SUBJECT. Charles Simeon gives an excellent
summary of this Psalm in the following sentences:—"The
Psalms are a rich repository of experimental knowledge. David,
at the different periods of his life, was placed in almost every
situation in which a believer, whether rich or poor, can be
placed; in these heavenly compositions he delineates all the
workings of the heart. He introduces, too, the sentiments and
conduct of the various persons who were accessory either to his
troubles or his joys; and thus sets before us a compendium of
all that is passing in the hearts of men throughout the world.
When he penned this Psalm he was under persecution from Saul,
who sought his life, and hunted him 'as a partridge upon the
mountains.' His timid friends were alarmed for his safety, and
recommended him to flee to some mountain where he had a
hiding-place, and thus to conceal himself from the rage of Saul.
But David, being strong in faith, spurned the idea of resorting
to any such pusillanimous expedients, and determined confidently
to repose his trust in God."
To
assist us to remember this short, but sweet Psalm, we will give
it the name of "THE SONG OF THE STEADFAST."
DIVISION. From 1 to 3, David describes the temptation with
which he was assailed, and from 4 to 7, the arguments by which
his courage was sustained.
EXPOSITION Verse 1. These verses contain an
account of a temptation to distrust God, with which David was,
upon some unmentioned occasion, greatly exercised. It may be,
that in the days when he was in Saul's court, he was advised to
flee at a time when this flight would have been charged against
him as a breach of duty to the king, or a proof of personal
cowardice. His case was like that of Nehemiah, when his enemies,
under the garb of friendship, hoped to entrap him by advising
him to escape for his life. Had he done so, they could then have
found a ground of accusation. Nehemiah bravely replied,
"Shall such a man as I flee?" and David, in a like
spirit, refuses to retreat, exclaiming, "In the Lord put
I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your
mountain?" When Satan cannot overthrow us by
presumption, how craftily will he seek to ruin us by distrust!
He will employ our dearest friends to argue us out of our
confidence, and he will use such plausible logic, that unless we
once for all assert our immovable trust in Jehovah, he will make
us like the timid bird which flies to the mountain whenever
danger presents itself.
Verse 2. How forcibly the case is put! The bow is bent, the
arrow is fitted to the string: "Flee, flee, thou
defenceless bird, thy safety lies in flight; begone, for thine
enemies will send their shafts into thy heart; haste, haste, for
soon wilt thou be destroyed!" David seems to have felt the
force of the advice, for it came home to his soul; but
yet he would not yield, but would rather dare the danger than
exhibit a distrust in the Lord his God. Doubtless the perils
which encompassed David were great and imminent; it was quite
true that his enemies were ready to shoot privily
at him.
Verse 3. It was equally correct that the very foundations
of law and justice were destroyed under Saul's
unrighteous government: but what were all these things to the
man whose trust was in God alone? He could brave the dangers,
could escape the enemies, and defy the injustice which
surrounded him. His answer to the question, "What can the
righteous do?" would be the counter-question, "What
cannot they do?" When prayer engages God on our side, and
when faith secures the fulfillment of the promise, what cause
can there be for flight, however cruel and mighty our enemies?
With a sling and a stone, David had smitten a giant before whom
the whole hosts of Israel were trembling, and the Lord, who
delivered him from the uncircumcised Philistine, could surely
deliver him from King Saul and his myrmidons. There is no such
word as "impossibility" in the language of faith; that
martial grace knows how to fight and conquer, but she knows not
how to flee.
Verse 4. David here declares the great source of his
unflinching courage. He borrows his light from heaven—from the
great central orb of deity. The God of the believer is never far
from him; he is not merely the God of the mountain fastnesses,
but of the dangerous valleys and battle plains.
"Jehovah
is in his holy temple." The heavens are above our heads
in all regions of the earth, and so is the Lord ever near to us
in every state and condition. This is a very strong reason why
we should not adopt the vile suggestions of distrust. There is
one who pleads his precious blood in our behalf in the temple
above, and there is one upon the throne who is never deaf to the
intercession of his Son. Why, then, should we fear? What plots
can men devise which Jesus will not discover? Satan has
doubtless desired to have us, that he may sift us as wheat, but
Jesus is in the temple praying for us, and how can our faith
fail? What attempts can the wicked make which Jehovah shall not
behold? And since he is in his holy temple, delighting in the
sacrifice of his Son, will he not defeat every device, and send
us a sure deliverance?
"Jehovah's
throne is in the heavens;" he reigns supreme. Nothing
can be done in heaven, or earth, or hell, which he doth not
ordain and over-rule. He is the world's great Emperor.
Wherefore, then, should we flee? If we trust this King of kings,
is not this enough? Cannot he deliver us without our cowardly
retreat? Yes, blessed be the Lord our God, we can salute him as
Jehovah-nissi; in his name we set up our banners, and instead of
flight, we once more raise the shout of war.
"His
eyes behold." The eternal Watcher never slumbers; his
eyes never know a sleep. "His eyelids try the children
of men:" he narrowly inspects their actions, words, and
thoughts. As men, when intently and narrowly inspecting some
very minute object, almost close their eyelids to exclude every
other object, so will the Lord look all men through and through.
God sees each man as much and as perfectly as if there were no
other creature in the universe. He sees us always; he never
removes his eye from us; he sees us entirely, reading the
recesses of the soul as readily as the glancings of the eye. Is
not this a sufficient ground of confidence, and an abundant
answer to the solicitations of despondency? My danger is not hid
from him; he knows my extremity, and I may rest assured that he
will not suffer me to perish while I rely alone on him.
