to hear so much impertinent babbling in the world, but profitable to
discern and abhor it. A wonder that men can cast out so much wind, and
the more they have to utter, the more they are prodigal of their own
breath and of the patience of others, and careless of their own
reckoning. If they believed to give account of every idle word, they
would be more sparing of foolish speaking. I like either to be silent,
or to speak that that may edify. At tables or meetings I cannot stop the
mouths of others, yet may I close mine own ears, and by a heavenly
soul-speech with God divert my mind from fruitless talking. Though I be
among them I shall as little partake their prattling as they do my
meditation.—_William Struther._
_Verse 2.—“I was dumb with silence,”_ etc. That is, for a while I did
what I resolved; I was so long wholly silent, that I seemed in a manner
to be dumb, and not able to speak. “_I held my peace, even from good_;”
that is, I forbore to speak what I might well and lawfully enough have
spoken, as from alleging anything that I might have said in mine own
defence, from making my complaint to God, and desiring justice at his
hands, and such like; to wit, lest by degrees I should have been brought
to utter anything that was evil, and whilst I intended only to speak
that which was good, some unseemly word might suddenly slip from me; or
lest mine enemies should misconstrue anything I spake.—_Arthur Jackson._
_Verse 2.—“I was dumb with silence.”_—We shall enquire what kind of
dumbness or silence this of the Psalmist was, which he is commended for,
and which would so well beseem us when we smart under the rod of God,
and then the doctrine will be, in a great measure, evident by its own
light. We shall proceed in our enquiry, 1. Negatively, to prevent
mistakes. 2. Positively, and show you what it doth import.
First, negatively. 1. This dumbness doth not import any such thing, as
if the prophet had been brought to that pass that he had nothing to say
to God by way of prayer and supplication. He was not so dumb, but that
he could _pray and cry too_. Verses 8, 10, 11. 2. Nor was he so dumb, as
that he could not frame to the confession and bewailing of his sins. 3.
Nor was it a dumbness of stupidity and senselessness. It doth not imply
any such thing, as if by degrees he grew to that pass, he cared not for,
or made no matter of his affliction, but set, as the proverb is, an hard
heart against his hard hap. No, he did make his moan to God, and as he
smarted, so he did lament under the sense of his afflicting hand. 4.
Neither was he so dumb as not to answer God’s voice in the rod that was
upon him. 5. Much less was he dumb, and kept silence in any such sort as
they did of whom Amos speaks (vi. 10), that in their misery they took up
a resolution _to mention the name of God no more_, in whom they had
gloried formerly.
Secondly, affirmatively. 1. He was dumb so as neither to complain of,
nor quarrel with God’s providence, nor to entertain any hard thoughts
against him. Complain _to_ God he did; but _against_ him he durst not.
2. He neither did nor durst quarrel, or fall out with the ways of
holiness for all his sufferings, a thing we are naturally prone unto. 3.
He was dumb, so as not to defend himself, or justify his own ways before
God, as if they were righteous, and he had not deserved what he
suffered. 4. He was dumb, so as to hearken to the voice of the rod. “I
will (saith he in another place) hear what God the Lord will speak.”
Psalm lxxxv. 8. Now a man cannot listen to another while he will have
all the talk and discourse to himself. 5. Lastly, the prophet was dumb,
that is, he did acquiesce, and rest satisfied with God’s dispensation;
and that not only as good, but as best.—_Condensed from a Funeral Sermon
by Thomas Burroughes, B.D., entitled, “A Soveraign Remedy for all kindes
of Grief,” 1657._
_Verse 2.—“I held my peace.”_ A Christian being asked what fruit he had
by Christ: Is not this fruit, said he, not to be moved at your
reproaches? In cases of this nature, we must refer all to God; _si tu
tacueris, Deus loquitur_; if thou hold thy peace, God speaks for thee;
and if God speaks for us, it is better than we can speak for ourselves.
