TITLE. "To the Chief Musician upon Gittith,
a Psalm of David." We are not clear upon the meaning of
the word Gittith. Some think it refers to Gath, and may refer to
a tune commonly sung there, or an instrument of music there
invented, or a song of Obededom the Gittite, in whose house the
ark rested, or, better still, a song sung over Goliath of Gath.
Others, tracing the Hebrew to its root, conceive it to mean a
song for the winepress, a joyful hymn for the treaders of
grapes. The term Gittith is applied to two other Psalms, (81 and
84) both of which, being of a joyous character, it may be
concluded, that where we find that word in the title, we may
look for a hymn of delight.
We
may style this Psalm the Song of the Astronomer: let us go
abroad and sing it beneath the starry heavens at eventide, for
it is very probable that in such a position, it first occurred
to the poet's mind. Dr. Chalmers says, "There is much in
the scenery of a nocturnal sky; to lift the soul to pious
contemplation. That moon, and these stars, what are they? They
are detached from the world, and they lift us above it. We feel
withdrawn from the earth, and rise in lofty abstraction from
this little theatre of human passions and human anxieties. The
mind abandons itself to reverie, and is transferred in the
ecstasy of its thought to distant and unexplored regions. It
sees nature in the simplicity of her great elements, and it sees
the God of nature invested with the high attributes of wisdom
and majesty."
DIVISION. The first and last verses are a sweet song of
admiration, in which the excellence of the name of God is
extolled. The intermediate verses are made up of holy wonder at
the Lord's greatness in creation, and at his condescension
towards man. Poole, in his annotations, has well said, "It
is a great question among interpreters, whether this Psalm
speaks of man in general, and of the honour which God puts upon
him in his creation; or only of the man Christ Jesus. Possibly
both may be reconciled and put together, and the controversy if
rightly stated, may be ended, for the scope and business of this
Psalm seems plainly to be this: to display and celebrate the
great love and kindness of God to mankind, not only in his
creation, but especially in his redemption by Jesus Christ,
whom, as he was man, he advanced to the honour and dominion here
mentioned, that he might carry on his great and glorious work.
So Christ is the principal subject of this Psalm, and it is
interpreted of him, both by our Lord himself (Matthew 21:16),
and by his holy apostle (1 Corinthians 15:27; Hebrews 2:6,7).
EXPOSITION Verse 1. Unable to express the
glory of God, the Psalmist utters a note of exclamation. O
Jehovah our Lord! We need not wonder at this, for no heart can
measure, no tongue can utter, the half of the greatness of
Jehovah. The whole creation is full of his glory and radiant
with the excellency of his power; his goodness and his wisdom
are manifested on every hand. The countless myriads of
terrestrial beings, from man the head, to the creeping worm at
the foot, are all supported and nourished by the Divine bounty.
The solid fabric of the universe leans upon his eternal arm.
Universally is he present, and everywhere is his name excellent.
God worketh ever and everywhere. There is no place where
God is not. The miracles of his power await us on all sides.
Traverse the silent valleys where the rocks enclose you on
either side, rising like the battlements of heaven till you can
see but a strip of the blue sky far overhead; you may be the
only traveler who has passed through that glen; the bird may
start up affrighted, and the moss may tremble beneath the first
tread of human foot; but God is there in a thousand wonders,
upholding yon rocky barriers, filling the flowercups with their
perfume, and refreshing the lonely pines with the breath of his
mouth. Descend, if you will, into the lowest depths of the
ocean. where undisturbed the water sleeps, and the very sand is
motionless in unbroken quiet, but the glory of the Lord is
there, revealing its excellence in the silent palace of the sea.
Borrow the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts
of the sea, but God is there. Mount to the highest heaven, or
dive into the deepest hell, and God is in both hymned in
everlasting song, or justified in terrible vengeance.
Everywhere, and in every place, God dwells and is manifestly at
work. Nor on earth alone is Jehovah extolled, for his brightness
shines forth in the firmament above the earth. His glory exceeds
the glory of the starry heavens; above the region of the stars
he hath set fast his everlasting throne, and there he dwells in
light ineffable. Let us adore him "who alone spreadeth out
the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea; who maketh
Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the
south." (Job 9:8, 9.) We can scarcely find more fitting
words than those of Nehemiah, "Thou, even thou, art Lord
alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all
their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the
seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and
the host of heaven worshippeth thee." Returning to the text
we are led to observe that this Psalm is addressed to God,
because none but the Lord himself can fully know his own glory.
The believing heart is ravished with what it sees, but God only
knows the glory of God. What a sweetness lies in the little word
our, how much is God's glory endeared to us when we
consider our interest in him as our Lord. How excellent is
thy name! no words can express that excellency; and
therefore it is left as a note of exclamation. The very name
of Jehovah is excellent, what must his person be. Note the fact
that even the heavens cannot contain his glory, it is set above
the heavens, since it is and ever must be too great for the
creature to express. When wandering among the Alps, we felt that
the Lord was infinitely greater than all his grandest works, and
under that feeling we roughly wrote these few lines:—
Yet in all these how great soe'er they be,
We see not Him. The glass is all too dense
And dark, or else our earthborn eyes too dim.
Yon Alps, that lift their heads above the clouds
And hold familiar converse with the stars,
Are dust, at which the balance trembleth not,
Compared with His divine immensity.
The snow-crown'd summits fail to set Him forth,
Who dwelleth in Eternity, and bears
Alone, the name of High and Lofty One.
Depths unfathomed are too shallow to express
The wisdom and the knowledge of the Lord.
The mirror of the creatures has no space
To bear the image of the Infinite.
'Tis true the Lord hath fairly writ his name,
And set his seal upon creation's brow.
But as the skilful potter much excels
The vessel which he fashions on the wheel,
E'en so, but in proportion greater far,
Jehovah's self transcends his noblest works.
Earth's ponderous wheels would break, her axles snap,
If freighted with the load of Deity.
Space is too narrow for the Eternal's rest,
And time too short a footstool for his throne.
E'en avalanche and thunder lack a voice,
To utter the full volume of his praise.
How then can I declare him? Where are words
With which my glowing tongue may speak his name?
Silent I bow, and humbly I adore.
Verse 2. Nor only in the heavens above is the Lord seen, but
the earth beneath is telling forth his majesty. In the sky, the
massive orbs, rolling in their stupendous grandeur, are
witnesses of his power in great things, while here below, the
lisping utterances of babes are the manifestations of his
strength in little ones. How often will children tell us of a
God whom we have forgotten! How doth their simple prattle refute
those learned fools who deny the being of God! Many men have
been made to hold their tongues, while sucklings have borne
witness to the glory of the God of heaven. It is singular how
clearly the history of the church expounds this verse. Did not
the children cry "Hosannah!" in the temple, when proud
Pharisees were silent and contemptuous? and did not the Saviour
quote these very words as a justification of their infantile
cries? Early church history records many amazing instances of
the testimony of children for the truth of God, but perhaps more
modern instances will be the most interesting. Fox tells us, in
the Book of Martyrs, that when Mr. Lawrence was burnt in
Colchester, he was carried to the fire in a chair, because
through the cruelty of the Papists, he could not stand upright,
several young children came about the fire, and cried as well as
they could speak, "Lord, strengthen thy servant, and keep
thy promise." God answered their prayer, for Mr. Lawrence
died as firmly and calmly as any one could wish to breathe his
last. When one of the Popish chaplains told Mr. Wishart, the
great Scotch martyr, that he had a devil in him, a child that
stood by cried out, "A devil cannot speak such words as
yonder man speaketh." One more instance is still nearer to
our time. In a postscript to one of his letters, in which he
details his persecution when first preaching in Moorfields,
Whitfield says, "I cannot help adding that several little
boys and girls, who were fond of sitting round me on the pulpit
while I preached, and handed to me people's notes—though they
were often pelted with eggs, dirt, &c., thrown at me—never
once gave way; but on the contrary, every time I was struck,
turned up their little weeping eyes, and seemed to wish they
could receive the blows for me. God make them, in their growing
years, great and living martyrs for him who, out of the mouths
of babes and sucklings, perfects praise!" He who delights
in the songs of angels is pleased to honour himself in the eyes
of his enemies by the praises of little children. What a
contrast between the glory above the heavens, and the mouths of
babes and sucklings! yet by both the name of God is made
excellent.
