This is one of the alphabetical psalms, composed
with much art, and, doubtless, so arranged that the memory might
be aided. The Holy Spirit condescends to use even the more
artificial methods of the poet, to secure attention, and impress
the heart.
TITLE. David's Psalm Of Praise. It is David's,
David's very own, David's favourite. It is David's Praise just
as another (Ps 86:1-17) is David's Prayer. It is altogether
praise, and praise pitched in a high key. David had blessed God
many a time in other psalms, but this he regarded as his
peculiar, his crown jewel of praise. Certainly David's praise is
the best of praise, for it is that of a man of experience, of
sincerity, of calm deliberation, and of intense warmth of the
heart. It is not for any one of us to render David's praise, for
David only could do that, but we may take David's psalm as a
model, and aim at making our own personal adoration as much,
like it as possible: we shall be long before we equal our model.
Let each Christian reader present his own praise unto the Lord,
and call it by his own name. What a wealth of varied praise will
thus be presented through Christ Jesus!
DIVISION. The psalm does not fall into
any marked divisions, but is one and indivisible. Our other
translators have mapped out this song with considerable
discernment. It is or a perfect arrangement, but it will suit
our convenience in exposition. David praiseth God for his fame
or glory (Ps 145:1-7), for his goodness (Ps 145:8-10), for his
kingdom (Ps 145:11-13), for his providence (Ps 145:14-16), for
his saving mercy (Ps 145:17-21).
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. I will extol thee, my God, O king.
David as God's king adores God as his king. It is well when the
Lord's royalty arouses our loyalty, and our spirit is moved to
magnify his majesty. The Psalmist has extolled his Lord many a
time before, he is doing so still, and he will do so in the
future: praise is for all tenses. When we cannot express all our
praise just now, it is wise to register our resolution to
continue in the blessed work, and write it down as a bond,
"I will extol thee." See how David testifies his
devotion and adherence to his God by the pronoun "my",
how he owns his allegiance by the title "king", and
how he goes on to declare his determination to make much of him
in his song. And I will bless thy name for ever and ever. David
determined that his praise should rise to blessing, should
intelligently spend itself upon the name or character of God,
and should be continued world without end. He uses the word
"bless" not merely for variation of sound, but also
for the deepening and sweetening of the sense. To bless God is
to praise him with a personal affection for him, and a wishing
well to him: this is a growingly easy exercise as we advance in
experience and grow in grace. David declares that he will offer
every form of praise, through every form of existence. His
notion of duration is a full one—"for ever" has no
end, but when he adds another" ever" to it he forbids
all idea of a close. Our praise of God shall be as eternal as
the God we praise.
Verse 2. Every day will I bless thee. Whatever
the character of the day, or of my circumstances and conditions
during that day, I will continue to glorify God. Were we well to
consider the matter we should see abundant cause in each day for
rendering special blessing unto the Lord. All before the day,
all in the day, all following the day should constrain us to
magnify our God every day, all the year round. Our love to God
is not a matter of holy days: every day is alike holy to holy
men. David here comes closer to God than when he said, "I
will bless thy name": it is now, "I will bless thee."
This is the centre and kernel of true devotion: we do not only
admire the Lord's words and works, but himself. Without
realizing the personality of God, praise is well nigh
impossible; you cannot extol an abstraction. And I will
praise thy name for ever and ever. He said he would bless
that name, and now he vows to praise it; he will extol the Lord
in every sense and way. Eternal worship shall not be without its
variations; it will never become monotonous. Heavenly music is
not harping upon one string, but all strings shall be tuned to
one praise. Observe the personal pronouns here: four times he
says "I will": praise is not to be discharged by
proxy: there must be your very self in it, or there is nothing
in it.
Verse 3. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be
praised. Worship should be somewhat like its object—great
praise for a great God. There is no part of Jehovah's greatness
which is not worthy of great praise. In some beings greatness is
but vastness of evil: in him it is magnificence of goodness.
Praise may be said to be great when the song contains great
matter, when the hearts producing it are intensely fervent, and
when large numbers unite in the grand acclaim. No chorus is too
loud, no orchestra too large, no psalm too lofty for the lauding
of the Lord of Hosts.
"And his greatness is unsearchable."
"Still his worth your praise exceeds,
Excellent are all his deeds."
Song should be founded upon search; hymns composed without
thought are of no worth, and tunes upon which no pains have been
spent are beneath the dignity of divine adoration. Yet when we
meditate most, and search most studiously we shall still find
ourselves surrounded with unknowable wonders, which will baffle
all attempts to sing them worthily. The best adoration of the
Unsearchable is to own him to be so, and close the eyes in
reverence before the excessive light of his glory. Not all the
minds of all the centuries shall suffice to search out the
unsearchable riches of God; he is past finding out; and,
therefore, his deserved praise is still above and beyond all
that we can render to him.
Verse 4. One generation shall praise thy works to
another. There shall be a tradition of praise: melt shall
hand on the service, they shall make it a point to instruct
their descendants in this hallowed exercise. We look back upon
the experience of our fathers, and sing of it; even thus shall
our sons learn praise from the Lord's works among ourselves. Let
us see to it that we praise God before our children, and never
make them think that his service is an unhappy one. And shall
declare thy mighty acts. The generations shall herein unite:
together they shall make up an extraordinary history. Each
generation shall contribute its chapter, and all the generations
together shall compose a volume of matchless character. David
began with "I", but he has in this verse soon reached
to an inconceivable multitude, comprehending all the myriads of
our race of every age. The praise of the Lord enlarges the
heart, and as it grows upon us our minds grow with it. God's
works of goodness and acts of power make up a subject which all
the eras of human story can never exhaust. A heart full of
praise seems to live in all the centuries in delightful
companionship with all the good. We are not afraid that the
incense will ever cease to burn upon the altars of Jehovah: the
priests die, but the adoration lives on. All glory be unto him
who remains the same Lord throughout all generations.
Verse 5. I will speak of the glorious honour of thy
majesty. 'Tis fit a king should speak of the majesty of the
King of kings. David cannot give over the worship of God into
the hands of others, even though all generations should
undertake to perpetuate it: he must have his own individual
share in it, and so he saith, "I will speak." What a
speaker! for he no sooner begins than he heaps up words of
honour—"the glorious honour of thy majesty", or
"the beauty of the honour of thy majesty." His
language labours to express his meaning; he multiplies the terms
by which he would extol Jehovah, his King. Everything which has
to do with the Great King is majestic, honourable, glorious. His
least is greater than man's greatest, his lowest is higher than
man's highest. There is nothing about the infinite Lord which is
unworthy of his royalty; and, on the other hand, nothing is
wanting to the splendour of his reign: his majesty is honourable,
and his honour is glorious: he is altogether wonderful. And of
thy wondrous works. All the works of God among men are Godlike,
but certain of them are specially calculated to create surprise.
Many works of power, of justice, of wisdom, are wonderful; and
his work of grace is wondrous above all. This specially, and all
the rest proportionately, should be spoken of by holy men, by
experienced men, and by men who have the ability to speak with
power. These things must not be permitted to pass away in
silence; if others do not remember them, representative men like
David must make a point of conversing upon them in private, and
speaking of them in public. Let it be the delight of each one of
us according to our position to speak lovingly of our Lord.
Verse 6. And men shall speak of the might of thy
terrible acts. If unobservant of other matters these acts of
judgment shall seize their attention and impress their minds so
that they must talk about them. Did not men in our Saviour's day
speak of the falling tower of Siloam and the slaughtered
Galileans? Are there not rumours of wars, when there are not
even whispers of other things? Horrible news is sure to spread:
under mercies men may be dumb, but concerning miseries they
raise a great outcry. The force of dread is a power which
loosens the tongue of the multitude: they are sure to talk of
that which makes the ear to tingle and the hair to stand
upright. While they are thus occupied with "fearsome
facts", such as the drowning of a world, the destruction of
the cities of the plain, the plagues of Egypt, the destruction
at the Red Sea, and so forth, David would look at these affairs
in another light, and sing another tune. And I will declare
thy greatness. Those acts which were terrible deeds to most
men were mighty deeds, or greatnesses to our holy poet:
these he would publish like a herald, who mentions the titles
and honours of his royal master. It is the occupation of every
true believer to rehearse the great doings of his great God. We
are not to leave this to the common converse of the crowd, but
we are personally to make a declaration of what we have seen and
known. We are even bound in deep solemnity of manner to warn men
of the Lord's greatness in his terrible acts of justice: thus
will they be admonished to abstain from provoking him. To fulfil
this duty we are already bound by solemn obligations, and we
shall do well to bind ourselves further by resolutions, "I
will—God helping me, I will."
Verse 7. They shall abundantly utter the memory of
thy great goodness. They shall pour forth grateful memories
even as springs gush with water, plenteously, spontaneously,
constantly, joyously. The Lord's redeemed people having been
filled with his great goodness, shall retain the happy
recollection of it, and shall be moved often and often to utter
those recollections. Not content with a scanty mention of such
amazing love, they shall go on to an abundant utterance of such
abundant favour. It shall be their delight to speak with one
another of God's dealings with them, and to compare notes of
their experiences. God has done nothing stintedly; all his
goodness is great goodness, all worthy to be remembered, all
suggestive of holy discourse. Upon this subject there is no
scarcity of matter, and when the heart is right there is no need
to stop from want of facts to tell. Oh, that there were more of
these memories and utterances, for it is not meet that the
goodness of the living God should be buried in the cemetery of
silence, in the grave of ingratitude.
And shall sing of thy righteousness. They shall say and then
sing. And what is the theme which impels them to leave the
pulpit for the orchestra? What do they sing of? They sing of
that righteousness which is the sinner's terror, which even good
men mention with deep solemnity. Righteousness received by
gospel light is in reality the secret foundation of the
believer's hope. God's covenant of grace is our strong
consolation, because he who made it is righteous, and will not
run back from it. Since Jesus died as our substitute,
righteousness requires and secures the salvation of all the
redeemed. This attribute is our best friend, and therefore we
sing of it. Modern thinkers would fain expunge the idea of
righteousness from their notion of God; but converted men would
not. It is a sign of growth in cation when we rejoice in the
justice, rectitude, and holiness of our God. Even a rebel may
rejoice in mercy, which he looks upon as laxity; but a loyal
rejoices when he learns that God is so just that not even to
save his own would he consent to violate the righteousness of
his moral government. Few men will shout for joy at the
righteousness of Jehovah, but those who do so his chosen, in
whom his soul delighteth.
Verse 8. The Lord is gracious. Was it not in
some such terms that the Lord revealed himself to Moses? Is not
this Jehovah's glory? To all living men his aspect: he is
gracious, or full of goodness and generosity. He treats
creatures with kindness, his subjects with consideration, and
his saints favour. His words and ways, his promises and his
gifts, his plans and his poses all manifest his grace, or free
favour. There is nothing suspicious, diced, morose, tyrannical,
or unapproachable in Jehovah,—he is condescending and kind. And
full of compassion. To the suffering, the weak, the
despondent, he is very pitiful: he feels for them, he feels with
them: he this heartily, and in a practical manner. Of this
pitifulness he is full, so the compassionates freely,
constantly, deeply, divinely, and effectually. In fulness in a
sense not known among men, and this fulness is all fragrant
sympathy for human misery. If the Lord be full of compassion
there is no in him for forgetfulness or harshness, and none
should suspect him What an ocean of compassion there must be
since the Infinite God is full of Slow to anger. Even
those who refuse his grace yet share in long suffering. When men
do not repent, but, on the contrary, go from bad to worse,
averse to let his wrath flame forth against them. Greatly
patient and anxious that the sinner may live, he "lets the
lifted thunder drop", and still bears. "Love suffereth
long and is kind", and God is love. And of great mercy.
