TITLE and SUBJECT. A prayer of David. David
would not have been a man after God's own heart, if he had not
been a man of prayer. He was a master in the sacred art of
supplication. He flies to prayer in all times of need, as a
pilot speeds to the harbour in the stress of tempest. So
frequent were David's prayers that they could not be all dated
and entitled; and hence this simply bears the author's name, and
nothing more. The smell of the furnace is upon the present
psalm, but there is evidence in the last verse that he who wrote
it came unharmed out of the flame. We have in the present
plaintive song, AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN from the persecutions
of earth. A spiritual eye may see Jesus here.
DIVISIONS.
There are no very clear lines of demarcation between the
parts; but we prefer the division adopted by that precious old
commentator, David Dickson. In verses 1-4, David craves justice
in the controversy between him and his oppressors. In verses 5
and 6, he requests of the Lord grace to act rightly while under
the trial. From verse 7-12, he seeks protection from his foes,
whom he graphically describes; and in verses 13 and 14, pleads
that they may be disappointed; closing the whole in the most
comfortable confidence that all would certainly be well with
himself at the last.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. "Hear the right, O Lord." He that
has the worst cause makes the most noise; hence the oppressed
soul is apprehensive that its voice may be drowned, and
therefore pleads in this one verse for a hearing no less than
three times. The troubled heart craves for the ear of the great
Judge, persuaded that with him to hear is to redress. If our God
could not or would not hear us, our state would be deplorable
indeed; and yet some professors set such small store by the
mercy-seat, that God does not hear them for the simple reason
that they neglect to plead. As well have no house if we persist
like gipsies in living in the lanes and commons; as well have no
mercy-seat as be always defending our own cause and never going
to God. There is more fear that we will not hear the Lord
than that the Lord will not hear us. "Hear the
right;" it is well if our case is good in itself and
can be urged as a right one, for right shall never be wronged by
our righteous Judge; but if our suit be marred by our
infirmities, it is a great privilege that we may make mention of
the righteousness of our Lord Jesus, which is ever prevalent on
high. Right has a voice which Jehovah always hears; and
if my wrongs clamour against me with great force and fury, I
will pray the Lord to hear that still louder and mightier voice
of the right, and the rights of his dear Son. "Hear, O God,
the Just One;" i.e., "hear the Messiah,"
is a rendering adopted by Jerome, and admired by Bishop Horsley,
whether correct or not as a translation, it is proper enough as
a plea. Let the reader plead it at the throne of the righteous
God, even when all other arguments are unavailing.
"Attend
unto my cry." This shows the vehemence and earnestness
of the petitioner; he is no mere talker, he weeps and laments.
Who can resist a cry? A real hearty, bitter, piteous cry, might
almost melt a rock, there can be no fear of its prevalence with
our heavenly Father. A cry is our earliest utterance, and in
many ways the most natural of human sounds; if our prayer should
like the infant's cry be more natural than intelligent, and more
earnest than elegant, it will be none the less eloquent with
God. There is a mighty power in a child's cry to prevail with a
parent's heart. "Give ear unto my prayer." Some
repetitions are not vain. The reduplication here used is neither
superstition nor tautology, but is like the repeated blow of a
hammer hitting the same nail on the head to fix it the more
effectually, or the continued knocking of a beggar at the gate
who cannot be denied an alms. "That goeth not out of
feigned lips." Sincerity is a sine quà non in
prayer. Lips of deceit are detestable to man and much more to
God. In intercourse so hallowed as that of prayer, hypocrisy
even in the remotest degree is as fatal as it is foolish.
Hypocritical piety is double iniquity. He who would feign and
flatter had better try his craft with a fool like himself, for
to deceive the all-seeing One is as impossible as to take the
moon in a net, or to lead the sun into a snare. He who would
deceive God is himself already most grossly deceived. Our
sincerity in prayer has no merit in it, any more than the
earnestness of a mendicant in the street; but at the same time
the Lord has regard to it, through Jesus, and will not long
refuse his ear to an honest and fervent petitioner.
Verse 2. "Let my sentence come forth from thy
presence." The psalmist has now grown bold by the
strengthening influence of prayer, and he now entreats the Judge
of all the earth to give sentence upon his case. He has been
libelled, basely and maliciously libelled; and having brought
his action before the highest court, he, like an innocent man,
has no desire to escape the enquiry, but even invites and sues
for judgment. He does not ask for secrecy, but would have the
result come forth to the world. He would have sentence
pronounced and executed forthwith. In some matters we may
venture to be as bold as this; but except we can plead something
better than our own supposed innocence, it were terrible
presumption thus to challenge the judgment of a sin-hating God.
With Jesus as our complete and all-glorious righteousness we
need not fear, though the day of judgment should commence at
once, and hell open her mouth at our feet, but might joyfully
prove the truth of our hymn writer's holy boast—
"Bold shall I stand in that great day;
For who aught to my charge shall lay?
While, through thy blood, absolved I am,
From sin's tremendous curse and shame."
"Let
thine eyes behold the things that are equal." Believers
do not desire any other judge than God, or to be excused from
judgment, or even to be judged on principles of partiality. No;
our hope does not lie in the prospect of favouritism from God,
and the consequent suspension of his law; we expect to be judged
on the same principals as other men, and through the blood and
righteousness of our Redeemer we shall pass the ordeal
unscathed. The Lord will weigh us in the scales of justice
fairly and justly; he will not use false weights to permit us to
escape, but with the sternest equity those balances will be used
upon us as well as upon others; and with our blessed Lord Jesus
as our all in all we tremble not, for we shall not be found
wanting. In David's case, he felt his cause to be so right that
he simply desired the Divine eyes to rest upon the matter, and
he was confident that equity would give him all that he needed.
Verse 3, "Thou hast proved mine heart." Like
Peter, David uses the argument, "Thou knowest all things,
thou knowest that I love thee." It is a most assuring thing
to be able to appeal at once to the Lord, and call upon our
Judge to be a witness for our defence. "Beloved, if our
heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God." "Thou
hast visited me in the night." As if he had said,
"Lord, thou hast entered my house at all hours; and thou
hast seen me when no one else was nigh; thou hast come upon me
unawares and marked my unrestrained actions, and thou knowest
whether or no I am guilty of the crimes laid at my door."
Happy man who can thus remember the omniscient eye, and the
omnipresent visitor, and find comfort in the remembrance. We
hope we have had our midnight visits from our Lord, and truly
they are sweet; so sweet that the recollection of them sets us
longing for more of such condescending communings. Lord, if
indeed, we had been hypocrites, should we have had such
fellowship, or feel such hungerings after a renewal of it? "Thou
hast tried me, and shalt find nothing." Surely the
Psalmist means nothing hypocritical or wicked in the sense in
which his slanderers accused him; for if the Lord should put the
best of his people into the crucible, the dross would be a
fearful sight, and would make penitence open her sluices wide.
Assayers very soon detect the presence of alloy, and when the
chief of all assayers shall, at the last, say of us he has found
nothing, it will be a glorious hour indeed—"They are
without fault before the throne of God." Even here, as
viewed in our covenant Head, the Lord sees no sin in Jacob, nor
perverseness in Israel; even the all-detecting glance of
Omniscience can see no flaw where the great Substitute covers
all with beauty and perfection. "I am purposed that my
mouth shall not transgress." Oh those sad lips of ours!
we had need purpose to purpose if we would keep them from
exceeding their bounds. The number of diseases of the tongue is
as many as the diseases of all the rest of the man put together,
and they are more inveterate. Hands and feet one may bind, but
who can fetter the lips? iron bands may hold a madman, but what
chains can restrain the tongue? It needs more than a purpose to
keep this nimble offender within its proper range. Lion-taming
and serpent-charming are not to be mentioned in the same day as
tongue-taming, for the tongue can no man tame. Those who have to
smart from the falsehoods of others should be the more jealous
over themselves; perhaps this led the Psalmist to register this
holy resolution; and, moreover, he intended thereby to aver that
if he had said too much in his own defence, it was not
intentional, for he desired in all-respects to tune his lips to
the sweet and simple music of truth. Notwithstanding all this
David was slandered, as if to show us that the purest innocence
will be bemired by malice. There is no sunshine without a
shadow, no ripe fruit unpecked by the birds.
Verse 4. "Concerning the works of men."
While we are in the midst of men we shall have their works
thrust under our notice, and we shall be compelled to keep a
corner of our diary headed "concerning the works of
men." To be quite clear from the dead works of carnal
humanity is the devout desire of souls who are quickened by the
Holy Spirit. "By the word of thy lips I have kept me
from the paths of the destroyer." He had kept the
highway of Scripture, and not chosen the bye-paths of malice. We
should soon imitate the example of the worst of men if the grace
of God did not use the Word of God as the great preservative
from evil. The paths of the destroyer have often tempted us; we
have been prompted to become destroyers too, when we have been
sorely provoked, and resentment has grown warm; but we have
remembered the example of our Lord, who would not call fire from
heaven upon his enemies, but meekly prayed, "Father,
forgive them." All the ways of sin are the paths of
Satan,—the Apollyon or Abaddon, both of which words signify
the destroyer. Foolish indeed are those who give their hearts to
the old murderer, because for the time he panders to their evil
desires. That heavenly Book which lies neglected on many a shelf
is the only guide for those who would avoid the enticing and
entangling mazes of sin; and it is the best means of preserving
the youthful pilgrim from ever treading those dangerous ways. We
must follow the one or the other; the Book of Life, or the way
of death; the word of the Holy Spirit, or the suggestion of the
Evil Spirit. David could urge as the proof of his sincerity that
he had no part or lot with the ungodly in their ruinous ways.
How can we venture to plead our cause with God, unless we also
can wash our hands clean of all connection with the enemies of
the Great King?
