Verse 45. I will walk at liberty. Wherever God pardons sin,
he subdues it (Mic 7:19). Then is the condemning power of sin taken away, when
the commanding power of it is taken away. If a malefactor be in prison, how
shall he know that his prince hath pardoned him? If a jailer come and knock off
his chains and fetters, and lets him out of prison, then he may know he is
pardoned: so, how shall we know God hath pardoned us? If the fetters of sin be
broken off, and we walk at liberty in the ways of God, this is a blessed sign we
are pardoned. Thomas Watson.
Verse 45.I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.
As he who departs from confessing of God's truth doth cast himself in straits,
in danger and bonds; so he that beareth out the confession of the truth doth
walk as a free man; the truth doth set him free. David Dickson.
Verse 45.I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.
When the Bible says that a man led by the Spirit is not under the law, it does
not mean that he is free because he may sin without being punished for it; but
it means that he is free because being taught by God's Spirit to love what his
law commands he is no longer conscious of acting from restraint. The law does
not drive him, because the Spirit leads him... There is a state, brethren, when
we recognize God, but do not love God in Christ. It is that state when we admire
what is excellent, but are not able to perform it. It is a state when the love
of good comes to nothing, dying away in a mere desire. That is a state of
nature, when we are under the law, and not converted to the love of Christ. And
then there is another state, when God writes his law upon our hearts by love
instead of fear. The one state is this, "I cannot do the things that I would;
"the other state is this, "I will walk at liberty, for I seek thy commandments."
Frederick William Robertson, 1816-1853.
Verse 45.I will walk at liberty. The Psalmist's mind takes
in the enlargement of his position. A little while ago, and he felt like a man
straitenedhemmed in by rocks, in a narrow dangerous pass who could not make
his way out. You know the characteristics of Canaan, and you can easily conceive
of the position of a traveller exploring his dreaded way through one of the
mountain passes. The traveller before us has attained to tread upon secure
ground. Now, all at once, favoured of the Most High, and conscious of being in
his way, he finds himself in a spacious place, and he walks at large: "And I
will walk at liberty; for I seek thy precepts." He had made diligent
enquiry into all that the Lord had enjoined, and seeking conformity thereto, he
felt that he could walk with comfort. He recreates himself in his spiritual
emancipation. The secret evil doer of fair profession cannot know this spiritual
liberty at all. As long as a man finds himself to be wrong, and especially a man
of a tender conscience, he feels hampered on all sides, depressed in mind, and
evilly circumstanced. To what expansion of mind does a man awake when he becomes
conscious of being in the appointed way of God! And he is actually at liberty;
for the good providence of God is around him, and his grace supports him.
John Stephen.
Verse 45. He who goes the beaten and right path will have no
brambles hit him across the eyes. Saxon proverb.
Verses 45-48. Five things David promises himself here in the
strength of God's grace.
1. That he should be free and easy in his duty: I willwalk at liberty: freed from that which is evil, not hampered with the
fetters of my own corruptions, and free to that which is good.
2. That he should be bold and courageous in his duty: Iwill speak of thy testimonies before kings.
3. That he should be cheerful and pleasant in his duty: I
will delight myself in thy commandments, in conversing with them, in forming
to them.
4. That he should be diligent and vigorous in his duty: I
will lift up my hands unto thy commandments; which notes not only a vehement
desire towards them, but a close application of mind to the observance of them.
5. That he should be thoughtful and considerate in his duty:
I will meditate in thy statutes. Matthew Henry.
Verses 45-48. In these four verses he explains,
seriatim, in what the observance of the law consists; a thing he
promised, when he said in fourth verse of this division, that he would observe
God's law in his in his words, in his mind, and in his acts; and the prophet
seems all once, as having been heard, to have changed his mode of speaking, for
says, "And I walked at large." When God's mercy visited me, I did walk in
the narrow ways of fear, but in the wide one of love; that is to say, observed
the law willingly, joyfully, with all the affections of my heart, "because I
have sought after thy commandments" as a thing of great and most
important to come at; "and I spoke" openly and fearlessly on the justice
of his most holy law, even "before kings, and I was not ashamed" and I
constantly turned the law in my mind, and made its mysteries the subject of my
meditation, "and I lifted up my hands," to carry out his high and sublime
commands; that is, his extremely perfect and arduous commands. Finally, in all
manner of ways, in heart, mind, word, and "I was exercised in thy
justifications." Robert Bellarmine.
Verse 46.I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings.
In words he seems to believe that he is in possession of that which he formerly
prayed for. He had said, "Take not the word of truth out of my mouth, "and now,
as if he had obtained what he requested, he rises up, and maintains that he
would not be dumb, even were he called upon to speak in presence of kings. He
affirms that he would willingly stand forward vindication of the glory of God in
the face of the whole world. John Calvin.
Verse 46.I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings.
The terror of kings and of men in power is an ordinary hindrance of free
confession God's truth in time of persecution; but faith in the truth sustained
in heart by God is able to bring forth a confession at all hazards. David
Dickson.
Verse 46.I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings.
Before came to the crown kings were sometimes his judges, as Saul and
Achish: but if he were called before them to give a reason of the hope that was
in: him, he would speak of God's testimonies, and profess to build his hope upon
them, and make them his council, his guard, his crown, his all. We must never be
afraid to own our religion, though it should expose us to the wrath of kings,
but speak of it as that which we will live and die by, like the three children
before Nebuchadnezzar, Da 3:16 Ac 4:20. After David came to the crown kings were
sometimes his companions, they visited him, and he returned their visits;
but he did not, in complaisance to them, talk of everything but religion for
fear of affronting them, and making his converse uneasy to them: no, God's
testimonies shall be the principal subject of his discourse with the kings, not
only to show that he was not ashamed of his religion, but to instruct them in
it, and bring them over to it. It is good for kings to hear of God'stestimonies, and it will adorn the conversation of princes themselves to
speak of them. Matthew Henry.
Verse 46.I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings.
Men of greatest holiness have been men of greatest boldness; witness Nehemiah,
the three children, Daniel, and all the holy prophets and apostles: Pr 23:1,
"The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion,
"yea, as a young lion, as the Hebrew has it, one that is in his hot blood and
fears no colours, and that is more bold than any others. Holiness made Daniel
not only as bold as a lion, but also to daunt the lions with his boldness.
Luther was a man of great holiness, and a man of great boldness: witness his
standing out against all the world; and when the emperor sent for him to Worms,
and his friends dissuaded him from going, as sometimes Paul's did him, "Go,
"said he, "I will surely go, since I am sent for, in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ; yea, though I knew that there were as many devils in Worms to resist me
as there be tiles to cover the houses, yet I would go." And when the same author
and his associates were threatened with many dangers from opposers on all hands,
he lets fall this heroic and magnanimous speech: "Come, let us sing the 46th
Psalm, and then let them do their worst." Latimer was a man of much holiness,
counting the darkness and profaneness of those times wherein he lived, and a man
of much courage and boldness; witness his presenting to King Henry the Eighth,
for a New Year's gift, a New Testament, wrapped up in a napkin, with this posie
or motto about it; "Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." Thomas
Brooks.
Verse 46. Note that in this verse we are taught to shun four
vices. First, overmuch silence: hence he says, "I will speak." Secondly,
useless talkativeness: "of thy testimonies." The Hebrew doctors say that
ten measures of speaking had descended to the earth, that nine had been
carried off by the women, but one left for all the rest of the world. Hieronymus
rightly exhorts all Christians: "Consecrate thy mouth to the Gospel: be
unwilling to open it with trifles or fables." Thirdly, we are taught to shun
cowardice: "before kings." For, as it is said (Pr 29:25), "The fear of
man bringeth a snare." Fourthly, and lastly, we are taught to shun
cowardly bashfulness: "and will not be ashamed." Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 46.I will not be ashamed. That is, I shall not be
cast down from my position or my hope; I shall not be afraid; nor will I, from
fear of danger or reproach, shun or renounce the confession; nor shall I be
overcome by terrors or threats. D. H. Mollerus.
Verses 46-48. In these three last verses David promises a
threefold duty of thankfulness. First, the service of his tongue. Next, the
service of his affections. Thirdly, the service of his actions. A good
conscience renders always great consolation; and an honest life makes great
boldness to speak without fear or shame, as ye see in David towards Saul, in
Elias to Ahab, in Paul to Agrippa, to Festus, and to Felix. William
Cowper.
Verse 47.I will delight myself in thy commandments. It is
but poor comfort to the believer to be able to talk well to others upon the ways
of God, and even to "bear the reproach" of his people, when his own heart is
cold, insensible, and dull. He longs for "delight" in these ways; and he
shall delight in them. Charles Bridges.
Verse 47. He who would preach boldly to others must himself
"delight" in the practice of what he preacheth. If there be in us a new
nature, it will "love the commandments of God" as being congenial to it; on that
which we love we shall continually be "meditating, "and our meditation will end
in action; we shall "lift up the hands which hang down" (Heb 12:12), that they
may "work the works of God whilst it is day, because the night cometh when no
man can work" (Joh 9:4). George Horne.
Verse 47.Thy commandments, which I have loved. On the word
"loved, "the Carmelite quotes two sayings of ancient philosophers, which
he commends to the acceptance of those who have learnt the truer philosophy of
the Gospel. The first is Aristotle's answer to the question of what profit he
had derived from philosophy: "I have learnt to do without constraint that which
others do from fear of the law." The second is a very similar saying of
Aristippus: "If the laws were lost, all of us would live as we do now that they
are in force." And for us the whole verse is summed up in the words of a greater
Teacher than they: "If a man love me, he will keep my words": Joh 14:23.
Neale and Littledale.
Verses 47-48. What is in the word a law of precept, is in the
heart a law of love; what is in the one a law of command, is in the other a law
of liberty "Love is the fulfilling of the law, "Ga 5:14. The law of love in the
heart, is the fulfilling the law of God in the Spirit. It may well be said to be
written in the heart, when a man doth love it. As we say, a beloved thing is in
our hearts, not physically, but morally, as Calais was said to be in Queen
Mary's heart. They might have looked long enough before they could have found
there the map of the town; but grief for the loss of it killed her. It is a love
that is inexpressible. David delights to mention it in two verses together: I
will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved. My hands
also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved, and
often in the Psalm resumes the assertion. Before the new creation, there was no
affection to the law: it was not only a dead letter, but a devilish letter in
the esteem of a man: he wished it razed out of the world, and another more
pleasing to the flesh enacted. He would be a law unto himself; but when this is
written within him, he is so pleased with the inscription, that he would not for
all the world be without that law, and the love of it; whereas what obedience he
paid to it before was out of fear, now out of affection; not only because of the
authority of the lawgiver, but of the purity of the law itself. He would
maintain it with all his might against the power of sin within, and the powers
of darkness without him. He loves to view this law; regards every lineament of
it, and dwells upon every feature with delightful ravishments. If his eye be
off, or his foot go away, how doth he dissolve in tears, mourn and groan, till
his former affection hath recovered breath, and stands upon its feet! Stephen
Charnock.
Verse 48.My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments,
etc. The duty that David promises God here, is the service of his actions,
that he will lift up his hands to the practice of God's commandments. The
kingdom of God is not in word, but in power; we are the disciples of that
Master, who first began to do and then to teach. But now the world is full of
mutilated Christians; either they want an ear and cannot hear God's word, or a
tongue and cannot speak of it; or if they have both, they want hands and cannot
practise it. William Cowper.
Verse 48.My hands also will I lift up. To lift up the hands
is taken variously, and it signifies:
1. To pray: as in Ps 28:2 La 2:19 Hab 3:10.
2. To bless others: as Le 9:22 Ps 134:2.
3. To swear: as Ge 14:22 Ex 6:8.
4. To set about some important matter: as Ge 41:44; "without
thee shall no man lift up his hand; "i.e. shall attempt anything, or
shall accomplish; Ps 10:12, "lift up thine hand, "viz., effectively, to bring
help: Heb 12:12, "lift up the hands, "etc.; i.e. strongly stimulate
Christians.
Perhaps all these may be accommodated to the present passage;
for it is possible to be either,
1. Prayer for Divine grace for the doing of the precepts: or,
2. Blessing, i.e. praise of God because of them, and the
advantages which have thence accrued to us: which the Syriac translator
approves, who adds, "and I will glory in thy faithfulness:" or,
3. Vow, or oath of constant obedience, etc.: or,
4. Active and earnest undertaking of them; which, also, appears
to be here chiefly meant. Henry Hammond in Synopsis Poli.
Verse 48.My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments;
vowing obedience to them: Ge 14:22. William Kay.
Verse 48.My hands also will I lift up. I will present every
victim and sacrifice which the law requires. I will make prayer and supplication
before thee, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. Adam
Clarke.
Verse 48.My hands also will I lift up. Aben Ezra explains,
(and perhaps rightly,)that the metaphor, in this place, is taken from the action
of those who receive any one whom they are glad or proud to see. Daniel
Cresswell, 1776-1844.
Verse 48. I will lift up my hands in admiration of
thy precepts, "And meditate on thy statutes." W. Green, in "A New Translation
of the Psalms," 1762.
Verse 48. To lift up the hand is a gesture importing
readiness, and special intention in doing a thing. My hands (saith David)
also will I lift up unto thy commandments; as a man that is willing
to do a thing and addresses himself to the doing of it, lifts up his hand; so a
godly man is described as lifting up his hand to fulfil the commands of God.
Joseph Caryl.
Verse 48.Thy commandments. By commandments he
understandeth the word of God, yet it is more powerful than so; it is not, I
have loved thy word;but, I have loved that part of thy word that is thy
"commandments, "the mandatory part. There are some parts of the
will and word of God that even ungodly men will be content to love. There is the
promissory part; all men gather and catch at the promises, and show love
to these. The reason is clear; there is pleasure, and profit, and gain, and
advantage in the promises; but a pious soul doth not only look to the promises,
but to the commands. Piety looks on Christ as a Lawgiver, as well
as a Saviour, and not only on him as a Mediator, but as a
Lord and Master;it doth not only live by faith, but it
liveth by rule;it makes indeed the promises the stay and
staff of a Christian's life, but it makes the commandments of God the
level. A pious heart knows that some command is implied in the
qualification and condition of every promise; it knows that as for the
fulfilling of the promises, it belongs to God; but the fulfilling of the
commands belongs to us. Therefore it looks so, upon the enjoying of that which
is promised that it will first do that which is commanded. There is no hope of
attaining comfort in the promise but in keeping of the precept; therefore he
pitches the emphasis, "I have loved thy word, "that is true, and
all thy word, and this part, the mandatory part: "I have loved thy
commandments." Observe the number, "thy commandments"; it is plural, that is,
all thy commandments without exception; otherwise even ungodly men will
be content to love some commandments, if they may choose them for
themselves. Richard Holdsworth (1590-1649), in "The Valley of
Vision."
Verse 48.Which I love, or have loved, as in Ps
119:47, the terms of which are studiously repeated with a fine rhetorical
effect, which is further heightened by the and at the beginning, throwing both
verses, as it were, into one sentence. As if he had said: I will derive my
happiness from thy commandments, which I love and have loved, and to these
commandments, which I love and have loved, I will lift up my hands and heart
together. Joseph Addison Alexander.
Verse 48.I will meditate. It is in holy meditation on the
word of God that all the graces of the Spirit are manifested. What is the
principle of faith but the reliance of the soul upon the promises of the word?
What is the sensation of godly fear but the soul trembling before the
threatenings of God? What is the object of hope but the apprehended glory of
God? What is the excitement of desire or love but longing, endearing
contemplations of the Saviour, and of his unspeakable blessings? So that we can
scarcely conceive of the influences of grace separated from spiritual meditation
in the word. Charles Bridges.
Verse 48. The Syriac has an addition to Ps 119:48, which I
am surprised has not been noticed. The addition is, "and I will glory in thy
faithfulness." Dathe in a note says, THE SEVENTY seem to have read some such
addition, although not exactly the same. Edward Thomas Gibson, 1819-1880.
Verse 49.Remember the word unto thy servant, etc. Those
that make God's promises their portion, may with humble boldness make them their
plea. God gave the promise in which the Psalmist hoped, and the hope by which he
embraced the promise. Matthew Henry.
Verse 49.Remember the word unto thy servant, etc. When we
hear any promise in the word of God, let us turn it into a prayer. God's
promises are his bonds. Sue him on his bond. He loves that we should wrestle
with him by his promises. Why, Lord, thou hast made this and that promise, thou
canst not deny thyself, thou canst not deny thine own truth; thou canst not
cease to be God, and thou canst as well cease to be God, as deny thy promise,
that is thyself. "Lord, remember thy word." "I put thee in mind of thy promise,
whereon thou hast caused me to hope." If I be deceived, thou hast deceived me.
Thou hast made these promises, and caused me to trust in thee, and "thou never
fullest those that trust in thee, therefore keep thy word to me." Richard
Sibbes.
Verse 49.Remember the word unto thy servant, etc. God
promises salvation before he giveth it, to excite our desire of it, to exercise
our faith, to prove our sincerity, to perfect our patience. For these purposes
he seemeth sometimes to have forgotten his word, and to have deserted those whom
he had engaged to succour and relieve; in which case he would have us, as it
were, to remind him of his promise, and solicit his performance of it. The
Psalmist here instructs us to prefer our petition upon these grounds; first,
that God cannot prove false to his own word: "Remember thy word; "secondly, that
he will never disappoint an expectation which himself hath raised: "upon which
thou hast caused me to hope." George Horne.
Verses 49, 52, 55. Remember. "I remembered." As David
beseeches the Lord to remember his promise, so he protests, in Ps 119:52, that
he remembered the judgments of God, and was comforted; and in Ps 119:55, that he
remembered the name of the Lord in the night. It is but a mockery of God, to
desire him to remember his promise made to us, when we make no conscience of the
promise we have made to him. But alas, how often we fail in this duty, and by
our own default, diminish that comfort we might have of God's promises in the
day of our trouble. William Cowper.
Verse 49.Thy servant. Be sure of your qualification; for
David pleadeth here, partly as a servant of God, and partly as a believer.
First, "Remember the word unto thy servant; "and then, "upon which thou hast
caused me to hope." There is a double qualification: with respect to the precept
of subjection, and the promise of dependence. The precept is before the promise.
They have right to the promises, and may justly lay hold upon them, who are
God's servants; they who apply themselves to obey his precepts, these only can
rightly apply his promises to themselves. None can lay claim to rewarding grace
but those who are partakers of sanctifying grace. Make it clear that you are
God's servants, and then these promises which are generally offered are your
own, no less than if your name were inserted in the promise, and written in the
Bible. Thomas Manton.
Verse 49.Thou hast caused me to hope. Let us remember,
first, that the promises made to us are of God's free mercy; that the grace to
believe, which is the condition of the promise, is also of himself; for "faith
is the gift of God"; thirdly, that the arguments by which he confirms our faith
in the certainty of our salvation are drawn from himself, not from us.
William Cowper.
Verse 50.This is my comfort, etc. The word of promise was
David's comfort, because the word had quickened him to receive comfort. The
original is capable of another modification of thought"This is my consolation
that thy word hath quickened me." He had the happy experience within him; he
felt the reviving, restoring, life giving power of the word, as he read, as he
dwelt upon it, as he meditated therein, and as he gave himself up to the way of
the word. The believer has all God's unfailing promises to depend upon, and as
he depends he gains strength by his own happy experiences of the faithfulness of
the word. John Stephen.
Verse 50.My comfort. "Thy word." God hath given us his
Scriptures, his word; and the comforts that are fetched from thence are strong
ones, because they are his comforts, since they come from his word. The word of
a prince comforts, though he be not there to speak it. Though it be by a letter,
or by a messenger, yet he whose word it is, is one that is able to make his word
good. He is Lord and Master of his word. The word of God is comfortable, and all
the reasons that are in it, and that are deduced from it, upon good ground and
consequence, are comfortable, because it is God's word. Those comforts in God's
word, and reasons from thence, are wonderful in variety. There is comfort from
the liberty of a Christian, that he hath free access to the throne of grace;
comfort from the prerogatives of a Christian, that he is the child of God, that
he is justified, that he is the heir of heaven, and such like; comforts from the
promises of grace, of the presence of God, of assistance by his presence.
Richard Sibbes.
Verse 50.Comfort. 'Nechamah', consolation; whence the
name of Nehemiah was derived. The word occurs only in Job 6:9.
Verse 50.Comfort. The Hebrew verb rendered 'to comfort'
signifies, first, to repent, and then to comfort. And certainly the sweetest joy
is from the surest tears. Tears are the breeders of spiritual joy. When Hannah
had wept, she went away, and was no more sad. The bee gathers the best honey
from the bitterest herbs. Christ made the best wine of water. Gospel comforts are,
First, unutterable comforts, 1Pe 1:8; Php
4:4.
Secondly, they are real, Joh 14:27; all others are but seeming comforts,
but painted comforts.
Thirdly, they are holy comforts, Isa 64:5 Ps 138:5; they
flow from a Holy Spirit, and nothing can come from the Holy Spirit but that
which is holy.
Fourthly, they are the greatest and strongest comforts, Eph 6:17.
Few heads and hearts are able to bear them, as few heads are able to bear strong
wines.
Fifthly, they reach to the inward man, to the soul, 2Th 2:17, the noble
part of man. "My soul rejoiceth in God my Saviour." Our other comforts only
reach the face; they sink not so deep as the heart.
Sixthly, they are the most
soul filling and soul satisfying comforts, Ps 16:11 So 4:3. Other comforts
cannot reach the soul, and therefore they cannot fill nor satisfy the soul.
Seventhly, they comfort in saddest distresses, in the darkest night, and in the
most stormy day, Ps 94:19 Heb 3:7-8.
Eighthly, they are everlasting, 2Th 2:16.
The joy of the wicked is but as a glass, bright and brittle, and evermore in
danger of breaking; but the joy of the saints is lasting. Thomas
Brooks.
Verse 50.Thy word hath quickened me. It is a reviving
comfort which quickeneth the soul. Many times we seem to be dead to all
spiritual operations, our affections are damped and discouraged; but the word of
God puts life into the dead, and relieveth us in our greatest distresses. Sorrow
worketh death, but joy is the life of the soul. Now, when dead in all sense and
feeling, "the just shall live by faith" (Heb 4:4), and the hope wrought in us by
the Scriptures is "a lively hope" (1Pe 1:8). Other things skin the wound but our
sore breaketh out again, and runneth; faith penetrates into the inwards of a
man, doth good to the heart; and the soul revives by waiting upon God, and gets
life and strength. Thomas Manton.
Verse 50.Thy word hath quickened me. Here, as is evident
from the mention of "affliction" and indeed throughout the psalm the verb
"quicken" is used not merely in an external sense of "preservation from death"
(Hupfeld), but of "reviving the heart, " "imparting fresh courage, "etc.
J.J. Stewart Perowne.
Verse 50.Thy word hath quickened me. It made me alive
when I was dead in sin; it has many a time made me lively when I was dead in
duty; it has quickened me to that which is good, when. I was backward and averse
to it; and it has quickened me in that which is good, when I was cold and
indifferent. Matthew Henry.
Verse 50. (Second Clause). Adore God's distinguishing
grace, if you have felt the power and authority of the word upon your
conscience; if you can say as David, "Thy word hath quickened me." Christian,
bless God that he has not only given thee his word to be a rule of holiness, but
his grace to be a principle of holiness. Bless God that he has not only written
his word, but sealed it upon thy heart, and made it effectual. Canst thou say it
is of divine inspiration, because thou hast felt it to be of lively operation?
Oh free grace! That God should send out his word, and heal thee; that he should
heal thee and not others! That the Same Scripture which to them is a dead
letter, should be to thee a savour of life. Thomas Watson.
Verse 51.The proud have had me greatly in derision. The
saints of God have complained of this in all ages: David of his busy mockers;
the abjects jeered him. Job was disdained of those children whose fathers he
would have scorned to set with the dogs of his flock, Job 30:1. Joseph was
nicknamed a dreamer, Paul a babbler, Christ himself a Samaritan, and with intent
of disgrace a carpenter...Michal was barren, yet she hath too many children,
that scorn the habit and exercises of holiness. There cannot be a greater
argument of a foul soul, than the deriding of religious services. Worldly hearts
can see nothing in those actions, but folly and madness; piety hath no relish,
but is distasteful to their palates. Thomas Adams.
Verse 51.The proud, etc. Scoffing proceedeth from pride.
Pr 3:34 1Pe 5:5. John Trapp.
Verse 51.Greatly. The word notes "continually, "the
Septuagint translates it by afuzra, the vulgar Latin by "usque valde", and "usque longe". They derided him
with all possible bitterness; and day by day they had their scoffs for him, so
that it was both a grievous and a perpetual temptation. Thomas Manton.
