Psalms 17 commentary

This psalm is a prayer. Feigned prayers are fruitless; but if our hearts lead our prayers, God will meet them with his favour. The psalmist had been used to pray, so that it was not his distress and danger that now first brought him to his duty. And he was encouraged by his faith to expect God would notice his prayers. Constant resolution and watchfulness against sins of the tongue, will be a good evidence of our integrity. Aware of man's propensity to wicked works, and of his own peculiar temptations, David had made God's word his preservative from the paths of Satan, which lead to destruction. If we carefully avoid the paths of sin, it will be very lead to destruction. If we carefully avoid the paths of sin, it will be very comfortable in the reflection, when we are in trouble. Those that are, through grace, going in God's paths, should pray that their goings may be held up in those paths. David prays, Lord, still hold me up. Those who would proceed and persevere in the ways of God, must, by faith prayer, get daily fresh supplies of grace and strength from him. Show thy marvellous loving-kindness, distinguishing favours, not common mercies, but be gracious to me; do as thou usest to do to those who love thy name.

Being compassed with enemies, David prays to God to keep him in safety. This prayer is a prediction that Christ would be preserved, through all the hardships and difficulties of his humiliation, to the glories and joys of his exalted state, and is a pattern to Christians to commit the keeping of their souls to God, trusting him to preserve them to his heavenly kingdom. Those are our worst enemies, that are enemies to our souls. They are God's sword, which cannot move without him, and which he will sheathe when he has done his work with it. They are his hand, by which he chastises his people. There is no fleeing from God's hand, but by fleeing to it. It is very comfortable, when we are in fear of the power of man, to see it dependent upon, and in subjection to the power of God. Most men look on the things of this world as the best things; and they look no further, nor show any care to provide for another life. The things of this world are called treasures, they are so accounted; but to the soul, and when compared with eternal blessings, they are trash. The most afflicted Christian need not envy the most prosperous men of the world, who have their portion in this life. Clothed with Christ's righteousness, having through his grace a good heart and a good life, may we by faith behold God's face, and set him always before us. When we awake every morning, may we be satisfied with his likeness set before us in his word, and with his likeness stamped upon us by his renewing grace. Happiness in the other world is prepared only for those that are justified and sanctified: they shall be put in possession of it when the soul awakes, at death, out of its slumber in the body, and when the body awakes, at the resurrection, out of its slumber in the grave. There is no satisfaction for a soul but in God, and in his good will towards us, and his good work in us; yet that satisfaction will not be perfect till we come to heaven.

PSALM 17.

This psalm contains a mournful complaint against the cruel pride of David’s enemies. He protests that he did not deserve to be persecuted with such inhumanity, inasmuch as he had given them no cause for exercising their cruelty against him. At the same time, he beseeches God, as his protector, to put forth his power for his deliverance. The inscription of the psalm does not refer to any particular time, but it is probable that David here complains of Saul and his associates. This is the general opinion as to the occasion of the composition of this psalm. It is supposed that David, in representing his innocence of those things of which he was accused, refers to the charges brought against him of traitorously aspiring to the kingdom, and seeking the life of Saul, 1 Samuel 24:9; and that therefore the persecutors and calumniators from whom he beseeches God to deliver him were Saul and his courtiers.

A prayer of David.

Psalm 17:1-2

1. Hear my righteousness, The Vulgate, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions read “my righteousness," or my right, as here and in our English version, meaning, his righteous cause. The Septuagint, “Κυριε της δικαιοσυνης μου,” “O Lord of my righteousness.” Jerome reads, “Audi, Deus, justum,” “Hear O God, the just one, a reading which Horsley is inclined to adopt, viewing the Messiah as the speaker in this psalm. In the Syriac version the reading is, “Hear, O righteous Lord;” and this is followed by Bishop Horne, Dr Adam Clarke, and Dr Boothroyd O Jehovah, attend to my cry; hearken to my prayer, which proceedeth not from deceitful lips. 2. Let my judgment [or judgment in my favor] come forth from the presence of thy countenance; “Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; that is, be thou, O Jehovah, my judge in thine own person.” — Horsley. let thine eyes look upon my uprightness.

1. Hear my righteousness, O Jehovah. The Psalmist begins the psalm by setting forth the goodness of his cause. He does this because God has promised that he will not suffer the innocent to be oppressed, but will always, at length, succor them. Some explain the word righteousness as denoting righteous prayer, an interpretation which appears to me unsatisfactory. The meaning rather is, that David, confiding in his own integrity, interposes God as a Judge between himself and his enemies, to cognosce or determine in his cause. We have already seen, in a preceding psalm, that when we have to deal with wicked men, we may warrantably protest our innocence before God. As, however, it would not be enough for the faithful to have the approving testimony of a good conscience, David adds to his protestation earnest prayer. Even irreligious persons may often be able justly to boast of having a good cause; but as they do not acknowledge that the world is governed by the providence of God, they content themselves with enjoying the approbation of their own conscience, as they speak, and, gnawing the bit, bear the injuries which are done to them rather obstinately than steadfastly, seeing they do not seek for any consolation in faith and prayer. But the faithful not only depend upon the goodness of their cause, they also commit it to God that he may defend and maintain it; and whenever any adversity befalls them, they betake themselves to him for help. This, therefore, is the meaning of the passage; it is a prayer that God, who knew David to have done justly, and to have performed his duty without giving occasion to any to blame him, “Que David se soit portd justement et fait son devoir sans donner a aucun occasion de le blasmer.” — Fr. and, therefore, to be unrighteously molested by his enemies, would graciously look upon him; and that he would do this especially, since, confiding in his aid, he entertained good hope, and, at the same time, prays to him with a sincere heart. By the words cry and prayer he means the same thing; but the word cry, and the repetition of what it denotes, by a different expression, serve to show his vehement, his intense earnestness of soul. Farther, as hypocrites talk loftily in commendation of themselves, and to show to others a token of the great confidence which they have in God, give utterance to loud cries, David protests concerning himself that he does not speak deceitfully; in other words, that he does not make use of his crying and prayer as a pretext for covering his sins, but comes into the presence of God with sincerity of heart. By this form of prayer the Holy Spirit teaches us, that we ought diligently to endeavor to live an upright and innocent life, so that, if there are any who give us trouble, we may be able to boast that we are blamed and persecuted wrongfully. “Que nous sommes blasmez et persecutez a tort.” — Fr. Again, whenever the wicked assault us, the same Spirit calls upon us to engage in prayer; and if any man, trusting to the testimony of a good conscience which he enjoys, neglects the exercise of prayer, he defrauds God of the honor which belongs to him, in not referring his cause to him, and in not leaving him to judge and determine in it. Let us learn, also, that when we present ourselves before God in prayer, it is not to be done with the ornaments of an artificial eloquence, for the finest rhetoric and the best grace which we can have before him consists in pure simplicity.

PSALM 17

Psa 17:1-15. This Psalm is termed a prayer because the language of petition is predominant. With a just cause, sincerely presented, the writer prays for a just decision and help and protection. Pleading former mercies as a ground of hope, he urges his prayer in view of the malice, pride, rapacity, and selfishness of his foes, whose character is contrasted with his pious devotion and delight in God's favor.

2. sentence--acquitting judgment.

from thy presence--Thy tribunal.

things that are equal--just and right, do Thou regard.

3. proved ... visited ... tried--His character was most rigidly tested, at all times, and by all methods, affliction and others (Psa 7:10).

purposed that, &c.--or, my mouth does not exceed my purpose; I am sincere.

4. works of men--sinful practices.

by the word of thy lips--as a guide (Psa 119:9, 11, 95).

destroyer--violent man.

5. May be read as an assertion "my steps or goings have held on to Thy paths."

6. wilt hear me--that is, graciously (Psa 3:4).

7. Show--set apart as special and eminent (Ex 8:18; Psa 4:3).

thy right hand--for Thy power.

8. Similar figures, denoting the preciousness of God's people in His sight, in De 32:10, 11; Mt 23:37.

9. compass me--(compare Psa 118:10-12).

10. enclosed ... fat--are become proud in prosperity, and insolent to God (De 32:15; Psa 73:7).

11. They pursue us as beasts tracking their prey.

12. The figure made more special by that of a lion lurking.

13-15. disappoint--literally, "come before," or, "encounter him." Supply "with" before "sword" (Psa 17:13), and "hand" (Psa 17:14). These denote God's power.

Hear the right - Attend to the justice of my cause, יהוה צדק Yehovah tsedek, righteous Jehovah. "O righteous Jehovah, attend unto my cry."

Goeth not out of feigned lips - My supplication is sincere: and the desire of my heart accompanies the words of my lips.

My sentence come forth from thy presence - Thou knowest my heart, and my ways; judge me as thou shalt find; let me not fall under the judgment of man.

Let thine eyes behold the things that are equal - Thou knowest whether I render to all their due, and whether others act justly by me. Thou canst not be deceived: do justice between me and my adversaries.

Thou hast proved mine heart - Thou well knowest whether there be any evil way in me. Thou hast given me to see many and sore trials; and yet, through thy mercy, I have preserved my integrity both to thee and to my king. Thou hast seen me in my most secret retirements, and knowest whether I have plotted mischief against him who now wishes to take away my life.

Thou hast tried me - צרפתני tseraphtani; Thou hast put me to the test, as they do metals in order to detect their alloy, and to purify them: well expressed by the Vulgate, Igne me examinasti, "Thou hast tried me by fire;" and well paraphrased in my old Psalter, - The examynd me the lykkenyng of the fournas, that purges metal, and imang al this, wykednes es nout funden in me: that es, I am funden clene of syn, and so ryghtwis. - He who is saved from his sin is right wise; he has found the true wisdom.

My mouth shall not transgress - This clause is added to the following verse by the Vulgate and Septuagint: "That my mouth may not speak according to the works of men, I have observed difficult ways because of the words of thy lips." That is, So far from doing any improper action, I have even refrained from all words that might be counted inflammatory or seditious by my adversaries; for I took thy word for the regulation of my conduct, and prescribed to myself the most painful duties, in order that I might, in every respect, avoid what would give offense either to thee or to man. Among the genuine followers of God, plots and civil broils are never found.

The paths of the destroyer - Some render, hard or difficult paths, the sense of which is given above. But the passage is exceedingly obscure. My old Psalter translates and paraphrases as follows: -

Trans. That my mouthe speke noght the werkes of men, for the wordes of thi lippes I haf keped hard wayse.

Par - That es, that nothing passe of my mouthe bot at falles to the louyng of the; noght til werkes of men, that dos o gaynes thy wil; als to say, I spak noght bot gude; and for the wordes of thi lippes, that es, to ful fil the wordes that thi prophetes saide; I kepe hard waies of verteus and of tribulacioun, the qwilk men thynk hard; and for thi thai leve the hard way til heven, and takes the soft way til hel; but it es ful hard at the end.

Hold up my goings in thy paths - David walked in God's ways; but, without Divine assistance, he could not walk steadily, even in them. The words of God's lips had shown him the steps he was to take, and he implores the strength of God's grace to enable him to walk in those steps. He had been kept from the paths of the destroyer; but this was not sufficient; he must walk in God's paths - must spend his life in obedience to the Divine will. Negative holiness ean save no man. "Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire."

Incline thine ear unto me - David prayed from a conviction that God would hear: but he could not be satisfied unless he received an answer. In a believer's mind the petition and the answer should not be separated.

Show thy marvellous lovingkindness - David was now exposed to imminent danger; common interpositions of Providence could not save him; if God did not work miracles for him, he must fall by the hand of Saul. Yet he lays no claim to such miraculous interpositions; he expects all from God's lovingkindness.

The common reading here is הפלה חסדיך haphleh chasadeycha, "distinguish thy holy ones;" but הפלא haple, "do wonders," is the reading of about seventy MSS., some ancient editions, with the Septuagint, Vulgate, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic. The marginal reading of this verse is nearer the original than that of the text.

Keep me as the apple of the eye - Or, as the black of the daughter of eye. Take as much care to preserve me now by Divine influence, as thou hast to preserve my eye by thy good providence. Thou hast entrenched it deeply in the skull; hast ramparted it with the forehead and cheek-bones; defended it by the eyebrow, eyelids, and eyelashes; and placed it in that situation where the hands can best protect it.

Hide me under the shadow of thy wings - This is a metaphor taken from the hen and her chickens. See it explained at large in the note on Mat 23:37 (note). The Lord says of his followers, Zac 2:8 : "He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eye." How dear are our eyes to us! how dear must his followers be to God!

From my deadly enemies, who compass me about - This is a metaphor taken from huntsmen, who spread themselves around a large track of forest, driving in the deer from every part of the circumference, till they are forced into the nets or traps which they have set for them in some particular narrow passage. The metaphor is carried on in the following verses.

They are enclosed in their own fat - Dr. Kennicott, Bishop Horsley, Houbigant, and others, read the passage thus: עלי חבלמו סגרו alai chablamo sageru, "They have closed their net upon me." This continues the metaphor which was introduced in the preceding verse, and which is continued in the two following: and requires only that עלי ali, "upon me," should began this verse instead of end the preceding; and that חלב cheleb, which signifies fat, should be read חבל chebel, which signifies rope, cable, or net. This important reading requires only the interchange of two letters. The Syriac translates it, shut their mouth: but the above emendation is most likely to be true.

They speak proudly - Having compassed the mountain on which I had taken refuge, they now exult, being assured that they will soon be in possession of their prey.

They have now compassed us in our steps - Instead of אשרנו ashshurenu, "our steps," Dr. Kennicott and others recommend אשרינו ashreynu, "O lucky we, at last we have compassed him." He cannot now escape; he is sure to fall into our hands.

They have set their eyes bowing down to the earth - All the commentators and critics have missed the very expressive and elegant metaphor contained in this clause. Kennicott says, They drove the hart into toils, and then shot him. Bishop Horsley says, on the clause, They have set their eyes bowing down to the earth: "This is the attitude of huntsmen, taking aim at an animal upon the ground." No, it is the attitude of the huntsmen looking for the slot, or track of the hart's, hind's, or antelope's foot on the ground. See at the conclusion of the Psalm.

Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey - I believe the word lion is here used to express Saul in his strength, kingly power and fierce rapacity. See the observations at the end of the Psalm.

Arise, O Lord, disappoint him - When he arises to spring upon and tear me to pieces, arise thou, O Lord; disappoint him of his prey; seize him, and cast him down.

Deliver my soul - Save my life.

From the wicked, which is thy sword - Saul is still meant, and we may understand the words as either implying the sword, the civil power, with which God had intrusted him, and which he was now grievously abusing; or, it may mean, deliver me by Thy sword - cut him off who wishes to cut me off. On this ground the next verse should be read from men, By thy hand. So the margin. The hand of God not only meaning his power, but his providence.

From men of the world, which have - ממתים מחלד mimethim mecheled, from mortal men of time; temporizers; men who shift with the times, who have no fixed principle but one, that of securing their own secular interest: and this agrees with what follows - which have their portion in this life; who never seek after any thing spiritual; who have bartered heaven for earth, and have got the portion they desired; for thou fillest their belly with thy hid treasure. Their belly - their sensual appetites - is their god; and, when their animal desires are satisfied, they take their rest without consideration, like the beasts that perish.

Their portion in this life - בחיים bachaiyim, in lives, probably meaning heritable lands and estates; for they leave them to their children, they descend to posterity, and every one has his life portion in them. They are lands of lives.

They are full of children - Have a numerous offspring, whom they educate in the same principles, and to whom they leave a large earthly patrimony, and who spend it as their fathers have done, and perhaps even more dissolutely. Often covetous fathers lay up riches, which profligate sons scatter to all the winds of heaven. I have seen many instances of this.

As for me - I cannot be satisfied with such a portion.

I will behold thy face - Nothing but an evidence of thy approbation can content my soul.

In righteousness - I cannot have thy approbation unless I am conformed to thy will. I must be righteous in order that my heart and life may please thee.

I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness - Nothing but God can satisfy the wishes of an immortal spirit. He made it with infinite capacities and desires; and he alone, the infinite Good, can meet and gratify these desires, and fill this all-capacious mind. No soul was ever satisfied but by God; and he satisfies the soul only by restoring it to his image, which, by the fall, it has lost.

I think there is an allusion here to the creation of Adam. When God breathed into him the breath of lives, and he became a living soul, he would appear as one suddenly awaked from sleep. The first object that met his eyes was his glorious Creator, and being made in his image and in his likeness, he could converse with him face to face - was capable of the most intimate union with him, because he was filled with holiness and moral perfection. Thus was he satisfied, the God of infinite perfection and purity filling all the powers and faculties of his soul. David sees this in the light of the Divine Spirit, and knows that his happiness depends on being restored to this image and likeness; and he longs for the time when he shall completely arise out of the sleep and death of sin, and be created anew after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness. I do not think that he refers to the resurrection of the body, but to the resurrection of the soul in this life; to the regaining the image which Adam lost.

The paraphrase in my old Psalter understands the whole of this Psalm as referring to the persecution, passion, death, and resurrection of Christ; and so did several of the primitive fathers, particularly St. Jerome and St. Augustine. I shall give a specimen from Psa 17:11 : -

Projicientes me, nunc circumdederunt me: oculos suos statuerunt declinare in terram.

Trans. Forth castand me now, thai haf umgyfen me: thair egheu thai sette to heelde in the erde.

Par - Forth kasten me out of the cite, als the stede had bene fyled of me: now thai haf umgyfen me in the cros hyngand, als folk that gedyrs til a somer gamen: for thai sett thair eghen, that es the entent of thaire hert to heeld in the erde; that es, in erdly thynges to covayte tham, and haf tham. And thai wende qwen thai slew Crist that he had suffird al the ill, and thai nane.

Perhaps some of my readers may think that this needs translating, so far does our present differ fronn our ancient tongue.

Text - They have now cast me forth; they have surrounded me: their eyes they set down to the earth.

Par - They have cast me out of the city, as if the state were to be defiled by me: now they have surrounded me hanging on the cross, as people gathered together at summer games. For they set their eyes, that is, the intent of their heart, down to the earth; that is, earthly things, to covet them and to have them: and they thought, when they slew Christ, that he had suffered all the ill, and they none.

By the slot or track of the hart on the ground, referred to in Psa 17:11, experienced huntsmen can discern whether there have been a hart there, whether he has been there lately, whether the slot they see be the track of a hart or a hind, and whether the animal be young or old. All these can be discerned by the slot. And if the reader have that scarce book at hand, Tuberville on Hunting, 4th, 1575 or 1611, he mill find all this information in chapter 22, p. 63, entitled, The Judgment and Knowledge by the Slot of a Hart; and on the same page; a wood-cut, representing a huntsman with his eyes set, bowing down to the earth, examining three slots which he had just found. The cut is a fine illustration of this clause. Saul and his men were hunting David, and curiously searching every place to find out any track, mark, or footstep, by which they might learn whether he had been in such a place, and whether he had been there lately. Nothing can more fully display the accuracy and intensity of this search than the metaphor contained in the above clause. He who has been his late Majesty's huntsmen looking for the slot in Windsor Forest will see the strength and propriety of the figure used by the psalmist.

Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey - This is the picture of Saul. While his huntsmen were beating every bush, prying into every cave and crevice, and examining every foot of ground to find out a track, Saul is ready, whenever the game is started, to spring upon, seize, and destroy it. The metaphors are well connected, well sustained, and strongly expressive of the whole process of this persecution.

In the ninth verse the huntsmen beat the forest to raise and drive in the game. In the tenth they set their nets, and speak confidently of the expected success. In the eleventh, they felicitate themselves on having found the slot, the certain indication of the prey being at hand. And in the twelfth, the king of the sport is represented as just ready to spring upon the prey; or, as having his bow bent, and his arrow on the string, ready to let fly the moment the prey appears. It is worthy of remark, that kings and queens were frequently present, and were the chiefs of the sport; and it was they who, when he had been killed, broke up the deer: 1. Slitting down the brisket with their knife or sword; and, 2. Cutting off the head. And, as Tuberville published the first edition of his book in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, he gives a large wood-cut, p. 133, representing this princess just alighted from her horse - the stag stretched upon the ground - the huntsman kneeling, holding the fore foot of the animal with his left hand, and with his right presenting a knife to the queen for the purpose of the breaking up. As the second edition was published in the reign of James the First, the image of the queen is taken out and a whole length of James introduced in the place.

The same appears in Tuberville's Book of Falconrie, connected with the above. In p. 81, edition 1575, where the flight of the hawk at the heron is represented, the queen is seated on her charger: but in the edition of 1611 King James is placed on the same charger, the queen being removed.

The lion is the monarch of the forest; and is used successfully here to represent Saul, king of Israel, endeavoring to hunt down David; hernoming him in on every side; searching for his footsteps; and ready to spring upon him, shoot him with his bow, or pierce him with his javelin, as soon as he should be obliged to flee from his last cover. The whole is finely imagined, and beautifully described.

The right - Regard my righteous cause.

Sentence - Judgment on my behalf. Come - From thy tribunal.

Proved - Or, searched or tried it, by many temptations and afflictions. Night - When mens minds being freed from the distraction of business, and from the society of men, they act more vigorously and freely, according to their several inclinations. Tried - As gold - smiths do metals. Nothing - Nothing of unrighteousness. Purposed - I have resolved, upon deliberation, as the word implies. Mouth - I am so far from practising against Saul's life, as they charge me, that I will not wrong him so much as in a word.

Concerning - Observing the works of the men of this age, how wicked they are, I was resolved to take more care in ordering my own actions. By - By the help of thy blessed word. Paths - The customs and practices. Destroyer - Or, of the violent man: such as Saul, and his courtiers and soldiers.

By - By thy great power.

They - They live in splendor and prosperity.

Steps - In all our ways. We go from place to place, to rocks, and caves, and woods; but wheresoever we go they are at hand, and ready to surround us. Eyes - They keep their eyes fixed upon us. Bowing - Couching down upon the earth, that they may watch the fittest opportunity to surprize us.

Sword - Thy instrument to execute vengeance upon thine enemies. Do not punish me with this rod: let me fall into thy hands, and not into the hands of men.

Thy hand - Wherewith thou dost correct me. World - Who set their hearts upon this world, and neither have, nor desire any other portion. Belly - Mind or appetite, as that word is used, Job 20:20. Prov 20:30. Treasure - With extraordinary wealth and glory. Children - When many of thy faithful servants are barren, these are blessed with a numerous posterity.

I will - I do not place my portion in earthly treasures, but in beholding God's face, in the enjoyment of God's presence and favour; which is enjoyed in part in this life, but not fully. Satisfied - The time is coming, wherein I shall be abundantly satisfied with beholding thy face. Awake - When I arise from he dead. Likeness - With the image of God stamped upon my glorified soul.

