blow.—_Thomas Wilcocks._
_Verse 2.—“Wither.”_ O bitter word, which will make the ears of them
that hear it to tingle! O sentence intolerable, which depriveth sinners
of all good things, and bringeth them to all woe! The Lord sometime
accursed the fig tree, and immediately, not only the leaves, but also
the body and root were wholly withered: even so, that fearful curse of
the last day shall be no less effectual; for on whomsoever it falleth it
shall so scorch them, and shall so make them destitute of God’s grace,
that they shall never more be able to do, to speak, think, or to hope
for any good thing.—_Thomas Tymme._
_Verse 2.—“Green herb.”_ We cannot gather riper fruit of patience from
any tree than is found upon the low shrubs of man’s short life; for if
that fretting canker of _envy at the prosperity of the wicked_ have
overrun thy mind, a malady from which the saints have no shelter to be
freed, out of this apothecary’s shop take antidote; either thy time is
short to behold it, or theirs shorter to enjoy it: “they are set in
slippery places, and are suddenly destroyed,” Psalm lxxiii. 18; “They
spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave,” Job
xxi. 13; “_They shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the
green herb._”—_Edmund Layfield’s Sermon, entitled “The Mappe of Man’s
Mortality and Vanity,” 1630._
_Verse 2._—Sometimes the wicked, like the green herb, wither in their
spring, they fall in their rise, they perish in the beginnings of their
mischievous designs; but if they do come to a full growth, they grow but
to harvest, the fit season of their cutting off.—_Robert Mossom._
_Verse 3._—Note well the double precept “_trust_” and “_do_.” This is
the true order, the two must go together, the one produces, the other
proves; the promise is to both.—_C. H. S._
_Verse 3.—“So shalt thou dwell in the land,”_ etc. Thou shalt have a
settlement, a quiet settlement, and a maintenance, a comfortable
maintenance: “_Verily thou shalt be fed_;” some read it, Thou shalt be
fed by faith, as the just are said to live by faith, and it is good
living, good feeding upon the promises. “_Verily thou shalt be fed_,” as
Elijah in the famine, with what is needful for thee. God himself is a
shepherd, a feeder to all those that trust in him, Psalm xxiii.
1.—_Matthew Henry._
_Verse 3.—“So shalt thou dwell in the land,”_ etc. The land of Canaan
was considered as the sum of earthly, and the type of heavenly felicity:
to be provided for in the Lord’s land, and there to dwell under his
protection, near his ordinances, and among his people, was all that the
genuine Israelite could desire.—_Thomas Scott (1747-1821)_ _in loc._
_Verse 3.—“Thou shalt be fed.”_ A manner of speech taken from cattle
feeding securely, under the conduct and keeping of a good
shepherd.—_Henry Ainsworth._
_Verse 3.—“Thou shalt be fed.”_ Fed in plenty.—_Thomas Secker
(Archbishop), 1768._
_Verse 3._—Fed in security.—_John Parkhurst._
_Verse 4._—Note thy part and God’s part. Do thou “_delight_,” and he
will “_give_.” _C. H. S._
_Verse 4._—How much grace and love breathes in these words, “_Delight
thyself also in the Lord!_” _Trust_ in him was recommended before, and
now, this being added also, how plain is it that your ease and rest is
the thing designed! Is it fit to receive so much kindness with neglect?
Again, _he delights in you_: I speak to such of whom this may be
supposed. And it is indefinitely said, “His delights were with the sons
of men,” Prov. viii. 31. Think what he is, and what you are; and at
once, both wonder and yield. And what else have you to delight in? what
thing will you name that shall supply the place of GOD, or be to you in
the stead of him? Moreover, who should delight in him but you—his
friends, his sons, those of his own house? Think what life and vigour it
will infuse into you, and that “the joy of the Lord will be your
strength,” Nehem. viii. 10. How pleasantly will you hold on your course,
and discharge all other duties of this your present state! You must
serve him. Dare you think of throwing off his yoke? How desirable is it
then to take delight in him whom I must serve; which only makes that
service acceptable to him, and easy to myself! Further, this is a
pleasure none can rob you of; a joy that cannot be taken from you. Other
objects of your delight are vanishing daily. Neither men nor devils can
ever hinder you delighting in God, if your hearts be so inclined. And
were you never brought to take pleasure in any person or thing to which
you had a former aversion? One that had wronged you might yet possibly
win you by after kindness. Give a reason why you should be more
difficult towards the blessed God that never wronged you, and whose way
towards you hath constantly imported so much good will!