Verse 51.Derision. David tells that he had been jeered
for his religion, but yet he had not been jeered out of his religion. They
laughed at him for his praying and called it cant, for his seriousness and
called it mopishness, for his strictness and called it needless preciseness.
Matthew Henry.
Verse 51. It is a great thing in a soldier to behave well
under fire; but it is a greater thing for a soldier of the cross to be
unflinching in the day of his trial. It does not hurt the Christian to have the
dogs bark at him. William S. Plumer.
Verses 50-51. The life and rigour infused into me by the
promise which "quickened me, "caused me "not to decline from thy law, "even
though "the proud did iniquitously altogether"; doing all in their power,
through their jeering at me, to deter me from its observance. Robert
Bellarmine.
Verse 52.I remember thy judgments of old. It is good to
have a number of examples of God's dealings with his servants laid up in the
storehouse of a sanctified memory, that thereby faith may be strengthened in the
day of affliction; for so are we here taught. David Dickson.
Verse 52. I remembered thy judgments. He remembered that
at the beginning Adam, because of transgression of the divine command, was cast
out from dwelling in Paradise; and that Cain, condemned by the authority of the
divine sentence, paid the price of his parricidal crime; that Enoch, caught up
to heaven because of his devotion, escaped the poison of earthly wickedness:
that Noah, because of righteousness the victor of the deluge, became the
survivor of the human race; that Abraham, because of faith, diffused the seed of
his posterity through the whole earth; that Israel, because of the patient
bearing of troubles, consecrated a believing people by the sign of his own name;
that David himself, because of gentleness, having had regal honour conferred,
was preferred to his elder brothers. Ambrose.
Verse 52.I remembered, etc. Jerome writes of that
religious lady Paula, that she had got most of the Scriptures by heart. We are
bid to have the "word dwell in" us: Col 3:16. The word is a jewel that adorns
the hidden man; and shall we not remember it? "Can a maid forget her ornaments?"
(Jer 4:32). Such as have a disease they call lienteria, in which the meat comes
up as fast as they eat it, and stays not in the stomach, are not nourished by
it. If the word stays not in the memory, it cannot profit. Some can better
remember a piece of news than a line of Scripture: their memories are like those
ponds, where frogs live, but fish die. Thomas Watson in "The Morning
Exercises."
Verse 52.I remembered thy judgments, and have comforted
myself. A case of conscience may be propounded: how could David be comforted
by God's judgments, for it seemeth a barbarous thing to delight in the
destruction of any? it is said, "He that is glad at calamities shall not be
unpunished" (Pr 17:5).
1. It must be remembered that judgment implies both parts of
God's righteous dispensation, the deliverance of the godly, and the punishment
of the wicked. Now, in the first sense there is no ground of scruple, for it is
said, "Judgment shall return unto righteousness" (Ps 94:15); the sufferings of
good men shall be turned into the greatest advantages, as the context showeth
that God will not cast off his people, but judgment shall return unto
righteousness.
2. Judgment, as it signifieth punishment of the wicked, may yet
be a comfort, not as it imports the calamity of any, but either,
(a) When the wicked is punished, the snare and allurement to
sin is taken away, which is the hope of impunity; for by their punishment men see that it is dangerous to sin against God:
"When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn
righteousness" (Isa 26:9); the snare is removed from many a soul.
(b) Their derision and mocking of godliness ceaseth, they do no
longer vex and pierce the souls of the godly, saying, "Aha, aha" (Ps 40:15); it
is as a wound to their heart when they say, "Where is thy God?" (Ps 42:10).
Judgment slayeth this evil.
(c) The impediments and hindrances of worshipping and serving
God are taken away: when the nettles are rooted up, the corn hath the more room
to grow.
(c) Opportunity of molesting God's servants is taken away, and
they are prevented from afflicting the church by their oppressions; and so way
is made for the enlarging of Christ's kingdom.
(d) Thereby also God's justice is manifested: When it goeth
well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth: "and when the wicked perish, there
is shouting" (Pr 11:10); "The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall
laugh at him: lo, this is the man that made not God his strength" (Ps 52:6-7);
rejoice over Babylon, "ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you
on her" (Re 18:20). When the word of God is fulfilled, surely then we may
rejoice that his justice and truth are cleared. Thomas Mardon.
Verse 52. The word "mishphatim", "judgments, "is used in
Scripture either for laws enacted, or judgments executed according to those
laws. The one may be called the judgments of his mouth, as, "Remember his
marvellous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth"
(Ps 105:5), the other, the judgments of his hand. As both will
bear the name of judgments, so both may be said to be "of old." His decrees and
statutes which have an eternal equity in them, and were graven upon the heart of
man in innocency, may well be said to be of old: and because from the beginning
of the world God hath been punishing the wicked, anti delivering the godly in
due time, his judiciary dispensations may be said to be so also, The matter is
not much, whether we interpret it of either his statutes or decrees, for they
both contain matter of comfort, and we may see the ruin of the wicked in the
word, if we see it not in providence. Yet I rather interpret it of those
righteous acts recorded in Scripture, which God as a just judge hath executed in
all ages, according to the promises and threaten this annexed to his laws. Only
in that sense I must note to you, judgments imply his mercies in the deliverance
of his righteous servants, as well as his punishments on the wicked: the
seasonable interpositions of his relief for the one in their greatest
distresses, as well as his just vengeance on the other notwithstanding their
highest prosperities. Thomas Manton.
Verse 52, 55. I remembered thy judgments, "thy name in the
night." Thomas Fuller thus writes in his "David's Heartie Repentance":
"For sundry duties he did dayes deride. Making exchange of
worke his recreation; For prayer he set the precious morne aside. The midday he
bequeathed to meditation: Sweete sacred stories he reserved for night. To reade of Moses'
meeknes, Sampson's might: These were his joy, these onely his delight."
Verse 53.Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the
wicked. I have had clear views of eternity; have seen the blessedness of the
godly, in some measure; and have longed to share their happy state; as well as
been comfortably satisfied that through grace I shall do so; but, oh, what
anguish is raised in my mind, to think of an eternity for those who are without
Christ, for those who are mistaken, and who bring their false hopes to the grave
with them! The sight was so dreadful I could by no means bear it: my thoughts
recoiled, and I said, (under a more affecting sense than ever before,)"Who can
dwell with everlasting burnings?" David Brainerd, 1718-1747.
Verse 53.Horror hath taken hold upon me, etc. Oh who can
express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can
possibly say about it gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it; it is
inexpressible and inconceivable; for who knows the power of God's anger? How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in
danger of this great wrath and infinite misery! But this is the dismal case of
every soul in this congregation that has not been born again, however moral and
strict, sober and religious, they may otherwise be. Oh that you would consider
it, whether you be young or old! There is reason to think, that there are many
in this congregation now hearing this discourse, that will actually be the
subjects of this very misery to all eternity. We know not who they are, or in
what seats they sit, or what thoughts they now have. It may be are now at ease,
and hear all these things without much disturbance, are now flattering
themselves that they are not the persons, promising themselves that they shall
escape. If we knew that there was one person, and but one, in the whole
congregation, that was to be the subject of misery, what an awful thing would it
be to think of! If we knew who was, what an awful sight would it be to see such
a person! How might the rest of the congregation lift up a lamentable and bitter
cry over But, alas! instead of one, how many is it likely will remember this
discourse in hell! Jonathan Edwards, in a Sermon entitled, "Sinners
in the Hands of an angry God."
Verse 53.Horror.hpelz, zilaphah, properly signifies the
pestilential
burning wind called by the Arabs simoon (see Ps 11:6); and is
here used in a figurative sense for the most horrid mental distress; and
strongly marks the idea the Psalmist had of the corrupting, pestilential, and
destructive nature of sin. Note in Bagster's Comprehensive Bible.
Verse 53.Horror. The word for "horror" signifieth also a
tempest or storm. Translations vary; some read it, as Junius, "a storm
overtaking one"; Ainsworth, "a burning horror hath seized me, "and expounds it a
storm of terror and dismay. The Septuagint, aynmia katece
me, "faintness and dejection of mind hath possessed me"; our
own translation, "I am horribly afraid"; all translations, as well as the
original word, imply a great trouble of mind, and a vehement commotion; like a
storm, it was matter of disquiet and trembling to David. Thomas Manton.
Verse 53.Because of the wicked that forsake thy law.
David grieved, not because he was himself attacked; but because the law of God
was forsaken; and he bewailed the condemnation of those who so did, because they
are lost to God. Just as a good father in the madness of his son, when he is ill
used by him, mourns not his own but the misery of the diseased; and he grieves
at the contumely, not because it is cast on himself, but because the diseased
person knows not what he does in his madness: so a good man, when he sees a
sinner neither reverence nor honour the grey hairs of a parent, that to his face
he can insult him, that he does not know in the madness of sinning what
unbecoming and shameful things he does, grieves for him as one on the point of
death, laments him as one despaired of by the physicians. As a good physician in
the first place advises, then, even if he receive hard words, though he be
beaten, nevertheless as the man is ill he bears with him; and if he be cursed he
does not leave; and any medicine that may be applied he does not refuse; nor
does he go away as from a stubborn fellow, but strives with all diligence to
heal him as one that has deserved well from him, exercising not only the skill
of science but also benignity of disposition. Even so, a righteous man, when he
is treated with contempt, does not turn away, but when he is calumniated he
regards it as madness, not as depravity; and desires rather to apply his own
remedy to the wound, and sympathises, and grieves not for himself but for him
who labours under an incurable disease. Ambrose.
Verse 53.The wicked that forsake thy law; not only
transgress the law of the Lord, as every man does, more or less; but wilfully
and obstinately despise it, and cast it behind their backs, and live in a
continued course of disobedience to it; or who apostatize from the doctrine of
the word of God; wilfully deny the truth, after they have had a speculation
knowledge of it, whose punishment is very grievous (Heb 10:26-29); and now
partly because of the daring impiety of wicked men, who stretch out their hands
against God, and strengthen themselves against the Almighty, and run upon him,
even on the thick bosses of his bucklers: because of the shocking nature of
their sin, the sad examples thereby set to others, the detriment they are to
themselves, and the dishonour they bring to God I and partly because of the
dreadful punishment that shall be inflicted on them here, and especially
hereafter, when a horrible tempest of wrath will come upon them. Hence such
trembling seized the Psalmist: and often so it is, that good men tremble more
for the wicked than they do for themselves: see Ps 119:120. John Gill.
Verse 54.Thy statutes have been my songs. The Psalmist
rejoiced, doubtless, as the good do now,
1. In law itself; law, as a rule of order; law, as a guide of
conduct; law, as a security for safety.
2. In such a law as that of God: so pure, so holy, so fitted
to promote the happiness of man.
3. In the stability of that law, as constituting his own
personal security, the ground of his hope.
4. In law in its influence on the universe, preserving order
and securing harmony, Albert Barnes.
Verse 55.I have remembered thy name, O Lord, in the night,
etc. As the second Clause of the verse depends on the first, I consider the
whole verse as setting forth one and the same truth; and, therefore, the prophet
means that he was induced, by the remembrance he had of God, to keep the law.
Contempt of the law originates in this, that few have any regard for God; and
hence, the Scripture, in condemning the impiety of men, declares that they have
forgotten God (Ps 1:22 78:11; 106:21.) The word "night" is not intended by him
to mean the remembering of God merely for a short time, but a perpetual
remembrance of him; he, however, refers to that season in particular, because
then almost all our senses are overpowered with sleep. "When other men are
sleeping, God occurs to my thoughts during my sleep." He has another reason for
alluding to the night seasonthat we may be apprised, that though there was
none to observe him, and none to put him in remembrance of it; yea, though he
was shrouded in darkness, yet he was as solicitous to cherish the remembrance of
God as if he occupied the most public and conspicuous place. John
Calvin.
Verse 55.I have remembered thy name in the night, and
therefore I "have kept thy law" all day. Matthew Henry.
Verse 55.I have remembered thy name, O Lord, in the
night. This verse contains a new protestation of his honest affection toward
the word of God. Wherein, first, let us mark his sincerity; he was religious not
only in public, but in private; for private exercises are the surest trials of
true religion. In public, oftentimes hypocrisy carries men to simulate that
which they are not; it is not so in the private devotion; for then, either doth
a man, if he make no conscience of God's worship, utterly neglect it, because
there is no eye of man to see him; or otherwise if he be indeed religious, even
in private he presents his heart to God, seeking it to be approved by him; for
his "praise is not of man, but of God." Again, this argues his fervency in religion: for as elsewhere
he protests that he loved the word more than his appointed food; so here he
protests that he gave up his night's rest that he might meditate in the word.
But now, so far is zeal decayed in professors, that they will not forego their
superfluities, far less their needful refreshment, for love of the word of God.
William Cowper.
Verse 55.Thy name, O Lord. The "name" of the Lord is his
character, his nature, his attributes, the manifestations he hath made of his
holiness, his wisdom, goodness and truth. John Stephen.
Verse 55.In the night. First, that is, continually,
because he remembered God in the day also. Secondly, sincerely, because he
avoided the applause of men. Thirdly, cheerfully, because the heaviness of
natural sleep could not overcome him. All these show that he was intensely given
to the word; as we see men of the world will take some part of the night for
their delights. And in that he did keep God's testimonies in the night, he
showeth that he was the same in secret that he was in the light; whereby he
condemned all those that will cover their wickedness with the dark. Let us
examine ourselves whether we have broken our sleeps to call upon God, as we have
to fulfil our pleasures. Richard Greenham.
Verse 55.In the night. Pastor Harms of Hermansburg used
to preach and pray and instruct his people for nine hours on the Sabbath. And
then when his mind was utterly exhausted, and his whole body was thrilling with
pain, and he seemed almost dying for the want of rest, he could get no sleep.
But he used to say that he loved to lie awake all night in the silence and
darkness and think of Jesus. The night put away everything else from his
thoughts, and left his heart free to commune with the One whom his soul most
devoutly loved, and who visited and comforted his weary disciple in the night
watches. And so God's children have often enjoyed rare seasons of communion with
him in the solitude of exile, in the deep gloom of the dungeon, in the perpetual
night of blindness, and at times when all voices and instructions from the world
have been most completely cut off, and the soul has been left alone with God.
Daniel March, in "Night unto Night." 1880.
Verse 55.In the night. There is never a time in which it
is not proper to turn to God and think on his name. In the darkness of midnight,
in the darkness of mental depression, in the darkness of outward providence, God
is still a fitting theme. William S. Plumer.
Verse 55.The night.
"Dear night! this world's defeat;
The stop to busy fools; Care's check and curb;
The day of spirits, my soul's calm retreat
Which none disturb!
Christ's progress, and his prayer time;
The hours to which high heaven doth chime."
"God's silent, searching flight;
When my Lord's head is filled with dew, and all
His locks are wet with the clear drops of night;
His still, soft call;
His knocking time; the soul's dumb watch,
When spirits their fair kindred catch."
--Henry Vaughan,
1621-1695.
Verse 55.And have kept thy law; though imperfectly, yet
spiritually, sincerely, heartily, and from a principle of love and gratitude,
and with a view to the glory of God, and without mercenary, sinister ends.
John Gill.
Verse 55.And have kept thy law. Hours of secret
fellowship with God must issue in the desire of increased conformity to his holy
will. It is the remembrance of God that leads to the keeping of his laws, as it
is forgetfulness of God that fosters every species of transgression. John
Morison.
Verse 55.And have kept. The verb is in the future, and
perhaps is better so rendered, thus making it the expression of a solemn,
deliberate purpose to continue his obedience. William S. Plumer.
Verses 55-56. He that delights to keep God's law, God will
give him more grace to keep it, according to that remarkable text, "I have
remembered thy name, O Lord, in the night, and have kept thy law. This I had,
because I kept thy precepts." What had David for keeping God's precepts? He had
power to keep his law; that is, to grow and increase in keeping of it. As the
prophet (Ho 6:8) speaks of the knowledge of God: "Then shall we know, if we
follow on to know the Lord"; that is, if we industriously labour to know God, we
shall have this reward, to be made able to know him more. So may I say of the
grace of God: he that delights to keep God's law shall have his reward, to be
enabled to keep it more perfectly. A true delight in God's word is grace
increasing. Grace is the mother of all true joy (Isa 32:17), and joy is as the
daughter, and the mother and daughter live and die together. Edmund
Calamy (1600-1666), in "The Godly Man's Ark."
Verse 56.This I had, because I kept thy precepts. As sin
is a punishment of sin, and the wicked waxeth ever worse and worse; so godliness
is the recompense of godliness. The right use of one talent increaseth more, and
the beginnings of godliness are blessed with a growth of godliness. David's good
exercises here held him in memory of his God, and the memory of God made him
more godly and religious. William Cowper.
Verse 56.This I had, etc. The Rabbins have an analogous
saying, The reward of a precept is a precept, or, A precept draws a precept.
The meaning of which is, that he who keeps one precept, to him God grants, as if
by way of reward, the ability to keep another and more difficult precept. The
contrary to this is that other saying of the Rabbins, that the reward of a sin
is a sin; or, Transgression draws transgression. Simon de Muis,
1587-1644.
Verse 56.This I had, that is, this happened to me, etc. I
experienced many evils and adversities; but, on the other hand, I drew sweetest
consolations from the word, and I was crowned with many blessings from God. Others thus render it, This is my business, This I care for and
desire, to keep thy commandments; i.e., to hold fast the doctrine incorrupt with
faith and a good conscience. D.H. Mollerus.
Verse 56.This I had, etc. I had the comfort of keeping
thy law because I kept it. God's work is its own wages. Matthew Henry.
Verse 56.This I had, etc. What is that? This comfort I
had, this supportation I had in all my afflictions, this consolation I had, this
sweet communion with God I had. Why? "Because I kept thy precepts, "I obeyed thy
will. Look, how much obedience is yielded to the commands of God, so much
comfort doth flow into the soul: God usually gives in comforts proportionably to
our obedience. O the sweet, soul satisfying consolation a child of God finds in
the ways of God, and in doing the will of God, especially when he lies on his
deathbed; then it will be sweeter to him than honey and the honeycomb; then will
he say with good king Hezekiah, when he lay upon his deathbed, "Lord, remember
how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done
that which was good in thy sight." O the sweet satisfaction that a soul shall
find in God, when he comes to appear before God! James Nalton, 1664.
Verse 56.This I had, etc. Or, "This was my consolation,
that I kept thy precepts; "which is nearly the reading of the Syriac, and
renders the sense more complete. Note in Bagster's Comprehensive Bible.
Verse 56.This I had, etc. When I hear the faithful people
of God telling of his love, and saying"This I had, "must I not, if unable to
join their cheerful acknowledgment, trace it to my unfaithful walk, and say
"This I had not" because I have failed in obedience to thy precepts; because I
have been careless and self indulgent; because I have slighted thy love; because
I have "grieved thy Holy Spirit, " and forgotten to "ask for the old paths, that
I might walk therein, and find rest to my soul" Jer 6:16. Charles
Bridges.
Verse 56. David saith indefinitely, "This I had"; not
telling us what good or privilege it was; only in the general, it was some
benefit that accrued to him in this life. He doth not say, This I hope for; but,
"This I had; "and therefore he doth not speak of the full reward in the life to
come. In heaven we come to receive the full reward of obedience; but a close
walker, that waiteth upon God in an humble and constant obedience, shall have
sufficient encouragement even in this life. Not only he shall be blessed, but he
is blessed; he hath something on hand as well as in hope: as David saith in this
the 119th Psalm, not only he shall be blessed, but he is blessed; as they that
travelled towards Zion, they met with a well by the way: "Who passing through
the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools" (Ps 84:6).
In a dry and barren wilderness, through which they were to pass, they were not
left wholly comfortless, but met with a well or a cistern; that is, they had
some comfort vouchsafed to them before they came to enjoy God's presence in
Zion; some refreshments they had by the way. As servants, that, besides their
wages, have their veils; so, besides the recompense of reward hereafter, we have
our present comforts and supports during our course of service, which are enough
to counterbalance all worldly joys, and outweigh the greatest pleasures that men
can expect in the way of sin. In the benefits that believers find by walking
with God in a course of obedience every one can say, "This I had, because I kept
thy precepts." Thomas Manton.
This begins a new division of the Psalm, indicated by the
Hebrew letter Cheth, which may be represented in English by hh.
Albert Barnes.
Verses 57-64. In this section David laboureth to confirm his
faith, and to comfort himself in the certainty of his regeneration, by eight
properties of a sound believer, or eight marks of a new creature. The first
whereof is his choosing of God for his portion. Whence learn,
1. Such as God hath chosen and effectually called, they get
grace to make God their choice, their delight, and their portion; and such as
have chosen God for their portion have an evidence of their regeneration and
election also; for here David maketh this a mark of his regeneration: Thou
art my portion.
2. It is another mark of regeneration, after believing in God,
and choosing him for our portion, to resolve to bring forth the fruits of faith
in new obedience, as David did: I have said that I would keep thy
words.
3. As it is usual for God's children, now and then because of
sin falling out, to be exercised with a sense of God's displeasure, so it is a
mark of a new creature not to lie stupid and senseless under this exercise, but
to deal with God earnestly, for restoring the sense of reconciliation, and
giving new experience of his mercy, as the Psalmist did; I intreated thy
favour with my whole heart; and this is the third evidence of a new
creature.
4. The penitent believer hath the word of grace and the
covenant of God for his assurance to be heard when he seeketh mercy: Bemerciful unto me according to thy word.
5. The searching in what condition we are in, and examination
of our ways according to the word, and renewing of repentance, with an endeavour
of amendment, is a fourth mark of a new creature: I thought on my
ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.
6. When we do see our sin we are naturally slow to amend our
doings; but the sooner we turn us to the way of God's obedience, we speed the
better, and the more speedy the reforming of our life be, the more sound mark is
it of a new creature: I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy
commandments.
7. Enduring of persecution and spoiling of our goods, for
adhering to God's word, without forsaking of his cause, is a fifth mark of a new
creature: The bands of the wicked have robbed me: but I have not
forgotten thy law.
8. As it is the lot of God's children who resolve to be godly,
to suffer persecution, and to be forced either to lose their temporal goods or
else to lose a good cause and a good conscience; so it is the wisdom of the
godly to remember what the Lord's word requireth of us and speaketh unto us, and
this shall comfort our conscience more than the loss of things temporal can
trouble our minds: The bands of the wicked have robbed me: but I have
not forgotten thy law.
9. A sixth mark of a new creature is, to be so far from
fretting under hard exercise as to thank God in secret cheerfully for his
gracious word, and for all the passages of his providence, where none seeth us,
and where there is no hazard of ostentation: At midnight I will rise
to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments.
10. A seventh mark of a renewed creature is, to associate
ourselves and keep communion with such as are truly gracious, and do fear God
indeed, as we are able to discern them: I am a companion of all them
that fear thee.
11. The fear of God is evidenced by believing and obeying the
doctrine and direction of the Scripture, and no other ways: I am acompanion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thyprecepts.
12. The eighth mark of a new creature is, not to rest in any
measure of renovation, but earnestly to deal with God for the increase of saving
knowledge, and fruitful obedience of it; for, Teach me thy statutes,
is the prayer of the man of God, in whom all the former marks are found.
13. As the whole of the creatures are witnesses of God's bounty
to man, and partakers of that bounty themselves, so are they pawns of God's
pleasure to bestow upon his servants greater gifts than these, even the increase
of sanctification, in further illumination of mind and reformation of life: for
this the Psalmist useth for an argument to be more and more sanctified: The
earth, O Lord, is full of thy mercy: teach me thy statutes. David
Dickson.
Verse 57.Thou art my portion, O LORD. The sincerity of this
claim may be gathered, because he speaks by way of address to God. He doth not
say barely, "He is my portion"; but challengeth God to his face: Thou art my portion, O LORD. Elsewhere it is said, "The
Lord is my portion, saith my soul" (La 3:24). There he doth not speak it by way
of address to God, but he adds, "saith my soul"; but here to God himself, who
knows the secrets of the heart. To speak thus of God to God, argues our
sincerity, when to God's face we avow our trust and choice; as Peter, "Lord,
thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee" (Joh 21:17). Thomas
Manton.
Verse 57.Thou art my portion, O LORD. Luther counsels every
Christian to answer all temptations with this short saying, "Christianus sum,
"I am a Christian; and I would counsel every Christian to answer all
temptations with this short saying, "The Lord is my portion." O Christian, when
Satan or the world shall tempt thee with honours, answer, "The Lord is my
portion"; when they shall tempt thee with riches, answer, "The Lord is my
portion"; when they shall tempt thee with preferments, answer, "The Lord is my
portion"; and when they shall tempt thee with the favours of great ones, answer,
"The Lord is my portion"; yea, and when this persecuting world shall threaten
thee with the loss of thy estate, answer, "The Lord is my portion": and when
they shall threaten thee with the loss of thy liberty, answer, "The Lord is my
portion"; and when they shall threaten thee with the loss of friends, answer,
"The Lord is my portion"; and when they shall threaten thee with the loss of
life, answer, "The Lord is my portion." O, sir, if Satan should come to thee
with an apple, as once he did to Eve, tell him that "the Lord is your portion";
or with a grape, as once he did to Noah, tell him that "the Lord is your
portion"; or with a change of raiment, as once he did to Gehazi, tell him that
"the Lord is your portion"; or with a wedge of gold, as once he did to Achan,
tell him that "the Lord is your portion"; or with a bag of money, as once he did
to Judas, tell him that "the Lord is your portion"; or with a crown, a kingdom,
as once he did to Moses, tell him that "the Lord is your portion." Thomas
Brooks.
