who, by the calamities of war, sickness, and other affliction, had been
reduced from a state of affluence to penury, came to Gotthold in great
distress. He complained that he had just met one of his former
acquaintances, who was even not distantly related to him, but that he
had not condescended to bow, far less to speak to him, and had turned
his eyes away, and passed him as if he had been a stranger. O sir, he
exclaimed with a sigh, how it pained me! I felt as if a dagger had
pierced my heart! Gotthold replied, Don’t think it strange at all. It is
the way of the world to look high, and to pass unnoticed that which is
humble and lowly. I know, however, of One who, though he dwelleth on
high, humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in
the earth (Ps. cxiii. 5, 6), and of whom the royal prophet testifies:
“_Thou hast known my soul in adversities._” Yes; though we have lost our
rich attire, and come to him in rags; though our forms be wasted because
of grief, and waxed old (Ps. vi. 7, Luth. Ver.); though sickness and
sorrow have consumed our beauty like a moth (Ps. xxxix. 11); though
blushes, and tears, and dust, overspread our face (Ps. lxix. 7), he
still recognises, and is not ashamed to own us. Comfort yourself with
this, for what harm will it do you at last, though men disown, if God
the Lord have not forgotten you?—_Christian Scriver._
_Verse 8._—He openeth and no man shutteth. Let us bless the Lord for an
open door which neither men nor devils can close. We are not in man’s
hands yet, because we are in the hands of God: else had our feet been in
the stocks and not in the large room of liberty. Our enemies, if they
were as able as they are willing, would long ago have treated us as
fowlers do the little birds when they enclose them in their hand.—_C. H.
S._
_Verse 9.—“Mine eye is consumed with grief.”_ This expression seems to
suggest that the eye really suffers under the influence of grief. There
was an old idea, which still prevails amongst the uninstructed, that the
eye, under extreme grief, and with a constant profuse flow of tears,
might sink away and perish under the ordeal. There is no solid
foundation for this idea, but there is a very serious form of disease of
the eyes, well known to oculists by the title of Glaucoma, which seems
to be very much influenced by mental emotions of a depressing nature. I
have known many striking instances of cases in which there has been a
constitutional proneness to Glaucoma, and in which some sudden grief has
brought on a violent access of the disease and induced blindness of an
incurable nature. In such instances the explanation seems to be somewhat
as follows. It is essential to the healthy performance of the functions
of the eye, that it should possess a given amount of elasticity, which
again results from an exact balance between the amount of fluid within
the eye, and the external fibrous case or bag that contains or encloses
it. If this is disturbed, if the fluid increases unduly in quantity, and
the eye becomes too hard, pain and inflammation may be suddenly induced
in the interior of the eye, and sight may become rapidly extinguished.
There are a special set of nerves that preside over this peculiar
physical condition, and keep the eye in a proper state of elasticity;
and it is a remarkable fact, that through a long life, as a rule, we
find that the eye preserves this elastic state. If, however, the
function of these nerves is impaired, as it may readily be under the
influence of extreme grief, or any depressing agent, the eye may become
suddenly hard. Until a comparatively recent date, acute Glaucoma, or
sudden hardening of the eye, attended with intense pain and
inflammation, caused complete and hopeless blindness; but in the present
day it is capable of relief by means of an operation. The effect of
grief in causing this form of blindness seems to be an explanation of
the text, “_Mine eye is consumed with grief._”[5]
_Verses 9, 10_:—
If thou wouldst learn, not knowing how to pray,
Add but a faith, and say as beggars say:
_Master, I’m poor, and blind, in great distress,
Hungry, and lame, and cold, and comfortless;
O succour him that’s gravell’d on the shelf
Of pain, and want, and cannot help himself;
Cast down thine eye upon a wretch, and take
Some pity on me, for sweet Jesus’ sake_:
But hold! take heed this clause be not put in,
_I never begged before, nor will again_.
