03 - Chapter 3
PSALM XXI.
Verse 4. He asked life, of thee, and Thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever. In regard that God’s dearest children are cut off many times in the flower of their years, how doth God make good this promise to those that are His. I answer; God in such cases makes His word good, in that instead of a less good He giveth a better, a greater; for suppose thou comest to a landed man, and dealest with him for some term of years in a farm; and when the deeds come to be drawn he maketh over to thee the fee simple of a manner, even so deals the Lord here. The King, saith the Psalms &c. God promised long life; and for the lease of that life of some few years continuance He bestoweth a perpetuity; instead of a miserable long life here, He giveth a blessed and eternal life hereafter. Which may reach us to suspend our censures, in regard of those that are taken away from us; and not to justify ourselves, because we survive and escape, when others perish; they may go for the better, and we be reserved for worse matters; to see and suffer that misery, which they are taken away from.
Verse 9. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger; the Lord shall swallow them up in His wrath, and the fire shall devour them. Christ always had, hath, and shall have enemies, either openly sitting or secretly plotting against His Church; but herein lieth our comfort, that they shall at length be all destroyed; and this destruction is commonly set forth by most hot, burning, and tormenting fire. Wherefore, let us patiently wait upon Him, whatever we in the interim suffer at their hands; and let all the enemies of the truth, be dismaid, and whensoever they think upon the mischief they intend against God’s Church, let them also think on that judgment God intends against them.
Verse 11. For they intended evil against thee; they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform. The malicious enemies of Christ’s kingdom, beside all the hatred they have shown and evil they have done, are still upon plots and designs to overturn Christ’s kingdom; they intended evil against thee. The enemies of Christ’s kingdom may possibly conceive, they only oppose such as do trouble mens’ interests; and not as they are the Lord’s children, yet it is found, that what they do against them, they do it against the Lord; because they do it against His children and subjects for His cause and service. And though the wicked are not able, to bring their designs to pass; yet the evil which they would do; and do set themselves to do, shall be made the reason of their destruction, as well as the evil which they have done, if they repent not. For, they intended, is here given as a reason of the judgment.
Verse 12. Therefore shalt Thou make them turn their back, when Thou shalt make ready Thine arrows upon Thy strings, against the face of them. The Lord will suffer His enemies to manifest themselves in open opposition oft times, before He fall upon them. For here they are found in the posture of pursuers and opposers of God; setting their face against Him, when He comes to execute judgment on them; Thou shalt make them turn their back; and when God falleth upon His enemies to be avenged on them; He useth to make them and the beholders see, that He hath set them up as a mark to shoot at; for He will make ready His arrows one after another against the face of them.
PSALM XXII.
Verse 2. O my God, I cry in the day time, but Thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent. The not enjoying of what we desire, whets our affections and makes us the more eager in the pursuit, and the gift more welcome at the receipt. For usually what is hardly got is greatly set by. And thus the child of God prays, sometimes on his knees, sometimes on his face, and that with sighs which cannot be uttered; and yet God seems not to regard. O my God, says David, here I have cried in the morning, and at night; but Thou hearest not. What then, is the Lord’s hand shortened that it cannot save? No, but our iniquities do separate between us and our God. Sometimes we ask we know not what, with the sons of Zebedee; sometimes we ask with doubting and wavering; and sometimes we ask amiss, that we may consume it on our lusts. Lastly, sometimes, any, almost always, we have roving and ranging thoughts; and so no marvel if we receive not. Quomodo te audiri a Deo postulas, cum te ipse non audias; how canst thou expect that God should hear thee; when thou dost not hear thyself.
Verse 3. But Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. It argues a great degree and much strength of grace, when we maintain high thoughts of God, and settled resolves that He is good; when He not only lets us fall low into trouble, but lets us lie unheard in the day of our trouble. Such was the strength of David’s faith, or rather of Christ’s, of whose sufferings this Psalm is a Prophecy; who as soon as he said, O my God, I cry in the day time, but Thou hearest not; adds in the next verse, But Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel; as if he had said, I will not have an evil, or an uncomely thought of Thee, though Thou refusest to hear; I know Thou art holy, and therefore canst not but be just and good, whatsoever Thou art pleased to do with me.
