testimony from his experience. “_The Lord is my strength._” The Lord
employs his power on our behalf, and moreover, infuses strength into us
in our hour of weakness. The Psalmist, by an act of appropriating faith,
takes the omnipotence of Jehovah to be his own. Dependence upon the
invisible God gives great independence of spirit, inspiring us with
confidence more than human. “_And my shield._” Thus David found both
sword and shield in his God. The Lord preserves his people from
unnumbered ills; and the Christian warrior, sheltered behind his God, is
far more safe than the hero when covered with his shield of brass or
triple steel. “_My heart trusted in him, and I am helped._” Heart work
is sure work; heart trust is never disappointed. Faith must come before
help, but help will never be long behind-hand. Every day the believer
may say, “I am helped,” for the divine assistance is vouchsafed us every
moment, or we should go back unto perdition; when more manifest help is
needed, we have but to put faith into exercise, and it will be given us.
“_Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise
him._” The heart is mentioned twice to show the truth of his faith and
his joy. Observe the adverb “_greatly_,” we need not be afraid of being
too full of rejoicing at the remembrance of grace received. We serve a
great God, let us greatly rejoice in him. A song is the soul’s fittest
method of giving vent to its happiness, it were well if we were more
like the singing lark, and less like the croaking raven. When the heart
is glowing, the lips should not be silent. When God blesses us, we
should bless him with all our heart.
8. “_The Lord is their strength._”—The heavenly experience of one
believer is a pattern of the life of all. To all the militant church,
without exception, Jehovah is the same as he was to his servant David,
“the least of them shall be as David.” They need the same aid and they
shall have it, for they are loved with the same love, written in the
same book of life, and one with the same anointed Head. “_And he is the
saving strength of his anointed._” Here behold king David as the type of
our Lord Jesus, our covenant Head, our anointed Prince, through whom all
blessings come to us. He has achieved full salvation for us, and we
desire saving strength from him, and as we share in the unction which is
so largely shed upon him, we expect to partake in his salvation. Glory
be unto the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has magnified
the power of his grace in his only begotten Son, whom he has anointed to
be a Prince and a Saviour unto his people.
9 Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and
lift them up for ever.
9. This is a prayer for the church militant, written in short words, but
full of weighty meaning. We must pray for the whole church, and not for
ourselves alone. “_Save thy people._” Deliver them from their enemies,
preserve them from their sins, succour them under their troubles, rescue
them from their temptations, and ward off from them every ill. There is
a plea hidden in the expression, “_thy people_;” for it may be safely
concluded that God’s interest in the church, as his own portion, will
lead him to guard it from destruction. “_Bless thine inheritance._”
Grant positive blessings, peace, plenty, prosperity, happiness; make all
thy dearly-purchased and precious heritage to be comforted by thy
Spirit. Revive, refresh, enlarge and sanctify thy church. “_Feed them
also._” Be a shepherd to thy flock, let their bodily and spiritual wants
be plentifully supplied. By thy word, and ordinances, direct, rule,
sustain, and satisfy those who are the sheep of thy hand. “_And lift
them up for ever._” Carry them in thine arms on earth, and then lift
them into thy bosom in heaven. Elevate their minds and thoughts,
spiritualise their affections, make them heavenly, Christlike, and full
of God. O Lord, answer this our petition, for Jesus’ sake.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.
_Verse 1.—“Unto thee do I cry.”_ It is of the utmost importance that we
should have a _definite object_ on which to fix our thoughts. Man, at
the best of times, has but little power for realising abstractions; but
least of all in his time of sorrow. Then he is helpless; then he needs
every possible aid; and if his mind wander in vacancy, it will soon
weary, and sink down exhausted. God has graciously taken care that this
need not be done. He has so manifested himself to man in his word, that
the afflicted one can fix his mind’s eye on him, as the definite object
of his faith, and hope, and prayer. “Call unto _me_, and _I_ will answer
thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”
Jer. xxxiii. 3. This was what the Psalmist did; and the definiteness of
God, as the object of his trust in prayer, is very clearly marked. And
specially great is the privilege of the _Christian_ in this matter. He
can fix his eye on Jesus; he, without any very great stretch of
imagination, can picture that Holy One looking down upon him; listening
to him; feeling for him; preparing to answer him. Dear reader, in the
time of your trouble, do not roam; do not send out your sighs into
vacancy; do not let your thoughts wander, as though they were looking
for some one on whom to fix; for some one to whom you could tell the
story of your heart’s need and desolation. Fix your heart as the
Psalmist did, and say, “Unto _thee_ will I cry.”... Oh! how happy is
that man, who feels and knows that when trouble comes, he cannot be
bewildered and confused by the stroke, no matter how heavy it may be.
