord's arrows have pierced him; His hand pressed him down 3) To what two things does David attribute his poor condition? (3)
- God's anger; his own sin 4) What does David acknowledge as the cause of his "heavy burden" and"wounds"? (4-5)
- His iniquities; his foolishness 5) What two descriptive phrases may imply some sort of venereal disease?(6-7)
- "I am bowed down greatly" - "For my loins are full of inflammation" (NKJV) 6) What other symptoms does David describe? (8-10)
- He is feeble and severely broken; he groans because of the turmoil of his heart - His heart pants, his strength fails him - The light of his eyes has gone from him 7) What is said of his loved ones, friends, and relatives? (11)
- They stand afar off 8) What about those who seek his life? (12)
- They lay snares, speak of his destruction, plan deception 9) How does David respond to this mistreatment by others? (13-14)
- He does not hear and does not respond 10) In whom does David put his trust? (15)
- The LORD his God 11) Upon what three things does David base his plea to be heard? (16-20)
- Lest his enemies rejoice and exalt themselves over him - His sorrow and confession of his sin - His persistence in doing good, while others render evil for good 12) What is David's concluding plea? How does David view the LORD?(21-22)
- For God not to forsake him or be far from him; for God to help him - As his God and his salvation
－－《Executable
Outlines》
Exposition
Explanatory Notes and
Quaint Sayings
Hints to the Village
Preacher
Other Works
TITLE. A Psalm of
David, to bring remembrance. David felt as if he had been forgotten of his God,
and, therefore, he recounted his sorrows and cried mightily for help under
them. The same title is given to Psalm 70, where in like manner the psalmist
pours out his complaint before the Lord. It would be foolish to make a guess as
to the point in David's history when this was written; it may be a
commemoration of his own sickness and endurance of cruelty; it may, on the
other hand, have been composed by him for the use of sick and slandered saints,
without special reference to himself.
DIVISION. The Psalm
opens with a prayer, Ps 38:1; continues in a long complaint, Ps 38:2-8; pauses
to dart an eye to heaven, Ps 38:9; proceeds with a second tale of sorrow, Ps
38:10-14; interjects another word of hopeful address to God, Ps 38:15; a third
time pours out a flood of griefs, Ps 38:16-20; and then closes as it opened,
with renewed petitioning, Ps 38:21-22.
EXPOSITION
Verse
1. O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath. Rebuked I must be, for
I am an erring child and thou a careful Father, but throw not too much anger
into the tones of thy voice; deal gently although I have sinned grievously. The
anger of others I can bear, but not thine. As thy love is most sweet to my
heart, so thy displeasure is most cutting to my conscience. Neither chasten
me in thy hot displeasure. Chasten me if thou wilt, it is a Father's
prerogative, and to endure it obediently is a child's duty; but, O turn not the
rod into a sword, smite not so as to kill. True, my sins might well inflame
thee, but let thy mercy and longsuffering quench the glowing coals of thy
wrath. O let me not be treated as an enemy or dealt with as a rebel. Bring to
remembrance thy covenant, thy fatherhood, and my feebleness, and spare the
servant.
Verse
2. For thine arrows stick fast in me. By this he means both
bodily and spiritual griefs, but we may suppose, especially the latter, for
these are most piercing and stick the fastest. God's law applied by the Spirit
to the conviction of the soul of sin, wounds deeply and rankles long; it is an
arrow not lightly to be brushed out by careless mirthfulness, or to be
extracted by the flattering hand of self righteousness. The Lord knows how to
shoot so that his bolts not only strike but stick. He can make convictions sink
into the innermost spirit like arrows driven in up to the head. It seems
strange that the Lord should shoot at his own beloved ones, but in truth he
shoots at their sins rather than them, and those who feel his sin killing
shafts in this life, shall not be slain with his hot thunderbolts in the next
world. And thy hand presseth me sore. The Lord had come to close
dealings with him, and pressed him down with the weight of his hand, so that he
had no rest or strength left. By these two expressions we are taught that
conviction of sin is a piercing and a pressing thing, sharp and sore, smarting
and crushing. Those who know by experience "the terrors of the Lord,
"will be best able to vouch for the accuracy of such descriptions; they
are true to the life.
Verse
3. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger.
Mental depression tells upon the bodily frame; it is enough to create and
foster every disease, and is in itself the most painful of all diseases. Soul
sickness tells upon the entire frame; it weakens the body, and then bodily
weakness reacts upon the mind. One drop of divine anger sets the whole of our
blood boiling with misery. Neither is there any rest in my bones because of
my sin. Deeper still the malady penetrates, till the bones, the more solid
parts of the system, are affected. No soundness and no rest are two sad
deficiencies; yet these are both consciously gone from every awakened
conscience until Jesus gives relief. God's anger is a fire that dries up the
very marrow; it searches the secret parts of the belly. A man who has pain in
his bones tosses to and fro in search of rest, but he finds none; he becomes
worn out with agony, and in so many cases a sense of sin creates in the
conscience a horrible unrest which cannot be exceeded in anguish except by hell
itself.
Verse
4. For mine iniquities are gone over mine head. Like waves of
the deep sea; like black mire in which a man utterly sinks. Above my hopes, my
strength, my life itself, my sin rises in its terror. Unawakened sinners think
their sins to be mere shallows, but when conscience is aroused they find out
the depth of iniquity. As an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. It
is well when sin is an intolerable load, and when the remembrance of our sins
burdens us beyond endurance. This verse is the genuine cry of one who feels
himself undone by his transgressions and as yet sees not the great sacrifice.
Verse
5. My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.
Apply this to the body, and it pictures a sad condition of disease; but read it
of the soul, and it is to the life. Conscience lays on stripe after stripe till
the swelling becomes a wound and suppurates, and the corruption within grows
offensive. What a horrible creature man appears to be in his own consciousness
when his depravity and vileness are fully opened up by the law of God, applied
by the Holy Spirit! It is true there are diseases which are correctly described
in this verse, when in the worst stage; but we prefer to receive the
expressions as instructively figurative, since the words "because of my
foolishness" point rather at a moral than a physical malady. Some of us
know what it is to stink in our own nostrils, so as to loathe ourselves. Even the
most filthy diseases cannot be so foul as sin. No ulcers, cancers, or
putrifying sores, can match the unutterable vileness and pollution of iniquity.
Our own perceptions have made us feel this. We write what we do know, and
testify what we have seen; and even now we shudder to think that so much of
evil should lie festering deep within our nature.
Verse
6. I am troubled. I am wearied with distress, writhing with
pain, in sore travail on account of sin revealed within me. I am bowed down
greatly. I am brought very low, grievously weakened and frightfully
depressed. Nothing so pulls a man down from all loftiness as a sense of sin and
of divine wrath concerning it. I go mourning all the day long. The
mourner's soul sorrow knew no intermission, even when he went about such
business as he was able to attend, he went forth like a mourner who goes to the
tomb, and his words and manners were like the lamentations of those who follow
the corpse. The whole verse may be the more clearly understood if we picture the
Oriental mourner, covered with sackcloth and ashes, bowed as in a heap, siting
amid squalor and dirt, performing contortions and writhings expressive of his
grief; such is the awakened sinner, not in outward guise, but in very deed.