David saith, _Obmutui, quia tu fecisti_. “_I held my peace, for it was
thy doing._”—_Christopher Sutton, B.D., 1629, in Disce Vivere._
_Verses 2-9._—An invalid who had been ordered a couple of pills, took
them very absurdly, for, in place of swallowing them at once, he rolled
them about in his mouth, ground them to pieces, and so tasted their full
bitterness. Gotthold was present, and thus mused: The insults and
calumnies of a slanderer and adversary are bitter pills, and all do not
understand the art of swallowing without chewing them. To the Christian,
however, they are wholesome in many ways. They remind him of his guilt,
they try his meekness and patience, they show him what he needs to guard
against, and at last they redound to his honour and glory in the sight
of him for whose sake they were endured. In respect of the pills of
slander, however, as well as the others, it is advisable not to roll
them about continually in our minds, or judge of them according to the
flesh, and the world’s opinion. This will only increase their
bitterness, spread the savour of it to the tongue, and fill the heart
with proportional enmity. The true way is to _swallow, keep silence and
forget_. We must inwardly devour our grief, and say, “_I will be dumb,
and not open my mouth, because thou didst it._” The best antidotes to
the bitterness of slander, are the sweet promises and consolations of
Scripture, of which not the least is this, “Blessed are ye, when men
shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil
against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for
great is your reward in heaven.” Matt. v. 11, 12. Alas, my God! how hard
it is to swallow the pills of obloquy, to bless them that curse me, to
do good to them that hate me, and to pray for them that despitefully use
me! _But, Lord, as thou wilt have it so, give it as thou wilt have it_,
for it is a matter in which, without thy grace, I can do
nothing!—_Christian Scriver._
_Verse 3.—“My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire
burned.”_ They say of the loadstone (that wonder in nature), when either
by carelessness in keeping it, or by some accident it loses its virtue,
yet by laying it some good space of time in the filings of steel, it
will again recover its virtues: when the spirit of a Christian by not
looking well to it, loses of its heavenly heat and liveliness, the way
of recovery is by laying it asteep in this so warming and quickening
meditation. Oh, how burning and flaming may we often observe the spirit
of the holy Psalmist David, in his acting of meditation! Musing made him
hot, yea, burning hot at the heart. Thus oft in the beginning of a Psalm
we find his heart low and discouraged but as this musing was acted and
heightened, his spirit grew hotter, and at last flies all on a flame,
flies up to a very high pitch of heavenly heat. Oh, how do all the
conscientious practisers of meditation, ever and anon experience these
happy, heavenly heats, and heart-enlargements! Ah, if all the saints’ so
glorious heart-quickenings were gathered together, what a rich chain of
pearls, pearls of rare experiences, would they make up of the
heart-warming efficacies of meditation.—_Nathanael Ranew._
_Verse 3.—“I was musing.”_ What a blessed (shall I say duty or)
privilege is prayer! Now meditation is a help to prayer. Gerson calls it
the nurse of prayer. Meditation is like oil to the lamp; the lamp of
prayer will soon go out unless meditation cherish and support it.
Meditation and prayer are like two turtles, if you separate one the
other dies; a cunning angler observes the time and season when the fish
bite best, and then he throws in the angle; when the heart is warmed by
meditation, now is the best season to throw in the angle of prayer, and
fish for mercy. After Isaac had been in the field meditating he was fit
for prayer when he came home. When the gun is full of powder it is
fittest to discharge. So when the mind is full of good thoughts, a
Christian is fittest by prayer to discharge; now he sends up whole
volleys of sighs and groans to heaven. Meditation hath a double benefit
in it, it pours in and pours out; first it pours good thoughts into the
mind, and then it pours out those thoughts again into prayer; meditation
first furnisheth with matter to pray and then it furnisheth with a heart
to pray. “_I was musing_,” saith David, and the very next words are a
prayer, “_Lord, make me to know mine end._” I muse on the works of thy
hands, I stretch forth my hands to thee. The musing of his head made way
for the stretching forth of his hands in prayer. When Christ was upon
the Mount, then he prayed: so when the soul is upon the mount of
meditation, now it is in tune for prayer. Prayer is the child of
meditation: meditation leads the van, and prayer brings up the
rear.—_Thomas Watson._
_Verse 3.—“Musing.”_ Meditation is prayer in bullion, prayer in the ore,
soon melted and run into holy desires. The laden cloud soon drops into
rain, the piece charged soon goes off when fire is put to it. A
meditating soul is _in proxima potentia_ to prayer. This was an
ejaculatory prayer shot from his soul when in the company of the
wicked.—_William Gurnall._
_Verse 3.—“The fire burned.”_ My thoughts kindled my passions.—_Matthew
Pool._
