Psalms 73 commentary

The psalmist was strongly tempted to envy the prosperity of the wicked; a common temptation, which has tried the graces of many saints. But he lays down the great principle by which he resolved to abide. It is the goodness of God. This is a truth which cannot be shaken. Good thoughts of God will fortify against Satan's temptations. The faith even of strong believers may be sorely shaken, and ready to fail. There are storms that will try the firmest anchors. Foolish and wicked people have sometimes a great share of outward prosperity. They seem to have the least share of the troubles of this life; and they seem to have the greatest share of its comforts. They live without the fear of God, yet they prosper, and get on in the world. Wicked men often spend their lives without much sickness, and end them without great pain; while many godly persons scarcely know what health is, and die with great sufferings. Often the wicked are not frightened, either by the remembrance of their sins, or the prospect of their misery, but they die without terror. We cannot judge men's state beyond death, by what passes at their death. He looked abroad, and saw many of God's people greatly at a loss. Because the wicked are so very daring, therefore his people return hither; they know not what to say to it, and the rather, because they drink deep of the bitter cup of affliction. He spoke feelingly when he spoke of his own troubles; there is no disputing against sense, except by faith. From all this arose a strong temptation to cast off religion. But let us learn that the true course of sanctification consists in cleansing a man from all pollution both of soul and body. The heart is cleansed by the blood of Christ laid hold upon by faith; and by the begun works of the Lord's Spirit, manifested in the hearty resolution, purpose, and study of holiness, and a blameless course of life and actions, the hands are cleansed. It is not in vain to serve God and keep his ordinances.

The psalmist having shown the progress of his temptation, shows how faith and grace prevailed. He kept up respect for God's people, and with that he restrained himself from speaking what he had thought amiss. It is a sign that we repent of the evil thoughts of the heart, if we suppress them. Nothing gives more offence to God's children, than to say it is vain to serve God; for there is nothing more contrary to their universal experience. He prayed to God to make this matter plain to him; and he understood the wretched end of wicked people; even in the height of their prosperity they were but ripening for ruin. The sanctuary must be the resort of a tempted soul. The righteous man's afflictions end in peace, therefore he is happy; the wicked man's enjoyments end in destruction, therefore he is miserable. The prosperity of the wicked is short and uncertain, slippery places. See what their prosperity is; it is but a vain show, it is only a corrupt imagination, not substance, but a mere shadow; it is as a dream, which may please us a little while we are slumbering, yet even then it disturbs our repose.

God would not suffer his people to be tempted, if his grace were not sufficient, not only to save them from harm, but to make them gainers by it. This temptation, the working of envy and discontent, is very painful. In reflecting upon it, the psalmist owns it was his folly and ignorance thus to vex himself. If good men, at any time, through the surprise and strength of temptation, think, or speak, or act amiss, they will reflect upon it with sorrow and shame. We must ascribe our safety in temptation, and our victory, not to our own wisdom, but to the gracious presence of God with us, and Christ's intercession for us. All who commit themselves to God, shall be guided with the counsel both of his word and of his Spirit, the best counsellors here, and shall be received to his glory in another world; the believing hopes and prospects of which will reconcile us to all dark providences. And the psalmist was hereby quickened to cleave the closer to God. Heaven itself could not make us happy without the presence and love of our God. The world and all its glory vanishes. The body will fail by sickness, age, and death; when the flesh fails, the conduct, courage, and comfort fail. But Christ Jesus, our Lord, offers to be all in all to every poor sinner, who renounces all other portions and confidences. By sin we are all far from God. And a profession Christ, if we go on in sin, will increase our condemnation. May we draw near, and keep near, to our God, by faith and prayer, and find it good to do so. Those that with an upright heart put their trust in God, shall never want matter for thanksgiving to him. Blessed Lord, who hast so graciously promised to become our portion in the next world, prevent us from choosing any other in this.

PSALM 73

David, or whoever may have been the author of this psalm, contending as it were against the judgment of carnal sense and reason, begins by extolling the righteousness and goodness of God. He next confesses that when he saw the wicked abounding in wealth, and living in the indulgence of every kind of pleasure, yea, even scornfully mocking God, and cruelly harassing the righteous, and that when he saw, on the other hand, how in proportion to the care with which any studied to practice uprightness, was the degree in which they were weighed down by troubles and calamities, and that in general all the children of God were pining away, and oppressed with cares and sorrows, while God, as if sitting in heaven idle and unconcerned, did not interfere to remedy such a disordered state of matters; it gave him so severe a shock, as almost to dispose him to cast off all concern about religion and all fear of God. In the third place, he reproves his own folly in proceeding rashly and hastily to pronounce judgment, merely from a view of the present state of things, and shows the necessity of exercising patience, that our faith may not fail under these troubles and disquietudes. At last he concludes that, provided we leave the providence of God to take its own course, in the way which he has determined in his secret purpose, “Pourveu que nous laissions la providence de Dieu tenir sa procedure par les degrez, qu’il a determinez en son conseil secret.” — Fr. in the end, matters will assume a very different aspect, and it will be seen, that, on the one hand, the righteous are not defrauded of their reward, and that, on the other, the wicked do not escape the hand of the judge.

A Psalm of Asaph.

Psalm 73:1-3

1. Yet God is good to Israel, to those who are right of heart. 2. As for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped. 3. For I envied the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

As to the author of this psalm, I am not disposed to contend very strongly, although I think it probable that the name of Asaph was prefixed to it because the charge of singing it was committed to him, while the name of David, its author, was omitted, just as it is usual for us, when things are well known of themselves, not to be at the trouble of stating them. How much profit we may derive from meditation upon the doctrine contained in this psalm, it is easy to discover from the example of the prophet, who, although he had been exercised in no ordinary degree in true godliness, yet had great difficulty in keeping his footing, while reeling to and fro on the slippery ground on which he found himself placed. Nay, he acknowledges that, before he returned to such soundness of mind as enabled him to form a just judgment of the things which occasioned his trial, he had fallen into a state of almost brutish stupidity. As to ourselves, experience shows how slight impressions we have of the providence of God. We no doubt all agree in admitting that the world is governed by the hand of God; but were this truth deeply rooted in our hearts, our faith would be distinguished by far greater steadiness and perseverance in surmounting the temptations with which we are assailed in adversity. But when the smallest temptation which we meet with dislodges this doctrine from our minds, it is manifest that we have not yet been truly and in good earnest convinced of its truth.

Besides, Satan has numberless artifices by which he dazzles our eyes and bewilders the mind; and then the confusion of things which prevails in the world produces so thick a mist, as to render it difficult for us to see through it, and to come to the conclusion that God governs and extends his care to things here below. The ungodly for the most part triumph; and although they deliberately stir up God to anger and provoke his vengeance, yet from his sparing them, it seems as if they had done nothing amiss in deriding him, and that they will never be called to account for it. “Il semble qu’ils ont bon marche de se mocquer de luy, et qu’il n’en sera autre chose.” — Fr. On the other hand, the righteous, pinched with poverty, oppressed with many troubles, harassed by multiplied wrongs, and covered with shame and reproach, groan and sigh: and in proportion to the earnestness with which they exert themselves in endeavoring to do good to all men, is the liberty which the wicked have the effrontery to take in abusing their patience. When such is the state of matters, where shall we find the person who is not sometimes tempted and importuned by the unholy suggestion, that the affairs of the world roll on at random, and as we say, are governed by chance? “Que le monde tourne a l’aventure, et (comme on dit) est gouverne par fortune?” — Fr. This unhallowed imagination has doubtless obtained complete possession of the minds of the unbelieving, who are not illuminated by the Spirit of God, and thereby led to elevate their thoughts to the contemplation of eternal life. Accordingly, we see the reason why Solomon declares, that since “all things come alike to all, and there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked,” the hearts of the sons of men are full of impiety and contempt of God, (Ecclesiastes 9:2, 3;) — the reason is, because they do not consider that things apparently so disordered are under the direction and government of God.

Some of the heathen philosophers discoursed upon, and maintained the doctrine of a Divine Providence; but it was evident from experience that they had notwithstanding no real and thorough persuasion of its truth; for when things fell out contrary to their expectation, they openly disavowed what they had previously professed. “Ce poinct de doctrine, lequel ils avoyent fait mine de tenir bien resoluement.” — Fr. “This doctrine, which they had made a show of holding very resolutely.” Of this we have a memorable example in Brutus. We can hardly conceive of a man surpassing him in courage, and all who intimately knew him bore testimony to his distinguished wisdom. Being of the sect of the Stoic philosophers, he spake many excellent things in commendation of the power and providence of God; and yet when at length vanquished by Antony, he cried out, that whatever he had believed concerning virtue had no foundation in truth, but was the mere invention of men, and that all the pains taken to live honestly and virtuously was only so much lost labor, since fortune rules over all the affairs of mankind. Thus this personage, who was distinguished for heroic courage, and an example of wonderful resolution, in renouncing virtue, and under the name of it cursing God, shamefully fell away. Hence it is manifest, how the sentiments of the ungodly fluctuate with the fluctuation of events. And how can it be expected that the heathen, who are not regenerated by the Spirit of God, should be able to resist such powerful and violent assaults, when even God’s own people have need of the special assistance of his grace to prevent the same temptation from prevailing in their hearts, and when they are sometimes shaken by it and ready to fall; even as David here confesses, that his steps had well nigh slipped? But let us now proceed to the consideration of the words of the psalm.

1. Yet God is good to Israel. The adverb אך, This particle here expresses the state of mind of a person meditating a difficult question in which he is much interested, and is hardly come to a conclusion; — a state, in the Psalmist’s case, between hope and despair, though strongly inclining to the former.” — Horsley. ach, does not here imply a simple affirmation certainly, as it often does in other places, but is taken adversatively for yet, notwithstanding, or some similar word. David opens the psalm abruptly; and from this we learn, what is worthy of particular notice, that before he broke forth into this language, his mind had been agitated with many doubts and conflicting suggestions. As a brave and valiant champion, he had been exercised in very painful struggles and temptations; but, after long and arduous exertion, he at length succeeded in shaking off all perverse imaginations, and came to the conclusion that yet God is gracious to his servants, and the faithful guardian of their welfare. Thus these words contain a tacit contrast between the unhallowed imaginations suggested to him by Satan, and the testimony in favor of true religion with which he now strengthens himself, denouncing, as it were, the judgment of the flesh, in giving place to misgiving thoughts with respect to the providence of God. We see then how emphatic is this exclamation of the Psalmist. He does not ascend into the chair to dispute after the manner of the philosophers, and to deliver his discourse in a style of studied oratory; but, as if he had escaped from hell, he proclaims, with a loud voice, and with impassioned feeling, that he had obtained the victory. To teach us by his own example the difficulty and arduousness of the conflict, he opens, so to speak, his heart and bowels, and would have us to understand something more than is expressed by the words which he employs. The amount of his language is, that although God, to the eye of sense and reason, may seem to neglect his servants, yet he always embraces them with his favor. He celebrates the providence of God, especially as it is extended towards genuine saints; to show them, not only that they are governed by God in common with other creatures, but that he watches over their welfare with special care, even as the master of a family carefully provides for and attends to his own household. God, it is true, governs the whole world; but he is graciously pleased to take a more close and peculiar inspection of his Church, which he has undertaken to maintain and defend.

This is the reason why the prophet speaks expressly of Israel; and why immediately after he limits this name to those who are right of heart; which is a kind of correction of the first sentence; for many proudly lay claim to the name of Israel, as if they constituted the chief members of the Church, while they are but Ishmaelites and Edomites. David, therefore, with the view of blotting out from the catalogue of the godly all the degenerate children of Abraham, “Ceux qui estans descendus d’Abraham n’ensuyvoyent point sa sainctete.” — Fr. “Those who being descended from Abraham did not follow his holiness.” acknowledges none to belong to Israel but such as purely and uprightly worship God; as if he had said, “When I declare that God is good to his Israel, I do not mean all those who, resting contented with a mere external profession, bear the name of Israelites, to which they have no just title; but I speak of the spiritual children of Abraham, who consecrate themselves to God with sincere affection of heart.” Some explain the first clause, God is good to Israel, as referring to his chosen people; and the second clause, to those who are right of heart, as referring to strangers, to whom God would be gracious, provided they walked in true uprightness. But this is a frigid and forced interpretation. It is better to adhere to that which I have stated. David, in commending the goodness of God towards the chosen people and the Church, was under the necessity of cutting off from their number many hypocrites who had apostatised from the service of God, and were, therefore, unworthy of enjoying his fatherly favor. To his words corresponds the language of Christ to Nathanael, (John 1:47,) “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” As the fear of God among the Jews was at that time well nigh extinguished, and there remained among them almost nothing else but the “circumcision made with hands,” that is to say, outward circumcision, Christ, to discriminate between the true children of Abraham and hypocrites, lays it down as a distinguishing characteristic of the former, that they are free from guile. And assuredly in the service of God, no qualification is more indispensable than uprightness of heart.

PSALM 73

Psa 73:1-28. Of Asaph--(see Introduction). God is good to His people. For although the prosperity of the wicked, and the afflictions of the righteous, tempted the Psalmist to misgivings of God's government, yet the sudden and fearful ruin of the ungodly, seen in the light of God's revelation, reassures his heart; and, chiding himself for his folly, he is led to confide renewedly in God, and celebrate His goodness and love.

1. The abrupt announcement of the theme indicates that it is the conclusion of a perplexing mental conflict, which is then detailed (compare Jr 12:1-4).

Truly--or, "Surely it is so."

clean heart--(Psa 18:26) describes the true Israel.

2. The figures express his wavering faith, by terms denoting tottering and weakness (compare Psa 22:5; 62:3).

3-9. The prosperous wicked are insolently proud (compare Psa 5:5). They die, as well as live, free from perplexities: pride adorns them, and violence is their clothing; indeed they are inflated with unexpected success. With all this--

10-12. Hence God's people are confounded, turned hither (or back) and thither, perplexed with doubts of God's knowledge and care, and filled with sorrow.

13-14. The Psalmist, partaking of these troubles, is especially disturbed in view of his own case, that with all his diligent efforts for a holy life, he is still sorely tried.

15. Freed from idiomatic phrases, this verse expresses a supposition, as, "Had I thus spoken, I should," &c., intimating that he had kept his troubles to himself.

generation of thy children--Thy people (1Jo 3:1).

offend--literally, "deceive, mislead."

16-17. Still he--

thought--literally, "studied," or, "pondered this riddle"; but in vain; it remained a toil (compare Margin), till he--

18-20. their end--future (Psa 37:37, 38), which is dismal and terribly sudden (Pr 1:27; 29:1), aggravated and hastened by terror. As one despises an unsubstantial dream, so God, waking up to judgment (Psa 7:6; 44:23), despises their vain shadow of happiness (Psa 39:6; Is 29:7). They are thrown into ruins as a building falling to pieces (Psa 74:3).

21-22. He confesses how--

foolish--literally, "stupid," and

ignorant--literally, "not discerning," had been his course of thought.

23. Still he was with God, as a dependent beneficiary, and so kept from falling (Psa 73:2).

24. All doubts are silenced in confidence of divine guidance and future glory.

receive me to glory--literally, "take for (me) glory" (compare Psa 68:18; Ep 4:8).

25-26. God is his only satisfying good.

27-28. The lot of apostates, described by a figure of frequent use (Jr 3:1, 3; Eze 23:35), is contrasted with his, who finds happiness in nearness to God (Jas 4:8), and his delightful work the declaration of His praise.

Truly God is good to Israel - Captives as they were, they still had many blessings from God; and they had promises of deliverance, which must be fulfilled in due time.

Such as are of a clean heart - Those who have a clean heart must have inward happiness: and, because they resemble God, they can never be forsaken by him.

My feet were almost gone - I had nearly given up my confidence. I was ready to find fault with the dispensations of providence; and thought the Judge of all the earth did not do right.

I was envious at the foolish - I saw persons who worshipped not the true God, and others who were abandoned to all vices, in possession of every temporal comfort, while the godly were in straits, difficulties, and affliction. I began then to doubt whether there was a wise providence; and my mind became irritated. It seems to have been a maxim among the ancient heathens, Θεου ονειδος τους κακους ευδαιμονειν, "The prosperity of the wicked is a reproach to the gods." But they had no just conception of a state of future rewards and punishments. Besides, man could not bear prosperity. If men had uninterrupted comforts here, perhaps not one soul would ever seek a preparation for heaven. Human trials and afflictions, the general warfare of human life, are the highest proof of a providence as benevolent as it is wise. Were the state of human affairs different from what it is, hell would be more thickly peopled; and there would be fewer inhabitants in glory. There is reason to doubt whether there would be any religion upon earth had we nothing but temporal prosperity. Indeed, all the following verses are proofs of it.

No bands in their death - Many of the godly have sore conflicts at their death. Their enemy then thrusts sore at them that they may fall; or that their confidence in their God may be shaken. But of this the ungodly know nothing. Satan will not molest them; he is sure of his prey; they are entangled, and cannot now break their nets; their consciences are seared, they have no sense of guilt. If they think at all of another world, they presume on that mercy which they never sought, and of which they have no distinct notion. Perhaps, "they die without a sigh or a groan; and thus go off as quiet as a lamb" - to the slaughter.

Pride compasseth them about as a chain - Perhaps there is an allusion here to the office which some of them bore. Chains of gold, and golden rings, were ensigns of magistracy and civil power. As these chains encompassed their necks, or the rings their wrists and fingers, as the signs of the offices in virtue of which they acted; so חמס chamas, violence, oppressive conduct, encompassed them. They made no other use of their great power, than to oppress the poor and the needy; and to drive things to extremities. The Chaldee, instead of a chain, represents this as a crown or diadem, which they had formed out of the plunder of the poor and defenseless.

Their eyes stand out with fatness - "Their countenance is changed because of fatness." - Chaldee. By fatness, or corpulency, the natural lines of the face are changed, or rather obliterated. The characteristic distinctions are gone; and we see little remaining besides the human hog.

They have more than heart could wish - I doubt this translation. Whose heart ever said, I have enough, which had not its portion with God? It would be more literal to say, "They surpass the thoughts of their heart." They have more than they expected, though not more than they wish.

They are corrupt - ימיקו yamiku, they mock, act dissolutely.

And speak wickedly concerning oppression - They vindicate excessive acts of government: they push justice to its rigour. They neither show equity, lenity, nor mercy; they are cruel, and they vindicate their proceedings.

Set their mouth against the heavens - They blaspheme God, ridicule religion, mock at Providence, and laugh at a future state.

Their tongue walketh through the earth - They find fault with every thing; they traduce the memory of the just in heaven, and ridicule the saints that are upon earth. They criticize every dispensation of God.

Therefore his people return hither - There are very few verses in the Bible that have been more variously translated than this; and, like the man in the fable, they have blown the hot to cool it, and the cold to warm it. It has been translated, "Therefore God's people fall off to them; and thence they reap no small advantage." And, "Therefore let his people come before them; and waters in full measure would be wrung out from them." That is, "Should God's people come before them, they would squeeze them to the utmost; they would wring out all the juice in their bodies." The Chaldee has, "Therefore, are they turned against the people of the Lord, that they may bruise and beat them with mallets; that they may pour out to them abundance of tears." The Vulgate, "Therefore shall my people return here, and days of abundance shall be found by them." The Septuagint is the same. The Ethiopic, Arabic, and Syriac, nearly the same. The Hebrew text is, לכן ישוב עמו הלם ומי מלא ימצו למו lachen yashub ammo (עמי ammi) halom; umey male yimmatsu lamo; "Therefore shall my people be converted, where they shall find abundance of waters." That is, The people, seeing the iniquity of the Babylonians, and feeling their oppressive hand, shall be converted to me; and I shall bring them to their own land, where they shall find an abundance of all the necessaries of life. I believe this to be the meaning; and thus we find their afflictions were sanctified to them; for they obliged them to return to God, and then God caused them to return to their own land. The Vulgate translates ומי מלא umey male, "abundance of waters," by et dies pleni, "and days of plenty;" for it has read ימי yemey, days, for ומי umey, and waters. Almost all the Versions support this reading; but it is not acknowledged by any MS. The old Psalter is here mutilated.

They say, How doth God know? - My people are so stumbled with the prosperity of the wicked, that they are ready in their temptation to say, "Surely, God cannot know these things, or he would never dispense his favors thus." Others consider these words as the saying of the wicked: "We may oppress these people as we please, and live as we list; God knows nothing about it."

These are the ungodly - The people still speak. It is the ungodly that prosper, the irreligious and profane.

I have cleansed my heart in vain - It is no advantage to us to worship the true God, to walk according to the law of righteousness, and keep the ordinances of the Most High.

For all the day long have I been plagued - Far from enjoying worldly prosperity, we are not only poor, but we are afflicted also; and every succeeding day brings with it some new trouble.

If I say, I will speak thus - I have at last discovered that I have reasoned incorrectly; and that I have the uniform testimony of all thy children against me. From generation to generation they have testified that the Judge of all the earth does right; they have trusted in thee, and were never confounded. They also met with afflictions and sore trials, but thou didst bring them safely through all, didst sustain them in the worst, and sanctifiedst the whole to their eternal good.

When I thought to know this - When I reviewed the history of our fathers, I saw that, though thou hadst from time to time hidden thy face because of their sins, yet thou hadst never utterly abandoned them to their adversaries; and it was not reasonable to conclude that thou wouldst do now what thou hadst never done before; and yet the continuance of our captivity, the oppressive hardships which we suffer, and the small prospect there is of release, puzzle me again. These things have been very painful to me.

Until I went into the sanctuary - Until, in the use of thy ordinances, I entered into a deep consideration of thy secret counsels, and considered the future state of the righteous and the wicked; that the unequal distribution of temporal good and evil argued a future judgment; that the present is a state of trial; and that God exercises his followers according to his godly wisdom and tender mercy. Then light sprang up in my mind, and I was assured that all these exercises were for our benefit, and that the prosperity of the wicked here was a prelude to their destruction. And this I saw to be their end.

That this Psalm was written during the captivity, there is little room to doubt. How then can the psalmist speak of the sanctuary? There was none at Babylon; and at Jerusalem it had been long since destroyed? There is no way to solve this difficulty but by considering that מקדשי mikdeshey may be taken in the sense of holy places - places set apart for prayer and meditation. And that the captives had such places in them captivity, there can be no doubt; and the place that is set apart to meet God in, for prayer, supplication, confession of sin, and meditation, is holy unto the Lord; and is, therefore, his sanctuary, whether a house or the open field. Calmet thinks by holy meditations a view of the Divine secrets, to which he refers, Psa 73:24, is here meant.

Thou didst set them on slippery places - Affluence is a slippery path; few have ever walked in it without falling. It is possible to be faithful in the unrighteous mammon, but it is very difficult. No man should desire riches; for they bring with them so many cares and temptations as to be almost unmanageabe. Rich men, even when pious, are seldom happy; they do not enjoy the consolations of religion. A good man, possessed of very extensive estates, unblamable in his whole deportment, once said to me: "There must be some strange malignity in riches thus to keep me in continual bondage, and deprive me of the consolations of the Gospel." Perhaps to a person to whom his estates are a snare, the words of our Lord may be literally applicable: "Sell what thou hast, and give to the poor; and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up thy cross, and follow me." But he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions! May we not then say with the psalmist, Surely thou digest set them in slippery places, etc.?

Are they brought into desolation - This is often a literal fact. I have known several cases where persons, very rich, have by sudden losses been brought into desolation as in a moment; in consequence of which they were utterly consumed in terrors.

As a dream when one awaketh - So their goods fled away. Their possession was a dream - their privation, real.

Thou shalt despise their image - While destitute of true religion, whatever appearance they had of greatness, nobility, honor, and happiness; yet in the sight of God they had no more than the ghost or shade of excellence which God is said here to despise. Who would be rich at such risk and dishonor?

Thus may heart was grieved - The different views which I got of this subject quite confounded me; I was equally astonished at their sudden overthrow and my own ignorance. I felt as if I were a beast in stupidity. I permitted my mind to be wholly occupied with sensible things, like the beasts that perish and did not look into a future state; nor did I consider, nor submit to, the wise designs of an unerring Providence.

I am continually with thee - I now see that myself and my people are under thy guardian care; that we are continually upheld by thee; and while in thy right hand, we shall not be utterly cast down.

Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel - After we have suffered awhile, receiving directions and consolations from thy good Spirit, by means of thy prophets, who are in the same captivity with ourselves; thou wilt grant us deliverance, restore us to our own land, and crown us with honor and happiness. Any sincere follower of God may use these words in reference to this and the coming world. Thy counsel - thy Word and Spirit, shall guide me through life; and when I have done and suffered thy righteous will, thou wilt receive me into thy eternal glory.

Whom have I in heaven but thee? - The original is more emphatic: מי לי בשמים ועמך לא חפצתי בארץ mi li bashshamayim; veimmecha lo chaphatsti baarets. "Who is there to me in the heavens? And with thee I have desired nothing in the earth." No man can say this who has not taken God for his portion in reference to both worlds.

My flesh - faileth - I shall soon die: and my heart - even my natural courage, will fail; and no support but what is supernatural will then be available. Therefore, he adds:

God is the strength of my heart - Literally, the rock of my heart.

And my portion - Allusion is here made to the division of the promised land. I ask no inheritance below; I look for one above. I do not look for this in the possession of any place; it is God alone that can content the desires and wishes of an immortal spirit. And even this would not satisfy, had I not the prospect of its being for ever, לעולם leolum, "to eternity!'

They that are far from thee shall perish - The term perish is generally used to signify a coming to nothing, being annihilated; and by some it is thus applied to the finally impenitent, they shall all be annihilated. But where is this to be found in the Scriptures? In no part, properly understood. In the new heavens and the new earth none of the wicked shall be found; for therein dwells righteousness - nothing but God and righteous spirits; but at the same time the wicked shall be in their own place. And to suppose that they shall be annihilated, is as great a heresy, though scarcely so absurd, as to believe that the pains of damnation are emendatory, and that hellfire shall burn out. There is presumptive evidence from Scripture to lead us to the conclusion, that if there be not eternal punishment, glory will not be eternal; as the same terms are used to express the duration of both. No human spirit that is not united to God can be saved. Those who are Far from Thee shall perish - they shall be lost, undone, ruined, and that without remedy. Being separated from God by sin, they shall never be rejoined; the great gulf must be between them and their Maker eternally.

All them that go a whoring from thee - That is, all that worship false gods; all idolaters. This is the only meaning of the word in such a connection. I have explained this elsewhere.

