Search Scripture through, and you must, if you read it with a candid
mind, be persuaded that the doctrine of salvation by grace alone is
the great doctrine of the word of God: “_Salvation belongeth unto
the Lord._” This is a point concerning which we are daily fighting.
Our opponents say, “Salvation belongeth to the free will of man; if
not to man’s merit, yet at least to man’s will;” but we hold and
teach that salvation from first to last, in every iota of it,
belongs to the Most High God. It is God that chooses his people.
_He_ calls them by his grace; _he_ quickens them by his Spirit, and
keeps them by his power. It is not of man, neither by man; “not of
him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy.” May we all learn this truth experimentally, for our proud
flesh and blood will never permit us to learn it in any other way.
In the last sentence the peculiarity and speciality of salvation are
plainly stated: “_Thy blessing is upon thy people._” Neither upon
Egypt, nor upon Tyre, nor upon Nineveh; thy blessing is upon thy
chosen, thy blood-bought, thine everlastingly-beloved people.
“_Selah_:” lift up your hearts, and pause, and meditate upon this
doctrine. “Thy blessing is upon thy people.” Divine, discriminating,
distinguishing, eternal, infinite, immutable love, is a subject for
constant adoration. Pause my soul, at this _Selah_, and consider
thine own interest in the salvation of God; and if by humble faith
thou art enabled to see Jesus as thine by his own free gift of
himself to thee, if this greatest of all blessings be upon thee,
rise up and sing—
“Rise, my soul! adore and wonder!
Ask, ‘O why such love to me?’
Grace hath put me in the number
Of the Saviour’s family:
Hallelujah!
Thanks, eternal thanks to thee.”
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.
_Title._—With regard to the authority of the TITLES, it becomes us to
speak with diffidence, considering the very opposite opinions which have
been offered upon this subject by scholars of equal excellence. In the
present day, it is too much the custom to slight or omit them
altogether, as though added, nobody knows when or by whom, and as, in
many instances, inconsistent with the subject-matter of the Psalm
itself: while Augustine, Theodoret, and various other early writers of
the Christian church, regard them as a part of the inspired text; and
the Jews still continue to make them a part of their chant, and their
rabbins to comment upon them.
It is certainly unknown who invented or placed them where they are: but
it is unquestionable that they have been so placed from time immemorial;
they occur in the Septuagint, which contains also in a few instances
titles to Psalms that are without any in the Hebrew; and they have been
copied after the Septuagint by Jerome. So far as the present writer has
been able to penetrate the obscurity that occasionally hangs over them,
they are a direct and most valuable key to the general history or
subject of the Psalms to which they are prefixed; and, excepting where
they have been evidently misunderstood or misinterpreted, he has never
met with a single instance in which the drift of the title and its
respective Psalm do not exactly coincide. Many of them were, doubtless,
composed by Ezra at the time of editing his own collection, at which
period some critics suppose the whole to have been written; but the rest
appear rather to be coeval, or nearly so, with the respective Psalms
themselves, and to have been written about the period of their
production.—_John Mason Good, M.D., F.R.S., 1854._
_See title._ Here we have the first use of the word _Psalm_. In Hebrew,
_Mizmor_, which hath the signification of pruning, or cutting off
superfluous twigs, and is applied to songs made of short sentences,
where many superfluous words are put away.—_Henry Ainsworth._
Upon this note an old writer remarks, “Let us learn from this, that in
times of sore trouble men will not fetch a compass and use fine words in
prayer, but will offer a prayer which is pruned of all luxuriance of
wordy speeches.”