This is his attitude towards the guilty. When men at last
repent, find pardon awaiting them. Great is their sin, and great
is God's mercy, need great help, and they have it though they
deserve it not; for he is good to the greatly guilty.
Verse 9. The LORD is good to all. No one, not
even his fiercest enemy, can this; for the falsehood would be
too barefaced, since the very existence lips which slander him
is a proof that it is slander. He allows his live, he even
supplies them with food, and smooths their way with many forts;
for them the sun shines as brightly as if they were saints, and
the rain waters their fields as plentifully as if they were
perfect men. Is not this goodness to all? In our own land the
gospel sounds in the ears of all who care to listen; and the
Scriptures are within reach of the poorest child. It would be a
wanton wresting of Scripture to limit this expression to the
elect, as some have tried to do; we rejoice in electing love,
but none the less we welcome the glorious truth, "Jehovah
is good to all."
And his tender mercies are over all his works. Not "his
new covenant works", as one read it the other day who was
wise above that which is written, yea, contrary to that which is
written. Kindness is a law of God's universe: the world was
planned for happiness; even now that sin has so sadly marred
God's handiwork, and introduced elements which were not from the
beginning, the Lord has so arranged matters that the fall is
broken, the curse is met by an antidote, and the inevitable pain
is softened with mitigations. Even in this sin stricken world,
under its disordered economy, there are abundant traces of a
hand skilful to soothe distress and heal disease. That which
makes life bearable is the tenderness of the great Father. This
is seen in the creation of an insect as well as in the ruling of
nations. The Creator is never rough, the Provider is never
forgetful, the Ruler is never cruel. Nothing is done to create
disease, no organs are arranged to promote misery; the incoming
of sickness and pain is not according to the original design,
but a result of our disordered state. Man's body as it left the
Maker's hand was neither framed for disease, decay, nor death,
neither was the purpose of it discomfort and anguish; far
otherwise, it was framed for a joyful activity, and a peaceful
enjoyment of God. Jehovah has in great consideration laid up in
the world cures for our ailments, and helps for our feebleness;
and if many of these have been long in their discovery, it is
because it was more for man's benefit to find them out himself,
than to have them labelled and placed in order before his eyes.
We may be sure of this, that Jehovah has never taken delight in
the ills of his creatures, but has sought their good, and laid
himself out to alleviate the distresses into which they have
guiltily plunged themselves. The duty of kindness to animals may
logically be argued from this verse. Should not the children of
God be like their Father in kindness?
Verse 10. All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD.
There is a something about every creature which redounds to the
honour of God. The skill, kindness, and power manifested in the
formation of each living thing is in itself to the praise of
God, and when observed by an intelligent mind the Lord is
honoured thereby. Some works praise him by their being, and
others by their well being; some by their mere existence, and
others by their hearty volition. And thy saints shall bless
thee. These holy ones come nearer, and render sweeter
adoration. Men have been known to praise those whom they hated,
as we may admire the prowess of a warrior who is our foe; but
saints lovingly praise, and therefore are said to
"bless." They wish well to God; they would make him
more blessed, if such a thing were possible; they desire
blessings upon his cause and his children, and invoke success
upon his work and warfare. None but blessed men will bless the
Lord. Only saints or holy ones will bless the thrice holy God.
If we praise Jehovah because of his works around us, we must go
on to bless him for his works within us. Let the two "shalls"
of this verse be fulfilled, especially the latter one.
Verse 11. They shall speak of the glory of thy
kingdom. Excellent themes for saintly minds. Those who bless
God from their hearts rejoice to see him enthroned, glorified,
and magnified in power. No subject is more profitable for
humility, obedience, hope, and joy than that of the reigning
power of the Lord our God. His works praise him, but they cannot
crown him: this remains for holy hands and hearts. It is their
high pleasure to tell of the glory of his kingdom in its
justice, kindness, eternity, and so forth. Kingdoms of earth are
glorious for riches, for extent of territory, for victories, for
liberty, for commerce, and other matters; but in all true
glories the kingdom of Jehovah excels them. We have seen a
palace dedicated "to all the glories of France"; but
time, eternity, and all space are filled with the glories of
God: on these we love to speak. And talk of thy power.
This power supports the kingdom and displays the glory, and we
are sure to talk of it when the glory of the divine kingdom is
under discussion. God's power to create or to destroy, to bless
or to punish, to strengthen or to crush, is matter for frequent
rehearsal. All power comes from God. Apart from him the laws of
nature would be inoperative. His power is the one source of
force—mechanical, vital, mental, spiritual. Beyond the power
of God which has been put forth, infinite force lies latent in
himself. Who can calculate the reserve forces of the Infinite?
How, then, can his kingdom fail? We hear talk of the five great
powers, but what are they to the One Great Power? The Lord is
"the blessed and only Potentate." Let us accustom
ourselves to think more deeply and speak more largely of this
power which ever makes for righteousness and works for mercy.
Verse 12. To make known to the sons of men his
mighty acts. These glorious deeds ought to be known to all
mankind; but yet few reckon such knowledge to be an essential
part of education. As the State cannot teach these holy
histories the people of God must take care to do it themselves.
The work must be done for every age, for men have short memories
in reference to their God, and the doings of his power. They
inscribe the deeds of their heroes upon brass, but the glorious
acts of Jehovah are written upon the sand, and the tide of time
washes them from present memory; therefore we must repeat the
lesson, and yet again repeat it. The saints are the religious
instructors of the race; they ought to be not only the
historians of the past, but the bards of the present, whose duty
it is to keep the sons of men in memory of the great deeds which
the Lord did in the days of their fathers and in the old time
before them. Note the contrast between the great deeds of God
and the puny sons of Adam, who have even degenerated from their
father, though he was as nothing compared with his Maker. And
the glorious majesty of his kingdom. What a grand subject! Yet
this we are to make known; the publication of it is left to us
who bless the Lord. "The glory of the majesty of his
reign." What a theme! Jehovah's reign as sovereign Lord of
all, his majesty in that dominion, and the glory of that
majesty! The threefold subject baffles the most willing mind.
How shall we make this known to the sons of men? Let us first
labour to know it ourselves, and then let us make it a frequent
subject of discourse, so shall men know it from us, the Holy
Spirit attending our word.
Verse 13. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.
His meditation has brought him near to God, and God near to him:
he speaks to him in adoration, changing the pronoun from
"his" to "thy." He sees the great King, and
prostrates himself before him. It is well when our devotion
opens the gate of heaven, and enters within the portal, to speak
with God face to face, as a man speaketh with his friend. The
point upon which the Psalmist's mind rests is the eternity of
the divine throne,—"thy reign is a reign of all
eternities." The Lord's kingdom is without beginning,
without break, without bound, and without end. He never
abdicates his throne, neither does he call in a second to share
his empire. None can overthrow his power, or break away from his
rule. Neither this age, nor the age to come, nor ages of ages
shall cause his sovereignty to fail. Herein is rest for faith.
"The Lord sitteth King for ever." And thy dominion
endureth throughout all generations. Men come and go like
shadows on the wall, but God reigneth eternally. We distinguish
kings as they succeed each other by calling them first and
second; but this King is Jehovah, the First and the Last. Adam
in his generation knew his Creator to be King, and the last of
his race shall know the same. All hail, Great God I Thou art
ever Lord of lords!
These three verses are a reverent hymn concerning "the
kingdom of God": they will be best appreciated by those who
are in that kingdom in the fullest sense, and are most truly
loyal to the Lord. It is, according to these verses, a kingdom
of glory and power; a kingdom of light which men are to know,
and of might which men are to feel; it is full of majesty and
eternity; it is the benediction of every generation. We are to
speak of it, talk of it, and make it known, and then we are to
acknowledge it in the homage directed distinctly to the Lord
himself—as in Ps 145:13. In these three verses Jehovah is
adored for his gracious providence towards men and all other
creatures; this fitly follows the proclamation of his royalty,
for we here see how he rules his kingdom, and provides for his
subjects.
Verse 14. The Lead upholdeth all that fall.
Read this verse in connection with the preceding, and admire the
unexpected contrast: he who reigns in glorious majesty, yet
condescends to lift up and hold up those who are apt to fall.
The form of the verb shows that he is always doing this; he is
Jehovah upholding. His choice of the fallen, and the falling, as
the subjects of his gracious help is specially to be noted. The
fallen of our race, especially fallen women, are shunned by us,
and it is peculiar tenderness on the Lord's part that such he
looks upon, even those who are at once the chief of sinners and
the least regarded of mankind. The falling ones among us are too
apt to be pushed down by the strong: their timidity and
dependence make them the victims of the proud and domineering.
To them also the Lord gives his upholding help. The Lord loves
to reverse things,—he puts down the lofty, and lifts up the
lowly. And raiseth up all those that be bowed down. Another deed
of condescension. Many are despondent, and cannot lift up their
heads in courage, or their hearts with comfort; but these he
cheers. Some are bent with their daily lead, and these he
strengthens. Jesus loosed a daughter of Abraham whom Satan had
so bound that she was bowed down, and could by no means lift up
herself. In this he proved himself to be the true Son of the
Highest. Think of the Infinite bowing to lift up the bowed, and
stooping to be leaned upon by those who are ready to fall. The
two "alls" should not be overlooked: the Lord has a
kindly heart towards the whole company of the afflicted.
Verse 15. The eyes of all wait upon thee. They
have learned to look to thee: it has become their nature to turn
to thee for all they want. As children look to a father for all
they need, so do the creatures look to God, the all sufficient
Provider. It were well if all men had the eye of faith, and if
all waited therewith upon the Lord. And thou givest them
their meat in due season. They wait, and God gives. The
thought of this brings God so near to our poet prophet that he
is again speaking with God after the style of thee and thou. Is
it to be wondered at when the Lord is feeding the hungry all
around us,—giving food to all creatures, and to ourselves
among them? Like a flock of sheep the creatures stand around the
Lord as their great Shepherd; all eyes are to his hand expecting
to receive their food; nor are they disappointed, for when the
hour comes suitable provender is ready for each creature.
Observe the punctuality of the Lord in giving food at meal
time,—in the season when it is due. This he does for all, and
each living thing has its own season, so that the Lord of heaven
is feeding his great flock both by day and by night, during
every moment of time.
Verse 16. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest
the desire of every living thing. You alone provide, O
Jehovah! Thou doest it liberally, with open hand; thou doest it
easily, as if it were only to open thine hand; thou doest this
at once as promptly as if all supplies were ready to hand.
Living things have needs, and these create desires; the living
God has suitable supplies at hand, and these he gives till
inward satisfaction is produced, and the creature sighs no
longer. In spiritual things, when God has raised a desire, he
always gratifies it; hence the longing is prophetic of the
blessing. In no case is the desire of the living thing excited
to produce distress, but in order that it may seek and find
satisfaction. These verses refer to natural providence; but they
may equally well apply to the stores of grace, since the same
God is king in both spheres. If we will but wait upon the Lord
for pardon, renewing, or whatever else we need, we shall not
wait in vain. The hand of grace is never closed while the sinner
lives. In these verses we behold our God in the realm of his
free grace dealing well with his believing people.
Verse 17. The LORD is righteous in all his ways,
and holy in all his works. His ways and works are both
worthy to be praised. Jehovah cannot be unjust or impure. Let
his doings be what they may, they are in every case righteous
and holy. This is the confession of the godly who follow his
ways, and of the gracious who study his works. Whatever God is
or does must be right. In the salvation of his people he is as
righteous and holy as in any other of his ways and works: he has
not manifested mercy at the expense of justice, but the rather
he has magnified his righteousness by the death of his Son.
Verse 19. He will fulfil the desire of them that
fear him: that is, those who reverence his name and his law.