And consider that your condition on earth is such as exposes you to many
sufferings and hardships, which, by your not delighting in him, you can
never be sure to avoid (for they are things common to men), but which,
by your delighting in him, you may be easily able to endure. Besides all
this, seriously consider that you must die. You can make no shift to
avoid that. How easily tolerable and pleasant will it be to think, then,
of going to him with whom you have lived in a delightful communion
before! And how dreadful to appear before him to whom your own heart
shall accuse you to have been (against all his importunities and
allurements) a disaffected stranger!—_John Howe’s “Treatise of Delight
in God.”_
_Verse 4._—We have in the former part extended the meaning of the words
“_Delight thyself in the Lord_,” beyond what they seem at first sight
literally to signify; so as not to understand them merely as requiring
that very single act of _delight_ to be immediately and directly
terminated on God himself; but to take them as comprehending all _the
sum of all holy and religious converse with God_, _i.e._, as it is
delightful or as it is seasoned (intermingled, and as it were
besprinkled) with delight; and upon the same account, of all our other
converse, so far as it is influenced by religion. And I doubt not, to
such as shall attentively have considered what hath been said, it will
be thought very reasonable to take them in that latitude; whereof the
very letter of the text (as may be alleged for further justification
hereof) is most fitly capable. For the particle which we read in the
Lord, hath not that signification alone, but signifies also _with_ or
_by_, or _besides_, or _before_, or _in presence of_, as if it had been
said, “Come and sit down with God, retire thyself to him, and solace
thyself in the delights which are to be found in his presence and
converse, in walking with him, and transacting thy course as before him,
and in his sight.” As a man may be said to delight himself with a friend
that puts himself under his roof, and, besides personal converse with
himself, freely enjoys the pleasure of all the entertainments,
accomodations, and provisions which he is freely willing to communicate
with him, and hath the satisfaction which a sober person would take in
observing the rules and order of a well-governed house.—_John Howe._
_Verse 4.—“He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”_ It shall be
unto thee even as thou wilt. It is said of Luther that he could have
what he would of Almighty God. What may not a favourite, who hath the
royalty of his prince’s care, obtain of him?—_John Trapp._
_Verse 4.—“The desires of thine heart.”_ All the desires of this
spiritual seed are of the nature of this seed, namely, substantial, and
shall meet with substance. All the desires of natural man, even after
God, after Christ, after righteousness, shall burn and perish with him
(for they are not the truth, nor do they come from the truth, nor can
they reach to the truth;) but all the desires of this spirit shall live
with the Spirit of God, in rest and satisfaction for ever.—_John
Pennington, 1656._
_Verse 4._—The _desires_ of God and the _desires_ of the righteous,
agree in one; they are of one mind in their desires.—_John Bunyan._
_Verse 5.—“Commit thy way unto the Lord,”_ etc. When we bear the burden
of our own affairs ourselves, and are chastised with anxiety and want of
success, and with envying the ungodly who prosper better than we do, the
best remedy is first to do our duty, as we are enabled in the use of the
means, then cast the care of the success over on God, as the ploughman
doth when he hath harrowed his land; and let the burden of it rest on
God, and let us not take it off him again, but put our mind to rest,
resolved to take the harvest in good part, as he shall send it.—_David
Dickson._
_Verse 5.—“Commit thy way unto the Lord,”_ is rendered by the Vulgate,
_Revela viam Domino_, reveal thy way; and by St. Ambrose, understood of
revealing our sins to God. Indeed, since is it impossible to cover, why
should we not discover, our sins? Conceal not that which God knoweth
already, and would have thee to make known. It is a very ill office to
be the devil’s secretary. Oh, break thy league with Satan by revealing
his secrets, thy sins, to God.—_Nathaniel Hardy._
_Verse 5.—“Commit thy way unto.”_ Marg. and Heb., _Roll thy way upon_—as
one who lays upon the shoulder of one stronger than himself a burden
which he is not able to bear.—_William De Burgh, D.D., in “A Commentary
on the Book of Psalms. Dublin: 1860.”_
_Verse 5._—Note the double again, “_Commit_” and “_trust_.”—_C. H. S._
_Verse 5.—“He shall bring it to pass.”_ When a hard piece of work is put
into the hand of an apprentice for the first assay of his skill, the
beholders are justly afraid of a miscarriage in his young and
unexperienced hand; but when the worker is an old master of craft, none
are afraid but his cunning hand can act again what so oft it hath
wrought to the contentment of all the beholders. Were our God a novice
in the great art of governing the world, and of the church in the bosom
thereof; had he to this day never given any proof of his infinite
wisdom, power, and goodness, in turning about the most terrible
accidents to the welfare and joy of his saints; we might indeed be
amazed whenever we feel ourselves sinking in the dangers wherein the
practices of our enemies oft do plunge us over head and ears; but the
Lord having given in times past so many documents of his uncontroverted
skill and most certain will to bring about all human affairs, as to his
own glory, so to the real good of all that love him, it would be in us
an impious and unexcusable uncharitableness to suspect the end of any
work which he hath begun.—_Robert Baylie’s Sermon before the House of
Commons, 1643._
_Verses 5, 7_:—
To God thy way commending,
Trust him whose arm of might,
The heavenly circles bending,
Guides every star aright:
The winds, and clouds, and lightning,
By his sure hand are led;
And he will, dark shades brightening,
Show thee what path to tread.
