Psalms 69 commentary

We should frequently consider the person of the Sufferer here spoken of, and ask why, as well as what he suffered, that, meditating thereon, we may be more humbled for sin, and more convinced of our danger, so that we may feel more gratitude and love, constraining us to live to His glory who died for our salvation. Hence we learn, when in affliction, to commit the keeping of our souls to God, that we may not be soured with discontent, or sink into despair. David was hated wrongfully, but the words far more fully apply to Christ. In a world where unrighteousness reigns so much, we must not wonder if we meet with those that are our enemies wrongfully. Let us take care that we never do wrong; then if we receive wrong, we may the better bear it. By the satisfaction Christ made to God for our sin by his blood, he restored that which he took not away, he paid our debt, suffered for our offences. Even when we can plead Not guilty, as to men's unjust accusations, yet before God we must acknowledge ourselves to deserve all that is brought upon us. All our sins take rise from our foolishness. They are all done in God's sight. David complains of the unkindness of friends and relations. This was fulfilled in Christ, whose brethren did not believe on him, and who was forsaken by his disciples. Christ made satisfaction for us, not only by putting off the honours due to God, but by submitting to the greatest dishonours that could be done to any man. We need not be discouraged if our zeal for the truths, precepts, and worship of God, should provoke some, and cause others to mock our godly sorrow and deadness to the world.

Whatever deep waters of affliction or temptation we sink into, whatever floods of trouble or ungodly men seem ready to overwhelm us, let us persevere in prayer to our Lord to save us. The tokens of God's favour to us are enough to keep our spirits from sinking in the deepest outward troubles. If we think well of God, and continue to do so under the greatest hardships, we need not fear but he will do well for us. And if at any time we are called on to suffer reproach and shame, for Christ's sake, this may be our comfort, that he knows it. It bears hard on one that knows the worth of a good name, to be oppressed with a bad one; but when we consider what a favour it is to be accounted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus, we shall see that there is no reason why it should be heart-breaking to us. The sufferings of Christ were here particularly foretold, which proves the Scripture to be the word of God; and how exactly these predictions were fulfilled in Jesus Christ, which proves him to be the true Messiah. The vinegar and the gall given to him, were a faint emblem of that bitter cup which he drank up, that we might drink the cup of salvation. We cannot expect too little from men, miserable comforters are they all; nor can we expect too much from the God of all comfort and consolation.

These are prophecies of the destruction of Christ's persecutors. Verses 22, 23, are applied to the judgments of God upon the unbelieving Jews, in Ro 11:9, 10. When the supports of life and delights of sense, through the corruption of our nature, are made the food and fuel of sin, then our table is a snare. Their sin was, that they would not see, but shut their eyes against the light, loving darkness rather; their punishment was, that they should not see, but should be given up to their own hearts' lusts which hardened them. Those who reject God's great salvation proffered to them, may justly fear that his indignation will be poured out upon them. If men will sin, the Lord will reckon for it. But those that have multiplied to sin, may yet find mercy, through the righteousness of the Mediator. God shuts not out any from that righteousness; the gospel excludes none who do not, by unbelief, shut themselves out. But those who are proud and self-willed, so that they will not come in to God's righteousness, shall have their doom accordingly; they themselves decide it. Let those not expect any benefit thereby, who are not glad to be beholden to it. It is better to be poor and sorrowful, with the blessing of the Lord, than rich and jovial, and under his curse. This may be applied to Christ. He was, when on earth, a man of sorrows that had not where to lay his head; but God exalted him. Let us call upon the Lord, and though poor and sorrowful, guilty and defiled, his salvation will set us up on high.

The psalmist concludes the psalm with holy joy and praise, which he began with complaints of his grief. It is a great comfort to us, that humble and thankful praises are more pleasing to God than the most costly, pompous sacrifices. The humble shall look to him, and be glad; those that seek him through Christ shall live and be comforted. God will do great things for the gospel church, in which let all who wish well to it rejoice. A seed shall serve him on earth, and his servants shall inherit his heavenly kingdom. Those that love his name shall dwell before him for ever. He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Arise, thou great Restorer of the ancient places to dwell in, and turn away ungodliness from thy people.

PSALM 69

There is a close resemblance between this psalm and the twenty-second. In the opening verses, David complains of the barbarous cruelty of his enemies, and of the grievous wrongs which they had inflicted upon him. The particular enemies of whom he speaks are uncertain; some referring the occasion of the composition of the psalm to his persecution by Saul, and others to the rebellion of Absalom. But to whatever part of David’s eventful life the psalm primarily refers, it may be concluded, from the frequency with which it is quoted and applied to Christ in the New Testament, that it was prophetic of him, of whom David, rejected and persecuted, was an eminent type. It is quoted in the New Testament at least seven times; the 4th verse in John 15:25; the 9th verse in John 2:17, and Romans 15:3; the 21st verse in Matthew 27:34, 48, and John 19:28, 29; the 22d and 23d verses in Romans 11:9, 10; and the 25th verse in Acts 1:16, 20. But his mind, he affirms, was not hereby reduced to such a state of distress as to prevent him from patiently relying on the protection of God, or to discourage him from continuing in the undeviating course of a holy and an upright life. He rather testifies that his piety, and the courage and activity which he had manifested in maintaining the interests of the divine glory, were the cause of the hostility borne to him by the generality of men. After having again complained of being not less shamefully than cruelly oppressed by his enemies, he invokes God to visit them with deserved punishment. In the close, exulting as if he had obtained his highest wishes, he engages to yield to God a solemn sacrifice of praise.

To the chief musician upon Shoshannim of David.

We have already spoken elsewhere of the word Shoshannim. Its proper meaning is uncertain and obscure; but the most probable conjecture is, that it was the commencement of some song. If, however, any would prefer considering it as the name of some musical instrument, I have no objections. But the opinion held by some that this psalm was composed at the season of spring, when the lilies begin to blossom, is altogether unfounded and frivolous. They rest this opinion upon the meaning which they attach to the word ששנים, Shoshannim, in the title of the psalm, which they translate lilies Before proceeding farther, we would have you to observe that David wrote this inspired ode not so much in his own name, as in the name of the whole Church, of whose Head he was an eminent type, as will be more dearly brought out in the sequel. This is highly worthy of our notice, that from this consideration we may be led to contemplate with the greater attention the representation which is here given of the common condition of all the people of God. Besides, it is highly probable that David did not here comprehend only one kind of persecution, but all the evils which he had suffered during the course of many years.

Psalm 69:1-5

1. Save me, O God! for the waters have entered in unto my soul. 2. I am sunk in deep mire, where there is no footing, [or standing place:] I am come into deep waters, and the flood “Ou, la force et le fil.” — Fr. marg. “Or, the force and course.” of the water overfloweth me. 3. I am weary of crying; my throat has become hoarse therewith: my eyes have failed with [or in] waiting for my God. 4. They who hate me without cause are more in number than the hairs of my head: my lying adversaries, who eagerly desire to destroy me, are increased; “Ou, fortifiez.” — Fr. marg. “Or, strengthened.” that which I took not by spoil, then The Hebrew word אז, for then, appears to be emphatic. “אז; in ipso articulo, (Schultens in Proverbs 7:22;) immediately, without any contention, or delay.” Lowth, quoted in Merrick’s Annotations. I restored it. 5. O God! thou knowest my foolishness; and my faults are not hidden from thee.

1. Save me, O God! for the waters, etc. Under the figure of waters, the Psalmist represents his condition as so extremely distressing that it brought him even to the brink of despair; and yet we know that, so far from being a soft and an effeminate person, he was one who encountered and overcame dreadful temptations with extraordinary courage. Whence we may infer the bitterness of the distress with which he was at that time afflicted. Some understand the word soul as denoting life; “The waters are come in unto my soul; i.e., a flood of overwhelming calamities threaten my life: comp. verse 16.” — Cresswell. Williams thinks the allusion is to a leaky vessel, or to an inundation. but this gives a very cold and unsatisfactory meaning. It rather signifies the heart. A man when he falls into an abyss of waters, may prevent for some time the water from entering his body, by stopping his mouth and his nostrils, but at length, from its being impossible for a human being to live without respiration, suffocation will compel him to let in the waters, and they will penetrate even to the heart. David by this metaphor would intimate, not only that the waters had covered and overwhelmed him, but also that he had been forced to draw them into his body.

PSALM 69

Psa 69:1-36. Upon Shoshannim--(See on Psa 45:1, title). Mingling the language of prayer and complaint, the sufferer, whose condition is here set forth, pleads for God's help as one suffering in His cause, implores the divine retribution on his malicious enemies, and, viewing his deliverance as sure, promises praise by himself, and others, to whom God will extend like blessings. This Psalm is referred to seven times in the New Testament as prophetical of Christ and the gospel times. Although the character in which the Psalmist appears to some in Psa 69:5 is that of a sinner, yet his condition as a sufferer innocent of alleged crimes sustains the typical character of the composition, and it may be therefore regarded throughout, as the twenty-second, as typically expressive of the feelings of our Saviour in the flesh.

1-2. (Compare Psa 40:2).

come in unto my soul--literally, "come even to my soul," endanger my life by drowning (Jon 2:5).

3. (Compare Psa 6:6).

mine eyes fail--in watching (Psa 119:82).

4. hate me, &c.--(Compare Joh 15:25). On the number and power of his enemies (compare Psa 40:12).

then I restored ... away--that is, he suffered wrongfully under the imputation of robbery.

5. This may be regarded as an appeal, vindicating his innocence, as if he had said, "If sinful, thou knowest," &c. Though David's condition as a sufferer may typify Christ's, without requiring that a parallel be found in character.

6. for my sake--literally, "in me," in my confusion and shame.

7-12. This plea contemplates his relation to God as a sufferer in His cause. Reproach, domestic estrangement (Mr 3:21; Joh 7:5), exhaustion in God's service (Joh 2:17), revilings and taunts of base men were the sufferings.

13-15. With increasing reliance on God, he prays for help, describing his distress in the figures of Psa 69:1, 2.

16-18. These earnest terms are often used, and the address to God, as indifferent or averse, is found in Psa 3:7; 22:24; 27:9, &c.

19-20. Calling God to witness his distress, he presents its aggravation produced by the want of sympathizing friends (compare Is 63:5; Mr 14:50).

21. Instead of such, his enemies increase his pain by giving him most distasteful food and drink. The Psalmist may have thus described by figure what Christ found in reality (compare Joh 19:29, 30).

22-23. With unimportant verbal changes, this language is used by Paul to describe the rejection of the Jews who refused to receive the Saviour (Ro 11:9, 10). The purport of the figures used is that blessings shall become curses, the "table" of joy (as one of food) a "snare," their

welfare--literally, "peaceful condition," or security, a "trap." Darkened eyes and failing strength complete the picture of the ruin falling on them under the invoked retribution.

24-25. An utter desolation awaits them. They will not only be driven from their homes, but their homes--or, literally, "palaces," indicative of wealth--shall be desolate (compare Mt 23:38).

26. Though smitten of God (Is 53:4), men were not less guilty in persecuting the sufferer (Ac 2:23).

talk to the grief--in respect to, about it, implying derision and taunts.

wounded--or, literally, "mortally wounded."

27-28. iniquity--or, "punishment of iniquity" (Psa 40:12).

come ... righteousness--partake of its benefits.

29. poor and sorrowful--the afflicted pious, often denoted by such terms (compare Psa 10:17; 12:5).

set me ... high--out of danger.

30-31. Spiritual are better than mere material offerings (Psa 40:6; 50:8); hence a promise of the former, and rather contemptuous terms are used of the latter.

32-33. Others shall rejoice. "Humble" and poor, as in Psa 69:29.

your heart, &c.--address to such (compare Psa 22:26).

34-36. The call on the universe for praise is well sustained by the prediction of the perpetual and extended blessings which shall come upon the covenant-people of God. Though, as usual, the imagery is taken from terms used of Palestine, the whole tenor of the context indicates that the spiritual privileges and blessings of the Church are meant.

The waters are come in unto my soul - I am in the deepest distress. The waters have broken their dikes, and are just ready to sweep me away! Save me, Lord! In such circumstances I can have no other help.

In the first, second, third, fourteenth, and fifteenth verses, the psalmist, speaking in the person of the captives in Babylon, compares their captivity to an abyss of waters, breaking all bounds, and ready to swallow them up; to a deep mire, in which there was no solid bottom, and no standing; and to a pot. in which they were about to be inclosed for ever. This is strongly figurative, and very expressive.

I am weary of my crying - A pathetic description of the state of the poor captives for about seventy years.

Then I restored that which I took not away - I think, with Calmet, that this is a sort of proverbial expression, like such as these, "Those who suffered the wrong, pay the costs." Delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi. "Kings sin, and the people are punished." "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." Our fathers have grievously sinned against the Lord, and we their posterity suffer for it. See on Psa 69:12 (note). Some have applied it to our Lord. I restored, by my suffering and death, that image of God and the Divine favor, which I took not away. That is, In my human nature I expiated the crime that human beings had committed against God. But such applications are very gratuitous.

Thou knowest my foolishness - Though we have been brought into captivity in consequence of the crimes of our fathers, yet we have guilt enough of our own to merit a continuation of our miseries. How can such words as are in this verse be attributed to our blessed Lord, however they may be twisted or turned?

Be ashamed for my sake - The sins of the Jews were a great stumbling-block in the way of the conversion of the Gentiles. They had been the peculiar people of the Lord. "How," say the Gentiles, "can a pure and holy Being love such people?" They were now punished for their crimes. "How," say the Gentiles, "can God deal so hardly with those whom he professes to love?" The pious among the captives felt keenly, because this reproach seemed to fall upon their gracious and merciful God.

For thy sake I have borne reproach - The Gentiles have said, "Why such an obstinate attachment to the worship of a Being who treats you so rigorously, and who interests not himself in your comfort and deliverance?" And in these cutting reproaches some of the ungodly Jews took a part: "I am an alien to my mother's children."

The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up - The strong desire to promote thy glory has absorbed all others. All the desires of my body and soul are wrapped up in this. This verse is very properly applied to our Lord, Joh 2:17, who went about doing good; and gave up his life, not only for the redemption of man, but to "magnify the law, and make it honorable."

They that sit in the gate - At the gates were the courts for public justice; there were complaints lodged, and causes heard. No doubt many vexatious complaints were made against the poor captives; and false accusations, through which they grievously suffered; so that, literally, they were often "obliged to restore that which they had not taken away." See Psa 69:4.

The song of the drunkards - These poor miserable people were exposed to all sorts of indignities. Though the conduct is base, the exultation over a fallen enemy is frequent. How miserable was this lot! Forsaken by friends, scorned by enemies, insulted by inferiors; the scoff of libertines, and the song of drunkards; besides hard travail of body, miserably lodged and fed; with the burning crown of all, a deep load of guilt upon the conscience. To such a life any death was preferable.

My prayer is unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time - This seems to refer to the end of the captivity, which Jeremiah had said should last seventy years, Jer 25:11, Jer 25:12 : "The whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon," etc. The conclusion of this period was the accepted tome of which the psalmist speaks. Now, they incessantly pray for the fulfillment of the promise made by Jeremiah: and to hear them, would be the truth of God's salvation; it would show the promise to be true, because the salvation - the deliverance, was granted.

Thy loving-kindness is good - The word חסד chesed signifies exuberance of kindness, and the word רחמים rachamim, which we translate tender mercies, signifies such affection as mothers bear to their young: and in God, there is רב rob, a multitude, of such tender mercies towards the children of men!

Deliver me because of mine enemies - Probably they now began to think that the redemption of these captives was not an impossible thing; that it was not far off; and therefore they had great rage, because they found their time was but short.

Thou hast known my reproach - This is one of the most forcible appeals to mercy and compassion that was ever made. The language of these two verses is inimitable; and the sentiment cannot be mended. I can devise no comment that would not lessen their effect.

They gave me also gall for my meat - Even the food, necessary to preserve us in their slavery, was frequently mingled with what rendered it unpleasant and disgusting, though not absolutely unwholesome. And vinegar, sour small wines, was given us for our beverage. This is applied to our Lord, Mat 27:34, where the reader is requested to consult the notes.

Let their table become a snare - The execrations here and in the following verses should be read in the future tense, because they are predictive; and not in the imperative mood, as if they were the offspring of the psalmist's resentment: "Their table Shall become a snare; - their eyes Shall be darkened; - thou Wilt pour out thine indignation upon them; - thy wrathful anger Shall take hold of them; - their habitation Shall be desolate, - and none Shall dwell in their tents."

The psalmist prophesies that the evils which they had inflicted on the Israelites should be visited on themselves; that as they had made them eat, drink, labor, and suffer, so God should in his judgment treat them.

Add iniquity unto their iniquity - תנה עון על עונם tenah avon al avonam; give iniquity, that is, the reward of it, upon or for their iniquity. Or, as the original signifies perverseness, treat their perverseness with perverseness: act, in thy judgments, as crookedly towards them as they dealt crookedly towards thee. They shall get, in the way of punishment, what they have dealt out in the way of oppression.

Let them be blotted out - They shall be blotted out from the land of the living. They shall be cut off from life, which they have forfeited by their cruelty and oppression. The psalmist is speaking of retributive justice; and in this sense all these passages are to be understood.

And not be written with the righteous - They shall have no title to that long life which God has promised to his followers.

I am poor and sorrowful - Literally, I an laid low, and full of pain or grief. Hence the prayer, "Let thy salvation, O God set me on high!" My oppression has laid me low; thy salvation shall make me high!

An ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs - Oxen offered in sacrifice had their horns and hoofs gilded; and the psalmist might mention these parts of the victim more particularly, because they were more conspicuous. Others think that full-grown animals are intended, those that had perfect horns, in opposition to calves or steers. I think the first the preferable sense; for the horns, etc., of consecrated animals are thus ornamented in the east to the present day.

The humble shall see this, and be glad - Those who are low, pressed down by misfortune or cruelty, shall see this and take courage; expecting that thou wilt lift them up also; and thus the heart of those who seek the Lord shall be revived.

For the Lord heareth the poor - אביונים ebyonim, of the beggars. He perhaps refers here to the case of the captives, many of whom were reduced to the most abject state, so as to be obliged to beg bread from their heathen oppressors.

His prisoners - The captives, shut up by his judgments in Chaldea, without any civil liberty, like culprits in a prison.

Let the heaven and earth praise him - The psalmist has the fullest confidence that God will turn their captivity, and therefore calls upon all creatures to magnify him for his mercy.

God will save Zion - This fixes the Psalm to the time of the captivity. There was no Zion belonging to the Jews in the time of Saul, when those suppose the Psalm to be written who make David the author; for David after he came to the throne, won the stronghold of Zion from the Jebusites. 2Sam 5:7; 1Chr 11:5.

Will build the cities of Judah - This refers to the return from the captivity, when all the destroyed cities should be rebuilt, and the Jews repossess their forfeited heritages. Some apply this to the redemption of the human race; and suppose that Zion is the type of the Christian Church into which the Gentiles were to be called. What evangelists and apostles apply to our Lord, we safely may. What others see so clearly in this Psalm relative to Gospel matters, I cannot discern.

Waters - Tribulations.

I restored - For peace sake.

My sins - But O Lord, although I have been innocent to mine enemies, I am guilty of many sins and follies against thee.

For my sake - Because of my sad disappointments. For if they see me forsaken, they will be discouraged by this example.

For thy sake - For my obedience to thy commands, and zeal for thy glory.

Zeal - That fervent love which I have for thy house and service, and glory, and people. Eaten - Exhausted my spirits. Upon me - I have been as deeply affected with thy reproaches, as with mine own. This tho' truly belonging to David, yet was also directed by the spirit of God in him, to represent the disposition and condition of Christ, in whom it was more fully accomplished, to whom therefore it is applied in the New Testament, the first part of it, John 2:17, and the latter, Rom 15:3.

Wept - For their impiety. Reproach - They derided me for it.

Proverb - A proverb of reproach.

That sit - Vain and idle persons, that spend their time in the gates and markets.

In the truth - Or, According to thy saving truth, or faithfulness; grant me that salvation, which thou hast graciously promised.

Gall - Instead of giving me that comfort which my condition required, they added to my afflictions. Vinegar - These things were metaphorically fulfilled in David, but properly in Christ, the description of whose sufferings was principally intended here by the Holy Ghost.

