The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 1 — Section 283

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1--40.-The good man's directory. This is a very remarkable. psalm. Its theme is one throughout its entire length. Yet it is not so much drawn out con- secutively as repeated proverbially. This may be partly accounted for by its alpha- betical structure.1 There is no advance between the verses at the commencement and those at. its close, but rather a remarkable variety of beautiful turns of expression to a thought that is the same throuc!h<>ut. The whole psalm may be summed 11p thus: "Just now, you see the wicked prospering aud tho ungodly depressed. Do not fret over this. Trust, do right, rest in the Lord, wait aad see. Aad by-and-by Y"U will find that the righteous are Lrou·.(ht out to the light, while the wicked are relegated 10 forgotfuluess and she.me. Eveu now to have God in the heart with a crust in the hand, is better than to have the riches of many wicked. God will, iu his own time an,! way, appear for his faithful ones, and prove the truth of his ancient wvrd, • Them thnt honour me, I will honour.'" So far as the text of the psalm is concerned, there i~ little to call for laboured criticism, though the Hebrew student would do well to examine minutely the second halves of the third and thirty-seventh versos. For tho most part the psalm is delightfully plain and clear; and nowhere could any bot tor rule or directory for life be found than is herein contained. In our homiletic treatment of it we will notice- I. THE SEVERAL DUTIES HERE ENJOINED ON THE GOOD MAN. These duties are put into e. form suggested by the circumstances which surrounded tho writer. When David wrote this psalm he was an old man. Looking back on the eoenes of past observation and experience, he had witnessed many strange inequalities on the surlace of society. Looking in one direction, he had often beheld an ungodly man enjoyiug all that heart could wish, so far as this world was concerned; and in another direction ho had as often seen a good man, one who walked closely with God, in the midst of trial, affliction, and distress. This state of things had perplexed him, and he knew that it still perplexed the righteous. To meet their perplexities and to assuage them, this psalm was penned; and it is this purpose which forms the background of thought throughout the entire length of the psalm. 1. The first injnncUon is "fret not" (ver. 1). Do not worry or perplex yourself about these mvsteries of God'~ provid,·ncc. Even if the lot of the wicked seems more easy, more pleasant, more prosperous than yours, y,-t "they shall soon be cut down like the graas, and wither as the green herb;" besides, " a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked." God's people are infiuitely better off, with him as their heavenly Friend, than any of 1 No student should leave unnoticed Kirkpatriek's very thoughtful notes on this psalm.  292 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [PS. XXXVII, 1-40,