not lightly forget, nor should we. We voluntarily made them, let us
cheerfully keep them. All professed Christians are men under vows, but
especially those who in hours of dire distress have re-dedicated
themselves unto the Lord. “_I will render praises unto thee._” With
heart, and voice, and gift, we should cheerfully extol the God of our
salvation. The practice of making solemn vows in times of trouble is to
be commended, when it is followed by the far less common custom of
fulfilling them when the trouble is over.
13. “_For thou hast delivered my soul from death._” His enemies were
defeated in their attempts upon his life, and therefore he vowed to
devote his life to God. “_Wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling?_”
One mercy is a plea for another, for indeed it may happen that the
second is the necessary complement of the first. It little boots that we
live, if we are made to fall in character by the thrusts of our enemies.
As lief not be, as live to be bereft of honour, and fallen prostrate
before my enemies. “_That I may walk before God in the light of the
living_,” enjoying the favour and presence of God, and finding the joy
and brightness of life therein. Walking at liberty, in holy service, in
sacred communion, in constant progress in holiness, enjoying the smile
of heaven—this I seek after. Here is the loftiest reach of a good man’s
ambition, to dwell with God, to walk in righteousness before him, to
rejoice in his presence, and in the light and glory which it yields.
Thus in this short Psalm, we have climbed from the ravenous jaws of the
enemy into the light of Jehovah’s presence, a path which only faith can
tread.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.
_Title._—The words “_Jonath-elem-rechokim_” may be rendered, _concerning
the mute dove among them that are afar off_, or _in far places_.—_John
Gill._
_Title.—“Michtam.”_ See also Explanatory Notes on Psalm xvi., in the
“Treasury of David,” Vol. I., pp. 197, 198.
_Verse 1.—“Be merciful.”_ This is the second of the Psalms beginning
with the miserere; the fifty-first being the first of them.—_C. H. S._
_Verse 1.—“Be merciful unto me, O God.”_ This is to me the one source of
all my expectations, the one fountain of all promises: _Miserere mei,
Deus, miserere mei._—_Bernard, 1091-1157._
_Verse 1.—“Be merciful.”_ His first wrestling in prayer is with the
check of his conscience, whether for his daily sins, or in particular
for casting himself in such apparent danger, as to have ventured without
probable security, to seek shelter among the enemies of the people of
God, whose blood he himself had shed abundantly; for this rashness or
other sins he beggeth mercy.—_David Dickson._
_Verse 1.—“Man.”_ He uses the indefinite term _man_ in this verse,
though in the next he speaks of having many enemies, the more forcibly
to express the truth, that the whole world was combined against him,
that he experienced no humanity amongst men, and stood in the last
necessity of divine help.—_John Calvin._
_Verse 1.—“Would swallow me up.”_ _Soop me up_ (as the Hebrew word
soundeth); make but one draught of me or suck me in as a whirlpool,
swallow me up as a ravenous wild beast.—_John Trapp._
_Verse 1.—“He fighting daily.”_ There is no morning on which we can
arise and go forth into the world, and say, “No enemy will come out
against me to-day.” There is no night in which we can retire from that
world, and think to find safety in the solitude of our own chambers, and
say, “No evil can enter here.”—_Barton Bouchier, in “Manna in the
Heart,” 1855._
_Verses 1, 2._—The same words are applicable to the situation and
circumstances of David, pursued by his enemies; of Christ, persecuted by
the Jews; of the church, afflicted in the world; and of the soul,
encompassed by enemies, against whom she is forced to wage perpetual
war.—_George Horne._
_Verse 2.—“O thou most High.”_ The Hebrew is not that rendered “_Most
High_” in Ps. vii. 17; nor in our version is it ever rendered “_Most
High_” in any other place, although found in the Hebrew Bible more than
_fifty_ times. There are but two other places where it is applied, as an
epithet, to God; Ps. xcii. 8; Mic. vi. 6. It is commonly rendered _from
above_, _on high_, _high places_, _high_; once _loftily_, Ps. lxxiii.
8.... The probable meaning is, they “fight against me from the high
places of authority, both in Jerusalem and in Gath,” _q.d._, mine
enemies are in power.—_William S. Plumer’s “Studies in the Book of
Psalms,” 1867._
_Verse 3.—“What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.”_ There is
nothing like faith to help at a pinch; faith dissolves doubts as the sun
drives away the mists. And that you may not be put out, know that your
time for believing always is. There are times when some graces may be
out of use, but there is no time wherein faith can be said to be so.