Their table - And this punishment in their table, exactly answers their sin, in giving Christ gall for his meat, ver.21. A snare - Their table or meat, which is set before them, shall become a snare: the occasion of their destruction.

Eyes - Not the eyes of their bodies, but of their minds: as they that shut their eyes and will not see, so they shall be judicially blinded. To shake - To take away their strength.

For - Which is an act of barbarous cruelty. Talk - Reproaching them, and triumphing in their calamities.

Wilt add - Give them up to their own lusts. Not let them - Partake of thy righteousness, or of thy mercy and goodness.

Living - Of eternal life.

On high - Out of the reach of mine enemies.

This - This hearty sacrifice of praise, is more grateful to God, than the most glorious legal sacrifices. Hath horns - That is both tender and mature, as it is when the horns bud forth, and the hoofs grow hard.

The humble - Those pious persons who are grieved for their calamities, will heartily rejoice in my deliverance. Live - Or, be revived, which were dejected, and in a manner dead with sorrow.

Prisoners - Those who are in prison or affliction for his sake.

Sion - His church and people. They - His servants, as is explained in the following verse. There - In the literal Canaan for a long time, in the heavenly Canaan for ever.

1 SAve me, O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul .

(i. e.) Tribulations, which are oft expressed by waters; as hath been observed.

(i. e.) To my Vital parts; so that I am ready to be choaked with them. My Soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto Death.

Marginal references: Jon. 2. 5.

2 I sink in deep mire , where there is no standing : I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.

Heb. In the Mire of the deep Waters. I am not in the Shallows, or nigh the Bank, but in the middle, and deepest Parts, and in the very Mire, which is at the bottom of the Waters.

No firm and sure footing, but I sink in deeper and deeper, and, without thy speedy and Almighty help, shall be overwhelmed and destroyed.

Marginal references: Ver. 14.; Heb. the Mire of death.; Heb. depth of Waters.; Psal. 18. 4.

3 I am weary of my crying , my throat is dried : mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.

I have Prayed and Cryed to God, long and servently, and yet God seems to neglect and forsake me.

With loud and frequent Cryes.

With looking to God for that Assistance, which he hath Promised, and I Confidently expected, but in Vain.

4 They that hate me without a cause g, are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away .

Without any injury or occasion given them by me.

i Either, because they uniustly and violently forced me to it: Or, because I was willing to do it to my own wrong for Peace l[illegible: 1+ letters]ke. By this one kind of Wrong, he understands all those Injuries and Violences, which they Practised against him.

Marginal references: Joh. 15. 25.

5 O God, thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from thee e.

i This is added; Either. 1. As a Proof of his Innocency which he had now asserted, by way of appeal to God, do thou, O Lord, Judge between me and them, whether I be Guilty of those Follies and Sins, which they lay to my Charge. And such Appeals indeed David useth, Psal. 7. 3, 4. and elsewhere: But then they are delivered, in form of a Supposition, and not a positive Assertion, as this is. Or rather, 2. As an Exception to what he last said. But, O Lord, although I have been innocent to mine Enemies, and have given them no cause to Hate or Persecute me, as they do, yet I must Confess, I am guilty of many Sins and Follies against thee, and have given thee just Cause to punish me, and to give me up into their Hands, and to deny or delay thine Help unto me. By Foolishness he means Sin, as he explains it, which is commonly so called in Scripture; Or, by his Foolishness, he means lesser sins Commited through Ignorance, or Inconsiderateness, and by sins, those of a grosser Nature.

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

6 Let not them that wait on thee , O LORD GOD of hosts, be ashamed for my sake : let not those that seek thee, be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.

(i. e.) Thy Godly people, who relye upon thy Promises, which thou hast made to all thine in General, and to me in a special manner, wherein they also are concerned.

(i. e.) Frustrated of their just Hopes; which will make them ashamed; Either, to look up upon God, or to look upon their Enemies, when they shall Reproach them, for their Confidence in God.

Either, 1. For the sake of my sins last mentioned, let not all Good men suffer for my sins. Or, 2. Because of my sad Disappointments. For if they see me Rejected and forsaken of God, whom they have esteemed a great example of Faith, and Prayer, and all Vertue and Piety, they will be exceedingly discouraged by this Example; which will tend much to thy Dishonour and disservice▪

7 Because for thy sake I have born reproach: shame hath covered my face .

For my trust is in thy Promise, and Obedience to thy Commands and Zeal for thy Glory, and against all Wickedness: All which they turn into matter of Derision and Reproach.

In which mans Majesty and Glory is most Evident, which I am in a manner ashamed to shew amongst men.

8 I am become a stranger unto my brethen, and an alien unto my Mothers children .

My nearest Kinsmen estranged themselves from me. Partly, out of Fear, left they should be involved in my sufferings: and Chiefly, out of dislike of his Piety and excessive Zeal in Religion, as it here follows.

Marginal references: Psal. 31. 11.

9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up , and the reproaches of them that reproached thee , are fallen upon me .

This is the Reason of that Alienation of my brethren and others from me, because there is a vast difference and contrarity in our Tempers. They mind not the concerns of God and of Religion, but are wholly intent upon Wealth and Honour, and Worldly greatness.

That servent Passion which I have for thy House and Service, and Glory, and People.

Exhausted and wasted my natural Moisture, and Vital Spirits, which is oft effected by Grief and Anger, and servent Love and Desire; of which Passions Zeal is Composed.

That speak Contemptuously or Wickedly of thy Name or Providence, or Truth, or Worship and Service.

Either, 1. By imputation: They reflect upon me, because I am engaged in the defence of thy Cause and Glory, which wicked men oppose and despise, and therefore must needs suffer in it, and with it. Or, 2. By Choice and Affection. I have been as deeply affected with thy Reproaches, as with raine own. This whole Verse, though truly belonging to David, yet was also directed by him, or at least by the Spirit of God in him, to an higher use, to represent the Disposition and Condition of Christ, in whom this was more truly and fully accomplished then in David, to whom therefore it is applied in the New Testament, the first part of it, Ioh. 2. 17. and the Latter, Rom. 15. 3.

Marginal references: Psal. 119. 139. Ioh. 2. 17.; Rom. 15. 3.

10 When I wept , and chastened my soul with fasting that was to my reproach .

For their Impiety and Reproaches, which they cast upon God and Godliness.

Which word is here understood, out of Psal. 35. 13. as it is also, in 2 [illegible: 1 word]. 10. 11. 14. out of i Kings 12. 11. where it is expressed.

Either my Body; Or my self, the Soul, being oft used both ways.

They derided me for my Piety and Devoti[illegible: 1+ letters]n, and for my Faith in God's Promises, and Hopes of assistance from him.

Marginal references: Heb. and [illegible: 1+ letters] [illegible: 1 word] in the [illegible: 1 word] of my [illegible: 1 word] ▪ [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word], &c.

11 I made sackcloth also my garment : and I became a proverb to them .

Wearing it next to my Skin, in Token of my Humiliation and hearty Sorrow, as the manner then was in days of Fasting.

They used my Name proverbi[illegible: 1+ letters]lly of any Person, whom they thought Vainly, and Foolishly Religious.

12 They that sit in the gate , speak against me, and I was the song of the drunkards .

Either, 1. Vain and Idle Persons, that spend their time in the Gates and Markets, in which there used to be a Confluence of People. Or rather, 2. The Judges and Magistrates, who used to sit (which was their posture, Exod. 18. 14. Prov. 20. 8. &c.) in the Gates of Cities, the usual places of Judicature: For David oft Complains of his hard usage from these Men, as Psal. 58. 1, 2. and 119. 23. and elsewhere; which was the more grievous, because these who were obliged by their Office to protect and Right him, did joyn with others in Reproaching and oppressing him.

Of the seum of the People, of all lewd and deba[illegible: 1+ letters]ched Persons. Thus both high and low Conspired against him.

Marginal references: Psal. 35. 15. [illegible: 1 word]; Heb. drinkers [illegible: 1 word] Drink.

13 But as for me, my prayer is unto thee , O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation .

But whilst they scoff I will pray, and not be driven from God, and from my Prayers and other Duties, by all their Reproaches or other Discouragements.

Heb. In a time of Acceptation, or Grace; Or thy Good will. or good Pleasure. These words may be joyned; Either, 1. With the following Words, by way of Limitation: Hear me in thy accepted time, (i. e.) I do not limit thee to a Day or time, but when thou seest fit, hear and help me. Or rather, 2. With the foregoing, as an Argument to enforce his Prayer, I pray in a time of Grace or Acceptation, I seek thee, when thou mayst be found, as Psal. 32. 6. Isa. 55. 6. in a good Day, as they said, 1 Sam. 25. 8. in the day of Grace and Mercy, in a time of great Trouble, which is the Proper season for Prayer, Psal. 50. 15. and whilst I have thee engaged to me by Promises, which thy Honour and Truth oblige thee to perform. I come not too late, and therefore do thou hear me.

c Or, for, or according to thy saving Truth, or Faithfulness; whereby thou art obliged to grant unto me that Salvation, which thou hast graciously Promised.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] 49. 8. [illegible: 1 word]. 6. 2.

14 Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me , and out of the deep waters.

Whereby he explains his meaning in these Metaphors of Mire, and Waters, and Deep, and Pit.

16 Hear me, O LORD, for thy loving kindness is good , turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

(i. e.) Is Eminently and unspeakably good: the Positive degree being put for the Superlative, as it is, Luk. 1. 28. 1 Cor. 12. 23. &c. It is most ready to Communicate it self, to indigent and miserable Creatures.

18 Draw nigh unto my soul , and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies .

To support and relieve it, O thou who seemest to be departed far away from me.

Partly, because they Persecute it, and greedily seek to destroy it; and Partly, because they are thine, as well as mine Enemies, and, if they succeed, will Triumph not onely over me, but in some sort over thee, and over Religion.

19 Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour : mine adversaries are all before thee .

Thou [illegible: 1+ letters]eest how much of it I suffer, and that for thy sake; as he said v. 7.

Thou knowest them thoroughly, and all their Injurious and wicked Devices, and implacable Malice against me, and all their Impiety and Contempt of thee; for which they deserve to be utterly and speedily destroyed.

Marginal references: Psal. 22. 6, 7. [illegible: 1 word]. 53. 3. Heb. 12. 2.

20 Reproach hath broken my heart , and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none , and for comforters, but I found none.

For Reproach is most grievous, to the most generous and noble Souls; and besides, this was the highest degree, and the worst kind of Reproach, being cast upon him for God's sake, and upon God also for his sake.

(i. e.) Few or none, as that Word is frequently used. both in sacred and pro[illegible: 1+ letters]ane Writers. For whether you understand it of David, or of Christ, there were some who pitied both of them.

Marginal references: Heb. to [illegible: 1 word] with me.

21 They gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink .

Or, Poison: Or, bitter [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 1 word]. 10. 4. See Deut. 29. 18. I[illegible: 1+ letters]r. 9. 15. [illegible: 1 word]. 3. 19. In stead of giving me that Pity and Comfort, which my Condition required, they barbarously added to my Afflictions.

These things were Metaphorically fulfilled in David, but Properly, and Literally in Christ, the Description of whose sufferings, was principally intended here by the Holy Ghost, who therefore directed Davids Pen to these Words, and possibly informed him, that this should be accomplished in Christ. Which may not seem improbable to him that Considers the following Impr[illegible: 1+ letters]cations, which are so many and so severe, that they may seem to exceed the bounds of Justice and Charity, if they be applied to David's Enemies, as a Recompence for their Injuries done to him; whereas they most deservedly and fitly belong to the Enemies, and Murderers of Christ.

Marginal references: Ma[illegible: 1+ letters]. 27. 34. 48. Ma[illegible: 1+ letters]. 15. 36. Joh. 19. 29.

22 Let their table become a snare before them : and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap .

These and the following Words, which are expressed in the form of Imprecations, are thought by divers to be onely Predictions, and that the Imperatives, are put for the Futures, as sometimes they are. And accordingly they translate the Words thus: Their Table shall become a S[illegible: 1+ letters]are, &c. But if they be Imprecations, here was sufficient Cause for them. And besides it is apparent, that they were not the Dictates of humane Passion, but of Divine inspiration, and proceeded from a just Zeal for God's Glory, as hath been observed before.

(i. e.) Their Food and all their Provisions for N[illegible: 1+ letters]cessity or Delight; Either, For Body or Soul; for the Curses here following, are Spiritual and Eternal, as well as Temporal. And so this may Comprehend their Sacrifices and other legal Ordinances, and the Word of God: all which became to the I[illegible: 1+ letters]ws, through their own default, a great occasion of stumbling at Christ. And this Punishment in their [illegible: 1 word], exactly Answers to their sin, in giving Christ Gall for his Meat, v. 21.

Heb. Before them (i. e. Their Table or Meat, which is set before them, which is the usual Expression in this Case, as Gen. 1[illegible: 1+ letters]. 8. 2 Kings 6. 22.) become a Snare, (i. e.) The occasion or Instrument of their Destruction. It is a Metaphor taken from Birds, or Fishes, that are Commonly [illegible: 1 word] and taken with their [illegible: 1+ letters]aits.

Heb. And as for their great Peace (which the plural Number seems to import, all that Tranquility and Prosperity which they do, or may enjoy) let it be a Trap. Or, And their Peaceofferings (which Sacrifices may be here mentioned, because the offerers did partake of them, and Feast upon them; and so this agrees with the Table expressed, in the former Clause) a Trap. And so they were to the unbelieving Iews, whose false Conceit of the Everlastingness of the Mosa[illegible: 1+ letters]cal Dispensation, was one Cause of their Rejection of Christ. Or thus; And for Recompences, (i. e. An abundant Compensation of all their Injuries,) and for a Trap. For thus it is rendred by divers, both Antient and Modern Interpreters, and, which i[illegible: 1+ letters] more Considerable, by the Apostle, Rom. 11. 9.

Marginal references: Rom. 11. 9, 10.

23 Let their eyes be darkned that they see not: and make their loins continually to shake .

Not the Eyes of their Bodies (for so this was not accomplished in David's, nor in Christ's Enemies) but of their Minds, that they may not discern God's Truth, not their own Duty, nor the way of Peace and Salvation. Punish them in their own kind: As they that shut their Eyes and would not see, so do thou Judicially blind them. This was threatned and inflicted upon the Iews, Isa. 6. 10. Ioh. 12. 39, 40.

This also belongs to the Loyns of their Minds, or Souls; of which we Read, Luk. 12. 35. 1 Pet. 1. 13. The Loyns of the Body are the Seat of strength, and the great Instrument of bodily Motions and Actions. Which being applied to the Mind, the Sence may be; Either, 1. Take away their Courage and Ala[illegible: 1+ letters]rity, and give them up to Pu[illegible: 1+ letters]illanimity, and Terror, and Despair: Or rather, 2. Take away their Strength and Ability, for spiritual Actions. In the former Branch, he wisheth that they may not [illegible: 1+ letters]e able to see, or chuse their way; and here, that they may not be able to Walk in it, nor to execute the good Counsels, which others may give them. As on the other side, when God gi[illegible: 1+ letters]s Men strength they are able, not onely to Walk, out to [illegible: 1 word] in the ways of God, Psal. 119. 32. Cant. 1. 4. I[illegible: 1+ letters] 40. 31.

24 Pour out thine indignation upon them , and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.

In such other ways and Judgments, as thou shalt think [illegible: 1+ letters]it.

25 Let their habitation be desolate, and let none dwell in their tents.

Heb. their Palace, as this Word signifies, Gen. 25. 16. Numb. 31. 10. Cant. 8. 9. Either their Temple, in which they place their Glory and Safety. Or rather, 2. And more generally, their strongest and most Magnificent Buildings, and Houses, in which they dwelt▪ as it follows in the next Clause, which explains this.

Either, 1. None of their Posterity. Destroy them both Root and Branch. Or, 2. None at all. Let the places be accounted Execrable and Dreadful.

Marginal references: Act. 1. 20.; Heb. their Palace.; Heb. [illegible: 1 word] there not be a dweller.

26 For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten , and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded.

Which is an Act of barbarous Cruelty, and inhumane Malice.

Reproaching them with, and insulting and Triumphing in their Calamities.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1+ letters]sa. 53. 4.; Heb thy wounded.

27 Add iniquity to their iniquity : and let them not come into thy righteousness .

Give them up to their own vain Minds and vile Lusts, and to a Reprobate Sence, and take off all the Restraints of thy Grace and Providence, and expose them to the Temptations of the World, and of the Devil, that so they may grow worse and worse, and at last may fill up the Measure of their sins; as is said, Mat. 23. 32. Compare, Rom. 1. 28, 29. Or, Add Punishment to their Punishment; as this Word is oft taken: Send one Judgment upon them after another, without ceasing.

Let them never partake of thy Righteousness, (i. e.) Either, 1. Of thy Faithfulness, in making good thy Promises to them. Or, 2. Of thy Mercy and Goodness. Or rather, 3. Of thy Righteousness; Properly so called, of that everlasting Righteousness, which the Messiah shall bring into the World, Dan. 9. 24. which is called the Righteousness of God, Rom. 1: 17. Phil. 3. 9. &c. Which is said to be witnessed by the Law, and the Prophets, Rom. 3. 21. by, and for, which God doth justifie, or Pardon sinners, and accept them in Christ as Righteous Persons. For this was the Righteousness, which the Iews Rejected to their own Ruin, Rom. 10. 3. according to this Prediction. Thus as the first Branch of the Verse maketh, or supposeth them Guilty of many Sins, so this excludes them from the onely Remedy, the Remission of their sins. And that justifying, rather then sanctifying Righteousness is here meant, seems most Probable from the Phrase, which seems to be a judicial Phrase, as we Read of Coming, or Entring into Iudgment, Iob 22. 4. and 34. 23. and into Condemnation, Iob. 5. 24. opposite unto which is this Phrase, of Coming into Iustification; Or, which is one, into thy Righteousness.

Marginal references: Or, Punishment of iniquity.

28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living , and not be written with the righteous .

Or, Of Life. Either, 1. Of this Life: Out of the number of Living Men; which Antiently used to be Written in Catalogues, out of which the Names of those, who died were blotted: Or rather, 2. Of eternal Life, as both Iewish and Christian Interpreters commonly understand it. Which agrees best, 1. To the use of this Phrase in Scripture: For in this Sence men are said to be [illegible: 1+ letters]ritten in the Book, Dan. 12. 1. or, in God's Book, Exod. 32. 32. Or, in the Book of Life, Phil. 4. 3. [illegible: 1+ letters]el. 3. 5. and 13. 8. and 17. 8. and 20. 12. and 21. last. 2. To the last Clause of the Verse, which explains it, of that Book▪ wherein none but the Righteous are written; whereas this Life, and that attended with Health and Prosperity, is Promiscuously given to, and taken from good and bad Men. 3. To the quality of the Persons, of whom this is said; which are the Malicious Enemies of God, and of his People, and the Murderers of the Lord of Glory; who shall be punished with eternal Death. In this Book, Men may be said to be written: Either, 1. In Reality, by God's Election, or Predestination. Or, 2. In Appearance, when a Man is called by God, to the Profession and Practice of the true Religion, and into Covenant with himself, and Professeth to Comply with it; and so is written, in the writing of the House of Israel, which is said of all that are in the Assembly of God's People, Ezek. 13 [illegible: 1+ letters]. and so seems to others, and it may be, to himself; to be Really written in the Book of Life. And when a Man renounceth this Profession and Religion, he may be said to be [illegible: 1 word] out of that Book, because his Apostacy makes it Evident, that he was not written in it, as he seemed to be. For this is a known and approved Rule, for the understanding of many Texts of Scripture, that things are oft said to be done, when they onely seem to be done, and are not Really done; as he is said to find his Life, Mat. 10. 39. who falsly imagined that he did find it, when in Truth he lost it; and to have, Mat. 13. 12. who onely seemed to have, as it is explained in the Parallel place, Luk. 8. 1[illegible: 1+ letters]. and to Live, Rom. 7. [illegible: 1+ letters]. when he vainly Conceited himself to be alive. And in like manner, Men may be said to be written in, or blotted out of this Book, when they seem to be so, by the Course of their Lives, and Actions. But that this, blotting out is not meant; Properly, and Positively, is clear from the last Branch of this Verse, which, after the manner of these Books, expounds the former, wherein this doubtful Phrase is explained, by one which is Evident and unquestionable, even by his not being written in it. For it is impossible, that a Mans name should be Properly blotted out of that Book, in which it was never written. The Sence of the Verse seems to be this: Let their Wickedness be so notorious, and the Tokens of God's wrath upon them so manifest, that all Men may discern that they are blotted out that is, that they never were written in the Book of Life in which the Righteous are written.

