TITLE. This Psalm is commonly known as the
first of the PENITENTIAL PSALMS, (The other six are 32,
38, 51, 102, 130, 143) and certainly its language well becomes
the lip of a penitent, for it expresses at once the sorrow,
(verses 3, 6, 7), the humiliation (verses 2 and 4), and the
hatred of sin (verse 8), which are the unfailing marks of the
contrite spirit when it turns to God. O Holy Spirit, beget in us
the true repentance which needeth not to be repented of. The
title of this Psalm is "To the chief Musician on
Neginoth upon Sheminith (1 Chronicle 15:21), A Psalm of
David," that is, to the chief musician with stringed
instruments, upon the eighth, probably the octave. Some think it
refers to the bass or tenor key, which would certainly be well
adapted to this mournful ode. But we are not able to understand
these old musical terms, and even the term "Selah,"
still remains untranslated. This, however, should be no
difficulty in our way. We probably lose but very little by our
ignorance, and it may serve to confirm our faith. It is a proof
of the high antiquity of these Psalms that they contain words,
the meaning of which is lost even to the best scholars of the
Hebrew language. Surely these are but incidental (accidental I
might almost say, if I did not believe them to be designed by
God), proofs of their being, what they profess to be, the
ancient writings of King David of olden times.
DIVISION. You will observe that the Psalm is readily
divided into two parts. First, there is the Psalmist's plea in
his great distress, reaching from the first to the end of the
seventh verse. Then you have, from the eighth to the end, quite
a different theme. The Psalmist has changed his note. He leaves
the minor key, and betakes himself to sublimer strains. He tunes
his note to the high key of confidence, and declares that God
hath heard his prayer, and hath delivered him out of all his
troubles.
EXPOSITION Verse 1. Having read through the
first division, in order to see it as a whole, we will now look
at it verse by verse. "O Lord, rebuke me not in thine
anger." The Psalmist is very conscious that he deserves
to be rebuked, and he feels, moreover, that the rebuke in some
form or other must come upon him, if not for condemnation, yet
for conviction and sanctification. "Corn is cleaned with
wind, and the soul with chastenings." It were folly to pray
against the golden hand which enriches us by its blows. He does
not ask that the rebuke may be totally withheld, for he might
thus lose a blessing in disguise; but, "Lord, rebuke me not
in thine anger." If thou remindest me of my sin, it
is good; but, oh, remind me not of it as one incensed against
me, lest thy servant's heart should sink in despair. Thus saith
Jeremiah, "O Lord, correct me, but with judgment; not in
thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing." I know that I
must be chastened, and though I shrink from the rod yet do I
feel that it will be for my benefit; but, oh, my God, "chasten
me not in thy hot displeasure," lest the rod become a
sword, and lest in smiting, thou shouldest also kill. So may we
pray that the chastisements of our gracious God, if they may not
be entirely removed, may at least be sweetened by the
consciousness that they are "not in anger, but in his dear
covenant love."
Verse 2. "Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am
weak." Though I deserve destruction, yet let thy mercy
pity my frailty. This is the right way to plead with God if we
would prevail. Urge not your goodness or your greatness, but
plead your sin and your littleness. Cry, "I am
weak," therefore, O Lord, give me strength and crush me
not. Send not forth the fury of thy tempest against so weak a
vessel. Temper the wind to the shorn lamb. Be tender and pitiful
to a poor withering flower, and break it not from its stem.
Surely this is the plea that a sick man would urge to move the
pity of his fellow if he were striving with him, "Deal
gently with me, 'for I am weak.'" A sense of sin had so
spoiled the Psalmist's pride, so taken away his vaunted
strength, that he found himself weak to obey the law, weak
through the sorrow that was in him, too weak, perhaps, to lay
hold on the promise. "I am weak." The original
may be read, "I am one who droops," or withered like a
blighted plant. Ah! beloved, we know what this means, for we,
too, have seen our glory stained, and our beauty like a faded
flower.
Verse 3. "O Lord, heal me; for my bones are
vexed." Here he prays for healing, not merely
the mitigation of the ills he endured, but their entire removal,
and the curing of the wounds which had arisen therefrom. His
bones were "shaken," as the Hebrew has it. His
terror had become so great that his very bones shook; not only
did his flesh quiver, but the bones, the solid pillars of the
house of manhood, were made to tremble. "My bones are
shaken." Ah, when the soul has a sense of sin, it is enough
to make the bones shake; it is enough to make a man's hair stand
up on end to see the flames of hell beneath him, an angry God
above him, and danger and doubt surrounding him. Well might he
say, "My bones are shaken." Lest, however, we should
imagine that it was merely bodily sickness— although bodily
sickness might be the outward sign—the Psalmist goes on to
say, "My soul is also sore vexed." Soul-trouble
is the very soul of trouble. It matters not that the bones shake
if the soul be firm, but when the soul itself is also sore vexed
this is agony indeed. "But thou, O Lord, how long?"