Wherefore, then, should I take wings of a timid bird, and flee
from the dangers which beset me?
Verse 5. "The Lord trieth the righteous:" he
doth not hate them, but only tries them. They are precious to
him, and therefore he refines them with afflictions. None of the
Lord's children may hope to escape from trial, nor, indeed, in
our right minds, would any of us desire to do so, for trial is
the channel of many blessings.
"Tis my happiness below
Not to live without the cross;
But the Saviour's power to know,
Sanctifying every loss.
* * * * * * * *
Trials make the promise sweet;
Trials give new life to prayer;
Trials bring me to his feet—
Lay me low, and keep me there.
Did I meet no trials here—
No chastisement by the way—
Might I not, with reason, fear
I should prove a cast-away?
Bastards may escape the rod,
Sunk in earthly vain delight;
But the true-born child of God
Must not—would not, if he might."
William Cowper.
Is not this a very cogent reason why we should not
distrustfully endeavour to shun a trial?—for in so doing we
are seeking to avoid a blessing.
Verse 6. "But the wicked and him that loveth violence
his soul hateth:" why, then, shall I flee from these
wicked men? If God hateth them, I will not fear them. Haman was
very great in the palace until he lost favour, but when the king
abhorred him, how bold were the meanest attendants to suggest
the gallows for the man at whom they had often trembled! Look at
the black mark upon the faces of our persecutors, and we shall
not run away from them. If God is in the quarrel as well as
ourselves, it would be foolish to question the result, or avoid
the conflict. Sodom and Gomorrah perished by a fiery hail, and
by a brimstone shower from heaven; so shall all the ungodly.
They may gather together like Gog and Magog to battle, but the
Lord will rain upon them "an overflowing rain, and great
hailstones, fire, and brimstone:" Ezekiel 38:22. Some
expositors think that in the term "horrible tempest,"
there is in the Hebrew an allusion to that burning, suffocating
wind, which blows across the Arabian deserts, and is known by
the name of Simoom. "A burning storm," Lowth calls it,
while another great commentator reads it "wrathwind;"
in either version the language is full of terrors. What a
tempest will that be which shall overwhelm the despisers of God!
Oh! what a shower will that be which shall pour out itself for
ever upon the defenceless heads of impenitent sinners in hell!
Repent, ye rebels, or this fiery deluge shall soon surround you.
Hell's horrors shall be your inheritance, your entailed estate,
"the portion of your cup." The dregs of that cup you
shall wring out, and drink for ever. A drop of hell is terrible,
but what must a full cup of torment be? Think of it—a cup of
misery, but not a drop of mercy. O people of God, how foolish is
it to fear the faces of men who shall soon be faggots in the
fire of hell! Think of their end, their fearful end, and all
fear of them must be changed into contempt of their threatenings,
and pity for their miserable estate.
Verse 7. The delightful contrast of the last verse is well
worthy of our observation, and it affords another overwhelming
reason why we should be stedfast, unmoveable, not carried away
with fear, or led to adopt carnal expedients in order to avoid
trial. "For the righteous Lord loveth
righteousness." It is not only his office to defend it,
but his nature to love it. He would deny himself if he did not
defend the just. It is essential to the very being of God that
he should be just; fear not, then, the end of all your trials,
but "be just, and fear not." God approves, and, if men
oppose, what matters it? "His countenance doth behold
the upright." We need never be out of countenance, for
God countenances us. He observes, he approves, he delights in
the upright. He sees his own image in them, an image of his own
fashioning, and therefore with complacency he regards them.
Shall we dare to put forth our hand unto iniquity in order to
escape affliction? Let us have done with by-ways and short
turnings, and let us keep to that fair path of right along which
Jehovah's smile shall light us. Are we tempted to put our light
under a bushel, to conceal our religion from our neighbours? Is
it suggested to us that there are ways of avoiding the cross,
and shunning the reproach of Christ? Let us not hearken to the
voice of the charmer, but seek an increase of faith, that we may
wrestle with principalities and powers, and follow the Lord,
fully going without the camp, bearing his reproach. Mammon, the
flesh, the devil, will all whisper in our ear, "Flee as a
bird to your mountain;" but let us come forth and defy them
all. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
There is no room or reason for retreat. Advance! Let the
vanguard push on! To the front! all ye powers and passions of
our soul. On! on! in God's name, on! for "the Lord of hosts
is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge."
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Whole Psalm. The most probable account of the occasion
of this Psalm is that given by Amyraldus. He thinks it was
composed by David while he was in the court of Saul, at a time
when the hostility of the king was beginning to show itself, and
before it had broken out into open persecution. David's friends,
or those professing to be so, advised him to flee to his native
mountains for a time, and remain in retirement, till the king
should show himself more favourable. David does not at that time
accept the counsel, though afterwards he seems to have followed
it. This Psalm applies itself to the establishment of the church
against the calumnies of the world and the compromising counsel
of man, in that confidence which is to be placed in God the
Judge of all. W. Wilson, D.D., in loc., 1860.
