TITLE. A Song or Psalm for the sons of
Korah. This sad complaint reads very little like a Song, nor can
we conceive how it could be called by a name which denotes a
song of praise or triumph; yet perhaps it was intentionally so
called to show how faith "glories in tribulations
also." Assuredly, if ever there was a song of sorrow and a
Psalm of sadness, this is one. The sons of Korah, who had often
united in chanting jubilant odes, are now bidden to take charge
of this mournful dirge like hymn. Servants and singers must not
be choosers. To the chief Musician. He must superintend the
singers and see that they do their duty well, for holy sorrow
ought to be expressed with quite as much care as the most joyful
praise; nothing should be slovenly in the Lord's house. It is
more difficult to express sorrow fitly than it is to pour forth
notes of gladness. Upon Mahalath Leannoth. This is translated by
Alexander, "concerning afflictive sickness", and if
this be correct, it indicates the mental malady which occasioned
this plaintive song. Maschil. This term has occurred many times
before, and the reader will remember that it indicates an
instructive or didactic Psalm:—the sorrows of one saint are
lessons to others; experimental teaching is exceedingly
valuable. Of Heman the Ezrahite. This, probably, informs us as
to its authorship; it was written by Heman, but which Heman it
would not be easy to determine, though it will not be a very
serious mistake if we suppose it to be the man alluded to in 1Ki
4:31, as the brother of Ethan, and one of the five sons of Zerah
(1Ch 2:6), the son of Judah, and hence called "the Ezrahite":
if this be the man, he was famous for his wisdom, and his being
in Egypt during the time of Pharaoh's oppression may help to
account for the deep bass of his song, and for the antique form
of many of the expressions, which are more after the manner of
Job than David. There was, however, a Heman in David's day who
was one of the grand trio of chief musicians, "Heman, Asaph,
and Ethan" (1Ch 15:19), and no one can prove that this was
not the composer. The point is of no consequence; whoever wrote
the Psalm most have been a man of deep experience, who had done
business on the great waters of soul trouble.
SUBJECT AND DIVISION. This Psalm is
fragmentary, and the only division of any service to us would be
that suggested by Albert Barnes, viz.—A description of the
sick man's sufferings (Ps 88:1-9), and a prayer for mercy and
deliverance (Ps 88:10-18). We shall, however, consider each
verse separately, and so exhibit the better the incoherence of
the author's grief. The reader had better first peruse the Psalm
as a whole.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. O Lord God of my salvation. This is a
hopeful title by which to address the Lord, and it has about it
the only ray of comfortable light which shines throughout the
Psalm. The writer has salvation, he is sure of that, and God is
the sole author of it. While a man can see God as his Saviour,
it is not altogether midnight with him. While the living God can
be spoken of as the life of our salvation, our hope will not
quite expire. It is one of the characteristics of true faith
that she turns to Jehovah, the saving God, when all other
confidences have proved liars unto her. I have cried day and
night before thee. His distress had not blown out the sparks of
his prayer, but thickened them into a greater ardency, till they
burned perpetually like a furnace at full blast. His prayer was
personal—whoever had not prayed, he had done so; it was
intensely earnest, so that it was correctly described as a cry,
such as children utter to move the pity of their parents; and it
was unceasing, neither the business of the day nor the weariness
of the night had silenced it: surely such entreaties could not
be in vain. Perhaps, if Heman's pain had not been incessant his
supplications might have been intermittent; it is a good thing
that sickness will not let us rest if we spend our restlessness
in prayer. Day and night are both suitable to prayer; it is no
work of darkness, therefore let us go with Daniel and pray when
men can see us, yet, since supplication needs no light, let us
accompany Jacob and wrestle at Jabbok till the day breaketh.
Evil is transformed to good when it drives us to prayer. One
expression of the text is worthy of special note; "before
thee" is a remarkable intimation that the Psalmist's cries
had an aim and a direction towards the Lord, and were not the
mere clamours of nature, but the groanings of a gracious heart
towards Jehovah, the God of salvation. Of what use are arrows
shot into the air? The archer's business is to look well at the
mark he drives at. Prayers must be directed to heaven with
earnest care. So thought Heman—his cries were all meant for
the heart of his God. He had no eye to onlookers as Pharisees
have, but all his prayers were before his God.
Verse 2. Let my prayer come before thee. Admit
it to an audience; let it speak with thee. Though it be my
prayer, and therefore very imperfect, yet deny it not thy
gracious consideration. Incline thine ear unto my cry. It is not
music save to the ear of mercy, yet be not vexed with its
discord, though it be but a cry, for it is the most natural
expression of my soul's anguish. When my heart speaks, let thine
ear hear. There may be obstacles which impede the upward flight
of our prayers—let us entreat the Lord to remove them; and as
there may also be offences which prevent the Lord from giving
favourable regard to our requests—let us implore him to put
these out of the way. He who has prayed day and night cannot
bear to lose all his labour. Only those who are indifferent in
prayer will be indifferent about the issue of prayer.
Verse 3. For my soul is full of troubles. I am
satiated and nauseated with them. Like a vessel full to the brim
with vinegar, my heart is filled up with adversity till it can
hold no more. He had his house full and his hands full of
sorrow; but, worse than that, he had his heart full of it.
Trouble in the soul is the soul of trouble. A little soul
trouble is pitiful; what must it be to be sated with it? And how
much worse still to have your prayers return empty when your
soul remains full of grief. And my life draweth nigh unto the
grave. He felt as if he must die, indeed he thought himself half
dead already. All his life was going, his spiritual life
declined, his mental life decayed, his bodily life flickered; he
was nearer dead than alive. Some of us can enter into this
experience, for many a time have we traversed this valley of
death shade, aye and dwelt in it by the month together. Really
to die and be with Christ will be a gala day's enjoyment
compared with our misery when a worse than physical death has
cast its dreadful shadow over us. Death would be welcomed as a
relief by those whose depressed spirits make their existence a
living death. Are good men ever permitted to suffer thus? Indeed
they are; and some of them are even all their life time subject
to bondage. O Lord, Be pleased to set free thy prisoners of
hope! Let, none of thy mourners imagine that a strange thing has
happened unto him, but rather rejoice as he sees the footprints
of brethren who have trodden this desert before.
Verse 4. I am counted with them that go down into
the pit. My weakness is so great that both by myself and
others I am considered as good as dead. If those about me have
not ordered my coffin they have at least conversed about my
sepulchre, discussed my estate, and reckoned their share of it.
Many a man has been buried before he was dead, and the only
mourning over him has been because he refused to fulfil the
greedy expectations of his hypocritical relatives by going down
to the pit at once. It has come to this with some afflicted
believers, that their hungry heirs think they have lived too
long. I am as a mat, that hath no strength. I have but the name
to live; my constitution is broken up; I can scarce crawl about
my sick room, my mind is even weaker than my body, and my faith
weakest of all. The sons and daughters of sorrow will need but
little explanation of these sentences, they are to such tried
ones as household words.
Verse 5. Free among the dead. Unbound from all
that links a man with life, familiar with death's door, a
freeman of the city of the sepulchre, I seem no more one of
earth's drudges, but begin to anticipate the rest of the tomb.
It is a sad case when our only hope lies in the direction of
death, our only liberty of spirit amid the congenial horrors of
corruption. Like the slain that lie in the grave, whom you
remember no more. He felt as if he were as utterly
forgotten as those whose carcasses are left to rot on the battle
field. As when a soldier, mortally wounded, bleeds unheeded amid
the heaps of slain, and remains to his last expiring groan
unpitied and unsuccoured, so did Heman sigh out his soul in
loneliest sorrow, feeling as if even God himself had quite
forgotten him. How low the spirits of good and brave men will
sometimes sink. Under the influence of certain disorders
everything will wear a sombre aspect, and the heart will dive
into the profoundest deeps of misery. It is all very well for
those who are in robust health and full of spirits to blame
those whose lives are sicklied over with the pale cast of
melancholy, but the evil is as real as a gaping wound, and all
the more hard to bear because it lies so much in the region of
the soul that to the inexperienced it appears to be a mere
matter of fancy and diseased imagination. Reader, never ridicule
the nervous and hypochondriacal, their pain is real; though much
of the evil lies in the imagination, it is not imaginary. And
they are cut off from thy hand. Poor Heman felt as if God
himself had put him away, smitten him and laid him among the
corpses of those executed by divine justice. He mourned that the
hand of the Lord had gone out against him, and that lie was
divided from the great author of his life. This is the essence
of wormwood. Man's blows are trifles, but God's smitings are
terrible to a gracious heart. To feel utterly forsaken of the
Lord and cast away as though hopelessly corrupt is the very
climax of heart desolation.
Verse 6. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in
darkness, in the deeps. What a collection of forcible
metaphors, each one expressive of the utmost grief. Heman
compared his forlorn condition to an imprisonment in a
subterranean dungeon, to confinement in the realms of the dead,
and to a plunge into the abyss. None of the similes are
strained. The mind can descend far lower than the body, for it
there are bottomless pits. The flesh can bear only a certain
number of wounds and no more, but the soul can bleed in ten
thousand ways, and die over and over again each hour. It is
grievous to the good man to see the Lord whom he loves laying
him in the sepulchre of despondency; piling nightshade upon him,
putting out all his candles, and heaping over him solid masses
of sorrow; evil from so good a hand seems evil indeed, and yet
if faith could but be allowed to speak she would remind the
depressed spirit that it is better to fall into the hand of the
Lord than into the hands of man, and moreover she would tell the
despondent heart that God never placed a Joseph in a pit without
drawing him up again to fill a throne; that he never caused a
horror of great darkness to fall upon an Abraham without
revealing his covenant to him; and never cast even a Jonah into
the deeps without preparing the means to land him safely on dry
land. Alas, when under deep depression the mind forgets all
this, and is only conscious of its unutterable misery; the man
sees the lion but not the honey in its carcass, he feels the
thorns but he cannot smell the roses which adorn them. He who
now feebly expounds these words knows within himself more than
he would care or dare to tell of the abysses of inward anguish.
He has sailed round the Cape of Storms, and has drifted along by
the dreary headlands of despair. He has groaned out with one of
old—"My bones are pierced in me in the night season; and
my sinews take no rest. I go morning without the sun. Terrors
are turned upon me, they pursue my soul as the wind." Those
who know this bitterness by experience will sympathise, but from
others it would be idle to expect pity, nor would their pity be
worth the having if it could be obtained. It is an unspeakable
consolation that our Lord Jesus knows this experience, right
well, having, with the exception of the sin of it, felt it all
and more than all in Gethsemane when he was exceeding sorrowful
even unto death.