Verses 3, 4. At the close of that excellent little manual
entitled "The Solar System," written by Dr. Dick, we
find an eloquent passage which beautifully expounds the
text:—A survey of the solar system has a tendency to moderate
the pride of man and to promote humility. Pride is one of the
distinguishing characteristics of puny man, and has been one of
the chief causes of all the contentions, wars, devastations,
systems of slavery, and ambitious projects which have desolated
and demoralized our sinful world. Yet there is no disposition
more incongruous to the character and circumstances of man.
Perhaps there are no rational beings throughout the universe
among whom pride would appear more unseemly or incompatible than
in man, considering the situation in which he is placed. He is
exposed to numerous degradations and calamities, to the rage of
storms and tempests, the devastations of earthquakes and
volcanoes, the fury of whirlwinds, and the tempestuous billows
of the ocean, to the ravages of the sword, famine, pestilence,
and numerous diseases; and at length he must sink into the
grave, and his body must become the companion of worms! The most
dignified and haughty of the sons of men are liable to these and
similar degradations as well as the meanest of the human family.
Yet, in such circumstances, man—that puny worm of the dust,
whose knowledge is so limited, and whose follies are so numerous
and glaring—has the effrontery to strut in all the haughtiness
of pride, and to glory in his shame.
When
other arguments and motives produce little effect on certain
minds, no considerations seem likely to have a more powerful
tendency to counteract this deplorable propensity in human
beings, than those which are borrowed from the objects connected
with astronomy. They show us what an insignificant being— what
a mere atom, indeed, man appears amidst the immensity of
creation! Though he is an object of the paternal care and mercy
of the Most High, yet he is but as a grain of sand to the whole
earth, when compared to the countless myriads of beings that
people the amplitudes of creation. What is the whole of this
globe on which we dwell compared with the solar system, which
contains a mass of matter ten thousand times greater? What is it
in comparison of the hundred millions of suns and worlds which
by the telescope have been descried throughout the starry
regions? What, then, is a kingdom, a province, or a baronial
territory, of which we are as proud as if we were the lords of
the universe and for which we engage in so much devastation and
carnage? What are they, when set in competition with the glories
of the sky? Could we take our station on the lofty pinnacles of
heaven, and look down on this scarcely distinguishable speck of
earth, we should be ready to exclaim with Seneca, "Is it to
this little spot that the great designs and vast desires of men
are confined? Is it for this there is so much disturbance of
nations, so much carnage, and so many ruinous wars? Oh, the
folly of deceived men, to imagine great kingdoms in the compass
of an atom, to raise armies to decide a point of earth with the
sword!" Dr. Chalmers, in his Astronomical Discourses, very
truthfully says, "We gave you but a feeble image of our
comparative insignificance, when we said that the glories of an
extended forest would suffer no more from the fall of a single
leaf, than the glories of this extended universe would suffer
though the globe we tread upon, 'and all that it inherits,
should dissolve.'"
Verses 5-8. These verses may set forth man's position among
the creatures before he fell; but as they are, by the apostle
Paul, appropriated to man as represented by the Lord Jesus, it
is best to give most weight to that meaning. In order of
dignity, man stood next to the angels, and a little lower than
they; in the Lord Jesus this was accomplished, for he was made a
little lower than the angels by the suffering of death. Man in
Eden had the full command of all creatures, and they came before
him to receive their names as an act of homage to him as the
viceregent of God to them. Jesus in his glory, is now Lord, not
only of all living, but of all created things, and, with the
exception of him who put all things under him, Jesus is Lord of
all, and his elect, in him, are raised to a dominion wider than
that of the first Adam, as shall be more clearly seen at his
coming. Well might the Psalmist wonder at the singular
exaltation of man in the scale of being, when he marked his
utter nothingness in comparison with the starry universe.
Thou
madest him a little lower than the angels—a little lower
in nature, since they are immortal, and but a little, because
time is short; and when that is over, saints are no longer lower
than the angels. The margin reads it, "A little while
inferior to." Thou crownest him. The dominion that God has
bestowed on man is a great glory and honour to him; for all
dominion is honour, and the highest is that which wears the
crown. A full list is given of the subjugated creatures, to show
that all the dominion lost by sin is restored in Christ Jesus.
Let none of us permit the possession of any earthly creature to
be a snare to us, but let us remember that we are to reign over
them, and not to allow them to reign over us. Under our feet we
must keep the world, and we must shun that base spirit which is
content to let worldly cares and pleasures sway the empire of
the immortal soul.
Verse 9. Here, like a good composer, the poet returns to his
key-note, falling back, as it were, into his first state of
wondering adoration. What he started with as a proposition in
the first verse, he closes with as a well proven conclusion,
with a sort of quod erat demonstrandum. O for grace to
walk worthy of that excellent name which has been named upon us,
and which we are pledged to magnify!
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Title. "Gittith," was probably a musical
instrument used at their rejoicings after the vintage. The
vintage closed the civil year of the Jews, and this Psalm
directs us to the latter-day glory, when the Lord shall be King
over all the earth, having subdued all his enemies. It is very
evident that the vintage was adopted as a figurative
representation of the final destruction of all God's enemies.
Isaiah 63:1-6; Revelation 19:18-20. The ancient Jewish
interpreters so understood this Psalm, and apply it to the
mystic vintage. We may then consider this interesting
composition as a prophetic anticipation of the kingdom of
Christ, to be established in glory and honour in the "world
to come," the habitable world. Hebrews 2:5. We see not yet
all things put under his feet, but we are sure that the Word of
God shall be fulfilled, and every enemy, Satan, death, and hell,
shall be for ever subdued and destroyed, and creation itself
delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious
liberty of the children of God. Romans 8:17-23. In the use of
this Psalm, then, we anticipate that victory, and in the praise
we thus celebrate, we go on from strength to strength, till,
with him who is our glorious Head, we appear in Zion before God.
W. Wilson, D.D., in loc.
Whole Psalm. Now, consider but the scope of the Psalm,
as the apostle quoteth it to prove the world to come. Hebrews 2.
Any one that reads the Psalm would think that the psalmist doth
but set forth old Adam in his kingdom, in his paradise, made a
little lower than the angels—for we have spirits wrapped up in
flesh and blood, whereas they are spirits simply—a degree
lower, as if they were dukes, and we marquises; one would think,
I say, that this were all his meaning, and that it is applied to
Christ but by way of allusion. But the truth is, the apostle
bringeth it in to prove and to convince these Hebrews, to whom
he wrote, that that Psalm was meant of Christ, of that man whom
they expected to be the Messiah, the Man Christ Jesus. And that
he doth it, I prove by the sixth verse—it is the observation
that Beza hath—"One in a certain place," quoting
David. (Greek) hath testified; so we may translate it, hath
testified it, etiam atque etiam, testified most
expressly; he bringeth an express proof for it that it was meant
of the Man Christ Jesus; therefore it is not an allusion. And
indeed it was Beza that did first begin that interpretation that
I read of, and himself therefore doth excuse it and make an
apology for it, that he diverteth out of the common road, though
since many others have followed him.
