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  A COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS
  by Abraham Wright
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Abraham Wright's verse-by-verse commentary on the Psalms, exploring God's
justice, His care for the poor and oppressed, and the spiritual lessons
contained in Israel's hymnal.

  Chapters: 3

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    1. 01 - Chapter 1
    2. 02 - Chapter 2
    3. 03 - Chapter 3

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  CHAPTER 1: 01 - CHAPTER 1
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PSALM I.

Verse 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor
standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. The
first words of the first Psalm, and the last words of the last, are the Prophet
David’s Alpha and Omega of knowledge and practice. For he comprehends all that
belongs to man’s knowledge, and all that belongs to his practice in those two;
first, in understanding true blessedness, and then in praising God for it.
David’s Alpha is beatus vir, O the blessedness of righteous men! And his Omega
is laudate Dominum, O that men would therefore bless the Lord! And therefore as
he begins this book with God’s blessing of man; so he ends it with the man’s
praising of God; for where the last stroke of this psaltery, the last verse of
the last Psalm is, let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord, yet he adds
one note more to us in particular, praise ye the Lord, and there is the end of
all.

Verse 3. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that
bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither, and
whatsoever he doth shall prosper. All fruits of Christians are not all of one
sort. For some of them are general, growing upon all the trees of the garden,
upon all the branches grafted into the true vine, general duties of piety which
lie equally upon every man’s shoulder, as love, joy, peace; some are special,
which every tree must bring forth according to his kind; as being his proper
fruit whereby he must be known in that calling wherein God hath set him; for
thus the olive tree hath its fatness, the fig tree bringeth forth his own fruit
in due season; and thus the household of faith oweth a service to God after one
sort in the general fruits of holiness, and after another sort in the proper
fruits of a particular calling, and as they are the several heads of one
mystical body.

PSALM II.

Verse 11. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Fear and service
go still together; and fear usually before service; for that unless our service
proceed from fear, it is hollow and worthless. One said well that these inward
dispositions are as the kernel; outward acts are as the shell; he is but a
rotten nut therefore that hath outward service without inward fear. It is true
that perfect love thrusts our fear; but it is as true, that fear brings in that
perfect love, which is joined with the reverence of sons; for there is no
servant of God but fears filially, and again, God hath no son but he serves;
even the holy Son of God was so in the form of a servant that he served indeed;
and so served that he endured all sorrow, and fulfilled all righteousness. So
every Christian is Son and heir to the King of Heaven; and his word must be, I
serve.

Verse 12. Kiss the son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his
wrath is kindled but a little: blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
There were many good uses of kissing one another in God’s Word. First, it was in
use among kinsfolks; thus Jacob kissed Rachel and told how near of kin he was to
her; now there is no person so near of kin to thee as Christ Jesus, who is thy
Father as He provided an inheritance for thee; and thy Brother as He divided
this inheritance with thee, and as He died to give thee possession of that
inheritance; He is thy twin Brother so like thee, as that His Father, and thine
in Him, shall not know you from one another, but mingle your conditions so, as
that He shall find thy sins in Him, and His righteousness in thee; and therefore
kiss this Son as thy kinsman. This kiss was in use likewise when friends parted;
thus Laban rose up early in the morning and kissed his sons and daughters. When
thou departest therefore to thy worldly business kiss Christ, take leave of him;
and remember all that while thou art gone upon His errand, and though thou work
for thy family and posterity, yet thou workest in His vineyard, and dost His
work. Lastly, they kissed in reconciliation; thus David kissed Absalom. If thou
have not discharged thy stewardship well, restore to the man who is damnified
therein, confess to God who hath suffered in that sin, reconcile thyself to Him,
and kiss Him in his Son.

PSALM III.

Verse 6. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set
themselves against me round about. Distracting fear is the portion of wicked
men; the troubles of the righteous are many, but their fears are few. I will not
be afraid of ten thousands of people is the resolve of faith: whosoever hath
much fear hath but little faith: wherefore are ye afraid ye of little faith was
our Savior’s to his disciples, and how can they but be afraid when storms arise
who are of no faith? When fear increaseth faith decreaseth, and when faith is
come to the height fear is gone: where there is no faith there can be nothing
but fear.

Verse 8. Salvation belongeth unto the Lord, thy blessing is upon thy people. The
Church’s help is not in herself, and the dangers of it are far greater then she
is able without better help then her own to withstand. So was it with the
children of Israel at the Red Sea, so with the three children in the fire, what
help had they in themselves, being bound? Now God is pleased sometimes to suffer
His Church and children to be brought to these straits, that His children being
driven out of all other expectations might be vehement in prayer, and fetch help
from heaven which they want in themselves. The extremity of the Israelites at
the Sea made Moses cry to the Lord with vehemency, and when Jehoshaphat knew not
what to do, his eyes were towards the Lord. We may observe further from hence
that the Church and people of God are never helpless, but they have an
omnipotent power with them and for them; this is their privilege and sanctuary.
When Christ was helpless and His disciples fled from Him, yet then He had the
power and presence of His Father, and so that every child of God as well as
Christ himself; which is a most firm prop to stay and lean upon in all
extremities; when we can oppose this help of God against all the threats and
boisterous proceedings of our enemies.

PSALM IV.

Verse 6. There be many that say, who will show us any good? Lord lift thou up
the light of thy countenance upon us. To erect and settle a tottering and
dejected soul, an overthrown, a bruised, a broken, a trodden, a ground, a
battered, an evaporated, an annihilated spirit, this is an act of such weight as
requires the assurance, the presence, the countenance of God, and indeed except
the God of comfort give it thee in the light of His countenance and the peace of
thy conscience, nec subtus, nec circa, nec intus te est, saith Saint Bernard,
non subtus, not from below thee, from the reverence and acclamation of thy
inferiors; non circa, not from about thee, when all places, all preferments are
within thy reach, so that thou may’st lay thine hand and set thy foot where thou
wilt, non intus, not from within thee, though thou have an inward testimony of a
moral constancy in all afflictions that can fall; yet not from below thee, not
from about thee, not from within thee, but from above, from the light of God’s
countenance must come thy comfort or it is mistaken.

Verse 8. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep; for thou Lord only makes me
dwell in safety. That poverty which comes from the hand of God is as rich a
blessing as any that comes from His hand; he that is poor with a good
conscience, that hath labored and yet not prospered; knows to whom to go, and
what to say, Lord thou hast put gladness into my heart, more then in the time
when corn and wine increased (more now then when I had more) I will therefore
lay me down and sleep, &c. Does every rich man dwell in safety; can every rich
man lie down in peace and sleep? No not every poor man neither but he that is
poor with a good conscience can, and though he that is rich with a good
conscience may in a good measure do so too, (sleep in peace) yet not so out of
the sphere and latitude of envy, and free from the machinations and
supplantations, and underminings of malicious men, (that feed upon the
confiscations and build upon the ruins of others) as the poor man is.

PSALM V.

Verse 3. My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning, O Lord, in the morning will I
direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up. It was an ancient custom with
God’s people to seek Him in the morning, early in the morning; and the heathens
likewise by the light of nature took the same course in their prophane and
superstitious worships too. From whence we may learn, first, that God is to be
sought unto without delay; as it is with vows so with prayers, defer not to pay
them, defer not to pray; seek ye first the Kingdom of God was our Savior’s;
first in time, not only chiefly but early, put not God behind in the latter end
of the day, or in the latter end of your business. It is best to begin with Him
who is best. Then secondly, God must be sought unto with diligence, in the
morning will I direct my prayer saith David, that is, diligently: they that come
in the morning about their business are diligent in their business: we must lay
our strength and spirits out in seeking God. It is not a sleight inquiry which
finds out God; we read that He is found of some who seek him not at all, but
that He is found of any who seek him negligently we read not; free grace
prevents those who have not ability to seek Him, but it never meets those who
will not lay out their abilities in seeking Him.

Verse 7. But as for me, I will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy
mercy; and in Thy fear will I worship toward Thy holy temple. God, both in the
Old and New Testament, hath conditioned His doctrine and His religion (that is,
His outward worship) so that as evermore there should be preserved a Majesty and
a reverent fear, and an awful discrimination of divine things from evil. And
therefore the love of God, which is so often proposed unto us, is as often
seasoned with the fear of God; nay all our religious affections are reduced to
that one, to a reverential fear, if He be a Master He calls for fear, and if He
be a Father He calls for honor, and honor implies a reverential fear; and that
is the art which David professes to teach, Come ye children and hearken unto me,
and I will teach you the fear of the Lord, Psalms 34:1-22, that you think not
divinity an occupation nor church service a recreation; but still to remember
that with holy David you worship towards God’s holy temple in fear, that is by
not being over fellowly with God, nor over homely with places and acts of
religion.

