Psalms 40 commentary

Doubts and fears about the eternal state, are a horrible pit and miry clay, and have been so to many a dear child of God. There is power enough in God to help the weakest, and grace enough to help the unworthiest of all that trust in him. The psalmist waited patiently; he continued believing, hoping, and praying. This is applicable to Christ. His agony, in the garden and on the cross, was a horrible pit and miry clay. But those that wait patiently for God do not wait in vain. Those that have been under religious melancholy, and by the grace of God have been relieved, may apply verse 2 very feelingly to themselves; they are brought up out of a horrible pit. Christ is the Rock on which a poor soul can alone stand fast. Where God has given stedfast hope, he expects there should be a steady, regular walk and conduct. God filled the psalmist with joy, as well as peace in believing. Multitudes, by faith beholding the sufferings and glory of Christ, have learned to fear the justice and trust in the mercy of God through Him. Many are the benefits with which we are daily loaded, both by the providence and by the grace of God.

The psalmist foretells that work of wonder, redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ. The Substance must come, which is Christ, who must bring that glory to God, and that grace to man, which it was impossible the sacrifices should ever do. Observe the setting apart of our Lord Jesus to the work and office of Mediator. In the volume, or roll, of the book it was written of him. In the close rolls of the Divine decrees and counsel, the covenant of redemption was recorded. Also, in all the volumes of the Old Testament something was written of him, Joh 19:28. Now the purchase of our salvation is made, the proclamation is sent forth, calling us to come and accept it. It was preached freely and openly. Whoever undertook to preach the gospel of Christ, would be under great temptation to conceal it; but Christ, and those he calls to that work, are carried on in it. May we believe his testimony, trust his promise, and submit to his authority.

The best saints see themselves undone, unless continually preserved by the grace of God. But see the frightful view the psalmist had of sin. This made the discovery of a Redeemer so welcome. In all his reflections upon each step of his life, he discovered something amiss. The sight and sense of our sins in their own colours, must distract us, if we have not at the same time some sight of a Saviour. If Christ has triumphed over our spiritual enemies, then we, through him, shall be more than conquerors. This may encourage all that seek God and love his salvation, to rejoice in him, and to praise him. No griefs nor poverty can render those miserable who fear the Lord. Their God, and all that he has or does, is the ground of their joy. The prayer of faith can unlock his fulness, which is adapted to all their wants. The promises are sure, the moment of fulfilment hastens forward. He who once came in great humility, shall come again in glorious majesty.

PSALM 40

David, being delivered from some great danger, and it may be, not from one only, but from many, extols very highly the grace of God, and by means of this, his soul is filled with admiration of the providence of God, which extends itself to the whole human race. Then he protests that he will give himself wholly to the service of God, and defines briefly in what manner God is to be served and honored. Afterwards, he again returns to the exercise of thanksgiving, and celebrates the praises of the Eternal by rehearsing many of his glorious and powerful deeds. Lastly, when he has complained of his enemies, he concludes the psalm with a new prayer.

To the chief musician. A Psalm of David.

Psalm 40:1-3

1. In waiting I waited “C’est, paciemment.” — Fr. marg. “That is, patiently.” Calvin in the text gives the literal rendering of the Hebrew. In waiting I waited is a Hebraism which signifies vehement desire, and yet entire resignation of mind. “The doubling of the word,” says Ainsworth, “denotes earnestness, constancy, patience.” for Jehovah, and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. 2. And he drew me out of the roaring pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. 3. And he hath put into my mouth a new song, even praise to our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in Jehovah.

1. In waiting I waited The beginning of this psalm is an expression of thanksgiving, in which David relates that he had been delivered, not only from danger, but also from present death. Some are of opinion, but without good reason, that it ought to be understood of sickness. It is rather to be supposed that David here comprehends a multitude of dangers from which he had escaped. He had certainly been more than once exposed to the greatest danger, even of death, so that, with good reason, he might be said to have been swallowed up in the gulf of death, and sunk in the miry clay It, nevertheless, appears that his faith had still continued firm, for he ceased not to trust in God, although the long continuance of the calamity had well nigh exhausted his patience. He tells us, not merely that he had waited, but by the repetition of the same expression, he shows that he had been a long time in anxious suspense. In proportion then as his trial was prolonged, the evidence and proof of his faith in enduring the delay with calmness and equanimity of mind was so much the more apparent. The meaning in short is, that although God delayed his help, yet the heart of David did not faint, or grow weary from delay; but that after he had given, as it were, sufficient proof of his patience, he was at length heard. In his example there is set before us this very useful doctrine, that although God may not forthwith appear for our help, but rather of design keep us in suspense and perplexity, yet we must not lose courage, inasmuch as faith is not thoroughly tried, except by long endurance. The result, too, of which he speaks in terms of praise, ought to inspire us with increased fortitude. God may succor us more slowly than we desire, but, when he seems to take no notice of our condition, or, if we might so speak, when he seems to be inactive or to sleep, this is totally different from deceit: for if we are enabled by the invincible strength and power of faith to endure, the fitting season of our deliverance will at length arrive.

PSALM 40

Psa 40:1-17. In this Psalm a celebration of God's deliverance is followed by a profession of devotion to His service. Then follows a prayer for relief from imminent dangers, involving the overthrow of enemies and the rejoicing of sympathizing friends. In He 10:5, &c., Paul quotes Psa 40:6-8 as the words of Christ, offering Himself as a better sacrifice. Some suppose Paul thus accommodated David's words to express Christ's sentiments. But the value of his quotation would be thus destroyed, as it would have no force in his argument, unless regarded by his readers as the original sense of the passage in the Old Testament. Others suppose the Psalm describes David's feelings in suffering and joy; but the language quoted by Paul, in the sense given by him, could not apply to David in any of his relations, for as a type the language is not adapted to describe any event or condition of David's career, and as an individual representing the pious generally, neither he nor they could properly use it (see on Psa 40:7, below). The Psalm must be taken then, as the sixteenth, to express the feelings of Christ's human nature. The difficulties pertinent to this view will be considered as they occur.

1-3. The figures for deep distress are illustrated in Jeremiah's history (Jr 38:6-12). Patience and trust manifested in distress, deliverance in answer to prayer, and the blessed effect of it in eliciting praise from God's true worshippers, teach us that Christ's suffering is our example, and His deliverance our encouragement (He 5:7, 8; 12:3; 1Pe 4:12-16).

inclined--(the ear, Psa 17:6), as if to catch the faintest sigh.

4. Blessed--(Psa 1:1; 2:12).

respecteth--literally, "turns towards," as an object of confidence.

turn aside--from true God and His law to falsehood in worship and conduct.

5. be reckoned up in order--(compare Psa 5:3; 33:14; Is 44:7), too many to be set forth regularly. This is but one instance of many. The use of the plural accords with the union of Christ and His people. In suffering and triumph, they are one with Him.

6-8. In Paul's view this passage has more meaning than the mere expression of grateful devotion to God's service. He represents Christ as declaring that the sacrifices, whether vegetable or animal, general or special expiatory offerings, would not avail to meet the demands of God's law, and that He had come to render the required satisfaction, which he states was effected by "the offering of the body of Christ" [He 10:10], for that is the "will of God" which Christ came to fulfil or do, in order to effect man's redemption. We thus see that the contrast to the unsatisfactory character assigned the Old Testament offerings in Psa 40:6 is found in the compliance with God's law (compare Psa 40:7, 8). Of course, as Paul and other New Testament writers explain Christ's work, it consisted in more than being made under the law or obeying its precepts. It required an "obedience unto death" [Php 2:8], and that is the compliance here chiefly intended, and which makes the contrast with Psa 40:6 clear.

mine ears hast thou opened--Whether allusion is made to the custom of boring a servant's ear, in token of voluntary and perpetual enslavement (Ex 21:6), or that the opening of the ear, as in Is 48:8; 50:5 (though by a different word in Hebrew) denotes obedience by the common figure of hearing for obeying, it is evident that the clause is designed to express a devotion to God's will as avowed more fully in Psa 40:8, and already explained. Paul, however, uses the words, "a body hast thou prepared me" [He 10:5], which are found in the Septuagint in the place of the words, "mine ears hast thou opened." He does not lay any stress on this clause, and his argument is complete without it. It is, perhaps, to be regarded rather as an interpretation or free translation by the Septuagint, than either an addition or attempt at verbal translation. The Septuagint translators may have had reference to Christ's vicarious sufferings as taught in other Scriptures, as in Is 53:4-11; at all events, the sense is substantially the same, as a body was essential to the required obedience (compare Ro 7:4; 1Pe 2:24).

9-10. I have preached--literally, "announced good tidings." Christ's prophetical office is taught. He "preached" the great truths of God's government of sinners.

11. may be rendered as an assertion, that God will not withhold (Psa 16:1).

12. evils--inflicted by others.

iniquities--or penal afflictions, and sometimes calamities in the wide sense. This meaning of the word is very common (Psa 31:11; 38:4; compare Ge 4:13, Cain's punishment; Ge 19:15, that of Sodom; 1Sa 28:10, of the witch of En-dor; also 2Sa 16:12; Job 19:29; Is 5:18; 53:11). This meaning of the word is also favored by the clause, "taken hold of me," which follows, which can be said appropriately of sufferings, but not of sins (compare Job 27:20; Psa 69:24). Thus, the difficulties in referring this Psalm to Christ, arising from the usual reading of this verse, are removed. Of the terrible afflictions, or sufferings, alluded to and endured for us, compare Lu 22:39-44, and the narrative of the scenes of Calvary.

my heart faileth me--(Mt 26:38), "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death."

cannot look up--literally, "I cannot see," not denoting the depression of conscious guilt, as Lu 18:13, but exhaustion from suffering, as dimness of eyes (compare Psa 6:7; 13:3; 38:10). The whole context thus sustains the sense assigned to iniquities.

13. (Compare Psa 22:19).

14-15. The language is not necessarily imprecatory, but rather a confident expectation (Psa 5:11), though the former sense is not inconsistent with Christ's prayer for the forgiveness of His murderers, inasmuch as their confusion and shame might be the very means to prepare them for humbly seeking forgiveness (compare Ac 2:37).

16. (Compare Psa 35:27).

love thy salvation--delight in its bestowal on others as well as themselves.

17. A summary of his condition and hopes.

thinketh upon--or provides for me. "He was heard," "when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears, unto Him that was able to save him from death" [He 5:7].

I waited patiently for the Lord - The two preceding Psalms are proofs of the patience and resignation with which David waited for the mercy of God. The reader is requested to consult the notes on them.

And heard my cry - The two preceding Psalms show how he prayed and waited; this shows how he succeeded.

A horrible pit - Literally, the sounding pit; where nothing was heard except the howlings of wild beasts, or the hollow sounds of winds reverberated and broken from the craggy sides and roof.

The miry clay - Where the longer I stayed the deeper I sank, and was utterly unable to save myself. The Syriac and Arabic translate "The pit of perdition, and the mud of corruption." These are figurative expressions to point out the dreary, dismal, ruinous state of sin and guilt, and the utter inability of a condemned sinner to save himself either from the guilt of his conscience, or the corruption of his heart.

Set my feet upon a rock - Thou hast changed my state from guilt to pardon; from corruption to holiness; in consequence of which my goings are established. I have now power over all sin, and can walk steadily in the way that leads to God's kingdom.

A new song - Cheerfulness and joy had long been strangers to him. He seemed to live to utter the most doleful complaints, and be a prey to suffering and wretchedness. Praise for a sense of God's favor was a new song to him. The word is often used to signify excellence: I will sing a most excellent and eminent song.

Many shalt see it - I will publish it abroad and fear-to sin against the Lord, knowing by my example what a grievous and bitter thing it is.

And shall trust in the Lord - Even the worst of sinners shall not despair of mercy, being penitent, when they see that I have found favor in his sight.

Blessed is that man - The man must be blessed and happy who casts his soul with all its burden of sin and wretchedness, at the footstool of God's mercy; for he will save all who come to him through the Son of his love.

Many - are thy wonderful works - The psalmist seems here astonished and confounded at the counsels, loving-kindnesses, and marvellous works of the Lord, not in nature, but in grace; for it was the mercy of God towards himself that he had now particularly in view.

Sacrifice and offering - The apostle, Heb 10:5, etc., quoting this and the two following verses, says, When he (the Messiah) cometh into the world - was about to be incarnated, He saith - to God the Father, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not - it was never thy will and design that the sacrifices under thy own law should be considered as making atonement for sin; they were only designed to point out my incarnation and consequent sacrificial death: and therefore a body hast thou prepared me, by a miraculous conception in the womb of a virgin; according to thy word, The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent.

A body hast thou prepared me - The quotation of this and the two following verses by the apostle, Heb 10:5, etc., is taken from the Septuagint, with scarcely any variety of reading: but, although the general meaning is the same, they are widely different in verbal expression in the Hebrew. David's words are אזנים כרית לי oznayim caritha lli, which we translate, My ears hast thou opened; but they might be more properly rendered, My ears hast thou bored; that is, Thou hast made me thy servant for ever, to dwell in thine own house: for the allusion is evidently to the custom mentioned Exo 21:2, etc.: "If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free: but if the servant shall positively say, I love my master, etc., I will not go out free; then his master shall bring him to the doorpost, and shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever."

But how is it possible that the Septuagint and the apostle should take a meaning so totally different from the sense of the Hebrew? Dr. Kennicott has a very ingenious conjecture here: he supposes that the Septuagint and apostle express the meaning of the words as they stood in the copy from which the Greek translation was made; and that the present Hebrew text is corrupted in the word אזנים oznayim, ears, which has been written through carelessness for אז גוה az gevah, Then, a Body The first syllable, אז az, Then, is the same in both; and the latter, Myn, which, joined to אז makes אזנים oznayim, might have been easily mistaken for גוה gevah, Body; נ nun being very like ג gimel; י yod like ו vau; and h he like final ם mem; especially if the line on which the letters were written in the MS. happened to be blacker than ordinary, which has often been a cause of mistake, it might then have been easily taken for the under-stroke of the mem, and thus give rise to a corrupt reading; add to this, the root כרה carah signifies as well to prepare, as to open, bore, etc. On this supposition the ancient copy translated by the Septuagint, and followed by the apostle, must have read the text thus: אז גוה כרית לי az gevah charitha lli; Σωμα δε κατηρτισω μοι· Then a body thou hast prepared me: thus the Hebrew text, the version of the Septuagint, and the apostle, will agree in what is known to be an indisputable fact in Christianity; namely, that Christ was incarnated for the sin of the world.

The Ethiopic has nearly the same reading: the Arabic has both, "A body hast thou prepared me, and mine ears thou hast opened." But the Syriac, the Chaldee, and the Vulgate, agree with the present Hebrew text; and none of the MSS. collated by Kennicott and De Rossi have any various reading on the disputed words.

It is remarkable, that all the offerings and sacrifices which were considered to be of an atoning or cleansing nature, offered under the law, are here enumerated by the psalmist and the apostle, to show that none of them, nor all of them, could take away sin; and that the grand sacrifice of Christ was that alone which could do it.

Four kinds are here specified, both by the psalmist and the apostle: viz. Sacrifice, זבח zebach, θυσια; Offering, מנחה minchah, προσφορα; Burnt-Offering, עולה olah, ὁλοκαυτωμα; Sin-Offering, חטאה chataah, περι ἁμαρτιας. Of all these we may say, with the apostle, it was impossible that the blood of bulls and goats, etc. should take away sin.

Thou hast had no pleasure - Thou couldst never be pleased with the victims under the law; thou couldst never consider them as atonements for sin, as they could never satisfy thy justice, nor make thy law honorable.

In the volume of the book - במגלת ספר bimegillath sepher, "in the roll of the book." Anciently, books were written on skins, and rolled up. Among the Romans, these were called volumina, from volvo, I roll; and the Pentateuch in the Jewish synagogues is still written in this way. There are two wooden rollers; on one they roll on, on the other they roll off, as they proceed in reading. One now lying before me, written on vellum, is two feet two inches in breadth and one hundred and two feet long. To roll and unroll such a MS. was no easy task, and to be managed must lie flat on a table. This contains the Pentateuch only, and is without points, or any other Masoretic distinction. The book mentioned here must be the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses; for, in David's time no other part of Divine revelation had been committed to writing. This whole book speaks about Christ, and his accomplishing the will of God, not only in "the seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent," and "in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;" but in all the sacrifices and sacrificial rites mentioned in the law.

To do thy will - God willed not the sacrifices under the law, but he willed that a human victim of infinite merit should be offered for the redemption of mankind. That there might be such a victim, a body was prepared for the eternal Logos, and in that body he came to do the will of God; that is, to suffer and die for the sins of the world.

1. Hence we see that the sovereign Will of God is that Jesus should be incarnated; that he should suffer and die; or, in the apostle's words, taste death for every man; that all should believe on him, and be saved from their sins; for this is the Will of God, our sanctification.

2. And as the apostle grounds this on the words of the Psalm, we see that it is the Will of God that that system shall end; for as the essence of it is contained in its sacrifices, and God says he will not have these, and has appointed the Messiah to do his will, i.e., to die for men, hence it necessarily follows, from the psalmist himself, that the introduction of the Messiah into the world is the abolition of the law; and that his sacrifice is that which shall last for ever.

I have preached righteousness - I think it best to refer these words to Christ and his apostles. In consequence of his having become a sacrifice for sin, the Jewish sacrificial system being ended, the middle wall of partition was broken down, and the door of faith, the doctrine of justification by faith, opened to the Gentiles. Hence the Gospel was preached in all the world, and the mercy of God made known to the Gentiles; and thus righteousness - justification by faith, was preached in the great congregation - to Jews and Gentiles, throughout the Roman empire.

The great congregation, both in this and the following verse, I think, means the Gentiles, contradistinguished from the Jews.

The word righteousness means the plan or method of salvation by Jesus Christ - God's method of justifying sinners by faith, without the deeds of the law. See Rom 3:25-26 (note), and the notes there.

Thy faithfulness - This means the exact fulfillment of the promises made by the prophets relative to the incarnation of Christ, and the opening of the door of faith to the Gentiles.

Loving-kindness - Shows the gift itself of Jesus Christ, the highest proof that God could give to a lost world of his mercy, kindness, and loving-kindness.

Thy tender mercies - רחמיך rachameycha, such propensities and feelings as a mother bears to her child; or animals in general to their young.

Let thy loving-kindness - חסדך chasdecha, thy overflowing and superabundant mercy.

And thy truth - What is revealed in thy word: continually preserve me. Mercy to help me, truth to direct me; and, by the operation of both, I shall be continually preserved from sin and evil.

Innumerable evils have compassed me about - This part does not comport with the preceding; and either argues a former experience, or must be considered a part of another Psalm, written at a different time, and on another occasion, and, were we to prefix the two first verses of the seventieth Psalm to it we should find it to be a Psalm as complete in itself as that is.

They are more than the hairs of mine head - This could not be said by any person who was exulting in the pardoning mercy of God, as David was at the time he penned the commencement of this Psalm.

That say unto me, Aha, aha - האח האח. See on Psa 35:21 (note).

Let all those that seek thee - be glad - In making prayer and supplication to thee, let them ever find thee, that they may magnify thee for the blessings they receive.

Love thy salvation - Who earnestly desire to be saved from sin: saved in thy own way, and on thy own terms.

The Lord be magnified - Let God be praised continually for the continual blessings he pours down.

But I am poor - עני ani, afflicted, greatly depressed.

And needy - אביון ebyon, a beggar. One utterly destitute, and seeking help.

The Lord thinketh upon me - The words are very emphatic; אדני Adonai, my prop, my support, thinketh, יחשב yachshab, meditateth, upon me. On which he concludes: "Thou art my help and deliverer." Seeing that my miserable state occupies thy heart, it will soon employ thy hand. Thou, who meditatest upon me, wilt deliver me.