Verse 7. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me. Dreadful
plight this, the worst in which a man can be found. Wrath is
heavy in itself; God's wrath is crushing beyond conception, and
when that presses hard the soul is oppressed indeed. The wrath
of God is the very hell of hell, and when it weighs upon the
conscience a man feels a torment such as only that of damned
spirits can exceed. Joy or peace, or even numbness of
indifference, there can be none to one who is loaded with this
most tremendous of burdens. And thou hast afflicted me with all
thy waves, or all thy breakers. He pictures God's wrath
as breaking over him like those waves of the sea which swell,
and rage, and dash with fury upon the shore. How could his frail
barque hope to survive those cruel breakers, white like the
hungry teeth of death. Seas of affliction seemed to rush in upon
him with all the force of omnipotence; he felt himself to be
oppressed and afflicted like Israel in Egypt, when they cried by
reason of their afflictions. It appeared impossible for him to
suffer more, he had exhausted the methods of adversity and
endured all its waves. So have we imagined, and yet it is
not really quite so bad. The worst case might be worse, there
are alleviations to every woe; God has other and more terrible
waves which, if he chose to let them forth, would sweep us into
the infernal abyss, whence hope has long since been banished.
Selah. There was need to rest. Above the breakers the swimmer
lifts his head and looks around him, breathing for a moment,
until the next wave comes. Even lamentation must have its
pauses. Nights are broken up into watches, and even so mourning
has its intervals. Such sorrowful music is a great strain both
on voices and instruments, and it is well to give the singers
the relief of silence for a while.
Verse 8. Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far
from me. If ever we need friends it is in the dreary hour of
despondency and the weary time of bodily sickness; therefore
does the sufferer complain because divine providence had removed
his friends. Perhaps his disease was infectious or defiling, so
that he was legally separated from his fellow men, perhaps their
fears kept them away from his plague stricken house, or else his
good name had become so injured that they naturally avoided him.
Lost friends require but small excuse for turning their backs on
the afflicted. The swallows offer no apology for leaving us to
winter by ourselves. Yet it is a piercing pain which arises from
the desertion of dear associates; it is a wound which festers
and refuses to be healed. Thou hast made me an abomination unto
them. They turned from him as though he had become loathsome and
contaminating, and this because of something which the Lord had
done to him; therefore, he brings his complaint to the prime
mover in his trouble. He who is still flattered by the
companions of his pleasure can little guess the wretchedness
which will be his portion should he become poor, or slanderously
accused, for then one by one the parasites of his prosperity
will go their way and leave him to his fate, not without cutting
remarks on their part to increase his misery. Men have not so
much power to bless by friendship as to curse by treachery.
Earth's poisons are more deadly than her medicines are healing.
The mass of men who gather around a man and flatter him are like
tame leopards; when they lick his hand it is well for him to
remember that with equal gusto they would drink his blood.
"Cursed is he that trusteth in man." I am shut up, and
I cannot come forth. He was a prisoner in his room, and felt
like a leper in the lazaretto, or a condemned criminal in his
cell. His mind, too, was bound as with fetters of iron; he felt
no liberty of hope, he could take no flights of joy. When God
shuts friends out, and shuts us in to pine away alone, it is no
wonder if we water our couch with tears.
Verse 9. Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction.
He wept his eyes out. He exhausted the lachrymal glands, he wore
away the sight itself. Tears in showers are a blessing, and work
our good; but in floods they become destructive and injurious.
Lord, I have called daily upon thee. His tears wetted his
prayers, but did not damp then fervour. He prayed still, though
no answer came to dry his eyes. Nothing can make a true believer
cease praying; it is a part of his nature, and pray he must. I
have stretched out my hands unto thee. He used the appropriate
posture of a supplicant, of his own accord; men need no posture
maker, or master of the ceremonies, when they are eagerly
pleading for mercy, nature suggests to them attitudes both
natural and correct. As a little child stretches out its hands
to its mother while it cries, so did this afflicted child of
God. He prayed all over, his eyes wept, his voice cried, his
hands were outstretched, and his heart broke. This was prayer
indeed.
Verse 10. Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead?
Wherefore then suffer me to die? While I live thou canst in me
display the glories of thy grace, but when I have passed into
the unknown land, how canst thou illustrate in me thy love? If I
perish thou wilt lose a worshipper who both reverenced, and in
his own experience illustrated, the wonders of thy character and
acts. This is good pleading, and therefore he repeats it. Shall
the dead arise and praise thee? He is thinking only of the
present, and not of the last great day, and he urges that the
Lord would have one the less to praise him among the sons of
men. Shades take no part in the quires of the Sabbath, ghosts
sing no joyous Psalms, sepulchres and vaults send forth no notes
of thanksgiving. True the souls of departed saints render glory
to God, but the dejected Psalmist's thoughts do not mount to
heaven but survey the gloomy grave: he stays on this side of
eternity, where in the grave he sees no wonders and hears no
songs. Selah. At the mouth of the tomb he sits down to meditate,
and then returns to his theme.
Verse 11. Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in
the grave? Thy tender goodness—who shall testify
concerning it in that cold abode where the worm and corruption
hold their riot? The living may indite "meditations among
the Tombs", but the dead know nothing, and therefore can
declare nothing. Or thy faithfulness in destruction? If the Lord
suffered his servant to die before the divine promise was
fulfilled, it would be quite impossible for his faithfulness to
be proclaimed. The poet is dealing with this life only, and
looking at the matter from the point of view afforded by time
and the present race of men; if a believer were deserted and
permitted to die in despair, there could come no voice from his
grave to inform mankind that the Lord had rectified his wrongs
and relieved him of his trials, no songs would leap up from the
cold sod to hymn the truth and goodness of the Lord; but as far
as men are concerned, a voice which loved to magnify the grace
of God would be silenced, and a loving witness for the Lord
removed from the sphere of testimony.
Verse 12. Shall thy wonders be known in the dark?
If not here permitted to prove their goodness of Jehovah, how
could the singer do so in the land of darkness and death shade?
Could his tongue, when turned into a clod, alarm the dull cold
ear of death? Is not a living dog better than a dead lion, and a
living believer of more value to the cause of God on earth than
all the departed put together? And thy righteousness in the land
of forgetfulness? What shall be told concerning thee in the
regions of oblivion? Where memory and love are lost, and men are
alike unknowing and unknown, forgetful and forgotten, what
witness to the divine holiness can be borne? The whole argument
amounts to this—if the believer dies unblessed, how will God's
honour be preserved? Who will bear witness to his truth and
righteousness?
Verse 13. But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; I
have continued to pray for help to thee, O Jehovah, the living
God, even though thou hast so long delayed to answer. A true
born child of God may be known by his continuing to cry; a
hypocrite is great at a spurt, but the genuine believer holds on
till he wins his suit. And in the morning shall my prayer
prevent thee. He meant to plead on yet, and to increase his
earnestness. He intended to be up betimes, to anticipate the day
light, and begin to pray before the sun was up. If the Lord is
pleased to delay, he has a right to do as he wills, but we must
not therefore become tardy in supplication. If we count the Lord
slack concerning his promise we must only be the more eager to
outrun him, lest sinful sloth on our part should hinder the
blessing.
"Let prayer and holy hymn
Perfume the morning air;Before the world with smoke is dim
Bestir thy soul to prayer."
"While flowers are wet with dew
Lament thy sins with tears,
And ere the sun shines forth anew
Tell to thy Lord thy fears."
Verse 14. LORD, why castest thou oft my soul?
Hast thou not aforetime chosen me, wilt thou now reject me?
Shall thine elect ones become thy reprobates? Dost thou, like
changeable men, give a writing of divorcement to those whom thy
love has espoused? Can thy beloveds become thy cast offs? Why
hidest thou thy face from me? Wilt thou not so much as look upon
me? Canst thou not afford me a solitary smile? Why this severity
to one who has in brighter days basked in the light of thy
favour? We may put these questions to the Lord, nay, we ought to
do so. It is not undue familiarity, but holy boldness. It may
help us to remove the evil which provokes the Lord to jealousy,
if we seriously beg him to shew us wherefore he contends with
us. He cannot act towards us in other than a right and gracious
manner, therefore for every stroke of his rod there is a
sufficient reason in the judgment of his loving heart; let us
try to learn that reason and profit by it.
Verse 15. I am afflicted and ready to die from my
youth up. His affliction had now lasted so long that he
could hardly remember when it commenced; it seemed to him as if
he had been at death's door ever since he was a child. This was
no doubt an exaggeration of a depressed spirit, and yet perhaps
Heman may have been born under the cypress, and have been all
his days afflicted with some chronic disease or bodily
infirmity; there are holy men and women whose lives are a long
apprenticeship to patience, and these deserve both our sympathy
and our reverence,—our reverence we have ventured to say, for
since the Saviour became the acquaintance of grief, sorrow has
become honourable in believers' eyes. A life long sickness may
by divine grace prove to be a life long blessing. Better suffer
from childhood to old age than to be let alone to find pleasure
in sin. While I suffer thy terrors I am distracted. Long use had
not blunted the edge of sorrow, God's terrors had not lost their
terror; rather had they become more overwhelming and had driven
the man to despair. He was unable to collect his thoughts, he
was so tossed about that he could not judge and weigh his own
condition in a calm and rational manner. Sickness alone will
thus distract the mind; and when a sense of divine anger is
added thereto, it is not to be wondered at if reason finds it
hard to hold the reins. How near akin to madness soul depression
sometimes may be, it is not our province to decide; but we speak
what we do know when we say that a feather weight might be
sufficient to turn the scale at times. Thank God O ye tempted
ones who yet retain your reason! Thank him that the devil
himself cannot add that feather while the Lord stands by to
adjust all things. Even though we have grazed upon the rock of
utter distraction, we bless the infinitely gracious Steersman
that the vessel is seaworthy yet, and answers to her helm:
tempest tossed from the hour of her launch even to this hour,
yet she mounts the waves and defies the hurricane.
