before his age, as though he had darted his soul into the brighter
future, and escaped the mists of the beclouded present: he has gone
to his grave unreverenced and misunderstood, and lo! as generations
come and go, upon a sudden the hero is unearthed, and lives in the
admiration and love of the excellent of the earth; preserved for ever
from the generation which stigmatised him as a sower of sedition, or
burned him as a heretic. It should be our daily prayer that we may
rise above our age as the mountain-tops above the clouds, and may
stand out as heaven-pointing pinnacle high above the mists of
ignorance and sin which roll around us. O Eternal Spirit, fulfil in
us the faithful saying of this verse! Our faith believes those two
assuring words, and cries, "Thou shalt," "thou shalt."
Verse 8. Here we return to the fount of bitterness, which first made
the psalmist run to the wells of salvation, namely, the prevalence of
wickedness. When those in power are vile, their underlings will be no
better. As a warm sun brings out noxious flies, so does a sinner in
honour foster vice everywhere. Our turf would not so swarm with
abominables if those who are styled honourables did not give their
countenance to the craft. Would to God that the glory and triumph of
our Lord Jesus would encourage us to walk and work on every side; as
like acts upon like, since an exalted sinner encourages sinners, our
exalted Redeemer must surely excite, cheer, and stimulate his saints.
Nerved by a sight of his reigning power we shall meet the evils of
the times in the spirit of holy resolution, and shall the more
hopefully pray, "Help, Lord."
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Verse 1. "Help, Lord." 'Twas high time to call to
heaven for help, when Saul cried, "Go, kill me up the priests of
Jehovah" (the occasion as it is thought of making this Psalm), and
therein committed the sin against the Holy Ghost, as some grave
divines are of opinion. 1 Samuel 22:17. David, after many sad
thoughts about that slaughter, and the occasion of it, Doeg's
malicious information, together with the paucity of his fast friends,
and the multitude of his sworn enemies at court, breaks forth
abruptly into these words, "Help, Lord," help at a dead lift.
The Arabic version hath it, Deliver me by main force, as with
weapons of war, for "the Lord is a man of war." Exodus 15:3. John
Trapp.
Verse 1. "The faithful." "A faithful man," as a
parent, a reprover, an adviser, one "without guile," "who can
find?" Proverbs 20:6. Look close. View thyself in the glass of
the word. Does thy neighbour or thy friend, find thee faithful
to him? What does our daily intercourse witness? Is not the attempt
to speak what is agreeable oft made at the expense of truth? Are not
professions of regard sometimes utterly inconsistent with our real
feelings? In common life, where gross violations are restrained, a
thousand petty offences are allowed, that break down the wall between
sin and duty, and, judged by the divine standard, are indeed guilty
steps upon forbidden ground. Charles Bridges, 1850.
Verse 1. A "faithful" man must be, first of all,
faithful to himself; then, he must be faithful to God; and then, he
must be faithful to others, particularly the church of God. And this,
as it regards ministers, is of peculiar importance. Joseph
Irons, 1840.
Verse 1. Even as a careful mother, seeing her child in the way
when a company of unruly horses run through the streets in full
career, presently whips up her child in her arms and taketh him home;
or as the hen, seeing the ravenous kite over her head, clucks and
gathers her chickens under her wings; even so when God hath a purpose
to bring a heavy calamity upon a land, it hath been usual with him to
call and cull out to himself such as are his dearly beloved. He takes
his choice servants from the evil to come. Thus was Augustine removed
a little before Hippo (wherein he dwelt) was taken; Paroeus died
before Heidelburg was sacked; and Luther was taken off before Germany
was overrun with war and bloodshed. Ed. Dunsterville in a Sermon
at the Funeral of Sir Sim. Harcourt, 1642.
Verse 1. "Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth,"
etc.:—
Back, then, complainer, loathe thy life no more,
Nor deem thyself upon a desert shore,
Because the rocks the nearer prospect close.
Yet in fallen Israel are there hearts and eyes,
That day by day in prayer like thine arise;
Thou knowest them not, but their Creator known.
Go, to the world return, nor fear to cast
Thy bread upon the waters, sure at last
In joy to find it after many days.
John Keble, 1792-1866.
Verses 1, 2, 4. Consider our markets, our fairs, our private
contracts and bargains, our shops, our cellars, our weights, our
measures, our promises, our protestations, our politic tricks and
villainous Machiavelism, our enhancing of the prices of all
commodities, and tell, whether the twelfth Psalm may not as fitly be
applied to our times as to the days of the man of God; in which the
feigning, and lying, and facing, and guile, and subtlety of men
provoked the psalmist to cry out, "Help, Lord; for there is not a
godly man left: for the faithful are failed from among the children
of men: they speak deceitfully every one with his neighbour,
flattering with their lips, and speak with a double heart, which have
said, With our tongue we will prevail; our lips are our own: who is
Lord over us?" R. Wolcombe, 1612.
