Psalms 36 commentary

From this psalm our hearts should be duly affected with hatred of sin, and seek satisfaction in God's loving-kindness. Here is the root of bitterness, from which all the wickedness of wicked men comes. It takes rise from contempt of God, and the want of due regard to him. Also from the deceit they put upon their own souls. Let us daily beg of God to preserve us from self-flattery. Sin is very hurtful to the sinner himself, and therefore ought to be hateful; but it is not so. It is no marvel, if those that deceive themselves, seek to deceive all mankind; to whom will they be true, who are false to their own souls? It is bad to do mischief, but worse to devise it, to do it with plot and management. If we willingly banish holy meditations in our solitary hours, Satan will soon occupy our minds with sinful imaginations. Hardened sinners stand to what they have done, as though they could justify it before God himself.

Men may shut up their compassion, yet, with God we shall find mercy. This is great comfort to all believers, plainly to be seen, and not to be taken away. God does all wisely and well; but what he does we know not now, it is time enough to know hereafter. God's loving-kindness is precious to the saints. They put themselves under his protection, and then are safe and easy. Gracious souls, though still desiring more of God, never desire more than God. The gifts of Providence so far satisfy them, that they are content with such things as they have. The benefit of holy ordinances is sweet to a sanctified soul, and strengthening to the spiritual and Divine life. But full satisfaction is reserved for the future state. Their joys shall be constant. God not only works in them a gracious desire for these pleasures, but by his Spirit fills their souls with joy and peace in believing. He quickens whom he will; and whoever will, may come, and take from him of the waters of life freely. May we know, and love, and uprightly serve the Lord; then no proud enemy, on earth or from hell, shall separate us from his love. Faith calleth things that are not, as though they were. It carries us forward to the end of time; it shows us the Lord, on his throne of judgment; the empire of sin fallen to rise no more.

Psalm 36

Almost all interpreters agree in supposing, that in this psalm David in general expresses his wonder and amazement at the goodness of God, because, in the exercise of his favor and mercy, he bears with the wicked, who, notwithstanding, basely contemn him. The opinion which I have formed is somewhat different. I think that the holy prophet, being grievously troubled and harassed by wicked and ungodly men, first complains of their depravity, and then seeks refuge in the infinite goodness of God, which extends not only to all men in general, but in a particular and special manner to his own children; and this he does in order to console, and, so to speak, take his breath, in the assurance that he shall at length be delivered since God is favorable to him. This is evident from the conclusion of the psalm, in which he arms and fortifies himself against all the assaults of the ungodly, by reflecting that he is safe under the protection of God.

To the chief musician. A Psalm of David, the servant of Jehovah.

Why the appellation, the servant of God, is ascribed to David only in this place and in the eighteenth psalm, rather than elsewhere, cannot positively be ascertained, unless that having been victorious in a conflict, of all others the most difficult, he proved himself to be a valiant warrior and an invincible champion in the sight of God. We know how rare and singular a virtue it is, when ungodliness is prevailing without restraint, and when the shade of its obscurity darkens our spiritual vision, to look up, notwithstanding, by the eye of faith, to the providence of God, which, by disposing our minds to patience, may keep us constantly in the fear of God.

Psalm 36:1-4

1. Ungodliness saith to the wicked in the midst of my heart, There is no fear of God before his eyes. 2. For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful. “C’est, tant que chacun commence a avoir en haine l’iniquite d’iceluy.” — Fr. marg. “That is, so that every one begins to hate his iniquity.” 3. The words of his mouth are iniquity “Mensonge.” — Fr. “Falsehood.” and deceit; he hath left off to understand that he may do good. 4. He meditates [or devises] iniquity upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; and abhorreth not evil.

1. Ungodliness saith to the wicked in the midst of my heart Commentators are not agreed as to the interpretation of the first verse. Literally it is, The saying [or speech] of transgression, or rather, Transgression saith to the wicked As, however, the letter ל, lamed, is in Hebrew sometimes used for מן, min, some translate it thus, Ungodliness or transgression speaketh of the wicked in my heart; as if the prophet had said, I clearly perceive from the wickedness which the ungodly commit, that they are not influenced by the fear of God. But as there is no need to depart from the proper signification of the words, I rather agree with others in supposing that the language of the prophet is to this effect: The malice of the wicked, though seemingly hidden and unknown, speaks aloud in my heart, and I am a sure witness of what it says or suggests.

And, first, it is to be observed, that the prophet speaks not of outward faults, but penetrates even to the very source; as if he had said, Although the wicked cloak their malice with wily dissimulation, yet I know it so well that I seem to hear it speaking. It is indeed true, that as the ungodly and profane rush headlong into every kind of wickedness, as if they were never to be called to render up an account of it, the judgment which David here expresses may be formed even from their life; but his language is much more emphatic when he says, that the servants of God openly perceive the depravity of such persons hidden within the heart. Now David does not speak of the wicked generally, but of the abandoned despisers of God. There are many who indulge in their vices, who, notwithstanding, are not intoxicated by the wretched infatuation which David here censures. But when a man becomes hardened in committing sin, ungodliness at length reduces him to such a state of insensibility, that, despising the judgment of God, he indulges without fear in the practice of every sin to which his depraved appetite impels him. A reckless assurance, therefore, in the commission of sin, and especially where it is associated with a contempt and scorn of every holy admonition, is, as it were, an enchantment of Satan, which indicates that the condition of such a person is indeed hopeless. And although true religion has the effect of keeping the hearts of the godly in the fear of God, and drives wicked thoughts far from their minds, yet this does not prevent them from perceiving and understanding in their hearts how the ungodly are agitated with horrible fury when they neither regard God nor are afraid of his judgments.

There is no fear of God before his eyes David shows in these few words the end of all evil suggestions; and it is this, that the sense both of good and evil being destroyed or suppressed, men shrink from nothing, as if there were not seated in heaven a God, the Judge of all. The meaning therefore is, Ungodliness speaks in my heart to the wicked man, urging him to the extremity of madness, so that, laying aside all fear of God, he abandons himself to the practice of sin; that is to say, I know as well what the ungodly imagine in their hearts, as if God had set me as a witness or judge to unveil their hypocrisy, under the mask of which they think their detestable malice is hidden and deeply buried. When the wicked, therefore, are not restrained by the fear of God from committing sin, this proceeds from that secret discourse with themselves, to which we have referred, and by which their understanding is so depraved and blinded, that, like brute beasts, they run to every excess in rioting. Since the eyes are, as it were, the guides and conductors of man in this life, and by their influence move the other senses hither and thither, it is therefore said that men have the fear of God before their eyes when it regulates their lives, and by presenting itself to them on every side to which they may turn, serves like a bridle to restrain their appetites and passions. David, by using here a contrary form of expression, means that the ungodly run to every excess in licentiousness, without having any regard to God, because the depravity of their own hearts has completely blinded them.

PSALM 36

Psa 36:1-12. On servant of the Lord, see on Psa 18:1, title. The wickedness of man contrasted with the excellency of God's perfections and dispensations; and the benefit of the latter sought, and the evils of the former deprecated.

1. The general sense of this difficult verse is, "that the wicked have no fear of God." The first clause may be rendered, "Saith transgression in my heart, in respect to the wicked, there is no fear," &c., that is, such is my reflection on men's transgressions.

2-4. This reflection detailed.

until his iniquity--literally, "for finding his iniquity for hating"; that is, he persuades himself God will not so find it--"for hating" involving the idea of punishing. Hence his words of iniquity and deceit, and his bold rejection of all right principles of conduct. The climax is that he deliberately adopts and patronizes evil. The negative forms affirm more emphatically their contraries.

5-6. mercy ... and ... faithfulness--as mercy and truth (Psa 25:10).

7. shadow of thy wings--(Compare De 32:11; Psa 91:1).

8. fatness--richness.

thy house--residence--for the privileges and blessings of communion with God (Psa 23:6; 27:4).

river of thy pleasures--plenteous supply; may allude to Eden.

9. Light is an emblem of all blessings, given of God as a means to gain more.

10. that know thee--right knowledge of God is the source of right affections and conduct.

11. foot of ... hand ... wicked--all kinds of violent dealing.

12. There--in the acting of violence, they are overthrown. A signal defeat.

The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart - It is difficult to make any sense of this line as it now stands. How can the transgression of the wicked speak with in my heart? But instead of לבי libbi, My heart, four of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. have לבו libbo, His heart. "The speech of transgression to the wicked is in the midst of his heart." "There is no fear of God before his eyes." It is not by example that such a person sins; the fountain that sends forth the impure streams is in his own heart. There the spirit of transgression lives and reigns; and, as he has no knowledge of God, so he has no fear of God; therefore, there is no check to his wicked propensities: all come to full effect. Lust is conceived, sin is brought forth vigorously, and transgression is multiplied. The reading above proposed, and which should be adopted, is supported by the Vulgate, Septuagint, Syriac, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon. This latter reads the sentence thus: which I shall give as nearly as possible in the order of the original. "Quoth the unrightwise, that he do guilt in himself: is not fear God's at fore eyes his." That is, The unrighteous man saith in himself that he will sin: God's fear is not before his eyes. The old Psalter, in language as well as meaning, comes very near to the Anglo-Saxon: The unrightwis saide that he trespas in hym self: the drede of God es noght before his een. And thus it paraphrases the passage: The unryghtwis, that es the kynde [the whole generation] of wyked men; said in hym self, qwar man sees noght; that he trespas, that es, he synne at his wil, als [as if] God roght noght [did not care] qwat he did; and so it es sene, that the drede of God es noght by forehis een; for if he dred God, he durst noght so say."

I believe these versions give the true sense of the passage. The psalmist here paints the true state of the Babylonians: they were idolaters of the grossest kind, and worked iniquity with greediness. The account we have in the book of Daniel of this people, exhibits them in the worst light; and profane history confirms the account. Bishop Horsley thinks that the word פשע pesha, which we render transgression, signifies the apostate or devil. The devil says to the wicked, within his heart, There is no fear; i.e., no cause of fear: "God is not before his eyes." Placing the colon after fear takes away all ambiguity in connection with the reading His heart, already contended for. The principle of transgression, sin in the heart, says, or suggests to every sinner, there is no cause for fear: go on, do not fear, for there is no danger. He obeys this suggestion, goes on, and acts wickedly, as "God is not before his eyes."

For he flattereth himself - He is ruled by the suggestion already mentioned; endeavours to persuade himself that he may safely follow the propensities of his own heart, until his iniquity be found to be hateful. He sins so boldly, that at last he becomes detestable. Some think the words should be thus understood: "He smootheth over in his own eyes with respect to the finding out of his iniquity, to hate it. That is, he sets such a false gloss in his own eyes upon his worst actions, that he never finds out the blackness of his iniquity; which were it perceived by him, would be hateful even to himself." - Bishop Horsley.

The words of his mouth are iniquity - In the principle; and deceit calculated to pervert others, and lead them astray.

He hath left off to be wise, and to do good - His heart is become foolish, and his actions wicked. He has cut off the connection between himself and all righteousness.

He deviseth mischief upon his bed - He seeks the silent and undisturbed watches of the night, in order to fix his plans of wickedness.

He setteth himself - Having laid his plans he fixes his purpose to do what is bad; and he does it without any checks of conscience or abhorrence of evil. He is bent only on mischief, and lost to all sense of God and goodness. A finished character of a perfect sinner.

Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens - That is, thou art abundant, infinite in thy mercy; else such transgressors must be immediately cut off; but thy long-suffering is intended to lead them to repentance.

Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds - עד שחקים ad shechakim, to the eternal regions; above all visible space. God's faithfulness binds him to fulfill the promises and covenants made by his mercy. Blessings from the heavens, from the clouds, from the earth, are promised by God to his followers; and his faithfullness is in all those places, to distribute to his followers the mercies he has promised.

Thy righteousness is like the great mountains - כהררי אל keharerey El, like the mountains of God; exceeding high mountains; what, in the present language of geology, would be called primitive mountains, those that were formed at the beginning; and are not the effects of earthquakes or inundations, as secondary and alluvial mountains are supposed to be.

Thy judgments are a great deep - תהום רבה tehom rabbah, the great abyss; as incomprehensible as the great chaos, or first matter of all things which God created in the beginning, and which is mentioned Gen 1:2, and darkness was on the face, תהום tehom, of the deep, the vast profound, or what is below all conjecturable profundity. How astonishing are the thoughts in these two verses! What an idea do they give us of the mercy, truth, righteousness, and judgments of God!

The old Psalter, in paraphrasing mountains of God, says, Thi ryghtwisnes, that es, ryghtwis men, er gastly hilles of God; for that er hee in contemplacioun, and soner resayves the lyght of Crist. Here is a metaphor taken from the tops of mountains and high hills first catching the rays of the rising sun. "Righteous men are spiritual hills of God; for they are high in contemplation, and sooner receive the light of Christ." It is really a very fine thought; and much beyond the rudeness of the times in which this Psalter was written.

Man and beast - Doth God take care of cattle? Yes, he appoints the lions their food, and hears the cry of the young ravens; and will he not provide for the poor, especially the poor of his people? He will. So infinitely and intensely good is the nature of God, that it is his delight to make all his creatures happy. He preserves the man, and he preserves the beast; and it is his providence which supplies the man, when his propensities and actions level him with the beasts that perish.

How excellent is thy loving-kindness - He asks the question in the way of admiration; but expects no answer from angels or men. It is indescribably excellent, abundant, and free; and, "therefore, the children of Adam put their trust under the shadow of thy wings." They trust in thy good providence for the supply of their bodies; they trust in thy mercy for the salvation of their souls. These, speaking after the figure, are the two wings of the Divine goodness, under which the children of men take refuge. The allusion may be to the wings of the cherubim, above the mercy-seat.

They shall be abundantly satisfied - ירוין yirveyun, they shall be saturated, as a thirsty field is by showers from heaven. Inebriaduntur, they shall be inebriated - Vulgate. That sal be drunken of the plenteuoste of thi house. - Old Psalter. This refers to the joyous expectation they had of being restored to their own land, and to the ordinances of the temple.