Whole Psalm. If one may offer to make a modest
conjecture, it is not improbable this Psalm might be composed on
the sad murder of the priests by Saul (1 Samuel 22:19), when
after the slaughter of Abimelech, the high priest, Doeg, the
Edomite, by command from Saul, "slew in one day fourscore
and five persons which wore a linen ephod." I am not so
carnal as to build the spiritual church of the Jews on the
material walls of the priests' city at Nob (which then by Doeg
was smitten with the edge of the sword), but this is most true,
that "knowledge must preserve the people;" and
(Malachi 2:7), "The priests' lips shall preserve
knowledge;" and then it is easy to conclude, what an
earthquake this massacre might make in the foundations of
religion. Thomas Fuller.
Whole Psalm. Notice how remarkably the whole Psalm
corresponds with the deliverance of Lot from Sodom. This verse,
with the angel's exhortation, "Escape to the mountains,
lest thou be consumed," and Lot's reply, "I cannot
escape to the mountains, lest some evil take me and I die."
Genesis 19:17-19. And again, "The Lord's seat is in
heaven, and upon the ungodly he shall rain snares, fire,
brimstone, storm and tempest," with "Then the Lord
rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire out of
heaven:" and again "His countenance will behold the
thing that is just," with "Delivered just Lot . .
. for that righteous man vexed his righteous soul with their
ungodly deeds." 2 Peter 2: 7, 8. Cassidorus (A.D.,
560) in John Mason Neal's "Commentary on the Psalms,
from Primitive and Mediaeval Writers," 1860.
Whole Psalm. The combatants at the Lake Thrasymene are
said to have been so engrossed with the conflict that neither
party perceived the convulsions of nature that shook the
ground—
"An earthquake reeled unheedingly away,
None felt stern nature rocking at his feet."
From a nobler cause, it is thus with the soldiers of the
Lamb. They believe, and, therefore, make no haste; nay, they can
scarcely be said to feel earth's convulsions as other men,
because their eager hope presses forward to the issue at the
advent of the Lord. Andrew A. Bonar.
Verse 1. "I trust in the Lord: how do ye say
to my soul, Swerve on to your mountain like a bird?"
(others, "O thou bird.") Saul and his adherents
mocked and jeered David with such taunting speeches, as
conceiving that he knew no other shift or refuge, but so
betaking himself unto wandering and lurking on the mountains;
hopping, as it were, from one place to another like a silly
bird; but they thought to ensnare and take him well enough for
all that, not considering God who was David's comfort, rest and
refuge. Theodore Haak's "Translation of the Dutch
Annotations, as ordered by the Synod of Dort, in 1618."
London, 1657.
Verse 1. "With Jehovah I have taken shelter;
how say ye to my soul, Flee, sparrows, to your hill?"
"Your hill," that hill from which you say your
help cometh: a sneer. Repair to that boasted hill, which may
indeed give you the help which it gives the sparrow: a shelter
against the inclemencies of a stormy sky, no defence against our
power. Samuel Horsley, in loc.
Verse 1. "In the Lord put I my trust: how say
ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?" The
holy confidence of the saints in the hour of great trial is
beautifully illustrated by the following ballad which Anne
Askew, who was burned at Smithfield in 1546, made and sang when
she was in Newgate:—
Like as the armed knight,
Appointed to the field,
With this world will I fight,
And Christ shall be my shield.
Faith is that weapon strong,
Which will not fail at need:
My foes, therefore, among,
Therewith will I proceed.
As it is had in strength
And force of Christe's way,
It will prevail at length,
Though all the devils say nay.
Faith in the fathers old
Obtained righteousness;
Which makes me very bold
To fear no world's distress.
I now rejoice in heart,
And hope bids me do so;
For Christ will take my part,
And ease me of my woe.
Thou say'st Lord, whoso knock,
To them wilt thou attend:
Undo therefore the lock,
And thy strong power send.
More enemies now I have
Than hairs upon my head:
Let them not me deprave,
But fight thou in my stead.
On thee my care I cast,
For all their cruel spite:
I set not by their haste;
For thou art my delight.
I am not she that list
My anchor to let fall
For every drizzling mist,
My ship substantial.
Not oft use I to write,
In prose, nor yet in rhyme;
Yet will I shew one sight
That I saw in my time.
I saw a royal throne,
Where justice should have sit,
But in her stead was one
Of moody, cruel wit.
Absorbed was righteousness,
As of the raging flood:
Satan, in his excess,
Sucked up the guiltless blood.
Then thought I, Jesus Lord,
When thou shall judge us all,
Hard it is to record
On these men what will fall.
Yet, Lord, I thee desire,
For that they do to me,
Let them not taste the hire
Of their iniquity.
Verse 1. "How say ye to my soul, Flee as a
bird to your mountain?" We may observe, that David is
much pleased with the metaphor in frequently comparing himself
to a bird, and that of several sorts: first, to an eagle (Psalm
103:5), "My youth is renewed like the eagle's;"
sometimes to an owl (Psalm 102:6), "I am like an owl in the
desert;" sometimes to a pelican, in the same verse,
"Like a pelican in the wilderness;" sometimes to a
sparrow (Psalm 102:7), "I watch, and am as a sparrow;"
sometimes to a partridge, "As when one doth hunt a
partridge." I cannot say that he doth compare himself to a
dove, but he would compare himself (Psalm 55:6), "O that I
had the wings of a dove, for then I would flee away and be at
rest." Some will say, How is it possible that birds of so
different a feather should all so fly together as to meet in the
character of David? To whom we answer, That no two men can more
differ one from another, that the same servant of God at several
times differeth from himself. David in prosperity, when
commanding, was like an eagle; in adversity, when
contemned, like an owl; in devotion, when retired, like a
pelican; in solitariness, when having no company, (of Saul),
like a partridge. This general metaphor of a bird,
which David so often used on himself, his enemies in the first
verse of this Psalm used on him, though not particularising the
kind thereof: "Flee as a bird to your mountain;"
that is, speedily betake thyself to thy God, in whom thou hopest
for succour and security.
