is that given by Amyraldus. He thinks it was composed by David while he
was in the court of Saul, at a time when the hostility of the king was
beginning to show itself, and before it had broken out into open
persecution. David’s friends, or those professing to be so, advised him
to flee to his native mountains for a time, and remain in retirement,
till the king should show himself more favourable. David does not at
that time accept the counsel, though afterwards he seems to have
followed it. This Psalm applies itself to the establishment of the
church against the calumnies of the world and the compromising counsel
of man, in that confidence which is to be placed in God the Judge of
all.—_W. Wilson, D.D., in loc., 1860._
_Whole Psalm._—If one may offer to make a modest conjecture, it is not
improbable this Psalm might be composed on the sad murder of the priests
by Saul (1 Sam. xxii. 19), when after the slaughter of Abimelech, the
high priest, Doeg, the Edomite, by command from Saul, “slew in one day
fourscore and five persons which wore a linen ephod.” I am not so carnal
as to build the spiritual church of the Jews on the material walls of
the priests’ city at Nob (which then by Doeg was smitten with the edge
of the sword), but this is most true, that “knowledge must preserve the
people;” and (Mal. ii. 7), “The priests’ lips shall preserve knowledge;”
and then it is easy to conclude, what an earthquake this massacre might
make in the _foundations of religion_.—_Thomas Fuller._
_Whole Psalm._—Notice how remarkably the whole Psalm corresponds with
the deliverance of Lot from Sodom. This verse, with the angel’s
exhortation, “Escape to the mountains, lest thou be consumed,” and Lot’s
reply, “I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil take me and I
die.” Genesis xix. 17-19. And again, “_The Lord’s seat is in heaven, and
upon the ungodly he shall rain snares, fire, brimstone, storm and
tempest_,” with “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone
and fire out of heaven:” and again, “_His countenance will behold the
thing that is just_,” with “Delivered just Lot ... for that righteous
man vexed his righteous soul with their ungodly deeds.” 2 Peter ii.
7,8.—_Cassiodorus_ (A.D., 560) _in John Mason Neale’s “Commentary on the
Psalms, from Primitive and Mediæval Writers,” 1860_.
_Whole Psalm._—The combatants at the Lake Thrasymene are said to have
been so engrossed with the conflict, that neither party perceived the
convulsions of nature that shook the ground—
“An earthquake reeled unheedingly away,
None felt stern nature rocking at his feet.”
From a nobler cause, it is thus with the soldiers of the Lamb. They
believe, and, therefore, make no haste; nay, they can scarcely be said
to feel earth’s convulsions as other men, because their eager hope
presses forward to the issue at the advent of the Lord.—_Andrew A.
Bonar._
_Verse 1.—“I trust in the Lord: how do ye say to my soul, Swerve on to
your mountain like a bird?”_ (others, “_O thou bird_.”) Saul and his
adherents mocked and jeered David with such taunting speeches, as
conceiving that he knew no other shift or refuge, but so betaking
himself unto wandering and lurking on the mountains; hopping, as it
were, from one place to another like a silly bird; but they thought to
ensnare and take him well enough for all that, not considering God who
was David’s comfort, rest and refuge.—_Theodore Haak’s “Translation of
the Dutch Annotations, as ordered by the Synod of Dort, in 1618.”_
London, 1657.
_Verse 1.—“With Jehovah I have taken shelter; how say ye to my soul,
Flee, sparrows, to your hill?”_ “_Your hill_,” that hill from which you
say your help cometh: a sneer. Repair to that boasted hill, which may
indeed give you the help which it gives the sparrow: a shelter against
the inclemencies of a stormy sky, no defence against our power.—_Samuel
Horsley, in loc._
_Verse 1.—“In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a
bird to your mountain?”_ The holy confidence of the saints in the hour
of great trial is beautifully illustrated by the following ballad which
Anne Askew, who was burned at Smithfield in 1546, made and sang when she
was in Newgate:—
Like as the armèd knight,
Appointed to the field,
With this world will I fight,
And Christ shall be my shield.
Faith is that weapon strong,
Which will not fail at need:
My foes, therefore, among
Therewith will I proceed.
As it is had in strength
And force of Christe’s way,
It will prevail at length,
Though all the devils say nay.
Faith in the fathers old
Obtained righteousness;
Which make me very bold
To fear no world’s distress.
I now rejoice in heart,
And hope bids me do so;
For Christ will take my part,
And ease me of my woe.
