At the passover, before his passion, our Lord sang one of the grand old
Psalms of praise; but what is the music of his heart now, in the midst
of his redeemed! What a song is that in which his glad heart for ever
leads the chorus of the elect! Not Miriam’s tabour nor Moses’ triumphant
hymn o’er Mizraim’s chivalry can for a moment rival that ever new and
exulting song. Justice magnified and grace victorious; hell subdued and
heaven glorified; death destroyed and immortality established; sin
o’erthrown and righteousness resplendent; what a theme for a hymn in
that day when our Lord drinketh the red wine new with us all in our
heavenly Father’s kingdom! Even on earth, and before his great passion,
he foresaw the joy which was set before him, and was sustained by the
prospect. “_Our God._” The God of Jesus, the God of Israel, “my God and
your God.” How will we praise him, but, ah! Jesus will be the chief
player on our stringed instruments; he will lead the solemn hallelujah
which shall go up from the sacramental host redeemed by blood. “_Many
shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord._” A multitude that
no man can number shall see the griefs and triumphs of Jesus, shall
tremble because of their sinful rejection of him, and then through grace
shall receive faith and become trusters in Jehovah. Here is our Lord’s
reward. Here is the assurance which makes preachers bold and workers
persevering. Reader, are you one among the many? Note the way of
salvation, a sight, a fear, a trust! Do you know what these mean by
possessing and practising them in your own soul? Trusting in the Lord is
the evidence, nay, the essence of salvation. He who is a true believer
is evidently redeemed from the dominion of sin and Satan.
4 Blessed _is_ that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and
respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
5 Many, O LORD my God, _are_ thy wonderful works _which_ thou hast
done, and thy thoughts _which_ are to us-ward: they cannot be
reckoned up in order unto thee: _if_ I would declare and speak _of
them_, they are more than can be numbered.
4. “_Blessed._” This is an exclamation similar to that of the first
Psalm, “Oh, the happiness of the man.” God’s blessings are emphatic, “I
wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed,” indeed and in very truth.
“_Is that man that maketh the Lord his trust._” Faith obtaineth
promises. A simple, single-eyed confidence in God is the sure mark of
blessedness. A man may be as poor as Lazarus, as hated as Mordecai, as
sick as Hezekiah, as lonely as Elijah, but while his hand of faith can
keep its hold on God, none of his outward afflictions can prevent his
being numbered among the blessed: but the wealthiest and most prosperous
man who has no faith is accursed, be he who he may. “_And respecteth not
the proud._” The proud expect all men to bow down and do them reverence,
as if the worship of the golden calves were again set up in Israel; but
believing men are too noble to honour mere money-bags, or cringe before
bombastic dignity. The righteous pay their respect to humble goodness,
rather than to inflated self-consequence. Our Lord Jesus was in this our
bright example. No flattery of kings and great ones ever fell from his
lips; he gave no honour to dishonourable men. The haughty were never his
favourites. “_Nor such as turn aside to lies._” Heresies and idolatries
are lies, and so are avarice, worldliness, and pleasure-seeking. Woe to
those who follow such deceptions. Our Lord was ever both the truth and
the lover of truth, and the father of lies had no part in him. We must
never pay deference to apostates, time-servers, and false teachers; they
are an ill leaven, and the more we purge ourselves of them the better;
they are blessed whom God preserves from all error in creed and
practice. Judged by this verse, many apparently happy persons must be
the reverse of blessed, for anything in the shape of a purse, a fine
equipage, or a wealthy establishment, commands their reverence, whether
the owner be a rake or a saint, an idiot or a philosopher. Verily, were
the arch-fiend of hell to start a carriage and pair, and live like a
lord, he would have thousands who would court his acquaintance.
