Since
this Psalm has no title of its own, it is supposed by some to be
a fragment of Psalm 9. We prefer, however, since it is complete
in itself, to consider it as a separate composition. We have had
instances already of Psalms which seem meant to form a pair
(Psalm 1 and 2, Psalm 3 and 4) and this, with the ninth, is
another specimen of the double Psalm.
The
prevailing theme seems to be the oppression and persecution of
the wicked, we will, therefore, for our own guidance, entitle
it, THE CRY OF THE OPPRESSED.
DIVISION. The first verse, in an exclamation of surprise,
explains the intent of the Psalm, viz., to invoke the
interposition of God for the deliverance of his poor and
persecuted people. From verse 2 to 11, the character of the
oppressor is described in powerful language. In verse 12, the
cry of the first verse bursts forth again, but with a clearer
utterance. In the next place (verses 13-15), God's eye is
clearly beheld as regarding all the cruel deeds of the wicked;
and as a consequence of divine omniscience, the ultimate
judgment of the oppressed is joyously anticipated (verses
16-18). To the Church of God during times of persecution, and to
individual saints who are smarting under the hand of the proud
sinner, this Psalm furnishes suitable language both for prayer
and praise.
EXPOSITION Verse 1. To the tearful eye of the
sufferer the Lord seemed to stand still, as if he calmly
looked on, and did not sympathize with his afflicted one. Nay,
more, the Lord appeared to be afar off, no longer "a
very present help in trouble," but an inaccessible
mountain, into which no man would be able to climb. The presence
of God is the joy of his people, but any suspicion of his
absence is distracting beyond measure. Let us, then, ever
remember that the Lord is nigh us. The refiner is never far from
the mouth of the furnace when his gold is in the fire, and the
Son of God is always walking in the midst of the flames when his
holy children are cast into them. Yet he that knows the frailty
of man will little wonder that when we are sharply exercised, we
find it hard to bear the apparent neglect of the Lord when he
forbears to work our deliverance.
"Why
hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?" It is not the
trouble, but the hiding of our Father's face, which cuts us to
the quick. When trial and desertion come together, we are in as
perilous a plight as Paul, when his ship fell into a place where
two seas met (Acts 27:41). It is but little wonder if we are
like the vessel which ran aground, and the fore-part stuck fast,
and remained unmoveable, while the hinder part was broken by the
violence of the waves. When our sun is eclipsed, it is dark
indeed. If we need an answer to the question, "Why hidest
thou thyself?" it is to be found in the fact that there is
a "needs-be," not only for trial, but for heaviness of
heart under trial (1 Peter 1:6); but how could this be the case,
if the Lord should shine upon us while he is afflicting us?
Should the parent comfort his child while he is correcting him,
where would be the use of the chastening? A smiling face and a
rod are not fit companions. God bares the back that the blow may
be felt; for it is only felt affliction which can become blest
affliction. If we were carried in the arms of God over every
stream, where would be the trial, and where the experience,
which trouble is meant to teach us?
Verse 2. The second verse contains the formal indictment
against the wicked: "The wicked in his pride doth
persecute the poor." The accusation divides itself into
two distinct charges,—pride and tyranny; the one the root and
cause of the other. The second sentence is the humble petition
of the oppressed: "Let them be taken in the devices that
they have imagined." The prayer is reasonable, just,
and natural. Even our enemies themselves being judges, it is but
right that men should be done by as they wished to do to others.
We only weigh you in your own scales, and measure your corn with
your own bushel. Terrible shall be thy day, O persecuting
Babylon! when thou shalt be made to drink of the winecup which
thou thyself hast filled to the brim with the blood of saints.
There are none who will dispute the justice of God, when he
shall hang every Haman on his own gallows, and cast all the
enemies of his Daniels into their own den of lions.
Verse 3. The indictment being read, and the petition
presented, the evidence is now heard upon the first count. The
evidence is very full and conclusive upon the matter of pride,
and no jury could hesitate to give a verdict against the
prisoner at the bar. Let us, however, hear the witnesses one by
one. The first testifies that he is a boaster. "For the
wicked boasteth of his heart's desire." He is a very
silly boaster, for he glories in a mere desire: a very
brazen-faced boaster, for that desire is villainy; and a most
abandoned sinner, to boast of that which is his shame. Bragging
sinners are the worst and most contemptible of men, especially
when their filthy desires,—too filthy to be carried into
act,—become the theme of their boastings. When Mr. Hate-Good
and Mr. Heady are joined in partnership, they drive a brisk
trade in the devil's wares. This one proof is enough to condemn
the prisoner at the bar. Take him away, jailor! But stay,
another witness desires to be sworn and heard. This time, the
impudence of the proud rebel is even more apparent; for he "blesseth
the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth." This is
insolence, which is pride unmasked. He is haughty enough to
differ from the Judge of all the earth, and bless the men whom
God hath cursed. So did the sinful generation in the days of
Malachi, who called the proud happy, and set up those that
worked wickedness (Malachi 3:15). These base pretenders would
dispute with their Maker; they would—
"Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,
Rejudge his justice, be the god of God."
How often have we heard the wicked man speaking in terms of
honour of the covetous, the grinder of the poor, and the sharp
dealer! Our old proverb hath it,—
"I wot well how the world wags;
He is most loved that hath most bags."
Pride meets covetousness, and compliments it as wise,
thrifty, and prudent. We say it with sorrow, there are many
professors of religion who esteem a rich man, and flatter him,
even though they know that he has fattened himself upon the
flesh and blood of the poor. The only sinners who are received
as respectable are covetous men. If a man is a fornicator, or a
drunkard, we put him out of the church; but who ever read of
church discipline against that idolatrous wretch,—the covetous
man? Let us tremble, lest we be found to be partakers of this
atrocious sin of pride, "blessing the covetous, whom
Jehovah abhorreth."
Verse 4. The proud boastings and lewd blessings of the wicked
have been received in evidence against him, and now his own face
confirms the accusation, and his empty closet cries aloud
against him. "The wicked, through the pride of his
countenance, will not seek after God." Proud hearts
breed proud looks and stiff knees. It is an admirable
arrangement that the heart is often written on the countenance,
just as the motion of the wheels of a clock find their record on
its face. A brazen face and a broken heart never go together. We
are not quite sure that the Athenians were wise when they
ordained that men should be tried in the dark lest their
countenances should weigh with the judges; for there is much
more to be learned from the motions of the muscles of the face
than from the words of the lips. Honesty shines in the face, but
villainy peeps out at the eyes.
See
the effect of pride; it kept the man from seeking God. It is
hard to pray with a stiff neck and an unbending knee. "God
is not in all his thoughts:" he thought much, but he
had no thoughts for God. Amid heaps of chaff there was not a
grain of wheat. The only place where God is not is in the
thoughts of the wicked. This is a damning accusation; for where
the God of heaven is not, the Lord of hell is reigning and
raging; and if God be not in our thoughts, our thoughts will
bring us to perdition.
Verse 5. "His ways are always grievous." To
himself they are hard. Men go a rough road when they go to hell.
God has hedged-up the way of sin: O what folly to leap these
hedges and fall among the thorns! To others, also, his ways
cause much sorrow and vexation; but what cares he? He sits like
the idol god upon his monstrous car, utterly regardless of the
crowds who are crushed as he rolls along. "Thy judgments
are far above out of his sight:" he looks high, but not
high enough. As God is forgotten, so are his judgments. He is
not able to comprehend the things of God; a swine may sooner
look through a telescope at the stars than this man study the
Word of God to understand the righteousness of the Lord. "As
for all his enemies, he puffeth at them." He defies and
domineers; and when men resist his injurious behaviour, he
sneers at them, and threatens to annihilate them with a puff. In
most languages there is a word of contempt borrowed from the
action of puffing with the lips, and in English we should
express the idea by saying, "He cries, 'Pooh! Pooh!' at his
enemies." Ah! there is one enemy who will not thus be
puffed at. Death will puff at the candle of his life and blow it
out, and the wicked boaster will find it grim work to brag in
the tomb.
Verse 6. The testimony of the sixth verse concludes the
evidence against the prisoner upon the first charge of pride,
and certainly it is conclusive in the highest degree. The
present witness has been prying into the secret chambers of the
heart, and has come to tell us what he has heard. "He
hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never
be in adversity." O impertinence runs to seed! The man
thinks himself immutable, and omnipotent too, for he, he
is never to be in adversity. He counts himself a privileged man.
He sits alone, and shall see no sorrow. His nest is in the
stars, and he dreams not of a hand that shall pluck him thence.
But let us remember that this man's house is built upon the
sand, upon a foundation no more substantial than the rolling
waves of the sea. He that is too secure is never safe. Boastings
are not buttresses, and self-confidence is a sorry bulwark. This
is the ruin of fools, that when they succeed they become too
big, and swell with self-conceit, as if their summer would last
for ever, and their flowers bloom on eternally. Be humble, O
man! for thou art mortal, and thy lot is mutable.
