TITLE. This Psalm is headed "To the
Chief Musician upon Sheminith, a Psalm of David," which
title is identical with that of the sixth Psalm, except that
Neginoth is here omitted. We have nothing new to add, and
therefore refer the reader to our remarks on the dedication of
Psalm VI. As Sheminith signifies the eighth, the Arabic version
says it is concerning the end of the world, which shall be the
eighth day, and refers it to the coming of the Messiah: without
accepting so fanciful an interpretation, we may read this song
of complaining faith in the light of His coming who shall break
in pieces the oppressor. The subject will be the better before
the mind's eye if we entitle this Psalm: "GOOD THOUGHTS
IN BAD TIMES." It is supposed to have been written while
Saul was persecuting David, and those who favoured his cause.
DIVISION. In the first and second verses David spreads his
plaint before the Lord concerning the treachery of his age;
verses 3 and 4 denounce judgments upon proud traitors; in verse
5, Jehovah himself thunders out his wrath against oppressors;
hearing this, the Chief Musician sings sweetly of the
faithfulness of God and his care of his people, in verses 6 and
7; but closes on the old key of lament in verse 8, as he
observes the abounding wickedness of his times. Those holy souls
who dwell in Mesech, and sojourn in the tents of Kedar, may read
and sing these sacred stanzas with hearts in full accord with
their mingled melody of lowly mourning and lofty confidence.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. "Help, Lord." A short but
sweet, suggestive, seasonable, and serviceable prayer; a kind of
angel's sword, to be turned every way, and to be used on all
occasions. Ainsworth says the word rendered "help," is
largely used for all manner of saving, helping, delivering,
preserving, etc. Thus it seems that the prayer is very full and
instructive. The Psalmist sees the extreme danger of his
position, for a man had better be among lions than among liars;
he feels his own inability to deal with such sons of Belial, for
"he who shall touch them must be fenced with iron;" he
therefore turns himself to his all-sufficient Helper, the Lord,
whose help is never denied to his servants, and whose aid is
enough for all their needs. "Help, Lord," is a
very useful ejaculation which we may dart up to heaven on
occasions of emergency, whether in labour, learning, suffering,
fighting, living, or dying. As small ships can sail into
harbours which larger vessels, drawing more water, cannot enter,
so our brief cries and short petitions may trade with heaven
when our soul is wind-bound, and business-bound, as to longer
exercises of devotion, and when the stream of grace seems at too
low an ebb to float a more laborious supplication. "For
the godly man ceaseth;" the death, departure, or
decline of godly men should be a trumpet-call for more prayer.
They say that fish smell first at the head, and when godly men
decay, the whole commonwealth will soon go rotten. We must not,
however, be rash in our judgment on this point, for Elijah erred
in counting himself the only servant of God alive, when there
were thousands whom the Lord held in reserve. The present times
always appear to be peculiarly dangerous, because they are
nearest to our anxious gaze, and whatever evils are rife are
sure to be observed, while the faults of past ages are further
off, and are more easily overlooked. Yet we expect that in the
latter days, "because iniquity shall abound, the love of
many shall wax cold," and then we must the more thoroughly
turn from man, and address ourselves to the Churches' Lord, by
whose help the gates of hell shall be kept from prevailing
against us. "The faithful fail from among the children
of men;" when godliness goes, faithfulness inevitably
follows; without fear of God, men have no love of truth. Common
honesty is no longer common, when common irreligion leads to
universal godlessness. David had his eye on Doeg, and the men of
Ziph and Keilah, and perhaps remembered the murdered priests of
Nob, and the many banished ones who consorted with him in the
cave of Adullam, and wondered where the state would drift
without the anchors of its godly and faithful men. David, amid
the general misrule, did not betake himself to seditious
plottings, but to solemn petitionings; nor did he join with the
multitude to do evil, but took up the arms of prayer to
withstand their attacks upon virtue.
Verse 2. "They speak vanity every one with his
neighbour." They utter that which is vain to hear,
because of its frivolous, foolish, want of worth; vain to believe,
because it was false and lying; vain to trust to, since
it was deceitful and flattering; vain to regard, for it
lifted up the hearer, filling him with proud conceit of himself.