PSALM VI.

Verse 1. O Lord, rebuke me not in Thine anger, neither chasten me in Thy hot
displeasure. To be rebuked was to be chidden, but to be chastened was to be
beaten; and yet David was heartily afraid of the first, of the least of them,
when it was to be done in anger; this word that is here to rebuke is for the
most part to convince by way of argument; so that this doth but amount to an
instruction and an amendment; yet David here would not be disputed withal, would
not be instructed nor amended by God in His anger; the anger of God is such a
catechism, such a way of teaching as the Law was: the Law is a schoolmaster, but
such a schoolmaster as brings not a rod but a sword; God’s anger should instruct
us; but if we use it not aright it hardens us; for when a sinner considers
himself to be under the anger of God, naturally he conceives such an horror as
puts him farther off. As soon as Adam heard the voice of God in an accent of
anger, he fled from his presence and hid himself among the trees.

Verse 2. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak. O Lord, heal me; for my
bones are vexed. The reason of our own weakness is a good motive to God for
mercy; that thou art weak of thyself is a just reason to induce God to bring
thee to Himself; but to leave Him again, when He hath brought thee, not to make
use of that strength which He by his grace offers thee, this is not the
affection of the spouse, when the person languisheth for the love of Christ, but
it is when the love of Christ languisheth in that person, and therefore if you
be come so far with David as to this, have mercy O Lord for I am weak, that an
apprehension of your own weakness hath brought you to Him in a prayer for mercy
and more strength, go forward with him still to his next petition, O Lord heal
me, for God is always ready to build upon His own foundations, and accomplish
His own beginnings.

Verse 4. Return, O Lord, deliver my soul. O save me for Thy mercy’s sake. As God
came long ago, six thousand years ago in nature, when we were created in Adam,
and then in nature returned to us, in the generation of our parents: so our
Savior Jesus Christ came to us long ago, sixteen hundred years ago, in grace,
and yet, in grace returns to us as often as we meet Him in his ordinances; when
thou canst love Him and embrace Him; as often as He offers Himself to thee in
prayer or preaching, or the sacraments. Wish therefore every day a Sunday, and
every meal a sacrament, and every discourse an homily; and He shall shine upon
thee in all dark ways, and rectify thee in all rugged ways, and direct thee in
all cross ways, and stop thee in all doubtful ways, and return to thee in every
corner and relieve thee in every danger & arm thee even against Himself by
advancing thy work in which thou besiegest Him, that is, this prayer, and
enabling thee to prevail upon Him, with this petition. Return, O Lord, deliver
my soul.

PSALM VII.

Verse 6. Arise, O Lord in Thy wrath; lift up Thyself against the rage of mine
enemies. Execrations and maledictions are not to be directed upon the person,
but his sin. And therefore when David asks of God here, which he desired God to
forbear in the beginning of the former Psalm, Saint Augustine begins to wonder,
quid? illum quem &c. would David provoke God who is all sweetness and mildness
to anger against any man? No, not against any man, but diaboli possessie
peccator, saith that Father, every sinner is a slave to his beloved sin; and
therefore misericors erat adversus cum quicumque orat, how bitterly soever I
curse that sin, yet I pray for that sinner, David would have God angry with the
tyrant, not with the slave that is oppressed; with the sin, not with the soul
that is enthralled to it; and so as the words may be a malediction in David’s
mouth, we may take them into our mouth too, and say, arise O Lord in Thy anger
against our enemies, our sins.

Verse 15. He made a pit and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch, which he
hath made. It is an old adage, evil counsel is worst to the counselor; it may do
hurt to those against whom it is given, but it shall certainly do them hurt by
whom it is given; thus God turns the counsels and projects of evil men upon
their own heads and against themselves; and this likewise shows the extreme
vanity of human policy as it is separated from the wisdom that is from above,
seeing it is not only unable to help us, but it doth us hurt, it is not only
weak to assist, but strong to ruin us. But doth every man that digs a pit fall
into it himself? Not so neither; for we may dig pits for wolves and foxes,
wicked men; but when wicked men dig pits for the innocent, who prepares mischief
for those have done him no wrong, may fall into the pit himself.

Verse 16. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing
shall come down upon his own pate. God hath a way to punish the enemies of His
Church with the same vengeance as they have inflicted on His Church, or intended
against it, according to this of the Psalm. And this is most just with God, that
the righteous law of retaliation might be turned on their own heads; how just is
it that he who breweth mischief should drink of it? This is that just
retaliation our Savior threatens in Matthew 7:1-29. If the Egyptians make a
wicked decree to drown the Israelite’s children, and will needs follow them into
the sea to drown the parents also, ’tis just that themselves should be drowned
by a memorable destruction. And thus God repays the enemies of His Church and
doth many times order that the mischief they have plotted against His dearly
beloved, shall recoil upon themselves as a piece overcharged and recoiling beats
down the gunner, not him it was aimed at.

PSALM VIII.

Verse 6. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; hast put
all things under his feet. Here is a supreme estate, a very great dominion and
sovereignty given to man; yet we have forfeited this justification, this
dominion, and more, our own essence; we are not only inferior to the beasts, and
under their annoyance, but we are ourselves become beasts; now to restore us
again to our primitive sovereign power, we shall do well to consider the dignity
of our soul, which only of all other creatures is capable, susceptible of grace;
if God would bestow grace anywhere else, no creature could receive it but thou,
thou art so necessary to God, as yet God had no utterance, no exercise, no
employment for His grace and mercy, but for thee; and if thou make thyself
incapable of His mercy and grace, of which nothing but thou is capable, then
thou destroyest thy nature; and remember then, that as in the kingdom of heaven,
in those orders, which we conceive to be in those glorious spirits, there is no
falling from an higher to a lower order; a Cherubum or Seraphim does not fall,
and so become an Archangel, or an angel; but those of that place, that fell,
fell into the bottomless pit; so if thou depart from thy nature, from thy
susceptibleness, that capacity of receiving of grace; if thou degenerate so from
man to beast, thou shalt not rest their in the state and nature of a beast,
whose soul breathes out to nothing, and vanishes with the life; thou shalt not
be so happy; but thy better nature will remain, in despite of thee, thine
everlasting soul must suffer everlasting torment.

Verse 9. O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth. It is not
enough to find a God, a great and incomprehensible power; a God that enjoys His
own eternity, His own peace, His own blessedness, but respects not us, reflects
not upon us, communicates nothing to us, but we must find a God that is Deus
noster, ours, as we are His creatures; ours, as we are like Him, made to His
image; ours as He is like us in assuming our nature; ours, as he hath descended
to us in his incarnation; and ours, as we are ascended with him in his
glorification: so that we do not consider God as our God, except we come to the
consideration of God in Christ, God and man. It is not enough to find Deum, a
God in general; not to find Deum meum, a God so particularly my God, as that He
is a God of my making: that I should seek God by any other motions, or know God
by any other notions, or worship God in any other fashions then the true Church
of God doth; for there He is Deus noster, as He is received in the unanimous
consent of the Catholic church: Sects are no bodies, for there is nihil nostrum,
nothing in common amongst them, nothing that goes through them all; all is
singular, all is meum and tuum, my spirit and thy spirit, my opinion and thy
opinion, my God and thy God: no such apprehension, no such worship of God as the
whole Church hath evermore been acquainted withal, and consented with.

PSALM IX.

Verse 8. And He shall judge the world in righteousness; He shall minister
judgment to the people in uprightness. The judges of the earth may absolve the
guilty, and condemn the innocent, being corrupted by fear. Pilate for the fear
of Caesar condemned Christ; whom the testimony of his own conscience pronounced
innocent: but this Judge in the text, which is our blessed Savior, cannot be
corrupted; for, whom shall He fear that is omnipotent? Or they may be corrupted
with their own affections of partiality; Herod adjudges John Baptist to death
for the love of Herodias’ daughter, but this Judge cannot be thus corrupted, for
He is no accepter of persons: or they may be corrupted with bribes, but Christ
our Judge cannot be so corrupted, if He would take a bribe, thou shalt have none
to give Him at that day: a good conscience will do more good then a full purse;
Riches profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivereth from death,
Proverbs 11:4.

