BIBLES NET. COM
Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
on the Whole Bible
Back to Biblesnet.com Home Page
|
[Previous] [Next] |
Matthew Henry |
P S A L M S
PSALM XXXIX.
David seems to have been in a great strait when he penned this psalm,
and, upon some account or other, very uneasy; for it is with some
difficulty that he conquers his passion, and composes his spirit
himself to take that good counsel which he had given to others
(xxxvii.)
to rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him, without fretting; for
it is easier to give the good advice than to give the good example of
quietness under affliction. What was the particular trouble which gave
occasion for the conflict David was now in does not appear. Perhaps it
was the death of some dear friend or relation that was the trial of his
patience, and that suggested to him these meditations of morality; and
at the same time, it should seem too, he himself was weak and ill, and
under some prevailing distemper. His enemies likewise were seeking
advantages against him, and watched for his halting, that they might
have something to reproach him for. Thus aggrieved,
I. He relates the struggle that was in his breast between grace and
corruption, between passion and patience,
II. He meditates upon the doctrine of man’s frailty and mortality, and
prays to God to instruct him in it,
III. He applies to God for the pardon of his sons, the removal of his
afflictions, and the lengthening out of his life till he was ready for
death,
This is a funeral psalm, and very proper for the occasion; in singing
it we should get our hearts duly affected with the brevity,
uncertainty, and calamitous state of human life; and those on whose
comforts God has, by death, made breaches, will find this psalm of
great use to them, in order to their obtaining what we ought much to
aim at under such an affliction, which is to get it sanctified to us
for our spiritual benefit and to get our hearts reconciled to the holy
will of God in it.
| Devout Reflections; Brevity and Vanity of Life. | |
|
|
|
To the chief musician, even to Jeduthun. A psalm of David.
1 I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with
my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked
is before me.
2 I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good;
and my sorrow was stirred.
3 My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire
burned: then spake I with my tongue,
4 LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days,
what it is; that I may know how frail I am.
5 Behold, thou hast made my days as a handbreadth; and mine
age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best
state is altogether vanity. Selah.
6 Surely every man walketh in a vain show: surely they are
disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who
shall gather them.
David here recollects, and leaves upon record, the workings of his
heart under his afflictions; and it is good for us to do so, that what
was thought amiss may be amended, and what was well thought of may be
improved the next time.
I. He remembered the covenants he had made with God to walk
circumspectly, and to be very cautious both of what he did and what he
said. When at any time we are tempted to sin, and are in danger of
falling into it, we must call to mind the solemn vows we have made
against sin, against the particular sin we are upon the brink of. God
can, and will, remind us of them
Thou saidst, I will not transgress), and therefore we ought to
remind ourselves of them. So David did here.
1. He remembers that he had resolved, in general, to be very cautious
and circumspect in his walking
(v. 1):
I said, I will take heed to my ways; and it was well said, and
what he would never unsay and therefore must never gainsay. Note,
(1.) It is the great concern of every one of us to take heed to our
ways, that is, to walk circumspectly, while others walk at all
adventures.
(2.) We ought stedfastly to resolve that we will take heed to our ways,
and frequently to renew that resolution. Fast bind, fast find.
(3.) Having resolved to take heed to our ways, we must, upon all
occasions, remind ourselves of that resolution, for it is a covenant
never to be forgotten, but which we must be always mindful of.
2. He remembers that he had in particular covenanted against
tongue-sins–that he would not sin with his tongue, that he would not
speak amiss, either to offend God or offend the generation of the
righteous,
Ps. lxxiii. 15.
It is not so easy as we could wish not to sin
in thought; but, if an evil thought should arise in his mind, he would
lay his hand upon his mouth, and suppress it, that it should go no
further: and this is so great an attainment that, if any offend not
in word, the same is a perfect man; and so needful a one that of
him who seems to be religious, but bridles not his tongue, it is
declared His religion is vain. David had resolved,
(1.) That he would at all times watch against tongue-sins: “I will
keep a bridle, or muzzle, upon my mouth.” He would keep a
bridle upon it, as upon the head; watchfulness in the act and exercise
is the hand upon the bridle. He would keep a muzzle upon it, as upon an
unruly dog that is fierce and does mischief; by particular stedfast
resolution corruption is restrained from breaking out at the lips, and
so is muzzled.
