We have now reached the majestic Covenant
Psalm, which, according to the Jewish arrangement closes the
third book of the Psalms. It is the utterance of a believer, in
presence of great national disaster, pleading with his God,
urging the grand argument of covenant engagements, and expecting
deliverance and help, because of the faithfulness of Jehovah.
TITLE. Maschil. This is most fitly called a
Maschil, for it is most instructive. No subject is more
important or is so fully the key to all theology as that of the
covenant. He who is taught by the Holy Spirit to be clear upon
the covenant of grace will be a scribe well instructed in the
things of the kingdom; he whose doctrinal theory is a mingle
mangle of works and grace is scarcely fit to be teacher of
babes. Of Ethan the Ezrahite: perhaps the same person as
Jeduthun, who was a musician in David's reign; was noted for his
wisdom in Solomon's days, and probably survived till the
troubles of Rehoboam's period. If this be the man, he must have
written this Psalm in his old age, when troubles were coming
thick and heavy upon the dynasty of David and the land of Judah;
this is not at all improbable, and there is much in the Psalm
which looks that way.
DIVISION. The sacred poet commences by
affirming his belief in the faithfulness of the Lord to his
covenant with the house of David, and makes his first pause at
Ps 89:4. He then praises and magnifies the name of the Lord for
his power, justice, and mercy, Ps 89:5-14. This leads him to
sing of the happiness of the people who have such a God to be
their glory and defence, Ps 89:15-18. He rehearses the terms if
the covenant at full length with evident delight, Ps 89:19-37,
and then mournfully pours out his complaint and petition, Ps
89:38-51, closing the whole with a hearty benediction and a
double Amen. May the Holy Spirit greatly bless to us the reading
of this most precious Psalm of instruction.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for
ever. A devout resolve, and very commendable when a man is
exercised with great trouble on account of an apparent departure
of the Lord from his covenant and promise. Whatever we may
observe abroad or experience in our own persons, we ought still
to praise God for his mercies, since they most certainly remain
the same, whether we can perceive them or not. Sense sings but
now and then, but faith is an eternal songster. Whether others
sing or not, believers must never give over; in them should be
constancy of praise, since God's love to them cannot by any
possibility have changed, however providence may seem to frown.
We are not only to believe the Lord's goodness, but to rejoice
in it evermore; it is the source of all our joy, and as it
cannot be dried up, so the stream ought never to fail to flow,
or cease to flash in sparkling crystal of song. We have not one,
but many mercies to rejoice in, and should therefore
multiply the expressions of our thankfulness. It is Jehovah
who deigns to deal out to us our daily benefits, and he is the
all sufficient and immutable God; therefore our rejoicing in him
must never suffer diminution. By no means let his exchequer of
glory be deprived of the continual revenue which we owe to it.
Even time itself must not bound our praises—they must leap
into eternity; he blesses us with eternal mercies—let us sing
unto him forever.
With my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.
The utterances of the present will instruct future generations.
What Ethan sung is now a text book for Christians, and will be
so as long as this dispensation shall last. We ought to have an
eye to posterity in all that we write, for we are the
schoolmasters of succeeding ages. Ethan first spoke with his
mouth that which he recorded with his pen—a worthy example of
using both means of communication; the mouth has a warmer manner
than the pen, but the pen's speech lives longest, and is heard
farther and wider. While reading this Psalm, such in the
freshness of the style, that one seems to hear it gushing from
the poet's mouth; he makes the letters live and talk, or,
rather, sing to us. Note, that in this second sentence he speaks
of faithfulness, which is the mercy of God's
mercies—the brightest jewel in the crown of goodness. The
grace of an unfaithful God would be a poor subject for music,
but unchangeable love and immutable promises demand everlasting
songs. In times of trouble it is the divine faithfulness which
the soul hangs upon; this is the bower anchor of the soul, its
hold fast, and its stay. Because God is, and ever will be,
faithful, we have a theme for song which will not be out of date
for future generations; it will never be worn out, never be
disproved, never be unnecessary, never be an idle subject,
valueless to mankind. It will also be always desirable to make
it known, for men are too apt to forget it, or to doubt it, when
hard times press upon them. We cannot too much multiply
testimonies to the Lord's faithful mercy—if our own generation
should not need them others will: sceptics are so ready to
repeat old doubts and invent new ones that believers should be
equally prompt to bring forth evidences both old and new.
Whoever may neglect this duty, those who are highly favoured, as
Ethan was, should not be backward.
Verse 2. For I have said, Mercy shall be built up
for ever. His heart was persuaded of it, and he had affirmed
it as an indisputable truth. He was certain that upon a sure
foundation the Lord intended to pile up a glorious palace of
goodness—a house of refuge for all people, wherein the Son of
David should for ever be glorified as the dispenser of heavenly
grace. Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very
heavens. This divine edifice, he felt assured, would tower into
the skies, and would be turreted with divine faithfulness even
as its foundations were laid in eternal love. God's faithfulness
is no thing of earth, for here nothing is firm, and all things
savour of the changes of the moon and the fickleness of the sea:
heaven is the birthplace of truth, and there it dwells in
eternal vigour. As the blue arch above us remains unimpaired by
age, so does the Lord's truth; as in the firmament he hangs his
covenant bow, so in the upper heavens the faithfulness of God is
enthroned in immutable glory. This Ethan said, and this we may
say; come what will, mercy and faithfulness are built up by
"the Eternal Builder", and his own nature is the
guarantee for their perpetuity. This is to be called to mind
whenever the church is in trouble, or our own spirits bowed down
with grief.
Verse 3. I have made a covenant with my chosen, I
have sworn unto David my servant. This was the ground of the
Psalmist's confidence in God's mercy and truth, for he knew that
the Lord had made a covenant of grace with David and his seed,
and confirmed it by an oath. Here he quotes the very words of
God, which were revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, and are a
condensation of the original covenant in 2Sa 7:1-29. Well might
he write in the former verse, "I have said", when he
knew that Jehovah had said, "I have sworn." David was
the Lord's elect, and with him a covenant was made, which ran
along in the line of his seed until it received a final and
never ending fulfilment in "the Son of David." David's
house must be royal: as long as there was a sceptre in Judah,
David's seed must be the only rightful dynasty; the great
"King of the Jews" died with that title above his head
in the three current languages of the then known world, and at
this day he is owned as king by men of every tongue. The oath
sworn to David has not been broken, though the temporal crown is
no longer worn, for in the covenant itself his kingdom was
spoken of as enduring for ever. In Christ Jesus there is a
covenant established with all the Lord's chosen, and they
are by grace led to be the Lord's servants, and then are
ordained kings and priests by Christ Jesus. How sweet it is to
see the Lord, not only making a covenant, but owning to it in
after days, and bearing witness to his own oath; this ought to
be solid ground for faith, and Ethan, the Ezrahite, evidently
thought it so. Let the reader and writer both pause over such
glorious lines, and sing of the mercies of the Lord, who thus
avows the bonds of the covenant, and, in so doing, gives a
renewed pledge of his faithfulness to it. "I have",
says the Lord, and yet again "I have", as
though he himself was nothing loath to dwell upon the theme. We
also would lovingly linger over the ipsissima verba of
the covenant made with David, reading them carefully and with
joy. There are thus recorded in 2Sa 7:12-16: "And when thy
days be fulfilled, and thou shall sleep with thy fathers, I will
set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy
bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an
house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom
for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he
commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and
with the stripes of the children of men: But my mercy shall not
depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away
before thee. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be
established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be
established for ever." After reading this, let us remember
that the Lord has said to us by his servant Isaiah, "I will
make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of
David."
Verse 4. Thy seed will I establish for ever.
David must always have a seed, and truly in Jesus this is
fulfilled beyond his hopes. What a seed David has in the
multitude which have sprung from him who was both his Son and
his Lord. The Son of David is the Great Progenitor, the second
Adam, the Everlasting Father, he sees his seed, and in them
beholds of the travail of his soul. And build up thy throne to
all generations. David's dynasty never decays, but on the
contrary, is evermore consolidated by the great Architect of
heaven and earth. Jesus is a king as well as a progenitor and
his throne is ever being built up—his kingdom comes—his
power extends. Thus runs the covenant; and when the church
declines, it is ours to plead it before the ever faithful God,
as the Psalmist does in the latter verses of this sacred song.
Christ must reign, but why is his name blasphemed and his gospel
so despised? The more gracious Christians are, the more will
they be moved to jealousy by the sad estate of the Redeemer's
cause, and the more will they argue the case with the great
Covenant maker, crying day and night before him, "Thy
kingdom come." Selah. It would not be meet to hurry on.
Rest, O reader, at the bidding of this Selah, and let each
syllable of the covenant ring in thine cars; and then lift up
the heart and proceed with the sacred poet to tell forth the
praises of the Lord.
Verse 5. And the heavens shall praise thy wonders,
O Lord. Looking down upon what God had done, and was about
to do, in connection with his covenant of grace, all heaven
would be filled with adoring wonder. The sun and moon, which had
been made tokens of the covenant, would praise God for such an
extraordinary display of mercy, and the angels and redeemed
spirits would sing, "as it were, a new song." Thy
faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints. By which is
probably intended the holy ones on earth. So that the
"whole family in heaven and earth" would join in the
praise. Earth and heaven are one in admiring and adoring the
covenant God. Saints above see most clearly into the heights and
depths of divine love, therefore they praise its wonders; and
saints below, being conscious of their many sins and multiplied
provocations of the Lord, admire his faithfulness. The heavens
broke forth with music at the wonders of mercy contained in the
glad tidings concerning Bethlehem, and the saints who came
together in the temple magnified the faithfulness of God at the
birth of the Son of David. Since that auspicious day, the
general assembly on high and the sacred congregation below have
not ceased to sing unto Jehovah, the Lord that keepeth covenant
with his elect.
Verse 6. For who in the heaven can be compared unto
the Lord—therefore all heaven worships him, seeing none
can equal him. Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened
unto the Lord?—therefore the assemblies of the saints on earth
adore him, seeing none can rival him. Until we can find one
equally worthy to be praised, we will give unto the Lord alone
all the homage of our praise. Neither among the sons of the
morning nor the sons of the mighty can any peer be found for
Jehovah, yea none that can be mentioned in the same day;
therefore he is rightly praised. Since the Lord Jesus, both as
God and as man, is far above all creatures, he also is to be
devoutly worshipped. How full of poetic fire is this verse! How
bold is the challenge! How triumphant the holy boasting! The
sweet singer dwells upon the name of Jehovah with evident
exultation; to him the God of Israel is God indeed and God
alone. He closely follows the language long before rehearsed by
Miriam, when she sang, "Who is like unto thee, O Jehovah,
among the gods? Who is like thee?" His thoughts are
evidently flying back to the days of Moses and the marvels of
the Red Sea, when God was gloriously known by his incommunicable
name; there is a ring of timbrels in the double question, and a
sound as of the twinkling feet of rejoicing maidens. Have we no
poets now? Is there not a man among us who can compose hymns
flaming with this spirit? O, Spirit of the living God, be thou
the inspirer of some master minds among us!
Verse 7. God is greatly to be feared in the
assembly of the saints. The holiest tremble in the presence
of the thrice Holy One: their familiarity is seasoned with the
profoundest awe. Perfect love casts out the fear which hath
torment, and works in lieu thereof that other fear which is akin
to joy unutterable. How reverent should our worship be! Where
angels veil their faces, men should surely bow in lowliest
fashion. Sin is akin to presumptuous boldness, but holiness is
sister to holy fear. "And to be had in reverence of all
them that are about him." The nearer they are the more they
adore. If mere creatures are struck with awe, the courtiers and
favourites of heaven must be yet more reverent in the presence
of the Great King. God's children are those who most earnestly
pray "hallowed be thy name." Irreverence is rebellion.
Thoughts of the covenant of grace tend to create a deeper awe of
God, they draw us closer to him, and the more his glories are
seen by us in that nearer access, the more humbly we prostrate
ourselves before his Majesty.
Verse 8. O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord
like unto thee? Or Jehovah, God of Hosts, who is like
thee, Mighty Jah. Alexander remarks, that the infinite
superiority of God to men and angels is here expressed, or
rather indicated, by an accumulation of descriptive titles. Here
we have the name which displays his self existence, the title
which denotes his dominion over all his creatures, and an
adjective which sets forth the power with which he exercises his
sovereignty. Yet this great and terrible God has entered into
covenant with men! Who would not reverence him with deepest
love? Or to thy faithfulness round about thee. He dwells in
faithfulness; it is said to be the girdle of the loins of his
only begotten Son, who is the express image of his person. None
in all creation is faithful as he is; even his angels might
prove faithless if he left them to themselves, but he cannot
"lie unto David", or forget to keep his oath. Men
often fail in truth because their power is limited, and then
they find it easier to break their word than to keep it; but the
strong Jehovah is equal to all his engagements, and will
assuredly keep them. Unrivalled might and unparalleled truth are
wedded in the character of Jehovah. Blessed be his name that it
is so.
Verse 9. Thou rulest the raging of the sea.
Always, even in the hour of ocean's maddest fury, the Lord
controls it. At the Red Sea the foaming billows saw their God
and stood upright in awe. When the waves thereof arise, thou
stillest them. None else can do this; to attempt it would be
madness, but the Lord's "hush" silences the boisterous
storm. So did the Lord's Anointed calm the storms of Galilee,
for he is Lord of all; so also does the great Ruler of
Providence evermore govern the fickle wills of men, and quiet
the tumults of the people. As a mother stills her babe to sleep,
so the Lord calms the fury of the sea, the anger of men, the
tempest of adversity, the despair of the soul, and the rage of
hell. "The Lord sitteth upon the floods; yea, the Lord
sitteth King for ever", and in all his ruling and over
ruling he has respect unto his covenant; therefore, although our
house be not so with God as our hearts would wish, yet we will
rejoice in his covenant ordered in all things and sure, and
delight in him as all our salvation and all our desire.
Verse 10. Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces as one
that is slain. Egypt was crushed like a corpse beneath the
chariot wheels of the destroyer: its pomp and glory were broken
like the limbs of the dead in battle. Egypt was Israel's ancient
foe, and its overthrow wits a theme to which devout minds
constantly reverted, as to a subject fit for their most exulting
songs. We, too, have seen our Rahab broken, our sins overthrown,
and we cannot but unite in the ascription of praise unto the
Lord. Thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm. Thy
strength has strewn thy foes dead upon the plain, or compelled
them to flee hither and thither in dismay. Jehovah has
overthrown his enemies with his own right arm, unaided and
alone. Proud Rahab, swelling in her fury like the sea, was
utterly broken and scattered before the Lord of Hosts.
Verse 11. The heavens are thine, the earth also is
thine. All things are alike God's—rebellious earth as well
as adoring heaven. Let us not despair of the kingdom of truth;
the Lord has not abdicated the throne of earth or handed it over
to the sway of Satan. As for the world and the fulness thereof,
thou hast founded them. The habitable and cultivated earth, with
all its produce, owns the Lord to be both its Creator and
Sustainer, builder and upholder.
Verse 12. The north and the south thou hast created
them. North and south, opposite poles, agree in this—that
Jehovah fashioned them. Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy
name, that is to say, east and west are equally formed by thee,
and therefore give thee praise. Turn to all points of the
compass, and behold the Lord is there. The regions of snow and
the gardens of the sun are his dominions: both the land of the
dawning and the home of the setting sun rejoice to own his sway.
Tabor was on the west of Jordan and Hermon on the east, and it
seems natural to consider these two mountains as representatives
of the east and west. Keble paraphrases the passage thus:
"Both Heman moist, and Tabor lone,
They wait on thee with glad acclaim."
Verse 13. Thou hast a mighty arm, omnipotence
is thine in smiting or uplifting; strong is thy hand, thy power
to create and grasp is beyond conception great; and high is thy
right hand—thy skill is incomparable, thy favour ennobling,
thy working glorious. The power of God so impressed the Psalmist
that in many ways he repeated the same thought: and indeed the
truth of God's omnipotence is so full of refreshment to gracious
hearts that it cannot be too much dwelt upon, especially when
viewed in connection with his mercy and truth, as in the
following verse.
Verse 14. Justice and judgment are the habitation
of thy throne. They are the basis of the divine government,
the sphere within which his sovereignty moves. God as a
sovereign is never unjust or unwise. He is too holy to be
unrighteous, too wise to be mistaken; this is constant matter
for joy to the upright in heart. Mercy and truth shall go before
thy face. They are the harbingers and heralds of the Lord; he
calls these to the front to deal with guilty and changeful man;
he makes them, in the person of the Lord Jesus, to be his
ambassadors, and so poor, guilty man is enabled to endure the
presence of his righteous Lord. If mercy had not paved the way,
the coming of God to any man must have been swift destruction.
Thus has the poet sung the glories of the covenant God. It was
meet that before he poured forth his lament he should record his
praise, lest his sorrow should seem to have withered his faith.
