Suddenly we have left the continent of the vast
Hundred and Nineteenth Psalm for the islands and islets of the
Songs of Degrees. It may be well to engage in protracted
devotion upon a special occasion, but this must cast no slur
upon the sacred brevities which sanctify the godly life day by
day. He who inspired the longest psalm was equally the author of
the short compositions which follow it.
TITLE. A SONG OF DEGREES. We have already devoted a
sufficient space to the consideration of this title in its
application to this psalm and the fourteen compositions which
succeed it. These appear to us to be Pilgrim Psalms, but we are
not sure that they were always sung in company; for many of them
are in the first person singular. No doubt there were solitary
pilgrims as well as troops who went to the house of God in
company, and for these lonely ones hymns were prepared.
SUBJECT. A certain author supposes
that this hymn was sung by an Israelite upon leaving his house
to go up to Jerusalem. He thinks that the good man had suffered
from the slander of his neighbours, and was glad to get away
from their gossip, and spend his time in the happier engagements
of the holy feasts. It may be so, but we hope that pious people
were not so foolish as to sing about their bad neighbours when
they were leaving them, for a few days. If they wished to leave
their houses in safety, and to come home to kind surroundings,
it would have been the height of folly to provoke those whom
they were leaving behind by singing aloud a psalm of complaint
against them. We do not know why this ode is placed first among
the Psalms of Degrees, and we had rather hazard no conjecture of
our own. We prefer the old summary of the
translators—"David prayeth against Doeg"—to any
far fetched supposition: and if this be the scope of the psalm,
we see at once why it suggested itself to David at the station
where the ark abode, and from which he had come to remove it. He
came to fetch away the ark, and at the place where he found it
he thought of Doeg, and poured out his complaint concerning him.
The author had been grievously calumniated, and had been
tortured into bitterness by the false charges of his
persecutors, and here is his appeal to the great Arbiter of
right and wrong before whose judgment seal no man shall suffer
from slanderous tongues.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. In my distress. Slander occasions
distress of the most grievous kind. Those who have felt the edge
of a cruel tongue know assuredly that it is sharper than the
sword. Calumny rouses our indignation by a sense of injustice,
and yet we find ourselves helpless to fight with the evil, or to
act in our own defence. We could ward off the strokes of a
cutlass, but we have no shield against a liar's tongue. We do
not know who was the father of the falsehood, nor where it was
born, nor where it has gone, nor how to follow it, nor how to
stay its withering influence. We are perplexed, and know not
which way to turn. Like the plague of flies in Egypt, it baffles
opposition, and few can stand before it. Detraction touches us
in the most tender point, cuts to the quick, and leaves a venom
behind which it is difficult to extract. In all ways it is a
sore distress to come under the power of "slander, the
foulest whelp of sin." Even in such distress we need not
hesitate to cry unto the Lord. Silence to man and prayer to God
are the best cures for the evil of slander.
I cried unto the LORD (or Jehovah). The wisest course
that he could follow. It is of little use to appeal to our
fellows on the matter of slander, for the more we stir in it the
more it spreads; it is of no avail to appeal to the honour of
the slanderers, for they have none, and the most piteous demands
for justice will only increase their malignity and encourage
them to fresh insult. As well plead with panthers and wolves as
with black hearted traducers. However, when cries to man would
be our weakness, cries to God will be our strength. To whom
should children cry but to their father? Does not some good come
even out of that vile thing, falsehood, when it drives us to our
knees and to our God? "And he heard me". Yes, Jehovah
hears. He is the living God, and hence prayer to him is
reasonable and profitable. The Psalmist remembered and recorded
this instance of prayer hearing, for it had evidently much
affected him; and now he rehearses it for the glory of God and
the good of his brethren. "The righteous cry and the Lord
heareth them". The ear of our God is not deaf, nor even
heavy. He listens attentively, he catches the first accent of
supplication; he makes each of his children confess,—"he
heard me". When we are slandered it is a joy that the Lord
knows us, and cannot be made to doubt our uprightness: he will
not hear the lie against us, but he will hear our prayer against
the lie.