Verse 16. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me. What
an expression, "fierce wrath", and it is a man of God
who feels it! Do we seek an explanation? It seemed so to him,
but "tidings are not what they seem." No punitive
anger ever falls upon the saved one, for Jesus shields him from
it all; but a father's anger may fall upon his dearest child,
none the less but all the more, because he loves it. Since Jesus
bore my guilt as my substitute, my Judge cannot punish me, but
my Father can and will correct me. In this sense the Father may
even manifest "fierce wrath" to his erring child, and
under a sense of it that dear broken down one may be laid in the
dust and covered with wretchedness, and yet for all that he may
be accepted and beloved of the Lord all the while. Heman
represents God's wrath as breaking over him as waves over a
wreck. Thy terrors have cut me off. They have made me a marked
man, they have made me feel like a leper separated from the
congregation of thy people, and they have caused others to look
upon me as no better than dead. Blessed be God this is the
sufferer's idea and not the very truth, for the Lord will
neither cast off nor cut off his people, but will visit his
mourners with choice refreshments.
Verse 17. They came round about me daily like
water. My troubles, and thy chastisement poured in upon me,
penetrating everywhere, and drowning all. Such is the permeating
and pervading power of spiritual distress, there is no shutting
it out; it soaks into the soul like the dew into Gideon's
fleece; it sucks the spirit down as the quicksand swallows the
ship; it overwhelms it as the deluge submerged the green earth.
They compassed me about together. Griefs hemmed him in. He was
like the deer in the hunt, when the dogs are all around and at
his throat. Poor soul! and yet he was a man greatly beloved of
heaven!
Verse 18. Lover and friend: hast thou put far from
me. Even when they are near me bodily, they are so unable to
swim with me in such deep waters, that they stand like men far
away on the shore while I am buffeted with the billows; but,
alas, they shun me, the dearest lover of all is afraid of such a
distracted one, and those who took counsel with me avoid me now!
The Lord Jesus knew the meaning of this in all its wormwood and
gall when in his passion. In dreadful loneliness he trod the
wine press, and all his garments were distained with the red
blood of those sour grapes. Lonely sorrow falls to the lot of
not a few; let them not repine, but enter herein into close
communion with that dearest lover and friend who is never far
from his tried ones. And mine acquaintance into darkness, or
better still, my acquaintance is darkness. I am familiar
only with sadness, all else has vanished. I am a child crying
alone in the dark. Will the heavenly Father leave his child
there? Here he breaks off, and anything more from us would only
spoil the abruptness of the unexpected FINIS.
(We have not attempted to interpret this Psalm concerning our
Lord, but we fully believe that where the members are, the Head
is to be seen preeminently. To have given a double exposition
under each verse would have been difficult and confusing; we
have therefore left the Messianic references to be pointed out
in the Notes, where, if God the Holy Ghost be pleased to
illustrate the page, we have gathered up more than enough to
lead each devout reader to behold Jesus, the man of sorrows and
the acquaintance of grief.)
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
TITLE. Mahalath Leannoth I lean to the idea,
that the words Mahalath Leannoth, are intended to denote
some musical instrument of the plaintive order, and in this
opinion Kimchi and other Jewish writers perfectly agree.
They assert that it was a wind instrument, answering very much
to the flute, and employed mainly in giving utterance to
sentiments of grief, upon occasions of great sorrow and
lamentation. With this view of the title, I should look for no
new translation, but should just read it substantially as our
translators here: "A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah",
to the giver of victory, upon Mahalath Leannoth, an instruction
for Heman, the Ezrahite.—John Morison.
Title. Leannoth is variously rendered,
according as it is derived from hne, anah, to suffer, be
afflicted, or from hne anah, to chant, sing. Gesenius,
De Wette, Dr. Davies, and others take the latter view; while
Mudge, Hengtenberg, Alexander, and others take the former. Mudge
translates, to create dejection; Alexander renders, mahalath
leannoth, concerning afflictive sickness; Hengstenberg
reads, upon the distress of oppression. The Septuagint (apokriyhnai)
and the Vulgate (respondendum) indicate a responsive
song, and Houbigant translates the words in question, for the
choirs, that they may answer. Many etymologists consider the
primary idea of hne, anah, to sing, that of answering.
The tone of the Psalm in question, however, being decidedly that
of sadness and dejection, it appears more probable that leannoth
denotes the strictly elegiac character of the performance, and
the whole title may read therefore, "A Song or Psalm, for
the sons of Korah, to the chief musician, upon the flutes (or
the hollow instruments,)to afflict (or cause dejection,)a
didactic Psalm of Heman, the Ezrahite."—F.G. Hibbard,
in "The Psalms chronologically arranged, with Historical
Introductions." New York, 1856.
Title. The explanation:—to be performed mournfully
with subdued voice, agrees with the mournful contents, whose
tone is even more gloomy than that of Ps 77:1-20.—From
"The Psalms, by C.B. Moll." (Lange's Series of
Commentaries.)
Title.—Heman.
1. David was not the only man acquainted with sad exercise
and affliction of spirit, for here is another, to wit, Heman
the Ezrahite, as deep in trouble of spirit as he or any
other beside.
2. They are not all men of weak minds and shallow wit who are
acquainted with trouble of spirit, and borne down with the sense
of God's wrath; for here is Heman, one amongst the wisest
of all Israel, (and inferior to none for wisdom, except to
Solomon alone), under the heaviest exercise we can imagine
possible for a saint.
3. When it pleaseth God to exercise a man of parts, of great
gifts and graces, he can make his burden proportionable to his
strength, and give him as much to do with the difficulties he
puts him to, as a weaker man shall find in his exercise, as
appeareth in the experience of Heman.
4. Wise men in their trouble must take the same course with
the simpler sort of men; that is, they must run to God as others
do, and seek relief only in his grace, who as he distributeth
the measures of trouble, can also give comfort, ease, and
deliverance from them, as the practice of Heman doth
teach us.
5. What trouble of wounded spirit some of God's children have
felt in former times, others dear to God may find the like in
after ages, and all men ought to prepare for the like, and
should not think the exercise strange when it cometh, but must
comfort themselves in this, that other saints whose refines are
recorded in Scripture, have been under like affliction; for the
Psalm is appointed "to give instruction"; it is Maschil
of Heman.
6. What is at one time matter of mourning to one of God's
children, may become matter of joy and singing afterward, both
to himself and to others, as this sad anguish of spirit in Heman
is made a song of joy unto God's glory, and the comfort of all
afflicted souls, labouring under the sense of sin and felt wrath
of God, unto the world's end; it is A Song, a Psalm for the
sons of Korah.
7. Such as are most heartily afflicted in spirit, and do flee
to God for reconciliation and consolation through Christ, have
no reason to suspect themselves, that they are not esteemed of
and loved as dear children, because they feel so much of God's
wrath: for here is a saint who hath drunken of that cup (as deep
as any who shall read this Psalm,)here is one so much loved and
honoured of God, as to be a penman of Holy Scripture, and a
pattern of faith and patience unto others; even Heman the
Ezrahite. —David Dickson.
Whole Psalm. "We have in this Psalm the voice of
our suffering Redeemer", says Horne; and the contents may
be thus briefly stated—
1. The plaintive wailing of the suffering one, Ps
88:1-2. It strongly resembles Ps 22:1-2.
2. His soul exceeding sorrowful even unto death, Ps
88:3-5. The word "free" in our version, is vpx,
properly denoting separation from others, and here rendered by
Junius and Tremellius, "set aside from intercourse and
communication with men, having nothing in common with them, like
those who are afflicted with leprosy, and are sent away to
separate dwellings." They quote 2Ch 26:21.
3. His feelings of hell, Ps 88:6-7. For he feels God's
prison, and the gloom of God's darkest wrath. And Selah
gives time to ponder.
4. His feelings of shame and helplessness, Ps 88:8.
"His own receive him not."
5. The effects of soul agony upon his body, Ps 88:9.
6. His submission to the Lord, Ps 88:9. It is the very
tone of Gethsemane, "Nevertheless, not my will!"
7. The sustaining hope of resurrection, Ps 88:10 (with
a solemn pause, "Selah"), Ps 88:11-12. The "land
of forgetfulness", and "the dark",
express the unseen world, which, to those on this side of the
vail, is so unknown, and where those who enter it are to us as
if they had forever been forgotten by those they left behind.
God's wonders shall be made known there. There shall be victory
gained over death and the grave: God's "lovingkindness"
to man, and his "faithfulness", pledge him to
do this new thing in the universe. Messiah must return from the
abodes of the invisible state; and in due time, Heman, as well
as all other members of the Messiah's body, must return also.
Yes, God's wonders shall be known at the grave's mouth.
God's righteousness, in giving what satisfied justice in
behalf of Messiah's members, has been manifested gloriously, so
that resurrection must follow, and the land of forgetfulness
must give up its dead. O morning of surpassing bliss, hasten on!
Messiah has risen; when shall all that are his arise? Till that
day dawn, they must take up their Head's plaintive
expostulations, and remind their God in Heman's strains of what
he has yet to accomplish. "Wilt thou show wonders to the
dead", etc.
8. His perseverance in vehement prayer, Ps 88:13-14.
9. His long continued and manifold woes, Ps 88:15-17.
10. His loneliness of soul, Ps 88:18.
Hengstenberg renders the last clause of this verse more
literally—"The dark kingdom of the dead is instead of all
my companions." What unutterable gloom! completed by this
last dark shade—all sympathy from every quarter totally
withdrawn! Forlorn, indeed! Sinking from gloom to gloom, from
one deep to another, and every billow sweeping over him, and
wrath, like a tremendous mountain, "leaning" or
resting its weight on the crushed worm. Not even Ps 22:1-31 is
more awfully solemnising, there being in this deeply melancholy
Psalm only one cheering glimpse through the intense gloom,
namely, that of resurrection hoped for, but still at a distance.
At such a price was salvation purchased by him who is the
resurrection and the life. He himself wrestled for life and
resurrection in our name—and that price so paid is the reason
why to us salvation is free. And so we hear in solemn joy the
harp of Judah struck by Heman, to overawe our souls not with his
own sorrows, but with what Horsley calls "The lamentation
of Messiah", or yet more fully, The sorrowful days and
nights of the Man of Sorrows.—Andrew A. Bonar.
Whole Psalm. This Psalm stands alone in all the
Psalter for the unrelieved gloom, the hopeless sorrow of its
tone. Even the very saddest of the others, and the Lamentations
themselves, admit some variations of key, some strains of
hopefulness; here only all is darkness to the close.—Neale
and Littledale.
