EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS (3)

Verse 4.—“The beauty of the Lord.” The Lord’s beauty, to be seen in his house, is not the beauty of his essence, for so no man can see God and live (Exod. xxxiii. 18, 20); before this glorious beauty the angels cover their faces with their wings (Isa. vi. 1, 2); but it is the beauty of his ordinances, wherein God doth reveal to the eyes of men’s minds, enlightened by his Spirit, the pleasant beauty of his goodness, justice, love, and mercy in Jesus Christ.—Thomas Pierson, M.A., 1570-1633.

Verse 4.—“The beauty of the Lord.”—“Beauty” is too particular a word to express the fulness of the Holy Ghost, the pleasantness or the delight of God. Take the word in a general sense, in your apprehensions. It may be the object of all senses, inward and outward. Delight is most transcendent for pleasantness; for indeed God in his ordinances, is not only “beauty” to the eye of the soul, but is ointment to the smell, and sweetness to the taste, and all in all to all the powers of the soul. God in Christ, therefore, he is delightful and sweet.... “The beauty of the Lord” is especially the amiable things of God, which is his mercy and love, that makes all other things beautiful that is in the church.—Richard Sibbes.

Verse 4.—“To enquire in his temple.” The more grace the more business ye will find ye have to do with God in his ordinances; little grace hath little to do, and much grace hath much to do; he hath always business with God, special earnest business. “To behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.” Oh, I have somewhat to enquire after; I am to do something by this duty, and therefore cannot trifle. He that comes to visit his friend in a compliment, he talks, he walks, he trifles, and goes home again; but he that comes upon business, he is full of it: he is like Abraham’s honest and faithful servant. Gen. xxiv. 33. “And there was set meat before him to eat: but he said, I will not eat, until I have told my errand.” I have great business with the Lord, about the church, and about my soul, and I will not eat, nor talk, nor think, nor dally about anything, till I have told mine errand, or heard my Maker’s errand unto me. And for this end it’s a rare thing to carry somewhat always on the spirit, to spread before God, a heart pregnant with some needful request or matter whereof to treat with God. Psalm xlv. 1.—Richard Steele’s “Antidote against Distractions,” 1673.

Verse 4.—It was David’s earnest prayer, “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.” There are many that pray David’s words, but not with David’s heart. Unum petii, one thing have I desired, de præterito, for the time past; et hoc requiram, this I will still seek after, de futuro, for the time to come: I have required it long, and this suit I will urge till I have obtained it. What? To dwell in some of the houses of God all the days of my life, and to leave them to my children after me; not to serve him there with devotion, but to make the place mine own possession? These love the house of God too well; they love it to have and to hold: but because the conveyance is made by the lawyer, and not by the minister, their title will be found nought in the end; and if there be not a nisi prius to prevent them, yet at that great day of universal audit, the Judge of all the world shall condemn them. By this way, the nearer to the church, the further from God. The Lord’s temple is ordained to gain us to him, not for us to gain it from him. If we love the Lord, we “will love the habitation of his house, and the place where his honour dwelleth;” that so by being humble frequenters of his temple below, we may be made noble saints of his house above, the glorious kingdom of Jesus Christ.—Thomas Adams.

Verse 4.—David being in this safe condition, what doth he now think upon or look at, as his main scope? Not as Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, to sit still and be merry, when he had overcome the Romans and all his enemies, as he sometime said to Cyneas, the philosopher, but to improve his rest to perpetual piety, in going from day to day to God’s house, as Hannah is said afterwards to have done. Luke ii. And this, first, for the solace of his soul, in seeing the beauty of his sanctuary. Secondly, that he might still be directed aright and be safe. Thirdly, that he might yet be more highly exalted in kingly glory. Fourthly, for all this, as he should have abundant cause, sacrificing and singing Psalms to God without ceasing: see verses 5, 6.—John Mayer.

Verse 4.—O my soul, what sights have I seen in the house of God! what provisions have I tasted! what entertainments have I had! what enlargements in prayer and answers thereto! what impressions under his word, what entertainment at his table, as he has sometimes brought me into his banqueting-house, and his banner over me has been love! And though I cannot, it may be, say so much of this as some others; yet what I have found, I cannot but remember with thankfulness, and desire more; and as this was in the house of God, here would I still desire to dwell.—Daniel Wilcox, 1676-1733.

Verse 5.—“The time of trouble.” Though God does not always deliver his people out of trouble, yet he delivers them from the evil of trouble, the despair of trouble, by supporting the spirit; nay, he delivers by trouble, for he sanctifies the trouble to cure the souls, and by less troubles delivers from greater.—From a Broad Sheet in the British Museum, dated, “London: printed for D.M., 1678.”

Verse 5.—“He shall hide me.” The word here used means to hide, to secrete, and then, to defend or protect. It would properly be applied to one who had fled from oppression, or from any impending evil, and who should be secreted in a house or cavern, and thus rendered safe from pursuers, or from the threatening evil.—Albert Barnes.