Inasmuch as they have respect unto his will, he will have
respect unto their will. They shall have their way for they have
his way in their hearts. A holy heart only desires what a holy
God can give, and so its desire is filled full out of the
fullness of the Lord. He also will hear their cry, and will
save them. Divinely practical shall his nearness be, for he
will work their deliverance. He will listen to their piteous
cry, and then will send salvation from every ill. This he will
do himself personally; he will not trust them to angels or
saints.
Verse 21. My mouth shall speak the praise of the
LORD. Whatever others may do, I will not be silent in the
praise of the Lord: whatever others may speak upon, my topic is
fixed once for all: I will speak the praise of Jehovah. I am
doing it, and I will do it as long as I breathe. And let all
flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever. Praise is no
monopoly for one, even though he be a David; others are debtors,
let them also be songsters. All men of every race, condition, or
generation should unite to glorify God. No man need think that
he will be rejected when he comes with his personal note of
praise; all are permitted, invited, and exhorted to magnify the
Lord. Specially should his holiness be adored: this is the
crown, and in a certain sense the sum, of all his attributes.
Only holy hearts will praise the holy name, or character of the
Lord; oh, that all flesh were sanctified, then would the
sanctity of God be the delight of all. Once let the song begin
and there will be no end to it. It shall go on for ever and a
clay, as the old folks used to say. If there were two forevers,
or twenty forevers, they ought all to be spent in the praises of
the ever living, ever blessing, ever blessed JEHOVAH. Blessed be
the Lord for ever for having revealed to us his name, and
blessed be that name as he has revealed it; yea, blessed be he
above all that we can know, or think, or say. Our hearts revel
in the delight of praising him. Our mouth, our mind, our lip,
our life shall be our Lord's throughout this mortal existence,
and when time shall be no more.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
This has been happily characterized as the "new
song" promised in Ps 144:9. In other words, it is the song
of praise, corresponding to the didactic, penitential, and
supplicatory psalms of this series.—Joseph Addison
Alexander.
The ancient Hebrews declare him happy whoever, in after
times, utters this psalm thrice each day with the mouth, heart,
and tongue.—Victorinus Bythner, 1670.
The last six or seven psalms are the Beulah of the book,
where the sun shineth night and day, and the voice of the turtle
is heard in the land. Coming at the close after all the
mournful, plaintive, penitential, prayerful, varying notes, they
Unconsciously typify the joy and rest of glory.—George
Gilfillan.
Title. The praise of David. Psalms are the
praises of God accompanied with Song; psalms are songs
containing the praise of God. If there be praise, but not of
God, it is not a psalm. If there be praise, and praise of God,
if it is not sung, it is not a psalm. To make a psalm there go
these three—praise, God's praise, and song.—Augustine.
Title. It is observable concerning David's entitling
the psalm "The Praise of David", that in the original
no psalm else beareth such a title. It is appropriated to it,
because this wholly consists of praise; he was elevated therein
to a frame of spirit made up of the pure praise of God, without
any touch of what was particular to himself. It was not thanks,
but altogether praise, and wholly praise.—Thomas Goodwin.
Title. This psalm, which is designated a Tehillah, or
a psalm of praise,—a name which has passed from this psalm to
the whole Psalter, which is commonly called Sepher Tehillim, or
"Book of Praises, "—is the last of the psalms
ascribed to David. It is remarkable, that although that is the
name given to the Psalter (which is entitled in Hebrew Sepher
Tehillim, or Book of Praises), this is the only psalm
in the whole number which is designated in the title as a Tehillah—a
word derived from the same root as Hallelujah. It seems
as if this name Tehillah had been studiously reserved for
the last of David's psalms, in order to mark more
emphatically that all his utterances are consummated in praise.
And this view is more clearly manifested by the circumstance
that the word Tehillah is introduced into the last
verse of this psalm, "My soul shall speak the praise"
(tehillah) "of the Lord" (observe this
preparation for Hallelujah, Praise ye the Lord);
"and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and
ever." As much as to say that though David's voice was now
about to be hushed in this life, yet it would never be silent in
the world to come, and would ever "praise the Lord";
and as much, also, as to say that his last exhortation should be
to all nations to praise him, "Let all flesh bless his holy
name for ever and ever."—Christopher Wordsworth.
Title. This psalm is entitled "David's
praise." For howsoever the prayers and the praises
(all) in this book, are (for the most part) of David's penning:
yet two there are he hath singled out from the rest, and set his
own mark on them as proper to himself: the 86. Psalm, his Tephilla,
David's own Prayer;and there is here his Tehilla,
his own Praise or thanksgiving. As if he had made the
rest for all in common, but reserved these peculiarly for
himself.—Lancelot Andrews.
Whole Psalm. In regard to its alphabetic structure, it
has one peculiarity, viz., the nun is omitted; the reason
of which may be, that (as we have seen in some other psalms of
this structure) by means of that or some other such omission, we
might be kept from putting stress on the mere form of the
composition.—Andrew A. Bonar.
Whole Psalm. Cassiodorus quaintly remarks that the
psalms in which the alphabetical order is complete, are
especially fitted for the righteous in the Church Triumphant,
but those in which one letter is missing, are for the Church
Militant here on earth, as still imperfect, and needing to be
purified from defect.—Neale and Littledale.
Verse 1. I will extol thee, my God, O King. To
extol is to set preeminently on high; to exalt above all others;
it is the expression of the greatest possible admiration; it is
letting others know our high opinion of a person, and
endeavouring to win them over to it. The man who has such a high
opinion of another as to induce him to extol him, will not be
likely to rest without bringing forth into prominent observation
the object of his praise.—Philip Bennett Power.
Verse 1. O King; or the King, by way of
eminency; the King of kings, the God by whom kings reign, and to
whom I and all other kings owe subjection and obedience.—Matthew
Pool.
Verse 1. O king. The Psalmist in rapt ecstasy
seems as though he saw God incarnate in Christ present to
inspire his praise. Christ is our God and King, to be extolled
in the heart, with the mouth, and by the life.—Thomas Le
Blanc.
Verse 1. King. God is King in verity; others
are called kings in vanity.—Martin Geier.
Verse 1. I will bless thy name for ever and ever.
The name of God in Scripture is taken, first, for God himself.
The name of a thing is put for the thing named, Ps 44:5:
"Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy
name will we tread them under that rise up against us."
"Through thy name", that is, through thee.
Secondly, the name of God is often in Scripture put for the
attributes of God. Thirdly, the name of God is put for his
ordinances of worship. "Go ye now unto my place which
was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first" (Jer
12:12), that is, where I first set up my public worship;
because, as a man is known by his proper name, so is God by his
proper worship. Fourthly, the name of God is that reverence,
esteem and honour which angels and men give unto God. As we
know amongst us, the report and reputation that a man hath among
men is a man's name; what men speak of him, that is his name;
such an one hath a good name, we say; such an one hath an ill
name, that is, men speak or think well or ill of such persons.
So Ge 6:4. When Moses describes the giants, he saith, "They
were men of renown"; the Hebrew is, "They were men of name",
because the name of a man is the character he hath amongst men;
as a man is esteemed, so his name is carried, and himself is
accepted in the world. So the name of God is that high esteem,
those honourable apprehensions, which angels and men have of
God; such as the thoughts and speeches of men are for the
celebration of God's glory and praise, such is his name in the
world.—Joseph Caryl.
Verse 1. For ever and ever. dez
Mlwel, leolam vaed, for ever onward, in this and
the coming world. Expressions of this sort are very difficult to
be translated, but they are, on the whole, well interpreted by
those words of Mr. Addison:—
"Through all eternity to thee,
A joyful song I'll raise;
But oh, eternity's too short
To utter all thy praise!"—Adam Clarke.
Verse 1. For ever and ever. Praise is the only
part of duty in which we at present engage, which is lasting. We
pray, but there shall be a time when prayer shall offer its last
litany; we believe, but there shall be a time when faith shall
be lost in sight; we hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, but
there shall be a time when hope lies down and dies, lost in the
splendour of the fruition that God shall reveal. But praise goes
singing into heaven, and is ready without a teacher to strike
the harp, that is waiting for it, to transmit along the echoes
of eternity the song of the Lamb. In the party coloured world in
which we live, there are days of various sorts and experiences,
making up the aggregate of the Christian's life. There are
waiting days, in which, because Providence fences us round, and
it seems as if we cannot march, we cannot move, as though we
must just wait to see what the Lord is about to do in us and for
us; and there are watching days, when it behooves us never to
slumber, but to be always ready for the attacks of our spiritual
enemy; and there are warring days, when with nodding plume, and
with ample armour, we must go forth to do battle for the truth;
and there are weeping days, when it seems as if the fountains of
the great deep within us were broken up; and as though, through
much tribulation, we had to pass to heaven in tears. But these
days shall all pass away by and by—waiting days all be passed,
warring days all be passed, watching days all be passed; but
"Our days of praise shall ne'er be past
While life, and thought, and being last,
And immortality endures."
—William Morley Punshon, 1824-1881.
Verse 1. For ever and ever. To praise God now
does not satisfy devout aspiration, for in this age the
worshipper's devotion is interrupted by sin, fear, sickness,
etc.; but in eternity praise will proceed in unbroken
procession.—John Lorinus.
Verses 1-2. I will bless thee for ever and ever, and
again, Ps 145:2. This intimates,
1. That he resolved to continue in this work to the end of
his life, throughout his "for ever" in this world.
2. That the psalms he penned should be made use of in
praising God by the church to the end of time. 2Ch 29:30.
3. That he hoped to be praising God to all eternity in the
other world: they that make it their constant work on earth,
shall have it their everlasting bliss in heaven.—Matthew
Henry.
Verse 2. Every day. Then God is to be blessed
and praised in dark as well as bright days—Johannes Paulus
Palanterius, 1600.
Verse 2. Every day (in the week) will I bless thee,
the Psalmist seems to signify. As there are "seven
spirits" peculiarly existing in nearness to God, David
holds the seven days of the week like seven stars in his hand,
or like a seven branched candlestick of gold, burning every day
with his devotion. He calls the seven days to be as seven angels
with trumpets.—Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 2. I will bless thee: I will praise thy name.
The repetition intimates the fervency of his affection to this
work, the fixedness of his purpose to abound in it, and the
frequency of his performances therein.—Matthew Henry.
Verse 2. Praise. If we are to define it in
words, we may say that praise is thankful, lowly, loving worship
of the goodness and majesty of God. And therefore we often find
the word "praise" joined with "blessing" and
"thanksgiving": but though all three are akin to each
other, they are not all alike. They are steps in a gradual
scale—a song of degrees. Thanksgiving runs up into blessing,
and blessing ascends into praise; for praise comprehends both,
and is the highest and most perfect work of all living
spirits.—Henry Edward Manning, 1850.
Verse 3. Great is the Lord. If "great"
here be referred to God as a king, then a great king he
is in respect of the breadth of his empire, for all creatures,
from the highest angel to the poorest worm, are under him.
"Great" for length; for "his kingdom is an
everlasting kingdom." "Great" for depth; for he
rules even in the hearts of kings, of all men, over rules their
thoughts, affections, nothing is hid from him. And
"great" again for height; being "a great King
above all gods", ruling by his own absolute power and
authority; whereas all other kings have their sword from him,
and rule by a delegated and vicarious power.—William
Nicholson.
Verse 3. His greatness is unsearchable. God is
so great, that till Christ revealed the Father, Deity was lost
in its own infinity to the perception of men. He who attempts to
navigate an infinite ocean must come back to his starting point,
never being able to cross. So the ancient philosophers,
disputing as to the Divine Nature, were baffled by their own
ingenuity, they had to confess that they comprehended nothing of
God except that he was incomprehensible. Without Christ, men can
only find out about God that they can never find him.—Thomas
Le Blanc.