Wherefore faith must be always in exercise. Faith is the eye, is the
mouth, is the hand, and one of these is of use all the day long. Faith
is to see, to receive, to work, or to eat; and a Christian should be
seeing or receiving, or working, or feeding all day long. Let it rain,
let it blow, let it thunder, let it lighten, a Christian must still
believe. “At what time,” said the good man, “I am afraid, I will trust
in thee.”—_John Bunyan._
_Verse 3.—“What time I am afraid,”_ etc. A divine spark may live in a
smoke of doubts without a speedy rising into a flame. When grace is at
the bottom of doubting, there will be reliance on Christ and lively
petitions to him. Peter’s faith staggers when he began to sink, but he
casts a look and sends forth a cry to his Saviour, acknowledging his
sufficiency; Matt. xiv. 30, “Lord, save me.” Sometimes those doubtings
strengthen our trust and make us take hold faster on God. Ps. lvi. 3,
“What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” This was a fear of
himself or others, rather than a jealousy of God. Had he had unworthy
suspicions of him, he would not have trusted him; he would not have run
for remedy to the object of his fear. The waverings where faith is, are
like the tossings of a ship fast at anchor (still there is a relying
upon God), not like a boat carried by the waves of the sea to be dashed
against a rock. If the heart stay on Christ in the midst of those
doubtings, it is not an evil heart of unbelief. Such doubtings consist
with the indwelling of the Spirit, who is in the heart, to perform the
office of a Comforter against such fears and to expel those thick fumes
of nature.—_Stephen Charnock._
_Verse 3.—“What time I am afraid,”_ etc. I know not what to do, but I’ll
try my old way, ’tis good for me to draw near still; I’ll do so still as
I use to do; I’ll cast myself down upon the free grace of Christ in the
promises; I’ll lay the weight of my sinking spirit there, I’ll renew my
hold, life, expectation there; this is my old path, I’ll never be turned
or beaten out here. This Christian in his strength may challenge all the
gates of hell. This was David’s course (Ps. lxxi. 5), “Thou art my trust
from my youth,” etc. Thence was it that he could say, “_What time I am
afraid, I will trust in thee_:” his shield and sword was always in his
hand, therefore he could make use of it when fear and inward trouble
offered themselves. “_Afraid!_” alas, who is not? but what course will
you take then? Even what course you used to take, _i.e._, believe; use
faith always; and have it now.—_Elias Pledger(—1676), in “Morning
Exercises.”_
_Verse 3.—“What time,”_ etc. Literally, “_What day._” As “Man _daily_
oppresseth me” (ver. 1), so “Every _day_, when I am afraid, I trust in
thee.”—_A. R. Fausset._
_Verse 3._—It is a good maxim with which to go into a world of danger; a
good maxim to go to sea with; a good maxim in a storm; a good maxim when
in danger on the land; a good maxim when we are sick; a good maxim when
we think of death and the judgment—_“What time I am afraid_, I WILL
TRUST IN THEE.”—_Albert Barnes._
_Verse 3.—“I will trust in thee.”_ Faith and fear stand together; and so
fear and love.—_John Richardson, 1654._
_Verses 3, 4._—Sometimes faith comes from prayer in triumph, and cries,
_Victoria_. It gives such a being and existence to the mercy prayed for
in the Christian’s soul, before any likelihood of it appears to sense
and reason, that the Christian can silence all his troubled thoughts
with the expectation of its coming. So Hannah prayed, “and was no more
sad.” 1 Samuel i. 18. Yea, it will make the Christian disburse his
praises for the mercy long before it is received. Thus high faith
wrought in David. “_At what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee_,”
and in the next words, “_In God I will praise his word_;” that is, he
would praise God for his promise before there was any performance of it
to him, when it had no existence but in God’s faithfulness and David’s
faith. This holy man had such a piercing eye of faith, that he could see
the promise when he was at the lowest ebb of misery, so certain and
unquestionable in the power and truth of God, that he could then praise
God as if the promised mercy had been actually fulfilled to
him.—_William Gurnall._
_Verse 4.—“In God I will praise his word.”_ Or, praise him for his word;
for the whole Scripture that was then in being.—_John Gill._
_Verse 4._—The best hold that faith can have of God, is to take him by
“_his word_,” however his dispensation seems to be; this will give
satisfaction at length; for “_In God I will praise his word_,” is as
much as to say, albeit he withhold comfort and deliverance from me, so
that I cannot find what I would, yet let me have “_his word_,” and I
