how ye have covenanted with him, and how ye have closed the bargain with
him, and upon what terms. But I trow there are many of you in this age
that are like young wanton folk, that run fast together and marry, but
never take any account how they will keep house, but presently go to
poverty and beggary. I trow it falls out so with many of you that are
professors in this generation. Ye take up your religion, and ye wot not
how, and ye cannot give an account how ye came by it. I will tell you,
sirs; ye will abide no longer by Christ than till a storm blow, and then
ye will quit him and deny his cause. Ye have need to take heed to this,
for it will ruin your souls in the end of the day. But I shall tell you,
sirs, the right way of covenanting with God. It is when Christ and the
believer meet. Our Lord gives him his laws, statutes, and commands, and
he charges him not to quit a hoof of them. No; though he should be torn
into a thousand pieces; and the right covenanter says, Amen.—_Alexander
Peden’s Sermon, 1682._
_Verses 17-19.-_-Neither the persecuting hand of men, nor the chastising
hand of God, relaxed ancient singular saints. Believers resemble the
_moon_, which emerges from her eclipse by keeping her motion, and ceases
not to shine because the dogs bark at her. Shall we cease to be
professors because others will not cease to be persecutors?—_William
Secker._
_Verses 17-19._—The church having reported her great troubles, speaks it
as an argument of much sincerity towards God, and strength of grace
received from him: “_All this has come upon us_” (that is, all these
common calamities and afflictions), “_yet have we not forgotten thee,
neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. Our heart is not turned
back, neither have our steps declined from thy way_;” as if she had
said, These afflictions have been strong temptations upon us to cause us
to decline from thy ways, but through grace we have kept our ground and
remained constant in thy covenant, yea, “_though thou hast sore broken
us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death_.”
As many, yea, most of the saints have improved under the cross, so there
have been some, who either through their present unbelief, or
forgetfulness of “the exhortation which” (as the apostle saith, Heb.
xii. 5), “speaketh unto them as unto children,” have had their faintings
or declinings under it.—_Joseph Caryl._
_Verse 18.—“Our heart is not turned back.”_ Serious piety has become a
ludicrous subject with which the wanton wits of this atheistical world
sport themselves; but behold the wisdom and goodness of God, exhibiting
to the world undeniable testimonies of the truth of religion as often as
the sincere professors thereof are brought to the test by afflictions
from the hand of God, or persecutions from the hands of men. Lo! “here
is the faith and patience of the saints;” here is their courage,
meekness, and self-denial, shining as gold in the fire. They have the
real proofs of it before their eyes. Instead of casting them into hell,
and convincing them by eternal fire, he is pleased to cast his own
people into the fire of affliction, that they who scoff at them may be
convinced at an easier and cheaper rate. It is no new thing to see the
enemies of religion brought over to embrace it by the constancy and
faithfulness of the saints in their trials and sufferings for it. God
grant that the atheism of this present generation do not occasion a more
fiery trial to the people of God in it than they have yet
suffered.—_John Flavel._
_Verse 18.—“Our heart.”_ The word לֵבָב or Greek καρδία, that is
rendered “_heart_,” both in the Old and New Testament, doth signify the
understanding, the mind, will, affections, conscience, the whole soul.
“_Our heart is not turned back._” Our understandings and minds are the
same as they were in a summer’s day, though now we be in a winter’s
storm; though now we be afflicted, tossed, broken, and persecuted, yet
notwithstanding, “_our heart is not turned back_,” our mind, will,
affections, and conscience, our whole soul, is the same now as
before.—_Thomas Brooks._
_Verse 19.—“Though thou hast sore broken us in place of dragons,”_ etc.