This sentence ends abruptly, for words failed, and grief drowned
the little comfort which dawned upon him. The Psalmist had
still, however, some hope; but that hope was only in his God. He
therefore cries, "O Lord, how long?" The coming of
Christ into the soul in his priestly robes of grace is the grand
hope of the penitent soul; and, indeed, in some form or other,
Christ's appearance is, and ever has been, the hope of the
saints.
Calvin's
favourite exclamation was, "Domine usquequo"—"O
Lord, how long?" Nor could his sharpest pains, during a
life of anguish, force from him any other word. Surely this is
the cry of the saints under the altar, "O Lord, how
long?" And this should be the cry of the saints waiting for
the millennial glories, "Why are his chariots so long in
coming; Lord, how long?" Those of us who have passed
through conviction of sin knew what it was to count our minutes
hours, and our hours years, while mercy delayed its coming. We
watched for the dawn of grace, as they that watch for the
morning. Earnestly did our anxious spirits ask, "O Lord,
how long?"
Verse 4. "Return, O Lord; deliver my soul."
As God's absence was the main cause of his misery, so his return
would be enough to deliver him from his trouble. "Oh
save me for thy mercies' sake." He knows where to look,
and what arm to lay hold upon. He does not lay hold on God's
left hand of justice, but on his right hand of mercy. He knew
his iniquity too well to think of merit, or appeal to anything
but the grace of God.
"For
thy mercies' sake." What a plea that is! How prevalent
it is with God! If we turn to justice, what plea can we urge?
but if we turn to mercy we may still cry, notwithstanding the
greatness of our guilt, "Save me for thy mercies'
sake."
Observe
how frequently David here pleads the name of Jehovah, which is
always intended where the word LORD is given in capitals. Five
times in four verses we here meet with it. Is not this a proof
that the glorious name is full of consolation to the tempted
saint? Eternity, Infinity, Immutability, Self-existence, are all
in the name Jehovah, and all are full of comfort.
Verse 5. And now David was in great fear of death—death
temporal, and perhaps death eternal. Read the passage as you
will, the following verse is full of power. "For in
death there is no remembrance of thee; in the grave who shall
give thee thanks?" Churchyards are silent places; the
vaults of the sepulchre echo not with songs. Damp earth covers
dumb mouths. "O Lord!" saith he, "if thou wilt
spare me I will praise thee. If I die, then must my mortal
praise at least be suspended; and if I perish in hell, then thou
wilt never have any thanksgiving from me. Songs of gratitude
cannot rise from the flaming pit of hell. True, thou wilt
doubtless be glorified, even in my eternal condemnation, but
then O Lord, I cannot glorify thee voluntarily; and among the
sons of men, there will be one heart the less to bless
thee." Ah! poor trembling sinners, may the Lord help you to
use this forcible argument! It is for God's glory that a sinner
should be saved. When we seek pardon, we are not asking God to
do that which will stain his banner, or put a blot on his
escutcheon. He delighteth in mercy. It is his peculiar, darling
attribute. Mercy honours God. Do not we ourselves say,
"Mercy blesseth him that gives, and him that takes?"
And surely, in some diviner sense, this is true of God, who,
when he gives mercy, glorifies himself.
Verse 6. The Psalmist gives a fearful description of his long
agony: "I am weary with my groaning." He has
groaned till his throat was hoarse; he had cried for mercy till
prayer became a labour. God's people may groan, but they may not
grumble. Yea, they must groan, being burdened, or they will
never shout in the day of deliverance. The next sentence, we
think, is not accurately translated. It should be, "I
shall make my bed to swim every night" (when nature
needs rest, and when I am most alone with my God). That is to
say, my grief is fearful even now, but if God do not soon save
me, it will not stay of itself, but will increase, until my
tears will be so many, that my bed itself shall swim. A
description rather of what he feared would be, than of what had
actually taken place. May not our forebodings of future woe
become arguments which faith may urge when seeking present
mercy?
Verse 7. "I water my couch with my tears. Mine eye is
consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all my
enemies." As an old man's eye grows dim with years, so,
says David, my eye is grown red and feeble through weeping.
Conviction sometimes has such an effect upon the body, that even
the outward organs are made to suffer. May not this explain some
of the convulsions and hysterical attacks which have been
experienced under convictions in the revivals in Ireland? Is it
surprising that some souls be smitten to the earth, and begin to
cry aloud; when we find that David himself made his bed to swim,
and grew old while he was under the heavy hand of God? Ah!
brethren, it is no light matter to feel one's self a sinner,
condemned at the bar of God. The language of this Psalm is not
strained and forced, but perfectly natural to one in so sad a
plight.
Verse 8. Hitherto, all has been mournful and disconsolate,
but now—
"Your harps, ye trembling saints,
Down from the willows take." Ye must have your times of
weeping, but let them be short. Get ye up, get ye up, from your
dunghills! Cast aside your sackcloth and ashes! Weeping may
endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
David
has found peace, and rising from his knees he begins to sweep
his house of the wicked. "Depart from me, all ye workers
of iniquity." The best remedy for us against an evil
man is a long space between us both. "Get ye gone; I can
have no fellowship with you." Repentance is a practical
thing. It is not enough to bemoan the desecration of the temple
of the heart, we must scourge out the buyers and sellers, and
overturn the tables of the money changers. A pardoned sinner will
hate the sins which cost the Saviour his blood. Grace and
sin are quarrelsome neighbours, and one or the other must go to
the wall.