It is a sad thing when it is the fashion to talk vanity. "Ca'me,
and I'll ca'thee." is the old Scotch proverb; give me a
high sounding character, and I will give you one. Compliments
and fawning congratulations are hateful to honest men; they know
that if they take they must give them, and they scorn to do
either. These accommodation-bills are most admired by those who
are bankrupt in character. Bad are the times when every man thus
cajoles and cozens his neighbour. "With flattering lips
and with a double heart do they speak." He who puffs up
another's heart, has nothing better than wind in his own. If a
man extols me to my face, he only shows me one side of his
heart, and the other is black with contempt for me, or foul with
intent to cheat me. Flattery is the sign of the tavern where
duplicity is the host. The Chinese consider a man of two hearts
to be a very base man, and we shall be safe in reckoning all
flatteries to be such.
Verses 3, 4. Total destruction shall overwhelm the
lovers of flattery and pride, but meanwhile how they hector and
fume! Well did the apostle call them "raging waves of the
sea, foaming out their own shame." Free-thinkers are
generally very free-talkers, and they are never more at ease
than when railing at God's dominion, and arrogating to
themselves unbounded license. Strange is it that the easy yoke
of the Lord should so gall the shoulders of the proud, while the
iron bands of Satan they bind about themselves as chains of
honour: they boastfully cry unto God, "Who is lord over
us?" and hear not the hollow voice of the evil one, who
cries from the infernal lake, "I am your lord, and right
faithfully do ye serve me." Alas, poor fools, their pride
and glory shall be cut off like a fading flower! May God grant
that our soul may not be gathered with them. It is worthy of
observation that flattering lips, and tongues speaking proud
things, are classed together: the fitness of this is clear, for
they are guilty of the same vice, the first flatters another,
and the second flatters himself, in both cases a lie is in their
right hands. One generally imagines that flatterers are such
mean parasites, so cringing and fawning, that they cannot be
proud; but the wise man will tell you that while all pride is
truly meanness, there is in the very lowest meanness no small
degree of pride. Caesar's horse is even more proud of carrying
Caesar, than Caesar is of riding him. The mat on which the
emperor wiped his shoes, boasts vaingloriously, crying out,
"I cleaned the imperial boots." None are so detestably
domineering as the little creatures who creep into office by
cringing to the great; those are bad times, indeed, in which
these obnoxious beings are numerous and powerful. No wonder that
the justice of God in cutting off such injurious persons is
matter for a psalm, for both earth and heaven are weary of such
provoking offenders, whose presence is a very plague to the
people afflicted thereby. Men cannot tame the tongues of such
boastful flatterers; but the Lord's remedy if sharp is sure, and
is an unanswerable answer to their swelling words of vanity.
Verse 5. In due season the Lord will hear his elect ones, who
cry day and night unto him, and though he bear long with their
oppressors, yet will he avenge them speedily. Observe that the
mere oppression of saints, however silently they bear it, is in
itself a cry to God: Moses was heard at the Red Sea, though he
said nothing; and Hagar's affliction was heard despite her
silence. Jesus feels with his people, and their smarts are
mighty orators with him. By-and-by, however, they begin
to sigh and express their misery, and then relief comes
post-haste. Nothing moves a father like the cries of his
children; he bestirs himself, wakes up his manhood, overthrows
the enemy, and sets his beloved in safety. A puff is too
much for the child to bear, and the foe is so haughty, that he
laughs the little one to scorn; but the Father comes, and then
it is the child's turn to laugh, when he is set above the rage
of his tormentor. What virtue is there in a poor man's sighs,
that they should move the Almighty God to arise from his throne.
The needy did not dare to speak, and could only sigh in secret,
but the Lord heard, and could rest no longer, but girded on his
sword for the battle. It is a fair day when our soul brings God
into her quarrel, for when his bare arm is seen, Philistia shall
rue the day. The darkest hours of the Church's night are those
which precede the break of day. Man's extremity is God's
opportunity. Jesus will come to deliver just when his needy ones
shall sigh, as if all hope had gone for ever. O Lord, set thy now
near at hand, and rise up speedily to our help. Should the
afflicted reader be able to lay hold upon the promise of this
verse, let him gratefully fetch a fulness of comfort from it.
Gurnall says, "As one may draw out the wine of a whole
hogshead at one tap, so may a poor soul derive the comfort of
the whole covenant to himself through one promise, if he be able
to apply it." He who promises to set us in safety, means
thereby preservation on earth, and eternal salvation in heaven.
Verse 6. What a contrast between the vain words of man, and
the pure words of Jehovah. Man's words are yea and nay, but the
Lord's promises are yea and amen. For truth, certainty,
holiness, faithfulness, the words of the Lord are pure as
well-refined silver. In the original there is an allusion to the
most severely-purifying process known to the ancients, through
which silver was passed when the greatest possible purity was
desired; the dross was all consumed, and only the bright and
precious metal remained; so clear and free from all alloy of
error or unfaithfulness is the book of the words of the Lord.