Of the river of thy pleasures - נחל אדניך nachal adaneycha, (or עדנך edencha, as in four MSS)., the river of thy Eden. They shall be restored to their paradisaical estate; for here is a reference to the river that ran through the garden of Eden, and watered it; Gen 2:10. Or the temple, and under it the Christian Church, may be compared to this Eden; and the gracious influences of God to be had in his ordinances, to the streams by which that garden was watered, and its fertility promoted.

For with thee is the fountain of life - This, in Scripture phrase, may signify a spring of water; for such was called among the Jews living water, to distinguish it from ponds, tanks, and reservoirs, that were supplied by water either received from the clouds, or conducted into them by pipes and streams from other quarters. But there seems to be a higher allusion in the sacred text. כי עמך מקור חיים ki immecha mekor chaiyim, "For with thee is the vein of lives." Does not this allude to the great aorta, which, receiving the blood from the heart, distributes it by the arteries to every part of the human body, whence it is conducted back to the heart by means of the veins. As the heart, by means of the great aorta, distributes the blood to the remotest parts of the body; so, God, by Christ Jesus, conveys the life-giving streams of his providential goodness to all the worlds and beings he has created, and the influences of his grace and mercy to every soul that has sinned. All spiritual and temporal good comes from Him, the Father, through Him, the Son, to every part of the creation of God.

In thy light shall we see light - No man can illuminate his own soul; all understanding must come from above. Here the metaphor is changed, and God is compared to the sun in the firmament of heaven, that gives light to all the planets and their inhabitants. "God said, Let there be light; and there was light; "by that light the eye of man was enabled to behold the various works of God, and the beauties of creation: so, when God speaks light into the dark heart of man, he not only beholds his own deformity and need of the salvation of God, but he beholds the "light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ;" "God, in Christ, reconciling the world to himself." "In thy light shall we see light." This is literally true, both in a spiritual and philosophical sense.

O continue thy loving-kindness - Literally, "Draw out thy mercy." The allusion to the spring is still kept up.

Unto them that know thee - To them who acknowledge thee in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.

And thy righteousness - That grace which justifies the ungodly, and sanctifies the unholy.

To the upriabt in heart - לישרי לב levishrey leb, to the straight of heart; to those who have but one end in view, and one aim to that end.

This is true of every genuine penitent, and of every true believer.

Let not the foot of pride come against me - Let me not be trampled under foot by proud and haughty men.

Let not the hand of the wicked remove me - תנדני tenideni, shake me, or cause me to wander. Both these verses may have immediate respect to the captives in Babylon. The Jews were, when compared with the Babylonians, the people that knew God; for in Jewry was God known, Psa 76:1; and the psalmist prays against the treatment which the Jews had received from the proud and insolent Babylonians during the seventy years of their captivity: "Restore us to our own land; and let not the proud foot or the violent hand ever remove us from our country and its blessings; the temple, and its ordinances."

There are the workers of iniquity fallen - There, in Babylon, are the workers of iniquity fallen, and so cast down that they shall not be able to rise. A prophecy of the destruction of the Babylonish empire by Cyrus. That it was destroyed, is an historical fact; that they were never able to recover their liberty, is also a fact; and that Babylon itself is now blotted out of the map of the universe, so that the site of it is no longer known, is confirmed by every traveler who has passed over those regions.

The word שם sham, There, has been applied by many of the fathers to the pride spoken of in the preceding verse. There, in or by pride, says Augustine, do all sinners perish. There, in heaven, have the evil angels fallen through pride, says St. Jerome. There, in paradise, have our first parents fallen, through pride and disobedience. There, in hell, have the proud and disobedient angels been precipitated - Eusebius, etc. There, by pride, have the persecutors brought God's judgments upon themselves. See Calmet. But the first interpretation is the best.

No fear - When I consider the manifold transgressions of ungodly men, I conclude within myself, that they have cast off all fear of the Divine majesty.

Flattereth - He deceiveth himself with vain persuasions, that God does not mind his sins, or will not punish them. Found - Punish, as the same phrase is used, Numb 32:23.

Left off - Once he had some degrees of wisdom, but now he is become an open apostate.

Deviseth - Freely, from his own inclination, when none are present to provoke him to it.

Thy mercy - Mine enemies are cruel and perfidious, but thou art infinite in mercy, and faithfulness. Heavens - Is infinite and incomprehensible. Faithfulness - The truth both of thy threatenings against thine enemies, and of thy promises made to good men. The clouds - Is far above our reach, greater and higher than we can apprehend.

Mountains - Stedfast and unmoveable: eminent and conspicuous to all men. Judgments - The executions of thy counsels. Deep - Unsearchable, as the ocean. Man - The worst of men; yea, the brute - beasts have experience of thy care and kindness.

Loving - kindness - Though all thine attributes be excellent, yet, above all, thy mercy is most excellent, or precious and amiable.

Satisfied - Who trust in thee, as he now said. Fatness - With those delightful provisions, which thou hast prepared for them in heaven. The river - Which denotes both their plenty, and their perpetuity.

Life - It is in God as in a fountain, and from him is derived to us. But - Of that glorious and blessed, and endless life, which alone is worthy of the name. Light - In the light of thy glorious presence, which shall be fully manifested, when we see thee face to face. Light - Joy and comfort, and happiness: the word light is elegantly repeated in another signification; in the former clause it is light discovering, in this light, discovered or enjoyed.

The foot - Of my proud and insolent enemies. Come - So as to overthrow me.

There - He seems as it were to point at the place, as if it were already done.

1. THe transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes .

When I consider the great and manifold Transgressions of ungodly Men, I conclude within my self, that they have cast off all Fear and Sence, and serious belief of the divine Majesty.

2. For he flattereth himself in his own eyes , until his iniquity be found to be hateful .

So this is the Proof of that Assertion▪ v. 1. Or, Although; and so it is an Anticipation of an Objection against it.

He deceiveth himself with vain and false Perswasions, Either, 1. Concerning God, that he doth not see or mind his sins▪ or that he will not punish them: Or, 2. Concerning himself and his sins, Either, that they are not sins; which a Mind bribed by Passion and Interest, can easily believe: Or, that they are but small and venial sins: Or, that they will be excused, if not justified by honest Intentions, or by outward Professions and exercises of Religion, or by some good Actions, wherewith he thinks to make some Compensation for them, or some other way. Oth. thus, He flattereth him (i. e. God) in his Eyes, (i. e.) Openly and publickly makes a shew of Religion, as if he Designed to deceive or mock God, whilst inwardly and secretly, he is projecting Wickedness. But it seems better to understand the last Word Reciprocally of his own Eyes, as the same Word is used in the end of the foregoing Verse.

(i. e.) U[illegible: 1+ letters]til God by some dreadful Judgment undeceive him, and find, (i. e.) Discover or make him and others, to find and feel by Experience, that it is a sin and a very hateful one too. Or, until his abominable iniquity be found out, (i. e.) Punished, as the same Word and Phrase is used, Numb. 32. 23. your sin shall find you out. (i. e.) Bring you to Condign punishment. In the Hebrew it is, to find out his iniquity to hate. But active Verbs are oft taken Passively, of which there are plain Instances, Ios. 2. 5. Esth. 6. 6. Psal. 32. 9. and 51. 6. Comp. with Rom 3. 4. and Psal. 119. 4. and so here, to find, is put for to be [illegible: 1+ letters]ound, and to hate for to be hated, or to be hateful.

Marginal references: Deu. 29. 19. Psal. 10. 3. & 49. 18.; Heb. to [illegible: 1 word] his iniquity to hate.

3. The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit : he hath left off to be wise, and to do good .

(i. e.) Are wicked and deceitful.

Once he had some shadows, or degrees of Wisdom, and sometimes did some things that were good in their kind, but now he hath not so much as the appearance of it, and i[illegible: 1+ letters] become an open Apostate from that which once he professed.

4. He deviseth mischief upon his bed , he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil .

Which notes that he doth it, 1. Constantly and unweariedly, preferring it before his own Rest▪ 2. Earnestly and seriously, when his Mind is freed from all outward Distractions, and wholly at leasure to attend that Business, about which it is employed; Comp. Psal. 4. 4. 3. Freely from his own inclination, when none are present to provoke him to it.

He doth not repent of his wicked Devices, but resolutly proceeds to Execute them, and persists therein.

(i. e.) Which is very bad, as this Phrase is used, 1 Sam. 2. 24. Prov. 20. 23. and 24. 23. and elsewhere.

Though he sometimes pretends Remorse and desists from his Violent Practises against me as Saul did, yet he doth not truly repent of, nor abhor his sin, and therefore is ready to return to it, when any occasion offers it self.

Marginal references: Mi[illegible: 1+ letters]. 2. 1.; Or, V[illegible: 1+ letters]ity.

5. Thy mercy , O LORD, is in the heavens , and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds, .

Though this be the Disposition and Carriage of mine Enemies towards me, and therefore I can expect no good from them, yet thou O Lord blessed be thy Name, art of another Temper; they are cruel and perfidious and unrighteous, but thou art infinite in Mercy, and Faithfulness, and Righteousness, and Loving kindness, as it here follows; and therefore though I despair of them, yet I trust in thee, as other men do for these Reasons, v. 7.

Or, is unto (as the Prefix B[illegible: 1+ letters]th oft signifies, as Gen. 11. 4. and elsewhere, and as it is here explained in the following Clause) the Heavens. As it is on the Earth, of which there was no question, so it reacheth thence to the Heavens, (i. e.) It is infinite and Incomprehensible.

The truth both of thy Threatnings, against thine and mine Enemies, and of thy Promises made to me, and other good Men.

(i. e.) Is far above our reach, greater and higher than we can apprehend it.

Marginal references: Psal. 57. 10. & 108. 4.

6. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains ; thy judgments are a great deep : O LORD, * thou preservest man and beast .

In all thy Counsels and Ways, in the Government of the World.

Either, 1. Stedfast and unmoveable. Or, 2. Eminent and Conspicuous to all men: Or rather, 3. Very high and out of our reach: For so it agrees best with the foregoing, and following Expressions.

(i. e) Thy Executions of thy Counsels, or thy Administrations of the Affairs of the World, and of thy Church.

(i. e.) Unsearchable, as the Ocean is in some Parts.

The worst of Men; yea, and the Brute-beasts have Experience of thy Care and Kindness, and therefore I have no Reason to doubt of it.

Marginal references: Job 11. 8. Rom. 11. 33.; Heb. the Mo[illegible: 1+ letters] tains of God. Psal. 71. 19.; Job. 7. 20. 1 Tim. 4. 10.

7. How excellent is thy loving kindness , O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings .

Or, thy Mercy: For it is the same Word, which is used and so rendred, v. [illegible: 1+ letters] ▪ The Sence is, though all thine Attributes now reckoned, and the rest of them be excellent and Glorious, yet above all thy Mercy is most Excellent or Precious and amiable, as being most necessary and beneficial unto us, poor sinful miserable Men.

(i. e.) Cheerfully commit themselves to thy Care and Kindness, notwithstanding their own Sinfulness, and the Rage and Power of their Adversaries, against all which thy Mercy is a sufficient security.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 span].; [illegible: 1 word]. 103. 4.

8. They shall be abundantly satisfied , with the fatness of thy house : and thou shalt make them drink , of the river of thy pleasures .

(i. e.) Those Children of Men who trust in thee, as he now said.

Though now they are straitned, oppressed and Persecuted, yet they shall not onely be Protected and Supported for the present, but in due time, shall have all their Wants and Desires fully satisfied. Heb. shall be made Drunk, (i. e.) Shall be as it were over-whelmed with the plenty of it, which they shall no more be able to comprehend, than a drunken Man is able, perfectly to understand and Judge of things; and shall be free as drunken Men, also are from all Cares and Fears, Either, of not obtaining it, or of losing it.

With those Rich and delightful Provisions, which thou hast prepared for them in thy Habitation, (i. e.) Either in the Tabernacle, where they used▪ to Feast upon the Remainders of the Sacrifices; to which also he seems here to allude. Or rather, 2. In Heaven; which is called God's House, both in Scripture, as Io[illegible: 1+ letters]. 14. 2. and in divers Antient heathen Authors. For the Expressions here used, as are too Magnificent to be bestowed upon those Feasts, or indeed upon any of the Enjoyments of this Life, and do ill become him, who professedly disowns the having of his Portion in this Life, and declares his Expectation of Happiness in the next Life, Psal. 17. 14, 15. And seeing it is apparent, from Heb. 11. and from many other Scriptures, both of the Old and New Testament, that both David and Iob, and Abraham, and the rest of the Holy Patriarchs and Prophets, had a firm Belief and Hope of the future Life, and their Felicity therein; it seems most reasonable to understand all those Passages of David, and the other Prophets of it, which naturally, and without any force may be so understood: Of which number certainly this Verse, and the following is one.

Before they had Fatness, (i. e.) Fat Meats, and New Drink, to note the Compleatness of their Feast.

Which notes both their plenty, and their Constancy and Perpetuity.

Which thou preparest, and which thou enjoyest; whence it is called the joy of the Lord, Mat. 25. 21. Or this notes their great Eminency; for things most excellent in their Kinds are entitled to God, as the goodliest Cedars, Mountains, &c. are called, Cedars of God, Mountains of God, &c.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. 65. 4.; Heb. [illegible: 1 word]. 5. 19. [illegible: 1+ letters] [illegible: 1+ letters]. [illegible: 1+ letters]4. [illegible: 1+ letters] 31. 14.

9. For with thee is the fountain of Life : in thy light , shall we see light .

(i. e.) In thy Power to give it, and in thy presence to be enjoyed.

Which notes, 1. Causality. It is in God as in a Fountain, and from him is derived to us, 2. Abundance, 3. Excellency. Water is sweetest in the Fountain: and Fountains were rare and highly prized in those hot Countries.

Of that Glorious and Blessed, and endless Life, which alone is worthy of the Name of Life, this Life being onely a passage to Death, and a Theater of great and manifold Calamities. Although it be true, that God is the Fountain, both of Natural and Spiritual Life.

In the light of thy Countenance, or glorious Presence, which then shall be fully manifested unto us, when we shall see thee clearly, and Face to Face, and not through a Glass, and darkly, as we now see, 1 Cor. 13. 12. Comp. Psal. 17. 15.