Verse
7. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease—a hot,
dry, parching disorder, probably accompanied by loathsome ulcers. Spiritually,
the fire burns within when the evil of the heart is laid bare. Note the
emphatic words, the evil is loathsome, it is in the loins, its
seat is deep and vital—the man is filled with it. Those who have passed
through the time of conviction understand all this. And there is no
soundness in my flesh. This he had said before, and thus the Holy Spirit
brings humiliating truth again and again to our memories, tears away every
ground of glorying, and makes us know that in us, that is, in our flesh, there
dwelleth no good thing.
Verse
8. I am feeble. The original is "benumbed, "or
frozen, such strange incongruities and contradictions meet in a distracted mind
and a sick body—it appears to itself to be alternately parched with heat and
pinched with cold. Like souls in the Popish fabled Purgatory, tossed from
burning furnaces into thick ice, so tormented hearts rush from one extreme to
the other, with equal torture in each. A heat of fear, a chill of horror, a
flaming desire, a horrible insensibility—by these successive miseries a
convinced sinner is brought to death's door. And sore broken. Crushed as
in a mill, pounded as in a mortar. The body of the sick man appears to be all
out of joint and smashed into a palpitating pulp, and the soul of the
desponding is in an equally wretched case; as a victim crushed under the car of
Juggernaut, such is a soul over whose conscience the wheels of divine wrath
have forced their awful way. I have roared by reason of the disquietness of
my heart. Deep and hoarse is the voice of sorrow, and often inarticulate
and terrible. The heart learns groanings which cannot be uttered, and the voice
fails to tone and tune itself to human speech. When our prayers appear to be
rather animal than spiritual, they are none the less prevalent with the pitiful
Father of mercy. He hears the murmur of the heart and the roaring of the soul
because of sin, and in due time he comes to relieve his afflicted. The more
closely the preceding portrait of an awakened soul is studied in the light of
experience, the more will its striking accuracy appear. It cannot be a
description of merely outward disorder, graphic as it might then be; it has a depth
and pathos in it which only the soul's mysterious and awful agony can fully
match.
Verse
9. Lord, all my desire is before thee. If unuttered, yet
perceived. Blessed be God, he reads the longings of our hearts; nothing can be
hidden from him; what we cannot tell to him he perfectly understands. The
psalmist is conscious that he has not exaggerated, and therefore appeals to
heaven for a confirmation of his words. The good Physician understands the
symptoms of our disease and sees the hidden evil which they reveal, hence our
case is safe in his hands. And my groaning is not hid from thee.
"He
takes the meaning of our tears,
The language of our groans."
Sorrow
and anguish hide themselves from the observation of man, but God spies them
out. None more lonely than the broken hearted sinner, yet hath he the Lord for
his companion.
Verse
10. My heart panteth. Here begins another tale of woe. He was
so dreadfully pained by the unkindness of friends, that his heart was in a
state of perpetual palpitation. Sharp and quick were the beatings of his heart;
he was like a hunted roe, filled with distressing alarms, and ready to fly out
of itself with fear. The soul seeks sympathy in sorrow, and if it finds none,
its sorrowful heart throbs are incessant. My strength faileth me. What
with disease and distraction, he was weakened and ready to expire. A sense of
sin, and a clear perception that none can help us in our distress, are enough
to bring a man to death's door, especially if there be none to speak a gentle
word, and point the broken spirit to the beloved Physician. As for the light
of mine eyes, it also is gone from me. Sweet light departed from his bodily
eye, and consolation vanished from his soul. Those who were the very light of
his eyes forsook him. Hope, the last lamp of night, was ready to go out. What a
plight was the poor convict in! Yet here, we have some of us been; and here
should we have perished had not infinite mercy interposed. Now, as we remember
the lovingkindness of the Lord, we see how good it was for us to find our own
strength fail us, since it drove us to the strong for strength; and how right
it was that our light should all be quenched, that the Lord's light should be
all in all to us.
Verse
11. My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore.
Whatever affection they might pretend to, they kept out of his company, lest as
a sinking vessel often draws down boats with it, they might be made to suffer
through his calamities. It is very hard when those who should be the first to
come to the rescue, are the first to desert us. In times of deep soul trouble,
even the most affectionate friends cannot enter into the sufferer's case; let
them be as anxious as they may, the sores of a tender conscience they cannot
bind up. Oh, the loneliness of a soul passing under the convincing power of the
Holy Ghost! And my kinsmen stand afar off. As the women and others of
our Lord's acquaintances from afar gazed on his cross, so a soul wounded for
sin sees all mankind as distant spectators, and in the whole crowd finds none
to aid. Often relatives hinder seekers after Jesus, oftener still they look on
with unconcern, seldom enough do they endeavour to lead the penitent to Jesus.
Verse
12. They also that seek after my life lay snares for me. Alas!
for us when in addition to inward griefs, we are beset by outward temptations.
David's foes endeavoured basely to ensnare him. If fair means would not
overthrow him, foul should be tried. This snaring business is a vile one, the
devil's own poachers alone condescend to it; but prayer to God will deliver us,
for the craft of the entire college of tempters can be met and overcome by
those who are led of the Spirit. They that seek my hurt speak mischievous
things. Lies and slanders poured from them like water from the town pump.
Their tongue was for ever going, and their heart fore ever inventing lies. And
imagine deceit all the day long. They were never done, their forge was
going from morning to night. When they could not act they talked, and when they
could not talk they imagined, and schemed, and plotted. Restless is the
activity of malice. Bad men never have enough of evil. They compass sea and
land to injure a saint; no labour is too severe, no cost too great if they may
utterly destroy the innocent. Our comfort is, that our glorious Head knows the
pertinacious malignity of our foes, and will in due season put an end to it, as
he even now sets a bound about it.
Verse
13. But I, as a deaf man, heard not. Well and bravely was this
done. A sacred indifference to the slanders of malevolence is true courage and
wise policy. It is well to be as if we could not hear or see. Perhaps the
psalmist means that this deafness on his part was unavoidable because he had no
power to answer the taunts of the cruel, but felt much of the truth of their
ungenerous accusations. And I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.
David was bravely silent, and herein was eminently typical of our Lord Jesus,
whose marvellous silence before Pilate was far more eloquent than words. To
abstain from self defence is often most difficult, and frequently most wise.
Verse
14. Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are
no reproofs. He repeats the fact of his silence that we may note it, admire
it, and imitate it. We have an advocate, and need not therefore plead our own
cause. The Lord will rebuke our foes, for vengeance belongs to him; we may
therefore wait patiently and find it our strength to sit still.
Verse
15. David committed himself to him that judgeth righteously, and so
in patience was able to possess his soul. Hope in God's intervention, and
belief in the power of prayer, are two most blessed stays to the soul in time
of adversity. Turning right away from the creature to the sovereign Lord of
all, and to him as our own covenant God, we shall find the richest solace in
waiting upon him. Reputation like a fair pearl may be cast into the mire, but
in due time when the Lord makes up his jewels, the godly character shall shine
with unclouded splendour. Rest then, O slandered one, and let not thy soul be
tossed to and fro with anxiety.
Verse
16. For I said, hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over
me. The good man was not insensible, he dreaded the sharp stings of
taunting malice; he feared lest either by his conduct or his condition, he
should give occasion to the wicked to triumph. This fear his earnest desires
used as an argument in prayer as well as an incentive to prayer. When my
foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me. The least flaw in a
saint is sure to be noticed; long before it comes to a fall the enemy begins to
rail, the merest trip of the foot sets all the dogs of hell barking. How
careful ought we to be, and how importunate in prayer for upholding grace! We
do not wish, like blind Samson, to make sport for our enemies; let us then
beware of the treacherous Delilah of sin, by whose means our eyes may soon be
put out.
