COMMENTARY
ON
THE
BOOK OF PSALMS
BY JOHN
CALVIN
TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL LATIN,
AND COLLATED
WITH THE AUTHOR'S FRENCH
VERSION,
BY THE REV. JAMES
ANDERSON
VOLUME
THIRD
The following psalm contains a prayer for a blessing
upon the Church, that besides being preserved in a state of safety in Judea, it
might be enlarged to a new and unprecedented extent. It touches shortly upon the
kingdom of God, which was to be erected in the world upon the coming of
Christ. fc1
To the chief
musician on Neginoth. A psalm or song.
Psalm
67:1-7
1. God be merciful unto us,
and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us.
Selah. fc2
2. That they may know thy way upon the
earth, thy salvation among all nations. 3. Let the people praise thee, O
God! let all the people praise thee. 4. Let the nations be glad, and
shout for joy; for he shall judge the people righteously, and thou shalt govern
the nations upon earth. Selah. 5. Let the people praise thee, O God: let
all the people praise thee. 6. The earth has given its increase; and God,
even our own God!, will bless us. 7. God shall bless
us,
fc3 and all ends of the earth shall fear
him.
1.
God be merciful unto us, and
bless us. The psalm contains a
prediction of Christ's kingdom, under which the whole world was to be adopted
into a privileged relationship with God; but the Psalmist begins by praying for
the Divine blessing, particularly upon the Jews. They were the first-born,
(<020422>Exodus
4:22,) and the blessing was to terminate upon them first, and then go out
to all the surrounding nations. I have used the imperative mood throughout the
psalm, as other translators have done, although the future tense, which is that
employed in the Hebrew, would suit sufficiently well, and the passage might be
understood as encouraging the minds of the Lord's people to trust in the
continuance and increase of the Divine favor. The words, however, are generally
construed in the form of a prayer, and I merely threw out this as a suggestion.
Speaking, as the Psalmist does, of those who belonged to the Church of God, and
not of those who were without, it is noticeable that yet he traces all the
blessings they received to God's free favor; and from this we may learn, that so
long as we are here, we owe our happiness, our success, and prosperity, entirely
to the same cause. This being the case, how shall any think to anticipate his
goodness by merits of their own?
The light of God's
countenance may refer either to the
sense of his love shed abroad in our hearts, or to the actual manifestation of
it without, as, on the other hand, his face may be said to be clouded, when he
strikes terrors into our conscience on account of our sins, or withdraws the
outward marks of his favor.
2.
That they may know thy way
upon the earth. Here we have a clear
prophecy of that extension of the grace of God by which the Gentiles were united
into one body with the posterity of Abraham. The Psalmist prays for some
conspicuous proof of favor to be shown his chosen people, which might attract
the Gentiles to seek participation in the same blessed
hope.
fc4 By the way of God is meant his
covenant, which is the source or spring of salvation, and by which he discovered
himself in the character of a Father to his ancient people, and afterwards more
clearly under the Gospel, when the Spirit of adoption was shed abroad in greater
abundance.
fc5 Accordingly, we find Christ himself
saying,
“This is life
eternal, that they might know thee the only true
God,”
(<431703>John
17:3)
3.
Let the people praise thee, O
God! Having spoken of all nations
participating in the saving knowledge of God, he next tells us that they would
proclaim his goodness, and exhorts them to the exercise of gratitude. The
repetition used clearly shows of itself that he alludes to an event of a new and
unprecedented kind. Had the allusion been to some such manifestation of his
favor as he ordinarily made to the Jews, we would not have looked for the same
vehemency of expression. First he says,
Let the people praise
thee; then he adds,
Let all the people praise
thee. Afterwards he repeats the
exclamation once more. But he appropriately makes mention, between, of
rejoicing, and the occasion there was for it, since it is impossible that
we can praise God aright, unless our minds be tranquil and cheerful —
unless, as persons reconciled to God, we are animated with the hope of
salvation, and “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,”
reign in our hearts,
(<500407>Philippians
4:7.) The cause assigned for joy plainly in itself points to the event of the
calling of the Gentiles. The reference is not to that government of God which is
general in its nature, but to that special and spiritual jurisdiction which he
exercises over the Church, in which he cannot properly be said to govern any but
such as he has gathered under his sway by the doctrine of his law. The word
righteousness
is inserted in commendation of his government. Language almost identical is
used by Isaiah and Micah when they speak of the times in which the word of
salvation would be diffused throughout all the earth,
(<231104>Isaiah
11:4;
<330403>Micah
4:3.)
6.
The earth has given its
increase. Mention having been made of
the principal act of the Divine favor, notice is next taken of the temporal
blessings which he confers upon his children, that they may have everything
necessary to complete their happiness. And here it is to be remembered, that
every benefit which God bestowed upon his ancient people was, as it were, a
light held out before the eyes of the world, to attract the attention of the
nations to him. From this the Psalmist argues, that should God liberally supply
the wants of his people, the consequence would be, to increase the fear of his
name, since all ends of the earth would, by what they saw of his fatherly regard
to his own, submit themselves with greater cheerfulness to his
government.
PSALM
68
In this psalm it was David's design to celebrate the
victories which, through the blessing of God, he had gained over his
enemies;
fc6 but, in the opening verses, he commends
the power and goodness of God generally, as seen in the government of the world
at large. From this he passes to the consideration of what God had done in
redeeming his chosen people, and of the continued proofs of fatherly care which
he had manifested to the posterity of Abraham. He then proceeds to the subject
which he had more particularly in view, prosecuting it at length, and in terms
of the most exalted description; praising the signal display of Divine power
which he, and the whole nation with him, had experienced. Now that he had been
made king, he infers that the Church was brought to a settled condition, and
that God, who seemed to have departed, would now at length erect his throne, as
it were, in the midst of it, and reign. In this it would evidently appear, that
he designed, typically, to represent the glory of God afterwards to be
manifested in Christ.
To the chief
musician. A psalm or song of David.
Psalm
68:1-6
1. God shall arise: his
enemies shall be scattered; and they who hate him shall flee before him.
2. As smoke is driven away, thou shalt drive them away; as wax melteth
before the fire, the wicked shall perish from the presence of God. 3. But
the righteous shall be glad; they shall rejoice before God, and leap for
exultation. 4. Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: exalt him that
rideth upon the clouds in Jah
fc7 his name, [or, in his name Jah,] and
rejoice before him. 5. A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the
widows, is God in the habitation of his holiness. 6. God who setteth the
solitary in families, who bringeth, out those who are bound with
chains;
fc8 but the rebellious shall dwell in a dry
land.
1.
God shall arise: his enemies
shall be scattered. In this verse the
Psalmist intimates, as it were by way of preface, the subject which he proposed
to treat in the psalm, and which related to the truth that God, however long he
may seem to connive at the audacity and cruelty of the enemies of his Church,
will eventually arise to avenge it, and will prove himself able to protect it by
the mere forth-putting of his hand. I agree with other interpreters in thinking
that the sentiment is borrowed from Moses,
(<041035>Numbers
10:35)
fc9 There can be little doubt that in
dictating the form of prayer there referred to, he had an eye to the instruction
and comfort of all succeeding ages, and would teach the Lord's people
confidently to rely for safety upon the ark of the covenant, which was the
visible symbol of the Divine presence. We may notice this difference, however,
that Moses addressed the words to God as a prayer, while David rather expresses
his satisfaction and delight in what he saw daily fulfilling before his own
eyes. Some indeed read, Let God arise; but they appear to misapprehend
the scope of the Psalmist. He means to say that observation attested the truth
which Moses had declared of God's needing only to rise up that all his enemies
might be scattered before his irresistible power. Yet I see no objections to the
other reading, provided the idea now mentioned be retained, and the words be
considered as intimating that God needs no array of preparation in overthrowing
his enemies, and can dissipate them with a breath. We are left to infer, that
when his enemies at any time obtain an ascendancy, it is owing to an exercise of
Divine forbearance, and that rage as they may, it is only with his permission;
the time being not yet come for his rising. There is much comfort to be derived
from the circumstance, that those who persecute the Church are here spoken of as
God's enemies. When he undertakes our defense, he looks upon the injuries
done to us as dishonors cast upon his Divine Majesty. The Psalmist adds a
striking figure to illustrate how easily God can overthrow the machinations of
our enemies, comparing them to smoke which vanishes when blown upon by the
wind, or wax which melts
before the
fire.
fc10 We consider it utterly incredible
that such a formidable array of opposition should be made to disappear in a
moment. But the Spirit takes this method of chiding the fearfulness of our
carnal minds, and teaching us that there is no such strength in our enemies as
we suppose, — that we allow the smoke of them to blind our eyes, and the
solid mass of resistance which they present to deceive us into a forgetfulness
of the truth, that the mountains themselves flow down at the presence of the
Lord.
fc11
3.
But the righteous shall be
glad. It is here intimated by David,
that when God shows himself formidable to the wicked, this is with the design of
securing the deliverance of his Church. He would seem indirectly to contrast the
joy of which he now speaks with the depression and grief felt by well affected
men under the reign of Saul — suggesting, that God succeeds a season of
temporary trouble with returns of comfort, to prevent his people from being
overwhelmed by despondency. He leaves us also to infer, that one reason of that
joy which they experience is derived from knowing that God is propitious to
them, and interests himself in their safety. The Hebrew words,
ynpm,
mipne, and
ynpl,
liphne, admit of the same meaning; but I think that the Psalmist intended
to note a distinction. The wicked flee from the presence of God, as what
inspires them with terror; the righteous again rejoice in it, because nothing
delights them more than to think that God is near them. When commenting upon the
passage,
<191826>Psalm
18:26, we saw why the Divine presence terrifies some and comforts others; for
“with the pure he will show himself pure, and with the froward he
will show himself froward.” One expression is heaped by the Psalmist upon
another, to show how great the joy of the Lord's people is, and how entirely it
possesses and occupies their
affections.
4.