(i. e.) Enjoy, as seeing frequently signifies; of which see on Psal. 34. 12:

The light of Life, as it is called, Io[illegible: 1+ letters]. 8. 12. Light in this Branch being the same thing with Life in the former, (i. e.) Joy and Comfort, and Happiness, which is oft signified by Light, as the contrary is by Darkness. See Iob 29. [illegible: 1+ letters]. Psal. 27. 1. Isa. 9. 2. There we shall have pure Light▪ without any mixture of Darkness. The word Light, is Elegantly repeated, in another signification; in the former Clause, it is Light discovering, in this Light discovered or enjoyed.

10. O continue thy loving kindness unto them, that know thee : and thy righteousness to the upright in heart.

As this Word signifies, Psal. 85. 5. Eccles. 2. 3. Ier. 31. 3. As thou hast begun, so continue the Manifestation and Exhibition of it, both in this Life, and to the next. Or, extend: Or, draw forth. Let it not be like a Fountain sealed, but let it be drawn forth for their Comfort.

(i. e.) Sincerely love thee, as it is explained in the next Clause: for knowing implies Affection, as Psal. 9. 10. and oft elsewhere.

Which will appear in giving them that Protection and Assistance, which thou art by thy Nature enclined, and by thy Promise engaged to give them.

Marginal references: Heb. drawn [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word].; Psal. 64. 10. & 125. 4.

11. Let not the foot of pride come against me , and let not the hand of the wicked remove me .

(i. e.) Of my proud and insolent Enemies: the Abstract being put for the Concrete, as Ier. 50. 31, 32. So also Prov. 12. 27. and 13. 6.

Or, upon me, to wit, [illegible: 1+ letters]o as to overthrow, or remove me, as it is in the next Clause.

Either, 1. From my trust in thee, or Obedience to thee. Or, 2. From my Place and Station, from the Land of my Nativity, and the place of thy Worship. Or, shake me, or ca[illegible: 1+ letters]t me down, (i. e.) Subdue and destroy me.

12. There are the workers of iniquity fallen t: they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise.

Where they come against me, and hope to Ruin me. He seems as it were to point at the place with his Finger, as if it were already done, and he could tell all the Circumstances of it. Or, Then, (i. e.) When they thought all sure, and me irrecoverably lost. t (i. e.) They shall certainly and suddenly fall; which the Prophets use to express, in the time past.

The Curse of Alienation from God, and the Blessing of Fellowship with Him

The preceding Psalm, in the hope of speedy deliverance, put into the lips of the friends of the new kingship, who were now compelled to keep in the background, the words: “Jahve, be magnified, who hath pleasure in the well-being of His servant.” David there calls himself the servant of Jahve, and in the inscription to Psa 36:1-12 he bears the very same name: To the Precentor, by the servant of Jahve, by David. The textus receptus accents למנצח with a conjunctive Illuj; Ben-Naphtali accents it less ambiguously with a disjunctive Legarme (vid., Psalter, ii. 462), since David is not himself the מנצח. Psa 12:1-8; Psa 14:1-7 (Psa 53:1-6), Psa 36:1-12, Ps 37, form a group. In These Psalms David complains of the moral corruption of his generation. They are all merely reflections of the character of the time, not of particular occurrences. In common with Psa 12:1-8, the Psalm before us has a prophetic colouring; and, in common with Ps 37, allusions to the primeval history of the Book of Genesis. The strophe schema is 4. 5. 5. 6. 6.

Psa 36:1-4 (Hebrew_Bible_36:1-4) At the outset the poet discovers to us the wickedness of the children of the world, which has its roots in alienation from God. Supposing it were admissible to render Psa 36:2 : “A divine word concerning the evil-doing of the ungodly is in the inward parts of my heart” (נאם with a genitive of the object, like משּׂא, which is compared by Hofmann), then the difficulty of this word, so much complained of, might find the desired relief in some much more easy way than by means of the conjecture proposed by Diestel, נעם (נעם), “Pleasant is transgression to the evil-doer,” etc. But the genitive after נאם (which in Psa 110:1; Num 24:3., 15f., 2Sa 23:1; Pro 30:1, just as here, stands at the head of the clause) always denotes the speaker, not the thing spoken. Even in Isa 5:1 שׁירת דודי לכרמו is not a song concerning my beloved in relation to His vineyard, but a song of my beloved (such a song as my beloved has to sing) touching His vineyard. Thus, therefore, פּשׁע must denote the speaker, and לרשׁע, as in Psa 110:1 לאדני, the person or thing addressed; transgression is personified, and an oracular utterance is attributed to it. But the predicate בּקרב לבּי, which is intelligible enough in connection with the first rendering of פשׁע as genit. obj., is difficulty and harsh with the latter rendering of פשׁע as gen. subj., whatever way it may be understood: whether, that it is intended to say that the utterance of transgression to the evil-doer is inwardly known to him (the poet), or it occupies and affects him in his inmost parts. It is very natural to read לבּו, as the lxx, Syriac, and Arabic versions, and Jerome do. In accordance therewith, while with Von Lengerke he takes נאם as part of the inscription, Thenius renders it: “Sin is to the ungodly in the midst of his heart,” i.e., it is the inmost motive or impulse of all that he thinks and does. But this isolation of נאם is altogether at variance with the usage of the language and custom. The rendering given by Hupfeld, Hitzig, and at last also by Böttcher, is better: “The suggestion of sin dwells in the ungodly in the inward part of his heart;” or rather, since the idea of בקרב is not central, but circumferential, in the realm of (within) his heart, altogether filling up and absorbing it. And in connection with this explanation, it must be observed that this combination בקרב לבו (instead of בקרבו, or בלבו, בלבבו) occurs only here, where, together with a personification of sin, an incident belonging to the province of the soul’s life, which is the outgrowth of sin, is intended to be described. It is true this application of נאם does not admit of being further substantiated; but נאם (cognate נהם, המה), as an onomatopoetic designation of a dull, hollow sound, is a suitable word for secret communication (cf. Arabic nemmâm, a tale-bearer), or even - since the genius of the language does not combine with it the idea of that which is significantly secretly, and solemnly silently communicated, but spoken out - a suitable word for that which transgression says to the ungodly with all the solemn mien of the prophet or the philosopher, inasmuch as it has set itself within his heart in the place of God and of the voice of his conscience. לרשׁע does not, however, denote the person addressed, but, as in Psa 32:10, the possessor. He possesses this inspiration of iniquity as the contents of his heart, so that the fear of God has no place therein, and to him God has no existence (objectivity), that He should command his adoration.

Since after this נאם פּשׁע we expect to hear further what and how transgression speaks to him, so before all else the most probable thing is, that transgression is the subject to החליק. We do not interpret: He flatters God in His eyes (with eye-service), for this rendering is contrary both to what precedes and to what follows; nor with Hupfeld (who follows Hofmann): “God deals smoothly (gently) with him according to his delusions,” for the assumption that החליק must, on account of בּעיניו, have some other subject that the evil-doer himself, is indeed correct. It does not, however, necessarily point to God as the subject, but, after the solemn opening of Psa 36:2, to transgression, which is personified. This addresses flattering words to him (אל like על in Pro 29:5) in his eyes, i.e., such as are pleasing to him; and to what end? For the finding out, i.e., establishing (מצא עון, as in Gen 44:16; Hos 12:9), or, - since this is not exactly suited to פשׁע as the subject, and where it is a purpose that is spoken of, the meaning assequi, originally proper to the verb מצא, is still more natural - to the attainment of his culpability, i.e., in order that he may inculpate himself, to hating, i.e., that he may hate God and man instead of loving them. לשׂנא is designedly used without an object just as in Ecc 3:8, in order to imply that the flattering words of פשׁע incite him to turn into an object of hatred everything that he ought to love, and to live and move in hatred as in his own proper element. Thenius endeavours to get rid of the harshness of the expression by the following easy alteration of the text: למצא עון ולשׂנא; and interprets it: Yea, it flatters him in his own eyes (it tickles his pride) to discover faults in others and to make them suffer for them. But there is no support in the general usage of the language for the impersonal rendering of the החליק; and the בּעיניו, which in this case is not only pleonastic, but out of place, demands a distinction between the flatterer and the person who feels himself flattered. The expression in Psa 36:3, in whatever way it may be explained, is harsh; but David’s language, whenever he describes the corruption of sin with deep-seated indignation, is wont to envelope itself in such clouds, which, to our difficult comprehension, look like corruptions of the text. In the second strophe the whole language is more easy. להשׂכּיל להיטיב is just such another asyndeton as למצא עונו לשׂנא. A man who has thus fallen a prey to the dominion of sin, and is alienated from God, has ceased (חדל ל, as in 1Sa 23:13) to act wisely and well (things which essentially accompany one another). His words when awake, and even his thoughts in the night-time, run upon און (Isa 59:7), evil, wickedness, the absolute opposite of that which alone is truly good. Most diligently does he take up his position in the way which leads in the opposite direction to that which is good (Pro 16:29; Isa 65:2); and his conscience is deadened against evil: there is not a trace of aversion to it to be found in him, he loves it with all his soul.

Psa 36:5-9 (Hebrew_Bible_36:6-10) The poet now turns from this repulsive prospect to one that is more pleasing. He contemplates, and praises, the infinite, ever sure mercy of God, and the salvation, happiness, and light which spring from it. Instead of בּשּׁמים, the expression is בּהשּׁמים, the syncope of the article not taking place. בּ alternating with עד, cf. Psa 57:11, has here, as in Psa 19:5; Psa 72:16, the sense of touching or reaching to the spot that is denoted in connection with it. The poet describes the exaltation and super-eminence of divine mercy and faithfulness figuratively, after earthly standards. They reveal themselves on earth in a height that reaches to the heavens and extends to שׁחקים, i.e., the thin veil of vapour which spreads itself like a veil over the depths of the heavens; they transcend all human thought, desire, and comprehension (Psa 103:11, and cf. Eph 3:18). The צדקה (righteousness) is distinguished from the אמונה (faithfulness) thus: the latter is governed by the promises of God, the former by His holiness; and further, the latter has its being in the love of God, the former, on the other hand, manifests itself partly as justifying in mercies, and partly as avenging in wrath. Concerning the righteousness, the poet says that it is like the mountains of God, i.e., (cf. cedars of God, Psa 80:11) unchangeably firm (Psa 111:3), like the giant primeval mountains which bear witness to the greatness and glory of God; concerning God’s judgments, that they are “a great deep,” incomprehensible and unsearchable (ἀνεξερεύνηται, Rom 11:33) as the great, deep-surging mass of waters in the lower parts of the earth, which becomes visible in the seas and in the rivers. God’s punitive righteousness, as at length becomes evident, has His compassion for its reverse side; and this, as in the case of the Flood (cf. Jon 4:11), embraces the animal world, which is most closely involved, whether for weal or for woe, with man, as well as mankind.

Lost in this depth, which is so worthy of adoration, the Psalmist exclaims: How precious (cf. Psa 139:17) is Thy mercy, Elohim! i.e., how valuable beyond all treasures, and how precious to him who knows how to prize it! The Waw of וּבני is the explicative Waw = et hoc ipsum quod. The energetic form of the future, יחסיוּן, has the pre-tonic Kametz, here in pause, as in Psa 36:8; Psa 39:7; Psa 78:44. The shadow of God’s wings is the protection of His love, which hides against temptation and persecution. To be thus hidden in God is the most unspeakable blessedness, Psa 36:9 : they satiate themselves, they drink full draughts of “the fatness of Thy house.” The house of God is His sanctuary, and in general the domain of His mercy and grace. דּשׁן (cf. טוּב, Psa 65:5) is the expression for the abundant, pleasant, and powerful gifts and goods and recreations with which God entertains those who are His; and רוה (whence ירוין, as in Deu 8:13; Isa 40:18) is the spiritual joy of the soul that experiences God’s mercy to overflowing. The abundant fare of the priests from Jahve’s table (vid., Jer 31:14), and the festive joy of the guests at the shelamim-offering, i.e., the communion-offering, - these outward rites are here treated according to their spiritual significance, receive the depth of meaning which radically belongs to them, and are ideally generalized. It is a stream of pleasures (עדנים) with which He irrigates and fertilizes them, a paradisaic river of delights. This, as the four arms of the river of Paradise had one common source (Gen 2:10), has its spring in God, yea, God is the fountain itself. He is “the fountain of life” (Jer 2:13); all life flows forth from Him, who is the absolutely existing and happy One. The more inwardly, therefore, one is joined to Him, the fuller are the draughts of life which he drinks from this first fountain of all life. And as God is the fountain of life, so also is He the fountain of light: “In Thy light do we see light;” out of God, seeing we see only darkness, whereas immersed in God’s sea of light we are illumined by divine knowledge, and lighted up with spiritual joy. The poet, after having taken a few glimpses into the chaos of evil, here moves in the blessed depths of holy mysticism [Mystik, i.e., mysticism in the good sense - true religion, vital godliness], and in proportion as in the former case his language is obscure. So here it is clear as crystal.

Psa 36:10-12 (Hebrew_Bible_36:11-13) Now for the first time, in the concluding hexastich, after complaint and commendation comes the language of prayer. The poet prays that God would lengthen out, i.e., henceforth preserve (משׁך, as in Psa 109:12), such mercy to His saints; that the foot of arrogance, which is conceived of as a tyrant, may not come suddenly upon him (בּוא, as in Psa 35:8), and that the hand of the wicked may not drive him from his home into exile (cf. Psa 10:18). With חסד alternates צדקה, which, on its merciful side, is turned towards them that now God, and bestows upon them the promised gracious reward. Whilst the Psalmist is thus praying, the future all at once becomes unveiled to him. Certain in his own mind that his prayer will be heard, he sees the adversaries of God and of His saints for ever overthrown. שׁם, as in Psa 14:5, points to the place where the judgment is executed. The preterites are prophetic, as in Psa 14:5; Psa 64:8-10. The poet, like Isaiah (Isa 26:14), beholds the whole tribe of the oppressors of Jahve’s Church changed into a field of corpses, without hope of any rising again.

The Character of the Wicked.

1 The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes. 2 For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful. 3 The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, and to do good. 4 He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil.

