mh_parser/vol_split/19 - Psalms/Chapter 35.xml

<div2 id="Ps.xxxvi" n="xxxvi" next="Ps.xxxvii" prev="Ps.xxxv" progress="32.88%" title="Chapter XXXV">
<h2 id="Ps.xxxvi-p0.1">P S A L M S</h2>
<h3 id="Ps.xxxvi-p0.2">PSALM XXXV.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Ps.xxxvi-p1">David, in this psalm, appeals to the righteous
Judge of heaven and earth against his enemies that hated and
persecuted him. It is supposed that Saul and his party are the
persons he means, for with them he had the greatest struggles. I.
He complains to God of the injuries they did him; they strove with
him, fought against him (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.1" parsed="|Ps|35|1|0|0" passage="Ps 35:1">ver.
1</scripRef>), persecuted him (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.3" parsed="|Ps|35|3|0|0" passage="Ps 35:3">ver.
3</scripRef>), sought his ruin (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.4 Bible:Ps.35.7" parsed="|Ps|35|4|0|0;|Ps|35|7|0|0" passage="Ps 35:4,7">ver.
4, 7</scripRef>), accused him falsely (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.11" parsed="|Ps|35|11|0|0" passage="Ps 35:11">ver. 11</scripRef>), abused him basely (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.15-Ps.35.16" parsed="|Ps|35|15|35|16" passage="Ps 35:15,16">ver. 15, 16</scripRef>), and all his friends
(<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.20" parsed="|Ps|35|20|0|0" passage="Ps 35:20">ver. 20</scripRef>), and triumphed
over him,, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p1.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.21 Bible:Ps.35.25 Bible:Ps.35.26" parsed="|Ps|35|21|0|0;|Ps|35|25|0|0;|Ps|35|26|0|0" passage="Ps 35:21,25,26">ver. 21, 25,
26</scripRef>. II. He pleads his own innocency, that he never gave
them any provocation (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p1.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.7 Bible:Ps.35.19" parsed="|Ps|35|7|0|0;|Ps|35|19|0|0" passage="Ps 35:7,19">ver. 7,
19</scripRef>), but, on the contrary, had studied to oblige them,
<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p1.9" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.12-Ps.35.14" parsed="|Ps|35|12|35|14" passage="Ps 35:12-14">ver. 12-14</scripRef>. III. He
prays to God to protect and deliver him, and appear for him
(<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p1.10" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.1-Ps.35.2" parsed="|Ps|35|1|35|2" passage="Ps 35:1,2">ver. 1, 2</scripRef>), to comfort
him (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p1.11" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.3" parsed="|Ps|35|3|0|0" passage="Ps 35:3">ver. 3</scripRef>), to be nigh to
him and rescue him (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p1.12" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.17 Bible:Ps.35.22" parsed="|Ps|35|17|0|0;|Ps|35|22|0|0" passage="Ps 35:17,22">ver. 17,
22</scripRef>), to plead his cause (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p1.13" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.23-Ps.35.24" parsed="|Ps|35|23|35|24" passage="Ps 35:23,24">ver. 23, 24</scripRef>), to defeat all the designs of
his enemies against him (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p1.14" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.3-Ps.35.4" parsed="|Ps|35|3|35|4" passage="Ps 35:3,4">ver. 3,
4</scripRef>), to disappoint their expectations of his fall
(<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p1.15" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.19 Bible:Ps.35.25 Bible:Ps.35.26" parsed="|Ps|35|19|0|0;|Ps|35|25|0|0;|Ps|35|26|0|0" passage="Ps 35:19,25,26">ver. 19, 25, 26</scripRef>),
and, lastly, to countenance all his friends, and encourage them
(<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p1.16" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.27" parsed="|Ps|35|27|0|0" passage="Ps 35:27">ver. 27</scripRef>. IV. He prophesies
the destruction of his persecutors, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p1.17" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.4-Ps.35.6 Bible:Ps.35.8" parsed="|Ps|35|4|35|6;|Ps|35|8|0|0" passage="Ps 35:4-6,8">ver. 4-6, 8</scripRef>. V. He promises himself that
he shall yet see better days (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p1.18" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.9-Ps.35.10" parsed="|Ps|35|9|35|10" passage="Ps 35:9,10">ver.
