Albeit that this Psalm is in some measure very
similar to Ps 18:1-50, yet it is a new song, and in its latter
portion it is strikingly so. Let the reader accept it as a new
psalm, and not as a mere variation of an old one, or as two
compositions roughly joined together. It is true that it would
be a complete composition if the passage from Ps 144:12-15 were
dropped; but there are other parts, of David's poems which might
be equally self contained if certain verses were omitted; and
the same might be said of many uninspired sonnets. It does not,
therefore, follow that the latter part was added by another
hand, nor even that the latter part was a fragment by the same
author, appended to the first song merely with the view of
preserving it. It seems to us to be highly probable that the
Psalmist, remembering that he had trodden some of the same
ground before, felt his mind moved to fresh thought, and that
the Holy Spirit used this mood for his own high purposes.
Assuredly the addendum is worthy of the greatest Hebrew poet,
and it is so admirable in language, and so full of beautiful
imagery, that persons of taste who were by no means overloaded
with reverence have quoted it times without number, thus
confessing its singular poetical excellence. To us the whole
psalm appears to be perfect as it stands, and to exhibit such
unity throughout that it would be a literary Vandalism, as well
as a spiritual crime, to rend away one part from the other.
TITLE. Its title is "Of David", and
its language is of David, if ever language can belong to any
man. As surely as we could say of any poem, this is of Tennyson,
or of Longfellow, we may say, This is of David. Nothing but the
disease which closes the eye to manifest fact and opens it to
fancy, could have led learned critics to ascribe this song to
anybody but David. Alexander well says, "The Davidic origin
of this psalm is as marked as that of any in the Psalter."
It is to God the devout warrior sings when he
extols him as his strength and stay (Ps 144:1-2). Man he holds
in small account, and wonders at the Lord's regard for him (Ps
144:3-4); but he turns in his hour of conflict to the Lord, who
is declared to be "a man of war", whose triumphant
interposition he implores (Ps 144:5-8). He again extols and
entreats in Ps 144:9-11 and then closes with a delightful
picture of the Lord's work for his chosen people, who are
congratulated upon having such a God to be their God.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. Blessed be the LORD my strength. He
cannot delay the utterance of his gratitude, he bursts at once
into a loud note of praise. His best word is given to his best
friend—"Blessed be Jehovah." When the heart is in a
right state it must praise God, it cannot be restrained; its
utterances leap forth as waters forcing their way from a living
spring. With all his strength David blesses the God of his
strength. We ought not to receive so great a boon as strength to
resist evil, to defend truth, and to conquer error, without
knowing who gave it to us, and rendering to him the glory of it.
Not only does Jehovah give strength to his saints, but he is
their strength. The strength is made theirs because God is
theirs. God is full of power, and he becomes the power of those
who trust him. In him our great strength lieth, and to him be
blessings more than we are able to utter. It may be read, "My
Rock"; but this hardly so well consorts with the
following words:
Which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.
The word rock is the Hebrew way of expressing strength:
the grand old language is full of such suggestive symbols. The
Psalmist in the second part of the verse sets forth the Lord as
teacher in the arts of war. If we have strength we are not much
the better unless we have skill also. Untrained force is often
an injury to the man who possesses it, and it even becomes a
danger to those who are round about him; and therefore the
Psalmist blesses the Lord as much for teaching as for strength.
Let us also bless Jehovah if he has in anything made us
efficient. The tuition mentioned was very practical, it was not
so much of the brain as of the hands and fingers; for these were
the members most needful for conflict. Men with little
scholastic education should be grateful for deftness and skill
in their handicrafts. To a fighting man the education of the
hands is of far more value than mere book learning could ever
be; he who has to use a sling or a bow needs suitable training,
quite as much as a scientific man or a classical professor. Men
are too apt to fancy that an artisan's efficiency is to be
ascribed to himself; but this is a popular fallacy. A clergyman
may be supposed to be taught of God, but people do not allow
this to be true of weavers or workers in brass; yet these
callings are specially mentioned in the Bible as having been
taught to holy women and earnest men when the tabernacle was set
up at the first. All wisdom and skill are from the Lord, and for
them he deserves to be gratefully extolled. This teaching
extends to the smallest members of our frame; the Lord teaches
fingers as well as hands; indeed, it sometimes happens that if
the finger is not well trained the whole hand is incapable.
David was called to be a man of war, and he was eminently
successful in his battles; he does not trace this to his good
generalship or valour, but to his being taught and strengthened
for the war and the fight. If the Lord deigns to have a hand in
such unspiritual work as fighting, surely he will help us to
proclaim the gospel and win souls; and then we will bless his
name with even greater intensity of heart. We will be pupils,
and he shall be our Master, and if we ever accomplish anything
we will give our Instructor hearty blessing. This verse is full
of personality; it is mercy shown to David himself which is the
subject of grateful song. It has also a presence about it; for
Jehovah is now his strength, and is still teaching him; we ought
to make a point of presenting praise while yet the blessing is
on the wing. The verse is also preeminently practical, and full
of the actual life of every day; for David's days were spent in
camps and conflicts. Some of us who are grievously tormented
with rheumatism might cry, "Blessed be the Lord, my
Comforter, who teacheth my knees to bear in patience, and my
feet to endure in resignation"; others who are on the look
out to help young converts might say, "Blessed be God who
teaches my eyes to see wounded souls, and my lips to cheer
them"; but David has his own peculiar help from God, and
praises him accordingly. This tends to make the harmony of
heaven perfect when all the singers take their parts; if, we all
followed the same score, the music would not be so full and
rich.
Verse 2. Now our royal poet multiplies metaphors to
extol his God. My goodness, and my fortress. The word for goodness
signifies mercy. Whoever we may be, and wherever we may
be, we need mercy such as can only be found in the infinite God.
It is all of mercy that he is any of the other good things to
us, so that this is a highly comprehensive title. O how truly
has the Lord been mercy to many of us in a thousand ways! He is
goodness itself, and he has been unbounded goodness to us. We
have no goodness of our own, but the Lord has become goodness to
us. So is he himself also our fortress and safe abode: in
him we dwell as behind impregnable ramparts and immovable
bastions. We cannot be driven out, or starved out; for our
fortress is prepared for a siege; it is stored with abundance of
food, and a well of living water is within it. Kings usually
think much of their fenced cities, but King David relies upon
his God, who is more to him than fortresses could have been.
My high tower, and my deliverer. As from a lofty watchtower
the believer, trusting in the Lord, looks down upon his enemies.
They cannot reach him in his elevated position; he is out of bow
shot; he is beyond their scaling ladders; he dwells on high. Nor
is this all; for Jehovah is our Deliverer as well as our
Defender. These different figures set forth the varied benefits
which come to us from our Lord. He is every good thing which we
can need for this world or the next. He not only places us out
of harm's way full often, but when we must be exposed, he comes
to our rescue, he raises the siege, routs the foe, and sets us
in joyous liberty. My shield, and he in whom I trust. When the
warrior rushes on his adversary, he bears his target upon his
arm, and thrusts death aside; thus doth the believer oppose the
Lord to the blows of the enemy, and finds himself secure from
harm. For this and a thousand other reasons our trust rests in
our God for everything; he never fails us, and we feel boundless
confidence in him.
Who subdueth my people under me. He keeps my natural subjects
subject, and my conquered subjects peaceful under my sway. Men
who rule others should thank God if they succeed in the task.
Such strange creatures are human beings, that if a number of
them are kept in peaceful association under the leadership of
any one of the Lord's servants, he is bound to bless God every
day for the wonderful fact. The victories of peace are as much
worthy of joyful gratitude as the victories of war. Leaders in
the Christian church cannot maintain their position except as
the Lord preserves to them the mighty influence which ensures
obedience and evokes enthusiastic loyalty. For every particle of
influence for good which we may possess let us magnify the name
of the Lord. Thus has David blessed Jehovah for blessing him.
How many times he has appropriated the Lord by that little word My!
Each time he grasps the Lord, he adores and blesses him; for the
one word Blessed runs through all the passage like a
golden thread. He began by acknowledging that his strength for
fighting foreign enemies was of the Lord, and he concluded by
ascribing his domestic peace to the same source. All round as a
king he saw himself to be surrounded by the King of kings, to
whom he bowed in lowly homage, doing suit and service on bent
knee, with grateful heart admitting that he owed everything to
the Rock of his salvation.
Verse 3. LORD, what is man, that thou takest
knowledge of him? What a contrast between Jehovah and man!
The Psalmist turns from the glorious all sufficiency of God to
the insignificance and nothingness of man. He sees Jehovah to be
everything, and then cries, "Lord, what is man!" What
is man in the presence of the Infinite God? What can he be
compared to? He is too little to be described at all; only God,
who knows the most minute object, can tell what man is.
Certainly he is not fit to be the rock of our confidence: he is
at once too feeble and too fickle to be relied upon. The
Psalmist's wonder is that God should stoop to know him, and
indeed it is more remarkable than if the greatest archangel
should make a study of emmets, or become the friend of mites.
God knows his people with a tender intimacy, a constant, careful
observation: he foreknew them in love, he knows them by care, he
will know them in acceptance at last. Why and wherefore is this?
What has man done? What has he been? What is he now that God
should know him, and make himself known to him as his goodness,
fortress, and high tower? This is an unanswerable question.
Infinite condescension can alone account for the Lord stooping
to be the friend of man. That he should make man the subject of
election, the object of redemption, the child of eternal love,
the darling of infallible providence, the next of kin to Deity,
is indeed a matter requiring more than the two notes of
exclamation found in this verse. Or the son of man, that thou
makest account of him! The son of man is a weaker being
still,—so the original word implies. He is not so much man
as God made him, but man as his mother bore him; and how can the
Lord think of him, and write down such a cipher in his accounts?