Now
the scope of the Psalm is plainly this: in Romans 5:14, you read
that Adam was a type of him that was to come. Now in Psalm 8,
you find there Adam's world, the type of a world to come; he was
the first Adam, and had a world, so the second Adam hath a world
also appointed for him; there is his oxen and his sheep, and the
fowls of the air, whereby are meant other things, devils
perhaps, and wicked men, the prince of the air; as by the
heavens there; the angels, or the apostles, that were preachers
of the gospel.
To
make this plain to you, that that Psalm where the phrase is
used, "All things under his feet," and quoted by the
apostle in Ephesians 1:22—therefore it is proper—was not
meant of man in innocency, but of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus
Christ; and therefore, answerably, that the world there is not
this world, but a world on purpose made for this Messiah, as the
other was for Adam.
First,
it was not meant of man in innocency properly and principally.
Why? Because in the first verse he saith, "Out of the
mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength."
There were no babes in the time of Adam's innocency, he fell
before there were any. Secondly, he addeth, "That thou
mightest still the enemy and the avenger;" the devil that
is, for he shewed himself the enemy there, to be a manslayer
from the beginning. God would use man to still him; alas! he
overcame Adam presently. It must be meant of another therefore,
one that is able to still this enemy and avenger.
Then
he saith, "How excellent is thy name in all the earth! who
hast set thy glory above the heavens." Adam had but
paradise, he never propagated God's name over all the earth; he
did not continue so long before he fell as to beget sons; much
less did he found it in the heavens.
Again,
verse 4, "What is man, and the son of man?" Adam,
though he was man, yet he was not the son of man; he is called
indeed, "the son of God" (Luke 3:38), but he was not filius
hominis. I remember Ribera urgeth that.
But
take an argument the apostle himself useth to prove it. This
man, saith he, must have all subject to him; all but God, saith
he; he must have the angels subject to him, for he hath put all
principalities and powers under his feet, saith he. This could
not be Adam, is could not be the man that had this world in a
state of innocency; much less had Adam all under his feet. No,
my brethren, it was too great a vassalage for Adam to have the
creatures thus bow to him. But they are thus to Jesus Christ,
angels and all; they are all under his feet, he is far above
them.
Secondly,
it is not meant of man fallen, that is as plain; the apostle
himself saith so. "We see not," saith he, "all
things subject unto him." Some think that it is meant as an
objection that the apostle answereth; but it is indeed to prove
that man fallen cannot be meant in Psalm 8. Why? Because, saith
he, we do not see anything, all things at least, subject unto
him; you have not any one man, or the whole race of man, to whom
all things have been subject; the creatures are sometimes
injurious to him. We do not see him, saith he, that is, the
nature of man in general considered. Take all the monarchs in
the world, they never conquered the whole world; there was never
any one man that was a sinner that had all subject to him.
"But we see," saith he—mark the
opposition—"but we see Jesus," that Man,
"crowned with glory and honour;" therefore it is this
Man, and no man else; the opposition implieth it." . . . .
So now it remaineth, then, that it is only Christ, God-man, that
is meant in Psalm 8. And indeed, and in truth, Christ himself
interpreteth the Psalm of himself; you have two witnesses to
confirm it, Christ himself and the apostle. Matthew 21:16. When
they cried hosanna to Christ, or "save now," and made
him Saviour of the world, the Pharisees were angry, our Saviour
confuteth them by this very Psalm: "Have ye not read,"
saith he, "out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou
hast perfected praise?" He quoteth this very Psalm which
speaks of himself; and Paul, by his warrant, and perhaps from
that hint, doth thus argue out of it, and convince the Jews by
it. Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 1. "How excellent is thy name in all the
earth!" How illustrious is the name of Jesus throughout
the world! His incarnation, birth, humble and obscure life,
preaching, miracles, passion, death, resurrection, and
ascension, are celebrated through the whole world. His religion,
the gifts and graces of his Spirit, his people—Christians, his
gospel, and the preachers of it, are everywhere spoken of. No
name is so universal, no power and influence so generally felt,
as those of the Saviour of mankind. Amen. Adam Clarke.
Verse 1. "Above the heavens;" not in
the heavens, but "above the heavens;" even
greater, beyond, and higher than they; "angels,
principalities, and powers, being made subject unto him."
As Paul says, he hath "ascended up far above all
heavens." And with this his glory above the heavens is
connected, his sending forth his name upon earth through his
Holy Spirit. As the apostle adds in this passage, "He hath
ascended up far above all heavens; and he gave some
apostles." And thus here: "Thy name excellent in all
the world;" "Thy glory above the heavens." Isaac
Williams.
Verse 2. "Out of the mouth of babes and
sucklings hast thou ordained strength," etc. In a
prophetical manner, speaking of that which was to be done by
children many hundreds of years after, for the asserting of his
infinite mercy in sending his Son Jesus Christ into the world to
save us from our sins. For so the Lord applieth their crying,
"Hosannah to the Son of David" in the temple. And thus
both Basil and other ancients, and some new writers also
understand it. But Calvin will have it meant of God's wonderful
providing for them, by turning their mother's blood into milk,
and giving them the faculty to suck, thus nourishing and
preserving them, which sufficiently convinceth all gainsayers of
God's wonderful providence toward the weakest and shiftless of
all creatures. John Mayer, 1653.
Verse 2. Who are these "babes and sucklings?"
1.
Man in general, who springeth from so weak and poor a beginning
as that of babes and sucklings, yet is at length advanced to
such power as to grapple with, and overcome the enemy and the
avenger.
2.
David in particular, who being but a ruddy youth, God used him
as an instrument to discomfit Goliath of Gath.
3.
More especially our Lord Jesus Christ, who assuming our nature
and all the sinless infirmities of it, and submitting to the
weakness of an infant, and after dying is gone in the same
nature to reign in heaven, till he hath brought all his enemies
under his feet. Psalm 110:1., and 1 Corinthians 15:27. Then was
our human nature exalted above all other creatures, when the Son
of God was made of a woman, carried in the womb.
4.
The apostles, who to outward appearance were despicable, in a
manner children and sucklings in comparison of the great ones of
the world; poor despised creatures, yet principal instruments of
God's service and glory. Therefore 'tis notable, that when
Christ glorifieth his Father for the wise and free dispensation
of his saving grace (Matthew 11:25), he saith, "I thank
thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid
these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them
unto babes," so called from the meanness of their
condition. . . . And you shall see it was spoken when the
disciples were sent abroad and had power given them over unclean
spirits. "In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said,
I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast
hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed
them unto babes." This he acknowledged to be an act of
infinite condescension in God.
5.
Those children that cried Hosannah to Christ, make up
part of the sense, for Christ defendeth their practise by this
Scripture. . . . . . .
6.
Not only the apostles, but all those that fight under Christ's
banner, and are listed into his confederacy, may be called babes
and sucklings; first, because of their condition; secondly,
their disposition. .
1.
Because of their condition. . . . God in the government of the
world is pleased to subdue the enemies of his kingdom by weak
and despised instruments.
2.
Because of their disposition: they are most humbly spirited. We
are told (Matthew 18:3), "Except ye be converted and become
as little children," etc. As if he had said, you strive for
pre-eminence and worldly greatness in my kingdom; I tell you my
kingdom is a kingdom of babes, and containeth none but the
humble, and such as are little in their own eyes, and are
contented to be small and despised in the eyes of others, and so
do not seek after great matters in the world. A young child
knoweth not what striving or state meaneth, and therefore by an
emblem and visible representation of a child set in the midst of
them, Christ would take them off from the expectation of a
carnal kingdom. Thomas Manton, 1620-1677.
