style it praying in humility; give me leave to style it praying in
faith. In faith which sets the soul in the presence of that mighty God,
and by the sight of him, which faith gives us, it is that we see our own
vileness, sinfulness, and abhor ourselves, and profess ourselves
unworthy of any, much less of those mercies we are to seek for. Thus the
sight of God had wrought in the prophet (Isaiah vi. 5), “Then said I,
Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips: for mine
eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” And holy Job speaks thus
(Job xlii. 5, 6), “Now mine eye seeth thee: wherefore I abhor myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.” This is as great a requisite to prayer as
any other act; I may say of it alone, as the apostle (James i. 7), that
without it we shall receive nothing at the hands of God! God loves to
fill empty vessels, he looks to broken hearts. In the Psalms how often
do we read that God hears the prayers of the humble; which always
involves and includes faith in it. Psalm ix. 12, “He forgetteth not the
cry of the humble,” and Psalm x. 17, “_Lord thou hast heard the desire
of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear
to hear._” To be deeply humbled is to have the heart prepared and fitted
for God to hear the prayer; and therefore you find the Psalmist pleading
_sub forma pauperis_, often repeating, “I am poor and needy.” And this
prevents our thinking much if God do not grant the particular thing we
do desire. Thus also Christ himself in his great distress (Psalm xxii.),
doth treat God (verse 2), “O my God, I cry in the day-time, but thou
hearest not; and in the night season am not silent. Our fathers trusted
in thee. They cried unto thee, and were delivered. But I am a worm, and
no man; reproached of men, and despised of the people; (verse 6)” and he
was “heard” in the end “in that he feared.” And these deep humblings of
ourselves, being joined with vehement implorations upon the mercy of God
to obtain, is reckoned into the account of praying by faith, both by God
and Christ. Matt. viii.—_Thomas Goodwin._
_Verse 17.—“Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble.”_ A
spiritual prayer is a _humble_ prayer. Prayer is the asking of an alms,
which requires humility. “The publican, standing afar off, would not
lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast,
saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.” Luke xviii. 13. God’s
incomprehensible glory may even amaze us and strike a holy consternation
into us when we approach nigh unto him: “O my God, I am ashamed and
blush to lift up my face to thee.” Ezra ix. 6. It is comely to see a
poor nothing lie prostrate at the feet of its Maker. “Behold now, I have
taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes.” Gen.
xviii. 27. The lower the heart descends, the higher the prayer
ascends.—_Thomas Watson._
_Verse 17.—“Lord, thou hast heard, the desire of the humble,”_ etc. How
pleasant is it, that these benefits, which are of so great a value both
on their own account, and that of the divine benignity from whence they
come, should be delivered into our hands, marked, as it were, with this
grateful inscription, _that they have been obtained by prayer_!—_Robert
Leighton._
_Verse 17.—“The desire of the humble.”_ Prayer is the offering up of our
desires to God in the name of Christ, for such things as are agreeable
to his will. It is an offering of our _desires_. Desires are the soul
and life of prayer; words are but the body; now as the body without the
soul is dead, so are prayers unless they are animated with our desires:
“_Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble._” God heareth not
words, but _desires_.—_Thomas Watson._
_Verse 17._—God’s choice acquaintances are humble men.—_Robert
Leighton._
_Verse 17._—He that sits nearest the dust, sits nearest heaven.—_Andrew
Gray, of Glasgow, 1616._
_Verse 17._—There is a kind of omnipotency in prayer, as having an
interest and prevalency with God’s omnipotency. It hath loosed iron
chains (Acts xvi. 25, 26); it hath opened iron gates (Acts xii. 5-10);
it hath unlocked the windows of heaven (1 Kings xviii. 41); it hath
broken the bars of death (John xi. 40, 43). Satan hath three titles
given in the Scriptures, setting forth his malignity against the church
of God: a dragon, to note his malice; a serpent, to note his subtlety;
and a lion, to note his strength. But none of all these can stand before
prayer. The greatest malice of Haman sinks under the prayer of Esther;
the deepest policy, the counsel of Ahithophel, withers before the prayer
of David; the largest army, a host of a thousand Ethiopians, run away
like cowards before the prayer of Asa.—_Edward Reynolds, 1599-1676._
_Verse 18.—“To judge the fatherless and the oppressed,”_ etc. The tears
of the poor fall down upon their cheeks, _et ascendunt ad cœlum_, and go
up to heaven and cry for vengeance before God, the judge of widows, the
father of widows and orphans. Poor people be oppressed even by laws. Woe
worth to them that make evil laws against the poor, what shall be to
them that hinder and mar good laws? What will ye do in the day of great
vengeance when God shall visit you? he saith he will hear the tears of
the poor woman, when he goeth on visitation. For their sake he will hurt
the judge, be he never so high, he will for widows’ sakes change realms,
bring them into temptation, pluck his judges’ skins over their heads.
