in the days of his flesh assaulted by the tyranny both of spiritual and
temporal enemies. His temporal enemies, Herod and Pontius Pilate, with
the Gentiles and people of Israel, furiously raged and took counsel
together against him. The chief priests and princes were, saith Hierome,
like _lions_, and the people like the _whelps of lions_, all of them in
a readiness to devour his soul. The rulers _laid a net for his feet_ in
their captious interrogatories, asking (Matt. xxii. 17), “Is it lawful
to give tribute unto Cæsar, or not?” and (John viii. 5) whether the
woman taken in the very act of adultery should be stoned to death or no.
The people were “_set on fire_,” when as they raged against him, and
_their teeth and tongues were spears and swords_, in crying, “Crucify
him, crucify him.” His spiritual enemies also sought _to swallow him
up_; his _soul_ was _among lions_ all the days of his life, at the hour
of his death especially. The devil in tempting and troubling him, had
_laid a snare for his feet_; and death, in _digging a pit_ for him, had
thought _to devour_ him. As David was in the _cave_, so Christ the Son
of David was in the _grave_.—_John Boys, 1571-1625._
_Verse 1.—“Be merciful unto me, O God,”_ etc. This excellent Psalm was
composed by David when there was enough to discompose the best man in
the world. The repetition notes both the extremity of the danger, and
the ardency of the supplicant. _Mercy! Mercy! Nothing but mercy_, and
that exerting itself in an extraordinary way, can now save him from
ruin. The arguments he pleads for obtaining mercy in this distress are
very considerable. 1. He pleads his reliance upon God as an argument to
move mercy. “_My soul trusteth in thee_,” etc. This his trust and
dependence upon God, though it be not argumentative in respect of the
dignity of the _act_; yet it is so in respect both of the nature of the
_object_, a compassionate God, who will not expose any that take shelter
under his wings, and in respect of the _promise_, whereby protection is
assured to them that fly to him for sanctuary. Isa. xxvi. 3. 2. He
pleads former experiences of his help in past distresses, as an argument
encouraging hope under the present strait (ver. 2).—_John Flavel._
_Verse 1.—“Be merciful unto me.”_ According to the weight of the burden
that grieveth us, is the cry that comes from us. How do poor condemned
prisoners cry to their judges, “Have pity upon us, have pity upon us!”
David, in the day of his calamities doubles his prayer for mercy: “_Be
merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in
thee_,” etc. “_Until these calamities be overpast._” It was not a single
calamity, but a multitude of calamities which compassed David, and
therefore he compasseth the Lord about with petitions. His spirit being
up in prayer, like a bell that rings out, he strikes on both sides, “_Be
merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me._”—_Joseph Caryl._
_Verse 1.—“Be merciful unto me.”_ The first clause contains the prayer
itself in a very forcible word חָנֵּנִי, properly, “Show thy most tender
affection to me,” such as animals, with a humming sound, show to their
young.—_Hermann Venema._
_Verse 1.—“For my soul trusteth in thee.”_ The best reason with God, who
“taketh pleasure in those that hope in his mercy.” Ps. cxlvii.
11.—_Pool’s Synopsis._
_Verse 1.—“Soul.”_ His _soul_ trusted in God; and this is a form of
expression the force of which is not to be overlooked; for it implies
that the trust which he exercised proceeded from his very innermost
affections—that it was of no volatile character, but deeply and strongly
rooted. He declares the same truth in figurative terms, when he adds his
persuasion that God would cover him with the shadow of his wings.—_John
Calvin._
_Verse 1.—“In the shadow of thy wings I will trust;”_ properly, I will
seek for protection. The very delightful figure here employed, is taken
from the chicken lying safely hid under the mother’s wings: at the same
time it seems to have reference to the wings of the cherubim, by which
the mercy-seat was covered.—_Simon de Muis, 1587-1644._
_Verse 1.—“The shadow of thy wings.”_ Compare Psalm xvii. 8; lxi. 4; and
Matthew xxiii. 37; and the Apocalyptic imagery, describing the church
fleeing from the dragon in the wilderness; and “to her are given the two
wings of the great eagle,” and she is delivered from the dragon, who
desires to swallow her up. See Rev. xii. 6, 15, 16.—_Christopher
Wordsworth, 1868._
