1. This is
another instance of David’s common habit of pleading past mercies as a ground
for present favor. Here he reviews his Ebenezers and takes comfort from them.
God does nothing by halves, and he will never cease to help us until we cease
to need. Observe that David speaks first to God and then to men. Surely we
would all speak the more boldly to men if we had more constant converse with
God. God of my righteousness. This name by which the Lord is addressed
is not used in any other part of Scripture. It means, “You are the author, the
witness, the maintainer, the judge, and the rewarder of my righteousness; to
you I appeal from the calumnies and harsh judgments of men.” Here is wisdom;
let us imitate it and always take our case, not to the petty courts of human
opinion, but into the superior court of heaven. Thou hast enlarged me when I
was in distress. A figure taken from an army hard pressed by the
surrounding enemy. God has broken the barriers and set me in a large place. Or
we may understand it thus: “God has enlarged my heart with joy and comfort
when I was like a man imprisoned by grief and sorrow.” God is a never-failing
comforter. Have mercy upon me. Though you may justly permit my enemies
to destroy me, on account of my many and great sins, yet I flee to your mercy,
and I beseech you to hear my prayer, and bring your servant out of his
troubles. The best of men need mercy as truly as the worst of men.
2. In this
second part of the psalm we are led from the closet of prayer into the field of
conflict. Note the undaunted courage of the man of God. He admits that his
enemies are great men (for such is the import of the Hebrew words translated sons
of men), but still he believes them to be foolish men, and therefore chides
them, as though they were but children. He tells them that they love vanity,
and seek after leasing, that is, lying, empty fancies, vain conceits,
wicked fabrications. He asks them how long they mean to make his honor a
jest, and his fame a mockery. Had not repeated disappointments convinced them
that the Lord’s anointed was not to be overcome by all their calumnies? Did
they mean to jest their souls into hell? In the contemplation of their perverse
continuance in their vain and lying pursuits, the psalmist solemnly pauses and
inserts a Selah. Surely we too may stop awhile, and meditate upon the
deep-seated folly of the wicked, their continuance in evil, and their sure
destruction; and we may learn to admire that grace which has made us to differ,
and taught us to love truth, and seek after righteousness.
3. But know.
Fools will not learn, and therefore must again and again be told the same
thing, especially when it is such a bitter truth, namely, the fact that the
godly are the chosen of God and are, by distinguishing grace, set apart from
men. Election is a doctrine which unrenewed people cannot endure, but
nevertheless, it is a glorious and well-attested truth, and one which should
comfort the tempted believer—the guarantee of complete salvation, and an
argument for success at the throne of grace. He who chose us for himself will
surely hear our prayers. The Lord’s elect will not be condemned, nor shall
their cry be unheard. David was king by divine decree, and we are the Lord’s
people in the same manner; let us tell our enemies that they fight against God
and destiny when they strive to overthrow our souls. When you are on your
knees, the fact of your being set apart as God’s own particular treasure
should give you courage and inspire you with fervency and faith (see Luke
18:7). Since he chose to love us, he cannot but choose to hear us.
4. Stand in awe, and sin not. How many reverse this and sin but do not tremble! O that
men would take the advice of this verse and commune with their own
hearts. Surely thoughtlessness must be one reason why people are so mad as to
despise Christ and hate their own mercies. Oh that for once their passions
would be quiet and let them be still, that so in solemn silence they
might review the past, and meditate on their inevitable doom. Surely a thinking
person might have enough sense to see the vanity of sin and the worthlessness
of the world. Stop, rash sinner, before taking the last step; go to your bed
and think about your ways. Selah.
5. Provided
that the rebels had obeyed the voice of the last verse, they would now be
crying, “What shall we do to be saved?” And in the present verse, they are
pointed to the sacrifice, and exhorted to trust in the Lord. When the Jew offered sacrifice
in a spiritual manner, he set forth the Redeemer, the great sin-atoning Lamb;
there is, therefore, the full gospel in this exhortation of the psalmist. O
sinners, flee to the sacrifice of Calvary, and there put your whole confidence
and trust, for he who died for men is the Lord Jehovah.
6. In the
third part of the psalm the faith of the afflicted one finds utterance in sweet
expressions of contentment and peace.
There were many, even among David’s own followers, who
wanted to see rather than to believe. Alas, this is the tendency of us all.
Even the regenerate sometimes groan after prosperity, and are sad when darkness
covers all good from view. As for worldlings, this is their unceasing cry: Who
will show us any good? Never satisfied, their empty hearts are ready to
drink in any fine delusion which impostors may invent; and when these fail,
they soon yield to despair, and declare that there is no good thing in either
heaven or earth. The true believer is a man of a very different mold. His face
is not downward like the beasts’, but upward like the angels’. The light of
God’s countenance is enough for him. This is his riches, his honor, his health,
his ambition, his ease. Give him this, and he will ask no more. Oh, for more of
the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, that our fellowship with the Father and his
Son Jesus Christ may be constant!
7. “It is
better,” said someone, “to feel God’s favor one hour in our repenting souls,
than to sit whole ages under the warmest sunshine that this world affords.”
Christ in the heart is better than corn in the barn, or wine in the vat. Corn
and wine are but fruits of the world, but the light of God’s countenance is the
ripe fruit of heaven. This verse is the saying of the righteous man, in
opposition to the saying of the many. How quickly the tongue betrays the
character! Let us, then, weigh and watch our words, lest our speech should
prove us to be foreigners, and aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.
8. Sweet
evening hymn! I will not sit up to watch through fear, but I will lay me
down; and then I will not lie awake listening to every rustling sound, but
I will lie down in peace, and sleep, for I have nothing to fear. He who
has the wings of God above him needs no other curtain. Only means that
God alone was his keeper; though alone, without human help, he was in good
keeping, for he was “alone with God.” A quiet conscience is a good bedfellow.
They slumber sweetly whom faith rocks to sleep.
O Lord, give us this calm repose on thee, that like David we
may lie down in peace, and sleep each night while we live; and joyfully lie
down in the appointed time, to sleep in death, to rest in God!
Excerpt from:
The Treasury of David
By Charles H Spurgeon