Verse 5. Under trial it is not easy to behave ourselves
aright; a candle is not easily kept alight when many envious
mouths are puffing at it. In evil times prayer is peculiarly
needful, and wise men resort to it at once. Plato said to one of
his disciples, "When men speak ill of thee, live so that no
one will believe them;" good enough advice, but he did not
tell us how to carry it out. We have a precept here incorporated
in an example; if we would be preserved, we must cry to the
Preserver, and enlist divine support upon our side. "Hold
up my goings"—as a careful driver holds up his horse
when going down hill. We have all sorts of paces, both fast and
slow, and the road is never long of one sort, but with God to
hold up our goings, nothing in the pace or in the road can cast
down. He who has been down once and cut his knees sadly, even to
the bone, had need redouble his zeal when using this prayer; and
all of us, since we are so weak on our legs through Adam's fall,
had need use it every hour of the day. If a perfect father fell,
how shall an imperfect son dare to boast? "In thy
paths." Forsaking Satan's paths, he prayed to be upheld
in God's paths. We cannot keep from evil without keeping to
good. If the bushel be not full of wheat, it may soon be once
more full of chaff. In all the appointed ordinances and duties
of our most holy faith, may the Lord enable us to run through
his upholding grace! "That my footsteps slip not."
What! slip in God's ways? Yes, the road is good, but our feet
are evil, and therefore slip, even on the King's highway. Who
wonders if carnal men slide and fall in ways of their own
choosing, which like the vale of Siddim, are full of deadly
slime-pits? One may trip over an ordinance as well as over a
temptation. Jesus Christ himself is a stumbling-block to some,
and the doctrines of grace have been the occasion of offence to
many. Grace alone can hold up our goings in the paths of truth.
Verse 6. "I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear
me, O God." Thou hast always heard me, O my Lord, and
therefore I have the utmost confidence in again approaching
thine altar. Experience is a blessed teacher. He who has tried
the faithfulness of God in hours of need, has great boldness in
laying his case before the throne. The well of Bethlehem, from
which we drew such cooling draughts in years gone by, our souls
long for still; nor will we leave it for the broken cisterns of
earth. "Incline thine ear unto me, and hear my
speech." Stoop out of heaven and put thine ear to my
mouth; give me thine ear all to myself, as men do when they lean
over to catch every word from their friend. The Psalmist here
comes back to his first prayer, and thus sets us an example of
pressing our suit again and again, until we have a full
assurance that we have succeeded.
Verse 7. "Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness."
Marvellous in its antiquity, its distinguishing character, its
faithfulness, its immutability, and above all, marvellous in the
wonders which it works. That marvellous grace which has redeemed
us with the precious blood of God's only begotten, is here
invoked to come to the rescue. That grace is sometimes hidden;
the text says, "Shew it." Present enjoyments of divine
love are matchless cordials to support fainting hearts.
Believer, what a prayer is this! Consider it well. O Lord, shew
thy marvellous lovingkindness; shew it to my intellect, and
remove my ignorance; shew it to my heart, and revive my
gratitude; shew it to my faith, and renew my confidence; shew it
to my experience, and deliver me from all my fears. The original
word here used is the same which in Psalm 4:3 is rendered set
apart, and it has the force of, Distinguish thy mercies, set
them out, and set apart the choicest to be bestowed upon me in
this hour of my severest affliction. "O thou that savest
by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those
that rise up against them." The title here given to our
gracious God is eminently consolatory. He is the God of
salvation; it is his present and perpetual habit to save
believers; he puts forth his best and most glorious strength,
using his right hand of wisdom and might, to save all those, of
whatsoever rank or class, who trust themselves with him. Happy
faith thus to secure the omnipotent protection of heaven!
Blessed God, to be thus gracious to unworthy mortals, when they
have but grace to rely upon thee! The right hand of God is
interposed between the saints and all harm; God is never at a
loss for means; his own bare hand is enough. He works without
tools as well as with them.
Verse 8. "Keep me as the apple of the eye."
No part of the body more precious, more tender, and more
carefully guarded than the eye; and of the eye, no portion more
peculiarly to be protected than the central apple, the pupil, or
as the Hebrew calls it, "the daughter of the eye." The
all-wise Creator has placed the eye in a well-protected
position; it stands surrounded by projecting bones like
Jerusalem encircled by mountains. Moreover, its great Author has
surrounded it with many tunics of inward covering, besides the
hedge of the eyebrows, the curtain of the eyelids, and the fence
of the eyelashes; and, in addition to this, he has given to
every man so high a value for his eyes, and so quick an
apprehension of danger, that no member of the body is more
faithfully cared for than the organ of sight. Thus, Lord, keep
thou me, for I trust I am one with Jesus, and so a member of his
mystical body. "Hide me under the shadow of thy
wings." Even as the parent bird completely shields her
brood from evil, and meanwhile cherishes them with the warmth of
her own heart, by covering them with her wings, so do thou with
me, most condescending God, for I am thine offspring, and thou
hast a parent's love in perfection. This last clause is in the
Hebrew in the future tense, as if to show that what the writer
had asked for but a moment before he was now sure would be
granted to him. Confident expectations should keep pace with
earnest supplication.
Verse 9. "From the wicked that oppress me, from my
deadly enemies, who compass me about." The foes from
whom David sought to be rescued were wicked men. It is
hopeful for us when our enemies are God's enemies. They were deadly
enemies, whom nothing but his death would satisfy. The foes
of a believer's soul are mortal foes most emphatically, for they
who war against our faith aim at the very life of our life.
Deadly sins are deadly enemies, and what sin is there which hath
not death in its bowels? These foes oppressed David, they
laid his spirit waste, as invading armies ravage a country, or
as wild beasts desolate a land. He likens himself to a besieged
city, and complains that his foes compass him about. It
may well quicken our business upward, when all around us, every
road, is blockaded by deadly foes. This is our daily position,
for all around us dangers and sins are lurking. O God, do thou
protect us from them all.
Verse 10. "They are inclosed in their own fat."
Luxury and gluttony beget vainglorious fatness of heart, which
shuts up its gates against all compassionate emotions and
reasonable judgments. The old proverb says that full bellies
make empty skulls, and it is yet more true that they frequently
make empty hearts. The rankest weeds grow out of the fattest
soil. Riches and self-indulgence are the fuel upon which some
sins feed their flames. Pride and fulness of bread were Sodom's
twin sins. (Ezekiel 16:49.) Fed hawks forget their masters; and
the moon at its fullest is furthest from the sun. Eglon was a
notable instance that a well-fed corporation is no security to
life, when a sharp message comes from God, addressed to the
inward vitals of the body. "With their mouth they speak
proudly." He who adores himself, will have no heart to
adore the Lord. Full of selfish pleasure within his heart, the
wicked man fills his mouth with boastful and arrogant
expressions. Prosperity and vanity often lodge together. Woe to
the fed ox when it bellows at its owner, the poleax is not far
off.
Verse 11. "They have now compassed us in our
steps." The fury of the ungodly is aimed not at one
believer alone, but at all the band; they have compassed us.
All the race of the Jews were but a morsel for Haman's hungry
revenge, and all because of one Mordecai. The prince of darkness
hates all the saints for their Master's sake. The Lord Jesus is
one of the us, and herein is our hope. He is the Breaker,
and will clear a way for us through the hosts which environ us.
The hatred of the powers of evil is continuous and energetic,
for they watch every step, hoping that the time may come
when they shall catch us by surprise. If our spiritual
adversaries thus compass every step, how anxiously should we
guard all our movements, lest by any means we should be betrayed
into evil! "They have set their eyes bowing down to the
earth." Trapp witily explains this metaphor by an
allusion to a bull when about to run at his victim; he lowers
his head, looks downward, and then concentrates all his force in
the dash which he makes. It most probably denotes the malicious
jealousy with which the enemy watches the steps of the
righteous; as if they studied the ground on which they trod, and
searched after some wrong foot-mark to accuse them for the past,
or some stumbling-stone to cast in their future path to trip
them in days to come.
Verse 12. Lions are not more greedy, nor their ways more
cunning than are Satan and his helpers when engaged against the
children of God. The blood of souls the adversary thirsts after,
and all his strength and craft are exerted to the utmost to
satisfy his detestable appetite. We are weak and foolish like
sheep; but we have a shepherd wise and strong, who knows the old
lion's wiles, and is more than a match for his force; therefore
will we not fear, but rest in safety in the fold. Let us beware,
however, of our lurking foe; and in those parts of the road
where we feel most secure, let us look about us lest,
peradventure, our foe should leap upon us.
Verse 13. "Arise, O Lord." The more furious
the attack, the more fervent the Psalmist's prayer. His eye
rests singly upon the Almighty, and he feels that God has but to
rise from the seat of his patience, and the work will be
performed at once. Let the lion spring upon us, if Jehovah steps
between we need no better defence. When God meets our foe face
to face in battle, the conflict will soon be over. "Disappoint
him." Be beforehand with him, outwit and outrun him.
Appoint it otherwise than he has appointed, and so disappoint
him. "Cast him down." Prostrate him. Make him
sink upon his knees. Make him bow as the conquered bows before
the conqueror. What a glorious sight will it be to behold Satan
prostrate beneath the foot of our glorious Lord! Haste, glorious
day! "Deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy
sword." He recognizes the most profane and oppressive
as being under the providential rule of the King of kings, and
used as a sword in the divine hand. What can a sword do unless
it be wielded by a hand? No more could the wicked annoy us,
unless the Lord permitted them so to do. Most translators are,
however, agreed that this is not the correct reading, but that
it should be as Calvin puts it, "Deliver my soul from the
ungodly man by thy sword." Thus David contrasts the sword
of the Lord with human aids and reliefs, and rests assured that
he is safe enough under the patronage of heaven.