The Bible has passed through the furnace of persecution,
literary criticism, philosophic doubt, and scientific discovery,
and has lost nothing but those human interpretations which clung
to it as alloy to precious ore. The experience of saints has
tried it in every conceivable manner, but not a single doctrine
or promise has been consumed in the most excessive heat. What
God's words are, the words of his children should be. If we
would be Godlike in conversation, we must watch our language,
and maintain the strictest purity of integrity and holiness in
all our communications.
Verse 7. To fall into the hands of an evil generation, so as
to be baited by their cruelty, or polluted by their influence,
is an evil to be dreaded beyond measure; but it is an evil
foreseen and provided for in the text. In life many a saint has
lived a hundred years before his age, as though he had darted
his soul into the brighter future, and escaped the mists of the
beclouded present: he has gone to his grave unreverenced and
misunderstood, and lo! as generations come and go, upon a sudden
the hero is unearthed, and lives in the admiration and love of
the excellent of the earth; preserved for ever from the
generation which stigmatised him as a sower of sedition, or
burned him as a heretic. It should be our daily prayer that we
may rise above our age as the mountain-tops above the clouds,
and may stand out as heaven-pointing pinnacle high above the
mists of ignorance and sin which roll around us. O Eternal
Spirit, fulfil in us the faithful saying of this verse! Our
faith believes those two assuring words, and cries, "Thou
shalt," "thou shalt."
Verse 8. Here we return to the fount of bitterness, which
first made the psalmist run to the wells of salvation, namely,
the prevalence of wickedness. When those in power are vile,
their underlings will be no better. As a warm sun brings out
noxious flies, so does a sinner in honour foster vice
everywhere. Our turf would not so swarm with abominables if
those who are styled honourables did not give their countenance
to the craft. Would to God that the glory and triumph of our
Lord Jesus would encourage us to walk and work on every side; as
like acts upon like, since an exalted sinner encourages sinners,
our exalted Redeemer must surely excite, cheer, and stimulate
his saints. Nerved by a sight of his reigning power we shall
meet the evils of the times in the spirit of holy resolution,
and shall the more hopefully pray, "Help, Lord."
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Verse 1. "Help, Lord." 'Twas high
time to call to heaven for help, when Saul cried, "Go, kill
me up the priests of Jehovah" (the occasion as it is
thought of making this Psalm), and therein committed the sin
against the Holy Ghost, as some grave divines are of opinion. 1
Samuel 22:17. David, after many sad thoughts about that
slaughter, and the occasion of it, Doeg's malicious information,
together with the paucity of his fast friends, and the multitude
of his sworn enemies at court, breaks forth abruptly into these
words, "Help, Lord," help at a dead lift. The
Arabic version hath it, Deliver me by main force, as with
weapons of war, for "the Lord is a man of war." Exodus
15:3. John Trapp.
Verse 1. "The faithful." "A faithful
man," as a parent, a reprover, an adviser, one
"without guile," "who can find?"
Proverbs 20:6. Look close. View thyself in the glass of the
word. Does thy neighbour or thy friend, find thee faithful
to him? What does our daily intercourse witness? Is not the
attempt to speak what is agreeable oft made at the expense of
truth? Are not professions of regard sometimes utterly
inconsistent with our real feelings? In common life, where gross
violations are restrained, a thousand petty offences are
allowed, that break down the wall between sin and duty, and,
judged by the divine standard, are indeed guilty steps upon
forbidden ground. Charles Bridges, 1850.
Verse 1. A "faithful" man must be,
first of all, faithful to himself; then, he must be faithful to
God; and then, he must be faithful to others, particularly the
church of God. And this, as it regards ministers, is of peculiar
importance. Joseph Irons, 1840.
Verse 1. Even as a careful mother, seeing her child in
the way when a company of unruly horses run through the streets
in full career, presently whips up her child in her arms and
taketh him home; or as the hen, seeing the ravenous kite over
her head, clucks and gathers her chickens under her wings; even
so when God hath a purpose to bring a heavy calamity upon a
land, it hath been usual with him to call and cull out to
himself such as are his dearly beloved. He takes his choice
servants from the evil to come. Thus was Augustine removed a
little before Hippo (wherein he dwelt) was taken; Paroeus died
before Heidelburg was sacked; and Luther was taken off before
Germany was overrun with war and bloodshed. Ed. Dunsterville
in a Sermon at the Funeral of Sir Sim. Harcourt, 1642.