Verse 16. The Lord is known by the judgment which He executeth: the wicked is
snared in the work of his own hands Higgaion, Selah. Aliter suis, aliter, impiis
innotescit dominus; God is in a different manner known to His own; and His
enemies; to His in the codonation of their sins; and donation of blessings; to
His adversaries in imputing their sins to them, inflicting His judgments on
them: indeed, judicia indicia, every judgment on the wicked is a character, yea
an oracle to evidence God’s presence. Then do all men see the majesty of a God,
when the wicked feel the stripes of His rod. Oleaster derives the name Jehovah
from a word which signifies destruction: I will not assess the naturalness of
the etymology; yet thus much is true; when God brings calamity on the wicked, He
gives glory to Himself, and manifestly appears to be Jehovah. Whiles God is
suffering wrong from His enemies, He seems as it were to be asleep, and the
world takes little notice of Him, but when He is vindictam agens, doing right,
He showeth himself the Judge of the world.


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  CHAPTER 2: 02 - CHAPTER 2
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PSALM X.

Verse 4. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after
God. God is not in all his thoughts. Wicked men find and feel God often in their
consciences, though they never found him in their affections. God makes offers
to wicked men, and though He be not actively in all their thoughts, i.e. they do
not willingly meditate and think of God, they maintain no correspondence or
communion with Him in their inner man, yet God doth (like an unbidden and
unwelcome guest) put Himself into their thoughts, and moves in their minds, this
proves their trouble, and becomes a pain unto them. As God is not far from every
one of us, because (as the Apostle argues with those at Athens, Acts 17:1-34) in
Him we live and move, and have our being, so we may say, that He is not far from
many wicked men, because He moves and stirs in them, He presents to their minds
some manifestations of Himself in His justice, and holiness, longsuffering and
goodness, in none of which they accept acquaintance with Him; and therefore say
to God, depart from us, trouble us not; and when once they can banish those
thoughts, and live thus without God in the world, then they think they live
indeed, and till then they reckon their lives a kind of death.

Verse 14. Thou hast seen it, for thou beholdest mischief and spite to require it
with thy hand, the poor committeth himself unto thee, &c. God delights to help
the poor, He loves to take part with the best, though the weakest side; contrary
to the course of most; who when a controversy ariseth, use to stand in a kind of
indifferency or neutrality, till they see which part is strongest, not which is
justest. Now if there be any consideration besides the cause that draws or
engages God, it is the weakness of the side. He joins with many because they are
weak, not with any because they are strong, therefore He is called the Helper of
the Fatherless. By fatherless we are to understand not only such whose fathers
are dead, but any one in distress; as Christ promiseth His disciples. I will not
leave you orphans, that is, helpless, and, as we translate it, comfortless;
though you are as children without a father, yes I will be a Father unto you.
Men are often like those clouds which dissolve into the sea, they send presents
to the rich, and assist the strong; but God sends His rain upon the dry land;
and lends His strength to those that are weak, such are His treasure, His
jewels, they are graven upon the palms of His hands, and therefore always in His
eye, yea always in His heart, though they lie trodden underfoot as dirt in the
streets.

PSALM XI.

Verse 1. In the Lord put I my trust, how say ye to my soul, flee as a bird to
your mountain. When a foundation is laid in a proportion geometrical, they
build, and the more weight is laid on, the foundation is the firmer; so where
God is the foundation, settle thy building on Him, entrust thyself and whatever
thou art with Him, and be secure for God is able not only to subdue all worldly
and bodily enemies, but ghostly also; and by His power can deliver Satan into
the chains of darkness, and can rescue out of his Kingdom whom he will and keep
them being so delivered unto salvation. Gather thyself therefore under His
wings, and trust in the shadow of His feathers. Do we call acts and deeds of men
security, and shall we not trust that which God hath sealed and delivered to us?
Children rely wholly on their parents, and shall not we rely wholly on our
Heavenly Father? In all our extremities therefore we must be sure to secure our
faith and conscience in God, as the serpent doth her head, the soldier his
shield; And this is the victory whereby we overcome the world (with all it’s
allurements or affrightments) even our faith and trust in God, 1 John 5:4.

Verse 2. For lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the
string; that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. ‘Ecce antequam
vulner amur, monemur’, saith Origen; before our enemies hit us, God gives us
warning that they mean to do so. When God Himself is so far incensed against us
that He is turned to be our enemy and to fight against us, as ’tis Isaiah 63:10,
yet still He gives us warning before hand, and still comes a lighting before His
thunder. God comes seldom to that dispatch, a word and a blow; but to a blow
without a word, to an execution without a warning, never.

Verse 3. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do. This is not
a question of desperation, that nothing can be done, but of consultation with
God what should be done. Thou knowest, O Lord, I have not been moved with
ordinary trials, not though mine enemies prepare and prepare arrows, shoot, and
shoot privily, yet these have not moved me; because I had fixed myself upon
certain foundations confidences and allowances of deliverance from them. But if
O Lord, I see these foundations destroyed, if Thou put me into mine enemies
hand, if Thou make them Thy sword, and then if Thy almighty arm, sinewed even
with thine own indignation, fitted with that sword, what can I , how righteous
soever I were, do?

PSALM XII.

Verse 1. Help Lord, for the Godly man ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among
the children of men. All Christians who have tasted the sweetness of God’s
graces in themselves ought to be witnesses of the fine graces of God unto
others, and workers of them in others as much as in them lies. It was said to
St. Peter not to engross the gifts and graces of God to himself, but to employ
them to a common benefit. To this end David prayed to be holpen and saved
himself, but so, as the word in the original imports, that he might save others;
the spiritual good of those with whom the righteous man liveth is the chief
employment of his prayers and pains.

Verse 5. For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will
I rise saith the Lord. I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.
God is so good and gracious that he loves not to grieve His creature. When He
breaks us to pieces, He delights not in our breakings, nor doth He ever break
His own but with an intent to bind them up again. God is so far from loving to
oppress, that one of His most eminent works of providence is to receive those
who are oppressed. For the oppression of the poor, now will I arise saith the
Lord, and when the Lord ariseth, oppressors shall fall.

Verse 6. The words of the Lord are pure words as silver tried in a furnace of
earth, purified seven times. When the people of God are low then let them look
for their raising up, and let their low estate be so far from sinking that it
should raise their faith in believing deliverance and exaltation. A low estate
is a great advantage for faith; faith that hath surest footing when we lie
prostrate upon the ground, that faith stands firmest, because there faith meets
with most promises. Promises are the foundation of faith. The people of God have
never so much of the word about them, as when they have cast off the world about
them. The Covenant fits closest to us when we are divested of the creature. When
the river is at the lowest ebb, we are sure that the tide is coming in, when the
days are shortest and the winter sharpest, then the spring of mercy is at hand.
The lowest downfall of the godly is usually the immediate forerunner of their
advancement.

PSALM XIII.

Verse 1. How long wilt Thou forget me, O Lord, for ever? How long wilt Thou hide
Thy face from me? We are ready in all our troubles, when we find not present
help at hand, to suppose the Lord to be far from us. We are impatient of delay,
we cannot endure to wait the Lord’s leisure, so soon as we are entered into the
furnace of affliction, by and by we think that God should help us; every moment
and minute, appeareth to be a day, and every day a year unto us, until He
scatter the coals, and pull us as a firebrand out of the fire. This made our
prophet in the heat of affliction to cry out, how long wilt thou forget me, O
Lord, forever. By which we see that the children of God are wonderfully
assaulted, and the flesh wrestleth against the Spirit, and sometimes prevaileth,
and for a time gets the upper hand. But seeing God is never far from us, however
He may seem to delay and defer His help, let us learn (how great soever our
afflictions be) not utterly to despair of God’s mercy; but to consider, that
however God often deferreth to help us, yet He is still present with us. It is
the will and pleasure of God to try our faith, to stir up our zeal, to exercise
our patience, and to teach us to make greater account of His blessings when we
have obtained them.

Verse 3. Consider and hear me, O Lord my God; lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep
the sleep of death. When David seems to fear death in this verse, it is not that
he suspects any detriment to himself by death, that he should be the worse for
dying, but that God may lose His glory, when as he adds there, the enemy shall
say we have prevailed against him. For as in the primitive church, those that
seem prayers for the dead at funerals, are indeed but thanksgiving unto God in
their behalf that are departed; so as often as David expresses himself in that
pathetical manner, Awake, O Lord, why sleepest Thou? Arise and cast us not off
forever, it is a thanksgiving that he hath, and a prayer that he would not
forget them.

PSALM XIV.