Whole Psalm. The prophecy in the foregoing Psalm of
the conversion of all nations is followed by this Passion Psalm,
in order that it may never be forgotten that God has purchased
to himself an universal church, by the precious blood of his
dear Son.—Christopher Wordsworth.
Whole Psalm. All the misery and sorrow which are
described in this Psalm, says Brentius, have been the lot of
Christ's people. We may therefore take the Psalm, he adds, to be
common to Christ and his church.—W. Wilson.
Verse 1. My That little word "my"
opens for a moment a space between the clouds through which the
Sun of righteousness casts one solitary beam. Generally
speaking, you will find that when the Psalm begins with
lamentation, it ends with praise; like the sun, which, rising in
clouds and mist, sets brightly, and darts forth its parting rays
just before it goes down. But here the first gleam shoots across
the sky just as the sun rises, and no sooner has the ray
appeared, than thick clouds and darkness gather over it; the sun
continues its course throughout the whole day enveloped in
clouds; and sets at last in a thicker bank of them than it ever
had around it during the day. "Lover and friend hast thou
put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness." In
what a dark cloud does the sun of Heman set!—J.C. Philpot.
Verse 1. Before thee. He had not recklessly
poured forth his complaints, or cast them to the winds, as many
are wont to do, who have no hope in their calamities; but he had
always mingled with his complaining prayers for obtaining
deliverance, and had directed them to God, where faith assured
him his prayers would be seen again. This must be attentively
noted, since herein is seen of what kind the complaints of the
saints are.—Mollerus.
Verse 1. Before thee. Other men seek some
hiding place where they may murmur against God, but the Psalmist
comes into the Lord's presence and states his grievances. When a
man dares to pour out his complaint before the Lord's own face,
his woes are real, and not the result of petulence or a
rebellious spirit.—C.H.S.
Verses 1-2. Before thee. Not seeking to be seen by
human eye, but by God alone, therefore, let my prayer come
before thee, that is, let it be acceptable before thee,
after the similitude of ambassadors who are admitted to
audience; and when my prayer has entered incline thine tar
unto my cry, because thou hearest the desire of the
afflicted.—Richardus Hampolus.
Verse 2. Incline thine ear, etc. It is
necessary that God should incline his ear unto our prayer, else
it would be in vain to come before Him. The prodigal did not
venture to present his prayer before the father ran and fell
upon his neck and kissed him. For then he said, Lu 15:21,
"Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy
sight", etc...and so he obtained mercy. Esther did not
present her prayer to Ahasuerus before he descended from his
throne and inclined himself to her. Es 5:2, etc.—Le Blanc.
Verse 3. My soul is full of troubles. The Lord
Jesus emptied himself of glory, that he might be full of
trouble. His soul, which was free from human sin, was full of
human troubles, that we who are full of sin might be free from
trouble; his life drew nigh to the terrors of the unseen world,
that we might not be its spoil and prey.—"Plain
Commentary."
Verse 3. My soul is full of troubles. Hear into
what a depth of spiritual distress three worthy servants of God
in these later times were plunged and pressed down under the
sense of God's anger for sin. Blessed Mistress Brettergh
upon her last bed was horribly hemmed in with the sorrows of
death; the very grief of hell laid hold upon her soul; a roaring
wilderness of woe was within her, as she confessed of herself.
She said, her sin had made her a prey to Satan; and wished that
she had never been born, or that she had been made any other
creature rather than a woman. She cried out many times, woe,
woe, woe, etc.; a weak, a woeful, a wretched, a forsaken woman;
with tears continually trickling from her eyes. Master
Peacock, that man of God, in that his dreadful visitation
and desertion, recounting some smaller sins, burst out in these
words: "And for these", saith he, "I feel now a
hell in my conscience." Upon other occasions he cried out,
groaning most pitifully, "Oh me, wretch! Oh mine heart is
miserable! Oh, oh, miserable and woeful! The burden of my sin
lieth so heavy upon me, I doubt it will break my heart. Oh how
woeful and miserable is my state that I am hunted by hell
hounds!" When bystanders asked if he would pray, he
answered, "I cannot". Suffer us, say they, to pray for
you. "Take not", replied he, "the name of God in
vain, by praying for a reprobate."
What grievous pangs, what sorrowful torments, what boiling
heats of the fire of hell that blessed saint of God, John
Glover, felt inwardly in his spirit, saith Foxe, no speech
outwardly is able to express. Being young, saith he, I remember
I was once or twice with him, whom partly by his talk I
perceived, and partly by mine own eyes saw to be so worn and
consumed by the space of five years, that neither almost any
brooking of meat, quietness of sleep, pleasure of life, yea, and
almost no kind of senses was left in him. Upon apprehension of
some backsliding, he was so perplexed, that if he had been in
the deepest pit of hell, he could almost have despaired no more
of his salvation; in which intolerable griefs of mind, saith he,
although he neither had, nor could have any joy of his meat, yet
was he compelled to eat against his appetite, to the end to
defer the time of his damnation so long as he might; thinking
with himself, but that he must needs be thrown into hell, the
breath being once out of his body. I dare not pass out of this
point, lest some child of God should be here discouraged, before
I tell you that every one of these three was at length blessedly
recovered, and did rise most gloriously out of their several
depths of most extreme spiritual misery, before their end.
Hear, therefore, Mistress Brettergh's triumphant songs
and ravishments of spirit, after the return of her well beloved:
"O Lord Jesus, dost thou pray for me? O blessed and sweet
Saviour, how wonderful! How wonderful are thy mercies! Oh thy
love is unspeakable, thou hast dealt so graciously with me! O my
Lord and my God, blessed be thy name for evermore, which hast
showed me the path of life. Thou didst, O Lord, hide thy face
from me for a little season, but with everlasting mercy thou
hast had compassion on me. And now, blessed Lord, thy
comfortable presence is come; yea, Lord, thou hast had respect
unto thine handmaid, and art come with fulness of joy, and
abundance of consolation. O blessed be thy name, my Lord and my
God. O the joys that I feel in my soul! They be wonderful. O
Father, how merciful and marvellously gracious art thou unto me!
yea, Lord, I feel thy mercy and I am assured of thy love; and so
certain am I thereof, as Thou art the God of truth, even so sure
do I know myself to be thine, O Lord my God, and this my soul
knoweth right well. Blessed be the Lord that hath thus comforted
me, and hath brought me now to a place more sweet unto me than
the garden of Eden. Oh the joy, the delightsome joy that I feel!
O praise the Lord for his mercies, and for this joy which my
soul feels full well; praise his name forever more."
Hear with what heavenly calmness and sweet comforts Master
Peacock's heart was refreshed and ravished when the storm was
over: "Truly, my heart and soul", saith he, (when the
tempest was something allayed) "have been far led and
deeply troubled with temptations, and stings of conscience, but
I thank God they are eased in good measure. Wherefore I desire
that I be not branded with the note of a castaway or reprobate.
Such questions, oppositions, and all tending thereto, I
renounce. Concerning mine inconsiderate speeches in my
temptation, I humbly and heartily ask mercy of God for them
all." Afterward by little, and little, more light did arise
in his heart, and he brake out into such speeches as these:
"I do, God be praised, feel such comfort from that, what
shall I call it?" "Agony", said one that stood
by. "Nay", quoth he, "that is too little; that
had I five hundred worlds, I could not make satisfaction for
such an issue. Oh, the sea is not more full of water, nor the
sun of light, than the Lord of mercy; yea, his mercies are ten
thousand times more. What great cause have I to magnify the
great goodness of God, that hath humbled such a wretched
miscreant, and of so base condition, to an estate so glorious
and stately. The Lord hath honoured me with his goodness! I am
sure he hath provided a glorious kingdom for me. The joy that I
feel in mine heart is incredible." For the third, (namely, John
Glover) hear Mr. Foxe: "Though this good servant of God
suffered many years so sharp temptations, and strong buffeting
of Satan; yet the Lord, who graciously preserved him all the
while, not only at last did rid him out of all discomfort, but
also framed him thereby to such mortification of life, as the
like lightly hath not been seen; in such sort, as he being like
one placed in heaven already, and dead in this world both in
word and meditation, led a life altogether celestial, abhorring
in his mind all profane doings."—Robert Bolton
(1572-1631), in, "Instructions for a right Comforting
afflicted Consciences."
Verse 3. My life. The Hebrew word rendered life
is in the plural number, as in Ge 2:7 3:14,17 6:17 7:15 et
al. Why the plural was used as applicable to life cannot now
be known with certainty. It may have been to accord with
the fact, that man has two kinds of life;—the animal
life,—or life in common with the inferior creation; and
intellectual, or higher life,—the life of the soul. The
meaning here is, that he was about to die; or that his life
or lives approached that state when the grave closes over
us; the extinction of the mere animal life; and the separation
of the soul—the immortal part—from the body.—Albert
Barnes.
Verse 3. The grave. The word which is rendered
"hell" in the Prayer Book translation, and "the
grave" in the Bible version, and which is usually
translated either as hell or the grave, is in the
Hebrew lav and in the Greek "Hades."
"Hades" signifies "the unseen world."
The word "Sheol" is literally "the
Devouring, or the Insatiable." (Compare Hab 2:5) "who
enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be
satisfied"; and also (Pr 3:15-16.) "Sheol"
seems to have presented itself to the thoughts of the ancient
Hebrews as a gloomy, silent, inevitable, and mysterious abode,
situated within the earth, whither the souls of the departed
were compelled to repair and to dwell, upon their being
separated from the body. (Isa 14:9-20). They believed that the
spirits of all human kind were contained there in a state of
waiting, and there especially dwelt the souls of the giants
before the flood (1Pe 3:19-20), and of the great ones of old,
the Rephaim, whom they pictured to themselves as fearful
and gigantic spectres (Compare Pr 2:18). These ideas became
modified and developed with the increasing clearness of divine
teaching; and they divided the abode of the dead into different
states of hope and comfort, which they called Abraham's bosom
and paradise (Lu 16:22-23 23:43); and of misery and suffering,
(Pr 3:1). Life and immortality were brought to light by the
Saviour, and also judgment and Hell—the Gehenna of
everlasting punishment, as distinguished from the Unseen World.
(Compare Re 20:13-14). From these speculations of Jewish Rabbis
respecting Sheol the church of Rome appears to have
developed the doctrine of Purgatory. It should be added that it
was a received opinion among the followers of Rabbinical
teaching, that all of the seed of Abraham, though they would be
dwellers in Sheol before the general resurrection, would
finally escape the Gehenna of everlasting fire. The rich
man (Lu 16:23) is in Hades in torments when he calls to Abraham
his father.—"Plain Commentary."