If these psalms were sung at the ascent of the ark to Mount
Zion, and then afterwards by the pilgrims to Jerusalem at the
annual festivals and at the return from Babylon, we shall find
in the life of David a reason for this being made the first of
them. Did not this servant of God meet with Doeg the Edomite
when he enquired of the oracle by Abiathar, and did not that
wretched creature believe him and betray him to Saul? This made
a very painful and permanent impression upon David's memory, and
therefore in commencing the ark journey he poured out his lament
before the Lord, concerning the great and monstrous wrong of
"that dog of a Doeg", as Trapp wittily calls him. The
poet, like the preacher, may find it to his advantage to
"begin low, "for then he has the more room to rise:
the next Psalm is a full octave above the present mournful hymn.
Whenever we are abused it may console us to see that we are not
alone in our misery we are traversing a road upon which David
left his footprints.
Verse 2. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips.
It will need divine power to save a man from these deadly
instruments. Lips are soft: but when they are lying lips they
suck away the life of character and are as murderous as razors.
Lips should never be red with the blood of honest men's reputes,
nor salved with malicious falsehoods. David says, "Deliver
my soul": the soul, the life of the man, is endangered by
lying lips; cobras are not more venomous, nor devils themselves
more pitiless. Some seem to lie for lying sake, it is their
sport and spirit: their lips deserve to be kissed with a hot
iron; but it is not for the friends of Jesus to render to men
according to their deserts. Oh for a dumb generation rather than
a lying one! The faculty of speech becomes a curse when it is
degraded into a mean weapon for smiting men behind their backs.
We need to be delivered from slander by the Lord's restraint
upon wicked tongues, or else to be delivered out of it by having
our good name cleared from the liar's calumny. And from a
deceitful tongue This is rather worse than downright falsehood.
Those who fawn and flatter, and all the while have enmity in
their hearts, are horrible beings; they are the seed of the
devil, and he worketh in them after his own deceptive nature.
Better to meet wild beasts and serpents than deceivers: these
are a kind of monster whose birth is from beneath, and whose end
lies far below. It should be a warning to liars and deceivers
when they see that all good men pray against them, and that even
bad men are afraid of them. Here is to the believer good cause
for prayer. "Deliver us from evil", may be used with
emphasis concerning this business. From gossips, talebearers,
writers of anonymous letters, forgers of newspaper paragraphs,
and all sorts of liars, good Lord deliver us!
Verse 3. What shall be given unto thee? What is
the expected guerdon of slander? It ought to be something great
to make it worth while to work in so foul an atmosphere and to
ruin one's soul. Could a thousand worlds be bribe enough for
such villainous deeds? The liar shall have no welcome
recompense: he shall meet with his deserts; but what shall they
be? What punishment can equal his crime? The Psalmist seems lost
to suggest a fitting punishment. It is the worst of
offences—this detraction, calumny, and slander. Judgment sharp
and crushing would be measured out to it if men were visited for
their transgressions. But what punishment could be heavy enough?
What form shall the chastisement take? O liar, "what shall
be given unto thee?" Or what shall be done unto thee, thou
false tongue? How shalt thou be visited? The law of retaliation
can hardly meet the case, since none can slander the slanderer,
he is too black to be blackened; neither would any of us blacken
him if we could. Wretched being! He fights with weapons which
true men cannot touch. Like the cuttlefish, he surrounds himself
with an inky blackness into which honest men cannot penetrate.
Like the foul skunk, he emits an odour of falsehood which cannot
be endured by the true; and therefore he often escapes,
unchastised by those whom he has most injured. His crime, in a
certain sense, becomes his shield; men do not care to encounter
so base a foe. But what will God do with lying tongues? He has
uttered his most terrible threats against them, and he will
terribly execute them in due time.
