EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

Title.—The words “Jonath-elem-rechokim” may be rendered, concerning the mute dove among them that are afar off, or in far places.—John Gill.

Title.—“Michtam.” See also Explanatory Notes on Psalm xvi., in the “Treasury of David,” Vol. I., pp. 197, 198.

Verse 1.—“Be merciful.” This is the second of the Psalms beginning with the miserere; the fifty-first being the first of them.—C. H. S.

Verse 1.—“Be merciful unto me, O God.” This is to me the one source of all my expectations, the one fountain of all promises: Miserere mei, Deus, miserere mei.—Bernard, 1091-1157.

Verse 1.—“Be merciful.” His first wrestling in prayer is with the check of his conscience, whether for his daily sins, or in particular for casting himself in such apparent danger, as to have ventured without probable security, to seek shelter among the enemies of the people of God, whose blood he himself had shed abundantly; for this rashness or other sins he beggeth mercy.—David Dickson.

Verse 1.—“Man.” He uses the indefinite term man in this verse, though in the next he speaks of having many enemies, the more forcibly to express the truth, that the whole world was combined against him, that he experienced no humanity amongst men, and stood in the last necessity of divine help.—John Calvin.

Verse 1.—“Would swallow me up.” Soop me up (as the Hebrew word soundeth); make but one draught of me or suck me in as a whirlpool, swallow me up as a ravenous wild beast.—John Trapp.

Verse 1.—“He fighting daily.” There is no morning on which we can arise and go forth into the world, and say, “No enemy will come out against me to-day.” There is no night in which we can retire from that world, and think to find safety in the solitude of our own chambers, and say, “No evil can enter here.”—Barton Bouchier, in “Manna in the Heart,” 1855.

Verses 1, 2.—The same words are applicable to the situation and circumstances of David, pursued by his enemies; of Christ, persecuted by the Jews; of the church, afflicted in the world; and of the soul, encompassed by enemies, against whom she is forced to wage perpetual war.—George Horne.

Verse 2.—“O thou most High.” The Hebrew is not that rendered “Most High” in Ps. vii. 17; nor in our version is it ever rendered “Most High” in any other place, although found in the Hebrew Bible more than fifty times. There are but two other places where it is applied, as an epithet, to God; Ps. xcii. 8; Mic. vi. 6. It is commonly rendered from above, on high, high places, high; once loftily, Ps. lxxiii. 8.... The probable meaning is, they “fight against me from the high places of authority, both in Jerusalem and in Gath,” q.d., mine enemies are in power.—William S. Plumer’s “Studies in the Book of Psalms,” 1867.

Verse 3.—“What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” There is nothing like faith to help at a pinch; faith dissolves doubts as the sun drives away the mists. And that you may not be put out, know that your time for believing always is. There are times when some graces may be out of use, but there is no time wherein faith can be said to be so. Wherefore faith must be always in exercise. Faith is the eye, is the mouth, is the hand, and one of these is of use all the day long. Faith is to see, to receive, to work, or to eat; and a Christian should be seeing or receiving, or working, or feeding all day long. Let it rain, let it blow, let it thunder, let it lighten, a Christian must still believe. “At what time,” said the good man, “I am afraid, I will trust in thee.”—John Bunyan.

Verse 3.—“What time I am afraid,” etc. A divine spark may live in a smoke of doubts without a speedy rising into a flame. When grace is at the bottom of doubting, there will be reliance on Christ and lively petitions to him. Peter’s faith staggers when he began to sink, but he casts a look and sends forth a cry to his Saviour, acknowledging his sufficiency; Matt. xiv. 30, “Lord, save me.” Sometimes those doubtings strengthen our trust and make us take hold faster on God. Ps. lvi. 3, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” This was a fear of himself or others, rather than a jealousy of God. Had he had unworthy suspicions of him, he would not have trusted him; he would not have run for remedy to the object of his fear. The waverings where faith is, are like the tossings of a ship fast at anchor (still there is a relying upon God), not like a boat carried by the waves of the sea to be dashed against a rock. If the heart stay on Christ in the midst of those doubtings, it is not an evil heart of unbelief. Such doubtings consist with the indwelling of the Spirit, who is in the heart, to perform the office of a Comforter against such fears and to expel those thick fumes of nature.—Stephen Charnock.

Verse 3.—“What time I am afraid,” etc. I know not what to do, but I’ll try my old way, ’tis good for me to draw near still; I’ll do so still as I use to do; I’ll cast myself down upon the free grace of Christ in the promises; I’ll lay the weight of my sinking spirit there, I’ll renew my hold, life, expectation there; this is my old path, I’ll never be turned or beaten out here. This Christian in his strength may challenge all the gates of hell. This was David’s course (Ps. lxxi. 5), “Thou art my trust from my youth,” etc. Thence was it that he could say, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee:” his shield and sword was always in his hand, therefore he could make use of it when fear and inward trouble offered themselves. “Afraid!” alas, who is not? but what course will you take then? Even what course you used to take, i.e., believe; use faith always; and have it now.—Elias Pledger(—1676), in “Morning Exercises.”

Verse 3.—“What time,” etc. Literally, “What day.” As “Man daily oppresseth me” (ver. 1), so “Every day, when I am afraid, I trust in thee.”—A. R. Fausset.

Verse 3.—It is a good maxim with which to go into a world of danger; a good maxim to go to sea with; a good maxim in a storm; a good maxim when in danger on the land; a good maxim when we are sick; a good maxim when we think of death and the judgment—“What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.”—Albert Barnes.

Verse 3.—“I will trust in thee.” Faith and fear stand together; and so fear and love.—John Richardson, 1654.