_Whole Psalm._—Thus you may plainly see how God hath wrought in his
church in old time, and therefore should not discourage yourselves for
any sudden change; but with David, acknowledge your sins to God, declare
unto him how many there be that vex you and rise up against you, naming
you Huguenots, Lutherans, Heretics, Puritans, and the children of
Belial, as they named David. Let the wicked idolators brag that they
will prevail against you and overcome you, and that God hath given you
over, and will be no more your God. Let them put their trust in Absalom,
with his large golden locks; and in the wisdom of Ahithophel, the wise
counsellor; yet say you, with David, “_Thou, O Lord, art my defender,
and the lifter up of my head._” Persuade yourselves, with David, that
the Lord is your defender, who hath compassed you round about, and is,
as it were, a “_shield_” that doth cover you on every side. It is he
only that may and will compass you about with glory and honour. It is he
that will thrust down those proud hypocrites from their seat, and exalt
the lowly and meek. It is he which will “_smite_” your “enemies on _the
cheek bone_,” and burst all their teeth in sunder. He will hang up
Absalom by his own long hairs; and Ahithophel through desperation shall
hang himself. The bands shall be broken and you delivered; for this
belongeth unto the Lord, to save his from their enemies, and to bless
his people, that they may safely proceed in their pilgrimage to heaven
without fear.—_Thomas Tymme’s_ “_Silver Watch Bell,” 1634._
_Verse 1._—Absalom’s faction, like a snowball, strangely gathered in its
motion. David speaks of it as one amazed; and well he might, that a
people he had so many ways obliged, should almost generally revolt from
him, and rebel against him, and choose for their head such a silly,
giddy young fellow as Absalom was. How slippery and deceitful are the
many! And how little fidelity and constancy is to be found among men!
David had had the hearts of his subjects as much as ever any king had,
and yet now of a sudden he had lost them! As people must not trust too
much to princes (Psalm cxlvi. 3), so princes must not build too much
upon their interest in the people. Christ the Son of David had many
enemies, when a great multitude came to seize him, when the crowd cried,
“Crucify him, crucify him,” how were they then increased that troubled
him! Even good people must not think it strange if the stream be against
them, and the powers that threaten them grow more and more
formidable.—_Matthew Henry._
_Verse 2._—When the believer questions the power of God, or his interest
in it, his joy gusheth out as blood out of a broken vein. This verse is
a sore stab indeed.—_William Gurnall._
_Verse 2._—A child of God startles at the very thought of despairing of
help in God; you cannot vex him with anything so much as if you offer to
persuade him, “_There is no help for him in God._” David comes to God,
and tells him what his enemies said of him, as Hezekiah spread
Rabshakeh’s blasphemous letter before the Lord; they say, “_There is no
help for me in thee_;” but, Lord, if it be so, I am undone. They say to
my soul, “_There is no salvation_” (for so the word is) “_for him in
God_;” but, Lord, do thou say unto my soul, “_I am thy salvation_”
(Psalm xxxv. 3), and that shall satisfy me, and in due time silence
them.—_Matthew Henry._
_Verses 2, 4, 8.—“Selah”._ סֶלָה. Much has been written on this word,
and still its meaning does not appear to be wholly determined. It is
rendered in the Targum or Chaldee paraphrase, לְעַלְמִין, _lealmin_,
_for ever_, or _to eternity_. In the Latin Vulgate, it is omitted, as if
it were no part of the text. In the Septuagint it is rendered Διάψαλμα,
supposed to refer to some variation or modulation of the voice in
singing. Schleusner, _Lex_. The word occurs seventy-three times in the
Psalms, and three times in the book of Habakkuk (iii. 3, 9, 13). It is
never translated in our version, but in all these places the original
word _Selah_ is retained. It occurs only in poetry, and is supposed to
have had some reference to the singing or cantillation of poetry, and to
be probably a musical term. In general, also, it indicates a pause in
the sense, as well as in the musical performance. Gesenius (_Lex._)
supposes that the most probable meaning of this musical term or note is
_silence_ or _pause_, and that its use was, in chanting the words of the
Psalm, to direct the singer _to be silent_, _to pause a little_, while
the instruments played an interlude or harmony. Perhaps this is all that
can now be known of the meaning of the word, and this is enough to
satisfy every reasonable enquiry. It is probable, if this was the use of
the term, that it would commonly correspond with the sense of the
passage, and be inserted where the sense made a pause suitable; and this
will doubtless be found usually to be the fact. But any one acquainted
at all with the character of musical notation will perceive at once that
we are not to suppose that this would be invariably or necessarily the
