238 lines
17 KiB
XML
238 lines
17 KiB
XML
<div2 id="Ps.cxlii" n="cxlii" next="Ps.cxliii" prev="Ps.cxli" progress="69.70%" title="Chapter CXLI">
|
||
<h2 id="Ps.cxlii-p0.1">P S A L M S</h2>
|
||
<h3 id="Ps.cxlii-p0.2">PSALM CXLI.</h3>
|
||
<p class="intro" id="Ps.cxlii-p1">David was in distress when he penned this psalm,
|
||
pursued, it is most likely, by Saul, that violent man. Is any
|
||
distressed? Let him pray; David did so, and had the comfort of it.
|
||
I. He prays for God's favourable acceptance, <scripRef id="Ps.cxlii-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.141.1-Ps.141.2" parsed="|Ps|141|1|141|2" passage="Ps 141:1,2">ver. 1, 2</scripRef>. II. For his powerful assistance,
|
||
<scripRef id="Ps.cxlii-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.141.3-Ps.141.4" parsed="|Ps|141|3|141|4" passage="Ps 141:3,4">ver. 3, 4</scripRef>. III. That
|
||
others might be instrumental of good to his soul, as he hoped to be
|
||
to the souls of others, <scripRef id="Ps.cxlii-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.141.5-Ps.141.6" parsed="|Ps|141|5|141|6" passage="Ps 141:5,6">ver. 5,
|
||
6</scripRef>. IV. That he and his friends being now brought to the
|
||
last extremity God would graciously appear for their relief and
|
||
rescue, <scripRef id="Ps.cxlii-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.141.7-Ps.141.10" parsed="|Ps|141|7|141|10" passage="Ps 141:7-10">ver. 7-10</scripRef>. The
|
||
mercy and grace of God are as necessary to us as they were to him,
|
||
and therefore we should be humbly earnest for them in singing this
|
||
psalm.</p>
|
||
<scripCom id="Ps.cxlii-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.141" parsed="|Ps|141|0|0|0" passage="Ps 141" type="Commentary"/>
|
||
<scripCom id="Ps.cxlii-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.141.1-Ps.141.4" parsed="|Ps|141|1|141|4" passage="Ps 141:1-4" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.141.1-Ps.141.4">
|
||
<h4 id="Ps.cxlii-p1.7">Fervent Supplications.</h4>
|
||
<div class="Center" id="Ps.cxlii-p1.8">
|
||
<p id="Ps.cxlii-p2">A psalm of David.</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p class="passage" id="Ps.cxlii-p3">1 <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.cxlii-p3.1">Lord</span>, I cry
|
||
unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry
|
||
unto thee. 2 Let my prayer be set forth before thee
|
||
<i>as</i> incense; <i>and</i> the lifting up of my hands <i>as</i>
|
||
the evening sacrifice. 3 Set a watch, <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.cxlii-p3.2">O Lord</span>, before my mouth; keep the door of my
|
||
lips. 4 Incline not my heart to <i>any</i> evil thing, to
|
||
practise wicked works with men that work iniquity: and let me not
|
||
eat of their dainties.</p>
|
||
<p class="indent" id="Ps.cxlii-p4">Mercy to accept what we do well, and grace
|
||
to keep us from doing ill, are the two things which we are here
|
||
taught by David's example to pray to God for.</p>
|
||
<p class="indent" id="Ps.cxlii-p5">I. David loved prayer, and he begs of God
|
||
that his prayers might be heard and answered, <scripRef id="Ps.cxlii-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.141.1-Ps.141.2" parsed="|Ps|141|1|141|2" passage="Ps 141:1,2"><i>v.</i> 1, 2</scripRef>. <i>David cried unto
|
||
God.</i> His crying denotes fervency in prayer; he prayed as one in
|
||
earnest. His crying to God denotes faith and fixedness in prayer.