Verse 2. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men; to see if
there were any that did understand, and seek God. Wickedness and ignorance grow
up together; ignorance is the mother of prophaneness, not of devotion. And
therefore the Psalmist joineth these together; there is none that understandeth
or seeketh after God. Would you know the reason why they did not seek after God,
it was because they did not understand; and in the 4th verse Have all the
workers of iniquity no knowledge? As if he had said, if they had but a little
true knowledge among them all, they would not thus greedily have devoured my
people; they made no bones of oppression, they swallowed the poor as pleasantly
as bread; they did, they cared not; what then? They knew not what they ought to
do. The floodgates of wickedness are open, where the door of knowledge is shut.

Verse 4. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Who eat up my people as
they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord. If these trees that brings not forth
good fruit are threatened with fire, what shall become of those trees whose
fruit, like the vines of Sodom and Gomorrah, is as bitter as gall. If he lie in
torments that would not vouchsafe his crumbs to hungry Lazarus, what shall
become of them who eat up the poor as bread? And if he must be cast into the
fire that hath not given his own goods, whether shall he be sent that hath
preyed upon another man’s. If he burn with the devil that hath not clothed the
naked, where thinkest thou shall he burn that hath spoiled them?

Verse 6. You have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his
refuge. As the godly are far from the counsels of the wicked, so the wicked are
far from the counsel of the godly. You have shamed the counsel of the poor, i.e.
ye are ashamed of it. By the poor, the prophet means here the godly poor, men
fearing God, as it is plain by the end of the verse. You are ashamed of the
counsel of the poor, why? because the Lord is his refuge. His counsel doth
depend on the Lord; trust in the Lord, walk in His ways, shelter yourselves
under His protection, this counsel our poor man gives; and he must needs to be a
godly man that gives this counsel. This counsel you have shamed, i.e. despised.
What have we to do with this counsel, to make the Lord our refuge? No we will
take our own course, and work it out by our own wit.

PSALM XV.

Verse 1. Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in Thy holy
hill? From whence we may learn, that some of those who profess to be of the true
Church, may be excluded from the communion, when other some shall remain in this
state and not be removed. For the question is moved, what are the marks of the
members of the Church invisible? And who they are that shall abide in God’s
tabernacle, and dwell in His holy hill? We are also taught from hence, that only
the Lord that searcheth the heart, can put the difference between the true and
the false; for this cause the question is proposed to God; Lord, who shall abide
in Thy tabernacle?

Verse 4. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned, but he honoureth them that
fear the Lord, &c. Those whom Christ loves we should love also; he that doth
service to Christ, the whole profession is engaged to him. A righteous man
honors them that fear the Lord; not only honors the master, but honors the
servant. For as Alexander said of Hephastion, he is also Alexander, so this is
also God’s. For godly men are particles of God, and God will be honored in His
particles; he that loveth him that begat, loveth him that is begotten also.
God’s friends must not walk up and down, as if they had none but their Master to
take them by their hand; but the whole fraternity must acknowledge them. Let God
therefore recommend friends to us; if they bring along with them His
certificate, the fruits of His Spirit; for their Master’s sake let them be
entertained. If the court of heaven hath bestowed honors upon them, and created
them noble, let us give them their titles; let us acknowledge the King in His
image, God in His saints, and honor Him in them.

PSALM XVI.

Verse 3. But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent in whom
is all my delight. All the delight of God’s children should be in such as excel
in virtue; we should bless their expressions, and desire their acquaintance; if
they be Christ’s, they should be ours. Which may serve to reprove them that
leave Christ’s friends to himself. For generally none are acknowledged, but upon
particular respects. If they have pleasured us, then we are bounden to them, we
are at their dispose, we are their servants, but religion carries no such strict
obligation with it; Christ’s relation is none of ours. For let a man be never so
singularly endowed with the graces of God, let him be the very reflex of His
face, the print of His purity, yet for his meer sanctity he is little respected,
precious he may be in God’s eye, but man hath no eye for him; but true Christian
friendship is for God’s sake. For a good man will love in man nothing but God,
that is, the evidence of his grace.

Verse 5. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, and of my cup; Thou
maintainest my lot. David does not speak here so narrowly, so penuriously, as to
say God hath given me my portion, and I must look for no more; but God is my
portion, and as long as He is God He hath more to give; and as long as I am His
I have more to receive. And therefore never say God hath given me these and
these temporal things, and I have scattered them wistfully, surely He will give
me no more; these and these spiritual graces, and I have abused them, surely He
will give me no more. For as for God’s mercy, and His spiritual graces; as that
language in which God spake, the Hebrew, hath no superlative; so His mercy hath
no superlative; He sheweth no mercy which you can call His greatest mercy; His
mercy is never at the highest; whatsoever He hath done for thy soul, or for any
other, in applying Himself to it, He can exceed it.

Verse 10. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer
thine holy one to see corruption. Faith in the resurrection to life, encourageth
us against all the troubles and afflictions of this life; the hope of future
good is a present comfort. For this cause we faint not, saith the Apostle. What
cause was that? Because we have this hope, this faith, that he which raised up
the Lord Jesus, shall raise us up also by Jesus. Expectations from Christ are as
the cordials which keep us from fainting under our burden, and revive us in the
sorrows of death itself. The faith of Christ here, in the resurrection of His
own body to life, is spoken of prophetically as that which bore up His spirit in
the hour of death. Now as that was Christ’s support in His sorrows and
sufferings, that He should not be left in the grave, that He should not see
corruption; so it is the support of saints, that though they see, yet they shall
not for ever lie under the power of corruption.

PSALM XVII.

Verse 7. Shew Thy marvelous loving kindness, O Thou that savest by Thy right
hand, them which put their trust in Thee, from those that rise up against them.
David calls God’s mercy here, multiplicatam, and mirisicatam; it is manifold,
and it is marvelous; and therefore this sweet singer in many places carries it
above His judgments, above the heavens, above all His works. And for the
multitude of His mercies; put together that which David saith, Psalms 89:1-52.
Where are Thine ancient mercies; God’s mercies are as ancient as the Ancient of
Days, even Himself; and that which another prophet saith, His mercies are new
every morning; and put between these two. God’s former and His future mercies,
His present mercies in bringing thee this minute to the consideration of them,
and thou hast found manifold and wondrous mercy.

Verse 8. Keep me as the apple of Thy eye; hide me under the shadow of thy wings.
David under this metaphor, the shadow of thy wings, doth not so much consider an
absolute immunity, that we shall not be touched; but as a refreshing and
consolation when we are touched, though we be pinched and wounded. The names of
God which are most frequent in Scripture, are these three, Elohim, Adonai, and
Jehovah; and to assure us of His power to deliver us, two of these three are
names of power; but then the name Jehovah is not a name of power, but only of
essence, of being, of subsistence; and yet in the virtue of that name, God
relieved His people. So then, if in mine afflictions God vouchsafe to visit me
in that name, to preserve me in my being in my subsistence in Him, if I be not
shaked out of Him, disinherited in Him, let Him at His good pleasure reserve His
Elohim, and His Adonai, the exercises and declarations of His mighty power, to
those great public causes that more concern His glory, then anything that can
befall me. But if He impart His Jehovah, enlarge Himself so far towards me, as
that I may live, and move, and have my being in Him; though I be not instantly
delivered, nor mine enemies absolutely destroyed; yet this is as much as I
should promise myself; this is as much as the Holy Ghost intends in this
metaphor, the shadow of thy wings; that is, a refreshing a respiration, a
conservation, a consolation, in all the afflictions that are inflicted upon me.

Verse 14. From men which are Thy hand, O Lord, from men of the world, which have
their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with Thy hid treasure
&c. Sometimes it is called God’s hand, when it is the hand of a creature; it is
God’s hand in a creature’s hand. God’s hand when it is the hand of wicked men;
God’s hand when it is Satan’s hand. So here you see a wicked man is God’s sword,
and God’s hand. For God’s hand may be understood of an instrument; and thus
Satan himself may be God’s hand to punish, in that sense as wicked men are said
to be His hand, from the men that are Thy hand; though there be other readings
of that place. Some read it, deliver me from men by Thy hand; and others,
deliver me from men of Thy hand; but the first reading is most received; upon
which account Titus Vespasian, being extolled for destroying Jerusalem, said, I
have only lent God my hand, but He Himself hath done the work.

Verse 15. As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness; I shall be
satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness. One main sign and special character
of love, is to suffer for Jesus the Father of sufferings, and King of the
afflicted. Therefore the royal prophet saith here, I am well pleased when I
shall behold myself marked with the characters of Thy sufferings. Jesus Christ
in the great sacrifice of patience made in the beginning of ages, supplies the
person of a great bishop, putting on flesh wholly imprinted with dolours, a
heart drenched in acerbities, a tongue steeped in gall. Round about Him are all
the most elevated and courageous souls, who all wear His livery, and both
constantly and gloriously dispose themselves to this great model and pattern of
sorrows. Suffering our trade, our vow, our profession; our souls are engaged by
oath to this warfare, so soon as first we enter into Christianity. Love which
cannot suffer, is not love; and if it cease to love when it should suffer, it
never was what it professed.