fact, for the musical pauses by no means always correspond with pauses
in the sense. This word, therefore, can furnish very little assistance
in determining the meaning of the passages where it is found. Ewald
supposes, differing from this view, that it rather indicates that in the
places where it occurs the voice is to be raised, and that it is
synonymous with _up_, _higher_, _loud_, or _distinct_, from סַל, _sal_,
סָלַל _salal_, _to ascend_. Those who are disposed to enquire further
respecting its meaning, and the uses of musical pauses in general, may
be referred to Ugolin, “Thesau. Antiq. Sacr.,” tom. xxii.—_Albert
Barnes, 1868._
_Verses 2, 4, 8.—Selah_, סֶלָה, is found seventy-three times in the
Psalms, generally at the end of a sentence or paragraph; but in Psalm
lv. 19 and lvii. 3, it stands in the middle of the verse. While most
authors have agreed in considering this word as somehow relating to the
_music_, their conjectures about its precise meaning have varied
greatly. But at present these two opinions chiefly obtain. Some,
including Herder, De Wette, Ewald (_Poet Bücher_, i. 179), and
Delitzsch, derive it from סֶלָה, or סָלַל, _to raise_ and understand an
_elevation_ of the voice or music; others, after Gesenius, in
_Thesaurus_, derive it from סֶלָח, _to be still_ or _silent_, and
understand a pause in the singing. So Rosenmüller, Hengstenberg, and
Tholuck. Probably _selah_ was used to direct the singer to be silent, or
to pause a little, while the instruments played an interlude (so Sept.,
διάψαλμα) or symphony. In Psalm ix. 16, it occurs in the expression
_higgaion selah_, which Gesenius, with much probability, renders
_instrumental_, _pause_; _i.e._, let the instruments strike up a
symphony, and let the singer pause. By Tholuck and Hengstenberg,
however, the two words are rendered _meditation_, _pause_; _i.e._, let
the singer meditate while the music stops.—_Benjamin Davis, Ph.D.,
LL.D., article Psalms, in Kitto’s Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature._
_Verse 3.—“Lifter up of my head.”_ God will have the body partake with
the soul—as in matters of grief, so in matters of joy; the lanthorn
shines in the light of the candle within.—_Richard Sibbs, 1639._
There is a lifting up of the head by elevation to office, as with
Pharaoh’s butler; this we trace to the divine appointment. There is a
lifting up in honour after shame, in health after sickness, in gladness
after sorrow, in restoration after a fall, in victory after a temporary
defeat; in all these respects the Lord is the lifter up of our head.—_C.
H. S._
_Verse 4._—When prayer leads the van, in due time deliverance brings up
the rear.—_Thomas Watson._
_Verse 4.—“He heard me.”_ I have often heard persons say in prayer,
“Thou art a prayer-hearing and a prayer-answering God,” but the
expression contains a superfluity, since for God to hear is, according
to Scripture, the same thing as to answer.—_C. H. S._
_Verse 5.—“I laid me down and slept; I awaked: for the Lord sustained
me.”_ The title of the Psalm tells us when David had this sweet night’s
rest; not when he lay on his bed of down in his stately palace at
Jerusalem, but when he fled for his life from his unnatural son Absalom,
and possibly was forced to lie in the open field under the canopy of
heaven. Truly it must be a soft pillow indeed that could make him forget
his danger, who then had such a disloyal army at his back hunting of
him; yea, so transcendent is the influence of this peace, that it can
make the creature lie down as cheerfully to sleep in the grave, as on
the softest bed. You will say that child is willing that calls to be put
to bed; some of the saints have desired God to lay them at rest in their
beds of dust, and that not in a pet and discontent with their present
trouble, as Job did, but from a sweet sense of this peace in their
bosoms. “Now let thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen
thy salvation,” was the swan-like song of old Simeon. He speaks like a
merchant that had got all his goods on ship-board, and now desires the
master of the ship to hoist sail, and be gone homewards. Indeed, what
should a Christian, that is but a foreigner here, desire to stay any
longer for in the world, but to get his full lading in for heaven? And
when hath he that, if not when he is assured of his peace with God? This
peace of the gospel, and sense of the love of God in the soul, doth so
admirably conduce to the enabling of a person in all difficulties, and
temptations, and troubles, that ordinarily, before he calls his saints
to any hard service, or hot work, he gives them a draught of this
cordial wine next their hearts, to cheer them up and embolden them in
the conflict.—_William Gurnall._
_Verse 5._—Gurnall, who wrote when there were houses on old London
Bridge, has quaintly said, “Do you not think that they sleep as soundly
who dwell on London Bridge as they who live at Whitehall or Cheapside?
for they know that the waves which rush under them cannot hurt them.
