EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

Verse 1.—“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” Alice Driver, martyr, at her examination, put all the doctors to silence, so that they had not a word to say, but one looked upon another; then she said, “Have you no more to say? God be honoured, you be not able to resist the Spirit of God, in me, a poor woman. I was an honest poor man’s daughter, never brought up at the University as you have been; but I have driven the plough many a time before my father, I thank God; yet, notwithstanding, in the defence of God’s truth, and in the cause of my Master, Christ, by his grace I will set my foot against the foot of any of you all, in the maintenance and defence of the same; and if I had a thousand lives they should go for payment thereof.” So the Chancellor condemned her, and she returned to the prison joyful.—Charles Bradbury.

Verse 1.—“The Lord is my light,” etc. St. John tells us, that “in Christ was life; and the life was the light of men;” but he adds that “the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” John i. 4, 5. There is a great difference between the light and the eye that sees it. A blind man may know a great deal about the shining of the sun, but it does not shine for him—it gives him no light. So, to know that “God is light,” is one thing (1 John i. 5), and to be able to say, “The Lord is my light,” is quite another thing. The Lord must be the light by which the way of life is made plain to us—the light by which we may see to walk in that way—the light that exposes the darkness of sin—the light by which we can discover the hidden sins of our own hearts. When he is thus our light, then he is our salvation also. He is pledged to guide us right; not only to show us sin, but to save us from it. Not only to make us see God’s hatred of sin, and his curse upon it, but also to draw us unto God’s love, and to take away the curse. With the Lord lighting us along the road of salvation, who, or what need we fear? Our life is hid with Christ in God. Col. iii. 3. We are weak, very weak, but his “strength is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Cor. xii. 9. With the Lord himself pledged to be the strength of our life, of whom need we be afraid?—From Sacramental Meditations on the Twenty-seventh Psalm, 1843.

Verse 1.—“The Lord is my light.” “Light” which makes all things visible, was the first made of all visible things; and whether God did it for our example, or no, I know not; but ever since, in imitation of this manner of God’s proceeding, the first thing we do when we intend to do anything, is to get us “light.”—Sir Richard Baker.

Verse 1.—“The Lord is my light.” Adorable Sun, cried St. Bernard, I cannot walk without thee: enlighten my steps, and furnish this barren and ignorant mind with thoughts worthy of thee. Adorable fulness of light and heat, be thou the true noonday of my soul; exterminate its darkness, disperse its clouds; burn, dry up, and consume all its filth and impurities. Divine Sun, rise upon my mind, and never set.—Jean Baptiste Elias Avrillon, 1652-1729.

Verse 1.—“Whom shall I fear?” Neither spiritual nor military heroes do exploits through cowardice. Courage is a necessary virtue. In Jehovah is the best possible foundation for unflinching intrepidity.—William S. Plumer.

Verse 1.—“Of whom shall I be afraid?” I have no notion of a timid, disingenuous profession of Christ. Such preachers and professors are like a rat playing at hide-and-seek behind a wainscot, who puts his head through a hole to see if the coast is clear, and ventures out if nobody is in the way; but slinks back again if danger appears. We cannot be honest to Christ except we are bold for him. He is either worth all we can lose for him, or he is worth nothing.—H. G. Salter, A.M., in “The Book of Illustrations,” 1840.

Verse 2.—“When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.” There is no such dainty dish to a malicious stomach, as the flesh of an enemy; it goes down without chewing, and they swallow it up whole like cormorants. But though malice have a ravenous stomach, yet she hath but slow digestion; though her teeth be sharp, yet her feet are lame, at least apt to stumble; and this made well for David, for when his enemies came upon him to eat up his flesh, because they came upon the feet of malice, “they stumbled and fell.” A man may stumble and yet not fall; but to stumble and fall withal, is the proper stumbling of “the wicked,” and especially of the maliciously wicked; and such, it seems, was the stumbling of David’s enemies, because the enemies were such; and such I doubt not shall be the stumbling of mine enemies, because mine are such; and of what then, of whom now, should I be afraid?—Sir Richard Baker.

Verse 2.—“When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.” He describes his enemies by their malice, and by their ruin. 1. His enemies were cruel enemies, blood-suckers, eaters of flesh. We call them cannibals. As indeed men that have not grace, if they have greatness, and be opposed, their greatness is inaccessible, one man is a devil to another. The Scripture calls them “wolves, that leave nothing till morning.” Zeph. iii. 3. As the great fishes eat up the little ones, so great men they make no more conscience of eating up other men, than of eating bread; they make no more bones of overthrowing men and undoing them, than of eating bread. “They eat up my people as they eat bread.” Psalm xiv. 4. 2. But notwithstanding their cruelty, they were overthrown. Saith David, “When my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.” For, indeed, God’s children, when they are delivered, it is usually with the confusion of their enemies. God doth two things at once, because the special grievance of God’s children it is from inward and outward enemies. He seldom or never delivers them but with the confusion of their enemies. This will be most apparent at the day of judgment, when Satan, and all that are led by his spirit, all the malignant church, shall be sent to their own place, and the church shall be for ever free from all kind of enemies. When the church is most free, then the enemies of the church are nearest to destruction; like a pair of balances, when they are up at the one end, they are down at the other. So when it is up with the church, down go the enemies.—Richard Sibbes.