|
||
And what did he desire as the success of his prayer? 1. That God
|
||
would take cognizance of it: "<i>Give ear to my voice;</i> let me
|
||
have a gracious audience." Those that cry in prayer may hope to be
|
||
heard in prayer, not for their loudness, but their liveliness. 2.
|
||
That he would visit him upon it: <i>Make haste unto me.</i> Those
|
||
that know how to value God's gracious presence will be importunate
|
||
for it and humbly impatient of delays. He that believes does not
|
||
make haste, but he that prays may be earnest with God to make
|
||
haste. 3. That he would be well pleased with him in it, well
|
||
pleased with his <i>praying</i> and the <i>lifting up of his hands
|
||
in prayer,</i> which denotes both the elevation and enlargement of
|
||
his desire and the out-goings of his hope and expectation, the
|
||
lifting up of the hand signifying the lifting up of the heart, and
|
||
being used instead of lifting up the sacrifices which were heaved
|
||
and waved before the Lord. Prayer is a spiritual sacrifice; it is
|
||
the offering up of the soul, and its best affections, to God. Now
|
||
he prays that this may be set forth and directed before God <i>as
|
||
the incense</i> which was daily burnt upon the golden altar, and
|
||
<i>as the evening sacrifice,</i> which he mentions rather than the
|
||
morning sacrifice, perhaps because this was an evening prayer, or
|
||
with an eye to Christ, who, in the evening of the world and in the
|
||
evening of the day, was to offer up himself a sacrifice of
|
||
atonement, and establish the spiritual sacrifices of
|
||
acknowledgement, having abolished all the carnal ordinances of the
|
||
law. Those that pray in faith may expect it will please God better
|
||
than an ox or bullock. David was now banished from God's court, and
|
||
could not attend the sacrifice and incense, and therefore begs that
|
||
his prayer might be instead of them. Note, Prayer is of a
|
||
sweet-smelling savour to God, as incense, which yet has no savour
|
||
without fire; nor has prayer without the fire of holy love and
|
||
fervour.</p>
|
||
<p class="indent" id="Ps.cxlii-p6">II. David was in fear of sin, and he begs
|
||
of God that he might be kept from sin, knowing that his prayers
|
||
would not be accepted unless he took care to watch against sin. We
|
||
must be as earnest for God's grace in us as for his favour towards
|
||
us. 1. He prays that he might not be surprised into any sinful
|
||
words (<scripRef id="Ps.cxlii-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.141.3" parsed="|Ps|141|3|0|0" passage="Ps 141:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>):
|
||
"<i>Set a watch, O Lord! before my mouth,</i> and, nature having
|
||
made my lips to be a door to my words, let grace keep that door,
|
||
that no word may be suffered to go out which may in any way tend to
|
||
the dishonour of God or the hurt of others." Good men know the evil
|
||
of tongue-sins, and how prone they are to them (when enemies are
|
||
provoking we are in danger of carrying our resentment too far, and
|
||
of speaking unadvisedly, as Moses did, though the meekest of men),
|
||
and therefore they are earnest with God to prevent their speaking
|
||
amiss, as knowing that no watchfulness or resolution of their own
|
||
is sufficient for the governing of their tongues, much less of
|
||
their hearts, without the special grace of God. We must <i>keep our
|
||
mouths as with a bridle;</i> but that will not serve: we must pray
|
||
to God to keep them. Nehemiah prayed to the Lord when he set a
|
||
watch, and so must we, for without him the watchman walketh but in
|
||
vain. 2. That he might not be inclined to any sinful practices
|
||
(<scripRef id="Ps.cxlii-p6.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.141.4" parsed="|Ps|141|4|0|0" passage="Ps 141:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>): "<i>Incline