(2.) That he would double his guard against them when there was most
danger of scandal–when the wicked is before me. When he was in
company with the wicked he would take heed of saying any thing that
might harden them or give occasion to them to blaspheme. If good men
fall into bad company, they must take heed what they say. Or, when
the wicked is before me, in my thoughts. When he was contemplating
the pride and power, the prosperity and flourishing estate, of
evil-doers, he was tempted to speak amiss; and therefore then he would
take special care what he said. Note, The stronger the temptation to a
sin is the stronger the resolution must be against it.
II. Pursuant to these covenants he made a shift with much ado to bridle
his tongue
(v. 2):
I was dumb with silence; I held my peace even from good. His
silence was commendable; and the greater the provocation was the more
praiseworthy was his silence. Watchfulness and resolution, in the
strength of God’s grace, will do more towards the bridling of the
tongue than we can imagine, though it be an unruly evil. But what shall
we say of his keeping silence even from good? Was it his wisdom
that he refrained from good discourse when the wicked were before him,
because he would not cast pearls before swine? I rather think it was
his weakness; because he might not say any thing, he would say nothing,
but ran into an extreme, which was a reproach to the law, for that
prescribes a mean between extremes. The same law which forbids all
corrupt communication requires that which is good and to the use of
edifying,
Eph. iv. 29.
III. The less he spoke the more he thought and the more warmly. Binding
the distempered part did but draw the humour to it: My sorrow was
stirred, my heart was hot within me,
v. 3.
He could bridle his tongue, but he could not keep his passion under;
though he suppressed the smoke, that was as a fire in his bones, and,
while he was musing upon his afflictions and upon the prosperity of the
wicked, the fire burned. Note, Those that are of a fretful discontented
spirit ought not to pore much, for, while they suffer their thoughts to
dwell upon the causes of the calamity, the fire of their discontent is
fed with fuel and burns the more furiously. Impatience is a sin that
has its ill cause within ourselves, and that is musing, and its ill
effects upon ourselves, and that is no less than burning. If therefore
we would prevent the mischief of ungoverned passions, we must redress
the grievance of ungoverned thoughts.
IV. When he did speak, at last, it was to the purpose: At the last I
spoke with my tongue. Some make what he said to be the breach of
his good purpose, and conclude that, in what he said, he sinned with
his tongue; and so they make what follows to be a passionate wish
that he might die, like Elijah
and Job,
But I rather take it to be, not the breach of his good purpose, but the
reformation of his mistake in carrying it too far; he had kept silence
from good, but now he would so keep silence no longer. He had nothing
to say to the wicked that were before him, for to them he knew not how
to place his words, but, after long musing, the first word he said was
a prayer, and a devout meditation upon a subject which it will be good
for us all to think much of.
1. He prays to God to make him sensible of the shortness and
uncertainty of life and the near approach of death
(v. 4):
Lord, make me to know my end and the measure of my days. He does
not mean, “Lord, let me know how long I shall live and when I shall
die.” We could not, in faith, pray such a prayer; for God has nowhere
promised to let us know, but has, in wisdom, locked up that knowledge
among the secret things which belong not to us, nor would it be good
for us to know it. But, Lord, make me to know my end, means,
“Lord, give me wisdom and grace to consider it
and to improve what I know concerning it.” The living know that they
shall die
(Eccl. ix. 5),
but few care for thinking of death; we have therefore need to pray that
God by his grace would conquer that aversion which is in our corrupt
hearts to the thoughts of death. “Lord, make me to consider,”
(1.) “What death is. It is my end, the end of my life, and all the
employments and enjoyments of life. It is the end of all men,”
It is a final period to our state of probation and preparation, and an
awful entrance upon a state of recompence and retribution. To the
wicked man it is the end of all joys; to a godly man it is the end of
all griefs. “Lord, give me to know my end, to be better acquainted with
death, to make it more familiar to me
(Job xvii. 14),
and to be more affected with the greatness of the change. Lord, give me
to consider what a serious thing it is to die.”
