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Psalm Thirty-nine
Psalm 39
Chapter Contents
David meditates on man's frailty. (1-6) He applies for
pardon and deliverance. (7-13)
Commentary on Psalm 39:1-6
(Read Psalm 39:1-6)
If an evil thought should arise in the mind, suppress it.
Watchfulness in the habit, is the bridle upon the head; watchfulness in acts,
is the hand upon the bridle. When not able to separate from wicked men, we
should remember they will watch our words, and turn them, if they can, to our
disadvantage. Sometimes it may be necessary to keep silence, even from good
words; but in general we are wrong when backward to engage in edifying
discourse. Impatience is a sin that has its cause within ourselves, and that
is, musing; and its ill effects upon ourselves, and that is no less than
burning. In our greatest health and prosperity, every man is altogether vanity,
he cannot live long; he may die soon. This is an undoubted truth, but we are
very unwilling to believe it. Therefore let us pray that God would enlighten
our minds by his Holy Spirit, and fill our hearts with his grace, that we may
be ready for death every day and hour.
Commentary on Psalm 39:7-13
(Read Psalm 39:7-13)
There is no solid satisfaction to be had in the creature;
but it is to be found in the Lord, and in communion with him; to him we should
be driven by our disappointments. If the world be nothing but vanity, may God
deliver us from having or seeking our portion in it. When creature-confidences
fail, it is our comfort that we have a God to go to, a God to trust in. We may
see a good God doing all, and ordering all events concerning us; and a good
man, for that reason, says nothing against it. He desires the pardoning of his
sin, and the preventing of his shame. We must both watch and pray against sin.
When under the correcting hand of the Lord, we must look to God himself for
relief, not to any other. Our ways and our doings bring us into trouble, and we
are beaten with a rod of our own making. What a poor thing is beauty! and what
fools are those that are proud of it, when it will certainly, and may quickly,
be consumed! The body of man is as a garment to the soul. In this garment sin
has lodged a moth, which wears away, first the beauty, then the strength, and
finally the substance of its parts. Whoever has watched the progress of a
lingering distemper, or the work of time alone, in the human frame, will feel
at once the force of this comparison, and that, surely every man is vanity.
Afflictions are sent to stir up prayer. If they have that effect, we may hope
that God will hear our prayer. The believer expects weariness and ill treatment
on his way to heaven; but he shall not stay here long : walking with God by
faith, he goes forward on his journey, not diverted from his course, nor cast
down by the difficulties he meets. How blessed it is to sit loose from things
here below, that while going home to our Father's house, we may use the world
as not abusing it! May we always look for that city, whose Builder and Maker is
God.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Psalms》
Psalm 39
Verse 1
[1] I
said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep
my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.
I said — I
fully resolved.
Take heed — To
order all my actions right, and particularly to govern my tongue.
Verse 2
[2] I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow
was stirred.
Dumb —
Two words put together, expressing the same thing, to aggravate or increase it.
I held — I
forbear to speak, what I justly might, lest I should break forth into some
indecent expressions.
Stirred — My
silence did not assuage my grief, but increase it.
Verse 4
[4]
LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I
may know how frail I am.
My end —
Make me sensible of the shortness and uncertainly of life, and the near
approach of death.
Verse 5
[5]
Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing
before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. /*Selah*/.
Before thee — If
compared with thee, and with thy everlasting duration.
Verse 6
[6] Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in
vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.
Vain shew —
Heb. in a shadow or image; in an imaginary rather than a real life: in the
pursuit of vain imaginations, in which there is nothing solid or satisfactory:
man in and his life, and all his happiness in this world, are rather
appearances and dreams, than truths and realities.
Disquieted —
Heb. They make a noise, bustling, or tumult, with unwearied industry seeking
for riches, and troubling and vexing both themselves and others in the pursuit
of them.
Verse 7
[7] And
now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.
Mow Lord —
Seeing this life and all its enjoyments are so vain and short.
My hope — I
will seek for happiness no where but in God.
Verse 10
[10]
Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.
Remove —
Take off the judgment which thou hast inflicted upon me.
I am —
Help me before I am utterly lost.
Verse 11
[11] When
thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to
consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. /*Selah*/.
Beauty —
His comeliness and all his excellencies or felicities.
Moth — As
a moth consumeth a garment, to which God compares himself and his judgments,
secretly and insensibly consuming a people, Isaiah 51:8.
Verse 12
[12] Hear
my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears:
for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
A stranger — I
am only in my journey or passage to my real home, which is in the other world.
Verse 13
[13] O
spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.
No more —
Among the living, or in this world.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Psalms》
Exposition
Explanatory Notes and
Quaint Sayings
Hints to the Village
Preacher
Other Works
TITLE. To the Chief
Musician, even to Jeduthun. Jeduthun's name, which signifies praising or
celebrating, was a most appropriate one for a leader in sacred psalmody. He was
one of those ordained by the King's order "for song in the house of the
Lord with cymbals, psalteries, and harps" 1Ch 15:6, and his children after
him appear to have remained in the same hallowed service, even so late as the
days of Nehemiah. To have a name and a place in Zion is no small honour, and to
hold this place by a long entail of grace is an unspeakable blessing. O that
our household may never lack a man to stand before the Lord God of Israel to do
him service. David left this somewhat sorrowful ode in Jeduthun's hands because
he thought him most fit to set it to music, or because he would distribute the
sacred honour of song among all the musicians who in their turn presided in the
choir. A Psalm of David. Such as his chequered life would be sure to produce;
fit effusions for a man so tempted, so strong in his passions, and yet so firm
in faith.
DIVISION. The psalmist,
bowed down with sickness and sorrow, is burdened with unbelieving thoughts,
which he resolves to stifle, lest any evil should come from their expression,
Ps 39:1-2. But silence creates an insupportable grief, which at last demands
utterance, and obtains it in the prayer of Ps 39:3-6, which is almost a
complaint and a sigh for death, or at best a very desponding picture of human
life. From Ps 39:7-13 the tone is more submissive, and the recognition of the
divine hand more distinct; the cloud has evidently passed, and the mourner's
heart is relieved.
EXPOSITION
Verse
1. I said. I steadily resolved and registered a
determination. In his great perplexity his greatest fear was lest he should
sin; and, therefore, he cast about for the most likely method for avoiding it,
and he determined to be silent. It is right excellent when a man can strengthen
himself in a good course by the remembrance of a well and wisely formed
resolve. "What I have written I have written, "or what I have spoken
I will perform, may prove a good strengthener to a man in a fixed course of
right. I will take heed to my ways. To avoid sin one had need be very
circumspect, and keep one's actions as with a guard or garrison. Unguarded ways
are generally unholy ones. Heedless is another word for graceless. In times of
sickness or other trouble we must watch against the sins peculiar to such
trials, especially against murmuring and repining. That I sin not with my tongue.