Make no tarrying - Seeing thou art disposed to help, and I am in such great necessity, delay not, but come speedily to my assistance. The old Psalter speaks to this effect: "Let us not be so long under distress and misery that we lose our patience, or our love to thee."

Pit - Desperate dangers and calamities. Rock - A place of strength and safety. Established - Kept me from falling into mischief.

And fear - Shall stand in awe of that God, whom they see to have so great power, either to save or to destroy.

The proud - Or, the mighty, the great and proud potentates of the world, to whom most men are apt to look and trust. Turn - From God, in whom alone they ought to trust. To lies - To lying vanities, such as worldly power and wisdom, and riches, and all other earthly things, or persons, in which men are prone to trust: which are called lies, because they promise more than they perform.

Many - This verse seems to be interposed as a wall of partition, between that which David speaks in his own person, and that which he speaks in the person of the Messiah, in the following verses.

Sacrifice - These and the following words, may in an improper sense belong to the time of David; when God might be said, not to desire or require legal sacrifices comparatively. Thou didst desire obedience rather than sacrifices, but in a proper sense, they belong only to the person and times of the Messiah, and so the sense is, God did not desire or require them, for the satisfaction of his own justice, and the expiation of mens sins, which could not possibly be done by the blood of bulls or goats, but only by the blood of Christ, which was typified by them, and which Christ came into the world to shed, in pursuance of his father's will, as it here follows, ver.7,8. So here is a prediction concerning the cessation of the legal sacrifice, and the substitution of a better instead of them. Opened - Heb. bored. I have devoted myself to thy perpetual service, and thou hast accepted of me as such, and signified so much by the boring of mine ears, according to the law and custom in that case, Exod 21:5,6. The seventy Jewish interpreters, whom the apostle follows, Heb 10:5, translate these words, a body hast thou prepared me.

Them - These words literally and truly belong to Christ, and the sense is this; seeing thou requirest a better sacrifice than those of the law, lo, I offer myself to come, and I will in due time come, into the world, as this phrase is explained in divers places of scripture, and particularly Heb 10:5, where this place is expressly applied to Christ. Volume - These two words, volume and book are used of any writing, and both express the same thing. Now this volume of the book is the law of Moses, which is commonly and emphatically called the book, and was made up in the form of a roll or volume, as the Hebrew books generally were. And so this place manifestly points to Christ, concerning whom much is said in the books of Moses.

I delight - This is eminently true, of Christ, and is here observed as an act of heroic obedience, that he not only resolved to do, but delighted in doing the will of God, or what God had commanded him, which was to die, and that a most shameful, and painful, and cursed death. My heart - I do not only understand it, but receive it with heartiest love, delighting both to meditate of it, and to yield obedience to it.

Righteousness - Thy faithfulness. Great congregation - In the most public and solemn assemblies: not only to the Jews, but also to all nations; to whom Christ preached by his apostles, as is observed Eph 2:17. Not refrained - From preaching it, even to the face of mine enemies.

With - hold not - David, having been transported by the spirit of God to the commemoration of the great mystery of the Messiah, he now seems to be led back by the same spirit, to the consideration of his own case.

Taken hold - Mens sins are figuratively said to take hold of them, as an officer takes hold of a man whom he arrests. To look - Unto God or men, with any comfort: I am ashamed and confounded.

Shame - Their sinful and shameful actions.

1. I waited patiently for the LORD, and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.

Heb. I[illegible: 1+ letters] waiting I waited, which doubling of the Word, notes that he waited diligently and earnestly, patiently, and perseveringly, until God should please to help him.

Or, [illegible: 1+ letters]wed, to wit, himself, as this very Word is rendred, Iudg. 16. 30. or, his Ear, as it is more fully expressed, Psal. 17. 6. and 31. 2. Such Ellipses or Defects, are frequent in Scripture, as Psal. 3. 6. and 10. 1. E[illegible: 1+ letters]les. 6. 3. and 7. 15.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. in wait▪ [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word].

2. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit , out of the miery clay , and set my seet upon a rock , and established my goings .

Or, out of a sounding Pit, so called, Either, from the Clamours of Men, or Beasts falling into it; Or, from the many Waters which fall down into it, not without a great Noise. I was not onely upon the brink, but in the very bottom of the Pit, (i. e.) In desperate Dangers and Calamities, as this Phrase signifies, Psal. 18. 16. and 69. 1, 2.

In which my feet stuck fast.

A place of strength and safety.

Or, my steps, (i. e.) Kept me from stumbling or falling into Mischief.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word] Pit of [illegible: 1 word].; [illegible: 1 word]. 69. 1. 2.

3. And he hath put a new song in my Mouth , even praise unto our God: many shall see it , and fear , and shall trust in the LORD .

Partly, by giving me new Matter or Occasion for a Song: and Partly, by inspiring me with the very Words of it.

(i. e.) Shall observe Gods wonderful Mercies vouchsafed to me.

(i. e.) Shall stand in awe of that God, whom by this instance they see to have so great Power, either to save or to destroy, and Tremble at his Judgments, and give him that Reverence and Worship, and Obedience which he requires▪

Yet their Fear shall not drive them from God, or bring them into Despair, but shall draw them to God, and be attended with trusting in God.

4. Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust : and respecteth not the proud , nor such as turn aside to lyes .

(i. e.) His onely Trust or Refuge, as appears from the following Words, I said, many shall trust in the Lord, and they shall not be loosers by it, nor disappointed of their Hope, but they are and shall be Blessed.

Heb. Looketh not towards, to wit, with Love and Delight, and desire to imitate them: Or, with Confidence and Expectation of Relief from thence, as this Phrase is o[illegible: 1+ letters]t used, as Psal. 25. 15. and 69. 3. and 121. 1. and 141. 8. and as the Opposition of this Clause, to the foregoing seems to imply.

Or, the mighty, (i. e.) The great and Proud Potentates of the World, to whom most men are apt to look and trust, and in whom the Psalmist forbids us, to put ou[illegible: 1+ letters] Trust, Psal. 146. 3.

To wit, from God, in whom alone they ought to trust.

(i. e.) To lying Vanities, such as World▪ly Power, and Wisdom, and Riches, and all other Earthly things, or Persons, in which men are prone to Trust: Which are called [illegible: 1+ letters]yes here, and Psal. 4. 2. and 62. 9. Mich. 1. 14. and elsewhere, because they promise more than they can perform. See also, Psal. 7. 14. and 119. 118. Hos. 10. 13. and 12. 1.

5. Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward : they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them , they are more than can be numbred .

For which I and the rest of thy People, included in the Pronoun plural, us, have abundant cause to Praise thee, and to trust in thee, as was said, v. 3. And by which it will appear, that he that trusteth in thee, is in a most Blessed and safe Condition▪ as he said, v 4. And this Verse, wherein he passeth from the singular Number to the plural, may seem to be interposed, as a Wall of Partition, between that which David speaks in his own Person, and that which he speaks in the Person of the Messias, in the following Verses.

(i. e.) Thy gracious Counsels or Contrivances.

(i. e.) To me and to the rest of thy People, with whom David oft joyns himself in this Book. But these Words may be, and are by some joyned to the following Words, and the place thus rendred. It is not with us, or, in our Power (i. e.) It passeth our skill (and reach) to order, or to reckon them up in Order unto thee, because indeed they are innumerable, and therefore cannot be digested into any order.

So the Particle if or when is wanting, and to be supplied here, as it is, Psal. 39. 11. and in many other places. Heb. Yet, I will declare and speak▪ to wit, some part of them: which accordingly he doth in the following Verses.

Although I am not able to express or Reckon them all.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. 9. & [illegible: 1 word]. 10. Psa. 71.; [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 word] 92. 5. [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1+ letters]39. 17. [illegible: 1 word].; [illegible: 1 word], none can [illegible: 1 word] them unto [illegible: 1 word].

6. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire , mine ears hast thou opened : burnt offering and sin-offering hast thou not required.

These and the following Words, may in an improper Sence belong to the Person and time of David: when God might be said, not to Desire or Require Legal Sacrifices Comparatively, as negative Expressions are frequently understood, as Mat. 9. 13. 1 Cor. 1. 17. and in this very Case of Sacrifices, as Psal. 51. 16. Ier. 7. 22, 23. H[illegible: 1+ letters]se. 6. 6. So the Sence is; thou didst desire Obedience more, or rather than Sacrifices, as was said 1 Sam. 15. 22. But in a Proper and Literal and full Sence, they belong onely to the Person and times of the Messias, in whose Name David uttereth these Words. And so the Sence of the place is, God did not desire or require them, for the Satisfaction of his own Justice, and the Expiation of Mens sins, which could not possibly be done by the Blood of Bulls or Goats, as is said Heb. 10. 4, 5, 6. But onely by the Blood of Christ, which was Typified by them, and which Christ came into the World, to shed in pursuance of his Fathers Will, as it here follows, v. 7, 8. So here is a Prediction concerning the Cessation and Abolition of the Legal Sacrifices, and the Substitution of a better instead of them.

Heb. bored. The Sence is, Either, 1. Whereas many men have no Ears to hear, as is implyed, Revel. 2. 7, 11, 17. or stop their Ears, as Psal. 58. 4. Zech. 7. 11. thou hast given me open Ears to hear and obey thy Precepts, as this Phrase is used, Isa. 50. 5. although indeed there is another Verb in that Text; which much alters the Case. Or, 2. I have wholly devoted my self to thy perpetual Service, and thou hast accepted of me as such, and signified so much by the boring of mine Ears, according to the Law and Custom in that Case, Exod. 21. 5, 6. Deut. 15. 17. And whereas onely one Ear was then bored, and here it is Ears, this may be either an Enallage of the plural Number for the singular; whereof divers instances have been given: Or else it may be so expressed Emphatically, to intimate that Christ was more strictly obliged to a more universal Obedience, not onely Active, to which the Legal Servants were bound, but Passive also, to be obedient even unto the Death, to which they were not Obliged. The LXX Jewish Interpreters, whom the Apostle follows, Heb. 10. [illegible: 1+ letters]. Translate these Words; A Body hast thou prepared me: Wherein though the Words differ the Sence is the same, for the Ears suppose a Body to whom they belong, and the preparing of a Body, implies the preparing or disposing of the Ears, and the Obligation of the Person, for whom a Body was prepared to serve him, who prepared it; which the boring of the Ear signifies.

Marginal references: Psal. 50. 8. & 51. 16. Isa. 1. 11. & 66 3. Hos. 6. 6. Mat. 12. 7. Heb. 10. 5.; Isa. 50. 5.; Hbb. digged.

7. Then said I , Lo, I come : in the Volume of the book, it is † written of me :

When I understood and Considered thy Mind and Will therein, expressed, v. 6.

Either within my self, by a firm purpose: Or, unto thee by way of Promise or Engagement.

He may seem to speak like a Servant, answering to the Call of his Master, and signifying his Readyness to obey him; in which Sence it may be Accommodated to David. But the Servants Answer is usually expressed in Scripture, by another Phrase, Here am I, and never, to my Remembrance, in these Words. Besides this Phrase in that Sence, seems not to be Proper in this place, but rather, L[illegible: 1+ letters] I he[illegible: 1+ letters], which best suits with the foregoing Words, mine Ears hast thou opened. But these Words do most Literally and [illegible: 1+ letters]ruly belong to Christ, and the Sence is this: Seeing thou requirest a better Sacrifice than those of the Law, Lo, I do offer my self to Come, and I will in due time Come, to wit, from Heaven or i[illegible: 1+ letters] the Flesh, or, into the World, as this Phrase is more fully expressed, and explained in divers places of Scripture, and particularly▪ Heb. 10. 5. where this place is explained, and applied to Christ.

These two Words, Volume and Book are indifferently used of any Writing, and both Words seem here to express the same thing, as may appear by Comparing, Ier. 36. where we have the very same Words, and what is called the Roll or Volume of a Book, v. 2. 4. is called simply, a Roll or Volume, v. 6. 20, 21. and the Book, v. 10. 13. it being usual with the Hebrews to joyn two Words together in like manner; of which we have an instance here above, v. 2. Miry Clay, Heb. Clay of Mire. Now this Volume of the Book is meant, Either, 1▪ Of the Book of Predestination, in which Christ was written, as being fore-ordained before the Foundation of the World, 1 Pet. 1. 20. But that is a secret Book not to be Read by any man Living, and therefore not fitly alledged as an Evidence in this Matter. Or, 2. Of a Legal Instrument, wherein the Contract was drawn between God and him, wherein he did oblige himself to serve God, and to Execute his Will in all things; it being the manner of the Hebrews to write their Contracts in a little Volume or Book. But, 1. We Read of no such usage among the Hebrews in the Contracts, between Master and Servant, but onely of the boring of the Servants Ear, Exod. 21. 6. So the Foundation of this allusion is destroyed, 2. At least there was no such Contract written between God and him. And if it be said, that he onely speaks thus by way of allusion, that is but a Supposition without ground. And when the Words may be properly understood as they sound, of a thing really done, why should we forsake the plain Sence without Necessity? 3. The Phrase here used, doth not agree to this Sence; for then he should have said, I am written in the Volume of the Book. (i. e.) In the Catalogue of thy Servants; for in that Case the Persons or their Names are Constantly said to be written, as Exod. 32. 32, 33. Psal. 69. 28. Dan. 12. 1. Luk. 10. 20. Heb. 12. 23. Revel. 13. 8. and 20. 15. and 21. 27. and not any thing to be written of them, as it is here. Or, 3 Of the Holy Scriptures. In which something indeed was written concerning David: Namely, that he was a man after God's own Heart. 1 Sam. 13. 14. But it must be remembred, that those Books were not written till after David's Death, in whose time here was no other Book of Scripture exstant, but the five Books of Moses, unless you will except the Book of Ioh. And therefore this is meane of the Law of Moses, which is commonly and Emphatically called the Book, and was made [illegible: 1+ letters]p in the form of a Roll or Volume, as the Hebrew Books generally were. See Ez[illegible: 1+ letters]k. 3. 1, 2. 3. Zech. 5. 1, 2. Luk. 4. 17. 20. And so this place manifestly points to Christ, and must necessarily be understood of him, and of him onely, concerning whom much is said in the Books of Moses, as is Evident from Luk. 24. 27. 44. Ioh. 5. 46. Act. 3. 22. and 26. 22. and 28. 23. And this Sence being plain and Natural and unforced, and exactly agreeing both with the Words, and with the truth of the thing, and with the Belief of all Christians, I see no reason why I may not acquiesce in it.

8. I delight to do thy will , O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart .

This though in a general Sence, it may be true of David and of all God's People, yet if it be Compared with the [illegible: 1+ letters] ing Verse, and with the Explication thereof in the Ne[illegible: 1+ letters] Testament, (in which those Mysteries which were darkly and doubtfully expressed in the Old Testement, are fully and clearly revealed) must be appropriated to Christ, of whom it is eminently true, and is here observed as an Act of Heroical obedience, that he not onely resolved to do, but delig[illegible: 1+ letters]ted in doing the Will of God, or what God had Commanded him, and he had promised to do, which was to dye, and that a most shameful and painful and Cursed Death. See Luk. 12. 50. Ioh. 10. 18. Heb. 10. 9, 10.

(i. e.) I do not onely hear and understand it, but I receive it with heartiest Love and Affection, delighting both to meditate of it, and to yield Obedience to it.

Marginal references: Psal. 119. 16. 24. 47. 92. Rom. 7. 22▪; Heb. in the midst of my Bowels.; Psal. 37. 31. Je[illegible: 1+ letters]. 31. 33.

9. I have preached righteousness , in the great congregation : [illegible: 1+ letters]o I have not refrained my lips , O LORD, thou knowest .

To wit, thy Righteousness, as it is expressed in the next Verse, (i. e.) Thy faithfulness, as it is there explained: Or Righteousness properly so called: for both were fully declared and demonstrated in Christ, the former in sending him into the World according to his Promise, Act. 13. 23. and the lat[illegible: 1+ letters]er in inflicting Death upon him for Mans sin, Rom. 3. 25, 26.

[illegible: 1+ letters]n the most publick and solemn Assemblies: not onely to the Iews, but also to all other Nations; to whom Christ preached by his Apostles, as is observed Eph. 2. 17.

To wit, from Preaching it, out of sloth or Fear, or Self-Love, but have Preached it publickly, and even to the Face of mine Enemies, though I knew my Preaching would cost me my Life.

I call thee to Witness the Truth of what I say.

Marginal references: Psal. 35. 18.

10. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart , I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation : I have not concealed thy loving kindness, and thy truth from the great congregation.

I had it there, v. 8. but I did not smother or shu[illegible: 1+ letters] it up there, but spread it abroad for thy Glory, and the good of the World.

Which thou hast wrought both for me, and by me.

11. With-hold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD : let thy loving kindness and thy truth continually preserve me

This Prayer is uttered by David, Either, 1. In the Person of Christ; to whom it may agree. Or, 2. In his own Person. Having been Transported and carried forth by the Spirit of God to the Contemplation, and Commemoration of the great Mystery of the Messias, of whom he was an illustrious Type, now he seems to be led back by the same Spirit, to the Consideration of himself and his own particular Case.

12. For innumerable evils have compassed me about, mine iniquities have taken hold upon me . so that I am not able to look up : they are more than the hair of mine head, therefore my heart faileth me.

Either, The punishment of mine iniquities, as Gen. 4. 13. 1. Sam. 28. 10. Psal. 31. 10. Or, 2. The iniquities themselves; This Phrase cannot be understood of Christ. For although our sins are said to be laid upon Christ, Isa. 5[illegible: 1+ letters]. and upon that Account he is said to be made sin for us, 2 Cor. 5. 21. yet the Scripture every where represents him, as one that never knew nor did any sin, a[illegible: 1+ letters] in that place, and 1 [illegible: 1 word]. 2. 22. and elsewhere; and even when his Punishment is described, yet it is expresly noted, that he did not suffer for himself, or for his own sins, but onely for us, and for our sins, as Isa. 53. 4, 5. Dan. 9. 26. 1 Pet. 2. 24. And therefore it is not probable that the Holy-Ghost would use such an Expression concerning the unless Christ of God, as is never used in Scripture, but either of a Mans own sins, or of the Punishment deserved by his own sins.

Mens sins are figuratively said to follow them, 1 Tim. 5. 24. and to find them out, Numb. 32. 23. and here to take hold of them, as a Serjeant takes hold of a Man whom he Arrests.

Unto God or men, with any Comfort and Confidence, I am ashamed and confounded, by Reason of my numberless sins. Or, so that I was not able to see, Either, because he was as it were drowned or overwhelmed with his sins: Or, because his Eyes did fail, or were Consumed through Grie[illegible: 1+ letters], as he Complains, Psal. 6. 7. and 38. 11. Or, he means that he could not foresee them, the Simple Verb being put for the Compound, as it is frequently among the Hebrews. They came upon him unawares, and therefore were the more grievous to him.

To wit, mine iniquities here mentioned Properly so called: For God's people are more apt to aggravate their sins, than the Punishments of them, See Ezra 9. 13, 14.

Marginal references: Psal. 38. 4. 10.; Heb. forsaketh.

13. Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me : O LORD, make haste to help me.

From my sins, and the Punishments due to them.

Marginal references: Psal. 71. 1. &c.

14. Let them be ashamed and confounded together, that seek after my soul k to destroy it: let them be driven backward, and put to shame that wish me evil.

For the disappointment of their Hopes and Designs.

(i. e.) My Life, as Exod. 4. 19. 1 Sam. 20. 1.

Marginal references: Psal. 35. 4. 26. & 70. 3. 71. 13.

15. Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame , that say unto me, Aha, aha.

Or, amazed or dismayed: or overthrown. Of such Imprecations I have spoken before.

(i. e.) Their sinful and shameful Actions, as Shame is put for a shameful Idol, Hose. 9. 10. and as Fear is oft put for the Evil feared.