Verse 4. I am counted with them that go down into
the pit. Not only myself, says he, but others also now
despair of my life, and number me with those whose corpses are
borne forth to burial. For now all my powers have failed and my
vital spirits become quenched. He uses the word rbg which
indicates fortitude rather than Mda or wya in order to show how
great the severity of these evils was, and the vehemence of his
griefs, which had broken even a most robust man.—Mollerus.
Verse 4. I am counted with them that go down into
the pit. Next to the troubles of Christ's soul, are
mentioned the disgrace and ignominy to which he submitted: He
who was the fountain of immortality, from whom no one could take
his life, who could in a moment have commanded twelve legions of
angels to his aid, or have caused heaven and earth, at a word
speaking, to fly away before him, he was counted among them
that go down into the pit; he died, to all appearance, like
the rest of mankind, nay, he was forcibly put to death, as a
malefactor; and seemed, in the hands of his executioners, as
a man that had no strength, no power, or might, to help and
save himself. His strength went from him; he became weak, and
like another man. The people shook their heads at him, saying,
"He saved others, himself he cannot save."—Samuel
Burder.
Verse 4. There is in the original an antithesis, which
cannot be conveyed by mere translation, arising from the fact
that the first word for man is one implying strength.—J.A.
Alexander.
Verse 5. Free among the dead. In the former
verse he had said that he had approached very near to death, now
he is plainly dead: there he was about to be buried, here he is
laid in the sepulchre: thus had his sufferings increased. Free
is to be understood of the affairs of this life, as when it is
said, Job 3:19, "And the servant is free from his
master."—Martin Bucer, 1491-1551.
Verse 5. Free among the dead. yvpx Mytmg bammethim
chophshi, I rather think, means stripped among the dead.
Both the fourth and fifth verses seem to allude to
a field of battle: the slain and the wounded
are found scattered over the plain; the spoilers come
among them, and strip, not only the dead, but those also who
appear to be mortally wounded and cannot recover, and are so
feeble as not to be able to resist. Hence the Psalmist says, "I
am as a man that hath no strength", Ps 88:4.—Adam
Clarke.
Verse 5. Free. There is no immunity so long as
we are in the flesh, there is no truce, but constant unrest
distracts us. Liberty, therefore, is given to us after death,
because we rest from our labourers.—Franciscus Vatablus.
Verse 5. Cut off from the hand. Beware how you
ever look upon yourself as cut off from life and from
enjoyment; you are not cut off, only taken apart, laid aside, it
may be but for a season, or it may be for life; but still you
are part of the body of which Christ is the Head. Some must
suffer and some must serve, but each one is necessary to the
other, "the whole body is fitly framed together by that
which every joint supplieth", "the eye cannot say to
the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the
feet, I have no need of you:" Eph 4:16 1Co 12:21. Your feet
may be set fast; they may have run with great activity, and you
sorrow now, because they can run no more. But do not sorrow
thus, do not envy those who are running; you have a work to do;
it may be the work of the head, or of the eye, it surely is
whatever work God gives to you. It may be the work of lying
still, of not stirring hand or foot, of scarcely speaking,
scarcely showing life. Fear not: if He your heavenly Master has
given it to you to do, it is His work, and He will bless
it. Do not repine. Do not say, This is work, and, this is
not; how do you know? What work, think you, was Daniel
doing in the lion's den? Or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in
the fiery furnace? Their work was glorious, "laudable, and
honourable", they were glorifying God in suffering.—From
"Sickness, its Trials and Blessings." (Anon.)
1868.
Verse 6. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit,
etc. He expands his meaning by another similitude. For he
compares himself to a captive who has been cast into a deep,
foul, dark, and slimy pit, where he is shut up and plunged in
filth and darkness, having not a remnant of hope and life; after
the manner of Jeremiah's sufferings. Jer 37:1-21. By this simile
he means that he was in the greatest anxieties and sorrows of
mind, destitute of every hope and sense of consolation, and that
the terrors of death continually increased and augmented.—Mollerus.
Verse 6. When a saint is under terrible impressions of
Jehovah's infinite wrath, he cannot but be under great horror of
conscience, and in perplexing depths of mental trouble. The
sense which he hath of avenging wrath, occasions a conflict in
his spirit, inexpressibly agonizing and terrible. When his
troubled conscience is inflamed, by a sense of the fiery
indignation of God Almighty, the more be thinks of him as his
infinite enemy, the more he is dismayed: every thought of Him,
brings doleful tidings, and pours oil upon the raging flame.
Trouble of conscience for sin, is indeed very disquieting; but,
a sense of the vindictive wrath of God, kindled in the
conscience, is still more dreadful. No words can express the
direful anguish, which the disconsolate soul then feels. The
Christian cannot at that time think so much as one quiting, one
cheering thought. What he first thinks of is tormenting to his
wounded spirit: he changes that thought for another, and that is
still more tormenting. He finds himself entangled, as in the
midst of a thicket of thorns so that, which way soever he turns
himself, he is pierced and grieved afresh. This dismal thought
often arises in his troubled mind,—That if death were, in his
present condition, to surprise and cut him off, he should sink
forever and ever, under the intolerable wrath of the infinite
Jehovah. The most exquisite torment of body is almost nothing,
in comparison of the anguish of his spirit at such times. Oh!
how inconceivable is the anguish, the agony, especially of a
holy soul, when it is conflicting with the tremendous wrath of
the eternal God! The bodily torture even of crucifixion, could
not extort from the holy Jesus the smallest sigh or complaint;
but the sense of his Father's wrath in his soul, wrung from him
that doleful outcry, "My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me!"—John Colquhoun, in "A Treatise on
Spiritual Comfort." 1814.
Verse 7. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me. Others
read, sustains itself, or bears up itself upon me,
which is as if a giant should with his whole weight stay himself
upon a child.—Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 7. There are some that feel the wrath of God on
their souls and consciences, and yet are not under wrath, but
are true saints of God. Examples ye have in Paul, that chosen
vessel of God to bear the name of Jesus among the Gentiles, he
had fightings without and terrors within. Heman the Ezrahite
said, `The waves of the Lord's indignation are gone over my
head, so that they are like to drown me; I suffer terrors and
doubtings from my very youth, so that I can never be quit of
them.' And both these were the dear children of God. Now, if you
feel nothing but wrath, and thou dost ask how thou shalt judge
of thy state when thou art bearing such a wrath, that put all
the sand of the sea in balance with it, it would overweigh it;
and when thou hast such a fire in thy conscience, that, put iron
and brass in that fire, it would melt them, for they were not
able to abide it: how then shalt thou know, in this case, that
thou art loved of God, and that he hath chosen thee to eternal
life? I tell thee, if thou art the chosen child of God, and a
vessel of mercy, under a sense of wrath, in this estate this
will be thy disposition. First, Thou wilt hate and detest thy
sin, which is the cause of thy misery, and hath brought thee to
this pain. Secondly, Thou wilt have some dolour and sorrow for
thy sin, and thou wilt lament because thou hast provoked God to
anger against thee. Thirdly, Thou wilt have a desire to be
reconciled to God; and thou wouldst gladly be at peace with him,
that thy sins may be taken away out of his sight. Fourthly,
There will be hunger and thirst for the blood of Christ to
quench that wrath, and for his righteousness to cover thy soul.
Fifthly, There will be a patient waiting upon the Lord's
deliverance, and when thou canst not get to this persuasion,
then there will be a hope above hope, and thou wilt say with
Job, (Job 13:15), `Lord, I will trust in thee, though thou
shouldest slay me.'—John Welch.
Verse 8. There are times when an unspeakable sadness
steals upon me, an immense loneliness takes possession of my
soul, a longing perchance for some vanished hand and voice to
comfort me as of old, a desolation without form and void, that
wraps me in its folds, and darkens my inmost being. It was not
thus in the first days of my illness. Then all was so new and
strange, that a strange spiritual strength filled my soul, and
seemed to bear me up as with angel hands. The love and kindness
that my sickness called forth, came to me with a sweet surprise;
tender solicitude made my very pain into an occasion of joy to
me; and hope was strong and recovery was near, only a few brief
weeks between me and returning health, with nothing of sickness
remaining, but the memory of all that love and sympathy, like a
line of light my Saviour's feet had left, as he walked with me
on the troubled sea. But now that hope is deferred, and
returning health seems to loiter by the way, and recovery is
delayed, and the trial lengthens out like an ever lengthening
chain, my soul begins to faint and tire, and the burden to grow
heavier. Even to those who love me most, my pain and
helplessness is now an accustomed thing, while to me it keeps
its keen edge of suffering, but little dulled by use. My ills to
them are a tedious oft told tale which comes with something of a
dull reiterance. It has become almost a matter of course that in
the pleasant plan I should be left out, that in the pleasant
walk I should be left behind; a matter of course that the
pleasures of life should pass me by with folded hand and averted
face; and sickness, and monotonous days, and grey shadows should
be my portion...
And O my God, my spirit sometimes faints beneath a nameless
dread that this loneliness will grow deeper and deeper, if it be
thy will that my sickness should continue, or recovery be long
delayed. I can no longer be the companion of those I love; shall
I be as dear to them as if I could have kept by their side, and
been bound up with all their active interests and pleasures? I
have to see others take my place, and do my work for them; shall
I not suffer loss in their eyes, and others enter into the
heritage of love which might have been mine? Will they not grow
weary of me, weary of the same old ills, oft repeated, but ever
new, and turn with an unconscious feeling of relief, to brighter
hearts, and more joyous lives? My God, my God, to whom can I
turn for comfort but unto thee, thou who didst drink the bitter
cup of human loneliness to the dregs that thou mightest make
thyself a brother to the lonely, a merciful and faithful High
Priest to the desolate soul; thou who alone canst pass within,
the doors being shut to all human aid, into that secret
place of thunder, where the tempest tossed soul suffers and
struggles alone; thou who alone canst command the winds and
tempests, and say unto the sea "Be still!" and unto
the wind, "Blow not!" and there shall be a great calm.
As a child alone in the dark, my heart cries out for thee, cries
for thine embracing arms, for thy voice of comfort, for thy
pierced heart on which to rest my aching head, and feel that
Love is near.—From "Christ the Consoler. A Book of
Comfort for the Sick." Anon. 1872.
Verse 8. Thou hast put away mine acquaintance.
