DIVISION. We are now among the
Hallelujahs. The rest of our journey lies through the Delectable
Mountains. All is praise to the close of the book. The key is
high pitched: the music is upon the high sounding cymbals. O for
a heart full of joyful gratitude, that we may run, and leap, and
glorify God, even as these Psalms do.
Alexander thinks that this song may be
regarded as composed of two equal parts; in the first we see the
happiness of those who trust in God, and not in man (Ps
146:1-5), while the second gives the reason drawn from the
Divine perfections (Ps 146:5-10). This might suffice for our
purpose; but as there is really no break at all, we will keep it
entire. It is "one pearl", a sacred censer of holy
incense, pouring forth one sweet perfume.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. Praise ye the LORD, or, Hallelujah. It
is saddening to remember how this majestic word has been trailed
in the mire of late. Its irreverent use is an aggravated
instance of taking the name of Jehovah our God in vain. Let us
hope that it has been done in ignorance by the ruder sort; but
great responsibility lies with leaders who countenance and even
copy this blasphemy. With holy awe let us pronounce the word
HALLELUJAH, and by it summon ourselves and all others to adore
the God of the whole earth. Men need to be called to praise; it
is important that they should praise; and there are many reasons
why they should do it at once. Let all who hear the word Hallelujah
unite immediately in holy praise. Praise the LORD, O my soul. He
would practise what he had preached. He would be the leader of
the choir which he had summoned. It is a poor business if we
solely exhort others, and do not stir up our own soul. It is an
evil thing to say, "Praise ye", and never to add,
"Praise, O my soul." When we praise God let us arouse
our innermost self, our central life: we have but one soul, and
if it be saved from eternal wrath, it is bound to praise its
Saviour. Come heart, mind, thought! Come my whole being, my
soul, my all, be all on flame with joyful adoration! Up, my
brethren! Lift up the song! "Praise ye the Lord." But
what am I at? How dare I call upon others, and be negligent
myself? If ever man was under bonds to bless the Lord I am that
man, wherefore let me put my soul into the centre of the choir,
and then let my better nature excite my whole manhood to the
utmost height of loving praise. "O for a well tuned
harp!" Nay, rather, O for a sanctified heart. Then if my
voice should be of the poorer sort, and somewhat lacking in
melody, yet my soul without my voice shall accomplish my resolve
to magnify the Lord.
Verse 2. While I live will I praise the LORD. I
shall not live here for ever. This mortal life will find a finis
in death; but while it lasts I will laud the Lord my God. I
cannot tell how long or short my life may be; but every hour of
it shall be given to the praises of my God. While I live I'll
love; and while I breathe I'll bless. It is but for a while, and
I will not while that time away in idleness, but consecrate it
to that same service which shall occupy eternity. As our life is
the gift of God's mercy, it should be used for his glory. I will
sing praises unto my God while I have any being. When I am no
longer in being on earth, I hope to have a higher being in
heaven, and there I will not only praise, but sing
praises. Here I have to sigh and praise, but there I shall only
sing and praise. This "while I have any being" will be
a great while, but the whole of it shall be filled up with
adoration; for the glorious Jehovah is my God, my own God by
covenant, and by blood relationship in Christ Jesus. I have no
being apart from my God, therefore, I will not attempt to enjoy
my being otherwise than by singing to his honour. Twice the
Psalmist says "I will"; here first thoughts and second
thoughts are alike good. We cannot be too firm in the holy
resolve to praise God, for it is the chief end of our living and
being that we should glorify God and enjoy him for ever.
Verse 3. Put not your trust in princes. If
David be the author this warning comes from a prince. In any
case it comes from the Spirit of the living God. Men are always
far too apt to depend upon the great ones of earth, and forget
the Great One above; and this habit is the fruitful source of
disappointment. Princes are only men, and men with greater needs
than others; why, then, should we look to them for aid? They are
in greater danger, are burdened with greater cares, and are more
likely to be misled than other men; therefore, it is folly to
select them for our confidence. Probably no order of men have
been so false to their promises and treaties as men of royal
blood. So live as to deserve their trust, but do not
burden them with your trust. Nor in the son of man, in whom
there is no help. Though you should select one son of man out of
the many, and should imagine that he differs from the rest and
may be safely depended on, you will be mistaken. There is none
to be trusted, no, not one. Adam fell; therefore lean not on his
sons. Man is a helpless creature without God; therefore, look
not for help in that direction. All men are like the few men who
are made into princes, they are more in appearance than in
reality, more in promising than in performing, more apt to help
themselves than to help others. How many have turned away
heartsick from men on whom they once relied! Never was this the
case with a believer in the Lord. He is a very present help in
time of trouble. In man there is no help in times of mental
depression, in the day of sore bereavement, in the night of
conviction of sin, or in the hour of death. What a horror when
most in need of help to read those black words, NO HELP!
Verse 4. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to
his earth. His breath goes from his body, and his body goes
to the grave. His spirit goes one way, and his body another.
High as he stood, the want of a little air brings him down to
the ground, and lays him under it. Man who comes from the earth
returns to the earth: it is the mother and sister of his body,
and he must needs lie among Ins kindred as soon as the spirit
which was his life has made its exit. There is a spirit in man,
and when that goes the man goes. The spirit returns to God who
gave it, and the flesh to the dust out of which it was
fashioned. This is a poor creature to trust in: a dying
creature, a corrupting creature. Those hopes will surely fall to
the ground which are built upon men who so soon lie under
ground. In that very day his thoughts perish. Whatever he may
have proposed to do, the proposal ends in smoke. He cannot
think, and what he had thought of cannot effect itself, and
therefore it dies. Now that he is gone, men are ready enough to
let his thoughts go with him into oblivion; another thinker
comes, and turns the thoughts of his predecessor to ridicule. It
is a pitiful thing to be waiting upon princes or upon any other
men, in the hope that they will think of us. In an hour they are
gone, and where are their schemes for our promotion? A day has
ended their thoughts by ending them; and our trusts have
perished, for their thoughts have perished. Men's ambitions,
expectations, declarations, and boastings all vanish into thin
air when the breath of life vanishes from their bodies. This is
the narrow estate of man: his breath, his earth, and his
thoughts; and this is his threefold climax therein,—his breath
goeth forth, to his earth he returns, and his thoughts perish.
Is this a being to be relied upon? Vanity of vanities, all is
vanity. To trust it would be a still greater vanity.
