the many interpretations that are given of this passage, that appears to
me the most probable which derives it from the posture of the
worshipper; who standing with his head inclined downward toward his
bosom, turned away his attention from all external objects, and uttered
his mournful and earnest requests, as if they were directed to his own
bosom. Such a posture of devotion is in use both among Jews and
Mohammedans.—_Koehler in Repertor. Lit. Orient.; and Reland de Relig.
Mohammedica, quoted by Walford in loc._
_Verse 13 (last clause)._—We may read it thus: _Let my prayer return
into my bosom_; that is, I wished no worse to them than to myself: let
me receive of God such good as I prayed for them. See Psalm lxxix.
12.—_Henry Ainsworth._
_Verse 14.—“For his mother.”_ On account of the plurality of wives in an
Eastern household, the sons are usually far more attached to their
mother than their father. Their father they share with a numerous band
of half-brothers, who are envious of them, or of whom they are jealous,
but their mother is all their own, with her they are brought up in
childhood; she takes their part in youth, in the numerous battles of the
harem; and on their part when they are grown up, they love her
intensely, and hence their mourning at her decease is of the bitterest
kind.—_C. H. S._
_Verse 14.—“His mother.”_ Mahomet was once asked what relation had the
strongest claim upon our affection and respect; when he instantly
replied, “The mother, the mother, the mother.”
_Verse 14 (last clause).—Bewaileth his mother: mourneth at her funeral._
In this case the affections are most strong. Therefore the priests were
permitted to mourn for such. Levit. xxi. 1, 2, 3.—_Henry Ainsworth._
_Verse 15.—“But in mine adversity they rejoiced,”_ etc.—Do not glory in
your neighbour’s ruins. The fire-fly leaps and dances in the fire, and
so do many wicked men rejoice in the sufferings of others. Such as
rejoice in the sufferings of others are sick of the devil’s disease; but
from that disease the Lord deliver all your souls. ’Tis sad to insult
over those whom God hath humbled; ’tis high wickedness to triumph over
those to whom God hath given a cup of astonishment to drink. Such as
make the desolations of their neighbours to be the matter either of
their secret repast, or open exultation, such may fear that the very
dregs of divine wrath are reserved for them. ’Tis bad playing upon the
harp because others have been put to hang their harps upon the willows.
We must not pray with him in the tragedy, but it may rain calamities;
nor with Clemens’ Gnostic, Give me calamities that I may glory in them.
There cannot be a greater evidence of a wicked heart, than for a man to
be merry because others are in misery. “He that is glad at calamities
(that is, at the calamities of others) shall not be unpunished.” Prov.
xvii. 5. If God be God, such as congratulate our miseries instead of
condoling them, shall be sure to be punished with the worst of
punishments; for such do not only sin against the law of grace, but also
against the very law of nature; the law of nature teaching men to
sympathise with those that are in misery, and not to rejoice over them
because of their miseries. O, sirs, do not make others’ mourning your
music, do not make others’ tears your wine; as you would not be made
drunk at last with the wine of astonishment.—_Thomas Brooks._
_Verse 15.—“But in mine adversity they rejoiced,”_ etc. Marvellous
prophecy of the cross! second only, if indeed second, to that in the
twenty-second Psalm. Still closer to the history if we take the Vulgate:
_the scourges_ were gathered _together upon me_. Even so, O Lord Jesus,
the ploughers ploughed upon thy back, and made long furrows: precious
furrows for us, where are sown patience for the present life, and glory
in the next; where are sown hope that maketh not ashamed, and love that
many waters cannot quench. “_The very abjects._” Even those worst of
abjects, who said, “God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are;”
who had set the poor sinner before the Lord, with their “Moses in the
law commanded that such should be stoned.” “_Making mouths at me._” And
is it not wonderful that, well knowing the prophecy, yet the chief
priests and scribes should have so fulfilled it, as that it should be
written concerning them. “They that passed by mocked him, wagging their
heads”?—_Lewis de Grenada, 1504-1588._
_Verse 15.—“In mine adversity they rejoiced.”_ Now, as men often relent
at seeing the misfortunes of their enemies, so that they cease to hate
or persecute those who are already miserably wretched, it was an
evidence of the very cruel and fierce spirit by which David’s former
friends were actuated against him, when, upon seeing him cast down and
afflicted, they were rather by this incited furiously and insolently to
assail him.—_John Calvin._
_Verse 15.—“The abjects.”_ _The very abjects_ (Prayer Book Version). The
Hebrew word _Nechim_, thus translated, comes from a verb signifying _to
be smitten_. Hence, in the Septuagint it is rendered _scourges_. But it
may also be rendered, with Jerome, _smiters_, and may mean _smitten with
the tongue_. Com. Jer. xviii. 18. Another of its meanings is, according
to Buxtorf, the _wry-legged_, _the lame_; and so it is used in 2 Sam.
