unto him, and though he bear long with their oppressors, yet will he
avenge them speedily. Observe that the mere oppression of saints,
however silently they bear it, is in itself a cry to God: Moses was
heard at the Red Sea, though he said nothing; and Hagar’s affliction was
heard despite her silence. Jesus feels with his people, and their smarts
are mighty orators with him. By-and-by, however, _they_ begin to sigh
and express their misery, and then relief comes post-haste. Nothing
moves a father like the cries of his children; he bestirs himself, wakes
up his manhood, overthrows the enemy, and sets his beloved in safety. A
_puff_ is too much for the child to bear, and the foe is so haughty,
that he laughs the little one to scorn; but the Father comes, and then
it is the child’s turn to laugh, when he is set above the rage of his
tormentor. What virtue is there in a poor man’s sighs, that they should
move the Almighty God to arise from his throne. The needy did not dare
to speak, and could only sigh in secret, but the Lord heard, and could
rest no longer, but girded on his sword for the battle. It is a fair day
when our soul brings God into her quarrel, for when his bare arm is
seen, Philistia shall rue the day. The darkest hours of the Church’s
night are those which precede the break of day. Man’s extremity is God’s
opportunity. Jesus will come to deliver just when his needy ones shall
sigh, as if all hope had gone for ever. O Lord, set thy _now_ near at
hand, and rise up speedily to our help. Should the afflicted reader be
able to lay hold upon the promise of this verse, let him gratefully
fetch a fulness of comfort from it. Gurnal says, “As one may draw out
the wine of a whole hogshead at one tap, so may a poor soul derive the
comfort of the whole covenant to himself through one promise, if he be
able to apply it.” He who promises to set us in safety, means thereby
preservation on earth, and eternal salvation in heaven.
6 The words of the LORD _are_ pure words: _as_ silver tried in a
furnace of earth, purified seven times.
7 Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this
generation for ever.
_Verse 6._—What a contrast between the vain words of man, and the pure
words of Jehovah. Man’s words are yea and nay, but the Lord’s promises
are yea and amen. For truth, certainty, holiness, faithfulness, the
words of the Lord are pure as well-refined silver. In the original there
is an allusion to the most severely-purifying process known to the
ancients, through which silver was passed when the greatest possible
purity was desired; the dross was all consumed, and only the bright and
precious metal remained; so clear and free from all alloy of error or
unfaithfulness is the book of the words of the Lord. The Bible has
passed through the furnace of persecution, literary criticism,
philosophic doubt, and scientific discovery, and has lost nothing but
those human interpretations which clung to it as alloy to precious ore.
The experience of saints has tried it in every conceivable manner, but
not a single doctrine or promise has been consumed in the most excessive
heat. What God’s words are, the words of his children should be. If we
would be Godlike in conversation, we must watch our language, and
maintain the strictest purity of integrity and holiness in all our
communications.
7. To fall into the hands of an evil generation, so as to be baited by
their cruelty, or polluted by their influence, is an evil to be dreaded
beyond measure; but it is an evil foreseen and provided for in the text.
In life many a saint has lived a hundred years before his age, as though
he had darted his soul into the brighter future, and escaped the mists
of the beclouded present: he has gone to his grave unreverenced and
misunderstood, and lo! as generations come and go, upon a sudden the
hero is unearthed, and lives in the admiration and love of the excellent
of the earth; preserved for ever from the generation which stigmatised
him as a sower of sedition, or burned him as a heretic. It should be our
daily prayer that we may rise above our age as the mountain-tops above
the clouds, and may stand out as heaven-pointing pinnacle high above the
mists of ignorance and sin which roll around us. O Eternal Spirit,
fulfil in us the faithful saying of this verse! Our faith believes those
two assuring words, and cries, “_Thou shalt_,” “_thou shalt_.”
8 The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.
8. Here we return to the fount of bitterness, which first made the
Psalmist run to the wells of salvation, namely, the prevalence of
wickedness. When those in power are vile, their underlings will be no
better. As a warm sun brings out noxious flies, so does a sinner in
honour foster vice everywhere. Our turf would not so swarm with
abominables if those who are styled honourables did not give their
countenance to the craft. Would to God that the glory and triumph of our
Lord Jesus would encourage us to walk and work on every side; as like
acts upon like, since an exalted sinner encourages sinners, our exalted
Redeemer must surely excite, cheer, and stimulate his saints. Nerved by
a sight of his reigning power we shall meet the evils of the times in
the spirit of holy resolution, and shall the more hopefully pray, “Help,
Lord.”
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.