1. HEar the right , O LORD, attend unto my cry , give ear unto my prayer that goeth not out of [illegible: 1+ letters]eigned lips .

Heb. righteousness, (i▪ e.) Me who, notwithstanding all their Accusations and slaunders, am righteous; Or, my righteous cause; do thou take notice of it and give Sentence for me: or my righteous P[illegible: 1+ letters]ayer. I desire nothing that is unreasonable or unjust, but that thou wouldest judge righteously between me and mine Enemies, and vindicate thine own Honour▪ and faithfulness in making good▪ thy Promise to me; which thy righteousness obligeth thee to do.

(i. e.) My [illegible: 1+ letters]ervent Prayer attended with strong Cries.

Heb. not with deceitful lips, which speak one thing when my Heart knoweth and designeth another. And this profession of his sincerity in his Words, doth fitly make way for his solemn appeal to God in the following Verses.

Marginal references: Heb. justice.; Heb▪ without li[illegible: 1+ letters]s of deceit.

2. Let my sentence come forth from thy presence : let thine eyes behold the things that are equal .

Heb. my right or judgment▪ (i. e.) Judgment in my cause, or on my behalf.

(i. e.) From thee, and from thy tribunal to which I bring my cause. Do not suspend or delay it, but speedily examine my cause and give Sentence in it.

Or, Right. For though I desire and need thy Grace and Favour in many other Respects, yet I beg only thy justice in this cause between me and them.

Marginal references: Psal. 11. 5.

3. Thou hast proved mine heart, thou hast visited me in the night , thou hast tried me , and shalt find nothing : I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress .

Or searched or tried it, by many and fore Temptations and Afflictions, whereby the sincerity or hypocrisie of mens Hearts, are easily and commonly discovered, and especially by thy all-seeing Eye. And that is my great Comfort, that thou art Witness of my innocency.

Thou hast made an inspection and enquiry into my Heart.

Either 1. Metaphorically, (i. e.) in the time of Trouble. Or, 2. properly; when mens minds being freed from the incumbrance and distraction of Business, and from the Presence and Society of men: Which either lays a restraint upon them, or tempts them to use Dissimulation, do act most vigorously and freely, either upon Good or Evil, according to their several inclinations.

Accurately and severely, as Gold-smiths do Metals.

(i. e.) Nothing of unrighteousness, in Heb. shalt not find, To wit, that whereof mine Enemies accuse me, namely Hypocrisie towards thee, and evil design against Saul, covered under fair Pretences, as they alledge. So this general Phrase is to be limited from the Context, as other Generals most frequently are. For he was far from thinking himself Sinless, that he often acknowledgeth his many and great sins, and particularly, that, if God should enter into Iudgment with him, and be severe to mark iniquities, no man living could be justified, Or, stand before him, Psal. 130. [illegible: 1+ letters]3. and 143. 2.

Or, I have resolved upon Deliberation, as the word implies.

I am so far from Practising against Saul's Life, as they charge me, that I will not wrong him so much as in a Word. Some joyn these Words with the next foregoing, and render the place thus, That which I have thought, my mouth shall not transgress, or rather, hath not transgressed; (i. e.) My Thoughts and Words always agree together. Iabhor falshood and Dissimulation.

Marginal references: Ioh. 23 10▪ [illegible: 1 word] 26. 2 Mal. 3. 2, 3. 1 Pet. 1. 7.; Psal. 39. 1.

4. Concerning the works of men , by the word of thy lips , I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer .

Concerning my care and Caution about my Words, I have now spoken, v. 3. now I may say the like concerning my works. As for the works which men generally Practise. Or, Because of (as the prefix, Lamed is oft used, as Gen. 2. 23. Numb. 16. 34. Jer. 4. 31. and 22. 10. and 23. 9.) The works of men. So the Sence may be this, Observing and considering the quality of the Works of the men of this Age, with whom I converse, or of all mankind, some few excepted, considering, I say, how wicked and unreasonable and pernicious they are, not only to others, but also to themselves; I was resolved to take more care in the ordering of my own Actions.

(i. e.) By the help of thy blessed Word and the excellent Rules, Promises and Threatnings thereof, which by deep and frequent Meditation I have hid and fixed in mine Heart, as the best An[illegible: 1+ letters]idore against sin and temptation, Psal. 119. 9. 11.

So the same Verb is used with the like Supplement, Ios. 6. 18. which also is in a manner included in the Verb. Or, I have observed, To wit, so as to avoid them.

Or, ways, (i. e.) The Customs and Practices, or the imitation of them; as may be gathered from the next Verse, where he prays to be kept in God's paths, which are oppossed to these Paths.

Or, of the violent Man: Such as Saul and his Courtiers and Soldiers have shewed themselves towards me. Although their rage and violence against me, might have tempted me to have repayed them in their own Coyn, yet I forbore it, and spared both others, and Saul himself when his Life was at my Mercy, 1 Sam. 24. and 26. and this I did in Obedience to thy Word, which required me to Honour and preserve the Lords anointed.

5. Hold up my goings in thy paths , that my footsteps slip not .

As by thy Word and Grace thou hast hitherto kept me from the Paths of evil men, and led me into thy Paths, so, I pray thee, enable me by the same means to persevere in thy ways, and in mine abhorrency of wicked Courses.

That I may not fall into that sin of revenging my self upon Saul, to which I may be more and more tempted, nor into any other sin, whereby thou mayst be provoked, or men may be offended, and Religion disgraced.

Marginal references: Heb. be not moved.

6. I have called upon thee , for thou wilt hear me, O God : incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech.

It hath been and still is, and shall be my constant Course, to apply my self to thee for assistance and for deliverance.

For though thou mayst delay for a season, I am well assured that thou wilst hear and answer me.

7. shew thy marvellous loving kindness , O thou that savest by thy right hand , them which put their trust in thee , from those that rise up against them .

To wit, in preserving and delivering me; which, if thou dost, I must ever acknowledge it to be an Act of kindness, or free Grace, or undeserved Bounty, yea and of marvellous kindness, because of my extream and pressing Dangers, out of which nothing but a wonder of Gods mercy and power can save me.

(i. e.) By thy great Power.

Or, in it, (i. e.) In thy right Hand, as was now expressed. Or, because of (as the Hebrew[illegible: 1+ letters] prefix Mem oft signifies, as Psal. 12. 6. and elsewhere) those that exalt themselves, (as this word signifies, Iob. 20. 27. and 27. 7. Psal. 59. 1▪) not only against me, but against thee who hast engaged and declared thy self for me. So this Prayer is like that Psal. 66. 7. Let not the Rebellio[illegible: 1+ letters]s exalt themselves. But this place is otherwise translated in the Margent of our Bibles, with which divers others, both Antient and latter Interpreters agree, and that more agreeably to the Order of the words in the Hebrew text, O thou that savest (or usest to save) them which trust in thee (or, as the Hebrew word may be properly rendred without any Supplement, Believers) from those that rise up against thy right Hand, (i. e.) Either against thy mighty Power, which thou hast already shewed in my wonderful Preservation: Or, against thy Counsel (which is called Gods hand, Act. 4. 28.) and revealed Will concerning my advancement to the Kingdom, which divers of these men did knowingly oppose, as may be gathered from 2 Sam. 3. 9, 10. Or, against the man (which word is oft understood, whereof examples have been given, and more we shall have in this Book) of thy right Hand, as David is called, Psal. 80. 17. According to this Translation his Prayer is inforced with a double motive, to wit, his trust is in God, and his Enemies opposition against God.

Which God hath marvellously fenced on every side, and men use their utmost Care and Diligence to keep e.

Marginal references: Psal. 31. 21.; Or, that savest them which trust in thee, from those that rise up against thy right [illegible: 1 word].

8. Keep me as the apple of the eye e: hide me under the shadow of thy wings .

As an Hen doth her Chickens.

Marginal references: Deu. 32. 10. Zech. [illegible: 1+ letters]. [illegible: 1+ letters].

9. From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies , who compass me about .

Or, Because of the wicked.

Heb. from those who are mine Enemies in or for, or against my (which Pronoun is easily supplied out of the [illegible: 1+ letters]oregoing Word, where it is expressed) Soul or Life (i. e.) Whom nothing but my Blood and Life will satisfie.

Which shews both their extream Malice and his great Danger.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word] wast me.; Heb. [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] against [illegible: 1 word] so[illegible: 1+ letters]l.

10. They are inclosed in their own fat : with their mouth they speak proudly .

They live in great Splendour and Prosperity, whilst I am exercised with many and [illegible: 1+ letters]ore Troubles. The like Phrase we have Iob. 15. 27. Psal. 73. 7.

Not only against us whom they scorn, but even against God himself whom they despise, boasting of their own Power, and what great things they will certainly effect against me.

Marginal references: Psal. 119. [illegible: 1+ letters] ▪

11. They have now compassed us in our steps ; they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth :

(i. e.) In all our ways. We go from place to place, to Rocks and Caves, and Woods; but wheresoever we go they are at hand, and ready to surround us. Of which see an example, 1 Sam. 23. 26.

To wit, upon or against us, (i. e.) They have discovered us, and keep their eyes fixed upon us, that we may not escape, or as designing to shoot at us.

(i. e.) Couching and casting themselves down upon the Earth, that they may not be discovered, and so may watch the fittest opportunity to surprize us. Which Sence is favoured by the next Verse, and by comparing, Psal. 10 10. Oth. To cast us down to the Earth.

12. Like a lyon that is greedy of his prey , and as it were a young lyon lurking in secret places .

When he is hungry and therefore cruel.

See Psal. 7. 2. and 10. 8, 9, 10.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1+ letters] ness of him (that is, of every one of them) is as a [illegible: 1+ letters] on that [illegible: 1 word] to raven.; Heb. [illegible: 1 word].

13. Arise, O LORD, disappoint him , cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword :

Heb. Prevent his face, (i. e.) Go forth against him, and meet and Face him in Battle, as Enemies use to do. Or, Prevent the Execution of his mischievous Designs against me; stop him in his attempt, and give him the first blow.

Or, thy hand, as it follows, v. 14. (i. e.) Thy instrument to execute Vengeance upon thine Enemies, or to chastise and exercise thy People: For which reason the Assy[illegible: 1+ letters]ian is called God's Rod. Isa. 10. 5. as being ordained for Correction, [illegible: 1 word]. 1. 12. The Sence is, do not punish me by this Rod: let me fall into thy hands, and not into the hands of wicked men, 2 Sam. 24. 14. Or, by (which Preposition is understood, Psal. 2. 12. and oft elsewhere) thy Sword, (i. e.) by thy Power.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word] his face.; Or, by [illegible: 1+ letters]oy sword.

14. From men which are thy hand , O LORD, from men of the world , which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure : they are full of Children , and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.

Wherewith thou dost Correct me.

(i. e.) Who prosper in and set their Hearts upon this vain and Transitory World, and neither have, nor chuse, or desire any other Portion or Felicity, as it follows.

(i. e.) Mind or Appetite, as that word is used, Iob 20. 20. Prov. 20. 30.

(i. e.) Not only with common mercies, as Food and Raiment, but with thy choicest and most precious good things, such as men use to hide or keep in their treasures, with extraordinary Wealth and Glory, and all the Delights and Comforts of the present Life.

When many of the faithful Servants are barren, these are blessed with a numerous Posterity. Or, their Children are filled or satisfied as well as their Parents. There is abundantly enough both for them and for their Children, and to spare for their Childrens Children, as it follows.

Marginal references: Or, from me [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] hand.; Luk. 16. 25.; [illegible: 1 word]. 41. 8.; Or, their Chil [illegible: 1+ letters] are full.

15. As for me , I will or shall behold thy face , in righteousness : I shall be satisfied , when I awake , with thy likeness .

I do not envy this their Felicity, but my Hopes and Happiness are of another Nature.

I do not place my Portion in earthly and temporal Treasures, as they do, but in beholding God's face, (i. e.) In the enjoyment of God's presence and favo[illegible: 1+ letters]r; which is indeed enjoyed in part in this Life, but not fully and to Satisfaction, of which David here speaks, as appears from the last Clause of this Verse; The sight of God, and of his face, being frequently spoken of, both in the Old and New Testament, as a priviledge denied even to the Saints, in this Life and peculiar to the next Life, as is manifest from Exod. 33. 20. Iudg. 13. 22. Mat. 5. 8. 1 Cor. 13. 12. 2 Cor. 3. 18. 1 Ioh. 3. 2.

With the Comfort of a good Conscience, bearing me Witness that, notwithstanding all the Calumnies and Censures of mine Enemies, I have been, and am upright and righteous in the Course of my Life, both towards thee and towards all men. Which Testimony will enable me to look God in the Face with boldness, when mine Enemies, being Conscious to themselves of gross and manifold righteousness towards thee and me, and others, will be afraid to appear in thy Presence.

I am now greatly distressed and dissatisfied, and mine Enemies are fitted and satisfied with good things; but my turn will come, the time is coming wherein I shall be abundantly satisfied, to wit, with beholding thy Face, which is to me more Comfortable and Satisfactory than all the Possessions of this World▪

Either, 1. When I shall be delivered from my present Distresses and Calamities. But these never are in Scripture, nor indeed can fitly be, called by the name of Sleep, which is every where spoken of as a state of [illegible: 1+ letters]est, and quietness; as Psal. 127. 2. Ioh. 11. 12, 13. and consequently deliverance from them, cannot be compared to awaking. Or rather, 2. When I shall arise from the Dead: For Death is very frequently called Sleep both in Scripture, as 1 Kings 1. 21. Isa. 26. 19. Ier. 51. 39, 57. Dan. 12. 2. Ioh. 11. 11, 13. and in other Authors; and consequently Resurrection from the Dead, is justly and fitly called an awaking, as it is Iob 14. 12. Dan. 12. 2. Ioh. 11. 11. And since the Doctrine of the Resurrection of the just, to a blessed and endless Life was not unknown to the Holy men of God in the Old Testament, as it were very easie to prove, nor to David in particular, as appears from Psal. 16. 10, 11. and from divers other Passages, it cannot be imagined but David would Support and Comfort himself in his greatest Agonies, with the Consideration thereof, this being incomparably the most weighty and effectual Argument and ground of Comfort, which he could possibly use. And this also best suits with the Context; for David is here opposing his Hopes and Portion to that of his Enemies, and having noted, not without a secret reflection and reproach upon them for it, that their Portion was in this Life, v. 14. it was most Consonant to the place and to the thing it self, that he should seek and have his Happiness in the future Life.

Or Image. By which may be understood either, 1. Christ, the Son of God, who was known to David and other Prophets, as is Evident, and that under the name of the Son of God, Psal. 2▪ 7, 12. Prov. 30. 4. Hos. 11. 1. Comp. with Mat. 2. 15. who being exactly like to his Father, might most fitly be called his likeness or image, as he is, Heb. 1. 3. Or 2. the image of God stamped upon his glorified Soul; which must needs afford him infinite Delight and Satisfaction. Or 3▪ God himself, or the face of God mentioned in the former Clause, and explained here by another Phrase, as is very usual in these Writings. And this Interpretation may receive strength from Numb. 12 8. Where beholding the similitude of the Lord is evidently the same thing, which is elsewhere called [illegible: 1 word] his face, and from Heb. 10 1. Where the image, doth not note the likeness or Representation, but the truth and existence of the thing.

Flight of an innocent and Persecuted Man for Refuge in the Lord, Who Knoweth Them That Are His

Psa 17:1-15 is placed after Psa 16:1-11, because just like the latter (cf. Psa 11:7) it closes with the hope of a blessed and satisfying vision of God. In other respects also the two Psalms have many prominent features in common: as, for instance, the petition שׁמרני, Psa 16:1; Psa 17:8; the retrospect on nightly fellowship with God, Psa 16:7; Psa 17:3; the form of address in prayer אל, Psa 16:1; Psa 17:6; the verb תּמך, Psa 16:5; Psa 17:5, etc. (vid., Symbolae p. 49), notwithstanding a great dissimilarity in their tone. For Psa 16:1-11 is the first of those which we call Psalms written in the indignant style, in the series of the Davidic Psalms. The language of the Psalms of David, which is in other instances so flowing and clear, becomes more harsh and, in accordance with the subject and mood, as it were, full of unresolved dissonances (Psa 17:1; Psa 140:1; Psa 58:1; Psa 36:2, cf. Psa 10:2-11) when describing the dissolute conduct of his enemies, and of the ungodly in general. The language is then more rough and unmanageable, and wanting in the clearness and transparency we find elsewhere. The tone of the language also becomes more dull and, as it were, a dull murmur. It rolls on like the rumble of distant thunder, by piling up the suffixes mo , āmo , ēmo, as in Psa 17:10; Psa 35:16; Psa 64:6, Psa 64:9, where David speaks of his enemies and describes them in a tone suggested by the indignation, which is working with his breast; or in Psa 59:12-14; Psa 56:8; Psa 21:10-13; Psa 140:10; Psa 58:7, where, as in prophetic language, he announces to them of the judgment of God. The more vehement and less orderly flow of the language which we find here, is the result of the inward tumult of his feelings.

There are so many parallels in the thought and expression of thought of this Psalm in other Davidic Psalms (among those we have already commented on we may instance more especially Psa 7:1 and Psa 11:1, and also Psa 4:1 and Psa 10:1), that even Hitzig admits the לדוד. The author of the Psalm is persecuted, and others with him; foes, among whom one, their leader, stands prominently forward, plot against his life, and have encompassed him about in the most threatening manner, eager for his death. All this corresponds, line for line, with the situation of David in the wilderness of Maon (about three hours and three quarters S.S.E. of Hebron), as narrated in 1Sa 23:25., when Saul and his men were so close upon the heels of David and his men, that he only escaped capture by a most fortunate incident.

The only name inscribed on this Psalm is תּפּלּה (a prayer), the most comprehensive name for the Psalms, and the oldest (Psa 72:20); for שׁיר and מזמור were only given to them when they were sung in the liturgy and with musical accompaniment. As the title of a Psalm it is found five times (Psa 17:1, Psa 86:1, Psa 90:1, Psa 92:1, Psa 142:1) in the Psalter, and besides that once, in Hab. Habakkuk’s תפלה is a hymn composed for music. But in the Psalter we do not find any indication of the Psalms thus inscribed being arranged for music. The strophe schema is 4. 7; 4. 4. 6. 7.

Psa 17:1-2 צדק is the accusative of the object: the righteousness, intended by the suppliant, is his own (Psa 17:15). He knows that he is not merely righteous in his relation to man, but also in his relation to God. In all such assertions of pious self-consciousness, that which is intended is a righteousness of life which has its ground in the righteousness of faith. True, Hupfeld is of opinion, that under the Old Testament nothing was known either of righteousness which is by faith or of a righteousness belonging to another and imputed. But if this were true, then Paul was in gross error and Christianity is built upon the sand. But the truth, that faith is the ultimate ground of righteousness, is expressed in Gen 15:6, and at other turning-points in the course of the history of redemption; and the truth, that the righteousness which avails before God is a gift of grace is, for instance, a thought distinctly marked out in the expression of Jeremiah צדקנוּ ה, “the Lord our righteousness.” The Old Testament conception, it is true, looks more to the phenomena than to the root of the matter (ist mehr phänomenell als wurzelhaft), is (so to speak) more Jacobic than Pauline; but the righteousness of life of the Old Testament and that of the New have one and the same basis, viz., in the grace of God, the Redeemer, towards sinful man, who in himself is altogether wanting in righteousness before God (Psa 143:2). Thus there is no self-righteousness, in David’s praying that the righteousness, which in him is persecuted and cries for help, may be heard. For, on the one hand, in his personal relation to Saul, he knows himself to be free from any ungrateful thoughts of usurpation, and on the other, in his personal relation to God free from מרמה, i.e., self-delusion and hypocrisy. The shrill cry for help, רנּה, which he raises, is such as may be heard and answered, because they are not lips of deceit with which he prays. The actual fact is manifest לפני יהוה, therefore may his right go forth מלּפניו, - just what does happen, by its being publicly proclaimed and openly maintained - from Him, for His eyes, the eyes of Him who knoweth the hearts (Psa 11:4), behold מישׁרים (as in Psa 58:2; Psa 75:3 = בּמישׁרים, Psa 9:9, and many other passages), in uprightness, i.e., in accordance with the facts of the case and without partiality. מישׁרים might also be an accusative of the object (cf. 1Ch 29:17), but the usage of the language much more strongly favours the adverbial rendering, which is made still more natural by the confirmatory relation in which Psa 17:2 stands to Psa 17:2.

Psa 17:3-5

David refers to the divine testing and illumination of the inward parts, which he has experienced in himself, in support of his sincerity. The preterites in Psa 17:3 express the divine acts that preceded the result בּל־תּמצא, viz., the testing He has instituted, which is referred to in צרפתּני and also בּחנתּ as a trying of gold by fire, and in פּקד as an investigation (Job 7:18). The result of the close scrutiny to which God has subjected him in the night, when the bottom of a man’s heart is at once made manifest, whether it be in his thoughts when awake or in the dream and fancies of the sleeper, was and is this, that He does not find, viz., anything whatever to punish in him, anything that is separated as dross from the gold. To the mind of the New Testament believer with his deep, and as it were microscopically penetrating, insight into the depth of sin, such a confession concerning himself would be more difficult than to the mind of an Old Testament saint. For a separation and disunion of flesh and spirit, which was unknown in the same degree to the Old Testament, has been accomplished in the New Testament consciousness by the facts and operations of redemption revealed in the New Testament; although at the same time it must be remembered that in such confessions the Old Testament consciousness does not claim to be clear from sins, but only from a conscious love of sin, and from a self-love that is hostile to God.

