reflect on the prodigious number of human beings who constantly receive
their food, raiment, and every pleasure they enjoy, from their mother
earth, we shall be convinced of the great liberality with which nature
dispenses her gifts; and not only human beings, but an innumerable
quantity of living creatures besides—inhabitants of the air, the waters,
and the earth—are daily indebted to nature for their support. Those
animals which are under our care are still indebted to the earth for
their subsistence; for the grass, which nature spontaneously produces,
is their chief food. The whole race of fishes, except those which men
feed for their amusement, subsist without any of their aid. The species
of birds which is perhaps the most despised and most numerous, is the
sparrow. What they require for their support is incredible, but nature
takes care to feed them; they are however but the smallest part of her
children. So great is the quantity of insects, that ages may pass before
even their species and classes can be known. How many and how
diversified the sorts of flies that play in the air! The blood taken
from us by the gnat is very accidental food for them; and we may suppose
that where there is one gnat that lives upon it, there are millions that
have never tasted human blood, or that of any other animal. On what can
all these creatures subsist? Perhaps every handful of earth contains
living insects; they are discovered in every drop of water; their
multiplying and means of support are incomprehensible. While nature is
thus prolific in children, she is also fruitful in means for their
subsistence; or, rather, it is the God of nature who has poured into her
bosom this inexhaustible store of riches. He provides each creature with
its food and dwelling. For them he causes the grass and other herbs to
grow, leaving each to select its proper food. And, however mean many
creatures may appear to us, he feeds and assists them all.
O Almighty God, how manifest is thy greatness! Thou dost what the united
efforts of all mankind would fail to accomplish. Thou hast given life,
and breath, and being to all creatures that live in the air, the waters,
or the earth. Surely thou wilt do for thy believing people what thou
dost for animals and insects! When we are filled with doubts and fears,
let us consider the ravens whom the Lord feeds when they cry. Let them
and all creatures beside, which man takes no care of, teach us the art
of contentment. The great Author of nature knows all our wants. Let us
cast our every care on him, for he careth for us; and may we come boldly
to the throne of grace in faith and sincerity that we may obtain mercy,
and find grace to help us in every time of need.—_Christopher Christian
Sturm._
_Verse 5.—“The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.”_ To hear its
worthless inhabitants complain, one would think that God dispensed
_evil_, not _good_. To examine the operation of his hand, everything is
marked with mercy, and there is no place where his goodness does not
appear. The _overflowing kindness_ of God fills the earth. Even the
iniquities of men are rarely a bar to his goodness: he causes his sun to
rise on the evil and the good, and sends his rain upon the _just_ and
the _unjust_.—_Adam Clarke._
_Verse 5.—“The goodness of the Lord.”_ In discoursing on the glorious
perfections of God, his _goodness_ must by no means be omitted; for
though all his perfections are his glory, yet this is particularly so
called, for when Moses, the man of God, earnestly desired to behold a
grand display of the glory of Jehovah, the Lord said, in answer to his
petition, “I will make all my _goodness_ pass before thee;” thus
intimating that he himself accounted his goodness to be his glory (Exod.
xxxiii. 19; xxxiv. 7); and it includes that mercy, grace, longsuffering,
and truth, which are afterwards mentioned. When it relieves the
miserable, it is _mercy_; when it bestows favours on the worthless, it
is _grace_; when it bears with provoking rebels, it is _longsuffering_;
when it confers promised blessings, it is _truth_; when it supplies
indigent beings, it is _bounty_. _The goodness of God_ is a very
comprehensive term; it includes all the forms of his kindness shown to
men; whether considered as creatures, as sinners, or as
believers.—_George Burder, 1838._
_Verse 5.—“The goodness of the Lord.”_ He might, if he had pleased, have
made everything we tasted bitter, everything we saw loathsome,
everything we touched a sting, every smell a stench, every sound a
discord.—_William Paley, D.D., 1743-1805._
_Verse 6.—“By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the
host of them by the breath of his mouth.”_ That the רוּחַ is not
_spirit_, but _breath_, is evident from the words “_of his mouth_”
(compare Isaiah xi. 4), and from the parallelism with “_word_.” Simple
_word_ is simple _breath_; both together, they stand in contrast to that
exercise of strength, that labour, that use of means and instruments
without which feeble man can bring nothing to perfection. Then there are
the parallel passages, “All the while my breath is in me, and the Spirit
of God is in my nostrils,” Job xxvii. 3. “The Spirit of God hath made
me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.” Job xxxiii. 4.
“Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust, thou
sendest forth thy _breath_, they are created.” Psalm civ. 29, 30. On the
other hand, however, the exposition which would interpret רוּחַ פִיו,
without reference to the _Spirit of God_, cannot be a correct one. In
the history of the creation, to which the verse before us, as well as
verses seven and nine, generally refer, the creation is described as the
work of the SPIRIT of God, and his WORD. First, the _Spirit of God_
moved upon the face of waters, then God said. We may also suppose that
the Spirit and the power of God are here represented by the _figure_ of
breath, because that in man is the first sign of life.—_E. W.
Hengstenberg._
_Verse 6.—“By the word of the Lord.”_ May be understood of the
hypostatic Word, as John teaches us. John i. 1. (_John Cocceius,
1603-1669_). This is an illustration of the old saying, that while
Grotius finds Christ nowhere, Cocceius finds Christ everywhere.—_C. H.
S._
_Verse 6._—Let any make a world, and he shall be a God, saith Augustine;
hence is it that the church maketh it the very first article of her
Creed to believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and
earth.—_John Weemse._
_Verses 6, 9._—It is all one with God to do as to say, to perform as to
promise; it is as easy, he is as willing, as able, to do the one as the
other. There is no such distance betwixt God’s saying and doing, as
amongst men. His saying is doing. “_He spake, and it was done; he
commanded, and it stood fast._” “_By the word of the Lord were the
heavens made._” “The worlds were framed by the word of God.” Heb. xi. 3.
There is omnipotency in his word, both of command and promise; therefore
called, “The word of his power.” Heb. i. 3. One word of his can do more
in an instant than the united powers of heaven and earth can do to
eternity. This consideration removes at once the chief discouragements
that hinder the lively actings of faith; for what is it that weakens our
confidence of the promises’ performance, but because we look upon the
accomplishment as uncertain or difficult, or future and afar off! Now
from hence faith may conclude the performance is certain, easy, and
present.—_David Clarkson._
_Verse 7.—“He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap,”_
etc. “God called the gathering together of the waters, seas.” Gen. i.
10. This unstable element must, like all other elements, be put under
law, and confined within bounds, that there might be a habitable earth
for man and all the creatures around him. Thus the Psalmist sings, “_He
gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the
depth in storehouses._” The boundary was such as to cause his servants
to wonder. They looked from the shore, as we do, and under the influence
of a well-known law, the billows in their heaving swells, seemed as if
they would, as if they did, touch the sky itself; and as if they were so
much higher than the shore, that they were in danger of leaving their
basin and stretching over the land. Just such an impression, we, with
all our science, popularly hold. The prophets thus looked as we do, and
under the same kind of feeling. How wonderful, they thought, is all
this! A low barrier of sand is made Jehovah’s agent for bounding the
deep. “The Lord hath placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a
perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof
toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can
they not pass over it.” Jer. v. 22.—_John Duns, D.D., in “Science and
Christian Thought,” 1868._
_Verse 7.—“The waters of the sea.”_ Of all objects that I have ever
seen, there is none which affects my imagination so much as the sea or
ocean. I cannot see the heavings of this prodigious bulk of waters, even
in a calm, without a very pleasing astonishment; but when it is worked
up in a tempest, so that the horizon on every side is nothing but
foaming billows and floating mountains, it is impossible to describe the
agreeable horror that rises from such a prospect. A troubled ocean, to a
man who sails upon it, is, I think, the biggest object that he can see
in motion, and consequently gives his imagination one of the highest
kinds of pleasure that can arise from greatness. I must confess it is
impossible for me to survey this world of fluid matter without thinking
on the hand that first poured it out, and made a proper channel for its
reception. Such an object naturally raises in my thoughts the idea of an
Almighty Being, and convinces me of his existence as much as a
metaphysical demonstration. The imagination prompts the understanding,
and by the greatness of the sensible object, produces in it the idea of
a Being who is neither circumscribed by time nor space.—_Spectator._
_Verse 7.—“As a heap.”_ Dealing with fluids as if they were solids, with
an obvious allusion to Ex. xv. 8. “_Depths_,” masses of water. The main
point of the description is God’s handling these vast liquid masses, as
men handle solid substances of moderate dimensions, heaping the waves
up, and storing them away, as men might do with stones or wheat.—_J. A.