Verse 14. Almost every word of this verse has furnished
matter for discussion to scholars, for it is very obscure. We
will, therefore, rest content with the common version, rather
than distract the reader with divers translations. "From
men which are thy hand." Having styled the ungodly a
sword in his Father's hand, he now likens them to that hand
itself, to set forth his conviction that God could as easily
remove their violence as a man moves his own hand. He will never
slay his child with his own hand. "From men of the
world," mere earthworms; not men of the world to come,
but mere dwellers in this narrow sphere of mortality; having no
hopes or wishes beyond the ground on which they tread. "Which
have their portion in this life." Like the prodigal,
they have their portion, and are not content to wait their
Father's time. Like Passion in the "Pilgrim's
Progress," they have their best things first, and revel
during their little hour. Luther was always afraid lest he
should have his portion here, and therefore frequently gave away
sums of money which had been presented to him. We cannot have
earth and heaven too for our choice and portion; wise men choose
that which will last the longest. "Whose belly thou
fillest with thy hid treasure." Their sensual appetite
gets the gain which it craved for. God gives to these swine the
husks which they hunger for. A generous man does not deny dogs
their bones; and our generous God gives even his enemies enough
to fill them, if they were not so unreasonable as never to be
content. Gold and silver which are locked up in the dark
treasuries of the earth are given to the wicked liberally, and
they therefore roll in all manner of carnal delights. Every dog
has his day, and they have theirs, and a bright summer's day it
seems; but ah! how soon it ends in night! "They are full
of children." This was their fondest hope, that a race
from their loins would prolong their names far down the page of
history, and God has granted them this also; so that they have
all that heart can wish. What enviable creatures they seem, but
it is only seeming! "They are full of children, and
leave the rest of their substance to their babes." They
were fat housekeepers, and yet leave no lean wills. Living and
dying they lacked for nothing but grace and alas! that lack
spoils everything. They had a fair portion within the little
circle of time, but eternity entered not into their
calculations. They were penny wise, but pound foolish; they
remembered the present, and forgot the future; they fought for
the shell, and lost the kernel. How fine a description have we
here of many a successful merchant, or popular statesman; and it
is, at first sight, very showy and tempting, but in contrast
with the glories of the world to come, what are these paltry
molehill joys. Self, self, self, all these joys begin and end in
basest selfishness; but oh, our God, how rich are those who
begin and end in thee! From all the contamination and injury
which association with worldly men is sure to bring us, deliver
thou us, O God!
Verse 15. "As for me." "I neither envy
nor covet these men's happiness, but partly have and partly hope
for a far better." To behold God's face and to be changed
by that vision into his image, so as to partake in his
righteousness, this is my noble ambition; and in the prospect of
this I cheerfully waive all my present enjoyments. My
satisfaction is to come; I do not look for it as yet. I shall
sleep awhile, but I shall wake at the sound of the trumpet; wake
to everlasting joy, because I arise in thy likeness, O my God
and King! Glimpses of glory good men have here below to stay
their sacred hunger, but the full feast awaits them in the upper
skies. Compared with this deep, ineffable, eternal fulness of
delight, the joys of the worldlings are as a glowworm to the
sun, or the drop of a bucket to the ocean.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Title. "A prayer of David." Since many of
the Psalms consist of prayers, the question may be asked
why such an inscription more especially belongs to this. But
though the others contain divers prayers mixed with other
matters, this is a supplication through its whole course.—The
Venerable Bede, 672-735.
Verse 1. "Hear . . . attend . . . give
ear." This petition repeated thrice, indicates a great
power of feeling and many tears; because the craft of the
ungodly, in truth, grieves and afflicts the spiritual man more
than their power and violence, for we can get a knowledge of
open force and violence, and, when we see the danger, can in
some way guard against it.—Martin Luther.
Verse 1. "That goeth not out of feigned
lips." There are such things as "feigned
lips;" a contraction between the heart and the tongue,
a clamour in the voice and scoffing in the soul, a crying to
God, "Thou art my father, the guide of my youth;" and
yet speaking and doing evil to the utmost of our power (Jeremiah
3:4, 5), as if God could be imposed upon by fawning pretences,
and, like old Isaac, take Jacob for Esau, and be cozened by the
smell of his garments; as if he could not discern the negro
heart under an angel's garb. . . This is an unworthy conceit of
God, to fancy that we can satisfy for inward sins, and avert
approaching judgments by external offerings, by a loud voice,
with a false heart, as if God (like children), would be pleased
with the glittering of an empty shell, or the rattling of
stones, the chinking of money, a mere voice, and crying without
inward frames and intentions of service.—Stephen Charnock.
Verse 1. "Not out of feigned lips."
It is observable that the eagle soareth on high, little
intending to fly to heaven, but to gain her prey; and so it is
that many do carry a great deal of seeming devotion in lifting
up their eyes towards heaven; but they do it only to accomplish
with more ease, safety, and applause their wicked and damnable
designs here on earth; such as without are Catos, within Neros;
hear them, no man better; search and try them, no man worse;
they have Jacob's voice, but Esau's hands; they profess like
saints, but practise like Satans; they have their long prayers,
but short prayings; they are like apothecaries'
gallipots—having without the title of some excellent
preservative, but within are full of deadly poison; counterfeit
holiness is their cloak for all manner of villanies, and the
midwife to bring forth all their devilish designs.
Peter Bales, in Spencer's "Things New and Old."
Verse 1. "Not out of feigned lips."
Not only a righteous cause, but a righteous prayer are urged as
motives why God should hear. Calvin remarks on the importance of
joining prayer to the testimony of a good conscience, lest we
defraud God of his honour by not committing all judgments to
him.
J. J. Stewart Perowne.
Verse 1. Though thy prayers be never so well framed in
regard of words, and reverently performed as to thy external
gestures; yet all is nothing, if thy heart be not in the
duty. For prayer is not a work of the head, or hand, or eyes
only, but chiefly a work of the heart, and therefore called in
Scripture, the "pouring out of the soul" (1 Samuel
1:15); and the "pouring out of the heart." Psalm 62:8.
And, indeed, the very soul of prayer lieth in the pouring out of
the soul before the Lord. Whensoever, therefore, thou drawest
near unto God in prayer, let it be with thine heart and soul,
otherwise thou canst have no assurance of audience, and
acceptance; for as Cyprian speaketh, Quomodo te audiri a Deo
postulas, etc. How canst thou expect the Lord should hear
thee, when thou hearest not thyself? or that he should regard
thy prayers, when thou regardest not what thou prayest?
Certainly that prayer reacheth not the heart of God, which
reacheth not our own.—Thomas Gouge, 1605-1681.
Verse 2. David appeals unto God to judge the
righteousness of his heart towards Saul—"Let my
sentence come forth from thy presence." From Saul and
his courtiers there comes a hard sentence; they call me traitor,
they call me rebel; but, Lord, leave me not unto their sentence,
"Let my sentence come from thy presence;" that
I know will be another sentence than what cometh from them, for
thou hast proved me, and tried me, and findest nothing in me.—Jeremiah
Burroughs.
Verse 3. "Thou hast proved mine heart:"—
What! take it at adventure, and not try
What metal it is made of? No, not I.
Should I now lightly let it pass,
Take sullen lead for silver, sounding brass,
Instead of solid gold, alas!
What would become of it in the great day
Of making jewels, 'twould be cast away.
The heart thou giv'st me must be such a one,
As is the same throughout. I will have none
But that which will abide the fire.
'Tis not a glitt'ring outside I desire,
Whose seeming shows do soon expire;
But real worth within, which neither dross,
Nor base alloys, make subject unto loss.
If, in the composition of thine heart,
A stubborn, steely willfulness have part,
That will not bow and bend to me,
Save only in a mere formality
Of tinsel-trimm'd hypocrisy,
I care not for it, though it show as fair
As the first blush of the sun-gilded air.
The heart that in my furnace will not melt,
When it the glowing heat thereof hath felt,
Turn liquid, and dissolve in tears
Of true repentance for its faults, that hears
My threat'ning voice, and never fears,
Is not an heart worth having. If it be
An heart of stone, 'tis not an heart for me.
The heart, that, cast into my furnace, spits,
And sparkles in my face, fall into fits
Of discontented grudging, whines
When it is broken of its will, repines
At the least suffering, declines
My fatherly correction, is an heart
On which I care not to bestow mine art.
* * * * * * * * *
The heart that vapours out itself in smoke,
And with these cloudy shadows thinks to cloak
Its empty nakedness, how much
Soever thou esteemest, it is such
As never will endure my touch.
I'll bring it to my furnace, and there see
What it will prove, what it is like to be.
If it be gold, it will be sure
The hottest fire that can be to endure,
And I shall draw it out more pure.
Affliction may refine, but cannot waste
That heart wherein my love is fixed fast.
—Francis Quarles.
Verse 3. "Thou hast visited me in the
night," etc. In the night the soul is free from
business with the world, and therefore freest for business with
God; and then did God prove and visit David, that is, examine
and sift him, by calling to his mind all his ways and works in
former passages; and the issue of this trial was, he found
nothing; not that his soul was empty of good things, or that
there was nothing evil in him; but God, upon examination, found
nothing of that evil in him which some men suspected him of;
namely either any ill will or evil design against Saul, in
reference to whom he called his cause a righteous cause, or "the
right" (verse 1); "Hear the right, O
Lord."—Joseph Caryl.
Verse 3 (third clause, New Translation.) "Thou
hast smelted me, and found in me no dross." A metaphor
taken from the smelting of metals to purify them from extraneous
matter.—Geddes.
Verse 3. "Proved . . . visited in the night .
. . tried." Tribulation whereby, when examined, I was
found righteous, is called not only night, in that it is wont to
disturb with fear, but fire in that it actually burns.—Augustine.
Verse 3. "I am purposed that my mouth shall
not transgress." Wherefore, if thou be upon a mountain,
look not backward again unto Sodom as Lot's wife did; if thou be
within the ark, fly not out again into the world as Noah's crow
did; if thou be well washed, return not again to the mire as the
hog doth; if thou be clean, run not again to thy filth, as the
dog doth; if thou be going towards the land of Canaan, think not
on the flesh-pots of Egypt; if thou be marching against the host
of Midian, drink not of the waters of Harod; if thou be upon the
housetop, come not down; if thou have set thy hand to the
plough, look not behind thee; remember not those vices which are
behind thee.—Thomas Playfere.