David, in the title of this psalm, is styled the servant of the Lord; why in this, and not in any other, except in Ps. xviii. (title), no reason can be given; but so he was, not only as every good man is God's servant, but as a king, as a prophet, as one employed in serving the interests of God's kingdom among men more immediately and more eminently than any other in his day. He glories in it, Ps. cxvi. 16. It is no disparagement, but an honour, to the greatest of men, to be the servants of the great God; it is the highest preferment a man is capable of in this world.

David, in these verses, describes the wickedness of the wicked; whether he means his persecutors in particular, or all notorious gross sinners in general, is not certain. But we have here sin in its causes and sin in its colours, in its root and in its branches.

I. Here is the root of bitterness, from which all the wickedness of the wicked comes. It takes rise, 1. From their contempt of God and the want of a due regard to him (v. 1): "The transgression of the wicked (as it is described afterwards, v. 3, 4) saith within my heart (makes me to conclude within myself) that there is no fear of God before his eyes; for, if there were, he would not talk and act so extravagantly as he does; he would not, he durst not, break the laws of God, and violate his covenants with him, if he had any awe of his majesty or dread of his wrath." Fitly therefore is it brought into the form of indictments by our law that the criminal, not having the fear of God before his eyes, did so and so. The wicked did not openly renounce the fear of God, but their transgression whispered it secretly into the minds of all those that knew any thing of the nature of piety and impiety. David concluded concerning those who lived at large that they lived without God in the world. 2. From their conceit of themselves and a cheat they wilfully put upon their own souls (v. 2): He flattereth himself in his own eyes; that is, while he goes on in sin, he thinks he does wisely and well for himself, and either does not see or will not own the evil and danger of his wicked practices; he calls evil good and good evil; his licentiousness he pretends to be but his just liberty, his fraud passes for his prudence and policy, and his persecuting the people of God, he suggests to himself, is a piece of necessary justice. If his own conscience threaten him for what he does, he says, God will not require it; I shall have peace though I go on. Note, Sinners are self-destroyers by being self-flatterers. Satan could not deceive them if they did not deceive themselves. But will the cheat last always? No; the day is coming when the sinner will be undeceived, when his iniquity shall be found to be hateful. Iniquity is a hateful thing; it is that abominable thing which the Lord hates, and which his pure and jealous eye cannot endure to look upon. It is hurtful to the sinner himself, and therefore ought to be hateful to him; but it is not so; he rolls it under his tongue as a sweet morsel, because of the secular profit and sensual pleasure which may attend it; yet the meat in his bowels will be turned, it will be the gall of asps, Job xx. 13, 14. When their consciences are convinced, and sin appears in its true colours and makes them a terror to themselves—when the cup of trembling is put into their hands and they are made to drink the dregs of it—then their iniquity will be found hateful, and their self-flattery their unspeakable folly, and an aggravation of their condemnation.

II. Here are the cursed branches which spring from this root of bitterness. The sinner defies God, and even deifies himself, and then what can be expected but that he should go all to naught? These two were the first inlets of sin. Men do not fear God, and therefore they flatter themselves, and then, 1. They make no conscience of what they say, true of false, right or wrong (v. 3): The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit, contrived to do wrong, and yet to cover it with specious and plausible pretences. It is no marvel if those that deceive themselves contrive how to deceive all mankind; for to whom will those be true who are false to their own souls? 2. What little good there has been in them is gone; the sparks of virtue are extinguished, their convictions baffled, their good beginnings come to nothing: They have left off to be wise and to do good. They seemed to be under the direction of wisdom and the government of religion, but they have broken these bonds asunder; they have shaken off their religion, and therewith their wisdom. Note, Those that leave off to do good leave off to be wise. 3. Having left off to do good, they contrive to do hurt and to be vexatious to those about them that are good and do good (v. 4): He devises mischief upon his bed. Note, (1.) Omissions make way for commissions. When men leave off doing good, leave off praying, leave off their attendance on God's ordinances and their duty to him, the devil easily makes them his agents, his instruments to draw those that will be drawn into sin, and, with respect to those that will not, to draw them into trouble. Those that leave off to do good begin to do evil; the devil, being an apostate from his innocency, soon became a tempter to Eve and a persecutor of righteous Abel. (2.) It is bad to do mischief, but it is worse to devise it, to do it deliberately and with resolution, to set the wits on work to contrive to do it most effectually, to do it with plot and management, with the subtlety, as well as the malice, of the old serpent, to devise it upon the bed, where we should be meditating upon God and his word, Mic. ii. 1. This argues the sinner's heart fully set in him to do evil. 4. Having entered into the way of sin, that way that is not good, that has good neither in it nor at the end of it, they persist and resolve to persevere in that way. He sets himself to execute the mischief he has devised, and nothing shall be withholden from him which he has purposed to do, though it be ever to contrary both to his duty and to his true interest. If sinners did not steel their hearts and brazen their faces with obstinacy and impudence, they could not go on in their evil ways, in such a direct opposition to all that is just and good. 5. Doing evil themselves, they have no dislike at all of it in others: He abhors not evil, but on the contrary, takes pleasure in it, and is glad to see others as bad as himself. Or this may denote his impenitency in sin. Those that have done evil, if God give them repentance, abhor the evil they have done and themselves because of it; it is bitter in the reflection, however sweet it was in the commission. But these hardened sinners have such seared stupefied consciences that they never reflect upon their sins afterwards with any regret or remorse, but stand to what they have done, as if they could justify it before God himself.

Some think that David, in all this, particularly means Saul, who had cast off the fear of God and left off all goodness, who pretended kindness to him when he gave him his daughter to wife, but at the same time was devising mischief against him. But we are under no necessity of limiting ourselves so in the exposition of it; there are too many among us to whom the description agrees, which is to be greatly lamented.

The Amazing Goodness of God; Favour of God towards His People;

5 Thy mercy, O Lord , is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. 6 Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O Lord , thou preservest man and beast. 7 How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. 8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. 9 For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light. 10 O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart. 11 Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me. 12 There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise.

David, having looked round with grief upon the wickedness of the wicked, here looks up with comfort upon the goodness of God, a subject as delightful as the former was distasteful and very proper to be set in the balance against it. Observe,

I. His meditations upon the grace of God. He sees the world polluted, himself endangered, and God dishonoured, by the transgressions of the wicked; but, of a sudden, he turns his eye, and heart, and speech, to God "However it be, yet thou art good." He here acknowledges,

1. The transcendent perfections of the divine nature. Among men we have often reason to complain, There is no truth nor mercy, (Hos. iv. 1), no judgment nor justice, Isa. v. 7. But all these may be found in God without the least alloy. Whatever is missing, or amiss, in the world, we are sure there is nothing missing, nothing amiss, in him that governs it. (1.) He is a God of inexhaustible goodness: Thy mercy, O Lord! is in the heavens. If men shut up the bowels of their compassion, yet with God, at the throne of his grace, we shall find mercy. When men are devising mischief against us God's thoughts concerning us, if we cleave closely to him, are thoughts of good. On earth we meet with little content and a great deal of disquiet and disappointment; but in the heavens, where the mercy of God reigns in perfection and to eternity, there is all satisfaction; there therefore, if we would be easy, let us have our conversation, and there let us long to be. How bad soever the world is, let us never think the worse of God nor of his government; but, from the abundance of wickedness that is among men, let us take occasion, instead of reflecting upon God's purity, as if he countenanced sin, to admire his patience, that he bears so much with those that so impudently provoke him, nay, and causes his sun to shine and his rain to fall upon them. If God's mercy were not in the heavens (that is, infinitely above the mercies of any creature), he would, long ere this, have drowned the world again. See Isa. lv. 8, 9; Hos. xi. 9. (2.) He is a God of inviolable truth: Thy faithfulness reaches unto the clouds. Though God suffers wicked people to do a great deal of mischief, yet he is and will be faithful to his threatenings against sin, and there will come a day when he will reckon with them; he is faithful also to his covenant with his people, which cannot be broken, nor one jot or tittle of the promises of it defeated by all the malice of earth and hell. This is matter of great comfort to all good people, that, though men are false, God is faithful; men speak vanity, but the words of the Lord are pure words. God's faithfulness reaches so high that it does not change with the weather, as men's does, for it reaches to the skies (so it should be read, as some think), above the clouds, and all the changes of the lower region. (3.) He is a God of incontestable justice and equity: Thy righteousness is like the great mountains, so immovable and inflexible itself and so conspicuous and evident to all the world; for no truth is more certain nor more plain than this, That the Lord is righteous in all his ways, and that he never did, nor ever will do, any wrong to any of his creatures. Even when clouds and darkness are round about him, yet judgment and justice are the habitation of his throne, Ps. xcvii. 2. (4.) He is a God of unsearchable wisdom and design: "Thy judgments are a great deep, not to be fathomed with the line and plummet of any finite understanding." As his power is sovereign, which he owes not any account of to us, so his method is singular and mysterious, which cannot be accounted for by us: His way is in the sea and his path in the great waters. We know that he does all wisely and well; but what he does we know not now; it will be time enough to know hereafter.

2. The extensive care and beneficence of the divine Providence: "Thou preservest man and beast, not only protectest them from mischief, but suppliest them with that which is needful for the support of life." The beasts, though not capable of knowing and praising God, are yet graciously provided for; their eyes wait on him, and he gives them their meat in due season. Let us not wonder that God gives food to bad men, for he feeds the brute-creatures; and let us not fear but that he will provide well for good men; he that feeds the young lions will not starve his own children.

3. The peculiar favour of God to the saints. Observe,

(1.) Their character, v. 7. They are such as are allured by the excellency of God's loving-kindness to put their trust under the shadow of his wings. [1.] God's loving-kindness is precious to them. They relish it; they taste a transcendent sweetness in it; they admire God's beauty and benignity above any thing in this world, nothing so amiable, so desirable. Those know not God that do not admire his loving-kindness; and those know not themselves that do not earnestly covet it. [2.] They therefore repose an entire confidence in him. They have recourse to him, put themselves under his protection, and then think themselves safe and find themselves easy, as the chickens under the wings of the hen, Matt. xxiii. 37. It was the character of proselytes that they came to trust under the wings of the God of Israel (Ruth ii. 12); and what more proper to gather proselytes than the excellency of his loving-kindness? What more powerful to engage our complacency to him and on him? Those that are thus drawn by love will cleave to him.

(2.) Their privilege. Happy, thrice happy, the people whose God is the Lord, for in him they have, or may have, or shall have, a complete happiness. [1.] Their desires shall be answered, (v. 8): They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house, their wants supplied; their cravings gratified, and their capacities filled. In God all-sufficient they shall have enough, all that which an enlightened enlarged soul can desire or receive. The gains of the world and the delights of sense will surfeit, but never satisfy, Isa. lv. 2. But the communications of divine favour and grace will satisfy, but never surfeit. A gracious soul, though still desiring more of God, never desires more than God. The gifts of Providence so far satisfy them that they are content with such things as they have. I have all, and abound, Phil. iv. 18. The benefit of holy ordinances is the fatness of God's house, sweet to a sanctified soul and strengthening to the spiritual and divine life. With this they are abundantly satisfied; they desire nothing more in this world than to live a life of communion with God and to have the comfort of the promises. But the full, the abundant satisfaction is reserved for the future state, the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Every vessel will be full there. [2.] Their joys shall be constant: Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. First, There are pleasures that are truly divine. "They are thy pleasures, not only which come from thee as the giver of them, but which terminate in thee as the matter and centre of them." Being purely spiritual, they are of the same nature with those of the glorious inhabitants of the upper world, and bear some analogy even to the delights of the Eternal Mind. Secondly, There is a river of these pleasures, always full, always fresh, always flowing. There is enough for all, enough for each; see Ps. xlvi. 4. The pleasures of sense are putrid puddle-water; those of faith are pure and pleasant, clear as crystal, Rev. xxii. 1. Thirdly, God has not only provided this river of pleasures for his people, but he makes them to drink of it, works in them a gracious appetite to these pleasures, and by his Spirit fills their souls with joy and peace in believing. In heaven they shall be for ever drinking of those pleasures that are at God's right hand, satiated with a fulness of joy, Ps. xvi. 11. [3.] Life and light shall be their everlasting bliss and portion, v. 9. Having God himself for their felicity, First, In him they have a fountain of life, from which those rivers of pleasure flow, v. 8. The God of nature is the fountain of natural life. In him we live, and move, and have our being. The God of grace is the fountain of spiritual life. All the strength and comfort of a sanctified soul, all its gracious principles, powers, and performances, are from God. He is the spring and author of all its sensations of divine things, and all its motions towards them: he quickens whom he will; and whosoever will may come, and take from him of the waters of life freely. He is the fountain of eternal life. The happiness of glorified saints consists in the vision and fruition of him, and in the immediate communications of his love, without interruption or fear of cessation. Secondly, In him they have light in perfection, wisdom, knowledge, and joy, all included in this light: In thy light we shall see light, that is, 1. "In the knowledge of thee in grace, and the vision of thee in glory, we shall have that which will abundantly suit and satisfy our understandings." That divine light which shines in the scripture, and especially in the face of Christ, the light of the world, has all truth in it. When we come to see God face to face, within the veil, we shall see light in perfection, we shall know enough then, 1 Cor. xiii. 12; 1 John iii. 2. 2. "In communion with thee now; by the communications of thy grace to us and the return of our devout affections to thee, and in the fruition of thee shortly in heaven, we shall have a complete felicity and satisfaction. In thy favour we have all the good we can desire." This is a dark world; we see little comfort in it; but in the heavenly light there is true light, and no false light, light that is lasting and never wastes. In this world we see God, and enjoy him by creatures and means; but in heaven God himself shall be with us (Rev. xxi. 3) and we shall see and enjoy him immediately.