The Lord thinks much of man, and in connection with redeeming
love makes a great figure of him: this can be believed, but it
cannot be explained. Adoring wonder makes us each one cry out,
Why dost thou take knowledge of me? We know by experience how
little man is to be reckoned upon, and we know by observation
how greatly he can vaunt himself, it is therefore meet for us to
be humble and to distrust ourselves; but all this should make us
the more grateful to the Lord, who knows man better than we do,
and yet communes with him, and even dwells in him. Every trace
of the misanthrope should be hateful to the believer; for if God
makes account of man it is not for us to despise our own kind.
Verse 4. Man is like to vanity. Adam is like to
Abel. He is like that which is nothing at all. He is actually
vain, and he resembles that unsubstantial empty thing which is
nothing but a blown up nothing,—a puff, a bubble. Yet he is
not vanity, but only like it. He is not so substantial as that
unreal thing; he is only the likeness of it. Lord, what is a
man? It is wonderful that God should think of such a pretentious
insignificance. His days are as a shadow that passeth away. He
is so short lived that he scarcely attains to years, but exists
by the day, like the ephemera, whose birth and death are both
seen by the self same sun. His life is only like to a shadow,
which is in itself a vague resemblance, an absence of something
rather than in itself an existence. Observe that human life is
not only as a shade, but as a shade which is about to depart. It
is a mere mirage, the image of a thing which is not, a phantasm
which melts back into nothing. How is it that the Eternal should
make so much of mortal man, who begins to die as soon as he
begins to live? The connection of the two verses before us with
the rest of the psalm is not far to seek: David trusts in God
and finds him everything; he looks to man and sees him to be
nothing; and then he wonders how it is that the great Lord can
condescend to take notice of such a piece of folly and deceit as
man.
Verse 5. Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down.
The heavens are the Lord's own, and he who exalted them can bow
them. His servant is struggling against bitter foes, and he
finds no help in men, therefore he entreats Jehovah to come down
to his rescue. It is, indeed, a coming down for Jehovah to
interfere in the conflicts of his tried people. Earth cries to
heaven to stoop; nay, the cry is to the Lord of heaven to bow
the heaven, and appear among the sons of earth. The Lord has
often done this, and never more fully than when in Bethlehem the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us: now doth he know the
way, and he never refuses to come down to defend his beloved
ones. David would have the real presence of God to
counterbalance the mocking appearance of boastful man: eternal
verity could alone relieve him of human vanity. Touch the
mountains, and they shall smoke. It was so when the Lord
appeared on Sinai; the strongest pillars of earth cannot bear
the weight of the finger of God. He is a consuming fire, and his
touch kindles the peaks of the Alps, and makes them smoke. If
Jehovah would appear, nothing could stand before him; if the
mighty mountains smoke at his touch, then all mortal power which
is opposed to the Lord must end in smoke. How long suffering he
is to his adversaries, whom he could so readily consume. A touch
would do it; God's finger of flame would set the hills on fire,
and consume opposition of every kind.
Verse 6. Cast forth lightning, and scatter them.
The Eternal can hurl his lightnings wheresoever he pleases, and
effect his purpose instantaneously. The artillery of heaven soon
puts the enemy to flight: a single bolt sets the armies running
hither and thither in utter rout. Shoot out thine arrows, and
destroy them. Jehovah never misses the mark; his arrows are
fatal to his foes when he goes forth to war. It was no common
faith which led the poet king to expect the Lord to use his
thunderbolts on behalf of a single member of that race which he
had just now described as "like to vanity." A believer
in God may without presumption expect the Almighty Lord to use
on his behalf all the stores of his wisdom and power: even the
terrible forces of tempest shall be marshalled to the fight, for
the defence of the Lord's chosen. When we have once mastered the
greater difficulty of the Lord's taking any interest in us, it
is but a small thing that we should expect him to exert his
great power on our behalf. This is far from being the only time
in which this believing warrior had thus prayed: Ps 18:1-50 is
specially like the present; the good man was not abashed at his
former boldness, but here repeats himself without fear.
Verse 7. Send thine hand from above. Let thy
long and strong arm be stretched out till thine hand seizes my
foes, and delivers me from them. Rid me, and deliver me out of
great waters. Make a Moses of me,—one drawn out of the waters.
My foes pour in upon me like torrents, they threaten to
overwhelm me; save me from their force and fury; take them from
me, and me from them. From the hand of strange children. From
foreigners of every race; men strange to me and thee, who
therefore must work evil to me, and rebellion against thyself.
Those against whom he pleaded were out of covenant with God;
they were Philistines and Edomites; or else they were men of his
own nation of black heart and traitorous spirit, who were real
strangers, though they bore the name of Israel. Oh to be rid of
those infidel, blaspheming beings who pollute society with their
false teachings and hard speeches! Oh to be delivered from
slanderous tongues, deceptive lips, and false hearts! No wonder
these words are repeated, for they are the frequent cry of many
a tried child of God;—"Rid me, and deliver me."
The devil's children are strange to us: we can never agree with
them, and they will never understand us: they are aliens to us,
and we are despised by them. O Lord, deliver us from the evil
one, and from all who are of his race.
Verse 8. Whose mouth speaketh vanity. No wonder
that men who are vanity speak vanity. "When he speaketh a
lie, he speaketh of his own. "They cannot be depended upon,
let them promise as fairly as they may: their solemn
declarations are light as the foam of the sea, in no wise to be
depended upon. Good men desire to be rid of such characters: of
all men deceivers and liars are among the most disgusting to
true hearts. And their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
So far their hands and their tongues agree, for they are vanity
and falsehood. These men act as falsely as they speak, and prove
themselves to be all of a piece. Their falsehood is right
handed, they lie with dexterity, they deceive with all their
might. It is a dreadful thing when a man's expertness lies more
in lies than in truth; when he can neither speak nor act without
proving himself to be false. God save us from lying mouths, and
hands of falsehood.
Verse 9. I will sing a new song unto thee, O God.
Weary of the false, I will adore the true. Fired with fresh
enthusiasm, my gratitude shall make a new channel for itself. I
will sing as others have done; but it shall be a new song, such
as no others have sung. That song shall be all and altogether
for my God: I will extol none but the Lord, from whom my
deliverance has come. Upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten
strings will I sing praises unto thee. His hand should
aid his tongue, not as in the case of the wicked, cooperating in
deceit; but his hand should unite with his mouth in truthful
praise. David intended to tune his best instruments as well as
to use his best vocal music: the best is all too poor for so
great a God, and therefore we must not fall short of our utmost.
He meant to use many instruments of music, that by all means he
might express his great joy in God. The Old Testament
dispensation abounded in types, and figures, and outward ritual,
and therefore music dropped naturally into its place in the
"worldly sanctuary"; but, after all, it can do no more
than represent praise, and assist our expression of it; the real
praise is in the heart, the true music is that of the soul. When
music drowns the voice, and artistic skill takes a higher place
than hearty singing, it is time that instruments were banished
from public worship; but when they are subordinate to the song,
as here, it is not for us to prohibit them, or condemn those who
use them, though we ourselves greatly prefer to do without them,
since it seems to us that the utmost simplicity of praise is far
more congruous with the spirit of the gospel than pomp of
organs. The private worshipper, singing his solo unto the Lord,
has often found it helpful to accompany himself on some familiar
instrument, and of this David in the present psalm is an
instance, for he says, "I will sing praise unto
thee",—that is, not so much in the company of others as
by himself alone. He saith not "we", but
"I."
Verse 10. It is he that giveth salvation unto
kings. Those whom the Lord sets up he will keep up. Kings,
from their conspicuous position, are exposed to special danger,
and when their lives and their thrones are preserved to them
they should give the Lord the glory of it. In his many battles
David would have perished had not almighty care preserved him.
He had by his valour wrought salvation for Israel, but he lays
his laurels at the feet of his Lord and Preserver. If any men
need salvation kings do, and if they get it the fact is so
astonishing that it deserves a verse to itself in the psalm of
praise. Who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword.
He traces his escape from death to the delivering hand of God.
Note, he speaks in the present tense—delivereth, for
this was an act which covered his whole life. He puts his name
to the confession of his indebtedness: it is David who owns
without demur to mercy given to himself. He styles himself the
Lord's servant, accepting this as the highest title he had
attained or desired.
Verse 11. Because of what the Lord had done, David
returns to his pleading. He begs deliverance from him who is
ever delivering him. Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of
strange children. This is in measure the refrain of the song,
and the burden of the prayer. He desired to be delivered from
his open and foreign adversaries, who had broken compacts, and
treated treaties as vain things. Whose mouth speaketh vanity,
and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood. He
would not strike hands with those who carried a lie in their
right hand: he would be quit of such at once, if possible. Those
who are surrounded by such serpents know not how to deal with
them, and the only available method seems to be prayer to God
for a riddance and deliverance. David in Ps 144:7, according to
the original, had sought the help of both the Lord's hands, and
well he might, for his deceitful enemies, with remarkable
unanimity, were with one mouth and one hand seeking his
destruction. Riddance from the wicked and the gracious presence
of the Lord are sought with a special eye to the peace and
prosperity which will follow thereupon. The sparing of David's
life would mean the peace and happiness of a whole nation. We
can scarcely judge how much of happiness may hang upon the
Lord's favour to one man.
Verse 12. God's blessing works wonders for a people.
That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth. Our sons
are of first importance to the state, since men take a leading
part in its affairs; and that the young men are the older men
will be. He desires that they may be like strong, well rooted,
young trees, which promise great things. If they do not grow in
their youth, when will they grow? If in their opening manhood
they are dwarfed, they will never get over it. O the joys which
we may have through our sons! And, on the other hand, what
misery they may cause us! Plants may grow crooked, or in some
other way disappoint the planter, and so may our sons. But when
we see them developed in holiness, what joy we have of them!