iv. 4; ix. 3; whence the epithet of Necho was given to one of the
Pharaohs who halted in his gait. Our translators seem to have understood
the word in this last sense, as a term of contempt.—_Daniel Cresswell._
_Verse 15._—David, having showed how compassionate he was to his enemies
in their affliction (verse 14), he presently shows (verse 15), how
incompassionate, or barbarously cruel rather, his enemies were to him in
his. “_Abjects_” are vile persons, men smitten in their estates and
credits; yea, often as slaves or ill servants smitten with cudgels or
whips. So a learned translator renders the Psalm, _The smitten gathered
against me_; that is, vile men who deserve to be beaten and
cudgelled.—_Joseph Caryl._
_Verse 16.—“With hypocritical mockers in feasts.”_ Some cannot be merry,
but it must be with Scripture; if they want a little diversion, the
saints must be the subject of their discourse! they can vent their
profane jests upon the word of God; this is their pastime over their
cups upon the ale-bench. How ready they are with their contumelious
reflections; they have learnt their father’s dialect, they are accusers
of the brethren, their speech bewrays them to be Hellians. You know that
in ordinary, we can tell what countryman a person is by his speech,
every country having almost a peculiar idiom; so it is here, these
scoffers at religion by speaking the language of hell, let us understand
whence they are. They have, it may be, a little wit, which they set off
with a sort of an air in rhetorical raillery, and oh, how quick and
sharp when they are upon this subject! These scoffing Ishmaelites are
seated in the devil’s chair, somewhat above their brethren in iniquity,
as most deserving the place; and there is less ground to hope that such
persons will be savingly wrought upon who arrive to such a height in sin
as to make a mock of it, and to sport with holiness, than of others.
Persons are got a great way towards hell when they mock at what is
serious, and that with delight. This the Lord will visit for in his due
time; for he knows who they are that so dishonour him by reproaching
them that are his.—_Oliver Heywood._
_Verse 16.—“Hypocritical mockers in feasts.”_ בְּחַנְפֵי ל׳ מ׳. Very
difficult. The word מָעוֹג, in Kings xvii. 12, the only other passage
where it occurs, means “a cake.” Hence ל׳ מ׳ is interpreted by Gesenius
and other to mean, hangers-on at the tables of the rich (lit.
“cake-mockers”) whose business it was, by witticisms and buffoonery to
make entertainment for the guests, and who got their dinner in return,
like the Gr. ψωμοκόλακες, κνισοκόλακες, and the Mediæv. _Lat._
_buccellarii._ Then the words would mean, “Amongst the profanest.”—_J.
J. Stewart Perowne._ [Would not our word _loafers_ be somewhat analogous
to these cake-eaters of antiquity!]—_C. H. S._
_Verse 16.—“Hypocritical mockers.”_ David aggravates the sin of those
jeering companions who made him their table-talk, and could not taste
their cheer except seasoned with some salt jest quibbled out at him,
with this, that they were “_hypocritical mockers_;” they did it slily,
and wrapped up their scoffs, it is like in such language as might make
some think, who did not well observe them, that they applauded him.