Alexander._
_Verse 7._—The vast mass of waters which had hitherto covered the entire
surface of the globe, was on the third day of creation brought within
narrower compass, and large tracts of the submerged earth reclaimed and
rendered habitable ground.... The waters were, _for the most part_,
congregated together in one vast body, instead of being universally
diffused over the face of the earth. This is the state of things which
we now contemplate; the various great seas and oceans constituting in
fact but one body of water called in different regions by different
names, as the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Southern, etc., oceans.—_George
Bush_, on Gen. i. 9.
_Verse 8.—“Let all the earth.”_ For who can doubt that God can do as he
wills upon earth, since he so tamed the unconquerable nature of the
sea?—_Hugo Grotius, 1583-1645._
_Verse 8.—“Let all the earth fear the Lord,”_ etc. Let them not fear
another instead of him. Doth a wild beast rage? Fear God. Doth a serpent
lie in wait? Fear God. Doth man hate thee? Fear God. Doth the devil
fight against thee? Fear God. For the whole creation is under him whom
thou art commanded to fear.—_Augustine._
_Verse 9.—“He spake and it was done.”_ As we say in Latin, _Dictum
factum_, SAID DONE, no delay having interposed.—_Hugo Grotius._
_Verse 9.—“He spake, and it was done;”_ so that the creatures were not
emanations from the divine nature, but effects of the divine will, the
fruits of intelligence, and design, and counsel.—_William Binnie, D.D._
_Verse 10.—“The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought,”_
etc. The more the Pharisees of old, and their successors the prelates of
late, opposed the truth, the more it prevailed. The Reformation in
Germany was much furthered by the Papists’ opposition; yea, when two
kings (amongst many others), wrote against Luther, namely Henry VIII. of
England, and Ludovicus of Hungary, this kingly title being entered into
the controversy (making men more curious to examine the matter), stirred
up a general inclination towards Luther’s opinions.—_Richard Younge’s
Christian Library, 1655._
_Verse 11.—“The counsel of the Lord.”_ Note the contrast between the
counsel of the heathen in the last verse, and the counsel of the Lord in
this.—_C. H. S._
_Verse 11.—“The thoughts.”_ The same word as _devices_ in the preceding
verse.—_William de Burgh, D.D._, _in loc._
_Verse 11._—The wheels in a watch or a clock move contrary one to
another, some one way, some another, yet all serve the intent of the
workman, to show the time, or to make the clock to strike. So in the
world, the providence of God may seem to run cross to his promises; one
man takes this way, another runs that way; good men go one way, wicked
men another, yet all in conclusion accomplish the will, and centre in
the purpose of God the great Creator of all things.—_Richard Sibbes._
_Verse 11 (last clause)._—Think not, brethren, because he said, “_The
thoughts of his heart_,” that God as it were sitteth down and thinketh
what he should do, and taketh counsel to do anything, or not to do
anything. To thee, O man, belongs such tardiness.—_Augustine._
_Verse 12.—“Blessed—whom he hath chosen.”_ A man may have his name set
down in the chronicles, yet lost; wrought in durable marble, yet perish;
set upon a monument equal to a Colossus, yet be ignominious; inscribed
on the hospital gates, yet go to hell; written in the front of his own
house, yet another come to possess it; all these are but writings in the
dust, or upon the waters, where the characters perish so soon as they
are made; they no more prove a man happy than the fool could prove
Pontius Pilate because his name was written in the Creed. But the true
comfort is this, when a man by assurance can conclude with his own soul
that his name is written in those eternal leaves of heaven, in the book
of God’s election, which shall never be wrapped up in the cloudy sheets
of darkness, but remain legible to all eternity.—_Thomas Adams._
_Verse 12.—“The people whom he hath chosen.”_ Some read it, The people
which hath chosen him for their inheritance. It cometh all to one. See
Deut. xxvi. 17-19.—_John Trapp._
_Verse 12._—It is an happiness to have an interest in one greater than
ourselves; an interest in a beggar is of no worth, because he is of no