16. Let all those that seek thee, rejoyce and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified .

Either▪ [illegible: 1 word] Such as desire, and rejoyce in the Salvation, and Deliverance which thou givest to me and to others, of thy People: which was a great Eye-sore and Grie[illegible: 1+ letters] to the wicked. Or, 2. Such as expect and seek for their Salvation and Happiness, not from Idols, nor from their wicked Courses, nor from any Creatures, as other men do, but from the onely, and gladly accept and embrace that Salvation, which [illegible: 1 word] hast promised together, with the Conditions required to it, to wit, Faith and Repentance. Or, 3. Such as love thy Messias, upon whom both David's and other Holy Pro [illegible: 1+ letters], and Saints, Thoughts and Affections were much fixed, a is Evident from many places of Scripture, as Ioh. 8. 58. Act. 2. 30, 31. 1 Pet. 1. 10, 11. who is called the desire of all N[illegible: 1+ letters]tions, Hagg. 2. 7. and the Glory and Consolation of Israel, Luk. 2▪ 25. 32, yea and, by the very Title here used, God's Salvation, Isa. 62. 11. Luk. 2. 30. whose appearance or coming the Godly of all Ages, did Love and long for; and of whom David had so lately and clearly spoken, v. 6 7. &c. All which considered, this cannot seem a forced, or very far fetched Intepretation.

Let them have continual Occasion, to magnifie God for his Mercies vouchsafed to them.

Thanksgiving, an Offering Up of One’s Self, and Prayer

Psa 39:1-13 is followed by Psalms 40, because the language of thanksgiving with which it opens is, as it were, the echo of the language of payer contained in the former. If Psalms 40 was composed by David, and not rather by Jeremiah-a question which can only be decided by including Ps 69 (which see) in the same investigation-it belongs to the number of those Psalms which were composed between Gibea of Saul and Ziklag. The mention of the roll of the book in v. 8 harmonizes with the retrospective references to the Tôra, which abound in the Psalms belonging to the time of Saul. And to this we may add the vow to praise Jahve בּקהל, Psa 40:10, cf. Psa 22:26; Psa 35:18; the expression, “more in number than the hairs of my head,” Psa 40:13, cf. Psa 69:5; the wish יצּרוּני, Psa 40:12, cf. Psa 25:21; the mocking האח האה, Psa 40:16, cf. Psa 35:21, Psa 35:25; and much besides, on which vid., my Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, S. 457 transl. vol. ii. p. 149. The second half has an independent form in Psa 70:1-5. It is far better adapted to form an independent Psalm than the first half, which merely looks back into the past, and for this very reason contains no prayer.

The long lines, more in keeping with the style of prayer than of song, which alternate with disproportionately shorter ones, are characteristic of this Psalm. If with these long lines we associate a few others, which are likewise more or less distinctly indicated, then the Psalm can be easily divided into seven six-line strophes.

In the Epistle to the Hebrews, Heb 10:5-10, Psa 40:7 of this Psalm are, by following the lxx, taken as the language of the Christ at His coming into the world. There can be no doubt in this particular instance that, as we look to the second part of the Psalm, this rendering is brought about typically. The words of David, the anointed one, but only now on the way to the throne, are so moulded by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of prophecy, that they sound at the same time like the words of the second David, passing through suffering to glory, whose offering up of Himself is the close of the animal sacrifices, and whose person and work are the very kernel and star of the roll of the Law. We are not thereby compelled to understand the whole Psalm as typically predictive. It again descends from the typically prophetic height to which it has risen even from Psa 40:10 onwards; and from Psa 40:13 onwards, the typically prophetic strain which still lingers in Psa 40:10 and Psa 40:11 has entirely ceased.

Psa 40:1-4

David, who, though not without some hesitation, we regard as the author, now finds himself in a situation in which, on the one hand, he has just been rescued from danger, and, on the other, is still exposed to peril. Under such circumstances praise rightly occupies the first place, as in general, according to Psa 50:23, gratitude is the way to salvation. His hope, although תּוחלת ממשּׁכה (Pro 13:12), has not deceived him; he is rescued, and can now again sing a new song of thanksgiving, an example for others, strengthening their trust. קוּה קוּיתי, I waited with constancy and perseverance. יהוה is the accusative as in Psa 25:5; Psa 130:5, and not the vocative as in Psa 39:8. אזנו is to be supplied in thought to ויּט, although after the analogy of Psa 17:6; Psa 31:3, one might have looked for the Hiph. wayaT instead of the Kal. בור שׁאון does not mean a pit of roaring (of water), since שׁאון standing alone (see, on the other hand, Psa 65:8, Isa 17:12.) has not this meaning; and, moreover, “rushing, roaring” (Hengstenberg), tumultuous waters of a pit or a cistern does not furnish any idea that is true to nature; neither does it mean a pit of falling in, since שׁאה does not exhibit the signification deorsum labi; but the meaning is: a pit of devastation, of destruction, of ruin (Jer 25:31; Jer 46:17), vid., supra on Psa 35:8. Another figure is “mire of the marsh” (יון found only here and in Psa 69:3), i.e., water, in the miry bottom of which one can find no firm footing - a combination like מטר־גּשׁם, Zec 10:1, אדמת־עפר, Dan 12:2, explained in the Mishna, Mikvaoth ix. 2, by טיט הבורות (mire of the cisterns). Taking them out of this, Jahve placed his feet upon a rock, established his footsteps, i.e., removed him from the danger which surrounded him, and gave him firm ground under his feet. The high rock and the firm footsteps are the opposites of the deep pit and the yielding miry bottom. This deliverance afforded him new matter for thanksgiving (cf. Psa 33:3), and became in his mouth “praise to our God;” for the deliverance of the chosen king is an act of the God of Israel on behalf of His chosen people. The futures in Psa 40:4 (with an alliteration similar to Psa 52:8) indicate, by their being thus cumulative, that they are intended of the present and of that which still continues in the future.

Psa 40:5-6

He esteems him happy who puts his trust (מבטחו, with a latent Dagesh, as, according to Kimchi, also in Psa 71:5; Job 31:24; Jer 17:7) in Jahve, the God who has already made Himself glorious in Israel by innumerable wonderful works. Jer 17:7 is an echo of this אשׁרי. Psa 52:9 (cf. Psa 91:9) shows how Davidic is the language. The expression is designedly not האישׁ, but הגּבר, which is better adapted to designate the man as being tempted to put trust in himself. רהבים from רהב (not from רהב) are the impetuous or violent, who in their arrogance cast down everything.  שׂטי כזב, “turners aside of falsehood” (שׁוּט = שׂטה, cf. Psa 101:3), is the expression for apostates who yield to falsehood instead of to the truth: to take כּזב as accusative of the aim is forbidden by the status construct.; to take it as the genitive in the sense of the accusative of the object (like תם הלכי, Pro 2:7) is impracticable, because שׂוט (שׂטה) does not admit of a transitive sense; כזב is, therefore, genit. qualit. like און in Psa 59:6. This second strophe contains two practical applications of that which the writer himself has experienced. From this point of view, he who trusts in God appears to the poet to be supremely happy, and a distant view of God’s gracious rule over His own people opens up before him. נפלאות are the thoughts of God realized, and מחשׁבות those that are being realized, as in Jer 51:29; Isa 55:8. רבּות is an accusative of the predicate: in great number, in rich abundance; אלינוּ, “for us,” as e.g., in Jer 15:1 (Ew. §217, c). His doings towards Israel were from of old a fulness of wondrous deeds and plans of deliverance, which was ever realizing and revealing itself. There is not ערך אליך, a possibility of comparison with Thee, οὐκ ἔστι (Ew. §§321, c) ἰσουν τί σοι - ערך as in Psa 89:7; Isa 40:18 - they are too powerful (עצם of a powerful sum, as in Psa 69:5; Psa 139:17, cf. Jer 5:6) for one to enumerate. According to Rosenmüller, Stier, and Hupfeld, אין ערך אליך even affirms the same thing in other words: it is not possible to lay them forth to Thee (before Thee); but that man should “lay forth” (Symmachus ἐκθέστηαι) before God His marvellous works and His thoughts of salvation, is an unbecoming conception. The cohortative forms, which follow, אגּידה ואדבּרה ,wollof h, admit of being taken as a protasis to what follows, after the analogy of Job 19:18; Job 16:6; Job 30:26; Psa 139:8 : if I wish to declare them and speak them forth, they are too powerful (numerous) to be enumerated (Ges. §128, 1, d). The accentuation, however, renders it as a parenthetical clause: I would (as in Psa 51:18; Psa 55:13; Psa 6:10) declare them and speak them forth. He would do this, but because God, in the fulness of His wondrous works and thoughts of salvation, is absolutely without an equal, he is obliged to leave it undone - they are so powerful (numerous) that the enumeration of them falls far short of their powerful fulness. The words alioqui pronunciarem et eloquerer have the character of a parenthesis, and, as Psa 40:7 shows, this accords with the style of this Psalm.

Psa 40:7-9

The connection of the thoughts is clear: great and manifold are the proofs of Thy loving-kindness, how am I to render thanks to Thee for them? To this question he first of all gives a negative answer: God delights not in outward sacrifices. The sacrifices are named in a twofold way: (a) according to the material of which they consist, viz., זבח, the animal sacrifice, and מנחה, the meal or meat offering (including the נסך, the wine or drink offering, which is the inalienable accessory of the accompanying mincha); (b) according to their purpose, in accordance with which they bring about either the turning towards one of the good pleasure of God, as more especially in the case of the עולה, or, as more especially in the case of the הטּאת (in this passage חטאה), the turning away of the divine displeasure. The fact of the זבח and עולה standing first, has, moreover, its special reason in the fact that זבח specially designates the shelamı̂m offerings, and to the province of these latter belongs the thank-offering proper, viz., the tôda - shelamı̂m offering; and that עולה as the sacrifice of adoration (προσευχή), which is also always a general thanksgiving (εὐχαριστία), is most natural, side by side with the shalemim, to him who gives thanks. When it is said of God, that He does not delight in and desire such non-personal sacrifices, there is as little intention as in Jer 7:22 (cf. Amo 5:21.) of saying that the sacrificial Tôra is not of divine origin, but that the true, essential will of God is not directed to such sacrifices.

Between these synonymous utterances in Psa 40:7 and Psa 40:7 stands the clause אזנים כּרית לּי. In connection with this position it is natural, with Rosenmüller, Gesenius, De Wette, and Stier, to explain it “ears hast Thou pierced for me” = this hast Thou engraven upon my mind as a revelation, this disclosure hast Thou imparted to me. But, although כּרה, to dig, is even admissible in the sense of digging through, piercing (vid., on Psa 22:17), there are two considerations against this interpretation, viz.: (1) that then one would rather look for אזן instead of אזנים after the analogy of the phrases גּלה אזן, חעיר אזן, and פּתח אזן, since the inner sense, in which the external organs of sense, with their functions, have their basis of unity, is commonly denoted by the use of the singular; (2) that according to the syntax, חפצתּ, כּרית, and שׁאלתּ are all placed on the same level. Thus, therefore, it is with this very אזנים כרית לי that the answer is intended, in its positive form, to begin; and the primary passage, 1Sa 15:22, favours this view: “Hath Jahve delight in whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices as in one’s obeying the voice of Jahve? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, to attend better than the fat of rams!” The assertion of David is the echo of this assertion of Samuel, by which the sentence of death was pronounced upon the kingship of Saul, and consequently the way of that which is well-pleasing to God was traced out for the future kingship of David. God - says David - desires not outward sacrifices, but obedience; ears hath He digged for me, i.e., formed the sense of hearing, bestowed the faculty of hearing, and given therewith the instruction to obey.There is a similar expression in the Tamul Kural, Graul’s translation, S. 63, No. 418: “An ear, that was not hollowed out by hearing, has, even if hearing, the manner of not hearing.” The “hollowing out” meaning in this passage an opening of the inward sense of hearing by instruction.

The idea is not that God has given him ears in order to hear that disclosure concerning the true will of God (Hupfeld), but, in general, to hear the word of God, and to obey that which is heard. God desires not sacrifices but hearing ears, and consequently the submission of the person himself in willing obedience. To interpret it “Thou hast appropriated me to Thyself לעבד עולם,” after Exo 21:6; Deu 15:17, would not be out of harmony with the context; but it is at once shut out by the fact that the word is not אזן, but אזנים. Concerning the generalizing rendering of the lxx, σῶμα δὲ κατηρτίσω μου, following which Apollinaris renders it αὐτὰρ ἐμοί Βροτέης τεκτήναο σάρκα γενέθλης, and the Italic (which is also retained in the Psalterium Romanum), corpus autem perfecisti mihi; vide on Heb 10:5, Commentary, S. 460f. transl. vol. ii. p. 153.

The אז אמרתּי, which follows, now introduces the expression of the obedience, with which he placed himself at the service of God, when he became conscious of what God’s special will concerning him was. With reference to the fact that obedience and not sacrifice has become known to him as the will and requirement of God, he has said: “Lo, I come,” etc. By the words “Lo, I come,” the servant places himself at the call of his master, Num 22:38; 2Sa 19:21. It is not likely that the words בּמגלּת ספר כּתוּב עלי then form a parenthesis, since Psa 40:9 is not a continuation of that “Lo, I come,” but a new sentence. We take the Beth, as in Psa 66:13, as the Beth of the accompaniment; the roll of the book is the Tôra, and more especially Deuteronomy, written upon skins and rolled up together, which according to the law touching the king (Deu 17:14-20) was to be the vade-mecum of the king of Israel. And עלי cannot, as synonymous with the following בּמעי, signify as much as “written upon my heart,” as De Wette and Thenius render it-a meaning which, as Maurer has already correctly replied, עלי obtains elsewhere by means of a conception that is altogether inadmissible in this instance. On the contrary, this preposition here, as in 2Ki 22:13, denotes the object of the contents; for כּתב על signifies to write anything concerning any one, so that he is the subject one has specially in view (e.g., of the judicial decision recorded in writing, Job 13:26). Because Jahve before all else requires obedience to His will, David comes with the document of this will, the Tôra, which prescribes to him, as a man, and more especially as the king, the right course of conduct. Thus presenting himself to the God of revelation, he can say in Psa 40:9, that willing obedience to God’s Law is his delight, as he then knows that the written Law is written even in his heart, or, as the still stronger expression used here is, in his bowels. The principal form of מעי, does not occur in the Old Testament; it was מעים (from מע, מעה, or even מעי), according to current Jewish pronunciation מעים (which Kimchi explains dual); and the word properly means (vid., on Isa 48:19) the soft parts of the body, which even elsewhere, like רחמים, which is synonymous according to its original meaning, appear pre-eminently as the seat of sympathy, but also of fear and of pain. This is the only passage in which it occurs as the locality of a mental acquisition, but also with the associated notion of loving acceptance and cherishing protection (cf. the Syriac phrase סם בגו מעיא, som begau meajo, to shut up in the heart = to love). That the Tôra is to be written upon the tables of the heart is even indicated by the Deuteronomion, Deu 6:6, cf. Pro 3:3; Pro 7:3. This reception of the Tôra into the inward parts among the people hitherto estranged from God is, according to Jer 31:33, the characteristic of the new covenant. But even in the Old Testament there is among the masses of Israel “a people with My law in their heart” (Isa 51:7), and even in the Old Testament, “he who hath the law of his God in his heart” is called righteous (Psa 37:31). As such an one who has the Tôra within him, not merely beside him, David presents himself on the way to the throne of God.

Psa 40:10-11

The self-presentation before Jahve, introduced by אז אמרתּי, extends from הנה to מעי; consequently בּשּׂרתּי yltn joins on to אמרתי, and the אכלא which stands in the midst of perfects describes the synchronous past. The whole is a retrospect. בּשּׂר, Arab. bššr (root בש), starting from its sensible primary signification to scrape off, scratch off, rub smooth, means: to smooth any one (glätten), Engl. to gladden one, i.e., vultum ejus diducere, to make him joyful and glad, more especially to cheer one by good news (e.g., basharahuorbashsharuhu bi̇maulûdin , bashsharuhu bi - maulûdin, he has cheered him by the intelligence of the birth of a son), in Hebrew directly equivalent to εὐαγγελίζειν (εὐαγγελίζεσθαι). He has proclaimed to all Israel the evangel of Jahve’s justifying and gracious rule, which only changes into retribution towards those who despise His love; and he can appeal to the Omniscient One (Jer 15:15), that neither through fear of men, nor through shame and indolence, has he restrained his lips from confessing Him. God’s conduct, in accordance with the prescribed order of redemption, is as a matter of fact called צדק, and as an attribute of His holy love, צדקה; just as אמוּנה is His faithfulness which fulfils the promises made and which does not suffer hope to be put to shame, and תּשׁוּעה is His salvation as it is manifested in facts. This rich matter for the preaching of the evangel, which may be comprehended in the two words חסד ועמת, the Alpha and Omega of God’s self-attestation in the course of the redemptive history, he has not allowed to slumber as a dead, unfruitful knowledge hidden deep down in his heart. The new song which Jahve put into his mouth, he has also really sung. Thus far we have the first part of the song, which renders thanks for past mercies.

Psa 40:12-13

Now, in accordance with the true art of prayer, petition developes itself out of thanksgiving. The two כּלא, Psa 40:10 and here, stand in a reciprocal relation to one another: he refrained not his lips; therefore, on His part, let not Jahve withhold His tender mercies so that they should not be exercised towards him (ממּנּי). There is just the same correlation of mercy and truth in Psa 40:11 and here: he wishes continually to stand under the protection of these two saving powers, which he has gratefully proclaimed before all Israel. With כּי, Psa 40:13, he bases these desires upon his own urgent need. רעות are the evils, which come even upon the righteous (Psa 34:20) as trials or as chastenings. אפפוּ עלי is a more circumstantial form of expression instead of אפפוּני, Psa 18:5. His misdeeds have taken hold upon him, i.e., overtaken him in their consequences (השּׂיג, as in Deu 28:15, Deu 28:45; cf. לכד, Pro 5:22), inasmuch as they have changed into decrees of suffering. He cannot see, because he is closely encompassed on all sides, and a free and open view is thereby altogether taken from him (the expression is used elsewhere of loss of sight, 1Sa 3:2; 1Sa 4:15; 1Ki 14:4). The interpretation adopted by Hupfeld and Hitzig: I am not able to survey, viz., their number, puts into the expression more than it really expresses in the common usage of the language. His heart, i.e., the power of vital consistence, has forsaken him he is disconcerted, dejected, as it were driven to despair (Psa 38:11). This feeling of the misery of sin is not opposed to the date of the Psalm being assigned to the time of Saul, vid., on Psa 31:11.

Psa 40:14-16

In the midst of such sufferings, which, the longer they last, discover him all the more to himself as a sinner, he prays for speedy help. The cry for help in Psa 40:14 turns with רצה towards the will of God; for this is the root of all things. As to the rest, it resembles Psa 22:20 (38:23). The persecuted one wishes that the purpose of his deadly foes may as it were rebound against the protection of God and miserably miscarry. לספּותהּ, ad abripiendam eam (with Dagesh in the פ according to Ges. §45, 2, Ew. §245, a, and not as Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 1235, states, aspirated),After ל the aspirate usually disappears, as here and in Psa 118:13; but there are exceptions, as לנתושׁ ולנתוץ, Jer 1:10, and frequently, לשׁדוד, ib. Psa 57:4. After ב and כ it usually remains, as in Psa 87:6, Job 4:13; Job 33:15; 2Sa 3:34; 1Ki 1:21; Ecc 5:10; but again there are exceptions, as בּשׁכּן, Gen 35:22, בּזכּר, Jer 17:2. In Gen 23:2 it is pointed לבכּתהּ according to the rule, and in my Comment. S. 423 it is to be read “with a Dagesh.” is added to מבקשׁי נפשׁי by way of explanation and definiteness. ישׁמּוּ, from שׁמם, to become torpid, here used of outward and inward paralysis, which is the result of overpowering and as it were bewitching surprise or fright, and is called by the Arabs ro‛bor ra‛b (paralysis through terror) cf. Job, note at Psa 18:12. An על following upon ישׁמּוּ looks at first sight as though it introduced the object and reason of this fright; it is therefore not: as a reward, in consequence of their infamy, which would not be על־עקב, but merely the accusative עקב (Isa 5:23, Arabic ‛qîba), it is rather: on account of the reward (Psa 19:12) of their disgrace (cf. as belonging to the same period, Psa 109:29; Psa 35:26), i.e., of the reward which consists in their being put to shame (Hitzig). לי as in Psa 3:3; Psa 41:6 : with reference to me. האח האח (Aquila, ἀὰ ἀὰ, αὐτῇ συγχρησάμενος, as Eusebius says, οὕτως ἐχούσῃ τῇ Ἑβραΐκῆ φωνῇ) is an exclamation of sarcastic delight, which finds its satisfaction in another’s misfortune (Psa 35:25).