PSALM XVIII.

Verse 2. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliver, my God, my
strength in whom I will trust, my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my
high tower. In all this inventory; in all this armory and furniture of the
Church, there is never a sword, no material sword in the Church’s hand; arma
nostra preces & lacryma; the primitive Church fought with nothing but prayers
and tears; and with this artillery did they lay siege to and take even heaven
itself.

Verse 4. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made
me afraid. David was here, as a man bound and pinioned to execution, so that he
saw nothing but death before him, and the snares and cords of the grave beset
him, so hopeless was his estate, as if he were laid forth already, and wrapped
up in the bonds and clothes of death. Now if you demand wherefore the Lord
suffereth His enemies to ensnare His people so far, that their case seems
desperate, their deliverance impossible. Tis answered, first, that hereby we may
see our simplicity, who can neither observe nor prevent the wiles of Satan and
his instruments. Secondly, that we may take notice of God’s patience towards His
enemies, in suffering them as long as He may; and then His justice, in taking
them at the height. Thirdly, that we may learn to depend on God’s power and
wisdom for safety and defense. Lastly, that the greater the dangers be, God’s
goodness may be the more magnified; and that in most desperate evils we may
acknowledge our deliverance to be miraculous; that so the praise of all may be
referred to the Lord, who is a very present refuge in time of trouble.

Verse 7. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills
moved and were shaken, because He was wroth. The troubles and confusions which
are in the creature, are tokens and effects of the anger of God. As the settling
and establishment of the creature is an effect and sign of God’s goodness; or as
these tell us that God is pleased, so when the Lord hurls the creature this way
and that way, when He tosses it up and down, as if He cared not how this is an
argument of His anger. Thus when David was in distress, and his enemies
encompassed him round about; what then? Then the earth shook and trembled, &c.
That God might rescue David out of that hand of trouble, He troubled the
foundations of the earth, He made the world shake, and kingdoms tremble, that
His David might be settled upon his throne.

Verse 23. I was also upright before Him; and I kept myself from mine iniquity.
God hath given man that form in nature, much more in grace that he should be
upright, and look up and contemplate heaven; and God there. And therefore to
bend downwards upon the earth, to fix our breast, our heart to the earth, to
inhere upon the profits and pleasures of the earth’s; this is a manifest
declination from this uprightness; from this rectitude of David. Nay, to go so
far towards the love of the earth, as to be in love with the graves to be
impatient of the calamities of this life, and murmur at God’s declining us in
this prison; to sink into a sordid melancholy, or irreligious dejection of
spirit, this is also a declination from this rectitude, this uprightness. So it
is too to decline towards the left hand, to modifications and temporizing in
matter or form of religion; and to think all indifferent, all one; or to decline
towards the right hand, in an over vehement zeal, to pardon no errors, to abate
nothing of heresy, if a man believe not all, and just all as we believe; to
abate nothing of reprobation, if a man live not just as we live; this is also a
diversion, a deviation, a deflection from this rectitude, this uprightness. For
the Hebrew word of this text signifies rectitudinem & planitiem, it signifies a
direct way; for the devil’s way was circular, compassing the earth; but the
angel’s way to heaven upon Jacob’s ladder was a straight, a direct way. And then
it signifies as a direct, and straight; so a plain, a smooth, and even way; a
way that hath been beaten into a path before, a way that the Church hath walked
in before; and not a discovery made by our curiosity, and our confidence,
inventing from ourselves, or embracing from others new doctrines and opinions.

Verse 25. With the merciful Thou wilt show Thyself merciful; with an upright man
Thou wilt show Thyself upright. But doth the Lord take color from every one He
meets, or change His temper as the company changes? That’s the weakness of
sinful man; he cannot do so, with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of
changing. God is pure and upright with the unclean and hypocritical, as well as
with the pure and upright; and His actions shew Him to be so. God shows Himself
forward with the forward, when He deals with them as He hath said He will deal
with the forward, deny them and reject them. God shows Himself pure with the
pure, when He deals with them, as He hath said He will, hear them, and accept
them. Though there be nothing in our purity and sincerity which deserveth mercy,
yet we cannot expect mercy without them; our comforts are not grounded upon our
graces, but our comforts are the fruits and consequents of our graces.

Verse 37. I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaketh them; neither did I turn
again till they were consumed. He that maketh half repentances, makes none. Men
run out of their estates, as well by a negligence and not taking account of
their officers, as by their own prodigality. Our salvation is as much
endangered, if we call not our conscience to an examination, as if we repent not
those sins which offer themselves to our knowledge and memory. And therefore
David here places the consummation of his victory in this, I have pursued mine
enemies, &c. God requires a pursuing of the enemy; a search for the sin, and not
to stay till an officer that is, a sickness or any other calamity light upon
that sin, and so bring it before us. God requires an overtaking of the enemy,
that we be not weary in the search of our consciences; and God requires a
consuming of the enemy not a weakening only, a dislodging and dispossessing of a
sin, and the profit of that sin, but all the profit, and all the pleasure, of
all the body of sin. For he that is sorry with a godly sorrow, he that confesses
with a deliberate detestation, he that satisfies with a full restitution of all
his sin, but one, that man is in no better case, then if at sea he should stop
all leaks but one, and perish by that. Sivis solvi, solve, catena, saith St.
Bernard. If thou wilt be discharged cancel all thy bonds, one chain till broke
holds as fast as ten.

Verse 42. Then did I beat them small as the dust before the winds. I did cast
them out as the dirt in the streets. I did scatter them, saith the original.
Such a state, such a dispersion and scattering doth the heart and soul of an
habitual sinner undergo. The wanton and licentious man sighs out his soul, weeps
out his soul, swears out his soul in every place, where his lust, or his custom,
or the glory of victory in overcoming and deluding puts him upon such
solicitations; and this is a scattering of the soul. In the corrupt Taker his
soul goes out, that it may leave him insensible of his sin, and not trouble him
in his corrupt bargain; and in a corrupt Giver, ambitious of preferment; his
soul goes out with his money; which he loves well, but not so well as his
preferment. This year his soul and his money go out upon one office, and the
next year more soul and more money upon another. He knows how his money will
come in again; for they will bring it that have need of his corruptness in his
offices; but where will this man find his soul, thus scattered upon every woman
corruptly won, upon every office corruptly usurped, upon every fee corruptly
taken.

Verse 48. He delivereth me from mine enemies; yea, Thou liftest me up above
those that rise up against me; Thou hast delivered me from the violent man. What
punishment soever is inflicted upon the enemies of God’s Church; proceeds from
God Himself, it is His work. Thus in the deliverance of David from Saul, and the
murder that was acted by Saul upon himself, the vengeance in this story, the
loss of Saul’s life must not cost David the loss of his innocency. Saul had for
a long time persecuted David, and now he is returned to persecute himself. His
own fear and sword quickly dispatch him. David was revenged, when Saul was
slain, but God was revenged, when Saul slew himself. Saul fell by his own hand,
and by God’s; his own hand acts the murder, but God’s the revenge.

PSALM XIX.

Verse 6. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and His circuit unto the
end of it; and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. As David saith of the
sun of the firmament, the Father of Nature, there is nothing hid from the heat
thereof. So we may say of the Son of God the Father of the faithful, in a higher
sense then Abraham was so called, there is nothing hid from Him; no place, no
person excluded from the benefit of His death. The Son hath paid the Father,
hath received enough for all, not in single money only for the discharge of thy
lesser debts, thy idle words, thy wanton thoughts, thy unchaste looks; but in
massie talents to discharge thy crying debts, the clamors of those poor whom
thou hast oppressed, and thy thundering debts, those blasphemies by which thou
hast torn that Father that made thee; that Son that redeemed thee, that Holy
Ghost that would comfort thee.

Verse 12. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse Thou me from my secret faults.
When we have passed many scrutinies, many inquisitions of the conscience, we can
never get beyond the necessity of this petition. Lord cleanse me from my secret
sins. We shall ever be guilty of sins which we shall forget, not only because
they are so little, but because they are so great; that which should be
compunction, will be consternation; and the anguish, which out of a natural
tenderness of conscience, we should have at the first entering into those sins,
will make us dispute on the sin’s side; and for some present ease, and to give
our heavy soul breath, we will find excuses for them; and at last slide and wear
into a customary practice of them; and though we cannot be ignorant that we do
them, yet we shall be ignorant that they are sins; but rather make them things
indifferent; or recreations necessary to maintain a cheerfulness, and so to sin
on; by which means we shall never be able to shut our mouths against this
petition, cleanse me from my secret faults; for though the sin be manifest, the
various circumstances that aggravate the sin, will be secret.

