TITLE. A prayer of the afflicted, when he
is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord.
This Psalm is a prayer far more in spirit than in words. The
formal petitions are few, but a strong stream of supplication
runs from beginning to end, and like an under-current, finds its
way heavenward through the moanings of grief and confessions of
faith which make up the major part of the Psalm. It is a prayer
of the afflicted, or of "a sufferer, "and it bears the
marks of its parent age; as it is recorded of Jabez that
"his mother bore him with sorrow, "so may we say of
this Psalm; yet as Rachel's Benoni, or child of sorrow, was also
her Benjamin, or son of her right hand, so is this Psalm as
eminently expressive of consolation as of desolation. It is
scarcely correct to call it a penitential Psalm, for the sorrow
of it is rather of one suffering than sinning. It has its own
bitterness, and it is not the same as that of the Fifty-first.
The sufferer is afflicted more for others than for himself, more
for Zion and the house of the Lord, than for his own house. When
he is overwhelmed, or sorely troubled, and depressed. The best
of men are not always able to stem the torrent of sorrow. Even
when Jesus is on board, the vessel may fill with water and begin
to sink. And poureth out his complaint before the LORD. When a
cup is overwhelmed or turned bottom over, all that is in it is
naturally poured out; great trouble removes the heart from all
reserve and causes the soul to flow out without restraint; it is
well when that which is in the soul is such as may be poured out
in the presence of God, and this is only the case where the
heart has been renewed by divine grace. The word rendered
"complaint" has in it none of the idea of
fault-finding or repining, but should rather be rendered
"moaning, "—the expression of pain, not of
rebellion. To help the memory we will call this Psalm THE
PATRIOT'S PLAINT.
SUBJECT. This is a patriot's lament over his country's
distress. He arrays himself in the griefs of his nation as in a
garment of sackcloth, and casts her dust and ashes upon his head
as the ensigns and causes of his sorrow. He has his own private
woes and personal enemies, he is moreover sore afflicted in body
by sickness, but the miseries of his people cause him a far more
bitter anguish, and this he pours out in an earnest, pathetic
lamentation. Not, however, without hope does the patriot mourn;
he has faith in God, and looks for the resurrection of the
nation through the omnipotent favour of the Lord; this causes
him to walk among the ruins of Jerusalem, and to say with
hopeful spirit, "No, Zion, thou shalt never perish. Thy sun
is not set for ever; brighter days are in store for thee."
It is in vain to enquire into the precise point of Israel's
history which thus stirred a patriot's soul, for many a time was
the land oppressed, and at any of her sad seasons this song and
prayer would have been a most natural and appropriate utterance.
DIVISION. In the first part of the
Psalm, Ps 102:1-11, the moaning monopolizes every verse, the
lamentation is unceasing, sorrow rules the hour. The second
portion, from Ps 102:12-28, has a vision of better things, a
view of the gracious Lord, and his eternal existence, and care
for his people, and therefore it is interspersed with sunlight
as well as shaded by the cloud, and it ends up right gloriously
with calm confidence for the future, and sweet restfulness in
the Lord. The whole composition may be compared to a day which,
opening with wind and rain, clears up at noon and is warm with
the sun, continues fine, with intervening showers, and finally
closes with a brilliant sunset.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. Hear my prayer, O LORD. Or O JEHOVAH.
Sincere supplicants are not content with praying for praying's
sake, they desire really to reach the ear and heart of the great
God. It is a great relief in time of distress to acquaint others
with our trouble, we are eased by their hearing our lamentation,
but it is the sweetest solace of all to have God himself as a
sympathizing listener to our plaint. That he is such is no dream
or fiction, but an assured fact. It would be the direst of all
our woes if we could be indisputably convinced that with God
there is neither hearing nor answering; he who could argue us
into so dreary a belief would do us no better service than if he
had read us our death-warrants. Better die than be denied the
mercy-seat. As well be atheists at once as believe in an
unhearing, unfeeling God. And let my cry come unto thee. When
sorrow rises to such a height that words become too weak a
medium of expression, and prayer is intensified into a cry, then
the heart is even more urgent to have audience with the Lord. If
our cries do not enter within the veil, and reach to the living
God, we may as well cease from prayer at once, for it is idle to
cry to the winds; but, blessed be God, the philosophy which
suggests such a hideous idea is disproved by the facts of every
day experience, since thousands of the saints can declare,
"Verily, God hath heard us."
Verse 2. Hide not thy face from me in the day when
I am in trouble. Do not seem as if thou didst not see me, or
wouldst not own me. Smile now at any rate. Reserve thy frowns
for other times when I can bear them better, if, indeed, I can
ever bear them; but now in my heavy distress, favour me with
looks of compassion. Incline thine ear unto me. Bow thy
greatness to my weakness. If because of sin thy face is turned
away, at least let me have a side view of thee, lend me thine
ear if I may not see thine eye. Turn thyself to me again if, my
sin has turned thee away, give to thine ear an inclination to my
prayers. In the day when I call answer me speedily. Because the
case is urgent, and my soul little able to wait. We may ask to
have answers to prayer as soon as possible, but we may not
complain of the Lord if he should think it more wise to delay.
We have permission to request and to use importunity, but no
right to dictate or to be petulant. If it be important that the
deliverance should arrive at once, we are quite right in making
an early time a point of our entreaty, for God is as willing to
grant us a favour now as to-morrow, and he is not slack
concerning his promise. It is a proverb concerning favours from
human hands, that "he gives twice who gives quickly,
"because a gift is enhanced in value by arriving in a time
of urgent necessity; and we may be sure that our heavenly Patron
will grant us the best gifts in the best manner, granting us
grace to help in time of need. When answers come upon the heels
of our prayers they are all the more striking, more consoling,
and more encouraging. In these two verses the psalmist has
gathered up a variety of expressions all to the same effect; in
them all he entreats an audience and answer of the Lord, and the
whole may be regarded as a sort of preface to the prayer which
follows.
Verse 3. For my days are consumed like smoke.
My grief has made life unsubstantial to me, I seem to be but a
puff of vapour which has nothing in it, and is soon dissipated.
The metaphor is very admirably chosen, for, to the unhappy, life
seems not merely to be frail, but to be surrounded by so much
that is darkening, defiling, blinding, and depressing, that,
sitting down in despair, they compare themselves to men
wandering in a dense fog, and themselves so dried up thereby
that they are little better than pillars of smoke. When our days
have neither light of joy nor fire of energy in them, but become
as a smoking flax which dies out ignobly in darkness, then have
we cause enough to appeal to the Lord that he would not utterly
quench us. And my bones are burned as an hearth. He became as
dry as the hearth on which a wood fire has burned out, or as
spent ashes in which scarcely a trace of fire can be found. His
soul was ready to be blown away as smoke, and his body seemed
likely to remain as the bare hearth when the last comforting
ember is quenched. How often has our piety appeared to us to be
in this condition! We have had to question its reality, and fear
that it never was anything more than a smoke; we have had the
most convincing evidence of its weakness, for we could not
derive even the smallest comfort from it, any more than a
chilled traveller can derive from the cold hearth on which a
fire had burned long ago. Soul-trouble experienced in our own
heart will help us to interpret the language here employed; and
church-troubles may help us also, if unhappily we have been
called to endure them. The psalmist was moved to grief by a view
of national calamities, and these so wrought upon his patriotic
soul that he was wasted with anxiety, his spirits were dried up,
and his very life was ready to expire. There is hope for any
country which owns such a son; no nation can die while true
hearts are ready to die for it.
Verse 4. My heart is smitten, like a plant
parched by the fierce heat of a tropical sun, and withered
like grass, which dries up when once the scythe has laid it
low. The psalmist's heart was as a wilted, withered flower, a
burned up mass of what once was verdure. His energy, beauty,
freshness, and joy, were utterly gone, through the wasting
influence of his anguish. So that I forget to eat my bread, or
"because I forget to eat my bread." Grief often
destroys the appetite, and the neglect of food tends further to
injure the constitution and create a yet deeper sinking of
spirit. As the smitten flower no longer drinks in the dew, or
draws up nutriment from the soil, so a heart parched with
intense grief often refuses consolation for itself and
nourishment for the bodily frame, and descends at a doubly rapid
rate into weakness, despondency, and dismay. The case here
described is by no means rare, we have frequently met with
individuals so disordered by sorrow that their memory has failed
them even upon such pressing matters as their meals, and we must
confess that we have passed through the same condition
ourselves. One sharp pang has filled the soul, monopolized the
mind, and driven everything else into the background, so that
such common matters as eating and drinking have been utterly
despised, and the appointed hours of refreshment have gone by
unheeded, leaving no manifest faintness of body, but an
increased weariness of heart.
Verse 5. By reason of the voice of my groaning my
bones cleave to my skin. He became emaciated with sorrow. He
had groaned himself down to a living skeleton, and so in his
bodily appearance was the more like the smoke-dried, withered,
burnt-up things to which he had previously compared himself. It
will be a very long time before the distresses of the church of
God make some Christians shrivel into anatomies, but this good
man was so moved with sympathy for Zion's ills that he was
wasted down to skin and bone.
Verse 6. I am like a pelican of the wilderness,
a mournful and even hideous object, the very image of
desolation. I am like an owl of the desert; loving solitude,
moping among ruins, hooting discordantly. The Psalmist likens
himself to two birds which were commonly used as emblems of
gloom and wretchedness; on other occasions he had been as the
eagle, but the griefs of his people had pulled him down, the
brightness was gone from his eye, and the beauty from his
person; he seemed to himself to be as a melancholy bird sitting
among the fallen palaces and prostrate temples of his native
land. Should not we also lament when the ways of Zion mourn and
her strength languishes? Were there more of this holy sorrow we
should soon see the Lord returning to build up his church. It is
ill for men to be playing the peacock with worldly pride when
the ills of the times should make them as mournful as the
pelican; and it is a terrible thing to see men flocking like
vultures to devour the prey of a decaying church, when they
ought rather to be lamenting among her ruins like the owl.
Verse 7. I watch, and am like a sparrow alone upon
the house top: I keep a solitary vigil as the lone sentry of
my nation; my fellows are too selfish, too careless to care for
the beloved land, and so like a bird which sits alone on the
housetop, I keep up a sad watch over my country. The Psalmist
compared himself to a bird,—a bird when it has lost its mate
or its young, or is for some other reason made to mope alone in
a solitary place. Probably he did not refer to the cheerful
sparrow of our own land, but if he did, the illustration would
not be out of place, for the sparrow is happy in company, and if
it were alone, the sole one of its species in the neighbourhood,
there can be little doubt that it would become very miserable,
and sit and pine away. He who has felt himself to be so weak and
inconsiderable as to have no more power over his times than a
sparrow over a city, has also, when bowed down with despondency
concerning the evils of the age, sat himself down in utter
wretchedness to lament the ills which he could not heal.
Christians of an earnest, watchful kind often find themselves
among those who have no sympathy with them; even in the church
they look in vain for kindred spirits; then do they persevere in
their prayers and labours, but feel themselves to be as lonely
as the poor bird which looks from the ridge of the roof, and
meets with no friendly greeting from any of its kind.
Verse 8. Mine enemies reproach me all the day.
Their rage was unrelenting and unceasing, and vented itself in
taunts and insults, the Psalmist's patriotism and his griefs
were both made the subjects of their sport. Pointing to the sad
estate of his people they would ask him, "Where is your
God?" and exult over him because their false gods were in
the ascendant. Reproach cuts like a razor, and when it is
continued from hour to hour, and repeated all the day and every
day, it makes life itself undesirable. And they that are mad
against me are sworn against me. They were so furious that they
bound themselves by oath to destroy him, and used his name as
their usual execration, a word to curse by, the synonym of
abhorrence and contempt. What with inward sorrows and outward
persecutions he was in as ill a plight as may well be conceived.
Verse 9. For I have eaten ashes like bread. He
had so frequently cast ashes upon his head in token of mourning,
that they had mixed with his ordinary food, and grated between
his teeth when he ate his daily bread. One while he forgot to
eat, and then the fit changed, and he ate with such a hunger
that even ashes were devoured. Grief has strange moods and
tenses. And mingled my drink with weeping. His drink became as
nauseous as his meat, for copious showers of tears had made it
brackish. This is a telling description of all-saturating,
all-embittering sadness,—and this was the portion of one of
the best of men, and that for no fault of his own, but because
of his love to the Lord's people. If we, too, are called to
mourn, let us not be amazed by the fiery trial as though some
strange thing had happened unto us. Both in meat and drink we
have sinned; it is not therefore wonderful if in both we are
made to mourn.
