130 lines
9.2 KiB
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130 lines
9.2 KiB
XML
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<div2 id="Ps.cxxv" n="cxxv" next="Ps.cxxvi" prev="Ps.cxxiv" progress="66.69%" title="Chapter CXXIV">
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<h2 id="Ps.cxxv-p0.1">P S A L M S</h2>
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<h3 id="Ps.cxxv-p0.2">PSALM CXXIV.</h3>
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<p class="intro" id="Ps.cxxv-p1">David penned this psalm (we suppose) upon occasion
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of some great deliverance which God wrought for him and his people
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from some very threatening danger, which was likely to have
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involved them all in ruin, whether by foreign invasion, or
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intestine insurrection, is not certain; whatever it was he seems to
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have been himself much affected, and very desirous to affect
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others, with the goodness of God, in making a way for them to
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escape. To him he is careful to give all the glory, and takes none
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to himself as conquerors usually do. I. He here magnifies the
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greatness of the danger they were in, and of the ruin they were at
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the brink of, <scripRef id="Ps.cxxv-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.124.1-Ps.124.5" parsed="|Ps|124|1|124|5" passage="Ps 124:1-5">ver. 1-5</scripRef>.
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II. He gives God the glory of their escape, <scripRef id="Ps.cxxv-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.124.6-Ps.124.7 Bible:Ps.124.1-Ps.124.2" parsed="|Ps|124|6|124|7;|Ps|124|1|124|2" passage="Ps 124:6,7,124:1,2">ver. 6, 7 compared with ver. 1, 2</scripRef>.
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III. He takes encouragement thence to trust in God, <scripRef id="Ps.cxxv-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.124.8" parsed="|Ps|124|8|0|0" passage="Ps 124:8">ver. 8</scripRef>. In singing this psalm,
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besides the application of it to any particular deliverance wrought
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for us and our people, in our days and the days of our fathers, we
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may have in our thoughts the great work of our redemption by Jesus
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Christ, by which we were rescued from the powers of darkness.</p>
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<scripCom id="Ps.cxxv-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.124" parsed="|Ps|124|0|0|0" passage="Ps 124" type="Commentary"/>
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<scripCom id="Ps.cxxv-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.124.1-Ps.124.5" parsed="|Ps|124|1|124|5" passage="Ps 124:1-5" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.124.1-Ps.124.5">
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<h4 id="Ps.cxxv-p1.6">The Security of God's
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People.</h4>
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<div class="Center" id="Ps.cxxv-p1.7">
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<p id="Ps.cxxv-p2">A song of degrees of David.</p>
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</div>
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<p class="passage" id="Ps.cxxv-p3">1 If <i>it had not been</i> the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.cxxv-p3.1">Lord</span> who was on our side, now may Israel say;
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2 If <i>it had not been</i> the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.cxxv-p3.2">Lord</span> who was on our side, when men rose up
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against us: 3 Then they had swallowed us up quick, when
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their wrath was kindled against us: 4 Then the waters had
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overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul: 5 Then
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the proud waters had gone over our soul.</p>
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<p class="indent" id="Ps.cxxv-p4">The people of God, being here called upon
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to praise God for their deliverance, are to take notice,</p>
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<p class="indent" id="Ps.cxxv-p5">I. Of the malice of men, by which they were
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reduced to the very brink of ruin. Let Israel say that there was
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but a step between them and death: the more desperate the disease
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appears to have been the more does the skill of the Physician
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appear in the cure. Observe, 1. Whence the threatening danger came:
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<i>Men rose up against us,</i> creatures of our own kind, and yet
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bent upon our ruin. <i>Homo homini lupus—Man is a wolf to man.</i>
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No marvel that the red dragon, the roaring lion, should seek to
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swallow us up; but that men should thirst after the blood of men,
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Absalom after the blood of his own father, that a woman should be
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drunk with the blood of saints, is what, with St. John, we may
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wonder at with great admiration. From men we may expect humanity,
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yet there are those whose <i>tender mercies are cruel.</i> But what
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was the matter with these men? Why <i>their wrath was kindled
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against us</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.cxxv-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.124.3" parsed="|Ps|124|3|0|0" passage="Ps 124:3"><i>v.</i>
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3</scripRef>); something or other they were angry at, and then no
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less would serve than the destruction of those they had conceived a
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displeasure against. <i>Wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous.</i>
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Their wrath was kindled as fire ready to consume us. They were
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proud; and <i>the wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor.</i>
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They were daring in their attempt; they <i>rose up against us,</i>
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rose in rebellion, with a resolution to <i>swallow us up</i> alive.