With זמּותי David begins his confession of how Jahve found him to be, instead of finding anything punishable in him. This word is either an infinitive like חנּות (Psa 77:10) with the regular ultima accentuation, formed after the manner of the הל verbs, - in accordance with which Hitzig renders it: my thinking does not overstep my mouth, - or even 1 pers. praet., which is properly Milel, but does also occur as Milra, e.g., Deu 32:41; Isa 44:16 (vid., on Job 19:17), - according to which Böttcher translates: should I think anything evil, it dare not pass beyond my mouth, - or (since זמם may denote the determination that precedes the act, e.g., Jer 4:28; Lam 2:17): I have determined my mouth shall not transgress. This last rendering is opposed by the fact, that עבר by itself in the ethical signification “to transgress” (cf. post-biblical עברה παράβασις) is not the usage of the biblical Hebrew, and that when יעבר־פּי stand close together, פי is presumptively the object. We therefore give the preference to Böttcher’s explanation, which renders זמותי as a hypothetical perfect and is favoured by Pro 30:32 (which is to be translated: and if thou thinkest evil, (lay) thy hand on thy mouth!). Nevertheless בל יעבר־פי is not the expression of a fact, but of a purpose, as the combination of בל with the future requires it to be taken. The psalmist is able to testify of himself that he so keeps evil thoughts in subjection within him, even when they may arise, that they do not pass beyond his mouth, much less that he should put them into action. But perhaps the psalmist wrote פּיך originally, “my reflecting does not go beyond Thy commandment” (according to Num 22:18; 1Sa 15:24; Pro 8:29), - a meaning better suited, as a result of the search, to the nightly investigation. The ל of לפעלּות fo ל need not be the ל of reference (as to); it is that of the state or condition, as in Psa 32:6; Psa 69:22. אדם, as perhaps also in Job 31:33; Hos 6:7 (if אדם is not there the name of the first man), means, men as they are by nature and habit. בּדבר שׂפתיך does not admit of being connected with לפעלּות: at the doings of the world contrary to Thy revealed will (Hofmann and others); for פּעל בּ cannot mean: to act contrary to any one, but only: to work upon any one, Job 35:6. These words must therefore be regarded as a closer definition, placed first, of the שׁמרתּי which follows: in connection with the doings of men, by virtue of the divine commandment, he has taken care of the paths of the oppressor, viz., not to go in them; 1Sa 25:21 is an instance in support of this rendering, where שׁמרתי, as in Job 2:6, means: I have kept (Nabal’s possession), not seizing upon it myself. Jerome correctly translates vias latronis; for פּריץ signifies one who breaks in, i.e., one who does damage intentionally and by violence. The confession concerning himself is still continued in Psa 17:5, for the inf. absol. תּמך, if taken as imperative would express a prayer for constancy, that is alien to the circumstances described. The perfect after בּל is also against such a rendering. It must therefore be taken as inf. historicus, and explained according to Job 23:11, cf. Psa 41:13. The noun following the inf. absol., which is usually the object, is the subject in this instance, as, e.g., in Job 40:2; Pro 17:12; Ecc 4:2, and frequently. It is אשׁוּרי, and not אשּׁוּרי, אשׁור (a step) never having the שׁ dageshed, except in Psa 17:11 and Job 31:7.

Psa 17:6-7

It is only now, after his inward parts and his walk have been laid open to Jahve, that he resumes his petition, which is so well justified and so soundly based, and enters into detail. The אניThe word is pointed אני, in correct texts, as אני always is when it has Munach and Dechî follows, e.g., also Psa 116:16. This Gaja demands an emphatic intonation of the secondary word in its relation to the principal word (which here is קראתיך). found beside קראתיך (the perfect referring to that which has just now been put into execution) is meant to imply: such an one as he has described himself to be according to the testimony of his conscience, may call upon God, for God hears such and will therefore also hear him. הט אזנך exactly corresponds to the Latin au-di (aus-cul-ta). The Hiph. הפלה (הפליא, Psa 31:22, cf. Psa 4:4) signifies here to work in an extraordinary and marvellous manner. The danger of him who thus prays is great, but the mercies of God, who is ready and able to help, are still greater. Oh that He may, then, exhibit all its fulness on his behalf. The form of the address resembles the Greek, which is so fond of participles. If it is translated as Luther translates it: “Show Thy marvellous lovingkindness, Thou Saviour of those who trust in Thee, Against those who so set themselves against Thy right hand,” then חוסים is used just as absolutely as in Pro 14:32, and the right hand of God is conceived of as that which arranges and makes firm. But “to rebel against God’s right (not statuta, but desteram)” is a strange expression. There are still two other constructions from which to choose, viz., “Thou Deliverer of those seeking protection from adversaries, with Thy right hand” (Hitz.), or: “Thou Helper of those seeking protection from adversaries, at Thy right hand” (Aben-Ezra, Tremell.). This last rendering is to be preferred to the two others. Since, on the one hand, one says מחסה מן, refuge from..., and on the other, חסה בּ to hide one’s self in any one, or in any place, this determining of the verbal notion by the preposition (on this, see above on Psa 2:12) must be possible in both directions. ממּתקוממים is equivalent to ממתקוממיהם Job 27:7; and חוסים בימינך, those seeking protection at the strong hand of Jahve. The force of the ב is just the same as in connection with הסתּתּר,   1Sa 23:19. In Damascus and throughout Syria - Wetzstein observes on this passage - the weak make use of these words when they surrender themselves to the strong: Arab. anâ b - qabḍt ydk, “I am in the grasp of thy hand (in thy closed hand) i.e., I give myself up entirely to thee.”Cognate in meaning to חסה ב are Arab. 'sttr b and tadarrâ b, e.g., Arab. tḏrrâ b - 'l - ḥâ'ṭ mn 'l - rı̂ḥ he shelters (hides) himself by the wall from the wind, or Arab. bâl‛ḍât mn 'l - brd, by a fire against the cold, and Arab. ‛âḏ, which is often applied in like manner to God’s protection. Thus, e.g., (according to Bochâri’s Sunna) a woman, whom Muhammed wanted to seize, cried out: Arab. a‛ûḏu b - 'llh mnk, I place myself under God’s protection against thee, and he replied: Arab. ‛uḏti bi - ma‛âḏin, thou hast taken refuge in an (inaccessible) asylum (cf. Job, i. 310 n. and ii. 22 n. 2).

Psa 17:8-9

The covenant relationship towards Himself in which Jahve has placed David, and the relationship of love in which David stands to Jahve, fully justified the oppressed one in his extreme request. The apple of the eye, which is surrounded by the iris, is called אישׁון, the man (Arabic insân), or in the diminutive and endearing sense of the termination on: the little man of the eye, because a picture in miniature of one’s self is seen, as in a glass, when looking into another person’s eye. בּת־עין either because it is as if born out of the eye and the eye has, as it were, concentrated itself in it, or rather because the little image which is mirrored in it is, as it were, the little daughter of the eye (here and Lam 2:18). To the Latin pupilla (pupula), Greek κόρη, corresponds most closely בּבת עין, Zec 2:12, which does not signify the gate, aperture, sight, but, as בּת shows, the little boy, or more strictly, the little girl of the eye. It is singular that אישׁון here has the feminine בּת־עין as the expression in apposition to it. The construction might be genitival: “as the little man of the apple of the eye,” inasmuch as the saint knows himself to be so near to God, that, as it were, his image in miniature is mirrored in the great eye of God. But (1) the more ozdinary name for the pupil of the eye is not בּת עין, but אישׁון; and (2) with that construction the proper point of the comparison, that the apple of the eye is an object of the most careful self-preservation, is missed. There is, consequently, a combination of two names of the pupil or apple of the eye, the usual one and one more select, without reference to the gender of the former, in order to give greater definition and emphasis to the figure. The primary passage for this bold figure, which is the utterance of loving entreaty, is Deu 32:10, where the dazzling anthropomorphism is effaced by the lxx and other ancient versions;Vid., Geiger, Urschrift und Ueberstezungen der Bibel, S. 324. cf. also Sir. 17:22. Then follows another figure, taken from the eagle, which hides its young under its wings, likewise from Deut 32, viz., Psa 17:11, for the figure of the hen (Mat 23:37) is alien to the Old Testament. In that passage, Moses, in his great song, speaks of the wings of God; but the double figure of the shadow of God’s wings (here and in Psa 36:8; Psa 57:2; Psa 63:8) is coined by David. “God’s wings” are the spreadings out, i.e., the manifestations of His love, taking the creature under the protection of its intimate fellowship, and the “shadow” of these wings is the refreshing rest and security which the fellowship of this love affords to those, who hide themselves beneath it, from the heat of outward or inward conflict.

From Psa 17:9 we learn more definitely the position in which the psalmist is placed. שׁדד signifies to use violence, to destroy the life, continuance, or possession of any one. According to the accentuation בּנפשׁ is to be connected with איבי, not with יקּפוּ, and to be understood according to Eze 25:6 : “enemies with the soul” are those whose enmity is not merely superficial, but most deep-seated (cf. ἐκ ψυχῆς, Eph 6:6; Col 3:23). The soul (viz., the hating and eagerly longing soul, Psa 27:12; Psa 41:3) is just the same as if בנפשׁ is combined with the verb, viz., the soul of the enemies; and איבי נפשׁי would therefore not be more correct, as Hitzig thinks, than בנפשׁ איבי, but would have a different meaning. They are eager to destroy him (perf. conatus), and form a circle round about him, as ravenous ones, in order to swallow him up.

Psa 17:10-12

Psa 17:10 tell what sort of people these persecutors are. Their heart is called fat, adeps, not as though חלב could in itself be equivalent to לב, more especially as both words are radically distinct (חלב from the root לב, λιπ; לב from the root לב, לף to envelope: that which is enveloped, the kernel, the inside), but (without any need for von Ortenberg’s conjecture חלב לבּמו סגרוּ “they close their heart with fat”) because it is, as it were, entirely fat (Psa 119:70, cf. Psa 73:7), and because it is inaccessible to any feeling of compassion, and in general incapable of the nobler emotions. To shut up the fat = the heart (cf. κλείειν τὰ σπλάγχνα 1Jo 3:17), is equivalent to: to fortify one’s self wilfully in indifference to sympathy, tender feeling, and all noble feelings (cf. השׁמין לב = to harden, Isa 6:10). The construction of פּימו (which agrees in sound with פּימה, Job 15:27) is just the same as that of קולי, Psa 3:5. On the other hand, אשּׁוּרנוּ (after the form עמּוּד and written plene) is neither such an accusative of the means or instrument, nor the second accusative, beside the accusative of the object, of that by which the object is surrounded, that is usually found with verbs of surrounding (e.g., Ps 5:13; Psa 32:7); for “they have surrounded me (us) with our step” is unintelligible. But אשׁורנו can be the accusative of the member, as in Psa 3:8, cf. Psa 22:17, Gen 3:15, for “it is true the step is not a member” (Hitz.), but since “step” and “foot” are interchangeable notions, Psa 73:2, the σχῆμα καθ ̓ ὅλον καὶ μέρος is applicable to the former, and as, e.g., Homer says, Iliad vii. 355: σὲ μάλιστα πόνος φρένας ἀμφιβέβηκεν, the Hebrew poet can also say: they have encompassed us (and in fact) our steps, each of our steps (so that we cannot go forwards or backwards with our feet). The Kerî סבבוּנוּ gets rid of the change in number which we have with the Chethîb סבבוני; the latter, however, is admissible according to parallels like Psa 62:5, and corresponds to David’s position, who is hunted by Saul and at the present time driven into a strait at the head of a small company of faithful followers. Their eyes - he goes on to say in Psa 17:11 - have they set to fell, viz., us, who are encompassed, to the earth, i.e., so that we shall be cast to the ground. נטה is transitive, as in Psa 18:10; Psa 62:4, in the transitively applied sense of Psa 73:2 (cf. Psa 37:31): to incline to fall (whereas in Psa 44:19, Job 31:7, it means to turn away from); and בּארץ (without any need fore the conjecture בּארח) expresses the final issue, instead of לארץ, Psa 7:6. By the expression דּמינו one is prominently singled out from the host of the enemy, viz., its chief, the words being: his likeness is as a lion, according to the peculiarity of the poetical style, of changing verbal into substantival clauses, instead of דּמה כּאריה. Since in Old Testament Hebrew, as also in Syriac and Arabic, כ is only a preposition, not a connective conjunction, it cannot be rendered: as a lion longs to prey, but: as a lion that is greedy or hungry (cf. Arab. ksf, used of sinking away, decline, obscuring or eclipsing, growing pale, and Arab. chsf, more especially of enfeebling, hunger, distinct from חשׂף = Arab. ks̆f, to peel off, make bare) to ravin. In the parallel member of the verse the participle alternates with the attributive clause. כּפיר is (according to Meier) the young lion as being covered with thicker hair.

Psa 17:13-14

The phrase קדּם פּני, antevertere faciem alicujus, means both to appear before any one with reverence, Psa 95:2 (post-biblical: to pay one’s respects to any one) and to meet any one as an enemy, rush on him. The foe springs like a lion upon David, may Jahve - so he prays - as his defence cross the path of the lion and intercept him, and cast him down so that he, being rendered harmless, shall lie there with bowed knees (כּרע, of the lion, Gen 49:9; Num 24:9). He is to rescue his soul from the ungodly חרבּך. This חרבך, and also the ידך which follows, can be regarded as a permutative of the subject (Böttcher, Hupfeld, and Hitzig), an explanation which is commended by Psa 44:3 and other passages. But it is much more probable that more exact definitions of this kind are treated as accusatives, vid., on Psa 3:5. At any rate “sword” and “hand” are meant as the instruments by which the פּלּט, rescuing, is effected. The force of פּלּטה extends into Psa 17:14, and mimatiym (with a Chateph under the letter that is freed from reduplication, like ממכון, Psa 33:14) corresponds to מרשׁע, as ידך to חרבּך. The word ממתים (plural of מת, men, Deu 2:34, whence מתם, each and every one), which of itself gives no complete sense, is repeated and made complete after the interruption cause by the insertion of ידך ה, - a remarkable manner of obstructing and then resuming the thought, which Hofmann (Schriftbeweis ii. 2. 495) seeks to get over by a change in the division of the verse and in the interpunction. חלד, either from חלד Syriac to creep, glide, slip away (whence חלדּה a weasel, a mole) or from חלד Talmudic to cover, hide, signifies: this temporal life which glides by unnoticed (distinct from the Arabic chald, chuld, an abiding stay, endless duration); and consequently חדל, limited existence, from חדל to have an end, alternates with חלד as a play upon the letters, comp. Psa 49:2 with Isa 38:11. The combination מחלד מתים resembles Psa 10:18; Psa 16:4. What is meant, is: men who have no other home but the world, which passeth away with the lust thereof, men ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου τούτου, or υίοὶ τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου. The meaning of the further description חלקם בּחיּים (cf. Ecc 9:9) becomes clear from the converse in Psa 16:5. Jahve is the חלק of the godly man; and the sphere within which the worldling claims his חלק is החיּים, this temporal, visible, and material life. This is everything to him; whereas the godly man says: טּוב חסדּך מחיּים, Psa 63:4. The contrast is not so much between this life and the life to come, as between the world (life) and God. Here we see into the inmost nature of the Old Testament faith. To the Old Testament believer, all the blessedness and glory of the future life, which the New Testament unfolds, is shut up in Jahve. Jahve is his highest good, and possessing Him he is raised above heaven and earth, above life and death. To yield implicitly to Him, without any explicit knowledge of a blessed future life, to be satisfied with Him, to rest in Him, to hide in Him in the face of death, is the characteristic of the Old Testament faith. חלקם בחיים expresses both the state of mind and the lot of the men of the world. Material things which are their highest good, fall also in abundance to their share. The words “whose belly Thou fillest with Thy treasure” (Chethîb: וּצפינך the usual participial form, but as a participle an Aramaising form) do not sound as though the poet meant to say that God leads them to repentance by the riches of His goodness, but on the contrary that God, by satisfying their desires which are confined to the outward and sensuous only, absolutely deprives them of all claim to possessions that extend beyond the world and this present temporal life. Thus, then, צפוּן in this passage is used exactly as צפוּנים is used in Job 20:26 (from צפן to hold anything close to one, to hold back, to keep by one). Moreover, there is not the slightest alloy of murmur or envy in the words. The godly man who lacks these good things out of the treasury of God, has higher delights; he can exclaim, Psa 31:20 : “how great is Thy goodness which Thou hast laid up (צפנתּ) for those who fear Thee!” Among the good things with which God fills the belly and house of the ungodly (Job 22:17.) are also children in abundance; these are elsewhere a blessing upon piety (Psa 127:3., Psa 128:3.), but to those who do not acknowledge the Giver they are a snare to self-glorifying, Job 21:11 (cf. Wisdom Job 4:1). בּנים is not the subject, but an accusative, and has been so understood by all the old translators from the original text, just as in the phrase שׁבע ימים to be satisfied with, or weary of, life. On עוללים vid., on Psa 8:3. יתר (from יתר to stretch out in length, then to be overhanging, towering above, projecting, superfluous, redundant) signifies here, as in Job 22:20, riches and the abundance of things possessed.

Psa 17:15

With אני he contrasts his incomparably greater prosperity with that of his enemies. He, the despised and persecuted of men, will behold God’s face בּצדק, in righteousness, which will then find its reward (Mat 5:8, Heb 12:14), and will, when this hope is realised by him, thoroughly refresh himself with the form of God. It is not sufficient to explain the vision of the divine countenance here as meaning the experience of the gracious influences which proceed from the divine countenance again unveiled and turned towards him. The parallel of the next clause requires an actual vision, as in Num 12:8, according to which Jahve appeared to Moses in the true form of His being, without the intervention of any self-manifestation of an accommodative and visionary kind; but at the same time, as in Exo 33:20, where the vision of the divine countenance is denied to Moses, according to which, consequently, the self-manifestation of Jahve in His intercourse with Moses is not to be thought of without some veiling of Himself which might render the vision tolerable to him. Here, however, where David gives expression to a hope which is the final goal and the very climax of all his hopes, one has no right in any way to limit the vision of God, who in love permits him to behold Him (vid., on Psa 11:7), and to limit the being satisfied with His תּמוּנה (lxx τὴν δόξαν σου, vid., Psychol. S. 49; transl. p. 61). If this is correct, then בּהקיץ cannot mean “when I wake up from this night’s sleep” as Ewald, Hupfeld and others explain it; for supposing the Psalm were composed just before falling asleep what would be the meaning of the postponement of so transcendent a hope to the end of his natural sleep? Nor can the meaning be to “awake to a new life of blessedness and peace through the sunlight of divine favour which again arises after the night of darkness and distress in which the poet is now to be found” (Kurtz); for to awake from a night of affliction is an unsuitable idea and for this very reason cannot be supported. The only remaining explanation, therefore, is the waking up from the sleep of death (cf. Böttcher, De inferis §365-367). The fact that all who are now in their graves shall one day hear the voice of Him that wakes the dead, as it is taught in the age after the Exile (Dan 12:2), was surely not known to David, for it was not yet revealed to him. But why may not this truth of revelation, towards which prophecy advances with such giant strides (Isa 26:19. Eze 37:1-14), be already heard even in the Psalms of David as a bold demand of faith and as a hope that has struggled forth to freedom out of the comfortless conception of Sheôl possessed in that age, just as it is heard a few decades later in the master-work of a contemporary of Solomon, the Book of Job? The morning in Psa 49:15 is also not any morning whatever following upon the night, but that final morning which brings deliverance to the upright and inaugurates their dominion. A sure knowledge of the fact of the resurrection such as, according to Hofmann (Schriftbeweis ii. 2, 490), has existed in the Old Testament from the beginning, is not expressed in such passages. For laments like Psa 6:6; Psa 30:10; Psa 88:11-13, show that no such certain knowledge as then in existence; and when the Old Testament literature which we now possess allows us elsewhere an insight into the history of the perception of redemption, it does not warrant us in concluding anything more than that the perception of the future resurrection of the dead did not pass from the prophetic word into the believing mind of Israel until about the time of the Exile, and that up to that period faith made bold to hope for a redemption from death, but only by means of an inference drawn from that which was conceived and existed within itself, without having an express word of promise in its favour.To this Hofmann, loc. cit. S. 496, replies as follows: “We do not find that faith indulges in such boldness elsewhere, or that the believing ones cherish hopes which are based on such insecure grounds.” But the word of God is surely no insecure ground, and to draw bold conclusions from that which is intimated only from afar, was indeed, even in many other respects (for instance, respecting the incarnation, and respecting the abrogation of the ceremonial law), the province of the Old Testament faith.

Thus it is here also. David certainly gives full expression to the hope of a vision of God, which, as righteous before God, will be vouchsafed to him; and vouchsafed to him, even though he should fall asleep in death in the present extremity (Psa 13:4), as one again awakened from the sleep of death, and, therefore (although this idea does not directly coincide with the former), as one raised from the dead. But this hope is not a believing appropriation of a “certain knowledge,” but a view that, by reason of the already existing revelation of God, lights up out of his consciousness of fellowship with Him.

Sincere and Importunate Prayer.

1 Hear the right, O Lord , attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips. 2 Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal. 3 Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. 4 Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer. 5 Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not. 6 I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech. 7 show thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them.

This psalm is a prayer. As there is a time to weep and a time to rejoice, so there is a time for praise and a time for prayer. David was now persecuted, probably by Saul, who hunted him like a partridge on the mountains; without were fightings, within were fears, and both urged him as a suppliant to the throne of mercy. He addresses himself to God in these verses both by way of appeal (Hear the right, O Lord! let my righteous cause have a hearing before thy tribunal, and give judgment upon it) and by way of petition (Give ear unto my prayer v. 1, and again v. 6, Incline thy ear unto me and hear my speech); not that God needs to be thus pressed with our importunity, but he gives us leave thus to express our earnest desire of his gracious answers to our prayers. These things he pleads with God for audience, 1. That he was sincere, and did not dissemble with God in his prayer: It goeth not out of feigned lips. He meant as he spoke, and the feelings of his mind agreed with the expressions of his mouth. Feigned prayers are fruitless; but, if our hearts lead our prayers, God will meet them with his favour. 2. That he had been used to pray at other times, and it was not his distress and danger that now first brought him to his duty: "I have called upon thee formerly (v. 6); therefore, Lord, hear me now." It will be a great comfort to us if trouble, when it comes, find the wheels of prayer a-going, for then we may come with the more boldness to the throne of grace. Tradesmen are willing to oblige those that have been long their customers. 3. That he was encouraged by his faith to expect God would take notice of his prayers: "I know thou wilt hear me, and therefore, O God, incline thy ear to me." Our believing dependence upon God is a good plea to enforce our desires towards him. Let us now see,

I. What his appeal is; and here observe,

1. What the court is to the cognizance and determination of which he makes his appeal; it is the court of heaven. "Lord, do thou hear the right, for Saul is so passionate, so prejudiced, that he will not hear it. Lord, let my sentence come forth from thy presence, v. 2. Men sentence me to be pursued and cut off as an evil-doer. Lord, I appeal from them to thee." This he did in a public remonstrance before Saul's face (1 Sam. xxiv. 12, The Lord judge between me and thee), and he repeats it here in his private devotions. Note, (1.) The equity and extent of God's government and judgment are a very great support to injured innocency. If we are blackened, and abused, and misrepresented, by unrighteous men, it is a comfort that we have a righteous God to go to, who will take our part, who is the patron of the oppressed, whose judgment is according to truth, by the discoveries of which every person and every cause will appear in a true light, stripped of all false colours, and by the decisions of which all unrighteous dooms will be reversed, and to every man will be rendered according to his work. (2.) Sincerity dreads no scrutiny, no, not that of God himself, according to the tenour of the covenant of grace: Let thy eyes behold the things that are equal. God's omniscience is as much the joy of the upright as it is the terror of hypocrites, and is particularly comfortable to those who are falsely accused and in any wise have wrong done them.

