For
the expounding of this psalm we may borrow a great deal of light from the
apostle's discourse, Heb. iii. and iv., where it appears both to have been
penned by David and to have been calculated for the days of the Messiah; for
it is there said expressly (Heb. iv. 7) that the day here spoken of (ver. 7)
is to be understood of the gospel day, in which God speaks to us by his Son
in a voice which we are concerned to hear, and proposes to us a rest besides
that of Canaan. In singing psalms it is intended, I. That we should
"make melody unto the Lord;" this we are here excited to do, and
assisted in doing, being called upon to praise God (ver. 1, 2) as a great
God (ver. 3-5) and as our gracious benefactor, ver. 6, 7. II. That we should
teach and admonish ourselves and one another; and we are here taught and
warned to hear God's voice (ver. 7), and not to harden our hearts, as the
Israelites in the wilderness did (ver. 8, 9), lest we fall under God's wrath
and fall short of his rest, as they did, ver. 10, 11. This psalm must be
sung with a holy reverence of God's majesty and a dread of his justice, with
a desire to please him and a fear to offend him.
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Invitation
to Praise God; Motives to Praise.
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1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD:
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. 2 Let
us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto
him with psalms. 3 For the LORD
is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 4 In his
hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is
his also. 5 The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands
formed the dry land. 6 O come, let us worship and bow
down: let us kneel before the LORD
our maker. 7 For he is our God; and we are the
people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
The psalmist here, as often elsewhere, stirs up himself and others to praise
God; for it is a duty which ought to be performed with the most lively
affections, and which we have great need to be excited to, being very often
backward to it and cold in it. Observe,
I. How God is to be praised. 1. With holy joy and delight in him. The
praising song must be a joyful noise, v. 1 and again v.
2. Spiritual joy is the heart and soul of thankful praise. It is the will of
God (such is the condescension of his grace) that when we give glory to him
as a being infinitely perfect and blessed we should, at the same time, rejoice
in him as our Father and King, and a God in covenant with us. 2. With
humble reverence, and a holy awe of him (v. 6): "Let us
worship, and bow down, and kneel before him, as becomes those who know
what an infinite distance there is between us and God, how much we are in
danger of his wrath and in need of his mercy." Though bodily
exercise, alone, profits little, yet certainly it is our duty to
glorify God with our bodies by the outward expressions of reverence,
seriousness, and humility, in the duties of religious worship. 3. We must
praise God with our voice; we must speak forth, sing forth, his praises out
of the abundance of a heart filled with love, and joy, and thankfulness--Sing
to the Lord; make a noise, a joyful noise to him, with psalms--as those
who are ourselves much affected with his greatness and goodness, are forward
to own ourselves so, are desirous to be more and more affected therewith,
and would willingly be instrumental to kindle and inflame the same pious and
devout affection in others also. 4. We must praise God in concert, in the
solemn assemblies: "Come, let us sing; let us join in singing to
the Lord; not others without me, nor I alone, but others with me. Let us
come together before his presence, in the courts of his house,
where his people are wont to attend him and to expect his manifestations of
himself." Whenever we come into God's presence we must come with
thanksgiving that we are admitted to such a favour; and, whenever we have
thanks to give, we must come before God's presence, set ourselves
before him, and present ourselves to him in the ordinances which he has
appointed.
II. Why God is to be praised and what must be the matter of our praise. We
do not want matter; it were well if we did not want a heart. We must praise
God,
1. Because he is a great God, and sovereign Lord of all, v. 3.
He is great, and therefore greatly to be praised. He is infinite and
immense, and has all perfection in himself. (1.) He has great power: He
is a great King above all gods, above all deputed deities, all
magistrates, to whom he said, You are gods (he manages them all, and
serves his own purposes by them, and to him they are all accountable), above
all counterfeit deities, all pretenders, all usurpers; he can do that which
none of them can do; he can, and will, famish and vanquish them all. (2.) He
has great possessions. This lower world is here particularly specified. We
reckon those great men who have large territories, which they call their own
against all the world, which yet are a very inconsiderable part of the
universe: how great then is that God whose the whole earth is, and the
fulness thereof, not only under whose feet it is, as he has an
incontestable dominion over all the creatures and a propriety in them, but
in whose hand it is, as he has the actual directing and disposing of all (v.
4); even the deep places of the earth, which are out of our sight,
subterraneous springs and mines, are in his hand; and the height
of the hills which are out of our reach, whatever grows or feeds upon
them, is his also. This may be taken figuratively: the meanest of the
children of men, who are as the low places of the earth, are not beneath his
cognizance; and the greatest, who are as the strength of the hills, are not
above his control. Whatever strength is in any creature it is derived from
God and employed for him (v. 5): The sea is his, and all that
is in it (the waves fulfil his word); it is his, for he made it,
gathered its waters and fixed its shores; the dry land, though given
to the children of men, is his too, for he still reserved the property to
himself; it is his, for his hands formed it, when his word made the
dry land appear. His being the Creator of all makes him, without
dispute, the owner of all. This being a gospel psalm, we may very well
suppose that it is the Lord Jesus whom we are here taught to praise. He is
a great God; the mighty God is one of his titles, and God over all,
blessed for evermore. As Mediator, he is a great King above all gods;
by him kings reign; and angels, principalities, and powers, are subject to
him; by him, as the eternal Word, all things were made (John i.