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2. How far it went, and how fatal it would have been if it had gone
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a little further: "We should have been devoured as a lamb by a
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lion, not only slain, but <i>swallowed up,</i> so that there would
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have been no relics of us remaining, swallowed up with so much
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haste, ere we were aware, that we should have gone down alive to
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the pit. We should have been deluged as the low grounds by a
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land-flood or the sands by a high spring-tide." This similitude he
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dwells upon, with the ascents which bespeak this a song of degrees,
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or risings, like the rest. <i>The waters had overwhelmed us.</i>
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What of us? Why <i>the stream had gone over our souls,</i> our
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lives, our comforts, all that is dear to us. What waters? Why
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<i>the proud waters.</i> God suffers the enemies of his people
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sometimes to prevail very far against them, that his own power may
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appear the more illustrious in their deliverance.</p>
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<p class="indent" id="Ps.cxxv-p6">II. Of the goodness of God, by which they
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were rescued from the very brink of ruin: "<i>The Lord was on our
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side;</i> and, <i>if he had not been so,</i> we should have been
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undone." 1. "God was on our side; he took our part, espoused our
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cause, and appeared for us. He was our helper, and a very present
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help, a help on our side, nigh at hand. He was with us, not only
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for us, but among us, and commander-in-chief of our forces." 2.
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That God was Jehovah; there the emphasis lies. "If it had not been
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Jehovah himself, a God of infinite power and perfection, that had
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undertaken our deliverance, our enemies would have overpowered us."
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Happy the people, therefore, whose God is Jehovah, a God
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all-sufficient. Let Israel say this, to his honour, and resolve
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never to forsake him.</p>
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</div><scripCom id="Ps.cxxv-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.124.6-Ps.124.8" parsed="|Ps|124|6|124|8" passage="Ps 124:6-8" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.124.6-Ps.124.8">
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<h4 id="Ps.cxxv-p6.2">The Security of God's
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People.</h4>
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<p class="passage" id="Ps.cxxv-p7">6 Blessed <i>be</i> the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.cxxv-p7.1">Lord</span>, who hath not given us <i>as</i> a prey to
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their teeth. 7 Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the
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snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.
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8 Our help <i>is</i> in the name of the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.cxxv-p7.2">Lord</span>, who made heaven and earth.</p>
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<p class="indent" id="Ps.cxxv-p8">Here the psalmist further magnifies the
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great deliverance God had lately wrought for them.</p>
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<p class="indent" id="Ps.cxxv-p9">I. That their hearts might be the more
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enlarged in thankfulness to him (<scripRef id="Ps.cxxv-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.124.6" parsed="|Ps|124|6|0|0" passage="Ps 124:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>): <i>Blessed be the Lord.</i> God
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is the author of all our deliverances, and therefore he must have
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the glory of them. We rob him of his due if we do not return thanks
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to him. And we are the more obliged to praise him because we had
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such a narrow escape. We were delivered, 1. Like a lamb out of the
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very jaws of a beast of prey: God <i>has not given us as a prey to
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their teeth,</i> intimating that they had no power over God's
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people but what was given them from above. They could not be a prey
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to their teeth unless God gave them up, and <i>therefore</i> they
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were rescued, because God would not suffer them to be ruined. 2.
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Like <i>a bird,</i> a little bird (the word signifies a sparrow),
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<i>out of the snare of the fowler.</i> The enemies are very subtle
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and spiteful; they lay snares for God's people, to bring them into
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sin and trouble, and to hold them there. Sometimes they seem to
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have prevailed so far as to gain their point. God's people are
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taken in the snare, and are as unable to help themselves out as any
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weak and silly bird is; and <i>then</i> is God's time to appear for
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their relief, when all other friends fail; then God breaks the
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snare, and turns the counsel of the enemies into foolishness:
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<i>The snare is broken and so we are delivered.</i> Isaac was saved
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when he lay ready to be sacrificed. <i>Jehovah-jireh—in the mount
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of the Lord it shall be seen.</i></p>
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<p class="indent" id="Ps.cxxv-p10">II. That their hearts, and the hearts of
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others, might be the more encouraged to trust in God in the like
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dangers (<scripRef id="Ps.cxxv-p10.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.124.8" parsed="|Ps|124|8|0|0" passage="Ps 124:8"><i>v.</i> 8</scripRef>):
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<i>Our help is in the name of the Lord.</i> David had directed us
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(<scripRef id="Ps.cxxv-p10.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.121.2" parsed="|Ps|121|2|0|0" passage="Ps 121:2">Ps. cxxi. 2</scripRef>) to depend
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upon God for help as to our personal concerns—<i>My help is in the
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name of the Lord;</i> here as to the concerns of the public—Our
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<i>help is so.</i> It is a comfort to all that lay the interests of
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God's Israel near their hearts that Israel's God is the same that
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made the world, and therefore will have a church in the world, and
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can secure that church in times of the greatest danger and
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distress. In him therefore let the church's friends put their
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confidence, and they shall not be put to confusion.</p>
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</div></div2>
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