mh_parser/vol_split/19 - Psalms/Chapter 58.xml

<div2 id="Ps.lix" n="lix" next="Ps.lx" prev="Ps.lviii" progress="41.45%" title="Chapter LVIII">
<h2 id="Ps.lix-p0.1">P S A L M S</h2>
<h3 id="Ps.lix-p0.2">PSALM LVIII.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Ps.lix-p1">It is the probable conjecture of some (Amyraldus
particularly) that before Saul began to persecute David by force of
arms, and raised the militia to seize him, he formed a process
against him by course of law, upon which he was condemned unheard,
and attainted as a traitor, by the great council, or supreme court
of judicature, and then proclaimed "qui caput gerit lupinum—an
outlawed wolf," whom any man might kill and no man might protect.
The elders, in order to curry favour with Saul, having passed this
bill of attainder, it is supposed that David penned this psalm on
the occasion. I. He describes their sin, and aggravates that,
<scripRef id="Ps.lix-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.58.1-Ps.58.5" parsed="|Ps|58|1|58|5" passage="Ps 58:1-5">ver. 1-5</scripRef>. II. He
imprecates and foretels their ruin, and the judgments which the
righteous God would bring upon them for their injustice (<scripRef id="Ps.lix-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.58.6-Ps.58.9" parsed="|Ps|58|6|58|9" passage="Ps 58:6-9">ver. 6-9</scripRef>) which would redound, 1. To
the comfort of the saints, <scripRef id="Ps.lix-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.58.10" parsed="|Ps|58|10|0|0" passage="Ps 58:10">ver.
10</scripRef>. 2. To the glory of God, <scripRef id="Ps.lix-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.58.11" parsed="|Ps|58|11|0|0" passage="Ps 58:11">ver. 11</scripRef>. Sin appears here both exceedingly
sinful and exceedingly dangerous, and God a just avenger of wrong,
with which we should be affected in singing this psalm.</p>
<scripCom id="Ps.lix-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.58" parsed="|Ps|58|0|0|0" passage="Ps 58" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Ps.lix-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.58.1-Ps.58.5" parsed="|Ps|58|1|58|5" passage="Ps 58:1-5" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.58.1-Ps.58.5">
<h4 id="Ps.lix-p1.7">A Reproof to Wicked Judges.</h4>
<div class="Center" id="Ps.lix-p1.8">
<p id="Ps.lix-p2">To the chief musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David.</p>
</div>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.lix-p3">1 Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O
congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?   2
Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your
hands in the earth.   3 The wicked are estranged from the
womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.  
4 Their poison <i>is</i> like the poison of a serpent: <i>they
are</i> like the deaf adder <i>that</i> stoppeth her ear;   5
Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so
wisely.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lix-p4">We have reason to think that this psalm
refers to the malice of Saul and his janizaries against David,
because it bears the same inscription (<i>Al-taschith,</i> and
<i>Michtam of David</i>) with that which goes before and that which
follows, both which appear, by the title, to have been penned with
reference to that persecution through which God preserved him
(<i>Al-taschith—Destroy not</i>), and therefore the psalms he then
penned were precious to him, <i>Michtams—David's jewels,</i> as
Dr. Hammond translates it.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lix-p5">In these verses David, not as a king, for
he had not yet come to the throne, but as a prophet, in God's name
arraigns and convicts his judges, with more authority and justice
than they showed in prosecuting him. Two things he charges them
with:</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lix-p6">I. The corruption of their government. They
were a congregation, a bench of justices, nay, perhaps, a congress
or convention of the states, from whom one might have expected fair
dealing, for they were men learned in the laws, had been brought up
in the study of these statutes and judgments, which were so
righteous that those of other nations were not to be compared with
them. One would not have thought a congregation of such could be
bribed and biassed with pensions, and yet, it seems, they were,
because the son of Kish could do that for them which the son of
Jesse could not, <scripRef id="Ps.lix-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:1Sam.22.7" parsed="|1Sam|22|7|0|0" passage="1Sa 22:7">1 Sam. xxii.