Before we argue our case before the Lord it is most becoming to
acknowledge that we know him to be supremely great and good,
whatever may be the appearance of his providence; this is such a
course as every wise man will take who desires to have an answer
of peace in the day of trouble.
Verse 15. Blessed is the people that know the
joyful sound. It is a blessed God of whom the Psalmist has
been singing, and therefore they are a blessed people who
partake of his bounty, and know how to exult in his favour.
Praise is a peculiarly joyful sound, and blessed are those who
are familiar with its strains. The covenant promises have also a
sound beyond measure precious, and they are highly favoured who
understand their meaning and recognise their own personal
interest in them. There may also be a reference here to the
blowing of trumpets and other glad noises which attended the
worship of Jehovah, who, unlike the gods of the heathen was not
adored by the shrieks of wretched victims, or the yells and
outcries of terror stricken crowds, but by the joyful shouts of
his happy people. They shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy
countenance. For them it is joy enough that Jehovah is
favourable to them; all day long this contents them and enables
them with rigour to pursue their pilgrimage. Only a covenant God
could look with favour upon men, and those who have known him in
that relationship learn to rejoice in him, yea, to walk with him
in fellowship, and to continue in communion with him. If we give
God our ear and hear the joyful sound, he will shew us his face
and make us glad. While the sun shines, men walk without
stumbling as to their feet, and when the Lord smiles on us we
live without grief as to our souls.
Verse 16. In thy name shall they rejoice all the
day. And good cause they have for so doing, for to the soul
which, in Christ Jesus, has entered into covenant with God,
every attribute is a fountain of delight. There is no hour in
the day, and no day in our life, in which we may not rejoice in
the name, person, and character of the Lord. We need no other
reason for rejoicing. As philosophers could make merry without
music, so can we rejoice without carnal comforts; the Lord All
sufficient is an all sufficient source of joy. And in thy
righteousness shall they be exalted. By the Lord's righteous
dealings the saints are uplifted in due time, however great may
have been the oppression and the depression from which they may
have suffered. In the righteousness which the covenant supplies,
which is entirely of the Lord, believers are set on high in a
secure and blessed position, so that they are full of sacred
happiness. If God were unjust, or if he regarded us as being
without righteousness, we must be filled with misery, but as
neither of these things are so, we are exalted indeed, and would
extol the name of the Lord.
Verse 17. For thou art the glory of their strength.
Surely in the Lord Jehovah have we both righteousness and
strength. He is our beauty and glory when we are strong in him,
as well as our comfort and sustenance when we tremble because of
conscious weakness in ourselves. No man whom the Lord makes
strong may dare to glory in himself, he must ascribe all honour
to the Lord alone; we have neither strength nor beauty apart
from him. And in thy favour our horn shall be exalted. By the
use of the word our the Psalmist identifies himself with the
blessed people, and this indicates how much sweeter it is to
sing in the first person than concerning others. May we have
grace to claim a place among those in covenant with God, in
Christ Jesus, for then a sense of divine favour will make us
also bold and joyous. A creature full of strength and courage
lifts up its horn, and so also does a believer become potent,
valiant, and daring. The horn was an eastern ornament, worn by
men and women, or at least is so at this day, and by the
uplifting of this the wearer showed himself to be in good
spirits, and in a confident frame of mind: we wear no such
outward vanities, but our inward soul is adorned and made
bravely triumphant when the favour of God is felt by us. Worldly
men need outward prosperity to make them lift up their heads,
but the saints find more than enough encouragement in the secret
love of God.
Verse 18. For the Lord is our defence. Whoever
else may defend us, he is our ultimate Defender and Shield. And
the Holy one of Israel is our king. He who protects should
govern, our defender should be acknowledged as our king. Kings
are called the shields of nations, and the God of Israel is both
our Ruler and our Defence. Another sense may be that Israel's
defender and king was of the Lord, belonging to him and sent by
him; even the protectors of the land being themselves protected
by the Lord. The title "the Holy One of Israel" is
peculiarly delightful to the renewed heart. God is one, we
worship none beside. He is holiness itself, the only being who
can be called "the Holy One", and in his perfection of
character we see the most excellent reason for our faith. He who
is holy cannot break his promises, or act unjustly concerning
his oath and covenant. Moreover, he is the Holy One of
Israel, being specially the God of his own elect, ours by
peculiar ties, ours for ever and ever. Who among the saints will
not rejoice in the God of election? Are they not indeed a people
greatly blessed who can call this God their God for ever and
ever?
Verse 19. Then thou spakest in vision to thy holy
one. The Psalmist returns to a consideration of the covenant
made with David. The holy one here meant may be either David or
Nathan the prophet, but most probably the latter, for it was to
him that the word of the Lord came by night. 2Sa 7:4-5. God
condescends to employ his gracious ministers to be the means of
communication between himself and his favoured ones,—even to
King David the covenant was revealed by Nathan the prophet; thus
the Lord puts honour upon his ministers. I have laid help upon
one that is mighty. The Lord had made David a mighty man of
valour, and now he covenants to make him the helper and defender
of the Jewish state. In a far fuller sense the Lord Jesus is
essentially and immeasurably mighty, and on him the salvation of
his people rests by divine appointment, while his success is
secured by divine strength being engaged to be with him. Let us
lay our faith where God has laid our help. I have exalted one
chosen out of the people. David was God's elect, elect out of
the people, as one of themselves, and elect to the highest
position in the state. In his extraction, election, and
exaltation, he was an eminent type of the Lord Jesus, who is the
man of the people, the chosen of God, and the king of his
church. Whom God exalts let us exalt. Woe unto those who despise
him, they are guilty of contempt of court before the Lord of
Hosts, as well as of rejecting the Son of God.
Verse 20. I have found David my servant. David
was discovered by the Lord among the sheepfolds and recognised
as a man of gracious spirit, full of faith and courage, and
therefore fit to be leader in Israel. With my holy oil have I
anointed him. By the hand of Samuel, David was anointed to be
king long before he ascended the throne. The verse must also be
expounded of the Prince Emmanuel; he became the servant of the
Lord for our sakes, the Father having found for us in his person
a mighty deliverer, therefore upon him rested the Spirit without
measure, to qualify him for all the offices of love to which he
was set apart. We have not a Saviour self appointed and
unqualified, but one sent of God and divinely endowed for his
work. Our Saviour Jesus is also the Lord's Christ, or anointed.
The oil with which he is anointed is God's own oil, and holy
oil; he is divinely endowed with the Spirit of holiness.
Verse 21. With whom my hand shall be established,
or, "with whom my hand shall ever be present." The
almightiness of God abides permanently with Jesus in his work as
Redeemer and Ruler of his people. Mine arm also shall strengthen
him. The fulness of divine power shall attend him. This covenant
promise ought to be urged in prayer before the Lord, for the
great lack of the church at this time is power. We have
everything except the divine energy, and we must never rest
content until we see it in full operation among us. Jesus must
be among us, and then there will be no lack of force in any of
our church agencies.
Verse 22. The enemy shall not exact upon him;
he shall not be vexed and persecuted as a helpless debtor by an
extortionate creditor. Nor the son of wickedness afflict him.
Graceless men shall no longer make his life a burden. David had
in his earlier history been hunted by Saul like a partridge on
the mountains, and though he had striven in all things to act
justly towards Saul, because he was the Lord's anointed, yet
Saul was never content with his displays of loyalty, but
persecuted him relentlessly. The covenant, therefore, engaged
that his life of hardship and oppression should come to an end
for ever; it did so in David's own person, and more remarkably
still in the life of Solomon his son. Who does not in all this
see a type of the Lord Jesus, who though he was once seized for
our debts, and also evil entreated by the ungodly, is now so
exalted that he can never be exacted upon any more, neither can
the fiercest of his enemies vex him again. No Judas can now
betray him to death, no Pilate can deliver him to be crucified.
Satan cannot tempt him, and our sins cannot burden him.
Verse 23. And I will beat down his foes before his
face—crushing them and their plans. God himself thus
fights the battles of his Son, and effectually overturns his
foes. And plague them that hate him, or smite his haters.
May none of us learn the terror of this threatening, which is
surely being fulfilled upon all those unbelievers who have
rejected the Son of God, and died in the hardness of their
hearts. The prophecy is also having another fulfilment in the
overthrow of systems of error, and the vexation caused to their
promoters. There is no such plague to bad men as the prosperity
of the cause of Jesus.
Verse 24. But my faithfulness and my mercy shall be
with him. These were the two attributes of which the
Psalmist began to sing in Ps 89:1, doubtless because he saw them
to be most prominent in the covenant which he was about to plead
with God. To David and his seed, God was gracious and faithful,
and though through their sin the literal kingdom lost all its
glory and the dynasty became obscure, yet the line remained
unbroken and more than all its former glory was restored by the
enthronisation of Him who is Prince of the kings of the earth,
with whom the Lord's mercy and faithfulness remain for ever. All
who are in Jesus should rejoice, for they shall prove in their
own experience the faithful mercy of the Lord. And in my name
shall his horn be exalted. Gloriously does the Lord Jesus lift
up his head, raised to the highest place of honour by the
mandate of the Father. David and Solomon in their dignity were
but faint types of the Lord Jesus, who is far above all
principalities and powers. The fullest exaltation of the horn of
Jesus is yet to come in that millennial period which is
hastening on.
Verse 25. I will set his hand also in the sea, and
his right hand in the rivers. He shall reach far beyond the
little rivers which stand for boundaries in Palestine; he shall
by his power embrace all lands from sea to sea. He shall have
his hand in the ocean and his right hand in earth's mightiest
streams. As monarchs hold in their hands a globe to set forth
their dominion over the earth, he shall grasp the far more
unconquerable sea, and be Lord of all. This power is to be given
him of the Lord, and is to be abiding; so we understand the
words "I will set." The verse has in it a voice
of good cheer concerning sailors, and all dwellers on the
waters; the hand of Jesus is over them, and as he found his
first apostles by the sea, so we trust he still finds earnest
disciples there.
Verse 27. Also I will make him my firstborn.
Among the kings the seed of David were to be most favoured and
indulged with most love and paternal regard from God: but in
Jesus we see this in the highest degree verified, for he has
preeminence in all things, inasmuch as by inheritance he has a
more glorious name than any other, and is higher than the kings
of the earth. Who can rival heaven's Firstborn? The double
portion and the government belong to him. Kings are honoured
when they honour him, and those who honour him are kings! In the
millennial glory it shall be seen what the covenant stores up
for the once despised Son of David, but even now faith sees him
exalted as King of kings and Lord of lords. Lo, we bow before
thee, thou Heir of all things! Our sheaves do obeisance to thy
sheaf. All thy mother's children call thee blessed. Thou art he
whom thy brethren shall praise. Jesus is no servant of princes,
nor would he have his bride, the church, degrade herself by
bowing before kings and eating the bread of a pensioner at their
hands. He and his kingdom are higher than the kings of the
earth. Let the great ones of the earth be wise and submit to
him, for he is Lord, and he is the governor among the nations.
Verse 28. My mercy will I keep for him for
evermore. The kings of David's line needed mercy, and mercy
prevented their house from utterly perishing until the Son of
Mary came. He needs no mercy for himself, but he is a
representative man, and the mercy of God is required for those
who are in him: for such mercy is kept for ever. And my covenant
shall stand fast with him. With Jesus the covenant is ratified
both by blood of sacrifice and by oath of God, it cannot be
cancelled or altered, but is an eternal verity, resting upon the
veracity of one who cannot lie. What exultation fills our hearts
as we see that the covenant of grace is sure to all the
seed, because it stands fast with him with whom we are
indissolubly united.
Verse 29. His seed also will I make to endure for
ever. David's seed lives on in the person of the Lord Jesus,
and the seed of Jesus in the persons of believers. Saints are a
race that neither death nor life can kill. Rome and its priests,
with their inquisition and other infernal cruelties, have
laboured to exterminate the covenant seed, but "vain is
their rage, their efforts vain." As long as God lives, his
people must live. And his throne, as the days of heaven. Jesus
reigns on, and will reign till the skies shall fall, yea, and
when the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the
elements shall melt with fervent heat, his throne shall stand.
What a blessed covenant is this! Some commentators talk of
conditions, but we fail to see any; the promises are as absolute
as they can possibly be, and if any conditions as to the conduct
of the favoured individuals can be conceived, they are disposed
of in the succeeding verses.
Verse 30. If his children forsake my law, and walk
not in my judgments. It was possible, terribly possible,
that David's posterity might wander from the Lord; indeed they
did so, but what then? Was the mercy of God to pass away from
David's seed?—far from it. So, too, the seed of the Son of
David are apt to start aside, but are they therefore cast away?
Not a single word gives liberty for such an idea, but the very
reverse. Expositors in their fear of Calvinistic doctrine shake
off the fear of adding to the word of God, or else they would
not have spent their time in talking about "the
conditions" of this absolutely unconditional covenant.
Verse 31. If they break my statutes, and keep not
my commandments. The dreadful "if" is suggested
again, and the sad case is stated in other forms. But if it
should be so, what then? Death and rejection? Ah, no; Blessed be
God, No! If their sin be negative or positive, if it be
forsaking or profanation; if either judgments or commandments or
both be violated, yet there is not a word as to final
destruction, but the very reverse. Legalism will import its ifs,
but the Lord slays the ifs as fast as they rise. Eternal shalls
and wills make glorious havoc among the ifs and buts.
Verse 32. Then will I visit their transgressions
with the rod. Not with the sword, not with death and
destruction; but still with a smarting, tingling, painful rod.
Saints must smart if they sin: God will see to that. He hates
sin too much not to visit it, and he loves his saints too well
not to chasten them. God never plays with his rod, he lays it
well home to his children, he visits them with it in
their houses, bodies, and hearts, and makes them know that he is
grieved with their ways. He smites home and chastens their
iniquity with stripes, which are either many or few in
proportion as the heart is properly affected by them. The rod is
a covenant blessing, and is meant to be used. As sin is so
frequent, the rod never rests long together; in God's family the
rod is not spared, or the children would be spoiled.
Verse 33. Nevertheless. And a glorious
nevertheless too! Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not
utterly take from him. O glorious fear killing sentence!
This crowns the covenant with exceeding glory. Mercy may seem to
depart from the Lord's chosen, but it shall never altogether do
so. Jesus still enjoys the divine favour, and we are in him, and
therefore under the most trying circumstances the Lord's
lovingkindness to each one of his chosen will endure the strain.
If the covenant could be made void by our sins it would have
been void long ere this; and if renewed its tenure would not be
worth an hour's purchase if it had remained dependent upon us.
God may leave his people, and they may thereby suffer much and
fall very low, but utterly and altogether he never can remove
his love from them; for that would be to cast a reflection upon
his own truth, and this he will never allow, for he adds, nor
suffer my faithfulness to fail. Man fails in all points, but God
in none. To be faithful is one of the eternal characteristics of
God, in which he always places a great part of his glory: his
truth is one of his peculiar treasures and crown jewels, and he
will never endure that it should be tarnished in any degree.
This passage sweetly assures us that the heirs of glory shall
not be utterly cast off. Let those deny the safety of the saints
who choose to do so, we have not so learned Christ. We believe
in the gospel rod, but not in the penal sword for the adopted
sons.
Verse 34. My covenant will I not break. It is
his own covenant. He devised it, drew up the draft of it, and
voluntarily entered into it: he therefore thinks much of it. It
is not a man's covenant, but the Lord claims it as his own. It
is an evil thing among men for one to be a "covenant
breaker", and such an opprobrious epithet shall never be
applicable to the Most High. Nor alter the thing that is gone
out of my lips. Alterations and afterthoughts belong to short
sighted beings who meet with unexpected events which operate
upon them to change their minds, but the Lord who sees
everything from the beginning has no such reason for shifting
his ground. He is besides immutable in his nature and designs,
and cannot change in heart, and therefore not in promise. A word
once given is sacred; once let a promise pass our lips and
honesty forbids that we should recall it,—unless indeed the
thing promised be impossible, or wicked, neither of which can
happen with the promises of God. How consoling it is to see the
Lord thus resolute. He, in the words before us, virtually
reasserts his covenant and rehearses his engagements. This he
does at such length, and with such reiteration, that it is
evident he takes pleasure in that most ancient and solemn
contract. If it were conceivable that he had repented of it, he
would not be found dwelling upon it, and repeating it with
renewed emphasis.
Verse 35. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I
will not lie unto David. Because he could swear by no
greater he swore by himself, and by that peculiar attribute
which is his highest glory, being the subject of threefold
adoration by all the hosts of heaven. God here pledges the crown
of his kingdom, the excellent beauty of his person, the essence
of his nature. He does as good as say that if he ceases to be
true to his covenant he will have forfeited his holy character.
What more can he say? In what stronger language can he express
his unalterable adherence to the truth of his promise? An oath
is the end of all strife; it ought to be the end of all doubt on
our part. We cannot imagine that God could lie, yet he puts it
so—that if the covenant were not kept by him, he would regard
it as a lie. Here is ground for strong confidence; may our faith
be of such a nature as these assurances will warrant.