Psa 40:17

On Psa 40:17 compare Psa 35:27. David wishes, as he does in that passage, that the pious may most heartily rejoice in God, the goal of their longing; and that on account of the salvation that has become manifest, which they love (2Ti 4:8), they may continually say: Let Jahve become great, i.e., be magnified or celebrated with praises! In Psa 40:17 with ואני he comes back to his own present helpless state, but only in order to contrast with it the confession of confident hope. True he is עני ואביון (as in Psa 109:22; Psa 136:1, cf. Psa 25:16), but He who ruleth over all will care for him: Dominus solicitus erit pro me (Jerome). חשׁב in the same sense in which in Psa 40:6 the מחשׁבות, i.e., God’s thoughts of salvation, is conceived of (cf. the corresponding North-Palestinian expression in Jon 1:6). A sigh for speedy help (אל־תּאחר, as in Dan 9:19 with a transition of the merely tone-long Tsere into a pausal Pathach, and here in connection with a preceding closed syllable, Olshausen, §91, d, under the accompanying influence of two final letters which incline towards the a sound) closes this second part of the Psalm. The first part is nothing but thanksgiving, the second is exclusively prayer.

The Benefit of Confidence in God.

1 I waited patiently for the Lord ; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. 2 He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. 3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord . 4 Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. 5 Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.

In these verses we have,

I. The great distress and trouble that the psalmist had been in. He had been plunged into a horrible pit and into miry clay (v. 2), out of which he could not work himself, and in which he found himself sinking yet further. He says nothing here either of the sickness of his body or the insults of his enemies, and therefore we have reason to think it was some inward disquiet and perplexity of spirit that was now his greatest grievance. Despondency of spirit under the sense of Gods withdrawings, and prevailing doubts and fears about the eternal state, are indeed a horrible pit and miry clay, and have been so to many a dear child of God.

II. His humble attendance upon God and his believing expectations from him in those depths: I waited patiently for the Lord, v. 1. Waiting, I waited. He expected relief from no other than from God; the same hand that tears must heal, that smites must bind up (Hos. vi. 1), or it will never be done. From God he expected relief, and he was big with expectation, not doubting but it would come in due time. There is power enough in God to help the weakest, and grace enough in God to help the unworthiest, of all his people that trust in him. But he waited patiently, which intimates that the relief did not come quickly; yet he doubted not but it would come, and resolved to continue believing, and hoping, and praying, till it did come. Those whose expectation is from God may wait with assurance, but must wait with patience. Now this is very applicable to Christ. His agony, both in the garden and on the cross, was the same continued, and it was a horrible pit and miry clay. Then was his soul troubled and exceedingly sorrowful; but then he prayed, Father, glorify thy name; Father, save me; then he kept hold of his relation to his Father, "My God, my God," and thus waited patiently for him.

III. His comfortable experience of God's goodness to him in his distress, which he records for the honour of God and his own and others' encouragement.

1. God answered his prayers: He inclined unto me and heard my cry. Those that wait patiently for God, though they may wait long, do not wait in vain. Our Lord Jesus was heard in that he feared, Heb. v. 7. Nay, he was sure that the Father heard him always.

2. He silenced his fears, and stilled the tumult of his spirits, and gave him a settled peace of conscience (v. 2): "He brought me up out of that horrible pit of despondency and despair, scattered the clouds, and shone brightly upon my soul, with the assurances of his favour; and not only so, but set my feet upon a rock and established my goings." Those that have been under the prevalency of a religious melancholy, and by the grace of God have been relieved, may apply this very feelingly to themselves; they are brought up out of a horrible pit. (1.) The mercy is completed by the setting of their feet upon a rock, where they find firm footing, are as much elevated with the hopes of heaven as they were before cast down with the fears of hell. Christ is the rock on which a poor soul may stand fast, and on whose meditation alone between us and God we can build any solid hopes or satisfaction. (2.) It is continued in the establishment of their goings. Where God has given a stedfast hope he expects there should be a steady regular conversation; and, if that be the blessed fruit of it, we have reason to acknowledge, with abundance of thankfulness, the riches and power of his grace.

3. He filled him with joy, as well as peace, in believing: "He has put a new song in my mouth; he has given me cause to rejoice and a heart to rejoice." He was brought, as it were, into a new world, and that filled his mouth with a new song, even praise to our God; for to his praise and glory must all our songs be sung. Fresh mercies, especially such as we never before received, call for new songs. This is applicable to our Lord Jesus in his reception to paradise, his resurrection from the grave, and his exaltation to the joy and glory set before him; he was brought out of the horrible pit, set upon a rock, and had a new song put into his mouth.

IV. The good improvement that should be made of this instance of God's goodness to David.

1. David's experience would be an encouragement to many to hope in God, and, for that end, he leaves it here upon record: Many shall see, and fear, and trust in the Lord. They shall fear the Lord and his justice, which brought David, and the Son of David, into that horrible pit, and shall say, If this be done to the green tree, what shall be done to the dry? They shall fear the Lord and his goodness, in filling the mouth of David, and the Son of David, with new songs of joy and praise. There is a holy reverent fear of God, which is not only consistent with, but the foundation of, our hope in him. They shall not fear him and shun him, but fear him and trust in him in their greatest straits, not doubting but to find him as able and ready to help as David did in his distress. God's dealings with our Lord Jesus are our great encouragement to trust in God; when it pleased the Lord to bruise him, and put him to grief for our sins, he demanded our debt from him; and when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand, he made it to appear that he had accepted the payment he made and was satisfied with it; and what greater encouragement can we have to fear and worship God and totrust in him?. See Rom. iv. 25; v. 1, 2. The psalmist invites others to make God their hope, as he did, by pronouncing those happy that do so (v. 4): "Blessed is the man that makes the Lord his trust, and him only (that has great and good thoughts of him, and is entirely devoted to him), and respects not the proud, does not do as those do that trust in themselves, nor depends upon those who proudly encourage others to trust in them; for both the one and the other turn aside to lies, as indeed all those do that turn aside from God." This is applicable, particularly, to our faith in Christ. Blessed are those that trust in him, and in his righteousness alone, and respect not the proud Pharisees, that set up their own righteousness in competition with that, that will not be governed by their dictates, nor turn aside to lies, with the unbelieving Jews, who submit not to the righteousness of God, Rom. x. 3. Blessed are those that escape this temptation.

2. The joyful sense he had of this mercy led him to observe, with thankfulness, the many other favours he had received from God, v. 5. When God puts new songs into our mouth we must not forget our former songs, but repeat them: "Many, O Lord my God! are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, both for me and others; this is but one of many." Many are the benefits with which we are daily loaded both by the providence and by the grace of God. (1.) They are his works, not only the gifts of his bounty, but the operations of his power. He works for us, he works in us, and thus he favours us with matter, not only for thanks, but for praise. (2.) They are his wonderful works, the contrivance of them admirable, his condescension to us in bestowing them upon us admirable; eternity itself will be short enough to be spent in the admiration of them. (3.) All his wonderful works are the product of his thoughts to us-ward. He does all according to the counsel of his own will (Eph. i. 11), the purposes of his grace which he purposed in himself, Eph. iii. 11. They are the projects of infinite wisdom, the designs of everlasting love (1 Cor. ii. 7, Jer. xxxi. 3), thoughts of good and not of evil, Jer. xxix. 11. His gifts and callings will therefore be without repentance, because they are not sudden resolves, but the result of his thoughts, his many thoughts, to us-ward. (4.) They are innumerable; they cannot be methodized or reckoned up in order. There is an order in all God's works, but there are so many that present themselves to our view at once that we know not where to begin nor which to name next; the order of them, and their natural references and dependencies, and how the links of the golden chain are joined, are a mystery to us, and what we shall not be able to account for till the veil be rent and the mystery of God finished. Nor can they be counted, not the very heads of them. When we have said the most we can of the wonders of divine love to us we must conclude with an et cætera—and such like, and adore the depth, despairing to find the bottom.

Insufficiency of the Legal Sacrifices; The Efficacy of Christ's Sacrifice.

6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. 7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, 8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart. 9 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord , thou knowest. 10 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.

The psalmist, being struck with amazement at the wonderful works that God had done for his people, is strangely carried out here to foretel that work of wonder which excels all the rest and is the foundation and fountain of all, that of our redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ. God's thoughts, which were to us-ward concerning that work, were the most curious, the most copious, the most gracious, and therefore to be most admired. This paragraph is quoted by the apostle (Heb. x. 5, &c.) and applied to Christ and his undertaking for us. As in the institutions, so in the devotions, of the Old Testament saints were aware of; and, when the apostle would show us the Redeemer's voluntary undertaking of his work, he does not fetch his account out of the book of God's secret counsels, which belong not to us, but from the things revealed. Observe,

I. The utter insufficiency of the legal sacrifices to atone for sin in order to our peace with God and our happiness in him: Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; thou wouldst not have the Redeemer to offer them. Something he must have to offer, but not these (Heb. viii. 3); therefore he must not be of the house of Aaron, Heb. vii. 14. Or, In the days of the Messiah burnt-offering and sin-offering will be no longer required, but all those ceremonial institutions will be abolished. But that is not all: even while the law concerning them was in full force it might be said, God did not desire them, nor accept them, for their own sake. They could not take away the guilt of sin by satisfying God's justice. The life of a sheep, which is so much inferior in value to that of a man (Matt. xii. 12), could not pretend to be an equivalent, much less an expedient to preserve the honour of God's government and laws and repair the injury done to that honour by the sin of man. They could not take away the terror of sin by pacifying the conscience, nor the power of sin by sanctifying the nature; it was impossible, Heb. ix. 9; x. 1-4. What there was in them that was valuable resulted from their reference to Jesus Christ, of whom they were types—shadows indeed, but shadows of good things to come, and trials of the faith and obedience of God's people, of their obedience to the law, and their faith in the gospel. But the Substance must come, which is Christ, who must bring that glory to God, and that grace to man which it was impossible those sacrifices should ever do.

II. The designation of our Lord Jesus to the work and office of Mediator: My ears hast thou opened. God the Father disposed him to the undertaking (Isa. l. 5, 6) and then obliged him to go through with it. My ear hast thou digged. It is supposed to allude to the law and custom of binding servants to serve for ever by boring their ear to the doorpost; see Exod. xxi. 6. Our Lord Jesus was so in love with his undertaking that he would not go out free from it, and therefore engaged to persevere for ever in it; and for this reason he is able to save us to the uttermost, because he has engaged to serve his Father to the uttermost, who upholds him in it, Isa. xlii. 1.

III. His own voluntary consent to this undertaking: "Then said I, Lo, I come; then, when sacrifice and offering would not do, rather than the work should be undone; I said, Lo, I come, to enter the lists with the powers of darkness, and to advance the interests of God's glory and kingdom." This intimates three things:—1. That he freely offered himself to this service, to which he was under no obligation at all prior to his own voluntary engagement. It was no sooner proposed to him than, with the greatest cheerfulness, he consented to it, and was wonderfully well pleased with the undertaking. Had he not been perfectly voluntary in it, he could not have been a surety, he could not have been a sacrifice; for it is by this will (this animus offerentis—mind of the offerer) that we are sanctified, Heb. x. 10. 2. That he firmly obliged himself to it: "I come; I promise to come in the fulness of time." And therefore the apostle says, "It was when he came into the world that he had an actual regard to this promise, by which he had engaged his heart to approach unto God." He thus entered into bonds, not only to show the greatness of his love, but because he was to have the honour of his undertaking before he had fully performed it. Though the price was not paid, it was secured to be paid, so that he was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 3. That he frankly owned himself engaged: He said, Lo, I come, said it all along to the Old Testament saints, who therefore knew him by the title of ho erchomenos—He that should come. This word was the foundation on which they built their faith and hope, and which they looked and longed for the accomplishment of.

IV. The reason why he came, in pursuance of his undertaking—because in the volume of the book it was written of him, 1. In the close rolls of the divine decree and counsel; there it was written that his ear was opened, and he said, Lo, I come; there the covenant of redemption was recorded, the counsel of redemption was recorded, the counsel of peace between the Father and the Son; and to that he had an eye in all he did, the commandment he received of his Father. 2. In the letters patent of the Old Testament. Moses and all the prophets testified of him; in all the volumes of that book something or other was written of him, which he had an eye to, that all might be accomplished, John xix. 28.

V. The pleasure he took in his undertaking. Having freely offered himself to it, he did not fail, nor was discouraged, but proceeded with all possible satisfaction to himself (v. 8, 9): I delight to do thy will, O my God! It was to Christ his meat and drink to go on with the work appointed to him (John iv. 34); and the reason here given is, Thy law is within my heart; it is written there, it rules there. It is meant of the law concerning the work and office of the Mediator, what he was to do and suffer; this law was dear to him and had an influence upon him in his whole undertaking. Note, When the law of God is written in our hearts our duty will be our delight.

VI. The publication of the gospel to the children of men, even in the great congregation, v. 9, 10. The same that as a priest wrought out redemption for us, as a prophet, by his own preaching first, then by his apostles, and still by his word and Spirit, makes it known to us. The great salvation began to be spoken by the Lord, Heb. ii. 3. It is the gospel of Christ that is preached to all nations. Observe, 1. What it is that is preached: It is righteousness (v. 9), God's righteousness (v. 10), the everlasting righteousness which Christ has brought in (Dan. ix. 24); compare Rom. i. 16, 17. It is God's faithfulness to his promise, and the salvation which had long been looked for. It is God's lovingkindness and his truth, his mercy according to his word. Note, In the work of our redemption we ought to take notice how brightly all the divine attributions shine, and give to God the praise of each of them. 2. To whom it is preached—to the great congregation, v. 9 and again v. 10. When Christ was here on earth he preached to multitudes, thousands at a time. The gospel was preached both to Jews and Gentiles, to great congregations of both. Solemn religious assemblies are a divine institution, and in them the glory of God, in the face of Christ, ought to be both praised to the glory of God and preached for the edification of men. 3. How it is preached—freely and openly: I have not refrained my lips; I have not hid it; I have not concealed it. This intimates that whoever undertook to preach the gospel of Christ would be in great temptation to hide it and conceal it, because it must be preached with great contention and in the face of great opposition; but Christ himself, and those whom he called to that work, set their faces as a flint (Isa. l. 7) and were wonderfully carried on in it. It is well for us that they were so, for by this means our eyes come to see this joyful light and our ears to hear this joyful sound, which otherwise we might for ever have perished in ignorance of.

Encouragement in Prayer.

11 Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord : let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me. 12 For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me. 13 Be pleased, O Lord , to deliver me: O Lord , make haste to help me. 14 Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil. 15 Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha. 16 Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified. 17 But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.

The psalmist, having meditated upon the work of redemption, and spoken of it in the person of the Messiah, now comes to make improvement of the doctrine of his mediation between us and God, and therefore speaks in his own person. Christ having done his Father's will, and finished his work, and given orders for the preaching of the gospel to every creature, we are encouraged to come boldly to the throne of grace, for mercy and grace.

I. This may encourage us to pray for the mercy of God, and to put ourselves under the protection of that mercy, v. 11. "Lord, thou hast not spared thy Son, nor withheld him; withhold not thou thy tender mercies then, which thou hast laid up for us in him; for wilt thou not with him also freely give us all things? Rom. viii. 32. Let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me." The best saints are in continual danger, and see themselves undone if they be not continually preserved by the grace of God; and the everlasting lovingkindness and truth of God are what we have to depend upon for our preservation to the heavenly kingdom, Ps. lxi. 7.

II. This may encourage us in reference to the guilt of sin, that Jesus Christ has done that towards our discharge from it which sacrifice and offering could not do. See here, 1. The frightful sight he had of sin, v. 12. This was it that made the discovery he was now favoured with of a Redeemer very welcome to him. He saw his iniquities to be evils, the worst of evils; he saw that they compassed him about; in all the reviews of his life, and his reflections upon each step of it, still he discovered something amiss. The threatening consequences of his sin surrounded him. Look which way he would, he saw some mischief or other waiting for him, which he was conscious to himself his sins had deserved. He saw them taking hold of him, arresting him, as the bailiff does the poor debtor; he saw them to be innumerable and more than the hairs of his head. Convinced awakened consciences are apprehensive of danger from the numberless number of the sins of infirmity which seem small as hairs, but, being numerous, are very dangerous. Who can understand his errors? God numbers our hairs (Matt. x. 30), which yet we cannot number; so he keeps an account of our sins, which we keep no account of. The sight of sin so oppressed him that he could not hold up his head—I am not able to look up; much less could he keep up his heart—therefore my heart fails me. Note, The sight of our sins in their own colours would drive us to distraction, if we had not at the same time some sight of a Saviour. 2. The careful recourse he had to God under the sense of sin (v. 13); seeing himself brought by his sins to the very brink of ruin, eternal ruin, with what a holy passion does he cry out, "Be pleased, O Lord! to deliver me (v. 13); O save me from the wrath to come, and the present terrors I am in through the apprehensions of that wrath! I am undone, I die, I perish, without speedy relief. In a case of this nature, where the bliss of an immortal soul is concerned, delays are dangerous; therefore, O Lord! make haste to help me."

III. This may encourage us to hope for victory over our spiritual enemies that seek after our souls to destroy them (v. 14), the roaring lion that goes about continually seeking to devour. If Christ has triumphed over them, we through him, shall be more than conquerors. In the belief of this we may pray, with humble boldness, Let them be ashamed and confounded together, and driven backward, v. 14. Let them be desolate, v. 15. Both the conversion of a sinner and the glorification of a saint are great disappointments to Satan, who does his utmost, with all his power and subtlety, to hinder both. Now, our Lord Jesus having undertaken to bring about the salvation of all his chosen, we may in faith pray that, in both these ways, that great adversary may be confounded. When a child of God is brought into that horrible pit, and the miry clay, Satan cries Aha! aha! thinking he has gained his point; but he shall rage when he sees the brand plucked out of the fire, and shall be desolate, for a reward of his shame. The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan! The accuser of the brethren is cast out.

IV. This may encourage all that seek God, and love his salvation, to rejoice in him and to praise him, v. 16. See here, 1. The character of good people. Conformably to the laws of natural religion, they seek God, desire his favour, and in all their exigencies apply to him, as a people should seek unto their God; and conformably to the laws of revealed religion they love his salvation, that great salvation of which the prophets enquired and searched diligently, which the Redeemer undertook to work out when he said, Lo, I come. All that shall be saved love the salvation not only as a salvation from hell, but a salvation from sin. 2. The happiness secured to good people by this prophetic prayer. Those that seek God shall rejoice and be glad in him, and with good reason, for he will not only be found of them but will be their bountiful rewarder. Those that love his salvation shall be filled with the joy of his salvation, and shall say continually, The Lord be magnified; and thus they shall have a heaven upon earth. Blessed are those that are thus still praising God.