7</scripRef>. He had vineyards, and fields, and preferments, to
give them, and therefore, to please him, they would do any thing,
right or wrong. Of all the melancholy views which Solomon took of
this earth and its grievances, nothing vexed him so much as to see
that in the <i>place of judgment wickedness was there,</i>
<scripRef id="Ps.lix-p6.2" osisRef="Bible:Eccl.3.16" parsed="|Eccl|3|16|0|0" passage="Ec 3:16">Eccl. iii. 16</scripRef>. So it was in
Saul's time. 1. The judges would not do right, would not protect or
vindicate oppressed innocency (<scripRef id="Ps.lix-p6.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.58.1" parsed="|Ps|58|1|0|0" passage="Ps 58:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>): "<i>Do you indeed speak
righteousness, or judge uprightly?</i> No; you are far from it;
your own consciences cannot but tell you that you do not discharge
the trust reposed in you as magistrates, by which you are bound to
be <i>a terror to evil-doers and a praise to those that do
well.</i> Is this the justice you pretend to administer? Is this
the patronage, this the countenance, which an honest man and an
honest cause may expect from you? Remember you are sons of men;
mortal and dying, and that you stand upon the same level before God
with the meanest of those you trample upon, and must yourselves be
called to an account and judged. You are <i>sons of men,</i> and
therefore we may appeal to yourselves, and to that law of nature
which is written in every man's heart: <i>Do you indeed speak
righteousness?</i> And will not your second thoughts correct what
you have done?" Note, It is good for us often to reflect upon what
we say with this serious question, <i>Do we indeed speak
righteousness?</i> that we may unsay what we have spoken amiss and
may proceed no further in it. 2. They did a great deal of wrong;
they used their power for the support of injury and oppression
(<scripRef id="Ps.lix-p6.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.58.2" parsed="|Ps|58|2|0|0" passage="Ps 58:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>): <i>In heart
you work wickedness</i> (all the wickedness of the life is wrought
in the heart). It intimates that they wrought with a great deal of
plot and management, not by surprise, but with premeditation and
design, and with a strong inclination to it and resolution in it.
The more there is of the heart in any act of wickedness the worse
it is, <scripRef id="Ps.lix-p6.5" osisRef="Bible:Eccl.8.11" parsed="|Eccl|8|11|0|0" passage="Ec 8:11">Eccl. viii. 11</scripRef>. And
what was their wickedness? It follows, "<i>You weigh the violence
of your hands in the earth</i>" (or <i>in the land</i>), "the peace
of which you are appointed to be the conservators of." They did all
the violence and injury they could, either to enrich or avenge
themselves, and they weighed it; that is, 1. They did it with a
great deal of craft and caution: "<i>You frame it by rule and
lines</i>" (so the word signifies), "that it may effectually answer
your mischievous intentions; such masters are you of the art of
oppression." 2. They did it under colour of justice. They held the
balances (the emblem of justice) in their hands, as if they
designed to do right, and right is expected from them, but the
result is violence and oppression, which are practised the more
effectually for being practised under the pretext of law and
right.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lix-p7">II. The corruption of their nature. This
was the root of bitterness from which that gall and wormwood sprang
(<scripRef id="Ps.lix-p7.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.58.3" parsed="|Ps|58|3|0|0" passage="Ps 58:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>): <i>The
wicked,</i> who in heart work wickedness, <i>are estranged from the
womb,</i> estranged from God and all good, <i>alienated from the
divine life,</i> and its principles, powers, and pleasures,
<scripRef id="Ps.lix-p7.2" osisRef="Bible:Eph.4.18" parsed="|Eph|4|18|0|0" passage="Eph 4:18">Eph. iv. 18</scripRef>. A sinful state
is a state of estrangement from that acquaintance with God and
service of him which we were made for. Let none wonder that these
wicked men dare do such things, for wickedness is bred in the bone
with them; they brought it into the world with them; they have in
their natures a strong inclination to it; they learned it from
their wicked parents, and have been trained up in it by a bad
education. They are called, and not miscalled, <i>transgressors
from the womb;</i> one can therefore expect no other than that they
will <i>deal very treacherously;</i> see <scripRef id="Ps.lix-p7.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.48.8" parsed="|Isa|48|8|0|0" passage="Isa 48:8">Isa. xlviii. 8</scripRef>. They go astray from God and
their duty as soon as they are born, (that is, as soon as possibly
they can); the foolishness that is bound up in their hearts appears
with the first operations of reason; as the wheat springs up, the
tares spring up with it. Three instances are here given of the
corruption of nature:—1. Falsehood. They soon learn to speak
lies, and <i>bend their tongues, like their</i> bows, for that
purpose, <scripRef id="Ps.lix-p7.4" osisRef="Bible:Jer.9.3" parsed="|Jer|9|3|0|0" passage="Jer 9:3">Jer. ix. 3</scripRef>. How
soon will little children tell a lie to excuse a fault, or in their
own commendation! No sooner can they speak than they speak to God's
dishonour; tongue-sins are some of the first of our actual
transgressions. 2. Malice. <i>Their poison</i> (that is, their
ill-will, and the spite they bore to goodness and all good men,
particularly to David) was <i>like the poison of a serpent,</i>
innate, venomous, and very mischievous, and that which they can
never be cured of. We pity a dog that is poisoned by accident, but
hate a serpent that is poisonous by nature. Such as the cursed
enmity in this serpent's brood against the Lord and his anointed.