9, 10</scripRef>), and promises God that he will then attend him
with his praises, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p1.19" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.18 Bible:Ps.35.28" parsed="|Ps|35|18|0|0;|Ps|35|28|0|0" passage="Ps 35:18,28">ver. 18,
28</scripRef>. In singing this psalm, and praying over it, we must
take heed of applying it to any little peevish quarrels and
enmities of our own, and of expressing by it any uncharitable
revengeful resentments of injuries done to us; for Christ has
taught us to forgive our enemies and not to pray against them, but
to pray for them, as he did; but, 1. We may comfort ourselves with
the testimony of our consciences concerning our innocency, with
reference to those that are any way injurious to us, and with hopes
that God will, in his own way and time, right us, and, in the mean
time, support us. 2. We ought to apply it to the public enemies of
Christ and his kingdom, typified by David and his kingdom, to
resent the indignities done to Christ's honour, to pray to God to
plead the just and injured cause of Christianity and serious
godliness, and to believe that God will, in due time, glorify his
own name in the ruin of all the irreconcilable enemies of his
church, that will not repent to give him glory.</p>
<scripCom id="Ps.xxxvi-p1.20" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35" parsed="|Ps|35|0|0|0" passage="Ps 35" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Ps.xxxvi-p1.21" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.1-Ps.35.10" parsed="|Ps|35|1|35|10" passage="Ps 35:1-10" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.35.1-Ps.35.10">
<h4 id="Ps.xxxvi-p1.22">Prayer for Divine
Protection.</h4>
<div class="Center" id="Ps.xxxvi-p1.23">
<p id="Ps.xxxvi-p2">A psalm of David.</p>
</div>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.xxxvi-p3">1 Plead <i>my cause,</i> <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.xxxvi-p3.1">O Lord</span>, with them that strive with me: fight
against them that fight against me.   2 Take hold of shield
and buckler, and stand up for mine help.   3 Draw out also the
spear, and stop <i>the way</i> against them that persecute me: say
unto my soul, I <i>am</i> thy salvation.   4 Let them be
confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: let them be
turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.   5
Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the
<span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.xxxvi-p3.2">Lord</span> chase <i>them.</i>   6 Let
their way be dark and slippery: and let the angel of the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.xxxvi-p3.3">Lord</span> persecute them.   7 For without
cause have they hid for me their net <i>in</i> a pit, <i>which</i>
without cause they have digged for my soul.   8 Let
destruction come upon him at unawares; and let his net that he hath
hid catch himself: into that very destruction let him fall.  
9 And my soul shall be joyful in the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.xxxvi-p3.4">Lord</span>: it shall rejoice in his salvation.  
10 All my bones shall say, <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.xxxvi-p3.5">Lord</span>, who
<i>is</i> like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that
is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that
spoileth him?</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvi-p4">In these verses we have,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvi-p5">I. David's representation of his case to
God, setting forth the restless rage and malice of his persecutors.
He was God's servant, expressly appointed by him to be what he was,
followed his guidance, and aimed at his glory in the way of duty,
had lived (as St. Paul speaks) <i>in all good conscience before God
unto this day;</i> and yet there were those that strove with him,
that did their utmost to oppose his advancement, and made all the
interest they could against him; they fought against him (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.1" parsed="|Ps|35|1|0|0" passage="Ps 35:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>), not only undermined him
closely and secretly, but openly avowed their opposition to him and
set themselves to do him all the mischief they could. They
persecuted him with an unwearied enmity, <i>sought after his
soul</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p5.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.4" parsed="|Ps|35|4|0|0" passage="Ps 35:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>), that
is, his life, no less would satisfy their bloody minds; they aimed
to disquiet his spirit and put that into disorder. Nor was it a
sudden passion against him that they harboured, but inveterate
malice: They <i>devised his hurt,</i> laid their heads together,
and set their wits on work, not only to do him a mischief, but to
find out ways and means to ruin him. They treated him, who was the
greatest blessing of his country, as if he had been the curse and
plague of it; they hunted him as a dangerous beast of prey; they
digged a pit for him and laid a net in it, that they might have him
at their mercy, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p5.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.7" parsed="|Ps|35|7|0|0" passage="Ps 35:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>.
They took a great deal of pains in persecuting him, for they digged
a pit (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p5.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.7.15" parsed="|Ps|7|15|0|0" passage="Ps 7:15">Ps. vii. 15</scripRef>); and
very close and crafty they were in carrying on their designs; the
old serpent taught them subtlety: they hid their net from David and
his friends; but in vain, for they could not hide it from God. And,
<i>lastly,</i> he found himself an unequal match for them. His
enemy, especially Saul, was <i>too strong for him</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p5.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.10" parsed="|Ps|35|10|0|0" passage="Ps 35:10"><i>v.</i> 10</scripRef>), for he had the army at
his command, and assumed to himself the sole power of making laws
and giving judgment, attainted and condemned whom he pleased,
carried not a sceptre, but a javelin, in his hand, to cast at any
man that stood in his way; such was the manner of the king, and all
about him were compelled to do as he bade them, right or wrong. The
king's word is a law, and every thing must be carried with a high
hand; he has fields, and vineyards, and preferments, at his
disposal, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p5.6" osisRef="Bible:1Sam.22.7" parsed="|1Sam|22|7|0|0" passage="1Sa 22:7">1 Sam. xxii. 7</scripRef>.