Sing unto God, sing praises
to his name: exalt him
fc12
that
rideth, etc. He now proceeds to call
upon the Lord's people to praise God. And he begins by pointing out the grounds
in general, as I have already hinted, which they have for this exercise, because
he comprehends the whole world under his power and government, adding, that he
condescends to take the poorest and the most wretched of our family under his
protection. His infinite power is commended, when it is said that he
rides upon the
clouds, or the
heavens,
fc13 for this proves that he sits superior
over all things. The Holy Spirit may signify by the expression, that we should
exclude from our minds every thing gross and earthly in the conceptions we form
of him; but he would, doubtless, impress us chiefly with an idea of his great
power, to produce in us a due reverence, and make us feel how far short all our
praises must come of his glory. We would attempt in vain to comprehend heaven
and earth; but his glory is greater than both. As to the expression which
follows, in Jah, his name, there has been some difference of opinion. The
Hebrew preposition
b,
beth, may here, as sometimes it is, be a mere expletive, and we may read,
Jah is his
name.
fc14 Others read,
in Jah is his
name;
fc15 and I have no objection to this,
though I prefer the translation which I have adopted. It is of less consequence
how we construe the words, as the meaning of the Psalmist is obvious. The whole
world was at that time filled with the vain idols of superstition, and he would
assert the claim of God, and set them aside when he brought forward the God of
Israel. But it is not enough that the Lord's people should bow before him with
suppliant spirits. Even the wicked, while they fear and tremble before him, are
forced to yield him reverence. David would have them draw near to him with
cheerfulness and alacrity; and, accordingly, proceeds to insist upon his
transcendent goodness shown in condescending to the orphans and
widows. The incomprehensible glory of God does not induce him to remove
himself to a distance from us, or prevent him from stooping to us in our lowest
depths of wretchedness. There can be no doubt that orphans and widows are named
to indicate in general all such as the world are disposed to overlook as
unworthy of their regard. Generally we distribute our attentions where we expect
some return. We give the preference to rank and splendor, and despise or neglect
the poor. When it is said, God is
in the habitation of his holiness, this
may refer either to heaven or to the temple, for either sense will suit the
connection. God does not dwell in heaven to indulge his own ease, but heaven is,
as it were, his throne, from which he judges the world. On the other hand, the
fact of his having chosen to take up his residence with men, and inviting them
familiarly to himself there, is one well fitted to encourage the poor, who are
cheered to think that he is not far off from them. In the next verse, other
instances of the Divine goodness are mentioned — that he gives the
bereaved and solitary a numerous offspring, and releases the bonds of the
captive. In the last clause of the verse, he denounces the judgment of God
against those who impiously despise him, and this that he might show the Lord's
people the folly of envying their lot as well as strike terror into their minds.
The sense of the words is, That we ought to comfort ourselves under the worst
afflictions, by reflecting that we are in God's hand, who can mitigate all our
griefs and remove all our burdens. The wicked, on the other hand, may
congratulate themselves for a time upon their prosperity, but eventually it will
fare ill with them. By dwelling in a dry land, is meant being banished,
as it were, to a wilderness, and deprived of the benefits of that fatherly
kindness which they had so criminally
abused.
Psalm
68:7-10
7. O God! when thou wentest
forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness; Selah:
8. The earth was moved, the heavens also dropped at the presence of this
God: Sinai at the presence of God, the God of
Israel. fc16
9. Thou, O God! shalt make a
liberal
fc17 rain to fall upon thine inheritance, and
thou refreshest it when it is weary. 10. Thy
congregation
fc18 shall dwell therein; thou, O God! wilt
prepare in thy goodness for the
poor.
7.
O God! when thou wentest
forth before thy people, etc. The
Psalmist now proceeds to show that the Divine goodness is principally displayed
in the Church, which God has selected as the great theater where his fatherly
care may be manifested. What follows is evidently added with the view of leading
the posterity of Abraham, as the Lord's chosen people, to apply the observations
which had been just made to themselves. The deliverance from Egypt having been
the chief and lasting pledge of the Divine favor, which practically ratified
their adoption under the patriarch, he briefly adverts to that event. He would
intimate that in that remarkable exodus, proof had been given to all succeeding
ages of the love which God entertained for his Church. Why were so many miracles
wrought? why were heaven and earth put into commotion? why were the mountains
made to tremble? but that all might recognize the power of God as allied with
the deliverance of his people. He represents God as having been their leader in
conducting them forth. And this not merely in reference to their passage of the
Red Sea, but their journeys so long as they wandered in the wilderness. When he
speaks of the earth being
moved, he would not seem to allude
entirely to what occurred upon the promulgation of the law, but to the fact
that, throughout all their progress, the course of nature was repeatedly
altered, as if the very elements had trembled at the presence of the Lord. It
was upon Mount Sinai, however, that God issued the chief displays of his awful
power; it was there that thunders were heard in heaven, and the air was filled
with lightnings; and, accordingly, it is mentioned here by name as having
presented the most glorious spectacle of the Divine majesty which was ever
beheld. Some read, This
Sinai,
etc., connecting the pronoun
hz,
zeh, with the mountain here named; but it is much more emphatical to join
it with the preceding clause, and to read,
the heavens dropped at the
presence of This God; David meaning to
commend the excellency of the God of Israel. The expression is one frequently
used by the prophets to denote that the God worshipped by the posterity of
Abraham was the true God, and the religion delivered in his law no delusion, as
in
<232509>Isaiah
25:9, “This, this is our God, and he will save us.” To establish the
Lord's people in their faith, David leads them, as it were, into the very
presence of God; indicates that they were left to no such vague uncertainties as
the heathen; and indirectly censures the folly of the world in forsaking the
knowledge of the true God, and fashioning imaginary deities of its own, of wood
and stone, of gold and
silver.
9.
Thou, O God! shalt make a liberal rain to
fall
fc19
upon thine
inheritance. Mention is made here of the
continued course of favor which had been extended to the people from the time
when they first entered the promised land. It is called
the inheritance of
God, as having been assigned over to his
own children. Others understand by the inheritance spoken of in the verse,
the Church, but this is not correct, for it is afterwards stated as being
the place where the Church dwelt. The title is appropriately given to the land
of Canaan, which God made over to them by right of inheritance. David takes
notice of the fact, that, from the first settlement of the seed of Abraham in
it, God had never ceased to make the kindest fatherly provision for them,
sending his rain in due season to prepare their food. The words translated a
liberal
rain, read literally in the Hebrew a
rain of freenesses, and I agree with interpreters in thinking that he
alludes to the blessing as having come in the exercise of free
favor,
fc20 and to God, as having of his own
unprompted goodness provided for all the wants of his people. Some read a
desirable rain; others, a rain flowing without violence, or
gentle; but neither of these renderings seems eligible. Others read a
copious or plentiful rain; but I have already stated what appears to
me to be the preferable sense. It was a proof, then, of his Divine liberality,
that God watered the land seasonably with showers. There is clearly a reference
to the site of Judea, which owed its fertility to dews and the rains of heaven.
In allusion to the same circumstance, he speaks of its being refreshed when
weary. The reason is assigned — because it had been given to his
chosen people to dwell in. On no other account was it blessed, than as being the
habitation of God's Church and people. The more to impress upon the minds of the
Jews their obligations to Divine goodness, he represents them as pensioners
depending upon God for their daily food. He fed them upon the finest of the
wheat, giving them wine, and honey, and oil in abundance — still he
proportioned the communication of his kindness so as to keep them always
dependent in expectation upon himself. Some, instead of reading,
Thou wilt prepare with thy
goodness, etc., render it, Thou wilt
prepare with rich food; but, without absolutely objecting to this
translation, I rather think that he adverts to the circumstance of God's being
led to provide for his people entirely by his own good
pleasure.
Psalm
68:11-14
11.
The
fc21 Lord shall give the word to the women
who announce the great army. fc22
12. Kings of armies shall flee —
shall flee; and she that tarries at home shall divide the spoil. 13.
Though you should lie among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove
covered with silver, and which behind is of the paleness of
gold. fc23
14. When the Almighty scattered kings
in it, thou shalt make it white
fc24 in
Salmon.
11.
The Lord shall give the
word, etc. David now adverts to the
victories by which God had signally displayed his power in behalf of his people.
He had himself been the instrument of restoring peace to the country, by putting
down its foes, and he had extended the boundaries of the kingdom; but he
ascribes the praise of all that had been done in stratagems and counsels of war
to God. In representing God as issuing orders for the song of triumph, he
intimates, figuratively, that it is he who determines the successful issue of
battles. Notice is taken of the
women who announce the
army, for it was the custom anciently
for women to sing the song of triumph, as Miriam, the sister of Moses, with her
companions, sounded the praises of God upon the timbrel, and the women
celebrated David's victory upon the harp, when he slew Goliath, and routed the
Philistines,
(<021520>Exodus
15:20;
<071203>Judges
12:34;
<091806>1
Samuel 18:6.) In making this reference to a song of praise, the Psalmist, as I
have already said, intended to impress the truth upon the people, that the
victories gained were entirely owing to God; though, at the same time, he
tacitly reminds them of its being their duty to proclaim his benefits with due
gratitude.
From the verse which succeeds, we are
taught that the mightiest preparations which the enemies of the Church may make
for its destruction shall be overthrown. We may consider the words as spoken in
the person of the Psalmist himself, or as forming the song of the women
mentioned above. It was a circumstance illustrative of the Divine favor, that
the most formidable kings, before whom the Jews could never have stood in their
own strength, had been put to flight. That princes, who could easily have
overrun the world with their forces, should have not only departed without
obtaining their purpose, but been forced to fly to a distance, could be
accounted for on no other supposition than God's having stood forward signally
as their defender. In the Hebrew the verb is repeated,
they shall flee, they shall
flee, signifying that the attacks of the
enemy had been repelled by Divine assistance once and again. The greatness of
the spoil taken is intimated by the circumstance stated, that a share of it
would come even to the women who remained at home. While the soldiers would
return from battle clothed with the spoils, such would be the quantity of booty
taken, that the females, who took no part in war, would partake of
it.
13.