The
second crime is now to be proved. The fact that the man is proud
and arrogant may go a long way to prove that he is vindicative
and cruel. Haman's pride was the father of a cruel design to
murder all the Jews. Nebuchadnezzar builds an idol; in pride he
commands all men to bow before it; and then cruelly stands ready
to heat the furnace seven times hotter for those who will not
yield to his imperious will. Every proud thought is twin brother
to a cruel thought. He who exalts himself will despise others,
and one step further will make him a tyrant.
Verse 7. Let us now hear the witnesses in court. Let the
wretch speak for himself, for out of his own mouth he will be
condemned. "His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and
fraud." There is not only a little evil there, but his
mouth is full of it. A three-headed serpent hath stowed away its
coils and venom within the den of its black mouth. There is cursing
which he spits against both God and men, deceit with
which he entraps the unwary, and fraud by which, even in
his common dealings, he robs his neighbours. Beware of such a
man: have no sort of dealing with him: none but the silliest of
geese would go to the fox's sermon, and none but the most
foolish will put themselves into the society of knaves. But we
must proceed. Let us look under this man's tongue as well as in
his mouth; "under his tongue is mischief and
vanity." Deep in his throat are the unborn words which
shall come forth as mischief and iniquity.
Verse 8. Despite the bragging of this base wretch, it seems
that he is as cowardly as he is cruel. "He sitteth in
the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he
murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the
poor." He acts the part of the highwayman, who springs
upon the unsuspecting traveller in some desolate part of the
road. There are always bad men lying in wait for the saints.
This is a land of robbers and thieves; let us travel well armed,
for every bush conceals an enemy. Everywhere there are traps
laid for us, and foes thirsting for our blood. There are enemies
at our table as well as across the sea. We are never safe, save
when the Lord is with us.
Verse 9. The picture becomes blacker, for here is the cunning
of the lion, and of the huntsman, as well as the stealthiness of
the robber. Surely there are some men who come up to the very
letter of this description. With watching, perversion, slander,
whispering, and false swearing, they ruin the character of the
righteous, and murder the innocent; or, with legal quibbles,
mortgages, bonds, writs, and the like, they catch the poor, and
draw them into a net. Chrysostom was peculiarly severe upon this
last phase of cruelty, but assuredly not more so than was richly
merited. Take care, brethren, for there are other traps besides
these. Hungry lions are crouching in every den, and fowlers
spread their nets in every field.
Quarles
well pictures our danger in those memorable lines,—
"The close pursuers' busy hands do plant
Snares in thy substance; snares attend thy wants;
Snares in thy credit; snares in thy disgrace;
Snares in thy high estate; snares in thy base;
Snares tuck thy bed; and snares surround thy board;
Snares watch thy thoughts; and snares attack thy word;
Snares in thy quiet; snares in thy commotion;
Snares in thy diet; snares in thy devotion;
Snares lurk in thy resolves; snares in thy doubt;
Snares lie within thy heart; and snares without;
Snares are above thy head, and snares beneath;
Snares in thy sickness; snares are in thy death.
O Lord! keep thy servants, and defend us from all our
enemies!
Verse 10. "He croucheth and humbleth himself, that
the poor may fall by his strong ones." Seeming humility
is often armour-bearer to malice. The lion crouches that he may
leap with the greater force, and bring down his strong limbs
upon his prey. When a wolf was old, and had tasted human blood,
the old Saxon cried, "Ware, wolf!" and we may cry,
"Ware fox!" They who crouch to our feet are longing to
make us fall. Be very careful of fawners; for friendship and
flattery are deadly enemies.
Verse 11. As upon the former count, so upon this one; a
witness is forthcoming, who has been listening at the keyhole of
the heart. Speak up, friend, and let us hear your story. "He
hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face;
he will never see it." This cruel man comforts himself
with the idea that God is blind, or, at least, forgetful: a fond
and foolish fancy, indeed. Men doubt Omniscience when they
persecute the saints. If we had a sense of God's presence with
us, it would be impossible for us to ill-treat his children. In
fact, there can scarcely be a greater preservation from sin than
the constant thought of "Thou, God, seest me."
Thus
has the trial proceeded. The case has been fully stated; and now
it is but little wonder that the oppressed petitioner lifts up
the cry for judgment, which we find in the following verse:—
Verse 12. With what bold language will faith address its God!
and yet what unbelief is mingled with our strongest confidence.
Fearlessly the Lord is stirred up to arise and lift up his hand,
yet timidly he is begged not to forget the humble; as if Jehovah
could ever be forgetful of his saints. This verse is the
incessant cry of the Church, and she will never refrain
therefrom until her Lord shall come in his glory to avenge her
of all her adversaries.
Verse 13. In these verses the description of the wicked is
condensed, and the evil of his character traced to its source,
viz., atheistical ideas with regard to the government of the
world. We may at once perceive that this is intended to be
another urgent plea with the Lord to show his power, and reveal
his justice. When the wicked call God's righteousness in
question, we may well beg him to teach them terrible things in
righteousness. In verse 13, the hope of the infidel and his
heart-wishes are laid bare. He despises the Lord, because he
will not believe that sin will meet with punishment: "he
hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it." If
there were no hell for other men, there ought to be one for
those who question the justice of it.
Verse 14. This vile suggestion receives its answer in verse
14. "Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and
spite, to requite it with thy hand." God is all-eye to
see, and all-hand to punish his enemies. From Divine oversight
there is no hiding, and from Divine justice there is no fleeing.
Wanton mischief shall meet with woeful misery, and those who
harbour spite shall inherit sorrow. Verily there is a God which
judgeth in the earth. Nor is this the only instance of the
presence of God in the world; for while he chastises the
oppressor, he befriends the oppressed. "The poor
committeth himself unto thee." They give themselves up
entirely into the Lord's hands. Resigning their judgment to his
enlightenment, and their wills to his supremacy, they rest
assured that he will order all things for the best. Nor does he
deceive their hope. He preserves them in times of need, and
causes them to rejoice in his goodness. "Thou art the
helper of the fatherless." God is the parent of all
orphans. When the earthly father sleeps beneath the sod, a
heavenly Father smiles from above. By some means or other,
orphan children are fed, and well they may when they have such a
Father.
Verse 15. In this verse we hear again the burden of the
psalmist's prayer: "Break thou the arm of the wicked and
the evil man." Let the sinner lose his power to sin;
stop the tyrant, arrest the oppressor, weaken the loins of the
mighty, and dash in pieces the terrible. They deny thy justice:
let them feel it to the full. Indeed, they shall feel it; for
God shall hunt the sinner for ever: so long as there is a grain
of sin in him it shall be sought out and punished. It is not a
little worthy of note, that very few great persecutors have ever
died in their beds: the curse has manifestly pursued them, and
their fearful sufferings have made them own that divine
justice at which they could at one time launch defiance. God
permits tyrants to arise as thorn-hedges to protect his church
from the intrusion of hypocrites, and that he may teach his
backsliding children by them, as Gideon did the men of Succoth
with the briers of the wilderness; but he soon cuts up these
Herods, like the thorns, and casts them into the fire. Thales,
the Milesian, one of the wise men of Greece, being asked what he
thought to be the greatest rarity in the world, replied,
"To see a tyrant live to be an old man." See how the
Lord breaks, not only the arm, but the neck of proud oppressors!
To the men who had neither justice nor mercy for the saints,
there shall be rendered justice to the full, but not a grain of
mercy.
Verses 16, 17, 18. The Psalm ends with a song of thanksgiving
to the great and everlasting King, because he has granted the
desire of his humble and oppressed people, has defended the
fatherless, and punished the heathen who trampled upon his poor
and afflicted children. Let us learn that we are sure to speed
well, if we carry our complaint to the King of kings. Rights
will be vindicated, and wrongs redressed, at his throne. His
government neglects not the interests of the needy, nor does it
tolerate oppression in the mighty. Great God, we leave ourselves
in thine hand; to thee we commit thy church afresh. Arise, O
God, and let the man of the earth—the creature of a day—be
broken before the majesty of thy power. Come, Lord Jesus, and
glorify thy people. Amen and Amen.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Whole Psalm. There is not, in my judgment, a Psalm
which describes the mind, the manners, the works, the words, the
feelings, and the fate of the ungodly with so much propriety,
fulness, and light, as this Psalm. So that, if in any respect
there has not been enough said heretofore, or if there shall be
anything wanting in the Psalms that shall follow, we may here
find a perfect image and representation of iniquity. This Psalm,
therefore, is a type, form, and description of that man, who,
though he may be in the sight of himself and of men more
excellent than Peter himself, is detestable in the eyes of God;
and this it was that moved Augustine, and those who followed
him, to understand the Psalm of ANTICHRIST. But as the Psalm is
without a title, let us embrace the most general and common
understanding of it (as I said), and let us look at the picture
of ungodliness which it sets before us. Not that we would deny
the propriety of the acceptation in which others receive it,
nay, we will, in our general acceptation of the Psalm, include
also its reference to ANTICHRIST. And, indeed, it will not be at
all absurd if we join this Psalm with the preceding, in its
order thus. That David, in the preceding, spoke of the ungodly
converted, and prayed for those who were to be converted. But
that here he is speaking of the ungodly that are still left so,
and in power prevailing over the weak ALMUTH, concerning whom he
has no hope, or is in a great uncertainty of mind, whether they
ever will be converted or not. Martin Luther.
