To the Chief Musician. Although David had his
own case in his mind's eye, yet he wrote not as a private
person, but as an inspired prophet, and therefore his song is
presented, for public and perpetual use, to the appointed
guardian of the Temple psalmody. Altaschith. The wicked
are here judged and condemned, but over the godly the sacred "Destroy
not" is solemnly pronounced. Michtam of David.
This is the fourth of the Psalms of the Golden Secret, and the
second of the "Destroy nots." These names if they
serve for nothing else may be useful to aid the memory. Men give
names to their horses, jewels, and other valuables, and these
names are meant not so much to describe as to distinguish them,
and in some cases to set forth the owner's high esteem of his
treasure; after the same fashion the Oriental poet gave a title
to the song he loved, and so aided his memory, and expressed his
estimation of the strain. We are not always to look for a
meaning in these superscriptions, but to treat them as we would
the titles of poems, or the names of tunes.
DIVISION. The ungodly enemy is
accused, Ps 58:1-5; judgment is sought from the judge, Ps
58:6-8; and seen in prophetic vision as already executed, Ps
58:9-11.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O
congregation? The enemies of David were a numerous and
united band, and because they so unanimously condemned the
persecuted one, they were apt to take it for granted that their
verdict was a right one. "What everybody says must be true,
"is a lying proverb based upon the presumption which comes
of large combinations. Have we not all agreed to hound the man
to the death, and who dare hint that so many great ones can be
mistaken? Yet the persecuted one lays the axe at the root by
requiring his judges to answer the question whether or not they
were acting according to justice. It were well if men would
sometimes pause, and candidly consider this. Some of those who
surrounded Saul were rather passive than active persecutors;
they held their tongues when the object of royal hate was
slandered; in the original, this first sentence appears to be
addressed to them, and they are asked to justify their silence.
Silence gives consent. He who refrains from defending the right
is himself an accomplice in the wrong. Do ye judge uprightly, O
ye sons of men? Ye too are only men though dressed in a little
brief authority. Your office for men, and your relation to men
both bind you to rectitude; but have ye remembered this? Have ye
not put aside all truth when ye have condemned the godly, and
united in seeking the overthrow of the innocent? Yet in doing
this be not too sure of success, or ye are only the "sons
of men, "and there is a God who can and will reverse your
verdicts.
Verse 2. Yea, in heart ye work wickedness. Down
deep in your very souls ye hold a rehearsal of the injustice ye
intend to practise, and when your opportunity arrives, ye wreak
vengeance with a gusto; your hearts are in your wicked work, and
your hands are therefore ready enough. Those very men who sat as
judges, and pretended to so much indignation at the faults
imputed to their victim, were in their hearts perpetrating all
manner of evil. Ye weigh the violence of your hands in the
earth. They were deliberate sinners, cold, calculating villains.
As righteous judges ponder the law, balance the evidence, and
weigh the case, so the malicious dispense injustice with malice
aforethought in cold blood. Note in this verse that the men
described sinned with heart and hand; privately in their heart,
publicly in the earth; they worked and they weighed—they were
active, and yet deliberate. See what a generation saints have to
deal with! Such were the foes of our Lord, a generation of
vipers, an evil and adulterous generation; they sought to kill
him because he was righteousness itself, yet they masked their
hatred to his goodness by charging him with sin.
Verse 3. The wicked are estranged from the womb.
It is small wonder that some men persecute the righteous seed of
the woman, since all of them are of the serpent's brood, and
enmity is set between them. No sooner born than alienated from
God—what a condition to be found in! Do we so early leave the
right track? Do we at the same moment begin to be men and
commence to be sinners? They go astray as soon as they be born,
speaking lies. Every observer may see how very soon infants act
lies. Before they can speak they practise little deceptive arts.
This is especially the case in those who grow up to be adept in
slander, they begin their evil trade early, and there is no
marvel that they become adept in it. He who starts early in the
morning will go far before night. To be untruthful is one of the
surest proofs of a fallen state, and since falsehood is
universal, so also is human depravity.
Verse 4. Their poison is like the poison of a
serpent. Is man also a poisonous reptile? Yes, and his venom
is even as that of a serpent. The viper has but death for the
body in his fangs; but unregenerate man carries poison under his
tongue, destructive to the nobler nature. They are like the deaf
adder that stoppeth her ear. While speaking of serpents the
psalmist remembers that many of them have been conquered by the
charmer's art, but men such as he had to deal with no art could
tame or restrain; therefore, he likens them to a serpent less
susceptible than others to the charmer's music, and says that
they refused to hear reason, even as the adder shuts her ear to
those incantations which fascinate other reptiles. Man, in his
natural corruption, appears to have all the ill points of a
serpent without its excellences. O sin, what hast thou done!
Verse 5. Which will not hearken to the voice of
charmers, charming never so wisely. Ungodly men are not to
be won to right by arguments the most logical, or appeals the
most pathetic. Try all your arts, ye preachers of the word! Lay
yourselves out to meet the prejudices and tastes of sinners, and
ye shall yet have to cry, "Who hath believed our
report?" It is not in your music, but in the sinner's ear
that the cause of failure lies, and it is only the power of God
that can remove it.
"You can call spirits from the vast deep,
But will they come when you do call for them?"
