small matter for boasting in having procured the slaughter of a band of
defenceless priests. A mighty man indeed to kill men who never touched a
sword! He ought to have been ashamed of his cowardice. He had no room
for exultation! Honourable titles are but irony where the wearer is mean
and cruel. If David alluded to Saul, he meant by these words pityingly
to say, “How can one by nature fitted for nobler deeds, descend to so
low a level as to find a theme for boasting in a slaughter so heartless
and mischievous?” “_The goodness of God endureth continually._” A
beautiful contrast. The tyrant’s fury cannot dry up the perennial stream
of divine mercy. If priests be slain their Master lives. If Doeg for
awhile triumphs the Lord will outlive him, and right the wrongs which he
has done. This ought to modify the proud exultations of the wicked, for
after all, while the Lord liveth, iniquity has little cause to exalt
itself.
2. “_Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs._” Thou speakest with an ulterior
design. The information given was for Saul’s assistance apparently, but
in very deed in his heart the Edomite hated the priests of the God of
Jacob. It is a mark of deep depravity, when the evil spoken is craftily
intended to promote a yet greater evil. “_Like a sharp razor, working
deceitfully._” David represents the false tongue as being effectual for
mischief, like a razor which, unawares to the person operated on, is
making him bald; so softly and deftly do Oriental barbers perform their
work. Or he may mean that as with a razor a man’s throat may be cut very
speedily, under the pretence of shaving him, even thus keenly, basely,
but effectually Doeg destroyed the band of the priests. Whetted by
malice, and guided by craft, he did his cruel work with accursed
thoroughness.
3. “_Thou lovest evil more than good._” He loved not good at all. If
both had been equally profitable and pleasant, he would have preferred
evil. “_And lying rather than to speak righteousness._” He was more at
home at lying than at truth. He spake not the truth except by accident,
but he delighted heartily in falsehood. “SELAH.” Let us pause and look
at the proud, blustering liar. Doeg is gone, but other dogs bark at the
Lord’s people. Saul’s cattle-master is buried, but the devil still has
his drovers, who fain would hurry the saints like sheep to the
slaughter.
4 Thou lovest all devouring words, O _thou_ deceitful tongue.
5 God shall likewise destroy thee for ever, he shall take thee away,
and pluck thee out of _thy_ dwelling place, and root thee out of the
land of the living. Selah.
4. “_Thou lovest._” Thou hast a taste, a gusto for evil language. “_All
devouring words._” There are words that, like boa-constrictors, swallow
men whole, or like lions, rend men to pieces; these words evil minds are
fond of. Their oratory is evermore furious and bloody. That which will
most readily provoke the lowest passions they are sure to employ, and
they think such pandering to the madness of the wicked to be eloquence
of a high order. “_O thou deceitful tongue._” Men can manage to say a
great many furious things, and yet cover all over with the pretext of
justice. They claim that they are jealous for the right, but the truth
is they are determined to put down truth and holiness, and craftily go
about it under this transparent pretence.
5. “_God shall likewise destroy thee for ever._” Fain would the
persecutor destroy the church, and therefore God shall destroy him, pull
down his house, pluck up his roots, and make an end of him. “_He shall
take thee away._” God shall extinguish his coal and sweep him away like
the ashes of the hearth; he would have quenched the truth, and God shall
quench him. “_And pluck thee out of thy dwelling place_,” like a plant
torn from the place where it grew, or a captive dragged from his home.
Ahimelech and his brother priests were cut off from their abode, and so
should those be who compassed and contrived their murder. “_And root
thee out of the land of the living._” The persecutor shall be
eradicated, stubbed up by the root, cut up root and branch. He sought
the death of others and death shall fall upon him. He troubled the land
of the living, and he shall be banished to that land where the wicked
cease from troubling. Those who will not “let live” have no right to
“live.” God will turn the tables on malicious men, and mete to them a
portion with their own measure. “SELAH.” Pause again, and behold the
divine justice proving itself more than a match for human sin.
6 The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him:
7 Lo, _this is_ the man _that_ made not God his strength; but
trusted in the abundance of his riches, _and_ strengthened himself
in his wickedness.
8 But I _am_ like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in
the mercy of God for ever and ever.
9 I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done _it_: and I
will wait on thy name; for _it_ is good before thy saints.
6. “_The righteous_”—the object of the tyrant’s hatred—shall outlive his
enmity, and “also shall see,” before his own face, the end of the
ungodly oppressor. God permits Mordecai to see Haman hanging on the
gallows. David had brought to him the tokens of Saul’s death on Gilboa.
