of his belief couched all in one article, and that negative too, clean
contrary to the fashion of all creeds, “_There is no God._” The article
but one; but so many absurdities tied to the train of it, and itself so
irreligious, so prodigiously profane, that he dares not speak it out,
but saith it softly to himself, in secret, “_in his heart_.” So the text
yields these three points; Who is he? A “_fool_.” What he saith, “_no
God._” How he speaks it, “_in his heart_.” A fool, his bolt, and his
draught. I will speak of them severally.... There is a child in years,
and there is a child in manners, _ætate et moribus_, saith Aristotle. So
there is a fool; for fools and children both are called νηπιοι. There is
a fool in wit, and there is a fool in life; _stultus in scientia, et
stultus in conscientia_, a witless and a graceless fool. The latter is
worthy of the title as the first; both void of reason; not of the
faculty but of the use. Yea, the latter fool is indeed the more kindly
of the twain; for the sot would use his reason if he could; the sinner
will not though he may. It is not the natural, but the moral fool that
David means, the wicked and ungracious person, for so is the sense of
the original term.... It is time we leave the person, and come unto the
act. What hath this fool done? Surely nothing; he hath only _said_. What
hath he _said_? Nay, nothing either; he hath only _thought_: for to _say
in heart_, is but to _think_. There are two sorts of saying in the
Scripture, one meant indeed so properly, the other but in hope; one by
word of mouth, the other by thought of heart. You see the Psalmist means
here the second sort. The bolt the fool here shoots is atheism: he makes
no noise at the loss of it, as bowmen use; he draws and delivers
closely, and stilly, out of sight, and without sound: he saith, “_God is
not_,” but “_in heart_.” The heart hath a mouth; _intus est os cordis_,
saith Augustine. God, saith Cyprian, is _cordis auditor_, he hears the
heart; then belike it hath some speech. When God said to Moses, _quare
clamas_? why criest thou? we find no words he uttered: _silens auditur_,
saith Gregory, he is heard through saying nothing. There is a silent
speech (Psalm iv. 4), “Commune with your own heart,” saith David, “and
be still.” Speech is not the heart’s action, no more than meditation is
the mouth’s. But sometimes the heart and mouth exchange offices; _lingua
mea meditabitur_, saith David. Psalm xxxv. 28. There is _lingua
meditans_, a musing tongue; here is _cor loquens_, a speaking heart. And
to say the truth, the philosopher saith well, it is the heart doth all
things, _mens videt, mens audit, mens loquitur_. It is the heart that
speaks, the tongue is but the instrument to give the sound. It is but
the heart’s echo to repeat the words after it. Except when the tongue
doth run before the wit, the heart doth dictate to the mouth; it
suggests what it shall say. The heart is the soul’s herald: look what
she will have proclaimed, the heart reads it, and the mouth cries it.
The tongue saith nought but what the heart saith first. Nay, in very
deed, the truest and kindest speech is the heart’s. The tongue and lips
are Jesuits, they lease, and lie, and use equivocations: flattery, or
fear, or other by-respect, other wry respect adulterate their words. But
the heart speaks as it means, worth twenty mouths, if it could speak
audibly.—_Richard Clerke. D.D., 1634 (one of the translators of our
English Bible)._
_Verses 1, 4._—The Scripture gives this as a cause of the notorious
courses of wicked men, that “God is not in all their thoughts.” Psalm x.
4. They forget there is a God of vengeance and a day of reckoning. “_The
fool_” would needs enforce upon his heart, that “_there is no God_,” and
what follows: “_Corrupt they are, there is none doeth good: they eat up
my people as bread_,” etc. They make no more bones of devouring men and
their estates, than they make conscience of eating a piece of bread.
