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Psalm One
Hundred and Three
Psalm 103
Chapter Contents
An exhortation to bless God for his mercy. (1-5) And to
the church and to all men. (6-14) For the constancy of his mercy. (15-18) For
the government of the world. (19-22)
Commentary on Psalm 103:1-5
(Read Psalm 103:1-5)
By the pardon of sin, that is taken away which kept good
things from us, and we are restored to the favor of God, who bestows good
things on us. Think of the provocation; it was sin, and yet pardoned: how many
the provocations, yet all pardoned! God is still forgiving, as we are still
sinning and repenting. The body finds the melancholy consequences of Adam's
offence, it is subject to many infirmities, and the soul also. Christ alone
forgives all our sins; it is he alone who heals all our infirmities. And the
person who finds his sin cured, has a well-grounded assurance that it is
forgiven. When God, by the graces and comforts of his Spirit, recovers his
people from their decays, and fills them with new life and joy, which is to
them an earnest of eternal life and joy, they may then be said to return to the
days of their youth, Job 33:25.
Commentary on Psalm 103:6-14
(Read Psalm 103:6-14)
Truly God is good to all: he is in a special manner good
to Israel. He has revealed himself and his grace to them. By his ways we may
understand his precepts, the ways he requires us to walk in; and his promises
and purposes. He always has been full of compassion. How unlike are those to God,
who take every occasion to chide, and never know when to cease! What would
become of us, if God should deal so with us? The Scripture says a great deal of
the mercy of God, and we all have experienced it. The father pities his
children that are weak in knowledge, and teaches them; pities them when they
are froward, and bears with them; pities them when they are sick, and comforts
them; pities them when they are fallen, and helps them to rise; pities them
when they have offended, and, upon their submission, forgives them; pities them
when wronged, and rights them: thus the Lord pities those that fear him. See
why he pities. He considers the frailty of our bodies, and the folly of our
souls, how little we can do, how little we can bear; in all which his compassion
appears.
Commentary on Psalm 103:15-18
(Read Psalm 103:15-18)
How short is man's life, and uncertain! The flower of the
garden is commonly more choice, and will last the longer, for being sheltered
by the garden-wall, and the gardener's care; but the flower of the field, to
which life is here compared, is not only withering in itself, but exposed to
the cold blasts, and liable to be cropt and trod on by the beasts of the field.
Such is man. God considers this, and pities him; let him consider it himself.
God's mercy is better than life, for it will outlive it. His righteousness, the
truth of his promise, shall be unto children's children, who tread in the
footsteps of their forefathers' piety. Then shall mercy be preserved to them.
Commentary on Psalm 103:19-22
(Read Psalm 103:19-22)
He who made all, rules all, and both by a word of power.
He disposes all persons and things to his own glory. There is a world of holy
angels who are ever praising him. Let all his works praise him. Such would have
been our constant delight, if we had not been fallen creatures. Such it will in
a measure become, if we are born of God. Such it will be for ever in heaven;
nor can we be perfectly happy till we can take unwearied pleasure in perfect
obedience to the will of our God. And let the feeling of each redeemed heart
be, Bless the Lord, O my soul.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Psalms》
Psalm 103
Verse 5
[5] Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy
youth is renewed like the eagle's.
The eagles — Which lives long in great
strength and vigour.
Verse 11
[11] For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is
his mercy toward them that fear him.
So great — So much above their deserts and expectations.
Verse 14
[14] For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are
dust.
Knoweth — The weakness and mortality of our natures, and the
frailty of our condition, so that if he should let loose his hand upon us, we
should be irrecoverably destroyed.
Verse 21
[21] Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of
his, that do his pleasure.
His hosts — A title often given to the angels,
in regard of their vast numbers, mighty power, unanimous concurrence, and
exquisite order.
Ministers — This Hebrew word is commonly used
of the highest and most honourable sort of servants,
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Psalms》
Psalm 103:12
There is a definite point
that is “north” and another that is “south,” the North and South Poles. But
there are no such points for “east” and “west.” It doesn’t matter how far you
go to the east; you will never arrive where west begins because by definition west is the opposite of east.
The two never meet. They never will meet and never could meet because they are
defined as opposites. To remove our sins “as far as the east is from the west”
is by definition to put them where no one can ever find them. That is the
forgiveness God has granted us.
Exposition
Explanatory Notes and
Quaint Sayings
Hints to the Village
Preacher
Other Works
TITLE. A Psalm of
David.—Doubtless by David; it is in his own style when at its best, and we should
attribute it to his later years when he had a higher sense of the preciousness
of pardon, because a keener sense of sin, than in his younger days. His clear
sense of the frailty of life indicates his weaker years, as also does the very
fainess of his praiseful gratitude. As in the lofty Alps some peaks rise above
all others so among even the inspired Psalms there are heights of song which
overtop the rest. This one hundred and third Psalm has ever seemed to us to be
the Monte Rosa of the divine chain of mountains of praise, glowing with a
ruddier light than any of the rest. It is as the apple tree among the trees of
the wood, and its golden fruit has a flavour such as no fruit ever bears unless
it has been ripened in the full suushine of mercy. It is man's reply to the
benedictions of his God, his Song on the Mount answering to his Redeemer's
Sermon on the Mount. Nebuchadnezzar adored his idol with flute, harp, sacbut,
psaltery, dulcimer and all kinds of music; and David, in far nobler style
awakens all the melodies of heaven and earth in honour of the one only living
and true God. Our attempt at exposition is commenced under an impressive sense
of the utter impossibility of doing justice to so sublime a composition; we
call upon our soul and all that is within us to aid in the pleasurable task;
but, alas, our soul is finite, and our all of mental faculty far too little for
the enterprize. There is too much in the Psalm, for a thousand pens to write,
it is one of those all-comprehending Scriptures which is a Bible in itself, and
it might alone almost suffice for the hymn-book of the church.
DIVISION. First the
Psalmist sings of personal mercies which he had himself received Ps 103:1-5;
then he magnifies the attributes of Jehovah as displayed in his dealings with
his people, Ps 103:6-19; and he closes by calling upon all the creatures in the
universe to adore the Lord and join with himself in blessing Jehovah, the ever
gracious.
EXPOSITION
Verse
1. Bless the Lord O my soul. Soul music is the very soul of
music. The Psalmist strikes the best keymote when he begins with stirring up
his inmost self to magnify the Lord. He soliloquizes, holds self-communion and
exhorts himself, as though he felt that dulness would all too soon steal over
his faculties, as, indeed, it will over us all, unless we are diligently on the
watch. Jehovah is worthy to be praised by us in that highest style of adoration
which is intended by the term bless—"All thy works praise thee, O
God, but thy saints shall bless thee." Our very life and essential self
should be engrossed with this delightful service, and each one of us should
arouse his own heart to the engagement. Let others forbear if they can:
"Bless the Lord, O MY soul." Let others murmur, but do thou bless.
Let others bless themselves and their idols, but do thou bless the LORD.
Let others use only their tongues, but as for me I will cry, "Bless the
Lord, O my soul." And all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Many are our faculties, emotions, and capacities, but God has given them all to
us, and they ought all to join in chorus to his praise. Half-hearted,
ill-conceived, unintelligent praises are not such as we should render to our
loving Lord. If the law of justice demanded all our heart and soul and mind for
the Creator, much more may the law of gratitude put in a comprehensive claim
for the homage of our whole being to the God of grace. It is instructive to
note how the Psalmist dwells upon the holy name of God, as if his
holiness were dearest to him; or, perhaps, because the holiness or wholeness of
God was to his mind the grandest motive for rendering to him the homage of his
nature in its wholeness. Babes may praise the divine goodness, but fathers in
grace magnify his holiness. By the name we understand the revealed character
of God, and assuredly those songs which are suggested, not by our fallible
reasoning and imperfect observation, but by unerring inspiration, should more
than any others arouse all our consecrated powers.
Verse
2. Bless the LORD, O my soul. He is in real earnest, and
again calls upon himself to arise. Had he been very sleepy before? Or was he
now doubly sensible of the importance, the imperative necessity of adoration?
Certainly, he uses no vain repetitions, for the Holy Spirit guides his pen; and
thus he shews us that we have need, again and again, to bestir ourselves when
we are about to worship God, for it would be shameful to offer him anything
less than the utmost our souls can render. These first verses are a tuning of
the harp, a screwing up of the loosened strings that not a note may fail in the
sacred harmony. And forget not all his benefits. Not so much as one of the
divine dealings should be forgotten, they are all really beneficial to us, all
worthy of himself, and all subjects for praise. Memory is very treacherous
about the best things; by a strange perversity, engendered by the fall, it
treasures up the refuse of the past and permits priceless treasures to lie
neglected, it is tenacious of grievances and holds benefits all too loosely. It
needs spurring to its duty, though that duty ought to be its delight. Observe
that he calls all that is within him to remember all the Lord's benefits. For
our task our energies should be suitably called out. God's all cannot be
praised with less than our all. Reader, have we not cause enough at this time
to bless him who blesses us? Come, let us read our diaries and see if there be
not choice favours recorded there for which we have rendered no grateful
return. Remember how the Persian king, when he conld not sleep, read the
chronicles of the empire, and discovered that one who had saved his life had
never been rewarded. How quickly did he do him honour! The Lord has saved us
with a great salvation, shall we render no recompense? The name of ingrate
is one of the most shameful that a man can wear; surely we cannot be content to
run the risk of such a brand. Let us awake then, and with intense enthusiasm
bless Jehovah.
Verse
3. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. Here David begins his
list of blessings received, which he rehearses as themes and arguments for
praise. He selects a few of the choicest pearls from the casket of divine love,
threads them on the string of memory, and hangs them about the neck of
gratitude. Pardoned sin is, in our experience, one of the choicest boons of
grace, one of the earliest gifts of mercy,—in fact, the needful preparation for
enjoying all that follows it. Till iniquity is forgiven, healing, redemption,
and satisfaction are unknown blessings. Forgiveness is first in the order of
our spiritual experience, and in some respects first in value. The pardon
granted is a present one—forgiveth;it is continual, for he still forgiveth;it
is divine, for God gives it; it is far reaching, for it removes all our sins;
it takes in omissions as well as commissions, for both these are in-equities;and
it is most effectual, for it is as real as the healing, and the rest of the
mercies with which it is placed. Who healeth all thy diseases. When the cause
is gone, namely, iniquity, the effect ceases. Sicknesses of body and soul came
into the world by sin, and as sin is eradicated, diseases bodily, mental, and
spiritual will vanish, till "the inhabitant shall no more say, I am
sick." Many-sided is the character of our heavenly Father, for, having forgiven
as a judge, he then cures as a physician. He is all things to us, as our needs
call for him, and our infirmities do but reveal him in new characters.
"In
him is only good,
In me is only ill,
My ill but draws his goodness forth,
And me he loveth still."
God
gives efficacy to medicine for the body, and his grace sanctifies the soul.
Spiritually we are daily under his care, and he visits us, as the surgeon does
his patient; healing still (for that is the exact word) each malady as
it arises. No disease of our soul baffles his skill, he goes on healing all,
and he will do so till the last trace of taint has gone from our nature. The
two alls of this verse are further reasons for all that is within
us praising the Lord. The two blessings of this verse the Psalmist was
personally enjoying, he sang not of others but of himself, or rather of his
Lord, who was daily forgiving and healing him. He must have known that it was
so, or he could not have sung of it. He had no doubt about it, he felt in his
soul that it was so, and, therefore, he bade his pardoned and restored soul
bless the Lord with all its might.
Verse
4. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction. By purchase and
by power the Lord redeems us from the spiritual death into which we had fallen,
and from the eternal death which would have been its consequence. Had not the
death penalty of sin been removed, our forgiveness and healing would have been
incomplete portions of salvation, fragments only, and but of small value, but
the removal of the guilt and power of sin is fitly attended by the reversal of
the sentence of death which had been passed upon us. Glory be to our great
Substitute, who delivered us from going down into the pit, by giving himself to
be our ransom. Redemption will ever constitute one of the sweetest notes in the
believer's grateful song. Who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender
mercies. Our Lord does nothing by halves, he will not stay his hand till he has
gone to the uttermost with his people. Cleansing, healing, redemption, are not
enough, he must needs make them kings and crown them, and the crown must be far
more precious than if it were made of corruptible things, such as silver and
gold; it is studded with gems of grace and lined with the velvet of
lovingkindness; it is decked with the jewels of mercy, but made soft for the
head to wear by a lining of tenderness. Who is like unto thee, O Lord! God
himself crowns the princes of his family, for their best things come from him
directly and distinctly; they do not earn the crown, for it is of mercy
not of merit; they feel their own unworthiness of it, therefore he deals with tenderness;but
lie is resolved to bless them, and, therefore, he is ever crowning them,
always surrounding their brows with coronets of mercy and compassion. He always
crowns the edifice which he commences, and where he gives pardon he gives
acceptance too. "Since thou wast precious in my sight thou hast been
honourable, and I have loved thee." Our sin deprived us of all our
honours, a bill of attainder was issued against us as traitors; but he who
removed the sentence of death by redeeming us from destruction, restores to us
more than all our former honours by crowning us anew. Shall God crown us and
shall not we crown him? Up, my soul, and cast thy crown at his feet, and in
lowliest reverence worship him, who has so greatly exalted thee, as to lift
thee from the dunghill and set thee among princes.
