sent Ezra with a heavy heart to confess the sin of his people, and to
bewail their abominations before the Lord. Ezra ix. And Jeremiah tells
the wicked of his degenerate age, that “his soul should weep in secret
places for their pride.” Jer. xiii. 17. Indeed, sometimes sin comes to
such a height, that this is almost all the godly can do, to get into a
corner, and bewail the general pollutions of the age. “_If the
foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?_” Such dismal days
of national confusion our eyes have seen, when foundations of government
were destroyed, and all hurled into military confusion. When it is thus
with a people, “_What can the righteous do?_” Yes, this they may, and
should do, “fast and pray.” There is yet a God in heaven to be sought
to, when a people’s deliverance is thrown beyond the help of human
policy or power. Now is the fit time to make their appeal to God, as the
words following hint: “_The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s
throne is in heaven_;” in which words God is presented sitting in heaven
as a temple, for their encouragement, I conceive, in such a desperate
state of affairs, to direct their prayers thither for deliverance. And
certainly this hath been the engine that hath been instrumental, above
any, to restore this poor nation again, and set it upon the foundation
of that lawful government from which it had so dangerously
departed.—_William Gurnall._
_Verse 4._—The infinite understanding of God doth exactly know the sins
of men; he knows so as to consider. He doth not only know them, but
intently behold them: “_His eyelids try the children of men_,” a
metaphor taken from men, that contract the eyelids when they would
wistly and accurately behold a thing: it is not a transient and careless
look.—_Stephen Charnock._
_Verse 4.—“His eyes behold,”_ etc. God searcheth not as man searcheth,
by enquiring into that which before was hid from him; his searching is
no more but his beholding; he seeth the heart, he beholdeth the reins;
God’s very sight is searching. Heb. iv. 13. “All things are naked and
opened unto his eyes,” τετραχηλισμένα, _dissected or anatomised_. He
hath at once as exact a view of the most hidden things, the very
entrails of the soul, as if they had been with never so great curiosity
anatomised before him.—_Richard Alleine, 1611-1681._
_Verse 4.—“His eyes behold,”_ etc. Consider that God not only sees into
all you do, but he sees it to that very end that he may examine and
search into it. He doth not only behold you with a common and
indifferent look, but with a searching, watchful, and inquisitive eye:
he pries into the reasons, the motives, the ends of all your actions.
“_The Lord’s throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the
children of men._” Rev. i. 14, where Christ is described, it is said,
_his eyes are as a flame of fire_: you know the property of fire is to
search and make trial of those things which are exposed unto it, and to
separate the dross from the pure metal: so, God’s eye is like fire, to
try and examine the actions of men: he knows and discerns how much your
very purest duties have in them of mixture, and base ends of formality,
hypocrisy, distractedness, and deadness: he sees through all your
specious pretences, that which you cast as a mist before the eyes of men
when yet thou art but a juggler in religion: all your tricks and
sleights of outward profession, all those things that you use to cozen
and delude men withal, cannot possibly impose upon him: he is a God that
can look through all those fig-leaves of outward profession, and discern
the nakedness of your duties through them.—_Ezekiel Hopkins, D.D._
_Verse 4.—“His eyes behold,”_ etc. Take God into thy counsel. Heaven
overlooks hell. God at any time can tell thee what plots are hatching
there against thee.—_William Gurnall._
_Verse 4.—“His eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.”_ When
an offender, or one accused for any offence, is brought before a judge,
and stands at the bar to be arraigned, the judge looks upon him, eyes
him, sets his eye upon him, and he bids the offender look up in his
face; “Look upon me,” saith the judge, “and speak up:” guiltiness
usually clouds the forehead and clothes the brow; the weight of guilt
holds down the head! _the evil doer hath an ill look_, or dares not look
up; how glad is he if the judge looks off him. We have such an
expression here, speaking of the Lord, the great Judge of heaven and
earth: “_His eyelids try the children of men_,” as a judge tries a
guilty person with his eye and reads the characters of his wickedness
printed in his face. Hence we have a common speech in our language, such
a one _looks suspiciously_, or, _he hath a guilty look_. At that great
gaol-delivery described in Rev. vi. 16, All the prisoners cry out _to be
hid from the face of him that sat upon the throne_. They could not look
upon Christ, and they could not endure Christ should look on them; the
eyelids of Christ try the children of men.... Wickedness cannot endure
to be under the observation of any eye, much less of the eye of justice.