5. “_Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast
done._” Creation, providence, and redemption, teem with wonders as the
sea with life. Our special attention is called by this passage to the
marvels which cluster around the cross and flash from it. The
accomplished redemption achieves many ends, and compasses a variety of
designs; the outgoings of the atonement are not to be reckoned up, the
influences of the cross reach further than the beams of the sun. Wonders
of grace beyond all enumeration take their rise from the cross;
adoption, pardon, justification, and a long chain of godlike miracles of
love proceed from it. Note that our Lord here speaks of the Lord as “my
God.” The man Christ Jesus claimed for himself and us a covenant
relationship with Jehovah. Let our interest in our God be ever to us our
peculiar treasure. “_And thy thoughts which are to us-ward._” The divine
thoughts march with the divine acts, for it is not according to God’s
wisdom to act without deliberation and counsel. All the divine thoughts
are good and gracious towards his elect. God’s thoughts of love are very
many, very wonderful very practical! Muse on them, dear reader; no
sweeter subject ever occupied your mind. God’s thoughts of you are many,
let not yours be few in return. “_They cannot be reckoned up in order
unto thee._” Their sum is so great as to forbid alike analysis and
numeration. Human minds fail to measure, or to arrange in order, the
Lord’s ways and thoughts; and it must always be so, for he hath said,
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than
your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” No maze to lose oneself
in like the labyrinth of love. How sweet to be outdone, overcome and
overwhelmed by the astonishing grace of the Lord our God! “_If I would
declare and speak of them_,” and surely this should be the occupation of
my tongue at all seasonable opportunities, “_they are more than can be
numbered_;” far beyond all human arithmetic they are multiplied;
thoughts from all eternity, thoughts of my fall, my restoration, my
redemption, my conversion, my pardon, my upholding, my perfecting, my
eternal reward; the list is too long for writing, and the value of the
mercies too great for estimation. Yet, if we cannot show forth all the
works of the Lord, let us not make this an excuse for silence; for our
Lord, who is in this our best example, often spake of the tender
thoughts of the great Father.
6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou
opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book _it is_ written
of me.
8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law _is_ within my
heart.
9 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I
have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest.
10 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared
thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy
lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.
6. Here we enter upon one of the most wonderful passages in the whole of
the Old Testament, a passage in which the incarnate Son of God is seen
not through a glass darkly, but as it were face to face. “_Sacrifice and
offering thou didst not desire._” In themselves considered, and for
their own sakes, the Lord saw nothing satisfactory in the various
offerings of the ceremonial law. Neither the victim pouring forth its
blood, nor the fine flour rising in smoke from the altar, could yield
content to Jehovah’s mind; he cared not for the flesh of bulls or of
goats, neither had he pleasure in corn and wine, and oil. Typically
these offerings had their worth, but when Jesus, the Antitype, came into
the world, they ceased to be of value, as candles are of no estimation
when the sun has arisen. “_Mine ears hast thou opened._” Our Lord was
quick to hear and perform his Father’s will; his ears were as if
excavated down to his soul; they were not closed up like Isaac’s wells,
which the Philistines filled up, but clear passages down to the
fountains of his soul. The prompt obedience of our Lord is here the
first idea. There is, however, no reason whatever to reject the notion
that the digging of the ear here intended may refer to the boring of the
ear of the servant, who refused out of love to his master to take his
liberty at the year of jubilee; his perforated ear, the token of
perpetual service, is a true picture of our blessed Lord’s fidelity to
his Father’s business, and his love to his Father’s children. Jesus
irrevocably gave himself up to be the servant of servants for our sake
and God’s glory. The Septuagint, from which Paul quoted, has translated
this passage, “A body hast thou prepared me:” how this reading arose it
is not easy to imagine, but since apostolical authority has sanctioned
the variation, we accept it as no mistake, but as an instance of various
readings equally inspired. In any case, the passage represents the Only
Begotten as coming into the world equipped for service; and in a real
and material body, by actual life and death, putting aside all the
shadows of the Mosaic law. “_Burnt offering and sin offering hast thou
not required._” Two other forms of offering are here mentioned; tokens
of gratitude and sacrifices for sin as typically presented are set
aside; neither the general nor the private offerings are any longer
demanded. What need of mere emblems when the substance itself is
present? We learn from this verse that Jehovah values far more the
obedience of the heart than all the imposing performances of ritualistic
worship; and that our expiation from sin comes not to us as the result
of an elaborate ceremonial, but as the effect of our great Substitute’s
obedience to the will of Jehovah.
