is thirsty be brought to an ocean of pure water, and he has enough. If
there be enough in God to satisfy the angels, then sure there is enough
to satisfy us. The soul is but finite, but God is infinite. Though God
be a good that satisfies, yet he does not surfeit. Fresh joys spring
continually from his face; and he is as much to be desired after
millions of years by glorified souls as at the first moment. There is a
fulness in God that satisfies, and yet so much sweetness that the soul
still desires. God is a _delicious_ good. That which is the chief good
must ravish the soul with pleasure; there must be in it rapturous
delight and quintessence of joy. _In Deo quadam dulcedine delectatur
anima immo rapitur_: the love of God drops such infinite suavity into
the soul as is unspeakable and full of glory. If there be so much
delight in God, when we see him only by faith (1 Peter i. 8), what will
the joy of vision be, when we shall see him face to face! If the saints
have found so much delight in God while they were suffering, oh, what
joy and delight will they have when they are being crowned! If flames
are beds of roses, what will it be to lean on the bosom of Jesus! What a
bed of roses that will be! God is a _superlative_ good. He is better
than anything you can put in competition with him; he is better than
health, riches, honour. Other things maintain life, he gives life. Who
would put anything in balance with the Deity? Who would weigh a feather
against a mountain of gold? God excels all other things more infinitely
than the sun the light of a taper. God is an _eternal_ good. He is the
Ancient of days, yet never decays, nor waxes old. Daniel vii. 9. The joy
he gives is eternal, the crown fadeth not away. 1 Peter v. 4. The
glorified soul shall be ever solacing itself in God, feasting on his
love, and sunning itself in the light of his countenance. We read of the
river of pleasure at God’s right hand; but will not this in time be
dried up? No. There is a fountain at the bottom which feeds it. Psalm
xxxvi. 9. “With the Lord is a fountain of life.” Thus God is the chief
good, and the enjoyment of God for ever is the highest felicity of which
the soul is capable.—_Thomas Watson._
_Verse 15.—“When I awake,”_ etc. The sincere Christian is progressive,
never at his journey’s end till he gets to heaven; this keeps him always
in motion, advancing in his desires and endeavours forward: he is
thankful for little grace, but not content with great measures of grace.
“_When I awake_,” saith David, “_I shall be satisfied with thy
likeness._” He had many a sweet entertainment at the house of God in his
ordinances. The Spirit of God was the messenger that brought him many a
covered dish from God’s table, inward consolations which the world knew
not of. Yet David has not enough, it is heaven alone that can give him
his full draught. They say the Gauls, when they first tasted of the
wines of Italy, were so taken with their lusciousness and sweetness,
that they could not be content to trade thither for this wine, but
resolved they would conquer the land where they grew. Thus the sincere
soul thinks it not enough to receive a little now and then of grace and
comfort from heaven, by trading and holding commerce at a distance with
God in his ordinances here below, but projects and meditates a conquest
of that holy land and blessed place from which such rich commodities
come, that he may drink the wine of that kingdom in that
kingdom.—_William Gurnall._
_Verse 15.—“When I awake.”_ How apt and obvious is the analogy between
our awaking out of natural sleep, and the holy soul’s rising up out of
the darkness and torpor of its present state into the enlivening light
of God’s presence? It is truly said so to _awake_ at its first quitting
these darksome regions, when it lays aside its cumbersome night-veil. It
doth so more perfectly in the joyful morning of the resurrection-day
when mortality is swallowed up in life, and all the yet hovering shadows
of it are vanished and fled away. And how known and usual an application
this is of the metaphorical terms of sleeping and awaking in Holy Writ,
I need not tell them who have read the Bible. Nor doth this
interpretation less fitly accord to the other contents of this verse;
for to what state do the sight of God’s face, and satisfaction with his
likeness, so fully agree, as to that of future blessedness in the other
world? But then the contexture of discourse in this and the foregoing
verse together, seems plainly to determine us to this sense: for what
can be more conspicuous in them, than a purposed comparison, an
opposition of two states of felicity mutually to each other? That of the
wicked whom he calls _men of time_ (as the words מִמְתִים מֵחֶלֶד are
rendered by Pagninus—_Homines de tempore_—and do literally signify) and
whose portion, he tells us, is in this life: and the righteous man’s,
