TITLE AND SUBJECT. A Psalm of Asaph. This
poet of the temple here acts as a preacher to the court and to
the magistracy. Men who do one thing well are generally equal to
another; he who writes good verse is not unlikely to be able to
preach. What preaching it would have been had Milton entered the
pulpit, or had Virgil been an apostle.
Asaph's sermon before the judges is now before us. He speaks
very plainly, and his song is rather characterised by strength
than by sweetness. We have here a clear proof that all psalms
and hymns need not be direct expressions of praise to God; we
may, according to the example of this psalm, admonish one
another in our songs. Asaph no doubt saw around him much bribery
and corruption, and while David punished it with the sword, he
resolved to scourge it with a prophetic psalm. In so doing, the
sweet singer was not forsaking his profession as a musician for
the Lord, but rather was practically carrying it out in another
department. He was praising God when he rebuked the sin which
dishonoured him, and if he was not making music, he was hushing
discord when he bade rulers dispense justice with impartiality.
DIVISION. The Psalm is a whole and
needs no formal division.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. God standeth in the congregation of the
mighty. He is the overlooker, who, from his own point of
view, sees all that is done by the great ones of the earth. When
they sit in state he stands over them, ready to deal with them
if they pervert judgment. Judges shall be judged, and to
justices justice shall be meted out. Our village squires and
country magistrates would do well to remember this. Some of them
had need go to school to Asaph till they have mastered this
psalm. Their harsh decisions and strange judgments are made in
the presence of him who will surely visit them for every
unseemly act, for he has no respect unto the person of any, and
is the champion of the poor and needy. A higher authority will
criticise the decision of petty sessions, and even the judgments
of our most impartial judges will be revised by the High Court
of heaven. He judgeth among the gods. They are gods to other
men, but he is GOD to them. He lends them his name, and this is
their authority for acting as judges, but they must take care
that they do not misuse the power entrusted to them, for the
Judge of judges is in session among them. Our puisne judges are
but puny judges, and their brethren who administer common law
will one day be tried by the common law. This great truth is,
upon the whole, well regarded among us in these times, but it
was not so in the earlier days of English history, when
Jeffries, and such as he, were an insult to the name of justice.
Oriental judges, even now, are frequently, if not generally,
amenable to bribes, and in past ages it was very hard to find a
ruler who had any notion of justice apart from his own arbitrary
will. Such plain teaching as this psalm contains was needful
indeed, and he was a bold good man who, in such courtly phrases,
delivered his own soul.
Verse 2. How long will ye judge unjustly and accept
the persons of the wicked? It is indirectly stated that the
magistrates had been unjust and corrupt. They not only excused
the wicked, but even decided in their favour against the
righteous. A little of this is too much, a short time too long.
Some suitors could get their claims settled at once, and in
their own favour, while others were wearing out their lives by
waiting for an audience, or were robbed by legal process because
their opponents had the judge's ear: how long were such things
to be perpetuated? Would they never remember the Great Judge,
and renounce their wickedness? This verse is so grandly stern
that one is tempted to say, "Surely an Elijah is
here." Selah. This gives the offenders pause for
consideration and confession.
Verse 3. Defend the poor and fatherless. Cease
to do evil, learn to do well. Look not to the interests of the
wealthy whose hands proffer you bribes, but protect the rights
of the needy, and especially uphold the claims of orphans whose
property too often becomes a prey. Do not hunt down the peasant
for gathering a few sticks, and allow the gentlemanly swindler
to break through the meshes of the law. Do justice to the
afflicted and needy. Even they can claim from you as judge no
more than justice; your pity for their circumstances must not
make you hold the scales unfairly: but if you give them no more
than justice, at least be sure that you give them that to the
full. Suffer not the afflicted to be further afflicted by
enduring injustice, and let not the needy long stand in need of
an equitable hearing.