Even so may the saints rest quietly over the floods or trouble or death,
and fear no ill.”
_Verse 5._—Xerxes, the Persian, when he destroyed all the temples in
Greece, caused the temple of Diana to be preserved for its beautiful
structure: that soul which hath the beauty or holiness shining in it,
shall be preserved for the glory of the structure; God will not suffer
his own temple to be destroyed. Would you be secured in evil times? Get
grace and fortify this garrison; a good conscience is a Christian’s
fort-royal. David’s enemies lay round about him; yet saith he, “_I laid
me down and slept._” A good conscience can sleep in the mouth of a
cannon; grace is a Christian’s coat of mail, which fears not the arrow
or bullet. True grace may be shot at, but can never be shot through;
grace puts the soul into Christ, and there it is safe, as the bee in the
hive, as the dove in the ark. “There is no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus.” Rom. viii. 1.—_Thomas Watson._
_Verse 5.—“The Lord sustained me.”_ It would not be unprofitable to
consider the sustaining power manifested in us while we lie asleep. In
the flowing of the blood, heaving of the lung, etc., in the body and the
continuance of mental faculties while the image of death is upon us.—_C.
H. S._
_Verse 6.—“I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have
set themselves against me round about.”_ The psalmist will trust,
_despite appearances_. He will not be afraid though ten thousands of
people have set themselves against him round about. Let us here limit
our thoughts to this one idea, “despite appearances.” What could look
worse to human sight than this array of ten thousands of people? Ruin
seemed to stare him in the face; wherever he looked an enemy was to be
seen. What was one against ten thousand? It often happens that God’s
people come into circumstances like this; they say, “All these things
are against me;” they seem scarce able to count their troubles; they
cannot see a loophole through which to escape; things look very black
indeed; it is great faith and trust which says under these circumstances
“I will not be afraid.”
These were the circumstances under which Luther was placed, as he
journeyed towards Worms. His friend Spalatin heard it said, by the
enemies of the Reformation, that the safe conduct of a heretic ought not
to be respected, and became alarmed for the reformer. “At the moment
when the latter was approaching the city, a messenger appeared before
him with this advice from the chaplin, ‘Do not enter Worms!’ And this
from his best friend, the elector’s confidant, from Spalatin himself!...
But Luther, undismayed, turned his eyes upon the messenger, and replied,
‘Go and tell your master, that even should there be as many devils in
Worms as tiles upon the housetops, still I would enter it.’ The
messenger returned to Worms, with this astounding answer: ‘I was then
undaunted,’ said Luther, a few days before his death, ‘I feared
nothing.’”
At such seasons as these, the reasonable men of the world, those who
walk by sight and not by faith, will think it reasonable enough that the
Christian should be afraid; they themselves would be very low if they
were in such a predicament. Weak believers are now ready to make excuses
for us, and we are only too ready to make them for ourselves; instead of
rising above the weakness of the flesh, we take refuge under it, and use
it as an excuse. But let us think prayerfully for a little while, and we
shall see that it should not be thus with us. To trust only when
appearances are favourable, is to sail only with the wind and tide, to
believe only when we can see. Oh! let us follow the example of the
psalmist, and seek that unreservedness of faith which will enable us to
trust God, come what will, and to say as he said, “_I will not be afraid
of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round
about._”—_Philip Bennett Power’s ‘I wills’ of the Psalms, 1862._
_Verse 6.—“I will not be afraid,”_ etc. It makes no matter what our
enemies be, though for number, legions; for power, principalities; for
subtilty, serpents; for cruelty, dragons; for vantage of place, a prince
of the air; for maliciousness, spiritual wickedness; stronger is he that
is in us, than they who are against us; nothing is able to separate us
from the love of God. In Christ Jesus our Lord, we shall be more than
conquerors.—_William Cowper, 1612._
_Verse 7.—“Arise, O Lord,”_ Jehovah! This is a common scriptural mode of
calling upon God to manifest his presence and his power, either in wrath