It is good for me to draw near - We have already seen that those who are far off shall perish; therefore, it is ill for them. Those who draw near - who come in the true spirit of sacrifice, and with the only available offering, the Lord Jesus, shall be finally saved; therefore, it is good for them.

I have put my trust in the Lord God - I confide in Jehovah, my Prop and Stay. I have taken him for my portion.

That I may declare all thy works - That I may testify to all how good it is to draw nigh to God; and what a sufficient portion he is to the soul of man.

The Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic, add, in the gates of the daughter of Sion. These words appear to make a better finish; but they are not acknowledged by any Hebrew MS.

A clean heart - To all true Israelites, who love God, and serve him in spirit and truth.

My feet - My faith in God's providence, was almost overthrown.

No bands - They are not dragged to death, by the sentence of the magistrate, which they deserve.

As other men - As good men frequently are.

And speak - Boasting of their oppressions.

Against - Against God, blaspheming his name, and deriding his providence. Walketh - Using all manner of liberty, reproaching all sorts of persons.

Turn - To this wicked company. Waters - And partake of the same prosperity with their leaders. God seems to give them a full cup of consolation, as if he would wring out all his blessings upon them.

Behold - These seem to be the words of the psalmist, summing up the matter.

In vain - Hence I was sometimes tempted, to think that religion was a vain, unprofitable thing. True religion is here described by its two principal parts, the cleansing of the heart, and the hands.

Offend - By grieving, discouraging and tempting them to revolt from God.

To know - To find out the reason of this providence.

Until - 'Till I consulted the word of God. He alludes to the practice of those times, which was, in difficult cases to resort to God's sanctuary, and the oracle therein. Their end - There I learned that their prosperity was short.

Terrors - With God's dreadful judgements unexpectedly seizing upon them.

They awake - Out of the pleasant dream of this vain life. Despise - Thou shalt make them despicable both to themselves and to all others; raise them to shame, and everlasting contempt. Image - All their felicity and glory, which shall be evidently discerned to be, no real or substantial thing, but a mere image or shadow.

Pricked - I was deeply wounded with disquieting thoughts.

Nevertheless - Although I gave thee just cause to cast me off, yet thou didst continue thy care and kindness to me. Hast held - That my faith might not fail.

Go a whoring - Those who revolt from thee, to work wickedness; which is called whoredom in scripture.

1. [illegible: 1+ letters] TRuly God is good to Israel , even to such as are of a clean heart .

Or, [illegible: 1 word]. The beginning is abrupt, and sufficiently [illegible: 1+ letters]tes that he had a great conflict within himself about this Matter, and that many doubts and Objections were raised in his mind concerning it. But at last he breaks forth like the Sun out of a Cloud, and having by God's Grace silenced and Conquered his scruples, he lays down this following Conclusion.

Though he may sometimes seem negligent of, and harsh and severe to his People, yet if all things be considered it is most certain, and another day will be made manifest, that God is Really and Superlatively good, (i. e.) Most kind and bountiful and a true Friend to them, and that they are most happy in him, and have no Reason to Envy sinners, their present and seeming Felicity.

To all true Israelites, who love God with their whole Heart, and serve him in Spirit and Truth, and uprightness. See Iob. 4. 43. Rom. 2. 28, 29. So this Clause limits the former, and takes off a great part of the force of the Objection, even all that concerns the Calamities, which befel the profane or False-hearted Israelites, which were vastly the greatest number of that People.

Marginal references: ‖ Or, [illegible: 1 word].; Heb. clean of [illegible: 1 word].

2 But as for me , my feet were almost gone : my steps had well nigh slipt .

Yet I must acknowledge this with grief and shame concerning my self, notwithstanding all my Knowledge of this Truth, and my own Experience and Observation of God's gracious dealings with me, and other good Men.

My Faith in God's Promises and Providence, was almost overthrown by the force of this Temptation; and I was almost ready to repent of my Piety, v. 13. and to follow the example of ungodly Men.

Heb. Were almost poured forth, like Water upon the ground which is unstable, and Runs hither and thither, with great disorder and uncertainty, till it be irrecoverably lost. So was I almost Transported by my own unruly Passion[illegible: 1+ letters], into unworthy Thoughts of God, and a sinful Course of Life.

3 For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked .

I grudged and murmured at it, and had a secret Desire to partake of their Delicates.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] 21. 7. Psal. 37. 1. Jer. 12. 1.

4 For there are no bands in their death , but their strength is firm .

They are not dragged to Death, neither by the Hand and Sentence of the Magistrate, which yet they deserve; nor by any lingring and grievous Torments of Mind or Body, which is the Case of many good Men; but they enjoy a sweet and quiet Death, dropping into the Grave, like ripe Fruit from the Tree, without any Violence used to them. Compare Iob 5. 26. and 21. 13.

Heb. and their strength is fat, (i. e.) Sound and good: the best of any thing being called Fat in Scripture, as Gen. 41. 2. D[illegible: 1+ letters]n. 1. 15. And in their Life-time, they have great Ease and Health, and Content, till they expire like a Lamp, meerly for want of Moysture.

Marginal references: Heb. Fat.

5 They are not in trouble as other men : neither are they plagued like other men.

Either, 1. As good Men frequently are. Or, 2. As Men generally are. They do by a secret and favourable Providence of God, escape even common Calamities.

Marginal references: Heb. in the Trouble of other Men.; Heb. with.

6. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain ; violence covereth them as a garment.

This Phrase notes both the extent of their Pride, which appears on every side of them, in their Countenances, Discourses, Gestures, &c. and their glorying in it. The like may be said of the next Phrase.

7 Their eyes stand out with fatness , they have more than heart could wish.

As they do in some fat Persons, though not in others. The meaning is: They live in great Plenty and Prosperity, as the next Clause explains it.

Marginal references: Psal. 119. 70.; Heb. they pass the Thoughts of the Heart.

8 They are corrupt , and speak wickedly concerning oppression : they speak loftily .

Or, dissolved in Pleasure. Or, they Corrupt themselves.

Wickedly boasting of their Oppressions; Either, of what they have done; or of what they intend to do, in that kind.

Arrogantly, presuming upon their own strength, and despising both God and Men.

9 They set their mouth against the heavens ; and their tongue walketh through the earth .

(i. e.) Against God, blaspheming his Name, denying or deriding his Providence, reviling his Saints and Servants.

Using all manner of Liberty, introducing and reproaching all sorts of Persons, not caring whom they displease, or hurt by it.

10 Therefore his people return hither : and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them .

Either, 1. The people of those wicked Blasphemers; all their Children and Servants, and Friends, encouraged by their Example. Or rather, 2. The people of God, who is oft understood under the pronoun Relative, he or his, though he be not expressed, as Psal. 105. 19. Isa. 30. 23. See the like, Psal. 87. 1. Cant. 1. 2. But then as God's People are of two sorts, some that are so really and sincerely, and others that are so onely in Profession and shew, in which Sence the whole Body of the Israelitish Nation, yea even the wicked among them, are called his People, as Psal. 81. 11. Isa. 1. 3. Ier. 2. 11. &c. so this may be understood; Either, 1. Of those true Israelites, v. 1. Even the godly were startled and stumbled at this, as David was, Psal. 37. and Ieremy Ch. 12. But although they might have some murmuring Thoughts about this Matter, it seems not probable that they would either give Way to such Thoughts, or break forth into such Expressions as are here ascribed to them, v. 11. nor are such things to be imputed to them without necessity; nor did either David or Ieremy in their Conflicts, utter any thing of this Nature. Or rather, 2. Of the Carnal and Hypocritical Israelites, who perceiving the impunity and Prosperity of these ungodly Wretches, were easily drawn to the Approbation and imitation of their Courses. And this may seem most suitable to the Context; for the Description of the Condition, and Carriage, and Words of these ungodly men, which begins v. 4. seems to be continued to v. 13. then follows the Psalmist's reflection and Consideration upon the whole Matter, from v. 13. to the end.

Or, turn hither, (i e.) To this wicked Company, or to their Course.

Waters in Scripture, do oft times signifie Afflictions, and as oft Comforts and Mercies. So the Sence may be; Either, 1. And whilst the wicked prosper, God doth wring out Waters out of the Cup of Tribulation, and causeth his holy Ones to drink them up: Compare Psal. 75. 8. and 80. 5. Isa. 51. 17. Ier. 25. 15. &c. Or rather, 2. And those Hypocritical Israel's, find themselves gainers by their Apostacy, and they partake of the same Prosperity with their Leaders, and God seems to give them a full Cup of Consolation, and to pour forth his Mercies upon them in such abundance, as if he would wring or squeeze out all his Blessings, out of his stores, to bestow upon them. And meeting with such success to their Wickedness, it is not strange if they put that question, v. 11.

11 And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High !

Either, 1. The godly. Or rather, 2. Those wicked ones, whose Words and Actions he hath been hitherto describing, or the People Confederate with them. For these and such like opinions are oft ascribed to the wicked in Scripture, but never, as far as I know, to any good man. And Iob, though he used many intemperate Speeches, and though some such Expressions as this were charged upon him by his Friends, as Iob 22. 13 yet he utterly disowned them

Seeing these cursed and impudent Blasphemers of God, and Enemies of all goodness are Crowned with so many Blessings, how is it Credible, that there is a God who sees and Orders the Affairs of this lower World? For if God did know these things, certainly he neither could or would suffer them to be thus managed.

12 Behold these are the ungodly , who prosper in the world, they encrease in riches.

This is their Condition and Carriage in it. These seem to be the Words of the Psalmist, summing up the Matter, and preparing his passage to the other part of the Psalm.

13 Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain b, and washed my hands in innocency .

(i. e.) Kept my Hands (the great Instrument of Action, and consequently the rest of the Members of my Body) innocent and pure from evil Practises. I have washed my Hands, not onely Ceremonially with water, wherewith Hypocrites satisfie themselves, but also Morally, or with the Waters of God's Grace and Spirit, Innocency or Purity.

l Hence I was sometimes tempted, to think that Religion was a vain and unprofitable thing, at least as to the Happiness of this Life, which yet God had promised as a reward to Piety. True Religion is here fitly and fully described by its two Principal parts and works, the cleansing of the Heart from sinful Lusts and Passions, and of the Hands, or outward Man from a Course of sinful Actions. And although it be God's work to cleanse the Heart, yet he saith; I have cleansed it, because every good man doth Cooperate with God's Grace in cleansing it. Compare 2 Cor. 6. 1. and 7. 1.

Marginal references: Job. 21. 15. & 34. 9. & 35. 3.; Psal. 26. 6.

14 For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning .

Whilst their ungodliness hath been attended with constant Prosperity, my Piety hath been exercised with continual Afflictions.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word] Cha [illegible: 1+ letters] was.

15 If I say, I will speak thus : behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children .

I will give Sentence for the ungodly in this manner.

By grieving and discouraging and Condemning them, and by tempting them to revolt from God, and Godliness. But because the Hebrew Verb, Bagad, in this Sence is always, so far as I have observed, Construed with the Proposition, Beth, which is not here; and is constantly put before that Proposition and Word which it governs, and not after, as here it is, I rather joyn with them, who render the place thus; which is more agreeable to the Words and Order of the Text, Behold the Generation of thy Children, (or, Behold these are the Generation of thy Children, as appears by thy fatherly Care of, and indulgence and kindness to them, whilst thou dost at present seem to treat them like Bastards, who are more truly called thy Children, dealing roughly and severely with them.) I shall (or rather, should, to wit, in speaking so) Transgress or Prevaricate, speak against the Truth, and against my own Conscience, which assureth me that these are the haters of God, and hated and Cursed by him.

16 When I thought to know this , it was too painful for me .

To find out the Reason of this Mysterious Course of thy Providence.

I was gravel'd with the Difficulty.

Marginal references: Heb. it was [illegible: 1 word] in mine [illegible: 1 word].

17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God , then understood I their end .

Till I consulted with the Oracle, or Word of God. He alludes to the Practise of those times, which was, in dark and difficult Cases, to resort to God's Sanctuary, and the Oracle in it for satisfaction.

There I learned that their Prosperity was short, and would quickly have an End, and that a most dismal and terrible one, that their fair Morning would be followed with a black and dreadful Enemy, and an everlasting Night.

18 Surely thou didst set them in slippery places , thou castest them down into destruction .

Their Happiness hath no firm Foundation, is was very unstable, like a mans standing in very slippery ground.

The same hand which raised them, will cast them down into the Pit of utter Destruction.

Marginal references: Psal. 35. 6.

19 How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment ? they are utterly consumed with terrors .

Their fall is wonderful both for its soreness, and for its suddenness.

Either, with the Horrors of their own Minds: Or rather, with God's dreadful Judgments unexpectedly seizing upon them.

20 As a dream when one awaketh , so, O LORD, when thou awakest thou shalt despise their image .

Their Happiness is like that in a Dream, wherein a man seems to be highly pleased and Transported with Ravishing Delights, but when he awakes he finds himself deceived and unsatisfied.

(i. e.) Stir up thy self to punish them. Or rather, when they shall awake, out of the pleasant Dream, of this vain sinful Life, by Death, and following it. For this seems to agree best with the Metaphor here before mentioned. And the Hebrew words being onely these, in awaking, may be applied; Either to God, or to them, as the Context directs.

Not so much Really, for so God ever did despise it, in the height of all their Glory, but declaratively, things being oft said to be done in Scripture when they appear, or are manifested; as hath been more then once noted. Thou shall pour Contempt upon them, make them despicable both to themselves, and to all others, and raise them to Shame, and everlasting Contempt, as is said, Dan. 12. 2.

(i. e.) All their Felicity and Glory, which as indeed it ever was, so now it shall be Evidently discerned to be, no Real or Substantial and solid thing, but a meer image or shadow, or vain shew, which can neither abide with them, nor yield satisfaction to them. See Psal. 39. 6. Act. 25. 23. where what is rendred, Pomp in the Greek signifies a meer Fancy or Imagination. 1 Cor. 7. 31.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1+ letters]ob 20. 8.; Psal. 7. 6:

21 Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins .

So as I have above expressed; for this Particle so taken, doth not belong to what he had now wisely and piously said in the next foregoing Verses, but to what he had unadvisedly spoken in the former Verses, as is Evident from the following Verse. Or, Nevertheless, as this Particle is oft used. Although I knew very well that the Prosperity of sinners would have a sudden and Dismal end, yet I was so foolish as to be grieved at it.

I was heartily and deeply wounded with disquieting Thoughts, and tormenting Passions, Envy and Sorrow, and Anger.

22 So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee .

Heb. Beasts, which may signifie a great Beast, a most stupid and sottish Creature, like one not onely void of Grace, but of Reason too: For Reason it self, especially assisted by the Holy Scriptures; did sufficiently discover that, all things considered, I had no sufficient cause to Envy the Prosperity of wicked Men. I minded onely present things, as the Brutes do, and did not consider things to come, as reasonable Creatures do, and ought to do.

In thy sight or Judgment, and therefore in Truth, Rom. 2. 2. howsoever I seemed to my self or others, to have some degree of Reason and Discre[illegible: 1+ letters]on.

Marginal references: Psal. 92. 6.; Heb. I knew not.; Heb. with thee.

23 Nevertheless I am continually with thee , thou hast holden me by my right hand .

Notwithstanding all my Temptations, and my gross folly in yielding to them.

Either, 1. In a way of Duty; Yet I did not depart from thee, nor from thy ways, but did at last Conquer them, and firmly cleave unto thee by Faith. Or rather, 2. In a way of Mercy and Favour, of which he speaks in the next Clause of this, and in the following Verse. Although I gave thee just cause to cast thee off, yet thou didst continue thy gracious Presence with me, and thy Care and Kindness to me. And this Phrase, with thee, seems to have some Emphasis in it, as being opposed to the other with thee, v. 22. I was a Beast with thee, such was my folly and Wickedness: and yet, I was in Favour with thee, such was thy goodness: thou didst pardon and Cure it.

That my Faith might not fail, and I might not be overthrown by this, or any other Temptations.

Marginal references: * Or, w[illegible: 1+ letters] ▪

24 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel , and afterward receive me to glory .

As thou hast kept me hitherto in all my Tryals, so I am assured thou wilt'st lead me still into right Paths, and keep me from wandring or straying from thee, or falling into Mischief.

Partly, by thy gracious Providence, executing thy purpose of Mercy to me, and watching over me: Partly, by thy word which thou wilst open mine Eyes to understand, as Psal. 119. 18. and Principally by thy Holy Spirit, sanctifying and directing me in the whole Course of my Life.

Either, 1. Advance me to honour here. Or rather, 2. Translate me to everlasting Glory in Heaven: For, 1. Thus God doth for his People most constantly and certainly, whilst all the Occurrences of the present Life, do happen indifferently to good and bad; which was the common Observation of Iob, and David, and Solomon, and other Holy men of God in Scripture, 2. This is far more Considerable than the former, and the more Satisfactory Relief against the present Prosperity of the wicked, and the Afflictions of good m[illegible: 1+ letters]n. 3. This future Glory is that Mystery which was to be learned onely in Gods Sanctuary, v. 17. 4. As the destruction of the wicked mentioned. v. 18, 19, 20. looks beyond this Life, so doth the Glory of God's People.

Marginal references: Or, with Glory. So [illegible: 1+ letters]r.

25 Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.

Or, in Earth, as it follows. There is no other Person no[illegible: 1+ letters] thing in the World, from which I can seek or hope for Happiness, or which I am willing to accept as my Portion. Let sinners have an earthly Prosperity, I am satisfied with thee, and with thy Favour. Since thou givest me support and Conduct here, and carriest me safe from hence to eternal Glory, what do I need more? Or what can I desire more?

Which words must necessarily be understood here from the next Clause, where they are expressed.

26 My flesh and my heart faileth , but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever .

In my self, I confess I am a poor weak Creature, and my Body and Spirit may fail, and be ready to faint under such Temptations and Tribulations as these, and I know I shall shortly return to the Dust, out of which I was taken.

But though I have no strength in my self, I have it in God, my neverfailing Refuge, to whom I will trust whilst I live, and who will be my Portion to Eternity.

Marginal references: Heb. Rock▪

27 For lo, they that are far from thee , shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee .

They that forsake thee, and thy ways preferring the Prosperity of this present evil World, before thy Love and Favour, and Service, they who estrange themselves form the Love and Life, and Acquaintance of God, that say to God, depart from us, for we desire not the Knowledge of thy ways, as they did, Iob 21. 14.

Thou wilst certainly and dreadfully destroy them.

Those who having prosessed Subjection to thee, shall afterwards revolt from thee, and sell themselves to work Wickedness; which is called [illegible: 1+ letters]horedom in Scripture. For none are more hateful to God, than wilful and wicked Apostates from the Principles and Practise of the true Religion, which once they▪ owned.

28 But it is good for me to draw near to God ; I have put my trust in the LORD GOD , that I may declare all thy works .

But whatsoever they do, I am abundantly satisfied, that it is as my Duty, so my Interest and Happiness to cleave unto thee, by Faith and Love, and Obedience, and diligent Attendance upon all thine Ordinances.

I depend upon him alone for all my Comfort and Felicity.

From which I know I shall have this benefit, that I shall have many and great occasions, to declare God's Acts of Mercy and Kindness to me.

Psa 73:1-2 אך, belonging to the favourite words of the faith that bids defiance to assault, signifies originally “thus = not otherwise,” and therefore combines an affirmative and restrictive, or, according to circumstances, even an adversative signification (vid., on Psa 39:6). It may therefore be rendered: yea good, assuredly good, or: only good, nothing but good; both renderings are an assertion of a sure, infallible relation of things. God appears to be angry with the godly, but in reality He is kindly disposed towards them, though He send affliction after affliction upon them (Lam 3:25). The words ישראל אלהים are not to be taken together, after Gal 6:16 (τὸν Ἰσραήλ τοῦ Θεοῦ); not, “only good is it with the Israel of Elohim,” but “only good to Israel is Elohim,” is the right apprehension of the truth or reality that is opposed to what seems to be the case. The Israel which in every relationship has a good and loving God is limited in Psa 73:1 to the pure in heart (Psa 24:4; Mat 5:8). Israel in truth are not all those who are descended from Jacob, but those who have put away all impurity of disposition and all uncleanness of sin out of their heart, i.e., out of their innermost life, and by a constant striving after sanctification (Psa 73:13) maintain themselves in such purity. In relation to this, which is the real church of God, God is pure love, nothing but love. This it is that has been confirmed to the poet as he passed through the conflict of temptation, but it was through conflict, for he almost fell by reason of the semblance of the opposite. The Chethîb נטוּי רגלי (cf. Num 24:4) or נטוּי (cf. 2Sa 15:32) is erroneous. The narration of that which is past cannot begin with a participial clause like this, and כּמעט, in such a sense (non multum abfuit quin, like כּאין, nihil abfuit quin), always has the perfect after it, e.g., Psa 94:17; Psa 119:87. It is therefore to be read נטיוּ (according to the fuller form for נטוּ, which is used not merely with great distinctives, as in Psa 36:8; Psa 122:6; Num 24:6, but also with conjunctives out of pause, e.g., Psa 57:2, cf. Psa 36:9, Deu 32:37; Job 12:6): my feet had almost inclined towards, had almost slipped backwards and towards the side. On the other hand the Chethîb שׁפּכה is unassailable; the feminine singular is frequently found as predicate both of a plural subject that has preceded (Psa 18:35, cf. Deu 21:7; Job 16:16) and also more especially of one that is placed after it, e.g., Psa 37:31; Job 14:19. The footsteps are said to be poured out when one “flies out or slips” and falls to the ground.

Psa 73:3-6

Now follows the occasion of the conflict of temptation: the good fortune of those who are estranged from God. In accordance with the gloominess of the theme, the style is also gloomy, and piles up the full-toned suffixes amo and emo (vid., Psa 78:66; Psa 80:7; Psa 83:12, Psa 83:14); both are after the example set by David. קנּא with Beth of the object ion which the zeal or warmth of feeling is kindled (Psa 37:1; Pro 3:31) here refers to the warmth of envious ill-feeling. Concerning הולל vid., Psa 5:6. Psa 73:3 tells under what circumsntaces the envy was excited; cf. so far as the syntax is concerned, Psa 49:6; Psa 76:11. In Psa 73:4 חרצצבּות (from חרצב = חצּב from חצב, cognate עצב, whence עצב, pain, Arabic ‛aṣâbe, a snare, cf. חבל, ὠδίς, and חבל σχοινίον), in the same sense as the Latin tormenta (from torquere), is intended of pains that produce convulsive contractions. But in order to give the meaning “they have no pangs (to suffer) till their death,” להם (למו) could not be omitted (that is, assuming also that ל, which is sometimes used for עד, vid., Psa 59:14, could in such an exclusive sense signify the terminus ad quem). Also “there are no pangs for their death, i.e., that bring death to them,” ought to be expressed by להם למּות. The clause as it stands affirms that their dying has no pangs, i.e., it is a painless death; but not merely does this assertion not harmonize with Psa 73:18., but it is also introduced too early here, since the poet cannot surely begin the description of the good fortune of the ungodly with the painlessness of their death, and then for the first time come to speak of their healthy condition. We may therefore read, with Ewald, Hitzig, Böttcher, and Olshausen: כי אין חרצבות למו תּם ובריא אולם i.e., they have (suffer) no pangs, vigorous (תּם like תּם, Job 21:23, תמים, Pro 1:12) and well-nourished is their belly; by which means the difficult למותם is got rid of, and the gloomy picture is enriched by another form ending with mo. אוּל, here in a derisive sense, signifies the body, like the Arabic allun , âlun (from âl , coaluit , cohaesit, to condense inwardly, to gain consistency).Hitzig calls to mind οὖλος, “corporeal;” but this word is Ionic and equivalent to ὅλος, solidus, the ground-word of which is the Sanscrit sarvas, whole, complete.

The observation of Psa 73:4 is pursued further in Psa 73:5 : whilst one would have thought that the godly formed an exception to the common wretchedness of mankind, it is just the wicked who are exempt from all trouble and calamity. It is also here to be written אינמו, as in Psa 59:14, not אינימו. Therefore is haughtiness their neck-chain, and brutishness their mantle. ענק is a denominative from ענק = αὐχήν: to hang round the neck; the neck is the seat of pride (αὐχεῖν): haughtiness hangs around their neck (like ענק, a neck-ornament). Accordingly in Psa 73:6 המס is the subject, although the interpunction construes it differently, viz., “they wrap round as a garment the injustice belonging to them,” in order, that is, to avoid the construction of יעטף (vid., Ps 65:14) with למו; but active verbs can take a dative of the object (e.g., אהב ל ,, רפא ל) in the sense: to be or to grant to any one that which the primary notion of the verb asserts. It may therefore be rendered: they put on the garment of violence (שׁית חמס like בּגדי נקם, Isa 59:17), or even by avoiding every enallage numeri: violence covers them as a garment; so that שׁית is an apposition which is put forth in advance.