Verse 4. Sharp arrows of the mighty. Swift,
sure, and sharp shall be the judgment. Their words were as
arrows, and so shall their punishment be. God will see to it
that their punishment shall be comparable to an arrow keen in
itself, and driven home with all the force with which a mighty
man shoots it from his bow of steel,—"sharp arrows of the
mighty". Nor shall one form of judgment suffice to avenge
this complicated sin. The slanderer shall feel woes comparable
to coals of juniper, which are quick in flaming, fierce in
blazing, and long in burning. He shall feel sharp arrows and
sharper fires. Awful doom! All liars shall have their portion in
the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. Their worm dieth
not, and their fire is not quenched. Juniper coals long retain
their heat, but hell burneth ever, and the deceitful tongue may
not deceive itself with the hope of escape from the fire which
it has kindled. What a crime is this to which the All merciful
allots a doom so dreadful! Let us hate it with perfect hatred.
It is better to be the victim of slander than, to be the author
of it. The shafts of calumny will miss the mark, but not so the
arrows of God: the coals of malice will cool, but not the fire
of justice. Shun slander as you would avoid hell.
Verse 5. Woe is me, that sojourn in Mesech, that I
dwell in the tents of Kedar! Gracious men are vexed with the
conversation of the wicked. Our poet felt himself to be as ill
at ease among lying neighbours as if he had lived among savages
and cannibals. The traitors around him were as bad as the
unspeakable Turk. He cries "Woe is me!" Their sin
appalled him, their enmity galled him. He had some hope from the
fact that he was only a sojourner in Mesech; but as years rolled
on the time dragged heavily, and he feared that he might call
himself a dweller in Kedar. The wandering tribes to whom he
refers were constantly at war with one another; it was their
habit to travel armed to the teeth; they were a kind of
plundering gypsies, with their hand against every man and every
man's hand against them; and to these he compared the false
hearted ones who had assailed his character. Those who defame
the righteous are worse than cannibals; for savages only eat men
after they are dead, but these wretches cat them up alive.
"Woe's me that I in Mesech am
A sojourner so long;
That I in tabernacles dwell
To Kedar that belong.
My soul with him that hateth peace
Hath long a dweller been;
I am for peace; but when I speak,
For battle they are keen.
My soul distracted mourns and pines
To reach that peaceful short,
Where all the weary are at rest,
And troublers vex no more."
Verse 6. My soul hath long dwelt with him that
hateth peace. Long, long enough, too long had he been an
exile among such barbarians. A peace maker is a blessing, but a
peace hater is a curse. To lodge with such for a night is
dangerous, but to dwell with them is horrible. The verse may
apply to any one of the Psalmist's detractors: he had seen
enough of him and pined to quit such company. Perhaps the sweet
singer did not at first detect the nature of the man, for he was
a deceiver; and when he did discover him he found himself unable
to shake him off, and so was compelled to abide with him.
Thoughts of Doeg, Saul, Ahithophel, and the sons of Zeruiah come
to our mind,—these last, not as enemies, but as hot blooded
soldiers who were often too strong for David. What a change for
the man of God from the quietude of the sheepfold to the turmoil
of court and the tumult of combat! How he must have longed to
lay aside his sceptre, and to resume his crook. He felt the time
of his dwelling with quarrelsome spirits to be long, too long;
and he only endured it because, as the Prayer book version has
it, he was constrained so to abide.
Verse 7. I am for peace. Properly, "I am
peace"; desirous of peace, peaceful, forbearing,—in fact,
peace itself. But when I speak, they are for war. My kindest
words appear to provoke them, and they are at daggers drawn at
once. Nothing pleases them; if I am silent they count me morose,
and if I open my mouth they cavil and controvert. Let those who
dwell with such pugilistic company console themselves with the
remembrance that both David and David's Lord endured the same
trial. It is the lot of the saints to find foes even in their
own households. Others besides David dwelt in the place of
dragons. Others besides Daniel have been cast into a den of
lions. Meanwhile, let those who are in quiet resting places and
peaceful habitations be greatly grateful for such ease.
"Deus nobis haec otia fecit": God has given us this
tranquillity. Be it ours never to inflict upon others that from
which we have been screened ourselves.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
TITLE. "A Song of Degrees". A most excellent
song, Tremellius rendereth it; and so indeed this and the
fourteen following are, both for the matter, and for the form or
manner of expression, which is wondrous short and sweet, as the
very epigrams of the Holy Ghost himself, wherein each verse may
well stand for an oracle. And in this sense, "adam
hammahalah", or, a man of degrees, is put for an eminent or
excellent man: 1Ch 17:17. Others understand it otherwise;
wherein they have good leave to abound in their own sense; an
error here is not dangerous.—John Trapp.
