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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
P S A L M S
PSALM LXIX.
David penned this psalm when he was in affliction; and in it,
I. He complains of the great distress and trouble he was in and
earnestly begs of God to relieve and succour him,
II. He imprecates the judgments of God upon his persecutors,
III. He concludes with the voice of joy and praise, in an assurance
that God would help and succour him, and would do well for the church,
Now, in this, David was a type of Christ, and divers passages in this
psalm are applied to Christ in the new Testament and are said to have
their accomplishment in him
and
refers to the enemies of Christ. So that (like the
it begins with the humiliation and ends with the exaltation of Christ,
one branch of which was the destruction of the Jewish nation for
persecuting him, which the imprecations here are predictions of. In
singing this psalm we must have an eye to the sufferings of Christ, and
the glory that followed, not forgetting the sufferings of Christians
too, and the glory that shall follow them; for it may lead us to think
of the ruin reserved for the persecutors and the rest reserved for the
persecuted.
| Complaints and Petitions. | |
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To the chief musician upon Shoshannim. A psalm of David.
1 Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my
soul.
2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come
into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
3 I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail
while I wait for my God.
4 They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of
mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies
wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not
away.
5 O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid
from thee.
6 Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord GOD of hosts, be
ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded
for my sake, O God of Israel.
7 Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath
covered my face.
8 I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my
mother’s children.
9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the
reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.
10 When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was
to my reproach.
11 I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to
them.
12 They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the
song of the drunkards.
In these verses David complains of his troubles, intermixing with those
complaints some requests for relief.
I. His complaints are very sad, and he pours them out before the Lord,
as one that hoped thus to ease himself of a burden that lay very heaven
upon him.
1. He complains of the deep impressions that his troubles made upon his
spirit
(v. 1, 2):
“The waters of affliction, those bitter waters, have come
unto my soul, not only threaten my life, but disquiet my mind; they
fill my head with perplexing cares and my heart with oppressive grief,
so that I cannot enjoy God and myself as I used to do.” We shall bear
up under our troubles if we can but keep them from our hearts; but,
when they put us out of the possession of our own souls, our case is
bad. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but what
shall we do when the spirit is wounded? That was David’s case here. His
thoughts sought for something to confide in, and with which to support
his hope, but he found nothing: He sunk in keep mire, where there
was no standing, no firm footing; the considerations that used to
support and encourage him now failed him, or were out of the way, and
he was ready to give himself up for gone. He sought for something to
comfort himself with, but found himself in deep waters that
overflowed him, overwhelmed him; he was like a sinking drowning
man, in such confusion and consternation. This points at Christ’s
sufferings in his soul, and the inward agony he was in when he said,
Now is my soul troubled; and, My soul is exceedingly
sorrowful; for it was his soul that he made an offering for sin.
And it instructs us, when we are in affliction, to commit the keeping
of our souls to God, that we may be neither soured with discontent nor
sink into despair.
2. He complains of the long continuance of his troubles
(v. 3):
I am weary of my crying. Though he could not keep his head above
water, yet he cried to his God, and the more death was in his view the
more life was in his prayers; yet he had not immediately an answer of
peace given in, no, nor so much of that support and comfort in praying
which God’s people used to have; so that he was almost weary of crying,
grew hoarse, and his throat so dried that he could cry no
more. Nor had he his wonted satisfaction in believing, hoping, and
expecting relief: My eyes fail while I wait for my God; he had
almost looked his eyes out, in expectation of deliverance. Yet his
pleading this with God is an indication that he is resolved not to give
up believing and praying. His throat is dried, but his heart is not;
his eyes fail, but his faith does not. Thus our Lord Jesus, on the
cross, cried out, Why hast thou forsaken me? yet, at the same
time, he kept hold of his relation to him: My God, my God.
3. He complains of the malice and multitude of his enemies, their
injustice and cruelty, and the hardships they put upon him,
v. 4.
