when in much mercy he puts forth his hand into the work with thee, be very
thankful. If the work be not done, he is no loser; if done, and well done,
he is no gainer. Job 22:2; 35:6-8. But the gain is all to thee; all the
good that comes by it is to thyself.— Joseph Symonds, 1639.
Verse 2 (last clause) . It is a greater glory to us that we are allowed
to serve God, than it is to him that we offer him that service. He is not
rendered happy by us; but we are made happy by him. He can do without such
earthly servants; but we cannot do without such a heavenly Master.— William Secker.
Verse 2 (last clause) . There is nothing added to God; he is so perfect,
that no sin can hurt him; and so righteous, that no righteousness can
benefit him. O Lord, my righteousness extendeth not to thee! thou hast no
need of my righteousness. Acts 17:24, 25. God hath no need of anything.— Richard Stock, 1641.
Verse 2. As Christ is the head of man, so is God the head of Christ (1
Corinthians 11:3); and as man is subject unto Christ, so is Christ subject
to God; not in regard of the divine nature, wherein there is an equality,
and consequently no dominion or jurisdiction; nor only in his human nature,
but in the economy of a Redeemer, considered as one designed, and consenting
to be incarnate, and take our flesh; so that after this agreement, God had a
sovereign right to dispose of him according to the articles consented to.
In regard of his undertaking and the advantage he was to bring to the elect
of God upon earth, he calls God by the solemn title of "his Lord." "O my
soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth
not to thee; but to the saints that are in the earth." It seems to be the
speech of Christ in heaven, mentioning the saints on earth as at a distance
from him. I can add nothing to the glory of thy majesty, but the whole
fruit of my mediation and suffering will redound to the saints on earth.— Stephen Charnock.
Verses 2, 3. "My goodness extendeth not to thee; but to the saints."
God's goodness to us should make us merciful to others. It were strange
indeed a soul should come out of his tender bosom with a hard uncharitable
heart. Some children do not indeed take after their earthly parents, as
Cicero's son, who had nothing of his father but his name; but God's children
all partake of their heavenly Father's nature. Philosophy tells us, that
there is no reaction from the earth to the heavens; they indeed shed their
influences upon the lower world, which quicken and fructify it, but the
earth returns none back to make the sun shine the better. David knew that
his goodness extended not unto God, but this made him reach it forth to
his brethren. Indeed, God hath left his poor saints to receive the rents we
owe unto him for his mercies. An ingenuous guest, though his friend will
take nothing for his entertainment, yet, to show his thankfulness, will give
something to his servants.— William Gurnall.
Verse 3. "But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent,
in whom is all my delight." My brethren, look upon saintship as the
greatest excellency to love it. So did Christ. His eye was "upon the
excellent ones in the earth;" that is, upon the saints, who were excellent
to him; yea, also even when not saints, because God loved them. Isaiah
43:4. It is strange to hear how men by their speeches will undervalue a
saint as such, if without some other outward excellency. For whilst they
acknowledge a man a saint, yet in other respects, they will contemn him; "He
is a holy man," they will say, "but he is weak," etc. But is he a saint?
And can there be any such other imperfection or weakness found as shall lay
him low in thy thoughts in comparison of other carnal men more excellent?
Hath not Christ loved him, bought him, redeemed him?— Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 3. "But to the saints." I understand that a man then evinces
affection towards God, and towards those who love God, when his soul yearns
after them—when he obliges himself to love them by practically serving
and benefiting them—acting towards them as he would act towards God
himself were he to see him in need of his service, as David says he did.— Juan de Valdes, 1550.
Verse 3. "The saints." The Papists could abide no saints but those
which are in heaven; which argueth that they live in a kingdom of darkness,
and err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God; for if they were
but meanly conversant in the Scriptures, in the holy epistles, they should
find almost in every epistle mention made of the saints who are thereunto
called in Jesus Christ, through whom they are sanctified by the Holy Ghost.
And mark, he calleth them "excellent." Some think rich men to be
excellent, some think learned men to be excellent, some count men in
authority so to be, but here we are taught that those men are excellent
who are sanctified by God's graces.— Richard Greenham.
Verse 3. By David's language, there were many singular saints in his day:
"To the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all
my delight." Was it so then, and should it not be so now? We know the New
Testament outshines the Old as much as the sun outshines the moon. If we
then live in a more glorious dispensation, should we not maintain a more
glorious conversation?. . . . "The excellent." Were the sun to give no
more delight than a star, you could not believe he was the regent of the
day; were he to transmit no more heat than a glow-worm, you would question
his being the source of elementary heat. Were God to do no more than a
creature, where would his Godhead be? Were a man to do no more than a
brute, where would his manhood be? Were not a saint to excel a sinner,
where would his sanctity be?— William Secker.
Verse 3. Ingo, an ancient king of the Draves, who making a stately feast,
appointed his nobles, at that time Pagans, to sit in the hall below, and
commanded certain poor Christians to be brought up into his
presence-chamber, to sit with him at his table, to eat and drink of his
kingly cheer, at which many wondering, he said, he accounted Christians,
though never so poor, a greater ornament to his table, and more worthy of
his company than the greatest peers unconverted to the Christian faith; for
when these might be thrust down to hell, those might be his comforts and
fellow princes in heaven. Although you see the stars sometimes by
reflections in a puddle, in the bottom of a well, or in a stinking ditch,
yet the stars have their situation in heaven. So, although you see a godly
man in a poor, miserable, low, despised condition, for the things of this
world, yet he is fixed in heaven, in the region of heaven: "Who hath raised
us up," saith the apostle, "and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus."— Charles Bradbury's "Cabinet of Jewels," 1785.