Verse 1. "Help, Lord; for the godly man
ceaseth," etc.:—
Back, then, complainer, loathe thy life no more,
Nor deem thyself upon a desert shore,
Because the rocks the nearer prospect close.
Yet in fallen Israel are there hearts and eyes,
That day by day in prayer like thine arise;
Thou knowest them not, but their Creator known.
Go, to the world return, nor fear to cast
Thy bread upon the waters, sure at last
In joy to find it after many days.
John Keble, 1792-1866.
Verses 1, 2, 4. Consider our markets, our fairs, our
private contracts and bargains, our shops, our cellars, our
weights, our measures, our promises, our protestations, our
politic tricks and villainous Machiavelism, our enhancing of the
prices of all commodities, and tell, whether the twelfth Psalm
may not as fitly be applied to our times as to the days of the
man of God; in which the feigning, and lying, and facing, and
guile, and subtlety of men provoked the psalmist to cry out, "Help,
Lord; for there is not a godly man left: for the faithful are
failed from among the children of men: they speak deceitfully
every one with his neighbour, flattering with their lips, and
speak with a double heart, which have said, With our tongue we
will prevail; our lips are our own: who is Lord over us?"
R. Wolcombe, 1612.
Verse 2. "They speak vanity every one with his
neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they
speak." The feigned zeal is just like a waterman, that
looks one way and rows another way; for this man pretends
one thing and intends another thing; as Jehu pretended
the zeal of God's glory, but his aim was at his master's
kingdom; and his zeal to God's service was but to bring him to
the sceptre of the kingdom. So Demetrius professed great love
unto Diana, but his drift was to maintain the honour of his
profession; and so we have too many that make great show of
holiness, and yet their hearts aim at other ends; but they may
be sure, though they can deceive the world and destroy
themselves, yet not God, who knoweth the secrets of all hearts. Gr.
Williams, 1636.
Verse 2. "They speak vanity."—
Faithless is earth, and faithless are the skies!
Justice is fled, and truth is now no more!
Virgil's Æneid, IV. 373.
Verse 2. "With a double heart." Man
is nothing but insincerity, falsehood, and hypocrisy, both in
regard to himself and in regard to others. He does not wish that
he should be told the truth, he shuns saying it to others; and
all these moods, so inconsistent with justice and reason, have
their roots in his heart. Blaise Pascal.
Verse 2. "With flattering lips and with a
double heart do they speak." There is no such stuff to
make a cloak of as religion; nothing so fashionable, nothing so
profitable: it is a livery wherein a wise man may serve two
masters, God and the world, and make a gainful service by
either. I serve both, and in both myself, by prevaricating with
both. Before man none serves his God with more devotion; for
which, among the best of men, I work my own ends, and serve
myself. In private, I serve the world; not with so strict
devotion, but with more delight; where fulfilling of her
servants' lusts, I work my end and serve myself. The house of
prayer who more frequents than I? In all Christian duties who
more forward than I? I fast with those who fast, that I may eat
with those that eat. I mourn with those that mourn. No hand more
open to the cause than mine, and in their families none prays
longer and with louder zeal. Thus when the opinion of a holy
life hath cried the goodness of my conscience up, my trade can
lack no custom, my wares can want no price, my words can need no
credit, my actions can lack no praise. If I am covetous, it is
interpreted providence; if miserable, it is counted temperance;
if melancholy, it is construed godly sorrow; if merry, it is
voted spiritual joy; if I be rich, it is thought the blessing of
a godly life; if poor, supposed the fruit of conscionable
dealing; if I be well spoken of, it is the merit of holy
conversation; if ill, it is the malice of malignants. Thus I
sail with every wind, and have my end in all conditions. This
cloak in summer keeps me cool, in winter warm, and hides the
nasty bag of all my secret lusts. Under this cloak I walk in
public fairly with applause, and in private sin securely without
offence, and officiate wisely without discovery. I compass sea
and land to make a proselyte; and no sooner made, but he makes
me. At a fast I cry Geneva, and at a feast I cry Rome. If I be
poor, I counterfeit abundance to save my credit; if rich, I
dissemble poverty to save charges. I most frequent schismatical
lectures, which I find most profitable; from thence learning to
divulge and maintain new doctrines; they maintain me in suppers
thrice a week. I use the help of a lie sometimes, as a new
stratagem to uphold the gospel; and I colour oppression with
God's judgments executed upon the wicked. Charity I hold an
extraordinary duty, therefore not ordinarily to be performed.
