place for plotting. His bed is a hot-bed for poisonous weeds.
God-fearing men meditate upon God and his service; but when men turn all
their thoughts and inventive faculties towards evil, their godlessness
is proved to a demonstration. He hath the devil for his bed-fellow who
lies abed and schemes how to sin. God is far from him. “_He setteth
himself in a way that is not good._” When he gets up he resolutely and
persistently pursues the mischief which he planned. The worst of ways he
prefers for his walking, for he has taught his heart to love filthiness,
having accustomed himself to revel in it in imagination. “_He abhorreth
not evil._” So far from having a contempt and abhorrence for evil, he
even rejoices in it, and patronises it. He never hates a wrong thing
because it is wrong, but he meditates on it, defends it, and practises
it.
What a portrait of a graceless man these few verses afford us! His
jauntiness of conscience, his licentiousness of speech, his intentness
upon wrong-doing, his deliberate and continued preference of iniquity,
and withal his atheistical heart, are all photographed to the life.
Lord, save us from being such.
5 Thy mercy, O LORD, _is_ in the heavens; _and_ thy faithfulness
_reacheth_ unto the clouds.
6 Thy righteousness _is_ like the great mountains; thy judgments
_are_ a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast.
7 How excellent _is_ thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the
children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.
8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house;
and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.
9 For with thee _is_ the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see
light.
From the baseness of the wicked the Psalmist turns his contemplation to
the glory of God. Contrasts are impressive.
5. “_Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens._” Like the ethereal blue, it
encompasses the whole earth, smiling upon universal nature, acting as a
canopy for all the creatures of earth, surmounting the loftiest peaks of
human provocations, and rising high above the mists of mortal
transgression. Clear sky is evermore above, and mercy calmly smiles
above the din and smoke of this poor world. Darkness and clouds are but
of earth’s lower atmosphere: the heavens are evermore serene, and bright
with innumerable stars. Divine mercy abides in its vastness of expanse,
and matchless patience, all unaltered by the rebellions of man. When we
can measure the heavens, then shall we bound the mercy of the Lord.
Towards his own servants especially, in the salvation of the Lord Jesus,
he has displayed grace higher than the heaven of heavens, and wider than
the universe. O that the atheist could but see this, how earnestly would
he long to become a servant of Jehovah! “_Thy faithfulness reacheth unto
the clouds._” Far, far above all comprehension is the truth and
faithfulness of God. He never fails, nor forgets, nor falters, nor
forfeits his word. Afflictions are like clouds, but the divine
truthfulness is all around them. While we are under the cloud we are in
the region of God’s faithfulness; when we mount above it we shall not
need such an assurance. To every word of threat, or promise, prophecy or
covenant, the Lord has exactly adhered, for he is not a man that he
should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent.
6. “_Thy righteousness is like the great mountains._” Firm and unmoved,
lofty and sublime. As winds and hurricanes shake not an Alp, so the
righteousness of God is never in any degree affected by circumstances;
he is always just. Who can bribe the Judge of all the earth, or who can,
by threatening, compel him to pervert judgment? Not even to save his
elect would the Lord suffer his righteousness to be set aside. No awe
inspired by mountain scenery can equal that which fills the soul when it
beholds the Son of God slain as a victim to vindicate the justice of the
Inflexible Lawgiver. Right across the path of every unholy man who
dreams of heaven stand the towering Andes of divine righteousness, which
no unregenerate sinner can ever climb. Among great mountains lie
slumbering avalanches, and there the young lightnings try their callow
wings until the storm rushes down amain from the awful peaks; so against
the great day of the Lord’s wrath the Lord has laid up in the mountains
of his righteousness dreadful ammunition of war with which to overwhelm
his adversaries. “_Thy judgments are a great deep._” God’s dealings with
men are not to be fathomed by every boaster who demands to see a why for
every wherefore. The Lord is not to be questioned by us as to why this
and why that. He has reasons, but he does not choose to submit them to
our foolish consideration. Far and wide, terrible and irresistible like
the ocean are the providential dispensations of God: at one time they
appear as peaceful as the unrippled sea of glass; at another tossed with
tempest and whirlwind, but evermore most glorious and full of mystery.