|
||
not my heart to any evil thing;</i> whatever inclination there is
|
||
in me to sin, let it be not only restrained, but mortified, by
|
||
divine grace." The example of those about us, and the provocations
|
||
of those against us, are apt to stir up and draw out corrupt
|
||
inclinations. We are ready to do as others do, and to think that if
|
||
we have received injuries we may return them; and therefore we have
|
||
need to pray that we may never be left to ourselves to practise any
|
||
wicked work, either in confederacy with or in opposition to the
|
||
<i>men that work iniquity.</i> While we live in such an evil world,
|
||
and carry about with us such evil hearts, we have need to pray that
|
||
we may neither be drawn in by any allurement nor driven on by any
|
||
provocation to do any sinful thing. 3. That he might not be
|
||
ensnared by any sinful pleasures: "<i>Let me not eat of their
|
||
dainties.</i> Let me not join with them in their feasts and sports,
|
||
lest thereby I be inveigled into their sins." <i>Better is a dinner
|
||
of herbs,</i> out of the way of temptation, than a <i>stalled
|
||
ox</i> in it. Sinners pretend to find dainties in sin. <i>Stolen
|
||
waters are sweet;</i> forbidden fruit is pleasant to the eye. But
|
||
those that consider how soon the dainties of sin will turn into
|
||
wormwood and gall, how certainly it will, at last, <i>bite like a
|
||
serpent</i> and <i>sting like an adder,</i> will dread those
|
||
dainties, and pray to God by his providence to take them out of
|
||
their sight, and by his grace to turn them against them. Good men
|
||
will pray even against the sweets of sin.</p>
|
||
</div><scripCom id="Ps.cxlii-p6.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.141.5-Ps.141.10" parsed="|Ps|141|5|141|10" passage="Ps 141:5-10" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.141.5-Ps.141.10">
|
||
<h4 id="Ps.cxlii-p6.4">Reproofs of the Righteous; Complaints and
|
||
Petitions.</h4>
|
||
<p class="passage" id="Ps.cxlii-p7">5 Let the righteous smite me; <i>it shall be</i>
|
||
a kindness: and let him reprove me; <i>it shall be</i> an excellent
|
||
oil, <i>which</i> shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also
|
||
<i>shall be</i> in their calamities. 6 When their judges are
|
||
overthrown in stony places, they shall hear my words; for they are
|
||
sweet. 7 Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth, as
|
||
when one cutteth and cleaveth <i>wood</i> upon the earth. 8
|
||
But mine eyes <i>are</i> unto thee, <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.cxlii-p7.1">O
|
||
God</span> the Lord: in thee is my trust; leave not my soul
|
||
destitute. 9 Keep me from the snares <i>which</i> they have
|
||
laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity. 10 Let
|
||
the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal
|
||
escape.</p>
|
||
<p class="indent" id="Ps.cxlii-p8">Here, I. David desires to be told of his
|
||
faults. His enemies reproached him with that which was false, which
|
||
he could not but complain of; yet, at the same time, he desired his
|
||
friends would reprove him for that which was really amiss in him,
|
||
particularly if there was any thing that gave the least colour to
|
||
those reproaches (<scripRef id="Ps.cxlii-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.141.5" parsed="|Ps|141|5|0|0" passage="Ps 141:5"><i>v.</i>
|
||
5</scripRef>): <i>let the righteous smite me; it shall be a
|
||
kindness.</i> The <i>righteous God</i> (so some); "I will welcome
|
||
the rebukes of his providence, and be so far from quarrelling with
|
||
them that I will receive them as tokens of love and improve them as
|
||
means of grace, and will pray for those that are the instruments of
|
||
my trouble." But it is commonly taken for the reproofs given by
|
||