Verse 4. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out
of the hand of the wicked. Break the nets of the man
catchers, the legal toils, the bonds, the securities, with which
cunning men capture and continue to hold in bondage the poor and
the embarrassed. It is a brave thing when a judge can liberate a
victim like a fly from the spider's web, and a horrible case
when magistrate and plunderer are in league. Law has too often
been an instrument for vengeance in the hand of unscrupulous
men, an instrument as deadly as poison or the dagger. It is for
the judge to prevent such villainy.
Verse 5. They know not, neither will they
understand. A wretched plight for a nation to be in when its
justices know no justice, and its judges are devoid of judgment.
Neither to know his duty nor to wish to know it is rather the
mark of an incorrigible criminal than of a magistrate, yet such
a stigma was justly set upon the rulers of Israel. They walk on
in darkness. They are as reckless as they are ignorant. Being
both ignorant and wicked they yet dare to pursue a path in which
knowledge and righteousness are essential: they go on without
hesitation, forgetful of the responsibilities in which they are
involved, and the punishment which they are incurring. All the
foundations of the earth are out of course. When the dispensers
of law have dispensed with justice, settlements are unsettled,
society is unhinged, the whole fabric of the nation is shaken.
When injustice is committed in due course of law the world is
indeed out of course. When "Justices' justice" becomes
a byword it is time that justice dealt with justices. Surely it
would be well that certain of "the great unpaid"
should be paid off, when day after day their judgments show that
they have no judgment. When peasants may be horsewhipped by
farmers with impunity, and a pretty bird is thought more
precious than poor men, the foundations of the earth are indeed
sinking like rotten piles unable to bear up the structures built
upon them. Thank God we have, as an almost invariable rule,
incorruptible judges; may it always be so. Even our lesser
magistrates are, in general, most worthy men; for which we ought
to be grateful to God evermore.
Verse 6. I have said, ye are gods. The greatest
honour was thus put upon them; they were delegated gods, clothed
for a while with a little of that authority by which the Lord
judges among the sons of men. And all of you are children of the
Most High. This was their ex-officio character, not their
moral or spiritual relationship. There must be some government
among men, and as angels are not sent to dispense it, God allows
men to rule over men, and endorses their office, so far at least
that the prostitution of it becomes an insult to his own
prerogatives. Magistrates would have no right to condemn the
guilty if God had not sanctioned the establishment of
government, the administration of law, and the execution of
sentences. Here the Spirit speaks most honourably of these
offices, even when it censures the officers; and thereby teaches
us to render honour to whom honour is due, honour to the office
even if we award censure to the officer bearer.
Verse 7. But ye shall die like men. What
sarcasm it seems! Great as the office made the men, they were
still but men, and must die. To every judge this verse is a memento
mori! He must leave the bench to stand at the bar, and on
the way must put off the ermine to put on the shroud. And fall
like one of the princes. Who were usually the first to die: for
battle, sedition, and luxury, made greater havoc among the great
than among any others. Even as princes have often been cut off
by sudden and violent deaths, so should the judges be who forget
to do justice. Men usually respect the office of a judge, and do
not conspire to slay him, as they do to kill princes and kings;
but injustice withdraws this protection, and puts the unjust
magistrate in personal danger. How quickly death unrobes the
great. What a leveller he is. He is no advocate for liberty, but
in promoting equality and fraternity he is a masterly democrat.
Great men die as common men do. As their blood is the same, so
the stroke which lets out their life produces the same pains and
throes. No places are too high for death's arrows: he brings
down his birds from the tallest trees. It is time that all men
considered this.
Verse 8. Arise, O God, and judge the earth.
Come thou Judge of all mankind, put the bad judges to thy bar
and end their corruption and baseness. Here is the world's true
hope of rescue from the fangs of tyranny. For thou shalt inherit
all nations. The time will come when all races of men shall own
their God, and accept him as their king. There is one who is
"King by right divine, "and he is even now on his way.