_Verse 1.—“Help, Lord.”_ ’Twas high time to call to heaven for help,
when Saul cried, “Go, kill me up the priests of Jehovah” (the occasion
as it is thought of making this Psalm), and therein committed the sin
against the Holy, as some grave divines are of opinion. 1 Sam. xxii. 17.
David, after many sad thoughts about that slaughter, and the occasion of
it, Doeg’s malicious information, together with the paucity of his fast
friends, and the multitude of his sworn enemies at court, breaks forth
abruptly into these words, “_Help Lord_,” help at a dead lift. The
Arabic version hath it, _Deliver me by main force_, as with weapons of
war, for “the Lord is a man of war.” Ex. xv. 3.—_John Trapp._
_Verse 1.—“The faithful.”_ “_A faithful man_,” as a parent, a reprover,
an adviser, one “without guile,” “_who can find?_” Prov. xx. 6. Look
close. View thyself in the glass of the word. Does thy neighbour or thy
friend, find thee _faithful_ to him? What does our daily intercourse
witness? Is not the attempt to speak what is agreeable oft made at the
expense of truth? Are not professions of regard sometimes utterly
inconsistent with our real feelings? In common life, where gross
violations are restrained, a thousand petty offences are allowed, that
break down the wall between sin and duty, and, judged by the divine
standard, are indeed guilty steps upon forbidden ground.—_Charles
Bridges, 1850._
_Verse 1._—A “_faithful_” man must be, first of all, faithful to
himself; then, he must be faithful to God; and then, he must be faithful
to others, particularly the church of God. And this, as it regards
ministers, is of peculiar importance.—_Joseph Irons, 1840._
_Verse 1._—Even as a careful mother, seeing her child in the way when a
company of unruly horses run through the streets in full career,
presently whips up her child in her arms and taketh him home; or as the
hen, seeing the ravenous kite over her head, clucks and gathers her
chickens under her wings; even so when God hath a purpose to bring a
heavy calamity upon a land, it hath been usual with him to call and cull
out to himself, such as are his dearly beloved. He takes his choice
servants from the evil to come. Thus was Augustine removed a little
before Hippo (wherein he dwelt) was taken; Parœus died before Heidelburg
was sacked; and Luther was taken off before Germany was overrun with war
and bloodshed.—_Ed. Dunsterville in a Sermon at the Funeral of Sir Sim.
Harcourt, 1642._
_Verse 1.—“Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth,”_ etc.:—
Back then, complainer, loathe thy life no more,
Nor deem thyself upon a desert shore,
Because the rocks the nearer prospect close.
Yet in fallen Israel are there hearts and eyes,
That day by day in prayer like thine arise;
Thou knowest them not, but their Creator known.
Go, to the world return, nor fear to cast
Thy bread upon the waters, sure at last
In joy to find it after many days.
_John Keble, 1792-1866._
_Verses 1, 2, 4._—Consider our markets, our fairs, our private contracts
and bargains, our shops, our cellars, our weights, our measures, our
promises, our protestations, our politic tricks and villainous
Machiavelism, our enhancing of the prices of all commodities, and tell,
whether the twelfth Psalm may not as fitly be applied to our times as to
the days of the man of God; in which the feigning, and lying, and
facing, and guile, and subtlety of men provoked the psalmist to cry out,
“_Help, Lord; for there is not a godly man left: for the faithful are
failed from among the children of men: they speak deceitfully every one
with his neighbour, flattering with their lips, and speak with a double
heart, which have said, With our tongue we will prevail; our lips are
our own: who is Lord over us?_”—_R. Wolcombe, 1612._
_Verse 2.—“They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with
flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.”_ The feigned
zeal is just like a waterman, that looks one way and rows another way;
for this man _pretends_ one thing and _intends_ another thing; as Jehu
pretended the zeal of God’s glory, but his aim was at his master’s
kingdom; and his zeal to God’s service was but to bring him to the
sceptre of the kingdom. So Demetrius professed great love unto Diana,
but his drift was to maintain the honour of his profession; and so we
have too many that make great show of holiness, and yet their hearts aim
at other ends; but they may be sure, though they can deceive the world
and destroy themselves, yet not God, who knoweth the secrets of all
hearts.—_Gr. Williams, 1636._
_Verse 2.—“They speak vanity.”_—
Faithless is earth, and faithless are the skies!
Justice is fled, and truth is now no more!
_Virgil’s Æneid_, IV. 373.
_Verse 2.—“With a double heart.”_ Man is nothing but insincerity,
falsehood, and hypocrisy, both in regard to himself and in regard to
others. He does not wish that he should be told the truth, he shuns
saying it to others; and all these moods, so inconsistent with justice
and reason, have their roots in his heart.—_Blaise Pascal._
_Verse 2.—“With flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.”_
There is no such stuff to make a cloak of as religion; nothing so
fashionable, nothing so profitable: it is a livery wherein a wise man
may serve two masters, God and the world, and make a gainful service by
either. I serve both, and in both myself, by prevaricating with both.