"For
the Lord hath hear the voice of my weeping." What a
fine Hebraism, and what grand poetry it is in English! "He
hath heard the voice of my weeping." Is there a voice in
weeping? Does weeping speak? In what language doth it utter its
meaning? Why, in that universal tongue which is known and
understood in all the earth, and even in heaven above. When a
man weeps, whether he be a Jew or Gentile, Barbarian, Scythian,
bond or free, it has the same meaning in it. Weeping is the
eloquence of sorrow. It is an unstammering orator, needing no
interpreter, but understood of all. Is it not sweet to believe
that our tears are understood even when words fail? Let us learn
to think of tears as liquid prayers, and of weeping as a
constant dropping of importunate intercession which will wear
its way right surely into the very heart of mercy, despite the
stony difficulties which obstruct the way. My God, I will
"weep" when I cannot plead, for thou hearest the voice
of my weeping.
Verse 9. "The Lord hath heard my supplication."
The Holy Spirit had wrought into the Psalmist's mind the
confidence that his prayer was heard. This is frequently the
privilege of the saints. Praying the prayer of faith, they are
often infallibly assured that they have prevailed with God. We
read of Luther that, having on one occasion wrestled hard with
God in prayer, he came leaping out of his closet crying, "Vicimus,
vicimus;" that is, We have conquered, we have prevailed
with God." Assured confidence is no idle dream, for when
the Holy Ghost bestows it upon us, we know its reality, and
could not doubt it, even though all men should deride our
boldness. "The Lord will receive my prayer."
Here is past experience used for future encouragement. He
hath, he will. Note this, O believer, and imitate its
reasoning.
Verse 10. "Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore
vexed." This is rather a prophecy than an imprecation,
it may be read in the future, "All my enemies shall be
ashamed and sore vexed." They shall return and be
ashamed instantaneously,—in a moment;—their doom shall
come upon them suddenly. Death's day is doom's day, and both are
sure and may be sudden. The Romans were wont to say, "The
feet of the avenging Deity are shod with wool." With
noiseless footsteps vengeance nears its victim, and sudden and
overwhelming shall be its destroying stroke. If this were an
imprecation, we must remember that the language of the old
dispensation is not that of the new. We pray for our
enemies, not against them. God have mercy on them, and
bring them into the right way.
Thus
the Psalm, like those which preceed it, shews the different
estates of the godly and the wicked. O Lord, let us be numbered with
thy people, both now and forever!
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Whole Psalm. David was a man that was often exercised
with sickness and troubles from enemies, and in all the
instances almost that we meet with in the Psalms of these his
afflictions, we may observe the outward occasions of trouble
brought him under the suspicion of God's wrath and his own
iniquity; so that he was seldom sick, or persecuted, but this
called on the disquiet of conscience, and brought his sin to
remembrance; as in this Psalm, which was made on the occasion of
his sickness, as appears from verse eight, wherein he expresseth
the vexation of his soul under the apprehension of God's anger;
all his other griefs running into this channel, as little
brooks, losing themselves in a great river, change their name
and nature. He that at first was only concerned for his
sickness, is now wholly concerned with sorrow and smart under
the fear and hazard of his soul's condition; the like we may see
in Psalm 38, and many places more. Richard Gilpin, 1677.
Verse 1. "Rebuke me not." God hath
two means by which he reduceth his children to obedience; his
word, by which he rebukes them; and his rod, by which he
chastiseth them. The word precedes, admonishing them by his
servants whom he hath sent in all ages to call sinners to
repentance: of the which David himself saith, "Let the
righteous rebuke me;" and as a father doth first rebuke his
disordered child, so doth the Lord speak to them. But when men
neglect the warnings of his word, then God as a good Father,
takes up the rod and beats them. Our Saviour wakened the three
disciples in the garden three times, but seeing that served not,
he told them that Judas and his band were coming to awaken them
whom his own voice could not waken. A. Symson, 1638.
Verse 1. "Jehovah, rebuke me not in thine
anger," etc. He does not altogether refuse punishment,
for that would be unreasonable; and to be without it, he judged
would be more hurtful than beneficial to him; but what he is
afraid of is the wrath of God, which threatens sinners with ruin
and perdition. To anger and indignation David tacitly opposes
fatherly and gentle chastisement, and this last he was willing
to bear. John Calvin, 1509 - 1564.
Verse 1. "O Lord, rebuke me not in thine
anger."
The anger of the Lord? Oh, dreadful thought!
How can a creature frail as man endure
The tempest of his wrath? Ah, whither flee
To 'scape the punishment he well deserves?
Flee to the cross! the great atonement there
Will shield the sinner, if he supplicate
For pardon with repentence true and deep,
And faith that questions not. Then will the frown
Of anger pass from off the face of God,
Like a black tempest cloud that hides the sun.Anon.