Verse 2.—“The wicked, mine enemies.” The wicked hate the godly; there is enmity between the seed of the woman and the serpent. Gen. iii. 15. As in nature there is an antipathy between the vine and the bay-tree, the elephant and the dragon. Vultures have an antipathy against sweet smells: so in the wicked there is an antipathy against the people of God; they hate the sweet perfumes of their graces. It is true the saints have their infirmities; but the wicked do not hate them for these, but for their holiness; and from this hatred ariseth open violence: the thief hates the light, therefore would blow it out.—Thomas Watson.

Verse 2.—There was great wisdom in the prayer of John Wesley: “Lord, if I must contend, let it not be with thy people.” When we have for foes and enemies those who hate good men, we have at least this consolation, that God is not on their side, and therefore it is essentially weak.—William S. Plumer.

Verse 3.—“Though an host should encamp against me,” etc. He puts the case of the greatest danger that can be. Though an host should encompass me, “my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this I will be confident.” Here is great courage for the time to come. Experience breeds hope and confidence. David was not so courageous a man of himself; but upon experience of God’s former comfort and assistance, his faith brake as fire out of the smoke, or as the sun out of a cloud. Though I was in such-and-such perplexities, yet for the time to come, I have such confidence and experience of God’s goodness, that I will not fear. He that seeth God by a spirit of faith in his greatness and power, he sees all other things below as nothing. Therefore, he saith here, he cares not for the time to come for any opposition; no, not of an army. “If God be with us, who can be against us?” Rom. viii. 31. He saw God in his power; and then, looking from God to the creature, alas! who was he? As Micah, when he had seen God sitting upon his throne; what was Ahab to him, when he had seen God once? So when the prophet David had seen God once, then “though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear,” etc.—Richard Sibbes.

Verse 3.—“Though an host should encamp against me,” etc. If I love my God, and I love him with a noble-spirited love, all my enemies will fight against me in vain; I shall never fear them, and the whole world cannot harm me. Charity cannot be offended, because she takes offence at nothing. Enemies, enviers, slanderers, persecutors, I defy you; if I love, I shall triumph over your attacks. Ye can take away my goods; but if my love has a generous spirit, I shall be always rich enough, and ye cannot take away my love, which alone makes all my riches and treasures. Ye may blacken my reputation; but as I hold you cheaply quit of all homage of praise and applause, I, with all my heart, give you a free leave to blame and to defame. Happily for me, ye cannot blacken me before my God, and his esteem alone makes amends to me, and rewards me, for all your contempt. Ye can persecute my body, but there I even will help you on by my penances; the sooner it shall perish, the sooner shall I be delivered from this domestic enemy, which is a burden to me. What harm, then, can ye do me? If I am resolved to suffer all and if I think I deserve all the outrages ye can do me, ye will only give more loftiness of spirit to my love, more brilliancy to my crown.—Jean Baptiste Elias Avrillon.

Verse 3.—Those who are willing to be combatants for God, shall also be more than conquerors through God. None are so truly courageous as those who are truly religious. If a Christian live, he knows by whose might he stands; and if he die, he knows for whose sake he falls. Where there is no confidence in God, there will be no continuance with God. When the wind of faith ceases to fill the sails, the ship of obedience ceases to plough the seas. The taunts of Ishmael shall never make an Isaac disesteem his inheritance.—William Secker.

Verses 3, 4.—The favourite grows great by the many favours, gifts, jewels, offices, the prince bestows on him. The Christian grows rich in experiences, which he wears as bracelets, and keeps as his richest jewels. He calls one Ebenezer—“hitherto God hath helped;” another Naphtali—“I have wrestled with God and prevailed;” another Gershom—“I was a stranger;” another Joseph—“God will yet add more;” and another, Peniel—“I have seen the face of God.” 1 Sam. vii. 12; Gen. xxx. 8; Ex. ii. 22; Gen. xxx. 24, and xxxii. 30. I have been delivered from the lion, therefore shall be from the bear; from lion and bear, therefore from the Philistines; from the Philistine, therefore from Saul; from Saul, therefore God will deliver me from every evil work, and preserve me blameless to his heavenly kingdom.—John Sheffield.

Verse 4.—“One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.” Some interpreters vary concerning what the Psalmist aims at; I understand thus much in a generality, which is clear, that he means a communion and fellowship with God, which is that one thing, which if a Christian had, he needs desire no more: that we should all desire and desire again and be in love with, and that is enough even to satisfy us, the fruition of God, and the beholding of him in his ordinances, in his temple, to have correspondency and fellowship and communion with him there. O God, vouchsafe us that! Now this is so infinitely sweet, that it was the Psalmist’s only desire, and the sum of all his desires here, and therefore much more in the tabernacle of heaven which doth make up the consummation and completeness of all our happiness.—John Stoughton.