TITLE. A Psalm of David. Here is all we
know concerning this Psalm, but internal evidence seems to fix
the date of its composition in those troublous times when Saul
hunted David over hill and dale, and when those who fawned upon
the cruel king, slandered the innocent object of his wrath, or
it may be referred to the unquiet days of frequent insurrections
in David's old age. The whole Psalm is the appeal to heaven of a
bold heart and a clear conscience, irritated beyond measure by
oppression and malice. Beyond a doubt David's Lord may be seen
here by the spiritual eye.
DIVISIONS. The most natural mode of
dividing this Psalm is to note its triple character. Its
complaint, prayer, and promise of praise are repeated with
remarkable parallelism three times, even as our Lord in the
Garden prayed three times using the same words. The first
portion occupies verse 1 to 10, the second from 11-18, and the
last from 19 to the close; each section ending with a note of
grateful song.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. "Plead my cause, O Lord, with them
that strive with me." Plead against those who plead
against me; strive with my strivers; contend with my contenders.
If they urge their suit in the law-court, Lord, meet them there,
and beat them at their own weapons. Every saint of God shall
have this privilege: the accuser of the brethren shall be met by
the Advocate of the saints. "Fight against them that
fight against me." If my adversaries try force as well
as fraud, be a match for them; oppose thy strength to their
strength. Jesus does this for all his beloved—for them he is
both intercessor and champion; whatever aid they need they shall
receive from him, and in whatever manner they are assaulted they
shall be effectually defended. Let us not fail to leave our case
into the Lord's hand. Vain is the help of man, but ever
effectual is the interposition of heaven. What is here asked for
as a boon, may be regarded as a promise, to all the saints; in
judgment they shall have a divine advocate, in warfare a divine
protection.
Verse 2. "Take hold of shield and buckler, and
stand up for mine help." In vivid metaphor the Lord is
pictured as coming forth armed for battle, and interposing
himself between his servant and his enemies. The greater and
lesser protections of providence may be here intended by the two
defensive weapons, find by the Lord's standing up is meant his
active and zealous preservation of his servant in the perilous
hour. This poetic imagery shows how the Psalmist realised the
existence and power of God; and thought of him as a real and
actual personage, truly working for his afflicted.
Verse 3. "Draw out also the spear, and stop
the way against them that persecute me." Before the
enemy comes to close quarters the Lord can push them off as with
a long spear. To stave off trouble is no mean act of
lovingkindness. As when some valiant warrior with his lance
blocks up a defile, and keeps back a host until his weaker
brethren have made good their escape, so does the Lord often
hold the believer's foes at bay until the good man has taken
breath, or clean fled from his foes. He often gives the foes of
Zion some other work to do, and so gives rest to his church.
What a glorious idea is this of Jehovah blocking the way of
persecutors, holding them at the pike's end, and giving time for
the hunted saint to elude their pursuit! "Say unto my
soul, I am thy salvation." Besides holding off the
enemy the Lord can also calm the mind of his servant by express
assurance from his own mouth, that he is, and shall be, safe
under the Almighty wing. An inward persuasion of security in God
is of all things the most precious in the furnace of
persecution. One word from the Lord quiets all our fears.
Verse 4. "Let them be confounded and put to
shame that seek after my soul." There is nothing
malicious here, the slandered man simply craves for justice, and
the petition is natural and justifiable. Guided by God's good
spirit the Psalmist foretells the everlasting confusion of all
the haters of the righteous. Shameful disappointment shall be
the portion of the enemies of the gospel, nor would the most
tender-hearted Christian have it otherwise: viewing sinners as
men, we love them and seek their good, but regarding them as
enemies of God, we cannot think of them with anything but
detestation, and a loyal desire for the confusion of their
devices. No loyal subject can wish well to rebels. Squeamish
sentimentality may object to the strong language here used, but
in their hearts all good men wish confusion to mischief-makers.
Verse 5. "Let them be as chaff before
the wind." They were swift enough to attack, let them
be as swift to flee. Let their own fears and the alarms of their
consciences unman them so that the least breeze of trouble shall
carry them hither and thither. Ungodly men are worthless in
character, and light in their behaviour, being destitute of
solidity and fixedness; it is but just that those who make
themselves chaff should be treated as such. When this
imprecation is fulfilled in graceless men, they will find it an
awful thing to be for ever without rest, without peace of mind,
or stay of soul, hurried from fear to fear, and from misery to
misery. "And let the angel-of the Lord chase
them." Fallen angels shall haunt them, good angels
shall afflict them. To be pursued by avenging spirits will be
the lot of those who delight in persecution. Observe the whole
scene as the Psalmist sketches it: the furious foe is first held
at bay, then turned back, then driven to headlong flight, and
chased by fiery messengers from whom there is no escape, while
his pathway becomes dark and dangerous, and his destruction
overwhelming.
Verse 6. "Let their way be dark and
slippery." What terrors are gathered here! No light, no
foothold, and a fierce avenger at their heels! What a doom is
appointed for the enemies of God! They may rage and rave today,
but how altered will be their plight ere long! "And let
the angel of the Lord persecute them." He will follow
them hot-foot, as we say, never turning aside, but like a trusty
pursuivant serving the writ of vengeance upon them, and
arresting them in the name of unflinching justice. Woe, woe,
woe, unto those who touch the people of God; their destruction
is both swift and sure.
Verse 7. In this verse the Psalmist brings forward the
gravamen of his charge against the servants of the devil. "For
without cause"—without my having injured, assailed,
or provoked them; out of their own spontaneous malice "have
they hid for me their net in a pit," even as men hunt
for their game with cunning and deception. Innocent persons have
often been ruined by traps set for them, into which they have
fallen as guilelessly as beasts which stumble into concealed
pits, and are taken as in a net. It is no little thing to be
able to feel that the enmity which assails us is
undeserved—uncaused by any wilful offence on our part. Twice
does David assert in one verse that his adversaries plotted
against him "without cause." Net-making and
pit-digging require time and labour, and both of these the
wicked will expend cheerfully if they may but overthrow the
people of God. Fair warfare belongs to honourable men, but the
assailants of God's church prefer mean, ungenerous schemes, and
so prove their nature and their origin. We must all of us be on
our guard, for gins and pitfalls are still the favourite weapons
of the powers of evil.
Verse 8. "Let destruction come, upon him at
unawares." This tremendous imprecation is frequently
fulfilled. God's judgments are often sudden and signal. Death
enter the persecutor's house without pausing to knock at the
door. The thunderbolt of judgment leaps from its hiding-place,
and in one crash the wicked are broken for ever. "And
let his net that he hath hid catch himself: into that very
destruction let him fall." There is a lex talionis
with God which often works most wonderfully. Men set traps and
catch their own fingers. They throw up stones, and they fall
upon their own heads. How often Satan outwits himself, and burns
his fingers with his own coals! This will doubtless be one of
the aggravations of hell, that men will torment themselves with
what were once the fond devices of their rebellious minds. They
curse and are cursed; they kick the pricks and tear themselves;
they pour forth floods of fire, and it burns them within and
without.
Verse 9. "And my soul shall be joyful in the
Lord." Thus rescued, David ascribes all the honour to
the Judge of the right; to his own valorous arm he offers no
sacrifice of boasting. He turns away from his adversaries to his
God, and finds a deep unbroken joy in Jehovah, and in that joy
his spirit revels. "It shall rejoice in his
salvation." We do not triumph in the destruction of
others, but in the salvation given to us of God. Prayer heard
should always suggest praise. It were well if we were more
demonstrative in our holy rejoicings. We rob God by suppressing
grateful emotions.