Sorrow-stricken he will be, but he has his resource, and he _knows_ it,
and will avail himself of it. His is no vague theory of the general
sympathy of God for man; his is a knowledge of God, as a personal and
feeling God; he says with the Psalmist, “Unto _thee_ will I
cry.”—_Philip Bennett Power._
_Verse 1.—“My rock.”_ One day a female friend called on the Rev. William
Evans, a pious minister in England, and asked how he felt himself. “I am
weakness itself,” he replied; “but I am on the _Rock_. I do not
experience those transports which some have expressed in the view of
death; but my dependence is on the mercy of God in Christ. Here my
religion began, and here it must end.”
_Verse 1.—“My rock.”_ The Rev. John Rees, of Crown Street, Soho, London,
was visited on his death-bed by the Rev. John Leifchild, who very
seriously asked him to describe the state of his mind. This appeal to
the honour of his religion roused him, and so freshened his dying lamp,
that raising himself up in his bed, he looked his friend in the face,
and with great deliberation, energy, and dignity, uttered the following
words:—“Christ in his person, Christ in the love of his heart, and
Christ in the power of his arm, is the Rock on which I rest; and now”
(reclining his head gently on the pillow), “Death, strike!”—_K. Arvine._
_Verse 1.—“Be not silent to me.”_ Let us next observe _what the heart
desires from God_. It is that he would speak. “_Be not silent to me._”
Under these circumstances, when we make our prayer, we desire that God
would let us know that he hears us, and that he would appear for us, and
that he would say, he is our Father. And what do we desire God to say?
We want him to let us know that he hears us; we want to hear him speak
as distinctly to us, as we feel that we have spoken to him. We want to
_know_, _not only by faith_ that we have been heard, but _by God’s
having spoken to us on the very subject whereupon we have spoken to
him._ When we feel thus assured that God has heard us, we can with the
deepest confidence leave the whole matter about which we have been
praying, in his hands. Perhaps an answer cannot come for a long time;
perhaps things, meanwhile, seem working in a contrary way; it may be,
that there is no direct appearance at all of God upon the scene; still
faith will hold up and be strong; and there will be comfort in the
heart, from the felt consciousness that God has heard our cry about the
matter, and that he has told us so. We shall say to ourselves, “God
knows all about it; God has in point of fact told me so; therefore I am
in peace.” And let it be enough for us that God tells us this, when he
will perhaps tell us no more; let us not want to try and induce him to
speak much, when it is his will to speak but little: the best answer we
can have at certain times is simply the statement that “he hears;” by
this answer to our prayer he at once encourages and exercises our faith.
“It is said,” said Rutherford, speaking of the Saviour’s delay in
responding to the request of the Syrophenician woman, “‘_he answered_
not a word,’ but it is not said, he _heard_ not a word. These two differ
much. Christ often heareth when he doth not answer—his _not_ answering
_is an answer_, and speaks thus—‘pray on, go on and cry, for the Lord
holdeth his door fast bolted, not to keep you out, but that you may
knock, and knock, and it shall be opened.’”—_Philip Bennett Power._
_Verse 1.—“Lest ... I become like them that go down into the pit.”_ Thou
seest, great God, my sad situation. Nothing to me is great or desirable
upon this earth but the felicity of serving thee, and yet the misery of
my destiny, and the duties of my state, bring me into connection with
men who regard all godliness as a thing to be censured and derided. With
secret horror I daily hear them blaspheming the ineffable gifts of thy
grace, and ridiculing the faith and fervour of the godly as mere
imbecility of mind. Exposed to such impiety, all my consolation, O my
God, is to make my cries of distress ascend to the foot of thy throne.
Although for the present, these sacrilegious blasphemies only awaken in
my soul emotions of horror and pity, yet I fear that at last they may
enfeeble me and seduce me into a crooked course of policy, unworthy of
thy glory, and of the gratitude which I owe to thee. I fear that
insensibly I may become such a coward as to blush at thy name, such a
sinner as to resist the impulses of thy grace, such a traitor as to
withhold my testimony against sin, such a self-deceiver as to disguise
my criminal timidity by the name of prudence. Already I feel that this
poison is insinuating itself into my heart, for while I would not have
my conduct resemble that of the wicked who surround me, yet I am too
much biassed by the fear of giving them offence. I dare not imitate
them, but I am almost as much afraid of irritating them. I know that it
is impossible both to please a corrupt world and a holy God, and yet I
so far lose sight of this truth, that instead of sustaining me in
decision, it only serves to render my vacillation the more inexcusable.
