EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS (3)

But I must profess that since I observed the course of the world, and the concord of the word and providence of God, I took it for a notable proof of man’s fall, and of the truth of the Scripture, and of the supernatural original of true sanctification, to find such a universal enmity between the holy and the serpentine seed, and to find Cain and Abel’s case so ordinarily exemplified, and he that is born after the flesh persecuting him that is born after the Spirit. And methinks to this day it is a great and visible help for the confirmation of our Christian faith.—Richard Baxter.

Verse 13.—“Slander.” Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.—William Shakespeare.

Verse 13.—“They took counsel together against me,” etc. While they mangled his reputation, they did it in such a manner as that they covered their wickedness under the appearance of grave and considerate procedure, in consulting among themselves to destroy him as a man who no longer ought to be tolerated on the earth. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that his mind was wounded by so many and so sharp temptations.—John Calvin.

Verse 14.—“But I trusted in thee, O Lord.” The rendering properly is, And I have trusted in thee, but the Hebrew copulative particle ו, vau, and, is used here instead of the adversitive particle yet, or nevertheless. David, setting the steadfastness of his faith in opposition to the assaults of the temptations of which he has made mention, denies that he had ever fainted, but rather maintains, on the contrary, that he stood firm in his hope of deliverance from God. Nor does this imply that he boasted of being so magnanimous and courageous that he could not be overthrown through the infirmity of the flesh. However contrary to one another they appear, yet these things are often joined together, as they ought to be, in the same person, namely, that while he pines away with grief, and is deprived of all strength, he is nevertheless supported by so strong a hope that he ceases not to call upon God. David, therefore, was not so overwhelmed in deep sorrow, and other direful sufferings, as that the hidden light of faith could not shine inwardly in his heart; nor did he groan so much under the weighty load of his temptations, as to be prevented from arousing himself to call upon God. He struggled through many obstacles to be able to make the confession which he here makes. He next defines the manner of his faith, namely, that he reflected with himself thus—that God would never fail him nor forsake him. Let us mark his manner of speech: I have said, Thou art my God. In these words he intimates that he was so entirely persuaded of this truth, that God was his God, that he would not admit even a suggestion to the contrary. And until this persuasion prevails so as to take possession of our minds, we shall always waver in uncertainty. It is, however, to be observed, that this declaration is not only inward and secret—made rather in the heart than with the tongue—but that it is directed to God himself, as to him who is the alone witness of it. Nothing is more difficult, when we see our faith derided by the whole world, than to direct our speech to God only, and to rest satisfied with this testimony which our conscience gives us, that he is our God. And certainly it is an undoubted proof of genuine faith, when, however fierce the waves are which beat against us, and however sore the assaults by which we are shaken, we hold fast this as a fixed principle, that we are constantly under the protection of God, and can say to him freely, Thou art our God.—John Calvin.

Verse 14.—“Thou art my God.” How much it is more worth than ten thousand mines of gold, to be able to say, God is mine! God’s servant is apprehensive of it, and he seeth no defect, but this may be complete happiness to him, and therefore he delights in it, and comforts himself with it. As he did sometime who was a great courtier in King Cyrus’s court, and one in favour with him; he was to bestow his daughter in marriage to a very great man, and of himself he had no great means; and therefore one said to him, O Sir, where will you have means to bestow a dowry upon your daughter proportionable to her degree? Where are your riches? He answered, What need I care, ὅπου Κυρος μοι φίλος, Cyrus is my friend. But may not we say much more, ὅπου Κυριος μοι φίλος, where the Lord is our friend, that hath those excellent and glorious attributes that cannot come short in any wants, or to make us happy, especially we being capable of it, and made proportionable.—John Stoughton’s “Righteous Man’s Plea to True Happinesse,” 1640.

Verse 15.—“My times are in thy hand.” It is observable that when, of late years, men grew weary of the long and tedious compass in their voyages to the East Indies, and would needs try a more compendious way by the North-West passage, it ever proved unsuccessful. Thus it is that we must not use any compendious way; we may not neglect our body, nor shipwreck our health, nor anything to hasten death, because we shall gain by it. He that maketh haste (even this way) to be rich shall not be innocent; for our times are in God’s hands, and therefore to his holy providence we must leave them. We have a great deal of work to do, and must not, therefore, be so greedy of our Sabbath-day, our rest, as not to be contented with our working-day, our labour. Hence it is that a composed frame of heart, like that of the apostle’s (Phil. i. 21), wherein either to stay and work, or to go and rest, is the best temper of all.—Edward Reynolds, in J. Spencer’s “Things New and Old.”

Verse 15.—“My times.” He does not use the plural number, in my opinion, without reason; but rather to mark the variety of casualties by which the life of man is usually harassed.—John Calvin.

