EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS (2)

Verse 5.—“Every day they wrest my words,” etc. Mr. Jewel, the Bishop of Salisbury, who, according to his life, died most godly and patiently, at the point of death used the versicle of the Hymn, “Te Deum,” “O Lord, in thee have I trusted, let me never be confounded,” whereupon, suppressing the rest, they published, that the principal champion of the heretics, in his very last words, cried he was confounded.—Lord Bacon’s “Bible Thoughts.”

Verse 5.—“They wrest my words.” Whatever Christ said in justification of himself was twisted to a meaning injurious to him. So it is still in the world, self-justification by words answers but little purpose with ungodly men.—W. Wilson, D.D., 1860.

Verse 6.—“They mark my steps.” Go whither I will, they are at my heels.—William Nicholson (1671), in “David’s Harp Strung and Tuned.”

Verse 8.—“Put thou my tears in thy bottle.” Among other things in the collection of Mr. Abbott, of Cairo, he had a lachrymatory, or tear bottle, which had been found in a tomb at Thebes. This interested me very much. The custom in old times was, when a person was ill, or in great distress, for his friends to go to see him, and take with them a tear bottle. Then, as the tears rolled down the cheeks of the sufferer, they were caught in these bottles, sealed up, and preserved as a memorial of the event. This is what David referred to in Psalm lvi. 8. “Put thou my tears into thy bottle.” But it implies much more than at first suggests itself, and much more than I can attempt to write. For instance, it is as if David had said, “Visit me, and behold my tears;” (“O visit me with thy salvation!”) for without such visit there could be no bottling of his tears. “Thou tellest my wanderings; O visit me, and behold my anguish; put my tears into thy bottle,” for “they have been my meat day and night.” Psalm xliii. 3. “Keep them before thee, by way of remembrance, and when thou seest the bottle, O think of him whose tears it contains. Are they not in thy book?” That is, God’s book of remembrance, that was written for those “who thought upon his name” (Mal. iii. 16), just as the kings of old used to keep a book of chronicles of important events. See Esther vi. 1-11.—John Gadsby, 1860.

[We insert this to show what has been said by others; but we do not think there is the slightest allusion to this piece of Roman etiquette in this text.—C. H. S.]

Verse 8.—“My tear:” the singular used collectively. “In thy bottle:” as if one should say, take care of my tears, as of a kind of wine that is very costly, and very pleasant to thee; or, that hereafter you may measure out to me just that quantity of joys: a metaphor from the keeper of a vineyard, who receives into his vessel the drops of the grapes pressed out by the wine-press of affliction. The word ותּר (uter[28]) denotes the manner in which they preserved their wine. (1 Samuel xvi. 20; Joshua ix. 4, 13), and milk also (Judges iv. 19).—Martin Geier.

Verse 8.—“Put thou my tears into thy bottle.” What a sweet thought is suggested here of God’s remembrance of his peoples’ affliction! It is an interesting figure of speech, of bottling their tears. But the sense is, they are remembered. And woe will be to the man that offends one of God’s little ones on his account. What are now bottles of tears, will be poured out in the end as so many vials of wrath. But reader! think how the tears of Jesus have been treasured up when shedding for the sins of his people.—Robert Hawker, 1753-1827.

Verse 8.—“Put thou my tears into thy bottle.” It is the witty observation of one, that God is said in Scripture to have a bag and a bottle, a bag for our sins, and a bottle for our tears; and that we should help to fill this, as we have that. There is an allusion here in the original that cannot be Englished.—John Trapp.

Verse 8.—“Are they not in thy book?” While we remain in this vale of misery, God keeps all our tears in a bottle; so precious is the water that is distilled from penitent eyes: and because he will be sure not to fail, he notes how many drops there be in his register. It was a precious ointment wherewith the woman in the Pharisee’s house (it is thought Mary Magdalene) anointed the feet of Christ; but her tears, wherewith she washed them, were more worth than her spikenard.—Abraham Wright, in “A Practical Commentary or Exposition upon the Book of Psalms,” 1661.

Verse 9.—“When I cry.” The cry of faith and prayer to God is more dreadful to our spiritual foes than the war-whoop of the Indian is to his surprised brother savages.—Adam Clarke.

Verse 9 (first clause).—It was somewhat that when David prayed he was saved from his enemies. “I will call on the Lord: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.” (2 Sam. xxii. 4); there is the defensive power of prayer; but it is more that it puts enemies to the foil. “When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back” and be put to flight: there is the offensive power of prayer. In David’s tower there was an armoury, thalpijoth, a place to hang swords with two edges, swords with two mouths (Cant. iv. 4); a defensive and an offensive edge. Both edges must be used by such as seek safety. Prayer is a sword with two edges. “Put up thy sword into his place,” says Christ to Peter; “for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” Matt. xxii. 52. But he that takes not this sword may happen to perish by the sword; and the drawing of this sword may save a man from perishing by the sword. Mark that last reason that our Saviour adds why Peter should put up his sword: “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?” (ver. 53.) As if he had said, If it were my mind to confound these mine enemies that now set upon me, I should not need thy sword to do it. I could pray to my Father, and could presently by prayer bring such forces into the field as should rout and scatter all mine enemies; hereby implying, that if he would, he could do his enemies more damage and mischief by his prayers against them than by the sword and all instruments of war. Prayer is twelve legions strong, yea, twelve legions of angels strong against enemies.—Jeremiah Dyke (1620), in the Righteous Man’s Tower.