Verse 10. Because of thine indignation and thy
wrath: for thou hast lifted me up and cast me down. A sense
of the divine wrath which had been manifested in the overthrow
of the chosen nation and their sad captivity led the Psalmist
into the greatest distress. He felt like a sere leaf caught up
by a hurricane and carried right away, or the spray of the sea
which is dashed upwards that it may be scattered and dissolved.
Our translation gives the idea of a vessel uplifted in order
that it may be dashed to the earth with all the greater violence
and the more completely broken in pieces; or to change the
figure, it reminds us of a wrestler whom his opponent catches up
that he may give him a more desperate fall. The first
interpretation which we have given is, however, more fully in
accordance with the original, and sets forth the utter
helplessness which the writer felt, and the sense of
overpowering terror which bore him along in a rush of tumultuous
grief which he could not withstand.
Verse 11. My days are like a shadow that declineth.
His days were but a shadow at best, but now they seem to be like
a shadow which was passing away. A shadow is unsubstantial
enough, how feeble a thing must a declining shadow be? No
expression could more forcibly set forth his extreme feebleness.
And I am withered like grass. He was like grass, blasted by a
parching wind, or cut down with a scythe, and then left to be
dried up by the burning heat of the sun. There are times when
through depression of spirit a man feels as if all life were
gone from him, and existence had become merely a breathing
death. Heart-break has a marvellously withering influence over
our entire system; our flesh at its best is but as grass, and
when it is wounded with sharp sorrows, its beauty fades, and it
becomes a shrivelled, dried, uncomely thing.
Verse 12. Now the writer's mind is turned away from
his personal and relative troubles to the true source of all
consolation, namely, the Lord himself, and his gracious purposes
towards his own people. But thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever.
I perish, but thou wilt not, my nation has become almost
extinct, but thou art altogether unchanged. The original has the
word "sit, "—"thou, Jehovah, to eternity shalt
sit:" that is to say, thou reignest on, thy throne is still
secure even when thy chosen city lies in ruins, and thy peculiar
people are carried into captivity. The sovereignty of God in all
things is an unfailing ground for consolation; he rules and
reigns whatever happens, and therefore all is well.
Firm as his throne his promise stands,
And he can well secure,
What I have committed to his hands.
Till the decisive hour.
And thy rememberance unto all generations. Men will forget
me, but as for thee, O God, the constant tokens of thy presence
will keep the race of man in mind of thee from age to age. What
God is now he always will be, that which our forefathers told us
of the Lord we find to be true at this present time, and what
our experience enables us to record will be confirmed by our
children and their children's children. All things else are
vanishing like smoke, and withering like grass, but over all the
one eternal, immutable light shines on, and will shine on when
all these shadows have declined into nothingness.
Verse 13. Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon
Zion. He firmly believed and boldly prophesied that apparent
inaction on God's part would turn to effective working. Others
might remain sluggish in the matter, but the Lord would most
surely bestir himself. Zion had been chosen of old, highly
favoured, gloriously inhabited, and wondrously preserved, and
therefore by the memory of her past mercies it was certain that
mercy would again be showed to her. God will not always leave
his church in a low condition; he may for a while hide himself
from her in chastisement, to make her see her nakedness and
poverty apart from himself, but in love he must return to her,
and stand up in her defence, to work her welfare. For the time
to favour her, yea, the set time, is come. Divine decree has
appointed a season for blessing the church, and when that period
has arrived, blessed she shall be. There was an appointed time
for the Jews in Babylon, and when the weeks were fulfilled, no
bolts nor bars could longer imprison the ransomed of the Lord.
When the time came for the walls to rise stone by stone, no
Tobiah or Sanballat could stay the work, for the Lord himself
had arisen, and who can restrain the hand of the Almighty? When
God's own time is come, neither Rome, nor the devil, nor
persecutors, nor atheists, can prevent the kingdom of Christ
from extending its bounds. It is God's work to do it;—he must
"arise"; he will do it, but he has his own appointed
season; and meanwhile we must, with holy anxiety and believing
expectation, wait upon him.
Verse 14. For thy servants take pleasure in her
stones, and favour the dust thereof. They delight in her so
greatly that even her rubbish is dear to them. It was a good
omen for Jerusalem when the captives began to feel a
home-sickness, and began to sigh after her. We may expect the
modern Jews to be restored to their own land when the love of
their country begins to sway them, and casts out the love of
gain. To the church of God no token can be more full of hope
than to see the members thereof deeply interested in all that
concerns her; no prosperity is likely to rest upon a church when
carelessness about ordinances, enterprises, and services is
manifest; but when even the least and lowest matter connected
with the Lord's work is carefully attended to, we may be sure
that tne set time to favour Zion is come. The poorest church
member, the most grievous backslider, the most ignorant convert,
should be precious in our sight, because forming a part,
although possibly a very feeble part, of the new Jerusalem. If
we do not care about the prosperity of the church to which we
belong, need we wonder if the blessing of the Lord is withheld?
Verse 15. So the heathen shall fear the name of the
LORD. Mercy within the church is soon perceived by those
without. When a candle is lit in the house, it shines through
the window. When Zion rejoices in her God, the heathen been to
reverence his name, for they hear of the wonders of his power,
and are impressed thereby. And all the kings of the earth thy
glory. The restoration of Jerusalem was a marvel among the
princes who heard of it, and its ultimate resurrection in days
yet to come will be one of the prodigies of history. A church
quickened by divine power is so striking an object in current
history that it cannot escape notice, rulers cannot ignore it,
it affects the Legislature, and forces from the great ones of
the earth a recognition of the divine working. Oh that we might
see in our days such a revival of religion that our senators and
princes might be compelled to pay homage to the Lord, and own
his glorious grace. This cannot be till the saints are better
edified, and more fully builded together for an habitation of
God through the Spirit. Internal prosperity is the true source
of the church's external influence.
Verse 16. When the LORD shall build up Zion, he
shall appear in his glory. As kings display their skill and
power and wealth in the erection of their capitals, so would the
Lord reveal the splendour of his attributes in the restoration
of Zion, and so will he now glorify himself in the edification
of his church. Never is the Lord more honourable in the eyes of
his saints than when he prospers the church. To add converts to
her, to train these for holy service, to instruct, illuminate,
and sanctify the brotherhood, to bind all together in the bonds
of Christian love, and to fill the whole body with the energy of
the Holy Spirit—this is to build up Zion. Other builders do
but puff her up, and their wood, hay, and stubble come to an end
almost as rapidly as it was heaped together; but what the Lord
builds is surely and well done, and redounds to his glory.
Truly, when we see the church in a low state, and mark the
folly, helplessness, and indifference of those who profess to be
her builders; and, on the other hand, the energy, craft, and
influence of those opposed to her, we are fully prepared to own
that it will be a glorious work of omnipotent grace should she
ever rise to her pristine grandeur and purity.
Verse 17. He will regard the prayer of the
destitute. Only the poorest of the people were left to sigh
and cry among the ruins of the beloved city; as for the rest,
they were strangers in a strange land, and far away from the
holy place, yet the prayers of the captives and the forlorn
offscourings of the land would be heard of the Lord, who does
not hear men because of the amount of money they possess, or the
breadth of the acres which they call their own, but in mercy
listens most readily to the cry of the greatest need. And not
despise their prayer. When great kings are building their
palaces it is not reasonable to expect them to turn aside and
listen to every beggar who pleads with them, yet when the Lord
builds up Zion, and appears in his robes of glory, he makes a
point of listening to every petition of the poor and needy. He
will not treat their pleas with contempt; he will incline his
ear to hear, his heart to consider, and his hand to help. What
comfort is here for those who account themselves to be utterly
destitute; their abject want is here met with a most
condescending promise. It is worth while to be destitute to be
thus assured of the divine regard.
Verse 18. This shall be written for the generation
to come. A note shall be made of it, for there will be
destitute ones in future generations,—"the poor shall
never cease out of the land, "—and it will make glad
their eyes to read the story of the Lord's mercy to the needy in
former times. Registers of divine kindness ought to be made and
preserved; we write dcwn in history the calamities of
nations,—wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes are
recorded; how much rather then should we set up memorials of the
Lord's lovingkindness! Those who have in their own souls endured
spiritual destitution, and have been delivered out of it, cannot
forget it; they are bound to tell others of it, and especially
to instruct their children in the goodness of the Lord. And the
people which shall be created shall praise the LORD. The
Psalmist here intends to say that the rebuilding of Jerusalem
would be a fact in history for which the Lord would be praised
from age to age. Revivals of religion not only cause great joy
to those who are immediately concerned in them, but they give
encouragement and delight to the people of God long after, and
are indeed perpetual incentives to adoration throughout the
church of God. This verse teaches us that we ought to have an
eye to posterity, and especially should we endeavour to
perpetuate the memory of God's love to his church and to his
poor people, so that young people as they grow up may know that
the Lord God of their fathers is good and full of compassion.
Sad as the Psalmist was when he wrote the dreary portions of
this complaint, he was not so absorbed in his own sorrow, or so
distracted by the national calamity, as to forget the claims of
coming generations; this, indeed, is a clear proof that he was
not without hope for his people, for he who is making
arrangements for the good of a future generation has not yet
despaired of his nation. The praise of God should be the great
object of all that we do, and to secure him a revenue of glory
both from the present and the future is the noblest aim of
intelligent beings.
Verses 19-20. For he hath looked down from the heights
of his sanctuary, or "leaned from the high place of
his holiness," from heaven did the LORD behold the earth,
looking out like a watcher from his tower. What was the object
of this leaning lrom the battlements of heaven? Why this intent
gaze upon the race of men? The answer is full of astounding
mercy; the Lord does not look upon mankind to note their
grandees, and observe the doings of their nobles, but to hear
the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed
to death. Now the groans of those in prison so far from
being musical are very horrible to hear, yet God bends to hear
them: those who are bound for death are usually ill company, yet
Jehovah deigns to stoop from his greatness to relieve their
extreme distress and break their chains. This he does by
providential rescues, by restoring health to the dying, and by
finding food for the famishing: and spiritually this deed of
grace is accomplished by sovereign grace, which delivers us by
pardon from the sentence of sin, and by the sweetness of the
promise from the deadly despair which a sense of sin had created
within us. Well may those of us praise the Lord who were once
the children of death, but are now brought into the glorious
liberty of the children of God. The Jews in captivity were in
Haman's time appointed to death, but their God found a way of
escape for them, and they joyfully kept the feast of Purim in
memorial thereof; let fill souls that have been set free from
the crafty malice of the old dragon with even greater gratitude
magnify the Lord of infinite compassion.
Verse 21. To declare the name of the LORD in Zion,
and his praise in Jerusalem. Great mercy displayed to those
greatly in need of it, is the plainest method of revealing the
attributes of the Most High. Actions speak more loudly than
words; deeds of grace are a revelation even more impressive than
the most tender promises. Jerusalem restored, the church
re-edified, desponding souls encouraged, and all other
manifestations of Jehovah's power to bless, are so many
manifestoes and proclamations put up upon the walls of Zion to
publish the character and glory of the great God. Every day's
experience should be to us a new gazette of love, a court
circular from heaven, a daily despatch from the headquarters of
grace. We are bound to inform our fellow Christians of all this,
making them helpers in our praise, as they hear of the goodness
which we have experienced. While God's mercies speak so
eloquently, we ought not to be dumb. To communicate to others
what God has done for us personally and for the church at large
is so evidently our duty, that we ought not to need urging to
fulfil it. God has ever an eye to the glory of his grace in all
that he does, and we ought not wilfully to defraud him of the
revenue of his praise.