Verse 2. "That thou mightest still the enemy
and the avenger." This very confusion and revenge upon
Satan, who was the cause of man's fall, was aimed at by God at
first; therefore is the first promise and preaching of the
gospel to Adam brought in rather in sentencing him than in
speaking to Adam, that the seed of the woman should break the
serpent's head, it being in God's aim as much to confound him as
to save poor man. Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 2. The work that is done in love loses half its
tedium and difficulty. It is as with a stone, which in the air
and on the dry ground we strain at but cannot stir. Flood the
field where it lies, bury the block beneath the rising water;
and now, when its head is submerged, bend to the work. Put your
strength to it. Ah! it moves, rises from its bed, rolls on
before your arm. So, when under the heavenly influences of grace
the tide of love rises, and goes swelling over our duties and
difficulties, a child can do a man's work, and a man can do a
giant's. Let love be present in the heart, and "out of
the mouths of babes and sucklings God ordaineth
strength." Thomas Guthrie, D.D.
Verse 2. "Out of the mouth of babes and
sucklings," etc. That poor martyr, Alice Driver, in the
presence of many hundreds, did so silence Popish bishops, that
she and all blessed God that the proudest of them could not
resist the spirit in a silly woman; so I say to thee, "Out
of the mouth of babes and sucklings" God will be
honoured. Even thou, silly worm, shalt honour him, when it shall
appear what God hath done for thee, what lusts he hath
mortified, and what graces he hath granted thee. The Lord can
yet do greater things for thee if thou wilt trust him. He can
carry thee upon eagles' wings, enable thee to bear and suffer
strong affliction for him, to persevere to the end, to live by
faith, and to finish thy course with joy. Oh! in that he hath
made thee low in heart, thy other lowness shall be so much the
more honour to thee. Do not all as much and more wonder at God's
rare workmanship in the ant, the poorest bug that creeps, as in
the biggest elephant? That so many parts and limbs should be
united in such a little space; that so poor a creature should
provide in the summer-time her winter's food? Who sees not as
much of God in a bee as in a greater creature? Alas! in a great
body we look for great abilities and wonder not. Therefore, to
conclude, seeing God hath clothed the uncomely parts with the
more honour, bless God, and bear thy baseness more equally; thy
greatest glory is yet to come, that when the wise of the world
have rejected the counsel of God, thou hast (with those poor
publicans and soldiers), magnified the ministry of the gospel.
Surely the Lord will also be admired in thee (1 Thessalonians
1), a poor silly creature, that even thou wert made wise to
salvation and believest in that day. Be still poor in thine own
eyes, and the Lord will make thy proudest scornful enemies to
worship at thy feet, to confess God hath done much for thee, and
wish thy portion when God shall visit them. Daniel Rogers,
1642.
Verse 3. "When I consider."
Meditation fits for humiliation. When David had been
contemplating the works of creation, their splendour, harmony,
motion, influence, he lets the plumes of pride fall, and begins
to have self-abasing thoughts. "When I consider thy
heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which
thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of
him?" Thomas Watson.
Verse 3. "When I consider thy heavens,"
etc. David surveying the firmament, broke forth into this
consideration: "When I consider thy heavens, the work of
thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast created,
what is man?" etc. How cometh he to mention the moon
and stars, and omit the sun? the other being but his pensioners,
shining with that exhibition of light which the bounty of the
sun allots them. It is answered, this was David's night
meditation, when the sun, departing to the other world, left the
lesser lights only visible in heaven; and as the sky is best
surveyed by night in the variety of the same. Night was made for
man to rest in. But when I cannot sleep, may I, with the
psalmist, entertain my waking with good thoughts. Not to use
them as opium, to invite my corrupt nature to slumber, but to
bolt out bad thoughts, which otherwise would possess my soul. Thomas
Fuller, 1608 - 1661.
Verse 3. "Thy heavens." The carnal
mind sees God in nothing, not even in spiritual things, his word
and ordinances. The spiritual mind sees him in everything, even
in natural things, in looking on the heavens and the earth and
all the creatures—"THY heavens;" sees all in that
notion, in their relation to God as his work, and in them his
glory appearing; stands in awe, fearing to abuse his creatures
and his favours to his dishonour. "The day is thine, and
the night also is thine;" therefore ought not I to
forget thee through the day, nor in the night. Robert
Leighton, D.D.
Verse 3. "The stars." I cannot say
that it is chiefly the contemplation of their infinitude, and
the immeasurable space they occupy, that enraptures me in the
stars. These conditions rather tend to confuse the mind; and in
this view of countless numbers and unlimited space there lies,
moreover, much that belongs rather to a temporary and human than
to an eternally abiding consideration. Still less do I regard
them absolutely with reference to the life after this. But the
mere thought they are so far beyond and above everything
terrestrial—the feeling, that before them everything earthly
so utterly vanishes to nothing—that the single man is so
infinitely insignificant in the comparison with these worlds
strewn over all space—that his destinies, his enjoyments, and
sacrifices, to which he attaches such a minute importance—how
all these fade like nothing before such immense objects; then,
that the constellations bind together all the races of man, and
all the eras of earth, that they have beheld all that has passed
since the beginning of time, and will see all that passes until
its end; in thoughts like these I can always lose myself with a
silent delight in the view of the starry firmament. It is, in
very truth, a spectacle of the highest solemnity, when, in the
stillness of night, in a heaven quite clear, the stars, like a
choir of worlds, arise and descend, while existence, as it were,
falls asunder into two separate parts; the one, belonging to
earth, grows dumb in the utter silence of night, and thereupon
the other mounts upward in all its elevation, splendour, and
majesty. And, when contemplated from this point of view, the
starry heavens have truly a moral influence on the mind. Alexander
Von Humboldt, 1850.
Verse 3. "When I consider thy heavens,"
etc. Could we transport ourselves above the moon, could we reach
the highest star above our heads, we should instantly discover
new skies, new stars, new suns, new systems, and perhaps more
magnificently adorned. But even there, the vast dominions of our
great Creator would not terminate; we should then find, to our
astonishment, that we had only arrived at the borders of the
works of God. It is but little that we can know of his works,
but that little should teach us to be humble, and to admire the
divine power and goodness. How great must that Being be who
produced these immense globes out of nothing, who regulates
their courses, and whose mighty hand directs and supports them
all! What is the clod of earth which we inhabit, with all the
magnificent scenes it presents to us, in comparison of those
innumerable worlds? Were this earth annihilated, its absence
would no more be observed than that of a grain of sand from the
sea shore. What then are provinces and kingdoms when compared
with those worlds? They are but atoms dancing in the air, which
are discovered to us by the sunbeams. What then am I, when
reckoned among the infinite number of God's creatures? I am lost
in mine own nothingness! But little as I appear in this respect,
I find myself great in others. There is great beauty in this
starry firmament which God has chosen for his throne! How
admirable are those celestial bodies! I am dazzled with their
splendour, and enchanted with their beauty! But notwithstanding
this, however beautiful, and however richly adorned, yet this
sky is void of intelligence. It is a stranger to its own beauty,
while I, who am mere clay, moulded by a divine hand, am endowed
with sense and reason. I can contemplate the beauty of these
shining worlds; nay, more, I am already, to a certain degree,
acquainted with their sublime Author; and by faith I see some
small rays of his divine glory. O may I be more and more
acquainted with his works, and make the study of them my employ,
till by a glorious change I rise to dwell with him above the
starry regions. Christopher Christian Sturm's
"Reflections", 1750-1786.
Verse 3. "Work of God's fingers."
That is most elaborate and accurate: a metaphor from
embroiderers, or from them that make tapestry. John Trapp.