Psa 73:7-10

The reading עונמו, ἡ ἀδικία αὐτῶν (lxx (cf. in Zec 5:6 the עינם, which is rendered by the lxx in exactly the same way), in favour of which Hitzig, Böttcher, and Olshausen decide, “their iniquity presses forth out of a fat heart, out of a fat inward part,” is favoured by Psa 17:10, where חלב obtains just this signification by combination with סגר, which it would obtain here as being the place whence sin issues; cf. ἐξέρχεσθαι ἐκ τῆς καρδίας, Mat 15:18.; and the parallelism decides its superiority. Nevertheless the traditional reading also gives a suitable sense; not (since the fat tends to make the eyes appear to be deeper in) “their eyes come forward prae adipe,” but, “they stare forth ex adipe, out of the fat of their bloated visage,” מחלב being equivalent to מחלב פּניהם, Job 15:27. This is a feature of the character faithfully drawn after nature. Further, just as in general τὸ περίσσευμα τῆς καρδίας wells over in the gestures and language (Mat 12:34), so is it also with their “views or images of the heart” (from שׂכה, like שׂכוי, the cock with its gift of divination as speculator): the illusions of their unbounded self-confidence come forth outwardly, they overflow after the manner of a river,On the other hand, Redslob (Deutsch. Morgenländ. Zeitschr. 1860, S. 675) interprets it thus: they run over the fencings of the heart, from שׂכה in the signification to put or stick through, to stick into (infigere), by comparing קירות לבּי, Jer 4:19, and ἕρκος ὀδόντων. He regards משׂכית sdrag and mosaic as one word, just as the Italian ricamare (to stitch) and רקם is one word. Certainly the root זך, Arab. zk, ḏk, has the primary notion of piercing (cf. זכר), and also the notion of purity, which it obtains, proceeds from the idea of the brilliance which pierces into the eye; but the primary notion of שׂכה is that of cutting through (whence שׂכּין, like מחלף, a knife, from חלף, Jdg 5:26). viz., as Psa 73:8 says, in words that are proud beyond measure (Jer 5:28). Luther: “they destroy everything” (synon. they make it as or into rottenness, from מקק). But חמיק is here equivalent to the Aramaic מיּק (μωκᾶσθαι): they mock and openly speak ברע (with ā in connection with Munach transformed from Dechî), with evil disposition (cf. Exo 32:12), oppression; i.e., they openly express their resolve which aims at oppression. Their fellow-man is the sport of their caprice; they speak or dictate ממּרום, down from an eminence, upon which they imagine themselves to be raised high above others. Even in the heavens above do they set (שׁתּוּ as in Psa 49:15 instead of שׁתוּ, - there, in accordance with tradition, Milel; here at the commencement of the verse Milra) their mouth; even these do not remain untouched by their scandalous language (cf. Jud 1:16); the Most High and Holy One, too, is blasphemed by them, and their tongue runs officiously and imperiously through the earth below, everywhere disparaging that which exists and giving new laws. תּהלך, as in Exo 9:23, a Kal sounding much like Hithpa., in the signification grassari. In Psa 73:10 the Chethîb ישׁיב (therefore he, this class of man, turns a people subject to him hither, i.e., to himself) is to be rejected, because הלם is not appropriate to it. עמּו is the subject, and the suffix refers not to God (Stier), whose name has not been previously mentioned, but to the kind of men hitherto described: what is meant is the people which, in order that it may turn itself hither (שׁוּב, not: to turn back, but to turn one’s self towards, as e.g., in Jer 15:19)In general שׁוּב does not necessarily signify to turn back, but, like the Arabic ‛âda, Persic gashten, to enter into a new (active or passive) state.) becomes his, i.e., this class’s people (cf. for this sense of the suffix as describing the issue or event, Psa 18:24; Psa 49:6; Psa 65:12). They gain adherents (Psa 49:14) from those who leave the fear of God and turn to them; and מי מלא, water of fulness, i.e., of full measure (cf. Psa 74:15, streams of duration = that do not dry up), which is here an emblem of their corrupt principles (cf. Job 15:16), is quaffed or sucked in (מצה, root מץ, whence first of all מצץ, Arab. mṣṣ, to suck) by these befooled ones (למו, αὐτοῖς = ὑπ ̓ αὐτῶν). This is what is meant to be further said, and not that this band of servile followers is in fulness absorbed by them (Sachs). Around the proud free-thinkers there gathers a rabble submissive to them, which eagerly drinks in everything that proceeds from them as though it were the true water of life. Even in David’s time (Psa 10:4; Psa 14:1; Psa 36:2) there were already such stout spirits (Isa 46:12) with a servûm imitatorum pecus. A still far more favourable soil for these לצים was the worldly age of Solomon.

Psa 73:11-14

The persons speaking are now those apostates who, deluded by the good fortune and free-thinking of the ungodly, give themselves up to them as slaves. concerning the modal sense of ידע, quomodo sciverit, vid., Psa 11:3, cf. Job 22:13. With וישׁ the doubting question is continued. Böttcher renders thus: nevertheless knowledge is in the Most High (a circumstantial clause like Pro 3:28; Mal 1:14; Jdg 6:13); but first of all they deny God’s actual knowledge, and then His attributive omniscience. It is not to be interpreted: behold, such are (according to their moral nature) the ungodly (אלּה, tales, like זה, Ps 48:15, Deu 5:26, cf. המּה, Isa 56:11); nor, as is more in accordance with the parallel member Psa 73:12 and the drift of the Psalm: behold, thus it befalleth the ungodly (such as they according to their lot, as in Job 18:21, cf. Isa 20:6); but, what forms a better connection as a statement of the ground of the scepticism in Psa 73:11, either, in harmony with the accentuation: behold, the ungodly, etc., or, since it is not הרשׁעים: behold, these are ungodly, and, ever reckless (Jer 12:1), they have acquired great power. With the bitter הנּה, as Stier correctly observes, they bring forward the obvious proof to the contrary. How can God be said to be the omniscient Ruler of the world? - the ungodly in their carnal security become very powerful and mighty, but piety, very far from being rewarded, is joined with nothing but misfortune. My striving after sanctity (cf. Pro 20:9), my abstinence from all moral pollution (cf. Pro 26:6), says he who has been led astray, has been absolutely (אך as in 1Sa 25:21) in vain; I was notwithstanding (Ew. §345, a) incessantly tormented (cf. Psa 73:5), and with every morning’s dawn (לבּקרים, as in Psa 101:8, cf. לבקרים in Job 7:18) my chastitive suffering was renewed. We may now supply the conclusion in thought in accordance with Psa 73:10 : Therefore have I joined myself to those who never concern themselves about God and at the same time get on better.

Psa 73:15-18

To such, doubt is become the transition to apostasy. The poet has resolved the riddle of such an unequal distribution of the fortunes of men in a totally different way. Instead of כּמו in Psa 73:15, to read כּמוהם (Böttcher), or better, by taking up the following הנה, which even Saadia allows himself to do, contrary to the accents (Arab. mṯl hḏâ), כּמו הנּה (Ewald), is unnecessary, since prepositions are sometimes used elliptically (כּעל, Isa 59:18), or even without anything further (Hos 7:16; Hos 11:7) as adverbs, which must therefore be regarded as possible also in the case of כּמו (Aramaic, Arabic כּמא, Aethiopic kem). The poet means to say, If I had made up my mind to the same course of reasoning, I should have faithlessly forsaken the fellowship of the children of God, and should consequently also have forfeited their blessings. The subjunctive signification of the perfects in the hypothetical protasis and apodosis, Psa 73:15 (cf. Jer 23:22), follows solely from the context; futures instead of perfects would signify si dicerem...perfide agerem. דּור בּניך is the totality of those, in whom the filial relationship in which God has placed Isreal in relation to Himself is become an inward or spiritual reality, the true Israel, Psa 73:1, the “righteous generation,” Psa 14:5. It is an appellative, as in Deu 14:1; Hos 2:1. For on the point of the uhiothesi'a the New Testament differs from the Old Testament in this way, viz., that in the Old Testament it is always only as a people that Israel is called בן, or as a whole בנים, but that the individual, and that in his direct relationship to God, dared not as yet call himself “child of God.” The individual character is not as yet freed from its absorption in the species, it is not as yet independent; it is the time of the minor’s νηπιότης, and the adoption is as yet only effected nationally, salvation is as yet within the limits of the nationality, its common human form has not as yet appeared. The verb בּגד with בּ signifies to deal faithlessly with any one, and more especially (whether God, a friend, or a spouse) faithlessly to forsake him; here, in this sense of malicious desertion, it contents itself with the simple accusative.

On the one side, by joining in the speech of the free-thinkers he would have placed himself outside the circle of the children of God, of the truly pious; on the other side, however, when by meditation he sought to penetrate it (לדעת), the doubt-provoking phenomenon (זאת) still continued to be to him עמל, trouble, i.e., something that troubled him without any result, an unsolvable riddle (cf. Ecc 8:17). Whether we read הוּא or היא, the sense remains the same; the Kerî הוּא prefers, as in Job 31:11, the attractional gender. Neither here nor in Job 30:26 and elsewhere is it to be supposed that ואחשׁבה is equivalent to ואחשׁבה (Ewald, Hupfeld). The cohortative from of the future here, as frequently (Ges. §128, 1), with or without a conditional particle (Psa 139:8; 2Sa 22:38; Job 16:6; Job 11:17; Job 19:18; Job 30:26), forms a hypothetical protasis: and (yet) when I meditated; Symmachus (according to Montfaucon), ει ̓ ἐλογιζόμην. As Vaihinger aptly observes, “thinking alone will give neither the right light nor true happiness.” Both are found only in faith. The poet at last struck upon the way of faith, and there he found light and peace. The future after עד frequently has the signification of the imperfect subjunctive, Job 32:11; Ecc 2:3, cf. Pro 12:19 (donec nutem = only a moment); also in an historical connection like Jos 10:13; 2Ch 29:34, it is conceived of as subjunctive (donec ulciseretur, se sanctificarent), sometimes, however, as indicative, as in Exo 15:16 (donec transibat) and in our passage, where אד introduces the objective goal at which the riddle found its solution: until I went into the sanctuary of God, (purposely) attended to (ל as in the primary passage Deu 32:29, cf. Job 14:21) their life’s end. The cohortative is used here exactly as in ואבינה, but with the collateral notion of that which is intentional, which here fully accords with the connection. He went into God’s dread sanctuary (plural as in Ps 68:36, cf. מקדּשׁ in the Psalms of Asaph, Psa 67:7; Psa 78:69); here he prayed for light in the darkness of his conflict, here were his eyes opened to the holy plans and ways of God (Psa 77:14), here the sight of the sad end of the evil-doers was presented to him. By “God’s sanctuaries” Ewald and Hitzig understand His secrets; but this meaning is without support in the usage of the language. And is it not a thought perfectly in harmony with the context and with experience, that a light arose upon him when he withdrew from the bustle of the world into the quiet of God’s dwelling - place, and there devoutly gave his mind to the matter?

The strophe closes with a summary confession of the explanation received there. שׁית is construed with Lamed inasmuch as collocare is equivalent to locum assignare (vid., Psa 73:6). God makes the evil-doers to stand on smooth, slippery places, where one may easily lose one’s footing (cf. Psa 35:6; Jer 23:12). There, then, they also inevitably fall; God casts them down למשּׁוּאות, into ruins, fragores = ruinae, from שׁוא = שׁאה, to be confused, desolate, to rumble. The word only has the appearance of being from נשׁא: ensnarings, sudden attacks (Hitzig), which is still more ill suited to Psa 74:3 than to this passage; desolation and ruin can be said even of persons, as הרס, Psa 28:5, ונשׁבּרוּ, Isa 8:15, נפּץ, Jer 51:21-23. The poet knows no other theodicy but this, nor was any other known generally in the pre-exilic literature of Israel (vid., Ps 37; Psa 39:1-13, Jer. 12, and the Job 1:1). The later prophecy and the Chokma were much in advance of this, inasmuch as they point to a last universal judgment (vid., more particularly Mal 3:13.), but not one that breaks off this present state; the present state and the future state, time and eternity, are even there not as yet thoroughly separated.

Psa 73:19-22

The poet calms himself with the solution of the riddle that has come to him; and it would be beneath his dignity as a man to allow himself any further to be tempted by doubting thoughts. Placing himself upon the standpoint of the end, he sees how the ungodly come to terrible destruction in a moment: they come to an end (ספוּ from סוּף, not ספה), it is all over with them (תּמּוּ) in consequence of (מן as in Psa 76:7, and unconnected as in Psa 18:4; Psa 30:4; Psa 22:14) frightful occurrences (בּלּהות, a favourite word, especially in the Book of Job), which clear them out of the way. It is with them as with a dream, after (מן as in 1Ch 8:8) one is awoke. One forgets the vision on account of its nothingness (Job 20:8). So the evil-doers who boast themselves μετὰ πολλῆς φαντασίας (Act 25:23) are before God a צלם, a phantom or unsubstantial shadow. When He, the sovereign Lord, shall awake, i.e., arouse Himself to judgment after He has looked on with forbearance, then He will despise their shadowy image, will cast it contemptuously from Him. Luther renders, So machstu Herr jr Bilde in der Stad verschmecht (So dost Thou, Lord, make their image despised in the city). But neither has the Kal בּזה this double transitive signification, “to give over to contempt,” nor is the mention of the city in place here. In Hos 11:9 also בּעיר in the signification in urbem gives no right sense; it signifies heat of anger or fury, as in Jer 15:8, heat of anguish, and Schröder maintains the former signification (vid., on Psa 139:20), in fervore (irae), here also; but the pointing בּעיר is against it. Therefore בּעיר is to be regarded, with the Targum, as syncopated from בּהעיר (cf. לביא, Jer 39:7; 2Ch 31:10; בּכּשׁלו, Pro 24:17, and the like); not, however, to be explained, “when they awake,” viz., from the sleep of death (Targum),The Targum version is, “As the dream of a drunken man, who awakes out of his sleep, wilt Thou, O Lord, on the day of the great judgment, when they awake out of their graves, in wrath abandon their image to contempt.” The text of our editions is to be thus corrected according to Bechai (on Deu 33:29) and Nachmani (in his treatise שׁער הגמול). or after Psa 78:38, “when Thou awakest them,” viz., out of their sleep of security (De Wette, Kurtz), but after Psa 35:23, “when Thou awakest,” viz., to sit in judgment.

Thus far we have the divine answer, which is reproduced by the poet after the manner of prayer. Hengstenberg now goes on by rendering it, “for my heart was incensed;” but we cannot take יתחמּץ according to the sequence of tenses as an imperfect, nor understand כּי as a particle expression the reason. On the contrary, the poet, from the standpoint of the explanation he has received, speaks of a possible return (כּי seq. fut. = ἐάν) of his temptation, and condemns it beforehand: si exacerbaretur animus meus atque in renibus meis pungerer. התחמּץ, to become sour, bitter, passionate; השׁתּונן, with the more exactly defining accusative כּליותי, to be pricked, piqued, irritated. With ואני begins the apodosis: then should I be... I should have become (perfect as in Psa 73:15, according to Ges. §126, 5). Concerning לא ידע, non sapere, vid., Psa 14:4. בּהמות can be taken as compar. decurtata for כּבהמות; nevertheless, as apparently follows from Job 40:15, the poet surely has the p - ehe - mou, the water ox, i.e., the hippopotamus, in his mind, which being Hebraized is בּהמות,The Egyptian p frequently passes over into the Hebrew b, and vice versâ, as in the name Aperiu = עברים; p, however, is retained in פרעה = phar - aa, grand-house (οἶκος μέγας in Horapollo), the name of the Egyptian rulers, which begins with the sign of the plan of a house = p. and, as a plump colossus of flesh, is at once an emblem of colossal stupidity (Maurer, Hitzig). The meaning of the poet is, that he would not be a man in relation to God, over against God (עם, as in Psa 78:37; Job 9:2, cf. Arab. ma‛a, in comparison with), if he should again give way to the same doubts, but would be like the most stupid animal, which stands before God incapable of such knowledge as He willingly imparts to earnestly inquiring man.

Psa 73:23-26

But he does not thus deeply degrade himself: after God has once taken him by the right hand and rescued him from the danger of falling (Psa 73:2), he clings all the more firmly to Him, and will not suffer his perpetual fellowship with Him to be again broken through by such seizures which estrange him from God. confidently does he yield up himself to the divine guidance, though he may not see through the mystery of the plan (עצה) of this guidance. He knows that afterwards (אחר with Mugrash: adverb as in Psa 68:26), i.e., after this dark way of faith, God will כבוד receive him, i.e., take him to Himself, and take him from all suffering (לקח as in Psa 49:16, and of Enoch, Gen 5:24). The comparison of Zec 2:12 [8] is misleading; there אחר is rightly accented as a preposition: after glory hath He sent me forth (vid., Köhler), and here as an adverb; for although the adverbial sense of אחר would more readily lead one to look for the arrangement of the words ואחר תקחני כבוד, still “to receive after glory” (cf. the reverse Isa 58:8) is an awkward thought. כבוד, which as an adjective “glorious” (Hofmann) is alien to the language, is either accusative of the goal (Hupfeld), or, which yields a form of expression that is more like the style of the Old Testament, accusative of the manner (Luther, “with honour”). In אחר the poet comprehends in one summary view what he looks for at the goal of the present divine guidance. The future is dark to him, but lighted up by the one hope that the end of his earthly existence will be a glorious solution of the riddle. Here, as elsewhere, it is faith which breaks through not only the darkness of this present life, but also the night of Hades. At that time there was as yet no divine utterance concerning any heavenly triumph of the church, militant in the present world, but to faith the Jahve-Name had already a transparent depth which penetrated beyond Hades into an eternal life. The heaven of blessedness and glory also is nothing without God; but he who can in love call God his, possesses heaven upon earth, and he who cannot in love call God his, would possess not heaven, but hell, in the midst of heaven. In this sense the poet says in Psa 73:25 : whom have I in heaven? i.e., who there without Thee would be the object of my desire, the stilling of my longing? without Thee heaven with all its glory is a vast waste and void, which makes me indifferent to everything, and with Thee, i.e., possessing Thee, I have no delight in the earth, because to call Thee mine infinitely surpasses every possession and every desire of earth. If we take בּארץ still more exactly as parallel to בּשּׁמים, without making it dependent upon חפצתּי: and possessing Thee I have no desire upon the earth, then the sense remains essentially the same; but if we allow בארץ to be governed by חפצתי in accordance with the general usage of the language, we arrive at this meaning by the most natural way. Heaven and earth, together with angels and men, afford him no satisfaction - his only friend, his sole desire and love, is God. The love for God which David expresses in Psa 16:2 in the brief utterance, “Thou art my Lord, Thou art my highest good,” is here expanded with incomparable mystical profoundness and beauty. Luther’s version shows his master-hand. The church follows it in its “Herzlich lieb hab' ich dich” when it sings - “The whole wide world delights me not,

For heaven and earth, Lord, care I not,

If I may but have Thee;” and following it, goes on in perfect harmony with the text of our Psalm - “Yea, though my heart be like to break,

Thou art my trust that nought can shake;”Miss Winkworth’s translation. or with Paul Gerhard, [in his Passion-hymn “Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld der Welt und ihrer Kinder,” “Light of my heart, that shalt Thou be;

And when my heart in pieces breaks,

Thou shalt my heart remain.”

For the hypothetical perfect כּלה expresses something in spite of which he upon whom it may come calls God his God: licet defecerit. Though his outward and inward man perish, nevertheless God remains ever the rock of his heart as the firm ground upon which he, with his ego, remains standing when everything else totters; He remains his portion, i.e., the possession that cannot be taken from him, if he loses all, even his spirit-life pertaining to the body, - and God remains to him this portion לעולם, he survives with the life which he has in God the death of the old life. The poet supposes an extreme case, - one, that is, it is true, impossible, but yet conceivable, - that his outward and inward being should sink away; even then with the merus actus of his ego he will continue to cling to God. In the midst of the natural life of perishableness and of sin, a new, individual life which is resigned to God has begun within him, and in this he has the pledge that he cannot perish, so truly as God, with whom it is closely united, cannot perish. It is just this that is also the nerve of the proof of the resurrection of the dead which Jesus advances in opposition to the Sadducees (Mat 22:32).

Psa 73:27-28

The poet here once more gives expression to the great opposites into which good fortune and misfortune are seemingly, but only seemingly, divided in a manner so contradictory to the divine justice. The central point of the confirmation that is introduced with כּי lies in Psa 73:28. “Thy far removing ones” was to be expressed with רחק, which is distinct from רחוק. זנה has מן instead of מתּחת or מאחרי after it. Those who remove themselves far from the primary fountain of life fall a prey to ruin; those who faithlessly abandon God, and choose the world with its idols rather than His love, fall a prey to destruction. Not so the poet; the nearness of God, i.e., a state of union with God, is good to him, i.e., (cf. Psa 119:71.) he regards as his good fortune. קרבה is nom. act. after the form יקהה, Arab. waqhat, obedience, and נצּרה, a watch, Psa 141:3, and of essentially the same signification with ḳurba (קרבה), the Arabic designation of the unio mystica; cf. Jam 4:8, ἐγγίσατε τῷ Θεῷ καὶ ἐγγιεῖ ὑμῖν. Just as קרבת אלהים stands in antithesis to רחקיך, so לי טּוב stands in antithesis to יאבדו and הצמתה. To the former their alienation from God brings destruction; he finds in fellowship with God that which is good to him for the present time and for the future. Putting his confidence (מחסּי, not מחסי) in Him, he will declare, and will one day be able to declare, all His מלאכות, i.e., the manifestations or achievements of His righteous, gracious, and wise government. The language of assertion is quickly changed into that of address. The Psalm closes with an upward look of grateful adoration to God beforehand, who leads His own people, ofttimes wondrously indeed, but always happily, viz., through suffering to glory. Appeal to God against Religious Persecution, in Which the Temple Is Violated

The מזמור    73 is here followed by a Maskı̂l (vid., Psa 32:1) which, in common with the former, has the prominent, rare word משּׁוּאות (Psa 74:3; Psa 73:18), but also the old Asaphic impress. We here meet with the favourite Asaphic contemplation of Israel as a flock, and the predilection of the Asaphic Psalms for retrospective references to Israel’s early history (Psa 74:13-15). We also find the former of these two characteristic features in Psa 79:1-13, which reflects the same circumstances of the times. Moreover Jeremiah stands in the same relationship to both Psalms. In Jer 10:25; Psa 79:6. is repeated almost word for word. And one is reminded of Psalms 74 by Lam 2:2 (cf. Psa 74:7), Psa 2:7 (cf. Psa 74:4), and other passages. The lament “there is no prophet any more” (Psa 74:9) sounds very much like Lam 2:9. In connection with Jeremiah’s reproductive manner, and his habit of allowing himself to be prompted to new thoughts by the original passages by means of the association of ideas (cf. כּיום מועד, Lam 2:7, with בּקרב מועדך of the Psalm), it is natural to assign the priority in age to the two Asaphic national lamentation Psalms.

But the substance of both Psalms, which apparently brings us down not merely into the Chaldaean, but even into the Maccabaean age, rises up in opposition to it. After his return from the second Egyptian expedition (170 b.c.) Antiochus Epiphanes chastised Jerusalem, which had been led into revolt by Jason, in the most cruel manner, entered the Temple accompanied by the court high priest Menalaus, and carried away the most costly vessels, and even the gold of the walls and doors, with him. Myriads of the Jews were at that time massacred or sold as slaves. Then during the fourth Egyptian expedition (168) of Antiochus, when a party favourably disposed towards the Ptolemies again arose in Jerusalem, he sent Apollonius to punish the offenders (167), and his troops laid the city waste with fire and sword, destroyed houses and walls, burnt down several of the Temple-gates and razed many of its apartments. Also on this occasion thousands were slain and led away captive. Then began the attempt of Antiochus to Hellenize the Jewish nation. An aged Athenian was entrusted with the carrying out of this measure. Force was used to compel the Jews to accept the heathen religion, and in fact to serve Olympian Zeus (Jupiter): on the 15th of Chislev a smaller altar was erected upon the altar of burnt-offering in the Temple, and on the 25th of Chislev the first sacrifice was offered to Olympian Zeus in the Temple of Jahve, now dedicated to him. Such was the position of affairs when a band of faithful confessors rallied around the Asmonaean (Hasmonaean) priest Mattathias.

How strikingly does much in both Psalms, more particularly in Ps 74, harmonize with this position of affairs! At that time it was felt more painfully than ever that prophecy had become dumb, 1 Macc. 4:46; 9:27; 14:41. The confessors and martyrs who bravely declared themselves were called, as in Psa 79:2, חסידים, Ἀσιδαῖοι. At that time “they saw,” as 1 Macc. 4:38 says, “the sanctuary desolate, and the altar profaned, and the gates burnt up, and shrubs growing in the courts as in a forest, or as in one of the mountains, yea, and the priests’ chambers pulled down.” the doors of the Temple-gates were burned to ashes (cf. 2 Macc. 8:33; 1:8). The religious אותות (Psa 74:4) of the heathen filled the place where Jahve was wont to reveal Himself. Upon the altar of the court stood the βδέλυγμα ἐρημώσεως; in the courts they had planted trees, and likewise the “signs” of heathendom; and the לשׁכות (παστοφόρια) lay in ruins. When later on, under Demetrius Stoer (161), Alcimus (an apostate whom Antiochus had appointed high priest) and Bacchides advanced with promises of peace, but with an army at the same time, a band of scribes, the foremost of the Asidai'oi of Israel, went forth to meet them to intercede for their nation. Alcimus, however, seized sixty of them, slaughtered them in one day, and that, as it is added in 1 Macc. 7:16f., “according to the word which he wrote: The flesh of Thy saints and their blood have they shed round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them.” The formula of citation κατὰ τὸν λόγον ὃν (τοὺς λόγου οὓς) ἔγραψε, and more particularly the ἔγραψε - which as being the aorist cannot have the Scripture (ἡ γραφή), and, since the citation is a prayer to god, not God, but only the anonymous psalmist, as its subject (vid., however, the various readings in Grimm on this passage) - sounds as though the historian were himself conscious that he was quoting a portion of Scripture that had taken its rise among the calamities of that time. In fact, no age could be regarded as better warranted in incorporating some of its songs in the Psalter than the Maccabaean, the sixty-third week predicted by Daniel, the week of suffering bearing in itself the character of the time of the end, this strictly martyr age of the Old Covenant, to which the Book of Daniel awards a high typical significance in relation to the history of redemption.

But unbiassed as we are in the presence of the question whether there are Maccabaean Psalms, still there is, on the other hand, much, too, that is against the referring of the two Psalms to the Maccabaean age. In Psa 79:1-13 there is nothing that militates against referring it to the Chaldaean age, and Psa 79:11 (cf. Psa 102:21; Psa 69:34) is even favourable to this. And in Psalms 74, in which Psa 74:4, Psa 74:8, Psa 74:9 are the most satisfactorily explained from the Maccabaean age, there are, again, other parts which are better explained from the Chaldaean. For what is said in Psa 74:7, “they have set Thy Temple on fire,” applies just as unconditionally as it runs to the Chaldaeans, but not to the Syrians. And the cry of prayer, Psa 74:3, “lift up Thy footsteps to the eternal ruins,” appears to assume a laying waste that has taken place within the last few years at least, such as the Maccabaean age cannot exhibit, although at the exaltation of the Maccabees Jerusalem was ἀοίκητος ὡς ἔρημος (1 Macc. 3:45). Hitzig, it is true, renders: raise Thy footsteps for sudden attacks without end; but both the passages in which משּׁוּאות occurs mutually secure to this word the signification “desolations” (Targum, Symmachus, Jerome, and Saadia). If, however, the Chaldaean catastrophe were meant, then the author of both Psalms, on the ground of Ezr 2:41; Neh 7:44 (cf. Neh 11:22), might be regarded as an Asaphite of the time of the Exile, although they might also be composed by any one in the Asaphic style. And as regards their relation to Jeremiah, we ought to be contented with the fact that Jeremiah, whose peculiarity as a writer is otherwise so thoroughly reproductive, is, notwithstanding, also reproduced by later writers, and in this instance by the psalmist.