They hated him, they would destroy him, for hatred aims at the
destruction of the person hated; but what was his iniquity, what was
his sin, what provocation had he given them, that they were so spiteful
towards him? None at all: “They hate me without a cause; I
never did them the least injury, that they should bear me such
ill-will.” Our Saviour applies this to himself
(John xv. 25):
They hated me without a cause. We are apt to use this in
justification of our passion against those that hate us, that we never
gave them cause to hate us. But it is rather an argument why we should
bear it patiently, because then we suffer as Christ did, and may then
expect that God will give us redress. “They are my enemies
wrongfully, for I have been no enemy to them.” In a world where
unrighteousness reigns so much we must not wonder if we meet with those
that are our enemies wrongfully. Let us take care that we never do
wrong and then we may the better bear it if we receive wrong. These
enemies were not to be despised, but were very formidable both for
their number–They are more than the hairs of my head (Christ’s
enemies were numerous; those that came to seize him were a great
multitude; how were those increased that troubled him!) and for their
strength–They are mighty in authority and power. We are weak,
but our enemies are strong; for we wrestle against principalities
and powers. Then I restored that which I took not away. Applying
this to David, it was what his enemies compelled him to (they made him
suffer for that offence which he had never been guilty of); and it was
what he consented to, that, if possible, he might pacify them and make
them to be at peace with him. He might have insisted upon the laws of
justice and honour, the former not requiring and the latter commonly
thought to forbid the restoring of that which we took not away, for
that is to wrong ourselves both in our wealth and in our reputation.
Yet the case may be such sometimes that it may become our duty. Blessed
Paul, though free from all men, yet, for the honour of Christ and the
edification of the church, made himself a servant to all. But, applying
it to Christ, it is an observable description of the satisfaction which
he made to God for our sin by his blood: Then he restored that which
he took not away; he underwent the punishment that was due to us,
paid our debt, suffered for our offence. God’s glory, in some instances
of it, was taken away by the sin of man; man’s honour, and peace, and
happiness, were taken away; it was not he that took them away, and yet
by the merit of his death he restored them.
4. He complains of the unkindness of his friends and relations, and
this is a grievance which with an ingenuous mind cuts as deeply as any
(v. 8):
“I have become a stranger to my brethren; they make themselves
strange to me and use me as a stranger, are shy of conversing with me
and ashamed to own me.” This was fulfilled in Christ, whose brethren
did not believe on him
(John vii. 5),
who came to his own and his own received him not
(John i. 11),
and who was forsaken by his disciples, whom he had been free with as
his brethren.
5. He complains of the contempt that was put upon him and the reproach
with which he was continually loaded. And in this especially his
complaint points at Christ, who for our sakes submitted to the greatest
disgrace and made himself of no reputation. We having by sin injured
God in his honour, Christ made him satisfaction, not only by divesting
himself of the honours due to an incarnate deity, but by submitting to
the greatest dishonours that could be done to any man. Two things David
here takes notice of as aggravations of the indignities done him:–
(1.) The ground and matter of the reproach,
They ridiculed him for that by which he both humbled himself and
honoured God. When men lift up themselves in pride and vain glory they
are justly laughed at for their folly; but David chastened his soul,
and clothed himself with sackcloth, and from his abasing himself they
took occasion to trample upon him. When men dishonour God it is just
that their so doing should turn to their dishonour; but when David,
purely in devotion to God and to testify his respect to him, wept,
and chastened his soul with fasting, and made sackcloth his
garment, as humble penitents used to do, instead of commending his
devotion and recommending it as a great example of piety, they did all
they could both to discourage him in it and to prevent others from
following his good example; for that was to his reproach. They
laughed at him as a fool for mortifying himself thus; and even for this
he became a proverb to them; they made him the common subject of
their banter. We must not think it strange if we be ill spoken of for
that which is well done, and in which we have reason to hope that we
are accepted of God. Our Lord Jesus was stoned for his good works
(John x. 32),
and when he cried, Eli, Eli–My God, my God, was bantered, as if
he called for Elias.
(2.) The persons that reproached him,
[1.] Even the gravest and the most honourable, from whom better was
expected: Those that sit in the gate speak against me, and their
reproaches pass for the dictates of senators and the decrees of judges,
and are credited accordingly.
[2.] The meanest, and the most despicable, the abjects
(Ps. xxxv. 15),
and scum of the country, the children of fools, yea, the
children of base men,
Job xxx. 8.