Verse 1. "Why hidest thou thyself in times of
trouble?" The answer to this is not far to seek, for if
the Lord did not hide himself it would not be a time of trouble
at all. As well ask why the sun does not shine at night, when
for certain there could be no night if he did. It is essential
to our thorough chastisement that the Father should withdraw his
smile: there is a needs be not only for manifold temptations,
but that we be in heaviness through them. The design of the rod
is only answered by making us smart. If there be no pain, there
will be no profit. If there be no hiding of God, there will be
no bitterness, and consequently no purging efficacy in his
chastisements. C. H. S.
Verse 1. (last clause). "Times of
trouble" should be times of confidence; fixedness of
heart on God would prevent fears of heart. Psalm 112:7. "He
shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed."
How? "Trusting in the Lord. His heart is established, he
shall not be afraid." Otherwise without it we shall be as
light as a weather-cock, moved with every blast of evil tidings,
our hopes will swim or sink according to the news we hear.
Providence would seem to sleep unless faith and prayer awaken
it. The disciples had but little faith in their Master's
accounts, yet that little faith awakened him in a storm, and he
relieved them. Unbelief doth only discourage God from showing
his power in taking our parts. Stephen Charnock.
Verse 2. "The wicked in his pride doth
persecute the poor." THE OPPRESSOR'S PLEA. I seek but
what is my own by law; it was his own free act and deed—the
execution lies for goods and body; and goods or body I will
have, or else my money. What if his beggardly children pine, or
his proud wife perish? they perish at their own charge, not
mine; and what is that to me? I must be paid, or he lie by it
until I have my utmost farthing, or his bones. The law is just
and good; and, being ruled by that, how can my fair proceedings
be unjust? What is thirty in the hundred to a man of trade? Are
we born to thrum caps or pick straws? and sell our livelihood
for a few tears, and a whining face? I thank God they move me
not so much as a howling dog at midnight. I'll give no day if
heaven itself would be security. I must have present money, or
his bones. . . . . Fifteen shillings in the pound composition!
I'll hang first. Come, tell me not of a good conscience: a good
conscience is no parcel in my trade; it hath made more bankrupts
than all the loose wives in the universal city. My conscience is
no fool: it tells me my own is my own, and that a well crammed
bag is no deceitful friend, but will stick close to me when all
my friends forsake me. If to gain a good estate out of nothing,
and to regain a desperate debt which is as good as nothing, be
the fruits and signs of a bad conscience, God help the good.
Come, tell me not of griping and oppression. The world is hard,
and he that hopes to thrive must gripe as hard. What I give I
give, and what I lend I lend. If the way to heaven be to turn
beggar upon earth, let them take it that like it. I know not
what you call oppression, the law is my direction; but of the
two, it is more profitable to oppress than to be oppressed. If
debtors would be honest and discharge, our hands were bound: but
when their failing offends my bags, they touch the apple of my
eye, and I must right them. Francis Quarles.
Verse 2. That famous persecutor, Domitian, like others
of the Roman emperors, assumed divine honours, and heated the
furnace seven times hotter against Christians because they
refused to worship his image. In like manner, when the popes of
Rome became decorated with the blasphemous titles of Masters
of the World, and, Universal Fathers, they let loose
their blood-hounds upon the faithful. Pride is the egg of
persecution. C. H. S.
Verse 2. "Pride," is a vice which
cleaveth so fast unto the hearts of men, that if we were to
strip ourselves of all faults one by one, we should undoubtedly
find it the very last and hardest to put off. Richard Hooker,
1554-1600.
Verse 3. "The wicked boasteth," etc.
He braggeth of his evil life, whereof he maketh open profession;
or he boasteth that he will accomplish his wicked designs; or
glorieth that he hath already accomplished them. Or it may be
understood that he commendeth others who are according to the
desires of his own soul; that is, he respecteth or honoureth
none but such as are like him, and them only he esteemeth. Psalm
36:4, and 49:18; Romans 1:32. John Diodati, 1648.
Verse 3. "The wicked . . . . . . blesseth the
covetous." Like will to like, as the common proverb is.
Such as altogether neglect the Lord's commandments not only
commit divers gross sins, but commend those who in sinning are
like themselves. For in their affections they allow them, in
their speeches they flatter and extol them, and in their deeds
they join with them and maintain them. Peter Muffet,
1594.
Verse 3. "The covetous." Covetousness
is the desire of possessing that which we have not, and
attaining unto great riches and worldly possessions. And whether
this be not the character of trade and merchandise and traffic
of every kind, the great source of those evils of over-trading
which are everywhere complained of, I refer to the judgment of
the men around me, who are engaged in the commerce and business
of life. Compared with the regular and quiet diligence of our
fathers, and their contentment with small but sure returns, the
wild and wide-spread speculation for great gains, the rash and
hasty adventures which are daily made, and the desperate
gamester-like risks which are run, do reveal full surely that a
spirit of covetousness hath been poured out upon men within the
last thirty or forty years. And the providence of God
corresponding thereto, by wonderful and unexpected revolutions,
by numerous inventions for manufacturing the productions of the
earth, in order to lead men into temptation, hath impressed upon
the whole face of human affairs, a stamp of earnest worldliness
not known to our fathers: insomuch that our youth do enter life
no longer with the ambition of providing things honest in the
sight of men, keeping their credit, bringing up their family,
and realising a competency, if the Lord prosper them, but with
the ambition of making a fortune, retiring to their ease, and
enjoying the luxuries of the present life. Against which crying
sin of covetousness, dearly beloved brethren, I do most
earnestly call upon you to wage a good warfare. This place is
its seat, its stronghold, even this metropolitan city of
Christian Britain; and ye who are called by the grace of God out
of the great thoroughfare of Mammon, are so elected for the
express purpose of testifying against this and all other
backslidings of the church planted here; and especially against
this, as being in my opinion, one of the most evident and the
most common of them all. For who hath not been snared in the
snare of covetousness? Edward Irving, 1828.
Verse 3. "The covetous, whom the Lord
abhorreth." Christ knew what he spake when he said,
"No man can serve two masters." Matthew 6:24. Meaning
God and the world, because each would have all. As the angel and
the devil strove for the body of Moses (Jude 9), not who should
have a part, but who should have the whole, so they strive still
for our souls, who shall have all. Therefore, the apostle saith,
"The love of this world is enmity to God (James 4:4),
signifying such emulation between these two, that God cannot
abide the world should have a part, and the world cannot abide
that God should have a part. Therefore, the love of the world
must needs be enmity to God, and therefore the lovers of the
world must needs be enemies to God, and so no covetous man is
God's servant, but God's enemy. For this cause covetousness is
called idolatry (Ephesians 5:5), which is the most contrary sin
to God, because as treason sets up another king in the king's
place, so idolatry sets up another god in God's place. Henry
Smith.
Verse 4. "The wicked, through the pride of his
countenance, will not seek after God." He is judged a
proud man (without a jury sitting on him), who when condemned
will not submit, will not stoop so low as to accept of a pardon.
I must indeed correct myself, men are willing to be justified,
but they would have their duties to purchase their peace and the
favour of God. Thousands will die and be damned rather than they
will have a pardon upon the sole account of Christ's merits and
obedience. Oh, the cursed pride of the heart! When will men
cease to be wiser than God? To limit God? When will men be
contented with God's way of saving them by the blood of the
everlasting covenant? How dare men thus to prescribe to the
infinitely wise God? Is it not enough for thee that thy
destruction is of thyself? But must thy salvation be of thyself
too? Is it not enough that thou hast wounded thyself, but wilt
thou die for ever, rather than be beholden to a plaister of free
grace? Wilt be damned unless thou mayest be thine own Saviour?
God is willing ("God so loved the world that he gave his
only Son"), art thou so proud as that thou wilt not be
beholden to God? Thou wilt deserve, or have nothing. What shall
I say? Poor thou art, and yet proud; thou hast nothing but
wretchedness and misery, and yet thou art talking of a purchase.
This is a provocation. "God resisteth the proud,"
especially the spiritually proud. He that is proud of his
clothes and parentage, is not so contemptible in God's eyes as
he that is proud of his abilities, and so scorns to submit to
God's methods for his salvation by Christ, and by his
righteousness alone. Lewis Stuckley.