his own; which he expected not to be till he should awake, that is, not
till after his life.—_John Howe._
_Verse 15._—There is a sleep of deadness of spirit, out of which the
shining of God’s loving countenance doth awake a believer and revive the
spirit of the contrite ones; and there is a sleep of death bodily, out
of which the lovingkindness of the Lord shall awake all his own in the
day of the resurrection, when he shall so change them into the
similitude of his own holiness and glorious felicity that they shall be
fully contented for ever: and this first and second delivery out of all
trouble may every believer expect and promise to himself. “I shall be
satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.”—_David Dickson._
_Verse 15._—There is a threefold meaning in this verse, inasmuch as it
is in Christ alone, the firstborn from the dead, the express image of
Jehovah’s glory, that the saints will rise immortal, incorruptible, and
be like the angels in heaven. 1. They will greatly delight in the
glorious state in which they will rise. 2. They will greatly delight in
Jesus, in whom, and by whom, resurrection and immortality are brought to
light; and 3. They will delight greatly in beholding the blessed and
reconciled countenance of Jehovah, the Father, whom no eye of flesh can
see. This is the difference between the appearance of God to Israel on
Mount Sinai, and the happy state in which the saints will behold him in
the resurrection. Glorious as the scene on Sinai was, yet the Lord said
to Israel, “You have seen no תְּמוּנָה (_Temunah_), no manner of
similitude,” or likeness, or countenance; but David speaks of the
spiritual glory of the triumphant saints in the resurrection, when they
shall see Jehovah as he is, and rejoice in his beatific presence for
ever and ever.—_Benjamin Weiss, in loc. 1858._
_Verse 15._—Everlasting life and salvation in heaven, is not a truth
revealed only by the gospel, but was well known, clearly revealed, and
firmly believed, by the saints of old. They had assurance of this, that
they should live with God for ever in glory. “_When I awake, with thy
likeness._” Psalm xvii. 15. “Thou wilt receive me to glory.” Psalm
lxxiii. 24. “_In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there
are pleasures for evermore._” Psalm xvi. 11. They looked for another
country, whereof Canaan was but a type and shadow, as the apostle shows
in the epistle to the Hebrews, chap. xi. 16. They knew there was an
eternal state of happiness for the saints, as well as an eternal state
of misery for the wicked; they did believe this in those days.—_Samuel
Mather on the “Types,” 1705._
HINTS TO PREACHERS.
_Verse 1._—The voice of Jesus—our Righteousness, and our own voice. Work
out the thought of both coming up to the ear of heaven, noting the
qualities of our prayer as indicated by the psalmist’s language, such as
earnestness, perseverance, sincerity, etc.
_Verse 2.—“Let my sentence come forth from thy presence.”_ I. When it
will come. II. Who dare meet it _now_. III. How to be among them.
_Verse 3.—“Thou hast proved mine heart.”_ The metal, the furnace, the
refiner, etc.
_Verse 3.—“Thou hast visited me in the night.”_ I. Glorious visitor. II.
Favoured individual. III. Peculiar season. IV. Refreshing remembrance.
V. Practical result.
_Verse 3 (last sentence)._—Transgressions of the lip, and how to avoid
them.
_Verse 4._—The highway and the by-paths. _The world and sin._ “_The
paths of the destroyer_”—a significant name for transgression.
_Verse 5.—“Hold up.”_ I. Who? God. II. What? “_My goings._” III. When?
Present tense. IV. Where? “_In thy paths._” V. Why? “_That my footsteps
slip not._”
_Verse 5._—Let me observe David and learn to pray as he prayed, “Hold up
my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.” I. See his
_course_. He speaks of his “goings.” Religion does not allow a man to
sit still. He speaks of his goings “in God’s paths.” These are
threefold. (1). The path of his _commands_. (2). The path of his
_ordinances_. (3). The path of his _dispensations_. II. His _concern_
respecting this course. It is the language of—(1) _conviction_; (2) of
_apprehension_; (3) of _weakness_; (4) of _confidence_.—_William Jay._
_Verse 6._—_Two words_, both great, though little, “call” and “hear.”
_Two persons_, one little and the other great, “I,” “Thee, O God.” _Two
tenses_: past, “I have;” future, “Thou wilt.” _Two wonders_, that we do
not call more, and that God hears such unworthy prayers.
_Verse 7 (first sentence)._—See Exposition. A view of divine
lovingkindness desired.
_Verse 7.—“O thou,”_ etc. God, the Saviour of believers.
_Verse 8._—Two most suggestive emblems of tenderness and care. Involving
in the one case _living unity_, as the eye with the body, and in the
other, _loving relationship_, as the bird and its young.
_Verse 14.—“Men of the world, which have their portion in this life.”_
Who they are? What they have? Where they have it? What next?