Verse 5. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for
his help. Heaped up is his happiness. He has happiness
indeed: the true and the real delight is with him. The God of
Jacob is the God of the covenant, the God of wrestling prayer,
the God of the tried believer; he is the only living and true
God. The God of Jacob is Jehovah, who appeared unto Moses, and
led the tribes of Jacob out of Egypt, and through the
wilderness. Those are happy who trust him, for they shall never
be ashamed or confounded. The Lord never dies, neither do his
thoughts perish: his purpose of mercy, like himself, endures
throughout all generations. Hallelujah! Whose hope is in the
LORD his God. He is happy in help for the present and in hope
for the future, who has placed all his confidence in Jehovah,
who is his God by a covenant of salt. Happy is he when others
are despairing! Happiest shall he be in that very hour when
others are discovering the depths of agony. We have here a
statement which we have personally tried and proved: resting in
the Lord, we know a happiness which is beyond description,
beyond comparison, beyond conception. O how blessed a thing it
is to know that God is our present help, and our eternal hope.
Full assurance is more than heaven in the bud, the flower has
begun to open. We would not exchange with Caesar; his sceptre is
a bauble, but our bliss is true treasure. In each of the two
titles here given, namely, "the God of Jacob", and
"Jehovah his God", there is a peculiar sweetness.
Either one of them has a fountain of joy in it; but the first
will not cheer us without the second. Unless Jehovah be his God
no man can find confidence in the fact that he was Jacob's God.
But when by faith we know the Lord to be ours, then we are
"rich to all the intents of bliss."
Verse 6. Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and
all that therein is. Wisely may we trust our Creator: justly
may we expect to be happy in so doing. He who made heaven can
make a heaven for us, and make us fit for heaven. He who made
the earth can preserve us while we are on earth, and help us to
make good use of it while we sojourn upon it. He who made the
sea and all its mysteries can steer us across the pathless deeps
of a troubled life, and make it a way for his redeemed to pass
over. This God who still makes the world by keeping it in
existence is assuredly able to keep us to his eternal kingdom
and glory. The making of the worlds is the standing proof of the
power and wisdom of that great God in whom we trust. It is our
joy that he not only made heaven, but the sea; not only things
which are bright and blessed, but things which are deep and
dark. Concerning all our circumstances, we may say the Lord is
there. In storms and hurricanes the Lord reigneth as truly as in
that great calm which rules the firmament above. Which keepeth
truth for ever. This is a second and most forcible justification
of our trust: the Lord will never permit his promise to fail. He
is true to his own nature, true to the relationships which he
has assumed, true to his covenant, true to his Word, true to his
Son. He keeps true, and is the keeper of all that is true.
Immutable fidelity is the character of Jehovah's procedure. None
can charge him with falsehood or vacillation.
Verse 7. Which executeth judgment for the
oppressed. He is a swift and impartial administrator of
justice. Our King surpasses all earthly princes because he pays
no deference to rank or wealth, and is never the respecter of
persons. He is the friend of the down trodden, the avenger of
the persecuted, the champion of the helpless. Safely may we
trust our cause with such a Judge if it be a just one: happy are
we to be under such a Ruler. Are we "evil entreated"?
Are our rights denied us? Are we slandered? Let this console us,
that he who occupies the throne will not only think upon our
case, but bestir himself to execute judgment on our behalf.
Which giveth food to the hungry. Glorious King art thou; O
Jehovah! Thou dost not only mete out justice but thou dost
dispense bounty! All food comes from God; but when we are
reduced to hunger, and providence supplies our necessity, we are
peculiarly struck with the fact. Let every hungry man lay hold
on this statement, and plead it before the mercy seat, whether
he suffer bodily hunger, or heart hunger. See how our God finds
his special clients among the lowest of mankind: the oppressed
and the starving find help in the God of Jacob. The LORD looseth
the prisoners. Thus he completes the triple blessing: justice,
bread, and liberty. Jehovah loves not to see men pining in
dungeons, or fretting in fetters: he brought up Joseph from the
round house, and Israel from the house of bondage. Jesus is the
Emancipator, spiritually, providentially, and nationally. Thy
chains, O Africa! were broken by his hand. As faith in Jehovah
shall become common among men freedom will advance in every
form, especially will mental, moral, and spiritual bonds be
loosed, and the slaves of error, sin, and death shall be set
free. Well might the Psalmist praise Jehovah, who is so kind to
men in bonds! Well may the loosened ones be loudest in the song!
Verse 8. The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind.
Jesus did this very frequently, and hereby proved himself to be
Jehovah. He who made the eye can open it, and when he does so it
is to his glory. How often is the mental eye closed in moral
night! And who can remove this dreary effect of the fall but the
Almighty God This miracle of grace he has performed in myriads
of cases, and it is in each case a theme for loftiest praise.
The Lord raiseth them that are bowed down. This also Jesus did
literally, thus doing the work peculiar to God. Jehovah consoles
the bereaved, cheers the defeated, solaces the despondent,
comforts the despairing. Let those who are bowed to the ground
appeal to him, and he will speedily upraise them. The LORD
loveth the righteous. He gives to them the love of complacency,
communion, and reward. Bad kings affect the licentious, but
Jehovah makes the upright to be his favoured ones. This is
greatly to his glory. Let those who enjoy the inestimable
privilege of his love magnify his name with enthusiastic
delight. Loved ones, you must never be absent from the choir!
You must never pause from his praise whose infinite love has
made you what you are.
Verse 9. The Lord preserveth the strangers.
Many monarchs hunted aliens down, or transported them from place
to place, or left them as outlaws unworthy of the rights of man;
but Jehovah made special laws for their shelter within his
domain. In this country the stranger was, a little while ago,
looked upon as a vagabond,—a kind of wild beast to be avoided
if not to be assaulted; and even to this day there are
prejudices against foreigners which are contrary to our holy
religion. Our God and King is never strange to any of his
creatures, and if any are left in a solitary and forlorn
condition he has a special eye to their preservation. He
relieveth the fatherless and widow. These excite his compassion,
and he shows it in a practical way by upraising them from their
forlorn condition. The Mosaic law made provision for these
destitute persons. When the secondary fatherhood is gone the
child falls back upon the primary fatherhood of the Creator;
when the husband of earth is removed the godly widow casts
herself upon the care of her Maker. But the way of the wicked he
turneth upside down. He fills it with crooked places; he
reverses it, sets it down, or upsets it. That which the man
aimed at he misses, and he secures that for himself which he
would gladly have avoided. The wicked man's way is in itself a
turning of things upside down morally, and the Lord makes it so
to him providentially: everything goes wrong with him who goes
wrong.
Verse 10. The LORD shall reign for ever.
Jehovah is King, and his kingdom can never come to an end.
Neither does he die, nor abdicate, nor lose his crown by force.
Glory be to his name, his throne is never in jeopardy. As the
Lord ever liveth, so he ever reigneth. Even thy God, O Zion,
unto all generations. Zion's God, the God of his worshipping
people, is he who in every age shall reign. There will always be
a Zion; Zion will always have Jehovah for her King; for her he
will always prove himself to be reigning in great power. What
should we do in the presence of so great a King, but enter into
his courts with praise, and pay to him our joyful homage? Praise
ye the LORD. Again they said Hallelujah. Again the sweet perfume
arose from the golden vials full of sweet odours. Are we not
prepared for an outburst of holy song? Do not we also
say—Hallelujah? Here endeth this happy Psalm. Here endeth not
the praise of the Lord, which shall ascend for ever and ever.