Verse 3. "When I consider thy heavens,"
etc. It is truly a most Christian exercise to extract a
sentiment of piety from the works and the appearance of nature.
It has the authority of the sacred writers upon its side, and
even our Saviour himself gives it the weight and the solemnity
of his example. "Behold the lilies of the field; they toil
not, neither do they spin, yet your heavenly Father careth for
them." He expatiates on the beauty of a single flower, and
draws from it the delightful argument of confidence in God. He
gives us to see that taste may be combined with piety, and that
the same heart may be occupied with all that is serious in the
contemplation of religion, and be at the same time alive to the
charms and the loveliness of nature. The psalmist takes a still
loftier flight. He leaves the world, and lifts his imagination
to that mighty expanse which spreads above it and around it. He
wings his way through space, and wanders in thought over its
immeasurable regions. Instead of a dark and unpeopled solitude,
he sees it crowded with splendour, and filled with the energy of
the divine presence. Creation rises in its immensity before him,
and the world, with all which it inherits, shrinks into
littleness at a contemplation so vast and overpowering. He
wonders that he is not overlooked amid the granduer and the
variety which are on every side of him; and, passing upward from
the majesty of nature to the majesty of nature's Architect, he
exclaims, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him, or
the son of man that thou shouldest deign to visit him?" It
is not for us to say whether inspiration revealed to the
psalmist the wonders of modern astronomy. But, even though the
mind be a perfect stranger to the science of these enlightened
times, the heavens present a great and an elevating spectacle,
an immense concave reposing upon the circular boundary of the
world, and the innumerable lights which are suspended from on
high, moving with solemn regularity along its surface. It seems
to have been at night that the piety of the psalmist was
awakened by this contemplation; when the moon and the stars were
visible, and not when the sun had risen in his strength and
thrown a splendour around him, which bore down and eclipsed all
the lesser glories of the firmament. Thomas Chalmers, D.D.,
1817.
Verse 3. "Thy heavens:"
This prospect vast, what is it?—weigh'd aright,
'Tis natures system of divinity,
And every student of the night inspires.
'Tis elder Scripture, writ by God's own hand:
Scripture authentic! uncorrupt by man.
Edward Young.
Verse 3. "The stars." When I gazed
into these stars, have they not looked down on me as if with
pity from their serene spaces, like eyes glistening with
heavenly tears over the little lot of man! Thomas Carlyle.
Verses 3, 4. "When I consider the
heavens," etc. Draw spiritual inferences from
occasional objects. David did but wisely consider the heavens,
and he breaks out into self-abasement and humble admiration of
God. Glean matter of instruction to yourselves, and praise to
your Maker from everything you see; it will be a degree of
restoration to a state of innocency, since this was Adam's task
in paradise. Dwell not upon any created object only as a virtuoso,
to gratify your rational curiosity, but as a Christian, call
religion to the feast, and make a spiritual improvement. No
creature can meet our eyes but affords us lessons worthy of our
thoughts, besides the general notices of the power and wisdom of
the Creator. Thus may the sheep read us a lesson of patience,
the dove of innocence, the ant and bee raise blushes in us for
our sluggishness, and the stupid ox and dull ass correct and
shame our ungrateful ignorance. . . . . He whose eyes are open
cannot want an instructor, unless he wants a heart. Stephen
Charnock.
Verse 4. "What is man that thou art mindful of
him?" etc. My readers must be careful to mark the
design of the psalmist, which is to enhance, by this comparison,
the infinite goodness of God; for it is, indeed, a wonderful
thing that the Creator of heaven, whose glory is so surpassingly
great as to ravish us with the highest admiration, condescends
so far as graciously to take upon him the care of the human
race. That the psalmist makes this contrast must be inferred
from the Hebrew word (Heb.,) enosh, which we have
rendered man, and which expresses the frailty of man
rather than any strength or power which he possesses. . . . .
Almost all interpreters render (Heb.), pakad, the last
word of this verse, to visit; and I am unwilling to
differ from them, since this sense suits the passage very well.
But as it sometimes signifies to remember, and as we will
often find in the Psalms the repetition of the same thought in
different words, it may here be very properly translated to
remember; as if David had said, "This is a marvelous
thing, that God thinks upon men, and remembers them
continually." John Calvin, 1509-1564.
Verse 4. "What is man?" But, O God,
what a little lord hast thou made over this great world! The
least corn of sand is not so small to the whole earth, as man is
to the heaven. When I see the heavens, the sun, the moon, and
stars, O God, what is man? Who would think that thou shouldest
make all these creatures for one, and that one well-near the
least of all? Yet none but he can see what thou hast done; none
but he can admire and adore thee in what he seeth: how had he
need to do nothing but this, since he alone must do it!
Certainly the price and value of things consist not in the
quantity; one diamond is worth more than many quarries of stone;
one lodestone hath more virtue than mountains of earth. It is
lawful for us to praise thee in ourselves. All thy creation hath
not more wonder in it than one of us: other creatures thou
madest by a simple command; MAN, not without a divine
consultation: others at once; man thou didst form, then inspire:
others in several shapes, like to none but themselves; man,
after thine own image: others with qualities fit for service;
man, for dominion. Man had his name from thee; they had their
names from man. How should we be consecrated to thee above all
others, since thou hast bestowed more cost on us than other! Joseph
Hall, D.D., Bishop of Norwich, 1574-1656.
Verse 4. "What is man, that thou art mindful
of him? or the son of man, that thou shouldst visit him?"
And (Job 7:17, 18) "What is man, that thou shouldst magnify
him? and that thou shouldst set thy heart upon him? and that
thou shouldst visit him every morning?" Man, in the pride
of his heart, seeth no such great matter in it; but a humble
soul is filled with astonishment. "Thus saith the high and
lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell
in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite
and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to
revive the heart of the contrite ones." Isaiah 57:15. Oh,
saith the humble soul, will the Lord have respect unto such a
vile worm as I am? Will the Lord acquaint himself with such a
sinful wretch as I am? Will the Lord open his arms, his bosom,
his heart to me? Shall such a loathsome creature as I find
favour in his eyes? In Ezekiel 16: 1 - 5, we have a relation of
the wonderful condescension of God to man, who is there
resembled to a wretched infant cast out in the day of its birth,
in its blood and filthiness, no eye pitying it; such loathsome
creatures are we before God; and yet when he passed by, and saw
us polluted in our blood, he said unto us, "Live." It
is doubled because of the strength of its nature; it was
"the time of love" (verse 8). This was love indeed,
that God should take a filthy, wretched thing, and spread his
skirts over it, and cover its nakedness and swear unto it, and
enter into a covenant with it, and make it his: that is, that he
should espouse this loathsome thing to himself, that he would be
a husband to it; this is love unfathomable, love inconceivable,
self-principle love; this is the love of God to man, for God is
love. Oh, the depth of the riches of the bounty and goodness of
God! How is his love wonderful, and his grace past finding out!
How do you find and feel your hearts affected upon the report of
these things? Do you not see matter of admiration and cause of
wonder? Are you not as it were launched forth into an ocean of
goodness, where you can see no shore, nor feel no bottom? Ye may
make a judgment of yourselves by the motions and affections that
ye feel in yourselves at the mention of this. For thus Christ
judged of the faith of the centurion that said unto him,
"Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my
roof. When Jesus heard this, he marvelled, and said to them that
followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith,
no, not in Israel." Matthew 8: 8-10. If, then, you feel not
your souls mightily affected with this condescension of God, say
thus unto your souls, What aileth thee, O my soul, that thou art
no more affected with the goodness of God? Art thou dead, that
thou canst not feel? Or art thou blind, that thou canst not see
thyself compassed about with astonishing goodness? Behold the
King of glory descending from the habitation of his majesty, and
coming to visit thee! Hearest not thou his voice, saying,
"Open to me, my sister: behold, I stand at the door and
knock. Lift up yourselves, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye
everlasting doors, that the King of glory may come in"?