Verses 3, 4.—Sometimes faith comes from prayer in triumph, and cries, Victoria. It gives such a being and existence to the mercy prayed for in the Christian’s soul, before any likelihood of it appears to sense and reason, that the Christian can silence all his troubled thoughts with the expectation of its coming. So Hannah prayed, “and was no more sad.” 1 Samuel i. 18. Yea, it will make the Christian disburse his praises for the mercy long before it is received. Thus high faith wrought in David. “At what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee,” and in the next words, “In God I will praise his word;” that is, he would praise God for his promise before there was any performance of it to him, when it had no existence but in God’s faithfulness and David’s faith. This holy man had such a piercing eye of faith, that he could see the promise when he was at the lowest ebb of misery, so certain and unquestionable in the power and truth of God, that he could then praise God as if the promised mercy had been actually fulfilled to him.—William Gurnall.

Verse 4.—“In God I will praise his word.” Or, praise him for his word; for the whole Scripture that was then in being.—John Gill.

Verse 4.—The best hold that faith can have of God, is to take him by “his word,” however his dispensation seems to be; this will give satisfaction at length; for “In God I will praise his word,” is as much as to say, albeit he withhold comfort and deliverance from me, so that I cannot find what I would, yet let me have “his word,” and I will give him the glory of all his attributes.—David Dickson.

Verse 4.—“I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.” Fear not man, he is but flesh. Thou needest not, thou oughtest not to fear. Thou needest not. What, not such a great man; not such a number of men, who have the keys of all the prisons at their girdle; who can kill or save alive? No, not these; only look they be thy enemies for righteousness’ sake. Take heed thou makest not the least child thine enemy, by offering wrong to him; God will right the wicked even upon the saint. If he offends he shall find no shelter under God’s wing for his sin. This made Jerome complain that the Christians’ sin made the arms of those barbarous nations which invaded Christendom victorious: Nostris peccatis fortes sunt barbari. But if man’s wrath find thee in God’s way, and his fury take fire at thy holiness, thou needest not fear though thy life be the prey he hunts for. Flesh can only wound flesh; he may kill thee, but not hurt thee. Why shouldest thou fear to be stripped of that which thou hast resigned already to Christ? It is the first lesson thou learnest, if a Christian, to deny thyself, take up thy cross, and follow thy master; so that the enemy comes too late; thou hast no life to lose, because thou hast given it already to Christ; nor can man take away that without God’s leave; all thou hast is insured; and though God hath not promised thee immunity from suffering in this kind, yet he hath undertaken to bear the loss, yea, to pay thee a hundredfold, and thou shalt not stay for it till another world. Again, thou oughtest not to fear flesh. Our Saviour (Matt. x.) thrice, in the compass of six verses, commands us not to fear man: if thy heart quail at him, how wilt thou behave thyself in the list against Satan, whose little finger is heavier than man’s loins? The Romans had arma prælusoria, weapons rebated, or cudgels, which they were tried at before they came to the sharp. If thou canst not bear a bruise in thy flesh from man’s cudgels and blunt weapons, what wilt thou do when thou shalt have Satan’s sword in thy side? God counts himself reproached when his children fear a sorry man; therefore we are bid sanctify the Lord, not to fear their fear.—William Gurnall.

Verse 4.—“I will not fear,” etc. Eusebius tells us of a notable speech that Ignatius used when he was in his enemies’ hands, not long before he was to suffer, which argued a raised spirit to a wonderful height above the world, and above himself. “I care,” says he, “for nothing visible or invisible, that I might get Christ. Let fire, the cross, the letting out of beasts upon me, breaking of my bones, the tearing of my members, the grinding of my whole body, and the torments of the devils come upon me, so be it I may get Christ.”—From Jeremiah Burroughs’ “Moses his Self-denyall,” 1649.

Verse 4.—“What flesh can do,” etc. It is according to the phrase of Scripture, when it would speak contemptibly of man and show him to be the lowest creature, to call him “flesh,” to set forth the weakness that man is subject to.—John Arrowsmith, 1600-1660.

Verse 4 (last clause).—Fear of man—grim idol, bloody mouthed; many souls has he devoured and trampled down into hell! His eyes are full of hatred to Christ’s disciples. Scoffs and jeers lurk in his eye. The laugh of the scorner growls in his throat. Cast down this idol. This keeps some of you from secret prayer, from worshipping God in your family, from going to lay your case before ministers, from openly confessing Christ. You that have felt God’s love and Spirit, dash this idol to pieces. “Who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die?” “Fear not, thou worm Jacob.” “What have I to do any more with idols?”—Robert Murray M’Cheyne, 1813-1843.

Verse 4.—Faith groweth valiant in fight; albeit it began like a coward, and staggered in the first conflict, yet it groweth stout, incontinent, and pulls its adversaries under foot: “In God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.”—David Dickson.

Verse 5.—“Every day they wrest my words;” or, they put my words to pain and grief, or, they painfully and grievously wrest my words. David’s enemies took up what he spake, and put a new shape upon it; and this they did so vexingly, that they are said to “wrest” his words: a thing is vexed when it is wrested or wrought quite out of the form it before had. The same metaphor the apostle Peter useth in reference to doctrine, speaking of the Epistles of Paul, in which “are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest,” or put upon the rack; they painfully form his words, and represent them in a meaning which he never intended. 2 Pet. iii. 16. What is spoken may be right both in the matter and intendment of the speaker, yet another wrests, forms and fashions it in his own mould, and makes it bear a sense which the speaker never dreamed of.—Joseph Caryl.