the representative of his nation, and declares his own constant distress
of soul. He is a man of ill-blood who is unconcerned for the sorrows of
the church of which he is a member, or the nation of which he is a
citizen; the better the heart the greater its sympathy. “_And the shame
of my face hath covered me._” One constant blush, like a crimson mantle,
covered him both before God and man, he felt before God that the divine
desertion was well deserved, and before man, that he and his people were
despicable indeed now that heavenly help was gone. It is well for a
nation when there still exists in it men who lay to heart its sin and
shame. God will have pity on his chastened ones, and it is a pledge
thereof when he sends us choice ministers, men of tenderness, who make
the people’s case their own.
16. “_For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth._” It seems
that from mocking the people of God, the adversaries advanced to
reviling God himself, they proceeded from persecution to the sin which
is next of kin, namely blasphemy. “_By reason of the enemy and
avenger._” The enemy boasted of avenging the defeats of their
forefathers; they took revenge for the ancient victories of Israel, by
insulting over the now fallen people. Here was a sad plight for a nation
to be placed in, but it was by no means a hopeless case, for the Lord
who brought all this evil upon them could with equal ease release them
from it. So long as Israel looked alone to her God, and not to her own
arm, no foe could retain her beneath his foot; she _must_ arise, for God
was on her side.
17 All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither
have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.
18 Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined
from thy way;
19 Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and
covered us with the shadow of death.
20 If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our
hands to a strange god;
21 Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the
heart.
22 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted
as sheep for the slaughter.
17. “_All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee._” Here
the Psalmist urges that Israel had not turned away from her allegiance
to Jehovah. When in the midst of many griefs we can still cling to God
in loving obedience, it must be well with us. True fidelity can endure
rough usage. Those who follow God for what they get, will leave him when
persecution is stirred up, but not so the sincere believer; he will not
forget his God, even though the worst come to the worst. “_Neither have
we dealt falsely in thy covenant._” No idol was set up, the ordained
worship was not relinquished, God was still nationally acknowledged, and
therefore the Psalmist is more earnest that the Lord should interpose.
This and the succeeding verses are suitable for the lips of martyrs,
indeed the entire Psalm might be called the martyr’s complaint. Not for
sin but for righteousness did the saints suffer, not for falsehood but
for truth, not for forsaking the Lord but for following hard after him.
Sufferings of such a sort may be very terrible, but they are exceedingly
honourable, and the comforts of the Lord shall sustain those who are
accounted worthy to suffer for Christ’s sake.
18. “_Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from
thy way._” Heart and life were agreed, and both were true to the Lord’s
way. Neither within nor without had the godly sufferers offended; they
were not absolutely perfect, but they were sincerely free from all
wilful transgression. It was a healthy sign for the nation that her
prophet-poet could testify to her uprightness before God, both in heart
and act; far oftener the case would have worn quite another colour, for
the tribes were all too apt to set up other gods and forsake the rock of
their salvation.
19. “_Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons._” Though
utterly crushed and rendered desolate and driven as it were to associate
with creatures such as jackals, owls, serpents, which haunt deserted
ruins, yet Israel remained faithful. To be true to a smiting God, even
when the blows lay our joys in ruinous heaps, is to be such as the Lord
delighteth in. Better to be broken by God than from God. Better to be in
the place of dragons than of deceivers. “_And covered us with the shadow
of death._” The language is very strong. The nation is described as
completely enveloped in the dense darkness of despair and death, covered
up as though coffined in hopelessness. Yet the claim is made that they
still remained mindful of their God, and a glorious plea it is. Better
death than false of faith. Those who are true to God shall never find
him false to them.
20. An appeal is now made to the omniscience of God; he is himself
called in to bear witness that Israel had not set up another god. “_If
we have forgotten the name of our God._” This would be the first step in
apostasy; men first forget the true, and then adore the false. “_Or
stretched out our hands to a strange god._” Stretching out the hands was
the symbol of adoration or of entreaty in prayer; this they had not
offered to any of the idols of the heathen.