Verse 57.Thou art my portion, O LORD. God is all
sufficient; get him for your "portion", and you have all; then you have
infinite wisdom to direct you, infinite knowledge to teach you, infinite mercy
to pity, and save you, infinite love to care and comfort you, and infinite power
to protect and keep you. If God be yours, all his attributes are yours; all his
creatures, all his works of providence, shall do you good, as you have need of
them. He is an eternal, full, satisfactory portion. He is an ever living, ever
loving, ever present friend; and without him you are a cursed creature in every
condition, and all things will work against you. John Mason, 1694.
Verse 57.Thou art my portion, O LORD. If there was a moment
in the life of David in which one might feel inclined to envy him, it would not
be in that flush of youthful victory, when Goliath lay prostrate at his feet,
nor in that hour of even greater triumph, when the damsels of Israel sang his
praise in the dance, saying, "Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten
thousands"; it would not be on that royal day, when his undisputed claim to the
throne of Israel was acknowledged on every side and by every tribe; but it would
be in that moment when, with a loving and trustful heart, he looked up to God
and said, "Thou art my portion." In a later Psalm (142), which bears with
it as its title, "A prayer of David, when he was in the cave, "we have the very
same expression: "I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the
living." It adds immeasurably to such an expression, if we believe it to have
been uttered at a time when every other possession and inheritance was taken
from him, and the Lord alone was his portion. Barton Bouchier.
Verse 57. He is an exceedingly covetous fellow to whom God
is not sufficient; and he is an exceeding fool to whom the world is sufficient.
For God is all inexhaustible treasury of all riches, sufficing innumerable men;
while the world has mere trifles and fascinations to offer, and leads the soul
into deep and sorrowful poverty. Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 57. They who are without an ample patrimony in this
life, may make to themselves a portion in heavenly blessedness. Solomon
Gessler.
Verse 57.I have said that I would keep thy words. This he
brings in by way of proving that which he said in the former words. Many will
say with David, that God is their portion; but here is the point: how do they
prove it? If God were their portion, they would love him; if they loved him they
would love his word; if they loved his word they would live by it and make it
the rule of their life. William Cowper.
Verse 57.I have said that I would keep thy words. He was
resolved to keep his commandments, lay up his promises, observe his ordinances,
profess and retain a belief in his doctrines. John, Gill.
Verse 58.I entreated thy favour, or; I seek thy face. To
seek the face is to come into the presence. Thus the Hebrews speak when desirous
of expressing that familiar intercourse to which God admits his people when he
bids them make known their requests. It is truly the same as speaking face to
face with God. Franciscus Vatablus, 1545.
Verse 58.I entreated thy favour with my whole heart I
have often remarked how graciously and lovingly the Lord delights to return an
answer to prayer in the very words that have gone up before him, as if to assure
us that they have reached his ear, and been speeded back again from him laden
with increase. "I entreated thy favour with my whole heart." Hear the Lord's
answer to his praying people: "I will rejoice over them to do them good
assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul." Barton Bouchier.
Verse 58.With my whole heart. The Hebrew expresses great
earnestness and humility in supplication. A. R. Fausset.
Verse 58.With my whole heart. Prayer is chiefly a heart
work. God heareth the heart without the mouth, but never heareth the mouth
acceptably without the heart. Walter Marshall.
Verse 58.Be merciful unto me, etc. He protested before
that he sought the Lord with his whole heart, and now he prayeth that he may
find mercy. So indeed it shall be; boldly may that man look for mercy at God's
hand who seeks him truly. Mercy and truth are wont to meet together, and embrace
one another: where truth is in the soul to seek, there cannot but be mercy in
God to embrace. If truth be in us to confess our sins and forsake them, we shall
find mercy in God to pardon and forgive them. William Cowper.
Verse 58.According to thy word. He prayeth not for what
he lusteth after, but for that which the Lord promised; for St. James saith,
"You pray and have not, "etc., and this is the cause, that we have not the thing
we pray for, because we pray not according to the word. His word must be the
rule of our prayers, and then we shall receive; as Solomon prayed and obtained.
God hath promised forgiveness of sins, the knowledge of his word, and many other
blessings. If we have these, let not our hearts be set on other things.
Richard Greenham.
Verse 58.According to thy word. The Word of God may be
divided into three parts; into commandments, threatenings, and promises; and
though a Christian must not neglect the commanding and threatening word, yet if
ever he would make the Word a channel for Divine comfort, he must study the
promising word; for the promises are a Christian's magna charta for heaven. All
comfort must be built upon a Scripture promise, else it is presumption, not true
comfort. The promises are pabulum fidei, et anima fidei, the food of
faith, and the soul of faith. As faith is the life of a Christian, so the
promises are the life of faith: faith is a dead faith if it hath no promise to
quicken it. As the promises are of no use without faith to apply them, so faith
is of no use without a promise to lay hold on. Edmund Calamy.
Verse 58. The rule and ground of confidence is, "according
to thy word." God's word is the rule of our confidence; for therein is God's
stated course. If we would have favour and mercy from God, it must be upon his
own terms. God will accept of us in Christ, if we repent, believe, and obey, and
seek his favour diligently: he will not deny those who seek, ask, knock. Many
would have mercy, but will not observe God's direction. We must ask according to
God's will, not without a promise, nor against a command. God is made a
voluntary debtor by his promise. These are notable props of faith, when we are
encouraged to seek by the offer, and urged to apply by the promise. We thrive no
more in a comfortable sense of God's love, because we take not this course.
Thomas Manton.
Verse 59.I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto
thy testimonies. The transition which is made in the text from the
occasion of this alteration, "I thought on my ways, "to the change itself, is
very lofty and elegant. He does not tell us that, after a review of them, he saw
the folly and danger of sin, the debasedness of its pleasures, and the poison of
its delights; or that, upon a search into God's law, he was convinced that what
he imagined so severe, rigid, and frightful before, was now all amiable and
lovely; no, but immediately adds, "I turned my feet unto thy testimonies"; than
which I can conceive nothing more noble or strong; for it emphatically says,
that there was no need to express the appearance his ways had when once he
thought upon them. What must be the consequence of his deliberation was so
plain, namely, that sin never prevails but where it is masked over with some
false beauties, and the inconsiderate, foolish sinner credulously gives ear to
its enchantments, and is not at pains and care to enquire into them; for a deep,
thorough search would soon discover that its fairest appearances are but lying
vanities, and that he who is captivated with that empty show is in the same
circumstances with a person in a dream, who can please himself with his fancy
only while asleep, and that his awakening out of it no sooner or more certainly
discovers the cheat, than a serious thinking upon the ways of iniquity and
rebellion against God will manifest the fatal madness of men in ever pursuing
them. William Dunlop, 1692-1720.
Verse 59.I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto
thy testimonies. Some translate the original, I looked on both sides
upon my ways, I considered them every way, "and turned my feet unto thy
testimonies" I considered that I was wandering like a lost sheep, and then I
returned. George Swinnock.
Verse 59.I thought on my ways, etc. The Hebrew word
but that is here used for
thinking, signifies to think on a man's ways accurately, advisedly, seriously,
studiously, curiously. This holy man of God thought exactly and curiously on all
his purposes and practices, on all his doings and sayings, on all his words and
works, and finding too many of them to be short of the rule, yea, to be against
the rule, he turned his feet to God's testimonies; having found out his errors,
upon a diligent search, a strict scrutiny, he turned over a new leaf, and framed
his course more exactly by rule. O Christians, you must look as well to your
spiritual wants as to your spiritual enjoyments; you must look as well to your
layings out as to your layings up; you must look as well forward to what you
should be, as backward to what you are. Certainly that Christian will never be
eminent in holiness that hath many eyes to behold a little holiness, and never
an eye to see his further want of holiness. Thomas Brooks.
Verse 59.I thought on my ways. The word signifies a
fixed, abiding thought. Some make it an allusion to those that work embroidery;
that are very exact and careful to cover the least flaw; or to those that cast
accounts. Reckon with yourselves, What do I owe? what am I worth? "I thought"
not only on my wealth, as the covetous man, Ps 69:11; but "on my ways"; not what
I have, but what I do; because what we do will follow us into another world,
when what we have must be left behind. Many are critical enough in their remarks
upon other people's ways that never think of their own, but "let every man prove
his own work." This account which David here gives of himself may refer either
to his constant practice every day; he reflected on his ways at night, directed
his feet to God's testimonies in the morning, and what his hand found to do that
was good he did it without delay: or it may refer to his first acquaintance with
God and religion, when he began to throw off the vanity of childhood and youth,
and to remember his Creator; that blessed change was by the grace of God thus
wrought. Note, 1. Conversion begins in serious consideration; Eze 18:28; Lu
15:17. 2. Consideration must end in a sound conversion. To what purpose have we
thought on our ways, if we do not turn our feet with all speed to God's
testimonies? Matthew Henry.
Verse 59.I thought on my ways. Be frequent in this work
of serious consideration. If daily you called yourselves to an account, all acts
of grace would thrive the better. Seneca asked of Sextius, Quod hodiemalum sanasti? cui vitio obstitisti? You have God's example in reviewing
every day's work, and in dealing with Adam before he slept. The man that was
unclean was to wash his clothes at eventide. Thomas Manton.
Verse 59.I thought on my ways, etc. Poisons may be made
curable. Let the thoughts of old sins stir up a commotion of anger and hatred.
We shiver in our spirits, and a motion in our blood, at the very thought of a
bitter potion we have formerly taken. Why may we not do that spiritually, which
the very frame and constitution of our bodies doth naturally, upon the calling a
loathsome thing to mind? The Romans' sins were transient, but the shame was
renewed every time they reflected on them: Ro 6:21, "Whereof ye are now
ashamed." They reacted the detestation instead of the pleasure: so should the
reviving of old sins in our memories be entertained with our sighs, rather than
with joy. We should also manage the opportunity, so as to promote some further
degrees of our conversion: "I thought or, my ways, and turned my feet unto thy
testimonies." There is not the most hellish motion, but we may strike some
sparks from it, to kindle our love to God, renew our repentance, raise our
thankfulness, or quicken our obedience. Stephen Charnock.
Verse 59.And turned my feet unto thy testimonies.
Mentioning this passage, Philip Henry observed, that the great turn to be made
in heart and life is, from all other things to the word of God. Conversion turns
us to the word of God, as our touchstone, to examine ourselves, our state, our
ways, spirits, doctrines, worships, customs; as our glass, to dress by, James 1;
as our rule to walk and work by, Ga 6:16; as our water, to wash us, Ps 119:9; as
our fire to warm us, Lu 24:32; as our food to nourish us, Job 23:12; as our
sword to fight with, Eph 6:13-17; as our counsellor, in all our doubts, Ps
119:24; as our cordial, to comfort us; as our heritage, to enrich us.
Verse 59.And turned my feet unto thy testimonies. No
itinerary to the heavenly city is simpler or fuller than the ready answer made
by an English prelate to a scoffer who asked him the way to heaven; "First turn
to the right, and keep straight on." Neale and Littledale.
Verse 59.And turned. Turn to God, and he will turn to
you; then you are happy, though all the world turn against you. John
Mason.
Verse 60.I made haste, and delayed not, etc. Duty
discovered should instantly be discharged. There is peril attending every step
which is taken in the indulgence of any known sin, or in the neglect of any
acknowledged obligation. A tender conscience will not trifle with its
convictions, lest the heart should be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
It is unsafe, it is unreasonable, it is highly criminal to hesitate to carry
that reformation into effect which conscience dictates. He who delays when duty
calls may never have it in his power to evince the sincerity of his contrition
for past folly and neglect. "I made haste, "said the Psalmist, "and delayed not
to keep thy commandments"; that is, being fully convinced of the necessity and
excellency of obedience, I instantly resolved upon it, and immediately put it
into execution. John Morison.
Verse 60.I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy
commandments. We often hear the saying, "Second thoughts are best." This
does not hold in the religious life. In the context the Psalmist says, "I
thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies, "that is, I did not
wait to think again. In religion it may be a deadly habit to take time to
reflect. Make haste. Henry Melvill.
Verse 60.I made haste, and delayed not. When anyone is
lawfully called either to the study of theology, or to the teaching it in the
church, he ought not to hesitate, as Moses, or turn away, as Jonah; but, leaving
all things, he should obey God who calls him; as David says, "I made haste, and
delayed not." Mt 4:20 Lu 9:62. Solomon Gesner.
Verse 60.I made haste, and delayed not. Sound faith is
neither suspicious, nor curious; it believes what God says, without sight,
without examining. For since it is impossible for God to lie (for how should
truth lie?) it is fit his word be credited for itself's sake. It must not be
examined with hows and whys. That which the Psalmist says of observing the law,
that must the Christian say of receiving the gospel. ynhmhmnh al, "I disputed not, "saith David; I argued
not with God. The word is very elegant in the original tongue, derived in the
Hebrew from the pronoun tm,
which signifieth quid. Faith reasons not with God, asketh no "quids", no
"quares", no "quomodos", no whats, no hows, no wherefores: it moveth no
questions. It meekly yields assent, and humbly says Amen to every word of God.
This is the faith of which our Saviour wondered in the centurion's story.
Richard Clerke, 1634.
Verse 60.I made haste, and delayed not. The original
word, which we translate "delayed not", is amazingly emphatic. thmhmth anw, "velo hithmahmahti", I did
not stand what what whating; or, as we used to express the same sentiment,
shilly shallying with myself: I was determined, and so set out. The Hebrew word
as well as the English, strongly marks indecision of mind, positive action being
suspended, because the mind is so unfixed as not to be able to make a choice.
Adam Clarke.
Verse 60. Take heed of delays and procrastination, of
putting it off from day to day, by saying there will be time enough hereafter;
it will be time enough for me to look after heaven when I have got enough of the
world; if I do it in the last year of my life, in the last month of the last
year, in the last week of the last month, it will serve. O take heed of delays;
this putting off repentance hath ruined thousands of souls; shun that pit into
which many have fallen, shun that rock upon which many have suffered shipwreck;
say with David, "I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments."
James Nalton, 1664.
Verse 60.I made haste, and delayed not, etc. In the verse
immediately preceding, the man of God speaks of repentance as the fruit of
consideration and self examining: "I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto
thy testimonies." But when did he turn? for, though we see the evil of our ways,
we are naturally slow to get it redressed. Therefore David did not only turn to
God, but he did it speedily: we have an account of that in this verse, "I made
haste, " etc. This readiness in the work of obedience is doubly expressed;
affirmatively, and negatively. Affirmatively, "I made haste"; negatively, "I
delayed not." This double expression increaseth the sense according to the
manner of the Hebrews; as, "I shall not die, but live" (Ps 118:17); that is,
surely live; so here, "I made haste, and delayed not; "that is, I verily delayed
not a moment; as soon as he had thought of his ways, and taken up the resolution
to walk closely with God, he did put it into practice. The Septuagint read the
words thus, "I was ready, and was not troubled or diverted by fear of danger."
Indeed, besides our natural slowness to good, this is one usual ground of
delays; we distract ourselves with fears; and, when God hath made known his will
to us in many duties, we think of tarrying till the times are more quiet, and
favourable to our practice, or till our affairs are in a better posture. A good
improvement may be made of that translation; but the words run better, as they
run more generally, with us, "I made haste, and delayed not," etc. David delayed not. When we dare not flatly deny, then we delay.
Non vacat, that is the sinner's plea, "I am not at leisure"; but, Non
placet, there is the reality. They which were invited to the wedding
varnished their denial over with an excuse (Mt 22:5). Delay is a denial; for, if
they were willing, there would be no excuse. To be rid of importunate and
troublesome creditors, we promise them payment another time: though we know our
estate will be more wasted by that time, it is but to put them off: so this
delay and putting off of God is but a shift. Here is the misery, God always
comes unseasonably to a carnal heart. It was the devils that said, "Art thou
come hither to torment us before the time?" (Mt 8:29). Good things are a torment
to a carnal heart; and they always come out of time. Certainly, that is the best
time when the word is pressed upon thy heart with evidence, light, and power,
and when God treats with thee about thine eternal peace. Thomas Manton.
Verse 60.Delayed. Hithmahmah; the word used of
Lot's lingering, in Ge 19:16. William Kay.
Verse 60. Delay in the Lord's errands is next to
disobedience, and generally springs out of it, or issues in it. "God commanded
me to make haste" (2Ch 35:21). Let us see to it that we can say, "I made haste,
and delayed not to keep thy commandments." Frances Ridley Havergal.
Verse 60. Avoid all delay in the performance of this great
work of believing in Christ. Until we have performed it we continue under the
power of sin and Satan, and under the wrath of God; and there is nothing between
hell and us besides the breath of our nostrils. It is dangerous for Lot to
linger in Sodom, lest fire and brimstone come down from heaven upon him. The
manslayer must fly with all haste to the city of refuge, lest the avenger of
blood pursue him, while his heart is hot, and slay him. We should make haste,
and not delay to keep God's commandments. Walter Marshall.
Verse 60. If convictions begin to work, instantly yield to
their influence. If any worldly or sinful desire is touched, let this be the
moment for its crucifixion. If any affection is kindled towards the Saviour,
give immediate expression to its voice. If any grace is reviving, let it be
called forth into instant duty. This is the best, the only, expedient to fix and
detain the motion of the Spirit now striving in the heart; and who knoweth but
the improvement of the present advantage, may be the moment of victory over
difficulties hitherto found insuperable, and may open our path to heaven with
less interruption and more steady progress? Charles Bridges.
Verse 61.The bands of the wicked have robbed me. Two
readings remain, either of which may be admitted: The cords of the wicked have
caught hold of me, or, The companies of the wicked have robbed me.
Whether we adopt the one or the other of these readings, what the prophet
intends to declare is, that when Satan assailed the principles of piety in his
soul, by grievous temptations, he continued with undeviating steadfastness in
the love, and practice of God's law. Cords may, however, be understood in two
ways; either, first, as denoting the deceptive allurements by which the wicked
endeavoured to get him entangled in their society; or, secondly, the frauds
which they practised to effect his ruin. John Calvin.
Verse 61.The bands of the wicked have robbed me. Some
have it, "Cords of wicked men have entwined me." Others, "Snares of wicked men
surround me." The meaning is that wicked men by their plots and contrivances had
beset him, as men would ensnare a wild beast in their toils. They might, indeed,
hem him round about in the wilderness, but they could not enthral the free mind;
he would still feel at liberty in spirit, he would not forget God's law.
John, Stephen.
Verse 61.The bands of the wicked have robbed me. They set
upon his goods, and spoiled him of them, either by plunder in the time of war,
or by fines and confiscations under colour of law. Saul (it is likely) seized
his effects; Absalom his palace; the Amalekites rifled Ziklag. Matthew
Henry.
Verse 61. The friendship of the wicked must be shunned.
First, because it binds us, as they are bound together"bands of the wicked."
Every sinner is a gladiator with net and sword, going down into the arena, and
endeavouring to enmesh any one who comes near him. A second reason for shunning
the friendship of the wicked, which may be taken from the Hebrew word, is their
cruelty and barbarity: for not only do the wicked bind their friends, but they
make a spoil and a prey of them: "have robbed me." They are decoying thieves,
journeying with an unwary traveller, until they have led him into thick and dark
woods, where they strip him of heavenly riches. Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 61.The bands of the wicked have robbed me. Then
said Christian to his fellow, Now I call to remembrance that which was told me
of a thing that happened to a good man hereabout. The name of the man was
Little Faith, but a good man, and he dwelt in the town of Sincere. The
thing was this; at the entering in of this passage there comes down from
Broadway gate a lane called Dead man's lane; so called because of
the murders that are commonly done there. And this Little Faith going on
pilgrimage, as we do now, chanced to sit down there and slept. Now there
happened, at that time, to come down that lane from Broadway gate three sturdy
rogues, and their names were Faint heart, Mistrust, and
Guilt, (three brothers,) and they espying Little Faith where he was came
galloping up with speed. Now the good man was just awaked from his sleep, and
was getting up to go on his journey. So they came all up to him, and with
threatening language bid him stand. At this, Little Faith looked as white as a
cloud, and had neither power to fight nor flee. Then said Faint
heart, Deliver thy purse; but he making no haste to do it, (for he was loath to
lose his money,)Mistrust ran up to him, and thrusting his hand into his pocket,
pulled out thence a bag of silver. Then he cried out, Thieves! Thieves! With
that Guilt, with a great club that was in his hand, struck Little Faith on the
head, and with that blow felled him flat to the ground, where he lay bleeding as
one that would bleed to death...The place where his jewels were they never
ransacked, so those he kept still; but, as I was told, the good man was much
afflicted for his loss. For the thieves got most of his spending money. That
which they got not (as I said) were jewels, also he had a little odd money left,
but scarce enough to bring him to his journey's end; nay, (if I was not
misinformed,)he was forced to beg as he went, to keep himself alive (for his
jewels he might not sell). But beg, and do what he could he went (as we say)
with many a hungry belly, the most part of the rest of the way. John
Bunyan.
Verse 61.Bands. Howsoever, to strengthen themselves in an
evil course, the wicked go together by bands and companies, yet shall it not
avail them, nor hurt us. Babel's builders; Moab, Ammon, Edom, conspiring in one,
may tell us, "Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not escape unpunished."
The wicked are like thorns before the fire; their multitude may well embolden
the flame, but cannot resist it. William Cowper.
Verse 61. It is a salutary reflection to bear in mind,
that thousands of spiritual adversaries are ever watching to make us their prey.
John Morison.
Verse 62. At midnight I will rise to give thanks. Though
we cannot enforce the particular observance upon you, yet there are many notable
lessons to be drawn from David's practice.
1. The ardency of his devotion, or his earnest desire to praise
God: "at midnight, "when sleep doth most invade men's eyes, then he would rise
up. His heart was so set upon the praising of God, and the sense of his
righteous providence did so affect him, and urge and excite him to this duty,
that he would not only employ himself in this work in the daytime, and so show
his love to God, but he would rise out of his bed to worship God and celebrate
his praise. That which hindereth the sleep of ordinary men, is either the cares
of this world, the impatient resentment of injuries, or the sting of an evil
conscience: these keep others waking, but David was awaked by a desire to praise
God. No hour is unseasonable to a gracious heart: he is expressing his affection
to God when others take their rest. Thus we read of our Lord Christ, that he
spent whole nights in prayer (Lu 6:12). It is said of the glorified saints in
heaven, that they praise God continually: "Therefore are they before the throne
of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the
throne shall dwell among them" (Re 7:15). Now, holy men, though much hindered by
their bodily necessities, will come as near to continual praise as present
frailty will permit. Alas, we oftentimes begin the day with some fervency of
prayer and praise, but we faint ere the evening comes.
2. His sincerity, seen in his secrecy. David would profess his
faith in God when he had no witness by him; "at midnight, "when there was no
hazard of ostentation. It was a secret cheerfulness and delighting in God: when
alone he could have no respect to the applause of men, but only to approve
himself to God who seeth in secret. See Christ's direction: "But thou, when thou
prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy
Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward
thee openly" (Mt 6:6). Note also Christ's own practice: "Rising up a great while
before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed"
(Mr 1:35): before day he went into a desert to pray; both time and place implied
secrecy.
3. We learn hence the preciousness of time: it was so to David;
see how he spendeth the time of his life. We read of David, when he lay down at
night, he watered his couch with his tears, after the examination of his heart
(Ps 6:6); at midnight he rose to give thanks; in the morning he prevented the
morning watches; and seven times a day he praised God: morning, noon, and night
he consecrated. These are all acts of eminent piety. We should not content
ourselves with so much grace as will merely serve to save us. Alas! we have much
idle time hanging upon our hands: if we would give that to God, it were well.
4. The value of godly exercises above our natural refreshing.
The word is sweeter than appointed food: "I have esteemed the words of his mouth
more than my necessary food" (Job 13:12). David prefers the praises of God
before his sleep and rest in the night. Surely, this should shame us for our
sensuality. We can dispense with other things for our vain pleasures: we have
done as much for sin, for vain sports, etc.; and shall we not deny ourselves for
God?