Tongue sins are great sins; like sparks of fire ill words spread, and do great
damage. If believers utter hard words of God in times of depression, the
ungodly will take them up and use them as a justification for their sinful
courses. If a man's own children rail at him, no wonder if his enemies' mouths
are full of abuse. Our tongue always wants watching, for it is restive as an
ill broken horse; but especially must we hold it in when the sharp cuts of the
Lord's rod excite it to rebel. I will keep my mouth with a bridle, or
more accurately, with a muzzle. The original does not so much mean a bridle to
check the tongue as a muzzle to stop it altogether. David was not quite so wise
as our translation would make him; if he had resolved to be very guarded in his
speech, it would have been altogether commendable; but when he went so far as
to condemn himself to entire silence, "even from good, "there must
have been at least a little sullenness in his soul. In trying to avoid one
fault, he fell into another. To use the tongue against God is a sin of
commission, but not to use it at all involves an evident sin of omission.
Commendable virtues may be followed so eagerly that we may fall into vices; to
avoid Scylla we run into Charybdis. While the wicked is before me. This
qualifies the silence, and almost screens it from criticism, for bad men are so
sure to misuse even our holiest speech, that it is as well not to cast any of
our pearls before such swine; but what if the psalmist meant, "I was
silent while I had the prosperity of the wicked in my thoughts, "then we
see the discontent and questioning of his mind, and the muzzled mouth indicates
much that is not to be commended. Yet, if we blame we must also praise, for the
highest wisdom suggests that when good men are bewildered with sceptical
thoughts, they should not hasten to repeat them, but should fight out their
inward battle upon its own battlefield. The firmest believers are exercised
with unbelief, and it would be doing the devil's work with a vengeance if they
were to publish abroad all their questionings and suspicions. If I have the
fever myself, there is no reason why I should communicate it to my neighbours.
If any on board the vessel of my soul are diseased, I will put my heart in
quarantine, and allow none to go on shore in the boat of speech till I have a
clean bill of health.
Verse
2. I was dumb with silence. He was as strictly speechless as
if he had been tongueless—not a word escaped him. He was as silent as the dumb.
I held my peace, even from good. Neither bad nor good escaped his lips.
Perhaps he feared that if he began to talk at all, he would be sure to speak
amiss, and, therefore, he totally abstained. It was an easy, safe, and
effectual way of avoiding sin, if it did not involve a neglect of the duty
which he owed to God to speak well of his name. Our divine Lord was silent
before the wicked, but not altogether so, for before Pontius Pilate he
witnessed a good confession, and asserted his kingdom. A sound course of action
may be pushed to the extreme, and become a fault. And my sorrow was stirred.
Inward grief was made to work and ferment by want of vent. The pent up floods
are swollen and agitated. Utterance is the natural outlet for the heart's
anguish, and silence is, therefore, both an aggravation of the evil and a
barrier against its cure. In such a case the resolve to hold one's peace needs
powerful backing, and even this is most likely to give way when grief rushes
upon the soul. Before a flood gathering in force and foaming for outlet the
strongest banks are likely to be swept away. Nature may do her best to silence
the expression of discontent, but unless grace comes to her rescue, she will be
sure to succumb.
Verse
3. My heart was hot within me. The friction of inward
thoughts produced an intense mental heat. The door of his heart was shut, and
with the fire of sorrow burning within, the chamber of his soul soon grew
unbearable with heat. Silence is an awful thing for a sufferer, it is the
surest method to produce madness. Mourner, tell your sorrow; do it first and
most fully to God, but even to pour it out before some wise and godly friend is
far from being wasted breath. While I was musing the fire burned. As he
thought upon the ease of the wicked and his own daily affliction, he could not
unravel the mystery of providence, and therefore he became greatly agitated.
While his heart was musing it was fusing, for the subject was confusing. It
became harder every moment to be quiet; his volcanic soul was tossed with an
inward ocean of fire, and heaved to and fro with a mental earthquake; and
eruption was imminent, the burning lava must pour forth in a fiery stream. Then
spake I with my tongue. The original is grandly laconic. I spake.
The muzzled tongue burst all its bonds. The gag was hurled away. Misery, like
murder, will out. You can silence praise, but anguish is clamorous. Resolve or
no resolve, heed or no heed, sin or no sin, the impetuous torrent forced for
itself a channel and swept away every restraint.
Verse
4. Lord. It is well that the vent of his soul was toward God
and not towards man. Oh! if my swelling heart must speak, Lord let it speak
with thee; even if there be too much of natural heat in what I say, thou wilt
be more patient with me than man, and upon thy purity it can cast no stain;
whereas if I speak to my fellows, they may harshly rebuke me or else learn evil
from my petulance. Make me to know mine end. Did he mean the same as
Elias in his agony, "Let me die, I am no better than my father"?
Perhaps so. At any rate, he rashly and petulantly desired to know the end of
his wretched life, that he might begin to reckon the days till death should put
a finish to his woe. Impatience would pry between the folded leaves. As if
there were no other comfort to be had, unbelief would fain hide itself in the
grave and sleep itself into oblivion. David was neither the first nor the last
who have spoken unadvisedly in prayer. Yet, there is a better meaning: the
psalmist would know more of the shortness of life, that he might better bear
its transient ills, and herein we may safely kneel with him, uttering the same
petition. That there is no end to its misery is the hell of hell; that there is
an end to life's sorrow is the hope of all who have a hope beyond the grave.
God is the best teacher of the divine philosophy which looks for an expected
end. They who see death through the Lord's glass, see a fair sight, which makes
them forget the evil of life in foreseeing the end of life. And the measure
of my days. David would fain be assured that his days would be soon over
and his trials with them; he would be taught anew that life is measured out to
us by wisdom, and is not a matter of chance. As the trader measures his cloth
by inches, and ells, and yards, so with scrupulous accuracy is life measured
out to man. That I may know how frail I am, or when I shall cease to be.
Alas! poor human nature, dear as life is, man quarrels with God at such a rate
that he would sooner cease to be than bear the Lord's appointment. Such
pettishness in a saint! Let us wait till we are in a like position, and we
shall do no better. The ship on the stocks wonders that the barque springs a
leak, but when it has tried the high seas, it marvels that its timbers hold
together in such storms. David's case is not recorded for our imitation, but
for our learning.