Though ye should lie among the
pots.
fc25 Having spoken of God as fighting the
battles of his people, he adds, by way of qualification, that they may lie for a
time under darkness, though eventually God will appear for their deliverance;
There can be little doubt that he hints at the state of wretchedness and
distress to which the nation had been reduced under the government of Saul, for
the interposition was the more remarkable, considering the misery from which it
had emerged. The words, however, convey a further instruction than this. They
teach us the general truth, that believers are, by the hidden and mysterious
power of God, preserved unhurt in the midst of their afflictions, or suddenly
recovered so as to exhibit no marks of them. The language admits of being
interpreted to mean either that they shine even when lying under filth and
darkness, or that, when freed from their troubles, they shake off any defilement
which they may have contracted. Let either sense be adopted, and it remains true
that the believer is never consumed or overwhelmed by his afflictions, but comes
out safe. An elegant figure is drawn from the dove, which, though it lie amongst
the pots, retains the beauty which naturally belongs to it, and contracts no
defilement on its wings. From this we learn that the Church does not always
present a fair or peaceable aspect, but rather emerges occasionally from the
darkness that envelops it, and recovers its beauty as perfectly as if it had
never been subjected to calamity.
14.
When the Almighty scattered kings
in it. We might read extended, or
divided kings, etc., and then the allusion would be to his leading them
in triumph. But the other reading is preferable, and corresponds better with
what was said above of their being put to flight. There is more difficulty in
the second part of the verse, some reading,
it was white in
Salmon; that is, the Church of God
presented a fair and beautiful appearance. Or the verb may be viewed as in the
second person — Thou, O
God! Didst make it fair and white as mount
Salmon
fc26 with
snows. The reader may adopt either
construction, for the meaning is the same. It is evident that David insists
still upon the figure of the whiteness of silver, which he had previously
introduced. The country had, as it were, been blackened or sullied by the
hostile confusions into which it was thrown, and he says that it had now
recovered its fair appearance, and resembled Salmon, which is well known to have
been ordinarily covered with snows.
fc27 Others think that Salmon is not the name
of a place, but an appellative, meaning a dark
shade.
fc28 I would retain the commonly
received reading. At the same time, I think that there may have been an allusion
to the etymology. It comes from the word
µlx,
tselem, signifying a shade, and mount Salmon had been so called on
account of its blackness.
fc29 This makes the comparison more striking;
for it intimates, that as the snows whitened this black mountain, so the country
had resumed its former beauty, and put on an aspect of joy, when God dispelled
the darkness which had lain upon it during the oppression of
enemies.
fc30
Psalm
68:15-17
15. The hill of God, the
hill of Bashan, a high hill,
fc31 the hill of Bashan. 16. Why leap
ye, ye high hills? the hill which God desireth to dwell in; yea, Jehovah will
dwell in it for ever. 17. The chariots of God are twenty thousand
thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy
place.
15.
The hill of God, the hill of
Bashan. Here he adverts to the spring
and source of all the kindness which God had shown, this being the circumstance
that he had chosen mount Zion as the place of his palace and temple, whence all
blessings should go out to the nation. A Divine declaration to that effect had
been made to David, and this pre-eminence and dignity conferred upon mount Zion
is very properly adduced as a proof of his being king, lawfully and by Divine
appointment; for there was an inseparable connection between God's dwelling upon
that mountain, and David's sitting upon the throne to govern the people. The
words of the verse admit of two senses. We may suppose that the mountain of God
is compared to mount Bashan as being like it, or we may understand that it is
opposed to it. The first is the sense adopted almost by all interpreters, that
while Bashan was famed for its fertility, Zion excelled it. It is of little
importance which we prefer; but perhaps the distinction would be brought out as
well were we to construe the words
the hill of
God by themselves, and consider that
Bashan with its boasted height is afterwards ordered to yield precedence, as if
David would say, that there was but one mountain which God had consecrated to
himself by an irrevocable decree, and that though Bashan was renowned for height
and fertility, it must rank with other mountains, which might in vain exalt
themselves to an equality with Zion, honored as the chosen residence of God. If
we read the verse differently, and consider it as applying to mount Zion
throughout, then the Psalmist extols it as high and illustrious, and this
because there emanated from it the Divine favor, which distinguished the Jews
from every other nation.
16.
Why leap
ye,
fc32
ye high
hills? In this verse there is no
obscurity or ambiguity. David having said that there was only one mountain in
all the world which God had chosen, calls upon the highest hills to yield it the
pre-eminency. As he repeats in the plural number what had been said immediately
before of Bashan, this leads me to think that he intended first to oppose that
mountain, and then all other high mountains generally, to
Zion.
fc33 Mountains are here to be understood
figuratively, and the great truth conveyed is, that the kingdom of Christ, which
God had begun to shadow forth in the person of David, far excels all that is
reckoned glorious by the world. The reproof which the Psalmist administers, in
order to humble the proud boasting of the world, is justified by that contempt
which we know that carnal and ungodly persons entertain of Christ's kingdom,
devoted as they are to their own pleasures or wealth, and unable to appreciate
spiritual blessings. The lesson will be felt to be the more useful and
necessary, if we consider that this vain pride of man rises to an additional
height, when the slightest occasion is afforded for its exercise. When we see
those indulging it who have no grounds to do so, we need not wonder at the
arrogance of such as are possessed of wealth and influence. But the Lord's
people may afford to leave them to their self-complacency, resting satisfied
with the privilege of knowing that God has chosen to take up his habitation in
the midst of them. They have no reason to repine at their lot so long as they
have union with God, the only and the sufficient source of their
happiness.
17.The
chariots of God are twenty thousand thousands of
angels.
fc34 For the most part, we are apt to
undervalue the Divine presence, and therefore David presents us with a
description fitted to exalt our thoughts of it. Owing to our unbelieving hearts,
the least danger which occurs in the world weighs more with us than the power of
God. We tremble under the slightest trials; for we forget or cherish low views
of his omnipotence. To preserve us from this error, David directs us to the
countless myriads of angels which are at his command, — a circumstance,
the consideration of which may well enable us to defy the evils which beset us.
Twenty
thousand are spoken of; but it is a
number designed to intimate to us that the armies of the living God, which he
commissions for our help, are innumerable; and surely this should comfort us
under the deadliest afflictions of this life. In adding that
the Lord is among
them, the Psalmist is still to be
considered as designing to give us an exalted view of what is included in God's
presence; for the words suggest that he can no more divest himself of his
existence than not have this power whereby angels are subordinated to his will.
Another idea suggested is, that one God is better than a universe of angels. The
great distance to which we are apt to conceive God as removed from us is one
circumstance which tries our faith, and in order to obviate this, the Psalmist
reminds us of
Sinai,
where there was a display of his majesty. The inference was conclusive that
he still abode in the sanctuary. For why did God appear upon that
occasion in such a glorious manner? Evidently to show that his covenant formed a
sacred bond of union between him and the posterity of Abraham. Hence the words
of Moses —
“Say not in
thine heart, Who shall go up into heaven? or who shall descend into the deep? or
who shall go over the sea? For the word is nigh unto thee,” etc.
(<053012>Deuteronomy
30:12.)
Sinai accordingly is mentioned by David,
to teach us that if we would fortify our minds with a firm faith in the Divine
presence, we must derive it from the Law and the
Prophets.
Psalm
68:18-24
18. Thou hast ascended on
high, thou hast led captivity captive:
fc35 thou hast received gifts among
men;
fc36 even the rebellious, that the Lord
Jehovah
fc37 might dwell amongst his people. 19
Blessed be the Lord daily: this Lord will load us with deliverances. Selah.
20. He that is our God is the God of salvations; and to the Lord
Jehovah
fc38 belong the issues from death. 21.
Surely God shall wound the head of his enemies, the crown of the hair of him who
walketh on in his wickedness. 22. The Lord said, I will bring back from
Bashan; I will bring again from the depths of the sea: 23. That thy foot
may be stained with blood, the tongue of thy dogs even in that of thine enemies.
24. They have seen thy goings, O God! even the goings of my God, my King,
in the sanctuary.
18.
Thou hast ascended on high, thou
hast led captivity captive. There can be
little doubt that these words are intended to magnify the proofs of Divine favor
granted upon the elevation of David to the throne, by contrasting the state of
matters with that under Saul. The
ascending on
high implies the being previously low,
and intimates, that under the melancholy confusions which had prevailed in the
kingdom, there was no longer the same conspicuous display of the Divine glory as
formerly. The government of Saul, which, from the first, had originated in a way
that was condemnable, was doomed to fall under the displeasure of God, while his
favor, on the other hand, was to be restored under David; and the undeniable
appearances of this left no room for doubt that one who began his reign under
such auspices was the object of the Divine choice. David, although he had
acquitted himself with courage in the battles which were fought, ascribes all
the glory of them to God, saying, that it was he who had taken captive the
enemy, and forced them to pay tribute, and reduced the more fierce and
rebellious to subjection. By the term
µyrrws
sorerim, rebellious, contumacious, or revolters, he would evidently seem to
mean a distinct class of persons from the other enemies, whom he mentions as
having been taken captive; and it intimates, that while those who did not
venture to resist, and who surrendered, had been brought under the yoke, the
more proud and unyielding had been forced into submission. The end designed by
this is stated in the words which follow,
that God might dwell in the midst
of his people; and that he might
demonstrate himself to be an all-sufficient protector to those who put their
trust in him.
As the passage which we have now
been considering is applied by Paul in a more spiritual sense to Christ,
(<490408>Ephesians
4:8,) it may be necessary to show how this agrees with the meaning and scope of
the Psalmist. It may be laid down as an incontrovertible truth, that David, in
reigning over God's ancient people, shadowed forth the beginning of Christ's
eternal kingdom. This must appear evident to every one who remembers the promise
made to him of a never-failing succession, and which received its verification
in the person of Christ. As God illustrated his power in David, by exalting him
with the view of delivering his people, so has he magnified his name in his only
begotten Son. But let us consider more particularly how the parallel holds.