Verse 4. Our fathers trusted in thee; they trusted and thou didst deliver them. It is wisdom to look to the carriage of the godly in former times; our fathers trusted in thee; and to look upon their patient depending on God, doubling their diligence in calling on Him; as their straits did grow, they cried, they trusted; and to remember that they did never seek God in vain, but every one of them were delivered and not confounded. For this direction is held forth to us in this example of Christ, and David.
Verse 6. But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. When David had said, as the lowest diminution that he could put upon man. I am a worm and no man; he might have gone lower, and said, I am a man and no worm. For man is so much less then a worm, as that worms of his own production shall feed upon his dead body in the grave; and an immortal worm gnaw his conscience in the torments of hell; and then, if that which God hath made thee, man, be nothing, canst thou be proud of that? Or think that any thing the King hath made thee, a Lord; or which thy wife hath made thee, rich; or which thy riches have made thee, an officer? As Job said of impertinent comforters, miserable comforters; so I say of these creations, miserable creations are they all.
Verse 9. But Thou art He that took me out of the womb; Thou didst make me hope, when I was upon my mother’s breasts. Our birth and production is the special work of God; Thou art He that tookest me out of my mother’s womb, saith David here; and he apprehended the power of God so great in his natural birth, that he from thence takes an argument to strengthen his faith, that God could do any other thing for him how hard soever. He knew he could never be in such straits but the power of God could deliver him, when he once remembered that it was God that took him out of his mother’s womb. For in the words immediately foregoing he bringeth in his enemies reproaching him, and saying, he trusted in God that He would deliver him, &c. They jeer him with his God, Let Him deliver him. David answers, what do ye think God cannot deliver me? Lord, saith he, thou art He that tookest me out of my mother’s womb. Can I ever be in such straits, as I was then? Can I be ever in a more helpless condition? Can I ever be in more need of an Almighty help, then when I was struggling to get into the world? There is more of the power of God put forth in bringing a poor infant into the world, then in bringing him out of any trouble, or strait he can fall into, in his travels through the world.
Verse 15. My strength is dried up like a potsheard; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and Thou hast brought me into the dust of death. Even then when a man is no man he may be a Christian; when I am a worm and no man, when I am the offscouring of the world; yet, as my Savior in the text, when He lay in the grave, and was brought to the dust of the earth, was the same Christ; so in the grave of oppression and persecution I am the same Christian, as in my baptism. Let nothing therefore that can befall thee despoil thee of the dignity and constancy of a Christian. However thou be severed from those things which thou makest account do make thee up; severed from a wife by divorce, from a child by death, from goods by fire or water; from an office by just, or unjust displeasure (which is the heavier but the happier case) yet never think thyself severed from thy head Christ Jesus, nor from being a lively member of His body. Thy Savior when He was brought to the dust of the grave, was still the same Lord; thou, when thou art enwrapped and interred in confusion, art still the same Christian. Be truly a Christian, and in the grave of persecution, in the grave of putrefaction, thou shalt retain the same nature, and even thy dust shall be Christian dust.
PSALM XXIII.
Verse 1. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. In the midst of our greatest miseries and afflictions our interest in God will be our comfort. Ask David, and he will tell us in that Psalm, that seeing the Lord is his shepherd he shall not want any good thing, even then when things go never so ill with him. In his sorrows he shall have consolation, in his dangers preservation, supply in his wants, safety in his ways; and whatever may be meet for him in any estate that may befall him.