The last days shall see him enthroned, and all unrighteous
potentates broken like potter's vessels by his potent sceptre.
The second advent is still earth's brightest hope. Come quickly,
even so, come, Lord Jesus.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Whole Psalm. Asaph, who has written so much in the
previous Psalms of the coming of Christ in the flesh, now speaks
of his second coming to judgment. Josephus Maria Thomasius.
1649-1713.
Verse 1. God standeth. He is said to stand,
because of his immutability, his power, his abiding presence,
and also because of his promptness in act, to decide for the
right, and to help the poor, as he did S. Stephen. But one
commentator draws a yet deeper lesson from the word stand.
He reminds us that it is for the judge to sit, and for the
litigants or accused to stand; as it is written, Moses sat to
judge the people: and the people stood by Moses from the morning
until the evening. Ex 18:13. It is then a solemn warning for
judges to remember, that whatever cause is before them is God's
cause, since right and wrong are at stake in it, and that by
acquitting the guilty, or condemning the innocent, they pass
sentence against God himself. Albertus Magnus, Le Blanc, and
Agellius, quoted by Neale and Littledale.
Verse 1. God standeth in the congregation of the
mighty, or, of God. These words are exegetical, and
help to illustrate what he had said before: God standeth in
the congregation of God. What is that? Why he judgeth as
supreme amongst the judges of the world. He stands not as a
cipher, or a bare spectator, but he himself makes one amongst
them.
1. He judgeth actively amongst them. We look upon men, and
think the judgment is theirs, but it is God that exerciseth
judgment amongst them.
2. Passively, he is so in the midst of these earthly gods,
that if they do unjustly he will execute justice on them, and
judge the judges of the world; for though they be great, yet
there is a greater than they, to whom they must shortly give an
account. Thomas Hall. 1659-60.
Verse 1. In the congregation. Rulers must
understand that they are not placed over stocks and stones, nor
over swine and dogs, but over the congregation of God: they must
therefore be afraid of acting against God himself when they act
unjustly. Martin Luther.
Verse 2. And accept the persons of the wicked.
The last clause exemplifies one of the most peculiar Hebrew
idioms. The combination usually rendered respect persons
in the English Bible, and applied to judicial partiality, means
literally to take (or take up) faces. Some
suppose this to mean the raising of the countenance, or causing
to look up from dejection. But the highest philological
authorities are now agreed, that the primary idea is that of
accepting one man's face or person rather than another's, the
precise form of expression, though obscure, being probably
derived from the practice of admitting suitors to confer with
governors or rulers, face to face, a privilege which can
sometimes only be obtained by bribes, especially, though not
exclusively, in oriental courts. Joseph Addison Alexander.
Verse 3. It is said of Francis the First, of France,
that when a woman kneeled to him to beg justice, he bade her
stand up; for, said he, Woman, it is justice that I owe thee,
and justice thou shalt have; if thou beg anything of me, let it
be mercy. A happy place and people surely, where justice (as it
seemeth), was not extorted, but dropt as kindly as honey from
the comb; where there was no sale of offices, no exchanging of
fees, no subtleties of delay, no trucking for expedition, no
making snares of petty and penal statutes: where Justice had
scales in her hand, not to weigh gold, but equity: where judges
and magistrates were as Noah's ark, to take in weary doves, and
as the horns of the altar, for oppressed innocency to betake
himself unto; where lawyers, advocates, pleaders, did not call
evil good, or good evil, bitter sweet, etc., where plaintiffs
and accusers did not inform or persecute through malice, envy,
or for advantage; where subordinate officers durst not help
potent delinquents out of the briars, nor suffer poor men,
tempest tossed in law, to languish in their business within ken
of harbour for want of giving a sop to Cerberus, or sacrificing
to the great Diana of expedition; where those setting dogs, such
as base, promoting informers, were not countenanced, and
severely punished upon any false, unjust, or malicious
information. To close up all, where the magistrate owed justice
to the people, and paid it; where the people begged for mercy
and had it. William Price. 1642.