Amen.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Psalms 146:1 to 148:14. At the dedication of the
second Temple, in the beginning of the seventh year of Darius,
Ps 146:1-10 Ps 147:1-20 and Ps 148:1-14, seem to have been sung;
for in the Septuagint Version they are styled the Psalms of
Haggai and Zechariah, as if they had been composed by them for
this occasion. This, no doubt, was from some ancient tradition;
but in the original Hebrew these Psalms have no such title
prefixed to them, neither have they any other to contradict
it.—Humphrey Prideaux.
Psalms 146:1 to 150:6. We do not know who put together
these different sacred compositions, or whether they were
arranged on any particular principle. This, however, is
obvious,—that the last series, those that close the whole, are
full of praise. Though we meet frequently with grief and shame
and tears in the former part, a great deal that presses upon the
spirit, and in the centre a great many references to the various
vicissitudes and fortunes through which the church or the
individual has passed,—yet, as we get towards the end, and as
the book closes, it is Hallelujah—praise. As the
ancient church ceases to speak to us, as she lays down her lyre,
and ceases to touch it, the last tones are tones of heaven; as
if the warfare were done, the conflict accomplished, and she
were anticipating either the revelations which are to make her
glorious here, the "new thing" which God is about to
"create" when he places her under another
dispensation, or as you and I (I trust) shall do when we come to
die, anticipating the praise and occupation of that eternity and
rest for which we hope in the bosom of God.—Thomas Binney,
1798-1874.
Whole Psalm. This Psalm gives in brief the Gospel of
Confidence. It inculcates the elements of Faith, Hope, and
Thanksgiving.—Martin Geier.
Verse 1. Praise ye the LORD. The word here used
is Alleluia, and this is very proper to be constantly
used by us who are dependent creatures, and under such great
obligations to the Father of mercies. We have often heard of
prayer doing great wonders; but instances also are not wanting
of praise being accompanied with signal events. The ancient
Britons, in the year 420, obtained a victory over the army of
the Picts and Saxons, near Mold, in Flintshire. The Britons,
unarmed, having Germanicus and Lupus at their head, when the
Picts and Saxons came to the attack, the two commanders, Gideon
like ordered their little army to shout Alleluia three
times over, at the sound of which the enemy, being suddenly
struck with terror, ran away in the greatest confusion, and left
the Britons masters of the field. A stone monument to perpetuate
the remembrance of this Alleluia victory, I believe, remains to
this day, in a field near Mold.—Charles Buck,
1771-1815.
Verse 1. Praise the LORD, O My soul. The
Psalmist calls upon the noblest element of his being to exercise
its noblest function.—Hermann Venema.
Verse 2. While I live will I praise the LORD.
Mr. John Janeway on his deathbed cried out thus,—"Come,
help me with praises, yet all is too little. Come, help me, all
ye mighty and glorious angels, who are so well skilled in the
heavenly work of praise! Praise him, all ye creatures upon
earth; let every thing that hath being help me to praise God.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Praise is now my work, and I
shall be engaged in this sweet work now and for ever. Bring the
Bible; turn to David's Psalms, and let us sing a Psalm of
praise. Come, let us lift up our voices in the praises of the
Most High. I will sing with you as long as my breath doth last,
and when I have none, I shall do it better."
Verse 2. While live will I praise the LORD.
George Carpenter, the Bavarian martyr, being desired by some
godly brethren, that when he was burning in the fire he would
give them same sign of his constancy, answered, "Let this
be a sure sign unto you of my faith and perseverance in the
truth, that so long as I am able to hold open my mouth, or to
whisper, I will never cease to praise God, and to profess his
truth"; the which also he did, saith mine author; and so
did many other martyrs besides.—John Trapp.
Verse 2. I will sing praises unto my God while I
have any being. He had consecrated his entire earthly
existence to the exercise of praise. And not only so, but he
adds, I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.
In which expression we may fairly conclude that the Psalmist
stretches his thoughts beyond the limits of time, and
contemplates that scene of eternal praise which shall succeed
the less perfect songs of the church below.—John Morison.
Verse 2. Unto my God. Then praise is most
pleasant, when in praising God we have an eye to him as ours,
whom we have an interest in, and stand in relation to.—Matthew
Henry.
Verse 2. While I have any being. Praise God for
deliverances constantly. Some will be thankful while the memory
of a deliverance is fresh, and then leave off. The Carthaginians
used, at first, to send the tenth of their yearly revenue to
Hercules; and then by degrees they grew weary, and left off
sending; but we must be constant in our eucharistic sacrifice,
or thank offering. The motion of our praise must be like the
motion of our pulse, which beats as long as life lasts.—Thomas
Watson.
Verse 3. Put not your trust in princes, etc.
Through some kind of weakness, the soul of man, whensoever it is
in tribulation here, despairs of God, and chooseth to rely on
man. Let it be said to one when set in some affliction,
"There is a great man by whom thou mayest be set
free"; he smiles, he rejoiceth, he is lifted up. But if it
is said to him, "God frees you", he is chilled, so to
speak, by despair. The aid of a mortal is promised, and thou
rejoicest; the aid of the Immortal is promised, and art thou
sad? It is promised thee that thou shalt be freed by one who
needeth to be freed with thee, and you exult as at some great
aid: thou art promised that great Liberator, who needeth none to
free him, and you despair, as though it were but a fable. Woe to
such thoughts: they wander far; truly there is sad and great
death in them.—Augustine.
Verse 3. Put your trust in princes. The word
rendered "princes" signifieth liberal, bountiful ones,
eurgetai, so princes
would be accounted; but there's no trusting to them without God,
or against him.—John Trapp.
Verse 3. Put not your trust in princes. King
Charles had given the Earl of Strafford a solemn pledge, on the
word of a king, that he should not suffer in "life, honour,
or fortune", yet with singular baseness and ingratitude, as
well as short sighted policy, gave his assent to the bill of
attainder. On learning that this had been done, Strafford,
laying his hand on his heart, and raising his eyes to heaven,
uttered the memorable words, "Put not your trust in
princes, nor in the sons of men, for in them there is no
salvation."—James Taylor, in the "Imperial
Dictionary of Universal Biography", 1868.
Verse 3. Put not your trust in princes.
Shakespeare puts this sentiment into Wolsey's mouth:
"O how wretched
Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favour!
There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to,
That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,
More pangs and fears than wars and women have:
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,
Never to hope again."
Verse 3. Put not your trust in princes, etc.