2. What the evidence is by which he hopes to make good his appeal; it is the trial God had made of him (v. 3): Thou hast proved my heart. God's sentence is therefore right, because he always proceeds upon his knowledge, which is more certain and infallible than that which men attain to by the closest views and the strictest investigations.

(1.) He knew God had tried him, [1.] By his own conscience, which is God's deputy in the soul. The spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord, with this God had searched him, and visited him in the night, when he communed with his own heart upon his bed. He had submitted to the search, and had seriously reviewed the actions of his life, to discover what was amiss, but could find nothing of that which his enemies charged him with. [2.] By providence. God had tried him by the fair opportunity he had, once and again, to kill Saul; he had tried him by the malice of Saul, the treachery of his friends, and the many provocations that were given him; so that, if he had been the man he was represented to be, it would have appeared; but, upon all these trials, there was nothing found against him, no proof at all of the things whereof they accused him.

(2.) God tried his heart, and could witness to the integrity of that; but, for the further proof of his integrity, he himself takes notice of two things concerning which his conscience bore him record:—[1.] That he had a fixed resolution against all sins of the tongue: "I have purposed and fully determined, in the strength of God's grace, that my mouth shall not transgress." He does not say, "I hope that it will not," or, "I wish that it may not," but, "I have fully purposed that it shall not:" with this bridle he kept his mouth, Ps. xxxix. 1. Note, Constant resolution and watchfulness against sins of the tongue will be a good evidence of our integrity. If any offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, Jam. iii. 2. He does not say, "My mouth never shall transgress" (for in many things we all offend), but, "I have purposed that it shall not;" and he that searches the heart knows whether the purpose be sincere. [2.] That he had been as careful to refrain from sinful actions as from sinful words (v. 4): "Concerning the common works of men, the actions and affairs of human life, I have, by the direction of thy word, kept myself from the paths of the destroyer." Some understand it particularly, that he had not been himself a destroyer of Saul, when it lay in his power, nor had he permitted others to be so, but said to Abishai, Destroy him not, 1 Sam. xxvi. 9. But it may be taken more generally; he kept himself from all evil works, and endeavoured, according to the duty of his place, to keep others from them too. Note, First, The ways of sin are paths of the destroyer, of the devil, whose name is Abaddon and Apollyon, a destroyer, who ruins souls by decoying them into the paths of sin. Secondly, It concerns us all to keep out of the paths of the destroyer; for, if we walk in those ways that lead to destruction, we must thank ourselves if destruction and misery be our portion at last. Thirdly, It is by the word of God, as our guide and rule, that we must keep out of the paths of the destroyer, by observing its directions and admonitions, Ps. cxix. 9. Fourthly, If we carefully avoid all the paths of sin, it will be very comfortable in the reflection, when we are in trouble. If we keep ourselves, that the wicked one touch us not with his temptations (1 John v. 18), we may hope he will not be able to touch us with his terrors.

II. What his petition is; it is, in short, this, That he might experience the good work of God in him, as an evidence of and qualification for the good will of God towards him: this is grace and peace from God the Father. 1. He prays for the work of God's grace in him (v. 5): "Hold up my going in thy paths. Lord, I have, by thy grace, kept myself from the paths of the destroyer; by the same grace let me be kept in thy paths; let me not only be restrained from doing that which is evil, but quickened to abound always in that which is good. Let my goings be held in thy paths, that I may not turn back from them nor turn aside out of them; let them be held up in thy paths, that I may not stumble and fall into sin, that I may not trifle and neglect my duty. Lord, as thou hast kept me hitherto, so keep me still." Those that are, through grace, going in God's paths, have need to pray, and do pray, that their goings may be held up in those paths; for we stand no longer than he is pleased to hold us, we go no further than he is pleased to lead us, bear us up, and carry us. David had been kept in the way of his duty hitherto, and yet he does not think that this would be his security for the future, and therefore prays, "Lord, still hold me up." Those that would proceed and persevere in the way of God must, by faith and prayer, fetch in daily fresh supplies of grace and strength from him. David was sensible that his way was slippery, that he himself was weak, and not so well fixed and furnished as he should be, that there were those who watched for his halting and would improve the least slip against him, and therefore he prays, "Lord, hold me up, that my foot slip not, that I may never say nor do any thing that looks either dishonest or distrustful of thee and thy providence and promise." 2. He prays for the tokens of God's favour to him, v. 7. Observe here, (1.) How he eyes God as the protector and Saviour of his people, so he calls him, and thence he takes his encouragement in prayer: O thou that savest by thy right hand (by thy own power, and needest not the agency of any other) those who put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them. It is the character of God's people that they trust in him; he is pleased to make them confidants, for his secret is with the righteous; and they make him their trust, for to him they commit themselves. Those that trust in God have many enemies, many that rise up against them and seek their ruin; but they have one friend that is able to deal with them all, and, if he be for them, no matter who is against them. He reckons it his honour to be their Saviour. His almighty power is engaged for them, and they have all found him ready to save them. The margin reads it, O thou that savest those who trust in thee from those that rise up against thy right hand. Those that are enemies to the saints are rebels against God and his right hand, and therefore, no doubt, he will, in due time, appear against them. (2.) What he expects and desires from God: Show thy marvellous loving-kindness. The word signifies, [1.] Distinguishing favours. "Set apart thy loving-kindnesses for me; put me not off with common mercies, but be gracious to me, as thou usest to do to those who love thy name." [2.] Wonderful favours. "O make thy loving-kindness admirable! Lord, testify thy favour to me in such a way that I and others may wonder at it." God's loving-kindness is marvellous for the freeness and the fulness of it; in some instances it appears, in a special manner, marvellous (Ps. cxviii. 23), and it will certainly appear so in the salvation of the saints, when Christ shall come to be glorified in the saints and to be admired in all those that believe.

Prayer for Protecting Mercy; Character of David's Enemies.

8 Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings, 9 From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about. 10 They are inclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly. 11 They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth; 12 Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places. 13 Arise, O Lord , disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword: 14 From men which are thy hand, O Lord , from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes. 15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

We may observe, in these verses,

I. What David prays for. Being compassed about with enemies that sought his life, he prays to God to preserve him safely through all their attempts against him, to the crown to which he was anointed. This prayer is both a prediction of the preservation of Christ through all the hardships and difficulties of his humiliation, to the glories and joys of his exalted state, and a pattern to Christians to commit the keeping of their souls to God, trusting him to preserve them to his heavenly kingdom. He prays,

1. That he himself might be protected (v. 8): "Keep me safe, hide me close, where I may not be found, where I may not be come at. Deliver my soul, not only my mortal life from death, but my immortal spirit from sin." Those who put themselves under God's protection may in faith implore the benefit of it.

(1.) He prays that God would keep him, [1.] With as much care as a man keeps the apple of his eye with, which nature has wonderfully fenced and teaches us to guard. If we keep God's law as the apple of our eye (Prov. vii. 2), we may expect that God will so keep us; for it is said concerning his people that whoso touches them touches the apple of his eye, Zech. ii. 8. [2.] With as much tenderness as the hen gathers her young ones under her wings with; Christ uses the similitude, Matt. xxiii. 37. "Hide me under the shadow of thy wings, where I may be both safe and warm." Or, perhaps, it rather alludes to the wings of the cherubim shadowing the mercy-seat: "Let me be taken under the protection of that glorious grace which is peculiar to God's Israel." What David here prays for was performed to the Son of David, our Lord Jesus, of whom it is said (Isa. xlix. 2) that God hid him in the shadow of his hand, hid him as a polished shaft in his quiver.

(2.) David further prays, "Lord, keep me from the wicked, from men of the world," [1.] "From being, and doing, like them, from walking in their counsel, and standing in their way, and eating of their dainties." [2.] "From being destroyed and run down by them. Let them not have their will against me; let them not triumph over me."

2. That all the designs of his enemies to bring his either into sin or into trouble might be defeated (v. 13): "Arise, O Lord! appear for me, disappoint him, and cast him down in his own eyes by the disappointment." While Saul persecuted David, how often did he miss his prey, when he thought he had him sure! And how were Christ's enemies disappointed by his resurrection, who thought they had gained their point when they had put him to death!

II. What he pleads for the encouraging of his own faith in these petitions, and his hope of speeding. He pleads,

1. The malice and wickedness of his enemies: "They are such as are not fit to be countenanced, such as, if I be not delivered from them by the special care of God himself, will be my ruin. Lord, see what wicked men those are that oppress me, and waste me, and run me down." (1.) "They are very spiteful and malicious; they are my deadly enemies, that thirst after my blood, my heart's blood—enemies against the soul," so the word is. David's enemies did what they could to drive him to sin and drive him away from God; they bade him go serve other gods (1 Sam. xxvi. 19), and therefore he had reason to pray against them. Note, Those are our worst enemies, and we ought so to account them, that are enemies to our souls. (2.) "They are very secure and sensual, insolent and haughty (v. 10): They are enclosed in their own fat, wrap themselves, hug themselves, in their own honour, and power, and plenty, and then make light of God, and set his judgments at defiance, Ps. lxxiii. 7; Job xv. 27. They wallow in pleasure, and promise themselves that to-morrow shall be as this day. And therefore with their mouth they speak proudly, glorying in themselves, blaspheming God, trampling upon his people, and insulting them." See Rev. xiii. 5, 6. "Lord, are not such men as these fit to be mortified and humbled, and made to know themselves? Will it not be for thy glory to look upon these proud men and abase them?" (3.) "They are restless and unwearied in their attempts against me: They compass me about, v. 9. They have now in a manner gained their point; they have surrounded us, they have compassed us in our steps, they track us wherever we go, follow us as close as the hound does the hare, and take all advantages against us, being both too many and too quick for us. And yet they pretend to look another way, and set their eyes bowing down to the earth, as if they were meditating, retired into themselves, and thinking of something else;" or (as some think), "They are watchful and intent upon it, to do us a mischief; they are down-looked, and never let slip any opportunity of compassing their design." (4.) "The ringleader of them (that was Saul) is in a special manner bloody and barbarous, politic and projecting (v. 12), like a lion that lives by prey and is therefore greedy of it." It is as much the meat and drink of a wicked man to do mischief as it is of a good man to do good. He is like a young lion lurking in secret places, disguising his cruel designs. This is fitly applied to Saul, who sought David on the rocks of the wild goats (1 Sam. xxiv. 2) and in the wilderness of Ziph (Ps. xxvi. 2), where lions used to lurk for their prey.

2. The power God had over them, to control and restrain them. He pleads, (1.) "Lord, they are thy sword; and will any father suffer his sword to be drawn against his own children?" As this is a reason why we should patiently bear the injuries of men, that they are but the instruments of the trouble (it comes originally from God, to whose will we are bound to submit), so it is an encouragement to us to hope both that their wrath shall praise him and that the remainder thereof he will restrain, that they are God's sword, which he can manage as he pleases, which cannot move without him, and which he will sheathe when he has done his work with it. (2.) "They are thy hand, by which thou dost chastise thy people and make them feel thy displeasure." He therefore expects deliverance from God's hand because from God's hand the trouble came. Una eademque manus vulnus opemque tulit—The same hand wounds and heals. There is no flying from God's hand but by flying to it. It is very comfortable, when we are in fear of the power of man, to see it dependent upon and in subjection to the power of God; see Isa. x. 6, 7, 15.

3. Their outward prosperity (v. 14): "Lord, appear against them, for," (1.) "They are entirely devoted to the world, and care not for thee and thy favour. They are men of the world, actuated by the spirit of the world, walking according to the course of this world, in love with the wealth and pleasure of this world, eager in the pursuits of it (making them their business) and at ease in the enjoyments of it—making them their bliss. They have their portion in this life; they look upon the good things of this world as the best things, and sufficient to make them happy, and they choose them accordingly, place their felicity in them, and aim at them as their chief good; they rest satisfied with them, their souls take their ease in them, and they look no further, nor are in any care to provide for another life. These things are their consolation (Luke vi. 24), their good things (Luke xvi. 25), their reward (Matt. vi. 5), the penny they agreed for, Matt. xx. 13. Now, Lord, shall men of this character be supported and countenanced against those who honour thee by preferring thy favour before all the wealth in this world, and taking thee for their portion?" Ps. xvi. 5. (2.) They have abundance of the world. [1.] They have enlarged appetites, and a great deal wherewith to satisfy them: Their bellies thou fillest with thy hidden treasures. The things of this world are called treasures, because they are so accounted; otherwise, to a soul, and in comparison with eternal blessings, they are but trash. They are hidden in the several parts of the creation, and hidden in the sovereign disposals of Providence. They are God's hidden treasures, for the earth is his and the fulness thereof, though the men of the world think it is their own and forget God's property in it. Those that fare deliciously every day have their bellies filled with these hidden treasures; and they will but fill the belly (1 Cor. vi. 13); they will not fill the soul; they are not bread for that, nor can they satisfy, Isa. lv. 2. They are husks, and ashes, and wind; and yet most men, having no care for their souls, but all for their bellies, take up with them. [2.] They have numerous families, and a great deal to leave to them: They are full of children, and yet their pasture is not overstocked; they have enough for them all, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes, to their grand-children; and this is their heaven, it is their bliss, it is their all. "Lord," said David, "deliver me from them; let me not have my portion with them. Deliver me from their designs against me; for, they having so much wealth and power, I am not able to deal with them unless the Lord be on my side."

4. He pleads his own dependence upon God as his portion and happiness. "They have their portion in this life, but as for me (v. 15) I am none of them, I have but little of the world. Nec habeo, nec careo, nec curo—I neither have, nor need, nor care for it. It is the vision and fruition of God that I place my happiness in; that is it I hope for, and comfort myself with the hopes of, and thereby distinguish myself from those who have their portion in this life." Beholding God's face with satisfaction may be considered, (1.) As our duty and comfort in this world. We must in righteousness (clothed with Christ's righteousness, having a good heart and a good life) by faith behold God's face and set him always before us, must entertain ourselves from day to day with the contemplation of the beauty of the Lord; and, when we awake every morning, we must be satisfied with his likeness set before us in his word, and with his likeness stamped upon us by his renewing grace. Our experience of God's favour to us, and our conformity to him, should yield us more satisfaction than those have whose belly is filled with the delights of sense. 2. As our recompence and happiness in the other world. With the prospect of that he concluded the foregoing psalm, and so this. That happiness is prepared and designed only for the righteous that are justified and sanctified. They shall be put in possession of it when they awake, when the soul awakes, at death, out of its slumber in the body, and when the body awakes, at the resurrection, out of its slumber in the grave. That blessedness will consist in three things:—[1.] The immediate vision of God and his glory: I shall behold thy face, not, as in this world, through a glass darkly. The knowledge of God will there be perfected and the enlarged intellect filled with it. [2.] The participation of his likeness. Our holiness will there be perfect. This results from the former (1 John iii. 2): When he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. [3.] A complete and full satisfaction resulting from all this: I shall be satisfied, abundantly satisfied with it. There is no satisfaction for a soul but in God, and in his face and likeness, his good-will towards us and his good work in us; and even that satisfaction will not be perfect till we come to heaven.

PSAL. XVII.

A Prayer of David.

HEare thou Iehovah, justice; attend to my shrill crie: hearken to my prayer, without lips of deceit. From before thy face, let my judgement come forth; let thine eyes view righteousnesses. Thou hast proved my heart, hast visited by night; thou hast tried me, but hast not found: I have purposed, my mouth shall not transgresse. For the workes of men by the word of thy lips, I have observed the paths of the breaker thorow. Sustaine thou my steps in thy beaten paths, that my foot-steps be not removed. I call upon thee, for thou wilt answer me, O God: bow thine eare to me, heare my saying. Marvellously separate thy mercies, O Saviour of them that hope for safety; from them that raise up themselves with thy right hand. Keepe thou me as the blacke of the apple of the eye; in the shadow of thy wings hide thou me. From faces of the wicked that waste me, my enemies in soule, that inviron round against mee. With their fat they have closed up, with their mouth they speake in pride. In our steps now they compasse us; their eyes they set bending downe into the earth. His likenesse is as a renting Lion that is greedy to teare, and as a lurking Lion sitting in secret places. Rise up Iehovah, prevent thou his face, make him bow downe, deliver my soule from the wicked one with thy sword. From mortall men with thine hand, Iehovah, from mortall men of the transitory world, who have their part in this life, and their belly thou fillest with thine hid treasure; satisfied are the sons, and they lay up their overplus for their babes. I, in justice shall view thy face, shall be satisfied when I awake with thine image.

Annotations. IVstice] that is, my justice, as the Greeke explaineth it, my just cause and complaint. The Chaldee saith, accept Lord my prayer in justice. shrill crie] or showting, that is, loud complaint: See Psalm. 5. 12. without lips] or, not with lips of deceit, that is, which prayer is unfained, not uttered with guile. Vers. 2. come forth] or proceed, that is, let my judgement be clearly pronounced and executed. Therfore in Hos. 6. 5. he addeth the similitude of the light or Sunne. righteousnesses] or equities: this is all righteous causes and persons, or my most righteous cause. Vers. 3. hast tried] or, examined me, to wit, as metall in the fire: So Psal. 66. 10. hast not found] or shalt not at all finde, to wit, any drosse, or deceit, or, as the Chaldee addeth, corruption. The Greeke translateth, iniquitie was not found in me. shall not transgresse] or, transgresseth not, that is, I purposed not to transgresse with my mouth, by murmuring against thy fiery triall of me; or, that which I purposed, my mouth transgresseth not, but my thoughts and words agree. The Chaldee thus, I have thought evill, it hath not passed my mouth. Vers. 4. For the workes] or concerning the workes of men: Adam is here used for all earthly men. have observed] or taken heed of, to wit, lest they should hart me, or, that I should not walke in them, as the next verse sheweth: otherwise, sometime to observe waies, is to walke in them, Psalm. 18. 22. the breaker thorow] that is, the robber or theefe, as this word is expounded in Greeke, Mat. 21. 13. from Ier. 7. 11. one that breaketh bounds or limits, houses, hedges, lawes, &c. So Ezek. 18. 10. Vers. 5. Sustaine] Hold up, or containe; this is spoken prayer wise to God, as the next verse manifesteth: The Greeke turneth it, Make perfect. It may also be read, Sustaining, or To sustaine; and so have reference to the former verse, I observed the robbers paths, not to walke in them, but to sustain (or sustaining, holding fast) my steps in thy paths. The Hebrew Tamoch may be Englished Sustaine thou; as Zachor is remember thou, Exod. 20. 8. Shamor, observe thou, Deut. 5. 12. Haloc, is Goe thou, 2 Sam. 24. 12. for which in 1 Chron. 21. 10. is written Lec, Goe thou. my steps] or, my steppings forward, my right-forth steps. So Psal. 37. 31. and 40. 3. beaten paths] or round paths; properly the word signifieth paths beaten with wagon wheeles; here used generally for strait, direct, and beaten waies. So Psal. 23. 3. and 65. 12. and 140. 6. Vers. 7. marvellously separate] or make marvellous, that is, in wondrous and excellent sort shew mee thy mercies, which are common unto all, let them now peculiarly be bestowed on mee. See Psal. 4. 4. The Greeke saith, Make marvellous. When Christ commeth, hee will be made marvellous in them that beleeve, 2 Thess. 1. 10. hope for safety] or, trust, to wit, in thee, as the Greeke explaineth it, or in thy right hand, as is after expressed. God is Saviour of all men, specially of them that beleeve, 1 Tim. 4. 10. with thy right hand] this seemeth to have reference to the first, O Saviour (or thou which savest) with thy right hand; as Psal. 138. 7. and 60. 7. It may also be referred to the second, them that hope in thy right hand; or to the last, them that raise up themselves against thy right hand: And thus the Greeke turneth it. But the Chaldee otherwise, Avenge them on those which rise up against them, with thy right hand. Vers. 8. the blacke] that is, the sight in the middest of the eye, wherein appeareth the resemblance of a little man; and thereupon seemeth to be called in Hebrew, Ishon, of Ish, which is a man. And as that part is blackish; so this word is also used for other blacke things, as the blacknesse of the night, Prov. 7. 9. and blacknesse of darknesse, Prov. 20. 20. of the apple] so we call that which the Hebrew here calleth bath; and in Zach. 2. 8. babath, that is, the little image appearing in the eye, as before is noted. The word bath also signifieth a daughter, whereto the Greeke coree doth agree. By this is meant the tender care of God for his people: and David here useth both words for more vehemencie; whereas else-where one of them only is used, Isho[illegible: 1 letter], the black, in Deut. 32. 10. Prov. 7. 2. babath and bath, the apple, in Zach. 2. 8. Lam. 2. 18. hide thou me] Heb. thou shalt hide, or, keepe me secret. It is the property of the Hebrew tongue, often to set downe a prayer in this forme, especially in the end of a sentence, as noting some assurance to have the request fulfilled. So in Psal. 54. 3. and 59. 2. and 64. 2. Iob 6. 23. and 21. 3. and 40. 5. See also the note on Psal. 10. 17. Vers. 9. from faces] or because of the wicked. See Psal. 3. 1. enemies in soule] or, for the soule; meaning deadly enemies, that seeke the soule or life. See Psal. 35 4. The Chaldee expoundeth it, in the will (or desire) of their soule. Vers. 10. They have closed up] to wit, their face or body; (much like that speech in Iob 15. 27. hee hath covered his face with his fatnesse,) or their fat they close up, meaning that they pamper and harden themselves. in pride] that is, proudly or haughtily. Vers. 11. In our steps] or in our going, that is, wheresoever we goe, they trace our footing, they composse me and us: the Hebrew hath both these readings, meaning David, with his company. they set] to wit, upon us. bending downe] to wit, themselves, that they be not espied: as Psal. 10. 10. or to bend downe, to wit, us, to overshrow us, or to set downe their nets and snares. Vers. 12. His likenesse] that is, the likenesse (or [illegible: 1 letter]iew) of every one of them; or he may meane some one principall, as Saul. Vers. 13. prevent his face] that is, first come to helpe me, and suddenly and unlookt for come upon him, and disappoint him. with thy sword] that is, thy judgement and vengeance, for all means of destruction are the Lords sword, Isa. 66. 16. and 27. 1. Ier. 47. 6. Zeph. 2. 12. The Chaldee expoundeth it, the wicked which deserveth to be killed with thy sword; or understand, which wicked man is thy sword, as Asshur is called the rod of his wrath, Esay 10. 5. and so in the verse following, from mortall men, which are thy hand; or with thy hand, that is, thy judgement or plagne, for so Gods hand often signifieth, Exod. 7. 4. Act. 13. 11. Vers. 14. of the transitory world] that is, worldlings, as they of the citie are citizens, Psalm. 72. 16. The word Cheled is used also for the short time of mans age and durance, Psal. 39. 6. and 89. 48. Here and in Psal. 49. 2. it is the world, named of the transitorinesse, for the fashion of this world passeth away, 1 Cor. 7. 31. in this life] according to Abrahams speech, Sonne remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things, Luke 16. 25. Of the wickeds prosperitie here, see Iob 21. 78. &c. the sonnes] to wit, of those worldlings, meaning that both they and their children have their fill. Or, satisfied are they with sonnes, as in Iob 21. 11. they send forth their children like a flocke. their overplus,] the residue of their store, or their excellencie. For this word Iether is used sometime for overplus in quantity, Exod. 23. 11. 1 King. 11. 41. sometime it noteth also the excellencie or dignitie, Gen. 49. 3. Vers. 15. in justice] meaning in the justice (or righteousnesse) which is of God by faith in Christ, as Phil. 3. 9. View thy face] that is, enjoy thy comfortable favour, as Psal. 4. 7. and 16. 11. or shall see and know thee plainly and perfectly, as 1 Cor. 13. 12. 2 Cor. 3. 18. 1 Ioh. 3. 2. when I awake] to wit, out of the dust of the earth, from the sleepe of death; as Esay 26. 19. with thy image] to wit, I shall be satisfied with it; so meaning by image, Gods glorie, or, with thy image; that is, having it upon me: for, as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we beare the image of the heavenly, 1 Cor. 15. 49. Compare herewith Psal. 73. 20. The Hebrew Doctors expound this in justice, to be meant of the garden of Eden (the heavenly Paradise,) called justice, and that in the world to come, which is after the raising of the dead to life: it is in the light stored up, called the Image; and this is that (in Psal. 17.) I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thine Image, saith R. Menachem on Deut. 4. But the same Rabbine on Levit. 10. giveth a better exposition of this word justice, saying, For there is no comming before the most high and blessed King, without the Shecinah, (that is, the divine Majestie of God in Christ,) to signifie which thing (it is said) I in justice shall view thy face.

