hiding-place” merely as one among many; or _the_ “hiding-place,” as the
only one; but, “Thou art _my_ hiding-place.” _There_ lies all the
excellency of the text. “He is _mine_; I have embraced the offer of his
salvation,” says David; “I have applied to him in my own person: I have,
as a sinner, taken shelter in his love and compassion; I have placed
myself under his wings; I have covered myself with the robe of his
righteousness; and now, therefore, I am safe.” “Blessed is the man whose
transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” This is having a part
and a lot in the matter, having the personal and individual benefit of
the Saviour’s work of atonement. How different is an _appropriating_
from a _speculative_ faith! Men tell us that they believe the doctrine,
that they acknowledge the truth, that they assent to our creed; and they
say, that to declare to them the character of Christ, as the sinner’s
only help and safety, is merely putting before them what they already
know. Now, follow up the idea suggested by the figure in our text, and
see the folly and danger of acting thus. Suppose a traveller upon a
bleak and exposed heath to be alarmed by the approach of a storm. He
looks out for shelter. But if his eye discern a place to hide him from
the storm, does he stand still and say, “I see there _is_ a shelter, and
therefore I may remain where I am”? Does he not betake himself to it?
Does he not run, in order to escape the stormy wind and tempest? It was
a “hiding-place” before; but it was _his_ hiding-place only when he ran
into it, and was safe. Had he not gone into it, though it might have
been a protection to a thousand other travellers who resorted there, to
him it would have been as if no such place existed. Who does not see at
once, from this simple illustration, that the blessings of the gospel
are such only in their being _appropriated to_ the soul? The physician
can cure only by being _applied to_; the medicine can heal them by being
_taken_; money can enrich only by being _possessed_; and the merchantman
in the parable would have been none the wealthier for discovering that
there was a “pearl of great price,” had he not made it _his_. So with
the salvation of the gospel: if Christ is the “Balm in Gilead,” _apply_
the remedy; if he is the “Physician there,” _go_ to him; if he is the
“pearl of great price,” sell all that you have and buy it; and if he is
the “hiding-place,” _run into_ it and be safe; there will be no solid
joy and peace in the mind until he is _your_ “hiding-place.”—_Fountain
Elwin, 1842._
_Verse 7.—“Thou art my hiding-place.”_—An allusion, probably, to the
_city of refuge_.—_Adam Clarke._
_Verse 7.—“Hiding place.”_ Kirke White has a beautiful hymn upon this
word, beginning, “Awake, sweet harp of Judah, wake.” We have no room to
quote it, but it will be found in “Our Own Hymn Book,” No. 381.
_Verse 7.—“Thou shalt preserve me from trouble.”_ If we content
ourselves with that word which our translators have chosen here,
“_trouble_,” we must rest in one of these two senses; either that God
shall arm, and indue those that are his with such a constancy, as those
things that trouble others shall not trouble them; but, “As the
sufferings of Christ abound in them, so their consolation also aboundeth
by Christ:” “As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we
live; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich;
as having nothing, and yet possessing all things” (2 Cor. i. 5; vi. 9);
for God uses both these ways in the behalf of his servants—sometimes to
suspend the working of that that should work their torment, as he
suspended the rage of the lions for Daniel, and the heat of the fire in
the furnace for the others; sometimes by imprinting a holy stupefaction
and insensibleness in the person that suffers; so St. Laurence was not
only patient, but merry and facetious when he lay broiling upon the
fire, and so we read of many other martyrs that have been less moved,
less affected with their torments than their executioners or their
persecutors have been. That which troubled others never troubled them;
or else the phrase must have this sense, that though they be troubled
with their troubles, though God submit them so far to the common
condition of men, that they be sensible of them, yet he shall preserve
them from that trouble so as that it shall never overthrow them, never
sink them into a dejection of spirit, or diffidence in his mercy! they
shall find storms, but a stout and strong ship under foot; they shall
feel thunder and lightning, but garlands of triumphant bays shall
preserve them; they shall be trodden into earth with scorns and
contempts, but yet as seed is buried, to multiply to more. So far this
word of our translators assists our devotion, “_Thou shalt preserve me
from trouble_,” thou shalt make me insensible of it, or thou shalt make
me victorious in it.—_John Donne._
_Verse 7.—“Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.”_ In
these words the prophet David riseth up by a gradation, and goeth beyond
that which he had formerly said concerning his confidence in God. First,
he had said that God was his _hiding-place_; secondly, that he would
_preserve him in trouble_; and now, thirdly, that the Lord would make
him _joyful_, and to triumph over his troubles and enemies, by
compassing him, instead of troubles, with mercies.... Learn to
acknowledge God’s goodness to thyself with particular application, as
David saith here, “Thou shalt compass _me_ about with songs of