“_And fear._” Holy awe shall sober the mind of the good man; he shall
reverently adore the God of providence. “_And shall laugh at him._” If
not with righteous joy, yet with solemn contempt. Schemes so
far-reaching all baffled, plans so deep, so politic, all thwarted.
Mephistopheles outwitted, the old serpent taken in his own subtlety.
This is a goodly theme for that deep-seated laughter which is more akin
to solemnity than merriment.
7. “_Lo._” Look ye here, and read the epitaph of a mighty man, who
lorded it proudly during his little hour, and set his heel upon the
necks of the Lord’s chosen. “_This is the man that made not God his
strength._” Behold the man! The great vainglorious man. He found a
fortress, but not in God; he gloried in his might, but not in the
Almighty. Where is he now? How has it fared with him in the hour of his
need? Behold his ruin, and be instructed. “_But trusted in the abundance
of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness._” The
substance he had gathered, and the mischiefs he had wrought, were his
boast and glory. Wealth and wickedness are dreadful companions; when
combined they make a monster. When the devil is master of money bags, he
is a devil indeed. Beelzebub and Mammon together heat the furnace seven
times hotter for the child of God, but in the end they shall work out
their own destruction. Wherever we see to-day a man great in sin and
substance, we shall do well to anticipate his end. and view this verse
as the divine _in memoriam_.
8. “_But I_,” hunted and persecuted though I am, “_am like a green olive
tree_.” I am not plucked up or destroyed, but am like a flourishing
olive, which out of the rock draws oil, and amid the drought still lives
and grows. “_In the house of God._” He was one of the divine family, and
could not be expelled from it; his place was near his God, and there was
he safe and happy, despite all the machinations of his foes. He was
bearing fruit, and would continue to do so when all his proud enemies
were withered like branches lopped from the tree. “_I trust in the mercy
of God for ever and ever._” Eternal mercy is my present confidence.
David knew God’s mercy to be eternal and perpetual, and in that he
trusted. What a rock to build on! What a fortress to fly to!
9. “_I will praise thee for ever._” Like thy mercy shall my thankfulness
be. While others boast in their riches I will boast in my God; and when
their glorying is silenced for ever in the tomb, my song shall continue
to proclaim the lovingkindness of Jehovah. “_Because thou hast done
it._” Thou hast vindicated the righteous, and punished the wicked. God’s
memorable acts of providence, both to saints and sinners, deserve and
must have our gratitude. David views his prayers as already answered,
the promises of God as already fulfilled, and therefore at once lifts up
the sacred Psalm. “_And I will wait on thy name._” God shall still be
the Psalmist’s hope; he will not in future look elsewhere. He whose name
has been so gloriously made known in truth and righteousness, is justly
chosen as our expectation for years to come. “_For it is good before thy
saints._” Before or among the saints David intended to wait, feeling it
to be good both for him and them to look to the Lord alone, and wait for
the manifestation of his character in due season. Men must not too much
fluster us; our strength is to sit still. Let the mighty ones boast, we
will wait on the Lord; and if their haste brings them present honour,
our patience will have its turn by-and-by, and bring us the honour which
excelleth.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.
_Title._—That _Maschil_ means a sacred composition, is evident from the
seventh verse of the 47th Psalm, where the passage which we render,
“Sing ye praises with understanding,” is literally, “Sing ye a
_Maschil_,” or song of instruction. This word occurs as a title in
thirteen places; and six times is prefixed to compositions of David’s.
