1. Give ear to my prayer, O God. The fact is so commonly before us, otherwise we should be
surprised to observe how universally and constantly the saints resort to prayer
in seasons of distress. But note well that it is never the bare act of prayer
which satisfies the godly; they crave an answer from the throne. Hide not
thyself from my supplication. When someone saw his neighbor in distress,
and deliberately passed him by, he was said to hide himself from him. In that
dread hour when Jesus bore our sins upon the tree, his Father did hide himself,
and this was the most dreadful part of all the Son of David’s agony.
2. Attend unto me, and hear me. This is the third time he prays the same prayer. He is in
deep and bitter earnest. He begs for his God to be a listener and an answerer. I
mourn in my complaint, and make a noise. He gives a loose to his sorrows,
permits his mind to rehearse her griefs, and to pour them out whether the
language be coherent or not. What a comfort that we may be thus familiar with
our God! Our rambling thoughts when we are distracted with grief we may bring
before him, and in utterances rather to be called a noise than language.
He will attend so carefully that he will understand us, and he will often
fulfill desires which we ourselves could not have expressed in intelligible
words. Our Lord himself used strong crying and tears, and was heard in that he
feared.
3. Because of the voice of the enemy. The enemy was vocal and voluble enough, and found a voice
where his godly victim had nothing better than a “noise.” Slander is seldom
short of expression; it prates and prattles evermore. Neither David, nor our
Lord, nor any of the saints were allowed to escape the attacks of venomous
tongues, and this evil was in every case the cause of acute anguish. Because
of the oppression of the wicked. The unjust pressed and oppressed the
righteous; like an intolerable burden they crushed them, and brought them to
their knees before the Lord. He that is born after the flesh will persecute him
that is born after the Spirit. The great descendant of the woman suffered from
a bruised heel. For they cast iniquity upon me. They throw the dust of
their lying over me. They endeavor to trip me up, and if I do not fall they say
I do. And in wrath they hate me. With a hearty ill-will they detested
the holy man.
4. My heart is sore pained within me. His inmost soul was touched, and a wounded spirit who can
bear? If this were written when David was attacked by his own favorite son, and
ignominiously driven from his capital, he had reason enough for using these
expressions. And the terrors of death are fallen upon me. He felt like
one suddenly surrounded with the glooms of the shadow of death, upon whom the
eternal night suddenly descends. Within and without he was afflicted, and his
chief terror seemed to come from above, for he uses the expression fallen
upon me. He felt that he was as good as dead. The inmost center of his
nature was moved with dismay. Think of our Lord in the garden, with his “soul
exceeding sorrowful even unto death,” and you have a parallel to the griefs of
the psalmist. Perhaps if you have not yet trodden this gloomy way you will
soon; then be sure to mark the footprints of the Lord in this miry part of the
road.
5. Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me. Like housebreakers these robbers were entering his soul.
Like one who feels a fainting fit coming over him, so the oppressed suppliant
was falling into a state of terror. His fear was so great as to make him
tremble. He did not know what would happen next, or how soon the worst would
come. The sly, mysterious whisperings of slander often cause a noble mind far
more fear than open antagonism; we can be brave against an open foe. And
horror hath overwhelmed me. He was as one enveloped in a darkness that
might be felt. As Jonah went down into the sea, so did David appear to go down
into deeps of horror. He was brought into a hideous state of suspense and
mortal apprehension.
6. And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then
would I fly away, and be at rest.
If he could not resist as an eagle, he would escape as a dove. His love of
peace made him sigh for an escape from the scene of strife. We are all too apt
to utter this vain desire, for vain it is; no wings of doves or eagles could
bear us away from the sorrows of a trembling heart. Inward grief knows nothing
of place. Moreover, it is cowardly to shun the battle which God would have us
fight. We had better face the danger, for we have no armor for our backs. He
may be at peace who does not fly, but commends his case to his God. Even the
dove of old found no rest till she returned to her ark, and we amid all our
sorrow may find rest in Jesus. We need not depart; all will be well if we trust
in him.
7. Lo, then would I wander far off. Yet when David was far off, he sighed to be once more near
Jerusalem; thus, in our ill estate we ever think the past to be better than the
present. And remain in the wilderness. He found it none such a dear
abode when there, yet resolves now to make it his permanent abode. Our Lord,
while free from all idle wishes, found much strength in solitude, and loved the
mountain’s brow at midnight, and the quiet shade of the olives of Gethsemane.
It is better practically to use retirement than pathetically to sigh for it.
Yet it is natural, when everybody is doing us wrong, to wish to separate
ourselves from their society; nature, however, must yield to grace, and we must
endure the contradiction of sinners against ourselves, and not be weary and
faint in our minds. Selah. When we are going too fast, and giving way
too freely to regrets, it is well to pause awhile, till more sober thoughts
return.
8. I would hasten my escape. He tried to pause but could not. David declares that he
would up and away at once, for fear he should be too late, and because he could
bear the clamor of his foes no longer. From the windy storm and tempest.