_Verse 3.—“The fire burned.”_ Meditate so long till thou findest thy
heart grow warm in this duty. If, when a man is cold you ask how long he
should stand by the fire? sure, till he be thoroughly warm, and made fit
for his work. So, Christian, thy heart is cold; never a day, no, not the
hottest day in summer, but it freezeth there; now stand at the fire of
meditation till thou findest thy affections warmed, and thou art made
fit for spiritual service. David mused till his heart waxed hot within
him. I will conclude this with that excellent saying of Bernard: “Lord,
I will never come away from thee without thee.” Let this be a
Christian’s resolution, not to leave off his meditations of God till he
find something of God in him; some moving of the bowels after God; some
flamings of love, Cant. v. 4.—_Thomas Watson._
_Verse 3._—His company was bad, but his thoughts were good; even _while
the wicked was before him his heart was hot within him, while he was
musing the fire burned_. His thoughts inflame his affections with holy
zeal, and this _holy fire_, as by an ante-peristasis, burnt so much the
hotter for the _frost_ of cursed contrariety that was about it. When the
careful magistrates or officers of a city break into a suspected house
in the night-time, the great question is, What company have you here? So
when God breaks in upon our dark hearts, the enquiry is, What thoughts
have you here? Why do thoughts arise in your minds? Are ye not become
judges of evil thoughts? Luke xxiv. 38; James ii. 4.—_Faithful Teat._
_Verse 3.—“Then spake I with my tongue, Lord,”_ etc. It is, indeed, a
happy circumstance when that silence which has long been preserved is
first broken before the Lord.—_John Morison._
_Verse 4.—“Lord, make me to know mine end,”_ etc. But did not David know
this? Yes, he knew it, and yet he desires to know it. It is very fit we
should ask of God that he would make us to know the things that we do
know; I mean, that what we know emptily and barely, we may know
spiritually and fruitfully, and if there be any measure of this
knowledge, that it may increase and grow more.... We know we must die,
and that it is no long course to the utmost period of life; yet our
hearts are little instructed by this knowledge.—_Robert Leighton._
_Verse 4.—“Lord, make me to know mine end.”_ David would know his _end_,
not so much his death—the end consuming, as Christ the Lord of life—the
end and perfection of all our desires; or know it, not for vain science,
but in his experience feel the reward of his patience. Though thy
chastisement be sharp, it will be but short, and therein sweet; thou
shalt lie still and be quiet, thou shalt sleep and be at rest, Job iii.
13, 17, 18, 19. How few and evil soever thy days be in the world, by
patience and rolling thyself upon God they will prove unto thee both
long enough and good.—_Edmund Layfielde._
_Verse 4.—“Lord, make me to know mine end,”_ etc. Seeing that both
sorrow and joy are both able to kill you, and your life hangeth upon so
small a thread, that the least gnat in the air can choke you, as it
choked a pope of Rome; a little hair in your milk strangle you, as it
did a councillor in Rome; a stone of a raisin stop your breath, as it
did the breath of Anacreon: put not the evil day far from you, which the
ordinance of God hath put so near; “Remember your Creator in time,
before the days comes wherein you shall say, We have no pleasure in
them;” walk not always with your faces to the east, sometimes have an
eye to the west, where the sun goeth down; sit not ever in the prow of
the ship, sometimes go to the stern; “stand in your watch-towers,” as
the creature doth (Rom. viii. 19), and wait for the hour of your
deliverance; provide your armies before that dreadful king cometh to
fight against you with his greater forces; order your houses before you
die, that is, dispose of your bodies and souls, and all the implements
of them both; let not your eyes be gadding after pleasure, nor your ear
itching after rumours, nor your minds wandering in the fields, when
death is in your houses; your bodies are not brass, nor your strength
the strength of stones, your life none inheritance, your breath no more
than as the vapour and smoke of the chimney within your nostrils, or as
a stranger within your gates, coming and going again, not to return any
more till the day of final redemption.—_John King._
_Verse 4.—“Lord, make me to know mine end,”_ etc. ’Tis worthy your
notice, that passage you read of in Scripture, 1 Sam. x. 2. Samuel, when
he had anointed Saul king, and the people had chosen him, what signal
doth he give him, to confirm him anointed? It was to go to Rachel’s
sepulchre. Now the reason is this, that he might not be glutted with the
preferments and honours he was entering upon. The emperors of
Constantinople, in their inaugurations, on their coronation days, had a
mason come and show them several marble stones, and ask them to choose
which of those should be made ready for their grave-stones. And so we
read of Joseph of Arimathea, that he had his tomb in his garden, to
check the pleasures of the place.—_Christopher Love._
_Verse 4.—“How frail I am.”_ Between Walsall and Iretsy, in Cheshire, is
a house built in 1636, of thick oak framework, filled in with brick.