Verse
5. Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, or rather
"filling with good thy soul." No man is ever filled to satisfaction
but a believer, and only God himself can satisfy even him. Many a worldling is
satiated, but not one is satisfied. God satisfies the very soul of man, his
noblest part, his ornament and glory; and of consequence he satisfies his mouth,
however hungry and craving it might otherwise be. Soul-satisfaction loudly
calls for soul-praise, and when the mouth is filled with good it is bound to
speak good of him who filled it. Our good Lord bestows really good things,
not vain toys and idle pleasures; and these he is always giving, so that from
moment to moment he is satisfying our soul with good: shall we not be
still praising him? If we never cease to bless him till he ceases to bless us,
our employment will be eternal. So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.
Renewal of strength, amounting to a grant of a new lease of life, was granted
to the Psalmist; he was so restored to his former self that he grew young
again, and looked as vigorous as an eagle, whose eye can gaze upon the sun, and
whose wing can mount above the storm. Our version refers to the annual moulting
of the eagle, after which it looks fresh and young; but the original does not
appear to allude to any such fact of natural history, but simply to describe
the diseased one as so healed and strengthened, that he became as full of
energy as the bird which is strongest of the feathered race, most fearless,
most majestic, and most soaring. He who sat moping with the owl in the last
Psalm, here flies on high with the eagle: the Lord works marvellous changes in
us, and we learn by such experiences to bless his holy name. To grow from a
sparrow to an eagle, and leave the wilderness of the pelican to mount among the
stars is enough to make any man cry, "Bless the Lord, O my soul."
Thus, is the endless chain of grace complete. Sins forgiven, its power subdued,
and its penalty averted, then we are honoured, supplied, and our very nature
renovated, till we are as new-born children in the household of God. O Lord we
must bless thee, and we will; as thou dost withhold nothing from us so we would
not keep back from thy praise one solitary power of our nature, but with all
our heart, and soul, and strength praise thy holy name.
Verse
6. The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are
of oppressed. Our own personal obligations must not absorb our song; we
must also magnify the Lord for his goodness to others. He does not leave the
poor and needy to perish at the hands of their enemies, but interposes on their
behalf, for he is the executor of the poor and the executioner of the cruel.
When his people were in Egypt he heard their groanings and brought them forth,
but he overthrew Pharaoh in the Red Sea. Man's injustice shall receive
retribution at the hand of God. Mercy to his saints demands vengeance on their
persecutors, and he will repay it. No blood of martyrs shall be shed in vain;
no groans of confessors in prison shall be left without inquisition being made
concerning them. All wrongs shall be righted, all the oppressed
shall be avenged. Justice may at times leave the courts of man, but it abides
upon the tribunal of God. For this every right-minded person will bless God.
Were he careless of his creature's good, did he neglect the administration of
justice, did he suffer high-handed oppressors finally to escape, we should have
greater reason for trembling than rejoicing; it is not so, however, for our God
is a God of justice, and by him actions are weighed; he will mete out his
portion to the proud and make the tyrant bite the dust,—yea, often he visits
the haughty persecutor even in this life, so that "the Lord is known by
the judgments which he executeth."
Verse
7. He made known his ways unto Moses. Moses was made to see
the manner in which the Lord deals with men; he saw this at each of the three
periods of his life, in the court, in retirement, and at the head of the tribes
of Israel. To him the Lord gave specially clear manifestations of his
dispensations and modes of ruling among mankind, granting to him to see more of
God than had before been seen by mortal man, while he cornmaned with him upon
the mount. His acts unto the children of Israel. They saw less than Moses, for
they beheld the deeds of God without understanding his method therein, yet this
was much, very much, and might have been more if they had not been so perverse;
the stint was not in the revelation, but in the hardness of their hearts. It is
a great act of sovereign grace and condescending love when the Lord reveals
himself to any people, and they ought to appreciate the distinguished favour
shown to them. We, as believers in Jesus, know the Lord's ways of
covenant grace, and we have by experience been made to see his acts of
mercy towards us; how heartily ought we to praise our divine teacher, the Holy
Spirit, who has made these things known to us, for had it not been for him we
should have continued in darkness unto this day, "Lord, how is it that
thou wilt manifest thyself unto us and not unto the world?" Why hast thou
made us "of the election who have obtained it" while the rest are
blinded? Observe how prominent is the personality of God in all this gracious
teaching—"He made known." He did not leave Moses to discover
truth for himself, but became his instructor. What should we ever know if he
did not make it known? God alone can reveal himself. If Moses needed the Lord
to make him know, how much more do we who are so much inferior to the great
law-giver?
Verse
8. The Lord is merciful and gracious. Those with whom he
deals are sinners. However much he favours them they are guilty and need mercy
at his hands, nor is he slow to compassionate their lost estate, or reluctant
by his grace to lift them out of it. Mercy pardons sin, grace bestows favour:
in both the Lord abounds. This is that way of his which he made known to Moses
(Ex 34:6), and in that way he will abide as long as the age of grace shall
last, and men are yet in this life. He who "executeth righteousness and
judgment, " yet delighteth in mercy. Slow to anger. He can be angry, and
can deal out righteous indignation upon the guilty, but it is his strange work;
he lingers long, with loving pauses, tarrying by the way to give space for
repentance and opportunity for accepting his mercy. Thus deals he with the
greatest sinners, and with his own children much more so: towards them his
anger is shortlived and never reaches into eternity, and when it is shown in
fatherly chastisements he does not afflict willingly, and soon pities their
sorrows. From this we should learn to be ourselves slow to anger; if the Lord
is longsuffering under our great provocations how much more ought we to endure
the errors of our brethren! And plenteous in mercy. Rich in it, quick in it,
overflowing with it; and so had he need to be or we should soon be consumed. He
is God, and not man, or our sins would soon drown his love; yet above the
mountains of our sins the floods of his mercy rise.
"Plenteous
grace with thee is found,
Grace to cover all my sin;
Let the healing streams abound,
Make and keep me pure within."
All
the world tastes of his sparing mercy, those who hear the gospel partake of his
inviting mercy, the saints live by his saving mercy, are preserved by his
upholding mercy, are cheered by his consoling mercy, and will enter heaven
through his infinite and everlasting mercy. Let grace abounding be our hourly
song in the house of our pilgrimage. Let those who feel that they live upon it
glorify the plenteous fountain from which it so spontaneously flows.
Verse
9. He will not always chide. He will sometimes, for he cannot
endure that his people should harbour sin in their hearts, but not for ever
will he chasten them; as soon as they turn to him and forsake their evil ways
he will end the quarrel. He might find constant cause for striving with us, for
we have always something in us which is contrary to his holy mind, but he
refrains himself lest our spirits should fail before him. It will be profitable
for any one of us who may be at this time out of conscious fellowship with the
Lord, to inquire at his hands the reason for his anger, saying, "Shew me
wherefore thou contendest with me?" For he is easily entreated of, and
soon ceaseth from his wrath. When his children turn from their sins he soon
turns from his chidings. Neither will he keep his anger for ever. He bears no
grudges. The Lord would not have his people harbour resentments, and in his own
course of action he sets them a grand example. When the Lord has chastened his
child he has done with his anger: he is not punishing as a judge, else might
his wrath burn on, but he is acting as a father, and, therefore, after a few
blows he ends the matter, and presses his beloved one to his bosom as if
nothing had happened; or if the offence lies too deep in the offender's nature
to be thus overcome, he continues to correct, but he never ceases to love, and
he does not suffer his anger with his people to pass into the next world, but
receives his erring child into his glory.
Verse
10. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us
according to our iniquities. Else had Israel perished outright, and we also
had long ago been consigned to the lowest hell. We ought to praise the Lord for
what he has not done as well as for what he has wrought for us; even the
negative side deserves our adoring gratitude. Up to this moment, at our very
worst estate, we have never suffered as we deserved to suffer; our daily lot
has not been apportioned upon the rule of what we merited, but on the far
different measure of undeserved kindness. Shall we not bless the Lord? Every
power of our being might have been rent with anguish, instead of which we are
all in the enjoyment of comparative happiness, and many of us are exceedingly
favoured with inward joy; let then every faculty, yea, all that is within us,
bless his holy name.
Verse
11. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his
mercy toward them that fear him. Boundless in extent towards his chosen is
the mercy of the Lord; it is no more to be measured than the height of heaven
or the heaven of heavens. "Like the height of the heavens" is
the original language, which implies other points of comparison besides extent,
and suggests sublimity, grandeur, and glory. As the lofty heavens canopy the
earth, water it with dews and rains, enlighten it with sun, moon, and stars,
and look down upon it with unceasing watchfulness, even so the Lord's mercy
from above covers all his chosen, enriches them, embraces them, and stands for
ever as their dwellingplace. The idea of our version is a very noble one, for
who shall tell how exceeding great is the height of heaven? Who can reach the
first of the fixed stars, and who can measure the utmost bounds of the starry
universe? Yet so great is his mercy! Oh, that great little word so! All this
mercy is for "them that fear him; "there must be a humble, hearty
reverence of his authority, or we cannot taste of his grace. Godly fear is one
of the first products of the divine life in us, it is the beginning of wisdom,
yet it fully ensures to its possessor all the benefits of divine mercy, and is,
indeed, here and elsewhere, employed to set forth the whole of true religion.
Many a true child of God is full of filial fear, and yet at the same time
stands trembling as to his acceptance with God; this trembling is groundless,
but it is infinitely to be preferred to that baseborn presumption, which
incites men to boast of their adoption and consequent security, when all the
while they are in the gall of bitterness. Those who are presuming upon the
infinite extent of divine mercy, should here be led to consider that although
it is wide as the horizon and high as the stars, yet it is only meant for them
that fear the Lord, and as for obstinate rebels, they shall have justice
without mercy measured out to them.
Verse
12. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed
our transgressions from us. O glorious verse, no word even upon the
inspired page can excel it! Sin is removed from us by a miracle of love! What a
load to move, and yet is it removed so far that the distance is incalculable.
Fly as far as the wing of imagination can bear you, and if you journey through
space eastward, you are further from the west at every beat of your wing. If
sin be removed so far, then we may be sure that the scent, the trace, the very
memory of it must be entirely gone. If this be the distance of its removal,
there is no shade of fear of its ever being brought back again; even Satan
himself could not achieve such a task. Our sins are gone, Jesus has borne them
away. Far as the place of sunrise is removed from yonder west, where the sun
sinks when his day's journey is done, so far were our sins carried by our
scapegoat nineteen centuries ago, and now if they be sought for, they shall not
be found, yea, they shall not be, saith the Lord. Come, my soul, awaken thyself
thoroughly and glorify the Lord for this richest of blessings. Hallelujah. The
Lord alone could remove sin at all, and he has done it in a godlike fashion,
making a final sweep of all our transgressions.
Verse
13. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth
them that fear him. To those who truly reverence his holy name, the Lord is
a father and acts as such. These he pities, for in the very best of men the
Lord sees much to pity, and when they are at their best state they still need
his compassion. This should check every propensity to pride, though at the same
time it should yield us the richest comfort. Fathers feel for their children,
especially when they are in pain, they would like to suffer in their stead,
their sighs and groans cut them to the quick: thus sensitive towards us is our
heavenly Father. We do not adore a god of stone, but the living God, who is
tenderness itself. He is at this moment compassionating us, for the word is in
the present tense; his pity never fails to flow, and we never cease to need it.
Verse
14. For he knoweth our frame. He knows how we are made, for he
made us. Our make and build, our constitution and temperament, our prevailing
infirmity and most besetting temptation he well perceives, for he searches our
inmost nature. He remembereth that we are dust. Made of dust, dust still, and
ready to return to dust. We have sometimes heard of "the Iron Duke, "
and of iron constitutions, but the words are soon belied, for the Iron Duke is
dissolved, and other men of like rigour are following to the grave, where
"dust to dust" is an appropriate requiem. We too often forget that we
are dust, and try our minds and bodies unduly by excessive mental and bodily
exertion, we are also too little mindful of the infirmities of others, and impose
upon them burdens grievous to be borne; but our heavenly Father never overloads
us, and never fails to give us strength equal to our day, because he always
takes our frailty into account when he is apportioning to us our lot. Blessed
be his holy name for this gentleness towards his frail creatures.
