mh_parser/vol_split/19 - Psalms/Chapter 36.xml

<div2 id="Ps.xxxvii" n="xxxvii" next="Ps.xxxviii" prev="Ps.xxxvi" progress="33.38%" title="Chapter XXXVI">
<h2 id="Ps.xxxvii-p0.1">P S A L M S</h2>
<h3 id="Ps.xxxvii-p0.2">PSALM XXXVI.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Ps.xxxvii-p1">It is uncertain when, and upon what occasion,
David penned this psalm, probably when he was struck at either by
Saul or by Absalom; for in it he complains of the malice of his
enemies against him, but triumphs in the goodness of God to him. We
are here led to consider, and it will do us good to consider
seriously, I. The sinfulness of sin, and how mischievous it is,
<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.36.1-Ps.36.4" parsed="|Ps|36|1|36|4" passage="Ps 36:1-4">ver. 1-4</scripRef>. II. The goodness
of God, and how gracious he is, 1. To all his creatures in general,
<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.36.5-Ps.36.6" parsed="|Ps|36|5|36|6" passage="Ps 36:5,6">ver. 5, 6</scripRef>. 2. To his own
people in a special manner, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.36.7-Ps.36.9" parsed="|Ps|36|7|36|9" passage="Ps 36:7-9">ver.
7-9</scripRef>. By this the psalmist is encouraged to pray for all
the saints (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.36.10" parsed="|Ps|36|10|0|0" passage="Ps 36:10">ver. 10</scripRef>), for
himself in particular and his own preservation (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.36.11" parsed="|Ps|36|11|0|0" passage="Ps 36:11">ver. 11</scripRef>), and to triumph in the certain fall
of his enemies, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.36.12" parsed="|Ps|36|12|0|0" passage="Ps 36:12">ver. 12</scripRef>.
If, in singing this psalm, our hearts be duly affected with the
hatred of sin and satisfaction in God's lovingkindness, we sing it
with grace and understanding.</p>
<scripCom id="Ps.xxxvii-p1.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.36" parsed="|Ps|36|0|0|0" passage="Ps 36" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Ps.xxxvii-p1.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.36.1-Ps.36.4" parsed="|Ps|36|1|36|4" passage="Ps 36:1-4" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.36.1-Ps.36.4">
<h4 id="Ps.xxxvii-p1.9">The Character of the Wicked.</h4>
<div class="Center" id="Ps.xxxvii-p1.10">
<p id="Ps.xxxvii-p2">To the chief Musician. A psalm of David the servant of the
Lord.</p>
</div>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.xxxvii-p3">1 The transgression of the wicked saith within
my heart, <i>that there is</i> no fear of God before his eyes.
  2 For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his
iniquity be found to be hateful.   3 The words of his mouth
<i>are</i> iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise,
<i>and</i> to do good.   4 He deviseth mischief upon his bed;
he setteth himself in a way <i>that is</i> not good; he abhorreth
not evil.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvii-p4">David, in the title of this psalm, is
styled <i>the servant of the Lord;</i> why in this, and not in any
other, except in <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p4.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.18.1" parsed="|Ps|18|1|0|0" passage="Ps 18:1">Ps. xviii.</scripRef>
(<i>title</i>), no reason can be given; but so he was, not only as
every good man is God's servant, but as a king, as a prophet, as
one employed in serving the interests of God's kingdom among men
more immediately and more eminently than any other in his day. He
glories in it, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p4.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.116.16" parsed="|Ps|116|16|0|0" passage="Ps 116:16">Ps. cxvi.
16</scripRef>. It is no disparagement, but an honour, to the
greatest of men, to be the servants of the great God; it is the
highest preferment a man is capable of in this world.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvii-p5">David, in these verses, describes the
wickedness of the wicked; whether he means his persecutors in
particular, or all notorious gross sinners in general, is not
certain. But we have here sin in its causes and sin in its colours,
in its root and in its branches.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvii-p6">I. Here is the root of bitterness, from
which all the wickedness of the wicked comes. It takes rise, 1.