No, we call and call, and call in vain, till the arm of the
Lord is revealed. This is at once the sinner's guilt and danger.
He ought to hear but will not, and because he will not hear, he
cannot escape the damnation of hell.
Verse 6. Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth.
If they have no capacity for good, at least deprive them of
their ability for evil. Treat them as the snake charmers do
their serpents, extract their fangs, break their teeth. The Lord
can do this, and he will. He will not suffer the malice of the
wicked to triumph, he will deal them such a blow as shall
disable them from mischief. Break out the great teeth of the
young lions, O Lord. As if one brute creature had not enough of
evil in it to complete the emblem of ungodly nature, another
specimen of ferae naturae is fetched in. For fierce
cruelty the wicked are likened to young lions, monsters in the
prime of their vigour, and the fury of their lustiness; and it
is asked that their grinders may be smashed in, broken off, or
dashed out, that the creatures may henceforth be harmless. One
can well understand how the banished son of Jesse, while
poisoned by the venomous slander of his foes, and worried by
their cruel power, should appeal to heaven for a speedy and
complete riddance from his enemies.
Verse 7. Let them melt away as waters which run
continually. Like mountain torrents dried up by the summer
heats let them disappear; or like running streams whose waters
are swiftly gone, so let them pass away; or like water spilt
which none can find again, so let them vanish out of existence.
Begone, ye foul streams, the sooner ye are forgotten the better
for the universe. When he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows,
let them be as cut in pieces. When the Lord goes forth to
war, let his judgments so tell upon these persecutors that they
may be utterly cut in pieces as a mark shattered by many shafts.
Or perhaps the meaning is, when the ungodly man marches to the
conflict, let his arrows and his bow drop into fragments, the
string cut, the bow snapped, the arrows headless, the points
blunted; so that the boastful warrior may not have wherewithal
to hurt the object of his enmity. In either sense the prayer of
the Psalm has often become fact, and will be again fulfilled as
often as need arises.
Verse 8. As a snail which melteth, let every one of
them pass away. As the snail makes its own way by its slime,
and so dissolves as it goes, or as its shell is often found
empty, as though the inhabitant had melted away, so shall the
malicious eat out their own strength while they proceed upon
their malevolent designs, and shall themselves disappear. To
destroy himself by envy and chagrin is the portion of the ill
disposed. Like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not
see the sun. Solemn is this curse, but how surely does it
fall on many graceless wretches! They are as if they had never
been. Their character is shapeless, hideous, revolting. They are
fitter to be hidden away in an unknown grave than to be reckoned
among men. Their life comes never to ripeness, their aims are
abortive, their only achievement is to have brought misery to
others, and horror to themselves. Such men as Herod, Judas,
Alva, Bonner, had it not been better for them if they had never
been born? Better for the mothers who bore them? Better for the
lands they cursed? Better for the earth in which their putrid
carcasses are hidden from the sun? Every unregenerate man is an
abortion. He misses the true form of God made manhood; he
corrupts in the darkness of sin; he never sees or shall see the
light of God in purity, in heaven.
Verse 9. Before your pots can feel the thorns.
So sudden is the overthrow of the wicked, so great a failure is
their life, that they never see joy. Their pot is put upon the
hook to prepare a feast of joy, and the fuel is placed beneath,
but before the thorns are lit, before any heat can be brought to
bear upon the pot, yea, even as soon as the fuel has touched the
cooking vessel, a storm comes and sweeps all away; the pot is
overturned, the fuel is scattered far and wide. Perhaps the
figure may suppose the thorns, which are the fuel, to be
kindled, and then the flame is so rapid that before any heat can
be produced the fire is out, the meat remains raw, the man is
disappointed, his work is altogether a failure. He shall take
them away as with a whirlwind. Cook, fire, pot, meat and all,
disappear at once, whirled away to destruction. Both living, and
in his wrath. In the very midst of the man's life, and in the
fury of his rage against the righteous, the persecutor is
overwhelmed with a tornado, his designs are baffled, his
contrivances defeated, and himself destroyed. The passage is
difficult, but this is probably its meaning, and a very terrible
one it is. The malicious wretch puts on his great seething pot,
he gathers his fuel, he means to play the cannibal with the
godly; but he reckons without his host, or rather without the
Lord of hosts, and the unexpected tempest removes all trace of
him, and his fire, and his feast, and that in a moment.
Verse 10. The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth
the vengeance. He will have no hand in meting out, neither
will he rejoice in the spirit of revenge, but his righteous soul
shall acquiesce in the judgments of God, and he shall rejoice to
see justice triumphant. There is nothing in Scripture of that
sympathy with God's enemies which modern traitors are so fond of
parading as the finest species of benevolence. We shall at the
last say, "Amen, "to the condemnation of the wicked,
and feel no disposition to question the ways of God with the
impenitent. Remember how John, the loving disciple, puts it.
"And after these things I heard a great voice of much
people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation and glory, and
honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: for true and righteous
are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did
corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the
blood of his servants at her hand. And again they said,
Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever." He
shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. He shall triumph
over them, they shall be so utterly vanquished that their
overthrow shall be final and fatal, and his deliverance complete
and crowning. The damnation of sinners shall not mar the
happiness of saints.