will give him the glory of all his attributes.—_David Dickson._
_Verse 4.—“I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.”_ Fear not man, he
is but flesh. Thou needest not, thou oughtest not to fear. Thou needest
not. What, not such a great man; not such a number of men, who have the
keys of all the prisons at their girdle; who can kill or save alive? No,
not these; only look they be thy enemies for righteousness’ sake. Take
heed thou makest not the least child thine enemy, by offering wrong to
him; God will right the wicked even upon the saint. If he offends he
shall find no shelter under God’s wing for his sin. This made Jerome
complain that the Christians’ sin made the arms of those barbarous
nations which invaded Christendom victorious: _Nostris peccatis fortes
sunt barbari._ But if man’s wrath find thee in God’s way, and his fury
take fire at thy holiness, thou needest not fear though thy life be the
prey he hunts for. Flesh can only wound flesh; he may kill thee, but not
hurt thee. Why shouldest thou fear to be stripped of that which thou
hast resigned already to Christ? It is the first lesson thou learnest,
if a Christian, to deny thyself, take up thy cross, and follow thy
master; so that the enemy comes too late; thou hast no life to lose,
because thou hast given it already to Christ; nor can man take away that
without God’s leave; all thou hast is insured; and though God hath not
promised thee immunity from suffering in this kind, yet he hath
undertaken to bear the loss, yea, to pay thee a hundredfold, and thou
shalt not stay for it till another world. Again, thou oughtest not to
fear flesh. Our Saviour (Matt. x.) thrice, in the compass of six verses,
commands us not to fear man: if thy heart quail at him, how wilt thou
behave thyself in the list against Satan, whose little finger is heavier
than man’s loins? The Romans had _arma prælusoria_, weapons rebated, or
cudgels, which they were tried at before they came to the sharp. If thou
canst not bear a bruise in thy flesh from man’s cudgels and blunt
weapons, what wilt thou do when thou shalt have Satan’s sword in thy
side? God counts himself reproached when his children fear a sorry man;
therefore we are bid sanctify the Lord, not to fear their fear.—_William
Gurnall._
_Verse 4.—“I will not fear,”_ etc. Eusebius tells us of a notable speech
that Ignatius used when he was in his enemies’ hands, not long before he
was to suffer, which argued a raised spirit to a wonderful height above
the world, and above himself. “I care,” says he, “for nothing visible or
invisible, that I might get Christ. Let fire, the cross, the letting out
of beasts upon me, breaking of my bones, the tearing of my members, the
grinding of my whole body, and the torments of the devils come upon me,
so be it I may get Christ.”—_From Jeremiah Burroughs’ “Moses his
Self-denyall,” 1649._
_Verse 4.—“What flesh can do,”_ etc. It is according to the phrase of
Scripture, when it would speak contemptibly of man and show him to be
the lowest creature, to call him “flesh,” to set forth the weakness that
man is subject to.—_John Arrowsmith, 1600-1660._
_Verse 4 (last clause)._—_Fear of man_—grim idol, bloody mouthed; many
souls has he devoured and trampled down into hell! His eyes are full of
hatred to Christ’s disciples. Scoffs and jeers lurk in his eye. The
laugh of the scorner growls in his throat. Cast down this idol. This
keeps some of you from secret prayer, from worshipping God in your
family, from going to lay your case before ministers, from openly
confessing Christ. You that have felt God’s love and Spirit, dash this
idol to pieces. “Who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man
that shall die?” “Fear not, thou worm Jacob.” “What have I to do any
more with idols?”—_Robert Murray M’Cheyne, 1813-1843._
_Verse 4._—Faith groweth valiant in fight; albeit it began like a
coward, and staggered in the first conflict, yet it groweth stout,
incontinent, and pulls its adversaries under foot: “_In God I have put
my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me._”—_David Dickson._
_Verse 5.—“Every day they wrest my words;”_ or, they put my words to
pain and grief, or, they painfully and grievously wrest my words.
David’s enemies took up what he spake, and put a new shape upon it; and
this they did so vexingly, that they are said to “_wrest_” his words: a
thing is vexed when it is wrested or wrought quite out of the form it
before had. The same metaphor the apostle Peter useth in reference to
doctrine, speaking of the Epistles of Paul, in which “are some things
hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable
_wrest_,” or put upon the rack; they painfully form his words, and
represent them in a meaning which he never intended. 2 Pet. iii. 16.