This tempest of afflictions is all the heavier, because, First,
all my acquaintance departed far from me, like swallows in
winter time: Pr 14:20. The poor is hated even of his own
neighbour, but, but the rich hath many friends. Seneca
wisely admonishes: Flies follow honey, wolves corpses, ants
food, the mob follows the pay, not the man. Job said, (Job
19:13), He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine
acquaintance are verily estranged from me. My kinsfolk have
failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me. Secondly, not
only do they often depart from the afflicted, but they
themselves add to his trouble, and precipitate his falling
fortune. A rich man beginning to fall is held up by his friends;
but a poor man being down, is thrust away by those who once
pretended to love him.—Le Blanc.
Verse 8. Thou hast made me an abomination unto
them: lit, "abominations", as if I were one great
mass of abominations. (Ge 46:34 43:32). As Israel was an
abomination to the Egyptians, so Messiah, the antitypical
Israel, was to the world.—A.R. Fausset.
Verse 8. An abomination. As one who is
unclean,—excluded from social intercourse; Ge 46:34. Compare
Job 9:31 19:19 30:10. "I cannot come forth."
The man suspected of leprosy was "shut up seven days";
Le 13:4.—William Kay.
Verse 9. Mine eye mourneth, ...I have
called. Weeping must not hinder praying; we must sow in
tears: "Mine eye mourns", but "I cry unto thee
daily." Let prayers and tears go together, and they shall
be accepted together: "I have heard thy prayers, I have
seen thy tears."—Matthew Henry.
Verse 9. The first clause seems literally to mean the
soreness and dimness of sight caused by excessive weeping, and
is so taken by many of the commentators, and Lorinus aptly
quotes a Latin poet, Catullus, in illustration:—
Moesta neque assiduo tabescere lumina fletu Cessarent.
Nor my sad eyes to pine with constant tears Could cease.
—Neale's Commentary.
Verse 10. He assures himself God would not fail to
comfort him before he died; and again, that the Lord would
rather miraculously raise him from the dead, than not glorify
himself in his deliverance: and in this also he taketh a safe
course, for he seeks for what he might expect, rather in an
ordinary way, than by looking for miracles.—David Dickson.
Verse 10. Shall the dead arise and praise thee?
So far from this being an argument against the resurrection, it
is Messiah's own most powerful plea for it—that otherwise man
would be deprived of salvation, and God of the praise which the
redeemed shall give for it to all eternity. Thou canst not show
wonders to the dead as such; for "God is not the God of the
dead, but of the living." (Mt 22:32.) Or even if thou wert
to show thy wonders, it is only by their rising to life again
that they can duly praise thee for them.—A.R. Fausset.
Verse 10. The dead. The word comes from a root
which expresses what is weak and languid, and at the same time
stretched out and long extended, and which can accordingly be
employed to describe the shadowy forms of the under world as
well as the giants and heroes of the olden time.—Carl
Bernhard Moll, in Lange's Commentary.
Verse 10. The dead. An attentive consideration
seems to leave little room for doubt that the dead were called
Rephaim (as Gesenius also hints) from some notion of Scheol
being the residence of the fallen spirits or buried giants.—F.W.
Farrar, in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible.
Verses 10-11. Can my soul ever come to think I shall
live in thy favour, in thy free grace and lovingkindness, to be
justified by it, to apprehend myself a living man, and all my
sins forgiven? To do this, saith he, is as great a wonder as to
raise a man up from death to life; therefore he useth that
expression, Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? He
calleth it a wonder; for of all works else, you shall find in
Scripture the resurrection from the dead counted the greatest
wonder. The phrase in Ps 88:10, as the Septuagint translates it,
is exceeding emphatic. Saith he, "Wilt thou shew wonders to
the dead? Shall the physicians arise and praise thee?" So
they read it, and so some good Hebrecians read it also; that is,
Go send for all the college of physicians, all the angels out of
heaven, all the skilful ministers and prophets that were then
upon the earth, Gad and David, for he lived in David's time;
send for them all. All these physicians may come with their
cordials and balms; they will never cure me, never heal my soul,
never raise me up to life again, except thou raise me; for I am
"free among the dead", saith he. Now then, to work
faith in such a one; for this poor soul, being thus dead, to go
out of himself, and by naked and sheer faith to go to Jesus
Christ alone, whom God raised from the dead, and to believe on
him alone; this is now as great a power as indeed to raise a man
up from death to life.—Thomas Goodwin.
Verses 10-12. In these verses we find mention made of
four things on the part of God: "wonders", "lovingkindness",
"faithfulness", and "righteousness". These
were four attributes of the blessed Jehovah which the eyes of
Heman had been opened to see, and which the heart of Heman had
been wrought upon to feel. But he comes, by divine teaching,
into a spot where these attributes seem to be completely lost to
him; and yet, (so mysterious are the ways of God!) that spot was
made the very place where those attributes were more powerfully
displayed, and made more deeply and experimentally known to his
soul. The Lord led the blind by a way that he knew not into
these spots of experience, that in them he might more fully open
up to him those attributes of which he had already gained a
glimpse; but the Lord brought him in such a mysterious way, that
all his former knowledge was baffled. He therefore puts up this
inquiry to the Lord, how it was possible that in those spots
where he now was, these attributes could be displayed or made
known? He begins—Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? He
is speaking here of his own experience; he is that
"dead" person to whom those "wonders" are to
be shown. And being in that state of experience, he considered
that every act of mercy shown to him where he then was, must be
a "wonder". Shall the dead arise and praise thee?
What! the dark, stupid, cold, barren, helpless soul, that cannot
lift up one little finger, that cannot utter one spiritual word,
that cannot put forth one gracious desire, that cannot lift up
itself a hair's breadth out of the mass that presses it
down—"Shall it arise?" and more than that, "praise
thee?" What! can lamentation ever be turned into
praise. Can complaint ever be changed into thanksgiving? Can the
mourner ever shout and sing? Oh, it is a wonder of wonders, if
"the dead" are to "arise", if "the
dead" are to "praise thee"; if the dead are to
stand upon their feet, and shout victory through thy blood!—J.C.
Philpot.
Verse 11. In the grave. Here is a striking
figure of what a living soul feels under the manifestations of
the deep corruptions of his heart. All his good words, once so
esteemed; and all his good works, once so prized; and all his
prayers, and all his faith, and hope, and love, and all the
imaginations of his heart, are not merely paralysed and dead,
not merely reduced to a state of utter helplessness, but also in
soul feeling turned into rottenness and corruption. When we feel
this we are spiritually brought where Heman was, when he said,
"Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the
grave?" What! wilt thou manifest thy love to a stinking
corpse? What! is thy love to be shed abroad in a heart full of
pollution and putrefaction? Is thy lovingkindness to come forth
from thy glorious sanctuary, where thou sittest enthroned in
majesty, and holiness, and purity,—is it to leave that eternal
abode of ineffable light and glory, and enter into the dark,
polluted, and loathsome "grave"? What! is thy
lovingkindness to come out of the sanctuary into the charnel
house? Shall it be "declared" there—revealed
there—spoken there—manifested there—made known there? For
nothing else but the declaration of it there will do. He
does not say, "Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the
Scriptures?" "Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in
Christ?" ..."Shall thy lovingkindness be declared by
the mouth of ministers?" "Shall thy lovingkindness be
declared in holy and pure hearts?"—but he says,
"Shall thy lovingkindness be declared",
uttered, spoken, revealed, manifested, "in the grave?"
where everything is contrary to it, where everything is unworthy
of it,—the last of all places fit for the lovingkindness of an
all pure God to enter.—J.C. Philpot.
Verse 11. Thy faithfulness in destruction. You
will see God's faithfulness to have been manifested most,—in
destruction. You will see God's faithfulness to his covenant
most clearly evidenced in destroying your false religion, in
order to set up his own kingdom in your soul; in destroying
everything which alienated and drew away your affections from
him, that he alone might be enshrined in your hearts; and you
will say, when the Lord leads you to look at the path he has led
you, in after years, "Of all God's mercies his greatest
have been those that seemed at the time to be the greatest
miseries; the richest blessings which he has given us, are those
which came wrapped up in the outside covering of curses; and his
faithfulness has been as much or more manifested in destruction,
than in restoration."—J.C. Philpot.
Verse 11.—It is not by leaving man in the
"destruction" which sin and death produce, that God
will declare his "faithfulness" to his promises which
have flowed out of his "lovingkindness"; for instance,
his promise that the woman's seed should bruise the serpent's
head (Ge 13:15 and Ho 13:14).—A.R. Faussett.
Verse 12. Wilt thou show thy righteousness in the
land of forgetfulness? where I have forgotten thee, where I
turned aside from thee, where I have let slip out of my memory
all thy previous dealings with me—and shall thy righteousness
be manifested even there? Wilt thou prove thine equity in
showing forth mercy, because for me a sacrifice has been
offered, thy righteousness running parallel with the atoning
stream of Christ's blood? When I have forgotten thee and
forsaken thee, and turned my back upon thee, can thy
righteousness be there manifested? What! righteousness running
side by side with mercy! and righteousness still preserving all
its unbending strictness, because this very backsliding of
heart, this very forgetfulness of soul, this very alienation of
affection, this very turning my back upon thee, have all been
atoned for; and righteousness can be still shown "in the
land of forgetfulness", because all my sins committed in
the land of forgetfulness have been atoned for by redeeming
blood!—J.C. Philpot.
Verse 13. But, etc. That "but" seems
to come in as an expression of his resolution hitherto, that
though these were his apprehensions of his condition, yet he had
sought the Lord, and would go on to do the same. Suppose thou
findest no relish in the ordinances, yet use them; thou art
desperately sick, yet eat still take all that is brought thee,
some strength will come of it. Say, Be I damned or saved,
hypocrite or no hypocrite, I resolve to go on.—Thomas
Goodwin.