Before man none serves his God with more severe devotion: for which,
among the best of men, I work my own ends, and serve myself. In private,
I serve the world; not with so strict devotion, but with more delight;
where fulfilling of her servants’ lusts, I work my end and serve myself.
The house of prayer who more frequents than I? In all Christian duties
who more forward than I? I fast with those that fast, that I may eat
with those that eat. I mourn with those that mourn. No hand more open to
the cause than mine, and in their families none prays longer and with
louder zeal. Thus when the opinion of a holy life hath cried the
goodness of my conscience up, my trade can lack no custom, my wares can
want no price, my words can need no credit, my actions can lack no
praise. If I am covetous it is interpreted providence; if miserable, it
is counted temperance; if melancholy, it is construed godly sorrow; if
merry, it is voted spiritual joy; if I be rich, it is thought the
blessing of a godly life; if poor, supposed the fruit of conscionable
dealing; if I be well spoken of, it is the merit of holy conversation;
if ill, it is the malice of malignants. Thus I sail with every wind, and
have my end in all conditions. This cloak in summer keeps me cool, in
winter warm, and hides the nasty bag of all my secret lusts. Under this
cloak I walk in public fairly with applause, and in private sin securely
without offence, and officiate wisely without discovery. I compass sea
and land to make a proselyte; and no sooner made, but he makes me. At a
fast I cry Geneva, and at a feast I cry Rome. If I be poor, I
counterfeit abundance to save my credit; if rich, I dissemble poverty to
save charges. I most frequent schismatical lectures, which I find most
profitable; from thence learning to divulge and maintain new doctrines;
they maintain me in suppers thrice a week. I use the help of a lie
sometimes, as a new stratagem to uphold the gospel; and I colour
oppression with God’s judgments executed upon the wicked. Charity I hold
an extraordinary duty, therefore not ordinarily to be performed. What I
openly reprove abroad, for my own profit, that I secretly act at home,
for my own pleasure. But stay, I see a handwriting in my heart which
damps my soul. It is charactered in these said words, “Woe be to you,
hypocrites.” Matt. xxiii. 13.—_Francis Quarles’ “Hypocrite’s
Soliloquy.”_
_Verse 2.—“With flattering lips,”_ etc. The world indeed says that
society could not exist if there were perfect truthfulness and candour
between man and man; and that the world’s propriety would be as much
disturbed if every man said what he pleased, as it was in those days of
Israelitish history, when every man did that which was right in his own
eyes. The world is assuredly the best judge of its own condition and
mode of government, and therefore I will not say what a libel does such
a remark contain, but oh, what a picture does it present of the social
edifice, that its walls can be cemented and kept together only by
flattery and falsehood.—_Barton Bouchier._
_Verse 2.—“Flattering lips.”_ The philosopher Bion being asked what
animal he thought the most hurtful, replied, “That of wild creatures a
tyrant, and of tame ones a flatterer.” The flatterer is the most
dangerous enemy we can have. Raleigh, himself a courtier, and therefore
initiated into the whole art of flattery, who discovered in his own
career and fate its dangerous and deceptive power, its deep artifice and
deeper falsehood, says, “A flatterer is said to be a beast that biteth
smiling. But it is hard to know them from friends—they are so obsequious
and full of protestations; for, as a wolf resembles a dog, so doth a
flatterer a friend.”—_The Book of Symbols, 1844._
_Verse 2.—“They speak with a double heart.”_ The original is, “A heart
and a heart:” one for the church, another for the change; one for
Sundays, another for working-days; one for the king, another for the
pope. A man without a heart is a wonder, but a man with two hearts is a
monster. It is said of Judas “There were many hearts in one man;” and we
read of the saints, “There was one heart in many men.” Acts. iv. 32.
