and, together with some other quotations, he has placed it in the second
chapter of Romans, as being an accurate description of the whole human
race, not of David’s enemies only, but of all men by nature. Note that
remarkable figure, “_Their throat is an open sepulchre_,” a _sepulchre_
full of loathsomeness, of miasma, of pestilence and death. But, worse
than that, it is an _open_ sepulchre, with all its evil gases issuing
forth, to spread death and destruction all around. So, with the throat
of the wicked, it would be a great mercy if it could always be closed.
If we could seal in continual silence the mouth of the wicked it would
be like a sepulchre shut up, and would not produce much mischief. But
“their throat is an _open_ sepulchre,” consequently all the wickedness
of their heart exhales, and comes forth. How dangerous is an open
sepulchre; men in their journeys might easily stumble therein, and find
themselves among the dead. Ah! take heed of the wicked man, for there is
nothing that he will not say to ruin you; he will long to destroy your
character, and bury you in the hideous sepulchre of his own wicked
throat. One sweet thought here, however. At the resurrection there will
be a resurrection not only of bodies, but characters. This should be a
great comfort to a man who has been abused and slandered. “Then shall
the righteous shine forth as the sun.” The world may think you vile, and
bury your character; but if you have been upright, in the day when the
graves shall give up their dead, this open sepulchre of the sinner’s
throat shall be compelled to give up your heavenly character, and you
shall come forth and be honoured in the sight of men. “_They flatter
with their tongue._” Or, as we might read it, “They have an oily tongue,
a smooth tongue.” A smooth tongue is a great evil; many have been
bewitched by it. There be many human ant-eaters that with their long
tongues covered with oily words entice and entrap the unwary and make
their gain thereby. When the wolf licks the lamb, he is preparing to wet
his teeth in its blood.
10 Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels;
cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they
have rebelled against thee.
“_Against thee_:” not against _me_. If they were _my_ enemies I would
forgive them, but I cannot forgive _thine_. We are to forgive _our_
enemies, but God’s enemies it is not in our power to forgive. These
expressions have often been noticed by men of over refinement as being
harsh, and grating on the ear. “Oh!” say they, “they are vindictive and
revengeful.” Let us remember that they might be translated as
prophecies, not as wishes; but we do not care to avail ourselves of this
method of escape. We have never heard of a reader of the Bible who,
after perusing these passages, was made revengeful by reading them, and
it is but fair to test the nature of a writing by its effects. When we
hear a judge condemning a murderer, however severe his sentence, we do
not feel that we should be justified in condemning others for any
private injury done to us. The Psalmist here speaks as a judge, _ex
officio_; he speaks as God’s mouth, and in condemning the wicked he
gives us no excuse whatever for uttering anything in the way of
malediction upon those who have caused us personal offence. The most
shameful way of cursing another is by pretending to bless him. We were
all somewhat amused by noticing the toothless malice of that wretched
old priest of Rome when he foolishly cursed the Emperor of France with
his blessing. He was blessing him in form and cursing him in reality.
Now, in direct contrast we put this healthy commination of David, which
is intended to be a blessing by warning the sinner of the impending
curse. O impenitent man, be it known unto thee that all thy godly
friends will give their solemn assent to the awful sentence of the Lord,
which he shall pronounce upon thee in the day of doom! Our verdict shall
applaud the condemning curse which the Judge of all the earth shall
thunder against the godless.
In the following verse we once more find the contrast which has marked
the preceding Psalms.
11 But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them
ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that
love thy name be joyful in thee.
Joy is the privilege of the believer. When sinners are destroyed our
rejoicing shall be full. They laugh first and weep ever after; we weep
now, but shall rejoice eternally. When they howl we shall _shout_, and
as they must groan for ever, so shall we _ever shout_ for joy. This holy
bliss of ours has a firm foundation, for O Lord, we are _joyful in
thee_. The eternal God is the well-spring of our bliss. We love God, and
therefore we delight in him. Our heart is at ease in our God. We fare
sumptuously every day because we feed on him. We have music in the
house, music in the heart, and music in heaven, for the Lord Jehovah is
our strength and our song; he also is become our salvation.
12 For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou
compass him as _with_ a shield.