What a wretched condition hath sin brought man unto, that the great God
who “filleth heaven and earth” (Jer. xxiii. 24) should yet have no place
in the heart which he hath especially made for himself! The sun is not
so clear as this truth, that God is, for all things in the world are
because God is. If he were not, nothing could be. It is from him that
wicked men have that strength they have to commit sin, therefore sin
proceeds from atheism, especially these plotting sins; for if God were
more thought on, he would take off the soul from sinful contrivings, and
fix it upon himself.—_Richard Sibbes._
_Verse 2.—“To see if there were any that did understand ... seek God._”
None seek him aright, and as he ought to be sought, nor can do while
they live in sin; for men in seeking God fail in many things: as, First,
men seek him not for himself. Secondly, they seek him not alone, but
other things with him. Thirdly, they seek other things before him, as
worldlings do. Fourthly, they seek him coldly or carelessly. Fifthly,
they seek him inconstantly; example of Judas and Demas. Sixthly, they
seek him not in his word, as heretics do. Seventhly, they seek him not
in all his word, as hypocrites do. Lastly, they seek him not seasonably
and timely, as profane, impenitent sinners do; have no care to depend
upon God’s word, but follow their own lusts and fashions of this
world.—_Thomas Wilson, 1653._
_Verses 2, 3._—What was the issue of God’s so looking upon men? “_They
are all gone aside_,” that is, from him and his ways; “_They are
altogether become filthy_;” their practices are such as make them stink;
“_There is none that doeth good, no, not one_;” of so many millions of
men as are upon the earth, there is not one doeth good. There were men
of excellent parts then in the world, men of soul, but not one of them
did know God, or seek after God: Paul therefore hath laid it down for a
universal maxim, that the animal, natural, or intellectual man, receives
not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him,
and so are rejected by him.—_William Greenhill._
_Verse 3._—The ungodly are “vile” persons (Nah. i. 14). “I will make thy
grave; for thou art vile.” Sin makes men base, it blots their name, it
taints their blood: “_They are altogether become filthy_;” in the Hebrew
it is, they are become stinking. Call wicked men ever so bad, you cannot
call them out of their name; they are “swine” (Matt. vii. 6); “vipers”
(Matt. iii. 7); “devils” (John vi. 70). The wicked are the dross and
refuse (Psa. cxix. 119); and heaven is too pure to have any dross mingle
with it.—_Thomas Watson._
_Verse 3.—“Altogether become filthy.”_ Thus the Roman satirist describes
his own age:
“Nothing is left, nothing, for future times
To add to the full catalogue of crimes;
The baffled sons must feel the same desires,
And act the same mad follies as their sires,
Vice has attained its zenith.”
_Juvenal, Sat. 1._
_Verse 3.—“There is none that doeth good, no not one.”_ Origen maketh a
question how it could be said that there was none, neither among the
Jews nor Gentiles, that did any good; seeing there were many among them
which did clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and did other good things:
he hereunto maketh this answer:—That like as one that layeth a
foundation, and buildeth upon it a wall or two, yet cannot be said to
have built a house till he have finished it; so although those might do
some good things, yet they attained not unto perfect goodness, which was
only to be found in Christ. But this is not the apostle’s meaning only
to exclude men from the perfection of justice; for even the faithful and
believers were short of that perfection which is required; he therefore
showeth what men are by nature, all under sin and in the same state of
damnation, without grace and faith in Christ: if any perform any good
work, either it is of grace, and so not of themselves, or if they did it
by the light of nature, they did it not as they ought, and so it was far
from a good work indeed.—_Andrew Willet (1562-1621), on Romans iii. 10._
_Verse 4.—“Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge?_” Men’s ignorance
is the reason why they fear not what they should fear. Why is it that
the ungodly fear not sin? Oh, it’s because they know it not. “_Have the
workers of iniquity no knowledge?_” Sure enough they have none, for
“_they eat up my people as they eat bread_;” such morsels would scald
their mouths, they would not dare to be such persecutors and destroyers
of the people of God; they would be afraid to touch them if they did but
know what they did.—_Richard Alleine._
_Verse 4.—“Who eat up my people as they eat bread.”_—That is,
_quotidiè_, daily, saith Austin; as duly as they eat bread; or, with the
same eagerness and voracity. These man-eaters, these Λαοβόροι, cruel
cannibals, make no more conscience to undo a poor man, than to eat a
good meal when they are hungry. Like pickerels in a pond, or sharks in
the sea, they devour the poorer, as those do the lesser fishes; and that
many times with a plausible, invisible consumption; as the usurer, who,
like the ostrich, can digest any metal; but especially money.—_John
Trapp._
_Verse 4.—“Who eat up my people as they eat bread.”_ Oh, how few consult
and believe the Scriptures setting forth the enmity of wicked men
against God’s people! The Scripture tells us “_they eat up God’s people
as bread_,” which implies a strange inclination in them to devour the
saints, and that they take as great delight therein as a hungry man in
eating, and that it is natural to them to molest them. The Scripture
compares them, for their hateful qualities, to the lions and bears, to
foxes for subtlety, to wild bulls, to greedy swine, to scorpions, to
briers and thorns (grievous and vexing things). The Scripture represents
them as industrious and unwearied in their bloody enterprises, they
cannot sleep without doing mischief. Herodias had rather have the blood
of a saint than half a kingdom. Haman would pay a great fine to the king
that the scattered Jews (who keep not the king’s laws) may be cut off.