Such drunkards as these make themselves vile, and he was the song of
the drunkards; they made themselves and their companions merry with
him. See the bad consequences of the sin of drunkenness; it makes men
despisers of those that are good,
2 Tim. iii. 3.
When the king was made sick with bottles of wine he stretched out
his hand with scorners,
Hos. vii. 5.
The bench of the drunkards is the seat of the scornful. See what is
commonly the lot of the best of men: those that are the praise of the
wise are the song of fools. But it is easy to those that rightly judge
of things to despise being thus despised.
II. His confessions of sin are very serious
(v. 5):
“O God! thou knowest my foolishness, what is and what is not; my
sins that I am guilty of are not hidden from thee, and therefore thou
knowest how innocent I am of those crimes which they charge upon me.”
Note, Even when, as to men’s unjust accusations, we plead Not
guilty, yet, before God, we must acknowledge ourselves to have
deserved all that is brought upon us, and much worse. This is the
genuine confession of a penitent, who knows that he cannot prosper in
covering his sin, and that therefore it is his wisdom to
acknowledge it, because it is naked and open before God.
1. He knows the corruption of our nature: Thou knowest the
foolishness that is bound up in my heart. All our sins take rise
from our foolishness.
2. He knows the transgressions of our lives; they are not hidden from
him, no, not our heart-sins, no, not those that are committed most
secretly. They are all done in his sight, and are never cast behind his
back till they are repented of and pardoned. This may aptly be applied
to Christ, for he knew no sin, yet he was made sin for us; and God knew
it, nor was it hidden from him, when it pleased the Lord to bruise him
and put him to grief.
III. His supplications are very earnest.
1. For himself
(v. 1):
“Save me, O God! save me from sinking, from despairing.” Thus
Christ was heard in that he feared, for he was saved from letting fall
his undertaking,
2. For his friends
(v. 6):
Let not those that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts! and that seek
thee, O God of Israel! (under these two characters we ought to seek
God, and in seeking him to wait on him, as the God of hosts, who
has all power to help, and as the God of Israel in covenant with
his people, whom therefore he is engaged in honour and truth to help)
be ashamed and confounded for my sake. This intimates his fear
that if God did not appear for him it would be a discouragement to all
other good people and would give their enemies occasion to triumph over
them, and his earnest desire that whatever became of him all that seek
God, and wait upon him, might be kept in heart and kept in countenance,
and might neither be discouraged in themselves nor exposed to contempt
from others. If Jesus Christ had not been owned and accepted of his
Father in his sufferings, all that seek God, and wait for him, would
have been ashamed and confounded; but they have confidence towards God,
and in his name come boldly to the throne of grace.
IV. His plea is very powerful,
Reproach was one of the greatest of his burdens: “Lord, roll away the
reproach, and plead my cause, for,
1. It is for thee that I am reproached, for serving thee and trusting
in thee: For thy sake I have borne reproach.” Those that are
evil spoken of for well-doing may with a humble confidence leave it to
God to bring forth their righteousness as the light.
2. “It is with thee that I am reproached: The zeal of thy house has
eaten me up, that is, has made me forget myself, and do that which
they wickedly turn to my reproach. Those that hate thee and thy house
for that reason hate me, because they know how zealously affected I am
to it. It is this that has made them ready to eat me up and has eaten
up all the love and respect I had among them.” Those that blasphemed
God, and spoke ill of his word and ways, did therefore reproach David
for believing in his word and walking in his ways. Or it may be
construed as an instance of David’s zeal for God’s house, that he
resented all the indignities done to God’s name as if they had been
done to his own name. He laid to heart all the dishonour done to God
and the contempt cast upon religion; these he laid nearer to his heart
than any outward troubles of his own. And therefore he had
reason to hope God would interest himself in the reproaches cast upon
him, because he had always interested himself in the reproaches cast
upon God. Both the parts of
are applied to Christ.
(1.) It was an instance of his love to his Father that the zeal of
his house did even eat him up when he whipped the buyers and
sellers out of the temple, which reminded his disciples of this text,
(2.) It was an instance of his self-denial, and that he pleased not
himself, that the reproaches of those that reproached God fell upon
him
(Rom. xv. 3),
and therein he set us an example.
| Complaints and Petitions. | |
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13 But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an
acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in
the truth of thy salvation.
