_The godly profess their confidence in God, and pray to be delivered
from contempt._
A Song of degrees.
Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.
Behold, as the eyes of servants _look_ unto the hand of their masters,
_and_ as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our
eyes _wait_ upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us.
Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly
filled with contempt.
Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at
ease, _and_ with the contempt of the proud.
This Psalm is a fervent prayer against all those secure and proud
despisers of the word of God and its true ministers. And the Gentile
nations were not the only despisers who contemned the whole religion
of the Israelites and the true worship of God, and condemned it as
sedition altogether: but the idolaters and false teachers which were
in the midst of that very people themselves proudly despised and
derided the godly, that little flock of God, and the true prophets; as
Psalms xii. and xiv. complain. And in the same way also our papists
and fanatics now, who seem in their own eyes to be more holy than the
gospel itself, more proudly and contemptuously than any others
despise, trample underfoot, and spit upon all true and good ministers
of the word of God. Not to say anything now about that security and
pride wherein, at this day, even our bishops and priests themselves,
who are more profane than all heathen nations put together, despise
the true word of God. So that we, as the Psalmist saith in its
conclusion, are indeed filled with the derision of the rich and the
contempt of the proud. But may God, (and he will!) regard us, and
glorify his word. Amen.