Verse
15. As for man, his days are as grass. He lives on the grass,
and lives like the grass. Corn is but educated grass, and man, who feeds on it,
partakes of its nature. The grass lives, grows, flowers, falls beneath the
scythe, dries up, and is removed from the field: read this sentence over again,
and you will find it the history of man. If he lives out his little day, he is
cut down at last, and it is far more likely that he will wither before he comes
to maturity, or be plucked away on a sudden, long before he has fulfilled his
time. As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. He has a beauty and a
comeliness even as the meadows have when they are yellow with the king-cups,
but, alas, how short-lived! No sooner come than gone, a flash of loveliness and
no more! Man is not even like a flower in the conservatory or in the sheltered
garden border, he grows best according to nature, as the field-flower does, and
like the unprotected beautifier of the pasture, he runs a thousand risks of
coming to a speedy end. A large congregation, in many-coloured attire, always
reminds us of a meadow bright with many hues; and the comparison becomes sadly
true when we reflect, that as the grass and its goodliness soon pass away, even
so will those we gaze upon, and all their visible beauty. Thus, too, must it be
with all that comes of the flesh, even its greatest excellencies and natural
virtues, for "that which is born of the flesh is flesh, "and
therefore is but as grass which withers if but a breath of wind assails it.
Happy are they who, born from above, have in them an incorruptible seed which
liveth and abideth for ever.
Verse
16. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone. Only a
little wind is needed, not even a scythe is demanded, a breath can do it, for
the flower is so frail.
"If
one sharp wind sweep over the field,
It withers in an hour."
How
small a portion of deleterious gas suffices to create a deadly fever, which no
art of man can stay. No need of sword or bullet, a puff of foul air is deadlier
far, and fails not to lay low the healthiest and most stalwart son of man. And
the place thereof shall know it no more. The flower blooms no more. It may have
a successor, but as for itself its leaves are scattered, and its perfume will
never again sweeten the evening air. Man also dies and is gone, gone from his
old haunts, his dear home, and his daily labours, never to return. As far as
this world is concerned, he is as though he never had been; the sun rises, the
moon increases or wanes, summer and winter run their round, the rivers flow,
and all things continue in their courses as though they missed him not, so
little a figure does he make in the affairs of nature. Perhaps a friend will
note that he is gone, and say,
"One
morn. I missed him on the accustomed hill,
Along the heath, and near his favourite tree;
Another came, nor yet beside the rill,
Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he."
But
when the "dirges due" are silent, beyond a mound of earth, and perhaps
a crumbling stone, how small will be the memorial of our existence upon this
busy scene! True there are more enduring memories, and an existence of another
kind coeval with eternity, but these belong, not to our flesh, which is but
grass, but to a higher life, in which we rise to close fellowship with the
Eternal.
Verse
17. But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting
upon them that fear him. Blessed but! How vast the contrast between
the fading flower and the everlasting God! How wonderful that his mercy should
link our frailty with his eternity, and make us everlasting too! From old
eternity the Lord viewed his people as objects of mercy, and as such chose them
to become partakers of his grace; the doctrine of eternal election is most delightful
to those who have light to see it and love wherewith to accept it. It is a
theme for deepest thought and highest joy. The "to everlasting"
is equally precious. Jehovah changes not, he has mercy without end as well as
without beginning. Never will those who fear him find that either their sins or
their needs have exhausted the great deep of his grace. The main question is,
"Do we fear him?" If we are lifting up to heaven the eye of
filial fear, the gaze of paternal love is never removed from us, and it never
will be, world without end. And his righteousness unto children's children.
Mercy to those with whom the Lord makes a covenant is guaranteed by righteousness;it
is because he is just that he never revokes a promise, or fails to fulfil it.
Our believing sons and their seed for ever will find the word of the Lord the
same: to them will he display his grace and bless them even as he has blessed
us. Let us sing, then, for posterity. The past commands our praise and the
future invites it. For our descendants let us sing as well as pray. If Abraham
rejoiced concerning his seed, so also may the godly, for "instead of the
fathers shall be the children, "and as the last Psalm told us in its
concluding verse, "the children of thy servants shall continue, and their
seed shall be established before thee."
Verse
18. Children of the righteous are not, however, promised the Lord's
mercy without stipulation, and this verse completes the statement of the last
by adding: To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his
commandments to do them. The parents must be obedient and the children too.
We are here bidden to abide by the covenant, and those who run off to any other
confidence than the finished work of Jesus are not among those who obey this
precept; those with whom the covenant is really made stand firm to it, and
having begun in the Spirit, they do not seek to be made perfect in the flesh.
The truly godly keep the Lord's commands carefully—they "remember";
they observe them practically—"to do them": moreover they do
not pick and choose, but remember "his commandments" as such,
without exalting one above another as their own pleasure or convenience may
dictate. May our offspring be a thoughtful, careful, observant race, eager to
know the will of the Lord, and prompt to follow it fully, then will his mercy
enrich and honour them from generation to generation. This verse also suggests
praise, for who would wish the Lord to smile on those who will not regard his
ways? That were to encourage vice. From the manner in which some men
unguardedly preach the covenant, one might infer that God would bless a certain
set of men however they might live, and however they might neglect his laws.
But the word teaches not so. The covenant is not legal, but it is holy. It is
all of grace from first to last, yet it is no panderer to sin; on the contrary,
one of its greatest promises is, "I will put my laws in their hearts and
in their minds will I write them"; its general aim is the sanctifying of a
people unto God, zealous for good works, and all its gifts and operations work
in that direction. Faith keeps the covenant by looking alone to Jesus, while at
the same time by earnest obedience it remembers the Lord's commandments to do
them.
Verse
19. The LORD has prepared his throne in the heavens. Here is a
grand burst of song produced by a view of the boundless power, and glorious
sovereignty of Jehovah. His throne is fixed, for that is the word; it is
estabhshed, settled, immovable.
"He
sits on no precarious throne,
Nor borrows leave to be."
About
his government there is no alarm, no disorder, no perturbation, no hurrying to
and fro in expedients, no surprises to be met or unexpected catastrophes to be
warded off;—all is prepared and fixed, and he himself has prepared and fixed
it. He is no delegated sovereign for whom a throne is set up by another; he is
an autocrat, and his dominion arises from himself and is sustained by his own
innate power. This matchless sovereignty is the pledge of our security, the
pillar upon which our confidence may safely lean. And his kingdom ruleth over
all. Over the whole universe he stretches his sceptre. He now reigns
universally, he always has done so, and he always will. To us the world may
seem rent with anarchy, but he brings order out of confusion. The warring
elements are marching beneath his banner when they most wildly rush onward in
furious tempest. Great and small, intelligent and material, willing and
unwilling, fierce or gentle,—all, all are under his sway. His is the only universal
monarchy, he is the blessed and only Potentate, King of kings and Lord of
lords. A clear view of his ever active, and everywhere supreme providence, is
one of the most delightful of spiritual gifts; he who has it cannot do
otherwise than bless the Lord with all his soul. Thus has the sweet singer
hymned the varied attributes of the Lord as seen in nature, grace, and
providence, and now he gathers up all his energies for one final outburst of
adoration, in which he would have all unite, since all are subjects of the
Great King.
Verse
20. Bess the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength.
Finding his work of praise growing upon his hands, he calls upon "the
firstborn sons of light" to speak the praises of the Lord, as well they
may, for as Milton says, they best can tell. Dwelling nearer to that prepared
throne than we as yet have leave to climb, they see in nearer vision the glory
which we would adore. To them is given an exceeding might of intellect, and
voice, and force which they delight to use in sacred services for him; let them
now turn all their strength into that solemn song which we would send up to the
third heaven. To him who gave angelic strength let all angelic strength be
given. They are his angels, and therefore they are not loath to ring out his
praises. That do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. We
are bidden to do these commandntents, and alas we fail; let those unfallen
spirits, whose bliss it is never to have transgressed, give to the Lord the
glory of their holiness. They hearken for yet more commands, obeying as much by
reverent listening as by energetic action, and in this they teach us how the
heavenly will should evermore be done; yet even for this surpassing excellence
let them take no praise, but render all to him who has made and kept them what
they are. O that we could hear them chant the high praises of God, as did the
shepherds on that greatest of all birth nights—
"When
such music sweet
Their hearts and ears did greet
As never was by mortal finger struck;
Divinely-warbled voice
Answering the stringed noise,
As well their souls in blissful rapture took:
The air, such pleasure loth to lose,
With thousand echoes still prolongs each heavenly close."
Our
glad heart anticipates the hour when we shall hear them "harping in loud
and solemn guise," and all to the sole praise of God.
Verse
21. Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts; to whatever race of
creatures ye may belong, for ye are all his troops, and he is the
Generallissimo of all your armies. The fowl of the air and the fish of the sea,
and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea, should all unite in
praising their Creator, after the best of their ability. Ye ministers of his
that do his pleasure; in whatever way ye serve him, bless him as ye serve. The
Psalmist would have every servant in the Lord's palace unite with him, and all
at once sing out the praises of the Lord. We have attached a new sense to the
word "ministers" in these latter days, and so narrowed it down to
those who serve in word and doctrine. Yet no true minister would wish to alter
it, for we are above all men bound to be the Lord's servants, and we would,
beyond all other ministering intelligences or forces, desire to bless the
glorious Lord.
Verse
22. Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion.
Here is a trinity of blessing for the thrice blessed God, and each one of the
three blessings is an enlargement upon that which went before. This is the most
comprehensive of all, for what can be a wider call than to all in all places?
See how finite man can awaken unbounded praise! Man is but little, yet, placing
his hands upon the keys of the great organ of the universe, he wakes it to
thunders of adoration! Redeemed man is the voice of nature, the priest in the
temple of creation, the precentor in the worship of the universe. O that all
the Lord's works on earth were delivered from the vanity to which they were
made subject, and brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God: the
time is hastening on and will most surely come; then will all the Lord's works
bless him indeed. The immutable promise is ripening, the sure mercy is on its
way. Hasten, ye winged hours! Bless the Lord, O my soul. He closes on his
key-note. He cannot be content to call on others without taking his own part;
nor because others sing more loudly and perfectly, will he be content to be set
aside. O my soul, come home to thyself and to thy God, and let the little world
within thee keep time and tune to the spheres which are ringing out Jehovah's praise.
O infinitely blessed Lord, favour us with this highest blessing of being for
ever and ever wholly engrossed in blessing Thee.
EXPLANATORY
NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
TITLE. A Psalm of
David, which he wrote when carried out of himself as far as heaven, saith Beza.
John Trapp.
Whole
Psalm. How often have saints in Scotland sung this Psalm in days when
they celebrated the Lord's Supper! It is thereby specially known in our
land. It is connected also with a remarkable case in the days of John Knox. Elizabeth
Adamson, a woman who attended on his preaching, "because he more fully
opened the fountain of God's mercies than others did, "was led to Christ
and to rest, on hearing this Psalm, after enduring such agony of soul that she
said, concerning racking pains of body, "A thousand years of this torment,
and ten times more joined", are not to be compared to a quarter of an hour
of my soul's trouble. She asked for this Psalm again before departing: "It
was in receiving it that my troubled soul first tasted God's mercy, which is
now sweeter to me than if all the kingdoms of the earth were given me to
possess." Andrew A. Bonar.
Whole
Psalm. The number of verses in this Psalm is that of the letters of the
Hebrew alphabet; and the completeness of the whole is further testified by its
return at the close to the words with which it started, "Bless the Lord, O
my soul." J. F. Thrupp.
Whole
Psalm. The Psalm, in regard to number, is an alphabetical one,
harmonized in such a way as that the concluding turns back into the
introductory verse, the whole being in this manner finished and rounded off. In
like manner, the name Jehovah occurs eleven times. The Psalm is divided into
two strophes, the first of ten and the second of twelve verses. The ten is
divided by the five, and the twelve falls into three divisions, each of four
verses. Jehovah occurs in the first strophe four, and in the second seven
times. The Psalm bears the character of quiet tenderness. It is a still clear
brook of the praise of God. In accordance with this, we find that the verses
are of equal length as to structure, and consist regularly of two members. It
is only at the conclusion, where the tone rises, that the verses become longer:
the vessel is too small for the feeling. The testimony which the title
bears on behalf of the composition of the Psalm by David, is confirmed by the
fact that the Psalm in passages, the independence of which cannot be mistaken,
bears a striking resemblance to the other Psalms of David, and by the
connection with Psalm 102 David here teaches his posterity to render thanks,
as in the previous Psalm he had taught them to pray: the deliverance
from deep distress which formed there the subject of prayer, forms here the
subject of thanks. E. W. Hengstenberg.