(i. e.) In that Book of Life, in which all righteous or holy Persons, and onely they are written, whereby it may appear, that whatsoever shew or Profession they once made, yet they neither are nor were truly righteous Persons.

29. But I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high .

Out of the reach of mine Enemies; Or, li[illegible: 1+ letters]t me out of the deep Waters, and the Mire, in which I was sinking, v. 14.

31 This also shall please the LORD better than an oxe or bullock that hath horns and hoofs .

This sincere and hear[illegible: 1+ letters]y Sacrifice of Praise, is and shall be more grateful to God, than the most Glorious legal Sacrifices: For so such moral Services ever were, 1 Sam. 15. 22. Hos[illegible: 1+ letters]. 6 6. and such Sacrifices shall be accepted, when those Legal ones shall be abolished.

This is added as a Description and Commendation of the Sacrifice, or Bullock, which he supposeth to be of the best sort, both tender and Mature, as it is when the Horns bud forth, and the Hoofs grow hard.

Marginal references: Psal. 50. 13. 14. 23.

32 The humble shall see this, and be glad , and your heart shall live that seek God.

Those pious Persons, who are grieved for my Calamities; shall have occasion to Rejoyce, and they will heartily Rejoyce in my Deliverance, and Exaltation.

Or, be Revived, to wit, with Joy, which were dejected, and in a manner Dead with Sorrow. Compare, Gen. 45. 27. Psal. 22. 26. and 109. 21.

Marginal references: Psal. 34. 2.; Or, [illegible: 1 word].

33 For the LORD heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners .

Those who are in Prison, or any Straits and Afflictions for his sake; which is my Case, v. 7.

34 Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas and every thing that moveth therein.

Either, 1: Angels and Men. Or rather, 2. The Heaven and Earth themselves, as in the next Branch, the Seas, and every thing that moveth [illegible: 1+ letters]erein. All which by an usual Figure, he invites to praise God, a[illegible: 1+ letters] [illegible: 1+ letters]e doth elsewhere, because they all give men occasion to praise God.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word], C[illegible: 1+ letters].

35 For God will save Sion , and build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there , and have it in possession.

The City of Sion, or Ierusalem; and his Church and People, which are frequently expressed under that Title.

The humble and Po[illegible: 1+ letters]r, v. 32, 33. or his Servants, as is explained in the following Verse.

In the literal Canaan for a long time, and in the Heavenly Canaan for ever.

36 The seed also of his servants shall inherit it , and they that love his name shall dwell therein.

Their posterity shall flourish after them, and partake of the same Happiness with them.

Marginal references: Psal. 102. 23.

Psa 69:1-13

Out of deep distress, the work of his foes, the complaining one cries for help; he thinks upon his sins, which is sufferings bring to his remembrance, but he is also distinctly conscious that he is an object of scorn and hostility for God’s sake, and from His mercy he looks for help in accordance with His promises. The waters are said to rush in unto the soul (עד־נפשׁ), when they so press upon the imperilled one that the soul, i.e., the life of the body, more especially the breath, is threatened; cf. Jon 2:6; Jer 4:10. Waters are also a figure of calamities that come on like a flood and drag one into their vortex, Psa 18:17; Psa 32:6; Psa 124:5, cf. Psa 66:12; Psa 88:8, Psa 88:18; here, however, the figure is cut off in such a way that it conveys the impression of reality expressed in a poetical form, as in Ps 40, and much the same as in Jonah’s psalm. The soft, yielding morass is called יון, and the eddying deep מצוּלה. The Nomen Hophal. מעמד signifies properly a being placed, then a standing-place, or firm standing (lxx ὑπόστασις), like מטּה, that which is stretched out, extension, Isa 8:8. שׁבּלת (Ephraimitish סבּלת) is a streaming, a flood, from שׁבל, Arab. sbl, to stream, flow (cf. note on Psa 58:9). בּוא בּ, to fall into, as in Psa 66:12, and שׁטף with an accusative, to overflow, as in Psa 124:4. The complaining one is nearly drowned in consequence of his sinking down, for he has long cried in vain for help: he is wearied by continual crying (יגע בּ, as in Psa 6:7, Jer 45:3), his throat is parched (נחר from חרר; lxx and Jerome: it is become hoarse), his eyes have failed (Jer 14:6) him, who waits upon his God. The participle מיחל, equal to a relative clause, is, as in 18:51, 1Ki 14:6, attached to the suffix of the preceding noun (Hitzig). Distinct from this use of the participle without the article is the adverbially qualifying participle in Gen 3:8; Sol 5:2, cf. חי,   2Sa 12:21; 2Sa 18:14. There is no necessity for the correction of the text מיּחל (lxx apo' τοῦ elpi'zein me). Concerning the accentuation of רבּוּ vid., on Psa 38:20. Apart from the words “more than the hairs of my head” (Psa 40:13), the complaint of the multitude of groundless enemies is just the same as in Psa 38:20; Psa 35:19, cf. Psa 109:3, both in substance and expression. Instead of מצמיתי, my destroyers, the Syriac version has the reading מעצמותי (more numerous than my bones), which is approved by Hupfeld; but to reckon the multitude of the enemy by the number of one’s own bones is both devoid of taste and unheard of. Moreover the reading of our text finds support, if it need any, in Lam 3:52. The words, “what I have not taken away, I must then restore,” are intended by way of example, and perhaps, as also in Jer 15:10, as a proverbial expression: that which I have not done wrong, I must suffer for (cf. Jer 15:10, and the similar complaint in Psa 35:11). One is tempted to take אז in the sense of “nevertheless” (Ewald), a meaning, however, which it is by no means intended to convey. In this passage it takes the place of זאת (cf. οὕτως for ταῦτα, Mat 7:12), inasmuch as it gives prominence to the restitution desired, as an inference from a false assumption: then, although I took it not away, stole it not.

The transition from the bewailing of suffering to a confession of sin is like Psa 40:13. In the undeserved persecution which he endures at the hand of man, he is obliged nevertheless to recognise well-merited chastisement from the side of God. And whilst by אתּה ידעתּ (cf. Psa 40:10, Jer 15:15; Jer 17:16; Jer 18:23, and on ל as an exponent of the object, Jer 16:16; Jer 40:2) he does not acknowledge himself to be a sinner after the standard of his own shortsightedness, but of the divine omniscience, he at the same time commends his sinful need, which with self-accusing modesty he calls אוּלת (Psa 38:6) and אשׁמות    (2Ch 28:10), to the mercy of the omniscient One. Should he, the sinner, be abandoned by God to destruction, then all those who are faithful in their intentions towards the Lord would be brought to shame and confusion in him, inasmuch as they would be taunted with this example. קויך designates the godly from the side of the πίστις, and מבקשׁיךa from the side of the ἀγάπη. The multiplied names of God are so many appeals to God’s honour, to the truthfulness of His covenant relationship. The person praying here is, it is true, a sinner, but that is no justification of the conduct of men towards him; he is suffering for the Lord’s sake, and it is the Lord Himself who is reviled in him. It is upon this he bases his prayer in Psa 69:8. עליך, for thy sake, as in Psa 44:23; Jer 15:15. The reproach that he has to bear, and ignominy that has covered his face and made it quite unrecognisable (Psa 44:16, cf. Psa 83:17), have totally estranged (Psa 38:12, cf. Psa 88:9, Job 19:13-15; Jer 12:6) from him even his own brethren (אחי, parallel word בּני אמּי, as in Psa 50:20; cf. on the other hand, Gen 49:8, where the interchange designedly takes another form of expression); for the glow of his zeal (קנאהּ from קנא, according to the Arabic, to be a deep or bright red) for the house of Jahve, viz., for the sanctity of the sanctuary and of the congregation gathered about it (which is never directly called “the house of Jahve” in the Old Testament, vid., Köhler on Zec 9:8, but here, as in Num 12:7; Hos 8:1, is so called in conjunction with the sanctuary), as also for the honour of His who sits enthroned therein, consumes him, like a fire burning in his bones which incessantly breaks forth and rages all through him (Jer 20:9; Jer 23:9), and therefore all the malice of those who are estranged from God is concentrated upon and against him.

He now goes on to describe how sorrow for the sad condition of the house of God has brought noting but reproach to him (cf. Psa 109:24.). It is doubtful whether נפשׁי is an alternating subject to ואבכּה (fut. consec. without being apocopated), cf. Jer 13:17, or a more minutely defining accusative as in Isa 26:9 (vid., on Psa 3:5), or whether, together with בּצּום, it forms a circumstantial clause (et flevi dum in jejunio esset anima mea), or even whether it is intended to be taken as an accusative of the object in a pregnant construction (= בּכה ושׁפך נפשׁו, Psa 42:5; 1Sa 1:15): I wept away my soul in fasting. Among all these possible renderings, the last is the least probable, and the first, according to Psa 44:3; 83:19, by far the most probable, and also that which is assumed by the accentuation.The Munach of בצום is a transformation of Dechî (just as the Munach of לחרפות is a transformation of Mugrash), in connection with which נקשי might certainly be conceived of even as object (cf. Psa 26:6); but this after ואבכּה (not ואבכּה), and as being without example, could hardly have entered the minds of the punctuists.

The reading of the lxx ואענּה, καὶ συνέκαψα (Olshausen, Hupfeld, and Böttcher), is a very natural (Psa 35:13) exchange of the poetically bold expression for one less choice and less expressive (since ענּה נפשׁ is a phrase of the Pentateuch equivalent to צוּם). The garb of mourning, like the fasting, is an expression of sorrow for public distresses, not, as in Psa 35:13, of personal condolence; concerning ואתּנה, vid., on Psa 3:6. On account of this mourning, reproach after reproach comes upon him, and they fling gibes and raillery at him; everywhere, both in the gate, the place where the judges sit and where business is transacted, and also at carousals, he is jeered at and traduced (Lam 3:14, cf. Lam 5:14; Job 30:9). שׂיח בּ signifies in itself fabulari de... without any bad secondary meaning (cf. Pro 6:22, confabulabitur tecum); here it is construed first with a personal and then a neuter subject (cf. Amo 8:3), for in Psa 69:13 neither הייתי (Job 30:9; Lam 3:14) nor אני (Lam 3:63) is to be supplied. Psa 69:14 tells us how he acts in the face of such hatred and scorn; ואני, as in Psa 109:4, sarcasmis hostium suam opponit in precibus constantiam (Geier). As for himself, his prayer is directed towards Jahve at the present time, when his affliction as a witness for God gives him the assurance that He will be well-pleased to accept it (עת רצון = בעת רצון, Isa 49:8). It is addressed to Him who is at the same time Jahve and Elohim, - the revealed One in connection with the history of redemption, and the absolute One in His exaltation above the world, - on the ground of the greatness and fulness of His mercy: may He then answer him with or in the truth of His salvation, i.e., the infallibility with which His purpose of mercy verifies itself in accordance with the promises given. Thus is Psa 69:14 to be explained in accordance with the accentuation. According to Isa 49:8, it looks as though עת רצון must be drawn to ענני (Hitzig), but Psa 32:6 sets us right on this point; and the fact that ברב־חסדך is joined to Psa 69:14 also finds support from Psa 5:8. But the repetition of the divine name perplexes one, and it may be asked whether or not the accent that divides the verse into its two parts might not more properly stand beside רצון, as in Psa 32:6 beside מצא; so that Psa 69:14 runs: Elohim, by virtue of the greatness of Thy mercy hear me, by virtue of the truth of Thy salvation.

Psa 69:14-21

In this second part the petition by which the first is as it were encircled, is continued; the peril grows greater the longer it lasts, and with it the importunity of the cry for help. The figure of sinking in the mire or mud and in the depths of the pit (בּאר, Ps 55:24, cf. בור, Psa 40:3) is again taken up, and so studiously wrought out, that the impression forces itself upon one that the poet is here describing something that has really taken place. The combination “from those who hate me and from the depths of the waters” shows that “the depths of the waters” is not a merely rhetorical figure; and the form of the prayer: let not the pit (the well-pit or covered tank) close (תּאטּר with Dagesh in the Teth, in order to guard against its being read תּאטר; cf. on the signification of אטּר, clausus = claudus, scil. manu) its mouth (i.e., its upper opening) upon me, exceeds the limits of anything that can be allowed to mere rhetoric. “Let not the water-flood overflow me” is intended to say, since it has, according to Psa 69:3, already happened, let it not go further to my entire destruction. The “answer me” in Psa 69:17 is based upon the plea that God’s loving-kindness is טּוב, i.e., good, absolutely good (as in the kindred passion-Psalm, Psa 109:21), better than all besides (Psa 63:4), the means of healing or salvation from all evil. On Psa 69:17 cf. Psa 51:3, Lam 3:32. In Psa 69:18 the prayer is based upon the painful situation of the poet, which urgently calls for speedy help (מהר beside the imperative, Psa 102:3; Psa 143:7; Gen 19:22; Est 6:10, is certainly itself not an imperative like הרב, Psa 51:4, but an adverbial infinitive as in Psa 79:8). קרבה, or, in order to ensure the pronunciation ḳorbah in distinction from ḳārbah, Deu 15:9, קרבה (in Baer,Originally - was the sign for every kind of o6, hence the Masora includes the חטוף also under the name קמץ חטף; vid., Luther. Zeitschrift, 1863, S. 412,f., cf. Wright, Genesis, p. xxix.) is imperat. Kal; cf. the fulfilment in Lam 3:57. The reason assigned, “because of mine enemies,” as in Psa 5:9; Psa 27:11, and frequently, is to be understood according to Psa 13:5 : the honour of the all-holy One cannot suffer the enemies of the righteous to triumph over him.Both נפשׁי and איבי, contrary to logical interpunction, are marked with Munach; the former ought properly to have Dechî, and the latter Mugrash. But since neither the Athnach-word nor the Silluk-word has two syllables preceding the tone syllable, the accents are transformed according to Accentuationssystem, xviii. §2, 4.

The accumulation of synonyms in Psa 69:20 is Jeremiah’s custom, Jer 13:14; Jer 21:5, Jer 21:7; Jer 32:37, and is found also in Ps 31 (Psa 31:10) and Ps 44 (Psa 44:4, Psa 44:17, Psa 44:25). On הרפּה שׁברה לבּי, cf. Psa 51:19, Jer 23:9. The ἅπαξ γεγραμ, ואנוּשׁה (historical tense), from נוּשׁ, is explained by ענוּשׁ from אנשׁ, sickly, dangerously ill, evil-disposed, which is a favourite word in Jeremiah. Moreover נוּד in the signification of manifesting pity, not found elsewhere in the Psalter, is common in Jeremiah, e.g., Psa 15:5; it signifies originally to nod to any one as a sign of a pity that sympathizes with him and recognises the magnitude of the evil. “To give wormwood for meat and מי־ראשׁ to drink” is a Jeremianic (Jer 8:14; Jer 9:14; Jer 23:15) designation for inflicting the extreme of pain and anguish upon one. ראשׁ (רושׁ) signifies first of all a poisonous plant with an umbellated head of flower or a capitate fruit; but then, since bitter and poisonous are interchangeable notions in the Semitic languages, it signifies gall as the bitterest of the bitter. The lxx renders: καὶ ἔδωκαν εἰς τὸ βρῶμά μου χολήν, καὶ εἰς τὴν δίψαν μου ἐπότισάν με ὄξος. Certainly נתן בּ can mean to put something into something, to mix something with it, but the parallel word לצמאי (for my thirst, i.e., for the quenching of it, Neh 9:15, Neh 9:20) favours the supposition that the בּ of בּברוּתי is Beth essentiae, after which Luther renders: “they give me gall to eat.” The ἅπαξ γεγραμ. בּרוּת (Lam 4:10 בּרות) signifies βρῶσις, from בּרה, βιβρώσκειν (root βορ, Sanscrit gar, Latin vor-are).

Psa 69:22-36

The description of the suffering has reached its climax in Psa 69:22, at which the wrath of the persecuted one flames up and bursts forth in imprecations. The first imprecation joins itself upon Psa 69:22. They have given the sufferer gall and vinegar; therefore their table, which was abundantly supplied, is to be turned into a snare to them, from which they shall not be able to escape, and that לפניהם, in the very midst of their banqueting, whilst the table stands spread out before them (Eze 23:41). שׁלומים (collateral form of שׁלמים) is the name given to them as being carnally secure; the word signifies the peaceable or secure in a good (Psa 55:21) and in a bad sense. Destruction is to overtake them suddenly, “when they say: Peace and safety” (1Th 5:3). The lxx erroneously renders: καὶ εἰς ἀνταπόδοσιν = וּלשׁלּוּמים. The association of ideas in Psa 69:24 is transparent. With their eyes they have feasted themselves upon the sufferer, and in the strength of their loins they have ill-treated him. These eyes with their bloodthirsty malignant looks are to grow blind. These loins full of defiant self-confidence are to shake (המעד, imperat. Hiph. like הרחק, Job 13:21, from המעיד, for which in Eze 29:7, and perhaps also in Dan 11:14, we find העמיד). Further: God is to pour out His wrath upon them (Psa 79:6; Hos 5:10; Jer 10:25), i.e., let loose against them the cosmical forces of destruction existing originally in His nature. זעמּך has the Dagesh in order to distinguish it in pronunciation from זעמך. In Psa 69:26 טירה (from טוּר, to encircle) is a designation of an encamping or dwelling-place (lxx ἔπαυλις) taken from the circular encampments (Arabic ṣı̂rât , ṣirât, and dwâr , duâr) of the nomads (Gen 25:16). The laying waste and desolation of his own house is the most fearful of all misfortunes to the Semite (Job, note to Psa 18:15). The poet derives the justification of such fearful imprecations from the fact that they persecute him, who is besides smitten of God. God has smitten him on account of his sins, and that by having placed him in the midst of a time in which he must be consumed with zeal and solicitude for the house of God. The suffering decreed for him by God is therefore at one and the same time suffering as a chastisement and as a witnessing for God; and they heighten this suffering by every means in their power, not manifesting any pity for him or any indulgence, but imputing to him sins that he has not committed, and requiting him with deadly hatred for benefits for which they owed him thanks.

There are also some others, although but few, who share this martyrdom with him. The psalmist calls them, as he looks up to Jahve, חלליך, Thy fatally smitten ones; they are those to whom God has appointed that they should bear within themselves a pierced or wounded heart (vid., Psa 109:22, cf. Jer 8:18) in the face of such a godless age. Of the deep grief (אל, as in Psa 2:7) of these do they tell, viz., with self-righteous, self-blinded mockery (cf. the Talmudic phrase ספר בלשׁון הרע or ספר לשׁון הרע, of evil report or slander). The lxx and Syriac render יוסיפוּ (προσέθηκαν): they add to the anguish; the Targum, Aquila, Symmachus, and Jerome follow the traditional text. Let God therefore, by the complete withdrawal of His grace, suffer them to fall from one sin into another - this is the meaning of the da culpam super culpam eorum - in order that accumulated judgment may correspond to the accumulated guilt (Jer 16:18). Let the entrance into God’s righteousness, i.e., His justifying and sanctifying grace, be denied to them for ever. Let them be blotted out of ספר חיּים (Exo 32:32, cf. Isa 4:3; Dan 12:1), that is to say, struck out of the list of the living, and that of the living in this present world; for it is only in the New Testament that we meet with the Book of Life as a list of the names of the heirs of the ζωὴ αἰώνιος. According to the conception both of the Old and of the New Testament the צדיקים are the heirs of life. Therefore Psa 69:29 wishes that they may not be written by the side of the righteous, who, according to Hab 2:4, “live,” i.e., are preserved, by their faith. With ואני the poet contrasts himself, as in Ps 40:18, with those deserving of execration. They are now on high, but in order to be brought low; he is miserable and full of poignant pain, but in order to be exalted; God’s salvation will remove him from his enemies on to a height that is too steep for them (Psa 59:2; Psa 91:14). Then will he praise (הלּל) and magnify (גּדּל) the Name of God with song and thankful confession. And such spiritual תּודה, such thank-offering of the heart, is more pleasing to God than an ox, a bullock, i.e., a young ox (= פּר השּׁור, an ox-bullock, Jdg 6:25, according to Ges. §113), one having horns and a cloven hoof (Ges. §53, 2). The attributives do not denote the rough material animal nature (Hengstenberg), but their legal qualifications for being sacrificed. מקרין is the name for the young ox as not being under three years old (cf. 1Sa 1:24, lxx ἐν μόσχῳ τριετίζοντι); מפריס as belonging to the clean four-footed animals, viz., those that are cloven-footed and chew the cud, Lev. 11. Even the most stately, full-grown, clean animal that may be offered as a sacrifice stands in the sight of Jahve very far below the sacrifice of grateful praise coming from the heart.