But David is poor and needy, has nothing to make friends with, and
therefore has none to take his part but men (as we say) of broken
fortunes (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p5.7" osisRef="Bible:1Sam.22.2" parsed="|1Sam|22|2|0|0" passage="1Sa 22:2">1 Sam. xxii. 2</scripRef>);
and therefore no marvel that Saul spoiled him of what little he had
got and the interest he had made. If the kings of the earth set
themselves against the Lord and his anointed, who can contend with
them? Note, It is no new thing for the most righteous men, and the
most righteous cause, to meet with many mighty and malicious
enemies: Christ himself is striven with and fought against, and war
is made upon the holy seed; and we are not to marvel at the matter:
it is a fruit of the old enmity in the seed of the serpent against
the seed of the woman.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvi-p6">II. His appeal to God concerning his
integrity and the justice of his cause. If a fellow-subject had
wronged him, he might have appealed to his prince, as St. Paul did
to Cæsar; but, when his prince wronged him, he appealed to his God,
who is prince and Judge of the kings of the earth: <i>Plead my
cause, O Lord!</i> <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.1" parsed="|Ps|35|1|0|0" passage="Ps 35:1"><i>v.</i>
1</scripRef>. Note, A righteous cause may, with the greatest
satisfaction imaginable, he laid before a righteous God, and
referred to him to give judgment upon it; for he perfectly knows
the merits of it, holds the balance exactly even, and with him
there is no respect of persons. God knew that they were, without
cause, his enemies, and that they had, without cause, digged pits
for him, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p6.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.7" parsed="|Ps|35|7|0|0" passage="Ps 35:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>. Note,
It will be a comfort to us, when men do us wrong, if our
consciences can witness for us that we have never done them any. It
was so to St. Paul. <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p6.3" osisRef="Bible:Acts.25.10" parsed="|Acts|25|10|0|0" passage="Ac 25:10">Acts xxv.
10</scripRef>, <i>To the Jews have I done no wrong.</i> We are apt
to justify our uneasiness at the injuries men do us by this, That
we never gave them any cause to use us so; whereas this should,
more than any thing, make us easy, for then we may the more
confidently expect that God will plead our cause.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvi-p7">III. His prayer to God to manifest himself
both for him and to him, in this trial. 1. For him. He prays that
God would <i>fight against</i> his enemies, so as to disable them
to hurt him, and defeat their designs against him (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p7.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.1" parsed="|Ps|35|1|0|0" passage="Ps 35:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>), that he would <i>take
hold of shield and buckler,</i> for the Lord is a man of war
(<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p7.2" osisRef="Bible:Exod.15.3" parsed="|Exod|15|3|0|0" passage="Ex 15:3">Exod. xv. 3</scripRef>), <i>and</i>
that he would <i>stand up for his help</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p7.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.2" parsed="|Ps|35|2|0|0" passage="Ps 35:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>), for he had few that would stand
up for him, and, if he had ever so many, they would stand him in no
stead without God. He prays that God would <i>stop their way</i>
(<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p7.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.3" parsed="|Ps|35|3|0|0" passage="Ps 35:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>), that they
might not overtake him when he fled from them. This prayer we may
put up against our persecutors, that God would restrain them and
stop their way. 2. To him: "<i>Say unto my soul, I am thy
salvation;</i> let me have inward comfort under all these outward
troubles, to support my soul which they strike at. Let God be my
salvation, not only my Saviour out of my present troubles, but my
everlasting bliss. Let me have that salvation not only which he is
the author of, but which consists in his favour; and let me know my
interest in it; let me have the comfortable assurance of it in my
own breast." If God, by his Spirit, witness to our spirits that he
is our salvation, we have enough, we need desire no more to make us
happy; and this is a powerful support when men persecute us. If God
be our friend, no matter who is our enemy.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvi-p8">IV. His prospect of the destruction of his
enemies, which he prays for, not in malice or revenge. We find how
patiently he bore Shimei's curses (<i>so let him curse, for the
Lord has bidden him</i>); and we cannot suppose that he who was so
meek in his conversation would give vent to any intemperate heat or
passion in his devotion; but, by the spirit of prophecy, he
foretels the just judgments of God that would come upon them for
their great wickedness, their malice, cruelty, and perfidiousness,
and especially the enmity to the counsels of God, the interests of
religion, and that reformation which they knew David, if ever he
had power in his hand, would be an instrument of. They seemed to be
hardened in their sins, and to be of the number of those who have
sinned unto death and are not to be prayed for, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.7.16 Bible:Jer.11.14 Bible:Jer.14.11 Bible:1John.5.16" parsed="|Jer|7|16|0|0;|Jer|11|14|0|0;|Jer|14|11|0|0;|1John|5|16|0|0" passage="Jer 7:16,11:14,14:11,1Jo 5:16">Jer. vii. 16; xi. 14; xiv. 11; 1
John v. 16</scripRef>. As for Saul himself, David, it is probable,
knew that God had rejected him and had forbidden Samuel to mourn
for him, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p8.2" osisRef="Bible:1Sam.16.1" parsed="|1Sam|16|1|0|0" passage="1Sa 16:1">1 Sam. xvi. 1</scripRef>. And
these predictions look further, and read the doom of the enemies of
Christ and his kingdom, as appears by comparing <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p8.3" osisRef="Bible:Rom.11.9-Rom.11.10" parsed="|Rom|11|9|11|10" passage="Ro 11:9,10">Rom. xi. 9, 10</scripRef>. David here prays, 1.