Verse 22. When the people are gathered together,
and the kingdoms, to serve the Lord. The great work of
restoring ruined Zion is to be spoken of in those golden ages
when the heathen nations shall be converted unto God; even those
glorious times will not be able to despise that grand event,
which, like the passage of Israel through the Red Sea, will
never be eclipsed and never cease to awaken the enthusiasm of
the cliosen people. Happy will the day be when all nations shall
unite in the sole worship of Jehovah, then shall the histories
of the olden times be read with adoring wonder, and the hand of
the Lord shall be seen as having ever rested upon the
sacramental host of his elect: then shall shouts of exulting
praise ascend to heaven in honour of him who loosed the
captives, delivered the condemned, raised up the desolations of
ages, and made out of stones and rubbish a temple for his
worship.
Verse 23. He weakened my strength in the way.
Here the Psalmist comes down again to the mournful string, and
pours forth his personal complaint. His sorrow had cast down his
spirit, and even caused weakness in his bodily frame, so that he
was like a pilgrim who limped along the road, and was ready to
lie down and die. He shortened my days. Though he had bright
hopes for Jerusalem, he feared that he should have departed this
life long before those visions had become realities; he felt
that he was pining away and would be a shortlived man. Perhaps
this may be our lot, and it will materially help us to be
content with it, if we are persuaded that the grandest of all
interests is safe, and the good old cause secure in the hands of
the Lord.
Verse 24. I said, O my God, take me not away in the
midst of my days. He betook himself to prayer. What better
remedy is there for hcart-sickness and depression? We may
lawfully ask for recovery from sickness and may hope to be
heard. Good men should not dread death, but they are not
forbidden to love life: for many reasons the man who has the
best hope of heaven may nevertheless think it desirable to
continue here a little longer, for the sake of his family, his
work, the church of God, and even the glory of God itself. Some
read the passage, "Take me not up, "let me not ascend
like disappearing smoke, do not whirl me away like Elijah in a
chariot of fire, for as yet I have only seen half my days, and
that a sorrowful half; give me to live till the blustering
morning shall have softened into a bright afternoon of happier
existence. Thy years are throughout all generations. Thou livest,
Lord; let me live also. A fulness of existence is with thee, let
me partake therein. Note the contrast between himself pining and
ready to expire, and his God living on in the fulness of
strength for ever and ever; this contrast is full of consolatory
power to the man whose heart is stayed upon the Lord. Blessed be
his name, he faileth not, and, therefore, our hope shall not
fail us, neither will we despair for ourselves or for his
church.
Verse 25. Of old hast thou laid the foundation of
the earth. Creation is no new work with God, and therefore
to "create Jerusalem a praise in the earth" will not
be difficult to him. Long ere the holy city was laid in ruins
the Lord made a world out of nothing, and it will be no labour
to him to raise the walls from their heaps and replace the
stones in their courses. We can neither continue our own
existence nor give being to others; but the Lord not only is,
but he is the Maker of all things that are; hence, when our
affairs are at the very lowest ebb we are not at all despairing,
because the Almighty and Eternal Lord can yet restore us. And
the heavens are the work of thine hands. Thou canst therefore
not merely lay the foundations of Zion, but complete its roof,
even as thou hast arched in the world with its ceiling of blue;
the loftiest stories of thine earthly palace shall be piled on
high without difficulty when thou dost undertake the building
thereof, since thou art architect of the stars, and the spheres
in which they move. When a great labour is to be performed it is
eminently reassuring to contemplate the power of him who has
undertaken to accomplish it; and when our own strength is
exhausted it is supremely cheering to see the unfailing energy
which is still engaged on our behalf.
Verse 26. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure.
The power which made them shall dissolve them, even as the city
of thy love was destroyed at thy command; yet neither the ruined
city nor the ruined earth can make a change in thee, reverse thy
purpose, or diminish thy glory. Thou standest when all things
fall. Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a
vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed.
Time impairs all things, the fashion becomes obsolete and passes
away. The visible creation, which is like the garment of the
invisible God, is waxing old and wearing out, and our great King
is not so poor that he must always wear the same robes; he will
ere long fold up the worlds and put them aside as worn out
vestures, and he will array himself in new attire, making a new
heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. How
readily will all this be done. "Thou shalt change them and
they shall be changed; "as in the creation so in the
restoration, omnipotence shall work its way without hindrance.
Verse 27. But thou art the same, or, "thou
art he." As a man remains the same when he has changed his
clothing, so is the Lord evermore the unchanging One, though his
works in creation may be changed, and the operations of his
providence may vary. When heaven and earth shall flee away from
the dread presence of the great Judge, he will be unaltered by
the terrible confusion, and the world in conflagration will
effect no change in him; even so, the Psalmist remembered that
when Israel was vanquished, her capital destroyed, and her
temple levelled with the ground, her God remained the same
self-existent, all-sufficient being, and would restore his
people, even as he will restore the heavens and the earth,
bestowing at the same time a new glory never known before. The
doctrine of the immutability of God should be more considered
than it is, for the neglect of it tinges the theology of many
religious teachers, and makes them utter many things of which
they would have seen the absurdity long ago if they had
remembered the divine declaration, "I am God, I change not,
therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." And thy years
shall have no end. God lives on, no decay can happen to him, or
destruction overtake him. What a joy is this! We may lose our
dearest earthly friends, but not our heavenly Friend. Men's days
are often suddenly cut short, and at the longest they are but
few, but the years of the right hand of the Most High cannot be
counted, for they have neither first nor last, beginning nor
end. O my soul, rejoice thou in the Lord always, since he is
always the same.
Verse 28. The children of thy servants shall
continue. The Psalmist had early in the psalm looked forward
to a future generation, and here he speaks with confidence that
such a race would arise and be preserved and blessed of God.
Some read it as a prayer, "let the sons of thy servants
abide." Any way, it is full of good cheer to us; we may
plead for the Lord's favour to our seed, and we may expect that
the cause of God and truth will revive in future generations.
Let us hope that those who are to succeed us will not be so
stubborn, unbelieving and erring as we have been. If the church
has been minished and brought low by the lukewarmness of the
present race, let us entreat the Lord to raise up a better order
of men, whose zeal and obedience shall win and hold a long
prosperity. May our own dear ones be among the better generation
who shall continue in the Lord's ways, obedient to the end. And
their seed shall be established before thee. God does not
neglect the children of his servants. It is the rule that
Abraham's Isaac should be the Lord's, that Isaac's Jacob should
be beloved of the Most High, and that Jacob's Joseph should find
favour in the sight of God. Grace is not hereditary, yet God
loves to be served by the same family time out of mind, even as
many great landowners feel a pleasure in having the same
families as tenants upon their estates from generation to
generation. Here is Zion's hope, her sons will build her up, her
offspring will restore her former glories. We may, therefore,
not only for our own sakes, but also out of love to the church
of God, daily pray that our sons and daughters may be saved, and
kept by divine grace even unto the end,—established before the
Lord. We have thus passed through the cloud, and in the next
psalm we shall bask in the sunshine. Such is the chequered
experience of the believer. Paul in the seventh of Romans cries
and groans, and then in the eighth rejoices and leaps for joy;
and so, from the moaning of the hundred and second psalm, we now
advance to the songs and dancing of the hundred and third,
blessing the Lord that, "though weeping may endure for a
night, joy cometh in the morning."
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
TITLE. A prayer, etc. The prayer following is
longer than others. When Satan, the Law-Adversary, doth extend
his pleas against us, it is meet that we should enlarge our
counter pleas for our own souls; as the powers of darkness do
lengthen aud multiply their wrestlings, so must we our counter
wrestlings of prayer. Eph 6:12,18. Thomas Cobbet, 1667.
Title. When he... poureth out, etc. Here we
have the manner of the church's prayer suitable to her extremity
illustrated by a simile taken from a vessel overcharged with new
wine or strong liquor, that bursts for vent. Oh the
heart-bursting cries she sends out all the day! Here is no lazy,
slothful, lip labour, stinted forms of prayer, no empty sounds
of verbal expressions, which can never procure her a comfortable
answer from her God, or the least ease to her burdened soul; but
poured-out prayers as Hannah, 1Sa 1:15, and Jeremy,
La 2:12, pressed forth with vehemence of spirit and heart pangs
of inward grief: thus the Lord deals with his church and people;
ere he pour out cups of consolation they must pour out tears in
great measure. Finiens Canus Vove.
Title.
This is the mourner's prayer when he is faint,
And to the Eternal Father breathes his plaint. John Keble.
Whole Psalm. The psalm has been attributed to Daniel,
to Jeremiah, to Nehemiah, or to some of the other prophets
who flourished during the time of the captivity. The author of
the Epistle to the Hebrews has applied Ps 102:25-27 to our Lord,
and the perpetuity of his kingdom. Adam Clarke.
Whole Psalm. I doubt whether, without apostolic
teaching, any of us would have had the boldness to understand
it; for in many respects it is the most remarkable of all the
Psalms—the Psalm of "THE AFFLICTED ONE"—while his
soul is overwhelmed within him in great affliction, and sorrow,
and anxious fear. Adolph Saphir, in "Expository Lectures
on the Epistle to the Hebrews."
Verse 1. Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry
come unto thee. When, at any time we see the beggars, or
poor folks, that are pained and grieved with hunger and cold,
lying in the streets of cities and towns, full of sores, we are
somewhat moved inwardly with pity and mercy; but if we our own
selves attend and give ear to their wailings, cryings, and
lamentable noises that they make, we should be much more stirred
to show our pity and mercy on them; for no man else can show the
grief of the sick and sore persons, so well and in so pathetic a
manner as he himself. Therefore, since the miserable crying and
wailing of those that suffer bodily pain and misery can prevail
so much upon the hearts of mortal creatures; I doubt not, Good
Lord, but thou, who art all merciful, must needs be inclined to
exercise thy mercy, if my sorrowful cry and petition may come
unto thine ears, or into thy presence. John Fisher
(1459-1535) in "A Treatise concerning the fruitful Sayings
of David, "1714.
Verse 1. My prayer. His own, and not another's;
not what was composed for him, but composed by him; which came
out of his own heart, and out of unfeigned lips, and expressed
under a feeling sense of his own wants and troubles; and though
dictated and inwrought in his heart by the Spirit of God, yet,
being put up by him in faith and fervency, it is called his own,
and which he desires might be heard. John Gill.
Verse 1. My cry. Lest my praying should not
prevail, behold, O God, I raise it to a cry; and crying, I may
say, is the greatest bell in all the ring of praying: for louder
than crying I cannot pray. O, then, if not my prayer, at least let
my cry come unto thee. If I be not heard when I cry, I shall
cry for not being heard; and if heard when I cry, I shall cry to
be heard yet more; and so whether heard or not heard, I shall
cry still, and God grant I may cry still; so thou be pleased, O
God, to "hear my prayer, "and to "let my cry come
unto thee." Sir R. Baker.
Verses 1-2. This language is the language of godly
sorrow, of faith, of tribulation, and of anxious hope: of faith,
for the devout suppliant lifts up his heart and voice to heaven,
"as seeing him who is invisible, "(Heb 11:27) and
entreats him to hear his prayer and listen to his crying: of
tribulation, for he describes himself as enduring
affliction, and unwilling to lose the countenance of the Lord in
his time of his trouble: of anxious hope, for he seems to
expect, in the midst of his groaning, that his prayers, like
those of Cornelius, will "go up for a memorial before
God" who will hear him, "and that right soon." Charles
Oxenden, in "Sermons on the Seven Penitential Psalms,"
1838.
Verses 1-2. The Lord suffereth his babbling children
to speak to him in their own form of speech, (albeit the terms
which they use be not fitted for his spiritual, invisible, and
incomprehensible majesty); such as are, "Hear me,
""hide not thy face, ""incline thine ear to
me, "and such like other speeches. David Dickson.
Verses 1-2. Note, David sent his prayer as a sacred
ambassador to God. Now there are four things requisite to make
an embassy prosperous. The ambassador must be regarded with
favourable eye: he must be heard with a ready ear: he must
speedily return when his demands are conceded. These four things
David as a suppliant asks from God his King. Le Blanc.
Verse 2. Incline thine ear unto me. The great
exhaustion of the affiicted one is hinted at: so worn out is he,
that he is hardly able to cry any more, but with a faint voice
only feebly mutters, like a weak sick man, whose voice if we
would catch, we must incline the ear. Martin Geier.