PSAL. XVII.

A Prayer of David] Hee was a man of prayer; but this was his appeal to God the ſupreme Judge, as the word importeth.

Verſ. 1. Hear the right O Lord] Heb. Righteouſneſſe, which cryeth unto God no leſſe than blood doth, Gen. 4. Or, hear the right, that is, my prayer, faith R. David, rightly made with heart and voice. Or, Hear O righteous Lord, as Chriſt alſo faith, O righteous Father, Joh. 17.

Attend unto my cry] Some prophane perſons bear well their croſſes, becauſe their cauſe is good; but they cry not when God bindeth them, Job 36.13. Or,Thucyd; Dio. if they cry, they cry out of hard fortune, as the Athenians did when their good Generall Nicias was ſlain, and their army routed in Cicily; or againſt Dame Vertue, as if it were no more than a meer name, as Brutus did, when beaten out of the field. Or, againſt Providence, as if there were a miſt over the eye of it, as Pompei did, when diſcomfited by Caeſar; ſo blaming the Sun, becauſe of the ſoreneſſe of his own blear eyes. But David (greatly wronged by Saul and his Courtiers) by humble and hearty prayer maketh his requeſt known to God with thankſgiving, Phil. 4.6. And this, like his harp, drove away the Evill ſpirit of grief and diſcontent.

That goeth not out of feigned lips] His devotion was not ludibrious, as is that of Hypocrites; it was not an empty ring, a meer out-ſide, the labour of the lips, but the travell of the hurt; it was ſincere and thorough-wrought, as St. James hath it; Wicked men ſpeak God fair, but it is as the Devill did our Saviour, [non-Latin text not transcribed] Jam. 5.16: to bee rid of him, or as thoſe, Pſal. 78.36. who flattered him with their mouthes, and lyed unto him with their tongues.

Verſ. 2. Let my ſentence come forth from thy preſence] Let it be both pronounced, and executed forthwith.

Let thine eyes behold, &c.] i.e. Make it appear that thou both leeſt and likeſt mine integrity; and that thou winkeſt not at mens wickedneſſes.

Verſ. 3. Thou haſt proved my heart] And knoweſt mee to bee no diſſembler and traytor, as they wrongfully charge mee, whilſt they muſe as they uſe.

Thou haſt viſited mee in the night] In which God is wont to ſtir up, and in mind men of his will, Job 4.13, 14. as being all gathered within themſelves; and when the darkneſſe doth unmask them of worldly diſſimulation.

Thou haſt tryed mee] As Metallaries do their gold and ſilver.

And ſhalt find nothing] Heb. hast not found, [non-Latin text not transcribed] deficit, ſaith Aben-Ezra; no blot or blemiſh, that is, not the ſpot of Gods Children, Deut. 32.5. no droſſe or deceit that may not well conſiſt with godlineſſe.

I am purpoſed that my mouth ſhall not tranſgreſſe] My generall purpoſe is ſuch, though I may have my particular failings. I ſpeak my whole heart, ſo ſarre as I know it. Magna eſt concordia cordis & oris.

Verſ. 4. Concerning the works of men] ſc. which ought to bee done by them, according to thy Law; Or, which they are wont to do, whether right or wrong, I have not now to ſay, but this I can ſafely ſay by thy mercy, that

By the word of thy lips] Which I have taken for the rule and rudder of my life,

I have kept mee from the paths of the deſtroyer] Effractoris, of the breach-maker; ſuch as is the Bridge-maker of Rome, at this day. David meaneth that hee had ſhunned the ſociety of graceleſſe perſons, Pſal. 26.4. Prov. 24.21. Jer. 15.17. and taken heed to his wayes, that hee offended not with his tongue, whilſt the wicked was preſent, Pſalm 39.1, 2. leſt the Wicked ſhould rejoyce at his Miſdemeanors, Pſal. 38.17.

Verſ. 5. Hold up my goings in thy paths, &c.] Keep me within the circle of thy Word, as thouhitherto haſt done; make me to walk exactly, and as in a frame, Epheſ. 5.15. Grant me thy preventing, concomitant, and ſubſequent grace; O thou God of all grace, perfect, ſtrengthen, ſtabliſh me, 1 Pet. 5.10.

That my foot-ſteps ſlip not] by the malice of Satan, who ſeeks to ſubvert ſuch as are moſt eminent, to the ſcandal of the weak, and ſcorn of the wicked; by the corruption alſo of mine own heart, Qua quiſ que ſibi Satan eſt, as one well faith, whereby every man is a Satan to himſelf; could we but divorce the fleſh from the Devil, there would be no ſuch danger: And laſtly, by the allurements, or affrightments of this preſent evil world; the way whereof is like the vale of Siddim, ſlimy, and ſlippery, full of Lime-pits, and Pit-falls, Springs, and ſtumbling-blocks.

Verſ. 6. I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me] q. d. Thou waſt always wont to hear me, and therefore I preſume thou wilt. Experience breeds confidence.

Incline thine ear] See how he re-enforceth his former requeſt; as if he would wring the bleſſing of out Gods hands by an holy violence, and take no denial.

Verſ. 7. Shew thy marvellous loving kindneſs, &c.] Mirificas benignitates tuas; leſs than a marvellous mercifulneſs will not ſerve Davids turn, he was ſo hardly beſtead; ut niſi miabiliter feceris, pereo. We now alive have lived in an age of Miracles; and God hath dealt with our Land, not according to his ordinary courſe, but according to his Prerogative; by a Miracle of his Mercy have we hitherto ſubſiſted, and by a prop of his extraordinary patience.

O thou that ſaveſt, &c.] Servator ſperantiam. Choyce muſt be made in Prayer of fit Titles and Attributes of God; ſuch as may ſtrengthen faith, and quicken affection.

From thoſe that riſe up againſt them] Or, against thy right hand. The Saints are at Chriſts right hand, Pſal. 45.9. as Chriſt is at the Fathers; and he puts his holy hand betwixt them and harm.

Verſ. 8. Keep me as the apple of the eye] Heb. As the black of the apple of the eye, two words to the ſame ſenſe, for more vehemency. q. d. Serva me ſtudioſiſſimè. The apple of the eye, that little man in the eye (as the Hebrew word importeth, the girl, [non-Latin text not transcribed] Huc pertinet locus Cicer. a De nat. deor. as the Greeks for like cauſe call it) is the tendereſt piece of the tendereſt part, the eye; which is kept moſt diligently, and ſtrongly guarded by Nature with tunicles. David therefore fitly prayeth to be ſo kept.

Hide me under the ſhadow of thy wings] Another excellent ſimilitude taken from Fowls, which either cover their Young with their wings from the ſcorching heat of the Sun beams, as doth the Eagle; or keep them thereby from the cold, or from the Kite, as Hens do. Gods love to, and care of his poor people is hereby ſhadowed out; as it was likewiſe by the out-ſpread wings of the Cherubins in the Sanctuary. See Ruth 2.12. Deut. 32.10. Zach. 2.8. Pſal. 36.8. & 57.2. Matth. 23.37.

Verſ. 9. From the wicked that oppreſs me] Heb. That waſte me, i.e. that caſt me out into baniſhment, deſpoyled of all. This hard uſage of his enemies drove David into Gods bleſſed Boſom; as Children miſuſed abroad, run home to their Parents.

From my deadly enemies] Heb. My enemies againſt the ſoul. i. e. the Life at leaſt, if not the ſoul, which they would gladly deſtroy. Some malice is ſo miſcheivous, that it would ruine Body and Soul together; as that Monſter of Millain, the enemies of John Huſſe, and Hierom of Prague, whoſe bodies they delivered to the fire, and their Souls to the Devil. David elſewhere complaineth of his enemies, that they did Satanically hate him. Pſal. 55 4. Beware of men, ſaith our Saviour, Mat. 10. for one man is a Devil to another.

Verſ. 10. They are incloſed in their own fat] See Job 15.27. with the Note. They abound in all delights,Adipem ſuum obeſant. Trem. and therefore ſpare not to ſpeak proudly. They have cloſed up their eyes in their fulſome fat, ut non videant nec timeant te, ſaith R. Solomon, that they can neither ſee, nor fear thee.

With their mouth they ſpeak proudly] Heb. in pride, that is, Palam & plenis buccis; openly and with full mouth they contemn God and men; they belch out Blaſphemies, and do what they pleaſe.

Verſ. 11. They have now compaſſed us in our ſteps] i.e. Me and my company; ſo that we cannot ſtir any whither but we are in danger of them. In all thy ways acknowledge God, and he ſhall direct thy paths, Prov. 3.6. Commit thy way unto the Lord, truſt alſo in him, &c. Pſal. 37.5. Keep within Gods Precincts, and thou ſhalt be under his protection. He took order that a Bird ſhould be ſafe upon her own Neſt.

They have ſet their eyes bowing down to the earth] i.e. Hoc unum ſpectant ut ruamus, Junius; They are earneſtly bent, and firmly reſolved upon our ruine, as one that fixeth his eyes upon another, to mark him, or to know him again; or as Bulls ready to run at one, ſet their eyes downward.

Verſ. 12. Like as a Lion that is greedy, &c.] Cruelty and Craft are conjoyned in the Churches enemies; as the Aſpe never wandreth alone, they ſay, without his companion. David here pointeth out ſome one ſpecial enemy (Saul likely) who ſhould have been a Shepherd, but proved a Lion.

As a young Lion lurking] Therefore as we tender our ſafety, keep cloſe to God, out of whoſe hands none can take us, no not the roaring Lion of Hell.

Verſ. 13. Ariſe, O Lord, diſappoint him] Anticipa faciem ejus, that is, that raging and ravening Lion; ſtep between me and him, and ſtop his fury, defeat his purpoſe, and diſable his power.

Which is thy Sword] As Aſſyria is called the Rod of his Wrath. Attilas ſtiled himſelf, Orbis flagellum, the wrath of God, and the ſcourge of the World, Turk, Hiſt. So Tamerlan was commonly called, The Wrath of God, and Terrour of the world. Some render it, by thy Sword, i.e. or thy might and power. See Job 40.41. or by thy Word execute thy judgement.

Verſ. 14. From men which are thy hand] This, ſaith one, is Davids Letany, From thoſe men, &c. good Lord deliver me. Gods hand they are called, as before Gods Sword. Titus, Son of Veſpaſian, being extolled for deſtroying Jeruſalem, ſaid, I have only lent God my hand, but he hath done the work.

From men of the World] Heb.A mortuis, i. e. impiis qui ſunt mortui in vits eorum. R. Gion. From Mortals of this tranſitory world, qui ſunt mundani, mundum ſpirant & ſapiunt, the inhabitants of the earth, and of the ſea, as oppoſed to the Citizens of the New Jeruſalem, Rev. 12.12. ſuch as having incarnated their ſouls (as that Father ſpeaketh) are of the earth, ſpeak of the earth, and the earth heareth them, Job. 3.31. mind earthly things only, as if they were born for no other purpoſe. Terrigene fratres animam habentes triticeam, as thoſe Stallfed beaſts in the Goſpel.

Which have their portion in this life] And they love to have it ſo; ſaying with the Prodigal, Give me the Portion that belongeth to me. They crave it, and they have it, but with a vengeance. (Munera magna quidens miſit, ſed miſit in hamo) As the Iſraelites had Quails to choke them, and afterwards a King to vex them, a table to be a ſnare to them, &c. By the way obſerve, that wicked men have a right to earthly things (a man muſt needs have ſome right to his portion; what Ananias had was his own whilſt be had it, Acts 5.) and it is a rigour to ſay, they are Uſurpers. As when the King gives a Traitor his life, hee gives him meat and drink that may maintain his life; So is it here: neither ſhall wicked men be called to account at the laſt day for poſſeſſing what they had, but for abuſing that poſſeſſion. As for the Saints who are heirs of the world with faithful Abraham, and have a double portion, even all the bleſſings of Heaven and of Earth conferred upon them, though here they be held to ſtrait allowance, let them live upon reverſions, and conſider that they have right to all, and ſhall one day have rule of all, Rev. 3. Mendicato pane hic vivamus, annon hoc pulchrè ſarcitur? &c. What though we here were to live upon Alms, ſaith Luther, is there not a good amends made us, in that here we have Chriſt the bread of life in his Ordinances, and ſhall hereafter have the full fruition of him in Heaven? The whole Turkiſh Empire is nothing elſe but a cruſt caſt by our Father to his Doggs; and it is all they are likely to have, let them make them merry with it. Wilt not thou (ſaith another) bee content, unleſs God let down the veſſel to thee, as to Peter with all manner of Beaſts of the Earth, and Fowls of the Air, Acts 10.12. Muſt you needs have firſt and ſecond courſe? Difficile eſt ut praeſentibus bonis quis fruatur & futuris; ut hic ventrem illic mentem reficiat, ut de delici[illegible: 1 letter]s ad delicias tranſeat, ut in coelo & in terra glorioſus appareat, ſaith Hierom, It is a very hard thing to have Earth and Heaven too, &c. Gregory the Great trembled whenſoever he read thoſe words of Abraham to the rich Glutton (who thought this life to be his ſaginary or boares-frank) Son, remember that thou in thy life time receivedſt thy good things, Luke 16. Yee have lived in pleaſure upon earth, Jam. 5.5. no fit place for ſuch a purpoſe. God did not turn you out of one Paradiſe that you ſhould here provide your ſelves of another; earth is a place of baniſhment and bondage. Of the wickeds proſperity here, ſee Job 21.7, 8. with the Notes.

And whoſe belly thon filleſt with thy bid treaſures] That is, with Gold, and other precious things digged out of the earth, ſaith Aben-Ezra; Opimis rebus, ſaith Junius; with abundance of outward bleſſings and benefits, ſaith another; which are called Gods hidden treaſures, not becauſe they are not ſeen, but becauſe they are not ſo well perceived and uſed of the ungodly, as were meet; or becauſe the reaſon of their preſent plenty of all things is hidden from them, and yet it appears not but ſhall bee made manifeſt that theſe fatting ware are but fitting for the ſlaughter.

They are full of Children] which they ſend forth as a flock, Job 21.11. See the Note there. Or, their Children are full carne porcinâ, ſaith the Arabick here, or of wordly wealth, and mountaines of mony left them by thoſe faithfull drudges, their rich, but wretched Parents and progenitours, whoſe only care was to heap up hoards of wealth for their poſterity.

Verſ. 15. As for mee] I neither envy, nor covet theſe mens happineſſe, but partly have and partly hope for a farre better.

I will behold thy face in Righteouſneſſe] which none can do but the pure in heart, Mat. 5. and thoſe that keep cloſe to God in a conſtant communion, being juſtified and ſanctified perſons.

I ſhall be ſatisfied] Better than thoſe muck-worms and their Children are.

When I awake] ſc. Out of the duſt of death, at the Reſurrection.

With thy likeneſſe] With the viſible ſign of thy glory in Heaven, 1. Job. 3.2.

"Hear the right, O Lord." He that has the worst cause makes the most noise; hence the oppressed soul is apprehensive that its voice may be drowned, and therefore pleads in this one verse for a hearing no less than three times. The troubled heart craves for the ear of the great Judge, persuaded that with him to hear is to redress. If our God could not or would not hear us, our state would be deplorable indeed; and yet some professors set such small store by the mercy-seat, that God does not hear them for the simple reason that they neglect to plead. As well have no house if we persist like gipsies in living in the lanes and commons; as well have no mercy-seat as be always defending our own cause and never going to God. There is more fear that we will not hear the Lord than that the Lord will not hear us. "Hear the right;" it is well if our case is good in itself and can be urged as a right one, for right shall never be wronged by our righteous Judge; but if our suit be marred by our infirmities, it is a great privilege that we may make mention of the righteousness of our Lord Jesus, which is ever prevalent on high. Right has a voice which Jehovah always hears; and if my wrongs clamour against me with great force and fury, I will pray the Lord to hear that still louder and mightier voice of the right, and the rights of his dear Son. "Hear, O God, the Just One;" i.e., "hear the Messiah," is a rendering adopted by Jerome, and admired by Bishop Horsley, whether correct or not as a translation, it is proper enough as a plea. Let the reader plead it at the throne of the righteous God, even when all other arguments are unavailing. "Attend unto my cry." This shows the vehemence and earnestness of the petitioner; he is no mere talker, he weeps and laments. Who can resist a cry? A real hearty, bitter, piteous cry, might almost melt a rock, there can be no fear of its prevalence with our heavenly Father. A cry is our earliest utterance, and in many ways the most natural of human sounds; if our prayer should like the infant's cry be more natural than intelligent, and more earnest than elegant, it will be none the less eloquent with God. There is a mighty power in a child's cry to prevail with a parent's heart. "Give ear unto my prayer." Some repetitions are not vain. The reduplication here used is neither superstition nor tautology, but is like the repeated blow of a hammer hitting the same nail on the head to fix it the more effectually, or the continued knocking of a beggar at the gate who cannot be denied an alms. "That goeth not out of feigned lips." Sincerity is a sine quà non in prayer. Lips of deceit are detestable to man and much more to God. In intercourse so hallowed as that of prayer, hypocrisy even in the remotest degree is as fatal as it is foolish. Hypocritical piety is double iniquity. He who would feign and flatter had better try his craft with a fool like himself, for to deceive the all-seeing One is as impossible as to take the moon in a net, or to lead the sun into a snare. He who would deceive God is himself already most grossly deceived. Our sincerity in prayer has no merit in it, any more than the earnestness of a mendicant in the street; but at the same time the Lord has regard to it, through Jesus, and will not long refuse his ear to an honest and fervent petitioner.

"Let my sentence come forth from thy presence." The psalmist has now grown bold by the strengthening influence of prayer, and he now entreats the Judge of all the earth to give sentence upon his case. He has been libelled, basely and maliciously libelled; and having brought his action before the highest court, he, like an innocent man, has no desire to escape the enquiry, but even invites and sues for judgment. He does not ask for secrecy, but would have the result come forth to the world. He would have sentence pronounced and executed forthwith. In some matters we may venture to be as bold as this; but except we can plead something better than our own supposed innocence, it were terrible presumption thus to challenge the judgment of a sin-hating God. With Jesus as our complete and all-glorious righteousness we need not fear, though the day of judgment should commence at once, and hell open her mouth at our feet, but might joyfully prove the truth of our hymn writer's holy boast —

"Bold shall I stand in that great day;

For who aught to my charge shall lay?

While, through thy blood, absolved I am,

From sin's tremendous curse and shame." "Let thine eyes behold the things that are equal." Believers do not desire any other judge than God, or to be excused from judgment, or even to be judged on principles of partiality. No; our hope does not lie in the prospect of favouritism from God, and the consequent suspension of his law; we expect to be judged on the same principals as other men, and through the blood and righteousness of our Redeemer we shall pass the ordeal unscathed. The Lord will weigh us in the scales of justice fairly and justly; he will not use false weights to permit us to escape, but with the sternest equity those balances will be used upon us as well as upon others; and with our blessed Lord Jesus as our all in all we tremble not, for we shall not be found wanting. In David's case, he felt his cause to be so right that he simply desired the Divine eyes to rest upon the matter, and he was confident that equity would give him all that he needed.