Behold, O my soul, how he waits still, while thou hast refused
to open to him! Oh, the wonder of his goodness! Oh, the
condescension of his love, to visit me, to sue unto me, to wait
upon me, to be acquianted with me! Thus work up your souls into
an astonishment at the condescension of God. James Janeway,
1674.
Verse 4. Man in Hebrew—infirm or miserable
man—by which it is apparent that he speaks of man not
according to the state of his creation, but as fallen into a
state of sin, and misery, and mortality. Art mindful of him,
i.e., carest for him, and conferrest such high favours upon
him. The son of man, Hebrew, the son of Adam, that
great apostate from and rebel against God; the sinful son of a
sinlful father—his son by likeness of disposition and manners,
no less than by procreation; all which tends to magnify the
divine mercy. That thou visitest, him—not in anger, as
that word is sometimes used, but with thy grace and mercy, as it
is taken in Genesis 21:1; Exodus 4:31; Psalm 65:9; 106:4; 144:3.
Verse 4. "What is man?" The Scripture
gives many answers to this question. Ask the prophet Isaiah, "What
is man?" and he answers (Isaiah 40:6), man is
"grass"—"All flesh is grass, and all the
goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field." Ask
David, "What is man?" He answers (Psalm 62:9),
man is "a lie," not a liar only, or a deceiver,
but "a lie," and a deceit. All the answers the
Holy Ghost gives concerning man, are to humble man: man is ready
to flatter himself, and one man to flatter another, but God
tells us plainly what we are. . . . It is a wonder that God
should vouchsafe a gracious look upon such a creature as man; it
is wonderful, considering the distance between God and man, as
man is a creature and God the creator. "What is
man," that God should take notice of him? Is he not a
clod of earth, a piece of clay? But consider him as a sinful and
an unclean creature, and we may wonder to amazement: what is an
unclean creature that God should magnify him? Will the Lord
indeed put value on filthiness, and fix his approving eye upon
an impure thing? One step further; what is rebellious man, man
an enemy to God, that God should magnify him! what admiration
can answer this question? Will God prefer his enemies, and
magnify those who would cast him down? Will a prince exalt a
traitor, or give him honour who attempts to take away his life?
The sinful nature of man is an enemy to the nature of God, and
would pull God out of heaven; yet God even at that time is
raising man to heaven: sin would lessen the great God, and yet
God greatens sinful man. Joseph Caryl.
Verse 4. "What is man?" Oh, the
granduer and littleness, the excellence and the corruption, the
majesty and meanness of man! Pascal, 1623-1662.
Verse 4. "Thou visitest him." To
visit is, first, to afflict, to chasten, yea, to punish; the
highest judgments in Scripture come under the notions of
visitations. "Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children" (Exodus 34:7), that is, punishing them. . . . .
And it is a common speech with us when a house hath the plague,
which is one of the highest strokes of temporal affliction, we
used to say, "Such a house is visited." Observe then,
afflictions are visitations. . . . Secondly, to visit, in a good
sense, signifies to show mercy, and to refresh, to deliver and
to bless; "Naomi heard how the Lord had visited his people
in giving them bread." Ruth 1:6. "The Lord visited
Sarah," etc. Genesis 21:1, 2. That greatest mercy and
deliverance that ever the children of men had, is thus
expressed, "The Lord hath visited and redeemed his
people." Luke 1:68. Mercies are visitations; when God comes
in kindness and love to do us good, he visiteth us. And these
mercies are called visitations in two respects: 1. Because God
comes near to us when he doth us good; mercy is a drawing
near to a soul, a drawing near to a place. As when God sends a
judgment, or afflicts, he is said to depart and go away from
that place; so when he doth us good, he comes near, and as it
were applies himself in favour to our persons and habitations.
2. They are called a visitation because of the freeness of
them. A visit is one of the freest things in the world;
there is no obligation but that of love to make a visit; because
such a man is my friend and I love him, therefore I visit him.
Hence that greatest act of free grace in redeeming the world is
called a visitation, because it was as freely done as ever any
friend made a visit to see his friend, and with infinite more
freedom. There was no obligation on man's side at all, many
unkindnesses and neglects there were; God in love came to redeem
man. Thirdly, to visit imports an act of care and inspection, of
tutorage and direction. The pastor's office over the flock is
expressed by this act (Zechariah 10:3; Acts 15:36); and the care
we ought to have of the fatherless and widows is expressed by
visiting them. "Pure religion," saith the apostle
James, "Is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in
their affliction" (Chapter 1:27); and in Matthew 25:34,
Christ pronounceth the blessing on them who, when he was in
prison, visited him, which was not a bare seeing, or asking 'how
do you,' but it was care of Christ in his imprisonment, and
helpfulness and provision for him in his afflicted members. That
sense also agrees well with this place, Job 7:17, 18, "What
is man, that thou shouldst visit him?" Joseph Caryl.
Verse 4. "What is man, that thou art mindful
of him? or the son of man, that thou visiteth him?"
Lord, what is man that thou
So mindful art of him? Or what's the son
Of man, that thou the highest heaven didst bow,
And to his aide didst runne?
Man's but a piece of clay
That's animated by thy heavenly breath,
And when that breath thou tak'st away,
Hee's clay again by death.
He is not worthy of the least
Of all Thy mercies at the best.
Baser than clay is he,
For sin hath made him like the beasts that perish,
Though next the angels he was in degree;
Yet this beast thou dost cherish.
Hee is not worthy of the least,
Of all thy mercies, hee's a beast.
Worse than a beast is man,
Who after thine own image made at first,
Became the divel's sonne by sin. And can
A thing be more accurst?
Yet thou thy greatest mercy hast
On this accursed creature cast.
Thou didst thyself abase,
And put off all thy robes of majesty,
Taking his nature to give him thy grace,
To save his life didst dye.
He is not worthy of the least
Of all thy mercies; one's a feast.
Lo! man is made now even
With the blest angels, yea, superiour farre,
Since Christ sat down at God's right hand in heaven,
And God and man one are.
Thus all thy mercies man inherits,
Though not the least of them he merits.
Thomas Washbourne, D.D., 1654.
Verse 4. "What is man?"
How poor, how rich, how abject, how august,
How complicate, how wonderful is man!
How passing wonder HE who made him such!
Who centred in our make such strange extremes!
From different natures marvelously mix'd,
Connexion exquisite of distant worlds!
Distinguish'd link in being's endless chain!
Midway from nothing to the Deity!
A beam ethereal, sullied and absorb'd,
Though sullied and dishonour'd, still divine!
Dim miniature of greatness absolute!
An heir of glory! a frail child of dust!
Helpless, immortal! insect infinite!
A worm! a god! I tremble at myself,
And in myself am lost.
Edward Young, 1681-1775.
(Verses 4-8)—"What is man," etc.:
—Man is ev'ry thing,
And more: he is a tree, yet bears no fruit;
A beast, yet is, or should be more:
Reason and speech we onely bring.
Parrats may thank us, if they are not mute,
They go upon the score.
Man is all symmetrie,
Full of proportions, one limbe to another,
And all to all the world besides:
Each part may call the farthest, brother.
For head with foot hath private amitie,
And both with moons and tides.
Nothing hath got so farre,
But man hath caught and kept it, as his prey.
His eyes dismount the highest starre:
He is in little all the sphere.
Herbs gladly cure our flesh, because that they
Finde their acquaintance there.