Verse
5. Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth. Upon
consideration, the psalmist finds little room to bewail the length of life, but
rather to bemoan its shortness. What changeful creatures we are! One moment we
cry to be rid of existence, and the next instant beg to have it prolonged! A
handbreadth is one of the shortest natural measures, being the breadth of four
fingers; such is the brevity of life, by divine appointment; God hath made it
so, fixing the period in wisdom. The behold calls us to attention; to
some the thoughts of life's hastiness will bring the most acute pain, to others
the most solemn earnestness. How well should those live who are to live so
little! Is my earthly pilgrimage so brief? then let me watch every step of it,
that in the little of time there may be much of grace. And mine age is as
nothing before thee. So short as not to amount to an entity. Think of
eternity, and an angel is as a newborn babe, the world a fresh blown bubble,
the sun a spark just fallen from the fire, and man a nullity. Before the
Eternal, all the age of frail man is less than one ticking of a clock. Verily,
every man at his best state is altogether vanity. This is the surest truth,
that nothing about man is either sure or true. Take man at his best, he is but
a man, and a man is a mere breath, unsubstantial as the wind. Man is settled,
as the margin has it, and by divine decree it is settled that he shall not be
settled. He is constant only in inconstancy. His vanity is his only verity; his
best, of which he is vain, is but vain; and this is verily true of every man,
that everything about him is every way fleeting. This is sad news for those
whose treasures are beneath the moon; those whose glorying is in themselves may
well hang the flag half mast; but those whose best estate is settled upon them
in Christ Jesus in the land of unfading flowers, may rejoice that it is no vain
thing in which they trust.
Verse
6. Surely every man walketh in a vain shew. Life is but a
passing pageant. This alone is sure, that nothing is sure. All around us
shadows mock us; we walk among them, and too many live for them as if the
mocking images were substantial; acting their borrowed parts with zeal fit only
to be spent on realities, and lost upon the phantoms of this passing scene.
Worldly men walk like travellers in a mirage, deluded, duped, deceived, soon to
be filled with disappointment and despair. Surely they are disquieted in
vain. Men fret, and fume, and worry, and all for mere nothing. They are
shadows pursuing shadows, while death pursues them. He who toils and contrives,
and wearies himself for gold, for fame, for rank, even if he wins his desire,
finds at the end of his labour lost; for like the treasure of the miser's
dream, it all vanishes when the man awakes in the world of reality. Read well
this text, and then listen to the clamour of the market, the hum of the
exchange, the din of the city streets, and remember that all this noise
(for so the word means), this breach of quiet, is made about unsubstantial,
fleeting vanities. Broken rest, anxious fear, over worked brain, failing mind,
lunacy, these are the steps in the process of disquieting with many, and all to
be rich, or, in other words, to load one's self with the thick clay; clay, too,
which a man must leave so soon. He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who
shall gather them. He misses often the result of his ventures, for there
are many slips between the cup and the lips. His wheat is sheaved, but an
interloping robber bears it away—as often happens with the poor Eastern
husbandman; or, the wheat is even stored, but the invader feasts thereon. Many
work for others all unknown to them. Especially does this verse refer to those
all gathering muckrakes, who in due time are succeeded by all scattering forks,
which scatter riches as profusely as their sires gathered them parsimoniously.
We know not our heirs, for our children die, and strangers fill the old
ancestral halls; estates change hands, and entail, though riveted with a
thousand bonds, yields to the corroding power of time. Men rise up early and
sit up late to build a house, and then the stranger tramps along its passages,
laughs in its chambers, and forgetful of its first builder, calls it all his
own. Here is one of the evils under the sun for which no remedy can be
prescribed.
Verse
7. And now, Lord, what wait I for? What is there in these
phantoms to enchant me? Why should I linger where the prospect is so
uninviting, and the present so trying? It were worse than vanity to linger in
the abodes of sorrow to gain a heritage of emptiness. The psalmist, therefore,
turns to his God, in disgust of all things else; he has thought on the world
and all things in it, and is relieved by knowing that such vain things are all
passing away; he has cut all cords which bound him to earth, and is ready to
sound "Boot and saddle, up and away." My hope is in thee. The
Lord is self existent and true, and therefore worthy of the confidence of men;
he will live when all the creatures die, and his fulness will abide when all
second causes are exhausted; to him, therefore, let us direct our expectation,
and on him let us rest our confidence. Away from sand to rock let all wise
builders turn themselves, for if not today, yet surely ere long, a storm will
rise before which nothing will be able to stand but that which has the lasting
element of faith in God to cement it. David had but one hope, and that hope
entered within the veil, hence he brought his vessel to safe anchorage, and after
a little drifting all was peace.
Verse
8. Deliver me from all my transgressions. How fair a sign it
is when the psalmist no longer harps upon his sorrows, but begs freedom from
his sins! What is sorrow when compared with sin! Let but the poison of sin be
gone from the cup, and we need not fear its gall, for the bitter will act
medicinally. None can deliver a man from his transgression but the blessed One
who is called Jesus, because he saves his people from their sins; and when he
once works this great deliverance for a man from the cause, the consequences
are sure to disappear too. The thorough cleansing desired is well worthy of
note: to be saved from some transgressions would be of small benefit; total and
perfect deliverance is needed. Make me not the reproach of the foolish.
The wicked are the foolish here meant: such are always on the watch for the
faults of saints, and at once make them the theme of ridicule. It is a wretched
thing for a man to be suffered to make himself the butt of unholy scorn by
apostasy from the right way. Alas, how many have thus exposed themselves to
well deserved reproach! Sin and shame go together, and from both David would
fain be preserved.
Verse
9. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.
This had been far clearer if it had been rendered, "I am silenced, I will
not open my mouth." Here we have a nobler silence, purged of all
sullenness, and sweetened with submission. Nature failed to muzzle the mouth,
but grace achieved the work in the worthiest manner. How like in appearance may
two very different things appear! silence is ever silence, but it may be sinful
in one case and saintly in another. What a reason for hushing every murmuring
thought is the reflection, "because thou didst it."! It is his right to
do as he wills, and he always wills to do that which is wisest and kindest; why
should I then arraign his dealings? Nay, if it be indeed the Lord, let him do
what seemeth him good.
Verse
10. Remove thy stroke away from me. Silence from all repining
did not prevent the voice of prayer, which must never cease. In all probability
the Lord would grant the psalmist's petition, for he usually removes affliction
when we are resigned to it; if we kiss the rod, our Father always burns it.
When we are still, the rod is soon still. It is quite consistent with
resignation to pray for the removal of a trial. David was fully acquiescent in
the divine will, and yet found it in his heart to pray for deliverance; indeed,
it was while he was rebellious that he was prayerless about his trial, and only
when he became submissive did he plead for mercy. I am consumed by the blow
of thine hand. Good pleas may be found in our weakness and distress. It is
well to show our Father the bruises which his scourge has made, for peradventure
his fatherly pity will bind his hands, and move him to comfort us in his bosom.
It is not to consume us, but to consume our sins, that the Lord aims at in his
chastisements.
Verse
11. When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity. God
does not trifle with his rod; he uses it because of sin, and with a view to
whip us from it; hence he means his strokes to be felt, and felt they are. Thou
makest his beauty to consume away like a moth. As the moth frets the
substance of the fabric, mars all its beauty, and leaves it worn out and
worthless, so do the chastisements of God discover to us our folly, weakness,
and nothingness, and make us feel ourselves to be as worn out vestures,
worthless and useless. Beauty must be a poor thing when a moth can consume it
and a rebuke can mar it. All our desires and delights are wretched moth eaten
things when the Lord visits us in his anger. Surely every man is vanity.