Verses 3-4. The touchstone of magistrates' justice is
in the causes and cases of the poor, fatherless, afflicted,
and needy, who are not able to attend long their suits of
law, have no friends nor money to deal for them; to whom,
therefore, the mighty should be eyes to direct them, and a staff
to their weakness, to support and help them in their right. David
Dickson.
Verse 5. They know not, neither will they
understand, etc. Every judge must have in him (as Baldus
actually said) two kinds of salt; the first is sal scientiae,
that he may know his duty; the second is sal conscientiae,
that he may do his duty. Such as fail in the first, are censured
here with a nescierunt, and non intellexerunt;
such as fall in the second, are branded here with an ambulant
in tenebris. The dangers upon this neglect of these duties
are two: the one concerning the whole commonwealth, All the
foundations of the earth are out of course; the other
especially touching the private persons of the judges, at the
seventh verse, Ye shall die like men, and fall like one of
the princes, and after death comes judgment, Ps 82:8: Arise,
O God, judge the earth. Almighty God "standeth in the
congregation of princes, and is a judge among gods; "he
sits Chief Justice in every session and assize, to mark what
matters pass, and how they pass, ready to judge those
righteously, who judge others unjustly, "giving wrong
judgment, and accepting the persons of the wicked." Ps 67:4
pros to krithrion tou yeou. Thus I have made the way plain
before you; God infinitely rich in mercy grant, that both I in
speaking, and you in hearing, may walk therein (as the blessed
Apostle phraseth it, Ga 2:14) "with a right foot." They
know not, neither will they understand. That is, they
neither know God, who made them gods; nor yet understand
his law, which is a lantern to their feet, and a light to their
paths. Or, as Placidus Parmensis upon the place,—They neither
consider how they that be called gods, as commissioners
and ministers of God, ought to judge others; nor yet remember
how they shall be judged themselves at the last day, when
"all the foundations of the world shall be moved, "and
God himself shall "arise to judge the earth." Or, they
be so corrupt and abominable, that they will neither learn what
is their office from others, nor yet understand it by
themselves. Or briefly, to give that gloss (which fits best I
think the text, I am sure the time), Nescierunt quid facti,
non intelexerunt quid juris; they were both ignorant in the
matter of fact, as not searching out the cause; and ignorant in
the matter of law, sitting (as Paul said of Ananias) to give
judgment according to the law, and yet commanding that which is
contrary to the law. The first concerns a good deal the jury,
the second a great deal the judges; in both are condemned, as
the nurses of all confusions in a commonwealth, ignorantia
simplex, and affectata; simple ignorance, when as
they be so shallow that they cannot; affected ignorance, when as
they be so deep, that they will not understand what is right and
reason. John Boys, in "The Judge's Charge,"
1618.
Verse 6. Ye are gods, etc. It is, of course, to
civil governors, especially those entrusted with the
administration of justice, that the prophet addresses this stern
admonition. He calls them "the gods, "and "the
sons of the Most High." To the people of Israel this kind
of appellation would not seem over bold: for it was applied to
judges in well known texts of the Law of Moses. Thus, in the
code of civil statutes delivered at Sinai, it is said, Thou
shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people.
Ex 22:28. Nor is that the only instance of the kind. In two
other passages of the same code (Ex 21:6 22:8-9), the word which
our translators have rendered "the judges" is in the
Hebrew, "the gods, "or "God." Since the
ordinary Hebrew word for God (Elohim) is almost always used in
the plural form, it is hard to say whether it ought to be
rendered in these passages in the singular or plural. The
meaning is the same either way. It is a matter of indifference,
for example, whether the law in Ex 21:6, be rendered thus, His
(the bondman's) master shall bring him to the gods; or with
the Septuagint, his master shall bring him to the judgment
seat of God. (prosto krithrion tou Teou). In either case the
terms used are plainly meant to imply that the Majesty of God is
present in the place of judgment. As it is said of Solomon that
he sat on the throne of the LORD as King, 1Ch 29:23, so
it may be said of every magistrate that he sits in God's seat.