Jehovah has ordained his people the heirs of blessedness, and nothing
shall rob them of their inheritance. With all the fulness of his power
he will bless them, and all his attributes shall unite to satiate them
with divine contentment. Nor is this merely for the present, but the
blessing reaches into the long and unknown future. “_Thou Lord, wilt
bless the righteous._” This is a promise of infinite length, of
unbounded breadth, and of unutterable preciousness.
As for the defence which the believer needs in this land of battles, it
is here promised to him in the fullest measure. There were vast shields
used by the ancients as extensive as a man’s whole person, which would
surround him entirely. So says David, “_With favour wilt thou compass
him as with a shield._” According to Ainsworth there is here also the
idea of being crowned, so that we wear a royal helmet, which is at once
our glory and defence. O Lord, ever give to us this gracious coronation!
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.
_Verse 1.—“Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation.”_ It is
certain that the greater part of men, as they babble out vain, languid,
and inefficacious prayers, most unworthy the ear of the blessed God, so
they seem in some degree to set a just estimate upon them, neither
hoping for any success from them, nor indeed seeming to be at all
solicitous about it, but committing them to the mind as vain words,
which in truth they are. But far be it from a wise and pious man, that
he should so foolishly and coldly trifle in so serious an affair; his
prayer has a certain tendency and scope, at which he aims with assiduous
and repeated desires, and doth not only pray that he may pray, but that
he may obtain an answer; and as he firmly believes that it may be
obtained, so he firmly, and constantly, and eagerly urges his petition,
that he may not flatter himself with an empty hope.—_Robert Leighton,
D.D._
_Verses 1, 2._—Observe the order and force of the words, “_my cry_,”
“_the voice of my prayer_;” and also, “_give ear_,” “_consider_,”
“_hearken_.” These expressions all evince the urgency and energy of
David’s feelings and petitions. First, we have, “_give ear_;” that is,
hear me. But it is of little service for the words to be heard, unless
the “_cry_,” or the roaring, or the meditation, be _considered_. As if
he had said, in a common way of expression, I speak with deep anxiety
and concern, but with a failing utterance; and I cannot express
myself, nor make myself understood as I wish. Do thou, therefore,
understand from my feelings more than I am able to express in words.
And, therefore, I add my “_cry_;” that what I cannot express in words
for thee to hear, I may by my “_cry_” signify to thine understanding.
And when thou hast understood me, then, O Lord “_Hearken unto the
voice of my prayer_,” and despise not what thou hast thus heard and
understood. We are not, however, to understand that hearing,
understanding, and hearkening, are all different acts in God, in the
same way as they are in us; but that our feelings towards God are to
be thus varied and increased; that is, that we are first to desire to
be heard, and then, that our prayers which are heard may be
understood; and then, that being understood, they may be hearkened
unto, that is, not disregarded.—_Martin Luther._
_Verse 1._—“_Meditation_” fits the soul for supplication; meditation
fills the soul with good liquor, and then prayer broaches it, and sets
it a-running. David first mused, and then spake with his tongue, “Lord,
make me to know mine end.” Psalm xxxix. 3, 4. Nay, to assure us that
meditation was the mother which bred and brought forth prayer, he calls
the child by its parent’s name, “_Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider
my meditation._” Meditation is like the charging of a piece, and prayer
the discharging of it. “Isaac went into the field to meditate.” Genesis
xxiv. 63. The Septuagint, the Geneva translation, and Tremellius, in his
marginal notes on it, read it to “pray;” and the Hebrew word הָגִיג used
there signifieth both to _pray_ and _meditate_; whereby we may learn
they are very near akin; like twins, they be in the same womb, in the
same word. Meditation is the best beginning of prayer, and prayer is the
best conclusion of meditation. When the Christian, like Daniel, hath
first opened the windows of his soul by contemplation, then he may kneel
down to prayer.—_George Swinnock._
_Verse 3.—“My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord.”_
When first thy eyes unveil, give thy soul leave
To do the like; our bodies but forerun
The spirit’s duty; true hearts spread and heave
Unto their God, as flowers do to the sun:
Give him thy first thoughts, then, so shalt thou keep
Him company all day, and in him sleep.
Yet never sleep the sun up; prayer should
Dawn with the day, there are set awful hours
’Twixt heaven and us; the manna was not good
After sun-rising, for day sullies flowers.
Rise to prevent the sun; sleep doth sins glut,
And heaven’s gate opens when the world’s is shut.