Thou say’st Lord, whoso knock,
To them wilt thou attend:
Undo therefore the lock,
And thy strong power send.
More enemies now I have
Than hairs upon my head:
Let them not me deprave,
But fight thou in my stead.
On thee my care I cast,
For all their cruel spite:
I set not by their haste;
For thou art my delight.
I am not she that list
My anchor to let fall
For every drizzling mist,
My ship substantial.
Not oft use I to write,
In prose, nor yet in rhyme;
Yet will I shew one sight
That I saw in my time.
I saw a royal throne,
Where justice should have sit,
But in her stead was one
Of moody, cruel wit.
Absorbed was righteousness.
As of the raging flood:
Satan, in his excess,
Sucked up the guiltless blood.
Then thought I, Jesus Lord,
When thou shall judge us all,
Hard it is to record
On these men what will fall.
Yet, Lord, I thee desire,
For that they do to me,
Let them not taste the hire
Of their iniquity.
_Verse 1.—“How say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?”_ We
may observe, that David is much pleased with the metaphor in frequently
comparing himself to a bird, and that of several sorts: first, to an
eagle (Psalm ciii. 5), “My youth is renewed like the eagle’s;” sometimes
to an owl (Psalm cii. 6), “I am like an owl in the desert;” sometimes to
a pelican, in the same verse, “Like a pelican in the wilderness;”
sometimes to a sparrow (Psalm cii. 7), “I watch, and am as a sparrow;”
sometimes to a partridge, “As when one doth hunt a partridge.” I cannot
say that he doth compare himself to a dove, but he would compare himself
(Psalm lv. 6), “O that I had the wings of a dove, for then I would flee
away, and be at rest.” Some will say, How is it possible that birds of
so different a feather should all so fly together as to meet in the
character of David? To whom we answer, That no two men can more differ
one from another, than the same servant of God at several times
differeth from himself. David in prosperity, when commanding, was like
an _eagle_; in adversity, when contemned, like an _owl_; in devotion,
when retired, like a _pelican_; in solitariness, when having no company,
like a _sparrow_; in persecution, when fearing too much company (of
_Saul_), like a _partridge_. This general metaphor of a _bird_, which
David so often used on himself, his enemies in the first verse of this
Psalm used on him, though not particularising the kind thereof: “_Flee
as a bird to your mountain_;” that is, speedily betake thyself to thy
God, in whom thou hopest for succour and security.
Seeing this counsel was both good in itself, and good at this time, why
doth David seem so angry and displeased thereat? Those his words, “_Why
say you to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?_” import some
passion, at leastwise, a disgust of the advice. It is answered, David
was not offended with the counsel, but with the manner of the
propounding thereof. His enemies did it ironically in a gibing, jeering
way, as if his flying thither were to no purpose, and he unlikely to
find there the safety he sought for. However, David was not hereby put
out of conceit with the counsel, beginning this Psalm with this his firm
resolution, “_In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye then to my soul_,”
etc. Learn we from hence, when men give us good counsel in a jeering
way, let us take the counsel, and practise it; and leave them the jeer
to be punished for it. Indeed, corporal cordials may be envenomed by
being wrapped up in poisoned papers; not so good spiritual advice where
the good matter receives no infection from the ill manner of the
delivery thereof. Thus, when the chief priests mocked our Saviour (Matt.
