Psalms 41 commentary

The people of God are not free from poverty, sickness, or outward affliction, but the Lord will consider their case, and send due supplies. From his Lord's example the believer learns to consider his poor and afflicted brethren. This branch of godliness is usually recompensed with temporal blessings. But nothing is so distressing to the contrite believer, as a fear or sense of the Divine displeasure, or of sin in his heart. Sin is the sickness of the soul; pardoning mercy heals it, renewing grace heals it, and for this spiritual healing we should be more earnest than for bodily health.

We complain, and justly, of the want of sincerity, and that there is scarcely any true friendship to be found among men; but the former days were no better. One particularly, in whom David had reposed great confidence, took part with his enemies. And let us not think it strange, if we receive evil from those we suppose to be friends. Have not we ourselves thus broken our words toward God? We eat of his bread daily, yet lift up the heel against him. But though we may not take pleasure in the fall of our enemies, we may take pleasure in the making vain their designs. When we can discern the Lord's favour in any mercy, personal or public, that doubles it. If the grace of God did not take constant care of us, we should not be upheld. But let us, while on earth, give heartfelt assent to those praises which the redeemed on earth and in heaven render to their God and Saviour.

PSALM 41

David, while he was severely afflicted by the hand of God, perceived that he was unjustly blamed by men who regarded him as one who had already been condemned and devoted to eternal destruction. Under this trial he fortifies himself by the consolation of hope. At the same time, he complains partly of the cruelty, and partly of the treachery, of his enemies. And although he recognises the affliction with which he is visited as a just punishment of his sins, yet he charges his enemies with cruelty and malice, inasmuch as they troubled and afflicted one who had always endeavored to do them good. Finally, he records an expression of his gratitude and joy, because he had been preserved by the grace of God.

To the chief musician. A Psalm of David.

Psalm 41:1-3

1. Blessed is he that judgeth wisely of the poor: “C’est, de l’afflige.” — Fr. marg. “That is, the afflicted.” Jehovah will deliver him “Ascavoir, l’afflige.” — Fr. marg “Namely, the afflicted.” in the day of evil. 2. Jehovah will keep him, and preserve him in life: he shall be blessed upon the earth; “Il prosperera en la terre.” — Fr. “He shall prosper on the earth.” and thou wilt not abandon him to the will of his enemies. 3. Jehovah will support “Confortera.” — Fr. Text. “Soulagera.” — Fr. marg. “Will comfort.” him upon the bed of sorrow: thou hast turned all his bed in his sickness.

1. Blessed is he that judgeth wisely of the poor. Interpreters are generally of opinion that the exercise of kindness and compassion manifested in taking care of the miserable, and helping them, is here commended. Those, however, who maintain that the Psalmist here commends the considerate candour of those who judge wisely and charitably of men in adversity, form a better judgment of his meaning. Indeed, the participle משכיל, maskil, cannot be explained in any other way. At the same time, it ought to be observed on what account it is that David declares those to be blessed who form a wise and prudent judgment concerning the afflictions by which God chastises his servants. We have said that he had to contend in his own heart against the perverse judgments of foolish and wicked men, because, when affliction was pressing heavily upon him, many considered that he had fallen into a desperate condition, and was altogether beyond the hope of recovery. Doubtless, it happened to him as it did to the holy patriarch Job, whom his friends reckoned to be one of the most wicked of men, when they saw God treating him with great severity. And certainly it is an error which is by far too common among men, to look upon those who are oppressed with afflictions as condemned and reprobate. As, on the one hand, the most of men, judging of the favor of God from an uncertain and transitory state of prosperity, applaud the rich, and those upon whom, as they say, fortune smiles; so, on the other hand, they act contemptuously towards the wretched and miserable, and foolishly imagine that God hates them, because he does not exercise so much forbearance towards them as he does towards the reprobate. The error of which we speak, namely, that of judging wrongfully and wickedly, is one which has prevailed in all ages of the world. The Scriptures in many places plainly and distinctly declare, that God, for various reasons, tries the faithful by adversities, at one time to train them to patience, at another to subdue the sinful affections of the flesh, at another to cleanse, and, as it were, purify them from the remaining desires of the flesh, which still dwell within them; sometimes to humble them, sometimes to make them an example to others, and at other times to stir them up to the contemplation of the divine life. For the most part, indeed, we often speak rashly and indiscriminately concerning others, and, so to speak, plunge even into the lowest abyss those who labor under affliction. To restrain such a rash and unbridled spirit, David says that they are blessed who do not suffer themselves, by speaking at random, to judge harshly of their neighbors; but, discerning aright the afflictions by which they are visited, mitigate, by the wisdom of the Spirit, the severe and unjust judgments to which we are naturally so prone. I have just adduced as an example the case of Job, whom his friends, when they saw him involved in extreme misery, hesitated not to account an outcast, and one whose case was altogether hopeless. “Pour un homme reprouve et forclos d’esperance de salut.” — Fr. If any one endued with candour, and possessed of a humane disposition, should meet with such a case, he would regard it in the exercise of the same discretion which David here commends. As to ourselves, being admonished by this testimony of the Holy Spirit, let us learn to guard against a too precipitate judgment. We must therefore judge prudently of our brethren who are in affliction; that is to say, we must hope well of their salvation, lest, if we condemn them unmercifully before the time, this unjust severity in the end fall upon our own heads. It ought, however, especially to be observed, what indeed I have already noticed, that the object which David had in view, when he saw himself, as it were, overwhelmed by the malicious and cruel judgments which were expressed concerning him, was to fortify himself by this as a ground of consolation, lest he should sink under the temptation. If, therefore, at any time Satan should endeavor to destroy the foundation of our faith, by the rash and presumptuous judgments of men, let us also learn to have recourse to this device of wisdom, lest unawares we fall into despair. This is the proper use of the doctrine contained in this passage.

The Lord will deliver him in the day of evil. Some connect these words, in the day of evil, with the preceding clause; and the reading thus suggested might indeed be admitted; but the distinction which I have followed is better adapted to the sense, and is also supported by the Hebrew accent. Thus at least the doctrine deducible from these words is susceptible of a fuller meaning, namely, that the Lord will deliver the poor in the day of his adversity. Some think that David here prays for a blessing in behalf of the upright and compassionate; as if he had said, May the Lord himself recompense them again for their kindness, if at any time it happen that they are grievously afflicted! Others suppose that David here records the language of such men from which we may come to the knowledge of their wisdom and uprightness. In my opinion, however, both are equally in error in reading this clause in the form of a desire or prayer. Whether, indeed, David speaks in his own name, or in the name of others, he briefly recommends and enjoins the kindness which we ought to exercise towards the afflicted; for although God may for a time manifest his displeasure against them, yet he will, nevertheless, be gracious to them, so that the issue will at length be happier and more joyful than the judgment we might be led to form from the present aspect of things. We now see that the sense in which I have explained this verse is much more copious and fuller of meaning, namely, that we ought to hope for salvation and deliverance from the hand of the Lord, even in the day of adversity; for otherwise, no man who had once fallen into a state of sorrow and sadness would ever be able to rise again. And this I say, because the design of the Holy Spirit in this passage is not only to exhort the faithful to be ready in showing kindness towards their brethren when they see them in affliction, but also to point out the remedy which has been provided for the mitigation of our sorrow, whenever our faith is shaken by adversity.

PSALM 41

Psa 41:1-13. The Psalmist celebrates the blessedness of those who compassionate the poor, conduct strongly contrasted with the spite of his enemies and neglect of his friends in his calamity. He prays for God's mercy in view of his ill desert, and, in confidence of relief, and that God will vindicate his cause, he closes with a doxology.

1-3. God rewards kindness to the poor (Pr 19:17). From Psa 41:2, 11 it may be inferred that the Psalmist describes his own conduct.

poor--in person, position, and possessions.

4. I said--I asked the mercy I show.

heal my soul--(Compare Psa 30:2). "Sin and suffering are united," is one of the great teachings of the Psalms.

5-6. A graphic picture of the conduct of a malignant enemy.

7-8. So of others, all act alike.

9. mine ... friend--literally, "the man of my peace."

eat ... bread--who depended on me or was well treated by me.

hath lifted up heel--in scornful violence. As David and his fortunes typified Christ and His (compare Introduction), so these words expressed the treatment he received, and also that of his Son and Lord; hence, though not distinctly prophetical, our Saviour (Joh 13:18) applies them to Judas, "that the Scripture may be fulfilled." This last phrase has a wide use in the New Testament, and is not restricted to denote special prophecies.

10. A lawful punishment of criminals is not revenge, nor inconsistent with their final good (compare Psa 40:14, 15).

11-13. favourest--or tenderly lovest me (Ge 34:19), evinced by relief from his enemies, and, farther, God recognizes his innocence by upholding him.

Blessed is he that considereth - God is merciful; he will have man to resemble him: as far as he is merciful, feels a compassionate heart, and uses a benevolent hand, he resembles his Maker; and the mercy he shows to others God will show to him. But it is not a sudden impression at the sight of a person in distress, which obliges a man to give something for the relief of the sufferer, that constitutes the merciful character. It is he who considers the poor; who endeavors to find them out; who looks into their circumstances; who is in the habit of doing so; and actually, according to his power and means, goes about to do good; that is the merciful man, of whom God speaks with such high approbation, and to whom he promises a rich reward.

The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive - It is worthy of remark, that benevolent persons, who consider the poor, and especially the sick poor; who search cellars, garrets, back lanes, and such abodes of misery, to find them out, (even in the places where contagion keeps its seat), very seldom fall a prey to their own benevolence. The Lord, in an especial manner, keeps them alive, and preserves them; while many, who endeavor to keep far from the contagion, are assailed by it, and fall victims to it. God loves the merciful man.

The Lord will strengthen him - Good, benevolent, and merciful as he is, he must also die: but he shall not die as other men; he shall have peculiar consolations, refreshment, and support, while passing through the valley of the shadow of death.

Thou wilt make all his bed - הפכת haphachta, thou hast turned up, tossed, and shaken it; and thou wilt do so to all his bed - thou wilt not leave one uneasy place in it - not one lump, or any unevenness, to prevent him from sleeping. Thou wilt do every thing, consistently with the accomplishment of the great decree, "Unto dust thou shalt return," to give him ease, refreshment, and rest. We may sum up the privileges of the merciful man:

1. He is generally blessed, Psa 41:1.

2. He will be delivered in the time of trouble, Psa 41:1.

3. He will be preserved by a particular providence, Psa 41:2.

4. He shall be kept alive amidst infection and danger, Psa 41:2.

5. He shall be blessed on the earth in his temporal concerns, Psa 41:2.

6. His enemies shall not be able to spoil or destroy him, Psa 41:2.

7. He shall be strengthened on a bed of languishing, to enable him to bear his afflictions, Psa 41:3.

8. He shall have ease, comfort, and support in his last hours, Psa 41:3.

I said, Lord, be merciful unto me - I need thy mercy especially, because I have sinned against thee, and my sin is a deadly wound to my soul; therefore heal my soul, for it has sinned against thee.

Mine enemies speak evil - It is often a good man's lot to be evil spoken of; to have his motives, and even his most benevolent acts, misconstrued.

And if he come to see me - This may relate to Ahithophel; but it is more likely that it was to some other person who was his secret enemy, who pretended to come and inquire after his health, but with the secret design to see whether death was despatching his work.

When he goeth abroad, he telleth it - He makes several observations on my dying state; intimates that I am suffering deep remorse for secret crimes; that God is showing his displeasure against me, and that I am full of sorrow at the approach of death.

All that hate me whisper together against me - This is in consequence of the information given by the hypocritical friend, who came to him with the lying tongue, and whose heart gathereth iniquity to itself, which, when he went abroad, he told to others as illminded as himself, and they also drew their wicked inferences.

An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him - דבר בליעל יצוק בו debar beliyaal yatsuk bo, a thing, word, or pestilence of Belial, is poured out upon him. His disease is of no common sort; it is a diabolical malady.

He shall rise up no more - His disease is incurable without a miracle; and he is too much hated of God to have one wrought for him. Some apply this to the death and resurrection of Christ; he lieth - he is dead and buried; he shall never rise again from the dead.

Mine own familiar friend - This is either a direct prophecy of the treachery of Judas, or it is a fact in David's distresses which our Lord found so similar to the falsity of his treacherous disciple, that he applies it to him, Joh 13:18. What we translate mine own familiar friend, איש שלומי ish shelomi, is the man of my peace. The man who, with the שלום לך shalom lecha, peace be to thee! kissed me; and thus gave the agreed-on signal to my murderers that I was the person whom they should seize, hold fast, and carry away.

Did eat of my bread - Was an inmate in my house. Applied by our Lord to Judas, when eating with him out of the same dish. See Joh 13:18, Joh 13:26. Possibly it may refer to Ahithophel, his counsellor, the man of his peace, his prime minister; who, we know, was the strength of Absalom's conspiracy.

Raise me up - Restore me from this sickness, that I may requite them. This has also been applied to our Lord; who, knowing that he must die, prays that he may rise again, and thus disappoint the malice of his enemies.

By this I know that thou favorest me - If thou hadst not been on my side, I had perished by this disease; and then my enemies would have had cause to triumph.

This also has been applied to our Lord; and Calmet says it is the greatest proof we have of the divinity of Christ, that he did not permit the malice of the Jews, nor the rage of the devil, to prevail against him. They might persecute, blaspheme, mock, insult, crucify, and slay him; but his resurrection confounded them; and by it he gained the victory over sin, death, and hell.

Thou upholdest me - I am still enabled to show that my heart was upright before God.

Settest me before thy face for ever - Thou showest that thou dost approve of me: that I stand in thy presence, under the smiles of thy approbation.

This also has been applied to our Lord, and considered as pointing out his mediatorial office at the right hand of God.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel - By all these circumstances and events glory shall redound to the name of God for ever; for the record of these things shall never perish, but be published from one generation to another; and it has been so.

From everlasting, and to everlasting - מהעולם ועד העולם mehaolam vead haolam; From the hidden time to the hidden time; from that which had no beginning to that which has no end.

