derision to all the scoffers in the land. Of this he complains in the psalm before us : for though it is probable that Absalom was the great instigator of the present evils, the people, too, readily sided with him, and exulted in the thought, that this despised monarch would now be destroyed.
The psalm, though primarily applicable to that occasion, was really, as St. Paul tells us, of a general import "". And therefore, taking the text in that view, I will explain, and vindicate, the counsel that is here referred to.
I. Explain it —
The persons designated as " the poor," are the Lord's people, generally —
[It is certain that the great mass of the Lord's people, are taken from the lower walks of life. There are " not many rich, not many mighty, not many noble, called." In the days of our Lord, it was " not the Scribes and Pharisees that be- lieved on him," but the poor — who were deemed accursed''. " The common people heard him gladly''."
But the name is given to the Lord's people principally because they are "poor in spirit '^," feeling their utter desti- tution of every thing really good ; just as a person in the state of Lazarus feels his want of all the comforts of Hfe. In this sense the name is given to them in a great variety of passages
and throughout the whole world they answer to the
character contained in it.]
They invariably "make the Lord their refuge" —
[They feel their lost and undone state And in
themselves they find no remedy But in Christ thoy
see a fulness and sufficiency, even for the very chief of sinners
They look into the Scriptures, and see the " counsel "
given them, to " look to him," and to " flee to him : " and this counsel they both follow themselves, and give to all around
them They determine, both for themselves and for
others, to " know nothing but Jesus Christ, and him cru- cified."]
But this conduct exposes them to much obloquy. I will therefore proceed to,
II. Vindicate it —
a ver. 2, 3. with Rom. hi. 10 — 12. ^ John vh. 49.
<= Mark xh. 37. ^ Isai. xiv. 32. and xxix. 19. Zeph. in. 12.