14 Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be
delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.
15 Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep
swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.
16 Hear me, O LORD; for thy lovingkindness is good: turn unto
me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.
17 And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble:
hear me speedily.
18 Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because
of mine enemies.
19 Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour:
mine adversaries are all before thee.
20 Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness:
and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and
for comforters, but I found none.
21 They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they
gave me vinegar to drink.
David had been speaking before of the spiteful reproaches which his
enemies cast upon him; here he adds, But, as for me, my prayer is
unto thee. They spoke ill of him for his fasting and praying, and
for that he was made the song of the drunkards; but, notwithstanding
that, he resolves to continue praying. Note, Though we may be jeered
for well-doing, we must never be jeered out of it. Those can bear but
little for God, and their confessing his name before men, that cannot
bear a scoff and a hard word rather than quit their duty. David’s
enemies were very abusive to him, but this was his comfort, that he had
a God to go to, with whom he would lodge his cause. “They think to
carry their cause by insolence and calumny; but I use other methods.
Whatever they do, As for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord!”
And it was in an acceptable time, not the less acceptable for being a
time of affliction. God will not drive us from him, though it is need
that drives us to him; nay, it is the more acceptable, because the
misery and distress of God’s people make them so much the more the
objects of his pity: it is seasonable for him to help them when all
other helps fail, and they are undone, and feel that they are undone,
if he do not help them. We find this expression used concerning Christ.
In an acceptable time have I heard thee. Now observe,
I. What his requests are.
1. That he might have a gracious audience given to his complaints, the
cry of his affliction, and the desire of his heart. Hear me
(v. 13),
and again, Hear me, O Lord!
(v. 16),
Hear me speedily
(v. 17),
not only hear what I say, but grant what I ask. Christ knew that
the Father heard him always,
John xi. 42.
2. That he might be rescued out of his troubles, might be saved from
sinking under the load of grief (Deliver me out of the mire; let
me not stick in it, so some, but help me out, and set my feet on a
rock,
Ps. xl. 2),
might be saved from his enemies, that they might not swallow him up,
nor have their will against him: “Let me be delivered from those
that hate me, as a lamb from the paw of a lion,
Though I have come into keep waters
(v. 2),
where I am ready to conclude that the floods will overflow me, yet let
my fears be prevented and silenced; let not the waterflood, though it
flow upon me, overflow me,
Let me not fall into the gulf of despair; let not that deep swallow me
up; let not that pit shut her mouth upon me, for then I am undone.” He
gave himself up for lost in the beginning of the psalm; yet now he has
his head above water, and is not so weary of crying as he thought
himself.
3. That God would turn to him
(v. 16),
that he would smile upon him, and not hide his face from him,
The tokens of God’s favour to us, and the light of his countenance
shining upon us, are enough to keep our spirits from sinking in the
deepest mire of outward troubles, nor need we desire any more to make
us safe and easy,
“Draw nigh to my soul, to manifest thyself to it, and that shall redeem
it.”
II. What his pleas are to enforce these petitions.
1. He pleads God’s mercy and truth
(v. 13):
In the multitude of thy mercy hear me. There is mercy in God, a
multitude of mercies, all kinds of mercy, inexhaustible mercy, mercy
enough for all, enough for each; and hence we must take our
encouragement in praying. The truth also of his salvation (the truth of
all those promises of salvation which he has made to those that trust
in him) is a further encouragement. He repeats his argument taken from
the mercy of God: “Hear me, for thy lovingkindness of
good. It is so in itself; it is rich and plentiful and abundant. It
is so in the account of all the saints; it is very precious to them, it
is their life, their joy, their all. O let me have the benefit of it!
Turn to me, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies,”
See how highly he speaks of the goodness of God: in him there are
mercies, tender mercies, and a multitude of them. If we think well of
God, and continue to do so under the greatest hardships, we need not
fear but God will do well for us; for he takes pleasure in those
that hope in his mercy,
Ps. cxlvii. 11.