Hence the actors of it say, “_Who seeth us?_” It is very hard not to
show the guilt of the heart in the face, and it is as hard to have it
seen there.—_Joseph Caryl._
_Verse 5.—“The Lord trieth the righteous.”_ Except our sins, there is
not such plenty of anything in all the world as there is of troubles
which come from sin, as one heavy messenger came to Job after another.
Since we are not in paradise, but in the wilderness, we must look for
one trouble after another. As a bear came to David after a lion, and a
giant after a bear, and a king after a giant, and Philistines after a
king, so, when believers have fought with poverty, they shall fight with
envy; when they have fought with envy, they shall fight with infamy;
when they have fought with infamy, they shall fight with sickness; they
shall be like a labourer who is never out of work.—_Henry Smith._
_Verse 5.—“The Lord trieth the righteous.”_—Times of affliction and
persecution will distinguish the precious from the vile, it will
difference the counterfeit professor from the true. Persecution is a
Christian’s touchstone, it is a _lapis lydius_ that will try what metal
men are made of, whether they be silver or tin, gold or dross, wheat or
chaff, shadow or substance, carnal or spiritual, sincere or
hypocritical. Nothing speaks out more soundness and uprightness than a
pursuing after holiness, even then when holiness is most afflicted,
pursued, and persecuted in the world: to stand fast in fiery trials
argues much integrity within.—_Thomas Brooks._
_Verse 5._—Note the singular opposition of the two sentences. God hates
the wicked, and therefore in contrast he loves the righteous; but it is
here said that he tries them: therefore it follows that to try and to
love are with God the same thing.—_C. H. S._
_Verse 6.—“Upon the wicked he shall rain snares.”_ Snares to hold them;
then if they be not delivered, follow fire and brimstone, and they
cannot escape. This is the case of a sinner if he repent not; if God
pardon not, he is in the snare of Satan’s temptation, he is in the snare
of divine vengeance; let him therefore cry aloud for his deliverance,
that he may have his feet in a large room. The wicked lay snares for the
righteous, but God either preventeth them that their souls ever escape
them, or else he subventeth them: “The snares are broken, and we are
delivered.” No snares hold us so fast as those of our own sins; they
keep down our heads, and stoop us that we cannot look up: a very little
ease they are to him that hath not a seared conscience.—_Samuel Page,
1646._
_Verse 6.—“He shall rain snares.”_ As in hunting with the lasso, the
huntsman casts a snare from above upon his prey to entangle its head or
feet, so shall the Lord from above with many twistings of the line of
terror, surround, bind, and take captive the haters of his law.—_C. H.
S._
_Verse 6.—“He shall rain snares,”_ etc. He shall rain upon them when
they least think of it even in the midst of their jollity, as rain falls
on a fair day. Or, he shall rain down the vengeance when he sees good,
for it rains not always. Though he defers it, yet will it rain.—_William
Nicholson, Bishop of Gloucester, in “David’s Harp Strung and Tuned,”
1662._
_Verse 6.—“Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and
an horrible tempest.”_ The strange dispensation of affairs in this world
is an argument which doth convincingly prove that there shall be such a
day wherein all the _involucra_ and entanglements of providence shall be
clearly unfolded. Then shall the riddle be dissolved, why God hath given
this and that profane wretch so much wealth, and so much power to do
mischief: is it not _that they might be destroyed for ever_? Then shall
they be called to a strict account for all that plenty and prosperity
for which they are now envied; and the more they have abused, the more
dreadful will their condemnation be. Then it will be seen that God gave
them not as mercies, but as “_snares_.” It is said that God “_will rain
on the wicked snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest_:”
when he scatters abroad the desirable things of this world, riches,
honours, pleasures, etc., then he rains “_snares_” upon them; and when
he shall call them to an account for these things, then he will rain
upon them “_fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest_” of his wrath
and fury. Dives, who caroused on earth, yet, in hell could not obtain so
much as one poor drop of water to cool his scorched and flaming tongue:
had not his excess and intemperance been so great in his life, his fiery
thirst had not been so tormenting after death; and therefore, in that
sad item that Abraham gives him (Luke xvi. 25), he bids him “_remember,
that thou, in thy lifetime, receivedst thy good things, and likewise
Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented_.”