power; but interest in a prince all men seek, therefore it is said,
“_Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord._”—_Joseph Symonds._
_Verse 12._—Lest it should be thought that men obtain so great a good by
their own efforts and industry, David teaches us expressly that it
proceeds from the fountain of God’s gracious, electing love that we are
accounted the people of God.—_John Calvin._
_Verse 12._—I have sometimes compared the _great_ men of the world, and
the _good_ men of the world to the _consonants_ and _vowels_ in the
alphabet. The _consonants_ are the most and the biggest letters; they
take up most room, and carry the greatest bulk; but, believe it, the
_vowels_ though they are the fewest and least of all the letters, yet
they are most useful; they give the greatest sound of all; there is no
pronunciation without vowels. O beloved, though the _great_ men of the
world take up room, and make a show above others, yet they are but
_consonants_, a company of mute and dumb _consonants_ for the most part;
the _good men_ they are the _vowels_ that are of the greatest use and
most concernment at every turn: _a good man_ to help with his prayers;
_a good man_ to advise with his counsels; _a good man_ to interpose with
his authority; this is the loss we lament, we have lost _a good man_;
death has blotted out a _vowel_; and I fear me there will be much
silence where he is lacking; silence in the bed, and silence in the
house, and silence in the shop, and silence in the church, and silence
in the parish; for he was everywhere a _vowel, a good man_ in every
respect.—_John Kitchin, M.A., in a Funeral Sermon, 1660._
_Verse 15.—“He fashioneth their hearts alike.”_ As an illustration of
the passage as it stands in our version, we append the following:—“Every
circumstance concurs in proving that mankind are not composed of species
essentially different from each other; that, on the contrary, there was
originally but one species, which, after multiplying and spreading over
the whole surface of the earth, has undergone various changes from the
influence of climate, food, mode of living, diseases, and mixture of
dissimilar individuals; that at first these changes were not so
conspicuous, and produced only individual varieties; that these
varieties became afterwards more specific, because they were rendered
more general, more strongly marked, and more permanent, by the continual
action of the same causes; and that they are transmitted from generation
to generation.”—_G. L. Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, 1707-1788._
_Verse 15._—The Creator of all things “_fashioneth their hearts alike_;”
the word יַחַד, which signifies together at once, intimating that the
hearts of all men though separated from one another by never so vast a
gulf of time or place, are as exactly alike in respect of their original
inclinations, as if they had been all moulded at the same time. The
worship of a God and then some kind of religion, is necessary to us, we
cannot shift it off.—_William Pinke, 1631._
_Verse 15 (last clause)._—Two men give to the poor, one seeketh his
reward in heaven, the other the praise of men. Thou in two seest one
thing, God understandeth two. For he understandeth what is within, and
knoweth what is within; their ends he seeth, their base intentions he
seeth. “_He understandeth all their works._”—_Augustine._
_Verse 16.—“There is no king saved by the multitude of an host.”_ At the
battle of Arbela, the Persian hosts numbered between five hundred
thousand and a million men, but they were utterly put to the rout by
Alexander’s band of fifty thousand; and the once mighty Darius was soon
vanquished. Napoleon led more than half-a-million of men into Russia—
“Not such the numbers, nor the host so dread,
By northern Bren, or Scythian Timour led.”
But the terrible winter left the army a mere wreck, and their leader was
soon a prisoner on the lone rock of St. Helena. All along the line of
history this verse has been verified. The strongest battalions melt like
snowflakes when God is against them.—_C. H. S._
_Verse 16.—“A mighty man;”_ or, _a giant_; Goliath for instance. As the
most skilful swimmers are often drowned, so here.—_John Trapp._
_Verses 16, 17_:—
Not the chief his serried lances,
Not his strength secures the brave:
All in vain the war-horse prances.
Weak his force his lord to save.