From their contempt of God and the want of a due regard to him
(<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.36.1" parsed="|Ps|36|1|0|0" passage="Ps 36:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>): "<i>The
transgression of the wicked</i> (as it is described afterwards,
<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p6.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.36.3-Ps.36.4" parsed="|Ps|36|3|36|4" passage="Ps 36:3,4"><i>v.</i> 3, 4</scripRef>) <i>saith
within my heart</i> (makes me to conclude within myself) <i>that
there is no fear of God before his eyes;</i> for, if there were, he
would not talk and act so extravagantly as he does; he would not,
he durst not, break the laws of God, and violate his covenants with
him, if he had any awe of his majesty or dread of his wrath." Fitly
therefore is it brought into the form of indictments by our law
that the criminal, <i>not having the fear of God before his
eyes,</i> did so and so. The wicked did not openly renounce the
fear of God, but their transgression whispered it secretly into the
minds of all those that knew any thing of the nature of piety and
impiety. David concluded concerning those who lived at large that
they lived without God in the world. 2. From their conceit of
themselves and a cheat they wilfully put upon their own souls
(<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p6.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.36.2" parsed="|Ps|36|2|0|0" passage="Ps 36:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>): <i>He
flattereth himself in his own eyes;</i> that is, while he goes on
in sin, he thinks he does wisely and well for himself, and either
does not see or will not own the evil and danger of his wicked
practices; he calls evil good and good evil; his licentiousness he
pretends to be but his just liberty, his fraud passes for his
prudence and policy, and his persecuting the people of God, he
suggests to himself, is a piece of necessary justice. If his own
conscience threaten him for what he does, he says, <i>God will not
require it; I shall have peace though I go on.</i> Note, Sinners
are self-destroyers by being self-flatterers. Satan could not
deceive them if they did not deceive themselves. But will the cheat
last always? No; the day is coming when the sinner will be
undeceived, when <i>his iniquity shall be found to be hateful.</i>
Iniquity is a hateful thing; it is that <i>abominable thing which
the Lord hates,</i> and which his pure and jealous eye cannot
endure to look upon. It is hurtful to the sinner himself, and
therefore ought to be hateful to him; but it is not so; he rolls it
under his tongue as a sweet morsel, because of the secular profit
and sensual pleasure which may attend it; yet <i>the meat in his
bowels will be turned, it will be the gall of asps,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p6.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.20.13-Job.20.14" parsed="|Job|20|13|20|14" passage="Job 20:13,14">Job xx. 13, 14</scripRef>. When their
consciences are convinced, and sin appears in its true colours and
makes them a terror to themselves—when the cup of trembling is put
into their hands and they are made to drink the dregs of it—then
their iniquity will be found hateful, and their self-flattery their
unspeakable folly, and an aggravation of their condemnation.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvii-p7">II. Here are the cursed branches which
spring from this root of bitterness. The sinner defies God, and
even deifies himself, and then what can be expected but that he
should go all to naught? These two were the first inlets of sin.
Men do not fear God, and therefore they flatter themselves, and
then, 1. They make no conscience of what they say, true of false,
right or wrong (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p7.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.36.3" parsed="|Ps|36|3|0|0" passage="Ps 36:3"><i>v.</i>
3</scripRef>): <i>The words of his mouth are iniquity and
deceit,</i> contrived to do wrong, and yet to cover it with
specious and plausible pretences. It is no marvel if those that
deceive themselves contrive how to deceive all mankind; for to whom
will those be true who are false to their own souls? 2. What little
good there has been in them is gone; the sparks of virtue are
extinguished, their convictions baffled, their good beginnings come
to nothing: They have <i>left off to be wise and to do good.</i>
They seemed to be under the direction of wisdom and the government
of religion, but they have broken these bonds asunder; they have
shaken off their religion, and therewith their wisdom. Note, Those
that leave off to do good leave off to be wise. 3. Having left off
to do good, they contrive to do hurt and to be vexatious to those
about them that are good and do good (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p7.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.36.4" parsed="|Ps|36|4|0|0" passage="Ps 36:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>): <i>He devises mischief upon his