deliverance.” Not only confess his goodness to others, as to Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob; nor only his deliverance of Noah, Daniel, Lot; but also
his mercies to and deliverance of thyself, as Paul did: “Christ gave
himself for _me_, and died for _me_.” Gal. ii. 20. This will exceedingly
whet up thankfulness; whereas only to acknowledge God good in himself,
or to others, and not to thyself, will make thee murmur and
repine.—_Thomas Taylor._
_Verse 7.—“Thou shalt compass me about.”_ This word importeth that as we
are besieged on every side with troubles, so we are compassed with as
many comforts and deliverances; as our crosses grow daily, so our
consolations are augmented day by day. We are on every side offended and
on every side defended; therefore we ought on every side to sound God’s
praise, as David saith, “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is
within me.” Ps. ciii. 1.—_Archibald Symson._
_Verse 7.—“Songs of deliverance.”_ In that he will not be content only
with thanks, but also will have them conjoined with “_songs_,” he
letteth us see how high all the strings of his heart are bended that he
cannot contain himself for the mercies of God to his church, and for his
manifold deliverances for the same. Many sing praises to God with an
half-open mouth; and, albeit, they can sing aloud any filthy ballad in
their house, they make the mean, I warrant you, in the church, that
scarce can they hear the sound of their own voice. I think they be
ashamed to proclaim and show forth God’s praises, or they fear to deafen
God by their loud singing; but David bended all his forces within and
without to praise his God.—_Archibald Symson._
_Verse 8.—“I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou
shalt go.”_ No other than God himself can undertake so much as is
promised in the text. For here is faith, a rectifying of the
understanding, “_I will instruct thee_,” and in the original there is
somewhat more than our translation reaches to; it is there, _Intelligere
faciam te_, _I will make thee understand_. Man can instruct, God only
can make us understand. And then it is _Faciam te_, I will make thee,
_thee_, understand; the work is the Lord’s, the understanding is the
man’s: for God does not work in man as the devil did in idols and _in
pythonissis_, and _in ventriloquis_, in possessed persons, who had no
voluntary concurrence with the action of the devil, but were merely
passive; God works so in man as that he makes man work too, _faciam te_,
I will make thee understand; that that shall be done shall be done by
me, but in thee; the power that rectifies the act is God’s, the act is
man’s; _Faciam te_, says God, I will make thee, _thee_, every particular
person (for that arises out of this singular and distributive word,
_thee_, which threatens no exception, no exclusion), I will make every
person to whom I present instruction, capable of that instruction; and
if he receive it not, it is only his, and not my fault. And so this
first part is an instruction _de credendis_, of such things, as by God’s
rectifying of our understanding we are bound to believe. And then, in a
second part, there follows a more particular instructing, _Docebo_, “_I
will teach thee_,” and that _in via_, “_in the way_;” it is not only _de
via_, to teach thee which is the way, that thou mayst find it, but _in
via_, how to keep the way when thou art in it; he will teach thee, not
only _ut gradiaris_, that thou mayst walk in it and not sleep, but
_quomodo gradieris_, that thou mayst walk in it and not stray; and so
this second part is an institution _de agendis_, of those things which
thine understanding being formerly rectified, and deduced into a belief,
thou art bound to do. And then in the last words of the text, “_I will
guide thee with mine eye_,” there is a third part, an establishment, a
confirmation, by an incessant watchfulness in God; he will consider,
consult upon us (for so much the original word imports) he will not
leave us to contingencies, to fortune; no, nor to his own general
providence, by which all creatures are universally in his protection and
administration, but he will ponder us, consider us, study us; and that
with his eye, which is the sharpest and most sensible organ and
instrument, soonest feels if anything be amiss, and so inclines him
quickly to rectify us; and so this third part is an instruction _de
sperandis_, it hath evermore a relation to the future, to the constancy
and perseverance of God’s goodness towards us; to the end, and in the
end he will guide us with his eye: except the eye of God can be put out
we cannot be put out of his sight and his care. So that, both our
freight which we are to take in, that is, what we are to believe
concerning God; and the voyage which we are to make, how we are to steer
and govern our course, that is, our behaviour and conversation in the
household of the faithful; and then the haven to which we must go, that
is, our assurance of arriving at the heavenly Jerusalem, are expressed
in this chart, in this map, in this instruction, in this text.—_John
Donne._
_Verse 8._—This threefold repetition, “_I will instruct thee_,” “_I will
teach thee_,” “_I will guide thee_,” teaches us three properties of a
good teacher. First, to make the people understand the way of salvation;
secondly, to go before them; thirdly, to watch over them and their
ways.—_Archibald Symson._
_Verse 8.—“The way.”_ If we compare this way with all other ways, it
will whet our care to enter into and continue in it; for, first, this is
the _King’s highway_, in which we have promise of protection. Ps. xci.
