Verse 5. "The Lord trieth the righteous." Times of
affliction and persecution will distinguish the precious from the
vile, it will difference the counterfeit professor from the true.
Persecution is a Christian's touchstone, it is a lapis lydius
that will try what metal men are made of, whether they be silver or
tin, gold or dross, wheat or chaff, shadow or substance, carnal or
spiritual, sincere or hypocritical. Nothing speaks out more soundness
and uprightness than a pursuing after holiness, even then when
holiness is most afflicted, pursued, and persecuted in the world: to
stand fast in fiery trials argues much integrity within. Thomas
Brooks.
Verse 5. Note the singular opposition of the two sentences.
God hates the wicked, and therefore in contrast he loves the
righteous; but it is here said that he tries them: therefore it
follows that to try and to love are with God the same thing. C. H.
S.
Verse 6. "Upon the wicked he shall rain snares." Snares
to hold them; then if they be not delivered, follow fire and
brimstone, and they cannot escape. This is the case of a sinner if he
repent not; if God pardon not, he is in the snare of Satan's
temptation, he is in the snare of divine vengeance; let him therefore
cry aloud for his deliverance, that he may have his feet in a large
room. The wicked lay snares for the righteous, but God either
preventeth them that their souls ever escape them, or else he
subverteth them: "The snares are broken and we are delivered." No
snares hold us so fast as those of our own sins; they keep down our
heads, and stoop us that we cannot look up: a very little ease they
are to him that hath not a seared conscience. Samuel Page,
1646.
Verse 6. "He shall rain snares." As in hunting with the
lasso, the huntsman casts a snare from above upon his prey to
entangle its head or feet, so shall the Lord from above with many
twistings of the line of terror, surround, bind, and take captive the
haters of his law. C. H. S.
Verse 6. "He shall rain snares," etc. He shall rain
upon them when they least think of it, even in the midst of their
jollity, as rain falls on a fair day. Or, he shall rain down the
vengeance when he sees good, for it rains not always. Though he
defers it, yet it will rain. William Nicholson, Bishop of
Gloucester, in "David's Harp Strung and Tuned," 1662.
Verse 6. "Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and
brimstone, and an horrible tempest." The strange dispensation of
affairs in this world is an argument which doth convincingly prove
that there shall be such a day wherein all the involucra and
entanglements of providence shall be clearly unfolded. Then shall the
riddle be dissolved, why God hath given this and that profane wretch
so much wealth, and so much power to do mischief: is it not that
they might be destroyed for ever? Then shall they be called to a
strict account for all that plenty and prosperity for which they are
now envied; and the more they have abused, the more dreadful will
their condemnation be. Then it will be seen that God gave them not as
mercies, but as "snares." It is said that God "will rain on
the wicked snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest:"
when he scatters abroad the desirable things of this world, riches,
honours, pleasures, etc., then he rains "snares" upon them;
and when he shall call them to an account for these things, then he
will rain upon them "fire and brimstone, and an horrible
tempest" of his wrath and fury. Dives, who caroused on earth,
yet, in hell could not obtain so much as one poor drop of water to
cool his scorched and flaming tongue: had not his excess and
intemperance been so great in his life, his fiery thirst had not been
so tormenting after death; and therefore, in that sad item that
Abraham gives him (Luke 16:25), he bids him "remember that thou,
in thy lifetime, receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus
evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented." I
look upon this as a most bitter and a most deserved sarcasm;
upbraiding him for his gross folly, in making the trifles of this
life his good things. Thou hast received thy good things, but now
thou art tormented. Oh, never call Dive's purple and delicious fare
good things , if they thus end in torments! Was it good for him
to be wrapped in purple who is now wrapped in flames? Was it good for
him to fare deliciously who was only thereby fatted up against the
day of slaughter? Ezekiel Hopkins.
Verse 6. "Snares, fire and brimstone, storm and tempest:
this shall be the portion of their cup." After the judgment
follows the condemnation: pre-figured as we have seen, by the
overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah. "Snares:" because the
allurements of Satan in this life will be their worst punishments in
the next; the fire of anger, the brimstone of impurity, the tempest
of pride, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride
of life. "This shall be their portion;" compare it with the
psalmist's own saying, "The Lord himself is the portion of my
inheritance and my cup." Psalm 16:5. Cassidorus, in J. M. Neale's
Commentary.
Verse 6. "The portion of their cup." Hebrew, the
allotment of their cup. The expression has reference to the custom of
distributing to each guest his mess of meat. William French and
George Skinner, 1842.
Verse 7. That God may give grace without glory is
intelligible; but to admit a man to communion with him in glory
without grace, is not intelligible. It is not agreeable to God's
holiness to make any inhabitant of heaven, and converse freely with
him in a way of intimate love, without such a qualification of grace:
"The righteous Lord loveth righteousness;" his countenance doth
behold the upright;" he looks upon him with a smiling eye, and
therefore he cannot favourably look upon an unrighteous person; so
that this necessity is not founded only in the command of God that we
should be renewed, but in the very nature of the thing, because God,
in regard to his holiness, cannot converse with an impure creature.
God must change his nature, or the sinner's nature must be changed.
There can be no friendly communion between two of different natures
without the change of one of them into the likeness of the other.
Wolves and sheep, darkness and light, can never agree. God cannot
love a sinner as a sinner, because he hates impurity by a necessity
of nature as well as a choice of will. It is as impossible for him to
love it as to cease to be holy. Stephen Charnock.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1. Faith's bold avowal, and brave refusal.
Verse 1. Teacheth us to trust in God, how great soever our
dangers be; also that we shall be many times assaulted to make us put
far from us this trust, but yet that we must cleave unto it, as the
anchor of our souls, sure and steadfast. Thomas Wilcocks.
Verse 1. The advice of cowardice, and the jeer of insolence,
both answered by faith. Lesson—Attempt no other answer.
Verse 2. The craftiness of our spiritual enemies.
Verse 3. This may furnish a double discourse.
I. If God's oath and promise could
remove , what could we do? Here the answer is easy.
II. If all earthly things fail ,
and the very State fall to pieces, what can we do? We can suffer
joyfully, hope cheerfully, wait patiently, pray earnestly, believe
confidently, and triumph finally.
Verse 3. Necessity of holding and preaching foundation
truths.
Verse 4. The elevation, mystery, supremacy, purity,
everlastingness, invisibility, etc., of the throne of God.
Verses 4, 5. In these verses mark the fact that the children
of men, as well as the righteous, are tried; work out the contrast
between the two trials in their designs and results, etc.
Verse 5. "The Lord trieth the righteous."
I. Who are tried?
II. What in them is tried?—Faith, love,
etc.
III. In what manner?—Trials of every
sort.
IV. How long?
V. For what purpose?
Verse 5. "His soul hateth." The thoroughness of God's
hatred of sin. Illustrate by providential judgments, threatenings,
sufferings of the Surety, and the terrors of hell.
Verse 5. The trying of the gold, and the sweeping out of the
refuse.
Verse 6. "He shall rain." Gracious rain and destroying
rain.
Verse 6. The portion of the impenitent.
Verse 7. The Lord possesses righteousness as a personal
attribute, loves it in the abstract, and blesses those who practise
it.