To which he subscribes, Amen and Amen. Fiat, fiat - Vulgate. Γενοιτο, γενοιτο - Septuagint. The Chaldee says, "And let the righteous say, Amen, and Amen." "Be blessed, Lord God of Israel, from world, and in world. Be it! So be it!" - Anglo-Saxon. To which the Old Psalter approaches very nearly: Blyssed Lord God of Isrel, fra werld, and in werld: Be it done! be it done. Thus illustrated by the same, Fra werld in werld; that es, fra the bygynnyng of this wereld, in til wereld that lastes ay. Be it done, be it done. This dubblying schews that it es at do of al men. In Latyn, it es, fiat, fiat! in Ebru, Amen Amen es writyn: tharfore that Aquila translated vere, vel fideliter, that es, sothfastly or trew.

Thus ends what the Hebrews call the first book of Psalms; for the reader will recollect that this book is divided by the Jews into five books, the first of which ends with this Psalm.

This doxology, Dr. Kennicott supposes, may have been added by the collector of this book; and he thinks that the division into books is not arbitrary, and that the Psalms were collected at different times by different persons. See the Introduction. There is certainly a considerable variety in the style of the several books; in the examination of which the Hebrew critic will not lose his labor.

Make his bed - Give him ease and comfort, which sick men receive by the help of those who turn and stir up their bed, to make it soft and easy for them.

Heal - The soul is said to be healed, when it is pardoned and purged. For - For I acknowledge that I have sinned.

His heart - Even when he is with me, and pretends hearty affection, his heart is devising mischief against me.

Yea - These words were literally fulfilled in David, and yet the Holy Ghost looked farther in them, even to Christ and Judas, in whom they received a fuller accomplishment. Lift up - A phrase implying injury, joined with insolency and contempt; taken from an unruly horse, which kicks at him that owns and feeds him.

Requite - Punish them for their wicked practices; which being now a magistrate, he was obliged to do.

By this - Because hitherto thou hast supported me, and prolonged my days to the disappointment of their hopes.

Settest - Or, hast confirmed me in thy presence, under thine eye and special care: to minister unto thee, as a king over thy people. And in regard of his posterity, the kingdom was established for ever.

Amen - Signifies an hearty assent and approbation, and withal an earnest desire of the thing, to which it is annexed. And as the psalms are divided into five books, so each of them is closed with this word; the first here: the second, Psal 72:19, the third, Psal 89:52, the fourth, Psal 106:48, the last in the end of Psal 150:6, the doubling of the word shews the fervency of his spirit, in this work of praising God.

1. BLessed is he that considereth the poor , the LORD will deliver him , in time of trouble.

Or, That carries himself wisely and prudently, with or towards him, not rashly and foolishly, Censures and Condemnhim, as my pretended Friends dealt with me, v. 8. nor insulteth over him, which is a foolish, as well as wicked thing, but considereth that it may be his own Case, and therefore pitieth and helpeth him; which is the likeliest way to obtain the like Pity, for himself in his Trouble.

Or rather, The Weak, or Sick, or languishing Person, as may be gathered by Comparing this with v. 3. where the Mercy which he is supposed to have afforded to him, is returned upon himself, and with v. 8,

Either, 1. The poor afflicted man. Though his Enemies conclude his Case to be desperate. v. 8. God will Consute them, and deliver him. Or, 2. The Considerer of the Poor, of whom also this same Pronoun, Him, is Confessedly meant, v. 2, 3. And so it is a Promise of Recompence, the wise and merciful Man shall find Mercy.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] ▪ [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word].; [illegible: 1 word] is the [illegible: 1 word] Evil.

2. The LORD will preserve, and keep him alive , and he shall be blessed upon the earth; and thou wilt not deliver him into the will of his enemies .

Heb. quicken him, (i. e.) revive and restore him, Either, he will preserve him from Trouble, Or, if God see Trouble necessary or fit for him, and therefore suffer him to fall into it, he will raise him out of it.

(i. e.) To Destruction, which they earnestly desire and indeavour to procure.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 span]; [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] Psa. [illegible: 1 word].

3. The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.

Either, 1. Change or overturn his Bed of sickness; which is done when a man is restored to Health. Or rather, 2. Give him Ease and Comfort, which sick men receive by the help of those who turn and stir their whole Bed, to make it soft and easie for him. For the Words foregoing and following these suppose him to be and continue in a State of sickness. Thus the Lord elsewhere Compares himself to a Servant, waiting upon his People at Table, Luk. 12. 37. as here, to one that makes their Bed. Metaphors implying strange Condescension.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word].

4. I said LORD, be merciful unto me; heal my soul , for I have sinned against thee .

(i. e.) Either, 1. My self, to wit, my Body. So it is a double Synecdoche. And the soul is so taken. Psal. 16. 10. Or, 2. My Soul properly so called; which is said to be healed, when it is pardoned and purged, as 2 Chron. 30. 20. Isa. 53. 5. Comp. with 1 Pet. 2. 24. Mat. 13. 15. Comp. with Mark 4. 12. Iam. 5. 16. So he strikes at the Root of his Misery, and prays for the Removal of the sin of his Soul, as the Cause of the Disease of his Body.

This may be added Either, 1. As a Reason or Motive to God, grant this Request, for I have sinned, and therefore thy Grace in healing me, will be more glorious and admirable; Or, for I acknowledge that I have sinned: for the Act is oft put for the Declaration of it, as Exod. 33. 13. Psal. 51. 5. Or, 2. As a Reason moving him thus to pray, I said, Lord be merciful unto me, heal my Soul; and great Reason I had to say so, for I have sinned against thee.

5. Mine enemies speak evil of me : When shall he die, and his name perish?

Vent their ill Wishes against me, in the following Words.

6. And if he come to see me , he speaketh vanity : his heart gathereth iniquity to it self , when he goeth abroad he telleth it .

To visit me in my sickness according to the Custome.

Or, falshood, pretending Sympathy with me, and friendship to me, whilst they Plot mischief in their Hearts against me.

Even when he is with me, and pretends hearty affection to me, his Heart cannot forbear its Customary Practice, of meditating and devi[illegible: 1+ letters]ing Mischief against me; for which he watcheth and seeketh for all Occasions from my Speeches, or Carriage, or the Circumstance of my Condition, which he observes.

Partly, to delight his Companions and Pa[illegible: 1+ letters]tly, to encourage them, to and direct them in their malicious Designs against me.

7. All that hate me whisper together against me : against me do they devise my hurt.

(i. e.) Secretly defame me, and closely Plot against me.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1+ letters]vil to [illegible: 1 word].

8. An evil disease , say they, cleaveth fast unto him: and now that he lieth, he shall rise up no more .

Heb. A word or thing of B[illegible: 1+ letters]lial, (i. e.) Either, 1. Some wicked Calumny which they had raised, and which stuck close to him. Or, 2. His great Wickedness, whereof this is a sign. Or rather, 3. This sore Disease or Mischief, Either sent upon him, in way of Vengeance for his horrid Crimes; Or, such as God useth to inflict upon the Sons of B[illegible: 1+ letters]lial, to shew that he is in Truth such an one, whatsoever he pretends to the contrary.

Seeing God hath begun to punish him, he will make an end of him.

Marginal references: Heb. a thing of B[illegible: 1+ letters]lial.

9. Yea, mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lift up his heel against me.

He means either A[illegible: 1+ letters]hitophel, or some other perfidio[illegible: 1+ letters]s Counsellor or Courtier, who was a Type of Iodas, to whom therefore it is applied, Ioh. 13. 18. as David was a Type of Christ, in being thus betrayed. So these Words were literally fulfilled in David, and yet the Holy Ghost which dictated them, looked further in them, even to Christ and Iodas, in whom they received a further and fuller Accomplishment. [illegible: 1+ letters] A Phrase implying, Injury joyned with Insolency and Contempt, taken from an un[illegible: 1+ letters]uly Horse, which Kicks at him, that owns and feeds him.

He means either A[illegible: 1+ letters]hitophel, or some other perfidio[illegible: 1+ letters]s Counsellor or Courtier, who was a Type of Iodas, to whom therefore it is applied, Ioh. 13. 18. as David was a Type of Christ, in being thus betrayed. So these Words were literally fulfilled in David, and yet the Holy Ghost which dictated them, looked further in them, even to Christ and Iodas, in whom they received a further and fuller Accomplishment. [illegible: 1+ letters] A Phrase implying, Injury joyned with Insolency and Contempt, taken from an un[illegible: 1+ letters]uly Horse, which Kicks at him, that owns and feeds him.

Marginal references: Job 19. 19. Jer. 20. 10.; Heb. the man of [illegible: 1+ letters]y Peace.; Heb. magnified.

10. But thou, O LORD, be merciful unto me , and raise me up that I may requite them .

They Censure me grievously, and conclude my Case to be desperate, but, Lord, do thou vindicate me, and Confute them.

Or, and I will▪ requite them, (i. e.) Punish them for their malicious and perfidious and wicked Practises: which, being now a Magistrate, he was obliged to Revenge, Rom. 13. 4. although when he was a private Person, he was so far from revenging Evil, that he rendred good for it, as we see, Psal. 35. 12, 13. and elsewhere.

11. By this I know that thou favourest me : because mine enemy doth not triumph over me .

Bearest a good Will to me, and art resolved to make good thy Promises to me, and wilst plead m[illegible: 1+ letters] righteous Cause against them.

Because hitherto thou hast helped and supported me, and prolonged my days to the disappointment of their Hopes, and designed Triumphs. This Merey I thankfully receive as a Token of further Mercy. Compare, 1 Sam. 17. 37. 2 Cor. 1. 9, 10.

12. And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity : and settesteme before thy face for ever .

As I have kept my Integrity, so thou hast kept me, in and with it. Or, for mine Integrity, because thou hast seen my Innocency notwithstanding all the Calum[illegible: 1+ letters]ies of mine Enemies; and thou hast promised and usest to afford thy Protection to the innocent and upright.

Or, hast Confirmed, or Established me in thy Presence (i. e. Either, under thine Eye and special Care: Or, to Minister unto thee, not onely in thy Temple, but as a King over thy People, or in that Land, where thou art peculiarly present) for ever, Either, 1. Properly: And so this was done to David, Either in his own Person, Partly here, and Partly, in the next Life: Or, in regard of his Posterity, in whom the Kingdom was Established for ever. Or, 2. For my whole Life, or for a long time, as that Phrase is commonly used.

13. Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, from everlasting, and to everlasting Amen and amen .

Or, from Age to Age, as long as the World lasts, and to all Eternity.

Amen signifies an hearty Assent, and Approbation, and withal an earnest Desire, and Confidence of the thing, to which it is annexed. And as the Psalms are divided into five Books, so each of them is closed with this Word, the first here; The second, Psal. 72. the third, Psal. 89. the fourth, Psal. 106. the last in the end of Psal. 150. the doubling of the[illegible: 1+ letters] word shews the Fervency of his Spirit, in this Work of praising God.

Complaint of a Sufferer of Being Surrounded by Hostile and Treacherous Persons

After a Psalm with אשׁרי follows one beginning with אשׁרי; so that two Psalms with אשׁרי close the First Book of the Psalms, which begins with אשׁרי. Psa 41:1-13 belongs to the time of the persecution by Absalom. Just as the Jahve- Psa 39:1-13 forms with the Elohim- Psa 62:1-12 a coherent pair belonging to this time, so does also the Jahve- Psa 41:1-13 with the Elohim-Psalm 55. These two Psalms have this feature in common, viz., that the complaint concerning the Psalmist’s foes dwells with especial sadness upon some faithless bosom-friend. In Psa 41:1-13 David celebrates the blessing which accompanies sincere sympathy, and depicts the hostility and falseness which he himself experiences in his sickness, and more especially from a very near friend. It is the very same person of whom he complains in Ps 55, that he causes him the deepest sorrow - no ideal character, as Hengstenberg asserts; for these Psalms have the most distinctly impressed individual physiognomy of the writer’s own times. In Ps 55 the poet wishes for the wings of a dove, in order that, far away from the city, he might seek for himself a safe spot in the wilderness; for in the city deceit, violence, and mischief prevail, and the storm of a wide-spread conspiracy is gathering, in which he himself sees his most deeply attached friend involved. We need only supplement what is narrated in the second Book of Samuel by a few features drawn from these two Psalms, and these Psalms immediately find a satisfactory explanation in our regarding the time of their composition as the period of Absalom’s rebellion. The faithless friend is that Ahithophel whose counsels, according to 2Sa 16:23, had with David almost the appearance of being divine oracles. Absalom was to take advantage of a lingering sickness under which his father suffered, in order to play the part of the careful and impartial judge and to steal the heart of the men of Israel. Ahithophel supported him in this project, and in four years after Absalom’s reconciliation with his father the end was gained. These four years were for David a time of increasing care and anxiety; for that which was planned cannot have remained altogether concealed from him, but he had neither the courage nor the strength to smother the evil undertaking in the germ. His love for Absalom held him back; the consciousness of his own deed of shame and bloodshed, which was now notorious, deprived him of the alacrity essential to energetic interference; and the consciousness of the divine judgments, which ought to follow his sin, must have determined him to leave the issue of the conspiracy that was maturing under his very eyes entirely to the compassion of his God, without taking any action in the matter himself. From the standpoint of such considerations, Psa 41:1-13 and 55 lose every look of being alien to the history of David and his times. One confirmation of their Davidic origin is the kindred contents of Psa 28:1-9.

Jesus explains (Joh 13:18) that in the act of Judas Iscariot Psa 41:10 is fulfilled, ὁ τρώγων μετ ̓ ἐμοῦ τὸν ἄρτον, ἐπῆρεν ἐπ ̓ ἐμε ̓ τὴν πτέρναν αὐτοῦ (not following the lxx), and Joh 17:12; Act 1:16 assume in a general way that the deed and fate of the traitor are foretold in the Old Testament Scriptures, viz., in the Davidic Psalms of the time of Absalom - the treachery and the end of Ahithophel belong to the most prominent typical features of David’s affliction in this second stage of persecution (vid., Hofmann, Weissagung und Erfüllung, ii. 122).