Verse 13. Keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins, let them not have
dominion over me; then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the
great transgression. The original word for transgression, is a word that
signifies sin in all extensions, the highest, the deepest, the weightiest sin;
it is a malicious and a forcible opposition to God; it is when this Herod and
this Pilate (this body and this soul of ours) are made friends, and agreed, that
they may concur to the crucifying of Christ. When not only the members of our
bodies, but the faculties of our souls, our will and understanding are bent upon
sin; when we do not only sin strongly, and hungrily, and thirstily (which
appertain to the body;) but we sin rationally; we find reasons (and those
reasons even in God’s long patience) why we should sin. We sin wittily, we
invent new sins; and we think it an ignorant, a dull, and unsociable thing not
to sin; yea we sin wisely and politically; and make our sin our way to
preferment. And thus the word used here by the Holy Ghost expresseth both the
vehemence, and the weight, and the largeness and the continuance; all
extensions, all dimensions of sin.


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PSALM XXI.

Verse 4. He asked life, of thee, and Thou gavest it him, even length of days for
ever and ever. In regard that God’s dearest children are cut off many times in
the flower of their years, how doth God make good this promise to those that are
His. I answer; God in such cases makes His word good, in that instead of a less
good He giveth a better, a greater; for suppose thou comest to a landed man, and
dealest with him for some term of years in a farm; and when the deeds come to be
drawn he maketh over to thee the fee simple of a manner, even so deals the Lord
here. The King, saith the Psalms &c. God promised long life; and for the lease
of that life of some few years continuance He bestoweth a perpetuity; instead of
a miserable long life here, He giveth a blessed and eternal life hereafter.
Which may reach us to suspend our censures, in regard of those that are taken
away from us; and not to justify ourselves, because we survive and escape, when
others perish; they may go for the better, and we be reserved for worse matters;
to see and suffer that misery, which they are taken away from.

Verse 9. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger; the
Lord shall swallow them up in His wrath, and the fire shall devour them. Christ
always had, hath, and shall have enemies, either openly sitting or secretly
plotting against His Church; but herein lieth our comfort, that they shall at
length be all destroyed; and this destruction is commonly set forth by most hot,
burning, and tormenting fire. Wherefore, let us patiently wait upon Him,
whatever we in the interim suffer at their hands; and let all the enemies of the
truth, be dismaid, and whensoever they think upon the mischief they intend
against God’s Church, let them also think on that judgment God intends against
them.

Verse 11. For they intended evil against thee; they imagined a mischievous
device, which they are not able to perform. The malicious enemies of Christ’s
kingdom, beside all the hatred they have shown and evil they have done, are
still upon plots and designs to overturn Christ’s kingdom; they intended evil
against thee. The enemies of Christ’s kingdom may possibly conceive, they only
oppose such as do trouble mens’ interests; and not as they are the Lord’s
children, yet it is found, that what they do against them, they do it against
the Lord; because they do it against His children and subjects for His cause and
service. And though the wicked are not able, to bring their designs to pass; yet
the evil which they would do; and do set themselves to do, shall be made the
reason of their destruction, as well as the evil which they have done, if they
repent not. For, they intended, is here given as a reason of the judgment.

Verse 12. Therefore shalt Thou make them turn their back, when Thou shalt make
ready Thine arrows upon Thy strings, against the face of them. The Lord will
suffer His enemies to manifest themselves in open opposition oft times, before
He fall upon them. For here they are found in the posture of pursuers and
opposers of God; setting their face against Him, when He comes to execute
judgment on them; Thou shalt make them turn their back; and when God falleth
upon His enemies to be avenged on them; He useth to make them and the beholders
see, that He hath set them up as a mark to shoot at; for He will make ready His
arrows one after another against the face of them.

PSALM XXII.

Verse 2. O my God, I cry in the day time, but Thou hearest not; and in the night
season, and am not silent. The not enjoying of what we desire, whets our
affections and makes us the more eager in the pursuit, and the gift more welcome
at the receipt. For usually what is hardly got is greatly set by. And thus the
child of God prays, sometimes on his knees, sometimes on his face, and that with
sighs which cannot be uttered; and yet God seems not to regard. O my God, says
David, here I have cried in the morning, and at night; but Thou hearest not.
What then, is the Lord’s hand shortened that it cannot save? No, but our
iniquities do separate between us and our God. Sometimes we ask we know not
what, with the sons of Zebedee; sometimes we ask with doubting and wavering; and
sometimes we ask amiss, that we may consume it on our lusts. Lastly, sometimes,
any, almost always, we have roving and ranging thoughts; and so no marvel if we
receive not. Quomodo te audiri a Deo postulas, cum te ipse non audias; how canst
thou expect that God should hear thee; when thou dost not hear thyself.

Verse 3. But Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. It
argues a great degree and much strength of grace, when we maintain high thoughts
of God, and settled resolves that He is good; when He not only lets us fall low
into trouble, but lets us lie unheard in the day of our trouble. Such was the
strength of David’s faith, or rather of Christ’s, of whose sufferings this Psalm
is a Prophecy; who as soon as he said, O my God, I cry in the day time, but Thou
hearest not; adds in the next verse, But Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest
the praises of Israel; as if he had said, I will not have an evil, or an
uncomely thought of Thee, though Thou refusest to hear; I know Thou art holy,
and therefore canst not but be just and good, whatsoever Thou art pleased to do
with me.

Verse 4. Our fathers trusted in thee; they trusted and thou didst deliver them.
It is wisdom to look to the carriage of the godly in former times; our fathers
trusted in thee; and to look upon their patient depending on God, doubling their
diligence in calling on Him; as their straits did grow, they cried, they
trusted; and to remember that they did never seek God in vain, but every one of
them were delivered and not confounded. For this direction is held forth to us
in this example of Christ, and David.

Verse 6. But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the
people. When David had said, as the lowest diminution that he could put upon
man. I am a worm and no man; he might have gone lower, and said, I am a man and
no worm. For man is so much less then a worm, as that worms of his own
production shall feed upon his dead body in the grave; and an immortal worm gnaw
his conscience in the torments of hell; and then, if that which God hath made
thee, man, be nothing, canst thou be proud of that? Or think that any thing the
King hath made thee, a Lord; or which thy wife hath made thee, rich; or which
thy riches have made thee, an officer? As Job said of impertinent comforters,
miserable comforters; so I say of these creations, miserable creations are they
all.

Verse 9. But Thou art He that took me out of the womb; Thou didst make me hope,
when I was upon my mother’s breasts. Our birth and production is the special
work of God; Thou art He that tookest me out of my mother’s womb, saith David
here; and he apprehended the power of God so great in his natural birth, that he
from thence takes an argument to strengthen his faith, that God could do any
other thing for him how hard soever. He knew he could never be in such straits
but the power of God could deliver him, when he once remembered that it was God
that took him out of his mother’s womb. For in the words immediately foregoing
he bringeth in his enemies reproaching him, and saying, he trusted in God that
He would deliver him, &c. They jeer him with his God, Let Him deliver him. David
answers, what do ye think God cannot deliver me? Lord, saith he, thou art He
that tookest me out of my mother’s womb. Can I ever be in such straits, as I was
then? Can I be ever in a more helpless condition? Can I ever be in more need of
an Almighty help, then when I was struggling to get into the world? There is
more of the power of God put forth in bringing a poor infant into the world,
then in bringing him out of any trouble, or strait he can fall into, in his
travels through the world.

Verse 15. My strength is dried up like a potsheard; and my tongue cleaveth to my
jaws; and Thou hast brought me into the dust of death. Even then when a man is
no man he may be a Christian; when I am a worm and no man, when I am the
offscouring of the world; yet, as my Savior in the text, when He lay in the
grave, and was brought to the dust of the earth, was the same Christ; so in the
grave of oppression and persecution I am the same Christian, as in my baptism.
Let nothing therefore that can befall thee despoil thee of the dignity and
constancy of a Christian. However thou be severed from those things which thou
makest account do make thee up; severed from a wife by divorce, from a child by
death, from goods by fire or water; from an office by just, or unjust
displeasure (which is the heavier but the happier case) yet never think thyself
severed from thy head Christ Jesus, nor from being a lively member of His body.
Thy Savior when He was brought to the dust of the grave, was still the same
Lord; thou, when thou art enwrapped and interred in confusion, art still the
same Christian. Be truly a Christian, and in the grave of persecution, in the
grave of putrefaction, thou shalt retain the same nature, and even thy dust
shall be Christian dust.

