EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS (2)

Verse 4.—“Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.” When we are most retired from the world, then we are most fit to have, and usually have, most communion with God. If a man would but abridge himself of sleep, and wake with holy thoughts, when deep sleep falleth upon sorrowful labouring men, he might be entertained with visions from God, though not such visions as Eliphaz and others of the saints have had, yet visions he might have. Every time God communicates himself to the soul, there is a vision of love, or mercy, or power, somewhat of God in his nature, or in his will, is showed unto us. David shows us divine work when we go to rest. The bed is not all for sleep: “Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.” Be still or quiet, and then commune with your hearts; and if you will commune with your hearts, God will come and commune with your hearts too, his Spirit will give you a loving visit and visions of his love.—Joseph Caryl.

Verse 4.—“Stand in awe.”

Verse 6.—Where Christ reveals himself there is satisfaction in the slenderest portion, and without Christ there is emptiness in the greatest fulness.—Alexander Grosse, on enjoying Christ, 1632.

Verse 6.—“Many,” said David, “ask who will shew us any good?” meaning riches, and honour, and pleasure, which are not good. But when he came to godliness itself, he leaves out “many,” and prayeth in his own person, “Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us;” as if none would join with him.—Henry Smith.

Verse 6.—“Who will shew us any good?” This is not a fair translation. The word any is not in the text, nor anything equivalent to it; and not a few have quoted it, and preached upon the text, placing the principal emphasis upon this illegitimate. The place is sufficiently emphatic. There are multitudes who say, Who will shew us good? Man wants good; he hates evil as evil, because he has pain, suffering, and death through it; and he wishes to find that supreme good which will content his heart, and save him from evil. But men mistake this good. They look for a good that is to gratify their passions; they have no notion of any happiness that does not come to them through the medium of their senses. Therefore they reject spiritual good, and they reject the supreme God, by whom alone all the powers of the soul of man can be gratified.—Adam Clarke.

Verse 6.—“Lift thou up,” etc. This was the blessing of the high priest and is the heritage of all the saints. It includes reconciliation, assurance, communion, benediction, in a word, the fulness of God. Oh, to be filled therewith!—C. H. S.

Verses 6, 7.—Lest riches should be accounted evil in themselves, God sometimes gives them to the righteous; and lest they should be considered as the chief good, he frequently bestows them on the wicked. But they are more generally the portion of his enemies than his friends. Alas! what is it to receive and not to be received? to have none other dews of blessing than such as shall be followed by showers of brimstone? We may compass ourselves with sparks of security, and afterwards be secured in eternal misery. This world is a floating island, and so sure as we cast anchor upon it, we shall be carried away by it. God, and all that he has made, is not more than God without anything that he has made. He can never want treasure who has such a golden mine. He is enough without the creature, but the creature is not anything without him. It is, therefore, better to enjoy him without anything else, than to enjoy everything else without him. It is better to be a wooden vessel filled with wine, than a golden one filled with water.—William Secker’s Nonsuch Professor, 1660.

Verse 7.—What madness and folly is it that the favourites of heaven should envy the men of the world, who at best do but feed upon the scraps that come from God’s table! Temporals are the bones; spirituals are the marrow. Is it below a man to envy the dogs, because of the bones? And is it not much more below a Christian to envy others for temporals, when himself enjoys spirituals?—Thomas Brooks.

Verse 7.—“Thou hast put gladness in my heart.” The comforts which God reserves for his mourners are filling comforts (Rom. xv. 13); “The God of hope fill you with joy” (John xvi. 24); “Ask that your joy may be full.” When God pours in the joys of heaven they fill the heart, and make it run over (2 Cor. vii. 4); “I am exceeding joyful;” the Greek is, I overflow with joy, as a cup that is filled with wine till it runs over. Outward comforts can no more fill the heart than a triangle can fill a circle. Spiritual joys are satisfying (Psalm lxiii. 5); “My heart shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips;” “Thou hast put gladness in my heart.” Worldly joys do put gladness into the face, but the spirit of God puts gladness into the heart; divine joys are heart joys (Zech. x. 7; John xvi. 22); “Your heart shall rejoice” (Luke i. 47); “My spirit rejoiced in God.” And to show how filling these comforts are, which are of a heavenly extraction, the Psalmist says they create greater joy than when “corn and wine increase.” Wine and oil may delight but not satisfy; they have their vacuity and indigence. We may say, as Zech. x. 2, “They comfort in vain;” outward comforts do sooner cloy than cheer, and sooner weary than fill. Xerxes offered great rewards to him that could find out a new pleasure; but the comforts of the Spirit are satisfactory, they recruit the heart (Psalm xciv. 19), “Thy comforts delight my soul.” There is as much difference between heavenly comforts and earthly, as between a banquet that is eaten, and one that is painted on the wall.—Thomas Watson.

Verse 8.—It is said of the husbandman, that having cast his seed into the ground, he sleeps and riseth day and night, and the seed springs and grows he knoweth not how. Mark iv. 26, 27. So a good man having by faith and prayer cast his care upon God, he resteth night and day, and is very easy, leaving it to his God to perform all things for him according to his holy will.—Matthew Henry.