Verse 36. His seed shall endure for ever.
David's line in the person of Jesus is an endless one, and the
race of Jesus, as represented in successive generations of
believers, shows no sign of failure. No power, human or Satanic,
can break the Christian succession; as saints die others shall
rise up to fill their places, so that till the last day, the day
of doom, Jesus shall have a seed to serve him. And his throne as
the sun before me. In our Lord Jesus the dynasty of David
remains upon the throne. Jesus has never abdicated, nor gone
into banishment. He reigns, and must reign so long as the sun
continues to shine upon the earth. A seed and a throne are the
two great promises of the covenant, and they are as important to
us as to our Lord Jesus himself; for we are the seed who must
endure for ever, and we are protected and ennobled by that King
whose royalties are to last for ever.
Verse 37. It shall be established for ever as the
moon. The kingdom may wax and wane to mortal eyes, but it
shall still abide as long as the moon walks in her silver
beauty. And as a faithful witness in heavens. The most stable
part of the universe is selected as a type of Messiah's kingdom,
and both sun and moon are made to be symbols of its long
endurance. Whatever else there is in the sky which faithfully
witnesses to the unbending course of nature is also called upon
to be a sign of the Lord's truth. When heaven and earth witness,
and the Lord himself swears, there remains no excuse for
doubting, and faith joyfully reposes in confident expectation.
Verse 38. But thou hast cast off and abhorred.
The Lord had promised not to cast off the seed of David, and yet
it looked as if he had done so, and that too in the most angry
manner, as if he loathed the person of the king. God's actions
may appear to us to be the reverse of his promises, and then our
best course is to come before him in prayer and put the matter
before him just as it strikes our apprehension. We are allowed
to do this, for this holy and inspired man did so unrebuked, but
we must do it humbly and in faith. Thou hast been wroth with
thine anointed. He deserved the wrath, doubtless, but the
Psalmist's point is, that this appeared to him to conflict with
the gracious covenant. He puts the matter plainly, and makes
bold with the Lord, and the Lord loves to have his servants so
do; it shows that they believe his engagements to be matters of
fact.
Verse 39. Thou hast made void the covenant of thy
servant. The dispensations of providence looked as if there
had been a disannulling of the sacred compact, though indeed it
was not so. Thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the
ground. The king had been subject to such sorrow and shame that
his diadem had been as it were taken from his head, dashed on
the earth, and rolled in the mire. He was a theocratic monarch,
and the Lord, who gave him his crown, took it from him and
treated it with contempt,—at least so it seemed. In these sad
days also we may utter the same complaint, for Jesus is not
acknowledged in many of the churches, and usurpers have profaned
his crown. When we hear of kings and queens set up as
"heads of the church", and a priest styled "The
Vicar of Christ", while parliaments and courts take upon
themselves to legislate for the church of God, we may bitterly
lament that things should come to so wretched a pass. Few are
there who will acknowledge the crown rights of King Jesus, the
very subject is considered to be out of date. O Lord how long!
Verse 40. Thou hast broken down all his hedges.
He was no longer sheltered from the slanderous assaults of
contemptuous tongues; the awe which should guard the royal name
had ceased to separate him from his fellows. The "divinity
which doth hedge a king" had departed. Hitherto, the royal
family had been like a vine within an enclosure, but the wall
was now laid low, and the vine was unprotected. It is
sorrowfully true that in many places the enclosures of the
church have been destroyed, the line of demarcation between the
church and the world has almost vanished, and godless men fill
the sacred offices. Alas, O Lord God, shall it be always so?
Shall thy true vine be deserted by thee, thou great Husbandman?
Set up the boundaries again, and keep thy church as a vineyard
reserved for thyself. Thou hast brought his strong holds to
ruin. The forts of the land were in the possession of the enemy
and were dismantled, the defences of the kingdom were
overthrown. Thus has it happened that precious truths, which
were the bulwarks of the church, have been assailed by heresy,
and the citadels of sound doctrine have been abandoned to the
foe. O God, how canst thou suffer this? As the God of truth,
wilt thou not arise and tread down falsehood?
Verse 41. All that pass by the way spoil him.
Idle passers by, who have nothing else to do, must needs have a
pluck at this vine, and they do it without difficulty, since the
hedges are gone. Woe is the day when every petty reasoner has an
argument against religion, and men in their cups are fluent with
objections against the gospel of Jesus. Although Jesus on the
cross is nothing to them, and they pass him by without inquiring
into what he has done for them, yet they can loiter as long as
you will, if there be but the hope of driving another nail into
his hands and helping to crucify the Lord afresh. They will not
touch him with the finger of faith, but they pluck at him with
the hand of malice. He is a reproach to his neighbours. David's
successors had unneighbourly neighbours, who were a reproach to
good fellowship, because they were so ready to reproach their
neighbour. The Jews were much taunted by the surrounding
Gentiles when at any time they fell into trouble. At this time
the people of God, who follow the Lord fully, are subject to a
thousand reproaches, and some of them of the most bitter kind.
These reproaches are really the reproach of Christ, and, at
bottom, are meant for him. Shall it always be so? Shall he, who
deserves to be universally adored, be subject to general scorn?
Where, then, O God, is thy faithfulness to thy covenant?
Verse 42. Thou hast set up the right hand of thy
adversaries. Thou hast done it, thou, who hast sworn
to give him help and victory, thou hast, instead thereof, sided
with his enemies, and lent them thy strength, so that they have
gained the supremacy. Thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice.
They are boasting over him, and are glorying in his defeat, and
this is done by thyself. O God,—how is this? Where is the
covenant? Hast thou forgotten thine own pledges and promises?
Verse 43. Also turned the edge of his sword.
When he goes to war he is as unsuccessful as though his sword
refused to cut, and gave way like a sword of lead. His weapons
fail him. And hast not made him to stand in the battle. His
heart fails him as well as his sword—he wavers, he falls. This
has happened even to naturally brave men—a terrible dread has
unmanned them. At this present the church has few swords of true
Jerusalem metal; her sons are pliable, her ministers yield to
pressure. We need men whose edge cannot be turned, firm for
truth, keen against error, sharp towards sin, cutting their way
into men's hearts. Courage and decision are more needed now than
ever, for charity towards heresy is the fashionable vice, and
indifference to all truth, under the name of liberal mindedness,
is the crowning virtue of the age. The Lord send us men of the
school of Elias, or, at least, of Luther and Knox.
Verse 44. Thou hast made his glory to cease.
The brightness of his reign and the prosperity of his house are
gone, his fame is tarnished, his honour disgraced. And cast his
throne down to the ground. He has lost his power to govern at
home or to conquer abroad. This happened to kings of David's
line, and, more grievous to tell, it is happening in these days
to the visible kingdom of the Lord Jesus. Where are the glories
of Pentecost? Where is the majesty of the Reformation? Where
does his kingdom come among the sons of men? Woe is unto us, for
the glory has departed, and the gospel throne of Jesus is hidden
from our eyes!
Verse 45. The days of his youth hast thou
shortened. The time of the king's energy was brief, he grew
feeble before his time. Thou hast covered him with shame. Shame
was heaped upon him because of his premature decay and his
failure in arms. This was very grievous to the writer of this
Psalm, who was evidently a most loyal adherent of the house of
David. In this our day we have to bemoan the lack of vigour in
religion—the heroic days of Christianity are over, her raven
locks are sprinkled with untimely grey. Is this according to the
covenant? Can this be as the Lord has promised? Let us plead
with the righteous Judge of all the earth, and beseech him to
fulfil his word wherein he has promised that those who wait upon
him shall renew their strength. Selah. The interceding poet
takes breath amid his lament, and then turns from describing the
sorrows of the kingdom to pleading with the Lord.
Verse 46. How long, Lord? The appeal is to
Jehovah, and the argument is the length of the affliction
endured. Chastisement with a rod is not a lengthened matter,
therefore he appeals to God to cut short the time of
tribulation. Wilt thou hide thyself for ever? Hast thou not
promised to appear for thor servant—wilt thou then for ever
forsake him? Shall thy wrath burn like fire? Shall it go on and
on evermore till it utterly consume its object? Be pleased to
set a bound! How far wilt thou go? Wilt thou burn up the throne
which thou hast sworn to perpetuate? Even thus we would entreat
the Lord to remember the cause of Christ in these days. Can he
be so angry with his church as to leave her much longer? How far
will he suffer things to go? Shall truth die out, and saints
exist no more? How long will he leave matters to take their
course? Surely he must interpose soon, for, if he do not, true
religion will be utterly consumed, as it were, with fire.
Verse 47. Remember how short my time is. If so
brief, do not make it altogether bitter. If thine anger burn on
it will outlast this mortal life, and then there will be no time
for thy mercy to restore me. Some expositors ascribe these
words, and all the preceding verses, to the state of the Lord
Jesus in the days of his humiliation, and this gives an
instructive meaning; but we prefer to continue our reference all
through to the church, which is the seed of the Lord Jesus, even
as the succeeding kings were the seed of David. We, having
transgressed, are made to feel the rod, but we pray the Lord not
to continue his stripes lest our whole life be passed in misery.
Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain? If the Lord do not
shine upon his work we live for nothing—we count it no longer
life if his cause does not prosper. We live if the King lives,
but not else. Everything is vanity if religion be vanity. If the
kingdom of heaven should fail, everything is a failure. Creation
is a blot, providence an error, and our own existence a bell, if
the faithfulness of God can fail and his covenant of grace can
be dissolved. If the gospel system can be disproved, nothing
remains for us or any other of the sons of men, which can render
existence worth the having.
Verse 48. What man is he that liveth, and shall not
see death? All must die. None of our race can answer to the
question here propounded except in the negative; there is none
that can claim to elude the arrows of death. Shall he deliver
his soul from the hand of the grave? Neither by strength,
wisdom, nor virtue can any man escape the common doom, for to
the dust return we must. Since then we must all die, do not make
this life all wretchedness, by smiting us so long, O Lord. Thy
Son our covenant Head died, and so also shall we; let us not be
so deserted of thee in this brief span that we shall be quite
unable to testify to thy faithfulness: make us not feel that we
have lived in vain. Thus the brevity of life and the certainty
of death are turned into pleas with the Most High. Selah. Here
we rest again, and proceed to further pleadings.
Verse 49. Lord, where are thy former loving
kindnesses, which thou swarest unto David in thy truth? Here
he comes to grand pleading, hand to hand work with the covenant
angel. We may remind the Lord of his first deeds of love, his
former love to his church, his former favour to ourselves. Then
may we plead his oath, and beg him to remember that he has sworn
to bless his chosen: and we may wrestle hard also, by urging
upon him his own character, and laying hold upon his inviolable
truth. When things look black we may bring forth our strong
reasons, and debate the case with our condescending God, who has
himself said, "Come now, and let us reason together."
Verse 50. Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy
servants. By reason of their great troubles they were made a
mock of by ungodly men, and hence the Lord's pity is entreated.
Will a father stand by and see his children insulted? The
Psalmist entreats the Lord to compassionate the wretchedness
brought upon his servants by the taunts of their adversaries,
who jested at them on account of their sufferings. How I do bear
in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people. The Psalmist
himself laid the scorn of the great and the proud to heart. He
felt as if all the reproaches which vexed his nation were
centred in himself, and therefore in sacred sympathy with the
people he poured out his heart. We ought to weep with those that
weep; reproach brought upon the saints and their cause ought to
burden us: if we can hear Christ blasphemed, and see his
servants insulted, and remain unmoved, we have not the true
Israelite's spirit. Our grief at the griefs of the Lord's people
may be pleaded in prayer, and it will be acceptable argument.
There is one interpretation of this verse which must not be
passed over; the original is, Remember my bearing in my bosom
all the many nations; and this may be understood as a pleading
of the church that the Lord would remember her because she was
yet to be the mother of many nations, according to the prophecy
of Ps 77:1-20. She was as it were ready to give birth to
nations, but how could they be born if she herself died in the
meanwhile? The church is the hope of the world; should she
expire, the nations would never come to the birth of
regeneration, but must abide in death.
Verse 51. Wherewith thine enemies have reproached,
O Lord. Here is another forcible point; the scoffers are the
Lord's enemies as well as ours, and their reproach falls upon
him as well as upon us; therefore we cry for the Lord's
interposition. When Jehovah's own name is in the quarrel, surely
he will arise. Wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of
thine anointed. Tracking him and finding occasion to blaspheme
at every turn; not only watching his words and actions, but even
his harmless steps. Neither Christ nor his church can please the
world, whichever way we turn scoffers will rail. Does this verse
refer to the oft repeated sarcasm—"Where is the promise
of his coming?" Is the reproach aimed at the delays of the
Messiah, those long expected footfalls which as yet are unheard?
O Lord, how long shall this threadbare taunt continue? How long?
How long?
"Come, for creation groans
Impatient of thy stay,
Worn out with these long years of ill,
These ages of delay."
"Come, in thy glorious might,
Come with the iron rod,
Scattering thy foes before thy face,
Most Mighty Son of God."
Verse 52. Blessed be the Lord for evermore. He
ends where he began; he has sailed round the world and reached
port again. Let us bless God before we pray, and while we pray,
and when we have done praying, for he always deserves it of us.
If we cannot understand him, we will not distrust him. When his
ways are beyond our judgment we will not be so foolish as to
judge; yet we shall do so if we consider his dealings to be
unkind or unfaithful. He is, he must be, he shall be, for ever,
our blessed God. Amen, and Amen. All our hearts say so. So be
it, Lord, we wish it over and over again. Be thou blessed
evermore.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Whole Psalm. The present Psalm makes a pair with the
preceding one. It is a spiritual Allegro to that Penseroso...That
Psalm was a dirge of Passion Tide, this Psalm is a carol of
Christmas.—Christopher Wordsworth.
Whole Psalm. There are many passages in this Psalm
which do clearly evidence that it is to be interpreted of
Christ; yea, there are many things in this Psalm that can never
be clearly, pertinently, and appositely applied to any but Jesus
Christ. For a taste, see Ps 89:19 "I have laid help upon
one that is mighty", mighty to pardon, reconcile, to
justify, to save, to bring to glory; suitable to that of the
Apostle, Heb 7:25, "He is able to save to the
uttermost"—that is, to all ends and purposes, perfectly,
completely, fully, continually, perpetually. Christ is a
thorough Saviour, a mighty Saviour: Isa 63:1, "Mighty to
save." There needs none to come after him to finish the
work which he hath begun: Ps 89:19, I have exalted one chosen
out of the people, which is the very title given to our Lord
Jesus: Isa 62:1, "Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine
elect", or chosen one, "in whom my soul delighteth":
Ps 89:20, I have fouled David my servant. Christ is very
frequently called by that name, as being most dearly beloved of
God, and most highly esteemed and valued by God, and as being
typified by him both as king and prophet of his church: Ps
89:20, With my holy oil have I anointed him; suitable to
that of Christ; Lu 4:18, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor"; and therefore we need not doubt of the excellency,
authority, certainty, and sufficiency of the gospel: Ps 89:27, I
will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.
Christ is the firstborn of every creature, and in all things
hath the preeminence: Ps 89:29, His seed also will I make to
endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. This
is chiefly spoken of Christ and his kingdom. The aspectable
heaven is corruptible, but the kingdom of heaven is eternal; and
such shall be Christ's seed, throne and kingdom: Ps 89:36, His
seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.
"Christ shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and
the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand", Isa
53:10. And his throne as the sun before me; that is,
perpetual and glorious, as the Chaldee explains it, shall
shine as the sun. Other kingdoms and thrones have their
times and their turns, their rise and their ruins, but so hath
not the kingdom and throne of Jesus Christ. Christ's dominion is
"an everlasting dominion", which shall not pass away;
"and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed",
Da 7:13-14. I might give further instances out of this Psalm,
but enough is as good as a feast. New saith God, "I have
made a covenant with him; "so then there is a covenant that
God the Father hath made with Christ the Mediator; which
covenant, the Father engages to the Son, shall stand fast, there
shall be no cancelling or disannulling of it. God the Father
hath not only made a covenant of grace with the saints in
Christ, but he has also made a covenant of redemption, as we
call it for distinction sake, with Jesus Christ himself:
"My covenant shall stand fast with him; " that is,
with Christ, as we have fully demonstrated.—Thomas Brooks.
Verse 1. This one short verse contains the summary,
pith, and argument of the whole long Psalm; wherein observe The
Song's Ditty, the lovingkindness and truth of the Lord,
manifested unto the whole world generally, to David's house
(that is, the church) especially. The Singer's Duty,
magnifying the mercies of God always, even from one generation
to another. And by all means; with his mouth, for
that is expressed in this verse; with his mind, for that
is implied in the next—I have said, etc., that is,
believed in my heart, and therefore spake it with my tongue, Ps
116:10. "For out of the heart's abundance the mouth
speaketh", Mt 12:34.—John Boys.