Christ, before he was exalted, emptied himself of his glory, having not merely
assumed the form of a servant, but humbled himself to the death of the cross. To
show how exactly the figure was fulfilled, Paul notices, that what David had
foretold was accomplished in the person of Christ, by his being cast down to the
lowest parts of the earth in the reproach and ignominy to which he was
subjected, before he ascended to the right hand of his Father,
(<192207>Psalm
22:7.) That in thinking upon the ascension, we might not confine our views to
the body of Christ, our attention is called to the result and fruit of it, in
his subjecting heaven and earth to his government. Those who were formerly his
inveterate enemies he compelled to submission and made tributary — this
being the effect of the word of the Gospel, to lead men to renounce their pride
and their obstinacy, to bring down every high thought which exalteth itself, and
reduce the senses and the affections of men to obedience unto Christ. As to the
devils and reprobate men who are instigated to rebellion and revolt by obstinate
malice, he holds them bound by a secret control, and prevents them from
executing intended destruction. So far the parallel is complete. Nor when Paul
speaks of Christ having given gifts to men, is there any real
inconsistency with what is here stated, although he has altered the words,
having followed the Greek version in accommodation to the unlearned
reader.
fc39 It was not himself that God enriched
with the spoils of the enemy, but his people; and neither did Christ seek or
need to seek his own advancement, but made his enemies tributary, that he might
adorn his Church with the spoil. From the close union subsisting between the
head and members, to say that God manifest in the flesh received gifts from the
captives, is one and the same thing with saying that he distributed them to his
Church. What is said in the close of the verse is no less applicable to Christ
— that he obtained his victories that as God he might dwell among us.
Although he departed, it was not that he might remove to a distance from us,
but, as Paul says, “that he might fill all things,”
(<490410>Ephesians
4:10.) By his ascension to heaven, the glory of his divinity has been only more
illustriously displayed, and though no longer present with us in the flesh, our
souls receive spiritual nourishment from his body and blood, and we find,
notwithstanding distance of place, that his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood
drink indeed.
19.
Blessed be the
Lord, etc. David would have us to
understand, that in recounting the more particular deliverances which God had
wrought, he did not mean to draw our minds away from the fact, that the Church
is constantly and at all times indebted for its safety to the Divine care and
protection. He adds, Blessed be
God daily. And he intimates, that
deliverances might be expected from him with great abundance of every blessing.
Some read, he will
load, others, he will
carry;
fc40 but it is of little importance
which reading we adopt. He points at the fact, that God extends continued proofs
of his kindness to his people, and is unwearied in renewing the instances of it.
I read this
Lord
in the second part of the verse, for the letter
h,
he, prefixed in the Hebrew, has often the force of a demonstrative
pronoun; and he would point out, as it were with the finger, that God in whom
their confidence ought to be placed. So in the next verse, which may be read,
this our God is the God of
salvation. What is here said coincides
with the scope of what immediately precedes, and is meant to convey the truth
that God protects his Church and people constantly. In saying
this
God, he administers a check to the
tendency in men to have their minds diverted from the one living and true God.
The salvation of God is set before the view of all men without exception, but is
very properly represented here as something peculiar to the elect, that they may
recognize themselves as continually indebted to his preserving care, unlike the
wicked, who pervert that which might have proved life into destruction, through
their unthankfulness. The Hebrew word in the 20th verse is
salvations,
in the plural number, to convince us that when death may threaten us in ever
so many various forms, God can easily devise the necessary means of
preservation, and that we should trust to experience the same mercy again which
has been extended to us once. The latter clause of the verse bears the same
meaning, where it is said, that to the Lord
belong the issues of
death. Some read, the issues unto
death,
fc41 supposing that the reference is to the
ease with which God can avenge and destroy his enemies; but this appears a
constrained interpretation. The more natural meaning obviously is, that God has
very singular ways, unknown to us, of delivering his people from
destruction.
fc42 He points at a peculiarity in the manner
of the Divine deliverances, that God does not generally avert death from his
people altogether, but allows them to fall in some measure under its power, and
afterwards unexpectedly rescues them from it. This is a truth particularly
worthy of our notice, as teaching us to beware of judging by sense in the matter
of Divine deliverances. However deep we may have sunk in trouble, it becomes us
to trust the power of God, who claims it as his peculiar work to open up a way
where man can see none.
21.
Surely God shall
wound, etc. The enemies of the Church
are fierce and formidable, and it is impossible that she can be preserved from
their continued assaults, without a vigorous protection being extended. To
persuade us that she enjoys such a defense, David represents God as armed with
dreadful power for the overthrow of the ungodly. The verse stands connected as
to scope with the preceding, and we might render the Hebrew particle
°a,
ach, by wherefore, or on which account; but it seems better to
consider it as expressing simple affirmation. We are to notice the circumstance,
that God counts all those his enemies who unjustly persecute the righteous, and
thus assures us of his being always ready to interpose for our defense. The
concern he feels in our preservation is forcibly conveyed by the expressions
which follow, that he will wound
the head of his enemies, and the crown of their
hair;
fc43 intimating, that he will inflict
a deadly and incurable wound upon such as harass his Church. This is still more
strikingly brought out in what is added immediately afterwards, when God is
described as wading through
destruction.
22.
The Lord said, I will bring
back from Bashan. That the Israelites
might not be led to take an irreligious and self-glorious view of their
victories; that they might look to God as the author of them; and rest assured
of his protection in time to come, David sends them back to the first periods of
their history, and reminds them how their fathers had been originally brought by
the victorious hand of God out of the lowest depths of trouble. He would have
them argue that if God rescued his people at first from giants, and from the
depths of the Red Sea, it was not to be imagined that he would desert them in
similar dangers, but certain that he would defend them upon every emergency
which might occur. The prophets are in the constant habit, as is well known, of
illustrating the mercy of God by reference to the history of Israel's
redemption, that the Lord's people, by looking back to their great original
deliverance, might find an argument for expecting interpositions of a future
kind. To make the deeper impression, God is introduced speaking himself. In what
he says he may be considered as asserting his Divine prerogative of raising the
dead to life again, for his people's passage through the Red Sea, and victory
over warlike giants, was a species of
resurrection.
fc44 Some read, I will cause the enemy to
fly from Bashan;
fc45 but this cannot be received, and
does not agree with the context, as it follows,
I will bring back from the depths
of the sea. In representing God as
bedewed or stained with blood, David does not ascribe to him anything like
cruelty, but designs to show the Lord's people how dear and precious they are in
his sight, considering the zeal which he manifests in their defense. We know
that David himself was far from being a man of cruel disposition, and that he
rejoiced in the destruction of the wicked from the purest and most upright
motives, as affording a display of the Divine judgments. That is here ascribed
to God which may be asserted equally of his Church or people, for the vengeance
with which the wicked are visited is inflicted by their hands. Some read the
close of the verse, the tongue of
thy dogs in thine enemies, even in him,
i.e., the king and chief of them all. This is not the meaning of the
Psalmist, which simply is, that the tongues of the dogs would be red with
licking blood, such would be the number of dead bodies scattered
round.
24.
They have seen thy goings, O
God! This verse may refer to processions
of a warlike kind, or to such as are made in times of peace by those who give
thanks for victory. It is customary for the people of God, on occasions of the
latter description, to go forth and present peace-offerings in the temple. This
has led some to understand by the
goings of God,
fc46 the crowds of his people when
they proceed to the temple. But I am disposed to think that God himself is here
represented as a king leading and marshalling forth his armies. Accordingly, it
is added, in the
sanctuary, under which expression there
is an apt allusion to the visible symbol of the Divine presence. The great
reason why God undertakes the guardianship of his people, and goes before them
to repel the attacks of the enemy, is his having promised that he will hear
their prayers in the sanctuary. He is therefore described as if he were seen
coming out of his holy habitation, that he might conduct his people to victory.
David calls him his King, to divert the attention of the people from
himself, and lead them to view a name which belonged to a frail mortal man such
as he was, in its higher application to the supreme Head of all. He speaks, it
is true, in the name of the people, but not to the exclusion of
himself.
Psalm
68:25-27
25. The singers went
before, the players on instruments followed after; in the midst were the damsels
playing with timbrels.
fc47 26. Bless ye God in the
congregations, even the Lord, O ye who are of the fountain of Israel! 27.
There is little Benjamin their ruler, the princes of Judah in their assembly,
the princes of Zebulun, and the princes of
Naphtali.
25.
The singers went
before. It is evident that he does not
now speak of an army in battle array, but of a solemn assembly held for offering
up thanksgivings to God for victory. God had openly shown that he was their
leader in war, and to him the song of triumph is with propriety addressed.
Mention is made of distinct choirs employed in his service, and particularly of
such as played upon the timbrel; for, absurd as the practice may appear to us,
it was then customary for the women to play upon that instrument. By the
fountain
fc48 from which they are called upon to bless
God, some understand the heart, as it is known that those praises which
proceed from the lips merely, and are hypocritical, meet with the Divine
reprobation. But I conceive the true meaning to be, that all are summoned to
praise the Lord who could deduce their origin from the patriarch Jacob. Many
might not sustain the character which answered to their high vocation; but, as
the whole race had been chosen of God, the Psalmist very properly invites them
to engage in this devotional exercise. At the same time, I see nothing
objectionable in the opinion, if any persist in preferring it, that the term is
here used to distinguish the true saints of God from those who vainly boasted of
being the posterity of Abraham, while they had degenerated from his spirit.
Those only who walk in the footsteps of his faith are reckoned to be his
children. It has caused some surprise that, in a general description of the
sacred assemblies of the people, precedence should have been given to the tribe
of
Benjamin.
According to certain interpreters, this is owing to the position which it
occupied, as being next to David; and honor is put upon the tribes of
Zebulun
and
Naphtali,
fc49 which, though they lay at a great
distance, were in a particular manner friendly and attached to him. Others think
that the whole nation is represented under the tribes specified, which were at
once the nearest and most distant.
fc50 These
conjectures
fc51 are probable enough, but the point is
one which may be left in uncertainty, as there may have been some other reason,
which it is impossible for us to discover. It has been suggested that Benjamin
is called little on account of the smallness of its numbers, the tribe
having been nearly exterminated for the crime of the men of Gibeah,
(<071920>Judges
19:20;) but David would not probably have adverted to any reproach of this kind
in calling them to take so prominent a part in the praises of
God.
fc52 The inspired writers, in speaking of the
tribes, often allude to the patriarchs from whom they respectively took their
origin; nor is it surprising that the posterity of Benjamin, who was the
youngest of Jacob's children,
fc53 should receive the designation here
given to them; and the truth is, that even antecedently to the heavy stroke
which befell them, they were not numerous. Interpreters, by general consent,
have considered that Benjamin is called
ruler,
as Saul, who was first made king in Israel, belonged to this tribe; but I
cannot bring myself to think it probable that David would have made such an
unseasonable allusion to Saul's memory, whose government is everywhere
represented in Scripture as pregnant with disaster, and which was to be buried
in that of his successor, whose reign is so prominently brought forward in this
psalm. The more likely conjecture is, that this title of dignity is applied in
order to put honor upon a tribe, which some might despise for its smallness, and
to intimate that the Benjamites, though few in numbers, and not possessed of
great influence, formed one head in Israel as well as the
rest.
fc54 Others may be disposed to think that
there must have been some illustrious individual in this and the two tribes
mentioned along with it, or that the whole tribe had signalised itself in a
recent battle. Though honorable mention is made of these tribes, yet the chief
place in the numbers assembled together at this time is assigned to the princes
of Judah. Some think that the copulative is understood, and read,
the princes of Judah and their
congregation. The Hebrew word which we
translate congregation is by others translated
stoning.
fc55 But it seems preferable to
construe the words as implying that this tribe presided over the assembly which
marched under its auspices in war. The power of summoning the people together is
thus asserted as belonging to Judah, and it is represented as honored with the
government and primacy of the
kingdom.