True, may some say, it were a folly to trust in weak princes, to
trust in them for help who have no power to help; but we will
apply to mighty princes; we hope there is help in them. No;
those words, "in whom there is no help", are
not a distinction of weak princes, from strong, but a conclusion
that there is no help in the strongest. That's strange. What? No
help in strong princes! If he had said, no help in mean men,
carnal reason would have consented; but when he saith, "Trust
not in princes, nor in any son of man", one or other,
who can believe this? Yet this is divine truth; we may write insufficiency,
insufficiency, and a third time, insufficiency, upon
them all; the close of this verse may be their motto, There
is no help, in them.—Joseph Caryl.
Verse 3. Princes. Earthly princes offer baubles
to allure the soul from the pursuit of an eternal prize. Princes
themselves have pronounced their principality to be their own
greatest peril. Pope Pius the Fifth said, "When I was a
monk I had hope of my salvation; when I became Cardinal I began
to fear; when I was made Pope I all but despaired of
eternity."—Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 3. Nor in the son of man. All sons of man
are like the man they are sprung of, who, being in honour, did
not abide.—Matthew Henry.
Verse 3. For one man to put confidence in another, is
as if one beggar should ask an alms of another, or one cripple
should carry another, or the blind lead the blind.—Anthony
Farindon.
Verses 3-4. You see the first and the last, highest
and lowest, of all the sons of Adam, they may be made honourable
princes, but they are born sinful, the sons of men;
born weak, there is no help in them; born mortal, their
breath departeth; born corruptible, they return to their
earth; and lastly, the mortality and corruption is not only
in their flesh, but in some part or remnant of their spirits,
for their thoughts perish. The prophet (if you mark it)
climbeth up by degrees to the disabling of the best men amongst
us, and in them of all the rest. For if princes deserve not
confidence, the argument must needs hold by comparison, much
less do meaner men deserve it. The order of the words is so set
that the members following are evermore either the reason or
some confirmation to that which went before. "Trust not
in princes." Why? Because they are "the sons of
men." Why not in "the sons of men"?
Because there is no help in them. Why is there no help in
them? Because when "their breath goeth forth, they turn
again to their earth." What if their flesh be
corrupted? Nay, "their thoughts" also "come
to nothing."
For, first, this first order and rank which the prophet hath
here placed, the princes and gods of the earth, are by birth men;
secondly, weak men, and such in whom no help is;
thirdly, not only weak, but dying, their breath goeth
out;
fourthly, not only dying, but subject to dissolution, they
turn to the earth;
fifthly, if their bodies only were dissolved, and their
intentions and actions might stand, there were less cause to
distrust them; but their thoughts are as transitory as
their bodies.—John King (1559?-1621), in a Funeral
Sermon.
Verses 3-4. The Psalmist inscribes an antithesis.
Princes, though masters of armies, possessors of riches, loaded
with honours, revelling in pleasures, are at the mercy of a
ruthless Black Prince. Death is tyrant over prince and peasant
alike. The very pleasures which are envied are often ministers
of death to voluptuous princes.—Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 4. He returneth to his earth. The
earth—the dust—is "his."
1. It is "his" as that from which he was
made: he turns back to what he was, Ge 3:19. "Dust thou
art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
2. The earth—the dust—the grave is "his",
and it is his home—the place where he will abide.
3. It is "his" as it is the only property
which he has in reversion. All that a man—a prince, a
nobleman, a monarch, a millionaire—will soon have will be his
grave, his few feet of earth. That will be his by light
of possession, by the fact that for the time being he will
occupy it, and not another man! But that, too, may soon become
another man's grave, so that even there he is a tenant only for
a time; he has no permanent possession even of a grave.—Albert
Barnes.
Verse 4. His breath goeth forth. There is the
death's head, the mortality of man indeed, that a breath is as
much as his being is worth. Our soul, that spiraculum vitarum
(breath of lives), the Lord inspired it, not into Adam's eye, or
ear, or mouth, but into his nostrils, which may show to man his
imbecility, cujus anima in naribus, whose soul is in his
nostrils, and depends upon a breath, as it were; for the very
soul must away if but breath expires; soul and breath go forth
together. Now hear this, all ye people, ponder it high and low;
your castle is built upon the very air, the subsistence is in
your nostrils, in a breath that is gone in the twinkling of an
eye. Wherefore David maketh a question, saying, "Lord, what
is man?" He answereth himself also: "Man is a
vanishing shadow" (Ps 144:3-4), a shadow of smoke, or the
dream of a shadow rather, as the poet speaketh. Blessed
therefore are the poor in spirit; this advantage have all
afflicted ones, that they have checks enough to call them home,
and make them see they be but men. The curtain of honour,
profit, or pleasure, hard it is and rare to draw aside when it
is spread over us: "man in honour understandeth not"
(Ps 49:20). To great ones therefore be it spoken; the Psalm
intends it of very princes: "His breath goeth
forth." See we now the continuity, exit, "it
goeth" as if it were now presently in its passage:
showing this, that Homo vivens continue moritur, that
life is a continued death; our candle lightens, consumes, and
dies: as in the passing of an hourglass, every minute some sand
faileth, and the glass once turned, no creature can intreat the
sands to stay, but they continue to fall till all are gone: so
is our life, it shortens and dies every minute, and we cannot
beg a minute of time back, and that which we call death is but
the termination, or consummation of it.—Thomas Williamson;
in a Sermon, entitled, "A Comfortable Meditation of Humane
Frailtie and Divine Mercie", 1630.
Verse 4. The primary idea of breath and the
secondary one of spirit run into each other in the usage
of the Hebrew word xwr,
so that either may be expressed in the translation without
entirely excluding the other.—Joseph Addison Alexander.
Verse 4. His breath (or spirit) goeth forth.
Now I come to the liberty of the spirit, that it recedes
inviolate; 1. In Act; "it goeth": 2. In
Essence; "it goeth forth."
1. Our spirit is free in the act; it is not snatched,
as it were; "it goeth." A soul in life sealed
to eternity by the first fruits of the Spirit hath its good
issue, its free passing, its hopes even in death; for let this
breath fade, fidelis Deus, God who cannot lie, will stand
nigh us in that exigency, and begin to help where man leaveth.
The Holy Spirit, whose name is the Comforter, will not omit and
leave off his own act or office in the great needs of death.