There is a way of commending which some have learned to use when they
mean to cast the greatest scorn upon those they hate bitterly, and these
hypocritical mockers deserve the chair to be given them from all other
scorners.—_William Gurnall._
_Verse 16.—“Mockers in feasts.”_ If it were known at a feast that there
was any one present or absent, whom the host disliked, it was customary
for the guests to “make fun of them,” and use sarcastic language
respecting them. These are the “_hypocritical mockers in feasts_.”—_John
Gadsby._
_Verse 17._—Satan no sooner spies our wanderings, but he presently runs
with a complaint to God, filing bills against us in the star-chamber of
heaven, where the matter would go hard with us, but for the Great Lord
Chancellor of peace, our Advocate Jesus Christ. As God keeps all our
tears in a bottle, and registereth the very groans of our holy passion
in a book, so Satan keeps a record of our sins, and solicits justice
against us. Were God like man, subject to passions, or incensible by the
suggestions of the common barrator, woe were us. But he will hear one
son of truth before ten thousand fathers of lying. No matter what the
plaintiff libelleth, when the judge acquitteth. We have forfeited our
estates by treason, and the busy devil begs us; but there is one that
steps in, and pleads a former grant, and that both by promise and
purchase. “_Lord, rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling
from the lions._” Lord Jesus, challenge thine own; let not Satan enter
upon by force or fraud, what thou hast bought with thine own
blood.—_Thomas Adams._
_Verse 17.—“My darling.”_ In Poole’s Synopsis the critics explain this
name for the soul, as my only one, my solitary one, desolate, deserted,
and destitute of human hope. Such is the soul under sore affliction. See
Ps. xxii. 21. “_From the lions._” Daniel in the den was literally where
David was spiritually. Shut in among fierce, cruel, and angry creatures,
and himself defenceless, having no weapon but prayer, no helper but the
Lord. The people of God may be exposed to the lions of hell, and their
roarings may grievously affright them; but the soul which is their
“darling” is also God’s dear one, and therefore they shall be
rescued.—_C. H. S._
_Verse 19.—“Wink with the eye.”_ Showing pleasure in their eyes because
of my evil.—_Francis Vatablus, 1545._
_Verse 19.—“Wink the eye.”_ This was a sign which malicious persons made
to each other when the object of their malice was gained, scornfully
twisting their eyes together. The Hebrew word here has no sufficiently
expressive substitute in English.—_Benjamin Weiss._
_Verse 21.—“Our eye hath seen.”_ _Eye_ for _eyes_, unless we would say
that all the wicked are so conjoined, that they may seem to have but one
eye, heart, head.—_John Trapp._
_Verse 21._—Yet, O ye saints, divulge not these things to wicked men;
whisper them softly one to another, with fear and trembling, lest some
profane wretch or other overhear you, and take that for encouragement
that was only meant for caution. What is more common than for the vilest
sinners to plead for their excuse, or warrant rather, the foul
miscarriages of God’s dearest saints? Thus the drunkard looks upon holy
Noah as a pot-companion, whereby he discovers his nakedness in a worse
sense than ever Cham did; and thus the unclean sensualist quotes David,
and calls him in to be the patron of his debauchery. Certainly, if there
be any grief that can overcast the perfect joys of the saints in heaven,
it is that their names and examples should, to the great dishonour of
God, be produced by wicked and sinful men, to countenance their grossest
sins and wickednesses. But let such know, that God hath set up these in
his church to be monuments of his mercy, to declare to humble and
penitent sinners how great sins he can pardon; yet if any hereupon
imbolden themselves in sin, instead of being set up as monuments of
mercy, God will set them up as pillars of salt.—_Ezekiel Hopkins
(Bishop)._
_Verse 21._—He who rejoices in another’s fall rejoices in the devil’s
victory.—_Ambrose, quoted in Nichol’s Proverbs._
_Verses 21, 22_:—
They gape and drawe their mouthes in scorneful wise,
And crie, fie, fie, wee sawe it with our eyes.
But thou their deed, (O Lord!) dost also see;
Then bee not silent soe, nor farr from mee.
_Sir John Davies._
_Verse 23.—“My God and my Lord.”_ The cry of Thomas when he saw the
wounds of Jesus. If he did not count our Lord to be divine, neither does
David here ascribe Deity to Jehovah, for there is no difference except
in the order of the words and the tongue in which they were spoken, the
meaning is identical. What words they are, with their two eyes seeing
Jehovah in two aspects yet as one, grasping him with two hands in the
double “my” to one heart, for the word is but one, bowing before him on
both knees to worship him in lowliest reverence. Well might Nouet, in
his exposition of the words as used by Thomas, exclaim, “Oh, sweet word,
I will say it all my life long; I will say it in the hour of death; I
will say it in eternity.”—_C. H. S._
_Verse 24.—“O Lord my God.”_ O Jehovah my God; here is another precious
word. He takes Jehovah to be his God, in opposition to those who make
idols, or riches, or their own lusts their god. He claims a full
possession of all that is in the great I AM. Even though he views him as
a judge he lays the hand of faith upon his God, and flinches not even
before the blaze of his righteousness. It is a noble word, a grand
utterance of faith; he who can pronounce that word “my” from his inmost
soul in such a connection may well laugh to scorn all his enemies.—_C.