Verse 4. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. See here what a faithful God you have to stand by you, one that will not fail in greatest need. No such trial of a friend as in time of trouble, but here many times friends will not, and sometimes they cannot help the case is sometimes so desperate, that friends society can only afford pity, not succor; they may look on, they cannot take off, but the presence of God is ever active and powerful; and whereas too most faithful friends part at death, this friend will not then leave us. David knew He would be with him in the shadow of death; not only when we walk through the pleasant meadow of prosperity, but when we go through the salt waters of affliction; nay, when we pass through Mare mortaum, the sea of death, He will be with us.
Verse 5. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. In the most present dangers, God shows the most present help; thou shalt spread my table in the very face of my enemy; even then when my enemy is nearest, and looketh on. As when the sword is in the hand of the angel, so when it is in the hand of man, a thousand shall fall on thy right hand, yet it shall not come nigh thee. Not nigh thee? What? Doth it not come nigh him when they die on every side of him? Yes, nigh him, but not nigh to hurt him; the power of God can bring us near to danger, and yet keep us far from harm. Yet we are not to take this, or the like holy writs of protection, as if God would deliver all his people from famine, or the sword. No, for the Lord knows how to distinguish His, when famine, and sword do not. If God’s servants are not delivered from famine and sword, they are delivered by them, and while they are overcome by one trouble, they conquer all.
PSALM XXIV.
Verse 1. The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. The devil told our Savior that all was his, and to whomsoever he would he gave it. Luke 4:1-44. But the devil lied in saying so for it is God alone that is the sole proprietary of the whole world; He only can truly say as Daniel 3:32. I rule in the kingdom of men; and give it to whosoever I will. How then can God do any man wrong, who is obliged to none, but all are engaged to Him for all they have. And again, how can God’s children want anything that is good for them, seeing they have so rich a Father who seems to say unto them, as in Genesis 45:1-28. Regard not your stuff, for all the good of the land is yours.
Verse 2. For He hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. Hereby is mystically meant, that He hath set His church above the waters of adversity; so that how high soever they arise, it is kept still above them in safety, and so shall be for evermore. Or it may agree thus, He will take in all Nations to be in His grace, because all be His creatures; He made them so admirable an habitation at the first, and upholds it still, shewing hereby how much He regards them; therefore He will now extend His favor further towards them by taking them in to be His people.
Verse 4. He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lift up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. God looketh not, neither would He have us to look upon external titles, or outward state, but upon the uprightness of the heart. When David was anointed, 1 Samuel 16:1-23, Samuel was ready to pour the anointing oil upon Eliab, the eldest brother, ‘cause as the text says, he was a goodly man. Not so says God, look not upon his countenance. Abel offered, so did Cain; but God rejected the offering of Cain, ‘cause he offered not with an upright heart. The upright man is the first ingredient into that holy mountain. And indeed, what part of man is more fit for God then that which God himself shall choose, and that is the heart; My Son give me thy heart; not the eye, though it be piercing, nor the foot, though it be swift; nor the hand though it be strong, nor the tongue though it be eloquent; nor the head though it be politick; but the heart, an upright heart; he that hath an upright heart shall ascend into His holy mountain.
PSALM XXV.
Verse. 5. Lead me in Thy truth, and teach me; for Thou art the God of my salvation, on Thee do I wait all the day. When as the world began in a community, that every thing was every bodies; but improved itself to a propriety, and came to meum and tuum, that every man knew his own; so that which is salus Domini, the salvation of the Lord, as it is in the first decree; and that which is salus Mundi, the salvation of the world, as it is in the accomplishment of the decree by Christ; may be mea, & tua, my salvation, and thy salvation, as tis applied by the Holy Ghost in the ministry of the Church. Salvation in the decree is, as the Bezar stone in the maw of that creature, where it grows. Salvation in Christ’s death is, as the Bezar in the merchants or Apothecaries provision; but salvation in the church, in the distribution and application thereof by the Holy Ghost, is as that Bezar working in my veins, expelling my peccant humors, and rectifying my former defects.