Whole Psalm. In the interpretation of these psalms,
which sees in them the "degrees" of Christian virtues,
this psalm aptly describes the first of such steps—the
renunciation of the evil and vanity of the world. It thus
divides itself into two parts.
1. The Psalmist, in the person of one beginning the grades of
virtue, finds many opponents in the shape of slanderers and ill
advisers.
2. He laments the admixture of evil—"Woe is
me".—H.T. Armfield.
Whole Psalm. It is a painful but useful lesson which
is taught by this first of the Pilgrim Psalms, that all who
manifest a resolution to obey the commands and seek the favour
of God, may expect to encounter opposition and reproach in such
a course... This these worshippers of old found when preparing
to seek the Lord in his Temple. They were watched in their
preparation by malignant eyes; they were followed to the house
of prayer by the contempt and insinuations of bitter tongues.
But their refuge is in him they worship; and, firmly convinced
that he never can forsake his servants, they look up through the
cloud of obloquy to his throne, and implore the succour which
they know that his children shall ever find there. "O Lord,
in this my trouble deliver my soul".—Robert Nisbet.
Whole Psalm. The pilgrims were leaving home; and lying
lips commonly attack the absent. They were about to join the
pilgrim caravan; and in the excitements of social intercourse
their own lips might easily deviate from truth. The psalm,
moreover, breathes an intense longing for peace; and in this
world of strife and confusion, when is that longing
inappropriate? Is it any marvel that a Hebrew, with a deep
spiritual longing for peace, should cry as he started for the
Temple, "Let me get out of all that, at least for a time.
Let me be quit of this fever and strain, free from the vain
turbulence and conflicting noises of the world. Let me rest and
recreate myself a while in the sacred asylum and sanctuary of
the God of peace. God of peace, grant me thy peace as I worship
in thy presence; and let me find a bettered world when I come
back to it, or at least bring a bettered and more patient heart
to its duties and strifes".—Samuel Cox.
Verse 1. In my distress I cried unto the Lord,
etc. See the wondrous advantage of trouble,—that it makes us
call upon God; and again see the wondrous readiness of mercy,
that when we call he heareth us! Very blessed are they that
mourn while they are travelling the long upward journey from the
Galilee of the Gentiles of this lower world to the heavenly
Jerusalem, the high and holy city of the saints of God.—J.W.
Burgon, in "A Plain Commentary."
Verse 1. In my distress. God's help is
seasonable; it comes when we need it. Christ is a seasonable
good... For the soul to be dark, and for Christ to enlighten it;
for the soul to be dead, and Christ to enliven it; for the soul
to be doubting, and for Christ to resolve it; and for the soul
to be distressed, and for Christ to relieve it; is not this in
season? For a soul to be hard, and for Christ to soften it; for
a soul to be haughty, and for Christ to humble it; for a soul to
be tempted, and for Christ to succour it; and for a soul to be
wounded, and for Christ to heal it? Is not this in season?—R.
Mayhew, 1679.
Verse 1. Cried. Heard. The verbs are in the
past tense, but do not refer merely to a past occasion. Past
experience and present are here combined. From the past he draws
encouragement for the present.—J.J. Stewart Perowne.
Verse 1. And he heard me. The effectual fervent
prayer of a righteous man availeth much: Jas 5:16; Zec 13:9. He
that prayeth ardently, speeds assuredly (Ps 91:15); and the
delayed return of prayer should be carefully observed and
thankfully improved: Ps 66:20.—John Trapp.
Verse 2. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips,
etc. An unbridled tongue is "vehiculum Diaboli", the
chariot of the Devil, wherein he rides in triumph. Greenhorn
doth describe the tongue prettily by contraries, or diversities:
"It is a little piece of flesh, small in quantity, but
mighty in quality; it is soft, but slippery; it goeth lightly,
but falleth heavily; it striketh soft, but woundeth sore; it
goeth out quickly, but burneth vehemently; it pierceth deep, and
therefore not healed speedily; it hath liberty granted easily to
go forth but it will find no means easily to return home; and
being once inflamed with Satan's bellows, it is like the fire of
hell." The course of an unruly tongue is to proceed from
evil to worse, to begin with foolishness, and go on with
bitterness, and to end in mischief and madness. See Ec 10:13.
