_David blesseth God for his mercy both to him and to man.—He prayeth
that God would powerfully deliver him from his enemies.—He promiseth
to praise God.—He prayeth for the happy state of the kingdom._
A Psalm of David.
Blessed _be_ the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war,
_and_ my fingers to fight:
My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my
shield, and _he_ in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me.
LORD, what _is_ man, that thou takest knowledge of him! _or_ the son
of man, that thou makest account of him!
Man is like to vanity: his days _are_ as a shadow that passeth away.
Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down: touch the mountains, and they
shall smoke.
Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out thine arrows and
destroy them.
Send thine hand from above; rid me, and deliver me out of great
waters, from the hand of strange children;
Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand _is_ a right hand of
falsehood.
I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon a psaltry _and_ an
instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee.
_It is he_ that giveth salvation unto kings: who delivereth David his
servant from the hurtful sword.
Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth
speaketh vanity, and their right hand _is_ a right hand of falsehood:
That our sons _may be_ as plants grown up in their youth; that our
daughters _may be_ as cornerstones, polished _after_ the similitude of
a palace:
_That_ our garners _may be_ full, affording all manner of store:
_that_ our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our
streets:
_That_ our oxen _may be_ strong to labour; _that there be_ no breaking
in, nor going out; that _there be_ no complaining in our streets.
Happy _is that_ people that is in such a case: _yea_, happy _is that_
people whose God _is_ the LORD.
This is a blessed Psalm of thanksgiving for kings, princes, and all
magistrates. David here, as a king and a magistrate himself, who had
to govern the state and carry on wars, confesses that all prosperous
and happy government, all success at home and abroad, all the arts of
peace, and all victory in war, are the good gifts of God; and that a
man can no more effect these things by human wisdom or strength, or by
any ability of his own, than he can hold the millions of minds of
nations bound unto himself, and make their multitudes obey him alone:
for what could any mortal man do towards preserving whole kingdoms,
and cities, and provinces in quiet from sedition and commotions amid
all the infinite malice of the devil and the world? Every mortal man
would fail, like a vanishing shadow, before the thought of such an
undertaking.
But the God of all majesty, as Isaiah saith, is the Lord of all the
kingdoms and kings of the earth. He, as Daniel saith, removes and
establishes kingdoms. That monarch of heaven and earth also taketh
down one king and sitteth up another. And he it is, who, in the time
of peace, curbs the wills and holds the minds of the multitude, and
stills all civil commotions like the waves of the sea, against all the
raised winds of the devil. And it is the same God also, who, in the
time of war, terrifieth the enemies of a nation, and maketh their
hearts to tremble, when he thunders in the heavens, when he touches
the mountains and great hills of nations and of peoples: he is
terrible; and who can stand before him? When he strikes the hearts of
the enemy with fear, it is easy for us to conquer. But what human
wisdom or power can strike this terror, or do or ordain such mighty
things?
David then prays against the deeds of his own people, and rebukes
their ungodliness. The Israelites, because they had that especial
honour and glory of being the people of God, were above all people of
a stiff-neck; proud, seditious, avaricious, envious, unbelieving, and
disobedient; and all these things they manifested in their conduct to
Moses, to David himself, and to other godly kings. And although they
saw David, in the same manner as Moses before him, with the manifest
presence of God, and with great and divine miracles, governing the
state, and conducting wars successfully, in the midst of the assaults
of enemies on every side; yet falling into pride and security, from a
confidence in their high title, as the people of God; they showed
themselves to be no better than those of their forefathers, of whom
Moses saith, “Ye have always been a rebellious and stiff-necked people
before the Lord, from the day that I first knew you.” For the people
of David were carnally affected and ungodly; and were as if they had
said, ‘Command, and command again, if thou wilt; expect, and expect
still; and why dost thou preach unto us faith, whereas we all the
while continue in affliction? Those whom God favors, and to whom he
shows mercy, he blesses: to them he gives wives, children, riches,
houses, lands, and all things, and happiness in all things; and happy
are the people that are in such a case.’ Nor were false prophets
wanting, to dwell upon temporal promises in their preaching, and to
withstand the true prophets; denying that those were the favorites of
God who were not blessed with temporal prosperities; and saying that
all the saints of God were so blessed.
Against these, therefore, David now most fervently prays, and
encourages himself in heart and in faith by his past experiences of
God’s mercies and deliverances. “If, (saith David,) thou hast
aforetime delivered me from the sword of Goliath, and hast given me
the victory, as thou hast done also unto other kings; so now defend me
from this ungodly, hardened, and unbelieving people; who neither
regard God nor his civil ministers; who care not with what evils a
good king is surrounded in his government, nor what perils of war
prevail, nor what blessings of peace are enjoyed; but are an ignorant
and unfeeling herd; the very dregs and sink of men: yea, very swine,
who regard nothing but their belly; whom it is more difficult to rule,
than to conduct the most fierce and perilous wars.” Exactly like unto
these are some of our nobles and citizens and countrymen now; who, for
the sake of their belly, trample and spit upon all true religion and
good learning; and indeed on all things human and divine.
David here attacks these ungodly ones with a most severe rebuke;
calling them “strange children;” hereby cutting up that glorying of
theirs, wherein they boasted of being the children of Abraham, and the
peculiar people of God: and yet were all the while worse than any
heathen nation, and were false children and strangers; for they
honoured God with their mouth and with their lips, while their heart
was far from him.