Walk with thy fellow creatures; note the hush
And whisperings amongst them. Not a spring
Or leaf but hath his _morning_ hymn; each bush
And oak doth know I AM—canst thou not sing?
O leave thy cares and follies! Go this way,
And thou art sure to prosper all the day.
_Henry Vaughan, 1621-1695._
_Verse 3.—“My voice shalt thou hear in the morning.”_ “_In the morning
shall my prayer prevent thee_,” said Heman. That is the fittest time for
devotion, you being then fresh in your spirits, and freest from
distractions. Which opportunity for holy duties may fitly be called _the
wings of the morning_.—_Edward Reyner, 1658._
_Verse 3.—“In the morning.”_ “In the days of our fathers,” says Bishop
Burnet, “when a person came early to the door of his neighbour, and
desired to speak with the master of the house, it was as common a thing
for the servants to tell him with freedom—‘My master is at prayer,’ as
it now is to say, ‘My master is not up.’”
_Verse 3.—“In the morning I will direct my prayer unto thee, and will
look up,”_ or _I will marshal my prayer_, I will bring up petition after
petition, pleading after pleading, even till I become like Jacob, a
prince with God, till I have won the field and got the day. Thus the
word is applied by a metaphor both to disputations with men and
supplications to God. Further, we may take the meaning plainly without
any strain of rhetoric, _Set thy words in order before me_. Method is
good in everything, either an express or covert method. Sometimes it is
the best of art to cover it; in speaking there is a special use of
method, for though, as one said very well (speaking of those who are
more curious about method than serious about matter), “_Method never
converted any man_;” yet method and the ordering of words is very
useful. Our speeches should not be heaps of words, but words bound up;
not a throng of words, but words set in array, or, as it were, in rank
and file.—_Joseph Caryl._
_Verse 3.—“I will direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.”_ In the
words you may observe two things: first, David’s posture in prayer;
secondly, his practice after prayer. First, his posture in prayer, “_I
will direct my prayer unto thee._” Secondly, his practice after prayer,
“_And I will look up._” The prophet in these words, makes use of two
military words. First, he would not only pray, but marshal up his
prayers, he would put them in battle array; so much the Hebrew word
עָרַךְ imports. Secondly, when he had done this, then he would be as a
spy upon his watch-tower, to see whether he prevailed, whether he got
the day or no; and so much the Hebrew word צָפָה imports. When David had
set his prayers, his petitions, in rank and file, in good array, then he
was resolved he would look abroad, he would look about him to see at
what door God would send in an answer of prayer. He is either a fool or
a madman, he is either very weak or very wicked, that prays and prays,
but never looks after his prayers; that shoots many an arrow towards
heaven, but never minds where his arrows alight.—_Thomas Brooks._
_Verse 3._—David would _direct his prayer to God and look up_; not down
to the world, down to corruption, but up to God what he would speak.
Psalm lxxxv. 8. “I will hear what God the Lord will speak.” Let the
resolution of the prophet be thine, “I will look unto the Lord; I will
wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.” Micah vii.
7.—_William Greenhill, 1650._
_Verse 3.—“I will direct my prayer to thee, and will look up,”_ that is,
I will trade, I will send out my spiritual commodities, and expect a
gainful return; I will make my prayers, and not give them for lost, but
look up for an answer. God will bring man home by a way contrary to that
by which he wandered from him. Man fell from God by distrust, by having
God in suspicion; God will bring him back by trust, by having good
thoughts of him. Oh, how richly laden might the vessel which thou
sendest out come home, wouldst thou but long and look for its
return!—_George Swinnock._
_Verse 3._—Faith hath a supporting art after prayer: it supports the
soul to expect a gracious answer: “_I will direct my prayer unto thee,
and will look up_,” or I will look; for what, but for a return? An
unbelieving heart shoots at random, and never minds where his arrow
lights, or what comes of his praying; but faith fills the soul with
expectation. As a merchant, when he casts up his estate, he counts what
he hath sent beyond sea, as well as what he hath in hand; so doth faith
reckon upon what he hath sent to heaven in prayer and not received, as
well as those mercies which he hath received, and are in hand at
present. Now this expectation which faith raiseth in the soul after
prayer, appears in the power that it hath to quiet and compose the soul
in the interim between the sending forth, as I may say, the ship of
prayer, and its return home with its rich lading it goes for, and it is
more or less, according as faith’s strength is. Sometimes faith comes
from prayer in triumph, and cries, _Victoria_. It gives such a being and
existence to the mercy prayed for in the Christian’s soul before any
likelihood of it appears to sense and reason, that the Christian can
silence all his troubled thoughts with the expectation of its coming.