_Verse 14.—“Men which are thy hand.”_ Providential control and use of
wicked men.
_Verse 15._—This is the language (1) of a man whose mind is made up; who
has decided for himself; who does not suspend his conduct upon the
resolution of others. (2) Of a man rising in life, and with great
prospects before him. (3) It is the language of a Jew.
_Verse 15._—_The beholding of God’s face_ signifies two things. I. The
enjoyment of his favour. II. Intimate communion with him.—_William Jay._
_Verse 15._—See “Spurgeon’s Sermons,” No. 25. Title, “The Hope of Future
Bliss.” Divisions. I. The Spirit of this utterance. II. The matter of
it. III. The contrast implied in it.
_Verse 15._—To see God and to be like him, the believer’s desire.—_J.
Fawcett._
PSALM XVIII.
TITLE.—“To the chief Musician, _a Psalm_ of David, the servant of the
Lord, who spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day _that_
the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the
hand of Saul.” _We have another form of this Psalm with significant
variations_ (2 Sam. xxii.), _and this suggests the idea that it was sung
by David at different times when he reviewed his own remarkable history,
and observed the gracious hand of God in it all. Like Addison’s hymn
beginning, “When all thy mercies, O my God,” this Psalm is the song of a
grateful heart overwhelmed with a retrospect of the manifold and
marvellous mercies of God. We will call it_ THE GRATEFUL RETROSPECT.
_The title deserves attention. David, although at this time a king,
calls himself_ “the servant of Jehovah,” _but makes no mention of his
royalty; hence we gather that he counted it a higher honour to be the
Lord’s servant than to be Judah’s king. Right wisely did he judge. Being
possessed of poetic genius, he served the Lord by composing this Psalm
for the use of the Lord’s house; and it is no mean work to conduct or to
improve that delightful part of divine worship, the singing of the
Lord’s praises. Would that more musical and poetical ability were
consecrated, and that our_ chief musicians _were fit to be trusted with
devout and spiritual psalmody. It should be observed that the words of
this song were not composed with the view of gratifying the taste of
men, but were_ spoken unto Jehovah. _It were well if we had a more
single eye to the honour of the Lord in our singing, and in all other
hallowed exercises. That praise is little worth which is not directed
solely and heartily to the Lord. David might well be thus direct in his
gratitude, for he owed all to his God, and in the day of his deliverance
he had none to thank but the Lord whose right hand had preserved him. We
too should feel that to God and God alone we owe the greatest debt of
honour and thanksgiving._
_If it be remembered that the second and the forty-ninth verses are both
quoted in the New Testament_ (Heb. ii. 13; Rom. xv. 9) _as the words of
the Lord Jesus, it will be clear that a greater than David is here.
Reader, you will not need our aid in this respect: if you know Jesus you
will readily find him in his sorrows, deliverance, and triumphs all
through this wonderful Psalm._
DIVISION.—_The first three verses are the proem or preface in which the
resolve to bless God is declared. Delivering mercy is most poetically
extolled from verse 4 to verse 19; and then the happy songster, from
verse 20 to 28, protests that God had acted righteously in thus
favouring him. Filled with grateful joy he again pictures his
deliverance, and anticipates future victories from verse 29-45; and in
closing speaks with evident prophetic foresight of the glorious triumphs
of the Messiah, David’s seed and the Lord’s anointed._
EXPOSITION.
I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD _is_ my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God,
my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my
salvation, _and_ my high tower.
3 I will call upon the LORD, _who is worthy_ to be praised: so shall
I be saved from mine enemies.
1. “_I will love thee, O Lord._” With strong, hearty affection will I
cling to thee; as a child to its parent, or a spouse to her husband. The
word is intensely forcible, the love is of the deepest kind. “I will
love heartily, with my inmost bowels.” Here is a fixed resolution to
abide in the nearest and most intimate union with the Most High. Our
triune God deserves the warmest love of all our hearts. Father, Son and
Spirit have each a claim upon our love. The solemn purpose never to
cease loving naturally springs from present fervour of affection. It is
wrong to make rash resolutions, but this when made in the strength of
God is most wise and fitting. “_My strength._” Our God is the strength
of our life, our graces, our works, our hopes, our conflicts, our
victories. This verse is not found in 1 Sam. xxii., and is a most
precious addition, placed above all and after all to form the pinnacle
of the temple, the apex of the pyramid. Love is still the crowning
grace.