or favour. By a natural anthropomorphism, it describes the intervals of
such manifestation as periods of inaction or of slumber, out of which he
is besought to rouse himself. “_Save me_,” even me, of whom they say
there is no help for him in God. “_Save me, O my God_,” mine by covenant
and mutual engagement, to whom I therefore have a right to look for
deliverance and protection. This confidence is warranted, moreover, by
experience. “_For thou hast_,” in former exigencies, “_smitten all mine
enemies_,” without exception “_(on the) cheek_” or _jaw_, an act at once
violent and insulting.—_J. A. Alexander, D.D._
_Verse 7.—“Upon the cheek bone.”_—The language seems to be taken from a
comparison of his enemies with wild beasts. The cheek bone denotes the
bone in which the teeth are placed, and to break that is to disarm the
animal.—_Albert Barnes, in loc._
_Verse 7._—When God takes vengeance upon the ungodly, he will smite in
such a manner as to make them feel his almightiness in every stroke. All
his power shall be exercised in punishing and none in pitying. O that
every obstinate sinner would think of this, and consider his
unmeasurable boldness in thinking himself able to grapple with
Omnipotence!—_Stephen Charnock._
_Verse 8._—“_Salvation belongeth unto the Lord_:” parallel passage in
Jonah ii. 9, “_Salvation is of the Lord._” The mariners might have
written upon their ship, instead of Castor and Pollux, or the like
device, _Salvation is the Lord’s_; the Ninevites might have written upon
their gates, _Salvation is the Lord’s_; and whole mankind, whose cause
is pitted and pleaded by God against the hardness of Jonah’s heart, in
the last, might have written on the palms of their hands, _Salvation is
the Lord’s_. It is the argument of both the Testaments, the staff and
supportation of heaven and earth. They would both sink, and all their
joints be severed, if the salvation of the Lord were not. The birds in
the air sing no other notes, the beasts in the field give no other
voice, than _Salus Jehovæ_, Salvation is the Lord’s. The walls and
fortresses to our country’s gates, to our cities and towns, bars to our
houses, a surer cover to our heads than a helmet of steel, a better
receipt to our bodies than the confection of apothecaries, a better
receipt to our souls than the pardons of Rome, is _Salus Jehovæ_, the
salvation of the Lord. _The Salvation of the Lord_ blesseth, preserveth,
upholdeth all that we have; our basket and our store, the oil in our
cruses, our presses, the sheep in our fold, our stalls, the children in
the womb, at our tables, the corn in our field, our stores, our garners;
it is not the virtue of the stars, nor nature of all things themselves,
that giveth being and continuance to any of these blessings. And, “What
shall I more say?” as the apostle asked (Heb. xi.), when he had spoken
much, and there was much more behind, but time failed him. Rather, what
should I not say? for the world is my theatre at this time, and I
neither think nor can feign to myself anything that hath not dependence
upon this acclamation, _Salvation is the Lord’s_. Plutarch writeth, that
the Amphictions in Greece, a famous council assembled of twelve sundry
people, wrote upon the temple of Apollo Pythius, instead of the Iliads
of Homer, or songs of Pindarus (large and tiring discourses), short
sentences and memoratives, as, _Know thyself_, _Use moderation_, _Beware
of suretyship_, and the like; and doubtless though every creature in the
world, whereof we have use, be a treatise and narration unto us of the
goodness of God, and we might weary our flesh, and spend our days in
writing books of that inexplicable subject, yet this short apothegm of
Jonah comprehendeth all the rest, and standeth at the end of the song,
as the altars and stones that the patriarch set up at the parting of the
ways, to give knowledge to the after-world by what means he was
delivered. I would it were daily preached in our temples, sung in our
streets, written upon our door-posts, painted upon our walls, or rather
cut with an adamant claw upon the tables of our hearts, that we might
never forget salvation to be the Lord’s. We have need of such
remembrances to keep us in practice of revolving the mercies of God. For
nothing decayeth sooner than love: _nihil facilius quam amor putrescit_.
And of all the powers of the soul, memory is most delicate, tender, and
brittle, and first waxeth old, _memoria delicata, tenera, fragilis, in
quam primum senectus incurrit_; and of all the apprehensions of memory,
first benefit _primum senescit beneficium_.—_John King’s Commentary on
Jonah, 1594._