instrumental music, pause; i.e., let the instruments strike up
a symphony, and let the singer pause. By Tholuck and Hengstenberg,
however, the two words are rendered meditation, pause; i.e.,
let the singer meditate while the music stops. Benjamin Davies,
Ph.D.,L.L.D., article Psalms, in Kitto's Cyclopaedia of Biblical
Literature.
Verse 3. "Lifter up of my head." God will have the body
partake with the soul—as in matters of grief, so in matters of joy;
the lanthorn shines in the light of the candle within. Richard
Sibbs, 1639.
There is a lifting up of the head by
elevating to office, as with Pharaoh's butler; this we trace to the
divine appointment. There is a lifting up in honour after shame, in
health after sickness, in gladness after sorrow, in restoration after
a fall, in victory after a temporary defeat; in all these respects
the Lord is the lifter up of our head. C. H. S.
Verse 4. When prayer leads the van, in due time deliverance
brings up the rear. Thomas Watson.
Verse 4. "He heard me." I have often heard persons say
in prayer, "Thou art a prayer-hearing and a prayer-answering God,"
but the expression contains a superfluity, since for God to hear is,
according to Scripture, the same thing as to answer. C. H.
S.
Verse 5. "I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord
sustained me." The title of the Psalm tells us when David had
this sweet night's rest; not when he lay on his bed of down in his
stately palace at Jerusalem, but when he fled for his life from his
unnatural son Absalom, and possibly was forced to lie in the open
field under the canopy of heaven. Truly it must be a soft pillow
indeed that could make him forget his danger, who then had such a
disloyal army at his back hunting of him; yea, so transcendent is the
influence of this peace, that it can make the creature lie down as
cheerfully to sleep in the grave, as on the softest bed. You will say
that child is willing that calls to be put to bed; some of the saints
have desired God to lay them at rest in their beds of dust, and that
not in a pet and discontent with their present trouble, as Job did,
but from a sweet sense of this peace in their bosoms. "Now let thy
servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation," was
the swan-like song of old Simeon. He speaks like a merchant that had
got all his goods on ship-board, and now desires the master of the
ship to hoist sail, and be gone homewards. Indeed, what should a
Christian, that is but a foreigner here, desire to stay any longer
for in the world, but to get his full lading in for heaven? And when
hath he that, if not when he is assured of his peace with God? This
peace of the gospel, and sense of the love of God in the soul, doth
so admirably conduce to the enabling of a person in all difficulties,
and temptations, and troubles, that ordinarily, before he calls his
saints to any hard service, or hot work, he gives them a draught of
this cordial wine next their hearts, to cheer them up and embolden
them in the conflict. William Gurnall.
Verse 5. Gurnall, who wrote when there were houses on old
London Bridge, has quaintly said, "Do you not think that they sleep
as soundly who dwell on London Bridge as they who live at Whitehall
or Cheapside? for they know that the waves which rush under them
cannot hurt them. Even so may the saints rest quietly over the floods
of trouble or death, and fear no ill."
Verse 5. Xerxes, the Persian, when he destroyed all the
temples in Greece, caused the temple of Diana to be preserved for its
beautiful structure: that soul which hath the beauty of holiness
shining in it, shall be preserved for the glory of the structure; God
will not suffer his own temple to be destroyed. Would you be secured
in evil times? Get grace and fortify this garrison; a good conscience
is a Christian's fort-royal. David's enemies lay round about him;
yet, saith he, "I laid me down and slept". A good conscience
can sleep in the mouth of a cannon; grace is a Christian's coat of
mail, which fears not the arrow or bullet. True grace may be shot at,
but can never be shot through; grace puts the soul into Christ, and
there it is safe, as the bee in the hive, as the dove in the ark.
"There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus," Romans
8:1. Thomas Watson.
Verse 5. "The Lord sustained me." It would not be
unprofitable to consider the sustaining power manifested in us while
we lie asleep. In the flowing of the blood, heaving of the lung,
etc., in the body, and the continuance of mental faculties while the
image of death is upon us. C. H. S.
Verse 6. "I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people,
that have set themselves against me round about." The psalmist
will trust, despite appearances. He will not be afraid though
ten thousands of people have set themselves against him round about.
Let us here limit our thoughts to this one idea, "despite
appearances." What could look worse to human sight than this array of
ten thousands of people? Ruin seemed to stare him in the face;
wherever he looked an enemy was to be seen. What was one against ten
thousand? It often happens that God's people come into circumstances
like this; they say, "All these things are against me;" they seem
scarce able to count their troubles; they cannot see a loophole
through which to escape; things look very black indeed; it is great
faith and trust which says under these circumstances, "I will not be
afraid."