Nothing is more certain than that the physiognomy of these Psalms does not correspond to any national misfortune prior to the Chaldaean catastrophe. Vaihinger’s attempt to comprehend them from the time of Athaliah’s reign of terror, is at issue with itself. In the history of Israel instances of the sacking of Jerusalem and of the Temple are not unknown even prior to the time of Zedekiah, as in the reign of Jehoram, but there is no instance of the city being reduced to ashes. Since even the profanation of the Temple by the Persian general Bagoses (Josephus, Ant. xi. 7), to which Ewald formerly referred this Psalm, was not accompanied by any injury of the building itself, much less its reduction to ashes, there remains only the choice between the laying waste of Jerusalem and of the Temple in the year 588 and in the year 167. We have reserved to ourselves the liberty of acknowledging some insertions from the time of the Maccabees in the Psalter; supra, pp. 6-8. Now since in both Psalms, apart from the משׁאות נצח, everything accords with the Maccabaean age, whilst when we refer them to the Chaldaean period the scientific conscience is oppressed by many difficulties (more especially in connection with Psa 74:4, Psa 74:8-9; Psa 79:2-3), we yield to the force of the impression and base both Psalms upon the situation of the Jewish nation under Antiochus and Demetrius. Their contents coincide with the prayer of Judas Maccabaeus in 2 Macc. 8:1-4.

God's Goodness to His People; Unsanctified Prosperity.

1 Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. 2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. 3 For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4 For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. 5 They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. 6 Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. 7 Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish. 8 They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily. 9 They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. 10 Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. 11 And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High? 12 Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. 13 Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. 14 For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.

This psalm begins somewhat abruptly: Yet God is good to Israel (so the margin reads it); he had been thinking of the prosperity of the wicked; while he was thus musing the fire burned, and at last he spoke by way of check to himself for what he had been thinking of. "However it be, yet God is good." Though wicked people receive many of the gifts of his providential bounty, yet we must own that he is, in a peculiar manner, good to Israel; they have favours from him which others have not.

The psalmist designs an account of a temptation he was strongly assaulted with—to envy the prosperity of the wicked, a common temptation, which has tried the graces of many of the saints. Now in this account,

I. He lays down, in the first place, that great principle which he is resolved to abide by and not to quit while he was parleying with this temptation, v. 1. Job, when he was entering into such a temptation, fixed for his principle the omniscience of God: Times are not hidden from the Almighty, Job xxiv. 1. Jeremiah's principle is the justice of God: Righteous art thou, O God! when I plead with thee, Jer. xii. 1. Habakkuk's principle is the holiness of God: Thou art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, Hab. i. 13. The psalmist's, here, is the goodness of God. These are truths which cannot be shaken and which we must resolve to live and die by. Though we may not be able to reconcile all the disposals of Providence with them, we must believe they are reconcilable. Note, Good thoughts of God will fortify us against many of Satan's temptations. Truly God is good; he had had many thoughts in his mind concerning the providences of God, but this word, at last, settled him: "For all this, God is good, good to Israel, even to those that are of a clean heart." Note, 1. Those are the Israel of God that are of a clean heart, purified by the blood of Christ, cleansed from the pollutions of sin, and entirely devoted to the glory of God. An upright heart is a clean heart; cleanness is truth in the inward part. 2. God, who is good to all, is in a special manner good to his church and people, as he was to Israel of old. God was good to Israel in redeeming them out of Egypt, taking them into covenant with himself, giving them his laws and ordinances, and in the various providences that related to them; he is, in like manner, good to all those that are of a clean heart, and, whatever happens, we must not think otherwise.

II. He comes now to relate the shock that was given to his faith in God's distinguishing goodness to Israel by a strong temptation to envy the prosperity of the wicked, and therefore to think that the Israel of God are no happier than other people and that God is no kinder to them than to others.

1. He speaks of it as a very narrow escape that he had not been quite foiled and overthrown by this temptation (v. 2): "But as for me, though I was so well satisfied in the goodness of God to Israel, yet my feet were almost gone (the tempter had almost tripped up my heels), my steps had well-nigh slipped (I had like to have quitted my religion, and given up all my expectations of benefit by it); for I was envious at the foolish." Note, 1. The faith even of strong believers may sometimes be sorely shaken and ready to fail them. There are storms that will try the firmest anchors. 2. Those that shall never be quite undone are sometimes very near it, and, in their own apprehension, as good as gone. Many a precious soul, that shall live for ever, had once a very narrow turn for its life; almost and well-nigh ruined, but a step between it and fatal apostasy, and yet snatched as a brand out of the burning, which will for ever magnify the riches of divine grace in the nations of those that are saved. Now,

2. Let us take notice of the process of the psalmist's temptation, what he was tempted with and tempted to.

(1.) He observed that foolish wicked people have sometimes a very great share of outward prosperity. He saw, with grief, the prosperity of the wicked, v. 3. Wicked people are really foolish people, and act against reason and their true interest, and yet every stander-by sees their prosperity. [1.] They seem to have the least share of the troubles and calamities of this life (v. 5): They are not in the troubles of other men, even of wise and good men, neither are they plagued like other men, but seem as if by some special privilege they were exempted from the common lot of sorrows. If they meet with some little trouble, it is nothing to what others endure that are less sinners and yet greater sufferers. [2.] They seem to have the greatest share of the comforts of this life. They live at ease, and bathe themselves in pleasures, so that their eyes stand out with fatness, v. 7. See what the excess of pleasure is; the moderate use of it enlightens the eyes, but those that indulge themselves inordinately in the delights of sense have their eyes ready to start out of their heads. Epicures are really their own tormentors, by putting a force upon nature, while they pretend to gratify it. And well may those feed themselves to the full who have more than heart could wish, more than they themselves ever thought of or expected to be masters of. They have, at least, more than a humble, quiet, contented heart could wish, yet not so much as they themselves wish for. There are many who have a great deal of this life in their hands, but nothing of the other life in their hearts. They are ungodly, live without the fear and worship of God, and yet they prosper and get on in the world, and not only are rich, but increase in riches, v. 12. They are looked upon as thriving men; while others have much ado to keep what they have, they are still adding more, more honour, power, pleasure, by increasing in riches. They are the prosperous of the age, so some read it. [3.] Their end seems to be peace. This is mentioned first, as the most strange of all, for peace in death was every thought to be the peculiar privilege of the godly (Ps. xxxvii. 37), yet, to outward appearance, it is often the lot of the ungodly (v. 4): There are no bands in their death. They are not taken off by a violent death; they are foolish, and yet die not as fools die; for their hands are not bound nor their feet put into fetters, 2 Sam. iii. 33, 34. They are not taken off by an untimely death, like the fruit forced from the tree before it is ripe, but are left to hang on, till, through old age, they gently drop of themselves. They do not die of sore and painful diseases: There are no pangs, no agonies, in their death, but their strength is firm to the last, so that they scarcely feel themselves die. They are of those who die in their full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet, not of those that die in the bitterness of their souls and never eat with pleasure, Job xxi. 23, 25. Nay, they are not bound by the terrors of conscience in their dying moments; they are not frightened either with the remembrance of their sins or the prospect of their misery, but die securely. We cannot judge of men's state on the other side death either by the manner of their death or the frame of their spirits in dying. Men may die like lambs, and yet have their place with the goats.

(2.) He observed that they made a very bad use of their outward prosperity and were hardened by it in their wickedness, which very much strengthened the temptation he was in to fret at it. If it had done them any good, if it had made them less provoking to God or less oppressive to man, it would never have vexed him; but it had quite a contrary effect upon them. [1.] It made them very proud and haughty. Because they live at ease, pride compasses them as a chain, v. 6. They show themselves (to all that see them) to be puffed up with their prosperity, as men show their ornaments. The pride of Israel testifies to his face, Hos. v. 5; Isa. iii. 9. Pride ties on their chain, or necklace; so Dr. Hammond reads it. It is no harm to wear a chain or necklace; but when pride ties it on, when it is worn to gratify a vain mind, it ceases to be an ornament. It is not so much what the dress or apparel is (though we have rules for that, 1 Tim. ii. 9) as what principle ties it on and with what spirit it is worn. And, as the pride of sinners appears in their dress, so it does in their talk: They speak loftily (v. 8); they affect great swelling words of vanity (2 Pet. ii. 18), bragging of themselves and disdaining all about them. Out of the abundance of the pride that is in their heart they speak big. [1.] It made them oppressive to their poor neighbours (v. 6): Violence covers them as a garment. What they have got by fraud and oppression they keep and increase by the same wicked methods, and care not what injury they do to others, nor what violence they use, so they may but enrich and aggrandize themselves. They are corrupt, like the giants, the sinners of the old world, when the earth was filled with violence, Gen. vi. 11, 13. They care not what mischief they do, either for mischief-sake or for their own advantage-sake. They speak wickedly concerning oppression; they oppress, and justify themselves in it. Those that speak well of sin speak wickedly of it. They are corrupt, that is, dissolved in pleasures and every thing that is luxurious (so some), and then they deride and speak maliciously; they care not whom they wound with the poisoned darts of calumny; from on high they speak oppression. [3.] It made them very insolent in their demeanour towards both God and man (v. 9): They set their mouth against the heavens, putting contempt upon God himself and his honour, bidding defiance to him and his power and justice. They cannot reach the heavens with their hands, to shake God's throne, else they would; but they show their ill-will by setting their mouth against the heavens. Their tongue also walks through the earth, and they take liberty to abuse all that come in their way. No man's greatness or goodness can secure him from the scourge of the virulent tongue. They take a pride and pleasure in bantering all mankind; they are pests of the country, for they neither fear God nor regard man. [4.] In all this they were very atheistical and profane. They could not have been thus wicked if they had not learned to say (v. 11), How doth God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High? So far were they from desiring the knowledge of God, who gave them all the good things they had and would have taught them to use them well, that they were not willing to believe God had any knowledge of them, that he took any notice of their wickedness or would ever call them to an account. As if, because he is Most High, he could not or would not see them, Job xxii. 12, 13. Whereas because he is Most High therefore he can, and will, take cognizance of all the children of men and of all they do, or say, or think. What an affront is it to the God of infinite knowledge, from whom all knowledge is, to ask, Is there knowledge in him? Well may he say (v. 12), Behold, these are the ungodly.

(3.) He observed that while wicked men thus prospered in their impiety, and were made more impious by their prosperity, good people were in great affliction, and he himself in particular, which very much strengthened the temptation he was in to quarrel with Providence. [1.] He looked abroad and saw many of God's people greatly at a loss (v. 10): "Because the wicked are so very daring therefore his people return hither; they are at the same pause, the same plunge, that I am at; they know not what to say to it any more than I do, and the rather because waters of a full cup are wrung out to them; they are not only made to drink, and to drink deeply, of the bitter cup of affliction, but to drink all. Care is taken that they lose not a drop of that unpleasant potion; the waters are wrung out unto them, that they may have the dregs of the cup. They pour out abundance of tears when they hear wicked people blaspheme God and speak profanely," as David did, Ps. cxix. 136. These are the waters wrung out to them. [2.] He looked at home, and felt himself under the continual frowns of Providence, while the wicked were sunning themselves in its smiles (v. 14): "For my part," says he, "all the day long have I been plagued with one affliction or another, and chastened every morning, as duly as the morning comes." His afflictions were great—he was chastened and plagued; the returns of them were constant, every morning with the morning, and they continued, without intermission, all the day long. This he thought was very hard, that, when those who blasphemed God were in prosperity, he that worshipped God was under such great affliction. He spoke feelingly when he spoke of his own troubles; there is no disputing against sense, except by faith.

(4.) From all this arose a very strong temptation to cast off his religion. [1.] Some that observed the prosperity of the wicked, especially comparing it with the afflictions of the righteous, were tempted to deny a providence and to think that God had forsaken the earth. In this sense some take v. 11. There are those, even among God's professing people, that say, "How does God know? Surely all things are left to blind fortune, and not disposed of by an all-seeing God." Some of the heathen, upon such a remark as this, have asked, Quis putet esse deos?—Who will believe that there are gods? [2.] Though the psalmist's feet were not so far gone as to question God's omniscience, yet he was tempted to question the benefit of religion, and to say (v. 13), Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain, and have, to no purpose, washed my hands in innocency. See here what it is to be religious; it is to cleanse our hearts, in the first place, by repentance and regeneration, and then to wash our hands in innocency by a universal reformation of our lives. It is not in vain to do this, not in vain to serve God and keep his ordinances; but good men have been sometimes tempted to say, "It is in vain," and "Religion is a thing that there is nothing to be got by," because they see wicked people in prosperity. But, however the thing may appear now, when the pure in heart, those blessed ones, shall see God (Matt. v. 8), they will not say that they cleansed their hearts in vain.

The End of the Wicked.

15 If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children. 16 When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; 17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. 18 Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. 19 How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors. 20 As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.

We have seen what a strong temptation the psalmist was in to envy prospering profaneness; now here we are told how he kept his footing and got the victory.

I. He kept up a respect for God's people, and with that he restrained himself from speaking what he had thought amiss, v. 15. He got the victory by degrees, and this was the first point he gained; he was ready to say, Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain, and thought he had reason to say it, but he kept his mouth with this consideration, "If I say, I will speak thus, behold, I should myself revolt and apostatize from, and so give the greatest offence imaginable to, the generation of thy children." Observe here, 1. Though he thought amiss, he took care not to utter that evil thought which he had conceived. Note, It is bad to think ill, but it is worse to speak it, for that is giving the evil thought an imprimatur—a sanction; it is allowing it, giving consent to it, and publishing it for the infection of others. But it is a good sign that we repent of the evil imagination of the heart if we suppress it, and the error remains with ourselves. If therefore thou hast been so foolish as to think evil, be so wise as to lay thy hand upon thy mouth, and let it go no further, Prov. xxx. 32. If I say, I will speak thus. Observe, Though his corrupt heart made this inference from the prosperity of the wicked, yet he did not mention it to those whether it were fit to be mentioned or no. Note, We must think twice before we speak once, both because some things may be thought which yet may not be spoken and because the second thoughts may correct the mistakes of the first. 2. The reason why he would not speak it was for fear of giving offence to those whom God owned for his children. Note, (1.) There are a people in the world that are the generation of God's children, a set of men that hear and love God as their Father. (2.) We must be very careful not to say or do any thing which may justly offend any of these little ones (Matt. xviii. 6), especially which may offend the generation of them, may sadden their hearts, or weaken their hands, or shake their interest. (3.) There is nothing that can give more general offence to the generation of God's children than to say that we have cleansed our heart in vain or that it is vain to serve God; for there is nothing more contrary to their universal sentiment and experience nor any thing that grieves them more than to hear God thus reflected on. (4.) Those that wish themselves in the condition of the wicked do in effect quit the tents of God's children.

II. He foresaw the ruin of wicked people. By this he baffled the temptation, as by the former he gave some check to it. Because he durst not speak what he had thought, for fear of giving offence, he began to consider whether he had any good reason for that thought (v. 16): "I endeavoured to understand the meaning of this unaccountable dispensation of Providence; but it was too painful for me. I could not conquer it by the strength of my own reasoning." It is a problem, not to be solved by the mere light of nature, for, if there were not another life after this, we could not fully reconcile the prosperity of the wicked with the justice of God. But (v. 17) he went into the sanctuary of God; he applied to his devotions, meditated upon the attributes of God, and the things revealed, which belong to us and to our children; he consulted the scriptures, and the lips of the priests who attended the sanctuary; he prayed to God to make this matter plain to him and to help him over this difficulty; and, at length, he understood the wretched end of wicked people, which he plainly foresaw to be such that even in the height of their prosperity they were rather to be pitied than envied, for they were but ripening for ruin. Note, There are many great things, and things needful to be known, which will not be known otherwise than by going into the sanctuary of God, by the word and prayer. The sanctuary must therefore be the resort of a tempted soul. Note, further, We must judge of persons and things as they appear by the light of divine revelation, and then we shall judge righteous judgment; particularly we must judge by the end. All is well that ends well, everlastingly well; but nothing well that ends ill, everlastingly ill. The righteous man's afflictions end in peace, and therefore he is happy; the wicked man's enjoyments end in destruction, and therefore he is miserable.

1. The prosperity of the wicked is short and uncertain. The high places in which Providence sets them are slippery places (v. 18), where they cannot long keep footing; but, when they offer to climb higher, that very attempt will be the occasion of their sliding and falling. Their prosperity has no firm ground; it is not built upon God's favour or his promise; and they have not the satisfaction of feeling that it rests on firm ground.

2. Their destruction is sure, and sudden, and very great. This cannot be meant of any temporal destruction; for they were supposed to spend all their days in wealth and their death itself had no bands in it: In a moment they go down to the grace, so that even that could scarcely be called their destruction; it must therefore be meant of eternal destruction on the other side death—hell and destruction. They flourish for a time, but are undone for ever. (1.) Their ruin is sure and inevitable. He speaks of it as a thing done—They are cast down; for their destruction is as certain as if it were already accomplished. He speaks of it as God's doing, and therefore it cannot be resisted: Thou castest them down. It is destruction from the Almighty (Joel i. 15), from the glory of his power, 2 Thess. i. 9. Who can support those whom God will cast down, on whom God will lay burdens? (2.) It is swift and sudden; their damnation slumbers not; for how are they brought into desolation as in a moment! v. 19. It is easily effected, and will be a great surprise to themselves and all about them. (3.) It is severe and very dreadful. It is a total and final ruin: They are utterly consumed with terrors, It is the misery of the damned that the terrors of the Almighty, whom they have made their enemy, fasten upon their guilty consciences, which can neither shelter themselves from them nor strengthen themselves under them; and therefore not their being, but their bliss, must needs be utterly consumed by them; not the least degree of comfort or hope remains to them; the higher they were lifted up in their prosperity the sorer will their fall be when they are cast down into destructions (for the word is plural) and suddenly brought into desolation.

3. Their prosperity is therefore not to be envied at all, but despised rather, quod erat demonstrandum—which was the point to be established, v. 20. As a dream when one awaketh, so, O Lord! when thou awakest, or when they awake (as some read it), thou shalt despise their image, their shadow, and make it to vanish. In the day of the great judgment (so the Chaldee paraphrase reads it), when they are awaked out of their graves, thou shalt, in wrath, despise their image; for they shall rise to shame and everlasting contempt. See here, (1.) What their prosperity now is; it is but an image, a vain show, a fashion of the world that passes away; it is not real, but imaginary, and it is only a corrupt imagination that makes it a happiness; it is not substance, but a mere shadow; it is not what it seems to be, nor will it prove what we promise ourselves from it; it is as a dream, which may please us a little, while we are asleep, yet even then it disturbs our repose; but, how pleasing soever it is, it is all but a cheat, all false; when we awake we find it so. A hungry man dreams that he eats, but he awakes and his soul is empty, Isa. xxix. 8. A man is never the more rich or honourable for dreaming he is so. Who therefore will envy a man the pleasure of a dream? (2.) What will be the issue of it; God will awake to judgment, to plead his own and his people's injured cause; they shall be made to awake out of the sleep of their carnal security, and then God shall despise their image; he shall make it appear to all the world how despicable it is; so that the righteous shall laugh at them, Ps. lii. 6, 7. How did God despise that rich man's image when he said, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee! Luke xii. 19, 20. We ought to be of God's mind, for his judgment is according to truth, and not to admire and envy that which he despises and will despise; for, sooner or later, he will bring all the world to be of his mind.

Devout Confidence.

21 Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. 22 So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee. 23 Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand. 24 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. 25 Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. 26 My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. 27 For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee. 28 But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God , that I may declare all thy works.

Behold Samson's riddle again unriddled, Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong sweetness; for we have here an account of the good improvement which the psalmist made of that sore temptation with which he had been assaulted and by which he was almost overcome. He that stumbles and does not fall, by recovering himself takes so much the longer steps forward. It was so with the psalmist here; many good lessons he learned from his temptation, his struggles with it, and his victories over it. Nor would God suffer his people to be tempted if his grace were not sufficient for them, not only to save them from harm, but to make them gainers by it; even this shall work for good.

I. He learned to think very humbly of himself and to abase and accuse himself before God (v. 21, 22); he reflects with shame upon the disorder and danger he was in, and the vexation he gave himself by entertaining the temptation and parleying with it: My heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins, as one afflicted with the acute pain of the stone in the region of the kidneys. If evil thoughts at any time enter into the mind of a good man, he does not roll them under his tongue as a sweet morsel, but they are grievous and painful to him; temptation was to Paul as a thorn in the flesh, 2 Cor. xii. 7. This particular temptation, the working of envy and discontent, is as painful as any; where it constantly rests it is the rottenness of the bones (Prov. xiv. 30); where it does but occasionally come it is the pricking of the reins. Fretfulness is a corruption that is its own correction. Now in the reflection upon it, 1. He owns it was his folly thus to vex himself: "So foolish was I to be my own tormentor." Let peevish people thus reproach themselves for, and shame themselves out of, their discontents. "What a fool am I thus to make myself uneasy without a cause?" 2. He owns it was his ignorance to vex himself at this: "So ignorant was I of that which I might have known, and which, if I had known it aright, would have been sufficient to silence my murmurs. I was as a beast (Behemoth—a great beast) before thee. Beasts mind present things only, and never look before at what is to come; and so did I. If I had not been a great fool, I should never have suffered such a senseless temptation to prevail over me so far. What! to envy wicked men upon account of their prosperity! To be ready to wish myself one of them, and to think of changing conditions with them! So foolish was I." Note, If good men do at any time, through the surprise and strength of temptation, think, or speak, or act amiss, when they see their error they will reflect upon it with sorrow, and shame, and self-abhorrence, will call themselves fools for it. Surely I am more brutish than any man, Prov. xxx. 2; Job xlii. 5, 6. Thus David, 2 Sam. xxiv. 10.

II. He took occasion hence to own his dependence on and obligations to the grace of God (v. 23): "Nevertheless, foolish as I am, I am continually with thee and in thy favour; thou hast holden me by my right hand." This may refer either, 1. To the care God had taken of him, and the kindness he had shown him, all along from his beginning hitherto. He had said, in the hour of temptation (v. 14), All the day long have I been plagued; but here he corrects himself for that passionate complaint: "Though God has chastened me, he has not cast me off; notwithstanding all the crosses of my life, I have been continually with thee; I have had thy presence with me, and thou hast been nigh unto me in all that which I have called upon thee for; and therefore, though perplexed, yet not in despair. Though God has sometimes written bitter things against me, yet he has still holden me by my right hand, both to keep me, that I should not desert him or fly off from him, and to prevent my sinking and fainting under my burdens, or losing my way in the wildernesses through which I have walked." If we have been kept in the way with God, kept closely in our duty and upheld in our integrity, we must own ourselves indebted to the free grace of God for our preservation: Having obtained help of God, I continue hitherto. And, if he has thus maintained the spiritual life, the earnest of eternal life, we ought not to complain, whatever calamities of this present time we have met with. Or, 2. To the late experience he had had of the power of divine grace in carrying him through this strong temptation and bringing him off a conqueror: "I was foolish and ignorant, and yet thou hast had compassion on me and taught me (Heb. v. 2), and kept me under thy protection;" for the unworthiness of man is no bar to the free grace of God. We must ascribe our safety in temptation, and our victory over it, not to our own wisdom, for we are foolish and ignorant, but to the gracious presence of God with us and the prevalency of Christ's intercession for us, that our faith may not fail: "My feet were almost gone, and they would have quite gone, past recovery, but that thou hast holden me by my right hand and so kept me from falling."

III. He encouraged himself to hope that the same God who had delivered him from this evil work would preserve him to his heavenly kingdom, as St. Paul does (2 Tim. iv. 18): "I am now upheld by thee, therefore thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, leading me, as thou hast done hitherto, many a difficult step; and, since I am now continually with thee, thou shalt afterwards receive me to glory" v. 24. This completes the happiness of the saints, so that they have no reason to envy the worldly prosperity of sinners. Note, 1. All those who commit themselves to God shall be guided with his counsel, with the counsel both of his word and of his Spirit, the best counsellors. The psalmist had like to have paid dearly for following his own counsels in this temptation and therefore resolves for the future to take God's advice, which shall never be wanting to those that duly seek it with a resolution to follow it. 2. All those who are guided and led by the counsel of God in this world shall be received to his glory in another world. If we make God's glory in us the end we aim at, he will make our glory with him the end we shall for ever be happy in. Upon this consideration, let us never envy sinners, but rather bless ourselves in our own blessedness. If God direct us in the way of our duty, and prevent our turning aside out of it, he will afterwards, when our state of trial and preparation is over, receive us to his kingdom and glory, the believing hopes and prospects of which will reconcile us to all the dark providences that now puzzle and perplex us, and ease us of the pain we have been put into by some threatening temptations.

IV. He was hereby quickened to cleave the more closely to God, and very much confirmed and comforted in the choice he had made of him, v. 25, 26. His thoughts here dwell with delight upon his own happiness in God, as much greater then the happiness of the ungodly that prospered in the world. He saw little reason to envy them what they had in the creature when he found how much more and better, surer and sweeter, comforts he had in the Creator, and what cause he had to congratulate himself on this account. He had complained of his afflictions (v. 14); but this makes them very light and easy, All is well if God be mine. We have here the breathings of a sanctified soul towards God, and its repose in him, as that to a godly man really which the prosperity of a worldly man is to him in conceit and imagination: Whom have I in heaven but thee? There is scarcely a verse in all the psalms more expressive than this of the pious and devout affections of a soul to God; here it soars up towards him, follows hard after him, and yet, at the same time, has an entire satisfaction and complacency in him.

1. It is here supposed that God alone is the felicity and chief good of man. He, and he only, that made the soul, can make it happy; there is none in heaven, none in earth, that can pretend to do it besides.

2. Here are expressed the workings and breathings of a soul towards God accordingly. If God be our felicity,

(1.) Then we must have him (Whom have I but thee?), we must choose him, and make sure to ourselves an interest in him. What will it avail us that he is the felicity of souls if he be not the felicity of our souls, and if we do not by a lively faith make him ours, by joining ourselves to him in an everlasting covenant?

(2.) Then our desire must be towards him and our delight in him (the word signifies both); we must delight in what we have of God and desire what we yet further hope for. Our desires must not only be offered up to God, but they must all terminate in him, desiring nothing more than God, but still more and more of him. This includes all our prayers, Lord, give us thyself; as that includes all the promises, I will be to them a God. The desire of our souls is to thy name.