That our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude
of a palace. We desire a blessing for our whole family,
daughters as well as sons. For the girls to be left out of the
circle of blessing would be unhappy indeed. Daughters unite
families as corner stones join walls together, and at the same
time they adorn them as polished stones garnish the structure
into which they are builded. Home becomes a palace when the
daughters are maids of honour, and the sons are nobles in
spirit; then the father is a king, and the mother a queen, and
royal residences are more than outdone. A city built up of such
dwellings is a city of palaces, and a state composed of such
cities is a republic of princes.
Verse 13. That our garners may be full, affording
all manner of store. A household must exercise thrift and
forethought: it must have its granary as well as its nursery.
Husbands should husband their resources; and should not only
furnish their tables but fill their garners. Where there are
happy households, there must needs be plentiful provision for
them, for famine brings misery even where love abounds. It is
well when there is plenty, and that plenty consists of "all
manner of store." We have occasionally heard murmurs
concerning the abundance of grain, and the cheapness of the poor
man's loaf. A novel calamity! We dare not pray against it. David
would have prayed for it, and blessed the Lord when he saw his
heart's desire. When all the fruits of the earth are plentiful,
the fruits of our lips should be joyful worship and
thanksgiving. Plenteous and varied may cur products be, that
every form of want may be readily supplied. That our sheep may
bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets,
or rather in the open places, the fields, and sheep walks where
lambs should be born. A teeming increase is here described. Adam
tilled the ground to fill the garner, but Abel kept sheep, and
watched the lambs. Each occupation needs the divine blessing.
The second man who was born into this world was a shepherd, and
that trade has ever held an important part in the economy of
nations. Food and clothing come from the flock, and both are of
first consideration.
Verse 14. That our oxen may be strong to labour;
so that the ploughing and cartage of the farm may be duly
performed, and the husbandman's work may be accomplished without
unduly taxing the cattle, or working them cruelly. That there be
no breaking in, nor going out; no irruption of marauders, and no
forced emigration; no burglaries and no evictions. That there be
no complaining in our streets; no secret dissatisfaction, no
public riot; no fainting of poverty, no clamour for rights
denied, nor concerning wrongs unredressed. The state of things
here pictured is very delightful: all is peaceful and
prosperous; the throne is occupied efficiently, and even the
beasts in their stalls are the better for it. This has been the
condition of our own country, and if it should now be changed,
who can wonder? For our ingratitude well deserves to be deprived
of blessings which it has despised. These verses may with a
little accommodation be applied to a prosperous church, where
the converts are growing and beautiful, the gospel stores
abundant, and the spiritual increase most cheering. There
ministers and workers are in full vigour, and the people are
happy and united. The Lord make it so in all our churches
evermore.
Verse 15. Happy is that people that is in such a
case. Such things are not to be overlooked. Temporal
blessings are not trifles, for the miss of them would be a dire
calamity. It is a great happiness to belong to a people so
highly favoured. Yea, happy is that people, whose God is the
LORD. This comes in as an explanation of their prosperity. Under
the Old Testament Israel had present earthly rewards for
obedience: when Jehovah was their God they were a nation
enriched and flourishing. This sentence is also a sort of
correction of all that had gone before; as if the poet would
say—all these temporal gifts are a part of happiness, but
still the heart and soul of happiness lies in the people being
right with God, and having a full possession of him. Those who
worship the happy God become a happy people. Then if we have not
temporal mercies literally we have something better: if we have
not the silver of earth we have the gold of heaven, which is
better still. In this psalm David ascribes his own power over
the people, and the prosperity which attended his reign, to the
Lord himself. Happy was the nation which he ruled; happy in its
king, in its families, in its prosperity, and in the possession
of peace; but yet more in enjoying true religion and worshipping
Jehovah, the only living and true God.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Whole Psalm. The psalm, in its mingled tones of prayer
and praise, is a fit connecting link between the supplicatory
psalms which go before, and the strains of thanksgiving which
follow it.—Speaker's Commentary.
Whole Psalm. After six psalms of sorrowful prayer in
distress, we have now a psalm of praise and thanksgiving for
God's gracious answer to supplications; and also a psalm of
intercession. The present psalm bears a strong resemblance to
David's last song in 2Sa 22:51 and to Ps 18:1-50. Here we have a
vision of Christ rejoicing;—after his passion—risen in
glory, and having ascended in triumph, and pleading for us at
the right hand of God.—Christopher Wordsworth.
Whole Psalm. This psalm is ruled by the numbers ten
and seven. Ten verses complete the first part of the psalm,
which falls into two divisions. The first portion contains, in
Ps 144:1-2, ten attributes of God,—three and seven, the seven
divided into four and three. In like manner it contains ten
requests to God in Ps 144:5-7, divided precisely as the
attributes. To this significance of the number ten for the first
part, allusion is pointedly made in Ps 144:9. Seven blessings
are prayed for in the second part, four in Ps 144:12-13,
(valiant sons, beautiful daughters, full storehouses, numerous
flocks), and three in Ps 144:14 (labouring oxen, no breach and
diminution, no cry). The whole contains, apart from the closing
epiphonem, which, as usual, stands outside the formal
arrangement, seven strophes, each of two verses.
An objection has been brought against the Davidic authorship
from the "traces of reading" it contains. But one
would require to consider more exactly, what sort of reading is
here to be thought of. It is only the psalms of David which form
the ground work of this new psalm. But that it is one of David's
peculiarities to derive from his earlier productions a
foundation for new ones, is evident from a variety of facts,
which, if any doubt must still be entertained on the subject,
would obtain a firm ground to stand upon in this psalm, which can
only have been composed by David. The way and manner of the use
made of such materials is to be kept in view. This is always of
a spirited and feeling nature, and no trace anywhere exists of a
dead borrowing. That we cannot think here of such a borrowing;
that the appropriation of the earlier language did not proceed
from spiritual impotence, but rested upon deeper grounds, is
manifest from the consideration of the second part, where the
dependence entirely ceases, and where even the opponents of the
Davidic authorship have not been able to overlook the strong
poetical spirit of the time of David. They betake themselves to
the miserable shift of affirming, that the Psalmist borrowed
this part of the psalm from a much older poem now lost.—E.W.
Hengstenberg.
Verse 1. Blessed be the LORD. A prayer for
further mercy is fitly begun with a thanksgiving for former
mercy; and when we are waiting upon God to bless us, we should
stir up ourselves to bless him.—Matthew Henry.
Verse 1. The LORD my strength, etc. Agamemnon
says to Achilles—
If thou hast strength, 'twas heaven that strength bestowed;
For know, vain man! thy valour is from God.—Homer.
Verse 1. My strength (Heb. "my
rock"). The climax should be noted; the rock, or cliff,
comes first as the place of refuge, then the fortress or fastness,
as a place carefully fortified, then the personal deliverer,
without whose intervention escape would have been impossible.—Speaker's
Commentary.
Verse 1. The LORD...teacheth: and not as man
teacheth. Thus he taught Gideon to fight with the innumerable
host of Midian by sending to their homes twenty-two thousand,
and retaining but ten thousand of his soldiers: and then again
by reducing that remnant to the little band of three hundred who
lapped when brought down to the water. Thus he taught Samson by
abstaining from strong drink, and by suffering no razor to pass
over his head. Thus he taught the three kings in the wilderness
to war against their enemies, not by any strength of their
armies, but by making ditches in the desert. Thus he taught
David himself by waiting for the sound of the going in the tops
of the mulberry trees. And so he taught the arms of the True
David to fight when stretched on the cross: nailed, to human
sight, to the tree of suffering, but, in reality, winning for
themselves the crown of glory: helpless in the eyes of scribes
and Pharisees; in those of archangels, laying hold of the two
pillars, sin and death, whereon the house of Satan rested, and
heaving them up from, their foundation.—Ayguan, in Neale
and Littledale.
Verse 1. The LORD my strength, which teacheth my
hands to war. There were three qualities of a valiant
soldier found in Christ, the Captain of our salvation, in his
war against Satan, which his followers are bound to emulate:
boldness in attack, skill in defence, steadiness in conflict,
all which he teaches by his example (Mt 4:1,4,7,10-11). He was bold
in attack, for he began the combat by going up into the
wilderness to defy the enemy. So we, too, should be always
beforehand with Satan, ought to fast, even if not tempted to
gluttony, and be humble, though not assailed by pride, and so
forth. He was skilful in defence, parrying every attack
with Holy Writ; where we, too, in the examples of the saints,
may find lessons for the combat. He was steadfast in
conflict, for he persevered to the end, till the devil left
him, and angels came and ministered unto him; and we, too,
should not be content with repelling the first attack, but
persevere in our resistance until evil thoughts are put to
flight, and heavenly resolutions take their place.—Neale
and Littledale.
Verse 1. Teacheth my hands. Used to the hook
and harp, and not to the sword and spear; but God hath apted and
abled them to feats of arms and warlike exploits. It is God that
giveth skill and success, saith Solomon (Pr 8:1-36); wisdom and
ability, saith Daniel (Da 2:1-49). And as in the spiritual
warfare, so here; our weapons are "mighty through God"
(2Co 10:4), who promises that no weapon formed against his
people shall prosper (Isa 54:17).—John Trapp.