7. “_Then said I._” That is to say, when it was clearly seen that man’s
misery could not be remedied by sacrifices and offerings. It being
certain that the mere images of atonement, and the bare symbols of
propitiation were of no avail, the Lord Jesus, _in propria persona_,
intervened. O blessed “then said I.” Lord, ever give us to hear and feed
on such living words as these, so peculiarly and personally thine own.
“_Lo, I come._” Behold, O heavens, and thou earth, and ye places under
the earth! Here is something worthy of your intensest gaze. Sit ye down
and watch with earnestness, for the invisible God comes in the likeness
of sinful flesh, and as an infant the Infinite hangs at a virgin’s
breast! Immanuel did not send but _come_; he came in his own
personality, in all that constituted his essential self he came forth
from the ivory palaces to the abodes of misery; he came promptly at the
destined hour; he came with sacred alacrity as one freely offering
himself. “_In the volume of the book it is written of me._” In the
eternal decree it is thus recorded. The mystic roll of predestination
which providence gradually unfolds, contained within it, to the
Saviour’s knowledge, a written covenant, that in the fulness of time the
divine I should descend to earth to accomplish a purpose which hecatombs
of bullocks and rams could not achieve. What a privilege to find our
names written in the book of life, and what an honour, since the name of
Jesus heads the page! Our Lord had respect to his ancient covenant
engagements, and herein he teaches us to be scrupulously just in keeping
our word; have we so promised, is it so written in the book of
remembrance? then let us never be defaulters.
8. “_I delight to do thy will, O my God._” Our blessed Lord alone could
completely do the will of God. The law is too broad for such poor
creatures as we are to hope to fulfil it to the uttermost: but Jesus not
only did the Father’s will, but found a delight therein; from old
eternity he had desired the work set before him; in his human life he
was straitened till he reached the baptism of agony in which he
magnified the law, and even in Gethsemane itself he chose the Father’s
will, and set aside his own. Herein is the essence of obedience, namely,
in the soul’s cheerful devotion to God: and our Lord’s obedience, which
is our righteousness, is in no measure lacking in this eminent quality.
Notwithstanding his measureless griefs, our Lord found delight in his
work, and for “the joy that was set before him he endured the cross,
despising the shame.” “_Yea, thy law is within my heart._” No outward,
formal devotion was rendered by Christ; his heart was in his work,
holiness was his element, the Father’s will his meat and drink. We must
each of us be like our Lord in this, or we shall lack the evidence of
being his disciples. Where there is no heart work, no pleasure, no
delight in God’s law, there can be no acceptance. Let the devout reader
adore the Saviour for the spontaneous and hearty manner in which he
undertook the great work of our salvation.
9. “_I have preached righteousness in the great congregation._” The
purest morality and the highest holiness were preached by Jesus.
Righteousness divine was his theme. Our Lord’s whole life was a sermon,
eloquent beyond compare, and it is heard each day by myriads. Moreover,
he never shunned in his ministry to declare the whole counsel of God;
God’s great plan of righteousness he plainly set forth. He taught openly
in the temple, and was not ashamed to be a faithful and a true witness.