In several instances it occurs in consecutive Psalms; _i.e._, in the
42nd (of which the 43rd is the sequel), the 44th and 45th, the 52nd,
53rd, 54th, and 55th, the 88th and 89th. A circumstance which favours
the notion that the term was one peculiarly used by some particular
editor or collector of a certain portion of the Psalter.—_John Jebb._
_Verse 1 (first clause).—Why doth he glory in malice that is mighty?_
that is, he, that in malice is mighty, why doth he glory? There is need
that a man be mighty but in goodness, not in malice. Is it any great
thing to glory in malice? To build a house doth belong to few men, any
ignorant man you please can pull down. To sow wheat, to dress the crop,
to wait until it ripen, and in that fruit on which one has laboured to
rejoice, doth belong to few men: with one spark any man you please can
burn all the crop.... What art thou about to do, O mighty man, what art
thou about to do, boasting thyself much? Thou art about to kill a man:
this thing also a scorpion, this also a fever, this also a poisonous
fungus can do. To this is thy mightiness reduced, that it be made equal
to a poisonous fungus!—_Augustine._
_Verse 1._—By “_mischief_” is understood not simply what evil he had
done, but the prosperity which he now enjoyed, obtained through
mischief; as is clear both from the word _boasting_ and from the seventh
verse.... Formerly he was the chief of Saul’s shepherds (1 Sam. xxi. 8),
but by that wicked destruction of the priests of God by Saul, and the
execution of the cruel sentence, he obtained the chief place near to the
king (_ibid._ xxii. 9).—_Hermann Venema._
_Verse 1.—“O mighty man.”_ These words may be added either by way of
irony, as if he had said, A great deal of valour and prowess you have
shown in slaying a company of unarmed men, the priests of the Lord, yea,
women and children, no way able to resist you; or else to imply the
ground of his vain boasting, to wit, either his present greatness, as
being a man in great place, and of great power with Saul; or the great
preferments he expected from Saul.—_Arthur Jackson._
_Verse 1.—“The goodness of God endureth continually.”_ He contrasts the
_goodness_ of God with the wealth and might of Doeg, and the foundation
of his own confidence as widely different from that of Doeg, his own
placed upon the goodness of God, enduring for ever and showing itself
effectual. It is as if he had said, The _goodness_ of God to which I
trust, is most powerful and the same throughout all time, and in it I
shall at all times most surely rejoice that _goodness_ of God, since now
it sustains me, so it will exalt me in its own good time; it therefore
_is_, and _will be above me_.... Not without emphasis does he say the
goodness אֵל _of the strong God_, a contrast to Doeg the _hero_, and the
ruinous foundation of his fortune.—_Hermann Venema._
_Verse 2.—“Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs, like a sharp razor, working
deceitfully.”_ Thus our version. But I do not very well understand the
propriety of _the tongue’s devising mischief_, and devising it _like a
sharp razor_. But we may easily avoid this harsh comparison by rendering
the words: _Thou contrivest mischiefs with thy tongue, as with a sharp
razor, O thou dealer in deceit_: _i.e._, Thou contrivest with thy smooth
and flattering tongue to wound the reputation and character of others,
as though thou wast cutting their throats with a smooth razor.—_Samuel
Chandler._
_Verse 2.—“Like a sharp razor,”_ that instead of shaving the hair
lanceth the flesh; or missing the beard cutteth the throat.—_John
Trapp._
_Verse 2._—The smooth, adroit manner of executing a wicked device
neither hides nor abates its wickedness. Murder with “_a sharp razor_”
is as wicked as murder with a meat-axe or a bludgeon. A lie very
ingeniously framed and rehearsed in an oily manner, is as great a sin,
and in the end will be seen to be as great a folly as the most bungling
attempt at deception.—_William S. Plumer._
_Verse 3.—“Thou lovest evil more than good.”_—“_Thou hast loved evil_,”
he says, “_more than good_,” not by simply preferring it, but by
substituting it; so that in the stead of good he hath done evil, and
that from the inmost love of his soul, bent upon evil; wherefore he does
not say that he _admitted_, but _loved evil_, not _moral_ only, but
_physical_, for the destruction of his neighbours; so _to have loved_
it, that he willed nothing but _evil_, being averse to all
good.—_Hermann Venema._
_Verse 4.—“Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful
tongue.”_—He was all _tongue_; a _man of words_: and these the most
deceitful and injurious.—_Adam Clarke._
_Verse 5.—“God shall destroy thee for ever,”_ etc. There are four words
the Psalmist makes use of to denote the utter vengeance that awaited
this deceitful and bloody wretch, all of them having a very strong
meaning. The first, יִתָּצךָ from נָחַץ, signifies _to pull down_, and
break utterly into pieces; as when an altar is demolished. (Judges vi.
30; viii. 9.) The second, יַחְתְּךָ from the root חֶתֶה, which signifies
_to twist_ anything, or _pluck it up by twisting it round_, as trees are
sometimes twisted up. The third, יסָּחֲךָ from נָסַח, which properly
signifies _utterly to sweep away anything like dust or chaff_; and the
expression יסָּחֲךָ מֵאֹהֶל means not _sweep thee away from thy tent_,
but, _sweep thee away, that thou mayest be no longer a tent_; thyself,
thy family, thy fortune, shall be wholly and entirely swept away, and
dissipated for ever; to which the fourth word, שֵׁרֶשְׁךָ, answers,
_eradicabit te_, he shall root thee out _from the land of the living_.