21. “_Shall not God search this out?_” Could such idolatry be concealed
from him? Would he not with holy indignation have detected
unfaithfulness to itself, even had it been hidden in the heart and
unrevealed in the life? “_For he knoweth the secrets of the heart._” He
is acquainted with the inner workings of the mind, and therefore this
could not have escaped him. Not the heart only which is secret, but the
secrets of the heart, which are secrets of the most secret thing, are as
open to God as a book to a reader. The reasoning is that the Lord
himself knew the people to be sincerely his followers, and therefore was
not visiting them for sin; hence, then, affliction evidently came from
quite another cause.
22. “_Yea_,” _i.e._, assuredly, certainly, “_for thy sake_,” not for our
offences, but for obeying thee; the trials of these suppliants came upon
them because they were loyal to their God. “_Are we killed all the day
long._” Persecution never ceased to hound them to the death, they had no
respite and found no door of escape; and all in God’s behalf, because
they would not forsake their covenant God and King. “_We are counted as
sheep for the slaughter_;” as if we were only meant to be killed, and
made on purpose to be victims; as if it were as easy and as innocent a
thing to slay us as to slaughter sheep. In this and following verses we
clearly hear the martyr’s cry. From Piedmont and Smithfield, from St.
Bartholomew’s massacre and the dragoonades of Claverhouse, this appeal
goes up to heaven, while the souls under the altar continue their solemn
cry for vengeance. Not long shall the church plead in this fashion, her
shame shall be recompensed, her triumph shall dawn.
23 Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast _us_ not off for
ever.
24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, _and_ forgettest our affliction
and our oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto
the earth.
26 Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies’ sake.
23. “_Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord?_” God sleepeth not, but the
Psalmist puts it so, as if on no other theory he could explain the
divine inaction. He would fain see the great Judge ending oppression and
giving peace to the holy, therefore does he cry “Awake;” he cannot
understand why the reign of tyranny and the oppression of virtue are
permitted, and therefore he enquires, “Why sleepest thou?” _Arise._ This
is all thou needest to do, one move of thine will save us. “_Cast us not
off for ever._” Long enough hast thou deserted us; the terrible effects
of thine absence are destroying us; end thou our calamities, and let
thine anger be appeased. In persecuting times men are apt to cry, Where
is the God of Israel? At the thought of what the saints have endured
from their haughty enemies, we join our voices in the great martyr cry,
and sing with the bard of Paradise:—
“Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;
Even those who kept thy truth so pure of old,
When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones.
Forget not: in thy book record their groans
Who were thy sheep.”
24. “_Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our afflictions and
our oppression?_” Not petulantly, but piteously and enquiringly, we may
question the Lord when his dealings are mysterious. We are permitted to
order our case with arguments, and plead the right before the face of
the august Majesty. Why, Lord, dost thou become oblivious of thy
children’s woes? This question is far more easily asked than answered;
it is hard, indeed, in the midst of persecution to see the reason why we
are left to suffer so severely.
25. “_For our soul is bowed down to the dust._” Our heart is low as low
can be, as low as the dust beneath the soles of men’s feet. When the
heart sinks, the man is down indeed. Heart-sorrow is the very heart of
sorrow. “_Our belly cleaveth unto the earth._” The man is prone upon the
earth, and he is not only down, but fastened down on the earth and glued
to it. It is misery, indeed, when the heart cannot escape from itself,
is shut up in its own dejection, and bound with the cords of
despondency. God’s saints may be thus abject, they may be not only in
the dust, but on the dunghill with Job and Lazarus, but their day
cometh, and their tide will turn, and they shall have a brave summer
after their bitter winter.
26. “_Arise for our help._” A short, but sweet and comprehensive prayer,
much to the point, clear, simple, urgent, as all prayers should be.
“_And redeem us for thy mercies’ sake._” Here is the final plea. The
favour is redemption, the plea is mercy; and this, too, in the case of
faithful sufferers who had not forgotten their God. Mercy is always a
safe plea, and never will any man find a better.
“Were I a martyr at the stake,
I’d plead my Saviour’s name,
Intreat a pardon for his sake,
And urge no other claim.”