When now the patient sufferers (ענוים) united with the poet by community of affliction shall see how he offers the sacrifice of thankful confession, they will rejoice. ראוּ is a hypothetical preterite; it is neither וראוּ (perf. consec.), nor יראוּ (Psa 40:4; Psa 52:8; Psa 107:42; Job 22:19). The declaration conveying information to be expected in Psa 69:33 after the Waw apodoseos changes into an apostrophe of the “seekers of Elohim:” their heart shall revive, for, as they have suffered in company with him who is now delivered, they shall now also refresh themselves with him. We are at once reminded of Psa 22:27, where this is as it were the exhortation of the entertainer at the thank-offering meal. It would be rash to read שׁמע in Psa 69:23, after Psa 22:25, instead of שׁמע (Olshausen); the one object in that passage is here generalized: Jahve is attentive to the needy, and doth not despise His bound ones (Psa 107:10), but, on the contrary, He takes an interest in them and helps them. Starting from this proposition, which is the clear gain of that which has been experienced, the view of the poet widens into the prophetic prospect of the bringing back of Israel out of the Exile into the Land of Promise. In the face of this fact of redemption of the future he calls upon (cf. Isa 44:23) all created things to give praise to God, who will bring about the salvation of Zion, will build again the cities of Judah, and restore the land, freed from its desolation, to the young God-fearing generation, the children of the servants of God among the exiles. The feminine suffixes refer to ערי (cf. Jer 2:15; Jer 22:6 Chethîb). The tenor of Isa 65:9 is similar. If the Psalm were written by David, the closing turn from Psa 69:23 onwards might be more difficult of comprehension than Psa 14:7; 51:20f. If, however, it is by Jeremiah, then we do not need to persuade ourselves that it is to be understood not of restoration and re-peopling, but of continuance and completion (Hofmann and Kurtz). Jeremiah lived to experience the catastrophe he foretold; but the nearer it came to the time, the more comforting were the words with which he predicted the termination of the Exile and the restoration of Israel. Jer 34:7 shows us how natural to him, and to him in particular, was the distinction between Jerusalem and the cities of Judah. The predictions in Jer 32:1, which sound so in accord with Psa 69:36., belong to the time of the second siege. Jerusalem was not yet fallen; the strong places of the land, however, already lay in ruins.

Complaints and Petitions.

1 Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. 2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. 3 I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God. 4 They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away. 5 O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee. 6 Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel. 7 Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. 8 I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children. 9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me. 10 When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach. 11 I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them. 12 They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards.

In these verses David complains of his troubles, intermixing with those complaints some requests for relief.

I. His complaints are very sad, and he pours them out before the Lord, as one that hoped thus to ease himself of a burden that lay very heaven upon him.

1. He complains of the deep impressions that his troubles made upon his spirit (v. 1, 2): "The waters of affliction, those bitter waters, have come unto my soul, not only threaten my life, but disquiet my mind; they fill my head with perplexing cares and my heart with oppressive grief, so that I cannot enjoy God and myself as I used to do." We shall bear up under our troubles if we can but keep them from our hearts; but, when they put us out of the possession of our own souls, our case is bad. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but what shall we do when the spirit is wounded? That was David's case here. His thoughts sought for something to confide in, and with which to support his hope, but he found nothing: He sunk in deep mire, where there was no standing, no firm footing; the considerations that used to support and encourage him now failed him, or were out of the way, and he was ready to give himself up for gone. He sought for something to comfort himself with, but found himself in deep waters that overflowed him, overwhelmed him; he was like a sinking drowning man, in such confusion and consternation. This points at Christ's sufferings in his soul, and the inward agony he was in when he said, Now is my soul troubled; and, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful; for it was his soul that he made an offering for sin. And it instructs us, when we are in affliction, to commit the keeping of our souls to God, that we may be neither soured with discontent nor sink into despair.

2. He complains of the long continuance of his troubles (v. 3): I am weary of my crying. Though he could not keep his head above water, yet he cried to his God, and the more death was in his view the more life was in his prayers; yet he had not immediately an answer of peace given in, no, nor so much of that support and comfort in praying which God's people used to have; so that he was almost weary of crying, grew hoarse, and his throat so dried that he could cry no more. Nor had he his wonted satisfaction in believing, hoping, and expecting relief: My eyes fail while I wait for my God; he had almost looked his eyes out, in expectation of deliverance. Yet his pleading this with God is an indication that he is resolved not to give up believing and praying. His throat is dried, but his heart is not; his eyes fail, but his faith does not. Thus our Lord Jesus, on the cross, cried out, Why hast thou forsaken me? yet, at the same time, he kept hold of his relation to him: My God, my God.

3. He complains of the malice and multitude of his enemies, their injustice and cruelty, and the hardships they put upon him, v. 4. They hated him, they would destroy him, for hatred aims at the destruction of the person hated; but what was his iniquity, what was his sin, what provocation had he given them, that they were so spiteful towards him? None at all: "They hate me without a cause; I never did them the least injury, that they should bear me such ill-will." Our Saviour applies this to himself (John xv. 25): They hated me without a cause. We are apt to use this in justification of our passion against those that hate us, that we never gave them cause to hate us. But it is rather an argument why we should bear it patiently, because then we suffer as Christ did, and may then expect that God will give us redress. "They are my enemies wrongfully, for I have been no enemy to them." In a world where unrighteousness reigns so much we must not wonder if we meet with those that are our enemies wrongfully. Let us take care that we never do wrong and then we may the better bear it if we receive wrong. These enemies were not to be despised, but were very formidable both for their number—They are more than the hairs of my head (Christ's enemies were numerous; those that came to seize him were a great multitude; how were those increased that troubled him!) and for their strength—They are mighty in authority and power. We are weak, but our enemies are strong; for we wrestle against principalities and powers. Then I restored that which I took not away. Applying this to David, it was what his enemies compelled him to (they made him suffer for that offence which he had never been guilty of); and it was what he consented to, that, if possible, he might pacify them and make them to be at peace with him. He might have insisted upon the laws of justice and honour, the former not requiring and the latter commonly thought to forbid the restoring of that which we took not away, for that is to wrong ourselves both in our wealth and in our reputation. Yet the case may be such sometimes that it may become our duty. Blessed Paul, though free from all men, yet, for the honour of Christ and the edification of the church, made himself a servant to all. But, applying it to Christ, it is an observable description of the satisfaction which he made to God for our sin by his blood: Then he restored that which he took not away; he underwent the punishment that was due to us, paid our debt, suffered for our offence. God's glory, in some instances of it, was taken away by the sin of man; man's honour, and peace, and happiness, were taken away; it was not he that took them away, and yet by the merit of his death he restored them.

4. He complains of the unkindness of his friends and relations, and this is a grievance which with an ingenuous mind cuts as deeply as any (v. 8): "I have become a stranger to my brethren; they make themselves strange to me and use me as a stranger, are shy of conversing with me and ashamed to own me." This was fulfilled in Christ, whose brethren did not believe on him (John vii. 5), who came to his own and his own received him not (John i. 11), and who was forsaken by his disciples, whom he had been free with as his brethren.

5. He complains of the contempt that was put upon him and the reproach with which he was continually loaded. And in this especially his complaint points at Christ, who for our sakes submitted to the greatest disgrace and made himself of no reputation. We having by sin injured God in his honour, Christ made him satisfaction, not only by divesting himself of the honours due to an incarnate deity, but by submitting to the greatest dishonours that could be done to any man. Two things David here takes notice of as aggravations of the indignities done him:—(1.) The ground and matter of the reproach, v. 10, 11. They ridiculed him for that by which he both humbled himself and honoured God. When men lift up themselves in pride and vain glory they are justly laughed at for their folly; but David chastened his soul, and clothed himself with sackcloth, and from his abasing himself they took occasion to trample upon him. When men dishonour God it is just that their so doing should turn to their dishonour; but when David, purely in devotion to God and to testify his respect to him, wept, and chastened his soul with fasting, and made sackcloth his garment, as humble penitents used to do, instead of commending his devotion and recommending it as a great example of piety, they did all they could both to discourage him in it and to prevent others from following his good example; for that was to his reproach. They laughed at him as a fool for mortifying himself thus; and even for this he became a proverb to them; they made him the common subject of their banter. We must not think it strange if we be ill spoken of for that which is well done, and in which we have reason to hope that we are accepted of God. Our Lord Jesus was stoned for his good works (John x. 32), and when he cried, Eli, Eli—My God, my God, was bantered, as if he called for Elias. (2.) The persons that reproached him, v. 12. [1.] Even the gravest and the most honourable, from whom better was expected: Those that sit in the gate speak against me, and their reproaches pass for the dictates of senators and the decrees of judges, and are credited accordingly. [2.] The meanest, and the most despicable, the abjects (Ps. xxxv. 15), and scum of the country, the children of fools, yea, the children of base men, Job xxx. 8. Such drunkards as these make themselves vile, and he was the song of the drunkards; they made themselves and their companions merry with him. See the bad consequences of the sin of drunkenness; it makes men despisers of those that are good, 2 Tim. iii. 3. When the king was made sick with bottles of wine he stretched out his hand with scorners, Hos. vii. 5. The bench of the drunkards is the seat of the scornful. See what is commonly the lot of the best of men: those that are the praise of the wise are the song of fools. But it is easy to those that rightly judge of things to despise being thus despised.

II. His confessions of sin are very serious (v. 5): "O God! thou knowest my foolishness, what is and what is not; my sins that I am guilty of are not hidden from thee, and therefore thou knowest how innocent I am of those crimes which they charge upon me." Note, Even when, as to men's unjust accusations, we plead Not guilty, yet, before God, we must acknowledge ourselves to have deserved all that is brought upon us, and much worse. This is the genuine confession of a penitent, who knows that he cannot prosper in covering his sin, and that therefore it is his wisdom to acknowledge it, because it is naked and open before God. 1. He knows the corruption of our nature: Thou knowest the foolishness that is bound up in my heart. All our sins take rise from our foolishness. 2. He knows the transgressions of our lives; they are not hidden from him, no, not our heart-sins, no, not those that are committed most secretly. They are all done in his sight, and are never cast behind his back till they are repented of and pardoned. This may aptly be applied to Christ, for he knew no sin, yet he was made sin for us; and God knew it, nor was it hidden from him, when it pleased the Lord to bruise him and put him to grief.

III. His supplications are very earnest. 1. For himself (v. 1): "Save me, O God! save me from sinking, from despairing." Thus Christ was heard in that he feared, for he was saved from letting fall his undertaking, Heb. v. 7. 2. For his friends (v. 6): Let not those that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts! and that seek thee, O God of Israel! (under these two characters we ought to seek God, and in seeking him to wait on him, as the God of hosts, who has all power to help, and as the God of Israel in covenant with his people, whom therefore he is engaged in honour and truth to help) be ashamed and confounded for my sake. This intimates his fear that if God did not appear for him it would be a discouragement to all other good people and would give their enemies occasion to triumph over them, and his earnest desire that whatever became of him all that seek God, and wait upon him, might be kept in heart and kept in countenance, and might neither be discouraged in themselves nor exposed to contempt from others. If Jesus Christ had not been owned and accepted of his Father in his sufferings, all that seek God, and wait for him, would have been ashamed and confounded; but they have confidence towards God, and in his name come boldly to the throne of grace.

IV. His plea is very powerful, v. 7, 9. Reproach was one of the greatest of his burdens: "Lord, roll away the reproach, and plead my cause, for, 1. It is for thee that I am reproached, for serving thee and trusting in thee: For thy sake I have borne reproach." Those that are evil spoken of for well-doing may with a humble confidence leave it to God to bring forth their righteousness as the light. 2. "It is with thee that I am reproached: The zeal of thy house has eaten me up, that is, has made me forget myself, and do that which they wickedly turn to my reproach. Those that hate thee and thy house for that reason hate me, because they know how zealously affected I am to it. It is this that has made them ready to eat me up and has eaten up all the love and respect I had among them." Those that blasphemed God, and spoke ill of his word and ways, did therefore reproach David for believing in his word and walking in his ways. Or it may be construed as an instance of David's zeal for God's house, that he resented all the indignities done to God's name as if they had been done to his own name. He laid to heart all the dishonour done to God and the contempt cast upon religion; these he laid nearer to his heart than any outward troubles of his own. And therefore he had reason to hope God would interest himself in the reproaches cast upon him, because he had always interested himself in the reproaches cast upon God. Both the parts of this verse are applied to Christ. (1.) It was an instance of his love to his Father that the zeal of his house did even eat him up when he whipped the buyers and sellers out of the temple, which reminded his disciples of this text, John ii. 17. (2.) It was an instance of his self-denial, and that he pleased not himself, that the reproaches of those that reproached God fell upon him (Rom. xv. 3), and therein he set us an example.

Complaints and Petitions.

13 But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord , in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation. 14 Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. 15 Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. 16 Hear me, O Lord ; for thy lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies. 17 And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily. 18 Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies. 19 Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee. 20 Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. 21 They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

David had been speaking before of the spiteful reproaches which his enemies cast upon him; here he adds, But, as for me, my prayer is unto thee. They spoke ill of him for his fasting and praying, and for that he was made the song of the drunkards; but, notwithstanding that, he resolves to continue praying. Note, Though we may be jeered for well-doing, we must never be jeered out of it. Those can bear but little for God, and their confessing his name before men, that cannot bear a scoff and a hard word rather than quit their duty. David's enemies were very abusive to him, but this was his comfort, that he had a God to go to, with whom he would lodge his cause. "They think to carry their cause by insolence and calumny; but I use other methods. Whatever they do, As for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord!" And it was in an acceptable time, not the less acceptable for being a time of affliction. God will not drive us from him, though it is need that drives us to him; nay, it is the more acceptable, because the misery and distress of God's people make them so much the more the objects of his pity: it is seasonable for him to help them when all other helps fail, and they are undone, and feel that they are undone, if he do not help them. We find this expression used concerning Christ. Isa. xlix. 8, In an acceptable time have I heard thee. Now observe,

I. What his requests are. 1. That he might have a gracious audience given to his complaints, the cry of his affliction, and the desire of his heart. Hear me (v. 13), and again, Hear me, O Lord! (v. 16), Hear me speedily (v. 17), not only hear what I say, but grant what I ask. Christ knew that the Father heard him always, John xi. 42. 2. That he might be rescued out of his troubles, might be saved from sinking under the load of grief (Deliver me out of the mire; let me not stick in it, so some, but help me out, and set my feet on a rock, Ps. xl. 2), might be saved from his enemies, that they might not swallow him up, nor have their will against him: "Let me be delivered from those that hate me, as a lamb from the paw of a lion, v. 14. Though I have come into deep waters (v. 2), where I am ready to conclude that the floods will overflow me, yet let my fears be prevented and silenced; let not the waterflood, though it flow upon me, overflow me, v. 15. Let me not fall into the gulf of despair; let not that deep swallow me up; let not that pit shut her mouth upon me, for then I am undone." He gave himself up for lost in the beginning of the psalm; yet now he has his head above water, and is not so weary of crying as he thought himself. 3. That God would turn to him (v. 16), that he would smile upon him, and not hide his face from him, v. 17. The tokens of God's favour to us, and the light of his countenance shining upon us, are enough to keep our spirits from sinking in the deepest mire of outward troubles, nor need we desire any more to make us safe and easy, v. 18. "Draw nigh to my soul, to manifest thyself to it, and that shall redeem it."

II. What his pleas are to enforce these petitions. 1. He pleads God's mercy and truth (v. 13): In the multitude of thy mercy hear me. There is mercy in God, a multitude of mercies, all kinds of mercy, inexhaustible mercy, mercy enough for all, enough for each; and hence we must take our encouragement in praying. The truth also of his salvation (the truth of all those promises of salvation which he has made to those that trust in him) is a further encouragement. He repeats his argument taken from the mercy of God: "Hear me, for thy lovingkindness is good. It is so in itself; it is rich and plentiful and abundant. It is so in the account of all the saints; it is very precious to them, it is their life, their joy, their all. O let me have the benefit of it! Turn to me, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies," v. 16. See how highly he speaks of the goodness of God: in him there are mercies, tender mercies, and a multitude of them. If we think well of God, and continue to do so under the greatest hardships, we need not fear but God will do well for us; for he takes pleasure in those that hope in his mercy, Ps. cxlvii. 11. 2. He pleads his own distress and affliction: "Hide not thy face from me, for I am in trouble (v. 17), and therefore need thy favour; therefore it will come seasonably, and therefore I shall know how to value it." He pleads particularly the reproach he was under and the indignities that were done him (v. 19): Thou hast known my reproach, my shame, and my dishonour. See what a stress is laid upon this; for, in the sufferings of Christ for us, perhaps nothing contributed more to the satisfaction he made for sin, which had been so injurious to God in his honour, than the reproach, and shame, and dishonour he underwent, which God took notice of, and accepted as more than an equivalent for the everlasting shame and contempt which our sins had deserved, and therefore we must by repentance take shame to ourselves and bear the reproach of our youth. And if at any time we be called out to suffer reproach, and shame, and dishonour, for his sake, this may be our comfort, that he knows it, and, as he is before-hand with us, so he will not be behind-hand with us. The Psalmist speaks the language of an ingenuous nature when he says (v. 20): Reproach has broken my heart; I am full of heaviness; for it bears hard upon one that knows the worth of a good name to be put under a bad character; but when we consider what an honour it is to be dishonoured for God, and what a favour to be counted worthy to suffer shame for his name (as they deemed it, Acts v. 41), we shall see there is no reason at all why it should sit so heavily or be any heart-breaking to us. 3. He pleads the insolence and cruelty of his enemies (v. 18): Deliver me because of my enemies, because they were such as he had before described them, v. 4. "My adversaries are all before thee (v. 19); thou knowest what sort of men they are, what danger I am in from them, what enemies they are to thee, and how much thou art reflected upon in what they do and design against me." One instance of their barbarity is given (v. 21): They gave me gall for my meat (the word signifies a bitter herb, and is often joined with wormwood) and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. This was literally fulfilled in Christ, and did so directly point to him that he would not say It is finished till this was fulfilled; and, in order that his enemies might have occasion to fulfil it, he said, I thirst, John xix. 28, 29. Some think that the hyssop which they put to his mouth with the vinegar was the bitter herb which they gave him with the vinegar for his meat. See how particularly the sufferings of Christ were foretold, which proves the scripture to be the word of God, and how exactly the predictions were fulfilled in Jesus Christ, which proves him to be the true Messiah. This is he that should come, and we are to look for no other. 4. He pleads the unkindness of his friends and his disappointment in them (v. 20): I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; they all failed him like the brooks in summer. This was fulfilled in Christ, for in his sufferings all his disciples forsook him and fled. We cannot expect too little from men (miserable comforters are they all); nor can we expect too much from God, for he is the Father of mercy and the God of all comfort and consolation.

Pleading with God; Prophetic Imprecations.

22 Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap. 23 Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake. 24 Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them. 25 Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents. 26 For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. 27 Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness. 28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous. 29 But I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.