Verses 3, 4, 5. Where there is true grace, there is
hatred of all sin, for hatred is (Greek). Can a man be resolved
to commit what he hates? No, for his inward aversion would
secure him more against it than all outward obstacles. As this
inward purpose of a good man is against all sin, so more
particularly against that which doth so easily beset him. David
seems in several places to be naturally inclined to lying, but
he takes up a particular resolution against it: (verse 3), "I
am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress;"
(Heb.)—I have contrived to waylay and intercept the sin of
lying when it hath an occasion to approach me. A good man hath
not only purposes, but he endeavours to fasten and strengthen
those purposes by prayer; so David (verse 5), "Hold up
my goings in the paths, that my footsteps slip not." He
strengthens himself by stirring up a liveliness in duty, and by
avoiding occasions of sin; (verse 4), "I have kept me
from the paths of the destroyer;" whereas, a wicked man
neither steps out of the way of temptation, nor steps up to God
for strength against it.—Stephen Charnock.
Verse 4. "Concerning the works of men, by the
word of thy lips have I kept me from the paths of the
destroyer:" as if he had said, Would you know how is
comes to pass that I escape those ungodly works and practices
which men ordinarily take liberty to do? I must ascribe it to
the good word of God; it is this I consult with, and by it I am
kept from those foul ways whereunto others, that make no use of
the word for their defence, are carried by Satan the destroyer.
Can we go against sin and Satan with a better weapon than Christ
used to vanquish the tempter with? And, certainly, Christ did it
to set us an example how we should come armed into the field
against them; for Christ could with one beam shot from his Deity
(if he had pleased to exert it), have as easily laid the bold
fiend at his foot, as afterward he did them that came to attack
him; but he chose rather to conceal the majesty of his Divinity,
and let Satan come up closer to him, that so he might confound
him with the word, and thereby give him a proof of that sword of
his saints, which he was to leave them for their defence against
the same enemy. The devil is set out by the leviathan (Isaiah
27:1), him God threatens to punish with his strong sword;
alluding to that great fish, the whale, which fears no fish like
the sword-fish, by whom this great devourer of all other fish is
so often killed; for, receiving one prick from his sword, he
hasteneth to the shore, and beats himself against it till he
dies. Thus the devil, the great devourer of souls, who sports
himself in the sea of this world, as the leviathan in the
waters, and swallows the greatest part of mankind without any
power to make resistance against him, is himself vanquished by
the word. When he has to do with a saint armed with this sword,
and instructed how to use this weapon, he then, and not till
then, meets his match.—William Gurnall.
Verse 4. "By the word of thy lips,"
etc. It is a great relief against temptations to have the word
ready. The word is called, "The sword of the Spirit."
Ephesians 6:17. In spiritual conflicts there is none like to
that. Those that ride abroad in time of danger, will not be
without a sword. We are in danger, and had need handle the sword
of the Spirit. The more ready the Scripture is with us, the
greater advantage in our conflicts and temptations. When the
devil came to assault Christ, he had Scripture ready for him,
whereby he overcame the tempter. The door is barred upon Satan,
and he cannot find such easy entrance when the word is hid in
our hearts, and made use of pertinently. "I write unto you,
young men, because ye are strong." Where lies their
strength? "And the word of God abideth in you, and ye have
overcome the wicked one." 1 John 2:14. Oh, it is a great
advantage when we have the word, not only by us, but in us,
engrafted in the heart; when it is present with us, we are more
able to resist the assaults of Satan. Either a man forgets the
word, or hath lost his affection to it, before he can be drawn
to sin.—Thomas Manton.
Verse 5. "Hold up my goings in thy paths, that
my footsteps slip not." Lord, whatsoever the wrath of
Saul be against me, yet let neither that, nor any other thing
put me out of thy way, but keep my heart close unto thee, and
keep my paths in thy way; let not my footsteps so much as slide
from thee, for, Lord, they watch for my halting; if they can
find but the least slip from me, they take advantage of it to
the utmost; and I am a poor and a weak creature, therefore Lord
help me, that my footsteps may not slide.—Jeremiah
Burroughs.
Verse 5. "Hold up my goings in thy paths, that
my footsteps slip not." As a stone cast into the air
cannot go any higher, neither yet there abide when the power of
the hurler ceaseth to drive it; even so, seeing our corrupt
nature can go downward only, and the devil, the world, and the
flesh, driveth to the same way; how can we proceed further in
virtue, or stand therein, when we are tempted, if our merciful
and good God do not by his Holy Spirit, from time to time, guide
and govern us?—Robert Cawdray.
Verse 5. "Hold up my goings in thy paths, that
my footsteps slip not." Lord, hold me up, that I may
hold out. Thou hast set the crown at the end of the race; let me
run the race, that I may wear the crown. It was Beza's prayer,
and let it be ours, "Lord, perfect what thou hast begun in
me, that I may not suffer shipwreck when I am almost at the
haven."—Thomas Watson.
Verse 5. In fierce assaults and strong temptations,
when Satan layeth siege to the soul, shooting his fiery darts,
and using stratagems of policy, joining his endeavours with our
corruptions, as wind with tide, then we have cause to pray as
David, "Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my
footsteps slip not." The apostle also found he had need
of help from heaven when he was assaulted, and therefore he
prayed "thrice," that the thing that he feared
might depart from him. 2 Corinthians 12. Christ hath taught us
to pray daily, "Lead us not into temptation," for it
is dangerous; and then temptations are most dangerous, when, 1. Most
suitable—when Satan joins with our disposition or
constitution; 2. Continual; 3. When opportunity
and power is greatest.—Joseph Symonds.
Verse 6. "I have called upon thee, for thou
wilt hear me." I have cried, says the Psalmist, because
thou hast heard me. One would think he should have said
contrariwise; thou hast heard me because I have cried; yet, he
says, I have cried because thou hast heard me; to show that
crying doth not always go before hearing with God, as it doth
with us; but that God will not only hear our cry, but also hear
us before we cry, and will help us.—T. Playfere.
Verse 6. "I have called upon thee,"
etc. Prayer is the best remedy in a calamity. This is indeed a
true catholicon, a general remedy for every malady. Not
like the empiric's catholicon, which sometimes may work,
but for the most part fails, but that which upon assured
evidence and constant experience hath its probatum est;
being that which the most wise, learned, honest, and skilful
Physician that ever was, or can be, hath prescribed, even he
that teacheth us how to bear what is to be borne, or how to heal
and help what hath been borne.—William Gough,
1575-1653.
Verse 6. I have called upon thee formerly, therefore,
Lord, hear me now. It will be a great comfort to us if trouble,
when it comes, finds the wheels of prayer a-going, for then may
we come with the more boldness to the throne of grace. Tradesmen
are willing to oblige those that have been long their
customers.—Matthew Henry.
Verse 8. "Keep me as the apple of the
eye." He prays for deliverance (verse 7), ""Show
thy marvellous lovingkindness" to me; Lord, my straits
they are marvellous, I know not what to do, whither to turn me,
but my eyes are toward thee; as straits are marvellous, so let
the lovingkindness of God be marvellous towards me, and "Keep
me as the apple of thy eye." O Lord, unto them I am but
a dog, a vile creature in the eyes of Saul and those about him;
but blessed be thy name, I can look up to thee, and know that I
am dear unto thee as the apple of thy eye. All the saints
of God are dear to God at all times, but the persecuted saints,
they are the apple of God's eye; if at any time they are dear to
God, then especially when they are most persecuted; now they are
the apple of his eye, and the apple of an eye is weak,
and little able to resist any hurt, but so much the more is the
man tender of the apple of his eye. The saints are weak and
shiftless for themselves, but the Lord is so much the more
tender over them.—Jeremiah Burroughs.
Verse 8. Does it not appear to thee to be a work of
providence, that considering the weakness of the eye, he has
protected it with eyelids, as with doors, which whenever there
is occasion to use it are opened, and are again closed in sleep?
And that it may not receive injury from the winds, he has
planted on it eyelashes like a strainer; and over the eyes has
disposed the eyebrows like a penthouse, so that the sweat from
the head may do no mischief.—Socrates, in Xenophon.
Verse 9. "From the wicked:" as though
he had said, "They are equally enemies to thee and me; not
more opposite to me by their cruelty, than by their wickedness
they are to thee. Vindicate then, at once, thyself, and deliver
me."—John Howe.
Verse 10. "They are inclosed in their own
fat," or their fat has inclosed them; either
their eyes, that they can hardly see out of them, or their
hearts, so that they are stupid and senseless, and devoid of the
fear of God; the phrase is expressive of the multitude of their
wealth, and increase of power, by which they were swelled with
pride and vanity, and neither feared God nor regarded man; so
the Targum paraphrases it, "their riches are multiplied,
their fat covers them."—John Gill.
Verse 10. "They are inclosed in their own
fat." Their worldly prosperity puffeth them up, and
makes them insensible and obdurate against all reason and just
fear; and the Scripture doth use this term of a fattened heart
in this sense, because that the fat of man hath no feeling in
it, and those that are very fat are less subject to the passion
of fear.—John Diodati.
Verse 10. "They are inclosed in their own
fat." To say a man is fat, often means he is very
proud. Of one who speaks pompously it is said, "What can we
do? tassi kullap inal," that is, "from the fat
of his flesh he declares himself." "Oh, the fat of his
mouth! how largely he talks!" "Take care, fellow! or I
will restrain the fat of thy mouth."—J. Roberts, in
"Oriental Illustrations," 1844.
Verse 11. "They have now compassed us in our
steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth."
A man who has people watching him to find out a cause for
accusation against him to the king, or to great men, says,
"Yes, they are around my legs and my feet; their eyes are
always open; they are ever watching my 'suvadu,'
'steps;'" that is, they are looking for the impress or
footsteps in the earth. For this purpose the eyes of the enemies
of David were "bowing down to the earth."—Joseph
Roberts.
Verse 11. "They have now compassed us in our
steps." Like those who destroy game by battue, and so
make a ring around their prey from which their victims cannot
escape.—C. H. S.
Verse 11. "They have set their eyes bowing
down to the earth." The allusion probably is to the
huntsman tracing the footmarks of the animal he pursues.—Religious
Tract Society's Commentary.
Verse 11. "They have set their eyes bowing
down to the earth." It is an allusion, as I conceive,
to hunters, who go poring upon the ground to prick the hare, or
to find the print of the hare's claw, when the hounds are at a
loss, and can make nothing of it by the scent.—Joseph Caryl.