Here ends this memorable Psalm, but in heaven its power ends not, but
brings down deliverance for the tried people of God.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.
_Whole Psalm._—On a survey of this Psalm, it would seem not to admit of
a doubt that the speakers are of the race of Israel; and yet expositors
for the most part have found much difficulty in so understanding it, in
this—the natural sense—so as even to be compelled to abandon it, owing
to the impossibility of fixing on any period in the history of that
people which would furnish an occasion for it, and verify its language.
Thus, it cannot be referred to the times of the Babylonish captivity;
for to this it is objected, and with reason, first, that verses 11 and
14 represent the speakers as “scattered among the nations,” and “a
byword among the peoples,” whereas their exile was then confined to one
country; and, secondly, that in verses 17-21 there is an assertion of
faithful adherence to the worship of the true God, which he is called to
witness as acquitting the sufferers of having brought the evil on
themselves, while that captivity was a punishment of the nation for
their apostasy, and especially for the grievous sin of idolatry. And the
same objections lie to interpreting it with reference to the times of
Antiochus Epiphanes and the Maccabees; beside that, the history of the
canon of Scripture is decisive against assigning so late a date to any
of the Psalms. Still less can the times of David be looked to for the
occasion, since, though religion was then pure, there was, on the other
hand, no dispersion of the nation nor any calamity such as to warrant
the lamentation, “Thou hast cast us off, and put us to shame.... Thou
hast given us like sheep appointed for meat,” etc. Whence it appeared
that there was no alternative but to consider the Psalm as exclusively
the language of the Christian church, and, in her primitive days, as the
period at once of her greatest purity and suffering.—_William de Burgh._
_Whole Psalm._—S. Ambrose observes, that in former Psalms we have seen a
prophecy of Christ’s passion, resurrection, and ascension, and of the
coming of the Holy Ghost, and that here we are taught that we ourselves
must be ready to struggle and suffer, in order that these things may
profit us. Human will must work together with divine grace.—_Christopher
Wordsworth._
_Verse 1.—“We have heard with our ears,”_ _i.e._, we have both heard and
heeded it, with utmost attention and affection. It is not a pleonasmus,
but an emphasis that is here used.—_John Trapp._
_Verse 1.—“Our fathers have told us.”_ Hear this, saith Basil, ye
fathers that neglect to teach your children such things as may work his
fear and love in them, and faith to rely upon and seek to him in all
times of danger. They made their mouths, as it were, books, wherein the
mighty deeds of the Lord might be read to his praise, and to the drawing
of their children’s hearts unto him.—_John Mayer._
_Verse 1.—“What work thou didst.”_ Why only “_work_” in the singular,
when such innumerable deliverances had been wrought by him, from the
passage of the Red Sea to the destruction of the hundred and eighty-five
thousand in the camp of the Assyrians? Because all these were but types
of that one great work, that one stretching forth of the Lord’s hand,
when Satan was vanquished, death destroyed, and the kingdom of heaven
opened to all believers.—_Ambrose._
_Verse 1.—“What work thou didst.”_ While the songs of other nations sing
of the heroism of their ancestors, the songs of Israel celebrate the
works of _God_.—_Augustus F. Tholuck._
_Verse 1._—Three necessary requirements for learning well: 1. Intention
and attention in him who learns, “_we have heard with our ears_.” 2.
Authority in him that teaches, “our _fathers_ have told us.” 3. Love
between the teacher and the taught, “our fathers.”—_Hugo (Cardinal),
quoted in Neale’s Commentary._
_Verses 1, 2, 4, 8._—Children are their parents’ heirs; it were
unnatural for a father before he dies to bury up his treasure in the
earth, where his children should not find or enjoy it; now the mercies
of God are not the least part of his treasure, nor the least of his
children’s inheritance, being both helps to their faith, matter for
their praise, and spurs to their obedience. “_Our fathers have told us,
what work thou didst in their days, how thou didst drive out the
heathen_,” etc. (ver. 1, 2); from this they ground their confidence;
verse 4: “_Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob_;”
and excite their thankfulness, verse 8: “_In God we boast all the day
long, and praise thy name for ever._” Indeed, as children are their
parents’ heirs, so they become in justice liable to pay their parents’
debts; now the great debt which the saint at death stands charged with,
is that which he owes to God for his mercies, and, therefore it is but
reason he should tie his posterity to the payment thereof. Thus mayest
thou be praising God in heaven and earth at the same time.—_William
Gurnall._
_Verse 2._—
“Thou with thine hand, hast driven out heathen,
And hast planted them;
The nations thou hast broken down,
But them thou hast engraffed.”