_Verse 1.—“Until these calamities be overpast.”_ He compareth his
affliction and calamity to a storm that cometh and goeth: as it is not
always fair weather with us in this life, so not always foul. Athanasius
said of Julian furiously raging against the Lord’s Anointed, “_Nubecula
est, cito transibit_,” he is a little cloud; he will soon pass away. Man
is born to labour and dolor, to travail and trouble; to labour in his
actions, to dolor in his passions; and so, “Great are the troubles of
the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of all.” If we put our
trust in him and cast all our care upon him, he will in his good time
bring it to pass, that all our afflictions shall overpass. He will
either take them from us or us from them, and then we shall assuredly
know that the troubles of this life present are not worthy of the glory
which in the life to come shall be showed unto us. For as the globe of
the earth, which improperly for his show of bigness we term the world,
and is, after the mathematician’s account, many thousand miles in
compass; yet, being compared unto the greatness of the starry sky’s
circumference, is but a centre or little prick: so the travail and
affliction in this life temporal, in respect of the joys eternal in the
world to come, bear not any proportion, but are to be reputed in
comparison a very nothing, as a dark cloud that cometh and goeth in a
moment.—_John Boys._
_Verses 1, 2, 3.—“In the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge,
until these calamities be overpast,”_ etc. As if he said, Lord, I am
already in the cave and in the hold, and in the shadow of it, but yet
for all that I think not myself safe indeed, till I have made my refuge
in the shadow of thy wings: that is therefore the course I resolve and
build upon. It was wisely done of him: and mark what course he takes to
do it, verse 2, “I will cry unto God most high,” I will by prayer put
myself under the shadow of God’s wings; and mark what success should
follow, verse 3, “He shall send from heaven, and save me from the
reproach of him that would swallow me up. God shall send forth his mercy
and his truth.” When we send prayers up to heaven, God will send help
down from heaven. But yet David _prays_ to God, as well as _trusts_ in
God. And unless we pray as well as trust, our trust will fail us, for we
must trust to God for that we pray for.—_Jeremiah Dyke, 1620._
_Verse 2.—“Unto God that performeth all things for me.”_ God’s favours
already received are a pledge that he will complete his work of love
“_upon_ (עַל) _me_.” The beginning is the earnest of the completion. His
_word_ is a guarantee for the _performance_ of “all things” that I need.
(Compare verse 3; Psalm lvi. 4; 1 Samuel ii. 9; iii. 12; xxiii. 17;
xxiv. 21; Psalm cxxviii. 8; Job x. 3, 8; xiv. 15; Philippians i. 6;
Isaiah xxvi. 12).—_A. R. Fausset._
_Verse 2.—“God that performeth all things for me.”_ Heb. _that
performeth_ (or _perfecteth_, or _finisheth_, as this word is rendered,
Psalm cxxxviii. 8, _i.e._, will certainly perform or finish), _for_, or
_towards_, or _concerning me_. He doth not express what he performeth,
or perfecteth, or fulfilleth, but leaveth it to be understood, as being
easy to be understood. “_He performeth_” or _perfecteth_, to wit, all
that he hath promised; engaged himself to perform what he hath begun to
do, or what is yet to be performed; it being usual in the Hebrew
language to understand a verbal noun after the verb. He implies that God
is not like men, who make large promises, but either through inability,
or carelessness, or unfaithfulness, do not perform them, but will
certainly be as good as his word.—_Matthew Pool, 1624-1679._
_Verse 2 (last clause)._—The word which we translate “_performeth_”
comes from a root that signifies both to _perfect_ and to _desist_ or
_cease_. For when a business is performed and perfected, the agent then
ceases and desists from working: he puts to the last hand when he
finishes the work. To such a happy issue the Lord hath brought all his
doubtful and difficult matters before; and this gives him encouragement
that he will still be gracious, and perfect that which concerneth him
now, as he speaks, Psalm cxxxviii. 8, “The Lord will perfect that which
concerneth me.” The Septuagint renders it by τὸν εὐεργετήσοντά με, who
_profiteth_ or _benefiteth_ me. And it is a certain truth, that all the
results and issues of providence are profitable and beneficial to the