Verse 1. "Lord, rebuke me not in thine
anger," etc.; that is, do not lay upon me that thou
hast threatened in thy law; where anger is not put for the
decree nor the execution, but for the denouncing. So (Matthew
3:11, and so Hosea 11:9), "I will not execute the
fierceness of mine anger," that is, I will not execute my
wrath as I have declared it. Again, it is said, he executes
punishment on the wicked; he declares it not only, but executeth
it, so anger is put for the execution of anger. Richard
Stock, 1641.
Verse 1. "Neither chasten me in thine hot
displeasure."
O keep up life and peace within,
If I must feel thy chastening rod!
Yet kill not me, but kill my sin,
And let me know thou art my God.
O give my soul some sweet foretaste
Of that which I shall shortly see!
Let faith and love cry to the last,
"Come, Lord, I trust myself with thee!"Richard
Baxter, 1615-1691.
Verse 2. "Have mercy upon me, O Lord."
To fly and escape the anger of God, David sees no means in
heaven or in earth, and therefore retires himself to God, even
to him that wounded him that he might heal him. He flies not
with Adam to the bush, nor with Saul to the witch, nor with
Jonah to Tarshish; but he appeals from an angry and just God to
a merciful God, and from himself to himself. The woman who was
condemned by King Philip, appealed from Philip being drunken to
Philip being sober. But David appeals from one virtue, justice,
to another, mercy. There may be appellation from the tribunal of
man to the justice-seat of God; but when thou art indicted
before God's justice-seat, whither or to whom wilt thou go but
to himself and his mercy-seat, which is the highest and last
place of appellation? "I have none in heaven but thee, nor
in earth besides thee." . . . . . . David, under the name
of mercy, includeth all things, according to that of
Jacob to his brother Esau, "I have gotten mercy, and
therefore I have gotten all things." Desirest thou any
thing at God's hands? Cry for mercy, out of which
fountain all good things will spring to thee. Archibald
Symson.
Verse 2. "For I am weak." Behold what
rhetoric he useth to move God to cure him, "I am
weak," an argument taken from his weakness, which
indeed were a weak argument to move any man to show his favour,
but is a strong argument to prevail with God. If a diseased
person would come to a physician, and only lament the heaviness
of his sickness, he would say, God help thee; or an oppressed
person come to a lawyer, and show him the estate of his action
and ask his advice, that is a golden question; or to a merchant
to crave raiment, he will either have present money or a surety;
or a courtier favour, you must have your reward ready in your
hand. But coming before God, the most forcible argument that you
can use is your necessity, poverty, tears, misery, unworthiness,
and confessing them to him, it shall be an open door to furnish
you with all things that he hath. . . . The tears of our misery
are forcible arrows to pierce the heart of our heavenly Father,
to deliver us and pity our hard case. The beggars lay open their
sores to the view of the world, that the more they may move men
to pity them. So let us deplore our miseries to God, that he,
with the pitiful Samaritan, at the sight of our wounds, may help
us in due time. Archibald Symson.
Verse 2. "Heal me," etc. David comes
not to take physic upon wantonness, but because the disease is
violent, because the accidents are vehement; so vehement, so
violent, as that it hath pierced ad ossa, and ad
animam, "My bones are vexed, and my soul is sore
troubled," therefore "heal me;" which
is the reason upon which he grounds this second petition, "Heal
me, because my bones are vexed," etc. John Donne.
Verse 2. "My bones are vexed." The
Lord can make the strongest and most insensible part of a man's
body sensible of his wrath when he pleaseth to touch him, for
here David's bones are vexed. David Dickson.
Verse 2. The term "bones" frequently
occurs in the Psalms, and if we examine we shall find it used in
three different senses. (1.) It is sometimes applied literally
to our blessed Lord's human body, to the body which hung upon
the cross, as, "They pierced my hands and my feet; I may
tell all my bones," (2.) It has sometimes also a further
reference to his mystical body the church. And then it denotes
all the members of Christ's body that stand firm in the faith,
that cannot be moved by persecutions, or temptations, however
severe, as, "All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto
thee?" (3.) In some passages the term bones is applied to
the soul, and not to the body, to the inner man of the
individual Christian. Then it implies the strength and fortitude
of the soul, the determined courage which faith in God gives to
the righteous. This is the sense in which it is used in the
second verse of Psalm 6,. "O Lord, heal me; for my bones
are vexed." Augustine, Ambrose, and Chrysostom; quoted by
F. H. Dunwell, B.A., in "Parochial Lectures on the
Psalms," 1855.
Verse 3. "My soul." Yokefellows in
sin are yokefellows in pain; the soul is punished for informing,
the body for performing, and as both the informer and performer,
the cause and the instrument, so shall the stirrer up of sin and
the executor of it be punished. John Donne.
Verse 3. "O Lord, how long?" Out of
this we have three things to observe; first, that there is an
appointed time which God hath measured for the crosses of all
his children, before which time they shall not be delivered, and
for which they must patiently attend, not thinking to prescribe
time to God for their delivery, or limit the Holy One of Israel.
The Israelites remained in Egypt till the complete number of
four hundred and thirty years were accomplished. Joseph was
three years and more in the prison till the appointed time of
his delivery came. The Jews remained seventy years in Babylon.