Who shall discover the springs of the sea? He who shall do this may hope
to comprehend the providence of the Eternal.
“Undiscovered sea!
Into thy dark, unknown, mysterious caves,
And secret haunts unfathomably deep,
Beneath all visible retired, none went
And came again to tell the wonders there.”
Yet as the deep mirrors the sky, so the mercy of the Lord is to be seen
reflected in all the arrangements of his government on earth, and over
the profound depth the covenant rainbow casts its arch of comfort, for
the Lord is faithful in all that he doeth.
“_O Lord, thou preservest man and beast._” All the myriads of creatures,
rational and irrational, are fed by Jehovah’s hand. The countless
beasts, the innumerable birds, the inconceivable abundance of fishes,
the all but infinite armies of insects, all owe their continuance in
life to the unceasing outgoings of the divine power. What a view of God
this presents to us! What a debased creature must he be who sees no
trace of such a God, and feels no awe of him!
7. “_How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God._” Here we enter into
the Holy of Holies. Benevolence, and mercy, and justice, are everywhere,
but the excellence of that mercy only those have known whose faith has
lifted the veil and passed into the brighter presence of the Lord; these
behold the excellency of the Lord’s mercy. The word translated
_excellent_ may be rendered “precious;” no gem or pearl can ever equal
in value a sense of the Lord’s love. This is such a brilliant as angels
wear. Kings’ regalia are a beggarly collection of worthless pebbles when
compared with the tender mercy of Jehovah. David could not estimate it,
and therefore, after putting a note of admiration, he left our hearts
and imagination, and, better still, our experience, to fill up the rest.
He writes _how excellent!_ because he cannot tell us the half of it.
“_Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy
wings._” The best of reasons for the best of courses. The figure is very
beautiful. The Lord overshadows his people as a hen protects her brood,
or as an eagle covers its young; and we as the little ones run under the
blessed shelter and feel at rest. To cower down under the wings of God
is so sweet. Although the enemy be far too strong for us, we have no
fear, for we nestle under the Lord’s wing. O that more of Adam’s race
knew the excellency of the heavenly shelter! It made Jesus weep to see
how they refused it: our tears may well lament the same evil.
8. “_They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house._”
Those who learn to put their trust in God shall be received into his
house, and shall share in the provision laid up therein. The
dwelling-place of the Lord is not confined to any place, and hence
reside where we may, we may regard our dwelling, if we be believers, as
one room in the Lord’s great house; and we shall, both in providence and
grace, find a soul-contenting store supplied to us as the result of
living by faith in nearness to the Lord. If we regard the assembly of
the saints as being peculiarly the house of God, believers shall,
indeed, find in sacred worship the richest spiritual food. Happy is the
soul that can drink in the sumptuous dainties of the gospel—nothing can
so completely fill the soul. “_And thou shalt make them drink of the
river of thy pleasures._” As they have the fruits of Eden to feed on, so
shall they have the river of Paradise to drink from. God’s everlasting
love bears to us a constant and ample comfort, of which grace makes us
to drink by faith, and then our pleasure is of the richest kind. The
Lord not only brings us to this river, but makes us drink: herein we see
the condescension of divine love. Heaven will, in the fullest sense,
fulfil these words; but they who trust in the Lord enjoy the antepast
even here. The happiness given to the faithful is that of God himself;
purified spirits joy with the same joy as the Lord himself. “That my joy
may be in you, that your joy may be full.”