Verse 3. Consumed like smoke, would be better
read, "pass away as in smoke, "as if they
disappeared into smoke and ashes. Burned as an hearth, is
not a felicitous translation, for a "hearth" should be
incombustible. Better "burned as a faggot, "as any
fuel. The sentiment, My days waste away to nothing, turn to no
good account, are lost. Henry Cowles.
Verse 3. My days are consumed like smoke; or,
as Hebrew, literally, "in (into) smoke." The
very same expression which David in Ps 37:20 had used of
"the enemies of the Lord:" "They shall consume
into smoke" (compare Ps 68:2). Hereby the ideal sufferer
virtually complains that the lot of the wicked befalls him,
though being righteous (Ps 101:1-8). A. R. Fausset.
Verse 3. My days are consumed like smoke. As
the smoke is a vapour proceeding from the fire, yet hath no heat
in it: so my days are come from the torrid zone of youth into
the region of cold and age; and as the smoke seems a thick
substance for the present, but presently vanisheth into air; so
my days made as great shew at first as if they would never have
been spent; but now, alas, are wasted and leave me scarce a
being. As the smoke is fuliginous and dark, and affords no
pleasure to look upon it; so my days are all black and in
mourning; no joy nor pleasure to be taken in them. And as the
smoke ascends indeed, but by ascending wastes itself and comes
to nothing: so my days are wasted in growing, are diminished in
increasing; their plenty hath made a scarcity, and the more they
have been the fewer they are. And how, indeed, can my days
choose but be consumed as smoke, when my bones are burned as an
hearth? for as when the hearth is burned there can be made no
more fire upon it; so, when my bones, which are as the hearth
upon which my fire of life is made, come once to be burned; how
can any more fire of life be made upon them? and when no fire
can be made, what will remain but only smoke? Sir R. Baker.
Verse 3. As an hearth. Or, as a trivet,
or, gridiron;so the Targum: or, as a frying-pan:
so the Arabic version. John Gill.
Verse 4. My heart is smitten and withered like
grass. The metaphor here is taken from grass, cut down in
the meadow. It is first "smitten" with the scythe,
and then "withered" by the sun. Thus the Jews
were smitten with the judgments of God; and they are now
withered under the fire of the Chaldeans. Adam Clarke.
Verse 4. I forget to eat my bread. I have heard
of some that have forgotten their own names, but I never heard
of any that forget to eat his meat; for there is a certain
prompter called hunger that will make a man to remember his meat
in spite of his teeth. And yet it is true, when the heart is
blasted and withered like grass, such a forgetfulness of
necessity will follow. Is it that the withering of the heart is
the prime cause of sorrow; at least cause of the prime sorrow;
and immoderate sorrow is the mother of stupidity, stupifying and
benumbing the animal faculties, that neither the understanding
nor the memory can execute their functions? Or is it, that
sorrow is so intentire to that it sorrows for, that it cannot
intent to think anything else? Or is it, that nature makes
account, that to feed in sorrow were to feed sorrow, and
therefore thinks best to forbear all eating? Or is it, that as
sorrow draws moisture from the brain and fills the eyes with
water; so it draws a like juice from other parts, which fills
the stomach instead of meat? However it be, it shews a wonderful
operation that is in sorrow; to make not only the stomach to
refuse its meat, but to make the brain forget the stomach,
between whom there is so natural a sympathy and so near a
correspondence. But as the vigour of the heart breeds plenty of
spirits, which convey to all the parts, gives everyone a natural
appetite; so when the heart is blasted and withered like grass,
and that there is no more any rigour in it, the spirits are
presently at a stand, and then no marvel if the stomach lose its
appetite, and forget to eat bread. Sir R. Baker.
Verse 4. I forget to eat my bread. When grief
hath thus dejected the spirits, the man has no appetite for that
food which is to recruit and elevate them. Ahab, smitten with
one kind of grief, David with another, and Daniel with a third,
all forgot, or refused, to eat their bread. 1Ki 21:4; 2Sa 12:16;
Da 10:3. Such natural companions are mourning and fasting. Samuel
Burder.
Verse 5. My bones cleave to my skin. When the
bones cleave to the skin, both are near cleaving to the dust. Joseph
Caryl.
Verse 5. That grief readily causes the body to pine
away is very well known. It is related of Cardinal Wolsey, by an
eye-witness, that when he heard that his master's favour was
turned from him, he was wrung with such an agony of grief, which
continued a whole night, that in the morning his face was
dwindled away into half its usual dimensions.
Verse 6. I am like a pelican of the wilderness.
The Kaath was a bird of solitude that was to be found in the "wilderness,
"i.e., far from the habitations of man. This is one of
the characteristics of the pelican, which loves not the
neighbourhood of human beings, and is fond of resulting to
broad, uncultivated lands, where it will not be disturbed. In
them it makes its nest and hatches its young, and to them it
retires after feeding, in order to digest in quiet the ample
meal which it has made. Mr. Tristram well suggests that the
metaphor of the Psalmist may allude to the habit common to the
pelican and its kin, of sitting motionless for hours after it
has gorged itself with food, its head sunk on its shoulders, and
its bill resting on its breast. J.G. Wood.
Verse 6. A pelican of the wilderness. Here only
at Hulet have I seen the pelican of the wilderness, as
David calls it. I once had one of them shot just below this
place, and, as it was merely wounded in the wing, I had a good
opportunity to study its character. It was certainly the most
sombre, austere bird I ever saw. It gave one the blues merely to
look at it. David could find no more expressive type of solitude
and melancholy by which to illustrate his own sad state. It
seemed as large as a half-grown donkey, and when fairly settled
on its stout legs, it looked like one. The pelican is never seen
but in these unfrequented solitudes. W.M. Thomson.
Verse 6. Consider that thou needest not complain, like
Elijah, that thou art left alone, seeing the best of
God's saints in all ages have smarted in the same
kind—instance in David:indeed sometimes he boasts how
he "lay in green pastures, and was led by still waters;
"but after he bemoans that he "sinks in deep mire,
where there was no standing." What is become of those green
pastures? parched up with the drought. Where are those still
waters troubled with the tempest of affliction. The same David
compares himself to an "owl, "and in the next
Psalm resembles himself to an "eagle." Do two
fowls fly of more different kind? The one the scorn, the
other the sovereign;the one the slowest, the other
the swiftest;the one the most sharp-sighted, the
other the most dim-eyed of all birds. Wonder not, then,
to find in thyself sudden and strange alterations. It fared thus
with all God's servants in their agonies of temptation; and be
confident thereof, though now run aground with grief, in due
time thou shalt be all afloat with comfort. Thomas Fuller.
Verse 6. Owl. Some kind of owl, it is thought,
is intended by the Hebrew word cos, translated "little
owl" in Le 11:17; De 14:16, where it is mentioned
amongst the unclean birds. It occurs also in Ps 102:6. I am
like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of ruined
places (A. V., "desert"). The Hebrew word cos
means a "cup" in some passages of Scripture, from a
root meaning to "receive, "to "hide, "or
"bring together"; hence the pelican, "the cup,
"or "pouch-bird, "has been suggested as the bird
intended. In this case the verse in the Psalm would be rendered
thus: "I am become like a pelican in the wilderness, even
as the pouch-bird in the desert places." But the fact that
both the pelican and the cos are enumerated in the list
of birds to be avoided as food is against this theory, unless
the word changed its meaning in the Psalmist's time, which is
improbable. The expression cos "of ruined
places" looks very much as if some owl were denoted. The
Arabic definitely applies a kindred expression as one of the
names of an owl, viz., um elcharab, i.e. "mother of
ruins." The Septuagint gives nukkktikorax as the meaning of
cos;and we know from Aristotle that the Greek word was a
synonym of wtov, evidently, from his description of the bird,
one of the cared owls. Dr. Tristram is disposed to refer the cos
to the little Athene Persica, the most common of all the
owls in Psalestine, the representative of the A noetua of
Southern Europe. The Arabs call this bird "boomah,
"from his note; he is described "as a grotesque
and comical-looking little bird, familiar and yet cautious;
never moving unnecessarily, but remaining glued to his perch,
unless he has good reason for believing that he has been
aetected, and twisting and turning his head instead of his eyes
to watch what is going on." He is to be found amongst rocks
in the wadys or trees by the water-side, in olive yards, in the
tombs and on the ruins, on the sandy mounds of Beersheba, and on
"the spray-beaten fragments of Tyre, where his low wailing
noto is sure to be heard at sunset, and himself seen bowing and
keeping time to his own music." W. Houghton, in "Cassell's
Biblical Educator, "1874,
Verse 6. Owl of the desert.
Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower,
The moping owl does to the moon complain
Of such as, wandering near her secret bower,
Molest her ancient solitary reign.
—Thomas Gray (1716-1771).
Verse 7. I watch. During the hours allotted to
sleep "I wake, " like a little bird which sits
solitary on the house-top, while all beneath enjoy the sleep
which he giveth to his beloved. Alfred Edersheim.
Verse 7. A sparrow alone upon the house-top.
When one of them has lost its mate—a matter of every-day
occurrence—he will sit on the house-top alone, and lament by
the hour his sad bereavement. W. M. Thomson.
Verse 7. I am as a sparrow alone, etc. It is
evident that the "sparrow alone and melancholy upon the
house-tops" cannot be the lively, gregarious sparrow which
assembles in such numbers on these favourite feeding-places the
house-tops of the East. We must therefore look for some
other bird, and naturalists are now agreed that we may accept
the Blue Thrush (Petrocossyphus cyaneus) as the
particular tzippor, or small bird, which sits alone on the
house-tops. The colour of this bird is a dark blue, whence it
derives its popular name. Its habits exactly correspond with the
idea of solitude and melancholy. The Blue Thrushes never
assemble in flocks, and it is very rare to see more than a pair
together. It is fond of sitting on the tops of houses, uttering
its note, which, however agreeable to itself, is monotonous and
melancholy to human ear. J.G. Wood, in "Bible
Animals."
Verse 7. A sparrow. Most readers are struck
with the incongruity of the image, as it appears in our version,
intended by the Psalmist to express a condition of distress and
desolation. The sparrow is found, indeed, all over the East, in
connection with houses, as it is with ourselves; but it is
everywhere one of the most social of birds, cheerful to
impertinence; and mischievously disposed, instead of being
retiring in its habits, and melancholy in its demeanour. The
word, in the original, is a general term for all the small
birds, insectivorous and frugivirous, denominated clean, and
that might be eaten according to the law, the thrushes, larks,
wagtails, finches, as well as sparrows. It seems to be, indeed,
a mere imitation of their common note, like the one which we
have in the word "chirrup." Most critics are,
therefore, content with the rendering, "solitary bird,
"or "solitary little bird." But this is very
unsatisfactory. It does not identify the species: and there is
every probability that there must have been a particular bird
which the Psalmist, writing at the close of the Babylonish
captivity, had in his eye, corresponding to his representation
of it, and illustrative of his isolated condition. Such there is
at the present day, of common occurrence in Southern Europe and
Western Asia. Its history is very little known to the world, and
its existence has hitherto escaped the notice of all biblical
commentators. Remarkably enough, the bird is commonly, but
erroneously, called a sparrow, for it is a real thrush in size,
in shape, in habits, and in song. It differs singularly from the
rest of the tribe, throughout all the East, by a marked
preference for sitting solitary upon the habitation of man. It
never associates with any other, and only at one season with its
own mate; and even then it is often seen quite alone upon the
house-top, where it warbles its sweet and plaintive strains, and
continues its song, moving from roof to roof. America has its
solitary thrush, of another species, and of somewhat different
habits. The dark solitary cane and myrtle swamps of the southern
states are there the favourite haunts of the recluse bird; and
the more dense and gloomy these are the more certainly is it to
be found flitting in them.—"The Biblical
Treasury".
Verse 7. Alone. But little do men perceive what
solitude is, and how far it extendeth; for a crowd is not
company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk but a
tinkling cymbal where there is no love. The Latin adage meeteth
it a little: "magna civitas, magno solitudo; "because
in a great town friends are scattered, so that there is not that
fellowship, for the most part, which is in less neighbourhoods;
but we may go further, and affirm most truly, that it is a mere
and miserable solitude to want true friends, without which the
world is but a wilderness; and even in this sense also of
solitude, whosoever in the frame of his nature and affections is
unfit for friendship, he taketh it of the beast, and not from
humanity. Francis Bacon.