These imprecations are not David's prayers against his enemies, but prophecies of the destruction of Christ's persecutors, especially the Jewish nation, which our Lord himself foretold with tears, and which was accomplished about forty years after the death of Christ. The first two verses of this paragraph are expressly applied to the judgments of God upon the unbelieving Jews by the apostle (Rom. xi. 9, 10), and therefore the whole must look that way. The rejection of the Jews for rejecting Christ, as it was a signal instance of God's justice and an earnest of the vengeance which God will at last take on all that are obstinate in their infidelity, so it was, and continues to be, a convincing proof of the truth of the Christian religion. One great objection against it, at first, was, that it set aside the ceremonial law; but its doing so was effectually justified, and that objection removed, when God so remarkably set it aside by the utter destruction of the temple, and the sinking of those, with the Mosaic economy, that obstinately adhered to it in opposition to the gospel of Christ. Let us observe here,

I. What the judgments are which should come upon the crucifiers of Christ; not upon all of them, for there were those who had a hand in his death and yet repented and found mercy (Acts ii. 23; iii. 14, 15), but upon those of them and their successors who justified it by an obstinate infidelity and rejection of his gospel, and by an inveterate enmity to his disciples and followers. See 1 Thess. ii. 15, 16. It is here foretold,

1. That their sacrifices and offerings should be a mischief and prejudice to them (v. 22): Let their table become a snare. This may be understood of the altar of the Lord, which is called his table and theirs because in feasting upon the sacrifices they were partakers of the altar. This should have been for their welfare or peace (for they were peace-offerings), but it became a snare and a trap to them; for by their affection and adherence to the altar they were held fast in their infidelity and hardened in their prejudices against Christ, that altar which those had no right to eat of who continued to serve the tabernacle, Heb. xiii. 10. Or it may be understood of their common creature-comforts, even their necessary food; they had given Christ gall and vinegar, and therefore justly shall their meat and drink be made gall and vinegar to them. When the supports of life and delights of sense, through the corruption of our nature, become an occasion of sin to us, and are made the food and fuel of our sensuality, then our table is a snare, which is a good reason why we should never feed ourselves without fear, Jude 12.

2. That they should never have the comfort either of that knowledge or of that peace which believers are blessed with in the gospel of Christ (v. 23), that they should be given up, (1.) To a judicial blindness: Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not the glory of God in the face of Christ. Their sin was that they would not see, but shut their eyes against the light, loving darkness rather; their punishment was that they should not see, but be given up to their own hearts' lusts, which were hardening, and the god of this world should be permitted to blind their minds, 2 Cor. iv. 4. This was foretold concerning them (Isa. vi. 10), and Christ ratified it, Matt. xiii. 14, 15; John xii. 40. (2.) To a judicial terror. There is a gracious terror, which opens the way to comfort, such as that of Paul (Acts ix. 6); he trembled and was astonished. But this is a terror that shall never end in peace, but shall make their loins continually to shake, through horror of conscience, as Belshazzar, when the joints of his loins were loosed. "Let them be driven to despair, and filled with constant confusion." This was fulfilled in the desperate counsels of the Jews when the Romans came upon them.

3. That they should fall and lie under God's anger and fiery indignation (v. 24): Pour out thy indignation upon them. Note, Those who reject God's great salvation proffered to them may justly fear that his indignation will be poured out upon them; for those that submit not to the Son of his love will certainly be made the generation of his wrath. It is the doom passed on those who believe not in Christ that the wrath of God abideth on them (John iii. 36); it takes hold of them, and will never let them go. Salvation itself will not save those that are not willing to be ruled by it. Behold the goodness and severity of God!

4. That their place and nation should be utterly taken away, the very thing they were afraid of, and to prevent which, as they pretended, they persecuted Christ (John xi. 48): Let their habitation be desolate (v. 25), which was fulfilled when their country was laid waste by the Romans, and Zion, for their sakes, was ploughed as a field, Mic. iii. 12. The temple was the house which they were in a particular manner proud of, but this was left unto them desolate, Matt. xxiii. 38. Yet that is not all; it ought to be some satisfaction to us, if we be cut off from the enjoyment of our possessions, that others will have the benefit of them when we are dislodged: but it is here added, Let none dwell in their tents, which was remarkably fulfilled in Judah and Jerusalem, for after the destruction of the Jews it was long ere the country was inhabited to any purpose. But this is applied particularly to Judas, by St. Peter, Acts i. 20. For, he being felo de se—a suicide, we may suppose his estate was confiscated, so that his habitation was desolate and no man of his own kindred dwelt therein.

5. That their way to ruin should be downhill, and nothing should stop them, nor interpose to prevent it (v. 27): "Lord, leave them to themselves, to add iniquity to iniquity." Those that are bad, if they be given up to their own hearts' lusts, will certainly be worse; they will add sin to sin, nay, they will add rebellion to their sin, Job xxxiv. 37. It is said of the Jews that they filled up their sin always, 1 Thess. ii. 16. Add the punishment of iniquity to their iniquity (so some read it), for the same word signifies both sin and punishment, so close is their connexion. If men will sin, God will reckon for it. But those that have multiplied to sin may yet find mercy, for God multiplies to pardon, through the righteousness of the Mediator; and therefore, that they might be precluded from all hopes of mercy, he adds, Let them not come into thy righteousness, to receive the benefit of the righteousness of God, which is by faith in a Mediator, Phil. iii. 9. Not that God shuts out any from that righteousness, for the gospel excludes none that do not by their unbelief exclude themselves; but let them be left to take their own course and they will never come into this government; for being ignorant of the demands of God's righteousness, and going about to establish the merit of their own, they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God, Rom. x. 3. And those that are so proud and self-willed that they will not come into God's righteousness shall have their doom accordingly; they themselves have decided it: they shall not come into his righteousness. Let not those expect any benefit by it that are not willing and glad to be beholden to it.

6. That they should be cut off from all hopes of happiness (v. 28): Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; let them not be suffered to live any longer, since, the longer they live, the more mischief they do. Multitudes of the unbelieving Jews fell by sword and famine, and none of those who had embraced the Christian faith perished among them; the nation, as a nation, was blotted out, and became not a people. Many understand it of their rejection from God's covenant and all the privileges of it; that is the book of the living: "Let the commonwealth of Israel itself, Israel according to the flesh, now become alienated from that covenant of promise which hitherto it has had the monopoly of. Let it appear that they were never written in the Lamb's book of life, but reprobate silver let men call them, because the Lord has rejected them. Let them not be written with the righteous; that is, let them not have a place in the congregation of the saints when they shall all be gathered in the general assembly of those whose names are written in heaven," Ps. i. 5.

II. What the sin is for which these dreadful judgments should be brought upon them (v. 26): They persecute him whom thou hast smitten, and talk to the grief of thy wounded. 1. Christ was he whom God had smitten, for it pleased the Lord to bruise him, and he was esteemed stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted, and therefore men hid their faces from him, Isa. liii. 3, 4, 10. They persecuted him with a rage reaching up to heaven; they cried, Crucify him, crucify him. Compare that of St. Peter with this, Acts ii. 23. Though he was delivered by the counsel and foreknowledge of God, it was with wicked hands that they crucified and slew him. They talked to the grief of the Lord Jesus when he was upon the cross, saying, He trusted in God, let him deliver him, than which nothing could be said more grieving. 2. The suffering saints were God's wounded, wounded in his cause and for his sake, and them they persecuted, and talked to their grief. For these things wrath came upon them to the uttermost, 1 Thess. ii. 16; and see Matt. xxiii. 34, &c. This may be understood more generally, and it teaches us that nothing is more provoking to God than to insult over those whom he has smitten, and to add affliction to the afflicted, upon which it justly follows here, Add iniquity to iniquity; see Zech. i. 15. Those that are of a wounded spirit, under trouble and fear about their spiritual state, ought to be very tenderly dealt with, and care must be taken not to talk to their grief and not to make the heart of the righteous sad.

III. What the psalmist thinks of himself in the midst of all (v. 29): "But I am poor and sorrowful; that is the worst of my case, under outward afflictions, yet written among the righteous, and not under God's indignation as they are." It is better to be poor and sorrowful, with the blessing of God, than rich and jovial and under his curse. For those who come into God's righteousness shall soon see an end of their poverty and sorrow, and his salvation shall set them up on high, which is the thing that David here prays for, Isa. lxi. 10. This may be applied to Christ. He was, in his humiliation, poor and sorrowful, a man of sorrows, and that had not where to lay his head. But God highly exalted him; the salvation wrought for him, the salvation wrought by him, set him up on high, far above all principalities and powers.

Comfort for the Persecuted; Thanksgiving and Praise.

30 I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. 31 This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs. 32 The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God. 33 For the Lord heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners. 34 Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moveth therein. 35 For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession. 36 The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein.

The psalmist here, both as a type of Christ and as an example to Christians, concludes a psalm with holy joy and praise which he began with complaints and remonstrances of his griefs.

I. He resolves to praise God himself, not doubting but that therein he should be accepted of him (v. 30, 31): "I will praise the name of God, not only with my heart, but with my song, and magnify him with thanksgiving;" for he is pleased to reckon himself magnified by the thankful praises of his people. It is intimated that all Christians ought to glorify God with their praises, in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. And this shall please the Lord, through Christ the Mediator of our praises as well as of our prayers, better than the most valuable of the legal sacrifices (v. 31), an ox or bullock. This is a plain intimation that in the days of the Messiah an end should be put, not only to the sacrifices of atonement, but to those of praise and acknowledgment which were instituted by the ceremonial law; and, instead of them, spiritual sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving are accepted—the calves of our lips, not the calves of the stall, Heb. xiii. 15. It is a great comfort to us that humble and thankful praises are more pleasing to God than the most costly pompous sacrifices are or ever were.

II. He encourages other good people to rejoice in God and continue seeking him (v. 32, 33): The humble shall see this and be glad. They shall observe, to their comfort, 1. The experiences of the saints. They shall see how ready God is to hear the poor when they cry to him, and to give them that which they call upon him for, how far he is from despising his prisoners; though men despise them, he favours them with his gracious visits and will find a time to enlarge them. The humble shall see this and be glad, not only because when one member is honoured all the members rejoice with it, but because it is an encouragement to them in their straits and difficulties to trust in God. It shall revive the hearts of those who seek God to see more seals and subscriptions to this truth, that Jacob's God never said to Jacob's seed, Seek you me in vain. 2. The exaltation of the Saviour, for of him the psalmist had been speaking, and of himself as a type of him. When his sorrows are over, and he enters into the joy that was set before him, when he is heard and discharged from his imprisonment in the grave, the humble shall look upon it and be glad, and those that seek God through Christ shall live and be comforted, concluding that, if they suffer with him, they shall also reign with him.

III. He calls upon all the creatures to praise God, the heaven, and earth, and sea, and the inhabitants of each, v. 34. Heaven and earth, and the hosts of both, were made by him, and therefore let heaven and earth praise him. Angels in heaven, and saints on earth, may each of them in their respective habitations furnish themselves with matter enough for constant praise. Let the fishes of the sea, though mute to a proverb, praise the Lord, for the sea is his, and he made it. The praises of the world must be offered for God's favours to his church, v. 35, 36. For God will save Zion, the holy mountain, where his service was kept up. He will save all that are sanctified and set apart to him, all that employ themselves in his worship, and all those over whom Christ reigns; for he was King upon the holy hill of Zion. He has mercy in store for the cities of Judah, of which tribe Christ was. God will do great things for the gospel church, in which let all that wish well to it rejoice. For, 1. It shall be peopled and inhabited. There shall be added to it such as shall be saved. The cities of Judah shall be built, particular churches shall be formed and incorporated according to the gospel model, that there may be a remnant to dwell there and to have it in possession, to enjoy the privileges conferred upon it and to pay the tributes and services required from it. Those that love his name, that have a kindness for religion in general, shall embrace the Christian religion, and take their place in the Christian church; they shall dwell therein, as citizens, and of the household of God 2. It shall be perpetuated and inherited. Christianity was not to be res unius ætatis—a transitory thin. No: The seed of his servants shall inherit it. God will secure and raise up for himself a seed to serve him, and they shall inherit the privileges of their fathers; for the promise is to you and your children, as it was of old. I will be a God to thee, and thy seed after thee. The land of promise shall never be lost for want of heirs, for God can out of stones raise up children unto Abraham and will do so rather than the entail shall be cut off. David shall never want a man to stand before him. The Redeemer shall see his seed, and prolong his days in them, till the mystery of God shall be finished and the mystical body completed. And since the holy seed is the substance of the world, and if that were all gathered in the world would be at an end quickly, it is just that for this assurance of the preservation of it heaven and earth should praise him.

PSAL. LXIX.

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

SAve me, O God, for waters are entred even to the soule. I sinke downe in the mud of the gulfe, where no standing is; I am entred into the deeps of waters, and the streaming floud overfloweth me. I am weary with my crying; my throat is burnt, mine eyes faile, I attentively waiting for my God.

Many are, moe than the haires of my head, they that hate me without cause; mighty are they that would suppresse me, mine enemies falsly: that which I tooke not away, then I restored. O God, thou knowest my foolishnesse, and my guiltinesses are not concealed from thee. Let not them be abashed for me that hopefully expect thee, Lord Iehovih of hosts: let them not be ashamed for mee that seeke thee, O God of Israel. For, for thy sake doe I beare reproach, shame covereth my face. I am become a stranger to my brethren, and a forreiner to my mothers sonnes.

For the zeale of thine house hath eaten me up: and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me. And I wept, with fasting afflicted my soule, and it was for reproache[illegible: 1 letter] to me. And I made my rayment sacke cloth, and I was to them for a Proverbe.

They that sit in the gate spake against me, and they that drinke strong drinke made melodies. And I, my prayer is to thee, Iehovah, in time of acceptation; O God, in multitude of thy mercy answer thou me, in the truth of thy salvation. Deliver me out of the mire, and let mee not sinke downe: let mee bee delivered from my haters, and out of the deeps of waters. Let not the streaming floud of waters o[illegible: 1 letter]erflow me, neither let the gulfe swallow me, neither let the pit shut her mouth upon me. Answer mee, Iehovah, for thy kinde mercy is good; according to the multitude of thy tender mercies turne the face unto me. And hide not thy face from thy servant, for distresse is on me; make haste, answer me. Draw neere to my soule▪ redeeme it; because of mine enemies, ransome thou me.

Thou hast knowne my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour; before thee are all my distressers. Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heavinesse; and I looked for some to mone me, but none came; and for comforters, but I found none. But they gave me gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vineger to drinke. Let their table be before them for a s[illegible: 1 letter]are, and for recompences for a trap-fall. Let their eyes be darkened that they see not, and make their loines to shake continually. Powre out upon them thy detesting ire, and let the burning wrath of thine anger take them. Let their Castle be desolate; within their tents let there not be a dweller. For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten, and they tell of the sorrow of thy wounded ones. Give thou iniquity unto their iniquity, and let them not come into thy justice. Let them bee wiped out of the Booke of the living, and let them not be written with the just. And I, poore afflicted and sorrowing; let thy salvation, O God, lift me up. I will praise the Name of God with a song, and magnifie him with confession. And it shall be better to Iehovah, than a young Bull that hath hornes, that parteth the hoofe. The meeke shall see it, they shall reioyce; the seekers of God, and your heart shall live. For Iehovah heareth the needy, and despiseth not his prisoners. Praise him let heavens and earth, seas, and all that creepeth in them. For God will save Sion, and build the Cities of Iudah; and they shall dwell there, and have it for inheritance.

And the seed of his servants shall possesse it: and they that love his name, shall dwell therein.