xxvii. 43), “He trusteth in God, let him deliver him now if he will have
him.” Christ trusted in God never a whit the less for the fleer and
flout which their profaneness was pleased to bestow upon him. Otherwise,
if men’s mocks should make us to undervalue good counsel, we might in
this age be mocked out of our God, and Christ, and Scripture, and
heaven; the apostle Jude, verse 18, having foretold that in the last
times there should be mockers, walking after their own lusts.—_Thomas
Fuller._
_Verse 1._—It is as great an offence to make a new, as to deny the true
God. “_In the Lord put I my trust_;” how then “_say ye unto my soul_”
(ye seducers of souls), “_that she should fly unto the mountains as a
bird_;” to seek unnecessary and foreign helps, as if the Lord alone were
not sufficient? “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and he that
delivereth me, my God, and my strength; in him will I trust: my shield,
the horn of my salvation, and my refuge. I will call upon the Lord, who
is worthy to be praised, so shall I be safe from mine enemies.” “Whom
have I in heaven but thee,” amongst those thousands of angels and
saints, what Michael or Gabriel, what Moses or Samuel, what Peter, what
Paul? “and there is none in earth that I desire in comparison of
thee.”—_John King, 1608._
_Verse 1._—In temptations of inward trouble and terror, it is not
convenient to dispute the matter with Satan. David in Psalm xlii. 11,
seems to correct himself for his mistake; his soul was cast down within
him, and for the cure of that temptation, he had prepared himself by
arguments for a dispute; but perceiving himself in a wrong course, he
calls off his soul from disquiet to an immediate application to God and
the promises, “Trust still in God, for I shall yet praise him;” but here
he is more aforehand with his work; for while his enemies were acted by
Satan to discourage him, he rejects the temptation at first, before it
settled upon his thoughts, and chaseth it away as a thing that he would
not give ear to. “_In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul,
Flee as a bird to your mountain?_” And there are weighty reasons that
should dissuade us from entering the lists with Satan in temptation of
inward trouble.—_Richard Gilpin._
_Verse 1._—The shadow will not cool except in it. What good to have the
shadow though of a mighty rock, when we sit in the open sun? To have
almighty power engaged for us, and we to throw ourselves out of it, by
bold sallies in the mouth of temptation! The saints’ falls have been
when they have run out of their trench and stronghold; for, like the
conies, they are a weak people in themselves, and their strength lies in
the rock of God’s almightiness, which is their habitation.—_William
Gurnall._
_Verse 1._—The saints of old would not accept deliverances on base
terms. They scorned to fly away for the enjoyment of rest except it were
with the wings of a dove, covered with silver innocence. As willing were
many of the martyrs to die, as to dine. The tormentors were tired in
torturing Blandina. “We are ashamed, O Emperor! The Christians laugh at
your cruelty, and grow the more resolute,” said one of Julian’s nobles.
This the heathen counted obstinacy; but they knew not the power of the
Spirit, nor the secret armour of proof which saints wear about their
hearts.—_John Trapp._
_Verse 2.—“For, lo, the wicked bend their bow,”_ etc. This verse
presents an unequal combat betwixt _armed power, advantaged with
policy_, on the one side; and _naked innocence_ on the other. First,
_armed power_: “_They bend their bows, and make ready their arrows_,”
being all the artillery of that age; secondly, _advantaged with policy_:
“_that they may privily shoot_,” to surprise them with an ambush
unawares, probably pretending amity and friendship unto them; thirdly,
_naked innocence_: if innocence may be termed naked, which is its own
armour; “_at the upright in heart_.”—_Thomas Fuller._
_Verse 2.—“For, lo, the ungodly bend their bow, and make ready their
arrows within the quiver: that they may privily shoot at them which are
true of heart.”_ The plottings of the chief priests and Pharisees that
they might take Jesus by subtlety and kill him. They bent their bow,
when they hired Judas Iscariot for the betrayal of his Master; they made
ready their arrows within the quiver when they sought “false witnesses
against Jesus to put him to death.” Matt. xxvi. 59. “_Them which are
true of heart._” Not alone the Lord himself, the only true and
righteous, but his apostles, and the long line of those who should
faithfully cleave to him from that time to this. And as with the Master,
so with the servants: witness the calumnies and the revilings that from
the time of Joseph’s accusation by his mistress till the present day,
have been the lot of God’s people.—_Michael Ayguan, 1416, in J. M.
Neale’s Commentary._
_Verse 2.—“That they may secretly shoot at them which are upright in
heart.”_ They bear not their bows and arrows as scarecrows in a garden
of cucumbers, to fray, but _to shoot_, not at stakes, but men; their
arrows are _jacula mortifera_ (Psalm vii.), deadly arrows, and lest they
should fail to hit, they take advantage of the dark, of privacy and
secrecy; they shoot _privily_. Now this is the covenant of hell itself.