3), and it was fit he should be the restorer and reconciler of all who was
the Creator of all, Col. i. 16, 20. To him all power is given both in heaven
and in earth, and into his hand all things are delivered. It is he that sets
one foot on the sea and the other on the earth, as sovereign Lord of both
(Rev. x. 2), and therefore to him we must sing our songs of praise, and
before him we must worship and bow down.
2. Because he is our God, not only has a dominion over us, as he has over
all the creatures, but stands in special relation to us (v. 7): He
is our God, and therefore it is expected we should praise him; who will,
if we do not? What else did he make us for but that we should be to him
for a name and a praise? (1.) He is our Creator, and the author of our
being; we must kneel before the Lord our Maker, v. 6.
Idolaters kneel before gods which they themselves made; we kneel before a
God who made us and all the world and who is therefore our rightful
proprietor; for his we are, and not our own. (2.) He is our Saviour, and the
author of our blessedness. He is here called the rock of our salvation
(v. 1), not only the founder, but the very foundation, of that work
of wonder, on whom it is built. That rock is Christ; to him therefore
we must sing our songs of praises, to him that sits upon the throne and
to the Lamb. (3.) We are therefore his, under all possible obligations: We
are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. All the
children of men are so; they are fed and led by his Providence, which cares
for them, and conducts them, as the shepherd the sheep. We must praise him,
not only because he made us, but because he preserves and maintains us, and
our breath and ways are in his hand. All the church's children are in a
special manner so; Israel are the people of his pasture and the sheep of
his hand; and therefore he demands their homage in a special manner. The
gospel church is his flock. Christ is the great and good Shepherd of it. We,
as Christians, are led by his hand into the green pastures, by him we are
protected and well provided for, to his honour and service we are entirely
devoted as a peculiar people, and therefore to him must be glory in the
churches (whether it be in the world or no) throughout all ages,
Eph. iii. 21.
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Warning
against Hardness of Heart.
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7--To day if ye will hear his voice,
8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the
day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted
me, proved me, and saw my work. 10 Forty years long was I
grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do
err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: 11 Unto
whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
The latter part of this psalm, which begins in the middle of a verse, is an
exhortation to those who sing gospel psalms to live gospel lives, and to
hear the voice of God's word; otherwise, how can they expect that he should
hear the voice of their prayers and praises? Observe,
I. The duty required of all those that are the people of Christ's pasture
and the sheep of his hand. He expects that they hear his voice,
for he has said, My sheep hear my voice, John x. 27. We are his
people, say they. Are you so? Then hear his voice. If you call
him Master, or Lord, then do the things which he says,
and be his willing obedient people. Hear the voice of his doctrine, of his
law, and, in both, of his Spirit; hear and heed; hear and yield. Hear his
voice, and not the voice of a stranger. If you will hear his voice;
some take it as a wish, O that you would hear his voice! that you
would be so wise, and do so well for yourselves; like that, If thou hadst
known (Luke xix. 42), that is, O that thou hadst known! Christ's voice
must be heard to-day; this the apostle lays much stress upon,
applying it to the gospel day. While he is speaking to you see that you
attend to him, for this day of your opportunities will not last always;
improve it, therefore, while it is called to-day, Heb. iii. 13, 15.
Hearing the voice of Christ is the same with believing. To-day, if by
faith you accept the gospel offer, well and good, but to-morrow it may be
too late. In a matter of such vast importance nothing is more dangerous than
delay.
II. The sin they are warned against, as inconsistent with the believing
obedient ear required, and that is hardness of heart. If you will hear
his voice, and profit by what you hear, then do not harden your
hearts; for the seed sown on the rock never brought any fruit to
perfection. The Jews therefore believed not the gospel of Christ
because their hearts were hardened; they were not convinced of the
evil of sin, and of their danger by reason of sin, and therefore they
regarded not the offer of salvation; they would not bend to the yoke of
Christ, nor yield to his demands; and, if the sinner's heart be hardened, it
is his own act and deed (he hardening it himself) and he alone shall bear
the blame for ever.
III. The example they are warned by, which is that of the Israelites in the
wilderness.
1. "Take heed of sinning as they did, lest you be shut out of the
everlasting rest as they were out of Canaan." Be not, as your
fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, Ps. lxxxviii. 8. Thus
here, Harden not your heart as you did (that is, your ancestors) in
the provocation, or in Meribah, the place where they quarrelled
with God and Moses (Exod. xvii. 2-7), and in the day of temptation in the
wilderness, v. 8. So often did they provoke God by their
distrusts and murmurings that the whole time of their continuance in the
wilderness might be called a day of temptation, or Massah, the
other name given to that place (Exod. xvii. 7), because they tempted the
Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or is he not? This was in the
wilderness, where they could not help themselves, but lay at God's mercy,
and where God wonderfully helped them and gave them such sensible proofs of
his power and tokens of his favour as never any people had before or since.