What remains for me but to implore thy help! Strengthen me, O Lord,
against these declensions so injurious to thy glory, so fatal to the
fidelity which is due to thee. Cause me to hear thy strengthening and
encouraging voice. If the voice of thy grace be not lifted up in my
spirit, reanimating my feeble faith, I feel that there is but a step
between me and despair. I am on the brink of the precipice, I am ready
to fall into a criminal complicity with those who would fain drag me
down with them into the pit.—_Jean Baptiste Massillon_, 1663-1742,
_freely translated by C. H. S._
_Verse 2.—“I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle.”_ Called דְּבִיר,
_debhir_, because there-hence God spake and gave answer. Toward this (a
type of Christ, the Word essential), David lifteth up his hands, that it
might be as a ladder, whereby his prayer might get up to heaven.—_John
Trapp._
_Verse 3.—“Draw me not away with the wicked ... which speak peace to
their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts.”_ The godly man
abhors dissimulation towards men; his heart goes along with his tongue,
he cannot flatter and hate, commend and censure. “Let love be without
dissimulation.” Romans xii. 9. Dissembled love is worse than hatred;
counterfeiting of friendship is no better than a lie (Psalm lxxviii.
36), for there is a pretence of that which is not. Many are like Joab:
“He took Amasa by the beard to kiss him, and smote him with his sword in
the fifth rib, that he died.” There is a river in Spain, where the fish
seem to be of a golden colour, but take them out of the water, and they
are like other fish. All is not gold that glitters; there are some
pretend much kindness, but they are like great veins which have little
blood; if you lean upon them they are as a leg out of joint. For my
part, I much question his truth towards God, that will flatter and lie
to his friend. “He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that
uttereth a slander is a fool.” Proverbs x. 18.—_Thomas Watson._
_Verse 3.—“Draw me not out with.”_ An allusion, I conceive, to a
shepherd selecting out a certain portion of his flock. “_Reckon me not
among._”—_Professor Lee._
_Verse 3.—“Draw me not away.”_ אַל־תִּמְשְׁכֵנִי from מָשַׁךְ; that
signifies, both to draw and apprehend, will be best rendered here,
_seize not on me_, as he that _seizeth_ on any to _carry_ or _drag_ him
to _execution_.—_Henry Hammond._
_Verse 4.—“Give them according to their deeds_,” etc. Here, again,
occurs the difficult question about praying for vengeance, which,
however, I shall despatch in a few words. In the first place, then, it
is unquestionable, that if the flesh move us to seek revenge, the desire
is wicked in the sight of God. He not only forbids us to imprecate evil
upon our enemies in revenge for private injuries, but it cannot be
otherwise than that all those desires which spring from hatred must be
disordered. David’s example, therefore, must not be alleged by those who
are driven by their own intemperate passion to seek vengeance. The holy
prophet is not inflamed here by his own private sorrow to devote his
enemies to destruction; but laying aside the desire of the flesh, he
gives judgment concerning the matter itself. Before a man can,
therefore, denounce vengeance against the wicked, he must first shake
himself free from all improper feelings in his own mind. In the second
place prudence must be exercised, that the heinousness of the evils
which offend us drive us not to intemperate zeal, which happened even to
Christ’s disciples, when they desired that fire might be brought from
heaven to consume those who refused to entertain their Master. Luke ix.
54. They pretended, it is true, to act according to the example of
Elias, but Christ severely rebuked them, and told them that they knew
not by what spirit they were actuated. In particular, we must observe
this general rule, that we cordially desire and labour for the welfare
of the whole human race. Thus it will come to pass, that we shall not
only give way to the exercise of God’s mercy, but shall also wish the
conversion of those who seem obstinately to rush upon their own
destruction. In short, David, being free from every evil passion, and
likewise endued with the spirit of discretion and judgment, pleads here
not so much his own cause as the cause of God. And by this prayer, he
further reminds both himself and the faithful, that although the wicked
may give themselves loose reins in the commission of every species of
vice with impunity for a time, they must at length stand before the
judgment-seat of God.—_John Calvin._
_Verse 4.—“Give them according to their deeds, and according to the
wickedness of their endeavours.”_ Yes, great God, since thou hast from
the beginning been only occupied in saving men, thou wilt surely strike
with an eternal malediction these children of iniquity who appear to
have been born only to be lost themselves, and to destroy others. Thy
very benevolence towards mankind solicits thy thunders against these
corrupters of society. The more thou hast done for our race, the more
surely will the severity of thy justice reveal itself in destroying the
wretches whose only study is to counteract thy goodness towards mankind.