Psa 41:1-3 (Hebrew_Bible_41:2-4) The Psalm opens by celebrating the lot, so rich in promises, of the sympathetic man. דּל is a general designation of the poor (e.g., Exo 30:15), of the sick and weakly (Gen 41:19), of the sick in mind (2Sa 13:4), and of that which outwardly or inwardly is tottering and consequently weak, frail. To show sympathising attention, thoughtful consideration towards such an one (השׂכּיל אל as in Neh 8:13, cf. על Pro 17:20) has many promises. The verb חיּה, which elsewhere even means to call to life again (Psa 71:20), in this instance side by side with preserving, viz., from destruction, has the signification of preserving life or prolonging life (as in Psa 30:4; Psa 22:30). The Pual אשּׁר signifies to be made happy (Pro 3:18), but also declaratively: to be pronounced happy (Isa 9:15); here, on account of the בּארץ that stands with it, it is the latter. The Chethîb יעשּׁר sets forth as an independent promise that which the Kerî ואשּׁר joins on to what has gone before as a consequence. אל, Psa 41:3 (cf. Psa 34:6 and frequently), expresses a negative with full sympathy in the utterance. נתן בּנפשׁ as in Psa 27:12. The supporting in Psa 41:4 is a keeping erect, which stops or arrests the man who is sinking down into death and the grave. דּוי (= davj, similar form to שׁמי, מעי, but wanting in the syllable before the tone) means sickness. If Psa 41:4 is understood of the supporting of the head after the manner of one who waits upon the sick (cf. Sol 2:6), then Psa 41:4 must, with Mendelssohn and others, be understood of the making of the couch or bed. But what then is neat by the word לך? משׁכּב is a sick-bed in Exo 21:18 in the sense of being bedridden; and הפכתּ (cf. Psa 30:12) is a changing of it into convalescence. By כל־משׁכבו is not meant the constant lying down of such an one, but the affliction that casts him down, in all its extent. This Jahve turns or changes, so often as such an one is taken ill (בחליו, at his falling sick, parallel with דוי על־ערשׂ דוי htiw). He gives a complete turn to the “sick-bed” towards recovery, so that not a vestige of the sickness remains behind.

Psa 41:4-6 (Hebrew_Bible_41:5-7) He, the poet, is treated in his distress of soul in a manner totally different from the way just described which is so rich in promises of blessing. He is himself just such a דּל, towards whom one ought to manifest sympathising consideration and interest. But, whilst he is addressing God in the language of penitential prayer for mercy and help, his enemies speak evil to him, i.e., with respect to him, wishing that he might die and that his name might perish. רפאה .hs is as an exception Milra, inasmuch as א draws the tone to its own syllable; cf. on the other hand רגזה, Isa 32:11 (Hitzig). מתי (prop. extension, length of time) has only become a Semitic interrogative in the signification quando by the omission of the interrogative אי (common Arabic in its full form Arab. 'ymtâ, êmata). ואבד is a continuation of the future. In Psa 41:7 one is singled out and made prominent, and his hypocritically malicious conduct described. ראות of a visit to a sick person as in 2Sa 13:5., 2Ki 8:29. אם is used both with the perf. (Psa 50:18; Psa 63:7; Psa 78:34; Psa 94:18; Gen 38:9; Amo 7:2; Isa 24:13; Isa 28:25) and with the fut. (Psa 68:14; Job 14:14), like quum, as a blending together of si and quando, Germ. wenn (if) and wann (when). In ידבר לבו two Rebias come together, the first of which has the greater value as a distinctive, according to the rule laid down in Baer’s Psalterium, p. xiv. Consequently, following the accents, it must not be rendered: “falsehood doth his heart speak.” The lxx, Vulgate, and Targum have discerned the correct combination of the words. Besides, the accentuation, as is seen from the Targum and expositors, proceeds on the assumption that לבּו is equivalent to בּלבּו. But why may it not be the subject-notion: “His heart gathereth” is an expression of the activity of his mind and feelings, concealed beneath a feigned and friendly outward bearing. The asyndeton portrays the despatch with which he seeks to make the material for slander, which has been gathered together, public both in the city and in the country.

Psa 41:7-9 (Hebrew_Bible_41:8-10) Continuation of the description of the conduct of the enemies and of the false friend. התלחשׁ, as in 2Sa 12:19, to whisper to one another, or to whisper among themselves; the Hithpa. sometimes (cf. Gen 42:1) has a reciprocal meaning like the Niphal. The intelligence brought out by hypocritical visitors of the invalid concerning his critical condition is spread from mouth to mouth by all who wish him ill as satisfactory news; and in fact in whispers, because at that time caution was still necessary. עלי stands twice in a prominent position in the sense of contra me. רעה לּי belong together: they maliciously invent what will be the very worst for him (going beyond what is actually told them concerning him). In this connection there is a feeling in favour of בּליּעל being intended of an evil fate, according to Psa 18:5, and not according to Psa 101:3 (cf. Deu 15:9) of pernicious or evil thought and conduct. And this view is also supported by the predicate יצוּק בּו: “a matter of destruction, an incurable evil (Hitzig) is poured out upon him,” i.e., firmly cast upon him after the manner of casting metal (Job 41:15.), so that he cannot get free from it, and he that has once had to lie down will not again rise up. Thus do we understand אשׁר in Psa 41:9; there is no occasion to take it as an accusative by departing from the most natural sense, as Ewald does, or as a conjunction, as Hitzig does. Even the man of his peace, or literally of his harmonious relationship (אישׁ שׁלום as in Oba 1:7, Jer 20:10; Jer 38:22), on whom he has depended with fullest confidence, who did eat his bread, i.e., was his messmate (cf. Psa 55:15), has made his heel great against him, lxx ἐμεγάλυνεν ἐπ ̓ ἐμὲ πτερνισμόν. The combination הגדּיל עקב is explained by the fact that עקב is taken in the sense of a thrust with the heel, a kick: to give a great kick, i.e., with a good swing of the foot.

Psa 41:10-12 (Hebrew_Bible_41:11-13) Having now described their behaviour towards him, sick in soul and body as he is, so devoid of affection, yea, so malignantly hostile and so totally contrary to the will and promise of God, David prays that God would raise him up, for he is now lying low, sick in soul and in body. The prayer is followed, as in Ps 39:14 and many other passages, by the future with ah: that I may be able to requite them, or: then will I requite them. What is meant is the requiting which it was David’s duty as a duly constituted king to exercise, and which he did really execute by the power of God, when he subdued the rebellion of Absalom and maintained his ground in opposition to faithlessness and meanness. Instead of בּזאת אדע (Gen 42:33, cf. Gen 15:8, Exo 7:17; Num 16:28; Jos 3:10) the expression is בּזאת ידעתּי in the sense of (ex hoc) cognoverim. On חפצתּ בּי cf. Psa 18:20; Psa 22:9; Psa 35:27. By the second כּי, the בּזאת, which points forwards, is explained. The adversatively accented subject ואני stands first in Psa 41:13 as a nom. absol., just as in Psa 35:13. Psa 41:13 states, retrospectively from the standpoint of fulfilment, what will then be made manifest and assure him of the divine good pleasure, viz., Jahve upholds him (תּמך as in Psa 63:9), and firmly sets him as His chosen one before Him (cf. Psa 39:6) in accordance with the Messianic promise in 2Sa 7:16, which speaks of an unlimited future.

Psa 41:13 (Hebrew_Bible_41:14) The closing doxology of the First Book, vid., Introduction. Concerning בּרוּך vid., Psa 18:47. The expression “from aeon to aeon” is, according to Berachoth ix. 5, directed against those who deny the truth of the future world. אמן ואמן (a double aleethe’s or aleethoo’s) seals it in a climactic form.

Promises to Those Who Consider the Poor.

1 Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. 2 The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. 3 The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness. 4 I said, Lord , be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.

In these verses we have,

I. God's promises of succour and comfort to those that consider the poor; and,

1. We may suppose that David makes mention of these with application either, (1.) To his friends, who were kind to him, and very considerate of his case, now that he was in affliction: Blessed is he that considers poor David. Here and there he met with one that sympathized with him, and was concerned for him, and kept up his good opinion of him and respect for him, notwithstanding his afflictions, while his enemies were so insolent and abusive to him; on these he pronounced this blessing, not doubting but that God would recompense to them all the kindness they had done him, particularly when they also came to be in affliction. The provocations which his enemies gave him did but endear his friends so much the more to him. Or, (2.) To himself. He had the testimony of his conscience for him that he had considered the poor, that when he was in honour and power at court he had taken cognizance of the wants and miseries of the poor and had provided for their relief, and therefore was sure God would, according to his promise, strengthen and comfort him in his sickness.

2. We must regard them more generally with application to ourselves. Here is a comment upon that promise, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Observe, (1.) What the mercy is which is required of us. It is to consider the poor or afflicted, whether in mind, body, or estate. These we are to consider with prudence and tenderness; we must take notice of their affliction and enquire into their state, must sympathize with them and judge charitably concerning them. We must wisely consider the poor; that is, we must ourselves be instructed by the poverty and affliction of others; it must be Maschil to us, that is the word here used. (2.) What the mercy is that is promised to us if we thus show mercy. He that considers the poor (if he cannot relieve them, yet he considers them, and has a compassionate concern for them, and in relieving them acts considerately and with discretion) shall be considered by his God: he shall not only be recompensed in the resurrection of the just, but he shall be blessed upon the earth; this branch of godliness, as much as any, has the promise of the life that now is, and is usually recompensed with temporal blessings. Liberality to the poor is the surest and safest way of thriving; such as practise it may be sure of seasonable and effectual relief from God, [1.] In all troubles: He will deliver them in the day of evil, so that when the times are at the worst it shall go well with them, and they shall not fall into the calamities in which others are involved; if any be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger, they shall. Those who thus distinguish themselves from those that have hard hearts God will distinguish from those that have hard usage. Are they in danger? he will preserve and keep them alive; and those who have a thousand times forfeited their lives, as the best have, must acknowledge it as a great favour if they have their lives given them for a prey. He does not say, "They shall be preferred," but, "They shall be preserved and kept alive, when the arrows of death fly thickly round about them." Do their enemies threaten them? God will not deliver them into the will of their enemies; and the most potent enemy we have can have no power against us but what is given him from above. The good-will of a God that loves us is sufficient to secure us from the ill-will of all that hate us, men and devils; and that good-will we may promise ourselves an interest in if we have considered the poor and helped to relieve and rescue them. [2.] Particularly in sickness (v. 3): The Lord will strengthen him, both in body and mind, upon the bed of languishing, on which he had long lain sick, and he will make all his bed—a very condescending expression, alluding to the care of those that nurse and tend sick people, especially of mothers for their children when they are sick, which is to make their beds easy for them; and that bed must needs be well made which God himself has the making of. He will make all his bed from head to foot, so that no part shall be uneasy; he will turn his bed (so the word is), to shake it up and make it very easy; or he will turn it into a bed of health. Note, God has promised his people that he will strengthen them, and make them easy, under their bodily pains and sicknesses. He has not promised that they shall never be sick, nor that they shall not lie long languishing, nor that their sickness shall not be unto death; but he has promised to enable them to bear their affliction with patience, and cheerfully to wait the issue. The soul shall by his grace be made to dwell at ease when the body lies in pain.

II. David's prayer, directed and encouraged by these promises (v. 4): I said, Heal my soul. It is good for us to keep some account of our prayers, that we may not unsay, in our practices, any thing that we said in our prayers. Here is, 1. His humble petition: Lord be merciful to me. He appeals to mercy, as one that knew he could not stand the test of strict justice. The best saints, even those that have been merciful to the poor, have not made God their debtor, but must throw themselves on his mercy. When we are under the rod we must thus recommend ourselves to the tender mercy of our God: Lord, heal my soul. Sin is the sickness of the soul; pardoning mercy heals it; renewing grace heals it; and this spiritual healing we should be more earnest for than for bodily health. 2. His penitent confession: "I have sinned against thee, and therefore my soul needs healing. I am a sinner, a miserable sinner; therefore, God be merciful to me," Luke xviii. 13. It does not appear that this has reference to any particular gross act of sin, but, in general, to his many sins of infirmity, which his sickness set in order before him, and the dread of the consequences of which made him pray, Heal my soul.

David Complains of His Enemies; David's Comfort in God.

5 Mine enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die, and his name perish? 6 And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity: his heart gathereth iniquity to itself; when he goeth abroad, he telleth it. 7 All that hate me whisper together against me: against me do they devise my hurt. 8 An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him: and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more. 9 Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. 10 But thou, O Lord , be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them. 11 By this I know that thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me. 12 And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face for ever. 13 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen.

David often complains of the insolent conduct of his enemies towards him when he was sick, which, as it was very barbarous in them, so it could not but be very grievous to him. They had not indeed arrived at that modern pitch of wickedness of poisoning his meat and drink, or giving him something to make him sick; but, when he was sick, they insulted over him (v. 5): My enemies speak evil of me, designing thereby to grieve his spirit, to ruin his reputation, and so to sink his interest. Let us enquire,