Verse 10. As if the tongue were not enough to bless
God with, David makes every limb vocal—"All my bones
shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee?" His whole
anatomy he would make resonant with gratitude. Those bones which
were to have been broken by my enemies shall now praise God;
every one of them shall bring its tribute, ascribing unrivalled
excellence to Jehovah the Saviour of his people. Even if worn to
skin and bone, yet my very skeleton shall magnify the Lord, "which
deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea,
the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him." God
is the champion, the true knight-errant of all oppressed ones.
Where there is so much condescension, justice, kindness, power,
and compassion, the loftiest songs should be rendered. Come,
dear reader, have you not been delivered from sin, Satan, and
death, and will not you bless the Redeemer? You were poor and
weak, but in due time Christ sought you, and set you free. O
magnify the Lord today, and speak well of his name.
Verse 11. "False witnesses did rise up."
This is the old device of the ungodly, and we must not wonder if
it be used against us as against our Master. To please Saul,
there were always men to be found mean enough to impeach David. "they
laid to my charge things that I knew not." He had not
even a thought of sedition; he was loyal even to excess; yet
they accused him of conspiring against the Lord's anointed. He
was not only innocent, but ignorant of the fault alleged. It is
well when our hands are so clean that no trace of dirt is upon
them.
Verse 12. "They rewarded me evil for
good." This is devilish; but men have learned the
lesson well of the old Destroyer, and practise it most
perfectly. "To the spoiling of my soul." They
robbed him of comfort, and even would have taken his life had it
not been for special rescues from the hand of God. The wicked
would strip the righteous naked to their very soul: they know no
pity. There are only such limits to human malice as God himself
may see fit to place.
Verse 13. "But as for me, when they were sick,
my clothing was sackcloth." David had been a man of
sympathy; he had mourned when Saul was in ill health, putting on
the weeds of sorrow for him as though he were a near and dear
friend. His heart went into mourning for his sick master. "I
humbled my soul with fasting." He prayed for his enemy,
and made the sick man's case his own, pleading and confessing as
if his own personal sin had brought on the evil. This showed a
noble spirit in David, and greatly aggravated the baseness of
those who now so cruelly persecuted him. "And my prayer
returned into mine own bosom." Prayer is never lost: if
it bless not those for whom intercession is made, it shall bless
the intercessors. Clouds do not always descend in showers upon
the same spot from which the vapours ascended, but they come
down somewhere; and even so do supplications in some place or
other yield their showers of mercy. If our dove find no rest for
the sole of her foot among our enemies, it shall fly into our
bosoms and bring an olive branch of peace in its mouth. How
sharp is the contrast all through this Psalm between the
righteous and his enemies! We must be earnest to keep the line
of demarcation broad and clear.
Verse 14. "I behaved myself as though he had
been my friend or brother:" I waited on him
assiduously, comforted him affectionately, and sympathised with
him deeply. This may refer to those days when David played on
the harp, and chased away the evil spirit from Saul. "I
bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother. He
bowed his head as mourners do. The strongest natural grief was
such as he felt when they were in trouble. The mother usually
wins the deepest love, and her loss is most keenly felt; such
was David's grief. How few professors in these days have such
bowels of compassion; and yet under the gospel there should be
far more tender love than under the law. Had we more hearty love
to manhood, and care for its innumerable ills, we might be far
more useful; certainly we should be infinitely more Christ-like.
"He prayeth best that loveth best."
Verse 15. "But in mine adversity they
rejoiced." In my halting they were delighted. My
lameness was sport to them. Danger was near, and they sang songs
over my expected defeat. How glad are the wicked to see a good
man limp! "Now," say they, "he will meet with his
downfall." "And gathered themselves together,"
like kites and vultures around a dying sheep. They found a
common joy in my ruin, and a recreation in my sorrow, and
therefore met together to keep the feast. They laid their heads
together to devise, and their tongues to deceive. "Yea,
the abjects gathered themselves together against me."
Those who deserved horsewhipping, fellows the soles of whose
feet were needing the bastinado, came together to plot, and held
hole and corner meetings. Like curs around a sick lion, the mean
wretches taunted and insulted one whose name had been their
terror. The very cripples hobbled out to join the malicious
crew. How unanimous are the powers of evil; how heartily do men
serve the devil; and none decline his service because they are
not endowed with great abilities! "I knew it not."
It was all done behind my back. What a fluster the world may be
in, and the cause of it all may not even know that he has given
offence. "They did tear me, and ceased not." It
is such dainty work to tear to pieces a good man's character,
that when slanderers have their hand in they are loath to leave
off. A pack of dogs tearing their prey is nothing compared with
a set of malicious gossips mauling the reputation of a worthy
man. That lovers of the gospel are not at this time rent and
torn as in the old days of Mary, is to be attributed to the
providence of God rather than to the gentleness of men.
Verse 16. "With hypocritical mockers in
feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth." Like
professional buffoons who grin around the banquet to make sport,
so they made a business of jeering at the good man; not,
however, out of mirth, but from violent, insatiable hatred. Like
cake-scoffers, or men who will jeer for a bit of bread, these
hireling miscreants persecuted David in order to get a bellyful
for themselves from Saul's table: having moreover an inward
grudge against the son of Jesse because he was a better man than
themselves.
Very
forcibly might our Lord have used the words of these verses! Let
us not forget to see the Despised and Rejected of men here
painted to the life. Calvary and the ribald crew around the
cross seem brought before our eyes.
Verse 17. "Lord, how long wilt thou look on?"
Why be a mere spectator? Why so neglectful of thy servant? Art
thou indifferent? Carest thou not that we perish? We may thus
reason with the Lord. He permits us this familiarity. There is a
time for our salvation, but to our impatience it often seems to
be very slow in coming; yet wisdom has ordained the hour, and
nothing shall delay it. "Rescue my soul from their
destructions." From their many devices; their
multiplied assaults, be pleased to set me free. "My
darling," my lovely, only, precious soul, do thou
rescue "from the lions." His enemies were
fierce, cunning, and strong as young lions; God only could
deliver him from their jaws, to God he therefore addresses
himself.
Verse 18. "I will give thee thanks in the
great congregation." Notable deliverances must be
recorded, and their fame emblazoned. All the saints should be
informed of the Lord's goodness. The theme is worthy of the
largest assembly; the experience of a believer is a subject fit
for an assembled universe to hear of. Most men publish their
griefs, good men should proclaim their mercies. "I will
praise thee among much people." Among friends and foes
will I glorify the God of my salvation. Praise—personal
praise, public praise, perpetual praise—should be the daily
revenue of the King of heaven. Thus, for the second time,
David's prayer ends in praise, as indeed all prayer should.
Verse 19. He earnestly prays that as they have no
cause for their enmity, they may have no cause for triumph
either in his folly, sin, or overthrow. "Neither let
them wink with the eye that hale me without a cause."
The winking of the eye was the low-bred sign of congratulation
at the ruin of their victim, and it may also have been one of
their scornful gestures as they gazed upon him whom they
despised. To cause hatred is the mark of the wicked, to suffer
it causelessly is the lot of the righteous. God is the natural
Protector of all who are wronged, and he is the enemy of all
oppressors.
Verse 20. "For they speak not peace."
They love it not; how can they speak it? They are such troublers
themselves that they cannot judge others to be peaceable. Out of
the mouth comes what is in the heart. Riotous men charge others
with sedition. "They devise deceitful mailers against
them that are quiet in the land." David would fain have
been an orderly citizen, but they laboured to make him a rebel.
He could do nothing aright, all his dealings were
misrepresented. This is an old trick of the enemy to brand good
men with S.S on their cheeks, as sowers of sedition, though they
have ever been a harmless race, like sheep among wolves. When
mischief is meant, mischief is soon made. Unscrupulous partisans
could even charge Jesus with seeking to overturn Caesar, much
more will they thus accuse his household. At this very hour,
those who stand up for the crown rights of King Jesus are called
enemies of the church, favourers of Popery, friends of Atheists,
levellers, red republicans, and it were hard to say what
besides. Billingsgate and Babylon are in league.