Where men, comparable to dragons for their poison and cruelty, dwell
particularly in Rome, and the Roman jurisdiction, both Pagan and Papal,
the seat of Satan, the great red dragon, and of his wretched brood and
offspring, the beast, to whom he has given his power; where the saints
and followers of Christ have been sorely afflicted and persecuted, and
yet have held fast the name of Christ, and not denied his faith. See
Rev. ii. 13, and xii. 3. The wilderness is the habitation of dragons;
and this is the name of the place where the church is said to be in the
times of the Papacy, and where she is fed and preserved for a time, and
times, and half-a-time. Rev. xii. 6, 14. “_And covered us with the
shadow of death._” As the former phrase denotes the cruelty of the
enemies of Christ’s church and people, this their dismal afflictions and
forlorn state and condition; and may have some respect to the darkness
of Popery, when it was at the height, and the church of Christ was
covered with it, there being very little appearances and breakings forth
of gospel light anywhere.—_John Gill._
_Verse 19.—“Dragons.”_ The word rendered _dragons_—תַּנִּים,
_tannim_—means either a great fish, a sea monster, a serpent, a dragon,
or a crocodile. It may also mean a jackal, a fox, or a wolf. De Wette
renders it here _jackals_. The _idea_ in the passage is essentially the
same, whichever interpretation of the word is adopted. The “_place_ of
dragons” would denote the place where such monsters are found, or where
they had their abode: that is to say, in desolate places, wastes,
deserts, old ruins, depopulated towns.—_Albert Barnes._
_Verse 20.—“Stretched out our hands to a strange god.”_ _The stretching
out the hand_ towards an object of devotion, or an holy place, was an
ancient usage among the Jews and heathens both, and it _continues_ in
the East to this time, which continuance I do not remember to have seen
remarked. That this attitude in prayer has _continued_ among the Eastern
people, appears by the following passage from Pitts, in his account of
the religion and manners of the Mohammedans. Speaking of the Algerines
throwing wax candles and pots of oil overboard, as a present to some
marabbot (or Mohammedan saint), Pitts goes on, and says, “When this is
done, they all together _hold up their hands_, begging the marabbot’s
blessing, and a prosperous voyage.” In the same page he tells us, “the
marabbots have generally a little neat room built over their graves,
resembling in figure their mosques or churches, which is very nicely
cleaned, and well looked after.” And in the succeeding page he tells us,
“Many people there are who will scarce pass by any of them without
_lifting up_ their hand, and saying some short prayer.” In like manner,
he tells us, that at quitting the Beat, or holy house at Mecca, to which
they make devout pilgrimages, “_they hold up their hands towards the
Beat_, making earnest petitions.”—_Harmer’s “Observations.”_
_Verse 21.—“Shall not God search this out?”_ etc. Are there such variety
of trials appointed to examine the sincerity of men’s graces? How great
a vanity, then, is hypocrisy! and to how little purpose do men endeavour
to conceal and hide it! We say, murder will out; and we may as
confidently affirm, hypocrisy will out. When Rebekah had laid the plot
to disguise her son Jacob, and by personating his brother, to get the
blessing, Jacob thus objects against it: “My father peradventure will
feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver, and I shall bring a
curse upon me and not a blessing.” And if he should say, But what if my
father detect the cheat? How, then, shall I look him in the face? How
shall I escape a curse? After the same manner every upright soul scares
itself from the way of hypocrisy. If I dissemble, and pretend to be what
I am not, my Father will find me out. There is no darkness nor shadow of
death that can conceal the hypocrite; but out it will come at last, let
him use all the art he can to hide it.... If men’s works be not good, it
is impossible they should be hid long. A gilded piece of brass may pass
from hand to hand a little while, but the touchstone will discover the
base metal; and if that does not, the fire will.—_John Flavel._
_Verse 21._—A godly man dares not sin secretly. He knows that God sees
in secret. As God cannot be deceived by our subtlety, so he cannot be
excluded by our secrecy.—_Thomas Watson._
_Verse 21._—In time of persecution for religion, nothing can
counterbalance the terrors and allurements of the persecutors, and make
a man steadfast in the cause of God, save the fear of God, and love to
God settled in the heart; for the reason of the saints’ steadfastness in
this Psalm, is because God would have searched out their sin if they had
done otherwise, “_for he knoweth the secrets of the heart_.”—_David
Dickson._
_Verse 22.—“Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long,”_ etc.
