1. Truly,
or, more correctly, “only,” God is good to Israel. He is only good,
nothing else but food to his own covenanted ones. He cannot act unjustly or
unkindly to them. Even to such as are of a clean heart. These are the
true Israel, not the ceremonially clean but those who are clean in the inward
parts, the vital mainspring of action. To such he is, and must be, goodness
itself. The writer does not doubt this, but lays it down as his firm
conviction. It is well to make sure of what we do know, for this will be a good
anchor-hold for us when we are molested by those mysterious storms which arise
from things which we do not understand. Experience has placed some tangible
facts within our grasp; let us, then, cling to these, and they will prevent our
being carried away by those hurricanes of infidelity which still come from the
wilderness, and, like whirlwinds, smite the four corners of our house and
threaten to overthrow it. O my God, however perplexed I may be, let me never
think ill of thee. If I cannot understand thee, let me never cease to believe
in thee. Thou art good to those whom thou hast made good; and where thou hast
renewed the heart thou wilt not leave it to its enemies.
2. Here
begins the narrative of a great soul-battle in which the half-defeated became
in the end wholly victorious. But as for me. He contrasts himself with
his God who is ever good; he owns his personal want of good, and then also
compares himself with the clean in heart, and goes on to confess his
defilement. The Lord is good to his saints, but am I one of them? Can I expect
to share his grace? Yes, I do share it; but I have acted an unworthy part, very
unlike one who is truly pure in heart. My feet were almost gone. Errors
of heart and head soon affect the conduct. There is an intimate connection
between the heart and the feet. Asaph could barely stand, his uprightness was
going, his knees were bowing like a falling wall. When people doubt the righteousness
of God, their own integrity begins to waver. My steps had well nigh slipped.
Asaph could make no progress in the good road; his feet ran away from under him
like those of a man on a sheet of ice. He was weakened for all practical
action, and in great danger of actual sin, and so of a disgraceful fall. How
ought we to watch the inner man, since it has so forcible an effect upon the
outward character. The confession in this case is, as it should be, very plain.
3. For I was envious at the foolish. “The foolish” is the generic fide of all the wicked: they
are beyond all others fools, and he must be a fool who envies fools. Some read
it, “the proud”; and indeed many a mind which is out of gear spiritually
becomes infected with that wasting disease. It is a pitiful thing that an heir
of heaven should have to confess I was envious, but worse still that he
was envious at the foolish. Yet this acknowledgment is, we fear, due
from most of us. When I saw the prosperity of the wicked. His eye was
fixed too much on one thing; he saw their present, and forgot their future—saw
their outward display, and overlooked their soul’s discomfort.
4. For there are no bands in their death. We usually expect that in death a difference will appear,
and the wicked will become evidently in trouble. The notion is still prevalent
that a quiet death means a happy hereafter. The psalmist had observed that the
very reverse is true. Careless persons become casehardened, and continue
presumptuously secure, even to the last. Some are startled at the approach of
judgment, but many more have received a strong delusion to believe a lie. What
with the surgeon’s drugs and their own infidelity, or false peace, they glide
into eternity without a struggle. We have seen godly men bound with doubts, and
fettered with anxieties, which have arisen from their holy jealousy; but the
godless know nothing of such bands—they care neither for God nor devil. Their
strength is firm. Frequently they are brazen and insolent, and can vent
defiant blasphemies. This may occasion sorrow among saints, but certainly
should not suggest envy, for the most terrible inward conflict is infinitely to
be preferred to the profoundest calm which presumption can create.
5. They are in trouble as other men. The prosperous wicked escape the killing toils which
afflict the mass of mankind; they have no need to inquire, “Whence shall we
get bread for our children, or raiment for our little ones?” Ordinary domestic
and personal troubles do not appear to molest them. Neither are they plagued
like other men. Fierce trials do not arise to assail them. They are worse
than other people, and yet better off. All this is clear to the eye of faith,
which unriddles the riddle; but to the bleared eye of sense it seems an enigma
indeed. They are to have nothing hereafter; let them have what they can here;
they, after all, only possess what is of secondary value, and their possessing
it is meant to teach us to set little store by transient things. If earthly
good were of much value, the Lord would not give so large a measure of it to
those who have least of his love.
6. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain. They are as great in their own esteem as if they were
aldermen of the New Jerusalem; they want no other ornament than their own
pomposity. Violence covereth them as a garment. In their boastful
arrogance they array themselves; they wear the livery of the devil, and are
fond of it. As soon as you see them you perceive that room must be made for
them, for, regardless of the feelings and rights of others, they intend to have
their way, and achieve their own ends.
7. Their eyes stand out with fatness. In cases of obesity the eyes usually appear to be enclosed
in fat, but sometimes they protrude; in either case the countenance is changed,
loses its human form, and is assimilated to that of fatted swine. The face is
here the index of the man glutted and surfeited with wealth, and yet one of the
wicked whom God abhors. They have more than heart could wish. Their
wishes are gratified, and more. The heart is beyond measure gluttonous, and yet
in the case of certain ungodly millionaires it has seemed as if their wishes
were exceeded.
8. They are corrupt.
They rot above ground; their heart and life are depraved. And speak wickedly
concerning oppression. The reek of the sepulchre rises through their
mouths; the nature of the soul is revealed in the speech. They choose
oppression as their subject, and they not only defend it, but advocate it,
glory in it, and would make it the general rule among all nations. “Who are
the poor? What are they made for but to toil and slave that men of education
may enjoy themselves?” There is still too much of this wicked talk, and
although the working classes have their faults, yet theirs is a race of men who
habitually speak of them as if they were an inferior order of animals. They
speak loftily. Big talk streams from them, their language is colossal,
their magniloquence ridiculous. They expect all the world to stand in awe of
them.
9. They set their mouth against the heavens. Against God himself they aim their blasphemies. One would
think, to hear them, that they were demigods themselves, for they speak as from
a sublime elevation. Yet they might let God alone, for their pride will make
them enemies enough without their defying him. And their tongue walketh
through the earth. Like the serpent, they go nowhere without leaving their
slime behind them; they are beyond measure worthy of all honor, and all the
rest of mankind, except for a few of their parasites, are fools, hypocrites, or
worse. When these men’s tongues are out for a walk, it is impossible altogether
to avoid them. The city is not free from them, and the village swarms with
them.
10. Therefore his people return hither. God’s people are driven to fly to his throne for shelter;
the saints come to their Lord laden with complaints on account of the
persecutions which they endure from these proud and graceless men. And
waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. Though beloved of God, they
have to drain the bitter cup; their sorrows are as full as the wicked man’s
prosperity. It grieves them greatly to see the enemies of God so high, and
themselves so low; yet the Lord does not alter his dispensations, but continues
still to chasten his children, and indulge his foes. The medicine cup is not
for rebels, but for those whom Jehovah loves.
11. And they say, How doth God know? They flatter themselves that their oppressions and
persecutions are unobserved. Boasting of their own knowledge, they yet dare to
ask, Is there knowledge in the Most High? This is a madness of thought.
Such, however, is the insanity of the graceless theists of this age; theists in
name, because avowed infidelity is disreputable, but atheists in practice
beyond all question.
I could not bring my mind to accept the rendering of many
expositors by which this verse is referred to tried and perplexed saints. I am
unable to conceive that such language could flow from their lips, even under
the most depressing perplexities.
12. Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the
world. Here are the unjust rewarded and
indulged, and that not for a day or an hour, but in perpetuity. From their
youth up these men, who deserve perdition, revel in prosperity. Blind sense
says, make this square with providential justice if you can. They increase
in riches, or strength. No bad debts and bankruptcies weigh them down, but
robbery and usury pile up their substance. The rich grower richer, the proud
grow prouder. Lord, thy poor servants, who become yet poorer, and groan under
their burdens, are made to wonder at thy mysterious ways.
13. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain. He questions the value of holiness when its wages are paid
in the coin of affliction. Thus foolishly will the wisest of people argue, when
faith is napping. Asaph was a seer, but he could not see when reason left him
in the dark; even seers must have the sunlight of revealed truth to see by, or
they grope like the blind. The pure in heart may seem to have cleansed
themselves altogether in vain, but we must not judge after the sight of the
eyes. And washed my hands in innocency. He had guarded his outer as well
as his inner life, and it was a bitter thought that all this was useless, and
left him in even a worse condition than foul-handed, black-hearted worldlings.
It could not be so while God was God. It smelt too strong of a lie to be
tolerated long in the good man’s soul; hence, in a verse or two, we see his
mind turning in another direction.
