EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

Whole Psalm.—This is the first of the seven alphabetical Psalms, the others being the 34th, 37th, 111th, 112th, 119th, and 145th. They are specimens of that acrostic mode of writing which seems to have been once so fashionable among the Jews, as is testified by numerous instances of such composition, which are to be met with in their works. Other poetic artifices were likewise adopted. We find many instances of poems being so constructed, that a prayer name, or some particular sentiment, would be not unfrequently expressed by the initial letters of the verses. See Bartolocci’s “Bibliotheca Rabbinica,” vol. ii. p. 260, where examples of such artifices are cited.—George Phillips, B.D., in “The Psalms in Hebrew with a Commentary,” 1846.

Whole Psalm.—This is the first fully alphabetic Psalm.... The only lesson which the use of the alphabetic form may teach is this:—that the Holy Spirit was willing to throw his words into all the moulds of human thought and speech; and whatever ingenuity man may exhibit in intellectual efforts, he should consecrate these to his Lord, making him the “Alpha and Omega” of his pursuits.—Andrew A. Bonar.

Whole Psalm.—Saving grace is a secret that no man knows but the elect and the elect cannot know it neither without special illumination:—1. Special showing—“Shew me thy ways, O Lord,” saith David. 2. Barely showing will not serve the turn, but there must be a special teaching—“Teach me thy paths,” ver. 4. 3. Bare teaching will not avail neither, but there must be a special inculcative teaching—“Teach me in thy ways,” to ver. 8. 4. Inculcative teaching will not do the deed neither, but there must be a special directive teaching—“Guide in judgment and teach,” ver. 9. 5. Directive teaching will not be sufficient neither, but there must be a special manu-ductive teaching—“Lead me forth in thy truth, and teach me,” ver. 5. 6. Manu-ductive teaching will not be effectual, but there must be also a special, choice teaching, a determination of the very will, an elective teaching—“Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose,” verse 12. And what secret is this? not common grace, for that is not the secret of the elect, but special and peculiar grace. 1. The special grace of prayer—“Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul,” verse 1. 2. A special grace of faith—“My God, I trust in thee,” ver. 2. 3. A special grace of repentance—“Remember not the sins of my youth,” etc., verse 7. 4. A special grace of hope—“My hope is in thee,” verse 21. 5. A special grace of continual living in God’s sight, and dependence upon God—“Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord,” verse 15. 6. Which is the root of all God’s special and eternal favour and mercy—“Remember, O Lord thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old,” verse 6; even God’s special mercy to him in particular, verse 11.—William Fenner, in “Hidden Manna,” 1626.

Whole Psalm.—In these four Psalms which immediately follow one another we may find the soul of David presented in all the several postures of piety—lying, standing, sitting, kneeling. In the twenty-second Psalm, he is lying all along, falling flat on his face, low grovelling on the ground, even almost entering into a degree of despair. Speaking of himself in the history of Christ in the mystery, “My God. why hast thou forsaken me?” In the twenty-third Psalm, he is standing, and through God’s favour, in despite of his foes, trampling and triumphing over all opposition; “The Lord is my shepherd, therefore shall I lack nothing.” In the twenty-fourth Psalm he is sitting, like a doctor in his chair, or a professor in his place, reading a lecture of divinity, and describing the character of that man—how he must be accomplished—“who shall ascend into the holy hill,” and hereafter be partaker of happiness. In this twenty-fifth Psalm, he is kneeling, with hands and voice lifted up to God, and on these two hinges the whole Psalm turneth; the one is a hearty beseeching of God’s mercy, the other a humble bemoaning of his own misery.—Thomas Fuller.

Verse 1.—“Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.” The lifting up of the heart presupposeth a former dejection of his soul. The soul of man is pressed down with sin and with the cares of this world, which, as lead doth the net, draweth it so down, that it cannot mount above till God send spiritual prayers, as cork to the net, to exalt it; which arise out of faith, as the flame doth out of the fire, and which must be free of secular cares, and all things pressing down, which showeth unto us that worldlings can no more pray than a mole is able to fly. But Christians are as eagles which mount upward. Seeing then the heart of man by nature is fixed to the earth, and of itself is no more able to rise therefrom than a stone which is fixed in the ground, till God raises it by his power, word, and workmen; it should be our principal petition to the Lord, that it would please him to draw us, that we might run after him; that he would exalt and lift up our hearts to heaven, that they may not lie still in the puddle of this earth.—Archibald Symson.

Verse 1.—“Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.” A godly man prays as a builder builds. Now a builder first layeth a foundation, and because he cannot finish in one day, he comes the second day, and finds the frame standing that he made the first day, and then he adds a second day’s work; and then he comes a third day and finds his two former days’ work standing; then he proceeds to a third day’s work, and makes walls to it, and so he goes on till his building be finished. So prayer is the building of the soul till it reach up to heaven; therefore a godly heart prays, and reacheth higher and higher in prayer, till at last his prayers reach up to God.—William Fenner.