Seeing
this counsel was both good in itself, and good at this time, why
doth David seem so angry and displeased thereat? Those his
words, "Why say you to my soul, Flee as a bird to your
mountain?" import some passion, at leastwise, a disgust
of the advice. It is answered, David was not offended with the
counsel, but with the manner of the propounding thereof. His
enemies did it ironically in a gibing, jeering way, as if his
flying thither were to no purpose, and he unlikely to find there
the safety he sought for. However, David was not hereby put out
of conceit with the counsel, beginning this Psalm with this his
firm resolution, "In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye
then to my soul," etc. Learn we from hence, when men
give us good counsel in a jeering way, let us take the counsel,
and practice it; and leave them the jeer to be punished for it.
Indeed, corporal cordials may be envenomed by being wrapped up
in poisoned papers; not so good spiritual advice where the good
matter receives no infection from the ill manner of the delivery
thereof. Thus, when the chief priests mocked our Saviour
(Matthew 27:43), "He trusted in God, let him deliver him
now if he will have him." Christ trusted in God never a
whit the less for the fleere and flout which their profaneness
was pleased to bestow upon him. Otherwise, if men's mocks should
make us to undervalue good counsel, we might in this age be
mocked out of our God, and Christ, and Scripture, and heaven;
the apostle Jude, verse 18, having foretold that in the last
times there should be mockers, walking after their own lusts. Thomas
Fuller.
Verse 1. It is as great an offence to make a new, as
to deny the true God. "In the Lord put I my trust;"
how then "say ye unto my soul" (ye seducers of
souls), "that she should fly unto the mountains as a
bird;" to seek unnecessary and foreign helps, as if the
Lord alone were not sufficient? "The Lord is my rock, and
my fortress, and he that delivereth me, my God, and my strength;
in him will I trust: my shield, the horn of my salvation, and my
refuge. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
so shall I be safe from mine enemies." "Whom have I in
heaven but thee," amongst those thousands of angels and
saints, what Michael or Gabriel, what Moses or Samuel, what
Peter, what Paul? "and there is none in earth that I desire
in comparison of thee." John King, 1608.
Verse 1. In temptations of inward trouble and terror,
it is not convenient to dispute the matter with Satan. David in
Psalm 42:11, seems to correct himself for his mistake; his soul
was cast down within him, and for the cure of that temptation,
he had prepared himself by arguments for a dispute; but
perceiving himself in a wrong course, he calls off his soul from
disquiet to an immediate application to God and the promises,
"Trust still in God, for I shall yet praise him;" but
here he is more aforehand with his work; for while his enemies
were acted by Satan to discourage him, he rejects the temptation
at first, before it settled upon his thoughts, and chaseth it
away as a thing that he would not give ear to. "In the
Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to
your mountain?" And there are weighty reasons that
should dissuade us from entering the lists with Satan in
temptation of inward trouble. Richard Gilpin.
Verse 1. The shadow will not cool except in it. What
good to have the shadow though of a mighty rock, when we sit in
the open sun? To have almighty power engaged for us, and we to
throw ourselves out of it, by bold sallies in the mouth of
temptation! The saints' falls have been when they have run out
of their trench and stronghold; for, like the conies, they are a
weak people in themselves, and their strength lies in the rock
of God's almightiness, which is their habitation. William
Gurnall.
Verse 1. The saints of old would not accept
deliverances on base terms. They scorned to fly away for the
enjoyment of rest except it were with the wings of a dove,
covered with silver innocence. As willing were many of the
martyrs to die as to dine. The tormentors were tired in
torturing Blandina. "We are ashamed, O Emperor! The
Christians laugh at your cruelty, and grow the more
resolute," said one of Julian's nobles. This the heathen
counted obstinacy; but they knew not the power of the Spirit,
nor the secret armour of proof, which saints wear about their
hearts. John Trapp.
Verse 2. "For, lo, the wicked bend their
bow," etc. This verse presents an unequal combat
betwixt armed power, advantaged with policy, on the one
side; and naked innocence on the other. First, armed
power: "They bend their bows, and make ready their
arrows," being all the artillery of that age; secondly,
advantaged with policy: "that they may privily
shoot," to surprise them with an ambush unawares,
probably pretending amity and friendship unto them; thirdly, naked
innocence: if innocence may be termed naked, which is its
own armour; "at the upright in heart." Thomas
Fuller.
Verse 2. "For, lo, the ungodly bend their bow,
and make ready their arrows within the quiver: that they may
privily shoot at them which are true of heart." The
plottings of the chief priests and Pharisees that they might
take Jesus by subtlety and kill him. They bent their bow, when
they hired Judas Iscariot for the betrayal of his Master; they
made ready their arrows within the quiver when they sought
"false witnesses against Jesus to put him to death."
Matthew 26:59. "Them which are true of heart."
Not alone the Lord himself, the only true and righteous, but his
apostles, and the long line of those who should faithfully
cleave to him from that time to this. And as with the Master, so
with the servants: witness the calumnies and the revilings that
from the time of Joseph's accusation by his mistress till the
present day, have been the lot of God's people. Michael
Ayguan, 1416, in J. M. Neale's Commentary.