Verse 11. So that a man shall say. Every man
however ignorant shall be compelled to say, Verily, in very
deed, assuredly, there is a reward for the righteous. If nothing
else be true this is. The godly are not after all forsaken and
given over to their enemies; the wicked are not to have the best
of it, truth and goodness are recompensed in the long run.
Verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth. All men shall be
forced by the sight of the final judgment to see that there is a
God, and that he is the righteous ruler of the universe. Two
things will come out clearly after all—there is a God and
there is a reward for the righteous. Time will remove doubts,
solve difficulties, and reveal secrets; meanwhile faith's
foreseeing eye discerns the truth even now, and is glad thereat.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
TITLE. The proper meaning of the root of Michtam
is to engrave, or to stamp a metal. It therefore,
in strictness, means, an engraving or sculpture.
Hence in the Septuagint, it is translated sthlografia, an
inscription on a column. I would venture to offer a conjecture
in perfect harmony with this view. It appears by the titles of
four out of these six Psalms, that they were composed by David
while flying and hiding from the persecutions of Saul. What,
then, should hinder us from imagining that they were inscribed
on the rocks and on the sides of the caves which so often formed
his place of refuge? This view would accord with the strict
etymological meaning of the word, and explain the rendering of
the Septuagint. John Jebb, in "A Literal Translation of
the Book of Psalms," 1846. (See also Explanatory Notes
on Psalms 6 and 56. "Treasury of David", Vol. 1., pp.
222-23; Vol. 3, p. 40.)
Whole Psalm. Kimchi says this Psalm was written on
account of Abner, and the rest of Saul's princes, who judged
David as a rebel against the government, and said it was for
Saul to pursue after him to slay him; for if they had restrained
him, Saul would not have pursued after him; and indeed they seem
to be wicked judges who are addressed in this Psalm; do not
destroy. Arama says, it declares the wickedness of Saul's
judges. John Gill.
Verse 1. Are ye dumb (when) ye (should) speak
righteousness (and) judge equitably, sons of men? The
first words are exceedingly obscure. One of them mla, not
expressed in the English, and the ancient versions, means dumbness,
as in Ps 61:1, and seems to be here used as a strong expression
for entirely speechless. In what respect they were thus
dumb, is indicated by the verb which follows, but the connection
can be made clear in English only by a circumlocution. The
interrogation, are ye indeed, expresses wonder, as at
something scarcely credible. Can it be so? Is it possible? are
you really silent, you, whose very office is to speak for God,
and against the sins of men? Joseph Addison Alexander.
Verse 1. O congregation, O band, or company.
The Hebrew alem, which hath the signification of binding
as a sheaf or bundle, seemeth here to be a company that are
combined or confederate. Henry Ainsworth.
Verse 2. In heart ye work wickedness, etc. The
psalmist doth not say, they had wickedness in their heart, but
that they did work it there: the heart is a shop within, an
underground shop; there they did closely contrive, forge, and
hammer out their wicked purposes, and fit them into actions;
yea, they weighed the violence of their hands in the earth.
That's an allusion to merchants, who buy and sell by weight;
they weigh their commodity to an ounce; they do not give it out
in gross, but by exact weight. This saith the psalmist, they
weigh the violence of their hands; they do not oppress
grossly, but with a kind of exactness and skill, they sit down
and consider what and how much violence they may use in such a
case, or how much such a person may endure, or such a season may
bear. They are wiser than to do all at once, or all to one, lest
they spoil all. They weigh what they do, though what they
do be so bad that it will hold no weight when God comes to weigh
it. Nor do they arrive at this skill presently, but after they
have, as it were, served an apprenticeship at it; and they bind
themselves to the trade very early; for as it follows at the
third verse of the Psalm, The wicked are estranged from the
womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies,
that is, they are estranged both by nature and by early
practice; they lose no time, they go to it young, even "as
soon as they are born, "as soon as they are fit for any
use, or to do any thing, they are using and setting themselves
to do wickedly. Joseph Caryl.
Verse 2. The word twlwe wickedness properly
signifies the inclinations of scales, when the scale
weighs down to one side; then it is transferred to respect of
persons, to injustice and iniquity, especially in public
tribunals and decisions, as in Ps 82:2, How long will ye
judge lwe by an unjust inclination of the scales? Hermann
Venema.
Verse 2. The principles of the wicked are even worse
than their practices: premeditated violence is doubly guilty. George
Rogers.
Verse 3. The wicked are estranged from the womb,
etc. How early men do sin! How late they do repent! As soon
as they are born "they go astray, "but if left to
themselves they will not return till they die; they will never
return. Children can neither go nor speak as soon as born, but
as soon as born they can "go astray" and "speak
lies; "that is, their first speaking is lying, and their
first going is straying; yea, when they cannot go naturally,
they can go astray morally or metaphorically: the first step
they are able to take is a step out of the way. Joseph Caryl.