II. We have here David's prayers, intercessions, and holy triumphs, grounded upon these meditations.

1. He intercedes for all saints, begging that they may always experience the benefit and comfort of God's favour and grace, v. 10. (1.) The persons he prays for are those that know God, that are acquainted with him, acknowledge him, and avouch him for theirs—the upright in heart, that are sincere in their profession of religion, and faithful both to God and man. Those that are not upright with God do not know him as they should. (2.) The blessing he begs for them is God's loving-kindness (that is, the tokens of his favour towards them) and his righteousness (that is, the workings of his grace in them); or his loving-kindness and righteousness are his goodness according to promise; they are mercy and truth. (3.) The manner in which he desires this blessing may be conveyed: O continue it, draw it out, as the mother draws out her breasts to the child, and then the child draws out the milk from the breasts. Let it be drawn out to a length equal to the line of eternity itself. The happiness of the saints in heaven will be in perfection, and yet in continual progression (as some thing); for the fountain there will be always full and the streams always flowing. In these is continuance, Isa. lxiv. 5.

2. He prays for himself, that he might be preserved in his integrity and comfort (v. 11): "Let not the foot of pride come against me, to trip up my heels, or trample upon me; and let not the hand of the wicked, which is stretched out against me, prevail to remove me, either from my purity and integrity, by any temptation, or from my peace and comfort, by any trouble." Let not those who fight against God triumph over those who desire to cleave to him. Those that have experienced the pleasure of communion with God cannot but desire that nothing may ever remove them from him.

3. He rejoices in hope of the downfall of all his enemies in due time (v. 12): "There, where they thought to gain the point against me, they have themselves fallen, been taken in that snare which they laid for me." There, in the other world (so some), where the saints stand in the judgment, and have a place in God's house, the workers of iniquity are cast in the judgment, are cast down into hell, into the bottomless pit, out of which they shall assuredly never be able to rise from under the insupportable weight of God's wrath and curse. It is true we are not to rejoice when any particular enemy of ours falls; but the final overthrow of all the workers of iniquity will be the everlasting triumph of glorified saints.

PSAL. XXXVI.

To the master of the musicke, a Psalme of David, the servant of Iehovah.

THe trespasse of the wicked assuredly saith in the inmost of my heart, no dread of God is before his eyes. For he flattereth himselfe in his owne eyes, to find his iniquity which he ought to hate. The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit; he hath left off to be prudent, to doe good. He thinketh iniquity upon his bed, he setteth himselfe on a way not good, he refuseth not evill. Iehovah, thy mercy is in the heauens, thy faithfulnesse unto the skies. Thy justice as the mountaines of God, thy judgements a great depth: Iehovah thou savest man and beast. How precious is thy mercy, O God, and the sons of Adam hope for safety in the shadow of thy wings. They shall be plenteously moistened with the fatnesse of thy house, and the streame of thy pleasures thou wilt give them to drinke. Because with thee is the well of life: in thy light we see light. Extend thy mercy to them that know thee, and thy justice to the right of heart. Let not the foot of pride come on me; and the hand of the wicked, let it not make meflee. There have they fallen, that worke painfull iniquitie: they have beene thrust downe, and have not beene able to rise.

Annotations. THe trespasse of the wicked] or Trespasse saith to the wicked, that is, perswadeth, imboldneth, hardeneth him. assuredly saith] or, it is an assured saying, a faithfull affirmation. This word is peculiar to the oracles of God, which are sure and faithfull, (as the Apostle sometime mentioneth faithfull sayings, 1 Tim. 1. 15. and 3. 1. and 4. 9.) In the new Testament it is interpreted, said, Mat. 22. 44. from Psal. 110. 1. And David by the spirit here testifieth that the wicked mans trespasse is such, as assuredly saith (or avoucheth) even in his heart and conscience, that he dreadeth not God. in the inmost of my heart] in the mids, or within my heart: meaning that he certainly knew it, and was much affected with it. Vers. 3. to finde] that is, to performe, or accomplish; as to finde the will, is to performe or doe the same, Isa. 58. 13. So in Rom. 7. 18. Or, to finde, that is, to obtaine and get, as Gen. 6. 8. Mat. 11. 29. Rom. 4. 1. Or, to finde, that is, to invent or devise new mischiefes; as the Apostle speaking of inventers (or finders out) of evill things, Rom. 1. 30. which he ought to hate] or, which is to bee hated, is odious. So, to keepe, Psal. 119. 4. that is, to be kept: to stop, Psal. 32. 9. for, to bee stopped: to doe, Esth. 6. 6. for, is to be done. So Psal. 49. 15. Ios. 2. 5. See also the verbe active expounded passively, by the Apostles authoritie, Psal. 51. 6. But the Chaldee expoundeth it, he hateth doctrine. Vers. 5. he setteth himselfe] namely, to stand or walke continually in a way not good, as Isa. 65. 2. or, he standeth still, as Exod. 14. 13. Vers. 6. in the heavens] elsewhere it is said, unto the heavens, Psal. 57. 11. so here in may bee used for unto: sometime it is, above the heavens, as Psal. 108. 5. Vers. 7. mountaines of God] that is, high, mighty or excellent mountaines. The Hebrew usetth to note excellent things, by adding the name of God; as Cedars of God, Psal. 80. 11. Mount of God, Psal. 68. 16. river of God, Psal. 65. 10. wrastlings of God, Gen. 30. 5. harps of God, Rev. 15. 2. and sundry the like. So the Chaldee here saith, high as the strong mountaines. Vers. 8. How precious] that is, honourable and much to be esteemed; sometime the word signifieth bright and glorious, Iob 31. 26. Zach. 14. 6. which also agreeth well here. and the sonnes] or, when, or therefore the sonnes. shadow of thy wings] that is, thy protection, so Psal. 63. 8. and 91. 4. called sometime, the secret of Gods wings, Psal. 61. 5. Vers. 10. Well of life] or, as the Chaldee translateth, well of living waters, that is, an ever-springing fountaine, from whom life & all graces spring and flow. So God is called the Well of living waters, Ier. 2. 13. and 17. 13. Song 4. 15. we see light] or enjoy light, that is, knowledge, comfort, joy, &c. See Iob 29. 3. Isa. 9. 2. Iam. 1 17. Psal. 27. 1. Vers. 11. Extend thy mercy] or draw it, meaning, exercise and shew it; as Psal. 109. 12. also prolong or continue it; as Psal. 85. 6. Eccles. 2. 3. Vers. 12. foot of pride] or of haughtinesse, that is, (as the Chaldee translateth) of the proud man, as Ier. 50. 31, 32. the thing being put for the person in whom it is. As deceit, for a deceitfull man, Prov. 12. 27. Povertie, for poore people, 2 King 24. 14. habitation, for inhabitants, 2 Sam. 9. 12. Circumcision, for circumcised, Rom. 2. 26. Helpings, governings, for, helpers, governors, 1 Cor. 12. 28. dreams, for dreamers, Ier. 27. 9. sinne, for sinner, Prov. 13. 6. and many the like. See also Psal. 5. 5. and 12. 9. and 55. 21. and 109. 4. and 78. 31. Vers. 13. There] to wit, in the very enterprise, while they laboured to remove me.

PSAL. XXXVI.

A Pſalm of David the Servant of the Lord] See Pſal. 18. title. Then hee had well-nigh finiſhed his Ruledom, here he is about to begin it, and therefore aſſumeth this title. Serum eſt nomen officii, Servant is a name of Office or Duty. Tertullian faith of Auguſtus (we may better of David] Gratius ei fuit nomen pietatis, quam potestatis, he took more pleaſure in names of duty than of dignity; ſo thoſe heavenly Courtiers rejoyce rather to be ſtiled Angels, that is, Meſſengers, and Miniſtring Spirits, than Thrones, Principalities, Powers, &c.

Verſ. 1.Hieron. Vulgata. The tranſgreſſion of the wicked ſaith within my heart] Some ſay tis libbi for libbo, Jod for Ʋan, and render it within (or in the midſt of) his own heart; and ſo make it the ſame in ſenſe with Pſal. 14.1. but theſe make too bold with the text. David, that zealous Servant of God, was fully perſwaded of, and deeply affected with, the profligate wickedneſs of ſome graceleſs perſons (ſuch as were Saul, and his bloud-ſucking Sycophants) that they were ſtark Atheiſts, and had not the leaſt ſpark of common goodneſs left in them; that they had neither the fear of God, nor ſhame of the World to reign them in from any outrage. This is mine opinion of them, ſaith David, I am ſtrongly ſo conceited, and I will give you my grounds. I ſpeak as to wiſe men: judge yee what I ſay.

Verſ. 2. For he flattereth himſelf in his own eyes] This is the firſt proof of the foregoing charge, and the fountain of all the following exorbitancies. See the like, 2 Tim. 3.2. there ſelf-love brings all out of order: here ſelf-flattery. Sibi palpum obtrudit, he ſtroketh himſelf on the head, and ſaith, I ſhall have peace, though I walk in the ſtubbornneſs of mine heart, to adde drunkenneſs to thirſt; and rebellion to ſin, Deut. 29.19. Thus he ſootheth and ſmootheth up himſelf, neither ſhall any one perſwade him but that his penny is as good ſilver as the beſt of them all. Thus he calleth evil good, and good evil; and proudly bolſtering of himſelf in his ſinful practices, he maketh a bridge of his own ſhadow, and ſo falleth into the ditch of deſtruction.

Vntil his iniquity be found to be hateful] Till God by his Judgements uncaſe him, and men out of utter hatred of his execrable practices, tell him his own to his teeth. Thus Stephen Gardiner being charged of cruelty by Mr. Bradford, anſwered in open Court, I for my part have been challenged for being too gentle often times, which thing Bonner confirmed, and ſo did almoſt all the audience, that he had ever been too mild and moderate. But Doctor Taylour told him another tale,Act. & Mon. 1461. Ibid. 1380. when he ſaid to him, How dare you for ſhame look me or any Chriſtian man in the face, ſeeing you have forſaken the truth, denied our Saviour Chriſt, done contrary to your Oath? &c. So Bonner, They report me, ſaid he, to the Lord Mayor, to ſeek bloud, and call me Bloudy Bonner; whereas God knows I never ſought any mans bloud in all my life. To whom Mr. Smith the Martyr anſwered, Why my Lord,Ibid. 1537. do you put on this fair viſor before my Lord Mayor, to make him beleeve that you ſeek not my bloud, to cloak your Murthers through my ſtoutneſs, as you call it? Have you not had my brother Tomkins before you, whoſe hand when you had burnt moſt cruelly, you burnt his whole body: and not only of him, but of a great many of Chriſts Members, &c? So upon the Martyrdom of Maſter Philpot, a certain unknown good woman in a Letter to Bonner wrote thus; Indeed you are called the common Cut-throat, and general ſlaughterſſave to all the Biſhops of England; and therefore it is wiſdom for me and all other ſimple ſheep of the Lord to keep us out of your butcherly ſtall, as long as we can, eſpecially ſince you have ſuch ſtore already that you are not able to drink all their bloud, leſt you ſhould break your belly; and therefore you let them lye ſtill, and dye for hunger,Ibid. 1672. &c. And ſoon after, you have broken a Pot indeed (Mr. Philpot) but the precious Word contained therein is ſo notably therewithall ſhed abroad, that the ſweet ſavour thereof hath wonderfully well refreſhed all the true Houſehold, or Congregation of Chriſt, that they cannot abide any more the ſtinking ſavour of your filthy ware, that came from the dunghil of Rome, though your Lordſhips Judaſſes ſet them to ſale every where to fill up your Baggs, &c. Thus theſe bloud-ſuckers ſtunk above ground, and it is probable that the Saints ſhall look upon ſuch in the next World, throughout all eternity, with execrable and everlaſting deteſtation.

Verſ. 3. The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit] That is, ſaith Calvin, he hath ſomething to ſay to excuſe and juſtifie himſelf, to the hardening of his heart, and haſtening of his deſtruction; as there is no Wool ſo coarſe but will take ſome colour. But God will one day waſh off his varniſh with rivers of Brimſtone; hee can skill of none other Language but that of Hell; the words of his mouth are, deſiderium & dolus; there is no truth, and as little truſt to be put in any thing that he ſpeaketh. And why? there is no fear of God before his eyes. See a like Text, Rom. 3.13, 14, 15.

He hath left off to be wiſe, and to do good] That little light he once had, he hath loſt, and caſt off ſuch good practices as once in hypocriſie he performed; neither will he learn to do better. Dicit reprobos fugitare rationem bene agendi, ne vitam ſuam in melius corrigere cogantur, ſaith Vatablus.

Verſ. 4. He deviſeth miſchief upon his bed] He bendeth his wits and beateth his braines, perdius & pernox, breaking his ſleep to plot and plow, to contrive and effect miſchief. Vanity, or villany is his whole ſtudy. He is alwaies either weaving ſpiders webs, or batching Cockatrices eggs.

He ſetteth himſelf in a may that is not good] And there meaneth to keep him, as the word importeth; ſet he is, and he will not be removed, being every whit as good as ever he meaneth to be. Statuit ſe; there you left him, and there you may find him, for he is no changeling; and that's a peece of his ſilly glory.

He abhorreth not evill] Sed ſtudio ſiſſime amplectitur, Jun. but doth wickedly with hands earneſtly, and taketh long ſtrides towards Hell (which is but a little before him) as if he feared it would be full ere he came thither. If he do abſtain from any wickedneſs, yet hee abhorreth it not. It is for the evill conſequents of ſin (viz. ſhame, loſs, puniſhment) that he forbeareth it; and not becauſe it is offenſivum Dei, & averſivum à Deo, an offence againſt God, and a turning away from God; that's no argument at all to him, ſed fertur laxis habenis in quaevis flagitia, but he is hurried headlong into all wickedneſſes, as Ʋulturs flye ſwiftly to the moſt ſtinking carcaſes.

Verſ. 5. Thy mercy O Lord, is in the Heavens.] Yea farre above them, Pſal. Admiratur David incredibilem Dei patientiam, &c. Vat. 108.4. and over all thy good and mens bad works. Otherwiſe thou couldeſt never endure ſuch provocations of the profane rout; who yet live upon thee, and ſhare in thy generall goodneſſe.

And thy truth unto the cloudes] Gods mercy goeth uſually yoaked with his truth and bounded by it; leſt any ſhould preſume upon it, conſidering that God is faithfull as well as mercifull; faithfull, I ſay, to fulfill both his promiſes and his menaces too. And as he hath mercy unmeaſurable, and truth unfailable for his Saints; ſo he hath Righteouſneſſe and Judgements for the Wicked, as it followeth.