Verse 1. I will sing. It is to be observed that
he does not say, I will speak of the goodness of the
Lord; but, I will sing. The celebration of the divine goodness
has joined with itself the joy and exultation of a pious mind,
which cannot be poured forth better than in song. That
pleasantness and exuberance of a happy spirit, which by singing
is instilled into the ears of the listeners, has a certain
wonderful power of moving the affections; so that not in vain
were pious minds taught by the Holy Spirit to inculcate the
wonderful work of God in songs composed for this purpose, to
commit them to memory and to appoint them to be sung.—Musculus.
Verse 1. I will sing. The Psalmist has a very
sad complaint to make of the deplorable condition of the family
of David at this time, and yet he begins the Psalm with songs of
praise; for we must in every thing, in every state, give thanks.
We think when we are in trouble we get ease by complaining: but
we do more, we get joy, by praising. Let our complaints
therefore be turned into thanksgiving; and in these verses we
find that which will be in matter of praise and thanksgiving for
us in the worst of times, whether upon a personal or public
account.—Matthew Henry.
Verse 1. Sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever.
S. Gregory the Great raises the question here as to how a
perpetual singing of the mercies of God is compatible with
unalloyed bliss in heaven, inasmuch as the thought of mercy
connotes the memory of sin and sorrow, which needed mercy,
whereas Isaiah saith that "the former troubles are
forgotten", and "the former things shall not be
remembered, nor come upon the heart" (Isa 65:16-17). And he
replies that it will be like the memory of past sickness in time
of health, without stain, without grief, and serving only to
heighten the felicity of the redeemed, by the contrast with the
past, and to increase their love and gratitude towards God. And
so sings the Cluniac: (Bernard of Clairvaux.)
"Their breasts are filled with gladness,
Their mouths are tuned to praise,
What time, now safe for ever,
On former sins they gaze:
The fouler was the error,
The sadder was the fall,
The ampler are the praises
Of him who pardoned all."
Note, too, that he says, "with my mouth",
not with that of any deputy; I will make known, not
secretly or timidly, not in a whisper, but boldly preach, Thy
faithfulness, or truth, not my own opinion, far less
my own falsehood, but Thy Truth, which is, Thine Only begotten
Son.—Gregory, Bernard, Hugo, and Augustine: quoted by Neale
and Littledale.
Verse 1. Mercies. The word may be rendered graces,
kindnesses, goodnesses, and designs the abundance of
grace.—John Gill.
Verse 1. The mercies. His manifold and sundry
mercies: as if he should say, we have tasted of more than one,
yea, we have felt all his mercies; I will therefore praise the
same for ever. I will sing his mercy for creating this universe,
which is macrocosmos, a great world; and for making man,
which is microcosmos, a little world.
1. My song shall set forth his kindness, for that he gave me
being.
2. For adding to my being, life, which he denieth unto
stones.
3. To life, sense, which he denieth unto plants.
4. To sense, speech and understanding, which he denieth unto
brute beasts...
I am exceeding much bound unto God for creating me when I was
not; and for preserving me under his wings ever since I was: yet
I am more bound to his mercy for redeeming me, for blessing me
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ his
Son (Eph 1:1-23 3:1-21), for his electing of me, for his calling
of me, for his justifying of me, for his sanctifying of me.
These graces are the riches of his goodness and glory, misericordioe
in oeternum, everlasting mercies, as reaching from
everlasting predestination to everlasting glorification. O Lord,
I will always sing thy mercies in promising, and ever
shew thy truth in performing thy promise made to David,
thy chosen servant, concerning thy Son, my Saviour, saying,
"Thy seed will I establish for ever." So the fathers
expound our text: I will ever sing thy mercies, in vouchsafing
to send thy Son to visit thy servants, sick to death in sin.
First, I will ever sing of thy mercifulness, and then will ever
be shewing thy faithfulness. Neque enim exhiberetur veritas
in impletione promissorum nisi proecederet misericordia in
remissione peccatorum. (For truth, in the fulfilment of the
promises, would not be shown forth; unless mercy, in the
forgiveness of sins, should precede it.) And what is God's
mercy set up for ever, and his truth established in the heavens,
but that which Isaiah terms, "the sure mercies of
David": that is, as Paul construes Isaiah, the holy promise
made to David and the promise made to David, is briefly this,
"Thy seed will I establish for ever, and set up thy throne
from generation to generation."—John Boys.
Verse 1. For ever. I know some join in
oeternum to the noun misercordias, and not to the
verb cantabo, making the sense to be this: I will always
sing thy mercies which endure for ever. But always is
referred as well, if not better, unto the verb, I will sing:
as who would say, Lord, thy mercies are so manifest, and so
manifold, so great in their number, and so good in their nature,
that I will alway, so long as I have any being, sing praises
unto thee Haply some will object, "All flesh is grass, and
the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass
withereth, the flower fadeth", (Isa 40:6-7). David being
persecuted by Saul, said, "There is but a step between me
and death", (1Sa 20:3). Nay, David, thy life is shorter
than a stride, but "a span long", as thyself
witnesseth, Ps 39:5. How can he then that begs his bread but for
a day promise to spend his breath in magnifying the Lord for
ever? Answer is made, that the prophet will not only commend the
mercies of the Lord in word, but also commit them unto writing. Ut
sciat hoec oetas, posteritasque legat (Eobanus Hessus.) (that
this age may know, and that posterity may read.) As the
tongue of the prophet is termed elsewhere "the pen of a
writer"; so the writing of the Prophet is here termed his
mouth, as Euthymeus upon the place (Ac 4:25), Liber
Psalmorum os David (The Book of Psalms is the mouth of David).
He doth intend to note the mercies of God, and to set forth his
truth in a book, the which he will leave behind him (as an
instrument) to convey the same from generation to
generations, from the generation of Jews to the generation
of Christians. Or from the Old Testament to the New: for the
blessed Apostles in their sermons usually cite sentences out of
the Psalms. S. Peter telleth us that the gospel was preached
unto the dead (1Pe 4:6); so may we say, that the gospel is
preached by the dead. For the most ancient fathers, and other
judicious authors, who have spent their days in writing learned
expositions and godly meditations upon the Holy Scriptures,
although they be dead, yet they "sing all the mercies of
the Lord, and shew the truth of his word from one generation to
another." It is reported in our chronicles of Athelstan, parum
oetati vixit, multum glorioe (he lived but little of time, but
much of glory). So many zealous and industrious doctors have
lived (in respect of their age) but a little, yet in respect of
their acts, a great while, shining still in their works and
writings, as lights of the world. Or the prophet may be said to sing
ever intentionally, though not actually. For as the wicked,
if he could live alway, would sin alway, so the good man (if God
should suffer him alway to breathe on earth) would sing alway
the mercies of the Lord.—John Boys.
Verse 1. With my mouth. The author has heard
continual praises from a tongue half eaten away with cancer.
What use, beloved reader, are you making of your tongue?—Philip
Bennett Power.
Verse 2. I have said. The word ytrma, "I
have said", is used, in the Book of Psalms, to express
two things; either a fixed purpose, or a settled opinion of the
person speaking. The Psalmist, therefore, delivers the whole of
this second verse in his own person, and introduces not God
speaking till the next verse.—Samuel Horsley.
Verse 2. I have said, etc. The perpetuity of
mercy is one eminent piece of this Psalm, for with that he
begins: Mercy shall be built up for ever, etc. And they
are the sure mercies of our spiritual David (Christ), he means.
Now, to set forth the perpetuity hereof, he first useth words
that express firmitude, as established, built up for
ever, Ps 89:2,4. Then he uses such similitudes as are taken
from things which are held most firm and inviolable amongst men,
as Ps 89:4, foedus incidi, I have cut or engraven my
covenant (so in the Hebrew), alluding to what was then in use,
when covenants were mutually to be made, such as they intended
to be inviolate, and never to be broken; to signify so much,
they did engrave and cut them into the most durable lasting
matter, as marble, or brass, or the like. You may see this to
have been the way of writing in use, as what was to last for
ever: as Job 19:23-24. "Oh, that my words were now written!
oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with
an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!" And what is
that rock or marble here? No other than the heart itself of our
gracious and most merciful Jehovah, and his most unalterable and
immovable purposes, truth and faithfulness. This is that
foundation in the heavens, whereon mercy is built up for
ever, as Ps 89:2, which (as the Apostle says) "remains for
ever"; and so they become "the sure mercies of
David", Isa 60:3. Again, solemn oaths amongst men serve to
ratify and make things sworn to perpetual. This also is there
specified as having been taken by God: "Once have I sworn
by my holiness", etc., and sworn by him that cannot lie,
and sworn to that end, "to show the immutability of his
counsel", Heb 6:17. And not only is the immutability of his
mercy illustrated by these things taken from what is firm on
earth, but he ascends up to the heavens, and first into the very
highest heavens: Ps 89:2, For I have said, Mercy shall be
built up for ever; thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the
very heavens: comparing them to an house built not on earth,
or upon a foundation of earth, which thieves break through, and
violence destroys, but in heaven, whither they cannot reach.—Thomas
Goodwin.
Verse 2. Mercy shall be built up for ever. What
is this "mercy" that is "built up for
ever"? but the glorious and the gracious scheme, the
glorious and the gracious fabric, of our salvation, founded in
the eternal purpose of God—carried into execution by the
labours and the death of Jesus Christ—and then applied and
brought home to the heart by the illuminating and converting
power of the Holy Ghost? This is that "mercy" which is
"built up for ever." It was planned from everlasting,
and will know no ruin or decay, through the illimitable line of
eternity itself. Who is the builder of this fabric? Not man's
free will. Not man's own righteousness or wisdom. Not human
power nor human skill. Every true believer will here join issue
with David, that it is God, and God alone, who builds up the
temple of his Church; and who, as the builder of it, is alone
entitled to all the glory. The elect constitute and form one
grand house of mercy: an house, erected to display and to
perpetuate the riches of the Father's free grace, of the Son's
atoning merit, and of the Holy Ghost's efficacious agency. This
house, contrary to the fate of all sublunary buildings, will
never fall down, nor ever be taken down. As nothing can be added
to it, so nothing can be diminished from it. Fire cannot injure
it; storms cannot overthrow it; age cannot impair it. It stands
on a rock, and is immovable as the rock on which it stands—the
threefold rock of God's inviolable decree, of Christ's finished
redemption, and of the Spirit's never failing faithfulness.—Augustus
Montague Toplady, 1740-1778.
Verse 2. Built up. Mention of a building of
mercy, presupposes miserable ruins, and denotes that this
building is intended for the benefit of an elect world ruined by
Adam's fall. Free grace and love set on foot this building for
them, every stone in which, from the lowest to the highest, is
mercy to them; from top to bottom, from the foundation stone to
the top stone, all is free and rich mercy to thrum. And the
ground of this glorious building is God's covenant with his
chosen: I have made a covenant with my chosen.—Thomas
Boston.
Verse 2. Built up. Former mercies are
fundamental to later ones. The mercies that we enjoy this day
are founded upon the mercies of former days, such as we ought
joyfully and thankfully to recount with delight and praise;
remembering the years of the right hand of the Most High.—John
Howe.
Verse 2. (last clause). The meaning of this
passage appears to be, that the constancy of the celestial
motions, the regular vicissitudes of day and night, and
alternations of the seasons, were emblems of God's own
immutability.—R. Warner, 1828.
Verse 2.
For I have said, Thy mercies rise,
A deathless structure, to the skies:
The heavens were planted by thy hand,
And, as the heavens, Thy truth shall stand.—Richard Mant.
Verse 3. I have made a covenant with my chosen.
We must ponder here with pious wonder how God has deigned to
enter into a covenant with man, the immortal with the mortal,
the most powerful with the weakest, the most just with the most
unjust, the richest with the poorest, the most blessed with the
most wretched. The prophet wonders that God is mindful of man,
and visits the son of man. Of how much greater admiration, I say
is it worthy, that they are also joined together, and that not
after a simple fashion, but by the ties of a covenant? If man
had affirmed this of himself, that God was united and bound to
him by a covenant, who is there that would not have condemned
him of temerity? Now God himself is introduced affirming this
very thing of himself, that he had made a covenant with man.
What saint does not see in this thing, how great the filanyrwpia
of God is!—Musculus.
Verse 3. I have made a covenant with my chosen.
On heaven's side is God himself, the party proposer. Though he
was the party offended, yet the motion for a covenant comes from
him...The Father of mercies saith, "The lost creatures
cannot contract for themselves; and if another undertake not for
them, they must perish; they cannot choose an undertaker for
themselves. I will choose one for them, and I will make a
covenant with my chosen." On man's side is God's chosen, or
chosen One, for the word of God is singular; the Son, the
last Adam. Who else as fit to be undertaker on man's side?
Who else could have been the Father's choice for this vast
undertaking? No angel nor man was capable of it, but the
Mighty One (Ps 89:19) whom the Father points out to us as
his chosen, Isa 13:1.—Thomas Boston.
Verses 3-4. I made a covenant with my chosen, etc. Do
you suppose that this was spoken to David, in his own person
only? No, indeed; but to David as the antitype, figure, and
forerunner of Jesus Christ. Hence, the Septuagint version
renders it, I have covenanted tois eklektois mou with
my elect people, or with my chosen ones: i.e. with
them in Christ, and with Christ in their name. I have sworn
unto David my servant, unto the Messiah, who was typified by
David; unto my coeternal Son, who stipulated to take on himself
"the form of a servant"; thy seed, i.e. all
those whom I have given to thee in the decree of election, all
those whom thou shalt live and die to redeem, these will I
establish for ever, so as to render their salvation
irreversible and inadmissible: and build up thy throne,
thy mediatorial throne, as King of saints and covenant Head of
the elect, to all generations: there shall always be a
succession of favoured sinners to be called and sanctified, in
consequence of thy federal obedience unto death; and every
period of time shall recompense thy covenant sufferings with an
increasing revenue of converted souls, until as many as are
ordained to eternal life are gathered in. Observe, here, that
when Christ received the promise from the Father concerning the
establishment of his (i.e. of Christ's) throne to all
generations, the plain meaning is, that his people shall be thus
established; for, consider Christ in his divine capacity as the
Son of God, and his throne was already established, and had been
from everlasting, and would have continued to be established
without end, even if he had never been incarnate at all.
Therefore, the promise imports that Christ shall reign, not
simply as a person in the Godhead (which he ever did, ever will,
and ever must); but relatively, mediatorially, and in his office
character, as the deliverer and king of Zion. Hence it follows,
that his people cannot be lost: for he would be a poor sort of a
king who had or might have no subjects to reign over.
Consequently, that "throne" of glory on which Christ
sits is already encircled in part, and will at last be
completely surrounded and made still more glorious, by that
innumerable company, that general assembly and church of the
firstborn who are written in heaven.—Augustus Montague
Toplady.
Verse 5. The Heavens, etc. Now, for this
kingdom of his, the heavens are said to praise his wonders,
which is spoken of the angels, who are often called the
heavens, from their place; as in Job it is said, "The
heavens are not clean in his sight." And these knowing the
wonders of that covenant of grace, they, even they are said to
praise; "The heavens shall praise thy wonders, O Lord"
In the Hebrew it is "thy wonder", or "thy
miracle", in the singular number, which, in Eph 3:10, the
angels are said to adore: and in Lu 2:14, to "sing glory to
the Highest"; for his grace to man is that miracle. Now the
material heavens do not praise the mercy of God, or the grace of
God, or the covenant of grace, or the throne of grace that is
established in the heavens. They understand nothing of Christ;
no, they do not so much as materially give occasion to man to
praise God for these: and therefore this is meant of the angels;
and most interpreters understand the next words of them: Thy
faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints, angels,
and the holy ones made perfect, for there the great congregation
is. For even in the heavens, who can be compared to the Lord,
where all his angels thus do praise him? Who among the sons
of the mighty, of all the powers of the earth, can be
likened unto the Lord? for he is the "King of kings,
and he is the Lord of lords; "a God above all gods, even
angels themselves, as elsewhere the Psalmist hath it. And he
says not only, There is none like thee; but, Who is
like unto thee? his excellency so exceeds. And in Ps 89:7,
he is there presented with all his saints and angels round about
him, as one that is greatly to be feared, or that is terrible in
himself, by reason of his greatness, in this his council and
assembly of his saints, and to be had in reverence of all that
are about him. For saints and angels, they are of his council in
heaven (as might be shewn), and encompass the manifestation of
his glory there round about.—Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 5. Thy wonders, etc. As the heavens are a proof
of God's power, in respect of his first framing them out of
nothing; so are they a pattern of God's faithfulness, in their
constant and orderly motion according to his word since their
framing: The heavens shall praise thy faithfulness also.
However the power and faithfulness of God may be seen and heard
in the work and speech of the heavens by all men, yet are they
not observed and hearkened unto except in the Church by God's
children: therefore saith he, They shall praise thy
faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints.—David
Dickson.