What is spoken may be right both in the matter and intendment of the
speaker, yet another wrests, forms and fashions it in his own mould, and
makes it bear a sense which the speaker never dreamed of.—_Joseph
Caryl._
_Verse 5.—“Every day they wrest my words,”_ etc. Mr. Jewel, the Bishop
of Salisbury, who, according to his life, died most godly and patiently,
at the point of death used the versicle of the Hymn, “Te Deum,” “O Lord,
in thee have I trusted, let me never be confounded,” whereupon,
suppressing the rest, they published, that the principal champion of the
heretics, in his very last words, cried he was confounded.—_Lord Bacon’s
“Bible Thoughts.”_
_Verse 5.—“They wrest my words.”_ Whatever Christ said in justification
of himself was twisted to a meaning injurious to him. So it is still in
the world, self-justification by words answers but little purpose with
ungodly men.—_W. Wilson, D.D., 1860._
_Verse 6.—“They mark my steps.”_ Go whither I will, they are at my
heels.—_William Nicholson (1671), in “David’s Harp Strung and Tuned.”_
_Verse 8.—“Put thou my tears in thy bottle.”_ Among other things in the
collection of Mr. Abbott, of Cairo, he had a lachrymatory, or tear
bottle, which had been found in a tomb at Thebes. This interested me
very much. The custom in old times was, when a person was ill, or in
great distress, for his friends to go to see him, and take with them a
tear bottle. Then, as the tears rolled down the cheeks of the sufferer,
they were caught in these bottles, sealed up, and preserved as a
memorial of the event. This is what David referred to in Psalm lvi. 8.
“_Put thou my tears into thy bottle._” But it implies much more than at
first suggests itself, and much more than I can attempt to write. For
instance, it is as if David had said, “Visit me, and behold my tears;”
(“O visit me with thy salvation!”) for without such _visit_ there could
be no bottling of his tears. “Thou tellest my wanderings; O visit me,
and behold my anguish; put my tears into thy bottle,” for “they have
been my meat day and night.” Psalm xliii. 3. “Keep them before thee, by
way of remembrance, and when thou seest the bottle, O think of him whose
tears it contains. Are they not in thy book?” That is, God’s book of
remembrance, that was written for those “who thought upon his name”
(Mal. iii. 16), just as the kings of old used to keep a book of
chronicles of important events. See Esther vi. 1-11.—_John Gadsby,
1860._
[We insert this to show what has been said by others; but we do not
think there is the slightest allusion to this piece of _Roman_ etiquette
in this text.—_C. H. S._]
_Verse 8.—“My tear:”_ the singular used collectively. “_In thy bottle_:”
as if one should say, take care of my tears, as of a kind of wine that
is very costly, and very pleasant to thee; or, that hereafter you may
measure out to me just that quantity of joys: a metaphor from the keeper
of a vineyard, who receives into his vessel the drops of the grapes
pressed out by the wine-press of affliction. The word ותּר (_uter_[28])
denotes the manner in which they preserved their wine. (1 Samuel xvi.
20; Joshua ix. 4, 13), and milk also (Judges iv. 19).—_Martin Geier._
_Verse 8.—“Put thou my tears into thy bottle.”_ What a sweet thought is
suggested here of God’s remembrance of his peoples’ affliction! It is an
interesting figure of speech, of _bottling their tears_. But the sense
is, they are remembered. And woe will be to the man that offends one of
God’s little ones on his account. What are now bottles of tears, will be
poured out in the end as so many vials of wrath. But reader! think how
the tears of Jesus have been treasured up when shedding for the sins of
his people.—_Robert Hawker, 1753-1827._
_Verse 8.—“Put thou my tears into thy bottle.”_ It is the witty
observation of one, that God is said in Scripture to have a bag and a
bottle, a _bag_ for our sins, and a _bottle_ for our tears; and that we
should help to fill this, as we have that. There is an allusion here in
the original that cannot be Englished.—_John Trapp._
_Verse 8.—“Are they not in thy book?”_ While we remain in this vale of
misery, God keeps all our tears in a bottle; so precious is the water
that is distilled from penitent eyes: and because he will be sure not to
fail, he notes how many drops there be in his register. It was a
precious ointment wherewith the woman in the Pharisee’s house (it is
thought Mary Magdalene) anointed the feet of Christ; but her _tears_,
wherewith she washed them, were more worth than her spikenard.—_Abraham
Wright, in “A Practical Commentary or Exposition upon the Book of
Psalms,” 1661._
_Verse 9.—“When I cry.”_ The cry of faith and prayer to God is more
dreadful to our spiritual foes than the war-whoop of the Indian is to
his surprised brother savages.—_Adam Clarke._
_Verse 9 (first clause)._—It was somewhat that when David prayed he was
saved from his enemies. “I will call on the Lord: so shall I be saved
from mine enemies.” (2 Sam. xxii. 4); there is the _defensive_ power of
prayer; but it is more that it puts enemies to the foil. “_When I cry
unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back_” and be put to flight:
there is the _offensive_ power of prayer. In David’s tower there was an
armoury, _thalpijoth_, a place to hang swords with two edges, swords
with two mouths (Cant. iv. 4); a defensive and an offensive edge. Both
edges must be used by such as seek safety. Prayer is a sword with two
edges. “Put up thy sword into his place,” says Christ to Peter; “for all
they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” Matt. xxii. 52.