Cambyses was a great emperor, such another as our master is, he had many
lord deputies, lord presidents, and lieutenants under him. It is a great
while ago since I read the history. It chanced he had under him in one
of his dominions a briber, a gift-taker, a gratifier of rich men; he
followed gifts as fast as he that followed the pudding; a handmaker in
his office, to make his son a great man, as the old saying is “Happy is
the child whose father goeth to the devil.” The cry of the poor widow
came to the emperor’s ear, and caused him to slay the judge quick, and
laid his skin in his chair of judgment, that all judges that should give
judgment afterward, should sit in the same skin. Surely it was a goodly
sign, a goodly monument, the sign of the judge’s skin. I pray God we may
once see the sign of the skin in England. Ye will say, peradventure,
that this is cruelly and uncharitably spoken. No, no; I do it
charitably, for a love I bear to my country. God saith, “I will visit.”
God hath two visitations; the first is when he revealeth his word by
preachers; and where the first is accepted, the second cometh not. The
second visitation is vengeance. He went to visitation when he brought
the judge’s skin over his ears. If this word be despised, he cometh with
the second visitation with vengeance.—_Hugh Latimer, 1480-1555._
_Verse 18.—“Man of the earth,”_ etc. In the eighth Psalm (which is a
circular Psalm ending as it did begin, “O Lord our God, how excellent is
thy name in all the world!” That whithersoever we turn our eyes, upwards
or downwards, we may see ourselves beset with his glory round about),
how doth the prophet base and discountenance the nature and whole race
of man; as may appear by his disdainful and derogatory interrogation,
“What is man that thou art mindful of him; and the Son of Man, that thou
regardest him?” In the ninth Psalm, “Rise, Lord; let not man have the
upper hand; let the nations be judged in thy sight. Put them in fear, O
Lord, that the heathen may know themselves to be but men.” Further, in
the tenth Psalm, “Thou judgest the fatherless and the poor, that the man
of the earth do no more violence.”
The Psalms, as they go in order, so, methinks they grow in strength, and
each hath a weightier force to throw down our presumption. 1. We are
“men,” and the “sons of men,” to show our descent and propagation. 2.
“Men in our own knowledge,” to show that conscience and experience of
infirmity doth convict us. 3. “Men of the earth,” to show our original
matter whereof we are framed. In the twenty-second Psalm, he addeth more
disgrace; for either in his own name, regarding the misery and contempt
wherein he was held, or in the person of Christ, whose figure he was, as
if it were a robbery for him to take upon him the nature of man, he
falleth to a lower style, _at ego sum vermis et non vir_; but I am a
worm, and no man. For as corruption is the father of all flesh, so are
the worms his brethren and sisters, according to the old verse—
“First man, next worms, then stench and loathsomeness,
Thus man to no man alters by changes.”
Abraham, the father of the faithful (Genesis xviii.), sifteth himself
into the coarsest man that can be, and resolveth his nature into the
elements whereof it first rose. “Behold I have begun to speak to my
Lord, being dust and ashes.” And if any of the children of Abraham, who
succeed him in the faith, or any of the children of Adam, who succeed
him in the flesh, thinketh otherwise, let him know that there is a
threefold cord twisted by the finger of God, that shall tie him to his
first original, though he contend till his heart break. “O earth, earth,
earth, hear the word of the Lord” (Jer. xxii.); that is, earth by
creation, earth by continuance, earth by resolution. Thou camest earth,
thou remainest earth, and to earth thou must return.—_John King._
_Verse 18.—“The man of the earth.”_ Man dwelling in the earth, and made
of earth.—_Thomas Wilcocks._
HINTS TO PREACHERS.