2. “_The Lord is my rock and my fortress._” Dwelling among the crags and
mountain fastnesses of Judea, David had escaped the malice of Saul, and
here he compares his God to such a place of concealment and security.
Believers are often hidden in their God from the strife of tongues and
the fury of the storm of trouble. The clefts of the Rock of Ages are
safe abodes. “_My deliverer_,” interposing in my hour of peril. When
almost captured the Lord’s people are rescued from the hand of the
mighty by him who is mightier still. This title of “_deliverer_” has
many sermons in it, and is well worthy of the study of all experienced
saints. “_My God_;” this is all good things in one. There is a boundless
wealth in this expression; it means, my perpetual, unchanging, infinite,
eternal good. He who can say truly “my God,” may well add, “my heaven,
my all.” “_My strength_;” this word is really “_my rock_,” in the sense
of strength and immobility. My sure, unchanging, eternal confidence and
support. Thus the word rock occurs twice, but it is no tautology, for
the first time it is a rock for concealment, but here a rock for
firmness and immutability. “_In whom I will trust._” Faith must be
exercised, or the preciousness of God is not truly known; and God must
be the object of faith, or faith is mere presumption. “_My buckler_,”
warding off the blows of my enemy, shielding me from arrow or sword. The
Lord furnishes his warriors with weapons both offensive and defensive.
Our armoury is completely stored so that none need go to battle unarmed.
“_The horn of my salvation_,” enabling me to push down my foes, and to
triumph over them with holy exultation. “_My high tower_,” a citadel
high planted on a rocky eminence beyond the reach of my enemies, from
the heights of which I look down upon their fury without alarm, and
survey a wide landscape of mercy reaching even unto the goodly land
beyond Jordan. Here are many words, but none too many; we might
profitably examine each one of them had we leisure, but summing up the
whole, we may conclude with Calvin, that David here equips the faithful
from head to foot.
3. In this verse the happy poet resolves to invoke the Lord in joyful
song, believing that in all future conflicts his God would deal as well
with him as in the past. It is well to pray to God as to one who
deserves to be praised, for then we plead in a happy and confident
manner. If I feel that I can and do bless the Lord for all his past
goodness, I am bold to ask great things of him. That word So has much in
it. To be saved singing is to be saved indeed. Many are saved mourning
and doubting; but David had such faith that he could fight singing, and
win the battle with a song still upon his lips. How happy a thing to
receive fresh mercy with a heart already sensible of mercy enjoyed, and
to anticipate new trials with a confidence based upon past experiences
of divine love!
“No fearing or doubting with Christ on our side,
We hope to die shouting, ‘The Lord will provide.’”
4 The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men
made me afraid.
5 The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death
prevented me.
6 In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he
heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, _even_
into his ears.
7 Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the
hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.
8 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his
mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.
9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under
his feet.
10 And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the
wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him
_were_ dark waters _and_ thick clouds of the skies.
12 At the brightness _that was_ before him his thick clouds passed,
hail _stones_ and coals of fire.
13 The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his
voice; hail _stones_ and coals of fire.
14 Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out
lightnings, and discomfited them.
15 Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the
world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the
breath of thy nostrils.
16 He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated
me: for they were too strong for me.
18 They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the Lord was my
stay.
19 He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me,
because he delighted in me.
In most poetical language the Psalmist now describes his experience of
Jehovah’s delivering power. Poesy has in all her treasures no gem more
lustrous than the sonnet of the following verses; the sorrow, the cry,
the descent of the Divine One, and the rescue of the afflicted, are here
set to a music worthy of the golden harps. The Messiah our Saviour is
evidently, over and beyond David or any other believer, the main and
chief subject of this song; and while studying it we have grown more and
more sure that every line here has its deepest and profoundest
fulfilment in Him; but as we are desirous not to extend our comment
beyond moderate bounds, we must leave it with the devout reader to make
the very easy application of the passage to our once distressed but now
triumphant Lord.
4. “_The sorrows of death compassed me._” Death like a cruel conqueror
seemed to twist round about him the cords of pain. He was environed and
hemmed in with threatening deaths of the most appalling sort. He was
like a mariner broken by the storm and driven upon the rocks by dreadful
breakers, white as the teeth of death. Sad plight for the man after
God’s own heart, but thus it is that Jehovah dealeth with his sons.