Note, (1.) Days of temptation are days of provocation. Nothing is more
offensive to God than disbelief of his promise and despair of the
performance of it because of some difficulties that seem to lie in the way.
(2.) The more experience we have had of the power and goodness of God the
greater is our sin if we distrust him. What, to tempt him in the wilderness,
where we live upon him! This is as ungrateful as it is absurd and
unreasonable. (3.) Hardness of heart is at the bottom of all our distrusts
of God and quarrels with him. That is a hard heart which receives not the
impressions of divine discoveries and conforms not to the intentions of the
divine will, which will not melt, which will not bend. (4.) The sins of
others ought to be warnings to us not to tread in their steps. The
murmurings of Israel were written for our admonition, 1 Cor. x. 11.
2. Now here observe,
(1.) The charge drawn up, in God's name, against the unbelieving Israelites,
v. 9, 10. God here, many ages after, complains of their ill conduct
towards him, with the expressions of high resentment. [1.] Their sin was
unbelief: they tempted God and proved him; they questioned
whether they might take his word, and insisted upon further security before
they would go forward to Canaan, by sending spies; and, when those
discouraged them, they protested against the sufficiency of the divine power
and promise, and would make a captain and return into Egypt, Num. xiv. 3, 4.
This is called rebellion, Deut. i. 26, 32. [2.] The aggravation of
this sin was that they saw God's work; they saw what he had done for
them in bringing them out of Egypt, nay, what he was now doing for them
every day, this day, in the bread he rained from heaven for them and the
water out of the rock that followed them, than which they could not have
more unquestionable evidences of God's presence with them. With them even
seeing was not believing, because they hardened their hearts, though
they had seen what Pharaoh got by hardening his heart. [3.] The causes of
their sin. See what God imputed it to: It is a people that do err in
their hearts, and they have not known my ways. Men's unbelief and
distrust of God, their murmurings and quarrels with him, are the effect of
their ignorance and mistake. First, Of their ignorance: They have
not known my ways. They saw his work (v. 9) and he made known
his acts to them (Ps. ciii. 7); and yet they did not know his ways,
the ways of his providence, in which he walked towards them, or the ways of
his commandments, in which he would have them to walk towards him: they did
not know, they did not rightly understand and therefore did not approve of
these. Note, The reason why people slight and forsake the ways of God is
because they do not know them. Secondly, Of their mistake: They do
err in their heart; they wander out of the way; in heart they turn back.
Note, Sins are errors, practical errors, errors in heart; such there are,
and as fatal as errors in the head. When the corrupt affections pervert the
judgment, and so lead the soul out of the ways of duty and obedience, there
is an error of the heart. [4.] God's resentment of their sin: Forty years
long was I grieved with this generation. Note, The sins of God's
professing people do not only anger him, but grieve him, especially their
distrust of him; and God keeps an account how often (Num. xiv. 22) and how
long they grieve him. See the patience of God towards provoking sinners; he
was grieved with them forty years, and yet those years ended in a triumphant
entrance into Canaan made by the next generation. If our sins have grieved
God, surely they should grieve us, and nothing in sin should grieve us so
much as that.
(2.) The sentence passed upon them for their sin (v. 11): "Unto
whom I swore in my wrath, If they shall enter into my rest, then say I
am changeable and untrue:" see the sentence at large, Num. xiv. 21,
&c. Observe, [1.] Whence this sentence came--from the wrath of God. He swore
solemnly in his wrath, his just and holy wrath; but let not men
therefore swear profanely in their wrath, their sinful brutish wrath. God is
not subject to such passions as we are; but he is said to be angry, very
angry, at sin and sinners, to show the malignity of sin and the justice of
God's government. That is certainly an evil thing which deserves such a
recompence of revenge as may be expected from a provoked Deity. [2.] What it
was: That they should not enter into his rest, the rest which he had
prepared and designed for them, a settlement for them and theirs, that none
of those who were enrolled when they came out of Egypt should be found
written in the roll of the living at their entering into Canaan, but Caleb
and Joshua. [3.] How it was ratified: I swore it. It was not only a
purpose, but a decree; the oath showed the immutability of his counsel;
the Lord swore, and will not repent. It cut off the thought of any
reserve of mercy. God's threatenings are as sure as his promises.
Now this case of Israel may be applied to those of their posterity that
lived in David's time, when this psalm was penned; let them hear God's
voice, and not harden their hearts as their fathers did, lest, if they were
stiffnecked like them, God should be provoked to forbid them the privileges
of his temple at Jerusalem, of which he had said, This is my rest.
But it must be applied to us Christians, because so the apostle applies it.
There is a spiritual and eternal rest set before us, and promised to us, of
which Canaan was a type; we are all (in profession, at least) bound for this
rest; yet many that seem to be so come short and shall never enter into it.
And what is it that puts a bar in their door? It is sin; it is unbelief,
that sin against the remedy, against our appeal. Those that, like Israel,
distrust God, and his power and goodness, and prefer the garlick and onions
of Egypt before the milk and honey of Canaan, will justly be shut out from
his rest: so shall their doom be; they themselves have decided it. Let us
therefore fear, Heb. iv. 1.
Contents
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