Yea, it will make the Christian disburse his praises for the mercy long
before it is received.... For want of looking up many a prayer is lost.
If you do not believe, why do you pray? And if you believe, why do you
not expect? By praying you seem to depend on God; by not expecting, you
again renounce your confidence. What is this, but to take his name in
vain? O Christian, stand to your prayer in a holy expectation of what
you have begged upon the credit of the promise.... Mordecai, no doubt,
had put up many prayers for Esther, and therefore he waits at the king’s
gate, looking what answer God would in his providence give thereunto. Do
thou likewise.—_William Gurnall._
_Verse 4.—“Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness.”_ As a
man that cutteth with a dull knife is the cause of cutting, but not of
the ill-cutting and hacking of the knife—the knife is the cause of that;
or if a man strike upon an instrument that is out of tune, he is the
cause of the sound, but not of the jarring sound—that is the fault of
the untuned strings; or, as a man riding upon a lame horse, stirs
him—the man is the cause of the motion, but the horse himself of the
halting motion: thus God is the author of every action, but not of the
evil of that action—that is from man. He that makes instruments and
tools of iron or other metal, he maketh not the rust and canker which
corrupteth them, that is from another cause; nor doth that heavenly
workman, God Almighty, bring in sin and iniquity; nor can he be justly
blamed if his creatures do soil and besmear themselves with the foulness
of sin, for he made them good.—_Spencer’s Things New and Old._
_Verses 4-6._—Here the Lord’s alienation from the wicked is set forth
gradually, and seems to rise by six steps. First, _he hath no pleasure
in them_; secondly, _they shall not dwell with them_; thirdly, he
casteth them forth, _they shall not stand in his sight_; fourthly, his
heart turns from them, _thou hatest all the workers of iniquity_;
fifthly, his hand is turned upon them, _thou shalt destroy them that
speak leasing_; sixthly, his spirit riseth against them, and is
alienated from them, _the Lord will abhor the bloody man_. This
estrangement is indeed a _strange_ (yet a certain) _punishment to “the
workers of iniquity_.” These words, “_the workers of iniquity_,” may be
considered two ways. First, as intending (not all degrees of sinners, or
sinners of every degree, but) the highest degree of sinners, great, and
gross sinners, resolved and wilful sinners. Such as sin industriously,
and, as it were, artificially, with skill and care to get themselves a
name, as if they had an ambition to be accounted _workmen_ that need not
be ashamed in doing that whereof all ought to be ashamed; these, in
strictness of Scripture sense, are “_workers of iniquity_.” Hence note,
_notorious sinners made sin their business, or their trade_. Though
every sin be _a work of iniquity_, yet only some sinners are “_workers
of iniquity_;” and they who are called so, make it their calling to sin.
We read of some _who love and make a lie_. Rev. xxii. 15. A lie may be
told by those who neither love nor make it; but there are lie-makers,
and they, sure enough, are lovers of a lie. Such craftsmen in sinning
are also described in Psalm lviii. 2.—“Yea, in heart ye work wickedness;
ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.” The psalmist doth not
say, they had wickedness in their heart, but they did work it there;
_the heart is a shop within, an underground shop_; there they did
closely contrive, forge, and hammer out their wicked purposes, and fit
them into actions.—_Joseph Caryl._
_Verse 5._—What an astonishing thing is sin, which maketh the God of
love and Father of mercies an enemy to his creatures, and which could
only be purged by the blood of the Son of God! Though all must believe
this who believe the Bible, yet the exceeding sinfulness of sin is but
weakly apprehended by those who have the deepest sense of it, and will
never be fully known in this world.—_Thomas Adam’s Private Thoughts,
1701-1784._
_Verse 5 (last clause).—“Thou hatest all workers of iniquity.”_ For what
God thinks of sin, see Deut. vii. 22; Prov. vi. 16; Rev. ii. 6, 15;
where he expresseth his detestation and hatred of it, from which hatred
proceeds all those direful plagues and judgments thundered from the
fiery mouth of his most holy law against it; nay, not only the work, but
_worker_ also of iniquity becomes the object of his hatred.—_William
Gurnall._
_Verse 5 (last clause).—“Thou hatest all workers of iniquity.”_ If God’s
hatred be against the workers of iniquity, how great is it against
iniquity itself! If a man hate a poisonous creature, he hates poison
much more. The strength of God’s hatred is against sin, and so should we
hate sin, and hate it with strength; it is an abomination unto God, let
it be so unto us. Prov. vi. 16-19, “These six things doth the Lord hate;
yea, seven are an abomination unto him; a proud look, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked
imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness
that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.”—_William
Greenhill._
_Verse 5 (last clause)._—Those whom the Lord hates must perish. But he
hates impenitent sinners, “_Thou hatest all workers of iniquity._” Now,
who are so properly workers of iniquity as those who are so eager at it
that they will not leave this work, though they be in danger to perish
for it? Christ puts it out of doubt. The workers of iniquity must
perish. Luke xiii. 27. Those whom the Lord will tear in his wrath must
perish with a witness; but those whom he hates, he tears, &c. Job xvi.