V. This may encourage the saints, in distress and affliction, to trust in God and comfort themselves in him, v. 17. David himself was one of these: I am poor and needy (a king, perhaps now on the throne, and yet, being troubled in spirit, he calls himself poor and needy, in want and distress, lost and undone without a Saviour), yet the Lord thinketh upon me in and through the Mediator, by whom we are made accepted. Men forget the poor and needy, and seldom think of them; but God's thoughts, towards them (which he had spoken of v. 5) are their support and comfort. They may assure themselves that God is their help under their troubles, and will be, in due time, their deliverer out of their troubles, and will make no long tarrying; for the vision is for an appointed time, and therefore, though it tarry, we may wait for it, for it shall come; it will come, it will not tarry.

PSAL. XL.

To the Master of the Musicke, Davids Psalme.

WAiting, I waited for Iehovah, and he bended unto mee, and heard my cry. And he brought me up out of the pit of sounding calamitie, out of the mire of mudde, and set up my feet upon a rocke; hee ordered steadily my steps.

And he hath given into my mouth a new song, a praise to our God: many shall see and feare, and shall trust in Iehovah. O blessed is the man that putteth Iehovah his secure trust, and respecteth not unto the proud, and them that turne aside unto a lye. Thou Iehovah, my God, hast made many thy marvellous works and thy thoughts towards us; none can count them in order unto thee: would I declare and speake of them, they are mightily increast, moe than can be told. Sacrifice and oblation thou wouldest not; mine cares hast thou digged open: burnt-offering and sin-offering thou askedst not. Then said I, loe I come; in the roll of the booke it is written of me. My God, I delight to doe thy acceptable will, and thy law is within my bowels. I have preached the glad tidings of justice in the great Church; loe I close not up my lips, Iehovah thou knowest. Thy justice I have not covered within my heart, thy faith and thy salvation have I said: I have not concealed thy mercy and thy truth to the great Church. Thou Iehovah, close not up thy tender mercies from mee: let thy bounteous mercy and thy truth continually preserve me.

For innumerable evils have assailed mee round about: my iniquities have taken hold on mee, and I am not able to see; they are mightily increased, moe than the haires of my head, and my heart forsaketh mee. Vouchsafe, Iehovah, to deliver mee: Iehovah, make haste to my helpe. Let them be abashed and ashamed together, that seeke my soule, to make an end of it: let them be turned backward, and blush, that delight mine evill. Let them be made desolate, for a reward of their shame, that say to mee, aha aha. Let all that seeke thee, be joyfull and rejoyce in thee; let them say continually, magnified be Iehovah; they that love thy salvation. And I, poore afflicted and needy, the Lord thinketh on me: thou art my helpe and my deliverer; my God, delay not.

Annotations. DAvids Psalme] or, a Psalme of David; but Davids name is here fet first, which elsewhere commonly is last: or, a Psalme concerning David that is, Christ, who is called David in the Prophets, Hos. 3. 5. Jer. 30. 9. Ezek. 34. 23. and 37 24. Of him this Psalme intreateth, as the Apostle teacheth, Hebr. 10. 5, 6, &c. Vers. 2. Waiting] or, expecting; the doubling of this word noteth earnestnesse, constancie, patience. bended] to wit, his eare, as is expressed, Psal. 17. 6. Vers. 3. pit of sounding calamity] or, dungeon of tumultuous desolation, which ecchoed and resounded with dreadfull noises, denoting hereby the greatnesse of Christs afflictions. mire of mud] that is, muddy (or durty) mire, or clay, signifying fast cleaving afflictions. So Psal. 69. 3. set up] or stablished, set fast my feet on a rocke, that is, on firme ground, opposed to the former mud. Vers. 5. respecteth not] or turneth not the face; which implieth liking, or inclination of the mind and affections, Iob 36. 21. the proud] or stout, that in confidence of their strength carry themselves insolently. turne aside to a lye] swarve (or revolt) to deceiveable falshood; meaning Heretikes and Idolaters. Vers. 6. thy thoughts] thy good meanings, or purposes. none can count in order] or, they cannot be orderly counted, or propounded. The Chaldee paraphraseth, it is not possible for to order unto thee thy praise. Here the word is used for ordering of speech, as in Iob 32. 14. Sometime it is used for matching, or comparing; so the Greeke turneth it here, in thy thoughts there is not any that can be likened to thee. would I] or, if I would declare mightily increase] or, strong, to wit, in number many: so after in vers. 13. see Psal. 35. 18. above telling] that is, moe than I or any can tell; or, moe than can be told. Vers. 7. thou wouldest not] or delightedst not; Christ was to cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease, D[illegible: 2 letters]. 9. 27. because it was unpossible that they should purge sinnes, Hebr. 10. 4. therefore speaketh hee thus to God his Father, Heb. 10. 5. mine eares] or, eares to me: see Psal. 3. 1. digged open] or pierced, that is, thou hast made mee obedient to thy voice, (contrary to which is the stopping of the eare, Psal. 58. 5.) so the Chaldee explaineth it, thou hast digged open mine eares, to hearken unto thy commandements: Or, mine eares thou hast boared, as thy servant for ever, according to the law, Exod. 21. 6. The Greeke Interpreters, to make the sense plainer, say, but a body hast thou fitted to me; meaning that his body was ordained and fitted to be a sacrifice for the sinnes of the world, when the other legall sacrifices were refused as unprofitable. And thus the Apostle alleageth the words, following the Greeke, Hebr. 10. 5, 10. burnt-offering] sacrifice that goeth all up in fire: See Psal. 20. 4. sin-offering] or, expiation, oblation for sinne, as the Apostle calleth it, Hebr. 10. The word Sinne is often in the Law put for the sin-offering, Levit. 4. 24, &c. Exod. 29. 14 So the Apostle saith, Him that knew no sin, he made sin (that is, a sin-offering) for us, 2 Cor. 5. 21. Vers. 8. Loe I come] or, am come, to wit, into the world, Hebr. 10. 5. and particularly, to Ierusalem to give my selfe a sacrifice for sinne. See Mark. 10. 32, 33, 34. The Chaldee, not understanding this mystery, paraphraseth, Loe I enter into life eternall, when I have studied (or exercised my selfe) in the roll of the booke of the law, which is written for me: alluding as it seemeth to Deut. 17. vers. 18, 19, 20. the roll] or volume of the booke, that is, a booke or scroll of paper or parchment rolled up. The like phrase is used, Ier. 36. 2, &c. Ezek. 2. 9. &c. The Hebrew Sepher, book, is used generally for any writings, evidences, bils, court-rolls, &c. Deut. 24. 1. 2 King. 5. 5, 6. Ier. 32. 11. and the bookes in Israel were written in long scrolles, and folden or wrapped up. Hence is that phrase, the heavens shall be folden up like a booke, Isa. 34. 4. Rev. 6. 14. it is written] So Chist saith, The son of man goeth as it is written of him, Mat. 26. 24. and Moses wrote of me, Ioh. 5. 46. See also Luk. 24. 44. 46. Act. 13. 29. Vers. 9. thy acceptable will] by the which will we are sanctified, even by the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once, Heb. 10. 10. See also Ioh. 6. 38. Luk. 22. 42. Vers. 10. I have preached the glad tidings of] or, I have evangelized justice; of this word, the Evangelie or Gospell hath the name, the Greeke signifying Good tidings, and the English also to like effect, made of the Saxon godspell, that is, a good speech. And the justice here meant is thus set forth by the Apostle; Now is the justice of God made manifest without the law, having witnesse of the law and of the Prophets; namely the justice of God, by the faith of Iesus Christ, unto all and upon all that beleeve, &c. Rom. 3. 21, 22. the great church] or, assembly, congregation. So Psal. 22. 23. close not up] restraine not, as in a prison, that words should not be uttered, Ier. 32. 2, 3. Vers. 11. I said] that is, mentioned, and spoke of, as 2 Sam. 6. 22. to the great church] the word to is referred to Gods mercy and truth extended to the church. The Greeke referreth it to concealed, and translateth, from the great church. And the Hebrew elsewhere usually speaketh, Psal. 69. 6. and 78. 4. and 139. 15. Vers. 13. iniquities] this word as the former evils, is sometime used for sinne, sometime for the punishment of sinne. See Psal. 31. 11. Vers. 14. Vouchsafe] or, Let it please thee. Vers. 15. to make an end of it] to consume or destroy it. Compare this conclusion with the 70. Psalme. Vers. 16. made desolate] or, wondrously wasted, unto amazednesse and astonishment. So after in Psal. 46. 9. and 69. 26. and 73. 19. and 79. 7. for a reward] or, an end of their shame, that they would bring upon me. End is used for reward, as Psal. 19. 12. or, For because of their shame. The Hebrew word sometime signifieth because, Isa. 5. 23. Genes. 22. 18. Deut. 7. 12. aha] the Chaldee openeth it with this paraphrase, wee are glad at (his) destruction. Vers. 18. thinketh on me] in Greeke, hath care of me: in Chaldee, thinketh good for me. delay not] prolong not the time till the last, and consequently, faile not. The word is so to tarry or linger, as to disappoint one of his expectation, as Habak. 2. 3. Though it tarry, wait thou; for it shall surely come, and shall not delay, that is, not faile. And thus may we understand other like Scriptures, as Deut. 7. 10. God will not delay (that is, not faile) to reward him that hateth him, Deut. 23. 21. when thou vowest a vow to the Lord, thou shalt not delay (that is, not faile) to pay it. So Exod. 22. 29. and sundry the like.

PSAL. XL.

Verſ. 1. I waited patiently for the Lord] Heb. In waiting I waited; Diutiſſimè quidem, ſed optimo ſucceſſu; Eſt ſenſus ejuſdem cum duobus prioribu[illegible: 2 letters] Kabuenat. I prayed and waited, I waited and prayed again; perſevering in prayer, and begging audience, as Pſal. 39.12, with which Baſil maketh this Pſalm to cohere, and well he may, for it ſeemeth to be of the ſame time and argument with the two former. R. Obadiah ſaith, that David compoſed this Pſalm after that he was recovered of his Leproſie, Pſal. 38.7.

And he inclined unto me] i.e. he began at length to ſhew favour; for he waiteth to be gracious, and well knoweth that deſideria dilatione creſcant, & cito data vileſcant: nothing is loſt, by holding his people long in requeſt.

Verſ. 2. He brought me up alſo out of an horrible pit] è puteo ſonitus, ut Iſa. 17.12[illegible: 1 letter] out of a noyſe-full pit, where there is a continual hurry by the great fall of waters into it; He meaneth, out of dreadful dangers, out of a deſperate diſeaſe, ſaith R. Obadiah; who alſo by rock here underſtandeth perfect health, Sanitatem in corpore, ſanctitatem in corde.

Out of the miry clay] E luto, Luto, ſaith Kimchi, for here are two words uſed, of one and the ſame ſenſe; to ſhew, that as a bemired beaſt he was in a periſhing condition, till God puld him out, and ſet him on firm ground.

And eſtabliſhed my goings] That I might not relapſe into the ſame, or fall into another malady or miſchief.

Verſ. 3. And he hath put a new ſong in my mouth] i. e. new matter, which I ſhall ſoon contrive into a new ſong, by the help of his holy Spirit: for I cannot breath out a deſire after him, except he firſt imbreath me therewith, and ſo put a new ſong in my mouth.

Even praiſe unto our God] i.e. Unto Chriſt, ſaith Junius, to whom, and of whom the Church ſingeth, ſaith he, in the following verſes.

Many ſhall ſee it, and fear, and truſt in the Lord] Their eye ſhall affect their heart, both with fear of, and faith in the Lord, that bringeth greateſt things to paſs, and is fearful in praiſes, doing wonders, Exod. 15.

Verſ. 4. Bleſſed is that man, &c.] See Pſal. 2.12.

And reſpecteth not the proud.] Who are ſet in oppoſition to Beleevers, as they are alſo, Hab. 2.4. Self juſtitiaries eſpecially, and Merit-mongers: faith is an humbling grace.

Nor ſuch as turn aſide to lies] As do Hereticks and Idolaters. Theſe, the true beleever, out of the greatneſs of his ſpirit, ſlighteth, how great ſoever they be: Animo magno nihil magnum.

Verſ. 5. Many O Lord my God are thy Works which thou haſt done] Many and great and all for them that truſt in thee: Who therefore muſt needs be bleſſed, as verſ. 4.

And thy thoughts which are to us-ward] Thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give us an expected end, Jer. 29.11.

They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee] No, nor yet out of order; and yet we muſt be reckoning and relating them as we are able, to God, and men, by ſpeaking good of his name; and at this David was old excellent, as we ſay.

If I would declare and speak of them] By whole-ſale we muſt do it, though wee cannot ſo well by retale; particulars alſo muſt bee inſtanced, as Moſes doth to Jethro, Exod. 22. and for that end Catalogues muſt bee kept; See one Judg. 10.11.12.

Verſ. 6. Sacrifice and offering thou didſt not deſire] Comparatively to the obedience of faith, 1 Sam. 15.22. without which when Hypocrites thought to bribe God by cold Ceremonies, they were rejected. Chriſt is the end of the Law to all that beleeve; that Lamb of God ſlain from the beginning of the world is the only Expiatory Sacrifice, and the foundation of that fore mentioned bleſſedneſs, ver. 4. Now ſince Chriſt ſuffered, the Levitical Sacrifices being aboliſhed, we have none to offer but ſuch as are gratulatory: to ſhew our thankfulneſs for ſuch a Redeemer, whoſe perfect obedience, with the fruit of it, is here, and in the following Verſes both deſcribed, and ſet forth for an abſolute pattern to us of performing our duty toward God, for this inexplicable mercy. Confer. Heb. 10.5, 6. &c. Here wee have in Chriſt for our inſtruction, and in David alſo (his Type) for our example; 1. A firm purpoſe of obedience, in a bored ear, and a yeelding heart. 2. A ready performance thereof, Lo I come. 3. A careful obſervance of the Word written. In the volume of thy Book it is written of me, verſ 7. 4.D. [illegible: 1 word] An hearty delight in that obſervance, verſ. 8.5. A publick profeſſion and communication of Gods goodneſs to others, verſ. 9, 10. Now[illegible: 1 letter] we ſhould labour to expreſs Chriſt to the world, to walk as he walked, 1 Feb. 2.6. our lives ſhould be in ſome ſenſe parallel with his life, as the tranſcript with the original: He left us a Copy to write by, ſaith Saint Peter, 1 Epiſt. 2.21.

Mine ears haſt them opened] Heb. digged, bored; an hearing ea[illegible: 1 letter] haſt thou beſtowed upon me, which is a fingular favour; for life entreth by the ear, Iſa. 55.3. as did death at firſt, Gen. 3. O pray, that God would make the bore wide enough. that the inward ears being drawn up to the outward, one ſound may peirce both at once.

Verſ. 7. Then ſaid I, Lo I come] Chriſt became obedient even to the death, yea that of the Croſs, Phil. 2.8. Chriſts people alſo are a willing people, Pſal. 110.3. their obedience is prompt, and preſent, ready, and ſpeedy, without delays and conſults, Pſal. 119.60. without capitulation and ſecurity, Iſa. 56.6.

In the volume of thy book] In libre plicatili, in thy Law which was anciently, (and is till this day amongſt the Jews) written in Paper, or Parchment rolled up; becauſe it will laſt longer rolled than folded.

It is written of me] Of Chriſt, in many places: for He is both Author, Object, Matter, and Mark of both Teſtaments. Of David alſo, and all Gods people, doth the Law ſpeak with fruit and efficacy; and they do uſe to read their own names, written as it were in every precept, promiſe, threatning. Look how men read the Statute-book of the Land, as holding themſelves highly concerned therein; So here.

Verſ. 8. I delight to do thy will, O my God] To Chriſt it was his meat and drink, Fob. 4. he ſet his face to do it, and to ſuffer it, Luke 9.51, yea he was ſtraightned, pained till it was done, Luk, 12.50. And the ſame minde is alſo in the Saints that was in Chriſt Jeſus, Phil. 2.5. They delight in the Law of God after the inward man, Rom. 7.22, they prefer it before their neceſſary food, Job 23.12.

Tea thy Law is within my heart] Heb, In the midſt of my bowels; there is the counterpane, the duplicate of the Law written, yea printed, Jer. 31.33. 2 Cor. 3.3. Rip up my heart (ſaid Queen Mary) when I am dead, and there ſhall you finde Gallice, the loſs whereof (tis thought) killed her. Rip up the moſt mens hearts, and there you ſhall finde written, The god of this preſent world. But Gods Law is in good mens hearts, to live and to dye with it. O beata Apocalypſis (ſaid that Martyr, catching up the Revelation ca[illegible: 1 letter]t into the ſame fire with him to be burnt) O bleſſed Revelation, how happy ans I to be burned with thee in my hands!

Verſ. 9. I have preached righteouſneſs in the great congregation] David did this, but Chriſt much more by the everlaſting Goſpel, ſent the whole world throughout: great was the company of Preachers, and large was their commiſſion. See a draught of it, Acts 26.18.

I have declared thy faithfulneſs, and thy ſalvation] Righteouſneſs of Chriſt imputed, faithfulneſs of God in fulfilling his Promiſes, Salvation the end of faith, loving kindneſs and truth the ground of all the former, Gods loving kindneſs, or mercy moving him to promiſe, and his truth binding him to perform; theſe are thoſe Pearls that Chriſt by his Preachers caſteth before people, if they bee but as forward to take them, as he is to tender them: How beautiful ſhould the feet be of thoſe that bring ſuch glad tidings? and how heavie will the duſt of ſuch feet bee, ſhaken off againſt deſpiſers?

O Lord them knoweſt] ſc. That I have herein done mine utmoſt, and with an upright heart.

Verſ. 10. I have not bid thy righteouſneſs within my heart] Or, if he did, as Pſal. 119.11. it was, that having wrought it firſt on his own affections, he might afterwards utter it a corde ad cor, from the heart to the heart, and ſo be able to ſave himſelf and theſe that heard him.

I have declared to faith [illegible: 1 word] &c.] See verſ. 9.

Verſ. 11.Nune in luto adhuc baerens & cum reſiduo [illegible: 1 word] precatur Deum. With hold not [illegible: 1 word] thy tender mercies, &c.] Whereas, while the Samts are on earth there will be a perpetual interchange of comforts and croſſes; prayers muſt be joyned with praiſes, and care taken, that confirmed by former experiences, they [illegible: 1 word] depend upon God.

Let thy loving kindneſs and thy [illegible: 3 letters]th contin[illegible: 1 letter]ally preſerve [illegible: 1 span] [illegible: 3 letters] thoſe two Attributes of thine be mine Angel [illegible: 1 word] at all times, See the Note on Pſal. 25.10.

Verſ. 12. For innumerable evils have compaſſed me] Heb. Have muſtered upon me. Many (or Millions) are the troubles of the righteous; none our of Hell over ſuffered more than they: an elegant exaggeration of their afflictions we have in this verſe, and ſuch as cannot well be underſtood by any, but thoſe that have been well beaten Porters to the Croſs of Chriſt.

Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me] i.e. The puniſhment of mine iniquities, Gen. 4.13. my ſin hath found me out. If this be taken of Chriſt, he is, Maximus patcatornus, the greateſt of ſinners by imputation, 2 Cor. 5.20. Iſa. 53. 6. for our ſins (which here he calleth his) he ſuffered; and here his bitter Agony in the Garden is Graphically deſcribed; neither is it abſurd to ſay, that as he bore our ſins in his own Body upon the Tree, he was firſt redeemed by himſelf, and afterwards we.