He was the great evangelist; the master of itinerant preachers; the head
of the clan of open-air missionaries. O servants of the Lord, hide not
your lights, but reveal to others what your God has revealed to you; and
especially by your lives testify for holiness, be champions for the
right, both in word and deed. “_Lo, I have not refrained my lips, O
Lord, thou knowest._” Never either from love of ease, or fear of men,
did the Great Teacher’s lips become closed. He was instant in season and
out of season. The poor listened to him, and princes heard his rebuke;
Publicans rejoiced at him, and Pharisees raged, but to them both he
proclaimed the truth from heaven. It is well for a tried believer when
he can appeal to God and call him to witness that he has not been
ashamed to bear witness for him; for rest assured if we are not ashamed
to confess our God he will never be ashamed to own us. Yet what a wonder
is here, that the Son of God should plead just as we plead, and urge
just such arguments as would befit the mouths of his diligent ministers!
How truly is he “made like unto his brethren.”
10. “_I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart._” On the
contrary, “Never man spake like this man.” God’s divine plan of making
men righteous was well known to him, and he plainly taught it. What was
in our great Master’s heart he poured forth in holy eloquence from his
lips. The doctrine of righteousness by faith he spake with great
simplicity of speech. Law and gospel equally found in him a clear
expositor. “_I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation._”
Jehovah’s fidelity to his promises and his grace in saving believers
were declared by the Lord Jesus on many occasions, and are blessedly
blended in the gospel which he came to preach. God, faithful to his own
character, law and threatenings, and yet saving sinners, is a peculiar
revelation of the gospel. God faithful to the saved ones evermore is the
joy of the followers of Christ Jesus. “_I have not concealed thy
lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation._” The tender
as well as the stern attributes of God, our Lord Jesus fully unveiled.
Concealment was far from the Great Apostle of our profession. Cowardice
he never exhibited, hesitancy never weakened his language. He who as a
child of twelve years spake in the temple among the doctors, and
afterwards preached to five thousand at Gennesaret, and to the vast
crowds at Jerusalem on that great day, the last day of the feast, was
always ready to proclaim the name of the Lord, and could never be
charged with unholy silence. He could be dumb when so the prophecy
demanded and patience suggested, but otherwise, preaching was his meat
and his drink, and he kept back nothing which would be profitable to his
disciples. This in the day of his trouble, according to this Psalm, he
used as a plea for divine aid. He had been faithful to his God, and now
begs the Lord to be faithful to him. Let every dumb professor,
tongue-tied by sinful shame, bethink himself how little he will be able
to plead after this fashion in the day of his distress.
11 Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy
lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.
12 For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities
have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are
more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.
13 Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.
14 Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my
soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame
that wish me evil.
15 Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto
me, Aha, aha.
16 Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let
such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.
17 But I _am_ poor and needy; _yet_ the LORD thinketh upon me: thou
_art_ my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.
11. “_Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord._” Alas!
these were to be for awhile withheld from our Lord while on the accursed
tree, but meanwhile in his great agony he seeks for gentle dealing; and
the coming of the angel to strengthen him was a clear answer to his
prayer. He had been blessed aforetime in the desert, and now at the
entrance of the valley of the shadow of death, like a true, trustful,
and experienced man, he utters a holy, plaintive desire for the
tenderness of heaven. He had not withheld his testimony to God’s truth,
now in return he begs his Father not to withhold his compassion. This
verse might more correctly be read as a declaration of his confidence
that help would not be refused; but whether we view this utterance as
the cry of prayer, or the avowal of faith, in either case it is
instructive to us who take our suffering Lord for an example, and it
proves to us how thoroughly he was made like unto his brethren. “_Let
thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me._” He had
preached both of these, and now he asks for an experience of them, that
he might be kept in the evil day and rescued from his enemies and his
afflictions. Nothing endears our Lord to us more than to hear him thus
pleading with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save. O
Lord Jesus, in our nights of wrestling we will remember thee.