5. The great reverence to be used in secret adoration. David
did not only raise up his spirits to praise God, but rise up out of his bed, to
bow the knee to him. Secret duties should be performed with solemnity, not
slubbered over. Praise, a special act of adoration, requireth the worship of
body and soul. Thomas Manton.
Verse 62.At midnight I will rise to give thanks. He had
praised God in the courts of the Lord's house, and yet he will do it in his
bedchamber. Public worship will not excuse us from secret worship. Matthew
Henry.
Verse 62.At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto
thee. Was he not ready also to praise God at midday? Certainly; but he says
"at midnight, "that he may express the ardour and longing of his soul. We are
wont to assure our friends of our good will by saying that we will rise at
midnight to consult about their affairs. Wolfgang Musculus.
Verse 62.At midnight I will rise to give thanks, etc. In
these words observe three things:
1. David's holy employment, or the duty
promised, giving thanks to God.
2. His earnestness and fervency implied in the
time mentioned, "At midnight I will rise"; he would rather interrupt his sleep
and rest, than God should want his praise.
3. The cause or matter of his thanksgiving, "because of thy
righteous judgments": whereby he meaneth the dispensations of God's providence
in delivering the godly and punishing the wicked, according to his word.
Thomas Manton.
Verse 62.At midnight I will rise to give thanks. Cares of
this world, impatience of wrongs, a bad conscience, keep awake the ungodly and
disturb their sleep (Rivetus); but what I awake for is to give thanks to
thee. A. R. Faussett.
Verse 63.I am a companion, etc. He said in the first
verse of this section that God was his portion; now he saith, that all the
saints of God are his companions. These two go togetherthe love of God and the
love of his saints. He that loveth not his brother, made in God's image, whom he
seeth, how shall he love God whom he hath not seen? Seeing our goodness extends
not to the Lord; if it be showed to his saints and excellent ones upon earth,
for his sake, it shall be no small argument of our loving affection towards
himself. Godly David, when Jonathan was dead, made diligent inquisition.
Is there none of Jonathan's posterity to whom I may show kindness for Jonathan's
sake? and at length he found a silly, lame Mephibosheth. So if we enquire
diligently, is there none upon earth to whom I may show kindness for Christ's
sake who is in heaven? We shall ever find some, to whom whatsoever we do shall
be accepted as done to himself. His great modesty is to be marked. He saith not, I am companion
of all that follow thee, but of all that fear thee. The fear of God is the
beginning of wisdom. He places himself among novices in humility, though he
excelled ancients in piety. William Cowper.
Verse 63.I am a companion of all them that fear thee. How
weak is human nature! Verily there are times when the presence of one so great
as the Almighty becomes oppressive, and we feel our need of one like ourselves
to sympathize with us. And there have been provided for us by the way many kind,
sympathizing friends, like Jesus. As we pass on, we get the human supports which
the Lord hath provided. We get them for fellowship too. John Stephen.
Verse 63.I am a companion of all them that fear thee.
Birds of a feather will flock together. Servants of the same Lord, if faithful,
will join with their fellows, and not with the servants of his enemy. When a man
comes to an inn you may give a notable guess for what place he is bound by the
company he enquires after. His question, "Do you know of any travelling
towards London? I should be heartily glad of their company, "will speak his mind
and his course. If he hear of any bound for another coast he regards them not;
but if he know of any honest passengers that are to ride in the same road, and
set out for the same city with himself he sends to them, and begs the favour of
their good company. This world is an inn, all men are in some sense pilgrims and
strangers, they have no abiding place here. Now the company they enquire after,
and delight in, whether those that walk in the "broad way" of the flesh, or
those who walk in the "narrow way" of the Spirit, will declare whether they are
going towards heaven or towards hell. A wicked man will not desire the company
of them who walk in a contrary way, nor a saint delight in their society who go
cross to his journey. "Can two walk together except they be agreed?" The young
partridges hatched under a hen go for a time along with her chickens, and keep
them company, scraping in the earth together; but when they are grown up, and
their wings fit for the purpose, they mount up into the air, and seek for birds
of their own nature. A Christian, before his conversion, is brought up under the
prince of darkness, and walks in company with his cursed crew, according to the
course of this world; but when the Spirit changes his disposition, he quickly
changes his companions, and delights only in the saints that are on earth.
George Swinnock.
Verse 63.I am a companion of all them that fear thee.
1.
The person speaking. The disparity of the persons is to be observed. David, who
was a great prophet, yea, a king, yet saith, "I am a companion of all them that
fear thee." Christ himself called them his "fellows": "Thy God hath anointed
thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows" (Ps 65:7); and therefore David
might well say, "I am a companion."
2. The persons spoken of. David saith of "all them that fear
thee." The universal particle is to be observed; not only some, but "all": when
any lighted upon him, or he upon any of them, they were welcome to him. How well
would it be for the world, if the great potentates of the earth would thus
think, speak, and do, "I am a companion, of all them that fear thee." Self love
reigneth in most men: we love the rich and despise the poor, and so have the
faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons (Jas 2:1): therefore this
universality is to be regarded. Hearing of your faith and love to all the saints
(Eph 1:15), to the mean as well as the greatest. Meanness doth not take away
church relations (1Co 11:20). There are many differences in worldly respects
between one Christian and another; yea, in spiritual gifts, some weaker, some
stronger; but we must love all; for all are children of one Father, all owned by
Christ: "He is not ashamed to call them brethren" (Heb 2:11).
This, I say, is observable, the disparity of the persons: on
the one side, David, on the other, all the people of God. Thomas
Manton.
Verse 63.I am a companion, etc.: as if he would say, This
is a sign to me that I belong to thy family; because "I am the companion of all
those fearing thee" with a filial fear, and keeping "thy precepts." Paulus
Palanterius.
Verse 63.A companion, properly is such an one as I do
choose to walk and converse with ordinarily in a way of friendship; so that
company keeping doth imply three things; first, it is a matter of choice, and
therefore relations, as such, are not properly said to be our companions;
secondly, it implies a constant walking and converse with another, and so it is
expressed, Job 34:8 Pr 13:20. And, thirdly, this ordinary converse or walking
with another, must be in a way of friendship. William Bridge,
1600-1670.
Verse 63. Shun the company that shuns God, and keep the
company that God keeps. Look on the society of the carnal or profane as
infectious, but reckon serious, praying persons the excellent ones of the earth.
Such will serve to quicken you when and warm you when cold. Make the liveliest
of God's people your greatest intimates, and see that their love and likeness to
Christ be the great motive of your love to them, more than their love or
likeness to you. John Willisor, 1680-1750.
Verse 64.The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy. The
humble and devoted servant of God does not look with a jaundiced eye upon that
scene through which he is passing to his eternal home. Amidst many sorrows and
privations, the necessary fruits of sin, he beholds all nature and providence
shining forth in the rich expression of God's paternal benignity and mercy to
the children of men. John Morison.
Verse 64.The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy. The
molten sea, the shewbread, the sweet incense, the smoke of the sacrifices,
Aaron's breastplate, the preaching of the cross, the keys of the kingdom of
heaven: do not all these proclaim mercy? Who could enter a sanctuary, search
conscience, look up to heaven, pray or sacrifice, call upon God, or think of the
tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God, if there were no mercy? Do not
all visions, covenants, promises, messages, mysteries, legal purifications,
evangelical pacification, confirm this? Yes, mercy is in the air which we
breathe, the daily light which shines upon us, the gracious rain of God's
inheritance; it is the public spring for all the thirsty, the common hospital
for all the needy; all the streets of the church are paved with these stones.
What would become of the children if there were not these breasts of
consolation? How should the bride, the Lamb's wife, be trimmed, if her
bridegroom did not deck her with these habiliments? How should Eden appear like
the Garden of God, if it were not watered by these rivers? It is mercy that
takes us out of the womb, feeds us in the days of our pilgrimage, furnishes us
with spiritual provisions, closes our eyes in peace, and translates us to a
secure restingplace. It is the first petitioner's suit, and the first believer's
article, the contemplation of Enoch, the confidence of Abraham, the burden of
the Prophetic Songs, the glory of all the apostles, the plea of the penitent,
the ecstasies of the reconciled, the believer's hosannah, the angel's hallelujah
Ordinances, oracles, altars, pulpits, the gates of the grave, and the gates of
heaven, do all depend upon mercy. It is the load star of the wandering, the
ransom of the captive, the antidote of the tempted, the prophet of the living,
and the effectual comfort of the dying: there would not be one regenerate
saint upon earth, nor one glorified saint in heaven, if it were not for mercy.
From G. S. Bowes's "Illustrative Gatherings," 1869.
Verse 64.The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy.
"Why bursts such melody from tree and bush,
The overflowing of each songster's heart,
So filling mine that it can scarcely hush
Awhile to listen, but would take its part?
It is but one song I hear where ever I rove,
Though countless be the notes, that God is Love.
"Why leaps the streamlet down the mountainside?
Hasting so swiftly to the vale beneath,
To cheer the shepherd's thirsty flock, or glide
Where the hot sun has left a faded wreath,
Or, rippling, aid the music of a grove?
Its own glad voice replies, that God is Love!"
"Is it a fallen world on which I gaze?
Am I as deeply fallen as the rest,
Yet joys partaking, past my utmost praise,
Instead of wandering forlorn, unblessed?
It is as if an unseen spirit strove
To grave upon my heart, that God is Love!"
--Thomas Davis,
1864.
TETH. In the original each stanza begins with 'T', and in
our own version it is so in all but Ps 119:67,70, which can easily be made to do
so by reading, "Till I was afflicted, "and "It is good for me that I have been
afflicted." C.H.S.
Verse 65.Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, Lord.
1. The party dealing is God himself: all good is to be referred
to God as the author of it.
2. The benefit received is generally expressed, "Thou hast
dealt well." Some translate it out of the Hebrew, "Bonum feeisti," thou hast
done good with thy servant; the Septuagint, krhststhta epoihsav meta ton doulou sou, thou hast made goodness to or
with thy servant; out of them, the Vulgate, "Bonitatern fecisti." Some take this
clause generally, "Whatever thou dost for thy servants is good": they count it
so, though it be never so contrary to the interest of the flesh: sickness is
good, loss of friends is good; and so are poverty and loss of goods, to an
humble and thankful mind. But surely David speaketh here of some supply and
deliverance wherein God had made good some promise to him. The Jewish rabbis
understand it of his return to the kingdom; but most Christian writers
understand it of some spiritual benefit; that good which God had done to him. If
anything may be collected from the subsequent verses, it was certainly some
spiritual good. The Septuagint repeat krhstothta twice in this and the following verse, as
if he acknowledged the benefit of that good judgment and knowledge of which
there he begs an increase. It was in part given him already, and that learned by
afflictions, as we see, in the third verse of this portion: "Before I was
afflicted, I went astray, but now have I kept thy word." His prayer is Now,
then, go on to increase this work, this goodness which thou hast shown to thy
servant.
3. The object, "thy servant": it is an honourable, comfortable
style; David delighted in it. God is a bountiful and a gracious master, ready to
do good to his servants, rewarding them with grace here, and crowning that grace
with glory hereafter: "He that cometh to God, must believe that he is, and that
he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Heb 11:6). Thomas
Manton.
Verse 65.Thou hast dealt well. If the children of God did
but know what was best for them, they would perceive that God did that which was
best for them. John Mason.
Verse 65.Thou hast dealt well with thy servant. He knew
that God's gifts are without repentance, and that he is not weary of well doing,
but will finish the thing he hath begun; and therefore he pleads past favours.
Nothing is more forcible to obtain mercy than to lay God's former mercies before
him. Here are two grounds, First. If he dealt well with him when he was not
regenerate, how much more will he now? and Secondly, all the gifts of God shall
be perfectly finished, therefore he will go on to deal well with his servant.
Here is a difference between faith and an accusing conscience: the accusing
conscience is afraid to ask more, because it hath abused the former mercies: but
faith, assuring us that all God's benefits are tokens of his love bestowed on us
according to his word, is bold to ask for more. Richard Greenham.
Verse 65.Thou hast dealt well with thy servant. "No
doubt, " said the late Rev. J. Brown, of Haddington, Scotland. "I have met with
trials as well as others; yet so kind has God been to me, that I think if he
were to give me as many years as I have already lived in the world, I should not
desire one single circumstance in my lot changed, except that I wish I had less
sin. It might be written on my coffin, `Here lies one of the cares of
Providence, who early wanted both father and mother, and yet never missed
them.'" Arvine's Anecdotes.
Verse 65.Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Lord,
according unto thy word. The expression, "according to thy word, "is
so often repeated in this psalm, that we are apt to overlook it, or to give it
only the general meaning of "because of thy promise." But in reality it implies
much more. Had God dealt "well" with David according to man's idea? If so, what
mean such expressions as these"O forsake me not utterly, "(Ps 119:8) "I am a
stranger in the earth, "(Ps 119:19) "My soul cleaveth unto the dust, "(Ps
119:25) "My soul melteth for heaviness, " (Ps 119:28) "Turn away my reproach
which I fear, " (Ps 119:39) "The proud have had me greatly in derision, " (Ps
119:51) "Horror hath taken hold upon me" (Ps 119:53)?
In view of such passages as these, can it be said that God
"dealt well" with David, according to man's idea? David's experience was one of
very great and very varied trial. There is not a phase of our feelings in sorrow
which does not find ample expression in his psalms. And yet he says, "Thou hast
dealt well with thy servant, according to thy word."
How, then, are we to interpret the expression, so often
repeated here, in accordance with the facts of David's spiritual life?
God dealt well with him "according to his word, "in the sense
of dealing with him according to what his word explained was the true goodnot
delivering him from all trial, but sending him such trial as he specially
required. He felt truly that God had dealt well with him when he could say (Ps
119:67), "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept thy word."
Again, (Ps 119:71), "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might
learn thy statutes." Such dealing was hard for flesh and blood to bear, but it
was indeed "well, "in the sense of accomplishing most blessed results.
It was "according to his word" too, in the sense of being in
accordance with his revealed manner of dealing with his people, who are
chastened for their profit.
Again, God had "dealt well" with David according to his word or
covenant; the present fulfilment (even if in itself bitter) being a sure earnest
of his final perfecting of his work, and glorifying himself in the entire
fulfilment of his word, in the completed salvation of his servant.
According to thy word, O Lord, thou hast dealt well with thy
servant. Thy word is the light and lamp that shows things in their true aspect,
and teaches us to know that all things work together for good to thy people;
that thou doest all things well. "Open thou mine eyes, O Lord, that I may see
wondrous things out of thy law." What can be more wonderful than such views to
our eyes?
According to thy word: not only "because of thy promise,
"but in such a manner and measure as thy word declares. See how such an
understanding of the expression opens out the idea of "Be merciful to me
according to thy word" (Ps 119:58). All the sweet promises and declarations of
God's infinite mercy rise before us, and make it a vast request. Again, "Quicken
thou me, "and "strengthen thou me according to thy word" up to the full
measure of what thou hast promised and provided for thy people. See the fulness
in this view, of Ps 119:76, "Let, I pray thee, thy merciful kindness be for my
comfort, according to thy word." Again, Ps 119:169, "Give me understanding
according to thy word"; Ps 119:170, "Deliver me according to thy word." In each
of these we are led to feel that the request includes the thought of all that
the word teaches on the subject.
Let our prayer then for mercy, and strength, and comfort, and
understanding, and deliverance, ever be a prayer for these, in the full measure
in which they are revealed and promised in the word of God. Mary B.M.
Duncan (1825-1865), in "Under the Shadow."
Verse 66.Teach me good judgment, etc. David, who
discovered a holy taste (Ps 19:10 104:34 119:103) and recommended it to others
(Ps 34:8), requests in our text to have it increased. For the word rendered
"judgment", properly signifies taste, and denotes that relish for divine truth,
and for the divine goodness and holiness, which is peculiar to true saints. I
propose therefore to consider the nature and objects of that spiritual taste
which is possessed by every gracious soul, and which all true saints desire to
possess in a still greater degree.
The original word, which is often applied to those objects of
sense which are distinguished by the palate, is here used in a metaphorical
sense, as the corresponding term frequently is in our own language. "Doth not
the car try words, and the mouth taste meat?" (Joh 12:11). Our translators in
this place render it, "judgment, " which is nearly the same thing; yet as the
terms are applied among us, there is a difference between them. Taste is that
which enables a man to form a more compendious judgment. Judgment is slower in
its operations than taste; it forms its decisions in a more circuitous way. So
we apply the term taste to many objects of mental decision, to the beauty of a
poem, to excellence of style, to elegance of dress or of deportment, to
painting, to music, etc., in which a good taste will lead those who possess it,
to decide speedily, and yet accurately, on the beauty, excellence, and propriety
of the objects with which it has long been conversant without laborious
examination.
Just so, true saints have a power of receiving pleasure from
the beauty of holiness, which shines forth resplendently in the word of God, in
the divine character, in the law, in the gospel, in the cross of Christ, in the
example of Christ, and in the conduct of all his true followers, so far as they
are conformed to his lovely image. I do not mean by this that they are
influenced by a blind instinct, for which they can assign no sufficient reason:
the genuine feelings of a true Christian can all of them be justified by the
soundest reason: but those feelings which were first produced by renewing grace,
are so strengthened by daily communion with God, and by frequent contemplation
of spiritual things, that they acquire a delicacy and readiness of perception,
which no one can possess who has never tasted how gracious the Lord is. You
cannot touch, as it were, a certain string, but the renewed heart must needs
answer to it. Whatever truly tends to exalt God, to bring the soul near to him,
and to insure his being glorified and enjoyed, will naturally attract the
notice, excite the affections, and influence the conduct of one who is born of
God. "Sweeter also than honey, and the honeycomb." "My meditation of thee shall
be sweet." "How sweet are thy words to my taste! sweeter than honey to my
mouth." "O taste and see that the Lord is good." John Ryland,
1753-1825.
Verse 66.Teach me good judgment and knowledge, etc.
Literally it may be rendered thus, Teach me goodness, discernment and
knowledge; for I have believed or confided in thy commandments. In our system of
divine things, we might be inclined to place knowledge and discernment first, as
begetting the "goodness." But it is a well ascertained fact, that the
intellectual and moral powers are reciprocal that the moral also give strength
to the intellectual. Moreover, it is only the spiritual man that discerns the
things of God. The state of being spiritually minded, and also conversant with
divine things, gives a rigour and breadth to the intellect itself, that
remarkably appears in the lives of eminent men. And if you remark that some have
been eminent who were devoid of spiritual qualities, the reply might beHow
much more eminent would they have been had they possessed these qualities. The
petition is, "Teach me goodness, discernment, and knowledge." The principle of
pleasing God may be within, and yet the mind may require to be enlightened in
all duty; and again, though all duty be known, we may require spiritual
discernment to see and feel it aright. John Stephen.
Verse 66.Teach me good judgment. In a lecture of Sir John
Lubbock's on the fertilization of flowers by the agency of insects, a
striking distinction is noted in regard to this operation between beautiful and
hideous plants. Bees, it would appear, delight in pleasant odours and bright
colours, and invariably choose those plants which give pleasure to man. If we
watch the course of these insects on their visit to a garden, we shall observe
them settling upon the rose, the lavender, and all other similar agreeable
flowers of brilliant hues or sweet scent. In marked contrast with this is the
conduct of flies, which always show a preference for livid yellow or dingy red
plants, and those which possess an unpleasant smell. The bee is a creature of
fine and sensitive tastes. The fly is "a species of insectoid vulture,
"naturally turning to such vegetable food as resembles carrion. Let two plates
be placed on a lawn, at a little distance apart, the one containing that ill
scented underground fungus, the Stink horn, and the other a handful of moss
roses, and this difference will be immediately discerned. The foul odour and
unsightly fungus will soon be covered with flies, while the bees will resort to
the plate of roses. To this love of bees for fine colours and fragrant perfumes
we are indebted for our choicest flowers. For by taking the pollen dust of some
conspicuous flower to the stigma of another, they have by this union produced
the seed of a still richer variety. Thus, age after age, many blossoms have been
growing increasingly beautiful. On the other hand, strange to say, through a
similar process, a progress in the opposite direction has taken place in those
plants which are frequented by flies, and their unwholesome and repulsive
qualities have become intensified. So is it with the two great classes into which mankind may be
divided the men of this world, and the men of the next. While the purified
affections of the one centre continually on "whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, "so the earthward and vile
affections of the other fasten on corruption. Not more surely does the laborious
bee fly from one beautiful flower to another, than does the Christian seek of
set purpose all that is fairest, sweetest, and best on earth. His prayer is that
of David, in Ps 119:66, "Teach me good taste" (which is the literal
translation); and "if there be any virtue, and if there be any Praise, "he
thinks on these things. James Neil, in "Rays from the Realms of
Nature," 1879.
Verse 66.Good judgment and knowledge. No blessings are
more suitable than "good judgment and knowledge" "knowledge" of ourselves, of
our Saviour, of the way of obedienceand "good judgment" to direct and apply
this knowledge to some valuable end. These two parts of our intellectual
furniture have a most important connexion and dependence upon each other.
"Knowledge" is the speculative perception of general truth. "Judgment" is the
practical application of it to the heart and conduct. Charles Bridges.
Verse 66.For I have believed thy commandments. These
words deserve a little consideration, because believing is here joined to an
unusual object. Had it been, "for I have believed thy promises," or, "obeyed thy
commandments," the sense of the clause had been more obvious to every vulgar
apprehension. To believe commandments, sounds as harsh to a common ear, as to
see with the ear, and hear with the eye; but, for all this, the commandments are
the object; and of them he saith, not, "I have obeyed"; but, "I have believed."
To take off the seeming asperity of the phrase, some
interpreters conceive that "commandments" is put for the word in general; and so
promises are included, yea, they think, principally intended, especially those
promises which encouraged him to look to God for necessary things, such as good
judgment and knowledge are. But this interpretation would divert us from the
weight and force of these significant words. Therefore let us note,
1. Certainly there is a faith in the commandments, as well as
in the promises. We must believe that God is their author, and that they are the
expressions of his commanding and legislative will, which we are bound to obey.
Faith must discern the sovereignty and goodness of the law maker and believe
that his commands are holy, just, and good; it must also teach us that God loves
those who keep his law and is angry with those who transgress, and that he will
see to it that His law is vindicated at the last great day.
2. Faith in the commandments is as necessary as faith in the
promises; for, as the promises are not esteemed, embraced, and improved, unless
they are believed to be of God, so neither are the precepts: they do not sway
the conscience, nor incline the affections, except as they are believed to be
divine.
3. Faith in the commands must be as lively as faith in the
promises. As the promises are not believed with a lively faith, unless they draw
off the heart from carnal vanities to seek that happiness which they offer to
us; so the precepts are not believed rightly, unless we be fully resolved to
acquiesce in them as the only rule to guide us in obtaining that happiness, and
unless we are determined to adhere to them, and obey them. As the king's laws
are not kept as soon as they are believed to be the king's laws, unless also,
upon the consideration of his authority and power, we subject ourselves to them;
so this believing notes a ready alacrity to hear God's voice and obey it, and to
govern our hearts and actions according to his counsel and direction in the
word. Thomas Manton.
Verse 66.For I have believed thy commandments. The
commandments of God are not alone; but they have promises of grace on the right
hand, and threatenings of wrath on the left: upon both of these faith exercises
itself, and without such faith no one will be able to render obedience to God's
commands, Wolfgang Musculus.
Verse 67.Before I was afflicted I went astray, etc. Not
that he wilfully, wickedly, maliciously, and through contempt, departed from his
God; this lie denies (Ps 18:21); but through the weakness of the flesh, the
prevalence of corruption, and the force of temptation, and very much through a
careless, heedless, and negligent frame of spirit, he got out of the right way,
and wandered from it before he was well aware. The word is used of erring
through ignorance (Le 5:18). This was in his time of prosperity, when, though he
might not, like Jeshurun, wax fat and kick, and forsake and lightly esteem the
Rock of his salvation; or fall into temptations and hurtful lusts, and err from
the faith, and be pierced with many sorrows; yet he might become inattentive to
the duties of religion, and be negligent of them, which is a common case.
John Gill.
Verse 67.Before I was afflicted. The Septuagint and Latin
Vulgate, "Before I was humbled." The Hebrew word has the general sense of being
afflicted, and may refer to any kind of trial. Albert Barnes.
Verse 67.Before I was afflicted. Prosperity is a more
refined and severe test of character titan adversity, as one hour of summer
sunshine produces greater corruption than the longest winter day. Eliza
Cook.
Verse 67.I was afflicted. God in wisdom deals with us as
some great person would do with a disobedient son, that forsakes his house, and
riots among his tenants. His father gives orders that they should treat him ill,
affront, and chase him from them, and all, that he might bring him back. The
same doth God: man is his wild and debauched son; he flies from the commands of
his father, and cannot endure to live under his strict and severe government. He
resorts to the pleasures of the world, and revels and riots among the creatures.
