when the joy of our Lord shall be shed abroad on all the saints, and the
countenance of Jehovah shall shine upon all the blood-bought. So shall we
"enter into the joy of our Lord."
So far all has been "the shout of them that triumph, the song of them
that feast." Let us shout and sing with them, for Jesus is our King, and in
his triumphs we share a part.
Verse 7. "For the king trusteth in the Lord." Our Lord, like a true King
and leader, was a master in the use of the weapons, and could handle well
the shield of faith, for he has set us a brilliant example of unwavering
confidence in God. He felt himself safe in his Father's care until his hour
was come, he knew that he was always heard in heaven; he committed his cause
to him that judgeth right, and in his last moments he committed his spirit
into the same hands. The joy expressed in the former verses was the joy of
faith, and the victory achieved was due to the same precious grace. A holy
confidence in Jehovah is the true mother of victories. This psalm of
triumph was composed long before our Lord's conflict began, but faith
overleaps the boundaries of time, and chants her "Io triumphe," while yet
she sings her battle song.
"Through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved." Eternal
mercy secures the mediatorial throne of Jesus. He who is Most High in every
sense, engages all his infinite perfections to maintain the throne of grace
upon which our King in Zion reigns. He was not moved from his purpose,
nor in his sufferings, nor by his enemies, nor shall he be moved from
the completion of his designs. He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for
ever. Other empires are dissolved by the lapse of years, but eternal mercy
maintains his growing dominion evermore; other kings fail because they rest
upon an arm of flesh, but our monarch reigns on in splendour because he
trusteth in Jehovah. It is a great display of divine mercy to men that the
throne of King Jesus is still among them: nothing but divine mercy could
sustain it, for human malice would overturn it to-morrow if it could. We
ought to trust in God for the promotion of the Redeemer's kingdom, for in
Jehovah the King himself trusts: all unbelieving methods of action, and
especially all reliance upon mere human ability, should be for ever
discarded from a kingdom where the monarch sets the examples of walking by
faith in God.
Verse 8. "Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand
shall find out those that hate thee." The destruction of the wicked is a
fitting subject for joy to the friends of righteousness; hence here, and in
most scriptural songs, it is noted with calm thanksgiving. "Thou hast put
down the mighty from their seats," is a note of the same song which sings,
"and hast exalted them of low degree." We pity the lost for they are men,
but we cannot pity them as enemies of Christ. None can escape from the
wrath of the victorious King, nor is it desirable that they should. Without
looking for his flying foes he will find them with his hand, for his
presence is about and around them. In vain shall any hope for escape, he
will find out all, and be able to punish all, and that too with the ease and
rapidity which belong to the warrior's right hand. The finding out relates,
we think, not only to the discovery of the hiding places of the haters of
God, but to the touching of them in their tenderest parts, so as to cause
the severest suffering. When he appears to judge the world hard hearts will
be subdued into terror, and proud spirits humbled into shame. He who has
the key of human nature can touch all its springs at his will, and find out
the means of bringing the utmost confusion and terror upon those who
aforetime boastfully expressed their hatred of him.
Verse 9. "Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine
anger." They themselves shall be an oven to themselves, and so their own
tormentors. Those who burned with anger against thee shall be burned by
thine anger. The fire of sin will be followed by the fire of wrath. Even
as the smoke of Sodom and Gomorrah went up to heaven, so shall the enemies
of the Lord Jesus be utterly and terribly consumed. Some read it, "thou
shalt put them as it were into a furnace of fire." Like faggots cast into
an oven they shall burn furiously beneath the anger of the Lord; "they shall
be cast into a furnace of fire, there shall be weeping and gnashing of
teeth." These are terrible words, and those teachers do not well who
endeavour by their sophistical reasonings to weaken their force. Reader,
never tolerate slight thoughts of hell, or you will soon have low thoughts
of sin. The hell of sinners must be fearful beyond all conception, or such
language as the present would not be used. Who would have the Son of God to
be his enemy when such an overthrow awaits his foes? The expression, "the
time of thine anger," reminds us that as now is the time of his grace, so
there will be a set time for his wrath. The judge goes upon assize at an
appointed time. There is a day of vengeance of our God; let those who
despise the day of grace remember this day of wrath.
"The Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour
them." Jehovah will himself visit with his anger the enemies of his Son.
The Lord Jesus will, as it were, judge by commission from God, whose solemn
assent and co-operation shall be with him in his sentences upon impenitent
sinners. An utter destruction of soul and body, so that both shall be
swallowed up with misery, and be devoured with anguish, is here intended.
Oh, the wrath to come! The wrath to come! Who can endure it? Lord, save
us from it, for Jesu's sake.
Verse 10. "Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth." Their life's
work shall be a failure, and the result of their toil shall be
disappointment. That in which they prided themselves shall be forgotten;
their very names shall be wiped out as abominable, "and their seed from
among the children of men." Their posterity following in their footsteps
shall meet with a similar overthrow, till at last the race shall come to an
end. Doubtless the blessing of God is often handed down by the righteous to
their sons, as almost a heirloom in the family, while the dying sinner
bequeaths a curse to his descendants. If men will hate the Son of God, they
must not wonder if their own sons meet with no favour.
