EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS (2)

Verses 4-8.—If David had before been without the symbol of his royal dignity, namely, the diadem, he was the more justified in praising the goodness of God, which had now transferred it from the head of an enemy to his own.—Augustus F. Tholuck.

Verse 5.—“His glory is great in thy salvation.”—I remember one dying and hearing some discourses of Jesus Christ; “Oh,” said she, “speak more of this—let me hear more of this—be not weary of telling his praise; I long to see him, how should I but long to hear of him?” Surely I cannot say too much of Jesus Christ. On this blessed subject no man can possibly hyperbolise. Had I the tongues of men and angels, I could never fully set forth Christ. It involves an eternal contradiction, that the creature can see to the bottom of the Creator. Suppose all the sands on the sea-shore, all the flowers, herbs, leaves, twigs of trees in woods and forests, all the stars of heaven, were all rational creatures; and had they that wisdom, and tongues of angels to speak of the loveliness, beauty, glory, and excellency of Christ, as gone to heaven, and sitting at the right hand of his Father, they would, in all their expressions, stay millions of miles on this side Jesus Christ. Oh, the loveliness, beauty, and glory of his countenance! Can I speak, or you hear of such a Christ? And are we not all in a burning love, in a seraphical love, or at least in a conjugal love? O my heart, how is it thou art not love sick? How is it thou dost not charge the daughters of Jerusalem as the spouse did: “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem if ye find my beloved, that ye shall tell him, that I am sick of love.” Cant. v. 8.—Isaac Ambrose.

Verse 5.—“Honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him.” If it be demanded whether Christ were exalted unto his glory and dignity, according to both his natures, both his Godhead and his manhood, I answer, according to both. According to his Godhead, not as it is considered in itself, but inasmuch as his Godhead, which from his birth unto his death did little show itself, after his resurrection was made manifest in his manhood; for, as the apostle saith (Rom. i. 4), “He was declared mightily to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead,” even by the resurrection, and after his resurrection from the dead, he which was thought only to be man, was most plainly manifested likewise to be God. Now, as touching his manhood, he was therein exalted unto highest majesty in the heavenly places, not only shaking off all infirmities of man’s nature, but also being beautified and adorned with all qualities of glory, both in his soul and in his body, yet so that he still retaineth the properties of a true body, for even as he was man, he was set at the right hand of the Father, to rule and reign over all, till all his enemies be destroyed, and put under his feet. To knit up all in a word, Christ, God, and man, after his resurrection, was crowned with glory and honour, even such as plainly showed him to be God, and was set on the throne of God, there to rule and reign as sovereign Lord and King, till he come in the clouds to judge both quick and dead. Here, then, is both matter of comfort and consolation unto the godly, and likewise of fear and astonishment unto the wicked and ungodly.—Henry Airay, 1560-1616.

Verse 5 (last clause).—Christ was “a man of sorrows” on earth, but he is full of joy in heaven. He that “wipes away all tears from the eyes of his people,” surely has none of his own. There was a joy set before him before he suffered, and doubtless it was given him when he sat down at God’s right hand. We may take the latter to be an actual donation of the former; the joy he had in prospect when he suffered he had in possession when he came to his throne. This is the time of his receiving the Father’s public approbation, and the tokens of his love, before the whole heavenly assembly, which must be matter of great joy to him who so much valued and delighted in his Father’s love.—John Hurrion, 1675-1731.

Verse 5.—Happy he who hath a bone, or an arm, to put the crown upon the head of our highest King, whose chariot is paved with love. Were there ten thousand millions of heavens created above these highest heavens, and again as many above them, and as many above them, till angels were wearied with counting, it were but too low a seat to fix the princely throne of that Lord Jesus (whose ye are) above them all.—Samuel Rutherford.

Verse 6.—“Thou hast made him exceeding glad:” literally, “brightened him,” possibly in allusion to the brightness of Moses’ face.—Dalman Hapstone, M.A., in “The Ancient Psalms ... A Literal Translation and Notes,” etc, 1867.

Verse 6.—“Thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.” Though this be metaphorically used for favour, yet is the speech not all metaphor, and that well-experienced Christians will tell you.—Zachary Bogan, in “The Mirth of a Christian Life,” 1653.

Verse 6 (first clause).—Literally, as in the Bible marginal translation, “Thou hast set him to be blessings for ever.” Most truly said of the King in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed.—Richard Mant.

Verse 8.—“Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee.” By a kind of climax in the form of expression, “hand,” is followed by “right hand,” a still more emphatic sign of active strength. To “find,” in this connection, includes the ideas of detecting and reaching. Compare 1 Sam. xxiii. 17; Isaiah x. 10; in the latter of which places the verb is construed with a preposition (ל), as it is in the first clause of the verse before us, whereas in the other clause it governs the noun directly. If any difference of meaning was intended, it is probably not greater than that between find and find out in English.—Joseph Addison Alexander.