Verse 9.—“This I know.” Faith goeth upon solid grounds, and is not a fallible conjecture, but a sure knowledge.—David Dickson.

Verse 10.—“In God will I praise his word: in the Lord will I praise his word.”—The first word, Elohim, is a name belonging to God as a judge, the second word, Jehovah, is a name of mercy. I will praise God whether he deal with me in a way of justice or in a way of mercy, when he hath thunder in his voice, as well as when he hath honey under his tongue. Oh, how should we praise God, and pleasure ourselves by such a frame!—Stephen Charnock.

Verse 10 (first clause).—By the assistance of God I shall be enabled to praise him for the performance of his promises.—Symon Patrick, 1626-1707.

Verse 12.—“Thy vows are upon me, O God.” Whoever is conversant with the Psalms of David, will find him frequently making vows, and careful in paying them. When these words dropt from him he was just delivered out of a pressing danger among the Philistines, with whom he took shelter from the rage of King Saul, who unweariedly pursued him; but he soon found that the remembrance of his past achievements to their damage was still so fresh amongst them, and they so exasperated thereupon, that his life was in constant danger. In his distress he flies to God, his wonted refuge, and sends up earnest addresses to him, vowing if he would open a way for his deliverance out of these new straits, he would show his grateful sense of so signal a mercy, by the exactness and accuracy of his future obedience. God hears and succours him; and he thereupon gratefully looks back, endeavours to renew the sense of his former obligation to his great Deliverer, and to stir up himself by suitable returns, and so cries out, “Thy vows are upon me, O God;” as if he should say, I resolve, O Lord, not to forget what was transacted while I was under my fears. Thou hast heard my cries, and I own myself firmly bound by my vows. I was serious and in earnest when I made them, and I will endeavour to show that I was so by my care to perform them. “Thy vows,” O God, made indeed on my part, but justly to be exacted on thine, “are upon me,” they do in reality hold me fast, and I desire not to be released. I am sensible I deserve to be stigmatised for a perfidious wretch if I ever forget them. This temper of holy David with reference to the vows he made on this occasion, should be ours with reference to all the sacred vows we any way come under. All Christians, as such, are necessarily under vows to the blessed God; and particular circumstances may make it expedient for us to come under special engagements to him. But wherever they are such as that they may justly be denominated vows of God, i.e., are such as his word will warrant; we should make holy David, as speaking in this text, our pattern, and set ourselves to imitate him, in seriously owning their binding force, and endeavouring to answer and pay them.—Edmund Calamy, in “A Practical Discourse Concerning Vows,” 1704.

Verse 12.—“Thy vows are upon me, O God.” A well-composed vow will make thee more circumspect and wary in the general course of thy life. Such an influence it hath, as doth more directly work on one particular part, yet is not terminated to that particular only. Thus it was with David. These “vows” were made when he was in danger of his life, as it seemeth from verse 13: for when God heard him, he delivered his soul from death: for this he vowed praises in particular, and he will render them. But, withal, he takes himself to be hereby engaged to a more exact and circumspect walk before God in all duties; so he expresseth himself in the latter part of verse 13.—Henry Hurst (1629-1696), in “The Morning Exercise at Cripplegate,” 1661.

Verses 12, 13.—“Thy vows are upon me, O God.” Passively, vows made to God, not by God; or the obligations of those vows and prayers which I have made and upon which I have received answers. Sacrifices of thanksgiving were called vows, as having been vowed to God upon the want, and to be paid upon the receipt, of mercy. Lev. i. 1, “If the sacrifice that is offered be a vow.” Thy vows are upon me; the fruit of my vows, so that I stand indebted to God for the return of praise. “Thou hast delivered.” He understands some great danger wherein he had sunk had not God stood by him, and from a greater mercy, the deliverance of his soul from death, argues for a less, the keeping his feet from falling. “That I may walk before God in the light of the living.” By light of the living is meant life, which is called being enlightened with the “light of the living.” Job. xxxiii. 30. Sometimes eternal life in heaven. John viii. 12, “He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” “To walk before God.” To walk obediently in the sight of God; with a respect to his presence; a walking unto all well pleasing. This is the last argument in the Psalm whereon he builds his strongest plea, as if he knew not what to urge if this should fail him; as if he should have said, Lord, I have had experience of thy wisdom in contriving, thy power in effecting, thy mercy in bestowing deliverance upon me, thy goodness in answering my vows and prayers. “Thou hast delivered from death,” a danger as great and unavoidable as death itself; O Lord, art not thou the same as thou wert? Art not thou still as wise to design, and as gracious to confer further mercy? Wilt thou not as certainly also deliver my feet from falling? The one contains his experience, the other the inference or conclusion he draws from it. Mercies received are in a special manner to be remembered. Mercies received are encouragements to ask, and strong grounds to hope for the mercies we want.—Stephen Charnock.