trust in chariots, and some in horses." Chariots and horses make an
imposing show, and with their rattling, and dust, and fine caparisons, make
so great a figure that vain man is much taken with them; yet the discerning
eye of faith sees more in an invisible God than in all these. The most
dreaded war-engine of David's day was the war-chariot, armed with scythes,
which mowed down men like grass: this was the boast and glory of the
neighbouring nations; but the saints considered the name of Jehovah to be a
far better defence. As the Israelites might not keep horses, it was natural
for them to regard the enemy's calvary with more than usual dread. It is,
therefore, all the greater evidence of faith that the bold songster can here
disdain even the horse of Egypt in comparison with the Lord of hosts. Alas,
how many in our day who profess to be the Lord's are as abjectly dependent
upon their fellow-men or upon an arm of flesh in some shape or other, as if
they had never known the name of Jehovah at all. Jesus, be thou alone our
rock and refuge, and never may we mar the simplicity of our faith. "We
will remember the name of the Lord our God." "Our God" in covenant, who
has chosen us and whom we have chosen; this God is our God. The name of our
God is JEHOVAH, and this should never be forgotten; the self-existent,
independent, immutable, ever-present, all-filling I AM. Let us adore that
matchless name, and never dishonour it by distrust or creature confidence.
Reader, you must know it before you can remember it. May the blessed
Spirit reveal it graciously to your soul!
Verse 8. How different the end of those whose trusts are different! The
enemies of God are uppermost at first, but they ere long are brought down by
force, or else fall of their own accord. Their foundation is rotten, and
therefore when the time comes it gives way under them; their chariots are
burned in the fire, and their horses die of pestilence, and where is their
boasted strength? As for those who rest on Jehovah, they are often cast
down at the first onset, but an Almighty arm uplifts them, and they joyfully
stand upright. The victory of Jesus is the inheritance of his people. The
world, death, Satan, and sin, shall all be trampled beneath the feet of the
champions of faith; while those who rely upon an arm of flesh shall be
ashamed and confounded for ever.
Verse 9. The Psalm is here recapitulated. That Jesus might himself be
delivered, and might then, as our King, hear us, is the two-fold desire of
the Psalm. The first request is granted, and the second is sure to all the
seed; and therefore we may close the Psalm with the hearty shout, "God save
the King." "God save King Jesus, and may he soon come to reign."
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Whole Psalm. This Psalm is the prayer which the church might be supposed
offering up, had all the redeemed stood by the cross, or in Gethsemane, in
full consciousness of what was doing there. Messiah, in reading these
words, would know that he had elsewhere the sympathy he longed for, when he
said to the three disciples, "Tarry ye here, and watch with me." Matthew
26:38. It is thus a pleasant song, of the sacred singer of Israel, to set
forth the feelings of the redeemed in their Head, whether in his sufferings
or in the glory that was to follow.— Andrew A. Bonar.
Whole Psalm. There are traces of liturgical arrangement in many of the
Psalms. There is frequently an adaptation to the circumstances of public
worship. Thus, when the Jewish church wished to celebrate the great act of
Messiah the High Priest making a sacrifice for the people on the day of
atonement, as represented in the twenty-second Psalm, a subject so solemn,
grand, and affecting, was not commenced suddenly and unpreparedly, but first
a suitable occasion was sought, proper characters were introduced, and a
scene in some degree appropriate to the great event was fitted for its
reception. The priests and Levites endeavour to excite in the minds of the
worshippers an exalted tone of reverent faith. The majesty and power of
God, all the attributes which elevate the thoughts, are called in to fill
the souls of the worshippers with the most intense emotion; and when the
feelings are strung to the highest pitch, an awful, astounding impression
succeeds, when the words are slowly chanted, "My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?" We are to suppose, then, that the series of Psalms, from the
twentieth to the twenty-fourth inclusive, was used as a service or office in
the public worship of the Jewish church.*— R. H. Ryland, M.A., in "The Psalms Restored to Messiah ," 1853.
* NOTE: This is a purely gratuitous statement, but is less unlikely than many other assertions of annotators who have a cause to plead.— C. H. S.
Whole Psalm. Really good wishes are good things, and should be expressed
in words and deeds. The whole Psalm thus teaches. Christian sympathy is a
great branch of Christian duty. There may be a great deal of obliging
kindness in that which costs us little.— William S. Plumer.
Verse 1. "The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble." All the days of
Christ were days of trouble. He was a brother born for adversity, a man
of sorrows and acquainted with griefs. . . . But more particularly it was
a "day of trouble" with him when he was in the garden, heavy and sore
amazed, and his sweat was, as it were, drops of blood falling on the ground,
and his soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; but more especially
this was his case when he hung upon the cross. . . . when he bore all the
sins of his people, endured the wrath of his Father, and was forsaken by
him. Now, in this "day of trouble," both when in the garden and on the
cross, he prayed unto his Father, as he had been used to do in other cases,
and at other times; and the church here prays that God would hear and answer
him, as he did.— Condensed from John Gill.