Verse 21. "Yea, they opened their mouth wide
against me." As if they would swallow him. Uttering
great lies which needed wide mouths. They set no bounds to their
infamous charges, but poured out wholesale abuse, trusting that
if all did not stick, some of it would. "And said, Aha,
aha, our eye hath seen it." Glad to find out a fault or
a misfortune, or to swear they had seen evil where there was
none. Malice has but one eye; it is blind to all virtue in its
enemy. Eyes can generally see what hearts wish. A man with a
mote in his eye sees a spot in the sun. How like a man is to an
ass when he brays over another's misfortunes! how like to a
devil when he laughs a hyaena-laugh over a good man's slips!
Malice is folly, and when it holds a festival its tones and
gestures far exceed all the freaks and mummeries of the Lord of
misrule.
Verse 22. "This thou hast seen, O Lord."
Here is comfort. Our heavenly Father knows all our sorrow.
Omniscience is the saint's candle which never goes out. A father
will not long endure to see his child abused. Shall not God
avenge his own elect? "Keep not silence."
Rebuke thine enemies and mine, O Lord. A word will do it. Clear
my character, comfort my heart. "O Lord, be not far from
me." Walk the furnace with me. Stand in the pillory at
my side. The sweet presence of God is the divine cordial of the
persecuted; his painful absence would be their deepest misery.
Verse 23. "Stir up thyself." Be upon
thy mettle. Prove that thou art no indifferent witness to all
this infamy. "Awake to rail judgment." Take the
sceptre and summon the great assize; vindicate justice, avenge
oppression. Do not tarry as men do who sleep. "Even unto
my cause, my God and my Lord." He claims a nearness to
his God, he holds him with both hands; he leaves his case with
the righteous Judge. He begs that the suit may be brought on,
heard, tried, and verdict given. Well is it for a man when his
conscience is so clear that he dares to make such an appeal.
Verse 24. The appeal is here repeated; the plaintiff
feels that the joy of his accusers will be short-lived as soon
as impartial justice rules. The oppressors' wrong, the proud
man's contumely, the fool's grimace—all, all will cease when
the righteous Lord sits down upon the judgment seat.
Verse 25. "Let them not say in their hearts,
Ah, so would we have it: let them not say, We have swallowed him
up." Disappoint them of their prey when their mouths
are ready to swallow it. Saints are too dear a morsel for the
powers of evil; God will not give his sheep over to the wolfish
jaws of the persecutors. Just when they are tuning their pipes
to celebrate their victory, they shall be made to laugh on the
other side of their mouths. They are all too sure, and too
boastful; they reckon without their host: little do they dream
of the end which will be put to their scheming. Their bird shall
be flown, and they themselves shall be in the trap. The prayer
of this text is a promise. Even before the lips of the wicked
can frame a speech of exultation, they shall be disappointed;
their heart-speech shall be forestalled, their wishes
frustrated, their knavish tricks exposed.
Verse 26. Here is the eternal result of all the
laborious and crafty devices of the Lord's enemies. God will
make little of them, though they "magnified
themselves;" he will shame them for shaming his people,
bring them to confusion for making confusion, pull off their
fine apparel and give them a beggarly suit of dishonour, and
turn all their rejoicing into weeping and wailing, and gnashing
of teeth. Truly, the saints can afford to wait.
Verse 27. "Let them shout for joy, and be
glad, that favour my righteous cause." Even those who
could not render him active aid, but in their hearts favoured
him, David would have the Lord reward most abundantly. Men of
tender heart set great store by the good wishes and prayers of
the Lord's people. Jesus also prizes those whose hearts are with
his cause. The day is coming when shouts of victory shall be
raised by all who are on Christ's side, for the battle will
turn, and the foes of truth shall be routed. "Yea, let
them say continually, Let the Lord be magnified." He
would have their gladness contributory to the divine glory; they
are not to shout to David's praise, but for the honour of
Jehovah. Such acclamations may fitly be continued throughout
time and eternity. "Which hath pleasure in the
prosperity of his servant." They recognised David as
the Lord's servant, and saw with pleasure the Lord's favour to
him. We can have no nobler title than "servant of
God," and no greater reward than for our Master to delight
in our prosperity. What true prosperity may be we are not always
best able to judge. We must leave that in Jesus' hand; he will
not fail to rule all things for our highest good.
"For by his saints it stands confessed.
That what he does is always best."
Verse 28. Unceasing praise is here vowed to the just
and gracious God. From morning till evening the grateful tongue
would talk and sing, and glorify the Lord. O for such a resolve
carried out by us all!
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Whole Psalm. Bonar entitles this Psalm, "The
awful utterance of the Righteous One regarding those that hate
him without cause;" and he makes the following remarks
thereupon:—"Throughout the endless day of eternity the
Lord Jesus shall himself speak the Father's 'praise,' and shall
put marked emphasis on his 'righteousness'—that
righteousness which shall have been exhibited, both in the doom
of those who hated the offered Redeemer, and in the salvation of
those who received him. There is nothing in all this wherein his
own may not fully join, especially on that day when their views
of justice shall be far clearer and fuller than now. On that day
we shall be able to understand how Samuel could hew Agag in
pieces, and the godly hosts of Israel slay utterly in Canaan man
and woman and child, at God's command. We shall be able, not
only fully to agree in the doom, 'Let them be confounded,' etc.,
but even to sing, 'Amen, Hallelujah,' over the smoke of torment.
Rev. 19:1, 2. We should in some measure now be able to use every
verse of this Psalm in the spirit in which the Judge
speaks it, we feeling ourselves his assessors in judging the
world. 1Cor. 6:2. We shall, at all events, be able to use it on
that day when what is written here shall be all
accomplished."—Andrew A. Bonar.
Verse 1. "Plead my cause, O God, with them
that strive with me." 1. Doth the world condemn thee
for thy zeal in the service of God? Reproachfully scorn thee for
thy care to maintain good works? not blush to traduce thee with
imputations of preciseness, conceited singularity, pharisaical
hypocrisy? Oh but if thy conscience condemn thee not all this
while, if that be rectified by the sacred word of God, if thou
aim at his glory in pursuing thine own salvation, and side not
with the disturbers of the church, go on, good Christian, in the
practice of piety, discourage not thyself in thy laudable
endeavours, but recount with comfort that the Lord is thy judge
(1Cor. 4:4), with a scio cui crediderim, "I know
whom I have believed." 2Tim. 1:12.
2.
Art thou wrongfully adjudged in the erroneous courts of men? are
truth and righteousness gone aside from their proper places? Is
equity neglected, and poverty overlaid? Well, have patience
awhile, cheer up thy fainting spirits, there is a God that
beholdeth the innocency of thy cause, unto whom thou hast
liberty to make thy last appeal: "Plead my cause, O
Lord, with them that strive with me: fight against them that
fight against me." Or,
3.
Art thou otherwise injured by the hands of malicious men? and
doth a penurious estate disable thee to sue for amends? Doth a Nimrod
oppress thee? A Laban defraud thee? A covetous landlord
gripe thee? Well, yet take not the matter into thine own hands
by attempting unlawful courses; presume not to be judge in thine
own cause, for default of a present redress; but often remember
what the apostle taught his Thessalonians: "It is a
righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that
trouble you."—Isaac Craven's Sermon at Paul's Cross,
1630.
Verse 1. "Plead," etc. More
literally, litigate, O Lord, with them that litigate
against me, contend against them that contend with me; i.e.,
avenge me of mine adversaries.—Daniel Cresswell, D.D.,
F.R.S., in "The Psalms of David according to the Book of
Common Prayer: with Critical and Explanatory Notes,"
1843.