Verse 3. To sum up all, we must know that we neither do nor can love the
godly so well as we should do; but all is well if we would love them better,
and do like ourselves the less because we do love them no more, and that
this is common or usual with me, then I am right: so that we are to love the
godly first because God commands it, because they are good; and in these
cases our faith doth work by our love to good men. Next, when I am at the
worst, like a sick sheep, I care not for the company of other sheep, but do
mope in a corner by myself; but yet I do not delight in the society of goats
or dogs, it proves that I have some good blood left in me; it is because for
the present I take little or no delight in myself or in my God, that I
delight no better in the godly: yet as I love myself for all that, so I may
be said to love them for all this. Man indeed is a sociable creature, a
company-keeper by nature when he is himself; and if we not associate
ourselves with the ungodly, though for the present, and care not much to
show ourselves amongst the godly, the matter is not much, it is a sin of
infirmity, not a fruit of iniquity. The disciples went from Christ, but
they turned not to the other side as Judas did, who did forsake his Master,
and joined himself to his Master's enemies, but they got together. Some say
that Demas did repent (which I think to be the truth), and then he did
"embrace this present world," but for the present fit: put case he did
forsake Paul; so did better men than he. Indeed as long as a man hath his
delights about him, he will embrace the delights of this present world, or
the delights which belong to the world to come; join with Paul, or cleave to
the world. In this temptation our stay is, first, that we care not for the
company of goats; next, that as we should, so we would, and desire that we
may take delight in the company of sheep, to count them the only excellent
men in the world, in whom is all our delight. The conclusion is, that to
love the saints as saints, is a sound proof of faith; the reason is, for
that we cannot master our affections by love, but first we must master our
understandings by faith,— Richard Capel, 1586-1656.
Verse 4. "Drink offerings of blood." The Gentiles used to offer, and
sometimes drink part of the blood of their sacrifices, whether of beasts or
of men, as either of them were sacrificed.— Matthew Poole.
Verse 4. "Drink offerings of blood." It is uncertain whether this
expression is to be understood literally to be blood, which the heathen
actually mixed in their libations when they bound themselves to the
commission of some dreadful deed, or whether their libations are
figuratively called offerings of blood to denote the horror with which the
writer regarded them.— George R. Noyes, in loc. 1846.
Verse 4 (last clause) . A sin rolled under the tongue becomes soft and
supple, and the throat is so short and slippery a passage, that insensibly
it may slide down from the mouth into the stomach; and contemplative
wantonness quickly turns into practical uncleanness.— Thomas Fuller.
Verse 5. "The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance." If the Lord be
thy portion, then thou mayest conclude, omnipotentcy is my portion,
immensity, all-sufficiency, etc. Say not, If so, then I should be
omnipotent, etc. There is a vast difference betwixt identity and interest,
betwixt conveying of a title, and transmutation of nature. A friend gives
thee an invaluable treasure, and all the securities of it that thou canst
desire; wilt thou deny it is thine because thou art not changed into its
nature? The attributes are thine, as thy inheritance, as thy lands are
thine; not because thou art changed into their nature, but because the title
is conveyed to thee, it is given thee, and improved for thy benefit. If
another manage it, who can do it with greater advantage to thee than to
thyself, it is no infringement of thy title. . . . . The Lord is our
portion, and this is incomparably more than if we had heaven and earth;
for all the earth is but as a point compared with the vastness of the
heavens, and the heavens themselves are but a point compared with God. What
a large possession have we then! There is no confiscation of it, no
banishment from it. Our portion fills heaven and earth, and is infinitely
above heaven and below earth, and beyond both. Poor men boast and pride
themselves of a kingdom, but we have more than all the kingdoms of the world
and the glory thereof. Christ has given us more than the devil could offer
him.— David Clarkson.
Verse 5. "Portion of mine inheritance and of my cup," may contain an
allusion to the daily supply of food, and also to the inheritance of Levi.
Deuteronomy 18:1, 2.— "Critical and Explanatory Pocket Bible." By A. R. Fausset and B. M.
Smith, 1867.
Verses 5, 6. "The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance: the lines are
fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage."
"Blessed are the people that are in such a case; yea, blessed are the people
whose God is the Lord." No greater mercy can be bestowed upon any people,
family, or person than this, for God to dwell among them. If we value this
mercy according to the excellence and worth of that which is bestowed, it is
the greatest; if we value it according to the good will of him that gives
it, it will appear likewise to be the greatest favour. The greatness of the
good will of God in giving himself to be our acquaintance, is evident in the
nature of the gift. A man may give his estate to them to whom his love is
not very large, but he never gives himself but upon strong affection. God
gives abundantly to all the works of his hands; he causeth the sun to shine
upon the evil and upon the good, and the rain to descend upon the just and
the unjust; but it cannot be conceived that he should give himself to be a
portion, a friend, father, husband, but in abundance of love. Whosoever
therefore shall refuse acquaintance with God, slighteth the greatest favour
that ever God did bestow upon man. Now, consider what a high charge this
is; to abuse such a kindness from God is an act of the greatest vileness.