2. He pleads his own distress and affliction: “Hide not thy face
from me, for I am in trouble
(v. 17),
and therefore need thy favour; therefore it will come seasonably, and
therefore I shall know how to value it.” He pleads particularly the
reproach he was under and the indignities that were done him
(v. 19):
Thou hast known my reproach, my shame, and my dishonour. See
what a stress is laid upon this; for, in the sufferings of Christ for
us, perhaps nothing contributed more to the satisfaction he made for
sin, which had been so injurious to God in his honour, than the
reproach, and shame, and dishonour he underwent, which God took notice
of, and accepted as more than an equivalent for the everlasting shame
and contempt which our sins had deserved, and therefore we must by
repentance take shame to ourselves and bear the reproach of our youth.
And if at any time we be called out to suffer reproach, and shame, and
dishonour, for his sake, this may be our comfort, that he knows it,
and, as he is before-hand with us, so he will not be behind-hand with
us. The Psalmist speaks the language of an ingenuous nature when he
says
(v. 20):
Reproach has broken my heart; I am full of heaviness; for it
bears hard upon one that knows the worth of a good name to be put under
a bad character; but when we consider what an honour it is to be
dishonoured for God, and what a favour to be counted worthy to suffer
shame for his name (as they deemed it,
we shall see there is no reason at all why it should sit so heavily or
be any heart-breaking to us.
3. He pleads the insolence and cruelty of his enemies
(v. 18):
Deliver me because of my enemies, because they were such as he
had before described them,
v. 4.
“My adversaries are all before thee
(v. 19);
thou knowest what sort of men they are, what danger I am in from them,
what enemies they are to thee, and how much thou art reflected upon in
what they do and design against me.” One instance of their barbarity is
given
(v. 21):
They gave me gall for my meat (the word signifies a bitter herb,
and is often joined with wormwood) and in my thirst they gave me
vinegar to drink. This was literally fulfilled in Christ, and did
so directly point to him that he would not say It is finished
till this was fulfilled; and, in order that his enemies might have
occasion to fulfil it, he said, I thirst,
John xix. 28, 29.
Some think that the hyssop which they put to his mouth with the vinegar
was the bitter herb which they gave him with the vinegar for his meat.
See how particularly the sufferings of Christ were foretold, which
proves the scripture to be the word of God, and how exactly the
predictions were fulfilled in Jesus Christ, which proves him to be the
true Messiah. This is he that should come, and we are to look for no
other.
4. He pleads the unkindness of his friends and his disappointment in
them
(v. 20):
I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; they all
failed him like the brooks in summer. This was fulfilled in Christ, for
in his sufferings all his disciples forsook him and fled. We cannot
expect too little from men (miserable comforters are they all); nor can
we expect too much from God, for he is the Father of mercy and the God
of all comfort and consolation.
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22 Let their table become a snare before them: and that which
should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.
23 Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make
their loins continually to shake.
24 Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful
anger take hold of them.
25 Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in
their tents.
26 For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they
talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded.
27 Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into
thy righteousness.
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not
be written with the righteous.
29 But I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set
me up on high.
These imprecations are not David’s prayers against his enemies, but
prophecies of the destruction of Christ’s persecutors, especially the
Jewish nation, which our Lord himself foretold with tears, and which
was accomplished about forty years after the death of Christ. The first
two verses of this paragraph are expressly applied to the judgments of
God upon the unbelieving Jews by the apostle
and therefore the whole must look that way. The rejection of the Jews
for rejecting Christ, as it was a signal instance of God’s justice and
an earnest of the vengeance which God will at last take on all that are
obstinate in their infidelity, so it was, and continues to be, a
convincing proof of the truth of the Christian religion. One great
objection against it, at first, was, that it set aside the ceremonial
law; but its doing so was effectually justified, and that objection
removed, when God so remarkably set it aside by the utter destruction
of the temple, and the sinking of those, with the Mosaic economy, that
obstinately adhered to it in opposition to the gospel of Christ. Let us
observe here,
I. What the judgments are which should come upon the crucifiers of
Christ; not upon all of them, for there were those who had a hand in
his death and yet repented and found mercy
but upon those of them and their successors who justified it by an
obstinate infidelity and rejection of his gospel, and by an inveterate
enmity to his disciples and followers. See
It is here foretold,
1. That their sacrifices and offerings should be a mischief and
prejudice to them
(v. 22):
Let their table become a snare. This may be understood of the
altar of the Lord, which is called his table and theirs because
in feasting upon the sacrifices they were partakers of the altar. This
should have been for their welfare or peace (for they were
peace-offerings), but it became a snare and a trap to them; for by
their affection and adherence to the altar they were held fast in their
infidelity and hardened in their prejudices against Christ, that altar
which those had no right to eat of who continued to serve the
tabernacle,
Or it may be understood of their common creature-comforts, even their
necessary food; they had given Christ gall and vinegar, and therefore
justly shall their meat and drink be made gall and vinegar to them.