Verse 8.—When you have walked with God from morning until night, it remaineth that you conclude the day well, when you would give yourself to rest at night. Wherefore, first look back and take a strict view of your whole carriage that day past. Reform what you find amiss; and rejoice, or be grieved, as you find you have done well or ill, as you have advanced or declined in grace that day. Secondly, since you cannot sleep in safety if God, who is your keeper (Psalm cxi. 4, 5), do not wake and watch for you (Psalm cxxvii. 1); and though you have God to watch when you sleep, you cannot be safe, if he that watcheth be your enemy. Wherefore it is very convenient that at night you renew and confirm your peace with God by faith and prayer, commending and committing yourself to God’s tuition by prayer (Psalm iii. 4, 5; Psalm xcii. 2), with thanksgiving before you go to bed. Then shall you lie down in safety. Psalm iv. 8. All this being done, yet while you are putting off your apparel, when you are lying down, and when you are in bed, before you sleep, it is good that you commune with your own heart. Psalm iv. 4. If possibly you can fall asleep with some heavenly meditation, then will your sleep be more sweet (Prov. iii. 21, 24, 25); and more secure (Prov. vi. 21, 22); your dreams fewer, or more comfortable; your head will be fuller of good thoughts (Prov. vi. 22), and your heart will be in a better frame when you awake, whether in the night or in the morning.—Condensed from Henry Scudder’s Daily Walk, 1633.

Verse 8.—“I will both,” etc. We have now to retire for a moment from the strife of tongues and the open hostility of foes, into the stillness and privacy of the chamber of sleep. Here, also, we find the “I will” of trust. “I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep; for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.” God is here revealed to us as exercising personal care in the still chamber. And there is something here which should be inexpressibly sweet to the believer, for this shows the minuteness of God’s care, the individuality of his love; how it condescends and stoops, and acts, not only in great, but also in little spheres; not only where glory might be procured from great results, but where nought is to be had save the gratitude and love of a poor feeble creature, whose life has been protected and preserved, in a period of helplessness and sleep. How blessed would it be if we made a larger recognition of God in the still chamber; if we thought of him as being there in all hours of illness, of weariness, and pain; if we believed that his interest and care are as much concentrated upon the feeble believer there as upon his people when in the wider battle field of the strife of tongues. There is something inexpressibly touching in this “laying down” of the Psalmist. In thus lying down he voluntarily gave up guardianship of himself; he resigned himself into the hands of another; he did so completely, for in the absence of all care he slept; there was here a perfect trust. Many a believer lies down, but it is not to sleep. Perhaps he feels safe enough so far as his body is concerned, but cares and anxieties invade the privacy of his chamber; they come to try his faith and trust; they threaten, they frighten, and alas! prove too strong for trust. Many a poor believer might say, “I will lay me down, but not to sleep.” The author met with a touching instance of this, in the case of an aged minister whom he visited in severe illness. This worthy man’s circumstances were narrow, and his family trials were great; he said, “The doctor wants me to sleep, but how can I sleep with care sitting on my pillow?” It is the experience of some of the Lord’s people, that although equal to an emergency or a continued pressure, a reaction sets in afterwards; and when they come to be alone their spirits sink, and they do not realise that strength from God, or feel that confidence in him which they felt while the pressure was exerting its force.... There is a trial in stillness; and oftentimes the still chamber makes a larger demand upon loving trust than the battle field. O that we could trust God more and more with personal things! O that he were the God of our chamber, as well as of our temples and houses! O that we could bring him more and more into the minutiæ of daily life! If we did thus, we should experience a measure of rest to which we are, perhaps, strangers now; we should have less dread of the sick chamber; we should have that unharassed mind which conduces most to repose, in body and soul; we should be able to say, “I will lie down and sleep, and leave to-morrow with God!” Ridley’s brother offered to remain with him during the night preceding his martyrdom, but the bishop declined, saying, that “he meant to go to bed, and sleep as quietly as ever he did in his life.”—Philip Bennett Power’s ‘I Wills’ of the Psalms.

Verse 8.—Due observation of Providence will both beget and secure inward tranquility in your minds amidst the vicissitudes and revolutions of things in this unstable vain world. “I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep; for the Lord only maketh me dwell in safety.” He resolves that sinful fears of events shall not rob him of his inward quiet, nor torture his thoughts with anxious presages: he will commit all his concerns into that faithful fatherly hand that had hitherto wrought all things for him; and he means not to lose the comfort of one night’s rest, nor bring the evil of to-morrow upon the day; but knowing in whose hand he was, wisely enjoys the sweet felicity of a resigned will. Now this tranquility of our minds is as much begotten and preserved by a due consideration of providence as by anything whatsoever.—John Flavel, 1627-1691.

Verse 8.—Happy is the Christian, who having nightly with this verse, committed himself to his bed as to his grave, shall at last, with the same words, resign himself to his grave as to his bed, from which he expects in due time to arise, and sing a morning hymn with the children of the resurrection.—George Horne, D.D., 1776.