11. Secondly, God’s ways are the _cleanest_ of all. 2 Sam. xxii. 31.
Thirdly, God’s ways are the _rightest_ ways; and, being rightest, they
be also the _shortest_ ways. Hosea xiv. 9. Fourthly, God’s ways are most
_lightsome_ and _cheerful_. Prov. iii. 17. Therefore, God’s ways being
the safest, cleanest, rightest, shortest, and lightsomest ways, we must
be careful to walk in them.—_Condensed from Thomas Taylor._
_Verse 8.—“I will guide thee with mine eye.”_ We read in natural
story[10] of some creatures, _Qui solo oculorum aspectu fovent ova_,[11]
which hatch their eggs only by looking upon them. What cannot the eye of
God produce and hatch in us? _Plus est quod probatur aspectu, quam quod
sermone._[12] A man may seem to commend in words, and yet his
countenance shall dispraise. His word infuses good purposes into us; but
if God continue his eye upon us it is a further approbation, for he is a
God of pure eyes, and will not look upon the wicked. “This land doth the
Lord thy God care for, and the eyes of the Lord are always upon it from
the beginning of the year, even to the end thereof.” Deut. xi. 12. What
a cheerful spring, what a fruitful autumn hath that soul, that hath the
eye of the Lord always upon her! The eye of the Lord upon me makes
midnight noon; it makes Capricorn Cancer, and the winter’s the summer’s
solstice; the eye of the Lord sanctifies, nay, more than sanctifies,
glorifies all the eclipses of dishonour, makes melancholy cheerfulness,
diffidence assurance, and turns the jealousy of the sad soul into
infallibility.... This guiding us with his eye manifests itself in these
two great effects; conversion to him, and union with him. First, his eye
works upon ours; his eye turns ours to look upon him. Still it is so
expressed with an _Ecce_; “Behold the eye of the Lord is upon all them
that fear him; his eye calls ours to behold that; and then our eye calls
upon his, to observe our cheerful readiness.... When, as a well made
picture doth always look upon him that looks upon it, this image of God
in our soul is turned to him, by his turning to it, it is impossible we
should do any foul, any uncomely thing in his presence.... The other
great effect of his guiding us with his eye, is, that it unites us to
himself; when he fixes his eye upon us, and accepts the return of ours
to him, then he ‘keeps’ us as the ‘apple’ of his eye.” Zech. ii. 8....