_Verse 1._—The answer to these questions furnishes a noble topic for an
experimental sermon. Let me suggest that the question is not to be
answered in the same manner in all cases. Past sin, trials of graces,
strengthening of faith, discovery of depravity, instruction, etc., etc.,
are varied reasons for the hiding of our Father’s face.
_Verse 2._—Religious persecution in all its phases based on pride.
_Verse 3._—God’s hatred of covetousness: show its justice.
_Verse 4._—Pride the barrier in the way of conversion.
_Verse 4 (last clause)._—Thoughts in which God is not, weighed and
condemned.
_Verse 5.—“Thy judgments are far above out of his sight.”_ Moral
inability of men to appreciate the character and acts of God.
_Verse 6._—The vain confidence of sinners.
_Verse 8._—Dangers of godly men, or the snares in the way of believers.
_Verse 9._—The ferocity, craftiness, strength, and activity of Satan.
_Verse 9 (last clause)._—The Satanic fisherman, his art, diligence,
success, etc.
_Verse 10._—Designing humility unmasked.
_Verse 11._—Divine omniscience and the astounding presumption of
sinners.
_Verse 12.—“Arise, O Lord.”_ A prayer needful, allowable, seasonable,
etc.
_Verse 13 (first clause)._—An astounding fact, and a reasonable enquiry.
_Verse 13._—Future retribution: doubts concerning it. I. By whom
indulged: “_the wicked_.” II. Where fostered: “_in his heart_.” III. For
what purpose: _quieting of conscience_, etc. IV. With what practical
tendency: “_contemn God_.” He who disbelieves hell distrusts heaven.
_Verses 13, 14._—Divine government in the world. I. Who doubt it? and
why? II. Who believe it? and what does this faith cause them to do?
_Verse 14 (last clause)._—A plea for orphans.
_Verse 16._—The Eternal Kingship of Jehovah.
_Verse 17 (first clause)._—I. The Christian’s character—“_humble_.” II.
An attribute of the Christian’s whole life—“_desire_:” he desires more
holiness, communion, knowledge, grace, and usefulness; and then he
desires glory. III. The Christian’s great blessedness—“_Lord, thou hast
heard the desire of the humble._”
_Verse 17 (whole verse)._—I. Consider the _nature_ of gracious desires.
II. Their _origin_. III. Their _result_. The three sentences readily
suggest these divisions, and the subject may be very profitable.
PSALM XI.
SUBJECT.—_Charles Simeon gives an excellent summary of this Psalm in the
following sentences:—“The Psalms are a rich repository of experimental
knowledge. David, at the different periods of his life, was placed in
almost every situation in which a believer, whether rich or poor, can be
placed; and in these heavenly compositions he delineates all the
workings of the heart. He introduces, too, the sentiments and conduct of
the various persons who were accessory either to his troubles or his
joys; and thus sets before us a compendium of all that is passing in the
hearts of men throughout the world. When he penned this Psalm he was
under persecution from Saul, who sought his life, and hunted him ‘as a
partridge upon the mountains.’ His timid friends were alarmed for his
safety, and recommended him to flee to some mountain where he had a
hiding-place, and thus to conceal himself from the rage of Saul. But
David, being strong in faith, spurned the idea of resorting to any such
pusillanimous expedients, and determined confidently to repose his trust
in God.”_
_To assist us to remember this short, but sweet Psalm, we will give it
the name of_ “THE SONG OF THE STEDFAST.”
DIVISION. _From 1 to 3, David describes the temptation with which he was
assailed, and from 4 to 7, the arguments by which his courage was
sustained._
EXPOSITION.
In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee _as_ a bird
to your mountain?
2 For, lo, the wicked bend _their_ bow, they make ready their arrow
upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in
heart.
3 If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
These verses contain an account of a temptation to distrust God, with
which David was, upon some unmentioned occasion, greatly exercised. It
may be, that in the days when he was in Saul’s court, he was advised to
flee at a time when this flight would have been charged against him as a
breach of duty to the king, or a proof of personal cowardice. His case
was like that of Nehemiah, when his enemies, under the garb of
friendship, hoped to entrap him by advising him to escape for his life.