Therefore my heart faileth me] i.e. my wit, courage, counſel is waſted by earneſt thinking upon them. Scientia mea eis numerandis defica, as Kimchi gloſſeth,

Verſ. 13. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Be pleaſed, O Lord, to deliver me] Do it of thy free grace, and meer mercy, of thy good will, and gracious liking (as the word ſignifieth) beſide the conſideration of my woful miſery laid forth, verſ. 12. as an object of thy mercy.

Verſ. 14. Let them be aſhamed and confounded together, &c.] Theſe and the like imprecations muſt be looked upon as Prophecies. Beſides, David looked upon them not as his enemies only, but Gods as well and ſuch alſo as were deſperate, and irrecoverable. So Paul prayed againſt the Copper-ſmith, the Church againſt Jutian, &c.

Let them be driven backward, &c.] A Chriſtian may without ſin be ſenſible of indignities; only it muſt bee the mourning of Doves, and not the roaring of Bears.

Verſ. 15. Let them be deſolate for a reward] a poor reward; but ſuch as ſin payeth to her ſervants; the wages of ſin is death. Sin payeth all her ſervants in black mony. See Pſal. 35.21. The ward here rendred reward, ſignifieth an heel. It is, as if the Prophet ſhould ſay, Let one deſolation tread upon the heels of another, [illegible: 1 letter]ill they be utterly undone.

Verſ. 16. Let all thoſe that ſeek thee rejoyce] viz. When they hear of my deliverance. The Saints have both their joyes and griefs in common with their fellow-members, as being in the body, Heb. 13.3. both in the body of Chriſt, and in the body of ſleth and frailty.

Verſ. 17. But I am poor and needy] A ſtark begger; neither will I hide from my Lord (as once Joſephs Brethren ſaid to him, when they came for com) mine extream indigency, my neceſſitous condition. I am one that gets my living by begging.

Yee the Lord thinketh upon met] Hee is the poor mans King, as hath been ſaid; and Chriſt is [illegible: 1 span], as Auguſtine hath it; that is he gives with the Father, and at ſame time prayes with the ſuter, who muſt therefore needs ſpeed.

Thou art my help and my deliverer, make no tarrying] Deliver mee ſpeedily, leſt I periſh utterly. God, ſaith One, is ſometimes troubled with too much help, but never with too little; we are ſometimes too ſoon, but he is never too late.

I waited patiently for the Lord. Patient waiting upon God was a special characteristic of our Lord Jesus. Impatience never lingered in his heart, much less escaped his lips. All through his agony in the garden, his trial of cruel mockings before Herod and Pilate, and his passion on the tree, he waited in omnipotence of patience. No glance of wrath, no word of murmuring, no deed of vengeance came from God's patient Lamb; he waited and waited on; was patient, and patient to perfection, far excelling all others who have according to their measure glorified God in the fires. Job on the dunghill does not equal Jesus on the cross. The Christ of God wears the imperial crown among the patient. Did the Only Begotten wait, and shall we be petulant and rebellious? And he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. Neither Jesus the head, nor any one of the members of his body, shall ever wait upon the Lord in vain. Mark the figure of inclining, as though the suppliant cried out of the lowest depression, and condescending love stooped to hear his feeble moans. What a marvel is it that our Lord Jesus should have to cry as we do, and wait as we do, and should receive the Father's help after the same process of faith and pleading as must be gone through by ourselves! The Saviour's prayers among the midnight mountains and in Gethsemane expound this verse. The Son of David was brought very low, but he rose to victory; and here he teaches us how to conduct our conflicts so as to succeed after the same glorious pattern of triumph. Let us arm ourselves with the same mind; and panoplied in patience, armed with prayer, and girt with faith, let us maintain the Holy War.

He brought me up also out of an horrible pit. When our Lord bore in his own person the terrible curse which was due to sin, he was so cast down as to be like a prisoner in a deep, dark, fearful dungeon, amid whose horrible glooms the captive heard a noise as of rushing torrents, while overhead resounded the tramp of furious foes. Our Lord in his anguish was like a captive in the oubliettes, forgotten of all mankind, immured amid horror, darkness, and desolation. Yet the Lord Jehovah made him to ascend from all his abasement; he retraced his steps from that deep hell of anguish into which he had been cast as our substitute. He who thus delivered our surety in extremis, will not fail to liberate us from our far lighter griefs. Out of the miry clay. The sufferer was as one who cannot find a foothold, but slips and sinks. The figure indicates not only positive misery as in the former figure, but the absence of solid comfort by which sorrow might have been rendered supportable. Once give man a good foothold, and a burden is greatly lightened, but to be loaded and to be placed on slimy, slippery clay, is to be tried doubly. Reader, with humble gratitude, adore the dear Redeemer who, for thy sake, was deprived of all consolation while surrounded with every form of misery; remark his gratitude at being born up amid his arduous labours and sufferings, and if thou too hast experienced the divine help, be sure to join thy Lord in this song. And set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. The Redeemer's work is done. He reposes on the firm ground of his accomplished engagements; he can never suffer again; for ever does he reign in glory. What a comfort to know that Jesus our Lord and Saviour stands on a sure foundation in all that he is and does for us, and his goings forth in love are not liable to be cut short by failure in years to come, for God has fixed him firmly. He is for ever and eternally able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by him, seeing that in the highest heavens he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Jesus is the true Joseph taken from the pit to be Lord of all. It is something more than a "sip of sweetness" to remember that if we are cast like our Lord into the lowest pit of shame and sorrow, we shall by faith rise to stand on the same elevated, sure, and everlasting rock of divine favour and faithfulness.

And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. At the passover, before his passion, our Lord sang one of the grand old Psalms of praise; but what is the music of his heart now, in the midst of his redeemed! What a song is that in which his glad heart for ever leads the chorus of the elect! Not Miriam's tabor nor Moses' triumphant hymn over Miriam's chivalry can for a moment rival that ever new and exulting song. Justice magnified and grace victorious; hell subdued and heaven glorified; death destroyed and immortality established; sin overthrown and righteousness resplendent; what a theme for a hymn in that day when our Lord drinketh the red wine new with us all in our heavenly Father's kingdom! Even on earth, and before his great passion, he foresaw the joy which was set before him, and was sustained by the prospect. Our God. The God of Jesus, the God of Israel, "my God and your God." How will we praise him, but ah! Jesus will be the chief player on our stringed instruments; he will lead the solemn hallelujah which shall go up from the sacramental host redeemed by blood. Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. A multitude that no man can number shall see the griefs and triumphs of Jesus, shall tremble because of their sinful rejection of him, and then through grace shall receive faith and become trusters in Jehovah. Here is our Lord's reward. Here is the assurance which makes preachers bold and workers persevering. Reader, are you one among the many? Note the way of salvation, a sight, a fear, a trust! Do you know what these mean by possessing and practising them in your own soul? Trusting in the Lord is the evidence, nay, the essence of salvation. He who is a true believer is evidently redeemed from the dominion of sin and Satan.

Blessed. This is an exclamation similar to that of the first Psalm, "Oh, the happiness of the man." God's blessings are emphatic, "I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed, "indeed and in very truth. Is that man that maketh the Lord his trust. Faith obtaineth promises. A simple single eyed confidence in God is the sure mark of blessedness. A man may be as poor as Lazarus, as hated as Mordecai, as sick as Hezekiah, as lonely as Elijah, but while his hand of faith can keep its hold on God, none of his outward afflictions can prevent his being numbered among the blessed; but the wealthiest and most prosperous man who has no faith is accursed, be he who he may. And respecteth not the proud. The proud expect all men to bow down and do them reverence, as if the worship of the golden calves were again set up in Israel; but believing men are too noble to honour mere money bags, or cringe before bombastic dignity. The righteous pay their respect to humble goodness, rather than to inflated self consequence. Our Lord Jesus was in this our bright example. No flattery of kings and great ones ever fell from his lips; he gave no honour to dishonourable men. The haughty were never his favourites. Nor such as turn aside to lies. Heresies and idolatries are lies, and so are avarice, worldliness, and pleasure seeking. Woe to those who follow such deceptions. Our Lord was ever both the truth and the lover of truth, and the father of lies had no part in him. We must never pay deference to apostates, time servers, and false teachers; they are an ill leaven, and the more we purge ourselves of them the better; they are blessed whom God preserves from all error in creed and practice. Judged by this verse, many apparently happy persons must be the reverse of blessed, for anything in the shape of a purse, a fine equipage, or a wealthy establishment, commands their reverence, whether the owner be a rake or a saint, an idiot or a philosopher. Verily, were the arch fiend of hell to start a carriage and pair, and live like a lord, he would have thousands who would court his acquaintance.

Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done. Creation, providence, and redemption, teem with wonders as the sea with life. Our special attention is called by this passage to the marvels which cluster around the cross and flash from it. The accomplished redemption achieves many ends, and compasses a variety of designs; the outgoings of the atonement are not to be reckoned up, the influences of the cross reach further than the beams of the sun. Wonders of grace beyond all enumeration take their rise from the cross; adoption, pardon, justification, and a long chain of godlike miracles of love proceed from it. Note that our Lord here speaks of the Lord as "my God." The man Christ Jesus claimed for himself and us a covenant relationship with Jehovah. Let our interest in our God be ever to us our peculiar treasure. And thy thoughts which are toward us. The divine thoughts march with the divine acts, for it is not according the God's wisdom to act without deliberation and counsel. All the divine thoughts are good and gracious towards his elect. God's thoughts of love are very many, very wonderful, very practical! Muse on them, dear reader; no sweeter subject ever occupied your mind. God's thoughts of you are many, let not yours be few in return. They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee. Their sum is so great as to forbid alike analysis and numeration. Human minds fail to measure, or to arrange in order, the Lord's ways and thoughts; and it must always be so, for he hath said, "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." No maze to lose oneself in like the labyrinth of love. How sweet to be outdone, overcome and overwhelmed by the astonishing grace of the Lord our God! If I would declare and speak of them, and surely this should be the occupation of my tongue at all seasonable opportunities, they are more than can be numbered; far beyond all human arithmetic they are multiplied; thoughts from all eternity, thoughts of my fall, my restoration, my redemption, my conversion, my pardon, my upholding, my perfecting, my eternal reward; the list is too long for writing, and the value of the mercies too great for estimation. Yet, if we cannot show forth all the works of the Lord, let us not make this an excuse for silence; for our Lord, who is in this our best example, often spake of the tender thoughts of the great Father.

Here we enter upon one of the most wonderful passages in the whole of the Old Testament, a passage in which the incarnate Son of God is seen not through a glass darkly, but as it were face to face. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire. In themselves considered, and for their own sakes, the Lord saw nothing satisfactory in the various offerings of the ceremonial law. Neither the victim pouring forth its blood, nor the fine flour rising in smoke from the altar, could yield content to Jehovah's mind; he cared not for the flesh of bulls or of goats, neither had he pleasure in corn and wine, and oil. Typically these offerings had their worth, but when Jesus, the Antitype, came into the world, they ceased to be of value, as candles are of no estimation when the sun has arisen. Mine ears hast thou opened. Our Lord was quick to hear and perform his Father's will; his ears were as if excavated down to his soul; they were not closed up like Isaac's wells, which the Philistines filled up, but clear passages down to the fountains of his soul. The prompt obedience of our Lord is here the first idea. There is, however, no reason whatever to reject the notion that the digging of the ear here intended may refer to the boring of the ear of the servant, who refused out of love to his master to take his liberty, at the year of jubilee; his perforated ear, the token of perpetual service, is a true picture of our blessed Lord's fidelity to his Father's business, and his love to his Father's children. Jesus irrevocably gave himself up to be the servant of servants for our sake and God's glory. The Septuagint, from which Paul quoted, has translated this passage, "A body hast thou prepared me:" how this reading arose it is not easy to imagine, but since apostolical authority has sanctioned the variation, we accept it as no mistake, but as an instance of various readings equally inspired. In any case, the passage represents the Only Begotten as coming into the world equipped for service; and in a real and material body, by actual life and death, putting aside all the shadows of the Mosaic law. Burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Two other forms of offerings are here mentioned; tokens of gratitude and sacrifices for sin as typically presented are set aside; neither the general nor the private offerings are any longer demanded. What need of mere emblems when the substance itself is present? We learn from this verse that Jehovah values far more the obedience of the heart than all the imposing performances of ritualistic worship; and that our expiation from sin comes not to us as the result of an elaborate ceremonial, but as the effect of our great Substitute's obedience to the will of Jehovah.

Then said I. That is to say, when it was clearly seen that man's misery could not be remedied by sacrifices and offerings. It being certain that the mere images of atonement, and the bare symbols of propitiation were of no avail, the Lord Jesus, in propria persona, intervened. O blessed "then said I." Lord, ever give us to hear and feed on such living words as these, so peculiarly and personally thine own. Lo, I come. Behold, O heavens, and thou earth, and ye places under the earth! Here is something worthy of your most intense gaze. Sit ye down and watch with earnestness, for the invisible God comes in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as an infant the Infinite hangs at a virgin's breast! Immanuel did not send but come; he came in his own personality, in all that constituted his essential self he came forth from the ivory palaces to the abodes of misery; he came promptly at the destined hour; he came with sacred alacrity as one freely offering himself. In the volume of the book it is written of me. In the eternal decree it is thus recorded. The mystic roll of predestination which providence gradually unfolds, contained within it, to the Saviour's knowledge, a written covenant, that in the fulness of time the divine I should descend to earth to accomplish a purpose which hecatombs of bullocks and rams could not achieve. What a privilege to find our names written in the book of life, and what an honour, since the name of Jesus heads the page! Our Lord had respect to his ancient covenant engagements, and herein he teaches us to be scrupulously just in keeping our word; have we so promised, it is so written in the book of remembrance? then let us never be defaulters.

I delight to do thy will, O my God. Our blessed Lord alone could completely do the will of God. The law is too broad for such poor creatures as we are to hope to fulfil it to the uttermost: but Jesus not only did the Father's will, but found a delight therein; from old eternity he had desired the work set before him; in his human life he was straitened till he reached the baptism of agony in which he magnified the law, and even in Gethsemane itself he chose the Father's will, and set aside his own. Herein is the essence of obedience, namely, in the soul's cheerful devotion to God: and our Lord's obedience, which is our righteousness, is in no measure lacking in this eminent quality. Notwithstanding his measureless griefs, our Lord found delight in his work, and for "the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame." Yea, thy law is within my heart. No outward, formal devotion was rendered by Christ; his heart was in his work, holiness was his element, the Father's will his meat and drink. We must each of us be like our Lord in this, or we shall lack the evidence of being his disciples. Where there is no heart work, no pleasure, no delight in God's law, there can be no acceptance. Let the devout reader adore the Saviour for the spontaneous and hearty manner in which he undertook the great work of our salvation.

I have preached righteousness in the great congregation. The purest morality and the highest holiness were preached by Jesus. Righteousness divine was his theme. Our Lord's whole life was a sermon, eloquent beyond compare, and it is heard each day by myriads. Moreover, he never shunned in his ministry to declare the whole counsel of God; God's great plan of righteousness he plainly set forth. He taught openly in the temple, and was not ashamed to be a faithful and a true witness. He was the great evangelist; the master of itinerant preachers; the head of the clan of open air missionaries. O servants of the Lord, hide not your lights, but reveal to others what your God has revealed to you; and especially by your lives testify for holiness, be champions for the right, both in word and deed. Lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. Never either from love of ease, of fear of men, did the Great Teacher's lips become closed. He was instant in season and out of season. The poor listened to him, and princes heard his rebuke; Publicans rejoiced at him, and Pharisees raged, but to them both he proclaimed the truth from heaven. It is well for a tried believer when he can appeal to God and call him to witness that he has not been ashamed to bear witness for him; for rest assured if we are not ashamed to confess our God, he will never be ashamed to own us. Yet what a wonder is here, that the Son of God should plead, just as we plead, and urge just such arguments as would befit the mouths of his diligent minsters! How truly is he "made like unto his brethren."

I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart. On the contrary, "Never man spake like this man." God's divine plan of making men righteous was well known to him, and he plainly taught it. What was in our great Master's heart he poured forth in holy eloquence from his lips. The doctrine of righteousness by faith he spake with great simplicity of speech. Law and gospel equally found in him a clear expositor. I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation. Jehovah's fidelity to his promises and his grace in saving believers were declared by the Lord Jesus on many occasions, and are blessedly blended in the gospel which he came to preach. God, faithful to his own character, law and threatenings, and yet saving sinners, is a peculiar revelation of the gospel. God faithful to the saved ones evermore is the joy of the followers of Christ Jesus. I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation. The tender as well as the stern attributes of God, our Lord Jesus fully unveiled. Concealment was far from the Great Apostle of our profession. Cowardice he never exhibited, hesitancy never weakened his language. He who as a child of twelve years spake in the temple among the doctors, and afterward preached to five thousand at Gennesaret, and to the vast crowds at Jerusalem on that great day, the last day of the feast, was always ready to proclaim the name of the Lord, and could never be charged with unholy silence. He could be dumb when so the prophecy demanded and patience suggested, but otherwise, preaching was his meat and his drink, and he kept back nothing which would be profitable to his disciples. This in the day of his trouble, according to this Psalm, he used as a plea for divine aid. He had been faithful to his God, and now begs the Lord to be faithful to him. Let every dumb professor, tongue tied by sinful shame, bethink himself how little he will be able to plead after this fashion in the day of his distress.

Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord. Alas! these were to be for awhile withheld from our Lord while on the accursed tree, but meanwhile in his great agony he seeks for gentle dealing; and the coming of the angel to strengthen him was a clear answer to his prayer. He had been blessed aforetime in the desert, and now at the entrance of the valley of the shadow of death, like a true, trustful, and experienced man, he utters a holy, plaintive desire for the tenderness of heaven. He had not withheld his testimony to God's truth, now in return he begs his Father not to withhold his compassion. This verse might more correctly be read as a declaration of his confidence that help would not be refused; but whether we view this utterance as the cry of prayer, or the avowal of faith, in either case it is instructive to us who take our suffering Lord for an example, and it proves to us how thoroughly he was made like unto his brethren. Let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me. He had preached both of these, and now he asks for an experience of them, that he might be kept in the evil day and rescued from his enemies and his afflictions. Nothing endears our Lord to us more than to hear him thus pleading with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save. O Lord Jesus, in our nights of wrestling we will remember thee.

For innumerable evils have compassed me about. On every side he was beset with evils; countless woes environed the great Substitute for our sins. Our sins were innumerable, and so were his griefs. There was no escape for us from our iniquities, and there was no escape for him from the woes which we deserved. From every quarter evils accumulated about the blessed One, although in his heart evil found no place. Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up. He had no sin, but sins were laid on him, and he took them as if they were his. "He was made sin for us." The transfer of sin to the Saviour was real, and produced in him as man the horror which forbade him to look into the face of God, bowing him down with crushing anguish and woe intolerable. O my soul, what would thy sins have done for thee eternally if the Friend of sinners had not condescended to take them all upon himself? Oh, blessed Scripture! "The Lord hath made to meet upon him the iniquity of us all." Oh, marvellous depth of love, which could lead the perfectly immaculate to stand in the sinner's place, and bear the horror of great trembling which sin must bring upon those conscious of it. They are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me. The pains of the divine penalty were beyond compute, and the Saviour's soul was so burdened with them, that he was sore amazed, and very heavy even unto a sweat of blood. His strength was gone, his spirits sank, he was in an agony.

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me. How touching! How humble! How plaintive! The words thrill us as we think that after this sort our Lord and Master prayed. His petition is not so much that the cup should pass away undrained, but that he should be sustained while drinking it, and set free from its power at the first fitting moment. He seeks deliverance and help; and he entreats that the help may not be slow in coming; this is after the manner of our pleadings. Is it not? Note, reader, how our Lord was heard in that he feared, for there was after Gethsemane a calm endurance which made the fight as glorious as the victory.

Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it. Whether we read this as a prayer or a prophecy it matters not, for the powers of sin, and death, and hell, may well be ashamed as they see the result of their malice for ever turned against themselves. It is to the infinite confusion of Satan that his attempts to destroy the Saviour destroyed himself; the diabolical conclave who plotted in council are now all alike put to shame, for the Lord Jesus has met them at all points, and turned all their wisdom into foolishness. Let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil. It is even so; the hosts of darkness are utterly put to the rout, and made a theme for holy derision for ever and ever. How did they gloat over the thought of crushing the seed of the woman! but the Crucified has conquered, the Nazarene has laughed them to scorn, the dying Son of Man has become the death of death and hell's destruction. For ever blessed be his name.

Let them be desolate, or amazed; even as Jesus was desolate in his agony, so let his enemies be in their despair when he defeats them. The desolation caused in the hearts of evil spirits and evil men by envy, malice, chagrin, disappointment, and despair, shall be a fit recompense for their cruelty to the Lord when he was in their hands. For a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha. Did the foul fiend insult over our Lord? Behold how shame is now his reward! Do wicked men today pour shame upon the name of the Redeemer? Their desolation shall avenge him of his adversaries! Jesus is the gentle Lamb to all who seek mercy through his blood; but let despisers beware, for he is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and "who shall rouse him up?" The Jewish rulers exulted and scornfully said, "Aha, aha; "but when the streets of Jerusalem ran like rivers deep with gore, "and the temple was utterly consumed, "then their house was left unto them desolate, and the blood of the last of the prophets, according to their own desire, came upon themselves and upon their children. O ungodly reader, if such a person glance over this page, beware of persecuting Christ and his people, for God will surely avenge his own elect. Your "ahas" will cost you dear. It is hard for you to kick against the pricks.

Let all those that seek thee, rejoice and be glad in thee. We have done with Ebal and turn to Gerizim. Here our Lord pronounces benedictions on his people. Note who the blessed objects of his petition are: not all men, but some men, "I pray for them, I pray not for the world." He pleads for seekers: the lowest in the kingdom, the babes of the family; those who have true desires, longing prayers, and consistent endeavours after God. Let seeking souls pluck up heart when they hear of this. What riches of grace, that in his bitterest hour Jesus should remember the lambs of the flock! And what does he entreat for them? it is that they may be doubly glad, intensely happy, emphatically joyful, for such the repetition of terms implies. Jesus would have all seekers made happy, by finding what they seek after, and by winning peace through his grief. As deep as were his sorrows, so high would he have their joys. He groaned that we might sing, and was covered with a bloody sweat that we might be anointed with the oil of gladness. Let such as love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified. Another result of the Redeemer's passion is the promotion of the glory of God by those who gratefully delight in his salvation. Our Lord's desire should be our directory; we love with all our hearts his great salvation, let us then, with all our tongues proclaim the glory of God which is resplendent therein. Never let his praises cease. As the heart is warm with gladness let it incite the tongue to perpetual praise. If we cannot do what we would for the spread of the kingdom, at least let us desire and pray for it. Be it ours to make God's glory the chief end of every breath and pulse. The suffering Redeemer regarded the consecration of his people to the service of heaven as a grand result of his atoning death; it is the joy which was set before him; that God is glorified as the reward of the Saviour's travail.

But I am poor and needy. The man of sorrows closes with another appeal, based upon his affliction and poverty. Yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Sweet was this solace to the holy heart of the great sufferer. The Lord's thoughts of us are a cheering subject of meditation, for they are ever kind and never cease. His disciples forsook him, and his friends forgat him, but Jesus knew that Jehovah never turned away his heart from him, and this upheld him in the hour of need. Thou art my help and my deliverer. His unmoved confidence stayed itself alone on God. O that all believers would imitate more fully their great Apostle and High Priest in his firm reliance upon God, even when afflictions abounded and the light was veiled. Make no tarrying, O my God. The peril was imminent, the need urgent, the suppliant could not endure delay, nor was he made to wait, for the angel came to strengthen, and the brave heart of Jesus rose up to meet the foe. Lord Jesus, grant that in all our adversities we may possess like precious faith, and be found like thee, more than conquerors.

Whole Psalm. David's Psalm, or, a Psalm of David;but David's name is here set first, which elsewhere commonly is last: or A Psalm concerning David, that is Christ, who is called David in the prophets: Ho 3:5 Jer 30:9 Eze 34:23 32:24. Of him this Psalm entreateth as the apostle teacheth, Heb 10:5-6, etc. Henry Ainsworth.

Whole Psalm. It is plain, from Ps 40:6-8 of this Psalm, compared with Heb 10:5, that the prophet in speaking in the person of Christ, who, Ps 40:1-5, celebrates the deliverance wrought for his mystical body, the church, by his resurrection from the grave, effecting that of his members from the guilt and dominion of sin; for the abolition of which he declareth, Ps 40:6-8, the inefficacy of the legal sacrifices, and mentions his own inclination to do the will of his Father, and Ps 40:9-10, to preach righteousness to the world. Ps 40:11-13. He represents himself as praying, while under his sufferings, for his own, and his people's salvation; he foretells, Ps 40:14-15, the confusion and desolation of his enemies, and, Ps 40:16, the joy and thankfulness of his disciples and servants; for the speedy accomplishment of which, Ps 40:17, he prefers a petition. George Horne.

I waited patiently for the Lord: and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. I see that the Lord, suppose he drifts and delays the effect of his servant's prayer, and grants not his desire at the first, yet he hears him. I shall give a certain argument, whereby thou may know that the Lord heareth thee, suppose he delay the effect of thy prayers. Do you continue in prayer? Hast thou his strength given thee to persevere in suiting (petitioning for or praying for) anything? Thou may be assured he heareth; for this is one sure argument that he heareth thee, for naturally our impatience carrieth us to desperation; our suddenness is so great, specially in spiritual troubles, that we cannot continue in suiting. When thou, therefore, continues in suiting, thou may be sure that this strength is furnished of God, and cometh from heaven, and if thou have strength, he letteth thee see that he heareth thy prayer; and suppose he delay the effect and force thereof, yet pray continually. This doctrine is so necessary for the troubled conscience, that I think it is the meetest bridle in the Scripture to refrain our impatience; it is the meetest bit to hold us in continual exercise of patience; for if the heart understand that the Lord hath rejected our prayer altogether, it is not possible to continue in prayer; so when we know that the Lord heareth us, suppose he delay, let us crave patience to abide his good will. Robert Bruce, 1559-1631.

I waited for the Lord. The infinitive (hwq) being placed first brings the action strongly out: I waited. This strong emphasis on the waiting, has the force of an admonition; it suggests to the sufferer that everything depends on waiting. E. W. Hengstenberg.

I waited patiently: rather anxiously; the original has it, waiting I waited; a Hebraism which signifies vehement solicitude. Daniel Cresswell.

I waited. The Saviour endureth his sufferings waitingly, as well as patiently and prayerfully. He "waited for the Lord." He expected help from Jehovah; and he waited for it until it came. James Frame, in "Christ and his Work: an Exposition of Psalm 40." 1869.

Patiently. Our Lord's patience under suffering was an element of perfection in his work. Had he become impatient as we often do, and lost heart, his atonement would have been vitiated. Well may we rejoice that in the midst of all his temptations, and in the thickest of the battle against sin and Satan, he remained patient and willing to finish the work which his Father had given him to do. James Frame.

Heard my cry. Our Saviour endured his sufferings prayerfully as well as patiently. James Frame.

An horrible pit. Some of the pits referred to in the Bible were prisons, one such I saw at Athens, and another at Rome. To these there were no openings, except a hole at the top, which served for both door and window. The bottoms of these pits were necessarily in a filthy and revolting state, and sometimes deep in mud. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay; one of these filthy prisons being in the psalmist's view, in Isa 38:17, called "the pit of corruption, "or putrefaction and filth. John Gadsby.

An horrible pit; or, as it is in the Hebrew, a pit of noise; so called because of waters that falling into it with great violence, make a roaring dreadful noise; or because of the strugglings and outcries they make that are in it; or because when anything is cast into deep pits, it will always make a great noise; and where he stuck fast in miry clay, without seeming possibility of getting out. And some refer this to the greatness of Christ's terrors and sufferings, and his deliverance from them both. Arthur Jackson.

Three things are stated in verse two. First, resurrection as the act of God, He brought me up, etc. Secondly, the justification of the name and title of the Sufferer, and set my feet upon a rock. Jesus is set up, as alive from the dead, upon the basis of accomplished truth. Thirdly, there is his ascension, He establisheth my goings. The Son of God having trodden, in gracious and self renouncing obedience the passage to the grave, now enters finally as Man the path of life. "He is gone into heaven, "says the Spirit. And again, "He ascended on high, and led captivity captive." Arthur Pridham in "Notes and Reflections on the Psalms, "1869.

A new song. See Notes on Ps 33:3.

Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. The terms fear, and hope, or trust, do not seem at first view to harmonise; but David has not improperly joined them together, for no man will ever entertain the hope of the favour of God but he whose mind is first imbued with the fear of God. I understand fear, in general, to mean the feeling of piety which is produced in us by the knowledge of the power, equity, and mercy of God. John Calvin.

Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. First of all they see. Their eyes are opened; and their opened eyes see and survey what they are, where they are, whence they came, and whither they are going...When the attention of sinners is really and decisively arrested by the propitiation of Jesus, not only are their eyes opened to their various moral relations, not only do they "see" but they fear too. They "see" and "fear." ...Conviction follows illumination...But while the sinner only sees and fears, he is but in the initial stage of conversion, only in a state of readiness to flee from the city of destruction. He may have set out on his pilgrimage, but he has not yet reached his Father to receive the kiss of welcome and forgiveness. The consummating step has not yet been taken. He has seen indeed; he has feared too; but he still requires to trust, to trust in the Lord, and banish all his fears. This is the culminating point in the great change; and, unless this be reached, the other experiences will either die away, like an untimely blossom, or they will only be fuel to the unquenchable fire. James Frame.

Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, etc. Behold God in the magnificence and wisdom of the works which his hands have made, even this immense universe, which is full of his glory. What art and contrivance! What regularity, harmony, and proportion, are to be seen in all his productions, in the frame of our own bodies, or those that are about us! And with what beams of majestic glory do the sun, moon, and stars proclaim how august and wonderful in knowledge their Maker is! And ought not all these numberless beauties wherewith the world is stored, which the minds of inquisitive men are ready to admire, lead up our thoughts to the great Parent of all things, and inflame our amorous souls with love to him, who is infinitely brighter and fairer than them all? Cast abroad your eyes through the nations, and meditate on the mighty acts which he hath done, and the wisdom and power of his providence, which should charm all thy affections. Behold his admirable patience, with what pity he looks down on obstinate rebels; and how he is moved with compassion when he sees his creatures polluted in their blood, and bent upon their own destruction; how long he waits to be gracious; how unwillingly he appears to give up with sinners, and execute deserved vengeance on his enemies; and then with what joy he pardons, for "with him is plenteous redemption." And what can have more force than these to win thy esteem, and make a willing conquest of thy heart? so that every object about thee is an argument of love, and furnishes fuel for this sacred fire. And whether you behold God in the firmament of his power, or the sanctuary of his grace, you cannot miss to pronounce him "altogether lovely." William Dunlop.

Thy thoughts which are toward us, they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: i.e., there is no one can digest them in order; for although that may be attempted according to the comprehension and meaning of men, yet not before thee, every attempt of that nature being infinitely beneath thy immeasurable glory. Victorinus Bythner's "Lyre of David; "translated by T. Dee: new edition, by N. L. Benmohel, 1847.

Toward us. It is worthy of notice that while addressing his Father, as Jehovah and his God, our Saviour speaks of the members of the human family as his fellows. This is implied in the expression "toward us." He regarded himself as most intimately associated with the children of men. James Frame.

They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee. They are "in order" in themselves, and if they could be "reckoned up" as they are, they would be "reckoned in order." Created mind may not be able to grasp the principle of order that pervades them, but such a principle there is. And the more we study the whole series in its interrelations, the more shall we be convinced that as to time and place all the preparations for the mediatorial work of Christ, all the parts of its accomplishment, and all the divinely appointed consequences of its acceptation throughout all time into eternity, are faultlessly in order; they are precisely what and where and when they should be. James Frame.

They are more than can be numbered. The pulses of Providence are quicker than those of our wrists or temples. The soul of David knew right well their multiplicity, but could not multiply them aright by any skill in arithmetic; nay, the very sum or chief heads of divine kindnesses were innumerable. His "wonderful works" and "thoughts" towards him could not be reckoned up in order by him, they were more than could be numbered. Samuel Lee (1625-1691), in The Triumph of Mercy in the Chariot of Praise.

It is Christ's speech, of whom the Psalm is made, and that relating unto his Father's resolved purposes and contrivings from eternity, and those continued unto his sending Christ into the world to die for us, as Ps 40:6-7. It follows so, as although his thoughts and purposes were but one individual act at first, and never to be altered; yet they became many, through a perpetuated reiteration of them, wherein his constancy to himself is seen...My brethren, if God have been thinking thoughts of mercy from everlasting to those that are his, what a stock and treasury do these thoughts arise to, besides those that are in his nature and disposition! This is in his actual purposes and intentions, which he hath thought, and doth think over, again and again, every moment. Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are toward us, saith Jesus Christ; for Psalm 40 is a Psalm of Christ, and quoted by the apostle, and applied unto Christ in Hebrews 10, How many are thy thoughts toward us! —he speaks it in the name of the human nature —that is, to me and mine. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. And what is the reason? Because God hath studied mercies, mercies for his children, even from everlasting. And then, "He renews his mercies every morning; "not that any mercies are new, but he actually thinketh over mercies again and again, and so he brings out of his treasury, mercies both new and old, and old are always new. What a stock, my brethren, must this needs amount unto! Thomas Goodwin.

Sacrifice and offering...burnt offering and sin offering. Four kinds are here specified, both by the psalmist and apostle: namely, sacrifice (xbz) zebhach, yusia; offering, (hxnm) minchah, prosfora; burnt offering, (hlwe) olah, olokautwma; sin offering, (hajx) chataah, peri amartias. Of all these we may say with the apostle, it was impossible that the blood of bulls and goats, etc., should take away sin. Adam Clarke.

Mine ears hast thou opened. The literal translation is, mine ears hast thou digged (or pierced) through; which may well be interpreted as meaning, "Thou hast accepted me as thy slave, " in allusion to the custom Ex 21:6 of masters boring the ear of a slave, who had refused his offered freedom, in token of retaining him. Daniel Cresswell.

John Calvin, in treating upon the interpretation, "mine ears hast thou bored, "says, "this mode of interpretation appears to be too forced and refined."

Mine ears hast thou opened. If it is to be said that the apostle to the Hebrews read this differently, I answer, this does not appear to me. It is true, he found a different, but corrupted translation (wtia, ears, as the learned have observed, having been changed into swma, body) in the LXX, which was the version then in use; and he was obliged to quote it as he found it, under the penalty, if he altered it, of being deemed a false quoter. He therefore took the translation as he found it, especially as it served to illustrate his argument equally well. Upon this quotation from the LXX the apostle argues, Ps 40:9, "He, (Christ) taketh away the first (namely, legal sacrifices), that he may establish the second" (namely, obedience to God's will), in offering himself a sacrifice for the sins of mankind; and thus he must have argued upon a quotation for the Hebrew text as it stands at present. Green, quoted in S. Burder's "Scripture Expositor."

The apostle's reading Heb 10:5, though it be far distant from the letter of the Hebrew, and in part from the LXX (as I suppose it to have been originally), yet is the most perspicuous interpretation of the meaning of it: Christ's body comprehended the ears, and that assumed on purpose to perform in it the utmost degree of obedience to the will of God, to be obedient even to death, and thereby to be as the priest. Henry Hammond.

Nor sacrifice thy love can win,

Nor offerings from the stain of sin

Obnoxious man shall clear:

Thy hand my mortal frame prepares, (Thy hand, whose signature it bears,)

And opens my willing ear. —James Merrick, M.A., 1720-1769.

Verses 6-7. In these words an allusion is made to a custom of the Jews to bore the ears of such as were to be their perpetual servants, and to enrol their names in a book, or make some instrument of the covenant. "Sacrifices and burnt offerings thou wouldst not have; "but because I am thy vowed servant, bored with an awl, and enrolled in thy book, I said, Lo, I come; I delight to do thy will, O my God. These words of the Psalm are alleged by S. Paul, Hebrews 10. But the first of them with a most strange difference. For whereas the psalmist hath, according to the Hebrew verity, Sacrifice and burnt offering thou wouldst not: mine ears thou hast bored or digged, (tyrn); S. Paul reads with the LXX, swma kathrtisw moi, "A body thou hast prepared or fitted me." What equipollency can be in sense between these two? This difficulty is so much the more augmented because most interpreters make the life of the quotation to lie in those very words where the difference is, namely, That the words, "A body thou hast prepared me, "are brought by the apostle to prove our Saviour's incarnation; whereunto the words in the Psalm itself (Mine ears hast thou bored, or digged, or opened), take them how you will in no wise suit. I answer, therefore, That the life of the quotation lies not in the words of difference, nor can do, because this epistle was written to the Hebrews, and so first in the Hebrew tongue, where this translation of the LXX could have no place. And if the life of the quotation lay here, I cannot see how it can possibly be reconciled. It lies therefore in the words where there is no difference, namely, That Christ was such a High Priest as came to sanctify us, not with the legal offerings and sacrifices, but by his obedience in doing like a devoted servant the will of his Father. Thus, the allegation will not depend at all upon the words of difference, and so they give us liberty to reconcile them: Mine ears hast thou bored, saith the psalmist, i.e., Thou hast accepted me for a perpetual servant, as masters are wont, according to the law, to bore such servants' ears as refuse to part from them. Now the LXX, according to whom the apostle's epistle readeth, thinking perhaps the meaning of this speech would be obscure to such as knew not that custom, chose rather to translate it generally swma de katertisw moi, "Thou hast fitted my body, "namely, to be thy servant, in such a manner as servants' bodies are wont to be. And so the sense is all one, though not specified to the Jewish custom of boring the ear with an awl, but left indifferently applicable to the custom of any nation in marking and stigmatising their servants' bodies. Joseph Mede, B.D., 1586-1638.

Verses 6-10. Here we have in Christ for our instruction, and in David also (his type) for our example; 1. A firm purpose of obedience, in a bored ear, and a yielding heart. 2. A ready performance thereof: Lo, I come. 3. A careful observance of the word written: In the volume of the Book it is written of me, Ps 40:7. 4. A hearty delight in that observance, Ps 40:8. 5. A public profession and communication of God's goodness to others, Ps 40:9-10. Now, we should labour to express Christ to the world, to walk as he walked 1Jo 2:6: our lives should be in some sense parallel with his life, as the transcript with the original: he left us a copy to write by, saith St. Peter, 1Pe 2:21. John Trapp.

Then said I, Lo, I come. As his name is above every name, so this coming of his is above every coming. We sometimes call our own births, I confess, a coming into the world; but properly, none ever came into the world but he. For, 1. He only truly can be said to come, who is before he comes; so were not we, only he so. 2. He only strictly comes who comes willingly; our crying and struggling at our entrance into the world, shows how unwillingly we come into it. He alone it is that sings out, Lo, I come. 3. He only properly comes who comes from some place or other. Alas! we had none to come from but the womb of nothing. He only had a place to be in before he came. Mark Frank.