What I openly reprove abroad, for my own profit, that I secretly
act at home, for my own pleasure. But stay, I see a handwriting
in my heart which damps my soul. It is charactered in these sad
words, "Woe be to you, hypocrites." Matthew 23:13. Francis
Quarle's "Hypocrite's Soliloquy."
Verse 2. "With flattering lips," etc.
The world indeed says that society could not exist if there were
perfect truthfulness and candour between man and man; and that
the world's propriety would be as much disturbed if every man
said what he pleased, as it was in those days of Israelitish
history, when every man did that which was right in his own
eyes. The world is assuredly the best judge of its own condition
and mode of government, and therefore I will not say what a
libel does such a remark contain, but oh, what a picture does it
present of the social edifice, that its walls can be cemented
and kept together only by flattery and falsehood! Barton
Bouchier.
Verse 2. "Flattering lips." The
philosopher Bion being asked what animal he though the most
hurtful, replied, "That of wild creatures a tyrant, and of
tame ones a flatterer." The flatterer is the most dangerous
enemy we can have. Raleigh, himself a courtier, and therefore
initiated into the whole art of flattery, who discovered in his
own career and fate its dangerous and deceptive power, its deep
artifice and deeper falsehood, says, "A flatterer is said
to be a beast that biteth smiling. But it is hard to know them
from friends—they are so obsequious and full of protestations:
for as a wolf resembles a dog, so doth a flatterer a
friend." The Book of Symbols, 1844.
Verse 2. "They speak with a double
heart." The original is, "A heart and a
heart:" one for the church, another for the change; one for
Sundays, another for working-days; one for the king, another for
the pope. A man without a heart is a wonder, but a man with two
hearts is a monster. It is said of Judas, "There were many
hearts in one man;" and we read of the saints, "There
was one heart in many men." Acts 4:32. Dabo illis cor
unum; a special blessing. Thomas Adams.
Verse 2. When men cease to be faithful to their God,
he who expects to find them so to each other, will be much
disappointed. The primitive sincerity will accompany the
primitive piety in her flight from the earth; and then interest
will succeed conscience in the regulation of human conduct, till
one man cannot trust another farther than he holds him by that
tie. Hence, by the way, it is, that though many are infidels
themselves, yet few choose to have their families and dependents
such; as judging, and rightly judging, that true Christians are
the only persons to be depended on for the exact discharge of
social duties. George Horne.
Verse 3. "The Lord shall cut off all
flattering lips," etc. They who take pleasure in
deceiving others, will at the last find themselves most of all
deceived, when the Sun of truth, by the brightness of his
rising, shall at once detect and consume hypocrisy. George
Horne.
Verse 3. "Cut off lips and tongues."
May there not be here an allusion to those terrible but
suggestive punishments which Oriental monarchs were wont to
execute on criminals? Lips were cut off and tongues torn out
when offenders were convicted of lying or treason. So terrible
and infinitely more so are the punishments of sin. C. H. S.
Verses 3, 4. It need not now seem strange to tell you
that the Lord is the owner of our bodies, that he has so much
propriety therein that they are more his than ours. The apostle
tells us as much. 1 Corinthians 6:20. "Glorify God in your
bodies which are his." Our bodies, and every member
thereof, are his; for if the whole be so, no part is exempted.
And therefore they speak proud things, and presumptuously
usurped the propriety of God, who said, "Our lips are
our own;" as though their lips had not been his who is
Lord and Owner of all, but they had been lords thereof, and
might have used them as they list. This provoked God to show
what right he had to dispose of such lips and tongues, by cutting
them off. David Clarkson.
Verse 4. "Who have said, With our tongues will
we prevail; who is Lord over us?" So it was: twelve
poor and unlearned men on the one side, all the eloquence of
Greece and Rome arrayed on the other. From the time of Tertullus
to that of Julian the apostate, every species of oratory,
learning, wit, was lavished against the church of God; and the
result, like the well-known story of that dispute between the
Christian peasant and the heathen philosopher, when the latter,
having challenged the assembled fathers of a synod to silence
him, was put to shame by the simple faith of the former "In
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I command thee to be
dumb." "Who is lord over us?" "Who is
the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go?"
Exodus 5:2. "What is the Almighty, that we should serve
him?" Job 21:15. "Who is that God that shall deliver
you?" Daniel 3:15. Michael Ayguan, in J. M. Neale's
Commentary.
