6 For in death there is no remembrance of thee. All the night make I my bed to swim; 8 Mine eye is consumed because of grief; It waxeth old, for I am troubled everywhere. 9 Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity! For the LORD hath heard the voice of my weeping. 10 The LORD hath heard my supplication; The LORD will receive my prayer. 11 Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: Let them return and be ashamed suddenly. V. 2. Though man's malice scourges David, he looks forthwith up to the hand in heaven, without whose permission no hand on earth dares stir. He enquires into the last reason of his visitation, and refuses not to acknowledge his tribulation as the well-deserved judgment of God. He prays not for the removal of the chastising rod, but only that God would not apply it in his anger, and vouchsafe to him the assurance of his reconciliation.1 As applicable to all psalms of complaint, we should bear in mind the following fact. Those holy men, feeling the hand of the Lord resting upon them, deemed the displeasure of God as the bitterest drop in their cup of sorrow. Thus David prays (Ps. xxv. 17. 18), "The troubles of my heart are enlarged: bring thou me out of my distresses. Look upon mine affliction and my pain, and forgive all my sin." Thus the sons of Korah sing at a time of national calamity, "Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?" How far remote from such wholesome humiliation is the mass of mankind, who curse and swear at man, or even, should they ultimately trace back their misfortune to the Hand in heaven, blaspheme God instead of accusing themselves. V. 3. 4. Deep and especially lasting agony of mind cannot but undermine the physical frame. Hence David laments that because his soul is sore vexed to its foundations, his bones, the foundations of the material body, are equally vexed and shaken. But as God often desires things to reach a climax like this, David represents the extremity of his sorrow as a motive that God would not delay his mercy any longer. We may infer from the expression, "O Lord, how long?" that he had already spent years of misery. Those who have been disciplined in the school of sorrow will confess that it is not so much the greatness of misery as its continuous duration which undermines body and soul. History shows us David, not as effeminately soft, but as a hero who braved many a fierce battle. Is it likely that he should break out into unbounded lamentation at transient and light afflictions? If God be our God, we anticipate to receive at his hands. peace and happiness. Hence the sufferer considers God as having entirely deserted him: he cries therefore, "Return, O Lord!" But he asserts no claim, not even in his great tribulations, but simply prays to God for deliverance, and that for His mercies' sake. He regards the praise of God as constituting the real business of his life; he praised Him in the day of affliction, (1) Cf. Ps. xxxviii. 1; Jer. x. 24. (2) Ps. lxxxv. 6; Cf. Notes to Ps. xxxviii. 2-6. how great will his glory be after his deliverance. He is convinced that a life thus spent in childlike, happy gratitude, is a sweet savour to God, and asks therefore, "In the grave, who shall give thee thanks?" V. 7. 8. Trouble disturbed his peace by day, grief by night. How intense must have been his affliction, who as a tender boy slew a Goliath with his sling, and as a man wept for nights together! Tears had deprived his eyes of vision, they had grown dim, as in old age. How vehement the flow of sorrow that could draw streams of tears. He says that he is troubled everywhere, for his persecutors gave him no rest; and history shows that even where he deemed himself secure among his friends, e.g. at Kagilah and Siph, fear and covetousness turned his friends into traitors. V. 9-11. When God is not a mere thought without and above us, but dwells essentially in our hearts, we are sure of the blessing, that while we are perseveringly struggling in prayer to hear the Divine, "Amen." How marvellous a change! A minute ago he lay in the abyss of despair, now he has scaled the heavens. He knows that his prayer is heard, and the eye of faith to which the invisible becomes visible, beholds all his enemies put to flight. He beholds them suddenly put to shame, for God renders it manifest to his children that it is His aid, by sending it unawares. PSALM VII. A Psalm of Complaint of David, belonging to the period of his flight. Verse 5 refers to the magnanimity he exhibited in sparing his persecutor, whom God had delivered into his hands, and stopping the hand of vengeful Abishai.1 It was said in the Introduction to Psalm v. that the members of the tribe of Saul the Benjaminite, were the chief accusers of the son of Jesse. They accused him who had said in the hour of