PSALM XXIII.

Verse 1. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. In the midst of our greatest
miseries and afflictions our interest in God will be our comfort. Ask David, and
he will tell us in that Psalm, that seeing the Lord is his shepherd he shall not
want any good thing, even then when things go never so ill with him. In his
sorrows he shall have consolation, in his dangers preservation, supply in his
wants, safety in his ways; and whatever may be meet for him in any estate that
may befall him.

Verse 4. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil; for Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. See
here what a faithful God you have to stand by you, one that will not fail in
greatest need. No such trial of a friend as in time of trouble, but here many
times friends will not, and sometimes they cannot help the case is sometimes so
desperate, that friends society can only afford pity, not succor; they may look
on, they cannot take off, but the presence of God is ever active and powerful;
and whereas too most faithful friends part at death, this friend will not then
leave us. David knew He would be with him in the shadow of death; not only when
we walk through the pleasant meadow of prosperity, but when we go through the
salt waters of affliction; nay, when we pass through Mare mortaum, the sea of
death, He will be with us.

Verse 5. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; Thou
anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. In the most present dangers,
God shows the most present help; thou shalt spread my table in the very face of
my enemy; even then when my enemy is nearest, and looketh on. As when the sword
is in the hand of the angel, so when it is in the hand of man, a thousand shall
fall on thy right hand, yet it shall not come nigh thee. Not nigh thee? What?
Doth it not come nigh him when they die on every side of him? Yes, nigh him, but
not nigh to hurt him; the power of God can bring us near to danger, and yet keep
us far from harm. Yet we are not to take this, or the like holy writs of
protection, as if God would deliver all his people from famine, or the sword.
No, for the Lord knows how to distinguish His, when famine, and sword do not. If
God’s servants are not delivered from famine and sword, they are delivered by
them, and while they are overcome by one trouble, they conquer all.

PSALM XXIV.

Verse 1. The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof, the world and they
that dwell therein. The devil told our Savior that all was his, and to
whomsoever he would he gave it. Luke 4:1-44. But the devil lied in saying so for
it is God alone that is the sole proprietary of the whole world; He only can
truly say as Daniel 3:32. I rule in the kingdom of men; and give it to whosoever
I will. How then can God do any man wrong, who is obliged to none, but all are
engaged to Him for all they have. And again, how can God’s children want
anything that is good for them, seeing they have so rich a Father who seems to
say unto them, as in Genesis 45:1-28. Regard not your stuff, for all the good of
the land is yours.

Verse 2. For He hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the
floods. Hereby is mystically meant, that He hath set His church above the waters
of adversity; so that how high soever they arise, it is kept still above them in
safety, and so shall be for evermore. Or it may agree thus, He will take in all
Nations to be in His grace, because all be His creatures; He made them so
admirable an habitation at the first, and upholds it still, shewing hereby how
much He regards them; therefore He will now extend His favor further towards
them by taking them in to be His people.

Verse 4. He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lift up his
soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. God looketh not, neither would He have
us to look upon external titles, or outward state, but upon the uprightness of
the heart. When David was anointed, 1 Samuel 16:1-23, Samuel was ready to pour
the anointing oil upon Eliab, the eldest brother, ‘cause as the text says, he
was a goodly man. Not so says God, look not upon his countenance. Abel offered,
so did Cain; but God rejected the offering of Cain, ‘cause he offered not with
an upright heart. The upright man is the first ingredient into that holy
mountain. And indeed, what part of man is more fit for God then that which God
himself shall choose, and that is the heart; My Son give me thy heart; not the
eye, though it be piercing, nor the foot, though it be swift; nor the hand
though it be strong, nor the tongue though it be eloquent; nor the head though
it be politick; but the heart, an upright heart; he that hath an upright heart
shall ascend into His holy mountain.

PSALM XXV.

Verse. 5. Lead me in Thy truth, and teach me; for Thou art the God of my
salvation, on Thee do I wait all the day. When as the world began in a
community, that every thing was every bodies; but improved itself to a
propriety, and came to meum and tuum, that every man knew his own; so that which
is salus Domini, the salvation of the Lord, as it is in the first decree; and
that which is salus Mundi, the salvation of the world, as it is in the
accomplishment of the decree by Christ; may be mea, & tua, my salvation, and thy
salvation, as tis applied by the Holy Ghost in the ministry of the Church.
Salvation in the decree is, as the Bezar stone in the maw of that creature,
where it grows. Salvation in Christ’s death is, as the Bezar in the merchants or
Apothecaries provision; but salvation in the church, in the distribution and
application thereof by the Holy Ghost, is as that Bezar working in my veins,
expelling my peccant humors, and rectifying my former defects.

Verse 11. For Thy name sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great. It
is well noted upon these words of David, for thy names’ sake, O Lord, that the
word is Elohim; which is Gods, or Lords, in the plural. For David, though he
conceived not divers Gods, yet he knew three divers persons in that one God; and
he knew, that by the sin which he lamented here, he had offended all those three
persons. For whereas we consider principally in the Father power, and in the
Son, wisdom, and in the Holy Ghost, goodness, David had sinned against the
Father in his notion, in abusing his power and kingly authority to a mischievous
and bloody end in the murder of Uriah; and he had sinned against the Son in his
notion, in depraving and detorting true wisdom into craft and treachery; and he
had sinned against the Holy Ghost in his notion, when he would not be content
with the goodness and piety of Uriah; who refused to take the eases of his own
house, and the pleasure of his wive’s bosom, as long as God Himself in His army
lodged in tents, and stood in the face of the enemy.

Verse 15. Mine eyes are ever towards the Lord; for He shall pluck my feet out of
the net. Upon these words of David’s, Mine eyes are ever towards the Lord. S.
Augustine, saith, quafi diceretur, quid agitur de pedibus? As though it were
objected, is all thy care of thine eyes? What becomes of thy feet? Dost thou not
look to thy steps, to thy life, as well as thy faith? To please God, as well as
to know God? And he answers in the words that follow, ipse evellet; as for my
feet, God shall order, that is, assist me in ordering them; if His eye be upon
me, and mine upon Him (O blessed reflection, O powerful reciprocation, O happy
correspondence!) He will pluck my feet out of the net though I be almost
ensnared, almost entangled, He will snatch me out of the fire, deliver me from
the tentation. Let us therefore look God full in the face; and then confidently
expect deliverance from all enemies bodily or ghostly, either of the world, the
flesh, or the devil.

Verse 16. Turn Thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and
afflicted. Although a Christian may be grown up to such a strength of devotion,
as that he can boldly go to God in supplications, and intercessions, and
thanksgivings; yet, saith S. Bernard, at first, when he comes first to deprehend
himself in a particular sin, or in a course of sin, he comes verecundo affectu,
bashfully, shamefully, tremblingly, he knows not what to ask; he dares ask no
particular thing at God’s hand; but although he be not come yet to particular
requests for pardon of past sins, nor for strength against future, nor to a
particular consideration of the weight of his sins, nor to a comparison between
his sin and the mercy of God, yet he comes to a misereremes Domine, to a sudden
ejaculation, O Lord be merciful unto me, how dare I do this in the sight of my
God.

PSALM XXVI.

Verse 3. For Thy loving kindness is before mine eyes; and I have walked in Thy
truth. David provokes God with all those emphatical words, judge me, prove me,
try me, examine me; and more, ure renes; bring not only a candle to search, but
even fire to melt me; but upon what confidence all this? For Thy loving kindness
is ever before mine eyes. If God’s anger, and not His loving kindness, had been
before his eyes, it had been a fearful apparition, and a dangerous issue, to
have gone upon; and therefore it was not God’s searching, and trying and
correcting of him that David deprecates here; but that anger which might change
the nature of all, and make all the physic poison; all that which was intended
for David’s mollifying, to advance his obduration.

Verse 5. I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the
wicked. There is nothing that more discovereth what lieth in the heart, then the
company with whom we ordinarily resort. The heart of man is deceitful, and the
secret corners thereof are past finding out; but the company which we use shall
try what is in it. If the heart be set upon goodness, we will not incline
ourselves to any lewd conversation. The prophet David hereby justified his
heart, in that he hated the company of evil persons; which may serve to reprove
all such as are the companions of prophane livers. The crouding of ourselves
into such company argues a comformity in affections. We see in the course of
nature, that like will to like, and if they be not made like unto them, and
corrupted by them, it is greatly to be feared they will be so.