Against his many enemies (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p8.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.4-Ps.35.6" parsed="|Ps|35|4|35|6" passage="Ps 35:4-6"><i>v.</i>
4-6</scripRef>): <i>Let them be confounded, &amp;c.</i> Or, as Dr.
Hammond reads it, <i>They shall be confounded, they shall be turned
back.</i> This may be taken as a prayer for their repentance, for
all penitents are put to shame for their sins and turned back from
them. Or, if they were not brought to repentance, David prays that
they might be defeated and disappointed in their designs against
him and so put to shame. Though they should in some degree prevail,
yet he foresees that it would be to their own ruin at last: <i>They
shall be as chaff before the wind,</i> so unable will wicked men be
to stand before the judgments of God and so certainly will they be
driven away by them, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p8.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.1.4" parsed="|Ps|1|4|0|0" passage="Ps 1:4">Ps. i.
4</scripRef>. Their way shall be <i>dark and slippery, darkness and
slipperiness</i> (so the margin reads it); the way of sinners is
so, for they walk in darkness and in continual danger of falling
into sin, into hell; and it will prove so at last, for <i>their
foot shall slide in due time,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p8.6" osisRef="Bible:Deut.32.35" parsed="|Deut|32|35|0|0" passage="De 32:35">Deut. xxxii. 35</scripRef>. But this is not the worst of
it. Even chaff before the wind may perhaps be stopped, and find a
place of rest, and, though the way be dark and slippery, it is
possible that a man may keep his footing; but it is here foretold
that the <i>angel of the Lord shall chase them</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p8.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.5" parsed="|Ps|35|5|0|0" passage="Ps 35:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>) so that they shall find
no rest, <i>shall persecute them</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p8.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.6" parsed="|Ps|35|6|0|0" passage="Ps 35:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>) so that they cannot possibly
escape the pit of destruction. As God's angels encamp against those
that fight against him. They are the ministers of his justice, as
well as of his mercy. Those that make God their enemy make all the
holy angels their enemies. 2. Against his one mighty enemy
(<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p8.9" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.8" parsed="|Ps|35|8|0|0" passage="Ps 35:8"><i>v.</i> 8</scripRef>): <i>Let
destruction come upon him.</i> It is probable that he means Saul,
who laid snares for him and aimed at his destruction. David vowed
that his hand should not be upon him; he would not be judge in his
own cause. But, at the same time, he foretold that <i>the Lord
would smite him</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p8.10" osisRef="Bible:1Sam.26.10" parsed="|1Sam|26|10|0|0" passage="1Sa 26:10">1 Sam. xxvi.
10</scripRef>), and here that the net he had hidden should catch
himself, and into <i>that very destruction he should fall.</i> This
was remarkably fulfilled in the ruin of Saul; for he had laid a
plot to make David <i>fall by the hand of the Philistines</i>
(<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p8.11" osisRef="Bible:1Sam.18.25" parsed="|1Sam|18|25|0|0" passage="1Sa 18:25">1 Sam. xviii. 25</scripRef>), that
was the net which he hid for him under pretence of doing him
honour, and in that very net was he himself taken, for he fell by
the hand of the Philistines when his day came to fall.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvi-p9">V. His prospect of his own deliverance,
which, having committed his cause to God, he did not doubt of,
<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.9-Ps.35.10" parsed="|Ps|35|9|35|10" passage="Ps 35:9,10"><i>v.</i> 9, 10</scripRef>. 1. He
hoped that he should have the comfort of it: "<i>My soul shall be
joyful,</i> not in my own ease and safety, but <i>in the Lord</i>
and in his favour, in his promise and <i>in his salvation</i>
according to the promise." Joy in God and in his salvation is the
only true, solid, satisfying joy. Those whose souls are sorrowful
in the Lord, who sow in tears and sorrow after a godly sort, need
not question but that in due time their souls shall be joyful in
the Lord; for gladness is sown for them, and they shall at last
<i>enter into the joy of their Lord.</i> 2. He promised that then
God should have the glory of it (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p9.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.10" parsed="|Ps|35|10|0|0" passage="Ps 35:10"><i>v.</i> 10</scripRef>): <i>All my bones shall say,
Lord, who is like unto thee?</i> (1.) He will praise God with the
whole man, with all that is within him, and with all the strength
and vigour of his soul, intimated by his bones, which are within
the body and are the strength of it. (2.) He will praise him as one
of peerless and unparalleled perfection. We cannot express how
great and good God is, and therefore must praise him by
acknowledging him to be a non-such. <i>Lord, who is like unto
thee?</i> No such patron of oppressed innocency, no such punisher
of triumphant tyranny. The formation of our bones so wonderfully,
so curiously (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p9.3" osisRef="Bible:Eccl.11.5 Bible:Ps.139.16" parsed="|Eccl|11|5|0|0;|Ps|139|16|0|0" passage="Ec 11:5,Ps 139:16">Eccl. xi. 5;
Ps. cxxxix. 16</scripRef>), the serviceableness of our bones, and
the preservation of them, and especially the life which, at the
resurrection, shall be breathed upon the dry bones and make them
flourish as a herb, oblige every bone in our bodies, if it could
speak, to say, <i>Lord, who is like unto thee?</i> and willingly to
