change; one for Sundays, another for working-days; one for the king,
another for the pope. A man without a heart is a wonder, but a man
with two hearts is a monster. It is said of Judas, "There were many
hearts in one man;" and we read of the saints, "There was one heart
in many men." Acts 4:32. Dabo illis cor unum; a special
blessing. Thomas Adams.
Verse 2. When men cease to be faithful to their God, he who
expects to find them so to each other, will be much disappointed. The
primitive sincerity will accompany the primitive piety in her flight
from the earth; and then interest will succeed conscience in the
regulation of human conduct, till one man cannot trust another
farther than he holds him by that tie. Hence, by the way, it is, that
though many are infidels themselves, yet few choose to have their
families and dependents such; as judging, and rightly judging, that
true Christians are the only persons to be depended on for the exact
discharge of social duties. George Horne.
Verse 3. "The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips,"
etc. They who take pleasure in deceiving others, will at the last
find themselves most of all deceived, when the Sun of truth, by the
brightness of his rising, shall at once detect and consume hypocrisy.
George Horne.
Verse 3. "Cut off lips and tongues." May there not be
here an allusion to those terrible but suggestive punishments which
Oriental monarchs were wont to execute on criminals? Lips were cut
off and tongues torn out when offenders were convicted of lying or
treason. So terrible and infinitely more so are the punishments of
sin. C. H. S.
Verses 3, 4. It need not now seem strange to tell you that the
Lord is the owner of our bodies, that he has so much propriety
therein that they are more his than ours. The apostle tells us as
much. 1 Corinthians 6:20. "Glorify God in your bodies which are his."
Our bodies, and every member thereof, are his; for if the whole be
so, no part is exempted. And therefore they speak proud things, and
presumptuously usurped the propriety of God, who said, "Our lips
are our own;" as though their lips had not been his who is Lord
and Owner of all, but they had been lords thereof, and might have
used them as they list. This provoked God to show what right he had
to dispose of such lips and tongues, by cutting them off .
David Clarkson.
Verse 4. "Who have said, With our tongues will we prevail;
who is Lord over us?" So it was: twelve poor and unlearned men on
the one side, all the eloquence of Greece and Rome arrayed on the
other. From the time of Tertullus to that of Julian the apostate,
every species of oratory, learning, wit, was lavished against the
church of God; and the result, like the well-known story of that
dispute between the Christian peasant and the heathen philosopher,
when the latter, having challenged the assembled fathers of a synod
to silence him, was put to shame by the simple faith of the former
"In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I command thee to be dumb."
"Who is lord over us?" "Who is the Lord, that I should obey
his voice to let Israel go?" Exodus 5:2. "What is the Almighty, that
we should serve him?" Job 21:15. "Who is that God that shall deliver
you?" Daniel 3:15. Michael Ayguan, in J. M. Neale's
Commentary.
Verse 4. "Our lips are our own." If we have to do with
God, we must quit claim to ourselves and look on God as our owner;
but this is fixed in the hearts of men, We will be our own; we will
not consent to the claim which God makes to us: "Our lips are our
own." Wicked men might as well say the same thing of their whole
selves; our bodies, strength, time, parts, etc., are our own, and who
is Lord over us? John Howe.
Verse 4. From the faults of the wicked we must learn three
contrary lessons; to wit: 1. That nothing which we have is our own.
But, 2. Whatsoever is given to us of God is for service to be done to
him. 3. That whatsoever we do or say, we have a Lord over us to whom
we must be answerable when he calleth us to account. David
Dickson.
Verse 5. "For the oppression of the poor," etc. When
oppressors and persecutors do snuff and puff at the people of God,
when they defy them, and scorn them, and think that they can with a
blast of their breath blow them away, then God will arise to
judgment, as the Chaldee has it; at that very nick of time when all
seems to be lost, and when the poor, oppressed, and afflicted people
of God can do nothing but sigh and weep, and weep and sigh, then the
Lord will arise and ease them of their oppressions, and make their
day of extremity a glorious opportunity to work for his own glory,
and his people's good. Matthew 22:6, 7. "And the remnant took his
servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the
king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies and
destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city." Thomas
Brooks.
Verse 5. Fear ye, whosoever ye be, that do wrong the poor; you
have power and wealth, and the favour of the judges, but they have
the strongest weapons of all, sighings and groanings, which fetch
help from heaven for them. These weapons dig down houses, throw up
foundations, overthrow whole nations. Chrysostom.