Whole
Psalm. It is observable that no petition occurs throughout the entire
compass of these twenty-two verses. Not a single word of supplication is in the
whole Psalm addressed to the Most High. Prayer, fervent, heartfelt prayer, had
doubtless been previously offered on the part of the Psalmist, and answered by
his God. Innumerable blessings had been showered down from above in
acknowledgment of David's supplications; and, therefore, an overflowing
gratitude now bursts forth from their joyful recipient. He touches every chord of
his harp and of his heart together, and pours forth a spontaneous melody of
sweetest sound and purest praise. John Stevenson, in "Gratitude: an
Exposition of the Hundred and Third Psalm, "1856.
Verse
1. Bless the LORD, O my soul. O how well they are fitted! for
what work so fit for my soul as this? Who so fit for this work as my soul? My
body, God knows, is gross and heavy, and very unfit for so sublime a work. No,
my soul, it is thou must do it; and indeed what hast thou else to do? it is the
very work for which thou were made, and O that thou wert as fit to do the work
as the work is fit for thee to do! But, alas, thou art become in a manner
earthy, at least hast lost a great part of thy abilities, and will never be
able to go through with this great work thyself alone. If to bless the Lord
were no more but to say, Lord, Lord, like to them that cried, "The temple
of the Lord, the temple of the Lord; "then my tongue alone would be
sufficient for it, and I should not need to trouble any other about it; but to
bless the Lord is an eminent work, and requires not only many but very able
agents to perform it; and therefore, my soul, when thou goest about it, go not
alone; but, take with thee "all that is within thee; "all the
forces in my whole magazine, whether it be my heart, or my spirits; whether my
will, or my affections; whether my understanding, or my memory; take them all
with thee, and bless the Lord. Sir R. Baker.
Verse
1. All that is within me. The literal translation of the form
here used is my insides or inner parts, the strong and
comprehensive meaning of the plural being further enhanced by the addition of
all, as if to preclude exception and reserve, and comprehend within the scope
of the address all the powers and affections. J. A. Alexander.
Verse
1. All that is within me, etc. Let your conscience
"bless the Lord, "by unvarying fidelity. Let your judgment
bless Him, by decisions in accordance with his word. Let your imagination
bless him, by pure and holy musings. Let your affections praise him, by
loving whatsoever he loves. Let your desires bless him, by seeking only
his glory. Let your memory bless him, by not forgetting any of his
benefits. Let your thoughts bless him, by meditating on his
excellencies. Let your hope praise him, by longing and looking for the
glory that is to be revealed. Let your every sense bless him by its
fealty, your every word by its truth, and your every act by its
integrity. John Stevenson.
Verse
1. Bless the LORD, O my soul. You have often heard, that when
God is said to bless men, and they on the other hand are excited to bless him,
the word is taken in two very different senses. God is the only fountain of
being and happiness, from which all good ever flows; and hence he is said to
bless his creatures when he bestows mercies and favours upon them, gives them
any endowments of body and mind, delivers them from evils, and is the source of
their present comforts and future hopes. But in this sense, you will see there
is no possibility of any creature's blessing God; for as his infinite and
unblemished perfection renders him incapable of receiving any higher
excellency, or improvement in happiness; so, could we put the supposition that
this immense ocean of good might be increased, it is plain that we, who receive
our very being and everything that we have or are from him, could in no case
contribute thereto. To bless God, then, is, with an ardent affection
humbly to acknowledge those divine excellencies, which render him the best and
greatest of beings, the only object worthy of the highest adoration: it is to
give him the praise of all those glorious attributes which adorn his nature,
and are so conspicuously manifested in his works and ways. To bless God, is to
embrace every proper opportunity of owning our veneration and esteem of his
excellent greatness, and to declare to all about us, as loudly as we can, the
goodness and grace of his conduct towards men, and our infinite obligations for
all our enjoyments to him, in whom we live, move, and have our being.
And a right blessing of God must take its rise from a heart that is full
of esteem and gratitude, which puts life into the songs of praise. And then, of
all others, the most lively and acceptable method of blessing God, is a holy
conversation and earnest endeavor to be purified from all iniquity; for
blessing of God consists, as I told you, in adoring his excellencies, and
expressing our esteem and veneration of them: but what can be so effectual a
way of doing this, as the influence that the views of them have upon our lives?
That person best exalts the glory of the divine power, who fears God above all,
and trembles at the apprehensions of his wrath; and of his justice, who flees
from sin, which exposes him to the inexorable severity thereof; and of his
love, who is softened thereby into grateful returns of obedience; and then we
celebrate his holiness, when we endcavour to imitate it in our lives, and
abandon everything that is an abomination to the eyes of his purity. William
Dunlop, 1692-1720.
Verse
1. O my soul. God's eye is chiefly upon the soul: bring a
hundred dishes to table, he will carve of none but this; this is the savoury
meat he loves. He who is best, will be served with the best; when we give him
the soul in a duty, then we give him the flower and the cream; by a holy
chemistry we still out the spirits. A soul inflamed in service is the cup of
"spiced wine of the juice of the pomegranate" (So 8:2) which the
spouse makes Christ to drink of. Thomas Watson.
Verse
1. Bless his holy name. The name of God frequently
signifies his nature and attributes, in Scripture. Now, holiness is the
glory of this name; the purity of God is that which beautifies all his
perfections, and renders them worthy to be praised. His eternity, and
knowledge, and power, without justice, and goodness, and truth, might indeed
frighten and confound us; but could not inflame our love, or engage us to
hearty blessing. But when infinite mightiness, and unerring wisdom, and eternal
dominion, are mixed with unchangeable love, and inviolable veracity and
goodness, which exalts itself above all his works; when thus it becomes a holy
name, then the divine perfections are rendered truly amiable, and suitable
objects of our hope and confidence and loudest songs; so that you see how
elegantly the Psalmist upon this occasion mentions the purity of God: "Bless
his holy name." And besides this, there is indeed nothing that more
exalts the glory of divine grace and of redeeming love towards a soul, than the
consideration of God's holiness;for if your Maker were not of purer
eyes than man is, yea, if his hatred to sin, and love to righteousness,
were not greater than that of the noblest angel, his pardoning of sin, and
patience towards transgressors would not be such a wonderful condescension; but
is his name infinitely holy so that "the heavens are not clean in his
sight?" Is the smallest iniquity the abhorrence of his soul, and what
he hates with a perfect hatred? Surely, then, his grace and love must be
incomparably greater than our thoughts. William Dunlop.
Verses
1-2. The well is seldom so full that water will at first pumping flow
forth; neither is the heart commonly so spiritual, after our best care in our
worldly converse (much less when we somewhat overdo therein) as to pour itself
into God's bosom freely, without something to raise and elevate it; yea, often,
the springs of grace lie so low, that pumping only will not fetch the heart up
to a praying frame, but arguments must be poured into the soul before the
affections rise. Hence are those soliloquies and discourses which we find holy
men use with their own hearts to bring them into a gracious temper, suitable
for communion with God in ordinances. It seems by these verses] David either
found or feared his heart would not be in so good a frame as he desired;
consequently he redoubles his charge: he found his heart somewhat drowsy, which
made him thus rouse himself. William Guruall.
Verses
1-3. The Psalmist's gratitude here has four attributes.
The
first is personal. Bless the Lord, my soul. He has the self-same
application in the close of the Psalm, after he has called on others to do this
work. Our religion must be social as well as personal: but while it must not
end at home, it must begin at home; and relative religion, without personal,
will always be found wanting in excitement, in energy, in extent, in
continuance, and very commonly in success.
Secondly,
It is fervent. And all that is within me, bless his holy name—all
my thoughts, my feelings, my understanding, my will, my memory, my conscience,
my affections, my passions.
"If
there be passions in my soul,
(And passions, Lord, there be);
Let them be all at thy control,
My gracious Lord, for thee."
Thirdly,
it is rational, and demanded by the facts of his past life. Therefore
"forget not all his benefits." Nothing can properly affect or
influence us when it is out of our recollection. "Out of sight out of
mind; "and out of mind, out of motive. Whence arose the ingratitude of the
Jews of old? Bad memories. "Of the rock that begat thee thou art
unmindful, and hast forgotten the God that formed thee." "The ox
knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my
people doth not consider." It should therefore be your concern, not only
to recall your mercies, but to reckon them.
Lastly,
it is specific:Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all
thy diseases. When all the words in a discourse are emphatic, nothing is
emphatic, when we dwell on everything, we dwell on nothing effectively. We are
more struck, in a landscape, with a selected point of vision for inspection,
than by the general prospect. David was a poet, and understood poetry well; and
poetry differs from philosophy. The one seeks to rise from particular facts and
instances, to establish general principles and rules: the other is always for
descending from generalization to particularization; and much of its beauty and
force arises from individualities. William Jay, 1849.
Verse
2. Bless the Lord, O my soul. David found some dulness and
drowsiness; hence he so often puts the thorn to his breast; hence he so
impetuously instigateth his soul, as one here phraseth it. John Trapp.
Verse
2. Forget not. This touches the secret spring of so much
ingratitude—forgetfulness, the want of re-collection, or gathering together
again of all the varied threads of mercy. Compare De 6:12; De 8:11, 14. "Si
oblivisceris, tacebis" (If thou forgettest, thou wilt be silent). J.
J. S. Perowne.
Verse
2. Forget not all his benefits. That is, forget not any of
his benefits, as the form of speech in the original doth import. David
Dickson.
Verse
2. Benefits. The word rendered "benefits"—lwmg gemul,
means properly an act, work, doing, whether good or evil, Ps 137:8; and then, desert,
or what a man deserves for his act; recompense. It is rendered deserving
in Jud 9:16; benefit, as here, in 2Ch 32:25; desert, Ps 28:4; reward,
Ps 94:2 Isa 3:11 Ob 1:15; recompense, Pr 12:14 Isa 35:4 59:18 66:6 Jer
51:6 La 3:64 Joe 3:4,7. The proper reference here is to the Divine dealings,
to what God had done, as a reason for blessing his name. His dealings
with the Psalmist had been such as to call for praise and gratitude. What those
dealings particularly were he specifies in the following verses. Albert
Barnes.
Verse
3. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. Thine iniquities are
more than can be numbered; and they are an intolerable burden, so that thy soul
under them "can in no wise lift up herself." He forgiveth them all.
He relieveth thee of all. He taketh the dreadful burden from thy back,
the galling yoke from thy neck, and makes thee free... Thine iniquities are
in-equities. There is nothing just or right in thee. Thy very nature is an
inequity bringing forth nothing but in-equities. Inequities towards thy God,
in-equities towards thy neighbour, and in-equities towards thyself, make up the
whole of thy life. Thou art a bad tree, and a bad tree cannot bring forth good
fruit. John Pulsford, in. "Quiet Hours," 1857.
Verse
3. All thine iniqities. In this lovely and well-known Psalm,
we have great fulness of expression, in reference to the vital subject of
redemption. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. It is not "some"
or "many of thine iniquities." This would never do. If so much
as the very smallest iniquity, in thought, word, or act, were left unforgiven,
we should be just as badly off, just as far from God, just as unfit for heaven,
just as exposed to hell, as though the whole weight of our sins were yet upon
us. Let the reader ponder this deeply. It does not say, "Who forgiveth
thine iniquities previous to conversion." There is no such notion as this
in Scripture. When God forgives, he forgives like himself. The source, the
channel, the power, and the standard of forgiveness are all divine. When God
cancels a man's sins, he does so according to the measure in which Christ bore
those sins. Now, Christ not only bore some or many of the
believer's sins, he bore them "all, "and, therefore, God forgives "all."
God's forgiveness stretches to the length of Christ's atonement; and Christ's
atonement stretches to the length of every one of the believer's sins, past,
present, and future. "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all
sin." 1Jo 1:9. "Things New and Old, "1858.
Verse
3. Who healeth all thy diseases. In one of the prisons of a
certain country, was a man who had committed high treason: for this crime he
was in due time tried, and, being found guilty, was condemned to die. But more
than this; he was afflicted with an inward disease, which generally proves
mortal. Now we may truly say, that this man is doubly dead; that his
life is forfeited twice over: the laws of his country have pronounced him
guilty of death, and therefore his life is forfeited once to the laws of
his country, and, if he had not died in this way, he must die of his
disease; he is, therefore, "twice dead." Now suppose that the
sovereign of that country had made up his mind to wish to save that prisoner's
life, could he save it? He could indeed take off the penalty of the law;
he could give him a free pardon, and so restore the life, as sure as it is
forfeited by the just sentence of the law; but, unless he could also send a
physician, who could cure the man of his disease, he would die by that,
and his pardon would only lengthen out for a few weeks or months a miserable
existence. And if this disease were not only a mortal disease, but an infectious
one, likely to spread itself by the breath of the patient, and a contagious
one, likely to spread by the touch of the patient's body or clothes,
then it would be dangerous to others to come near that man; and unless he were
cured, and thoroughly and entirely cured, the man, though pardoned, would still
be a fit inmate only for the pest-house, and could not be received into the
houses of the healthy. You have seen such a case as this, brethren; you
are at this very moment, perhaps, sitting close by a person in this case yes,
and perhaps you are in this very case yourself! Perhaps, do I say? I should
say, you ARE in this very case, unless you are really and truly a Christian, a
believer in Christ Jesus. W. Weldon Champneys, 1842.