3. Untractableness. They are malicious, and nothing will work upon
them, no reason, no kindness, to mollify them, and bring them to a
better temper. <i>They are like the deaf adder that stops her
ear,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lix-p7.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.58.4-Ps.58.5" parsed="|Ps|58|4|58|5" passage="Ps 58:4,5"><i>v.</i> 4, 5</scripRef>.
The psalmist, having compared these wicked men, whom he here
complains of, to serpents, for their poisonous malice, takes
occasion thence, upon another account, to compare them to the deaf
adder or viper, concerning which there was then this vulgar
tradition, that whereas, by music or some other art, they had a way
of charming serpents, so as either to destroy them or at least
disable them to do mischief, this deaf adder would lay one ear to
the ground and stop the other with her tail, so that she could not
hear the voice of the enchantment, and so defeated the intention of
it and secured herself. The using of this comparison neither
verifies the story, nor, if it were true, justifies the use of this
enchantment; for it is only an allusion to the report of such a
thing, to illustrate the obstinacy of sinners in a sinful way.
God's design, in his word and providence, is to cure serpents of
their malignity; to this end how wise, how powerful, how
well-chosen are the charms! How forcible the right words! But all
in vain with most men; and what is the reason? It is because they
will not hearken. None so deaf as those that will not hear. We
<i>have piped unto men, and they have not danced;</i> how should
they, when they have stopped their ears?</p>
</div><scripCom id="Ps.lix-p7.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.58.6-Ps.58.11" parsed="|Ps|58|6|58|11" passage="Ps 58:6-11" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.58.6-Ps.58.11">
<h4 id="Ps.lix-p7.7">Prophetic Imprecations.</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.lix-p8">6 Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth:
break out the great teeth of the young lions, <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.lix-p8.1">O Lord</span>.   7 Let them melt away as waters
<i>which</i> run continually: <i>when</i> he bendeth <i>his bow to
shoot</i> his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.   8 As a
snail <i>which</i> melteth, let <i>every one of them</i> pass away:
<i>like</i> the untimely birth of a woman, <i>that</i> they may not
see the sun.   9 Before your pots can feel the thorns, he
shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in
<i>his</i> wrath.   10 The righteous shall rejoice when he
seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the
wicked.   11 So that a man shall say, Verily <i>there is</i> a
reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the
earth.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lix-p9">In these verses we have,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lix-p10">I. David's prayers against his enemies, and
all the enemies of God's church and people; for it is as such that
he looks upon them, so that he was actuated by a public spirit in
praying against them, and not by any private revenge. 1. He prays
that they might be disabled to do any further mischief (<scripRef id="Ps.lix-p10.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.58.6" parsed="|Ps|58|6|0|0" passage="Ps 58:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>): <i>Break their teeth, O
God!</i> Not so much that they might not feed themselves as that
they might not be able to make prey of others, <scripRef id="Ps.lix-p10.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.3.7" parsed="|Ps|3|7|0|0" passage="Ps 3:7">Ps. iii. 7</scripRef>. He does not say, "Break their
necks" (no; let them live to repent, <i>slay them not, lest my
people forget</i>), but, "Break their teeth, for they are lions,
they are young lions, that live by rapine." 2. That they might be
disappointed in the plots they had already laid, and might not gain
their point: "<i>When he bends his bow,</i> and takes aim <i>to
shoot his arrows</i> at the upright in heart, <i>let them be as cut
in pieces,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lix-p10.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.58.7" parsed="|Ps|58|7|0|0" passage="Ps 58:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>.