Psalm
68:28-30
28. Thy God hath commanded
thy strength; strengthen, O God! that which thou hast wrought in us. 29.
From thy temple upon Jerusalem kings shall bring presents unto thee. 30.
Destroy the company of spearmen, (literally, of the reed,) the multitude of
bulls with the calves of the people, treading with their feet upon pieces of
silver: scatter thou the people that delight in
war.
28.
Thy God hath commanded thy
strength. Men are always disposed to
arrogate to themselves the glory of what they may have done instead of tracing
their success to God, and David reminds the people once more that they had not
triumphed by their own strength, but by power communicated from above. If they
had acquitted themselves with energy on the field, he would have them consider
that it was God who inspired them with this valor, and would guard them against
the pride which overlooks and disparages the Divine goodness. As a consideration
which might farther tend to promote humility in their minds, he adverts to the
dependence in which they stood of the future continuance of the same favor and
protection; this being the great cause of presumptuous confidence, that we do
not feel our own helplessness, and are not led under a sense of it to resort
humbly to God for the supply of our wants. Another lesson which the passage
teaches us is, that more is required than that God should visit us at first with
his preventing grace; that we stand constantly in need of his assistance
throughout our whole lives. If this be true in the literal warfare, where our
conflict is with flesh and blood, it must be still more so in matters of the
soul. It is impossible that we could stand one moment in the contest with such
enemies as Satan, sin, and the world, did we not receive from God the grace
which secures our perseverance.
What is said of
the temple in the following verse is intended to carry out the same strain of
sentiment which has been already expressed. It gives the reason why God had
exerted his power in behalf of the Israelites rather than others; which was,
that it might be displayed as coming forth from the sanctuary and the ark of the
covenant. Hence the emphasis with which David calls him in a previous part of
the psalm — the God of Israel. It was not in vain that God had erected his
sanctuary, or promised his presence in connection with it; and his power is here
represented as issuing from the temple, to denote that the only security for his
favor was to be found in his gracious covenant and promises. Some read, From
thy temple in Jerusalem — a frigid interpretation, and one
which does not express the meaning of the Psalmist. His prayer is to the effect
that the Divine power might be commanded from the sanctuary upon his chosen
people, here denoted by a common figure of speech by Jerusalem. It may be asked
how he speaks of the temple, when it had not been yet built. The word
temple
or palace may have been used to express the tabernacle. This, at least, I
think more probable than that he should speak of the temple by anticipation, as
some suppose; and there can be no doubt that the ark had already been placed in
Zion. Having already traced all the honor of the recent victories to God, he
next proceeds to vindicate his claim to reap the fruits of them, by asserting
that the kings who had been subdued would acknowledge God to have been their
conqueror, as well as yield themselves tributary to David and his successors,
— a circumstance which should lay the people of God under an additional
obligation to present him with their free-will offerings of
praise.
30.
Destroy the company of
spearmen. Some read rebuke, but I
approve of the distinction which has been noticed by those who are most skilled
in the Hebrew language, that while the verb
r[g,
gear, has this meaning when the letter
b
beth, is interposed, it signifies without it to destroy. The word,
tyj,
chayath, which I have rendered company, has been translated
beast,
fc56 but no such sense can apply to it
here. David evidently prays in this passage that God would deliver his chosen
people by destroying their cruel and bloody enemies. In calling these the
company of the reed or
cane,
fc57 he does not mean to say that they
are weak, but alludes to the kind of armor which they wore, and which were
lances or spears. The reed grows in some countries to a tree, or at least has
all the consistency of wood, and the people are in the habit of making darts
from it. In the East missile weapons are commonly used in war. He compares them
for their fierceness to
bulls,
so I have rendered the word
µyryba,
abbirim; for though it may be translated strong or stout
persons — the congregation of the strong — it
occasionally bears the other meaning; and as David adds,
calves of the
people,
fc58 it would seem evident that he
uses a figure to represent the rage and fury of the enemy, and perhaps their
strength, which the Israelites were wholly unequal to combat except with Divine
assistance. It is not so easy to discover the meaning of the next clause in the
verse, treading upon pieces of
silver. The Hebrew verb
spr,
raphas, signifies to tread, or literally, (for it, is here in the
hithpael conjugations) causing themselves to tread; and some
consider that the allusion is to the arrogance and vain-glorious boasting of the
enemy. Others attach exactly the opposite sense to the words, holding that they
denote submission, and that the enemy would bring pieces of silver in token of
subjection.
fc59 But how could we suppose that David
would pray for the destruction of enemies who were already subdued, and paying
tribute in the character of suppliants? To this it has been said in reply, that
enemies may retain their animosity in all its force within their own breasts,
ready to vent itself in rebellion upon the first opportunity, although when
deprived of arms they cannot display it openly, and that this is especially true
of the enemies of the Church, whose antipathies are virulent, ever breaking
forth afresh so soon as an occasion offers. But I see no necessity for doing
violence to the words of the Psalmist, and would take them in their plain
acceptation, as meaning that the enemy in their pride trampled upon pieces of
silver. The reference may be to attachments of silver upon their sandals, as the
Eastern nations were always proverbial for their
luxury.
fc60 What immediately follows by no means
favors the sense we have formerly adverted to,
scatter the people who delight in
war, where he hints that they sought
groundless occasions for quarrel and tumult, and gratuitously attacked such as
were disposed for peace. When we find David, after all the victories he had
gained, still commending himself and his people to the protection of God, it
should teach us to abandon the hope of ever seeing the Church placed in a state
of perfect tranquillity in this world, exposed, as it is, to a succession of
enemies raised up by the malice of Satan, and designed by God for the trial and
exercise of our patience. In comparing their enemies to the beasts here
mentioned, and taking notice that they delighted in war, it was no doubt his
intention to influence the minds of the people of God to the contrary
dispositions of clemency and mercy, as being that frame of spirit in the
exercise of which they might expect to receive the Divine assistance. The more
violently their enemies raged, and the more lawless their attempts might prove,
they had only the more reason to expect the interposition of God, who humbles
the proud and the mighty ones of this world. Such being the character of God,
let us learn from this prayer of David to resort to him with confidence when the
objects at any time of unmerited persecution, and to believe that he is able to
deliver us at once from all our
enemies.
Psalm
68:31-35
31. Princes shall come out
of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out [or, shall hasten to stretch out] her
hands unto God. 32. Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth: sing praises
to the Lord. Selah. 33. To him that rideth upon the heaven of heavens,
which were of old, [literally the heavens of ancientness;] lo! he shall send
forth in his voice a mighty voice. 34. Give strength unto God over
Israel; his excellency and his strength are in the clouds. 35. O God! thou art
terrible out of thy holy places: the God of Israel himself shall give strength
and power unto his people. Blessed be
God!
31.
Princes shall come out of
Egypt. He resumes the strain of
thanksgiving, and confirms what he had previously asserted, that kings would
come and pay tribute unto God. The examples which he brings forward are those of
the Egyptians and Ethiopians. This sufficiently proves that the prediction must
be extended to Christ, by whom the Egyptians and Ethiopians were brought under
the sway of God. The word
˜yrt,
tarits, translated, shall
soon stretch out, might have been
rendered, shall cause to run.
fc61 But it seemed necessary to soften
the harshness of the figure. It is doubtful whether the allusion be to the
promptness with which they should yield subjection, or whether he means that
they would stretch out their hands to entreat pardon, this being an attitude
common to suppliants. According to either interpretation, it is their submission
which is intended, and it is enough to know that David asserts that Ethiopia and
Egypt would come under the power of God, and not they only, but the most distant
parts of the world.
In the next verse he goes
farther than before, and calls upon
the kingdoms of the earth to
praise God, language which implies that
those who had once been distinguished by their hostility to him would be ranked
amongst his willing worshippers. There must be the knowledge of God, as I have
remarked elsewhere, before men can celebrate the praises of his name; and we
have a proof of the calling of the Gentiles, in the fact that Moses and the
prophets invite them to offer sacrifices of praise. That it might not seem a
strange and incredible thing to speak of the extension of the worship of God
from one land, within which it had been hitherto confined, to the whole world,
David insists upon God's rightful dominion over all parts of the earth.
He rideth upon the heaven of
heavens; that is, as we have observed at
the beginning of the psalm, he has supreme power over all creatures, and governs
the universe at his will. This truth is one which, even in its general
application, is well fitted to beget a reverential consideration of the majesty
of God; but we must not overlook the more particular reason for which it is here
introduced. Mention having been made of the Gentiles, who lay as yet without the
pale of the Church, he proves them to be embraced in the government of God by
virtue of his sovereignty as Creator, and intimates that there was nothing
wonderful in the fact, that he who sits upon the heavens should comprehend the
whole inhabitants of the earth under his sway. By the
heavens of ancient
times, it is meant to intimate that the
whole human family were under his power from the very beginning. We have a
signal proof of the glorious power of God in the fact, that, notwithstanding the
immensity of the fabric of the heavens, the rapidity of their motion, and the
conflicting revolutions which take place in them, the most perfect subordination
and harmony are preserved; and that this fair and beautiful order has been
uninterruptedly maintained for ages. It is apparent then how the ancientness of
the heavens may commend to us the singular excellency of the handiwork of God.