Verse
3. All thy diseases. The body experienceth the melancholy
consequences of Adam's offence, and is subject to many infirmities; but the
soul is subject to as many. What is pride, but lunacy; what is anger, but a
fever; what is avarice, but a dropsy; what is lust, but a leprosy; what is
sloth, but a dead palsy? Perhaps there are spiritual maladies similar to all
corporeal ones. George Horne.
Verse
3. All thy diseases. O my soul, consider the multitude of infirmities,
to which thou art subject; thou hast many suggestions of the flesh; and thou
art apt to yield unto them, and strivest not against them by earnest prayer and
holy meditations; this is an infirmity. In thy prayers to God, thy thoughts are
often wandering, and thou thinkest of other matters, far unworthy of that great
Majesty to whom thou prayest: or if not so, yet thou art quickly weary, thy
spirits are drowsy in it, and thou hadst rather be doing of something else;
this is an infirmity. And indeed thou hast infirmities in all thy senses. In
thy seeing, thou canst see a mote in thy brother's eye, and canst not see a
beam in thine own eye. In thy smelling, thou thinkest suavis odor lucri ex
re qualibet, that the savour of gain is sweet, from whence soever it rise.
In thy hearing, thou art gladder to hear the profane and idle discourses, than
such as be serious and holy; these are thy infirmities: and, O my soul, if I
should cut thee up into as many parts as an anatomist, and examine the
infirmities of every part, should I not have cause, just cause, to cry out with
Saint Paul, O wretch that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of sin? Who
shall heal me of all these infirmities? for whether we call them sins, and then
God forgives them; or call them infirmities, and then he heals them; they are
to us, all one benefit; in God, all one kindness; that as either of them is
well worth remembering; so for both of them, we have just cause to bless him
and to praise his name. Sir Richard Baker.
Verse
3. All thy diseases. Our understandings are so bad
that they understand not their own badness; our wills, which are the
queens of our souls, become the vassals of sin; our memory, like jet,
good only to draw straws and treasure up trifles of no moment; our consciences,
through errors in our own understanding, sometimes accusing us when we are
innocent, sometimes acquitting us when we are guilty; our affections all
disaffected and out of order. Must not that needs be a monstrous face, wherein
the blueness which should be in the veins is in the lips, the redness which
should be in the cheeks, in the nose; the hair that should grow on the head, on
the face? and must not our souls needs seem ugly in the sight of God, who have
grief growing there where joy should, and joy where grief should? We love what
we should hate and hate where we should love; we fear where no fear is, and
fear not where we ought to fear; and all our affections either mistake their
object, or exceed their due measure. Thomas Fuller.
Verse
4. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction. From his earliest
days the Psalmist was the child of Providence. Many were the hairbreadth
escapes and the wonderful deliverances, which he experienced. Dangers of
various kinds presented themselves as his years advanced. The jaw of the lion,
and the paw of the bear, at various times threatened to terminate his
existence, and at others the ruthless hand of man. The same God who delivered
him from the sword of Goliath, rescued his life from the javelin of Saul. The
Almighty Friend who had covered his head in the day of battle, delivered him,
at one moment, from the lords of the Philistines, saved him at another out of
the hands of the men of Keilah; and again preserved to him his life and throne
from the unnatural rebellion of his own son. Well, therefore, might the
Psalmist stir up his soul, and all that was within him, to bless the Lord with
most fervent gratitude, who, by so many signal deliverances, had "redeemed
his life from destruction." John Stevenson.
Verse
4. Who redeemeth. Preservation from destruction, lawgh haggoel,
properly, redemption of life by the kinsman;possibly looking forward, in
the spirit of prophecy, to him who became partaker of our flesh and blood, that
he might have the right to redeem our souls from death by dying in our stead. Adam
Clarke.
Verse
4. From the pit, including death, the grave, Hades. The
Targum renders "from Gehenna." J. J. S. Perowne.
Verse
4. Tender mercies. I do not know that I can do better than
tell you a little incident that took place in my native town of Stirling.
Workmen were blasting the castle rock, near where it abuts upon a walk that
lies open to the street. The train was laid and lit, and an explosion was
momentarily expected. Suddenly trotting round the great wall of the cliff, came
a little child going straight to where the match burned. The men shouted—(it
was mercy)—and by their very terror in shouting, alarmed and bewildered
the poor little thing. By this time the mother also had come round: in a moment
saw the danger; opened wide her arms, and cried from her very heart, "Come
to me, my darling, "—(that was tender mercy)—and instantly,
with eager pattering feet, and little arms opened to her arms, and tear-filled
eyes answering to her eyes—the little thing ran back and away, and stopped not
until she was clasped in her mother's bosom—wealth of sunny hair loosened on
it, and lips coral red pressed to mother's pallid lip of fear—as the motherly
heart gave way to tears, in the thought of so imperilled an escape: for it was
barely by a second, as the roar of the shattered rock told. Alexander B.
Grosart, in "The Pastor and Helper of Joy, "1865.
Verse
5. Who satisfieth thy mouth. The word rendered "mouth,
" is Kyre, which is rendered ornaments in our version in all
other passages—eleven in number—where it occurs, except here and in Ps 32:9,
where it is rendered "mouth; "and even there it ought properly
be translated ornament, and here the sense seems to be thy ornament,
tbat which is thy glory, thy spirit, Ps 16:9 62:8. It is true that the soul
yvpg is here addressed (Ps 103:1); but the spirit may be called the ornament
or glory of the soul. Christopher Wordsworth.
Verse
5. Satisfieth thy mouth. Kimchi understands the phrase as
expressing David's recovery from sickness. In sickness the soul abhorreth
bread, and even dainty meat, Job 33:20. The physician, too, limits the diet of
the patient, and prescribes things which are nauseous to the palate. The
commentator, therefore, supposes that David here describes the blessing of health,
by his mouth being filled with good things. Editorial Note to Calvin
in loc.
Verse
5. Satisfieth. God can so satisfy the soul, that each chink
and cranny therein shall be filled with spiritual joy. Thomas Fuller.
Verse
5. With good things. Mark, what does the Lord satisfy with? "good
things." Not rich things, not many things, not everything
I ask for, but "good things." All my need fully
supplied, and everything "good." Goodness is God expressed.
All his blessings partake of his own nature. They are holy blessings, holy
mercies. Everything that satisfies must have the nature of God in it.
Nothing else will ever "satisfy." The heart was made for God, and
only God can meet it. Frederick Whitfield, 1874.
Verse
5. Thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. It is an ancient
fable that the eagle is able to renew his youth when very old, and poetical
allusion is made to it in this Psalm; but this idea is doubtless founded in
reality on the great longevity of the bird, and its power, in common with other
birds, of moulting its plumage periodically, and so increasing its strength and
activity. Hugh Mac Millan. {1}
{1}
We might have filled much of our space with the fables from the rabbis and the
fathers in reference to eagles; but they are too absurd, and ought never to be
repeated. We hope, therefore, that the reader will excuse if not commend the
omission.
Verse
5. Thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.—The Scripture knows
nothing of the idea that the eagle when old renews its youth. That there is
nothing of this kind contained in Isa 40:31, which is commonly appealed to, but
that it is rather the powerful flight of the eagle that is there referred to,
"they mount up on wings like the eagle, they run and are not weary,
"is evident from the parallel, fly, run, march. E.W. Hengstenberg.
Verse
5. Thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. Thy activity will renew
itself like the eagle. That is to say, From day to day he will receive and
increase his strength and rigour, so that he may thrive and flourish like the
eagle. The comparison with the eagle is not drawn in point of renovation,
but in point of vigour and activity continually renewing itself; as Isa
40:31, says, "They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings as eagles." Venema.
Verse
5. Thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. This renovation of
his youth may be understood three ways. First, as to his natural state, or
bodily strength. Secondly, as to his civil state, or worldly successes, as to
his honour and kingly-renown. Thirdly, as to his spiritual state, or the
heightening of his gifts, graces, and comforts. It is probable David had found
a declension in all these, and at last, through the goodness of God and his
blessing upon him, the renewing of them all from that oldness to a youthfulness
again, like that of eagles. Joseph Garyl.
Verse
5. Thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. However bold it may
sound, we say not too much when we speak of an eternal youth, as the
glorious privilege of the devout servant of the Lord, but of him alone. All
that with reason charms and captivates in the appearance of youth, is seen in
heightened measure where the spiritual life develops itself undisturbed in
fellowship with God. Does the innocence of youth attract you? In the
natural life it is but too frequently a misleading appearance; but in the life
of the soul it returns to a certain extent when the heart is purified through
the power of the Holy Ghost, and the life is renewed in conformity with that of
Christ the Lord. Does the enjoyment of youth surpass in your estimation
that of any other here below? Be it so; yet all too speedily it is driven away
by the cares of later years, whilst enjoyment free from care even in the dark
days may dwell in the heart whereon has descended the peace of God through
faith. The strength of youth, seems it to you desirable? Ah! day by day
stamps truth upon the words: "Youth shall faint and be weary; "but
even when the natural strength has already long attained its zenith, the
Christian often feels himself elevated through a power from on high, which
lifts him above physical weakness; and what no strength of sinew or muscle
could accomplish is attained through the power of implicit faith. Yea, even the
beautiful developement which the period of youth shows you, ye would not
seek in vain in that man who, leaning on God's hand, forgetting the things that
are behind, stretches forward from light to light, from strength to strength,
from bliss to bliss. How, finally, can hope, that makes the youthful
heart beat high with throbs of joy, be lacking to him? The fairest part of life
the sensual man sees soon behind him, the spiritual man always in prospect; and
like the eagle, this last can often from the low atmosphere round him soar to
the pure, clear ether, whence already from afar the image, nay, the ineffable
reality, shows him a more than earthly joy.
Eternal
youth: it may, yet much more than for David, now be the portion of every
Christian, but for these alone. Without faith and hope in the heart, even the
bravest determination to remain young always, or at least as long as possible,
must give away before the first great storm of life. Yet even when faith and
hope are not strangers to us, whence is it that in our spiritual life there is
frequently so little of the "eagle" spoken of here, and so
much of the "sparrow alone upon the housetop, "referred to in Ps
102:7 Can it be that we allow ourselves too little to be satisfied with the
good things of which David had spoken immediately before; that is to say, that
we live so little on the best things which God has to bestow,—his word, his
Spirit, his grace? Only through these do we attain that lasting second birth,
of which the eagle is the emblem, and an unfading youth of heart the
inestimable fruit. Ye who are young in years, seek this undying youth above all
the joys of early life! Recover it, ye middle-aged, in living fellowship with
him who maketh all things new within! Preserve it, old friends of God and of
his Christ, as your fairest crown here on earth, and the earnest of your bliss
in heaven. And thou, Christian, who sittest down disconsolate, bethink thyself;
the eagle lets his wings hang down, only thereafter to soar with stronger
flight! J.J. Van Oosterzee, in "The Year of Salvation," 1874.
Verse
6. The LORD executeth rghteousness, &c. Rising from
personal blessings to general, the comprehensive fact, evermore to the glory of
God, is his sympathy with the suffering and oppressed, and his ready and
effective interposition in their ease. Who will not praise him that he careth
so kindly and so gloriously for those who suffer cruel wrongs from wicked
oppressors? Henry Cowles.
Verse
7. He made known his ways unto Moses. When Moses went up to
Mount Sinai and tarried there with God the space of forty days, we may well
think that God in that time, revealed many secrets to him; and particularly "made
known his ways; "(Ex 33:19); not only his ways in which he would have
us to walk, but his ways in which he walks himself, and the course he holds in
the government of worldly affairs; why he suffers the wicked to prosper, and
why the godly to be oppressed. These "ways" of his he made
known to Moses; to the children of Israel, only "his acts." He showed
them his wonderful favours to themselves in the wilderness, and that was his
righteousness; but he showed them not his ways, and the course he held in them:
they saw only the events of things, they saw not the reasons of them, as Moses
did. Sir Richard Baker.