Verse 12. "Like a lion," etc. In "Paradise
Lost," we have a fine poetical conception of the arch
enemy prowling around our first parents when he first beheld
their happiness, and resolved to ruin them.
—About them round
A lion now, he stalks with fiery glare;
Then, as a tiger, who by chance hath spied
In some purlieu, two gentle fawns at play,
Straight crouches close, then rising, changes oft
His couchant watch, as one who chose his ground,
Whence rushing he might surest seize them both,
Grip'd in each paw.
John Milton.
Verse 12. We were consulting as to the best means of
getting at a rhinoceros cow which we saw standing at some
distance under a tree, when a troop of impalas came charging
down, with a fine old lioness after them. We went and saw her
lying down, but so flat to the ground, head and all, that no man
could shoot with any certainty; and she never for a moment took
her eyes from us. When we got up to her, she was lying down flat
as a plate to the ground; but her head might have been on a
pivot, as her watchful eye glared on us all round, without
appearing to move her body, as we decreased the circle, in the
hopes she would stand up and give us a fair chance of a shot
behind the shoulder. . . I looked for a tree to climb up, near
enough to make tolerably sure of my shot, and was just getting
up one, when the lioness made off.—William Charles Baldwin,
F.R.G.S., in "African Hunting," 1863.
Verse 13. "The wicked, which is thy
sword." The devil and his instruments both are God's
instruments, therefore "the wicked" are called
his "sword," his "axe" (Psalm 17:13;
Isaiah 10:15); now let God alone to wield the one, and handle
the other. He is but a bungler that hurts and hackles his own
legs with his own axe; which God should do if his children
should be the worse for Satan's temptations. Let the devil
choose his way, God is a match for him at every weapon. If he
will try it by force of arms, and assaults the saints by
persecution, as the "Lord of hosts" he will oppose
him. If by policy and subtlety, he is ready there also. The
devil and his whole council are but fools to God; nay, their
wisdom foolishness.—William Gurnall.
Verses 13, 14. "Thy sword . . . thy hand."
Thou canst as easily command and manage them, as a man may wield
his sword, or move his hand. Wilt thou suffer thine own sword,
thine own hand, to destroy thine own servant?—J. Howe
Verse 14 (first clause). How wonderful are the
dispensations of the providence of God, who can use even the
wicked to promote the present happiness and the final salvation
of his saints!—J. Edwards, M.A., 1856.
Verse 14. "Men of the world, which have their
portion in this life." Time and this lower world, bound
all their hopes and fears. They have no serious believing
apprehensions of anything beyond this present life; therefore,
have nothing to withhold them from the most injurious violence,
if thou withhold them not; men that believe not another world,
are the ready actors of any imaginable mischiefs and tragedies
in this.—John Howe.
Verse 14. "Men which are thy hand,"
etc. What shall we say then? Because God maketh use of thy sins,
art thou excused? Is not thine evil evil, because he picketh
good out of it? Deceive not thyself therein. When thou hast done
such service to thy Master and Maker, though seven and seven
years, as Jacob did service to Laban, thou shalt lose thy wages
and thy thanks too. Oh, well were thou if thou didst but lose,
for thou shalt also gain a sorrowful advantage. It is
unprofitable, nay, miserable service which thou hast thus
bestowed. Babylon shall be the hammer of the Lord a long time to
bruise the nations, himself afterwards bruised; Asshur his rod
to scourge his people, but Asshur shall be more scourged. These
hammers, rods, axes, saws, other instruments, when they have
done their offices, which they never meant, shall be thrown
themselves into the fire, and burnt to ashes. Satan did service
to God, it cannot be denied, in the afflicting of Job, winnowing
of Peter, buffeting of Paul, executing of Judas, and God did a
work in all these either to prove patience, or to confirm faith,
or to try strength, or to commend justice; yet is Satan
"reserved in chains under darkness, to the retribution of
the great day." Judas did service to God, in getting honour
to his blessed name for the redemption of mankind, whilst the
worlds endureth, yet was his wages an alder-tree to hang himself
upon, and, what is worse, he hangeth in hell for eternal
generations. He had his wages, and lost his wages. That which
the priest gave him, he lost, and lost his apostleship, but
gained the recompense of everlasting unhappiness, and lies in
the lowest lake, for the worm and death to gnaw upon without
ceasing.—John King.
Verse 14. "Thy hand." The hand of
God, his correcting or cherishing hand, sometimes is an
immediate, and sometimes a mediate hand. Sometimes it is
immediate, when God by himself doth chasten, or punish, or
afflict, when no second cause doth appear or intervene. So it
may seem Satan means, when he saith (Job 1:11), "Put
forth thy hand," that is, do it thine own self, let no
other have the handling of Job but thyself. God doth send such
immediate afflictions; a man is afflicted in his body, in his
estate, and many other ways, and he cannot find anything in the
creature whence it should come; it is an immediate stroke of
God, he cannot see how, or which way, or at what door this evil
came in upon him; therefore it is called a creating of evil.
Isaiah 45:7. "I make peace, and create evil." Now
creation is out of nothing, there is nothing out of which it is
wrought. So many times God bringeth evil upon a people or person
when there is no appearance of second cause, no matter out of
which it is made, but it comes as a creature, formed by the only
hand of God. Sometimes likewise it is called God's hand, when it
is the hand of a creature; it is God's hand in a creature's
hand; God's hand when it is the hand of wicked men, God's hand
when it is Satan's hand. So that place is translated (Psalm
17:13,14), "Deliver my soul from the wicked, which is
thy sword: from men which are thy hand:" so that "thy
hand" may be understood of an instrument; Satan himself
is God's hand to punish in that sense, as wicked men here are
said to be God's hand: "from men which are thy
hand," though there be other readings of that place;
some read it, deliver me from men by thy hand; and
others, deliver me from men of thy hand; but our
translation may very well carry the sense of the original in it,
"from men which are thy hand;" as
Nebuchadrezzar, that wicked king, is called God's servant
(Jeremiah 43:10), "I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar my
servant:" God speaks of him as his servant, or as his hand
in the thing.—Joseph Caryl.
Verse 14. "Men of the world, which have their
portion in this life." The large portion of the wicked
in the things of this world, may tell the righteous of how
little value this is, in the account of God; in that these
things are often given to his enemies plentifully, when denied
in such a measure to his children. Now this cannot be because he
loves or favours his enemies most; but because these lower
things, given them in what degree soever, are so mean in his
account, as that his chosen may learn by his distribution of
them, to regard them as he does; namely, as no part of their
felicity, but as common favours to all his creatures, good or
bad, enemies or friends.—Daniel Wilcox.
Verse 14. "Men which have their portion in
this life." God gives wicked men a portion here to show
unto them what little good there is in all these things, and to
show the world what little good there is in all the things that
are here below in the world. Certainly if they were much good
they should never have them; it is an argument there is no great
excellency in the strength of body, for an ox hath it more than
you; an argument there is no great excellency in agility of
body, for a dog hath it more than you; an argument of no great
excellency in gay clothes, for a peacock hath them more than
you; an argument there is not great excellency in gold and
silver, for the Indians that know not God have them more than
you; and if these things had any great worth in them, certainly
God would never give them to wicked men—a certain argument. As
it is an argument that there is no great evil in affliction in
this world, because that the saints are so much afflicted; so no
great argument there is any great good in this world, for the
wicked they enjoy so much of it. Luther hath such an expression
as this in his comment upon Genesis, saith he, "The Turkish
empire, as great as it is, is but a crumb, that the Master of
the family, that God, casts to dogs:" the whole Turkish
empire, such an esteem had Luther of it; and indeed, it is no
more. All the things of the world, God in giving of them to
Turks and wicked ones, his enemies, shows there is not much
excellency and good in them: God therefore will cast them
promiscuously up and down in the world, because he looks upon
them as worthless things; God doth not so much regard whether
men be prepared to give him the glory of them, yea or no, they
shall have them; however he is content to venture them. Indeed,
when God comes into his choice mercies in Christ, there he looks
to have glory from them, and he doth never give them to any, but
first he prepares them, that they may give him the glory of
those mercies. But it is otherwise with others; as, suppose you
see a man gathering of crabs, although swine be under the tree,
he cares not much to drive them away; they are but crabs, let
them have them; but if he were gathering any choice and precious
fruit, if any swine should come under, he drives them away. As
for outward things, crabs, the Lord suffers the swine of the
world to come grunting and take them up; but when he comes to
his choice mercies in his Christ, there he makes a distinction.
Oh, this is precious fruit! A blacksmith that is working upon
iron, though a great many cinders and little bits of iron fly up
and down, he regards them not; but a goldsmith that is working
upon gold, he preserves every rag, and every dust of gold; and a
lapidary that is working upon precious stones, every little bit
he will be sure to preserve; a carpenter that is only hewing of
timber, he regards it not much if chips fly up and down; but it
is not so with a lapidary. So these outward things are but as
the chips and cinders, and such kind of things as those are, and
therefore God ever gives a portion to wicked men out of them.—Jeremiah
Burroughs.
Verse 14. "Men which have their portion in
this life." I have read of Gregory, that being advanced
to preferment, professed that there was no Scripture that went
so to his heart, that struck such a trembling into his spirit,
that daunted him so much, as this Scripture did:—"Here
you have your reward, son; in your lifetime you have had your
pleasure." Oh, this was a dreadful Scripture that sounded
in his ears continually, as Hierom speaks of that Scripture,
"Arise ye dead, and come to judgment;" night and day
he thought that Scripture sounded in his ears: so
Gregory:—"Here you have your reward; in this life you
have had your pleasure." This was the Scripture that night
and day sounded in his ears. O that it might please God to
assist so far, to speak out of this Scripture to you, that I
might make this Scripture ring in your ears even when you lie
upon your beds, after the sermon is done; that yet you may think
this Scripture rings in your ears: "Men of this world,
who have their portion in this life."—Jeremiah
Burroughs.