Verse
17. For I am ready to halt. Like one who limps, or a person
with tottering footsteps, in danger of falling. How well this befits us all. "Let
him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." How small a thing
will lame a Christian, how insignificant a stumbling block may cause him to
fall! This passage refers to a weakness caused by pain and sorrow; the sufferer
was ready to give up in despair; he was so depressed in spirit that he stumbled
at a straw. Some of us painfully know what it is to be like dry tinder for the
sparks of sorrow; ready to halt, ready to mourn, and sigh and cry upon any
occasion, and for any cause. And my sorrow is continually before me. He
did not need to look out of window to find sorrow, he felt it within, and
groaned under a body of sin which was an increasing plague to him. Deep
conviction continues to irritate the conscience; it will not endure a patched
up peace; but cries war to the knife till the enmity is slain. Until the Holy
Ghost applies the precious blood of Jesus, a truly awakened sinner is covered
with raw wounds which cannot be healed nor bound up, nor mollified with
ointment.
Verse
18. For I will declare mine iniquity. The slander of his
enemies he repudiates, but the accusations of his conscience he admits. Open
confession is good for the soul. When sorrow leads to hearty and penitent
acknowledgment of sin it is blessed sorrow, a thing to thank God for most
devoutly. I will be sorry for my sin. My confession will be salted with
briny tears. It is well not so much to bewail our sorrows as to denounce the
sins which lie at the root of them. To be sorry for sin is no atonement for it,
but it is the right spirit in which to repair to Jesus, who is the
reconciliation and the Saviour. A man is near to the end of his trouble when he
comes to an end with his sins.
Verse
19. But mine enemies are lively, and they are strong. However
weak and dying the righteous man may be, the evils which oppose him are sure to
be lively enough. Neither the world, the flesh, nor the devil, are ever
afflicted with debility or inertness; this trinity if evils labour with mighty
unremitting energy to overthrow us. If the devil were sick, or our lusts
feeble, or Madame Bubble infirm, we might slacken prayer; but with such lively
and vigorous enemies we must not cease to cry mightily unto our God. And
they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied. Here is another misery, that
as we are no match for our enemies in strength, so also they outnumber us as a
hundred to one. Wrong as the cause of evil is, it is a popular one. More and
more the kingdom of darkness grows. Oh, misery of miseries, that we see the
professed friends of Jesus forsaking him, and the enemies of his cross and his
cause mustering in increasing bands!
Verse
20. They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries.
Such would a wise man wish his enemies to be. Why should we seek to be beloved
of such graceless souls? It is a fine plea against our enemies when we can
without injustice declare them to be like the devil, whose nature it is to
render evil for good. Because I follow the thing that good is. If men
hate us for this reason we may rejoice to bear it: their wrath is the
unconscious homage which vice renders to virtue. This verse is not inconsistent
with the writer's previous confession; we may feel equally guilty before God,
and yet be entirely innocent of any wrong to our fellow men. It is one sin to
acknowledge the truth, quite another thing to submit to be belied. The Lord may
smite me justly, and yet I may be able to say to my fellow man, "Why
smitest thou me?"
Verse
21. Forsake me not, O Lord. Now is the time I need thee most.
When sickness, slander, and sin, all beset a saint, he requires the especial
aid of heaven, and he shall have it too. He is afraid of nothing while God is
with him, and God is with him evermore. Be not far from me. Withhold not
the light of thy near and dear love. Reveal thyself to me. Stand at my side.
Let me feel that though friendless besides, I have a most gracious and all
sufficient friend in thee.
Verse
22. Make haste to help me. Delay would prove destruction. The
poor pleader was far gone and ready to expire, only speedy help would serve his
turn. See how sorrow quickens the importunity of prayer! Here is one of the
sweet results of affliction, it gives new life to our pleading, and drives us
with eagerness to our God. O Lord my salvation. Not my Saviour only, but
my salvation. He who has the Lord on his side has salvation in present
possession. Faith foresees the blessed issue of all her pleas, and in this
verse begins to ascribe to God the glory of the expected mercy. We shall not be
left of the Lord. His grace will succour us most opportunely, and in heaven we
shall see that we had not one trial too many, or one pang too severe. A sense
of sin shall melt into the joy of salvation; grief shall lead on to gratitude,
and gratitude to joy unspeakable and full of glory.
EXPLANATORY
NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
TITLE. The first
word, MIZMOR, or Psalm, is the designation of forty-four sacred poems,
thirty-two of which are ascribed to David. The English reader must observe,
that this word is not the same in the original Hebrew as that which forms the
general title of the book of Psalms; the latter expressing a Hymn of Praise.
The word Psalm, however, as used both in the context and in the titles
of the individual compositions, is uniformly Mizmor in the original; a
term which accurately defines their poetical character. To explain its proper
meaning I must have recourse to the beautiful and accurate definition of Bishop
Lowth. "The word Mizmor signifies a composition, which in a
peculiar manner is cut up into sentences, short, frequent, and measured by
regular intervals." ...He adds that Zamar means to cut or prune, as
applied to the removing superfluous branches from trees; and, after mentioning
the secondary sense of the word, "to sing with a voice or instrument,
"gives it as his opinion, that Mizmar may be more properly referred
to the primary sense of the root, so as to mean a poem cut up into short
sentences, and pruned from all superfluity of words, which is the peculiar
characteristic of the Hebrew poetry. John Jebb.
Title. The title that
David gives this Psalm is worth your notice. A Psalm of David to bring to
remembrance. David was on his deathbed as he thought, and he said it shall
be a Psalm of remembrance, to bring sin to remembrance, to confess to God my
uncleannesses with Bathsheba, to bring to my remembrance the evils of my life.
Whenever God brings thee under affliction, thou art then in a fit plight to
confess sin to God, and call to remembrance thy sins. Christopher Love.
Title. The Psalm is to
bring to remembrance. This seems to teach us that good things need to be
kept alive in our memories, that we should often sit down, look back, retrace,
and turn over in our meditation things that are past, lest at any time we
should let any good thing sink into oblivion. Among the things which David
brought to his own remembrance, the first and foremost were, (1) his past
trials and his past deliverances. The great point, however, in David's
Psalm is to bring to remembrance, (2) the depravity of our nature. There
is, perhaps, no Psalm which more fully than this describes human nature as seen
in the light which God the Holy Ghost casts upon it in the time when he
convinces us of sin. I am persuaded that the description here does not tally
with any known disease of the body. It is very like leprosy, but it has about
it certain features which cannot be found to meet in any leprosy described
either by ancient or modern writers. The fact is, it is a spiritual leprosy, it
is an inward disease which is here described, and David paints it to the very
life, and he would have us to recollect this. A third thing the Psalm brings to
our remembrance is, (3) our many enemies. David says, that his enemies
laid snares for him, and sought his hurt, and spoke mischievous things, and
devised and imagined deceits all the day long. "Well, "says one,
"how was it that David had so many enemies?" How could he make so
many? Must he not have been imprudent and rash, or perhaps morose? It does not
appear so in his life. He rather made enemies by his being scrupulously holy.