Verse 1. "The name." Whereas they say, "The name of the God of
Jacob," thereby they mean God himself; but they thus speak of God because
all the knowledge that we have of God ariseth from the knowledge of his
name, and as to that end he hath given himself in the Scriptures sundry
names, that thereby we might know not only what he is in himself, so far as
it is meet for us to know, but especially what he is to us, so by them, and
them principally, we know him to be, as he is, not only in himself, but unto
us. . . . From this knowledge of the name of God ariseth confidence in
prayer! as when they know him, and here call him "the God of Jacob," that
is, he that hath made a covenant of mercy with him and with his posterity,
that he will be their God and they shall be his people, that they may be
bold to flee to him for succour, and confidently call upon him in the day of
their trouble to hear them, and to help them, as they do. And the more that
they know of his name, that is, of his goodness, mercy, truth, power,
wisdom, justice, etc., so may they the more boldly pray unto him, not
doubting but that he will be answerable unto his name. . . . For as
among men, according to the good name that they have for liberality and
pity, so will men be ready to come unto them in their need, and the poor
will say, "I will go to such an house, for they have a good name, and are
counted good to the poor, and merciful, all men speak well of them for their
liberality;" and this name of theirs giveth the encouragement to come boldly
and often. So when we know God thus by his name, it will make us bold to
come unto him in prayer. . . . Or, if a man be never so merciful, and
others know it not, and so they are ignorant of his good name that he hath,
and that he is worthy of, they cannot, with any good hope, come unto him,
for they know not what he is; they have heard nothing of him at all. So
when, by unbelief, we hardly conceive of God and of his goodness, or for
want of knowledge are ignorant of his good name, even of all his mercy, and
of his truth, pity, and compassion that is in him, and so know not his great
and glorious name, we can have little or no heart at all to come unto him in
trouble, and seek unto him for help by prayer, as these did here; and this
maketh some so forward unto prayer, they are so well acquainted with the
name of God, that they doubt not of speeding, and others again are so
backward unto it, they are so wholly ignorant of his name.— Nicholas Bownd, 1604.
Verse 1. "The name of the God of Jacob defend thee." This is a
beautiful allusion to the history of the patriarch Jacob. Jehovah had
appeared for him, when he fled from his brother Esau, at Bethel, and Jacob
said to his household, "Let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make
there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and
was with me in the way which I went." Genesis 35:3.— John Morison.
Verse 1. "The name of the God of Jacob defend thee." Hebrew, "set
thee in an high place," such as God's name is. Proverbs 18:10. "The
righteous runneth into it and is safe," as in a tower of brass, or town of
war. By the name of God is meant, Deus nominatissimus, the most
renowned God, saith Junias, and "worthy to be praised," as Psalm 18:3; and
he is called the God of Jacob here, saith another, first, because Jacob was
once in the like distress (Genesis 32:6, 7); secondly, because he prayed to
the like purpose (Genesis 35:3); thirdly, because he prevailed with God as a
prince; "and there God spake with us" (Hosea 12:4); fourthly, because God
of Jacob is the same with "God of Israel," and so the covenant is pleaded.— John Trapp.
Verse 1. "The name of the God of Jacob defend thee." There is an
assurance of thy protection, of thy safety, in the midst of ten thousand
foes, and of thy perseverance to the end. But you will say, how will the
name of the God of Jacob defend me? Try it. I have, over and over again;
therefore I speak what I do know, and testify what I have seen. "The name
of the God of Jacob defend thee." I was once goaded by a poor silly Irish
papist to try it, who told me, in his consummate ignorance and bigotry, that
if a priest would but give him a drop of holy water, and make a circle with
it around a field full of wild beasts, they would not hurt him. I retired
in disgust at the abominable trickery of such villains, reflecting, what a
fool I am that I cannot put such trust in my God as this poor deluded man
puts in his priest and a drop of holy water! And I resolved to try what
"the name of the God of Jacob" would do, having the Father's fixed
decrees, the Son's unalterable responsibility, and the Spirit's invincible
grace and operation around me. I tried it and felt my confidence brighten.
O brethren, get encircled with covenant engagements, and covenant blood, and
covenant grace, and covenant promises, and covenant securities; then will
"the Lord hear you in the time of trouble, and the name of the God of Jacob
will defend you." — Joseph Irons.
Verse 1. A sweeter wish, or a more consolatory prayer for a child of
sorrow was never uttered by man, "The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble;
the name of the God of Jacob defend thee." And who is there of the sons of
men to whom a "day of trouble" does not come, whose path is not darkened
at times, or with whom is it unclouded sunshine from the cradle to the
grave? "Few plants," says old Jacomb, "have both the morning and the
evening sun;" and one far older than he said, "Man is born to trouble." A
"day of trouble," then, is the heritage of every child of Adam. How
sweet, as I have said, how sweet the wish, "The Lord hear thee in the day
of trouble." It is the prayer of another in behalf of some troubled one,
and yet it implies that the troubled one himself had also prayed, "The Lord
hear thee" —hear and answer thine own prayer!— Barton Bouchier.
Verses 1, 2. The scene presented in this place to the eye of faith is
deeply affecting. Here is the Messiah pouring out his heart in prayer in
the day of his trouble; his spouse overhears his agonising groans; she is
moved with the tenderest sympathy towards him; she mingles her prayers with
his; she entreats that he may be supported and defended. . . . It may
now, perhaps, be said, he is out of the reach of trouble, he is highly
exalted, he does not want our sympathies or our prayers. True; yet still we
may pray for him—see Matthew 25:40—"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto
one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." We can
pray for him in his members. And thus is fulfilled what is written in Psalm
72:15, "And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba;
prayer also shall be made for him continually (that is, in his suffering
members); and daily shall he be praised" (that is, in his own admirable
person).— Hamilton Verschoyle, 1843.
Verses 1-5. These are the words of the people, which they spake unto
God in the behalf of their king; and so they did as David desired them,
namely, pray for him. If they did thus pray for him, being desired
thereunto, and it was their bound duty so to do, and they knew it to be so,