bed.</i> Note, (1.) Omissions make way for commissions. When men
leave off doing good, leave off praying, leave off their attendance
on God's ordinances and their duty to him, the devil easily makes
them his agents, his instruments to draw those that will be drawn
into sin, and, with respect to those that will not, to draw them
into trouble. Those that leave off to do good begin to do evil; the
devil, being an apostate from his innocency, soon became a tempter
to Eve and a persecutor of righteous Abel. (2.) It is bad to do
mischief, but it is worse to devise it, to do it deliberately and
with resolution, to set the wits on work to contrive to do it most
effectually, to do it with plot and management, with the subtlety,
as well as the malice, of the old serpent, to devise it upon the
bed, where we should be meditating upon God and his word, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p7.3" osisRef="Bible:Mic.2.1" parsed="|Mic|2|1|0|0" passage="Mic 2:1">Mic. ii. 1</scripRef>. This argues the sinner's
heart fully set in him to do evil. 4. Having entered into the way
of sin, that way that is not good, that has good neither in it nor
at the end of it, they persist and resolve to persevere in that
way. <i>He sets himself</i> to execute the mischief he has devised,
and nothing shall be withholden from him which he has purposed to
do, though it be ever to contrary both to his duty and to his true
interest. If sinners did not steel their hearts and brazen their
faces with obstinacy and impudence, they could not go on in their
evil ways, in such a direct opposition to all that is just and
good. 5. Doing evil themselves, they have no dislike at all of it
in others: <i>He abhors not evil,</i> but on the contrary, takes
pleasure in it, and is glad to see others as bad as himself. Or
this may denote his impenitency in sin. Those that have done evil,
if God give them repentance, abhor the evil they have done and
themselves because of it; it is bitter in the reflection, however
sweet it was in the commission. But these hardened sinners have
such seared stupefied consciences that they never reflect upon
their sins afterwards with any regret or remorse, but stand to
what they have done, as if they could justify it before God
himself.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvii-p8">Some think that David, in all this,
particularly means Saul, who had cast off the fear of God and left
off all goodness, who pretended kindness to him when he gave him
his daughter to wife, but at the same time was devising mischief
against him. But we are under no necessity of limiting ourselves so
in the exposition of it; there are too many among us to whom the
description agrees, which is to be greatly lamented.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Ps.xxxvii-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.36.5-Ps.36.12" parsed="|Ps|36|5|36|12" passage="Ps 36:5-12" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.36.5-Ps.36.12">
<h4 id="Ps.xxxvii-p8.2">The Amazing Goodness of God; Favour of God
towards His People;</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.xxxvii-p9">5 Thy mercy, <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.xxxvii-p9.1">O
Lord</span>, <i>is</i> in the heavens; <i>and</i> thy faithfulness
<i>reacheth</i> unto the clouds.   6 Thy righteousness
<i>is</i> like the great mountains; thy judgments <i>are</i> a
great deep: <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.xxxvii-p9.2">O Lord</span>, thou preservest
man and beast.   7 How excellent <i>is</i> thy lovingkindness,
O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the
shadow of thy wings.   8 They shall be abundantly satisfied
with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of
the river of thy pleasures.   9 For with thee <i>is</i> the
fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.   10 O
continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy
righteousness to the upright in heart.   11 Let not the foot
of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove
me.   12 There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are
cast down, and shall not be able to rise.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvii-p10">David, having looked round with grief upon
the wickedness of the wicked, here looks up with comfort upon the
goodness of God, a subject as delightful as the former was
distasteful and very proper to be set in the balance against it.
Observe,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvii-p11">I. His meditations upon the grace of God.
He sees the world polluted, himself endangered, and God
dishonoured, by the transgressions of the wicked; but, of a sudden,
he turns his eye, and heart, and speech, to God "However it be, yet
thou art good." He here acknowledges,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvii-p12">1. The transcendent perfections of the
divine nature. Among men we have often reason to complain, There is
<i>no truth nor mercy,</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p12.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.4.1" parsed="|Hos|4|1|0|0" passage="Ho 4:1">Hos. iv.