undergo any services or sufferings for him.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Ps.xxxvi-p9.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.11-Ps.35.16" parsed="|Ps|35|11|35|16" passage="Ps 35:11-16" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.35.11-Ps.35.16">
<h4 id="Ps.xxxvi-p9.5">Prayer for Deliverance; Sorrowful
Complaints.</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.xxxvi-p10">11 False witnesses did rise up; they laid to my
charge <i>things</i> that I knew not.   12 They rewarded me
evil for good <i>to</i> the spoiling of my soul.   13 But as
for me, when they were sick, my clothing <i>was</i> sackcloth: I
humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own
bosom.   14 I behaved myself as though <i>he had been</i> my
friend <i>or</i> brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that
mourneth <i>for his</i> mother.   15 But in mine adversity
they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together: <i>yea,</i> the
abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew
<i>it</i> not; they did tear <i>me,</i> and ceased not:   16
With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with
their teeth.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvi-p11">Two very wicked things David here lays to
the charge of his enemies, to make good his appeal to God against
them—perjury and ingratitude.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvi-p12">I. Perjury, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p12.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.11" parsed="|Ps|35|11|0|0" passage="Ps 35:11"><i>v.</i> 11</scripRef>. When Saul would have David
attainted of treason, in order to his being outlawed, perhaps he
did it with the formalities of a legal prosecution, produced
witnesses who swore some treasonable words or overt acts against
him, and he being not present to clear himself (or, if he was, it
was all the same), Saul adjudged him a traitor. This he complains
of here as the highest piece of injustice imaginable: <i>False
witnesses did rise up,</i> who would swear anything; <i>they laid
to my charge things that I knew not,</i> nor ever thought of. See
how much the honours, estates, liberties, and lives, even of the
best men, lie at the mercy of the worst, against whose false oaths
innocency itself is no fence; and what reason we have to
acknowledge with thankfulness the hold God has of the consciences
even of bad men, to which it is owing that there is not more
mischief done in that way than is. This instance of the wrong done
to David was typical, and had its accomplishment in the Son of
David, against whom false witnesses did arise, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p12.2" osisRef="Bible:Matt.26.60" parsed="|Matt|26|60|0|0" passage="Mt 26:60">Matt. xxvi. 60</scripRef>. If we be at any time charged
with what we are innocent of let us not think it strange, as though
some new thing happened to us; so persecuted they the prophets,
even the great prophet.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvi-p13">II. Ingratitude. Call a man ungrateful and
you can call him no worse. This was the character of David's
enemies (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p13.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.12" parsed="|Ps|35|12|0|0" passage="Ps 35:12"><i>v.</i> 12</scripRef>):
<i>They rewarded me evil for good.</i> A great deal of good service
he had done to his king, witness his harp, witness Goliath's sword,
witness the foreskins of the Philistines; and yet his king vowed
his death, and his country was made too hot for him. This is <i>to
the spoiling of his soul;</i> this base unkind usage robs him of
his comfort, and cuts him to the heart, more than anything else.
Nay, he had deserved well not only of the public in general, but of
those particular persons that were now most bitter against him.
Probably it was then well known whom he meant; it may be Saul
himself for one, whom he was sent for to attend upon when he was
melancholy and ill, and to whom he was serviceable to drive away
the evil spirit, not with his harp, but with his prayers; to others
of the courtiers, it is likely, he had shown this respect, while he
lived at court, who now were, of all others, most abusive to him.
Herein he was a type of Christ, to whom this wicked world was very
ungrateful. <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p13.2" osisRef="Bible:John.10.32" parsed="|John|10|32|0|0" passage="Joh 10:32">John x. 32</scripRef>.
<i>Many good works have I shown you from my Father; for which of
those do you stone me?</i> David here shows,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvi-p14">1. How tenderly, and with what a cordial
affection, he had behaved towards them in their afflictions
(<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p14.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.13-Ps.35.14" parsed="|Ps|35|13|35|14" passage="Ps 35:13,14"><i>v.</i> 13, 14</scripRef>):
<i>They were sick.</i> Note, Even the palaces and courts of princes
are not exempt from the jurisdiction of death and the visitation of
sickness. Now when these people were sick, (1.) David mourned for
them and sympathized with them in their grief. They were not
related to him; he was under no obligations to them; he would lose
nothing by their death, but perhaps be a gainer by it; and yet he
behaved himself as though they had been his nearest relations,
purely from a principle of compassion and humanity. David was a man
of war, and of a bold stout spirit, and yet was thus susceptible of
the impressions of sympathy, forgot the bravery of the hero, and
seemed wholly made up of love and pity; it was a rare composition
of hardiness and tenderness, courage and compassion, in the same
breast. Observe, He mourned as for a brother or mother, which
intimates that it is our duty, and well becomes us, to lay to heart
the sickness, and sorrow, and death of our near relations. Those
that do not are justly stigmatized as without natural affection.