(2.) “How near it is. Lord, give me to consider the measure of my
days, that they are measured in the counsel of God” (the end is a fixed
end, so the word signifies; my days are determined,
Job xiv. 5)
“and that the measure is but short: My days will soon be numbered and
finished.” When we look upon death as a thing at a distance we are
tempted to adjourn the necessary preparations for it; but, when we
consider how short life is, we shall see ourselves concerned to do what
our hand finds to do, not only with all our might, but with all
possible expedition.
(3.) That it is continually working in us: “Lord, give me to consider
how frail I am, how scanty the stock of life is, and how faint the
spirits which are as the oil to keep that lamp burning.” We find by
daily experience that the earthly house of this tabernacle is
mouldering and going to decay: “Lord, make us to consider this, that we
may secure mansions in the house not made with hands.”
2. He meditates upon the brevity and vanity of life, pleading them with
God for relief under the burdens of life, as Job often, and pleading
them with himself for his quickening to the business of life.
(1.) Man’s life on earth is short and of no continuance, and that is a
reason why we should sit loose to it and prepare for the end of it
(v. 5):
Behold, thou hast made my days as a hand-breadth, the breadth of
four fingers, a certain dimension, a small one, and the measure whereof
we have always about us, always before our eyes. We need no rod, no
pole, no measuring line, wherewith to take the dimension of our days,
nor any skill in arithmetic wherewith to compute the number of them.
No; we have the standard of them at our fingers’ end, and there is no
multiplication of it; it is but one hand-breadth in all. Our time is
short, and God has made it so; for the number of our months is with
him. It is short, and he knows it to be so: It is as nothing
before thee. he remembers how short our time is,
Ps. lxxix. 47.
It is nothing in comparison with thee; so some. All time is
nothing to God’s eternity, much less our share of time.
(2.) Man’s life on earth is vain and of no value, and therefore it is
folly to be fond of it and wisdom to make sure of a better life. Adam
is Abel–man is vanity, in his present state. He is not what he
seems to be, has not what he promised himself. He and all his comforts
lie at a continual uncertainty; and if there were not another life
after this, all things considered, he were made in vain. He is vanity;
he is mortal, he is mutable. Observe,
[1.] How emphatically this truth is expressed here. First, Every man
is vanity, without exception; high and low, rich and poor, all meet
in this. Secondly, He is so at his best estate, when he
is young, and strong, and healthful, in wealth and honour, and the
height of prosperity; when he is most easy, and merry, and secure, and
thinks his mountain stands strong. Thirdly, He is altogether
vanity, as vain as you can imagine. All man is all vanity
(so it may be read); every thing about him is uncertain; nothing is
substantial and durable but what relates to the new man. Fourthly,
Verily he is so. This is a truth of undoubted certainty, but which
we are very unwilling to believe and need to have solemnly attested to
us, as indeed it is by frequent instances. Fifthly, Selah is
annexed, as a note commanding observation. “Stop here, and pause
awhile, that you may take time to consider and apply this truth, that
every man is vanity.” We ourselves are so.
[2.] For the proof of the vanity of man, as mortal, he here mentions
three things, and shows the vanity of each of them,
v. 6.
First, The vanity of our joys and honours: Surely every man
walks (even when he walks in state, when he walks in pleasure) in a
shadow, in an image, in a vain show. When he makes a figure his
fashion passes away, and his great pomp is but great fancy,
It is but a show, and therefore a vain show, like the rainbow, the
gaudy colours of which must needs vanish and disappear quickly when the
substratum is but a cloud, a vapour; such is life
(Jam. iv. 14),
and therefore such are all the gaieties of it. Secondly, The
vanity of our griefs and fears. Surely they are disquieted in
vain. Our disquietudes are often groundless (we vex ourselves
without any just cause, and the occasions of our trouble are often the
creatures of our own fancy and imagination), and they are always
fruitless; we disquiet ourselves in vain, for we cannot, with all our
disquietment, alter the nature of things nor the counsel of God; things
will be as they are when we have disquieted ourselves ever so much
about them. Thirdly, The vanity of our cares and toils. Man
takes a great deal of pains to heap up riches, and they are but
like heaps of manure in the furrows of the field, good for nothing
unless they be spread. But, when he has filled his treasures with his
trash, he knows not who shall gather them, nor to whom they
shall descend when he is gone; for he shall not take them away with
him. He asks not, For whom do I labour? and that is his folly,
But, if he did ask, he could not tell whether he should be a wise man
or a fool, a friend or a foe,
This is vanity.
| Confidence in God; David Pleading with God. | |
|
|
|
7 And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.
8 Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the
reproach of the foolish.