temptation, "The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the Lord's anointed," of aiming at the crown and life of the king. In fact, David in his after-interview with Saul told him, that the accusations of hostile men had mainly brought about his proscription. Their hatred of David's piety, their envy at his former greatness, no less than the covetousness which made them court the favour and gifts of Saul, and lastly, their jealousy of tribe against the scion of the house of Judah, combined in stirring them to continuous hostilities against the innocent man. 3 David turning him from his persecutors to God Almighty asserts the glory of a good conscience (v. 2-6). Dismayed at the injustice and malice suffered to exist in this world, the sceptre of which is swayed by a holy God, who has no pleasure in iniquity, he raises an affecting cry for help, invoking Divine righteousness to dispose of mundane affairs (v. 7-10). Soothing his soul and calming his mind he declares (however much human pusillanimity may differ from him), that the judgments of God are daily being repeated, and that his lingering with their execution arises mainly from his desire to wait for the repentance of men (v. 11-14). His eye then looks into the future, and he beholds with certainty, that the hardened offender who refuses to repent, will eventually become his own judge and executor (v. 15—18). (1) 1 Sam. xxvi. 9. (2) 1 Sam. xxvi. 11. (3) 1 Sam. xxvi. 19. 1 A COMPLAINT of David, which he sang unto the LORD, concerning the words of Cush the Benjaminite. 2 O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust: Save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me: 3 Lest they tear my soul like a lion, Rending it in pieces, while there is not a deliverer. 4 O LORD my God, if I have done this; If there be iniquity in my hands; 5 If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (Yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine 6 Let the enemy persecute my soul and take it; Yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, And lay mine honour in the dust. 7 Arise, O LORD, in thine anger, Selah. enemy :) Lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies: And awake for me, thou, who hast ordained judgment. 8 So shall the congregation of the people compass thee (Then) over them return thou on high. 9 The LORD shall judge the people: Judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, about: 10 Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end! But establish the just: For the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins. 11 My defence is of God, Which saveth the upright in heart. 12 God is a righteous judge, And God is angry with the wicked every day. 13 If he (Saul) turn not, He hath whetted his sword; He hath bent his bow, and made it ready. 14 He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; He hath made his arrows flaming. 15 Behold he (the persecutor) travaileth with iniquity, And hath conceived mischief, And brought forth falsehood. 16 He made a pit, and digged it, And is fallen into the ditch which he made. 17 His mischief shall return upon his own head, And his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate. 18 I will praise the LORD according to his righteousness, And will sing praise to the name of the LORD most high. V. 2. Stepping into the presence of God, in the language of complaint, David's heart appears to have lost its hold; but it is only appearance, for he at once declares himself to be one of those who spread their complaints before God in faith and confidence. V. 3-6. He is so conscious of his innocence that he ventures to challenge Divine judgments, should the accusations of his enemies prove just. "If I have done this" (without particularly specifying the accusation, for it had spread through all the country, and the thousands of Saul's pursuing hosts were so many accusers charging him with conspiracy), "If there be iniquity in my hands," says he, similar to his expressions in his interview with Saul," wherefore doth my Lord thus pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in mine hand?" Christians find it no easy task to repress the flame of anger at unjust accusations, and to quench the rising passion; lest they should render evil for evil. But David achieved greater things in rendering good to those who without cause were his enemies. When the passionate Abishai turned his spear against Saul, David held him back lest the annointed of God should fall by an assassin's hand. It is not with a desire to appear meritorious before God that he refers to that magnanimous deed, he rather reminds God and himself of the justice of his cause, for confidence in prayer is necessarily increased by the consciousness that we appear before our holy God in a just cause and with a clear conscience. V. 7-9. Though refraining to be the judge