But God resolves to recover him, and therefore commands every creature to handle
him roughly. "Burn him, fire; toss him, tempests, and shipwreck his estate;
forsake him, friends; designs, fail him; children, be rebellious to him, as he
is to me; let his supports and dependencies sink under him, his riches melt
away, leave him poor, and despised, and destitute." These are all God's
servants, and must obey his will. And to what end is all this, but that, seeing
himself forsaken of all, he may at length, like the beggared prodigal, return to
his father? Ezekiel Hopkins, 1633-1690.
Verse 67.I was afflicted. As men clip the feathers of
fowls, when they begin to fly too high or too far; even so doth God diminish our
riches, etc., that we should not pass our bounds, and glory too much of such
gifts. Otho Wermullerus.
Verse 67.But now have I kept thy word.
Affliction brings Man Home.
"Man like a silly sheep doth often stray,
Not knowing of his way,
Blind deserts and the wilderness of sin
He daily travels in;
There's nothing will reduce him sooner than
Afflictions to his pen.
He wanders in the sunshine, but in rain
And stormy weather hastens home again."
"Thou, the great Shepherd of my soul, O keep
Me, my unworthy sheep
From gadding: or if fair means will not do it,
Let foul, then, bring me to it.
Rather then I should perish in my error,
Lord bring me back with terror;
Better I be chastised with thy rod
And Shepherd's staff, than stray from thee, my God."
"Though for the present stripes do grieve me sore,
At last they profit more,
And make me to observe thy word, which I
Neglected formerly;
Let me come home rather by weeping cross
Than still be at a loss.
For health I would rather take a bitter pill,
Than eating sweet meats to be always ill."
--Thomas
Washbourne, 1606-1687.
Verse 67. From the countless throng before the throne of
God and the Lamb, we may yet hear the words of the Psalmist, "Before I was
afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word." There is many an one who
will say, "Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth" (Joh 5:17). One would
tell you that his worldly undoing was the making of his heavenly prospects; and
another that the loss of all things was the gain of All in All. There are
multitudes whom God has afflicted with natural blindness that they might gain
spiritual sight; and those who under bodily infirmities and diseases of divers
sorts have pined and wasted away this earthly life, gladly laying hold on glory,
honour, and immortality instead. William Garrett Lewis, in
"Westbourne Grove Sermons," 1872.
Verse 67. By affliction God separates the sin which he
hates from the soul which he loves. John Mason.
Verse 68.Thou art good, and doest good. There is a good
God set before us, that we may not take tip with any low pattern of goodness. He
is represented to us as all goodness. He is good in his nature; and his work is
agreeable to his nature; nothing is wanting to it, or defective in it. Nothing
can be added to it to make it better. Philo saith, w ontwl wn to prwtoon agayov: the first being must
needs be the first good. As soon as we conceive that there is a God, we
presently conceive that he is good, He is good of himself, good in himself,
goodness itself, and both the fountain and the pattern of all the good that is
in the creatures.
1. As to his nature, he is originally "good", good in himself,
and good to others; as the sun hath light in himself, and giveth light to all
other things. Essentially good; not only good, but goodness itself. Goodness in
us is an accessory quality or superadded gift; but in God it is not a quality,
but his essence. In a vessel that is gilded with gold the gilding or lustre is a
superadded quality; but in a vessel all of gold, the lustre and the substance is
the same. God is infinitely good; the creatures' good is limited, but there is
nothing to limit the perfection of God, or give it any measure. He is an ocean
of goodness without banks or bottom. Alas! what is our drop to this ocean! God
is immutably good; his goodness can never be more or less than it is; as there
can be no addition to it, so no subtraction from it. Man in his innocency was
'peccabilis', or liable to sin, afterwards 'peccator,'or an actual sinner; but
God ever was and is good. Now this is the pattern propounded to us, but his
nature is a great deep. Therefore--
2. As to his work; "he doeth good." What hath God been acting
upon the great theatre of the world but goodness for these six thousand years?
Ac 14:17, "Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did
good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts
with food and gladness." He left not himself without a witness, anayopiwn, not by taking vengeance of
their idolatries, but by distributing benefits. This is propounded to our
imitation, that our whole life may be nothing else but doing good: Mt 5:48, "Be
ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Well,
therefore, doth the Psalmist say, "Teach me thy statutes." Thomas
Manton.
Verse 68.Thou art good and doest good. We should bless
the Lord at all times, and keep up good thoughts of God, on every occasion,
especially in the time of affliction. Hence we are commanded to glorify God in
the fires (Isa 24:15); and this the three children did in the hottest furnace...
I grant, indeed, we cannot give thanks for affliction as affliction, but either
as it is the means of some good to us, or as the gracious hand of God is some
way remarkable therein toward us. In this respect there is no condition on this
side of hell but we have reason to praise God in it, though it be the greatest
of calamities. Hence it was that David, when he speaks of his affliction, adds
presently, "Thou art good, and doest good"; and he declares (Ps 119:65), "Thou
hast dealt well with thy servant, O Lord, according unto thy word." Hence Paul
and Silas praised God when they were scourged and imprisoned. John
Willison, 1680-1750.
Verse 68.Thou art good. The blessed effects of
chastisement, as a special instance of the Lord's goodness, might naturally lead
to an acknowledgment of his general goodness, in his own character, and in his
unwearied dispensations of love. Judging in unbelieving haste of his
providential and gracious dealings, feeble sense imagines a frown, when the eye
of faith discerns a smile upon his face; and therefore in proportion as faith is
exercised in the review of the past, and the experience of the present, we shall
be prepared with the ascription of praise"Thou art good". Charles
Bridges.
Verse 69.The proud have forged a lie against me. If in
the present day the enemies of the truth in their lying writings rail against
the orthodox teachers in the Church, that is a very old artifice of the Devil,
since David complains that in his day it happened unto him. Solomon
Gesner.
Verse 69.The proud have forged a lie. They trim up lies
with shadows of truth and neat language; they have mints to frame their lies
curiously in, and presses to print their lies withal. William
Greenhill, 1591-1677.
Verse 69.The proud. Faith humbleth, and infidelity maketh
proud. Faith humbleth, because it letteth us see our sins, and the punishments
thereof, and that we have no dealing with God but through the mediation of
Christ; and that we can do no good, nor avoid evil, but by grace. But when men
know not this, then they think much of themselves, and therefore are proud.
Therefore all ignorant men, all heretics, and worldlings are proud. They that
are humbled under God's hands, are humble to men; but they that despise God do
also persecute his servants. Richard Greenham.
Verse 69.Forged a lie. Vatablus translates it,
"coneinnarunt mendacta". So Tremellius: they have trimmed up lies. As Satan can
transform himself into an angel of light, so he can trim up his lies under
coverings of truth, to make them the more plausible unto men. And indeed this is
no small temptation, when lies made against the godly are trimmed up with the
shadows of truth, and wicked men cover their unrighteous dealings with
appearances of righteousness. Thus, not only are the godly unjustly persecuted,
but simple ones are made to believe that they have most justly deserved it. In
this case the godly are to sustain themselves by the testimony of a good
conscience. William Cowper.
Verse 69.Forged. expresses the essential meaning of the
Hebrew word, but not its figurative form which seems to be that of sewing,
analogous to that of weaving, as applied to the same thing, both in Hebrew and
in other languages. We may also compare our figurative phrase, to patch up,
which, however, is not so much suggestive of artifice or skill as of the want of
it. The connection of the clauses is, that all the craft and malice of his
enemies should only lead him to obey God, with a more undivided heart than ever.
Joseph Addison Alexander.
Verse 69.Forged. The metaphor may be like the Greek
(raptein doloul), from
sewing or patching up: or, from smearing, or daubing (Delitzsch, Moll, etc.), a
wall, so as to hide the real substance. The Psalmist remains true to God despite
the falsehoods with which the proud smear and hide his true fidelity. The
Speaker's Commentary.
Verse 69.A lie. Satan's two arms by which he wrestles
against the godly are violence and lies: where he cannot, or dare not, use
violence, there be sure he will not fail to fight with lies. And herein doth the
Lord greatly show his careful providence, in fencing his children against
Satan's malice and the proud brags of his instruments, in such sort, that their
proudest hearts are forced to forge lies; their malice being so great that they
must do evil; and yet their power so bridled that they cannot do what they
would. William Cowper.
Verse 69.I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart.
Let the word of the Lord come, let it come; and if we had six hundred necks, we
would submit them all to his dictates. Augustine.
Verse 70.Their heart is as fat as grease. The word
vpj occurs nowhere else in
Scripture, but with the Chaldees vpj signifies to fatten, to make fat; also to make stupid and doltish,
because such the fat ofttimes are... For this reason the proud, who are
mentioned in the preceding verse, are described by their fixed resolve in evil,
because they are almost insensible; as is to be seen in pigs, who pricked
through the skin with a bodkin, and that slowly, as long as the bodkin only
touches the fat, do not feel the prick until it reaches to the flesh. Thus the
proud, whose great prosperity is elsewhere likened to fatness, have a heart
totally insusceptible, which is insensible to the severe reproofs of the Divine
word, and also to its holy delights and pleasures, by reason of the affluence of
carnal things; aye, more, is altogether unfitted for good impulses; just as
elsewhere is to be seen with fat animals, how slow they are and unfit for work,
when, on the contrary, those are agile and quick which are not hindered by this
same fatness. Martin Geier.
Verse 70.Their heart is as fat as grease. This makes
them--
1. Senseless and secure; they are past feeling: thus the phrase
is used (Isa 6:10): "Make the heart of the people fat." They are not sensible of
the teaching of the word of God, or his rod.
2. Sensual and voluptuous: "Their eyes stand out with fatness"
(Ps 73:7); they roll themselves in the pleasures of sense, and take up with them
as their chief good; and much good may it do them: I would not change conditions
with them; "delight in thy law." Matthew Henry.
Verse 70.Their heart is as fat as grease; but I delight in
thy law; as if he should say, My heart is a lean heart, a hungry
heart, my soul loveth and rejoiceth in thy word. I have nothing else to fill it
but thy word, and the comforts I have from it; but their hearts are fat hearts:
fat with the world, fat with lust: they hate the word. As a full stomach
loatheth meat and cannot digest it; so wicked men hate the word, it will not go
down with them, it will not gratify their lusts. William Fenner.
Being anxious to know the medical significance of fatty heart,
I applied to an eminent gentleman who is well known as having been President of
the College of Physicians. His reply shows that the language is rather
figurative than literal. He kindly replied to me as follows: There are two forms of so called "fatty heart". In the one
there is an excessive amount of fatty tissue covering the exterior of the organ,
especially about the base. This may be observed in all cases where the body of
the animal is throughout over fat, as in animals fattened for slaughter. It does
not necessarily interfere with the action of the heart, and may not be of much
importance in a medical point of view. The second form is, however, a much more
serious condition. In this, the muscular structure of the heart, on which its
all important function, as the central propelling power, depends, undergoes a
degenerative change, by which the contractile fibres of the muscles are
converted into a structure having none of the properties of the natural fibres,
and in which are found a number of fatty, oily globules, which can be readily
seen by means of the microscope. This condition, if at all extensive, renders
the action of the heart feeble and irregular, and is very perilous, not
infrequently causing sudden death. It is found in connection with a general
unhealthy condition of system, and is evidence of general mal-nutrition. It is
brought about by an indolent, luxurious mode of living, or, at all events, by
neglect of bodily exercise and those hygienic rules which are essential for
healthy nutrition. It cannot, however, be said to be incompatible with mental
rigour, and certainly is not necessarily associated with stupidity. But the
heart, in this form of disease, is literally, "greasy", and may be truly
described as "fat as grease." So much for physiology and pathology. May I
venture on the sacred territory of biblical exegesis without risking the charge
of fatuousness. Is not the Psalmist contrasting those who lead an animal, self
indulgent, vicious life, by which body and mind are incapacitated for their
proper uses, and those who can run in the way of God's commandments, delight to
do his will, and meditate on his precepts? Sloth, fatness and stupidity, versus
activity, firm muscles, and mental rigour. Body versus mind. Man become as a
beast versus man retaining the image of God. Sir James Risdon Bennett,
1881.
Verse 71.It is good for me, etc. I am mended by my
sickness, enriched by my poverty, and strengthened by my weakness, and with S.
Bernard desire, "Irasecaris mihi; Domine", O Lord, be angry with me For if you
chide me not, you consider me not; if I taste no bitterness, I have no physic;
if thou correct me not, I am not thy son. Thus was it with the great grandchild
of David, Manasseh, when he was in affliction, "He besought the Lord his God":
even that king's iron was more precious to him than his gold, his jail a more
happy lodging than his palace, Babylon a better school than Jerusalem. What
fools are we, then to frown upon our afflictions! These, how crabbed soever, are
our best friends. They are not indeed for our pleasure, they are for our profit;
their issue makes them worthy of a welcome. What do we care how bitter that
potion be that brings Health. Abraham Wright.
Verse 71.It is good for me that I have been afflicted.
Saints are great gainers by affliction, because "godliness", which is "great
gain", which is "profitable for all things", is more powerful than before. The
rod of correction, by a miracle of grace, like that of Aaron's, buds and
blossoms, and brings forth the fruits of righteousness, which are most
excellent. A rare sight it is indeed to see a man coming out of a bed of
languishing, or any other furnace of affliction, more like to angels in purity,
more like to Christ who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from
sinners; more like unto God himself, being more exactly righteous in all his
was, and more exemplarily holy in all manner of conversation. Nathanael
Vincent, 1697.
Verse 71.It is good for me that I have been afflicted. If
I have no cross to bear today, I shall not advance heavenwards. A cross (that is
anything that disturbs our peace), is the spur which stimulates, and Without
which we should most likely remain stationary, blinded with empty vanities, and
sinking deeper into sin. A cross helps us onwards, in spite of our apathy and
resistance. To lie quietly on a bed of down, may seem a very sweet existence;
but, pleasant ease and rest are not the lot of a Christian: if he would mount
higher and higher, it must be by a rough road. Alas! for those who have no daily
cross! Alas! for those who repine and fret against it! From "Gold
Dust," 1880.
Verse 71.It is good for me, etc. There are some things
good but not pleasant, as sorrow and affliction. Sin is pleasant,
but unprofitable; and sorrow is profitable, but unpleasant. As waters are purest
when they are in motion, so saints are generally holiest when in affliction.
Some Christians resemble those children who will learn their books no longer
than while the rod is on their backs. It is well known that by the greatest
affliction the Lord has sealed the sweetest instruction. Many are not bettered
by the judgments they see, when they are by the judgments they have felt. The
purest gold is the most pliable. That is the best blade which bends well without
retaining its crooked figure. William Secker, 1660.
Verse 71.It is good for me, etc. Piety hath a wondrous
virtue to change all things into matter of consolation and joy. No condition in
effect can be evil or sad to a pious man: his very sorrows are pleasant, his
infirmities are wholesome, his wants enrich him, his disgraces adorn him, his
burdens ease him; his duties are privileges, his falls are the grounds of
advancement, his very sins (as breeding contrition, humility, circumspection,
and vigilance), do better and profit him: whereas impiety doth spoil every
condition, doth corrupt and embase all good things, doth embitter all the
conveniences and comforts of life. Isaac Barrow, 1630-1677.
Verse 71.It is good for me that I have been afflicted. In
Miss E.J. Whately's very interesting Life of her Father, the celebrated
Archbishop of Dublin, a fact is recorded, as told by Dr. Whately, with reference
to the introduction of the larch tree into England. When the plants were first
brought, the gardener, hearing that they came from the south of Europe, and
taking it for granted that they would require warmth, forgetting that might
grow near the snow line, put them into a hothouse. Day by day they withered,
until the gardener in disgust threw them on a dung heap outside; there they
began to revive and bud, and at last grew into trees. They needed the cold. The great Husbandman often saves his plants by throwing them
out into the cold. The nipping frosts of trial and affliction are ofttimes
needed, if God's larches are to grow. It is under such discipline that new
thoughts and feelings appear. The heart becomes more dead to the world and self.
From the night of sorrow rises the morning of joy. Winter is the harbinger of
spring. From the crucifixion of the old man comes the resurrection of the new,
as in nature life is the child of death. "The night is the mother of the day,
And winter of the spring; And ever upon old decay, The greenest mosses spring."
James Wareing Bardsicy, in Illustrated Texts and TextsIllustrated, 1876.
Verse 71.It is good for me that I have been afflicted. It
is a remarkable circumstance that the most brilliant colours of plants are to be
seen on the highest mountains, in spots that are most exposed to the wildest
weather. The brightest lichens and mosses, the loveliest gems of wild flowers,
abound far up on the bleak, storm scalped peak. One of the richest displays of
organic colouring I ever beheld was near the summit of Mount Chenebettaz, a hill
about 10,000 feet high, immediately above the great St. Bernard Hospice. The
whole face of an extensive rock was covered with a most vivid yellow lichen,
which shone in the sunshine like the golden battlement of an enchanted castle.
There, in that lofty region, amid the most frowning desolation, exposed to the
fiercest tempest of the sky, this lichen exhibited a glory of colour such as it
never showed in the sheltered valley. I have two specimens of the same lichen
before me while I write these lines, one from the great St. Bernard, and the
other from the wall of a Scottish castle, deeply embosomed among sycamore trees;
and the difference in point of form and colouring between them is most striking.
The specimen nurtured amid the wild storms of the mountain peak is of a lovely
primrose hue, and is smooth in texture and complete in outline; while the
specimen nurtured amid the soft airs and the delicate showers of the lowland
valley is of a dim rusty hue, and is scurfy in texture, and broken in outline.
And is it not so with the Christian who is afflicted, tempest tossed, and not
comforted? Till the storms and vicissitudes of God's providence beat upon him
again and again, his character appears marred and clouded by selfish and worldly
influences. But trials clear away the obscurity, perfect the outlines of his
disposition, and give brightness and blessings to his piety. Amidst my list of
blessings infinite Stands this the foremost that my heart has bled; For all I
bless thee, most for the severe. Hugh Macmillan.
Verse 71.That I might fear thy statutes. He speaks not of
that learning which is gotten by hearing or reading of God's word; but of the
learning which he had gotten by experience; that he had felt the truth and
comfort of God's word more effectual and lively in trouble than he could do
without trouble; which also made him more godly, wise, and religious when the
trouble was gone. William Cowper.
Verse 71.That I might learn. "I had never known, "said
Martin Luther's wife, "what such and such things meant, in such and such psalms,
such complaints and workings of spirit; I had never understood the practice of
Christian duties, had not God brought me under some affliction." It is very true
that God's rod is as the schoolmaster's pointer to the child, pointing out the
letter, that he may the better take notice of it; thus he points out to us many
good lessons which we should never otherwise have learned. From John
Spencer's "Things New and Old," 1658.
Verse 71.That I might learn. As prosperity blindeth the
eyes of men, even so doth adversity open them. Like as the salve that remedies
the disease of the eyes doth first bite and grieve the eyes, and maketh them to
water, but yet afterward the eyesight is clearer than it was; even so trouble
doth vex men wonderfully at the first, but afterwards it lighteneth the eyes of
the mind, that it is afterward more reasonable, wise and circumspect. For
trouble bringeth experience, and experience bringeth wisdom. Otho
Wermullerus, 1551.
Verse 71.Learn thy statutes. The Christian has reason to
thank God that things have not been accommodated to his wishes. When the mist of
tears was in his eyes, he looked into the word of God and saw magnificent
things. When Jonah came up from the depths of ocean, he showed that he had
learned the statutes of God. One could not go too deep to get such knowledge as
he obtained. Nothing now could hinder him from going to Nineveh. It is just the
same as though he had brought up from the deep an army of twelve legions of the
most formidable troops. The word of God, grasped by faith, was all this to him,
and more. He still, however, needed further affliction; for there were some
statutes not yet learned. Some gourds were to wither. He was to descend into a
further vale of humiliation. Even the profoundest affliction does not, perhaps,
teach us everything; a mistake we sometimes make. But why should we compel God
to use harsh measures with us? Why not sit at the feet of Jesus and learn
quietly what we need to learn? George Bowen, in "Daily
Meditations," 1873.
Verse 71.Statutes. The verb from which this word is
formed means to engrave or inscribe. The word means a definite, prescribed,
written law. The term is applied to Joseph's law about the portion of the
priests in Egypt, to the law about the passover, etc. But in this psalm it has a
more internal meaning; that moral law of God which is engraven on the fleshy
tables of the heart; the inmost and spiritual apprehension of his will; not so
obvious as the law and the testimonies, and a matter of more direct spiritual
communication than his precepts; the latter being more elaborated by the efforts
of the mind itself, divinely guided indeed, but perhaps more instrumentally, and
less passively, employed. They are continually spoken of as things yet to be
learned, either wholly or in part, not objectively apprehended already, like
God's law... They are learned, not suddenly, but by experience, and through the
means of trials mercifully ordained by God; lessons therefore which are deeply
engraven on the heart. "Good is it for me that I have been in trouble, that I
might learn thy statutes." "I have more understanding than my teachers, because
thy statutes I have observed." John Jebb.
Verse 72.The law of thy mouth is better unto me, etc.
Highly prize the Scriptures. Can he make a proficiency in any art, who doth
slight and deprecate it? Prize this book of God above all other books. St.
Gregory calls the Bible "the heart and soul of God." The rabbins say, that a
mountain of sense hangs upon every apex and title of Scripture. "The law of the
Lord is perfect": Ps 19:7. The Scripture is the library of the Holy Ghost; it is
a pandect of divine knowledge, an exact model and platform of religion. The
Scripture contains in it the credenda, "the things which we are to believe, "and
the agenda, "the things which we are to practise." It is "able to make us wise
unto salvation": 2Ti 3:15. The Scripture is the standard of truth, the judge of
controversies; it is the pole star to direct us to heaven: Isa 8:20. "The
commandment is a lamp": Pr 6:23. The Scripture is the compass by which the
rudder of our will is to be steered; it is the field in which Christ, the Pearl
of price, is hid; it is a rock of diamonds; it is a sacred collyrium, or
eyesalve; it mends their eyes that look upon it; it is a spiritual optic glass
in which the glory of God is resplendent; it is the panacy, or universal
medicine for the soul. The leaves of Scripture are like the "leaves of the tree
of life, for the healing of the nations": Re 22:2. The Scripture is both the
breeder and feeder of grace. How is the convert born, but by "the word of
truth"? Jas 1:18. How doth he grow, but by "the sincere milk of the word"? 1Pe
2:2. The word written is the book out of which our evidences for heaven are
fetched; it is the sea mark which shows us the rocks of sin to avoid; it is the
antidote against error and apostasy, the two edged sword which wounds the old
serpent. It is our bulwark to withstand the force of lust; like the Capitol of
Rome, which was a place of strength and ammunition. The Scripture is the "tower
of David, "wherein the shields of our faith hang: So 4:4. "Take away the word
and you deprive us of the sun, " said Luther. The word written is above an
angelic embassy, or voice from heaven. "This voice which came from heaven we
heard... We have also a more sure Word": 2Pe 1:18,19. O, prize the word written;
prizing is the way to profiting. If Caesar so valued his commentaries, that for
preserving them he lost his purple robe, how should we estimate the sacred
oracles of God? "I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary
food." Thomas Watson, in "The Morning Exercises."
Verse 72.The law of thy mouth is better unto me. The
sacred Scriptures are the treasures and pleasures of a gracious soul: to David
they were better than thousands of gold and silver. A mountain of transparent
pearls, heaped as high as heaven, is not so rich in treasure as these; hence
that good man chose these as his heritage for ever, and rejoiced in them as in
all riches. A covetous miser could not take such delight in his bags, nor a
young heir in a large inheritance, as holy David did in God's word. The word law comes from a root that signifies to try as
merchants that search and prove the wares that they buy and lay up; hence also
comes the word for gems and jewels that are tried, and found right. The sound
Christian is the wise merchant, seeking goodly pearls; he tries what he reads or
hears by the standard or touchstone of Scripture, and having found genuine
truths he lays them up to the great enriching of this supreme and sovereign
faculty of the understanding. Oliver Heywood.
Verse 72.The word of God must be nearer to us than our
friends, dearer to us than our lives, sweeter to us than our liberty, and more
pleasant to us than all earthly comforts. John Mason.
Verse 72. One lesson, taught by sanctified affliction, is,
the love of God's word. "This is my comfort, in my affliction: thy word hath
quickened me." In reading a part of the one hundred and nineteenth psalm to Miss
Westbrook, who died, she said, "Stop, sir, I never said so much to you beforeI
never could; but now I can say, `The word of thy mouth, is dearer to me, than
thousands of gold and silver.' What can gold and silver do for me by now?"
George Redford, in "Memoirs of the late Rev. John Cooke," 1828.