9. “_For with thee is the fountain of life._” This verse is made of
simple words, but like the first chapter of John’s Gospel, it is very
deep. From the Lord, as from an independent self-sufficient spring, all
creature life proceeds, by him it is sustained, through him alone can it
be perfected. Life is in the creature, but the fountain of it is only in
the Creator. Of spiritual life, this is true in the most emphatic sense;
“it is the Spirit that quickeneth,” “and we are dead, and our life is
hid with Christ in God.” “_In thy light shall we see light._” Light is
the glory of life. Life in the dark is misery, and rather death than
life. The Lord alone can give natural, intellectual, and spiritual life;
he alone can make life bright and lustrous. In spiritual things the
knowledge of God sheds a light on all other subjects. We need no candle
to see the sun, we see it by its own radiance, and then see everything
else by the same lustre. We never see Jesus by the light of self, but
self in the light of Jesus. No inward intelligence of ours leads us to
receive the Spirit’s light, but the rather, it often helps to quench the
sacred beam; purely and only by his own illumination, the Holy Ghost
lights up the dark recesses of our heart’s ungodliness. Vain are they
who look to learning and human wit, one ray from the throne of God is
better than the noonday splendour of created wisdom. Lord, give me the
sun, and let those who will delight in the wax candles of superstition
and the phosphorescence of corrupt philosophy. Faith derives both light
and life from God, and hence she neither dies nor darkens.
10 O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy
righteousness to the upright in heart.
11 Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand
of the wicked remove me.
10. “_O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee._” We ask
no more than a continuance of the past mercy. Lord, extend this grace of
thine to all the days of all who have been taught to know thy faithful
love, thy tenderness, thine immutability and omnipotence. As they have
been taught of the Lord to know the Lord, so go on to instruct them and
perfect them. This prayer is the heart of the believer asking precisely
that which the heart of his God is prepared to grant. It is well when
the petition is but the reflection of the promise. “_And thy
righteousness to the upright in heart._” As thou hast never failed the
righteous, so abide thou in the same manner their defender and avenger.
The worst thing to be feared by the man of God is to be forsaken of
heaven, hence this prayer; but the fear is groundless, hence the peace
which faith brings to us. Learn from this verse, that although a
continuance of mercy is guaranteed in the covenant, we are yet to make
it a matter of prayer. For this good thing will the Lord be enquired of.
11. “_Let not the foot of pride come against me._” The general prayer is
here turned into a particular and personal one for himself. Pride is the
devil’s sin. Good men may well be afraid of proud men, for the serpent’s
seed will never cease to bite the heel of the godly. Fain would proud
scoffers spurn the saints or trample them under foot: against their
malice prayer lifts up her voice. No foot shall come upon us, no hand
shall prevail against us, while Jehovah is on our side. “_Let not the
hand of the wicked remove me._” Suffer me not to be driven about as a
fugitive, nor torn from my place like an uprooted tree. Violence with
both hand and foot, with means fair and means foul, strove to overthrow
the Psalmist, but he resorts to his great Patron, and sings a song of
triumph in anticipation of the defeat of his foes.
12 There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and
shall not be able to rise.
12. “_There are the workers of iniquity fallen._” Faith sees them
scattered on the plain. There! before our very eyes sin, death, and
hell, lie prostrate. Behold the vanquished foes! “_They are cast down._”
Providence and grace have dashed them from their vantage ground. Jesus
has already thrown all the foes of his people upon their faces, and in
due time all sinners shall find it so. “_And shall not be able to
rise._” The defeat of the ungodly and of the powers of evil is final,
total, irretrievable. Glory be to God, however high the powers of
darkness may carry it at this present, the time hastens on when God
shall defend the right, and give to evil such a fall as shall for ever
crush the hopes of hell; while those who trust in the Lord shall
eternally praise him and rejoice in his holy name.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.
_Title.—“To the Chief Musician,”_ has given rise to many conjectures. In
the Septuagint the Hebrew word is translated, εἰς τὸ τέλος, _to the
end_; a meaning so utterly vague as to defy all reasonable
conjecture.... The meaning of the term appears to be this: the Psalms in
which it occurs were given in charge by their inspired authors to the
Chief Musician overseeing some specific band of music, whether harps,
psalteries, or wind instruments.—_John Jebb, A. M., in “A Literal
Translation of the Book of Psalms,” 1846._
_Title.—“The servant of the Lord.”_ David only uses this title here and
in Psalm eighteen. In both he describes the dealings of God both with
the righteous and the wicked, and it is most fit that at the very outset
he should take his place with the servants of the Lord.—_C. H. S._
_Whole Psalm._—_First part._—A character of a wicked man (verse 1). 1.