Although to make God falter,
The powers of hell combine,
One jot they cannot alter
Of his all-wise design:
All projects and volition
Of his eternal mind,
Despite all opposition,
Their due fulfilment find.
No more, then, droop and languish,
Thou sorrow-stricken soul;
E’en from the depths of anguish,
Whose billows o’er thee roll,
Thy Father’s hand shall draw thee;
In hope and patience stay,
And joy will soon shed o’er thee
An ever brightening ray.
All faithless murmurs leaving,
Bid them a last good night,
No more thy vexed soul grieving,
Because things seem not right:
Wisely his sceptre wielding,
God sits in regal state,
No power to mortals yielding,
Events to regulate.
Trust with a faith untiring
In thine Omniscient King,
And thou shalt see admiring
What he to light will bring.
Of all thy griefs, the reason
Shall at the last appear;
Why now denied a season,
Will shine in letters clear.
Then raise thine eyes to heaven,
Thou who canst trust his frown;
Thence shall thy meed be given,
The chaplet and the crown;
Thy God the palm victorious
In thy right hand shall plant.
Whilst thou, in accents glorious,
Melodious hymns shall chant.
_Paul Gerhard (1606-1676), translated by Frances Elizabeth Cox, in
“Hymns from the German,” 1864._
_Verse 6.—“He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light,”_ etc.
If thou shouldst be accused as a man of evil designs, let not that
trouble thee neither: for though thy fame may be obscured for a time by
calumnies and slanders, as the sun is by mists and clouds, yet as that
scatters them all at last, so shall thy integrity appear, and shine as
bright as the sun at noonday.—_Symon Patrick._
_Verse 7.—“Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.”_ There are two
words in the original, which express the privilege and the duty of
resting on Christ: one implies such a state of acquiescence, as silences
and clamours of conscience, and composes the perturbation of the spirit;
the other signifies the refreshment and repose of a weary pilgrim, when
he arrives at the end of his journey, and is settled for life in a
secure, commodious, plentiful habitation.—_James Hervey._
_Verse 7.—“Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.”_ Take the case
of one who, with a load above his strength, has been toiling some steep
and broken path, when suddenly he finds it lifted off and transferred to
another whose strength he knows to be more than equal to the task, and
in whose sympathy he can securely trust. What would his feeling be but
one of perfect rest, and calm reliance, and joyous freedom, as they went
on their way together? And such is the blessedness of rolling our care
upon the Lord—in weakness we are resting on superior strength, in
perplexity and doubt we are resting on superior wisdom, in all times of
trial and hard service we can stay ourselves on the assurance of his
perfect sympathy. The literal meaning of the word “_rest_,” is “_be
silent_” towards the Lord. With the eye fixed on him let all unbelieving
thoughts be stilled, such thoughts as rise and rankle in the querulous
spirit when it sees only its troubles, and not God in them, when the
mists of earth hide from its sight the eternal stars of heaven. Then
like Jacob, it may say morosely, “All these things are against me;” or,
like Elijah, despondently, “It is enough, now, O Lord, take away my
life;” or, like Jonah, fretfully, “I do well to be angry.” In regard to
all such dark and unbelieving suggestions, the heart is to keep silence,
to be still and know that he is God; silent as to murmuring, but not
silent as to prayer, for in that holy meditative stillness the heart
turns to commune with him. What is “resting in God,” but the instinctive
movement and upward glance of the spirit to him; the confiding all one’s
griefs and fears to him, and feeling strengthened, patient, hopeful in
the act of doing so! It implies a willingness that he should choose for
us, a conviction that the ordering of all that concerns us is safer in
his hands than in our own.