These are the two great effects of his guiding us by his eye, that
first, his eye turns us to himself, and then turns us into himself;
first, his eye turns ours to him, and then, that makes us all one with
himself, so as that our afflictions shall be put upon his patience, and
our dishonours shall be injurious to him; we cannot be safer than by
being his; but thus we are not only his, but he—to every persecutor, in
every one of our behalf, he shall say, _Cur me?_ Why persecutest thou
me? And as he is all power, and can defend us, so here he makes himself
all eye, which is the most tender part, and most sensible of our
pressures.—_Condensed from John Donne._
_Verse 8.—“I will guide thee with mine eye.”_ Marg., _I will counsel_
thee, _mine eye_ shall be _upon thee_. The margin expresses the sense of
the Hebrew. The literal meaning is, “I will counsel thee; mine eye shall
be upon thee.” De Wette: “my eye shall be directed towards thee.” The
_idea_ is that of one who is telling another what way he is to take in
order that he may reach a certain place; and he says he will watch him,
or will keep an eye upon him; he will not let him go wrong.—_Albert
Barnes._
_Verse 8.—“Mine eye.”_ We may consider mercies as the beamings of the
Almighty’s eye when the light of his countenance is lifted up upon us;
and that man as guided by the eye, whom mercies attract and attach to
his Maker. But oh! let us refuse to be guided by the eye, and it will
become needful that we be curbed with the hand. If we abuse our mercies,
if we forget their Author, and yield him not gratefully the homage of
our affections, we do but oblige him, by his love for our souls, to
apportion us disaster and trouble. Complain not, then, that there is so
much of sorrow in your lot; but consider rather how much of it you may
have wilfully brought upon yourselves. Listen to the voice of God. “_I
will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will
guide thee with mine eye_”—mine eye, whose glance gilds all that is
beautiful, whose light disperses all darkness prevents all danger,
diffuses all happiness. And why, then, is it that ye are sorely
disquieted? why is it that “fear and the pit” are so often upon you;
that one blessing after another disappears from your circle; and that
God seems to deal with you as with the wayward and unruly, on whom any
thing of gentleness would be altogether lost? Ah! if you would account
for many mercies that have departed, if you would insure permanence to
those that are yet left, examine how deficient you may hitherto have
been, and strive to be more diligent for the future, in obeying an
admonition which implies that we should be guided by the soft lustres of
the eye, if our obduracy did not render indispensible the harsh
constraints of the rein.—_Henry Melvill._
_Verse 9.—“Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule,”_ etc. How many run
mad of this cause, inordinate and furious lusts! The prophet Jeremiah,
chap. ii. 24, compareth Israel to “a swift dromedary, traversing her
ways,” and to a “wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the
wind at her pleasure.” “_Be ye not_,” saith the Psalmographer, “as the
horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be
held in with bit and bridle.” Men have understanding, not beasts; yet
when the frenzy of lust overwhelmeth their senses, we may take up the
word of the prophet and pour it on them: “Every man is a beast by his
own knowledge.” And therefore “man that is in honour and understandeth
not, is like unto beasts that perish” (Ps. xlix. 20). Did not the bridle
of God’s overruling providence restrain their madness, they would cast
off the saddle of reason, and kick nature itself in the face.—_Thomas
Adams._
_Verse 9.—“Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule,”_ etc. According to
the several natures of these two beasts, the fathers and other
expositors have made several interpretations; at least, several
allusions. They consider the horse and the mule to admit any rider, any
burden, without discretion or difference, without debatement or
consideration; they never ask whether their rider be noble or base, nor
whether their load be gold for the treasure, or roots for the market.
And those expositors find the same indifference in an habitual sinner to
any kind of sin; whether he sin for pleasure, or sin for profit, or sin
but for company, still he sins. They consider in the mule, that one of
his parents being more ignoble than the other, he is likest the worst,
he hath more of the ass than of the horse in him; and they find in us,
that all our actions and thoughts taste more of the ignobler part of
earth than of heaven. St. Hierome thinks fierceness and rashness to be
presented in the horse, and sloth in the mule. And St. Augustine carries
these two qualities far; he thinks that in this fierceness of the horse
the Gentiles are represented, which ran far from the knowledge of
Christianity; and by the laziness of the mule the Jews, who came nothing
so fast, as they were invited by their former helps to the embracing
thereof. They have gone far in these allusions and applications; and
they might have gone as far further as it had pleased them; they have
sea-room enough, that will compare a beast and a sinner together; and
they shall find many times, in the way, the beast the better man.—_John
Donne._
_Verse 9.—“Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule,”_ etc. Consider the
causes why a broken leg is incurable in a horse, and easily curable in a
man. The horse is incapable of counsel to submit himself to the farrier;
and therefore in case his leg be set he flings, flounces, and flies out,
unjointing it again by his misemployed mettle, counting all binding to
be shackles and fetters unto him: whereas a man willingly resigns
himself to be ordered by the _surgeon_, preferring rather to be a
prisoner for some days, than a cripple all his life. “_Be ye not as the
horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding_;” but “let patience
have its perfect work in thee.” James i. 4.—_Thomas Fuller._
_Verse 9.—“Bit and bridle.”_ מֶתֶג־וָרֶסֶן. The LXX render the first of
these two words by χαλινῷ, the second by κημῷ. The word χαλινός
signifies the iron of the common bridle, which is put into the horse’s
mouth, the bit, or curb. But κημός was something like a muzzle, which
was put upon mischievous horses or mules to hinder them from biting.