Had he done so, they could then have found a ground of accusation.
Nehemiah bravely replied, “Shall such a man as I flee?” and David, in a
like spirit, refuses to retreat, exclaiming, “_In the Lord put I my
trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?_” When
Satan cannot overthrow us by presumption, how craftily will he seek to
ruin us by distrust! He will employ our dearest friends to argue us out
of our confidence, and he will use such plausible logic, that unless we
once for all assert our immovable trust in Jehovah, he will make us like
the timid bird which flies to the mountain whenever danger presents
itself. How forcibly the case is put! The bow is bent, the arrow is
fitted to the string: “Flee, flee, thou defenceless bird, thy safety
lies in flight; begone, for thine enemies will send their shafts into
thy heart; haste, haste, for soon wilt thou be destroyed!” David seems
to have felt the force of the advice, for it came home _to his soul_;
but yet he would not yield, but would rather dare the danger than
exhibit a distrust in the Lord his God. Doubtless, the perils which
encompassed David were great and imminent; it was quite true that his
enemies were _ready_ to _shoot privily_ at him; it was equally correct
that the very _foundations_ of law and justice were _destroyed_ under
Saul’s unrighteous government: but what were all these things to the man
whose trust was in God alone? He could brave the dangers, could escape
the enemies, and defy the injustice which surrounded him. His answer to
the question, “What can the righteous do?” would be the
counter-question, “What cannot they do?” When prayer engages God on our
side, and when faith secures the fulfilment of the promise, what cause
can there be for flight, however cruel and mighty our enemies? With a
sling and a stone, David had smitten a giant before whom the whole hosts
of Israel were trembling, and the Lord, who delivered him from the
uncircumcised Philistine, could surely deliver him from King Saul and
his myrmidons. There is no such word as “impossibility” in the language
of faith; that martial grace knows how to fight and conquer, but she
knows not how to flee.
4 The LORD _is_ in his holy temple, the LORD’s throne _is_ in
heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.
5 The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth
violence his soul hateth.
6 Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an
horrible tempest: _this shall be_ the portion of their cup.
7 For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth
behold the upright.
David here declares the great source of his unflinching courage. He
borrows his light from heaven—from the great central orb of deity. The
God of the believer is never far from him; he is not merely the God of
the mountain fastnesses, but of the dangerous valleys and battle plains.
“_Jehovah is in his holy temple._” The heavens are above our heads in
all regions of the earth, and so is the Lord ever near to us in every
state and condition. This is a very strong reason why we should not
adopt the vile suggestions of distrust. There is one who pleads his
precious blood in our behalf in the temple above, and there is one upon
the throne who is never deaf to the intercession of his Son. Why, then,
should we fear? What plots can men devise which Jesus will not discover?
Satan has doubtless desired to have us, that he may sift us as wheat,
but Jesus is in the temple praying for us, and how can our faith fail?
What attempts can the wicked make which Jehovah shall not behold? And
since he is in his holy temple, delighting in the sacrifice of his Son,
will he not defeat every device, and send us a sure deliverance?
“_Jehovah’s throne is in the heavens_;” he reigns supreme. Nothing can
be done in heaven, or earth, or hell, which he doth not ordain and
over-rule. He is the world’s great Emperor. Wherefore, then, should we
flee? If we trust this King of kings, is not this enough? Cannot he
deliver us without our cowardly retreat? Yes, blessed be the Lord our
God, we can salute him as Jehovah-nissi; in his name we set up our
banners, and, instead of flight, we once more raise the shout of war.
“_His eyes behold._” The eternal Watcher never slumbers; his eyes never
know a sleep. “_His eyelids try the children of men_:” he narrowly
inspects their actions, words and thoughts. As men, when intently and
narrowly inspecting some very minute object, almost close their eyelids
to exclude every other object, so will the Lord look all men through and
through. God sees each man as much and as perfectly as if there were no
other creature in the universe. He sees us always; he never removes his
eye from us; he sees us entirely, reading the recesses of the soul as
readily as the glancing of the eye. Is not this a sufficient ground of
confidence, and an abundant answer to the solicitations of despondency?
My danger is not hid from him; he knows my extremity, and I may rest
assured that he will not suffer me to perish while I rely alone on him.
