EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS (4)

Verse 6.—“For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found,” etc. Seeing he is such a God, who should refuse or delay his return! Surely every rational and pious mind will, without delay, invoke so gentle and mild a Lord; will pray to him while he is exorable, or, as the Hebrew expresses it, in a time of finding. For he who promises pardon, does not promise to-morrow. There are tempora fandi—certain times in which he may be spoken with, and a certain appointed day of pardon and of grace, which if a man by stupid perverseness despise, or by sloth neglect, surely he is justly overwhelmed with eternal might and misery, and must necessarily perish by the deluge of divine wrath; since he has contemned and derided that Ark of salvation which was prepared and in which whoever enters into it shall be safe, while the world is perishing.—Robert Leighton.

Verse 6.—“For this shall every one that is godly pray to thee,” said David. “For this!” What? Because of his sins. And who? Not the wickedest, but the “godly,” in this respect, have cause to pray. And for what should he pray? Surely, for renewed pardon, for increase of grace, and for the perfection of glory. We cannot say we have no sin. Oh then, let us pray with David, “Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord!” Where there is a double emphasis observable it is not ab hoste, but a servo. Though God’s servant, yet he would not have God to enter into judgment with him. And again, ne intres, it is the very entrance into judgment that he dreads and prayeth against; not only do not proceed, but not so much as enter.—Nathanael Hardy.

Verse 6.—“For this shall every one that is godly.” We are here furnished with a fact which does not appear in the history of David. It is commonly supposed that after his grievous fall, till Nathan reproved him, he had been careless and stupefied; and this has often been adduced as a proof of the hardening nature of sin. But the thing was far otherwise. He was all the while tortured in his mind yet unwilling to humble himself before God, and condemn himself before men, as he ought to have done. He kept silence, and endeavoured to pass off the distress by time, palliation, and excuse. But the repression and concealment of his anguish preyed not only upon his peace, but his health, and endangered life itself. At length he was reduced to the deepest penitence, and threw himself, by an unqualified confession, on the compassion of God. “For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee.” Here we see not only that all the godly pray, but every one of them prays for pardon. This is the very thing which our Saviour teaches his disciples: “When ye pray, say, Forgive us our trespasses.” And this praying does not only regard the manifestation of forgiving mercy, as some would have it but the exercise of it.—William Jay.

Verse 6.—“Godly.” A godly man is like God, he hath the same judgment with God! he thinks of things as God doth; he hath a God-like disposition; he partakes of the divine nature. 2. Peter i. 4. A godly man doth bear God’s name and image: godliness is Godlikeness.—Thomas Watson.

Verse 6.—“A time.” There be seasons, which, if taken, sweeten actions, and open the door for their better entertainment: Prov. xxv. 11, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver;” the Hebrew is, A word spoken upon its wheels: fit times and seasons are wheels to carry words with great advantage. And so for actions; when things are done in due time they are beautiful, acceptable. When God gives rain to a land in season, how acceptable is it! when a tree bears fruit in its season, it is grateful: so when angels or men do things seasonably, it is pleasing to the Lord Christ: there are fit times, which, if we miss, actions are unlovely, and miss of their aims. “For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found.” There are times, if we have the wisdom to discern them, when prayer will be seasonable, acceptable, effectual.—William Greenhill.

Verse 6.—“Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.” The effects of prayer heretofore have been wonderful. Prayer hath sent down hailstones from heaven to overcome five kings with their armies. Prayer hath shut up the windows of heaven that it should not rain, and again hath opened them that the earth might give her increase. Prayer hath stayed the swift course of the sun and caused it to go backward fifteen degrees. Prayer hath held God’s hands that he could not strike when he was ready to plague his people. Prayer without any other help or means hath thrown down the strong walls of Jericho. Prayer hath divided the sea that the floods thereof could not come near the Israelites. In this place it delivereth the faithful man from all the dangers of this world. “Surely in the floods of many waters they shall not come nigh unto him.” The sum is this, That no calamity of this world, no troubles of this life, no terrors of death, no guiltiness of sin, can be so great, but that a “godly” man by means of his faith and felicity in Christ shall wade out of them well enough. For howsoever other things go, still he shall have such a solace in his soul, such a comfort in his conscience, such a heaven in his heart, knowing himself reconciled to God and justified by faith, that “Surely in the floods of many waters they shall not come nigh unto him.” Which, that it may better appear, I shall desire you to observe two things, the danger, the deliverance. The danger is in these words, “In the floods of many waters;” where the tribulations that the godly man is subject to in this life are likened, first, to waters; then, to many waters; thirdly, to a flood of many waters. The deliverance is in these words, “Surely they shall not come near him;” where the deliverance of the godly man hath three degrees also. First, “they shall not come near;” secondly, him, “they shall not come near him;” then, surely—“surely they shall not come near him.”—Thomas Playfere.

Verse 6.—“The floods of great waters.” The afflictions of the faithful are likened to waters. Fire and water have no mercy, we say. But of the two water is the worst. For any fire may be quenched with water; but the force of water, if it begins to be violent, cannot by any power of man be resisted. But these our tribulations which are “waters,” are “many waters.” Our common proverb is, “Seldom comes sorrow alone:” but as waters come rolling and waving many together, so the miseries of this life.—Thomas Playfere.