A few practical remarks:—1. Our “_resting patiently_” in the Lord
applies only to the trials which he sends, not to the troubles which
even Christians often make for themselves. There is a difference in the
burdens that come in the way of duty, and those that come through our
wandering into other ways. We can roll the one upon the Lord, but with
the other our punishment may be to be left to bear them long, and to be
bruised in bearing them. 2. The duty here enjoined is to be carried
through all our life. We all admit that _patient_ waiting is needed for
the great trials of life, but may not acknowledge so readily that it is
needed as much for little, daily, commonplace vexations. But these are
as much a test of Christian principle as the other. 3. This resting in
God is a criterion of a man’s spiritual state. It needs a special
faculty of discernment, a new sense to be opened in the soul, before our
fallen nature can understand or desire it.—_James D. Burns, M.A._
_Verse 7 (first clause).—“Hold thee still”_ (so it may be translated).
And this is the hardest precept that is given to man; insomuch that the
most difficult precept of action sinks into nothing when compared with
this command to inaction.—_Jerome._
_Verse 7 (first clause)._—The Hebrew word rendered _silent_ is דּוֹמ,
_dom_, from which the English word _dumb_ appears to be derived. The
silence here enjoined is opposed to murmuring or complaining.—_James
Anderson, in Calvin’s Commentary._
_Verse 7._—Note again the twin duties, “_rest_” and “_wait_.”
_Verse 7.—“Bringeth wicked devices to pass.”_ Observe the opposition
between this and _God’s_ bringing to pass, in verse five. The ground for
grief is that the ungodly appear to achieve their end, the reason for
comfort is that our end shall be achieved also, and that in the best
manner by God himself.—_C. H. S._
_Verse 8.—“Forsake wrath;”_ which is anger wrought up to a greater
degree; and the rather to be shunned and avoided, as being very
disagreeable to the character of a good man. “_Fret not thyself in any
wise to do evil_;” evil may be done by fretting at the prosperity of
wicked men, or by imitating them, doing as they do, in hope of being
prosperous as they are.—_John Gill._
_Verse 9.—“They shall inherit the earth.”_ He means that they shall live
in such a manner as that the blessing of God shall follow them, even to
the grave.—_John Calvin._
_Verse 10.—“Thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not
be.”_ To wit because he shall be grubbed up by the roots.—_Arthur
Jackson._
_Verse 10.—“His place ... shall not be.”_ The very land he occupied as a
home, and the title to which was unimpeachable, is no longer “_his
place_.” It has passed into other hands. Nothing of all he had on earth
is his. He is as poor as the most miserable object that subsisted on
alms.—_William S. Plumer._
_Verse 10._—The peacock, a glorious fowl, when he beholds that comely
fan and circle which he maketh of the beautiful feathers of his tail, he
rejoiceth, he setteth, and beholdeth every part thereof: but when he
looketh on his feet which he perceiveth to be black and foul, he
by-and-by, with great misliking, vaileth his top-gallant, and seemeth to
sorrow. In like manner, a great many know by experience, that when they
see themselves to abound in riches and honours, they glory and are
deeply conceited of themselves; they praise their fortune, and admire
themselves; they make plots, and appoint much for themselves to perform
in many years to come. This year, they say, we will bear this office,
and the next year that: afterward we shall have the rule of such a
province; then we will build a palace in such a city, whereunto we will
adjoin such gardens of pleasure, and such vineyards: and thus they make
a very large reckoning aforehand, who if they did but once behold their
feet, if they did but think upon the shortness of their life, so
transitory and unconstant; how soon would they let fall their proud
feathers, forsake their arrogancy, and change their purpose, their
minds, their lives, and their manners.—_Thomas Tymme._
_Verse 11.—“The meek shall inherit the earth.”_ In the meantime, they,
and they only, possess the present earth, as they go toward the kingdom
of heaven, by being humble, and cheerful, and content with what their
good God has allotted them. They have no turbulent, repining, vexatious
thoughts that they deserve better; nor are vexed when they see others
possessed of more honour, or more riches, than their wise God has
allotted for their share. But they possess what they have with a meek
and contented quietness: such a quietness as makes their very dreams
pleasing, both to God and themselves.—_Izaak Walton (1593-1683), in “The
Complete Angler.”_
_Verse 11.—“The meek.”_ What is thy Beloved more than any other beloved?