Verse 4. "The wicked, through the pride of his
countenance, will not seek after God." The pride of the
wicked is the principal reason why they will not seek after the
knowledge of God. This knowledge it prevents them from seeking
in various ways. In the first place, it renders God a
disagreeable object of contemplation to the wicked, and a
knowledge of him as undesirable. Pride consists in an unduly
exalted opinion of one's self. It is, therefore, impatient of a
rival, hates a superior, and cannot endure a master. In
proportion as it prevails in the heart, it makes us wish to see
nothing above us, to acknowledge no law but our own wills, to
follow no rule but our own inclinations. Thus it led Satan to
rebel against his Creator, and our first parents to desire to be
as gods. Since such are the effects of pride, it is evident that
nothing can be more painful to a proud heart than the thoughts
of such a being as God; one who is infinitely powerful, just,
and holy; who can neither be resisted, deceived, nor deluded;
who disposes, according to his own sovereign pleasure, of all
creatures and events; and who, in an especial manner, hates
pride, and is determined to abase and punish it. Such a being
pride can contemplate only with feelings of dread, aversion, and
abhorrence. It must look upon him as its natural enemy, the
great enemy, whom it has to fear. But the knowledge of God
directly tends to bring this infinite, irresistible,
irreconcilable enemy full to the view of the proud man. It
teaches him that he has a superior, a master, from whose
authority he cannot escape, whose power he cannot resist, and
whose will he must obey, or be crushed before him, and be
rendered miserable for ever. It shows him what he hates to see,
that, in despite of his opposition, God's counsel shall stand,
that he will do all his pleasure, and that in all things wherein
men deal proudly, God is above them. These truths torture the
proud unhumbled hearts of the wicked, and hence they hate that
knowledge of God which teaches these truths, and will not seek
it. On the contrary, they wish to remain ignorant of such a
being, and to banish all thoughts of him from their minds. With
this view, they neglect, pervert, or explain away those passages
of revelation which describe God's true character, and endeavour
to believe that he is altogether such a one as themselves.
How
foolish, how absurd, how ruinous, how blindly destructive of its
own object, does pride appear! By attempting to soar, it only
plunges itself in the mire, and while endeavouring to erect for
itself a throne, it undermines the ground on which it stands and
digs its own grave. It plunged Satan from heaven into hell; it
banished our first parents from paradise; and it will, in a
similar manner, ruin all who indulge in it. It keeps us in
ignorance of God, shuts us out from his favour, prevents us from
resembling him, deprives us in this world of all the honour and
happiness which communion with him would confer; and in the
next, unless previously hated, repented of, and renounced, will
bar for ever against us the door of heaven, and close upon us
the gates of hell. O then, my friends, beware, above all things,
beware of pride! Beware, lest you indulge it imperceptibly, for
it is perhaps, of all sins, the most secret, subtle, and
insinuating. Edward Payson, D.D., 1783-1827.
Verse 4. David speaks in Psalm 10 of great and potent
oppressors and politicians, who see none on earth greater than
themselves, none higher than they, and think therefore that they
may impuns prey upon the smaller, as beasts use to do;
and in the fourth verse this is made the root and ground of all,
that God is not in all his thoughts. "The wicked,
through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God:
God is not in all his thoughts." The words are
diversely read, and all make for this sense. Some read it,
"No God in all his crafty presumptuous purposes;"
others, "All his thoughts are, there is no God." The
meaning whereof is not only that among the swarm and crowd of
thoughts that fill his mind, the thought of God is seldom to be
found, and comes not in among the rest, which yet is enough for
the purpose in hand; but further, that in all his projects and
plots, and consultations of his heart (the first reading of the
words intends), whereby he contrives and lays the plot, form,
and draught of all his actions, he never takes God or his will
into consideration or consultation, to square and frame all
accordingly, but proceeds and goes on in all, and carries on all
as if there were no God to be consulted with. He takes not him
along with him, no more than if he were no God; the thoughts of
him and his will sway him not. As you use to say, when a
combination of men leave out someone they should advise with,
that such a one is not of their counsel, is not in the plot; so
nor is God in their purposes and advisings, they do all without
him. But this is not all the meaning, but farther, all their
thought is, that there is no God. This is there made the bottom,
the foundation, the groundwork and reason of all their wicked
plots and injurious projects, and deceitful carriages and
proceedings, that seeing there is no God or power above them to
take notice of it, to regard or requite them, therefore they may
be bold to go on. Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 4. "Of his countenance." Which
pride he carrieth engraven in his very countenance and forehead,
and makes it known in all his carriages and gestures. "Will
not seek," namely, he contemneth all divine and human
laws, he feareth not, respecteth not God's judgments; he careth
for nothing, so he may fulfil his desires; enquires after, nor
examines nothing; all things are indifferent to him. John
Diodati.
Verse 4. "All his thoughts are, there is no
God;" thus some read the passage. Seneca says, there
are no atheists, though there would be some; if any say there is
no God, they lie; though they say it in the day time, yet in the
night when they are alone they deny it; howsoever some
desperately harden themselves, yet if God doth but show himself
terrible to them, they confess him. Many of the heathens and
others have denied that there is a God, yet when they were in
distress, they did fall down and confess him, as Diagoras, that
grand atheist, when he was troubled with the strangullion,
acknowledged a deity which he had denied. These kind of atheists
I leave to the tender mercies of God, of which I doubt it
whether there be any for them. Richard Stock.
Verse 4. "God is not in all his
thoughts." It is the black work of an ungodly man or an
atheist, that God is not in all his thoughts. What comfort can
be had in the being of God without thinking of him with
reverence and delight? A God forgotten is as good as no God to
us. Stephen Charnock.
Verse 4. Trifles possess us, but "God is not
in all our thoughts," seldom the sole object of them.
We have durable thoughts of transitory things, and flitting
thoughts of a durable and eternal good. The covenant of grace
engageth the whole heart to God, and bars anything else from
engrossing it; but what strangers are God and the souls of most
men! Though we have the knowledge of him by creation, yet he is
for the most part an unknown God in the relations wherein he
stands to us, because a God undelighted in. Hence it is, as one
observes, that because we observe not the ways of God's wisdom,
conceive not of him in his vast perfections, nor are stricken
with an admiration of his goodness, that we have fewer good
sacred poems than of any other kind. The wits of men hang the
wing when they come to exercise their reasons and fancies about
God. Parts and strength are given us, as well as corn and wine
to the Israelites, for the service of God, but those are
consecrated to some cursed Baal, Hosea 2:8. like Venus in the
poet, we forsake heaven to follow after some Adonis. Stephen
Charnock.
Verses 4, 5. The world hath a spiritual fascination
and witchcraft, by which, where it hath once prevailed, men are
enchanted to an utter forgetfulness of themselves and God, and
being drunk with pleasures, they are easily engaged to a madness
and height of folly. Some, like foolish children, are made to
keep a great stir in the world for very trifles, for a vain
show; they think themselves great, honourable, excellent, and
for this make a great bustle, when the world hath not added one
cubic to their stature of real worth. Others are by this Circe
transformed into savage creatures, and act the part of lions and
tigers. Others, like swine, wallow in the lusts of uncleanness.
Others are unmanned, putting off all natural affections, care
not who they ride over, so they may rule over or be made great.
Others are taken with ridiculous frenzies, so that a man that
stands in the cool shade of a sedate composure would judge them
out of their wits. It would make a man admire to read of the
frisks of Caius Caligula, Xerxes, Alexander, and many others,
who because they were above many men, thought themselves above
human nature. They forgot they were born and must die, and did
such things as would have made them, but that their greatness
overawed it, a laughing-stock and common scorn to children.
Neither must we think that these were but some few or rare
instances of worldly intoxication, when the Scripture notes it
as a general distemper of all that bow down to worship this
idol. They live "without God in the world," saith the
apostle, that is, they so carry it as if there were no God to
take notice of them to check them for their madness. "God
is not in all his thoughts." Verse 4. "The
judgments of God are far above out of his sight;" he
puffs at his enemies (verse 5), and saith in his heart, he "shall
never be moved," Verse 6. The whole Psalm describes the
worldling as a man that hath lost all his understanding, and is
acting the part of a frantic bedlam. What then can be a more fit
engine for the devil to work with than the pleasures of the
world? Richard Gilpin.
Verse 5. "Grievous," or troublesome;
that is, all his endeavours and actions aim at nothing but at
hurting others. "Are far above," for he is
altogether carnal, he hath not any disposition nor
correspondence with the justice of thy law, which is altogether
spiritual; and therefore cannot lively represent unto himself
thy judgments, and the issue of the wicked according to the said
law. Romans 7:14; 1 Corinthians 2:14. "He puffeth;"
he doth most arrogantly despise them, and is confident he can
overthrow them with a puff. John Diodati.
Verse 5. "Thy judgments are far above out of
his sight." Because God does not immediately visit
every sin with punishment, ungodly men do not see that in due
time he judges all the earth. Human tribunals must of necessity,
by promptness and publicity, commend themselves to the common
judgment, but the Lord's modes of dealing with sin are sublimer
and apparently more tardy, hence the bat's eyes of godless men
cannot see them, and the grovelling wits of men cannot
comprehend them. If God sat in the gate of every village and
held his court there, even fools might discern his
righteousness, but they are not capable of perceiving that for a
matter to be settled in the highest court, even in heaven
itself, is a far more solemn matter. Let believers take heed
lest they fall in a degree into the same error, and begin to
criticise the actions of The Great Supreme, when they are too
elevated for human reason to comprehend them. C. H. S.
Verse 5. "The judgments of God are far above
out of his sight." Out of his sight, as an eagle at her
highest towering so lessens herself to view, that he sees not
the talons, nor fears the grip. Thus man presumes till he hath
sinned, and then despairs as fast afterwards. At first, "Tush,
doth God see it?" At last, "Alas! will God forgive
it?" But if a man will not know his sins, his sins will
know him; the eyes which presumption shuts, commonly despair
opens. Thomas Adams.
