In
this psalm we have David's struggle with and triumph over a strong
temptation to distrust God and betake himself to indirect means for his own
safety in a time of danger. It is supposed to have been penned when he began
to feel the resentments of Saul's envy, and had had the javelin thrown at
him once and again. He was then advised to run his country. "No,"
says he, "I trust in God, and therefore will keep my ground."
Observe, I. How he represents the temptation, and perhaps parleys with it,
ver. 1-3. II. How he answers it, and puts it to silence with the
consideration of God's dominion and providence (ver. 4), his favour to the
righteous, and the wrath which the wicked are reserved for, ver. 5-7. In
times of public fear, when the insults of the church's enemies are daring
and threatening, it will be profitable to meditate on this psalm.
To the chief musician. A
psalm of David.
1 In the LORD
put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your
mountain? 2 For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make
ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the
upright in heart. 3 If the foundations be destroyed, what can
the righteous do?
Here is, I. David's fixed resolution to make God his confidence: In the
Lord put I my trust, v. 1. Those that truly fear God and serve
him are welcome to put their trust in him, and shall not be made ashamed of
their doing so. And it is the character of the saints, who have taken God
for their God, that they make him their hope. Even when they have other
things to stay themselves upon, yet they do not, they dare not, stay upon
them, but on God only. Gold is not their hope, nor are horses and chariots
their confidence, but God only; and therefore, when second causes frown, yet
their hopes do not fail them, because the first cause is still the same, is
ever so. The psalmist, before he gives an account of the temptation he was
in to distrust God, records his resolution to trust in him, as that which he
was resolved to live and die by.
II. His resentment of a temptation to the contrary: "How say you to
my soul, which has thus returned to God as its rest and reposes in him, Flee
as a bird to your mountain, to be safe there out of the reach of the
fowler?" This may be taken either,
1. As the serious advice of his timorous friends; so many understand it, and
with great probability. Some that were hearty well-wishers to David, when
they saw how much Saul was exasperated against him and how maliciously he
sought his life, pressed him by all means to flee for the same to some place
of shelter, and not to depend too much upon the anointing he had received,
which, they thought, was more likely to occasion the loss of his head than
to save it. That which grieved him in this motion was not that to flee now
would savour of cowardice, and ill become a soldier, but that it would
savour of unbelief and would ill become a saint who had so often said, In
the Lord put I my trust. Taking it thus, the two following verses
contain the reason with which these faint-hearted friends of David backed
this advice. They would have him flee, (1.) Because he could not be safe
where he was, v. 2. "Observe," say they, "how the
wicked bend their bow; Saul and his instruments aim at thy life, and the
uprightness of thy heart will not be thy security." See what an enmity
there is in the wicked against the upright, in the seed of the serpent
against the seed of the woman; what pains they take, what preparations they
make, to do them a mischief: They privily shoot at them, or, in
darkness, that they may not see the evil designed, to avoid it, nor
others, to prevent it, no, nor God himself, to punish it. (2.) Because he
could be no longer useful where he was. "For," say they, "if
the foundations be destroyed" (as they were by Saul's
mal-administration), "if the civil state and government be unhinged and
all out of course" (Ps. lxxv. 3, lxxxii. 5), "what canst thou do
with thy righteousness to redress the grievances? Alas! it is to no purpose
to attempt the saving of a kingdom so wretchedly shattered; whatever the
righteous can do signifies nothing." Abi in cellam, et dic, Miserere
mei, Domine--Away to thy cell, and there cry, Pity me, O Lord! Many are
hindered from doing the service they might do to the public, in difficult
times, by a despair of success.