Verse 2. "Shield and buckler." The
word rendered "shield" is in the Hebrew text
מגן, magen, which was a short buckler
intended merely for defence. The word rendered "buckler"
is עגּה tsinnah; it was double
the weight of the magen, and was carried by the infantry;
the magen, being lighter and more manageable, was used by
the cavalry. The tsinnah answered to the scutum,
and the magen to the clypeus, among the Romans.
The word tsinnah, means that kind of shield from the
middle of which there arose a large boss, surmounted by a
dagger, and which was highly useful both as a defensive and an
offensive weapon in ancient warfare.—James Anderson, note
to Calvin in loc.
Verse 3. "Draw out the spear, and stop the
way." The spear in the days of Saul and David was a
favourite weapon. (See 1 Chron. 11). A valiant man bravely
defending a narrow pass might simply with his lance keep back a
pursuing host, and give time for his friends to escape. Very
remarkable were the feats of valour of this sort performed in
Oriental warfare. David would have his God become his heroic
defender, making his enemies pause.—C. H. S.
Verse 3. "Draw out;" or, as the
Hebrew phrase is, empty, that is unsheath the like
is of the sword. Exod. 15:9; Levit. 26:33.—Henry
Ainsworth.
Verse 3. "Say unto my soul, I am thy
salvation." Observe, 1. That salvation may be made sure
to a man. David would never pray for that which could not be.
Nor would Peter charge us with a duty which stood not in
possibility to be performed. 2Pet. 1:10. "Make your
election sure." And to stop the bawling throats of all
cavilling adversaries, Paul directly proves it: "Know ye
not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye
be reprobates?" 2 Cor. 13:5. We may then know that Christ
is in us. If Christ be in us, we are in Christ; if we be in
Christ, we cannot be condemned, for (Rom. 8:1) "There is no
damnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." But I leave
this point that it may be sure, as granted; and come to
ourselves that we may make it sure. The Papists deny this, and
teach the contrary, that salvation cannot be made sure; much
good do it them, with their sorry and heartless doctrine! If
they make that impossible to any which God hath made easy for
many, "into their secret let not my soul come." Gen.
49:6. Observe, 2. That the best saints have desired to make
their salvation sure. David that knew it, yet entreats to know
it more. "I know thou favourest me" (Psalm 41:11); yet
here still, dic animae, "Say unto my soul, I am thy
salvation." A man can never be too sure of his going to
heaven.—Thomas Adams.
Verse 3. "Say unto my soul."
1.
God may speak with his own voice; and thus he gave
assurance to Abraham, "Fear not, I am thy shield, and thy
exceeding great reward." Gen. 15:1. If God speak comfort,
let hell roar horror.
2.
He may speak by his works: actual mercies to us
demonstrate that we are in his favour, and shall not be
condemned. "By this I know that thou favourest me, because
mine enemy doth not triumph over me."
3.
He may speak by his Son. "Come unto me, all ye that
labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
Matt. 11:28.
4.
He may speak by his Scripture; this is God's epistle to
us, and his letters patent, wherein are granted to us all the
privileges of salvation. A universal si quis;
"Whosoever believes, and is baptised, shall be saved."
5.
He may speak by his ministers, to whom he hath given
"the ministry of reconciliation." 2 Cor. 5:19.
6.
He doth speak this by his Spirit: he "sendeth forth
the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba,
Father." Gal. 4:6.
By
all these voices God says to his elect, "I am your
salvation." . . ."My." There is no
vexation to the vexation of the soul; so no consolation to the
consolation of the soul . . .. Let this teach us to make much of
this "My." Luther says there is great divinity
in pronouns. The assurance that God will save some is a faith
incident to devils. The very reprobates may believe that there
is a book of election; but God never told them that their names
were written there. The hungry beggar at the feast-house gate
smells good cheer, but the master doth not say, "This is
provided for thee." It is small comfort to the harbourless
wretch to pass through a goodly city, and see many glorious
buildings, when he cannot say, Haec mea domus, I have a
place here. The beauty of that excellent city Jerusalem, built
with sapphires, emeralds, chrysolites, and such precious stones,
the foundation and walls whereof are perfect gold (Rev. 21),
affords a soul no comfort, unless he can say, Mea civitas,
I have a mansion in it. The all-sufficient merits of Christ do
thee no good, unless, tua pars et portio, he be thy
Saviour. Happy soul that can say with the Psalmist, "O
Lord, thou art my portion!" Let us all have oil in our
lamps, lest if we be then to buy, beg, or borrow, we be shutout
of doors like the fools, not worthy of entrance. Pray, "Lord,
say unto my soul, I am thy salvation." . . . Who? What?
To whom? When? Who? The Lord! To the Lord David prays. He
hath made a good choice, for there is salvation in none other.
"Thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help."
Hos. 13:9. The world fails, the flesh fails, the devil kills.
Only the Lord saves what? Salvation. A special good thing; every
man's desire. I will give thee a lordship, saith God to Esau. I
will give thee a kingdom, saith God to Saul. I will give thee an
apostleship, saith God to Judas. But, I will be thy salvation,
he says to David, and to none but saints. To whom? "My
salvation." Not others only, but "thine."
A man and a Christian are two creatures. He may be a man that
hath reason and outward blessings; he is only a Christian that
hath faith, and part in the salvation of Christ. God is
plentiful salvation, but it is not ordinary to find a cui—to
whom. Much of heaven is lost for lack of a hand to apprehend it
when? In the present, "I am." Sum, non
sufficit quod ero. It is comfort to Israel in captivity that
God says, Ero tua redemptio, I will redeem thee; but the
assurance that quiets the conscience is this, "I am thy
salvation." As God said to Abraham, "Fear not, I
am with thee." Deferred hope faints the heart. Whatsoever
God forbears to assure us of, oh, pray we him not to delay this,
"Lord, say to our souls, I am your
salvation."—Condensed from Thomas Adams.
Verse 4. "Let them be confounded and put to
shame." Here David beginneth his imprecations, which
yet, saith Theodoret, he doth not utter as cursing, but as
prophesying rather. If we shall at any time take upon us thus to
imprecate (as we may in some cases), we must see to it, first,
that our cause be good; secondly, that we do it not out of
private revenge, but merely for the glory of God; thirdly, that
we utter not a syllable this way, but by the guidance of God's
good Spirit.—John Trapp.
Verses 4-8, 26. How are we to account for such prayers
for vengeance? We find them chiefly in four Psalms, the seventh,
thirty-fifth, sixty-ninth, and one-hundred and ninth, and the
imprecations in these for in a terrible climax. In the last no
less than thirty anathemas have been counted. Are these the mere
outbursts of passionate and unsanctified feeling, or are they
the legitimate expression of a righteous indignation? Are they
to be excused as being animated by the "spirit of
Elias?" a spirit not unholy indeed, but far removed from
the meekness and gentleness of Christ; or are they the
stereotyped forms in which the spirit of devotion may utter
itself? Are they Jewish only, or may they be Christian also? An
uninstructed fastidiousness, it is well known, has made many
persons recoil from reading these Psalms at all. Many have found
their lips falter when they have been called to join in using
them in the congregation, and have either uttered them with
bated breath and doubting heart, or have interpreted them in a
sense witlely at variance with the letter. Some have tried to
reconcile them with a more enlightened conscience, by regarding
such words not as the expression of a wish, but as the utterance
of a prediction; the Hebrew optative, which is distinct enough
from the simple future, absolutely forbids this expedient.
