being wrapped up in poisoned papers; not so good spiritual advice
where the good matter receives no infection from the ill manner of
the delivery thereof. Thus, when the chief priests mocked our Saviour
(Matthew 27:43), "He trusted in God, let him deliver him now if he
will have him." Christ trusted in God never a whit the less for the
fleere and flout which their profaneness was pleased to bestow upon
him. Otherwise, if men's mocks should make us to undervalue good
counsel, we might in this age be mocked out of our God, and Christ,
and Scripture, and heaven; the apostle Jude, verse 18, having
foretold that in the last times there should be mockers, walking
after their own lusts. Thomas Fuller.
Verse 1. It is as great an offence to make a new, as to deny
the true God. "In the Lord put I my trust;" how then "say
ye unto my soul" (ye seducers of souls), "that she should fly
unto the mountains as a bird;" to seek unnecessary and foreign
helps, as if the Lord alone were not sufficient? "The Lord is my
rock, and my fortress, and he that delivereth me, my God, and my
strength; in him will I trust: my shield, the horn of my salvation,
and my refuge. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be
praised, so shall I be safe from mine enemies." "Whom have I in
heaven but thee," amongst those thousands of angels and saints, what
Michael or Gabriel, what Moses or Samuel, what Peter, what Paul? "and
there is none in earth that I desire in comparison of thee." John
King, 1608.
Verse 1. In temptations of inward trouble and terror, it is
not convenient to dispute the matter with Satan. David in Psalm
42:11, seems to correct himself for his mistake; his soul was cast
down within him, and for the cure of that temptation, he had prepared
himself by arguments for a dispute; but perceiving himself in a wrong
course, he calls off his soul from disquiet to an immediate
application to God and the promises, "Trust still in God, for I shall
yet praise him;" but here he is more aforehand with his work; for
while his enemies were acted by Satan to discourage him, he rejects
the temptation at first, before it settled upon his thoughts, and
chaseth it away as a thing that he would not give ear to. "In the
Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your
mountain?" And there are weighty reasons that should dissuade us
from entering the lists with Satan in temptation of inward trouble.
Richard Gilpin.
Verse 1. The shadow will not cool except in it. What good to
have the shadow though of a mighty rock, when we sit in the open sun?
To have almighty power engaged for us, and we to throw ourselves out
of it, by bold sallies in the mouth of temptation! The saints' falls
have been when they have run out of their trench and stronghold; for,
like the conies, they are a weak people in themselves, and their
strength lies in the rock of God's almightiness, which is their
habitation. William Gurnall.
Verse 1. The saints of old would not accept deliverances on
base terms. They scorned to fly away for the enjoyment of rest except
it were with the wings of a dove, covered with silver innocence. As
willing were many of the martyrs to die as to dine. The tormentors
were tired in torturing Blandina. "We are ashamed, O Emperor! The
Christians laugh at your cruelty, and grow the more resolute," said
one of Julian's nobles. This the heathen counted obstinacy; but they
knew not the power of the Spirit, nor the secret armour of proof,
which saints wear about their hearts. John Trapp.
Verse 2. "For, lo, the wicked bend their bow," etc.
This verse presents an unequal combat betwixt armed power,
advantaged with policy, on the one side; and naked
innocence on the other. First, armed power: "They bend their
bows, and make ready their arrows," being all the artillery of
that age; secondly, advantaged with policy: "that they may privily
shoot," to surprise them with an ambush unawares, probably
pretending amity and friendship unto them; thirdly, naked
innocence: if innocence may be termed naked, which is its own
armour; "at the upright in heart." Thomas Fuller.
Verse 2. "For, lo, the ungodly bend their bow, and make
ready their arrows within the quiver: that they may privily shoot at
them which are true of heart." The plottings of the chief priests
and Pharisees that they might take Jesus by subtlety and kill him.
They bent their bow, when they hired Judas Iscariot for the betrayal
of his Master; they made ready their arrows within the quiver when
they sought "false witnesses against Jesus to put him to death."
Matthew 26:59. "Them which are true of heart." Not alone the
Lord himself, the only true and righteous, but his apostles, and the
long line of those who should faithfully cleave to him from that time
to this. And as with the Master, so with the servants: witness the
calumnies and the revilings that from the time of Joseph's accusation
by his mistress till the present day, have been the lot of God's
people. Michael Ayguan, 1416, in J. M. Neale's
Commentary.