H. S._
_Verse 25.—“Let them not say we have swallowed him up.”_ And even if
they could, like Jonah’s whale, they would soon be sickened of their
feast. A living child of God were more easily swallowed than digested by
the malice of hell.—_C. H. S._
_Verse 27._—See how the hearts of the saints have been drawn out against
their persecutors. Prayers are the arms that in times of persecution the
saints have still had recourse to. The Romans being in great distress
were put so hard to it, that they were fain to take the weapons out of
the temples of their gods to fight with their enemies, and so they
overcame them: so when the people of God have been hard put to it by
reason of afflictions and persecutions, the weapons that they have fled
to have been prayers and tears, and with these they have overcome their
persecutors.—_Thomas Brooks._
_Verse 28.—“My tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise
all the day long.”_ See now I have made a discourse something longer; ye
are wearied. Who endureth to praise God all the day long? I will suggest
a remedy whereby thou mayest praise God all the day long if thou wilt.
Whatever thou dost, do well, and thou hast praised God. When thou
singest a hymn, thou praisest God, but what doth thy tongue, unless thy
heart also praise him? Hast thou ceased from singing hymns, and departed
that thou mayest refresh thyself? Be not drunken, and thou hast praised
God. Dost thou go away to sleep? Rise not to do evil, and thou hast
praised God. Dost thou transact business? Do no wrong, and thou hast
praised God. Dost thou till thy field? Raise not strife, and thou hast
praised God. In the innocency of thy works prepare thyself to praise God
all the day long.—_Augustine._
HINTS TO PREACHERS.
_Verse 1._—Jesus our Advocate and Champion; our friend in the courts of
heaven and the battles of earth.
_Verse 2._—Jesus armed as the defender of the faithful.
_Verse 3._—Enemies kept at arm’s length. How the Lord does this, and the
blessedness of it to us
_Verse 3 (last clause)._—Full assurance. An assurance positive,
personal, spiritual, present, divine, complete, coming by a word from
God.
_Verse 3 (last clause)._—Heaven made sure.—_Thomas Adams’ Sermon._
_Verse 4._—The everlasting confusion of the devil.
_Verse 6._—The horrible pilgrimage of the ungodly.
_Verse 6._—The trinity of dangers in the pathway of the wicked, their
way dark with ignorance, and slippery with temptation, while behind them
is the avenger.
_Verse 8._—Destruction at unawares, an awful topic.
_Verse 9._—Joy in God and in his salvation.
_Verse 10._—A matchless God, and his matchless grace—these are the
themes. An experienced heart, thoroughly quickened—this is the songster;
and from this cometh matchless music.
The music of a shattered harp.
_Verse 11._—The meanness, cruelty, sinfulness, and commonness of
slander.
_Verse 12._—How a soul may be robbed.
_Verse 13._—Christian sympathy even for the froward.
_Verse 13 (last clause)._—Personal benefit of intercessory prayer.
_Verses 13, 14._—Compassion to the sick.—_C. Simeon._
_Verse 15._—The shameful conspiracy of men against our Lord Jesus at his
passion.
_Verse 17._—The limit of divine endurance.
_Verse 18._—The duty, blessedness, and seasonableness of public praise.
_Verse 22._—Omniscience pleaded, a word sought for, presence requested,
action entreated, affiance urged as a claim.
_Verse 25._—The ungodly man’s delight, and the righteous man’s refuge.
_Verse 26._—The convict dress of the wicked—“_clothed with shame_,” etc.
_Verse 27 (last clause)._—What is that prosperity in which the Lord hath
pleasure?
_Verse 28._—A blessed theme, a fitting tongue, an endless speech.
PSALM XXXVI.
TITLE.—To the Chief Musician.—_He who had the leadership of the Temple
services was charged with the use of this song in public worship. What
is everybody’s business is never done. It was well to have one person
specially to attend to the service of song in the house of the Lord._ Of
David the servant of the Lord. _This would seem to indicate that the
Psalm peculiarly befits one who esteems it an honour to be called
Jehovah’s servant. It is_ THE SONG OF HAPPY SERVICE; _such a one as all
may join in who bear the easy yoke of Jesus. The wicked are contrasted
with the righteous, and the great Lord of devout men is heartily
extolled; thus obedience to so good a Master is indirectly insisted on,
and rebellion against him is plainly condemned._
DIVISIONS.—_From 1 to 4 David describes the rebellious: in 5 to 9 he
extols the various attributes of the Lord; in 10 and 11 he addresses the
Lord in prayer, and in the last verse his faith sees in vision the
overthrow of all the workers of iniquity._
EXPOSITION.