Hence good Hilarion, having served the Lord Christ seventy
years, checks his soul that it was so loath at the last to go
forth, saying, Egredere, O anima mea, egredere, "Go
forth, my soul, go forth." Devout Simeon sues for a
manumission: "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in
peace, according to thy word." The spirit goeth forth; it
passes freely; because it taketh up or embraces the cross of
Christ, as he commandeth us to do. But is the act at our will
and liberty? Not simply. We may not projicere animam,
thrust or cast forth our breath or spirit; spiritus exit,
it goeth forth. Strive, we must, to cast the world out of us; we
may not cast ourselves out of the world. Saint Paul dares not
dissolve himself, though he could wish to be dissolved: God must
part that which he joins; God giveth, and God taketh away; and
if God say, as he doth to Lazarus, Exi foras, Come forth;
with faithful Stephen we must resign our spirit and all into his
hands. When God biddeth us yoke, he is the wisest man that
yieldeth his neck most willingly. When our great Captain recalls
us, we must take the retreat in good part. But it is heathenish
to force out the soul; for when the misdeeming flesh, amidst our
disasters, will not listen with patience for God's call, but
rather shake off the thought of divine providence quite, then
are we ready to curse God and die, and that is probably to leap e
fumo in flammam, out of the sin of self murder into hell.
No, but God will have our spirits to pass forth upon good terms.
Spiritus exit, "the spirit goeth forth."
2. Secondly, the spirit goeth free or inviolate in
essence; death is not the end, but the outgoing of the soul,
a transmigration or journey from one place to another. "It
goeth forth"; so the character of our weakness we see
in the issue; it is an argument of our eternity; for man indeed
is perishing, but so is not his spirit. The phoenix goes forth
or out of his ashes, "the spirit returneth to God who gave
it" (Ec 12:7); that is, it abides still; and as in the body
it pleased God to inclose the soul for a season, so it may as
well exist elsewhere without it, if God will; for it hath no
rise at all from the clay, yea, it bears in it immortality, an
image of that breast whence it is breathed. The separate and
very abstract acts of the spirit, even while it is in the body,
the wondrous visions of the Lord to his prophets, usually when
their bodies were bound up in sleep; Saint Paul's rapture when
he knew not whether he was in the body or out of it; the
admirable inventions and arts of men, manifest the soul's self
consisting. Not Socrates, and Cato, and the civilised heathen
only, but the very savages believe this, and so entertain death,
ut exitum, non ut exitium, as a dissolution, not as a
destruction: spiritus exit, "his spirit goeth
forth."—Thomas Williamson.
Verse 4. His breath goeth forth, etc. The
Hebrew gives the idea not that the spirit, but the mortal
part of man will return to the dust. "His soul (fem.
xwr) goeth forth", i.e.,
returneth to God; "returneth he (masc. bv)
to his earth." As in Ec 12:7: "He" is the
mortal man of clay, but "his breath" (soul)
is the real immortal man.—Simon de Muis.
Verse 4. He returneth to his earth. Returning,
in its proper notion, is a going back to that place from whence
we came, so that in this clause here is a threefold truth,
implied, expressed, inferred.
1. That which is implied in this phrase of returning
is, that man in respect of his body came from the earth; and as
it is here implied, so it is expressed concerning the first man
by Moses (Ge 2:7). "The Lord God formed man" (that is,
the body of man) "of the dust"; or according to
the Hebrew "dust of the ground"; and by St. Paul (1Co
15:47), where he saith, "The first man is of the earth,
earthy." True it is, we are formed in our mother's womb;
but yet inasmuch as we all came from the first man, we are truly
said to come from the earth; only with this difference,
that he immediately, we mediately are framed out of the earth.
This truth was engraven in full characters upon the name of the
first man, who is called Adam, from a word that
signifieth red earth, and that very word is here used,
perhaps to mind us of that earth whereof man was first made;
yea, according to the usual etymology, the name homo,
which in the Latin is a common name to both sexes, is derived ab
humo, from the ground. For this reason it is that the
earth is called by the poet magna parens, the great
parent of all mankind, and in the answer of the Oracle, our
mother; and in this respect we are said by Eliphaz "to
dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust",
Job 4:19.
2. That which is expressed is, that man (when he dieth)
returneth to the earth, pantez
luomenoi koniz esmen saith the poet, "We are all
dust when dissolved." As the white snow when melted is
black water; so flesh and blood when bereaved of the soul become
dust and ashes: in which respect St. Paul giveth this epithet of
"vile" to our bodies. Php 3:21. Indeed, man's original
being from the earth, he had a natural propensity to earth;
according to the maxim, Omne principiatum sequitur naturam
principiorum, "Everything hath an aptitude of returning
to the principle whence it cometh"; but yet had he not turned
away from God he had never actually returned thither.
It is sin which hath brought upon man a necessity of dying, and
that dying brings a necessity of returning to the earth: in
which respect it is observable, that the threat, "thou
shalt die the death" (Ge 2:17), which was denounced against
man before his fall, being afterwards renewed (Ge 3:19), is
explained (as to temporal death) by these words, "to dust
thou shalt return"; so that now the motion of the little
world man is like that of the great, Circulare ab eodem
puncto ad idem, from the same to the same; and that as in
his soul from God to God, so in his body from the
earth to the earth. The rivers come from the sea, and they
return thither. The sun ariseth out of the east, and thither it
returneth. Man is formed of the earth, and into earth he is
again transformed: with which agreeth that of the poet Lucretius:
Cedit item retro de terra quod fuit ante.
3. That which is inferred in the emphatic pronoun "his",
which is annexed to the noun "earth", is that
the earth to which man returneth is his; this being that
which ariseth out of both the former conclusions; since it is
therefore his earth because he cometh from and returneth
to it. Earth is man's Genesis and Analysis, his composition and
resolution, his Alpha and Omega, his first and last; Ortus
pulvis, finis cinis; earth is his both originally and
finally. So that our bodies can challenge no alliance with, or
property in anything so much as earth. For if we call those
things ours which had only an external relation to us, as
our friends, our horses, our goods, our lands; much more may we
call that our earth whereof we are made and into which we
shall moulder; no wonder it is here said to be "his";
so elsewhere he is said to be earth, as being called by
that name.—Nathanael Hardy, in a Funeral Sermon entitled,
"Man's Last Journey to his Long Home," 1659.
Verse 4. In that very day his thoughts perish.