Verse 3. (last clause.) The Vulgate renders
thus, "Of his greatness no end." The Hebrew is,
"Of his greatness no investigation." As the classic
Greeks would say, avexicniastos,
not to be traced out.—Simon de Muis, 1587-1644.
Verse 3. God had searched David through and through
(Ps 139:1), but David proved he could not search God's
greatness.—Martin Geier.
Ver. 3-6. Ps 145:3,4 contain the material of praise, and Ps
145:5,6 the praise itself. Ps 145:3 states a proposition, and Ps
145:4 gives the amplification.—Hermann Venema.
Verse 4. One generation shall praise thy works to
another, etc. De 4:9 6:7. Fathers teaching their sons the
goodness and glory of God. This was a legal ordinance. The
church and its worshippers are collecting praises of successive
generations for the final Hallelujah celebration.—Martin
Geier.
Verse 4. One generation shall praise thy works to
another. Singular is exchanged for plural in the Hebrew,
"One generation shall praise (sing) thy works to another,
and shall declare (plural) thy mighty acts." Here is melody
first, the antiphony of the choirs responding to each other;
then harmony; all generations will burst into chorus
together.—Hermann Venema.
Verse 4. One generation to another. The tradition
of praise! Each generation catches the strains from the last,
echoes it, and passes it along to the next. One generation
declares what it has seen, and passes on the praise to the
generation which has not seen as yet the wonders celebrated.—Simon
De Muis.
Verse 4. One generation shall praise thy works to
another, etc. Thus God provides for his Church. When Elijah
is carried into heaven, Elisha must follow in the power and
spirit of Elias. When one stream is slid and shed into the
ocean, another circulates from the same ocean through the bowels
of the earth into the springs under the mountains, and refreshes
the scorched plains. When one star sets, another rises to guide
the wandering traveller, and at length the bright morning lamp
glitters in the east, and then the glorious Sun of
Righteousness. While the Church sits fainting under a juniper
tree in the wilderness, there shall fly prophets to feed her
till the blessed resurrection of the witnesses. It's our high
duty to study present work, and prize present help, and greatly
rejoice when the Lord sends forth, as once he did, both
Boanerges and Barnabas together. Pray for the mantle, girdle,
and blessing of Elijah, for the love of John, and the zeal of
Paul, to twine hands together to draw souls to heaven; till the
Beloved comes like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of
spices; till the shadows flee away; till the day dawn, and the
Day star arise in your hearts.—Samuel Lee, in his Preface
to Row's "Emmanuel," 1679.
Verse 4. One generation shall praise thy works to
another. There is no phenomenon of human life more solemn
than its succession of generations. "One generation passeth
away, another generation cometh." And, as if to put this in
a light as affecting and indelible as possible, the psalmist
immediately adds, "but the earth abideth for ever." A
thought that gleams like a lightning flash across this panorama
of life, burning it into the beholder's brain for ever. Even the
rude, gross, material earth, which we were created to subdue,
and upon which we so proudly tread, is represented as having to
the palpable sense this advantage over us. The abiding earth
constitutes a little eternity, compared with the duration of its
changing inhabitants. We come into it, and pass over it,
obliterating, perhaps, some footprints in its dust by the
impress of our own, to be in their turn effaced, and then leave
it with amazing rapidity, as a hireling man accomplishes his
days.—Henry Allon, 1852.
Verse 5. I will speak of the glorious honour,
etc. The word which we here translate "speak",
is considered by Hebrew critics to include also the idea of
"expatiating", "speaking at large"; not
merely "alluding to incidentally", but "entering
into particulars"; as though one took delight in speaking
upon the matter in hand. Now there is something very
satisfactory in entering into particulars; we can often gather
light upon a great truth by having had set before us some of the
particulars connected with it; we can often understand what is
too high for us, in itself and by itself, by some
examples which bring it within reach of our dull understandings.
We are like men who want to attain a height, who have not wings
to fly up to it, but who can reach it by going up a ladder step
by step. Particulars are often like the rounds of a ladder,
little, it may be, in themselves, but very helpful to us; and to
dwell upon particulars is often of use to ourselves; it
certainly is to many with whom we converse. Let us remember,
that circumstanced as we are in our present state, we have no
faculties for grasping in its simple grandeur the glorious
honour of the majesty of God. We know most of God from what we
know of his doings amongst the children of men. Hereafter, the
Lord's people shall, no doubt, have much revealed to them of the
glorious honour of the majesty of God, which they could now
neither bear nor understand; meanwhile they have to know him
chiefly by what he has said and done; and if only our eyes be
open, we shall be at no loss to recognise in these the glorious
honour of his majesty.—Philip Bennett Power.
Verse 5. I will speak, etc. I will "muse"
is better than "speak", as being the primary and more
usual sense of the Hebrew word. It suggests that these glorious
qualities of God's character and deeds should be not merely
talked about and extolled in song, but be deeply pondered, laid
close upon our very heart, so that the legitimate impression may
be wrought into our very soul, and may mould our whole spirit
and character into God's own moral image.—Henry Cowles.
Verse 5. With what a cumulus of glowing terms does
Holy Writ seek to display the excellence of Deity! By these
descriptions, those attributes which are feebly imitated or
reflected in what we call good among created things are
declared to exist in God, infinitely, immutably, ineffably.—Martin
Geier.
Verse 5. Thy wonderful works. Heb.: "the
words of thy wonderful works." Thus the Psalmist
declares that the records left of God's olden doings in the
history of Israel are very precious. He has heard them. Moses
and Aaron and others spoke them. He delights in them; he will
sing them again on his own harp.—Hermann Venema.
Verses 5-6. Ps 145:5 speaks of God's opera
mirabilia; Ps 145:6 of his opera terribilia. The
former delight his saints; the latter terrify the wicked.—John
Lorinus.
Verse 6. And men shall speak of the might of thy
terrible acts. When men do not mark his works of mercy and
bounty the Lord will show unto them works of justice, that is,
terrible works, and give them matter of talking upon this
account.—David Dickson.
Verse 6. (last clause.) To "declare"
here means either in speech or song; not merely to predicate
as a fact, but to proclaim in praise. The Hebrew word has
this width of meaning; not merely to declare in cold utterance,
concerning mere history.—Hermann Venema.
Verse 6. Thy greatness. All men are enamoured
of greatness. Then they must seek it in God, and get it from
God. David did both. All history shows the creature aspiring
after this glory. Ahasuerus, Astyages, Cyrus, Cambyses,
Nebuchadnezzar, were all called the great. Alexander the
Great, when he came to the Ganges, ordered his statue to be made
of more than life size, that posterity might believe him to have
been of nobler stature. In Christ alone does man attain the
greatness his heart yearns for—the glory of perfect
goodness.—Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 6. Thy greatness. Or, according to the
written text, greatnesses. So Aquila and Jerome. The
parallelism is decidedly in favour of the plural.—A. S.
Aglen.
Verse 7. There is an extensive and an intensive
greatness, and both must be found in our praises of God. First,
an extensive greatness in regard of their number; we must be
frequent and plentiful in the duty: we must "Abundantly
utter the memory of God's great goodness." Secondly,
there must be an intensive greatness in our praises, in regard
of the degree, fervour and heat of them. They must be high, and
vehement, fervent, flaming, zealous and affectionate, full of
life and rigour; our spirits must be raised, our hearts and
tongues enlarged in the performance of this duty. God's glorious
name, as it is in Ne 9:5, "is exalted above all blessing
and praise", above our most devout and most zealous
praises; and therefore surely faint, heartless, and lifeless
praises are so far from reaching him, as that they may seem to
be meant of another, and a lower object. God then is not praised
at all if he be not greatly praised. Weak and dull praises are
dispraises; for a person or thing is not honoured or praised,
unless there be some proportion between the honour and praise
and the worthiness of the person or thing honoured and
praised.—Henry Jeanes, in "The Works of Heaven upon
Earth,, 1649.
Verse 7. Abundantly utter. The word contains
the idea of boiling or bubbling up like a fountain. It
signifies, a holy fluency about the mercy of God. We have quite
enough fluent people about, but they are many of them idlers for
whom Satan finds abundant work to do. The Lord deliver us from
the noise of fluent women; but it matters not how fluent men and
women are if they will be fluent on the topic now before us.
Open your mouths; let the praise pour forth; let it come, rivers
of it. Stream away! Gush away, all that you possibly can. "They
shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness."
Do not stop the joyful speakers, let them go on for ever. They
do not exaggerate, they cannot. You say they are enthusiastic,
but they are not half up to the pitch yet; bid them become more
excited and speak yet more fervently. Go on, brother, go on;
pile it up; say something greater, grander, and more fiery still
I You cannot exceed the truth. You have come to a theme where
your most fluent powers will fail in utterance. The text calls
for a sacred fluency, and I would exhort you liberally to
exercise it when you are speaking on the goodness of God.—C.
H. S.
Verse 7. Too many witnesses of God's goodness are
silent witnesses. Men do not enough speak out the testimonies
that they might bear in this matter. The reason that I love the
Methodists—good ones—is, that they have a tongue to their
piety. They fulfil the command of God,—to be fervent in
spirit.—Henry Ward Beecher.
Verse 7.
The thought of our past years in me doth breed
Perpetual benedictions.
—William Wordsworth, 1770-1805.
Verse 7. They shall sing of thy righteousness,
or justice. To sing of goodness, mercy, forgiveness, is
natural; but a song of justice is singular. Here is the
beauty of David's praise, that he sees subject of delight as
much in the righteousness of God as in his mercy.—John
Lorinus.
Verse 7. They shall sing of thy righteousness.
The righteousness of God, whereby he justifieth sinners, and
sanctifieth the justified, and executeth judgment for his
reconciled people, is the sweetest object of the church's
joy.—David Dickson.
Verse 7. Thy righteousness (read in connection
with next verse). It is an easy thing to conceive the glory of
the Creator, manifested in the good of an innocent creature; but
the glory of the righteous Judge, manifested in the good of the
guilty criminal, is the peculiar, mysterious wisdom of the
Cross. It is easy to perceive God's righteousness declared in
the punishment of sins; the Cross alone declares "His
righteousness for the remission of sins." It magnifies
justice in the way of pardoning sin, and mercy in the way of
punishing it.—John M'Laurin 1693-1754.
Verse 8. The Lord is gracious, etc. The
proclamation of the Lord to Moses (Ex 34:6) is the fountain head
of these epithets.—James G. Murphy.
Verse 8. In God there is no passion, only
compassion.—Richard Rothe, 1799-1867.
Verse 8. Of great mercy. Mercy hath misery for
its object, and is that attribute towards which the eyes of a
fallen world must necessarily be turned. The Psalmist hath,
accordingly, introduced her last with great pomp and splendour,
seated in her triumphal chariot, and invested with a supremacy
over all the works of God. She is above the heavens, and over
all the earth, so that the whole creation findeth that refuge
under the shadow of her wings of which, by reason of man's
transgression, it standeth in need.—Samuel Burder.
Verse 9. The Lord is good to all, etc.
According to the doctrine of Christianity, we are not the
creatures of a God who takes no care of his beings, and leaves
them to themselves; not the offspring of a father who disowns
his children, who does not concern himself about them, and is
indifferent to their happiness and their misery. No; never has
God, according to that comfortable doctrine, left himself
unwitnessed to man; never withdrawn from him his fatherly
providence and love; never abandoned the fortunes of his feeble,
helpless, untutored children, to blind chance or to their own
ignorance. No; from their first progenitor, to his latest
posterity, he has himself provided for their support, their
instruction, their guidance, their progress to higher
attainments. He has constantly revealed himself to them m
various ways; constantly shed innumerable benefits on them;
sometimes lovingly correcting, and sometimes bountifully
blessing them; has constantly been nigh to them, and has left
them in want of no means for becoming wiser and better.—George
Joachim Zollikofer, 1730-1788.
