mh_parser/vol_split/19 - Psalms/Chapter 53.xml

<div2 id="Ps.liv" n="liv" next="Ps.lv" prev="Ps.liii" progress="40.18%" title="Chapter LIII">
<h2 id="Ps.liv-p0.1">P S A L M S</h2>
<h3 id="Ps.liv-p0.2">PSALM LIII.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Ps.liv-p1">God speaks once, yea, twice, and it were well if
man would even then perceive it; God, in this psalm, speaks twice,
for this is the same almost verbatim with the fourteenth psalm. The
scope of it is to convince us of our sins, to set us a blushing and
trembling because of them; and this is what we are with so much
difficulty brought to that there is need of line upon line to this
purport. The word, as a convincing word, is compared to a hammer,
the strokes whereof must be frequently repeated. God, by the
psalmist here, I. Shows us how bad we are, <scripRef id="Ps.liv-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.53.1" parsed="|Ps|53|1|0|0" passage="Ps 53:1">ver. 1</scripRef>. II. Proves it upon us by his own
certain knowledge, <scripRef id="Ps.liv-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.53.2-Ps.53.3" parsed="|Ps|53|2|53|3" passage="Ps 53:2,3">ver. 2,
3</scripRef>. III. He speaks terror to persecutors, the worst of
sinners, <scripRef id="Ps.liv-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.53.4-Ps.53.5" parsed="|Ps|53|4|53|5" passage="Ps 53:4,5">ver. 4, 5</scripRef>. IV. He
speaks encouragement to God's persecuted people, <scripRef id="Ps.liv-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.53.6" parsed="|Ps|53|6|0|0" passage="Ps 53:6">ver. 6</scripRef>. Some little variation there is between
<scripRef id="Ps.liv-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.14.1-Ps.14.7 Bible:Ps.53.1-Ps.53.6" parsed="|Ps|14|1|14|7;|Ps|53|1|53|6" passage="Ps 14:1-7,53:1-6">Ps. 14 and this</scripRef>,
but none considerable, only between <scripRef id="Ps.liv-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.14.5-Ps.14.6 Bible:Ps.53.5" parsed="|Ps|14|5|14|6;|Ps|53|5|0|0" passage="Ps 14:5,6,53:5">ver. 5, 6</scripRef>, there, and <scripRef id="Ps.liv-p1.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.14.5-Ps.14.6 Bible:Ps.53.5" parsed="|Ps|14|5|14|6;|Ps|53|5|0|0" passage="Ps 14:5,6,53:5">ver. 5</scripRef> here; some expressions
there used are here left out, concerning the shame which the wicked
put upon God's people, and instead of that, is here foretold the
shame which God would put upon the wicked, which alteration, with
some others, he made by divine direction when he delivered it the
second time to the chief musician. In singing it we ought to lament
the corruption of the human nature, and the wretched degeneracy of
the world we live in, yet rejoicing in hope of the great
salvation.</p>
<scripCom id="Ps.liv-p1.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.53" parsed="|Ps|53|0|0|0" passage="Ps 53" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Ps.liv-p1.9" osisRef="Bible:Ps.53.1-Ps.53.6" parsed="|Ps|53|1|53|6" passage="Ps 53:1-6" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.53.1-Ps.53.6">
<h4 id="Ps.liv-p1.10">Human Depravity.</h4>
<div class="Center" id="Ps.liv-p1.11">
<p id="Ps.liv-p2">To the chief musician upon Mahalath, Maschil. <i>A psalm</i> of
David.</p>
</div>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.liv-p3">1 The fool hath said in his heart, <i>There
is</i> no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity:
<i>there is</i> none that doeth good.   2 God looked down from
heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were <i>any</i>
that did understand, that did seek God.   3 Every one of them
is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; <i>there is</i>
none that doeth good, no, not one.   4 Have the workers of
iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people <i>as</i> they eat
bread: they have not called upon God.   5 There were they in
great fear, <i>where</i> no fear was: for God hath scattered the
bones of him that encampeth <i>against</i> thee: thou hast put
<i>them</i> to shame, because God hath despised them.   6 Oh
that the salvation of Israel <i>were come</i> out of Zion! When God
bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice,
<i>and</i> Israel shall be glad.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.liv-p4">This psalm was opened before, and therefore
we shall here only observe, in short, some things concerning sin,
in order to the increasing of our sorrow for it and hatred of it.
1. The fact of sin. Is that proved? Can the charge be made out?
Yes, God is a witness to it, an unexceptionable witness: from the
place of his holiness he looks on the children of men, and sees how
little good there is among them, <scripRef id="Ps.liv-p4.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.53.2" parsed="|Ps|53|2|0|0" passage="Ps 53:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>. All the sinfulness of their
hearts and lives in naked and open before him. 2. The fault of sin.