Verse 11. "For they intended evil against thee." God takes notice of
intentions. He who would but could not is as guilty as he who did.
Christ's church and cause are not only attacked by those who do not
understand it, but there are many who have the light and yet hate it.
Intentional evil has a virus in it which is not found in sins of ignorance;
now as ungodly men with malice aforethought attack the gospel of Christ,
their crime is great, and their punishment will be proportionate. The words
"against thee" show us that he who intends evil against the poorest
believer means ill to the King himself: let persecutors beware.
"They imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to
perform." Want of power is the clog on the foot of the haters of the Lord
Jesus. They have the wickedness to imagine, and the cunning to devise,
and the malice to plot mischief, but blessed be God, they fail in ability;
yet they shall be judged as to their hearts, and the will shall be taken for
the deed in the great day of account. When we read the boastful
threatenings of the enemies of the gospel at the present day, we may close
our reading by cheerfully repeating, "which they are not able to perform."
The serpent may hiss, but his head is broken; the lion may worry, but he
cannot devour: the tempest may thunder, but cannot strike. Old Giant Pope
bites his nails at the pilgrims, but he cannot pick their bones as
aforetime. Growling forth a hideous "non possumus," the devil and all his
allies retire in dismay from the walls of Zion, for the Lord is there.
Verse 12. "Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt
make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them." For a
time the foes of God may make bold advances, and threaten to overthrow
everything, but a few ticks of the clock will alter the face of their
affairs. At first they advance impudently enough, but Jehovah meets them to
their teeth, and a taste of the sharp judgment of God speedily makes them
flee in dismay. The original has in it the thought of the wicked being set
as a butt for God to shoot at, a target for his wrath to aim at. What a
dreadful situation! As an illustration upon a large scale, remember
Jerusalem during the siege; and for a specimen in an individual, read the
story of the death-bed of Francis Spira. God takes sure aim; who would be
his target? His arrows are sharp and transfix the heart; who would wish to
be wounded by them? Ah, ye enemies of God, your boastings will soon be over
when once the shafts begin to fly!
Verse 13. "Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength." A sweet
concluding verse. Our hearts shall join in it. It is always right to
praise the Lord when we call to remembrance his goodness to his Son, and the
overthrow of his foes. The exaltation of the name of God should be the
business of every Christian; but since such poor things as we fail to honour
him as he deserves, we may invoke his own power to aid us. Be high, O God,
but do thou maintain thy loftiness by thine own almightiness, for no other
power can worthily do it.
"So will we sing and praise thy power." For a time the saints may
mourn, but the glorious appearance of their divine Helper awakens their joy.
Joy should always flow in the channel of praise. All the attributes of God
are fitting subjects to be celebrated by the music of our hearts and voices,
and when we observe a display of his power, we must extol it. He wrought
our deliverance alone, and he alone shall have the praise.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Whole Psalm. The last Psalm was a litany before the king went forth to
battle. This is apparently a Te Deum on his return.— J. J. Stewart Perowne, B.D., in the "Book of Psalms: a New Translation,
with Introduction and Notes," 1864.
Whole Psalm. The prayer which the church offers up at the conclusion of
the preceding Psalm now issues in a hymn of praise, the result of a
believing view of the glory which is to follow, when Messiah's sufferings
are ended. This is one of the beautiful songs of which we find many in
Scripture, prepared by the Holy Spirit to awaken and enliven the hopes and
expectations of the church while she waits for the Lord, and to give
utterance to her joy at the time of his arrival. The theme is Messiah's
exaltation and glory, and the time chosen for its delivery is just the
moment when darkness covered the earth, and all nature seemed about to die
with its expiring Lord. Scripture deals largely in contrasts. It seems to
be suitable to the human mind to turn from one extreme to another. Man can
endure any change, however violent and contradictory, but a long
continuance, a sameness either of joy or sorrow, has a debilitating and
depressing effect.— R. H. Ryland.
Whole Psalm. "After this I looked. . . . and behold a throne was set in
heaven, and one sat on the throne." Revelation 4:1, 2. Such may be
considered as the description of this Psalm, after the foregoing prayer.
"He who in the preceding Psalm," says St. Jerome, "was prayed for as having
taken the form of a servant, in this is King of kings, and Lord of lords."— Isaac Williams.
Whole Psalm. I am persuaded that there is not one who consents to the
application of the preceding Psalm to Christ in his trouble, who will fail
to recognise in this, Christ in his triumph. There he was in the dark
valley—the valley of Achor; now he is on the mount of Zion; there he was
enduring sorrow and travail; now he remembers no more the anguish, for joy
that a spiritual seed is born into the world; there he was beset with deadly
enemies, who encompassed him on every side; but here he has entered upon
that which is written in Psalm 78:65, 66, "Then the Lord awaked as one out
of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine. And he
smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach."— Hamilton Verschoyle.
Whole Psalm. As you have already observed in the heading of this Psalm,
it is said to have been composed by David. He wrote of himself in the third
person, and as "the king." He penned the Psalm, not so much for his own
use, as for his people's. It is, in fact, a national anthem, celebrating
the majesty and glory of David, but ascribing both to God—expressing
confidence in David's future, but building that confidence upon God alone.— Samuel Martin, in "Westminster Chapel Pulpit," 1860.