He calls evil good (verse 2). 2. He continues in it. 3. He is an
hypocrite (verse 3). 4. He is obstinate. 5. He is studious in wickedness
(verse 4). _Second part._—God’s patience and mercy (verses 5, 6). 1. To
all, even all creatures. 2. But particularly to his people, which he
admires. Upon which the faithful (1) trust, (2) are satisfied (verses 7,
8). The _Third part_.—He prays that this effect may light, 1. On God’s
people (verse 10). 2. On himself (verse 11). 3. His acclamation upon it
(verse 12).—_William Nicholson (Bishop), 1662._
_Verse 1._—In this Psalm we have a description of sin, especially as it
appears in those who have openly broken God’s bands. The introduction is
very striking; “_The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart,
that there is no fear of God before his eyes._” How could the
“_transgression of the wicked_” speak within the _heart_ of him who in
the inscription of the Psalm declares himself to be _the servant of_
JEHOVAH? These words are generally understood as signifying that the
outward conduct of the sinner, as often as he thought of it, naturally
suggested this conclusion to his mind, that he was destitute of all fear
of God. But they may perhaps admit of another meaning, equally agreeable
to the literal reading; _wickedness, saith of the wicked, within my
heart_, etc. According to this view, the Psalmist meant that
notwithstanding the external pretences of the wicked, and all their
attempts to cover their iniquity, he was certain that they had no real
sense of the presence of God, that they secretly renounced his
authority. How was he assured of this? By a comparison of their conduct
with the dictates of the heart. He could not indeed look into their
hearts, but he could look into his own, and _there_ he found corruption,
so strong, that were it not for the fear of God that was implanted
within him, he would be as bad as they.—_John Jamieson._
_Verse 1._—It is not the imperfection or shortcoming in the fear of God,
but the being destitute of it altogether, that proveth a wicked man:
“_There is no fear of God before his eyes._”—_David Dickson._
_Verse 1 (last clause).—“Not having the fear of God before his eyes,”_
has become inwoven into proceedings in criminal courts. When a man has
no fear of God, he is prepared for any crime.
_Total depravity_ is not too strong a term to describe human wickedness.
The sinner has “_no fear of God_.” Where that is wanting, how can there
be any piety? And if there is no piety, there must be total want of
right affections, and that is the very essence of depravity.—_William S.
Plumer._
_Verse 1._—Durst any mock God with flourishes and formalities in
religion, if they feared him? Durst any provoke God to his face by real
and open wickednesses, if they feared him? Durst any sin with the
judgments of God fresh bleeding before their eyes, if they feared the
Lord and his wrath? Durst they sin with heaps of precious mercy before
their eyes, if they feared the Lord and his goodness? Durst any flatter
either others or themselves with hopes of impunity in their sin, if they
feared the Lord and his truth? Durst any slight their own promises,
professions, protestations, oaths, or design the entangling of others by
them, rather than the binding of themselves, did they fear the Lord and
his faithfulness, even the Lord who keepeth covenant and promise for
ever? All these and many more transgressions of the wicked (all these
ways of transgression are found among the wicked, it were well if none
of them were found among those who have a name of godliness; I say, all
these transgressions of the wicked) say, “_There is no fear of God
before their eyes._”—_Joseph Caryl._
_Verse 1._—The _wicked_ man has no regard to the oracles of God: he has
one in his own heart, which dictates nothing but rebellion.—_Zachary
Mudge._
_Verse 2.—“For he flattereth himself in his own eyes.”_ The matter which
this self-flattery especially concerns is sin, as appears from the
following clause. He deceives himself as to its nature and consequences,
its evil and aggravations, and he continues to do so “_until his
iniquity be found to be hateful_;” till it be fully discovered, and
appear in its magnitude and atrocious circumstances both to himself and
others, by some awful divine judgment, such as that mentioned in the
last verse of the Psalm: “_There are the workers of iniquity fallen:
they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise._” He adduces this
self-deceit and continuance in it, as illustrating the truth of that
judgment he had formed of the state of such a person: “_There is no fear
of God before his eyes: for he flattereth himself in his own eyes._” And