14. For all the day long have I been plagued. His griefs were not only continued, but renewed with every
opening day, And chastened every morning. This was a vivid contrast to
the lot of the ungodly. The affairs of mankind appeared to him to be in a
fearful tangle; how could it be permitted by a just ruler that things should be
so turned upside down, and the whole course of justice dislocated?
Many a Christian will herein recognize his own experience.
Such knots have we also sought to untie. Dear-bought has our wisdom been, but
we have bought it, and henceforth we cease to fret because of evil-doers, for
the Lord has showed us what their end will be.
15. If I say, I will speak thus. It is not always wise to speak one’s thoughts; if they
remain within, they will only injure ourselves; but, once uttered, their
mischief may be great. From such a man as the psalmist, the utterance which his
discontent suggested would have been a deep discouragement to the whole
brotherhood. He paused, and in his case second thoughts were by far the best. I
should offend against the generation of thy children. We ought to look at
the consequences of our speech to all others, and especially to the church of
God. Rash, undigested speech is responsible for much of the trouble in the
churches. Where we have any suspicion of being wrong, it is better to be
silent; it can do no harm to be quiet, and it may do serious damage to spread
abroad our hastily formed opinions. To grieve the children of God by appearing
to betray the truth is a heinous sin. Expressions which convey the impression
that the Lord acts unjustly or unkindly are as dangerous as firebrands among
stubble; the timid and trembling are sure to be cast down and find reason for
yet deeper distress of soul.
16. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me. The thought of scandalizing the family of God he could not
bear, and yet his inward thoughts seethed and fermented, and caused an
intolerable anguish within.
17. until I went into the sanctuary of God. His mind entered the eternity where God dwells as in a holy
place; he left the things of sense for the things invisible, his heart gazed
within the veil. Apparent disorder resolved itself into harmony. The motions of
the planets appear most discordant from this world which is itself a planet,
but could we fix our observatory in the sun, which is the center of the system,
we should perceive all the planets moving in perfect circles around the head of
the great solar family. Then understood I their end. A wider view
changed his judgment; he saw with his mind’s enlightened eye the future of the
wicked, and his soul was in debate no longer as to the happiness of their
condition. No envy gnaws now at his heart, but a holy horror both of their
impending doom and of their present guilt fills his soul. He recoils from being
dealt with in the same manner as the proud sinners whom just now he regarded
with admiration.
18. The
psalmist’s sorrow had culminated, not in the fact that the ungodly prospered,
but that God had arranged it so: had it happened by mere chance, he would have
wondered, but could not have complained; but how the arranger of all things
could so dispense his temporal favors was the vexatious question. Here he sees
that the divine hand purposely placed these men in prosperous and eminent
circumstances, not with the intent to bless them but the very reverse. Surely
thou didst set them in slippery places. Their position was dangerous, and
therefore God did not set his friends there but his foes. He chose, in infinite
love, a rougher but safer standing for his own beloved. Thou castedst them
down into destruction. They were elevated for the fuller execution of their
doom. Eternal punishment will be all the more terrible in contrast with the
former prosperity of those who are ripening for it. Their worldly joy renders
the effect the more awful. If the wicked had not been raised so high they could
not have fallen so low.
19. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! Headlong is the sinners’ fall; without warning, without
escape, without hope of future restoration! They are utterly consumed with
terrors. They cease to exist among the sons of men, and in the other world
there is nothing left of their former glory. Like blasted trees consumed by
lightning they are monuments of vengeance; like the ruins of Babylon they
reveal, in the greatness of their desolation, the judgments of the Lord against
all those that unduly exalt themselves.
20. They owe
their existence and prosperity to the forbearance of God, which the psalmist
compares to a sleep; but as a dream vanishes as soon as a person awakes, so the
instant the Lord begins to exercise his justice and call people before him, the
pomp and prosperity of proud transgressors will melt away. When God awakes to
judgment, they who despise him will be despised; they will vanish away. Who
cares for the wealth of dream-land? Who indeed but fools? Lord, leave us not to
the madness which covets unsubstantial wealth, and ever teach us thine own true
wisdom.
21. The holy
poet here reviews his inward struggle and awards himself censure for his folly.