(2.) He prayed for them. He discovered not only the tender
affection of a man, but the pious affection of a saint. He was
concerned for their precious souls, and, since he helped them with
his prayers to God for mercy and grace; and the prayers of one who
had so great an interest in heaven were of more value than perhaps
they knew or considered. With his prayers he joined humiliation and
self-affliction, both in his diet (he fasted, at least from
pleasant bread) and in his dress; he clothed himself with
sackcloth, thus expressing his grief, not only for their
affliction, but for their sin; for this was the guise and practice
of a penitent. We ought to mourn for the sins of those that do not
mourn for them themselves. His fasting also put an edge upon his
praying, and was an expression of the fervour of it; he was so
intent in his devotions that he had no appetite to meat, nor would
allow himself time for eating: "<i>My prayer returned into my own
bosom;</i> I had the comfort of having done my duty, and of having
approved myself a loving neighbour, though I could not thereby win
upon them nor make them my friends." We shall not lose by the good
offices we have done to any, how ungrateful soever they are; for
our rejoicing will be this, <i>the testimony of our
conscience.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvi-p15">2. How basely and insolently and with what
a brutish enmity, and worse than brutish, they had behaved towards
him (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p15.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.15-Ps.35.16" parsed="|Ps|35|15|35|16" passage="Ps 35:15,16"><i>v.</i> 15, 16</scripRef>);
<i>In my adversity they rejoiced.</i> When he fell under the frowns
of Saul, was banished the court, and persecuted as a criminal, they
were pleased, were glad at his calamities, and got together in
their drunken clubs to make themselves and one another merry with
the disgrace of this great favourite. Well, might he call them
<i>abjects,</i> for nothing could be more vile and sordid than to
triumph in the fall of a man of such unstained honour and
consummate virtue. But this was not all. (1.) They tore him, rent
his good name without mercy, said all the ill they could of him and
fastened upon him all the reproach their cursed wit and malice
could reach to. (2.) <i>They gnashed upon him with their teeth;</i>
they never spoke of him but with the greatest indignation
imaginable, as those that would have eaten him up if they could.
David was the fool in the play, and his disappointment all the
table-talk of the hypocritical mockers at feasts; it was the song
of the drunkards. The comedians, who may fitly be called
<i>hypocritical mockers</i> (for which does a hypocrite signify but
a stage-player?) and whose comedies, it is likely, were acted at
feasts and balls, chose David for their subject, bantered and
abused him, while the auditory, in token of their agreement with
the plot, hummed, and <i>gnashed upon him with their teeth.</i>
Such has often been the hard fate of the best of men. The apostles
were made a spectacle to the world. David was looked upon with
ill-will for no other reason than because he was caressed by the
people. It is a vexation of spirit which attends even a right work
that <i>for this a man is envied of his neighbour,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p15.2" osisRef="Bible:Eccl.4.4" parsed="|Eccl|4|4|0|0" passage="Ec 4:4">Eccl. iv. 4</scripRef>. And <i>who can stand
before envy?</i> <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p15.3" osisRef="Bible:Prov.27.4" parsed="|Prov|27|4|0|0" passage="Pr 27:4">Prov. xxvii.
4</scripRef>.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Ps.xxxvi-p15.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.17-Ps.35.28" parsed="|Ps|35|17|35|28" passage="Ps 35:17-28" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.35.17-Ps.35.28">
<h4 id="Ps.xxxvi-p15.5">Sorrowful Complaints; David's Appeal and
Prayer to God.</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.xxxvi-p16">17 Lord, how long wilt thou look on? rescue my
soul from their destructions, my darling from the lions.   18
I will give thee thanks in the great congregation: I will praise
thee among much people.   19 Let not them that are mine
enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: <i>neither</i> let them wink
with the eye that hate me without a cause.   20 For they speak
not peace: but they devise deceitful matters against <i>them that
are</i> quiet in the land.   21 Yea, they opened their mouth
wide against me, <i>and</i> said, Aha, aha, our eye hath seen
<i>it.</i>   22 <i>This</i> thou hast seen, <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.xxxvi-p16.1">O Lord</span>: keep not silence: O Lord, be not far
from me.   23 Stir up thyself, and awake to my judgment,
<i>even</i> unto my cause, my God and my Lord.   24 Judge me,
<span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.xxxvi-p16.2">O Lord</span> my God, according to thy
righteousness; and let them not rejoice over me.   25 Let them
not say in their hearts, Ah, so would we have it: let them not say,
We have swallowed him up.   26 Let them be ashamed and brought
to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt: let them be
clothed with shame and dishonour that magnify <i>themselves</i>
against me.   27 Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that
favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the
<span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.xxxvi-p16.3">Lord</span> be magnified, which hath
pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.   28 And my tongue
shall speak of thy righteousness <i>and</i> of thy praise all the
day long.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvi-p17">In these verses, as before,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvi-p18">I. David describes the great injustice,
malice, and insolence, of his persecutors, pleading this with God
as a reason why he should protect him from them and appear against
them. 1. They were very unrighteous; they were his enemies
wrongfully, for he never gave them any provocation: <i>They hated
him without a cause;</i> nay, for that for which they ought rather
to have loved and honoured him. This is quoted, with application to
Christ, and is said to be fulfilled in him. <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p18.1" osisRef="Bible:John.15.25" parsed="|John|15|25|0|0" passage="Joh 15:25">John xv. 25</scripRef>, <i>They hated me without
cause.</i> 2. They were very rude; they could not find in their
hearts to show him common civility: <i>They speak not peace;</i> if
they met him, they had not the good manners to give him the time of
day; like Joseph's brethren, that could not <i>speak peaceably to
him,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p18.2" osisRef="Bible:Gen.37.4" parsed="|Gen|37|4|0|0" passage="Ge 37:4">Gen. xxxvii. 4</scripRef>. 3.