(3.) We must prefer him in our choice and desire before any other. [1.] "There is none in heaven but thee, none to seek to or trust in, none to court or covet acquaintance with, but thee." God is in himself more glorious than any celestial being (Ps. lxxxix. 6), and must be, in our eyes, infinitely more desirable. Excellent beings there are in heaven, but God alone can make us happy. His favour is infinitely more to us than the refreshment of the dews of heaven or the benign influence of the stars of heaven, more than the friendship of the saints in heaven or the good offices of the angels there. [2.] I desire none on earth besides thee; not only none in heaven, a place at a distance, which we have but little acquaintance with, but none on earth neither, where we have many friends and where much of our present interest and concern lie. "Earth carries away the desires of most men, and yet I have none on earth, no persons, no things, no possessions, no delights, that I desire besides thee or with thee, in comparison or competition with thee." We must desire nothing besides God but what we desire for him (nil præter te nisi propter te—nothing besides thee except for thy sake), nothing but what we desire from him, and can be content without so that it be made up in him. We must desire nothing besides God as needful to be a partner with him in making us happy.

(4.) Then we must repose ourselves in God with an entire satisfaction, v. 26. Observe here, [1.] Great distress and trouble supposed: My flesh and my heart fail. Note, Others have experienced and we must expect, the failing both of flesh and heart. The body will fail by sickness, age, and death; and that which touches the bone and the flesh touches us in a tender part, that part of ourselves which we have been but too fond of; when the flesh fails the heart is ready to fail too; the conduct, courage, and comfort fail. [2.] Sovereign relief provided in this distress: But God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever. Note, Gracious souls, in their greatest distresses, rest upon God as their spiritual strength and their eternal portion. First, "He is the strength of my heart, the rock of my heart, a firm foundation, which will bear my weight and not sink under it. God is the strength of my heart; I have found him so; I do so still, and hope ever to find him so." In the distress supposed, he had put the case of a double failure, both flesh and heart fail; but, in the relief, he fastens on a single support: he leaves out the flesh and the consideration of that, it is enough that God is the strength of his heart. He speaks as one careless of the body (let that fail, there is no remedy), but as one concerned about the soul, to be strengthened in the inner man. Secondly, "He is my portion for ever; he will not only support me while I am here, but make me happy when I go hence." The saints choose God for their portion, they have him for their portion, and it is their happiness that he will be their portion, a portion that will last as long as the immortal soul lasts.

V. He was fully convinced of the miserable condition of all wicked people. This he learned in the sanctuary upon this occasion, and he would never forget it (v. 27): "Lo, those that are far from thee, in a state of distance and estrangement, that desire the Almighty to depart from them, shall certainly perish; so shall their doom be; they choose to be far from God, and they shall be far from him for ever. Thou wilt justly destroy all those that go a whoring from thee, that is, all apostates, that in profession have been betrothed to God, but forsake him, their duty to him and their communion with him, to embrace the bosom of a stranger." The doom is sever, no less than perishing and being destroyed. It is universal: "They shall all be destroyed without exception." It is certain: "Thou hast destroyed; it is as sure to be done as if done already; and the destruction of some ungodly men is an earnest of the perdition of all." God himself undertakes to do it, into whose hands it is a fearful thing to fall: "Thou, though infinite in goodness, wilt reckon for thy injured honour and abused patience, and wilt destroy those that go a whoring from thee."

VI. He was greatly encouraged to cleave to God and to confide in him, v. 28. If those that are far from God shall perish, then, 1. Let this constrain us to live in communion with God; "if it fare so ill with those that live at a distance from him, then it is good, very good, the chief good, that good for a man, in this life, which he should most carefully pursue and secure, it is best for me to draw near to God, and to have God draw near to me;" the original may take in both. But for my part (so I would read it) the approach of God is good for me. Our drawing near to God takes rise from his drawing near to us, and it is the happy meeting that makes the bliss. Here is a great truth laid down, That it is good to draw near to God; but the life of it lies in the application, "It is good for me." Those are the wise who know what is good for themselves: "It is good, says he (and every good man agrees with him in it), it is good for me to draw near to God; it is my duty; it is my interest." 2. Let us therefore live in a continual dependence upon him: "I have put my trust in the Lord God, and will never go a whoring from him after any creature confidences." If wicked men, notwithstanding all their prosperity, shall perish and be destroyed, then let us trust in the Lord God, in him, not in them (see Ps. cxlvi. 3-5), in him, and not in our worldly prosperity; let us trust in God, and neither fret at them nor be afraid of them; let us trust in him for a better portion than theirs is. 3. While we do so, let us not doubt but that we shall have occasion to praise his name. Let us trust in the Lord, that we may declare all his works. Note, Those that with an upright heart put their trust in God shall never want matter for thanksgiving to him.

PSAL. LXXIII.

A Psalme of Asaph.

YEt surely God is good to Israel, to them that are pure in heart. And I, my feet almost swerved aside; my steps had welnigh slipped out. For I envied at vain-glorious fools, when I saw the peace of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death, and lusty is their strength. They are not in the molestation of sory man, and with earthly man they are not plagued. Therfore pride compasseth them about as a chaine, violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes standeth out with fatnesse, they passe the imaginations of the heart. They doe corrupt and speake with maliciousnesse of oppression, they speak from aloft. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh thorow the earth. Therefore his people turneth hither, and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. And they say, How doth God know, and is there knowledge in the most high? Loe, these are the wicked, and in tranquillity ever; they increase wealthy power. Surely in vaine have I cleansed mine heart, and washed my hands in innocency. And am plagued all the day, and my rebuke is in the mornings. If I say, I will tell thus; loe, I unfaithfully wrong the generation of thy sons. And I thought to know this, but it was a painfull thing in mine eyes. Vntill I entred into the Sanctuaries of God, did prudently attend to their last end. Surely thou dost set them in slipperie places, dost make them fall to desolations. How are they brought to wondrous desolation as in a moment? are they at an end, are they consumed with troublesome frights? As a dreame after one waketh; O Lord, when thou raisest up, thou wilt despise their image. Surely mine heart was levened, and I was pricked in my reines. And I was bruitish and knew not; as the beasts was I with thee. Yet I continually was with thee, thou hast holden me fast by my right hand. Thou wilt guide mee with thy counsell, and after wilt receive me to glory. Whom have I in the Heavens? and with thee I delight not any in earth. Wholly consumed is my flesh and my heart; the Rocke of my heart and my portion is God forever. For loe, they that are gone farre from thee shall perish, thou suppressest every one that goeth a whoring from thee. And I, to draw nigh to God is good for me; I have set my hope for safety in the Lord Iehovih, for to tell all thy workes.

Annotations. THe third Booke] to wit, of Psalmes. See the Note on Psal. 42. Vers. 1. of Asaph] or, to As[illegible: 1 letter]ph, who was both a Prophet and a singer: see Psal. 50. 1. The like title is of the 10. Psalmes following. These are for the most part complaints and meditations of the troubles of Gods people. Vers. 2. almost] or, a very little lacked, but my feet had swarved; so after, welnigh, or, almost nothing lacked, but my steps had beene shed: noting hereby his great danger to have fallen through his infirmity, had not faith in God sustained him. swarved] or turned, declined. This and the next word slipped have a double reading in the Hebrew by the vowels, they had swar[illegible: 2 letters]d, they had slipped; by the consonants, it had swarved, it had slipped; meaning each of his feet, and every of his steps, to his utter ruine. slipped out] or been powred out, to wit, as water, and so I had beene lost. Vers. 3. envied] or was jealous, had envious zeale: See Psal. 37. 1. Vers. 4. bands] or knots, that is, paines, sores, diseases, &c. in their death] or till their death, meaning that they live long in pleasure, & dye at ease, as is explained, Iob 21. 13. They spend their daies i[illegible: 1 letter] wealth, and suddenly they goe downe to the grave. The Chaldee saith, For they are not terrified or troubled for the day of their death. but lusty] or, and fat is their fortitude (their firme strength of body) as Iob saith, one dieth in his full strength, bring in all ease and prosperity, his breasts are full of milke, & his bones run full of marrow, Iob 21. 23, 24. Vers. 5. molestation of sory man] that is, such turmoile as other miserable men endure. See the like phrase in 2 Sam. 7. 14. Aenosh and Adam are here the names of all wretched mankind. See Psal. 8. 5. The Chaldee expoundeth it, They labour not in the labour of men that study in the Law, and with just men, &c. Vers. 6. compasseth, &c.] or, is a chaine to them and to him, that is, every of them; as a collar that is hanged for an ornament about the necke. And of this word Anak, to hang a chaine, that Giant Anak had his name, whose children were called Anakims. men great of stature, proud and cruell. See Numb. 13. 23. 34. Ios. 15. 13, 14. a garment] a set habit or ornament finely fitted to the body; such was the harlots habit, Prov. 7. 10. Vers. 7. eyes standeth] that is, Each eye standeth or starteth out of the hole for satnesse. In Chaldee, The similitude of their faces is changed for satnesse. So in Iob 15. 27. he hath covered his face with his fatnesse. they passe the imaginations, &c.] that is, they exceed in prosperity above that they could imagine or thinke; or, they surpasse in wickednesse above that which mans heart can thinke, according to that which here followeth, and as in Ier. 5. 28. it is said, they are waxen fat and shining, they doe passe the words (or deeds) of the wicked. Vers. 8. They doe corrupt] or consume, dissolve or make dissolute by their wicked speeches, and by their oppression of men. It may be understood of corrupting, or making rotten with sinne themselves or others, or consuming and wasting with oppression. with maliciousnesse] or in evill, that is, maliciously or malignantly. from aloft] that is, loftily. Or, of the most High, that is, of God, as in the next verse: but the Chaldee expoundeth it, of the highnesse of their heart. Vers. 9. against Heavens] that is, against God and his Saints whom they blaspheme, as it is written, he opened his mouth unto blasphemie against God, to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in Heaven, Rev. 13. 6. So elsewhere Heavens are used for God, Dan. 4. 23. L[illegible: 1 letter]k. 15. 18. Vers. 10. his people] Gods owne people are by this afflicted. Therefore the Greeke saith my people; the Psalmist speaking of his brethren, as after of himselfe, vers. 13. hither] to these thoughts and tentations, which follow in the next verses. a full] the word cup or bason is here to be understood; as strong, for strong pawes, Psal. 10. 9. See the note there. By waters of a full cup, are meant abundance of teares, which they must drinke, that is, of afflictions and tentations which they suffer; as in Psal. 80. 6. So the Chaldee explaineth it, and teares as many waters shall flow from them. wrung out to them] or drunke (sucked up) by them, as in Ps. 75. 9. Vers. 12. in tranquillity] or quiet, safe, wealthy, at ease. Compare herewith Ier. 12. 1. 2. wealthy power] abilitie by riches; see Psal. 49. 7. Vers. 13. cleansed] that is, laboured to cleanse and purge, by faith and continuall sanctification, Acts 15. 9. 1 Ioh. 3. 3. otherwise, who can say, I have made mine heart cleane. Pro. 20. 9. innocency] or cleannesse: see Psal. 26. 6. and 24. 4. Vers. 14. [illegible: 1 word] plagued] or touched with afflictions, punished, which the wicked are not, v. 5. my rebuke,] or blame, to wit, I beare the chastisement for my sinnes. in the mornings] that is, every morning, or early: the like phrase is Psa. 101. 8. Iob 7. 18. Lam. 3. 23. Esa. 33. 2. Vers. 15. I will tell thus] that is, if these tentations prevaile against mee, so that I should tell and declare for truth these my carnall thoughts. Telling is often used for publishing and preaching to others: See Psal. 2. 7. u[illegible: 1 letter]faithfully wrong] or faithlesly transgresse against the generation of thy sonnes, (O God) that is, of thy people, called the sons of God, Deut. 14. 1. 1 Ioh. 3. 1. Vers. 17. prudently attend to] or, consider their latter end. A like speech Moses useth, Deu. 32. 29. V. 18. slippery places] where they suddenly fall to perdition. The Chaldee saith, in darke places. Vers. 19. wondrous desolation] such as astonieth the beholders. Such sudden strange desolation God brought on Babylon of old, Ier. 51. 37. 41. and will againe, Rev. 18. 10. 17. V. 20. As a dreame] to wit, so they are, or, so vanisheth their prosperity; which when one awaketh, is gone, as is plainly set forth in Esa. 29. 7▪ 8. So elsewhere it is said, he shall flee away as a dreame▪ & not be found, & shal passe away as a vision of the night: the eye which saw him shall doe so no more, &c. Iob 20. 8, 9. The Chaldee explaineth it, as the dreame of a drunken man. thou raisest up] to wit, thy selfe; that is, risest up to punish them, as Psal. 35. 23. or raisest up, to wit, them, at the last day of judgement. So the Chaldee Paraphrast turneth it, saying, in the day of the great judgement they shall rise up out of the house of the grave, in wrath thou wilt despise their image. The Greek saith, in thy citie thou wilt despise their image: the Hebrew word baghnir being ambiguous▪ In this sense, compare herewith Eccles. 8. 10. despise their image] or their shadow, that is, destroy their transitorie estate; for, man walketh in an image▪ Ps. 39. 7. Or, referring it to the last judgement, their image may meane their corrupt sinfull state, Ge. 5. 3. and the despising of it, is their utter rejection; for then they shall rise to sheme and contempt eternall, Dan. 12. 2. Vers. 21. was levened] or lev[illegible: 1 letter]ned it selfe, that is, was vexed, grieved, swelled, was s[illegible: 1 letter]wre as leven, with my fretting griefe and anger. I was p[illegible: 3 letters] ked] or, sharpned (pricked) my selfe, that is, [illegible: 2 letters]lt sharpe paines, to wit, with my [illegible: 1 letter]re[illegible: 1 letter]ting thoughts and desires. Vers. 22. bruitish] that is, foolish, sens[illegible: 1 letter]all, like a brute beast, not having the understanding of a man in me: as is explained, Pro. 30. 2. See also Psal. 49. 1[illegible: 1 letter]. as the beasts] that is, as one of them, or a great beast, Hebr. Beh[illegible: 1 letter]m[illegible: 1 letter]th; which is used for the vast Elephant, I[illegible: 1 letter]b 40. 10. The Greeke here turneth it beastiall, or brutish. Vers. 24. to glory] or with glory, that is, gloriously, honourably. See 1 Tim. 3. 16. Phil. 3. 21. Heb. 2. 10. 1 Pet. 5. 1. 4. The Chaldee paraphraseth, Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel in this world; and after that the glorie is accomplished, which thou hast said thou wil[illegible: 1 letter] bring upon me, thou wilt receive me. Vers. 25. whom have I] or, who is for me, but thee to trust in, or call upon. delight not] or take no pleasure, in any person, or thing. Vers. 26. the R[illegible: 1 letter]cke] that is, the strength and hope; the Greeke saith, the God of my heart. Vers. 27. gone farre▪ that is, the wicked who are here said to be farre from God; and in Psal. 119. 150. are farre from his Law, and therefore salvatition is farre from them, Psal. 119. 155. as here they perish, whereas the righteous are a people neere God, Psal. 148. 14. that goeth a w[illegible: 1 letter]oring from thee] that is, go[illegible: 1 letter]th after idols, departing from the true God, as Hos. 1. 2. for idolatrie or breach of Gods covenant, is often called whoredome or fornication, [illegible: 1 letter]er. 3. 9. 20. Ezek. 23. 3▪ 5. 7. &c▪ Psal. [illegible: 1 letter]06. 39. Vers. 28. to draw nigh] so both the Greeke and Chaldee doe explaine the Hebrew phrase the drawing neere of God; and thus it is also used in Isa. 58. 2. and is done by the faith of the Gospell, Heb. 7. 19. Iehov[illegible: 1 letter]h] or God: see Psal. 68. 21. The Chaldee saith, in the w[illegible: 1 letter]rd of God. to tell] that I may tell, or declare, as the Greek explaineth it.

PSAL. LXXIII.

A Pſalm of Aſaph] Who was not only an excellent Muſician, but a Prophet alſo, an Oratour, and a Poet; not unlike (for his ſtile) to Horace, or Perſius, This, and the ten next Pſalms, that bear this name in the front, conſiſt of complaints for moſt part, and ſad matters.

Verſ. 1. Truly God is good to Iſrael] Or, Yet God is, &c. Thus the Pſalmiſt beginneth abruptly after a ſore Conflict; throwing off the Devil, and his fiery Darts, where-with his heart for a while had been wounded. It is beſt to break off temptations of corrupt and carnal reaſonings, and to ſilence doubts and diſputes, leſt wee be foyled. Hee ſhoots (ſaith Greenham) with Satan in his own bow, who thinks by diſputing and reaſoning to put him off.

To ſuch as are of a clean heart] Such as are Iſraelites indeed, and not Hypocrites and diſſemblers. For as for ſuch as turn a ſide unto their crooked wayes, the Lord ſhall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity (as malefactours are led forth to execution) but Peace ſhall be upon Iſrael, Pſal. 125.5. upon the Iſrael of God, Gal. 6.16.

Verſ. 2. But as for mee my feet were almoſt gone] i. e. I was wel-night brought to beleeve, that there was no divine providence: as the Athenians did, when their good General Nicias was worſted and ſlain in Sicily; as Pompey did,Thucid. when having the better cauſe, he was overcome by Ceſar; as Brutus did (that laſt of the Romans as he was called for his courage) when beaten out of the field by Anthony, he cryed out [non-Latin text not transcribed], Now I ſee that vertue is nothing, but all things are moderated by Fortun, whom he charged his children therefore to worſhip, as a goddeſſe of greateſt power.

My ſteps had wel[illegible: 1 letter]nigh ſlipt] Quaſi nihil effuſi, ſunt greſſus mei, that is, as Kimchi interpreteth it, Status meus crat tantillus quaſi nullus eſſet pre figendo peds locus, I had ſcarce any faſtening for my feet, my heels were gone almoſt. What wonder then that Heathens have been ſtounded and ſtaggered?

Cum rapiaent mala fata bonos (ignoſcite faſſo) Sollicitor nullos eſſe putare Deos.

Saith Ovid. And to the fame purpoſe another Poet.

Marmoreo Licinies tumulo jacet, & Cato parve, Pompeius nullo; quis putet eſſe Deos?

Verſ. 3. For I was envious at the fooliſh] Heb. At the Bragadochies, the vain-glorious, the mad-boaſters; I aemulated, and ſtomached their proſperity,Jact abundis compared with mine own far-worſe condition. Godly men though cured of their ſpirituall phrenzy, yet play oft many mad tricks; one while fretting at the proſperity of their adverſaries, and another while murmuring at their own afflictions, or plotting courſes how to conform themſelves to the World, &c.

When I ſaw the proſperity of the Wicked] This hath ever been a pearl in the eyes, not of the Heathens only, but of better meu. See Jer. 12.1, 2, Habbak. 1.3. Pſal. 37. &c. Yet Seneca writeth a treatiſe of it, and ſheweth the reaſons, if at leaſt he beleeved himſelf therein. Eraſmus paſſeth this cenſure of him; Read him as a Pagan, and he writeth Chriſtian-like,; read him as 2 Chriſtian, and he writeth Pagan-like.

Verſ. 4. For there are no bands in their death] Or, No knots and knorles; they dye without long ſickneſſe, or much pain, or trouble of mind. If a man dye [illegible: 1 letter]ike a Lamb, and paſs out of the World like a bird in a ſhel, he is certainly ſaved, think ſome. The wicked are here ſaid to dye quietly, as if there were no looſening of the band that is betwixt ſoul and body. Julian the Apoſtate dyed with theſe words in his mouth; Vitam repoſcents natura tanquam debitor bonae fidei redditurum exulto, Anomian that is, I owe a death to Nature, and now that ſhe calleth for it, as a faithfull debtour,c[illegible: 2 letters]t. lib. 7. [illegible: 1 word] Diodor. I gladly pay it. The Princes of the Sogdians, when they were drawn forth to death by Alexander the great, carmen more latumtium etcinerut, tripu[illegible: 1 letter]iſ que gaudium animi oſtentare caperunt, They ſang and danced to the place of execution.

But their ſtrength is firm] They are lively and luſty, they are pingues & praevalidi, fat and fair-liking, fat is their fortitude, ſo ſome render it; Others, ſtrong is their porch or Palace.

Verſ. 5. They are not in trouble as other men] But live in a ſerene clime, under a perpetuall calm; as he did of whom it is ſtoried, that he never had any croſſe, but at laſt was nailed to a croſs, Polycrates I mean, King of Egypt. Marull[illegible: 2 letters] telleth us, that Ambroſe comming once to a great mans houſe, who boaſted that he had never ſuffered any adverſity,Marul. l. 5. c. 3. he haſted away thence, and ſaid he did ſo, we una cum [illegible: 1 letter]omine perpetuis proſperitatibus uſo periret, leſt he ſhould periſh with the man, that bad been ſo extraordinarily proſperous. And no ſooner was he and his company departed, but the earth opened and ſwallowed up that mans houſe, with all that were in it.

Verſ. 6. Therefore pride compaſſeth them about as a chain] The pride of their hearts breaketh forth in their coſtly habits, whiles they are torquati, & auro ac gemmis amicti, ſetting up their plumes as Peacocks, which have their names in Hebrew from the joy they take in their fair feathers; ſo do theſe glory in their pride, and are puffed up with a fooliſh perſwaſion of their own prudence. Ʋermis divitiarum eſt ſuperbia. Charge the rich that they be not high-minded, 1 Tim. 6.17. He is a great rich man, ſaith Auſtin, and greater than his riches, who doth not therefore think himſelf great, becauſe he is rich. Magna cognatio, ſaith Another, Ut rei ſic nominis, divitiis & vitiis, He is a rare rich man that is not the worſe for his wealth. The Palm-tree, they ſay, wil not grow in a fat ground, but ſalt and aſhes muſt, in that caſe, be caſt at the root, to qualify the ſtrength of the ſoil: So grace will not grow in a fat heart, without the ſalt of mortification, and aſhes of humiliation. Their heart is fat as greaſe, but I delight in thy law.

Violence covereth them as a garment] Violence,Pſal. 119.70. or wrong-dealing is the perpetual companion of pride, and covereth them a[illegible: 1 letter] a garment, finely fitted to their bodies, as was the Harlots habit, Prov. 7.10. Aben-Ezra rendreth it, obruit eos, overwhelmeth them; that is, domineereth over them. Some Rabbines render it, Nates eorum violentia tegit.

Verſ. 7. Their eyes ſtand out with fatneſs] The Chaldee hath it, The ſimilitude of their face is changed through fatneſs. See Job 15.27. The Greek, For the wealth which they have, their eyes are lifted up. The Latine, Their iniquity proceedeth as it were from fatneſs.

They have more than heart could wiſh] Heb. They paſs the thoughts of the heart; Which the Greek rendreth,See Jer. 5.28. No man can think how wicked they are; thoſe ſtall-fed Sodomites for inſtance. So Aben-Ezra, Tranſgreſſiones perpetrant quas cogitare nefas eſt, they are more wicked than can be imagined; Others they covet beyond meaſure, and are inſatiable, thinking to incloſe the whole World in their net, as Timothy the Athenian did Cities and Towns in his toyles. Our tranſlation is not to be diſliked;Plut. in Sylla: neither yet are all to be accounted wicked, that have more than heart could wiſh.De Civ. Dei l. 5. c. 25. Bonus Deus Conſtantinum magnum tantis torrenis implevit muneribus, quanta opt are nullus anderet. ſaith Auguſtine.

Verſ. 8. They are corrupt and ſpeak wickedly] Their pride before taxed, verſ. 6. buddeth, and budgeth, Ezek. 7.10. like a foul ſwelling in the body, it breaketh out into ſores of all ſorts, odious words and deeds, abominable to God and man. Diff[illegible: 1 letter]uunt & loquuntur in malitia rapinam, They melt and are ſpilt in ſenſuall delights and diſſolute practices. Or, they let looſe themſelves, and keep not within compaſs. Or, they fly-blow and make to ſtink the good names of others, ſc. while they ſpeak evill of them, and reproach them. Tabifici ſunt, ſo Tremellius rendreth it.

They ſpeak loftily] De celſuudine, from aloft; tapides loquuntur, they threaten thunder bolts,Dionyſ. commiſſo ſacrilegio Deum dicebat ſacrilegi[illegible: 1 letter] bonam navigationem▪ concedere. Act. & Mon. fol. 1417. Turk. hiſt. 423.568. throw daggers, faſtuoſa voce omnes territant.

Verſ. 9. They ſet their mouth againſt the Heavens] They houl upward, as Woolves; bark at the Moon, as dogs piſs againſt the Sun, belch out blaſphemies againſt God, as did Pharaoh, Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, Dionyſius the tyrant, Antiochus, Antichriſt, Rev. 13.6. (Pope Julius the third for inſtance, who would have his pork-meat (forbidden him by his Phyſicians) at despi[illegible: 2 letters] di Dio) The great Turk at the [illegible: 2 letters]ge of Sc[illegible: 1 letter]dra, and again at the Rhodes; beſides Hack[illegible: 2 letters] in Queen Elizabeths time, and the Ranters in ours.

And their tongue walketh thorough the earth] Snapping at every one they meet, like a mad dog; and not ſparing to ſpeak, or rather to ſpue out whatſoever lyeth uppermoſt. Thou ſhalt not walk up and down as a ſlanderer, or Pedler with his pack, which he openeth eftſoons, and diſperſeth his wares, Levit. 19.16. That's a true ſaying of Seneca, Ut quiſ que eſt diſſolutiſſimae vitae, ita eſt ſollutiſſimae lingua. As any one is more diſſolute in his life, ſo hee is more heedleſſe of his ſpeeches.

Verſ. 10. Therefore his people return hither] i.e. Some good men are as wiſe (or rather as fooliſh) as I have been, to miſ-cenſure on this manner, and to repent mee of my repentance, or to ſay, as verſ. 11.

How doth God know, &c? becauſe Waters of a full cup are wrung out unto them] That is, becauſe the wicked drink wine in bowls, their ſervants wringing the rich ripe grapes thereinto, as Gen. 40.11. Or, becauſe God ſendeth them, (his people) perpetual and extreme afflictions, which is meant, ſay ſome, by drinking off a cup, and ſqueezing all the liquor into it. Others read it, Full Waters are wrung out to them, that is, ſay they, theſe their thoughts and ſpeeches ſavouring of infidelity, ſhall coſt them abundance of tears; as Peters fall did him.