Let them fall at his feet, and never come near the mark." 3. That
they and their interest might waste and come to nothing, that they
might <i>melt away as waters that run continually;</i> that is, as
the waters of a land-flood, which, though they seem formidable for
a while, soon soak into the ground or return to their channels, or,
in general, as <i>water spilt upon the ground, which cannot be
gathered up again,</i> but gradually dries away and disappears.
Such shall the <i>floods of ungodly men</i> be, which sometimes
<i>make us afraid</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.lix-p10.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.18.4" parsed="|Ps|18|4|0|0" passage="Ps 18:4">Ps. xviii.
4</scripRef>); so shall the proud waters be reduced, which threaten
to go over our soul, <scripRef id="Ps.lix-p10.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.124.4-Ps.124.5" parsed="|Ps|124|4|124|5" passage="Ps 124:4,5">Ps. cxxiv. 4,
5</scripRef>. Let us by faith then see what they shall be and then
we shall not fear what they are. He prays (<scripRef id="Ps.lix-p10.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.58.8" parsed="|Ps|58|8|0|0" passage="Ps 58:8"><i>v.</i> 8</scripRef>) that they might <i>melt as a
snail,</i> which wastes by its own motion, in every stretch it
makes leaving some of its moisture behind, which, by degrees, must
needs consume it, though it makes a path to shine after it. He that
like a snail in her house is <i>plenus sui—full of himself,</i>
that pleases himself and trusts to himself, does but consume
himself, and will quickly bring himself to nothing. And he prays
that they might be <i>like the untimely birth of a woman,</i> which
dies as soon as it begins to live and never <i>sees the sun.</i>
Job, in his passion, wished he himself had been such a one
(<scripRef id="Ps.lix-p10.7" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.16" parsed="|Job|3|16|0|0" passage="Job 3:16">Job iii. 16</scripRef>), but he knew
not what he said. We may, in faith, pray against the designs of the
church's enemies, as the prophet does (<scripRef id="Ps.lix-p10.8" osisRef="Bible:Hos.9.14" parsed="|Hos|9|14|0|0" passage="Ho 9:14">Hos. ix. 14</scripRef>, <i>Give them, O Lord! what wilt
thou give them? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts</i>),
which explains this prayer of the psalmist.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lix-p11">II. His prediction of their ruin (<scripRef id="Ps.lix-p11.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.58.9" parsed="|Ps|58|9|0|0" passage="Ps 58:9"><i>v.</i> 9</scripRef>): "<i>Before your pots can
feel the</i> heat of a fire of <i>thorns</i> made under them (which
they will presently do, for it is a quick fire and violent while it
lasts), so speedily, with such a hasty and violent flame, God shall
hurry them away, as terribly and as irresistibly as with a
whirlwind, as it were alive, as it were in fury."</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lix-p12">1. The proverbial expressions are somewhat
difficult, but the sense is plain, (1.) That the judgments of God
often surprise wicked people in the midst of their jollity, and
hurry them away of a sudden. When they are beginning to walk in the
light of their own fire, and the sparks of their own kindling, they
are made to <i>lie down in sorrow</i> (<scripRef id="Ps.lix-p12.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.50.11" parsed="|Isa|50|11|0|0" passage="Isa 50:11">Isa. l. 11</scripRef>), and their laughter proves like
the crackling of thorns under a pot, the comfort of which is soon
gone, ere they can say, <i>Alas! I am warm,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lix-p12.2" osisRef="Bible:Eccl.7.6" parsed="|Eccl|7|6|0|0" passage="Ec 7:6">Eccl. vii. 6</scripRef>. (2.) That there is no standing
before the destruction that comes from the Almighty; for <i>who
knows the power of God's anger?</i> When God will take sinners
away, dead or alive, they cannot contest with him. <i>The wicked
are driven away in their wickedness.</i> Now,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.lix-p13">2. There are two things which the psalmist
promises himself as the good effects of sinners' destruction:—
(1.) That saints would be encouraged and comforted by it (<scripRef id="Ps.lix-p13.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.58.10" parsed="|Ps|58|10|0|0" passage="Ps 58:10"><i>v.</i> 10</scripRef>): <i>The righteous shall
rejoice when he sees the vengeance.</i> The pomp and power, the
prosperity and success, of the wicked, are a discouragement to the
righteous; they sadden their hearts, and weaken their hands, and
are sometimes a strong temptation to them to question their
foundations, <scripRef id="Ps.lix-p13.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.73.2 Bible:Ps.73.13" parsed="|Ps|73|2|0|0;|Ps|73|13|0|0" passage="Ps 73:2,13">Ps. lxxiii. 2,
13</scripRef>. But when they see the judgments of God hurrying them
away, and just vengeance taken on them for all the mischief they
have done to the people of God, they rejoice in the satisfaction
thereby given to their doubts and the confirmation thereby given to
their faith in the providence of God and his justice and
righteousness in governing the world; they shall rejoice in the
victory thus gained over that temptation by seeing <i>their
end,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.lix-p13.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.73.17" parsed="|Ps|73|17|0|0" passage="Ps 73:17">Ps. lxxiii. 17</scripRef>.