Verse 13. In the morning shall my prayer prevent
thee. The morning prayer is the best...In the morning God
gave various gifts. First, the manna, Ex 16:13, And in the
morning the dew lay round about the host: He who is in the
camp of God, and bravely fights, receives from God dew and
consolation, if in the morning, that is, in the beginning of
temptation, he prays. In the evening flesh was given, whence
death overtook them, but in another case in the morning the
manna was given, whereby life was sustained, until they came
into the land of promise. Secondly, the law was given in the
morning, Ex 19:16, And it came to pass on the third day in the
morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick
cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding
loud. In morning devotion the thunders of God, that is, his
judgments, are more distinctly heard; his lightnings, that is,
his divine enlightenments, are best seen; the thick cloud upon
the mount, that is, the divine overshadowing of the soul, is
perceived; and the voice of the trumpet is best heard, that is,
inspiration then with greater force moves the mind. Thirdly, in
the morning, very early, the children of Israel went forth from
Egypt; for in the middle of the night God smote all the first
born in the land of Egypt, Ex 12:29 ...In the morning pray, and
you shall conquer your daily and nightly foes; and the Red Sea
itself, that is the place of temptation, shall be to thee a
field of glory, of victory and exultation and all things shall
go well with thee.—Le Blanc.
Verse 13. Unto thee have I cried, O Lord. There
is something comitant with the Christian's present darkness of
spirit that distinguishes it from the hypocrite's horror; and
that is the lively working of grace, which then commonly is very
visible, when his peace and former comfort are most questioned
by him; the less joy he hath from any present sense of the love
of God, the more abounding you shall find him in sorrow for his
sin that clouded his joy; the further Christ is gone out of his
sight, the more he clings in his love to Christ, and vehemently
cries after him in prayer, as we see in Heman here. O the
fervent prayers that then are shot from his troubled spirit to
heaven, the pangs of affection which are springing after God,
and his face and favour! Never did a banished child more desire
admittance into his angry father's presence, than he to have the
light of God's countenance shine on him, which is now veiled
from him.—William Gurnall.
Verse 14. Why hidest thou thy face from me?
Numerous are the complaints of good men under this dark cloud;
and to a child of light it is indeed a darkness that may be
felt; it beclouds and bewilders the mind; the brightest
evidences are in a great measure hid; the Bible itself is
sealed, and fast closed; we see not our signs, nor our tokens
for good; every good thing is at a distance from us, behind the
cloud, and we cannot get at it; there is a dismal gloom upon our
path; we know not where we are, where to step, nor which way to
steer; which way God is gone we know not, but he knoweth the way
that we take; and such a prayer as this suits us well,—Seek
thy servants, for we are lost. Christ is hid, and there is a
frowning cloud upon the sweet countenance of God, in which he
hides his blessed face; or, as he did to the disciples, holds
our eyes, that we should not see him. But, though this is often
the case with believers, and they cannot see one beam of light
before them; though all evidences are hid, and the light of the
Lord's countenance is withdrawn; though no signs nor love tokens
appear; and though the life giving commandment is hid from them,
and he shows them no wonders out of his law; yet, these
Israelites have light in their dwellings—they have light to
see the corruptions of their own hearts; to see the Workings of
unbelief, legal pride, enmity, rebellion, the double diligence
of Satan, and the wretched advantages he takes of them in these
dark seasons.—William Huntington.
Verse 15. I am afflicted. (Vulg. Pauper sum
ego.) God more readily hears the poor, and gives himself
wholly to them. First, his eyes, to behold them, Ps 11:5, "His
eyes behold the poor." Secondly, his ears, to hear
them, Ps 10:17, "Thou wilt prepare their hearts, thou
wilt cause thine ears to hear." Thirdly, his hand, to
help, Ps 107:41, "Yet setteth he the poor on high from
his affliction." Fourthly, his breast and his arms, to
receive the fugitives and those in peril, Ps 60:9, "The
Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed." Fifthly,
memory to recollect for them, Ps 9:18, "The needy shall
not alway be forgotten." Sixthly, intellect, to care
for them, and watch over their comfort, Ps 40:17, "But I
am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me."
Seventhly, goodwill, to love their prayers, Ps 22:24, "For
he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the
afflicted, neither hath he hid his face from him."
Eighthly and lastly, he gives himself wholly to them, to
preserve them, Ps 72:13, "He shall save the souls of the
needy."—Le Blanc.
Verse 15. I am afflicted and ready to die from my
youth up. How much some suffer! I have seen a child, who at
the age of twenty months had probably suffered more bodily pain
than the whole congregation of a thousand souls, where its
parents worshipped. Asaph seems to have been of a sad heart.
Jeremiah lived and died lamenting. Heman seems to have been of
the same lot and of the same turn of mind.—William S.
Plumer.
Verse 15. (First clause). We found the heat
more oppressive this day than we had yet experienced it. The
hillocks of sand between which we were slowly moving at the
usual camel's pace, reflected the sun's rays upon us, till our
faces were glowing as if we had been by the side of a furnace...
Perhaps it was through this part of the desert of Shur that
Hagar wandered, intending to go back to her native country; and
it may have been by this way that Joseph carried the young child
Jesus when they fled into the land of Egypt. Even in tender
infancy the sufferings of the Redeemer began, and he complains, "I
am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up."
Perhaps these scorching beams beat upon his infant brow, and
this sand laden breeze dried up his infant lips, while the heat
of the curse of God began to melt his heart within. Even in the
desert we see the suretyship of Jesus.—R.M. Macheyne's
"Narrative of a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews."
Verse 15. From my youth up. That is, for a long
time;—so long, that the remembrance of it seems to go back to
my very childhood. My whole life has been a life of trouble and
sorrow, and I have not strength to bear it longer. It may have
been literally true that the author of the Psalm had been a man
always afflicted; or, this may be the language of strong
emotion, meaning that his sufferings had been of so long
continuance that they seemed to him to have begun in his very
boyhood.—Albert Barnes.
Verse 15. While I suffer thy terrors I am
distracted. The word doth not signify properly the
distraction of a man that is mad, but the distraction of a man
that is in doubt. It is the distraction of a man who knows not
what to do, not of a man who knows not what he doth, and yet
that distraction doth often lead to a degree of this; for a man
who is much troubled to know what to do, and cannot know it,
grows at last to do he knows not what.—Joseph Caryl.
Verse 15. While I suffer thy terrors I am
distracted. The Psalm hath this striking peculiarity in it,
namely, that it not only hath reference to the Lord Jesus
Christ, and him alone; but that he himself is the sole speaker
from the beginning to the end. And although the whole of the
Psalms are of him, and concerning him, more or less, and he is
the great object and subject of all; yet, secondarily and
subordinately we meet with many parts in the Psalms where his
church is also noticed, and becomes concerned, from union with
him, in what is said. But in this Psalm there is allusion to no
other. (We differ from Dr. Hawker in his exclusion of the saints
from this Psalm. Where the Head is the members are never far
away.—ED.) All is of him and his incommunicable work. All is
of the Son of God in our nature. It contains an account of the
cries of the Lord Jesus "when in the days of his flesh he
offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and
tears." The soul agonies of Christ even from the moment of
his incarnation to his death, may be contemplated, or read, from
the sacred records of Scripture, but cannot come within the
province of any created power to conceive, much less unfold. It
is remarkable that whatever the Lord meant to convey by the
phrase, "I am distracted", this is the only
place in the whole Bible where the word "distracted"
is used. Indeed the inspired writers have varied their terms of
expression; when speaking of Christ's sufferings, as if unable
to convey any full idea. Matthew renders it that the Lord Jesus
said: "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto
death!" (Mt 26:38.) Mark describes him as "being
sore amazed, and very heavy!" (Mr 14:33.) And Luke: his
"being in an agony!" (Lu 22:44.) But here we must
rest, in point of apprehension, for we can proceed no
further.—Robert Hawker.
Verse 15. O Lord, the monotony of my changeless days
oppresses me, the constant weariness of my body weighs me down.
I am weary of gazing on the same dull objects: I am tired of
going through the same dull round day after day; the very
inanimate things about my room, and the patterns on the walls,
seem quickened with the waste of my life, and, through the power
of association, my own thoughts and my own pain come back upon
me from them with a dull reverberation. My heart is too tired to
hope; I dare not look forward to the future; I expect nothing
from the days to come, and yet my heart sinks at the thought of
the grey waste of years before me; and I wonder how I shall
endure, whether I shall faint by the way, before I reach my far
off home.—From "Christ the Consoler."
Verse 16. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me. Like
a sea of liquid fire; (Ps 42:7)—Heb. "Thy hot wraths."
LXX (Septuagint) ai orgai sou —William Kay
Verse 16. Thy terrors have cut me off. In the
Hebrew verb the last syllable is repeated for the purpose of
putting vehemence into the expression. The word tme signifies,
to shut up and press into some narrow place, in order that; one
may not breathe or escape...In this sense Gregory Nazianzen in
his first oration concerning peace, calls grief (the prison of
the heart).—Mollerus.
Verse 17. Like water; not merely because it
drowns, but because it searches every crevice, goes to the very
bottom, and makes its way on all sides when once it obtains an
entrance, thus fitly denoting the penetrating force of
temptation and trouble.—Hugo Cardinalis.
Verse 18. Lover and friend hast thou put far from
me, etc. Next to the joys of religion, those of friendship
are most rational, sublime, and satisfactory. But they, like all
other earthly joys, have their mixtures and alloys, and are very
precarious. We are often called to weep with our friends, and
sometimes to weep over them. Grief and tears for their death are
the sad tribute we pay for loving and being beloved, and living
long in this world. This seems to have been the case with the
author of this melancholy Psalm, where our text is. He was
exercised with great afflictions of body, and deep distress of
mind. "His soul was full of troubles, and his life drew
nigh to the grave. He was shut up and confined by weakness and
pain, and could not go forth", to his business or pleasure,
to the social or solemn assembly, Ps 88:3-8. He adds, that
"he had been afflicted and read to die from his youth"
in Ps 88:15; which seems to intimate that he was now an old man.
Some of his acquaintance and friends had deserted him, and he
was "become an abomination to them", Ps 88:8. They
would not assist him, nor afford him the comfort of a friendly
visit, and the cheap kindness of a soft, compassionate word.
Others of them, who would have been faithful and kind to him in
his distress, were taken out of the world; and this at a time
when, through age and infirmities, he peculiarly needed their
company and assistance. To this he refers in the text; and with
this he concludes the Psalm, as the heaviest stroke of all, "Lover
and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance late
darkness." This is a common case; and frequently the
case of the aged. It is no unusual thing for old people to
outlive their nearest relations; the companions of their lives;
their children, and sometimes their grandchildren too; and they
are, as the Psalmist expresses it, "like a sparrow alone
upon the house top." . . .