I. What was the conduct of his enemies towards him. 1. They longed for his death: When shall he die, and his name perish with him? He had but an uncomfortable life, and yet they grudged him that. But it was a useful life; he was, upon all accounts, the greatest ornament and blessing of his country; and yet, it seems, there were some who were sick of him, as the Jews were of Paul, crying out, Away with such a fellow from the earth. We ought not to desire the death of any; but to desire the death of useful men, for their usefulness, has much in it of the venom of the old serpent. They envied him his name, and the honour he had won, and doubted not but, if he were dead, that would be laid in the dust with him; yet see how they were mistaken: when he had served his generation he did die (Acts xiii. 36), but did his name perish? No; it lives and flourishes to this day in the sacred writings, and will to the end of time; for the memory of the just is, and shall be, blessed. 2. They picked up every thing they could to reproach him with (v. 6): "If he come to see me" (as it has always been reckoned a piece of neighbourly kindness to visit the sick) "he speaks vanity; that is, he pretends friendship, and that his errand is to mourn with me and to comfort me; he tells me he is very sorry to see me so much indisposed, and wishes me my health; but it is all flattery and falsehood." We complain, and justly, of the want of sincerity in our days, and that there is scarcely any true friendship to be found among men; but it seems, by this, that the former days were no better than these. David's friends were all compliment, and had nothing of that affection for him in their hearts which they made profession of. Nor was that the worst of it; it was upon a mischievous design that they came to see him, that they might make invidious remarks upon every thing he said or did, and might represent it as they pleased to others, with their own comments upon it, so as to render him odious or ridiculous: His heart gathereth iniquity to itself, puts ill constructions upon every thing; and then, when he goes among his companions, he tells it to them, that they may tell it to others. Report, say they, and we will report it, Jer. xx. 10. If he complained much of his illness, they would reproach him for his pusillanimity; if he scarcely complained at all, they would reproach him for his stupidity. If he prayed, or gave them good counsel, they would banter it, and call it canting; if he kept silence from good, when the wicked were before him, they would say that he had forgotten his religion now that he was sick. There is no fence against those whose malice thus gathers iniquity. 3. They promised themselves that he would never recover from this sickness, nor ever wipe off the odium with which they had loaded him. They whispered together against him (v. 7), speaking that secretly in one another's ears which they could not for shame speak out, and which, if they did, they knew would be confuted. Whisperers and backbiters are put together among the worst of sinners, Rom. i. 29, 30. They whispered, that their plot against him might not be discovered and so defeated; there is seldom whispering (we say) but there is lying, or some mischief on foot. Those whisperers devised evil to David. Concluding he would die quickly, they contrived how to break all the measures he had concerted for the public good, to prevent the prosecution of them, and to undo all that he had hitherto been doing. This he calls devising hurt against him; and they doubted not but to gain their point: An evil disease (a thing of Belial), say they, cleaves fast to him. The reproach with which they had loaded his name, they hoped, would cleave so fast to it that it would perish with him, and then they should gain their point. They went by a modern maxim, Fortiter calumniari, aliquid adhærebit—Fling an abundance of calumny, and some will be sure to stick. "The disease he is now under will certainly make an end of him; for it is the punishment of some great enormous crime, which he will not be brought to repent of, and proves him, however he has appeared, a son of Belial." Or, "It is inflicted by Satan, who is called Belial," the wicked one, 2 Cor. vi. 15. "It is" (according to a loose way of speaking some have) "a devilish disease, and therefore it will cleave fast to him; and now that he lieth, now that his distemper prevails so far as to oblige him to keep his bed, he shall rise up no more; we shall get rid of him, and divide the spoil of his preferments." We are not to think it strange if, when good men are sick, there be those that fear it, which makes the world not worthy of them, Rev. xi. 10. 4. There was one particularly, in whom he had reposed a great deal of confidence, that took part with his enemies and was as abusive to him as any of them (v. 9): My own familiar friend; probably he means Ahithophel, who had been his bosom-friend and prime-minister of state, in whom he trusted as one inviolably firm to him, whose advice he relied much upon in dealing with his enemies, and who did eat of his bread, that is, with whom he had been very intimate and whom he had taken to sit at the table with him: nay, whom he had maintained and given a livelihood to, and so obliged, both in gratitude and interest, to adhere to him. Those that had their maintenance from the king's palace did not think it meet for them to see the king's dishonour (Ezra iv. 14), much less to do him dishonour. Yet this base and treacherous confidant of David's forgot all the eaten bread, and lifted up his heel against him that had lifted up his head; not only deserted him, but insulted him, kicked at him, endeavoured to supplant him. Those are wicked indeed whom no courtesy done them, nor confidence reposed in them, will oblige; and let us not think it strange if we receive abuses from such: David did, and the Son of David; for of Judas the traitor David here, in the Spirit, spoke; our Saviour himself so expounds this, and therefore gave Judas the sop, that the scripture might be fulfilled, He that eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me, John xiii. 18, 26. Nay, have not we ourselves behaved thus perfidiously and disingenuously towards God? We eat of his bread daily, and yet lift up the heel against him, as Jeshurun, that waxed fat and kicked, Deut. xxxii. 15.

II. How did David bear this insolent ill-natured conduct of his enemies towards him?

1. He prayed to God that they might be disappointed. He said nothing to them, but turned himself to God: O Lord! be thou merciful to me, for they are unmerciful, v. 10. He had prayed in reference to the insults of his enemies, Lord, be merciful to me, for this is a prayer which will suit every case. God's mercy has in it a redress for every grievance, "They endeavour to run me down, but, Lord, do thou raise me up from this bed of languishing, from which they think I shall never arise. Raise me up that I may requite them, that I may render them good for evil" (so some), for that was David's practice, Ps. vii. 4; xxxv. 13. A good man will even wish for an opportunity of making it to appear that he bears no malice to those that have been injurious to him, but, on the contrary, that he is ready to do them any good office. Or, "That, as a king, I may put them under the marks of my just displeasure, banish them the court, and forbid them my table for the future," which would be a necessary piece of justice, for warning to others. Perhaps in this prayer is couched a prophecy of the exaltation of Christ, whom God raised up, that he might be a just avenger of all the wrongs done to him and to his people, particularly by the Jews, whose utter destruction followed not long after.

2. He assured himself that they would be disappointed (v. 11): "By this I know that thou favourest me and my interest, because my enemy doth not triumph over me." They hoped for his death, but he found himself, through mercy, recovering, and this would add to the comfort of his recovery, (1.) That it would be a disappointment to his adversaries; they would be crest-fallen and wretchedly ashamed, and there would be no occasion to upbraid them with their disappointment; they would fret at it themselves. Note. Though we may not take a pleasure in the fall of our enemies, we may take a pleasure in the frustrating of their designs against us. (2.) That is would be a token of God's favour to him, and a certain evidence that he did favour him, and would continue to do so. Note, When we can discern the favour of God to us in any mercy, personal or public, that doubles it and sweetens it.

3. He depended upon God, who had thus delivered him from many an evil work, to preserve him to his heavenly kingdom, as blessed Paul, 2 Tim. iv. 18. "As for me, forasmuch as thou favourest me, as a fruit of that favour, and to qualify me for the continuance of it, thou upholdest me in my integrity, and, in order to that, settest me before thy face, hast thy eye always upon me for good;" or, "Because thou dost, by thy grace, uphold me in my integrity, I know that thou wilt, in thy glory, set me for ever before thy face." Note, (1.) When at any time we suffer in our reputation our chief concern should be about our integrity, and then we may cheerfully leave it to God to secure our reputation. David knows that, if he can but persevere in his integrity, he needs not fear his enemies' triumphs over him. (2.) The best man in the world holds his integrity no longer then God upholds him in it; for by his grace we are what we are; if we be left to ourselves, we shall not only fall, but fall away. (3.) It is a great comfort to us that, however weak we are, God is able to uphold us in our integrity, and will do it if we commit the keeping of it to him. (4.) If the grace of God did not take a constant care of us, we should not be upheld in our integrity; his eye is always upon us, else we should soon start aside from him. (5.) Those whom God now upholds in their integrity he will set before his face for ever, and make happy in the vision and fruition of himself. He that endures to the end shall be saved.

4. The psalm concludes with a solemn doxology, or adoration of God as the Lord God of Israel, v. 13. It is not certain whether this verse pertains to this particular psalm (if so, it teaches us this, That a believing hope of our preservation through grace to glory is enough to fill our hearts with joy and our mouths with everlasting praise, even in our greatest straits) or whether it was added as the conclusion of the first book of Psalms, which is reckoned to end here (the like being subjoined to lxxii., lxxxix, cvi.), and then it teaches us to make God the Omega who is the Alpha, to make him the end who is the beginning of every good work. We are taught, (1.) To give glory to God as the Lord God of Israel, a God in covenant with his people, who has done great and kind things for them and has more and better in reserve. (2.) To give him glory as an eternal God, that has both his being and his blessedness from everlasting and to everlasting. (3.) To do this with great affection and fervour of spirit, intimated in the double seal set to it—Amen, and Amen. Be it so now, be it so to all eternity. We say Amen to it, and let all others say Amen too.

PSAL. XLI.

To the Master of the Musicke, a Psalme of David.

O Blessed is hee that prudently attendeth unto the poore weakling: in the day of evill, Iehovah will deliver him. Iehovah will keepe him and preserve him alive, he shall be made blessed in the earth; and give thou him not to the soule of his enemies. Iehovah will uphold him on the bed-sted of languishing sorrow; all his bed thou hast turned in his sicknesse. I did say, Iehovah be gracious to me; heale my soule, for I have sinned against thee. My enemies said evill of me; when shall he die, and his name perish? And if he come to see, he speaketh false vanitie in his heart, he heapeth up painfull iniquitie to him selfe: he goeth forth, abroad he speaketh it. Together against me whisper doe all that hate me; against me, they thinke evill to me. A mischievous thing is fastened in him, and he that lieth downe, shall no more rise up. Also the man of my peace, he whom I trusted in, that eateth my bread, he hath greatly lifted up the heele against me.

And thou Iehovah be gracious to me, and raise me up, and I shall repay them. By this I know that thou delightest in me, because my enemie shall not shout triumphantly over me. And me, thou hast sustained me in mine integritie, and hast setled me before thy face for ever. Blessed is Iehovah, the God of Israel, from eternitie, and unto eternity: Amen, and Amen.

Annotations. THat prudently attendeth] or, skilfully carieth himselfe; it implieth both a skilfull minding or judging, and a cariage according, in word and deed: therefore the Chaldee paraphraseth, attendeth to the affaires of the poore to have pitie on him. the poore weakling] The Hebrew Dal hath the signification of drawing out, or emptying, and is applied to the weake, leane, sickly, whose flesh and health is spent, Gen. 41. 19. 2 Sam. 13. 4. and to the poore, whose wealth is wasted, Psal. 72. 13. and 113. 7. opposed to the rich, Exod. 30. 15. And as the poore are thus called weake, thinne, or leane; so rich and great men, are called thicke, or fat, Psal. 78. 31. The poore weakling treated of here, was David and his sonne Christ, as appeareth by the 10. verse, compared with Ioh. 13. 18. Vers. 3. preserve him alive] conserve his life and health, as Deut. 20. 16. or restore him to health from sicknesse, as Hezekiah is said to live, when he recovered his health, Isa. 38. 9. 21. give thou him not] he turneth his speech to the Lord: and so againe in the next verse. to the soule] that is, to the lust or will, as Luke 23. 25. see Psal. 27. 12. The Greeke saith, into the hands: the Chaldee, to the will. Vers. 4. languishing sorrow] or, of sicknesse, feeblenesse. The Chaldee expoundeth it thus; The Word of the Lord will helpe him in his life, and will appeare unto him on the bed of his sicknesse. thou hast turned] or, hast changed. It may be understood either of making his bed easie, that is, comfortable in his sicknesse, or of changing his estate from lying sicke, to sitting up in health. Vers. 5. heale my soule] that is, heale me, who now am sicke: or, heale my soule, of sinnes, infirmities, &c. so God healed the people, when hee pardoned their uncleannesse, 2 Chron. 30. 20. and healeth the broken hearted, Psal. 147. 3. And that which the Prophet speaketh of healing of the people, the Evangelist expoundeth of forgiving them their sins, Isa. 6. 10. Mark. 4. 12. Mat. 13. 15. Vers. 7. abroad] or, in the street. Vers. 9. A mischievous thing] or, Some devillish matter; Heb. a word of Belial. See word for thing, in Psal. 7. 1. and Belial, (which the Chaldee here translateth perverse and wicked,) in Psal. 18. 5. And both joyned as here, in Psal. 101. 3. Deut. 15. 9. It may be understood of some odious sin and wicked vice, or, of some grievous punishmet for the same. is fastned] or, is powred into him. The originall word signifieth both, and may denote the greatnesse and fast cleaving of his sin, and likewise of his punishment: for plagues are said to be powred out, Rev. 16. 1. &c. [illegible: 1 word] shall no more rise] or, shall not adde to rise. Vers. 10. the man of my peace] that is, my familiar friend, which was at peace with me, as Iudas, Christs owne disciple. The Chaldee expoundeth it, the man that should have sought my peace. greatly lifted up] or, magnified the heele, or the foot-sole: that is, hath insolently and contumeliously abused me, seeking my ouerthrow. And this Christ applied to himselfe, Ioh. 13. 18. Hee that eateth bread with me, hath lift up the heele against me. Vers. 12. shout triumphantly] this word noteth any loud sound with voice or trumpet, as Iosh. 6. 5. 20. Numb. 10. 7. sometime a sorrowfull crying out, as Ierem. 20. 16. but commonly joyfull shouting, as here, and after, Psal. 81. 2. and 47. 2. and 66. 1. Vers. 13. And I,] or, As for me. Vers. 14. Amen] or, as the Greeke translateth, So be it. But the Hebrew word Amen is used in the Greeke, English, and all other languages, to betoken vnity of faith and spirit: and it implieth both a wishing of the thing so to be, and a perswasion in faith, that so it shall be, when it is added in the end of blessings, prayers, or imprecations, Num. 5. 22. Deut. 27. 15, &c. Matth. 6. 13. 1 Cor. 14. 16. It is used also in the beginning of speeches, and then it is an earnest asserveration, as Ioh. 6. 26. Amen, Amen, that is, Verily, Verily. For so else-where, when one Evangelist saith Amen, Mat. 24. 47. another, (speaking of the same thing) saith Uerily, or, truly, Luk. 12. 44. Sometime it is the title of God himselfe, Isa. 65. 16. and of Christ, Revel. 3. 14. because of his faithfulnesse and truth in performing all promises. The Chaldee paraphraseth upon this verse thus, Blessed be the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, from this world, and unto the world to come: and let the just say,

PSAL. XLI.

A Pſalm of David] Of the ſame ſenſe with the four former Pſalmes, ſaith Kimchi.

Verſ. 1. Bleſſed is his that conſidereth the poor] Heb. That wiſe by [illegible: 1 word] concerning the poor; The poor weakling, whoſe health is impaired, whoſe wealth is waſted. Auſtin rendreth it, Qui praeoccupat vocem [illegible: 1 word], He that prevenreth the requeſt of the poor begger; wiſely conſidering his caſe, and not ſtaying till he [illegible: 2 letters]ave; which poſſibly out of modeſty hee may hee Ioth to do. The moſt interpret it of a charitable Judgement paſſed upon the poor afflicted, not holding him therefore hated of God, becauſe heavily afflicted, as Jobs friends did. At vobis [illegible: 1 word] ſit qui de me quantumvis calamitoſo rectius judicatis, ſo Beza here paraphraſeth; Well may you fare, my friends, who cenſi[illegible: 2 letters]e better of mee, though full of miſery; and deal more kindly with mee. The word Maſ[illegible: 1 letter]hil ſignifieth both a prudent Judgement, and a deſire to do all good offices, Faith One. It ſignifieth to give comfort and inſtruction to the weak, faith Another, wiſely weighing his caſe, and ready to draw out, not his ſhea[illegible: 1 letter] only, but his ſoul to the hungry, Iſa. 58.10. This is a bleſſed man, preſuppoſing him to be a Beleever, and ſo to do it from a right Principle; viz. Charity out of a pure heart, of a good conſcience, and of faith unfeigned, 1 Tim. 1.5.