8. What more due to such impenitent sinners than hatred! What more
proper than wrath, since they treasure up wrath? Rom. ii. Will he
entertain those in the bosom of love whom his soul hates? No;
destruction is their portion. Prov. xxi. 15. If all the curses of the
law, all the threatenings of the gospel, all judgments in earth or in
hell, will be the ruin of him, he must perish. If the Lord’s arm be
strong enough to wound him dead, he must die. Psalm lxviii. 21.... Avoid
all that Christ hates. If you love, approve, entertain that which is
hateful to Christ, how can he love you? What is that which Christ hates?
The psalmist (Psalm xlv. 7) tells us, making it one of Christ’s
attributes, to hate wickedness.... As Christ hates iniquity, so the
“_workers of iniquity_.” You must not love them, so as to be intimate
with them, delight in the company of evil doers, openly profane,
scorners of godliness, obstructors of the power of it. 2 Cor. vi. 14-18.
If you love so near relations to wicked men, Christ will have no
relation to you. If you would have communion with Christ in sweet acts
of love, you must have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness, nor those that act them.—_David Clarkson, B.D., 1621-1686._
_Verse 6.—“Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing,”_ whether in jest
or earnest. Those that lie in jest will (without repentance) go to hell
in earnest.—_John Trapp._
_Verse 6.—“Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing,”_ etc. In the
same field wherein Absalom raised battle against his father, stood the
oak that was his gibbet. The mule whereon he rode was his hangman, for
the mule carried him to the tree, and the hair wherein he gloried served
for a rope to hang. Little know the wicked how everything which now they
have, shall be a snare to trap them when God begins to punish
them.—_William Cowper, 1612._
_Verse 7.—“In thy fear will I worship.”_ As natural fear makes the
spirits retire from the outward parts of the body to the heart, so a
holy fear of miscarrying, in so solemn a duty, would be a means to call
thy thoughts from all exterior carnal objects, and fix them upon the
duty in hand. As the sculpture is on the seal, so will the print on the
wax be; if the fear of God be deeply engraven on thy heart, there is no
doubt but it will make a suitable impression on the duty thou
performest.—_William Gurnall_.
_Verse 7._—David saith, “_In thy fear will I worship toward thy holy
temple._” The temple did shadow forth the body of our Lord Christ, the
Mediator, in whom only our prayers and services are accepted with the
Father which Solomon respected in looking towards the temple.—_Thomas
Manton, D.D., 1620-1677._
_Verse 7.—“But as for me,”_ etc. A blessed verse this! a blessed saying!
The words and the sense itself, carry with them a powerful contrast. For
there are two things with which this life is exercised, HOPE and FEAR,
which are, as it were, those two springs of Judges i. 15, the one from
above, the other from beneath. _Fear_ comes from beholding the threats
and fearful judgments of God; as being a God in whose sight no one is
clean, every one is a sinner, every one is damnable. But _hope_ comes
from beholding the promises, and the all-sweet mercies of God; as it is
written (Psalm xxv. 6), “Remember, O Lord, thy lovingkindnesses, and thy
tender mercies which have been ever of old.” Between these two, as
between the upper and nether millstone, we must always be ground and
kept, that we never turn either to the right hand or to the left. For
this turning is the state peculiar to hypocrites, who are exercised with
the two contrary things, security and presumption.—_Martin Luther._