For us the windes do blow;
The earth doth rest, heav'n move, and fountains flow.
Nothing we see, but means our good,
As our delight, or as our treasure:
The whole is, either our cupboard of food,
Or cabinet of pleasure.
The starres have us to bed:
Night draws the curtain, which the sun withdraws:
Musick and light attend our head.
All things unto our flesh are kinde
In their descent and being; to our minde
In their ascent and cause.
Each thing is full of dutie:
Waters united are our navigation;
Distinguished, our habitation;
Below, our drink; above, our meat:
Both are our cleanlinesse. Hath one such beautie?
Then how are all things neat!
More servants wait on man,
Than he'l take notice of: in ev'ry path
He treads down that which doth befriend him,
When sicknesse makes him pale and wan,
Oh, mightie love! Man is one world, and hath
Another to attend him.
George Herbert, 1593.
Verse 5. "Thou hast made him a little lower
than the angels." Perhaps it was not so much in nature
as in position that man, as first formed, was inferior to the
angels. At all events, we can be sure that nothing higher could
be affirmed of the angels, than that they were made in the image
of God. If, then, they had originally superiority over man, it
must have been in the degree of resemblance. The angel was made
immortal, intellectual, holy, powerful, glorious, and in these
properties lay their likeness to the Creator. But were not these
properties given also to man? Was not man made immortal,
intellectual, holy, powerful, glorious? And if the angel
excelled the man, it was not, we may believe, in the possession
of properties which had no counterpart in the man; both bore
God's image, and both therefore had lineaments of the attributes
which centre in Deity. Whether or not these lineaments were more
strongly marked in the angels than in man, it were presumptuous
to attempt to decide; but it is sufficient for our present
purpose that the same properties must have been common to both,
since both were modelled after the same divine image; and
whatever originally the relative positions of the angel and the
man, we cannot question that since the fall man had been
fearfully inferior to the angels. The effect of transgression
has been to debase all his powers, and so bring him down from
his high rank in the scale of creation; but, however degraded
and sunken, he still retains the capacities of his original
formation, and since these capacities could have differed in
nothing but degree from the capacities of the angel, it must be
clear that they may be so purged and enlarged as to produce, if
we may not say to restore, the equality. . . . Oh! it may be, we
again say, that an erroneous estimate is formed, when we
separate by an immense space the angel and the man, and bring
down the human race to a low station in the scale of creation.
If I search through the records of science, I may indeed find
that, for the furtherance of magnificent purposes, God hath made
man "a little lower than the angels;" and I cannot
close my eyes to the melancholy fact, that as a consequence upon
apostasy there has been a weakening and a rifling of those
splendid endowments which Adam might have transmitted unimpaired
to his children. And yet the Bible teems with notices, that so
far from being by nature higher than men, angels even now
possess not an importance which belongs to our race. It is a
mysterious thing, and one to which we scarcely dare allude, that
there has arisen a Redeemer of fallen men, but not of fallen
angels. We would build no theory on so awful and inscrutable a
truth; but is it too much to say, that the interference on the
behalf of man and the non-interference on the behalf of angels,
gives ground for the persuasion, that men occupy at least not a
lower place than angels in the love and the solicitude of their
Maker? Beside, are not angels represented as "ministering
spirits, sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation?"
And what is the idea conveyed by such a representation, if it be
not that believers, being attended and waited on by angels, are
as children of God marching forwards to a splendid throne, and
so elevated amongst creatures, that those who have the wind in
their wings, and are brilliant as a flame of fire, delight to do
them honour? And, moreover, does not the repentance of a single
sinner minister gladness to a whole throng of angels? And who
shall say that this sending of a new wave of rapture throughout
the hierarchy of heaven does not betoken such immense sympathy
with men as goes far towards proving him the occupant of an
immense space in the scale of existence? We may add, also, that
angels learn of men; inasmuch as Paul declares to the Ephesians,
that "now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly
places is made known by the church, the manifold wisdom of
God." And when we further remember, that in one of those
august visions with which the Evangelist John was favoured, he
beheld the representatives of the church placed immediately
before the eternal throne, whilst angels, standing at a greater
distance, thronged the outer circle, we seem to have accumulated
proof that men are not to be considered as naturally inferior to
angels—that however they may have cast themselves down from
eminence, and sullied the lustre and sapped the strength of
their first estate, they are still capable of the very loftiest
elevation, and require nothing but the being restored to their
forfeited position, and the obtaining room for the development
of their powers, in order to their shining forth as the
illustrious ones of the creation, the breathing, burning images
of the Godhead. . . . . The Redeemer is represented as
submitting to be humbled—"made a little lower than the
angels," for the sake or with a view to the glory that was
to be the recompense of his sufferings. This is a very important
representation—one that should be most attentively considered;
and from it may be drawn, we think, a strong and clear argument
for the divinity of Christ.
We
could never see how it could be humility in any creature,
whatever the dignity of his condition, to assume the office of a
Mediator and to work out our reconciliation. We do not forget to
how extreme degradation a Mediator must consent to be reduced,
and through what suffering and ignominy he could alone achieve
our redemption; but neither do we forget the unmeasured
exaltation which was to be the Mediator's reward, and which, if
Scripture be true, was to make him far higher than the highest
of principalities and powers; and we know not where would have
been the amazing humility, where the unparalleled condescension,
had any mere creature consented to take the office on the
prospect of such a recompense. A being who knew that he should
be immeasurably elevated if he did a certain thing, can hardly
be commended for the greatness of his humility in doing that
thing. The nobleman who should become a slave, knowing that in
consequence he should be made a king, does not seem to us to
afford any pattern of condescension. He must be the king
already, incapable of obtaining any accession to his greatness,
ere his entering the state of slavery can furnish an example of
humility. And, in like manner, we can never perceive that any
being but a divine Being can justly be said to have given a
model of condescension in becoming our Redeemer. . . . . If he
could not lay aside the perfections, he could lay aside the
glories of Deity; without ceasing to be God he could appear to
be man; and herein we believe was the humiliation—herein that
self-emptying which Scripture identifies with out Lord's having
been "made a little lower than the angels." In place
of manifesting himself in the form of God, and thereby centering
on himself the delighted and reverential regards of all unfallen
orders of intelligence, he must conceal himself in the form of a
servant, and no longer gathering that rich tribute of homage,
which had flowed from every quarter of his unlimited empire,
produced by his power, sustained by his providence, he had the
same essential glory, the same real dignity, which he had ever
had. These belonged necessarily to his nature, and could no more
be parted with, even for a time, than could that nature itself.
But every outward mark of majesty and of greatness might be laid
aside; and Deity, in place of coming down with such dazzling
manifestations of supremacy as would have compelled the world he
visited to fall prostrate and adore, might so veil his
splendours, and so hide himself in an ignoble form, that when
men saw him there should be no "beauty that they should
desire him." And this was what Christ did, in consenting to
be "made a little lower than the angels;" and in doing
this he emptied himself, or "made himself of no
reputation." The very being who in the form of God had
given its light and magnificence to heaven appeared upon earth
in the form of a servant; and not merely so—for every creature
is God's servant, and therefore the form of a servant would have
been assumed, had he appeared as an angel or an archangel—but
in the form of the lowest of these servants, being "made in
the likeness of men"—of men the degraded, the apostate,
the perishing. Henry Melvill, B.D., 1854.
Verses 5, 6. God magnifies man in the work of
creation. The third verse shows us what it was that raised the
psalmist to this admiration of the goodness of God to man: "When
I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and
the stars, which thou hast ordained; Lord, what is man?"