Over the window of the tap-room is still legible, cut in the oak, the
following Latin inscription:—_Fleres si scires unum tua tempora mensem;
rides cum non scis si sit forsitan una dies._ The sense of which is “You
would weep if you knew that your life was limited to one month, yet you
laugh while you know not but it may be restricted to a day.” How sad the
thought, that with this silent monitor, this truthful sermon before
their very eyes, numbers have revelled in soul-destructive inebriation!
And yet this is but a likeness of what we see constantly about
us.—_Quoted in a Monthly Periodical._
_Verse 5.—“My days.”_ Man’s life is styled _days_ because it is not
conferred upon us by wholesale, by months and years, but by retail of
days, hours, minutes, moments, as to check our curiosity in making
enquiry how long we have to live (verse 4); so acquainting us with the
brevity thereof, we may learn to depend upon God’s bounty for the _loan_
of our life, employ it for his glory, and every day prepare for the
Bridegroom, Christ.—_Edmund Layfielde._
_Verse 5.—“My days an handbreath.”_ That is one of the shortest
measures. We need not long lines to measure our lives by: each one
carries a measure about with him, his own hand; that is the longest and
fullest measure. It is not so much as a span: that might possibly have
been the measure of old age in the infancy of the world, but now it is
contracted to a handbreath, and that is the longest. But how many fall
short of that! Many attain not to a finger-breadth: multitudes pass from
the womb to the grave; and how many end their course within the compass
of childhood!—_Robert Leighton._
_Verse 5.—“Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreath.”_ The line
wherewith our lives are measured, is made both of coarse and fine
thread. 1. It is measured by itself, and considerable in its own
frailty; so the just length of it is “_an handbreadth_.” 2. Secondly,
with eternity, so it is found to be as nothing: “_Mine age is as nothing
before thee._”... “_An handbreath_,” and is that all? So he saith, that
exactly measureth them all, and whatsoever else was created with his own
hand. A handbreath is one of the shortest kind of measures. There is an
ell, a cubit, and a palm or handbreath, whereof there be two kinds, the
greater and the less. The greater handbreath is the whole space betwixt
the top of the thumb and the little finger, when the hand is extended,
called a span, in account near twelve inches. The lesser handbreadth, in
a more proper and strict signification, is the just breadth of the four
fingers of the hand closed together, here chiefly intended, this
interpretation best agreeing with the original, and complying most with
the prophet’s mind, by the unanimous consent of the choice
interpreters.—_Edmund Layfielde._
_Verse 5.—“Mine age is as nothing before thee.”_ 1. David might truly
have said, Mine age is short _in respect of Methuselah’s_; the days of
Methuselah are said to be nine hundred sixty and nine years; the days
of David, by computation of the time when he began and how long he
reigned were not much above three score and ten, so that he lived not
so many tens as Methuselah did hundreds. 2. David might have said,
Mine age is very short in comparison of _the age of the world_. St.
Paul saith of the fashion of this Macrocosm, it passeth away (1 Cor.
vii. 31); but the age of the microcosm, man, passeth away far swifter.
3. David might have said, Mine age in this world is exceeding little
in comparison of _the duration of the other world_. 4. Finally, David
might have said, Mine age is scarcely anything _before the angels_,
whose duration began with this world and shall continue in the world
to come, and so is coætaneous with both the worlds. But all these are
far short of this comparison which he here maketh of his age _with
God_ which is eternal, both _a parte ante_, and _a parte post_, from
everlasting to everlasting.—_Nathanael Hardy._
_Verse 5.—“As nothing.”_ If a man be so diminutive a creature, compared
with the fabric of that great world, and the world itself so little that
it cannot contain the Lord, so little and light that he feels not the
weight thereof upon the tip of his finger, man will well merit the name
“_nothing_,” when he is placed before the Lord. The keel of man’s life
is laden with more vanity than verity and substance, if the searcher of
the reins and heart come aboard to view it. Ten thousand of our days
will not make God one year, and a thousand of our years in his sight are
but “as a day when it is past, and as a watch in the night.” As drops of
rain are unto the sea, and as a gravel stone is in comparison of the
sand, so are a thousand years to the days everlasting.—_Edmund
Layfielde._
_Verse 5.—“Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.”_
The Holy Spirit is pleased elsewhere to speak more sparingly, as it
