EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS (5)

But how is it that he prays, “Cast me not out from thy presence”? May a man be cast any way from it? Saith he not himself, “What way can I flee from thy presence?” This is soon answered by distinguishing his twofold presence—one in mercy, wherewith he refresheth and comforteth his own, and this without intermission they enjoy who are in heaven; another, in wrath, whereby he terrifies and torments without intermission the damned in hell. As to them who are upon earth, certain it is he is displeased with many, who, because they see not his angry face, regard it not, borne out with temporal recreations of the creature, which will fail them; and there are many, again, to whom he looks as a loving Father in Christ, and yet they see not his merciful face by reason of many interjected veils; but to them who once have felt the sweetness of his favourable face it is death to want it.—William Cowper.

Verse 11.—“Cast me not away from thy presence.” Like the leper who is banished from society till cleansed, or as Saul was rejected from being king, because he obeyed not the word of the Lord. 1 Sam. xv. 23. David could not but feel that his transgressions would have deserved a similar rejection.—W. Wilson.

Verse 11.—“Cast me not away.” Lord, though I, alas! have cast thee from me, yet cast me not away: hide not thy face from me, although I so often have refused to look at thee; leave me not without help, to perish in my sins, though I have aforetime left thee.—Fra Thomé de Jesu.

Verse 11.—“Take not thy Holy Spirit from me.” The words of this verse imply that the Spirit had not altogether been taken away from him, however much his gifts had been temporarily obscured.... Upon one point he had fallen into a deadly lethargy, but he was not “given over to a reprobate mind;” and it is scarcely conceivable that the rebuke of Nathan the prophet should have operated so easily and so suddenly in arousing him had there been no latent spark of godliness still remaining.... The truth on which we are now insisting is an important one, as many learned men have been inconsiderately drawn into the opinion that the elect, by falling into mortal sin, may lose the Spirit altogether, and be alienated from God. The contrary is clearly declared by Peter, who tells us that the word by which we are born again is an incorruptible seed (1 Peter i. 23); and John is equally explicit in informing us that the elect are preserved from falling away altogether. 1 John iii. 9. However much they may appear for a time to have been cast off by God, it is afterwards seen that grace must have been alive in their breast even during that interval when it seemed to be extinct. Nor is there any force in the objection that David speaks as if he feared that he might be deprived of the Spirit. It is natural that the saints, when they have fallen into sin, and have thus done what they could to expel the grace of God, should feel an anxiety upon this point; but it is their duty to hold fast the truth, that grace is the incorruptible seed of God, which never can perish in any heart where it has been deposited. This is the spirit displayed by David. Reflecting upon his offence, he is agitated with fears, and yet rests in the persuasion that, being a child of God, he would not be deprived of what, indeed, he had justly forfeited.—John Calvin.

Verse 12.—“Restore.” It is no small comfort to a man that hath lost his receipt for a debt paid when he remembers that the man he deals with is a good and just man, though his discharge is not presently to be found. That God whom thou hast to deal with is very gracious; what thou hast lost he is ready to restore (the evidence of thy grace I mean). David begged this, and obtained it. Yea, saith faith, if it were true what thou fearest, that thy grace was never true, there is mercy enough in God’s heart to pardon all thy former hypocrisy if thou comest in the sincerity of thy heart; and so faith persuades the soul by an act of adventure to cast itself upon God in Christ. Wilt not thou, saith faith, expect to find as much mercy at God’s hands as thou canst look for at a man’s? It is not beyond the line of created mercy to forgive many unkindnesses, much falseness and unfaithfulness, upon an humble, sincere acknowledgment of the same. The world is not so bad but it abounds with parents who can do thus much for their children, and masters for their servants; and is that hard for God to do which is so easy in his creature? Thus faith vindicates God’s name. And so long as we have not lost sight of God’s merciful heart, our head will be kept above water, though we want the evidence of our own grace.—William Gurnall.

Verse 12.—“Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation,” etc. How can God restore that which he took not away? For, can I charge God with the taking away the joy of his salvation from me? O gracious God, I charge not thee with taking it, but myself with losing it; and such is the miserable condition of us poor wretches, that if thou shouldst restore no more to us than what thou takest from us, we should quickly be at a fault in our estates, and our ruin would be as sudden as inevitable. But why am I so earnest for restoring? for what good will restoring do me? and how shall I more keep it being restored, than I kept it before being enjoyed? and if I so enjoy it, as still to fear to lose it, what joy can there be in such enjoying? O therefore, not restore it only, but “establish me with thy free spirit;” that as by thy restoring I may enjoy it entirely, so by thy establishing I may enjoy it securely.—Sir Richard Baker.

Verse 12.—“Uphold me.” I am tempted to think that I am now an established Christian, that I have overcome this or that lust so long that I have got into the habit of the opposite grace, so that there is no fear; I may venture very near the temptation, nearer than other men. This is a lie of Satan. I might as well speak of gunpowder getting by habit a power of resisting fire, so as not to catch the spark. As long as powder is wet it resists the spark, but when it becomes dry it is ready to explode at the first touch. As long as the Spirit dwells in my heart, he deadens me to sin, so that if lawfully called through temptation I may reckon upon God carrying me through. But when the Spirit leaves me, I am like dry gunpowder. Oh, for a sense of this!—Robert Murray M’Cheyne.

Verse 12.—“Uphold me with thy free spirit.” A loving mother chooses a fitting place, and a fitting time, to let her little child fall; it is learning to walk, it is getting over confident, it may come to a dangerous place, and if possessed of all this confidence, may fall and destroy itself. So she permits it to fall at such a place, and in such a way as that it may be hurt, wholesomely hurt, but not dangerously so. It has now lost its confidence, and clings all the more fondly and trustingly to the strong hand that is able to hold up all its goings. So this David, this little child of the great God, has fallen; it is a sore fall, all his bones are broken, but it has been a precious and a profitable lesson to him; he has no confidence any longer in himself, his trust is not now in an arm of flesh. “Uphold me with thy free spirit.”—Thomas Alexander.