Verse 72.Thousands of gold and silver. Worldly riches are
gotten with labour, kept with care, lost with grief. They are false friends,
farthest from us when we have most need of comfort; as all worldlings shall find
to be true in the hour of death. For then, as Jonah's gourd was taken from him
in a morning, when he had most need of it against the sun; so is it with the
comfort of worldlings. It is far otherwise with the word of God; for if we will
lay it up in our hearts, as Mary did, the comfort thereof shall sustain us, when
all other comfort shall fail us. This it is that makes us rich unto God, when our souls are
storehouses, filled with the treasures of his word. Shall we think it poverty to
be scant of gold and silver? "An ideo angelus pauperest, quia non habet
jumenta", etc (Chrysostom). Shall we esteem the angels poor, because they have
not flocks of cattle? or that S. Peter was poor, because he had not gold nor
silver to give unto the cripple? No, he had store of grace, by infinite degrees
more excellent than it. Let the riches of gold be left unto worldlings: these are not
current: in Canaan, not accounted of in our heavenly country. If we would be in
any estimation there, let us enrich our souls with spiritual graces, which we
have in abundance in the mines and treasures of the word of God. William
Cowper.
Verse 72.The Scripture is an ever overflowing fountain
that cannot be drawn dry, and an inexhausted treasure that cannot be emptied. To
this purpose tend those resemblances of the law made use of by David in this
psalm, and no less justly applicable to the gospel; it is not only better than
"gold and silver, "which are things of value, but "thousands", which implies
abundance. In another verse he compares it to all riches and great spoil, both
which contain in them multiplex genus, all sorts of valuable commodities, sheep,
oxen, lands, houses, garments, goods, moneys, and the like: thus are all sorts
of spiritual riches, yea, abundance of each sort, to be had in the gospel. And
therefore the Greek fathers compare Scripture verities to precious stones, and
our Saviour to a pearl of great price. A minister, in this respect, is called a
merchant of invaluable jewels; for, indeed, gospel truths are choice and
excellent, as much worth as our souls, as heaven, as salvation is. Nay, should I
go higher, look what worth there is in the riches of God's grace, the precious
blood of Christ, that may secondarily be applied to the gospel, which
discovereth and offereth both to us. Abraham Wright.
Verses 72, 127. When David saw how some make void the law of
God, he saith, "Therefore I love thy commandments above gold: yea, above fine
gold." As if he had said, I love thy law all the more because I see some men
esteem and reckon it as if it were dross, and throw it up as void and
antiquated, or taking the boldness, as it were, to repeal and make it void, that
they may set up their own lusts and vain imaginations. Because I see both
profane and superstitious men thus out of love with thy law, therefore my love
is more enfamed to it, "I love it above gold, "which leads the most of men away
captives in the love of it; and I esteem it more than that which is most
esteemed by men, and gains men most esteem in this world, "fine gold"; yea, as
he said (Ps 19:10) "more than much fine gold." Joseph Caryl.
Verse 72. You that are gentlemen, remember what Hierom
reports of Nepotianus, a young gentleman of Rome, qui longs et assiduameditatione Scripturarum pectus suum feterat bibliothecam Christi, who by
long and assiduous meditation of the Scriptures, made his breast the library of
Christ. Remember what is said of King Alfonsus, that he read over the Bible
fourteen times, together with such commentaries as those times afforded.
You that are scholars, remember Cranmer and Ridley; the former
learned the New Testament by heart in his journey to Rome, the latter in
Pembroke hall walks in Cambridge. Remember what is said of Thomas a Kempis,
that he found rest nowhere nisi in angulo, cum libello, but in a
corner with this Book in his hand. And what is said of Beza, that when he was
above fourscore years old he could say perfectly by heart any Greek chapter in
Paul's Epistles.
You that are women, consider what Hierom saith of Paula,
Eustochiam, and other ladies, who were singularly versed in the Holy Scriptures.
Let all men consider that hyperbolical speech of Luther, that
he would not live in Paradise without the Word; and with it he could live well
enough in hell. This speech of Luther must be understood cum grano
salis. Edmund Calamy.
In this section each verse begins with the Hebrew letter Jori,
or i, the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, called in Mt 5:18, jot; one
jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the law. Albert Barnes.
Verses 73-80. The usual account of this section, as given
by the medieval theologians, is that it is the prayer of man to be restored to
his state of original innocence and wisdom by being conformed to the image of
Christ. And this squares with the obvious meaning, which is partly a petition
for divine grace and partly an assertion that the example of piety and
resignation in trouble is attractive enough to draw men's hearts on towards God,
a truth set forth at once by the Passion, and by the lives of all those saints
who have tried to follow it. Neale and Littledale.
Verse 73.Thy hands have made me and fashioned me, etc.
This verse hath a petition for understanding, and a reason with it: I am the
workmanship of thine hands, therefore give me understanding. There is no man but
favours the works of his hands. And shall not the. Lord much more love his
creatures, especially man, his most excellent creature? Whom, if ye consider
according to the fashion of his body, ye shall find nothing on earth more
precious than he; but in that which is not seen, namely, his soul, he is much
more beautiful. So you see, David's reasoning is very effectual; all one as if
he should say as he doth elsewhere, "Forsake not, O Lord, the work of thine
hands"; thou art my author and maker; thine help I seek, and the help of none
other. No man can rightly seek good things from God, if he consider
not what good the Lord hath already done to him. But many are in this point so
ignorant, that they know not how wonderfully God did make them; and therefore
can neither bless him, nor seek from him, as from their Creator and Conserver.
But this argument, drawn from our first creation, no man can rightly use, but he
who is through grace partaker of the second creation; for all the privileges of
our first creation we have lost by our fall. So that now by nature it is no
comfort to us, nor matter of our hope, that God did make us; but rather matter
of our fear and distrust, that we have mismade ourselves, have lost his image,
and are not now like unto that which God created us in the beginning.
William Cowper.
Verse 73.Thy hands have made me and fashioned me, etc.
Mark here two things: first, that in making his prayer for holy understanding,
he justly accuseth himself and all others of blindness, which proceeded not from
the Creator, but from man corrupted. Secondly, that even from his creation he
conceived hope that God would continue his work begun in him, because God
leaveth not his work, and therefore he begs God to bestow new grace upon him,
and to finish that which he had begun in him. Thomas Wilcocks, 1586.
Verse 73. Hugo ingeniously notices in the different verbs
of this verse the particular vices to be shunned: ingratitude, when it is said,
"Thy hands have made me"; pride, "and fashioned me"; confidence in his own
judgment, "give me understanding"; prying inquisitiveness, "that I may learn thy
commandments."
Verse 73.Thy hands. Hilary and Ambrose think that by the
plural "hands" is intimated that there is a more exact and perfect workmanship
in man, and as if it were with greater labour and skill he had been formed by
God, because after the image and likeness to God: and that it is not written
that any other thing but man was made by God with both hands, for he saith in
Isaiah, "Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth": Isa 48:13.
John Lorinus, 1569-1634.
This, however, is an error, as Augustine notes; for it is
written, "The heavens are the work of thine hands." Ps 102:25. C.H.S.
Verse 73.Thy hands. Oh, look upon the wounds of thine
hands, and forget not the work of thine hands: so Queen Elizabeth prayed.
John Trapp.
Verse 73. Some refer the verb hyhn, "made, "to the soul, yhns, "fashioned, "to the body. D.H.
Mollerus.
Verse 73.Made me and fashioned me: give me understanding.
The greatness of God is no hindrance to his intercourse with us, for one special
part of the divine greatness is to be able to condescend to the littleness of
created beings, seeing that creaturehood must, from its very name, have this
littleness; inasmuch as God must ever be God, and man must ever be man: the
ocean must ever be the ocean, the drop must ever be the drop. The greatness of
God compassing our littleness about, as the heavens the earth, and fitting into
it on every side, as the air into all parts of the earth, is that which makes
the intercourse so complete and blessed: "In his hand is the soul of every
living thing, and the breath of all mankind" (Job 12:10). Such is his nearness
to, such is his intimacy with, the works of his hands. It is nearness, not
distance, that the name Creator implies; and the simple fact of his having made
us is the assurance of his desire to bless us and to hold intercourse with us.
Communication between the thing made and its maker is involved in the very idea
of creation. "Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give we understanding,
that I may learn thy commandments." "Faithful Creator" is his name (1Pe 4:19),
and as such we appeal to him, "Forsake not the work of thine own hands" (Ps
138:8). Horatius Bonar, in "The Rent Veil," 1875.
Verse 73.Give we understanding, etc. The book of God is
like the apothecary's shop, there is no wound but therein is a remedy; but if a
stranger come unto the apothecary's shop, though all these things be there, vet
he cannot tell where they are, but the apothecary himself knoweth; so in the
Scriptures, there are cures for any infirmities; there is comfort against any
sorrows, and by conferring chapter with chapter, we shall understand them. The
Scriptures are not wanting to us, but we to ourselves; let us be conversant in
them, and we shall understand them, when great clerks who are negligent remain
in darkness. Richard Stock.
Verse 73. Give me understanding. Let us pray unto God that
he would open our understandings, that as he hath given us consciences to guide
us, so also he would give eyes to these guides that they may be able to direct
us aright. The truth is, it is God only that can soundly enlighten our
consciences; and therefore let us pray unto him to do it. All our studying, and
hearing, and reading, and conferring will never be able to do it; it is only in
the power of him who made us to do it. He who made our consciences, he only can
give them this heavenly light of true knowledge and right understanding; and
therefore let us seek earnestly to him for it. William Fenner,
1600-1640.
Verse 73.That I may learn thy commandments. That he might
learn them so as to know the sense and meaning of them, their purity and
spirituality; and so as to do them from a principle of love, in faith, and to
the glory of God: for it is not a bare learning of them by heart or committing
them to memory, nor a mere theory of them, but the practice of them in faith and
love, which is here meant. John Gill.
Verses 73-74. From these verses, learn,
1. Albeit nothing can satisfy unbelief, yet true faith will
make use of the most common benefit of creation to strengthen itself: "Thine
hands have made me and fashioned me."
2. It is a good way of reasoning with God, to ask another gift,
because we have received one; and because he hath given common benefits, to ask
that he would give us also saving graces: "Thy hands have made me and fashioned
me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments."
3. Seeing that God is our Creator, and that the end of our
creation is to serve God, we may confidently ask whatsoever grace may enable us
to serve him, as the Psalmist's example doth teach us...
4. It should be the joy of all believers to see one of their
number sustained and borne up in his sufferings; for in the proof and example of
one sufferer a pawn is given to all the rest, that God will help them in like
case: "They that fear thee will be glad when they see me." David
Dickson.
Verse 74.They that fear thee will be glad, etc. They who
"fear God" are naturally "glad when they see" and converse with one like
themselves; but more especially so, when it is one whose faith and patience have
carried him through troubles, and rendered him victorious over temptations; one
who hath "hoped in God's word, "and hath not been disappointed. Every such
instance affords fresh encouragement to all those, who, in the course of their
warfare, are to undergo like troubles, and to encounter like temptations. In all
our trials let us, therefore, remember, that our brethren, as well as ourselves,
are deeply interested in the event, which may either strengthen or weaken the
hands of the multitudes. George Horne.
Verse 74.They that far thee will be glad when they see me,
etc. How comfortable it is for the heirs of promise to see one another, or
meet together: aspectus boni viri delectat, the very look of a good man
is delightful: it is a pleasure to converse with those that are careful to
please God, and fearful to offend him. How much affected they are with one
another's mercies: "they will be glad when they see me, "since I have obtained
an event answerable to my hope. They shall come and look upon me as a monument
and spectacle of the mercy and truth of God. But what mercy had he received? The
context seemeth to carry it for grace to obey God's commandments; that was the
prayer immediately preceding, to be instructed and taught in God's law (Ps
119:73). Now they will rejoice to see my holy behaviour, how I have profited and
glorified God in that behalf. The Hebrew writers render the reason, "Because
then I shall be able to instruct them in those statutes, when they shall see me,
their king, study the law of God." It may be expounded of any other blessing or
benefit God had given according to his hope; and I rather understand it thus,
they will be glad to see him sustained, supported, and borne out in his troubles
and sufferings. "They will be glad when they shall see in me a notable example
of the fruit of hoping in thy grace." Thomas Manton.
Verse 74.Because I have hoped in thy word. And have not
been disappointed. The Vulgate rendereth it supersperavi, I have over
hoped; and then Aben Ezra glosses, "I have hoped in all thy decree"; even that
of afflicting me, as in the next verse. John Trapp.
Verse 75. I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right. In
very early life the tree of knowledge seemed a very fine, a glorious tree in my
sight; but how many mistakes have I made upon that subject! And how many are the
mistakes which yet abound upon that which we are pleased to call knowledge, in
common speech. He that hath read the classics; he that hath dipped into
mathematical science; he that is versed in history, and grammar, and common
elocution; he that is apt and ready to solve some knotty question and versed in
the ancient lore of learning, is thought to be a man of knowledge; and so he is,
compared with the ignorant mass of mankind. But what is all this compared with
the knowledge in my text Knowledge of which few of the learned, as they are
called, have the least acquaintance with at all.
I know What, David? What do you know? "I know, O Lord,
that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me."
Fond as I may yet be of other speculations, I would rather,
much rather, possess the knowledge of this man in this text, than have the
largest acquaintance with the whole circle of the sciences, as it is proudly
called... I am apprehensive that, in the first clause, the Psalmist speaks, in
general: of the ordinances, appointments, providence, and judgments of God; and
the assertion is, he doth know that they are right, that they are equitable,
that they are wise, that they are fair, and that they are not to be found fault
with; and that though men, through folly, bring themselves into distress, and
then their hearts fret against God. He was blessed with superior understanding.
He excepts nothing: "I know that all thy judgments are right." Then, in the
latter part of the text, he makes the matter personal. It might be said, it is
an easy thing for you so to think when you see the revolutions of kingdoms, the
tottering of thrones, the distresses of some mortals and the pains of others,
that they are all right. "Yes," saith he, "but I have the same persuasion about
all my own sorrows; I do know that in faithfulness thou hast afflicted me."
From a Sermon by John Martin, 1817.
Verse 75. I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, etc. The text is in the form of an address to God. We often find this in
David, that, when he would express some deep feeling, or some point of spiritual
experience, he does so in this wayaddressing himself to God. Those who love
God delight to hold communion with him; and there are some feelings which the
spiritual mind finds peculiar comfort and pleasure in telling to God himself. "I
know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right." God orders all things, and his
"judgments" here mean his general orderings, decisions, dealingsnot
afflictions only, though including them. And when the Psalmist says, "thy
judgments, "he means especially God's judgments towards him, God's dealings with
him, and thus all that had happened to him, or should happen to him. For in the
Psalmist's creed there was no such thing as chance. God ordered all that befell
him, and he loved to think so. He expresses a sure and happy confidence in all
that God did, and would do, with regard to him. He trusted fully in God's
wisdom, God's power, God's love. "I know thy judgments are right" quite right,
right in every way, without one single point that might have been better,
perfectly wise and good. He shows the firmest persuasion of this. "I know, "he
says, not merely, "I think." But these very words, "I know, " clearly show that
this was a matter, of faith, not of sight. For he does not say, "I can see that
thy judgments are right, "but "I know." The meaning plainly is, "Though I cannot
see allthough there are some things in thy dealings which I cannot fully
understandyet I believe, I am persuaded, and thus I know, O Lord, that thy
judgments are right."
Thy judgments. Not some of them, but all. He takes into
view all God's dealings with him, and says of them without exception, "I know, 0
LORD, that thy judgments are right." When the things that happen to us are
plainly for our comfort and good, as many of them are, then we thankfully
receive what God thus sends to us, and own him as the Giver of all, and bless
him for his gracious dealing; and this is right. But all the faith required for
this (and some faith there is in it) is to own God as dealing with us, instead
of thanklessly receiving the gifts with no thought of the Giver. It is a far
higher degree of faith, that says of all God's dealings, even when seemingly not
for our happiness, "I know that thy judgments are right."
Yet this is the meaning here, or certainly the chief meaning.
For though the word "judgments" does mean God's dealings of every kind, yet here
the words that follow make it apply especially to God's afflictive dealings,
that is, to those dealings of his that do not seem to be for our happiness; "I
know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast
afflicted me." The judgments which the Psalmist chiefly had in view, and which
he felt so sure were right, were not joys, but sorrows; not things bestowed, but
things taken away; those blessings in disguise, those veiled mercies, those
gifts clad in the garb of mourning, which God so often sends to his children.
The Psalmist knew, and knew against all appearance to the contrary, that these
judgments were "right." Whatever they might belosses, bereavements,
disappointments, pain, sicknessthey were right; as right as the more manifest
blessings which went before them; quite right, perfectly right; so right that
they could not have been better; just what were best; and all because they were
God's judgments. That one thing satisfied the Psalmist's mind, and set every
doubt at rest. The dealings in themselves he might have doubted, but not him
whose dealings they were. "Thy judgments." That settled all. "And that thou in
faithfulness hast afflicted me." This means that, in appointing trouble as his
lot, God had dealt with him in faithfulness to his word, faithfulness to his
purposes of mercy, with a faithful, not a weak love. He had sent him just what
was most for his good, though not always what was most pleasing; and in this he
had shown himself faithful. Gently and lovingly does the Lord deal with his
children. He gives no unnecessary pain; but that which is needful he will not
withhold. Francis Bourdillon, 1881.
Verse 75. Thy judgments. There are judicia oris,
and there are judicia operis;the judgments of God's mouth, and the
judgments of God's hands. Of the former there is mention at verse 13: "With my
lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth." And by these "judgments"
are meant nothing else but the holy law of God, and his whole written word;
which everywhere? This psalm are indifferently called his "statutes, "his
"commandments", his "precepts, "his "testimonies, "his "judgments." And the laws
of God are therefore, amongst other reasons, called by the name of "judgments,
"because by them we come to have a right judgment whereby to discern between
good and evil. We could not otherwise with any certainty judge what was meet for
us to do, and what was needful for us to shun. A lege tuaintellexi, at Ps 119:104; "By thy law have I gotten understanding." St.
Paul confesseth (Romans 7), that he had never rightly known what sin was if it
had not been for the law; and he instances in that of lust, which he had not
known to be a sir, if the law had not said, "thou shalt not covet." And no
question but these "judgments, " these judicia oris, are all
"right" too; for it were unreasonable to think that God should make that a rule
of right to us, which were itself not right. We have both the name (that of
"judgments; ")and the thing too, (that they are "right") in the 19th Psalm;
where having highly commended the law of God, under the several appellations of
the "law, "testimonies, statutes and commandments, verses 7 and 8, the prophet
then concludes under this name of "judgments," verse 9:" The judgments of the
Lord are true and righteous altogether."
Besides these judicia oris, which are God's judgments of
directions, there are also judicia operis, which are his judgments for
correction. And these do ever include aliquid paenale, something
inflicted upon us by Almighty God, as it were by way of punishment; something
that breeds in us trouble or grief. The apostle saith in Hebrews 12 that every
chastening is grievous; and so it is, more or less; or else it could be to us no
punishment. And these, again, are of two sort; yet not distinguished so much by
the things themselves that are inflicted, as by the condition of the persons on
whom they are inflicted, and especially by the affection and intention of God
that inflicts them. For all, whether public calamities that light upon whole
nations, cities, or other greater or lesser societies of men (such as are
pestilences, famine, war, inundations, unseasonable weather), and the like for
private afflictions, that light upon particular families or persons, (as
sickness, poverty, disgrace, injuries, death of friends, and the like;)all
these, and whatsoever other of either kind, may undergo a twofold consideration;
in either of which they may not unfitly be termed the judgments of God, though
in different respects.
Now we see the several sorts of God's judgments: which of all
these may we think is here meant? If we should take them all in, the conclusion
would hold them, and hold true too. Judicia oris, and judicia
operis;public and private judgments; those plagues wherewith in fury he
punishes his enemies, and those rods wherewith in mercy he correcteth his
children: most certain it is they are all "right." But yet I conceive those
indicia oris not to be so properly meant in this place; for the exegesis
in the latter part of the verse (wherein what are here called judgments ale
there expounded by troubles) Seemeth to exclude them, and to confine the text in
the proper intent thereof to these judicia operis only; but yet to all
them of what sort soever; public or private, plagues or corrections. Of all
which he pronounces that they are "right; "which is the predicate of the
conclusion: "I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right." Robert
Sanderson.
Verse 75. Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. Mark the
emphasis: he doth not barely acknowledge that God was faithful, though or
notwithstanding he had afflicted him, but faithful in sending the afflictions.
Affliction and trouble are not only consistent with God's love plighted in the
covenant of grace; but they are parts and branches of the new covenant
administration. God is not only faithful notwithstanding afflictions, but
faithful in sending them. There is a difference between these two: the one is
like an exception to the rule, quae firmat regulam in non exceptis:the
other makes it a part of the rule, God cannot be faithful without doing all
things that tend to our good and eternal welfare. The conduct of his providence
is one part of the covenant engagement; as to pardon our sins, and sanctify us,
and give us glory at the last, so to suit his providence as our need and profit
require in the way to heaven. It is an act of his sovereign mercy which he hath
promised to his people, to use such discipline as conduces to their safety. In
short, the cross is not an exception to the grace of the covenant, but a part of
the grace of the covenant.
The cause of all afflictions is sin, therefore justice must be
acknowledged: their end is repentance, and therefore faithfulness must be
acknowledged. The end is not destruction and ruin, so afflictions would be acts
of justice, as upon the wicked; but that we may be fit to receive the promises,
and so they are acts of faithfulness. Thomas Mantel.
Verse 75. Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. That is,
with a sincere intention of doing me good. God thoroughly knows our
constitution, what is noxious to our health, and what may remedy our distempers;
and therefore accordingly disposes to us
Pro jucundis aptissima quaeque
instead of pleasant honey, he sometimes prescribes wholesome
wormwood for us. We are ourselves greatly ignorant of what is conducible to our
real good, and, were the choice of our condition wholly permitted to us, should
make very foolish, very disadvantageous elections.
We should (be sure) all of us embrace a rich and plentiful
estate; when as, God knows, that would make us slothful and luxurious, swell us
with pride and haughty thoughts, encumber us with anxious cares and expose us to
dangerous temptations; would render us forgetful of ourselves and neglectful of
him. Therefore he wisely disposes poverty unto us; poverty, the mother of
sobriety, the nurse of industry, the mistress of wisdom; which will make us
understand ourselves and our dependence on him, and force us to have recourse
unto his help. And is there not reason we should be thankful for the means by
which we are delivered from those desperate mischiefs, and obtain these
excellent advantages?
We should all (certainly) choose the favour and applause of
man: but this, God also knows, would corrupt our minds with vain conceit, would
intoxicate our fancies with spurious pleasure, would tempt us to ascribe
immoderately to ourselves, and sacrilegiously to deprive God of his due honour.
Therefore he advisedly suffers us to incur the disgrace and displeasure, the
hatred and contempt of men: that so we may place our glory only in the hopes of
his favour, and may pursue more earnestly the purer delights of a good
conscience. And doth not this part of divine providence highly merit our thanks?
We would all climb into high places, not considering the
precipices on which they stand, nor the vertiginousness of our own brains: but
God keeps us safe in the humble valleys, allotting to us employments which we
are more capable to manage.
We should perhaps insolently abuse power, were it committed to
us: we should employ great parts on unwieldy projects, as many do, to the
disturbance of others, and their own ruin: vast knowledge would cause us to over
value ourselves and contemn others: enjoying continual health, we should not
perceive the benefit thereof, nor be mindful of him that gave it. A suitable
mediocrity therefore of these things the divine goodness allots unto us, that we
may neither starve for want, nor surfeit with plenty.
In fine, the advantages arising from afflictions are so many,
and so great, that it were easy to demonstrate that we have great reason, not
only to be contented with, but to rejoice in, and to be very thankful for, all
the crosses and vexations we meet with; to receive them cheerfully at God's
hand, as the medicines of our soul, and the condiments of our fortune; as the
arguments of his goodwill, and the instruments of virtue; as solid grounds of
hope, and comfortable presages of future joy unto us. Isaac Barrow.
Verse 75. Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. When a
father disowns and banishes a child, he corrects him no more. So God may let one
whom he intends to destroy go unchastened; but never one with whom he is in
covenant. William S. Plumer.
Verse 75. I know, O Lord, etc.
Yet, Lord, in memory's fondest place
I shrine those seasons sad,
When, looking up, I saw thy face
In kind austereness clad.
I would not miss one sigh or tear,
Heart pang, or throbbing brow:
Sweet was the chastisement severe,
And sweet its memory now.
Yes! let the fragrant scars abide,
Love tokens in thy stead,
Faint shadows of the spear pierced side.
And thorn encompassed Head.
And such thy tender force be still,
When self would swerve or stray,
Shaping to truth the froward will
Along thy narrow way.