The thoughts which the Psalmist here, no doubt, especially
intends are those purposes which are in the minds of
great men of doing good to those who are under, and depend upon
them. The Hebrew word here used is derived from a verb that
signifieth to be bright: cogitationes serenae, those
candid, serene, benign, benevolent thoughts which they have of
advancing their allies, friends and followers. These thoughts
are said to "perish" in "that day"
wherein they are conceived; so Tremellius glosses. In which
sense the instability of great men's favour is asserted, whose
smiles are quickly changed into frowns, love into hatred, and so
in a moment their mind being changed, their well wishing
thoughts vanish. But more rationally, "their thoughts
perish in that day" wherein their persons die,
because there is no opportunity of putting their purposes into
execution. They perish like the child which comes to the birth,
and there is no strength to bring forth; or like the fruit which
is plucked off before it be ripe. Whilst they live we may be
deceived in our expectations by the alteration of their minds;
but, however, their condition is mortal, and when that great
change by death comes, their designs (how well so ever meant)
must want success. From hence it followeth, which is by some
looked upon as a part of the meaning of the words, that the thoughts
or hopes of them who trust in them perish. It is a true
apothegm, Major pars hominum expectundo moritur; the
greatest part of men perish by expectation. And good reason,
inasmuch as their expectation, being misplaced, perisheth. How
strongly this argument serveth to press the Psalmist's caution
against confidence in man, though never so great, is obvious. It
is true, princes and nobles being invested with honour, wealth
and authority, have power in their hands, and perhaps they may
have thoughts in their hearts to do thee good; but, alas, how
uncertain is the execution of those intentions, and therefore
how foolish is it to depend upon them. "Trust in the Lord
Jehovah" (saith the prophet), "for with him is
everlasting strength." Aye, and with him is unchangeable
goodness. It is safe building upon the rock, trusting upon God,
whose thoughts of mercy are (like himself) from everlasting to
everlasting; but nothing is more foolish than to build on the
sand, trust to men, whose persons, together with their thoughts,
perish in a moment. Therefore let our resolution be that of
David: "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put
confidence in man; it is better to trust in the Lord than to put
confidence in princes", Ps 118:8-9.—Nathanael Hardy.
Verse 4. In that very day his thoughts perish.
At death a man sees all those thoughts which were not spent upon
God to be fruitless. All worldly, vain thoughts, in the day of
death perish and come to nothing. What good will the whole globe
of the world do at such a time? Those who have revelled out
their thoughts in impertinences will but be the more disquieted;
it will cut them to the heart to think how they have spun a
fool's thread. A Scythian captain having, for a draught of
water, yielded up a city, cried out: "What have I lost?
What have I betrayed?" So will it be with that man when he
comes to die, who hath spent all his meditations upon the world;
he will say, What have I lost? What have I betrayed? I have lost
heaven, I have betrayed my soul. Should not the consideration of
this fix our minds upon the thoughts of God and glory? All other
meditations are fruitless; like a piece of ground which hath
much cost laid out upon it, but it yields no crop.—Thomas
Watson.
Verse 4. I would have you take this passage and
illustrate it as applying to purposes, projects, and intentions.
That, I think now, is precisely the idea intended to be
conveyed. "In that very day his thoughts perish";
his purposes, his projects—what he intended to do. These
cherished thoughts are gone. My dear brethren, there is
something here for us. You find many beautiful passages and
instances in Scripture in which this idea is embodied and
realised, sometimes with great beauty and poetic effect, in
relation to the enemies of the church. "The enemy said, I
will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my hand
shall destroy them; thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea
covered them, they sank as lead in the mighty waters." In
that very day their thoughts perished "Have they not sped?
have they not divided the prey? to every man a damsel or two? to
Sisera a prey of divers colours of needlework? So let all thine
enemies perish, O Lord." The sacred poet does not even
suggest that they had perished; but feeling that it was a fact,
only lifts up her heart to God. "So let all thine enemies
perish, O Lord." And so you will find in many parts of
Scripture beautiful ideas like this concerning the purposes and
intentions that were in men's hearts utterly
"perishing" by God's just laying his hand upon
them—the purposes that were in their hearts against the
church.—Thomas Binney.
Verse 4. In that very day his thoughts perish.
In the case of the rich fool (Lu 12:16,20) his
"thoughts" of building larger barns, and of many years
of ease and prosperity,—all his selfish and worldly
schemes,—"perished" in that self same night.—John
W. Haley, in "An Examination of the Alleged Discrepancies
of the Bible," 1875.
Verse 4. His thoughts perish. The science, the
philosophy, the statesmanship of one age is exploded in the
next. The men who are the masters of the world's intellect today
are discrowned tomorrow. In this age of restless and rapid
change they may survive their own thoughts; their thoughts do
not survive them.—J.J. Stewart Perowne.
Verse 4. His thoughts perish. As the purposes
of all about worldly things perish in the approaches of death,
so do the purposes of some about spiritual and heavenly things.
How many have had purposes to repent, to amend their lives and
turn to God, which have been prevented and totally broken off by
the extremity of pain and sickness, but chiefly by the stroke of
death when they have (as they thought) "been about to
repent", and (as we say) "turn over a new leaf"
in their lives; they have been turned into the grave by death,
and into hell by the just wrath of God.—Joseph Caryl.
Verse 4. His thoughts. Rather, "his false
deceitful show"; literally, "his glitterings."—Samuel
Horsley, 1733-1806.
Verse 4. To trust man is to lean not on a pillar but
on a little heap of dust. The proudest element in man is his
thought. In the thoughts of his heart he is lifted up if nowhere
else; but, behold, even his proudest thoughts, says the
Psalmist, will be degraded and perish in that dust to which he
will return. Poor, perishing pride! Who should trust it?—Johannes
Paulus Palanterius.
Verse 5. Happy is he. This is the last of the
twenty-five places (or twenty-six, if Ps 128:2 be included) in
which the word ashre, with which the psalter begins, is
found.—Speaker's Commentary.
Verse 5. Alas, how often do we trust when we should be
afraid, and become afraid when we should trust!—Lange's
Commentary.
Verse 5. The God of Jacob. A famous and
significant description of God; and that, First, in respect
of his nature, or the verity and reality of his being and
excellence. He is styled here by way of elegancy or emphasis, "The
God of Jacob", saith Mollerus, to discern and
distinguish the true God of Israel from all Heathenish deities,
and to explode all fictitious gods and all worships thereof. As
the true God is the God of Jacob, so the God of Jacob is the
true God. He is God alone, and there is no other besides
him...Secondly. This title or appellation serves also to
describe him in his special relation to his people. We
find him called by our Psalmist, "The mighty God of
Jacob": Ps 132:5. He is indeed the God of the whole earth,
but in a peculiar manner "the God of Israel":
Mt 15:31 ...It is observable in Scripture that he styles not
himself so frequently, in his revelations of himself to them,
"the God of heaven and earth" (though that also is a
title full of encouragement), but "the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob"; as if he had borne such choice goodwill,
and had such a peculiar care for these three men, as to overlook
all the world besides them. So near and intimate relation have
God's people to him, that their interests are mutually involved,
and twisted in a reciprocal and covenant bond. They are his, he
is their portion; their Beloved is theirs and they are his: they
are called by his name, the saints are styled his "holy
ones", and the Church is termed expressly
"Christ." Yea, he condescends to be called by their
name; he assumes the name of Jacob, Ps 24:6: "This
is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O
Jacob:"—From "The Saints' Ebenezer", by
F.E., 1667.
Verse 5. The God of Jacob. This verse aptly
warrants us to apply to all believers all the illustrations of help
and hope furnished by Jacob in his exile when none but
God could help him.—Simon de Muis.