Verse 5. "For the sighings of the needy, now will I arise,
saith the Lord." God is pleased to take notice of every
grace , even the least and lowest, and every gracious inclination
in any of his servants. To fear his name is no great matter,
yet these have a promise. To think on his name less, yet set
down in a "book of remembrance." God sets down how many good
thoughts a poor soul hath had. As evil thoughts in wicked men
are taken notice of—they are the first fruits of the evil heart
(Matthew 15:19)—so good thoughts are they which lie uppermost, and
best discover a good heart. A desire is a small matter,
especially of the poor man, yet God regards the desire of the poor,
and calls a good desire the greatest kindness; "The desire of a man
is his kindness." A tear makes no great noise, yet hath a
voice, "God hath heard the voice of my weeping." It is no pleasant
water, yet God bottles it up. A groan is a poor thing, yet is
the best part of a prayer sometimes (Romans 8:26); a sigh is
less, yet God is awakened and raised up by it. Psalm 12:5.
A look is less than all these, yet this is regarded (Jonah
2:4); breathing is less, yet (Lamentations 3:56), the church
could speak of no more; panting is less than breathing, when
one is spent for lack of breath, yet this is all the godly can
sometimes boast of. Psalm 42:1. The description of a godly man is
ofttimes made from his least quod sic. Blessed are the
poor, the meek, they that mourn, and they who
hunger and thirst. Never did Hannah pray better than
when she could get out never a word, but cried, "Hard, hard heart."
Nor did the publican, than when he smote his breast and cried, "Lord,
be merciful to me a sinner." Nor Mary Magdalene, than when she came
behind Christ, sat down, wept, but kept silence. How sweet is music
upon the waters! How fruitful are the lowest valleys! Mourning
hearts are most musical, lowest most fruitful. The good shepherd ever
takes most care of his weak lambs and feeble sheep. The father makes
most of the least, and the mother looks most after the sick child.
How comfortable is that of our Saviour, "It is not the will of your
Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should
perish!" And that heaven is not to be entered but by such as are like
the little child. John Sheffield, 1654.
Verse 5. "The oppression of the poor." Insolent and
cruel oppressing of the poor is a sin that brings desolating and
destroying judgments upon a people. God sent ten wasting judgments
one after another upon Pharaoh, his people, and land, to revenge the
cruel oppression of his poor people. "Rob not the poor, because he is
poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate: for the Lord will
plead their cause." Proverbs 22:22, 23. To rob and oppress the rich
is a great sin; but to rob and oppress the poor is a greater; but to
rob and oppress the poor because he is poor, and wants money to buy
justice, is the top of all inhumanity and impiety. To oppress anyone
is sin; but to oppress the oppressed is the height of sin. Poverty,
and want, and misery, should be motives to pity; but oppressors make
them the whetstone of their cruelty and severity, and therefore the
Lord will plead the cause of his poor oppressed people against their
oppressors without fee or fear; yea, he will plead their cause with
pestilence, blood, and fire. Gog was a great oppressor of the poor
(Ezekiel 38:8-14), and God pleads against him with pestilence, blood,
and fire (verse 22); "and I will plead against him, with pestilence
and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and
upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and
great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Thomas Brooks.
Verse 6. "The words of the Lord are pure words," etc.
How beautifully is this verse introduced, by way of contrast to what
was said before concerning! Do sinners talk of vanity? let saints
then speak of Jesus and his gospel. Do they talk impure words? then
let the faithful use the pure words of God, which like silver, the
more used, the more melted in the fire, the more precious will they
be. It is true, indeed, despisers will esteem both God and his word
as trifling; but oh, what an unknown treasure doth the word, the
promises, the covenant relation of the divine things of Jesus
contain! They are more to be desired than gold, yea, than pure gold;
sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Robert Hawker.
Verse 6. "The words of the Lord are pure words," etc.
They that purify silver to the purpose, use to put it in the fire
again and again, that it may be thoroughly tried. So is the truth of
God; there is scarce any truth but hath been tried over and over
again, and still if any dross happens to mingle with it, then God
calls it in question again. If in former times there have been
Scriptures alleged that have not been pertinent to prove it, that
truth shall into the fire again, that what is dross may be burnt up;
the Holy Ghost is so curious, so delicate, so exact, he cannot bear
that falsehood should be mingled with the truths of the gospel. This
is the reason, therefore, why that God doth still, age after age,
call former things in question, because that there is still some
dross one way or other mingled with them; either in the stating the
opinions themselves, or else in the Scriptures that are brought and
alleged for them, that have passed for current, for he will never
leave till he have purified them. The doctrine of God's free grace
hath been tried over and over, and over again. Pelagius begins, and
he mingles his dross with it: he saith, grace is nothing but nature
in man. Well, his doctrine was purified, and a great deal of dross
purged out. Then come the semi-Pelagians, and they part stakes; they
say, nature can do nothing without grace, but they make nature to
concur with grace, and to have an influence as well as grace; and the
dross of that was burnt up. The Papists, they take up the same
quarrel, but will neither be Pelagians nor semi-Pelagians, yet still
mingle dross. The Arminians, they come, and they refine popery in