Verse 7. Alone. See the reason why people in
trouble love solitariness. They are full of sorrow; and sorrow,
if it have taken deep root, is naturally reserved, and flies all
conversation. Grief is a thing that is very silent and private.
Those people that are very talkative and clamorous in their
sorrows, are never very sorrowful. Some are apt to wonder, why
melancholy people delight to be so much alone, and I will
tell you the reason of it. 1. Because the disordered humours of
their bodies alter their temper, their humours, and their
inclinations, that they are no more the same that they used
to be; their very distemper is averse to what is joyous and
diverting; and they that wonder at them may as wisely wonder why
they will be diseased, which they would not be if the knew how
to help it; but the Disease of Melancholy is so obstinate, and
so unknown to all but those who have it, that nothing but the
power of God can totally overthrow it, and I know no other cure
for it. 2. Another reason why they choose to be alone is,
because people do not generally mind what they say, nor
believe them, but rather deride them, which they do not use so
cruelly to do with those that are in other distempers; and no
man is to be blamed for avoiding society, when it does not
afford the common credit to his words that is due to the rest of
men. But, 3, Another, and the principal reason why people in
trouble and sadness choose to be alone is, because they
generally apprehend themselves singled out to be the marks of
God's peculiar displeasure, and they are often by their
sharp afflictions a terror to themselves, and a wonder to
others. It even breaks their hearts to see how low they are
fallen, how oppressed, that were once as easy, as pleasant, as
full of hope as others are, Job 6:21: "Ye see my casting
down, and are afraid." Ps 71:7. "I am as a wonder unto
many." And it is usually unpleasant to others to be with
them. Ps 88:18: "Lover and friend hast thou put far from
me, and mine acquaintance into darkness." And though it was
not so with the friends of Job, to see a man whom they had once
known happy, to be so miserable; one whom they had seen so very
prosperous, to be so very poor, in such sorry, forlorn
circumstances, did greatly affect them; he, poor man, was
changed, they knew him not, Job 2:12-13, "And when they
lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up
their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and
sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. So they sat down
with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none
spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very
great." As the prophet represents one under spiritual and
great afflictions, "That he sitteth alone, and keepeth
silence, " La 3:28. Timothy Rogers (1660-1729), in "A
Discourse on Trouble of Mind, and the Disease of
Melancholy."
Verse 8. Mine enemies reproach me. It is true
what Plutarch writes, that men are more touched with reproaches
than with other injuries; affliction, too, gives a keener edge
to calumny, for the afflicted are more fitting objects of pity
than of mockery. Mollerus.
Verse 8. Mine enemies reproach me, etc. If I be
where they are they rail at me to my face; and if I be not
amongst them they revile me behind my back; and they do it not
by starts and fits, that might give me some breathing time; but
they are spitting their poison all the day long; and not
single and one by one, that might leave hope of resisting; but
they make combinations, and enter leagues against me; and to
make their leagues the stronger, and less subject to dissolving,
they bind themselves by oath, and take the sacrament upon it.
And now sum up all these miseries and afflictions; begin with my
fasting; then take my groaning; then add my watching; then the
shame of being wondered at in company; then the discomfort of
sitting disconsolate alone; and, lastly, add to these the spite
and malice of my enemies; and what marvel, then, if these
miseries joined all together make me altogether miserable; what
marvel if I be nothing but skin and bone, when no flesh that
were wise would ever stay upon a body to endure such misery. Sir
R. Baker.
Verse 8 (last clause). Swearing by one, means,
to make his name a by-word of execration, or an example of
cursing. (Isa 65:15; Je 29:22 42:18). Carl Bernard Moll, in
Lange's Commentary.
Verse 9. I have eaten ashes like bread. Though
the bread indeed be strange, yet not so strange as this,—that
having complained before of forgetting to eat his bread, he
should now on a sudden fall to eating of ashes like bread.
For had he not been better to have forgotten it still, unless it
had been more worth remembering? For there is not in nature so
unfit a thing to eat as ashes;it is worse than
Nebuchadnezzar's grass. Sir R. Baker.
Verse 9. I have mingled my drink with weeping.
If you think his bread to be bad, you will find his drink to be
worse; for he mingles his drink with tears: and what are
tears, but brinish and salt humours? and is brine a fit liquor
to quench one's thirst? May we not say here, the remedy is worse
than the disease? for were it not better to endure any thirst,
than to seek to quench it with such drink? Is it not a pitiful
thing to have no drink to put in the stomach, but that which is
drawn out of the eyes? and yet whose case is any better? No man
certainly commits sin, but with a design of pleasure; but sin
will not be so committed; for whosoever commit sin, let them be
sure at some time or other to find a thousand times more trouble
about it than ever they found pleasure in it. For all sin is a
kind of surfeit, and there is no way to keep it from being
mortal but by this strict diet of eating ashes like bread and
mingling his drink with tears. O my soul, if these be works of
repentance in David, where shall we find a penitent in the world
besides himself? To talk of repentance is obvious in everyone's
mouth; but where is any that eats ashes like bread, and mingles
his drink with tears? Sir R. Baker.
Verse 10. For thou hast lifted me up, and cast me
down. Thou hast lifted me up of a great height, in that thou
madest me like unto thine image, touching my reasonable soul,
and hast given me power, by thy grace, to inherit the
everlasting joys of heaven, both body and soul, if I did live
here after thy commandments. What greater gift canst thou give
me, Lord, than to have the fruition of thee that art all in all
things? How canst thou lift me higher than to eternal beatitude?
But then, alas, thou hast letten me fall down again, for thou
hast joined my noble soul with an earthly, heavy, and a frail
body; the weight and burden thereof draweth down my mind and
heart from the consideration of thy goodness, and from well
doing, unto all kinds of vices, and to the regarding of temporal
things according to his nature. The earthly mansion keepeth down
the understanding. Thus setting me up, as it were, above the
wind, thou hast given me a very great fall (Job 30:22). I am in
creation above all other kind of earthly creatures, and almost
equal with angels; but being in this estate thou hast knit a
knot thereto, that for breaking the least of thy commandments I
shall suffer damnation. So that without thy continual mercy and
help I am in worse case herein than any brute beast, whose life
or soul dieth with the body. Sir Anthony Cope (1551).
Verse 10. For thou hast lifted me up and cast me
down. That is that I might fall with greater poise. Significatur
gravissima collisio. Here the prophet accuseth not God of
cruelty, but bewaileth his own misery. Miserum est fusisse
felicem, it is no small unhappiness to have been happy. John
Trapp.
Verse 11 (first clause). My days (my term of
life) are as the lengthened shade, the lengthening shade of
evening, that shows the near approach of night. The comparison,
though not strictly expressed, is beautifully suggestive of the
thought intended. Thomas J. Conant.
Verse 11 (last clause). The and I, in
the Hebrew, stands in designed contrast to "But thou,
"Ps 102:12. A. R. Fausset.
Verse 13. Thou shalt arise, and have mercy,
etc. Tu miserebere, "Thou shalt, "as the
Shunamite to the prophet, catching hold on his feet, though
Gehazi thrust her away, Vivit Dominus, "As the Lord
liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not let thee go;
"and, as Jacob to the angel, when he had wrestled the whole
night with him, Non dimittam, I will not let thee loose
till I have a blessing from thee. From "A Sermon at
Paules Crosse on behalfe of Paules Church, March 26, 1620. By
the B. of London" John King.
Verse 13. The set time. There is a certain set
time for God's great actions. He lets the powers of darkness
have their hour, and God will take his hour. He hath a set time
for the discovery of his mercy, and he will not stay a jot
beyond it. What is this time? Ps 102:9, etc. When they "eat
ashes like bread, and mingle their drink with weeping;
"when they are most humble, and when the servants of God
have moral affection to the church; when their humble and ardent
affections are strong, even to the ruin and rubbish of it; when
they have a mighty desire and longing for the reparation of it,
as the Jews in captivity had for the very dust of the temple: Ps
102:14: "For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and
favour the dust thereof." "For" there
notes it to be a reason why the set time was judged by them to
be come. That is God's set time when the church is most
believing, most humble, most affectionate to God's interest in
it, and most sincere. Without faith we are not fit to desire
mercy, without humility we are not fit to receive it, without
affection we are not fit to value it, without sincerity we are
not fit to improve it. Times of extremity contribute to the
growth and exercise of these qualifications. Stephen Charnock.
Verse 14. For thy servants take pleasure in her
stones. That is, they are still attached to her, and regard
her with extreme affection, although in ruins. Jerusalem itself
affords at this day a touching illustration of this passage.
There is reason to believe that a considerable portion of the lower
part of the walls which enclose the present mosque of Omar,
which occupies the site of the ancient Jewish temple, are the
same, or at least the southern, western, and eastern sides are
the same as those of Solomon's temple. At one part where the
remains of this old wall are the most considerable and of the
most massive character—where two courses of masonry, composed
of massive blocks of stone, rising to the height of thirty
feet—is what is called the Wailing Place of the Jews.
"Here, "says Dr. Olin, "at the foot of the wall,
is an open place paved with flags, where the Jews assemble every
Friday, and in small numbers on other days, for the purpose of
praying and bewailing the desolations of their holy places.
Neither the Jews nor Christians are allowed to enter the Haram,
which is consecrated to Mohammedan worship, and this part of the
wall is the nearest approach they can make to what they regard
as the precise spot within the forbidden enclosure upon which
the ancient temple stood. They keep the pavement swept with
great care, and take off their shoes, as on holy ground.
Standing or kneeling with their faces towards the ancient wall,
they gaze in silence upon its venerable stones, or pour forth
their complaints in half-suppressed, though audible tones. This,
to me, was always a most affecting sight, and I repeated my
visit to this interesting spot to enjoy and sympathise with the
melancholy yet pleasing spectacle. The poor people sometimes
sobbed aloud, and still found tears to pour out for the
desolations of their `beautiful house.' `If I forget thee, O
Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not
remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if
I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.'" Kitto's
Pictorial Bible.
Verse 16. When the LORD shall build up Zion, he
shall appear in his glory. So sincere is God to his people,
that he gives his own glory in hostage to them for their
security; his own robes of glory are locked up in their
prosperity and salvation: he will not, indeed he cannot, present
himself in all his magnificence and royalty, till he hath made
up his intended thoughts of mercy to his people; he is pleased
to prorogue the time of his appearing in all his glory to the
world till he hath actually accomplished their deliverance, that
he and they may come forth together in their glory on the same
day: "When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear
in his glory." The sun is ever glorious in the most
cloudy day, but appears not so till it hath scattered the clouds
that muffle it up from the sight of the lower world: God is
glorious when the world sees him not: but his declarative glory
then appears, when the glory of his mercy, truth and
faithfulness break forth in his people's salvation. Now, what
shame must this cover thy face with, O Christian, if thou
shouldst not sincerely aim at thy God's glory, who loves thee,
yea, all his children so dearly, as to ship his own glory and
your happiness in one bottom, that he cannot now lose the one,
and save the other! William Gumall.
Verse 16. When the LORD shall build up Zion, he
shall appear in his glory. There are two reasons why the
Lord appears thus glorious in this work rather than in any
other. First, because it is a work that infinitely pleaseth him.
Men choose to appear in their clothes and behaviour suitable to
the work that they are to be employed in: the woman of Tekoah
must feign herself to be a mourner when she goes on a mournful
message; and David, when he goes on a doleful journey, covers
his face, and puts on mourning apparel; but when Solomon is to
be crowned, he goes in all his royalty; and a bride adorns
herself gloriously when she is to be married: verily so doth the
Lord, when he goes about a work he takes no pleasure in, he puts
on his mourning apparel, he covers himself with a cloud and the
heavens with blackness; when he is to do a strange work of
judgment, then he mourns, "How shall I give thee up
Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee Israel? how shall I make thee
as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned
within me, my repentings are kindled together." Ho 11:8.