2. It may be taken as a taunt wherewith his enemies bantered him, upbraiding
him with the professions he used to make of confidence in God, and
scornfully bidding him try what stead that would stand him in now. "You
say, God is your mountain; flee to him now, and see what the better you will
be." Thus they endeavoured to shame the counsel of the poor, saying,
There is no help for them in God, Ps. xiv. 6; iii. 2. The confidence
and comfort which the saints have in God, when all the hopes and joys in the
creature fail them, are a riddle to a carnal world and are ridiculed
accordingly. Taking it thus, the two following verses are David's answer to
this sarcasm, in which, (1.) He complains of the malice of those who did
thus abuse him (v. 2): They bend their bow and make ready their
arrows; and we are told (Ps. lxiv. 3) what their arrows are, even bitter
words, such words as these, by which they endeavour to discourage hope in
God, which David felt as a sword in his bones. (2.) He resists the
temptation with a gracious abhorrence, v. 3. He looks upon this
suggestion as striking at the foundations which every Israelite builds upon:
"If you destroy the foundations, if you take good people off from their
hope in God, if you can persuade them that their religion is a cheat and a
jest and can banter them out of that, you ruin them, and break their hearts
indeed, and make them of all men the most miserable." The principles of
religion are the foundations on which the faith and hope of the righteous
are built. These we are concerned, in interest as well as duty, to hold fast
against all temptations to infidelity; for, if these be destroyed, if we let
these go, What can the righteous do? Good people would be undone if
they had not a God to go to, a God to trust to, and a future bliss to hope
for.
4 The LORD
is in his holy temple, the LORD's
throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children
of men. 5 The LORD
trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul
hateth. 6 Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and
brimstone, and a horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their
cup. 7 For the righteous LORD
loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.
The shaking of a tree (they say) makes it take the deeper and faster root.
The attempt of David's enemies to discourage his confidence in God engages
him to cleave so much the more closely to his first principles, and to
review them, which he here does, abundantly to his own satisfaction and the
silencing of all temptations to infidelity. That which was shocking to his
faith, and has been so to the faith of many, was the prosperity of wicked
people in their wicked ways, and the straits and distresses which the best
men are sometimes reduced to: hence such an evil thought as this was apt to
arise, Surely it is vain to serve God, and we may call the proud
happy. But, in order to stifle and shame all such thoughts, we are here
called to consider,
I. That there is a God in heaven: The Lord is in his holy temple
above, where, though he is out of our sight, we are not out of his. Let not
the enemies of the saints insult over them, as if they were at a loss and at
their wits' end: no, they have a God, and they know where to find him and
how to direct their prayer unto him, as their Father in heaven. Or, He is in
his holy temple, that is, in his church; he is a God in covenant and
communion with his people, through a Mediator, of whom the temple was a
type. We need not say, "Who shall go up to heaven, to fetch us thence a
God to trust to?" No, the word is nigh us, and God in the word; his
Spirit is in his saints, those living temples, and the Lord is that Spirit.
II. That this God governs the world. The Lord has not only his residence,
but his throne, in heaven, and he has set the dominion thereof in the
earth (Job xxxviii. 33); for, having prepared his throne in the
heavens, his kingdom ruleth over all, Ps. ciii. 19. Hence the heavens
are said to rule, Dan. iv. 26. Let us by faith see God on this
throne, on his throne of glory, infinitely transcending the splendour and
majesty of earthly princes--on his throne of government, giving law, giving
motion, and giving aim, to all the creatures--on his throne of judgment,
rendering to every man according to his works--and on his throne of grace,
to which his people may come boldly for mercy and grace; we shall then see
no reason to be discouraged by the pride and power of oppressors, or any of
the afflictions that attend the righteous.
III. That this God perfectly knows every man's true character: His eyes
behold, his eye-lids try, the children of men; he not only sees them,
but he sees through them, not only knows all they say and do, but knows what
they think, what they design, and how they really stand affected, whatever
they pretend. We may know what men seem to be, but he knows what they are,
as the refiner knows what the value of the gold is when he has tried it. God
is said to try with his eyes, and his eye-lids, because he
knows men, not as earthly princes know men, by report and representation,
but by his own strict inspection, which cannot err nor be imposed upon. This
may comfort us when we are deceived in men, even in men that we think we
have tried, that God's judgment of men, we are sure, is according to truth.