righteous men; and it best becomes those that are themselves
|
||
righteous to reprove the unrighteousness of others, and from them
|
||
reproof will be best taken. But if the reproof be just, though the
|
||
reprover be not so, we must make a good use of it and learn
|
||
obedience by it. We are here taught how to receive the reproofs of
|
||
the righteous and wise. 1. We must desire to be reproved for
|
||
whatever is amiss in us, or is done amiss by us: "Lord, put it into
|
||
the heart of the righteous to smite me and reprove me. If my own
|
||
heart does not <i>smite me,</i> as it ought, let my friend do it;
|
||
let me never fall under that dreadful judgment of being let alone
|
||
in sin." 2. We must account it a piece of friendship. We must not
|
||
only bear it patiently, but take it as a kindness; for <i>reproofs
|
||
of instruction are the way of life</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.cxlii-p8.2" osisRef="Bible:Prov.6.23" parsed="|Prov|6|23|0|0" passage="Pr 6:23">Prov. vi. 23</scripRef>), are means of good to us, to
|
||
bring us to repentance for the sins we have committed, and to
|
||
prevent relapses into sin. Though reproofs cut, it is in order to a
|
||
cure, and therefore they are much more desirable than the kisses of
|
||
an enemy (<scripRef id="Ps.cxlii-p8.3" osisRef="Bible:Prov.27.6" parsed="|Prov|27|6|0|0" passage="Pr 27:6">Prov. xxvii. 6</scripRef>) or
|
||
the song of fools, <scripRef id="Ps.cxlii-p8.4" osisRef="Bible:Eccl.7.5" parsed="|Eccl|7|5|0|0" passage="Ec 7:5">Eccl. vii.
|
||
5</scripRef>. David blessed God for Abigail's seasonable
|
||
admonition, <scripRef id="Ps.cxlii-p8.5" osisRef="Bible:1Sam.25.32" parsed="|1Sam|25|32|0|0" passage="1Sa 25:32">1 Sam. xxv.
|
||
32</scripRef>. 3. We must reckon ourselves helped and healed by it:
|
||
It <i>shall be as an excellent oil</i> to a wound, to mollify it
|
||
and close it up; <i>it shall not break my head,</i> as some reckon
|
||
it to do, who could as well bear to have their heads broken as to
|
||
be told of their faults; but, says David, "I am not of that mind;
|
||
it is my sin that has broken my head, that has broken my bones,
|
||
<scripRef id="Ps.cxlii-p8.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.51.8" parsed="|Ps|51|8|0|0" passage="Ps 51:8">Ps. li. 8</scripRef>. The reproof is an
|
||
excellent oil, to cure the bruises sin has given me. It shall not
|
||
<i>break my head,</i> if it may but help to break my heart." 4. We
|
||
must requite the kindness of those that deal thus faithfully, thus
|
||
friendly with us, at least by our <i>prayers for them in their
|
||
calamities,</i> and hereby we must show that we take it kindly. Dr.
|
||
Hammond gives quite another reading of this verse: "<i>Reproach
|
||
will bruise me that am righteous, and rebuke me; but that poisonous
|
||
oil shall not break my head</i> (shall not destroy me, shall not do
|
||
me the mischief intended), <i>for yet my prayer shall be in their
|
||
mischiefs,</i> that God would preserve me from them, and my prayer
|
||
shall not be in vain."</p>
|
||
<p class="indent" id="Ps.cxlii-p9">II. David hopes his persecutors will, some
|
||
time or other, bear to be told of their faults, as he was willing
|
||
to be told of his (<scripRef id="Ps.cxlii-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.141.6" parsed="|Ps|141|6|0|0" passage="Ps 141:6"><i>v.</i>
|
||
6</scripRef>): "<i>When their judges</i>" (Saul and his officers
|
||
who judged and condemned David, and would themselves be sole
|
||
judges) "<i>are overthrown in stony places,</i> among the rocks in
|
||
the wilderness, then <i>they shall hear my words, for they are
|
||
sweet.</i>" Some think this refers to the relentings that were in
|
||
Saul's breast when he said, with tears, <i>Is this thy voice, my
|
||
son David?</i> <scripRef id="Ps.cxlii-p9.2" osisRef="Bible:1Sam.24.16 Bible:1Sam.26.21" parsed="|1Sam|24|16|0|0;|1Sam|26|21|0|0" passage="1Sa 24:16,26:21">1 Sam. xxiv. 16;