Verse 11. For Thy name sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great. It is well noted upon these words of David, for thy names’ sake, O Lord, that the word is Elohim; which is Gods, or Lords, in the plural. For David, though he conceived not divers Gods, yet he knew three divers persons in that one God; and he knew, that by the sin which he lamented here, he had offended all those three persons. For whereas we consider principally in the Father power, and in the Son, wisdom, and in the Holy Ghost, goodness, David had sinned against the Father in his notion, in abusing his power and kingly authority to a mischievous and bloody end in the murder of Uriah; and he had sinned against the Son in his notion, in depraving and detorting true wisdom into craft and treachery; and he had sinned against the Holy Ghost in his notion, when he would not be content with the goodness and piety of Uriah; who refused to take the eases of his own house, and the pleasure of his wive’s bosom, as long as God Himself in His army lodged in tents, and stood in the face of the enemy.
Verse 15. Mine eyes are ever towards the Lord; for He shall pluck my feet out of the net. Upon these words of David’s, Mine eyes are ever towards the Lord. S. Augustine, saith, quafi diceretur, quid agitur de pedibus? As though it were objected, is all thy care of thine eyes? What becomes of thy feet? Dost thou not look to thy steps, to thy life, as well as thy faith? To please God, as well as to know God? And he answers in the words that follow, ipse evellet; as for my feet, God shall order, that is, assist me in ordering them; if His eye be upon me, and mine upon Him (O blessed reflection, O powerful reciprocation, O happy correspondence!) He will pluck my feet out of the net though I be almost ensnared, almost entangled, He will snatch me out of the fire, deliver me from the tentation. Let us therefore look God full in the face; and then confidently expect deliverance from all enemies bodily or ghostly, either of the world, the flesh, or the devil.
Verse 16. Turn Thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted. Although a Christian may be grown up to such a strength of devotion, as that he can boldly go to God in supplications, and intercessions, and thanksgivings; yet, saith S. Bernard, at first, when he comes first to deprehend himself in a particular sin, or in a course of sin, he comes verecundo affectu, bashfully, shamefully, tremblingly, he knows not what to ask; he dares ask no particular thing at God’s hand; but although he be not come yet to particular requests for pardon of past sins, nor for strength against future, nor to a particular consideration of the weight of his sins, nor to a comparison between his sin and the mercy of God, yet he comes to a misereremes Domine, to a sudden ejaculation, O Lord be merciful unto me, how dare I do this in the sight of my God.
PSALM XXVI.
Verse 3. For Thy loving kindness is before mine eyes; and I have walked in Thy truth. David provokes God with all those emphatical words, judge me, prove me, try me, examine me; and more, ure renes; bring not only a candle to search, but even fire to melt me; but upon what confidence all this? For Thy loving kindness is ever before mine eyes. If God’s anger, and not His loving kindness, had been before his eyes, it had been a fearful apparition, and a dangerous issue, to have gone upon; and therefore it was not God’s searching, and trying and correcting of him that David deprecates here; but that anger which might change the nature of all, and make all the physic poison; all that which was intended for David’s mollifying, to advance his obduration.
Verse 5. I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked. There is nothing that more discovereth what lieth in the heart, then the company with whom we ordinarily resort. The heart of man is deceitful, and the secret corners thereof are past finding out; but the company which we use shall try what is in it. If the heart be set upon goodness, we will not incline ourselves to any lewd conversation. The prophet David hereby justified his heart, in that he hated the company of evil persons; which may serve to reprove all such as are the companions of prophane livers. The crouding of ourselves into such company argues a comformity in affections. We see in the course of nature, that like will to like, and if they be not made like unto them, and corrupted by them, it is greatly to be feared they will be so.