Verse 1. To war, ...to fight. I want to speak
of a great defect among us, which often prevents the realization
of going "from strength to strength"; viz., the not
using, not trading with, the strength given. We should not
think of going to God for money only to keep it in the bank. But
are we not doing this with regard to strength? We are constantly
asking for strength for service; but if we are not putting this
out in hearty effort, it is of no use to us. Nothing comes of
hoarded strength. "Blessed be the Lord my strength, which
teacheth my hands to war, and my finger to fight."
David, you see, was looking for strength for a purpose. Some
people seem to expect strength, but never attempt to put forth
their hands to war, and their fingers to fight—there is so
little venturing upon God, so little use of grace given, partly
from fear of man, partly from indolence and worldly mindedness.
It is not for us to be merely luxuriating in the power which God
supplies. Action strengthens, and before we have a right to ask
for an increase, we must use that already given.—Catherine
Pennefather, in "Service," 1881.
Verse 1. Is not the spiritual victory of every
believer achieved by God? Truly it is he who teaches his hands
to war and his fingers to fight; and when the final triumph
shall be sung in heaven, the victor's song will be, "Not
unto me, O Lord, not unto me, but unto thy name give glory, for
thy mercy and for thy truth's sake."—John Morison.
Verse 1. My hands for fight, my fingers for war.
Fight and war are both verbs and nouns in English,
but the Hebrew words are nouns with the article prefixed.—Joseph
Addison Alexander.
Verse 1. My fingers to fight. Probably the
immediate reference here is to the use of the bow,—placing the
arrow, and drawing the string.—Albert Barnes.
Verse 2. My goodness, etc. This way of using
the word in a passive sense, as in the Hebrew, sounds harshly;
just as elsewhere (Ps 18:50) he calls himself "God's
king", not in the sense of his having dominion over God,
but being made and appointed king by him. Having experienced
God's kindness in so many ways, he calls him "his
goodness", meaning that whatever good he possessed
flowed from him. The accumulation of terms, one upon another,
which follows, may appear unnecessary, yet it tends greatly to
strengthen faith. We know how unstable men's minds are, and
especially how soon faith wavers, when they are assailed by some
trial of more than usual severity.—John Calvin.
Verse 2. My fortress. David calls God by names
connected with the chief deliverances of his life. The psalms
abound in local references and descriptive expressions, e.g. Ps
18:2 (and in this place). The word translated "fortress"
is metzuriah or masada. From 1Sa 23:29, I have no doubt
that he is speaking of Masada, an isolated peak 1,500 feet high,
on which was a stronghold.—James Wareing Bardsley, in
"Glimpses through the Veil," 1883.
Verse 2. My high tower. Such towers were
erected on mountains, on rocks, or on the walls of a city, and
were regarded as safe places mainly because they were
inaccessible. So the old castles in Europe,—as that at
Heidelberg, and generally those along the Rhine,—were built on
lofty places, and in such positions as not to be easily
accessible.—Albert Barnes.
Verse 2. My shield. The Hebrew word signifies,
not the huge shield which was carried by an armourbearer, but
the handy target with which heroes entered into hand to hand
conflicts. A warrior took it with him when he used his bow or
his sword. It was often made of metal, but still was portable,
and useful, and was made to serve as an ornament, being
brightened or anointed with oil. David had made abundant use of
the Lord, his God, from day to day, in battles many and
murderous.—C.H.S.
Verse 2. Who subdueth my people under me.
David, accordingly, having ascribed the victories he had gained
over foreign enemies to God, thanks him at the same time for the
settled state of the kingdom. Raised indeed as he was from an
obscure station, and exposed to hatred from calumnious charges,
it was scarcely to have been believed that he would ever obtain
a peaceable reign. The people had suddenly, and beyond
expectation, submitted to him; and so surprising a change was
eminently God's work.—John Calvin.
Verse 3. LORD, what is man, etc.
Now what is man when grace reveals
The virtues of a Saviour's blood?
Again a life divine he feels,
Despises earth, and walks with God.
And what in yonder realms above,
Is ransomed man ordained to be?
With honour, holiness, and love,
No seraph more adorned than he.
Nearest the throne, and first in song.
Man shall his hallelujahs raise,
While wondering angels round him strong,
And swell the chorus of his praise.
—John Newton, in Olney Hymns.
Verse 3. LORD, what is man? Take him in his
four elements, of earth, air, fire, and water. In the earth,
he is as fleeting dust; in the air, he is as a
disappearing vapour; in the water, he is as a breaking
bubble; and in the fire, he is as consuming smoke.—William
Seeker, in "The Nonsuch Professor."
Verses 3-4. LORD, what is man, etc. There is no book
so well worthy reading as this living one. Even now David spake
as a king of men, of people subdued under him: now he
speaks as a humble vassal to God: LORD, what is man that thou
takest knowledge of him? In one breath is both sovereignty
and subjugation: an absolute sovereignty over his people: My
people are subdued under me; an humble subjection to the God
of kings; "LORD, what is man?" Yea, in the very
same word wherein, is the profession of that sovereignty, there
is an acknowledgment of subjection: "Thou hast subdued
my people." In that he had a people, he was a king:
that they might be his people, a subjection was requisite; and
that subjugation was God's, and not his own: "Thou
hast subdued." Lo, David had not subdued his people, if God
had not subdued them for him. He was a great king, but they were
a stiff people: the God that made them swayed them to a due
subjection. The great conquerors of worlds could not conquer
hearts, if he, that moulded hearts, did not temper them.
"By me kings reign", saith the Eternal Wisdom; and he
that had courage enough to encounter a bear, a lion, Goliath,
yet can say, "Thou hast subdued my people."
Contrarily, in the lowliest subjection of himself, there is
an acknowledgment of greatness. Though he abused himself with,
"What is man?" yet, withal he adds, "Thou
takest knowledge of him, thou makest account of him":
and this knowledge, this account of God, doth more exalt man
than his own vanity can depress him. My text, then, ye see, is
David's rapture, expressed in an ecstatical question of sudden
wonder; a wonder at God, and at man: man's vileness;
"What is man?" God's mercy and favour, in his
knowledge, in his estimation of man. Lo, there are but two
lessons that we need to take out here, in the world, God and
man; man, in the notion of his wretchedness; God, in the notion
of his bounty. Let us, if you please, take a short view of both;
and, in the one, see cause of our humiliation; of our joy and
thankfulness in the other: and if, in the former, there be a sad
Lent of mortification; there is, in the latter, a cheerful
Easter of our raising and exaltation.
Many a one besides David wonders at himself: one wonders at
his own honour; and, though he will not say so, yet thinks,
"What a great man am I! Is not this great Babel, which I
have built?" This is Nebuchadnezzar's wonder. Another
wonders at his person, and finds, either a good face, or a fair
eye, or an exquisite hand, or a well shaped leg, or some gay
fleece, to admire in himself: this was Absalom's wonder. Another
wonders at his wit and learning: "How came I by all this? Turba
haec! This vulgar, that knows not the law, is
accursed": this was the Pharisee's wonder. Another wonders
at his wealth; "Soul, take thine ease"; as the epicure
in the gospel. David's wonder is as much above, as against all
these: he wonders at his vileness: like as the Chosen Vessel
would boast of nothing but his infirmities: "LORD, what
is man?" How well this hangs together! No sooner had he
said, "Thou hast subdued my people under me",
than he adds, "LORD, what is man?" Some vain
heart would have been lifted up with a conceit of his own
eminence; "Who am I? I am not as other men. I have people
under me; and people of my own, and people subdued to me";
this is to be more than a man. I know who hath said, "I
said ye are gods."—Joseph Hall.
Verse 3. Dr. Hammond refers this psalm to the slaying
of Goliath, and thus understands the appellation "son of
man",—"David was but a young stripling, the youngest
and most inconsiderable of all the sons of Jesse, who also was
himself an ordinary man."
Verse 3. Thou takest knowledge of him. It is a
great word. Alas! what knowledge do we take of the gnats that
play in the sun; or the ants, or worms, that are crawling in our
grounds? Yet the disproportion betwixt us and them is but
finite; infinite betwixt God and us. Thou, the Great God of
Heaven, to take knowledge of such a thing as man. If a mighty
prince shall vouchsafe to spy and single out a plain homely
swain in a throng, as the Great Sultan did lately a tankard
bearer; and take special notice of him, and call him but to a
kiss of his hand and nearness to his person; he boasts of it as
a great favour: for thee, then, O God, who abasest thyself to
behold the things in heaven itself, to cast thine eye upon so
poor a worm as man, it must needs be a wonderful mercy.—Exigua
pauperibus magna; as Nazianzen to his Amphilochius.—Joseph
Hall.
Verse 4. Man is like to vanity As he that goeth
to a fair, with a purse full of money, is devising and debating
with himself how to lay it out—possibly thinking that such and
such commodities will be most profitable, and bring him in the
greatest gain—when on a sudden a cut purse comes and eases him
both of his money and care how to dispose of it. Surely you
might have taken notice how some of thy neighbours or
countrymen, when they have been busy in their contrivances, and
big with many plots and projects how to raise their estate and
names and families, were arrested by death in a moment, returned
to their earth, and in that day all their gay, their great
thoughts perished, and came to nothing. The heathen historian
could not but observe how Alexander the Great, when he had to
carry on his great designs, summoned a parliament before him of
the whole world, he was himself summoned by death to appear in
the other world. The Dutch, therefore, very wittily to express
the world's vanity, picture at Amsterdam a man with a full blown
bladder on his shoulders, and another standing by pricking the
bladder with a pin, with this motto, quam subito, How
soon is all blown down!—George Swinnock.