|
||
xxvi. 21</scripRef>. Or we may take it more generally: even judges,
|
||
great as they are, may come to be overthrown. Those that make the
|
||
greatest figure in this world do not always meet with level smooth
|
||
ways through it. And those that slighted the word of God before
|
||
will relish it, and be glad of it, when they are in affliction, for
|
||
that opens the ear to instruction. When the world is bitter the
|
||
word is sweet. Oppressed innocency cannot gain a hearing with those
|
||
that live in pomp and pleasure, but when they come to be overthrown
|
||
themselves they will have more compassionate thoughts of the
|
||
afflicted.</p>
|
||
<p class="indent" id="Ps.cxlii-p10">III. David complains of the great extremity
|
||
to which he and his friends were reduced (<scripRef id="Ps.cxlii-p10.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.141.7" parsed="|Ps|141|7|0|0" passage="Ps 141:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>): <i>Our bones are scattered at
|
||
the grave's mouth,</i> out of which they are thrown up, so long
|
||
have we been dead, or into which they are ready to be thrown, so
|
||
near are we to the pit; and they are as little regarded as chips
|
||
among the hewers of wood, which are thrown in neglected heaps:
|
||
<i>As one that cuts and cleaves the earth</i> (so some read it),
|
||
alluding to the ploughman who tears the earth in pieces with his
|
||
plough-share, <scripRef id="Ps.cxlii-p10.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.129.3" parsed="|Ps|129|3|0|0" passage="Ps 129:3">Ps. cxxix. 3</scripRef>.
|
||
<i>Can these dry bones live?</i></p>
|
||
<p class="indent" id="Ps.cxlii-p11">IV. David casts himself upon God, and
|
||
depends upon him for deliverance: "<i>But my eyes are unto thee</i>
|
||
(<scripRef id="Ps.cxlii-p11.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.141.8" parsed="|Ps|141|8|0|0" passage="Ps 141:8"><i>v.</i> 8</scripRef>); for, when
|
||
the case is ever so deplorable, thou canst redress all the
|
||
grievances. From thee I expect relief, bad as things are, and in
|
||
<i>thee is my trust.</i>" Those that have their eye towards God may
|
||
have their hopes in him.</p>
|
||
<p class="indent" id="Ps.cxlii-p12">V. He prays that God would succour and
|
||
relieve him as his necessity required. 1. That he would comfort
|
||
him: "<i>Leave not my soul desolate and destitute;</i> still let me
|
||
see where my help is." 2. That he would prevent the designs of his
|
||
enemies against him (<scripRef id="Ps.cxlii-p12.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.141.9" parsed="|Ps|141|9|0|0" passage="Ps 141:9"><i>v.</i>
|
||
9</scripRef>): "<i>Keep me from</i> being taken in <i>the snare
|
||
they have laid for me;</i> give me to discover it and to evade it."
|
||
Be the gin placed with ever so much subtlety, God can and will
|
||
secure his people from being taken in it. 3. That God would, in
|
||
justice, turn the designs of his enemies upon themselves, and, in
|
||
mercy, deliver him from being ruined by them (<scripRef id="Ps.cxlii-p12.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.141.10" parsed="|Ps|141|10|0|0" passage="Ps 141:10"><i>v.</i> 10</scripRef>): <i>let the wicked fall into
|
||
their own net,</i> the net which, intentionally, they procured for
|
||
me, but which, meritoriously, they prepared for themselves. <i>Nec
|
||
lex est justioir ulla quam necis artifices arte perire sua—No law
|
||
can be more just than that the architects of destruction should
|
||
perish by their own contrivances.</i> All that are bound over to
|
||
God's justice are held in the cords of their own iniquity. But let
|
||
me at the same time obtain a discharge. The entangling and
|
||
ensnaring of the wicked sometimes prove the escape and enlargement
|
||
of the righteous.</p>
|
||
</div></div2> |