They labour incessantly to put men far away from thee, O my God, and in
return thou wilt put them far away from thee for ever. They count it
great gain to make their fellows thine enemies, and they shall have the
desperate consolation of being such themselves to all eternity. What
more fitting punishment for the wretches who desire to make all hearts
rebel against thine adorable Majesty, than to lie through the baseness
of their nature, under the eternal and frightful necessity of hating
thee for ever.—_Jean Baptiste Massillon, rendered, very freely by C. H.
S._
_Verse 4.—“Give them according to their deeds.”_ The _Egyptians_ killed
the Hebrew male children, and God smote the firstborn of Egypt.
_Sisera_, who thought to destroy Israel with his iron chariots, was
himself killed with an iron nail, stuck through his temples.
_Adoni-bezek_, Judges i. 5-7. _Gideon_ slew forty elders of Succoth, and
his sons were murdered by Abimelech. _Abimelech_ slew seventy sons of
Gideon upon one stone, and his own head was broken by a piece of
millstone thrown by a woman. _Samson_ fell by the “lust of the eye,” and
before death the Philistines put out his eyes. _Agag_, 1 Sam. xx. 33.
_Saul_ slew the Gibeonites, and seven of his sons were hung up before
the Lord. 2 Sam. xxi. 1-9. _Ahab_, after coveting Naboth’s vineyard, 1
Kings xxi. 19, fulfilled 2 Kings ix. 24-26. _Jeroboam_, the same hand
that was stretched forth against the altar was withered, 1 Kings xiii.
1-6. _Joab_ having killed Abner, Amasa, and Absalom, was put to death by
Solomon. _Daniel’s accusers_ thrown into the lions’ den meant for
Daniel. _Haman_ hung upon the gallows designed for Mordecai. _Judas_
purchased the field of blood, and then went and hanged himself. So in
the history of _later days_, Bajazet was carried about by Tamerlane in
an iron cage, as he intended to have carried Tamerlane. _Mazentius_
built a bridge to entrap Constantine, and was overthrown himself on that
very spot. _Alexander VI._ was poisoned by the wine he had prepared for
another. _Charles IX._ made the streets of Paris to stream with
Protestant blood, and soon after blood streamed from all parts of his
body in a bloody sweat. _Cardinal Beaton_ condemned George Wishart to
death, and presently died a violent death himself; he was murdered in
bed, and his body was laid out in the same window from which he had
looked upon Wishart’s execution.—_G. S. Bowes, in “Illustrative
Gatherings.”_
_Verse 4.—“Render to them their desert.”_ Meditate on God’s
righteousness, that it is not only his will, but his nature to punish
sin; sin must damn thee without Christ, there is not only a possibility
or probability that sin may ruin, but without an interest in Christ it
must do so; whet much upon thy heart that _must_; God cannot but hate
sin, because he is holy; and he cannot but punish sin, because he is
righteous. God must not forego his own nature to gratify our
humours.—_Christopher Fowler, in “Morning Exercises,”_ 1676.
_Verse 4._—He prayeth against his enemies, not out of any private
revenge, but being led by the infallible spirit of prophecy, looking
through these men to the enemies of Christ, and of his people in all
ages.—_David Dickson._
_Verses 4, 5._—In these verses, as indeed in most of the imprecatory
passages, the imperative and the future are used promiscuously: “_Give
them——render them——he shall destroy them_.” If therefore, the verbs, in
all such passages, were uniformly rendered in the “future,” every
objection against the Scripture imprecations would vanish at once, and
they would appear clearly to be what they are, namely, prophecies of the
divine judgments, which have been since executed against the Jews, and
which will be executed against all the enemies of Jehovah, and his
Christ; whom neither the “works” of creation, nor those of redemption,
can lead to repentance.—_George Horne._
_Verse 6.—“He hath heard.”_ Prayer is the best remedy in a calamity.
This is indeed a true _catholicum_, a general remedy for every malady.