12. “_For innumerable evils have compassed me about._” On every side he
was beset with evils; countless woes environed the great Substitute for
our sins. Our sins were innumerable, and so were his griefs. There was
no escape for us from our iniquities, and there was no escape for him
from the woes which we deserved. From every quarter evils accumulated
about the blessed One, although in his heart evil found no place. “_Mine
iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up._”
He had no sin, but sins were laid on him, and he took them as if they
were his. “He was made sin for us.” The transfer of sin to the Saviour
was real, and produced in him as man the horror which forbade him to
look into the face of God, bowing him down with crushing anguish and woe
intolerable. O my soul, what would thy sins have done for thee eternally
if the Friend of sinners had not condescended to take them all upon
himself? Oh, blessed Scripture! “The Lord hath made to meet upon him the
iniquity of us all.” Oh, marvellous depth of love, which could lead the
perfectly immaculate to stand in the sinner’s place, and bear the horror
of great trembling which sin must bring upon those conscious of it.
“_They are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth
me._” The pains of the divine penalty were beyond compute, and the
Saviour’s soul was so burdened with them, that he was sore amazed, and
very heavy even unto a sweat of blood. His strength was gone, his
spirits sank, he was in an agony.
“Came at length the dreadful night;
Vengeance with its iron rod
Stood, and with collected might
Bruised the harmless Lamb of God.
See, my soul, thy Saviour see
Prostrate in Gethsemane!
There my God bore all my guilt,
This through grace can be believed;
But the horrors which he felt
Are too vast to be conceived.
None can penetrate through thee,
Doleful, dark Gethsemane!
Sins against a holy God;
Sins against his righteous laws;
Sins against his love, his blood;
Sins against his name and cause;
Sins immense as is the sea—
Hide me, O Gethsemane!”
13. “_Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help
me._” How touching! How humble! How plaintive! The words thrill us as we
think that after this sort our Lord and Master prayed. His petition is
not so much that the cup should pass away undrained, but that he should
be sustained while drinking it, and set free from its power at the first
fitting moment. He seeks deliverance and help; and he entreats that the
help may not be slow in coming; this is after the manner of our
pleadings. Is it not? Note, reader, how our Lord was heard in that he
feared, for there was after Gethsemane a calm endurance which made the
fight as glorious as the victory.
14. “_Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my
soul to destroy it._” Whether we read this as a prayer or a prophecy it
matters not, for the powers of sin, and death, and hell, may well be
ashamed as they see the result of their malice for ever turned against
themselves. It is to the infinite confusion of Satan that his attempt to
destroy the Saviour destroyed himself; the diabolical conclave who
plotted in council are now all alike put to shame, for the Lord Jesus
has met them at all points, and turned all their wisdom into
foolishness. “_Let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me
evil._” It is even so; the hosts of darkness are utterly put to the
rout, and made a theme for holy derision for ever and ever. How did they
gloat over the thought of crushing the seed of the woman! but the
Crucified has conquered, the Nazarene has laughed them to scorn, the
dying Son of Man has become the death of death and hell’s destruction.
For ever blessed be his name.
15. “_Let them be desolate_,” or amazed; even as Jesus was desolate in
his agony, so let his enemies be in their despair when he defeats them.
The desolation caused in the hearts of evil spirits and evil men by
envy, malice, chagrin, disappointment, and despair, shall be a fit
recompense for their cruelty to the Lord when he was in their hands.
“_For a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha._” Did the foul
fiend insult over our Lord? Behold how shame is now his reward! Do
wicked men to-day pour shame upon the name of the Redeemer? Their
desolation shall avenge him of his adversaries! Jesus is the gentle Lamb
to all who seek mercy through his blood; but let despisers beware, for
he is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and “who shall rouse him up?” The
Jewish rulers exulted and scornfully said, “Aha, aha;” but when the
streets of Jerusalem ran like rivers deep with gore, “and the temple was
utterly consumed,” then their house was left unto them desolate, and the
blood of the last of the prophets, according to their own desire, came
upon themselves and upon their children. O ungodly reader, if such a
person glance over this page, beware of persecuting Christ and his
people, for God will surely avenge his own elect. Your “ahas” will cost
you dear. It is hard for you to kick against the pricks.