But the building of Zion doth infinitely please him, because
Zion is as the apple of his eye to him; he bought Zion at a dear
rate, with his own blood; he lays Zion in his bosom, he is
ravished with Zion, Zion is his love, his dove, his fair one; he
hath chosen Zion, and loves the gates of it, better than all the
palaces of Jacob; and being so pleasing to him, no marvel if he
put on all his glorious apparel when he is to adorn and build up
Zion. And, secondly, it is because all the glory that he looks
for to eternity must arise out of this one work of building
Zion; this one work shall be the only monument of his glory to
eternity: this goodly world, this heaven and earth, that you see
and enjoy the use of, is set up only as a shop, as a workshop,
to stand only for a week, for six or seven thousand years,
("a thousand years is with the Lord but as a day");
and when his work is done he will throw this piece of clay down
again, and out of this he looks for no other glory than from a cabul,
a land of dirt, or a shepherd's cottage, or a gourd which
springs up in a night and withers in a day; but this piece he
sets up for a higher end, to be the eternal mansion of his
holiness and honour; this is his metropolis, his temple,
his house where his fire and furnace is, his court, his glorious
high throne, and therefore his glory is much concerned in this
work. When Nebuchadnezzar would have a city for the honour of
his kingdom, and the glory of his majesty, he will make it a
stately piece. Solomon made all his kingdom very rich and
glorious, but he made his court, and especially his throne,
another manner of thing, so stately that the like was not to be
seen in any other kingdom; and therefore no wonder though he
appear in his glory in building up of that, which we may boldly
say must be one day made as glorious as his wisdom can contrive,
and his power bring to pass. Stephen Marshall, in a Sermon
preached to the Right Honourable the House of Peers, entitled
"God's Master-Piece," 1645.
Verses 16.-17. Shall build—shall appear—will
regard—and will not despise. These futures, in the
original, are all present; buildeth—appeareth—regardeth—and
despiseth not. The Psalmist, in his confidence of the event,
speaks of it as doing. Samuel Horsley.
Verse 17. He will regard the prayer of the
destitute, etc. The persons are here called "the
destitute." The Hebrew word which is here translated
"destitute" doth properly signify myrica, a low
shrub, humiles myrica, low shrubs that grow in
wildernesses, some think they were juniper shrubs, some a
kind of wild tamaris, but a base wild shrub that grew
nowhere but in a desolate forlorn place; and sometimes the word
in the text is used to signify the deserts of Arabia, the sandy
desert place of Arabia, which was a miserable wilderness. Now
when this word is applied to men, it always means such as were forsaken
men, despised men; such men as are stripped of all that
is comfortable to them: either they never had children, or else
their children are taken away from them, and all comforts
banished, and themselves left utterly forlorn, like the barren
heath ih a desolate howling wilderness. These are the people of
whom my text speaks, that the Lord will regard the prayer of "the
destitute; "and this was now the state of the Church of
God when they offered up this prayer, and yet by faith did
foretell that God would grant such a glorious answer. . . . This
is also a lesson of singular comfort to every afflicted soul, to
assure them their prayers and supplications are tenderly
regarded before God. I have often observed such poor forsaken
ones, who in their own eyes are brought very low, that of all
other people they are most desirous to beg and obtain the
prayers of their friends, when they see any that hath gifts, and
peace, and cheerfulness of spirit, and liberty, and abilities to
perform duties, O how glad they are to get such a man's prayers
I "I beseech you, will you pray for me, will you please to
remember me at the throne of grace, "whereas, in truth, if
we could give a right judgment, all such woudd rather desire the
poor, and the desolate, to be mediators for
them; for, certainly, whomsoever God neglects, he will listen to
the cry of those that are forsaken and destitute. And therefore,
O thou afflicted and tossed with tempests, who thinkest thou art
wholly rejected by the Lord, continue to pour out thy soul to
him; thou hast a faithful promise from him to be rewarded: he
will regard the prayer of the destitute. Stephen Marshall, in a
Sermon entitled "The Strong Helper," 1645.
Verse 17. He will regard the prayer of the
destitute. It is worthy of observation that he ascribes the
redemption and restoration of the people to the prayers of the
faithful. That is truly a free gift, and dependent wholly upon
the divine mercy, and yet God himself often attributes it to our
prayers, to stir us up and render us the more active in the
pursuit of prayer. Mollerus.
Verse 17. The prayer of the destitute. A man
that is destitute knows how to pray. He needs not any
instructor. His miseries indoctrinate him wonderfully in the art
of offering prayer. Let us know ourselves destitute, that we may
know how to pray; destitute of strength, of wisdom, of due
influence, of true happiness, of proper faith, of thorough
consecration, of the knowledge of the Scriptures, of
righteousness. These words introduce and stand in immediate
connection with a prophecy of glorious things to be witnessed in
the latter times. We profess to be eager for the accomplishment
of those marvellous things; but are we offering the prayer of
the destitute? On the contrary, is not the Church at large too
much like the church at Laodicea? Will not a just interpretation
of many of its acts and ways bring forth the words, "I am
rich and increased in goods, and have need of nothing?" And
do not its prayers meet with this reproachful answer, "Thou
art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, and
knowest it not. Thy temporal affluence implies not spiritual
affluence. Thy spiritual condition is inversely as the worldly
prosperity that has turned thy head. I counsel thee to buy of me
gold tried in the fire. Give all thy trashy gold—trashy while
it is with thee—give it to my poor; and I will give thee true
gold, namely, a sense of thy misery and meanness; a longing for
grace, pubity, usefulness; a love of thy fellow-men; and my love
shed abroad in thy heart." George Bowen.
Verse 17. Not despise their prayer. How many in
every place (who have served the Lord in this great work) hath
prayer helped at a dead lift? Prayer hath hitherto saved the
kingdom. I remember a proud boast of our enemies, when we had
lost Bristol and the Vies, they then sent abroad
even into other kingdoms a triumphant paper, wherein they
concluded all was now subdued to them, and among many other
confident expressions, there was one to this purpose, Nil
restat superare Regem, etc., which might be construed two
ways; either thus,—There remains nothing for the King to
conquer, but only the prayers of a few fanatic people;or
thus,—There is nothing left to conquer the King, but the
prayers of a few fanatic people: everything else was lost,
all was now their own. And indeed we were then in a very low
condition. Our strongholds taken, our armies melted away, our
hearts generally failing us for fear, multitudes flying out of
the kingdom, and many deserting the cause as desperate, making
their peace at Oxford;nothing almost left us but preces
et lachrymae; but blessed be God, prayer was not
conquered;they have found it the hardest wall to climb, the
strongest brigade to overthrow; it hath hitherto preserved us,
it hath raised up unexpected helps, and brought many unhoped for
successes and deliverances. Let us therefore, under God, set the
crown upon the head of prayer. Ye nobles and worthies, be ye all
content to have it so; it will wrong none of you in your
deserved praise; God and man will give you your due. Many of
you have done worthily, but prayer surpasses you all: and
this is no new thing, prayer hath always had the pre-eminence in
the building of Zion. God hath reserved several works for
several men and several ages; but in all ages and among all men,
prayer hath been the chiefest instrument, especially in the
building up of Zion. Stephen Marshall.
Verse 17. Not despise their prayer. He will,
then, give ear to the suits of the poor, and not reject their
supplications. But who will believe this? Is it likely that when
God is in his glory, he will attend to such mean things as
hearkening to the poor? Can it stand with the honour of his
glory to stand reading petitions, and specially of men that come
in forma pauperis? scarce credible indeed with men, who,
raised in honour, keep a distance from the poor and count it a
degree of falling to look downwards: but credible enough with
God, who counts it his glory to regard the inglorious; and being
the Most High, yet looks as low as to the lowest, and favours
them most who are most despised. And this did Christ after his
transfiguration, when he had appeared in his glory; he then
shewed acts of greatest humility; he then washed the disciples'
feet; and made Peter as much wonder to see his humbleness, as he
had done before to see his glory. Sir R. Baker.
Verse 18. Shall praise the LORD. The people
whom God in mercy brings from a low and mean condition, are the
people from whom God promises to receive praise and glory.
Indeed, such is the selfishness of our corrupt nature, that if
we are anything, or do anything, we are prone to forget God, and
sacrifice to our own nets, and burn incense to our own yarn;
inasmuch, that whenever God finds a people who shall either
trust in him, or praise him, it must be "an afflicted and
poor people, "(Zep 3:11-13; Ps 22:22-25), or a people
brought from such an estate: free grace is even most valued by
such a people. And if you look all the Scripture over, you will
find that all the praises and songs of deliverance that have
been made to God have proceeded from a people that have thus
judged of themselves, as those that were brought to nothing; but
God in mercy had brought them back again from the gates of
death, and usually until they had such apprehensions of
themselves they never gave unto God the glory due unto his name.
Stephen Marshall.
Verse 18. Expositors observe upon this text, that this
redeemed Church takes no thought concerning themselves,
about their own ease, pleasure, wealth, gain, or anything
else which might accrue unto themselves by this deliverance, to
make their own life easy or sweet; but their thoughts and
studies are wholly laid out, how the present and succeeding
generations should give all glory to God for it. . . . There are
three special reasons why this should be the great work of the
Lord's saved and rescued people, and why indeed they can do no
other than study thus to exalt him.
1. One is, because they well know that the Lord hath reserved
nothing to himself but only his glory; the benefits he gives to
them; all the sweetness and honey that can be found in them he
gives them leave to suck out; but his glory and his praise is
his own, and that which he hath wholly reserved; of that he is
jealous, lest it should either be denied, eclipsed, diminished,
or any the least violation offered to it in any kind. All God's
people know this of him, and therefore they cannot but endeavour
to preserve it for him.
2. Secondly, besides, they know, as God is jealous in that
point, so it is all the work that he hath appointed them to do;
he hath therefore separated them to himself out of all nations
of the world, to be his peculiar ones for this very end, that
they might give him all the glory and praise of his mercy.
"I have( said God) created him, formed, and made
him for my glory." Isa 43:7. This is the law of his new
creation, which is as powerful in them as the law of nature, or
the first creation, is in the rest of his works. And therefore
with a holy and spiritual naturalness (if I may so call it) the
hearts of all the saints are carried to give God the glory, as
really as the stones are carried to the centre, or the fire to
fly upwards: this is fixed in their hearts, the work of grace
hath moulded them to it, that they can do no other but endeavour
to exalt God, it being the very end why their spiritual life and
all their other privileges are conferred upon them.
3. Yea, thirdly, they know their own interests are much
concerned in God's glory, they never are losers by it: if in any
work of God he want his praise, they will want their comfort;
but if God be a gainer, they shall certainly be no losers.
Whatever is poured upon the head of Christ—what ointment
soever of praise or glory, it will in a due proportion fall down
to the skirts of his garments; nor is there any other way to
have any sweetness, comfort, praise, or glory to be derived unto
themselves, but by giving all unto him to whom alone it
belongeth, and then although he will never give away his
glory—the glory of being the fountain, the first,
supreme, original giver of all good; yet they shall have the
glory of instruments, and of fellow workers with him, which is a
glory and praise sufficient. Stephen Marshall.
Verse 18 (first clause). Calvin translates
thus,—This shall be registered for the generations to come;
and observes,—"The Psalmist intimates, that this will be
a memorable work of God, the praise of which shall be handed
down to succeeding ages. Many things are worthy of praise, which
are soon forgotten; but the prophet distinguishes between the
salvation of the Church, for which he makes supplication, and
common benefits. By the word register he means that the
history of this would be worthy of having a place in the public
records, that the remembrance of it might be transmitted to
future generations."
Verse 18. This shall be written. Nothing is
more tenacious than man's, memory when he suffers an injury;
nothing more lax if a benefit is conferred. For this reason God
desires lest his gifts should fall out of mind, to have them
committed to writing. Le Blanc.
Verse 20. To hear the groaning of the prisoner.
God takes notice not only of the prayers of his afflicted
people, which are the language of grace; but even of their
groans, which are the language of nature. Matthew Henry.
Verse 20. Appointed unto death. Who, in their
captivity, are experiencing so much affliction, that it is
manifest their cruel enemies are desirous of destroying them
utterly; or, at least, of bringing them into such a low and
pitiable state, as to blot out their name from among the nations
of the earth. William Keatinge Clay.