Verſ. 11. And they ſay, how doth God know?] Even the godly through infirmity, are drawn ſometimes to doubt of Gods providence and government, becauſe of the inequality of events in human affairs. It had like to have coſt the Pſalmiſt here a fall, and made him almoſt caſt of all care off Religion. Baſil alſo was in ſome doubt of the divine providence; under the heat of the Arian perſecution. For hath the Lord utterly forſaken his Churches, ſaith he? is it now the laſt hour? In the next age Salvian (for the ſatisfaction of ſome good people) was forced to write eight books, De gubernatione Dei, & de juſta praeſenti que ejus Judicio, of Gods governing the World, and the righteouſneſs of his proceedings. Upon a like occaſion Auſtin wrote thoſe twenty two moſt excellent and elaborate books, De civitate Dei.

Verſ. 12. Behold thoſe are the ungodly] q.d. If God do take knowledge of things here below, and ordereth all events, how it is that the ungodly proſper, whilſt better men ſuffer?

Who prosper in the World] An ill character, every thing conſidered. See Pſal. 17.14. with the Note. Behold theſe are the ungodly, the fortunate men of the World, ſo ſome render it. He that liveth in the height of the Worlds blandiſhments, is not far from deſtruction. Periculoſa eſt ſummè bona corporis valetudo, ſaith Hippocrates. The height of health is neareſt to ſickneſſe and death.

They increaſe in riches] They wallow in wealth; God pouring honey into their hives; but for a vengeance.

Verſ. 13. Verily I have cleanſed my heart in vain] For all is to little purpoſe, if the cards play on this faſhion, if the good muſt be thus extremely under, and the bad a top of the wheel. Surely I have troubled my ſelf to no purpoſe or profit; If it be ſo, why am I thus? as ſhe ſaid. I read of a prophane ſouldier, who at the ſiege of a Town, paſſing a place of danger, was heard ſwearing, and when one that ſtood by warned him, ſaying, Fellow-ſouldier, do not ſwear, the bullets flye, he anſwered, They that ſwear come off as well as thoſe that pray; But ſoon after this, a ſhot hit him, and down he fell. It is not ſafe for Saints to ſymbolize with ſinners in ſuch deſperate ſpeeches; leſt the Lord hear it and be diſpleaſed.

Omne trahit ſe cum numinis ira malum.Ovid.

Verſ. 14. For all the day long have I been plagued] Gods beſt beloved are moſt afflicted, neither have any out of hell ever ſuffered more than the heirs of heaven. See my treatiſe called Gods love-tokens.

And chaſtened every morning] Singulis matutinis, I am no ſooner awake than ſome new miſery ſeizeth mee, quaſi egiſſet excubias, as if it had laid wait for mee.

Verſ. 15. If I ſay I will ſpeak thus] If I ſhould give way to ſuch a wicked thought, &c. Here the Spirit beginneth to get the upper hand, to gain the wind and the hill of the fleſh. The Spirit would alwaies get the better of the fleſh, were it upon equal tearms. But when the Fleſh ſhall get the hill, as it were of temptation, and ſhall have wind to drive the ſmoak upon the face and eyes of the Combatant, that is, to blind him, upon ſuch a diſadvantage he may ſeem to be overcome.

Behold I ſhall offend againſt the generation, &c.] As if they were no children, becauſe ſo ſharply chaſtened; whereas the Saints are unto God as the apple of his eye, that little man in the eye, as the word ſignifieth. The eye is a tender part; yet when dim and dusky we apply ſharp powders, or waters to it, to eat out the web, pearl or blindneſs, and yet love it never the leſſe. No more doth God his Children, though he apply corroſives or cauſticks to their fleſh, if need require.

Verſ. 16. When I thought to know this, it was too painfull for mee] Heb. It was labour in mine eyes, labour in vain, I could do no good on't, ſed labyrinthis & Maeandris inextricabilibus implicabar, I did but tread a Maze, for Gods Judgements are unſearchable, and his wayes (of providence) are paſt finding out; they are farre above the reach of human reaſon.

Verſ. 17. Untill I went into the Sanctuary of God] And there conſulted with the Scriptures, heard the lectures of the law, prayed, went thorough all the exerciſes of Gods School.

Then underſtood I their end] To be ſuch as God pronounceth of them in the Scriptures, and as the effect and common experience ſometimes declareth. For ſome wicked God puniſheth here,In Pſal. 36. leſt his providence, but not all, leſt his patience and promiſe of Judgement ſhould be called into queſtion, ſaith Auſtin.

Verſ. 18. Surely thou didſt ſet them in ſlippery places] Where they can have no more certainty than if they went upon the ſmootheſt Ice, or walked upon a mine of gun-powder. The Turks ſeeing ſo few of their Viſiers to dye in their beds, have taken up this proverb, Hee that is even in the greateſt office, is but a ſtatue of glaſs.

Thou caſtedſt them down into destruction] Improbos ex magna proſperitate tanquam ex Tarpeia rupe in barathrum perditionis praecipitaſti. Haman for inſtance.

Verſ. 19. How are they brought into deſolation, &c?] Such as the Pſalmiſt expreſſeth by an exclamation, cauſed by an admiration at Gods dreadfull Judgements which his faith beheld as preſent and unavoidable, and ſuch as aſtonied the beholders. See it in the literall and myſticall Babylon, Jer. 51.37, 41. Rev. 18.10, 17.

They are utterly conſumed with terrours] Heb. They are ended, they are conſumed with troubleſome frights; eſpecially when from their death-beds they behold that three-fold terrible ſpectacle, Death, Judgement, Hell, and all to be paſſed thorough by their poor ſouls.

Verſ. 20. As a dream when one awaketh] Such is the wicked mans pomp and bravery; now what are dreams but pleaſant follies and deluſions, the empty bubbles of the mind, Children and tales of fancy, idle and fruitleſs notions, meer bawbles?Sic Mycillus apud Lucian. See Iſa. 29.7, 8. The Fiſher-man in Theocritus dreamt that he was ſome demy-god; but when he awaked, all his golden hopes vaniſhed. The Chaldee explaineth it, As the dream of a drunken man; who ſleeping on the ſteep of a rock may think himſelf a King; and ſtarting for joy may ſoon break his neck at the bottom.

So, O Lord, when thou awakeſt thou ſhalt despiſe their image] That is, that whereof they dreamt, and whereon they do ſtill doat; viz. their worldly pomp and pride, which is nothing elſe but magnum nihil, a glorious phancy, a non-entity. Some read it thus, When thou ſhalt raiſe up (the dead) thou ſhalt despiſe their image, that is, their ſouls; they ſhall riſe to everlaſting ſhame and contempt, Dan. 12.2.

Verſ. 21. Thus my heart was grieved] Heb. Leavened and ſoured, ſc. with the greatneſſe of godly ſorrow, & quaſi aceto acri perfundebatur, it was ſteeped as it were in Vineger. So Peter wept bitterly; waters of Marah flowed from his eyes.

And I was pricked in my reins] Pricked at heart, as thoſe, Act. 2. put to as much pain as thoſe that have the ſtone in the kidneyes, exceedingly grieved for my miſ-conſtruing and miſ-cenſuring of Gods wayes and people.

Verſ. 22. So fooliſh was I and ignorant] By this be-fooling and be-beaſting himſelf, hee retracteth and bewaileth his former fluctuation and folly, verſ. 2, 3. This is the proper fruit of his godly ſorrow, verſe 21.

I was as a beaſt before thee] Heb. Behemoth, as a great beaſt, or as many beaſts in one. Thus he aggravateth, and layeth load upon his ſin, and ſo muſt we.

Verſ. 23. Nevertheleſs, I am continually with thee] Or, yet I was always with thee, ſc. when at worſt. Infirmities diſcard us not. The Marriage knot is not diſſolved by every falling out; not the League betwixt Princes broken by the wrongs done by Pirates.

Thou haſt holden me by my right hand] That I ſhould not utterly fall from thee: there was ſtill a ſupporting grace.Quando [illegible: 1 word] mens vacil[illegible: 2 letters]ba[illegible: 1 letter] Aben-Ezra.

Verſ. 24. Thou ſhalt guide me with thy counſel] We had his repentance, verſ. 21, 22. his faith, 23. and here; we have [illegible: 1 word] hope of ſafety here, and ſalvation hereafter.

And afterwards receive me] As thou didſt holy Henoch.

Verſ. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee] I would I were in heaven with thee, ſo Aben-Ezra rendreth it; and to the ſame ſenſe Beza paraphraſeth, Apage terra, quod utinam Deus in calo jam & tecum eſſem: quid enim eſt in terra quod me vel tantillum vetineat?

Verſ. 26. My fleſh faileth, and my heart faileth] Some think that the Pſalmiſt, through egreſſion of affection unto God, having ſpent and exhaled his ſpirits, fell into a ſwoon; out of which he recovered again by the joy of the Lord, which was his ſtrength, even the rock of his heart. The Greek ſaith, The God of my heart.

Verſ. 27. For loe, they that are farre from thee ſhall periſh] How can they do otherwiſe, when as Salvation is farre from them? Pſal. 119.155. And upon this ground it is, that I do ſo earneſtly deſire to be with thee; ſith

Thou haſt deſtroyed (or ſhut up from puniſhment) all them that go a whoring from thee] Having their hearts full of Harlotry, as appeareth by their courting the Creature.

Verſ. 28. But it is good for me to draw nigh to God] To hang ever upon thee (in this general defection of others) by the faith of the Goſpel, Heb. 7.19. by putting my truſt in thee, that I may declare all thy works, and relate my experiments; A circle is the perfecteſt figure, becauſe it beginneth and endeth; the laſt point meeteth in the firſt from whence it came. We ſhall never come to perfection or ſatiſfaction, till we draw nigh to God, till God make the circle meet, &c.

Truly, or, more correctly, only, God is good to Israel. He is only good, nothing else but good to his own covenanted ones. He cannot act unjustly, or unkindly to them; his goodness to them is beyond dispute, and without mixture. Even to such as are of a clean heart. These are the true Israel, not the ceremonially clean but the really so; those who are clean in the inward parts, pure in the vital mainspring of action. To such he is, and must be, goodness itself. The writer does not doubt this, but lays it down as his firm conviction. It is well to make sure of what we do know, for this will be good anchor hold for us when we are molested by those mysterious storms which arise from things which we do not understand. Whatever may or may not be the truth about mysterious and inscrutable things, there are certainties somewhere; experience has placed some tangible facts within our grasp; let us, then, cling to these, and they will prevent our being carried away by those hurricanes of infidelity which still come from the wilderness, and, like whirlwinds, smite the four corners of our house and threaten to overthrow it. O my God, however perplexed I may be, let me never think ill of thee. If I cannot understand thee, let me never cease to believe in thee. It must be so, it cannot be otherwise, thou art good to those whom thou hast made good; and where thou hast renewed the heart thou wilt not leave it to its enemies.

Here begins the narrative of a great soul battle, a spiritual Marathon, a hard and well fought field, in which the half defeated became in the end wholly victorious. But as for me. He contrasts himself with his God who is ever good; he owns his personal want of good, and then also compares himself with the clean in heart, and goes on to confess his defilement. The Lord is good to his saints, but as for me, am I one of them? Can I expect to share his grace? Yes, I do share it; but I have acted an unworthy part, very unlike one who is truly pure in heart. My feet were almost gone. Errors of heart and head soon affect the conduct. There is an intimate connection between the heart and the feet. Asaph could barely stand, his uprightness was going, his knees were bowing like a falling wall. When men doubt the righteousness of God, their own integrity begins to waver. My steps had well nigh slipped. Asaph could make no progress in the good road, his feet ran away from under him like those of a man on a sheet of ice. He was weakened for all practical action, and in great danger of actual sin, and so of a disgraceful fall. How ought we to watch the inner man, since it has so forcible an effect upon the outward character. The confession in this case is, as it should be, very plain and explicit.

For I was envious at the foolish. "The foolish" is the generic title of all the wicked: they are beyond all others fools, and he must be a fool who envies fools. Some read it, "the proud:" and, indeed, these, by their ostentation, invite envy, and many a mind which is out of gear spiritually, becomes infected with that wasting disease. It is a pitiful thing that an heir of heaven should have to confess "I was envious, "but worse still that he should have to put it, "I was envious at the foolish." Yet this acknowledgment is, we fear, due from most of us. When I saw the prosperity of the wicked. His eye was fixed too much on one thing; he saw their present, and forgot their future, saw their outward display, and overlooked their soul's discomfort. Who envies the bullock his fat when he recollects the shambles? Yet some poor afflicted saint has been sorely tempted to grudge the ungodly sinner his temporary plenty. All things considered, Dives had more cause to envy Lazarus than Lazarus to be envious of Dives.

For there are no bands in their death. This is mentioned as the chief wonder, for we usually expect that in the solemn article of death, a difference will appear, and the wicked will become evidently in trouble. The notion is still prevalent that a quiet death means a happy hereafter. The psalmist had observed that the very reverse is true. Careless persons become case hardened, and continue presumptuously secure, even to the last. Some are startled at the approach of judgment, but many more have received a strong delusion to believe a lie. What with the surgeon's drugs and their own infidelity, or false peace, they glide into eternity without a struggle. We have seen godly men bound with doubts, and fettered with anxieties, which have arisen from their holy jealousy; but the godless know nothing of such bands: they care neither for God nor devil. Their strength is firm. What care they for death? Frequently they are brazen and insolent, and can vent defiant blasphemies even on their last couch. This may occasion sorrow and surprise among saints, but certainly should not suggest envy, for, in this case, the most terrible inward conflict is infinitely to be preferred to the profoundest calm which insolent presumption can create. Let the righteous die as they may, let my last end be like theirs.

They are not in trouble as other men. The prosperous wicked escape the killing toils which afflict the mass of mankind; their bread comes to them without care, their wine without stint. They have no need to enquire, "Whence shall we get bread for our children, or raiment for our little ones?" Ordinary domestic and personal troubles do not appear to molest them. Neither are they plagued like other men. Fierce trials do not arise to assail them: they smart not under the divine rod. While many saints are both poor and afflicted, the prosperous sinner is neither. He is worse than other men, and yet he is better off; he ploughs least, and yet has the most fodder. He deserves the hottest hell, and yet has the warmest nest. All this is clear to the eyes of faith, which unriddles the riddle; but to the bleared eye of sense it seems an enigma indeed. They are to have nothing hereafter, let them have what they can here; they, after all, only possess what is of secondary value, and their possessing it is meant to teach us to set little store by transient things. If earthly good were of much value, the Lord would not give so large a measure of it to those who have least of his love.

Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain. They are as great in their own esteem as if they were aldermen of the New Jerusalem; they want no other ornament than their own pomposity. No jeweller could sufficiently adorn them; they wear their own pride as a better ornament than a gold chain. Violence covereth them as a garment. In their boastful arrogance they array themselves; they wear the livery of the devil, and are fond of it. As soon as you see them, you perceive that room must be made for them, for, regardless of the feelings and rights of others, they intend to have their way, and achieve their own ends. They brag and bully, bluster and browbeat, as if they had taken out license to ride roughshod over all mankind.

Their eyes stand out with fatness. In cases of obesity the eyes usually appear to be enclosed in fat, but sometimes they protrude; in either case the countenance is changed, loses its human form, and is assimilated to that of fatted swine. The face is here the index of the man: the man has more than suffices him; he is glutted and surfeited with wealth, and yet is one of the wicked whom God abhorreth. They have more than heart could wish. Their wishes are gratified, and more; their very greediness is exceeded; they call for water, and the world gives them milk; they ask for hundreds, and thousands are lavished at their feet. The heart is beyond measure gluttonous, and yet in the case of certain ungodly millionaires, who have rivalled Sardanapalus both in lust and luxury, it has seemed as if their wishes were exceeded, and their meat surpassed their appetite.

They are corrupt. They rot above ground; their heart and life are depraved. And speak wickedly concerning oppression. The reek of the sepulchre rises through their mouths; the nature of the soul is revealed in the speech. They choose oppression as their subject, and they not only defend it, but advocate it, glory in it, and would fain make it the general rule among all nations. "Who are the poor? What are they made for? What, indeed, but to toil and slave that men of education and good family may enjoy themselves? Out on the knaves for prating about their rights! A set of wily demagogues are stirring them up, because they get a living by agitation. Work them like horses, and feed them like dogs; and if they dare complain, send them to the prison or let them die in the workhouse." There is still too much of this wicked talk abroad, and, although the working classes have their faults, and many of them very grave and serious ones too, yet there is a race of men who habitually speak of them as if they were an inferior order of animals. God forgive the wretches who thus talk. They speak loftily. Their high heads, like tall chimneys, vomit black smoke. Big talk streams from them, their language is colossal, their magniloquence ridiculous. They are Sir Oracle in every case, they speak as from the judges' bench, and expect all the world to stand in awe of them.

They set their mouth against the heavens. Against God himself they aim their blasphemies. One would think, to hear them, that they were demigods themselves, and held their heads above the clouds, for they speak down upon other men as from a sublime elevation peculiar to themselves. Yet they might let God alone, for their pride will make them enemies enough without their defying him. And their tongue walketh through the earth. Leisurely and habitually they traverse the whole world to find victims for their slander and abuse. Their tongue prowls in every corner far and near, and spares none. They affect to be universal censors, and are in truth perpetual vagrants. Like the serpent, they go nowhere without leaving their slime behind them; if there were another Eden to be found, its innocence and beauty would not preserve it from their filthy trail. They themselves are, beyond measure, worthy of all honour, and all the rest of mankind, except a few of their parasites, are knaves, fools, hypocrites, or worse. When these men's tongues are out for a walk, they are unhappy who meet them, for they push all travellers into the kennel: it is impossible altogether to avoid them, for in both hemispheres they take their perambulations, both on land and sea they make their voyages. The city is not free from them, and the village swarms with them. They waylay men in the king's highway, but they are able to hunt across country, too. Their whip has a long lash, and reaches both high and low.

Therefore his people return hither. God's people are driven to fly to his throne for shelter; the doggish tongues fetch home the sheep to the Shepherd. The saints come again, and again, to their Lord, laden with complaints on account of the persecutions which they endure from these proud and graceless men. And waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. Though beloved of God, they have to drain the bitter cup; their sorrows are as full as the wicked man's prosperity. It grieves them greatly to see the enemies of God so high, and themselves so low, yet the Lord does not alter his dispensations, but continues still to chasten his children, and indulge his foes. The medicine cup is not for rebels, but for those whom Jehovah Rophi loves.

And they say, How doth God know? Thus dare the ungodly speak. They flatter themselves that their oppressions and persecutions are unobserved of heaven. If there be a God, is he not too much occupied with other matters to know what is going on upon this world? So they console themselves if judgments be threatened. Boasting of their own knowledge, they yet dare to ask, Is there knowledge in the Most High? Well were they called foolish. A God, and not know? This is a solecism in language, a madness of thought. Such, however, is the acted insanity of the graceless theists of this age; theists in name, because avowed infidelity is disreputable, but atheists in practice beyond all question. I could not bring my mind to accept the rendering of many expositors by which this verse is referred to tried and perplexed saints. I am unable to conceive that such language could flow from their lips, even under the most depressing perplexities.

Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world. Look! See! Consider! Here is the standing enigma! The crux of Providence! The stumblingblock of faith! Here are the unjust rewarded and indulged, and that not for a day or an hour, but in perpetuity. From their youth up these men, who deserve perdition, revel in prosperity. They deserve to be hung in chains, and chains are hung about their necks; they are worthy to be chased from the world, and yet the world becomes all their own. Poor purblind sense cries, Behold this! Wonder, and be amazed, and make this square with providential justice, if you can. They increase in riches; or, strength. Both wealth and health are their dowry. No bad debts and bankruptcies weigh them down, but robbery and usury pile up their substance. Money runs to money, gold pieces fly in flocks; the rich grow richer, the proud grow prouder. Lord, how is this? Thy poor servants, who become yet poorer, and groan under their burdens, are made to wonder at thy mysterious ways.

Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain. Poor Asaph! he questions the value of holiness when its wages are paid in the coin of affliction. With no effect has he been sincere; no advantage has come to him through his purity, for the filthy hearted are exalted and fed on the fat of the land. Thus foolishly will the wisest of men argue, when faith is napping. Asaph was a seer, but he could not see when reason left him in the dark; even seers must have the sunlight of revealed truth to see by, or they grope like the blind. In the presence of temporal circumstances, the pure in heart may seem to have cleansed themselves altogether in vain, but we must not judge after the sight of the eyes. And washed my hands in innocency. Asaph had been as careful of his hands as of his heart; he had guarded his outer as well as his inner life, and it was a bitter thought that all of this was useless, and left him in even a worse condition than foul handed, black hearted worldlings. Surely the horrible character of the conclusion must have helped to render it untenable; it could not be so while God was God. It smelt too strong of a lie to be tolerated long in the good man's soul; hence, in a verse or two, we see his mind turning in another direction.

For all the day long have I been plagued. He was smitten from the moment he woke to the time he went to bed. His griefs were not only continued, but renewed with every opening day. And chastened every morning. This was a vivid contrast to the lot of the ungodly. There were crowns for the reprobates and crosses for the elect. Strange that the saints should sigh and the sinners sing. Rest was given to the disturbers, and yet peace was denied to the peace makers. The downcast seer was in a muse and a maze. The affairs of mankind appeared to him to be in a fearful tangle; how could it be permitted by a just ruler that things should be so turned upside down, and the whole course of justice dislocated.

If I say, I will speak thus. It is not always wise to speak one's thoughts; if they remain within, they will only injure ourselves; but once uttered, their mischief may be great. From such a man as the psalmist, the utterance which his discontent suggested would have been a heavy blow and deep discouragement to the whole brotherhood. He dared not, therefore, come to such a resolution, but paused, and would not decide to declare his feelings. It was well, for in his case second thoughts were by far the best. I should offend against the generation of thy children. I should scandalise them, grieve them, and perhaps cause them to offend also. We ought to look at the consequences of our speech to all others, and especially to the church of God. Woe unto the man by whom offence cometh! Rash, undigested, ill considered speech, is responsible for much of the heart burning and trouble in the churches. Would to God that, like Asaph, men would bridle their tongues. Where we have any suspicion of being wrong, it is better to be silent; it can do no harm to be quiet, and it may do serious damage to spread abroad our hastily formed opinions. To grieve the children of God by appearing to act perfidiously and betray the truth, is a sin so heinous, that if the consciences of heresy mongers were not seared as with a hot iron, they would not be so glib as they are to publish abroad their novelties. Expressions which convey the impression that the Lord acts unjustly or unkindly, especially if they fall from the lips of men of known character and experience, are as dangerous as firebrands among stubble; they are used for blasphemous purposes by the ill disposed; and the timid and trembling are sure to be cast down thereby, and to find reason for yet deeper distress of soul.

When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me. The thought of scandalising the family of God he could not bear, and yet his inward thoughts seethed and fermented, and caused an intolerable anguish within. To speak might have relieved one sorrow, but, as it would have created another, he forbore so dangerous a remedy; yet this did not remove the first pangs, which grew even worse and worse, and threatened utterly to overwhelm him. A smothered grief is hard to endure. The triumph of conscience which compels us to keep the wolf hidden beneath our own garments, does not forbid its gnawing at our vitals. Suppressed fire in the bones rages more fiercely than if it could gain a vent at the mouth. Those who know Asaph's dilemma will pity him as none others can.

Until I went into the sanctuary of God. His mind entered the eternity where God dwells as in a holy place, he left the things of sense for the things invisible, his heart gazed within the veil, he stood where the thrice holy God stands. Thus he shifted his point of view, and apparent disorder resolved itself into harmony. The motions of the planets appear most discordant from this world which is itself a planet; they appear as "progressive, retrograde, and standing still; "but could we fix our observatory in the sun, which is the centre of the system, we should perceive all the planets moving in perfect circle around the head of the great solar family. Then understood I their end. He had seen too little to be able to judge; a wider view changed his judgment; he saw with his mind's enlightened eye the future of the wicked, and his soul was in debate no longer as to the happiness of their condition. No envy gnaws now at his heart, but a holy horror both of their impending doom, and of their present guilt, fills his soul. He recoils from being dealt with in the same manner as the proud sinners, whom just now he regarded with admiration.

The Psalmist's sorrow had culminated, not in the fact that the ungodly prospered, but that God had arranged it so: had it happened by mere chance, he would have wondered, but could not have complained; but how the arranger of all things could so dispense his temporal favours, was the vexatious question. Here, to meet the case, he sees that the divine hand purposely placed these men in prosperous and eminent circumstances, not with the intent to bless them but the very reverse. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places. Their position was dangerous, and, therefore, God did not set his friends there but his foes alone. He chose, in infinite love, a rougher but safer standing for his own beloved. Thou castedst them down into destruction. The same hand which led them up to their Tarpeian rock, hurled them down from it. They were but elevated by judicial arrangement for the fuller execution of their doom. Eternal punishment will be all the more terrible in contrast with the former prosperity of those who are ripening for it. Taken as a whole, the case of the ungodly is horrible throughout; and their worldly joy instead of diminishing the horror, actually renders the effect the more awful, even as the vivid lightning amid the storm does not brighten but intensify the thick darkness which lowers around. The ascent to the fatal gallows of Haman was an essential ingredient in the terror of the sentence —"hang him thereon." If the wicked had not been raised so high they could not have fallen so low.

How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! This is an exclamation of godly wonder at the suddenness and completeness of the sinners' overthrow. Headlong is their fall; without warning, without escape, without hope of future restoration! Despite their golden chains, and goodly apparel, death stays not for manners but hurries them away; and stern justice unbribed by their wealth hurls them into destruction. They are utterly consumed with terrors. They have neither root nor branch left. They cease to exist among the sons of men, and, in the other world, there is nothing left of their former glory. Like blasted trees, consumed by the lightning, they are monuments of vengeance; like the ruins of Babylon they reveal, in the greatness of their desolation, the judgments of the Lord against all those who unduly exalt themselves. The momentary glory of the graceless is in a moment effaced, their loftiness is in an instant consumed.