Verse 8. Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where thine honor dwelleth. Every house by public designation separate for prayer, or other religious uses, is God’s house. Thine house, saith this text. God had propriety in it, and had set His mark upon it, even His own name. And therefore it was in the Jews idiom of speech called the mountain of the Lord’s house, and the Lord’s house by our prophet frequently. So that since the purpose of man, in separating places of worship is that thither by order and with convenience, and in communities of men, God may be worshipped and prayed unto; God having declared that He accepts of such separate places to such purposes, saith, that there He will be called upon; that such places shall be places of advantage to our devotions, in respect of human order, and divine acceptance and benediction.
PSALM XXVII.
Verse 3. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. Strange, but yet strong, was the faith of the Psalmist in this verse. Lo, here a soul like the Ark rising with the waters; the encamping of an host is terrible; and yet David fears not; the rising up of war is yet more dangerous, yet David will not only not fear, but be confident; nor yet (which is very considerable) doth he say in God, but in this, that is in the very war itself, will I be confident; as knowing, that when the enemy did not only encamp about, but war against him; (so that either he must perish, or God must help) it would not be long ere the wisdom of the Almighty would find out a way to rescue him. Not much unlike this is that resolution of holy Job, though He slay me yet will I trust in Him; death and hope seem to be at the greatest distance, and yet here they are brought together; death could not kill Job’s hope; nay according to Pagnines reading of the Hebrew text, behold He will slay me; death itself giveth life to his hope and becomes a prop to his confidence.
Verse 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that I will seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple. To this note David sets his harp in many Psalms. Sometimes that God had suffered his enemies to possess His Tabernacle, as Psalms 78:1-72, He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh. But most commonly he complained that God disabled him from coming to the sanctuary. In which one thing he sums up all his desires, all his prayers in this Psalm; to this end he expresses a holy jealousy, a religious envy, even to the sparrows and swallows (yea the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest of herself, even Thy altars, my King and my God). Thou art my king, and my God, and yet excludest me from that which Thou affordest to sparrows.
Verse 7. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, have mercy also upon me, and answer me. Have mercy upon me, is the first groan of a sick soul, the first glance of a soul directed towards God, and imports thus much. Lord turn Thy countenance towards me, Lord bring me to a sense that Thou art turned towards me; Lord bring me within such a distance, as my soul may feel warmth and comfort in the rising of that Sun. For though a sinner in his regeneration come not presently to look God in the face; nor conceive presently an assurance of an establish reconciliation, a fullness of pardon, a canceling of all former debts in an instant; yet such a one in his first act of regeneration, in this miserere met, is called to a contemplation of much comfort to his soul. For as S. Basil saith, in scala prima ascensio est ab humo; He that makes but one step up a stair, though he be not got much nearer to the top of the house, yet he is got from the ground; and delivered from the foulness and dampness of that; so in this first step of prayer miserere met, O Lord be merciful unto me, though man be not established in heaven, yet he is stept from the world, and the miserable comforters thereof.
Verse 8. When thou saidest, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. From this verse you may know how you may judge of yourselves in the time of hearing, whether the word be mixed with faith; if your hearts answer God’s words as David’s did; when God said, Seek ye my face, he answered, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. For faith is such an assent to every word of God, as it produceth affections and actions answerable to the word whereunto the heart assenteth. So that when John Baptist preacheth repentance, we grieve in the sense of sin; and when Christ preacheth the Gospel, we are comforted in hope of forgiveness. Hereby are condemned such, who are like those proud men who told Jeremy that he spake falsely, when he delivered the word of God, which crossed their purposes, as also such as despair in time of affliction, and do not live by faith.
PSALM XXVIII.
Verse 2. Hear the voice of my supplication, when I cry unto Thee. When I lift up my hands toward Thy holy oracle. He mentioneth the lifting up of his hands, as a sign of his seeking help only from above; which reproveth the remissness of too many in praying; who lift up no hands, nor make any outward expression; surely it sheweth a dead heart; and yet if this be done in hypocrisy; it availeth not neither; for with the hands the heart must be lifted up, that we may prevail.