Verse 3, "Thou hast proved mine heart." Like Peter, David uses the argument, "Thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee." It is a most assuring thing to be able to appeal at once to the Lord, and call upon our Judge to be a witness for our defence. "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God." "Thou hast visited me in the night." As if he had said, "Lord, thou hast entered my house at all hours; and thou hast seen me when no one else was nigh; thou hast come upon me unawares and marked my unrestrained actions, and thou knowest whether or no I am guilty of the crimes laid at my door." Happy man who can thus remember the omniscient eye, and the omnipresent visitor, and find comfort in the remembrance. We hope we have had our midnight visits from our Lord, and truly they are sweet; so sweet that the recollection of them sets us longing for more of such condescending communings. Lord, if indeed, we had been hypocrites, should we have had such fellowship, or feel such hungerings after a renewal of it? "Thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing." Surely the Psalmist means nothing hypocritical or wicked in the sense in which his slanderers accused him; for if the Lord should put the best of his people into the crucible, the dross would be a fearful sight, and would make penitence open her sluices wide. Assayers very soon detect the presence of alloy, and when the chief of all assayers shall, at the last, say of us he has found nothing, it will be a glorious hour indeed —"They are without fault before the throne of God." Even here, as viewed in our covenant Head, the Lord sees no sin in Jacob, nor perverseness in Israel; even the all-detecting glance of Omniscience can see no flaw where the great Substitute covers all with beauty and perfection. "I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress." Oh those sad lips of ours! we had need purpose to purpose if we would keep them from exceeding their bounds. The number of diseases of the tongue is as many as the diseases of all the rest of the man put together, and they are more inveterate. Hands and feet one may bind, but who can fetter the lips? iron bands may hold a madman, but what chains can restrain the tongue? It needs more than a purpose to keep this nimble offender within its proper range. Lion-taming and serpent-charming are not to be mentioned in the same day as tongue-taming, for the tongue can no man tame. Those who have to smart from the falsehoods of others should be the more jealous over themselves; perhaps this led the Psalmist to register this holy resolution; and, moreover, he intended thereby to aver that if he had said too much in his own defence, it was not intentional, for he desired in all-respects to tune his lips to the sweet and simple music of truth. Notwithstanding all this David was slandered, as if to show us that the purest innocence will be bemired by malice. There is no sunshine without a shadow, no ripe fruit unpecked by the birds.

"Concerning the works of men." While we are in the midst of men we shall have their works thrust under our notice, and we shall be compelled to keep a corner of our diary headed "concerning the works of men." To be quite clear from the dead works of carnal humanity is the devout desire of souls who are quickened by the Holy Spirit. "By the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer." He had kept the highway of Scripture, and not chosen the bye-paths of malice. We should soon imitate the example of the worst of men if the grace of God did not use the Word of God as the great preservative from evil. The paths of the destroyer have often tempted us; we have been prompted to become destroyers too, when we have been sorely provoked, and resentment has grown warm; but we have remembered the example of our Lord, who would not call fire from heaven upon his enemies, but meekly prayed, "Father, forgive them." All the ways of sin are the paths of Satan, —the Apollyon or Abaddon, both of which words signify the destroyer. Foolish indeed are those who give their hearts to the old murderer, because for the time he panders to their evil desires. That heavenly Book which lies neglected on many a shelf is the only guide for those who would avoid the enticing and entangling mazes of sin; and it is the best means of preserving the youthful pilgrim from ever treading those dangerous ways. We must follow the one or the other; the Book of Life, or the way of death; the word of the Holy Spirit, or the suggestion of the Evil Spirit. David could urge as the proof of his sincerity that he had no part or lot with the ungodly in their ruinous ways. How can we venture to plead our cause with God, unless we also can wash our hands clean of all connection with the enemies of the Great King?

Under trial it is not easy to behave ourselves aright; a candle is not easily kept alight when many envious mouths are puffing at it. In evil times prayer is peculiarly needful, and wise men resort to it at once. Plato said to one of his disciples, "When men speak ill of thee, live so that no one will believe them;" good enough advice, but he did not tell us how to carry it out. We have a precept here incorporated in an example; if we would be preserved, we must cry to the Preserver, and enlist divine support upon our side. "Hold up my goings" —as a careful driver holds up his horse when going down hill. We have all sorts of paces, both fast and slow, and the road is never long of one sort, but with God to hold up our goings, nothing in the pace or in the road can cast down. He who has been down once and cut his knees sadly, even to the bone, had need redouble his zeal when using this prayer; and all of us, since we are so weak on our legs through Adam's fall, had need use it every hour of the day. If a perfect father fell, how shall an imperfect son dare to boast? "In thy paths." Forsaking Satan's paths, he prayed to be upheld in God's paths. We cannot keep from evil without keeping to good. If the bushel be not full of wheat, it may soon be once more full of chaff. In all the appointed ordinances and duties of our most holy faith, may the Lord enable us to run through his upholding grace! "That my footsteps slip not." What! slip in God's ways? Yes, the road is good, but our feet are evil, and therefore slip, even on the King's highway. Who wonders if carnal men slide and fall in ways of their own choosing, which like the vale of Siddim, are full of deadly slime-pits? One may trip over an ordinance as well as over a temptation. Jesus Christ himself is a stumbling-block to some, and the doctrines of grace have been the occasion of offence to many. Grace alone can hold up our goings in the paths of truth.

"I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God." Thou hast always heard me, O my Lord, and therefore I have the utmost confidence in again approaching thine altar. Experience is a blessed teacher. He who has tried the faithfulness of God in hours of need, has great boldness in laying his case before the throne. The well of Bethlehem, from which we drew such cooling draughts in years gone by, our souls long for still; nor will we leave it for the broken cisterns of earth. "Incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech." Stoop out of heaven and put thine ear to my mouth; give me thine ear all to myself, as men do when they lean over to catch every word from their friend. The Psalmist here comes back to his first prayer, and thus sets us an example of pressing our suit again and again, until we have a full assurance that we have succeeded.

"Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness." Marvellous in its antiquity, its distinguishing character, its faithfulness, its immutability, and above all, marvellous in the wonders which it works. That marvellous grace which has redeemed us with the precious blood of God's only begotten, is here invoked to come to the rescue. That grace is sometimes hidden; the text says, "Shew it." Present enjoyments of divine love are matchless cordials to support fainting hearts. Believer, what a prayer is this! Consider it well. O Lord, shew thy marvellous lovingkindness; shew it to my intellect, and remove my ignorance; shew it to my heart, and revive my gratitude; shew it to my faith, and renew my confidence; shew it to my experience, and deliver me from all my fears. The original word here used is the same which in Psalm 4:3 is rendered set apart, and it has the force of, Distinguish thy mercies, set them out, and set apart the choicest to be bestowed upon me in this hour of my severest affliction. "O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them." The title here given to our gracious God is eminently consolatory. He is the God of salvation; it is his present and perpetual habit to save believers; he puts forth his best and most glorious strength, using his right hand of wisdom and might, to save all those, of whatsoever rank or class, who trust themselves with him. Happy faith thus to secure the omnipotent protection of heaven! Blessed God, to be thus gracious to unworthy mortals, when they have but grace to rely upon thee! The right hand of God is interposed between the saints and all harm; God is never at a loss for means; his own bare hand is enough. He works without tools as well as with them.

"Keep me as the apple of the eye." No part of the body more precious, more tender, and more carefully guarded than the eye; and of the eye, no portion more peculiarly to be protected than the central apple, the pupil, or as the Hebrew calls it, "the daughter of the eye." The all-wise Creator has placed the eye in a well-protected position; it stands surrounded by projecting bones like Jerusalem encircled by mountains. Moreover, its great Author has surrounded it with many tunics of inward covering, besides the hedge of the eyebrows, the curtain of the eyelids, and the fence of the eyelashes; and, in addition to this, he has given to every man so high a value for his eyes, and so quick an apprehension of danger, that no member of the body is more faithfully cared for than the organ of sight. Thus, Lord, keep thou me, for I trust I am one with Jesus, and so a member of his mystical body. "Hide me under the shadow of thy wings." Even as the parent bird completely shields her brood from evil, and meanwhile cherishes them with the warmth of her own heart, by covering them with her wings, so do thou with me, most condescending God, for I am thine offspring, and thou hast a parent's love in perfection. This last clause is in the Hebrew in the future tense, as if to show that what the writer had asked for but a moment before he was now sure would be granted to him. Confident expectations should keep pace with earnest supplication.

"From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about." The foes from whom David sought to be rescued were wicked men. It is hopeful for us when our enemies are God's enemies. They were deadly enemies, whom nothing but his death would satisfy. The foes of a believer's soul are mortal foes most emphatically, for they who war against our faith aim at the very life of our life. Deadly sins are deadly enemies, and what sin is there which hath not death in its bowels? These foes oppressed David, they laid his spirit waste, as invading armies ravage a country, or as wild beasts desolate a land. He likens himself to a besieged city, and complains that his foes compass him about. It may well quicken our business upward, when all around us, every road, is blockaded by deadly foes. This is our daily position, for all around us dangers and sins are lurking. O God, do thou protect us from them all.

"They are inclosed in their own fat." Luxury and gluttony beget vainglorious fatness of heart, which shuts up its gates against all compassionate emotions and reasonable judgments. The old proverb says that full bellies make empty skulls, and it is yet more true that they frequently make empty hearts. The rankest weeds grow out of the fattest soil. Riches and self-indulgence are the fuel upon which some sins feed their flames. Pride and fulness of bread were Sodom's twin sins. (Ezekiel 16:49.) Fed hawks forget their masters; and the moon at its fullest is furthest from the sun. Eglon was a notable instance that a well-fed corporation is no security to life, when a sharp message comes from God, addressed to the inward vitals of the body. "With their mouth they speak proudly." He who adores himself, will have no heart to adore the Lord. Full of selfish pleasure within his heart, the wicked man fills his mouth with boastful and arrogant expressions. Prosperity and vanity often lodge together. Woe to the fed ox when it bellows at its owner, the poleax is not far off.

"They have now compassed us in our steps." The fury of the ungodly is aimed not at one believer alone, but at all the band; they have compassed us. All the race of the Jews were but a morsel for Haman's hungry revenge, and all because of one Mordecai. The prince of darkness hates all the saints for their Master's sake. The Lord Jesus is one of the us, and herein is our hope. He is the Breaker, and will clear a way for us through the hosts which environ us. The hatred of the powers of evil is continuous and energetic, for they watch every step, hoping that the time may come when they shall catch us by surprise. If our spiritual adversaries thus compass every step, how anxiously should we guard all our movements, lest by any means we should be betrayed into evil! "They have set their eyes bowing down to the earth." Trapp witily explains this metaphor by an allusion to a bull when about to run at his victim; he lowers his head, looks downward, and then concentrates all his force in the dash which he makes. It most probably denotes the malicious jealousy with which the enemy watches the steps of the righteous; as if they studied the ground on which they trod, and searched after some wrong foot-mark to accuse them for the past, or some stumbling-stone to cast in their future path to trip them in days to come.

Lions are not more greedy, nor their ways more cunning than are Satan and his helpers when engaged against the children of God. The blood of souls the adversary thirsts after, and all his strength and craft are exerted to the utmost to satisfy his detestable appetite. We are weak and foolish like sheep; but we have a shepherd wise and strong, who knows the old lion's wiles, and is more than a match for his force; therefore will we not fear, but rest in safety in the fold. Let us beware, however, of our lurking foe; and in those parts of the road where we feel most secure, let us look about us lest, peradventure, our foe should leap upon us.

"Arise, O Lord." The more furious the attack, the more fervent the Psalmist's prayer. His eye rests singly upon the Almighty, and he feels that God has but to rise from the seat of his patience, and the work will be performed at once. Let the lion spring upon us, if Jehovah steps between we need no better defence. When God meets our foe face to face in battle, the conflict will soon be over. "Disappoint him." Be beforehand with him, outwit and outrun him. Appoint it otherwise than he has appointed, and so disappoint him. "Cast him down." Prostrate him. Make him sink upon his knees. Make him bow as the conquered bows before the conqueror. What a glorious sight will it be to behold Satan prostrate beneath the foot of our glorious Lord! Haste, glorious day! "Deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword." He recognizes the most profane and oppressive as being under the providential rule of the King of kings, and used as a sword in the divine hand. What can a sword do unless it be wielded by a hand? No more could the wicked annoy us, unless the Lord permitted them so to do. Most translators are, however, agreed that this is not the correct reading, but that it should be as Calvin puts it, "Deliver my soul from the ungodly man by thy sword." Thus David contrasts the sword of the Lord with human aids and reliefs, and rests assured that he is safe enough under the patronage of heaven.

Almost every word of this verse has furnished matter for discussion to scholars, for it is very obscure. We will, therefore, rest content with the common version, rather than distract the reader with divers translations. "From men which are thy hand." Having styled the ungodly a sword in his Father's hand, he now likens them to that hand itself, to set forth his conviction that God could as easily remove their violence as a man moves his own hand. He will never slay his child with his own hand. "From men of the world," mere earthworms; not men of the world to come, but mere dwellers in this narrow sphere of mortality; having no hopes or wishes beyond the ground on which they tread. "Which have their portion in this life." Like the prodigal, they have their portion, and are not content to wait their Father's time. Like Passion in the "Pilgrim's Progress," they have their best things first, and revel during their little hour. Luther was always afraid lest he should have his portion here, and therefore frequently gave away sums of money which had been presented to him. We cannot have earth and heaven too for our choice and portion; wise men choose that which will last the longest. "Whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure." Their sensual appetite gets the gain which it craved for. God gives to these swine the husks which they hunger for. A generous man does not deny dogs their bones; and our generous God gives even his enemies enough to fill them, if they were not so unreasonable as never to be content. Gold and silver which are locked up in the dark treasuries of the earth are given to the wicked liberally, and they therefore roll in all manner of carnal delights. Every dog has his day, and they have theirs, and a bright summer's day it seems; but ah! how soon it ends in night! "They are full of children." This was their fondest hope, that a race from their loins would prolong their names far down the page of history, and God has granted them this also; so that they have all that heart can wish. What enviable creatures they seem, but it is only seeming! "They are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes." They were fat housekeepers, and yet leave no lean wills. Living and dying they lacked for nothing but grace and alas! that lack spoils everything. They had a fair portion within the little circle of time, but eternity entered not into their calculations. They were penny wise, but pound foolish; they remembered the present, and forgot the future; they fought for the shell, and lost the kernel. How fine a description have we here of many a successful merchant, or popular statesman; and it is, at first sight, very showy and tempting, but in contrast with the glories of the world to come, what are these paltry molehill joys. Self, self, self, all these joys begin and end in basest selfishness; but oh, our God, how rich are those who begin and end in thee! From all the contamination and injury which association with worldly men is sure to bring us, deliver thou us, O God!

"As for me." "I neither envy nor covet these men's happiness, but partly have and partly hope for a far better." To behold God's face and to be changed by that vision into his image, so as to partake in his righteousness, this is my noble ambition; and in the prospect of this I cheerfully waive all my present enjoyments. My satisfaction is to come; I do not look for it as yet. I shall sleep awhile, but I shall wake at the sound of the trumpet; wake to everlasting joy, because I arise in thy likeness, O my God and King! Glimpses of glory good men have here below to stay their sacred hunger, but the full feast awaits them in the upper skies. Compared with this deep, ineffable, eternal fulness of delight, the joys of the worldlings are as a glowworm to the sun, or the drop of a bucket to the ocean.

Title. "A prayer of David." Since many of the Psalms consist of prayers, the question may be asked why such an inscription more especially belongs to this. But though the others contain divers prayers mixed with other matters, this is a supplication through its whole course. —The Venerable Bede, 672-735.

"Hear . . . attend . . . give ear." This petition repeated thrice, indicates a great power of feeling and many tears; because the craft of the ungodly, in truth, grieves and afflicts the spiritual man more than their power and violence, for we can get a knowledge of open force and violence, and, when we see the danger, can in some way guard against it. —Martin Luther.

"That goeth not out of feigned lips." There are such things as "feigned lips;" a contraction between the heart and the tongue, a clamour in the voice and scoffing in the soul, a crying to God, "Thou art my father, the guide of my youth;" and yet speaking and doing evil to the utmost of our power (Jeremiah 3:4, 5), as if God could be imposed upon by fawning pretences, and, like old Isaac, take Jacob for Esau, and be cozened by the smell of his garments; as if he could not discern the negro heart under an angel's garb. . . This is an unworthy conceit of God, to fancy that we can satisfy for inward sins, and avert approaching judgments by external offerings, by a loud voice, with a false heart, as if God (like children), would be pleased with the glittering of an empty shell, or the rattling of stones, the chinking of money, a mere voice, and crying without inward frames and intentions of service. —Stephen Charnock.

"Not out of feigned lips." It is observable that the eagle soareth on high, little intending to fly to heaven, but to gain her prey; and so it is that many do carry a great deal of seeming devotion in lifting up their eyes towards heaven; but they do it only to accomplish with more ease, safety, and applause their wicked and damnable designs here on earth; such as without are Catos, within Neros; hear them, no man better; search and try them, no man worse; they have Jacob's voice, but Esau's hands; they profess like saints, but practise like Satans; they have their long prayers, but short prayings; they are like apothecaries' gallipots —having without the title of some excellent preservative, but within are full of deadly poison; counterfeit holiness is their cloak for all manner of villanies, and the midwife to bring forth all their devilish designs. Peter Bales, in Spencer's "Things New and Old."

"Not out of feigned lips." Not only a righteous cause, but a righteous prayer are urged as motives why God should hear. Calvin remarks on the importance of joining prayer to the testimony of a good conscience, lest we defraud God of his honour by not committing all judgments to him. J. J. Stewart Perowne.

Though thy prayers be never so well framed in regard of words, and reverently performed as to thy external gestures; yet all is nothing, if thy heart be not in the duty. For prayer is not a work of the head, or hand, or eyes only, but chiefly a work of the heart, and therefore called in Scripture, the "pouring out of the soul" (1 Samuel 1:15); and the "pouring out of the heart." Psalm 62:8. And, indeed, the very soul of prayer lieth in the pouring out of the soul before the Lord. Whensoever, therefore, thou drawest near unto God in prayer, let it be with thine heart and soul, otherwise thou canst have no assurance of audience, and acceptance; for as Cyprian speaketh, Quomodo te audiri a Deo postulas, etc. How canst thou expect the Lord should hear thee, when thou hearest not thyself? or that he should regard thy prayers, when thou regardest not what thou prayest? Certainly that prayer reacheth not the heart of God, which reacheth not our own. —Thomas Gouge, 1605-1681.

David appeals unto God to judge the righteousness of his heart towards Saul —"Let my sentence come forth from thy presence." From Saul and his courtiers there comes a hard sentence; they call me traitor, they call me rebel; but, Lord, leave me not unto their sentence, "Let my sentence come from thy presence;" that I know will be another sentence than what cometh from them, for thou hast proved me, and tried me, and findest nothing in me. —Jeremiah Burroughs.

"Thou hast proved mine heart:" —

What! take it at adventure, and not try

What metal it is made of? No, not I.

Should I now lightly let it pass,

Take sullen lead for silver, sounding brass,

Instead of solid gold, alas!

What would become of it in the great day

Of making jewels, 'twould be cast away.

The heart thou giv'st me must be such a one,

As is the same throughout. I will have none

But that which will abide the fire. 'Tis not a glitt'ring outside I desire,

Whose seeming shows do soon expire;

But real worth within, which neither dross,

Nor base alloys, make subject unto loss.

If, in the composition of thine heart,

A stubborn, steely willfulness have part,

That will not bow and bend to me,

Save only in a mere formality

Of tinsel-trimm'd hypocrisy,

I care not for it, though it show as fair

As the first blush of the sun-gilded air.

The heart that in my furnace will not melt,

When it the glowing heat thereof hath felt,

Turn liquid, and dissolve in tears

Of true repentance for its faults, that hears

My threat'ning voice, and never fears,

Is not an heart worth having. If it be

An heart of stone, 'tis not an heart for me.

The heart, that, cast into my furnace, spits,

And sparkles in my face, fall into fits

Of discontented grudging, whines

When it is broken of its will, repines

At the least suffering, declines

My fatherly correction, is an heart

On which I care not to bestow mine art. * * * * * * * *

The heart that vapours out itself in smoke,

And with these cloudy shadows thinks to cloak

Its empty nakedness, how much

Soever thou esteemest, it is such

As never will endure my touch.

I'll bring it to my furnace, and there see

What it will prove, what it is like to be.

If it be gold, it will be sure

The hottest fire that can be to endure,

And I shall draw it out more pure.

Affliction may refine, but cannot waste

That heart wherein my love is fixed fast. —Francis Quarles.

"Thou hast visited me in the night," etc. In the night the soul is free from business with the world, and therefore freest for business with God; and then did God prove and visit David, that is, examine and sift him, by calling to his mind all his ways and works in former passages; and the issue of this trial was, he found nothing; not that his soul was empty of good things, or that there was nothing evil in him; but God, upon examination, found nothing of that evil in him which some men suspected him of; namely either any ill will or evil design against Saul, in reference to whom he called his cause a righteous cause, or "the right" (verse 1); "Hear the right, O Lord." —Joseph Caryl.

Verse 3 (third clause, New Translation.) "Thou hast smelted me, and found in me no dross." A metaphor taken from the smelting of metals to purify them from extraneous matter. —Geddes.

"Proved . . . visited in the night . . . tried." Tribulation whereby, when examined, I was found righteous, is called not only night, in that it is wont to disturb with fear, but fire in that it actually burns. —Augustine.

"I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress." Wherefore, if thou be upon a mountain, look not backward again unto Sodom as Lot's wife did; if thou be within the ark, fly not out again into the world as Noah's crow did; if thou be well washed, return not again to the mire as the hog doth; if thou be clean, run not again to thy filth, as the dog doth; if thou be going towards the land of Canaan, think not on the flesh-pots of Egypt; if thou be marching against the host of Midian, drink not of the waters of Harod; if thou be upon the housetop, come not down; if thou have set thy hand to the plough, look not behind thee; remember not those vices which are behind thee. —Thomas Playfere.

Verses 3, 4, 5. Where there is true grace, there is hatred of all sin, for hatred is (Greek). Can a man be resolved to commit what he hates? No, for his inward aversion would secure him more against it than all outward obstacles. As this inward purpose of a good man is against all sin, so more particularly against that which doth so easily beset him. David seems in several places to be naturally inclined to lying, but he takes up a particular resolution against it: (verse 3), "I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress;" (Heb.) —I have contrived to waylay and intercept the sin of lying when it hath an occasion to approach me. A good man hath not only purposes, but he endeavours to fasten and strengthen those purposes by prayer; so David (verse 5), "Hold up my goings in the paths, that my footsteps slip not." He strengthens himself by stirring up a liveliness in duty, and by avoiding occasions of sin; (verse 4), "I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer;" whereas, a wicked man neither steps out of the way of temptation, nor steps up to God for strength against it. —Stephen Charnock.

"Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips have I kept me from the paths of the destroyer:" as if he had said, Would you know how is comes to pass that I escape those ungodly works and practices which men ordinarily take liberty to do? I must ascribe it to the good word of God; it is this I consult with, and by it I am kept from those foul ways whereunto others, that make no use of the word for their defence, are carried by Satan the destroyer. Can we go against sin and Satan with a better weapon than Christ used to vanquish the tempter with? And, certainly, Christ did it to set us an example how we should come armed into the field against them; for Christ could with one beam shot from his Deity (if he had pleased to exert it), have as easily laid the bold fiend at his foot, as afterward he did them that came to attack him; but he chose rather to conceal the majesty of his Divinity, and let Satan come up closer to him, that so he might confound him with the word, and thereby give him a proof of that sword of his saints, which he was to leave them for their defence against the same enemy. The devil is set out by the leviathan (Isaiah 27:1), him God threatens to punish with his strong sword; alluding to that great fish, the whale, which fears no fish like the sword-fish, by whom this great devourer of all other fish is so often killed; for, receiving one prick from his sword, he hasteneth to the shore, and beats himself against it till he dies. Thus the devil, the great devourer of souls, who sports himself in the sea of this world, as the leviathan in the waters, and swallows the greatest part of mankind without any power to make resistance against him, is himself vanquished by the word. When he has to do with a saint armed with this sword, and instructed how to use this weapon, he then, and not till then, meets his match. —William Gurnall.

"By the word of thy lips," etc. It is a great relief against temptations to have the word ready. The word is called, "The sword of the Spirit." Ephesians 6:17. In spiritual conflicts there is none like to that. Those that ride abroad in time of danger, will not be without a sword. We are in danger, and had need handle the sword of the Spirit. The more ready the Scripture is with us, the greater advantage in our conflicts and temptations. When the devil came to assault Christ, he had Scripture ready for him, whereby he overcame the tempter. The door is barred upon Satan, and he cannot find such easy entrance when the word is hid in our hearts, and made use of pertinently. "I write unto you, young men, because ye are strong." Where lies their strength? "And the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one." 1 John 2:14. Oh, it is a great advantage when we have the word, not only by us, but in us, engrafted in the heart; when it is present with us, we are more able to resist the assaults of Satan. Either a man forgets the word, or hath lost his affection to it, before he can be drawn to sin. —Thomas Manton.

"Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not." Lord, whatsoever the wrath of Saul be against me, yet let neither that, nor any other thing put me out of thy way, but keep my heart close unto thee, and keep my paths in thy way; let not my footsteps so much as slide from thee, for, Lord, they watch for my halting; if they can find but the least slip from me, they take advantage of it to the utmost; and I am a poor and a weak creature, therefore Lord help me, that my footsteps may not slide. —Jeremiah Burroughs.

"Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not." As a stone cast into the air cannot go any higher, neither yet there abide when the power of the hurler ceaseth to drive it; even so, seeing our corrupt nature can go downward only, and the devil, the world, and the flesh, driveth to the same way; how can we proceed further in virtue, or stand therein, when we are tempted, if our merciful and good God do not by his Holy Spirit, from time to time, guide and govern us? —Robert Cawdray.

"Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not." Lord, hold me up, that I may hold out. Thou hast set the crown at the end of the race; let me run the race, that I may wear the crown. It was Beza's prayer, and let it be ours, "Lord, perfect what thou hast begun in me, that I may not suffer shipwreck when I am almost at the haven." —Thomas Watson.

In fierce assaults and strong temptations, when Satan layeth siege to the soul, shooting his fiery darts, and using stratagems of policy, joining his endeavours with our corruptions, as wind with tide, then we have cause to pray as David, "Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not." The apostle also found he had need of help from heaven when he was assaulted, and therefore he prayed "thrice," that the thing that he feared might depart from him. 2 Corinthians 12. Christ hath taught us to pray daily, "Lead us not into temptation," for it is dangerous; and then temptations are most dangerous, when, 1. Most suitable —when Satan joins with our disposition or constitution; 2. Continual; 3. When opportunity and power is greatest. —Joseph Symonds.

"I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me." I have cried, says the Psalmist, because thou hast heard me. One would think he should have said contrariwise; thou hast heard me because I have cried; yet, he says, I have cried because thou hast heard me; to show that crying doth not always go before hearing with God, as it doth with us; but that God will not only hear our cry, but also hear us before we cry, and will help us. —T. Playfere.

"I have called upon thee," etc. Prayer is the best remedy in a calamity. This is indeed a true catholicon, a general remedy for every malady. Not like the empiric's catholicon, which sometimes may work, but for the most part fails, but that which upon assured evidence and constant experience hath its probatum est; being that which the most wise, learned, honest, and skilful Physician that ever was, or can be, hath prescribed, even he that teacheth us how to bear what is to be borne, or how to heal and help what hath been borne. —William Gough, 1575-1653.

I have called upon thee formerly, therefore, Lord, hear me now. It will be a great comfort to us if trouble, when it comes, finds the wheels of prayer a-going, for then may we come with the more boldness to the throne of grace. Tradesmen are willing to oblige those that have been long their customers. —Matthew Henry.

"Keep me as the apple of the eye." He prays for deliverance (verse 7), ""Show thy marvellous lovingkindness" to me; Lord, my straits they are marvellous, I know not what to do, whither to turn me, but my eyes are toward thee; as straits are marvellous, so let the lovingkindness of God be marvellous towards me, and "Keep me as the apple of thy eye." O Lord, unto them I am but a dog, a vile creature in the eyes of Saul and those about him; but blessed be thy name, I can look up to thee, and know that I am dear unto thee as the apple of thy eye. All the saints of God are dear to God at all times, but the persecuted saints, they are the apple of God's eye; if at any time they are dear to God, then especially when they are most persecuted; now they are the apple of his eye, and the apple of an eye is weak, and little able to resist any hurt, but so much the more is the man tender of the apple of his eye. The saints are weak and shiftless for themselves, but the Lord is so much the more tender over them. —Jeremiah Burroughs.

Does it not appear to thee to be a work of providence, that considering the weakness of the eye, he has protected it with eyelids, as with doors, which whenever there is occasion to use it are opened, and are again closed in sleep? And that it may not receive injury from the winds, he has planted on it eyelashes like a strainer; and over the eyes has disposed the eyebrows like a penthouse, so that the sweat from the head may do no mischief. —Socrates, in Xenophon.

"From the wicked:" as though he had said, "They are equally enemies to thee and me; not more opposite to me by their cruelty, than by their wickedness they are to thee. Vindicate then, at once, thyself, and deliver me." —John Howe.

"They are inclosed in their own fat," or their fat has inclosed them; either their eyes, that they can hardly see out of them, or their hearts, so that they are stupid and senseless, and devoid of the fear of God; the phrase is expressive of the multitude of their wealth, and increase of power, by which they were swelled with pride and vanity, and neither feared God nor regarded man; so the Targum paraphrases it, "their riches are multiplied, their fat covers them." —John Gill.

"They are inclosed in their own fat." Their worldly prosperity puffeth them up, and makes them insensible and obdurate against all reason and just fear; and the Scripture doth use this term of a fattened heart in this sense, because that the fat of man hath no feeling in it, and those that are very fat are less subject to the passion of fear. —John Diodati.

"They are inclosed in their own fat." To say a man is fat, often means he is very proud. Of one who speaks pompously it is said, "What can we do? tassi kullap inal," that is, "from the fat of his flesh he declares himself." "Oh, the fat of his mouth! how largely he talks!" "Take care, fellow! or I will restrain the fat of thy mouth." —J. Roberts, in "Oriental Illustrations," 1844.

"They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth." A man who has people watching him to find out a cause for accusation against him to the king, or to great men, says, "Yes, they are around my legs and my feet; their eyes are always open; they are ever watching my 'suvadu,' 'steps;'" that is, they are looking for the impress or footsteps in the earth. For this purpose the eyes of the enemies of David were "bowing down to the earth." —Joseph Roberts.

"They have now compassed us in our steps." Like those who destroy game by battue, and so make a ring around their prey from which their victims cannot escape. —C. H. S.

"They have set their eyes bowing down to the earth." The allusion probably is to the huntsman tracing the footmarks of the animal he pursues. —Religious Tract Society's Commentary.

"They have set their eyes bowing down to the earth." It is an allusion, as I conceive, to hunters, who go poring upon the ground to prick the hare, or to find the print of the hare's claw, when the hounds are at a loss, and can make nothing of it by the scent. —Joseph Caryl.

"Like a lion," etc. In "Paradise Lost," we have a fine poetical conception of the arch enemy prowling around our first parents when he first beheld their happiness, and resolved to ruin them. —About them round

A lion now, he stalks with fiery glare;

Then, as a tiger, who by chance hath spied

In some purlieu, two gentle fawns at play,

Straight crouches close, then rising, changes oft

His couchant watch, as one who chose his ground,

Whence rushing he might surest seize them both,

Grip'd in each paw. John Milton.

We were consulting as to the best means of getting at a rhinoceros cow which we saw standing at some distance under a tree, when a troop of impalas came charging down, with a fine old lioness after them. We went and saw her lying down, but so flat to the ground, head and all, that no man could shoot with any certainty; and she never for a moment took her eyes from us. When we got up to her, she was lying down flat as a plate to the ground; but her head might have been on a pivot, as her watchful eye glared on us all round, without appearing to move her body, as we decreased the circle, in the hopes she would stand up and give us a fair chance of a shot behind the shoulder. . . I looked for a tree to climb up, near enough to make tolerably sure of my shot, and was just getting up one, when the lioness made off. —William Charles Baldwin, F.R.G.S., in "African Hunting," 1863.

"The wicked, which is thy sword." The devil and his instruments both are God's instruments, therefore "the wicked" are called his "sword," his "axe" (Psalm 17:13; Isaiah 10:15); now let God alone to wield the one, and handle the other. He is but a bungler that hurts and hackles his own legs with his own axe; which God should do if his children should be the worse for Satan's temptations. Let the devil choose his way, God is a match for him at every weapon. If he will try it by force of arms, and assaults the saints by persecution, as the "Lord of hosts" he will oppose him. If by policy and subtlety, he is ready there also. The devil and his whole council are but fools to God; nay, their wisdom foolishness. —William Gurnall.

"Thy sword . . . thy hand." Thou canst as easily command and manage them, as a man may wield his sword, or move his hand. Wilt thou suffer thine own sword, thine own hand, to destroy thine own servant? —J. Howe

Verse 14 (first clause). How wonderful are the dispensations of the providence of God, who can use even the wicked to promote the present happiness and the final salvation of his saints! —J. Edwards, M.A., 1856.

"Thy sword . . . thy hand." Thou canst as easily command and manage them, as a man may wield his sword, or move his hand. Wilt thou suffer thine own sword, thine own hand, to destroy thine own servant? —J. Howe

Verse 14 (first clause). How wonderful are the dispensations of the providence of God, who can use even the wicked to promote the present happiness and the final salvation of his saints! —J. Edwards, M.A., 1856.

"Men of the world, which have their portion in this life." Time and this lower world, bound all their hopes and fears. They have no serious believing apprehensions of anything beyond this present life; therefore, have nothing to withhold them from the most injurious violence, if thou withhold them not; men that believe not another world, are the ready actors of any imaginable mischiefs and tragedies in this. —John Howe.

"Men which are thy hand," etc. What shall we say then? Because God maketh use of thy sins, art thou excused? Is not thine evil evil, because he picketh good out of it? Deceive not thyself therein. When thou hast done such service to thy Master and Maker, though seven and seven years, as Jacob did service to Laban, thou shalt lose thy wages and thy thanks too. Oh, well were thou if thou didst but lose, for thou shalt also gain a sorrowful advantage. It is unprofitable, nay, miserable service which thou hast thus bestowed. Babylon shall be the hammer of the Lord a long time to bruise the nations, himself afterwards bruised; Asshur his rod to scourge his people, but Asshur shall be more scourged. These hammers, rods, axes, saws, other instruments, when they have done their offices, which they never meant, shall be thrown themselves into the fire, and burnt to ashes. Satan did service to God, it cannot be denied, in the afflicting of Job, winnowing of Peter, buffeting of Paul, executing of Judas, and God did a work in all these either to prove patience, or to confirm faith, or to try strength, or to commend justice; yet is Satan "reserved in chains under darkness, to the retribution of the great day." Judas did service to God, in getting honour to his blessed name for the redemption of mankind, whilst the worlds endureth, yet was his wages an alder-tree to hang himself upon, and, what is worse, he hangeth in hell for eternal generations. He had his wages, and lost his wages. That which the priest gave him, he lost, and lost his apostleship, but gained the recompense of everlasting unhappiness, and lies in the lowest lake, for the worm and death to gnaw upon without ceasing. —John King.

"Thy hand." The hand of God, his correcting or cherishing hand, sometimes is an immediate, and sometimes a mediate hand. Sometimes it is immediate, when God by himself doth chasten, or punish, or afflict, when no second cause doth appear or intervene. So it may seem Satan means, when he saith (Job 1:11), "Put forth thy hand," that is, do it thine own self, let no other have the handling of Job but thyself. God doth send such immediate afflictions; a man is afflicted in his body, in his estate, and many other ways, and he cannot find anything in the creature whence it should come; it is an immediate stroke of God, he cannot see how, or which way, or at what door this evil came in upon him; therefore it is called a creating of evil. Isaiah 45:7. "I make peace, and create evil." Now creation is out of nothing, there is nothing out of which it is wrought. So many times God bringeth evil upon a people or person when there is no appearance of second cause, no matter out of which it is made, but it comes as a creature, formed by the only hand of God. Sometimes likewise it is called God's hand, when it is the hand of a creature; it is God's hand in a creature's hand; God's hand when it is the hand of wicked men, God's hand when it is Satan's hand. So that place is translated (Psalm 17:13,14), "Deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword: from men which are thy hand:" so that "thy hand" may be understood of an instrument; Satan himself is God's hand to punish in that sense, as wicked men here are said to be God's hand: "from men which are thy hand," though there be other readings of that place; some read it, deliver me from men by thy hand; and others, deliver me from men of thy hand; but our translation may very well carry the sense of the original in it, "from men which are thy hand;" as Nebuchadrezzar, that wicked king, is called God's servant (Jeremiah 43:10), "I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar my servant:" God speaks of him as his servant, or as his hand in the thing. —Joseph Caryl.

"Men of the world, which have their portion in this life." The large portion of the wicked in the things of this world, may tell the righteous of how little value this is, in the account of God; in that these things are often given to his enemies plentifully, when denied in such a measure to his children. Now this cannot be because he loves or favours his enemies most; but because these lower things, given them in what degree soever, are so mean in his account, as that his chosen may learn by his distribution of them, to regard them as he does; namely, as no part of their felicity, but as common favours to all his creatures, good or bad, enemies or friends. —Daniel Wilcox.

"Men which have their portion in this life." God gives wicked men a portion here to show unto them what little good there is in all these things, and to show the world what little good there is in all the things that are here below in the world. Certainly if they were much good they should never have them; it is an argument there is no great excellency in the strength of body, for an ox hath it more than you; an argument there is no great excellency in agility of body, for a dog hath it more than you; an argument of no great excellency in gay clothes, for a peacock hath them more than you; an argument there is not great excellency in gold and silver, for the Indians that know not God have them more than you; and if these things had any great worth in them, certainly God would never give them to wicked men —a certain argument. As it is an argument that there is no great evil in affliction in this world, because that the saints are so much afflicted; so no great argument there is any great good in this world, for the wicked they enjoy so much of it. Luther hath such an expression as this in his comment upon Genesis, saith he, "The Turkish empire, as great as it is, is but a crumb, that the Master of the family, that God, casts to dogs:" the whole Turkish empire, such an esteem had Luther of it; and indeed, it is no more. All the things of the world, God in giving of them to Turks and wicked ones, his enemies, shows there is not much excellency and good in them: God therefore will cast them promiscuously up and down in the world, because he looks upon them as worthless things; God doth not so much regard whether men be prepared to give him the glory of them, yea or no, they shall have them; however he is content to venture them. Indeed, when God comes into his choice mercies in Christ, there he looks to have glory from them, and he doth never give them to any, but first he prepares them, that they may give him the glory of those mercies. But it is otherwise with others; as, suppose you see a man gathering of crabs, although swine be under the tree, he cares not much to drive them away; they are but crabs, let them have them; but if he were gathering any choice and precious fruit, if any swine should come under, he drives them away. As for outward things, crabs, the Lord suffers the swine of the world to come grunting and take them up; but when he comes to his choice mercies in his Christ, there he makes a distinction. Oh, this is precious fruit! A blacksmith that is working upon iron, though a great many cinders and little bits of iron fly up and down, he regards them not; but a goldsmith that is working upon gold, he preserves every rag, and every dust of gold; and a lapidary that is working upon precious stones, every little bit he will be sure to preserve; a carpenter that is only hewing of timber, he regards it not much if chips fly up and down; but it is not so with a lapidary. So these outward things are but as the chips and cinders, and such kind of things as those are, and therefore God ever gives a portion to wicked men out of them. —Jeremiah Burroughs.

"Men which have their portion in this life." I have read of Gregory, that being advanced to preferment, professed that there was no Scripture that went so to his heart, that struck such a trembling into his spirit, that daunted him so much, as this Scripture did: —"Here you have your reward, son; in your lifetime you have had your pleasure." Oh, this was a dreadful Scripture that sounded in his ears continually, as Hierom speaks of that Scripture, "Arise ye dead, and come to judgment;" night and day he thought that Scripture sounded in his ears: so Gregory: —"Here you have your reward; in this life you have had your pleasure." This was the Scripture that night and day sounded in his ears. O that it might please God to assist so far, to speak out of this Scripture to you, that I might make this Scripture ring in your ears even when you lie upon your beds, after the sermon is done; that yet you may think this Scripture rings in your ears: "Men of this world, who have their portion in this life." —Jeremiah Burroughs.

"Which have their portion in this life." The earth and the commodities thereof God distributeth without respect of persons, even to them that are his children by creation only, and not by adoption. But yet there is a difference between the prosperity of the one and the other; for the one is but with anxiety of heart (even in laughter their heart is heavy); the others' is with cheerfulness and joy in the Spirit; the one's is a pledge of the greater preferment in the world to come, the others' is their whole portion, and as if God should say, "Let them take that and look for no more." The one's is with the blessing of the people, who wish they had more; the others' with their curse and hatred, who are grieved that they have so much. —Miles Smith.

"Their portion in this life." The good man's best, and the bad man's worst, lie in shall be's (Isaiah 3:10, 11), in reversion. Here Dives had nothing but his "good things," but hereafter he had no good thing. Here Lazarus had all his "evil things," but afterwards no evil thing. The good man when he dies, takes his leave of, and departs from, all evil; and the evil man when he dies, takes his leave of, and departs from, all his goods, which was all the good he had. "Now he is comforted, but thou art tormented." Luke 16:25. Oh! 'tis a sad thing to have one's portion of good only in this life. —Ralph Venning's "Helps to Piety," 1620-1673.

"This life." There is yet another thing to be seen far more monstrous in this creature; that whereas he is endued with reason and counsel, and knoweth that this life is like unto a shadow, to a dream, to a tale that is told, to a watch in the night, to smoke, to chaff which the wind scattereth, to a water-bubble, and such-like fading things; and that life to come shall never have end; he yet nevertheless setteth his whole mind most carefully upon this present life, which is to-day, and to-morrow is not; but of the life which is everlasting he doth not so much as think. If this be not a monster, I know not what may be called monstrous. —Thomas Tymme.

What wicked men possess of this world is all that ever they can hope for: why should we grudge them filled bags, or swelling titles! it is their whole portion; they now receive their good things. Hast thou food and clothing? that is children's fare; envy not ungodly men, who flaunt it in the gallantry of the world: they have more than you; but it is all they are like to have: the psalmist gives us an account of their estate. They are the men of this world, which have their portion in this life, and whose bellies God filleth with his hid treasure. Whereas thou, O Christian, who possessest nothing, art heir-apparent of heaven, co-heir with Jesus Christ, who is the heir of all things, and hast an infinite mass of riches laid up for thee; so great and infinite, that all the stars of heaven are too few to account it by: you have no reason to complain of being kept short; for all that God hath is yours, whether prosperity ar adversity, life or death, all is yours. What God gives is for your comfort; what he denies or takes away is for your trial: it is for the increase of those graces which are far more gracious than any temporal enjoyment. If, by seeing wicked and ungodly men flow in wealth and ease, when thou art forced to struggle against the inconveniences and difficulties of a poor estate, thou hast learnt a holy contempt and disdain of the world, believe it, God hath herein given thee more than if he had given thee the world itself. —Ezekiel Hopkins.

To show that wicked men have often the greatest portion in this world, I need not speak much: the experience of all ages since the beginning of the world confirms it, your own observation, I believe, can seal to it; however, Scripture abundantly evinces it. The first murderer that ever was, carries possessions in his very name: Cain signifies so much. Genesis 4:8. Go on in the whole series of Scripture, and you shall find Joseph persecuted by his brethren; Esau (as Rivet observes on Genesis 32), advanced in the world for a time far above Jacob; go on, and you find the Israelites, God's peculiar, in captivity, and Pharaoh on the throne; Saul ruling, and David in a cave, or in a wilderness; Job upon the dunghill; Jeremy in the dungeon; Daniel in the den, and the children in the furnace, and Nebuchadnezzar on the throne. In the New Testament you have Felix on the bench, Paul at the bar; Dives in the palace, Lazarus at his gate (Luke 16:19); he clothed in purple, Lazarus in rags and overspread with sores; he banqueted and fared deliciously every day, the other desired but the crumbs from the table, and could not have them; Dives beset with his rich and stately attendance, Lazarus hath no other society but the dogs which came to lick his sores; all which Austin and Tertullian against Marcion (lib. 4), conceive to be a true history of what was really acted, though others think it parabolical. Job tells us that "the tabernacle of robbers" sometimes "prosper" (Job 12:6), which prosperity he at large describes (chapter 21 from verse 7 to 14); exalted in "power," verse 7; multiplied in their posterity, verses 8, 11; safe at home, verse 9; increased abroad, verse 10; have their fill of pleasure, verse 12, and wealth at will, verse 13. David speaks his own experience of this. Psalm 37:35; 73:7. So in the text, they enjoy not only common favours, as air to breathe in, earth to walk on; their bellies are filled with his "hid treasure," and that not for themselves only, but for their posterity too; they "leave the rest of their substance to their babes;" in a word, "they have their portion in this life." —John Frost, 1657.