So that as the physician appointeth certain times to the
patient, both wherein he must fast, and be dieted, and wherein
he must take recreation, so God knoweth the convenient times
both of our humiliation and exaltation. Next, see the impatiency
of our nature in our miseries, our flesh still rebelling against
the Spirit, which oftentimes forgetteth itself so far, that it
will enter into reasoning with God, and quarrelling with him, as
we may read in Job, Jonas, etc., and here also of David.
Thirdly, albeit the Lord delay his coming to relieve his saints,
yet hath he great cause if we could ponder it; for when we were
in the heat of our sins, many times he cried by the mouth of his
prophets and servants, "O fools, how long will you continue
in your folly?" And we would not hear; and therefore when
we are in the heat of our pains, thinking long, yea, every day a
year till we be delivered, no wonder is it if God will not hear;
let us consider with ourselves the just dealing of God with us;
that as he cried and we would not hear, so now we cry, and he
will not hear. A. Symson.
Verse 3. "O Lord, how long?" As the
saints in heaven have their usque quo, how long, Lord,
holy and true, before thou begin to execute judgment? So, the
saints on earth have their usque quo. How long, Lord,
before thou take off the execution of this judgment upon us?
For, our deprecatory prayers are not mandatory, they are not
directory, they appoint not God his ways, nor times; but as our
postulatory prayers are, they also are submitted to the will of
God, and have all in them that ingredient, that herb of grace,
which Christ put into his own prayer, that veruntamen, yet
not my will, but thy will be fulfilled; and they have that
ingredient which Christ put into our prayer, fiat voluntas,
thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven; in heaven
there is no resisting of his will; yet in heaven there is a
soliciting, a hastening, an accelerating of the judgment, and
the glory of the resurrection; so though we resist not his
corrections here upon the earth, we may humbly present to God
the sense which we have of his displeasure, for this sense and
apprehension of his corrections is one of the principal reasons
why he sends them; he corrects us therefore that we might be
sensible of his corrections; that when we, being humbled under
his hand, have said with his prophet, "I will bear the
wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him"
(Micah 7:9), he may be pleased to say to his correcting angel,
as he did to his destroying angel, This is enough, and so
burn his rod now, as he put up his sword then. John Donne.
Verse 4. "Return, O Lord, deliver my
soul," etc. In this his besieging of God, he brings up
his works from afar off, closer; he begins in this Psalm, at a
deprecatory prayer; he asks nothing, but that God would do
nothing, that he would forbear him— rebuke me not, correct
me not. Now, it costs the king less to give a pardon than to
give a pension, and less to give a reprieve than to give a
pardon, and less to connive, not to call in question, than
either reprieve, pardon, or pension; to forbear is not much. But
then as the mathematician said, that he could make an engine, a
screw, that should move the whole frame of the world, if he
could have a place assigned him to fix that engine, that screw
upon, that so it might work upon the world; so prayer, when one
petition hath taken hold upon God, works upon God, moves God,
prevails with God, entirely for all. David then having got this
ground, this footing in God, he brings his works closer; he
comes from the deprecatory to a postulatory prayer; not only
that God would do nothing against him, but that he would do
something for him. God hath suffered man to see Arcana
imperii, the secrets of his state, how he governs—he
governs by precedent; by precedents of his predecessors, he
cannot, he hath none; by precedents of other gods he cannot,
there are none; and yet he proceeds by precedents, by his own
precedents, he does as he did before, habenti dat, to him
that hath received he gives more, and is willing to be wrought
and prevailed upon, and pressed with his own example. And, as
though his doing good were but to learn how to do good better,
still he writes after his own copy, and nulla dies sine linea.
He writes something to us, that is, he doth something for us
every day. And then, that which is not often seen in other
masters, his copies are better than the originals; his latter
mercies larger than his former; and in this postulatory prayer,
larger than the deprecatory, enters our text, "Return, O
Lord; deliver my soul: O save me," etc. John Donne.
Verse 5. "For in death there is no remembrance
of thee, in the grave who will give thee thanks?" Lord,
be thou pacified and reconciled to me. . . . for shouldest thou
now proceed to take away my life, as it were a most direful
condition for me to die before I have propitiated thee, so I may
well demand what increase of glory or honour will it bring unto
thee? Will it not be infinitely more glorious for thee to spare
me, till by true contrition I may regain thy favour?—and then
I may live to praise and magnify thy mercy and thy grace: thy
mercy in pardoning so great a sinner, and then confess thee by
vital actions of all holy obedience for the future, and so
demonstrate the power of thy grace which hath wrought this
change in me; neither of which will be done by destroying me,
but only thy just judgments manifested in thy vengeance on
sinners, Henry Hammond, D.D., 1659.
Verse 6. "I fainted in my mourning."
It may seem a marvellous change in David, being a man of such
magnitude of mind, to be thus dejected and cast down. Prevailed
he not against Goliath, against the lion and the bear, through
fortitude and magnanimity? But now he is sobbing, sighing, and
weeping as a child! The answer is easy; the diverse persons with
whom he hath to do occasioneth the same. When men and beasts are
his opposites, then he is more than a conqueror; but when he
hath to do with God against whom he sinned, then he is less than
nothing.