’Tis impossible words can express a more entire and absolute
destruction.—_Samuel Chandler._
_Verse 5.—“God shall likewise destroy thee for ever.”_ Here are _quot
verba tot tonotrua_, so many words, so many thunderclaps. As thou hast
destroyed the Lord’s priests, and their whole city, razing and harassing
it; so God will demolish and destroy thee utterly as an house pulled
down to the ground, so that one stone is not left upon another (Lev.
xiv. 45); so shall God pull down Doeg from that high preferment, which
he by sycophancy hath got at court.—_John Trapp._
_Verse 5._—Wonderful is the force of the verbs in the original, which
convey to us the four ideas of _laying prostrate, dissolving as by fire,
sweeping away as with a besom, and totally extirpating root and branch_,
as a tree is eradicated from the spot on which it grew. If a farther
comment be wanted, it may be found in the history of David’s enemies,
and the crucifiers of the Son of David; but the passage will be fully
and finally explained by the destruction of the world of the ungodly at
the last day.—_George Horne._
_Verse 5._—The poet accumulates dire and heavy words, and mingles
various metaphors that he might paint the picture of this man’s
destruction in more lively colours. Three metaphors appear to be joined
together, the first taken from a _building_, the second from a _tent_,
the third from a _tree_, if attention is given to the force and common
acceptation of the words.—_Hermann Venema._
_Verse 5.—“He shall take thee away;”_ or, _seize thee_, as coals are
taken with the tongs.—_J. J. Stewart Perowne._
_Verse 6.—“The righteous also shall see,”_ etc. That is, to use the apt
words of Gejerus, “_This shall not be a secret judgment, or known only
to a few, but common fame shall spread abroad throughout the kingdom, or
city, the notable punishment of the ungodly. The righteous also shall
not pass by such an event with indifference but with earnest eyes shall
contemplate it_,” etc. I add, and hence shall they take joy, and turn it
to their own use, to the greater fearing of God.... _The righteous_,
upon whose destruction the ungodly man was intent, shall survive and
spend their lives safe in the favour of God; _they shall see_ with
attentive mind, they shall consider; nor, as worldlings are accustomed,
shall they pass it by without reflection or improvement, they shall see
and _fear_, namely, God the just judge; and instructed in his judgment
by this instance, they shall be the more careful to abstain from all
designs and crimes of the kind.—_Hermann Venema._
_Verse 6.—“And shall laugh at him;”_ or _over him_—over the wicked man
thus cast down—_they shall laugh_. Such exultation, to our modern
sensibilities, seems shocking, because we can hardly conceive of it,
apart from the gratification of personal vindictiveness. But there is
such a thing as a righteous hatred, as a righteous scorn. There is such
a thing as a shout of righteous joy at the downfall of the tyrant and
the oppressor, at the triumph of righteousness and truth over wrong and
falsehood.—_J. J. Stewart Perowne._
_Verse 7.—“Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength.”_ David
having showed (in verses 5, 6) the wicked man, by the righteous judgment
of God rooted out of the land of the living, shows us in the next verse,
the righteous man at once fearing and laughing at this sight, as also
pointing at him saying, “_Lo this is the man that made not God his
strength._” The words are a divine but cutting sarcasm. The original is
_geber_, which signifieth a strong, valiant man: as we say in English,
Lo, this is the brave and gallant man you wot of! But who was this for a
man? He was one, saith he, that “_trusted in the abundance of his
riches_.” Oh! ’tis hard to abound in riches and not to trust in them.
Hence that caution (Psalm lxii. 10): “If riches increase, set not your
heart upon them.” Now, what is the setting the heart upon riches but our
rejoicing and trusting in them? And because the heart of man is so
easily persuaded into this sinful trust upon riches, therefore the
apostle is urgent with Timothy to persuade all rich men—not only mere
worldly rich men, but godly rich men—against it; yea, he urgeth Timothy
to persuade rich men against two sins, which are worse than all the
poverty in the world, yet the usual attendants of riches—pride and
confidence: “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not
highminded.” 1 Tim. vi. 17.—_Joseph Caryl._
_Verses 7, 8._—Perhaps some of you have been long professors, and yet
come to little growth in love to God, humility, heavenly-mindedness,
mortification; and it is worth the digging to see what lies at the root
of your profession, whether there be not a legal principle that hath too
much influenced you. Have you not thought to carry all with God from
your duties and services, and too much laid up your hopes in your own
actings? Alas! this is as so much dead earth, which must be thrown out,
and gospel principles laid in the room thereof. Try but this course, and
try whether the spring of thy grace will not come on apace. David gives
an account how he came to stand and flourish when some that were rich
and mighty, on a sudden withered and came to nothing. “_Lo_,” saith he,
“_this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the
abundance of his riches_.” “_But I am like a green olive tree in the
house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever._” While
others trust in the riches of their own righteousness and services, and
make not Christ their strength, do thou renounce all, and trust in the
mercy of God in Christ, and thou shalt be like a green olive when they
fade and wither.—_William Gurnall._
_Verse 8 (first clause)_:—
“But I an olive charged with fruit
In fertile soil that grows.”
