"Be wise." —It is always wise to be willing to be
instructed,
especially when such instruction tends to the salvation of the soul. "Be
wise now, therefore;" delay no longer, but let good reason weigh with you.
Your warfare cannot succeed, therefore desist and yield cheerfully to him
who will make you bow if you refuse his yoke. O how wise, how infinitely
wise is obedience to Jesus, and how dreadful is the folly of those who
continue to be his enemies! "Serve the Lord with fear;" let reverence and humility be
mingled with your service. He is a great God, and ye are but puny
creatures; bend ye, therefore, in lowly worship, and let a filial fear
mingle with all your obedience to the great Father of the Ages. "Rejoice
with trembling," —There must ever be a holy fear mixed with the
Christian's joy. This is a sacred compound, yielding a sweet smell, and we
must see to it that we burn no other upon the altar. Fear, without joy, is
torment; and joy, without holy fear, would be presumption. Mark the solemn argument for
reconciliation and obedience. It is
an awful thing to perish in the midst of sin, in the very way of
rebellion; and yet how easily could his wrath destroy us suddenly. It
needs not that his anger should be heated seven times hotter; let the fuel
kindle but a little , and we are consumed. O sinner! Take heed of the
terrors of the Lord; for "our God is a consuming fire." Note the
benediction with which the Psalm closes:— "Blessed are all they that put
their trust in him." Have we a share in this blessedness? Do we trust in
him? Our faith may be slender as a spider's thread; but if it be real, we
are in our measure blessed. The more we trust, the more fully shall we know
this blessedness. We may therefore close the Psalm with the prayer of the
apostles:—"Lord, increase our faith."
The first Psalm was a contrast between the righteous man and the
sinner;
the second Psalm is a contrast between the tumultuous disobedience of the
ungodly world and the sure exaltation of the righteous Son of God. In the
first Psalm, we saw the wicked driven away like chaff; in the second Psalm
we see them broken in pieces like a potter's vessel. In the first Psalm, we
beheld the righteous like a tree planted by the rivers of water; and here,
we contemplate Christ the Covenant Head of the righteous, made better than a
tree planted by the rivers of water, for he is made king of all the
islands, and all the heathen bow before him and kiss the dust; while he
himself gives a blessing to all those who put their trust in him. The two
Psalms are worthy of the very deepest attention; they are, in fact, the
preface to the entire Book of Psalms, and were by some of the ancients,
joined into one. They are, however, two Psalms; for Paul speaks of this as
the second Psalm. (Acts 13:33.) The first shows us the character and lot
of the righteous; and the next teaches us that the Psalms are Messianic, and
speak of Christ the Messiah—the Prince who shall reign from the river
even unto the ends of the earth. That they have both a far-reaching
prophetic outlook we are well assured, but we do not feel competent to open
up that matter, and must leave it to abler hands.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Verse 1. "Why do nations make a noise," tumultuate, or rage? The
Hebrew verb is not expressive of an internal feeling, but of the outward
agitation which denotes it. There may be an allusion to the rolling and
roaring of the sea, often used as an emblem of popular commotion, both in
the Scriptures and the classics. The past tense of this verb ( Why have
they raged? ) refers to the commotion as already begun, while the future in
the next clause expresses its continuance.
J. A. Alexander, D.D., 1850.
Verse 1. "Rage." The word with which Paul renders this in the Greek
denotes rage, pride, and restiveness, as of horses that neigh, and rush into
the battle. 'Efruaxag, from Fruassw, to snort or neigh, properly applied to a
high-mettled horse. See Acts 4:25.
Verse 1. "A vain thing." A medal was struck by Diocletian, which still
remains, bearing the inscription, "The name of Christians being
extinguished." And in Spain, two monumental pillars were raised, on which
were written:—I. "Diocletian Jovian Maximian Herculeus Caesares Augusti,
for having extended the Roman Empire in the east and the west, and for
having extinguished the name of Christians, who brought the Republic to
ruin." II. "Diocletian Jovian Maximian Herculeus Caesares Augusti, for
having adopted Galerius in the east, for having everywhere abolished the
superstition of Christ, for having extended the worship of the gods." As a
modern writer has elegantly observed: "We have here a monument raised by
Paganism, over the grave of its vanquished foe. But in this 'the people
imagined a vain thing;' so far from being deceased, Christianity was on the
eve of its final and permanent triumph, and the stone guarded a sepulchre
empty as the urn which Electra washed with her tears. Neither in Spain, nor
elsewhere, can be pointed out the burial place of Christianity; it is not,
for the living have no tomb.'"
Verses 1-4. Herod, the fox, plotted against Christ, to hinder the course
of his ministry and mediatorship, but he could not perform his enterprise;
'tis so all along, therefore it is said, "Why do the heathen imagine a vain
thing?" A vain thing, because a thing successless, their hands could not
perform it. It was vain, not only because there was no true ground of
reason why they should imagine or do such a thing, but vain also because
they laboured in vain, they could not do it, and therefore it follows, "He
that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in
derision." The Lord sees what fools they are, and men (yea, themselves)
shall see it. The prophet gives us a elegant description to this purpose.