Verse 6. "I caused my bed to swim." .
. . . . . Showers be better than dews, yet it is sufficient if
God at least hath bedewed our hearts, and hath given us some
sign of a penitent heart. If we have not rivers of waters to
pour forth with David, neither fountains flowing with Mary
Magdalen, nor as Jeremy, desire to have a fountain in our head
to weep day and night, nor with Peter weep bitterly; yet if we
lament that we cannot lament, and mourn that we cannot mourn:
yea, if we have the smallest sobs of sorrow and tears of
compunction, if they be true and not counterfeit, they will make
us acceptable to God; for as the woman with the bloody issue
that touched the hem of Christ's garment, was no less welcome to
Christ than Thomas, who put his fingers in the print of the
nails; so, God looketh not at the quantity, but the sincerity of
our repentance.
Verse 6. "My bed." The place of his
sin is the place of his repentance, and so it should be; yea,
when we behold the place where we have offended, we should be
pricked in the heart, and there again crave him pardon. As Adam
sinned in the garden, and Christ sweat bloody tears in the
garden. "Examine your hearts upon your beds, and convert
unto the Lord;" and whereas ye have stretched forth
yourselves upon your bed to devise evil things, repent there and
make them sanctuaries to God. Sanctify by your tears every place
which ye have polluted by sin. And let us seek Christ Jesus on
our own bed, with the spouse in the Canticles, who saith,
"By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth."
Archibald Symson.
Verse 6. "I water my couch with tears."
Not only I wash, but also I water. The faithful
sheep of the great Shepherd go up from the washing place,
every one bringeth forth twins, and none barren among them.
Canticles 4:2. For so Jacob's sheep, having conceived at the
watering troughs, brought forth strong and party-coloured lambs.
David likewise, who before had erred and strayed like a lost
sheep making here his bed a washing-place, by so much the less
is barren in obedience, by how much the more he is fruitful in
repentance. In Solomon's temple stood the caldrons of brass, to
wash the flesh of those beasts which were to be sacrificed on
the altar. Solomon's father maketh a water of his tears, a
caldron of his bed, an altar of his heart, a sacrifice, not of
the flesh of unreasonable beasts, but of his own body, a living
sacrifice, which is his reasonable serving of God. Now the
Hebrew word here used signifies properly, to cause to swim,
which is more than simply to wash. And thus the Geneva
translation readeth it, I cause my bed every night to swim. So
that as the priests used to swim in the molten sea, that they
might be pure and clean, against they performed the holy rites
and services of the temple, in like manner the princely prophet
washeth his bed, yea, he swimmeth in his bed, or rather he
causeth his bed to swim in tears, as in a sea of grief and
penitent sorrow for his sin. Thomas Playfere, 1604.
Verse 6. "I water my couch with my
tears." Let us water our bed every night with our
tears. Do not only blow upon it with intermissive blasts, for
then like fire, it will resurge and flame the more. Sin is like
a stinking candle newly put out, it is soon lighted again. It
may receive a wound, but like a dog it will easily lick itself
whole; a little forbearance multiplies it like Hydra's heads.
Therefore, whatsoever aspersion the sin of the day has brought
upon us, let the tears of the night wash away. Thomas Adams.
Verses 6, 7. Soul-trouble is attended usually with
great pain of body too, and so a man is wounded and distressed
in every part. There is no soundness in my flesh, because of
thine anger, says David. "The arrows of the Almighty are
within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit." Job
6:4. Sorrow of heart contracts the natural spirits, making all
their motions slow and feeble; and the poor afflicted body does
usually decline and waste away; and, therefore, saith Heman,
"My soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh unto
the grave." In this inward distress we find our strength
decay and melt, even as wax before the fire; for sorrow
darkeneth the spirits, obscures the judgment, blinds the memory,
as to all pleasant things, and beclouds the lucid part of the
mind, causing the lamp of life to burn weakly. In this troubled
condition the person cannot be without a countenance that is
pale, and wan, and dejected, like one that is seized with strong
fear and consternation; all his motions are sluggish, and no
sprightliness nor activity remains. A merry heart doth good,
like a medicine; but a broken spirit drieth the bones. Hence
come those frequent complaints in Scripture: My moisture is
turned into the drought of the summer: I am like a bottle in the
smoke; my soul cleaveth unto the dust: my face is foul with
weeping, and on my eyelid is the shadow of death. Job 16:16,
30:17, 18-19. "My bones are pierced in me, in the night
seasons, and my sinews take no rest; by the great force of my
disease is my garment changed. He hath cast me into the mire,
and I am become like dust and ashes. Many times indeed the
trouble of the soul does begin from the weakness and
indisposition of the body. Long affliction, without any prospect
of remedy, does, in process of time, begin to distress the soul
itself. David was a man often exercised with sickness and the
rage of enemies; and in all the instances almost that we meet
with him in the Psalms, we may observe that the outward
occasions of trouble brought him under an apprehension of the
wrath of God for his sin. (Psalm 6:1, 2; and the reasons given,
verses 5 and 6.) All his griefs running into this most terrible
thought, that God was his enemy. As little brooks lose
themselves in a great river, and change their name and nature,
it most frequently happens that when our pain is long and sharp,
and helpless and unavoidable, we begin to question the sincerity
of our estate toward God, though at its first assault we had few
doubts or fears about it. Long weakness of body makes the soul
more susceptible of trouble, and uneasy thoughts. Timothy
Rogers on Trouble of Mind.