When the supports of life and delights of sense, through the corruption
of our nature, become an occasion of sin to us, and are made the food
and fuel of our sensuality, then our table is a snare, which is a good
reason why we should never feed ourselves without fear,
2. That they should never have the comfort either of that knowledge or
of that peace which believers are blessed with in the gospel of Christ
(v. 23),
that they should be given up,
(1.) To a judicial blindness: Let their eyes be darkened, that
they see not the glory of God in the face of Christ. Their sin was that
they would not see, but shut their eyes against the light, loving
darkness rather; their punishment was that they should not see, but be
given up to their own hearts’ lusts, which were hardening, and the god
of this world should be permitted to blind their minds,
This was foretold concerning them
(Isa. vi. 10),
and Christ ratified it,
Matt. xiii. 14, 15; John xii. 40.
(2.) To a judicial terror. There is a gracious terror, which opens the
way to comfort, such as that of Paul
(Acts ix. 6);
he trembled and was astonished. But this is a terror that shall never
end in peace, but shall make their loins continually to shake, through
horror of conscience, as Belshazzar, when the joints of his loins were
loosed. “Let them be driven to despair, and filled with constant
confusion.” This was fulfilled in the desperate counsels of the Jews
when the Romans came upon them.
3. That they should fall and lie under God’s anger and fiery
indignation
(v. 24):
Pour out thy indignation upon them. Note, Those who reject God’s
great salvation proffered to them may justly fear that his indignation
will be poured out upon them; for those that submit not to the Son of
his love will certainly be made the generation of his wrath. It is the
doom passed on those who believe not in Christ that the wrath of God
abideth on them
(John iii. 36);
it takes hold of them, and will never let them go. Salvation itself
will not save those that are not willing to be ruled by it. Behold the
goodness and severity of God!
4. That their place and nation should be utterly taken away, the very
thing they were afraid of, and to prevent which, as they pretended,
they persecuted Christ
(John xi. 48):
Let their habitation be desolate
(v. 25),
which was fulfilled when their country was laid waste by the Romans,
and Zion, for their sakes, was ploughed as a field,
Mic. iii. 12.
The temple was the house which they were in a particular manner proud
of, but this was left unto them desolate,
Matt. xxiii. 38.
Yet that is not all; it ought to be some satisfaction to us, if we be
cut off from the enjoyment of our possessions, that others will have
the benefit of them when we are dislodged: but it is here added, Let
none dwell in their tents, which was remarkably fulfilled in Judah
and Jerusalem, for after the destruction of the Jews it was long ere
the country was inhabited to any purpose. But this is applied
particularly to Judas, by St. Peter,
For, he being felo de se–a suicide, we may suppose his estate
was confiscated, so that his habitation was desolate and no man
of his own kindred dwelt therein.
5. That their way to ruin should be downhill, and nothing should stop
them, nor interpose to prevent it
(v. 27):
“Lord, leave them to themselves, to add iniquity to iniquity.”
Those that are bad, if they be given up to their own hearts’ lusts,
will certainly be worse; they will add sin to sin, nay, they will
add rebellion to their sin,
Job xxxiv. 37.