Verse 15.—“In thy hand.” The watch hangs ticking against the wall, when every tick of the watch is a sigh, and a consciousness, alas! Poor watch! I called once to see a friend, the physician and the secretary of one of the most noble and admirable of the asylums for the insane in this country. A poor creature, with a clear, bright intelligence, only that some of its chords had become unstrung, who had usually occupied itself innocently by making or unmaking watches, had just before I called, exhibited some new, alarming symptoms, dashing one and then another upon the stone floor, and shivering them. Removed into a more safe room, I visited him with the secretary. “How came you to destroy your favourite watches, so much as you loved them, and so quiet as you are?” said my friend; and the poor patient replied, in a tone of piercing agony, “I could not bear the tick, tick, ticking, and so I dashed it on the pavement.” But when the watch is able to surrender itself to the maker, to the hand holding the watch, and measuring out the moments, it becomes a sight affecting indeed, but very beautiful, very sublime. We transfer our thought from the watch to the hand that holds the watch. “My times,” “Thy hand;” the watch and the hour have a purpose, and are not in vain. God gives man permission to behold two things. Man can see the whole work, the plan’s completeness, also the minutest work, the first step towards the plan’s completeness. Nothing is more certain, nothing are men more indisposed to perceive than this. We have to

To this end God’s real way is made up of all the ways of our life. His hand holds all our times. “My times;” “Thy hand.” Some lives greatly differ from others. This we know; but see, some lives fulfil life’s course, gain life’s crown—life in their degree. This, on the contrary, others quite miss. Yet, for even human strength there must be a love meted out to rule it. It is said, there is a moon to control the tides of every sea; is there not a master power for souls? It may not always be so, apparently, in the more earthly lives, but it is so in the heavenly: not more surely does the moon sway tides than God sways souls. It does seem sometimes as if man found no adequate external power, and stands forth ordained to be a law to his own sphere; but even then his times are in the hands of God, as the pathway of a star is in the limitations of its system—as the movements of a satellite are in the forces of its planet. But while I would not pause on morbid words or views of life, so neither do I desire you to receive or charge me with giving only a moody, morbid view of the world, and an imperfect theology; but far other. “My times are in thy hand”—the hand of my Saviour.

And now he is “the restorer of paths to dwell in.” The hand of Jesus is the hand which rules our times. He regulates our life-clock. Christ for and Christ in us. My times in his hand. My life can be no more in vain than was my Saviour’s life in vain.—E. Paxton Hood, in “Dark Sayings on a Harp,” 1865.

Verse 15.—When David had Saul at his mercy in the cave, those about him said, This is the time in which God will deliver thee. 1 Sam. xxiv. 4. No, saith David, the time is not come for my deliverance till it can be wrought without sin, and I will wait for that time; for it is God’s time, and that is the best time.—Matthew Henry.

Verse 16.—“Make thy face to shine upon thy servant.” When the cloud of trouble hideth the Lord’s favour, faith knoweth it may shine again, and therefore prayeth through the cloud for the dissolving of it. “Make thy face to shine upon thy servant.”—David Dickson.

Verse 18.—“Lying lips ... which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.” The primitive persecutors slighted the Christians for a company of bad, illiterate fellows, and therefore they used to paint the God of the Christians with an ass’s head and a book in his hand, saith Tertullian; to signify, that though they pretended learning, yet they were silly and ignorant people. Bishop Jewel, in his sermon upon Luke xi. 15, cites this out of Tertullian and applies it to his times. Do not our adversaries the like, saith he, against all that profess the gospel? Oh! say they, who are those that favour this way? None but shoemakers, tailors, weavers, and such as never were at the University. These are the bishop’s own words. Bishop White said in open court, that the Puritans were all a company of blockheads.—Charles Bradbury.

Verse 18.—“Lying lips ... which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.” In that venerable and original monument of the Vaudois Church, entitled “The Golden Lesson,” of the date 1100, we meet with a verse, which has been thus translated:—

Verse 19.—“Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee.” As a provident man will regulate his liberality towards all men in such a manner as not to defraud his children or family, nor impoverish his own house, by spending his substance prodigally on others; so God, in like manner, in exercising his beneficence to aliens from his family, knows well how to reserve for his own children that which belongs to them, as it were by hereditary right; that is to say, because of their adoption.—John Calvin.

Verse 19.—“Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee.”—Mark the phrase, “Laid up for them;” his mercy and goodness it is intended for them, as a father that lays by such a sum of money, and writes on the bag, “This is a portion for such a child.” But how comes the Christian to have this right to God, and all that vast and untold treasure of happiness which is in him? This indeed is greatly to be heeded; it is faith that gives him a good title to all this. That which maketh him a child, makes him an heir. Now, faith makes him a child of God. John i. 12, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” As therefore, if you would not call your birthright into question, and bring your interest in Christ and those glorious privileges that come along with him, under a sad dispute in your soul, look to your faith.—William Gurnall.