Verse 14. "Which have their portion in this
life." The earth and the commodities thereof God
distributeth without respect of persons, even to them that are
his children by creation only, and not by adoption. But yet
there is a difference between the prosperity of the one and the
other; for the one is but with anxiety of heart (even in
laughter their heart is heavy); the others' is with cheerfulness
and joy in the Spirit; the one's is a pledge of the greater
preferment in the world to come, the others' is their whole
portion, and as if God should say, "Let them take that
and look for no more." The one's is with the blessing of
the people, who wish they had more; the others' with their curse
and hatred, who are grieved that they have so much.—Miles
Smith.
Verse 14. "Their portion in this life."
The good man's best, and the bad man's worst, lie in shall
be's (Isaiah 3:10, 11), in reversion. Here Dives had nothing
but his "good things," but hereafter he had no good
thing. Here Lazarus had all his "evil things," but
afterwards no evil thing. The good man when he dies, takes his
leave of, and departs from, all evil; and the evil man when he
dies, takes his leave of, and departs from, all his goods, which
was all the good he had. "Now he is comforted, but thou art
tormented." Luke 16:25. Oh! 'tis a sad thing to have one's portion
of good only in this life.—Ralph Venning's "Helps
to Piety," 1620-1673.
Verse 14. "This life." There is yet
another thing to be seen far more monstrous in this creature;
that whereas he is endued with reason and counsel, and knoweth
that this life is like unto a shadow, to a dream, to a tale that
is told, to a watch in the night, to smoke, to chaff which the
wind scattereth, to a water-bubble, and such-like fading things;
and that life to come shall never have end; he yet nevertheless
setteth his whole mind most carefully upon this present life,
which is to-day, and to-morrow is not; but of the life which is
everlasting he doth not so much as think. If this be not a
monster, I know not what may be called monstrous.—Thomas
Tymme.
Verse 14. What wicked men possess of this world is all
that ever they can hope for: why should we grudge them filled
bags, or swelling titles! it is their whole portion; they now
receive their good things. Hast thou food and clothing? that is
children's fare; envy not ungodly men, who flaunt it in the
gallantry of the world: they have more than you; but it is all
they are like to have: the psalmist gives us an account of their
estate. They are the men of this world, which have
their portion in this life, and whose bellies God filleth with
his hid treasure. Whereas thou, O Christian, who possessest
nothing, art heir-apparent of heaven, co-heir with Jesus Christ,
who is the heir of all things, and hast an infinite mass of
riches laid up for thee; so great and infinite, that all the
stars of heaven are too few to account it by: you have no reason
to complain of being kept short; for all that God hath is yours,
whether prosperity ar adversity, life or death, all is yours.
What God gives is for your comfort; what he denies or takes away
is for your trial: it is for the increase of those graces which
are far more gracious than any temporal enjoyment. If, by seeing
wicked and ungodly men flow in wealth and ease, when thou art
forced to struggle against the inconveniences and difficulties
of a poor estate, thou hast learnt a holy contempt and disdain
of the world, believe it, God hath herein given thee more than
if he had given thee the world itself.—Ezekiel Hopkins.
Verse 14. To show that wicked men have often the
greatest portion in this world, I need not speak much:
the experience of all ages since the beginning of the world
confirms it, your own observation, I believe, can seal to it;
however, Scripture abundantly evinces it. The first murderer
that ever was, carries possessions in his very name: Cain
signifies so much. Genesis 4:8. Go on in the whole series of
Scripture, and you shall find Joseph persecuted by his brethren;
Esau (as Rivet observes on Genesis 32), advanced in the world
for a time far above Jacob; go on, and you find the Israelites,
God's peculiar, in captivity, and Pharaoh on the throne; Saul
ruling, and David in a cave, or in a wilderness; Job upon the
dunghill; Jeremy in the dungeon; Daniel in the den, and the
children in the furnace, and Nebuchadnezzar on the throne. In
the New Testament you have Felix on the bench, Paul at the bar;
Dives in the palace, Lazarus at his gate (Luke 16:19); he
clothed in purple, Lazarus in rags and overspread with sores; he
banqueted and fared deliciously every day, the other desired but
the crumbs from the table, and could not have them; Dives beset
with his rich and stately attendance, Lazarus hath no other
society but the dogs which came to lick his sores; all which
Austin and Tertullian against Marcion (lib. 4), conceive to be a
true history of what was really acted, though others think it
parabolical. Job tells us that "the tabernacle of
robbers" sometimes "prosper" (Job 12:6), which
prosperity he at large describes (chapter 21 from verse 7 to
14); exalted in "power," verse 7; multiplied in
their posterity, verses 8, 11; safe at home, verse
9; increased abroad, verse 10; have their fill of pleasure,
verse 12, and wealth at will, verse 13. David speaks his
own experience of this. Psalm 37:35; 73:7. So in the text, they
enjoy not only common favours, as air to breathe in, earth to
walk on; their bellies are filled with his "hid
treasure," and that not for themselves only, but for
their posterity too; they "leave the rest of their
substance to their babes;" in a word, "they have
their portion in this life."—John Frost, 1657.
Verse 14. A master or lord pays his servant his
present wages, while he cuts his son short in his
allowance during his nonage, that he may learn to depend upon
his father for the inheritance. Thus doth God, the great Lord of
all, deal with his slaves, who serve him for the hire of
some temporal advantage; he gives them their present reward and
wages; but though his goodness hath determined a better portion
to be a reward to the piety and obedience of his children,
yet he gives it them in reversion, little in hand, that they may
learn to live upon the promise, and by faith to depend upon the
goodness and faithfulness of their Father for their heavenly
inheritance; that they, walking not by sight but faith (which is
a Christian's work and condition here), may "not look at
the things which are seen," etc. 2 Corinthians 4:18. . . .
. This discovers that rotten foundation upon which many men
build their hopes of heaven. Surely (are many ready to argue) if
God did not love me he would not give me such a portion in the
world. Deceive not thyself in a matter of so great concernment.
Thou mayest as well say God loved Judas, because he had the
bags, or Dives, because he fared deliciously, who are now
roaring in hell.—John Frost.
Verse 14. The word which denotes the "belly"
may have been fixed, by the divine Spirit, to indicate the fact,
that a very great proportion of the sin of worldly and depraved
characters is connected with the indulgence of base and
degrading lusts; and that they abuse the very bounty of heaven,
in riveting the chain of sense upon their unhappy souls. But let
them remember, that their sensual idolatries will, at last, be
followed up by the most fearful visitations of divine wrath.—John
Morrison.
Verse 14. "Whose belly thou fillest with thy
hid treasure." Wicked men may abound in earthly things.
They may have the earth and the fulness of it, the earth, and
all that is earthly; their bellies are filled by God himself
with hidden treasure. Precious things are usually hidden, and
all that's named treasure, though it be but earthly, hath a
preciousness in it. Hidden treasures of earth fill their bellies
who slight the treasures of heaven, and whose souls shall never
have so much as a taste of heavenly treasures: riches and honour
are the lots of their inheritance who have no inheritance among
those whose lot is glory. They have the earth in their hands
(Job 9:24), who have nothing of heaven in their hearts; they
bear sway in the world who are slaves to the world; they govern
and order others at their will who are led captive by Satan at
his will. Be not offended and troubled to see the reins of
government in their hands who know not how to govern themselves,
or to see them rule the world who are unworthy to live in the
world.—Joseph Caryl.
Verse 14. "Whose belly thou fillest with thy
hid treasure." The hearts of saints only are filled
with the "hidden manna," but the bellies of the
wicked are often filled with hidden treasure; that is,
with those dainties and good things which are virtually hidden
in, and formally spring out of, the belly and bowels of the
earth. The Lord easily grants them their wish in such things,
and gives them "their portion," which is all
their portion, "in this life." For as they are
but common professors, so these are but common mercies, such as
many of his enemies receive, who are but fatted as oxen for the
slaughter, and fitted for destruction. True happiness is not to
be judged by lands or houses, by gold or silver. The world is a
narrow bound: unless we get beyond the creature, and set our
hopes above this world, we cannot by happy. As hypocrites
desire, so they obtain much of the world, but they shall attain
no more, how much soever they seem to desire it.—Joseph
Caryl.
Verse 14. "Whose belly thou fillest."
That is, their sensual appetite, as oftentimes that term is used
(Romans 16:18; Philippians 3:19), "with thy hid
treasures;" namely, the riches which either God is wont
to hide in the bowels of the earth, or lock up in the repository
of providence, dispensing them at his own pleasure.—John
Howe.
Verse 14. "Whose belly thou fillest,"
etc.:—
Thou from thy hidden store,
Their bellies, Lord, hast fill'd;
Their sons are gorg'd, and what is o'er,
To their sons' sons they yield.
Richard Mant.
Verse 14. "They are full of children."
So it appears by that which follows, it ought to be read, and
not according to that gross, but easy (Greek) for (Greek)
mistake of some transcribers of the seventy. As if in all this
he pleaded thus: "Lord, thou hast abundantly indulged those
men already, what need they more? They have themselves, from thy
unregarded bounty, their own vast swollen desires sufficiently
filled, enough for their own time; and when they can live no
longer in their persons, they may in their posterity, and leave
not strangers, but their numerous offspring, their heirs. Is it
not enough that their avarice be gratified, except their malice
be also? that they have whatsoever they can conceive desirable
for themselves, unless they may also infer whatever they can
think mischievous on me?" To this description of his
enemies, he ex opposito, subjoins some account of himself
in this his closure of the Psalm. "As for me,"
here he is at his statique point; and, after some appearing
discomposure, his spirit returns to a consistency, in
consideration of his own more happy state, which he opposes and
prefers to their, in the following respects. That they
were wicked, he righteous. "I will behold thy face
in righteousness." That their happiness was worldly,
terrene, such only as did spring from the earth; his
heavenly and divine, such as should result from the face and
image of God. Theirs present, temporary, compassed within
this life; his future, everlasting, to be enjoyed when he
should awake. Theirs partial, defective, such as would
but gratify their bestial part, fill their bellies; his
adequate, complete (the eudaimonia tou ounetou . . . . . a
happiness of proportion), such as should satisfy the man.
"I shall be satisfied," etc.—John Howe.
Verse 14. "They are full of children."
