PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 2
George Rawlinson [1812-1902] · 374,103 words · 397 reading sections
The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 2 — Section 181
Two explanations of this valley are given. Some say it means "wet, marshy places;" others say,·" dry, sandy places." Clearly it means something trying and difficult for pilgrims. We know well that there are difficulties in the way of our effort to live the godly life; valleys of Baca in o·ur pilgrim-route to the eterna…
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Ver. 10.-The joy of doing little things for God. "I had rather be a door-keeper; " literally, "stand or lie on tlie threshold.'' A missionary tells us that in India the office of door-keeper is truly respectable and confidential. Door-keepers of temples are men of the greatest dignity and power; whereas the ps1lmist…
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of tbe Chri~li11n life into our I\Ctua\ practice, 2. They often mistake what are the good th.ings qf life, Many things, accounted good by the false judgments of the world, are bad. Things !!OOd for some men are bad for others. Things good for us at one time are bnd at another. But the absolutely good things~good ind…
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to "give Isre.el e. little revmng in their that fear him; or, will be nigh. The an- bonduge" (Ezra ix. 8). That thy people swer to the prayer in ver. 7. That glory may rejoioe in thee. The "revivBl" o.nd may dwell in our land. Professor Cheyne "rejoicing" co.me in N ebemio.h's time, asks, " What glory? " a.nd suggests,…
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but perhaps feeble, declining, thl'6Btened with extinction, This must be God's work, 'by the power of his Spirit. "Wilt thou not revive us? " All life, natural and spiritual, is from God and in God. At the back of all force is his power• at the bock of all caus~tion,_ his will; at the bac~ of al~ law, his wisdom (Pa…
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eequencee, No man chooses perdition. But it comes to the same thing whether you leap over e. precipice or walk a.long the brink with your eyes shut. f;ometimes the einuer sins with open eyes, e.nd, just because he knows the danger, flatters himself he ce.n stop in time. He is not on the brink--only on the gentle grassy…
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Ver. 6.-Revival. I. NOTE THE CHIEF WORD OF TllIS VERSE: "REV~VE." It Implies: 1. Life. The new creation has been accomplished, the passing from death unto life has taken place. 2. But that life has dedined, and therefore needs revival. How often this occurs I Our spiritual life is not a~ our natural life, which is w…
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Jcbovr1b, Lord, is added, which declares him to be the God of I1rael. But such nam9 indicates thr1t he will not be heedless of his people's prayer. And he has apoken of old time. '!'heir records are full of the story of his interpositions in their times of need. And it is what we should expect, the need of his speaking…
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yet the Law is fulfilled a.sit never was or could be before,and is magnified in infinitely higher way than if in vindication of God's broken Law the whole human race had been for ever condemned (cf. Rom. viii. 4). A.II this was shadowed forth by the tables of the Law being placed within the ark of the covenant, on w…
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mercies, such as: 1. Preservation from, or removal of, epidemic diseaRe. 2. Mastery of elements of social diMturbe.nce. 3. Hopeful changes of political relationsbips. 4. Victory for the national army. 6. Remove.I of difficulties that put the national peace in peril. II, HELPING THE NATION TO RECO0NIZE ITS MERCIES IS T…
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follow a great victory. 2. Mere oontinuance tends to develop into formality. Aa with constant practioe at the piano, the player comes to play without thinking. 3. Energetic people, who must be doing, are always in danger of neglecting the culture of t.he interior life. It may be well searchingly to examine ourselves…
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Ver. 6.-Expectancy of grace. lllustrate by the words of the Prophet Habakknk (ii. I), "I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what be will say unto me." The psalmist had been praying for full restoration, and gracious requickening of the national life. And the text reveal, his atti…
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Ver. 11.-God and man working together. "Truth sprincreth out of the earth• and right~ousness bath looked down from heaven." This is poetk phraseology, which'more prosaically may be stated thus: "When man is faithful to God thon God will be found faithful_ to m~n; and so G?d and man will w_ork together f~r good." 'l'…
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EXPOSITION. PSALM LXXXVI. save thy servant that trusteth in thee (comp. P•s. xxxiv. 22; :u:xvii. 40). Tms is the prayer of an a.fflictecl a.nd humble Ver. 3.-:ee merciful unto me, 0 Lord; for soul in a time of persecution (ver. 14), in- I cry unto thee daily; rather, all day long termixed with outbursts of praise (ve…
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llis peopl<' does not make it @uperHuoue for reading hne the weight of &uthority in its them to entr<>at his attention. lie will lieten favour, and gives nn excellent sense, more favourably wh<·n besought to listen. "Bring all my heart into unison, thnt it Yer. 7.-In the day of my trouble I will may be wholly fixed …