The transgressions of the wicked saith within my heart, _that there
is_ no fear of God before his eyes.
2 For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be
found to be hateful.
3 The words of his mouth _are_ iniquity and deceit: he hath left off
to be wise, _and_ to do good.
4 He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way
_that_ is not good; he abhorreth not evil.
1. “_The transgression of the wicked._” His daring and wanton sin; his
breaking the bounds of law and justice. “_Saith within my heart, that
there is no fear of God before his eyes._” Men’s sins have a voice to
godly ears. They are the outer index of an inner evil. It is clear that
men who dare to sin constantly and presumptuously cannot respect the
great Judge of all. Despite the professions of unrighteous men, when we
see their unhallowed actions our heart is driven to the conclusion that
they have no religion whatever. Unholiness is clear evidence of
ungodliness. Wickedness is the fruit of an atheistic root. This may be
made clear to the candid head by cogent reasoning, but it is clear
already and intuitively to the pious heart. If God be everywhere, and I
fear him, how can I dare to break his laws in his very presence? He must
be a desperate traitor who will rebel in the monarch’s own halls.
Whatever theoretical opinions bad men may avow, they can only be classed
with atheists, since they are such practically. Those eyes which have no
fear of God before them now, shall have the terrors of hell before them
for ever.
2. “_For._” Here is the argument to prove the proposition laid down in
the former verse. David here runs over the process of reasoning by which
he had become convinced that wicked men have no proper idea of God or
respect for him. God-fearing men see their sins and bewail them, where
the reverse is the case we may be sure there is no fear of God. “_He
flattereth himself in his own eyes._” He counts himself a fine fellow,
worthy of great respect. He quiets his conscience, and so deceives his
own judgment as to reckon himself a pattern of excellence; if not for
morality, yet for having sense enough not to be enslaved by rules which
are bonds to others. He is the free-thinker, the man of strong mind, the
hater of cant, the philosopher; and the servants of God are, in his
esteem, mean-spirited and narrow-minded. Of all flatteries this is the
most absurd and dangerous. Even the silliest bird will not set traps for
itself; the most pettifogging attorney will not cheat himself. To
smoothe over one’s own conduct to one’s conscience (which is the meaning
of the Hebrew) is to smooth one’s own path to hell. The descent to
eternal ruin is easy enough, without making a glissade of it, as
self-flatterers do. “_Until his iniquity be found to be hateful._” At
length he is found out and detested, despite his self-conceit.
Rottenness smells sooner or later too strong to be concealed. There is a
time when the leprosy cannot be hidden. At last the old house can no
longer be propped up, and falls about the tenant’s ears: so there is a
limit to a man’s self-gratulation; he is found out amid general scorn,
and can no longer keep up the farce which he played so well. If this
happen not in this life, the hand of death will let light in upon the
covered character, and expose the sinner to shame and contempt.
The self-flattering process plainly proves the atheism of sinners, since
the bare reflection that God sees them would render such self-flatteries
extremely difficult, if not impossible. Belief in God, like light
reveals, and then our sin and evil are perceived; but wicked men are in
the dark, for they cannot see what is so clearly within them and around
them that it stares them in the face.
3. “_The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit._” This pair of hell
dogs generally hunt together, and what one does not catch the other
will; if iniquity cannot win by oppression, deceit will gain by
chicanery. When the heart is so corrupt as to flatter itself, the tongue
follows suit. The open sepulchre of the throat reveals the foulness of
the inner nature. God-fearing men make a conscience of their words, and
if they sin through infirmity they do not invent excuses, or go about to
boast of their wickedness: but because wicked men think little of evil
and artful speeches, we may be clear that God rules not in their souls.
The original by declaring that the words of the wicked are falsehood and
deceit is peculiarly strong; as if they were not only false in quality,
but actual falseness itself. “_He hath left off to be wise, and to do
good._” From the good way he has altogether gone aside. Men who fear God
proceed from strength to strength in the right path, but godless men
soon forsake what little good they once knew. How could men apostatise
if they had respect unto the supreme Judge? Is it not because they grow
more and more forgetful of God, that in due season they relinquish even
that hypocritical reverence of him which in former days they maintained
in order to flatter their souls?