Verse 9. The Lord is good to all, etc. God's
pity is not as some sweet cordial, poured in dainty drops from a
golden phial. It is not like the musical water drops of some
slender rill, murmuring down the dark side of Mount Sinai. It is
wide as the whole scope of heaven. It is abundant as all the
air. If one had art to gather up all the golden sunlight that
today falls wide over all the continent, falling through every
silent hour; and all that is dispersed over the whole ocean,
floating from every wave; and all that is poured refulgent over
the northern wastes of ice, and along the whole continent of
Europe, and the vast outlying Asia and torrid Africa—if we
could in any wise gather up this immense and incalculable
outflow and treasure that falls down through the bright hours,
and runs in liquid ether about the mountains, and fills all the
plains, and sends innumerable rays through every secret place,
pouring over and filling every flower, shining down the sides of
every blade of grass, resting in glorious humility upon the
humblest things—on sticks, and stones, and pebbles—on the
spider's web, the sparrow's nest, the threshold of the young
foxes' hole, where they play and warm themselves—that rests on
the prisoner's window, that strikes radiant beams through the
slave's tear, and puts gold upon the widow's weeds, that plates
and roofs the city with burnished gold, and goes on in its wild
abundance up and down the earth, shining everywhere and always,
since the day of primal creation, without faltering, without
stint, without waste or diminution; as full, as fresh, as
overflowing today as if it were the very first day of its
outlay—if one might gather up this boundless, endless,
infinite treasure, to measure it, then might he tell the height,
and depth, and unending glory of the pity of God! That light,
and the sun, its source, are God's own figure of the immensity
and copiousness of his mercy and compassion.—Henry Ward
Beecher, 1875.
Verse 9. Even the worst taste of God's mercy; such
as fight against God's mercy taste of it; the wicked have
some crumbs from mercy's table. "The Lord is good to
all." Sweet dewdrops are on the thistle as well as on
the rose. The diocese where mercy visits is very large.
Pharaoh's head was crowned though his heart was hardened.—Thomas
Watson.
Verse 9. His tender mercies are over all his works.
When the sensible sinner is seeking faith of God, he may plead
the largeness of mercy. God's mercy is like the firmament
spread over all this lower world; and every infirm creature
partakes more or less of its influence, according to its
exigence and capacity. True, may he say, I have made myself by
sin, the vilest of all creatures; I am become worse than the
beasts that perish; as vile as a worm, as loathsome as a toad,
by reason of the venomous corruption that is in my heart, and my
woeful contrariety to the nature of a holy God. But there is "mercy
over all", even over such vile and loathsome creatures
as these; there may be some over me, though wrath do now abide
on me. Oh, let that mercy, whose glory it is to stretch itself
over all, e reach my soul also! Oh, that the blessed and
powerful influence thereof would p beget faith in my heart!—David
Clarkson.
Verse 9. His tender mercies. The nature and
force of the word Mymxr,
is properly the bowels;that is, there are tender
mercies in God (so we term it in the Benedictus). Not
of the ordinary sort, slight, and such as pierce not deep, come
not far; but such as come de profundis, from the very bowels
themselves, that affect that part, make the bowels
relent. And what bowels? Not the bowels of the common man
(for then Mwem had been
the right word), but Mmxr
are the bowels of a parent (so, we said, the word signifies),
and this adds much; adds to mercy stosgh,
natural love;to one strong affection another as strong or
stronger than it.
And what parent? the more pitiful of the twain, the mother.
For Mxr (the singular of
this word) is Hebrew for the womb. So as this, to the two
former addeth the sex; the sex holden to be the more
compassionate. Of all mercies, those of the bowels; and
of all bowels, the bowels of a parent;and of the two
parents, those of the mother:such pity as the mother
takes of the children of her womb. Mercies are in God; such
mercies are in God.
"Over all." It is good news for us that
these mercies are in God; but, better yet, that they are in him
with a super—"over." But, best of all, that
that super is a super omnia—"over
all." Much is said in few words to mercy's praise when 'tis
said, super omnia. Nihil supra were much, none above it:
but it is written super omnia, above all. He that saith
this leaves no more to say; there is no higher degree; super
omnia is the superlative.
All that are above are not over. It is not above
only, as an obelisk or Maypole, higher than all about them, but
have neither shadow nor shelter; no good they do! Mercy hath a
broad top, spreading itself over all. It is so above
all, as it is over them, too. As the vault of this
chapel is over us, and the great vault of the firmament over
that; the super of latitude and expansion, no less than
of altitude and elevation. And this to the end that all may
retire to it, and take covert; it over them, and they under
it. Under it, under the shadow of it, as of Esay's
"great rock in the wilderness", from the heat:under
it, under the shelter of it as of Daniel's "great
tree", from the tempest. (Isa 32:2 Da 4:11-12).—Lancelot
Andrewes.
Verse 10. All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD.
It is a poor philosophy and a narrow religion which does not
recognise God as all in all. Every moment of our lives, we
breathe, stand, or move in the temple of the Most High; for the
whole universe is that temple. Wherever we go, the testimony to
his power, the impress of his hand, are there. Ask of the bright
worlds around us, as they roll in the everlasting harmony of
their circles, and they shall tell you of him whose power
launched them on their courses; ask of the mountains, that lift
their heads among and above the clouds, and the bleak summit of
one shall seem to call aloud to the snow clad top of another, in
proclaiming their testimony to the Agency which has laid their
deep foundations. Ask of ocean's waters; and the roar of their
boundless waves shall chant from shore to shore a hymn of
ascription to that Being, who hath said, "Hitherto shall ye
come and no further." Ask of the rivers; and, as they roll
onward to the sea, do they not bear along their ceaseless
tribute to the ever working Energy, which struck open their
fountains and poured them down through the valleys? Ask of every
region of the earth, from the burning equator to the icy pole,
from the rock bound coast to the plain covered with its
luxuriant vegetation; and will you not find on them all the
record of the Creator's presence? Ask of the countless tribes of
plants and animals; and shall they not testify to the action of
the great Source of Life? Yes, from every portion, from every
department of nature, comes the same voice; everywhere we hear
thy name, O God! everywhere we see thy love! Creation, in all
its length and breadth, in all its depth and height, is the
manifestation of thy Spirit, and without thee the world were
dark and dead. The universe is to us as the burning bush which
the Hebrew leader saw: God is ever present in it, for it burns
with his glory, and the ground on which we stand is always
holy.—"Francis" (Viscount Dillon).
Verse 10. Marvellous is it that man is not always
praising, since everything amidst which he dwells is continually
inviting praise.—Gregory the Great.
Verse 10. All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD,
etc. "All" God's "works" do
"praise" him, as the beautiful building praiseth the
builder, or the well drawn picture praiseth the painter: but his
"saints bless" him, as the children of prudent and
tender parents rise up and call them blessed. Of all God's
works, his saints, the workmanship of his grace, the first
fruits of his creatures, have most reason to bless him.—Matthew
Henry.
Verse 10. All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD,
etc. There are two words by which our thankfulness to God is
expressed, praising and blessing. What is the difference? Praise
respecteth God's excellences, and blessing respecteth God's
benefits. We may praise a man that never hath done us good, if
he be excellent and praiseworthy; but blessing respecteth God's
bounty and benefits; yet they are often used promiscuously.—Thomas
Manton.
Verse 10. And thy saints shall bless thee. The
lily lifts itself upon its slender stem, and displays its golden
petals and its glittering ivory leaves; and by its very
existence it praises God. Yonder deep and booming sea rolls up
in storm and tempest sweeping everything before it; and every
dash of its waves praises God. The birds in the morning, and
some of them all through the night, can never cease from
praising; uniting with the ten thousand other voices which make
ceaseless concert before the throne. But observe, neither the
flower, nor the sea, nor the bird, praises with intent to
praise. To them it is no exercise of intellect, for they do not
know God, and cannot understand his worthiness; nor do they even
know that they are praising him. They exhibit his skill, and his
goodness, and so forth, and in so doing they do much; but we
must learn to do more. When you and I praise God, there is the
element of will, of intelligence, of desire, of intent; and in
the saints of God there is another element, namely, that of love
to him, of reverent gratitude towards him, and this turns the
praise into blessing. A man is an eminent painter, and you
exclaim, "His pencil is instinct with life." Still,
the man is no friend of yours, you pronounce no blessings on his
name. It may be that your feeling towards him is that of deep
regret that such abilities should be united with so ill a
character. A certain person is exceedingly skilful in his
profession, but he treats you unjustly, and, therefore, though
you often praise him for his extraordinary performances, you
cannot bless him, for you have no cause to do so. I am afraid
that there might be such a feeling as that of admiration of God
for his great skill, his wonderful power, his extraordinary
justness, and yet no warmth of love in the heart towards him;
but in the saints the praise is sweetened with love, and is full
of blessing.—C. H. S.
Verses 10-11. If not only irrational, but inanimate
creatures praise God by giving occasion for his praise; then how
much more should men set forth his praise, who are not only
living, but reasonable creatures! And if creatures without life
and reason should provoke mankind in general, as having life and
reason, to praise God; how much more should godly men be
provoked by them to sing his praise, they having not only life,
which stars have not; and reason, which birds and beasts have
not; but grace, which the most of men have not! Among visible
creatures, men have most reason (because they have reason) to
praise God; and among men gracious men have most reason to
praise God, because they have grace. And therefore as soon as
ever David had said, "All thy works shall praise thee, O
LORD", he adds in the next words, "and thy
saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy
kingdom, and talk of thy power." As if he had said, As
all thy works, O Lord, praise thee, so saints (who are the
choicest pieces of thy workmanship) have cause to do it above
all: they cannot but be speaking and talking of thy kingdom and
power, which are very glorious.—Joseph Caryl.
Verse 11. They shall speak of the glory of thy
kingdom, etc. The glory of a kingdom is synonymous with its
power. The power of a kingdom consists in the number of its
subjects, and the sufficiency of its revenues to maintain them.
Now, the glory, or the power of God's kingdom, may be inferred
from the difference between it and that of man. There are four
points of difference. First, the kings of this world have but few
subjects, with but little wealth,—not more than the
population and riches of one kingdom, or one province, while God
reigns over all angels, all men, all demons; and all wealth on
land, in the sea, or in the air, belongs to him. There is
another difference, that while the kings of this world rule
their subjects, they are still ruled by them, they are dependent
on them, could do nothing without them; and, however
abundant their revenues may be, they are generally in want, nay,
even in debt, and, consequently, always calling for fresh
tributes and taxes; but God, while he governs all, is subject to
none, because he needs nobody's help or assistance. Instead of
being in want, he abounds in everything, because he could, in
one moment, bring from nothing much more than he now beholds or
enjoys. The third difference is a consequence of the second,
while the kings of this world seem so to enjoy their honours and
dignities, they are, at the same time, suffering acutely from
interior fears, doubts, and cares, which have sometimes been
so burdensome, as to cause them to abdicate altogether. God
never suffers such pressure, is subject to no fear, no
misgivings, but reigns absolutely in perfect tranquillity. The
fourth difference, an essential one, is, that the kings of the
world reign but for a time;but God reigneth for ever.—Robert
Bellarmine.
