Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary

on the Whole Bible

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

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P S A L M S

PSALM LXXV.

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Though this psalm is attributed to Asaph in the title, yet it does so

exactly agree with David’s circumstances, at his coming to the crown

after the death of Saul, that most interpreters apply it to that

juncture, and suppose that either Asaph penned it, in the person of

David, as his poet-laureate (probably the substance of the psalm was

some speech which David made to a convention of the states, at his

accession to the government, and Asaph turned it into verse, and

published it in a poem, for the better spreading of it among the

people), or that David penned it, and delivered it to Asaph as

precentor of the temple. In this psalm,

I. David returns God thanks for bringing him to the throne,

ver. 1, 9.

II. He promises to lay out himself for the public good, in the use of

the power God had given him,

ver. 2, 3, 10.

III. He checks the insolence of those that opposed his coming to the

throne,

ver. 4, 5.

IV. He fetches a reason for all this from God’s sovereign dominion in

the affairs of the children of men,

ver. 6-8.

In singing this psalm we must give to God the glory of all the

revolutions of states and kingdoms, believing that they are all

according to his counsel and that he will make them all to work for the

good of his church.

The Magistrate’s Resolution.

To the chief musician, Al-taschith. A psalm or song of Asaph.

     

1 Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we

give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works

declare.

  2 When I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly.

  3 The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I

bear up the pillars of it. Selah.

  4 I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked,

Lift not up the horn:

  5 Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck.

     

In these verses,

     

I. The psalmist gives to God the praise of his advancement to honour

and power, and the other great things he had done for him and for his

people Israel

(v. 1):

Unto thee, O God! do we give thanks for all the favours thou

hast bestowed upon us; and again, unto thee do we give thanks;

for our thanksgivings must be often repeated. Did not we often pray for

mercy when we were in pursuit of it; and shall we think it will suffice

once or twice to give thanks when we have obtained it? Not only

I do give thanks, but we do, and I and all my friends. If

we share with others in their mercies, we must join with them in their

praises. “Unto thee, O God! the author of our mercies (and we

will not give that glory to the instruments which is due to thee only),

we give thanks; for that thy name is near (that the complete

accomplishment of thy promise made to David is not far off) thy

wondrous works, which thou hast already done for him,

declare.” Note,

1. There are many works which God does for his people that may truly be

called wondrous works, out of the common course of providence

and quite beyond our expectation.

2. These wondrous works declare the nearness of his name; they show

that he himself is at hand, nigh to us in what we call upon him for,

and that he is about to do some great things for his people, in

pursuance of his purpose and promise.

3. When God’s wondrous works declare the nearness of his name it is our

duty to give him thanks, again and again to give him thanks.

     

II. He lays himself under an obligation to use his power well, pursuant

to the great trust reposed in him

(v. 2):

When I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly.

Here he takes it for granted that God would, in due time, perfect that

which concerned him, that though the congregation was very slow in

gathering to him, and great opposition was made to it, yet, at length,

he should receive it; for what God has spoken in his holiness he will

perform by his wisdom and power. Being thus in expectation of the

mercy, he promises to make conscience of his duty: “When I am a judge I

will judge, and judge uprightly; not as those that went before

me, who either neglected judgment or, which was worse, perverted it,

either did no good with their power or did hurt.” Note,

1. Those that are advanced to posts of honour must remember they are

posts of service, and must set themselves with diligence and

application of mind to do the work to which they are called. He does

not say, “When I shall receive the congregation I will take my

ease, and take state upon me, and leave the public business to others;”

but, “I will mind it myself.”

2. Public trusts are to be managed with great integrity; those that

judge must judge uprightly, according to the rules of justice, without

respect of persons.

     

III. He promises himself that his government would be a public blessing

to Israel,

v. 3.

The present state of the kingdom was very bad: The earth and all the

inhabitants thereof are dissolved; and no marvel, when the former

reign was so dissolute that all went to wrack and ruin. There was a

general corruption of manners, for want of putting the laws in

execution against vice and profaneness. They were divided one from

another for want of centering, as they ought to have done, in the

government God had appointed. They were all to pieces, two against

three and three against two, crumbled into factions and parties, which

was likely to issue in their ruin; but I bear up the pillars of

it. Even in Saul’s time David did what he could for the public

welfare; but he hoped that when he had himself received the

congregation he should do much more, and should not only prevent the

public ruin, but recover the public strength and beauty. Now,

1. See the mischief of parties; they melt and dissolve a land and the

inhabitants of it.