--John Henry Newman, 1829.
Verse 76.Let, I pray thee, thy merciful kindness be for my
comfort. In the former verse he acknowledged that the Lord had afflicted
him; now in this he prayeth the Lord to comfort him. This is strange that a man
should seek comfort at the same hand that strikes him: it is the work of faith;
nature will never teach us to do it. "Come, and let us return unto the Lord; for
he hath spoiled, and he will heal us: he hath wounded, and he will bind us up."
Again, we see that the crosses which God lays on his children, are not to
confound, not to consume them; only to prepare them for greater consolations.
With this David sustained himself against Shimei's cursing; "The Lord will look
on my affliction, and do me good for this evil": with this our Saviour comforts
his disciples; "Your mourning shall be turned into joy." As the last estate of
Job was better than his first; so shall the Lord render more to his children at
the last than now at the first he takes from them: let us therefore bear his
cross, as a preparative to comfort. William Cowper.
Verse 76. Let thy merciful kindness be for my comfort.
Several of the preceding verses have spoken of affliction (Ps 119:67,71,75). The
Psalmist now presents his petition for alleviation under it. But of what kind?
He does not ask to have it removed. He does not "beseech the Lord, that it might
depart from him" 2Co 12:8. No. His repeated acknowledgments of the supports
vouchsafed under it, and the benefits he had derived from it, had reconciled him
to commit its measures and continuance to the Lord. All that he needs, and all
that he asks for, is a sense of his "merciful kindness" upon his soul. Thus he
submits to his justice in his accumulated trials, and expects consolation under
them solely upon the ground of his free favour. Charles Bridges.
Verse 76. Let thy merciful kindness, etc. Let me derive my
comfort and happiness from a diffusion of thy love and mercy, kdmh chasdecha, thy exuberant
goodness through my soul. Adam Clarke.
Verse 76. According to thy word unto thy servant. If his
promise did not please him, why did he make it? If our reliance on the promise
did not please him, why did his goodness work it? It would be inconsistent with
his goodness to mock his creature, and it would be the highest mockery to
publish his word, and create a temper in the heart of his supplicant suited to
his promise, which he never intended to satisfy. He can as little wrong his
creature as wrong himself, and therefore he can never disappoint that faith
which after his own methods casts itself into the arms of his kindness, and is
his own workmanship, and calls him author. That goodness which imparted itself
so freely to the irrational creation will not neglect those nobler creatures
that put their trust in him. This renders God a fit object for trust and
confidence. Stephen Charnock.
Verse 76. According to thy word. David had a particular
promise of a particular benefit; to wit, the kingdom of Israel. And this promise
God performed unto him; but his comfort stood not in it; for Saul before him had
the kingdom, but the promises of mercy belonged not to him, and therefore, when
God forsook him, his kingdom could not sustain him. But David here depends upon
the general promises of God's mercy made to his children; wherein he
acknowledgeth a particular promise of mercy made to him. For the general
promises of mercy and grace made in the gospel are by faith made particular to
every believer. William Cowper.
Verse 76. Thy word unto thy servant. Here we may use the
eunuch's question: "Of whom speaketh the prophet this, of himself or of some
other man?" Of himself questionless, under the denomination of God's servant.
But then the question returneth, Is it a word of promise made to himself in
particular, or to God's servants in the general? Some say the former, the
promises brought to him by Nathan. I incline to the latter, and it teacheth us
these three truths:
1. First. That God's servants only are capable of the sweet
effects of his mercy and the comforts of his promises. Who are God's servants?
(1.) Such as own his right and are sensible of his interest in them: "God, whose
I am, and whom I serve" (Ac 28:23). (2.) Such as give up themselves to him,
renouncing all other masters. Renounce we must, for we were once under another
master (Ro 6:17 Mt 6:24 Ro 6:13 1Ch 30:8). (3.) Such as accordingly frame
themselves to do his work sincerely: "serve with my spirit" (Ro 1:9); and, "in
newness of spirit" (Ro 7:6), even as becomes those who are renewed by the
Spirit: diligently (Ac 26:7), and universally (Lu 1:74-75), and wait upon him
for grace to do so (Heb 7:28). These are capable of comfort. The book of God
speaketh no comfort to persons that live in sin, but to God's servants, such as
do not live as if they were at their own disposal, but at God's beck. If he say
go, they go. They give up themselves to be and do what God will have them to be
and do.
2. Secondly. If we have the benefit of the promise, we must thrust
in ourselves under one title or other among those to whom the promise is made;
if not as God's children, yet as God's servants. Then the promise is as sure to
us as if our name were in it.
3. Thirdly. All God's servants have common grounds of comfort:
every one of God's servants may plead with God as David doth. The comforts of
the word are the common portion of God's people. Thomas Manton.
Verse 76. Thy word unto thy servant. Our Master has passed
his word to all his servants that he will be kind to them and they may plead it
with him. Matthew Henry.
Verse 77. Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may
live. If we mark narrowly we shall find that David here seeks another sort
of mercy than he sought before. For first he sought mercy to forgive his sins;
then he sought mercy to comfort him in his troubles; now he seeks mercy to live,
and sin no more. Alas, many seek the first mercy, of remission; and the second
mercy, of consolation in trouble, who are altogether careless of the third
mercy, to live well. It is a great mercy of God to amend thy life: where this is
not, let no man think he hath received either of the former. It is a great mercy
of God, which not only pardons evil that is done, but strengthens us also to
further good that we have not done; and this is the mercy which here David
seeks. William Cowper.
Verse 77. Let thy tender mercies come unto me, etc. The
mercies of God are "tender mercies, "they are the mercies of a father to his
children, nay, tender as the compassion of a mother over the son of her womb.
They "come unto" us, when we are not able to go to them. By them alone we "live"
the life of faith, of love, of joy and gladness. And to such as "delight" in his
law, God will grant these mercies, and this life; he will give them pardon, and,
by so doing, he will give them life from the dead. George Horne.
Verse 77. Let thy tender mercies, etc. Taking the more
literal rendering, the words express high confidence"Thy tender mercies shall
come unto me, and I shall live; for thy law is my delight." Had the believer
nothing but his own deserts to support his plea at the throne of grace, he could
never rise into this high confidence. He goes upon the foundation of the divine
goodness, manifested through the anointed One, and he goes surely. John
Stephen.
Verse 77. Come. Coming to him notes a personal and
effectual application. First. A personal application, as in Ps 119:41; "Let thy
mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation, according to thy word."
David would not be forgotten, or left out or lost in the throng of mankind, when
mercy was distributing the blessing to them. Secondly. Effectual application:
which signifieth, 1. The removal of obstacles and hindrances; 2. The obtaining
the fruits and effects of this mercy.
1. First. The removing of obstacles. Till there be a way made, the
mercy of God cannot come at us; for the way is barricaded and shut up by our
sins: as the Lord maketh a way for his anger (Ps 78:50), by removing the
hindrances, so the Lord maketh way for his mercy, or mercy maketh way for
itself, when it removeth the obstruction. Sin is the great hindrance of mercy.
We ourselves raise the mists and the clouds which intercept the light of God's
countenance; we build up the partition wall which separates between God and us;
yet mercy finds the way.
2. Secondly. The obtaining the fruits of mercy...It is not enough
to hear somewhat of God's saving mercies; but we should beg that they may come
unto us, be effectually and sensibly communicated unto us, that we may have
experience of them in our own souls. A man that hath read of honey, or heard of
honey, may know the sweetness of it by guess and imagination; but a man that
hath tasted of honey knoweth the sweetness of it in truth: so, by reading and
hearing of the grace and mercy of God in Christ, we may guess that it is a sweet
thing; but he that hath had an experimental proof of the sweet effects and
fruits of it in his own heart perceives that all which is spoken of God's
pardoning and comforting of sinners is verified in himself. Thomas
Manton.
Verse 77. Thy law is my delight. A child of God, though he
cannot serve the Lord perfectly, yet he serves him willingly; his will is in the
law of the Lord; he is not a pressed soldier, but a volunteer. By the beating of
this pulse we may judge whether there be spiritual life in us or no. David
professes that God's law was his delight; he had his crown to delight in, he had
his music to delight in; but the love he had to God's law did drown all other
delights; as the joy of harvest and vintage exceeds the joy of gleaning.
Thomas Watson.
Verse 78. Let the proud be ashamed, etc. Here is the just
recompense of his pride. He would fain have honour and preeminence, but God will
not give them unto him: he flies shame and contempt, but God shall pour them
upon him. "For they dealt perversely with me without a cause." David complains
of the wicked and false dealing of his enemies against him; and his prayer is
written to uphold us in the like temptation. For Satan is alway like himself,
hating them whom the Lord loveth. He can scarce be worse, lie can never be
better; and therefore with restless malice stirs he up all his cursed
instruments in whom he reigns, to persecute those who are loved and protected of
the Lord. "But I will meditate in thy precepts." David's enemies fought against
him with the weapons of the flesh, wickedness and falsehood: lie withstands them
by the armour of the Spirit; not meeting wickedness with wickedness, and
falsehood with falsehood. For if we fight against Satan with Satan's weapons he
will soon overcome us; but if we put upon us the complete armour of God to
resist him, he shall flee from us. William Cowper.
Verse 78. Let the proud be ashamed. That is, that they may
not prosper or succeed in their attempts; for men are ashamed when they are
disappointed. All their endeavours for the extirpation of God's people are vain
and fruitless, and those things which they have subtilly devised, have not that
effect which they propounded unto themselves. "For they dealt perversely with me
without a cause." The Septuagint have it aoikwv unjustly. Ainsworth readeth, "With falsehood
they have depraved me." It implies two things: first, that they pretended a
cause; but, secondly, David avouches his innocency to God; and so, without any
guilt of his, they accused, defamed, condemned his actions, as is usual in such
cases. When the proud are troublesome and injurious to God's people the saints
may boldly commend their cause to God...The Lord may be appealed unto upon a
double account; partly, as he is an enemy to the proud, and as a friend to the
humble (Jas 4:6 Ps 138:6); partly, as he is the portion of the afflicted and
oppressed (Ps 140:12). When Satan stirreth up his instruments to hate those whom
the Lord loveth, the Lord will stir up his power to help and defend them. Is not
this a revengeful prayer? Answer, No.
1. First. Because those who pray it are
seeking their own deliverance, that they may more freely serve God by
consequence. Indeed, by God's showing mercy to his people, the pride of wicked
ones is suppressed (Ps 119:134); but mercy is the main object of the prayer.
2. Secondly. As it concerneth his enemies, he expresses it in mild
termsthat they may "be ashamed"; that is, disappointed, in their counsels,
hopes, machinations, and endeavours. And therefore it is not against the persons
of his enemies, but their plots and enterprises. In such cases shame and
disappointment may even do them good, They think to bring in the total
suppression of God's people, but that would harden them in their sins; therefore
God's people desire that he would not let their innocency be trampled upon, but
disappoint their adversaries, that the proud may be ashamed in the failing of
their attempts.
3. Thirdly. The prayers of the righteous for the overthrow of the
wicked, are a kind of prophecies; so that, in praying, David doth in effect
foretell, that such as dealt perversely should soon be ashamed, since a good
cause will not always be oppressed: "But he shall appear to your joy, and they
shall be ashamed" (Isa 66:5).
4. Fourthly. Saints have a liberty to imprecate vengeance, but
such as must be used sparingly and with great caution: "Let them be confounded
and consumed that are adversaries to my soul" (Ps 71:13). Malicious enemies may
be expressly prayed against. Thomas Manton.
Verse 78. Let the proud be ashamed. This suggests a word
to the wicked. Take heed that by your implacable hatred to the truth and church
of God you do not engage her prayers against you. These imprecatory prayers of
the saints, when shot at the right mark, and duly put up, are murdering pieces,
and strike dead where they light. "Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry
day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will
avenge them speedily." Lu 18:7-8. They are not empty words as the imprecations
of the wicked poured into the air, and there vanishing with their breath but
are received into heaven, and shalt be sent back with thunder and lightning upon
the pates of the wicked. David's prayer unravelled Ahithopel's fine spun policy,
and twisted his halter for him. The prayers of the saints are more to be feared
as once a great person said and feltthan an army of twenty thousand men in the
field. Esther's fast hastened Haman's ruin, and Hezekiah's against Sennacherib
brought his huge host to the slaughter, and fetched an angel from heaven to do
the execution in one night upon them. William Gumall.
Verse 78. The proud. The wicked, especially the
persecutors of God's people, are usually characterized by this term in this
psalm, "the proud" (Ps 119:51,69,122). Pride puts wicked men upon being
troublesome and injurious to the people of God. But why are the persecutors and
the injurious called "the proud"?
1. Because wicked men shake off the yoke of
God, and will not be subject to their Maker, and therefore desist not from
troubling his people: "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let
Israel go"? (Ex 5:2). What was in his tongue, is in all men's hearts; they
contemn God and his laws. Every sin hath a degree of pride, and a deprecation of
God included in it, (2Sa 12:9).
2. Because they are drunk with worldly felicity,
and never think of changes. "Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of
those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud" (Ps 123:4). When men
go on prosperously, they are apt wrongfully to trouble others, and then to flout
at them in their misery, and to despise the person and cause of God's people,
which is a sure effect of great arrogancy and pride. They think they may do what
they please: "They have no changes; therefore they fear not God, "and put forth
their hands against such as be at peace with them (Ps 60:19-20): whilst they go
on prosperously and undisturbed, they cannot abstain from violence and
oppression.
3. Because they affect a life of pomp, and ease, and carnal
greatness, and so despise the affliction, and meanness, and simplicity of God's
people. The false church hath usually the advantage of worldly power and
external glory; and the true church is known by the Divine power, gifts and
graces, and the lustre of holiness.
4. They are called "proud, "because of their
insolent carriage towards the Lord's people; partly in their laws and
injunctions, requiring them to give them more honour, respect, and obedience,
than in conscience can be afforded them; as Haman would have Mordecai to devote
himself to him after the manner of the Persians (Es 3:5). Condensed from
Manton.
Verse 78.When any of you, says Caesarius, "is singing the
verse of the Psalm where it is said, Let the proud be put to shame, let
him be earnest to avoid pride, that he may escape everlasting shame."
William Kay.
Verse 78. But I will meditate in thy precepts. He
repeateth the same thing often, and surely if the world could not contain the
books that might be written of Christ, and yet for our infirmity the Lord hath
comprised them in such a few books, and yet one thing in them is often repeated,
it showeth that the matter is weighty, and of us duly and often to be
considered. And again we are taught that this is a thing that none do so
carefully look unto as they ought. And he showeth that as his enemies sought by
evil means to hurt him; so he sought to keep a good conscience, that so they
might not hurt him. Then we must not set policy against policy nor cretizare
rum Cretensibus;but let us always tend to the word, and keep within the
bounds of that, and fight with the weapons that it lendeth us...If we would give
over ourselves to God and his word, and admit nothing but that which agreeth to
the word, then should we be made wiser than our enemies. Richard
Greenham.
Verse 78. I will meditate in thy precepts. The verb tyva, asiach, in the
second clause of the verse, may be rendered, "I will speak of, "as well as, "I
will reiterate upon"; implying, that, when he had obtained the victory, he would
proclaim the goodness of God, which he had experienced. To speak of God's
statutes, is equivalent to declaring out of the law how faithfully he guards his
saints, how securely he delivers them, and how righteously he avenges their
wrongs. John Calvin.
Verse 78. Meditate. Truths lie hid in the heart without
efficacy or power, till improved by deep, serious, and pressing thoughts...A
sudden carrying a candle through a room, giveth us not so full a survey of the
object, as when you stand a while beholding it. A steady contemplation is a
great advantage. Thomas Manton.
Verse 79. Let those that fear thee turn unto me. Some
think it intimates that when David had been guilty of that foul sin in the
murder of Uriah, though he was a king, they that feared God grew strange to him,
and turned from him, for they were ashamed of him; this troubled him, and
therefore he prays, Lord, let them "turn to me" again. He desires especially the
company of those that were not only honest but intelligent, "that have known thy
testimonies, "have good heads as well as good hearts, and whose conversation
will be edifying. It is desirable to have an intimacy with such. Matthew
Henry.
Verse 79. Let those that fear thee turn unto me, etc. As
he had not his own flesh to fight against only, but the world also, so he did
not only himself fight, but he seeketh the help of others. When many see that
religion cannot be truly professed but danger will come of it, because many set
themselves against it, they flee from it, and go to the greater pair, which is
the wicked. If we will avoid this, let us join ourselves to God's children, and
they will help us with counsel and advice; for one may be strong when we are
weak, another may have counsel when we shall not know what to do; therefore by
them we shall be kept from many evil things. So Paul (2Ti 1:16), after he had
complained of the wrong that many had done unto him, he straightway giveth
thanks for the family of Onesiphorus, which refreshed him more than all his
enemies could discourage him; so that he durst oppose this one household to the
whole rabble of the wicked. Richard Greenham.
Verse 79. Let those that fear thee, etc. You must go to
God and beseech him to choose your company for you. Mark what David said and
did; in Ps 119:63 he saith, "I am a companion of all them that fear the Lord";
yet in this verse he goes to God, and prayeth, saying, "Let those that fear
thee, O Lord, turn unto me, and those that have known thy testimonies." As if he
should say, "Of a truth, Lord, I am a companion of all that do fear thee; but it
is not in my power to bend their hearts unto me; the hearts of all men are in
thy hands", now therefore "let those that fear thee turn unto me." So do you go
to God, and say likewise: Lord, do thou choose my company for me; oh, do thou
bow and incline their hearts to be my companions. William Bridge.
Verse 79. Those that fear. "Those that have known. "Fear
and knowledge do make up a godly man. Knowledge without fear breeds presumption;
and fear without knowledge breeds superstition; and blind zeal, as a blind
horse, may be full of mettle, but is ever and anon stumbling. Knowledge must
direct fear, and fear must season knowledge; then it is a happy mixture and
composition. Thomas Manton.
Verse 79. One great means to restore a good understanding
among God's people is prayer. David goeth to God about it: "Lord, let them turn
to me." The Lord governs hearts and interests, both are in his hands, and he
useth their alienation or reconciliation, either for judgment or mercy. God,
when he pleaseth, can divert from us the comfort of godly friends; and when he
pleaseth, he can bring them back again to us. The feet of God's children are
directed by God himself; if they come to us, it is a blessing of God; if not, it
is for a correction. He made Jacob and Laban meet peaceably (Genesis 30), and in
the next chapter, Jacob and Esau. Thomas Manton.
Verse 80. Let my heart be sound. What is a sound heart? It
notes reality and solidity in grace. The Septuagint hath it, Let my heart be
without spot and blemish. It implies the reality of grace, opposed to the bare
form of godliness, or the fair shows of hypocrites, and the sudden and vanishing
motions of temporaries.
If you would have me unfold what this sound heart is, there is
required these four things:
1. An enlightened understanding; that is, the directive part of
the soul; and it is sound when it is kept free from the leaven and contagion of
error: "A man of understanding walketh uprightly, " Pr 15:21. A sound mind is a
good help to a sound heart.
2. There is required an awakened conscience, that warns of our
duty, and riseth up in dislike of sin upon all occasions: "When thou goest, it
shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou
awakest, it shall talk with thee" (Pr 6:22): to have a constant monitor in our
bosoms to put us in mind of God, when our reins preach to us in the night season
(Ps 16:7): there is a secret spy in our bosoms that observes all that we do, and
think, and speak; a domestic chaplain, that is always preaching to us. His heart
is his Bible.
3. There is required a rightly disposed will, or a steadfast
purpose to walk with God in all conditions, and to do what is good and
acceptable in his sight: "He exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they
would cleave unto the Lord, "Ac 6:23. Many have light inclinations, or wavering
resolutions; but their hearts are not fixedly, habitually bent to please God;
therein chiefly lieth this sound heart, that it doth inseparably cleave to God
in all things.
4. There is required that the affections be purged and
quickened: these are the vigorous motions of the will, and therefore this must
be heedfully regarded; purged they must be from that carnality and fleshliness
that cleaveth to them. This is called in Scripture the circumcision of the heart
(De 30:6). Condensed from Manton.
Verse 80. Let my heart be sound. "A sound mind in a sound
body, " was the prayer of a heathen, and his desire was according to the extent
of his knowledge; but a heart sound in God's statutes, sound to the very core,
with no speck, nor spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing, and like the king's
daughter, "all glorious within." this is what the Psalmist prays for, this is
what every child of God aims at, and prays for too, "Even as He is pure."
Barton Bouchier.
Verse 80. Let my heart be sound.
True hearted, wholehearted, faithful and loyal,
King of our lives, by thy grace will we be!
Under thy standard, exalted and royal,
Strong in thy strength, we will battle for thee!
True hearted, wholehearted! Fullest allegiance
Yielding henceforth to our glorious King;
Valiant endeavour and loving obedience
Freely and joyously now would we bring.
True hearted, Saviour, thou knowest our story;
Weak are the hearts that we lay at thy feet,
Sinful and treacherous! yet for thy glory,
Heal them, and cleanse them from sin and deceit.
Wholehearted! Saviour, beloved and glorious,
Take thy great power, and reign thou alone,
Over our wills and affections victorious,
Freely surrendered, and wholly thine own.
Half hearted! false hearted! Heed we the warning!
Only the whole can be perfectly true;
Bring the whole offering, all timid thought scorning,
True hearted only if wholehearted too.
Half hearted! Saviour, shall aught be withholden,
Giving thee part who has given us all?
Blessings outpouring, and promises golden
Pledging, with never reserve or recall.
Half hearted! Master, shall any who know thee
Grudge thee their lives, who hast laid down thine own?
Nay; we would offer the hearts that we owe thee, --
Live for thy love and thy glory alone.
Sisters, dear sisters, the call is resounding,
Will ye not echo the silver refrain,
Mighty and sweet, and in gladness abounding, --
"True hearted, wholehearted!" ringing again?
Jesus is with us, his rest is before us,
Brightly his standard is waving above.
Brothers, dear brothers, in gathering chorus,
Peal out the watchword of courage and love!
Peal out the watchword, and silence it never,
Song of our spirits, rejoicing and free!
"True hearted, wholehearted, now and for ever,
King of our lives, by thy grace we will be!"
--Frances Ridley
Havergal (1836-1879) in "Loyal Responses."
Verse 80.Let my heart be sound, etc. This is a plain
difference between a sound heart and a false heart; in the receiving of Christ
the sound heart receives him as a favourite receives a prince, he gives up all
to him, and lets him have the command of all. A mere innkeeper entertains him
that comes next to him; he will take any man's money, and will give welcome to
any man; if it be the worst man that comes he cares not, for he loves gain above
all things. Not so the good heart; he welcomes Christ alone, and resigns up all
to Christ. Whatsoever is pleasing to Christ he will do it, and whatsoever comes
from Christ he will welcome. Thomas Hooker (1586-1647) in "The
Soules Implantation."
Verse 80. Be sound. Heb. Be perfect; as the word from the
same root is rendered in Job 1:1. Dr. R. Young gives as the meaning of the word
as used by the Psalmist, whole, complete, plain. Verse 80. Sound in thy statutes,
etc. Though an orthodox
creed does not constitute true religion, yet it is the basis of it and it is a
great blessing to have it. Nicolson, quoted by W. S. Plumer.
Verse 80.If you would be faithful to Christ, be sincere
in your profession of him, make David's prayer and desire to be yours: "Let my
heart be sound in thy statutes; that I be not ashamed." Religion which is begun
in hypocrisy will certainly end in apostasy, and this always carries with it
reproach and ignominy. William Spurstowe (1666)
Verse 80. Ashamed. We may be ashamed either before God or
men, ourselves or others.
1. Before God: either in our addresses to him at the throne of
grace, or when summoned to appear at the last day before the tribunal of his
justice.
(a) If you understand it of our approach to him, we cannot come
into his presence with confidence if we have not a sound heart. "If our heart
condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God": 1Jo 3:21. We lose that holy
familiarity and cheerfulness, when we are unbosoming ourselves to our heavenly
Father, when our hearts are not sound.
(b) When we are summoned to appear before the tribunal of his
justice. Many, now, with a bold impudence, will obtrude themselves upon the
worship of God, because they see him not, and have not a due sense of his
majesty; but the time will come, when the most impudent and outbraving sinners
will be astonished, even then when the secrets of all hearts shall be laid open
and made manifest, and hidden things brought to light (1Co 4:5); and every one
is to receive his judgment from God according to what he hath done, either good
or evil.
2. Before men man may be ashamed, and so before ourselves and
others.
(a) Ourselves. It was a saying of Pythagoras, Reverence
thyself; be not ashamed of thyself. God hath a spy and deputy within us, and
taketh notice of our conformity and unconformity to his will, and, after sin
committed, lashes the soul with the sense of its own guilt and folly, as the
body is lashed with stripes: "What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye
are now ashamed?" Ro 6:21.