God has put upon him a portion of his own dominion and
authority; and has ordained that he is to be obeyed, not for
wrath's sake only, but for conscience sake. The civil
magistrate, in discharging his high function, may justly claim
to govern with a divine right. No one needs to be told that this
old doctrine of the divine right of rulers has been woefully
abused. Sycophantic divines have often made of it a flattering
unction for the care of princes; teaching them that they owed no
obedience to the laws; that they were responsible to none but
God for their administration; that any attempt on the part of
the people to curb their tyranny, or to depose them from their
seats when milder measures failed, was rebellion against God
whose Viceregents they were. Even now, the same doctrine
occasionally makes itself heard from the pulpit and the press;
and thus men attempt to subject the consciences of the people to
the caprices of tyrants. Let it be carefully observed that the
harp of Asaph lends no sanction to this "right divine of
kings to govern wrong." If the prophet testifies that
princes are gods, he includes in the honour the humblest
magistrate. The elders administering justice in the gate of
Bethlehem, though their town be little among the thousands of
Judah, sit in God's seat as truly as King Solomon on his ivory
throne in the porch of judgment at Jerusalem. The common saying
that "the divine right of kings is the divine right of
constables, "is a rough way of expressing a Bible truth.
Let this be borne in mind, and no one will allege Scripture in
defence of royal claims to indefeasible and irresponsible
authority, or claim for such authority the sanction of divine
right. But while care ought to be taken to guard the divine
right of civl government from abuse, the right itself is not to
be forgotten. The state is an ordinance of God, having, like the
family, its foundations in the very constitution of human
nature. The officers of the state, whether supreme or
subordinate, have a divine right to administer justice in the
community over which Providence has placed them. They who resort
to the civil magistrate for judgment, resort to the judgment
seat of God; just as they who resort to the Ministry of the Word
resort to the Great Prophet of the Church. Unless the magistrate
had received a commission from God, he could not lawfully bear
the sword. To take the life of an unarmed fellow man, without a
commission from the Most High warranting the act, would be to
commit murder. William Binnie.
Verse 6. In his Lex Rex, Rutherford argues from
this psalm that judges are not the creatures of kings, to
execute their pleasure, and do not derive their power from the
monarch, but are authorized by God himself as much as the king,
and are therefore bound to execute justice whether the monarch
desires it or no.
Verse 6. I have said, ye are gods. Princes and
judges are gods (Elohim), on the ground that unto
them the word of God came (Joh 10:35), constituting them
such. Even here, where God is about to pass sentence on them, he
begins with recognizing their divinely appointed dignity on
which they presumed, as if giving them absolute power to do as
they pleased, right or wrong; forgetting that high office has
its duties as well as its dignities. Sonship is
closely allied to kingship and judgeship. These
combined dignities, which by all others have been abused, shall
be realized in all their grandest ideal by the coming King,
Judge, and Son of the Most High (Ps 2:6-7,10-12.) A. R.
Fausset.
Verse 6. I have said, ye are gods. As parasites
in base flattery and compliance with their pride, have vainly
called some of them so, and as some princes have most wickedly
and blasphemously affected to be called, yea to be adored, as
gods, (God will take highest vengeance upon all those who take
his name upon them, or submit to it when given them), so God
himself hath put his own name upon magistrates, to mind them of
their duty, or for a twofold end: First, that being called gods,
they should judge and rule as God doth, or with a mind like God,
free from the mixture of a private or passionate spirit, and
filled with a love to, and a delight in, impartial judgment and
righteousness. Secondly, that being called gods, all men might
learn their duty, freely to submit to them and duly to honour
them; seeing any dishonour done to them reflects upon God whose
name they bear. Joseph Caryl.