<i>He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked;</i> that is,
there shall be abundance of bloodshed (<scripRef id="Ps.lix-p13.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.68.23" parsed="|Ps|68|23|0|0" passage="Ps 68:23">Ps. lxviii. 23</scripRef>), and it shall be as great a
refreshment to the saints to see God glorified in the ruin of
sinners as it is to a weary traveller to have his feet washed. It
shall likewise contribute to their sanctification; the sight of the
vengeance shall make them tremble before God (<scripRef id="Ps.lix-p13.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.119.120" parsed="|Ps|119|120|0|0" passage="Ps 119:120">Ps. cxix. 120</scripRef>) and shall convince them of
the evil of sin, and the obligations they lie under to that God who
pleads their cause and will suffer no man to do them wrong and go
unpunished for it. The joy of the saints in the destruction of the
wicked is then a holy joy, and justifiable, when it helps to make
them holy and to purify them from sin. (2.) That sinners would be
convinced and converted by it, <scripRef id="Ps.lix-p13.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.58.11" parsed="|Ps|58|11|0|0" passage="Ps 58:11"><i>v.</i> 11</scripRef>. The vengeance God sometimes
takes on the wicked in this world will bring men to say, <i>Verily,
there is a reward for the righteous.</i> Any man may draw this
inference from such providences, and many a man shall, who before
denied even these plain truths or doubted of them. Some shall have
this confession extorted from them, others shall have their minds
so changed that they shall willingly own it, and thank God who has
given them to see it and see it with satisfaction, That God is,
and, [1.] That he is the bountiful rewarder of his saints and
servants: <i>Verily (however it be,</i> so it may be read) <i>there
is a fruit to the righteous;</i> whatever damage he may run, and
whatever hardship he may undergo for his religion, he shall not
only be no loser by it, but an unspeakable gainer in the issue.
Even in this world there is a reward for the righteous; they shall
be recompensed in the earth. Those shall be taken notice of,
honoured, and protected, that seemed slighted, despised, and
abandoned. [2.] That he is the righteous governor of the world, and
will surely reckon with the enemies of his kingdom: <i>Verily,</i>
however it be, though wicked people prosper, and bid defiance to
divine justice, yet it shall be made to appear, to their confusion,
that the world is not governed by chance, but by a Being of
infinite wisdom and justice; <i>there is a God that judges in the
earth,</i> though he has prepared his throne in the heavens. He
presides in all the affairs of the children of men, and directs and
disposes them according to the counsel of his will, to his own
glory; and he will punish the wicked, not only in the world to
come, but <i>in the earth,</i> where they have laid up their
treasure and promised themselves a happiness—<i>in the earth,</i>
that the Lord may be known by the judgments which he executes, and
that they may be taken as earnests of a judgment to come. <i>He is
a God</i> (so we read it), not a weak man, not an angel, not a mere
name, not (as the atheists suggest) a creature of men's fear and
fancy, not a deified hero, not the sun and moon, as idolaters
imagined, but a God, a self-existent perfect Being; he it is that
judges the earth; his favour therefore let us seek, from whom every
man's judgment proceeds, and to him let all judgment be
referred.</p>
</div></div2>