The Jew's conference with our Saviour began with arguments:
"We be Abraham's seed, "said they, etc.; but proceeded
to blasphemies: "Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan,
and hast a devil?" and ended in cruelty: "Then took
they up stones to cast at him." Joh 8:33,48,59. This also
is the base disposition of a bad tongue to hate those whom it
afflicts: Pr 26:28. The mischief of the tongue may further
appear by the mercy of being delivered from it, for,
1. So God hath promised it (Joh 5:15,21). "God saveth
the poor from the sword, from their mouth, and from the hand of
the mighty, "and "thou shalt be hid from the scourge
of the tongue, "or from being betongued, as some render it,
that is, from being, as it were, caned or cudgelled with the
tongues of others. "Thou shalt hide them in the secret of
thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them
secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues" (Ps
31:20); that is, from all calumnies, reproaches, evil speakings
of all kinds. God will preserve the good names of his people
from the blots and bespatterings of malicious men, as kings
protect their favourites against slanders and clamours.
2. So the saints have prayed for it, as David: "Deliver
my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, and from a deceitful
tongue."—Edward Reyner.
Verse 2. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips,
etc. In the drop of venom which distils from the sting of the
smallest insect, or the spike of the nettle leaf, there is
concentrated the quintessence of a poison so subtle that the
microscope cannot distinguish it, and yet so virulent that it
can inflame the blood, irritate the whole constitution, and
convert day and night into restless misery; so it is sometimes
with the words of the slanderer.—Frederick William
Robertson.
Verse 2. Lying lips bore false witness against
him, or with a "deceitful tongue" tried to ensnare
him, and to draw something from him, on which they might ground
an accusation.—George Horne.
Verse 3. What shall be given unto thee? or what
shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue? What dost thou
expect, "thou false tongue, "in pleading a bad cause?
What fee or reward hast thou for being an accuser instead of an
advocate? What shall it profit thee (as we put it in the
margin); what shalt thou gain by thy deceitful tongue? or (as
our margin hath it again), "What shall the deceitful tongue
give unto thee, "that thou goest about slandering thy
brother, and tearing his good name? Hath thy deceitful tongue
houses or lands to give thee? hath it any treasures of gold and
silver to bestow upon thee? Surely, as itself is so it gives
only "Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of
juniper" as the next verse intimates... The tongue indeed
will speak often in these cases gratis, or without a fee; but it
never doth without danger and damage to the speaker. As such
speakers shoot arrows, like the arrows of the mighty, and as
they scatter coals, like the coals of juniper, so they usually
get an arrow in their own sides, and not only burn their
fingers, but heap coals of fire upon their own heads. Ungodly
men will do mischief to other men purely for mischief's sake:
yet when once mischief is done it proves most mischievous to the
doers of it; and while they hold their brethren's heaviness a
profit, though they are never the better, they shall feel and
find themselves in a short time much the worse.—Joseph
Caryl.
Verses 3, 4. What shall be given? Intimating that his
enemy expected some great reward for his malice against David;
but, saith the Psalmist, he shall have "sharp arrows of the
Almighty, with coals of juniper"; as if he had said,
"Whatever reward he have from men, this shall be his reward
from God".—John Jackson, in "The Morning
Exercises," 1661.