Verse 6.—“Floods of great waters.”—Unfamiliar with the sudden flooding of thirsty water-courses, we seldom comprehend the full force of some of the most striking images in the Old and New Testaments.—W. J. Conybeare, and J. S. Howson, in “Life and Epistles of St. Paul.”

Verse 6.—“In the floods,” etc.—Washed he may be, as Paul was in the shipwreck, but not drowned with those floods of great waters: be they never so great they are bounded.—Joseph Trapp.

Verse 6.—“Him.” This word must in no case be omitted; it helpeth us to answer a very strong objection. For it may be said, Many holy men have lost their goods, have suffered great torments in their body, have been troubled also in mind; how then did not the “floods of many waters” come near them? The word “him” helps us to answer. The very philosophers themselves reckoned their goods pertained no more to them, than, be it spoken with reverence and regard, the parings of their nails. Zenon hearing news he had lost all he had by sea, said only thus, Thou hast done very well, Fortune, to leave me nothing but my cloak. Another, called Anaxarchus, when as Nicocreon the tyrant commanded he should be beaten to death in a mortar, spake thus to the executioner, Beat and bray as long as thou wilt Anaxarchus his bag or satchel (so he called his own body), but Anaxarchus thou canst not touch. Yet these, making so small reckoning of their goods and body, set their mind notwithstanding at a high rate. The mind of a man is himself, say they. Hence it is that Julius Cæsar, when Amyclas the pilot was greatly afraid of the tempest, spake to him thus: What meanest thou to fear, base fellow? dost thou not know thou earnest Cæsar with thee? As if he should say, Cæsar’s body may well be drowned, as any other man’s may; but his mind, his magnanimity, his valour, his fortitude, can never be drowned. Thus far went philosophy; but divinity goeth a degree further. For philosophy defineth him, that is, a man, by his reason, and the moral virtues of the mind; but divinity defineth a Christian man by his faith, and his conjunction thereby with Christ. Excellently saith Saint Austin: Whence comes it that the soul dieth? Because faith is not in it. Whence that the body dieth? Because a soul is not in it. Therefore the soul of thy soul is faith. So that if we would know what is a faithful man, we must define him, not by his natural soul, as he is reasonable, but by the soul of his soul, which is his faith. And then we easily answer the objection, that a flood may come near a faithful man’s goods, near his body, near his reasonable soul; but to his faith, that is, to HIM, it can never come near.—Thomas Playfere.

Verse 6.—Few verses in the Psalms are harder to be understood than this: and none has given rise to more varied expositions among the commentators. “For this.” Some will have it: encouraged by this example, that after so foul a fall God so readily forgave. Others again: “for this,” namely, warned by this example, they who are holy shall make their prayers that they may not be permitted to fall as David did. Whichever be the sense, they well argue from this passage, that the state of absolute and enduring perfection is impossible to a Christian in this life.—Lorinus, and Cajetan (1469-1534), quoted by Neale.

Verse 7.—“Thou art my hiding place.” David does not say, “Thou art a hiding-place” merely as one among many; or the “hiding-place,” as the only one; but, “Thou art my hiding-place.” There lies all the excellency of the text. “He is mine; I have embraced the offer of his salvation,” says David; “I have applied to him in my own person: I have, as a sinner, taken shelter in his love and compassion; I have placed myself under his wings; I have covered myself with the robe of his righteousness; and now, therefore, I am safe.” “Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” This is having a part and a lot in the matter, having the personal and individual benefit of the Saviour’s work of atonement. How different is an appropriating from a speculative faith! Men tell us that they believe the doctrine, that they acknowledge the truth, that they assent to our creed; and they say, that to declare to them the character of Christ, as the sinner’s only help and safety, is merely putting before them what they already know. Now, follow up the idea suggested by the figure in our text, and see the folly and danger of acting thus. Suppose a traveller upon a bleak and exposed heath to be alarmed by the approach of a storm. He looks out for shelter. But if his eye discern a place to hide him from the storm, does he stand still and say, “I see there is a shelter, and therefore I may remain where I am”? Does he not betake himself to it? Does he not run, in order to escape the stormy wind and tempest? It was a “hiding-place” before; but it was his hiding-place only when he ran into it, and was safe. Had he not gone into it, though it might have been a protection to a thousand other travellers who resorted there, to him it would have been as if no such place existed. Who does not see at once, from this simple illustration, that the blessings of the gospel are such only in their being appropriated to the soul? The physician can cure only by being applied to; the medicine can heal them by being taken; money can enrich only by being possessed; and the merchantman in the parable would have been none the wealthier for discovering that there was a “pearl of great price,” had he not made it his. So with the salvation of the gospel: if Christ is the “Balm in Gilead,” apply the remedy; if he is the “Physician there,” go to him; if he is the “pearl of great price,” sell all that you have and buy it; and if he is the “hiding-place,” run into it and be safe; there will be no solid joy and peace in the mind until he is your “hiding-place.”—Fountain Elwin, 1842.