I look upon this as a most bitter and a most deserved sarcasm;
upbraiding him for his gross folly, in making the trifles of this life
his good things. Thou hast received thy good things, but now thou art
tormented. Oh, never call Dives’s purple and delicious fare _good
things_, if they thus end in torments! Was it good for him to be wrapped
in purple who is now wrapped in flames? Was it good for him to fare
deliciously who was only thereby fatted up against the day of
slaughter?—_Ezekiel Hopkins._
_Verse 6.—“Snares, fire and brimstone, storm and tempest: this shall be
the portion of their cup.”_ After the judgment follows the condemnation:
pre-figured as we have seen, by the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah.
“_Snares_:” because the allurements of Satan in this life will be their
worst punishments in the next; the fire of anger, the brimstone of
impurity, the tempest of pride, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life. “_This shall be their portion_;” compare it
with the Psalmist’s own saying, “The Lord himself is the portion of my
inheritance and my cup.” Psalm xvi. 5.—_Cassiodorus, in J. M. Neale’s
Commentary._
_Verse 6.—“The portion of their cup.”_ Heb., the allotment of their cup.
The expression has reference to the custom of distributing to each guest
his mess of meat.—_William French and George Skinner, 1842._
_Verse 7._—That God may give grace without glory is intelligible; but to
admit a man to communion with him in glory without grace, is not
intelligible. It is not agreeable to God’s holiness to make any
inhabitant of heaven, and converse freely with him in a way of intimate
love, without such a qualification of grace: “_The righteous Lord loveth
righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright_;” he looks upon
him with a smiling eye, and therefore he cannot favourably look upon an
unrighteous person; so that this necessity is not founded only in the
command of God that we should be renewed, but in the very nature of the
thing, because God, in regard of his holiness, cannot converse with an
impure creature. God must change his nature, or the sinner’s nature must
be changed. There can be no friendly communion between two of different
natures without the change of one of them into the likeness of the
other. Wolves and sheep, darkness and light, can never agree. God cannot
love a sinner as a sinner, because he hates impurity by a necessity of
nature as well as a choice of will. It is as impossible for him to love
it as to cease to be holy.—_Stephen Charnock._
HINTS TO PREACHERS.
_Verse 1._—Faith’s bold avowal, and brave refusal.
_Verse 1._—Teacheth us to trust in God, how great soever our dangers be;
also that we shall be many times assaulted to make us put far from us
this trust, but yet that we must cleave unto it, as the anchor of our
souls, sure and steadfast.—_Thomas Wilcocks._
_Verse 1._—The advice of cowardice, and the jeer of insolence, both
answered by faith. Lesson—Attempt no other answer.
_Verse 2._—The craftiness of our spiritual enemies.
_Verse 3._—This may furnish a double discourse. I. _If God’s oath and
promise could remove_, what could we do? Here the answer is easy. II.
_If all earthly things fail_, and the very State fall to pieces, what
can we do? We can suffer joyfully, hope cheerfully, wait patiently, pray
earnestly, believe confidently, and triumph finally.
_Verse 3._—Necessity of holding and preaching foundation truths.
_Verse 4._—The elevation, mystery, supremacy, purity, everlastingness,
invisibility, etc., of the throne of God.
_Verses 4, 5._—In these verses mark the fact that the children of men,
as well as the righteous, are tried; work out the contrast between the
two trials in their design and result, etc.