The Lord will deliver him] i.e. The poor weakling; and the other alſo that dealeth ſo mercifully with him; both ſhall be delivere; according to that of our Saviour, Matth. 10.41. Delivered I ſay he ſhall be in due time; ſupported in the mean while; a good uſe, and a good Iſſue he ſhall be ſure of.Kimchi. Some make it Davids prayer, The Lord deliver him, &c. Others, the mercifull mans prayer for the poor-afflicted.

Verſ. 2. The Lord will preſerve him, and keep him alive] Life in any ſenſe, is a ſingular mercy; Why is a living man ſorrow full, Lam. 3.39? if he be alive, though afflicted, he hath cauſe to be thankfull; how much more if alive to Righteouſneſs? The Arabick here interpreteth it, dabit [illegible: 1 word] filios in quibus poſt mortems vivat, he will give him Children, in whom he may live after his death.

And he ſhall be bleſſed upon the earth] With wealth, and other accommodations; ſo that the World ſhall look upon him as every way bleſſed.

And thou wilt not deliver him into the hands of his enemies] Heb. Do not thou deliver him] This maketh Kimchi conclude, that all this is but oratio viſitantis conſolatoria, the prayer of him that viſiteth the ſick man, for his comfort.

Verſ. 3. The Lord will ſtrengthen him upon the bed of languiſhing] Whether through ſickneſſe of body, as Iſa. 38.2. or ſorrow of heart; for in ſuch caſe alſo men caſt themſelves upon their beds, 1 Kin. 21.4. This God (and not the Phyſicians) will do for the ſick man, die ſeptimo on the ſeventh day, ſaith R. Solomon, when he is at ſickeſt.

Thou wilt make all his bed] Heb. Thou wilt turn, thou wilt ſtirre up Po[illegible: 1 letter]hers under him, that he may lye at eaſe; and this by the hand of thoſe poor whom he had conſidered. Or, Thou wilt turn all his bed, That is, his whole body from ſickneſſe to health, as Kabvenaki ſenſeth it.

Verſ. 4. I ſaid, Lord be mercifull unto mee, heal] Heal mee in mercy, and begin at the inſide firſt. Heal my ſoul of ſin, and then my body of ſickneſſe; Heal me every whit. Theſe to the end, are the ſick mans words, ſaith Kimchi. And this is the Character of the Lords poor man, to whom the foreſaid comforts do belong, ſaith Another.

For I have ſinned againſt thee] He cryeth peccavi, not perit. Sanat ionom in capite orditur, he beginneth at the right end.

Verſ. 5. Mine enemies speak evill of mee] Notwithſtanding my pitty and devotion; that's no target againſt perſecution. Davids integrity and the ſeverity of his diſcipline diſpleaſed theſe yokeleſſe Balialiſts; they were ſick of his ſtrict government, and longed for a new King who would favour their wicked practices; ſuch as was abſolom, whom they ſhortly after ſet up. David they could not name, becauſe be did Juſtice and Judgement to all the people. Theſe [illegible: 1 letter]bertines were of the E[illegible: 3 letters] [illegible: 1 word] loquaces & ingenieſi in prafect [illegible: 1 span] eulpam, infamiam non effugiat, ſuch as loved to ſpeak evill of dignities; and could not give their governours (how blameleſſe ſoever) a good word.

When ſhall be dye, and his name periſh?] Nothing leſſe would ſatisfie their malice, than utter extermination. But David recovereth, and his name ſurviveth, when they lie wrapt up in the ſheet of ſhame.

Verſ. 6. And if he come to ſee mee] That is, Achitaphel, or ſome ſuch hollow-hearted Holophanta. Plaut. Ore pro mea ſinitate orant ſed cordequaerunt malum. Midraſh Tillin.

He ſpeaketh vanity] Pretending that he is very ſorry to ſee mee ſo ill at eaſe; and letting fall ſome Crocodiles tears perhaps.

Has heart gathereth iniquity to it ſelf] As Toads and Serpents gather venom to vomit at you.

When be goeth abroad, be telleth it] Boaſting to his treacherous Brotherhood, of his baſe behaviour.

Verſ. 7. All thas hate mee, whiſper together againſt mee] Heb. Muſſitant, they mutter as Charmers uſe to do. Theſe whiſperers are dangerous fellows, Rom. 1.29. like the wind that creepeth in by chinks in a wall, or cracks in a window. A vente percolato, & inimice reconciliato, libera nos Demine, ſaith the Italian.

Againſt mee do they deviſe] Cogitant quaſi coagitant.

Verſ. 8. An evill diſeaſe, ſay they, [illegible: 1 letter]leaveth fast unto him] Heb. A thing of Belial,Omnes impietates quas perpetravit.: R. Solom. a vengeance hath befallen him; God for his foul offence hath put him over to the Devill to be tormented by a peſtilentiall diſeaſe, that will ſurely make an end of him. So Genebrard (that mad dog) in the fourth book of his Chronology, Anno Dom. 1564. reckoning up thoſe diverſe diſeaſes whereof Calvin dyed (all which was well known to be falſe) addeth, An Herodes terribilius animam Satana reddiderit, equidens naſcio, whether Herod yeelded up his ſoul to the Devill in a more horrible manner,Lib. 5. cap. 1. I know not. With as little charity did Evagrius ſay of Juſtinian the great Law-giver, ad ſupplicia juſto Dei judicio apud inferos luenda profect us eſt, he went to hell-torments,Lib. de Miffi privats. Anno 1533. when he dyed by Gods juſt Judgement. And Luther of Oecolampadius, ſe credere Occolampadium ignit is Satane telis & haſt is confoſſum [illegible: 1 letter]ubitanea morte periiſſe. — tant [illegible: 2 letters]e animis caleſtibus ire? This falſe conceit is ſufficiently confuted by the hiſtory of his life and death ſet forth by Simon Grynaus, as alſo is that concerning Calvin, by his life written by Beza, and others.

Verſ. 9. Yea mine own familiar friend] Heb. The man of my peace. This was a great cut to David, [non-Latin text not transcribed], ſaith Sophacles, what greater wound can there be than a treacherous friend? ſuch as was Abitophel to David, Judas to our Saviour, Brutus to Julius Caſar (who was ſlain in the Senat-houſe with three and twenty wounds,Ann Dom. 337 given for moſt part by them whoſe lives he had preſerved) Magnentius to Conſtans the Emperour, who had formerly ſaved his life from the Souldiers fury: Michael Balbus to the Emperour Leo Armenius, whom he ſlew the ſame night that he had pardoned and releaſed him. This evil dealing made Socrates cry out, [non-Latin text not transcribed], Friends, there is hardly a friend to bee found; and Queen Elizabeth complain, that in truſt ſhe had found Treaſon; and King Antigon[illegible: 1 letter]s pray to God to preſerve him from his friends; and King Alphonſus to complain of the ingratitude of his Favourites.

In whom I truſted] So did not our Saviour in Judas, for hee knew him better than ſo, and therefore this clauſe is left out, Joh. 13.18. where hee applieth this ſaying to himſelf. Hiero[illegible: 1 letter]s and ſome others apply the whole Pſalm to Chriſt, and for that end they render theſe words actively, Cui credidi, to whom I entruſted or committed my miniſtery.

Who did eat of my bread] My fellow-commoner, with whom I had eaten little leſs than a buſhel of Salt. A mans enemies are many times thoſe of his own houſe, the Birds of his own boſom. Judas dipt in the ſame diſh with Jeſus, be[illegible: 1 letter]rayed him with a kiſs. Caveatur of culuns I ſcarioticuns.

Hath lif[illegible: 1 letter] up his heel againſt me] Heb. Hath magnified the heel, or the feet-ſole, ſc. to ſupplant me, or to trample upon me, or to ſpurn againſt me. Metaphera ab equis calcitre[illegible: 1 letter]ibus, ſaith Vatablus, a Metaphor from unruly and refractory Horſes, See Judg. 15.8. it importeth contempt, deſpite, and cruelty.

Verſ. 10. But thou, O Lord, be merciful unte me] As ſtorms beat a Ship into the harbour: ſo did mens miſuſages drive David to God; and as Children meeting with hard meaſure abroad, hye home to their Parents; ſo here.

And raiſe mee up] From off this bed of weakneſſe; and from under their feet of inſolency and cruelty.

That I may requite them] Not in a way of private revenge (for that was utterly unlawfull, and would not bear a prayer) but of Juſtice, as I am a King, and a lawfull Magiſtrate. The fear of this might happily make Ahitophel (foreſeeing that all would be naught on Abſoloms ſide) to ſave the hangman a labour.

Verſ. 11. By this I know that thou favoureſt mee] This is the triumph of truſt, and the fruit of faithfull prayer; ever anſwered, ſometimes before it is uttered, ſometimes in, and ſometimes after the act; but we may be ſure of an un-miſcarrying return, if we pray and not faint, Luk. 18.1. even ſuch as ſhall bring us word, that God favoureth our perſons.

Verſ. 12. And as for mee, thou upholdeſt mee in mine integrity] Which earth and hell had conſpired to rob mee of, but in vain, through thy help. My ſhield is yet in ſafety. My faith faileth mee not, nor yet mine innocency in regard of men, or the Righteouſneſſe of my cauſe.

And ſetteſt mee before thy face for ever] So that being never out of thy ſight, I cannot poſſibly be out of thy mind. Confer 1 King. 17.1.

Verſ. 13. Bleſſed be the Lord God of Iſrael] Thus he ſweetly ſhutteth up this firſt book of the Pſalmes (as ſome diſtinguiſh) with a patheticall doxology, redoubling his Amen, Fiat, Fiat, to ſhew his fervency, and moſt earneſt deſire that God ſhould be bleſſed by his whole Iſrael. This was the cuſtome of the Scribes to do, ſaith Kimchi, when they had finiſhed any book. The other four books of Pſalmes (as they are reckoned) end in like manner.

From everlaſting to everlaſting] i.e. From the beginning of the World, to the end of it; or, as the Chaldee hath it, from this World, unto the World to come.

Amen and Amen] So be it, and ſo it ſhall bee. Dictio eſt acclamationis, approbationis, & confirmationis. The Rabbines ſay, that our Amen in the cloſe of our prayers muſt not be firſt, haſty, but with conſideration, 1 Cor. 14.16. Secondly, nor maimed or defective; wee muſt ſtretch out our hearts after it, and be ſwallowed up in God. Thirdly, nor alone, or an Orphan; that is, without faith, love, and holy confidence. The ſpirits of the whole prayer are contracted into it, and ſo ſhould the ſpirit of him that prayeth.

Blessed is he that considereth the poor. This is the third Psalm opening with a benediction, and there is a growth in it beyond the first two. To search the word of God comes first, pardoned sin is second, and now the forgiven sinner brings forth fruit unto God available for the good of others. The word used is as emphatic as in the former cases, and so is the blessing which follows it. The poor intended, are such as are poor in substance, weak in bodily strength, despised in repute, and desponding in spirit. These are mostly avoided and frequently scorned. The worldly proverb bequeaths the hindmost to one who has no mercy. The sick and the sorry are poor company, and the world deserts them as the Amalekite left his dying servant. Such as have been made partakers of divine grace receive a tenderer nature, and are not hardened against their own flesh and blood; they undertake the cause of the downtrodden, and turn their minds seriously to the promotion of their welfare. They do not toss them a penny and go on their way, but enquire into their sorrows, sift out their cause, study the best ways for their relief, and practically come to their rescue: such as these have the mark of the divine favour plainly upon them, and are as surely the sheep of the Lord's pasture as if they wore a brand upon their foreheads. They are not said to have considered the poor years ago, but they still do so. Stale benevolence, when boasted of, argues present churlishness. First and foremost, yea, far above all others put together in tender compassion for the needy is our Lord Jesus, who so remembered our low estate, that though he was rich, for our sakes he became poor. All his attributes were charged with the task of our uplifting. He weighed our case and came in the fulness of wisdom to execute the wonderful work of mercy by which we are redeemed from our destructions. Wretchedness excited his pity, misery moved his mercy, and thrice blessed is he both by his God and his saints for his attentive care and wise action towards us. He still considereth us; his mercy is always in the present tense, and so let our praises be.

The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The compassionate lover of the poor thought of others, and therefore God will think of him. God measures to us with our own bushel. Days of trouble come even to the most generous, and they have made the wisest provision for rainy days who have lent shelter to others when times were better with them. The promise is not that the generous saint shall have no trouble, but that he shall be preserved in it, and in due time brought out of it. How true was this of our Lord! never trouble deeper nor triumph brighter than his, and glory be to his name, he secures the ultimate victory of all his blood bought ones. Would that they all were more like him in putting on bowels of compassion to the poor. Much blessedness they miss who stint their alms. The joy of doing good, the sweet reaction of another's happiness, the approving smile of heaven upon the heart, if not upon the estate; all these the niggardly soul knows nothing of. Selfishness bears in itself a curse, it is a cancer in the heart; while liberality is happiness, and maketh fat the bones. In dark days we cannot rest upon the supposed merit of alms giving, but still the music of memory brings with it no mean solace when it tells of widows and orphans whom we have succoured, and prisoners and sick folk to whom we have ministered.

The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive. His noblest life shall be immortal, and even his mortal life shall be sacredly guarded by the power of Jehovah. Jesus lived on till his hour came, nor could the devices of crafty Herod take away his life till the destined hour had struck; and even then no man took his life from him, but he laid it down of himself, to take it again. Here is the portion of all those who are made like their Lord, they bless and they shall be blessed, they preserve and shall be preserved, they watch over the lives of others and they themselves shall be precious in the sight of the Lord. The miser like the hog is of no use till he is dead —then let him die; the righteous like the ox is of service during life —then let him live. And he shall be blessed upon the earth. Prosperity shall attend him. His cruse of oil shall not be dried up because he fed the poor prophet. He shall cut from his roll of cloth and find it longer at both ends.

"There was a man, and some did count him mad,

The more he gave away the more he had."

If temporal gains be not given him, spirituals shall be doubled to him. His little shall be blessed, bread and water shall be a feast to him. The liberal are and must be blessed even here; they have a present as well as a future portion. Our Lord's real blessedness of heart in the joy that was set before him is a subject worthy of earnest thought, especially as it is the picture of the blessing which all liberal saints may look for. And thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. He helped the distressed, and now he shall find a champion in his God. What would not the good man's enemies do to him if they had him at their disposal? Better be in a pit with vipers than to be at the mercy of persecutors. This sentence sets before us a sweet negative, and yet it were not easy to have seen how it could be true of our Lord Jesus, did we not know that although he was exempted from much of blessing, being made a curse for us, yet even he was not altogether nor for ever left of God, but in due time was exalted above all his enemies.