_Richard Mant._
_Verses 16, 17._—The weakness and insufficiency of all human power,
however great, as before of all human _intellect_.—_J. J. Stewart
Perowne._
_Verses 16, 17._—As a passenger in a storm, that for shelter against the
weather, steppeth out of the way, betaketh him to a fair spread oak,
standeth under the boughs, with his back close to the body of it, and
findeth good relief thereby for the space of some time; till at length
cometh a sudden gust of wind, that teareth down a main arm of it, which
falling upon the poor passenger, either maimeth or mischieveth him that
resorted to it for succour. Thus falleth it out with not a few, meeting
in the world with many troubles, and with manifold vexations, they step
aside out of their own way, and too, too often out of God’s, to get
under the wing of some great one, and gain, it may be, some aid and
shelter thereby for a season; but after awhile, that great one himself
coming down headlong, and falling from his former height of favour, or
honour, they are also called in question, and to fall together with him,
that might otherwise have stood long enough on their own legs, if they
had not trusted to such an arm of flesh, such a broken staff that
deceived them.—_Thomas Gataker._
_Verse 17.—“An horse.”_ If the strength of horses be of God, or be his
gift (Job xxxix. 19), then trust not in the strength of horses: use the
strength of horses, but do not trust the strength of horses. If you
trust that strength which God hath given to horses, you make them your
god. How often doth God forbid trusting in the strength of horses, as
knowing that we are apt to trust in anything that is strong, though but
a beast. “_An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver
any by his great strength._” As if God had said, you think a horse can
save you, but know he is a vain thing. And when the Psalmist saith, “A
horse is a vain thing,” he doth not mean it of a weak horse, but of a
horse of the greatest strength imaginable; such a horse is a vain thing
to save a man, neither can he deliver any by his strength; and therefore
the Lord, when he promised great deliverances to his people, lest they
should expect it by the strength of horses, saith (Hos. i. 7), “I will
save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by
sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen;” as if he had told
them, do not look after creature strength to be saved by; a horse will
be a vain thing to save you, and I can save you effectually without
horses, and I will.—_Joseph Caryl._
_Verses 17-20._—Man is sensible of his want of earthly blessings, and
will never cease, with excessive care, diligence, and vexation, to hunt
after them, till he come to know that God will provide for him. When one
hath great friends which they are known to lean upon, we say of them,
such need take no care, they know such-and-such will see to them. On the
contrary, come to one who knows no end of toiling and caring, ask him,
Why will you thus tire yourself out? He will answer, I must needs do it,
I have none but myself to trust to. So Christ followeth his disciples’
carefulness to this door, their unbelief, which did not let them
consider our heavenly Father cared for them. No present estate, though
never so great, can free the heart from distraction, because it is
subject to decay and vanishing: we shall never cast the burden of care
off our own shoulders, till we learn by faith to cast it upon the Lord,
whose eye is over us for good. He will never renounce carnal supports
who makes not God the stay of his soul for outward things. He will trust
in the abundance of his riches, wisdom, friends, or strength, that makes
not God his strength. The heart of man, being aware of his inability to
sustain himself if he be not underset, will seek out some prop, true or
false, sound or rotten, to lean unto. They will go down to Egypt for
help, and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many,
and in horsemen because they are very strong, who look not to the Holy
One of Israel, and seek not the Lord.—_John Ball._
_Verse 18.—“Behold,”_ etc. Hitherto he hath given a proof of God’s
providence towards _all men_, but now he descends to a particular proof
of it, by his care over his _church_, which he wonderfully guides,
defends, and protects in all dangers and assaults and that notice may be
taken of it, he begins with, “_Behold!_”—_Adam Clarke._
_Verse 18.—“The eye of the Lord is upon.”_ Look upon the sun, how it
casts light and heat upon the whole world in its general course, how it
shineth upon the good and the bad with an equal influence; but let its
beams be but concentred in a burning-glass, then it sets fire on the
object only, and passeth by all others: and thus God in the creation
looketh upon all his works with a general love, _erant omnia valde
bona_, they pleased him very well. Oh! but when he is pleased to cast
the beams of his love, and cause them to shine upon his elect through
Christ, then it is that their hearts burn within them, then it is that
their affections are inflamed; whereas others are but as it were a
little warmed, have a little shine of common graces cast upon
them.—_Richard Holdsworth, 1651._