Wicked men will run the hazard of damning their own souls, rather than
not fling a dagger at the apple of God’s eye. Though they know what one
word—aha!—cost, yet they will break through all natural, civil, and
moral obligations, to ruin God’s people. The Holy Ghost calls them
“implacable” men, fierce and headstrong; they are like the hot oven for
fury, like the sea for boundless rage; yet “who hath believed” this
Scripture “report”? Did we believe what enemies all wicked men are unto
all saints, we should not lean to our own prudence and discretion to
secure us from any danger by these men; we would get an ark to secure us
from the deluge of their wrath; if at any time we be cast among them and
delivered, we would bless God with the three children, that the hot
fiery oven did not consume us; we would not wonder when we hear of any
of their barbarous cruelty, but rather wonder at God’s restraining them
every day; we would be suspicious of receiving hurt when cast among
light and frothy companions; we would shun their company as we do lions
and scorpions; we would never commit any trust or secret into their
hands; we would not be light-hearted whilst in their society; we would
not rely on their promises any more than we would on the promise of the
devil, their father; we would long for heaven, to be delivered from “the
tents of Kedar;” we would not count any of the saints secured from
danger, though related to any great wicked man; we would not twist
ourselves with them by matching ourselves or children to these sons and
daughters of Belial; neither would we make choice of devils to be our
servants.—_Lewis Stuckley._
_Verse 4._—This is an evil world. It hates the people of God. “Because
ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” John xv. 19.
Haman’s hatred was against the whole seed of the Jews. When you can find
a serpent without a sting, or a leopard without spots, then may you
expect to find a wicked world without hatred to the saints. Piety is the
target which is aimed at. “They are mine adversaries because I follow
the thing that good is.” Psalm xxxviii. 20. The world pretends to hate
the godly for something else, but the ground of the quarrel is holiness.
The world’s hatred is implacable: anger may be reconciled, hatred
cannot. You may as soon reconcile heaven and hell as the two seeds. If
the world hated Christ, no wonder that it hates us. “The world hated me
before it hated you.” John xv. 18. Why should any hate Christ? This
blessed Dove had no gall, this rose of Sharon did send forth a most
sweet perfume; but this shows the world’s baseness, it is a
Christ-hating and a saint-eating world.—_Thomas Watson._
_Verse 5.—“There were they in great fear.”_ That we may not mistake the
meaning of the point, we must understand that this faintheartedness and
cowardliness doth not always come upon presumptuous sinners when they
behold imminent dangers, for though none of them have true courage and
fortitude, yet many of them have a kind of desperate stoutness and
resolution when they do, as it were, see death present before their
faces; which proceedeth from a kind of deadness that is upon their
hearts, and a brawniness that hath overgrown their conscience to their
greater condemnation. But when it pleaseth the Lord to waken them out of
the dead slumber, and to set the worm of conscience awork within them,
then this doctrine holdeth true without any exception, that the boldest
sinners prove at length the basest cowards: and they that have been most
audacious in adventuring upon the most mischievous evils, do become of
all others most timorous when God’s revenging hand seizeth upon them for
the same.—_John Dod, 1547-1645._
_Verse 5.—“God is in the generation of the righteous;”_ that is, he
favours that generation or sort of men; God is in all generations, but
such he delights in most: the wicked have cause enough to fear those in
whom God delights.—_Joseph Caryl._
_Verse 5._—The King of Glory cannot come into the heart (as he is said
to come into the hearts of his people as such; Psalm xxiv. 9, 10), but
some glory of himself will appear; and as God doth accompany the word
with majesty because it is his word, so he doth accompany his own
children, and their ways, with majesty, yea, even in their greatest
debasements. As when Stephen was brought before the council as a
prisoner at the bar for his life, then God manifested his presence to
him, for it is said, “his face shone as the face of an angel of God.”