Verse 24. 0 my God. The leaving out one word in
a will may mar the estate and disappoint all a man's hopes; the
want of this one word, my (God) is the wicked man's loss
of heaven, and the dagger which will pierce his heart in hell to
all eternity. The degree of satisfaction in any good is
according to the degree of our union to it, (hence our delight
is greater in food than in clothes, and the saint's joy is
greater in God in the other world than in this, because the
union is nearer;)but where there is no property there is no
union, therefore no complacency. The pronoun my is as
much worth to the soul as the boundless portion. All our comfort
is locked up in that private cabinet. Wine in the glass doth not
cheer the heart, but taken down Into the body. The property of
the Psalmist's in God was the mouth whereby he fed on those
dainties which did so exceedingly delight him. No love potion
was ever so effectual as this pronoun. When God saith to the
soul, as Ahab to Benhadad "Behold, I am thine, and all that
I have, "who can tell how the heart leaps for joy in, and
expires almost in desires after him upon such news! Others, like
strangers, may behold his honour and excellencies, but this
saint only, like the wife, enjoyeth him. Luther saith, Much
religion lieth in pronouns. All our consolation, indeed,
consisteth in this pronoun. It is the cup which holdeth all our
cordial waters. I will undertake as bad as the devil is, he
shall give the whole world, were it in his power, more freely
than ever he offered it to Christ for his worship, for leave
from God to pronounce those two words. MY GOD. All the joys of
the believer are hung upon this one string; break that asunder,
and all is lost. I have sometimes thought how David rolls it as
a lump of sugar under his tongue, as one loth to lose its
sweetness too soon: "I will love thee, O LORD, my strength,
my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower,
"Ps 18:1-2. This pronoun is the door at which the King of
saints entereth into our hearts, with his whole train of
delights and comforts. George Swinnock.
Verse 24. Take me not away, is more exactly,
Take me not up, with possible reference to the case of
Elijah, "taken up." Henry Cowles.
Verse 24. Take me not away in the midst of my days.
The word is, "Let me not ascend in the midst of my days,
"that is, before I have measured the usual course of
life. Thus, to ascend is the same as to be cut off;death
cuts off the best from this world, and then they ascend to a
better. The word ascend is conceived to have in it a
double allusion; first, to corn which is taken up by the hand of
the reaper, and then laid down on the stubble. Secondly, unto
the light of a candle, which as the candle spends, or as that
which is the food of the fire is spending, ascends, and at last
goes out and vanisheth. Joseph Caryl.
Verse 24. Thy years are throughout all generations.
The Psalmist says of Christ, "Thy years are throughout
all generations, " Ps 102:24; which Psalm the apostle
quoteth of him, Heb 1:10. Let us trace his existence punctually
through all times. Let us go from point to point, and see how in
particulars the Scriptures accord with it. The first joint of
time we will begin that chronology of his existence withal is
that instant afore he was to come into the world.
First, We find him to have existed just afore he came
into the world, the instance of his conception, Heb 10:5, in
these words, "Wherefore when he comes into the world, says
he, A body hast thou prepared me." Heb 10:7, "Lo, I
come to do thy will, O God." Here is a person distinct from
God the Father, a me, an I, distinct also from
that human nature he was to assume, which he terms a "body
prepared."... Therefore besides and afore that human nature
there was a divine person that existed, that was not of this
world, but that came into it, "when he cometh into the
world, he says, "etc., to become a part of it, and be
manifested in it.
Secondly, We find him to have existed afore John the
Baptist, though John was conceived and born some months afore
him. I note these several joints of time because the Scripture
notes them, and hath set a special mark upon them: Joh 1:15.
"John bare witness of him, "and cried, saying,
"This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is
preferred before me: for he was before me." This priority
of existence is that which John doth specially give witness to.
And it is priority in existence, for he allegeth it as a reason
why he was preferred afore him; "for he was before
me."
Thirdly, We find him existing when all the prophets
wrote and spake, 1Pe 1:11. The Spirit of Christ is said to have
been in all the prophets, even as Paul, who came after Christ,
also speaks, "You seek a proof of Christ speaking in me,
"2Co 13:3. And therefore he himself, whose Spirit it was,
or whom he sent, must needs exist as a person sending him.
Fourthly, We find him existing in Moses' time, both
because it was he that was tempted in the wilderness,
"Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted,
and were destroyed of serpents, " 1Co 10:9; and it was
Christ that was the person said to be tempted by them, as well
as now by us, as the word kai "as they also,
"evidently shows. And it points to that angel that was sent
with them, Ex 23:20-21, in whom the name of God was, and who as
God had the power of pardoning sins, Ex 23:21. See also Ac 7:35,
Heb 12:26.
Fifthly, We find him existing in and afore Abraham's
time: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was,
I am, "Joh 8:58.
Sixthly, We find him existing in the days of Noah, 1Pe
3:19. He says of Christ, that he was "put to death in the
flesh, but quickened in the Spirit." He evidently
distinguisheth of two natures, his divine and human, even as Ro
1:3-4 and elsewhere; and then declares how by that divine
nature, which he terms "Spirit, "in which he was
existent in Noah's times, he went and preached to those of the
old world, whose souls are now in prison in hell. These words,
"in Spirit, "are not put to signify the subject of
vivification; for such neither his soul nor Godhead could be
said to be, for that is not quickened which was not dead; but
for the principal and cause of his vivification, which his soul
was not, but his Godhead was. And besides by his Spirit is not
meant his soul, for that then must be supposed to have preached
to souls in hell (where these are affirmed to be). Now, there is
no preaching where there is no capacity of faith. But his
meaning is, that those persons that lived in Noah's time, and
were preached unto, their souls and spirits were now, when this
was written, spirits in prison, that is, in hell. And therefore
he also adds this word "sometimes": who were sometimes
disobedient in Noah's days. These words give us to understand
that this preaching was performed by Noah ministerially, yet by
Christ in Noah; who according to his divine person was extant,
and went with him, as with Moses, and the church in the
wilderness, and preached unto them.
Seventhly, He was extant at the beginning of the
world, "In the beginning was the Word." In which
words, there being no predicate or attribute affirmed of this
word, the sentence or affirmation is terminated or ended merely
with his existence: "he was, "and he was then,
"in the beginning." He says not that he was made in
the beginning, but that "he was in the beginning." And
it is in the beginning absolutely, without any limitation. And
therefore Moses's beginning, Ge 1:1, is meant, as also the words
after show, "All was made by him that was made; "and,
Ge 1:10, the world he came into was made by him. And as from the
beginning is usually taken from the first times or infancy of
the world; so then, when God began to create, then was our
Christ. And this here is set in opposition (Joh 1:14) unto the
time of his being made flesh, lest that should have been thought
his beginning. And unto this accords that of Heb 1:10, where,
speaking of Christ, out of Ps 102:24, Thou, Lord, in the
beginning hast laid the foundations of the earth; so as to
be sure he existed then. But further, in Ps 102:24, it runs
thus, Thy years are throughout all generations. We have
run, you see, through all generations since the creation, and
have found his years throughout them all. And yet lest that
should be taken only of the generations of this world, he adds
(as Rivet expounds it), Before thou laidst the foundation of
the earth.
Eighthly, So then we come to this, that he hath been
before the creation, yea, from everlasting.
But, Ninthly, If you would have his eternity yet more
express, see Heb 7:3, where mentioning Melchisedec, Christ's
type, he renders him to have been his type in
this—"Without father, without mother, without descent,
having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like
unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually." Where
his meaning is to declare that, look what Melchisedec was typice,
or umbraiter, in a shadow, that our Christ was really and
substantially.
Lastly, Add to this that in Mic 5:2, "But thou,
Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of
Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be
ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from
everlasting; "where he evidently speaks of two births
Christ had, under the metaphor of going forth: one as man at
Bethlehem in the fulness of time, the other as Son of God from
everlasting. As Son of God, his goings forth (that is, his
birth) are from everlasting. And it is termed, "goings
forth, "in the plural; because it is actus continuus,
and hath been every moment continued from everlasting. As the
sun begets light and beams every moment, so God doth his Son. So
then we have two everlastings attributed to Christ's
person; one to come, Heb 1:10, and another past, here in Mic
5:2. And so as of God himself it is said, Ps 90:2, "From
everlasting to everlasting thou art God, "so also of
Christ. Condensed from T. Goodwin's Treatise on "The
Knowledge of God the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ."
Verse 25. Earth. Heavens. He names here the
most stable parts of the world, and the most beautiful parts of
the creation, those that are freest from corruptibility and
change, to illustrate thereby the immutability of God, that
though the heavens and earth have a prerogative of fixedness
above other parts of the world, and the creatures that reside
below, the heavens remain the same as they were created, and the
centre of the earth retains its fixedness, and are as beautiful
and fresh in their age as they were in their youth many years
ago, notwithstanding the change of the elements, fire and water
being often turned into air, so that there may remain but little
of that air which was first created, by reason of the continual
transmutation; yet this firmness of the earth and heavens is not
to be regarded in comparison of the unmoveableness and fixedness
of the being of God. As their beauty comes short of the glory of
his being, so doth their firmness come short of his stability. Stephen
Charnock.
Verse 26. The shall perish. The greater the
cirruption, the vaster the destruction. Some think that the
fiery deluge shall ascend no higher than did the watery. It may
be the earth shall be burned, that is the worst guest at
the table, the common sewer of all other creatures, but shall
the heavens pass away? It may be the airy heaven; but shall the
starry heaven where God hath printed such figures of his glory?
Yes, caelum, elementurn, terra, when ignis ubique
ferox ruptis regnabit habenis. The former deluge is called
the world's winter, the next the world's summer. The one was
with a cold and moist element, the other shall be with an
element hot and dry. But what then shall become of the saints?
They shall be delivered out of all; walking like those three
servants in the midst of that great furnace, the burning world,
and not be scorched, because there is one among them to deliver
them, "the Son of God, "Da 3:25, their Redeemer. But
shall all quite perish? No, there is rather a mutation than an
abolition of their substance. Thou shalt change them, and
they shall be changed, not abolished. The concupiscence
shall pass, not the essence; the form, not the nature. In the
altering of an old garment, we destroy it not, but trim it,
refresh it, and make it seem new. They pass, they do not perish;
the dross is purged, the metal stays. The corrupt quality shall
be renewed, and all things restored to that original beauty
wherein they were created. "The end of all things is at
hand, "1Pe 4:7: an end of us, an end of our days, an end of
our ways, and end of our thoughts. If a man could say as Job's
messenger, I alone am escaped, it were somewhat; or might find
an ark with Noah. But there is no ark to defend them from that
heat, but only the bosom of Jesus Christ. Thomas Adams.
Verse 26. Like a garment. The whole creation is
as a garment, wherein the Lord shows his power clothed unto men;
whence in particular he is said to clothe himself with light as
with a garment. And in it is the hiding of his power. Hid it is,
as a man is hid with a garment; not that he should not be seen
at all, but that he should not be seen perfectly and as he is.
It shows the man, and he is known by it; but also it hides him,
that he is not perfectly or fully seen. So are the works of
creation unto God, he so far makes them his garment or clothing
as in them to give out some instances of his power and wisdom;
but he is also hid in them, in that by them no creature can come
to the full and perfect knowledge of him. Now, when this work
shall cease, and God shall unclothe or unveil all his glory to
his saints, and they shall know him perfectly, see him as he is,
so far as a created nature is capable of that comprehension,
then will he lay them aside and fold them up, at least as to
that use, as easily as a man lays aside a garment that he will
wear or use no more. This lies in the metaphor. John Owen.
Verse 27. Thou art the same. The essence of
God, with all the perfections of his nature, are pronounced the
same, without any variation from eternity to eternity. So that
the text doth not only assert the eternal duration of God, but
his immutability in that duration; his eternity is signified in
that expression, "thou shalt endure; "his immutability
in this, "thou art the same." To endure, argues indeed
this immutability as well as eternity; for what endures is not
changed, and what is changed doth not endure. "But thou
art the same, "awx xta, doth more fully signify it. He
could not be the same if he could be changed into any other
thing than what he is. The Psalmist therefore puts, not thou hast
been or shall be, but thou art the same,
without any alteration; thou art the same, that is, the same
God, the same in essence and nature, the same in will and
purpose, thou dost change all other things as thou pleaseth; but
thou art immutable in every respect, and receivest no shadow of
change, thought never so light and small. The Psalmist here
alludes to the name Jehovah, I am, and doth not only
ascribe immutability to God, but exclude everything else from
partaking in that perfection. Stephen Charnock.