God in the work of creation made all these things serviceable
and instrumental for the good of man. What is man, that he
should have a sun, moon, and stars, planted in the firmament for
him? What creature is this? When great preparations are made in
any place, much provisions laid in, and the house adorned with
richest furnitures, we say, "What is this man that comes
to such a house?" When such a goodly fabric was raised
up, the goodly house of the world adorned and furnished, we have
reason admiringly to say, What is this man that must be the
tenant or inhabitant of this house? There is yet a higher
exaltation of man in the creation; man was magnified with the
stamp of God's image, one part whereof the psalmist describes in
the sixth verse, "Thou madest him to have dominion over
the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his
feet," etc. Thus man was magnified in creation. What
was man that he should have the rule of the world given him?
That he should be lord over the fish of the sea, and over the
beasts of the field, and over the fowls of the air? Again, man
was magnified in creation, in that God set him in the next
degree to the angels; "Thou hast made him a little lower
than the angels;" there is the first part of the answer
to this question, man was magnified in being made so excellent a
creature, and in having so many excellent creatures made for
him. All which may be understood of man as created in God's
image; but since the transgression it is peculiar to Christ, as
the apostle applies it (Hebrews 2:6), and if those who have
their blood and dignity restored by the work of redemption,
which is the next part of man's exaltation. Joseph Caryl.
Verses 5-8. Augustine having allegorized much about
the wine-presses in the title of this Psalm, upon these words,
"What is man, or the son of man," the one being called
(Heb.), from misery, the other (Heb.), the Son of
Adam, or man, saith, that by the first is meant man
in the state of sin and corruption; by the other, man
regenerated by grace, yet called the son of man because made
more excellent by the change of his mind and life, from old
corruption to newness, and from an old to a new man; whereas he
that is still carnal is miserable; and then ascending from the
body to the head, Christ, he extols his glory as being set over
all things, even the angels, and heavens, and the whole world as
is elsewhere showed that he is. Ephesians 1:21. And then leaving
the highest things he descended to "sheep and
oxen;" whereby we may understand sanctified men
and preachers, for to sheep are the faithful
often compared, and preachers to oxen. 1 Corinthians 9.
"Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth
out the corn." "The beasts of the field"
set forth the voluptuous that live at large, going in the
broad way: the fowls of the air, the lifted up by
pride: "the fishes of the sea," such as through a
covetous desire of riches pierce into the lower parts of the
earth, as the fishes dive to the bottom of the sea. And because
men pass the sea again and again for riches, he addeth, "that
passeth through the way of the sea," and to that of
diving to the bottom of the waters may be applied (1 Timothy
6:9), "They that will be rich, fall into many noisome
lusts, that drown the soul in perdition." And hereby seem
to be set forth the three things of the world of which it is
said, "they that love them, the love of the Father is not
in them." "The lust of the heart" being
sensuality; "the lust of the eyes," covetousness; to
which is added, "the pride of life." Above all these
Christ was set, because without all sin; neither could any of
the devil's three temptations, which may be referred hereunto,
prevail with him. And all these, as well as "sheep and
oxen," are in the church, for which it is said, that into
the ark came all manner of beasts, both clean and unclean, and
fowls; and all manner of fishes, good and bad, came into the
net, as it is in the parable. All which I have set down, as of
which good use may be made by the discreet reader. John
Mayer.
Verse 6. "Thou hast put all things under his
feet." Hermodius, a nobleman born, upbraided the
valiant captain Iphicrates for that he was but a shoemaker's
son. "My blood," saith Iphicrates, "taketh
beginning at me; and thy blood, at thee now taketh her
farewell;" intimating that he, not honouring his house with
the glory of his virtues, as the house had honoured him with the
title of nobility, was but as a wooden knife put into an empty
sheath to fill up the place; but for himself, he by his valorous
achievements was now beginning to be the raiser of his family.
Thus, in the matter of spirituality, he is the best gentleman
that is the best Christian. The men of Berea, who received the
word with all readiness, were more noble than those of
Thessalonica. The burgesses of God's city be not of base
lineage, but truly noble; they boast not of their generation,
but their regeneration, which is far better; for, by their
second birth they are the sons of God, and the church is their
mother, and Christ their elder brother, the Holy Ghost their
tutor, angels their attendants, and all other creatures their
subjects, the whole world their inn, and heaven their home. John
Spencer's "Things New and Old."
Verse 6. "Thou madest him to have dominion
over the works of thy hands," etc. For thy help against
wandering thoughts in prayer. . . . . . labour to keep thy
distance to the world, and that sovereignty which God hath given
thee over it in its profits and pleasures, or whatever else may
prove a snare to thee. While the father and master know their
place, and keep their distance, so long children and servants
will keep theirs by being dutiful and officious; but when they
forget this, the father grows fond of the one, and the master
too familiar with the other, then they begin to lose their
authority and the others to grow saucy and under no command; bid
them go, and it may be they will not stir; set them a task, and
they will bid you do it yourself. Truly, thus it fares with the
Christian; all the creatures are his servants, and so long as he
keeps his heart at a holy distance from them, and maintains his
lordship over them, not laying them to his bosom, which God hath
put "under his feet," all is well; he marches
to the duties of God's worship in a goodly order. He can be
private with God, and these not be bold to crowd in to disturb
him. William Gurnall.
Verses 7, 8. He who rules over the material world, is
Lord also of the intellectual or spiritual creation represented
thereby. The souls of the faithful, lowly and harmless, are the
sheep of his pasture; those who, like oxen, are strong to labour
in the church, and who, expounding the Word of Life, tread out
the corn for the nourishment of the people, own him for their
kind and beneficent Master; nay, tempers fierce and intractable
as the beasts of the desert, are yet subject to his will;
spirits of the angelic kind, that, like the birds of the air,
traverse freely the superior region, move at his command; and
those evil ones whose habitation is in the deep abyss, even to
the great leviathan himself, all are put under the feet of King
Messiah. George Horne, D.D.
Verse 8. Every dish of fish and fowl that come to our
table, is an instance of this dominion man has over the works of
God's hands, and it is a reason of our subjection to God our
chief Lord, and to his dominion over us.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1. "O Lord, our Lord." Personal
appropriation of the Lord as ours. The privilege of holding such
a portion.
"How
excellent", etc. The excellence of the name and nature
of God in all places, and under all circumstances.
Sermon
or lecture upon the glory of God in creation and providence.
"In
all the earth." The universal revelation of God in
nature and its excellency.
"Thy
glory above the heavens." The incomprehensible and
infinite glory of God.
"Above
the heavens." The glory of God outsoaring the intellect
of angels, and the splendour of heaven.
Verse 2. Infant piety, its possibility, potency,
"strength," and influence, "that thou mightest
still," etc.
The
strength of the gospel not the result of eloquence or wisdom in
the speaker.
Great
results from small causes when the Lord ordains to work.
Great
things which can be said and claimed by babes in grace.
The
stilling of the powers of evil by the testimony of feeble
believers.
The
stilling of the Great Enemy by the conquests of grace.
Verse 4. Man's insignificance. God's mindfulness of
man. Divine visits. The question, "What is man?" Each
of these themes may suffice for a discourse, or they may be
handled in one sermon.
Verse 5. Man's relation to the angels.
The
position Jesus assumed for our sakes.
Manhood's
crown—the glory of our nature in the person of the Lord
Jesus.
Verses 5, 6, 7, 8. The universal providential dominion
of our Lord Jesus.
Verse 6. Man's rights and responsibilities towards the
lower animals.
Verse 6. Man's dominion over the lower animals, and
how he should exercise it.
Verse 6 (second clause). The proper place for
all worldly things, "under his feet."
Verse 9. The wanderer in many climes enjoying the
sweetness of his Lord's name in every condition.