They were very proud and scornful (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p18.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.21" parsed="|Ps|35|21|0|0" passage="Ps 35:21"><i>v.</i> 21</scripRef>): <i>They opened their mouth
wide against me;</i> they shouted and huzzaed when they saw his
fall; they bawled after him when he was forced to quit the court,
"Aha! aha! this is the day we longed to see." 4. They were very
barbarous and base, for they trampled upon him when he was down,
rejoiced at his hurt, and <i>magnified themselves against him,</i>
<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p18.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.26" parsed="|Ps|35|26|0|0" passage="Ps 35:26"><i>v.</i> 26</scripRef>. <i>Turba Remi
sequitur fortunam, ut semper, et odit damnatos—The Roman crowd,
varying their opinions with every turn of fortune, are sure to
execrate the fallen.</i> Thus, when the Son of David was run upon
by the rulers, the people cried, <i>Crucify him, crucify him.</i>
5. They set themselves against all the sober good people that
adhered to David (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p18.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.20" parsed="|Ps|35|20|0|0" passage="Ps 35:20"><i>v.</i>
20</scripRef>): <i>They devised deceitful matters,</i> to trepan
and ruin <i>those that were quiet in the land.</i> Note, (1.) It is
the character of the godly in the land that they are the quiet in
the land, that they live in all dutiful subjection to government
and governors, in the Lord, and endeavour, as much as in them lies,
to live peaceably with all men, however they may have been
misrepresented as enemies to Cæsar and hurtful to kings and
provinces. <i>I am for peace,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p18.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.120.7" parsed="|Ps|120|7|0|0" passage="Ps 120:7">Ps.
cxx. 7</scripRef>. (2.) Though the people of God are, and study to
be, a quiet people, yet it has been the common practice of their
enemies to devise deceitful matters against them. All the hellish
arts of malice and falsehood are made use of to render them odious
or despicable; their words and actions are misconstrued, even that
which they abhor is fathered upon them, laws are made to ensnare
them (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p18.7" osisRef="Bible:Dan.6.4" parsed="|Dan|6|4|0|0" passage="Da 6:4">Dan. vi. 4</scripRef>, &amp;c.),
and all to ruin them and root them out. Those that hated David
thought scorn, like Haman, to lay hands on him alone, but contrived
to involve all the religious people of the land in the same ruin
with him.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvi-p19">II. He appeals to God against them, the
<i>God to whom vengeance belongs,</i> appeals to his knowledge
(<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p19.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.22" parsed="|Ps|35|22|0|0" passage="Ps 35:22"><i>v.</i> 22</scripRef>): <i>This
thou hast seen.</i> They had falsely accused him, but God, who
knows all things, knew that he did not falsely accuse them, nor
make them worse than really they were. They had carried on their
plots against him with a great degree of secresy (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p19.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.15" parsed="|Ps|35|15|0|0" passage="Ps 35:15"><i>v.</i> 15</scripRef>): "I knew it not, till
long after, when they themselves gloried in it; but thy eye was
upon them in their close cabals and thou art a witness of all they
have said and done against me and thy people." He appeals to God's
justice: <i>Awake to my judgment, even to my cause,</i> and let it
have a hearing at thy bar, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p19.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.23" parsed="|Ps|35|23|0|0" passage="Ps 35:23"><i>v.</i>
23</scripRef>. "<i>Judge me, O Lord my God!</i> pass sentence upon
this appeal, <i>according to the righteousness</i> of thy nature
and government," <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p19.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.24" parsed="|Ps|35|24|0|0" passage="Ps 35:24"><i>v.</i>
24</scripRef>. See this explained by Solomon, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p19.5" osisRef="Bible:1Kgs.7.31-1Kgs.7.32" parsed="|1Kgs|7|31|7|32" passage="1Ki 7:31,32">1 Kings vii. 31, 32</scripRef>. When thou art
appealed to, <i>hear in heaven, and judge, by condemning the wicked
and justifying the righteous.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvi-p20">III. He prays earnestly to God to appear
graciously for him and his friends, against his and their enemies,
that by his providence the struggle might issue to the honour and
comfort of David and to the conviction and confusion of his
persecutors. 1. He prays that God would act for him, and not stand
by as a spectator (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p20.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.17" parsed="|Ps|35|17|0|0" passage="Ps 35:17"><i>v.</i>
17</scripRef>): "<i>Lord, how long wilt thou look on?</i> How long
wilt thou connive at the wickedness of the wicked? <i>Rescue my
soul from the destructions</i> they are plotting against it; rescue
<i>my darling,</i> my only one, <i>from the lions.</i> My soul is
my only one, and therefore the greater is the shame if I neglect it
and the greater the loss if I lose it: it is my only one, and
therefore ought to be my darling, ought to be carefully protected
and provided for. It is my soul that is in danger; Lord, rescue it.