Others again would see in them expressions which may lawfully be
used in the soul's wrestling against spiritual enemies. And
finally, some would defend them as utterances of righteous zeal
for God's honour, and remind us that if we do not sympathise
with such zeal, it may be not because our religion is more pure,
but because our hearts are colder.
Now
the real source of the difficulty lies in our not observing and
bearing in mind the essential difference between the Old
Testament and the New. The older dispensation was in every sense
a sterner one than the new. The spirit of Elias, though not an
evil spirit, was not the spirit of Christ. "The Son of Man
came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them." Luke
9:56. And through him his disciples are made partakers of the
same spirit. But this was not the spirit of the older economy.
The Jewish nation had been trained in a sterner school. It had
been steeled and hardened by the discipline which had pledged it
to a war of extermination with idolaters: and however necessary
such a discipline might be, it would not tend to foster the
gentler virtues; it is conceivable how even a righteous man,
under it, feeling it to be his bounden duty to root out evil
wherever he saw it, and identifying, as he did, his own enemies
with the enemies of Jehovah, might use language which to us
appears unnecessarily vindictive. To men so trained and taught,
what we call "religious toleration," was a thing not
only wrong, but absolutely inconceivable.
It
may be quite true that we find revenge forbidden as directly in
the Old Testament as in the New, as, for instance, in Lev.
19:18, "Thou shalt not avenge," etc., though even
there there is a limitation, "against the children of thy
people." And it maybe no less true that we find instances
of imprecation in the New; as when St. Paul says (2 Tim. 4:14),
"Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil; the Lord
reward him according to his works," or when he exclaims
(Acts 23:3), "God will smite thee, thou whited wall;"
or, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be
anathema." But even these expressions are very different
from the varied, deliberate, carefully-constructed, detailed
anathemas of the Psalms. And our Lord's denunciations, to which
Hengstenberg refers, are in no way parallel. They are not curses
upon individuals, but in fact solemn utterances of the great
truth, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise
perish." But after all, whatever may be said of particular
passages, the general tone which runs through the two covenants,
is unquestionably different. To deny this is not to honour
Moses, but to dishonour Christ. Matt. 5:43; Matt. 19:8. On the
other hand, we must not forget that these imprecations are not
the passionate longing for personal revenge. The singer
undoubtedly sees in his enemies the enemies of God and his
church. They that are not with him are against God. And because
the zeal of God's house even consumes him, he prays that all the
doers of iniquity may be rooted out. The indignation therefore
is righteous, though it may appear to us wrongly directed, or
excessive in its utterance.
Once
more, the very fact that a dark cloud hid God's judgment in the
world to come from the view of the Old Testament saints, may be
alleged in excuse of this their desire to see him take vengeance
on his enemies here. How deeply the problem of God's
righteousness exercised their minds, is abundantly evident from
numerous places in the Psalms. They longed to see that
righteousness manifested. It could be manifested, they thought,
only in the evident exaltation of the righteous, and the evident
destruction of the wicked here. Hence, with their eye always
fixed on temporal recompense, they could even wish and pray for
the destruction of the ungodly. The awful things of the world to
come were to a great extent hid from their eyes. Could they have
seen these, then surely their prayer would have been not,
"Let the angel of the Lord persecute them," "Blot
them out of thy book;" but rather with him who hung upon
the cross; "Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do."—J. J. Stewart Perowne.
Verses 4, 8, 26. David was about as devoid of
vindictiveness as any public character who can well be named.
His conduct in relation to Saul, from first to last displayed a
singularly noble spirit, far removed from anything like the lust
of vengeance; and the meekness with which he endured the bitter
reproaches of Shimei, bore witness to the same spirit after his
accession to the throne. . . . . . .
When
David's whole career is intelligently and fairly reviewed, it
leaves on the mind the impression of a man possessed of as meek
and placable a temper as was ever associated with so great
strength of will, and such strong passions. Even in the heats of
sudden resentment, he was not apt to be hurried into deeds of
revenge. Such being the case, it would certainly have been a
strange and unaccountable thing if he had shown himself less the
master of his own spirit in unaccountable thing if he had shown
himself less the master of his own spirit in poems composed in
season of retirement and communion with God, especially since
these very poems express a keen sense of the heinousness of the
sin that has been laid to his charge. He can affirm regarding
his implacable enemies, "As for me, when they were sick, my
clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my
prayer returned into mine own bosom. I behaved myself as though
he had been my friend or brother' I bowed down heavily, as one
that mourneth for his mother." Psalm 35:13, Psalm 35:14.
"O Lord, my God, if I have done this; if there be iniquity
in my hands; if I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace
with me (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine
enemy): let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let
him tread down my life upon the earth." Psalm 7:3-5. Surely
one ought to think twice before putting on the imprecations an
interpretation which would make them utterly incongruous with
these appeals, uttered almost in the same breath.—William
Binnie, D.D.
Verse 5. "As chaff." Literally,
"As the thistledown."—John Morison.
Verse 6. "Let their way be dark and
slippery." A horrible way! Darkness alone who feareth
not? A slippery way alone who avoids not? In a dark and slippery
way, how shalt thou go? where set foot? These two ills are the
great punishments of men-darkness, ignorance; a slippery way,
luxury. "Let their way be darkness and slipping; and let
the angel of the Lord persecute them," that they be not
able to stand. For anyone in a dark and slippery way, when he
seeth that if he move his foot he will fall, and there is no
light before his feet, haply resolving to wait until light come;
but here is the angel of the Lord persecuting them.—Augustine.
Verse 6. "Slippery." Margin, as in
Heb., slipperiness. This is a circumstance which adds
increased terror to the image. It is not only a dark
road, but a road made slippery by rains; a road where they are
in danger every moment of sliding down a precipice where they
will be destroyed.—Albert Barnes.
Verse 7. "They hid for me their net in a
pit." As if David had said that they had dug a pit, and
covered and hid its mouth with a net, that I might pass upon it
and fall into it.—Kimchi.
Verse 8. "Let destruction come upon him at
unawares." Or a storm, such as is caused in the
Eastern countries by a south wind, very sudden, violent, and
destructive.—John Gill.
Verse 8. "Let his net that he hath hid catch
himself: into that very destruction let him fall." By
giving Ahithophel rope enough, the Lord preserved David from
perishing. Who will not admire that Goliath should be slain with
his own sword, and that proud Haman should hold Mordecai's
stirrup, and be the herald of his honour? The wicked shall be
undone by their own doings; all the arrows that they shoot at
the righteous shall fall upon their own pates. Maxentius built a
false bridge to drown Constantine, but was drowned himself.
Henry the Third of France was stabbed in the very same chamber
where he had helped to contrive the cruel massacre of the French
Protestants. And his brother, Charles the Ninth, who delighted
in the blood of the saints, had blood given him to drink, for he
was worthy. It is usual with God to take persecutors in the
snares and pits that they have laid for his people, as many
thousands in this nation have experienced; and though Rome and
her confederates are this day a-laying of snares and traps and
a-digging of pits for the righteous, who will rather burn than
bow to their Baal, yet do but wait and weep, and weep and wait a
little, and you shall see that the Lord will take them in the
very snares and pits that they have laid and digged for his
people.—Condensed from Thomas Brooks.
Verse 8. "Let his net that he hath hid catch
himself." Thou fool, who opposest thy counsels to those
of the Most High. He who devises evil for another, falls at last
into his own pit, and the most cunning finds himself caught by
what he had prepared for another. But virtue without guile,
erect like the lofty palm, rises with greater rigour when it is
oppressed.—Pietro Metastasio, 1698-1782.