Verse 5. Thy wonders. Thy wondrousness (literally,
wonder), not "Thy wondrous works", but "Thy
wonderful mysterious nature and being", as separate and
distinct from all created beings.—J.J.S. Perowne.
Verse 5. Thy wonders, etc. It is a wonderful
salvation, it is such a salvation as the angels desire to pry
into it; and it is such a salvation, that all the prophets
desire to pry into it; it is almost six thousand years since all
the angels in heaven fell into a sea of wonder at this great
salvation; it is almost six thousand years since Abel fell into
a sea of wonder at this great salvation; and what think ye is
his exercise this day? He is even wondering at this great
salvation.—Andrew Gray, 1616.
Verse 6. Who in the heaven? Who in the sky?
Ainsworth reads it. In the clouds, in nubibus, oequabitur,
is to be equalled, saith Calvin, to Jehovah, Quis enim in
superiore nube par oestimetur Jehova. Who in the higher
clouds is equal to Jehovah, so Tremellius reads it. Who in
the heavens? i.e., say some, in the starry heavens, among
the celestial bodies, sun, moon, or stars; which were adored as
gods, not only by the Persians, but also by some idolatrous
Jews, because of their brightness and beauty, their lustre and
glory. Which of all those famous lamps, and heavenly luminaries,
is to be compared to the Father of lights, and Sun of
righteousness? They may glisten like glowworms in the night of
Paganism, among them who are covered with the mantle of
darkness, but when this Sun ariseth, and day appeareth, they all
vanish and disappear. "Who in the heavens?" i.e., say
others, in the heaven of heavens, the highest, the third
heavens, among the celestial spirits, cherubims and seraphims,
angels and archangels, principalities and powers, thrones and
dominions? Who among the innumerable company of angels? Who
among those pure, those perfect spirits, who are the most
ancient, the most honourable house of the creation, is to be
compared to the Father of Spirits.—George Swinnock.
Verse 6. Who can be compared? The Dutch have
translated these words, Who can be shadowed with him?
that is, they are not worthy to be accounted shadows unto such a
comparison with him.—Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 6. Who among the sons of the mighty.
Literally, "Who is he among the sons of" Alim
(or of Gods, as in Ps 29:1,) i.e., according to Suicer,
the powerful, the princes of the earth.—Daniel Cresswell.
Verse 7. God is greatly to be feared. Ainsworth
reads, "God is daunting terrible." The original word
is Uren, from Ure arats, he was broken, bruised, terrified.
"An epithet of God", says Bythner, "as though
breaking all things."—Editorial Note to Calvin in loc.
Verse 7. God is greatly to be feared. The
worship of God is to be performed with great fear and reverence:
"God is greatly to be feared." Piscator
translates it, Vehementer formidandus, to be vehemently
feared; and opposes it to that formal, careless, trifling, vain
spirit, which too often is found in those that approach the Lord
in the duties of his worship.—John Flavel.
Verse 7. God is greatly to be feared in the
assembly of the saints. Those saints of his who walk close
with him, have a daunting power in their appearance. I appeal to
guilty consciences, to apostates, to professors who have secret
haunts of wickedness: sometime when you come but into the
presence of one who is a truly gracious godly man or woman whom
your conscience tells you walks close with God, doth not even
the very sight of such an one terrify you? The very lustre of
that holiness you see in such an one strikes upon your
conscience. Then you think, such an one walks close with God
indeed, but I have basely forsaken the Lord, and have had such a
haunt of wickedness, I have brought dreadful guilt upon my soul
since I saw him last. Ecclesiastical stories tell us of Basil,
when the officers came to apprehend him, he being then exercised
in holy duties, that there was such a majesty and lustre came
from his countenance, that the officers fell down backward (as
they did who came to apprehend Christ), they were not able to
lay hold of him. Surely, when the saints shall be raised in
their holiness, when every one of them shall have their hearts
filled with holiness, it will cause abundance of fear even in
all hearts of those that converse with them.—Jeremiah
Burrows.
Verse 8. Thy faithfulness round about thee. For
just as the tyrants of this world move abroad surrounded by
impiety, avarice, contempt of God, and, pride, as with a
bodyguard, so God sits on his exalted throne, surrounded with
majesty, faithfulness, mercy and equal love to all his people,
as with a vesture of gold.—J. Baptista Folengius.
Verse 8. Thy faithfulness round about thee.
Whatever he doth, he is mindful of his faithfulness and
covenant, before and behind, and on each side; he can look no
way, but that is in his eye. And though he employ angels, and
send them down into the world, and they stand round about him;
yet he hath better harbingers than these—mercy, and truth, and
faithfulness, that wait round about him.—Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 9. Thou rulest the raging of the sea.
Surely the Spirit of God would have us to take notice, that
though the sea be indeed such a giant, such a monster, as will
make a heart of oak shake, or a heart of brass melt, yet what is
it to God, but an infant? He can bind it and lay it to sleep,
even as a little child. And if the great sea be in the hand of
God as a little child, what is great to God! and how great is
God! What is strong to God! and how strong is God! What or who
is too great, or too strong for God to deal with?—Joseph
Caryl.
Verse 9. Thou rulest. Here under a figure taken
from God's providential government, we have an exhibition of the
power of God in defeating the efforts of the enemies of his
Church. An instance of this, in the literal sense, we have in
the appeasing of the storm by our Lord. "And he arose, and
rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And
the wind ceased, and there was a great calm." Here we see
that God reigns over the sea immediately, and alters or modifies
the arrangements of nature according to his sovereign pleasure.
That which Jesus did on one occasion is constantly done by the
God of providence. He has not left the ocean to be disturbed at
random by the winds, nor to be kept in peace by the laws of
nature. He rules the raging of the sea. He raises the waves, and
he stilleth them. This exhibits a continually working
providence. And what he does in providence he does also in his
kingdom of grace. He suffers the fury of the enemy to swell
against his cause, but he stills it at his pleasure.—Alexander
Carson.
Verse 10. Broken; scattered. God has
more ways than one to deal with his and his church's enemies.—Matthew
Henry.
Verse 10. Rahab. The reason why Egypt is
expressed in Scripture under this word, ariseth from the two
significations of it; first, it signifies strength, for
Egypt was a very strong nation, and therefore the Israelites
were reproved for going to them for help, and relying upon their
strength, which though great in itself, yet should be to them
but a broken reed; secondly, it signifieth pride, or the proud;
men are usually proud of strength, and Egypt being a
strong nation, was also a very proud nation.—Joseph Caryl.
Verse 11. The heavens are thine, the earth also is
thine. Therefore we praise thee, therefore we trust in thee,
therefore we will not fear what man can do against us.—Matthew
Henry.
Verse 12. The north and the south thou hast created
them. etc. The heights of Huttin, commonly fixed on by
tradition as the Mount of Beatitudes, appear a little to the
west of Tiberias. Over these the graceful top of Mount Tabor is
seen, and beyond it the little Hermon, famous for its dews; and
still farther, and apparently higher, the bleak mountains of
Gilboa, on which David prayed that there might fall no dew nor
rain. A view of the position of Tabor and Hermon from such a
situation as that which we now occupied, shewed us how
accurately they might be reckoned the "umbilicus terroe"—the
central point of the land, and led us to infer that this is the
true explanation of the manner in which they are referred to in
the Ps 89:12. It is as if the Psalmist had said North, South,
and all that is between—or in other words, the whole
land from North to South, to its very centre and throughout its
very marrow—shall rejoice in thy name.—R.M. Macheyne.
Verse 12. Tabor and Hermon. These hills, the
one to the east and the other to the west, in Canaan, were much
frequented by the saints of God. David speaks of the sacred hill
of Hermon, and compares brotherly love to the dew of it.
Ps 42:6 133:3. And Tabor, yet more eminent for the
memorable spot of Christ's transfiguration, and from whence God
the Father proclaimed his perfect love and approbation of Jesus
as his dear Son. Well might this hymn, therefore, in allusion to
those glorious events, call even the holy hills to rejoice in
Jehovah's name, Mt 17:1-5.—Robert Hawker.
Verse 13. Strong is thy hand; even thy left
hand; as much as to say, tu polles utraque manu, thou
hast both hands alike powerful.—John Trapp.
Verse 14. Justice and judgment are the habitation
of thy throne. As if the Psalmist had said, "The
ornaments with which God is invested, instead of being a robe of
purple, a diadem, or a sceptre, are, that he is the righteous
and impartial judge of the world, a merciful father, and a
faithful protector of his people." Earthly kings, from
their having nothing in themselves to procure for them
authority, and to give them dignity, are under the necessity of
borrowing elsewhere what will invest them therewith; but God,
having in himself all sufficiency, and standing in no need of
any other helps, exhibits to us the splendour of his own image
in his righteousness, mercy, and truth.—John Calvin.
Verse 14. Justice and judgment are the habitation
of thy throne. The Holy Ghost alludes to the thrones of
earthly princes, which were underpropped with pillars, as
Solomon's throne with lions, 1Ki 19:20, that were both a support
and an ornament to it. Now, saith the Psalmist, justice and
judgment are the pillars upon which God's throne standeth, as
Calvin expounds it, the robe and diadem, the purple and sceptre,
the regalia with which God's throne is adorned.—George
Swinnock.
Verse 14. Justice and judgment are the habitation
of thy throne. Jehovah is here exhibited, by the sacred
poet, under the character of a Sovereign, and of a Judge, he
being presented to our adoring regard as on his throne;
the throne of universal empire, and absolute dominion; as
exercising his authority, and executing his laws, with an
omnipotent but impartial hand. For "Justice and judgment
are the habitation", the preparation, the establishment,
or the basis, of this throne. Our textual translation is,
habitation; the marginal, establishment; the
Septuagint, preparation; and, if I mistake not, our best
modern interpreters render the original term, basis or foundation;
which, on the whole, seems most agreeable. The basis,
then, of Jehovah's government, or that on which it rests, is "justice
and judgment." By "justice", I
conceive we are to understand the attribute so called; and, by "judgment",
the impartial exercise of that attribute in the Divine
administration. So that were not the Most High to administer
impartial justice in his moral government, he might be
considered, if it be lawful to use the expression, as abdicating
his throne.—Abraham Booth, 1734-1806.
Verse 14. Justice, which defends his subjects,
and does every one right. Judgment, which restrains
rebels, and keeps off injuries. Mercy, which shows
compassion, pardons, supports the weak. Truth, that
performs whatsoever he promises.—William Nicholson.
Verse 14. Mercy and truth shall go before thy face.
Note—
1. Mercy is said to go before the face of God, because God
sends mercy before judgment, that he might find less to punish:
so Bellarmine.
2. That God permits not his face to be seen before He has
forgiven our sins through mercy: so Rickelius.
3. That no one comes to the knowledge of God, but he who has
obtained mercy beforehand.
4. That God comes to no one unless His grace go before Him.
...Truth goes before the face of God, because God keeps it ever
before his eyes, to mould his actions thereby. Pindar calls
truth yugatera Dios the daughter of God. Epaminoudas the Theban
general, cultivated truth so studiously, that he is reported
never to have spoken a falsehood even in jest. In the courts of
kings this is a rare virtue.—Le Blanc.
Verse 14. Mercy and truth. Mercy in promising; truth
in performing. Truth, in being as good as thy word; mercy,
in being better.—Matthew Henry.
Verse 14. Shall go. In his active going
forth, tender mercy and goodness announce him, and faithful
truth will tell his people he is there when he comes forth. His
activities are mercy and faithfulness, because his will is at
work and his nature is love. Yet his throne still maintains
justice and judgment.—J.N. Darby.
Verse 15. Blessed is the people that know the
joyful sound. Not that hear, for then the blessing
were cheap indeed. Thousands hear the Gospel sound, but
sometimes not ten of a thousand know it.—Thomas James
Judkin, 1841.
Verse 15. Blessed is the people that know the
joyful sound—viz., of the trumpets sounded in token of joy
at the great festivals, and chiefly on the first day of the
seventh month, the feast of trumpets (Le 23:24), and on
extraordinary occasions, especially after the yearly atonement,
on the day of jubilee, the tenth day of the seventh month of the
fiftieth year, proclaiming liberty to bondmen, and restoration
of their inheritance to them that had forfeited it (Le 25:8-10).
As the jubilee joy did not come till after the atonement, so no
Gospel joy and liberty are ours till first we know Christ as our
atonement. "In the day of the people's gladness" they
blew the trumpets over their sacrifices, "that they might
be to them for a memorial before God" (Nu 10:10). David and
Israel brought up the ark of the Lord to Zion "with
shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet" (2Sa 6:15). In
Nu 23:21, Balaam makes it the distinguishing glory of Israel,
"The Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is
among them", (Compare Ps 98:6 27:6 margin)—A.R.
Fausset.
Verse 15. People that know the joyful sound.
Here it is supposed that we have intelligence in respect of "the
joyful sound." For there is knowledge not merely of the
utterances and intonations, but of the sense and substance, of
the thought aud feeling, which they convey. And I suppose this
to be the meaning of Christ when he says, "My sheep hear my
voice, and they follow me; and a stranger will they not follow,
for they know not the voice of strangers." And I have often
been surprised, to note the accuracy with which persons
otherwise not very intelligent, not largely informed, not of
critical acumen, will yet, when they hear a discourse, judge,
discriminate, determine; will be able to say at
once—"Truth, clear, unmixed, without a cloud upon it;
"or—"Doctrine clouded, statements confused, not the
lucid Gospel:" or be able to say, if it be so—"No
Gospel at all; contradiction to the truth of Christ." They "Know
the joyful sound", as it rolls from the plenitude of
God's own voice and bosom in his august and blessed revelations;
as it is confirmed, authenticated and sealed by the precious
blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; as it is witnessed
to by the eternal Spirit: "the joyful sound", that
there is salvation for lost and ruined men by faith in the blood
and in the obedience of him who died upon the tree, and is now
enthroned in the highest place in heaven.—James Stratten,
1845.
Verse 15. They shall walk in the light of thy
countenance. Surely, next to the love of God's heart,
believers value the smiles of his face; from which, as from the
agency of the sun, arise the budding of conscious joy, the
leaves of unsullied profession, the variegated blossom of holy
tempers, and the beneficent fruits of moral righteousness. They
are totally mistaken who suppose that the light of God's
countenance, and the privileges of the gospel, and the
comforts of the Spirit, conduce to make us indolent and inactive
in the way of duty. The text cuts up this surmise by the roots.
For, it does not say, they shall sit down in the light of
thy countenance; or, they shall lie down in the light of
thy countenance; but "they shall WALK in the light
of thy countenance." What is walking? It is a progressive
motion from one point of space to another. And what is that holy
walking which God's Spirit enables all his people to observe? It
is a continued, progressive motion from sin to holiness; from
all that is evil, to every good word and work. And the self same
"light of God's countenance" in which you, O believer,
are enabled to walk, and which at first gave you spiritual feet
wherewith to walk, will keep you in a walking and in a working
state, to the end of your warfare.—Augustus Montague
Toplady.
Verse 15.—There is the dreadful and there is the
joyful sound. The dreadful sound was at Mount Sinai. The joyful
sound is from Mount Sion. When the people heard the former they
were far from beholding the glory of God's face. Moses only was
admitted to see His "back parts"; the people were kept
at a distance, and the light of God's glory that they saw was so
terrible to them, that they could not abide it. But they that
know the "joyful sound." they shall be admitted near,
nearer than Moses, so as to see the glory of God's face or
brightness of his countenance, and that not only transiently, as
Moses saw God's back parts, but continually. The light of God's
glory shall not be terrible to them, but easy and sweet, so that
they may dwell in it and walk in it; and it shall be to them
instead of the light of the sun; for the sun shall no more be
their light by day, nor the moon by night, but God shall be
their everlasting light, Compare this with Isa 2:5 Re 21:23-24
Re 22:4-5—Jonathan Edwards
Verse 16. And in thy righteousness shall they be
exalted. In these words briefly we may notice,
1. The believer's promotion; he is exalted. In the
first Adam we were debased unto the lowest hell, the crown
having fallen from our heads; but in Christ, the second Adam, we
are again exalted; yea, exalted as high as heaven, for we
"sit together with him in heavenly places", says the
apostle. This is an incredible paradox to a blind world, that
the believer who is sitting at this moment upon the dunghill of
this earth, should at the same time be sitting in heaven in
Christ, his glorious Head and representative, Eph 2:6.