Verse 4. "Our lips are our own." If
we have to do with God, we must quit claim to ourselves and look
on God as our owner; but this is fixed in the hearts of men, We
will be our own; we will not consent to the claim which God
makes to us: "Our lips are our own." Wicked men
might as well say the same thing of their whole selves; our
bodies, strength, time, parts, etc., are our own, and who is
Lord over us? John Howe.
Verse 4. From the faults of the wicked we must learn
three contrary lessons; to wit: 1. That nothing which we have is
our own. But, 2. Whatsoever is given to us of God is for service
to be done to him. 3. That whatsoever we do or say, we have a
Lord over us to whom we must be answerable when he calleth us to
account. David Dickson.
Verse 5. "For the oppression of the
poor," etc. When oppressors and persecutors do snuff
and puff at the people of God, when they defy them, and scorn
them, and think that they can with a blast of their breath blow
them away, then God will arise to judgment, as the Chaldee has
it; at that very nick of time when all seems to be lost, and
when the poor, oppressed, and afflicted people of God can do
nothing but sigh and weep, and weep and sigh, then the Lord will
arise and ease them of their oppressions, and make their day of
extremity a glorious opportunity to work for his own glory, and
his people's good. Matthew 22:6, 7. "And the remnant took
his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But
when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his
armies and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their
city." Thomas Brooks.
Verse 5. Fear ye, whosoever ye be, that do wrong the
poor; you have power and wealth, and the favour of the judges,
but they have the strongest weapons of all, sighings and
groanings, which fetch help from heaven for them. These weapons
dig down houses, throw up foundations, overthrow whole nations. Chrysostom.
Verse 5. "For the sighings of the needy, now
will I arise, saith the Lord." God is pleased to take
notice of every grace, even the least and lowest, and
every gracious inclination in any of his servants. To fear
his name is no great matter, yet these have a promise. To
think on his name less, yet set down in a "book of
remembrance." God sets down how many good thoughts a
poor soul hath had. As evil thoughts in wicked men are taken
notice of—they are the first fruits of the evil heart (Matthew
15:19)—so good thoughts are they which lie uppermost, and best
discover a good heart. A desire is a small matter,
especially of the poor man, yet God regards the desire of the
poor, and calls a good desire the greatest kindness; "The
desire of a man is his kindness." A tear makes no
great noise, yet hath a voice, "God hath heard the voice of
my weeping." It is no pleasant water, yet God bottles it
up. A groan is a poor thing, yet is the best part of a
prayer sometimes (Romans 8:26); a sigh is less, yet God
is awakened and raised up by it. Psalm 12:5. A look
is less than all these, yet this is regarded (Jonah 2:4); breathing
is less, yet (Lamentations 3:56), the church could speak of no
more; panting is less than breathing, when one is spent
for lack of breath, yet this is all the godly can sometimes
boast of. Psalm 42:1. The description of a godly man is ofttimes
made from his least quod sic. Blessed are the poor,
the meek, they that mourn, and they who hunger
and thirst. Never did Hannah pray better than when she
could get out never a word, but cried, "Hard, hard
heart." Nor did the publican, than when he smote his breast
and cried, "Lord, be merciful to me a sinner." Nor
Mary Magdalene, than when she came behind Christ, sat down,
wept, but kept silence. How sweet is music upon the waters!
How fruitful are the lowest valleys! Mourning hearts are most
musical, lowest most fruitful. The good shepherd ever takes most
care of his weak lambs and feeble sheep. The father makes most
of the least, and the mother looks most after the sick child.
How comfortable is that of our Saviour, "It is not the will
of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones
should perish!" And that heaven is not to be entered but by
such as are like the little child. John Sheffield, 1654.
Verse 5. "The oppression of the poor."
Insolent and cruel oppressing of the poor is a sin that brings
desolating and destroying judgments upon a people. God sent ten
wasting judgments one after another upon Pharaoh, his people,
and land, to revenge the cruel oppression of his poor people.
"Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the
afflicted in the gate: for the Lord will plead their
cause." Proverbs 22:22, 23. To rob and oppress the rich is
a great sin; but to rob and oppress the poor is a greater; but
to rob and oppress the poor because he is poor, and wants money
to buy justice, is the top of all inhumanity and impiety. To
oppress anyone is sin; but to oppress the oppressed is the
height of sin. Poverty, and want, and misery, should be motives
to pity; but oppressors make them the whetstone of their cruelty
and severity, and therefore the Lord will plead the cause of his
poor oppressed people against their oppressors without fee or
fear; yea, he will plead their cause with pestilence, blood, and
fire. Gog was a great oppressor of the poor (Ezekiel 38:8-14),
and God pleads against him with pestilence, blood, and fire
(verse 22); "and I will plead against him, with pestilence
and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands,
and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain,
and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Thomas Brooks.