It is spoken to the spouse. So what is meekness more than any other
virtues? We may say, here is _synecdoche speciei_, one particular taken
for the general, one virtue for all the rest. Or the effect is put for
the cause; because meekness is one of the principal and chiefest parts
of holiness. But if you will give me leave to conjecture, the Holy Ghost
may seem in this promise at once to show the condition of the church,
and to comfort her; and because being laid hard at on every side, she
stands in need of this virtue more than any other, to fit and fashion
the reward to the virtue, to cherish and exalt it in us with the promise
of something beyond our expectation, even the _inheritance of the
earth_. And indeed what fitter reward can there be of meekness? What
more fit and just than that they who have been made the anvil for
injuries to beat on, who have been _viri perpessitii_, as Seneca speaks
of Socrates, men of great sufferance, who have suffered not only their
goods to be torn from them by oppression and wrong, but their
reputations to be wounded with the sharp razor of detraction, and have
withstood the shock of all _spectantibus similes_, with the patience of
a looker on, should be raised and comforted with a promise of that which
their meekness gave up to the spoil; and that by the providence of God
which loves to thwart the practice of the world, they should be made
heirs even of those possessions which the hand of violence hath snatched
from them.—_Anthony Farindon, B.D., 1596-1658._
_Verse 11._—Not the hot stirring spirits who bustle for the world shall
have it, but the meek, who are thrust up and down from corner to corner,
and hardly suffered to remain anywhere quietly in it. This earth, which
they seem most deprived of, they only shall have and enjoy. When the
Lord hath made it worth the having, then none shall have it but they.
“_They shall inherit the earth._” The earth is the Lord’s; these are the
children of the Lord, and they shall inherit his earth. When the Lord
taketh it into his own possession and enjoyment, they shall succeed him
in the possession and enjoyment of it. It is their right, and shall
descend unto them by right, by inheritance. It is the Lord’s right, and
by the Lord shall descend to them as their right. They cannot yet have
it, for the Lord hath it not yet; but when the Lord hath it, it shall
fairly descend to them. This accursed earth they shall never have, but
when it is taken into the hands of the Lord, and blessed by the Lord,
then it shall be theirs, then it shall be inherited by the children of
blessing.—_John Pennington._
_Verse 11.—“And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.”_
Surely when the glory of the Lord covers the earth, and all the kingdoms
of this world become the kingdoms of the Prince of Peace, and the wicked
one is rooted out, we may well expect peace in rich abundance.—_W.
Wilson._
_Verses 12, 13._—Note how the gesture of the wicked in _gnashing their
teeth_ is returned to them in the Lord’s scornful _laughter_ at their
devices. Their plotting, too, is countermined by that winding up of all
plots, which the Lord knoweth, though they are wilfully ignorant of
it.—_C. H. S._
_Verse 13.—“The Lord shall laugh at him,”_ etc. He seems to provide very
coldly for our consolation under sorrow, for he represents God as merely
_laughing_. But if God values highly our salvation, why does he not set
himself to resist the fury of our enemies, and vigorously oppose them?
We know that this, as has been said in Psalm ii. 4, is a proper trial of
our patience when God does not come forth at once, armed for the
discomfiture of the ungodly, but connives for a time, and withholds his
hand. Lest the flesh should still murmur and complain, demanding why God
should only laugh at the wicked, and not rather take vengeance upon
them, the reason is added, that he sees the day of their destruction at
hand. “_For he seeth that his day is coming._”—_John Calvin._
_Verse 13.—“For he seeth that his day is coming:”_ He laughs at such
poor worms, who make themselves so great upon the earth, and act so
loftily in their impotence seeing it must so soon be over with
them.—_Berleb. Bible, quoted by E. W. Hengstenberg._
_Verse 13.—“For he seeth that his day is coming.”_ His dismal day, his
death’s day, which will also be his doom’s day.—_John Trapp._