He is as Trapp wittily says "a curious picture of nothing." He is
unsubstantial as his own breath, a vapour which appeareth for a little while,
and then vanisheth away. Selah. Well may this truth bring us to a pause,
like the dead body of Amasa, which, lying in the way, stopped the hosts of
Joab.
Verse
12. Hear my prayer, O Lord. Drown not my pleadings with the
sound of thy strokes. Thou hast heard the clamour of my sins, Lord; hear the
laments of my prayers. And give ear unto my cry. Here is an advance in
intensity: a cry is more vehement, pathetic, and impassioned, than a prayer.
The main thing was to have the Lord's ear and heart. Hold not thy peace at
my tears. This is a yet higher degree of importunate pleading. Who can
withstand tears, which are the irresistible weapons of weakness? How often
women, children, beggars, and sinners, have betaken themselves to tears as
their last resort, and therewith have won the desire of their
hearts!—"This shower, blown up by tempest of the soul, "falls not in
vain. Tears speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues; they act as keys
upon the wards of tender hearts, and mercy denies them nothing, if through them
the weeper looks to richer drops, even to the blood of Jesus. When our sorrows
pull up the sluices of our eyes, God will ere long interpose and turn our
mourning into joy. Long may he be quiet as though he regarded not, but the hour
of deliverance will come, and come like the morning when the dewdrops are
plentiful. For I am a stranger with thee. Not to thee, but with
thee. Like thee, my Lord, a stranger among the sons of men, an alien from my
mother's children. God made the world, sustains it, and owns it, and yet men
treat him as though he were a foreign intruder; and as they treat the Master,
so do they deal with the servants. "It is no surprising thing that we
should be unknown." These words may also mean, "I share the
hospitality of God, "like a stranger entertained by a generous host.
Israel was bidden to deal tenderly with the stranger, and the God of Israel has
in much compassion treated us poor aliens with unbounded liberality. And a
sojourner, as all my fathers were. They knew that this was not their rest;
they passed through life in pilgrim guise, they used the world as travellers
use an inn, and even so do I. Why should we dream of rest on earth when our
fathers' sepulchres are before our eyes? If they had been immortal, their sons
would have had an abiding city this side the tomb; but as the sires were
mortal, so must their offspring pass away. All of our lineage, without
exception, were passing pilgrims, and such are we. David uses the fleeting nature
of our life as an argument for the Lord's mercy, and it is such a one as God
will regard. We show pity to poor pilgrims, and so will the Lord.
EXPLANATORY
NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
TITLE.—"To
Jeduthun." A Levite of the family of Merari, and one of the great
masters of the temple music. The department superintended by Jeduthun and his
colleagues in the temple service was that of the "instruments of the song
of God, "by which are intended the nebel or psaltery, the kinnor or harp,
and the metsiltaim or cymbals. In 2Ch 35:15, Jeduthun is called "the
king's seer, " which would seem to indicate that he was the medium of
divine guidance to David. The name occurs in the title of Psalms 39, 62, 77;
where some have thought that it indicates some special kind of composition, and
others some instrument of music, but without reason. William Lindsay
Alexander, in Kitto's Cyclopaedia.
Whole
Psalm. The most beautiful of all the elegies in the psalter. H.
Ewald.
Verse
1. I said. It was to himself that he said it; and it is
impossible for any other to prove a good or a wise man, without much of this
kind of speech to himself. It is one of the most excellent and distinguishing
faculties of a reasonable creature; much beyond vocal speech, for in that, some
birds may imitate us; but neither bird nor beast has anything of this kind of
language, of reflecting or discoursing with itself. It is a wonderful brutality
in the greatest part of men, who are so little conversant in this kind of
speech, being framed and disposed for it, and which is not only of itself
excellent, but of continual use and advantage; but it is a common evil among
men to go abroad, and out of themselves, which is a madness, and a true
distraction. It is true, a man hath need of a well set mind, when he speaks to
himself; for otherwise, he may be worse company to himself than if he were with
others. But he ought to endeavour to have a better with him, to call in God to
his heart to dwell with him. If thus we did, we should find how sweet this were
to speak to ourselves, by now and then intermixing our speech with discourses
unto God. For want of this, the most part not only lose their time in vanity,
in their converse abroad with others, but do carry in heaps of that vanity to
the stock which is in their own hearts, and do converse with them in secret,
which is the greatest and deepest folly in the world. Robert Leighton.
Verse
1. No lesson so hard to be learned of us here, as the wise and
discreet government of the tongue. David promised a singular care of this, I
said, I will take heed, etc. Socrates reports of one Pambo, an honest, well
meaning man, who came to his friend, desiring him to teach him one of David's
Psalms, he read to him this verse. He answered: this one verse is enough, if I
learn it well. Nineteen years after, he said, in all that time, he had hardly
learned that one verse. Samuel Page.
Verse
1. That I sin not with my tongue. Man's mouth, though it be
but a little hole, will hold a world full of sin. For there is not any sin
forbidden in the law or gospel which is not spoken by the tongue, as well as
thought in the heart, or done in the life. Is it not then almost as difficult
to rule the tongue as to rule the world? Edward Reyner.
Verse
1. I will keep a muzzle on my mouth, whilst a wicked man is
before me. New Translation, by Charles Carter,
Verse
1. While the wicked is before me. It is a vexation to be tied
to hear so much impertinent babbling in the world, but profitable to discern
and abhor it. A wonder that men can cast out so much wind, and the more they
have to utter, the more they are prodigal of their own breath and of the
patience of others, and careless of their own reckoning. If they believe to
give account of every idle word, they would be more sparing of foolish
speaking. I like either to be silent, or to speak that that may edify. At
tables or meetings, I cannot stop the mouth of others, yet may I close mine own
ears, and by a heavenly soul speech with God divert my mind from fruitless
talking. Though I be among them I shall as little partake their prattling as
they do my meditation. William Struther.
Verse
2. I was dumb with silence, etc. That is, for a while I did
what I resolved; I was so long wholly silent, that I seemed in a manner to be
dumb, and not able to speak. I held my peace, even from good; that is, I
forbore to speak what I might well and lawfully enough have spoken, as from
alleging anything that I might have said in mine own defence, from making my
complaint to God, and desiring justice at his hands, and such like; to wit,
lest by degrees I should have been brought to utter anything that was evil, and
whilst I intended only to speak that which was good, some unseemly word might
suddenly slip from me; or lest mine enemies should misconstrue anything I
spake. Arthur Jackson.