Verſ. 6. Thy Righteouſneſs is like the great mountaines] Heb. Mountaines of God, pro more linguae, quae quando magnificat aliquid, addit nomen Dei, ut Jon. 3.3. Gen. Sic [non-Latin text not transcribed] Arat. in Dioſem. [non-Latin text not transcribed] 30.5. Rev. 15.2. Pſal. 80.11. & 68.16. ſaith R. David, that is, after the manner of the Hebrew tongue, which when it would magnifie any thing, addeth the name of God; becauſe as any thing is nearer to God, the more excellent it is. The like is to be found alſo in Heathen-Authors. David meaneth that as Gods mercy is matchleſſe, ſo his Juſtice is unmoveable; and we are to give him the glory of the one, as well as of the other, ſith they are both alike in him; for whatſoever is in God, is God.

Thy Judgements are a great deep] A fathomleſſe abyſſe, in quam dejicis impios, & nunquam evadunt, ſaith Kimchi; wherein the Wicked ſink irrecoverably. Thy providentiall diſpenſations alſo are paſt finding out, Rom. 11.33. They are to Reaſon as the Sea is to Shallows; and therefore we muſt do by them as the Romanes did by a certain lake of unknown depth, they dedicated it to Victory.

O Lord, thou preſerveſt man and beaſt] Such is thy beneficence, anſwerable to thy patience afore celebrated. Thou not only beareſt with mens evill manners, even to admiration; but abundantly provideſt for their being, and well-being; of ſuch I mean, as walk about the World with hearts as full as Hell of all kind of wickedneſſe. Howbeit bonitas tua ad Atheum eſt ſicut illa ad beſtiam, ſaith Kimchi, here thou doſt but for the Atheiſt, as thou doſt for the Beaſt, and by that courſe of common preſervation and kindneſſe which runneth toward all; that none need doubt of a Providence.

Verſ. 7. How excellent (Heb. precious) is thy loving-kindneſſe?] That ſpeciall love and favour that thou vouchſafeſt to thine own elect only. Oh this is incomparable, and inexpreſſible. It maketh a vaſt difference betwixt the Righteous and the wicked, though the blind World obſerveth it not.

Therefore the Children of man] Who are alſo the Children of God, by a better birth, Joh. 1.12, 13. and that's their greateſt preferment, 1 Joh. 3.1. Ludovicus ſirnamed the Saint, King of France, would needs be called Ludovicus de Piſſiaco, rather than take greater titles; becauſe there he became a Chriſtian. He thought no birth to a new birth in Chriſt, no Parentage to that of God to his Father.

Put their truſt under the ſhaddow of thy wings] As chickens (in a ſtorm, or when the Purtock threatneth) hover and cover under the Henne. See Pſal. 91. Matth. 23.

Verſ. 8. They ſhal be abundantly ſatisfied] Heb. watered, inebriated. They ſhall be plentifully provided for, as the Domeſticks; they ſhall have a confluence of all comforts and contentments for this life and a better; for godlineſſe hath the promiſes of both. Hic locus eſt conſolationis pleniſſimus, ſaith One.

And thou ſhalt make them drink of the river of thy pleaſure] And ſo utterly quench their thirſt after the World and ſin.

Clitorio quicun que ſitim de fonte levarit, Vina fugit.

Verſ. 9. For with thee is the fountain of life] Vena vita, verae vitae ſcaturigo. A fountain communicateth its water, and yet is not exhauſted. Fontium perennitas, is one of the wonders in nature; what ſhall we ſay of this divine fountain of life, temporall, ſpirituall, and eternall, over-flowing and ever-flowing?

In thy light ſhall we ſee light] viz. Of knowledge, and comfort; what's the air without light? or any thing elſe without God? Abſ que Deo omnis copia eſt egeſtas, ſaith Bernard. In the former compariſon, with thee is the fountain (or vein) of lives, the Prophet alludeth either to waters, as is aforeſaid, or to metalls; to ſhew that as the veines of gold, ſilver, and the like, do lye in bank in the boſome and bowels of the earth; ſo doth life in God. Or, to the veines of the body, which as ſo many rivers or rivolets derive their blood from that red Sea, the liver. Certain it is, that man hath neither life nor light in himſelf, till it be communicated unto him from God.

Verſ. 10. O continue thy loving kindneſſe] Heb. Draw it out at full length, extend and exerciſe it, lengthen and perpetuate it. Thus the godly greatly taken with the ſweetneſſe of Gods houſe, and rapt in the admiration of his tranſcendent goodneſs towards them, pray for a continuance thereof; Intimating alſo by the manner of expreſſion, that Gods peculiar mercies to his are a continued ſeries, there is a connection between them, yea a concatenation. And as in a chain, one link draweth on another, ſo doth one mercy another; unleſſe we break the chain by our unthankfullneſſe.

Ʋnto them that know thee — to the upright in heart] Here we have a juſt deſcription of the heirs of Gods promiſes, and of the partakers of his peculiar mercies. Firſt, They muſt be knowing perſons; know they muſt God and his will, themſelves and their duties. Secondly, They muſt be upright in heart; for knowledge without practice is like Rachel, beautifull, but barren; or like rain in the middle region, where it doth no good. A good underſtanding have all they that do his Precepts, Pſal. 111.10. and ſuch only are upright in heart.

Verſ. 11.Terent. Let not the foot of pride come againſt mee] The Wicked do manibus pedibus que obnixe omnia facere, that they may ruine the Righteous; but God can divert them, manacle them, ſhackle them that they ſhall neither march againſt his people, nor meddle to unſettle their faith. Nevertheleſſe hee looketh to be ſought unto for theſe things, Ezek. 36.37. Dan. 10.12. I came forth for thy word, ſaith the Angel, that is, upon thy prayer.

Verſ. 12. There are the workers of iniquity fallen] There where they plotted or practiſed the downfall of the Righteous; as Henry the third of France was ſtabbed in the ſame Chamber where hee and others had contrived the Pariſian Maſſacre. God taketh notice of the very place where ſin is committed, to puniſh accordingly; as he did Abimelech, Ahab, the Jews, that cryed Crucifie him, crucifie him, &c.

They are caſt down] With a force, the Angel of God [illegible: 2 letters]aſing them according to my prayer, which now methinks I ſee to be graciouſly anſwered. It muſt needs go ill with the Wicked, when the Saints ſhall turn them over to God to be tamed, and taken an order with.

And ſhall not be able to riſe] Becauſe laid for dead by an Almighty hand. The Righteous falleth ſeven times in a day, and riſeth again; not ſo the workers of iniquity.

The transgression of the wicked. His daring and wanton sin; his breaking the bounds of law and justice. Saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes. Men's sins have a voice to godly ears. They are the outer index of an inner evil. It is clear that men who dare to sin constantly and presumptuously cannot respect the great Judge of all. Despite the professions of unrighteous men, when we see their unhallowed actions our heart is driven to the conclusion that they have no religion whatever. Unholiness is clear evidence of ungodliness. Wickedness is the fruit of an atheistic root. This may be made clear to the candid head by cogent reasoning, but it is clear already and intuitively to the pious heart. If God be everywhere, and I fear him, how can I dare to break his laws in his very presence? He must be a desperate traitor who will rebel in the monarch's own halls. Whatever theoretical opinions bad men may avow, they can only be classed with atheists, since they are such practically. Those eyes which have no fear of God before them now, shall have the terrors of hell before them for ever.

For. Here is the argument to prove the proposition laid down in the former verse. David here runs over the process of reasoning by which he had become convinced that wicked men have no proper idea of God or respect for him. God fearing men see their sins and bewail them, where the reverse is the case we may be sure there is no fear of God. He flattereth himself in his own eyes. He counts himself a fine fellow, worthy of great respect. He quiets his conscience, and so deceives his own judgment as to reckon himself a pattern of excellence; if not for morality, yet for having sense enough not to be enslaved by rules which are bonds to others. He is the free thinker, the man of strong mind, the hater of cant, the philosopher; and the servants of God are, in his esteem, mean spirited and narrow minded. Of all flatteries this is the most absurd and dangerous. Even the silliest bird will not set traps for itself; the most pettifogging attorney will not cheat himself. To smooth over one's own conduct to one's conscience (which is the meaning of the Hebrew) is to smooth one's own path to hell. The descent to eternal ruin is easy enough, without making a glissade of it, as self flatters do. Until his iniquity be found to be hateful. At length he is found out and detested, despite his self conceit. Rottenness smells sooner or later too strong to be concealed. There is a time when the leprosy cannot be hidden. At last the old house can no longer be propped up, and falls about the tenant's ears: so there is a limit to a man's self gratulation; he is found out amid general scorn, and can no longer keep up the farce which he played so well. If this happens not in this life, the hand of death will let light in upon the coveted character, and expose the sinner to shame and contempt. The self flattering process plainly proves the atheism of sinners, since the bare reflection that God sees them would render such self flatteries extremely difficult, if not impossible. Belief in God, like light reveals, and then our sin and evil are perceived; but wicked men are in the dark, for they cannot see what is so clearly within them and around them that it stares them in the face.

The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. This pair of hell dogs generally hunt together, and what one does not catch the other will; if iniquity cannot win by oppression, deceit will gain by chicanery. When the heart is so corrupt as to flatter itself, the tongue follows suit. The open sepulchre of the throat reveals the foulness of the inner nature. God fearing men make a conscience of their words, and if they sin through infirmity they do not invent excuses, or go about to boast of their wickedness: but because wicked men think little of evil and artful speeches, we may be clear that God rules not in their souls. The original by declaring that the words of the wicked are falsehood and deceit is peculiarly strong; as if they were not only false in quality, but actual falseness itself. He hath left off to be wise, and to do good. From the good way he has altogether gone aside. Men who fear God proceed from strength to strength in the right path, but godless men soon forsake what little good they once knew. How could men apostatise if they had respect unto the supreme Judge? Is it not because they grow more and more forgetful of God, that in due season they relinquish even that hypocritical reverence of him which in former days they maintained in order to flatter their souls?

He deviseth mischief upon his bed. His place of rest becomes the place for plotting. His bed is a hot bed for poisonous weeds. God fearing men meditate upon God and his service; but when men turn all their thoughts and inventive faculties towards evil, their godlessness is proved to a demonstration. He hath the devil for his bed fellow who lies abed and schemes how to sin. God is far from him. He setteth himself in a way that is not good. When he gets up he resolutely and persistently pursues the mischief which he planned. The worst of ways he prefers for his walking, for he has taught his heart to love filthiness, having accustomed himself to revel in it in imagination. He abhorreth not evil. So far from having a contempt and abhorrence for evil, he even rejoices in it, and patronises it. He never hates a wrong thing because it is wrong, but he meditates on it, defends it, and practises it. What a portrait of a graceless man these few verses afford us! His jauntiness of conscience, his licentiousness of speech, his intentness upon wrong doing, his deliberate and continued preference of iniquity, and withal his atheistic heart, are all photographed to the life. Lord, save us from being such.

Verses 5-9. From the baseness of the wicked the psalmist turns his contemplation to the glory of God. Contrasts are impressive.

Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens. Like the ethereal blue, it encompasses the whole earth, smiling upon universal nature, acting as a canopy for all the creatures of earth, surmounting the loftiest peaks of human provocations, and rising high above the mists of mortal transgression. Clear sky is evermore above, and mercy calmly smiles above the din and smoke of this poor world. Darkness and clouds are but of earth's lower atmospheres: the heavens are evermore serene, and bright with innumerable stars. Divine mercy abides in its vastness of expanse, and matchless patience, all unaltered by the rebellions of man. When we can measure the heavens, then shall we bound the mercy of the Lord. Towards his own servants especially, in the salvation of the Lord Jesus, he has displayed grace higher than the heaven of heavens, and wider than the universe. O that there atheist could but see this, how earnestly would he long to become a servant of Jehovah! Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Far, far above all comprehension is the truth and faithfulness of God. He never fails, nor forgets, nor falters, nor forfeits his word. Afflictions are like clouds, but the divine truthfulness is all around them. While we are under the cloud we are in the region of God's faithfulness; when we mount above it we shall not need such an assurance. To every word of threat, or promise, prophecy or covenant, the Lord has exactly adhered, for he is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent.

Thy righteousness is like the great mountains. Firm and unmoved, lofty and sublime. As winds and hurricanes shake not an Alp, so the righteousness of God is never in any degree affected by circumstances; he is always just. Who can bribe the Judge of all the earth, or who can, by threatening, compel him to pervert judgment? Not even to save his elect would the Lord suffer his righteousness to be set aside. No awe inspired by mountain scenery can equal that which fills the soul when it beholds the Son of God slain as a victim to vindicate the justice of the Inflexible Lawgiver. Right across the path of every unholy man who dreams of heaven stand the towering Andes of divine righteousness, which no unregenerate sinner can ever climb. Among great mountains lie slumbering avalanches, and there the young lightnings try their callow wings until the storm rushes down amain from the awful peaks; so against the great day of the Lord's wrath the Lord has laid up in the mountains of his righteousness dreadful ammunition of war with which to overwhelm his adversaries. Thy judgments are a great deep. God's dealings with men are not to be fathomed by every boaster who demands to see a why for every wherefore. The Lord is not to be questioned by us as to why this and why that. He has reasons, but he does not choose to submit them to our foolish consideration. Far and wide, terrible and irresistible like the ocean are the providential dispensations of God: at one time they appear as peaceful as the unrippled sea of glass; at another tossed with tempest and whirlwind, but evermore most glorious and full of mystery. Who shall discover the springs of the sea? He who shall do this may hope to comprehend the providence of the Eternal.

"Undiscovered sea!

Into thy dark, unknown, mysterious caves,

And secret haunts unfathomably deep,

Beneath all visible retired, none went

And came again to tell the wonders there."

Yet as the deep mirrors the sky, so the mercy of the Lord is to be seen reflected in all the arrangements of his government on earth, and over the profound depth the covenant rainbow casts its arch of comfort, for the Lord is faithful in all that he doeth. O Lord, thou preservest man and beast. All the myriads of creatures, rational and irrational, are fed by Jehovah's hand. The countless beasts, the innumerable birds, the inconceivable abundance of fishes, the all but infinite armies of insects, all owe their continuance of life to the unceasing outgoings of the divine power. What a view of God this presents to us! What a debased creature must he be who sees no trace of such a God, and feels no awe of him!