As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. They owe their existence and prosperity to the forbearance of God, which the psalmist compares to a sleep; but as a dream vanishes so soon as a man awakes, so the instant the Lord begins to exercise his justice and call men before him, the pomp and prosperity of proud transgressors shall melt away. When God awakes to judgment, they who despise him shall be despised; they are already "such stuff as dreams are made of, "but then the baseless fabric shall not leave a wreck behind. Let them flaunt the little hour, poor unsubstantial sons of dreams; they will soon be gone; when the day breaketh, and the Lord awake as a mighty man out of his sleep, they will vanish away. Who cares for the wealth of dreamland? Who indeed but fools? Lord, leave us not to the madness which covets unsubstantial wealth, and ever teach us thine own true wisdom.

The holy poet here reviews his inward struggle and awards himself censure for his folly. His pain had been intense; he says, Thus my heart was grieved. It was a deep seated sorrow, and one which penetrated his inmost being. Alexander reads it, "My heart is soured." His spirit had become embittered; he had judged in a harsh, crabbed, surly manner. He had become atrabilious, full of black bile, melancholy, and choleric; he had poisoned his own life at the fountain head, and made all its streams to be bitter as gall. And I was pricked in my reins. He was as full of pain as a man afflicted with renal disease; he had pierced himself through with many sorrows; his hard thoughts were like so many calculi in his kidneys; he was utterly wretched and woebegone, and all through his own reflections. O miserable philosophy, which stretches the mind on the rack, and breaks it on the wheel! O blessed faith, which drives away the inquisitors, and sets the captives free!

So foolish was I. He, though a saint of God, had acted as if he had been one of the fools whom God abhorreth. Had he not even envied them? —and what is that but to aspire to be like them? The wisest of men have enough folly in them to ruin them unless grace prevents. And ignorant. He had acted as if he knew nothing, had babbled like an idiot, had uttered the very drivel of a witless loon. He did not know how sufficiently to express his sense of his own fatuity. I was as a beast before thee. Even in God's presence he had been brutish, and worse than a beast. As the grass eating ox has but this present life, and can only estimate things thereby, and by the sensual pleasure which they afford, even so had the psalmist judged happiness by this mortal life, by outward appearances, and by fleshly enjoyments. Thus he had, for the time, renounced the dignity of an immortal spirit, and, like a mere animal, judged after the sight of the eyes. We should be very loath to call an inspired man a beast, and yet, penitence made him call himself so; nay, he uses the plural, by way of emphasis, and as if he were worse than any one beast. It was but an evidence of his true wisdom that he was so deeply conscious of his own folly. We see how bitterly good men bewail mental wanderings; they make no excuses for themselves, but set their sins in the pillory, and cast the vilest reproaches upon them. O for grace to detest the very appearance of evil!

Nevertheless I am continually with thee. He does not give up his faith, though he confesses his folly. Sin may distress us, and yet we may be in communion with God. It is sin beloved and delighted in which separates us from the Lord, but when we bewail it heartily, the Lord will not withdraw from us. What a contrast is here in this and the former verse! He is as a beast, and yet continually with God. Our double nature, as it always causes conflict, so is it a continuous paradox: the flesh allies us with the brutes, and the spirit affiliates us to God. Thou hast holden me by my right hand. With love dost thou embrace me, with honour ennoble me, with power uphold me. He had almost fallen, and yet was always upheld. He was a riddle to himself, as he had been a wonder unto many. This verse contains the two precious mercies of communion and upholding, and as they were both given to one who confessed himself a fool, we also may hope to enjoy them.

Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel. I have done with choosing my own way, and trying to pick a path amid the jungle of reason. He yielded not only the point in debate, but all intentions of debating, and he puts his hand into that of the great Father, asking to be led, and agreeing to follow. Our former mistakes are a blessing, when they drive us to this. The end of our own wisdom is the beginning of our being wise. With Him is counsel, and when we come to him, we are sure to be led aright. And afterward. "Afterward!" Blessed word. We can cheerfully put up with the present, when we foresee the future. What is around us just now is of small consequence, compared with afterward. Receive me to glory. Take me up into thy splendour of joy. Thy guidance shall conduct me to this matchless terminus. Glory shall I have, and thou thyself wilt admit me into it. As Enoch was not, for God took him, so all the saints are taken up —received up into glory.

Whom have I in heaven but thee? Thus, then, he turns away from the glitter which fascinated him to the true gold which was his real treasure. He felt that his God was better to him than all the wealth, health, honour, and peace, which he had so much envied in the worldling; yea, He was not only better than all on earth, but more excellent than all in heaven. He bade all things else go, that he might be filled with his God. And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. No longer should his wishes ramble, no other object should tempt them to stray; henceforth, the Ever living One should be his all in all.

My flesh and my heart faileth. They had failed him already, and he had almost fallen; they would fail him in the hour of death, and, if he relied upon them, they would fail him at once. But God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. His God would not fail him, either as protection or a joy. His heart would be kept up by divine love, and filled eternally with divine glory. After having been driven far out to sea, Asaph casts anchor in the old port. We shall do well to follow his example. There is nothing desirable save God; let us, then, desire only him. All other things must pass away; let our hearts abide in him, who alone abideth for ever.

For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish. We must be near God to live; to be far off by wicked works is death. Thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee. If we pretend to be the Lord's servants, we must remember that he is a jealous God, and requires spiritual chastity from all his people. Offences against conjugal vows are very offensive, and all sins against God have the same element in them, and they are visited with the direst punishments. Mere heathens, who are far from God, perish in due season; but those who, being his professed people, act unfaithfully to their profession, shall come under active condemnation, and be crushed beneath his wrath. We read examples of this in Israel's history; may we never create fresh instances in our own persons.

But it is good for me to draw near to God. Had he done so at first he would not have been immersed in such affliction; when he did so he escaped from his dilemma, and if he continued to do so he would not fall into the same evil again. The greater our nearness to God, the less we are affected by the attractions and distractions of earth. Access into the most holy place is a great privilege, and a cure for a multitude of ills. It is good for all saints, it is good for me in particular; it is always good, and always will be good for me to approach the greatest good, the source of all good, even God himself. I have put my trust in the Lord God. He dwells upon the glorious name of the Lord Jehovah, and avows it as the basis of his faith. Faith is wisdom; it is the key of enigmas, the clue of mazes, and the pole star of pathless seas. Trust and you will know. That I may declare all thy works. He who believes shall understand, and so be able to teach. Asaph hesitated to utter his evil surmisings, but he has no diffidence in publishing abroad a good matter. God's ways are the more admired the more they are known. He who is ready to believe the goodness of God shall always see fresh goodness to believe in, and he who is willing to declare the works of God shall never be silent for lack of wonders to declare.

Whole Psalm. The Seventy-third Psalm is a very striking record of the mental struggle which an eminently pious Jew underwent, when he contemplated the respective conditions of the righteous and the wicked. Fresh from the conflict, he somewhat abruptly opens the Psalm with the confident enunciation of the truth of which victory over doubt had now made him more and more intelligently sure than ever, that God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. And then he relates the most fatal shock which his faith has received, when he contrasted the prosperity of the wicked, who, though they proudly contemned God and man, prospered in the world and increased in riches, with his own lot, who, though he had cleansed his heart and washed his hands in innocency, had been plagued all the day long and chastened every morning. The place where his doubts were removed and his tottering faith reestablished, was the sanctuary of God. God himself was the teacher. What, then, did he teach? By what divinely imparted considerations was the psalmist reassured? Whatever is the proper rendering of Ps 73:4; whether, There are no sorrows (tending) to their death, or, There are no sorrows until their death, —their whole life to the very last is one unchequered course of happiness —that verse conveys to us the psalmist's mistaken estimate of the prosperity of the wicked, before he went unto the sanctuary of God. The true estimate, at which he afterwards arrived, is found in Ps 73:18-20. Now, admitting (what, by the way, is somewhat difficult of belief, inasmuch as the sudden and fearful temporal destruction of all or even the most prosperous, cannot be made out) that the end of these men means only and always their end in this world, we come to the conclusion that, in the case of the wicked, this Psalm does not plainly and undeniably teach that punishment awaits them after death; but only that, in estimating their condition, it is necessary, in order to vindicate the justice of God, to take in their whole career, and set over against their great prosperity the sudden and fearful reverses and destruction which they frequently encounter. But, in turning to the other side of the comparison, the case of the righteous, we are not met by the thought, that as the prosperity of the wicked is but the preparation for their ruin, the raising higher the tower that the fall may be the greater, so the adversity of the godly is but an introduction to worldly wealth and honour. That though is not foreign to the Old Testament writers. "Evildoers shall be cut off; "writes one of them, "but those who wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace." Ps 37:9-11. But it is not so much as hinted at here. The daily chastening may continue, flesh and heart may fail, but God is good to Israel notwithstanding: he is their portion, their guide, their help while they live, and he will take them to his glorious presence when they die. Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. The New Testament has nothing higher or more spiritual than this. The reference of the last clause to happiness after death is, I believe, generally acknowledged by Jewish commentators. They left it to the candour of Christian expositors to doubt or deny it. Thomas Thompson Perowne, in "The Essential Coherence of the Old and New Testaments." 1858.

Whole Psalm. In Psalm Seventy-three the soul looks out, and reasons on what it sees there; namely, successful wickedness and suffering righteousness. What is the conclusion? "I have cleansed my heart in vain." So much for looking about. In Psalm Seventy-seven the soul looks in, and reasons on what it finds there. What is the conclusion? "Hath God forgotten to be gracious?" So much for looking in. Where, then, should we look? Look up, straight up, and believe what you see there. What will be the conclusion? You will understand the "end" of man, and trace the "way" of God. From "Things New and Old, a Monthly Magazine." 1858.

Whole Psalm. In this Psalm, the psalmist (Asaph) relates the great difficulty which existed in his own mind, from the consideration of the wicked. He observes (Ps 73:2-3), As for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. In the fourth and following verses he informs us what, in the wicked, was his temptation. In the first place, he observed, that they were prosperous, and all things went well with them. He then observed their behaviour in their prosperity, and the use which they made of it; and that God, notwithstanding such abuse, continued their prosperity. Then he tells us by what means he was helped out of this difficulty, viz., by going into the sanctuary (Ps 73:16-17), and proceeds to inform us what considerations they were which helped him, viz., —

1. The consideration of the miserable end of wicked men. However they prosper for the present, yet they come to a woeful end at last (Ps 73:18-20).

2. The consideration of the blessed end of the saints. Although the saints, while they live, may be afflicted, yet they come to a happy end at last (Ps 73:21-24).

3. The consideration that the godly have a much better portion than the wicked, even though they have no other portion but God; as in Ps 73:25-26.

Though the wicked are in prosperity, and are not in trouble as other men; yet the godly, though in affliction, are in a state infinitely better, because they have God for their portion. They need desire nothing else: he that hath God hath all. Thus the psalmist professes the sense and apprehension which he had of things: Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. In the twenty-fourth verse the psalmist takes notice how the saints are happy in God, both when they are in this world and also when they are taken to another. They are blessed in God in this world, in that he guides them by his counsel; and when he takes them out of it they are still happy, in that he receives them to glory. This probably led him to declare that he desired no other portion, either in this world or in that to come, either in heaven or upon earth. Jonathan Edwards.

Truly: it's but a particle; but the smallest filings of gold are gathered up. Little pearls are of great price. And this small particle is not of small use, being rightly applied and improved. First, take it (as our translators gave it us) as a note of asseveration. Truly. It's a word of faith, opposite to the psalmist's sense and Satan's injections. Whatsoever sense sees or feels, whatsoever Satan insinuates and says; yet precious faith with confidence asserts, Truly, verily God is good. He is not only good in word, but in deed also. Not only seemingly good, but certainly good. Secondly, consider it as an adversative particle, Yet, so our old translation. Ainsworth renders it, yet surely; taking in the former and this together. And then the sense runs thus: How ill soever things go in the world, how ill soever it fares with God's church and people amongst men, yet God is good to Israel. Thirdly, some conceive that the word carries admiration. Oh, how good is God to Israel. Where expressions and apprehensions fail, there the psalmist takes up God's providence with admiration. Oh, how wonderfully, how transcendently good is God to Israel! This yet (as I conceive) hath a threefold reference to the body of the Psalm. For as interpreters observe, though these words are set in the beginning, yet they suggest the conclusion of the psalmist's conflict. And the psalmist seems to begin somewhat abruptly. Yet God is good. But having filled his thoughts with his former follies and fears, and now seeing himself in a safe condition both for the present and the future, he is full of confidence and comfort; and that which was the strongest and chiefest in his heart now breaks our first: Yet God is good.

1. This yet relates unto his sufferings, Ps 73:14: All the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning. Notwithstanding the variety and frequency of the saint's sufferings, yet God is good. Though sorrow salutes them every morning at their first awaking, and trouble attends them to bed at night, yet God is good. Though temptations many and terrible make batteries and breeches upon their spirits, yet God is good to Israel.

2. This yet reflects upon his sinning, the fretting and wrangling of his distempered heart (Ps 73:2-3,21). Though sinful motions do mutiny in the soul against God's wise administration, though there be foolish, proud quarrelling with divine providence, and inexcusable distrust of his faithful promises; though fretfulness at others prosperity and discontent at their own adversity, yet God is good. Israel's sinful distempers cause not the Almighty to change the course of his accustomed goodness. While corruptions are kept from breaking out into scandal, while the soul contends against them, and is humbled for them (as the psalmist was), this conclusion must be maintained: yet God is good.

3. This yet looks back upon his misgivings. There had been distrustful despondency upon the good man's heart. For from both the premises (viz., his sufferings and sinning) he had inferred this conclusion, Ps 73:13, Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. As if he had said, "I have kept fasts, observed Sabbaths, heard sermons, made prayers, received sacraments, given alms, avoided sins, resisted temptations, withstood lusts, appeared for Christ and his cause and servants in vain": yea, his heart had added an asseveration (verily) to this faithless opinion, but now he is of another mind: Yet God is good. The administrations of God are not according to the sad surmises of his people's misgiving hearts. For, though they through diffidence are apt to give up their holy labours as lost, and all their conscientious care and carriage as utterly cast away; yet God is good to Israel. Simeon Ash, in a Sermon entitled "God's Incomparable Goodness unto Israel." 1647.

David opens the Psalm abruptly, and from this we learn what is worthy of particular notice, that, before he broke forth into this language, his mind had been agitated with many doubts and conflicting suggestions. As a brave and valiant champion, he had been exercised in very painful struggles and temptations; but, after long and arduous exertion, he at length succeeded in shaking off all perverse imaginations, and came to the conclusion that yet God is gracious to his servants, and the faithful guardian of their welfare. Thus these words contain a tacit contrast between the unhallowed imaginations suggested to him by Satan, and the testimony in favour of true religion with which he now strengthens himself, denouncing, as it were, the judgment of the flesh, in giving place to misgiving thoughts with respect to the providence of God. We see, then, how emphatic is this exclamation of the psalmist. He does not ascend into the chair to dispute after the manner of the philosophers, and to deliver his discourse in a style of studied oratory; but as if he had escaped from hell, he proclaims with a loud voice, and with impassioned feeling, that he had obtained the victory. John Calvin.

(first clause).

Yet sure the gods are good: I would think so,

If they would give me leave!

But virtue in distress, and vice in triumph,

Make atheists of mankind. Dryden.

God is good. There is a beauty in the name appropriated by the Saxon nations to the Deity, unequalled except by his most reverential Hebrew appellation. They called him "GOD, "which is literally "THE GOOD." The same word thus signifying the Deity, and his most endearing quality. Turner.

God is good. Let the devil and his instruments say what they will to the contrary, I will never believe them; I have said it before, and I see no reason to reverse my sentence: Truly God is good. Though sometimes he may hide his face for awhile, yet he doth that in faithfulness and love; there is kindness in his very scourges, and love bound up in his rods; he is good to Israel: do but mark it first or last: "The true Israelite, in whom there is no guile, shall be refreshed by his Saviour." The Israelite that wrestles with tears with God, and values his love above the whole world, that will not be put off without his Father's blessing, shall have it with a witness: "He shall reap in joy though he may at present sow in tears. Even to such as are of a clean heart." The false hearted hypocrite, indeed, that gives God only his tongue and lip, cap and knee, but reserves his heart and love for sin and the world, that hath much of compliment, but nothing of affection and reality, why let such a one never expect, while in such a state, to taste those reviving comforts that I have been treating of; while he drives such a trade, he must not expect God's company. James Janeway. 1636-1674.

Even to such as are of a clean heart. Purity of heart is the characteristic note of God's people. Heart purity denominates us the Israel of God; it makes us of Israel indeed; "but all are not Israel which are of Israel." Ro 9:6. Purity of heart is the jewel which is hung only upon the elect. As chastity distinguishes a virtuous woman from an harlot, so the true saint is distinguished from the hypocrite by his heart purity. This is like the nobleman's star or garter, which is a peculiar ensign of honour, differing him from the vulgar; when the bright star of purity shineth in a Christian's heart it doth distinguish him from the formal professor. . . . God is good to the pure in heart. We all desire that God should be good to us; it is the sick man's prayer: "The Lord be good to me." But how is God good to them? Two ways.

1. To them that are pure all things are sanctified, Tit 1:15: "To the pure all things are pure; " estate is sanctified, relations are sanctified; as the temple did sanctify the gold and the altar did sanctify the offering. To the unclean nothing is clean; their table is a snare, their temple devotion a sin. There is a curse entailed upon a wicked man (De 28:16), but holiness removeth the curse, and cuts off the entail: "to the pure all things are pure."

2. The clean hearted have all things work for their good. Ro 8:28. Mercies and afflictions shall turn to their good; the most poisonous drugs shall be medicinal; the most cross providence shall carry on the design of their salvation. Who, then, would not be clean on heart? Thomas Watson.

But as for me. Literally, it is, And I, which ought to be read with emphasis; for David means that those temptations which cast an affront upon the honour of God, and overwhelm faith, not only assail the common class of men, or those who are endued only with some small measure of the fear of God, but that he himself, who ought to have profited above all others in the school of God, had experienced his own share of them. By thus setting himself forth as an example, he designed the more effectually to arouse and incite us to take great heed to ourselves. John Calvin.

Let such also as fear God and begin to look aside on the things of this world, know it will be hard even for them to hold out in faith and in the fear of God in time of trial. Remember the example of David, he was a man that had spent much time in travelling towards heaven; yet, looking but a little aside upon the glittering show of this world, had very near lost his way, his feet were almost gone, his steps had well nigh slipped. Edward Elton. 1620.

He tells us that his feet were almost gone. The word signifies to bow, or bend under one. My steps had well nigh slipped, or poured out, kept not within their true bounds; but like water poured out and not confined, runs aside. Though these expressions be metaphorical, and seemingly dark and cloudy, yet they clearly represent unto us this truth, that his understanding was misguided, his judgment was corrupt, his affections disordered, turbulent, and guilty of too great a passion; and this, the consequence (Ps 73:22 in which he acknowledges himself ignorant, foolish, and brutish) do sufficiently evidence. Our understanding and judgment may well bear the comparison for feet, for as the one, in our motion, supports the body, so the other, in human actions and all employments, underprops the soul. The affections, also, are as paths and steps; as these of the feet, so these are the prints and expressions of the judgment and mind. Edward Parry, in "David Restored." 1660.

Almost gone. There is to be noted that the prophet said he was almost gone, and not altogether. Here is the presence, providence, strength, safeguard, and keeping of man by Almighty God, marvellously set forth. That although we are tempted and brought even to the very point to perpetrate and do all mischief, yet he stays us and keeps us, that the temptation shall not overcome us. John Hooper. 1495-1555.

Verse 2-14. But the prosperity of wicked and unjust men, both in public and in private life, who, though not leading a happy life in reality, are yet thought to do so in common opinion, being praised improperly in the works of poets, and all kinds of books, may lead you —and I am not surprised at your mistake —to a belief that the gods care nothing for the affairs of men. These matters disturb you. Being led astray by foolish thoughts, and yet not able to think ill of the gods, you have arrived at your present state of mind, so as to think that the gods to indeed exist, but that they despise and neglect human affairs. Plato.

They are corrupt. Prosperity, in an irreligious heart, breeds corruption, which from thence is emitted by the breath in conversation, to infect and taint the minds of others. George Horne.

They speak wickedly concerning oppression. Indeed, we see that wicked men, after having for some time got everything to prosper according to their desires, cast off all shame, and are at no pains to conceal themselves, when about to commit iniquity, but loudly proclaim their own turpitude. "What!" they will say, "is it not in my power to deprive you of all that you possess, and even to cut your throat?" Robbers, it is true, can do the same thing; but then they hide themselves for fear. These giants, or rather inhuman monsters, of whom David speaks, on the contrary not only imagine that they are exempted from subjection to any law, but, unmindful of their own weakness, foam furiously, as if there were no distinction between good and evil, between right and wrong. John Calvin.

I should offend, etc. That is, I do God's church a great deal of injury, which hath always been under afflictions, if I think or say, that all her piety hath been without hope, or her hope without effect. Others understand it to mean, I deceive the generation, viz., I propound a false doctrine unto them, which is apt to seduce them. Others, "behold the generation, "etc.; that is to say, notwithstanding all afflictions, it is certain that thou art a Father to the Church only; which is sufficient to make me judge well of these afflictions; I have done ill, and confess I have erred in this my rash judgment. John Diodati.

By the sanctuaries of God some, even among the Hebrews, understand the celestial mansions in which the spirits of the just and angels dwell; as if David had said, This was a painful thing in my sight, until I came to acknowledge in good earnest that men are not created to flourish for a short time in this world, and to luxuriate in pleasures while in it, but that their condition here is that of pilgrims, whose aspirations, during their earthly pilgrimage, should be towards heaven. I readily admit that no man can form a right judgment of the providence of God but he who elevates his mind above the earth; but it is more simple and natural to understand the word sanctuary as denoting celestial doctrine. As the book of the law was laid up in the sanctuary, from which the oracles of heaven were to be obtained, that is to say, the declaration of the will of God; and as this was the true way of acquiring profitable instruction, David very properly puts entering into the sanctuaries for coming to the school of God, as if his meaning were this: Until God become my schoolmaster, and until I learn by his word what otherwise my mind, when I come to consider the government of the world, cannot comprehend, I stop short all at once, and understand nothing about the subject. When, therefore, we are here told that men are unfit for contemplating the arrangements of divine providence, until they obtain wisdom elsewhere than from themselves, how can we attain to wisdom but by submissively receiving what God teaches us, both by his word and by his Holy Spirit? David by the word sanctuary alludes to the external manner of teaching, which God had appointed among his ancient people; but along with the word he comprehends the secret illumination of the Holy Spirit. John Calvin.

The joy of a wicked man is imperfect in itself, because it is not so as it seems to be, or it is not sincerely so. It is not pure gold, but alloyed and adulterated with sorrow. It may look well to one that is blear eyed, but it will not pass for good to one that looks well to it. Let any one consider and weigh it well in the balance of the sanctuary, whither David went to fetch the scales for the same purpose, and he will find it too light by many grains. It is not so inside as it is without; no more than a mud wall that is plastered with white, or a stinking grave covered with a glorious monument. It is upouloz, looking fair and smooth, like true joy; as a wounded member that is healed too soon (and you know how God by the prophet complains of the hurt of his people that was slightly healed, Jer 6:14), and it looks as well as any other part of the body; but, underneath, there is still a sore, which festers so much more, and is the worse, for that the outside is so well. Where pretences, and cloaks, and disguises are the fairest; there the knavery, and the poison, and the evil concealed are usually foulest. Zachary Bogan (1625-1659), in "Meditations of the Mirth of a Christian Life."

Then understood I. There is a famous story of providence in Bradwardine to this purpose. A certain hermit that was much tempted, and was utterly unsatisfied concerning the providence of God, resolved to journey from place to place till he met with some who could satisfy him. An angel in the shape of a man joined himself with him as he was journeying, telling him that he was sent from God to satisfy him in his doubts of providence. The first night they lodged at the house of a very holy man, and they spent their time in discourses of heaven, and praises of God, and were entertained with a great deal of freedom and joy. In the morning, when they departed, the angel took with him a great cup of gold. The next night they came to the house of another holy man, who made them very welcome, and exceedingly rejoiced in their society and discourse; the angel, notwithstanding, at his departure killed an infant in the cradle, which was his only son, he having been for many years before childless, and, therefore, was a very fond father of this child. The third night they came to another house, where they had like free entertainment as before. The master of the family had a steward whom he highly prized, and told them how happy he accounted himself in having such a faithful servant. Next morning he sent his steward with them part of their way, to direct them therein. As they were going over the bridge the angel flung the steward into the river and drowned him. The last night they came to a very wicked man's house, where they had very untoward entertainment, yet the angel, next morning, gave him the cup of gold. All this being done, the angel asked the hermit whether he understood those things? He answered, his doubts of providence were increased, not resolved, for he could not understand why he should deal so hardly with those holy men, who received them with so much love and joy, and yet give such a gift to that wicked man who used them so unworthily. The angel said, I will now expound these things unto you. The first house where we came the master of it was a holy man; yet, drinking in that cup every morning, it being too large, it did somewhat unfit him for holy duties, though not so much that others or himself did perceive it; so I took it away, since it is better for him to lose the cup of gold than his temperance. The master of the family where we lay the second night was a man given much to prayer and meditation, and spent much time in holy duties, and was very liberal to the poor all the time he was childless; but as soon as he had a son he grew so fond of it, and spent so much time in playing with it, that he exceedingly neglected his former holy exercise, and gave but little to the poor, thinking he could never lay up enough for his child; therefore I have taken the infant to heaven, and left him to serve God better upon earth. The steward whom I did drown had plotted to kill his master the night following; and as to that wicked man to whom I gave the cup of gold, he was to have nothing in the other world, I therefore gave him something in this, which, notwithstanding, will prove a snare to him, for he will be more intemperate; and "let him that is filthy be filthy still." The truth of this story I affirm not, but the moral is very good, for it shows that God is an indulgent Father to the saints when he most afflicts them; and that when he sets the wicked on high he sets them also in slippery places, and their prosperity is their ruin. Pr 1:32. Thomas White, in "A Treatise of the Power of Godliness." 1658.

Their end. Providence is often mysterious and a source of perplexity to us. Walking in Hyde Park one day, I saw a piece of paper on the grass. I picked it up; it was a part of a letter; the beginning was wanting, the end was not there; I could make nothing of it. Such is providence. You cannot see beginning or end, only a part. When you can see the whole, then the mystery will be unveiled. Thomas Jones. 1871.

Slippery places. The word in the original signifies slick, or smooth, as ice or polished marble, and is from thence by a metaphor used for flattery. Hence, Abenezra renders it, In locis adulationis posuisti eos: thou hast set them in places of flattery. Edward Parry.