The two clauses of this verse stand in regular contrast. The first has
the figure of rooting out one kind of tree, and planting another, as the
Canaanites were rooted out of Palestine, and Israel was planted in their
stead. (Compare Psalm lxxx. 8). The second figure is that of cutting off
bad branches, and engrafting others in their place, in the same root,
which is Palestine again.—_Benjamin Weiss._
_Verse 3.—“They got not the land in possession by their own sword.”_ The
Lord’s part in a work is best seen when man’s part, and all that he as
an instrument hath done, or could have done in it, is declared null;
being considered as separate from God who moved the instruments, and did
work by them what he pleased.—_David Dickson._
_Verse 3.—“Because thou hadst a favour unto them.”_ Free grace was the
fundamental cause of all their felicity. God loved them because he loved
them. Deut. vii. 7. He chose them of his love, and then loved them for
his choice.—_John Trapp._
_Verse 3._—God’s love to Israel was free, unmerited, and amazing, and he
gave them a land for which they did not labour, and cities which they
built not, and vineyards and oliveyards which they planted not. Josh.
xxiv. 13. In some cases neither sword nor bow were used, but hornets
were the instruments of conquest. Josh. xxiv. 12. Since the fall of Adam
all good things in the lot of any mere man are undeserved
kindnesses.—_William S. Plumer._
_Verse 3 (last clause)._—The prophet does not suppose any worthiness in
the person of Abraham, nor imagine any desert in his posterity, on
account of which God dealt so bountifully with them; but ascribes the
whole to the good pleasure of God.... Nor does the Psalmist here treat
of the general benevolence of God, which extends to the whole human
race: but he discourses of the difference which exists between the elect
and the rest of the world, and the cause of this difference is here
referred to the mere good pleasure of God.—_John Calvin._
_Verse 4.—“My king;”_ apparently with a personal application to himself,
the poet individually claiming his own place in the covenant between God
and his people.—_J. J. Stewart Perowne._
_Verse 4.—“Thou art my king, O God; command deliverances for Jacob.”_ If
there were no creature, no instrument in the world to help, yet would
you not be at a loss in time of need, for he that is on the throne could
do it alone. He can do all that ever you need, without any means or
instruments. His bare word is sufficient, all-sufficient, for it,
whatever it be, how great, how difficult, how impossible soever it
seems. Such a power there is even in the word of the great King. There
needs no more to deliver you, to deliver his people anywhere, how deep
soever plunged, but only the _command_ of him that sits on the throne.