9 I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.
10 Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of
thine hand.
11 When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou
makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man
is vanity. Selah.
12 Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not
thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a
sojourner, as all my fathers were.
13 O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence,
and be no more.
The psalmist, having meditated on the shortness and uncertainty of
life, and the vanity and vexation of spirit that attend all the
comforts of life, here, in these verses, turns his eyes and heart
heaven-ward. When there is no solid satisfaction to be had in the
creature it is to be found in God, and in communion with him; and to
him we should be driven by our disappointments in the world. David here
expresses,
I. His dependence on God,
v. 7.
Seeing all is vanity, and man himself is so,
1. He despairs of a happiness in the things of the world, and disclaims
all expectations from it: “Now, Lord, what wait I for? Even
nothing from the things of sense and time; I have nothing to wish for,
nothing to hope for, from this earth.” Note, The consideration of the
vanity and frailty of human life should deaden our desires to the
things of this world and lower our expectations from it. “If the world
be such a thing as this, God deliver me from having, or seeking, my
portion in it.” We cannot reckon upon constant health and prosperity,
nor upon comfort in any relation; for it is all as uncertain as our
continuance here. “Though I have sometimes foolishly promised myself
this and the other from the world, I am now of another mind.”
2. He takes hold of happiness and satisfaction in God: My hope is in
thee. Note, When creature-confidences fail, it is our comfort that
we have a God to go to, a God to trust to, and we should thereby be
quickened to take so much the faster hold of him by faith.
II. His submission to God, and his cheerful acquiescence in his holy
will,
v. 9.
If our hope be in God for a happiness in the other world, we may well
afford to reconcile ourselves to all the dispensations of his
providence concerning us in this world: “I was dumb; I opened not my
mouth in a way of complaint and murmuring.” He now again recovered
that serenity and sedateness of mind which were disturbed,
v. 2.
Whatever comforts he is deprived of, whatever crosses he is burdened
with, he will be easy. “Because thou didst it; it did not come
to pass by chance, but according to thy appointment.” We may here see,
1. A good God doing all, and ordering all events concerning us. Of
every event we may say, “This is the finger of God; it is the Lord’s
doing,” whoever were the instruments.
2. A good man, for that reason, saying nothing against it. He is dumb,
he has nothing to object, no question to ask, no dispute to raise upon
it. All that God does is well done.
III. His desire towards God, and the prayers he puts up to him. Is
any afflicted? let him pray, as David here,
1. For the pardoning of his sin and the preventing of his shame,
v. 8.
Before he prays
(v. 10),
Remove thy stroke from me, he prays
(v. 8),
“Deliver me from all my offences, from the guilt I have
contracted, the punishment I have deserved, and the power of corruption
by which I have been enslaved.” When God forgives our sins he delivers
us from them, he delivers us from them all. He pleads, Make me not a
reproach to the foolish. Wicked people are foolish people; and they
then show their folly most when they think to show their wit, by
scoffing at God’s people. When David prays that God would pardon his
sins, and not make him a reproach, it is to be taken as a prayer for
peace of conscience (“Lord, leave me not to the power of melancholy,
which the foolish will laugh at me for”), and as a prayer for grace,
that God would never leave him to himself, so far as to do any thing
that might make him a reproach to bad men. Note, This is a good reason
why we should both watch and pray against sin, because the credit of
our profession is nearly concerned in the preservation of our
integrity.
2. For the removal of his affliction, that he might speedily be eased
of his present burdens
(v. 10):
Remove thy stroke away from me. Note, When we are under the
correcting hand of God our eye must be to God himself, and not to any
other, for relief. He only that inflicts the stroke can remove it; and
we may then in faith, and with satisfaction, pray that our afflictions
may be removed, when our sins are pardoned
and when, as here, the affliction is sanctified and has done its work,
and we are humbled under the hand of God.