Leonard Schoener left, amongst other papers, the following admonition,
to comfort all who were suffering for Christ’s name:—
“We pray thee, O eternal God, to bow down thy gracious ear. Lord of
Sabaoth, thou Lord of hosts, hear our complaint, for great affliction
and persecution have prevailed. Pride has entered thine inheritance, and
many supposed to be Christians, have united themselves therewith, and
have thus brought in the abomination of desolation. They waste and
destroy the Christian sanctuary. They have trodden the same under foot,
and the abomination of desolation is worshipped as God. They have
troubled thy holy city, thrown down thy holy altar, and slain her
servants when they could lay their hands upon them. And now that we as a
little flock are left, they have driven us into all thy lands with
contempt and reproach. We are scattered as sheep having no shepherd. We
have been compelled to forsake house and home. We are as night ravens
which abide in the rocks; our chambers are in holes and crags. They
watch for us as fowls that fly in the air. We wander in the woods, they
hunt us with dogs. They lead us away, seized and bound, as lambs that
open not their mouths. They cry out against us as seditious persons and
heretics. We are brought like sheep to the slaughter. Many sit
oppressed, and in bonds which even decay their bodies. Some have sunk
under their sufferings, and died without fault. Here is the patience of
the saints in the earth. We must be tried by suffering here. The
faithful have they hanged on trees, strangled, hewn in pieces, secretly
and openly drowned. Not only men, but likewise women and maidens have
borne witness to the truth, that Jesus Christ is the truth, the only way
to eternal life. The world still rages, and rests not; it raves as if
mad. They invent lies against us. They cease not their fires and
murders. They make the world too narrow for us. O Lord, how long wilt
thou be silent? How long wilt thou not judge the blood of thy saints?
Let it come up before thy throne. How precious in thine eye is the blood
of thy holy ones! Therefore have we comfort in all our need, a refuge in
thee alone, and in none besides; but neither comfort, nor rest, nor
peace on this earth. But he who hopeth in thee shall never be
confounded. O Lord, there is no sorrow so great that can separate us
from thee; therefore, without ceasing we call upon thee, through Christ
thy Son our Lord, whom thou of thy free grace hast given us for our
comfort. He hath prepared and made known to us the straight path, and
the way to eternal life. Everlasting glory and triumph, honour and
praise, be given unto thee, both now and to eternity, and let thy
righteousness remain for ever. Let all the people bless thy holy name,
through Christ the righteous Judge, who cometh to judge the whole world.
Amen.”—_From “A Martyrology of the Churches of Christ, commonly called
Baptists. Edited by E. B. Underhill.” 1850._
_Verse 22.—“For thy sake are we killed.”_ It is mercy to us, that when
God might punish us for our sins, he doth make our correction
honourable, and our troubles to be for a good cause—“_For thy sake_,”
etc.—_David Dickson._
_Verse 22.—“For thy sake.”_ This passage is cited by St. Paul, Rom.
viii. 36, apparently from the LXX, an illustration of the fact that the
church of God has in all ages been a persecuted church. But there is
this remarkable difference between the tone of the Psalmist and the tone
of the apostle: the former cannot understand the chastening, and
complains that God’s heavy hand has been laid without cause upon his
people; the latter can rejoice in persecutions also, and exclaim, “Nay,
in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved
us.”—_J. J. Stewart Perowne._
_Verse 22.—“Killed.”_ The word here used is not from קָטַל, but from
הָרַג, which means _to strangle_: this is the rendering given in
“Lange’s Biblewerk.”
_Verse 23.—“Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord?_” and Psalm cxxi. 4,
“_Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep._” If
God at no time sleep, why doth the church call on him so often to awake?
If he must be awakened from sleep, why doth the Psalmist say he never
sleeps? Are not these places contradictory?
ANSWER: It is one thing what the afflicted church cries in the heat of
her sufferings, another thing what the Spirit of truth speaks for the
comfort of the saints. It is ordinary for the best of saints and
martyrs, during the storm, to go to God as Peter did to Christ at sea
(sleeping in the stern of the ship), with such importunity in prayer as
if the Lord were no more sensible of their agony than Jonah was of the
mariners’ misery, ready to perish in the turbulent ocean, and they cried
out, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise! Saints are so familiar with
God in prayer, as if they were at his bedside.