Verse 1.—“Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul:” unto thee in the fulness of thy merits, unto thee in the riches of thy grace; unto thee in the embraces of thy love and comforts of thy Spirit; unto thee, that thy thorns may be my crown, thy blood my balsam, thy curse my blessing, thy death my life, thy cross my triumph. Thus is my “life hid with Christ in God;” and if so, then where should be my soul, but where is my life? And, therefore, “unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.” ... O make good thy name of Lord unto me; as Lord, rebuke Satan and restrain all earthly and carnal affections, that they do not once dare to whisper a temptation to my soul, a distraction to my thoughts, whilst I am in communion with thee, in prayer at thy holy ordinance. Do thou as Lord, rule me by thy grace, govern me by thy Spirit, defend me by thy power, and crown me with thy salvation. Thou Lord, the preserver of heaven and earth, “thou openest thy hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.” Psalm cxlv. 16. O open now thine hand, thy bosom, thy bounty, thy love, and satisfy the desires of my longing soul, which I here “lift up unto thee.”—Robert Mossom, 1657.

Verse 1.—“Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.” Cyprian saith, that in the primitive times the minister was wont to prepare the people’s minds to pray, by prefacing, Sursum corda, lift up your hearts. The Jews at this day write upon the walls of their synagogues these words, Tephillah belo cavannah ceguph belo neshamah; that is, A prayer without the intention of the affection is like a body without a soul. And yet their devotion is a mere outside, saith one—a brainless head and a soulless body: “This people draweth nigh to me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” Isaiah xxix. 13. A carnal man can as little lift up his heart in prayer, as a mole can fly. A David finds it a hard task; since the best heart is lumpish, and naturally beareth downwards, as the poise of a clock, as the lead of a net. Let us therefore “lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us;” and pray to God to draw us up to himself, as the loadstone doth the iron.—John Trapp.

Verse 1.—“Unto thee I lift up my soul.” This follows by a natural consequence after the sublime appeal in the foregoing Psalm to the gates of heaven to lift up their heads to receive Christ, the Lord of hosts and the King of glory, ascending into heaven. As the Collect for Ascension-day expresses it, “Grant, O Lord, that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to have ascended into the heavens, so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend;” and for the Sunday after Ascension, “O God, who hast exalted thine only Son with great triumph to thy kingdom in heaven, send thy Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us to the same place, whither our Saviour Christ is gone before.”—Christopher Wordsworth, in loc.

Verse 1.—“I lift up my soul,” alluding to the sacrifices, which were wont to be lifted up. Hence prayers not answered, not accepted, are said to be stopped from ascending. Lam. iii. 44. When you met with such expressions in the Old Testament concerning prayer, you must still understand them to be allusions to the sacrifices, because the sacrifices were lifted up and did ascend.—Joseph Caryl.

Verse 1.—“My soul.” But how shall I call it mine, seeing it is thine, thine by purchase, thine having bought it with thy blood? Yea, is it not thy spouse whom thou hast wedded to thyself by thy Spirit through faith? And is not this holy sacrament the marriage feast? If so, sure then, my Jesus, I was lost in myself, till found in thee; and therefore my soul is now, and not till now, truly mine, in being wholly thine; so that I can say with confidence, “I lift up my soul unto thee.”—Robert Mossom.

Verse 2, 3.—When David had prayed, “O my God, I trust in thee; let me not be ashamed!” In the next verse, as if conscious to himself that his prayers were too restrictive, narrow, and niggardly, he enlargeth the bounds thereof, and builds them on a broader bottom, “Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed.” Thus it is that charity in the midst of our religious devotions must have rehoboth (room enough to expatiate in). Our petitions must not be pent or confined to our own private good, but extended to the benefit of all God’s servants, in what condition soever.—Thomas Fuller.

Verse 3.—“Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed.” To wit, neither by their own disappointments, nor mine. For this last some add, because if he should fail of his hopes, he knew this would be a great discouragement of others.—Arthur Jackson, M.A., 1593-1666.

Verse 3.—“Let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.” All persons who transgress, do it, in some sense, without cause; since they cannot excuse or justify their conduct. God is so amiable and excellent in every part of his great name, that he deserves our constant reverence and love. His law is so holy, just, and good, and all his precepts concerning all things so righteous and calculated to make us happy, that the mouth of every transgressor must be stopped. Hence we all must be covered with shame, if dealt with according to our deserts, for all have sinned. But since God has promised to be merciful to those who truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy gospel, shame will be the portion of those only who wilfully persist in their wickedness, and refuse to return to God by Jesus Christ. These then are the persons whom the Psalmist speaks of as transgressing without cause, and doubtless these have no cloak for their sin.—William Richardson, 1825.

Verse 3.—“Let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.” Let shame be sent to the right owner, even to those that deal disloyally, unprovoked on my part. And so it was; for Achitophel hanged himself, Absalom was trussed up by the hand of God, and dispatched by Joab; the people that conspired with him, partly perished by the sword, and partly fled home, much ashamed of their enterprise. Oh, the power of prayer! what may not the saints have for asking?—John Trapp.

Verse 4.—“Shew me thy ways, O Lord,” etc. There are the “ways” of men, and the “ways” of God; the “paths” of sin, and the “paths” of righteousness: there are “thy ways,” and there are my ways; thine the ways of truth, mine the ways of error; thine which are good in thine eyes, and mine which are good in mine eyes; thine which lead to heaven, mine which lead to hell. Wherefore, “Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths,” lest I mistake mine own ways for thine; yea, lead me in the truth, and teach me, lest I turn out of thy ways into mine own: “shew me thy ways,” by the ministry of thy word; “teach me thy paths,” in the guidance of thy Spirit, “lead me in thy truth,” by the assistance of thy grace.—Robert Mossom.