Verse 11. They shall speak...and talk. Joy and
sorrow are hard to conceal; as from the countenance, so from the
tongue. There is so much correspondence betwixt the heart and
tongue that they will move at once: every man therefore speaks
of his own pleasure and care; the hunter and falconer of his
game; the ploughman of his team; the soldier of his march and
colours. If the heart were as full of God, the tongue could not
refrain from talking of him: the rareness of Christian
communication argues the common poverty of grace. If Christ be
not in our hearts, we are godless; if he be there without our
joy, we are senseless; if we rejoice in him and speak not of
him, we are shamefully unthankful. Every man taketh, yea,
raiseth occasion, to bring in speech of what he liketh. As I
will think of thee always, O Lord, so it shall be my joy to
speak of thee often; and if I find not opportunity, I will make
it.—Joseph Hall.
Verse 13. The Kingdom of God is his government of the
world. The glory of it becomes especially conspicuous in this,
that he raises the dominion of his anointed over all the
kingdoms of the world: comp. Ps 89:27. "Thy kingdom is a
kingdom of all eternities" (Ps 145:13), and so must
also the kingdom of thine anointed be an eternal one, and will
survive all the transitory kingdoms of this world, however
highly they may puff themselves up.—D. W. Hengstenberg.
Verse 13. On the door of the old mosque in Damascus,
which was once a Christian church, but for twelve centuries has
ranked among the holiest of the Mahomedan sanctuaries, are
inscribed these memorable words: "Thy kingdom, O Christ, is
an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all
generations." Though the name of Christ has been regularly
blasphemed, and the disciples of Christ regularly cursed for
twelve hundred years within it, the inscription has,
nevertheless, remained unimpaired by time, and undisturbed by
man. It was unknown during the long reign of Mahomedan
intolerance and oppression; but when religious liberty was
partially restored, and the missionaries were enabled to
establish a Christian church in that city, it was again brought
to light, encouraging them in their work of faith and labour of
love.—From John Bate's "Cyclopoedia of
Illustrations," 1865.
Verses 13-14. What we admire in these verses, is their
combining the magnificence of unlimited power with the assiduity
of unlimited tenderness. It is this combination which men are
apt to regard as well nigh incredible, supposing that a Being so
great as God can never concern himself with beings so
inconsiderable as themselves. Tell them that God lifteth up
those that be bowed down, and they cannot imagine that his
kingdom and dominion are unbounded; or tell them, on the other
hand, of the greatness of his empire, and they think it
impossible that he should uphold all that fall.—Henry
Melvill.
Verse 14. The LORD upholdeth all that fall,
etc. It is noteworthy how the Psalmist proceeds to exhibit the
mightiness of God's kingdom, not by its power "to break in
pieces and bruise", like the iron legs of the statue in
Nebuchadnezzar's vision (Da 2:40), but by the King's readiness
to aid the weak. Even a heathen could see that this was the
noblest use of power.
Regia (crede mihi) res est succurrere lapsis.
Ovid., Ep. de Panto, ii. 9, II.
It is a kingly thing to help the fallen.
—Neale and Littledale.
Verse 14. The LORD upholdeth all that fall,
etc. oyekn nophelim
the falling, or those who are not able to keep their
feet; the weak. He shores them up; he is their prop.
No man falls through his own weakness merely; if he rely on God,
the strongest foe cannot shake him.—Adam Clarke.
Verse 14. And raiseth up all those that be bowed
down, incurvatos. Many who do not actually fall are reduced
to distress that may be even more painful; for the struggling
are greater sufferers than the actually passive. Men are bowed
down physically by infirmity; mentally, by care;
spiritually, by remorse; some are even crushed by all three
burdens. For all such there is help in a Mighty One. But none
can help themselves alone: none are raised but by supernatural
interposition—non nisi opitulante Domino.—Martin
Geier.
Verse 14. The LORD upholdeth all that fall. The
word here used is a participle, literally, "The Lord
sustaining" that is, the Lord is a Sustainer or
Upholder of all that fall.—Albert Barnes.
Verse 14. And raiseth up all those that be bowed
down. Alphonsus, King of Arragon, is famous for helping with
his own hand one of his subjects out of a ditch. Of Queen
Elizabeth it is recorded, to her eternal praise, that she hated
(no less than did Mithridates) such as sought to crush virtue
forsaken of fortune. Christ bruises not the broken reed, but
upholdeth it, he quenches not the smoking wick, but cherisheth
it.—John Trapp.
Verses 14-19. The Psalmist sets up a splendid
argument. Having praised the kingdom, he goes on to display seven
glories peculiar to kings, and shows that in Jehovah these
shine supremely. Ps 145:14-19 contain each a royal virtue.—John
Lorinus.
Verse 15. The eyes of all wait upon thee. God
cannot be overmastered by what is great and enormous, so neither
can he overlook what is small and insignificant. God is that
being to whom the only great thing is himself; and, therefore,
when, "the eyes of all wait upon him", the seraph
gains not attention by his gaze of fire, and the insect loses it
not through the feebleness of vision. Arch angels, and angels,
and men, and beasts of the field, and fowls of the air, and fish
of the sea, draw equally the regard of him, who, counting
nothing great but himself, the Creator, can pass over as small
no fraction of the creature.—Henry Melvill.
Verse 15. Doth not nature teach you to pray? Ask the
brutes, the ravens, lions, etc. (Job 38:41 Ps 147:9 104:27
145:15); not as if these unreasonable creatures could know and
worship God, but because nature hath taught them so much of this
duty as they are capable of and can bear; they have some sense
of their burdens and wants, they groan and cry, and desire to be
eased; and the Lord hearkeneth to this voice and saith,
"Now the poor creature is crying to me, and I will pity
it." Ah! shall the beasts in their own way cry to God, and
wilt thou be silent? Hath the Lord elevated thee so far above
these inferior creatures, and fitted thee for the immediate acts
of his worship, and for a higher communion with himself, and
wilt thou not serve him accordingly? Hath he given thee a heart
and a spiritual soul, as he hath given the brutes a sensitive
appetite and natural desires, and shall they cry to God with the
one, and not thou with the other?—Alexander Pitcairne,
1664.
Verse 15. Eyes...wait upon thee. Many dumb
beggars have been relieved at Christ's gate by making signs.—William
Seeker.
Verse 15. In agony nature is no atheist, the mind
which knows not where to fly, flies to God.—Hannah More,
1745-1833.
Verse 15. The creatures are his, and therefore to be
received with thanksgiving; this our Saviour performed with
great rigour and zeal; thus teaching us, when "looking up
to heaven", that "the eyes of all" ought,
in the most literal sense, "to wait" upon that
Lord "who gives them their meat in due season."
...A secret sense of God's goodness is by no means enough. Men
should make solemn and outward expressions of it, when they
receive his creatures for their support; a service and homage
not only due to him, but profitable to themselves.—George
Stanhope, 1660-1728.
Verse 15. While atheism, in its strict signification,
namely, that of total denial of God's existence, is scarcely, if
at all, to be found on earth; atheism, as regards the denial of
God's providence, is the espoused creed of hundreds amongst us.
...Providence, which is confessed in great things, is rejected
in small things; and even if you can work up men to an easy
confession that God presides over national concerns, you will
find them withdrawing individuals from his scrutiny. We bring
against this paring down of God's providence a distinct charge
of atheism. If we confess the existence of a God at all, we read
it in the workmanship of the tiniest leaf, as well as in the
magnificent pinnacles of Andes and Alps: if we believe in the
providence of God at all, we must confess that he numbers the
hairs of our heads, as well as marshals the stars of the
firmament; and that providence is not universal, and therefore
cannot be godlike, if a sparrow, any more than a seraph, flit
away unregarded. Now, the words before us set themselves most
strenuously against this popular atheism. The whole creation is
represented as fastening its gaze on the universal Parent, and
as drawing from his fulness the supply of every necessity. "The
eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou give, them their meat in
due season." There is made, you observe, no exception
whatever; the exhibition is simply that of every rank and order
of beings looking to the Almighty, confessing dependence upon
him, and standing environed by his guardianship. So that, in
place of anything which approximates to the abandonment of our
creation, the Psalmist asserts a ceaseless attention to its
wants, the suspension of which for an instant would cause chill
and darkness throughout the whole universe.—Henry Melvill.
Verse 15. Thou givest them their meat in due
season. The meat which endures to everlasting life; the
flesh of Christ, which is meat indeed; the doctrines of the
gospel, which, as some of them are milk for babes, others are
meat for strong men, or strong meat for experienced believers;
and these are given forth under Christ's direction, by his
ministering servants, who are his wise and faithful stewards,
that give to every one of the family their portion of meat in
due season, which is the word fitly spoken; and, when it is so,
how good it is! Lu 12:42 Pr 15:23. This is food convenient for
them, given out in his time, as in the original; either
in the Lord's time, when he sees best, or in their time,
as the Syriac version, when they most need it, and it will do
them most good.—John Gill.
Verse 15. (second clause.) It is said that God
gives them "their food", and, "in its
season", for the very variety of it serves more to
illustrate the providence of God. Each has its own way of
feeding, and the different kinds of aliment are designed and
adapted for different uses. David therefore speaks of the food
which is particular to them. The pronoun is not in the plural,
and we are not to read in their season, as if it applied to the
animals. The food he notices as given in its season; for here
also we are to notice the admirable arrangements of divine
providence, that there is a certain time appointed for harvest,
vintage, and hay crop, and that the year is so divided into
intervals, that the cattle are fed at one time on grass, at
another on hay, or straw, or acorns, or other products of the
earth. Were the whole supply poured forth at one and the same
moment, it could not be gathered together so conveniently; and
we have no small reason to admire the seasonableness with which
the different kinds of fruit and aliment are yearly produced.—John
Calvin.
Verse 15. Mr. Robertson told of a poor child who was
accustomed to see unexpected provision for his mother's wants
arrive in answer to prayer. The meal barrel in Scotland is
everything to a hungry boy: so he said, "Mother, I think
God aye hears when we're scraping the bottom o' the
barrel."—"The Christian."
Verses 15-17. Who can fear that, because God's ways
are unsearchable, they may not be all tending to the final good
of his creatures, when he knows that with the tenderness of a
most affectionate parent this Creator and Governor ministers to
the meanest living thing? Who can be disquieted by the
mysteriousness of the Divine dealings when he remembers that
they are those of one who never ceases for a solitary moment to
consult the happiness of whatsoever he hath formed? Who, in
short, can distrust God because clouds and darkness are round
about him, when there is light enough to show that he is the
vigilant guardian of every tenant of this earth, that his hand
upholds, and his breath animates, and his bounty nourishes, the
teeming hordes of the city, and the desert, and the ocean? It
seems that there is thus a beautiful, though tacit process of
reasoning in our text, and that the seventeenth verse is set in
its proper connection. It is as though David had said,
"Come, let us muse on the righteousness of God. He would
not be God if he were not righteous in all his ways and holy in
all his works; and therefore we may be sure that whatsoever he
does is the best that could be done, whether or not we can
discover its excellence."
Yes, this may be true, but when we look on the divine
dealings what an abyss of dark waters there is! How unsearchable,
how unfathomable are God's judgments! We admit it; but being
previously convinced of God's righteousness, we ought not to be
staggered by what is dark in his dispensations.
"True", you reply, "but the mind does not seem
satisfied by this reasoning; it may be convincing to the
intellect, but it does not address itself to the feelings."
Well, then, pass from what is dark in God's dealing to what is
clear. He is about your path and about your bed; he "preserveth
man and beast"; "his tender mercies are over all his
works." Is this a God of whom to be suspicious? Is this a
God to mistrust? Oh! surely if you will fortify yourselves by
such facts as these—"Thou, O Lord, satisfiest the desire
of every living thing", "The eyes of all wait upon
thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season"—if,
I say, you will fortify your minds by such facts as these, you
will be able at all times and in all circumstances to join
heartily in the acknowledgment of the Psalmist—"The
Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his
works."—Henry Melvill.
Verse 16.