Having touched upon the work of creation, he particularises thunder, for
this is what he intends by a mighty voice, as in
<192904>Psalm
29:4. There are two constructions which we may put upon the words used, either
that by his voice of command he calls forth the thunders which shake heaven and
earth with the loudness of their sound, or that he sends forth his mighty voice
in the thunder. I have already shown, at some length, in commenting upon the
other passage just quoted, that there is a propriety in God's being represented
as thundering; for the phenomenon is one which, more than any other,
impresses an awe upon the spirits of men. And the words are introduced with the
exclamation
lo!
or behold! the better to arrest our wandering thoughts, or rather to
reprehend our security.
34.
Give strength unto God over
Israel. The expression is in allusion to
the sentence which went before, and in which God was said to send forth a strong
or mighty voice. Not that, properly speaking, we can give anything to Him, but,
disposed as we are to withhold that honor which is his due, David subjoins to
what he had said of his thundering with a mighty voice, an injunction that we
should, on our part, be ready to sound forth his praises. To guard the Gentile
nations against those false ideas upon religion in which they were accustomed to
indulge, he brings them back to the doctrine of the Law, in which God had
specially revealed himself, and intimates that, if they would not lose
themselves in error, they must advance by necessary steps from the creation and
government of the world, to that doctrine in which God had condescended to make
a familiar revelation of himself to men. So much is included when God is spoken
of here as the God of
Israel. But he does not satisfy himself
with enjoining them to celebrate the power of God with praises of the voice. He
exhorts them to the exercise of faith, for in reality we cannot better ascribe
strength unto God, than by reposing in his protection as all-sufficient. Thus,
after having said that his
strength is in the
clouds;
fc62 he adds, that
he is terrible out of his holy
places, by which is meant, that he
exerts a power in his temple which is sufficient to confound his enemies. Some
understand heaven and earth to be the
holy
places intended, but this does not agree
with the context, for it is immediately added, that
the God of
Israel would give strength unto his
people. It is evident, therefore, that the Psalmist speaks of God's protection
of his Church. The plural number is used in speaking of the sanctuary, here as
in other places, because the tabernacle was divided into three parts. He points,
in short, to the ark of the covenant, as that which the believing people of God
should recognize as a symbol of confidence, remembering the promise, “I
will dwell in the midst of you,” and thus resting with security under the
wings of the Divine protection, and confidently calling upon his name. Any right
which Israel might have in distinction from others to trust in the guardianship
of God, rested entirely upon that covenant of free grace by which they had been
chosen to be God's peculiar heritage. Let it be remembered, however, that God
continues to exert in behalf of his Church still these terrible displays of his
power of which the Psalmist speaks.
PSALM
69
There is a close resemblance between this psalm and
the twenty-second. In the opening verses, David complains of the barbarous
cruelty of his enemies, and of the grievous wrongs which they had inflicted upon
him.
fc63 But his mind, he affirms, was not hereby
reduced to such a state of distress as to prevent him from patiently relying on
the protection of God, or to discourage him from continuing in the undeviating
course of a holy and an upright life. He rather testifies that his piety, and
the courage and activity which he had manifested in maintaining the interests of
the divine glory, were the cause of the hostility borne to him by the generality
of men. After having again complained of being not less shamefully than cruelly
oppressed by his enemies, he invokes God to visit them with deserved punishment.
In the close, exulting as if he had obtained his highest wishes, he engages to
yield to God a solemn sacrifice of praise.
To the chief
musician upon Shoshannim of David.
We have already spoken elsewhere of the word
Shoshannim. Its proper meaning is uncertain and obscure; but the most
probable conjecture is, that it was the commencement of some song. If, however,
any would prefer considering it as the name of some musical instrument, I have
no objections. But the opinion held by some that this psalm was composed at the
season of spring, when the lilies begin to blossom, is altogether unfounded and
frivolous.
fc64 Before proceeding farther, we would have
you to observe that David wrote this inspired ode not so much in his own name,
as in the name of the whole Church, of whose Head he was an eminent type, as
will be more dearly brought out in the sequel. This is highly worthy of our
notice, that from this consideration we may be led to contemplate with the
greater attention the representation which is here given of the common condition
of all the people of God. Besides, it is highly probable that David did not here
comprehend only one kind of persecution, but all the evils which he had suffered
during the course of many
years.
Psalm
69:1-5
1. Save me, O God! for the
waters have entered in unto my soul. 2. I am sunk in deep mire, where
there is no footing, [or standing place:] I am come into deep waters, and the
flood
fc65 of the water overfloweth me. 3. I
am weary of crying; my throat has become hoarse therewith: my eyes have failed
with [or in] waiting for my God. 4. They who hate me without cause are
more in number than the hairs of my head: my lying adversaries, who eagerly
desire to destroy me, are increased;
fc66 that which I took not by spoil,
then
fc67 I restored it. 5. O God! thou
knowest my foolishness; and my faults are not hidden from
thee.
1.
Save me, O God! for the
waters, etc. Under the figure of
waters, the Psalmist represents his condition as so extremely distressing
that it brought him even to the brink of despair; and yet we know that, so far
from being a soft and an effeminate person, he was one who encountered and
overcame dreadful temptations with extraordinary courage. Whence we may infer
the bitterness of the distress with which he was at that time afflicted. Some
understand the word
soul
as denoting life;
fc68 but this gives a very cold and
unsatisfactory meaning. It rather signifies the heart. A man when he
falls into an abyss of waters, may prevent for some time the water from entering
his body, by stopping his mouth and his nostrils, but at length, from its being
impossible for a human being to live without respiration, suffocation will
compel him to let in the waters, and they will penetrate even to the heart.
David by this metaphor would intimate, not only that the waters had covered and
overwhelmed him, but also that he had been forced to draw them into his
body.
2.
I am sunk in deep mire, where there is no standing
place. Here he compares his afflictions
to a deep sink of mire, where there is still greater danger; for if a man fixes
his feet upon a solid bottom, he may raise himself up, there having been many
instances in which persons, placing their feet on the bottom, have by a sudden
spring emerged and escaped the peril of the waters; but when a man finds himself
once sunk in some slough or muddy river, it is all over with him, he has no
means of saving himself.
fc69 The Psalmist adduces additional
circumstances in illustration of his afflicted condition. He declares that
he was inundated by the flowing
of the waters; an expression indicating
the disorder and confusion which his distresses and persecutions
produced.
3.
I am weary of crying. David, in seeking
and calling upon God, when his affairs were in such a confused and desperate
condition, exhibited an instance of rare and wonderful patience. He complains of
having continued crying until he was exhausted and became hoarse, and all to no
purpose. By the word
weary,
he does not mean that he gave up with prayer, as if he had cast from him all
love to and delight in that exercise upon finding that it proved unavailing as a
means of deliverance. He rather describes his untiring perseverance; and the
same idea is expressed by his
hoarse
throat and
failing
eyes.
fc70 He certainly did not cry out
before men from mere affectation, nor was this hoarseness contracted in the
course of one day. We perceive, then, that although his bodily senses failed
him, the vigor of his faith was by no means extinguished. When we reflect that
David has spoken, as it were, out of the mouth of Christ, and, as it were, out
of the mouth of all true saints who are the members of Christ, we ought not to
think that any strange thing happens to us, if at any time we are so overwhelmed
with death, as to be unable to discern the slightest hope of life. Yea, rather
let us learn betimes, while God spares us, to meditate on this truth, and derive
the aid which it is fitted to impart under calamity, that even in the most
profound depths of adversity faith may hold us up, and, what is more, may
elevate us to God; there being, as Paul testifies,
(<450839>Romans
8:39) no height nor depth which can separate us from the infinite love of Him
who swallows up all depths, yea, even hell
itself.
4.
They who hate me without
cause are more in number than the hairs of my
head. The Psalmist now expresses without
figure what he had said under the metaphors of the mire and of the impetuous
rushing of the waters. Persecuted as he was by so great a multitude of enemies,
he had too good reason to be afraid of death in innumerable ways. Nor is his
language hyperbolical, when he represents his enemies as
more in number than the hairs of
his head, since he was mortally hated
and detested by the whole kingdom, it being the universal belief that he was a
base and wicked traitor to his country. Farther, we know from the sacred history
how numerous and powerful the armies were which Saul sent forth to pursue him.
He expresses the mortal hatred which they bore to him, when he tells us that
they were intently set upon his destruction, being eagerly desirous to have him
cut off by a violent death; and yet he avows that he had done nothing to merit
such unrelenting persecution. The Hebrew word
µnj,
chinnam, which we have rendered,
without
cause, and which some translate, for
nothing, intimates that they were impelled by a strong desire to do him
injury, although he had not done them even the slightest wrong, nor given them
the smallest provocation by ill usage of any kind. For this reason he applies to
his enemies the appellation
rqç,
sheker, that is, liars, because they had no just ground to make
war upon him, although they pretended the contrary. Let us, therefore, after his
example, if at any time we are subjected to persecution, study to have the
support arising from the testimony of a good conscience, and to be able freely
to protest before God, that the hatred which our enemies cherish against us is
altogether causeless. This implies a self-control to which it is very difficult
for a man to inure himself; but the more difficult it is, the more strenuous
ought to be his efforts to attain it. It is mere effeminacy to regard it as an
intolerable evil to be unrighteously afflicted; and the folly of this is very
happily exposed by that noble answer of Socrates to his wife, who, having one
day lamented, in prison, that he was condemned wrongfully, received from him
this reply, “What then — would you rather that I should have
suffered death for my offenses?” Farther, David adds, that he not only had
to suffer the wrongs of violence, but had also to bear much reviling and
contumely, as if he had been convicted of many crimes; a trial which, to an
ingenuous mind, is more bitter and hard to bear than a hundred deaths. Many are
to be found resolutely prepared to encounter death, who are by no means prepared
to exhibit equal fortitude in the endurance of shame. Farther, David was not
only despoiled of his goods by the violence of robbers, but he had been also
mangled in his person, as if he had been a thief and a robber:
That which I took not by spoil,
then I restored
it.
fc71 When his enemies thus plundered
and maltreated him, they doubtless boasted that they were acting as the judges
of a perverse and wicked man; and we know that they were held in honorable
estimation as judges. Let us therefore learn from this example to prepare
ourselves not only to bear patiently all losses and troubles, yea, even death
itself; but also shame and reproach, if at any time we are loaded with unfounded
accusations. Christ himself, the fountain of all righteousness and holiness, was
not exempted from foul calumny, why then should we be dismayed when we meet with
a similar trial? It may well fortify our minds against it when we consider, that
to persevere steadfastly in the practice of righteousness, although such is the
reward which we receive from the world, is the genuine test of our
integrity.