His enemies attacked him, not because he was wicked, but as he says, in this
very Psalm, they were his enemies because he loved the thing which is good. The
ultimate result of the religion of Christ is to make peace everywhere, but the
first result is to cause strife. Further, the Psalm reminds us of, (4) our
gracious God. Anything which drives us to God is a blessing, and anything
which weans us from leaning on the arm of flesh, and especially that weans us
from trying to stand alone, is a boon to us. C. H. S
Whole
Psalm. The most wonderful features in this Psalm, are the depth of
misery into which the psalmist gradually plunges in his complaints in the first
part of it, the sudden grasp at the arm of mercy and omnipotence that is made
in Ps 38:8, and the extreme height of comfort and consolation that it reaches
in the end. Benjamin Weiss.
Verse
1. O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath. But is it not an
absurd request, to require God not to rebuke me in his anger; as though I
thought he would rebuke me if he were not angry? Is it not a senseless suit to
pray to God not to chasten me in his displeasure, as though he would chasten me
if he were not displeased? The most froward natures that are, will yet be quiet
as long as they be pleased: and shall I have such a thought of the great yet
gracious God, that he should be pleased and yet not be quiet? But, O my soul,
is it all one, to rebuke in his anger and to rebuke when he is angry? He may
rebuke when he is angry, and yet restrain and bridle in his anger; but to
rebuke in his anger is to let loose the reins to his anger; and what is it to
give the reins to his anger, but to make it outrun his mercy? And then what a
miserable case should I be in, to have his anger to assault me, and not his
mercy ready to relieve me? To have his indignation fall upon me when his
lovingkindness were not by to take it off! Oh, therefore, rebuke me not in
thine anger, O God, but let thy rebuking stay for thy mercy; chasten me not
in thy displeasure, but let thy lovingkindness have the keeping of thy rod. Sir
Richard Baker.
Verse
1. Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure, etc. Both these
words, which we translate to chasten, and hot displeasure, are
words of a heavy and of a vehement signification. They extend both to express
the eternity of God's indignation, even to the binding of the soul and body in
eternal chains of darkness. For the first, jasar, signifies in the
Scriptures, vincire, to bind, often with ropes, often with chains; to
fetter, or manacle, or pinion men that are to be executed; so that it imports a
slavery, a bondage all the way, and a destruction at last. And so the word is
used by Rehoboam, "My father chastised you with whips, but I will chasten
you with scorpions." 1Ki 12:11. And then, the other word, chamath,
doth not only signify hot displeasure, but that effect of God's hot
displeasure which is intended by the prophet Esay: "Therefore hath he
poured forth his fierce wrath, and the strength of battle, and it hath set him
on fire round about, yet he knew it not, and it burned him, yet he laid it not
to heart." These be the fearful conditions of God's hot displeasure, to be
in a furnace, and not to feel it; to be in a habit of sin, and not know what
leads us into temptation; to be burnt to ashes, and so not only without all
moisture, all holy tears, but, as ashes, without any possibility that any good
thing can grow in us. And yet this word, chamath, hath a heavier
signification than this; for it signifies poison itself, destruction itself,
for so it is twice taken in one verse: "Their poison is like the poison of
a serpent" Ps 58:4; so that this hot displeasure is that poison of
the soul, obduration here, and that extension of that obduration, a final
impenitence in this life, and an infinite impenitableness in the next, to die
without any actual penitence here, and live without all possibility of future
penitence for ever hereafter. David therefore foresees, that if God rebuke
in anger, it will come to a chastening in hot displeasure. For what
should stop him? For, "if a man sin against the Lord, who will plead for
him?" says Eli. "Plead thou my cause, " says David; it is only
the Lord that can be of counsel with him, and plead for him and that Lord is
both the judge and angry too. John Donne.
Verse
2. For thine arrows stick fast in me. First, we shall see in
what respect he calls them arrows: and therein, first, that they are alienae,
they are shot from others, they are not in his own power; a man shoots not an
arrow at himself; and then that they are veloces, swift in coming, he
cannot give them their time; and again, they are vix visibiles, though
they be not altogether invisible in their cunning, yet there is required a
quick eye, and an express diligence and watchfulness to avoid them; so they are
arrows in the hand of another, not his own; and swift as they come, and
invisible before they come. And secondly, they are many arrows, the victory
lies not in escaping one or two. And thirdly, they stick in him: they
find not David so good proof as to rebound back again, and imprint no sense:
and they stick Fast: though the blow be felt and the wound discerned,
yet there is not a present cure, he cannot shake them off; infixae sunt,
and then, with all this, they stick fast in him; that is, in all him; in
his body and soul; in him, in his thoughts and actions; in him, in his sins and
in his good works too; infixae mihi, there is no part of him, no faculty
in him, in which they stick not; for (which may well be another consideration),
that hand, which shot them, presses him: follows the blow, and
presses him sore, that is, vehemently. But yet (which will be our
conclusion), sagittae tuae, thy arrows, and manus tua, thy hand,
these arrows that are shot, and this hand that presses him so sore, are the
arrows, and the hand of God; and therefore, first, they must have their
effect, they cannot be disappointed; but yet they bring their comfort with
them, because they are his, because no arrows from him, no pressing with his
hand, comes without that balsamum of mercy to heal as fast as he wounds.
John Donne.
Verse
2. Thine arrows stick fast. Though importunity be to God most
pleasing always, yet to us it is then most necessary when the cheerful face of
God is turned into frowns, and when there is a justly conceived fear of the
continuance of his anger: and have I not just cause to fear it, having the
arrows of his anger sticking so fast in me? If he had meant to make me but a
butt, at which to shoot his arrows, he would quickly, I suppose, have taken
them up again; but now that he leaves them sticking in me, what can I think,
but that he means to make me his quiver; and then I may look long enough before
he come to pluck them out. They are arrows, indeed, that are feathered with
swiftness, and headed with sharpness; and to give them a force in flying, they
are shot, I may say, out of his crossbow, I am sure his bow of crosses; for no
arrows can fly so fast, none pierce so deep, as the crosses and afflictions
with which he hath surprised me: I may truly say surprised me, seeing when I
thought myself most safe, and said, "I shall never be moved, "even
then, these arrows of his anger lighted upon me, and stick so fast in my flesh,
that no arm but his that shot them, is ever able to draw them forth. Oh, then,
as thou hast stretched forth thine arm of anger, O God, to shoot these arrows
at me, so stretch forth thine arm of mercy to draw them forth, that I may
rather sing hymns than dirges unto thee; and that thou mayest show thy power,
as well in pardoning as thou hast done in condemning. Sir Richard Baker.
Verse
2. Thine arrows. Arrows are (1) swift, (2) secret, (3) sharp
(4) killing instruments. They are instruments drawing blood and drinking blood,
even unto drunkenness De 32:42; afflictions are like arrows in all these
properties. 1. Afflictions often come very speedily, with a glance as an arrow,
quick as a thought. 2. Afflictions come suddenly, unexpectedly; an arrow is
upon a man afore he is aware, so are afflictions. Though Job saith, the thing
he feared came upon him, he looked for this arrow before it came; yet usually
afflictions are unlooked for guests, they thrust in upon us when we dream not
of them. 3. They come with little noise; an arrow is felt before, or, as soon
as it is heard; an arrow flies silently and secretly, stealing upon and
wounding a man, unobserved and unseen. Lastly, all afflictions are sharp, and
in their own nature killing and deadly. That any have good from them, is from
the grace of God, not from their nature. Joseph Caryl.