Verses 3, 4. The victim of slander, in these heavy
complaints he has just uttered, may be indulging in excess,
which pious friends are represented as coming forward to reprove
by reminding him how little a true servant of God can be really
injured by slander. Hence, as in the margin of our Bibles, the
psalm assumes the dramatic form, and represents his fellow
worshippers as asking the complainer: What evil, O servant of
God, can the false tongue give to thee! Nursling of Omnipotence,
what can it do to thee... The answer of suffering nature and
bleeding peace still returns: "It is like the sharp arrows
of the mighty, like coals of juniper". An arrow from the
bow of a mighty warrior, that flies unseen and unsuspected to
its mark, and whose presence is only known when it quivers in
the victim's heart, not unaptly represents the silent and deadly
flight of slander; while the fire which the desert pilgrim
kindles on the sand, from the dry roots of the juniper, a wood
which, of all that are known to him, throws out the fiercest and
most continued heat, is not less powerfully descriptive of the
intense pain and the lasting injury of a false and malicious
tongue.—Robert Nisbet.
Verses 3, 4. Coals of juniper, these "shall be
given unto thee". As if he had said, thou shalt have the
hottest coals, such coals as will maintain heat longest,
implying that the hottest and most lasting wrath of God should
be their portion. Some naturalists say that coals of juniper
raked up in the ashes will keep fire a whole year; but I stay
not upon this.—Joseph Caryl.
Verse 4. Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of
juniper. The world's sin is the world's punishment. A
correspondence is frequently observed between the transgression
and the retribution... This law of correspondence seem to be
here indicated. Similar figures are employed to express the
offence and the punishment of the wicked. "They bend their
tongue like a bow for lies." "Who whet their tongue
like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot in secret at the
perfect." But let the slanderer be upon his guard. There is
another bow besides that in his possession. The arrows are sharp
and burning; and when they are sent from the bow by the arm of
Omnipotence, nothing can resist their force, and in mortal agony
his enemies bite the dust. "He hath bent his bow, and made
it ready. He hath also prepared for him the instruments of
death: He ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors."
"God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they
be wounded; so shall they make their own tongue fall upon
themselves." This train of thought is also pursued in the
illustration of fire. James compares the tongue of slander to
fire. "And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is
the tongue among the members, that it defileth the whole body,
and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire
of hell." Such is the tongue, and here is the punishment:
"Coals of juniper, "remarkable for their long
retention of heat. And yet what a feeble illustration of the
wrath of God, which burns down to the lowest hell! "His
lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring
fire." Liars are excluded from heaven by a special
enactment of the Sovereign; and all of them "shall have
their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone,
which is the second death." "Who among us shall dwell
with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with
everlasting burnings?" With what solemn awe should we not
cry out to the Lord, "Gather not my soul with sinners, nor
my life with bloody mens!"—N. McMichael, in "The
Pilgrim Psalms," 1860.
Verse 4. Sharp arrows of the mighty. He
compares wicked doctrine to an arrow which is not blunt, but
sharp; and moreover which is cast, not of him that is weak and
feeble, but that is strong and mighty; so that there is danger
on both sides, as well of the arrow which is sharp and able to
pierce, as also of him which with great violence hurleth the
same.—Martin Luther.
Verse 4. Arrows. Coals of juniper. When the
tongue is compared to "arrows", there is a reference
(according to the Midrash), to the irrevocableness of the
tongue's work. Even the lifted sword may be stayed, but the shot
arrow may not. The special point to be drawn out in the mention
of "coals of juniper", is the inextinguishableness of
such fuel. There is a marvellous story in the Midrash which
illustrates this very well. Two men in the desert sat down under
a juniper tree, and gathered sticks of it where with they cooked
their food. After a year they passed over the same spot where
was the dust of what they had burned; and, remarking that it was
now twelve months since they had the fire, they walked
fearlessly upon the dust, and their feet were burned by the
"coals" beneath it, which were still unextinguished.—H.T.
Armfield.
Verse 4. Coals of juniper. The fire of the
Retham burns for a very long time covered with its ashes; like
malignant slander. But the secret malignity becomes its own
terrible punishment.—William Kay.
Verse 4. Coals of juniper. We here at Wadf
Kinnah found several Bedouins occupied in collecting
brushwood, which they burn into charcoal for the Cairo market;
they prefer for this purpose the thick roots of the shrub Retham,
"Genista raetam" of Forskal, which grows here in
abundance.—Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, 1784-1817.