1</scripRef>), <i>no judgment nor justice,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p12.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.5.7" parsed="|Isa|5|7|0|0" passage="Isa 5:7">Isa. v. 7</scripRef>. But all these may be found in God
without the least alloy. Whatever is missing, or amiss, in the
world, we are sure there is nothing missing, nothing amiss, in him
that governs it. (1.) He is a God of inexhaustible goodness: <i>Thy
mercy, O Lord! is in the heavens.</i> If men shut up the bowels of
their compassion, yet with God, at the throne of his grace, we
shall find mercy. When men are devising mischief against us God's
thoughts concerning us, if we cleave closely to him, are thoughts
of good. On earth we meet with little content and a great deal of
disquiet and disappointment; but in the heavens, where the mercy of
God reigns in perfection and to eternity, there is all
satisfaction; there therefore, if we would be easy, let us have our
conversation, and there let us long to be. How bad soever the world
is, let us never think the worse of God nor of his government; but,
from the abundance of wickedness that is among men, let us take
occasion, instead of reflecting upon God's purity, as if he
countenanced sin, to admire his patience, that he bears so much
with those that so impudently provoke him, nay, and causes his sun
to shine and his rain to fall upon them. If God's mercy were not in
the heavens (that is, infinitely above the mercies of any
creature), he would, long ere this, have drowned the world again.
See <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p12.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.55.8-Isa.55.9 Bible:Hos.11.9" parsed="|Isa|55|8|55|9;|Hos|11|9|0|0" passage="Isa 55:8,9,Ho 11:9">Isa. lv. 8, 9; Hos. xi.
9</scripRef>. (2.) He is a God of inviolable truth: <i>Thy
faithfulness reaches unto the clouds.</i> Though God suffers wicked
people to do a great deal of mischief, yet he is and will be
faithful to his threatenings against sin, and there will come a day
when he will reckon with them; he is faithful also to his covenant
with his people, which cannot be broken, nor one jot or tittle of
the promises of it defeated by all the malice of earth and hell.
This is matter of great comfort to all good people, that, though
men are false, God is faithful; men speak vanity, but the words of
the Lord are pure words. God's faithfulness reaches so high that it
does not change with the weather, as men's does, for it reaches to
the <i>skies</i> (so it should be read, as some think), above the
clouds, and all the changes of the lower region. (3.) He is a God
of incontestable justice and equity: <i>Thy righteousness is like
the great mountains,</i> so immovable and inflexible itself and so
conspicuous and evident to all the world; for no truth is more
certain nor more plain than this, That the Lord is righteous in all
his ways, and that he never did, nor ever will do, any wrong to any
of his creatures. Even <i>when clouds and darkness are round about
him,</i> yet <i>judgment and justice are the habitation of his
throne,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p12.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.97.2" parsed="|Ps|97|2|0|0" passage="Ps 97:2">Ps. xcvii. 2</scripRef>.
(4.) He is a God of unsearchable wisdom and design: "<i>Thy
judgments are a great deep,</i> not to be fathomed with the line
and plummet of any finite understanding." As his power is
sovereign, which he owes not any account of to us, so his method is
singular and mysterious, which cannot be accounted for by us:
<i>His way is in the sea and his path in the great waters.</i> We
know that he does all wisely and well; but what he does we know not
now; it will be time enough to know hereafter.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvii-p13">2. The extensive care and beneficence of
the divine Providence: "<i>Thou preservest man and beast,</i> not
only protectest them from mischief, but suppliest them with that
which is needful for the support of life." The beasts, though not
capable of knowing and praising God, are yet graciously provided
for; their eyes wait on him, and he gives them their meat in due
season. Let us not wonder that God gives food to bad men, for he
feeds the brute-creatures; and let us not fear but that he will
provide well for good men; he that feeds the young lions will not
starve his own children.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvii-p14">3. The peculiar favour of God to the
saints. Observe,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvii-p15">(1.) Their character, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p15.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.36.7" parsed="|Ps|36|7|0|0" passage="Ps 36:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>. They are such as are allured by
the <i>excellency of God's loving-kindness to put their trust under
the shadow of his wings.</i> [1.] God's loving-kindness is precious
to them. They relish it; they taste a transcendent sweetness in it;
they admire God's beauty and benignity above any thing in this
world, nothing so amiable, so desirable. Those know not God that do
not admire his loving-kindness; and those know not themselves that
do not earnestly covet it. [2.] They therefore repose an entire
confidence in him. They have recourse to him, put themselves under
his protection, and then think themselves safe and find themselves
easy, as the chickens under the wings of the hen, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p15.2" osisRef="Bible:Matt.23.37" parsed="|Matt|23|37|0|0" passage="Mt 23:37">Matt. xxiii. 37</scripRef>. It was the character
of proselytes that they came to <i>trust under the wings of the God
of Israel</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p15.3" osisRef="Bible:Ruth.2.12" parsed="|Ruth|2|12|0|0" passage="Ru 2:12">Ruth ii. 12</scripRef>);
and what more proper to gather proselytes than the excellency of
his loving-kindness? What more powerful to engage our complacency
to him and on him? Those that are thus drawn by love will cleave to
him.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvii-p16">(2.) Their privilege. Happy, thrice happy,
the people whose God is the Lord, for in him they have, or may
have, or shall have, a complete happiness. [1.] Their desires shall
be answered, (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p16.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.36.8" parsed="|Ps|36|8|0|0" passage="Ps 36:8"><i>v.</i> 8</scripRef>):
<i>They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy
house,</i> their wants supplied; their cravings gratified, and
their capacities filled. In God all-sufficient they shall have
enough, all that which an enlightened enlarged soul can desire or
receive. The gains of the world and the delights of sense will
surfeit, but never satisfy, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p16.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.55.2" parsed="|Isa|55|2|0|0" passage="Isa 55:2">Isa. lv.