Verse 2. "That they may secretly shoot at them
which are upright in heart." They bear not their bows
and arrows as scarecrows in a garden of cucumbers, to fray, but to
shoot, not at stakes, but men; their arrows are jacula
mortifera (Psalm 7), deadly arrows, and lest they should
fail to hit, they take advantage of the dark, of privacy and
secrecy; they shoot privily. Now this is the covenant of
hell itself. For what created power in the earth is able to
dissolve that work which cruelty and subtlety,
like Simeon and Levi, brothers in evil, are combined and
confederate to bring to pass? Where subtlety is ingenious,
insidious to invent, cruelty barbarous to execute, subtlety
giveth counsel, cruelty giveth the stroke. Subtlety ordereth the
time, the place, the means, accomodateth, concinnateth
circumstances; cruelty undertaketh the act: subtlety hideth the
knife, cruelty cutteth the throat: subtlety with a cunning head
layeth the ambush, plotteth the train, the stratagem; and
cruelty with as savage a heart, sticketh not at the dreadfullest,
direfullest objects, ready to wade up to the ankles, the neck,
in a whole red sea of human, yea, country blood: how fearful is
their plight that are thus assaulted! John King.
Verse 3. "If the foundations be destroyed,
what can the righteous do?" But now we are met with a
giant objection, which with Goliath must be removed, or else it
will obstruct our present proceedings. Is it possible that the foundations
of religion should be destroyed? Can God be in so long a
sleep, yea, so long a lethargy, as patiently to permit the ruins
thereof? If he looks on, and yet doth not see these foundations
when destroyed, where then is his omnisciency? If he
seeth it, and cannot help it, where then is his omnipotency?
If he seeth it, can help it, and will not, where then is his goodness
and mercy? Martha said to Jesus (John 11:21), "Lord,
if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." But many
will say, Were God effectually present in the world with his
aforesaid attributes, surely the foundations had not died,
had not been destroyed. We answer negatively, that it is
impossible that the foundations of religion should ever
be totally and finally destroyed, either in
relation to the church in general, or in reference to every true
and lively member thereof. For the first, we have an express
promise of Christ. Matthew 16:18. "The gates of hell shall
not prevail against it." Fundamenta tamen stant
inconcussa Sionis. And as for every particular Christian (2
Timothy 2:19), "Nevertheless, the foundation of God
standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are
his." However, though for the reasons aforementioned in the
objections (the inconsistency thereof with the attributes of
God's omnipotency, omnisciency, and goodness), the foundations
can never totally and finally, yet may they partially be
destroyed, quoad gradum, in a fourfold degree, as
followeth. First, in the desires and utmost endeavours of
wicked men,
They bring their—
1. Hoc velle,
2. Hoc agere,
3. Totum posse.
If they destroy not the foundations, it is no thanks
to them, seeing all the world will bear them witness they have
done their best (that is, their worst), what their
might and malice could perform. Secondly, in their own
vainglorious imaginations: they may not only vainly boast,
but also verily believe that they have destroyed the
foundations. Applicable to this purpose, is that high rant
of the Roman emperor (Luke 2:1): "And it came to pass in
those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus,
that all the world should be taxed." All the world! whereas
he had, though much, not all in Europe, little in Asia, less in
Africa, none in America, which was so far from being conquered,
it was not so much as known to the Romans. But hyperbole
is not a figure, but the ordinary language of pride; because
indeed Augustus had very much he proclaimeth himself to have all
the world. . . . Thirdly, the foundations may be destroyed
as to all outward visible illustrious apparition. The church in
persecution is like unto a ship in a tempest; down go all their
masts, yea, sometimes for the more speed they are forced to cut
them down: not a piece of canvas to play with the winds, no
sails to be seen; they lie close knotted to the very keel, that
the tempest may have the less power upon them, though when the
storm is over, they can hoist up their sails as high, and spread
their canvas as broad as ever before. So the church in the time
of persecution feared, but especially felt, loseth
all gayness and gallantry which may attract and allure the eyes
of beholders, and contenteth itself with its own secrecy. In a
word, on the work-days of affliction she weareth her worst
clothes, whilst her best are laid up in her wardrobe, in sure
and certain hope that God will give her a holy and happy
day, when with joy she shall wear her best garments. Lastly,
they may be destroyed in the jealous apprehensions
of the best saints and servants of God, especially in their
melancholy fits. I will instance in no puny, but in a star of
the first magnitude and greatest eminency, even Elijah himself
complaining (1 Kings 19:10): "And I, even I only, am left;
and they seek my life, to take it away." Thomas Fuller.
Verse 3. "If." It is the only word of
comfort in the text, that what is said is not positive, but
suppositive; not thetical, but hypothetical. And yet this
comfort which is but a spark (at which we would willingly kindle
our hopes), is quickly sadded with a double consideration.
First, impossible suppositions produce impossible consequences,
"As is the mother, so is the daughter." Therefore,
surely God's Holy Spirit would not suppose such a thing but what
was feasible and possible, but what either had, did, or might
come to pass. Secondly, the Hebrew word is not the conditional im,
si, si forte, but chi, quia, quoniam, because, and
(although here it be favourably rendered if), seemeth to
import, more therein, that the sad case had already happened in
David's days. I see, therefore, that this if, our only
hope in the text, is likely to prove with Job's friends, but a
miserable comforter. Well, it is good to know the worst of
things, that we may provide ourselves accordingly; and therefore
let us behold this doleful case, not as doubtful, but as done;
not as feared, but felt; not as suspected, but at this time
really come to pass. Thomas Fuller.