Verses 5-6. The God of Jacob...which wade heaven and
earth, the sea, and all that therein is. It is a
characteristic of these Psalms, to proclaim to all nations which
worshipped idols, that "the God of Jacob", "the
God of Zion", is the Creator and Governor of all things;
and to make an appeal to all nations to turn to him. All these
Psalms have a missionary character and an evangelical
function. We may compare here the apostolic prayer at
Jerusalem, after the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost:
"They lifted up their voices to God with one accord, and
said, Lord, thou art God, that made heaven and earth, and the
sea, and all that in them is" (where the words are the
same as in the Septuagint in this place): "Who by the mouth
of thy servant David hast said. Why do the heathen rage?"
Ac 4:24-25 The office of these Psalms is to declare to the
universe, that Jehovah, and he alone, is Elohim; and to
invite all to worship him as such, by their oft repeated Hallelujah.—Christopher
Wordsworth.
Verse 6. Which keepeth truth for ever. Stored
in his inexhaustible treasury as the most costly jewel ever
there. And that because the truth which he so keeps, and
which is the sustaining power which preserves the fabric of
creation, is the Eternal Word, his only begotten Son, Jesus
Christ.—Dionysius the Carthusian, and Ayguan, in Neale and
Littledale.
Verse 6. Which keepeth truth for ever. God does
indeed keep the truth from age to age—how else would the Book
of God have lived?—John Lorinus.
Verses 6-9. The LORD, is an Almighty God, as
the Creator of the universe; next, he is a faithful God
"who keepeth truth forever"; further, he is a righteous
God (Ps 146:7) a bountiful God (ib.) a gracious
God (Ps 146:7-9).—J.J. Stewart Perowne.
Verse 7. Giveth food to the hungry. We learn
from this that he is not always so indulgent to his own as to
load them with abundance, but occasionally withdraws his
blessing, that he may succour them when reduced to hunger. Had
the Psalmist said that God fed his people with abundance and
pampered them, would not any of those under want, or in famine
have immediately desponded? The goodness of God is therefore
properly extended farther to the feeding of the hungry.—John
Calvin.
Verse 7. Giveth food to the hungry. Now, that
Jesus was that Lord of whom the Psalmist in this place, and in
Ps 145:16, speaketh, was fully testified by the miracles which
he wrought, in feeding many thousands with some few loaves and
two small fishes, and in filling so many baskets with the
fragments or relics of that small provision wherewith he bad
filled thousands. From these miracles, the people which had seen
him do them and tasted of his bounty, did rightly infer that he
was the prophet which was to come into the world, as you may
read, Joh 6:14; and being supposed to be the prophet, they
consequently presumed that he was likewise to be the King of
Israel; and out of this concert or presumption they would have
enforced him to be their king, Joh 6:15.—Thomas Jackson,
1579-1640.
Verse 7. The Lord looseth the prisoners. As in
that place of Isa 61:1 the phrase of "opening the prison to
them that are bound", is by the learned thought to be a
prophetic elegance, to signify the cure of those that are deaf
and dumb, whose souls consequently were shut up from being able
to express themselves, as language enables others to do; so here
also it may be used poetically, and then it will be directly
parallel to that part of Christ's answer, "the deaf
hear" (Mt 11:5). At the curing of such, Christ's form of
speech was, Ephphatha, "be opened", as to the door of
a prison, when those which were under restraint therein were to
be let loose out of it, their fetters being shaken off from
them. But then, 'tis further manifest, that those that were
under any sore disease or lameness, etc., are said to be
"bound by Satan" (Lu 13:16), and be "loosed"
by Christ, when they were cured by him. So saith Christ (Lu
13:12), "Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity: and
immediately she was made straight." Her being "made
straight" was her being loosed out of her restraint, or
bonds, or prison. And in this latitude of the poetic or
prophetic expression, the Lord's loosing the prisoners
here will comprehend the walking of the lame, the lepers being
cleansed, the hearing of the deaf, yea, and the raising up of
the dead; for those of all others are fastest bound, and so when
they were raised, the style is as proper as to Lazarus in
respect of the graveclothes, "loose them, and let him
go."—Henry Hammond.
Verses 7-8. It ought not to pass without remark that
the name Jehovah is repeated here five times in five lines, to
intimate that it is an almighty power, that of Jehovah, that is
engaged and exerted for the relief of the oppressed; and that it
is as much to the glory of God to succour them that are in
misery, as it is to ride on the heavens by his name JAH, Ps
68:4.—Matthew Henry.
Verse 8. Openeth the eyes of the blind.
Literally, "openeth the blind"—i.e., maketh
them to see. The expression may be used figuratively, as a
remedy applied either to physical helplessness, as De 28:29 Isa
59:9-10 Job 12:25 or to spiritual want of discernment, as Isa
29:18, 42:7,18, 43:8. Here the context favours the former.—J.J.
Stewart Perowne.
Verse 8. The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind.
The Hebrew does not mention the eyes of the blind. Hilary
renders it sapientificat. The Arabic version follows the
same. Jehovah by his wisdom illumines dark minds. It is mental
blindness which is the common affliction of men.—John
Lorinus.
Verse 8. The blind. The large number of blind
persons to be seen feeling their way along the streets in Cairo
and Alexandria has been noticed by Volney. "Walking in the
streets of Cairo", he says, "out of a hundred persons
whom I met, there were often twenty blind, eighteen one eyed,
and twenty others with eyes red, purulent, or spotted. Almost
every one wears bandages, indicating that they either have or
are recovering from ophthalmia." Ophthalmia is, in fact,
one of the scourges of Egypt, as all physicians know. Its
prevalence must be attributed in a great degree to the sand
which the wind blows into the eyes; but one can understand how
in Oriental countries in general the excessive heat of the sun
must make blindness much commoner than it is with us. It is not
therefore surprising to any one who knows the East to find the
blind so often mentioned in the gospel history, and to meet in
Scripture with so many allusions to this infirmity. Of the
twelve maledictions of the Levites there is one against him
"who maketh the blind to go out of the way": De 27:18.
"The spirit of God hath anointed me", said Jesus,
quoting from Isaiah, "to preach the gospel to the poor, and
recovery of sight to the blind": Lu 4:19. "The
Lord", says David, "setteth at liberty them that are
bound; the Lord giveth sight to the blind."—Felix
Bovet (1824—), in "Egypt, Palestine, and
Phoenicia," 1882.
Verse 9. The LORD preserveth the strangers. God
has peculiar love for wanderers and pilgrims (De 10:18), and
Jacob was a stranger in a strange land when God showed himself
to be the God of Jacob as his elect servant.—Thomas Le
Blanc.
Verse 9. The Lord preserveth the strangers.
They who do not belong to Babylon, nor to this world, but the
true pilgrims in a strange land.—Robert Bellarmine.