Verse
8. Merciful and gracious, slow to stager and plenteous in mercy.
O my soul, bere are four properties spoken of to be in God, and are all so
necessary, that we could not miss one of them. If he were not "merciful"
we could hope for no pardon; and if he were no more but merciful we could hope
for no more but pardon; but when besides his being merciful he is also "gracious,
"this gives us a further hope, a hope of a donative; and then it will
not be what we are worthy to receive, but what it is fit for him to give. If he
were not "slow to anger" we could expect no patience; but when
besides his slowness to anger he is also "full of compassion;
"this makes us expect he will be the good Samaritan, and not only bind up
our wounds, but take care also for our further curing. What though he chide and
be angry for a time; it is but our being patient a while with him, as he a long
time hath been patient with us. Sir R. Baker.
Verse
8. Slow to anger. In Scripture we find that slowness to
anger, and hastiness to be angry, are expressed by the different frame of the
nostrils; as, namely, when the Lord is said to be "slow to anger,
" the Hebrew is, long of nostrils. Joseph Caryl.
Verse
8. Plenteous in mercy. dmxykw, "great mighty in mercy,
" placing his chief glory in this attribute, and hereby teaching us how to
estimate true greatness. George Horne.
Verse
8. Plenteous in mercy. It is a thing marvellously
satisfactory and pleasing to the heart of a man to be still taking from a great
heap; and upon this ground are those proverbial sayings, There is no fishing
like to fishing in the sea, no service like the service of a king: because in
one there is the greatest plenty and abundance of that kind of pleasure that
fishers look after; and for them that serve, and must live by their service,
there is none like that of princes, because they have abundance of reward and
of opportunity whereby to recompense the services of those that do wait and
attend upon them... And upon the same ground it is that the Scriptures, in
several places do not only assert and testify that God is "merciful"
and "gracious, "but abundant in mercy and full of grace; and
not simply that there is redemption in him, but plenteousness of redemption, Ps
86:5 130:7; Isa 55:7, "Let the wicked forsake his way, "etc.;
"Let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him; and to our
God, for he will abundantly pardon." The commodity which we stand in need
of is mercy and the pardon of our sins, because we have been unholy and ungodly
creatures; this commodity is abundantly in God. There it is treasured up as waters
are in the store-house of the sea; there is no end of the treasures of his
grace, mercy, pardon, and compassion. There is no man, being in want, but had
rather go to a rich man's door to be relieved, than to the door of a poor man,
if he kuoweth the rich man to be as liberal and as bountifully disposed as the
poor man can be. John Goodwin, on, "Being filled with the Spirit."
Verse
9. He will not always chide. Certainly it is as unpleasing to
God to chide, as it is to us to be chidden; and so little he likes of anger,
that he rids his hands of it as fast as th can: he is not so slow in coming to
it, but he is as quick in getting from it; for chiding is a bar to mercy, and
anger an impediment to compassion; nothing is so distasteful to God as that any
block should lie in the way of his mcrcy, or that the liberty of his compassion
should have any cause of restraint: and then we may be sure he will not himself
lay a block in the way with chiding, nor be a cause to restrain his compassion
by keeping his anger. Sir R. Baker.
Verse
9. (Second Clause). To keep anger for ever,
corresponds with the French phrase, Je lui garde, Il me la garde,
(*"I am watching him, as he has watched to do a bad turn to me")
which we use when the man, who cannot forgive the injuries he has received,
cherishes secret revenge in his heart, and waits for an opportunity of
retaliation. Now David denies that God, after the manner of men, keeps anger on
account of injuries done to him, since he condescends to be reconciled. Calvin.
Verse
10. He hath not dealt with us after our sins. Might we not
have expected, with such conduct, that God would have withdrawn from us the
blessing of his providence, withheld from us the communication of his Spirit,
permitted us to find the means of grace profitless, left our temptations to
multiply, and suffered us to sink into a state of fixed backsliding?—and then,
with our hearts at last sinking into too natural depression, might we not have
seemed to hear him saying to us this day, "Thine own wickedness shall
correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee; know, therefore, and see
that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God,
and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of Hosts." Baptist
W. Noel, 1798-1873.
Verse
10. He hath not dealt with us after our sins. Why is it that
God hath not dealt with us after our sins? Is it not because he hath dealt with
another after our sins? Another who look our sins upon him; of whom it is said,
that "God chastened him in his fierce wrath"? and why did he chasten
him, but for our sins? O gracious God, thou art too just to take revenge twice
for the same faults; and therefore, having turned thy fierce wrath upon him,
thou wilt not turn it upon us too; but having rewarded him according to our
iniquities, thou wilt now reward us according to his merits. Sir R. Baker.
Verse
10. Work out the terrible supposition, show the reasons why it has
not yet been actually so; then suggest that it may yet become a terrible fact,
and exhort the guilty to seek mercy.
Verse
11. Our mind cannot find a comparison too large for expressing the
superabundant mercy of the Lord toward his people. David Dickson.
Verse
12. As far as the east is from the west. The expression taken
from the distance of the east from west is pitched upon, saith Kimchi,
because those two quarters of the world are of greatest extent, being all known
and inhabited. From whence it is that geographies reckon that way their
longitudes, as from north to south their latitudes. Henry Hammond.
Verse
12. When sin is pardoned, it is never charged again; the guilt of it
can no more return than east can become west, or west become east. Stephen
Charnock.
Verse
13. Like as a father pitieth his children, etc. A chaplain to
seamen, at an American port, visited a sailor who appeared to be near death. He
spoke kindly to the man upon the state of his soul, and directed him to cast
himself on Jesus. With an oath, the sick man bade him begone. The chaplain then
told him that he must be faithful to him, for if he died impenitent he would be
lost for ever. The man was sullen and silent, and pretentted to fall asleep.
The visit was repeated more than once, with similar ill success. At length the
chaplain, suspecting that the sailor was a Scotchman, repeated a verse of the
old version of the Psalms:
"Such
pity as a father hath
Unto his children dear.
Like pity shows the Lord to such
As worship him in fear."
Tears
started into the sailor's eyes as he listened to these words. The chaplain
asked him if he had not had a pious mother. The man broke into tears. Yes, his
mother had, in years gone by, taught him these words, and had also prayed to
God for him. Since then he had been a wanderer by sea and land; but the memory
of her faith and love moved his heart. The appeals made to him were blessed by
the Spirit of God. His life was spared, and proved the reality of his
conversion.
Verse
13. Like as a father. It is to be observed in this verse, what
kind of mercy the prophet attributes to God. He says not, As man pities man, as
the rich the poor man, as the strong the feeble, as the freeman the captive,
but he makes mention of that pity which a father shows to his son, which is the
greatest of all. The word Mxr itself supports this view, as it properly signifies
viscarum commotis. An example of this we have in 1Ki 3:23-27 in the case
of the woman who could not bear the slaughter of her child... And afterwards in
the case of the father of the prodigal. Lu 15:11-32. Musculus.
Verse
13. As a father pitieth his children. The father pitieth his
children that are weak in knowledge, and instructs them; pities them when they
are froward, and bears with them; pities them when they are sick, and comforts
them; when they are fallen, and helps them up again; when they have offended,
and upon their submission, forgives them; when they are wronged, and rights
them. Thus "the Lord pitieth them that fear him." Matthew Henry.
Verse
13. So the Lord pitieth, &c. So and ten thousand times
more than so. For he is the "Father of all mercies, "and the Father
of all the fatherhoods in heaven and earth. Eph 3:15. John Trapp.
Verse
13. The Load pitieth. Though it be commonly said, "It is
better to be envied, than pitied; "yet here it is not so: but it is a far
happier thing to be pitied of God, than to be envied of men. Sir R. Baker.
Verse
13. Them that fear him. The fear of God is that deference to
God which leads you to subordinate your will to his; makes you intent on
pleasing him; penitent in view of past wilfulness; happy in his present smile;
transported by his love; hopeful of his glory. George Bowen.
Verse
13. Them that fear him. It may be understood of those who have
not yet "received the spirit of adoption, "but are yet
"trembling at his word, "those he "pities." Matthew Henry.
Verses
13-14. The good father doth not turn off the child for being weak and
sickly; but is so much the more indulgent as his necessity requires succour. If
his stomach refuse meat, or cannot answer it with digestion, will he put him
out of doors? No; when the Shunamite's son complains of his head, she lays him
in her bosom. A mother is good to all the fruit of her womb, most kind to the
sick infant: when it lies with its eyes fixed on her, not able to declare its
grief, or to call for what it desires, this doubles her compassion: "So
the Lord doth pity us, remembering our frame, considering that we are but
dust"; that our soul works by a lame instrument; and therefore he requires
not that of an elemental composition, which he doth of angelical spirits. The
son is commanded to write out such a copy fairly; he doth his best, far short
of the original; yet the father doth not chide, but encourage him. Or he gives
him a bow and arrows, bids him shoot to such a mark; he draws his utmost
strength, lets go cheerfully: the arrow drops far short, yet the son is
praised, the father pleased. Temptation assaults us, lust buffets us, secular
business diverts us, manifold is our weakness, but not beyond our Father's
forgiveness: "He will spare us, as a man spareth his own son that serveth
him," Mal 3:17. Thomas Adams.
Verse
14. He knoweth our frame. "Our formation; "the manner
in which we are constructed, and the materials of which we are made. Adam
Clarke.
Verse
14. He knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. Not
like some unskilled empiric, who hath but one receipt for all, strong or weak,
young or old; but as a wise physician considers his patient, and then writes
his bill. Men and devils are but God's apothecaries, they make not our physic,
but give what God prescribes. Balaam loved Balak's fee well enough, but could
not go a hair's breadth beyond God's commission. William Gumall.
Verse
14. He remembereth that we are dust. As if the very matter out
of which man was first made, though without sin, were a disadvantage to him, in
the resisting of sin. It was a disadvantage before man had any sin in him, how
much more is it now when most men have nothing at all in them but sin, and the
best have very much. "That which is born of the flesh, "saith
Christ, "is flesh." Corrupt nature can produce none but
corrupt acts. Joseph Caryl.
Verse
14. We are dust.
O
how in this Thy quire of souls I stand,
—Propt by Thy hand—
A heap of sand!
Which busie thoughts—like winds—would scatter quite,
And put to flight,
But for Thy might;
Thy hand alone doth tame
Those blasts, and knit my frame. Henry Vaughan.
Verses
14, 16. We are dust. I never see one of those spiral pillars of dust
which, like a mimic simoon, rush along the road upon a windy day, with- ont
thinking, "There is an image of life." Dust and a breath! Observe how
the apparent "pillar" is but a condition, an active condition, of the
particles of dust, and those particles continually changing. The form depends
upon the incessant movement. The heavy sand floats on the impalpable air while
it partakes its motion; let that cease and it fails, So the dull clods of the
field, smitten by force, take wings and soar in life, partake for a time its
rapid course, and then, the force exhausted, fall back into their former state.
A whirl, a flux, maintained by forces without, and ceasing when they are
withdrawn; that is our life. James Hinton, in "Thoughts on, Health and
some of its Conditions," 1871.
Verse
15. As for man. The insignificance of man is especially
brought out by the use of ENOSH here. Robert Baker Girdlestone.
Verse
15. Man comes forth, says Job, like a flower, and is cut down;
he is sent into the world the fairest and noblest part of God's works,
fashioned after the image of his Creator, with respect to reason and the great
faculties of the mind; he cometh forth glorious as the flower of the field; as
it surpasses the vegetable world in beauty, so does he the animal world in the
glory and excellence of his nature. The one, if no untimely accident oppress
it, soon arrives at the full period of its perfection,—is suffered to triumph
for a few moments, and is plucked up by the roots in the very pride and gayest
stage of its being;—or if it happens to escape the hands of violence, in a few
days it necessarily sickens of itself and dies away. Man likewise, though his
progress is slower, and his duration somewhat longer, yet the periods of his
growth and declension are nearly the same, both in the nature and manner of
them. If he escapes the dangers which threaten his tenderer years, he is soon
got into the full maturity and strength of life; and if he is so fortunate as
not to be hurried out of it then by accidents, by his own folly and
intemperance—if he escapes these, he naturally decays of himself,—a period
comes fast upon him, beyond which he was not made to last. Like flowers or
fruits which may be plucked up by force before the time of their maturity, yet
cannot be made to outgrow the period when they are to fade and drop of
themselves; when that comes, the hand of nature then plucks them both off, and
no art of the botanist can uphold the one, or skill of the physician preserve
the other, beyond the periods to which their original frames and constitutions
were made to extend. As God has appointed and determined the several growths
and decays of the vegetable race, so he seems as evidently to have prescribed
the same laws to man, as well as all living creatures, in the first rudiments
of which there are contained the specific powers of their growth, duration and
extinction; and when the evolutions of those animal powers are exhausted and
run down, the creature expires and dies of itself, as ripe fruit falls from the
tree, or a flower preserved beyond its bloom, drops and perishes upon the
stalk. Lawrence Sterne, 1713-1768.