It is said of the Jews that they filled up their sin always,
1 Thess. ii. 16.
Add the punishment of iniquity to their iniquity (so some read
it), for the same word signifies both sin and punishment, so close is
their connexion. If men will sin, God will reckon for it. But those
that have multiplied to sin may yet find mercy, for God multiplies to
pardon, through the righteousness of the Mediator; and therefore, that
they might be precluded from all hopes of mercy, he adds, Let them
not come into thy righteousness, to receive the benefit of the
righteousness of God, which is by faith in a Mediator,
Not that God shuts out any from that righteousness, for the gospel
excludes none that do not by their unbelief exclude themselves; but let
them be left to take their own course and they will never come into
this government; for being ignorant of the demands of God’s
righteousness, and going about to establish the merit of their own,
they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God,
Rom. x. 3.
And those that are so proud and self-willed that they will not come
into God’s righteousness shall have their doom accordingly; they
themselves have decided it: they shall not come into his
righteousness. Let not those expect any benefit by it that are not
willing and glad to be beholden to it.
6. That they should be cut off from all hopes of happiness
(v. 28):
Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; let them not
be suffered to live any longer, since, the longer they live, the more
mischief they do. Multitudes of the unbelieving Jews fell by sword and
famine, and none of those who had embraced the Christian faith perished
among them; the nation, as a nation, was blotted out, and became not a
people. Many understand it of their rejection from God’s covenant and
all the privileges of it; that is the book of the living: “Let
the commonwealth of Israel itself, Israel according to the flesh, now
become alienated from that covenant of promise which hitherto it has
had the monopoly of. Let it appear that they were never written in the
Lamb’s book of life, but reprobate silver let men call them, because
the Lord has rejected them. Let them not be written with the
righteous; that is, let them not have a place in the congregation
of the saints when they shall all be gathered in the general assembly
of those whose names are written in heaven,”
II. What the sin is for which these dreadful judgments should be
brought upon them
(v. 26):
They persecute him whom thou hast smitten, and talk to the grief of
thy wounded.
1. Christ was he whom God had smitten, for it pleased the Lord to
bruise him, and he was esteemed stricken, smitten of God, and
afflicted, and therefore men hid their faces from him,
Isa. liii. 3, 4, 10.
They persecuted him with a rage reaching up to heaven; they cried,
Crucify him, crucify him. Compare that of St. Peter with this,
Though he was delivered by the counsel and foreknowledge of God,
it was with wicked hands that they crucified and slew him. They
talked to the grief of the Lord Jesus when he was upon the cross,
saying, He trusted in God, let him deliver him, than which
nothing could be said more grieving.
2. The suffering saints were God’s wounded, wounded in his cause and
for his sake, and them they persecuted, and talked to their
grief. For these things wrath came upon them to the
uttermost,
1 Thess. ii. 16;
and see
&c. This may be understood more generally, and it teaches us that
nothing is more provoking to God than to insult over those whom he has
smitten, and to add affliction to the afflicted, upon which it justly
follows here, Add iniquity to iniquity; see
Those that are of a wounded spirit, under trouble and fear about their
spiritual state, ought to be very tenderly dealt with, and care must be
taken not to talk to their grief and not to make the heart of the
righteous sad.
III. What the psalmist thinks of himself in the midst of all
(v. 29):
“But I am poor and sorrowful; that is the worst of my case,
under outward afflictions, yet written among the righteous, and
not under God’s indignation as they are.” It is better to be poor and
sorrowful, with the blessing of God, than rich and jovial and under his
curse. For those who come into God’s righteousness shall soon see an
end of their poverty and sorrow, and his salvation shall set them up on
high, which is the thing that David here prays for,
This may be applied to Christ. He was, in his humiliation, poor and
sorrowful, a man of sorrows, and that had not where to lay his head.
But God highly exalted him; the salvation wrought for him, the
salvation wrought by him, set him up on high, far above all
principalities and powers.
| Comfort for the Persecuted; Thanksgiving and Praise. | |
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30 I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify
him with thanksgiving.
31 This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or
bullock that hath horns and hoofs.
32 The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart
shall live that seek God.
33 For the LORD heareth the poor, and despiseth not his
prisoners.
34 Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every
thing that moveth therein.
35 For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah:
that they may dwell there, and have it in possession.
36 The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they
that love his name shall dwell therein.