_Francis Quarles._
_Verse 10.—“Mine iniquity:”_ Italian version, “_my pains_;” because that
death and all miseries are come into the world by reason of sin, the
Scripture doth often confound the names of the cause and of the
effects.—_John Diodati._
_Verse 10._—I find that when the saints are under trial and well
humbled, little sins raise great cries in the conscience; but in
prosperity, conscience is a pope that gives dispensations and great
latitude to our hearts. The cross is therefore as needful as the crown
is glorious.—_Samuel Rutherford._
_Verse 11.—“I was a reproach among all mine enemies.”_ If anyone strives
after patience and humility, he is a hypocrite. If he allows himself in
the pleasures of this world, he is a glutton. If he seeks justice, he is
impatient; if he seeks it not, he is a fool. If he would be prudent, he
is stingy; if he would make others happy, he is dissolute. If he gives
himself up to prayer, he is vainglorious. And this is the great loss of
the church, that by means like these many are held back from goodness!
which the Psalmist lamenting says, “_I became a reproof among all mine
enemies._”—_Chrysostom, quoted by J. M. Neale._
_Verse 11.—“They that did see me without fled from me.”_ I once heard
the following relation from an old man of the world, and it occurs to
me, as illustrative of what we are now considering. He was at a public
assembly, and saw there an individual withdrawing herself from the
crowd, and going into a corner of the room. He went up to her, she was
an old and intimate friend of his; he addressed himself to her—she, with
a sigh, said, “Oh, I have seen many days of trouble since we last met.”
What does the man of the world do? Immediately he withdrew himself from
his sorrow-stricken friend and hid himself in the crowd. Such is the
sympathy of the world with Christ or his servants.—_Hamilton
Verschoyle._
_Verse 12.—“I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind.”_ A striking
instance of how the greatest princes are forgotten in death is found in
the deathbed of Louis XIV. “The Louis that was, lies forsaken, a mass of
abhorred clay; abandoned ‘to some poor persons, and priests of the
_Chapelle Ardente_,’ who make haste to put him ‘in two lead coffins,
pouring in abundant spirits of wine.’ The new Louis with his court is
rolling towards Choisy, through the summer afternoon: the royal tears
still flow; but a word mispronounced by Monseigneur d’Artois sets them
all laughing, and they weep no more.”—_Thomas Carlyle in “The French
Revolution.”_
_Verse 12.—“I am forgotten,”_ etc. As a dying man with curtains drawn,
whom friends have no hope of, and therefore look off from; or rather
like a dead man laid aside out of sight and out of mind altogether, and
buried more in oblivion than in his grave; when the news is, “she is
dead, trouble not the Master.” Luke viii. 49.—_Anthony Tuckney, D.D.,
1599-1670._
_Verse 12.—“I am like a broken vessel.”_ As a vessel, how profitable
soever it hath been to the owner, and how necessary for his turn, yet,
when it is broken is thrown away, and regarded no longer: even so such
is the state of a man forsaken of those whose friend he hath been so
long as he was able to stand them in stead, to be of advantage to
them.—_Robert Cawdray._
_Verses 12-15_:—
Forgot as those who in the grave abide,
And as a broken vessel past repair,
Slandered by many, fear on every side,
Who counsel take and would my life ensnare.
But, Lord, my hopes on thee are fixed: I said,
Thou art my God, my days are in thy hand;
Against my furious foes oppose thy aid.
And those who persecute my soul withstand.
_George Sandys._
_Verse 13.—“I have heard the slander of many.”_ From my very childhood,
when I was first sensible of the concernments of men’s souls, I was
possessed with some admiration to find that everywhere the religious,
godly sort of people, who did but exercise a serious care of their own
and other men’s salvation, were made the wonder and obloquy of the
world, especially of the most vicious and flagitious men; so that they
that professed the same articles of faith, the same commandments of God
to be their law, and the same petitions of the Lord’s prayer to be their
desire, and so professed the same religion, did everywhere revile those
that endeavoured to live in good earnest in what they said. I thought
this was impudent hypocrisy in the ungodly, worldly sort of men—to take
those for the most intolerable persons in the land who are but serious
in their own religion, and do but endeavour to perform what all their
enemies also vow and promise. If religion be bad, and our faith be not
true, why do these men profess it? If it be true and good, why do they
hate and revile them that would live in the serious practice of it, if
they will not practise it themselves? But we must not expect reason when
sin and sensuality have made men unreasonable.