How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God. Here we enter into the Holy of Holies. Benevolence, and mercy, and justice, are everywhere, but the excellence of that mercy only those have known whose faith has lifted the veil and passed into the brighter presence of the Lord; these behold the excellency of the Lord's mercy. The word translated excellent may be rendered "precious; "no gem or pearl can ever equal in value a sense of the Lord's love. This is such a brilliant as angels wear. King's regalia are a beggardly collection of worthless pebbles when compared with the tender mercies of Jehovah. David could not estimate it, and therefore, after putting a note of admiration, he left our hearts and imagination, and, better still, our experience, to fill up the rest. He writes how excellent! because he cannot tell us the half of it. Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. The best of reasons for the best of courses. The figure is very beautiful. The Lord overshadows his people as a hen protects her brood, or as an eagle covers its young; and we as the little ones run under the blessed shelter and feel at rest. To cower down under the wings of God is so sweet. Although the enemy be far too strong for us, we have no fear, for we nestle under the Lord's wing. O that more of Adam's race knew the excellency of the heavenly shelter! It made Jesus weep to see how they refused it: our tears may well lament the same evil.

They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house. Those who learn to put their trust in God shall be received into his house, and shall share in the provision laid up therein. The dwelling place of the Lord is not confined to any place, and hence reside where we may, we may regard our dwelling, if we be believers, as one room in the Lord's great house; and we shall, both in providence and grace, find a soul contenting store supplied to us as the result of living by faith in nearness to the Lord. If we regard the assembly of the saints as being peculiarly the house of God, believers shall, indeed, find in sacred worship the richest spiritual food. Happy is the soul that can drink in the sumptuous dainties of the gospel —nothing can so completely fill the soul. And thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. As they have the fruits of Eden to feed on, so shall they have the river of Paradise to drink from. God's everlasting love bears to us a constant and ample comfort, of which grace makes us to drink by faith, and then our pleasure is of the richest kind. The Lord not only brings us to this river, but makes us drink: herein we see the condescension of divine love. Heaven will, in the fullest sense, fulfil these words; but they who trust in the Lord enjoy the antepast even here. The happiness given to the faithful is that of God himself; purified spirits joy with the same joy as the Lord himself. "That my joy may be in you, that your joy may be full."

For with thee is the fountain of life. This verse is made of simple words, but like the first chapter of John's Gospel, it is very deep. From the Lord, as from an independent self sufficient spring, all creature life proceeds, by him is sustained, through him alone can it be perfected. Life is in the creature, but the fountain of it is only in the Creator. Of spiritual life, this is true in the most emphatic sense; "it is the Spirit that quickeneth, ""and we are dead, and our life is hid with Christ in God." In thy light shall we see light. Light is the glory of life. Life in the dark is misery, and rather death than life. The Lord alone can give natural, intellectual, and spiritual life; he alone can make life bright and lustrous. In spiritual things the knowledge of God sheds a light on all other subjects. We need no candle to see the sun, we see it by its own radiance, and then see everything else by the same lustre. We never see Jesus by the light of self, but self in the light of Jesus. No inward intelligence of ours leads us to receive the Spirit's light, but the rather, it often helps to quench the sacred beam; purely and only by his own illumination, the Holy Ghost lights up the dark recesses of our heart's ungodliness. Vain are they who look to learning and human wit, one ray from the throne of God is better than the noonday splendour of created wisdom. Lord, give me the sun, and let those who will delight in the wax candles of superstition and the phosphorescence of corrupt philosophy. Faith derives both light and life from God, and hence she neither dies nor darkens.

O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee. We ask no more than a continuance of the past mercy. Lord, extend this grace of thine to all the days of all who have been taught to know thy faithful love, thy tenderness, thine immutability and omnipotence. As they have been taught of the Lord to know the Lord, so go on to instruct them and perfect them. This prayer is the heart of the believer asking precisely that which the heart of his God is prepared to grant. It is well when the petition is but the reflection of the promise. And thy righteousness to the upright in heart. As thou hast never failed the righteous, so abide thou in the same manner their defender and avenger. The worst thing to be feared by the man of God is to be forsaken of heaven, hence this prayer; but the fear is groundless, hence the peace which faith brings to us. Learn from this verse, that although a continuance of mercy is guaranteed in the covenant, we are yet to make it a matter of prayer. For this good thing will the Lord be enquired of.

Let not the foot of pride come against me. The general prayer is here turned into a particular and personal one for himself. Pride is the devil's sin. Good men may well be afraid of proud men, for the serpent's seed will never cease to bite the heel of the godly. Fain would proud scoffers spurn the saints or trample them under foot: against their malice prayer lifts up her voice. No foot shall come upon us, no hand shall prevail against us, while Jehovah is on our side. Let not the hand of the wicked remove me. Suffer me not to be driven about as a fugitive, nor torn from my place like an uprooted tree. Violence with both hand and foot, with means fair and means foul, strove to overthrow the psalmist, but he resorts to his great Patron, and sings a song of triumph in anticipation of the defeat of his foes.

There are the workers of iniquity fallen. Faith sees them scattered on the plain. There! before our very eyes sin, death, and hell, lie prostrate. Behold the vanquished foes! They are cast down. Providence and grace have dashed them from their vantage ground. Jesus has already thrown all the foes of his people upon their faces, and in due time all sinners shall find it so. And shall not be able to rise. The defeat of the ungodly and of the powers of evil is final, total, irretrievable. Glory be to God, however high the powers of darkness may carry it at this present, the time hastens on when God shall defend the right, and give to evil such a fall as shall for ever crush the hopes of hell; while those who trust in the Lord shall eternally praise him and rejoice in his holy name.

TITLE. To the Chief Musician, has given rise to many conjectures. In the Septuagint the Hebrew word is translated, eiz to telos, to the end; a meaning so utterly vague as to defy all reasonable conjecture. ...The meaning of the term appears to be this: the Psalms in which it occurs were given in charge by their inspired authors to the Chief Musician overseeing some specific band of music, whether harps, psalteries, or wind instruments. John Jebb, A.M., in "A Literal Translation of the Book of Psalms," 1846.

Title. The servant of the Lord. David only uses this title here and in Psalm eighteen. In both he describes the dealings of God both with the righteous and the wicked, and it is most fit that at the very outset he should take his place with the servants of the Lord. C. H. S.

Whole Psalm. First Part. A character of a wicked man Ps 36:1. 1. He calls evil good Ps 36:2. 2. He continues in it. 3. He is an hypocrite Ps 36:3. 4. He is obstinate. 5. He is studious in wickedness Ps 36:4. Second part. God's patience and mercy Ps 36:5-6. 1. To all, even all creatures. 2. But particularly to his people, which he admires. Upon which the faithful (1) trust, (2) are satisfied Ps 36:7-8. The Third part. He prays that this effect may light, 1. On God's people Ps 36:10. 2. On himself Ps 36:11. 3. His acclimation upon it Ps 36:12. William Nicholson (Bishop), 1662.

In this Psalm we have a description of sin, especially as it appears in those who have openly broken God's bands. The introduction is very striking; The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes. How could the transgression of the wicked speak within the heart of him who in the inscription of the Psalm declares himself to be the servant of JEHOVAH? These words are generally understood as signifying that the outward conduct of the sinner, as often as he thought of it, naturally suggested this conclusion to his mind, that he was destitute of all fear of God. But they may perhaps admit of another meaning, equally agreeable to the literal reading; wickedness, saith of the wicked, within my heart, etc. According to this view, the psalmist meant that notwithstanding the external pretences of the wicked, and all their attempts to cover their iniquity, he was certain that they had no real sense of the presence of God, that they secretly renounced his authority. How was he assured of this? By a comparison of their conduct with the dictates of the heart. He could not indeed look into their hearts, but he could look into his own, and there he found corruption so strong, that were it not for the fear of God that was implanted within him, he would be as bad as they. John Jamieson.

It is not the imperfection or shortcoming in the fear of God, but the being destitute of it altogether, that proveth a wicked man: There is no fear of God before his eyes. David Dickson.

(last clause). Not having the fear of God before his eyes, has become inwoven into proceedings in criminal courts. When a man has no fear of God, he is prepared for any crime. Total depravity is not too strong a term to describe human wickedness. The sinner has no fear of God. Where that is wanting, how can there be any piety? And if there is no piety, there must be total want of right affections, and that is the very essence of depravity. William S. Plumer.

Durst any mock God with flourishes and formalities in religion, if they feared him? Durst any provoke God to his face by real and open wickedness, if they feared him? Durst any sin with the judgments of God fresh bleeding before their eyes, if they feared the Lord and his wrath? Durst they sin with heaps of precious mercy before their eyes, if they feared the Lord and his goodness? Durst any flatter either others or themselves with hopes of impunity in their sin, if they feared the Lord and his truth? Durst any slight their own promises, professions, protestations, oaths, or design the entangling of others by them, rather than the binding of themselves, did they fear the Lord and his faithfulness, even the Lord who keepeth covenant and promise for ever? All these and many more transgressions of the wicked (all these ways of transgression are found among the wicked, it were well if none of them were found among those who have a name of godliness; I say, all these transgressions of the wicked) say, There is no fear of God before their eyes. Joseph Caryl.

The wicked man has no regard to the oracles of God: he had one in his own heart, which dictates nothing but rebellion. Zachary Mudge.

For he flattereth himself in his own eyes. The matter which this self flattery especially concerns is sin, as appears from the following clause. He deceives himself as to its nature and consequences, its evil and aggravations, and he continues to do so until his iniquity be found to be hateful; till it be fully discovered, and appear in its magnitude and atrocious circumstances both to himself and others, by some awful divine judgment, such as that mentioned in the last verse of the Psalm: "There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise." He adduces this self deceit and continuance in it, as illustrating the truth of that judgment he had formed of the state of such a person: There is no fear of God before his eyes: for he flattereth himself in his own eyes. And surely the proof is incontrovertible. For a man under the bondage of sin would never flatter himself in his own eyes, were it not that God is not before them. The reason why he thinks so well of himself is, that God is not in all his thoughts. He hath cast off all fear about himself because he hath no fear of God. John Jamieson.

He flattereth himself. 1. Some flatter themselves with a secret hope, that there is no such thing as another world. 2. Some flatter themselves that death is a great way off, and that they shall hereafter have much opportunity to seek salvation. 3. Some flatter themselves that they lead moral and orderly lives, and therefore think that they shall not be damned. 4. Some make the advantages under which they live an occasion of self flattery. They flatter themselves that they live in a place where the gospel is powerfully preached, and among a religious people, where many have been converted; and they think it will be much easier for them to be saved on that account. 5. Some flatter themselves with their own intentions. They intend to give themselves liberty for a while longer, and then to reform. 6. There are some who flatter themselves that they do, and have done, a great deal for their salvation, and therefore hope they shall obtain it; when indeed they neither do what they ought to do, nor what they might do even in their present state of unregeneracy; nor are they in any likely way to be converted. 7. Some hope by their strivings to obtain salvation of themselves. They have a secret imagination that they shall, by degrees, work in themselves sorrow and repentance of sin, and love towards God and Jesus Christ. Their striving is not so much an earnest seeking to God, as a striving to do themselves that which is the work of God. 8. Some sinners flatter themselves that they are already converted. They sit down and rest in a false hope, persuading themselves that all their sins are pardoned; that God loves them; that they shall go to heaven when they die; and that they need trouble themselves no more. "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Re 3:17. Condensed from Jonathan Edwards.

In his own eyes. He had not God before his eyes in holy awe, therefore he puts himself there in unholy admiration. He who makes little of God makes much of himself. They who forget adoration fall into adulation. The eyes must see something, and if they admire not God, they will flatter self. C. H. S.

Until his iniquity be found to be hateful; that is, until he finds by experience that it is a more dreadful thing to sin against God, and break his holy commands, than he imagined. Jonathan Edwards.

Hateful. Odious to himself, others, and to God. Gilbert Genebrard, 1537-1597.

He hath left off. That little light he once had, he hath lost, and cast off such good practices as once in hypocrisy he performed; neither will he learn to do better. John Trapp.

(last clause). Apostasy from God is really an undoing of all the good which we have done. It is a wicked repentance quite contrary to the grace of repentance; as that is a repentance from dead works, so this is a repentance from works of a better sort: He hath left off to be wise, and to do good. It is a perversion to evil after a seeming conversion from it. Timothy Cruso.

Verses 3-4.

Yet did he spare his sleep, and hear the clock

Number the midnight watches, on his bed

Devising mischief more; and early rose,

And made most hellish meals of good men's names.

From door to door you might have seen him speed,

Or placed amid a group of gaping fools.

Peace fled the neighbourhood in which he made

His haunts; and, like a moral pestilence,

Before his breath the healthy shoots and blooms

Of social joy and happiness decayed.

Fools only in his company were seen,

And those forsaken of God, and to themselves

Given up. The prudent shunned him and his house

As one who had a deadly moral plague. —Robert Pollock, 1799-1827.

He deviseth mischief upon his bed. As the man that fears God communes with his heart upon his bed, that he may not sin, no, not in his heart; so the man that fears not God, devises how he may plot and perform sin willingly. David Dickson.

Upon his bed. Most diligently does Ayguan follow up the scriptural expressions concerning a bed, and tell us that there are six different beds of wickedness —that of luxury, that of avarice, of ambition, of greediness, of torpor, and of cruelty, and he illustrates them all by examples from Scripture. J. M. Neale.

He setteth himself in a way that is not good. To wait to sin is to sin deliberately, yea, to wait to sin resolvedly. That sin is exceedingly sinfully committed which we set and prepare ourselves to commit. David, describing a wicked man, saith, He setteth himself in a way that is not good; that is, in an evil way: he doth not only fall into sin (that may be the case of a good man), but he takes or chooseth an evil way, and then sets or settles himself in it, resolving not to leave it, no, nor to be beaten out of it. Sin may be said to wait for a godly man, that is, Satan waits and watches his season to tempt him unto sin; but a godly man doth not wait nor watch to sin. It is bad enough to be overtaken with sin, or with a fault (as the apostle speaks, Ga 6:1); but to be taken with sin, and so to wait for a season to take our fill of it, is as bad as bad can be. Joseph Caryl.