Verse 3. "If the foundations," etc.
My text is an answer to a tacit objection which some may raise;
namely, that the righteous are wanting to themselves, and by
their own easiness and inactivity (not daring and doing so much
as they might and ought), betray themselves to that bad
condition. In whose defence David shows, that if God in his wise
will and pleasure seeth it fitting, for reasons best known to
himself, to suffer religion to be reduced to terms of extremity,
it is not placed in the power of the best man alive to remedy
and redress the same. "If the foundations be destroyed,
what can the righteous do?" My text is hung about with mourning,
as for a funeral sermon, and contains: First, a sad case
supposed, "If the foundations be destroyed."
Secondly, a sad question propounded, "What can the
righteous do?" Thirdly, a sad answer implied, namely,
that they can do just nothing, as to that point of
re-establishing the destroyed foundation. Thomas Fuller.
Verse 3. "If the foundations be
destroyed," etc. The civil foundation of a nation or
people, is their laws and constitutions. The order and power
that's among them, that's the foundation of a people; and when
once this foundation is destroyed, "What can the
righteous do?" What can the best, the wisest in the
world, do in such a case? What can any man do, if there be not a
foundation of government left among men? There is no help nor
answer in such a case but that which follows in the fourth verse
of the Psalm, "The Lord is in his holy temple, the
Lord's throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try,
the children of men;" as if he had said, in the midst
of these confusions, when as it is said (Psalm 82:5), "All
the foundations of the earth are out of course;" yet God
keeps his course still, he is where he was and as he was,
without variableness or shadow of turning. Joseph Caryl.
Verse 3. "The righteous." The
righteous indefinitely, equivalent to the righteous universally;
not only the righteous as a single arrow, but in the whole
sheaf; not only the righteous in their personal, but in their
diffusive capacity. Were they all collected into one body, were
all the righteous living in the same age wherein the foundations
are destroyed, summoned up and modelled into one
corporation, all their joint endeavours would prove ineffectual
to the re-establishing of the fallen foundations, as not
being man's work, but only God's work to perform. Thomas
Fuller.
Verse 3. "The foundations." Positions,
the things formerly fixed, placed, and settled. It is not said,
if the roof be ruinous, or if the side walls be shattered, but
if the foundations.
Verse 3. "Foundations be destroyed."
In the plural. Here I will not warrant my skill in architecture,
but conceive this may pass for an undoubted truth: it is
possible that a building settled on several entire foundations
(suppose them pillars) close one to another, if one of
them fall, yet the structure may still stand, or rather hang (at
the least for a short time) by virtue of the complicative,
which it receiveth from such foundations which still stand
secure. But in case there be a total rout, and an utter ruin of
all the foundations,, none can fancy to themselves a
possibility of that building's subsistence. Thomas Fuller.
Verse 3. "What CAN the righteous?"
The can of the righteous is a limited can,
confined to the rule of God's word; they can do nothing
but what they can lawfully do. 2 Corinthians 13:8.
"For we can do nothing against the truth, but for
the truth:" Illud possumus, quod jure possumus.
Wicked men can do anything; their conscience, which is so wide
that it is none at all, will bear them out to act anything how
unlawful soever, to stab, poison, massacre, by any means, at any
time, in any place, whosoever standeth betwixt them and the
effecting of their desires. Not so the righteous; they have a
rule whereby to walk, which they will not, they must not, they
dare not, cross. If therefore a righteous man were assured, that
by the breach of one of God's commandments he might restore
decayed religion, and re-settle it statu quo prius, his
hands, head, and heart are tied up, he can do nothing,
because their damnation is just who say (Romans 3:8), "Let
us do evil that good may come thereof."
Verse 3. "Do." It is not said, What
can they think? It is a great blessing which God hath
allowed injured people, that though otherwise oppressed and
straitened, they may freely enlarge themselves in their
thoughts. Thomas Fuller.
Verse 3. Sinning times have ever been the saints'
praying times: this sent Ezra with a heavy heart to confess the
sin of his people, and to bewail their abominations before the
Lord. Ezra 9. And Jeremiah tells the wicked of his degenerate
age, that "his soul should weep in secret places for their
pride." Jeremiah 13:17. Indeed, sometimes sin comes to such
a height, that this is almost all the godly can do, to get into
a corner, and bewail the general pollutions of the age. "If
the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
Such dismal days of national confusion our eyes have seen, when
foundations of government were destroyed, and all hurled into
military confusion. When it is thus with a people, "What
can the righteous do?" Yes, this they may, and should
do, "fast and pray." There is yet a God in heaven to
be sought to, when a people's deliverance is thrown beyond the
help of human policy or power. Now is the fit time to make their
appeal to God, as the words following hint: "The Lord is
in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven;" in
which words God is presented sitting in heaven as a temple, for
their encouragement, I conceive, in such a desperate state of
affairs, to direct their prayers thither for deliverance. And
certainly this hath been the engine that hath been instrumental,
above any, to restore this poor nation again, and set it upon
the foundation of that lawful government from which it had so
dangerously departed. William Gurnall.
Verse 4. The infinite understanding of God doth
exactly know the sins of men; he knows so as to consider. He
doth not only know them, but intently behold them: "His
eyelids try the children of men," a metaphor taken from
men, that contract the eyelids when they would wistly and
accurately behold a thing: it is not a transient and careless
look. Stephen Charnock.