Verse 6. "The words of the Lord are pure
words," etc. How beautifully is this verse introduced,
by way of contrast to what was said before concerning! Do
sinners talk of vanity? let saints then speak of Jesus and his
gospel. Do they talk impure words? then let the faithful use the
pure words of God, which like silver, the more used, the more
melted in the fire, the more precious will they be. It is true,
indeed, despisers will esteem both God and his word as trifling;
but oh, what an unknown treasure doth the word, the promises,
the covenant relation of the divine things of Jesus contain!
They are more to be desired than gold, yea, than pure gold;
sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Robert Hawker.
Verse 6. "The words of the Lord are pure
words," etc. They that purify silver to the purpose,
use to put it in the fire again and again, that it may be
thoroughly tried. So is the truth of God; there is scarce any
truth but hath been tried over and over again, and still if any
dross happens to mingle with it, then God calls it in question
again. If in former times there have been Scriptures alleged
that have not been pertinent to prove it, that truth shall into
the fire again, that what is dross may be burnt up; the Holy
Ghost is so curious, so delicate, so exact, he cannot bear that
falsehood should be mingled with the truths of the gospel. This
is the reason, therefore, why that God doth still, age after
age, call former things in question, because that there is still
some dross one way or other mingled with them; either in the
stating the opinions themselves, or else in the Scriptures that
are brought and alleged for them, that have passed for current,
for he will never leave till he have purified them. The doctrine
of God's free grace hath been tried over and over, and over
again. Pelagius begins, and he mingles his dross with it: he
saith, grace is nothing but nature in man. Well, his doctrine
was purified, and a great deal of dross purged out. Then come
the semi-Pelagians, and they part stakes; they say, nature can
do nothing without grace, but they make nature to concur with
grace, and to have an influence as well as grace; and the dross
of that was burnt up. The Papists, they take up the same
quarrel, but will neither be Pelagians nor semi-Pelagians, yet
still mingle dross. The Arminians, they come, and they refine
popery in that point anew; still they mingle dross. God will
have this truth tried seven times in the fire, til he hath
brought it forth as pure as pure may be. And I say it is because
that truth is thus precious. Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 6. The Scripture is the sun; the church is the
clock. The sun we know to be sure, and regularly constant in his
motions; the clock, as it may fall out, may go too fast or too
slow. As then, we should condemn him of folly that should
profess to trust the clock rather than the sun, so we cannot but
justly tax the credulity of those who would rather trust to the
church than to the Scripture. Bishop Hall.
Verse 6. "The words of the Lord are pure
words." Men may inspect detached portions of the Book,
and please themselves with some things, which at first view,
have the semblance of conniving at what is wrong. But let them
read it, let them read the whole of it; let them carry along in
their minds the character of the persons to which the different
portions of it were addressed; the age of the world, and the
circumstances under which the different parts of it were
written, and the particular objects which even those portions of
it have in view, which to an infidel mind appear the most
exceptionable; and they may be rationally convinced that,
instead of originating in the bosom of an impostor, it owes its
origin to men who wrote "as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost." Let them scrutinise it with as much severity as
they please; only let their scrutiny be well informed, wisely
directed, and with a fair and ingenuous mind, and we have no
fears for the issue. There are portions of it on which ignorance
and folly have put constructions that are forced and unnatural,
and which impure minds have viewed in shadows reflected from
their own impurity. Montesquieu said of Voltaire, Lorsque
Voltaire lit un livre, il le fait, puis il ècrit contre ce
qu'il a fait: "When Voltaire reads a book, he makes it
what he pleases, and then writes against what he has made."
It is no difficult matter to besmear and blot its pages and then
impute the foul stains that men of corrupt minds have cast upon
it, to its stainless Author. But if we honestly look at it as it
is, we shall find that like its Author, it is without blemish
and without spot. Gardiner Spring, D.D.
Verse 6. "The words of the Lord are pure
words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven
times." The expression may import two things: first,
the infallible certainty of the word; and, secondly, the exact
purity. First, the infallible certainty of the word, as gold
endureth in the fire when the dross is consumed. Vain conceits
comfort us not in a time of trouble: but the word of God, the
more it is tried, the more you will find the excellency of
it—the promise is tried, as well as we are tried, in deep
afflictions; but when it is so, it will be found to be most
pure. "The word of the Lord is tried; he is a buckler to
all those who trust in him" (Proverbs 30:5); as pure gold
suffers no loss by the fire, so the promises suffer no loss when
they are tried, but stand to us in our greatest troubles.