But he that takes not this sword may happen to perish by the sword; and
the drawing of this sword may save a man from perishing by the sword.
Mark that last reason that our Saviour adds why Peter should put up his
sword: “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall
presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?” (ver. 53.) As if
he had said, If it were my mind to confound these mine enemies that now
set upon me, I should not need thy sword to do it. I could pray to my
Father, and could presently by prayer bring such forces into the field
as should rout and scatter all mine enemies; hereby implying, that if he
would, he could do his enemies more damage and mischief by his prayers
against them than by the sword and all instruments of war. Prayer is
_twelve legions_ strong, yea, twelve legions of angels strong against
enemies.—_Jeremiah Dyke (1620), in the Righteous Man’s Tower._
_Verse 9.—“This I know.”_ Faith goeth upon solid grounds, and is not a
fallible conjecture, but a sure knowledge.—_David Dickson._
_Verse 10.—“In God will I praise his word: in the Lord will I praise his
word.”_—The first word, _Elohim_, is a name belonging to God as a judge,
the second word, _Jehovah_, is a name of mercy. I will praise God
whether he deal with me in a way of justice or in a way of mercy, when
he hath thunder in his voice, as well as when he hath honey under his
tongue. Oh, how should we praise God, and pleasure ourselves by such a
frame!—_Stephen Charnock._
_Verse 10 (first clause)._—By the assistance of God I shall be enabled
to praise him for the performance of his promises.—_Symon Patrick,
1626-1707._
_Verse 12.—“Thy vows are upon me, O God.”_ Whoever is conversant with
the Psalms of David, will find him frequently making _vows_, and careful
in paying them. When these words dropt from him he was just delivered
out of a pressing danger among the Philistines, with whom he took
shelter from the rage of King Saul, who unweariedly pursued him; but he
soon found that the remembrance of his past achievements to their damage
was still so fresh amongst them, and they so exasperated thereupon, that
his life was in constant danger. In his distress he flies to God, his
wonted refuge, and sends up earnest addresses to him, _vowing_ if he
would open a way for his deliverance out of these new straits, he would
show his grateful sense of so signal a mercy, by the exactness and
accuracy of his future obedience. God hears and succours him; and he
thereupon gratefully looks back, endeavours to renew the sense of his
former obligation to his great Deliverer, and to stir up himself by
suitable returns, and so cries out, “_Thy vows are upon me, O God_;” as
if he should say, I resolve, O Lord, not to forget what was transacted
while I was under my fears. Thou hast heard my cries, and I own myself
firmly bound by my _vows_. I was serious and in earnest when I made
them, and I will endeavour to show that I was so by my care to perform
them. “_Thy vows_,” O God, made indeed on my part, but justly to be
exacted on thine, “_are upon me_,” they do in reality hold me fast, and
I desire not to be released. I am sensible I deserve to be stigmatised
for a perfidious wretch if I ever forget them. This temper of holy David
with reference to the _vows_ he made on this occasion, should be ours
with reference to all the sacred _vows_ we any way come under. All
Christians, as such, are necessarily under _vows_ to the blessed God;
and particular circumstances may make it expedient for us to come under
special engagements to him. But wherever they are such as that they may
justly be denominated _vows of God_, _i.e._, are such as his word will
warrant; we should make holy David, as speaking in this text, our
pattern, and set ourselves to imitate him, in seriously owning their
binding force, and endeavouring to answer and pay them.—_Edmund Calamy,
in “A Practical Discourse Concerning Vows,” 1704._
_Verse 12.—“Thy vows are upon me, O God.”_ A well-composed _vow_ will
make thee more circumspect and wary in the general course of thy life.
Such an influence it hath, as doth more directly work on one particular
part, yet is not terminated to that particular only. Thus it was with
David. These “_vows_” were made when he was in danger of his life, as it
seemeth from verse 13: for when God heard him, he delivered his soul
from death: for this he vowed praises in particular, and he will render
them. But, withal, he takes himself to be hereby engaged to a more exact
and circumspect walk before God in all duties; so he expresseth himself
in the latter part of verse 13.—_Henry Hurst (1629-1696), in “The
Morning Exercise at Cripplegate,” 1661._