Verse 3. They go astray as soon as they be born,
speaking lies. Of all sins, no sin can call Satan father
like to lying. All the corruption that is in us came from Satan,
but yet this sin of forging and lying is from the devil more
than any; tastes of the devil more than any. Hence every man is
a liar (Ro 3:4), and so every man is every sinner else; but in a
special manner every man is a liar; for that the very first
depravation of our nature came in by lying, and our nature doth
taste much still of this old block to be given to lying, the
devil also breathing into us a strong breath to stir us up to
lying. Hence no sooner do we speak but we lie. As we are
in body, subject to all diseases, but yet, some to one sickness
rather than to another: so in the soul, all are apt enough to
all sin, and some rather to one vice than to another; but all
are much inclined to lying. A liar then is as like the devil as
ever he can look: as unlike to God as ever he can be. Richard
Capel, 1586-1656, in "Tentations, their Nature, Danger,
Cure."
Verse 3. The figure of the wicked going astray as soon
as they are born, seems to be taken from the disposition and
power of a young serpent soon after its birth. The youngest
serpent can convey poison to anything which it bites; and the
suffering in all cases is great, though the bite is seldom
fatal. Place a stick near the reptile whose age does not amount
to many days, and he will immediately snap at it. The offspring
of the tiger and of the alligator are equally fierce in their
earliest habits. Joseph Roberts, in "Oriental
Illustrations of the Sacred Scriptures," 1844.
Verse 4. Poison. There is such a thing as
poison; but where to be found? Ubicunque fuerit, in homine
quis quaereret? Wheresoever it is, in man who would look for
it? God made man's body of the dust; he mingled no poison with
it. He inspires his soul from heaven; he breathes no poison with
it. He feeds him with bread; he conveys no poison with it. Unde
venenum? Whence is the poison? Mt 13:27—"Didst not
thou, O Lord, sow good seed in thy field?" Unde zizaniae—"From
whence then hath it tares?" Whence? Hoc fecit inimicus—"The
enemy hath done this." We may perceive the devil in it.
That great serpent, the red dragon, hath poured into wicked
hearts this poison. His own poison, malitiam, wickedness.
Cum infundit peccatum, infundit venenum—"When he
pours in sin he pours in poison." Sin is poison. Original
depravity is called corruption; actual poison. The violence and
virulence of this venomous quality comes not at first. Nemo
fit repente pessimus—No man becomes worst at the first
dash. We are born corrupt, we have made ourselves poisonous.
There be three degrees, as it were so may ages, in sin. First—secret
sin; an ulcer lying in the bones, but skinned over with
hypocrisy. Secondly—open sin, bursting forth into
manifest villany. The former is corruption, the second is
eruption. Thirdly—frequented and confirmed sin, and
that is rank poison, envenoming soul and body. Thomas Adams,
1614.
Verse 4. Adder. Hebrew ntb pethen, the
Egyptian cobra (Naja hage), one of the venomous Colubrine
Snakes (Colubri). This is one of the so called hooded
snakes, with which serpent charmers chiefly deal. The Spectacled
Snake proper (Naja tripudians) is a closely related
species. The well known Cobra di Capello is another. They are
all noted for their deadly bite. The hollow fangs communicate
with a poison gland, which being pressed in the act of biting,
sends a few drops into the puncture. The venom quickly acts on
the whole system, and death soon ensues. John Duns, D.D., in
"Biblical Natural Science," 1868.
Verse 4. The deaf adder. Certain it is, says a
modern writer upon the Psalms, that the common adder or viper
here in England, the bite of which too, by the way, is very
venomous, if it is not wholly deaf, has the sense of
hearing very imperfectly. This is evident from the danger there
is of treading upon these animals, unless you happen to see
them; for if they do not see you, and you do not disturb them,
they never endeavour to avoid you, which when they are disturbed
and do see you, they are very solicitous of doing. Allowing,
then, that there is a species of these noxious animals, which
either not having the sense of hearing at all, or having it only
in a low degree, may very well be said to be deaf; this may help
to explain the present poetical passage of the psalmist. He very
elegantly compares the pernicious and destructive practices of
wicked men to the venom of a serpent; and his mentioning this
species of animals, seems to have brought to his mind another
property of at least one sort of them, in which they likewise
resembled perverse and obstinate sinners, who are deaf to all
advice, utterly irreclaimable, and not to be persuaded. This the
adder resembled, which is a very venomous animal, and moreover
is deaf, or very near it. And perhaps his saying that she
stoppeth her ear, may be no more than a poetical expression
for deafness; just as the mole, which in common speech is
said to be blind, might in a poetical phrase, be said to
shut her eyes; as in fact she does when you expose her to the
light. The next clause, Which refuseth to hear, etc., is
another poetical expression for the same thing. Samuel Burder,
in "The Scripture Expositor," 1810.
Verse 4. The deaf adder. Several of the serpent
tribe are believed to be either quite deaf, or very dull of
hearing. Perhaps that which is called the puddeyan, the
"beaver serpent, "is more so than any other. I have
frequently come close up to these reptiles; but they did not
make any effort to move out of the way. They lurk in the path,
and the victim on whom they pounce will expire within a few
minutes after he is bitten. Joseph Roberts.
Verse 4. The deaf adder. The adder, or asp,
is the haje naja, or cobra of Egypt, according to
Cuvier. The hearing of all the serpent tribes is imperfect, as
all are destitute of a tympanic cavity, and of external openings
to the ear. The deaf adder is not a particular species.