Verse 4. Man is like to vanity. When Cain was
born, there was much ado about his birth; "I have gotten a
man child from God", saith his mother: she looked upon him
as a great possession, and therefore called his name Cain,
which signifies "a possession." But the second man
that was born unto the world bare the title of the world, "vanity";
his name was Abel, that is, "vanity." A
premonition was given in the name of the second man what would
or should be the condition of all men. In Ps 144:4 there is an
allusion unto those two names. We translate it, "Man is
like to vanity"; the Hebrew is, "Adam is as
Abel"; Adam, you know, was the name of the first man,
the name of Abel's father; but as Adam was the proper name of
the first, so it is an appellative, or common to all men: now
Adam, that is, man of all men, are Abel, vain, and
walking in a vain show.—Joseph Caryl.
Verse 4. Man is like to vanity, etc. The
occasion of the introduction of these sentiments here is not
quite clear. It may be the humility of the warrior who ascribes
all success to God instead of to human prowess, or it may be a
reflection uttered over the corpses of comrades, or, perhaps a
blending of the two.—A.S. Aglen.
Verse 4. Man is like to vanity, etc. With what
idle dreams, what foolish plans, what vain pursuits, are men for
the most part occupied! They undertake dangerous expeditions and
difficult enterprises in foreign countries, and they acquire
fame; but what is it?—Vanity! They pursue deep and
abstruse speculations, and give themselves to that "much
study which is a weariness to the flesh", and they attain
to literary renown, and survive in their writings; but what is
it?—Vanity! They rise up early, and sit up late, and
eat the bread of anxiety and care, and thus they amass wealth;
but what is it?—Vanity! They frame and execute plans
and schemes of ambition—they are loaded with honours and
adorned with titles—they afford employment for the herald, and
form a subject for the historian; but what is it?—Vanity!
In fact, all occupations and pursuits are worthy of no other
epithet, if they are not preceded by, and connected with, a deep
and paramount regard to the salvation of the soul, the honour of
God, and the interests of eternity...Oh, then, what phantoms,
what airy nothings are those things that wholly absorb the
powers and occupy the days of the great mass of mankind around
us! Their most substantial good perishes in the using, and their
most enduring realities are but "the fashion of this world
that passeth away."—Thomas Raffles, 1788-1863.
Verse 4. A shadow that passeth away. The
shadows of the mountains are constantly shifting their position
during the day, and ultimately disappear altogether on the
approach of night: so is it with man who is every day advancing
to the moment of his final departure from this world.—Bellarmine.
Verse 5. Bow thy heavens. This expression is
derived from the appearance of the clouds during a tempest: they
hang low, so as to obscure the hills and mountains, and seem to
mingle earth and heaven together. Such an appearance is
figuratively used to depict the coming of God, to execute
vengeance upon the enemies of his people. See Ps 18:10, and
other instances.—William Walford.
Verse 5. Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down,
etc. This was never so remarkably fulfilled as in the
incarnation of Jesus Christ, when heaven and earth were, as it
were, brought together. Heaven itself was, as it were, made to
bow that it might be united to the earth. God did, as it were,
come down and bring heaven with him. He not only came down to
the earth, but he brought heaven down with him to men and for
men. It was a most strange and wonderful thing. But this will be
more remarkably fulfilled still by Christ's second coming, when
he will indeed bring all heaven down with him—viz., all the
inhabitants of heaven. Heaven shall be left empty of its
inhabitants to come down to the earth; and then the mountains
shall smoke, and shall indeed flow down at his presence, as in
Isa 64:1.—Jonathan Edwards.
Verse 5. Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.
The meaning is, when God doth but lay his hand upon great men,
upon the mightiest of the world, he makes them smoke or fume,
which some understand of their anger; they are presently in a
passion, if God do but touch them. Or we may understand it of
their consumption. A smoking mountain will soon be a burnt
mountain. In our language, to make a man smoke is a proverbial
expression for destroying or subduing.—Joseph Caryl.
Verses 5-6.
Bow thy heavens, Jehovah,
Come down in thy might;
Let the rays of thy glory
The mountaintops light.
With the bolts of thy thunder
Discomfit my foe,
With the flash of thine arrows
Their force overthrow.
—William Digby Seymour.
Verse 6. Cast forth lightning. The Hebrew here
is, "Lighten lightning"; that is, Send forth
lightning. The word is used as a verb nowhere else.—Albert
Barnes.
Verse 7. Send thine hand from above. Hebrew, hands,
both hands, all thy whole power, for I need it.—John Trapp.
Verse 7. Rid me, and deliver me. Away, you who
theorize about suffering, and can do no more than descant upon
it, away! for in the time of weeping we cannot endure your
reasonings. If you have no means of delivering us, if you have
nothing but sententious phrases to offer, put your hands on your
mouths; enwrap yourselves in silence! It is enough to suffer;
but to suffer and listen to you is more than we can bear. If
Job's mouth was nigh unto blasphemy, the blame is yours, ye
miserable comforters, who talked instead of weeping. If I must
suffer, then I pray for suffering without fine talk!—E. De
Pressense.
Verse 7. Rid me, and deliver me...from the hand of
strange children. We must remember that as the Grecians
(conceiting themselves the best bred people in the world) called
all other nations "barbarians"; so the people of
Israel, the stock of Abraham (being God's peculiar covenant
people), called all other nations "aliens" or "strangers";
and because they were hated and maligned by all other nations,
therefore they called all professed strangers enemies; so
the word is used (Isa 1:7), "Your land strangers shall
devour"; that is, enemies shall invade and prevail over
you. "Deliver me out of the hand of strange
children", or out of the hand of strangers; that is,
out of the hand of mine enemies. The Latin word alienus
is often put for hostis, and the Roman orator (Cicero)
telleth us that "he who is now called a stranger was called
an enemy by our ancestors." The reason was because
strangers proved unkind to, yea, turned enemies against those
that entertained them.—Joseph Caryl.
Verse 7. Strange children. He calls them strangers,
not in respect of generic origin, but character and
disposition.—John Calvin.
Verse 7. The strange children, now the enemies
of David, shall be either won to willing subjection, or else
shall be crushed under the triumphant Messiah (Ps 2:1-12). The
Spirit by David spake things the deep significance of which
reached further than even he understood (1Pe 1:11-12).—Andrew
Robert Fausset.
Verse 8. Whose mouth speaketh vanity, etc. Two
things go naturally together in the verse—the lying tongue and
deceitful hand. The meaning is that upon the matter in hand
nothing was to be looked for from any of their promises, since
it was only to deceive that they flattered with their mouth and
gave the hand.—John Calvin.
Verse 8. Their right hand is a right hand of
falsehood. The pledge of the right hand, which used to be a
witness of good faith, was violated by treachery and
wickedness.—Cicero. Philip. xi. c. 2.
Verse 9. Psaltery—an instrument of ten strings.
Nebelazor. We are led to the conclusion that the nebel
was the veritable harp of the Hebrews. It could not have
been large, because it is so frequently mentioned in the Bible
as being carried in processions ...The English translators
render nebel (apparently without any special reason) by
no less than four words; (1) psaltery, (2) psalm, (3) lute, (4)
viol. The first of these is by far the most common in the
Authorized Version, and is no doubt the most correct translation
if the word be understood in its true sense as a portable
harp. Nebels were made of fir wood, and afterwards of almug,
or algum, which was, perhaps, the red sandalwood of India...With
nebel is often associated the word azor, which is
traced to a root signifying ten, and which has therefore
been rendered in the Septuagint by by en
dekacordw or as qalthrion
dekacordon, (psalterium decem chordarum) or in
dechachordo psalterio in the Vulgate. In the Chaldee, Syriac,
and Arabic versions also are found words implying the existence
of ten strings in the nebelazor. The word azor may
therefore be considered as qualifying or describing the special
kind of nebel to be used, much in the same way as we now
speak of a trichord pianoforte. It is in our English
version always rendered by the words "ten
stringed."—John Stainer, in "The Music of the
Bible," 1882.
Verse 10. It is he that giveth salvation unto
kings. Ferdinand, king of Aragon, sending his son against
the Florentines, thus bespake him: Believe me, son, victories
are not gotten by art or subtlety, but given of God.—John
Trapp.
Verse 10. It is he that giveth salvation unto
kings. What a doctrine this for the kings and great men of
the earth to remember! Could they be brought to feel and
acknowledge it, they would not trust to the sagacity of their
own councils, nor to the strength of their own arm; but would
ever remember that the Most High is the ruler among the nations,
and that he putteth down one and raiseth up another according to
the dictates of his own all perfect will. Such remembrances as
this would stain the pride of all human glory, and would lead
men to feel that the Lord alone is to be exalted.—John
Morison.
Verse 11. This psalm is the language of a prince who
wished his people's prosperity: that their "garners might
be full of all manner of stores"; that their "sheep
might bring forth thousands and ten thousands in their
streets"; that their "oxen" might be fat for
slaughter, or "strong for labour"; that there might be
neither robbery nor beggary in their streets: no oppressive
magistrates, nor complaining people: and as if all these
blessings were to be derived from the character of the people,
and the character of the people from the education they had
received, our text is a prayer for the youth of Judea.—Robert
Robinson (1735-1790), in "The Nature and Necessity
of Early Piety."
Verse 12. The reminiscences or imitations of Ps
18:1-50, suddenly cease here, and are followed by a series of
original, peculiar, and for the most part or no doubt antique
expressions. Oil the supposition that the title is correct in
making David the author, this is natural enough. On any other
supposition it is unaccountable, unless by the gratuitous
assumption, that this is a fragment of an older composition, a
mode of reasoning by which anything may be either proved or
disproved.—Joseph Addison Alexander.
Verse 12. That our sons may be as plants, etc.