The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing. The everlasting arms shall stay up his soul as friendly hands and downy pillows stay up the body of the sick. How tender and sympathising is this image; how near it brings our God to our infirmities and sicknesses! Whoever heard this of the old heathen Jove, or of the gods of India or China? This is language peculiar to the God of Israel; he it is who deigns to become nurse and attendant upon good men. If he smites with one hand he sustains with the other. Oh, it is blessed fainting when one falls upon the Lord's own bosom, and is borne up thereby! Grace is the best of restoratives; divine love is the noblest stimulant for a languishing patient; it makes the soul strong as a giant, even when the aching bones are breaking through the skin. No physician like the Lord, no tonic like his promise, no wine like his love. Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness. What, doth the Lord turn bed maker to his sick children? Herein is love indeed. Who would not consider the poor if such be the promised reward? A bed soon grows hard when the body is weary with tossing to and fro upon it, but grace gives patience, and God's smile gives peace, and the bed is made soft because the man's heart is content; the pillows are downy because the head is peaceful. Note that the Lord will make all his bed, from head to foot. What considerate and indefatigable kindness! Our dear and ever blessed Lord Jesus, though in all respects an inheritor of this promise, for our sakes condescended to forego the blessing, and died on a cross and not upon a bed; yet, even there, he was after awhile upheld and cheered by the Lord his God, so that he died in triumph.

We must not imagine that the benediction pronounced in these three verses belongs to all who casually give money to the poor, or leave it in their wills, or contribute to societies. Such do well, or act from mere custom, as the case may be, but they are not here alluded to. The blessing is for those whose habit it is to love their neighbour as themselves, and who for Christ's sake feed the hungry and clothe the naked. To imagine a man to be a saint who does not consider the poor as he has ability, is to conceive the fruitless fig tree to be acceptable; there will be sharp dealing with many professors on this point in the day when the King cometh in his glory.

Verses 4-9. Here we have a controversy between the pleader and his God. He has been a tender friend to the poor, and yet in the hour of his need the promised assistance was not forthcoming. In our Lord's case there was a dark and dreary night in which such arguments were well befitting himself and his condition.

I said —said it in earnest prayer —Lord, be merciful unto me. Prove now thy gracious dealings with my soul in adversity, since thou didst aforetime give me grace to act liberally in my prosperity. No appeal is made to justice; the petitioner but hints at the promised reward, but goes straightforward to lay his plea at the feet of mercy. How low was our Redeemer brought when such petitions could come from his reverend mouth, when his lips like lilies dropped such sweet smelling but bitter myrrh! Heal my soul. My time of languishing is come, now do as thou hast said, and strengthen me, especially in my soul. We ought to be far more earnest for the soul's healing than for the body's ease. We hear much of the cure of souls, but we often forget to care about it. For I have sinned against thee. Here was the root of sorrow. Sin and suffering are inevitable companions. Observe that by the psalmist sin was felt to be mainly evil because directed against God. This is of the essence of true repentance. The immaculate Saviour could never have used such language as this unless there be here a reference to the sin which he took upon himself by imputation; and for our part we tremble to apply words so manifestly indicating personal rather than imputed sin. Applying the petition to David and other sinful believers, how strangely evangelical is the argument: heal me, not for I am innocent, but I have sinned. How contrary is this to all self righteous pleading! How consonant with grace! How inconsistent with merit! Even the fact that the confessing penitent had remembered the poor, is but obliquely urged, but a direct appeal is made to mercy on the ground of great sin. O trembling reader, here is a divinely revealed precedent for thee, be not slow to follow it.

Mine enemies speak evil of me. It was their nature to do and speak evil; it was not possible that the child of God could escape them. The viper fastened on Paul's hand: the better the man the more likely, and the more venomous the slander. Evil tongues are busy tongues, and never deal in truth. Jesus was traduced to the utmost, although no offence was in him. When shall he die, and his name perish? They could not be content till he was away. The world is not wide enough for evil men to live in while the righteous remain, yea, the bodily presence of the saints may be gone, but their memory is an offence to their foes. It was never merry England, say they, since men took to Psalm singing. In the Master's case, they cried, "Away with such a fellow from the earth, it is not fit that he should live." If persecutors could have their way, the church should have but one neck, and that should be on the block. Thieves would fain blow out all candles. The lights of the world are not the delights of the world. Poor blind bats, they fly at the lamp, and try to dash it down; but the Lord liveth, and preserveth both the saints and their names.

And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity. His visits of sympathy are visitations of mockery. When the fox calls on the sick lamb his words are soft, but he licks his lips in hope of the carcass. It is wretched work to have spies haunting one's bedchamber, calling in pretence of kindness, but with malice in their hearts. Hypocritical talk is always fulsome and sickening to honest men, but especially to the suffering saint. Our divine Lord had much of this from the false hearts that watched his words. His heart gathereth iniquity to itself. Like will to like. The bird makes its nest of feathers. Out of the sweetest flowers chemists can distil poison, and from the purest words and deeds malice can gather groundwork for calumnious report. It is perfectly marvellous how spite spins webs out of no materials whatever. It is no small trial to have base persons around you lying in wait for every word which they may pervert into evil. The Master whom we serve was constantly subject to this affliction. When he goeth abroad, he telleth it. He makes his lies, and then vends them in open market. He is no sooner out of the house than he outs with his lie, and this against a sick man whom he called to see as a friend —a sick man to whose incoherent and random speeches pity should be showed. Ah, black hearted wretch! A devil's cub indeed. How far abroad men will go to publish their slanders! They would fain placard the sky with their falsehoods. A little fault is made much of; a slip of the tongue is a libel, a mistake a crime, and if a word can bear two meanings the worse is always fathered upon it. Tell it in Gath, publish it in Askelon, that the daughters of the uncircumcised may triumph. It is base to strike a man when he is down, yet such is the meanness of mankind towards a Christian hero should he for awhile chance to be under a cloud.

All that hate me whisper together against me. The spy meets his comrades in conclave and sets them all a whispering. Why could they not speak out? Were they afraid of the sick warrior? Or were their designs so treacherous that they must needs be hatched in secrecy? Mark the unanimity of the wicked —all. How heartily the dogs unite to hunt the stag! Would God we were half as united in holy labour as persecutors in their malicious projects, and were half as wise as they are crafty, for their whispering was craft as well as cowardice, the conspiracy must not be known till all is ready. Against me do they devise my hurt. They lay their heads together, and scheme and plot. So did Ahithophel and the rest of Absalom's counsellors, so also did the chief priests and Pharisees. Evil men are good at devising; they are given to meditation, they are deep thinkers, but the mark they aim at is evermore the hurt of the faithful. Snakes in the grass are never there for a good end.

An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him. They whisper that some curse has fallen upon him, and is riveted to him. They insinuate that a foul secret stains his character, the ghost whereof haunts his house, and never can be laid. An air of mystery is cast around this doubly dark saying, as if to show how indistinct are the mutterings of malice. Even thus was our Lord accounted "smitten of God and afflicted." His enemies conceived that God had forsaken him, and delivered him for ever into their hands. And now that he lieth he shall rise up no more. His sickness they hoped was mortal, and this was fine news for them. No more would the good man's holiness chide their sin, they would now be free from the check of his godliness. Like the friars around Wycliffe's bed, their prophesyings were more jubilant than accurate, but they were a sore scourge to the sick man. When the Lord smites his people with his rod of affliction for a small moment, their enemies expect to see them capitally executed, and prepare their jubilates to celebrate their funerals, but they are in too great a hurry, and have to alter their ditties and sing to another tune. Our Redeemer eminently foretokened this, for out of his lying in the grave he has gloriously risen. Vain the watch, the stone, the seal! Rising he pours confusion on his enemies.

Yea. Here is the climax of the sufferer's woe, and he places before it the emphatic affirmation, as if he thought that such villainy would scarcely be believed. Mine own familiar friend. "The man of my peace, "so runs the original, with whom I had no differences, with whom I was in league, who had aforetime ministered to my peace and comfort. This was Ahithophel to David, and Iscariot with our Lord. Judas was an apostle, admitted to the privacy of the Great Teacher, hearing his secret thoughts, and, as it were, allowed to read his very heart. "Et tu Brute?" said the expiring Caesar. The kiss of the traitor wounded our Lord's heart as much as the nail wounded his hand. In whom I trusted. Judas was the treasurer of the apostolic college. Where we place great confidence an unkind act is the more severely felt. Which did eat of my bread. Not only as a guest but as a dependant, a pensioner at my board. Judas dipped in the same dish with his Lord, and hence the more accursed was his treachery in his selling his Master for a slave's price. Hath lifted up his heel against me. Not merely turned his back on me, but left me with a heavy kick such as a vicious horse might give. Hard is it to be spurned in our need by those who formerly fed at our table. It is noteworthy that the Redeemer applied only the last words of this verse to Judas, perhaps because, knowing his duplicity, he had never made a familiar friend of him in the fullest sense, and had not placed implicit trust in him. Infernal malice so planned it that every circumstance in Jesus' death should add wormwood to it; and the betrayal was one of the bitterest drops of gall. We are indeed, wretched when our quondam friend becomes our relentless foe, when confidence is betrayed, when all the rites of hospitality are perverted, and ingratitude is the only return for kindness; yet in so deplorable a case we may cast ourselves upon the faithfulness of God, who, having, delivered our Covenant Head, is in verity engaged to be the very present help of all for whom that covenant was made.

But thou, O Lord, be merciful unto me. How the hunted and affrighted soul turns to her God! How she seems to take breath with a "but, thou!" How she clings to the hope of mercy from God when every chance of pity from man is gone! And raise me up. Recover me from my sickness, give me to regain my position. Jesus was raised up from the grave; his descent was ended by an ascent. That I may requite them. This as it reads is a truly Old Testament sentence, and quite aside from the spirit of Christianity, yet we must remember that David was a person in magisterial office, and might without any personal revenge, desire to punish those who had insulted his authority and libelled his public character. Our great Apostle and High Priest had no personal animosities, but even he by his resurrection has requited the powers of evil, and avenged on death and hell all their base attacks upon his cause and person. Still the strained application of every sentence of this Psalm to Christ is not to our liking, and we prefer to call attention to the better spirit of the gospel beyond that of the old dispensation.

We are all cheered by tokens for good, and the psalmist felt it to be an auspicious omen, that after all his deep depression he was not utterly given over to his foe. By this I know that thou favourest me. Thou hast a special regard to me, I have the secret assurance of this in my heart, and, therefore, thine outward dealings do not dismay me, for I know that thou lovest me in them all. Because mine enemy doth not triumph over me. What if the believer has no triumph over his foes, he must be glad that they do not triumph over him. If we have not all we would we should praise God for all we have. Much there is in us over which the ungodly might exult, and if God's mercy keeps the dog's mouths closed when they might be opened, we must give him our heartiest gratitude. What a wonder it is that when the devil enters the lists with a poor, erring, bedridden, deserted, slandered saint, and has a thousand evil tongues to aid him, yet he cannot win the day, but in the end slinks off without renown.

"The feeblest saint shall win the day

Though death and hell obstruct the way, "

And as for me, despite them all and in the sight of them all, thou upholdest me in mine integrity; thy power enables me to rise above the reach of slander by living in purity and righteousness. Our innocence and consistency are the result of the divine upholding. We are like those glasses without feet, which can only be upright while they are held in the hand; we fall, and spill, and spoil all, if left to ourselves. The Lord should be praised every day if we are preserved from gross sin. When others sin they show us what we should do but for grace. "He today and I tomorrow, "was the exclamation of a holy man, whenever he saw another falling into sin. Our integrity is comparative as well as dependent, we must therefore be humbled while we are grateful. If we are clear of the faults alleged against us by our calumniators, we have nevertheless quite enough of actual blameworthiness to render it shameful for us to boast. And settest me before thy face for ever. He rejoiced that he lived under the divine surveillance; tended, cared for, and smiled upon by his Lord; and yet more, that it would be so world without end. To stand before an earthly monarch is considered to be a singular honour, but what must it be to be a perpetual courtier in the palace of the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible?

The Psalm ends with a doxology. Blessed be the Lord, i.e., let him be glorified. The blessing at the beginning from the mouth of God is returned from the mouth of his servant. We cannot add to the Lord's blessedness, but we can pour out our grateful wishes, and these he accepts, as we receive little presents of flowers from children who love us. Jehovah is the personal name of our God. God of Israel is his covenant title, and shows his special relation to his elect people. From everlasting and to everlasting. The strongest way of expressing endless duration. We die, but the glory of God goes on and on without pause. Amen and amen. So let it surely, firmly, and eternally be. Thus the people joined in the Psalm by a double shout of holy affirmation; let us unite in it with all out hearts. This last verse may serve for the prayer of the universal church in all ages, but none can sing it so sweetly as those who have experienced as David did the faithfulness of God in times of extremity.

TITLE. The Syriac says, "It was a Psalm of David, when he appointed overseers to take care of the poor." Adam Clarke.

Whole Psalm. A prophecy of Christ and the traitor Judas. Eusebius of Caesarea, quoted by J. M. Neale.

Blessed is he that considereth the poor. Interpreters are generally of opinion that the exercise of kindness and compassion, manifested in taking care of the miserable, and helping them, is here commended. Those, however, who maintain that the psalmist here commends the considerate candour of those who judge wisely and charitably of men in adversity, form a better judgment of his meaning. Indeed, the participle, (lksm), maskil, cannot be explained in any other way. At the same time it ought to be observed on what account it is that David declares those to be blessed who form a wise and prudent judgment concerning the afflictions by which God chastises his servants...Doubtless it happened to him as it did to the holy patriarch Job, whom his friends reckoned to be one of most wicked of men, when they saw God treating him with great severity. And certainly it is an error which is by far too common among men, to look upon those who are oppressed with afflictions as condemned and reprobate...For the most part, indeed, we often speak rashly and indiscriminately concerning others, and, so to speak, plunge even into the lowest abyss those who labour under affliction. To restrain such a rash and unbridled spirit, David says, that they are blessed who do not suffer themselves, by speaking at random, to judge harshly of their neighbours; but discerning aright the afflictions by which they are visited, mitigate, by the wisdom of the spirit, the severe and unjust judgments to which we naturally are so prone. John Calvin.