5.
O God! thou knowest my
foolishness. Augustine has labored to
little purpose to show in what way these words are applicable to Christ; and at
length he transfers to his members that which could not properly be said of the
Head.
fc72 David here uses the language of irony;
and by this mode of expressing himself he meant to intimate, that, overwhelmed
with the unrighteous judgments of men, he betakes himself to God, and implores
him to appear as the defender of his cause. This is much more emphatic than if
he had affirmed plainly, and without figure, that his integrity was known to
God. In this way he administers a sharp rebuke to his enemies, and as it were
looks down with a noble contempt upon the calumnious speeches which they uttered
against him; as Jeremiah does when he says,
“O Lord! thou hast
deceived me, and I was
deceived.”
(<192007>Psalm
20:7)
Some ignorant people put a violent construction on
these words of Jeremiah, as if they implied that he was actually deceived;
whereas he is rather to be understood as deriding with bitter sarcasm his
calumniators, who, in speaking evil of him, were chargeable with reproaching and
blaspheming God himself. David in like manner, in the passage before us, as a
means of preserving himself from succumbing under the perverse judgments of men,
appeals to God as the judge of his cause; and possessing as he did the approving
testimony of a good conscience, he regards in a great measure with indifference
the unjust estimate which men might form of his character. It were indeed
desirable that our integrity should also be acknowledged and approved of by men,
and that not so much on our own account as for the edification of our brethren.
But if, after we have done all in our power to make men form a favorable opinion
respecting us, they misconstruct and pervert every good word which we utter, and
every good action which we perform, we ought to maintain such greatness of mind
as boldly to despise the world and all false accusers, resting contented with
the judgment of God and with that alone; for those who are over anxious about
maintaining their good name cannot but often experience fainting of heart. Let
us be always ready to satisfy men; but if they refuse to listen to what we have
to say in self-vindication, let us proceed in our course through evil report as
well as good report, following the example of Paul where he fearlessly appeals
to the judgment of God,
“who will bring to
light the hidden things of
dark,”
(<460405>1
Corinthians 4:5)
Psalm
69:6-9
6. O Jehovah, Lord of Hosts!
let not them that wait for thee be ashamed in me: let not them who seek thee be
put to shame in me, O God of Israel! 7. For on thy account I have
suffered reproach: shame hath covered my face. 8. I have been a stranger
to my brethren, and am become an alien to the children of my
mother. fc73
9. For the zeal of thy house hath
eaten me up; and the reproach of them that reproached thee are fallen upon
me.
6.
O Jehovah, Lord of Hosts! let not them that wait for thee be ashamed in
me. David declares that he is set forth as an
example from which all the people of God may derive matter either of hope or
despair. Although he was held in detestation and execrated by the great body of
the people, there yet remained a few who were ready to bear just and impartial
testimony to his innocence; knowing as they did that he was unrighteously
afflicted by his persecutors, that he constantly reposed on the grace and
goodness of God, and that no temptations could discourage or prevent him from
continuing steadfast in the practice of true godliness. But when they observed
the distresses and calamities to which he was notwithstanding subjected, the
only conclusion to which they were able to arrive was, that all the pains and
labor which he had taken in devoutly serving God were entirely thrown away. As
all the instances in which God extends his succor to his servants are so many
seals, by which he confirms and gives us assurance of his goodness and grace
towards us, the faithful must have been exceedingly discouraged had David been
forsaken in the extremity of his distress. The danger of their being thus
discouraged he now lays before God; not that God has ever need of being put in
mind of any thing, but because he allows us to deal familiarly with him at the
throne of grace. The word wait is properly to be understood of hope, and
the expression to seek God, of prayer. The connecting of the two together
teaches us the profitable lesson, that faith is not all inactive principle,
since it is the means of stirring us up to seek
God.
7.
For on thy account I have
suffered reproach. He now expresses more
distinctly what he had stated ironically in the fifth verse, where he asserts
that his faults were not hidden from God. Nay, he proceeds farther, declaring
not only that the evil treatment which he met with from his enemies was unjust
and altogether unmerited, but also that his cause was really God's cause, since
whatever he had undertaken and engaged in was expressly in obedience to the
command of God. Saul no doubt had other reasons, or at least other pretences,
for persecuting David; but as the hatred which he entertained against him most
unquestionably proceeded from God's having called and anointed him to be king,
David here justly protests that it was not for any wickedness which he had
committed, but because he had obeyed God, that men in general disapproved of and
rashly condemned him. It is a source of great consolation to true believers when
they can protest that they have the warrant and call of God for whatever they
undertake or engage in. If we are hated by the world for making a public
confession of the faith, a thing which we are to expect, it being evident from
observation that the wicked ordinarily are never more fierce than when they
assault the truth of God and the true religion, we have ground to entertain
double confidence.
fc74 We also learn from this passage how
monstrous is the malice of men, who convert into a ground for reproach and
reprehension the zeal for the Divine glory by which true believers are
animated.
fc75 But it is well for us that God not only
wipes away the reproaches with which the wicked load us, but also so ennobles
them, that they surpass all the honors and triumphs of the world. The Psalmist
farther aggravates his complaint by the additional circumstance, that he was
cruelly cast off by his own relations and friends; from which we are taught,
that when by our devotedness to the cause of religion we cannot avoid exciting
the displeasure of our brethren against us, it is our duty simply to follow God,
and not to confer with flesh and
blood.
9.
For the zeal of thy house
hath eaten me
up.
fc76 David's enemies, no doubt,
professed that nothing was farther from their mind than to touch the sacred name
of God; but he reproves their hypocritical pretences, and affirms that he is
fighting in God's quarrel. The manner in which he did this, he shows, was by the
zeal for the Church of God with which his soul was inflamed. He not only assigns
the cause of the evil treatment which he received — his zeal for the house
of God — but also declares that whatever evil treatment he was
undeservedly made the object of, yet, as it were, forgetting himself, he burned
with a holy zeal to maintain the Church, and at the same time the glory of God,
with which it is inseparably connected. To make this the more obvious, let it be
observed, that although all boast in words of allowing to God the glory which
belongs to him; yet when the law, the rule of virtuous and holy living, presents
its claims to them, men only mock him, and not only so, but they furiously rush
against him by the opposition which they make to his Word. They do this as if he
willed to be honored and served merely with the breath of the lip, and had not
rather erected a throne among men, from which to govern them by laws. David,
therefore, here places the Church in the room of God; not that it was his
intention to transfer to the Church what is proper to God, but to show the
vanity of the pretensions which men make of being the people of God, when they
shake themselves loose from the control of God's holy law, of which the Church
is the faithful guardian. Besides, David had to deal with a class of men who,
although a hypocritical and bastard race, professed to be the people of God; for
all who adhered to Saul boasted of having a place in the Church, and stigmatised
David as an apostate or a rotten member. With this unworthy treatment David was
so far from being discouraged, that he willingly sustained all assaults for the
defense of the true Church. He declares that he is unmoved by all the wrongs and
revilings which he personally suffered at the hands of his enemies. Laying aside
all concern about himself, he is disquieted and distressed only for the
oppressed condition of the Church, or rather burns with anguish, and is consumed
with the vehemence of his grief.
The second
clause of the verse is to the same effect, denoting that he has nothing separate
from God. Some explain it in a different sense, understanding it to mean that
the wicked and proud, with the view of making an assault upon David, directed
their fury and violence against God himself, and in this way indirectly pierced
the heart of this holy man with their blasphemies, knowing as they did that
nothing would be more grievous to him to bear than this. But this interpretation
is too forced. Equally forced is that of those who consider David as intimating
that he did not less prostrate himself in humble supplication at the mercy-seat
whenever he heard the name of God torn by reproaches and blasphemy, than if he
himself had been guilty of treason against the Divine Majesty. I therefore
adhere to the opinion which I have already expressed, That David forgot what
concerned himself, and that all the grief which he felt proceeded from the holy
zeal with which he burned when he saw the sacred name of God insulted and
outraged with horrible blasphemies. By this example we are taught, that whereas
we are naturally so tender and delicate as to be unable to bear ignominy and
reproach, we must endeavor to get quit of this unhappy state of mind, and ought
rather to be grieved and agonised with the reproaches which are poured forth
against God. On account of these, it becomes us to feel deep indignation, and
even to give expression to this in strong language; but we ought to bear the
wrongs and reproaches which we personally suffer without complaining. Until we
have learned to set very little value upon our own reputation, we will never be
inflamed with true zeal in contending for the preservation and advancement of
the interests of the Divine glory. Besides, as David speaks in the name of the
whole Church, whatever he says concerning himself behoved to be fulfilled in the
supreme Head. It is, therefore, not surprising to find the Evangelists applying
this passage to Christ,
(<430217>John
2:17.) In like manner, Paul, in
<451503>Romans
15:3, 5, 6, exhorting the faithful to imitate Christ, applies the second member
to them all, and there also teaches us that the doctrine contained in it is very
comprehensive, requiring them to devote themselves wholly to the advancement of
the Divine glory, to endeavor in all their words and actions to preserve it
unimpaired, and to be carefully on their guard that it may not be obscured by
any fault of theirs. Since Christ, in whom there shines forth all the majesty of
Deity, did not hesitate to expose himself to every species of reproach for the
maintenance of his Father's glory, how base and shameful will it be for us to
shrink from a similar lot.
Psalm
69:10-13
10. And I wept, my soul
fasted; and that was laid to me as a reproach. 11. I also made sackcloth
my clothing: and I became a proverb to them. 12. They who sit in the gate
defame me: and I am the song of those who drink intoxicating liquor. 13.
But as for me, my prayer is to thee, O Jehovah! in a time of thy favor, [or
good-will,] O God: answer me in the multitude of thy mercy, in the truth of thy
salvation.