THE SOUL’S APPLICATION.—O thou never-slumbering Watchman of the house of
Israel, carest not thou that we perish? Awake, awake! put on strength,
gird thyself, O thou arm of God! I know thou art up, but what am I the
better except thou help me up? I know thou sleepest not as man doth, but
what advantage hath my soul by that, except thou show thyself, that I
may know thou art waking? Oh, it is I that am asleep! Thou seemest to
sleep only to awaken me. O that I could watch with thee one hour, as
thou bidd’st me; I should soon perceive then thy vigilancy over me for
ever.—_William Streat in “The Dividing of the Hoof.” 1654._
_Verse 23.—“Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord?”_ etc. The weakness of our
faith is open to the temptation of supposing that God regards not the
situation of his people in the world; and the Spirit, who knows our
infirmities, provides a petition suited to this trial, which expresses
at the same time an expectation that God will arise to claim his people
as his own.—_W. Wilson._
_Verse 25.—“For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth
unto the earth.”_ We are as to body and soul, smitten and thrown down,
glued as it were to the ground, so that we cannot raise ourselves
up.—_E. W. Hengstenberg._
_Verse 25.—“For our soul is bowed down to the dust,”_ etc. The speech is
metaphorical, expressing the depth of their misery, or the greatness of
their sorrow and humiliation. 1. The depth of their misery, with the
allusion to the case of a man overcome in battle, or mortally wounded,
and tumbling in the dust, or to a man dead and laid in the earth; as,
“Thou hast brought me into the dust of death.” Psa. xxii. 15. Sure we
are, the expression importeth the extremity of distress and danger,
either as a man dead or near death. 2. The greatness of their sorrow and
humiliation; and so the allusion is taken from a man prostrate and
grovelling on the ground, which was their posture of humbling themselves
before the Lord, or when any great calamity befell them. As when Herod
Agrippa died, they put on sackcloth and lay upon the earth
weeping.—_Thomas Manton._
HINTS TO PREACHERS.
_Verse 1._—The encouraging traditions of church history. The days of
yore.
_Verse 1._—The parents’ duty, and the children’s privilege.
_Verse 1._—Family conversation, the most profitable subject for it.
_Verse 1._—The true glory of the good old times.
_Verse 2._—The contrast; or, the dealings of God with saints and
sinners.
_Verse 3._—Free grace exalted. I. In putting a negative upon human
power. II. In manifestations of divine energy. III. In its secret
source, “_Because thou hadst a favour unto them_.”
_Verse 3._—I. The creature laid low. II. The Lord exalted. III.
Discriminating grace revealed.
_Verse 3 (last clause)._—The eternal well-spring of all mercy.
_Verse 4._-I. Divine royalty acknowledged. II. Royal interposition
entreated. III. Divine covenant hinted at, “_Jacob_;” or, the loyal
subject seeking royal aid for the royal seed.
_Verse 4._—Personal allegiance, and pleading intercession.
_Verse 4.—“My King.”_ This intends—I. My Ruler. II. My Honour. III. My
Leader. IV. My Defender.
_Verse 4._—The deliverances of Jacob, illustrated by his eventful life.
_Verse 5._—Our enemies, in what ways we push them down, by what
strength, and in what spirit.
_Verse 5._—Our enemies, their activity, the closeness of their approach,
the certainty of their overthrow, the secret of our strength.
_Verse 6._—Relinquishment of outward trusts. “_My bow_” may miss its
aim, may be broken, may be snatched away. “_My sword_” may snap, or grow
blunt, or slip from my hold. We may not trust in our abilities, our
experience, our shrewdness, our wealth, etc.
_Verse 6._—Self-renunciation—the duty of saint and sinner.
_Verse 7._—Accomplished salvation. How never achieved, “_But_.” By whom
wrought, “_thou_.” When performed, “_hast_.” For whom, “_us_.” To what
extent, “_from our enemies_.”
_Verse 7._—Salvation completed, hell confounded, Christ exalted.
_Verse 8._—Praise, its continuance—how to make it continual, how to
manifest it perpetually, influence of its continuance, and reasons to
compel us to abide in it.
_Verse 9._—A lament for the declension of the church.
_Verse 9._—In what sense God casts off his people, and why.
_Verse 9 (last clause)._—The greatest of all calamities for our
churches.
_Verse 12._—The human and divine estimate of the results of persecution.
_Verse 12._—In answer to this complaint. I. God’s people lose nothing
eventually by their privations. II. The wicked gain nothing by their
triumphs. III. God loses none of his glory in his dealings with
either.—_G. Rogers._
_Verse 13._—Trial of cruel mockings; our conduct under them, comfort in
them, and crown from them.
_Verse 14._—Unholy proverbs or godless bywords.
_Verse 15._—Confessions of a penitent.