2. See how much one head frequently holds up. The fabric would have

sunk if David had not held up the pillars of it. This may well be

applied to Christ and his government. The world and all the

inhabitants of it were dissolved by sin; man’s apostasy threatened

the destruction of the whole creation. But Christ bore up the pillars

of it; he saved the whole world from utter ruin by saving his people

from their sins, and into his hand the administration of the kingdom of

Providence is committed, for he upholds all things by the word of

his power,
Heb. i. 3.

     

IV. He checks those that opposed his government, that were against his

accession to it and obstructed the administration of it, striving to

keep up that vice and profaneness which he had made it his business to

suppress

(v. 4, 5):

I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly. He had said so to

them in Saul’s time. When he had not power to restrain them, yet he had

wisdom and grace to reprove them, and to give them good counsel; though

they bore themselves high, upon the favour of that unhappy prince, he

cautioned them not to be too presumptuous. Or, rather, he does now say

so to them. As soon as he came to the crown he issued out a

proclamation against vice and profaneness, and here we have the

contents of it.

1. To the simple sneaking sinners, the fools in Israel, that corrupted

themselves, to them he said, “Deal not foolishly; do not act so

directly contrary both to your reason and to your interest as you do

while you walk contrary to the laws God has given to Israel and the

promises he has made to David.” Christ, the son of David, gives us this

counsel, issues out this edict, Deal not foolishly. He who is

made of God to us wisdom bids us be wise for ourselves, and not make

fools of ourselves.

2. To the proud daring sinners, the wicked, that set God himself at

defiance, he says, “Lift not up the horn; boast not of your

power and prerogatives; persist not in your contumacy and contempt of

the government set over you; lift not up your horn on high, as

though you could have what you will and do what you will; speak not

with a stiff neck, in which is an iron sinew, that will never bend

to the will of God in the government; for those that will not bend

shall break; those whose necks are stiffened are so to their own

destruction.” This is Christ’s word of command in his gospel, that

every mountain will be brought low before him,
Isa. xl. 4.

Let not the anti-christian power, with its heads and horns, lift up

itself against him, for it shall certainly be broken to pieces; what is

said with a stiff neck must be unsaid again with a broken heart, or we

are undone. Pharaoh said with a stiff neck, Who is the Lord? But

God made him know to his cost.

God’s Government of the World.

     

6 For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the

west, nor from the south.

  7 But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up

another.

  8 For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is

red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but

the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them

out, and drink them.

  9 But I will declare for ever; I will sing praises to the God

of Jacob.

  10 All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the

horns of the righteous shall be exalted.

     

In these verses we have two great doctrines laid down and two good

inferences drawn from them, for the confirmation of what he had before

said.

     

I. Here are two great truths laid down concerning God’s government of

the world, which we ought to mix faith with, both pertinent to the

occasion:–

     

1. That from God alone kings receive their power

(v. 6, 7),

and therefore to God alone David would give the praise of his

advancement; having his power from God he would use it for him, and

therefore those were fools that lifted up the horn against him. We see

strange revolutions in states and kingdoms, and are surprised at the

sudden disgrace of some and elevation of others; we are all full of

such changes, when they happen; but here we are directed to look at the

author of them, and are taught where the original of power is, and

whence promotion comes. Whence comes preferment to kingdoms, to the

sovereignty of them? And whence come preferments in kingdoms, to places

of power and trust in them? The former depends not upon the will of the

people, nor the latter on the will of the prince, but both on the will

of God, who has all hearts in his hands; to him therefore those must

look who are in pursuit of preferment, and then they begin aright. We

are here told,

(1.) Negatively, which way we are not to look for the fountain of

power: Promotion comes not from the east, nor from the west, nor

from the desert, that is, neither from the desert on the north of

Jerusalem nor from that on the south; so that the fair gale of

preferment is not to be expected to blow from any point of the compass,

but only from above, directly thence. Men cannot gain promotion either

by the wisdom or wealth of the children of the east, nor by the

numerous forces of the isles of the Gentiles, that lay westward, nor

those of Egypt or Arabia, that lay south; no concurring smiles of

second causes will raise men to preferment without the first cause. The

learned bishop Lloyd (Serm. in loc.) gives this gloss upon it:

“All men took the original of power to be from heaven, but from whom

there many knew not; the eastern nations, who were generally given to

astrology, took it to come from their stars, especially the sun, their

god. No, says David, it comes neither from the east nor from the west,

neither from the rising nor from the setting of such a planet, or such

a constellation, nor from the south, nor from the exaltation of the sun

or any star in the mid-heaven.” He mentions not the north, because none

supposed it to come thence; or because the same word that signifies the

north signifies the secret place, and from the secret of God’s counsel

it does come, or from the oracle in Zion, which lay on the north side

of Jerusalem. Note, No wind is so good as to blow promotion, but as he

directs who has the winds in his fists.