Thou openest thy hand of grace
And thou dost satisfy
The wants of all ill every place
Who for thy presence cry.
—Thomas MacKellar, 1883.
Verse 16. Thou openest thy hand. This seems as
if depicted from a housekeeper's habit of feeding a brood of
chickens and other creatures. She flings abroad with full and
open hand a large supply, not measuring to a grain just what
might be enough.—Martin Geier.
Verse 16. Thou openest thy hand. What an idea
does this convey of the paternal goodness of the great
Father of his creation! How opposite to the conduct of many of
his creatures one to another, whose hands and hearts are slant!
What an idea also does it convey of the ease with which
the wants of the whole creation are supplied! Let me pause a
moment and think of their wants. What a quantity of vegetable
and animal food is daily consumed in one town: what a quantity
in a large city like London: what a quantity in a nation: in the
whole world! But men do not compose a hundredth part of
"every living thing" I What innumerable wants
throughout all animate nature; in the earth, in the air, in the
waters! Whence comes their supply? "Thou openest thy
hand", and all are satisfied. And can all these wants be
supplied by only the opening of his hand? What then must
sin be, and salvation from it? That is a work of wonderful
expense. God openeth his hand and satisfieth all creation, but
he must purchase the Church with his blood ...In what a variety
of ways are our wants supplied. The earth is fruitful, the
air is full of life, the clouds empty themselves upon the earth,
the sun pours forth its genial rays; but the operation of all
these second causes is only the opening of his hand! Nay
further: look we to instruments as well as means? Parents
feed us in our childhood, and supply our youthful wants; ways
are opened for our future subsistence; connexions are formed,
which prove sources of comfort; friends are kind in seasons of
extremity; supplies are presented from quarters that we never
expected. What are all these but the opening of his hand?
If his hand were shut, what a world would this be! The heavens
brass, the earth iron; famine, pestilence, and death must
follow. See Ps 104:27-29.
Consider next the term "hand." There is a
difference between the hand and the heart. God
opens his hand, in the way of providence, towards his worst
enemies. He gave Nebuchadnezzar all the kingdoms of the earth.
But he opens his heart in the gospel of his Son. This is
the better portion of the two. While we are thankful for the
one, let us not rest satisfied in it: it is merely a hand
portion. Rather let us pray with Jabez to be blessed indeed;and
that we might have a Joseph's portion; not only the precious
things of the earth and the fulness thereof, but "the good
will of him that dwelt in the bush!" Thou satisfiest the
desire, etc. God does not give grudgingly. It seems to be a
characteristic of the divine nature, both in the natural and
moral world, to raise desires, not with a view to disappoint,
but to satisfy them. O what a consoling thought is this! If
there be any desires in us which are not satisfied, it is
through their being self created ones, which is our own fault;
or through artificial scarcity from men's luxury, which is the
fault of our species. God raises no desires as our Creator, but
he gives enough to satisfy them; and none as our Redeemer and
Sanctifier but what shall be actually satisfied. O the wonderful
munificence of God! "How great is his goodness, and how
great is his beauty!"—Andrew Fuller.
Verse 16. (second clause). The word nwur,
ratson, some render "desire", as
though he meant that God supplies each kind of animal with food
according to its wish. And a little afterwards we do indeed find
it used in that sense. Others, however, refer it rather to God's
feeding them of his mere good pleasure and kindness; it is not
enough to say that our food is given us by God, unless we add,
as in the second clause of the verse, that his kindness is
gratuitous, and that there is no extrinsic cause whatever moving
him to provide so liberally for every living creature. In that
case the cause is put for the effect; the various kinds of
provision being effects of his good pleasure—carismata
ths caritos,—John Calvin.
Verse 17. The LORD is righteous in all his ways,
etc. The ground upon which praise is here ascribed to God may
seem a common one, being in every one's mouth; but in nothing is
wisdom shown more than in holding fast the truth, that God is
just in all his ways, so as to retain in our hearts an unabated
sense of it amidst all troubles and confusions. Though all
acknowledge God to be just, most men are no sooner overtaken by
affliction than they quarrel with his severity: unless their
wishes are immediately complied with, they are impatient, and
nothing is more common than to hear his justice impeached. As it
is everywhere abused by the wicked imputations men cast upon it,
here it is very properly vindicated from such ungrateful
treatment, and asserted to be constant and unfailing, however
loudly the world may disparage it. It is expressly added, "in
all his ways and works"; for we fail to give God due
honour unless we recognise a constant tenor of righteousness in
the whole progress of his operation. Nothing is more difficult
in the time of trouble, when God has apparently forsaken us, or
afflicts us without cause, than to restrain our corrupt feelings
from breaking out against his judgments; as we are told of the
Emperor Mauricius in a memorable passage of history, that seeing
his sons murdered by the wicked and perfidious traitor Phocas,
and being about to be carried out himself to death, he cried
out—"Thou art righteous, O God, and just are thy
judgments."—John Calvin.
Verse 17. Holy in all his works. God is good,
the absolute and perfect; and from good nothing can come but
good: and therefore all which God has made is good, as he is;
and therefore if anything in the world seems to be bad, one of
two things must be true of it. Either it is not bad,
though it seems so to us; and God will bring good out of it in
his good time, and justify himself to men, and show us that he
is holy in all his works, and righteous in all his ways. Or
else—If the thing be really bad, then God did not make it. It
must be a disease, a mistake, a failure, of man's making, or
some person's making, but not of God's making. For all that he
has made he sees eternally; and behold, it is very good.—Charles
Kingsky, in "The Good News of God," 1878.
Verse 18. The LORD is nigh unto all them that call
upon him. Not only near by his omnipresence, but to
sympathize and favour. He does not leave praying men, and men
who confess his name, to battle with the world alone, but he is
ever at their side. This favour is not for a few of those who
invoke him; but for each one of the pious company.
"All" who place themselves beneath the shield of his
glorious name by calling themselves by it, and by calling upon
it in supplication, shall find him to be a very present help in
trouble. "To all that call upon him in truth":
for there are many whose formal prayers and false professions
will never bring them into communion with the Lord. To pray in
truth, we must have a true heart, and the truth in our heart;
and then we must be humble, for pride is a falsehood; and be
earnest, or else prayer is a lie. A God of truth cannot be nigh
to the spirit of hypocrisy; this he knows and hates; neither can
he be far removed from a sincere spirit, since it is his work,
and he forsakes not the work of his own hands.
Verse 18. The Lord is nigh. The nearness or
remoteness of a friend is very material and considerable in our
troubles, distresses, wants, dangers etc. I have such a friend
and he would help me, but he lives so far off; and I have
another friend that has a great love for me, that is able to
counsel me, and to speak a word in season to me, and that in my
distress would stand close to me, but he is so remote. I have a
special friend, that did he know how things stand with me would
make my burdens his, and my wants his, and my sorrows his; but
he is in a far country, he is at the Indies, and I may be undone
before I can hear from him. But it is not thus with you, O
Christians! who have a God so nigh unto you, who have the signal
presence of God in the midst of you, yea, who have a God always
standing by you, "The Lord stood by me," etc. 2Ti
4:17.—Thomas Brooks.
Verse 18. Them that call upon him. To call upon the
name of the Lord implies right faith, to call upon
him as he is; right trust in him, leaning upon
him, right devotion, calling upon him as he has
appointed; right life, ourselves who call upon him being,
or becoming by his grace, what he wills. They "call"
not "upon the Lord", but upon some idol of
their own imagining, who call upon him as other than he has
revealed himself, or remaining themselves other than those whom
he has declared that he will hear. For such deny the very
primary attribute of God, his truth. Their God is not a God of
truth.—Edward Bouverie Pusey, 1800-1882.
Verse 18. To all that call upon him in truth.
Because there is a counterfeit and false sort of worshipping,
and calling upon God, which is debarred from the benefit of this
promise, to wit, when the party suppliant is not reconciled, nor
seeking reconciliation through Christ the Mediator, or is
seeking something not promised, or something for a carnal end,
that he may bestow it on his lusts; therefore he who hath right
unto this promise must be a worshipper of God in faith, and
sincere intention; and to such the Lord will show himself "nigh."—David
Dickson.
Verse 18. To call upon God in truth is, first, to
repose an implicit confidence in the faithfulness of his
promise, and to look for unlimited answers to prayer from the
riches of his grace in Christ Jesus. But it is also, in the next
place, to feel our own urgent need of the things for which we
supplicate, and to realize an earnest and unfeigned concern to
obtain them. "What things ye desire when ye pray",
said the Lord, "believe that ye receive them, and ye shall
have them"; and hence we gather, that the hearty desire,
arising out of the consciousness of need, is an integral and
inseparable part of genuine and effectual prayer.—Thomas
Dale, 1853.
Verses 18-19. God's people are a praying people, a
generation of seekers, and such commonly are speeders. God never
said to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye my face in vain. They seek
his face, righteousness and strength, and he is found of
them...The saints alone betake themselves to God and his help,
run to him as their sanctuary; others fly from God's presence,
run to the rocks, and the tops of the ragged rocks, call to the
hills and the mountains; but a child of God goes only and tells
his Father, and before him lays open his cause; as good Hezekiah
did, when Rabshakeh came out against him; "O Lord, I am
oppressed, undertake for me"; or the Church (Isa 33:2),
"Be thou our arm every morning, and our salvation in time
of trouble." They only sensibly need, and so alone crave
and implore divine succour; and God will not suffer his people
to lose the precious treasure of their prayers. "The
Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him; he will fulfil
their desire, he will hear their cry", etc. That God
who prepares his people's heart to pray, prepares also his own
ear to hear; and he that promises to hear before we call, will
never deny to hearken when we cry unto him. As Calvin saith:
"Oppressions and afflictions make man cry, and cries and
supplications make God hear."—F. E., in "The
Saint's Ebenezer," 1667.
Verse 19. He will fulfil the desire of them that
fear him. This is for comfort for all poor broken hearts in
whom God hath engendered the true desire of grace. Let
such know that the first step to grace is to see they have no
grace; and the first degree of grace is the desire of grace. It
is not with the body as with the soul, if you will be healed you
shall be healed. A man may desire to be healed corporally, and
yet his disease continue upon him; but it is not so with the
soul: if thou wilt say, "Christ heal me", thou shalt
be made whole. If a man have but the true desire of grace it
shall be given him: "Lord, thou hast heard the desire of
the humble" (Ps 10:17): when the poor soul is humbled
before God in the sense of the want of grace, and breathes and
desires after it, the Lord will grant such desires: "He
will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear
their cry, and will save them." One said, "the
greatest part of Christianity is to desire to be a
Christian." And another said, "The total sum of a
man's religion in this life consists in the true desires of
saving grace." This was the perfection Saint Paul attained
unto (Ro 7:18): "To will is present with me; but how to
perform that which is good I find not." Saint Paul we know
was the child of God, and one dearly beloved of God; yet that
was the pitch of his godliness; it consisted more in desire than
accomplishment. Canst thou approve by evident and sound
arguments that thou hast the true desires of grace? Then know
for thy comfort that the Lord's spirit of grace hath been moving
and stirring in thee: "It is God that worketh in you both
the will and the deed" (Php 2:13), and that of his good
pleasure, not only of his bounty, from whence he hath bestowed
many graces, even upon such as he will damn afterwards for their
accursed abuse of them, with the neglect of the power thereof.
But if God hath set thy will, and the stream of thy affections
and desires, to himself and to grace, it is an evidence of God's
good pleasure from which he did at first elect thee, and gave
his Son to redeem thee.—William Fenner (1560-1640), in
"The Riches of Grace."
Verse 19. He will fulfil the desire of them that
fear him. God will not grant us every desire, that is our
mercy; for, 1. Some of them are sinful. David desired to
be revenged on Nabal and his innocent family. Jonah desired
Nineveh's ruin. 2. Others would not be for our good.