Verse 4. "His eyes behold," etc. God
searcheth not as man searcheth, by enquiring into that which
before was hid from him; his searching is no more but his
beholding; he seeth the heart, he beholdeth the reins; God's
very sight is searching. Hebrews 4:13. "All things are
naked, and opened unto his eyes," tetrachlidmena, dissected
or anatomised. He hath at once as exact a view of the most
hidden things, the very entrails of the soul, as if they had
been with never so great curiosity anatomised before him. Richard
Alleine, 1611-1681.
Verse 4. "His eyes behold," etc.
Consider that God not only sees into all you do, but he sees it
to that very end that he may examine and search into it. He doth
not only behold you with a common and indifferent look, but with
a searching, watchful, and inquisitive eye: he pries into the
reasons, the motives, the ends of all your actions. "The
Lord's throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try,
the children of men." Revelation 1:14, where Christ is
described, it is said, his eyes are as a flame of fire:
you know the property of fire is to search and make trial of
those things which are exposed unto it, and to separate the
dross from the pure metal: so, God's eye is like fire, to try
and examine the actions of men: he knows and discerns how much
your very purest duties have in them of mixture, and base ends
of formality, hypocrisy, distractedness, and deadness: he sees
through all your specious pretenses, that which you cast as a
mist before the eyes of men when yet thou art but a juggler in
religion: all your tricks and sleights of outward profession,
all those things that you use to cozen and delude men withal,
cannot possibly impose upon him: he is a God that can look
through all those fig-leaves of outward profession, and discern
the nakedness of your duties through them. Ezekiel Hopkins,
D.D.
Verse 4. "His eyes behold," etc. Take
God into thy counsel. Heaven overlooks hell. God at any time can
tell thee what plots are hatching there against thee. William
Gurnall.
Verse 4. "His eyes behold, his eyelids try,
the children of men." When an offender, or one accused
for any offence, is brought before a judge, and stands at the
bar to be arraigned, the judge looks upon him, eyes him, sets
his eye upon him, and he bids the offender look up in his face:
"Look upon me," saith the judge, "and speak
up:" guiltiness usually clouds the forehead and clothes the
brow; the weight of guilt holds down the head! the evil doer
hath an ill look, or dares not look up; how glad is he if
the judge looks off him. We have such an expression here,
speaking of the Lord, the great Judge of heaven and earth: "His
eyelids try the children of men," as a judge tries a
guilty person with his eye, and reads the characters of his
wickedness printed in his face. Hence we have a common speech in
our language, such a one looks suspiciously, or, he
hath a guilty look. At that great gaol-delivery described in
Revelation 6:16, All the prisoners cry out to be hid from the
face of him that sat upon the throne. They could not look
upon Christ, and they could not endure Christ should look upon
them; the eyelids of Christ try the children of men. . . .
Wickedness cannot endure to be under the observation of any eye
much less of the eye of justice. Hence the actors of it say,
"Who seeth us?" It is very hard not to show the
guilt of the heart in the face, and it is as hard to have it
seen there. Joseph Caryl.
Verse 5. "The Lord trieth the righteous."
Except our sins, there is not such plenty of anything in all the
world as there is of troubles which come from sin, as one heavy
messenger came to Job after another. Since we are not in
paradise, but in the wilderness, we must look for one trouble
after another. As a bear came to David after a lion, and a giant
after a bear, and a king after a giant, and Philistines after a
king, so, when believers have fought with poverty. they shall
fight with envy; when they have fought with envy, they shall
fight with infamy; when the have fought with infamy, they shall
fight with sickness; they shall be like a labourer who is never
out of work. Henry Smith.
Verse 5. "The Lord trieth the righteous."
Times of affliction and persecution will distinguish the
precious from the vile, it will difference the counterfeit
professor from the true. Persecution is a Christian's
touchstone, it is a lapis lydius that will try what metal
men are made of, whether they be silver or tin, gold or dross,
wheat or chaff, shadow or substance, carnal or spiritual,
sincere or hypocritical. Nothing speaks out more soundness and
uprightness than a pursuing after holiness, even then when
holiness is most afflicted, pursued, and persecuted in the
world: to stand fast in fiery trials argues much integrity
within. Thomas Brooks.
Verse 5. Note the singular opposition of the two
sentences. God hates the wicked, and therefore in contrast he
loves the righteous; but it is here said that he tries them:
therefore it follows that to try and to love are with God the
same thing. C. H. S.
Verse 6. "Upon the wicked he shall rain
snares." Snares to hold them; then if they be not
delivered, follow fire and brimstone, and they cannot escape.
This is the case of a sinner if he repent not; if God pardon
not, he is in the snare of Satan's temptation, he is in the
snare of divine vengeance; let him therefore cry aloud for his
deliverance, that he may have his feet in a large room. The
wicked lay snares for the righteous, but God either preventeth
them that their souls ever escape them, or else he subverteth
them: "The snares are broken and we are delivered." No
snares hold us so fast as those of our own sins; they keep down
our heads, and stoop us that we cannot look up: a very little
ease they are to him that hath not a seared conscience. Samuel
Page, 1646.
Verse 6. "He shall rain snares." As
in hunting with the lasso, the huntsman casts a snare from above
upon his prey to entangle its head or feet, so shall the Lord
from above with many twistings of the line of terror, surround,
bind, and take captive the haters of his law. C. H. S.
Verse 6. "He shall rain snares," etc.