_Dabo illis cor unum_; a special blessing.—_Thomas Adams._
_Verse 2._—When men cease to be faithful to their God, he who expects to
find them so to each other will be much disappointed. The primitive
sincerity will accompany the primitive piety in her flight from the
earth; and then interest will succeed conscience in the regulation of
human conduct, till one man cannot trust another farther than he holds
him by that tie. Hence, by the way, it is, that though many are infidels
themselves, yet few choose to have their families and dependants such;
as judging, and rightly judging, that true Christians are the only
persons to be depended on for the exact discharge of social
duties.—_George Horne._
_Verse 3.—“The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips,”_ etc. They who
take pleasure in deceiving others, will at the last find themselves most
of all deceived, when the Sun of truth, by the brightness of his rising,
shall at once detect and consume hypocrisy.—_George Horne._
_Verse 3.—“Cut off lips and tongues.”_ May there not be here an allusion
to those terrible but suggestive punishments which Oriental monarchs
were wont to execute on criminals? Lips were cut off and tongues torn
out when offenders were convicted of lying or treason. So terrible and
infinitely more so are the punishments of sin.—_C. H. S._
_Verses 3, 4._—It need not now seem strange to tell you that the Lord is
the owner of our bodies, that he has so much propriety therein that they
are more his than ours. The apostle tells us as much. 1 Cor. vi. 20.
“Glorify God in your bodies which are his.” Our bodies and every member
thereof, are his: for if the whole be so, no part is exempted. And
therefore they spake proud things, and presumptuously usurped the
propriety of God, who said, “_Our lips are our own_;” as though their
lips had not been his who is Lord and Owner of all, but they had been
lords thereof, and might have used them as they list. This provoked God
to show what right he had to dispose of such lips and tongues, by
_cutting them off_.—_David Clarkson._
_Verse 4.—“Who have said, With our tongues will we prevail; who is Lord
over us?”_ So it was: twelve poor and unlearned men on the one side, all
the eloquence of Greece and Rome arrayed on the other. From the time of
Tertullus to that of Julian the apostate, every species of oratory,
learning, wit, was lavished against the church of God; and the result,
like the well-known story of that dispute between the Christian peasant
and the heathen philosopher, when the latter, having challenged the
assembled fathers of a synod to silence him, was put to shame by the
simple faith of the former “In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I
command thee to be dumb.” _Who is Lord over us?_ “Who is the Lord, that
I should obey his voice to let Israel go?” Ex. v. 2. “What is the
Almighty, that we should serve him?” Job. xxi. 15. “Who is that God that
shall deliver you?” Dan. iii. 15.—_Michael Ayguan, in J. M. Neale’s
Commentary._
_Verse 4.—“Our lips are our own.”_ If we have to do with God, we must
quit claim to ourselves and look on God as our owner; but this is fixed
in the hearts of men, We will be our own; we will not consent to the
claim which God makes to us: “_Our lips are our own._” Wicked men might
as well say the same thing of their whole selves; our bodies, strength,
time, parts, etc., are our own, and who is Lord over us?—_John Howe._
_Verse 4._—From the faults of the wicked we must learn three contrary
lessons; to wit: 1. That nothing which we have is our own. But, 2.
Whatsoever is given to us of God is for service to be done to him. 3.
That whatsoever we do or say, we have a Lord over us to whom we must be
answerable when he calleth us to account.—_David Dickson._
_Verse 5.—“For the oppression of the poor,”_ etc. When oppressors and
persecutors do snuff and puff at the people of God, when they defy them,
and scorn them, and think that they can with a blast of their breath
blow them away, then God will arise to judgment, as the Chaldee has it;
at that very nick of time when all seems to be lost, and when the poor,
oppressed, and afflicted people of God can do nothing but sigh and weep,
and weep and sigh, then the Lord will arise and ease them of their
oppressions, and make their day of extremity a glorious opportunity to
work for his own glory and his people’s good. Matt. xxii. 6, 7. “And the
remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.
But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his
armies and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.”—_Thomas
Brooks._
_Verse 5._—Fear ye, whosoever ye be, that do wrong the poor; you have
power and wealth, and the favour of the judges, but they have the
strongest weapons of all, sighings and groanings, which fetch help from
heaven for them. These weapons dig down houses, throw up foundations,
overthrow whole nations.—_Chrysostom._
_Verse 5.—“For the sighing of the needy now will I arise, saith the
Lord.”_ God is pleased to take notice of _every grace_, even the least
and lowest, and every gracious inclination in any of his servants. _To
fear his name_ is no great matter, yet these have a promise. _To think
on his name_ less, yet set down in a “book of remembrance.” God sets
down how many good _thoughts_ a poor soul hath had. As evil thoughts in
wicked men are taken notice of—they are the first fruits of the evil
heart (Matt. xv. 19)—so good thoughts are they which lie uppermost, and
best discover a good heart. _A desire_ is a small matter, especially of
the poor man, yet God regards the desire of the poor, and calls a good
desire the greatest kindness; “The desire of a man is his kindness.” _A
tear_ makes no great noise, yet hath a voice, “God hath heard the voice
of my weeping.” It is no pleasant water, yet God bottles it up. _A
groan_ is a poor thing, yet is the best part of a prayer sometimes (Rom.
viii. 26); _a sigh_ is less, yet _God is awakened and raised up by it_.