Verse
2. Let no one think these expressions of penitence Ps 38:1-4
overstrained or excessive. They are the words of the Holy Spirit of God,
speaking by the mouth of the man after God's own heart. If we were as repentant
as David, we should bring home to ourselves his language; as it is, our
affections are chilled, and therefore we do not enter into his words...And let
us observe how all the miseries are referred to their proper end. The sin is
not bewailed merely on account of its ill effect on the guilty one, but on
account of the despite done to God. The psalmist's first thought is the "anger"
of the Lord, and his hot displeasure. It is not the "arrows"
that afflict him so much as that they are God's. "Thine arrows stick
fast in me, and thy hand presseth me." The reason why there is no
health in his flesh is because of God's displeasure. Such is true contrition,
"not the sorrow of the world which worketh death, but the sorrow that
worketh repentance not to be repented of." A Commentary on the Seven
Penitential Psalms. Chiefly from Ancient Sources, (by A.P.F.) 1847.
Verse
2. Thy hand presseth me sore. Not the hand of Egypt or Ashur;
then it were hand for hand, a duel of some equality: hand to hand; here forces
and stratagems might achieve a victory: but Thy hand. The weight of a
man's blow is but weak, according to the force and pulse of his arm; as the
princes of Midian answered Gideon, when he bade his son try the dint of his
sword upon them; "Rise thou, and fall upon us: for as the man is, so is
his strength." Jud 8:21. But "it is a fearful thing to fall into the
hands of the living God." Heb 10:31. As Homer called the hands of Jupiter ceirez
aeptoi, hands whose praise could not be sufficiently spoken; which some
read ceires aaptoii, hands inaccessible, irresistible for strength: all
the gods in heaven could not ward a blow of Jupiter's hand. This hand never
strikes but for sin; and where sin is mighty his blow is heavy. Thomas
Adams.
Verse
3. Thine anger...my sin. I, alas! am as an anvil under two
hammers; one of thine anger, another of my sin; both of them beating
incessantly upon me; the hammer of thine anger beating upon my flesh and making
that unsound; the hammer of my sin beating upon my bones and making them
unquiet; although indeed both beat upon both; but thine anger more upon my
flesh, as being more sensible; my sin more upon my bones, as being more
obdurate. God's anger and sin are the two efficient causes of all misery; but
the procatarctic (as applied to diseases, signifies the exciting cause) cause
indeed is sin: God's anger, like the house that Samson pulled upon his own
head, falls not upon us but when we pull it upon ourselves by sin. Sir
Richard Baker.
Verse
3. My flesh...my bones. I know by the unsoundness of my flesh
that God is angry with me; for if it were not for his anger my flesh would be
sound: but what soundness can there be in it now, when God's angry hand lies
beating upon it continually, and never ceaseth? I know by the unquietness of my
bones that I have sin in my bosom; for if it were not for sin my bones would be
quiet. But what quietness can be in them now, when sin lies gnawing upon them
incessantly with the worm of remorse? One would think my bones were far enough
removed and closely enough hidden from sins doing them any hurt: yet see the
searching nature, the venomous poison of sin, which pierceth through my flesh,
and makes unquietness in my very bones. I know my flesh is guilty of many
faults, by which it justly deserves unsoundness; but what have my bones done?
for they minister no fuel to the flames of my flesh's sensuality; and why then
should they be troubled? But are not my bones supporters of my flesh, and are
they not by this at least accessory to my flesh's faults? As accessories, then,
they are subject to the same punishment the flesh itself is, which is the
principal. Sir Richard Baker.
Verse
3. neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. A
Christian in this life is like quicksilver, which hath a principle of motion in
itself, but not of rest: we are never quiet, but as the ball upon the racket,
or the ship upon the waves. As long as we have sin, this is like quicksilver: a
child of God is full of motion and disquiet...We are here in a perpetual hurry,
in a constant fluctuation; our life is like the tide; sometimes ebbing, sometimes
flowing; here is no rest; and the reason is because we are out of centre.
Everything is in motion till it comes at the centre; Christ is the centre of
the soul; the needle of the compass trembles till it comes to the North Pole. Thomas
Watson.
Verse
3. Learn here of beggars how to procure succour and relief. Lay open
thy sores, make known thy need, discover all thy misery, make not thy case
better than it is. Beggars by experience find that the more miserable they
appear to be, the more they are pitied, the more succoured; and yet the mercies
of the most merciful men are but as drops in comparison of the oceans of God's
mercies; and among men there are many, like the priest and Levite in the
parable Lu 10:30-32, that can pass by a naked, wounded man, left half dead, and
not pity him nor succour him. But God, like the merciful Samaritan, hath always
compassion on such as with sense of their misery are forced to cry out and
crave help. Read how Job, Job 6:1-30 and Job 7:1-21; David, Ps 38:3, etc., Hezekiah,
Isa 38:10, etc., and other like saints poured out their complaints before the
Lord, and withal observe what mercy was showed them of the Lord, and you may
have in them both good patterns how to behave yourselves in like cases, and
good encouragement so to do. This is it which God expects of us, and whereunto
he desireth to bring us, that seeing our own emptiness and insufficiency, and
the impotency and disability of others to help us, we should in all humility
fly to his mercy. William Gouge.
Verse
4. For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy
burden they are too heavy for me. David proceeds to a reason why his prayer
must be vehement, why these miseries of his are so violent, and why God's anger
is permanent, and he finds this all to be, because in his sins, all these
venomous qualities, vehemence, violence, and continuance, were complicated, and
unwrapped; for he had sinned vehemently, in the rage of lust, and violently, in
the effusion of blood, and permanently, in a long and senseless security. They
are all contracted in this text into two kinds, which will be our two parts in
handling these words: first, the Supergressae super, "Mine iniquities
are gone over my head, "there is the multiplicity, the number, the
succession, and so the continuation of his sin; and then, the Gravatae
super, "My sins are as a heavy burden, too heavy for me, "there
is the greatness, the weight, the insupportableness of his sin. St. Augustine
calls these two distinctions or considerations of sin, ignorantiam, et
difficultatem; first that David was ignorant, that he saw not the tide, as
it swelled up upon him, abyssus abyssum, depth called upon depth; and
all thy waters, and all thy billows are gone over me (says he in another
place); he perceived them not coming till they were over him, he discerned not
his particular sins then when he committed them, till they came to the supergressae
super, to that height that he was overflowed, surrounded, his iniquities
were gone over his head; and in that St. Augustine notes ignorantiam,
his inobservance, his inconsiderations of his own case; and then he notes difficultatem,
the hardness of recovering, because he that is under water hath no air to see
by, no air to hear by, he hath nothing to reach to, he touches not ground, to
push him up, he feels no bough to pull him up, and therein that further notes difficultatem,
the hardness of recovering. Now Moses expresses these two miseries together, in
the destruction of the Egyptians, in his song, after Israel's deliverance, and the
Egyptians' submersion, "The depths have covered them" (there is the supergressae
super, their iniquities, in that punishment of their iniquities, were gone
over their heads), and then they sank into the bottom like a stone (says
Moses), there is the gravatae super, they depressed them, suppressed
them, oppressed them, they were under them, and there they must lie. The
Egyptians had, David had, we have, too many sins to swim above water, and too
great sins to get above water again when we are sunk. John Donne.
Verse
4. As an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. No strength
is so great but it may be overburdened; though Samson went light away with the
gates of Gaza, yet when a whole house fell upon him it crushed him to death.