Margin, their children are full. The margin probably
expresses the sense of the Hebrew better than the text. The
literal rendering would be, "satisfied are their
sons;" that is, they have enough to satisfy the wants of
their children. The expression, "they are full of
children," is harsh and unnatural, and is not demanded by
the original, or by the main thought in this passage. The
obvious signification is, that they have enough for themselves
and for their children.—Albert Barnes.
Verse 15. "I will behold thy face." I
look upon the face of a stranger and it moves me not; but upon a
friend and his face presently transforms mine into a lively,
cheerful aspect. "As iron sharpeneth iron, so doth the face
of a man his friend" (Proverbs 27:17), puts a sharpness and
a quickness into his looks. The soul that loves God, opens
itself to him, admits his influence and impressions, is easily
molded and wrought to his will, yields to the transforming power
of his appearing glory. There is no resistant principle
remaining when the love of God is perfected in it; and so
overcoming is the first sight of his glory upon the awaking
soul, that it perfects it, and so his likeness, both at once.—John
Howe.
Verse 15. "I will behold," etc.—In
the words we have, 1. The time of his complete and consummate
happiness—"When I awake." 2. The matter of
his happiness, and the manner of enjoying it; the matter and
object—"God's face, or likeness;" the manner
of enjoying—"I will behold thy face." 3. His
perfect disposition and condition in the state of happiness—"I
shall behold in righteousness," having my heart
perfectly conformed to the will of God, the perfect and adequate
rule of righteousness. 4. The measure of his happiness—"I
shall be satisfied;" my happiness will be full in the
measure, without want of anything that can make me happy; all my
desires shall be satisfied, and my happiness in respect of
duration shall be eternal, without a shadow or fear of a
change.—William Colvill.
Verse 15. He doth profess his resolution, yet
notwithstanding all the danger he was in, to go on in the ways
of God, and expect a gracious issue; but I, saith he, "will
behold thy face in righteousness;" indeed, I cannot
behold the face of the king without danger to me; there are a
great many that run to kill me, and they desire his face; but
though I cannot see his face, yet, Lord, I shall behold thy
face; "I will behold thy face," and it shall be
"in righteousness;" I will still keep on in the
ways of righteousness, and "when I awake"—for
I believe that these troubles will not hold long—I shall not
sleep in perpetual sleep, but I shall awake and be
delivered, and then "I shall be satisfied with thy
likeness:" there shall be the manifestation of thy
glory to me, that shall satisfy me for all the trouble that I
have endured for thy name's sake, that my soul shall say, I have
enough.—Jeremiah Burroughs.
Verse 15. "I shall be satisfied,"
etc. The fulness of the felicity of heaven may appear if we compare
it with the joys and comforts of the Holy Spirit. Such they
are, as that the Scripture styles them strong consolations
(Hebrews 6:17); full joys (John 15:11); joy
unspeakable and full of glory (1 Peter 1:8); abounding
consolations. 2 Corinthians 1:5. And yet all the joy and
peace that believers are partakers of in this life is but as a
drop to the ocean, as a single cluster to the whole vintage, as
the thyme or honey upon the thigh of a bee to the whole hive
fully fraught with it, or as the break and peep of day to the
bright noontide. But yet these tastes of the water, wine, and
honey of this celestial Canaan, with which the Holy Spirit makes
glad the hearts of believers, are both far more desirable and
satisfactory than the overflowing streams of all earthly
felicities. And there are none who have once tasted of them, but
say as the Samaritan woman did, "Lord, give me that water,
that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw." John 4:15.
So also the first and early dawnings of the heavenly light fill
the soul with more serenity, and ravish it with more pure joy,
than the brightest sunshine of all worldly splendour can ever
do. I have read of a devout person who but dreaming of heaven,
the signatures and impressions it made upon his fancy were so
strong, as that when he awaked he knew not his cell, could not
distinguish the night from the day, nor difference by his taste,
oil from wine; still he was calling for his vision and saying, Redde
mihi campos floridos, columnam auream, comitem Hieronymum,
assistentes angelos: give me my fresh and fragrant fields
again, my golden pillar of light, Jerome my companion, angels my
assistants. If heaven in a dream produce such ecstasies as drown
and overwhelm the exercises of the senses to inferior objects,
what trances and complacencies must the fruition of it work in
those who have their whole rational appetite filled, and their
body beautified with its endless glory?—William Spurstow,
1656.
Verse 15. "I shall be satisfied."
Have you never seen how when they were finishing the interior of
buildings they kept the scaffolding up? The old Pope, when he
had Michael Angelo employed in decorating the interior of that
magnificent structure, the Sistine Chapel, demanded that the
scaffolding should be taken down so that he could see the
glowing colours that with matchless skill were being laid on.
Patiently and assiduously did that noble artist labour, toiling
by day, and almost by night, bringing out his prophets and
sibyls and pictures wondrous for their beauty and significance,
until the work was done. The day before it was done, if you had
gone into that chapel and looked up, what would you have seen?
Posts, planks, ropes. lime, mortar, slop, dirt. But when all was
finished, the workmen came, and the scaffolding was removed. And
then, although the floor was yet covered with rubbish and
litter, when you looked up, it was as if heaven itself had been
opened, and you looked into the courts of God and angels. Now,
the scaffolding is kept around men long after the fresco is
commenced to be painted; and wondrous disclosures will be made
when God shall take down this scaffolding body, and reveal what
you have been doing. By sorrow and by joy; by joys which are but
bright colours, and by sorrows which are but shadows of bright
colours; by prayer; by the influences of the sanctuary; by your
pleasures; by your business; by reverses; by successes and by
failures; by what strengthened your confidence, and by what
broke it down; by the things that you rejoiced in, and by the
things that you mourned over—by all that God is working in
you. And you are to be perfected, not according to the things
that you plan, but according to the divine pattern. Your
portrait and mine are being painted, and God by wondrous strokes
and influences is working us up to his own ideal. Over and above
what you are doing for yourself, God is working to make you like
him. And the wondrous declaration is, that when you stand before
God, and see what has been done for you, you shall be "satisfied."
Oh, word that has been wandering solitary and without a
habitation ever since the world began, and the morning stars
sang together for joy! Has there ever been a human creature that
could stand on earth while clothed in the flesh, and say,
"I am satisfied?" What is the meaning of the word?
Sufficiently filled; filled full; filled up in every part. And
when God's work is complete, we shall stand before him, and,
with the bright ideal and glorified conception of heavenly
aspiration upon us, looking up to God, and back on ourselves,we
shall say, "I am satisfied:" for we shall be like him.
Amen. Why should we not be satisfied?—Henry Ward Beecher,
in "Royal Truths," 1862.
Verse 15. "When I awake, I shall be satisfied
with thy likeness." He speaks here of the resurrection;
he calls it an awaking, for you know death is called a sleep.
"Those that are asleep in the Lord shall rise first."
He had spoken before of those that had put their happiness in
the comforts of this life, suitable to their bodies, to the
animal state of their bodies; that is clear by the fourteenth
verse, "Deliver me from the men that are thine hand, O
Lord, who have their portion in this life, whose belly thou
fillest with thy treasure: they are full of children, and leave
to them outward things," bodily things. "But as for
me," saith he, "I will behold thy face in thy
righteousness" (there is the vision of God which is his
happiness in his soul): "and I shall be satisfied when I
awake" (when I rise again), "with thine image."
It is not the image of God only upon himself that he means here.
Why? Because that doth not satisfy a holy heart, but it is that
image of the invisible God which the human nature of Jesus
Christ is, who, in opposition to all these outward pleasures,
will be all in all to us; he is a spiritual creature, his human
nature is spiritualised, made glorious, and our bodies shall be
made spiritual likewise. "The body is made for the Lord,
and the Lord for the body," and this when they are both
raised up; Christ is raised up already, and because he hath
ordained the one to be serviceable to the other, he will also
raise up our bodies; and when he doth raise me up, saith David,
though other men have their bellies full here, and have animal
pleasures they delight in; yet when I shall awake at latter day,
and shall see this image of thine, shall see thy Son, I shall be
satisfied: "When I awake, I shall be satisfied with thine
image."—Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 15. "I shall be satisfied, when I awake,
with thy likeness." In this Psalm holy David's
afflictions are neither few nor small; his innocency that
is wounded by malicious slanderers, his life that is in
jeopardy by deadly enemies that compass him about; his present
condition that is embittered unto him by the pressing wants
of a barren wilderness, while his foes live deliciously in
Saul's court. And yet under the weight and combination of so
many sore evils, David carries himself as one that is neither
hopeless nor forsaken, yea, lays his estate in the balance
against theirs, and in this low ebb of his, vies with them for
happiness; and at last shutting up the Psalm with a triumphant epiphonema,
concludes himself to be by far the better man. "As for
me, I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be
satisfied, when I awake with thy likeness." They, 'tis
true, enjoy the face of their king, whose favour is as a cloud
of latter rain promising a fruitful harvest of many blessings, "but
I," saith he, "shall behold the face of God
in righteousness," whose lovingkindness is better than
life, clothed with all its royalties. They have their bellies
filled with hidden treasure, having more than a common hand of
bounty opened unto them; but I have more gladness put into my
heart, more than in the time that their corn and wine increased.
They have their portion in hand, and as being men of this world;
but I have mine laid up in the other: "I shall be
satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." In these
words we have his and every believer's eternal happiness in the
other life, set forth in three particulars as a most effectual
antidote against present troubles and temptations that arise
from the malice of wicked men against them.—William
Spurstow.
Verse 15. "I shall be satisfied when I awake
with thy likeness." The saints in heaven have not yet
awaked in God's likeness. The bodies of the righteous still
sleep, but they are to be satisfied on the resurrection morn,
when they awake. When a Roman conqueror had been at war, and won
great victories, he would return to Rome with his soldiers,
enter privately into his house, and enjoy himself till the next
day, when he would go out of the city to re-enter it publicly in
triumph. Now, the saints, as it were, enter privately into
heaven without their bodies; but on the last day, when their
bodies wake up, they will enter into their triumphal chariots.