of his own affairs, and well remembering the words of the Lord, "Vengeance is mine, I will recompense," he deemed it proper to invite Him to action who has undertaken the work of recompense on earth; thus he said to Saul," The Lord judge between me and thee, and the Lord avenge me of thee; but mine hand shall not be upon thee." Anxious to show that he desires not the gratification of personal revenge, but that God should assert His dignity as the judge of the world, he calls upon God to institute a judgment on all nations and their iniquities, only hoping that his own cause might be regarded as one of the innumerable ones which the righteous Judge could not suffer to remain unpunished. Most of us almost entirely forget, on witnessing the countless transgressions of law which daily transpire within our sight, that they are all recorded in the memory of the righteous Judge of the world. But David sees with his mind's eye how that Judge who forgets no sins, save those which he forgives on the condition of faith and repentance, comes down from heaven, mounts the tribunal, collects the world before it, gives sentence in a moment, and reascends to heaven. Although appearances go in a thousand instances against that faith, we dare not doubt the possibility of its being at any given moment evidenced as a fact. V. 10. He raises that petition which flows from every christian heart on reading in the Lord's prayer the words, "Deliver us from evil." Such desires are not vain imaginings. The very fact that they may so powerfully well forth from pious hearts is an evidence that at some future period they will meet their fulfilment. V. 11–14. David is none of those pious dreamers who, lost in their contemplation as to what God may do in heaven and hereafter, forget what He is daily doing on earth within the sight of all. He perceives that His sword is whetted already, that His bow is bent, and that the arrow lingers on the string simply because the longsuffering of God is as great as His justice, and because He is waiting even for the repentance of a Saul. Instruments of death and flaming arrows point to the custom of the ancients, who having enveloped their arrows in combustible matter, lighted and then sent them off. (1) 1 Sam. xxvi. 18. (2) 1 Sam. xxiv. 12. V. 15-17. David equally perceives that God is not obliged to send down from heaven the rods to chastise, and flaming arrows to destroy the wicked, but that they are everywhere present on earth. In innumerable instances the wicked prepare their own scourge in their wickedness, and perish by their own iniquities; as Luther says, "Whence could God get ropes enough to hang every thief, if they did not do it themselves?" and as the Prophet says, "The strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.”1 V. 18. The manner of his concluding shows the truthfulness of his beginning the psalm with "O Lord my God, in thee do I put my trust;" for we repeatedly forget to thank God after, David thanks God before, the reception of benefits, singing praise to the name of the Most High, while the present furnishes him only with themes of complaint. PSALM VIII. A Psalm of Praise, like Psalm iv. composed at night, and equally sublime, calm, and solemn. The solemn peace and brightness of an eastern nocturnal sky seem to be shed on it. David may have composed it when he was feeding his father Jesse's sheep on the plains of Bethlehem.o The fundamental idea of this beautiful Psalm is the glory of God on earth, as it appears to man, the noblest of his earthly creatures. The eyes of the Psalmist repose at night upon the infinite starry heavens: the more he is lost in the contemplation of their glory, and the more he considers that glory shed there in such lavish majesty, as to render it hardly credible that there should have remained any for the earth, the greater is his astonishment when reverting his look he meets the same revelation of Divine majesty on earth. He beholds it in the noblest of God's creatures-in man, and that in his earliest development-in the faltering accents of sucklings (v. 3). The dominion of the Spirit makes itself known in the faculty of speech; herein man resembles God; and makes him the priest and king of nature, the head of the visible creation (v. 4-9). 1 то the chief Musician, to the tune of Gath, A Psalm 2 O LORD our Lord, How excellent is thy name in all the earth! 3 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings of David. Hast thou ordained strength (prepared for thyself an army) That thou mightest still the enemy and the adversary. 4 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which thou hast prepared; 5 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him? 6 For thou hast made him a little lower than God, And hast crowned him with glory and honour. (1) Isa. i. 31. (2) 1 Sam. xvii. 15. |