But I must profess that since I observed the course of the world, and
the concord of the word and providence of God, I took it for a notable
proof of man’s fall, and of the truth of the Scripture, and of the
supernatural original of true sanctification, to find such a universal
enmity between the holy and the serpentine seed, and to find Cain and
Abel’s case so ordinarily exemplified, and he that is born after the
flesh persecuting him that is born after the Spirit. And methinks to
this day it is a great and visible help for the confirmation of our
Christian faith.—_Richard Baxter._
_Verse 13.—“Slander.”_ Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou
shalt not escape calumny.—_William Shakespeare._
_Verse 13.—“They took counsel together against me,”_ etc. While they
mangled his reputation, they did it in such a manner as that they
covered their wickedness under the appearance of grave and considerate
procedure, in consulting among themselves to destroy him as a man who no
longer ought to be tolerated on the earth. It is not to be wondered at,
therefore, that his mind was wounded by so many and so sharp
temptations.—_John Calvin._
_Verse 14.—“But I trusted in thee, O Lord.”_ The rendering properly is,
_And I have trusted in thee_, but the Hebrew copulative particle ו,
_vau_, _and_, is used here instead of the adversitive particle _yet_, or
_nevertheless_. David, setting the steadfastness of his faith in
opposition to the assaults of the temptations of which he has made
mention, denies that he had ever fainted, but rather maintains, on the
contrary, that he stood firm in his hope of deliverance from God. Nor
does this imply that he boasted of being so magnanimous and courageous
that he could not be overthrown through the infirmity of the flesh.
However contrary to one another they appear, yet these things are often
joined together, as they ought to be, in the same person, namely, that
while he pines away with grief, and is deprived of all strength, he is
nevertheless supported by so strong a hope that he ceases not to call
upon God. David, therefore, was not so overwhelmed in deep sorrow, and
other direful sufferings, as that the hidden light of faith could not
shine inwardly in his heart; nor did he groan so much under the weighty
load of his temptations, as to be prevented from arousing himself to
call upon God. He struggled through many obstacles to be able to make
the confession which he here makes. He next defines the manner of his
faith, namely, that he reflected with himself thus—that God would never
fail him nor forsake him. Let us mark his manner of speech: _I have
said, Thou art my God._ In these words he intimates that he was so
entirely persuaded of this truth, that God was his God, that he would
not admit even a suggestion to the contrary. And until this persuasion
prevails so as to take possession of our minds, we shall always waver in
uncertainty. It is, however, to be observed, that this declaration is
not only inward and secret—made rather in the heart than with the
tongue—but that it is directed to God himself, as to him who is the
alone witness of it. Nothing is more difficult, when we see our faith
derided by the whole world, than to direct our speech to God only, and
to rest satisfied with this testimony which our conscience gives us,
_that he is our God_. And certainly it is an undoubted proof of genuine
faith, when, however fierce the waves are which beat against us, and
however sore the assaults by which we are shaken, we hold fast this as a
fixed principle, that we are constantly under the protection of God, and
can say to him freely, _Thou art our God_.—_John Calvin._
_Verse 14.—“Thou art my God.”_ How much it is more worth than ten
thousand mines of gold, to be able to say, God is mine! God’s servant is
apprehensive of it, and he seeth no defect, but this may be complete
happiness to him, and therefore he delights in it, and comforts himself
with it. As he did sometime who was a great courtier in King Cyrus’s
court, and one in favour with him; he was to bestow his daughter in
marriage to a very great man, and of himself he had no great means; and
therefore one said to him, O Sir, where will you have means to bestow a
dowry upon your daughter proportionable to her degree? Where are your
riches? He answered, What need I care, ὅπου Κυρος μοι φίλος, Cyrus is my
friend. But may not we say much more, ὅπου Κυριος μοι φίλος, where the
Lord is our friend, that hath those excellent and glorious attributes
that cannot come short in any wants, or to make us happy, especially we
being capable of it, and made proportionable.—_John Stoughton’s
“Righteous Man’s Plea to True Happinesse,” 1640._
_Verse 15.—“My times are in thy hand.”_ It is observable that when, of
late years, men grew weary of the long and tedious compass in their
voyages to the East Indies, and would needs try a more compendious way
by the North-West passage, it ever proved unsuccessful. Thus it is that
we must not use any compendious way; we may not neglect our body, nor
shipwreck our health, nor anything to hasten death, because we shall
gain by it. He that maketh haste (even this way) to be rich shall not be
innocent; for our times are in God’s hands, and therefore to his holy
providence we must leave them. We have a great deal of work to do, and
must not, therefore, be so greedy of our Sabbath-day, our rest, as not
to be contented with our working-day, our labour. Hence it is that a
composed frame of heart, like that of the apostle’s (Phil. i. 21),
wherein either to stay and work, or to go and rest, is the best temper
of all.—_Edward Reynolds, in J. Spencer’s “Things New and Old.”_