They are but exalted, as the shellfish by the eagle, according to the naturalist, to be thrown down on some rock and devoured. Their most glorious prosperity is but like a rainbow, which showeth itself for a little time in all its gaudy colours, and then vanisheth. The Turks, considering the unhappy end of their viziers, use this proverb, "He that is in the greatest office is but a statue of glass." Wicked men walk on glass or ice, thou hast set them in slippery places; on a sudden their feet slip —they fall, and break their necks. George Swinnock.

Their banqueting house is very slippery, and the feast itself a mere dream. Thomas Adams.

Their banqueting house is very slippery, and the feast itself a mere dream. Thomas Adams.

They are utterly consumed with terrors. Their destruction is not only sudden, but entire; it is like the breaking in pieces of a potter's vessel, a sherd of which cannot be gathered up and used; or like the casting of a millstone into the sea, which will never rise more; and this is done with terrors, either by terrible judgments inflicted on them from without, or with terrors inwardly seizing upon their minds and consciences, as at the time of temporal calamities, or at death, and certainly at the judgment, when the awful sentence will be pronounced upon them. See Job 27:20. John Gill.

If thou shouldest live the longest measure of time that any man hath done, and spend all that time in nothing but pleasures (which no man ever did but met with some crosses, afflictions, or sicknesses), but at the evening of this life, must take up thy lodging in the "everlasting burnings" and "devouring fire" (Isa 30:14); were those pleasures answerable to these everlasting burnings? An English merchant that lived at Dantzic, now with God, told us this story, and it was true. A friend of his (a merchant also), upon what grounds I know not, went to a convent, and dined with some friars. His entertainment was very noble. After he had dined and seen all, the merchant fell to commending their pleasant lives: "Yea, "said one of the friars to him, "we live gallantly indeed, had we anybody to go to hell for us when we die." Giles Firmin (1617-1617), in "The Real Christian, or, A Treatise of Effectual Calling."

As a dream when one awaketh. The conception is rather subtle, but seems to have been shrewdly penetrated by Shakespeare, who makes the Plantagenet prince (affecting, perhaps, the airs of a ruler in God's stead) say to his discarded favourite —

"I have long dreamt of such a kind of man,

So surfeit swelled, so old and so profane,

But being awake I do not despise my dream."—Henry IV.

For as it is the inertness of the sleeper's will and intellect that gives reality to the shapes and figments, the very sentiments and purposes that throng his mind; so it seems, as it were, to be the negligence and oversight of the Moral Ruler that makes to prosper the wicked or inane life and influence. So Paul says, in reference to the polytheism of the ancient world: "and the times of this ignorance God winked at." Ac 17:30. C. B. Cayley, in "The Psalms in Metre." 1860.

Thus my heart was grieved, etc. Two similitudes are used, by which his grief and indignation or zeal are described. First, he says his heart boiled over like yeast. The passion which was stirred up in his thoughts he compares to the yeast which inflates the whole mass, and causes it to swell or boil over... The other simile is taken from the internal pains which calculi produce; I was pricked in my reins. They who have felt them are aware of the torture, and there is no need for a long description. It signifies that his great pain was mingled with indignation, and that this came fresh upon him as often as he looked upon the prosperity of the ungodly. Mollerus.

Reins. Before all the other intestines there are the kidneys (twylb, nefroi), placed on both sides of the lumbar vertebrae on the hinder wall of the abdomen, of which the Scripture makes such frequent mention, and in the most psychically significant manner. It brings the most tender and the most inward experience of a manifold kind into association with them. When man is suffering most deeply within, he is pricked in his kidneys ("reins"). When fretting affliction overcomes him, his kidneys are cloven asunder (Job 16:13; compare La 3:13); when he rejoices profoundly, they exult (Pr 23:16); when he feels himself very penetratingly warned, they chasten him (Ps 16:7); when he very earnestly longs, they are consumed away with his body (Job 19:27). As the omniscient and all penetrating knower of the most secret hidden things of man, God is frequently called (from Ps 7:10 to the Apocalypse) the Trier of the hearts and reins; and of the ungodly it is said, that God is far from their reins (Jer 12:2), that is, that he, being withdrawn back into himself, allows not himself to be perceived by them. Franz Delitzsch.

So foolish was I, and ignorant, etc. Is not a cavilling spirit at the Lord's dispensations bad, both in its roots and fruits? What are the roots of it but (1) ignorance; (2) pride, this lifteth up (Heb 2:4); (3) impatience, or want of waiting on God to see the issues of matters; so in Jon 4:8-11; (4) forgetfulness who the Lord is, and who man is that grumbles at his Maker, La 3:39, Ro 9:20. And as for the fruits, they are none of the best, but bad enough. Men are ready to flag in duty, yea, to throw it off, Ro 9:13, and Mal 3:14; yea, in the way to blaspheme God; see Job 2:9 Mal 3:13 Re 16:9. Thomas Crane, in "A Prospect of Divine Providence." 1672.

I was as a beast before thee. I permitted my mind to be wholly occupied with sensible things, like the beasts that perish, and did not look into a future state, nor did I consider nor submit to the wise designs of an unerring providence. Adam Clarke.

I was as a beast before thee. The original has in it no word of comparison; it ought to be rather translated, I was a very beast before thee, and we are told that the Hebrew word being in the plural number, gives it a peculiar emphasis, indicating some monstrous or astonishing beast. It is the word used by Job which is interpreted "behemoth, " —"I was a very monster before thee, "not only a beast, but one of the most brutish of all beasts, one of the most stubborn and intractable of all beasts. I think no man can go much lower than this in humble confession. This is a description of human nature, and of the old man in the renewed saint which is not to be excelled. C.H.S.

Among the many arguments to prove the penman of the Scripture inspired by the Spirit of God, this is not the last and least —that the penmen of holy writ do record their own faults and the faults of their dearest and nearest relatives. For instance hereof, how coarsely doth David speak of himself: So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee. And do you think that the face of St. Paul did look the more foul by being drawn with his own pencil, when he says, "I was a murderer, a persecutor, the greatest of sinners, "etc? This is not usual in the writings of human authors, who praise themselves to the utmost of what they could, and rather than lose a drop of applause they will lick it up with their own tongues. Tully writes very copiously in setting forth the good service which he did the Roman state, but not a word of his covetousness, of his affecting popular applause, of his pride and vain glory, of his mean extraction and the like. Whereas, clean contrary, Moses sets down the sin and punishment of his own sister, the idolatry and superstition of Aaron his brother, and his own fault in his preposterous striking the rock, for which he was excluded the land of Canaan. Thomas Fuller.

I am continually with thee, as a child the tender care of a parent; and as a parent, during my danger of falling in a slippery path, "thou hast holden me, thy child, by my right hand." George Horne.

I am continually with thee. He does not say that the Lord is continually with "his people, "and holds, and guides, and receives them; he says, "He is continually with me; He holds me; He will guide me; He will receive me." The man saw, and felt, and rejoiced in his own personal interest in God's care and love. And he did this (mark), in the very midst of affliction, with "flesh and heart failing; "and in spite too of many wrong, and opposite, and sinful feelings, that had just passed away; under a conviction of his own sinfulness, and folly, and, as he calls it, even "brutishness." Oh! it is a blessed thing, brethren, to have a faith like this. Charles Bradley. 1838.

I am still with thee. The word translated still properly means always, and denotes that there had been no change or interruption in the previous relation of the parties. There is a perfectly analogous usage of the French toujours. Joseph Addison Alexander.

Thou shalt guide me. How are we to work our way in strange lands, if left entirely to our own resources? Hence it is, that so much is said in the Bible about guides, and that the Lord is called the guide of his people. They are in a foreign land, a land of pits and snares; and, without a good guide, they will be sure to fall into the one, or be caught in the other. "This God is our God, for ever and ever, "saith the psalmist; and not only so, but he condescends to "be our guide, and will be, even unto death" (Ps 48:14). Can we have a better guide? When a guide has been well recommended to us by those who have tried him, it is our wisdom to place ourselves unreservedly in his hands; and if he say our way lies to the right, it would show our folly to say we were determined to go to the left. John Gadsby.

Guide... receive. After conversion, God still works with us: he doth not only give grace, but actual help in the work of obedience: "He worketh all our works in us, "Isa 26:12. His actual help is necessary to direct, quicken, strengthen, protect and defend us. In our way to heaven, we need not only a rule and path, but a guide. The rule is the law of God; but the guide is the Spirit of God. Thomas Manton.

Afterward. After all our toil in labour and duty, after all our crosses and afflictions, after all our doubts and fears that we should never receive it; after all the hiding of his face, and clouds and darkness that have passed over us; and after all our battles and fightings for it, oh, then how seasonably will the reception of this reward come in: Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. O blessed afterwards; when all your work is done, when all your doubts and fears are over, and when all your battles are fought; then, O then, ye shall receive the reward. John Spalding.

Receive me to glory. Mendelssohn in his Beor, has perceived the probable allusion in this clause to the translation of Enoch. Of Enoch it is said, Ge 5:24, Myhla wta xql, "God took him." Here (Ps 73:24), the psalmist writes, ygzqt Kwbk. "Thou shalt take me to glory, or gloriously." In another (Ps 49:16) we read, ygzqy yk. "For he (God) shall take me." I can hardly think that the two latter expressions were written and read in their context by Jews without reference to the former. Thomas Thompson Perowne.

My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. In which words we may take notice of five things.

1. The order inverted. When he mentions his malady he begins with the failing of the flesh, and then of the heart; but when he reports the relief he begins with that of the heart. From hence observe that when God works a cure in man (out of love) he begins with the heart —he cures that first. And there may be these reasons for it.

1. Because the sin of the heart is often the procuring cause of the malady of body and soul.

2. The body ever fares the better for the soul, but not the soul for the body.

3. The cure of the soul is the principal cure.

2. The suitableness of the remedy to the malady. Strength of heart for failing of heart, and a blessed portion for the failing of the flesh. Observe, that there is a proportionate remedy and relief in God for all maladies and afflictions whatsoever, both within and without. If your hearts fail you, God is strength; if your flesh fails you, or comforts fail you, God is a portion.

3. The prophet's interest; he calls God his portion. Observe, that true Israelites have an undoubted interest in God: —He is theirs.

4. The prophet's experience in the worst time. He finds this to be true, that when communicated strength fails, there is a never failing strength in God. Observe, that Christians' experiences of God's all sufficiency are then fullest and highest when created comforts fail them.

5. There is the prophet's improvement of his experience for support and comfort against future trials and temptations. Observe, that a saint's consideration of his experience of God's all sufficiency in times of exigency, is enough to bear up and to fortify his spirit against all trials and temptations for the time to come.

Thus you may improve the text by way of observation; but there are two principal doctrines to be insisted on. First, that God is the rock of a saint's heart, his strength, and his portion for ever. Secondly, that divine influence and relief passeth from God to his people when they stand in most need thereof.

First. God is the rock of a saint's heart, strength, and portion for ever. Here are two members or branches in this doctrine.

1. That God is the rock of a saint's heart, strength.

2. That God is the portion of a saint. Branch 1. God is the rock of a saint's heart, strength. He is not only strength, and the strength of their hearts, but the rock of their strength; so Isa 17:10. Ps 62:7, rwu, the same word that is used in the text, from hence comes our English word "sure." Explication. God is the rock of our strength, both in respect of our naturals and also of our spirituals: he is the strength of nature and of grace (Ps 27:1); the strength of my life natural and spiritual. God is the strength of thy natural faculties —of reason and understanding, of wisdom and prudence, of will and affections. He is the strength of all thy graces, faith, patience, meekness, temperance, hope, and charity; both as to their being and exercise. He is the strength of all thy comfort and courage, peace and happiness, salvation and glory. Ps 140:7. "O God, the rock of my salvation." In three respects. First. He is the author and giver of all strength. Ps 18:32: "It is God that girdeth me with strength." Ps 24:11: "He will give strength to his people." Ps 138:3 68:35. Secondly. He is the increaser and perfecter of a saint's strength; it is God that makes a saint strong and mighty both to do and suffer, to bear and forbear, to believe and to hope to the end; so Heb 11:34: "Out of weakness they were made strong; "so 1Jo 2:14. And therefore is that prayer of Peter, 1Pe 5:10. Thirdly. He is the preserver of your strength; your life is laid up in God. Col 3:3. Your strength is kept by the strength of God; so Ps 91:1. God doth overshadow the strength of saints, that no breach can be made upon it. Ps 63:7. "In the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice." Samuel Blackerby. 1673.

Oh, strange logic! Grace hath learned to deduce strong conclusions out of weak premises, and happy out of sad. If the major be, My flesh and my heart faileth; and the minor, "There is no blossom in the fig tree, nor fruit in the vine, "etc.; yet his conclusion is firm and undeniable: The Lord is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever; or, Yet will I rejoice in the God of my salvation. And if there be more in the conclusion than in the premises, it is the better; God comes even in the conclusion. John Sheffield, in "The Rising Sun." 1654.

My flesh and my heart faileth. They who take the expression in a bad sense, take it to be a confession of his former sin, and to have relation to the combat mentioned in the beginning of the Psalm, between the flesh and the spirit; as if he had said, I was so surfeited with self conceitedness that I presumed to arraign divine actions at the bar of human reason, and to judge the stick under water crooked by the eye of my sense, when, indeed, it was straight: but now I see that flesh is no fit judge in matters of faith; that neither my flesh nor heart can determine rightly of God's dispensations, nor hold out uprightly under Satan's temptations; for if God had not supported me my flesh had utterly supplanted me: My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart. Flesh is sometimes taken for corrupt nature. Ga 5:13. First, because it is propagated by the flesh (Joh 3:6); secondly, because it is executed by the flesh (Ro 7:25); thirdly, because corruption is nourished, strengthened, and increased by the flesh. 1Jo 2:16. They who take the words in a good sense, do not make them look back so far as the beginning of the Psalm, but only to the neighbour verse. George Swinnock.

God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. The Hebrew carrieth it, but God is the rock of my heart, i.e., a sure, strong, and immovable foundation to build upon. Though the winds may blow, and the waves beat, when the storm of death cometh, yet I need not fear that the house of my heart will fall, for it is built on a sure foundation: God is the rock of my heart. The strongest child that God hath is not able to stand alone; like the hop or ivy, he must have somewhat to support him, or he is presently on the ground. Of all seasons, the Christian hath most need of succour at his dying hour; then he must take his leave of all his comforts on earth, and then he shall be sure of the sharpest conflicts from hell, and therefore, it is impossible he should hold out without extraordinary help from heaven. But the psalmist had armour of proof ready, wherewith to encounter his last enemy. As weak and fearful a child as he was, he durst venture a walk in the dark entry of death, having his Father by the hand: "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me, "Psalm 23. Though at the troubles of my life, and my trial at death, my heart is ready to fail me, yet I have a strong cordial which will cheer me in my saddest condition: God is the strength of my heart.

And my portion. It is a metaphor taken from the ancient custom among the Jews, of dividing inheritances, whereby every one had his allotted portion; as if he had said, God is not only my rock to defend me from those tempests which assault me, and, thereby, my freedom from evil; but he is also my portion, to supply my necessities, and to give me the fruition of all good. Others, indeed, have their parts on this side the land of promise, but the author of all portions is the matter of my portion. My portion doth not lie in the rubbish and lumber, as theirs doth whose portion is in this life, be they never so large; but my portion containeth him whom the heavens, and heaven of heavens, can never contain. God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever; not for a year, or an age, or a million of ages, but for eternity. Though others' portions, like roses, the fuller they blow, the sooner they shed; they are worsted often by their pride, and wasted through their prodigality, so that at last they come to want —and surely death always rends their persons and portions asunder; yet my portion will be ever full, without diminution. Without alteration, this God will be my God for ever and ever, my guide and aid unto death; nay, death, which dissolves so many bonds, and unties such close knots, shall never part me and my portion, but give me a perfect and everlasting possession of it. George Swinnock.

It is good for me to draw near to God. When he saith, it is good, his meaning is it is best. This positive is superlative. It is more than good for us to draw nigh to God at all times, it is best for us to do so, and it is at our utmost peril not to do so; For, lo, saith the psalmist (Ps 73:27), they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee. It is dangerous to be far from God, but it is more dangerous to go far from him. Every man is far off by nature, and wicked men go further off: the former shall perish, the latter shall be destroyed. He that fares best in his withdrawing from God, fares bad enough; therefore, it is best for us to draw nigh unto God. He is the best friend at all times, and the only friend at sometimes. And may we not say that God suffers and orders evil times, and the withdrawing of the creature, for that very end, that we might draw nearer unto him? Doth he not give up the world to a spirit of reviling and mocking that he may stir up in his people a spirit of prayer? Joseph Caryl.

It is good; that is, it puts in us a blessed quality and disposition. It makes a man to be like God himself; and, secondly, it is good, that is, it is comfortable; for it is the happiness of the creature to be near the Creator; it is beneficial and helpful. To draw near. How can a man but be near to God, seeing he filleth heaven and earth: "Whither shall I go from thy presence?" Ps 139:7. He is present always in power and providence in all places, but graciously present with some by his Spirit, supporting, comforting, strengthening the heart of a good man. As the soul is said to be tota in toto, in several parts by several faculties, so God, is present to all, but in a diverse manner. Now we are said to be near to God in diverse degrees: first, when our understanding is enlightened; intellectus est veritatis sponsa; and so the young man speaking discreetly in things concerning God, is said not to be far from the kingdom of God, Mr 12:34. Secondly, in minding: when God is present to our minds, so that the soul is said to be present to that which it minds; contrarily it is said of the wicked, that "God is not in all their thoughts, "Ps 10:4. Thirdly, when the will upon the discovery of the understanding comes to choose the better part, and is drawn from that choice to cleave to him, as it was said of Jonathan's heart, "it was knit to David, " 1Sa 18:1. Fourthly, when our whole affections are carried to God, loving him as the chief good. Love is the firstborn affection. That breeds desire of communion with God. Thence comes joy in him, so that the soul pants after God, "as the hart after the water springs, "Ps 41:1. Fifthly, and especially, when the soul is touched with the Spirit of God working faith, stirring up dependence, confidence, and trust on God. Hence ariseth sweet communion. The soul is never at rest till it rests on him. Then it is afraid to break with him or to displease him; but it groweth zealous and resolute, and hot in love, stiff in good cases; resolute against his enemies. And yet this is not all, for God will have also the outward man, so as the whole man must present itself before God in word, in sacraments; speak of him and to him with reverence, and yet with strength of affection mounting up in prayer, as in a fiery chariot; hear him speak to us; consulting with his oracles; fetching comforts against distresses, directions against maladies. Sixthly, and especially, we draw near to him when we praise him; for this is the work of the souls departed, and of the angels in heaven, that are continually near unto him. The prophet here saith, It is good for me. How came he to know this? Why, he had found it by experience, and by it he was thoroughly convinced. Richard Sibbes.

To draw near to God. It is not one isolated act. It is nor merely turning to God, and saying, "I have come to him." The expression is draw. It is not a single act; it is the drawing, the coming, the habitual walk, going on, and on, and on, so long as we are on earth. It is, therefore, an habitual religion which must be pressed and enforced upon us. Montagu Villiers. 1855.

To draw near to God. To draw near to God,

1. A man should make his peace with God, in and through the Mediator Jesus Christ; for, until once that be done, a man must be said to be far from God, and there is a partition wall standing betwixt God and him. It is the same with that advice given by Eliphaz to Job: "Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee, " Job 22:21. Be friends with God, and all shall be well with you.

2. It is to seek more after communion and fellowship with God, and to pursue after intimacy and familiarity with him; and to have more of his blessed company with us in our ordinary walk and conversation; according to that word, "Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance, "Ps 89:15.

3. As it stands here in the text, it is the expression of one who hath made up his peace already, and is on good terms with God; and doth differ a little from what the words absolutely imply; and so we may take it thus,

(a) It implies the confirming or making sure our interest in God, and so it supposes the man's peace to be made with God; for, whoever be the author of this Psalm, it supposes he has made his peace; and, therefore, in the following words it is subjoined, I have put my trust in the Lord, etc.; that is, I have trusted my soul unto God, and made my peace with him through a mediator. It is good, whatever comes, it is always good to be near to God, that way, and to be made sure in him.

(b) It implies to be more conformed unto the image of God, and, therefore, this nearness to him is opposed to that of being far from God. It is good, says he to draw near to God in our duty; when so many are far from him.

(c) It implies, to lay by all things in the world, and to seek fellowship and communion with God, and to be more set apart for his blessed company, and to walk with him in a dependence upon him as the great burden bearer, as he who is to be all in all unto us.

In a word, to draw near unto God, is to make our peace with him, and to secure and confirm that peace with him, and to study a conformity unto him, and to be near unto him in our walk and conversation; in our fellowship, and whole carriage, and deportment, to be always near unto him. William Guthrie.

The Epicurean, says Augustine, is wont to say, It is good for me to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh: the Stoic is wont to say, For me it is good to enjoy the pleasures of the mind: The Apostle used to say (not in words but in sense), It is good for me to cleave to God. Lorinus.

The Lord God. The names The Lord Jehovah are a combination expressive of God's sovereignty, self existence, and covenant relation to his people. Joseph Addison Alexander.

Whole Psalm. It containeth the godly man's trial, in the former part of it, and his triumph, in the latter part of it. We have,

1. The grievous conflict between the flesh and the spirit, to the 15th verse.

2. The glorious conquest of the spirit over the flesh, to the end. G. Swinnock.

Whole Psalm.

1. The cause of his distemper.

2. The cure of it.

3. The psalmist's carriage after it. —G. Swinnock.

The true Israel, the great blessing, and the sureness of it: or, the proposition of the text expounded, enforced, and applied.

(first clause). Israel's receipts from God are,

1. For quantity, the greatest;

2. For variety, the choicest;

3. For quality, the sweetest;

4. For security, the surest;

5. For duration, the most lasting. —Simeon Ash.

1. How far a believer may fall.

2. How far he shall not fall.

3. What fears are and what are not allowable.

A retrospect of our slips; prospect of future danger; present preparation for it.

Quiet death; the cases of the godly and ungodly distinguished by the causes of the quiet, and the unreliability of mere feelings shown.

The bastard's portion contrasted with that of the true son.

The dangers of opulence and luxury.

Connection between a corrupt heart and a proud tongue.

1. The believer's cup is bitter.

2. It is full.

3. Its contents are varied waters.

4. It is but a cup, measured and limited.

5. It is the cup of his people, and, consequently, works good in the highest degree.

The atheists open question; the oppressor's practical question; the careless man's secret question; and the fearful saint's fainting question. The reasons why it is ever asked, and the conclusive reasons which put the matter beyond question.

This verse suggests solemn enquiries for persons who are growing rich.

The frequent and even constant chastisement of the righteous; the necessity and design thereof; and the consolations connected therewith.

How we may bring injury on the saints; why we should avoid so doing, and how.

1. Entrance into the place of fellowship with God, it privileges, and the way thereto.

2. Lessons learned in that hallowed place; the text mentions one.

3. Practical influence of the fellowship, and the instruction.

Verses 17-18. The sinner's end; See "Spurgeon's Sermons," No. 486.

Thou didst set them in slippery places.

1. It implies that they were always exposed to sudden, unexpected destruction. As he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable to fall, he cannot foresee one moment whether he shall stand or fall the next; and when he does fall, he falls at once without warning.

2. They are liable to fall of themselves, without being thrown down by the hand of another; as he that stands or walks on slippery ground needs nothing but his own weight to throw him down.

3. There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell but the mere pleasure of God. Jonathan Edwards.

Verses 18-20. The end of the wicked is,

1. Near: Thou hast set, etc. It may happen at any time.

2. Judicial: Thou bringest, etc.

3. Sudden: How are they, etc.

4. Tormenting: They are utterly consumed, etc.

5. Eternal: Left to themselves; gone from the mind of God; and disregarded as a dream when one awaketh. No after act respecting them, either for deliverance or annihilation.

The first sight and sense of hell by a proud and wealthy sinner, who has just died in peace.

The contemptible object: —a self righteous, or boastful, or persecuting, or cavilling, or wealthy sinner when his soul is called before God.

Our folly, ignorance, and brutishness. When displayed. What effect the fact should have upon us; and how greatly it illustrates divine grace.

Verse 22-25.

1. The psalmist's confession concerning the flesh.

2. The faithful expressions of the spirit.

3. The conclusion of the whole matter. See "Spurgeon's Sermons, "No. 467.

God the best portion of the Christian. Jonathan Edwards' Works, Vol. 2, pp. 104-7.

Heaven and earth ransacked to find a joy equal to the Lord himself. Let the preacher take up various joys and show the inferiority.

1. The psalmist's complaint: My flesh and my heart faileth.

2. His comfort: But God, etc. Or, we may take notice, (a) Of the frailty of his flesh; (b) Of the flourishing of his faith.

Doctrine 1. That man's flesh will fail him. The highest, the holiest man's heart will not always hold out. The prophet was great and gracious, yet his flesh failed him.

Doctrine 2. That it is the comfort of a Christian, in his saddest condition, that God is his portion. G. Swinnock.

"The Fading of the Flesh, " Swinnock's Treatise. (Nichol's Puritan Series.)

Where we fail and where we cannot fail.

1. The sad conditions.

2. The terrible punishments.

3. The implied consolations.

To draw near to God is our wisdom, our honour, our safety, our peace, our riches. Thomas Watson's Sermon, "The Happiness of Drawing near to God." 1669. See also, "The Saint's Happiness, "R. Sibbes's Sermons.

David's conclusion; or, the saint's resolution. R. Sibbes.

1. The language of prayer: It is good, etc.

2. Of faith: I have put, etc.

3. Of praise: That I may declare. G. R.

See "Spurgeon's Sermons," Nos. 287-8, "Let us pray." No. 879, "An assuredly good thing."

WORKS UPON THE SEVENTY-THIRD PSALM

Certain Comfortable Expositions of the Constant Martyr of Christ JOHN HOOPER, Bishop of Gloucester and Worcester, 1555, written in the time of his Tribulation and Imprisonment, upon the Twenty-third, Sixty-second, Seventy-third, and Seventy-seventh Psalm of the prophet David. (In Parker Society's publications, and also in the "British Reformers" series of the Religious Tract Society.)

David Restored; or, And Antidote against the Prosperity of the Wicked and the Afflictions of the Just, shewing the different ends of both. In a most seasonable discourse upon the Seventy-third Psalm. By the Right Reverend Father in God EDWARD PARRY. Late Lord Bishop of Killaloe. 1660.