And such, alas! am I; I have had sin as a burden upon me ever since I was born,
but bore it a long time as light as Samson did the gates of Gaza; but now that
I have pulled a whole house of sin upon me, how can I choose but be crushed to
death with so great a weight? And crushed, O my soul, thou shouldest be indeed,
if God for all his anger did not take some pity on thee, and for all his
displeasure did not stay his hand from further chastening thee. Sir Richard
Baker.
Verse
4. It is of singular use to us, that the backslidings of the holy
men of God are recorded in Holy Writ. Spots appear nowhere more disagreeable
than when seen in a most beautiful face, or on the cleanest garment. And it is
expedient to have a perfect knowledge of the filthiness of sin. We also learn
from them to think humbly of ourselves, to depend on the grace of God, to keep
a stricter eye upon ourselves, lest perhaps we fall into the same or more
grievous sins. Ga 6:1. Herman Witsius, D.D., 1636-1708.
Verses
4-5. It is only when we can enter into all that is implied here
that we begin to see our exceeding sinfulness. There is a certain feeling of
sin which does not interfere with our pride, and self respect. We can have that
sort of feeling, and say pretty earnestly, Mine iniquities are gone over
mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. But it is
otherwise with us when we get to know ourselves better, and to feel ourselves loathsome
in our wickedness, when our folly and meanness and ingratitude oppress us, and
we begin to loathe ourselves, and can enter into verse five. Our wounds, once
an object of self pity, and something in which we could claim sympathy and
healing from our friends, have become corrupt, because of the meanness
and folly we feel to be in us. We hide them now, for if they were seen, would
not "lovers and friends stand aloof from our sore"? Then we are
silent except to God, "For in thee, O Lord, do I hope; thou
wilt hear, O Lord my God, "Ps 38:15. O love of God that turns not away! O
blessed Jesus, that turneth not away from the leprous man that fell upon his
face and said, "If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean, but put forth
thine hand and touched him, saying, `I will: be thou clean, 'to whom can
we go but unto thee!" Mary B. M. Duncan.
Verse
5. My wounds stink and are corrupt, etc. These expressions
seem to be in a great measure figurative, and significant rather of the
diseased state of his mind than of his body. William Walford.
Verse
5. My wounds stink and are corrupt. I know, O Lord, I have
done most foolishly, to let my sores run so long without seeking for help; for
now, My wounds stink and are corrupt, in as ill a case as Lazarus' body
was when it had been four days buried; enough to make any man despair that did
not know thee as I do. For, do not I know, that nullum tempus occurrit tibi;
do not I know thou hast as well wisdom to remedy my foolishness as power to
cure my wounds? Could the grave hold Lazarus when thou didst but open thy mouth
to call him forth? No more can the corruption of my sores be any hindrance to
their healing when thy pleasure is to have them to be cured. Although,
therefore, I have done my own discretion wrong to defer my care, yet I will not
do thy power wrong to despair of thy cure; for, how should I despair, who know
thee to be as powerful as thou art merciful; if I may not rather say, to be as
merciful as thou art powerful! Sir Richard Baker.
Verse
5. My wounds stink and are corrupt. Either they must be
understood literally of the sores that were in his body (as the words in the
following verse may also seem to import) which he calls wounds, to
intimate that he looked upon them as the wheals or swelling tumours (for so the
original word may signify) which the rod of God had made in his flesh, or the
wounds of those arrows of which he had spoken Ps 38:2, "Thine arrows stick
fast in me; "or else figuratively, of any other miseries that God had
brought upon him, comparing them to stinking and festering sores; either to
imply the long continuance of them, or the sharp pains and sorrows which he
felt in himself by reason thereof. Yet some, I know, would have it meant of the
shame which his sins had brought upon him. Arthur Jackson.
Verses
5-6. The spiritual feeling of sin is indispensable to the feeling of
salvation. A sense of the malady must ever precede, and prepare the soul for, a
believing reception and due apprehension of the remedy. Wherever God intends to
reveal his Son with power, wherever he intends to make the gospel to be "a
joyful sound, "he makes the conscience feel and groan under the burden of
sin. And sure am I that when a man is labouring under the burden of sin, he
will be full of complaint. The Bible records hundreds of the complaints of
God's people under the burden of sin. My wounds stink and are corrupt,
cries one, because of my foolishness. I am troubled; I am bowed down
greatly; I go mourning all the day long. "My soul, "cries
another, "is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh until the grave,
"Ps 88:3. "He hath led me, "groans out a third, "and
brought me into darkness, but not into light." La 3:2. A living man must
needs cry under such circumstances. He cannot carry the burden without
complaining of its weight. He cannot feel the arrow sticking in his conscience
without groaning under the pain. He cannot have the worm gnawing his vitals,
without complaining of its venomous tooth. He cannot feel that God is incensed
against him without bitterly complaining that the Lord is his enemy. Spiritual
complaint then is a mark of spiritual life, and is one which God recognises as
such. "I have surely hear Ephraim bemoaning himself." Jer 31:18. It
shows that he has something to mourn over; something to make him groan being
burdened; that sin has been opened up to him in its hateful malignancy; that it
is a trouble and distress to his soul; that he cannot roll it like a sweet
morsel under his tongue; but that it is found out by the penetrating eye, and
punished by the chastening hand of God. J. C. Philpot. 1842.
Verse
6. I am troubled. I writhe with pain. This is the proper
sense of the original, which means to "turn out of its proper situation,
or course; "thence to be "distorted, writhed, "as a person in
pain. Our Bible translation, which says in the text, I am troubled, adds
in the margin, "wried, "an obsolete word, correctly expressing the
Hebrew. Richard Mant.
Verse
6. I go mourning all the day long. And now was I both a
burden and a terror to myself, nor did I ever so know, as now, what it was to
be weary of my life, and yet afraid to die. Oh, how gladly now would I have
been anybody but myself! Anything but a man! and in any condition but mine own!
for there was nothing did pass more frequently over my mind than that it was
impossible for me to be forgiven my transgression, and to be saved from wrath
to come. John Bunyan, in "Grace Abounding."
Verse
6. Let a man see and feel himself under the bonds of guilt, in
danger of hell, under the power of his lusts, enmity against God, and God a
stranger to him; let but the sense of this condition lie upon his heart, and
let him go on in his jollity if he can. What a woeful creature doth a man see
himself now to be! He envies the happiness of the beasts that are filled, and
play in their pastures. We have heard of him who when he saw a toad, stood
weeping, because God had made him a man, so excellent a creature, and
not a toad, so abominable: the goodness of God, then, it seems, as he
apprehended it, made him weep; but this man meets a toad, and he weeps also,
but why? because he is a man who thinks his estate infinitely worse than
the condition of a toad, and if it were possible to attain it, would change
states with the toad, that hath no guilt of sin, fears no wrath of God, is not
under power of lusts or creatures; God is not enemy to it, which is his
miserable state. Giles Firmin, 1617-1697.
Verse
7. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease. The word
here used, according to Gesenius (Lex.), properly denotes the internal
muscles of the loins near the kidneys, to which the fat adheres. The word
rendered loathsome—the word disease being supplied by our
translators—is derived from (hlq), kalah, a word which means to roast,
to parch, as fruit, grain, etc.; and then, in the form used here, it means
scorched, burned; hence, a burning or inflammation; and the whole phrase would
be synonymous with an inflammation of the kidneys. The word here
used does not imply that there was any eruption, or ulcer, though it would seem
from verse five that this was the fact, and that the inflammation had produced
this effect. Albert Barnes.