(2.) Positively: God is the judge, the governor or umpire. When

parties contend for the prize, he puts down one and sets up

another as he sees fit, so as to serve his own purposes and bring

to pass his own counsels. Herein he acts by prerogative, and is not

accountable to us for any of these matters; nor is it any damage,

danger, or disgrace that he, who is infinitely wise, holy, and good,

has an arbitrary and despotic power to set up and put down whom, and

when, and how he pleases. This is a good reason why magistrates should

rule for God as those that must give account to him, because it is by

him that kings reign.

     

2. That from God alone all must receive their doom

(v. 8):

In the hand of the Lord there is a cup, which he puts into the

hands of the children of men, a cup of providence, mixed up (as he

thinks fit) of many ingredients, a cup of affliction. The sufferings

of Christ are called a cup,
Matt. xx. 22; John xviii. 11.

The judgments of God upon sinners are the cup of the Lord’s right

hand,
Hab. ii. 16.

The wine is red, denoting the wrath of God, which is infused

into the judgments executed on sinners, and is the wormwood and the

gall in the affliction and the misery. It is read as fire, red as

blood, for it burns, it kills. It is full of mixture, prepared

in wisdom, so as to answer the end. There are mixtures of mercy and

grace in the cup of affliction when it is put into the hands of God’s

own people, mixtures of the curse when it is put into the hands of the

wicked; it is wine mingled with gall. These vials,

(1.) Are poured out upon all; see

Rev. xv. 7; xvi. 1;

where we read of the angels pouring out the vials of God’s wrath upon

the earth. Some drops of this wrath may light on good people; when

God’s judgments are abroad, they have their share in common calamities;

but,

(2.) The dregs of the cup are reserved for the wicked. The calamity

itself is but the vehicle into which the wrath and curse is infused,

the top of which has little of the infusion; but the sediment is pure

wrath, and that shall fall to the share of sinners; they have the dregs

of the cup now in the terrors of conscience, and hereafter in the

torments of hell. They shall wring them out, that not a drop of

the wrath may be left behind, and they shall drink them, for the

curse shall enter into their bowels like water and like oil into

their bones. The cup of the Lord’s indignation will be to them a

cup of trembling, everlasting trembling,

Rev. xiv. 10.

The wicked man’s cup, while he prospers in the world, is full of

mixture, but the worst is at the bottom. The wicked are reserved unto

the day of judgment.

     

II. Here are two good practical inferences drawn from these great

truths, and they are the same purposes of duty that he began the psalm

with. This being so,

1. He will praise God, and give him glory, for the power to which he

has advanced him

(v. 9):

I will declare for ever that which thy wondrous works

declare,

v. 1.

He will praise God for his elevation, not only at first, while the

mercy was fresh, but for ever, so long as he lives. The exaltation of

the Son of David will be the subject of the saints’ everlasting

praises. He will give glory to God, not only as his God, but as the God

of Jacob, knowing it was for Jacob his servant’s sake, and because he

loved his people Israel, that he made him king over them.

2. He will use the power with which he is entrusted for the great ends

for which it was put into his hands,

v. 10,

as before,

v. 2, 4.

According to the duty of the higher powers,

(1.) He resolves to be a terror to evildoers, to humble their pride and

break their power: “Though not all the heads, yet all the horns, of

the wicked will I cut off, with which they push their poor

neighbours; I will disable them to do mischief.” Thus God promises to

raise up carpenters who should fray the horns of the Gentiles that

had scattered Judah and Israel,
Zech. i. 18-21.

(2.) He resolves to be a protection and praise to those that do well:

The horns of the righteous shall be exalted; they shall be

preferred and be put into places of power; and those that are good, and

have hearts to do good, shall not want ability and opportunity for it.

This agrees with David’s resolutions,

Ps. ci. 3,

&c. Herein David was a type of Christ, who with the breath of his mouth

shall slay the wicked, but shall exalt with honour the horn of the

righteous,
Ps. cxii. 9.

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

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