Verse
2. I was dumb with silence. We shall enquire what kind of dumbness
or silence this of the psalmist was, which he is commended for, and
which would so well beseem us when we smart under the rod of God, and then the
doctrine will be, in a great measure, evident by its own light. We shall
proceed to our inquiry, 1. Negatively, to prevent mistakes. 2. Positively, and
show you what it doth import.
First,
negatively. 1. This dumbness doth not import any such thing, as if the prophet
had been brought to that pass that he had nothing to say to God by way of
prayer and supplication. He was not so dumb, but that he could pray and cry
too. Ps 39:8,10-11. 2. Nor was he so dumb, as that he could not frame to
the confession and bewailing of his sins. 3. Nor was it a dumbness of stupidity
and senselessness. It doth not imply any such thing, as if by degrees he grew
to that pass, he cared not for, or made no matter of his affliction, but set,
as the proverb is, an hard heart against his hard hap. No, he did make his moan
to God, and as he smarted, so he did lament under the sense of his afflicting
hand. 4. Neither was he so dumb as not to answer God's voice in the rod that
was upon him. 5. Much less was he dumb, and kept silence in any such sort as
they did of whom Amos speaks Am 6:10, that in their misery they took up a
resolution to mention the name of God no more, in whom they had gloried
formerly.
Secondly,
affirmatively. 1. He was dumb so as neither to complain of, nor quarrel with
God's providence, nor to entertain any hard thoughts against him. Complain to
God he did; but against him he durst not. 2. He neither did nor durst
quarrel, or fall out with the ways of holiness for all his sufferings, a thing
we are naturally prone unto. 3. He was dumb, so as not to defend himself, or
justify his own ways before God, as if they were righteous, and he had not
deserved what he suffered. 4. He was dumb, so as to hearken to the voice of the
rod. "I will (saith he in another place) hear what God the Lord will speak."
Ps 85:8. Now a man cannot listen to another while he will have all the talk and
discourse to himself. 5. Lastly, the prophet was dumb, that is, he did
acquiesce, and rest satisfied with God's dispensation; and that not only as
good, but as best. Condensed from a Funeral Sermon by Thomas Burroughes,
B.D., entitled, "A Sovereign Remedy for all kinds of Grief,"
1657.
Verse
2. I held my peace. A Christian being asked what fruit he had
by Christ: Is not this fruit, said he, not to be moved at your reproaches? In
cases of this nature, we must refer all to God; si tu tacueris, Deus
loquitur; if thou hold thy peace, God speaks for thee; and if God speaks
for us, it is better than we can speak for yourselves. David saith, Obmutui,
quia tu fecisti. I held my peace, for it was thy doing. Christopher Sutton,
B.D.,—1629, in Disce Vicere.
Verses
2-9. An invalid who had been ordered a couple of pills, took them very
absurdly, for, in place of swallowing them at once, he rolled them about in his
mouth, ground them to pieces, and so tasted their full bitterness. Gotthold was
present, and thus mused. The insults and calumnies of a slanderer and adversary
are bitter pills, and all do not understand the art of swallowing without
chewing them. To the Christian, however, they are wholesome in many ways. They
remind him of his guilt, they try his meekness and patience, they show him what
he needs to guard against, and at last they redound to his honour and glory in
the sight of him for whose sake they were endured. In respect of the pills of
slander, however, as well as the others, it is advisable not to roll them about
continually in our minds, or judge of them according to the flesh, and the
world's opinion. This will only increase their bitterness, spread the savour of
it to the tongue, and fill the heart with proportional enmity. The true way is
to swallow, keep silence, and forget. We must inwardly devour our grief,
and say, I will be dumb, and not open my mouth, because thou didst it.
The best antidotes to the bitterness of slander, are the sweet promises and
consolations of Scripture, of which not the least is this, "Blessed are
ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of
evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for
great is your reward in heaven." Mt 5:11-12. Alas, my God! how hard it is
to swallow the pills of obloquy, to bless them that curse me, to do good to
them that hate me, and to pray for them that despitefully use me! But, Lord,
as thou wilt have it so, give it as thou wilt have it, for it is a matter
in which, without thy grace, I can do nothing! Christian Scriver.
Verse
9. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.
See David's carriage here; it was a patience not constrained, but from
satisfaction of spirit: he saw love in his affliction, and that sweetened his
soul. Joseph Symonds.
Verse
9. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.
God is training up his children here. This is the true character of his
dealings with them. The education of his saints is the object he has in view.
It is training for the kingdom; it is education for eternity...It is the
discipline of love. Every step of it is kindness. There is no wrath nor
vengeance in any part of the process. The discipline of the school may be harsh
and stern; but that of the family is love. We are sure of this; and the
consolation which it affords is unutterable. Love will not wrong us. There will
be no needless suffering. Were this but kept in mind there would be fewer hard
thoughts of God amongst men, even when his strokes are most severe. I know not
a better illustration of what the feelings of a saint should be, in the hour of
bitterness, than the case of Richard Cameron's father. The aged saint was in
prison "for the Word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ."
The bleeding head of his martyred son was brought to him by his unfeeling
persecutors, and he was asked derisively if he knew it. "I know it, I know
it, "—said the father, as he kissed the mangled forehead of his fair
haired son—"it is my son's, my own dear son's! It is the Lord! good is the
will of the Lord, who cannot wrong me or mine, but who hath made goodness and
mercy to follow us all our days." Horatius Bonar, in "The Night of
Weeping, "1847.
Verse
9. Because thou didst it. This holy man had a breach made
both at his body and spirit at this time; he was sick and sad; yet he remembers
from whose hand the blow came. Thou, Lord, didst it; thou, whom I love dearly,
and so can take it kindly; thou whom I have offended, and so take it patiently;
yea, thou, who mightest have cast me into a bed of flames, instead of my bed of
sickness, and therefore I accept thy correction thankfully. Thus he catches at
the blow without retorting it back upon God by any quarrelling discontented
language. William Gurnall.
Verse
9. Because thou didst it. We digest not a blow from our
equals, but a blow from our king we can well digest. If the King of kings lays
his hand on our backs, let us, beloved, lay our hands on our mouths. I am sure
this stopped David's mouth from venting fretful speeches. "I held my
tongue and said nothing." Why didst thou so, David? Because thou, Lord,
didst it; and God gives this testimony of such an one; that he is a prudent
man that keeps silence at an evil time. Am 5:13. Nicholas Estwick, B.D.,
1644.
Verse
9. Perkins, in his "Salve for a Sick Man, "gives
the "last words" of many holy men, among others of Calvin:—"I
held my tongue, because thou, Lord, hast done it—I mourned as a dove—Lord, you ground
me to powder, but it suffices me because it is thy hand."