Annotations. SHoshannim] that is, six-stringed instruments, or, Lilies: see Psal. 45. 1. Vers. 2. Save me, &c.] David in his troubles, being a figure of Christ, prayeth for deliverance from tentations and persecutions, under the similitude of waters, mud, myre, pit, deeps, streames, &c. and that this Psalme had accomplishment in Christ, the Evangelists shew, Mat. 27. 48. Ioh. 19. 29. that the use hereof is for us, the Apostle sheweth, Rom. 15. 3, 4. that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. waters] The Chaldee expoundeth these, armies of sinners, which beset him like waters. the soule] to wit, of me, as the Greeke explaineth it, that is, are ready to drowne and choke me: so Ion. 2. 5. see also Psal. 45. 4. Vers. 3. mud of the gulfe] or, of the deepe, that is, the deepe or gulfie mud in the bottomes of the sea, as Psal. 68. 23. Ion. 2. 4. another signe of great calamitie, as also in Psal. 88. 7. wherefore Babylon that held captive Gods people, is called a Gulfe, or Deepe, Isa. 44. 27. no standing] no stay or ground, but I sinke more and more. deepes of waters] in Greeke, deepes of the see. Vers. 4. is burnt] that is, parched, dried, or (as the Greeke explaineth it) hoarse. eyes faile] or, are consumed, to wit, with teares and earnest expectation, as Lam. 2. 11. and 4. 17. This was a curse of the Law, Lev. 26. 16. Deu. 28. 65. but Christ became a curse for us, Gal. 3. 13. So after, Psa. 119. 82. Vers. 5. falsly] in Greek, uniustly. rocke not away] or, which I robbed not, tooke not by force a[illegible: 2 letters] rapine. This though it may be taken for all [illegible: 1 letter]r just criminations, whereof David and Christ were innocent, yet in speciall it was verified in Christ, who being in the forme of God thought it no robbery to be equall with God, Phil. 2. 6. notwithstanding for witnessing himselfe to be the Sonne of God, hee was put to death by the Iewes, Ioh. 19. 7. Vers. 6. my foolishnesse] that is, my sinne: see the note on Psal. 38. 6. In David were sinnes properly; in Chrst, by imputation: for God made him sinne for us, which knew no sinne, 2 Cor. 5. 21. Or this may be meant of false imputation, O God thou knowest my foolishnesse, if any such be, as my [illegible: 1 letter]oes charge me with: So Psal. 7. 4, 5. Vers. 7. abashed for me] for my sake, to wit, If I be not delivered. So of Christ, his Disciples hoped that he should be the Saviour of Israel; but when he was killed, they began to doubt and feare, Satan winnowing their faith to make them ashamed; but Christ prayed for their confirmation, Luk. 24. 20, 21. and 22. 31, 32. So great are Christs afflictions, that blessed is he that is not offended in him, Mat. 11. 6. Iehovih] or, God, it hath the vowels of Aelohim: see Psal. 68. 21. Vers. 8. beare reproach] that is, are reproached: contrary hereunto is, to beare grace and favour, that is, to be favoured and well liked, Esth. 2. 15, 17. Compare herewith Psal. 44. 23. 16. Vers. 9. forreinour] to wit, in their estimation and carriage towards me. This also was the case of Iob and others, Iob 19. 13. Gen. 31. 15. & of Christ the Iewes said, they knew not whence he was, Ioh. 9. 29. and his brethren beleeved not in him, Ioh. 7. 5. Vers. 10. zeale of thine house] or jealousie, indignation for the polluting of thine house, and studious fervent care to have it conserved holy. See this performed by Christ, when he whipped buyers and sellers out of the temple, Ioh. 2. 15, 16, 17. eaten me up] devoured, or consumed. For love and jealousie are a fire and vehement flame, Song. 8. 6. See also Psal. 119. 139. are fallen on me] that is, I have taken them on me, and willingly beare them, as the Apostle gathereth from these words, that Christ pleased not himselfe, (that is, sought not his owne pleasure or profit) but for his Fathers sake & his brethrens did beare all things: and this is an example for us to do the like: See Rom. 15. 1, 2, 3, 4. Vers. 11. afflicted my soule] the word afflicted is here supplied from Psal. 35. 13. for often there is want of a word to be understood, which the Hebrew text sometime sheweth; as 2 Chron. 10. 11, 14. I, with Scorpions, for which in 1 King. 12. 11, 14. is written, I will chastise you with Scorpions: see the notes on Psal. 18. 7, 29. and 27. it was for] or, it was turned to reproaches, that is, to much reproach and opprobrie. So Iohns fasting turned to his reproach; they said, he had a Devill, Luk. 7. 33. Vers. 12. And I made] or, when I gave, that is, made, or put on. So giving is for putting, Psal. 8. 2. Vers. 13. that sit in the gate] that is, great men in the publike assemblies. The rulers of the Iewes, Deut. 25. 7. Ruth 4. 1, 2, &c. spake] or talked and meditated, communed how to worke me evill, Luk. 22. 2, 4. strong drinke] Heb. S[illegible: 1 letter]eker, which is all manner strong drinke which will make drunken, as ale, beere, wine, sider, methaglin, &c. The Greeke here turneth it wine. melodies] or songs sung with instruments of musicke of me. So Iob also complaineth, Iob 30. 9. Vers. 14. And I] that is, And (or but) as for me. time of acceptation] that is, an acceptable time, as the Apostle interpreteth this phrase, 2 Cor. 6. 2. from Esay 49. 8. in truth of thy salvation] that is, for thy saving truths sake, or faithfull salvation. Vers. 15. mire] the Chaldee expoundeth it, captivity, which is like unto mire. Vers. 16. shut her mouth] so that I cannot get out of miserie; as Dathan, Abiram, &c. went downe alive into the pit, and the earth covered over them, that no hope was left of their returne, Numb. 16. 33. But Christ in all troubles had comfort, even in the grave his flesh rested in hope, Psal. 16. 9, 10. The Chaldee expoundeth this verse thus, Let not the strong king, which is li[illegible: 1 letter]e to a floud of waters, captivate me, neither let the mighty prince swallow me, &c. Vers. 17. turne the face] or, respect, regard mee with favour: See, Psal. [illegible: 1 letter]5. 16. Vers. 20. dishonour] or ignominie, slander, calumnie: See Psal. 4. 3. Vers. 21. full of heavinesse] or, sicke, sorrowfull; of this word in Hebrew man hath his name Aenosh: see Psal. 8. 5. to mone] to pitty, and solaoe me, or, to shew compassion: So Iob 42. 11. found none] in Christs greatest need, all his Disciples forsooke him and fled; Mat. 26. 56. and all his acquaintance stood a farre off, Luk. 23. 49. Vers. 22 gall] in Hebrew Rosh, an Herbe bitter as wormewood, with which it is often joined, Deut. 29. 18. Am. 6. 12. Lam. 3. 19. It groweth in Corne fields, Hos. 10. 4. the water or juice hereof signifieth bitter affliction, Ier. 9. 15. These things were also actually done to Christ, whom the Iewes refreshed with gall and vinegar, Mat. 27. 34. Ioh. 19. 28, 29, 30. Vers. 23. and for recompences] that is, and for a full recompence of that which they did to me (let their table be) a trap unto them. Or, and for peaces, that is, and the things which they expect peace and welfare by, let become a trap unto them. But the first sense agreeth with the Apostles interpretation, Rom. 1[illegible: 1 letter]. 9. These are Davids imprecations against the Iewes, and prophesies of their rejection, as the Apostle sheweth; and by their table we are to understand all meanes of comfort and refreshing both of body and soule, which turne to the ruine of the wicked, even an odour of death unto death, 2 Cor. 2. 15, 16. Vers. 24. that they see not] so the Apostle explaineth the Hebrew phrase, from seeing Rom. 11. 10. The like is in Esa. 44. 28. And hereby is meant the eyes of their understanding, that seeing they see and perceive not, because a veile is over their hearts, Ioh. 12. 39, 40. Act. 28. 26, 27. 2 Cor. 3. 14, 15. make their loines to sha[illegible: 1 letter]e] bow downe their backs, saith the Apostle, Rom. 11. 10. and this meaneth bondage and miserie, as appeareth by the contrary blessing of going upright, which God once vouched safe unto that people, Lev. 26. 13. Vers. 26. their castle] or their tower, palace, habitation, faire and orderly builded, Gen. 2[illegible: 1 letter]. 16. Numb. 31. 10. Song 8. 9. This which David speaketh of all Christs enemies, Peter applieth to Iudas that betraied him, Let his habitation be desart, Act. 1. 20. but Christ threatneth the like to them all, Mat. 23. 38. Castle here is for Castles or Palaces, as Chariot for Chariots, Psal. 68. 18. Vers. 27. whom thou hast smitten] Christ the shepherd, who was smitten of God, and wounded for our sinnes, Esa. 53. 4, 5. Mat. 26. 31. they tell of the sorrow, that is, tell one another vauntingly, of the sorrow (smart or paine) of thy wounded, thy servants who are wounded for thy sake; or, they preach hereof: see the like phrase, Psal. 2. 7. or, they tell to the sorrow, that is, adde unto and increase it, as the Greeke turneth it. Vers. 28. Give thou iniquity, &c.] that is, Adde sinne unto their sinne, give them over to a reprobate minde, which was Gods heavie judgement first on the Gentiles, Rom. 1. 24, 28. afterward on the Iewes, who fulfilled their sins when wrath came on them to the utmost, 1 Thes. 2. 16. Rom. 11. 8. Mat. 23. 32. Or by iniquitie, may be understood punishment for it, as Psal. 31. 11. not come into thy justice] that is, not beleeve thy Gospell, and so come to the justice of God, which is by faith; as the Scriptures shew, Rom. 10. 3, &c. Phil. 3. 9. Ioh. 12. 39, 40. The Chaldee expounds it, let them not enter into the Church of thy just ones. Vers. 29. booke of the living] or, Booke of life, wherein the just that live by saith are written, that is, let them be cut off from being any longer counted thy people, or registred in the writing of the house of Israel, as Ezek. 13. 9. Rom. 11. 20. Phil. 3. 2, 3. Psal. 87. 6. Vers. 30. lift me up] or, set me on a high place, that is, safely defend me. Vers. 32. better to] that is, more pleasing and acceptable. a young bull] so the Greeke explaineth the Hebrew phrase, a bull a bullocke, that is, a bull which is but young, or a bullock. So Iudg. 6. 25. where the order is changed, take the bullock of the bull, that is, the young bull or bullock. Some understand it here of two, better than bull or bullock. that hath hornes] Hebr. horneth, that is, brings forth or beareth hornes, and parteth the hoofe▪ for such were fittest for sacrifice; but confession and thankes are more pleasing to God, specially Christs obedience: see Psal. 50. 13, 14, 15. and 40. 7. Vers. 33. the seekers] or, ye seekers of God, to wit, shall see it, and your heart shall live; yee shall have inward life, joy and consolation: See Psalme 22. 27. Vers. 34. his prisoners] such as are persecuted and bound in prisons for his truth: Thus Paul calleth himselfe the prisoner of Christ, Ephes. 3. 1. Vers. 35. heavens] the Chaldee saith, Angels of Heaven, and the inhabitants of the earth. Vers. 36. save Sion] that is, his Church, figured out by Sion and Iudah: see Psal. 2. 6. and this building of Iudahs cities is by preaching of the Gospell, 1 Cor. 3. 9, 10. a figure of this worke was done by Iehoshaphat, 2 Chron. 17. 9. 12, 13. and Isaiah prophesieth the like, Isa. 44. 26.

PSAL. LXIX.

A Pſalm of David] Quando rebellabat Sheba, ſaith the Syriack, made upon occaſion of Sheba's rebellion preſently after Abſoloms. Hence he cries out as one almoſt over-whelmed,

Verſ. 1. Save mee O God] Thou who delighteſt to ſave ſuch as are forſaken of their hopes. The Fathers generally take this Pſalm to be prophetical touching the paſſions of Chriſt, and his praying then to the Father. David had his troubles which gave occaſion to the penning of this Pſalm, but thoſe were all but as a picture and prelude of Chriſts farre greater ſorrows. Spiritus autem ſanctus manifeſtè ſe prodit in hoc Pſalmo.

For the waters are come in unto my ſoul] Ever after Noahs flood (that diſmal deſtruction) great and grievous afflictions were ſet forth by the ruſhing in of waters, and overwhelming therewith. Gods wrath was poured upon Chriſt as a mighty torrent of waters, and therefore this expreſſion applied to him hath a ſpecial Emphaſis; his ſoul was heavy even to the death. Fluctus fluctum trudebat, One deep called upon another, &c. O the ſoul of ſufferings which his ſoul then ſuffered!

Verſ. 2. I ſink in deep mire] Heb. In the mire of depth, or gulf, as Babylon was afterwards called, Iſa. 44.27. Here he ſtuck, and under water, and ſo muſt periſh, if he had not preſent help.

Verſ. 3. I am weary of my crying] As a drowning man, whiles he can be heard, cryeth for help.

My throat is dryed] Or, parched, raucitate laborant fanc[illegible: 2 letters].

Mine eyes fail] With much weeping, and long looking. This is a peece of the curſe, Levit. 26.16. Chriſt became a curſe for us, Gal. 3.13.

Verſ. 4. They that hate mee without a cauſe, &c.] Chriſt, beſides his inward fears and griefs cauſed by the ſenſe of his Fathers wrath for our ſins, was ſet againſt and aſſaulted both by men and Devils (in that three hours darkneſs eſpecially) with utmoſt might and malice.

Then I reſtered that which I took not away] Quod non rap[illegible: 1 letter]i reddebam. D[illegible: 4 letters] was dealt with as a felon or falſe-dealer. Chriſt alſo was crucified for ſaying that he was the Son of God, Job. 19.7. though he held it no robbery to be equall with God, Phil. 2.6. The Martyrs likewiſe were loaden with many [illegible: 1 word] and falſe criminations, that they might ſeem to ſuffer not as Martyrs, but as Malefactours.

Verſ. 5. O God, thou knoweſt my fooliſhneſe] [illegible: 1 span]. Thou knoweſt mine innocency, and how true I am of [illegible: 1 word] f[illegible: 2 letters] ly and thoſe foul faults, wherewith they falſely [illegible: 1 word]

Verſ. 6. Let not them be aſhamed for my ſake] Give mee not up to paſſions of diſhonour, to opprobrious practices, whereby religion might be reproached, or good people reviled and abuſed, much leſſe ſtaggered, and ſet at a ſtand by my ſufferings.

Verſ. 7. Becauſe for thy ſake I have born repreach] Whatever mine enemies pretend, they ſtrike at thee Lord, through my ſides; and for thy ſake alone it is that I am ſo beſpattled, that I am even aſhamed to look any one in the face. The moſt innocent may, upon the fulneſſe of an aſperſion, be put out of countenance.

Verſ. 8. I am become a ſtranger to my Brethren] No otherwiſe than as if I were a Ma[illegible: 1 letter]zer (ſo the Hebrews call a Baſtard) that is, a ſtrange blet to the family. Chriſt came to his own, but they received him not; yea his own brethren beleeved not on him, Job. 7. This, when the Turks read in our Goſpel, they wonder, and the Jews therefore ſlander his miracles, for not ſo manifeſt as we conceive.

Verſ. 9. For the zeal of thine houſe hath eaten mee up] Non amat qui non zelat. Davids love to God (much leſſe the Lord Chriſts) would not ſuffer him to bear with Gods diſhonour, and the contempt of his ordinances. And this was it that procured him ſo much ill will, and ſuch a generall alienation from neareſt friends and allyes.

And the reproaches of them that reproached thee] Wicked men eftſoons ſet their mouths againſt Heaven, and fall ſoul upon God himſelf. This, David (and the ſon of David) could not endure, nec aliter amare didicit, as Baſit once anſwered thoſe that blamed him for appearing ſo farre for his friend,Chryſoft. lib[illegible: 1 letter] 2. d] ſacerdot[illegible: 1 letter] to his own great danger.

Verſ. 10. When I went and chaſtened my ſoul with faſting] That I might thereby beat down my body, and tame that rebel fleſh of mine,

That was to my reproach] They ſaid I did it in hypocriſie, and deſign. So they dealt by the Baptiſt that crucifix of mortification, Luk. 7.33.

Verſ. 11. I made ſack-cloath alſo my garment] A faſhion at ſolemn faſts among the Eaſterlings; as if they thought the courſeſt cloathing too good for them; and but for ſhame would have gone ſtark naked.

I became a proverb to them] Dicterium, They would ſay with mocking Michal, How glorious was the King of Iſrael to day, as one of the vain fellows! 2 Sam. 6.20.

Verſ. 12. They that ſit in the gate] Men of Authority and Dignity, who ſhould have ſhewed more grace and gravity. The Saints are ſure of enemies of all ſorts. David was traduced at publick and private meetings: ſeriis, & ludicris, ſobriis, & ebriis.

And I was the Song of the Drunkards] Heb. Of the drinkers of ſtrong drink the Ale-ſtakes made Ballads on their Ale-bench, de maeie mea & miſeria. Theſe Varlets tear and toſs my Name, as Curs do Carrion.

Verſ. 13. But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord] So Saint Paul, Being defamed, ſaith he, we pray. Chriſt in like caſe committed himſelf to God in well-doing, 1 Pet. 2.

In an acceptable time] Or, there will be an acceptable time.

F[illegible: 1 letter]ebile principiums melior fortuna ſequeter.

Verſ. 14. Deliver me out of the mixe] i. e. De civitate Gehennae, ſaith the Hebrew Scholiaſt, out of that deadly danger whereof he had complained,Val. Max. Chriſt. 41. verſ. 2. Alphonſus King of Arcag[illegible: 3 letters] by a gracious condeſcenſion helped a laden Aſſe out of the mire with his own hand, and is renowned for it in Hiſtory. God helpeth his out full oft, and little notice is taken of it.

Verſ. 15. Let not the water-floud over-flow me] See verſ. 1.

[illegible: 1 span]] Leave me not helpleſs, and hopeleſs.

Vi[illegible: 1 letter]ere [illegible: 1 word] facias qui moriturus eram.

Verſ. 16. Hear me, O Lord, for thy loving kindneſs is good] It is not like the [illegible: 1 span] that lighteth, but hearteth not it is like the Summer-Sun, that doth both.

Verſ. 17. And [illegible: 1 letter]ids not thy face from thy Servant] Who am devoted to thy fear, and do therefore implore and expect thy favour.

For I am in trouble] And ſo, a fit object of thy pity.

Verſ. 18. Draw nigh unto my ſoul] Who ſeemeſt to be afarre off: ſo the fleſh ſuggeſteth when help is any whit deferred.

Becauſe of mine enemies] Who elſe will exceſſively inſult.

Verſ. 19. Thou haſt known my reproach] That is enough for David, that God taketh Cognizance of the injuries and indignities caſt upon him: for he will ſurely right him.

Verſ. 20. Reproach hath broken mine heart, &c.] He knew his own innocency, and yet it much grieved him to be ſo defamed; for he knew that a good man ſhould be as much as might be not only without fault, but without ſuſpicion of a fault; as Auguſt us Caeſar was wont to ſay of his houſe. Howſoever it is happy that a true Chriſtian hath always his cordial by him, 2 Cor. 1.12. Our rejoycing is this, the teſtimony of our conſcience, &c.

And I looked for ſome to take pity] Heb. To lament with me, or to ſhake the head over me, as Mourners uſe to do, to run to my comfort, and to condole with me. Davids friends failed him in this office alſo. But that was not all,

Verſ. 21. They gave me alſo gall for my meat] Venenum vel ſicutam; and ſo ſhewed themſelves miſerable comforters.

And in my thirſt they gave me vineger to drink] This befel David in Figure, but Chriſt in the Letter, Mat. 27.34. It were happy if the Vineger given him, might melt our adamantine hearts into godly ſorrow.

Verſ. 22. Let their table become a ſnare before them] Let them care their bane, and drink their poyſon; whiles all their cates are ſauced with the Wrath of God; Quoniam hoc mod[illegible: 1 letter] cibarunt me, ſaith Kimchi, becauſe they have ſerved me on this ſort. By table, ſaith another Interpreter, we are to underſtand all means of comfort and refreſhing, both of body and ſoul, which turn to the ruine of the wicked, even an odour of death unto death, 2 Cor. 2.15, 16.

And that which ſhould have been, &c.] Tremellius rendreth it, Pro retributionibu[illegible: 2 letters] pro tendicula ipſis, for recompenſes, for a trap to them, Rom. 11.9. Others, Pacifica in rete! Others again, Et ubi pacem ſperant, illic impingunt, Where they hope for peace, let them fall.

Verſ. 23. Let their eyes be darkned] Let them be infatuated, and beſotted, that they may go hoodwinkt to Hell.

And make their loyns continually to ſhake] Ne fugiant, ſaith R. Obadiah Gaon, that they may not be able to fly, or otherwiſe to help themſelves: for in the loyns and reins of a man lieth his ſtrength, Deut. 33.11. The Syriack hath it, Lumbi eorum ſint curvi, viz. under their enemies burdens. See Rom. 11.10. bow down their backs.

Verſ. 24. Pour out thine indignation upon them] By Indignation, ſaith Baſil, we are to underſtand ſpeedy vengeance; by Wrath, durable. This is befaln the Nation of the Jews to the utmos;t, 1 Theſſ. 2. or to the end, as ſome render it.

Verſ. 25. Let their habitation be deſolate] Heb. Their Palaces, or Caſtles, ſo named of being fair, and high built, in row and order. It is here put not only for their Habitation, but for their Function. See Acts 1.20.

And let none dwell in their Tents] Lege & [illegible: 1 word], ſaith one, ſpeaking of the mine of Jeruſalem by the Romans, Dio in Adrian. [illegible: 1 word] Enquir. under Velpaſian, and again [illegible: 1 span] all Judea was left almoſt [illegible: 1 span] upon pain of death to look toward their own Country. At the day [illegible: 1 span] be found in Jeruſalem it ſelf an hundred houſholds of Jews. Behold [illegible: 1 span] of God of the contempt of Chriſt, and his people.

Verſ. 26. For they perſcute [illegible: 1 word] whom [illegible: 1 span] ] Chriſt [illegible: 1 span] of God, and afflicted, Iſa. 53.4. Him they perſecuted to the death, and abuſed, when he was at the greateſt under, with bitter taunts, and Satan [illegible: 1 span] [illegible: 2 letters]caſmes; ſo the Pagans, and the Papiſt dealt [illegible: 1 word] the dying; Martyrs and profane perſons, and [illegible: 1 span]. Dogge that worried: and as when a Deer is ſhot, the [illegible: 1 word] of the [illegible: 1 span] their company: ſo here, Now if it could be ſaid of Mishridates, that [illegible: 1 span] ſuch as maliciouſly perſecuted vertue forſaken of Fortune: much more may we think doth God abhor ſuch cruel Car[illegible: 1 letter]i[illegible: 2 letters]s ſpoken of. See Iſa. 47.6. Obad. 1. Zeeh. 1.15.

And they talk to the grief of thoſe whom thou haſt wounded] Narr[illegible: 3 letters] [illegible: 3 letters]exu[illegible: 2 letters] they frame diſcourſes to the grief of thy wounded ones, pouring into their wound[illegible: 1 letter] not Oyl, or Balſome, but vineger, or ſalt-water. Heb. Th[illegible: 2 letters] number, or cip[illegible: 2 letters] up the grief; that is, ſaith one, they ſtudy and deviſe new waye of torturing them, ſo that hee who would ſpeak of them all, muſt keep a remembrance of their number.

Verſ. 27. Adde iniquity unto their iniquity] Puniſh one ſin with another (by giving them up to a reprobate ſenſe, to an incureable hardneſs) and plague them ſoundly for their fin. The ſame Hebrew word ſignifieth both ſin and puniſhment theſe two are tied together with chains of Adamant.

And let them not come into thy righteouſneſs] i. e. Hold them not righteous, nor beſtow upon them thy crown of righteouſneſs.

Verſ. 28. Let them be blotted out, &c.] Wherein they were never indeed written among thoſe living in Jeruſalem, Iſa. 4.3. thoſe firſt-born whoſe names are written in Heaven, Heb. 12.23. but they accounted themſelves of that number, and were ſo eſteemed by others. This was a miſtake, and the Pſalmiſt prayeth God to make it appear ſo, No videantur in alhum tuorum velats quibus vgra vita [illegible: 1 word] deſtinaſ[illegible: 1 letter]i.

Verſ. 29. But I am poer and ſorrowful] The Church is uſually ſo, and may ſing as here, Va[illegible: 1 letter]nignant, &c. but her comfort is; 1 That Chriſt ſaith unto her, as Rev. 2.9. I know thy ſorrow and poverty (but that is nothing) Thou art rich. 2 That her poverty is not penal, but Medicinal; Gods diſpenſation is ſit her for better riches: As a wiſe Phyſician purgeth a foul body till he bring it almoſt to skin and bone; But why? That having made it poor there may bee a ſpring of better bloud and ſpirits.

Verſ. 30. I will praiſe the Name of God] i. e. aquitum Deum. I will thankfully agnize, and recognize Gods great goodneſs to me in this deliverance, with mine uttermoſt zeal and skill.