Verse 8. Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where
thine honor dwelleth. Every house by public designation separate for prayer, or
other religious uses, is God’s house. Thine house, saith this text. God had
propriety in it, and had set His mark upon it, even His own name. And therefore
it was in the Jews idiom of speech called the mountain of the Lord’s house, and
the Lord’s house by our prophet frequently. So that since the purpose of man, in
separating places of worship is that thither by order and with convenience, and
in communities of men, God may be worshipped and prayed unto; God having
declared that He accepts of such separate places to such purposes, saith, that
there He will be called upon; that such places shall be places of advantage to
our devotions, in respect of human order, and divine acceptance and benediction.

PSALM XXVII.

Verse 3. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear;
though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. Strange, but yet
strong, was the faith of the Psalmist in this verse. Lo, here a soul like the
Ark rising with the waters; the encamping of an host is terrible; and yet David
fears not; the rising up of war is yet more dangerous, yet David will not only
not fear, but be confident; nor yet (which is very considerable) doth he say in
God, but in this, that is in the very war itself, will I be confident; as
knowing, that when the enemy did not only encamp about, but war against him; (so
that either he must perish, or God must help) it would not be long ere the
wisdom of the Almighty would find out a way to rescue him. Not much unlike this
is that resolution of holy Job, though He slay me yet will I trust in Him; death
and hope seem to be at the greatest distance, and yet here they are brought
together; death could not kill Job’s hope; nay according to Pagnines reading of
the Hebrew text, behold He will slay me; death itself giveth life to his hope
and becomes a prop to his confidence.

Verse 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that I will 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. To this note David sets his harp in many
Psalms. Sometimes that God had suffered his enemies to possess His Tabernacle,
as Psalms 78:1-72, He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh. But most commonly he
complained that God disabled him from coming to the sanctuary. In which one
thing he sums up all his desires, all his prayers in this Psalm; to this end he
expresses a holy jealousy, a religious envy, even to the sparrows and swallows
(yea the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest of herself, even
Thy altars, my King and my God). Thou art my king, and my God, and yet excludest
me from that which Thou affordest to sparrows.

Verse 7. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, have mercy also upon me, and
answer me. Have mercy upon me, is the first groan of a sick soul, the first
glance of a soul directed towards God, and imports thus much. Lord turn Thy
countenance towards me, Lord bring me to a sense that Thou art turned towards
me; Lord bring me within such a distance, as my soul may feel warmth and comfort
in the rising of that Sun. For though a sinner in his regeneration come not
presently to look God in the face; nor conceive presently an assurance of an
establish reconciliation, a fullness of pardon, a canceling of all former debts
in an instant; yet such a one in his first act of regeneration, in this miserere
met, is called to a contemplation of much comfort to his soul. For as S. Basil
saith, in scala prima ascensio est ab humo; He that makes but one step up a
stair, though he be not got much nearer to the top of the house, yet he is got
from the ground; and delivered from the foulness and dampness of that; so in
this first step of prayer miserere met, O Lord be merciful unto me, though man
be not established in heaven, yet he is stept from the world, and the miserable
comforters thereof.

Verse 8. When thou saidest, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face,
Lord, will I seek. From this verse you may know how you may judge of yourselves
in the time of hearing, whether the word be mixed with faith; if your hearts
answer God’s words as David’s did; when God said, Seek ye my face, he answered,
Thy face, Lord, will I seek. For faith is such an assent to every word of God,
as it produceth affections and actions answerable to the word whereunto the
heart assenteth. So that when John Baptist preacheth repentance, we grieve in
the sense of sin; and when Christ preacheth the Gospel, we are comforted in hope
of forgiveness. Hereby are condemned such, who are like those proud men who told
Jeremy that he spake falsely, when he delivered the word of God, which crossed
their purposes, as also such as despair in time of affliction, and do not live
by faith.

PSALM XXVIII.

Verse 2. Hear the voice of my supplication, when I cry unto Thee. When I lift up
my hands toward Thy holy oracle. He mentioneth the lifting up of his hands, as a
sign of his seeking help only from above; which reproveth the remissness of too
many in praying; who lift up no hands, nor make any outward expression; surely
it sheweth a dead heart; and yet if this be done in hypocrisy; it availeth not
neither; for with the hands the heart must be lifted up, that we may prevail.

Verse 4. Give them according to their deeds, and according to the nakedness of
their endeavors; give them after the work of their hands, render to them their
desert. Here the prophet prays, that they might be dealt with according to their
doings towards others, not out of a desire of private revenge; for then it had
been evil, but from zeal for God’s glory, and a prophetical spirit; by thus
praying, shewing that it should be for aiming yet always at this, that the
wicked enemies, being judged in this world, might at the last be made so ashamed
of their evil doings, that they might be brought to repentance, and saved, as he
elsewhere expresseth. Any imprecations which are not thus moderated, or made
against any, without abundance of sin by them first committed, and long
persisted in, come from the flesh and are sinful; for he saith not only their
works; but the evil of their doings, and the works of their hands, to shew that
they were many and committed time after time without end.

Verse 8. The Lord is their strength, and he is the saving strength of His
anointed. By this all power is ascribed unto Christ, to save at all times all
such as believe in Him, to their assured comfort. And of David learn we
likewise, when we pray, and when we have victory over our enemies, to ascribe
the power whereby to Him alone, and not to ourselves, looking upon Christ also
though despised by the Jews as weak and unable to save himself, as being of all
power most able to save both temporally and eternally.

Verse 9. Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance; feed them also, and lift
them up forever. Such as find access to God in prayer for themselves, should
speak also a word for his Church, and say, Lord save thy people. For the
privileges which the godly have, are common to all. The godly are all Gods
people, his inheritance, his flock; and as the benefits imported under these
titles are common; so are the duties due from us to God, imported thereby,
common also, and to be so studied that we may discharge them; as we would find
from God the benefits of protection and deliverance, as subjects whom he will
save, as being fed and led on as his flock, and exalted over all our enemies.

PSALM XXIX.

Verse 9. The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the
forests and in His temple doth every one speak of the glory. God is worthy of
all praise and honor; not only when He doth enrich and strengthen us, but also
when He doth impoverish and weaken us. When God thunders in judgments so loud;
that He breaketh the cedars, and shakes the wilderness; then to give unto the
Lord the glory due unto His name, argues a spirit highly enabled and glorious in
grace. Therefore His children should not rest in this; that they bear
afflictions, but they should labor to bring their hearts to bless and glorify
God in and for the afflictions that they bear. And a soul that thus honoureth
God shall assuredly receive honor from God. That which the Apostle speaks of the
saint suffering persecution, is true of them in any kind of holy suffering, the
spirit of glory and of God doth rest upon them 2 Peter 4.

Verse 10. For the Lord sitteth upon the cloud yea, the Lord sitteth King for
ever. However the king of the earth be troubled, and rais’d and thrown down
again; yet the Lord sitteth King forever. The Lord dwelleth in the heavens, and
yet He sits upon the compass of the earth, Isaiah 40:1-31 where no earthquake
shakes His seat; for sedet in confusione, as one translation reads this place
here, the Lord sitteth upon the flood, so we read it; what confusions soever
disorder the world; what floods soever surround and overflow the world, the Lord
is safe.

Verse 11. The Lord will give strength unto His people, the Lord will bless His
people with peace. Peace is one of the greatest temporal blessings that a state
or church can receive; and therefore the prophet calls it here not barely peace
but the blessing of peace; and doubtless it is to teach the world, that all
earthly blessings are as it were unblessed till peace be upon them, till then no
enjoying of any. And therefore it was an ancient custom among the Jews, to
salute them to whom they wished all happiness with this complement, peace be
unto you. For indeed without peace we can have no solid temporal happiness.
Peace, or nothing; peace, and everything. With peace your barns are your own,
and your bags are your own, your servants are your own, and your wives they also
are your own too; but without peace none of all these things are yours, not so
much as your very wives, for they are all at the mercy of the soldiers. Neither
is this blessing of peace a peculiar only of particular men, but likewise of
whole nations it is a national blessing, a fundamental happiness, that which
blesseth all other things to us, and without which they are not blessings; and
this not in respect of God’s people alone, but of the very infidels themselves,
and such was at the birth of Christ, when it was said, Isaiah 19:1-25, that
there should be freedom of traffic and commerce, and this not without a
blessing, even a blessing in the midst of the land, for the Lord of hosts shall
bless them. Verse 25.


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Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/wright-abraham-a-commentary-on-the-psalms/
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