If the gospel, the interests of Christ, in these parts of the world, and
the dear concerns of our souls, and the souls of posterity, were all as
dry bones, in a more forlorn, and hopeless condition than they are, he
could make all live with a word. He that is our King, that sits upon the
throne, can command life into that which seems as far from living as a
dry bone. While he keeps the throne, it is a senseless heart that fails
through distrust of his power, even when all visible power and help
fail.—_David Clarkson._
_Verse 5.—“Through thee will we push down our enemies”_: literally, “We
will toss them in the air with our horn;” a metaphor taken from an ox or
bull tossing the dogs into the air which attack him.—_Adam Clarke._
_Verse 6.—“I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.”_
By “_bow_” and “_sword_,” he meaneth all manner of weapons and warlike
instruments whatsoever; and by “_saving_,” he meaneth delivering from
dangers, speaking under the person of one (because all the faithful are
but one body), in the name of all the rest.—_Thomas Wilcocks._
_Verse 6.—“I will not trust in my bow,”_ etc. I will not trust in _my
own_ sword or bow, but in the _sword_ of the Divine Warrior, and in the
_bow_ of the Divine Archer, whose arrows are sharp in the heart of his
enemies, as described in the next (Psalm xlv. 3-5), which is connected
by that imagery with this Psalm, as well as by its inner
meaning.—_Christopher Wordsworth._
_Verse 6._—The less confidence we have in ourselves or in anything
beside God, the more evidence have we of the sincerity of our faith in
God.—_David Dickson._
_Verses 6, 7._—The two verses correspond exactly to verse 3. As there,
in reference to the past, the salvation was ascribed wholly to God, so
here in reference to the future.—_E. W. Hengstenberg._
_Verse 11.—“Like sheep appointed for meat.”_ This very strongly and
strikingly intimates the extent of the persecution and slaughter to
which they were exposed; there being no creature in the world of which
such vast numbers are constantly slaughtered as of sheep for the
subsistence of man. The constancy of such slaughter is also mentioned in
verse 22 as illustrating the continual oppression to which the Hebrews
were subject.—_Kitto’s Pictorial Bible._
_Verse 11.—“Like sheep appointed for meat,”_ and not reserved for
breeding or for wool.—_Arthur Jackson._
_Verse 12.—“Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase
thy wealth by their price.”_ The sense is: Thou hast given thy people
unto the power of their enemies without trouble, without causing the
victory even to be dearly bought, as one who parts with a good for any
price, which he despises and hates, desiring merely to get rid of
it.—_E. W. Hengstenberg._
_Verse 12.—“Thou sellest thy people for nought,”_ etc. Referring to the
siege of Jerusalem by Titus, Eusebius says: “Many were sold for a small
price; there were many to be sold, but few to buy.”
_Verse 12.—“And dost not increase thy wealth by their price.”_ Thou hast
not advanced thy honour and service thereby; for thy enemies do not
serve thee more and better than thy people, nor yet so much.—_Matthew
Pool._
_Verse 12 (last clause). Takest no money for them_; literally,
_enhancest not the price of them_, as a seller usually does to the
buyer.—_Daniel Cresswell._
_Verse 14.—“Thou makest us a byword;”_ literally, _for a similitude_,
מָשָׁל stands here, as in the original passage (Deut. xxviii. 37), in
the common signification, _similitude_. The misery of Israel is so
great, that people would figuratively call a miserable man a Jew, just
as liars were called Cretans; wretched slaves, Sardians. So far are the
people from being now “blessed of the Lord” in whom according to the
promise, all the heathen are to be blessed.—_E. W. Hengstenberg._
_Verse 15.—“My confusion is continually before me.”_ When the visible
church is visited with sad calamities, the true members thereof are
partakers of the trouble, and sorrow, and shame of that
condition.—_David Dickson._
Verse 17.—Eusebius, narrating the cruelties inflicted upon the
_Christians_ by the Eastern tyrant, Maximinus, says: “He prevailed
against all sorts of people, the Christians only excepted, who contemned
death and despised his tyranny. The men endured burning, beheading,
crucifying, ravenous devouring of beasts, drowning in the sea, maiming
and broiling of the members, goring and digging out of the eyes,
mangling of the whole body; moreover, famine and imprisonment; to be
short, they suffered every kind of torment for the service of God rather
than they would leave the worship of God, and embrace the adoration of
idols. Women also, not inferior to men through the power of the word of
God, put on a manly courage, whereof some suffered the torments with
men, some attained unto the like masteries of virtue.”—_From “The
Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius Pamphilus.”_
_Verse 17.—“Yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt
falsely in thy covenant.”_ Although we cannot excuse ourselves from many
other sins for which thou hast justly punished us, yet this we must say
for ourselves, that through thy grace we have kept ourselves from
apostasy and idolatry, notwithstanding all the examples and
provocations, rewards proposed and promised, or punishments threatened
to induce us thereunto; which we hope thou wilt graciously consider, and
not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able to bear.—_Matthew
Pool._