Verse 4. Give them according to their deeds, and according to the nakedness of their endeavors; give them after the work of their hands, render to them their desert. Here the prophet prays, that they might be dealt with according to their doings towards others, not out of a desire of private revenge; for then it had been evil, but from zeal for God’s glory, and a prophetical spirit; by thus praying, shewing that it should be for aiming yet always at this, that the wicked enemies, being judged in this world, might at the last be made so ashamed of their evil doings, that they might be brought to repentance, and saved, as he elsewhere expresseth. Any imprecations which are not thus moderated, or made against any, without abundance of sin by them first committed, and long persisted in, come from the flesh and are sinful; for he saith not only their works; but the evil of their doings, and the works of their hands, to shew that they were many and committed time after time without end.
Verse 8. The Lord is their strength, and he is the saving strength of His anointed. By this all power is ascribed unto Christ, to save at all times all such as believe in Him, to their assured comfort. And of David learn we likewise, when we pray, and when we have victory over our enemies, to ascribe the power whereby to Him alone, and not to ourselves, looking upon Christ also though despised by the Jews as weak and unable to save himself, as being of all power most able to save both temporally and eternally.
Verse 9. Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance; feed them also, and lift them up forever. Such as find access to God in prayer for themselves, should speak also a word for his Church, and say, Lord save thy people. For the privileges which the godly have, are common to all. The godly are all Gods people, his inheritance, his flock; and as the benefits imported under these titles are common; so are the duties due from us to God, imported thereby, common also, and to be so studied that we may discharge them; as we would find from God the benefits of protection and deliverance, as subjects whom he will save, as being fed and led on as his flock, and exalted over all our enemies.
PSALM XXIX.
Verse 9. The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests and in His temple doth every one speak of the glory. God is worthy of all praise and honor; not only when He doth enrich and strengthen us, but also when He doth impoverish and weaken us. When God thunders in judgments so loud; that He breaketh the cedars, and shakes the wilderness; then to give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name, argues a spirit highly enabled and glorious in grace. Therefore His children should not rest in this; that they bear afflictions, but they should labor to bring their hearts to bless and glorify God in and for the afflictions that they bear. And a soul that thus honoureth God shall assuredly receive honor from God. That which the Apostle speaks of the saint suffering persecution, is true of them in any kind of holy suffering, the spirit of glory and of God doth rest upon them 2 Peter 4.
Verse 10. For the Lord sitteth upon the cloud yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever. However the king of the earth be troubled, and rais’d and thrown down again; yet the Lord sitteth King forever. The Lord dwelleth in the heavens, and yet He sits upon the compass of the earth, Isaiah 40:1-31 where no earthquake shakes His seat; for sedet in confusione, as one translation reads this place here, the Lord sitteth upon the flood, so we read it; what confusions soever disorder the world; what floods soever surround and overflow the world, the Lord is safe.
Verse 11. The Lord will give strength unto His people, the Lord will bless His people with peace. Peace is one of the greatest temporal blessings that a state or church can receive; and therefore the prophet calls it here not barely peace but the blessing of peace; and doubtless it is to teach the world, that all earthly blessings are as it were unblessed till peace be upon them, till then no enjoying of any. And therefore it was an ancient custom among the Jews, to salute them to whom they wished all happiness with this complement, peace be unto you. For indeed without peace we can have no solid temporal happiness. Peace, or nothing; peace, and everything. With peace your barns are your own, and your bags are your own, your servants are your own, and your wives they also are your own too; but without peace none of all these things are yours, not so much as your very wives, for they are all at the mercy of the soldiers. Neither is this blessing of peace a peculiar only of particular men, but likewise of whole nations it is a national blessing, a fundamental happiness, that which blesseth all other things to us, and without which they are not blessings; and this not in respect of God’s people alone, but of the very infidels themselves, and such was at the birth of Christ, when it was said, Isaiah 19:1-25, that there should be freedom of traffic and commerce, and this not without a blessing, even a blessing in the midst of the land, for the Lord of hosts shall bless them. Verse 25.