They who have ever been employed in the cultivation of plants of
any kind, are continually tempted to wish that the human objects
of their care and culture would grow up as rapidly, as straight,
as flourishing, would as uniformly fulfil their specific idea
and purpose, as abundantly reward the labour bestowed on
them...If our sons are indeed to grow up as young plants, like
our English oaks, which according to the analogies of Nature,
furnish no inappropriate type of our national character, they
must not be stunted or dwarfed or pollarded, for the sake of
being kept under the shade of a stranger. They should grow up
straight toward heaven, as God had ordained them to grow...There
is something so palpable and striking in this type, that
twenty-five years ago, in speaking of the gentlemanly character,
I was led to say, "If a gentleman is to grow up he must
grow like a tree: there must be nothing between him and
heaven."—Julius Charles Hare, in a Sermon entitled
"Education the Necessity of Mankind," 1851.
Verse 12. That our sons may be as plants grown up
in their youth, etc. Thus David prays for the rising
generation. Metaphors seem generally unsuitable to prayer, but
they do not wear this aspect in the prayers recorded in the
Scriptures. The language of the text is tropical, but the
metaphors are suitable and seasonable. Roots of
vegetables are necessarily invisible. Tender plants are
insignificant. A plant grown up, having height in its
stem, width in its branches, abundance in its foliage, and
fulness in its bloom, is conspicuous. David prays that the sons
of that generation might be in their youth "as plants
grown up", that is, that their piety might not only
live, but that their godliness might be fully expressed. The
stones of a foundation are concealed. The stones in the mid
wall of a building are also necessarily hid. The stones on
the surface of a wall are visible, but they are not
distinguished. The cornerstone of buildings in that day
was prominent and eminent. Placed at the angle of the structure,
where two walls met, on the top of the walls, and being richly
ornamented and polished, it attracted attention. David prays
that the daughters of that day might make an open and lovely
profession of religion—that both sons and daughters might not
only have piety but show it.—Samuel Martin,
in "Cares of Youth."
Verse 12. "Plants grown up" "Corner
stones polished." These processes of growth and polish
can be carried on in one place only, the church of Christ.—Neale
and Littledale.
Verse 12. That our daughters may be as corner
stones, etc. "The polished corners of the
temple", rather "the sculptured angles, the
ornament, of a palace." Great care and much ornament
were bestowed by the ancients upon the angles of their splendid
palaces. It is remarkable that the Greeks made use of pilasters,
called Caryatides (carved after the figure of a woman dressed in
long robes), to support the entablatures of their buildings.—Daniel
Cresswell.
Verse 12. That our daughters may be as corner
stones, polished after the similitude of a palace or temple.
By daughters families are united and connected to their mutual
strength, as the parts of a building are by the cornerstones;
and when they are graceful and beautiful both in body and mind,
they are then polished after the similitude of a nice and
curious structure. When we see our daughters well established,
and stayed with wisdom and discretion, as cornerstones are
fastened in the building; when we see them by faith united to
Christ, as the chief cornerstone, adorned with the graces of
God's Spirit, which are the polishing of that which is naturally
rough, and "become women professing godliness"; when
we see them purified and consecrated to God as living temples,
we think ourselves happy in them.—Matthew Henry.
Verse 12. That our daughters may be as corner
stones, etc. One might perhaps at the first glance have
expected that the daughters of a household would be as
the graceful ornament of the clustering foliage or the fruit
bearing tree, and the sons as the cornerstones upholding
the weight and burden of the building, and yet it is the reverse
here. And I think one may read the love and tenderness of the
Lord in this apparently casual but intended expression, and that
he meant the nations of the earth to know and understand how
much of their happiness, their strength, and their security was
dependent on the female children of a family. It has not been so
considered in many a nation that knew not God: in polished
Greece in times of old, and in some heathen nations even to this
day, the female children of a family have been cruelly
destroyed, as adding to the burdens and diminishing the
resources of a household; and alas! too, even in Christian
countries, if not destroyed, they are with equal pitiless and
remorseless cruelty cut off from all the solace and ties and
endearments of life, and immured in that living mockery of a
grave, the cloister, that they may not prove incumbrances and
hindrances to others! How contrary all this to the loving
purpose of our loving God! whose Holy Spirit has written for our
learning that sons and daughters are alike intended to be the
ornament and grace, the happiness and blessing of every
household.—Barton Bouchier.
Verse 12. After the similitude of a palace.
Most interpreters give the last word the vague sense of "a
palace." There is something, however, far more striking
in the translation temple, found in the Prayer Book and
the ancient versions. The omission of the article is a poetic
license of perpetual occurrence. The temple was the great
architectural model and standard of comparison, and particularly
remarkable for the great size and skilful elaboration of its
foundation stones, some of which, there is reason to believe,
have remained undisturbed since the time of Solomon.—Joseph
Addison Alexander.
Verses 12-15. In the former part of the psalm he
speaks of such things as concern his own happiness:
"Blessed be the Lord my strength" (Ps 144:1);
"Send thine hand from above; and deliver me out of great
waters" (Ps 144:7); "Rid me, and deliver me from the
hand of strange children" (Ps 144:11). And he might as
easily have continued the same strain in the clauses following:
"That my sons may grow up as plants, my
daughters may be as the polished corners of the temple, my
sheep fruitful, my oxen strong, my garners full
and plenteous"; and accordingly he might have concluded it
also—"Happy shall I be, if I be in such a
case." This, I say, he might have done; nay, this he would
have done, if his desires had reflected only upon himself. But
being of a diffusive heart, and knowing what belonged to the
neighbourhoods of piety, as loath to enjoy this happiness alone,
he alters his style, and (being in the height of well wishes to
himself) he turns the singular into a plural—our sheep, our
oxen, our garners, our sons and daughters, that he might
compendiate all in this,—Happy are the people. Here is
a true testimony both of a religious and generous mind, who knew
in his most retired thoughts to look out of himself, and to be
mindful of the public welfare in his most private meditations.
S. Ambrose observes it as a clear character of a noble spirit,
to do what tends to the public good, though to his own
disadvantage.—Richard Holdsworth (1590-1649), in
"The Valley of Vision."
Verses 12-15. These words contain a striking picture
of a prosperous and happy nation. We are presented with a view
of the masculine youth of the nation by the oaks of the
forest, become great in the early period of the vigour and
excellency of the soil. They are represented in the
distinguishing character of their sex, standing abroad the
strength of the nation, whence its resources for action must be
derived. On the other hand, the young females of a nation
are exhibited under an equally just and proper representation of
their position and distinguishing character. They are not
exhibited by a metaphor derived from the hardier tenants of the
forest, but they are shown to us by a representation taken from
the perpetual accompaniments of the dwelling; they are the
supports and the ornaments of domestic life. Plenty of
every kind is represented to us in possession and in reasonable
expectation. No breaking in, no invasion by a furious
foe, oppresses the inhabitants of this happy country with
terror; neither is there any going out. The barbarous
practice employed by Sennacherib, and other ancient conquerors,
of transporting the inhabitants of a vanquished country to some
distant, unfriendly, and hated land,—the practice at this
moment employed, to the scandal of the name and the sorrow of
Europe—they dread not: they fear no "going out."
Under circumstances of such a nature causes of distress or
complaint exist not; or, if they do, they are capable of being
so modified, and alleviated, and remedied, that there is no
complaining in the streets. "Happy, then, is that
people, that is in such a case."—John Pye Smith,
1775-1851.
Verse 13. That our sheep may bring forth thousands,
etc. The surprising fecundity of the sheep has been celebrated
by writers of every class. It has not escaped the notice of the
royal Psalmist, who, in a beautiful ascription of praise to the
living and the true God, entreats that the sheep of his chosen
people might "bring forth thousands and ten thousands in
our streets." In another song of Zion, he represents,
by a very elegant metaphor, the numerous flocks covering like a
garment the face of the field:—"The pastures are clothed
with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they
shout for joy, they also sing": Ps 65:13. The bold figure
is fully warranted by the prodigious numbers of sheep which
whitened the extensive pastures of Syria and Canaan. In that
part of Arabia which borders on Judea, the patriarch Job
possessed at first seven thousand, and after the return of his
prosperity, fourteen thousand sheep; and Mesha, the king of
Moab, paid the king of Israel "a yearly tribute of a
hundred thousand lambs, and an equal number of rams with the
wool": 2Ki 3:4. In the war which the tribe of Reuben waged
with the Hagarites, the former drove away "two hundred and
fifty thousand sheep": 1Ch 5:21. At the dedication of the
temple, Solomon offered in sacrifice "an hundred and twenty
thousand sheep." At the feast of the passover, Josiah, the
king of Judah, "gave to the people, of the flock, lambs and
kids, all for the passover offerings, for all that were present,
to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bullocks:
these were of the king's substance": 2Ch 35:7. The ewe
brings forth her young commonly once a year, and in more
ungenial climes, seldom more than one lamb at a time. But twin
lambs are as frequent in the oriental regions, as they are rare
in other places; which accounts in a satisfactory manner for the
prodigious numbers which the Syrian shepherd led to the
mountains. This uncommon fruitfulness seems to be intimated by
Solomon in his address to the spouse:—"Thy teeth are like
a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the
washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among
them": So 4:2.—George Paxton (1762-1837), in
"Illustrations of Scripture."
Verses 13-14. Streets, though not incorrect, is an
inadequate translation of the Hebrew word, which means external
spaces, streets as opposed to the inside of houses, fields or
country as opposed to a whole town. Here it includes not only
roads but fields.—Joseph Addison Alexander.
Verse 14. That our oxen may be strong to labour.
(Margin: "able to bear burdens", or, loaded
with flesh.) As in the verse before he had ascribed the
fruitfulness of the herds and flocks to God's goodness, so now
the fattening of their oxen, to show that there is nothing
relating to us here which he overlooks.—John Calvin.
Verse 14. That our oxen may be strong to labour.