Verse 2. "They speak vanity every one with his neighbour:
with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak." The
feigned zeal is just like a waterman, that looks one way and rows
another way; for this man pretends one thing and
intends another thing; as Jehu pretended the zeal of God's
glory, but his aim was at his master's kingdom; and his zeal to God's
service was but to bring him to the sceptre of the kingdom. So
Demetrius professed great love unto Diana, but his drift was to
maintain the honour of his profession; and so we have too many that
make great show of holiness, and yet their hearts aim at other ends;
but they may be sure, though they can deceive the world and destroy
themselves, yet not God, who knoweth the secrets of all hearts.
Gr. Williams, 1636.
Verse 2. "They speak vanity." —
Faithless is earth, and faithless are the skies!
Justice is fled, and truth is now no more!
Virgil's Æneid, IV. 373.
Verse 2. "With a double heart." Man is nothing but
insincerity, falsehood, and hypocrisy, both in regard to himself and
in regard to others. He does not wish that he should be told the
truth, he shuns saying it to others; and all these moods, so
inconsistent with justice and reason, have their roots in his heart.
Blaise Pascal.
Verse 2. "With flattering lips and with a double heart do
they speak." There is no such stuff to make a cloak of as
religion; nothing so fashionable, nothing so profitable: it is a
livery wherein a wise man may serve two masters, God and the world,
and make a gainful service by either. I serve both, and in both
myself, by prevaricating with both. Before man none serves his God
with more devotion; for which, among the best of men, I work my own
ends, and serve myself. In private, I serve the world; not with so
strict devotion, but with more delight; where fulfilling of her
servants' lusts, I work my end and serve myself. The house of prayer
who more frequents than I? In all Christian duties who more forward
than I? I fast with those who fast, that I may eat with those that
eat. I mourn with those that mourn. No hand more open to the cause
than mine, and in their families none prays longer and with louder
zeal. Thus when the opinion of a holy life hath cried the goodness of
my conscience up, my trade can lack no custom, my wares can want no
price, my words can need no credit, my actions can lack no praise. If
I am covetous, it is interpreted providence; if miserable, it is
counted temperance; if melancholy, it is construed godly sorrow; if
merry, it is voted spiritual joy; if I be rich, it is thought the
blessing of a godly life; if poor, supposed the fruit of conscionable
dealing; if I be well spoken of, it is the merit of holy
conversation; if ill, it is the malice of malignants. Thus I sail
with every wind, and have my end in all conditions. This cloak in
summer keeps me cool, in winter warm, and hides the nasty bag of all
my secret lusts. Under this cloak I walk in public fairly with
applause, and in private sin securely without offence, and officiate
wisely without discovery. I compass sea and land to make a proselyte;
and no sooner made, but he makes me. At a fast I cry Geneva, and at a
feast I cry Rome. If I be poor, I counterfeit abundance to save my
credit; if rich, I dissemble poverty to save charges. I most frequent
schismatical lectures, which I find most profitable; from thence
learning to divulge and maintain new doctrines; they maintain me in
suppers thrice a week. I use the help of a lie sometimes, as a new
stratagem to uphold the gospel; and I colour oppression with God's
judgments executed upon the wicked. Charity I hold an extraordinary
duty, therefore not ordinarily to be performed. What I openly reprove
abroad, for my own profit, that I secretly act at home, for my own
pleasure. But stay, I see a handwriting in my heart which damps my
soul. It is charactered in these sad words, "Woe be to you,
hypocrites." Matthew 23:13. Francis Quarle's "Hypocrite's
Soliloquy."
Verse 2. "With flattering lips," etc. The world indeed
says that society could not exist if there were perfect truthfulness
and candour between man and man; and that the world's propriety would
be as much disturbed if every man said what he pleased, as it was in
those days of Israelitish history, when every man did that which was
right in his own eyes. The world is assuredly the best judge of its
own condition and mode of government, and therefore I will not say
what a libel does such a remark contain, but oh, what a picture does
it present of the social edifice, that its walls can be cemented and
kept together only by flattery and falsehood! Barton
Bouchier.
Verse 2. "Flattering lips." The philosopher Bion being
asked what animal he though the most hurtful, replied, "That of wild
creatures a tyrant, and of tame ones a flatterer." The flatterer is
the most dangerous enemy we can have. Raleigh, himself a courtier,
and therefore initiated into the whole art of flattery, who
discovered in his own career and fate its dangerous and deceptive
power, its deep artifice and deeper falsehood, says, "A flatterer is
said to be a beast that biteth smiling. But it is hard to know them
from friends—they are so obsequious and full of protestations: for
as a wolf resembles a dog, so doth a flatterer a friend." The Book
of Symbols, 1844.
Verse 2. "They speak with a double heart." The original
is, "A heart and a heart:" one for the church, another for the