Verse 4. Coals of juniper. At this time we
spoke four "ships of the desert", bound for Cairo, and
loaded with "coals of juniper", or, in other words,
with charcoal made from the roots or branches of the ratam, or
white broom of the desert, the identical bush referred to by the
sacred writer.—John Wilson, in "The Lands of
the Bible visited and described," 1847.
Verse 4. By "coals of juniper, "we
understand arrows made of this wood, which when heated possesses
the property of retaining the heat for a long time; and
consequently, arrows of this kind, after having been placed in
the fire, would in the hands of the warrior do terrible
execution. Some persons think that this verse is not to be
understood as a figurative description of calumny, but rather of
the punishment which God will inflict upon the calumniator. They
therefore regard this as an answer to the question in the
preceding verse: "What shall he give?" etc.—George
Phillips.
Verse 5. Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that
I dwell in the tents of Kedar! Mesech was a son of Japheth;
and the name here signifies his descendants, the Mosques, who
occupied that wild mountain region which lies between the
Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. Kedar, again, was a son of
Ishmael; and the name here signifies his descendants, the
wandering tribes, whose "hand is against every man, and
every man's hand against them." There is no geographical
connection between those two nations: the former being upon the
north of Palestine, and the latter upon the south. The
connection is a moral one. They are mentioned together, because
they were fierce and warlike barbarians. David had never lived
on the shores of the Caspian Sea, or in the Arabian wilderness;
and he means no more than this, that the persons with whom he
now dwelt were as savage and quarrelsome as Mesech and Kedar.
After a similar fashion, we call rude and troublesome persons
Turks, Tartars, and Hottentots. David exclaims, I am just as
miserable among these haters of peace, as if I had taken up my
abode with those savage and treacherous tribes.—N.
McMichael.
Verse 5. Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech,
etc. David exclaims, Alas for me because, dwelling amongst false
brethren and a bastard race of Abraham, he was wrongfully
molested and tormented by them, although he had behaved himself
towards them in good conscience. Since then, at the present day,
in the church of Rome, religion is dishonoured by all manner of
disgraceful imputations, faith torn in pieces, light turned into
darkness, and the majesty of God exposed to the grossest
mockeries, it will certainly be impossible for those who have
any feeling of true piety within them to lie in the midst of
such pollutions without great anguish of spirit.—John
Calvin.
Verse 6. The Arabs are naturally thievish and
treacherous; and it sometimes happens, that those very persons
are overtaken and pillaged in the morning who were entertained
the night before with all the instances of friendship and
hospitality. Neither are they to be accused for plundering
strangers only, and attacking almost every person whom they find
unarmed and defenceless, but for those many implacable and
hereditary animosities which continually subsist among them;
literally fulfilling the prophecy of Hagar, that "Ishmael
should be a wild man; his hand should be against every man, and
every man's hand against him".—Thomas Shaw,
1692-1751.
Verse 6. Our Lord was with the wild beasts in the
wilderness. There are not a few who would rather face even these
than the angry spirits which, alas, are still to be found even
in Christian Churches.—Wesleyan Methodist Magazine,
1879.
Verses 6, 7. What holy and gentle delight is
associated with the very name of peace. Peace resting upon our
bosom, and soothing all its cares: peace resting upon our
households, and folding all the members in one loving embrace:
peace resting upon our country, and pouring abundance from her
golden horn peace resting upon all nations, and binding them
together with the threefold cord of a common humanity, a common
interest, and a common religion! The man who hates peace is a
dishonour to the race, an enemy to his brother, and a traitor to
his God. He hates Christ, who is the Prince of peace. He hates
Christians, who are men of peace.—N. McMichael.
Verse 7. I am for peace, etc. Jesus was a man
of peace; he came into our world, and was worshipped at his
nativity as the Prince of peace: there was universal peace
throughout the world at the time of his birth; he lived to make
peace "by the blood of his cross": he died to complete
it. When he was going out of the world, he said to his
disciples, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto
you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your
heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid": Joh 14:27.