What chiefly afflicted the Psalmist, and will afflict every
generous heart, was, that his friends and lovers were removed
into "darkness"; that is, to the grave, which
is called in Scripture, "the land of darkness and the
shadow of death, without any order or succession; and where the
light is as darkness." Job 10:21-22. They were put so far
from him, that he could see them no more; were dead and buried
out of his sight; neither would one of their friends on earth
any more behold them. Thus are our friends put into darkness.
The eyes that used to sparkle with pleasure, when we met after a
long absence, are closed in death. The voice that used to
delight and edify us is sealed up in everlasting silence. There
is no conversing with them personally nor by letters. Not lands
and seas divide us from them, but regions of vast, unknown
space, which we cannot yet pass over; and which they cannot and
indeed would not tread back, as much as they loved us. We have
no way of conveying intelligence to them or receiving it from
them. Perhaps they were put far away from us in their youth, or
in the midst of their days and usefulness; when we promised
ourselves many years of pleasure in their friendship and
converse, and expected many years of service from them, for
their families, for the church, and the world. Alas! one awful,
fatal stroke hath broken down all the pleasing fabric of love
and happiness.
But these are reflections which must not be dwelt upon. When
they begin to grow very painful, as they soon will, it is time
to turn our thoughts to that which is the second thing
observable in the text; namely, the Psalmist's devout
acknowledgment of the hand of God in this affliction. "Thou
hast put them far from me." This good man, through the
whole Psalm, ascribes all his afflictions, and particularly the
death of his friends, to the hand of God. He takes no notice of
their diseases; he neither blames them for imprudence and delay,
nor those who attended them for neglect or misapplication; but
looks beyond all second causes to the great Lord of all; owns
him as the supreme sovereign of every life, and disposer of
every event. And we shall do well to make this idea of the
blessed God familiar to our minds, as it is at once most
instructive and most comfortable. The holy Scriptures confirm
the dictates of reason upon this subject; assuring us that God
"maketh peace and createth evil"; that "out of
the mouth of the Lord proceedeth evil and good"; that the
most casual events are under his direction, so that "not a
sparrow falleth to", nor lighteth on, "the ground
without him; "much less do his rational creatures and
children die without his notice and appointment. By whatever
disease or casualties they die, it is God who "taketh away
their breath, changeth their countenance, and sendeth them into
darkness." With awful majesty God claims this as his
prerogative; "I wound, and I heal: neither is there any
that can deliver out of my hand." (De 32:39.) He removeth
our friends who hath a right to do it. They were our friends,
but they are his creatures; and may he not do what he will with
his own? He gave them life of his free goodness, and he hath a
right to demand it when he pleaseth. Dear as they were to us, we
must acknowledge they were sinners; and, as such, had forfeited
their lives to the justice of God: and shall not he determine
when to take them away? They were our friends; but do we not
hope and believe that, by repentance, faith in Christ, and
sanctifying grace, they were become his friends too; dear to him
by many indissoluble ties? Hath he not then a superior claim to
them, and a greater interest in them? Is it not fit that he
should be served first? May he not call home his friends when he
pleaseth? Shall he wait for, or ask, our consent first? He doth
it, whom we cannot, dare not, gainsay. "Behold, he taketh
away, who can hinder him? who will say unto him, what doest
thou?" (Job 9:12.) He doth it, who is infinitely good and
wise; and doth everything in the best time and manner. His
knowledge is perfect and unerring; his goodness boundless and
never failing. Though his judgments are a great deep, and his
schemes utterly unsearchable by us; yet we may reasonably
believe that he consulteth the happiness of his servants in what
is most mysterious and most grievous; and his word giveth us the
strongest assurance of it. So that whether we exercise the faith
of Christians, or the reason of men, we must acknowledge the
hand of God, yea, his wisdom and goodness, in removing our
acquaintance into darkness.—Job Orton, 1717-1783.
Verse 18. Mine acquaintance late darkness.
Rather, my acquaintanceship is darkness, that is,
darkness is all I have to converse with; my circle of
acquaintance is comprised in blank darkness.—Ernest
Hawkins.
Verse 18. To be discountenanced or coldly treated by
Christian friends, is often a consequence of a believer's having
forfeited his spiritual comfort. When the Lord is angry with his
rebellious child, and is chastening him, he not only giveth
Satan leave to trouble him, but permits some of the saints who
are acquainted with him, to discountenance him, and by their
cold treatment of him, to add to his grief. When the father of a
family resolves the more effectually to correct his obstinate
child, he will say to the rest of the household, "Do not be
familiar with him; shew him no countenance; put him to
shame." In like manner, when the Lord is smiting,
especially with spiritual trouble, his disobedient child, he, as
it were, saith to others of his children, "Have for a
season no familiarity with him; treat him with coldness and
neglect; in order that he may be ashamed, and humbled for his
iniquity." Job, under his grievous affliction, complained
thus, "He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine
acquaintance are verily estranged from me", & c. (Job
19:13-19). And likewise Heman, "Thou hast laid me in the
lowest pit, in darkness" When the favour of God to the soul
is clouded, the comfort of Christian society is also obscured.
When He frowns on one, his children commonly appear to frown
likewise; and when he makes himself strange to one, so for the
most part do they. If a holy man, then, under trouble of spirit,
begins to be treated with disregard, and even with contempt, by
some of his Christian brethren, he ought not to be surprised;
neither should he take occasion to be angry, or to quarrel with
them; but he should look above them, and take the afflictive
dispensation, only out of the hand of the Lord, as a necessary
part of the chastisement intended for him. He ought to say with
respect to them, as David concerning Shimei, "The Lord hath
bidden them; "or, as Heman did, "THOU hast put away
my acquaintance far from me."—John Colquhoun.
Verse 18. The very rhythm of the last line shows that
the piece is not complete. The ear remains in suspense; until
the majestic Ps 89:1-52 shall burst upon it like a bright
Resurrection morning.—William Kay.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1.
1. Confidence in prayer,—"God of my salvation."
2. Earnestness in prayer,—"I have cried."
3. Perseverance in prayer,—"Day and night."—G.R.
Verse 2.—Prayer as an ambassador.
1. An audience sought, or the benefit of access.
2. Attention entreated, or the blessing of success.
3. The Process explained, or prayer comes and God inclines.
Verse 3.
1. A good man is exposed to inward troubles.
(a) To soul troubles.
(b) To the soul full of troubles.
2. To outward troubles. "My life", etc.
(a) From outward persecutions.
(b) From inward griefs.
3. To both inward and outward troubles at the same time.
"Soul full", etc., "and my life",
etc.—G.R.
Verse 4. (last clause).—Conscious weakness,
painfully felt, at certain times, in various duties. Intended to
keep us humble, to drive us to our knees, and to bring greater
glory to God.
Verses 4-5.
1. The resemblance of the righteous man to the wicked.
(a) In natural death.
(b) In bodily infirmities.
2. His difference from them. He is "counted with
them" but is not of them.
(a) He experiences natural death only.
(b) His strength is perfected in weakness.
(c) For him to die is gain.—G.R.
Verses 6-7.
1. What the afflictions of the people of God appear to be to
themselves.
(a) Extreme,—"laid me in the lowest pit."
(b) Inexplicable,—"in darkness."
(c) Humiliating,—"in the deeps."
(d) Severe,—"thy wrath lieth hard."
(e) Exhaustive,—"afflicted with all thy waves."
2. What they are in reality.
(a) Not extreme but light.
(b) Not inexplicable, but according to the will of God.
(c) Not humiliating, but elevating. "Humble yourselves
under", etc.
(d) Not severe but gentle. Not in anger but in love.
(e) Not exhaustive but partial. Not all thy waves, but a few
ripples only. The slight motion in the harbour when there is a
boisterous ocean beyond.—G.R.
Verse 8. (last clause).—This may describe us
when despondency is chronic, when trouble is overwhelming, when
sickness detains us at home, when we feel restrained in
Christian labour, or hampered in prayer.
Verse 9.
1. Sorrow before God,—"Mine eye", etc.
2. Prayer to God,—"have called", etc.
3. Waiting for God,—"called daily".
4. Dependence on God,—"I have stretched", etc.
These hands can do nothing without thee.—G.R.
Verses 10-12.
1. The supposition.
(a) That a child of God should be wholly dead.
(b) That he should remain forever in the grave.
(c) That he should be destroyed.
(d) That he should always remain in darkness.
(e) That he should be entirely forgotten, as though he had never
existed.
2. The consequences involved in this supposition.
(a) God's wonders to them would cease.
(b) His praise from them would be lost.
(c) His lovingkindness to them would be unknown.
(d) His faithfulness destroyed.
(e) His wonders to them would be lost to others.
(f) His former righteousness to them would be forgotten.
3. The plea founded upon these consequences,—"Wilt
thou", etc. It cannot be that thy praise for grace shown to
thy people can be lost, and none can render it but themselves.
"Then what wilt thou do unto thy great name?"—G.R.
Verse 13.
1. Blessings delayed to prayer,—"Unto thee", etc.
2. Blessings anticipated by prayer,—"in the
morning", etc. Daily mercies anticipated by morning
prayers.—G.R.
Verse 13. (last clause).—The advantages of
early morning prayer meetings.
Verse 14.
1. Afflictions are mysterious though just.
2. Just though mysterious.—G.R.
Verse 14. Solemn enquiries, to be followed by
searching examinations, by sorrowful confessions, stern self
denials, and sweet restorations.
Verse 15.
1. The afflictions of the righteous may be long continued
though severe. "I am afflicted, etc., from my youth
up."
2. Severe though long continued.
(a) Painful,—"afflicted."
(b) Threatening,—"ready to die."
(c) Terrific,—"suffer thy terrors."
(d) Distracting,—"I am", etc.—G.R.
Verse 15. The personal sufferings of Christ for the
salvation of his people.—Sermon by Robert Hawker.
Works, Vol. 4. pg 91.
Verse 16.
1. Good men are often tried men.
2. Tried men frequently misjudge the Lord's dealings.
3. The Lord does not take them at their word, he is better
than their fears.—G.R.
Verse 18. The loss of friends intended to remind us of
our own mortality, to wean us from earth, to lead us to more
complete trust in the Lord, to chasten us for sin, and to draw
us away to the great meeting place.
Verse 18. The words of our text will lead us to remark
that,
1. The happiness of life greatly depends on intimate
friendships.
2. The trial of parting with intimate friends is exceedingly
painful.
3. In this, as indeed in every affliction, the best
consolation is drawn from a belief in, and meditation upon,
God's governing providence.—Joseph Lathrop, 1845.