Verse 9. He relieveth the fatherless and the widow.
The olive tree is not to be twice shaken, the vineyard is not to
be twice gathered, nor are the sheaves of corn left in the
fields to be gleaned; all that belongs to the poor, to the widow
and the orphan. It was allowable to pluck with the hand the ears
of corn while passing through a neighbour's field (De 23:25),
though a sickle might not be used. The law cares most anxiously
for widows and orphans, for "God is a father of the
fatherless and a judge of the widows" (Ps 68:5). A widow's
raiment might not be taken in pledge, and both widows and
orphans were to be invited to their feasts. An institution
specially designed for the protection and relief of the poor was
the second tithe, the so called poor's tithe. The first tithe
belonged to the Levites. What remained over was again tithed,
and the produce of this second tithe, devoted in the first two
years to a feast in the sanctuary at the offering of firstfruits,
was devoted in the third year to a feast in the dwelling house,
to which the Levites and the strangers, the widows and the
orphans, were invited (De 14:28-29 De 26:12-13).—G. Uhlhorn,
in "Christian Charity in the Ancient Church,"
1883.
Verse 9. The way of the wicked he turneth upside
down. He overturns their plans, defeats their schemes; makes
their purposes accomplish what they did not intend they should
accomplish: The Hebrew word here means to bend, to curve, to
make crooked, to distort; then, to overturn, to turn upside
down. The same word is applied to the conduct of the wicked, in
Ps 119:78: "They dealt perversely with me." The idea
here is that the path is not a straight path; that God makes it
a crooked way; that they are diverted from their design; that
through them he accomplishes purposes which they did not intend;
that he prevents their accomplishing their own designs; and that
he will make their plans subservient to a higher and better
purpose than their own. This is the eleventh reason why those
who put their trust in God are happy. It is that God is worthy
of confidence and love, because he has all the plans of wicked
men entirely under his control.—Albert Barnes.
Verse 9. The way of the wicked he turneth upside
down. As the potter's clay, when the potter hath spent some
time and pains in tempering and forming it upon the wheel, and
now the vessel is even almost brought to its shape, a man that
stands by may, with the least push, put it clean out of shape,
and mar all on a sudden that he hath been so long a making: so
is it that all the plots and contrivances of wicked men, all
their turning of things upside down shall be but as the potter's
clay; for when they think they have brought all to maturity,
ripeness, and perfection, when they look upon their business as
good as done, all on a sudden all their labour is lost; for God,
who stands by all the while and looks on, will, with one small
touch, with the least breath of his wrath, blast and break all
in pieces.—Edlin, 1656.
Verse 9. The way of the wicked he turneth upside
down. All the ten clauses preceding lift up the poor saint
step by step, higher and higher. At one word suddenly, like
Satan falling as lightning from heaven, the wicked are shown
dashed down the whole way from the summit of pride to the depths
of hell.—Johannes Paulus Palanterius.
Verse 9. The way of the wicked he turneth upside
down. A striking illustration of the folly of counting God
out of one's plans for life is given in the course of William M.
Tweed, whose death is recently announced. Here was a man who
sought wealth and power, and who for a time seemed successful in
their pursuit. Apparently he did not propose to obey God or to
live for a life to come. What he wanted was worldly prosperity.
He thought he had it. He went to Congress. He gathered his
millions. He controlled the material interests of the metropolis
of his country. He openly defied public sentiment and courts of
justice in the prosecution of his plans. He was a brilliant and
therefore a dangerous example of successful villainy. But the
promise of prosperity for the life which now is, is only to the
godly. As William M. Tweed lay dying in a prison house in the
city he once ruled, his confession of bitter disappointment was,
"My life has been a failure in everything. There is nothing
I am proud of." If any young man wants to come to an end
like this, the way to it is simple and plain. "The great
God that formed all things both rewardeth the fool, and
rewardeth transgressors." "The way of the wicked he
turneth upside down."—American Sunday School
Times, 1878.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1.
1. An exhortation: it is addressed to ourselves: "Praise
ye the Lord."
2. An example: the Psalmist cries to himself, "Praise the
Lord."
3. An echo: "Praise the Lord, O my soul." Let us say
this to our own souls.
Verse 1. Whom should I praise? And why? And when? And
how?
Verse 1. Public worship.
1. Should be with a sense of fellowship: "Praise ye":
pleasures of communion in praise.
2. Should never lose its individuality: "O my
soul." God is only praised by individual hearts.
Temptations to wandering in public services.
3. Should be full of Jehovah's felt presence: each and all
should worship him alone.—W.B.H.
Verse 2. Work for here and hereafter.
1. "While I live"; or a period of uncertainty and
mystery.
2. "I will praise the Lord"; or a service definite,
determined, due, and delightful. Certainty amid uncertainty.
3. "While I have any being"; or an enthusiastic
pre-engagement of eternity.—W.B.H.
Verse 3.
1. It dishonours God.
2. It degrades you.
3. It disappoints in every case.
Verse 4. Decease, Decay, Defeat.
Verse 4. (second clause). The failure of man's
projects, the disappearance of his philosophies, the disproving
of his boastings.
Verse 5. The secret of true happiness.
1. What it is not. The man here mentioned has his work
and warfare, for he needs help; and he has not all he desires,
for he is a man of hope.
2. What it is. It lies in the hath, the help,
and the hope, and these are all in God.
Verses 6-7. The God of our hope is,
1. Creator.
2. Truth keeper.
3. Vindicator.
4. Provider.
5. Deliverer.
Verse 7. (last clause).—See "Spurgeon's
Sermons", No. 484: "The Lord—the Liberator."
Verse 7. The People's Rights.
1. Three rights of humanity. Justice, Bread, Freedom.
2. God's interventions in their behalf. Revolutions, Reforms,
Regenerations. Christ's war with Satan.
3. The magnificent supply of the three blessings in Christ's
kingdom.
4. The men who are fashioned and trained under this regime.—W.B.H.
Verse 8. (first clause). Spiritual blindness,
its curse, cause, and cure.
Verse 8. (second clause). Who are the people?
Who raises them? How he does it. And what then?
Verse 8. (third clause). God's love to the
righteous.
1. He made them righteous.
2. They are like him.
3. They love him.
4. Their purposes are one with his own.
Verse 9. Observe the provision made in the Jewish law
for the stranger. The way in which strangers were received by
God. The truth that his chosen are strangers in the world. His
design to gather in strangers in the latter days.
Verse 9. (centre clause). The claims of orphans
and widows upon the people of God.
Verse 9. (last clause). Illustrated by Joseph's
brethren, Haman, and others.
Verse 10.
1. A cause for praise—"The Lord shall reign for
ever."
2. A centre of praise: "O Zion."
3. A cycle of praise: "all generations."
4. A call to praise; "Praise ye the Lord."