The psalmist here, both as a type of Christ and as an example to
Christians, concludes a psalm with holy joy and praise which he began
with complaints and remonstrances of his griefs.
I. He resolves to praise God himself, not doubting but that therein he
should be accepted of him
(v. 30, 31):
“I will praise the name of God, not only with my heart, but with
my song, and magnify him with thanksgiving;” for he is pleased
to reckon himself magnified by the thankful praises of his people. It
is intimated that all Christians ought to glorify God with their
praises, in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. And this
shall please the Lord, through Christ the Mediator of our praises
as well as of our prayers, better than the most valuable of the legal
sacrifices
(v. 31),
an ox or bullock. This is a plain intimation that in the days of
the Messiah an end should be put, not only to the sacrifices of
atonement, but to those of praise and acknowledgment which were
instituted by the ceremonial law; and, instead of them, spiritual
sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving are accepted–the calves of our
lips, not the calves of the stall,
It is a great comfort to us that humble and thankful praises are more
pleasing to God than the most costly pompous sacrifices are or ever
were.
II. He encourages other good people to rejoice in God and continue
seeking him
(v. 32, 33):
The humble shall see this and be glad. They shall observe, to
their comfort,
1. The experiences of the saints. They shall see how ready God is to
hear the poor when they cry to him, and to give them that which they
call upon him for, how far he is from despising his prisoners; though
men despise them, he favours them with his gracious visits and will
find a time to enlarge them. The humble shall see this and be
glad, not only because when one member is honoured all the members
rejoice with it, but because it is an encouragement to them in their
straits and difficulties to trust in God. It shall revive the hearts of
those who seek God to see more seals and subscriptions to this truth,
that Jacob’s God never said to Jacob’s seed, Seek you me in
vain.
2. The exaltation of the Saviour, for of him the psalmist had been
speaking, and of himself as a type of him. When his sorrows are over,
and he enters into the joy that was set before him, when he is heard
and discharged from his imprisonment in the grave, the humble shall
look upon it and be glad, and those that seek God through Christ shall
live and be comforted, concluding that, if they suffer with him, they
shall also reign with him.
III. He calls upon all the creatures to praise God, the heaven, and
earth, and sea, and the inhabitants of each,
Heaven and earth, and the hosts of both, were made by him, and
therefore let heaven and earth praise him. Angels in heaven, and
saints on earth, may each of them in their respective habitations
furnish themselves with matter enough for constant praise. Let the
fishes of the sea, though mute to a proverb, praise the Lord, for the
sea is his, and he made it. The praises of the world must be offered
for God’s favours to his church,
For God will save Zion, the holy mountain, where his service was kept
up. He will save all that are sanctified and set apart to him, all that
employ themselves in his worship, and all those over whom Christ
reigns; for he was King upon the holy hill of Zion. He has mercy in
store for the cities of Judah, of which tribe Christ was. God will do
great things for the gospel church, in which let all that wish well to
it rejoice. For,
1. It shall be peopled and inhabited. There shall be added to it such
as shall be saved. The cities of Judah shall be built,
particular churches shall be formed and incorporated according to the
gospel model, that there may be a remnant to dwell there and to
have it in possession, to enjoy the privileges conferred upon it
and to pay the tributes and services required from it. Those that love
his name, that have a kindness for religion in general, shall embrace
the Christian religion, and take their place in the Christian church;
they shall dwell therein, as citizens, and of the household of God
2. It shall be perpetuated and inherited. Christianity was not to be
res unius ætatis–a transitory thin. No: The seed of
his servants shall inherit it. God will secure and raise up for
himself a seed to serve him, and they shall inherit the privileges of
their fathers; for the promise is to you and your children, as it was
of old. I will be a God to thee, and thy seed after thee. The
land of promise shall never be lost for want of heirs, for God can
out of stones raise up children unto Abraham and will do so rather
than the entail shall be cut off. David shall never want a man to
stand before him. The Redeemer shall see his seed, and prolong his days
in them, till the mystery of God shall be finished and the mystical
body completed. And since the holy seed is the substance of the world,
and if that were all gathered in the world would be at an end quickly,
it is just that for this assurance of the preservation of it heaven and
earth should praise him.
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