Verse 9. "And my soul shall be joyful in the
Lord," etc. While some ascribe to fortune, and others
to their own skill, the praise of their deliverance from danger,
and few, if any, yield the whole praise of it to God, David here
declares that he will not forget the favour which God had
bestowed upon him. My soul, says he, shall rejoice, not in a
deliverance of the author of which it is ignorant, but in the
salvation of God. To place the matter in a still stronger light,
he assigns to his very bones the office of declaring the divine
glory. As if not content that his tongue should be employed in
this, he applies all the members of his body to the work of
setting forth the praises of God. The style of speaking which he
employs is hyperbolical, but in this way he shows unfeignedly
that his love to God was so strong that he desired to spend his
sinews and bones in declaring the reality and truth of his
devotion.—John Calvin.
Verse 10. "All my bones," etc. These
words contain the most vivid description of the highest delight
which by the whole soul and body should be experienced and
openly manifested. He mentions his soul (Psa—35:9) and all his
bones as about to take part in the joy, to indicate that he most
heartily and with his whole body was about to rejoice, and that
the joy which he would manifest would not be of an ordinary
character, but of the highest order, so that each several bone
should sing forth the praises of God.—Hermon Venema,
1697-1787.
Verse 10. "All my bones." In the
Scriptures emotions are generally ascribed to the viscera, the
bones are usually regarded as passive; in this place and Psa—51:8,
and in these two places only, exulting joy is attributed to the
bones. Ordinary experience shows us that the intestines have
sympathy with our passionate excitements, but we have no
consciousness of the bones becoming sympathetically sensitive.
The expression therefore is highly poetical, and indicates that
the joy intended would be far beyond ordinary and common
delight; it would be so profound that even the most callous part
of the human frame would partake of it. Doubtless the poetry has
a basis of truth in it, for though we may not perceive it, there
is most assuredly a true and real sympathy with our mental
states in every particle of bone and muscle, as well as in those
tender organs which are more apparently affected.—C. H. S.
Thoughts suggested by a passage in "Biblical
Psychology," by Franz Delitzsch.
Verse 10. "All my bones." That is,
whatsoever strength and rigour is in me it shall be spent in
celebrating thy praises. Or, although I have nothing left me but
skin and bones, so poor am I grown, yet I will not be wanting to
the work.—John Trapp.
Verse 10. My bones are riving through my skin, and yet
all my bones are praising him. "I said, I am cast out of
thy sight, but I will look again towards thy holy
temple."—Thomas Halyburton, 1674-1711.
Verse 11. "They laid to my charge things that
I knew not." You will say, Why does God permit wicked
people to lay to the charge of the godly such things as they are
clear of? God if he pleased could prevent it, and stop the
mouths of the wicked, that they should not be able to speak
against his children? Answer—As all things work for the best
to them that love God, so this works for the good of God's
people. God doth permit it for the good of his people, and thus
he frustrates the hopes of the wicked: they intend evil against
the godly, and God disposes of it for good. As Joseph said to
his brethren, "You intended evil against me, and God
disposed of it for good;" so we may say to such as falsely
slander God's people, You intended evil against the people of
God, but God disposes of it for good. There is a fivefold good
that God brings out of it to his people.
First,
God doth by this means humble them, and brings them to examine
what is amiss; so that though they be clear of that crime laid
to their charge, yet they will then examine whether there be
nothing else amiss betwixt God and them; they will search their
hearts, and walk more humbly, and cleave more close to the Lord.
Secondly,
God doth by this means bring them oftener upon their knees, to
seek unto him, to plead their cause, and to clear their
innocency. How oft did the prophet speak unto God when the
wicked did falsely accuse him; how did he make his moan at the
throne of grace unto God, beseeching him to plead his cause, and
to keep him close in his way, that the wicked might not rejoice
at his downfall! So when God's people see that it is that which
the wicked would have, that which is their joy, to see the godly
fall into such and such a sin; then the godly will pray more
earnestly with David, Lord, lead me in a right path because of
my observers; then they will be earnest with God to keep them
from falling into that sin that the wicked desire they might
fall into; and this is a second good that comes of it.
Thirdly,
God doth use the reproach of the wicked as a preventing medicine
against that crime which the wicked lay to their charge. The
godly have unrenewed nature as well as renewed, and if God
should leave them never so little to themselves, they are not
their own keepers, they might fall into that sin which the
wicked lay to their charge: and every godly man and woman may
say when they are falsely accused, It is God's mercy that I did
not fall into that sin that lay to my charge. God doth use
wicked people's tongues as a warning against such a sin, that
when they see how the wicked joy at a brat of their own
hatching, then they consider, if the wicked thus joy without a
cause, what would they do if they had just cause? Well, by the
help of God this shall be a warning to me for ever to watch
against that sin: for the time to come I will pray more against
that particular sin than I have done, and watch more against
that sin than I have done; through God's help they shall never
have occasion to rejoice over me in that kind. Truly, I verily
believe many a child of God can say by experience, I never
should have prayed and watched against such a sin so much, had
not God used the tongues of the wicked as preventing physic: I
knew not my own heart, but that I might have fallen into such
and such a sift had not God by this means hedged up my way with
thorns; and this is the third good comes of it.
Fourthly,
God doth by this means exercise the graces of his people by
letting them undergo bad report as well as good report: he tries
whether they will cleave close to him in all conditions, as
Psalm 44:15-17.
Fifthly,
God doth by this means teach them how to judge of others when
they are falsely accused. For the time to come they will not
receive a false report against their neighbour; they will know
the truth of a thing before they believe it, and they know how
to comfort others in the like condition; and thus God disposes
of it for good, and thus God makes the wicked the servant of his
people in that very thing which the wicked think to wrong them
most in; for he uses the wicked as the rod and wisp, to scour
off the rust of their graces and to correct their security; and
when the rod hath done its office then it is thrown into the
fire: and thus you see how God disposes of the wicked's false
accusations of his people for good.—Zephaniah Smyth's
Sermon, "The Malignant's Plot," 1647.
Verse 12. "They rewarded me evil for
good." For the good David did in killing Goliath, and
slaying his ten thousands of the Philistines, and thereby saving
his king and country, Saul and his courtiers envied him, and
sought to slay him; so our Lord Jesus Christ, for all the good
he did to the Jews, by healing their bodies of diseases, and
preaching the gospel to them for the benefit of their souls, was
rewarded with reproaches and persecutions, and at last with the
shameful death of the cross; and in like manner are his people
used, but this is an evil that shall not go unpunished; see Prov.
17:13.—John Gill.
Verse 12. "To the spoiling of my soul."
They robbed not his body of goods but his soul of consolation.
They bereaved his soul (that is the word), like a widow who
loses her children in whom she delighted and found succour. They
were not content with injuring his estate, but they were for
ruining the man himself by their undeserved malice, they
attacked him in name and reputation, which were as dear to him
as his sons and daughters, or even as his soul. It is evermore
an injury to the soul to be attacked with slander, it puts a man
into a warring attitude, endangers his peace of mind, imperils
his enjoyment of quiet contemplation, and tends to interrupt his
communion with God. Thus the spiritual nature is despoiled and
suffers bereavement.—C. H. S.
Verse 13. "My prayer returned into, or was
directed to, my bosom." Of the many interpretations
that are given of this passage, that appears to me the most
probable which derives it from the posture of the worshipper;
who standing with his head inclined downward toward his bosom,
turned away his attention from all external objects, and uttered
his mournful and earnest requests, as if they were directed to
his own bosom. Such a posture of devotion is in use both among
Jews and Mohammedans.—Koehler in Reporter. Lit. Orient.;
and Reland de Relig. Mohammedica, quoted by Walford in loc.
Verse 13. (last clause) We may read it thus: Let my
prayer return into my bosom; that is, I wished no worse to
them than to myself: let me receive of God such good as I prayed
for them. See Psa—79:12.—Henry Ainsworth.