(Acts vi. 15); in a proportionable manner it is ordinarily true what
Solomon says of all righteous men, “A man’s wisdom makes his face to
shine.” Eccles. viii. 1. Thus Peter also speaks (1 Peter iv. 14): “If
you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you, for the
Spirit,” not only of God, or of grace, but “of glory, resteth upon you.”
And so in the martyrs; their innocency and carriage, and godly
behaviour, what majesty had it with it! What an amiableness in the sight
of the people, which daunted, dashed and confounded their most wretched
oppressors; so that although the wicked persecutors “_did eat up God’s
people as bread_” (verse 4), yet it is added that they were in great
fear upon this very account, that “_God is in the generation of the
just._” Verse 5. God stands, as it were, astonished at their dealings:
“_Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge_,” (so in the words afore)
“_that eat up my people as bread_,” and make no more ado of it than a
man doth that heartily eats of his meat? They seem to do thus, they
would carry it and bear it out; but for all that they are in great fear
whilst they do thus, and God strikes their hearts with terror then when
they most insult. Why? For, “_God is in the generation of, or dwelleth
in the just_,” and God gives often some glimmerings, hints, and warnings
to the wicked (such as Pilate had concerning Christ), that his people
are righteous. And this you may see in Phil. i. 28: “And in nothing
terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of
perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.” In that latter
passage, I observe that an assurance of salvation, and a spirit of
terror, and that of God, is given to either. In the Old Testament it is
recorded of David (1 Sam. xviii. 12), that although Saul hated him
(verse 9), and sought to destroy him (verses 10, 11), “yet Saul was
afraid of David, because the Lord was with him, and was departed from
Saul;” which is the reason in hand. God manifested his presence in
David, and struck Saul’s conscience with his godly and wise carriage,
and that made him afraid.—_Thomas Goodwin._
_Verse 6.—“Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is
his refuge.”_ In the fifty-third Psalm it is, “Thou hast put them to
shame, because God hath despised them.” Of course, the allusion is
totally different in each; in this Psalm it is the indignant
remonstrance of the Psalmist with “the workers of iniquity” for
undervaluing and putting God’s poor to shame; the other affirms the
final shame and confusion of the ungodly, and the contempt in which the
Lord holds them. In either case it sweetly illustrates God’s care of his
poor, not merely the poor in spirit, but literally the poor and lowly
ones, the oppressed and the injured. It is this character of God which
is so conspicuously delineated in his word. We may look through all the
Shasters and Vedas of the Hindoo, the Koran of the Mahometan, the
legislation of the Greek, and the code of the Roman, aye, and the Talmud
of the Jew, the bitterest of all; and not in one single line or page
shall we find a vestige or trace of that tenderness, compassion, or
sympathy for the wrongs, and oppressions, and trials, and sorrows of
God’s poor, which the Christian’s Bible evidences in almost every
page.—_Barton Bouchier._
_Verse 6.—“Ye have shamed.”_ Every fool that saith in his heart there is
no God, hath out of the same quiver a bolt to shoot at goodness. Barren
Michal hath too many sons, who, like their mother, jeer at holy
David.—_John Trapp._
_Verse 6._—“_Ye have shamed_,” saith he, “_the counsel of the poor_.”