Verse 6. Gods. It is not Jah or Jehovah,
a name of essence, but Eloah or Elohim, a
name of office that is given them. Thomas Gataker.
Verses 6-7. Ye are gods; there he considered their
pomp and dignity: But ye shall die like men; there he
minds their end, that with the change of his note they might
also change countenance. He tells them their honour, but withal
their lot. In power, wealth, train, titles, friends, they differ
from others; in death they differ not from others. They are cold
when winter comes, withered with age, weak with sickness, and
melt away with death, as the meanest: all to ashes. All flesh
is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower, 1Pe
1:24: the glory, that is, the best of it, but a flower. No great
difference, the flower shows fairer, the grass stands longer,
one scythe cuts down both. Beasts fat and lean, fed in one
pasture, killed in one slaughter. The prince in his lofty
palace, the beggar in his lowly cottage, have double difference,
local and ceremonial height and lowness; yet meet at the grave,
and are mingled in ashes. We walk in this world as a man in a
field of snow; all the way appears smooth, yet cannot we be sure
of any step. All are like actors on a stage, some have one part
and some another, death is still busy amongst us; here drops one
of the players, we bury him with sorrow, and to our scene again:
then falls another, yea all, one after another, till death be
left upon the stage. Death is that damp which puts out all the
dim lights of vanity. Yet man is easier to believe that all the
world shall die, than to suspect himself. Thomas Adams.
Verse 7. Ye shall die like men, etc. Even you
which glisten like angels, whom all the world admires, and sues
and bows to, which are called honourable, mighty and gracious
lords, I will tell you to what your honour shall come: first, ye
shall wax old like others, then ye shall fall sick, like others,
then ye shall die like others, then ye shall be buried like
others, then ye shall be consumed like others, then ye shall be
judged like others, even like the beggars which cry at your
gates: one sickens, the other sickens; one dies, the other dies;
one rots, the other rots: look in the grave, and shew me which
was Dives and which was Lazarus. This is some comfort to the
poor, that once he shall be like the rich; one day he shall be
as wealthy, and as glorious as a king: one hour of death will
make all alike; they which crowed over others, and looked down
upon them like oaks, others shall walk upon them like worms, and
they shall be gone as if they had never been. Henry Smith.
Verse 7. Ye shall die like men, and fall like one
of the princes. The meditation of death would pull down the
plumes of pride; thou art but dust animated; shall dust and
ashes be proud? Thou hast a grassy body, and shall shortly be
mowed down: I have said, ye are gods; but lest they
should grow proud, he adds a corrective: ye shall die like
men; ye are dying gods. Thomas Watson.
Verse 7. And fall like one of the princes.
Tyrants seldom go to their graves in peace. Most of the Caesars
fell by the hands of the people, q.d. If you be like
tyrants in sin, expect to be like them in punishment; as I cast
them out of their thrones for their insolence and violence, so
will I cast you out, and you shall fall like one of these
tyrannical princes. Thomas Hall.
Verse 7.
1. Ye shall fall from the highest pinnacle of honour and
reputation. The place of magistracy, which knoweth you now, will
know you no more. One of the ancients, standing by Caesars tomb,
crieth out, Ubi nunc pulchritudo Caesaris? quo abiit
magnificentia ejus? Where is now the beauty; what is become
of the magnificence; where are the armies now; where the honours,
the triumphs, the trophies of Caesar? All was gone when Caesar
was gone. You honours and your worships, your power, and your
places, all die with you, if not before you.
2. Ye fall from your greatest treasures and possessions. As
ye brought nothing into the world, so it is certain ye shall
carry nothing out of the world. 1Ti 6:7. Saladin, the mighty
monarch of the east, is gone, and hath carried no more along
with him than ye see—i.e., a shirt hung up for that
purpose—said the priest that went before the bier.