A storm was brewing, and, like a dove, he would outfly it and reach a calmer
region. Alas, poor soul! As yet you must tarry here and feel the tempest; but
be of good cheer, you will stretch your wings before long for a bolder flight;
heaven will receive you, and there your sorrows will have an end.
9. Destroy, O Lord. Put my enemies to the rout. Let them be devoured by the
sword, since they have unsheathed it against me. How could we expect the exiled
monarch to offer any other prayer than this against the rebellious bands of
Absalom, and the crafty devices of Ahithophel? Divide their tongues.
Make another Babel in their debates and councils of war. Set them at cross
purposes. Divide the pack that the hunted one may escape. The divisions of
error are the hope of truth. For I have seen violence and strife in the
city. The king hoped that now the very lawlessness which had exiled him
would create weakness among his foes. They who are strong through violence will
sooner or later find that their strength is their death. The prayer of David
was heard; the rebels were soon divided.
10. Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof. The holy city had become a den of wickedness: conspirators
met in the dark, and talked in little knots in the streets even in broad
daylight. Meanwhile the country was being roused to revolt, and the traitors
without threatened to environ the city, and act in concert with the rebels
within. Mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it. Unhappy king to
be thus compelled to see the mischief which he could not avert laying waste the
city which he loved so well. There was another King whose many tears watered
the rebellious city (Matthew 23:37).
11. Wickedness is in the midst thereof. The very heart of the city was base. In her places of
authority crime went hand in hand with calamity. The population was utterly
demoralized; prosperity had vanished and order with it. Deceit and guile
depart not from her streets. Crafty tongues were busy persuading the
people; their good king was defamed in all ways, and when they saw him
go away, they fell to reviling the governors of their own choosing.
12. The
psalmist proceeds from one point of his sorrow to another, wandering on like
one in a maze, giving no distinct intimations that he is changing the subject.
Now from the turbulent city his mind turns to the falsehearted councilor. For
it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it. It was
not an open foe, but a pretended friend. None are such real enemies as false
friends. Reproaches from those who have been intimate with us, and trusted by
us, cut us to the quick; and they are usually so well acquainted with our
peculiar weaknesses that they know how to touch us where we are most sensitive,
and to speak so as to do us most damage. Neither was it he that hated me
that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him.
When those who pretended to love us leer at us with contempt, whither shall we
go? Our blessed Lord had to endure at its worst the deceit and faithlessness of
a favored disciple; let us not marvel when we are called to tread the road
which is marked by his pierced feet.
13. But it was thou.
His poetic fury is on him; he sees the traitor as though he stood before him in
flesh and blood. He points his finger at him; he challenges him to his face. But
thou. Judas, betrayest thou the Son of Man? A man mine equal.
Treated by me as one of my own rank, never looked upon as an inferior, but as a
trusted friend. My guide, a counselor so sage that I trusted your advice
and found it prudent to do so. And mine acquaintance, with whom I was on
most intimate terms. Judas stood very much in this relation to our Lord; he was
treated as an equal, trusted as treasurer, and in that capacity often consulted
with. He knew the place where the Master was wont to spend his solitude; in
fact, he knew all the Master’s movements, and yet he betrayed him to his
remorseless adversaries. How justly might the Lord have pointed at him and
said, But thou; but his gentler spirit warned the son of perdition in
the mildest manner, and had not Iscariot been tenfold a child of hell he would
have relinquished his detestable purpose.
14. We took sweet counsel together. It was not merely the counsel which men take together in
public or upon common themes; their fellowship had been tender and
confidential. The traitor had been treated lovingly, and trusted much. Solace,
mutual and cheering, had grown out of their intimate communings. And walked
unto the house of God in company. They had mingled their worship, and
communed on heavenly themes. Judas and the Lord were joined in the holiest of
enterprises; he had been sent on the most gracious of errands. His cooperation
with Jesus to serve his own abominable ends stamped him as the firstborn of
hell. Here was one source of heartbreak for the Redeemer. Of the serpent’s
brood some vipers still remain who will sting the hand that cherished them, and
sell for silver those who raised them to the position which rendered it
possible for them to be so abominably treacherous.
15. Not thus
would Jesus pray, but the rough soldier David so poured out the anguish of his
spirit, under treachery and malice altogether unprovoked. The soldier desires
the overthrow of his foes; for this very end he fights; David was waging a
just, defensive war against men utterly regardless of truth and justice. Read
the words as a warrior’s imprecation. Let death seize upon them.
Traitors such as these deserve to die. Let them go down quick into hell.
Let them suddenly exchange the enjoyment of the quick or living for the
sepulchres of the dead. There is, however, no need to read this verse as an
imprecation; it is rather a confident expectation or prophecy: God would, he
was sure, cast them out of the land of the living into the regions of the dead.
For wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them. They are too bad
to be spared, for their houses are dens of infamy, and their hearts fountains
of mischief. They are a pest to the commonwealth, a moral plague, a spiritual
pestilence, to be stamped out by human laws and the divine providence. Both
Ahithophel and Judas soon ended their own lives; Absalom was hanged in the oak,
and the rebels perished in the wood in great numbers. There is justice in the
universe; love itself demands it; pity to rebels against God, as such, is no
virtue—we pray for them as creatures, we abhor them as enemies of God. We need
in these days far more to guard against the disguised iniquity which
sympathizes with evil and counts punishment to be cruelty, than against the
harshness of a former age.
16. As for me, I will call upon God. The psalmist would not endeavor to meet the plots of his
adversaries by counterplots, or imitate their incessant violence, but would
continually resort to his God. Thus Jesus did. And the Lord shall save me. Jehovah will
fulfill my desire, and glorify himself in my deliverance. The psalmist knows
that he will pray, and is equally clear that he will be heard.
17. Evening and morning, and at noon, will I pray. Often but none too often. Seasons of great need call for
frequent seasons of devotion. To begin, continue, and end the day with God is
supreme wisdom. Day and night the psalmist saw his enemies busy (verse 10),
and therefore he would meet their activity by continuous prayer. And cry
aloud. Some cry aloud who never say a word. It is the bell of the heart
that rings loudest in heaven. Some read it, “I will muse and murmur”; deep
heart-thoughts should be attended with inarticulate but vehement utterances of
grief. A father’s heart reads a child’s heart. And he shall hear my voice.
He speaks as if already he were answered. Have but a pleading heart and God
will have a plenteous hand.
18. He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that
was against me. The deliverance has come. Faith
sees as well as foresees. He is not only safe but serene, delivered in peace—peace
in his inmost soul. For there were many with me. Many contending against
me. Or it may be that he thankfully acknowledges that the Lord raised him up
unexpected allies, fetched him succor when he most needed it, and made the
friendless monarch once more the head of a great army. The Lord can soon change
our condition, and he often does so when our prayers become fervent. The crisis
of life is usually the secret place of wrestling. Jabbok makes Jacob a
prevailing prince. He who stripped us of all friends makes us see himself in
their absence, and can give them back again in greater numbers that we may see
him more joyfully in the fact of their presence.
19. God shall hear, and afflict them. They make a noise as well as I, and God will hear them. The
voice of slander, malice, and pride is not alone heard by those whom it
grieves; it reaches to heaven, it demands vengeance, and shall have it. Even
he that abideth of old. All the prayers of saints and profanities of
sinners are before his judgment-seat, and he will see that justice is done. Selah.
The singer pauses, overwhelmed with awe in the presence of the everlasting God.
Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God. His own
reverential feeling causes him to remember the daring godlessness of the
wicked; he feels that his trials have driven him to his God, and he declares
that their uninterrupted prosperity was the cause of their living in such
neglect of the Most High. He who is without trouble is often without God. It is
a forcible proof of human depravity that man turns the mercy of God into
nutriment for sin: the Lord save us from this.
20. The
psalmist cannot forget the traitor’s conduct, and returns again to consider it.
He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him. He
smites those to whom he had given the hand of friendship, he breaks the bonds
of alliance, he is perfidious to those who dwell at ease because of his
friendly professions. He hath broken his covenant. The most solemn
league he has profaned; he is regardless of oaths and promises.
21. The words of his mouth were smoother than butter. He lorded and larded the man he hoped to devour. Soft,
smooth, oily, plentiful words are most plentiful where truth and sincerity are
most scarce. But war was in his heart. When heart and lip so widely
differ, the man is a monster, and those whom he assaults are inflicted indeed. His
words were softer than oil. Nothing could be more unctuous and fluent; his
words were as yielding as the best juice of the olive, yet they were drawn
swords, weapons brandished for the fray.
22. Thy burden.
What your God lays upon you, lay upon the Lord. His wisdom casts it on
you; it is your wisdom to cast it on him. He gives you your portion of
suffering; accept it with cheerful resignation, and then take it back to him by
your assured confidence. He shall sustain thee. Your bread will be given
you; your waters will be sure. Abundant nourishment will fit you to bear all
your labors and trials. As your days, so shall your strength be. He shall never
suffer the righteous to be moved. He may move like the boughs of a tree in
the tempest, but he will never be moved like a tree torn up by the roots. Many
wish to destroy the saints, but God has not suffered it, and never will.
23. For the
ungodly a sure, terrible, and fatal overthrow is appointed. Climb as they may, the
pit yawns for them. God himself will cause them to descend into it, and destruction
there will be their portion. Bloody and deceitful men, with double
iniquity of cruelty and craft upon them, will not live out half their days.
They will be cut off in their quarrels, or being disappointed in their
artifices, vexation will end them. They were in heart murderers of others, and
they became in reality self-murderers. Doubt not that virtue lengthens life,
and that vice tends to shorten it. But I will trust in thee. A very
wise, practical conclusion. We can have not better ground of confidence. The
Lord is all, and more than all that faith can need as the foundation of
peaceful dependence.
Excerpt from:
The Treasury of David
By Charles H Spurgeon