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HOMILETICS. Ver.11.-.A comprehensive prayer. "Unite my heart to fear thy Name," etc. This rich and elevated psalm is well called in the title "a prayer," rather than "a psalm." It is more devout than poetical. Its distinctive character is the remarkable union of intense personal feeling with large views of God's chara…
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I. THE rnA YERS, Even in these few verses we note : 1. How numet'OUB they an, I "Bow duwn tbine ear;" "Preserve my soul ; " "Save me;" "Be merciful uuto me I" "Rejoice t.he soul of thy serve.nt." 2. How substanti.ally the same I Hepetitlons need 1w1 be •• ve.in repetitions;" they are often the reverse of vain; indee…
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Ver. 17.-Tokens for good. We remark upon the prayer contained in this verse- I. THAT BUCH PRAYER MAY BE AN IMPROPER ONE. Our Lord said to the people of his day, "Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe." And how many to-day are like these people! Now, such request for tokens is wrong: 1. When we :presume …
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Dr. George Macdonald expresses it," We are accnstomed to say that we are bodies, nnd have souls; whereas we should say-We are souls, and have bodies." I. MAN'S SOUL IS THE BPHEBE OF Gor,'s MORAL TRAINING. we may see God in history; but his supreme interest is in characters, not i □ events. We may see God in provide…
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Ver. 11.-11.e desire to be whole-l,earted. This verse contains a prayer "against distraction and division of heart, of course with the desire of its being knit as a whole to God." Perowne expresses the idea skilfully, "Suffer my heart no longer to scatter itself upon a multiplicity of objects, to be drawn hither and th…
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"fleece," bec11u~e Gideon wanted to believe, but needed help to believing. The ~cribes nnd Pharisees who sought a sign, or token, of the Meesiahship of Jesus were refu~ed, because they had no intention of allowing themselves to be persuaded by it, but meant to turn it to account in intensifying their prejudice again…
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God loves her pro-eminently; e.n!l (3) a mee.01 "pride, e.rr.,ge.nce." And Babylon. glorious future is e.esigned to her in the The fitting counterpart of Egypt, oqne.lly counsels of God. e.ote.gonistic to Israel, and eq ue.lly lifted op with pride e.nd presumption. To them Ver. 1.-His fonnde.tion is in the holy the.t…
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In tbe~e points (to name no others): 1. Everywhere the hRnd of God is seen ae the supreme factor in h11man Rffairs. Not in miracle, except at those special crises and occasions where miracles were the fittest means. These, not scattered at random but in groups, at certain junctures. Dut the constant presence and exe…
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united worehip of all the people in his temple on Mount Zion, in the glorious feasts and festivals that were celebrdted tbere. 3. OJ her glori<YUs history. It may have been, as eomo have supposed, that the psalm was sung at the public reception into the Jewish Church of a number of converts from heathen nations, and t…
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with g~fts such as men ev:erywhere have highly esteemed. He had courage, nlfoction, generosity, strength; whilst Jacob too seldom shows a11y quality which wins our admiration, and far ~ often he is guilty of tlu':t w~ich excites contempt. And yet the Lord preferred him. The reason was that m him, however encrusted w…
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Ver. 2.-The Divine interest in Zion. Taking Zion as a poetical name for Jerusalem, the temple city, and as the representative of every place where public and united worship is offered to God. Zion is still, for us, the pious name for God's house. The point prominent is this-that we shonld love God's house and worship i…
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things we can find in them. The church building in which we worship may really be a very plain end poor building, but if it 1 roves the house of God to us we soon think it beautiful, and almost worship its very stones. ' II. GLORIOUS THINGS WERE BEING SAID 011 THE Gon OF THE OITY, Recall the idea of the age, that t…
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on inetrumente." This expresses admiration of the services and ceremonies in connec- tion with Jeh mih's temple; and it suggests the thought that Divine worship ought to be made in every way delip;htfol. But another thought is sup;gested by the marked distinction made between the "singers " anil the " players." It i…
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EXPOSITION. PSALM LXXXVIII. Ullto the grave; literally, unto Sheol-the place of departed spirits (comp. Job x. 21, Tm,; most monrnfnl of all the psalms. After 22). one almost formal" word of trnst" (ver. la), Ver. 4.-I am COUllted with them that go the remainder is a continuous bitter cry of down into the pit; i.e. "…
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ings is touched; God was angry with him shade, an inhabitant of Sbe0]; he is in tlu, ( comp. ver. 16). And ~hon h11.1t afflicted lleeb, upon the earth ; he can still cry, and me with all thy waves (comp. Ps. xiii. 7, does still cry, to Jehovah. Tl,crc L, tl,us "All thy waves and thy billows have gone still a faint gleo…