_Verse 5.—“The Lord trieth the righteous.”_ I. Who are tried? II. What
in them is tried?—Faith, love, etc. III. In what manner?—Trials of every
sort. IV. How long? V. For what purposes?
_Verse 5.—“His soul hateth.”_ The thoroughness of God’s hatred of sin.
Illustrate by providential judgments, threatenings, sufferings of the
Surety, and the terrors of hell.
_Verse 5._—The trying of the gold, and the sweeping out of the refuse.
_Verse 6.—“He shall rain.”_ Gracious rain and destroying rain.
_Verse 6._—The portion of the impenitent.
_Verse 7._—The Lord possesses righteousness as a personal attribute,
loves it in the abstract, and blesses those who practise it.
PSALM XII.
TITLE. _This Psalm is headed_, “To the Chief Musician upon Sheminith, a
Psalm of David,” _which title is identical with that of the sixth Psalm,
except that Neginoth is here omitted. We have nothing new to add, and
therefore refer the reader to our remarks on the dedication of Psalm VI.
As Sheminith signifies the eight, the Arabic version says it is
concerning the end of the world, which shall be the eighth day, and
refers it to the coming of the Messiah: without accepting so fanciful an
interpretation, we may read this song of complaining faith in the light
of His coming who shall break in pieces the oppressor. The subject will
be the better before the mind’s eye if we entitle this Psalm:_ “GOOD
THOUGHTS IN BAD TIMES.” _It is supposed to have been written while Saul
was persecuting David, and those who favoured his cause._
DIVISION.—_In the first and second verses David spreads his plaint
before the Lord concerning the treachery of his age; verses 3 and 4
denounce judgments upon proud traitors; in verse 5, Jehovah himself
thunders out his wrath against oppressors; hearing this, the Chief
Musician sings sweetly of the faithfulness of God and his care of his
people, in verses 6 and 7; but closes on the old key of lament in verse
8, as he observes the abounding wickedness of his times. Those holy
souls who dwell in Mesech, and sojourn in the tents of Kedar, may read
and sing these sacred stanzas with hearts in full accord with their
mingled melody of lowly mourning and lofty confidence._
EXPOSITION.
Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from
among the children of men.
2 They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: _with_ flattering
lips _and_ with a double heart do they speak.
“_Help, Lord._” A short, but sweet, suggestive, seasonable, and
serviceable prayer; a kind of angel’s sword, to be turned every way, and
to be used on all occasions. Ainsworth says the word rendered “help,” is
largely used for all manner of saving, helping, delivering, preserving,
etc. Thus it seems that the prayer is very full and instructive. The
Psalmist sees the extreme danger of his position, for a man had better
be among lions than among liars; he feels his own inability to deal with
such sons of Belial, for “he who shall touch them must be fenced with
iron;” he therefore turns himself to his all-sufficient Helper, the
Lord, whose help is never denied to his servants, and whose aid is
enough for all their needs. “_Help, Lord_,” is a very useful ejaculation
which we may dart up to heaven on occasions of emergency, whether in
labour, learning, suffering, fighting, living, or dying. As small ships
can sail into harbours which larger vessels, drawing more water, cannot
enter, so our brief cries and short petitions may trade with heaven when
our soul is wind-bound, and business-bound, as to longer exercises of
devotion, and when the stream of grace seems at too low an ebb to float
a more laborious supplication. “_For the godly man ceaseth_;” the death,
departure, or decline of godly men should be a trumpet-call for more
prayer. They say that fish smell first at the head, and when godly men
decay, the whole commonwealth will soon go rotten. We must not, however,
be rash in our judgment on this point, for Elijah erred in counting
himself the only servant of God alive, when there were thousands whom
the Lord held in reserve. The present times always appear to be
peculiarly dangerous, because they are nearest to our anxious gaze, and
whatever evils are rife are sure to be observed, while the faults of
past ages are further off, and are more easily overlooked. Yet we expect
that in the latter days, “because iniquity shall abound, the love of
many shall wax cold,” and then we must the more thoroughly turn from
man, and address ourselves to the Churches’ Lord, by whose help the
gates of hell shall be kept from prevailing against us. “_The faithful
fail from among the children of men_;” when godliness goes, faithfulness
inevitably follows; without fear of God, men have no love of truth.