For what created power in the earth is able to dissolve that work which
_cruelty_ and _subtlety_, like Simeon and Levi, brothers in evil, are
combined and confederate to bring to pass? Where subtlety is ingenious,
insidious to invent, cruelty barbarous to execute, subtlety giveth
counsel, cruelty giveth the stroke. Subtlety ordereth the time, the
place, the means, accommodateth, concinnateth circumstances; cruelty
undertaketh the act: subtlety hideth the knife, cruelty cutteth the
throat: subtlety with a cunning head layeth the ambush, plotteth the
train, the stratagem; and cruelty with as savage a heart, sticketh not
at the dreadfullest, direfullest objects, ready to wade up to the
ankles, the neck, in a whole red sea of human, yea, country blood: how
fearful is their plight that are thus assaulted!—_John King._
_Verse 3.—“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”_
But now we are met with a giant objection, which with Goliath must be
removed, or else it will obstruct our present proceedings. Is it
possible that the _foundations of religion_ should be destroyed? Can God
be in so long a sleep, yea, so long a lethargy, as patiently to permit
the ruins thereof? If he looks on, and yet doth not see these
_foundations_ when destroyed, where then is his _omnisciency_? If he
seeth it, and cannot help it, where then is his _omnipotency_? If he
seeth it, can help it, and will not, where then is his _goodness_ and
_mercy_? Martha said to Jesus (John xi. 21), “Lord, if thou hadst been
here, my brother had not died.” But many will say, Were God effectually
present in the world with his aforesaid attributes, surely the
_foundations_ had not _died_, had not been _destroyed_. We answer
negatively, that it is impossible that the _foundations_ of religion
should ever be _totally_ and _finally destroyed_, either in relation to
the church in general, or in reference to every true and lively member
thereof. For the first, we have an express promise of Christ. Matt. xvi.
18. “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” _Fundamenta tamen
stant inconcussa Sionis._ And as for every particular Christian (2 Tim.
ii. 19), “Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this
seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his.” However, though for the
reasons aforementioned in the objections (the inconsistency thereof with
the attributes of God’s omnipotency, omnisciency, and goodness), the
_foundations_ can never totally and finally, yet may they partially be
destroyed, _quoad gradum_, in a fourfold degree, as followeth. First,
_in the desires and utmost endeavours of wicked men_.
{1. _Hoc velle_,
They bring their {2. _Hoc agere_,
{3. _Totum posse_.
If they _destroy_ not the foundations, it is no thanks to them, seeing
all the world will bear them witness they have done _their best_ (that
is, _their worst_), what their might and malice could perform. Secondly,
_in their own vainglorious imaginations_: they may not only vainly
boast, but also verily believe that they have _destroyed the
foundations_. Applicable to this purpose, is that high rant of the Roman
emperor (Luke ii. 1): “And it came to pass in those days, that there
went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that all the world should be
taxed.” All the world! whereas he had, though much, not all in Europe,
little in Asia, less in Africa, none in America, which was so far from
being conquered, it was not so much as known to the Romans. But
_hyperbole_ is not a figure, but the ordinary language of pride; because
indeed Augustus had very much, he proclaimeth himself to have all the
world.... Thirdly, _the foundations may be destroyed_ as to all outward
visible illustrious apparition. The church in persecution is like unto a
ship in a tempest; down go all their masts, yea, sometimes for the more
speed they are forced to cut them down: not a piece of canvas to play
with the winds, no sails to be seen; they lie close knotted to the very
keel, that the tempest may have the less power upon them, though when
the storm is over, they can hoist up their sails as high, and spread
their canvas as broad as ever before. So the church in the time of
persecution _feared_, but especially _felt_, loseth all gayness and
gallantry which may attract and allure the eyes of beholders, and
contenteth itself with its own secrecy. In a word, on the work-days of
affliction she weareth her worst clothes, whilst her best are laid up in
her wardrobe, in sure and certain hope that God will give her a _holy_
and _happy day_, when with joy she shall wear her best garments. Lastly
they may be _destroyed_ in the _jealous apprehensions_ of the best
saints and servants of God, especially in their melancholy fits. I will
instance in no puny, but in a star of the first magnitude and greatest
eminency, even Elijah himself complaining (1 Kings xix. 10): “And I,
even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”—_Thomas
Fuller._
_Verse 3.—“If.”_ It is the only word of comfort in the text, that what
is said is not _positive, but suppositive_; not thetical, but
hypothetical. And yet this comfort which is but a spark (at which we
would willingly kindle our hopes), is quickly sadded with a double
consideration. First, impossible suppositions produce impossible
consequences, “As is the mother, so is the daughter.” Therefore, surely