Verse 5. "As for all his enemies, he puffeth
at them." David describeth a proud man, puffing
at his enemies: he is puffed up and swelled with high
conceits of himself, as if he had some great matter in him, and
he puffs at others as if he could do some great matter against
them, forgetting that himself is but, as to his being in this
world, a puff of wind which passeth away. Joseph Caryl.
Verse 5. "As for all his enemies, he puffeth
at them;" literally, "He whistles at
them." He is given over to the dominion of gloomy
indifference, and he cares as little for others as for himself.
Whosoever may be imagined by him to be an enemy he cares not.
Contempt and ridicule are his only weapons; and he has forgotten
how to use others of a more sacred character. His mental habits
are marked by scorn; and he treats with contempt the judgments,
opinions, and practices of the wisest of men. John Morison.
Verse 6. "He hath said in his heart, I shall
not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity."
Carnal security opens the door for all impiety to enter into the
soul. Pompey, when he had in vain assaulted a city, and could
not take it by force, devised this stratagem in way of
agreement; he told them he would leave the siege and make peace
with them, upon condition that they would let in a few weak,
sick, and wounded soldiers among them to be cured. They let in
the soldiers, and when the city was secure, the soldiers let in
Pompey's army. A carnal settled security will let in a whole
army of lusts into the soul. Thomas Brooks.
Verse 6. "He hath said in his heart, I shall
not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity." To
consider religion always on the comfortable side; to
congratulate one's self for having obtained the end before we
have made use of the means; to stretch the hands to receive the
crown of righteousness before they have been employed to fight
the battle; to be content with a false peace, and to use no
effort to obtain the graces to which true consolation is
annexed: this is a dreadful calm, like that which some voyagers
describe, and which is a very singular forerunner of a very
terrible event. All on a sudden, in the wide ocean, the sea
becomes calm, the surface of the water clear as a crystal,
smooth as glass—the air serene; the unskilled passenger
becomes tranquil and happy, but the old mariner trembles. In an
instant the waves froth, the winds murmur, the heavens kindle, a
thousand gulfs open, a frightful light inflames the air, and
every wave threatens sudden death. This is an image of many
men's assurance of salvation. James Saurin, 1677-1730.
Verse 7. "Under his tongue is mischief and
vanity." The striking allusion of this expression is to
certain venomous reptiles, which are said to carry bags of
poison under their teeth, and, with great subtlety to inflict
the most deadly injuries upon those who come within their reach.
How affectingly does this represent the sad havoc which minds
tainted with infidelity inflict on the community! By their
perversions of truth, and by their immoral sentiments and
practices, they are as injurious to the mind as the deadliest
poison can be to the body. John Morison.
Verse 7. Cursing men are cursed men. John Trapp.
Verses 7, 9. In Anne Askew's account of her
examination by Bishop Bonner, we have an instance of the cruel
craft of persecutors: "On the morrow after, my lord of
London sent for me at one of the clock, his hour being appointed
at three. And as I came before him, he said he was very sorry of
my trouble, and desired to know my opinion in such matters as
were laid against me. He required me also boldly in any wise to
utter the secrets of my heart; bidding me not to fear in any
point, for whatsoever I did say within his house, no man should
hurt me for it. I answered, 'For so much as your lordship hath
appointed three of the clock, and my friends shall not come till
that hour, I desire you to pardon me of giving answer till they
come.'" Upon this Bale remarks: "'In this preventing
of the hour may the diligent perceive the greediness of this
Babylon bishop, or bloodthirsty wolf, concerning his prey.
'Swift are their feet,' saith David, 'in the effusion of
innocent blood, which have fraud in their tongues, venom in
their lips, and most cruel vengeance in their mouths.' David
much marvelleth in the spirit that, taking upon them the
spiritual governance of the people, they can fall into such
frenzy or forgetfulness of themselves, as to believe it lawful
thus to oppress the faithful, and to devour them with as little
compassion as he that greedily devoureth a piece of bread. If
such have read anything of God, they have little minded their
true duty therein. 'More swift,' saith Jeremy, 'are our cruel
persecutors than the eagles of the air. They follow upon us over
the mountains, and lay privy wait for us in the wilderness.' He
that will know the crafty hawking of bishops to bring in their
prey, let them learn it here. Judas, I think, had never the
tenth part of their cunning workmanship.'" John Bale,
D.D., Bishop of Ossory, 1495-1563, in "Examination
of Anne Askew." Parker Society's Publications.
Verse 8. "He sitteth in the lurking places of
the villages," etc. The Arab robber lurks like a wolf
among these sand heaps, and often springs out suddenly upon the
solitary traveller, robs him in a trice, and then plunges again
into the wilderness of sand-hills and reedy downs, where pursuit
is fruitless. Our friends are careful not to allow us to
straggle about, or lag behind, and yet it seems absurd to fear a
surprise here—Kaifa before, Acre in the rear, and travellers
in sight on both sides. Robberies, however, do often occur, just
where we now are. Strange country! and it has always been so.
There are a hundred allusions to just such things in the
history, the Psalms, and the prophets of Israel. A whole class
of imagery is based upon them. Thus, in Psalm 10:8-10, "He
sits in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places
doth he murder the innocent: he lieth in wait secretly as a lion
in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch
the poor, when he draweth him into his net; he croucheth and
humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong
ones." And a thousand rascals, the living originals of this
picture, are this day crouching and lying in wait all over the
country to catch poor helpless travellers. You observe that all
these people we meet or pass are armed; nor would they venture
to go from Acre to Kaifa without their musket, although the
cannon of the castles seem to command every foot of the way.
Strange, most strange land! but it tallies wonderfully with its
ancient story. W. M. Thompson, D.D., in "The Land and
the Book," 1859.
Verse 8. My companions asked me if I knew the danger I
had escaped. "No," I replied; "What danger?"
They then told me that, just after they started, they saw a wild
Arab skulking after me, crouching to the ground, with a musket
in his hand; and that, as soon as he had reached within what
appeared to them musket-shot of me, he raised his gun; but,
looking wildly around him, as a man will do who is about to
perpetrate some desperate act, he caught sight of them and
disappeared. Jeremiah knew something of the ways of these Arabs
when he wrote (chapter 3:2) "In the ways hast thou sat for
them, as the Arabian in the wilderness;" and the simile is
used in Psalm 10:9, 10, for the Arabs wait and watch for their
prey with the greatest eagerness and perseverance. John
Gadsby, in "My Wanderings," 1860.
Verse 8. "He sitteth in the lurking places of
the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent:
his eyes are privily set against the poor." All this
strength of metaphor and imagery is intended to mark the
assiduity, the cunning, the low artifice, to which the enemies
of truth and righteousness will often resort in order to
accomplish their corrupt and vicious designs. The extirpation of
true religion is their great object; and there is nothing to
which they will not stoop in order to effect that object. The
great powers which have oppressed the church of Christ, in
different ages, have answered to this description. Both heathen
and papistical authorities have thus condescended in infamy.
They have sat, as it were, in ambush for the poor of Christ's
flock; they have adopted every stratagem that infernal skill
could invent; they have associated themselves with princes in
their palaces, and with beggars on their dunghill; they have
resorted to the village, and they have mingled in the gay and
populous city; and all for the vain purpose of attempting to
blot out a "name which shall endure for ever, and which
shall be continued as long as the sun." John Morison.
Verse 9 "He doth catch the poor." The
poor man is the beast they hunt, who must rise early, rest late,
eat the bread of sorrow, sit with many a hungry meal, perhaps
his children crying for food, while all the fruit of his pains
is served into Nimrod's table. Complain of this while you will,
yet, as the orator said of Verres, pecuniosus nescit damnari.
Indeed, a money-man may not be damnified, but he may be damned.
For this is a crying sin, and the wakened ears of the Lord will
hear it, neither shall his provoked hands forbear it. Si
tacuerint pauperes loquentur lapides. If the poor should
hold their peace, the very stones would speak. The fines,
rackings, enclosures, oppressions, vexations, will cry to God
for vengeance. "The stone will cry out of the wall, and the
beam out of the timber shall answer it." Habakkuk 2:11. You
see the beasts they hunt. Not foxes, not wolves, nor boars,
bulls, nor tigers. It is a certain observation, no beast hunts
its own kind to devour it. Now, if these should prosecute
wolves, foxes, &c., they should then hunt their own kind;
for they are these themselves, or rather worse than these,
because here homo homini lupus. But though they are men
they hunt, and by nature of the same kind, they are not so by
quality, for they are lambs they persecute. In them there is
blood, and flesh, and fleece to be had; and therefore on these
do they gorge themselves. In them there is weak armour of
defence against their cruelties; therefore over these they may
domineer. I will speak it boldly: there is not a mighty Nimrod
in this land that dares hunt his equal; but over his inferior
lamb he insults like a young Nero. Let him be graced by high
ones, and he must not be saluted under twelve score off. In the
country he proves a termagant; his very scowl is a prodigy, and
breeds an earthquake. He would be a Caesar, and tax all. It is
well if he prove not a cannibal! Only Macro salutes Sejanus so
long as he is in Tiberius's favour; cast him from that pinnacle,
and the dog is ready to devour him. Thomas Adams.