Isaiah 59:5, 6. "They weave the spider's web . . . Their webs shall not
become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works." As
if he had said, they have been devising and setting things in a goodly frame
to catch flies; they have been spinning a fine thread out of their brains,
as the spider doth out of her bowels; such is their web, but when they have
their web they cannot cut it out, or make it up into a garment. They shall
go naked and cold, notwithstanding all their spinning and weaving, all their
plotting and devising. The next broom that comes will sweep away all their
webs and the spiders too, except they creep apace. God loves and delights
to cross worldly proverbs and worldly craft.
Joseph Caryl, 1647.
Verse 2. The many had done their part, and now the mighty show
themselves.
John Trapp.
Verse 2. "They banded themselves against the Lord, and against his
Anointed." But why did they band themselves against the Lord, or against
his Anointed? What was their desire of him? To have his goods? No, he had
none for himself; but they were richer than he. To have his liberty? Nay,
that would not suffice them, for they had bound him before. To bring the
people unto dislike of him? Nay, that would not serve them, for they had
done so already, until even his disciples were fled from him. What would
they have, then? his blood? Yea, "they took counsel," saith Matthew, "to
put him to death." They had the devil's mind, which is not satisfied but
with death. And how do they contrive it? He saith, "they took counsel
about it."
Henry Smith, 1578
Verse 2. "Against Jehovah and against his Anointed." What an honour it
was to David to be thus publicly associated with Jehovah! And because he
was HIS anointed, to be an object of hatred and scorn to the ungodly world!
If this very circumstance fearfully augmented the guilt, and sealed the doom
of these infatuated heathen, surely it was that which above everything else
would preserve the mind of David calm and serene, yea, peaceful and joyful
notwithstanding the proud and boastful vauntiness of his enemies. . . .When
writing this Psalm David was like a man in a storm, who hears only the
roaring of the tempest, or sees nothing but the raging billows threatening
destruction on every side of him. And yet his faith enabled him to say,
"The people imagine a vain thing." They cannot succeed. They cannot
defeat the counsels of heaven. They cannot injure the Lord's Anointed.
David Pitcairn, 1851.
Verse 3. Resolved they were to run riot, as lawless, and aweless, and
therefore they slander the sweet laws of Christ's kingdom as bonds and thick
cords, which are signs of slavery. Jeremiah 27: 2, 6, 7. But what saith
our Saviour? "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." It is no more
burden to a regenerate man than wings to a bird. The law of Christ is no
more as bands and cords, but as girdles and garters which gird up his loins
and expedite his course.
John Trapp.
Verse 4. "He that sitteth in the heavens." Hereby it is clearly
intimated, (1) that the Lord is far above all their malice and power, (2)
that he seeth all their plots, looking down on all; (3) that he is of
omnipotent power, and so can do with his enemies as he lists. "Our God is
in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he pleased." Psalm 115:3.
Arthur Jackson, 1643.
Verse 4. "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh," etc. Sinners'
follies are the just sport of God's infinite wisdom and power; and those
attempts of the kingdom of Satan, which in our eyes are formidable, in his
are despicable.
Matthew Henry.
Verse 4. "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh." They scoff at
us, God laughs at them. Laugh? This seems a hard word at the first view:
are the injuries of his saints, the cruelties of their enemies, the
derision, the persecution of all that are round about us, no more but matter
of laughter? Severe Cato thought that laughter did not become the gravity
of Roman consuls; that it is a diminution of states, as another told
princes, and it is attributed to the Majesty of heaven? According to our
capacities, the prophet describes God, as ourselves would be in a merry
disposition, deriding vain attempts. He laughs, but it is in scorn; he
scorns, but it is with vengeance. Pharaoh imagined that by drowning the
Israelite males, he had found a way to root their name from the earth; but
when at the same time, his own daughter, in his own court gave princely
education to Moses, their deliverer, did not God Laugh?
Short is the joy of the wicked. Is Dagon put up to his place
again?
God's smile shall take off his head and his hands, and leave him neither wit
to guide nor power to subsist. . . . . We may not judge of God's works
until the fifth act: the case, deplorable and desperate in outward
appearance, may with one smile from heaven find a blessed issue. He
permitted his temple to be sacked and rifled, the holy vessels to be
profaned and caroused in; but did not God's smile make Belshazzar to tremble
at the handwriting on the wall? Oh, what are his frowns, if his smiles be
so terrible!
Thomas Adams.
Verse 4. The expression, "He that sitteth in the heavens," at once
fixes our thoughts on a being infinitely exalted above man, who is of the
earth, earthy. And when it is said, "HE shall laugh ," this word is
designed to convey to our minds the idea, that the greatest confederacies
amongst kings and peoples, and their most extensive and vigorous
preparations, to defeat HIS purposes or to injure HIS servants, are in HIS
sight altogether insignificant and worthless. HE looks upon their poor and
puny efforts, not only without uneasiness or fear, but HE laughs at their
folly; HE treats their impotency with derision. He knows how HE can crush
them like a moth when HE pleases, or consume them in a moment with the
breath of HIS mouth. How profitable it is for us to be reminded of truths
such as these! Ah! it is indeed "a vain thing" for the potsherds of the