Verse
9. I wondered once at providence, and called white providence black
and unjust, that I should be smothered in a town where no soul will take Christ
off my hand. But providence hath another lustre (shining; appearance) with God
than with my bleared eyes. I proclaim myself a blind body, who knoweth not
black and white, in the unco (strange) course of God's providence. Suppose that
Christ should set hell where heaven is, and devils up in glory beside the elect
angels (which yet cannot be), I would I had a heart to acquiesce in his way,
without further dispute. I see that infinite wisdom is the mother of his
judgments, and that his ways pass finding out. I cannot learn, but I desire to
learn, to bring my thoughts, will, and lusts in under (close under) Christ's
feet, that he may trample upon them. But, alas! I am still upon Christ's wrong
side. Samuel Rutherford.
Verse
9. A little girl, in the providence of God, was born deaf and dumb.
She was received, and instructed, at an institution established for these
afflicted ones. A visitor was one day requested to examine the children thus
sadly laid aside from childhood's common joys. Several questions were asked,
and quickly answered by means of a slate and pencil. At length the gentleman
wrote, Why were you born deaf and dumb? A look of anguish clouded for
the moment the expressive face of the little girl; but it quickly passed, as
she took her slate, and wrote, "Even so, Father; for so it seemeth good
in thy sight." Mrs. Rogers, in "The Shepherd King."
Verse
10. Remove thy plague away from me: thy plague and mine; thine
by affliction, mine by passion; thine because thou didst send it, mine because
I endure it; thine because it comes from thy justice, mine because it answers
my injustice; remit what I have done, and remove what thou hast done. But
whosoever laid it on, the Lord will take it off. Thomas Adams.
Verse
10. Remove, etc. Having first prayed off his sin, he would now
pray off his pain, though it less troubled him; and for ease he repairs to Jehovah
that healeth, as well as woundeth. Ho 6:1. John Trapp.
Verse
11. Thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth. The
meaning may be, As the moth crumbles into dust under the slightest pressure, or
the gentlest touch, so man dissolves with equal ease, and vanishes into
darkness, under the finger of the Almighty. Paxton's Illustrations of
Scripture.
Verse
11. Thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth. Moths
I must not omit naming. I once saw some knives, the black bone hafts of which
were said to have been half consumed by them. I also saw the remains of a hair
seated sofa which had been devoured. It is no uncommon thing to find dresses
consumed in a single night. In Isa 51:6, "wax old" probably refers to
a garment that is moth eaten. So in Ps 6:7 31:9, consumed means moth
eaten; and again in Ps 39:11. John Gadsby.
Verse
11. Like a moth. The moths of the East are very large and
beautiful, but short lived. After a few showers these splendid insects may be
seen fluttering in every breeze, but the dry weather, and their numerous
enemies, soon consign them to the common lot. Thus the beauty of man consumes
away like that of this gay rover, dressed in his robes of purple, and scarlet,
and green. John Kitto.
Verse
11. The body of man is as a "garment" to the soul: in this
garment sin hath lodged a "moth, "which, by degrees, fretteth and
weareth away, first, the beauty, then the strength, and finally, the contexture
of its parts. Whoever has watched the progress of a consumption, or any other
lingering distemper, nay, the slow and silent devastations of time alone, in
the human frame, will need no farther illustration of this just and affecting
similitude; but will discern at once the propriety of the reflection which
follows upon it. Surely every man is vanity. George Horne.
Verse
11. Surely every man is vanity. What is greatness? Can we
predicate it of man, independently of his qualities as an immortal being? or of
his actions, independently of principles and motives? Then the glitter of
nobility is not superior to the plumage of the peacock; nor the valour of
Alexander to the fury of a tiger; nor the sensual delights of Epicurus to those
of any animal that roams the forest. Ebenezer Porter, D.D., in Lectures on
Homiletics, 1834.
Verse
12. Hear my prayer, O Lord, etc. Now, in this prayer of David,
we find three things, which are the chief qualifications of all acceptable
prayers. The first is humility. He humbly confesses his sins, and his own
weakness and worthlessness. We are not to put on a stoical, flinty kind of
spirit under our affliction, that so we may seem to shun womanish repinings and
complaints, lest we run into the other evil, of despising the hand of God,
but we are to humble our proud hearts, and break our unruly passions...The
second qualification of this prayer is, fervency and importunity,
which appears in the elegant gradation of the words, Hear my prayer, my
words; if not that, yet, Give ear to my cry, which is louder; and if
that prevail not, yet, Hold not thy peace at my tears, which is the
loudest of all; so David, elsewhere, calls it the voice of weeping.
...The third qualification is faith. "He who comes to God must
believe that he is, and is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."
Heb 11:6. And, certainly, as he that comes to God must believe this, so he that
believes this, cannot but come to God; and if he be not presently answered,
"he that believes makes no haste, "he resolves patiently to wait for
the Lord, and go to no other. Condensed from Robert Leighton.
Verse
12. Hold not thy peace at my tears. We may, in all humility,
plead our heart breakings and weepings in sense of want of mercies which we
crave, and our pantings and faintings after the same. Thomas Cobbett.
Verse
12. For I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my
fathers were. Both in thy judgment expressed Le 25:23, and in their own
opinion Heb 11:13. Upon which account thou didst take a special care of them,
and therefore do so to me also. Matthew Poole.
Verse
12. I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner. How settled
soever their condition be, yet this is the temper of the saints upon earth—to
count themselves but strangers. All men indeed are strangers and sojourners,
but the saints do best discern it, and most freely acknowledge it. Wicked men
have no firm dwelling upon earth, but that is against their intentions; their
inward thought and desire is that they may abide for ever; they are strangers
against their wills, their abode is uncertain in the world, and they cannot
help it. And pray mark, there are two distinct words used in this case, strangers
and sojourners. A stranger is one that hath his abode in a foreign
country, that is not a native and a denizen of the place, though he liveth
there, and in opposition to the natives he is called a stranger: as if a
Frenchman should live in England, he is a stranger. But a sojourner is
one that intends not to settle, but only passes through a place, and is in
motion travelling homeward. So the children of God in relation to a country of
their own in another place, namely, heaven, they are denizens there, but
strangers in the world; and they are sojourners and pilgrims in regard of their
motion and journey towards their country. Thomas Manton.
Verse
12. A Stranger. 1. A stranger is one that is absent from his
country, and from his father's house: so are we, heaven is our country, God is
there, and Christ is there. 2. A stranger in a foreign country is not known,
nor valued according to his birth and breeding: so the saints walk up and down
in the world like princes in disguise. 3. Strangers are liable to
inconveniences: so are godly men in the world. Religion, saith Tertullian, is
like a strange plant brought from a foreign country, and doth not agree with
the nature of the soil, it thrives not in the world. 4. A stranger is patient,
standeth not for ill usage, and is contented with pilgrim's fare and lodging.