Blessed is he that considereth the poor. As Christ considered us in our state of poverty, so ought we most attentively to consider him in his; to consider what he suffered in his own person; to discern him suffering in his poor afflicted members; and to extend to them the mercy which he extended to us. He, who was "blessed" of Jehovah, and "delivered in the evil day" by a glorious resurrection, will "bless" and "deliver" in like manner, such as for his sake, love and relieve their brethren. George Horne.

Blessed is he that considereth the poor. Not the poor of the world in common, nor poor saints in particular, but some single poor man; for the word is in the singular number, and designs our Lord Jesus Christ, who, in the last verse of the preceding Psalm, is said to be poor and needy. John Gill.

Blessed is he that considereth the poor. I call your attention to the way in which the Bible enjoins us to take up the care of the poor. It does not say in the text before us, Commiserate the poor; for, if it said no more than this, it would leave their necessities to be provided for by the random ebullitions of an impetuous and unreflecting sympathy. It provided them with a better security than the mere feeling of compassion —a feeling which, however useful to the purpose of excitement, must be controlled and regulated. Feeling is but a faint and fluctuating security. Fancy may mislead it. The sober realities of life may disgust it. Disappointment may extinguish it. Ingratitude may embitter it. Deceit, with its counterfeit representations, may allure it to the wrong object. At all events, Time is the little circle in which it in general expatiates. It needs the impression of sensible objects to sustain it; nor can it enter with zeal or with vivacity into the wants of the abstract and invisible soul. The Bible, then, instead of leaving the relief of the poor to the mere instinct of sympathy, makes it a subject for consideration —"Blessed is he that considereth the poor, "a grave and prosaic exercise, I do allow, and which makes no figure in those high wrought descriptions, where the exquisite tale of benevolence is made up of all the sensibilities of tenderness on the one hand, and of all the ecstasies of gratitude on the other. The Bible rescues the cause from the mischief to which a heedless or unthinking sensibility would expose it. It brings it under the cognisance of a higher faculty —a faculty of sturdier operation than to be weary in well doing, and of sturdier endurance than to give it up in disgust. It calls you to consider the poor. It makes the virtue of relieving them a matter of computation, as well as of sentiment, and in so doing puts you beyond the reach of the various delusions, by which you are at one time led to prefer the indulgence of pity to the substantial interest of its object; at another, are led to retire chagrined and disappointed from the scene of duty, because you have not met with the gratitude or the honesty that you laid your account with; at another, are led to expend all your anxieties upon the accommodation of time, and to overlook eternity. It is the office of consideration to save you from all these fallacies. Under its tutorage attention to the wants of the poor ripens into principle...

It must be obvious to all of you, that it is not enough that you give money, and add your name to the contributions of charity. You must give it with judgment. You must give your time and your attention. You must descend to the trouble of examination. You must rise from the repose of contemplation, and make yourself acquainted with the object of your benevolent exercises...To give money is not to do all the work and labour of benevolence. You must go to the poor man's sick bed. You must lend your hand to the work of assistance. This is true and unsophisticated goodness. It may be recorded in no earthly documents; but, if done under the influence of Christian principle, in a word, if done unto Jesus, it is written in the book of heaven, and will give a new lustre to that crown to which his disciples look forward in time, and will wear through eternity. From a Sermon preached before the Society for Relief of the Destitute Sick, in St. Andrew's Church, Edinburgh, by Thomas Chalmers, D.D. and L.L.D. (1780-1847.)

Blessed is he that considereth the poor. A Piedmontese nobleman into whose company I fell, at Turin, told me the following story: "I was weary of life, and after a day such as few have known, and none would wish to remember, was hurrying along the street to the river, when I felt a sudden check, I turned and beheld a little boy, who had caught the skirt of my cloak in his anxiety to solicit my notice. His look and manner were irresistible. No less so was the lesson he had learnt —`There are six of us, and we are dying for want of food.' `Why should I not, 'said I, to myself, `relieve this wretched family? I have the means, and it will not delay me many minutes. But what if it does?' The scene of misery he conducted me to I cannot describe. I threw them my purse, and their burst of gratitude overcame me. It filled my eyes, it went as a cordial to my heart. `I will call again tomorrow, 'I cried. `Fool that I was to think of leaving a world where such pleasure was to be had, and so cheaply!'" Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) in "Italy."

He that considereth the poor:

An ardent spirit dwells with Christian love,

The eagle's vigour in the pitying dove.

It is not enough that we with sorrow sigh,

That we the wants of pleading man supply,

That we in sympathy with sufferers feel,

Nor hear a grief without a wish to heal:

Not these suffice —to sickness, pain, and woe,

The Christian spirit loves with aid to go:

Will not be sought, waits not for want to plead,

But seeks the duty —nay, prevents the need;

Her utmost aid to every ill applies,

And plants relief for coming miseries.—George Crabbe, 1754-1832.

How foolish are they that fear to lose their wealth by giving it, and fear not to lose themselves by keeping it! He that lays up his gold may be a good jailer, but he that lays it out is a good steward. Merchants traffic thither with a commodity where it is precious in regard of scarcity. We do not buy wines in England to carry them to France, spices in France to carry them to the Indies; so for labour and work, repentance and mortification, there is none of them in heaven, there is peace and glory, and the favour of God indeed. A merchant without his commodity hath but a sorry welcome. God will ask men that arrive at heaven's gates, ubi opera? Re 22:12. His reward shall be according to our works. Thou hast riches here, and here be objects that need thy riches —the poor; in heaven there are riches enough but no poor, therefore, by faith in Christ make over to them thy moneys in this world, that by bill of exchange thou mayest receive it in the world to come; that only you carry with you which you send before you. Do good while it is in your power; relieve the oppressed, succour the fatherless, while your estates are your own; when you are dead your riches belong to others. One light carried before a man is more serviceable than twenty carried after him. In your compassion to the distressed, or for pious uses, let your hands be your executors, and your eyes your overseers. Francis Raworth, Teacher to the Church at Shore-ditch, in a Funeral Sermon, 1656.

It is a blessed thing to receive when a man hath need; but it is a more blessed thing to give than to receive. Blessed (saith the prophet David) is he that considereth the poor. What? to say, alas, poor man! the world is hard with him, I would there were a course taken to do him good? No, no; but to so consider him as to give; to give till the poor man be satisfied, to draw out one's sheaf, aye, one's very soul to the hungry. But what if troubles should come? were it not better to keep money by one? Money will not deliver one. It may be an occasion to endanger one, to bring one into, rather than help one out of trouble; but if a man be a merciful man, God will deliver him, either by himself, or by some other man or matter. Aye, but what if sickness come? Why, the Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing; and, which is a great ease and kindness; God, as it were, himself will make all his bed in his sickness. Here poor people have the advantage: such must not say, Alas, I am a poor woman, what work of mercy can I do? for they are they who best can make the beds of sick folk, which we see is a great act of mercy, in that it is said, that the Lord himself will make their bed in their sickness. And there are none so poor, but they may make the beds of the sick. Richard Capel.

It is a blessed thing to receive when a man hath need; but it is a more blessed thing to give than to receive. Blessed (saith the prophet David) is he that considereth the poor. What? to say, alas, poor man! the world is hard with him, I would there were a course taken to do him good? No, no; but to so consider him as to give; to give till the poor man be satisfied, to draw out one's sheaf, aye, one's very soul to the hungry. But what if troubles should come? were it not better to keep money by one? Money will not deliver one. It may be an occasion to endanger one, to bring one into, rather than help one out of trouble; but if a man be a merciful man, God will deliver him, either by himself, or by some other man or matter. Aye, but what if sickness come? Why, the Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing; and, which is a great ease and kindness; God, as it were, himself will make all his bed in his sickness. Here poor people have the advantage: such must not say, Alas, I am a poor woman, what work of mercy can I do? for they are they who best can make the beds of sick folk, which we see is a great act of mercy, in that it is said, that the Lord himself will make their bed in their sickness. And there are none so poor, but they may make the beds of the sick. Richard Capel.

He that considereth. Mine enemies. Strigelius has observed, there is a perpetual antithesis in this Psalm between the few who have a due regard to the poor in spirit, and the many who afflict or desert them. W. Wilson, D.D.

He that considereth. Mine enemies. Strigelius has observed, there is a perpetual antithesis in this Psalm between the few who have a due regard to the poor in spirit, and the many who afflict or desert them. W. Wilson, D.D.

The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive. It is worthy of remark, that benevolent persons, who "consider the poor, "and especially the sick poor; who search cellars, garrets, back lanes, and such abodes of misery, to find them out (even in the places where contagion keeps its seat), very seldom fall a prey to their own benevolence. The Lord, in an especial manner, keeps them alive, and preserves them; while many, who endeavour to keep far from the contagion, are assailed by it, and fall victims to it. God loves the merciful man. Adam Clarke.

He shall be blessed upon the earth. None of the godly man's afflictions shall hinder or take away his begun blessedness, even in this world. David Dickson.

Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness. Into what minuteness of exquisite and touching tenderness does the Lord condescend to enter! One feels almost as we may suppose Peter felt when the Saviour came to him and would have washed his feet, "Lord! thou shalt never wash my feet; "thou shalt never make my bed. And yet, "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me; "if the Lord make not our bed in our sickness, there is no peace nor comfort there. We have had David calling on God to bow down his ear, like a loving mother listening to catch the feeblest whisper of her child; and the image is full of the sweetest sympathy and condescension; but here the Lord, the great God of heaven, he that said when on earth, "I am among you as one that serveth, "does indeed take upon him the form, and is found in fashion as a servant, fulfilling all the loving and tender offices of an assiduous nurse. Barton Bouchier.

Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness. The meaning rather is, "it is no longer a sick bed, for thou hast healed him of his disease." J. J. Stewart Perowne.

When a good man is ill at ease, God promises to make all his bed in his sickness. Pillow, bolster, head, feet, sides, all his bed. Surely that God who made him knows so well his measure and temper as to make his bed to please him. Herein his art is excellent, not fitting the bed to the person, but the person to the bed; infusing patience into him. But, oh! how shall God make my bed, who have no bed of mine own to make. Thou fool, he can make thy not having a bed to be a bed unto thee. When Jacob slept on the ground, who would not have had his hard lodging, therewithal to have his heavenly dream? Thomas Fuller.

Sure that bed must need be soft which God will make. T. Watson.

We must not forget that Oriental beds needed not to be made in the same sense as our own. They were never more than mattresses or quilts thickly padded, and were turned when they became uncomfortable, and that is just the word here used. C. H. S.

When I visited one day, as he was dying, my beloved friend Benjamin Parsons, I said, "How are you today, Sir?" He said, "My head is resting very sweetly on three pillows —infinite power, infinite love, and infinite wisdom." Preaching in the Canterbury Hall, in Brighton, I mentioned this some time since; and many months after I was requested to call upon a poor but holy young woman, apparently dying. She said, "I felt I must see you before I died." I heard you tell the story of Benjamin Parsons and his three pillows; and when I went through a surgical operation, and it was very cruel, I was leaning my head on pillows, and as they were taking them away I said, "May I keep them?" The surgeon said, "No, my dear, we must take them away." "But, "said I, "you cannot take away Benjamin Parsons three pillows. I can lay my head on infinite power, infinite love, and infinite wisdom." Paxton Hood, in "Dark Sayings on a Harp, "1865.

Verses 3-4. What saith David from the very bottom of his heart, in his sickness? Not, take away this death only. No; but David being sick, first comforts himself with this promise, The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness; and then adds, I said, Lord, be merciful unto me, and heal my soul; that is, destroy my lusts, which are the diseases of my soul, Lord; and heal my soul, and renew life and communion with thee, which is the health and strength of my soul. Do not take this sickness and death only away; but this sin away, that hath dishonoured thee, hath separated between me and thee: Heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee. Thomas Goodwin.

I said, Lord, be merciful. Mercy, not justice! The extreme of mercy for the extreme of misery. Righteousness as filthy rags; a flesh in which dwelleth no good thing, on the one side; on the other, it is "neither herb nor mollifying plaster that restored" to health; "but thy word, O Lord, which healeth all things." Wisdom 16:12. Thomas Aquinas, quoted by J. M. Neale.

God is the strength of a Christian's heart, by healing and restoring him when the infused habits of grace fail, and sin grows strong and vigorous. A Christian never fails in the exercise of grace, but sin gives him a wound; and therefore David prayed, Lord, heal my soul, for I have sinned. And what David prayed for, God promises to his people: "I will heal their backsliding." Ho 14:4. The weakness and decay of grace, brings a Christian presently to the falling sickness; and so it did in David and Ephraim; aye, but God will be a physician to the soul in this case, and will heal their diseases; and so he did David's falling sickness, for which he returned the tribute of praise. Ps 103:3. Samuel Blackerby.

(last clause). Saul and Judas each said, "I have sinned; "but David says," I have sinned against thee." William S. Plumer.

He that considereth. Mine enemies. Strigelius has observed, there is a perpetual antithesis in this Psalm between the few who have a due regard to the poor in spirit, and the many who afflict or desert them. W. Wilson, D.D.

He that considereth. Mine enemies. Strigelius has observed, there is a perpetual antithesis in this Psalm between the few who have a due regard to the poor in spirit, and the many who afflict or desert them. W. Wilson, D.D.

Mine enemies speak evil of me. To speak is here used in the sense of to imprecate. John Calvin.

His name. It is the name, the character, and privileges of a true servant of God, that calls out the hatred of ungodly men, and they would gladly extirpate him from their sight. W. Wilson, D.D.

If he come to see me, he speaketh vanity: many fair words, but none of them true. David Dickson.

I remember a pretty apologue that Bromiard tells: —A fowler, in a sharp, frosty morning, having taken many little birds for which he had long watched, began to take up his nets, and nipping the birds on the head laid them down. A young thrush, espying the tears trickling down his cheek by reason of the extreme cold, said to her mother, that certainly the man was very merciful and compassionate, who wept so bitterly over the calamity of the poor birds. But her mother told her more wisely, that she might better judge of the man's disposition by his hand than by his eye; and if the hands do strike treacherously, he can never be admitted to friendship, who speaks fairly and weeps pitifully. Jeremy Taylor.

His heart gathereth iniquity to itself.