Verse 12 (last clause).—“Let a free spirit sustain me;” that is, let me not be enslaved, as I have been, by my sinful passions.—Henry Dimock, M.A., 1791.

Verse 13.—“Then will I teach transgressors thy ways,” etc. We see our duty craves that when we have received mercy from God for ourselves, we should make vantage of it for the edification of others. Every talent received from God should be put to profit, but specially the talent of mercy; as it is greatest, so the Lord requires greater fruit of it, both for his own glory and for the edification of our brethren. Seeing we are vessels of mercy, should not the scent and sweet odour of mercy go from us to others? This duty Christ craved from Peter: “And thou, when thou art converted, confirm thy brethren.” And this duty, as David here promiseth, so we may read how he did perform it: “Come unto me, all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul.” The property of a Christian is, fides per delectionem efficax, faith worketh by love. What availeth it to pretend faith toward God, where there is no love toward thy neighbour? and wherein can thy love be declared more than in this, to draw thy neighbour to the participation of that same merit whereunto God hath called thee? By the law a man was bound to bring home his neighbour’s wandering beast if he had met with it before; how much more, then, to turn again his neighbour himself when he wanders from the Lord his God? If two men walking on the way should both fall into one pit, and the one being relieved out of it should go his way and forget his neighbour, might it not justly be called a barbarous and inhuman cruelty? We have all fallen into one and the same mire of iniquity; since the Lord hath put out his merciful hand to draw us out of this prison of sin, shall we refuse to put out our hand to see if possibly we may draw up our brethren with us?—William Cowper (Bishop).

Verse 14 (first clause).—“Deliver me from bloods.” The term bloods in Hebrew may denote any capital crime; and in my opinion he is here to be considered as alluding to the sentence of death, to which he felt himself to be obnoxious, and from which he requests deliverance.—John Calvin.

Verse 14 (first clause).—The Chaldee reads, “Deliver me from the judgment of murder.”

Verse 14.—“O God, thou God of my salvation.” “O God,” is a good invocation, for he heareth prayers. Yet to distinguish him from all false gods he is so particular as to single him from all other: “Thou God.” And to magnify him, and to re-enforce his petition, he calleth him Deum salutis, “the God of salvation,” which expresseth him able to deliver him; for it is his nature, and his love, and his glory, to be a preserver of men. And to bring home this joy and comfort into his own heart, he addeth, salutis meæ, “of my salvation.” So it is oratio fervens, and the apostle telleth us that such a prayer prevaileth much with God. For God may be a Saviour and a deliverer, and yet we may escape his saving hand, his right hand may skip us. We can have no comfort in the favours of God, except we can apply them at home; rather we may “think on God and be troubled.”—Samuel Page.

Verse 14.—“And my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.” Hierom, Basil, Euthymius, and other ancient doctors observe that natural corruptions and actual sins are the very rampiers which stop the free passage of song (verse 15). So David himself doth expound himself: “Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.” His unthankfulness did cry, his adultery cry, his murder cry unto the Lord for revenge; but alas! himself was mute, till God in exceeding great mercy did stop the mouths of his clamorous adversaries, and gave him leave to speak.—John Boys.

Verse 14.—“Aloud.” This for God, for himself, for the church. 1. For God, that his honour may be proclaimed, therefore they borrowed the voice of still and loud instruments.... 2. For himself. Having received such a benefit, he cannot contain himself, this new wine of spiritual joy which filleth his vessel must have a vent. All passions are loud. Anger chides loud, sorrow cries loud, fear shrieks loud, and joy sings loud. So he expresseth the vehemency of his affection; for to whom much is forgiven, they love much. 3. For others. Iron whetteth iron—examples of zeal and devotion affect much, and therefore solemn and public assemblies do generally tender the best service to God, because one provoketh another.—Samuel Page.

Verse 15.—“O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.” As man is a little world in the great, so the tongue is a great world in the little. Nihil habet medium; aut grande malum est, aut grande bonum.[23] It has no mean; it is either a great evil, or a great good. If good (as Eunapius said of that famous rhetorician), a walking library, a whole university of edifying knowledge; but if bad (as St. James doth tell us, ch. iii. 6), “a world of wickedness.” No better dish for God’s public service, when it is well seasoned; again, none worse, when ill handled. So that if we desire to be doorkeepers in God’s house, let us entreat God first to be a doorkeeper in our house, that he would shut the wicket of our mouth against unsavoury speeches, and open the door of our lips, “that our mouth may shew forth his praise.” This was David’s prayer, and ought to be thy practice, wherein observe three points especially; who, the Lord; what, open my lips; why, that my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. For the first—man of himself cannot untie the strings of his own stammering tongue, but it is God only which openeth “a door of utterance.” Col. iv. 3. When we have a good thought, it is (as the school doth speak) gratia infusa; when a good word, gratia effusa; when a good work, gratia diffusa. Man is a lock, the Spirit of God has a key, “which openeth, and no man shutteth;” again, “shutteth, and no man openeth.” Rev. iii. 7. He did open the heart of Lydia to conceive well, the ears of the prophet to hear well, the eyes of Elisha’s servant to see well, and here the lips of David to speak well. Acts xvi.; Isai. 1.; 2 Kings vi. And therefore, whereas in the former verse he might seem too peremptory, saying, “My tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness;” he doth, as it were, correct himself by this latter edition and second speech: O Lord, I find myself most unable to sing or say, but “open thou my lips,” and touch thou my tongue, and then I am sure “my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.”—John Boys.