_Verse 15.—“My times.”_ He does not use the plural number, in my
opinion, without reason; but rather to mark the variety of casualties by
which the life of man is usually harassed.—_John Calvin._
_Verse 15.—“In thy hand.”_ The watch hangs ticking against the wall,
when every tick of the watch is a sigh, and a consciousness, alas! Poor
watch! I called once to see a friend, the physician and the secretary of
one of the most noble and admirable of the asylums for the insane in
this country. A poor creature, with a clear, bright intelligence, only
that some of its chords had become unstrung, who had usually occupied
itself innocently by making or unmaking watches, had just before I
called, exhibited some new, alarming symptoms, dashing one and then
another upon the stone floor, and shivering them. Removed into a more
safe room, I visited him with the secretary. “How came you to destroy
your favourite watches, so much as you loved them, and so quiet as you
are?” said my friend; and the poor patient replied, in a tone of
piercing agony, “I could not bear the tick, tick, ticking, and so I
dashed it on the pavement.” But when the watch is able to surrender
itself to the maker, to the hand holding the watch, and measuring out
the moments, it becomes a sight affecting indeed, but very beautiful,
very sublime. We transfer our thought from the watch to _the hand_ that
holds the watch. “_My times_,” “_Thy hand_;” the watch and the hour have
a purpose, and are not in vain. God gives man permission to behold two
things. Man can see the whole work, the plan’s completeness, also the
minutest work, the first step towards the plan’s completeness. Nothing
is more certain, nothing are men more indisposed to perceive than this.
We have to
“_Wait_ for some transcendent life.
Reserved by God to follow this.”[6]
To this end God’s real way is made up of all the ways of our life. His
hand holds all our times. “_My times_;” “_Thy hand_.” Some lives greatly
differ from others. This we know; but see, some lives fulfil life’s
course, gain life’s crown—life in their degree. This, on the contrary,
others quite miss. Yet, for even human strength there must be a love
meted out to rule it. It is said, there is a moon to control the tides
of every sea; is there not a master power for souls? It may not always
be so, apparently, in the more earthly lives, but it is so in the
heavenly: not more surely does the moon sway tides than God sways souls.
It does seem sometimes as if man found no adequate external power, and
stands forth ordained to be a law to his own sphere; but even then his
times are in the hands of God, as the pathway of a star is in the
limitations of its system—as the movements of a satellite are in the
forces of its planet. But while I would not pause on morbid words or
views of life, so neither do I desire you to receive or charge me with
giving only a moody, morbid view of the world, and an imperfect
theology; but far other. _“My times are in thy hand”—the hand of my
Saviour._
“I report as a man may of God’s work—all’s love, but all’s law.
In the Godhead I seek and I find it, and so it shall be
A face like my face that receives thee, a Man like to me
Thou shalt love and be loved by for ever, a hand like this hand
Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee: _See the Christ
stand!_”[7]
And now he is “the restorer of paths to dwell in.” The hand of Jesus is
the hand which rules our times. He regulates our life-clock. Christ for
and Christ in us. _My_ times in _his_ hand. My life can be no more in
vain than was my Saviour’s life in vain.—_E. Paxton Hood, in “Dark
Sayings on a Harp,” 1865._
_Verse 15._—When David had Saul at his mercy in the cave, those about
him said, _This is the time_ in which God will deliver thee. 1 Sam.
xxiv. 4. No, saith David, the time is not come for my deliverance till
it can be wrought without sin, and I will wait for that time; for it is
God’s time, and that is the best time.—_Matthew Henry._
_Verse 16.—“Make thy face to shine upon thy servant.”_ When the cloud of
trouble hideth the Lord’s favour, faith knoweth it may shine again, and
therefore prayeth through the cloud for the dissolving of it. “_Make thy
face to shine upon thy servant._”—_David Dickson._
_Verse 18.—“Lying lips ... which speak grievous things proudly and
contemptuously against the righteous.”_ The primitive persecutors
slighted the Christians for a company of bad, illiterate fellows, and
therefore they used to paint the God of the Christians with an ass’s
head and a book in his hand, saith Tertullian; to signify, that though
they pretended learning, yet they were silly and ignorant people. Bishop
Jewel, in his sermon upon Luke xi. 15, cites this out of Tertullian and
applies it to his times. Do not our adversaries the like, saith he,
against all that profess the gospel? Oh! say they, who are those that
favour this way? None but shoemakers, tailors, weavers, and such as
never were at the University. These are the bishop’s own words. Bishop
White said in open court, that the Puritans were all a company of
blockheads.—_Charles Bradbury._
_Verse 18.—“Lying lips ... which speak grievous things proudly and
contemptuously against the righteous.”_ In that venerable and original
monument of the Vaudois Church, entitled “The Golden Lesson,” of the
date 1100, we meet with a verse, which has been thus translated:—
“If there be any one who loves and fears Jesus Christ,
Who will not curse, nor swear, nor lie,
Nor be unchaste, nor kill, nor take what is another’s,
Nor take vengeance on his enemies;
They say that he is a Vaudès, and worthy of punishment.”