Verse
15. The Psalmist saith of man, as a flower of the field, so he
flourisheth. It is not a flower of the garden, but of the "field."
This latter is more subject to decay than the former, because it lies more open
to the nipping air and violent winds, and to the browsing mouth of the beast,
and is more liable to be trampled upon: by all these ways it decayeth as well
as by the scorching sun, and its own fading temper. John Edwards, in
"Theologia Reformata."
Verse
15. As flower of the field.
What
is life! like a flower, with the bane in its bosom,
Today full of promise—tomorrow it dies!—
And health—like the dew-drop that hangs in its blossom,
Survives but a night, and exhales to the skies!
How oft beneath the bud that is brightest and fairest,
The seeds of the canker in embryo lurk!
How oft at the root of the flower that is rarest—
Secure in its ambush the worm is at work?
—James Beattie, 1735-1803.
Verse
16. The wind passeth over it, and it is gone, etc. A breath of
air, a gentle wind (xwr) passes over him and he is gone. It would not be so
strange if a tempest, a whirlwind, passing over should sweep him away. The
Psalmist means much more than this. The gentlest touch, the whispering breeze,
bears him off. He soon becomes a stranger, no more known in the little space he
once filled, going out and coming in. Henry Cowles.
Verse
16. The wind passeth over it, and it is gone. It is well known
that a hot wind in the east destroys at once every green thing. Nor is this to
be wondered at, if, as Dr. Russell says, the winds sometimes "bring with
them a degree and kind of heat, which one would imagine came out of an oven,
and which, when it blows hard, will affect metals within the houses, such as
locks of room doors, nearly as much as if they had been exposed to the rays of
the sun." The blasting effect which seems to be here alluded to, of
certain pestilential winds upon the animal frame, is by no means exaggerated by
the comparison to the sudden fading of a flower. Maillet describes hundreds of
persons in a caravan as stifled on the spot by the fire and dust, of which the
deadly wind, that sometimes prevails in the eastern deserts, seems to be
composed. And Sir John Chardin describes this wind "as making a great
hissing noise, "and says that "it appears red and fiery, and kills
those whom it strikes by a kind of stifling them, especially when it happens in
the day time." Richard Mant.
Verse
16. The place thereof shall know him no more, &c. Man,
once turned to dust, is blown about by every wind, from place to place; and
what knows the place, when dust falls upon it; whether it be the dust of a
prince, or of a peasant; whether of a man, or of a beast? And must not man then
needs be very miserable, when time and place, the two best helps of life, do
both forsake him? for what help can he have of time, when his days are but as
grass? What help of place, when his place denies him, and will not know him? Sir
R. Baker.
Verse
17. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting.
No human benevolence is perpetually the same; but by expelfence we see that
those who are kind today, may be changed into tyrants tomorrow. Examples of
this we have in the life of Nero, and many other rulers. Therefore lest we
should suspect the goodness of God to bear any similar character, it is said
with inconceivable consolation, that it shall never cease, but is prepared for
ever for all those who fear and serve God. Musculus.
Verse
17. From everlasting to everlasting. From everlasting, by
predestination; to everlasting, by glorification: the one without beginning,
the other without end. Bernard.
Verse
18. To do them. Commands are to be remembered in order to
practice; a vain speculation is not the intent of the publication of them. Stephen
Charnock.
Verse
19. The Lord hath prepared his Throne. The word signifies establisthed
as well as prepared, and might be so rendered. Due preparation is the natural
way to the establishment of a thing; hasty resolves break and moulder. This
notes,
1.
The peculiarity of his authority. He prepares it, and none else for him. It is
a dominion that originally resides in his nature, not derived from any by birth
or commission; he alone prepared it. He is the sole cause of his own kingdom;
his authority therefore is unbounded, as infinite as his nature. None can set
laws to him, because none but himself prepared his throne for him. As he will
not impair his own happiness, so he will not abridge himself of his own
authority.
2.
Readiness to exercise it upon due occasions. He hath prepared his throne, he is
not at a loss, he needs not stay for a commission or instructions from any how
to act. He hath all things ready for the assistance of his people, he hath
rewards and punishments; his treasures trod axes, the great mark of authority
lying by him, the one for the good, the other for the wicked. His mercy he
keeps by him for thousands, Ex 34:7; his arrows he hath prepared by him for
rebels, Ps 7:13.
3.
Wise management of it. It is prepared: preparations imply prudence; the
government of God is not a rash and heady authority. A prince upon his throne,
a judge upon the bench, manages things with the greatest discretion, or should
be supposed so to do.
4.
Successfulness and duration of it. He hath prepared or established it. It is
fixed, not tottering; it is an unmovable dominion; all the strugglings of men
and devils cannot overturn it, nor so much as shake it. It is established above
the reach of obstinate rebels; he cannot be deposed from it, he cannot be mated
in it. His dominion, as himself abides for ever. And as his counsel, so his
authority, shall stand; and "he will do all his pleasure, " Isa
46:10. Stephen Charnock.
Verse
19. His throne in the heavens, denotes:
1.
The glory of his dominion. The heavens are the most stately and comely pieces
of the creation; his majesty is there most visible, his glory most splendid, Ps
19:1. In heaven his dominion is more acknowledged by the angels: his dominion
is not disputed there by the angels that attend him, as it is on earth by the
rebels that arm themselves against him.
2.
The supremacy of his empire. The heavens are the loftiest part of the creation,
and the only fit palace for him.
3.
Peculiarity of this dominion. He rules in the heavens alone. His authority is
not delegated to any creature, he rules the blessed spirits by himself; but he
rules men that are on his footstool by others of the same kind, men of their
own nature.
4.
The vastness of his empire. The earth is but a spot to the heavens. What is
England in a map to the whole earth, but a spot you may cover with your finger;
much less must the whole earth be to the extended heavens. You cannot conceive
the many millions of little particles that are in the earth; and if all put
together be but one point: to that place where the throne of God is seated, how
vast must his empire be! He rules there ovcr the angels, which excel in
strength, those hosts of his which do his pleasure, in comparison of whom all
the men in the world, and the power of the greatest potentates, is no more than
the strength of an ant or fly. And since his throne is in the heavens, it will
follow that all things under the heaven are part of his dominion; the inferior
things of earth cannot but be subject to him; and it necessarily includes his
influence on all things below, because the heavens arc the cause of all the
motion in the world. See Ho 2:21-22.
5.
The easiness of managing this government. His throne being placed on high, he
cannot but behold all things that are done below; the height of a place gives
advantage to a clear eye to behold things below it. "The LORD looked
down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did
understand, "Ps 14:2. He looks not down from heaven as if his presence
were confined there, but he looks down majestically, and by way of authority.
6.
Duration of it. The heavens are incorruptible, his throne is placed there in an
incorruptible state. The throne of God outlives the dissolution of the world. Condensed
from Charnock.
Verse
19. His kingdom ruleth over all. His Lordship is universal.
First,
over all time:other lords die, but he is eternal. Eternity is properly
the duration of an uncreated Ens. It is improperly taken, either for things
that have both beginning and end, as everlasting mountains; divers such phrases
in Scripture; or for things that have a beginning but shall have no end; so are
angels and men's souls eternal; so, eternal life, eternal fire. But God calls
himself, "I AM, "Ex 3:14: I am what I have been, I have been what I
am, what I am and have been I shall be. This attribute is incommunicable: all
other things had a non esse preceding their esse;and they have a
mutation tending to nothing. "They that war against thee shall be as
nothing, "Isa 41:12: all come to nothing unless they be upheld by the
manutency of God: but "Thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end,
"Ps 102:27. Thou turnest man to destruction, and again sayest, Return:
"even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God, "Ps 90:2; the
sole umpire and measurer of beginning and ending.
Secondly,
over all places, heaven, earth, hell, Ps 135:6. Kings are limited, and
cannot do many things they desire: they cannot command the sun to stand still,
nor the wind to blow which way they would: in the lofty air, in the depths of
the sea no king reigns. They fondly flatter the pope with his long arms that
they reach to purgatory; (but indeed both power and place are alike
imaginary;)it is Christ alone that hath the keys of all places.
Thirdly,
over all creatures;binding the influences of Pleiades, and loosing the
bands of Orion, Job 38:31; commanding the fire against the nature of it, to
descend, 2Ki 1:12; creating and ruling the stars, Am 5:8; overruling the lions,
Da 6:22, sending the meteors, Ps 148:8, hedging in the sea, lapping it up like
a child in swaddling-clothes, Job 38:8, dividing, diverting, filling it. In
both fire and water, those two raging elements that have no mercy, he shows
mercy; delivers us from both in both. He calls the fowls, and they come; the
beasts, and they hear: the trees, and they spring to obey him. He hath a raven
for Elijah, a gourd for Jonah, a dog for Lazarus. Makes the leviathan, the
hugest living creature, preserve his prophet. That a terrible lion should be
killed, as was by Samson; or not kill, as they forbore Daniel; or kill and not
eat, as that prophet, 1Ki 13:1-29: here was the Lord. Over metals; he makes
iron to swim, stones to cleave asunder. Over the devils; they must obey him
though unwillingly. But they continually rebel against him, and break his will?
They do indeed against his complacency, not against his permission. There is
then no time, not the hour of death; no place, not the sorest torment; no
creature, not the devil; but the Lord can deliver us from them. Therefore at
all times, in all places, and against all creatures, let us trust in him for
deliverance. Thomas Adams.
Verse
19. His kingdom ruleth over all. When Melancthon was extremely
solicitous about the affairs of the church in his days, Luther would have him
admonished in these terms, Monendus est Philippus ut desinat esse rector
mundi:Let not Philip make himself any longer governor of the world. David
Clarkson.
Verse
20. Bless the Lord, ye his angels, etc. The weight of offering
praise unto God is too heavy for men to lift; and as for angels, it will take
up all their strength and their best abilities to go about it. David
Dickson.
Verse
20. Angels, that excel it, strength, that do his commandments.
The chief excellence of the angels, the main cause of their strength and power,
and of their immense superiority to mankind, is that which is set forth in the
following words of the text. After the Psalmist has described the angels as
excelling in strength, he adds that they do God's commandments, hearkening
to the voice of his word. For this is the only living source of lasting
strength and power. They who do the will of God faithfully and obediently, have
God for them; and then what can be against them? Then work itself strengthens
them, and is like a tide bearing them onward; because it is his work.
They on the other hand who run counter to the will of God, have God against
them; and then what can be for them? Can a man push back the sea? can he lay
hold on the sun, and drag him out of his course? Then may he hope to be strong,
when he is fighting against the will of God. . . . Hence we see the falsehood
of that maxim, so common on the lips of those who plume themselves upon their
mastery in the wisdom of this world—that Might is Right,—a maxim which exactly
inverts the truth, and whereby the Prince of darkness is ever setting himself
up against the Lord of heaven. The true principle, which is inverted and
perverted in this falsehood,—the principle which ought to be written up in the
councilchambers of princes and on the walls of senate-houses,—the principle
which explains the secret of the strength of the angels, and indeed of all true
strength, that is in accordance with the will of God,—may be stated in the
selfsame words, if we only invert their order, Right is Might. Julius
Charles Hare, 1849.
Verse
20. His angels that do his commandments, etc. They hearken to
the voice of his word, they look upon God as the great General, and if he give
out the word, they give out their strength, and go about the work willingly.
They are very attentive to his commands; if he says, Go smite Herod for his
pride, Balaam for his covetousness, David for his vainglory, Sennacherib for
his blasphemy, and Sodom for its uncleanness, presently they go. William
Greenhill.
Verse
20. Commandments. Davar (rkd), to speak, is rendered, "command"
twenty times... direct personal communion between the Lord and his messengers
seems to be implied. R. B. Girdlestone.
Verse
20. Hearkenling into the voice of his word. Not only, mightily
executing the word when heard; but, ever intently listening, ready to catch
the intimation of his will. William Kay.
Verse
20. Hearkening unto the voice of his word. Angels are vigilant
creatures, and wait for opportunities, and when they come they will not lose
them. They neither slumber nor sleep, but hearken constantly what the Lord will
say, what opportunity there will be for action; so, in Eze 1:11, they are
described with their wings stretched upward, manifesting their watchfulness and
readiness for service. When Christ was born, a multitude of them appeared and
celebrated his nativity, Lu 2:13: when Christ was taken by Judas and his train,
Peter drew his sword in his Master's defence; but what saith Christ? "Put
up thy sword, it is not a time now to fight, but to suffer: thinkest thou that
I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve
legions of angels? It is not a time now to pray for help, I must die, and the
Scripture must be fulfilled; but if I would, my Father would bid the angels to
aid me, and they presently would come, whole legions of them, yea, all the
angels in heaven." Let us learn of angels to watch for opportunities, and
take them. There are nicks of time wherein to do the work of Christ. William
Greenhill.