God’s Holy Spirit would not suppose such a thing but what was feasible
and possible, but what either had, did, or might come to pass. Secondly,
the Hebrew word is not the conditional _im_, _si_, _si forte_, but
_chi_, _quia_, _quoniam_, because, and (although here it be favourably
rendered _if_), seemeth to import, more therein, that the sad case had
already happened in David’s days. I see, therefore, that this _if_, our
only hope in the text, is likely to prove with Job’s friends, but a
miserable comforter. Well, it is good to know the worst of things, that
we may provide ourselves accordingly; and therefore let us behold this
doleful case, not as doubtful, but as done; not as feared, but felt; not
as suspected, but at this time really come to pass.—_Thomas Fuller._
_Verse 3.—“If the foundations,”_ etc. My text is an answer to a tacit
objection which some may raise; namely, that the righteous are wanting
to themselves, and by their own easiness and inactivity (not daring and
doing so much as they might and ought), betray themselves to that bad
condition. In whose defence David shows, that if God in his wise will
and pleasure seeth it fitting, for reasons best known to himself to
suffer religion to be reduced to terms of extremity, it is not placed in
the power of the best man alive to remedy and redress the same. “_If the
foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?_” My text is hung
about with _mourning_, as for a funeral sermon, and contains: First, a
sad case supposed, “_If the foundations be destroyed._” Secondly, a sad
question propounded, “_What can the righteous do?_” Thirdly, a sad
answer implied, namely, that they can do just nothing, as to the point
of re-establishing the destroyed foundation.—_Thomas Fuller._
_Verse 3.—“If the foundations be destroyed,”_ etc. The civil foundation
of a nation or people, is their laws and constitutions. The order and
power that’s among them, that’s the foundation of a people; and when
once this foundation is destroyed, “_What can the righteous do?_” What
can the best, the wisest in the world, do in such a case? What can any
man do, if there be not a foundation of government left among men? There
is no help nor answer in such a case but that which follows in the
fourth verse of the Psalm, “_The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s
throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of
men_;” as if he had said, in the midst of these confusions, when as it
is said (Psalm lxxxii. 5), “All the foundations of the earth are out of
course;” yet God keeps his course still, he is where he was and as he
was, without variableness or shadow of turning.—_Joseph Caryl._
_Verse 3.—“The righteous.”_ The righteous indefinitely, equivalent to
the righteous universally; not only the righteous as a single arrow, but
in the whole sheaf; not only the righteous in their personal, but in
their diffusive capacity. Were they all collected into one body, were
all the righteous living in the same age wherein the _foundations are
destroyed_, summoned up and modelled into one corporation, all their
joint endeavours would prove ineffectual to the re-establishing of the
fallen _foundations_, as not being man’s work, but only God’s work to
perform.—_Thomas Fuller._
_Verse 3.—“The foundations.”_ _Positions_, the things formerly fixed,
placed, and settled. It is not said, if the roof be ruinous, or if the
side walls be shattered, but if the _foundations_.
_Verse 3.—“Foundations be destroyed.”_ In the plural. Here I will not
warrant my skill in architecture, but conceive this may pass for an
undoubted truth: it is possible that a building settled on several
entire _foundations_ (suppose them _pillars_) close one to another, if
one of them fall, yet the structure may still stand, or rather hang (at
the least for a short time) by virtue of the _complicative_, which it
receiveth from such foundations which still stand secure. But in case
there be a total rout, and an utter ruin of all the _foundations_, none
can fancy to themselves a possibility of that building’s
subsistence.—_Thomas Fuller._
_Verse 3.—“What_ CAN _the righteous?”_ The _can_ of the righteous is a
limited _can_, confined to the rule of God’s word; they _can_ do nothing
but what they _can_ lawfully do. 2 Cor. xiii. 8. “For we _can_ do
nothing against the truth, but for the truth:” _Illud possumus, quod
jure possumus._ Wicked men can do anything; their conscience, which is
so wide that it is none at all, will bear them out to act anything how
unlawful soever, to stab, poison, massacre, by any means, at any time,
in any place, whosoever standeth betwixt them and the effecting their
desires. Not so the righteous; they have a rule whereby to walk, which
they will not, they must not, they dare not, cross. If therefore a
righteous man were assured, that by the breach of one of God’s
commandments he might restore decayed religion, and re-settle it _statu
quo prius_, his hands, head, and heart are tied up, he _can_ do nothing,
because _their damnation is just who say_ (Rom. iii. 8), “_Let us do
evil that good may come thereof._”
_Verse 3.—“Do.”_ It is not said, _What can they think?_ It is a great
blessing which God hath allowed injured people, that though otherwise
oppressed and straitened, they may freely enlarge themselves in their
thoughts.—_Thomas Fuller._