Oxen were not only used for ploughing, thrashing, and drawing,
but also for bearing burdens; compare 1Ch 12:40, which passage
is peculiarly fitted to throw light on the verse before us.
Laden oxen presuppose a rich abundance of produce.—E.W.
Hengstenberg.
Verse 14. That there be no complaining in our
streets, etc. Rather, "and no cry of sorrow"
(comp. Isa 24:11 Jer 14:2 46:12) "in our open places",
i.e., the places where the people commonly assembled near
the gate of the city (comp. 2Ch 32:6 Ne 8:1). The word rendered "complaining"
does not occur elsewhere in the psalter.—Speaker's
Commentary.
Verse 14. No complaining. No outcries but
"Harvest homes."—John Trapp.
Verse 15. Happy is that people, etc. We have in
the text happiness with an echo, or ingemination; "happy"
and "happy." From this ingemination arise the
parts of the text; the same which are the parts both of the
greater world and the less. As the heaven and earth in the one,
and the body and soul in the other; so are the passages of this
Scripture in the two veins of happiness. We may range them as
Isaac does the two parts of his blessing (Ge 27:28); the vein of
civil happiness, in "the fatness of the earth"; and
the vein of Divine happiness, in "the fatness of
heaven." Or (if you will have it out of the gospel), here's
Martha's portion in the "many things" of the body; and
Mary's better part in the unum necessarium of the soul.
To give it yet more concisely, here's the path of prosperity
in outward comforts, "Happy is that people that is in
such a case"; and the path of piety in comforts
spiritual: Yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD.
In the handling of the first, without any further subdivision, I
will only show what it is the Psalmist treats of; and that shall
be by way of gradation, in these three particulars. It is De
Felicitate; De Felicitate Populi; De Hac Felicitate Populi:
of happiness; of the people's happiness; of the people's
happiness, as in such a case.
Happiness is the general, and the first: a noble
argument, and worthy of an inspired pen, especially the
Psalmist's. Of all other there can be none better to speak of popular
happiness than such a king; nor of celestial, than
such a prophet. Yet I mean not to discourse of it in the
full latitude, but only as it hath a peculiar posture in this
psalm, very various and different from the order of other
psalms. In this psalm it is reserved to the end, as the
close of the foregoing meditations. In other psalms it is set in
the front, or first place of all; as in Ps 32:1-11, in Ps
112:1-10, in Ps 119:1-176, and in the Ps 128:1-6. Again, in this
the Psalmist ends with our happiness and begins with
God's. "Blessed be the LORD my strength." In Ps
41:1-13, contrary, he makes his exordium from man's;
"Blessed is he that considereth the poor"; his conclusion
with God's; "Blessed be the Lend God of
Israel." I therefore observe these variations, because they
are helpful to the understanding both of the essence and splendour
of true happiness. To the knowledge of the essence they
help, because they demonstrate how our own happiness is enfolded
in the glory of God, and subordinate unto it. As we cannot begin
with beatus unless we end with benedictus: so we
must begin with benedictus that we may end with beatus.
The reason is this,—because the glory of God is as well the consummation
as the introduction to a Christian's happiness. Therefore
as in the other psalm he begins below and ends upwards; so in
this, having begun from above with that which is principal,
"Blessed be the LORD"; he fixes his second thoughts
upon the subordinate, "Blessed, or happy, are the
people." He could not proceed in a better order: he first
looks up to God's kingdom, then reflects upon his own, as
not meaning to take blessedness before he had given
it.—Richard Holdsworth.
Verse 15. Happy is that people, that is in such a
case, etc. The first part of this text hath relation to temporal
blessings, "Blessed is the people that be so":
the second to spiritual, "Yea, blessed is the people
while God is the LORD." "His left hand is under my
head", saith the spouse (So 2:6); that sustains me from
falling into murmuring, or diffidence of his providence, because
out of his left hand he hath given me a competency of his
temporal blessings; "But his right hand doth embrace
me", saith the spouse there; his spiritual blessings fill
me, possess me so that no rebellious fire breaks out within me,
no outward temptation breaks in upon me. So also Solomon says
again, "In her left hand is riches and glory"
(temporal blessings) "and in her right hand length of
days" (Pr 3:16), all that accomplishes and fulfils the
eternal joys of the saints of heaven. The person to whom Solomon
attributes this right and left hand is Wisdom; and a wise man
may reach out his right and left hand, to receive the blessings
of both sorts. And the person whom Solomon represents by Wisdom
there, is Christ himself. So that not only a worldly wise man,
but a Christian wise man may reach out both hands, to both kinds
of blessings, right and left, spiritual and temporal.
Now, for this first blessedness, as no philosophers could
ever tell us amongst the Gentiles what true blessedness was, so
no grammarian amongst the Jews, amongst the Hebrews, could ever
tell us what the right signification of this word is, in which
David expresses blessedness here; whether asherei, which
is the word, be a plural noun, and signify beatitudines,
blessednesses in the plural, and intimate thus much, that
blessedness consists not in any one thing, but in a harmony and
consent of many; or whether this asherei be an adverb,
and signify beate, and so be an acclamation, O how
happily, how blessedly are such men provided for that are so;
they cannot tell. Whatsoever it be, it is the very first word
with which David begins his Book of Psalms; beatus vir;
as the last word of that book is, laudate Dominum; to
show that all that passes between God and man, from first to
last, is blessings from God to man, and praises from man to God;
and that the first degree of blessedness is to find the print of
the hand of God even in his temporal blessednesses, and to
praise and glorify him for them in the right use of them. A man
that hath no land to hold by it, nor title to recover by it, is
never the better for finding, or buying, or having a fair piece
of evidence, a fair instrument, fairly written, duly sealed,
authentically testified; a man that hath not the grace of God,
and spiritual blessings too, is never the nearer happiness, for
all his abundances of temporal blessedness. Evidences are
evidences to them who have title. Temporal blessings are
evidences to them who have a testimony of God's spiritual
blessings in the temporal. Otherwise, as in his hands who hath
no title, it is a suspicious thing to find evidences, and he
will be thought to have embezzled and purloined them, he will be
thought to have forged and counterfeited them, and he will be
called to an account for them, how he came by them, and what he
meant to do with them: so to them who have temporal blessings
without spiritual, they are but useless blessings, they are but
counterfeit blessings, they shall not purchase a minute's peace
here, nor a minute's refreshing to the soul hereafter; and there
must be a heavy account made for them, both how they were got,
and how they were employed.—John Donne.
Verse 15. Happy is that people, etc. It is only
a narrow and one sided religion that can see anything out of
place in this beatitude of plenty and peace. If we could rejoice
with the psalms fully and without misgiving, in the temporal
blessings bestowed by heaven, we should the more readily and
sincerely enter into the depths of their spiritual experience.
And the secret of this lies in the full comprehension and
contemplation of the beautiful and pleasant as the gift of
God.—A.S. Aglen.
Verse 15. Yea, happy is that people, whose God is
the LORD. "Yea, happy." This is the best wine,
kept to the last, though all men be not of this opinion. You
shall hardly bring a worldly man to think so. The world is
willing enough to misconstrue the order of the words, and to
give the priority to civil happiness, as if it were first in
dignity, because 'tis first named: they like better to hear of
the cui sic than the cui Dominus. To prevent this
folly, the Psalmist interposes a caution in this corrective
particle, "yea, happy." It hath the force of a
revocation, whereby he seems to retract what went before, not
simply and absolutely, but in a certain degree, lest worldly men
should wrest it to a misinterpretation. It is not an absolute
revocation, but a comparative; it doth not simply deny
that there is some part of popular happiness in these outward
things, but it prefers the spirituals before them: "Yea",
that is, Yea more, or, Yea rather; like that of
Christ in the Gospel, when one in the company blessed the womb
that bare him, he presently replies, "Yea, rather blessed
are they that hear the word of God and keep it": Lu 11:28.
In like manner, the prophet David, having first premised the
inferior part and outside of a happy condition; fearing lest any
should of purpose mistake his meaning, and, hearing the first
proposition, should either there set up their rest, and not at
all take up the second; or if they take it in, do it
preposterously, and give it the precedence before the second,
according to the world's order, Virtus post nummos. In
this respect he puts in the clause of revocation, whereby he
shows that these outward things, though named first, yet
they are not to be reputed first. The particle "Yea"
removes them to the second place; it tacitly transposes the
order; and the path of piety, which was locally after, it
places virtually before. 'Tis as if he had said, Did I
call them happy who are in such a case? Nay, miserable
are they if they be only in such a case: the temporal part
cannot make them so without the spiritual. Admit the windows of
the visible heaven were opened, and all outward blessings poured
down upon us; admit we did perfectly enjoy whatsoever the
vastness of the earth contains in it; tell me, What will it
profit to gain all and lose God? If the earth be bestowed upon
us, and not heaven; or the material heaven be opened, and not
the beatifical; or the whole world made ours, and God not ours;
we do not arrive at happiness. All that is in the first
proposition is nothing unless this be added, "Yea, happy
are the people which have the Lord for their God."—Richard
Holdsworth.
Verse 15.
Thrice happy nations, where with look benign
Thine aspect bends; beneath thy smile divine
The fields are with increasing harvests crown'd,
The flocks grow fast, and plenty reigns around,
Nor sire, nor infant son, black death shall crave,
Till ripe with age they drop into the grave;
Nor fell suspicion, nor relentless care,
Nor peace destroying discord enter there,
But friends and brothers, wives and sisters, join
The feast in concord and in love divine.—Callimachus.
Verse 15. David having prayed for many temporal
blessings in the behalf of the people from Ps 144:12-15, at last
concludes, Blessed are the people that are in such a case;
but presently he checks and corrects himself, and eats, as it
were, his own words, but rather, happy is that people whose
God is the Lord. The Syriac rendereth it question wise,
"Is not the people (happy) that is in such a case?"