Verse 9. "He draweth him into his net."
"They hunt with a net." Micah 7:2. They have their
politic gins to catch men; gaudy wares and dark shops (and would
you have them love the light that live by darkness, as many
shopkeepers?) draw and tole customers in, where the crafty
leeches can soon feel their pulses: if they must buy they shall
pay for their necessity. And though they plead, We compel none
to buy our ware, caveat emptor; yet with fine voluble
phrases, damnable protestations, they will cast a mist of error
before an eye of simple truth, and with cunning devices hunt
them in. So some among us have feathered their nests, not by
open violence, but politic circumvention. They have sought the
golden fleece, not by Jason's merit, but by Medea's subtlety, by
Medea's sorcery. If I should intend to discover these hunter's
plots, and to deal punctually with them, I should afford you
more matter than you would afford me time. But I limit myself
and answer all their plans with Augustine. Their tricks may hold
in jure fori, but not in jure poli—in the
common-pleas of earth, not before the king's bench in heaven. Thomas
Adams.
Verse 9. Oppression turns princes into roaring lions,
and judges into ravening wolves. It is an unnatural sin, against
the light of nature. No creatures do oppress them of their own
kind. Look upon the birds of prey, as upon eagles, vultures,
hawks, and you shall never find them preying upon their own
kind. Look upon the beasts of the forest, as upon the lion, the
tiger, the wolf, the bear, and you shall ever find them
favourable to their own kind; and yet men unnaturally prey upon
one another, like the fish in the sea, the great swallowing up
the small. Thomas Brooks.
Verse 10. "He croucheth, and humbleth
himself," etc. There is nothing too mean or servile for
them, in the attempt to achieve their sinister ends. You shall
see his holiness the Pope washing the pilgrims' feet, if such a
stratagem be necessary to act in the minds of the deluded
multitude; or you shall see him sitting on a throne of purple,
if he wishes to awe and control the kings of the earth. John
Morison.
Verse 10 If you take a wolf in a lambskin, hang him
up; for he is the worst of the generation. Thomas Adams.
Verse 11. "He hath said in his heart, God hath
forgotten." Is it not a senseless thing to be careless
of sins committed long ago? The old sins forgotten by men, stick
fast in an infinite understanding. Time cannot raze out that
which hath been known from eternity. Why should they be
forgotten many years after they were acted, since they were
foreknown in an eternity before they were committed, or the
criminal capable to practice them? Amalek must pay their arrears
of their ancient unkindness to Israel in the time of Saul,
though the generation that committed them were rotten in their
graves. 1 Samuel 15:2. Old sins are written in a book, which
lies always before God; and not only our own sins, but the sins
of our fathers, to be requited upon their posterity.
"Behold it is written." Isaiah 65:6. What a vanity is
it then to be regardless of the sins of an age that went before
us; because they are in some measure out of our knowledge, are
they therefore blotted out of God's remembrance? Sins are bound
up with him, as men do bonds, till they resolve to sue for the
debt. "The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up." Hosea
13:12. As his foreknowledge extends to all acts that shall be
done, so his remembrance extends to all acts that have been
done. We may as well say, God foreknows nothing that shall be
done to the end of the world, as that he forgets anything that
hath been done from the beginning of the world. Stephen
Charnock.
Verse 11. "He hath said in his heart, God hath
forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it."
Many say in their hearts, "God seeth them not," while
with their tongues they confess he is an all-seeing God. The
heart hath a tongue in it as well as the head, and these two
tongues seldom speak the same language. While the head tongue
saith, "We cannot hide ourselves from the sight of
God," the heart-tongue of wicked men will say, "God
will hide himself from us, he will not see." But if their
heart speak not thus, then as the prophet saith (Isaiah 29:15),
"They dig deep to hide their counsel from the Lord;"
surely they have a hope to hide their counsels, else they would
not dig deep to hide them. Their digging is not proper, but
tropical; as men dig deep to hide what they would not have in
the earth, so they by their wits, plots, and devices, do their
best to hide their counsels from God, and they say, "Who
seeth, who knoweth? We, surely, are not seen either by God or
man." Joseph Caryl.
Verse 11. The Scripture everywhere places sin upon
this root. "God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he
will never see it." He hath turned his back upon the
world. This was the ground of the oppression of the poor by the
wicked, which he mentions, verses 9, 10. There is no sin but
receives both its birth and nourishment from this bitter root.
Let the notion of providence be once thrown out, or the belief
of it faint, how will ambition, covetousness, neglect of God,
distrust, impatience, and all other bitter gourds, grow up in a
night! It is from this topic all iniquity will draw arguments to
encourage itself; for nothing so much discountenances those
rising corruptions, and puts them out of heart, as an actuated
belief that God takes care of human affairs. Stephen Charnock.
Verse 11. "He hath said in his heart,"
etc. "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed
speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in
them to do evil." Ecclesiastes 8:11. God forbears
punishing, therefore men forbear repenting. He doth not smite
upon their back by correction, therefore they do not smite upon
their thigh by humiliation. Jeremiah 31:19. The sinner thinks
thus,: "God hath spared me all this while, he hath eked out
patience into longsuffering; surely he will not punish." "He
hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten." God
sometimes in infinite patience adjourns his judgments and puts
off the sessions a while longer, he is not willing to punish. 2
Peter 3:9. The bee naturally gives honey, but stings only when
it is angered. The Lord would have men make their peace with
him. Isaiah 27:5. God is not like a hasty creditor that requires
the debt, and will give no time for the payment; he is not only
gracious, but "waits to be gracious" (Isaiah 30:18);
but God by his patience would bribe sinners to repentance; but
alas! how is this patience abused. God's longsuffering hardens:
because God stops the vials of his wrath, sinners stop the
conduit of tears. Thomas Watson.
Verse 11. "He hath said in his heart, God hath
forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it."
Because the Lord continues to spare them, therefore they go on
to provoke him. As he adds to their lives, so they add to their
lusts. What is this, but as if a man should break all his bones
because there is a surgeon who is able to set them again?. . . .
. . Because justice seems to wink, men suppose her blind;
because she delays punishment, they imagine she denies to punish
them; because she does not always reprove them for their sins,
they suppose she always approves of their sins, But let such
know, that the silent arrow can destroy as well as the roaring
cannon. Though the patience of God be lasting, yet it is
not everlasting. William Secker.
Verses 11, 12, 13. The atheist denies God's ordering
of sublunary matters. "Tush, doth the Lord see, or is there
knowledge in the Most High?" making him a maimed Deity,
without an eye of providence, or an arm of power, and at most
restraining him only to matters above the clouds. But he that
dares to confine the King of heaven, will soon after endeavour
to depose him, and fall at last flatly to deny him. Thomas
Fuller.
Verse 13. "He hath said in his heart, Thou
wilt not require it." As when the desperate pirate,
ransacking and rifling a bottom was told by the master, that
though no law could touch him for the present, he should answer
it at the day of judgment, replied, "If I may stay so long
ere I come to it, I will take thee and thy vessel too." A
conceit wherewith too many land-thieves and oppressors flatter
themselves in their hearts, though they dare not utter it with
their lips. Thomas Adams.
Verses 13, 14. What, do you think that God doth not
remember our sins which we do not regard? for while we sin the
score runs on, and the Judge setteth down all in the table of
remembrance, and his scroll reacheth up to heaven. Item, for
lending to usury; item, for racking of rents; item, for
starching thy ruffs; item, for curling thy hair; item, for
painting thy face; item, for selling of benefices; item, for
starving of souls; item, for playing at cards; item, for
sleeping in the church; item, for profaning the Sabbath-day,
with a number more hath God to call to account, for everyone
must answer for himself. The fornicator, for taking of filthy
pleasure; the careless prelate, for murthering so many thousand
souls; the landlord, for getting money from his poor tenants by
racking of his rents; see the rest, all they shall come like
very sheep when the trumpet shall sound and the heaven and the
earth shall come to judgment against them; when the heavens
shall vanish like a scroll, and the earth shall consume like
fire, and all the creatures standing against them; the rocks
shall cleave asunder, and the mountains shake, and the
foundation of the earth shall tremble, and they shall say to the
mountains, Cover us, fall upon us, and hide us from the presence
of his anger and wrath whom we have not cared to offend. But
they shall not be covered and hid; but then shall they go the
back way, to the snakes and serpents, to be tormented of devils
for ever. Henry Smith.
Verse 14. "Thou hast seen it; for thou
beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy
hands," etc. This should be a terror to the wicked, to
think that whatsoever they do, they do it in the sight of
him that shall judge them, and call them to a strict
account for every thought conceived against his majesty; and
therefore, it should make them afraid to sin; because that when
they burn with lust, and toil with hatred, when they scorn the
just and wrong the innocent, they do all this, not only in
conspectu Dei, within the compass of God's sight, but also
in sinu divinitatis, in the bosom of that Deity, who,
though he suffered them for a time to run on, like "a wild
ass used to in the wilderness," yet he will find them out
at the last, and then cut them off and destroy them. And as this
is terror unto the wicked, so it may be a comfort unto the godly
to think that he who should hear their prayers and send them
help, is so near unto them; and it should move them to rely
still upon him, because we are sure of his presence wherever we
are. G. Williams, 1636.