Verse
7. A loathsome disease. In many things our estimates are
extravagant; but we never over estimate the evil of sin. It is as corrupting as
it is damning. It covers the soul with plague spots, with the leprosy. Isa
1:5-6. William S. Plumer.
Verse
8. I am feeble, literally, I am benumbed. I have
become deadly cold, cold as a corpse; possibly with reference to the burning
inflammation in the previous verse, as marking the alternations in the fever
fit. J. J. Stewart Perowne.
Verse
8. I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.
Where sin is, there will never be but unquietness of heart; and an unquiet
heart will always produce these miserable effects—feebleness of body,
dejectedness of mind, and roaring of voice. But how can roaring stand with
feebleness, which seems to require a strength of spirits? Is it not, therefore,
a roaring, perhaps not so much in loudness as in an inarticulate expressing?
that having done actions more like a beast than a man, I am forced to use a
voice not so much of a man as of a beast? Or is it perhaps a roaring in spirit,
which the heart may send forth though the body be feeble; or rather then most,
when it is most feeble; not unlike the blaze of a candle then greatest when
going out? Howsoever it be, this is certain: the heart is that unhappy plot of
ground, which, receiving into it the accursed seed of sin, brings forth in the
body and soul of man these miserable fruits: and how, then, can I be free from
these weeds of the fruits, since I have received into me so great a measure of
the seed? Oh, vile sin, that I could as well avoid thee as I can see thee, or
could as easily resist thee as I deadly hate thee, I should not then complain
of either feebleness of body, or dejectedness of mind, or roaring of voice; but
I should perfectly enjoy that happy quietness in all my parts, which thou, O
God, didst graciously bestow as a blessed dowry on our first parents at their
creation. Sir Richard Baker.
Verse
8. I have roared, etc. It is difficult for a true penitent,
in the bitterness of his soul, to go over the life which he has dragged on in
sinfulness, without groaning and sighing from the bottom of his heart. But
happy are these groans, happy these sighs, happy these sobs, since they flow
from the influence of grace, and from the breath of the Holy Spirit, who
himself in an ineffable manner groans in us and with us, and who forms these
groans in our hearts by penitence and love! but as the violence of both, that
is, of penitence and of love, cannot but burst the narrow limits of a penitent
heart, it must make a vent for itself by the eyes and mouth. The eyes shed
tears, and the mouth sends forth sighs and groans, which it can no longer
restrain; because they are driven on by the fire of divine love, and so these
lamentations frame themselves into words and intelligible sentences. Jean
Baptiste Elias Avrillon, 1652-1729.
Verse
8. The disquietness of my heart. David felt pains gather
about his heart, and then he cried out. The heart is the mark that God
principally aims at when a Christian hath turned aside from his upright course;
other outward parts he may hit and deeply wound, but this is but to make holes
in the heart, where the seat of unsoundness that principally offends him is.
The fire which conscience kindles, it may flash forth into the eyes, and
tongue, and hands, and make a man look fearfully, speak desperately, and do
bloodily, against the body; but the heat of the fire is principally within, in
the furnace, in the spirit; it is but some sparkles and flashes only that you
see come forth at the lower holes of the furnace, which you behold in the eyes,
words, and deeds of such men. Nicholas Lockyer.
Verse
9. There are usually, if not always, pains with desires, especially
in desires after the creature, because that oftentimes there is a frustration
of our desires, or an elongation of the things, the things are far off, hard to
come by; our desires oftentimes are mute, they speak not; or the things that we
desire, know not our minds: but our desires after God always speak, they are
open unto God, he heareth their voice. Lord, all my desire is before thee,
saith David, and my groaning is not hid from thee. Therefore it must
needs be sweet, when the soul lies thus open unto God. Other desires do not
assure and secure a man in the things he desires; a man may wish this and wish
that, and go without both; but the soul that thus longs after God is instated
in his wish, hath a present enjoyment, and certainly shall have a full
enjoyment of him. "He will fulfil the desire of those that fear him: he
also will hear their cry." Ps 145:19. Joseph Symonds.
Verse
9. My groaning is not hid from thee. Secret tears for secret
sins are an excellent sign of a holy heart, and a healing balsam for broken
spirits. God well understands the language of half words interrupted with
sighs, and interprets them as the steams and breathings of a broken heart. As
all our foolishness is before him to cover it, so is all our heaviness to ease
it; and therefore shall our souls praise and please him more than a bullock with
young horns and hoofs upon his altar. Holy mourning keeps out carnal sorrow and
produces spirit joy. It stirs up the heart of a saint to beg preventing grace
which no false heart can perform without secret reserves. This inward sorrow
prevents open shame. God will never give up such souls to be trampled on
by spiritual enemies, who are already humbled by themselves. In saints'
humiliation there's a door opened for secret hope, because of the precious
promises that are plighted to it, and especially of preventing future sin by
strengthening grace. For as the love of God is the fountain of all true
repentance, so it is the attractive of more incomes of divine love to the soul.
Samuel Lee.
Verse
10. My heart panteth. The verb which David here uses signifies
to travel or wander hither and thither, but here it is taken for
the agitation or disquietude which distress of heart engenders when we know not
what to do. According as men are disquieted in mind, so do they turn themselves
on all sides; and so their heart may be said to turn round, or to run to and
fro. John Calvin.
Verse
11. My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my
kinsmen stand afar off. So miserable am I, that I am left alone as one
utterly forsaken; they are all pieces that recoil and fly back at the first
voice of the powder. Yet it is not so much me they stand aloof from as my sore;
for if it were not for my sore, I should have enough of their company easily
enough; but they cannot abide sores, their eyes are too tender to endure to see
them, and yet hard enough not to relieve them. Or is it they stand aloof, that
is, so near as to show they are willing enough to see them; but yet so far off
as to show they have no meaning to come and help them! ...My lovers and my
friends stand aloof from my sore, as fearing more my sore than me; but my
kinsmen stand afar off, as fearing me no less than my sore; and where my
lovers and friends by standing aloof do but violate the law of a contracted
friendship, my kinsmen by standing afar off violate even the law of natural
affection; and is not this a grievous thing, that the law of reason, the law of
friendship, the law of nature, shall all be broken rather than I shall be
relieved or find assistance? Sir Richard Baker.
Verse
11. My lovers and my friends stand afar off. Deserted by false
friends, but conqueror through thee, to thee I speed, who though seeming to act
the part of an enemy, yet never changest thy love; but lovest for ever him whom
thou once hast loved. When you seem afar off, you are near. I conceive this
sorrow on account of the treachery of false friends, and the cowardliness of my
kinsfolk, who are to me as piercing thorns rather than sweet smelling roses.
The proof of affection is seen by deeds. I hear the name of kinsman and
friend; I see no deed. To thee, therefore, I flee, whose word is deed; for I
need thy help. From the Latin of A. Rivetus.
Verse
13. But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that
openeth not his mouth. For why should I hear when I meant not to speak? and
why should I speak when I knew beforehand I should not be heard? I knew by
contesting I should but provoke them, and make them more guilty that were
guilty too much before. I therefore thought it better myself to be silent than
to set them a roaring and make them grow outrageous. No doubt a great wisdom in
David, to know that to be deaf and dumb was in this case his best course, but
yet a far greater virtue that knowing it, he was able to do it. Oh, how happy
should we be, if we could always do that which we know is best to be done, and
if our wills were as ready to act, as our reason is able to enact; we should
then decline many rocks we now run upon, we should then avoid many errors we
now run into. To be deaf and dumb are indeed great inabilities and defects,
when they be natural; but when they be voluntary, and I may say artificial,
they are them great abilities, or rather perfections. Sir Richard Baker.