1. By adding sin to sin, in that he covers over his malice with such horrid hypocrisy.

2. By inventing or contriving all the several ways he can to ensnare me, or do me some mischief, thereby seeking to satisfy and please his corrupt lusts and affections;

3. (Which I like best), by observing all he can in me, and drawing what he can from me, and so laying all up together in his mind, as the ground of his unjust surmises and censures concerning me. Arthur Jackson.

An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him. An evil deed of Belial cleaveth fast to him. Grammarians maintain that the word Belial is compounded of (ylb), beli, and (ley), yaal, which signify "not to rise" the expression, "thing of Belial" (for so it is literally in the Hebrew), I understand in this place as meaning an extraordinary and hateful crime which as we commonly say can never be expiated, and from which there is no possibility of escape; unless perhaps some would rather refer it to the affliction itself under which he laboured, as if his enemies had said that he was seized by some incurable malady. John Calvin.

An evil disease, etc. What is here meant by (leylb-rkd) is matter of some difficulty. The ancient interpreters generally render it a perverse or mischievous, or wicked word; the Chaldee, a perverse word; the Syriac, a word of iniquity; the LXX logon paranomon; the Latin, iniquum verbum, a wicked word; the Arabic, words contrary to the law. And so in all probability it is set to signify a great slander, or calumny —that as "men of Belial" are slanderous persons, so the speech of Belial shall signify a slanderous speech. And this is said to "cleave" to him on whom it is fastened, it being the nature of calumnies, when strongly affixed on any, to cleave fast, and leave some evil mark behind them. Henry Hammond.

Yea, mine own familiar friend, etc. The sufferings of the church, like those of her Redeemer, generally begin at home: her open enemies can do her no harm, until her pretended friends have delivered her into their hands; and, unnatural as it may seem, they who have waxed fat upon her bounty, are sometimes the first to lift the heel against her. George Horne.

Mine own familiar friend. He who, on visiting me, continually saluted me with the kiss of love and veneration, and the usual address: peace be to thee. Hermann Venema.

Which did eat of my beard. If the same sentiment prevailed among the Hebrews, which prevails at the present day among the Bedouin Arabs, of sacred regard to the person and property of one with whom they have eaten bread and salt, the language is very forcible. Hath lifted up his heel: a metaphor drawn from the horse, which attacks with its heel. This language may well have been used by our Saviour, in Joh 13:18, in the way of rhetorical illustration or emphasis. George R. Noyes, D.D.

Hath lifted up his heel against me. In this phrase he seems to allude to a beast's kicking at his master by whom he is fed, or the custom of men's spurning at or trampling upon those that are cast down on the ground, in a way of despite and contempt. Arthur Jackson.

Hath lifted up his heel against me; i.e., hath spurned me, hath kicked at me, as a vicious beast of burden does; hath insulted me in my misery. Daniel Cresswell.

That I may requite them. Either (1), kindness for injuries (as in Ps 35:13): it is the mark of a good and brave man to do good to all in his power, to hurt no one, even though provoked by wrong: or, (2), punishment for wrong doing —that I may punish them; for am I not their magistrate, and the executioner of God's justice! Martin Geier.

That I may requite them. David was not as one of the common people, but a king appointed by God and invested with authority, and it is not from an impulse of the flesh, but in virtue of the nature of his office, that he is led to denounce against his enemies the punishment which they had merited. John Calvin.

By this I know that thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me: not because I have no enemies, or because I have no trouble which would overcome me. Therefore when he wrote down many troubles, he blotted it (as it were) with his pen again, as a merchant razes his book when the debt is discharged; and instead of many troubles, he putteth in, the Lord delivereth. Because he forgiveth all sins, he is said to deliver from all troubles, to show that we have need of no Saviour, no helper, no comforter, but him. Henry Smith.

By this I know that thou favourest me. In this text we see two things. 1. How David assures himself of God's love towards him. 2. How thankful he is to God for assuring him of his love. The first he doth by two arguments; one is taken from his enemies, they were prevented of their expectation —"Therefore thou lovest me." The other is taken from his own estate, which was not one whit hurt, or impaired, but bettered by them...Here the prophet speaketh of his knowledge, and telleth us that though he knew not all things, yet he knew that God loved him, and so long as he knoweth that, he careth not greatly for other matters, how the world goeth with him, etc. And, to say the truth, he need not, for he that is sure of that, is sure of all. God loveth all his creatures as a good God, and hateth nothing that he made, but he loveth his elect children with a more especial love than the rest, as a Father in Christ Jesus, and he that is sure that God doth so favour him, is sure, I say, of all. For to him whom God loveth, he will deny no good thing, no, not his own Son; and if he gave us his Son, because he loved us, how shall he not with him give us all things else?

When the child is persuaded that his father loveth him, he is bold to ask this and that of his father: so may we be bold to ask anything of God our heavenly Father that is good for us, when we be sure that he loveth us. As Mary and Martha put Christ in mind but of two things; the first was, that Christ loved their brother Lazarus; the second was, that Lazarus was sick; "He whom thou lovest is sick:" it was no need to tell him what he should do, for they knew he would do what might be done for him, because he loved him. So we may say to the Lord, when we are sure that he loveth us: Lord, he whom thou lovest wanteth this or that for his body or his soul. We need not then appoint him what to do, or when, or how; for look what he seeth most convenient for us, and for his own glory, he will surely do it. Therefore whatsoever David knoweth, he will be sure to know this; and whatsoever he is ignorant of, yet of this he will not be ignorant; to teach is that whatsoever we seek to make sure, this must first be made sure, or else nothing is sure. Peter bids us make our election sure; Job, when he saith, "I am sure that my Redeemer liveth, "teacheth us to make our redemption sure. And here David teacheth us to make God's favour sure: now if we make that sure, then our election is sure, our redemption is sure, our vocation is sure, and our salvation is sure. William Barton, 1602.

Because mine enemy doth not triumph over me. When God doth deliver us from the hands of our enemies, or any trouble else, we may persuade ourselves thereby, he hath a favour unto us, as David did. But then it may be demanded, If God doth love his church, why doth he suffer his church to be troubled and molested with enemies? The reason is this, because by this means his love may be made more manifest in saving and delivering them. For as a sure friend is not known but in time of need, so God's goodness and love is never so well perceived as it is in helping of us when we cannot help ourselves. As Adam's fall did serve to manifest God's justice and mercy, the one in punishing, the other is pardoning of sin, which otherwise we had never known: so the troubles of the church serve to manifest, first, our deserts by reason of our sins; secondly, our weakness and inability to help ourselves; and, thirdly, the lovingkindness of the Lord our God, in saving and defending, that so we might be truly thankful, and return all the praise and glory to God, and none to ourselves. So that the church of God may have enemies, and yet be still the beloved of God, as Lazarus was beloved of Christ, although he was sick; for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth, and therefore he correcteth them because he loveth them. William Burton.

God preserves his own, and bringeth their foes to nought: after Passion week comes Easter. J. P. Lange's Commentary.

Integrity. This same integrity is like Noah's ark, wherein he was preserved, when others perished, being without it. It is like the red thread, which the spies of Joshua gave to Rahab, it was a charter whereby she claimed her life when the rest were destroyed, which had not the like. So is this integrity of small reckoning, I confess, with the men of this world, which think that there is no other heaven but earth; but as Rahab's thread was better to her than all her goods and substance when the sword came, so this is better to God's children than all the world when death comes. If they have this within they care not, nay, they need not care what can come without. If Satan's buffeting come, this is a helmet of proof; if Satan's darts fly out, this is a shield to quench them; if floods of crosses come to carry us away, this is a boat to bear us up; if all the world cast mire and filth in our faces, we are never a whit the more deformed, but still beautiful for all that, for "the king's daughter, "(saith Solomon, Ps 45:13), that is, the church of Christ, "is all glorious within." William Burton.

Settest me before thy face for ever; or hast confirmed or established me in thy presence; i.e, either under thine eye and special care, or to minister to thee, not only in thy temple, but as a king over thy people, or in that land where thou art peculiarly present. Matthew Poole.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen. We are here taught, 1. To give glory to God, as the Lord God of Israel, a God in covenant with his people; that has done great and kind things for them, and has more and better in reserve. 2. To give him glory as an eternal God, that has both his being and his blessedness from everlasting and to everlasting. 3. To do this with great affection and fervour of spirit, intimated in a double seal set to it, Amen, and Amen. We say Amen to it, and let all others say Amen too. Matthew Henry.

Amen and Amen. As the Psalms were not written by one man, so neither do they form one book. The Psalter is, in fact, a Pentateuch, and the lines of demarcation, which divide the five books one from another, are clear and distinct enough. At the end of the 41st Psalm, of the 72nd, of the 89th, and of the 106th, we meet with the solemn, Amen, single or redoubled, following on a doxology, which indicates that one book ends and that another is about to begin. A closer study of the Psalms shows that each book possesses characteristics of its own. Jehovah ("the Lord") for example, is prominent as the divine name in the first book, Elohim ("God") in the second. E. H. Plumptre, M.A., in "Biblical Studies, "1870.

There is also another observable difference between the two books. In the first, all those Psalms which have any inscription at all are expressly assigned to David as their author, whereas in the second we find a whole series attributed to some of the Levitical singers. J. J. Stewart Perowne.

How ancient the division is cannot now be clearly ascertained. Jerome, in his epistle to Marcella, and Epiphanius speak of the Psalms as having been divided by the Hebrews into five books, but when this division was made they do not inform us. The forms of ascription of praise, added at the end of each of the five books, are in the Septuagint version, from which we may conclude that this distribution had been made before that version was executed. It was probably made by Ezra, after the return of the Jews from Babylon to their own country, and the establishment of the worship of God in the new temple, and it was perhaps made in imitation of a similar distribution of the books of Moses. In making this division of the Hebrew Psalter, regard appears to have been paid to the subject matter of the Psalms. John Calvin.

These forty-one Psalms, it has been observed, forming the first book, relate chiefly to the ministry of Christ upon earth, preparing those who were looking for the consolation of Israel, for his appearing amongst them. Accordingly, the second book, commencing with Psalm 42, may refer chiefly to the infant church of Christ. W. Wilson, D.D.

May not the growth of the Book of Psalms be illustrated by the case of our Modern Hymn Books which in the course of years require first one appendix and then another, so as to incorporate the growing psalmody of the church? In this case the purely Davidic Psalms of the first division formed the nucleus to which other sacred songs were speedily added. C. H. S.

(first clause). The incidental blessings resulting from considering the pious poor.

1. We learn gratitude.

2. We see patience.

3. We often remark the triumphs of great grace.

4. We obtain light on Christian experience.

5. We have their prayers.

6. We feel the pleasure of beneficence.

7. We enter into communion with the lowly Saviour.

The support of the Small pox Hospitals recommended. Bishop Squire, 1760. Scores of sermons of this kind have been preached from this text.

Blessed upon the earth. What blessings of an earthly character godly character secures, and in general what it is to be blessed with regard to this life.

(second clause). What it is to be delivered in trouble. From impatience, from despair, from sinful expedients, from violent attacks, from losing fellowship with God.

Strength in weakness. Inward strength, divinely given, continuously sustained, enduring to the end, triumphant in death, glorifying to God, proving the reality of grace, winning others to the faith.

(last clause). The heavenly bed making.

(first clause). A saying worth repeating: I said. It expresses penitence, humility, earnestness, faith, importunity, fear of God, etc.

Heal my soul.

1. The hereditary disease, breaking out in many disorders —open sin, unbelief, decline of grace, etc.

2. Spiritual health struggling with it; shown in spiritual pain, desire, prayer, effort.

3. The well proved Physician. Has healed, and will, by his word, his blood, his Spirit, &c.

I have sinned against thee. This confession is personal, plain, without pretence of excuse, comprehensive and intelligent, for it reveals the very heart of sin —"against thee."

What we may expect. What our enemies desire. What we may therefore prize, i.e., the power of Christian life and name. What we should do —tell the Lord all in prayer. What good will then come of the evil.

(first clause). The folly and sin of frivolous visits.

(second and third clauses). Like to like, or the way in which character draws its like to itself. The same subject might be treated under the title of The Chiffonnier, or the rag collector. What he gathers; where he puts it —in his heart; what he does with it; what he gets for it; and what will become of him.

Verses 7-12. On a sick bed a man discovers not only his enemies and his friends, but himself and his God, more intimately.

The treachery of Judas.

Deliverance from temptation a token of divine favour.

This text reveals the insignia of those whom grace has distinguished.

1. Their integrity is manifest.

2. Their character is divinely sustained.

3. They dwell in the favour of God.

4. Their position is stable and continues.

5. Their eternal future is secure.

1. The object of praise —Jehovah, the covenant God.

2. The nature of the praise —without beginning or end.

3. Our participation in the praise —"Amen and Amen."

The ancient rabbins saw in the Five Books of the Psalter the image of the Five Books of the Law. This way of looking on the Psalms as a second Pentateuch, the echo of the first, passed over into the Christian church, and found favour with some early fathers. It has commended itself to the acceptance of good recent expositors, like Dr. Delitzsch, who calls the Psalter "the congregation's five fold word to the Lord, even as the Thora (the Law) is the Lord's five fold word to the Congregation." This mat be mere fancy, but its existence from ancient times shows that the five fold division attracted early notice. William Binnie, D.D.

God presented Israel with the Law, a Pentateuch, and grateful Israel responded with a Psalter, a Pentateuch of praise. F.L.K.

WORKS UPON THE FORTY-FIRST PSALM

"David's Evidence; or, the Assurance of God's Love: declared in seven Sermons upon the three last verses of the Forty-first Psalme. By WILLIAM BURTON. Minister of the Word at Reading in Berkshire ...1602." 4to.

The ancient Rabbins saw in the Five Books of the Psalter the image of the Five Books of the Law. This way of looking at the Psalms as a second Pentateuch, the echo of the first, passed over into the Christian church, and found favour with some early fathers. It has commended itself to the acceptance of good recent expositors, like Dr. Delitzsch, who calls the Psalter "the congregation's five fold word to the Lord, even as the Thora (the Law) is the Lord's five fold word to the Congregation." This mat be mere fancy, but its existence from ancient times shows that the five fold division attracted early notice. William Binnie, D.D.

God presented Israel with the Law, a Pentateuch, and grateful Israel responded with s Psalter, a Pentateuch of praise, in acknowledgment of the divine gift. J. L. K.