We are now abroad and must expect hardship. 5. A stranger is wary, that he may
not give offence, and incur the hatred and displeasure of the natives. 6. A
stranger is thankful for the least favour; so we must be thankfully contented
with the things God hath bestowed upon us: anything in a strange country is
much. 7. A stranger, that hath a journey to go, would pass over it as soon as
he can, and so we, who have a journey to heaven desire to be dissolved. 8. A
stranger buyeth not such things as he cannot carry with him; he doth not buy
trees, house, household stuff, but jewels and pearls, and such things as are
portable. Our greatest care should be to get the jewels of the covenant, the
graces of God's Spirit, those things that will abide with us. 9. A stranger's
heart is in his country; so is a saint's. 10. A stranger is inquisitive after the
way, fearing lest he should go amiss, so is a Christian. 11. A stranger
provides for his return, as a merchant, that he may return richly laden. So we
must appear before God in Sion. What manner of persons ought we to be? Let us
return from our travel well provided. Condensed from Thomas Manton.
Verse
13. O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence,
and be no more. Man in his corrupt state is like Nebuchadnezzar, he hath a
beast's heart, that craves no more than the satisfaction of his sensual
appetite; but when renewed by grace, then his understanding returns to him, by
which he is enabled in praying for temporals to elevate his desires to a nobler
end. Doth David pray that some farther time may be added to his temporal life?
It is not out of a fond love for this world, but to prepare himself the better
for another. Is he comforted with hopes of a longer stay here? It is not this
world's carnal pleasures that kindle this joy in his holy breast, but the
advantage that thereby he shall have for praising God in the land of the
living...O spare me, that I may recover strength. David was not yet
recovered out of that sin which had brought him exceeding low as you may
perceive, Ps 39:10-11. And the good man cannot think of dying with any
willingness till his heart be in a holier frame: and for the peace of the
gospel, serenity of conscience, and inward joy; alas! all unholiness is to it
as poison is to the spirits which drink them up. William Gurnall.
Verse
13. O spare me, etc. Attachment to life, the feeling cherished
by the psalmist, when he thus appealed to the Sovereign of the universe, varies
in its character with the occasions and the sentiments by which it is elicited
and confirmed. Take one view of it, and you pronounce it criminal; take
another, and you pronounce it innocent; take a third, and you pronounce
it laudable.
1.
Life may inspire a criminal attachment, warranting our censure. The most
obvious and aggravated case is that in which the attachment has its foundations
in the opportunities which life affords, of procuring "the wages of
unrighteousness, "and "the pleasures of sin."
2.
Life may inspire an innocent attachment, awakening our sympathy...Life
is a scene in which we often descry a verdant and luxuriant spot, teeming with
health, and ease, and harmony, and joy. We have beheld the husbands and the
wives whose interwoven regards have, from year to year, alleviated all their
afflictions, and heightened all their privileges. We have beheld the parents
and the children whose fellowship has yielded them, through the shifting
seasons, a daily feast. There are indulgent masters, and faithful servants;
some neighbourhoods are undisturbed; some Christian societies are exquisitely
attractive; here and there we have intercourse with those individuals in whom
are seen the beauties of high character irradiated by the beans of general
prosperity. You would pronounce no censure on a man thus happily connected,
were he, when beginning to languish, as one "going the way of all the
earth, to cry, "O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go
hence, and be no more.
3.
The last view which it has been proposed to take of human life, shows that it
may inspire a laudable attachment, at once challenging our approbation,
and urging us to bring our minds under its influence. The language before us
admits of being illustrated as the prayer of a penitent, a saint,
and a philanthropist.
(a).
Commend him who pleads for life as a penitent. Was it recently that the
Holy Spirit first wounded him with the arrows of conviction? Perhaps, he doubts
the source, the quality, and the result, of his powerful feelings. He knows
that we may be solemnly impressed, without being converted. There are many
considerations which entitle to favourable opinion those who, not having
arrived at a view of their moral state, at once evident and encouraging, wish
earnestly to live till grace shall have carried them from victory to victory,
and enabled them "to make" their "calling and election
sure." Even they may fall from their steadfastness; and these words,
"O spare me, that I may recover strength, "may proceed from the lips
of a backslider, once more blushing, trembling, and petitioning to be restored.
(b).
Commend him, in the next place, who pleads for life, as a saint. ...The
distinguishing office of pleading, acting, and suffering, for the advancement
of the divine honour among the profane, the sensual, the formal, and the
worldly is delegated, exclusively, to "the saints which are upon the
earth." Yet, surely he whose attachment to life is strongly enhanced by a
commission which dooms him to the contradiction of sinners, and defers
"the fulness of joy, "a saint so magnanimous and devoted, puts forth
the expressions of a piety which the very angels are compelled to revere.
(c).
Commend him, finally, who pleads for life as a philanthropist. I refer
to the generous patron, a man intent on doing good. I would also refer
to a fond parent. I would now refer to "a preacher of
righteousness, ""a good minister of Jesus Christ."
Outline
of a Sermon entitled "Attachment to Life, "preached by Joseph
Hughes, M.A., as a Funeral Sermon for Rev. John Owen, M.A., 1822.
Verse
13. May not the very elect and faithful themselves fear the day of
judgment, and be far from fetching comfort at it? I answer, he may. First, at
his first conversion and soon after, before he have gotten a full persuasion of
the remission of his sins. And again, in some spiritual desertion, when the
Lord seems to leave a man to himself, as he did David and others, he may fear
to think of the same. And lastly, when he hath fallen into some great sin after
he is a strong man in Christ, he may fear death and judgment, and be
constrained to pray with Job and David, O spare me, that I may recover
strength, before I go hence, and be no more. John Barlow's Sermon, 1618.
HINTS TO THE
VILLAGE PREACHER
Verses
1-2. I was dumb, etc.
1.
There is a time to be silent. He had been enabled to do this when reproached
and unjustly accused by others. He did it for good; others might attribute it
to sullenness, or pride, or timidity, or conscious guilt; but he did it for
good. Breathe upon a polished mirror and it will evaporate and leave it
brighter than before; endeavour to wipe it off, and the mark will remain.
2.
There is a time to meditate in silence. The greater the silence without, often
the greater commotion within. "His heart was hot." The more he
thought, the warmer he grew. The fire of pity and compassion, the fire of love,
the fire of holy zeal burned within him.
3.
There is a time to speak. "Then spake I." The time to speak is
when the truth is clear and strong in the mind, and the feeling of the truth is
burning in the heart. The emotions burst forth as from a volcano. Jer 20:8-9.
The language should always be a faithful representation of the mind and the
heart. G. Rogers, Tutor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle College.
Verse
2. There is a sevenfold silence.
1.
A stoical silence.
2. A politic silence.
3. A foolish silence.
4. A sullen silence.
5. A forced silence.
6. A despairing silence.
7. A prudent, a holy, a gracious silence.
—Thomas Brooks' "Mute Christian."
Verse
4. Make me to know mine end.
1. What
we may desire to know about our end. Not its date, place, circumstances,
but
(a).
Its nature. Will it be the end of saint or sinner?
(b).
Its certainty.
(c).
Its nearness.
(d).