Then said I, Lo, I come, to wit, as surety, to pay the ransom, and to do thy will, O God. Every word carrieth a special emphasis as 1. The time, then, even so soon as he perceived that his Father had prepared his body for such an end, then, without delay. This speed implies forwardness and readiness; he would lose no opportunity. 2. His profession in this word, said I; he did not closely, secretly, timorously, as being ashamed thereof, but he maketh profession beforehand. 3. This note of observation, Lo, this is a kind of calling angels and men to witness, and a desire that all might know his inward intention, and the disposition of his heart; wherein was as great a willingness as any could have to anything. 4. An offering of himself without any enforcement or compulsion; this he manifests in this word, I come. 5. That very instant set out in the present tense, I come; he puts it not off to a future and uncertain time, but even in that moment, he saith, I come. 6. The first person twice expressed, thus, "I said, ""I come." He sends not another person, nor substitutes any in his room; but he, even he himself in his own person, comes. All which do abundantly evidence Christ's singular readiness and willingness, as our surety, to do his Father's will, though it were by suffering, and by being made a sacrifice for our sins. Thomas Brooks.

Lo, I come, i.e., to appear before thee; a phrase used to indicate the coming of an inferior into the presence of a superior, or of a slave before his master, Nu 22:38 2Sa 19:20: as in the similar expression, "Behold, here I am, "generally expressive of willingness. J. J. Stewart Perowne.

Lo, I come. Christ's coming in the spirit is a joyful coming. I think this, Lo, I come, expresses 1. Present joy. 2. It expresses certain joy: the Lo, is a note of certainty; the thing is certain and true; and his joy is certain; certain, true, solid joy. 3. It expresses communicative joy; designing his people shall share of his joy, Lo, I come! The joy that Christ has as Mediator is a fulness of joy, designed for his people's use, that out of his fulness we may receive, and grace for grace, and joy for joy; grace answering grace in Jesus, and joy answering joy in him. 4. It expresses solemn joy. He comes with a solemnity; Lo, I come! according to the council of a glorious Trinity. Now, when the purpose of heaven is come to the birth, and the decree breaks forth, and the fulness of time is come, he makes heaven and earth witness, as it were, to his solemn march on the errand: he says it with a loud, Lo! that all the world of men and angels may notice, Lo, I come! And, indeed, all the elect angels brake forth into joyful songs of praise at this solemnity; when he came in the flesh, they sang, "Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and good will towards man." Ralph Erskine, 1685-1752.

Lo, I come, or, am come, to wit, into the world Heb 10:5, and particularly to Jerusalem, to give myself a sacrifice for sin. Henry Ainsworth.

The volume of the book. What book is meant, whether the Scripture, or the book of life, is not certain, probably the latter. W. Wilson, D.D.

The volume of the book. But what volume of manuscript roll is here meant? Plainly, the one which was already extant when the psalmist was writing. If the psalmist was David himself (as the title of the Psalm seems to affirm), the only parts of the Hebrew Scriptures then extant, and of course, the only part to which he could refer, must have been the Pentateuch, and perhaps the book of Joshua. Beyond any reasonable doubt, them, the kefalis biblion (rpo tlnm) was the Pentateuch...But I apprehend the meaning of the writer to be, that the book of the law, which prescribes sacrifices that were merely skiai or parabolai of the great atoning sacrifice by Christ, did itself teach, by the use of these, that something of a higher and better nature was to be looked for than Levitical rites. In a word, it pointed to the Messiah; or, some of the contents of the written law had respect to him. Moses Stuart, M.A., in "A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews," 1851.

The volume of the book etc. When I first considered Ro 5:14, and other Scriptures in the New Testament which make the first Adam, and the whole story of him both before and after, and in his sinning or falling, to be the type and lively shadow of Christ, the second Adam; likewise observing that the apostle Paul stands admiring at the greatest of this mystery or mystical type, the Christ, the second Adam should so wonderfully be shadowed forth therein, as Eph 5:32, he cries out, "This is a great mystery, "which he speaks applying and fitting some passages about Adam and Eve unto Christ and his church; it made me more to consider an interpretation of a passage in Heb 10:7, out of Ps 40:7, which I before had not only not regarded, but wholly rejected, as being too like a postil (A marginal note) gloss. The passage is, that "when Christ came into the world, "to take our nature on him, he alleged the reason of it to be the fulfilling of a Scripture written in "the beginning of God's book, "en kefalisi Biblion, so out of the original the words may be, and are by many interpreters, translated, though our translation reads them only thus, In the volume of the book it is written of me. It is true, indeed, that in the fortieth Psalm, whence they are quoted, the words in the Hebrew may signify no more than that in God's book (the manner of writing which was anciently in rolls of parchment, folded up in a volume) Christ was everywhere written and spoken of. Yet the word kefalis which out of the Septuagint's translation the apostle took, signifying, as all know, the beginning of a book; and we finding such an emphasis set by the apostle in the fifth chapter of the Ephesians, upon the history of Adam in the beginning of Genesis, as containing the mystery, yea, the great mystery about Christ, it did somewhat induce, though not so fully persuade, me to think, that the Holy Ghost in those words might have some glance at the story of Adam in the first of the first book of Moses. And withal the rather because so, the words so understood do intimate a higher and further inducement to Christ to assume our nature, the scope of the speech, Hebrews 10, being to render the reason why he so willingly took man's nature: not only because God liked not sacrifice and burnt offering, which came in but upon occasion of sin, and after the fall, and could not take sin away, but further, that he was prophesied of, and his assuming a body prophetically foresighted, as in the fortieth Psalm, so even by Adam's story before the fall, recorded in the very beginning of Genesis, which many other Scriptures do expressly apply it unto. Thomas Goodwin.

I have not hid. This intimates, that whoever undertook to preach the gospel of Christ would be in great temptation to hide it, and conceal it, because it must be preached with great contention, and in the face of great opposition. Matthew Henry.

I have not hid, etc. What God has done for us, or for the church, we should lay to heart; but not lock up in our heart. Carl Bernhard Moll in Lange's "Bibelwerk." 1869.

Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me. Do not hinder them from coming showering down upon me. Let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me; or, do thou employ them in preserving me. John Diodati.

For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head. We lose ourselves when we speak of the sins of our lives. It may astonish any considering man to take notice how many sins he is guilty of any one day; how many sins accompany any one single act; nay, how many bewray themselves in any one religious duty. Whensoever ye do anything forbidden, you omit the duty at that time commanded; and whenever you neglect that which is enjoined, the omission is joined with the acting of something forbidden; so that the sin, whether omission or commission, is always double; nay, the apostle makes every sin tenfold. Jas 2:10. That which seems one to us, according to the sense of the law, and the account of God, is multiplied by ten. He breaks every command by sinning directly against one, and so sins ten times at once; besides that swarm of sinful circumstances and aggravations which surround every act in such numbers, as atoms use to surround your body in a dusty room; you may more easily number these than those. And though some count these but fractions, incomplete sins, yet even from hence it is more difficult to take an account of their number. And, which is more for astonishment, pick out the best religious duty that ever you performed, and even in that performance you may find such a swarm of sins as cannot be numbered. In the best prayer that ever you put up to God, irreverence, lukewarmness, unbelief, spiritual pride, self seeking, hypocrisy, distractions, etc., and many more, that an enlightened soul grieves and bewails; and yet there are many more that the pure eye of God discerns, than any man does take notice of. David Clarkson.

Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me. They seized him as the sinner's substitute, to deal with him as regards their own penalty, according to the sinner's desert. James Frame.

The remaining verses of this Psalm are almost exactly identical with Psalm 70.

Let them be ashamed and confounded, etc. Even this prayer carried benevolence in its bosom. It sought from the divine Father, such a manifestation of what was glorious and like God as might unnerve each rebel arm, and overawe each rebel heart in the traitor's company. If each arm were for a little unnerved, if each heart were for a little unmanned, there might be time for the better principles of their nature to rise and put an arrest upon the prosecution of their wicked design. Such being the benevolent aim of the prayer, we need not wonder that it issued from the same heart that by and by exclaimed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do; "neither need we marvel that it was answered to the very letter, and that as soon as he said to the traitor band, "I am he, " they went backward and fell to the ground. James Frame.

Aha, aha. An exclamation which occurs three times in the Psalms; and in each case there seems to be reference to the mockery at the Passion. See Ps 35:21 70:3, which appear to belong to the same time as the present Psalm. Christopher Wordsworth.

Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee. As every mercy to every believer giveth a proof of God's readiness to show the like mercy to all believers, when they stand in need; so should every mercy shown to any of the number, being known to the rest, be made the matter and occasion of magnifying the Lord. David Dickson.

Such as love thy salvation. To love God's salvation is to love God himself, the Saviour, or Jesus. Martin Geier.

Such as love thy salvation. One would think that self love alone should make us love salvation. Aye, but they love it because it is his, "that love thy salvation." It is the character of a holy saint to love salvation itself; not as his own only, but as God's, as God's that saves him. Thomas Goodwin.

Let such as love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified. Jesus who gave us our capacity of happiness and our capacity of speaking, realised the relation which he had established between them; and hence in praying for his friends, he prayed that in the joy and gladness of their souls they might say, "The Lord be magnified." He desired them to speak of their holy happiness; and it was his wish that when they did speak of it they should speak in terms of praise of Jehovah, for he was the source of it. He desired them to say continually, The Lord be magnified. James Frame.

In Dr. Malan's memoir, the editor, one of his sons, thus writes of his brother Jocelyn, who was for some years prior to his death, the subject of intense bodily sufferings: —"One striking feature in his character was his holy fear of God, and reverence for his will." One day I was repeating a verse from the Psalms, `As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord careth for me: thou art my helper and deliverer; O Lord, make no long tarrying.' He said, `Mamma, I love that verse, all but the last bit, it looks like a murmur against God. He never `tarries' in my case.' From "The Life, Labours, and Writings of Caesar Malan" (1787-1864): By one of his sons, 1869.

Yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Sacred story derives from heaven the kindness of Abimelech to Abraham, of Laban and Esau to Jacob, of Ruth to Naomi, of Boaz to Ruth, and Jonathan to David. When others think of kindness to us, let us imitate David, it is the Lord that thinketh upon me, and forms those thoughts within their hearts. This should calm our spirits when a former friend's heart is alienated by rash admissions of false suggestions, or when any faithful Jonathan expires his spirit into the bosom of God. It should not be lost what Hobson, the late noted carrier of Cambridge, said to a young student receiving a letter of the sad tidings of his uncle's decease (who maintained him at the University), and weeping bitterly, and reciting the cause of his grief, he replied, Who gave you that friend? Which saying did greatly comfort him, and was a sweet support to him afterwards in his ministry. The Ever living God is the portion of a living faith, and he can never want that hath such an ocean. He that turns the hearts of kings like rivers at his pleasure, turns all the little brooks in the world into what scorched and parched ground he pleases. Samuel Lee.

The Lord thinketh upon me. There are three things in God's thinking upon us, that are solacing and delightful. Observe the frequency of his thoughts. Indeed, they are incessant. You have a friend, whom you esteem and love. You wish to live in his mind. You say when you part, and when you write, "Think of me." You give him, perhaps, a token to revive his remembrance. How naturally is Selkirk, in his solitary island, made to say: —

"My friends, do they now and then send

A wish or a thought after me?

O tell me, I yet have a friend,

Though a friend I am never to see."

"Ye winds, that have made me your sport,

Convey to this desolate shore

Some cordial, endearing report

Of a land I shall visit no more."

But the dearest connexion in the world cannot be always thinking upon you. Half his time he is in a state of unconsciousness; and how much during the other half is he engrossed! But there is no remission in the Lord's thoughts...Observe in the next place, the wisdom of his thoughts. You have a dear child, absent from you, and you follow him in your mind. But you know not his present circumstances. You left him in such a place; but where is he now? You left him in such a condition. But what is he now? Perhaps while you are thinking upon his health, he is groaning under a bruised limb, or a painful disorder. Perhaps, while you are thinking of his safety, some enemy is taking advantage of his innocency. Perhaps, while you are rejoicing in his prudence, he is going to take a step that will involve him for life. But when God thinketh upon you, he is perfectly acquainted with your situation, your dangers, your wants. He knows all your walking through this great wilderness, and can afford you the seasonable succour you need. For again, observe the efficiency of his thoughts. You think upon another, and you are anxious to guide, or defend, or relieve him. But in how many cases can you think only? Solicitude cannot control the disease of the body, cannot dissipate the melancholy of the mind. But with God all things are possible. He who thinks upon you is a God at hand and not afar off; he has all events under his control; he is the God of all grace. If, therefore, he does not immediately deliver, it is not because he is unable to redress, but because he is waiting to be gracious. William Jay.

1. My part —praying and waiting.

2. God's part —condescension and reply.

1. The depth of God's goodness to his people. It finds them often in a horrible pit and miry clay. There is a certain spider which forms a pit in sand, and lies concealed at the bottom, in order to seize upon other insects that fall into it. Thus David's enemies tried to bring him into a pit.

2. The height of his goodness. He brought me out and set my feet upon a rock. That rock is Christ. Those feet are faith and hope.

3. The breadth of his goodness establisheth my goings, restored me to my former place in his love, showing me still to have been his during my low estate. He was the same to me, though I felt not the same to him. My goings refer both to the past and the future.

4. The strength of his goodness established my goings, making me stand firmer after every fall.  —George Rogers.

Verses 2-3. The sinner's position by nature, and his rescue by grace.

Verses 2-3. By one and the same act the Lord works our salvation, our enemies' confusion, and the church's edification. J. P. Lange's Commentary.

The new song, the singer, the teacher.

(last clause).

1. Find out who turn aside to lies —Atheists, Papists, self righteous, lovers of sin.

2. Show their folly in turning aside from God and truth, and in turning to fallacies which lead to death.

3. Show how to be preserved from the like folly, by choosing truth, truthful persons, and above all the service of God.

1. There are works of God in his people and for his people. There are his works of creation, of providence, and of redemption, and also his works of grace, wrought in them by his Spirit, and around them by his providence, as well as for them by his Son.

2. These are wonderful works; wonderful in their variety, their tenderness, their adaptation to their need, their cooperation with outward means and their power.

3. They are the result of the divine thoughts respecting us. They come not by chance, not by men, but by the hand of God, and that hand is moved by his will, and that will by his thought respecting us. Every mercy, even the least, represents some kind thought in the mind of God respecting us. God thinks of each one of his people, and every moment.

4. They are innumerable. They cannot be reckoned up. Could we see all the mercies of God to us and his wonderful works wrought for us individually, they would be countless as the sands, and all these countless mercies represent countless thoughts in the mind and heart of God to each one of his people.  —George Rogers.

The multitude of God's thoughts, and deeds of grace; beginning in eternity, continuing for ever; and dealing with this life, heaven, hell, sin, angels, devils, and indeed all things.

Here David goes beyond himself, and speaks the language of David's Son. This was naturally suggested by God's wonderful works, and innumerable thoughts of love to man.

1. The sacrifices that were not required. These were the sacrifices and burnt offerings under the law. (a) When required? From Adam to the coming of Christ. (b) When not required? (c) Why required before? As types of the one method of redemption. (d) Why not now required? Because the great Antitype had come.

2. The sacrifice that was required. This was the sacrifice offered on Calvary. (a) It was required by God by his justice, his wisdom, his faithfulness, his love, his honour, his glory. (b) It was required by man to give him salvation and confidence in that salvation. (c) It was required for the honour of the moral government of God throughout the universe.

3. The person by whom this sacrifice was offered. Mine ears hast thou opened. This is the language of Christ, prospectively denoting —(a) Knowledge of the sacrifice required. (b) Consecration of himself as a servant for that end.  —George Rogers.

Mine ears hast thou opened. Readiness to hear, fixity of purpose, perfection of obedience, entireness of consecration.

Verses 6-8. The Lord gives an ear to hear his word, a mouth to confess it, a heart to love it, and power to keep it.  —James Merrick, M.A., 1720-1769.

Verses 6-8. The Lord gives an ear to hear his word, a mouth to confess it, a heart to love it, and power to keep it.

1. The time of Christ's coming. Then said I. When types were exhausted, when prophecies looked for their fulfilment, when worldly wisdom had done its utmost, when the world was almost entirely united under one empire, when the time appointed by the Father had come.

2. The design of his coming. In the volume was written —(a) The constitution of his person. (b) His teaching. (c) The manner of his life. (d) The design of his death. (e) His resurrection and ascension. (f) The kingdom he would establish.

3. The voluntariness of his coming, Lo, I come. Though sent by the Father, he came of his own accord. "Christ Jesus came into the world." Men do not come into the world, they are sent into it. Lo, I come, denotes pre-existence, pre-determination, pre-operation.  —George Rogers.

Verses 6-8. The Lord gives an ear to hear his word, a mouth to confess it, a heart to love it, and power to keep it.

To do thy will, O God.

1. The will of God is seen in the fact of salvation. It has its origin in the will of God.

2. The will of God is seen in the plan of salvation. All things have proceeded, are proceeding, and will proceed according to that plan.

3. It is seen in the provision of salvation, in the appointment of his own Son to become the mediator the atoning sacrifice, the law fulfiller, the head of the church, that his plan required.

4. It is seen in the accomplishment of salvation.

Referring to our Lord; a great preacher, a great subject, a great congregation, and his great faithfulness in the work.

(first clause).

1. The righteousness possessed by God.

2. The righteousness prescribed by God.

3. The righteousness provided by God. James Frame.

1. The preacher must reveal his whole message. 2. He must not conceal any part: (a) Not of the righteousness of the law or the gospel; (b) Not of the lovingkindness of grace; (c) Not of any portion of the truth with flowers of rhetoric; (d) To give a partial representation; (e) To put one truth in the place of another; (f) To give the letter without the spirit. G.R.

The great sin of concealing what we know of God.

Enrichment and preservation sought. The true riches are from God, gifts of his sovereignty, fruits of his mercy, marked with his tenderness. The best preservations are divine love and faithfulness.

Verses 11-13. As an instance of clerical ingenuity, it may be well to mention that Canon Wordsworth has a sermon from these verses upon "the duty of making responses in public prayer."

"Came at length the dreadful night.

Vengeance with its iron rod

Stood, and with collected might

Bruised the harmless Lamb of God,

See, my soul, thy Saviour see,

Prostrate in Gethsemane!"

"There my God bore all my guilt,

This through grace can be believed;

But the horrors which he felt

Are too vast to be conceived.

None can penetrate through thee,

Doleful, dark Gethsemane."

"Sins against a holy God;

Sins against his righteous laws;

Sins against his love, his blood;

Sins against his name and cause;

Sins immense as is the sea —

Hide me, O Gethsemane!"

Verses 11-13. As an instance of clerical ingenuity, it may be well to mention that Canon Wordsworth has a sermon from these verses upon "the duty of making responses in public prayer."

Compare this with Ps 40:5. The number of our sins, and the number of his thoughts of love.

(second clause).

1. The soul arrested —"taken hold."

2. The soul bewildered —"cannot look up."

3. The soul's only refuge —prayer, Ps 40:13.

Verses 11-13. As an instance of clerical ingenuity, it may be well to mention that Canon Wordsworth has a sermon from these verses upon "the duty of making responses int public prayer."

1. The language of believing prayer —deliver me, help me; looking for deliverance and help to God only.

2. Of earnest prayer —make haste to help me.

3. Of submissive prayer —be pleased, O Lord, if according to thy good pleasure.

4. Of consistent prayer. Help me, which implies efforts for his own deliverance, putting his own shoulder to the wheel.

Honi soit mal y pense; or, the reward of malignity.

(last clause). An everyday saying. Who can use it? What does it mean? Why should they say it? Why say it continually?

The humble But, and the believing Yet. The little I am, and the great Thou art. The fitting prayer.

The Lord thinketh upon me. Admire the condescension, and then consider that this is —

1. A promised blessing.

2. A practical blessing —he thinks upon us to supply, protect, direct, sanctify, &c.

3. A precious blessing —kind thoughts, continual, greatly good. He thinks of us as his creatures with pity, as his children with love, as his friends with pleasure.

4. A present blessing —promises, providences, visitations of grace.

1. The less we think of ourselves the more God will think upon us.

2. The less we put trust in ourselves the more we may trust in God for help and deliverance.

3. The less delay in prayer and active efforts the sooner God will appear for us.