Secondly, it notes the exact perfection of the word: there is no
dross in silver and gold that hath been often refined; so there
is no defect in the word of God. Thomas Manton.
Verse 6. Fry thus translates this verse:—
The words of Jehovah are pure words—
Silver refined in the crucible—
Gold, seven times washed from the earth.
(Heb.) though sometimes applied to express the purity of
silver, is more strictly an epithet of gold, from the peculiar
method made use of in separating it from the soil by repeated
washings and decantations. John Fry, in loc.
Verse 6. "Seven times." I cannot but
admit that there may be a mystic meaning in the expression
"seven times," in allusion to the seven periods of the
church, or to that perfection, implied in the figure seven, to
which it is to be brought at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
This will be more readily allowed by those who admit of the
prophetic interpretation of the seven epistles of the Book of
Revelation. W. Wilson, D. D., in loc.
Verse 8. "When the vilest men are
exalted:" Hebrew, vilities, outidanoi the
abstract for the concrete, quisquiliae, outidanoi. Oft,
empty vessels swim aloft, rotten posts are gilt with adulterate
gold, the worst weeds spring up bravest. Chaff will get to the
top of the fan, when good corn, as it lieth at the bottom of the
heap, so it falls low at the feet of the fanner. The reason why
wicked men "walk" on every side, are so brisk,
so busy (and who but they?) is given to be this, because losels
and rioters were exalted. See Proverbs 28:12, 18 and 29:2. As
rheums and catarrhs fall from the head to the lungs, and cause a
consumption of the whole body, so it is in the body politic. As
a fish putrefies first in the head and then in all the parts, so
here. Some render the text thus, "When they (that
is, the wicked) are exalted," it is a "shame
for the sons of men," that other men who better deserve
preferment, are not only slighted, but vilely handled by such
worthless ambitionists, who yet the higher they climb, as apes,
the more they discover their deformities." John Trapp.
Verse 8. Good thus translates this verse:—
Should the wicked advance on every side;
Should the dregs of the earth be uppermost?
The original is given literally. (Heb.) means "foeces,
foeculences, dregs. (Heb.) is here an adverb, and imports uppermost,
rather than exalted. J. Mason Good, in loc.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHERVerse 1. "Help,
Lord."
I.
The Prayer itself, short, suggestive, seasonable, rightly
directed, vehement.
II.
Occasions for its use.
III.
Modes of its answer.
IV.
Reasons for expecting gracious reply.
Verse 1. First two clauses. Text for funeral of
an eminent believer.
Verse 1. Whole verse.
I.
The fact bewailed—describe godly and faithful, and show
how they fail.
II.
The feeling excited. Mourning the loss, fears for church,
personal need of such companions, appeal to God.
III.
The forebodings aroused. Failure of the cause, judgments
impending, etc.
IV.
The faith remaining: "Help, Lord."
Verse 1. Intimate connection between yielding honour
to God and honesty to man, since they decline together.
Verse 2. (first clause). A discourse upon the
prevalence and perniciousness of vain talk.
Verse 2. The whole verse. Connection between
flattery and treachery.
Verse 2. "A double heart." Right and
wrong kinds of hearts, and the disease of duplicity.
Verse 3. God's hatred of those twin sins of the
lips—Flattery and Pride (which is self flattery). Why he hates
them. How he shows his hatred. In whom he hates them most. How
to be cleansed from them.
Verses 3, 4.
I.
The revolt of the tongue. Its claim of power,
self-possession, and liberty. Contrast this and the believer's
confession, "we are not our own."
II.
The method of its rebellion— "flattery, and
speaking proud things."
III.
The end of its treason—"cut off."
Verse 5. The Lord aroused—How! Why! What to do!
When!
Verse 5. Last clause. Peculiar danger of
believers from those who despise them and their special safety.
Good practical topic.
Verse 6. The purity, trial, and permanency of the
words of the Lord.
Seven crucibles in which believers try the word. A little
thought will suggest these.
Verse 7. Preservation from one's generation in this
life and for ever. A very suggestive theme.
Verse 8. Sin in high places specially infectious.
Call to the rich and prominent to remember their responsibility.
Thankfulness for honourable rulers. Discrimination to be used in
choice of our representatives, or civic magistrates.