The point of the rebuke is, the pathen, or "adder,
"here in question, could hear in some degree but would
not; just as the unrighteous judges, or persecutors, of David
could hear with their outward ears such appeals as he makes in
Ps 58:1-2, but would not. The charmer usually could charm the
serpent by shrill sounds, either of his voice or of the flute,
the serpent's comparative deafness rendering it the more
amenable to those sounds which it could hear. But exceptional
cases occurred of a deaf adder which was deaf only
in the sense that it refused to hear, or to be acted on. Also
Jer 8:17; compare Ec 10:11. A. R. Fausset.
Verse 4. The deaf adder that stoppeth her ear.
With respect to what is said of the animal's stopping its ears,
it is not necessary to have recourse to the supposition of its
actually doing so, which by some persons has been stated, but it
is sufficient to know, that whilst some serpents are operated
upon in the manner above described, others are partly or
altogether insensible to the incantation. Richard Mant.
Verse 4. (second clause). This clause admits of
a different construction, like the deaf adder he stops his
ear, which some interpreters prefer, because an adder cannot
stop its ears, and need not stop them if naturally deaf, whereas
it is by stopping his, the wicked man becomes like a deaf adder.
J. A. Alexander.
Verses 4-5. Experienced and skilful as the serpent
charmers are, however, they do not invariably escape with
impunity. Fatal terminations to these exhibitions of the psyllid
art now and then occur; for there are still to be found "deaf
adders, which will not hearken to the voice of charmers,
charming never so wisely."... Roberts mentions the
instance of a man who came to a gentleman's house to exhibit
tame snakes, and on being told that a cobra, or hooded snake,
was in a cage in the house, was asked if he could charm it; on
his replying in the affirmative, the serpent was released from
the cage, and no doubt, in a state of high irritation. The man
began his incantation, and repeated his charms; but the snake
darted at him, fastened upon his arm, and before night he was a
corpse. Philip Henry Gosse, in "The Romance of Natural
History, "1861.
Verses 4-5. One day a rattlesnake entered our
encampment. Among us was a Canadian who could play the flute,
and who, to divert us, marched against the serpent with his new
species of weapon. On the approach of his enemy, the haughty
reptile curls himself into a spiral line, flattens his head,
inflates his cheeks, contracts his lips, displays his envenomed
fangs and his bold throat; his tongue flows like two flames of
fire; his eyes are burning coals; his body swollen with rage,
rises and falls like the bellows of a forge; his dilated skin
assumes a dull and scaly appearance; and his tail, whence
proceeds the death announcing sound, vibrates with such rapidity
as to resemble a light vapour. The Canadian begins to play upon
his flute—the serpent starts with surprise, and draws back his
head. In proportion as he is struck with the magic notes, his
eyes lose their fierceness; the oscillations of his tail become
slower and the sounds which it makes become weaker, and
gradually die away. Less perpendicular upon their spiral line,
the rings of the charmed serpent are by degrees expanded, and
sink one after another on the ground in concentric circles. The
shades of azure, green, white, and gold recover their brightness
on his quivering skin, and slightly turning his head, he remains
motionless, in the attitude of attention and pleasure. At this
moment the Canadian advances a few steps, producing from his
flute sweet and simple notes. The serpent, inclining his
variegated neck, opens a passage with the head through the high
grass, and begins to creep after the musician; stopping when he
stops, and beginning to follow him again as soon as he advances
forward. In this manner he was led out of the camp, attended by
a great number of spectators, both savages and Europeans, who
could scarcely believe their eyes, which had witnessed this
effect of harmony. Francois Aguste, Viscount de
Chateaubriand, 1768-1848.
Verses 4-5. The serpent, when she begins to feel the
charmer, clappeth one ear presently to the ground, and stoppeth
the other ear with her tail, although by hearkening to the
charmer, as some observe, she would be provoked to spit out her
poison, and renew her age. (This is a specimen of the old
fashioned un-natural history. No one will be misled by
it. C. H. S.) So hot is man upon his harlot sin, that he
is deaf to all that would counsel him to the contrary; he stops
his ear, hardens his heart, stiffens his neck against the
thunders of the law, the still voice of the gospel, the motions
of the Spirit, and the convictions of his own conscience. When
sin calls, they run through thick and thin for haste; when the
world commands, how readily do they hearken, how quickly do they
hear, how faithfully do they obey! but when the blessed God
cries to them, charges them by his unquestionable authority,
beseeches them for their own unchangeable felicity, they, like
statues of men, rather than living creatures, stand still and
stir not at all. Other things move swiftly to their centres;
stones fall tumbling downward, sparks fly apace upward, coneys
run with speed to their burrows, rivers with violence to the
ocean, and yet silly man hangs off from his Maker, that neither
entreaties nor threatenings, nor the word, nor the works of God,
nor the hope of heaven, nor fear of hell, can quicken or hasten
him to his happiness. Who would imagine that a reasonable soul
should act so much against sense and reason? George Swinnock,
1627-1673.
