_The grievous estate of the wicked.—The excellency of God’s
mercy.—David prayeth for favour to God’s children._
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord.
The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, _that there is_
no fear of God before his eyes.
For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found
to be hateful.
The words of his mouth _are_ iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to
be wise, _and_ to do good.
He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way _that
is_ not good; he abhorreth not evil.
Thy mercy, O LORD, _is_ in the heavens; _and_ thy faithfulness
_reacheth_ unto the clouds.
Thy righteousness _is_ like the great mountains; thy judgments _are_ a
great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast.
How excellent _is_ thy loving-kindness, O God! therefore the children
of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.
They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and
thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.
For with thee _is_ the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see
light.
O continue thy loving-kindness unto them that know thee; and thy
righteousness to the upright in heart.
Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the
wicked remove me.
There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and
shall not be able to rise.
This is a Psalm containing a very necessary doctrine, and marks
whereby heretics, false-teachers, and fanatical spirits may be
discovered. And in the end he begs of God with a wonderful fervency
that he may be guarded against all these pestilences. And after he had
at the beginning of the Psalm exactly described these characters in
their own colours, he takes courage, in the middle, himself, and
comforts all those that fear God; and tells them, that, although Satan
by his instruments roars and rages against the church, yet, that the
word of God shall remain and the kingdom of God stand unmoved, against
all the violence of Satan, and against the power of all the kingdoms
of the world.
“Thy righteousness (says David) is like the great mountains: and thy
judgments are a great deep;” that is, as the rocks and mountains which
God has fixed, no power can overthrow;—and as the great deeps of the
sea are inexhaustible, so, thy word O Lord stands firm, and no human
power can overthrow or subvert the truth: and although all the gates
of hell and all the attempts of men and devils should set themselves
against thy word and will, yet with thee is the fountain of life; that
is, in thy house, where thou dwellest by the word in the midst of
enemies: that fountain and river of life will still remain; that is,
this word of thine, whereby afflicted consciences will be raised up
and revived.
And here, if any where, the prophet expressively describes those false
teachers. He _first_ of all breaks out against such, with the most
fervent zeal at the beginning of the Psalm. ‘Certainly, (saith he) if
there be any set of men, evil men, these are of all the worst: for
they are men of an abandoned impudence, virulent, and destitute of the
fear of God, and of faith in him; they are secure despisers of God and
religion; they are proud, arrogant, precipitate, audacious, and
prepared for every thing that is bad.’
In the _next_ place, they approve and commend no one but themselves.
They hate all others most bitterly, and traduce and defame them: they
excel in this one thing only,—in adorning and setting off themselves,
in using boasted self-praising words, in contemptuously despising
others, and in arrogating to themselves only the spirit and worship of
God, and the appellation of the true church.
In the _third_ place, their doctrines are most pernicious, and filled
with lies: for they fight against the doctrine of faith and of grace,
and deceive men by their outside daubing, and their hypocrisy.
In the _fourth_ place, they are rashly precipitate, and will endure no
monitor; for they are harder than any iron or any adamant: and if you
do not applaud all they say and all they do, they immediately rage and
make a tumult with all the fury of Satan.
In the _fifth_ place, they go out and diffuse their doctrines as
widely as possible; and their speech, as Paul saith, eateth like a
canker. For, for the most part, such men have an audacity above all
sincere and good men, and a determinate spirit to accomplish all their
own purposes; and they are restless, vehement, hot-headed, and so
furiously and wickedly aim at the accomplishment of their own
purposes, that you would think they would overturn everything else.
And _lastly_, they hostilely persecute all those who do not subscribe
to their creed. And all these enormities they perpetrate with a
wonderfully unconcerned and insensible security; as if they were all
the time pleasing God and doing him service.