2</scripRef>. But the communications of divine favour and grace
will satisfy, but never surfeit. A gracious soul, though still
desiring more of God, never desires more than God. The gifts of
Providence so far satisfy them that they are content with such
things as they have. <i>I have all, and abound,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p16.3" osisRef="Bible:Phil.4.18" parsed="|Phil|4|18|0|0" passage="Php 4:18">Phil. iv. 18</scripRef>. The benefit of holy
ordinances is the fatness of God's house, sweet to a sanctified
soul and strengthening to the spiritual and divine life. With this
they are abundantly satisfied; they desire nothing more in this
world than to live a life of communion with God and to have the
comfort of the promises. But the full, the abundant satisfaction is
reserved for the future state, the house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens. Every vessel will be full there. [2.] Their
joys shall be constant: <i>Thou shalt make them drink of the river
of thy pleasures. First,</i> There are pleasures that are truly
divine. "They are <i>thy pleasures,</i> not only which come from
thee as the giver of them, but which terminate in thee as the
matter and centre of them." Being purely spiritual, they are of the
same nature with those of the glorious inhabitants of the upper
world, and bear some analogy even to the delights of the Eternal
Mind. <i>Secondly,</i> There is a river of these pleasures, always
full, always fresh, always flowing. There is enough for all, enough
for each; see <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p16.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.46.4" parsed="|Ps|46|4|0|0" passage="Ps 46:4">Ps. xlvi. 4</scripRef>.
The pleasures of sense are putrid puddle-water; those of faith are
pure and pleasant, <i>clear as crystal,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p16.5" osisRef="Bible:Rev.22.1" parsed="|Rev|22|1|0|0" passage="Re 22:1">Rev. xxii. 1</scripRef>. <i>Thirdly,</i> God has not only
provided this river of pleasures for his people, but he makes them
to drink of it, works in them a gracious appetite to these
pleasures, and by his Spirit fills their souls with joy and peace
in believing. In heaven they shall be for ever drinking of those
<i>pleasures that are at God's right hand,</i> satiated with a
<i>fulness of joy,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p16.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.16.11" parsed="|Ps|16|11|0|0" passage="Ps 16:11">Ps. xvi.
11</scripRef>. [3.] Life and light shall be their everlasting bliss
and portion, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p16.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.36.9" parsed="|Ps|36|9|0|0" passage="Ps 36:9"><i>v.</i> 9</scripRef>.
Having God himself for their felicity, <i>First,</i> In him they
have a fountain of life, from which those rivers of pleasure flow,
<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p16.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.36.8" parsed="|Ps|36|8|0|0" passage="Ps 36:8"><i>v.</i> 8</scripRef>. The God of
nature is the fountain of natural life. In him we live, and move,
and have our being. The God of grace is the fountain of spiritual
life. All the strength and comfort of a sanctified soul, all its
gracious principles, powers, and performances, are from God. He is
the spring and author of all its sensations of divine things, and
all its motions towards them: he quickens whom he will; and
whosoever will may come, and take from him of the waters of life
freely. He is the fountain of eternal life. The happiness of
glorified saints consists in the vision and fruition of him, and in
the immediate communications of his love, without interruption or
fear of cessation. <i>Secondly,</i> In him they have light in
perfection, wisdom, knowledge, and joy, all included in this light:
<i>In thy light we shall see light,</i> that is, 1. "In the
knowledge of thee in grace, and the vision of thee in glory, we
shall have that which will abundantly suit and satisfy our
understandings." That divine light which shines in the scripture,
and especially in the face of Christ, the light of the world, has
all truth in it. When we come to see God face to face, within the
veil, we shall see light in perfection, we shall know enough then,
<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p16.9" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.13.12 Bible:1John.3.2" parsed="|1Cor|13|12|0|0;|1John|3|2|0|0" passage="1Co 13:12,1Jo 3:2">1 Cor. xiii. 12; 1 John iii.