A master or lord pays his servant his present wages, while he cuts his son short in his allowance during his nonage, that he may learn to depend upon his father for the inheritance. Thus doth God, the great Lord of all, deal with his slaves, who serve him for the hire of some temporal advantage; he gives them their present reward and wages; but though his goodness hath determined a better portion to be a reward to the piety and obedience of his children, yet he gives it them in reversion, little in hand, that they may learn to live upon the promise, and by faith to depend upon the goodness and faithfulness of their Father for their heavenly inheritance; that they, walking not by sight but faith (which is a Christian's work and condition here), may "not look at the things which are seen," etc. 2 Corinthians 4:18. . . . . This discovers that rotten foundation upon which many men build their hopes of heaven. Surely (are many ready to argue) if God did not love me he would not give me such a portion in the world. Deceive not thyself in a matter of so great concernment. Thou mayest as well say God loved Judas, because he had the bags, or Dives, because he fared deliciously, who are now roaring in hell. —John Frost.

The word which denotes the "belly" may have been fixed, by the divine Spirit, to indicate the fact, that a very great proportion of the sin of worldly and depraved characters is connected with the indulgence of base and degrading lusts; and that they abuse the very bounty of heaven, in riveting the chain of sense upon their unhappy souls. But let them remember, that their sensual idolatries will, at last, be followed up by the most fearful visitations of divine wrath. —John Morrison.

"Whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure." Wicked men may abound in earthly things. They may have the earth and the fulness of it, the earth, and all that is earthly; their bellies are filled by God himself with hidden treasure. Precious things are usually hidden, and all that's named treasure, though it be but earthly, hath a preciousness in it. Hidden treasures of earth fill their bellies who slight the treasures of heaven, and whose souls shall never have so much as a taste of heavenly treasures: riches and honour are the lots of their inheritance who have no inheritance among those whose lot is glory. They have the earth in their hands (Job 9:24), who have nothing of heaven in their hearts; they bear sway in the world who are slaves to the world; they govern and order others at their will who are led captive by Satan at his will. Be not offended and troubled to see the reins of government in their hands who know not how to govern themselves, or to see them rule the world who are unworthy to live in the world. —Joseph Caryl.

"Whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure." The hearts of saints only are filled with the "hidden manna," but the bellies of the wicked are often filled with hidden treasure; that is, with those dainties and good things which are virtually hidden in, and formally spring out of, the belly and bowels of the earth. The Lord easily grants them their wish in such things, and gives them "their portion," which is all their portion, "in this life." For as they are but common professors, so these are but common mercies, such as many of his enemies receive, who are but fatted as oxen for the slaughter, and fitted for destruction. True happiness is not to be judged by lands or houses, by gold or silver. The world is a narrow bound: unless we get beyond the creature, and set our hopes above this world, we cannot by happy. As hypocrites desire, so they obtain much of the world, but they shall attain no more, how much soever they seem to desire it. —Joseph Caryl.

"Whose belly thou fillest." That is, their sensual appetite, as oftentimes that term is used (Romans 16:18; Philippians 3:19), "with thy hid treasures;" namely, the riches which either God is wont to hide in the bowels of the earth, or lock up in the repository of providence, dispensing them at his own pleasure. —John Howe.

"Whose belly thou fillest," etc.: —

Thou from thy hidden store,

Their bellies, Lord, hast fill'd;

Their sons are gorg'd, and what is o'er,

To their sons' sons they yield. Richard Mant.

"They are full of children." So it appears by that which follows, it ought to be read, and not according to that gross, but easy (Greek) for (Greek) mistake of some transcribers of the seventy. As if in all this he pleaded thus: "Lord, thou hast abundantly indulged those men already, what need they more? They have themselves, from thy unregarded bounty, their own vast swollen desires sufficiently filled, enough for their own time; and when they can live no longer in their persons, they may in their posterity, and leave not strangers, but their numerous offspring, their heirs. Is it not enough that their avarice be gratified, except their malice be also? that they have whatsoever they can conceive desirable for themselves, unless they may also infer whatever they can think mischievous on me?" To this description of his enemies, he ex opposito, subjoins some account of himself in this his closure of the Psalm. "As for me," here he is at his statique point; and, after some appearing discomposure, his spirit returns to a consistency, in consideration of his own more happy state, which he opposes and prefers to their, in the following respects. That they were wicked, he righteous. "I will behold thy face in righteousness." That their happiness was worldly, terrene, such only as did spring from the earth; his heavenly and divine, such as should result from the face and image of God. Theirs present, temporary, compassed within this life; his future, everlasting, to be enjoyed when he should awake. Theirs partial, defective, such as would but gratify their bestial part, fill their bellies; his adequate, complete (the eudaimonia tou ounetou . . . . . a happiness of proportion), such as should satisfy the man. "I shall be satisfied," etc. —John Howe.

"They are full of children." Margin, their children are full. The margin probably expresses the sense of the Hebrew better than the text. The literal rendering would be, "satisfied are their sons;" that is, they have enough to satisfy the wants of their children. The expression, "they are full of children," is harsh and unnatural, and is not demanded by the original, or by the main thought in this passage. The obvious signification is, that they have enough for themselves and for their children. —Albert Barnes.

"I will behold thy face." I look upon the face of a stranger and it moves me not; but upon a friend and his face presently transforms mine into a lively, cheerful aspect. "As iron sharpeneth iron, so doth the face of a man his friend" (Proverbs 27:17), puts a sharpness and a quickness into his looks. The soul that loves God, opens itself to him, admits his influence and impressions, is easily molded and wrought to his will, yields to the transforming power of his appearing glory. There is no resistant principle remaining when the love of God is perfected in it; and so overcoming is the first sight of his glory upon the awaking soul, that it perfects it, and so his likeness, both at once. —John Howe.

"I will behold," etc. —In the words we have, 1. The time of his complete and consummate happiness —"When I awake." 2. The matter of his happiness, and the manner of enjoying it; the matter and object —"God's face, or likeness;" the manner of enjoying —"I will behold thy face." 3. His perfect disposition and condition in the state of happiness —"I shall behold in righteousness," having my heart perfectly conformed to the will of God, the perfect and adequate rule of righteousness. 4. The measure of his happiness —"I shall be satisfied;" my happiness will be full in the measure, without want of anything that can make me happy; all my desires shall be satisfied, and my happiness in respect of duration shall be eternal, without a shadow or fear of a change. —William Colvill.

He doth profess his resolution, yet notwithstanding all the danger he was in, to go on in the ways of God, and expect a gracious issue; but I, saith he, "will behold thy face in righteousness;" indeed, I cannot behold the face of the king without danger to me; there are a great many that run to kill me, and they desire his face; but though I cannot see his face, yet, Lord, I shall behold thy face; "I will behold thy face," and it shall be "in righteousness;" I will still keep on in the ways of righteousness, and "when I awake" —for I believe that these troubles will not hold long —I shall not sleep in perpetual sleep, but I shall awake and be delivered, and then "I shall be satisfied with thy likeness:" there shall be the manifestation of thy glory to me, that shall satisfy me for all the trouble that I have endured for thy name's sake, that my soul shall say, I have enough. —Jeremiah Burroughs.

"I shall be satisfied," etc. The fulness of the felicity of heaven may appear if we compare it with the joys and comforts of the Holy Spirit. Such they are, as that the Scripture styles them strong consolations (Hebrews 6:17); full joys (John 15:11); joy unspeakable and full of glory (1 Peter 1:8); abounding consolations. 2 Corinthians 1:5. And yet all the joy and peace that believers are partakers of in this life is but as a drop to the ocean, as a single cluster to the whole vintage, as the thyme or honey upon the thigh of a bee to the whole hive fully fraught with it, or as the break and peep of day to the bright noontide. But yet these tastes of the water, wine, and honey of this celestial Canaan, with which the Holy Spirit makes glad the hearts of believers, are both far more desirable and satisfactory than the overflowing streams of all earthly felicities. And there are none who have once tasted of them, but say as the Samaritan woman did, "Lord, give me that water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw." John 4:15. So also the first and early dawnings of the heavenly light fill the soul with more serenity, and ravish it with more pure joy, than the brightest sunshine of all worldly splendour can ever do. I have read of a devout person who but dreaming of heaven, the signatures and impressions it made upon his fancy were so strong, as that when he awaked he knew not his cell, could not distinguish the night from the day, nor difference by his taste, oil from wine; still he was calling for his vision and saying, Redde mihi campos floridos, columnam auream, comitem Hieronymum, assistentes angelos: give me my fresh and fragrant fields again, my golden pillar of light, Jerome my companion, angels my assistants. If heaven in a dream produce such ecstasies as drown and overwhelm the exercises of the senses to inferior objects, what trances and complacencies must the fruition of it work in those who have their whole rational appetite filled, and their body beautified with its endless glory? —William Spurstow, 1656.

"I shall be satisfied." Have you never seen how when they were finishing the interior of buildings they kept the scaffolding up? The old Pope, when he had Michael Angelo employed in decorating the interior of that magnificent structure, the Sistine Chapel, demanded that the scaffolding should be taken down so that he could see the glowing colours that with matchless skill were being laid on. Patiently and assiduously did that noble artist labour, toiling by day, and almost by night, bringing out his prophets and sibyls and pictures wondrous for their beauty and significance, until the work was done. The day before it was done, if you had gone into that chapel and looked up, what would you have seen? Posts, planks, ropes. lime, mortar, slop, dirt. But when all was finished, the workmen came, and the scaffolding was removed. And then, although the floor was yet covered with rubbish and litter, when you looked up, it was as if heaven itself had been opened, and you looked into the courts of God and angels. Now, the scaffolding is kept around men long after the fresco is commenced to be painted; and wondrous disclosures will be made when God shall take down this scaffolding body, and reveal what you have been doing. By sorrow and by joy; by joys which are but bright colours, and by sorrows which are but shadows of bright colours; by prayer; by the influences of the sanctuary; by your pleasures; by your business; by reverses; by successes and by failures; by what strengthened your confidence, and by what broke it down; by the things that you rejoiced in, and by the things that you mourned over —by all that God is working in you. And you are to be perfected, not according to the things that you plan, but according to the divine pattern. Your portrait and mine are being painted, and God by wondrous strokes and influences is working us up to his own ideal. Over and above what you are doing for yourself, God is working to make you like him. And the wondrous declaration is, that when you stand before God, and see what has been done for you, you shall be "satisfied." Oh, word that has been wandering solitary and without a habitation ever since the world began, and the morning stars sang together for joy! Has there ever been a human creature that could stand on earth while clothed in the flesh, and say, "I am satisfied?" What is the meaning of the word? Sufficiently filled; filled full; filled up in every part. And when God's work is complete, we shall stand before him, and, with the bright ideal and glorified conception of heavenly aspiration upon us, looking up to God, and back on ourselves,we shall say, "I am satisfied:" for we shall be like him. Amen. Why should we not be satisfied? —Henry Ward Beecher, in "Royal Truths," 1862.

"When I awake, I shall be satisfied with thy likeness." He speaks here of the resurrection; he calls it an awaking, for you know death is called a sleep. "Those that are asleep in the Lord shall rise first." He had spoken before of those that had put their happiness in the comforts of this life, suitable to their bodies, to the animal state of their bodies; that is clear by the fourteenth verse, "Deliver me from the men that are thine hand, O Lord, who have their portion in this life, whose belly thou fillest with thy treasure: they are full of children, and leave to them outward things," bodily things. "But as for me," saith he, "I will behold thy face in thy righteousness" (there is the vision of God which is his happiness in his soul): "and I shall be satisfied when I awake" (when I rise again), "with thine image." It is not the image of God only upon himself that he means here. Why? Because that doth not satisfy a holy heart, but it is that image of the invisible God which the human nature of Jesus Christ is, who, in opposition to all these outward pleasures, will be all in all to us; he is a spiritual creature, his human nature is spiritualised, made glorious, and our bodies shall be made spiritual likewise. "The body is made for the Lord, and the Lord for the body," and this when they are both raised up; Christ is raised up already, and because he hath ordained the one to be serviceable to the other, he will also raise up our bodies; and when he doth raise me up, saith David, though other men have their bellies full here, and have animal pleasures they delight in; yet when I shall awake at latter day, and shall see this image of thine, shall see thy Son, I shall be satisfied: "When I awake, I shall be satisfied with thine image." —Thomas Goodwin.

"I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." In this Psalm holy David's afflictions are neither few nor small; his innocency that is wounded by malicious slanderers, his life that is in jeopardy by deadly enemies that compass him about; his present condition that is embittered unto him by the pressing wants of a barren wilderness, while his foes live deliciously in Saul's court. And yet under the weight and combination of so many sore evils, David carries himself as one that is neither hopeless nor forsaken, yea, lays his estate in the balance against theirs, and in this low ebb of his, vies with them for happiness; and at last shutting up the Psalm with a triumphant epiphonema, concludes himself to be by far the better man. "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake with thy likeness." They, 'tis true, enjoy the face of their king, whose favour is as a cloud of latter rain promising a fruitful harvest of many blessings, "but I," saith he, "shall behold the face of God in righteousness," whose lovingkindness is better than life, clothed with all its royalties. They have their bellies filled with hidden treasure, having more than a common hand of bounty opened unto them; but I have more gladness put into my heart, more than in the time that their corn and wine increased. They have their portion in hand, and as being men of this world; but I have mine laid up in the other: "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." In these words we have his and every believer's eternal happiness in the other life, set forth in three particulars as a most effectual antidote against present troubles and temptations that arise from the malice of wicked men against them. —William Spurstow.

"I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness." The saints in heaven have not yet awaked in God's likeness. The bodies of the righteous still sleep, but they are to be satisfied on the resurrection morn, when they awake. When a Roman conqueror had been at war, and won great victories, he would return to Rome with his soldiers, enter privately into his house, and enjoy himself till the next day, when he would go out of the city to re-enter it publicly in triumph. Now, the saints, as it were, enter privately into heaven without their bodies; but on the last day, when their bodies wake up, they will enter into their triumphal chariots. Methinks I see that grand procession, when Jesus Christ first of all, with many crowns on his head, with his bright, glorious, immortal body, shall lead the way. Behind him come the saints, each of them clapping their hands, or pouring sweet melody from their golden harps; all entering in triumph. And when they come to heaven's gates, and the doors are opened wide to let the King of glory in, how will the angels crowd at the windows and on the housetops, like the inhabitants in the Roman triumphs, to watch the pompous procession, and scatter heaven's roses and lilies upon them, crying, "Hallelujah! hallelujah! hallelujah! the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth." "I shall be satisfied" in that glorious day when all the angels of God shall come to see the triumphs of Jesus, and when his people shall be victorious with him. —Spurgeon's Sermons.

"I shall be satisfied . . . . . with thy likeness." Let a man who is thirsty be brought to an ocean of pure water, and he has enough. If there be enough in God to satisfy the angels, then sure there is enough to satisfy us. The soul is but finite, but God is infinite. Though God be a good that satisfies, yet he does not surfeit. Fresh joys spring continually from his face; and he is as much to be desired after millions of years by glorified souls as at the first moment. There is a fulness in God that satisfies, and yet so much sweetness that the soul still desires. God is a delicious good. That which is the chief good must ravish the soul with pleasure; there must be in it rapturous delight and quintessence of joy. In Deo quadam dulcedine delectatur anima immo rapitur: the love of God drops such infinite suavity into the soul as is unspeakable and full of glory. If there be so much delight in God, when we see him only by faith (1 Peter 1:8), what will the joy of vision be, when we shall see him face to face! If the saints have found so much delight in God while they were suffering, oh, what joy and delight will they have when they are being crowned! If flames are beds of roses, what will it be to lean on the bosom of Jesus! What a bed of roses that will be! God is a superlative good. He is better than anything you can put in competition with him; he is better than health, riches, honour. Other things maintain life, he gives life. Who would put anything in balance with the Deity? Who would weigh a feather against a mountain of gold? God excels all other things more infinitely than the sun the light of a taper. God is an eternal good. He is the Ancient of days, yet never decays, nor waxes old. Daniel 7:9. The joy he gives is eternal, the crown fadeth not away. 1 Peter 5:4. The glorified soul shall be ever solacing itself in God, feasting on his love, and sunning itself in the light of his countenance. We read of the river of pleasure at God's right hand; but will not this in time be dried up? No. There is a fountain at the bottom which feeds it. Psalm 36:9. "With the Lord is a fountain of life." Thus God is the chief good, and the enjoyment of God for ever is the highest felicity of which the soul is capable. —Thomas Watson.

"When I awake," etc. The sincere Christian is progressive, never at his journey's end till he gets to heaven; this keeps him always in motion, advancing in his desires and endeavours forward: he is thankful for little grace, but not content with great measures of grace. "When I awake," saith David, "I shall be satisfied with thy likeness." He had many a sweet entertainment at the house of God in his ordinances. The Spirit of God was the messenger that brought him many a covered dish from God's table, inward consolations which the world knew not of. Yet David has not enough, it is heaven alone that can give him his full draught. They say the Gauls, when they first tasted of the wines of Italy, were so taken with their lusciousness and sweetness, that they could not be content to trade thither for this wine, but resolved they would conquer the land where they grew. Thus the sincere soul thinks it not enough to receive a little now and then of grace and comfort from heaven, by trading and holding commerce at a distance with God in his ordinances here below, but projects and meditates of that holy land and blessed place from which such rich commodities come, that he may drink the wine of that kingdom in that kingdom. —William Gurnall.

"When I awake." How apt and obvious is the analogy between our awakening out of natural sleep, and the holy soul's rising up out of the darkness and torpor of its present state into the enlivening light of God's presence? It is truly said so to awake at its first quitting these darksome regions, when it lays aside its cumbersome night-veil. It doth so more perfectly in the joyful morning of the resurrection-day when mortality is swallowed up in life, and all the yet hovering shadows of it are vanished and fled away. And how known and usual an application this is of the metamorphical terms of sleeping and awaking in Holy Writ, I need not tell them who have read the Bible. Nor doth this interpretation less fitly accord to the other contents of this verse; for to what state do the sight of God's face, and satisfaction with his likeness, so fully agree, as to that of future blessedness in the other world? But then the contexture of discourse in this and the foregoing verse together, seems plainly to determine us to this sense: for what can be more conspicuous in them, than a purposed comparison, an opposition of two states of felicity mutually to each other? That if the wicked whom he calls men of time (as the words Hebrew are rendered by Pagninus —Homines de tempore —and do literally signify) and whose portion, he tells us, is in this life: and the righteous man's, his own; which he expected not to be till he should awake, that is, not till after this life. —John Howe.

There is a sleep of deadness of spirit, out of which the shining of God's loving countenance doth awake a believer and revive the spirit of the contrite ones; and there is a sleep of death bodily, out of which the lovingkindness of the Lord shall awake all his own in the day of the resurrection, when he shall so change them into the similitude of his own holiness and glorious felicity that they shall be fully contented for ever: and this first and second delivery out of all trouble may every believer expect and premise to himself. "I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness." —David Dickson.

There is a threefold meaning in this verse, inasmuch as it is in Christ alone, the firstborn from the dead, the express image of Jehovah's glory, that the saints will rise immortal, incorruptible, and be like the angels in heaven. 1. They will greatly delight in the glorious state in which they will rise. 2. They will greatly delight in Jesus, in whom, and by whom, resurrection and immortality are brought to light; and 3. They will delight greatly in beholding the blessed and reconciled countenance of Jehovah, the Father, whom no eye of flesh can see. This is the difference between the appearance of God to Israel on Mount Sinai, and the happy state in which the saints will behold him in the resurrection. Glorious as the scene on Sinai was, yet the Lord said to Israel, "You have seen no (Heb.)(Temunah), no manner of similitude," or likeness, or countenance; but David speaks of the spiritual glory of the triumphant saints in the resurrection, when they shall see Jehovah as he is, and rejoice in his beatific presence for ever and ever. —Benjamin Weiss, in loc, 1858.

Everlasting life and salvation in heaven, is not a truth revealed only by the gospel, but was well known, clearly revealed, and firmly believed, by the saints of old. They had assurance of this, that they should live with God for ever in glory. "When I awake, with thy likeness." Psalm 17:15. "Thou wilt receive me to glory." Psalm 73:24. "In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." Psalm 16:11. They looked for another country, whereof Canaan was but a type and shadow, as the apostle shows in the epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 11:16. They knew there was an eternal state of happiness for the saints, as well as an eternal state of misery for the wicked; they did believe this in those days. —Samuel Mather on the "Types," 1705.

The voice of Jesus —our Righteousness, and our own voice. Work out the thought of both coming up to the ear of heaven, noting the qualities of our prayer as indicated by the psalmist's language, such as earnestness, perseverance, sincerity, etc.

"Let my sentence come forth from thy presence."

I. When it will come.

II. Who dare meet it now.

III. How to be among them.

"Thou hast proved mine heart." The metal, the furnace, the refiner, etc.

"Thou hast visited me in the night."

I. Glorious visitor.

II. Favoured individual.

III. Peculiar season.

IV. Refreshing remembrance.

V. Practical result.

Verse 3 (last sentence). Transgressions of the lip, and how to avoid them.

The highway and the by-paths. The world and sin. "The paths of the destroyer" —a significant name for transgression.

"Hold up."

I. Who? God.

II. What? "My goings."

III. When? Present tense.

IV. Where? "In thy paths."

V. Why? "That my footsteps slip not."

Let me observe David and learn to pray as he prayed, "Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not."

I. See his course. He speaks of his "goings." Religion does not allow a man to sit still. He speaks of his goings "in God's paths." These are threefold. (1). The path of his commands. (2). The path of his ordinances. (3). The path of his dispensations.

II. His concern respecting this course. It is the language of — (1). Conviction; (2). of apprehension; (3). of weakness; (4). of confidence. —William Jay.

Two words, both great, though little, "call" and "hear." Two persons, one little and the other great, "I," "Thee, O God." Two tenses: past, "I have;" future, "Thou wilt." Two wonders, that we do not call more, and that God hears such unworthy prayers.

(first sentence). See Exposition. A view of divine lovingkindness desired.

"O thou," etc. God, the Saviour of believers.

Two most suggestive emblems of tenderness and care. Involving in the one case living unity, as the eye with the body, and in the other, loving relationship, as the bird and its young.

"Men of the world, which have their portion in this life." Who they are? What they have? Where they have it? What next?

"Men which are thy hand." Providential control and use of wicked men.

This is the language (1). of a man whose mind is made up; who has decided for himself; who does not suspend his conduct upon the resolution of others. (2). Of a man rising in life, and with great prospects before him. (3). It is the language of a Jew.

The beholding of God's face signifies two things.

I. The enjoyment of his favour.

II. Intimate communions with him. —William Jay.

See "Spurgeon's Sermons," No. 25. Title, "The Hope of Future Bliss." Divisions.

I. The Spirit of this utterance.

II. The matter of it.

III. The contrast implied in it.

To see God and to be like him, the believer's desire. —J. Fawcett.