(1.) He pleads the great extremity he was reduced to by his affliction,
which made him the proper object of God’s compassion: I am consumed
by the blow of thy hand. His sickness prevailed to such a degree
that his spirits failed, his strength was wasted, and his body
emaciated. “The blow, or conflict, of thy hand has brought me even to
the gates of death.” Note, The strongest, and boldest, and best of men
cannot bear up under, much less make head against, the power of God’s
wrath. It was not his case only, but any man will find himself an
unequal match for the Almighty,
When God, at any time, contends with us, when with rebukes he corrects
us,
[1.] We cannot impeach the equity of his controversy, but must
acknowledge that he is righteous in it; for, whenever he corrects man,
it is for iniquity. Our ways and our doings procure the trouble to
ourselves, and we are beaten with a rod of our own making. It is the
yoke of our transgressions, though it be bound with his hand,
Lam. i. 14.
[2.] We cannot oppose the effects of his controversy, but he will be
too hard for us. As we have nothing to move in arrest of his judgment,
so we have no way of escaping the execution. God’s rebukes make man’s
beauty to consume away like a moth; we often see, we sometimes
feel, how much the body is weakened and decayed by sickness in a little
time; the countenance is changed; where are the ruddy cheek and lip,
the sprightly eye, the lively look, the smiling face? It is the reverse
of all this that presents itself to view. What a poor thing is beauty;
and what fools are those that are proud of it, or in love with it, when
it will certainly, and may quickly, be consumed thus! Some make the
moth to represent man, who is as easily crushed as a moth with the
touch of a finger,
Others make it to represent the divine rebukes, which silently and
insensibly waste and consume us, as the moth does the garment. All this
abundantly proves what he had said before, that surely every man is
vanity, weak and helpless; so he will be found when God comes to
contend with him.
(2.) He pleads the good impressions made upon him by his affliction. He
hoped that the end was accomplished for which it was sent, and that
therefore it would be removed in mercy; and unless an affliction has
done its work, though it may be removed, it is not removed in mercy.
[1.] It had set him a weeping, and he hoped God would take notice of
that. When the Lord God called to mourning, he answered the call and
accommodated himself to the dispensation, and therefore could, in
faith, pray, Lord, hold not thy peace at my tears,
v. 12.
He that does not willingly afflict and grieve the children of men, much
less his own children, will not hold his peace at their tears, but will
either speak deliverance for them (and, if he speak, it is done) or in
the mean time speak comfort to them and make them to hear joy and
gladness.
[2.] It had set him a praying; and afflictions are sent to stir up
prayer. If they have that effect, and when we are afflicted we pray
more, and pray better, than before, we may hope that God will hear our
prayer and give ear to our cry; for the prayer which by his providence
he gives occasion for, and which by his Spirit of grace he indites,
shall not return void.
[3.] It had helped to wean him from the world and to take his
affections off from it. Now he began, more than ever, to look upon
himself as a stranger and sojourner here, like all his fathers,
not at home in this world, but travelling through it to another, to a
better, and would never reckon himself at home till he came to heaven.
He pleads it with God: “Lord, take cognizance of me, and of my wants
and burdens, for I am a stranger here, and therefore meet with strange
usage; I am slighted and oppressed as a stranger; and whence should I
expect relief but from thee, from that other country to which I
belong?”
3. He prays for a reprieve yet a little longer
(v. 13):
“O spare me, ease me, raise me up from this illness that I may
recover strength both in body and mind, that I may get into a more calm
and composed frame of spirit, and may be better prepared for another
world, before I go hence by death, and shall be no
more in this world.” Some make this to be a passionate wish that
God would send him help quickly or it would be too late, like that,
But I rather take it as a pious prayer that God would continue him here
till by his grace he had made him fit to go hence, and that he might
finish the work of life before his life was finished. Let my soul
live, and it shall praise thee.
|
[Previous] [Next] |
Matthew Henry |
|
Back to Bibles Net . Com – Online Christian Library Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary – Free Download |
Copyright 2008. Bibles Net. Com. All Rights Reserved.