2. We have the ground of the believer's preferment and
exaltation; it is in thy righteousness. It is not in any
righteousness of his own; no, this he utterly disclaims,
reckoning it but "dung and loss", "filthy
rags", dogs' meat: but it is in thy righteousness;
that is, the righteousness of God, as the apostle calls it: Ro
1:17 Php 3:9. The righteousness of God is variously taken in
Scripture. Sometimes for the infinite rectitude and equity of
his nature: Ps 11:7, "The righteous Lord loveth
righteousness." Sometimes for his rectorial equity, or
distributive justice which he exerciseth in the government of
the world, rewarding the good and punishing evil doers: Ps 97:2,
"Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his
throne." Sometimes it is put for his veracity and
faithfulness in accomplishing his word of promise, or in
executing his word of threatening: Ps 36:5-6, "Thy
faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds: thy righteousness is like
the great mountains." Sometimes it is put for the perfect
righteousness which Christ the Son of God, as our Surety and
Mediator, brought in, by his obedience to the law, and death on
the cross, for the justification of guilty sinners: and this as
I said, is frequently called the righteousness of God; and in
this sense I understand it here in the text: "In thy
righteousness shall they be exalted."—Ebenezer
Erskine.
Verse 17. In thy favour our horn shall be exalted.
A man of lofty bearing is said to carry his horn very high. To
him who is proudly interfering with the affairs of another it
will be said, "Why show your kombu",
"horn", "here?" "See that fellow, what
a fine horn he has; he will make the people run."
"Truly, my lord, you have a great horn." "Chinnan
has lost his money; aye, and his hornship too." "Alas,
alas! I am like the deer, whose horns have fallen off."—Joseph
Roberts "Oriental Illustrations."
Verse 19 (second clause).—(New Translation) A
mighty chief have I supplied with help. Literally, "I
have equalized help", that is, I have laid or given
sufficient help, "upon a mighty one". The verb denotes
"to equalize", or "make one thing equal or
equiponderant to another", as a means to the end, or vice
versa.—Richard Mant.
Verse 19. Chosen has here its strict sense, but
not without allusion to its specific use as signifying a young
warrior.—J. A. Alexander.
Verse 20. With my holy oil have I appointed him.
As the literal David was thrice anointed king, once by Samuel in
Jesse's house at Bethlehem: once at Hebron after the death of
Saul, as king over Judah; and again at seven years' end, as
ruler over all Israel: so also "God anointed Jesus of
Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power" in his
nativity at Bethlehem; a second time over his Church at his
resurrection, when the tyrant who sought his life was overcome,
and then only over the small "confederation" (which Hebron
means) of his Jewish disciples; but a third time in his
ascension to the heavenly Jerusalem, the Vision of Peace, where
he, now crowned as King of Glory, was anointed over all heaven
and earth, supreme over all the princes of God. He was thrice
anointed in another sense also, once as Prophet, once as Priest,
and once as King.—Neale and Littledale.
Verse 20-24. I have FOUND David, God exclaims. When
sin brought death into the world, and annihilated the hopes of
mankind from the first covenant, I—the Almighty—in my
care for them, sought out a Redeemer. I sought for him in
the Divine Nature; and I "found" him in My Only
Son. I endowed him with ample powers, and I covenanted that, in
the weakness of his Incarnation, my hand and arm
should strengthen him. I declared that Satan the enemy
should not exact upon him; nor should Judas—the son
of wickedness—be enabled to afflict him. The Jews, his
foes, shall fall before him; they shall be smitten down
in their rejection of hint; they shall perish from off their
land, and be dispersed abroad among the nations. My truth
shall be ever with him; and acting in my name and power,
he shall be exalted and glorified amongst men.—William Hill
Tucker.
Verse 22. The enemy shall not exact upon him.
The allusion appears to us to be made to a cruel and unjust
creditor, who exacts not only his just debts, but some
exaggerated demand, with usurious interest, which was not
permitted.—Williams, quoted by Ed. of Calvin.
Verse 25. I will set his hand also in the sea, and
his right hand in the rivers. That is, he should reign from
the Mediterranean to the Euphrates; figuratively expressed by
his left hand being extended to the sea, and his right hand to
the rivers. A similar expression is used, according to Curtius,
by the Scythian ambassadors to Alexander. "If", said
they, "the gods had given thee a body as great as thy mind,
the whole world would not be able to contain thee. Thou wouldst
reach with one hand to the east, and with the other to the
west."—Kitto's Pictorial Bible.
Verse 25. I will set his hand also in the sea and
his right hard in the rivers. A certain artist was in the
habit of saying that he should represent Alexander in such a
manner, that in one hand he should hold a city and from the
other pour a river. Christ is represented here as of immense
stature, higher than all mountains, with one hand holding the
earth, and the other the sea, while from Eastern sea to Western
he extends his arms.—Le Blanc.
Verse 26. He shall cry unto me, thou art my father.
When did David call God his Father? It is striking that we do
not find anywhere in the Old Testament that the patriarchs or
prophets called God their Father. You do not find them
addressing Him as Father: they did not know him as such. This
verse is unintelligible in reference to David; but in regard to
the True David it is exactly what he did say,—"My Father,
and your Father; my God, and your God." Never until Christ
uttered these words, never until he appeared on earth in
humanity as the Son of God, did any man or any child of humanity
address God in this endearing character. It was after Christ
said, "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father", that
believers were enabled to look up to God and to say, "Abba,
Father". Here you see distinctly that this applies to
Christ. He was the first to say this: David did not say it. If
there were no other proof in the whole Psalm, that one clause
would be a demonstration to me that no other man than the Lord
Jesus Christ can be here spoken of.—Capel Molyneux,
1855.
Verse 26. My Father. Christ commenced his
labours by referring to his Father, for in Lu 2:49 he says,
"Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's
business?" and his last words were, "Father, into thy
hands I commend my spirit"; and through his whole life he
most constantly addressed God as his Father. He shall cry
unto me: Thou art my Father, as far as my divinity is
concerned. My God, as far as my humanity is concerned; the
support of my salvation, as regards my mortality.—Bellarmine.
Verse 26-28. Christ had a command to be a sufferer,
and a body prepared him for that purpose; so he had likewise a
command to be an advocate, and a life given him, and a throne
prepared for him at the right hand of God to that end. This
commission is contained in the words before us; and this after
his exaltation, Ps 89:24-25. Yet for the full completing of it,
Ps 89:27 the matter of the plea is here mentioned, Thou art
the rock of my salvation, the foundation, the first cause,
of all thy salvation I have wrought in the world, being the
first mover of it, and promising the acceptance of me in the
performance of what was necessary for it. As he hath authority
to cry to God, so he hath an assurance of the prevalence of his
cry, in regard of the stability of the covenant of mediation,
which shall stand fast with him, or be faithful to him: my
mercy will I keep for him for evermore, Ps 89:28. The
treasures of my mercy are reserved only to be opened and
dispensed by him: and the enjoying of his spiritual seed for
ever, and the establishing of his own throne thereby, is the
promised fruit of this cry, Ps 89:28.—Stephen Charnock.
Verse 27. I will make him my firstborn. First,
because he is first in the order of predestination; for it is
through him, as through the head, that we are predestinated, as
we read in Eph 1:1-23. Secondly, because he is first in the
second generation to life everlasting, whence he is called (Col
1:18.) the firstborn from the dead, and in Re 1:5, the
first begotten of the dead; and, thirdly, because he had the
rights of the firstborn; for he was appointed heir of all
things; and he was made not only firstborn, but also, high
above the kings of the earth; that is, Prince of the kings
of the earth, and King of kings.—Bellarmine.
Verse 27. Also I will make him my firstborn, higher
than the kings of the, earth. This promise plainly implies
superiority of a nature similar to what was enjoyed of old by
the eldest son of a family—the birthright privileges and
blessings, which consisted principally in three important
particulars: First, A double portion of the parent's earthly
possessions, De 21:17. Secondly. Rule or authority over the
younger branches of the family, 2Ch 21:3; and Thirdly, The
exercise of the priesthood, because God claimed all the
firstborn as his, and in their stead he appointed the Levites to
do the priest's office, Nu 8:14-17. But, whilst it is literally
true that Jesus was the firstborn son of his virgin mother, and
on that account entitled to the customary privileges, the
promise in the 89th Psalm (Ps 89:1-52) gives intimation of
something specific and unusual. David was the youngest son of
Jesse, the lowest on the list of a numerous family,—the very
last individual among them who could have expected exaltation
over all others. But, notwithstanding these natural
disadvantages, he was God's choice; and by referring to the
Scripture history it would be easy to show in a variety of
particulars, how the promise made to David, I will make him
my firstborn, was literally and remarkably fulfilled in the
son of Jesse. In like manner Jesse, to all human appearance,
entering the world as heir apparent only to the poverty of Mary
and her espoused husband, was far removed from every prospect of
realizing that combination of royal and sacerdotal prerogative,
which nevertheless was made stare to him by the promise of his
heavenly Father: "I will make him my
firstborn." The pronoun "my" gives great
emphasis to the promise, but this word is interpolated; and
however truly it conveys an idea of the unspeakable superiority
which belongs to Jesus Christ as the result of his relationship
with God, still we shall find that, even without this important
pronoun, the promise simply of being "firstborn" has a
sublimity and grandeur about it which needs neither ornament nor
addition. The great Jehovah, the Maker and the Owner and the
Ruler of the universe, hath said respecting his Christ, "I
will make him my firstborn"; that is, I will constitute him
the chief of all creatures, and the depository of all power, and
the possessor of all privileges, and the heir of all creation.
By way of excellence, he is the firstborn, "higher than all
the kings of the earth",—enjoying priority in point of
time, and precedence in point of place.—David Pitcairn, in
"The Anointed Saviour", 1846.
Verse 27. My firstborn. In the Hebrew idiom all
kings were the sons of God: but David is the chief of
these, God's firstborn. The Greeks had a similar mode of
expressing themselves. Kings were the nurslings of Jupiter.—Alexander
Geddes.
Verse 28. My mercy will I keep for him for
evermore. How will he keep his mercy for Christ for
evermore? Very simply, I think. Is not Christ the Fountain of
all mercy to us? Is it not the mercy of God the Father flowing
to us through Christ that we enjoy? Is he not the Depository of
it all? God says, then, I will keep it for him; for ever and
ever shall it be lodged in Christ, and Isis people shall enjoy
it throughout eternity.—Capel Molyneux, 1855.
Verse 28-30. Here is comfort to those who are true
branches, and continue to bring forth fruit in the midst of all
the trials that befall them, that God will not suffer them to be
cut off by their corruption. If anything in them should provoke
God to do it, it must be sin. Now for that, you see how Christ
promises that God will take order therewith, and will purge it
out of them. This is the covenant made with David, (as he was a
type of Christ, with whom the same covenant is made sure and
firm,)that if his seed forsake my law, and walk not in my
judgments,—What! presently turn them out of doors, and cut
them off, as those he meant to have no more to do with? What!
nothing but utter rejection? Is there no means of reclaiming
them? Never a rod in the house? Yes—then will I visit their
transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes,
whip out their stubbornness and sinfulness; but my loving
kindness will I not utterly take from him as I did from
Saul, as it is in 1Ch 17:13. Let the saints consider this, that
they may return when they are fallen, and submit to him and his
nature, and suffer him to do what he will with them, and endure
cutting, and lancing, and burning, so long as he cuts them not
off; endure chastening, and all his dealings else, knowing that
all the fruit is but to take away the sin, to make them
"partakers of his holiness"; and "if by any
means", as Paul speaks of himself, (Php 3:11), be the means
what it will, it is no matter. And God, if at any time he seems
to cut thee off, yet it is but as the incestuous Corinthian was
cut off, `that the flesh might be destroyed, and the spirit
saved.'—Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 29. "His seed" and "throne"
are coupled together, as if his throne could not stand if his
seed did fail. If his subjects should perish, what would he be
king of? If his members should consume, what would he be head
of?—Stephen Charnock.
Verse 30. If his children forsake my law. An
objection is supposed: `Suppose this seed who are included in
the covenant fall into transgression, how shall the covenant
stand fast then?' The covenant, with the seed, shall stand for
ever, but the seed must be a holy seed. Then the objector
supposes—`Suppose the seed become unholy?' Well, God
explains—"If his children forsake my law, and walk not in
my judgments"—that is, if the seed practically fall
away—"If they break my statutes, and keep not my
commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the
rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my
lovingkindness will I not take from him, nor suffer my
faithfulness to fail." Mark the case. What is it that God
will do? The case supposed is that the seed of Christ forsakes
the law and breaks his statutes. I need not say to you that that
is realized every day. These are not the ungodly or the
unconverted that are spoken of, but God's own children. Do you
say, `Can they be guilty of breaking God's statutes, and
forsaking God's law?' We do it every day. There is no single day
of our lives that we do not do it. . . .
How astonished many would be, if they knew what the real case
was of those perhaps whom they admire, and think highly advanced
and exalted in the Divine life, if they were to know the falls,
the wretched falls, falls in heart, in word and in practice; if
they were to know the deep distress that the children of God,
who are far advanced as they suppose in the Divine life, are
continually suffering from the effect of such transgression!
That is exactly what God says; he comes and contemplates such a
case, and he says, "If they break my statutes, and keep not
my commandments, then"—what? What will God do? Some
people say, "Then God will leave them." Those who
object to the doctrine of final perseverance say this: "It
is true he will preserve the believer from the toils of the
Devil and the temptations of the world, but not from the
breaking forth of his own natural evil." He may be betrayed
by that, and finally lost. God exactly meets that case; he
contemplates the worst case—actual transgression. He says,
"If a child of mine breaks my law". He does not say
anything about the Devil, or the outward temptations of the
world; but he says, "If they forsake my law and break my
statutes." Let us be instructed by God. He does not say he
will leave them and forsake them. Mark what he will do! He
say—"I will visit their transgressions with the rod, and
their iniquity with stripes." That is the provision which
God has made in his covenant: and it is delightful to see how
God has contemplated our case to the uttermost. There is nothing
in our history that God has not met in the covenant with Christ.
If you are in union with Christ, and a partaker of the covenant,
your case is met in every conceivable emergency. Nothing can
befall you which is not contemplated—nothing which God has not
provided for. Even if you fall, God has provided for it; but
take heed; the provision involves much that will be terrible and
desperately painful to your mind. There is nothing to encourage
sin about it; there is nothing to give us license, nothing to
lead a man to boast, "I am safe at last." Be it so:
but safe how? How will God secure their safety? "I will
visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with
stripes."—Capel Molyneux.
Verse 30. If his children forsake my law. If
they fall into sins of commission; if they shoot beyond the
mark. And walk not in my judgements. If they fall into
sins of omission, and shoot short. Where note that every
transgression and disobedience (that is, every commission
and omission) receiveth a just recompense of reward, Heb
2:2.—John Trapp.
Verse 30. His children. wynb, his sons, i.e.
Christians, born through the griefs of Christ on the cross, like
the pangs of one in travail.—Geier.
Verse 30. A man may forsake the doctrines of the
Gospel. He may fall into great errors, great aberrations from
Truth; he may forsake the ordinances of the Lord's house, though
he sees God's word is clear upon the point. He esteems those
things as nothing worth, which the Lord esteems so well, that he
has given them to his church as a sacred deposit, which she is
to convey down to the last posterity till time shall be no more.
And what is still more—a man may forsake for a time the
principles of the precious Gospel of the living God. But I can
imagine a state still more solemnly affecting than even this. It
is a part of God's wisdom, (and it is for our good that it is
so—all God's wisdom is for his people's good)—it is a part
of the wisdom of God, that sin should lead to sin; that one
neglect shall pave the way to another; that that which is bad
shall lead to that which is worse, and that which is worse shall
prepare the way for that which is worst...The longer I live, the
more I am brought to this—to know that there is not a sin that
ever was committed, but I need the grace of God to keep me from
it.—James Harrington Evans.
Verses 30-34. God here says two things: first, that he
will chastise them, next, that he will not, on that account,
cast them out of his covenant. O wonderful tempering of the
kindness and severity of God! In which he finds his own glory,
and believers their safety! The heavenly Father loves the blood
and marks of his Christ which he sees upon them, and the remains
of faith and godliness which are preserved hidden in the depth
of their heart, this is why he will not cast them off. On the
other hand, he considers that it accords neither with his wisdom
nor his holiness to bestow his grace and salvation upon those
who do not relent for having cast off his law and given
themselves up to iniquity. In order to harmonize these opposite
desires, he takes the rod, and chastises them, to arouse their
conscience, and to excite their faith; to restore them, by the
repentance which his discipline produces, to such a state, as
that he may be able to bestow upon them, without shame, the
blessings he has promised to the children of his Son; just as a
wise parent, by moderate and judicious correction gradually
draws back his son from those irregularities of life into which
he has plunged; and thereby preserves his honour, and himself
the pleasure of being able to love and please him without
misgiving. Or, as a skilful surgeon, by the pain which his
knife, or cautery, or bitter potions, cause his patient, saves
his life, and wards off death.—Jean Daille.
Verses 30-34. When our heavenly Father is, as it were,
forced to put forth his anger, he then makes use of a father's
rod, not an executioner's axe. He will neither break his
children's bones, nor his own covenant. He lashes in love, in
measure, in pity, and compassion.—Thomas Lye,
1621-1684.