(b) Before others. And so our shame may be occasioned by our
scandals, or our punishments; it is hard to say which is intended here.
Condensed from Manton.
Verses 81-89. The eleventh letter, Caph,
signifies the hollowed hand. The expositors, however, looking only to the
meaning curved, which is but half of its import, explain the section as
signifying the act of bowing down in penitence, or as noting that the fathers of
the Old Testament were like veteran soldiers, stooping with years and toil, and
bowed down yet further by the heavy weight of the law, only removable by that
coming of Christ for which they prayed. Others extend the notion to the saints
of the church, weighed down by the sorrows and cares of this life, and therefore
desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ. The true meaning is to be sought
in the full interpretation of the word; for the hand is hollowed either in order
to retain something which actually lies in it, or to receive something about to
be placed in it by another. Thus the hand may be God's, as the giver of bounty,
or man's, as the receiver of it; and the whole scope of the section, as a prayer
for speedy help, is that man holds out his hand as a beggar, supplicating the
mercy of God. Jerome, Ambrose, and others, in Neale and
Littledale.
Verse 81. My soul fainteth for thy salvation. The word
here rendered "fainteth" is the same that in Ps 73:26 is translated "faileth":
"My flesh and my heart faileth". The idea is, that his strength gave way; he had
such an intense desire for salvation that he became weak and powerless. Any
strong emotion may thus prostrate us; and the love of God, the desire of his
favour, the longing for heaven, may be so intense as to produce this result.
Albert Barnes.
Verse 81. My soul fainteth. Fainting is proper to the
body, but here it is ascribed to the soul; as also in many other places. The
Apostle saith, "Lest ye be wearied, and faint in your minds" (Heb 7:3); where
two words are used, weariness and fainting, both taken from the body. Weariness
is a lesser, fainting is a higher degree of deficiency: in weariness, the body
requireth some rest or refreshment, when the active power is weakened, and the
vital spirits and principles of motion are dulled; but, in fainting, the vital
power is contracted, and retires, and leaveth the outward parts lifeless and
senseless. When a man is wearied, his strength is abated; when he fainteth, he
is quite spent. These things, by a metaphor, are applied to the soul, or mind. A
man is weary, when the fortitude of his mind, his moral or spiritual strength,
is broken, or begins to abate, when his soul sits uneasy under sufferings; but
when he sinks under the burden of grievous, tedious, or long affliction, then he
is said to faint, when all the reasons and grounds of his comfort are quite
spent, and he can hold out no longer. Thomas Manton.
Verse 81. My soul fainteth. What is this fainting but the
lofty state of raptured contemplation in which the strength of heavenly
affections weakens those of earth. Just as the ascent into the highest mountains
causes a new respiration, as when Daniel had a great vision from God, he tells
us "he fainted and was sick certain days." E. Paxton Hood, 1871.
Verse 81. My soul fainteth for thy salvation; but I hope.
Believe under a cloud, and wait for him when there is no moonlight nor
starlight. Let faith live and breathe, and lay hold of the sure salvation of
God, when clouds and darkness are about you, and appearance of rotting in the
prison before you. Take heed of unbelieving hearts, which can father lies upon
Christ. Beware of "Doth his promise fail for evermore?" for it was a man, and
not God said it. Who dreameth that a promise of God can fail, fall a swoon, or
die? Who can make God sick, or his promises weak? When we are pleased to seek a
plea with Christ, let us plead that we hope in him. O stout word of faith,
"Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him!" O sweet epitaph, written upon the
gravestone of a departed believer, namely,
"I died hoping, and my dust and ashes believe in life!" Faith's
eyes, that can see through a millstone, can see through a gloom of God, and
under it read God's thoughts of love and peace. Hold fast Christ in the dark;
surely ye shall see the salvation of God. Your adversaries are ripe and dry for
the fire. Yet a little while, and they shall go up in a flame; the breath of the
Lord, like a river of brimstone, shall kindle about them. Samuel
Rutherford, 1600-1601.
Verse 81. For thy salvation. Understood in a higher sense,
the holy man longs for the coming of the Saviour in the flesh. Cornelius
Jansen.
Verse 81. Thy salvation. A believer in God, how afflicted
so ever lie be, seeketh not to be delivered but in a way allowed by God; "My
soul fainteth for thy salvation"; or, till thou deliver me in thy good way.
David Dickson.
Verse 81. I hope in thy word. David knew where he moored
his ship. Hope without a promise is like an anchor without ground to helot by;
but David's hope fixed itself upon the divine word. William Gurnall.
Verse 81. I hope in thy word: ie. I hope beyond anything I
understand, and beyond anything I can possibly do, and beyond anything I
deserve, and beyond all carnal and spiritual consolations, for I desire and look
for Thee only I seek Thee, not Thine: I long to hear "Thud word, "that I may
obey it in patience and meekness. Le Blanc.
Verses 81, 83. It is good in all times of persecution or
affliction to have an eve both on the promises and on the precepts; for the
looking to the promise doth encourage to hope, and the eyeing of tim precepts
doth prove the hope to be sound. The Psalmist hoped in the word (Ps 119:81), and
(Ps 119:88), he forgot not the statutes. David Dickson.
Verse 82. Mine eyes fail for thy word. Has a mother
promised to visit her son or daughter? should she not be able to go, the remark
of the son or daughter will be: "Alas! my mother promised to come to me: how I
have I been looking for her? But a speck has grown on my eye. I cannot see, my
eyes have failed me"; that is, by looking so intensely for coming. Joseph
Roberts.
Verse 82. Mine eyes fail for thy word. He was continuously
lifting eyes to heaven, looking for help from God. He was so perpetually this,
that at length the eyes themselves became dim. When wilt thou comfort me? He was saying this in his heart;
he was saying this with his mouth; he was saying the same thing with his eyes
perpetually looking up to heaven. Wolfgang Musculus.
Verse 82.For thy word. The children of God make more of a
mise than others do; and that upon a double account: partly, because value the
blessing promised; partly, because they are satisfied with assurance given by
God's word; so that, whereas others pass by these thin with a careless eye,
their souls are lifted up to the constant and earnest petition of the blessing
promised. It is said of the hireling, that he have his wages before the sun go
down, because he is poor and hath set heart upon it (De 24:15); or, as it is in
the Hebrew, lifted up his to it, meaning thereby both his desire and hope. He
esteemeth his for it is the solace of his labours, and the maintenance of his
life; and assuredly expects it, upon the promise and covenant of him who him who
setteth him awork. So it is with the children of God; they esteem the blessing
promised, and God's word giveth them good assurance that they do wait upon him
in vain. Thomas Manton
Verse 82. Saying, When. The same spirit of faith which
teaches man to cry earnestly, teaches him to wait patiently; for as it assures
that mercy is in the Lord's hand, so it assures him, it will come forth in
Lord's time. John Mason, 1688.
Verse 82. When wilt thou comfort me? It is a customable
manner of God's working with his children, to delay the answer to their;
prayers, and to suspend the performance of his promises: not because he is
unwilling to give, but because he will have them better prepared to receive.
Tardins dando qued pettimus instantia nobis orationis indicit:he
is slow to give that which we seek, that we should not seek slowly, but may be
awakened to instancy and fervency in prayer, which he knows to be the service
most acceptable unto him, and most profitable unto ourselves. William
Cowper.
Verse 82. When wilt thou comfort me? Let us complain not
of God, but to God. Complaints of God give a vent to murmuring; but complaints
to God, to faith, hope, and patience. Thomas Manton.
Verse 82. The prophet, to prevent it from being supposed
that he was too effeminate and faint hearted, intimates that his fainting was
not without cause. In asking God, "When wilt thou comfort me?" he shows, with
sufficient plainness, that he was for a long time, as it were, east off and
forsaken. John Calvin.
Verse 82. When wilt thou comfort me? The people of God are
sometimes very disconsolate, and need comforting, through the prevalence of sin,
the power of Satan's temptations, the hiding of God's face, and a variety of
afflictions, when they apply to God for comfort, who only can comfort them, and
who has set times to do it; but they are apt to think it long, and inquire, as
David here, when it will be. John Gill.
Verse 82. When wilt thou comfort me? A poor woman had been
long time questioning herself, and doubting of her salvation; when at last the
Lord made it good unto her soul that Christ was her own, then her minister said
unto her, The Lord will not always give his children a cordial, but he hath it
ready for them when they are fainting. Thomas Hooker.
Verse 82. When wilt thou comfort me? Comfort is necessary
because a great part of our temptations lies in troubles, as well as
allurements. Sense of pain may discompose us as well as pleasure entice us. The
world is a persecuting as well as a tempting world. The flesh troubleth as well
as enticeth. The Devil is a disquieting as well as an ensnaring Devil. But yet
comfort, though necessary, is not so necessary as holiness: therefore, though
comfort is not to be despised, yet sincere love to God is to be preferred, and,
though it be not dispensed so certainly, so constantly, and in so high a degree,
in this world, we must be contented. The Spirit's comforting work is oftener
interrupted than the work of holiness; yet so much as is necessary to enable us
to serve God in this world, we shall assuredly receive. Thomas Manton.
Verse 83. A bottle in the smoke. Sleep was out of the
question, for I was...almost smothered with the smoke from a wood fire, for
there was no chimney. I was indeed "like a bottle in the smoke, " turned black
and dried almost to cracking; for this was something of what the Psalmist had in
view. The bottles being of leather, and being hung up in rooms with large fires
of wood, and without chimneys, they became smoke-dried, shrivelled, and unfit
for use. From "My Wanderings", by John Gadby, 1860.
Verse 83. Like a bottle in the smoke. The tent of a common
Arab is so smoky a habitation, that I consider the expression of a bottle in the
smoke, to be equivalent to that of a bottle in the tent of an Arab. There was a
fire, we find, in that Arab tent to which Bishop Peteeke was conducted when he
was going to Jerusalem. How smoky must such an habitation be, and how black all
its utensils! Le Bruyn in going from Aleppo to Standcroon was made sufficiently
sensible of this: for being obliged to pass a whole night in a hut of reeds, in
the middle of which there was a fire, to boil a kettle of meat that hung over
it, and to bake some bread among the ashes, he found the smoke intolerable, the
door being the only place by which it could get out of the hut. To the blackness of a goat skin bottle, in a tent, but to the
meanness also of such a drinking vessel, the Psalmist seems to refer, and it was
a most natural image for him to make use of, driven from among the vessels of
silver and gold in the palace of Saul, to live as the Arabs do and did, and
consequently often obliged to drink out of a smoked leather bottle. Thomas
Harmer, 1719-1788.
Verse 83.For I am become like a bottle in the smoke. A
bottle in the smoke has very little inflation, fatness, moisture, beauty. Thus
God wastes away, debases, and empties his people, while he exercises them with
tribulations and the disquiet of hoping and waiting. The glory and eagerness of
the flesh must be emptied, that the Divine gifts may find room, and the
remembrance of the commandments of God may be restrained, which cannot be well
kept in bottles which are swollen, inflated, and filled. Wolfgang
Musculus.
Verse 83. A bottle in the smoke. One object amongst the
ancients of such exposure was to mellow the wine by the gradual ascent of the
heat and smoke from the fire over which the skin was suspended; and thus the
words teach us the uses of affliction in ripening and improving the soul.
Rosenmuller, quoted in Neale and Littledale.
Verse 83. For I am become like a bottle in the smoke, etc.
Satan can afflict the body by the mind. For these two are so closely bound
together that their good and bad estate is shared between them. If the heart be
merry the countenance is cheerful, the strength is renewed, the bones do
flourish like an herb. If the heart be troubled, the health is impaired, the
strength is dried up, the marrow of the bones wasted, etc. Grief in the heart is
like a moth in the garment, it insensibly consumeth the body and disorders it.
This advantage of weakening the body falls into Satan's hands by necessary
consequence, as the prophet's ripe figs, that fell into the mouth of the eater.
And surely he is well pleased with it, as he is an enemy both to body and soul.
But it is a greater satisfaction to him, in that as he can make the sorrows of
the mind produce the weakness and sickness of the body; so can he make the
distemper of the body (by a reciprocal requital) to augment the trouble of the
mind. How little can a sickly body do? it disables a man for all services; he
cannot, oft pray, nor read, nor hear. Sickness takes away the sweetness and
comfort of religious exercises; this gives occasion for them to think the worst
of themselves; they think the soul is weary of the ways of God when the body
cannot hold out. Richard Gilpin, in "A Treatise of Satan's
Temptations," 1677.
Verse 83. Like a bottle in the smoke. In this did the
afflicted Psalmist find a striking emblem of his own spiritual state. He waited
for the Lord to come. In spirit he was dried up by pressure upon him; and he
still waited for the Lord to come, declaring his shrivelled condition. Perhaps
his outward man partook of the same sad qualities at this time... The outward
appearance of the man of God, to which he may be alluding, was, however, but the
semblance of his spiritual nature at this period, whatever may have been the
visible effects. David was exposed to the calumnious reports of evil minded men,
and to the hot persecution of relentless enemies, till the effect upon his mind
was such that his whole spiritual nature resembled, in his own mind, a skin hung
up in the smoke for a length of time. Not only was he shrivelled in public
estimation, but also in his own mind; not indeed because at this time, and on
the ground of the charges made against him, he felt that he deserved it; but
because so incessant and multifarious was the bitter invasion of his spirit,
that even with all his faith in God, he well nigh literally sunk under it. The
term given in our translation to the original would imply, that he bore himself
well notwithstanding--For I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do not forget
thy statutes. Whereas the words rendered more literally would convey
the important all this happened to him even while he was in the very way of
duty: "I am become like a bottle in the smokeI do not forget thy statutes." He
was directly in the way of the Lord's appointments for all salvation; yet
trouble came. It is sad when our spiritual man becomes shrivelled and dried up
because of our falling into sin, or because of guilty omissions; but here seems
to be a falling off of the spiritual man, and of the physical man, while the
believer is conscious that he is not forgetting the statutes of his gracious
God. John Stephen.
Verse 83. Observe here the difference between the beauty
and strength of the body and of the soul: the beauty of the soul groweth fairer
by afflictions, whereas that of the body is blasted. David was a bottle
shrivelled and shrunk up; yet the holy frame of his soul was not altered; his
beauty was gone, but not his grace. Thomas Manton.
Verse 83. I am become like a bottle in the frost (so the
Seventy translate it). When spiritual desires burn, carnal desires without doubt
cool: on this account followeth, "Since I am become like a bottle in the frost I
do not forget thy righteousnesses." Truly he desireth this mortal flesh to be
understood by the bottle, the heavenly blessing by the frost, whereby the lusts
of the flesh as it were by the binding of the frost become sluggish: and hence
it ariseth that the righteousnesses of God do not slip from the memory, so long
as we do not meditate apart from them; since what the apostle saith (Ro 13:14)
is brought to pass: "Make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts
thereof." Therefore when he had said, "For I have become like a bottle in the
frost, "he added, "and I do not forget thy righteousnesses, "that is, I forget
them not, because I have become such. For the fervour of lust had cooled, that
the memory of love might glow. Augustine.
Verse 84. How many are the days of thy servant? etc. Some
read the two clauses apart, as if the first were a general complaint of the
brevity of human life, such as is to be met with in other Psalms, and more
frequently in the book of Job; and next, in their opinion, there follows a
special prayer of the Psalmist that God would take vengeance upon his enemies.
But I rather prefer joining the two clauses together, and limit both to David's
afflictions; as if it had been said, Lord, how long hast thou determined to
abandon thy servant to the will of the ungodly? when wilt thou set thyself in
opposition to their cruelty and outrage, in order to take vengeance upon them?
The Scriptures often use the word "days" in this sense... By the use of the
plural number is denoted a determinate portion of time, which, in other places,
is compared to the "days of an hireling": Job 14:6; Isa 16:14. The Psalmist does
not, then, bewail in general the transitory life of man, but he complains that
the time of his state of warfare in this world had been too long protracted;
and, therefore, he naturally desires that it might be brought to a termination.
In expostulating with God about his troubles, he does not do so obstinately, or
with a murmuring spirit; but still, in asking how long it will be necessary for
him to suffer, he humbly prays that God would not delay to succour him.
John Calvin.
Verse 84. When wilt thou execute judgment on them that
persecute me? He declares that he does not doubt but that there will
be at some period an end to his afflictions, and that there will be a time in
which his haters and enemies will be judged and punished. He assumes the fact
and therefore enquires the date. Thus in the saints their very impatience of
delay does itself prove their confidence of future salvation and deliverance.
Wolfgang Musculus.
Verse 84. When wilt thou execute judgment, etc. This is an
ordinary prayer, not against any certain persons, but rather generally against
God's enemies and their evil courses. For the Lord executeth judgment upon his
children for their conversion, as Paul (Acts 9), and upon the wicked for their
confusion. He prayeth against them that belonged not to God, and yet not so much
against their persons as their evil causes; and no otherwise against their
persons than as they are joined with the evil causes. Thus we may pray for the
confusion of God's enemies; otherwise we cannot. R. Greenham.
Verse 84. In this verse there is none of the ten words
used in reference to God's law. Adam Clarke. Is not judgment one of
them? C.H.S.
Verse 85. Pits. Hajji said he would tell me a tale or two
about crocodiles, and he would begin by telling me how they catch them
sometimes. A deep pit, he said, is dug by the side of the river, and then
covered with doura straw. The crocodiles fall into these pits, and cannot get
out again... There can be no doubt that formerly pits were dug for the
crocodiles, as Hajji described, as is the case still in some parts of the world
or other animals. To this custom allusion is made in Ps 7:15 9:15 10:2 35:8
141:10 Pr 26:27 Ec 10:8: etc. "He made a pit and digged it, and is fallen into
the ditch which he made." Probably also this was the kind of pit referred to in
Ex 21:33: "If a man shall dig a pit, and not cover it"; i.e., not cover it
effectually; "and an ass or an ox fall therein," etc. Prisoners were sometimes shut up in pits, and left without
water, literally to die of thirst. What a dreadful death! It is said that
nothing can be more terrible. How dreadful must be their groans! John Gadsby.
The proud have digged pits. It seems strange
that a proud man should be a digger of pits; but so it is; for pride for a time
can submit itself to gain a greater vantage over him whom it would tread under
foot. "The wicked is so proud that he seeks not God, yet he croucheth and
boweth, to cause heaps of the poor to fill by his might, "Ps 10:4,10. So proud
Absalom abased himself to meanest subjects that so he might prepare a way to
usurpation over his king and father. But mark, he saith not that he had fallen
into the pits which his enemies had digged. No, no: in God's righteous
judgments, the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands, while the good
escape free. "He made a pit, and digged it, "and is fallen into the ditch which
he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing
shall come down upon his own pate. Ps 7:15-16. Thus Haman hanselled the gallows
which he raised for Mordecai; and Saul, when he thought by subtlety to slay
David with the Philistine's sword (when he sent him out to seek two hundred of
their foreskins in a dowry) was disappointed of his purpose; but he himself at
length was slain by the sword. William Cowper.
Verse 85. Let men beware how they dig pits for others. All
God's word testifies against such wickedness. How many tests are invented simply
for the purpose of entangling men's consciences and furnishing ground for
persecution. William S. Plumer.
Verse 85. Which are not after thy law. Hebrew, Not after
thy law. It may refer to the men or to the practice. The men walk not according
to thy law, and their fraudulent practices are not agreeable to thy law. The law
of God condemned pits for tame beasts: Ex 21:33,84. Though it was lawful for
hunters to take wild beasts, yet they were to take heed that a tame beast fell
not therein, at their petal. Thomas Manton.
Verse 85. Which are not after thy law. After God's law
they could not be while they were doing such things. Perhaps he refers to the
deed more than to the men "The proud have digged pits for me, which is not after
thy law" which is against thy law; and they would seem to do it because it is
against thy lawdelighting in wickedness as they do. Such men would seem to
imbibe the foul spirit which Milton ascribes to the fallen archangel: "Evil, be
thou my good." Obviously, however, the words contain this sentiment, The proud
have sought to overthrow me, because they are not obedient to thy law. Hereupon
he sets their conduct in the light of God's holy commandments, that the
comparison may be made: "All thy commandments are faithful: they persecute me
wrongfully." Whatever the Lord did was done in truth; these men acted against
his servant without cause, and in so doing they also acted in defiance of his
known will. John Stephen.
Verse 85. The wicked have told me fables, but mot as thy
law (So the Septuagint). The special reason why he desires to be freed from
the company of the wicked is, because they always tempt the pious by relating
the pleasures of the world, which are nothing but fables, filthy, fleeting
pleasures, more fallacious than realnothing like the grand and solid pleasure
that always flows from a pious observance of the law of the Lord. Robert
Bellarmine.
Verse 86. All thy commandments are faithful. David setteth
down here three points. The one is that God is true; and after that he addeth a
protestation of his good conduct and guidance, and of the malice of his
adversaries: thirdly, he calleth upon God in his afflictions. Now as concerning
the first, he showeth us that although Satan to shake us, and in the end utterly
to carry us away, subtilly and cunningly goeth about to deceive us, we must, to
the contrary, learn how to know his ambushes, and to keep us from out of them.
So often then as we are grieved with adversity and affliction, where must we
begin? See Satan how he pitches his nets and layeth his ambushes to induce and
persuade us to come into them, what saith he? Dost thou not see thyself forsaken
of thy God? Where are the promises whereunto thou didst trust? Now here thou
seest thyself to be a wretched, forlorn creature. So then thou right well seest
that God hath deceived thee, and that the promises whereunto thou trustedst
appertain nothing at all unto thee. See here the subtlety of Satan. What is now
to be done? We are to conclude with David and say, yet God is true and faithful.
Let us, I say, keep in mind the truth of God as a shield to beat back whatsoever
Satan is able to lay unto our charge. When he shall go about to cause us to deny
our faith, when he shall lie about us to make us believe that God thinketh no
more of us, or else that it is in vain for us to trust unto his promises; let us
know the clean contrary and believe that it is very plain and sound truth which
God saith unto us. Although Satan casteth at us never so many darts, although he
have never so exceeding many devices against us, although now and then by
violence, sometimes with subtlety and cunning, it seemeth in very deed to us
that he should overcome us; nevertheless he shall never bring it to pass, for
the truth of God shall be made sure and certain in our hearts. John
Calvin.
Verse 86. All thy commandments are faithful. The Hebrew is
Faithfulness; that is to say, they are true, sure, equal, infallible. "They have
persecuted me wrongfully:" no doubt for asserting God's truths and commands, and
adhering thereto. John Trapp.
Verse 86. They persecute me wrongfully. There is a stress
on the word falsely (or wrongfully); for that is a true saying of a martyr
saint, "The cause, not the pain, makes the martyr." Wherefore the apostle
teaches us, "Let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief, or as an evil
doer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffer as a
Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf."
Neale and Littledale.
Verse 86. Help thou me. "God help me" is an excellent,
comprehensive prayer; it is a pity it should ever be used lightly and as a
byword. Matthew Henry.
Verse 88. Quicken me after thy lovingkindness. Finally,
the man of God appears entreating to be quickened, that so he may be enabled to
keep the divine testimony... Here is a last resort, but it is a sure one. Let
the living principles of divine grace be imparted to the soul, and the believer
will be raised above dismay at the face of men. How does the spiritual mind
triumph over even the infirmities of the body! We may behold this from the
deathbed of the believer, and we may recall this in the lives and deaths of many
eminent ones. The man of pure mind goes right to the fountain of life. He goes,
with understanding, for he takes in the character in which the Lord hath spoken
of himself: "Quicken me after thy lovingkindness." All at once he lays aside
thought of his enemies; he is present with his God. His desire is to rise into
higher spiritual existence, that he may hold closer communion with the Father of
lights with whom there is no variableness. John Stephen.
Verse 88. Quicken me, etc. He had prayed before, "Quicken
me in thy righteousness" (Ps 119:40); but here "Quicken me after thy
lovingkindness." The surest token of God's goodwill towards us is his good work
in us. Matthew Henry.
Verse 88. Quicken me. Many a time in this psalm doth David
make this petition; and it seems strange that so often he should acknowledge
himself a dead man, and desire God to quicken him. But so it is unto the child
of God: every desertion and decay of strength is a death. So desirous are they
to live unto God, that when they fail in it and find any inability in their
souls to serve God as they would, they account themselves but dead, and pray the
Lord to quicken them. William Cowper.
Verse 88. The testimony of thy mouth. The title here given
to the directory of our duty"The testimony of God's mouth, "gives increasing
strength to our obligations. Thus let every word we read or hear be regarded as
coming directly from the "mouth of God" (Joh 6:63). What reverence what implicit
submission does it demand! May it ever find us in the posture of attention,
humility, and faith! each one of us ready to say, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant
heareth." Charles Bridges.