Methinks I see that grand procession, when Jesus Christ first of
all, with many crowns on his head, with his bright, glorious,
immortal body, shall lead the way. Behind him come the saints,
each of them clapping their hands, or pouring sweet melody from
their golden harps; all entering in triumph. And when they come
to heaven's gates, and the doors are opened wide to let the King
of glory in, how will the angels crowd at the windows and on the
housetops, like the inhabitants in the Roman triumphs, to watch
the pompous procession, and scatter heaven's roses and lilies
upon them, crying, "Hallelujah! hallelujah! hallelujah! the
Lord God Omnipotent reigneth." "I shall be
satisfied" in that glorious day when all the angels of God
shall come to see the triumphs of Jesus, and when his people
shall be victorious with him.—Spurgeon's Sermons.
Verse 15. "I shall be satisfied . . . . . with
thy likeness." Let a man who is thirsty be brought to
an ocean of pure water, and he has enough. If there be enough in
God to satisfy the angels, then sure there is enough to satisfy
us. The soul is but finite, but God is infinite. Though God be a
good that satisfies, yet he does not surfeit. Fresh joys spring
continually from his face; and he is as much to be desired after
millions of years by glorified souls as at the first moment.
There is a fulness in God that satisfies, and yet so much
sweetness that the soul still desires. God is a delicious
good. That which is the chief good must ravish the soul with
pleasure; there must be in it rapturous delight and quintessence
of joy. In Deo quadam dulcedine delectatur anima immo rapitur:
the love of God drops such infinite suavity into the soul as is
unspeakable and full of glory. If there be so much delight in
God, when we see him only by faith (1 Peter 1:8), what will the
joy of vision be, when we shall see him face to face! If the
saints have found so much delight in God while they were
suffering, oh, what joy and delight will they have when they are
being crowned! If flames are beds of roses, what will it be to
lean on the bosom of Jesus! What a bed of roses that will be!
God is a superlative good. He is better than anything you
can put in competition with him; he is better than health,
riches, honour. Other things maintain life, he gives life. Who
would put anything in balance with the Deity? Who would weigh a
feather against a mountain of gold? God excels all other things
more infinitely than the sun the light of a taper. God is an eternal
good. He is the Ancient of days, yet never decays, nor waxes
old. Daniel 7:9. The joy he gives is eternal, the crown fadeth
not away. 1 Peter 5:4. The glorified soul shall be ever solacing
itself in God, feasting on his love, and sunning itself in the
light of his countenance. We read of the river of pleasure at
God's right hand; but will not this in time be dried up? No.
There is a fountain at the bottom which feeds it. Psalm 36:9.
"With the Lord is a fountain of life." Thus God is the
chief good, and the enjoyment of God for ever is the highest
felicity of which the soul is capable.—Thomas Watson.
Verse 15. "When I awake," etc. The
sincere Christian is progressive, never at his journey's end
till he gets to heaven; this keeps him always in motion,
advancing in his desires and endeavours forward: he is thankful
for little grace, but not content with great measures of grace. "When
I awake," saith David, "I shall be satisfied
with thy likeness." He had many a sweet entertainment
at the house of God in his ordinances. The Spirit of God was the
messenger that brought him many a covered dish from God's table,
inward consolations which the world knew not of. Yet David has
not enough, it is heaven alone that can give him his full
draught. They say the Gauls, when they first tasted of the wines
of Italy, were so taken with their lusciousness and sweetness,
that they could not be content to trade thither for this wine,
but resolved they would conquer the land where they grew. Thus
the sincere soul thinks it not enough to receive a little now
and then of grace and comfort from heaven, by trading and
holding commerce at a distance with God in his ordinances here
below, but projects and meditates of that holy land and blessed
place from which such rich commodities come, that he may drink
the wine of that kingdom in that kingdom.—William Gurnall.
Verse 15. "When I awake." How apt and
obvious is the analogy between our awakening out of natural
sleep, and the holy soul's rising up out of the darkness and
torpor of its present state into the enlivening light of God's
presence? It is truly said so to awake at its first
quitting these darksome regions, when it lays aside its
cumbersome night-veil. It doth so more perfectly in the joyful
morning of the resurrection-day when mortality is swallowed up
in life, and all the yet hovering shadows of it are vanished and
fled away. And how known and usual an application this is of the
metamorphical terms of sleeping and awaking in Holy Writ, I need
not tell them who have read the Bible. Nor doth this
interpretation less fitly accord to the other contents of this
verse; for to what state do the sight of God's face, and
satisfaction with his likeness, so fully agree, as to that of
future blessedness in the other world? But then the contexture
of discourse in this and the foregoing verse together, seems
plainly to determine us to this sense: for what can be more
conspicuous in them, than a purposed comparison, an opposition
of two states of felicity mutually to each other? That if the
wicked whom he calls men of time (as the words Hebrew
are rendered by Pagninus—Homines de tempore—and do
literally signify) and whose portion, he tells us, is in this
life: and the righteous man's, his own; which he expected not to
be till he should awake, that is, not till after this life.—John
Howe.
Verse 15. There is a sleep of deadness of spirit, out
of which the shining of God's loving countenance doth awake a
believer and revive the spirit of the contrite ones; and there
is a sleep of death bodily, out of which the lovingkindness of
the Lord shall awake all his own in the day of the resurrection,
when he shall so change them into the similitude of his own
holiness and glorious felicity that they shall be fully
contented for ever: and this first and second delivery out of
all trouble may every believer expect and premise to himself.
"I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy
likeness."—David Dickson.
Verse 15. There is a threefold meaning in this verse,
inasmuch as it is in Christ alone, the firstborn from the dead,
the express image of Jehovah's glory, that the saints will rise
immortal, incorruptible, and be like the angels in heaven. 1.
They will greatly delight in the glorious state in which they
will rise. 2. They will greatly delight in Jesus, in whom, and
by whom, resurrection and immortality are brought to light; and
3. They will delight greatly in beholding the blessed and
reconciled countenance of Jehovah, the Father, whom no eye of
flesh can see. This is the difference between the appearance of
God to Israel on Mount Sinai, and the happy state in which the
saints will behold him in the resurrection. Glorious as the
scene on Sinai was, yet the Lord said to Israel, "You have
seen no (Heb.)(Temunah), no manner of similitude,"
or likeness, or countenance; but David speaks of the spiritual
glory of the triumphant saints in the resurrection, when they
shall see Jehovah as he is, and rejoice in his beatific presence
for ever and ever.—Benjamin Weiss, in loc, 1858.
Verse 15. Everlasting life and salvation in heaven, is
not a truth revealed only by the gospel, but was well known,
clearly revealed, and firmly believed, by the saints of old.
They had assurance of this, that they should live with God for
ever in glory. "When I awake, with thy likeness."
Psalm 17:15. "Thou wilt receive me to glory." Psalm
73:24. "In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right
hand there are pleasures for evermore." Psalm 16:11.
They looked for another country, whereof Canaan was but a type
and shadow, as the apostle shows in the epistle to the Hebrews,
chapter 11:16. They knew there was an eternal state of happiness
for the saints, as well as an eternal state of misery for the
wicked; they did believe this in those days.—Samuel Mather
on the "Types," 1705.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1. The voice of Jesus—our Righteousness, and
our own voice. Work out the thought of both coming up to the ear
of heaven, noting the qualities of our prayer as indicated by
the psalmist's language, such as earnestness, perseverance,
sincerity, etc.
Verse 2. "Let my sentence come forth from thy
presence."
I.
When it will come.
II.
Who dare meet it now.
III.
How to be among them.
Verse 3. "Thou hast proved mine heart."
The metal, the furnace, the refiner, etc.
Verse 3. "Thou hast visited me in the
night."
I.
Glorious visitor.
II.
Favoured individual.
III.
Peculiar season.
IV.
Refreshing remembrance.
V.
Practical result.
Verse 3 (last sentence). Transgressions of the
lip, and how to avoid them.
Verse 4. The highway and the by-paths. The world
and sin. "The paths of the destroyer"—a
significant name for transgression.
Verse 5. "Hold up."
I.
Who? God.
II.
What? "My goings."
III.
When? Present tense.
IV.
Where? "In thy paths."
V.
Why? "That my footsteps slip not."
Verse 5. Let me observe David and learn to pray as he
prayed, "Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps
slip not."
I.
See his course. He speaks of his "goings."
Religion does not allow a man to sit still. He speaks of his
goings "in God's paths." These are threefold.
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(1).
The path of his commands.
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(2).
The path of his ordinances.
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(3).
The path of his dispensations.
II.
His concern respecting this course. It is the language
of—
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(1).
Conviction;
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(2).
of apprehension;
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(3).
of weakness;
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(4).
of confidence.
—William Jay.
Verse 6. Two words, both great, though little,
"call" and "hear." Two persons, one
little and the other great, "I," "Thee, O
God." Two tenses: past, "I have;" future,
"Thou wilt." Two wonders, that we do not call
more, and that God hears such unworthy prayers.
Verse 7. (first sentence). See Exposition. A
view of divine lovingkindness desired.
Verse 7. "O thou," etc. God, the
Saviour of believers.
Verse 8. Two most suggestive emblems of tenderness and
care. Involving in the one case living unity, as the eye
with the body, and in the other, loving relationship, as
the bird and its young.
Verse 14. "Men of the world, which have their
portion in this life." Who they are? What they have?
Where they have it? What next?
Verse 14. "Men which are thy hand."
Providential control and use of wicked men.
Verse 15. This is the language
(1).
of a man whose mind is made up; who has decided for himself; who
does not suspend his conduct upon the resolution of others.
(2).
Of a man rising in life, and with great prospects before him.
(3).
It is the language of a Jew.
Verse 15. The beholding of God's face signifies
two things.
I.
The enjoyment of his favour.
II.
Intimate communions with him.—William Jay.
Verse 15. See "Spurgeon's Sermons," No. 25.
Title, "The
Hope of Future Bliss." Divisions.
I.
The Spirit of this utterance.
II.
The matter of it.
III.
The contrast implied in it.
Verse 15. To see God and to be like him, the
believer's desire.—J. Fawcett.