saints. But the supplement in our translation well conveys the
importance of the place: “who performeth _all things_;” and it involves
the most strict and proper notion of providence, which is nothing else
but the performance of God’s gracious purposes and promises to his
people. And therefore Vatablus and Muis supply and fill up the room
which the conciseness of the original leaves, with _quæ promisit_: “I
will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth _the things which
he hath promised_.” Payment is the performance of promises. Grace makes
the promise, and providence the payment. Piscator fills it with
_benignitatem et misericordiam suam_; “unto God that performeth _his
kindness and mercy_.” But still it supposes the mercy performed to be
contained in the promise, and much more so in the providential
performance of it to us.—_John Flavel._
_Verse 2 (last clause)._—David even then when he fled from Saul in the
cave he looks upon God as having _performed all things for him_. The
word is, he hath _perfected all things_; and it is observable that David
uses the same expression of praising God here when he was in the cave,
hiding himself to save his life as he did when he triumphed over his
enemies.—Ps. vi. and Ps. cviii.—_Jeremiah Burroughs, 1599-1646._
_Verse 2 (last clause)._—The Targum curiously paraphrases this clause:
“Who ordered the spider that wrought the web, on my account, at the
mouth of the cave;” applying a later historical fact, which, however,
may have had its prototype in David’s history.—_Andrew A. Bonar, in
“Christ and his Church in the Book of Psalms,” 1859._
_Verse 3.—“Him that would swallow me up.”_ If I were to take you to my
house, and say that I had an exquisitely fat man, and wished you to join
me in eating him, your indignation could be restrained by nothing. You
would pronounce me to be crazy. There is not in New York a man so mean
that he would not put down a man who should propose to have a banquet
off from a fellow man, cutting steaks out of him, and eating them. And
that is nothing but feasting on the human body, while they all will sit
down, and take a man’s soul, and look for the tender loins, and invite
their neighbours in to partake of the little titbits. They will take a
man’s honour and name, and broil them over the coals of their
indignation, and fill the whole room with the aroma thereof, and give
their neighbour a piece, and watch him, and wink as he tastes it. You
all eat men up.... You eat the souls, the finest elements of men. You
are more than glad if you can whisper a word that is derogatory to a
neighbour, or his wife, or his daughter.... The morsel is too exquisite
to be lost. Here is the soul of a person, here is a person’s hope for
this world and the world to come, and you have it on your fork, and you
cannot refrain from tasting it, and give it to some one else to taste.
You are cannibals, eating men’s honour and name and rejoicing in it—and
that, too, when you do not always know that the things charged against
them are true; when in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the
probabilities are that they are not true.—_Henry Ward Beecher, 1870._
_Verse 3.—“God shall send forth his mercy and his truth,”_ viz., to save
me. That is to say, God, to manifest his mercy, and vindicate the truth
of his promises, will save me. The reader will observe, that mercy and
truth are here poetically represented as ministers of God, standing in
his presence, ready to execute his pleasure, and employed by him in the
salvation of his people.—_Samuel Chandler._
_Verse 3.—“His mercy and his truth.”_ He need not send down angels, he
need send but “_mercy and truth_” down, which elsewhere it is said he
prepares in the heavens. Ps. lxi. 7. He prepares commissions for them,
and sends them down with them for execution.—_Thomas Goodwin._
_Verse 4.—“My soul is among lions.”_ This may also be construed of the
church and that both in respect of her spiritual enemies and temporal.
As for her ghostly foes, the devil is a _roaring lion_ (1 Pet. v. 8),
and our sins are the _whelps of lions_, ready to devour us. And
concerning outward enemies, the church in this world is like Daniel in
the lion’s den, or as “the sucking child playing upon the hole of the
asp.” Isa. xi. 8. She hath here no visible power or outward help to fly
to for succour, all her trust is in the Lord, and “under the shadow of
his wings is her refuge, till this evil is overpast.” ... And surely,