There is nothing that wicked men do so despise as the making God a
refuge—nothing which they scorn in their hearts like it. “They shame
it,” saith he, “It is a thing to be cast out of all consideration. The
wise man trusts in his wisdom, the strong man in his strength, the rich
man in his riches; but this trusting in God is the foolishest thing in
the world.” The reasons of it are—1. They know not God; and it is a
foolish thing to trust one knows not whom. 2. They are enemies to God,
and God is their enemy; and they account it a foolish thing to trust
their enemy. 3. They know not the way of God’s assistance and help.
And—4. They seek for such help, such assistance, such supplies as God
will not give; to be delivered, to serve their lusts; to be preserved,
to execute their rage, filthiness, and folly. They have no other design
or end of these things; and God will give none of them. And it is a
foolish thing in any man to trust God to be preserved in sin. It is true
their folly is their wisdom, considering their state and condition. It
is a folly to trust in God to live in sin, and despise the counsel of
the poor.—_John Owen._
_Verse 6._—“_Ye have made a mock of the counsel of the poor_:” and why?
“_because the Lord is his trust._” This is the very true cause,
whatsoever other pretences there be. Whence observe this doctrine; that
true godliness is that which breeds the quarrel between God’s children
and the wicked. Ungodly men may say what they list, as, namely, that
they hate and dislike them for that they are proud and saucy in meddling
with their betters; for that they are so scornful and disdainful towards
their neighbours; for that they are malcontent, and turbulent, and I
know not what; but the true reason is yielded by the Lord in this place,
to wit, because they make him their stay and their confidence, and will
not depend upon lying vanities as the men of the world do.—_John Dod._
_Verse 6.—“The Lord is his refuge.”_—Be persuaded actually to hide
yourselves with Jesus Christ. To have a hiding-place and not to use it,
is as bad as to want one; fly to Christ; run into the holes of this
Rock.—_Ralph Robinson, 1656._
_Verse 7.—“O that the salvation,”_ etc. Like as when we be in quiet, we
do pray either nothing at all, or very coldly unto God; so in adversity
and trouble, our spirit is stirred up and enkindled to prayer, whereof
we do find examples everywhere in the Psalms of David: so that
affliction is as it were the sauce of prayer, as hunger is unto meat.
Truly their prayer is usually unsavoury who are without afflictions, and
many of them do not pray truly, but do rather counterfeit a prayer, or
pray for custom.—_Wolfgang Musculus, 1497-1563._
_Verse 7.—“Out of Zion.”_ Zion the church is no Saviour, neither dare we
trust in her ministers or ordinances, and yet salvation comes to men
through her. The hungry multitudes are fed by the hands of the
disciples, who delight to act as the servitors of the gospel feast. Zion
becomes the site of the fountain of healing waters which shall flow east
and west till all nations drink thereat. What a reason for maintaining
in the utmost purity and energy all the works of the church of the
living God!—_C. H. S._
_Verse 7.—“When the Lord turneth the captivity of his people: then shall
Jacob rejoice and Israel shall be glad.”_—Notice that by Israel we are
to understand those other sheep which the Lord has that are not of this
fold, but which he must also bring, that they may hear his voice. For it
is Israel, not Judah; Sion, not Jerusalem. “_When the Lord turneth the
captivity of his people._” “_Then_,” as it is in the parallel passage,
“_were we like unto them that dream._” A glorious dream indeed, in
which, fancy what we may, the half of the beauty, the half of the
splendour, will not be reached by our imagination. “_The captivity_” of
our souls to the law of concupiscence, of our bodies to the law of
death; the captivity of our senses to fear; the captivity, the
conclusion of which is so beautifully expressed by one of our greatest
poets:—namely, _Giles Fletcher (1588-1623), in his “Christ’s Triumph
over Death.”_
“No sorrow now hangs clouding on their brow;
No bloodless malady impales their face;
No age drops on their hairs his silver snow;
No nakedness their bodies doth embrace;
No poverty themselves and theirs disgrace;
No fear of death the joy of life devours;
No unchaste sleep their precious time deflowers;
No loss, no grief, no change, wait on their winged hours.”