Verse 5. Will not hearken. The Lord hath some
of his elect ones whom he seeth walking in bypaths and crooked
ways: the Lord giveth a commission to his servants, the
ministers, and saith, Go invite and call yon soul to come to me,
and say, Return, O Shulamite; but the soul stirs not: the Lord
sends and calls again: yet with the deaf adder, he hearkeneth
not to the voice of the enchanter: well, saith the Lord,
"If you will not come; I will fetch you"; if fair
means will not do, foul means must; then he hisses for the fly
and the bee of affliction, and calls forth armies of trouble,
and gives them commission to seize upon, and to lay siege to
such a man or woman, and saith, Ply them with your cannon shot,
till you make them yield, give up the keys and strike the sail;
he sends sickness to their bodies, a consumption to their
estate, death to their friends, shame to their reputation, a
fire to their house, and the like, and bids them prey and spoil,
till they see and acknowledge the hand of the Lord lifted up. J.
Votier's "Survey of Effectual Calling," 1652.
Verse 6. Break their teeth, destroy the fangs
of these serpents, in which their poison is contained.
This will amount to the same meaning as above. Save me from the adders,
the sly and poisonous slanderers: save me also from the lions—the
tyrannical and bloodthirsty men. Adam Clarke.
Verse 6. Great teeth. mwetlm, according to
Michaelis and Gesenius, are the eye teeth, which in lions
are sharp and terrible. George Phillips, B.D., in "The
Psalms in Hebrew: With a Commentary," 1846.
Verses 6-9. David's enemies were strong and fierce as
young lions: he therefore prayed that their teeth might be
broken, even their strongest teeth, their grinders,
with which they were ready to devour him; that so they might be
disabled from doing mischief. They overwhelmed him like an
inundation: but he desired it might prove a land flood, which is
soon wasted. They were about to shoot at him: but he would have
their bows, or their arrows, to be shivered to pieces, and
become like straw, and do no execution, and he prayed that they
might waste insensibly as the snail, which leaves its substance
all along its track; and that they might come to nothing, like
an abortion. He also predicted, that their prosperous rage
(which resembled the crackling of thorns under a pot), would
soon be extinct, and produce no effect; while the Lord in his
wrath would hurry them into speedy destruction; as a furious
whirlwind drives a living man down a precipice, or into a
dreadful pit. Thomas Scott, 1747-1821.
Verse 8. As a snail which melteth away as it goeth,
literally, which goeth in melting (or slime), the noun
being in the accusative as describing the nature of the action,
and the allusion being to the slimy trail which the snail leaves
behind it, so that it seems to waste away. Evidently this
is nothing more than a poetical hyperbole, and need not be
explained, therefore, as a popular error or a mistake in natural
history.—J. J. Stewart Perowne, B.D., in "The Book of
Psalms; a New Translation, with Introduction and Notes,"
1864.
Verse 8. As a snail which melteth, etc. This is
a very remarkable and not very intelligible passage. The Jewish
Bible renders the passage in a way which explains the idea which
evidently prevailed at the time the Psalms were composed:
"As a snail let him melt as he passeth on." The
ancients had an idea that the slimy track made by a snail as it
crawled along was subtracted from the substance of its body, and
that in consequence the farther it crept the smaller it became
until at last it wasted entirely away. The commentators on the
Talmud took this view of the case. The Hebrew word, lwlbv shablul,
which undoubtedly does signify a snail of some kind, is thus
explained:—"The Shablul is a creeping thing; when it
comes out of its shell, saliva pours from itself until it
becomes liquid, and so dies." Other explanations of this
passage have been offered, but there is no doubt that the view
taken by these commentators is the correct one, and that the
psalmist, when he wrote the terrible series of denunciations in
which the passage occurs, had in his mind the popular belief
regarding the gradual wasting away of the snail as it "passeth
on." It is needless to say that no particular species of
snail is mentioned, and almost as needless to state that in
Palestine there are many species of snails, to any or all of
which these words are equally applicable. J. G. Wood, in
"Bible Animals." 1869.
Verse 8. The untimely birth of a woman. The
wicked are all, so speak, human abortions; they are and for ever
remain defective beings, who have not accomplished the great
purpose of their existence. Heaven is the one end for which man
is created, and he who falls short of it does not attain the
purpose of his being; he is an eternal abortion. O. Prescott
Hiller.
Verse 8. (second clause). David when he curseth
the plots of wicked men, that though they have conceived
mischief, and though they have gone with it a long time, and are
ready to bring it forth, yet saith he, Let them be (that
is, let their counsels and designs be) like the untimely birth
of a woman, that they may not see the sun: that is, let
them be dashed and blasted, let them never bring forth their
poisonous brood to the hurt and trouble of the world. Joseph
Caryl.
Verse 9. (first clause). Before your cooking
vessels, etc. It would puzzle Oedipus himself to make any
tolerable sense of the English translation of this verse. It
refers to the usage of travellers in the East, who when
journeying through the deserts, make a hasty blaze with the
thorns which they collect, some green and full of sap, others
dry and withered, for the purpose of dressing their food; in
which circumstances, violent storms of wind not infrequently
arise, which sweep away their fuel and entire apparatus, before
the vessels which they use become warm by the heat. An
expressive and graphical image of the overwhelming ruin of
wicked men. William Walford, 1837.