_Verse 17._—The trial, truth, and triumph of the godly.
_Verse 17._—The faithful soul holding fast his integrity.
_Verse 17._—What it is to be false to our covenant with God.
_Verse 18 (first clause)._—When we may be sure that our heart has not
apostatised.
_Verse 18._—I. The position of the heart in religion—it comes first. II.
The position of the outer moral life in religion—it follows the heart.
III. Necessity of the agreement of the two. IV. The need that both
should be faithful to God.
_Verse 18._—Connection between the heart and the life, both in constancy
and apostasy.
_Verse 18._—God’s delight in the progress of the upright.—_Thomas
Brooks._
Upright hearts will hold on in the ways of God, and in the ways of
well-doing, notwithstanding all afflictions, troubles, and
discouragements, they meet withal.—_Thomas Brooks._
_Verse 18.—“Thy ways.”_ The ways of God are—1, _righteous_ ways; 2,
_blessed_ ways; 3, _soul-refreshing_ ways; 4, _transcendent_ ways—ways
that transcend all other ways; 5, _soul-strengthening_ ways; and 6,
sometimes _afflicted_, _perplexed_, and _persecuted_ ways.—_Thomas
Brooks._
_Verse 21._—Can he not? Will he not?
_Verse 21._—A question and an assertion.
_Verse 22._—I. Innocence in the midst of suffering, “_sheep_.” II.
Honour in the midst of shame, “_for thy sake_.”—_G. Rogers._
_Verse 23._—The cry of a church in sad circumstances. The plaint of a
deserted soul.
_Verse 24._—Reasons for the withdrawal of divine comfort.
_Verse 25._—The great need, the great prayer, the great plea.
_Verse 26._—A fit prayer for souls under conviction, for saints under
trial or persecution, and for the church under oppression or decay.
PSALM XLV.
TITLE.—_The many titles of this Psalm mark its royalty, its deep and
solemn import, and the delight which the writer had in it._ To the Chief
Musician upon Shoshannim. _The most probable translation of this word is
upon the lilies, and it is either a poetical title given to this noblest
of songs after the Oriental manner, or it may relate to the tune to
which it was set, or to the instrument which was meant to accompany it.
We incline to the first theory, and if it be the true one, it is easy to
see the fitness of borrowing a name for so beautiful, so pure, so
choice, so matchless a poem from the golden lilies, whose bright array
outshone the glory of Solomon._ For the sons of Korah. _Special singers
are appointed for so divine a hymn. King Jesus deserves to be praised
not with random, ranting ravings, but with the sweetest and most skilful
music of the best trained choristers. The purest hearts in the spiritual
temple are the most harmonious songsters in the ears of God; acceptable
song is not a matter so much of tuneful voices as of sanctified
affections, but in no case should we sing of Jesus with unprepared
hearts._ Maschil, _an instructive ode, not an idle lay, or a romancing
ballad, but a Psalm of holy teaching, didactic and doctrinal. This
proves it is to be spiritually understood. Blessed are the people who
know the meaning of its joyful sound._ A Song of loves. _Not a carnal,
sentimental love song, but a celestial canticle of everlasting love fit
for the tongues and ears of angels._
SUBJECT.—_Some here see Solomon and Pharaoh’s daughter only—they are
short-sighted; others see both Solomon and Christ—they are cross-eyed;
well-focussed spiritual eyes see here Jesus only, or if Solomon be
present at all, it must be like those hazy shadows of passers-by which
cross the face of the camera, and therefore are dimly traceable upon a
photographic landscape. “The King,” the God whose throne is for ever and
ever, is no mere mortal and his everlasting dominion is not bounded by
Lebanon and Egypt’s river. This is no wedding song of earthly nuptials,
but an Epithalamium for the Heavenly Bridegroom and his elect spouse._
DIVISION.—_Verse 1 is an announcement of intention, a preface to the
song; verse 3 adores the matchless beauty of Messiah; and from 3-9, he
is addressed in admiring ascriptions of praise. Verses 10, 11, 12, are
spoken to the bride. The church is further spoken of in verses 13-15,
and the Psalm closes with another address to the King, foretelling his
eternal fame, 16-17._
EXPOSITION.
My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I
have made touching the King: my tongue _is_ the pen of a ready
writer.