Verse 8.—“Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee.” Saul killed himself, for fear of falling into the hands of his enemies, and thought death less terrible than the shame that he would have endured in seeing himself in their power. What will it be then “to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. x. 31), of an offended God? of God unchangeably determined to be avenged? “Who can stand before his indignation?” says the prophet Nahum (chap. i. 6). Who will dare look on him? Who will dare show himself? “Who may abide the day of his coming” (Mal. iii. 2) without shuddering and fainting for fear? If Joseph’s brethren were so terrified that they “could not answer him,” when he said, “I am Joseph your brother,” how will it be with sinners, when they shall hear the voice of the Son of God, when he shall triumph over them in his wrath, and say unto them, “I am he” whom ye despised; “I am he” whom ye have offended; “I am he” whom ye have crucified? If these words, “I am he,” overthrew the soldiers in the garden of Olives (John xviii. 6), though spoken with extreme gentleness, how will it be when his indignation bursts forth, when it falls upon his enemies like a thunderbolt, and reduces them into dust? Then will they cry out in terror and say to the mountains, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.” Rev. vi. 16.—James Nouet.

Verse 8.—“Thine hand shall find out,” etc. It is not meant only of a discovery of a person (though it be a truth, that the Lord will discover all that are his enemies), but thine hand shall find them out, is, it shall take hold of them, grasp them, and arrest them. “Thine hand shall find out” all “thine enemies,” though close, though covert enemies; not only thy above-ground enemies, but thy under-ground enemies; as well those that undermine thee, as those that assault thee.—Joseph Caryl.

Verse 9.—“Thou shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.” How then shall it fare with sinners, when, after all, shall come that general fire so often foretold, which shall either fall from heaven, or ascend out of hell, or (according to Albertus Magnus), proceed from both, and shall devour and consume all it meets with? Whither shall the miserable fly, when that river of flames, or (to say better), that inundation and deluge of fire shall so encompass them, as no place of surety shall be left; where nothing can avail but a holy life; when all besides shall perish, in that universal ruin of the whole world? What lamentations were in Rome, when it burnt for seven days together! What shrieks were heard in Troy, when it was wholly consumed with flames! What howling and astonishment in Pentapolis, when those cities were destroyed with fire from heaven! What weeping was there in Jerusalem, when they beheld the house of God, the glory of their kingdom, the wonder of the world, involved in fire and smoke! Imagine what these people felt; they saw their houses and goods on fire, and no possibility of saving them; when the husband heard the shrieks and cries of his dying wife; the father, of his little children; and, unawares, perceived himself so encompassed with flames, that he could neither relieve them, nor free himself. What shall it then profit the worldlings, to have rich vessels of gold and silver, curious embroideries, precious tapestries, pleasant gardens, sumptuous palaces, and all what the world now esteems, when they shall with their own eyes, behold their costly palaces burnt, their rich and curious pieces of gold melted, and their flourishing and pleasant orchards consumed, without power to preserve them or themselves? All shall burn, and with it the world, and all the memory and fame of it shall die; and that which mortals thought to be immortal, shall then end and perish.—Jeremy Taylor.

Verse 9.—“Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger.” They shall not only be cast into a furnace of fire (Matt. xiii. 42), but he shall make them themselves as a fiery oven or furnace, they shall be their own tormentors, the reflections and terrors of their own consciences will be their hell. Those that might have had Christ to rule and save them, but rejected him, and fought against him, even the remembrance of that will be enough to make them to eternity a fiery oven to themselves.—Matthew Henry.

Verse 9.—“Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven:” thou shalt make them on fire within, by the consciousness of their ungodliness: “In the time of thy countenance;” in the time of thy manifestation.—Augustine.

Verse 9.—“As a fiery oven,” where the burning is extremely hot, the heat striking upon what is in it from all sides, above, below, and about, on all hands, and the door closed from going out, or from suffering any cool refreshment to come in.—David Dickson.

Verse 9.—“As a fiery oven.” Shall make them like a vault of fire, literally, “an oven,” as in our translation, or “furnace of fire.” Bishop Horsley remarks, “It describes the smoke of the Messiah’s enemies perishing by fire, ascending like the smoke of a furnace. ‘The smoke of their torments shall ascend for ever and ever.’” How awfully grand is that description of the ruins of the cities of the plain, as the prospect struck on Abraham’s eye on the fatal morning of their destruction! “And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.” Milton puts it—

Verse 9.—The Chaldee reads:—“The fire of Gehenna, or hell.”—John Morison.

Verse 9.—“The time of thine anger.” If God be willing to pour out his heavy displeasure upon those that displease him, what can hinder his mighty arm from performing? Creatures indeed may be angry, but oftentimes, like drones without stings, cannot hurt; as cannons charged with powder without shot only make a roaring; like the Pope’s Bulls, threaten many, hurt none but those whose consciences are enslaved. Saul may be angry at David, but cannot find him out; but from God’s all-piercing eye none can hide himself. Satan may desire to kill Job, Jonah may be angry till death for Nineveh’s preservation; yet God puts a bit in both their mouths, who, if he be angry, nothing can be holden out of his reach. Princes, if they take captives, may have them rescued from them again, as Lot was from the King of Sodom; bought with a price, as Joseph of the Ishmaelites. But no power can rescue us from God’s anger, no ransom but Christ’s blood redeem us. God’s will being set afoot, all his attributes follow; if his will say, Be angry, his eye seeks out the object of his anger, and finds it; his wisdom tempers the cup, his hand whets the sword, his arm strikes the blow. Thus you see there is a time of God’s anger for sin, because he will have it so.—John Cragge.