Its issues.
(e).
Its requirements. In the shape of attention, preparation, passport.
2. Why
ask God to make us know it? Because the knowledge is important,
difficult to acquire, and can be effectually imparted by the Lord only. W.
Jackson.
Verse
4. David prays,
1.
That he may be enabled continually to keep in view the end of life: all things
should be judged by their end. "Then understood I their end."
Life may be honourable, and cheerful, and virtuous here; but the end!
What will it be?
2.
That he may be diligent in the performance of all the duties of this life. The
measure of his days, how short, how much to be done, how little time to do it
in!
3.
He prays that he may gain much instruction and benefit from the frailties of
life. That I may know, etc. My frailties may make me more humble, more
diligent, while I am able for active service; more dependent upon divine
strength, more patient and submissive to the divine will, more ripe for heaven.
—G. Rogers.
Verse
5. (last clause). Man is vanity, i.e., he is mortal,
he is mutable. Observe how emphatically this truth is expressed here.
1. Every
man is vanity, without exception, high and low, rich and poor.
2.
He is so at his best estate; when he is young, and strong, and
healthful, in wealth and honour, etc.
3.
He is altogether vanity, as vain as you can imagine.
4. Verily
he is so.
5. Selah
is annexed, as a note commanding observation. —Matthew Henry.
Verse
6. The vanity of man, as mortal, is here instanced in three things,
and the vanity of each shown.
1.
The vanity of our joys and honours: Surely every man walketh in a vain show.
2.
The vanity of our griefs and fears: Surely they are disquieted in vain.
3.
The vanity of our cares and toils: He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who
shall gather them. —Matthew Henry.
Verse
6. The world's trinity consists, 1. In fruitless honours: what
appears to them to be substantial honours are but a vain show. 2. In
needless cares. They are disquieted in vain. Imaginary cares are
substituted for real ones. 3. In useless riches; such as yield no lasting
satisfaction to themselves, or in their descent to others. G. Rogers.
Verse
7. What wait I for? 1. For what salvation as a sinner?
Of works or grace—from Sinai or Calvary? 2. For what consolation as a
sufferer? Earthly or heavenly? 3. For what supply as a suppliant?
Meagre or bountiful? Present or future? 4. For what communication as a
servant? Miraculous or ordinary? Pleasing or unacceptable? 5. For what
instruction as a pupil? Mental or spiritual? Elating or humbling?
Ornamental or useful? 6. For what inheritance as an heir? Sublunary or
celestial? W. Jackson.
Verse
7.
1.
An urgent occasion. And now Lord, etc. There are seasons that should
lead us specially to look up to God, and say, Now, Lord. "Father,
the hour is come."
2.
A devout exclamation, Now, Lord, what wait I for? Where is my
expectation? where my confidence? To whom shall I look? I am nothing, the world
is nothing, all earthly sources of confidence and consolation fail: What
wait I for? In life, in death, in a dying world, in a coming judgment, in
an eternity at hand; what is it that I need? —G. Rogers.
Verse
8.
1.
Prayer should be general:Deliver me from all my transgressions.
We often need anew to say, "God be merciful to me a sinner."
Afflictions should remind us of our sins. If we pray to be delivered from all
transgressions, we are sure to be delivered from the one for which affliction
was sent.
2.
Prayer should be particular:Make me not the reproach of the foolish.
Suffer me not so to speak or show impatience in affliction as to give occasion
even to the foolish to blaspheme. The thought that many watch for our halting
should be a preservative from sin. —G. Rogers.
Verse
9.
1.
The occasion referred to. I was dumb, etc. We are not told what
the particular trial was, that each one may apply it to his own affliction, and
because all are to be viewed in the same light.
2.
The conduct of the psalmist upon that particular occasion: I opened
not my mouth. (a) Not in anger and rebellion against God in murmurs or
complaints. (b) Not in impatience, or complaining, or angry feelings against
men. (c) The reason he assigns for this conduct: Because thou didst
it. G. Rogers.
Verse
10.
1. Afflictions
are sent by God. Thy strokes. They are strokes of his hand,
not of the rod of the law, but of the shepherd's rod. Every affliction is his
stroke.
2. Afflictions
are removed by God. Remove. He asks not for miracles, but that God
in his own way, in the use of natural means, would interpose for his
deliverance. We should seek his blessing upon the means employed for our
deliverance both by ourselves and others. "Cause to remove, "etc.
3. Afflictions
have their end from God. I am consumed by the conflict, etc. God hath a
controversy with his people. It is a conflict between his will and their wills.
The psalmist owns himself conquered and subdued in the struggle. We should be
more anxious that this end should be accomplished than that the affliction should
be removed, and when this is accomplished the affliction will be removed. G.
Rogers.
Verse
10.
1.
The cause of our trials: "for iniquity." Oh, this trial
is come to take away my comforts, my peace of mind, and the divine smile! No,
this is all the fruit to take away their sin—the dross, none of the gold—sin,
nothing but sin.
2.
The effect of our trials. All that he counted desirable in this life,
but not for his real good, is consumed. His robes which are beautiful in
men's esteem are moth eaten, but the robe of righteousness upon his soul cannot
decay.
3.
The design of our trials. They are not penal inflictions, but friendly rebukes
and fatherly corrections. On Christ our Surety the penal consequences
were laid, upon us their paternal chastisements only.
4.
The reasonableness of our trials. "Surely every man is
vanity." How in a world like this could any expect to be exempt from
trials! The world is the same to the Christian as before, and his body is the
same. He has a converted soul in an unconverted body, and how can he escape the
external ills of life? G. Rogers.
Verse
12. David pleads the good impressions made upon him by his
affliction.
1.
It had set him a weeping.
2. It had set him a praying.
3. It had helped to wean him from the world.
—Matthew Henry.
Verse
12. (last clause). Am I a stranger and a sojourner with God?
Let me realise, let me exemplify the condition.
1.
Let me look for the treatment such characters commonly meet with.
2.
And surely if any of my own nation be near me, I shall be intimate with
them.
3.
Let me not be entangled in the affairs of this life.
4.
Let my affection be set on things that are above, and my conversation be
always in heaven.
5.
Let me be not impatient for home; but prizing it. —W. Jay.
Verse
13.
1.
The subject of his petition—not that he may escape death and live always
in this life, because he knows that he must go hence; but 1. That he may be
recovered from his afflictions; and, 2. That he may continue longer in this
life. Such a prayer is lawful when offered in submission to the will of God.
2.
The reasons for this petition. 1. That he may remove by his future life,
the calumnies that had been heaped upon him. 2. That he may have brighter
evidences of his interest in the divine favour. 3. That he may become a
blessing to others, his family and nation. 4. That he might have greater peace
and comfort in death; and, 5. That he might "have an entrance ministered
more abundantly, "etc. —G. Rogers.
── C.H. Spurgeon《The Treasury of David》