Verse 9. Before your pots feel the bramble. By
this proverbial expression the psalmist describes the sudden
eruption of the divine wrath; sudden and violent as the
ascension of the dry bramble underneath the housewife's pot. The
brightness of the flame which this material furnishes, the
height to which it mounts in an instant, the fury with which it
seems to rage on all sides of the vessel, give force, and even
sublimity to the image, though taken from one of the commonest
occurrences of the lower life—a cottager's wife boiling her
pot! The sense, then, will be: "Before your pots feel the
bramble, he shall sweep them away in whirlwind and
hurricane." Samuel Horsley, 1733-1806.
Verse 9. In all the book of God I do not remember any
sentence so variously and differently translated as this
verse... This variety of translations ariseth chiefly from the
original Hebrew word twrym siroth, which in the Hebrew
tongue signifies, first, pots or cauldrons,
wherein flesh is sod, as Ex 16:3 38:3 Eze 11:11. Secondly, thorns,
and pricks of thorns and briers, as Isa 34:13 Ho 2:8.
Thirdly, because the pricks of the great bramble are very sharp
and hooked, this word is used to signify fishhooks. Am 4:2. In
all our English Bibles of the old, new, and Geneva translation,
and some Latin Bibles, this word is taken to signify pots or
cauldrons; but the Septuagint, Hierome, vulgar Latin, Austine,
Pagnine, Tremellius, and all others that I have seen, take this
word in the second sense, for the sharp pricks of thorns and
brambles. Here, certainly, this word signifies the sharp pricks
of the great dog bramble, which here in the Hebrew text is dj atad,
and is used (Jud 9:14-15) in Jotham's parable to signify the
bramble, which being made king of the trees, kindled a fire,
which devoured the cedars of Lebanon. Now this bramble in the
body, and every branch of it, is beset with sharp hooked pricks,
some of which are green and have life and moisture in them, and
though they be sharp, yet they are not so stiff and strong as to
make any deep wound in a man's flesh. Others are greater, more
hooked, and hardened by drying and parching with the vehement
heat of the sun; and they strike to the quick, and hold fast, or
tear where they catch hold of man's skin or flesh. The first are
here called dja, living or green; the other are called, nwrx,
dried, or parched and hardened; and the prophetical psalmist
affirms that "God who judgeth in the earth, will take away
and destroy as with a tempestuous whirlwind, every one of them,
as well the green as the dry, "as Tremellius out of the
original doth most truly translate the word... The whole text
runs thus: "Before they feel your thorns or pricks, O ye
bramble, he will take away every one as with a whirlwind, as
well the green as the dry." Before they, that is,
the righteous whom ye hate and persecute; do feel. that
is, have a full sense and understanding of your thorns or
pricks, that is, of the sharpness, fury, and mischief which is
in the heart and hand of all and every one among you; for every
one in your band and congregation is a grievous thorn and sharp
prick of the cursed bramble, sharply set and bent to do mischief
in malice and fury to the people and church of God. "He
that is God who judgeth in the earth" (as it is expressed
in the eleventh verse, in the last words) "will take away
as with a whirlwind" (that is, scatter and destroy
tempestuously), "every one, as well the living and green as
the dry and hardened." That is, of every sort banded
together, as well the green headed and young persecutors, sharp
set, but not so strong to hurt, as the old and dry who are
hardened in malice by long custom, and in power and policy are
strong to do mischief. George Walker, in a Fast Sermon before
the House of Commons, 1644.
Verse 10. The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth
the vengeance. When the just man seeth the vengeance and
rejoiceth, it is not of malice, but of benevolence, either
hoping that the wicked may by punishment be amended, or loving
God's justice above men's persons, not being displeased with the
punishment of the wicked, because it proceedeth from the Lord,
nor desiring that the wicked may be acquitted from penalty
because the deserve in justice to be punished. Nicholas
Gibbens.
Verse 10. The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth
the vengeance. Not that he shall be glad of the vengeance
purely as it is a hurt, or a suffering to the creature, but the
righteous shall be glad when he seeth the vengeance of God, as
it is a fulfilling of the threatening of God against the sin of
man, and so evidence of his own holiness. Ps 59:9-10. Joseph
Caryl.
Verse 10. He shall; wash his feet, etc. That
is, he gets comfort and encouragement by seeing the Lord avenge
his cause against his adversaries. Joseph Caryl.
Verse 10. He shall wash his feet in the blood,
etc. As the victorious survivor of a conflict, walking over the
battle field, might be said to do. R. T. Society's Notes.
Verse 10.. When angels execute God's judgments upon
sinners, the saints see much in it; they see matter of fear and
praise; of fear, in that God's power, wrath, and hatred are
manifested in them against sin and sinners; of praise, in that
themselves are delivered and justice performed. When the wicked
are taken away by a divine stroke, by the hand of justice, and
God hath the glory of his justice, the righteous rejoice at
it: but is that all? No, he washes his feet in the blood
of the wicked; that is, by this judgment he fears and
reforms. It is a metaphor taken from the practice of those parts
where they went barefoot, or with sandals, and so contracted
much filth, and used to wash and cleanse their feet when they
came in; so here, the godly seeing the hand of God upon the
wicked, fears, and judges himself for his sins, purges his
conscience and affections, and stands now in awe of that God who
hath stricken the wicked for those sins which he himself in part
is guilty of. Waldus, a man of note in Lyons, seeing one struck
dead in his presence, he washed his hands in his blood; for
presently he gave alms to the poor, instructed his family in the
true knowledge of God, and exhorted all that came unto him to
repentance and holiness of life. William Greenhill,
1691-1777.