It does, in a peculiar manner, belong to the Father of spirits,
therefore claim thy own; it is thine, save it. <i>Lord, keep not
silence,</i> as if thou didst consent to what is done against me!
<i>Lord, be not far from me</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p20.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.22" parsed="|Ps|35|22|0|0" passage="Ps 35:22"><i>v.</i> 22</scripRef>), as if I were a stranger that
thou wert not concerned for; let not me beheld afar off, as the
proud are." 2. He prays that his enemies might not have cause to
rejoice (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p20.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.19" parsed="|Ps|35|19|0|0" passage="Ps 35:19"><i>v.</i> 19</scripRef>):
<i>Let them not rejoice over me</i> (and again, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p20.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.24" parsed="|Ps|35|24|0|0" passage="Ps 35:24"><i>v.</i> 24</scripRef>); not so much because it would
be a mortification to him to be trampled upon the abjects, as
because it would turn to the dishonour of God and the reproach of
his confidence in God. It would harden the hearts of his enemies in
their wickedness and confirm them in their enmity to him, and would
be a great discouragement to all the pious Jews that were friends
to his righteous cause. He prays that he might never be in such
imminent danger as that they should <i>say in their hearts, Ah! so
would we have it</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p20.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.25" parsed="|Ps|35|25|0|0" passage="Ps 35:25"><i>v.</i>
25</scripRef>), much more that he might not be reduced to such
extremity that they should say, <i>We have swallowed him up;</i>
for then they will reflect upon God himself. But, on the contrary,
that they might be <i>ashamed and brought to confusion together</i>
(<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p20.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.26" parsed="|Ps|35|26|0|0" passage="Ps 35:26"><i>v.</i> 26</scripRef>, as before,
<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p20.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.4" parsed="|Ps|35|4|0|0" passage="Ps 35:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>); he desires
that his innocency might be so cleared that they might be ashamed
of the calumnies with which they had loaded him, that his interest
might be so confirmed that they might be ashamed of their designs
against him and their expectations of his ruin, that they might
either be brought to that shame which would be a step towards their
reformation or that that might be their portion which would be
their everlasting misery. 3. He prays that his friends might have
cause to rejoice and give glory to God, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p20.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.27" parsed="|Ps|35|27|0|0" passage="Ps 35:27"><i>v.</i> 27</scripRef>. Notwithstanding the arts that
were used to blacken David, and make him odious, and to frighten
people from owning him, there were some that favoured his righteous
cause, that knew he was wronged and bore a good affection to him;
and he prays for them, (1.) That they might rejoice with him in his
joys. It is a great pleasure to all that are good to see an honest
man, and an honest cause, prevail and prosper; and those that
heartily espouse the interests of God's people, and are willing to
take their lot with them even when they are run down and trampled
upon, shall in due time shout for joy and be glad, for the
righteous cause will at length be a victorious cause. (2.) That
they might join with him in his praises: <i>Let them say
continually, The Lord be magnified,</i> by us and others, <i>who
hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.</i> Note, [1.] The
great God has pleasure in this prosperity of good people, not only
of his family, the church in general, but of every particular
servant in his family. He has pleasure in the prosperity both of
their temporal and of their spiritual affairs, and delights not in
their griefs; for he does not afflict willingly; and we ought
therefore to have pleasure in their prosperity, and not to envy it.
[2.] When God in his providence shows his good-will to the
prosperity of his servants, and the pleasure he takes in it, we
ought to acknowledge it with thankfulness, to his praise, and to
say, <i>The Lord be magnified.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvi-p21">IV. The mercy he hoped to win by prayer he
promises to wear with praise: "<i>I will give thee thanks,</i> as
the author of my deliverance (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvi-p21.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.18" parsed="|Ps|35|18|0|0" passage="Ps 35:18"><i>v.</i> 18</scripRef>), <i>and my tongue shall speak
of thy righteousness,</i> the justice of thy judgments and the
equity of all thy dispensations;" and this, 1. Publicly, as one
that took a pleasure in owning his obligations to his God, so far
was he from being ashamed of them. He will do it in the great
congregation, and among much people, that God might be honoured and
many edified. 2. Constantly. He will speak God's praise <i>every
day</i> (so it may be read) and <i>all the day long;</i> for it is
a subject that will never be exhausted, no, not by the endless
praises of saints and angels.</p>
</div></div2>