Verse 32. Then will I visit their transgression
with the rod, etc. He does not simply say, I will smite
them; but, I will visit with the rod. It is one thing merely to
smite, it is another thing to smite by visiting. For visitation
implies oversight and paternal care. The metaphor is taken from
those who undertake to watch over the sick, or train up
children, or tend sheep. He does not say, I will visit them with
the rod; but, I will visit their transgression with the rod. We
ought to think perpetually, what it is the rod of God visits in
us, that we may confess our transgressions, and amend our
lives.—Musculus.
Verse 33. Nevertheless my lovingkindness, etc.
Except the covenant of grace had this article in it for
remission of sin and for fatherly correction, to drive unto
repentance, that the penitent person coming to God by faith
might have sin forgiven him and lovingkindness shown to him;
this covenant should fail us no less than the covenant of
works.—David Dickson.
Verse 33. I will not utterly take from him. Why
"from him?" Because all God's lovingkindness to
his people is centred in Christ. Does God love you? it is
because he loves Christ; you are one with Christ. Your
transgressions are your own; they are separate from Christ; but
God's love is not your own; it is Christ's: you receive it
because you are one with him. How beautifully that is
distinguished here—"If they transgress, I will punish them;
but my lovingkindness will I not take from him"—in
whom alone they find it; and in union with whom alone they enjoy
it.—Capel Molyneux.
Verse 33. From him. The words, "Nevertheless
my lovingkindness will not utterly take from him", are
worthy of consideration; for the question being about those who
are chastised, it would appear that he should have written, from
them, and not from him. But the prophet has thus worded it,
because, being the children and members of his Christ, the
favours which God bestows upon us belong to him in some manner;
and it seems that the Psalmist wishes to show us hereby, that it
is in Jesus Christ, and for love of him alone, that God bestows
favours on us. And that which follows, in Ps 89:34 verse, agrees
herewith,—My covenant will I not break—for it is
properly to Jesus Christ, on account of his admirable obedience,
that God the Father has promised to be merciful to our
iniquities, and never to leave one of those to perish who are in
covenant with him.—Jean Daille.
Verse 33. Nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.
Man's faith may fail him sometimes, but God's faithfulness never
fails him: God will not suffer his faithfulness to fail. God's
operations may have an aspect that way; the devil's temptations,
and our unbelieving hearts, may not only make us think so, but
persuade us it is so, whereas it cannot be so, for the Lord will
not suffer it, he will not make a lie in his truth or
faithfulness; so the Hebrew is: he is a God that cannot lie, he
is Truth, speaks truth, and not one of his promises can or shall
fail; which may afford strong consolation unto all that are
under any promise of God.—William Greenhill.
Verse 34. My covenant will I not break. He had
said above, If the children of David break my statutes;
and now, alluding to that breach, he declares that he will not
requite them as they requite him, My covenant will I not
break, implying, that although his people may not altogether
act in a manner corresponding to their vocation, as they ought
to do, he will not suffer his covenant to be broken and
disannulled on account of their fault, because he will promptly
and effectually prevent this in the way of blotting out their
sins by a gratuitous pardon.—John Calvin.
Verse 35. Once have I sworn by my holiness. He
lays here his holiness to pledge for the assurance of his
promise, as the attribute most dear to him, most valued by him,
as though no other could give an assurance parallel to it, in
this concern of an everlasting redemption, which is there spoken
of. He that swears, swears by a greater than himself. God having
no greater than himself, swears by himself; and swearing here by
his holiness seems to equal that single to all his other
attributes, as if he were more concerned in the honour of it
than of all the rest. It is as if he should have said, Since I
have not a more excellent perfection to swear by than that of my
holiness, I lay this to pawn for your security, and bind myself
by that which I will never part with, were it possible for me to
be stripped of all the rest. It is a tacit imprecation of
himself, If I lie unto David, let me never be counted holy, or
thought righteous enough to be trusted by angels or men. This
attribute he makes most of.—Stephen Charnock.
Verse 36. His seed shall endure for ever. They
shall continue for ever in three senses. First. In the
succession of their race to the end of the world. It will never
be cut off.—"The Church is in danger!" What
Church? "Upon this rock", says he, "I will build my
Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it." Yea, his people shall continue to increase in number
and excellency. We shall leave the world better than we entered
it: and so will our children; till Jerusalem shall be
established, and be made a praise in the whole earth. Secondly.
In their religious character to the end of their own life. If
left to themselves, we could not be sure of their persevering to
the end of a day or an hour. But they are kept by the power of
God, through faith, unto salvation. He upholdeth them with his
hand. They shall hold on their way. In all their dangers they
shall be more than conquerors. Thirdly. In their
glorified state, through eternal ages. The world passeth away,
and the lusts thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth
for ever. All other greatness is only for life: it is frequently
less durable—at death it ends. But then, the
Christian's greatness—I will not say, begins; for it began the
moment he prayed—but then it continues, increases, and is
perfected.—William Jay.
Verse 37. It shall be established for ever as the
moon. This clause Kimchi expounds not only of the
perpetuity, but of the quality and condition of David's Kingdom,
after this fashion: If his children be good, they shall be like
the moon, when full and shining; if bad, like the moon waning
and obscure. Nevertheless the kingdom itself shall not cease,
just as the moon does not go out of existence, whilst it is
obscure, but lasts perpetually.—Musculus.
Verse 37. And as a faithful witness in heaven.
(New Translation) And as the rainbow's faithful sign. The
rainbow is not expressly mentioned in the original, which speaks
only of "the faithful witness in heaven." Some
commentators understand the "witness" thus mentioned
to be no other than the moon itself. I prefer, however, the
interpretation that fixes it on the rainbow, which God after the
deluge appointed as a "sign" or "witness" of
his mercy in Christ. Ge 9:12-17. Conformably to this
appointment, the Jews, when they behold the rainbow, are said to
bless God, who remembers his covenant and is faithful to his
promise. And the tradition of this its designation to proclaim
comfort to mankind was strong among the heathens: for, according
to the mythology of the Greeks, the "rainbow" was the
daughter of "wonder", "a sign to mortal
men", and regarded, upon its appearance, as a messenger of
the celestial deities. Thus Homer with remarkable conformity to
the Scripture account speaks of the "rainbow", which
"Jove hath set in the cloud, a sign to men."—Richard
Mant.
Verse 38. But thou hast cast off, etc. The
complaining of the saints meanwhile is so exaggerated, that
carnal feeling makes itself more apparent in them, than
faith...Yet such is the goodness of God, He is not offended with
these complaints, provided faith is not altogether extinguished,
or succumbs.—Mollerus.
Verse 39. Thou hast profaned his crown, etc.
The crown of a king, (like that of the high priest, on which was
inscribed "holiness to the Lord") (Ex 28:36) was a
sacred thing, and therefore to cast it in the dust was to
profane it.—A.R. Fausset.
Verse 40. Hedges and strong holds. Both
of these may refer to the appointments of a vineyard in which
the king was the vine. It was usually fenced around with a stone
wall, and in it was a small house or tower, wherein a keeper was
set to keep away intruders. When the wall, or hedge, was thrown
down, every passer by plucked at the fruit, and when the tower
was gone the vineyard was left open to the neighbours who could
do as they would with the vines. When the church is no longer
separated from the world, and her divine Keeper has no more a
dwelling place within her, her plight is wretched indeed.—C.H.S.
Verse 43. Thou hast also turned the edge of his
sword, etc. The arms and military prowess of thy people are
no longer of any use to them; Thou art against them, and
therefore they are fallen. In what a perilous and hopeless
situation must that soldier be who, defending his life against
his mortal foe, has his sword broken, or its edge
turned; or, in modern warfare, whose gun misses fire!
The Gauls, when invaded by the Romans, had no method of hardening
iron; at every blow their swords bent, so that they
were obliged, before they could strike again, to put them under
their foot or over their knee, to straighten them; and in most
cases, before this could be done, their better armed foe had
taken away their life! The edge of their sword was turned, so
that they could not stand in battle; and hence the Gauls
were conquered by the Romans.—Adam Clarke.
Verse 43. Thou hast also turned the edge of his
sword, that it cannot do execution as it has done; and what
is worse, thou hast "turned the edge" of his spirit,
and taken off his courage, and hast not made him to stand,
as he used to do, in the day of battle. The spirit of men
is what the Father and Former of spirits makes them; nor can we
stand with any strength or resolution, farther than God is
pleased to uphold us. If men's hearts fail them, it is God that
dispirits them; but it is sad with the church when those cannot
stand that should stand up for it.—Matthew Henry.
Verse 45. The days of his youth hast thou
shortened. Our kings have not reigned half their days, nor
lived out half their lives. The four last kings of Judea
reigned but a short time, and either died by the sword or in
captivity. Jehoahaz reigned only three months, and
was led captive to Egypt, where he died. Jehoiakim
reigned only eleven years, and was tributary to the
Chaldeans, who put him to death, and cast his body into
the common sewer. Jehoiachim, reigned three months and
ten days, and was led captive to Babylon, where he
continued in prison to the time of Evil merodach, who, though he
loosed him from prison, never invested him with any power. Zedekiah,
the last of all, had reigned only eleven years when he
was taken, his eyes put out, was loaded with chains,
and thus carried to Babylon. Most of these kings died a violent
and premature death. Thus the "days of their
youth"—of their power, dignity, and life, "were
shortened", and they themselves covered with shame.
Selah; so it most incontestably is.—Adam Clarke.
Verse 45. Thou hast covered them with shame. Selah.
Thou hast wrapped him up in the winding sheet of shame. Lord,
this is true.—John Trapp.
Verses 46-47. This undoubtedly sounds like the voice
of one who knows no hereafter. The Psalmist speaks as if all his
hopes were bound by the grave; as if the overthrow of the united
kingdom of Judah and Ephraim had bereft him of all his joy; and
as if he knew no future kingdom to compensate him with its
hopes. But it would be doing cruel injustice to take him thus at
his word. What we hear is the language of passion, not of sedate
conviction. This is well expressed by John Howe in a famous
sermon. "The expostulation (he observes) was somewhat
passionate, and did proceed upon the sudden view of this
disconsolate case, very abstractly considered, and by itself
only; and the Psalmist did not, at that instant, look beyond it
to a better and more comfortable scene of things. An eye bleared
with present sorrow sees not far, nor comprehends so much at one
view, as it would at another time, or as it doth presently when
the tear is wiped out and its own beams have cleared it
up." It would be unwarrantable, therefore, to infer from
Ethan's expostulation, that the saints who lived under the early
kings were strangers to the hope of everlasting life. I am
inclined to go further, and to point to this very complaint as
affording a presumption that there was in their hearts an
irrepressible sentiment of immortality. The bird that frets and
wounds itself on the bars of its cage shows thereby that its
proper home is the free air. When inveterate sensuality has
succeeded in quenching in a man's heart the hope of a life
beyond the grave, the dreary void which succeeds utters itself,
not in solemn complaints like Ethan's, but in songs of forced
mirth—dismal Anacreontic songs: "Let us eat and drink for
tomorrow we die."
"It is time to live if I grow old,
It is time short pleasures now to take,
Of little life the best to make,
And manage wisely the last stake."
(Anacreon's Age, as translated by Cowley.)—William
Binnie.
Verse 46. Shall thy wrath burn like fire? An
element that hath no mercy.—William Nicholson.
Verse 47. Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?
If I should demand of any, for what cause especially man came
into the world; he would answer with the Psalmist, God did not
create man in vain. Did He create man to heap up wealth
together? no, for the apostle saith. "We brought nothing
into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing
out. And, having food and raiment, let us be therewith
content." 1Ti 6:6-8. Did he create him to hawk after power
and principality? no, for Nebuchadnezzar lusting after these,
lost no less than a kingdom. Did He create him to eat, drink and
play? no, for Seneca, though an heathen saith, major sum,
etc., I am greater, and born to greater things, than that I
should be a vile slave of my senses. What then is the proper end
of man? That we should live to the praise of the glory of his
grace wherewith he hath made us freely accepted in his Beloved.
Eph 1:6.—William Pulley.
Verse 47. Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?
If we think that God hath made man "in vain",
because so many have short lives, and long afflictions in this
world, it is true that God "hath made" them so; but it
is not true, that therefore they are "made in vain".
For those whose days are few and full of trouble, yet may
glorify God, and do some good, may keep their communion with
God, and go to heaven, and then they are not made in vain. If we
think that God has made men in vain, because the most of men
neither serve him nor enjoy him, it is true, that as to
themselves, they were made in vain, better for them they had not
been born, than not be "born again"; but it was not
owing to God, that they were made in vain, it was owing to
themselves; nor are they made in vain as to him; for he has
"made all things for himself, even the wicked for the day
of evil", and those whom he is not glorified by he will be
glorified upon.—Matthew Henry.
Verse 47. Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?
When I add to the consideration of my short time, that of dying
mankind, and behold a dark and deadly shade universally
overspreading the world, the whole species of human creatures
vanishing, quitting the stage round about me, and disappearing
almost as soon as they show themselves; have I not a fair and
plausible ground for that (seemingly rude) challenge? Why is
there so unaccountable a phenomenon? Such a creature made to no
purpose; the noblest part of this inferior creation brought
forth into being without any imaginable design? I know not how
to untie the knot, upon this only view of the case, or avoid the
absurdity. It is hard sure to design the supposal, (or what it
may yet seem hard to suppose), "that all men were made
in vain."—John Howe.
Verse 47. Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?
Two thoughts crush us—Man was made to mourn, and man was
made in vain. Yes, this thought is painfully pressed upon
us,—man is "made in vain!" In how many
particulars, especially when we survey that large range of
characters to which we may give the denomination of wasted
lives; there to behold peerless genius frittering itself
away upon unworthy attainments, upon worthless performances; imagination
that might adorn truth, if that were possible; wit,
that might select and discriminate the true from the false; and eloquence
that might enforce the true;—where do we find these?
Unsatisfactory and miserable world, may we well exclaim, where
nothing is real, and nothing is realised: when I consider how
our lives are passed in the struggle for existence; when I
consider the worry of life, where it is not a woe—the woe,
where it is not a worry; when I consider how the millions pass
their time in a mere toil for sensual objects, and that those to
whom the sad contradiction of life never comes, are the most
wretched of all, did they but know it; when I consider the
millions of distorted existences; and the many millions!—the
greater number of the world by far—who wander Christless,
loveless, hopeless, over the broad highway of it; when I
consider life in many of the awakened as a restless dream, as
children beating the curtain and crying in the night; when I
consider how many questions recur for ever to us; and will not
be silenced, and cannot be answered; when I consider the vanity
of the philosopher's inquisitiveness, and the end of Royalty in
the tomb; when I look round on the region of my own joys, and
know how short their lease is, and that their very ineffableness
is a blight upon them; when I consider how little the best can
do, and that none can do anything well; and, finally, when I
consider the immeasurable immensity of thought within,
unfulfilled, and the goading restlessness, I can almost exclaim
with our unhappy poet Byron—
"Count all the joys thine hours have seen,
Count all thy days from anguish free,
And know, whatever thou last been,
It were something better not to be."
—E. Paxton Hood, in "Dark Sayings on a Harp",
1865.
Verses 47-48. In these verses, the fundamental
condition of Israel's blessedness is found to be an
acknowledgment of the total unprofitableness of the flesh.
Resurrection is the basis upon which the sure mercies of David
rest availably for faith (Ac 13:34). This is rather implied than
directly stated in the present Psalm.—Arthur Pridham.
Verse 48. What man. Mi gheber, says the
original; it is not Is he, which is the first name of
man, in the Scriptures, and signifies nothing but a sound,
a voice, a word, a musical air which dies, and evaporates; what
wonder if man, that is but Ishe, a sound, should
die too? It is not Adam, which is another name of man, and
signifies nothing but red earth; let it be earth red with
blood, (with that murder which we have done upon ourselves,)let
it be earth red with blushing, (so the word is used in the
original), with a conscience of our own infirmity, what wonder
if man, that is but Adam, guilty of this self murder in himself,
guilty of this inborn frailty in himself, die too? It is not Enos,
which is also a third name of man, and signifies nothing but a wretched
and miserable creature; what wonder that man, that is but
earth, that is a burden to his neighbours, to his friends, to
his kindred, to himself, to whom all others, and to whom myself
desires death, what wonder if he die? But this question is
framed upon more of these names; not Ishe, not Adam, not
Enos; but it is Mi gheber, Quis vir; which is the word
always signifying a man accomplished in all excellencies, a man
accompanied with all advantages; fame, and a good opinion justly
conceived, keeps him from being Ishe, a mere sound,
standing only upon popular acclamation; innocency and integrity
keeps him from being Adam, red earth, from bleeding, or blushing
at anything he hath done; that holy and religious art of arts,
which St. Paul professed. That he knew how to want, and hvw
to abound, keeps him from being Enos, miserable or wretched
in any fortune; he is gheber, a great man, and a good
man, a happy man, and a holy man, and yet Mi gheber, Quis
homo, this man must see death.—John Donne.