_Antoine Monastier, in “A History of Vaudois Church,” 1859._
_Verse 19.—“Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for
them that fear thee.”_ As a provident man will regulate his liberality
towards all men in such a manner as not to defraud his children or
family, nor impoverish his own house, by spending his substance
prodigally on others; so God, in like manner, in exercising his
beneficence to aliens from his family, knows well how to reserve for his
own children that which belongs to them, as it were by hereditary right;
that is to say, because of their adoption.—_John Calvin._
_Verse 19.—“Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for
them that fear thee.”_—Mark the phrase, “Laid up for them;” his mercy
and goodness it is intended for them, as a father that lays by such a
sum of money, and writes on the bag, “This is a portion for such a
child.” But how comes the Christian to have this right to God, and all
that vast and untold treasure of happiness which is in him? This indeed
is greatly to be heeded; it is faith that gives him a good title to all
this. That which maketh him a child, makes him an heir. Now, faith makes
him a child of God. John i. 12, “But as many as received him, to them
gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on
his name.” As therefore, if you would not call your birthright into
question, and bring your interest in Christ and those glorious
privileges that come along with him, under a sad dispute in your soul,
look to your faith.—_William Gurnall._
_Verse 19.—“How great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them
that fear thee.”_ When I reflect upon the words of thy prophet, it seems
to me that he means to depict God as a father who, no doubt, keeps his
children under discipline, and subjects them to the rod; but who, with
all his labour and pains, still aims at nothing but to lay up for them a
store which may contribute to their comfort when they have grown to
maturity, and learned the prudent use of it. My Father, in this world
thou hidest from thy children thy great goodness, as if it did not
pertain to them. But being thy children, we may be well assured that the
celestial treasure will be bestowed upon none else. For this reason, I
will bear my lot with patience. But, oh! from time to time, waft to me a
breath of air from the heavenly land, to refresh my sorrowful heart; I
will then wait more calmly for its full fruition.—_Christian Scriver._
_Verse 19.—“Oh how great is thy goodness.”_ Let me, to set the crown on
the head of the _duty of meditation_, add one thing over and above—let
meditation be _carried up to admiration_: not only should we be
affected, but transported, rapt up and ravished with the beauties and
transcendencies of heavenly things; act meditation to admiration,
endeavour the highest pitch, coming the nearest to the highest patterns,
the patterns of saints and angels in heaven, whose actings are the
purest, highest ecstacies and admirations. Thus were these so excellent
artists in meditation, David, an high actor of admiration in meditation,
as often we see it in the Psalms; so in Psalm viii. 1, 9; Psalm xxxi.
19; “_Oh how great is thy goodness_,” etc.; Psalm civ. 24; “O Lord, how
manifold are thy works,” etc.; and in other places David’s meditation
and admiration were as his harp, well tuned, and excellently played on,
in rarest airs and highest strains; as the precious gold, and the
curious burnishing; or the richest stone, and the exquisitest polishing
and setting of it. So blessed Paul, who was a great artist in musing,
acted high in admiration, his soul was very warm and flaming up in it:
it was as a bird with a strong and long wing that soars and towers up
aloft, and gets out of sight.—_Nathaniel Ranew._
_Verse 19.—“Before the sons of men,”_ _i.e._, _openly_. The Psalmist
here perhaps refers to temporal blessings conferred on the pious, and
evident to all. Some, however, have supposed the reference to be to the
reward of the righteous, bestowed with the utmost publicity on the day
of judgment; which better agrees with our interpretation of the former
part of the verse.—_Daniel Cresswell, D.D., F.R.S. (1776-1844)_, _in
loc._