When he was risen from the dead, and made his first appearance
to his disciples, he said unto them. "Peace be unto
you": he is the peace maker: the Holy Ghost is the peace
bringer: his gospel is the gospel of peace; it contains the
peace of God which passeth all understanding. "I am for
peace: but when I speak, they are for war". The bulk of the
Jewish nation abhorred Christ, they were for putting him to
death; to avenge which, the Lord brought the Roman army against
them, and many of them were utterly destroyed. So David
literally was for peace with Saul; yet, when opportunities made
way for any negotiations, it was soon discovered Saul was for
war, instead of peace, with him. May we see how this, which is
the introductory psalm to those fourteen which follow, styled
Songs of Degrees, hath a concern with our Lord Jesus Christ; and
that David the son of Jesse was in many cases a type of him, and
several of his enemies, sorrows, and griefs, forerunning figures
of what would befall Messiah, and come upon him. Amen.—Samuel
Eyles Pierce.
Verse 7. I am for peace. Good men love peace,
pray for it, seek it, pursue it, will give anything but a good
conscience for it. Compare Mt 5:9; Heb 7:14: W.S. Plumer.
"It is a mark of a pious man, as far as in him is, to seek
peace": Arnesius. "I would not give one hour of
brotherly love for a whole eternity of contention": Dr.
Ruffner.
Verse 7. When l speak, they are for war. He
spoke with all respect and kindness that could be; proposed
methods of accommodation; spoke reason, spoke love; but they
would not so much as hear him patiently; but cried out, To arms!
To arms! so fierce and implacable were they, and so bent on
mischief. Such were Christ's enemies: for his love they were his
adversaries; and for his good words and good works they stoned
him; and if we meet with such enemies we must not think it
strange, nor love peace the less for our seeking it in vain.
"Be not overcome of evil", no, not of such evil as
this; "but", even when thus tried, still try to
"overcome evil with good".—Matthew Henry.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1. A reminiscence.
1. It is threefold; distress, prayer, deliverance.
2. It has a threefold bearing: it excites my hope, stimulates
my petitions, and arouses my gratitude.
Verse 1.
1. Special trouble: "In my distress."
2. Special prayer: "I cried unto the Lord."
3. Special favour: "He heard me."—G.R.
Verse 2. The unjustly slandered have, besides the
avenging majesty of their God to protect them, many other
consolations, as
1. The consciousness of innocence to sustain them.
2. The promise of divine favour to support them: "I will
hide thee from the scourge of the tongue."
3. There is the consideration to soothe: "Blessed are ye
when men shall revile you and persecute you, "etc.
4. That a lie has not usually a long life.
5. There is, lastly, for comfort, the repairing influence of
time.—R. Nisbet.
Verse 2. A prayer against slander. We are liable to
it; it would do us great injury and cause us great pain; yet
none but the Lord can protect us from it, or deliver us out of
it.
Verse 3. The rewards of calumny. What can they be?
What ought they to be? What have they been?
Verse 3.
1. What the reviler does for others.
2. What he does to himself.
3. What God will do with him.
Verse 4. The nature of slander and the punishment of
slander.
Verse 4.
1. The tongue is sharper than an arrow.
(a) It is shot in private.
(b) It is tipped with poison.
(c) It is polished with seeming kindness.
(d) It is aimed at the most tender part.
2. The tongue is more destructive than fire. Its scandals
spread with greater rapidity. They consume that which other
fires cannot touch, and they are less easily quenched. "The
tongue", says an Apostle, "is a fire...and setteth on
fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell".
A fiery dart of the wicked one.—G.R.
Verse 5. Bad lodgings. Only the wicked can be at home
with the wicked. Our dwelling with them is trying, and yet it
may be useful
(1) to them,
(2) to us: it tries our graces, reveals our character, abates
our pride, drives us to prayer, and makes us long to be home.
Verse 5.
1. None but the wicked enjoy the company of the wicked.
2. None but the worldly enjoy the company of worldlings.
3. None but the righteous enjoy the company of the righteous.—G.R.
Verse 6.
1. Trying company.
2. Admirable behaviour.
3. Undesirable consequences: "When I speak, they are for
war".
Verse 7. The character of the man of God. He is at
peace. He is for peace. He is peace. He shall have peace.
Verse 7.
1. Piety and peace are united.
2. So are wickedness and war.—G.R.