This appears to express the meaning of the Hebrew words, which our
translators render, “_like a green olive tree_,” but which in reality
have no reference to the colour, but to the flourishing, vigorous, and
thriving state of the plant; just as Homer gives it the epithet of
“luxuriant,” and “flourishing;” and Ovid that of “ever-flourishing.” The
fact is, the colour of the leaves of this tree is not a bright, lively
green; but a dark, disagreeable, or yellowish one. Scheuchzen describes
the leaves, as “_superne coloris atrovirentis, vel in virdi
flavescentis_.” An English traveller, writing from Italy, thus expresses
his disappointment about the olive tree:—“The fields, and indeed the
whole face of Tuscany, are in a manner covered with olive trees; but the
olive tree does not answer the character I had conceived of it. The
royal Psalmist and some of the sacred writers, speak with rapture of the
‘green olive tree,’ so that I expected a beautiful green; and I confess
to you, I was wretchedly disappointed to find its hue resembling that of
our hedges when they are covered with dust.” I have heard other
travellers express the same feeling of disappointment. “The true way of
solving the difficulty,” as Harmer properly remarks, “is to consider the
word translated ‘green,’ not as descriptive of colour, but of some other
property; youthfulness, vigour, prosperity, or the like.”—_Richard
Mant._
_Verse 8.—“Green olive tree in the house of God.”_—Several expositors
fancifully imagine that olive trees grew in certain of the courts of the
Tabernacle; but the notion must not be endured, it would have been too
near an approach to the groves of the heathen to have been tolerated, at
least in David’s time. The text should surely be read with some
discretion; the poet does not refer to olive trees in God’s house, but
compares _himself in the house of God_ to an olive tree. This reminds us
of the passage, “Thy children like olive plants around thy table,” where
some whose imaginations have been more lively than their judgments, have
seen a table surrounded, not with children, but with olive plants.
Whoever, in the realms of common sense ever heard of olive plants round
a table? If, as Thrupp supposes, Nob was situated upon the Mount of
Olives, we can, without any conjecture, see a reason for the present
reference to a flourishing olive tree.—_C. H. S._
_Verse 9._—He compares himself (1) With an _olive tree_, a tree always
green, lasting long and fruitful, whose fruit is most useful and
grateful: so he paints his future state as joyful, glorious, lasting,
and useful and pleasing to men: plainly a reference is made to the
_royal_ and _prophetic_ office, in both of which he represents himself
as an _olive tree_, by supplying others with _oil_ through his rule and
instruction: (2) With _the olive_ growing luxuriantly, and abounding in
spreading boughs, and so spacious and large.... (3) But why does he add
_in the house of God_? That he might indicate, unless I am deceived:
(_a_) That he should possess a dwelling in that place where the _house
of God_ was, whence he was now exiled through the calumnies of Doeg and
the attacks of Saul stirred up thereby: (_b_) That he should perform
distinguished service to the house of God, by adorning it, and by
restoring religion, now neglected, and practising it with zeal: (_c_)
That he should derive from God and his favour, whose that house was, all
his prosperity: (_d_) That he, like a son of God, should rejoice in
familiarity with him, and should become heir to his possessions and
promises.—_Hermann Venema._
HINTS TO PREACHERS.
_Verse 1._—The confidence of faith. I. _The circumstances were
distressing._ 1. David was misjudged. 2. David exiled. 3. A bad man in
power. 4. God’s priests slain. II. _The consolation was abiding._ 1.
There is a God. 2. He is good. 3. His goodness continues. 4. Good will,
therefore, overcome. III. _The rejoinder was triumphant_, “Why boastest
thou?” 1. The mischief did not touch the main point. 2. It would be
overruled. 3. It would recoil. 4. It would expose the perpetrators to
scorn.
_Verse 3._—In what cases men clearly love evil more than good.
_Verses 7, 8._—The worldling like an uprooted tree, the believer a
vigorous, well-planted olive.
_Verse 8._—The believer’s character, position, confidence, and
continuance.
_Verse 9._—The double duty, and the double reason: the single heart and
its single object.
_Verse 9._—What God has done, what we will do, and why.
PSALM LIII.