_God’s care of the poor.—David complaineth of his enemies’
treachery.—He fleeth to God for succour._
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.
Blessed _is_ he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him
in time of trouble.
The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive; _and_ he shall be
blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of
his enemies.
The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt
make all his bed in his sickness.
I said, LORD, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned
against thee.
Mine enemies speak evil of me; when shall he die, and his name perish?
And if he come to see _me_, he speaketh vanity: his heart gathereth
iniquity to itself; _when_ he goeth abroad, he telleth _it_.
All that hate me whisper together against me: against me do they
devise my hurt.
An evil disease, _say they_, cleaveth fast unto him: and _now_ that he
lieth, he shall rise up no more.
Yea, mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my
bread, hath lift up _his_ heel against me.
But thou, O LORD, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may
requite them.
By this I know that thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth not
triumph over me.
And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me
before thy face for ever.
Blessed _be_ the LORD God of Israel, from everlasting, and to
everlasting. Amen, and Amen.
This Psalm is a prophecy; where, after the manner of the Psalms,
Christ himself speaks, and with a wonderful feeling, complains of his
domestic traitor Judas, and of those cruel dogs which vented their
fury on the poor; by which dogs, he means those that crucified him. He
prays that God would judge his cause, and set him before his face:
that is, that God his father would comfort him in his suffering, and
raise him from the dead; that, being exalted, through the cross and
death, to the right hand of God, he might be glorified with eternal
life and victory.
This is a great and unspeakable consolation to all the godly; where,
in the fourth verse, the Son saith, “heal my soul, for I have sinned
against thee.” He confesses himself to be a sinner before God his
Father, whereas he was without sin, and no guile was found in his
mouth. Here, therefore, he stands as our priest, as a victim and
sacrifice for sin, bearing and suffering for our sins, as if they were
his; and he bore the guilt of them.
In the beginning of the Psalm he comprehends the sum of the whole
matter, in a very powerful expression. “Blessed (saith he) are they
who consider the poor and needy:” that is, blessed, yea, eternally
blessed are they, who are not offended at the once weak, crucified,
and condemned Christ, but who believe the Gospel. For the preaching of
the cross is to the Gentiles foolishness, and to the Jews a
stumbling-block. And it is the greatest of all offences to the world
to preach, teach, or confess, that the once poor, crucified, and
condemned Christ, now sits at the right hand of the divine Majesty,
and that he is on high, the Lord of all, both in this world, and that
which is to come. For with this Christ, that people of the Jews were
so offended, and they so ran upon and stumbled on this rock of
offence, that, to this day, they remain cast out and scattered, and
wander about over all the face of the earth, without a priesthood, and
without a kingdom!