The answer is, "No", except they have God to
boot: Ps 146:5. Nothing can make that man truly miserable that
hath God for his portion, and nothing can make that man truly
happy that wants God for his portion. God is the author of all
true happiness; he is the donor of all true happiness; he is the
maintainer of all true happiness, and he is the centre of all
true happiness; and, therefore, he that hath him for his God,
and for his portion, is the only happy man in the world.—Thomas
Brooks.
Verse 15. Whose God is JEHOVAH. A word or name
well known to us English, by our translators now often retaining
that name in the mention of God in our English Bible, and
therefore we shall do well to retain it. Lord was a lower
word, in common acceptation, than God. But JEHOVAH is a
higher name than either, and more peculiar, incommunicable, and
comprehensive. Ex 6:3: "I appeared" (saith the Lord)
"unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name God
Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to
them."
To have God to be our Jehovah is the insurance of
happiness to us. For of many, observe but these two things in
the name Jehovah: First, God's absolute independency—that
he is of himself omnipotent, Ex 3:14: "And God said, I AM
THAT I AM." Secondly, God's faithfulness, that he
cannot but be as good as his word, Ex 6:2-4, 6: "And I have
also established my covenant with them; wherefore say unto the
children of Israel, I am JEHOVAH (so in the Hebrew), and I will
bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians." So
that this name is our security of God's performance.
Examine we therefore our bonds, and bills, that is, his promises
to us; behold, they are all the promises of Jehovah; they must
stand good, for they bear his name; they must reflect his name,
and promote both our good and God's grand design.—Nathanael
Homes, 1678.
With this prayer of Jehovah's anointed One end the prayers of
the Book of Psalms. The remaining six psalms consist exclusively
of praise and high Hallelujahs.—Lord Congleton, in
"The Psalms: a new Version, with Notes", 1875.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1.
1. Two things needful in our holy war—strength and skill;
for the hands and the fingers, for the difficult and the
delicate.
2. In what way God supplies us with both. He is the one, and
teaches the other. Impartation and Instruction. The teaching
comes by illumination, experience, distinct guidance.
Verse 1. Things not to be forgotten by the Christian
Soldier.
1. The true source of his strength: "The Lord my
strength." If remembered,
a) He will not be found trusting in self.
b) He will never be wanting in courage.
c) He will always anticipate victory.
d) He will never be worsted in the conflict.
2. His constant need of instruction, and the Teacher who
never forgets him: "Which teacheth my hands", etc. If
remembered,
a) He will gird on the armour provided and commended by God.
b) He will select for his weapon the sword of the Spirit.
c) He will study the divinely given text book of military
tactics and discipline, that he may learn (1) the devices of the
enemy; (2) methods of attack and defence; (3) how to bear
himself in the thick of the fight.
d) He will wait upon God for understanding.
3. The praise due to God, both for victories won and skill
displayed: "Blessed be", etc. If remembered,
a) He will wear his honours humbly.
b) Glorify the honour of his King.
c) Twice taste the sweets of victory in the happiness of
gratitude.—J.F.
Verse 2. Double flowers.
1. Good preserved from evil: "goodness" and
"fortress."
2. Safety enlarged into liberty: "tower",
"deliverer."
3. Security attended with rest: "shield, in whom I
trust."
4. Sufficiency to maintain superiority: "subdueth my
people under me." View God as working all.
Verse 2. A Group of Titles. Notice,
1. Which comes first. "Goodness." Heb.
"Mercy."
a) It is right and natural that a saved sinner should make
the most of "mercy", and place it in the foreground.
b) Mercy is the ground and reason of the other titles named.
For whatever God is to us, it is a special manifestation of his
mercy.
c) It is a good thing to see a believer ripe in experience
making mercy the leading note in his song of praise.
2. Which comes last: "He in whom I trust." It
suggests,
a) That what God is makes him worthy of trust.
b) That meditation upon what he is strengthens our trust.
3. What peculiar force the word "my" gives to each.
It makes it,
a) A record of experience.
b) An ascription of praise.
c) A blessed boasting.
d) An incentive, enough to set others longing.—J.F.
Verse 3. A note of interrogation, exclamation, and
admiration.
Verse 3. The question,
1. Denies any right in man to claim the regard of God.
2. Asserts the great honour God has nevertheless put upon
him.
3. Suggests that the true reason of God's generous dealings
is the graciousness of his own heart.
4. Implies the becomingness of gratitude and humility.
5. Encourages the most unworthy to put their confidence in
God.—J.F.
Verse 3.
1. What was man as he came from the hands of his Creator?
a) Rational.
b) Responsible.
c) Immortal.
d) Holy and happy.
2. What is man in his present condition?
a) Fallen.
b) Guilty.
c) Sinful.
d) Miserable, and helpless in his misery.
3. What is man when he has believed in Christ?
a) Restored to a right relation to God.
b) Restored to a right disposition toward God.
c) He enjoys the influences of the Holy Spirit.
d) He is in process of preparation for the heavenly world.
4. What shall man be when he is admitted into heaven?
a) Free from sin and sorrow.
b) Advanced to the perfection of his nature.
c) Associated with angels.
d) Near to his Saviour and his God.
—George Brooks, in "The Homiletic Commentary,"
1879.
Verse 3. Worthless man much regarded by the mighty
God. Sermon by Ebenezer Erskine. Works 3, pp. 141-162.
Verse 3. It is a wonder above all wonders, that ever
the great God should make such account of such a thing as man.
1. It will appear if you consider what a great God the Lord
is.
2. What a poor thing man is.
3. What a great account the great God hath of this poor thing,
man.
—Joseph Alleine.
Verse 4. He is nothing, he pretends to be something,
he is soon gone, he ends in nothing as to this life; yet there
is a light somewhere.
Verse 4. The Shadow World.
1. Our lives are like shadows.
2. But God's light casts these shadows. Our being is of God.
The brevity and mystery of life are a part of providence.
3. The destiny of the shadows; eternal night; or eternal
light.—W.B.H.
Verse 4. The brevity of our earthly life.
1. A profitable subject for meditation.
2. A rebuke to those who provide for this life alone.
3. A trumpet call to prepare for eternity.
4. An incentive to the Christian to make the best of this
life for the glory of God.—J.F.
Verse 5. Condescension, visitation, contact, and
conflagration.
Verses 7-8, 11. Repetitions, not vain. Repetitions in
prayer are vain when they result from form, thoughtlessness, or
superstition; but not, e.g.,
1. When they are the utterance of genuine fervour.
2. When the danger prayed against is imminent.
3. When the fear which prompts the prayer is urgent.
4. When the repetition is prompted by a new motive, Ps
144:7-8; by God's condescension, Ps 144:3,11; by God's former
deliverance, Ps 144:10; and by the results which will flow from
the answer, Ps 144:12-14.—C.A.D.
Verse 8. What is "a right hand of
falsehood"? Ask the hypocrite, the schemer, the man of
false doctrine, the boaster, the slanderer, the man who forgets
his promise, the apostate.
Verse 9. For God's Ear.
1. The Singer. A grateful heart.
2. The Song. Full of Praise. New.
3. The Accompaniment: "Psaltery." Helps to
devotion. Give God the best.
4. The Auditor and Object of the eulogium: "Thee, O
God."—W.B.H.
Verse 11. Persons from whom it is a mercy to escape:
those alien to God, vain in conversation, false in deed.
Verses 11-12. The Nature and Necessity of early Piety.
A Sermon preached to a Society of Young People, at Willingham,
Cambridgeshire, on the First Day of the Year 1772.—Robert
Robinson.
Verse 12. Youth attended with development, stability,
usefulness, and spiritual health.
Verse 12. (first clause). To Young Men.
Consider,
1. What is desired on your behalf: "Sons may be as
plants", etc.
(a) That you may be respected and valued.
(b) That you may have settled principles and virtues. Plants
are not blown hither and thither.
(c) That you may be vigorous and strong in moral power.
2. What is requisite on your part to the accomplishment of
this desire.
(a) A good rooting in Christ.
(b) Constant nourishment from the word of God.
(c) The dews of divine grace obtained by prayer.
(d) A resolute tendency within to answer the God appointed
purpose of your existence.—J.F.
Verse 12. (second clause). To Young Women.
Consider,
1. The important position you may occupy in the social
fabric: "As cornerstones."
(a) The moral and religious tone of society is determined
more by your character and influence than by those of men.
(b) The complexion of home life will be a reflex of your
conduct and character, either as daughters, sisters, or wives.
(c) The moulding of the character of the next generation,
remember, begins with the mother's influence.
(d) Let these facts weigh with you as a motive in seeking the
grace of God, without which you can never fulfil your mission
worthily.
2. The beauty which ought to belong to you in your position.
"Polished after", etc. The beauty of,
(a) Heart purity: "The King's daughter is all glorious
within."
(b) A noble and modest conduct: "wrought gold", no
imitation; real gold.
(c) Gracious and gentle demeanour.
3. How both the right position and right beauty are obtained.
(a) By yielding yourselves to God.
(b) By Christ dwelling in your heart.
(c) By becoming living stones and polished stones under the
workmanship of the Holy Spirit.—J.F.
Verse 14. A prayer for our ministers, and for the
security, unity, and happiness of the church.
Verse 14. The prosperous Church. There—
1. Labour is cheerfully performed.
2. The enemy is kept without the gate.
3. There are few or no departures.
4. Faith and content silence complaint.
5. Pray that such may be our case as a church.—W.B.H.
Verse 15. The peculiar happiness of those whose God is
the Lord.