David desired the life of the child he had by Bathsheba; David
also desired the life of Jonathan; neither of which would have
been for his good. Nay, not every righteous desire. It is
a righteous desire for a minister to desire the salvation of
those that hear him. So Paul declared, "I would to God that
all that are here present were altogether such as I am": Ac
26:29. So again, "I could wish that myself were accursed
from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the
flesh": Ro 9:1. David desired to build a house for God, and
it was a righteous desire, for God took it well at his hands;
yet he did not grant it. Kings and prophets desired to see the
Lord Messiah, and yet did not see him. How then are we to
understand it? Answer. The sum or substance of their desires
shall be fulfilled. What is the main desire of a seaman? that he
may arrive at the haven. So saints will be brought to their
desired haven. What of a pilgrim? See Heb 11:16. So all the
desires of a Christian are summed up in this, That he may
eternally enjoy God and be like him. Doubtless there is
great mystery in these things. However, I think it is certain
that, when God raises a spiritual desire in a person, it is often,
though not always, with an intention to bestow the object
desired.—Andrew Fuller.
Verse 19. (first clause.) God will fulfil the
will of those who fear to disobey his will.—Simon de
Muis.
Verse 19. Desire is the largest and most
comprehensive word that can be used; it contains all things in
it...Nothing good, nothing necessary: nothing profitable, but
comes under this word "desire." When God
promises to "fulfil the desires of them that fear
him", he doth promise all good things; desire
comprehends all that can be desired.—Ralph Robinson.
Verse 19. He will hear their cry, etc. A mark
of a great king—he gives willing audience to suppliants.—Johannes
Paulus Palanterius.
Verse 19. He will hear and save. How true a
description of Christ in his constant office. He heard Mary
Magdalene and saved her. He heard the Canaanitish woman, and
saved her daughter. He heard the cry of the two blind men and
enlightened them. He heard the lepers and cleansed them. He
heard the cry of the dying thief and promised him Paradise.
Never has one yet cried to King Jesus who has not been heard and
delivered.—Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 20. The LORD preserveth all them that love
him. They keep him in their love, and he keeps them by his
love. See how these favoured ones have advanced from fearing the
Lord and crying to him, even to loving him, and in that love
they are secure from all danger. Mark the number of
"alls" in these later verses of the Psalm. In each of
these God is all in all. But all the wicked will he destroy.
Wickedness is an offence to all holy beings, and therefore those
who are determined to continue in it must be weeded out. As good
sanitary laws remove all creators of pest and plague, so does
the moral government of God mark every evil thing for
destruction; it cannot be tolerated in the presence of a
perfectly holy God. What ruins wicked men frequently become in
this life! What monuments of wrath will they be in the world to
come! Like Nineveh and Babylon, and other destroyed places, they
shall only exist to declare how thoroughly God fulfils his
threatenings.
Verse 20. The Lord preserveth, etc. God's mercy
and God's justice; he preserves and he destroys. Philip IV of
France, surnamed the Beautiful, on his escutcheon emblazoned a
sword and an olive branch, with the motto, Utrumque, i.e.
"one or the other." A truly great king is master of
either art—war and peace.—Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 20. Those who were called "them that fear
him" are now denominated "them that love
him."—Simon de Muis.
Verse 20. All the wicked will he destroy. God
has so many different, unsearchable ways of taking wicked men
out of the world, and sending them to hell, that there is
nothing to make it appear that God had need to be at the expense
of a miracle, or go out of the ordinary course of his
providence, to destroy any wicked man at any moment.—Jonathan
Edwards.
Verse 20. All the wicked will he destroy. It
must not be overlooked that this declaration occurs in a song of
praise. The whole of the context is utterly inconsistent with
the expression of emotions of anger or revenge.—Speaker's
Commentary.
Verse 20. All the wicked will he destroy. Prayer
Book Version, "scattereth abroad."] Like the ruins
of a demolished building; or rather, like an army, which the
enemy has completely routed.—William Keatinge Clay.
Verse 20. Preserveth...destroy. Notice this
recurrent the guardianship of the good implies the destruction
of the wicked.—A. S. Aglen.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verses 1-2. Praise.
1. Personal praise.
2. Daily praise.
3. Enthusiastic praise.
4. Perpetual praise.
Or:
1. The attractive theme of the song.
2. The increasing fulness of the song.
3. The unending life of the singer.—C. A. D.
Verses 1-2. The four "I wills" of praise.
Praise to the King; praise to the divine character; praise for
all time; praise for all eternity.
Verse 2. Every day; for ever.
1. Day by day for ever God and I will endure.
2. Day by day for ever our present relations will continue.
He the God, I the creature; he the Father, I the child; he the
blessing, I the blest.
3. Day by day for ever he shall have my homage.—W. B. H.
Verse 3.
1. The dignity of man is here implied in his capacity for
praising God greatly.
2. His immortality in his capacity for praising his
unsearchable greatness.—G. R.
Verse 3. (last clause.) The unsearchable
greatness of God. Consider it,
1. As a fact amply demonstrated.
2. As a rebuke to despondency: see Isa 40:28.
3. As the stay of a soul oppressed by mysteries.
4. As indicating a subject for our everlasting study.—J.
F.
Verse 4.
1. Our obligation to past generations.
2. Our duty to generations to come.—G. R.
Verses 5-7. The Antiphon.
1. To praise God is a personal duty: "I will."
2. Its right performance will excite others to engage in it:
"And men shall."
3. The accompaniment of others in praise will react upon
ourselves. "And I will"; "And they shall
abundantly", etc.
4. Such praise widens and expands a it rolls along. Beginning
with God's majesty and works, it extends to his acts, greatness,
goodness, and righteousness.—C. A. D.
Verses 5-7.
1. Subjects for praise.
(a) Divine majesty.
(b) Divine works.
(c) Divine judgments.
(d) Divine greatness.
(e) Divine goodness.
(f) Divine righteousness.
2. Of whom is it required.
(a) Personal; "I will speak."
(b) Universal; "men shall speak."—G. R.
Verses 6-7.
1. The awe struck talk. Silent as to mercies and
promises, men must speak when God's terrible acts are among
them.
2. The bold avowal. One individual declares God's
greatness in power, wisdom, truth and grace. This leads others
to the same conclusion, and hence—
3. The grateful outpouring. Many bless the Lord's
great goodness in a song fresh, free, constant, joyous,
refreshing, abundant, like the gush of a spring.
4. The select song. They utter goodness but sing
of righteousness. This is a noteworthy topic for a discourse.
Verse 7. See "Spurgeon's Sermons", No. 1468:
"The Philosophy and Propriety of Abundant Praise."
Verse 8.
1. Grace to the unworthy.
2. Compassion to the afflicted.
3. Forbearance to the guilty.
4. Mercy to the penitent.—G. R.
Verse 9. The universal goodness of God in no degree a
contradiction to the special election of grace.
Verse 10. See "Spurgeon's Sermons", No.
1796: "Concerning Saints."
Verse 11. The glory of Christ's kingdom. The glory of
this kingdom is manifested,
1. In its origin.
2. In the manner and spirit of its administration.
3. In the character of its subjects.
4. In the privileges that are attached to it.—Robert Hall.
Verses 11-12. Talk transfigured.
1. The faculty of talk is extensively possessed.
2. Is commonly misused.
3. May be nobly employed.
4. Will then be gloriously useful.—C. A. D.
Verses 11-13. To show the greatness of God's kingdom,
David observes,
1. The pomp of it. Would we by faith look within the veil, we
should "speak of the glory of his kingdom" (Ps
145:11); "and the glorious majesty of it" (Ps 145:12).
2. The power of it. When "they speak of the glory of
God's kingdom", they must "talk of his power",
the extent of it, the efficacy of it.
3. The perpetuity of it (Ps 145:13). The thrones of earthly
princes totter, and the flowers of their crowns wither, monarchs
come to an end; but, Lord, "thy kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom."—Matthew Henry.
Verse 14. The grace of God in his kindness to the
undeserving and the miserable, who look to him for help.
1. He "upholdeth all that fall."
(a) A description, embracing (1) Sinners who have fallen
lowest: (2) Backsliders who have tripped most foully.
(b) An act implying (1) Pity which draws nigh; (2) Power
which places the fallen upon their feet; (3) Preservation which
keeps them standing.
2. He "raiseth up all those that are bowed down."
Consolation for those who are—
(a) Bowed down with shame and penitence.
(b) Oppressed with perplexities and cares.
(c) Weighted with a sense of weakness in the presence of onerous
duties.
(d) Depressed because of prevailing error and sin around
them.—J. F.
Verse 14. Help for the fallible.
1. Whatever our present position we are liable to fall.
Sickness. Loss. Friendlessness. Sin.
2. However low we fall we are not below the reach of God's
hand.
3. Within the reach of God's hand we shall experience the
action of God's love. "Upholdeth." "Raiseth
up."—C.A.D.
Verses 15-16. Universal dependence and divine support.
The Psalmist here teaches—
1. The Universality of Dependence amongst creatures:
"The eyes of all wait upon thee." We depend upon God
for "life, and breath, and all things." Entire
dependence should beget deep humility.
2. The Infinitude of the Divine Resources: "And thou
givest them their meat." His resources must be,
a) Infinitely vast.
b) Infinitely various. Both sufficient and adapted for all.
3. The Timeliness of the Divine Communications: "In due
season. "A reason for patience if his gifts seem delayed.
4. The Sublime Ease of the Divine Communications: "Thou
openest thine hand", and the countless needs of the
universe are satisfied. An encouragement to believing prayer.
5. The Sufficiency of the Divine Communications: "And
satisfiest the desire of every living thing." "God
giveth to all liberally." Our subject urges all men to,
(a) Gratitude. Constant provision should lead to constant
thankfulness and consecration.
(b) Trust. (1) For temporal supplies. (2) For spiritual
supplies. "Grace to help in time of need" will surely
be given to all who look to him.—William Jones, in
"The Homiletic Quarterly", 1878.
Verse 17.
1. What God declares himself to be.
2. What his people find him to be.
3. What all creatures will ultimately acknowledge him to be.—G.
R.
Verses 18-20. Gather from these verses the character
of God's people.
1. They call upon God.
2. They fear God.
3. They have desires towards God.
4. They have answers from God.
5. They love God.
Verse 18. (last clause.) True prayer, in what
it differs essentially from mere formalism.
Verse 18. At the palace gates.
1. Directions to callers.
(a) "Call upon him"; let the repetition suggest
pertinacity.
(b) Call "in truth"; sincerely, with promises, in
appointed way.
2. Encouragement for callers. Jehovah is nigh, with his ready
ear, sympathizing heart, and helpful hand.—W. B. H.
Verses 18-19. The blessedness of prayer.
1. Definition of prayer: "calling upon God."
2. Variety in prayer: "call, desire, cry."
3. Essential characteristic of prayer: "truth."
4. God's nearness in prayer.
5. Assured success of prayer. "He will fulfil, hear,
save."—C. A. D.
Verse 20. Those who love God are preserved from
excessive temptation, falling into sin, despair, apostasy,
remorse, famishing; preserved in trial, persecution,
depression, death; preserved to activity, holiness,
victory, glory.
Verse 20. Solemn Contrasts.
1. Between human characters. "Them that love him."
"The wicked."
2. Between human destinies. "Preserveth."
"Destroy."—C. A. D.
Verse 20. How the love of God is the opposite of
wickedness, and wickedness inconsistent with the love of God.
Verse 21. Individual praise suggests the desire for
universal praise. We like company in a good deed; we perceive
the inadequacy of our own song; we desire others to be happy; we
long to see that done which is right and good.