Verse 14. "The poor committeth himself unto
thee." The awkwardness of our hearts to suffer comes
much from distrust. An unbelieving soul treads upon the promise
as a man upon ice; at first going upon it he is full of fears
and tumultuous thoughts lest it should crack. Now, daily
resignation of thy heart, as it will give thee an occasion of
conversing more with the thoughts of God's power, faithfulness,
and other of his attributes (for want of familiarity with which,
jealousies arise in our hearts when put to any great plunge), so
also it will furnish thee with many experiences of the reality
both of his attributes and promises; which, though they need not
any testimony from sense, to gain them credit with us, yet so
much are we made of sense, so childish and weak is our faith,
that we find our hearts much helped by those experiences we have
had, to rely on him for the future. Look, therefore, carefully
to this; every morning leave thyself and ways in God's hand, as
the phrase is. Psalm 10:14. And at night look again how well God
hath looked to his trust, and sleep not till thou hast affected
thy heart with his faithfulness, and laid a stronger charge on
thy heart to trust itself again in God's keeping in the night.
And when any breach is made, and seeming loss befalls thee in
any enjoyment, which thou hast by faith insured of thy God,
observe how God fills up that breach, and makes up that loss to
thee; and rest not till thou hast fully vindicated the good name
of God to thy own heart. Be sure thou lettest no discontent or
dissatisfaction lie upon thy spirit at God's dealings; but chide
thy heart for it, as David did his. Psalm 42. And thus doing,
with God's blessing, thou shalt keep thy faith in breath for a
longer race, when called to run it. William Gurnall.
Verse 14. "Thou art the helper of the
fatherless." God doth exercise a more special province
over men, as clothed with miserable circumstances; and therefore
among his other titles this is one, to be a "helper of
the fatherless." It is the argument the church used to
express her return to God; Hosea 14:3, "For in thee the
fatherless find mercy." Now what greater comfort is there
than this, that there is one presides in the world who is so
wise he cannot be mistaken, so faithful he cannot deceive, so
pitiful he cannot neglect his people, and so powerful that he
can make stones even to be turned into bread if he please! . . .
. . . God doth not govern the world only by his will as an
absolute monarch, but by his wisdom and goodness as a tender
father. It is not his greatest pleasure to show his sovereign
power, or his inconceivable wisdom, but his immense goodness, to
which he makes the other attributes subservient. Stephen
Charnock.
Verse 14. "Thou hast seen it," etc.
If God did not see our ways, we might sin and go unpunished; but
foreasmuch as he seeth them with purer eyes than to behold
iniquity and approve it, he is engaged both in justice and
honour to punish all that iniquity of our ways which he seeth or
beholdeth. David makes this the very design of God's
superintendency over the ways of men: "Thou hast seen
it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with
thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the
helper of the fatherless." Thus the psalmist represents
the Lord as having taken a view or survey of the ways of men. "Thou
hast seen." What hath God seen? Even all that
wickedness and oppression of the poor spoken of in the former
part of the Psalm, as also the blasphemy of the wicked against
himself (verse 13), "Wherefore doth the wicked contemn
God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it."
What saith the psalmist concerning God, to this vain, confident
man? "Thou," saith he, "beholdest
mischief and spite;" but to what purpose? the next
words tell us that— "to requite it with thy
hand." As thou hast seen what mischief they have done
spitefully, so in due time thou wilt requite it righteously. The
Lord is not a bare spectator, he is both a rewarder and an
avenger. Therefore, from the ground of this truth, that the Lord
seeth all our ways, and counteth all our steps, we, as the
prophet exhorts (Isaiah 3:10, 11), may "say to the
righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat
the fruit of their doings." We may also say, "Woe unto
the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his
hands shall be given him." Only idols which have eyes and
see not, have hands and strike not. Joseph Caryl.
Verse 14. "Thou hast seen it; for thou
beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the
poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the
fatherless." Let the poor know that their God doth take
care of them, to visit their sins with rods who spoil them,
seeing they have forgotten that we are members one of another,
and have invaded the goods of their brethren; God will arm them
against themselves, and beat them with their own staves; either
their own compassing and over-reaching wits shall consume their
store, or their unthrifty posterity shall put wings upon their
riches to make them fly; or God shall not give them the blessing
to take use of their wealth, but they shall leave to such as
shall be merciful to the poor. Therefore let them follow the
wise man's counsel (Ecclesiastes 10:20), "Curse not the
rich, no, not in thy bedchamber;" let no railing and
unchristian bitterness wrong a good cause; let it be comfort
enough to them that God is both their supporter and avenger. Is
it not sufficient to lay all the storms of discontent against
their oppressors, that God sees their affliction, and cometh
down to deliver and avenge them? Edward Marbury.
Verse 14. "Thou hast seen it; for thou
beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand,"
etc. God considers all your works and ways, and will not you
consider the works, the ways of God? Of this be sure, whether
you consider the ways of God, his word-ways, or work-ways, of
this be sure, God will consider your ways, certainly he will;
those ways of yours which in themselves are not worth the
considering or looking upon, your sinful ways, though they are
so vile, so abominable, that if yourselves did but look upon
them and consider them, you would be utterly ashamed of them;
yea, though they are an abomination to God while he beholds
them, yet he will behold and consider them. The Lord who is of
purer eyes than to behold any the least iniquity, to approve it,
will yet behold the greatest of your iniquities, and your
impurest ways to consider them. "Thou," saith
David, "beholdest mischief and spite, to requite
it:" God beholdeth the foulest, dirtiest ways of men,
their ways of oppression and unrighteousness, their ways of
intemperance and lasciviousness, their ways of wrath and
maliciousness, at once to detest, detect, and requite them. If
God thus considereth the ways of men, even those filthy and
crooked ways of men, should not men consider the holy, just, and
righteous ways of God? Joseph Caryl.
Verses 14-18. "God delights to help the
poor." He loves to take part with the best, though the
weakest side. Contrary to the course of most, who when a
controversy arises use to stand in a kind of indifferency or
neutrality, till they see which part is strongest, not which is
justest. Now if there be any consideration (besides the cause)
that draws or engages God, it is the weakness of the side. He
joins with many, because they are weak, not with any, because
they are strong; therefore he is called the helper of the
friendless, and with him the fatherless, (the orphans) find
mercy. By fatherless we are not to understand such only
whose parents are dead, but any one that is in distress; as
Christ promised his disciples; "I will not leave you
orphans," that is, helpless, and (as we translate) comfortless;
though ye are as children without a father, yet I will be a
father to you. Men are often like those clouds which dissolve
into the sea; they send presents to the rich, and assist the
strong; but God sends his rain upon the dry land, and lends his
strength to those who are weak. . . . The prophet makes this
report to God of himself (Isaiah 30:4): "Thou hast been
a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his
distress, a refuge from the storm," etc. Joseph Caryl.
Verse 16. "The Lord is King for ever and ever:
the heathen are perished out of his land." Such
confidence and faith must appear to the world strange and
unaccountable. It is like what his fellow citizens may be
supposed to have felt (if the story be true) toward that man of
whom it is recorded, that his powers of vision were so
extraordinary, that he could distinctly see the fleet of the
Carthaginians entering the harbour of Carthage, while he stood
himself at Lilyboeum, in Sicily. A man seeing across an ocean,
and able to tell of objects so far off! he could feast his
vision on what others saw not. Even thus does faith now stand at
its Lilyboeum, and see the long tossed fleet entering safely the
desired haven, enjoying the bliss of that still distant day, as
if it were already come. Andrew A. Bonar.
Verse 17. There is a humbling act of faith put forth
in prayer. Others style it praying in humility; give me leave to
style it praying in faith. In faith which sets the soul in the
presence of that mighty God, and by the sight of him, which
faith gives us, it is that we see our own vileness, sinfulness,
and abhor ourselves, and profess ourselves unworthy of any, much
less of those mercies we are to seek for. Thus the sight of God
had wrought in the prophet (Isaiah 6:5), "Then said I, Woe
is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips: for
mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." And holy
Job speaks thus (Job 42:5, 6), "Now mine eye seeth thee:
wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."