Verſ. 31. This alſo ſhall pleaſe the Lord better, &c.] True thankfulneſs is epimum & optimum ſacrificium thoſe calves of our lips. Hoſ. 14.3 Heb. 12.1[illegible: 1 letter]. Theſe Calves or Bullocks (as in the Text) muſt 1 Have burnt and hoofts, bee young and tender, the very beſt of the beſt. 2 They muſt bee ſlain; our thanks muſt proceed from a mortified minde. 3 They muſt be sacrifiſed; where is required, 1 An Altar, our praiſes muſt be tendred in the mediation of Chriſt. 2. Fire, our hearts muſt be enflamed with zeal and ardency. 3 Our hands muſt be laid on the head of the Bullock; That is, we muſt in all humility confeſs our unworthineſs, &c. This will ſurely pleaſe the Lord better than an Oxe, or Bullock that hath [illegible: 1 letter]erns and h[illegible: 2 letters]of[illegible: 1 letter].

Verſ. 32. The humble ſhall ſee this and be glad] Davids great care was for others confirmation and comfort: much more Chriſts, witneſs that holy prayer of his, Joh. 17.

Your [illegible: 1 word] ſhall live] Which before was all [illegible: 1 word]. Pray that yet may joy. David did ſo often, Pſal. 6. &c.

Verſ. 33. For the Lord he [illegible: 1 word] the poor] He is the poor mans King the wronged mans refuge; Trajan the Emperour is renouned for this,Aeli spart. that when he was mounted for a battel he alighted again to hear the complaint of a poor Woman that cried unto him for Juſtice; and our Edw. 6. for this, that he would appoint certain hours to ſit with the Maſter of the Requeſts,Engl. Eliſ. only to diſpatch the Cauſes of the poor. God is much more to be magnified.

Verſ. 34. Let the heaven and earth praiſe him] As they do in their kind: and have good cauſe ſo to do for their resſta[illegible: 1 letter]ration by Chriſt Rom.8.11.

Verſ. 35. [illegible: 1 span] The Church univerſal.

And will build the Cities]] The pa[illegible: 3 letters]d[illegible: 1 letter] at Churches.

That they may dwell there] viz. The ſeed of his ſervants, verſ. 36.

[illegible: 1 word] after them ſhall be incorporated into the Church, and [illegible: 1 word] thing to all perpetuity.

Save me, O God. "He saved others, himself he cannot save." With strong cries and tears he offered up prayers and supplications unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared (Heb 5:7). Thus David had prayed, and here his Son and Lord utters the same cry. This is the second Psalm which begins with a "Save me, O God, "and the former (Psalm 54) is but a short summary of this more lengthened complaint. It is remarkable that such a scene of woe should be presented to us immediately after the jubilant ascension hymn of the last Psalm, but this only shows how interwoven are the glories and the sorrows of our ever blessed Redeemer. The head which now is crowned with glory is the same which wore the thorns; he to whom we pray, "Save us, O God, "is the selfsame person who cried, "Save me, O God." For the waters are come in unto my soul. Sorrows, deep, abounding, deadly, had penetrated his inner nature. Bodily anguish is not his first complaint; he begins not with the gall which embittered his lips, but with the mighty griefs which broke into his heart. All the sea outside a vessel is less to be feared than that which finds its way into the hold. A wounded spirit who can bear. Our Lord in this verse is seen before us as a Jonah, crying, "The waters compassed me about, even to the soul." He was doing business for us on the great waters, at his Father's command; the stormy wind was lifting up the waves thereof, and he went down to the depths till his soul was melted because of trouble. In all this he has sympathy with us, and is able to succour us when we, like Peter, beginning to sink, cry to him, "Lord, save, or we perish."

I sink in deep mire. In water one might swim, but in mud and mire all struggling is hopeless; the mire sucks down its victim. Where there is no standing. Everything gave way under the Sufferer; he could not get foothold for support —this is a worse fate than drowning. Here our Lord pictures the close, clinging nature of his heart's woes. "He began to be sorrowful, and very heavy." Sin is as mire for its filthiness, and the holy soul of the Saviour must have loathed even that connection with it which was necessary for its expiation. His pure and sensitive nature seemed to sink in it, for it was not his element, he was not like us born and acclimatised to this great dismal swamp. Here our Redeemer became another Jeremiah, of whom it is recorded (Jer 38:6) that his enemies cast him into a dungeon wherein "was no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire." Let our hearts feel the emotions, both of contrition and gratitude, as we see in this simile the deep humiliation of our Lord. I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. The sorrow gathers even greater force; he is as one cast into the sea, the waters go over his head. His sorrows were first within, then around, and now above him. Our Lord was no fainthearted sentimentalist; his were real woes, and though he bore them heroically, yet were they terrible even to him. His sufferings were unlike all others in degree, the waters were such as soaked into the soul; the mire was the mire of the abyss itself, and the floods were deep and overflowing. To us the promise is, "the rivers shall not overflow thee, "but no such word of consolation was vouchsafed to him. My soul, thy Well beloved endured all this for thee. Many waters could not quench his love, neither could the floods drown it; and, because of this, thou hast the rich benefit of that covenant assurance, "as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee." He stemmed the torrent of almighty wrath, that we might for ever rest in Jehovah's love.

I am weary of my crying. Not of it, but by it, with it. He had prayed till he sweat great drops of blood, and well might physical weariness intervene. My throat is dried, parched, and inflamed. Long pleading with awful fervour had scorched his throat as with flames of fire. Few, very few, of his saints follow their Lord in prayer so far as this. We are, it is to be feared, more likely to be hoarse with talking frivolities to men than by pleading with God; yet our sinful nature demands more prayer than his perfect humanity might seem to need. His prayers should shame us into fervour. Our Lord's supplications were salted with fire, they were hot with agony; and hence they weakened his system, and made him "a weary man and full of woes." Mine eyes fail while I wait for my God. He wanted in his direst distress nothing more than his God; that would be all in all to him. Many of us know what watching and waiting mean; and we know something of the failing eye when hope is long deferred: but in all this Jesus bears the palm; no eyes ever failed as his did or for so deep a cause. No painter can ever depict those eyes; their pencils fail in every feature of his all but fair but all marred countenance, but most of all do they come short when they venture to pourtray those eyes which were fountains of tears. He knew both how to pray and to watch, and he would have us learn the like. There are times when we should pray till the throat is dry, and watch till the eyes grow dim. Only thus can we have fellowship with him in his sufferings. What! can we not watch with him one hour? Does the flesh shrink back? O cruel flesh to be so tender of thyself, and so ungenerous to thy Lord!

They that hate me. Surprising sin that men should hate the altogether lovely one, truly is it added, without a cause, for reason there was none for this senseless enmity. He neither blasphemed God, nor injured man. As Samuel said: "Whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed?" Even so might Jesus enquire. Besides, he had not only done us no evil, but he had bestowed countless and priceless benefits. Well might he demand, "For which of these works do ye stone me?" Yet from his cradle to his cross, beginning with Herod and not ending with Judas, he had foes without number; and he justly said, they are more than the hairs of mine head. Both the civilians and the military, laics and clerics, doctors and drunkards, princes and people, set themselves against the Lord's anointed. "This is the heir, let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours, "was the unanimous resolve of all the keepers of the Jewish vineyard; while the Gentiles outside the walls of the garden furnished the instruments for his murder, and actually did the deed. The hosts of earth and hell, banded together, made up vast legions of antagonists, none of whom had any just ground for hating him.

They that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty. It was bad that they were many, but worse that they were mighty. All the ecclesiastical and military powers of his country were arrayed against him. The might of the Sanhedrin, the mob, and the Roman legions were combined in one for his utter destruction: "Away with such a fellow from this earth; it is not fit that he should live, "was the shout of his ferocious foes. David's adversaries were on the throne when he was hiding in caverns, and our Lord's enemies were the great ones of the earth; while he, of whom the world was not worthy, was reproached of men and despised of the people. Then I restored that which I took not away. Though innocent, he was treated as guilty. Though David had no share in plots against Saul, yet he was held accountable for them. In reference to our Lord, it may be truly said that he restores what he took not away; for he gives back to the injured honour of God a recompense, and to man his lost happiness, though the insult of the one and the fall of the other were neither of them, in any sense, his doings. Usually, when the ruler sins the people suffer, but here the proverb is reversed —the sheep go astray, and their wanderings are laid at the Shepherd's door.

O God, thou knowest my foolishness. David might well say this, but not David's Lord; unless it be understood as an appeal to God as to his freedom from the folly which men imputed to him when they said he was mad. That which was foolishness to men was superlative wisdom before God. How often might we use these words in their natural sense, and if we were not such fools as to be blind to our own folly, this confession would be frequently on our lips. When we feel that we have been foolish we are not, therefore, to cease from prayer, but rather to be more eager and fervent in it. Fools had good need consult with the infinitely wise. And my sins are not hid from thee. They cannot be hid with any fig leaves of mine; only the covering which thou wilt bring me can conceal their nakedness and mine. It ought to render confession easy, when we are assured that all is known already. That prayer which has no confession in it may please a Pharisee's pride, but will never bring down justification. They who have never seen their sins in the light of God's omniscience are quite unable to appeal to that omniscience in proof of their piety. He who can say, Thou knowest my foolishness, is the only man who can add, "But thou knowest that I love thee."

Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake. If he were deserted, others who were walking in the same path of faith would be discouraged and disappointed. Unbelievers are ready enough to catch at anything which may turn humble faith into ridicule, therefore, O God of all the armies of Israel, let not my case cause the enemy to blaspheme —such is the spirit of this verse. Our blessed Lord ever had a tender concern for his people, and would not have his own oppression of spirit become a source of discouragement to them. Let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel. He appealed to the Lord of hosts by his power to help him, and now to the God of Israel by his covenant faithfulness to come to the rescue. If the captain of the host fail, how will it fare with the rank and file? If David flee, what will his followers do? If the king of believers shall find his faith unrewarded, how will the feeble ones hold on their way? Our Lord's behaviour during his sharpest agonies is no cause of shame to us; he wept, for he was man, but he murmured not, for he was sinless man; he cried, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; "for he was human, but he added, "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt, "for his humanity was without taint of rebellion. In the depths of tribulation no repining word escaped him, for there was no repining in his heart. The Lord of martyrs witnessed a good confession. He was strengthened in the hour of peril, and came off more than a conqueror, as we also shall do, if we hold fast our confidence even to the end.

Because for thy sake I have borne reproach. Because he undertook to do the Father's will, and teach his truth, the people were angry; because he declared himself to be the Son of God, the priesthood raved. They could find no real fault in him, but were forced to hatch up a lying accusation before they could commence their sham trial of him. The bottom of the quarrel was, that God was with him, and he with God, while the Scribes and Pharisees sought only their own honour. Reproach is at all times very cutting to a man of integrity, and it must have come with acute force upon one of so unsullied a character as our Lord; yet see, how he turns to his God, and finds his consolation in the fact that he is enduring all for his Father's sake. The like comfort belongs to all misrepresented and persecuted saints. Shame hath covered my face. Men condemned to die frequently had their faces covered as they were dragged away from the judge's seat, as was the case with the wicked Haman in Es 7:8: after this fashion they first covered our Lord with a veil of opprobrious accusation, and then hurried him away to be crucified. Moreover, they passed him through the trial of cruel mockings, besmeared his face with spittle, and covered it with bruises, so that Pilate's "Ecce Homo" called the world's attention to an unexampled spectacle of woe and shame. The stripping on the cross must also have suffused the Redeemer's face with a modest blush, as he hung there exposed to the cruel gaze of a ribald multitude. Ah, blessed Lord, it was our shame which thou wast made to bear! Nothing more deserves to be reproached and despised than sin, and lo, when thou wast made sin for us thou wast called to endure abuse and scorn. Blessed be thy name it is over now, but we owe thee more than heart can conceive for thine amazing stoop of love.

I am become a stranger unto my brethren. The Jews his brethren in race rejected him, his family his brethren by blood were offended at him, his disciples his brethren in spirit forsook him and fled; one of them sold him, and another denied him with oaths and cursings. Alas, my Lord, what pangs must have smitten thy loving heart to be thus forsaken by those who should have loved thee, defended thee, and, if need be, died for thee. And an alien unto my mother's children. These were the nearest of relatives, the children of a father with many wives felt the tie of consanguinity but loosely, but children of the same mother owned the band of love; yet our Lord found his nearest and dearest ones ashamed to own him. As David's brethren envied him, and spake evil of him, so our Lord's relatives by birth were jealous of him, and his best beloved followers in the hour of his agony were afraid to be known as having any connection with him. These were sharp arrows of the mighty in the soul of Jesus, the most tender of friends. May none of us ever act as if we were strangers to him; never may we treat him as if he were an alien to us: rather let us resolve to be crucified with him, and may grace turn the resolve into fact.

For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. His burning ardour, like the flame of a candle, fed on his strength and consumed it. His heart, like a sharp sword, cut through the scabbard. Some men are eaten up with lechery, others with covetousness, and a third class with pride, but the master passion with our great leader was the glory of God, jealousy for his name, and love to the divine family. Zeal for God is so little understood by men of the world, that it always draws down opposition upon those who are inspired with it; they are sure to be accused of sinister motives, or of hypocrisy, or of being out of their senses. When zeal eats us up, ungodly men seek to eat us up too, and this was preeminently the case with our Lord, because his holy jealousy was preeminent. With more than a seraph's fire he glowed, and consumed himself with his fervour. And the reproaches of them that reproached thee have fallen upon me. Those who habitually blaspheme God now curse me instead. I have become the butt for arrows intended for the Lord himself. Thus the Great Mediator was, in this respect, a substitute for God as well as for man, he bore the reproaches aimed at the one, as well as the sins committed by the other.

When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach. Having resolved to hate him, everything he did was made a fresh reason for reviling. If he ate and drank as others, he was a man gluttonous and a winebibber; if he wept himself away and wore himself out with fasting, then he had a devil and was mad. Nothing is more cruel than prejudice, its eye colours all with the medium through which it looks, and its tongue rails at all indiscriminately. Our Saviour wept much in secret for our sins, and no doubt his private soul chastening on our behalf were very frequent. Lone mountains and desert places saw repeated agonies, which, if they could disclose them, would astonish us indeed. The emaciation which these exercises wrought in our Lord made him appear nearly fifty years old when he was but little over thirty; this which was to his honour was used as a matter of reproach against him.

I made sackcloth also my garment. This David did literally, but we have no reason to believe that Jesus did. In a spiritual sense he, as one filled with grief, was always a sackcloth wearer. And I became a proverb to them. He was ridiculed as "the man of sorrows, "quoted as "the acquaintance of grief." He might have said, "here I and sorrow sit." This which should have won him pity only earned him new and more general scorn. To interweave one's name into a mocking proverb is the highest stretch of malice, and to insult one's acts of devotion is to add profanity to cruelty.

They that sit in the gate speak against me. The ordinary gossips who meet at the city gates for idle talk make me their theme, the business men who there resort for trade forget their merchandise to slander me, and even the beggars who wait at men's doors for alms contribute their share of insult to the heap of infamy. And I was the song of the drunkard. The ungodly know no merrier jest than that in which the name of the holy is traduced. The flavour of slander is piquant, and gives a relish to the revellers' wine. The character of the man of Nazareth was so far above the appreciation of the men of strength to mingle strong drink, it was so much out of their way and above their thoughts, that it is no wonder it seemed to them ridiculous, and therefore well adapted to create laughter over their cups. The saints are ever choice subjects for satire. Butler's Hudibras owed more of its popularity to its irreligious banter than to any intrinsic cleverness. To this day the tavern makes rare fun of the tabernacle, and the ale bench is the seat of the scorner. What a wonder of condescension is here that he who is the adoration of angels should stoop to be the song of drunkards! What amazing sin that he whom seraphs worship with veiled faces should be a scornful proverb among the most abandoned of men.

"The byword of the passing throng,

The ruler's scoff, the drunkard's song."

But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord. He turned to Jehovah in prayer as being the most natural thing for the godly to do in their distress. To whom should a child turn but to his father. He did not answer them; like a sheep before her shearers he was dumb to them, but he opened his mouth unto the Lord his God, for he would hear and deliver. In an acceptable time. It was a time of rejection with man, but of acceptance with God. Sin ruled on earth, but grace reigned in heaven. There is to each of us an accepted time, and woe to us if we suffer it to glide away unimproved. God's time must be our time, or it will come to pass that, when time closes, we shall look in vain for space for repentance. Our Lord's prayers were well timed, and always met with acceptance.

O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me. Even the perfect one makes his appeal to the rich mercy of God, much more should we. To misery no attribute is more sweet than mercy, and when sorrows multiply, the multitude of mercy is much prized. When enemies are more than the hairs of our head, they are yet to be numbered, but God's mercies are altogether innumerable, and let it never be forgotten that every one of them is an available and powerful argument in the hand of faith. In the truth of thy salvation. "Jehovah's faithfulness is a further mighty plea." His salvation is no fiction, no mockery, no changeable thing, therefore he is asked to manifest it, and make all men see his fidelity to his promise. Our Lord teaches us here the sacred art of wrestling in prayer, and ordering our cause with arguments; and he also indicates to us that the nature of God is the great treasury of strong reasons, which shall be to us most prevalent in supplication.

Deliver me out of the mire and let me not sink. He turns into prayer the very words of his complaint; and it is well, if, when we complain, we neither feel nor say anything which we should fear to utter before the Lord as a prayer. We are allowed to ask for deliverance from trouble as well as for support under it; both petitions are here combined. How strange it seems to hear such language from the Lord of glory. Let me be delivered from them that hate, me, and out of the deep waters. Both from his foes, and the griefs which they caused him, he seeks a rescue. God can help us in all ways, and we may, therefore, put up a variety of requests without fear of exceeding our liberty to ask, or his ability to answer.

Let not the waterflood overflow me. He continues to recapitulate the terms of his lament. He is willing to bear suffering, but entreats grace that it may not get the victory over him. He was heard in that he feared. Neither let the deep swallow me up. As Jonah came forth again, so let me also arise from the abyss of woe; here also our Lord was heard, and so shall we be. Death itself must disgorge us. Let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. When a great stone was rolled over the well, or pit, used as a dungeon, the prisoner was altogether enclosed, and forgotten like one on the oubliettes of the Bastille; this is an apt picture of the state of a man buried alive in grief and left without remedy; against this the great sufferer pleaded and was heard. He was baptised in agony but not drowned in it; the grave enclosed him, but before she could close her mouth he had burst his prison. It is said that truth lies in a well, but it is assuredly an open well, for it walks abroad in power; and so our great Substitute in the pit of woe and death was yet the Conqueror of death and hell. How appropriately may many of us use this prayer. We deserve to be swept away as with a flood, to be drowned in our sins, to be shut up in hell; let us, then, plead the merits of our Saviour, lest these things happen unto us.

Hear me, O Lord. Do not refuse thy suppliant Son. It is to the covenant God, the ever living Jehovah, that he appeals with strong crying. For thy lovingkindness is good. By the greatness of thy love have pity upon thine afflicted. It is always a stay to the soul to dwell upon the preeminence and excellence of the Lord's mercy. It has furnished sad souls much good cheer to take to pieces that grand old Saxon word, which is here used in our version, lovingkindness. Its composition is of two most sweet and fragrant things, fitted to inspire strength into the fainting, and make desolate hearts sing for joy. Turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies. If the Lord do but turn the eye of pity, and the hand of power, the mourner's spirit revives. It is the gall of bitterness to be without the comfortable smile of God; in our Lord's case his grief culminated in "Lama Sabachthani, "and his bitterest cry was that in which he mourned an absent God. Observe how he dwells anew upon divine tenderness, and touches again that note of abundance, "The multitude of thy compassions."

And hide not thy face from thy servant. A good servant desires the light of his master's countenance; that servus servorum, who was also rex regium, could not bear to lose the presence of his God. The more he loved his Father, the more severely he felt the hiding of his face. For I am in trouble. Stay thy rough wind in the day of thine east wind; do not add sorrow upon sorrow. If ever a man needs the comforting presence of God it is when he is in distress; and, being in distress, it is a reason to be pleaded with a merciful God why he should not desert us. We may pray that our flight be not in the winter, and that God will not add spiritual desertion to all our other tribulations. Hear me speedily. The case was urgent, delay was dangerous, nay deadly. Our Lord was the perfection of patience, yet he cried urgently for speedy mercy; and therein he gives us liberty to do the same, so long as we add, "nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt."