Xenophon says, that it allowed them to breathe, but kept the mouth shut,
so that they could not bite. Not knowing the term of art for this
contrivance, I call it a muzzle. The verb קְרֹב is a military term, and
signifies to advance, as an enemy, to attack. The “coming near,”
therefore, intended here, is a coming near to do mischief. The
admonition given by the Psalmist to his companions, is to submit to the
instruction and guidance graciously promised from heaven, and not to
resemble, in a refractory disposition, those ill-conditioned colts which
are not to be governed by a simple bridle; but, unless their jaws are
confined by a muzzle, will attack the rider as he attempts to mount, or
the groom as he leads them to the pasture and the stable.—_Samuel
Horsley._
_Verse 9.—“Lest they come near unto thee.”_ The common version of this
clause would be suitable enough in speaking of a wild beast, but in
reference to a mule or a horse the words can only mean, because they
will not follow or obey thee of their own accord; they must be
constantly coerced, in the way both of compulsion and restraint.—_J. A.
Alexander._
_Verse 9._—“Be ye not like a horse or mule, which have no understanding,
and whose ornament is a bridle and bit, to hold them: they do not come
unto thee _of themselves_.”—_Charles Carter, in “The Book of Psalms.”
1869._ [_A new Translation._]
_Verse 10.—“He that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him
about.”_ Even as in the midst of the sphere is the centre, from which
all lines being drawn do tend towards their circumference: so a good
Christian man hath God for his circumference; for whatever he thinketh,
speaketh, or doth, it tendeth to Christ, of whom he is compassed round
about.—_Robert Cawdray._
_Verse 10.—“Mercy shall compass him about.”_ He shall be _surrounded_
with mercy—as one is surrounded by the air, or by the sunlight. He shall
find mercy and favour everywhere—at home, abroad; by day, by night; in
society, in solitude; in sickness, in health; in life, in death; in
time, in eternity. He shall walk amidst mercies; he shall die amidst
mercies; he shall live in a better world in the midst of eternal
mercies.—_Albert Barnes._
_Verse 10._—“Mark that text,” said Richard Adkins to his grandson Abel,
who was reading to him the thirty-second Psalm. “Mark that text, ‘He
that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about.’ I read it in
my youth and believed it; and now I read it in my old age, thank God, I
know it to be true. Oh! it is a blessed thing in the midst of the joys
and sorrows of the world, Abel, to trust in the Lord.”—_The Christian
Treasury, 1848._
_Verse 11.—“Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout
for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.”_ This exhortation containeth
three parts. First, what he doth exhort unto, _to rejoice_. Secondly,
whom, the _righteous_, and _upright men_. Thirdly, the limitation, “_in
the Lord_.” He exhorteth them three times—be glad, rejoice, and be
joyful; and as he made mention of a threefold blessing, so doth he of a
threefold joy. Wherein we have two things necessary to be observed.
First, the dulness of our natures, who as slow horses need many spurs
and provocations to spiritual things, whereas we are naturally overmuch
bent to carnal things, that we need no incitations thereunto. But by the
contrary in spiritual things, we are cast into a deep sleep, who cannot
be awakened at the first cry; but as men after drink have need to be
roused often, that they may behold the light; so men drunken with the
pleasures of sin, as Nazianzen saith, must be wakened by divers
exhortations; as this same prophet in the subsequent Psalm redoubleth
his exhortations for the same effect. And the apostle to Philippians
saith: “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice” (chap. iv.
4). Next, perceive that this exhortation grows; for the word _be glad_,
properly in the original signifieth an inward and hearty joy, by the
presence or hope at least of a thing desirable or good. The word
_rejoice_, to express our joy by some outward gesture, sometimes used
for dancing, as, “The hills skip for gladness.” Ps. lxv. 12. The word
_be joyful_, to cry for gladness, as the dumb man’s tongue shall sing.
This gradation teacheth us, that this is the nature of spiritual
joy—that it still increaseth in us by certain degrees, until it come to
the perfection of all joy, which is signified by the last word,
importing, as it were, a triumph and shouting after victory. So that
they are truly penitent who have overcome sin and Satan in their
spiritual combat, and have triumphed over them as vanquished
enemies.—_Archibald Symson._