Not like the empiric’s _catholicum_, which sometimes may work, but for
the most part fails: but that which upon assured evidence and constant
experience hath its _probatum est_; being that which the most wise,
learned, honest, and skilful Physician that ever was, or can be, hath
prescribed—even he that teacheth us how to bear what is to be borne, or
how to heal and help what hath been borne.—_William Gouge._
_Verse 7.—“The Lord is my strength.”_ Oh, sweet consolation! If a man
have a burthen upon him, yet if he have _strength_ added to him, if the
burthen be doubled, yet if his _strength_ be trebled, the burden will
not be heavier, but lighter than it was before to his natural strength;
so if our afflictions be heavy, and we cry out, Oh, we cannot bear them!
yet if we cannot bear them with our own strength, why may we not bear
them with the strength of Jesus Christ? Do we think that Christ could
not bear them? or if we dare not think but that Christ could bear them,
why may not we come to bear them? Some may question, can we have the
strength of Christ? Yes; that very strength is made over to us by faith,
for so the Scripture saith frequently, _The Lord is our strength_; _God
is our strength_; _The Lord Jehovah is our strength_; _Christ is our
strength_ (Psalm xxviii. 7; xliii. 2; cxviii. 14; Isaiah xii. 2; Hab.
iii. 19; Col. i. 11); and, therefore, is Christ’s strength ours, made
over unto us, that we may be able to bear whatsoever lies upon
us.—_Isaac Ambrose._
_Verse 7.—“The Lord is my strength”_ inwardly, “_and my shield_”
outwardly. Faith finds both these in Jehovah, and the one not without
the other, for what is a shield without strength, or strength without a
shield? “_My heart trusted in him, and I am helped_:” the idea of the
former sentence is here carried out, that outward help was granted to
inward confidence.—_W. Wilson, D.D._
_Verse 7.—“My heart trusted in him, and I am helped.”_ Faith
substantiateth things not yet seen; it altereth the tenses, saith one,
and putteth the future into the present tense as here.—_John Trapp._
_Verse 8.—“The Lord is their strength:”_ not mine only, but the strength
of every believer. Note—the saints rejoice in their friends’ comforts as
well as their own; for as we have not the less benefit by the light of
the sun, so neither by the light of God’s countenance, for others
sharing therein; for we are sure there is enough for all, and enough for
each. This is our communion with all saints, that God is their strength
and ours; Christ their Lord and ours. 1 Cor. i. 2. He is their strength,
the strength of all Israel, because he is the saving strength of “_his
anointed_,” _i.e._, 1. Of David in the type: God in strengthening him
that was their king and fought their battles, strengthened the whole
kingdom. He calls himself God’s anointed, because it was the unction he
had received that exposed him to the envy of his enemies, and therefore
entitled him to the divine protection. 2. Of Christ, his Anointed, his
Messiah, in the antitype. God was his “_saving strength_,” qualified him
for his undertaking, and carried him through it.—_Matthew Henry._
_Verse 9.—“Lift them up.”_ The word here used may mean _sustain_ them,
or _support_ them; but it more properly means _bear_, and would be best
expressed by a reference to the fact, that the shepherd carries the
feeble, the young, and the sickly of his flock in his arms, or that he
lifts them up when unable themselves to rise.—_Albert Barnes._
HINTS TO PREACHERS.
_Verse 1 (first clause)._—A sinner’s wise resolution in the hour of
despondency.
_Verse 1._—The saint’s fear of becoming like the ungodly.
_Verse 1._—God’s silence—what terror may lie in it.
_Verse 1 (last clause)._—How low a soul may sink when God hides his
face.
_Verses 1, 2._—Prayer. I. _Its nature—a “cry.”_ 1. The utterance of
life. 2. The expression of pain. 3. The pleading of need. 4. The voice
of deep earnestness. II. _Its object—“O Lord, my rock.”_ God is our
Foundation, Refuge, and immutable Friend. III. _Its aim—“Hear,” “Be not
silent.”_ We expect an answer, a clear and manifest answer, a speedy
answer, a suitable answer, an effectual answer. IV. _Its medium—“Toward
thy holy oracle.”_ Our Lord Jesus, the true mercy seat, etc.
_Verse 3._—The characters to be avoided, the doom to be dreaded, the
grace to keep us from both.
_Verse 4._—Measure for measure, or punishment proportioned to desert.
_Verse 4._—Endeavour the measure of sin rather than mere result. Hence
some are guilty of sins which they were unable to commit.
_Verse 5._—Culpable negligence constantly persisted in, losing much
blessing, and involving terrible condemnation.
_Verse 6._—Answered prayers, a retrospect and song.
_Verse 7._—The heart’s possessions, confidence, experience, joy, and
music.
_Verse 7._—Adoring God for his mercies. I. What God is to the believer.
II. What should be the disposition of our hearts towards him?—_C.
Simeon._
_Verse 8._—All power given to believers because of their union with
Jesus.
_Verse 9._—“A prayer for the church militant.” See Exposition and
Spurgeon’s Sermons, No. 768.
PSALM XXIX.
TITLE.—A Psalm of David. _The title affords us no information beyond the
fact that David is the author of this sublime song._