Draw nigh unto my soul. The near approach of God is all the sufferer needs; one smile of heaven will still the rage of hell. And redeem it. It shall be redemption to me if thou wilt appear to comfort me. This is a deeply spiritual prayer, and one very suitable for a deserted soul. It is in renewed communion that we shall find redemption realized. Deliver me because of mine enemies, lest they should, in their vaunting, blaspheme thy name, and boast that thou art not able to rescue those who put their trust in thee. Jesus, in condescending to use such supplications, fulfils the request of his disciples: "Lord, teach us to pray." Here we have a sad recapitulation of sorrows, with more especial reference to the persons concerned in their infliction.

Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour. It is no novelty or secret, it has been long continued; thou, O God, hast seen it; and for thee to see the innocent suffer is an assurance of help. Here are three words piled up to express the Redeemer's keen sense of the contempt poured upon him; and his assurance that every form of malicious despite was observed of the Lord. Mine adversaries are all before thee. The whole lewd and loud company is now present to thine eye: Judas and his treachery; Herod and his cunning; Caiaphas and his counsel; Pilate and his vacillation; Jews, priests, people, rulers, all, thou seest and wilt judge.

Reproach hath broken my heart. There is no hammer like it. Our Lord died of a broken heart, and reproach had done the deed. Intense mental suffering arises from slander; and in the case of the sensitive nature of the immaculate Son of Man, it sufficed to lacerate the heart till it broke. "Then burst his mighty heart." And I am full of heaviness. Calumny and insult bowed him to the dust; he was sick at heart. The heaviness of our Lord in the garden is expressed by many and forcible words in the four gospels, and each term goes to show that the agony was beyond measure great; he was filled with misery, like a vessel which is full to the brim. And I looked for some to take pity, but there was none. "Deserted in his utmost need by those his former bounty fed." Not one to say him a kindly word, or drop a sympathetic tear. Amongst ten thousand foes there was not one who was touched by the spectacle of his misery; not one with a heart capable of humane feeling towards him. And for comforters, but I found none. His dearest ones had sought their own safety, and left their Lord alone. A sick man needs comforters, and a persecuted man needs sympathy; but our blessed Surety found neither on that dark and doleful night when the powers of darkness had their hour. A spirit like that of our Lord feels acutely desertion by beloved and trusted friends, and yearns for real sympathy. This may be seen in the story of Gethsemane: —

"Backwards and forwards thrice he ran.

As if he sought some help from man;

Or wished, at least, they would condole —

It was all they could —his tortured soul."

"What ever he sought for, there was none;

Our Captain fought the field alone.

Soon as the chief to battle led,

That moment every soldier fled."

They gave me also gall for my meat. This was the sole refreshment cruelty had prepared for him. Others find pleasure in their food, but his taste was made to be an additional path of pain to him. And in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. A criminal's draught was offered to our innocent Lord, a bitter portion to our dying Master. Sorry entertainment had earth for her King and Saviour. How often have our sins filled the gall cup for our Redeemer? While we blame the Jews, let us not excuse ourselves. From this point David and our Lord for awhile part company, if we accept the rendering of our version. The severe spirit of the law breathes out imprecations, while the tender heart of Jesus offers prayers for his murderers. The whole of these verses, however, may be viewed as predictions, and then they certainly refer to our Lord, for we find portions of them quoted in that manner by the apostle in Ro 11:9-10, and by Christ himself in Mt 23:38.

Let their table become a snare before them. There they laid snares, and there they shall find them. From their feasts they would afford nothing but wormwood for their innocent victim, and now their banquets shall be their ruin. It is very easy for the daily provisions of mercy to become temptations to sin. As birds and beasts are taken in a trap by means of baits for the appetite, so are men snared full often by their meats and drinks. Those who despise the upper springs of grace, shall find the nether springs of worldly comfort prove their poison. The table is used, however, not alone for feeding, but for conversations, transacting business, counsel, amusement, and religious observance: to those who are the enemies of the Lord Jesus that table may, in all these respects, become a snare. This first plague is terrible, and the second is like unto it. And that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap. This, if we follow the original closely, and the version of Paul in the Romans, is a repetition of the former phrase; but we shall not err if we say that, to the rejecters of Christ, even those things which are calculated to work their spiritual and eternal good, become occasions for yet greater sin. They reject Christ, and are condemned for not believing on him; they stumble on this stone, and are broken by it. Wretched are those men, who not only have a curse upon their common blessings, but also on the spiritual opportunities of salvation.

"Whom oils and balsams kill, what salve can cure?"

This second plague even exceeds the first.

Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not. They shall wander in a darkness that may be felt. They have loved darkness rather than light, and in darkness they shall abide. Judicial blindness fell upon Israel after our Lord's death and their persecution of his apostles; they were blinded by the light which they would not accept. Eyes which see no beauty in the Lord Jesus, but flash wrath upon him, may well grow yet more dim, till death spiritual leads to death eternal. And make their loins continually to shake. Their conscience shall be so ill at ease that they shall continually quiver with fear; their backs shall bend to the earth (so some read it) with grovelling avarice, and their strength shall be utterly paralysed, so that they cannot walk firmly, but shall totter at every step. See the terrifying, degrading, and enfeebling influence of unbelief. See also the retaliation of justice: those who will not see shall not see; those who would not walk in uprightness shall be unable to do so.

Pour out thine indignation upon them. What can be too severe a penalty for those who reject the incarnate God, and refuse to obey the commands of his mercy? They deserve to be flooded with wrath, and they shall be; for upon all who rebel against the Saviour, Christ the Lord, "the wrath is come to the uttermost." 1Th 2:16. God's indignation is no trifle; the anger of a holy, just, omnipotent, and infinite Being, is above all things to be dreaded; even a drop of it consumes, but to have it poured upon us is inconceivably dreadful. O God, who knoweth the power of thine anger? And let thy wrathful anger take hold of them. Grasping them, arresting them, abiding on them. If they flee, let it overtake and seize them; let it lay them by the heels in the condemned cell, so that they cannot escape from execution. It shall indeed be so with all the finally impenitent, and it ought to be so. God is not to be insulted with impunity, and his Son, our ever gracious Saviour, the best gift of infinite love, is not to be scorned and scoffed at for nothing. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy, but what shall be the "sorer punishment" reserved for those who have trodden under foot the Son of God?

Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents. This may signify that their posterity shall be cut off, and the abode which they occupy shall be left a ruin; or, as our Lord quoted it, it refers to the temple, which was left by its divine occupant and became a desolation. What occurs on a large scale to families and nations is often fulfilled in individuals, as was conspicuously the case with Judas, to whom Peter referred this prophecy, Ac 1:20, "For it is written in the book of Psalms, let this habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein." The fierce proclamation of Nebuchadnezzar, "that every people, nation, and language, that speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill, "is but an anticipation of that dread hour when the enemies of the Lord shall be broken in pieces, and perish out of the land.

For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten. They are cruel where they should be pitiful. When a stroke comes to any in the providence of God, their friends gather around them and condole, but these wretches hunt the wounded and vex the sick. Their merciless hearts invent fresh blows for him who is "smitten of God and afflicted." And they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. They lay bare his wounds with their rough tongues. They lampoon the mourner, satirise his sorrows, and deride his woes. They pointed to the Saviour's wounds, they looked and stared upon him, and then they uttered shameful accusations against him. After this fashion the world still treats the members of Christ. "Report, "say they, "and we will report it." If a godly man be a little down in estate, how glad they are to push him over altogether, and, meanwhile, to talk everywhere against him. God takes note of this, and will visit it upon the enemies of his children; he may allow them to act as a rod to his saints, but he will yet avenge his own elect. "Thus saith the Lord of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem, and for Zion, with a great jealousy; and I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction."

Add iniquity unto their iniquity. Unbelievers will add sin to sin, and so, punishment to punishment. This is the severest imprecation, or prophecy, of all. For men to be let alone to fill up the measure of their iniquity, is most equitable, but yet most awful. And let them not come into thy righteousness. If they refuse it, and resist thy gospel, let them shut themselves out of it.

"He that will not when he may,

When he would he shall have nay."

Those who choose evil shall have their choice. Men who hate divine mercy shall not have it forced upon them, but (unless sovereign grace interpose) shall be left to themselves to aggravate their guilt, and ensure their doom.

Let them be blotted out of the book of the living. Though in their conceit they wrote themselves among the people of God, and induced others to regard them under that character, they shall be unmasked and their names removed from the register. Enrolled with honour, they shall be erased with shame. Death shall obliterate all recollection of them; they shall be held no longer in esteem, even by those who paid them homage. Judas first, and Pilate, and Herod, and Caiaphas, all in due time, were speedily wiped out of existence; their names only remain as bywords, but among the honoured men who live after their departure they are not recorded. And not be written with the righteous. This clause is parallel with the former, and shows that the inner meaning of being blotted out from the book of life is to have it made evident that the name was never written there at all. Man in his imperfect copy of God's book of life will have to make many emendations, both of insertion and erasure; but, as before the Lord, the record is for ever fixed and unalterable. Beware, O man, of despising Christ and his people, lest thy soul should never partake in the righteousness of God, without which men are condemned already. Imprecations, prophecies, and complaints are ended, and prayer of a milder sort begins, intermingled with bursts of thankful song, and encouraging foresight of coming good.

But I am poor and sorrowful. The psalmist was afflicted very much, but his faith was in God. The poor in spirit and mourners are both blessed under the gospel, so that here is a double reason for the Lord to smile on his suppliant. No man was ever poorer or more sorrowful than Jesus of Nazareth, yet his cry out of the depths was heard, and he was uplifted to the highest glory. Let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high. How fully has this been answered in our great Master's case, for he not only escaped his foes personally, but he has become the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him, and this continues to glorify him more and more. O ye poor and sorrowful ones, lift up your heads, for as with your Lord so shall it be with you. You are trodden down today as the mire of the streets, but you shall ride upon the high places of the earth ere long; and even now ye are raised up together, and made to sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.

I will praise the name of God with a song. He who sang after the passover, sings yet more joyously after the resurrection and ascension. He is, in very truth, "the sweet singer of Israel." He leads the eternal melodies, and all his saints join in chorus. And will magnify him with thanksgiving. How sure was our Redeemer of ultimate victory, since he vows a song even while yet in the furnace. In us, also, faith foresees the happy issue of all affliction, and makes us even now begin the music of gratitude which shall go on for ever increasing in volume, world without end. What clear shining after the rain we have in this and succeeding verses. The darkness is past, and the glory light shines forth as the sun. All the honour is rendered unto him to whom all the prayer was presented; he alone could deliver and did deliver, and, therefore, to him only be the praise.

This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs. No sacrifice is so acceptable to God, who is a Spirit, as that which is spiritual. He accepted bullocks under a dim and symbolical dispensation; but in such offerings, in themselves considered, he had no pleasure. "Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?" Here he puts dishonour upon mere outward offerings by speaking of the horns and hoofs, the offal of the victim. The opus operatum, which our ritualists think so much of, the Lord puffs at. The horning and hoofing are nothing to him, though to Jewish ritualists these were great points, and matters for critical examination; our modern rabbis are just as precise as to the mingling of water with their wine, the baking of their wafers, the cut of their vestments, and the performance of genuflections towards the right quarter of the compass. O fools, and slow of heart to perceive all that the Lord has declared. "Offer unto God thanksgiving" is the everlasting rubric of the true directory of worship. The depths of grief into which the suppliant had been plunged gave him all the richer an experience of divine power and grace in his salvation, and so qualified him to sing more sweetly "the song of loves." Such music is ever most acceptable to the infinite Jehovah.

The humble shall see this and be glad. Grateful hearts are ever on the look out for recruits, and the rejoicing psalmist discerns with joy the fact, that other oppressed and lowly men observing the Lord's dealings with his servants are encouraged to look for a like issue to their own tribulations. The standing consolation of the godly is the experience of their Lord, for as he is so are we also in this world; yea, moreover, his triumph has secured ours, and therefore, we may on the most solid grounds rejoice in him. This gave our great leader satisfaction as he foresaw the comforts which would flow to us from his conflict and conquest. And your heart shall live that seek God. A similar assurance is given in Psalm 22, which is near akin to this. It would have been useless to seek if Jesus' victories had not cleared the way, and opened a door of hope; but, since the Breaker has gone up before us, and the King at the head of us, our hope is a living one, our faith is living, our love is living, and our renewed nature is full of a vitality which challenges the cold hand of death to damp it.

For the Lord heareth the poor. The examples of David and David's Lord, and tens of thousands of the saints, all go to prove this. Monarchs of the nations are deaf to the poor, but the Sovereign of the Universe has a quick ear for the needy. None can be brought lower than was the Nazarene, but see how highly he is exalted: descend into what depths we may, the prayer hearing God can bring us up again. And despiseth not his prisoners. Poor men have their liberty, but these are bound; however, they are God's prisoners, and, therefore, prisoners of hope. The captive in the dungeon is the lowest and least esteemed of men, but the Lord seeth not as man seeth; he visited those who are bound with chains, and proclaims a jail delivery for his afflicted. God despises no man, and no prayer that is honest and sincere. Distinctions of rank are nothing with him; the poor have the gospel preached to them, and the prisoners are loosed by his grace. Let all poor and needy ones hasten to seek his face, and to yield him their love.

Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moveth therein. The doxology of a glowing heart. The writer had fathomed the deeps, and had ascended to the heights; and, therefore, calls on the whole range of creation to bless the Lord. Our Well Beloved here excites us all to grateful adoration: who among us will hold back? God's love to Christ argues good to all forms of life; the exaltation of the Head brings good to the members, and to all in the least connected with him. Inasmuch as the creation itself also is by Christ's work to be delivered from bondage, let all that have life and motion magnify the Lord. Glory be unto thee, O Lord, for the sure and all including pledge of our Surety's triumph; we see in this the exaltation of all thy poor and sorrowful ones, and our heart is glad.

For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah. Poor, fallen Israel shall have a portion in the mercy of the Lord; but, above all, the church, so dear to the heart of her glorious bridegroom, shall be revived and strengthened. Ancient saints so dearly loved Zion, that even in their distresses they did not forget her; with the first gleam of light which visited them, they fell to pleading for the faithful: see notable instances of this which have passed under our eye already. Ps 5:11 14:7 22:23 51:18. To us, in these modern times, it is the subject of cheering hope that better days are coming for the chosen people of God, and for this we would ever pray. O Zion, whatever other memories fade away, we cannot forget thee. That they may dwell there, and have it in possession. Whatever captivities may occur, or desolations be caused, the land of Canaan belongs to Israel by a covenant of salt, and they will surely repossess it; and this shall be a sign unto us, that through the atonement of the Christ of God, all the poor in spirit shall enjoy the mercies promised in the covenant of grace. The sure mercies of David shall be the heritage of all the seed.

The seed also of his servants shall inherit it. Under this image, which, however, we dare not regard as a mere simile, but as having in itself a literal significance, we have set forth to us the enrichment of the saints, consequent upon the sorrow of their Lord. The termination of this Psalm strongly recalls in us that of the twenty-second. The seed lie near the Saviour's heart, and their enjoyment of all promised good is the great concern of his disinterested soul. Because they are his Father's servants, therefore he rejoices in their welfare. And they that love his name shall dwell therein. He has an eye to the Father's glory, for it is to his praise that those who love him should attain, and for ever enjoy, the utmost happiness. Thus a Psalm, which began in the deep waters, ends in the city which hath foundations. How gracious is the change. Hallelujah.

Our trials like waters.

1. They should be kept out of the heart.

2. There are, however, leaks which admit them.

3. Take note when the hold is filling.

4. Use the pumps, and cry for help.

Verses 2-3. The sinner aware of his position, unable to hope, overwhelmed with fear, finding no comfort in prayer, unvisited with divine consolation. Direct and console him.

1. Here is faith in the midst of trouble: My God.

2. Hope in the midst of disappointment: Mine eyes fail, etc.

3. Prayer in the midst of discouragement: I am weary, etc.; My throat, etc. Or, (a) There is praying beyond prayer: I am weary, etc.; (b) Hoping beyond hope: Mine eyes, etc. G. R.

Jesus as the Restorer, the Christian imitating him in the same office; Christianity a power which will do this for the whole race in due season.

Our foolishness. Wherein it appears generally, how it may display itself in individuals, what it occasions, and what are the divine provisions to meet it.

1. God's knowledge of sin is an inducement to repent.

(a) Because it is foolish to endeavour to hide any sin from him.

(b) Because it is impossible to confess all our sin to him.

2. It is an encouragement to hope for pardon.

(a) Because, in the full knowledge of sin, he has declared himself to be merciful and ready to forgive.

(b) Because he has made provision for pardon, not according to our knowledge of sin, but his own.

Verses 8-9.

1. A grievous trial.

2. An honourable reason for it: for Christ's sake.

3. Consoling supports under it.

1. The object of zeal: thy house; thy Zion; thy Church.

2. The degree of zeal: hath eaten me up. Our Lord was consumed by his own zeal. So Paul: And I if I be offered up, etc.

3. The manifestation of zeal: The reproaches, etc.; of thy justice; of thy law; of thy moral government; of thy lovingkindness. "Who himself bare our sins," etc. G. R.

Verses 10-12. A prophecy.

1. Of the Saviour's tears: When I wept.

2. Of his fasting.

3. Of reproach.

4. Of his humiliation: I made sackcloth, etc.

5. Of the perversion of his words: as, "I will destroy this temple, "etc.

6. Of the opposition of the Pharisees, and rulers: They that sit in the gate, etc.

7. Of the contempt of the lowest of the people: I was the song, etc. G. R.

Proverbial sayings of a scoffing character.

An acceptable time. While life lasts usually, and especially when we are repentant, feel our need, are importunate, give all glory to God, have faith in his promise, and expect a gracious reply.

Multitude of thy mercy. Seen in many forbearances before conversion, countless pardons, innumerable gifts, many promises, frequent visits, and abundant deliverances. Of all these who can count the thousandth part?

The truth of thy salvation. An instructive topic. Its reality, certainty, completeness, eternity, etc., all illustrate its truth under various aspects.

Verses 14-16.

1. The depth from which prayer may rise.

2. The height to which it may ascend. Thus Jonah, when at the bottom of the sea, says, "My prayer came up," etc. G. R.

1. Prayer: Hide not thy face. 2. Person: Thy servant. 3. Plea: For I am in trouble. 4. Pressure: Hear me speedily.

1. God knows what his people suffer; how much, how long, from whom, for what.

2. His people should find consolation in this knowledge.

(a) That trial is permitted by him.

(b) That it is apportioned by him.

(c) That it has its design from him.

(d) That when the design is accomplished, it will be removed by him. G. R.

The Saviour's broken heart. Broken hearts, such as are sentimental, caused by disappointed pride, penitence, persecution, sympathy, etc.

The conduct of men to Jesus throughout his entire life, rendering to him evil for all his good, and where good would have seemed to be the inevitable return.

The table a snare. Excess in feasting; looseness in conversation; want of principal in confederate councils; superstition in religion.

The judicial curse which falls on some despisers of Christ; their understandings fail to perceive the truth; and they tremble because they are unable to receive strengthening comforts.

1. The humiliation that precedes exaltation.

(a) Deep: I am poor and sorrowful.

(b) Confessed: I am poor, etc.

2. The exaltation that follows humiliation.

(a) Divine: Thy salvation, O Lord. Though the Lord be high, etc.

(b) Complete: God does nothing by halves.

(c) Preeminent: Set me up on high. G. R.

Verse 30-31.

1. The effect of deliverance upon the people of God. It fills them with praise and thanksgiving.

2. The effect in relation to God. He is more pleased with it than with any other offerings: "Whoso offereth praise, "etc. G. R.

1. The joy of a good man's heart is in the experience of others.

2. The life of his heart is in God.

1. What the people of God are in their own esteem: "poor"  and "prisoners."

2. What they are in the divine esteem: not unnoticed; not unheard; not despised.

The sea, etc. How God is, should be, and shall be praised by the sea.

Salvation, edification, preservation, peace, full assurance.

Verses 35-36. Observe the sequence: —"Save, ""build, ""dwell and have, ""inherit, ""love and dwell."

1. The sure evidence of grace: "love his name."

2. The blessing given.

3. The enduring character of it: "shall dwell."

1. The inheritance: "Inherit it; "we reign with Christ on earth, then in heaven.

2. The title.

(a) Legal: "Seed of his servants" —Abraham, Jacob, David —David's Lord and Son.

(b) Moral: "They that love his name." G. R.