This is as great a requisite to prayer as any other act; I may
say of it alone, as the apostle (James 1:7), that without it we
shall receive nothing at the hands of God! God loves to fill
empty vessels, he looks to broken hearts. In the Psalms how
often do we read that God hears the prayers of the humble; which
always involves and includes faith in it. Psalm 9:12, "He
forgetteth not the cry of the humble," and Psalm 10:17, "Lord,
thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare
their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear." To be
deeply humbled is to have the heart prepared and fitted for God
to hear the prayer; and therefore you find the psalmist pleading
sub forma pauperis, often repeating, "I am poor and
needy." And this prevents our thinking much if God do not
grant the particular thing we do desire. Thus also Christ
himself in his great distress (Psalm 22), doth treat God (verse
2), "O my God, I cry in the day-time, but thou hearest not;
and in the night season am not silent. Our fathers trusted in
thee. They cried unto thee, and were delivered. But I am a worm,
and no man; reproached of men, and despised of the people;
(verse 6)" and he was "heard" in the end "in
what he feared." And these deep humblings of ourselves,
being joined with vehement implorations upon the mercy of God to
obtain, is reckoned into the account of praying by faith, both
by God and Christ. Matthew 8. Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 17. "Lord, thou hast heard the desire of
the humble." A spiritual prayer is a humble
prayer. Prayer is the asking of an alms, which requires
humility. "The publican, standing afar off, would not lift
up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast,
saying, God be merciful to me a sinner." Luke 18:13. God's
incomprehensible glory may even amaze us and strike a holy
consternation into us when we approach nigh unto him: "O my
God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee."
Ezra 9:6. It is comely to see a poor nothing lie prostrate at
the feet of its Maker. "Behold now, I have taken upon me to
speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes." Genesis
18:27. The lower the heart descends, the higher the prayer
ascends. Thomas Watson.
Verse 17. "Lord, thou hast heard the desire of
the humble," etc. How pleasant is it, that these
benefits, which are of so great a value both on their own
account, and that of the divine benignity from whence they come,
should be delivered into our hands, marked, as it were, with
this grateful inscription, that they have been obtained by
prayer! Robert Leighton.
Verse 17. "The desire of the humble."
Prayer is the offering up of our desires to God in the name of
Christ, for such things as are agreeable to his will. It is an
offering of our desires. Desires are the soul and life of
prayer; words are but the body; now as the body without the soul
is dead, so are prayers unless they are animated with our
desires: "Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the
humble." God heareth not words, but desires. Thomas
Watson.
Verse 17. God's choice acquaintances are humble men. Robert
Leighton.
Verse 17. He that sits nearest the dust, sits nearest
heaven. Andrew Gray, of Glasgow, 1616.
Verse 17. There is a kind of omnipotency in prayer, as
having an interest and prevalency with God's omnipotency. It
hath loosed iron chains (Acts 16:25, 26); it hath opened iron
gates (Acts 12:5-10); it hath unlocked the windows of heaven (1
Kings 18:41); it hath broken the bars of death (John 11:40, 43).
Satan hath three titles given in the Scriptures, setting forth
his malignity against the church of God: a dragon, to note his
malice; a serpent, to note his subtlety; and a lion, to note his
strength. But none of all these can stand before prayer. The
greatest malice of Haman sinks under the prayer of Esther; the
deepest policy, the counsel of Ahithophel, withers before the
prayer of David; the largest army, a host of a thousand
Ethiopians, run away like cowards before the prayer of Asa. Edward
Reynolds, 1599-1676.
Verse 18. "To judge the fatherless and the
oppressed," etc. The tears of the poor fall down upon
their cheeks, et ascendunt ad coelum, and go up to heaven
and cry for vengeance before God, the judge of widows, the
father of widows and orphans. Poor people be oppressed even by
laws. Woe worth to them that make evil laws against the poor,
what shall be to them that hinder and mar good laws? What will
ye do in the day of great vengeance when God shall visit you? he
saith he will hear the tears of the poor women, when he goeth on
visitation. For their sake he will hurt the judge, be he never
so high, he will for widows' sakes change realms, bring them
into temptation, pluck the judges' skins over their heads.
Cambyses was a great emperor, such another as our master is, he
had many lord deputies, lord presidents, and lieutenants under
him. It is a great while ago since I read the history. It
chanced he had under him in one of his dominions a briber, a
gift-taker, a gratifier of rich men; he followed gifts as fast
as he that followed the pudding; a handmaker in his office, to
make his son a great man, as the old saying is, "Happy is
the child whose father goeth to the devil." The cry of the
poor widow came to the emperor's ear, and caused him to slay the
judge quick, and laid his skin in his chair of judgment, that
all judges that should give judgment afterward, should sit in
the same skin. Surely it was a goodly sign, a goodly monument,
the sign of the judges skin. I pray God we may once see the sign
of the skin in England. Ye will say, peradventure, that this is
cruelly and uncharitably spoken. No, no; I do it charitably, for
a love I bear to my country. God saith, "I will
visit." God hath two visitations; the first is when he
revealeth his word by preachers; and where the first is
accepted, the second cometh not. The second visitation is
vengeance. He went to visitation when he brought the judges skin
over his ears. If this word be despised, he cometh with the
second visitation with vengeance. Hugh Latimer, 1480 -
1555.
Verse 18. "Man of the earth," etc. In
the eighth Psalm (which is a circular Psalm, ending as it did
begin, "O Lord our God, how excellent is thy name in all
the world!" That whithersoever we turn our eyes, upwards or
downwards, we may see ourselves beset with his glory round
about), how doth the prophet base and discountenance the nature
and whole race of man; as may appear by his disdainful and
derogatory interrogation, "What is man that thou art
mindful of him; and the Son of Man, that thou regardest
him?" In the ninth Psalm, "Rise, Lord; let not man
have the upper hand; let the nations be judged in thy sight. Put
them in fear, O Lord, that the heathen may know themselves to be
but men." Further, in the tenth Psalm, "Thou judgest
the fatherless and the poor, that the man of the earth do no
more violence."
The
Psalms, as they go in order, so, methinks they grow in strength,
and each hath a weightier force to throw down our presumption.
1. We are "men," and the "sons of men," to
show our descent and propagation. 2. "Men in our own
knowledge," to show that conscience and experience of
infirmity doth convict us. 3. "Men of the earth," to
show our original matter whereof we are framed. In the
twenty-second Psalm, he addeth more disgrace; for either in his
own name, regarding the misery and contempt wherein he was held,
or in the person of Christ, whose figure he was, as if it were
robbery for him to take upon him the nature of man, he falleth
to a lower style, at ego sum vermis et non vir; but I am
a worm, and no man. For as corruption is the father of all
flesh, so are the worms his brethren and sisters according to
the old verse—
"First man, next worms, then stench and loathsomeness,
Thus man to no man alters by changes."
Abraham, the father of the faithful (Genesis 18), sifteth
himself into the coarsest man that can be, and resolveth his
nature into the elements whereof it first rose: "Behold I
have begun to speak to my Lord, being dust and ashes." And
if any of the children of Abraham, who succeed him in the faith,
or any of the children of Adam, who succeed him in the flesh,
thinketh otherwise, let him know that there is a threefold cord
twisted by the finger of God, that shall tie him to his first
original, though he contend till his heart break. "O earth,
earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord" (Jeremiah 22);
that is, earth by creation, earth by continuance, earth by
resolution. Thou camest earth, thou remainest earth, and to
earth thou must return. John King.
Verse 18. "The man of the earth." Man
dwelling in the earth, and made of earth. Thomas Wilcocks.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHERVerse 1.
The answer to these questions furnishes a noble topic for an
experimental sermon. Let me suggest that the question is not to
be answered in the same manner in all cases. Past sin, trials of
graces, strengthening of faith, discovery of depravity,
instruction, etc., etc., are varied reasons for the hiding of
our Father's face.
Verse 2. Religious persecution in all its phases based
on pride.
Verse 3. God's hatred of covetousness: show its
justice.
Verse 4. Pride the barrier in the way of conversion.
Verse 4 (last clause). Thoughts in which God is
not, weighed and condemned.
Verse 5. "Thy judgments are far above out of
his sight." Moral inability of men to appreciate the
character and acts of God.
Verse 6. The vain confidence of sinners.
Verse 8. Dangers of godly men, or the snares in the
way of believers.
Verse 9. The ferocity, craftiness, strength, and
activity of Satan.
Verse 9 (last clause). The Satanic fisherman,
his art, diligence, success, etc.
Verse 10. Designing humility unmasked.
Verse 11. Divine omniscience and the astounding
presumption of sinners.
Verse 12. "Arise, O Lord." A prayer
needful, allowable, seasonable, etc.
Verse 13 (first clause). An astounding fact,
and a reasonable enquiry.
Verse 13. Future retribution: doubts concerning it.
I.
By whom indulged: "the wicked."
II.
Where fostered: "in his heart."
III.
For what purpose: quieting of conscience, etc.
IV.
With what practical tendency: "contemn God." He
who disbelieves hell, distrusts heaven.
Verses 13, 14. Divine government in the world.
I.
Who doubt it? and why?
II.
Who believe it? and what does this faith cause them to do?
Verse 14 (last clause). A plea for orphans.
Verse 16. The Eternal Kingship of Jehovah.
Verse 17 (first clause).
I.
The Christian's character— "humble."
II.
An attribute of the Christian's whole life—"desire:"
he desires more holiness, communion, knowledge, grace, and
usefulness; and then he desires glory.
III.
The Christian's great blessedness—"Lord, thou hast
heard the desire of the humble."
Verse 17 (whole verse).
I.
Consider the nature of gracious desires.
II.
Their origin.
III.
Their result.
The
three sentences readily suggest these divisions, and the subject
may be very profitable.