surely the proof is incontrovertible. For a man under the bondage of sin
would never _flatter himself in his own eyes_, were it not that God is
not before them. The reason why he thinks so well of himself is, that
_God is not in all his thoughts_. He hath cast off all fear about
himself because he hath no fear of God.—_John Jamieson._
_Verse 2.—“He flattereth himself.”_ 1. Some flatter themselves with a
secret hope, that there is no such thing as _another world_. 2. Some
flatter themselves that _death_ is a great way off, and that they shall
hereafter have much opportunity to seek salvation. 3. Some flatter
themselves that they lead _moral_ and orderly lives and therefore think
that they shall not be damned. 4. Some make the _advantages_ under which
they live an occasion of self-flattery. They flatter themselves that
they live in a place where the gospel is powerfully preached, and among
a religious people, where many have been converted; and they think it
will be much easier for them to be saved on that account. 5. Some
flatter themselves with their own _intentions_. They intend to give
themselves liberty for a while longer, and _then_ to reform. 6. There
are some who flatter themselves that they _do_, and have _done_, a great
deal for their salvation, and therefore hope they shall obtain it; when
indeed they neither do what they ought to do, nor what they might do
even in their present state of unregeneracy; nor are they in any likely
way to be converted. 7. Some hope by their strivings to obtain salvation
of _themselves_. They have a secret imagination that they shall, by
degrees, work in themselves sorrow and repentance of sin, and love
towards God and Jesus Christ. Their striving is not so much an earnest
seeking to God, as a striving to do themselves that which is the work of
God. 8. Some sinners flatter themselves that they are _already_
converted. They sit down and rest in a false hope, persuading themselves
that all their sins are pardoned; that God loves them; that they shall
go to heaven when they die; and that they need trouble themselves no
more. “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and
have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and
miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Rev. iii. 17.—_Condensed
from Jonathan Edwards._
_Verse 2.—“In his own eyes.”_ He had not God before his eyes in holy
awe, therefore he puts himself there in unholy admiration. He who makes
little of God makes much of himself. They who forget adoration fall into
adulation. The eyes must see something, and if they admire not God they
will flatter self.—_C. H. S._
_Verse 2.—“Until his iniquity be found to be hateful;”_ that is, until
he finds by experience that it is a more dreadful thing to sin against
God, and break his holy commands, than he imagined.—_Jonathan Edwards._
_Verse 2.—“Hateful.”_ Odious to himself, to others, and to God.—_Gilbert
Genebrard, 1537-1597._
_Verse 3.—“He hath left off.”_ That little light he once had, he hath
lost, and cast off such good practices as once in hypocrisy he
performed; neither will he learn to do better.—_John Trapp._
_Verse 3 (last clause)._—Apostacy from God is really an undoing of all
the good which we have done. ’Tis a wicked repentance quite contrary to
the grace of repentance; as that is a repentance from dead works, so
this is a repentance from works of a better sort: “_He hath left off to
be wise, and to do good._” ’Tis a perversion to evil after a seeming
conversion from it.—_Timothy Cruso._
_Verses 3, 4_:—
Yet did he spare his sleep, and hear the clock
Number the midnight watches, on his bed
Devising mischief more; and early rose.
And made most hellish meals of good men’s names.
From door to door you might have seen him speed,
Or placed amid a group of gaping fools.
Peace fled the neighbourhood in which he made
His haunts; and, like a moral pestilence,
Before his breath the healthy shoots and blooms
Of social joy and happiness decayed.
Fools only in his company were seen,
And those forsaken of God, and to themselves
Given up. The prudent shunned him and his house
As one who had a deadly moral plague.
_Robert Pollock, 1799-1827._
_Verse 4.—“He deviseth mischief upon his bed.”_ As the man that feareth
God communeth with his heart upon his bed, that he may not sin, no, not
in his heart; so the man that feareth not God, deviseth how he may plot
and perform sin willingly.—_David Dickson._
_Verse 4.—“Upon his bed.”_ Most diligently does Ayguan follow up the
scriptural expressions concerning a bed and tell us that there are six
different beds of wickedness—that of luxury, that of avarice, of
ambition, of greediness, of torpor, and of cruelty, and he illustrates
them all by examples from Scripture.—_J. M. Neale._