He shall rain upon them when they least think of it, even in the
midst of their jollity, as rain falls on a fair day. Or, he
shall rain down the vengeance when he sees good, for it rains
not always. Though he defers it, yet it will rain. William
Nicholson, Bishop of Gloucester, in "David's Harp Strung
and Tuned," 1662.
Verse 6. "Upon the wicked he shall rain
snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest."
The strange dispensation of affairs in this world is an argument
which doth convincingly prove that there shall be such a day
wherein all the involucra and entanglements of providence
shall be clearly unfolded. Then shall the riddle be dissolved,
why God hath given this and that profane wretch so much wealth,
and so much power to do mischief: is it not that they might
be destroyed for ever? Then shall they be called to a strict
account for all that plenty and prosperity for which they are
now envied; and the more they have abused, the more dreadful
will their condemnation be. Then it will be seen that God gave
them not as mercies, but as "snares." It is
said that God "will rain on the wicked snares, fire and
brimstone, and an horrible tempest:" when he scatters
abroad the desirable things of this world, riches, honours,
pleasures, etc., then he rains "snares" upon
them; and when he shall call them to an account for these
things, then he will rain upon them "fire and brimstone,
and an horrible tempest" of his wrath and fury. Dives,
who caroused on earth, yet, in hell could not obtain so much as
one poor drop of water to cool his scorched and flaming tongue:
had not his excess and intemperance been so great in his life,
his fiery thirst had not been so tormenting after death; and
therefore, in that sad item that Abraham gives him (Luke 16:25),
he bids him "remember that thou, in thy lifetime,
receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things;
but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented." I
look upon this as a most bitter and a most deserved sarcasm;
upbraiding him for his gross folly, in making the trifles of
this life his good things. Thou hast received thy good things,
but now thou art tormented. Oh, never call Dive's purple and
delicious fare good things, if they thus end in torments!
Was it good for him to be wrapped in purple who is now wrapped
in flames? Was it good for him to fare deliciously who was only
thereby fatted up against the day of slaughter? Ezekiel
Hopkins.
Verse 6. "Snares, fire and brimstone, storm
and tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup."
After the judgment follows the condemnation: pre-figured as we
have seen, by the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah. "Snares:"
because the allurements of Satan in this life will be their
worst punishments in the next; the fire of anger, the brimstone
of impurity, the tempest of pride, the lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. "This shall be
their portion;" compare it with the psalmist's own
saying, "The Lord himself is the portion of my inheritance
and my cup." Psalm 16:5. Cassidorus, in J. M. Neale's
Commentary.
Verse 6. "The portion of their cup."
Hebrew, the allotment of their cup. The expression has reference
to the custom of distributing to each guest his mess of meat. William
French and George Skinner, 1842.
Verse 7. That God may give grace without glory is
intelligible; but to admit a man to communion with him in glory
without grace, is not intelligible. It is not agreeable to God's
holiness to make any inhabitant of heaven, and converse freely
with him in a way of intimate love, without such a qualification
of grace: "The righteous Lord loveth
righteousness;" his countenance doth behold the
upright;" he looks upon him with a smiling eye, and
therefore he cannot favourably look upon an unrighteous person;
so that this necessity is not founded only in the command of God
that we should be renewed, but in the very nature of the thing,
because God, in regard to his holiness, cannot converse with an
impure creature. God must change his nature, or the sinner's
nature must be changed. There can be no friendly communion
between two of different natures without the change of one of
them into the likeness of the other. Wolves and sheep, darkness
and light, can never agree. God cannot love a sinner as a
sinner, because he hates impurity by a necessity of nature as
well as a choice of will. It is as impossible for him to love it
as to cease to be holy. Stephen Charnock.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1. Faith's bold avowal, and brave refusal.
Verse 1. Teacheth us to trust in God, how great soever
our dangers be; also that we shall be many times assaulted to
make us put far from us this trust, but yet that we must cleave
unto it, as the anchor of our souls, sure and steadfast. Thomas
Wilcocks.
Verse 1. The advice of cowardice, and the jeer of
insolence, both answered by faith. Lesson—Attempt no other
answer.
Verse 2. The craftiness of our spiritual enemies.
Verse 3. This may furnish a double discourse.
I.
If God's oath and promise could remove, what could we do?
Here the answer is easy.
II.
If all earthly things fail, and the very State fall to
pieces, what can we do? We can suffer joyfully, hope cheerfully,
wait patiently, pray earnestly, believe confidently, and triumph
finally.
Verse 3. Necessity of holding and preaching foundation
truths.
Verse 4. The elevation, mystery, supremacy, purity,
everlastingness, invisibility, etc., of the throne of God.
Verses 4, 5. In these verses mark the fact that the
children of men, as well as the righteous, are tried; work out
the contrast between the two trials in their designs and
results, etc.
Verse 5. "The Lord trieth the righteous."
I.
Who are tried?
II.
What in them is tried?—Faith, love, etc.
III.
In what manner?—Trials of every sort.
IV.
How long?
V.
For what purpose?
Verse 5. "His soul hateth." The
thoroughness of God's hatred of sin. Illustrate by providential
judgments, threatenings, sufferings of the Surety, and the
terrors of hell.
Verse 5. The trying of the gold, and the sweeping out
of the refuse.
Verse 6. "He shall rain." Gracious
rain and destroying rain.
Verse 6. The portion of the impenitent.
Verse 7. The Lord possesses righteousness as a
personal attribute, loves it in the abstract, and blesses those
who practise it.