Psalm xii. 5. _A look_ is less than all these, yet this is regarded
(Jonah ii. 4); _breathing_ is less, yet (Lam. iii. 56), the church could
speak of no more; _panting_ is less than breathing, when one is spent
for lack of breath, yet this is all the godly can sometimes boast of.
Psalm xlii. 1. The description of a godly man is ofttimes made from his
least _quod sic_. Blessed are the _poor_, the _meek_, they that _mourn_,
and they who _hunger_ and _thirst_. Never did Hannah pray better than
when she could get out never a word, but cried, “Hard, hard heart.” Nor
did the publican, than when he smote his breast and cried, “Lord, be
merciful to me a sinner.” Nor Mary Magdalene, than when she came behind
Christ, sat down, wept, but kept silence. How sweet is music upon the
_waters_! How fruitful are the lowest valleys! Mourning hearts are most
musical, lowest most fruitful. The good shepherd ever takes most care of
his weak lambs and feeble sheep. The father makes most of the least, and
the mother looks most after the sick child. How comfortable is that of
our Saviour, “It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that
one of these little ones should perish!” And that heaven is not to be
entered but by such as are like the little child.—_John Sheffield,
1654._
_Verse 5.—“The oppression of the poor.”_ Insolent and cruel oppressing
of the poor is a sin that brings desolating and destroying judgments
upon a people. God sent ten wasting judgments one after another upon
Pharaoh, his people, and land, to revenge the cruel oppression of his
poor people. “Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the
afflicted in the gate: for the Lord will plead their cause.” Prov. xxii.
22, 23. To rob and oppress the rich is a great sin; but to rob and
oppress the poor is a greater; but to rob and oppress the poor because
he is poor, and wants money to buy justice, is the top of all inhumanity
and impiety. To oppress any one is sin; but to oppress the oppressed is
the height of sin. Poverty, and want, and misery, should be motives to
pity; but oppressors make them the whetstones of their cruelty and
severity, and therefore the Lord will plead the cause of his poor
oppressed people against their oppressors without fee or fear; yea, he
will plead their cause with pestilence, blood, and fire. Gog was a great
oppressor of the poor (Ezekiel xxxviii. 8-14), and God pleads against
him with pestilence, blood, and fire (verse 22); “and I will plead
against him, with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him,
and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an
overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire and brimstone.”—_Thomas
Brooks._
_Verse 6.—“The words of the Lord are pure words,”_ etc. How beautifully
is this verse introduced, by way of contrast to what was said before
concerning! Do sinners talk of vanity? let saints then speak of Jesus
and his gospel. Do they talk impure words? then let the faithful use the
pure words of God, which like silver, the more used, the more melted in
the fire, the more precious will they be. It is true, indeed, despisers
will esteem both God and his word as trifling; but oh, what an unknown
treasure doth the word, the promises, the covenant relation of the
divine things of Jesus contain! They are more to be desired than gold,
yea, than pure gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.—_Robert
Hawker._
_Verse 6.—“The words of the Lord are pure words,”_ etc. They that purify
silver to the purpose, use to put it in the fire again and again, that
it may be thoroughly tried. So is the truth of God; there is scarce any
truth but hath been tried over and over again, and still if any dross
happen to mingle with it, then God calls it in question again. If in
former times there have been Scriptures alleged that have not been
pertinent to prove it, that truth shall into the fire again, that what
is dross may be burnt up; the Holy Ghost is so curious, so delicate, so
exact, he cannot bear that falsehood should be mingled with the truths
of the gospel. That is the reason, therefore, why that God doth still,
age after age, call former things in question, because that there is
still some dross one way or other mingled with them; either in the
stating the opinions themselves, or else in the Scriptures that are
brought and alleged for them, that have passed for current, for he will
never leave till he have purified them. The doctrine of God’s free grace
hath been tried over, and over, and over again. Pelagius begins, and he
mingles his dross with it: he saith, grace is nothing but nature in man.
Well, his doctrine was purified, and a great deal of dross purged out.
Then come the semi-Pelagians, and they part stakes; they say, nature can
do nothing without grace, but they make nature to concur with grace, and
to have an influence as well as grace; and the dross of that was burnt
up. The Papists, they take up the same quarrel, but will neither be
Pelagians nor semi-Pelagians, yet still mingle dross. The Arminians,
they come, and they refine popery in that point anew; still they mingle
dross. God will have this truth tried seven times in the fire, till he
hath brought it forth as pure as pure may be. And I say it is because
that truth is thus precious.—_Thomas Goodwin._