Verse 5.—“Pavilion” comes from papilio, a butterfly. It signifies a tent made of cloth stretched out on poles, which in form resembles in some measure the insect above named.—Adam Clarke.

Verse 5.—“In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me.” He alludes to the ancient custom of offenders, who used to flee to the tabernacle or altar, where they esteemed themselves safe. 1 Kings ii. 28.—Matthew Pool.

Verse 5.—“In the secret of his tabernacle.” Were there no other place, he would put me in the holy of holies, so that an enemy would not dare to approach me.—Adam Clarke.

Verse 6.—“Now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me.” A man cannot drown so long as his head is above water. Now, it is the proper office of hope to do this for the Christian in times of any danger. Luke xxi. 28. “When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads: for your redemption draweth nigh.” A strange time, one would think, for Christ then to bid his disciples lift up their heads in, when they see other men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth (verse 26); yet now is the time of the rising of their sun, when others’ is setting, and the blackness of darkness is overtaking others; because now the Christian’s feast is coming, for which hope hath saved its stomach so long. “Your redemption draweth nigh.” Two things make the head hang down—fear and shame; hope easeth the Christian’s heart of both these, and so forbids him to give any sign of a desponding mind by a dejected countenance.—William Gurnall.

Verse 6.—“Therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy.” “Surely,” some may say, “he could have called on God beyond the precincts of the temple. Wherever he wandered as an exile, he carried with him the precious promise of God, so that he needed not to put so great a value upon the sight of the external edifice. He appears, by some gross imagination or other, to suppose that God could be enclosed by wood and stones.” But if we examine the words more carefully, it will be easy to see, that his object was altogether different from a mere sight of the noble building and its ornaments, however costly. He speaks, indeed, of the temple, but he places that beauty not so much in the goodliness that was to be seen by the eye, as in its being the celestial pattern which was shown to Moses, as it is written in Exod. xxv. 40: “And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount.” As the fashion of the temple was not framed according to the wisdom of man, but was an image of spiritual things, the prophet directed his eyes and all his affections to this object. Their madness is, therefore, truly detestable who wrest this place in favour of pictures and images, which, instead of deserving to be numbered among temple ornaments, are rather like dung and filth, defiling all the purity of holy things.—John Calvin.

Verse 8.—“When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” In the former verse, David begins a prayer to God, “Hear, O Lord; have mercy upon me, and answer me.” This verse is a ground of that prayer, “Seek ye my face,” saith God. The heart answers again, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek;” therefore I am encouraged to pray to thee. In the words are contained God’s command and David’s obedience. God’s warrant and David’s work answerable, the voice and the echo: the voice, “Seek my face;” the rebound back again of a gracious heart, “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” “When thou saidst.” It is not in the original. It only makes way to the sense. Passionate speeches are usually abrupt: “Seek my face:” “Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”... God is willing to be known. He is willing to open and discover himself; God delights not to hide himself. God stands not upon state, as some emperors do that think their presence diminisheth respect. God is no such God, but he may be searched into. Man, if any weakness be discovered, we can soon search into the depth of his excellency; but with God it is clean otherwise. The more we know of him, the more we shall admire him. None admire him more than the blessed angels, that see most of him, and the blessed spirits that have communion with him. Therefore he hides not himself, nay, he desires to be known; and all those that have his Spirit desire to make him known. Those that suppress the knowledge of God in his will, what he performs for men, and what he requires of them, they are enemies to God and of God’s people. They suppress the opening of God, clean contrary to God’s meaning; “Seek my face;” I desire to be made known, and lay open myself to you. Therefore we may observe by the way, that when we are in any dark condition, that a Christian finds not the beams of God shining on him, let him not lay the blame upon God, as if God were a God that delighted to hide himself. Oh, no! it is not his delight. He loves not strangeness to his poor creatures. It is not a point of his policy. He is too great to affect[1] such poor things. No; the fault is altogether in us. We walk not worthy of such a presence; we want humility and preparation. If there be any darkness in the creature, that he finds God doth not so shine on him as in former times, undoubtedly the cause is in himself; for God saith, “Seek my face.” He desires to reveal himself.—Richard Sibbes.

Verse 8.—“When thou saidst, Seek ye my face,” etc. All the Spirit’s motions are seasonable, and therefore not to be put off; for delay is a kind of denial, and savours of such ungrateful contempt, as must needs be very displeasing to him. “When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” God does not only expect such an answer, but expects it immediately upon his call. Whenever he blows with his wind, he looks that we should spread our sails. If we refuse his offered help, we may deservedly want it when desired. As Christ withdrew himself from the spouse because she let him stand knocking so long at the door of her heart, and she still deferred to open, and tired out his loving forbearance with vain and frivolous excuses. Sol. Song, v. 2, etc. But as we must not omit the present performance of any duty which he excites unto, we must not check his influences by being weary of the duties which he assists us in: if we do not improve extraordinary aids by holding out the longer, we provoke him to depart.—Timothy Cruso.