Verse 2. "That they may secretly shoot at them which are
upright in heart." They bear not their bows and arrows as
scarecrows in a garden of cucumbers, to fray, but to shoot,
not at stakes, but men; their arrows are jacula mortifera
(Psalm 7), deadly arrows, and lest they should fail to hit, they take
advantage of the dark, of privacy and secrecy; they shoot
privily. Now this is the covenant of hell itself. For what
created power in the earth is able to dissolve that work which
cruelty and subtlety, like Simeon and Levi, brothers in
evil, are combined and confederate to bring to pass? Where subtlety
is ingenious, insidious to invent, cruelty barbarous to execute,
subtlety giveth counsel, cruelty giveth the stroke. Subtlety ordereth
the time, the place, the means, accomodateth, concinnateth
circumstances; cruelty undertaketh the act: subtlety hideth the
knife, cruelty cutteth the throat: subtlety with a cunning head
layeth the ambush, plotteth the train, the stratagem; and cruelty
with as savage a heart, sticketh not at the dreadfullest, direfullest
objects, ready to wade up to the ankles, the neck, in a whole red sea
of human, yea, country blood: how fearful is their plight that are
thus assaulted! John King.
Verse 3. "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the
righteous do?" But now we are met with a giant objection, which
with Goliath must be removed, or else it will obstruct our present
proceedings. Is it possible that the foundations of religion
should be destroyed? Can God be in so long a sleep, yea, so long a
lethargy, as patiently to permit the ruins thereof? If he looks on,
and yet doth not see these foundations when destroyed, where
then is his omnisciency? If he seeth it, and cannot help it,
where then is his omnipotency? If he seeth it, can help it,
and will not, where then is his goodness and mercy?
Martha said to Jesus (John 11:21), "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my
brother had not died." But many will say, Were God effectually
present in the world with his aforesaid attributes, surely the
foundations had not died, had not been
destroyed . We answer negatively, that it is impossible that
the foundations of religion should ever be totally and
finally destroyed, either in relation to the church in
general, or in reference to every true and lively member thereof. For
the first, we have an express promise of Christ. Matthew 16:18. "The
gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Fundamenta tamen
stant inconcussa Sionis . And as for every particular Christian (2
Timothy 2:19), "Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure,
having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his." However,
though for the reasons aforementioned in the objections (the
inconsistency thereof with the attributes of God's omnipotency,
omnisciency, and goodness), the foundations can never totally
and finally, yet may they partially be destroyed, quoad
gradum, in a fourfold degree, as followeth. First, in the
desires and utmost endeavours of wicked men,
They bring their—
1. Hoc velle,
2. Hoc agere,
3. Totum posse.
If they destroy not the foundations, it is no thanks to them,
seeing all the world will bear them witness they have done their
best (that is, their worst ), what their might and malice
could perform. Secondly, in their own vainglorious
imaginations: they may not only vainly boast, but also verily
believe that they have destroyed the foundations. Applicable
to this purpose, is that high rant of the Roman emperor (Luke 2:1):
"And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from
Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed." All the world!
whereas he had, though much, not all in Europe, little in Asia, less
in Africa, none in America, which was so far from being conquered, it
was not so much as known to the Romans. But hyperbole is not a
figure, but the ordinary language of pride; because indeed Augustus
had very much he proclaimeth himself to have all the world. . . .
Thirdly, the foundations may be destroyed as to all outward
visible illustrious apparition. The church in persecution is like
unto a ship in a tempest; down go all their masts, yea, sometimes for
the more speed they are forced to cut them down: not a piece of
canvas to play with the winds, no sails to be seen; they lie close
knotted to the very keel, that the tempest may have the less power
upon them, though when the storm is over, they can hoist up their
sails as high, and spread their canvas as broad as ever before. So
the church in the time of persecution feared , but especially
felt, loseth all gayness and gallantry which may attract and
allure the eyes of beholders, and contenteth itself with its own
secrecy. In a word, on the work-days of affliction she weareth her
worst clothes, whilst her best are laid up in her wardrobe, in sure
and certain hope that God will give her a holy and happy
day, when with joy she shall wear her best garments. Lastly, they
may be destroyed in the jealous apprehensions of the
best saints and servants of God, especially in their melancholy fits.
I will instance in no puny, but in a star of the first magnitude and
greatest eminency, even Elijah himself complaining (1 Kings 19:10):
"And I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it
away." Thomas Fuller.
Verse 3. "If." It is the only word of comfort in the
text, that what is said is not positive, but suppositive; not
thetical, but hypothetical. And yet this comfort which is but a spark
(at which we would willingly kindle our hopes), is quickly sadded
with a double consideration. First, impossible suppositions produce
impossible consequences, "As is the mother, so is the daughter."
Therefore, surely God's Holy Spirit would not suppose such a thing
but what was feasible and possible, but what either had, did, or
might come to pass. Secondly, the Hebrew word is not the conditional
im, si, si forte , but chi, quia, quoniam, because, and
(although here it be favourably rendered if ), seemeth to