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HOMILIES BY VA.RIOUS AUTHORS. \'ers. 1-18.-The saddest p~alm in the p,qalter. For in well-nigh all others though there may be darkness of soul, a very night of darkness, yet we see the ligl;t arise• though we see '' weeping endure for the night," yet we see also that "joy cometh i~ \.be morning." But in this psalm …
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ones which set forth similar views, Their melancholy is very profound. Bee this in- I. 'l'HE DEB0BIPTION OF THE HABITATION OF THE DEAD. The term8 they use are all sad, As: 1. " The pit." (Ver. 4.) "The lowest pit" (ver. 6). The idea is of a vast profound eubterro.nean cavern, into which no ray of light entered. Inf…
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men's hope. "We are saved by hope." To quicken the love and pursuit of believers. To deliver from the fear of death. All this our hope does.-8. C. Ver. 1.-Personal relations with God made a plea. "0 Lord God of my salvation." '.l'his ha_s _been c~lled "the saddest of all the psalms." But it represents mental rather …
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Ver. 3.-A soul full of troubles. These plaints are such as could only be uttered by a disea.~ed man-diseased in body or diseased in mind. The man felt "satiated with evils." Hezekiah, suffering from his carbuncle, or Job, as be "scraJ:led himself witb. his potsherd," might be expected to read life as drearily and despo…
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Ver. 10.-Peerings into the future. "Wilt thou show wonders unto the dead?" "It is both curious and instructive to mark how, throughout the psalm, whether it is his own infirmity which he bewails, or the loss of friends, the mind of this wise man is straining toward 1.he great darkness in which so many of his lovers a…
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the exercise of bis sovereignty. I confess I do not understand this. It appears to ma that undue and unwarrantable liberties are often used with the sovereignty of God, and that many things are laid to its account with which it is not chargeable. Wo speak of the Divine sovereignty. But sovereignty is not an arbitrar…
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phmse, The psCL)mist will commemorate wooden, 0 Lord. "The heavens' here are God'e meroies, not only when they are not the material heavens, as in Ps. xix. 1, oontinuing, but e.lwe.ys. With my mouth but the company or the dwellers in heaven. will I make known thy faithfulne11 to all God's praise fittingly be..,.iu with…
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of tl,e mn!C'rinl universe, so here the fo'Qr thom thoughts drawn from nrioue pl!l\lms: points of the compass designate the same. expRndin11: them, and sometim,is heightening Tabor ancl Hermon undoubtedly represent the coloura I have laid help upon one that the west and the east. They present them- ie mighty ; I hav…
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eetablieh hie kingdom" (2 Snm. vii. 12, Ver. 36.-His seed she.II endure for ever 16). (comp. ver. 29). And his throne as the sun Ver. 30.-Ifhis children forsake my Law, before me; i.e. shall endure as the enn and walk not in my judgments (comp. 2 (comp. Pe. lxxii. 5 and 2 Sam. vii. 13). 8nm. vii. 14, "If he commit i…
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holds, thRt gnard<'rl the frontins of the 111,11d, especially from hie nnointed, on whom tho were brought to ruin (comp. 2 Ohron. xi. disgrace chiefly falls? To these questions 5-10). there can be but one answer. God will Yer. 41.-All that paBB by the way spoil him. This feature of the situation recalls assuredly m…
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HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1, 2, 5, 8, etc.-God's faithfulness. This is the key-note of the psalm, the beautiful strain which is heard over and over a.gain in varied forms throughout. 'l'here are pieces of musio in which some one sweet air recurs repeatedly, now as if amid the rush e.nd roar of a tempest, anon…
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Ohurcb, 'l'bus step by step the glorious fabric of redeemed humanity has been thu~ far built up; and the building is still going on, and will go on "Till the whole ransomed Church of God Be saved, to sin no more." II. 'l'HE PERFE0TlNG OF THE INDIVIDUAL SOUL. Trace the history of any one of those whom God has redeem…
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Ver. 17.-The exalted horn; or, the secret of strength. The horn is a constant symbol of strength; the exalted hom, therefore, of strength triumphant. Now, we observe- - , I. STRENGTH rs THE GREAT NEED OF THE SOUL OF MAN. Not physical strenath, nor intellectual, nor social, but spiritual. There may be knowledge, and …
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to hinder this purpose. 3. How God exalts-by choosing those whom he exalts not by, but out of, tho people. The peoplo can rarely be trusted. Go over the list of mankinn's greatest helpers and saviours, right up to our Saviour himself. Would the people have chosen them? They woulcl far more likely have crucified them, a…
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the Gibeonites, who banged them (1 Sam. xxiv. 21; 2 &m. xxi. 1-9). And then his great sin in the matter o'. Uriah--a sin in which no element of baseness. treachery, cruelty, and lust was wantmg; 11nd yet all the while he was a great psalm-siager (2 Sam. xi. 2-17). He piously exhorts Solomon to walk in the ways of th…