beloved, if the church had not any other enemies, but only these
monstrous Antichrists of Rome, yet she might truly complain with our
prophet here, “_My soul is among lions._” Eleven popes had that name,
whereof all, excepting two or three, were roaring lions in their Bulls,
and ravening lions in seeking after their prey. _Leo_ the tenth so
pilled[29] and polled[30] the goodly nations of Germany with his
impardonable pardons and merciless indulgences, as that his
insupportable cruelty gave the first occasion of the Reformation of
religion in that country.—_John Boys._
_Verse 4 (first clause)._—“Mudge translates literally, ‘I lie with my
soul amidst lionesses.’” This agrees with the opinion of Bochart, who
thinks that the animals here intended are lionesses, properly, when
giving suck to their young, a time when they are peculiarly fierce and
dangerous, “nor need we wonder,” he observes, “that the lioness is
reckoned among the fiercest lions; for the lioness equals, or even
exceeds, the lion in strength and fierceness;” and this he proves from
the testimonies of ancient writers.—_James Anderson’s Note to Calvin in
loc., 1846._
_Verse 4.—“And I lie even among them that are set on fire.”_ The whole
pith lies in the word אֶשְׁכְּבָה _I will recline_, which denotes a
tranquil and secure condition of body and mind, like a man _reclining_
and sleeping, as Ps. iii. 5: “_I laid me down and slept, I awaked_;” and
lived composedly; Ps. iv. 9; “_I will both lay me down in peace_”
etc.—_Hermann Venema._
_Verse 4._—The horrors of a lion’s den, the burning of a fiery furnace,
and the cruel onset of war, are the striking images by which David here
describes the peril and wretchedness of his present condition.—_John
Morison._
_Verse 6.—“Net.”_ Not having fire-arms, the ancients were much more
skilful than the moderns in the use of snares, nets, and pits for
capturing wild animals. A large class of Biblical figures and allusions
necessarily presupposes this state of things.—_W. M. Thomson._
_Verse 7.—“My heart is fixed, O God”_ etc. The Psalmist, knowing that it
is the order and work of God, first to prepare the heart for communion,
and then to incline his own ear to hear his people, and to entertain
communion with them in ordinances, he doth observe this order, and
follow it with a practise suitable to it in his daily addresses to God,
that is thus, wheresoever he doth find his heart put into a fitted and
prepared frame for communion with God, he doth not let it die again, and
go out of frame by a slothful neglect of such a disposition of heart.
No, but he immediately sets himself to duty, to worship God, and to the
acts of his worship, in his ordinances, as he expresseth himself in Ps.
lvii. 7; viz., thus—נָכוֹן לִבִּי אֱלֹהִים נָכוֹן לִבִּי, _Nachon libbi
Elohim, nachon libbi_ (there is the first; he finds his heart fitted and
prepared for communion with God): “My heart,” saith he, “is fitted or
prepared” (for the word נָכוֹן, _nachon_ is the passive conjugation
_niphal_, signifying, he is fitted or prepared, from the root, כּוּן
_chun_, he fitted or prepared, in the active; and so it is rather to be
rendered prepared or fitted, then “fixed,” thus: לִבִּי, _libbi_, my
heart; נָכוֹן, _nachon_, is fitted or prepared), “O God, my heart is
fitted or prepared” for communion with thee. Well, what follows? He
presently sets himself upon that great duty and ordinance of communion
with God, in the praising of his name and singing forth those praises,
as in the words immediately following in the same verse, thus: “My heart
is prepared, O God, my heart is prepared:” therefore, וַאֲזַמֵּרָה,
_ashidah va-azamerah_, “_I will sing and give praise_.”—_William Strong,
in “Communion with God,” 1656._
_Verse 7.—“My heart is fixed, O God,”_ etc. Fitness for duty lies in the
orderly temper of body and mind, making a man willing to undertake, and
able to finish his work with comfortable satisfaction. If either the
body or mind be distempered, a man is unfit for such an undertaking;
both must be in a suitable frame, like a well-tuned instrument, else
there will be no melody: hence when David prepared himself for praises
and worship, he tells us _his heart was ready and fixed_, and then, his
_tongue_ was ready also (Psalm xlv. 1.), so was his hand with Psaltery
and harp; all these were awakened into a suitable posture. That a man is
or hath been in a fit order for service may be concluded from (1.) His
alacrity to undertake a duty. (2.) His activity in the prosecution. (3.)