Verse 7. "Mine eye is consumed." Many
make those eyes which God hath given them, as it were two
lighted candles to let them see to go to hell; and for this God
in justice requiteth them, seeing their minds are blinded by the
lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life,
God, I say, sendeth sickness to debilitate their eyes which were
so sharp-sighted in the devil's service, and their lust now
causeth them to want the necessary sight of their body.
Verse 7. "Mine enemies." The pirates
seeing an empty bark, pass by it; but if she be loaded with
precious wares, then they will assault her. So, if a man have no
grace within him, Satan passeth by him as not a convenient prey
for him; but being loaded with graces, as the love of God, his
fear, and such other spiritual virtues, let him be persuaded
that according as he knows what stuff is in him, so will he not
fail to rob him of them, if in any case he may, Archibald
Symson.
Verse 7. That eye of his that had looked and lusted
after his neighbour's wife is now dimmed and darkened with grief
and indignation. He has wept himself almost blind. John
Trapp.
Verse 8. "Depart from me," etc., i.e.,
you may now go your way; for that which you look for, namely, my
death, you shall not have at this present; for the Lord hath
heard the voice of my weeping, i.e., has graciously granted
me that which with tears I asked of him. Thomas Wilcocks.
Verse 8. "Depart from me, all ye workers of
iniquity." May not too much familiarity with profane
wretches be justly charged upon church members? I know man is a
sociable creature, but that will not excuse saints as to their
carelessness of the choice of their company. The very fowls of
the air, and beasts of the field, love not heterogeneous
company. "Birds of a feather flock together." I have
been afraid that many who would be thought eminent, of a high
stature in grace and godliness, yet see not the vast difference
there is between nature and regeneration, sin and grace, the old
and the new man, seeing all company is alike unto them. Lewis
Stuckley's "Gospel Glass", 1667.
Verse 8. "The voice of my weeping."
Weeping hath a voice, and as music upon the water sounds farther
and more harmoniously than upon the land, so prayers, joined
with tears, cry louder in God's ears, and make sweeter music
than when tears are absent. When Antipater had written a large
letter against Alexander's mother unto Alexander, the king
answered him, "One tear from my mother will wash away all
her faults." So it is with God. A penitent tear is an
undeniable ambassador, and never returns from the throne of
grace unsatisfied. Spencer's Things New and Old.
Verse 8. The wicked are called, "workers of
iniquity," because they are free and ready to sin, they
have a strong tide and bent of spirit to do evil, and they do it
not to halves but thoroughly; they do not only begin or nibble
at the bait a little (as a good man often doth), but greedily
swallow it down, hook and all; they are fully in it, and do it
fully; they make a work of it, and so are "workers of
iniquity." Joseph Caryl.
Verse 8. Some may say, "My constitution is such
that I cannot weep; I may as well go to squeeze a rock, as think
to get a tear." But if thou canst not weep for sin, canst
thou grieve? Intellectual mourning is best; there may be sorrow
where there are no tears, the vessel may be full though it wants
vent; it is not so much the weeping eye God respects as the
broken heart; yet I would be loath to stop their tears who can
weep. God stood looking on Hezekiah's tears (Isaiah 38:5),
"I have seen thy tears." David's tears made music in
God's ears, "The Lord hath heard the voice of my
weeping." It is a sight fit for angels to behold, tears
as pearls dropping from a penitent eye. T. Watson.
Verse 8. "The Lord hath heard the voice of my
weeping." God hears the voice of our looks, God hears
the voice of our tears sometimes better than the voice of our
words; for it is the Spirit itself that makes intercession for
us. Romans 8:26. Gemitibus inenarrabilibus, in those groans,
and so in those tears, which we cannot utter;
ineloquacibus, as Tertullian reads that place, devout, and
simple tears, which cannot speak, speak aloud in the ears of
God; nay, tears which we cannot utter; not only utter the force
of the tears, but not utter the very tears themselves. As God
sees the water in the spring in the veins of the earth before it
bubble upon the face of the earth, so God sees tears in the
heart of a man before they blubber his face; God hears the tears
of that sorrowful soul, which for sorrow cannot shed tears. From
this casting up of the eyes, and pouring out the sorrow of the
heart at the eyes, at least opening God a window through which
he may see a wet heart through a dry eye; from these overtures
of repentance, which are as those imperfect sounds of words,
which parents delight in, in their children, before they speak
plain, a penitent sinner comes to a verbal and a more expressive
prayer. To these prayers, these vocal and verbal prayers from
David, God had given ear, and from this hearing of those prayers
was David come to this thankful confidence, "The Lord
hath heard, the Lord will hear." John Donne.