Verse 48. This Psalm is one of those twelve that are
marked in the forehead with Maschil; that is, a Psalm
giving instruction. It consisteth of as many verses as the
year doth of weeks, and hath like the year, its summer and
winter. The summer part is the former; wherein, the church
having reaped a most rich crop (the best blessings of Heaven and
earth) the Psalmist breaketh forth into the praises of their
gracious Benefactor, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord
for ever: so it begins, and so he goeth on a great way. Who
now would expect anything but mercies, and singing, and summer
all the way? But summer ceaseth, and winter commences, at Ps
89:38: But thou hast cast off and abhorred, thou hast been
wroth, with thine anointed. Mercies and singing are now
turned into troubles and mourning. But nothing shall you hear
but bitter querimonies and expostulations till you come to the
last verse. There the good man's come to himself again. Though
God were angry with his people, he cannot part with God in
discontent. Though God had laden them with crosses, he lifts up
his head, and presents God with blessing; Blessed be the Lord
forevermore. Amen, and Amen. He blesseth him as well for
winter as for summer, for troubles as for mercies. And thus the
last verse of Psalm having as much affinity with the first in
matter, as the last day of the year hath with the first in
season; if we circle the Psalm, and bring both ends together, we
find a fit resemblance between the year and it. The text is one
of the Psalmist's winter drops; a black line from that pen,
which erstwhile was so filled with joy, and wrote nothing but
rubrics. He complains in the next precedent verse, of the
brevity of his own life (it was like a winter's day, very
short); in this, of the instability of man's life; as though he
had said, I am not the only mortal. Other men's lives, though
haply clothed with more comforts than mine, are altogether as
mortal as mine; for his interrogations are equivalent to strong
negations. As to see sleep is to sleep; so to see
or taste death, is to die. There is no surviving such a
sight Death says, as God once to Moses, "There shall no man
see me and live." Ex 33:20.—Thomas
Du-gard, in a Funeral Sermon, 1648.
Verse 48. Death spares no rank, no condition
of men. Kings as well as subjects, princes as well as the
meanest rustics are liable to this fatal stroke. The lofty
cedars and low shrubs; palaces and cottages are alike here.
Indeed, we read that Julius Caesar bid the master of the ship
wherein he was sailing, take courage notwithstanding the
boisterous tempest, because he had Caesar and his fortunes
embarked in his vessel, as much as to say, the element on which
they then were could not prove fatal to an emperor, to so great
a one as he was. Our William surnamed Rufus said, he never heard
of a king that was drowned. And Charles the Fifth, at the Battle
of Tunis, being advised to retire when the great ordnance began
to play, told them that it was never known that an emperor was
slain with great shot, and so rushed into the battle. But this
we are sure of, it was never known or heard that any king or
crowned head escaped the blow of death at last. The sceptre
cannot keep off `the arrows that fly by day, and the sickness
which wastes at noonday; 'it is no screen, no guard against the
shafts of death. We have heard of great tyrants and usurpers who
vaunted that they had the power of life and death, and as
absolutely disposed of men as Domitian did of flies; but we have
heard likewise that in a short time (and generally the shorter
the more furious they have been) their sceptres are fallen out
of their hands; their crowns are toppled off their heads, and
they are themselves snatched away by the King of Terrors. Or, if
we speak of those royal personages that are mild and gentle, and
like Vespasian are the darlings and delight of the people, yet
these no less than others have their fatal hour, and their regal
honour and majesty are laid in the dust. The King doth not
die, may be a Common law maxim, but it is a falsehood
according to the laws of God and Nature, and the established
constitution of heaven. For God himself who hath said, Ye are
gods, hath also added, Ye shall die like men. In the Escurial
the palace of the Kings of Spain, is their cemetery too;
there their royal ashes lie. So in the place where the kings and
queens of England are crowned, their predecessors are entombed:
to tell them, as it were, that their crowns exempt them not from
the grave, and that there is no greatness and splendour that can
guard them from the arrest of death. He regards the rich and
wealthy no more than the poor and necessitous: he snatches
persons out of their mansion houses and hereditary seats, as
well as out of almshouses and hospitals. His dominion is over
masters as well as servants, parents as well as children,
superiors as well as inferiors.—John Edwards.
Verse 48.
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth ever gave, Await alike the
inevitable hour—
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
Can storied urn, or animated bust,
Back to its mansions call the fleeting breath? Can Honour's
voice provoke the silent dust,
Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?—Thomas Gray,
1716-1771.
Verse 50. How I do bear in my bosom the reproach,
etc. I take the reproaches of thy servants and thine anointed,
(1) as if they reproached me in mine own particular; or, (2) in
that they lie so heavy upon my heart; or, (3) in that I am
resolved quietly to endure them, and to swallow them down in
silence, as not being indeed able to shake them off; because in
the eye of reason our condition is at present so contrary to
what we waited for; or, (4) in that their reproaches came not to
his ears by hear say only, but were openly to his face cast as
it were into his bosom.—Arthur Jackson.
Verse 50. I do bear in, my bosom the reproach, etc.
The reproach of religion and of the godly doth lie near, and
should lie near, the heart of every lively member of the
church.—David Dickson.
Verse 51. They have reproached the footsteps of
thine anointed. This phrase is obscure in diction, and
therefore variously interpreted
1. Some by the footsteps of Christ, judge that his
advent in the flesh is meant: others refer the words to David,
and take the meaning to be, imitation of him. The first
exposition yields this sense: Be mindful, O Lord, of the
reproach of thy enemies wherewith they insult our expectation of
thy Anointed, and scoff at his advent as if it would never come.
2. The second interpretation is this: Recollect, O Lord, what
contempt thy enemies heap upon us on account of thy servant
David, because we fondly cherish his memory and his example, and
nourish the hope of thy covenant with him, clinging tenaciously
thereto...Thirdly, this clause may be so interpreted that by
twbqe, that is, the heel, we may understand the extremities of
the Kingdom of Christ, of David. Thus we may imagine the enemies
of God threw this in the teeth of the people of Israel, that
they had already come to the end and extremity of the Kingdom of
David.—Musculus.
Verse 51 (second clause). The Chaldee
has: "They have scoffed at the tardiness of Thy Messiah's
footsteps." So Kimchi: "He delays so long, they
say He will never come." Compare 2Pe 3:4,9. The Arabic aqaba
is used in the sense of "delaying."—William Kay.
Verse 51. The footsteps, or foot soles, that
is, the ways, life, actions, and sufferings, Ps 56:6 Ps 49:5.
This referred to Christ, respecteth the oracle, Ge 3:15, that
the Serpent should bruise the foot sole of the woman's seed;
referred to Christians which follow his footsteps, in suffering
and dying with him, that we may be glorified with him (1Pe 2:21
Ro 8:17); it notes the scandal of the Cross of Christ, "to
the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness."
(1Co 1:23 1Pe 4:13-14.) The Chaldee understands it of the
slackness of the footsteps.—Henry Ainsworth.
Verse 52. Blessed be the Lord for evermore. Amen,
and Amen. Victory begins to shine in the phrase, Blessed
be Jehovah for evermore. Amen, and Amen. Some think that
these words are not the words of the Psalmist, because they are
of opinion that they do not agree with the preceding, but were
written by another, or added by the Collector of the Psalms as a
concluding doxology; or if the Psalmist wrote them, he did so
merely in finishing his prayer. But it is a matter of the
greatest moment; for it indicates the victory of faith, since he
observes that after that grief, the reproach of the heel is
gloriously removed that the Messiah may remain a victor for
ever, having bruised the serpent's head, and taken away from him
in perpetuity all his power of hurting. That this should
certainly take place, he adds the seal of faith again and again:
"Amen, and Amen."—James Alting,
1618-1679.
Verse 52. This doxology belongs alike to all the
Psalms of the Third Book, and ought not to be treated as if it
were merely the last verse of the Psalm to which it adjoins. It
ought to be set forth in such a shape as would enable and invite
God's people to sing it as a separate formula of praise, or in
connection with any other Psalm.—William Binnie.
Verse 52. As to the words Amen and Amen, I
readily grant that they are here employed to mark the end of the
third book of the Psalms.—John Calvin.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1.
1. Mercies celebrated. When?—"for ever."
2. By whom?—by those who are the subjects of them.
3. Therefore they must live for ever to celebrate them.
4. Faithfulness declared. (a) To our own generation. (b) To
succeeding generations by its influence upon others.
Verse 2.—
1. The Testimony.
(a) To the constancy of Mercy: (1.) builds up its trophies
every moment. (2.) It preserves them for ever.
(b) To the constancy of Faithfulness. It remains as the
ordinances of heaven.
2. Its Confirmation. "I have said", etc., said it,
(a) Upon the ground of Scripture.
(b) of experience.
(c) of reason.
(d) of observation of others.
Verses 3-4.
1. The Covenant made. With whom?—with David and in him with
David's Lord and Son. The true David—the chosen one—the
servant of the Father in redemption.
2. For what?—
(a) for his seed. He should have a seed and that seed should
be established.
(b) for himself, "his throne", etc.
3. The Covenant confirmed.
(a) By decree. "I have made", etc.
(b) By promise. "I will establish."
(c) By oath. "I have sworn."
Verse 6.—We have a comparison between God and the
most excellent in heaven and earth—challenge both worlds.
1. The true God, sovereign of heaven and earth is
incomparably great in his BEING and EXISTENCE;
(a) because his being is of himself eternal;
(b) because he is a perfect being;
(c) because he is independent;
(d) because he is unchangeable.
2. God is incomparably great in his ATTRIBUTES and
PERFECTIONS.
(a) In his holiness;
(b) in his wisdom and knowledge;
(c) in his power;
(d) in his justice;
(e) in his patience;
(f) in his love and goodness.
3. God is incomparably great in his WORKS—creation;
providence; redemption, and human salvation.—Theophilus
Jones, 1830.
Verse 6.—The incomparableness of God, in his Being,
Attributes, Works, and Word.—Swinnock. (Nichol's
Edition of Swinnock's Works, Vol. 4, pp. 373-508.)
Verses 6-7.
1. In creation God is far above other beings. Ps 89:6.
2. In Redemption he is far above himself in creation. Ps
89:7.
Verses 9-10. God's present rule in the midst of
confusion, and rebellion; and his ultimate overthrow of all
adverse forces.
Verse 11.
1. God's possession of heaven, the model of his possession of
earth.
2. God's possession of earth most certain, and its
manifestation in the future most sure.
3. The course of action suggested to his people by the two
facts.
Verse 12. The joy of creation in its Creator.
Verse 14.
1. The Equity of the divine government—"justice",
etc. No creature can eventually be unjustly dealt with under his
dominion, and his kingdom ruleth over all.
2. The Sovereignty of the divine government. Truth before
mercy. Mercy founded upon truth. "Thou wilt perform the
truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham." The covenant made
in mercy to Abraham is fulfilled in truth to Jacob.
Verse 15.
1. The gospel is a joyful sound. Good tidings, etc.
2. It is a joyful sound to those who know it, hear it,
believe it, love it, obey it.
3. They to whom it is a joyful sound are blessed. "They
shall walk", etc.
Verse 15.
1. There is a theoretical knowledge of the gospel.
2. An experimental knowledge, and,
3. A practical knowledge
—W. Drasfield, 1859.
Verse 16.—
1. Exultation.
(a) "In thy name", etc., as rich in mercy as the
God of salvation—of all grace—of all consolation.
(b) At what season—"all the day", morning, noon,
and night.
2. Exaltation. "In thy righteousness", etc.
(a) How not exalted. Not in their own righteousness.
(b) How exalted. "In thy", etc. Procured for
them—by a divine person (thy)—imputed to them. Ours,
though thine. The righteousness of God as God could not exalt
us, but his righteousness as God man can. Exalted above hell,
above earth, above Paradise, above angels. Exalted to friends of
God—children of God—one with God, to heaven.
Verse 16. (second clause).—Consider,
1. What the believer is exalted above or from,
by God's righteousness.
(a) It exalts him above the law.
(b) Above the world.
(c) Above the power and malice of Satan.
(d) Above death.
(e) Above all accusations (Ro 8:33-34.)
2. To what happiness or dignity the believer is
exalted by virtue of that righteousness.
a) To a state of peace and reconciliation with God.
(b) To sonship.
(c) To fellowship and familiarity with God, and access to him.
(d) And finally, to a state of endless glory.
—E. Erskine.
Verse 17.
1. The blessedness of the righteous.
(a) Their internal glory. Reliance upon divine strength.
(b) Their internal honour. "In thy favour", etc.
2. The participation in that blessedness. The their of
the people of God becomes our. Their strength our horn.
Happy they, who, with respect to all the privileges of the
saints, can thus turn their into our.
Verse 17.
1. Consider our natural weakness.
2. Consider our strength in God.
3. Give God the glory of it.
Verse 18.
1. Jehovah—his power, self existence, and majesty—our
defence.
2. The Holy One of Israel—his character, covenant
character, and unity—our government.
Verse 19.
1. The work required. "Help."
(a) By whom? By God himself.
(b) For what? To reconcile God to man, and man to God.
2. The persons selected for this work.
(a) Human. "Chosen out of the people."
(b) Divine. "Thy Holy One."
3. His qualifications for the work.
(a) His own ability for the office. "One that is
mighty."
(b) His appointment to it by God. "I have laid." etc.
"I have chosen", etc.
Verse 19. (last clause). Election, extraction,
exaltation.
Verses 20-21.
1. The Messiah would be of the seed of David. The true David.
2. He would be a servant of the Father. "My servant."
3. He would be consecrated to his office by God. "With my
holy oil", etc.
4. He would perfectly fulfil it. "With whom my hand",
etc.
5. He would be sustained in it by the Father. "Mine
arm", etc.
Verse 22-23.
1. A prophecy of the conflict of the Messiah with Satan.
Satan could not exact any debt or homage for him.
2. Of his refutation of his enemies. "I will beat
down", etc. The Scribes and Pharisees were beaten down
before his face.
3. Of the destruction of their city and nation. "And
plague them", etc.
Verse 26. Our Lord's filial spirit, and how it was
displayed.
Verse 29.
1. The subjects of Messiah's reign. "His seed."
(a) For union—his seed.
(b) For resemblance.
(c) For multitude.
2. The duration of his reign.
(a) They for ever one with him.
(b) He for ever on the throne.
Verses 30-34.
1. The persons referred to. "His children."
"Ye are all the children", etc.
2. The supposition concerning them. "If his children
forsake", etc.
(a) They may possibly—may fall, though not fall away.
(b) They will probably, because they are far from being perfect.
(c) They have actually: as David himself and others.
3. The threatening founded upon that supposition.
(a) Specified—"the rod—stripes." They shall
smart for it sooner or later.
(b) Certified. "Then will I."
4. The qualification of the threatening.
"Nevertheless", etc.
(a) The nevertheless characterized. Lovingkindness not
removed, etc.
(b) Emphasised. The rod may seem to be in anger, nevertheless,
etc.
There is,
1. An if.
2. A then.
3. A nevertheless.
Verse 39.
1. Providence may often seem to be at variance with promises.
2. Promises are never at variance with providence. It is the
covenant of thy servant and his crown still.
Verse 39. How the throne of King Jesus may be
profaned.
Verse 40.
1. What God had done. "Broken down", etc.
2. What he had not done. Not taken away sorrow for his
departure and desire for his return.
Verse 43. Cases in which the sword of the gospel
appears to have its edge turned.
Verse 44-45.
1. A prophecy that the Messiah would be meek and lowly.
"Made his glory to cease."
2. Would become a servant to the Father. "Cast his
throne down", etc.
3. Would be cut off in the midst of his days. "The days
of his youth", etc.
4. That he would die an ignominious death. "Hast covered
him", etc.
Verse 45. The excellence of the first days of
Christianity, and in what respect their glory has departed from
us.
Verse 46. The hand of God is to be acknowledged.
1. In the nature of affliction. "Wilt thou hide
thyself", etc.
2. In the duration of affliction. "How long, Lord?"
3. In the severity of affliction. Wrath burning like fire.
4. In the issue of affliction. How long? for ever? In all
these respects the words are applicable both to Christ and to
his people.
Verse 46. Remember. The prayer of the dying
thief, the troubled believer, the persecuted Christian.
Verse 47.
1. An appeal to divine goodness. "Remember", etc.
Let not my life be all trouble and sorrow.
2. To divine wisdom. "Wherefore", etc. Was man made
only to be miserable? Will not man have been made in vain if his
life be but short, and that short life be nothing but sorrow?
Verse 52.
1. The voice. "Blessed", etc. In himself in all his
works and ways—in his judgments as well as in his mercies—as
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ—"for
evermore."
2. The echo, "Amen and amen." Amen, says the church
on earth—says the church in heaven—say the angels of
God—says the whole holy and happy universe—says eternity
past and eternity to come.
WORK UPON THE EIGHTY-NINTH PSALM
In the Works of John Boys, folio, pp. 805-9,
there is an Exposition of a portion of this Psalm.
HERE ENDETH THE THIRD BOOK OF THE PSALMS.