Verse 10.. No doubt, at the sight of Sodom, Gomorrah,
Admah, and Zeboim destroyed, angels saw cause to rejoice and
sing, "Hallelujah." Wickedness was swept away; earth
was lightened of a burden; justice, the justice of God, was
highly exalted; love to his other creatures was displayed in
freeing them from the neighbourhood of hellish contaminations.
On the same principles (entering, however, yet deeper into the
mind of the Father, and sympathising to the full in his
justice), the Lord Jesus himself, and each one of his members
shall cry, "Hallelujah, "over Antichrist's ruined
hosts. Re 19:3. The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the
vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
He shall be refreshed at the end of his journey (Joh 13:5 Lu
7:44 Ge 18:4), he shall wipe off all the dust of the way, and
end its weariness by entering into that strange, that divine joy
over sin destroyed, justice honoured, the law magnified,
vengeance taken for the insult done to Godhead, the triumph of
the Holy One over the unholy. It is not merely the time when
the joy begins—it is also the occasion and cause of that day's
rapturous delight. Andrew A. Bonar.
Verse 10. A broad and vital distinction is to be made
between desire for the gratification of personal vengeance,
and zeal for the vindication of the glory of God.
"The glory of God" includes necessarily the real good
of the offender and the well being of society. Desire for retaliation
is alway wrong; desire for retribution may be in the
highest degree praiseworthy. For personal motives only can I
desire retaliation upon the wrong doer; but for motives most
disinterested and noble I may desire retribution. R. A.
Bertram, in "The Imprecatory Psalms, "1867.
Verse 11. So that a man shall say, Verily, etc.
This shall be said not by a man, nor by any particular
man, but by men in general, by man as opposed to God. The
particle translated, verily really means only, and
denotes that this and nothing else is true. J. A. Alexander.
Verse 11. So that, etc. There is something
worth noting from the connexion of this verse with the context,
and is implied in the first word, so that, which joins
this verse with the former parts of this Psalm, and shows this
to be an illation from them. What? did God so suddenly, "as
with a whirlwind, "overthrow those wicked judges who lorded
it over his people? did he make those "lions" melt
like snails? did he confirm the joints of his people, which were
little before, trembling and smiting on against another, as if
they had been so many forlorn wretches exposed and cast forth,
and no eye to pity them; as if they had been floating with Moses
upon the sea in a basket of bulrushes, without any pilot to
guide them, and even ready to cry out with the disciple,
"Master, carest not that we perish?" Did he then
command a calm, and bring them to the haven where they would be?
did he turn their howling like dragons and chattering like
cranes, under the whips and saws of tyrannical taskmasters, into
a song of joy and triumph? did he dismantle himself of that
cloud wherein for a time he had so enveloped himself, that he
seemed not to behold the pressures of his people? did he, I say,
then step in to his people's rescue, by breaking their yokes as
in the day of Midian, and kissing them with kisses of his mouth?
So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the
righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.
Observe: Though the passages of God's providence may seem so
rugged and uncouth, as if they were destructive to his church,
and likely to put out the eye of his own glory; yet our God will
so dispose of them in the close, that they shall have an
advantageous tendency, to the setting forth of his honour and
our good. John Hinckley, 1657.
Verse 11. Some of the judgments of God are a shallow,
or a ford, over which a lamb may wade; every child may read the
meaning of them; and a man—any ordinary man—may
say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a
God that judgeth in the earth. Joseph Caryl.
Verse 11. This judging here does not refer to the
judgment to come, at the last day, when there shall be a general
convention of quick and dead before the Lord's dreadful
tribunal; though so, it is most true affore tempus, that
there will be a time when God will ride his circuit here in a
solemn manner, so that a man shall say, Verily there is a
reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the
earth; but that is not the scope of this place. It is in the
present tense, o krinwn, that now judgeth, or is now
judging the earth and the inhabitants thereof; and therefore
it must be understood of a judgment on this side, the judgment
of the great day; and so God judges the earth, or in the earth,
three manner of ways. First, by a providential ordering and wise
disposal of all the affairs of all creatures. Secondly, in
relieving the oppressed, and pleading the cause of the innocent.
Thirdly, in overthrowing and plaguing the wicked doers. John
Hinckley.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 3.
1. The natural effects of original sin are seen in early
suffering and death.
2. Its moral effects are seen in the early commission of
actual sin.
3. Early depravity is evinced in the conscious guilt of
telling lies. G. R.
Verse 3. (first clause). The inner pandemonium,
or the calendar of the heart's crime.
Verse 4. (first clause). A generation of
serpents. T. Adams's Sermon.
Verse 4. Sin as a poison. Poisons may be attractive in
colour and taste, slow or rapid in action, painful in effect,
withering, soporific or maddening. In all cases deadly.
Verse 5. The serpent charmer.
1. He charms with moral persuasion, promise, threatening,
etc.
2. He charms wisely, earnestly, affectionately, argumentively.
3. He charms in vain; the will is averse. Hence the
need of divine grace and of the gospel.
Verse 8. The snail like course of ungodly men. Their
sin destroys their property, health, time, influence, life.
Verse 11. Remarkable cases of divine judgments and
their results.