Verse 8. What a strange change is here all of a
sudden! Well might Luther say, "Prayer is the leech of the
soul, that sucks out the venom and swelling thereof."
"Prayer," saith another, "is an exorcist with
God, and an exorcist against sin and misery." Bernard saith,
"How oft hath prayer found me despairing almost, but left
me triumphing, and well assured of pardon!" The same in
effect saith David here, "Depart from me, all ye workers of
iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping."
What a word is that to his insulting enemies! Avaunt! come out!
vanish! These be words used to devils and dogs, but good enough
for a Doeg or a Shimei. And the Son of David shall say the same
to his enemies when he comes to judgment. John Trapp.
Verse 9. "The Lord hath heard my
supplication," etc. The psalmist three times expresses
his confidence of his prayers being heard and received, which
may be either in reference to his having prayed so many times
for help, as the apostle Paul did (2 Corinthians 12:8); and as
Christ his antitype did (Matthew 26:39, 42, 44); or to express
the certainty of it, the strength of his faith in it, and the
exuberance of his joy on account of it. John Gill, D.D.,
1697-1771.
Verse 10. "Let all mine enemies be
ashamed," etc. If this were an imprecation, a
malediction, yet it was medicinal, and had rationem boni,
a charitable tincture and nature in it; he wished the men no
harm as men. But it is rather prædictorium, a
prophetical vehemence, that if they will take no knowledge of
God's declaring himself in the protection of his servants, if
they would not consider that God had heard, and would hear, had
rescued, and would rescue his children, but would continue their
opposition against him, heavy judgments would certainly fall
upon them; their punishment should be certain, but the effect
should be uncertain; for God only knows whether his correction
shall work upon his enemies to their mollifying, or to their
obduration. . . . In the second word, "Let them be sore
vexed," he wishes his enemies no worse than himself had
been, for he had used the same word of himself before, Ossa
turbata, My bones are vexed; and Anima turbata, My soul
is vexed; and considering that David had found this vexation
to be his way to God, it was no malicious imprecation to wish
that enemy the same physic that he had taken, who was more sick
of the same disease than he was. For this is like a troubled sea
after a tempest; the danger is past, but yet the billow is great
still; the danger was in the calm, in the security, or in the
tempest, by misinterpreting God's correction to our obduration,
and to a remorseless stupefication; but when a man is come to
this holy vexation, to be troubled, to be shaken with the sense
of the indignation of God, the storm is past, and the
indignation of God is blown over. That soul is in a fair and
near way of being restored to a calmness, and to reposed
security of conscience that is come to this holy vexation. John
Donne.
Verse 10. "Let all mine enemies [or all
mine enemies shall] be ashamed, and sore vexed,"
etc. Many of the mournful Psalms end in this manner, to instruct
the believer that he is continually to look forward, and solace
himself with beholding that day, when his warfare shall be
accomplished; when sin and sorrow shall be no more; when sudden
and everlasting confusion shall cover the enemies of
righteousness; when the sackcloth of the penitent shall be
exchanged for a robe of glory, and every tear becomes a
sparkling gem in his crown; when to sighs and groans shall
succeed the songs of heaven, set to angels harps, and faith
shall be resolved into the vision of the Almighty. George
Horne.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1. A sermon for afflicted souls.
I.
God's twofold dealings.
(1)
Rebuke, by a telling sermon, a judgment on another, a
slight trial in our own person, or a solemn monition in our
conscience by the Spirit.
(2)
Chastening. This follows the other when the first is
disregarded. Pain, losses, bereavements, melancholy, and other
trials.
II.
The evils in them to be most dreaded, anger and hot displeasure.
III.
The means to avert these ills. Humiliation, confession,
amendment, faith in the Lord, etc.
Verse 1. The believer's greatest dread, the anger of
God. What this fact reveals in the heart? Why is it so? What
removes the fear?
Verse 2. The argumentum ad misericordiam.
Verse 2. First sentence—Divine healing.
(1)
What precedes it, my bones are vexed.
(2)
How it is wrought.
(3)
What succeeds it.
Verse 3. The impatience of sorrow; its sins, mischief,
and cure.
Verse 3. A fruitful topic may be found in considering
the question, How long will God continue afflictions to the
righteous?
Verse 4. "Return, O Lord." A prayer
suggested by a sense of the Lord's absence, excited by grace,
attended with heart searching and repentance, backed by pressing
danger, guaranteed as to its answer, and containing a request
for all mercies.
Verse 4. The praying of the deserted saint.
1.
His state: his soul is evidently in bondage and danger;
2.
His hope: it is in the Lord's return.
3.
His plea: mercy only.
Verse 5. The final suspension of earthly service
considered in various practical aspects.
Verse 5. The duty of praising God while we live.
Verse 6. Saint's tears in quality, abundance,
influence, assuagement, and final end.
Verse 7. The voice of weeping. What it is.
Verse 8. The pardoned sinner forsaking his bad
companions.
Verse 9. Past answers the ground of present
confidence. He hath, he will.
Verse 10. The shame reserved for the wicked.