His satisfaction afterward. Right grounds and principles in these things
being still pre-supposed.—_Richard Gilpin, (1625-1699, 1700) in
“Dæmonologia Sacra.”_
_Verse 7.—“I will sing.”_ It should alarm the wicked that they are
contending with a people who sing and shout on the battle-field. Yea,
they never sing louder than when most distressed and afflicted. Whether
saints conquer or are conquered they still sing on. Blessed be God for
that. Let sinners tremble at contending with men of a spirit so
heavenly.—_William S. Plumer._
_Verse 7._—Sincerity makes the Christian sing, when he hath nothing to
his supper, David was in none of the best case when in the cave, yet we
never find him merrier: his heart makes sweeter music than ever his harp
did.—_William Gurnall._
_Verses 7, 8._—That worship that is performed with a sleepy, drowsy
body, is a weak worship, but the Psalmist here makes the awaking of the
body to be the fruit and effect of the preparation of the heart; “_Awake
up, my glory; awake, Psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early._” Why
so? My heart is prepared. The heart prepared and thereby awakened, will
awake the body. To worship God therefore without a prepared heart, is to
worship him with a drowsy body, because with a drowsy heart, and
therefore weakly.—_John Angier, in “An Help to better Hearts, for better
Times,” 1647._
_Verse 8.—“Awake up, my glory; awake, Psaltery and harp: I myself will
awake early.”_ We must prevent God by early praise as well as prayer;
“The God of my mercy shall prevent me,” sings David; and every child of
David must prevent God again with his songs. Jehoshaphat delighted God
with instruments of music before his deliverance. Faith must tune an
επινίκιον, a psalm of victory before the triumph. Praise is the
ingenious mother of future mercies; as the Virgin Mary sang at Hebron
before the birth of her son at Bethlehem. Oh, heavenly contention
between mercy and duty!—_Samuel Lee, 1625-1691._
_Verse 8.—“Awake up, my glory,”_ etc. We must sing _with excited grace_.
Not only with grace habitual, but with excited and actual: the musical
instrument delights not but when it is played upon. In this duty we must
follow Paul’s advice to Timothy (2 Tim. i. 6), ἀναζωπυρεῖν, stir up the
grace that is in us, and cry out as David, “_Awake love, awake
delight._” Ps. lvii. 8. The clock must be wound up before it can guide
our time; the bird pleaseth not in her nest, but in her notes; the
chimes only make music while they are going. Let us therefore beg the
Spirit to blow upon our garden, that the spices thereof may flow out,
when we set upon this joyous service. God loves active grace in duty,
that the soul should be ready trimmed when it presents itself to Christ
in any worship.—_John Wells, in “Morning Exercises,” 1674._
_Verse 8.—“I will awake early,”_ Literally, “I will awake the dawn,” a
bold figure of poetry, as if the writer had said—The morning shall not
awake me to praise; but in my songs I will anticipate the dawn.—_R. T.
Society’s Notes._
_Verse 8._—It will answer our purpose to take notice, first, of the
_terms_ David uses, and then, secondly, press the _exhortation_. Of the
terms he uses: 1. My _glory_. That is my _soul_ (say some) because the
spirit of a man is the glory of a man, whereby he is dignified and
raised so much above the _brutes_, as to be but a “little lower than the
angels,” nay, to be akin to God himself, “the Father of spirits.” My
_musical skill_, say others, the glory of the artist above the
unskilful; and that wherein David had the glory of excelling, as Jubal
had of the first invention. My _tongue_, say others; for this is also
the glory of a man above dumb creatures, and the glory of a wise man
above a fool. And as the tongue is the glory of a man, so the glory of
the tongue is to glorify God. Praise is the glory of all other uses to
which the tongue is employed; and the tongue is, in the body, that
“temple of the Holy Ghost,” what the silver trumpet was in the temple of
Solomon; to sound the high praises of God, and express the raised
affections of our souls.
2. “_Awake Psaltery and harp._” The one for a Psalm, the other for a
spiritual song or hymn; that is to say, all my musical instruments and
skill I will employ in, and consecrate to the glory of him who “puts new
songs into my mouth.” He first teaches my fingers to fight, and then to
play the _epinikion_, or song of triumph. Sound, then, my Psaltery and
harp, emulous of those that are around the throne above; your melody can
soften my cares, lay my fears, and turn my _cave_ into a _choir_. As to
these instruments in the worship of God, they were doubtless allowed to
David, and to the church in his time. They were agreeable to the state
of that church and people, who were led very much by their senses; and
whose infant and less discerning condition made it needful for the
natural man to have something to fasten upon and be entertained with in
the worship of God, and to sweeten and take off from the labour and
burden of that service. But as the gospel worship and appointments are a
more spiritual, pleasant, and reasonable service, and need them less, so
in the gospel institution we find no footsteps of them; and we know who
first brought them into the church, as well as who first brought them
into the world. It is not my business here to dispute this matter; and
he must at any time do it but indifferently, whose inclination is
against him all the while, and whose genius tempts him to wish himself
solidly confuted in all he can advance. But since I find these
instruments in my text, and since the sound of such texts as these is
made use of to turn the public worship so frequently into concerts of
music, I shall leave them with this remark: that to let them alone,
especially in public worship, though one thought them tolerable, has a
much better grace with it than to declare them “sorely displeasing to
God, and that they filthily defile his holy house and place of prayer.”