“_The floods of ungodly men made me afraid._” Torrents of ungodliness
threatened to swamp all religion, and to hurry away the godly man’s hope
as a thing to be scorned and despised; so far was this threat fulfilled,
that even the hero who slew Goliath began to be afraid. The most
seaworthy bark is sometimes hard put to it when the storm fiend is
abroad. The most courageous man, who as a rule hopes for the best, may
sometimes fear the worst. Beloved reader, he who pens these lines has
known better than most men what this verse means, and feels inclined to
weep, and yet to sing, while he writes upon a text so descriptive of his
own experience. On the night of the lamentable accident at the Surrey
Music Hall, the floods of Belial were let loose, and the subsequent
remarks of a large portion of the press were exceedingly malicious and
wicked; our soul was afraid as we stood encompassed with the sorrows of
death and the blasphemies of the cruel. But oh, what mercy was there in
it all, and what honey of goodness was extracted by our Lord out of this
lion of affliction! Surely God hath heard me! Art thou in an ill plight?
Dear friend, learn thou from our experience to trust in the Lord
Jehovah, who forsaketh not his chosen.
5. “_The sorrows of hell compassed me about._” From all sides the
hell-hounds barked furiously. A cordon of devils hemmed in the hunted
man of God; every way of escape was closed up. Satan knows how to
blockade our coasts with the iron war-ships of sorrow, but, blessed be
God, the port of all prayer is still open, and grace can run the
blockade bearing messages from earth to heaven, and blessings in return
from heaven to earth. “_The snares of death prevented me._” The old
enemy hunts for his prey, not only with the dogs of the infernal kennel,
but also with the snares of deadly craft. The nets were drawn closer and
closer until the contracted circle completely prevented the escape of
the captive:—
“About me cords of hell were wound,
And snares of death my footsteps bound.”
Thus hopeless was the case of this good man, as hopeless as a case could
be, so utterly desperate that none but an almighty arm could be of any
service. According to the four metaphors which he employs, he was bound
like a malefactor for execution; overwhelmed like a shipwrecked mariner;
surrounded and standing at bay like a hunted stag; and captured in a net
like a trembling bird. What more of terror and distress could meet upon
one poor defenceless head?
6. “_In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God._”
Prayer is that postern gate which is left open even when the city is
straitly besieged by the enemy; it is that way upward from the pit of
despair to which the spiritual miner flies at once when the floods from
beneath break forth upon him. Observe that he _calls_, and then _cries_;
prayer grows in vehemence as it proceeds. Note also that he first
invokes his God under the name of Jehovah, and then advances to a more
familiar name, “_my God_;” thus faith increases by exercise, and he whom
we at first viewed as Lord is soon seen to be our God in covenant. It is
never an ill time to pray; no distress should prevent us from using the
divine remedy of supplication. Above the noise of the raging billows of
death, or the barking dogs of hell, the feeblest cry of a true believer
will be heard in heaven. “_He heard my voice out of his temple, and my
cry came before him, even into his ears._” Far up within the bejewelled
walls, and through the gates of pearl, the cry of the suffering
suppliant was heard. Music of angels and harmony of seraphs availed not
to drown or even to impair the voice of that humble call. The king heard
it in his palace of light unsufferable, and lent a willing ear to the
cry of his own beloved child. O honoured prayer, to be able thus through
Jesus’ blood to penetrate the very ears and heart of Deity. The voice
and the cry are themselves heard directly by the Lord, and not made to
pass through the medium of saints and intercessors; “My cry came before
_Him_;” the operation of prayer with God is immediate and personal. We
may cry with confident and familiar importunity, while our Father
himself listens.
7. There was no great space between the cry and its answer. The Lord is
not slack concerning his promise, but is swift to rescue his afflicted.
David has in his mind’s eye the glorious manifestations of God in Egypt,
at Sinai, and on different occasions to Joshua and the judges; and he
considers that his own case exhibits the same glory of power and
goodness, and that, therefore, he may accommodate the descriptions of
former displays of the divine majesty into his hymn of praise. “_Then
the earth shook and trembled._” Observe how the most solid and immovable
things feel the force of supplication. Prayer has shaken houses, opened
prison doors, and made stout hearts to quail. Prayer rings the alarm
bell, and the Master of the house arises to the rescue, shaking all
things beneath his tread. “_The foundations also of the hills moved and
were shaken, because of his wrath._” He who fixed the world’s pillars
can make them rock in their sockets, and can upheave the corner-stones
of creation. The huge roots of the towering mountains are torn up when
the Lord bestirs himself in anger to smite the enemies of his people.
How shall puny man be able to face it out with God when the very
mountains quake with fear? Let not the boaster dream that his present
false confidence will support him in the dread day of wrath.