Wherefore, then, should I take the wings of the timid bird, and flee
from the dangers which beset me.
“_The Lord trieth the righteous_:” he doth not hate them, but only tries
them. They are precious to him, and therefore he refines them with
afflictions. None of the Lord’s children may hope to escape from trial,
nor, indeed, in our right minds, would any of us desire to do so, for
trial is the channel of many blessings.
“’Tis my happiness below
Not to live without the cross;
But the Saviour’s power to know,
Sanctifying every loss.
Trials make the promise sweet;
Trials give new life to prayer;
Trials bring me to his feet—
Lay me low, and keep me there.
Did I meet no trials here—
No chastisement by the way—
Might I not, with reason, fear
I should prove a cast-away!
Bastards may escape the rod,
Sunk in earthly vain delight;
But the true-born child of God
Must not—would not, if he might.”
_William Cowper._
Is not this a very cogent reason why we should not distrustfully
endeavour to shun a trial?—for in so doing we are seeking to avoid a
blessing.
“_But the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth_:” why,
then, shall I flee from these wicked men? If God hateth them, I will not
fear them. Haman was very great in the palace until he lost favour, but
when the king abhorred him, how bold were the meanest attendants to
suggest the gallows for the man at whom they had often trembled! Look at
the black mark upon the faces of our persecutors, and we shall not run
away from them. If God is in the quarrel as well as ourselves, it would
be foolish to question the result, or avoid the conflict. Sodom and
Gomorrah perished by a fiery hail, and by a brimstone shower from
heaven; so shall all the ungodly. They may gather together like Gog and
Magog to battle, but the Lord will rain upon them “an overflowing rain,
and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone:” Ezek. xxxviii. 22. Some
expositors think that in the term “horrible tempest,” there is in the
Hebrew an allusion to that burning, suffocating wind, which blows across
the Arabian deserts, and is known by the name of Simoom. “A burning
storm,” Lowth calls it, while another great commentator reads it
“wrathwind;” in either version the language is full of terrors. What a
tempest will that be which shall overwhelm the despisers of God! Oh!
what a shower will that be which shall pour out itself for ever upon the
defenceless heads of impenitent sinners in hell! Repent, ye rebels, or
this fiery deluge shall soon surround you. Hell’s horrors shall be your
inheritance, your entailed estate, “the portion of your cup.” The dregs
of that cup you shall wring out, and drink for ever. A drop of hell is
terrible, but what must a full cup of torment be? Think of it—a cup of
misery, but not a drop of mercy. O people of God, how foolish is it to
fear the faces of men who shall soon be faggots in the fire of hell!
Think of their end, their fearful end, and all fear of them must be
changed into contempt of their threatenings and pity for their miserable
estate.
The delightful contrast of the last verse is well worthy of our
observation, and it affords another overwhelming reason why we should be
stedfast, unmovable, not carried away with fear, or led to adopt carnal
expedients in order to avoid trial. “_For the righteous Lord loveth
righteousness._” It is not only his office to defend it, but his nature
to love it. He would deny himself if he did not defend the just. It is
essential to the very being of God that he should be just; fear not,
then, the end of all your trials, but “be just, and fear not.” God
approves, and, if men oppose, what matters it? “_His countenance doth
behold the upright._” We need never be out of countenance, for God
countenances us. He observes, he approves, he delights in the upright.
He sees his own image in them, an image of his own fashioning, and
therefore with complacency he regards them. Shall we dare to put forth
our hand unto iniquity in order to escape affliction? Let us have done
with by-ways and short turnings, and let us keep to that fair path of
right along which Jehovah’s smile shall light us. Are we tempted to put
our light under a bushel, to conceal our religion from our neighbours?
Is it suggested to us that there are ways of avoiding the cross, and
shunning the reproach of Christ? Let us not hearken to the voice of the
charmer, but seek an increase of faith, that we may wrestle with
principalities and powers, and follow the Lord, fully going without the
camp, bearing his reproach. Mammon, the flesh, the devil, will all
whisper in our ear, “Flee as a bird to your mountain;” but let us come
forth and defy them all. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
There is no room or reason for retreat. Advance! Let the vanguard push
on! To the front! all ye powers and passions of our soul. On! on! in
God’s name, on! for “the Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is
our refuge.”
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.