Common honesty is no longer common, when common irreligion leads to
universal godlessness. David had his eyes on Doeg, and the men of Ziph
and Keilah, and perhaps remembered the murdered priests of Nob, and the
many banished ones who consorted with him in the cave of Adullam, and
wondered where the state would drift without the anchors of its godly
and faithful men. David, amid the general misrule, did not betake
himself to seditious plottings, but to solemn petitionings; nor did he
join with the multitude to do evil, but took up the arms of prayer to
withstand their attacks upon virtue.
“_They speak vanity every one with his neighbour._” They utter that
which is vain _to hear_, because of its frivolous, foolish, want of
worth; vain to _believe_, because it was false and lying; vain to _trust
to_, since it was deceitful and flattering; vain to _regard_, for it
lifted up the hearer, filling him with proud conceit of himself. It is a
sad thing when it is the fashion to talk vanity. “Ca’ me, and I’ll ca’
thee,” is the old Scotch proverb; give me a high-sounding character, and
I will give you one. Compliments and fawning congratulations are hateful
to honest men; they know that if they take they must give them, and they
scorn to do either. These accommodation-bills are most admired by those
who are bankrupt in character. Bad are the times when every man thus
cajoles and cozens his neighbour. “_With flattering lips and with a
double heart do they speak._” He who puffs up another’s heart, has
nothing better than wind in his own. If a man extols me to my face, he
only shows me one side of his heart, and the other is black with
contempt for me, or foul with intent to cheat me. Flattery is the sign
of the tavern where duplicity is the host. The Chinese consider a man of
two hearts to be a very base man, and we shall be safe in reckoning all
flatterers to be such.
3 The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, _and_ the tongue that
speaketh proud things:
4 Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips _are_ our
own: who _is_ lord over us?
Total destruction shall overwhelm the lovers of flattery and pride, but
meanwhile how they hector and fume! Well did the apostle call them
“raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame.” Free-thinkers
are generally very free-talkers, and they are never more at ease than
when railing at God’s dominion, and arrogating to themselves unbounded
license. Strange is it that the easy yoke of the Lord should so gall the
shoulders of the proud, while the iron bands of Satan they bind about
themselves as chains of honour: they boastfully cry unto God, “Who is
lord over us?” and hear not the hollow voice of the evil one, who cries
from the infernal lake, “I am your lord, and right faithfully do ye
serve me.” Alas, poor fools, their pride and glory shall be cut off like
a fading flower! May God grant that our soul may not be gathered with
them. It is worthy of observation that flattering lips, and tongues
speaking proud things, are classed together: the fitness of this is
clear, for they are guilty of the same vice, the first flatters another,
and the second flatters himself, in both cases a lie is in their right
hands. One generally imagines that flatterers are such mean parasites,
so cringing and fawning, that they cannot be proud; but the wise man
will tell you that while all pride is truly meanness, there is in the
very lowest meanness no small degree of pride. Cæsar’s horse is even
more proud of carrying Cæsar, than Cæsar is of riding him. The mat on
which the emperor wiped his shoes, boasts vaingloriously, crying out, “I
cleaned the imperial boots.” None are so detestably domineering as the
little creatures who creep into office by cringing to the great; those
are bad times, indeed, in which these obnoxious beings are numerous and
powerful. No wonder that the justice of God in cutting off such
injurious persons is matter for a Psalm, for both earth and heaven are
weary of such provoking offenders, whose presence is a very plague to
the people afflicted thereby. Men cannot tame the tongues of such
boastful flatterers; but the Lord’s remedy if sharp is sure, and is an
unanswerable answer to their swelling words of vanity.
5 For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now
will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set _him_ in safety _from him
that_ puffeth at him.