_John Mason Neale, in loc._
HINTS TO PREACHERS.
_Verse 1 (first clause)._—The folly of atheism.
_Verse 1._—Atheism of the heart.—_Jamieson’s Sermons on the Heart._
_Verse 1 (whole verse)._—Describe: I. The creed of the fool. II. The
fool who holds the creed: or thus, Atheism. I. Its source: “_the
heart_.” II. Its creed: “_no God_.” III. Its fruits: “_corrupt_,” etc.
_Verse 1._—I. The great source of sin—alienation from God. II. Its place
of dominion—the heart. III. Its effect upon the intellect—makes man a
fool. IV. Its manifestations in the life—acts of commission and
omission.
_Verse 1 (last clause)._—The lantern of Diogenes. Hold it up upon all
classes, and denounce their sins.
_Verse 2._—I, Condescending search. II. Favoured subjects. III. Generous
intentions.
_Verse 2._—What God looks for, and what we should look for. Men usually
are quick to see things congruous to their own character.
_Verses 2, 3._—God’s search for a naturally good man; the results;
lessons to be learned therefrom.
_Verse 3._—Total depravity of the race.
_Verse 4.—“Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge?”_ If men
rightly knew God, his law, the evil of sin, the torment of hell, and
other great truths, would they sin as they do? Or if they know these and
yet continue in their iniquities, how guilty and foolish they are!
Answer the question both positively and negatively, and it supplies
material for a searching discourse.
_Verse 4. (first clause)._—The crying sin of transgressing against light
and knowledge.
_Verse 4 (last clause)._—Absence of prayer, a sure mark of a graceless
state.
_Verse 5._—The foolish fears of those who have no fear of God.
_Verse 5._—The Lord’s nearness to the righteous, its consequences to the
persecutor, and its encouragement to saints.
_Verse 6._—The wisdom of making the Lord our refuge.—_John Owen._
_Verse 6._—Describe I. The poor man here intended. II. His counsel. III.
His reproach. IV. His refuge.
_Verse 6._—Trust in God, a theme for mockery to fools only. Show its
wisdom.
_Verse 7._—Longings for the Advent.
_Verse 7.—“Out of Zion.”_ The church, the channel of blessings to men.
_Verse 7._—Discourse to promote revival. I. Frequent condition of the
church, “captivity.” II. Means of revival—the Lord’s coming in grace.
III. Consequences, “rejoice,” “be glad.”
_Verse 7._—Captivity of soul. What it is. How provided for. How
accomplished. With what results.
PSALM XV.
SUBJECT, &c.—_This Psalm of David bears no dedicatory title at all
indicative of the occasion upon which it was written, but it is
exceedingly probable that, together with the twenty-fourth Psalm, to
which it bears a striking resemblance, its composition was in some way
connected with the removal of the ark to the holy hill of Zion. Who
should attend upon the ark was a matter of no small consequence, for
because unauthorised persons had intruded into the office, David was
unable on the first occasion to complete his purpose of bringing the ark
to Zion. On the second attempt he is more careful, not only to allot the
work of carrying the ark to the divinely appointed Levites_ (_1 Chron._
xv. 2), _but also to leave it in charge of the man whose house the Lord
had blessed, even Obededom, who, with his many sons, ministered in the
house of the Lord._ (_1 Chron._ xxvi. 8, 12.) _Spiritually we have here
a description of the man who is a child at home in the Church of God on
earth, and who will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever above. He is
primarily Jesus, the perfect man, and in him all who through grace are
conformed to his image._
DIVISION.—_The first verse asks the question; the rest of the verses
answer it. We will call the Psalm_ THE QUESTION AND ANSWER.
EXPOSITION.