3. Ye fall from all your friends and relations; when ye die,
they that were near and dear to you will leave you. George
Swinnock.
Verse 7. Impressiveness is a leading
characteristic of the "death" or "fall" of
"princes:" such incidents, from a variety of causes,
are most striking. But can the same remark be commonly made
respecting the decease of the children of poverty? Regard being
had to the startling effect which the demise of the potentate is
calculated to produce,—has the departure of the peasant,
for example, in itself, the same tendency to beget solemnity and
awe, so that, even under this point of view, the peasant might
be justly affirmed to fall like one of the princes
Indeed, if you think of the outward circumstances attending his
last moments; and then, immediately afterwards, of those which
belong to the close of the life of the dweller in regal or
stately halls, there would seem to be hardly any ground here for
instituting the slightest comparison: but I would have you to
associate the man, as he lies on the eve of dissolution, not
with others, his superiors in rank, in a similar case, but with himself,
when, in the full vigour of existence, he walked to and fro, and
performed his own humble but laborious share of this world's
business; and, as you subsequently mark how the great Destroyer
has crushed all his energies, and left but a corpse behind, you
will surely admit that there is as wide a difference between the
individual as he was and as he is, as there can
possibly be between the scenes at the death beds, respectively,
of princes and of the poor. Yes, and as impressive a
difference too; so that you have only to allow the exhibition of
the striking change to have its legitimate effect upon the mind,
and then, so far as that effect will be concerned, you may
declare of the rural labourer, that "he has fallen like
one of the princes; "seeing that he has given a lesson
every whit as awakening and as emphatic in its admonitions as
could the other. Hugh B. Moffatt, 1861.
Verses 7-8. Your day is coming! The saints are raising
the loud cry of Ps 82:8, inviting Messiah, the true God, the Son
of the Most High (Joh 10:34), the Mighty One, the Judge and
Ruler, to arise and take his inheritance, for he is the heir
of all things, and to be the true Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar,
Barak, Gideon, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Samson, and Samuel, who
will judge, or govern and rule, a mismanaged earth. We
sing this song of Zion in his ears, urging him to come quickly;
and we sing it to one another in joyful hope, while the
foundations of earth seem out of course, because here we find Messiah
the true Judge of a misgoverned world. Andrew A. Bonar.
Verse 8. Arise, O God. A metaphor taken from
the common gesture of judges, whose usual manner is to sit while
they are hearing of cases; to arise and stand up when they come
to give sentence. Thomas Gataker.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1. The sovereignty of God over the most powerful
and exalted. How that sovereignty reveals itself, and what we
may expect from it.
Verse 1. The Lord's presence in cabinets and senates.
Verse 2. A common sin. Regard for the persons of men
often influences our judgment of their opinions, virtues, vices,
and general bearing; this involves injustice to others, as well
as deep injury to the flattered.
Verse 3. A plea for orphans.
Verse 5.
1. The characters of wicked princes.
(a) Ignorance: They know not.
(b) Wilful blindness: Neither will they, etc.
(c) Unrestrained perverseness: They walk on, etc.
2. The consequences to others: All the foundations,
etc.
(a) Of personal security.
(b) Of social comfort.
(c) Of commercial prosperity.
(d) Of national tranquillity.
(e) Of religious liberty; all are out of course. G. R.
Verse 5. (middle clause). A description of the
pilgrimage of presumptuous sinners.
Verse 6. Ye are gods. The passage in the Old
Testament which involves the doctrine of the divinity of Christ.
J. P. Lange.
Verse 8.
1. The invocation: Arise, etc.
2. The prediction: For thou shalt, etc.—G. R.
WORK UPON THE EIGHTY-SECOND PSALM
"The Beauty of Magistracy. An Exposition
of Psalm 82." By THOMAS HALL, B.D. 1659-60. (In SWINNOCK'S
WORKS. Vol. 4. Nichol's Edition.)