IV. That, if he afflict good people, it is for their trial and therefore for
their good, v. 5. The Lord tries all the children of men that he may do
them good in their latter end, Deut. viii. 16. Let not that therefore
shake our foundations nor discourage our hope and trust in God.
V. That, however persecutors and oppressors may prosper and prevail awhile,
they now lie under, and will for ever perish under, the wrath of God. 1. He
is a holy God, and therefore hates them, and cannot endure to look upon
them: The wicked, and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth; for
nothing is more contrary to the rectitude and goodness of his nature. Their
prosperity is so far from being an evidence of God's love that their abuse
of it does certainly make them the objects of his hatred. He that hates
nothing that he has made, yet hates those who have thus ill-made themselves.
Dr. Hammond offers another reading of this verse: The Lord trieth the
righteous and the wicked (distinguishes infallibly between them, which
is more than we can do), and he that loveth violence hateth his own soul,
that is, persecutors bring certain ruin upon themselves (Prov. viii. 36), as
follows here. 2. He is a righteous Judge, and therefore he will punish them,
v. 6. Their punishment will be, (1.) Inevitable: Upon the wicked
he shall rain snares. Here is a double metaphor, to denote the
unavoidableness of the punishment of wicked men. It shall be rained upon
them from heaven (Job xx. 23), against which there is no fence and from
which there is no escape; see Josh. x. 11; 1 Sam. ii. 10. It shall surprise
them as a sudden shower sometimes surprises the traveller in a summer's day.
It shall be as snares upon them, to hold them fast, and keep them prisoners,
till the day of reckoning comes. (2.) Very terrible. It is fire, and
brimstone, and a horrible tempest, which plainly alludes to the
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and very fitly, for that destruction was
intended for a figure of the vengeance of eternal fire, Jude 7. The
fire of God's wrath, fastening upon the brimstone of their own guilt, will
burn certainly and furiously, will burn to the lowest hell and the utmost
line of eternity. What a horrible tempest are the wicked hurried away in at
death! What a lake of fire and brimstone must they make their bed in for
ever, in the congregation of the dead and damned! It is this that is here
meant; it is this that shall be the portion of their cup, the heritage
appointed them by the Almighty and allotted to them, Job xx. 29. This is the
cup of trembling which shall be put into their hands, which they must drink
the dregs of, Ps. lxxv. 8. Every man has the portion of his cup assigned
him. Those who choose the Lord for the portion of their cup shall have what
they choose, and be for ever happy in their choice (Ps. xvi. 5); but those
who reject his grace shall be made to drink the cup of his fury, Jer. xxv.
15; Isa. li. 17; Hab. ii. 16.
VI. That, though honest good people may be run down and trampled upon, yet
God does and will own them, and favour them, and smile upon them, and that
is the reason why God will severely reckon with persecutors and oppressors,
because those whom they oppress and persecute are dear to him; so that whosoever
toucheth them toucheth the apple of his eye, v. 7. 1. He loves
them and the work of his own grace in them. He is himself a righteous God,
and therefore loves righteousness wherever he finds it and pleads the cause
of the righteous that are injured and oppressed; he delights to execute
judgment for them, Ps. ciii. 6. We must herein be followers of God, must
love righteousness as he does, that we may keep ourselves always in his
love. He looks graciously upon them: His countenance doth behold the
upright; he is not only at peace with them, and puts gladness into their
hearts, by letting them know that he is so. He, like a tender father, looks
upon them with pleasure, and they, like dutiful children, are pleased and
abundantly satisfied with his smiles. They walk in the light of the Lord.
In singing this psalm we must encourage and engage ourselves to trust in God
at all times, must depend upon him to protect our innocence and make us
happy, must dread his frowns as worse than death and desire his favour as
better than life.