2</scripRef>. 2. "In communion with thee now; by the communications
of thy grace to us and the return of our devout affections to thee,
and in the fruition of thee shortly in heaven, we shall have a
complete felicity and satisfaction. In thy favour we have all the
good we can desire." This is a dark world; we see little comfort in
it; but in the heavenly light there is true light, and no false
light, light that is lasting and never wastes. In this world we see
God, and enjoy him by creatures and means; but in heaven <i>God
himself shall be with us</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p16.10" osisRef="Bible:Rev.21.3" parsed="|Rev|21|3|0|0" passage="Re 21:3">Rev. xxi.
3</scripRef>) and we shall see and enjoy him immediately.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvii-p17">II. We have here David's prayers,
intercessions, and holy triumphs, grounded upon these
meditations.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvii-p18">1. He intercedes for all saints, begging
that they may always experience the benefit and comfort of God's
favour and grace, <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p18.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.36.10" parsed="|Ps|36|10|0|0" passage="Ps 36:10"><i>v.</i>
10</scripRef>. (1.) The persons he prays for are those that know
God, that are acquainted with him, acknowledge him, and avouch him
for theirs—the upright in heart, that are sincere in their
profession of religion, and faithful both to God and man. Those
that are not upright with God do not know him as they should. (2.)
The blessing he begs for them is God's loving-kindness (that is,
the tokens of his favour towards them) and his righteousness (that
is, the workings of his grace in them); or his loving-kindness and
righteousness are his goodness according to promise; they are mercy
and truth. (3.) The manner in which he desires this blessing may be
conveyed: <i>O continue it, draw it out,</i> as the mother draws
out her breasts to the child, and then the child draws out the milk
from the breasts. Let it be drawn out to a length equal to the line
of eternity itself. The happiness of the saints in heaven will be
in perfection, and yet in continual progression (as some thing);
for the fountain there will be always full and the streams always
flowing. <i>In these is continuance,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p18.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.64.5" parsed="|Isa|64|5|0|0" passage="Isa 64:5">Isa. lxiv. 5</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvii-p19">2. He prays for himself, that he might be
preserved in his integrity and comfort (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p19.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.36.11" parsed="|Ps|36|11|0|0" passage="Ps 36:11"><i>v.</i> 11</scripRef>): "<i>Let not the foot of pride
come against me,</i> to trip up my heels, or trample upon me;
<i>and let not the hand of the wicked,</i> which is stretched out
against me, prevail to <i>remove me,</i> either from my purity and
integrity, by any temptation, or from my peace and comfort, by any
trouble." Let not those who fight against God triumph over those
who desire to cleave to him. Those that have experienced the
pleasure of communion with God cannot but desire that nothing may
ever remove them from him.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.xxxvii-p20">3. He rejoices in hope of the downfall of
all his enemies in due time (<scripRef id="Ps.xxxvii-p20.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.36.12" parsed="|Ps|36|12|0|0" passage="Ps 36:12"><i>v.</i>
12</scripRef>): "<i>There,</i> where they thought to gain the point
against me, <i>they have</i> themselves <i>fallen,</i> been taken
in that snare which they laid for me." <i>There,</i> in the other
world (so some), where the saints stand in the judgment, and have a
place in God's house, the workers of iniquity are cast in the
judgment, <i>are cast down</i> into hell, into the bottomless pit,
out of which they shall assuredly never be able to rise from under
the insupportable weight of God's wrath and curse. It is true we
are not to rejoice when any particular enemy of ours falls; but the
final overthrow of all the workers of iniquity will be the
everlasting triumph of glorified saints.</p>
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