Verse 14. "For his mother." On
account of the plurality of wives in an Eastern household, the
sons are usually far more attached to their mother than their
father. Their father they share with a numerous band of
half-brothers, who are envious of them, or of whom they are
jealous, but their mother is all their own, with her they are
brought up in childhood; she takes their part in youth, in the
numerous battles of the harem; and on their part when they are
grown up, they love her intensely, and hence their mourning at
her decease is of the bitterest kind.—C.H.S.
Verse 14. "His mother." Mahomet was
once asked what relation had the strongest claim upon our
affection and respect; when he instantly replied, "The
mother, the mother, the mother."
Verse 14. (last clause). Bewaileth his mother:
mourneth at her funeral. In this case the affections are
most strong. Therefore the priests were permitted to mourn for
such. Lev. 21:1, Lev. 21:2, Lev. 21:3.—Henry Ainsworth.
Verse 15. "But in mine adversity they
rejoiced," etc.—Do not glory in your neighbour's
ruins. The fire-fly leaps and dances in the fire, and so do many
wicked men rejoice in the sufferings of others. Such as rejoice
in the sufferings of others are sick of the devil's disease; but
from that disease the Lord deliver all your souls. 'Tis sad to
insult over those whom God hath humbled; 'tis high wickedness to
triumph over those to whom God hath given a cup of astonishment
to drink. Such as make the desolations of their neighbours to be
the matter either of their secret repast, or open exultation,
such may fear that the very dregs of divine wrath are reserved
for them. 'Tis bad playing upon the harp because others have
been put to hang their harps upon the willows. We must not pray
with him in the tragedy, but it may rain calamities; nor with
Clemens' Gnostic, Give me calamities that I may glory in them.
There cannot be a greater evidence of a wicked heart, than for a
man to be merry because others are in misery. "He that is
glad at calamities (that is, at the calamities of others) shall
not be unpunished." Prov. 17:5. If God be God, such as
congratulate our miseries instead of condoling them, shall be
sure to be punished with the worst of punishments; for such do
not only sin against the law of grace, but also against the very
law of nature; the law of nature teaching men to sympathise with
those that are in misery, and not to rejoice over them because
of their miseries. O, sirs, do not make others' mourning your
music, do not make others' tears your wine; as you would not be
made drunk at last with the wine of astonishment.—Thomas
Brooks.
Verse 15. "But in mine adversity they
rejoiced," etc. Marvellous prophecy of the cross!
second only, if indeed second, to that in the twenty-second
Psalm. Still closer to the history if we take the Vulgate: the
scourges were gathered together upon me. Even so, O
Lord Jesus, the ploughers ploughed upon thy back, and made long
furrows: precious furrows for us, where are sown patience for
the present life, and glory in the next; where are sown hope
that maketh not ashamed, and love that many waters cannot
quench. "The very abjects." Even those worst of
abjects, who said, "God, I thank thee that I am not as
other men are;" who had set the poor sinner before the
Lord, with their "Moses in the law commanded that such
should be stoned." "Making mouths at me."
And is it not wonderful that, well knowing the prophecy, yet the
chief priests and scribes should have so fulfilled it, as that
it should be written concerning them. "They that passed by
mocked him, wagging their heads"?—Lewis de Grenada,
1504-1588.
Verse 15. "In mine adversity they
rejoiced." Now, as men often relent at seeing the
misfortunes of their enemies, so that they cease to hate or
persecute those who are already miserably wretched, it was all
evidence of the very cruel and fierce spirit by which David's
former friends were actuated against him, when, upon seeing him
cast down and afflicted, they were rather by this incited
furiously and insolently to assail him.—John Calvin.
Verse 15. "The abjects." The very abjects
(Prayer Book Version). The Hebrew word Nechim, thus
translated, comes from a verb signifying to be smitten.
Hence, in the Septuagint it is rendered scourges. But it
may also be rendered, with Jerome, smiters, and may mean smitten
with the tongue. Com. Jer—18:18. Another of its meanings
is, according to Buxtorf, the wry-legged, the lame; and
so it is used in 2Sa—4:4; 2Sa—9:3; whence the epithet of Necho
was given to one of the Pharaohs who halted in his gait. Our
translators seem to have understood the word in this last sense,
as a term of contempt.—Daniel Cresswell.
Verse 15. David, having showed how compassionate he
was to his enemies in their affliction (Psa—35:14), he
presently shows (Psa—35:15), how incompassionate, or
barbarously cruel rather, his enemies were to him in his. "Abjects"
are vile persons, men smitten in their estates and credits; yea,
often as slaves or ill servants smitten with cudgels or whips.
So a learned translator renders the Psalm, The smitten
gathered against me; that is, vile men who deserve to be
beaten and cudgelled.—Joseph Caryl.
Verse 16. "With hypocritical mockers in
feasts." Some cannot be merry, but it must be with
Scripture; if they want a little diversion, the saints must be
the subject of their discourse! they can vent their profane
jests upon the word of God; this is their pastime over their
cups upon the ale-bench. How ready they are with their
contumelious reflections; they have learnt their father's
dialect, they are accusers of the brethren, their speech bewrays
them to be Hellians. You know that in ordinary, we can tell what
countryman a person is by his speech, every country having
almost a peculiar idiom; so it is here, these scoffers at
religion by speaking the language of hell, let us understand
whence they are. They have, it may be, a little wit, which they
set off with a sort of an air in rhetorical raillery, and oh,
how quick and sharp when they are upon this subject! These
scoffing Ishmaelites are seated in the devil's chair, somewhat
above their brethren in iniquity, as most deserving the place;
and there is less ground to hope that such persons will be
savingly wrought upon who arrive to such a height in sin as to
make a mock of it, and to sport with holiness, than of others.
Persons are got a great way towards hell when they mock at what
is serious, and that with delight. This the Lord will visit for
in his due time; for he knows who they are that so dishonour him
by reproaching them that are his.—Oliver Heftwood.
Verse 16. "Hypocritical mockers in
feasts." בּהגפי
לעגי מעוג Very
difficult. The word מעוג, in 1 Kings
17:12, the only other passage where it occurs, means "a
cake." Hence לעגי
מעוג is interpreted by Gesenius and
other to mean, hangers-on at the tables of the rich (lit.
"cake-mockers") whose business it was, by witticisms
and buffoonery to make entertainment for the guests, and who got
their dinner in return, like the Gr
ψωμοκόλακες,
κνισοκόλακες,
and the Medieval Lat buccellarii. Then the words would
mean, "Amongst the profanest."—J. J. Stewart
Perowne. (Would not our word loafers be somewhat
analogous to these cake-eaters of antiquity!)—C. H. S.
Verse 16. "Hypocritical mockers."
David aggravates the sin of those jeering companions who made
him their table-talk, and could not taste their cheer except
seasoned with some salt jest quibbled out at him, with this,
that they were "hypocritical mockers;" they did
it slily, and wrapped up their scoffs, it is like in such
language as might make some think, who did not well observe
them, that they applauded him. There is a way of commending
which some have learned to use when they mean to cast the
greatest scorn upon those they hate bitterly, and these
hypocritical mockers deserve the chair to be given them from all
other scorners.—William Gurnall.
Verse 16. "Mockers in feasts." If it
were known at a feast that there was any one present or absent,
whom the host disliked, it was customary for the guests to
"make fun of them," and use sarcastic language
respecting them. These are the "hypocritical mockers in
feasts."—John Gadsby.