He setteth himself in a way that is not good. Proud sinners have strongest conceit that they go right, at least in the way of their choice. Satan blindeth them so, that they mistake both the end and the way: in their count they are running to heaven, when they are posting to hell: he serveth them kindly with fresh post horses. Sometimes he mounts them on drunkenness, and when they have run a stage on that beastliness, he can mount them on lechery. Again, he can refresh them with avarice; and if they be weary of that slow jade, he setteth them on lofty ambition, and to make them more spirited he can horse them on restless contention. Every one seeth not Satan's enquiry: there is no complexion or disposition, but he hath a fit horse for it, and that of itself. Every man's predominant is a beast of Satan's saddling and providing to carry men to hell. The way is one, the post master is one, he is to be found at every stage, mounting his gallants, their horses are all of one kind though not of one colour. Happy is the man whom God dismounts in that evil way, and more happy is he who taketh with that stay, and turneth his course to heaven. William Struther.

He abhorreth not. i.e., is far enough from rejecting any instrument, however sinful, for attaining his purposes. J. J. Stewart Perowne.

Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens. David considering the thoughts and deeds of impious men, and the mercy of God towards them, utters this exclamation. When men are so impudently, who does not admire the divine longsuffering! Sebastian Munster, 1489-1552.

Verses 5-7. This Psalm doth fitly set forth unto us the estate and condition of these times, wherein wickedness increaseth: and so in the former part of the Psalm is a discovery of wickedness, verse 3. And what should we do when there is such wickedness in the earth? In the fifth verse, Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. God is gathering up all goodness, mercy, and peace from man to himself; and though there is cruelty, mischief, and wickedness in the world, in the earth, yet there is mercy, truth, and faithfulness in the clouds; and it's good that wisdom, goodness, truth, and righteousness leave the world, and cleave to God, that so we may follow it; and that what goodness, mercy, truth, and faithfulness we formerly enjoyed in man, we may enjoy it in God. And when wickedness increaseth, righteousness increaseth likewise: Thy righteousness is like the great mountains: when the world tears and breaks itself in pieces, then is the righteousness of God a great mountain. Thy judgments are a great deep; when the whole world is become one sea of confusion, then are the judgments of the Lord a great deep, where not only man, but beasts may rest safely. Thou preservest man and beast. And though this time is a time of growing and spreading wickedness in man, yet it is a time of sweetest admiration and love in God; and when men that sin do cry out, O woeful man! they that enjoy God, cry out, O happy man! And though men that live in the earth cry out, O miserable! what times are here? men that live in heaven cry out, How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! The Lord makes all things naked and bare, that we only may have him to be our safety. William Sedgwick (1600-1668). In "The Excellency of the love of God, "a sermon in a volume, entitled "Some Flashes of Lightnings of the Son of Man, "1648.

Verses 5-9.

Thy mercie Lord doth to the HEAUENS extend,

Thy faithfulness doth to the CLOUDES assend;

Thy justice stedfast as a MOUNTAINE is,

Thy JUDGEMENTS deepe as is the great Abisse;

Thy noble mercies saue all liueinge thinges,

The sonnes of men creepe underneath thy winges:

With thy great plenty they are fedd at will,

And of thy pleasure's streame they drinke their fill;

For euen the well of life remaines with thee,

And in thy glorious light wee light shall see. —Sir John Davies.

Thy righteousness is like the great mountains. Literally mountains of God, which men have not planted, and which men cannot move. Christopher Wordsworth.

Thy judgments are a great deep. Men's sins are a great deep, and Satan's ways are called a depth; but God's judgments, his ways in the wheels, are the greatest deep of all, they are unsearchable. William Greenhill.

How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! etc. The expressions here which denote the abundance of divine blessings upon the righteous man, seems to be taken from the temple, from whence they were to issue. Under the covert of the temple, the wings of the cherubim, they were to be sheltered. The richness of the sacrifices, the streams of oil, wine, odours, etc., and the light of the golden candlestick, are all plainly referred to. Samuel Burder.

Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. The word signifies to fly, to betake one's self to a place of safety: as the chickens in danger to be seized on, fly under the wings of the hen. "Under whose wings thou art come to trust." Ru 2:12. The helpless bird pursued by the kite, in danger to be devoured, runs under the shadow of the dam. Thus it is with a sinner at the first working of faith, he apprehends himself pursued by wrath and judgment; he knows if they seize on him he must perish without remedy. Oh, the sad condition of such a soul! Oh, but he sees Christ spreading his wings ready to secure perishing sinners; he hears him inviting in the gospel to come under his shadow! Oh, how sweet is that voice to him (however, while senseless he rejected it)! He hears, obeys, and runs to Christ for shelter, and so he is safe. How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. David Clarkson.

Thy wings. A common figure in the Psalms, taken more immediately, in my opinion, from the wings of the cherubim overshadowing the mercyseat which covered the ark; but more remotely from the birds, which defend their young from the solar rays by overshadowing them with their wings. Francis Hare (Bishop), 1740.

In lonesome cell, guarded and strong I lie,

Bound by Christ's love, his truth to testify,

Though walls be thick the door no hand unclose,

God is my strength, my solace, and repose.

In a letter of Jeronius Segerson, written in the prison at Antwerp to his wife, named Lysken, who likewise lay a prisoner there, 1551.

For with thee is the fountain of life. These are some of the most wonderful words in the Old Testament. Their fulness of meaning no commentary can ever exhaust. They are, in fact, the kernel and the anticipation of much of the profoundest teaching of S. John. J. J. Stewart Perowne.

In thy light shall we see light. The object and matter of our eternal happiness is called light. It will not be a dazzling and confounding light as was the brightness of Moses' face at his coming down from the mount; the people could not behold him: it will not be an astonishing light, as that in the mount at our Lord's transfiguration; the disciples fell to the ground, their weak eyes could not behold those glimpses of glory that shined through the vail of flesh. But the light in our heaven of happiness will be a strengthening and comforting light; it will strengthen and confirm the eyes of our understanding to behold it. Then shall we be enabled as the young eagles, to behold the Sun of Righteousness in his brightness and glory. It was said by the Lord to Moses, "None can see my face and live." Ex 33:20. That glorious sight which Daniel saw took strength from him. Da 10:8. The object being without him, drew out all his spirits to behold and admire it and so weakened him; but in heaven our God, whom we shall see and know, will be within us to strengthen us; then shall we live because we see his face. It will be also a comforting light, like the light of the morning to the wearied watchman, who longed after it in the nighttime. William Colville.

In thy light shall we see light. It is but a kind of dim twilight comparatively, which we enjoy here in this world. While we are hid in this prison house we can see but little; but our Father's house above is full of light; "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun, "etc. Mt 13:43. If the Day star be risen in your hearts, live in the pleasant and cheerful expectation of perfect day. For we can ascend but a little way into the mysteries of the kingdom, as long as we are upon the footstool; and we shall know vastly and inconceivably more in the first moment after we come to heaven, than we are capable of attaining here throughout all our days. Timothy Cruso.

In thy light shall we see light. The light of nature is like a spark, the light of the gospel a lamp, the light of grace a star, but the light of glory the sun itself. The higher our ascent the greater our light; God dwelleth "in the light which no man can approach unto." 1 Ti 6:16 —no man, while he carries mortality and sin about him; but when those two corrupt and incapable qualities shall be put off, then shall we be brought to that light. We are now glad of the sun and stars over our heads, to give us light: what light and delight shall that be when these are under our feet! That light must needs go as far beyond their light as they now go beyond us. But alas! they are only able to discourse of that light, that do enjoy it, to whom that eternal day is risen; not we that live in the humble shade of mortality and natural dimness. I leave it therefore to your meditations: it is a glorious light which we do well often to consider, considering to admire, admiring to love, loving to desire, desiring to seek, and finding to enjoy for ever. Thomas Adams.

In thy light shall we see light. There is a great boast of light in the world, and there is some ground for it in natural things; but, as of old the world by wisdom knew not God, so of late. If ever we know God, it must be through he medium of his word. This I take to be the meaning of the passage. The term light in the last clause means the true knowledge of God; and, in the first, the true medium of attaining it, namely, divine revelation. The sum seems to amount to this: the word of God is the grand medium by which we can attain a true and saving knowledge of God. What the sun and stars are to the regions of matter, that revelation is to the mental region. Ge 1:13,17. ...There are many things of which you may entertain no doubt, concerning which there may be no manner of dispute; yet, make a point of seeing them in God's light. Many content themselves with seeing them in the light in which great and good men have placed them; but, though angels, they are not the true light: they all view things partially. If what they say be true, yet, if we receive it merely on their representation, our faith will stand in the wisdom of men, and not in the power of God. 1Co 2:5. That knowledge or faith which has not God's word for its ground will not stand in the day of trial. Andrew Fuller.

In this communion of God what can we want? Why, God shall be all and in all unto us; he shall be beauty for the eye, music for the ear, honey for the taste, the full content and satisfaction of our desires, and that immediately from himself. True it is God is all in all in this world, "In him we live, and move, and have our being; " but here he works by means of secondary causes; here he gives wine to make the heart glad, and oil, etc.; but there all intervening means between God and us is removed: with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light; not in the light of the sun, or the light of a candle; there is no need of them Re 22:5; but "in thy light, "the light of God himself; yea, the whole life of glory, together with all the concomitants of it, flows from him as the sole and original fountain of it. Oh, how sweet must that happiness be that is so derived! Edmund Pinchbeck, B.D., in "The Fountain of Life:" a Funeral Sermon, 1652.

Whatsoever can be found in the creature, even when God blesseth the use thereof to his own children, is but a drop from the ocean, is but a little water out of the well, in comparison of what a believer will see and feel to be in God reconciled through Christ, for with thee is the fountain of life. David Dickson.

Continue thy lovingkindness. When God begins once to let out mercy to his servants, he stints not presently, but proceeds. ...When Rachel had her first son, she called his name Joseph, which signifieth adding, or increase; for she said, "The Lord shall add to me another son." Ge 30:24. Now God hath begun to show kindness, he shall not only give me this, but he shall give me another son also. When the Lord hath bestowed one mercy on you, you may name it Joseph, increase, addition, for God will bestow another upon you. Abraham had many mercies from God, one after another; and Moses, a multitude of mercies; he converses with God face to face; he hears God speak; he has God's presence to go along with him; yea, he sees all God's goodness and glory to pass before him. When mercies come forth, God will not presently shut the door of mercy again. Continue thy lovingkindness. The Hebrew is, draw forth, or draw out thy lovingkindness: a metaphor either taken from vessels of wine, which being set abroach once, yield not only one cup, but many cups; so when God setteth abroach the wine of his mercy, he will not fill your cup once, but twice and seven times: or, taken from a mother, who hath her breasts full of milk, draws them out for her child, not once, but often; the child shall have the breast many times in the day, and many times in the night, so when God begins to show mercy to you, he will draw out his breasts of consolation, and will bestow mercy after mercy upon you; or, from a line which is extended, for so God being in a way of mercy, will extend the line of mercy, and measure out mercy after mercy for you. William Greenhill.

The true mark of a godly man standeth in the conjunction of faith in God, with sincere study of obedience to him, for, He is the man that knoweth God, and is upright in heart. David Dickson.

Foot...Hand. Both foot and hand are named because both used in waging war. Simeon de Muis.

There are the workers of iniquity fallen. This is said as if the psalmist pointed, when he said it, to a particular place with his finger; and the same mode of expression occurs in Ps 14:5; or, it may be rendered, then (i.e., when the just are satisfied with the plenteousness of thy house, being rewarded for sincerely worshipping thee in it), shall they fall, all that work wickedness; they shall be cast down, and shall not be able to rise, as is the case with persons who have been thrown with violence upon the hard ground. Daniel Cresswell.

What is the fear of God? How does it operate? What is the effect of its absence? What should we learn from seeing such evil results? Or the atheism underlying transgression.

The arts, motives, assistances, results, and punishments of self flattery, and the discovery which concludes it.

Self flatteries. Jonathan Edwards' Sermon.

On the deceitfulness of the heart, with regard to the commission of sin. Two Sermons, in Jamieson's "Sermons on the Heart."

Bad words. Two out of many kinds.

(second clause). The relation between true wisdom and practical goodness.

Diligence in doing evil, a mark of deep depravity. W.S. Plumer.

The abuse of retirement to wicked purposes, a sure characteristic of an habitual sinner. N. Marshall.

The sinner on his bed, in his conduct, in his heart; and to this, in his death, and in his doom.

(second clause). Ways which are not good.

(last clause). Neutrality condemned.

Verses 5-6. Four glorious similes of the mercy, faithfulness, and providence of God. The preacher has here a wealth of poetic imagery never surpassed.

God's word and works mysterious. C. Simeon.

(second clause). God's judgments are —

1. Often unfathomable —we cannot discover the foundation or cause, and spring of them.

2. They are safe sailing. Ships never strike on rocks out in the great deeps.

3. They conceal great treasure.

4. They work much good —the great deep, though ignorance thinks it to be all waste, a salt and barren wilderness, is one of the greatest blessings to this round world.

5. They become a highway of communion with God. The sea is today the great highway of the world.

(last clause). Kindness of God to the lower animals, as well as man.

The object, reasons, nature, and experience of faith.

Verses 7-8. Admiration! Confidence! Expectation! Realisation!

(first clause). The provisions of the Lord's house. What they are, their excellence and abundance, and for whom provided.

(second clause). The heavenly Hiddekel —Its source, its flood, the happy drinkers, how they came to drink.

(first clause). LIFE, natural, mental, spiritual, proceeds from God, is sustained, restored, purified, and perfected by him. In him it dwells with permanency, from him it flows freely, with freshness, abundance, and purity; to him it should be consecrated.

(second clause). LIGHT, what it is to see it. Divine light, what it is; how it is the medium by which we see other light. The experience here described, and the duty here hinted at.

1. The character of the righteous —he knows God, and is upright in heart.

2. His privilege —lovingkindness and righteousness.

3. His prayer, continue, etc.

The need of daily supplies of grace.

A view of the overthrow of evil powers, principles, and men.