Verse
21. Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts... that do his pleasure.
The sun, moon, stars, and planets do "his pleasure" (Ps 19:1)
unconsciously; the "angels" consciously and with instinctive love,
"hearken unto the voice of his word" (Ps 103:20). Both together
constitute the Lord's hosts. A. R. Fausset.
Verse
22. Bless the LORD, O my soul. That is to say, "Let thy
vocation be that of the seraphim, O my soul, and enter on the life of
heaven!" Why should I praise him? Can my praise be of any advantage to
him? No; nor that of all the heavenly hosts. It is infinite condescension in
him to bearken unto the praises of his most exalted creatures. Let me bless the
Lord, because no function will be more rich in blessings to my soul than this.
The admiring contemplation of his excellence is in reality the appropriation
thereof: the heart cannot delight in God, without becoming like God. Let me do
it, because it is the peculiar privilege of man on this earth to bless the
Lord. When he would find any to join him in this, he has to ascend the skies.
Let me do it, because the earth is fully furnished with the materials of
praise. The sands, the seas, the flowers, the insects; animals, birds, fields,
mountains, rivers, trees, clouds, sun, moon, stars,—all wait for me to
translate their attribues and distinctions into praise. But, above all, the new
creation. Let me do it, because of him, through him, and to him, are all the
things that pertain to my existence, health, comfort, knowledge, dignity,
safety, progress, power, and usefulness. A thousand of his ministers in earth,
sea, and sky, are concerned in the production and preparation of every mouthful
that I eat. The breath that I am commanded and enabled to modulate in praise,
neither comes nor goes without a most surprising exhibition of the
condescension, kindness, wisdom, power, and presence of him whom I am to
praise. Is it not dastardly to be receiving benefits, without even mentioning
the name, or describing the goodness of the giver? Let candidates for heaven
bless the Lord. There is no place there for such as have not learned this art.
How shall I praise him? Not with fine words. No poetic talent is here
necessary: Any language that expresses heart-felt admiration will be accepted.
Praise him so far as you know him; and he will make known to you more of his
glory. George Bowen, 1873.
Verse
22. The last specification is completely comprehensive; all his
works in all places of his wide dominions—all that he has made, whether
intelligent or not intelligent; "in all places"—above,
beneath, around: in heaven, earth, or hell: let them all fall into this
universal chorus of praise and blessing, extolling Jehovah, the One supremely
great, supremely good! Nor will he exempt himself; for his personal
responsibilities as to his own heart, are his highest. Therefore he closes as
he began, "Bless the LORD, O my soul." Henry Cowles.
Verse
22. Bless the LORD, O my soul. Inasmuch as the poet thus comes
back to his own soul, his Psalm also turns back into itself and assumes the
form of a converging circle. Franz Delitzsch.
Verse
22. Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion:
bless the LORD, O my soul. We are very much struck by this sudden
transition from "all God's works, in all places of his dominion, "to
himself, a solitary individual. Of course he had already included himself;
himself had been summoned when he summoned all God's works in all places of his
dominion; but it seems as if a sudden fear had seized the Psalmist, the fear of
by any possibility omitting himself; or, if not a fear, yet a consciousness
that his very activity in summoning others to praise, might make him forgetful
that he was bound to praise God himself, or sluggish in the duty, or ready to
take for granted that he could not himself be neglecting what he was so
strenuous in pressing on all orders of being. We have a great subject of
discourse here. Solomon has said, "They made me keeper of the vineyards,
but mine own vineyard have I not kept." Alas! how possible, how easy, to
take pains for others, and to be neglectful of one's self: nay, to make the
pains we take for others the reason by which we persuade ourselves that we
cannot be neglecting ourselves. How important, then, that, if with the Psalmist
we call on all God's works in all places of his dominions to bless the Lord;
how important, I say, that we add, like persons bent on self-examination, and
fearful of self-deceit, "Bless the LORD, O my soul." Henry
Melvill.
Verses
1-2, 22. Bless the Lord, O my soul... Bless the Lord, O my soul,
with the Bless the Lord all his works in all places of his dominion: bless
the Lord, O my soul, Ps 103:22; these two form the thrice-repeated blessing
from the Lord to the soul in the Mosaic formula, Nu 6:24-26. A. R. Fausset.
HINTS TO THE
VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse
1. "The Saints blessing the Lord." See "Spurgeon's
Sermons, " No. 1,078.
Verse
1.
1.
We should bless the Most High himself. It is possible to fail to bless him,
while we praise his gifts, his word, his works, his ways.
2.
We should bless him individually: "My soul." Not merely the
family through the father, nor the people through the pastor; nor the
congregation through the choir; but personally.
3.
We should bless him spiritually: "soul." Not only with organ, voice,
offering, works, &c.
4.
We should bless him unreservedly: "All that is within me."
5.
We should bless him resolutely. David preached self-communion,
self-encouragement, and self-command. W. Jackson.
Verse
1. Here is,
1.
Self-converse: "Oh my soul." Many talk freely enough to others, but
never talk to themselves. They are strangers to themselves—not on speaking
terms with themselves—take no interest in their own souls—are dull and
melancholy when alone.
2.
Self-exhortation: "Bless the Lord, O my soul." Thy Creator, thy
Benefactor, thy Redeemer.
3.
Self-encouragement: "All that is within me"—every faculty of my
mental, moral and spiritual being: with ten strings—every chord in motion. No
need for one faculty of the soul to say to another, "know the Lord, for
all shall know him from the least even unto the greatest." G. R.
Verse
1 (First clause, and Ps 103:22, last clause).
Personal worship the Alpha and Omega of religion. C. Davis.
Verse
2. Inquire into the causes of our frequent forgetfulness of the
Lord's mercies, show the evil of it, and advise remedies.
Verse
3.
1.
Forgiveness is in God: "There is forgiveness with thee." It is
his nature to forgive as well as to punish sin.
2.
It is from God. None can forgive sin but God. None can reveal
forgiveness but God.
3.
It is like God, full, free, and everlasting—"all thine iniquities." G.
R.
Verse
3. Who healeth all thy diseases.
1.
Why is sin called a disease? (a) As it destroys the moral beauty of the
creature. (b) As it excites pain. (c) As it disables from duty. (d) As it leads
to death.
2.
The variety of sinful diseases to which we are subject. Mr 7:21-23; Gal 5:19,
&c.
3.
The remedy by which God heals these diseases. (a) His pardoning mercy through
the redemption of Christ. (b) The sanctifying influences of grace. (c) The
means of grace. (d) The resurrection of the body. From "The Study,
"1873.
Verse
3 (last clause).—Our diseases by nature, our great
Physician, the perfect soundness which he works in us, results of that
soundness.
Verses
3-5. Mercy's Hexapla.
1.
Three curses removed. (a) Guilt put away. (b) Corruption cured. (c) Destruction
averted.
2.
Three blessings, bestowed. (a) Favours that can gratify. (b) Pleasures that can
satisfy. (c) Life that can never die.
Or
1.
Pardon. (Ps 103:3)
2. Purification. (Ps 103:4)
3. Redemption.
4. Coronation. (Ps 103:5)
5. Plenty bestowed.
6. Power renewed. W. Durban.
Verse
4. (first clause). The Redemption of David's life from
destruction.
1.
His shepherd life.
2. His military life.
3. His persecuted life.
4. His regal life.
5. His spiritual life. W. J.
Verse
4. What is redeemed, and from what? Who are redeemed, and by whom?
Verse
5.
1.
A singular condition—satisfaction.
2. A singular provision—good things.
3. A singular result—youth renewed.
Verse
5.—"Rejuvenescence." See Macmillan's "Ministry of
Nature, " pp. 321-347.
Verse
7.
1.
God would have men know him.
2. He is his own revealer.
3. There are degrees in the revelation.
4. We may pray for increased knowledge of him.
Verse
8.
1.
Mercy specified: "Merciful and gracious."
2.
Mercy qualified: "Slow to anger." Mercy itself may be angered, and
then how terrible is the anger.
3.
Mercy amplified: "Plenteous in mercy." "He will abundantly
pardon; "and he only knows what abundant pardon means. G. R.
Verse
9.
1.
What God will do to his people. He will sometimes chide—contend with them. (a)
Providentially, by outward trials. (b) Experimentally, by inward conflicts.
2.
What he will not do to them. (a) Not chide continually in this life. (b) Not
chide in the least hereafter. (c) "The days of their mourning shall be ended."
G. R.
Verses
11-13. The height, length and depth of divine love.
Verse
12. "Plenary Absolution." See "Spurgeon's Sermons,
" No. 1,108.
Verse
12.
1.
The union implied. Between man and his transgressions.
(a)
Legally.
(b) Actually.
(c) Experimentally.
(d) Eternally, in themselves considered.
2.
The separation effected.
(a)
By whom? "He hath, "etc.
(b)
How? By his own Son coming between the sinner and his sins.
3.
The Re-union prevented. "As far, "etc. When east and west meet, then,
and not till then, will the reunion take place. As the two extremities of a
straight line can never meet, and cannot be lengthened without receding further
from each other, so it will ever be with a pardoned sinner and his sins. G.
R.
Verses
13-14. "The Tender Pity of the Lord." See "Spurgeon's
Sermons, "No. 941.
Verses
13-14.
1.
Whom God pities; "them that fear him."
2.
How he pities "as a father pitieth his children."
3.
Why he pities; "for he knoweth our frame." He hath reason to know out
frame, for he framed us, and having himself made man of the dust, "he
remembers that we are dust." Matthew Henry.
Verse
14.
1.
Man's Constitution.
2. God's Consideration. W. D.
Verse
15. Man's earthly career. His rise, progress, glory, fall, and
oblivion.
Verses
15-18.
1.
What man is when left to himself. "As for man, "etc. (a) What here?
His days are as grass, his glory as the flower of grass. (b) What hereafter?
swept away by a blighting wind, by a blast of divine anger—known no more on the
earth, known only in perdition.
2.
What the mercy of God does for him. (a) Makes a covenant of grace on his behalf
flora everlasting. (b) Makes a covenant of peace with hint in this life. (c)
Makes a covenant of promise to him for an eternity to come.
3.
Who are the objects of this mercy? (a) Those who fear God. (b) Who walk in the
footsteps of pious ancestors. (c) Who rely upon covenant mercy. (d) Who are
faithful to their covenant engagements. G. R.
Verse
18. The covenant, in what respects we can keep it, in what frame of
mind it must be kept, and what is the practical proof of so doing.
Verse
19. "A Discourse upon God's Dominion." See Charnock's Works
Nicol's Edition, Vol. II., pp. 400-499.
Verse
19.
1.
The nature of the throne.
2. The extent of the dominion.
3. The character of the monarch.
4. The consequent joy of the subjects: "Bless the Lord."
Verse
20. The angels' service instructive to us.
1.
Their personal strength is excellent. As servants of God we also should see to
our own spiritual health and rigour.
2.
They are practical in their obedience, not theorists.
3.
They are attentive while at work, ready to learn more, and holding fellowship
with God, who speaks personally to them.
4.
They do all in the spirit of joyful praise, blessing the Lord.
Verses
20-21.
1.
The centre of praise: "Bless the Lord." All praise centres in him.
2.
The concert of praise. (a) Angels. (b) The hosts of the redeemed. (c) Ministers
in particular. (d) The surrounding creation.
3.
The climax of praise: "Bless the Lord, O my soul." This has the
highest claim upon me for gratitude and praise. Vast as the chorus may be, it
will not be perfect without my note of praise. This is the culminating note:
"Bless the Lord, O my soul." G.R.
Verse
21. Who are God's ministers? What is their business? To do his
pleasure. What is their delight? To bless the Lord.
Verses
21-22. Henry Melvill has a notable sermon upon "The Peril of the
Spiritual Guide." The drift of it may be gathered from the extract which
wc have placed as a note upon the passage.
Verse
22.
1.
The Chorus.
2. The Echo. W.D.
WORKS UPON THE
HUNDRED AND THIRD PSALM
Meditations
and Disquisitions, upon Seven Consolatarie Psalmes of David . . . by Sir
RICHARD BAKER, Knight, 1640. pg 143-172.
Gratitude:
an Exposition of the Hundred and Third Psalm. By the Rev. JOHN
STEVENSON, Vicar of Patrixbourne-with-Bridge, Canterbury. 1856.
── C.H. Spurgeon《The Treasury of David》