Verse 17. Satan no sooner spies our wanderings, but he
presently runs with a complaint to God, filing bills against us
in the star-chamber of heaven, where the matter would go hard
with us, but for the Great Lord Chancellor of peace, our
Advocate Jesus Christ. As God keeps all our tears in a bottle,
and registereth the very groans of our holy passion in a book,
so Satan keeps a record of our sins, and solicits justice
against us. Were God like man, subject to passions, or
incensible by the suggestions of the common barrator, woe were
us. But he will hear one son of truth before ten thousand
fathers of lying. No matter what the plaintiff libelleth, when
the judge acquitteth. We have forfeited our estates by treason,
and the busy devil begs us; but there is one that steps in, and
pleads a former grant, and that both by promise and purchase. "Lord,
rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling from the
lions." Lord Jesus, challenge thine own; let not Satan
enter upon by force or fraud, what thou hast bought with thine
own blood.—Thomas Adams.
Verse 17. "My darling." In Poole's
Synopsis the critics explain this name for the soul, as my only
one, my solitary one, desolate, deserted, and destitute of human
hope. Such is the soul under sore affliction. See Psa—22:21. "From
the lions." Daniel in the den was literally where David
was spiritually. Shut in among fierce, cruel, and angry
creatures, and himself defenceless, having no weapon but prayer,
no helper but the Lord. The people of God may be exposed to the
lions of hell, and their roarings may grievously affright them;
but the soul which is their "darling" is also God's
dear one, and therefore they shall be rescued.—C.H.S.
Verse 19. "Wink with the eye."
Showing pleasure in their eyes because of my evil.—Francis
Vatablus. 1545.
Verse 19. "Wink the eye." This was a
sign which malicious persons made to each other when the object
of their malice was gained, scornfully twisting their eyes
together. The Hebrew word here has no sufficiently expressive
substitute in English.—Benjamin Weiss.
Verse 21. "Our eye hath seen." Eye
for eyes, unless we would say that all the wicked are so
conjoined, that they may seem to have but one eye, heart,
head.—John Trapp.
Verse 21. Yet, O ye saints, divulge not these things
to wicked men; whisper them softly one to another, with fear and
trembling, lest some profane wretch or other overhear you, and
take that for encouragement that was only meant for caution.
What is more common than for the vilest sinners to plead for
their excuse, or warrant rather, the foul miscarriages of God's
dearest saints? Thus the drunkard looks upon holy Noah as a
pot-companion, whereby he discovers his nakedness in a worse
sense than ever Cham did; and thus the unclean sensualist quotes
David, and calls him in to be the patron of his debauchery.
Certainly, if there be any grief that can overcast the perfect
joys of the saints in heaven, it is that their names and
examples should, to the great dishonour of God, be produced by
wicked and sinful men, to countenance their grossest sins and
wickednesses. But let such know, that God hath set up these in
his church to be monuments of his mercy, to declare to humble
and penitent sinners how great sins he can pardon; yet if any
hereupon imbolden themselves in sin, instead of being set up as
monuments of mercy, God will set them up as pillars of salt.—Ezekiel
Hopkins (Bishop).
Verse 21. He who rejoices in another's fall rejoices
in the devil's victory.—Ambrose, quoted in Nichol's
Proverbs.
Verses 21, 22.
They gape and drawe their mouthes in scorneful wise,
And erie, fie, fie, wee sawe it with our eyes.
But thou their deed, (O Lord!) dost also see;
Then bee not silent soe, nor farr from mee.
—Sir John Davies.
Verse 23. "My God and my Lord." The
cry of Thomas when he saw the wounds of Jesus. If he did not
count our Lord to be divine, neither does David here ascribe
Deity to Jehovah, for there is no difference except in the order
of the words and the tongue in which they were spoken, the
meaning is identical. What words they are, with their two eyes
seeing Jehovah in two aspects yet as one, grasping him with two
hands in the double "my" to one heart, for the word is
but one, bowing before him on both knees to worship him in
lowliest reverence. Well might Nouet, in his exposition of the
words as used by Thomas, exclaim, "Oh, sweet word, I will
say it all my life long; I will say it in the hour of death; I
will say it in eternity."—C. H. S.
Verse 24. "O Lord my God." O Jehovah
my God; here is another precious word. He takes Jehovah to be
his God, in opposition to those who make idols, or riches, or
their own lusts their god. He claims a full possession of all
that is in the great I am. Even though he views him as a judge
he lays the hand of faith upon his God, and flinches not even
before the blaze of his righteousness. It is a noble word, a
grand utterance of faith; he who can pronounce that word
"my" from his inmost soul in such a connection may
well laugh to scorn all his enemies.—C.H.S.
Verse 25. "Let them not say we have swallowed
him up." And even if they could, like Jonah's whale,
they would soon be sickened of their feast. A living child of
God were more easily swallowed than digested by the malice of
hell.—C.H.S.
Verse 27. See how the hearts of the saints have been
drawn out against their persecutors. Prayers are the arms that
in times of persecution the saints have still had recourse to.
The Romans being in great distress were put so hard to it, that
they were fain to take the weapons out of the temples of their
gods to right with their enemies, and so they overcame them: so
when the people of God have been hard put to it by reason of
afflictions and persecutions, the weapons that they have fled to
have been prayers and tears, and with these they have overcome
their persecutors.—Thomas Brooks.
Verse 28. "My tongue shall speak of thy
righteousness and of thy praise all the day long." See
now I have made a discourse something longer; ye are wearied.
Who endureth to praise God all the day long? I will suggest a
remedy whereby thou mayest praise God all the day long if thou
wilt. Whatever thou dost, do well, and thou hast praised God.
When thou singest a hymn, thou praisest God, but what doth thy
tongue, unless thy heart also praise him? Hast thou ceased from
singing hymns, and departed that thou mayest refresh thyself? Be
not drunken, and thou hast praised God. Dost thou go away to
sleep? Rise not to do evil, and thou hast praised God. Dost thou
transact business? Do no wrong, and thou hast praised God. Dost
thou till thy field? Raise not strife, and thou hast praised
God. In the innocency of thy works prepare thyself to praise God
all the day long.—Augustine.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1. Jesus our Advocate and Champion; our friend
in the courts of heaven and the battles of earth.
Verse 2. Jesus armed as the defender of the faithful.
Verse 3. Enemies kept at arm's length. How the Lord
does this, and the blessedness of it to us.
Verse 3. (last clause). Full assurance. An
assurance positive, personal, spiritual, present, divine,
complete, coming by a word from God.
Verse 3. (last clause). Heaven made sure.—Thomas
Adams' Sermon.
Verse 4. The everlasting confusion of the devil.
Verse 6. The horrible pilgrimage of the ungodly.
Verse 6. The trinity of dangers in the pathway of the
wicked, their way dark with ignorance, and slippery with
temptation, while behind them is the avenger.
Verse 8. Destruction at unawares, an awful topic.
Verse 9. Joy in God and in his salvation.
Verse 10. A matchless God, and his matchless
grace—these are the themes. An experienced heart, thoroughly
quickened—this is the songster; and from this cometh matchless
music. The music of a shattered harp.
Verse 11. The meanness, cruelty, sinfulness, and
commonness of slander.
Verse 12. How a soul may be robbed.
Verse 13. Christian sympathy even for the froward.
Verse 13. (last clause). Personal benefit of
intercessory prayer.
Verses 13-14. Compassion to the sick.—C. Simeon.
Verse 15. The shameful conspiracy of men against our
Lord Jesus at his passion.
Verse 17. The limit of divine endurance.
Verse 18. The duty, blessedness, and seasonableness of
public praise.
Verse 22. Omniscience pleaded, a word sought for,
presence requested, action entreated, affiance urged as a claim.
Verse 25. The ungodly man's delight, and the
righteous, man's refuge.
Verse 26. The convict dress of the wicked—"clothed
with shame," etc.
Verse 27 (last clause). What is that prosperity
in which the Lord hath pleasure?
Verse 28. A blessed theme, a fitting tongue, an
endless speech.