Verse 28. The children of thy servants shall
continue. In what sense is "children"
taken? Either the children of their flesh, or of their faith.
Some say the children of the same faith with the godly teachers
and servants of the Lord, begotten by them to God, as noting the
perpetuity of the church, who shall in every age bring forth
children to God. It is the comfort of God's people to see a
young brood growing up to continue his remembrance in the world,
that when they die religion shall not die with them, nor the
succession of the church be interrupted. This sense is not
altogether incongruous; but rather I think the children of their
body are here intended; it being a blessing often promised: see
Ps 103:17. "The mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to
everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto
children's children." "Shall continue;
""shall be established." In what sense is it
spoken? Some think only pro more faederis, according to
the fashion of that covenant which the people of God were then
under, when eternity was but more darkly revealed and shadowed
out, either by long life, or the continuance of their name in
their posterity, which was a kind of literal immortality.
Clearly such a kind of regard is had, as appeareth by that which
you find in Ps 37:28. "The LORD loveth judgment, and
forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever."
How? since they die as others do: mark the antithesis, and that
will explain it. "They are preserved for ever: but the
seed of the wicked shall be cut off." They are
preserved in their posterity. Children are but the parents
multiplied, and the parent continued, it is nodosa aeternitas;when
the father's life is run out to the last, there is a knot tied,
and the line is still continued by the child. I confess,
temporal blessings, such as long life, and the promise of a
happy posterity, are more visible in the eye of that
dispensation of the covenant; but yet God still taketh care for
the children of his people, and many promises run that way that
belong to the gospel-administration, and still God's service is
the surest way to establish a family, as sin is the ready way to
root it out. And if it doth not always fall out accordingly, yet
for the most part it doth; and we are no competent judges of
God's dispensations in this kind, because we see Providence by
pieces, and have not the skill to set them together; but at the
day of judgment, when the whole contexture of God's dealings is
laid before us we shall clearly understand how the children of
his servants continue, and their seed is established. Thomas
Manton.
Verse 28. O the folly of the world, that seeks to make
perpetuities to their houses by devises in the law, which may
perhaps reach to continue their estates, but can it reach to
continue their seed? It may entail lands to their heirs, but can
it entail heirs to their lands? No, God knows! This is a
perpetuity of only God's making, a privilege of only God's
servants: for The children of his servants shall continue,
and theiv seed shall be established before him; but that any
others shall continue is no part of David's warrant. Sir R.
Baker.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
TITLE.
1. Afflicted men may pray.
2. Afflicted men should pray even when overhelmed.
3. Afflicted men can pray—for what is wanted is a pouring
out of their complaint, not an oratorical display.
4. Afflicted men are accepted in prayer—for this prayer is
placed on record.
Verses 1-2. Five steps to the mercy-seat. The Psalmist
prays for,
1. Audience: "Hear my prayer."
2. Access: "Let my cry come before thee."
3. Unveiling: "Hide not thy face."
4. An intent ear: "Incline thine ear."
5. Answer. C. Davis.
Verses 1, 17, 19-20. An interesting discourse may be
founded upon these passages.
1. The Lord entreated to hear—Ps 102:1.
2. The Promise given that he will hear—Ps 102:17.
3. The Record that the Lord has heard—Ps 102:19-20.
Verse 2.
1. Prayer in trouble is most needed.
2. Prayer in trouble is most heeded.
3. Prayer in trouble is most speeded: "Answer me
speedily."
Or,
1. Prayer in trouble: "In the day, "etc.
2. The prayer of trouble: "Hide not thy face; "not
remove the trial, but be with me in it. A fiery furnace is a
paradise when God is with us there. G. R.
Verse 2 (first elause). He deprecates the loss
of the divine countenance when under trouble.
1. That would intensify it a thousandfold.
2. That would deprive him of strength to bear the trouble.
3. That would prevent his acting so as to glorify God in the
trouble.
4. That might injure the result of the trouble.
Verse 2 (last clause).
1. We often need to be answered speedily.
2. God can so answer.
3. God has so answered.
4. God has promised so to answer.
Verses 3-11.
1. The causes of grief. (a) The brevity of life. Ps 102:3.
(b) Bodily pain. Ps 102:3. (c) Dejection of spirit. Ps 102:4- 5.
(d) Solitariness. Ps 102:6-7. (e) Reproach. Ps 102:8. (f)
Humiliation. Ps 102:9. (g) The hidings of God's countenance. Ps
102:10. (h) Wasting away. Ps 102:11.
2. The eloquence of grief. (a) The brevit of life is as
vanishing "smoke." (b) Bodily pain is fire in the
bones. (c) Dejection of spirit is "withered grass."
Who can eat when the heart is sad? (d) Solitariness is like
"The pelican in the wilderness, the owl in the desert, and
the sparrow upon the housetop." (e) Reproach is being
surrounded by madmen—"they that are mad." (f)
Humiliation is "eating ashes like bread, "and
"drinking tears." (g) The hidings of God's countenance
is lifting up in order to be cast down. (h) Wasting away is a
shadow declining and grass withering. G. R.
Verse 4. Unbelieving sorrow makes us forget to use
proper means for our support.
1. We forget the promises.
2. Forget the past and its expcriences.
3. Forget the Lord Jesus, our life.
4. Forget the everlasting love of God. This leads to
weakness, faintness, etc., and is to be avoided.
Verse 6. This as a text, together with Ps 103:5, makes
an interesting contrast, and gives scope for much experimental
teaching.
Verse 7. The evils and benefits of solitude; when it
may be sought, and when it becomes a folly. Or, the mournful
watcher—alone, outside the pale of communion, insignificant,
wishful for fellowship, set apart to watch.
Verse 9. The sorrows of the saints—their number,
bitterness, sources, correctives, influences, and consolations.
Verse 10.
1. The trial of trials—thine indignation and thy
wrath.
2. The aggravation of that trial—former favour, "thou
hast lifted me up, "etc.
3. The best behaviour under it: see Ps 102:9, 12-13.
Verse l0 (last cause). The prosperity of a
church or an individual often followed by declension; worldly
aggrandisement frequently succeeded by affliction; great joy in
the Lord very generally succeeded by trial.
Verses 11-12. I and Thou, or the notable
contrast.
1. I: my days are like a shadow, (a) Because it is
unsubstantial; because it partakes of the nature of the darkness
which is to absorb it; because the longer it becomes the briefer
its continuance. (b) I am like grass cut down by the scythe;
scorched by drought.
2. Thou. Lord. Ever enduring. Ever memorable. Ever the
study of passing generations of men. C. D.
Verse 13.
1. Zion often needs restoration. It needs "mercy."
2. Its restoration is certain: "Thou shalt arise,"
etc.
3. The seasons of its restoration are determined. There is a
"time" to favour her; a "set" time.
4. Intimations of those coming seasons are often given
"The time, the set time, is come." G. R.
Verses 13-14.
1. Visitation expected.
2. Predestination relied upon.
3. Evidence observed.
4. Enquiry suggested—Do we take pleasure in her stones?
etc.
Verses 13-14. The interest of the Lord's people in the
concerns of Zion one of the surest signs of her returning
prosperity.
Verse 15. The inward prosperity of the church
essential to her power in the world.
Verse 16. God is Zion's purchaser, architect, builder,
inhabitant, Lord.
1. Zion built up. Conversions frequent; confessions numerous;
union firm; edification solid; missions extended.
2. God glorified. In its very foundation; by its ministry; by
difficulties and enemies; by poor workers, and poor materials;
and even by our failures.
3. Hope excited. Because we may expect the Lord to glorify
himself.
4. Inquiry suggested. Am I concerned, as built, or building?
not merely doctrinally, but experimentally?
Verse 17.
1. The destitute pray.
2. They pray most.
4. They pray best.
4. They pray most effectually. Or the surest way to succeed
in prayer is to pray as the destitute; show the reason of this.
Verse 18.
1. A memorial.
2. A magnificat. W. Durban.
Verses 18-21.
1. Misery in extremis.
2. Divinity observant.
3. Deity actively assisting.
4. Glory consequently published.
Verses 19-22.
1. The notice which God takes of the world, Ps 102:19. (a)
The place from which he beholds it: "from heaven, "
not from an earthly point of view. (b) The character in which he
beholds it; "from the height of his sanctuary, "from
the mercy-seat.
2. What attracts his notice most in the world. The groaning
of the prisoner and of those appointed to death.
3. The purpose for which he notices them. "To loose,
" etc.;" to declare," etc. (a) For human comfort.
(b) For his own glory.
4. When his notice is thus fixed upon the earth. "When,
" etc., Ps 102:22. G. R.
Verse 23. For the sick.
1. Submission—The Lord sent the trial—"He
weakeneth," etc.
2. Service—exonerated from some work, he now requires of me
patience, earnestness, etc.
3. Preparation—for going home.
4. Prayer—for others to occupy my place.
5. Expectation—I shall soon be in heaven, now that my days
are shortened.
Verse 24.
1. The prayer. "Take me not away, "etc. (a)
Not in the midst of life, is the prayer of some. (b) Not in the
midst of worldly prosperity is the prayer of many, for the sake
of those dependent upon them. (c) Not in the midst of spiritual
growth, is the prayer of not a few: "Oh spare me, that I
may recover strength, "etc. (d) Not in the midst of
Christian work and usefulness, is the prayer of others.
2. The plea. "Thy years, "etc.; years are
plentiful with thee, therefore to give me longer days will be an
easy gift—and thine own are throughout all generations. G.
R.
Verse 25-27.
1. The unchangeableness of God amidst past changes: "of
old," etc. (a) He was the same before as after he had laid
the foundations of the earth. (b) He was the same after as
before.
2. The unchangeableness of God amidst future changes.
"They shall perish," etc. (a) The same before they
perish as after. (b) After as before.
3. The unchangeableness of God in the past and the future.
"Thou art the same," etc. G. R.
Verse 26-27.
1. How far God may change—only in his garments, or outward
manifestations of creation and providence.
2. Wherein he cannot change—his nature, attributes,
covenant, love, etc.
3. The comfortable truths which may be safely inferred, or
which gather support from this fact.
Verse 26-27.
1. The material universe of God. (a) No more to him than a
garment to the wearer. (b) Ever waxing old, but he the same. (c)
Soon to be changed and left to perish, but of his years no end.
2. Our relation to each (a) Let us never love the dress more
than the wearer. (b) Nor trust more in the changeful than in the
abiding. (c) Nor live for that which will die out.
Verse 28. The true apostolical succession.
1. There always will be saints.
2. They will frequently be the seed of the saints after the
flesh.
3. They will always be the spiritual seed of the godly, for
God converts one by means of another.
4. We should order our efforts with an eye to the church's
future.
WORKS UPON THE HUNDRED AND SECOND PSALM
BISHOP FISHER'S Treatise on the
Penitential Psalms. (See "Treasury of David, "Vol.
II., pg 114.) There is an edition in 12mo., printed in the year
MDCCXIV., besides those referred to as above.
In "Meditations on Twenty select
Psalms, by Sir SIR ANTHONY COPE, Chamberlain to Queen
Katherine Parr. Reprinted from the edition of 1547; ...By
WILLIAM H. COPE. M.A. 1848, "there is a Meditation on this
Psalm.
Meditations and Disquisitions upon the
Seven Psalms of David, commonly called the Penitentiall Psalmes,
By Sir RICHARD BAKER, Knight. 1639. pg 139-180.
Zion's Joy in her King Coming in his
Glory. Wherein the estate of the Poore distressed Church of
the Gentiles (travailing in the Wildernesse towards the new
Jerusalem of the Jewes) in her utmost extremities, and height of
her Joyes, is lively delineated; In some Meditations upon that
Propheticall Psalme 102, wherein the sense is opened, and many
difficult places of Scripture inlightned by a harmony, and
consent of the Scriptures. Delightfull and profitable to be read
in these times of the Churches troubles, and much longed for
restauration and deliverance. By FINIENS CANUS VOVE. Compiled in
Exile, and lately now revised and somewhat augmented as the
weight of the Subject and the revolution of the times
required... 1643. 4to.
In "Sermons on the Seven Penitential
Psalms, Preached during Lent, 1838," by the Rev.
CHARLES OXENDON, there is an Exposition of this Psalm.