were, in favour of man; he discovers the nakedness, but yet comes
backward to cast a garment of lenity over it, that somewhat shadows the
shame of it. “Man is like to vanity (Ps. cxliv. 4); their days consume
in vanity (Ps. lxxviii. 33); Man is vanity” (Ps. xxxix. 11); but here
with open mouth and unveiled terms full of emphasis, he proclaims every
man to be _abstracted vanity_; and as if that were short he adds, _he is
all vanity; mere vanity, all manner of vanity, altogether vanity_:
nothing else, nothing less; yea, somewhat more than vanity, “_lighter
than vanity_” (Ps. lxii. 9); and “vanity of vanities.” Eccl. i. 2. And
that no place of dubitation may be left, he ushers the doctrine unto our
hearts with a strong asseveration; _assuredly, in truth_, without all
controversy, “_man is altogether vanity_.”—_Edmund Layfielde._
_Verse 5.—“Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.”_
Bythner expounds it thus. “_Every man at his best state is altogether
vanity_;” _hoc est omni ex parte, ita ut vanitas et miseria quæ per
creaturas frustratim spargitur in uno homine aggregata videatur: sic
homo evadit compendium omnium vanitatum quæ in creaturis extant_: that
is, he is the sink and centre of all the vanities in the world; he is as
it were the universe of vanity.—_Quoted in William Reynold’s Funeral
Sermon for the Honourable Francis Pierrepont, 1657._
_Verse 5._—“Every Adam standing is all Abel.”—_See Hebrew Text._
_Verse 5.—“Selah.”_ A little word, yet of no small difficulty to
explain. Left out of the _Bible_ by the _vulgar translators_ as though
it were _impertinent_, where, let them consider, whether they come not
within the verge of that malediction in _Revelation_ xxii. 19. The
_ancient_ interpreters did not much _meddle_ with it, and our editions
leave it _uninterpreted_. But seeing “_whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and
comfort of the Scriptures might have hope_” (Romans xv. 4), and till
“_heaven and earth pass, one jot or one title shall in no wise pass from
the law, till all be fulfilled_” (Matt. v. 18), we have sufficient
warrant after the example of the learned, and encouragement to make
enquiry after the mind of the Holy Spirit, in that which he hath both
_commanded_ to be written, and hath _commended_ unto us. Wherein, like
the crystal glass, I will rather present you with the true visage of
antiquity, than use any new-framed feature or painting of my own.
_Selah_ is mentioned _seventy-four times_ in the Scripture, whereof
seventy-one in the book of Psalms, and thrice in the prophet Habakkuk,
which is written Psalm-wise; and it is ever placed in the end of a Psalm
or verse, four places only excepted, where, like the sun in the midst of
the planets, it is seated to con-join the precedent words with the
subsequent, and communicate splendour unto both. There was a threefold
use of it in ancient times, whereof the first concerned the music; the
second, the matter handled unto which it was affixed; and the third, the
men or congregation assembled in the temple of the Lord, which two last
may still have place among us Christians, who are ingrafted into the
stock Christ, from whence the Jews were cut off, but from the first we
cannot properly suck such nourishment as once they did.
First of the music. The king’s choir (1 Chron. xxv. 1-6; Psalm lxii.,
Επιγραφή; 1 Chron. xvi. 41) learned five things by it:
1st. To make a little pause, stop, or stay, when they came to _Selah_,
and to meditate awhile upon the matter foregoing.
2nd. They knew by that cessation and interval that King David, as he was
prophesying unto the people, and praising God upon the loud sounding
cymbals, was at that instant inspired and taught some new lesson.
Wherefore, as men being in serious discourse, when they hear a sudden
noise hold their peace to listen, saying, hark! see, lo! so David’s
heart being smitten by the voice of God’s Spirit, the music ceased,
stopped, and he checked himself as it were thus: “Speak, Lord, for thy
servant heareth.”
3rd. It signifieth the change and variation of the music in some
strains, or of the metre, or sense, or disjunction of the rhyme, or
ceasing of some one sort of music, which howsoever St. Hierome makes
some scruple of. The Septuagint, as often as they meet with Selah in the
Hebrew text, in their Greek version translated it, _the change of the
song_.
4th. It directed them to sing the same verse over again whereunto Selah
was annexed. Lastly, it was their instruction to elevate and lift up
their voices, praising God with louder voices and loud sounding cymbals.
“_Selah_” called upon them for louder strains of music and shrillness of
voice. But seeing the Jewish harmony and sweet melody is overwhelmed in
the ruins of their glorious temple, we remain unskilled in their notes,
which doth obscure our annotations upon it. Let this suffice for the
“music.”