10.
And I wept, my soul
fasted. David here proves, by the signs
or effects, that his efforts to promote the Divine glory proceeded from a pure
and well-regulated zeal, inasmuch as he was not impelled or inflamed by the
impetuosity of the flesh, but rather humbly abased himself before God, choosing
him to be the witness of his sorrow. By this he shows the more evidently the
incorrigible perversity of his enemies. It frequently happens, that those who
set themselves boldly for the vindication of the glory of God, provoke and
exasperate the wicked to a higher pitch by opposing them contentiously and
without moderation. But David's zeal was so tempered that it ought to have
softened even the hardness of steel. By this circumstance he, however, intended
to show that he was oppressed with such violence by the frowardness of his
enemies, that he dared not even open his mouth to speak a single word in defense
of the cause of God, and no other means were left him of defending it but tears
and mourning. He was deprived, as we know, of the liberty of giving utterance to
the sentiments of his heart, or rather his words, as being those of a condemned
person, would have been repelled with cruel reproaches. It was a proof of the
greater constancy when in such circumstances he continued to burn with a zeal as
unabated as ever, and persevered in the voluntary sorrow which he had engaged to
exercise with the view of maintaining the honor and glory of God. He accordingly
declares, that he wept and that his soul fasted, and that he was clothed with
sackcloth; which were the tokens of mourning among the Jews. But his enemies
turned all these things into mockery and
jesting;
fc77 from which it is manifest that they were
carried away with the fury of demons. It is of importance for us to be fortified
with such an example, that in the present day we may not be discouraged when we
meet with the same perversity by which the enemies of the Gospel prove
themselves to be rather devils than men. We must, however, beware of
pouring oil upon the fire which is already burning too fiercely, and should
rather imitate David and Lot, who, although they had not liberty to rebuke the
wicked, were yet deeply grieved in their hearts. And even when the wicked are
constrained to hear us, mildness and humility will be a powerful means, or
rather will be the best seasoning, for tempering holy zeal. Those who conceive
of David as intimating that he resigned himself to suffer punishment in the room
or stead of his enemies, attempt to confirm their opinion from his having
clothed himself in sackcloth. But I take it more simply as meaning, that when he
saw things in such a state of confusion, he voluntarily engaged in this
sorrowful exercise to testify that nothing was more grievous to him than to
witness the sacred name of God exposed to
contumely.
12.
They who sit in the gate
defame me. Had David been molested only
by vulgar buffoons and the refuse of the people, it would have been more easily
endured; for it is not surprising that mean persons, who have no regard to what
is becoming and honorable, degrade themselves by indulging in defamation without
shame. But when the very judges, forgetful of what is demanded by the dignity of
their office, abandon themselves to the same audacious conduct, the iniquity and
baseness of it is greatly aggravated. Accordingly, David expressly complains
that he was made a by-word and a proverb by those in the highest ranks of life.
The opinion of some who, by the expression,
they who sit in the
gate, understand the whole
people,
fc78 is both frigid and inconsistent with the
words of the text; for although men of every rank and condition assembled at the
gates, yet none but the judges and counsellors sat
there.
fc79 This is confirmed by the second clause
of the verse; for by those who
drink strong
drink,
fc80 is doubtless meant the rulers who were
elevated by their wealth and dignity. It was, indeed, very cruel treatment, that
this holy man was not only harassed by the lower classes of the people, but that
the very persons who presided in the cause of justice, and the dignitaries of
the Church, were in this ringleaders to others. As the same thing happens in our
own day, it is not without cause that the Holy Spirit has set this example
before our eyes. In the Papacy we find that the higher a man is exalted in
honor, he is proportionally the more violent and outrageous in his opposition to
the Gospel and its ministers, that he may exhibit himself a more valiant
defender of the Catholic faith. Yea, this is a malady with which almost all
kings and princes are smitten; which arises from their not regarding true
dignity and excellence as consisting in virtue, and from their thinking that
they are entitled to act without restraint as they please. And what is the
estimation in which they hold the faithful servants of Christ? It is a fact
which cannot be denied, that one of the principal things about which they are
concerned is, to scoff at and defame them, not only at their tables, but also on
their thrones, in order, if possible, to shame them into a renunciation of their
faith. In general, also, they sneer at all the people of God, and enjoy
themselves in descanting upon their simplicity, as if they were fools in
wearying and wasting themselves in the service of
God.
13.
But as for me, my prayer is to
thee, O Jehovah! It was a sign of
uncommon virtue in David, that even this hard treatment could not shake his
mind, and sink him into despondency. He informs us of the means by which he
fortified himself against that terrible stumbling-block. When the wicked
directed against him their witty and scoffing remarks, as if engines of war, to
overthrow his faith, the means to which he had recourse for repelling all their
assaults was pouring out his heart in prayer to God. He was constrained to keep
silence before men, and, being thus driven out from the world, he betook himself
to God. In like manner, although the faithful in the present day may be unable
to make any impression upon the wicked, yet they will ultimately triumph,
provided they retire from the world, and go directly to God to present their
prayers before him. The meaning, in short, is, that David, having tried every
means in his power, and finding that his labor was to no purpose, left off
dealing with men, and dealt with God only. What follows,
a time of thy favor, O
God! is explained otherwise by many
interpreters, who read the two clauses of the verse in one sentence,
thus: But as for me, I prayed to
God in a time of his favor;
corresponding to that passage in
<235506>Isaiah
55:6, “Call ye upon him while he is near.” Others resolve it thus:
I prayed that the time of favor might come, and that God would begin to be
merciful to me. But David is rather speaking of the consolation which he
then received by reflecting with himself, that although it was now a time of
trouble with him, and although his prayers seemed to be altogether unavailing,
yet God's favor would have its turn also. Thus the Prophet Habakkuk
says,
“I will stand upon
my watch, and set me upon the tower, and
will
watch to see what he will say
unto me.”
(<350201>Habakkuk
2:1)
In like manner, Isaiah says,
“I will wait upon
the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob;”
(<230817>Isaiah
8:17)
and
<241422>Jeremiah
14:22,) “We will wait upon thee.” The only means by which, in our
affliction, we can obtain the victory, is by our having hope shining in us in
the midst of darkness, and by our having the sustaining influence which arises
from waiting for the favor of God. After David has thus fortified himself for
continued perseverance in the attitude of waiting, he immediately adds,
Answer me in the multitude of thy
goodness; and to goodness he
joins the truth of
salvation,
fc81 intimating that God's mercy is
proved by indubitable effect when he succours his servants who are reduced to
the very depths of despair. What prompted him to present this prayer was, the
full persuasion which he had, that the darkness in which he was now involved
would in due time be dispelled, and that a serene and unclouded season of God's
favor would succeed; a persuasion which arose from his recalling all his
thoughts to God, lest he should faint by reason of the harassing treatment which
he met with from the wicked.
Psalm
69:14-18
14. Deliver me from the
mire, that I may not sink: let me be delivered from my adversaries, and from the
deep waters. 15. Let not the flood of waters overflow me; and let not the
deep swallow me up; and let not the
pit
fc82 close its mouth upon me. 16.
Answer me, O Jehovah! for thy mercy
fc83 is good: in the multitude of thy
compassions
fc84 look upon me. 17. And hide not
thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hasten! answer me! 18.
Draw near to my soul, redeem it; deliver me, on account of my
enemies.
14.
Deliver me from the mire, that I
may not sink. The Psalmist repeats the same
similitude which he had used before, but in a different manner. He had
previously said that he was sunk in the mire, and now he prays that he may not
sink in it. In short, he now prays that those things may not now befall him
which he had formerly complained of as having befallen him. But it is very easy
to reconcile this diversity of statement; for in the opening of the psalm he
spake according to his actual feeling and experience; but now, looking to the
issue, although living in the midst of death, he cherishes the hope of
deliverance. This is expressed still more clearly in the last clause of the 15th
verse, where he prays, Let not
the pit close its mouth upon me; which
is as if he had said, Let not the great multitude and weight of my afflictions
overwhelm me, and let not sorrow swallow me
up.
16.
Answer me, O Jehovah! for thy mercy is good.
The appeal which he here makes to the mercy and compassion of God is an
evidence of the distressed condition into which he was brought. There can be no
doubt that he sustained a dreadful conflict, when he had recourse to these as
the only means of his safety. It is a very difficult matter to believe that God
is merciful to us when he is angry with us, and that he is near us when he has
withdrawn himself from us. David, aware of this, brings to his view a subject
which he may oppose to this distrust, and by pleading for the exercise of the
mercy and great compassions of God towards him, shows, that the only
consideration which inspired him with hope was the benignant and merciful
character of God. When he says, a little after,
Look upon
me, it is a prayer that God would make
it manifest in very deed that he had heard him by granting him succor. In the
following verse he utters a similar prayer. And by repeating so often the same
things, he declares both the bitterness of his grief and the ardor of his
desires. When he beseeches God not to hide his face, it is not from any
apprehension which he entertained of being rejected, but because those who are
oppressed with calamities cannot avoid being agitated and distracted with mental
disquietude. But as God, in a peculiar manner, invites his servants to him,
David avows that he is one of their number. In thus speaking, as I have already
shown, and will afterwards have occasion to state at greater length, he does not
boast of services on account of which he could prefer any claim to a divine
reward, but rather depends on the gratuitous election of God; although, at the
same time, he is to be understood as adducing the service which he had
faithfully yielded to God by whom he was called, as an evidence of his
godliness.
18.
Draw near to my soul, redeem it. David
was doubtless fully persuaded by faith that God was near him; but as we are
accustomed to measure the presence or absence of God by the effects, David here
tacitly complains, judging according to the flesh, that he is far from him. By
the expression, Draw
near, he means, that in so far as could
be gathered from his actual condition, God appeared to have no regard to his
welfare. Again, by calling upon God
to draw near to his
life, which he seemed to have forsaken,
he exhibits a striking proof of the strength of his faith. The more cruelly he
is molested by the wicked and proud, the more does he trust that God will appear
to deliver him. As has been elsewhere observed, it is always to be held as an
undoubted truth, that since “God resisteth the proud”
(<590406>James
4:6,) he must at length repress the insolence and pride of those who obstinately
resist him, although he may seem to c