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Vers. 2--4.-The security of God's pled_qed word. "Thy seed will I establish for ever." The key-note of the psalm is the " faithfulness" of God to bis word, "God bad entered into • an everlasting covenant' with David, and had confirmed that covenant with an oath. In the most absolute and unconditional form, God had pled…
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being, or of nny so-called deity, whose word can only be the word of some createrl being representing him. "Hath he said, and shall he not do it? hatb he spoken, e.nd shall he not make it good?" "God is not a man, that he should lie." 111. GoD 18 INCOMPARABLE IN PITY. It seems to the psalmist of Rehoboam's di8tressed …
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know right.. The appraisement man can mako of his own acts involves his power to appraise acts which nre said to be acts of God. But this caution needs to be fully presented and illustrated-that the standard of right is not the sentiment of any singlo individual, but the harmonious sentiment of all the race iu all t…
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Vera. 1-52.-The general subject-God's promise to David and his seed-but the present state of things is a bitter contrast to the promise, and a prayer that God would remove the contrast. Suggests- I. 'l'HAT Goo HAS ENTERED INTO A GRAND COVENANT WITH MANKIND. Given ns the greatest and most precious promises, 1. Promises…
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purity 9:nd ~ollness.. And not only has he his anger, and relent concemiog them (ver. done this with the BIDS which they know of 13): (3) that he will once more shower his 11nd whereof their ooneciencee are afraid! but he has set their secret sins also in th; mercies upr.n them, and canse their afflic- light of hie…
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HOMILgTICS. , el'II. 1, 2.-The fundamental truths of all religion. "Lord, thou hast been our Dwelling-place," etc. Tbis psalm is a monument of spiritual power. It possesses in cmine11t_ degree the peren~ial freshness ~hich so wonderfully belongs to Scripture. Generat10ns p~s. _Cent~mes moun~ up rnto thousands of ye…
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covering cloud, and all connected with it, was to impress this idea (for the hi"hest fulfilment of which, see Eph. ii. 22; Rev. xxi. 3). But here God is himself our Habitation. The whole range of Gentile religious thought cannot (I believe) produce a parallel to this tender, attractive, yet glorious representation of G…
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HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-17.-The Lord our Dwelling-place. There is no need to doubt the aesianed authorship of this psalm. It is in entire harmony with the facts and surroundin:s of Moses' and Israel's life in the wilderness. Observe- " J. THE BLESSED FACT. The Lord our Dwelling-place, which this psalm …
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Ver. 4.-God's estimate of a thousand years. Note- L THE GROUND OF THIS ESTIMATE. It is the eternity of God. He who is from everlasting to everlasting-God, the Eternal. There never was a period in which he was not. He is more permanent than the most changeless things. 1. History teaches us this. Push back so far as we …
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Ver. 9.-" .As a tale that is told." Yes, it is true; we do spend our lives as is here said. I know the word rendered" tale" may bear other meanincrs-a thouaht a breath 11 meditation, a numbering (Exod. v. 8). But this in our text ~ets forth the psalmist'~ thought as well as, if not better than, any other. His view o…
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PCem to compel some Aort of numbering of our days, The giddiest, the most tbonght- lees and worldly, rire, for the moment, constrained to recollect the flight of time, the passing away of their life. Like as in dead of night, in the bea.rt of a. great city, when its business is hushed, and the traffic of its streets is…
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Ver. 1~--" Make us [!lad." No~e can over-estimate the blessing that God's gift of gladness 1s to U!'. How 1t s~·eetens rntercourse, encourages work, lightens our burdens, nn~ helps us ov:er many a difficult place! But there are forms of gladness to which no prn1~e can be g1l"en. The laughter of fools is like "the cr…
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home. Relationship to God as "our Father" makes his hoase our home, a.ad our brothers' home. II. HOME IS A PLA0E OF SEOURlTY. It is our sanctuary. There we feel not only that none will harm us, but that none ever want to harm us. We even feel that nothing can harm us if we only a.re safe at home. And nothing ever can …
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Ver. 8.-Secret sin. The word used is a singular one, and may be rendered "our secret" (character). "God needs no other light to discern our sins by but the light of his own face. It pierceth through the darkest places; the brightness thereof enlighteneth all things, discovers :ill things. So that the sins that are comm…
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Ver, 10.-Length of life a doubtful good. Yet every one wishes to live long. Every one imagines for himself an old age; and an ideal human life includes it. A.nd yet there are but few who have the experience of old age who would really wish others to share it. Not without good reason did the ancients say, "Those whom th…
1,201 wordsSource & rights
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.