His pain had been intense; he says, Thus my heart was grieved. It was a
deep-seated sorrow, and one which penetrated his inmost being. Alexander reads
it, “My heart is soured.” His spirit had become embittered; he had judged in
a harsh, crabbed, surly manner. He had poisoned his own life at the
fountain-head. And I was pricked in my reins. He was as full of pain as
someone with kidney disease; his hard thoughts were like so many stones in his
kidneys; he was utterly wretched and woebegone all through his own reflections.
O blessed faith, which drives away the inquisitors and sets the captives free!
22. So foolish was I.
He, though a saint of God, had acted as if he had been one of the fools whom
God abhors. The wisest people have enough folly in them to ruin them unless
grace prevents. And ignorant. He had acted as if he knew nothing, had
babbled like an idiot. I was as a beast before thee. Even in God’s
presence he had been brutish, and worse than a beast. He had judged happiness
by this mortal life, by outward appearances, and by fleshly enjoyments. Thus he
had, for the time, renounced the dignity of an immortal spirit. It was but an
evidence of his true wisdom that he was so deeply conscious of his own folly.
We see how bitterly good men bewail mental wanderings; they make no excuses for
themselves.
23. Nevertheless I am continually with thee. He does not give up his faith, though he confesses his
folly. Sin may distress us, and yet we may be in communion with God. It is sin
beloved and delighted in which separates us from the Lord, but when we bewail
it heartily, the Lord will not withdraw from us. What a contrast is here in
this and the former verse! Our double nature, as it always causes conflict, is
a continuous paradox: the flesh allies us with the brutes, and the spirit
affiliates us to God. Thou hast holden me by my right hand. With love
dost thou embrace me, with honor ennoble me, with power uphold me. He had
almost fallen, and yet was always upheld. He was a riddle to himself, as he had
been a wonder to many. This verse contains the two precious mercies of
communion and upholding, and as they were both given to one who confessed himself
a fool, we also may hope to enjoy them.
24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel. I have done with choosing my own way, and trying to pick a
path amid the jungle of reason. He puts his hand into that of the great Father,
asking to be led, and agreeing to follow. Our former mistakes are a blessing,
when they drive us to this. The end of our own wisdom is the beginning of our
being wise. With him is counsel, and when we come to him, we are sure to be led
aright. And afterward. We can cheerfully put up with the present when we
foresee the future. Receive me to glory. Take me up into the splendor of
joy. Thy guidance shall conduct me; glory shall I have, and thou wilt admit me
into it.
25. Whom have I in heaven but thee? Thus, then, he turns away from the glitter which fascinated
him to the true gold which was his real treasure. He bade all things else go,
that he might be filled with his God. And there is none upon earth that I
desire beside thee. No longer would his wishes ramble, no other object
would tempt him to stray; henceforth, the Ever-living One would be his all in
all.
26. My flesh and my heart faileth. They had failed him already, and he had almost fallen; they
would fail him in the hour of death, and, if he relied upon them, they would
fail him at once. But God is the strength of my heart, and my portion
forever. His God would not fail him, either as a protection or a joy. His
heart would be kept up by divine love, and filled eternally with divine glory.
All other things must pass away; let us, then, desire only him who alone abides
forever.
27. For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish. We must be near God to live; to be far off by wicked works
is death. Thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee. If
we claim to be the Lord’s servants, we must remember that he is a jealous God,
and requires spiritual chastity from all his people. Offenses against conjugal
vows are very offensive, and all sins against God have the same element in
them, and they are visited with the direst punishments. Mere heathens, who are
far from God, perish; but those who, being his professed people, act
unfaithfully will come under active condemnation, and be crushed beneath his
wrath.
28. But it is good for me to draw near to God. Had he done so at first he would not have been immersed in
such affliction; when he did so he escaped from his dilemma, and if he
continued to do so he would not fall into the same evil again. The greater our
nearness to God, the less we are affected by the attractions and distractions
of earth. Access into the most holy place is a great privilege, and a cure for
a multitude of ills. I have put my trust in the Lord God. He dwells upon
the glorious name of the Lord Jehovah, and avows it as the basis of his faith.
Faith is wisdom; it is the key of enigmas, the clue of mazes, and the pole star
of pathless seas. Trust and you will know. That I may declare all thy works.
He who believes will understand, and so be able to teach. God’s ways are the
more admired the more they are known. He who is ready to believe the goodness
of God will always see fresh goodness to believe in, and he who is willing to
declare the works of God will never be silent for lack of wonders to declare.
Excerpt from:
The Treasury of David
By Charles H Spurgeon