Is there any harm in it? Yes, it is iniquity (<scripRef id="Ps.liv-p4.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.53.1 Bible:Ps.53.4" parsed="|Ps|53|1|0|0;|Ps|53|4|0|0" passage="Ps 53:1,4"><i>v.</i> 1, 4</scripRef>); it is an unrighteous thing;
it is that which there is no good in (<scripRef id="Ps.liv-p4.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.53.1 Bible:Ps.53.3" parsed="|Ps|53|1|0|0;|Ps|53|3|0|0" passage="Ps 53:1,3"><i>v.</i> 1, 3</scripRef>); it is an evil thing; it is
the worst of evils; it is that which makes this world such an evil
world as it is; it is going back from God, <scripRef id="Ps.liv-p4.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.53.3" parsed="|Ps|53|3|0|0" passage="Ps 53:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>. 3. The fountain of sin. How comes
it that men are so bad? Surely it is because <i>there is no fear of
God before their eyes:</i> they <i>say in their hearts, "There is
no God</i> at all to call us to an account, none that we need to
stand in awe of." Men's bad practices flow from their bad
principles; if they profess to know God, yet in works, because in
thoughts, they deny him. 4. The folly of sin. He is a fool (in the
account of God, whose judgment we are sure is right) that harbours
such corrupt thoughts. Atheists, whether in opinion or practice,
are the greatest fools in the world. Those that do not seek God do
not understand; they are like brute-beasts that have no
understanding; for man is distinguished from the brutes, not so
much by the powers of reason as by a capacity for religion. <i>The
workers of iniquity,</i> whatever they pretend to, <i>have no
knowledge;</i> those may truly be said to know nothing that do not
know God, <scripRef id="Ps.liv-p4.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.53.4" parsed="|Ps|53|4|0|0" passage="Ps 53:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>. 5.
The filthiness of sin. Sinners are corrupt (<scripRef id="Ps.liv-p4.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.53.1" parsed="|Ps|53|1|0|0" passage="Ps 53:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>); their nature is vitiated and
spoiled, and the more noble the nature is the more vile it is when
it is depraved, as that of the angels. <i>Corruptio optimi est
pessima—The best things, when corrupted, become the worst.</i>
Their iniquity is abominable; it is odious to the holy God, and it
renders them so; whereas otherwise he <i>hates nothing that he has
made.</i> It makes men filthy, altogether filthy. Wilful sinners
are offensive in the nostrils of the God of heaven and of the holy
angels. What decency soever proud sinners pretend to, it is certain
that wickedness is the greatest defilement in the world. 6. The
fruit of sin. See to what a degree of barbarity it brings men at
last; when men's hearts are hardened through the deceitfulness of
sin see their cruelty to their brethren, that are bone of their
bone—because they will not <i>run with them to the same excess of
riot,</i> they <i>eat them up as they eat bread;</i> as if they had
not only become beasts, but beasts of prey. And see their contempt
of God at the same time. <i>They have not called upon</i> him, but
scorn to be beholden to him. 7. The fear and shame that attend sin
(<scripRef id="Ps.liv-p4.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.53.5" parsed="|Ps|53|5|0|0" passage="Ps 53:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>): <i>There were
those in great fear</i> who had made God their enemy; their own
guilty consciences frightened them, and filled them with horror,
though otherwise there was no apparent cause of fear. <i>The wicked
flees when none pursues.</i> See the ground of this fear; it is
because God has formerly <i>scattered the bones of those that
encamped against</i> his people, not only broken their power and
dispersed their forces, but slain them, and reduced their bodies to
dry bones, like those <i>scattered at the grave's mouth,</i>
<scripRef id="Ps.liv-p4.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.141.7" parsed="|Ps|141|7|0|0" passage="Ps 141:7">Ps. cxli. 7</scripRef>. Such will be
the fate of those that lay siege to the <i>camp of the saints and
the beloved city,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.liv-p4.9" osisRef="Bible:Rev.20.9" parsed="|Rev|20|9|0|0" passage="Re 20:9">Rev. xx.
9</scripRef>. The apprehensions of this cannot but put those into
frights that eat up God's people. This enables the virgin, the
daughter of Zion, to put them to shame, and expose them, <i>because
God has despised them,</i> to laugh at them, because he that sits
in heaven laughs at them. We need not look upon those enemies with
fear whom God looks upon with contempt. If he despises them, we
may. 8. The faith of the saints, and their hope and power touching
the cure of this great evil, <scripRef id="Ps.liv-p4.10" osisRef="Bible:Ps.53.6" parsed="|Ps|53|6|0|0" passage="Ps 53:6"><i>v.</i>
6</scripRef>. There will come a Saviour, a great salvation, a
salvation from sin. Oh that it might be hastened! for it will bring
in glorious and joyful times. There were those in the Old-Testament
times that looked and hoped, that prayed and waited, for this
redemption. (1.) God will, in due time, save his church from the
sinful malice of its enemies, which will bring joy to Jacob and
Israel, that have long been in a mournful melancholy state. Such
salvations were often wrought, and all typical of the everlasting
triumphs of the glorious church. (2.) He will save all believers
from their own iniquities, that they may not be led captive by
them, which will be everlasting matter of joy to them. From this
work the Redeemer had his name—<i>Jesus,</i> for <i>he shall save
his people from their sins,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.liv-p4.11" osisRef="Bible:Matt.1.21" parsed="|Matt|1|21|0|0" passage="Mt 1:21">Matt.
i. 21</scripRef>.</p>
</div></div2>