Verse
13. But I, as a deaf man, heard not. The inspired writer here
compares himself to a dumb and deaf man for two reasons. In the first place, he
intimates that he was so overwhelmed with the false and wicked judgments of his
enemies, that he was not even permitted to open his mouth in his own defence.
In the second place, he alleges before God his own patience, as a plea to
induce God the more readily to have pity upon him; for such meekness and
gentleness, not only with good reason, secures favour to the afflicted and the
innocent, but it is also a sign of true piety. John Calvin.
Verse
14. Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are
no reproofs. You, who truly know yourselves; by whom silent suffering,
secret grief, and hidden joy are understood; by the knowledge of your own
unspoken sorrow, unexpressed, because inexpressible feelings, by the
consciousness of the unrevealed depths of your own nature, the earnest, but
ever unsatisfied yearnings of your spirit, learn to reverence and love those by
whom you are surrounded, whose inner life can never be completely read, but
whom you are sure must need sacred sympathy and tender consideration. If a
secret grief is constantly gnawing my heart, making my voice falter in the song
of praise, may not my brother's downcast eye and heavy heart be occasioned by a
similar cause; shall I condemn him for his want of gladness? No: but remember,
"the heart knoweth his own bitterness, and a stranger doth not intermeddle
with his joy." The silent breathings of the spirit are not for our ears;
the hot tears which in secret fall, are not for our eyes; in mercy has the veil
been drawn round each heart; but by the sacred memory of our own sadness, let
our voice be gentle, our look tender, our tread quiet, as we pass amongst the
mourners. Jessie Coombs, in "Thoughts for the Inner Life, "1867.
Verse
15. A man that is to go down into a deep pit, he does not throw
himself headlong into it, or leap down at all adventures, but fastens a rope at
top upon a cross beam or some sure place, and so lets himself down by degrees:
so let thyself down into the consideration of thy sin, hanging upon Christ; and
when thou art gone so low that thou canst endure no longer, but art ready to be
overcome with the horror and darkness of thy miserable estate, dwell not too
long at the gates of hell, lest the devil pull thee in, but wind thyself up
again by renewed acts of faith, and "fly for refuge unto the hope that is
set before thee." Heb 6:18. Thomas Cole (1627-1697), in
"Morning Exercises."
Verse
17. For I am ready to halt: to show my infirmity in my trials
and afflictions; as Jacob halted after his wrestling with God. Ge 32:31. In the
Greek, I am ready for scourges, that is, to suffer correction and
punishment for my sins: so the Chaldee saith, for calamity. Henry Ainsworth.
Verse
18. Pliny writeth of some families that had private marks on their
bodies peculiar to those of that line, and every man hath, as it were, a
private sin, which is most justly called his; but if we will confess our sins
aright, we must not leave out that sin; nay, our chiefest spite must be against
it, according to David's resolve: I will declare mine iniquity; I will be
sorry for my sin. ...David doth not only say, I will declare, but, I
will be sorry for my sin. The people of God 1Sa 7:6 in the day of their
confession not only say, "We have sinned, "but draw water, and pour
it out before the Lord in token of contrition. We should, in confessing sin,
have our hearts so affected, that our eyes, with Job, may "pour tears
before God" Job 16:20; that, with David, "rivers of tears may run
down our eyes" Ps 119:136; yea, we should wish with Jeremiah, that
"our head were waters, and our eyes a fountain of tears." Jer 9:1.
But, however, nonne stillabit oculus noster? if we cannot pour out,
shall we not drop a tear? or at least, if we cannot shed a tear, let us breathe
forth a sigh for our sins. It is only the heart broken with godly sorrow that
sends forth a true confession. Nathanael Hardy.
Verse
20. They are mine enemies because I follow the thing that good is.
It is a bold attempt to ding Satan out of his nest. If we conform us to the men
of this world we find peace with them; they will not discord with us so long as
we go their way; but to shame them by a godly life is an affront they cannot
digest; and to rebuke their sin, findeth at their hand all that Satan
disappointed or corruption provoked can devise. A sleeping dog is quiet, but
being stirred, turneth all in barking and biting. Not to do as they do is
matter enough of anger, but a reproof is the highest degree of disgrace in
their account. All that hatred which they ought to bear to Satan and his
instruments, is turned upon God in his rebuking and reclaiming servants. That
anger that in remorse should burn against their own sin is set against their
reprovers. William Struther.
Verse
22. O Lord my salvation. Faith the suppliant is now made faith
triumphant. Franz Delitzsch.
HINTS TO THE
VILLAGE PREACHER
TITLE. The art of
memory. Holy memorabilia. The usefulness of sacred remembrance.
Verse
1. The rebuke of God's wrath.
1.
Richly deserved.
2. Reasonably dreaded.
3. Earnestly deprecated.
—B. Daries.
Verse
1. The evil consequences of sin in this world. J. J. Blunt.
Verse
1. The bitterest of bitters, thy wrath; why deprecated; and
how escaped.
Verse
2. God sharply chasteneth many of his children, and yet for all that
he loves them never a whit the less, nor withholdeth in good time his mercy
from them. Thomas Wilcocks.
Verse
3. (last clause). Sin causes unrest. He who cures it
alone gives rest. Dwell on both facts.
Verse
4. (first clause). Sin in its relations to us. To the eye
pleasing. To the heart disappointing. In the bones vexing. Over
the head overwhelming.
Verse
4. The confession of an awakened sinner.
Verse
4. (last clause). Sin.
1.
Heavy—a burden.
2.
Very heavy—A heavy burden.
3.
Superlatively heavy—too heavy for me.
4.
Not immoveable, for though too heavy for me, yet Jesus bore it.
Verse
5. Foolishness. The folly of sin. Everything that a man has
to do with sin shows his folly.
1.
Dallying with sin.
2. Committing it.
3. Continuing in it.
4. Hiding it.
5. Palliating it.
—B. Davies.
Verse
6. Conviction of sin. Its grief, its depth, its continuance.
Verse
6. I go mourning.
1.
Unlawful reasons for mourning.
2. Legitimate themes for sorrow.
3. Valuable alleviations of grief.
Verse
9. The many desires of God's children: the fact that God understands
them even when unexpressed; and the certainty that he will grant them.
Verse
9. Omniscience, a source of consolation to the desponding.
Verse
13. The wisdom, dignity, power, and difficulty of silence.
Verse
15. Prayer, the offspring of hope. Hope strengthened by confidence in
God's answering prayer.
Verse
17. Mr. Ready to halt. His pedigree, and infirmity; his crutches, and
his cure; his history, and safe departure.
Verse
18. The excellence of penitent confession.
Verse
18. The twin children of grace—confession and contrition: their
mutual revelation and reaction.
Verse
18. (last clause). There is good reason for such sorrow, God
is well pleased with it. It benefits the mourner.
Verse
19. The terrible energy and industry of the powers of evil.
Verse
22. Faith tried, faith trembling, faith crying, faith grasping, faith
conquering.
── C.H. Spurgeon《The Treasury of David》