These were the circumstances under which
Luther was placed, as he journeyed toward Worms. His friend Spalatin
heard it said, by the enemies of the Reformation, that the safe
conduct of a heretic ought not to be respected, and became alarmed
for the reformer. "At the moment when the latter was approaching the
city, a messenger appeared before him with this advice from the
chaplain, 'Do not enter Worms!' And this from his best friend, the
elector's confidant, from Spalatin himself! . . . . . But Luther,
undismayed, turned his eyes upon the messenger, and replied, 'Go, and
tell your master, that even should there be as many devils in Worms
as tiles upon the housetops, still I would enter it.' The messenger
returned to Worms, with this astounding answer: 'I was then
undaunted,' said Luther, a few days before his death, 'I feared
nothing.'"
At such seasons as these, the reasonable
men of the world, those who walk by sight and not by faith, will
think it reasonable enough that the Christian should be afraid; they
themselves would be very low if they were in such a predicament. Weak
believers are now ready to make excuses for us, and we are only too
ready to make them for ourselves; instead of rising above the
weakness of the flesh, we take refuge under it, and use it as an
excuse. But let us think prayerfully for a little while, and we shall
see that it should not be thus with us. To trust only when
appearances are favourable, is to sail only with the wind and tide,
to believe only when we can see. Oh! let us follow the example of the
psalmist, and seek that unreservedness of faith which will enable us
to trust God, come what will, and to say as he said, "I will not
be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves
against me round about." Philip Bennet Power's 'I wills' of
the Psalms, 1862.
Verse 6. "I will not be afraid," etc. It makes no
matter what our enemies be, though for number, legions; for power,
principalities; for subtlety, serpents; for cruelty, dragons; for
vantage of place, a prince of the air; for maliciousness, spiritual
wickedness; stronger is he that is in us, than they who are against
us; nothing is able to separate us from the love of God. In Christ
Jesus our Lord, we shall be more than conquerors. William
Cowper, 1612.
Verse 7. "Arise, O Lord," Jehovah! This is a common
scriptural mode of calling upon God to manifest his presence and his
power, either in wrath or favour. By a natural anthropomorphism, it
describes the intervals of such manifestations as periods of inaction
or of slumber, out of which he is besought to rouse himself. "Save
me," even me, of whom they say there is no help for him in God.
"Save me, O my God," mine by covenant and mutual engagement,
to whom I therefore have a right to look for deliverance and
protection. This confidence is warranted, moreover, by experience.
"For thou hast," in former exigencies, "smitten all mine
enemies," without exception "(on the) cheek" or
jaw , an act at once violent and insulting. J. A. Alexander,
D.D.
Verse 7. "Upon the cheek bone." —The language seems to
be taken from a comparison of his enemies with wild beasts. The cheek
bone denotes the bone in which the teeth are placed, and to break
that is to disarm the animal. Albert Barnes, in loc.
Verse 7. When God takes vengeance upon the ungodly, he will
smite in such a manner as to make them feel his almightiness in every
stroke. All his power shall be exercised in punishing and none in
pitying. O that every obstinate sinner would think of this, and
consider his unmeasurable boldness in thinking himself able to
grapple with Omnipotence! Stephen Charnock.
Verse 8. "Salvation belongeth unto the Lord:" parallel
passage in Jonah 2:9, "Salvation is of the Lord." The mariners
might have written upon their ship, instead of Castor and Pollux, or
the like device, Salvation is the Lord's; the Ninevites might
have written upon their gates, Salvation is the Lord's; and
whole mankind, whose cause is pitted and pleaded by God against the
hardness of Jonah's heart, in the last, might have written on the
palms of their hands, Salvation is the Lord's . It is the
argument of both the Testaments, the staff and supportation of heaven
and earth. They would both sink, and all their joints be severed, if
the salvation of the Lord's were not. The birds in the air sing no
other notes, the beasts in the field give no other voice, than
Salus Jehovæ , Salvation is the Lord's. The walls and
fortresses to our country's gates, to our cities and towns, bars to
our houses, a surer cover to our heads than a helmet of steel, a
better receipt to our bodies than the confection of apothecaries, a
better receipt to our souls than the pardons of Rome, is Salus
Jehovæ , the salvation of the Lord. The salvation of the
Lord blesseth, preserveth, upholdeth all that we have; our basket
and our store, the oil in our cruses, our presses, the sheep in our
folds, our stalls, the children in the womb, at our tables, the corn
in our fields, our stores, our garners; it is not the virtue of the
stars, nor nature of all things themselves, that giveth being and
continuance to any of these blessings. And, "What shall I more say?"
as the apostle asked (Hebrews 9) when he had spoken much, and there
was much more behind, but time failed him. Rather, what should I not
say? for the world is my theatre at this time, and I neither think
nor can feign to myself anything that hath not dependence upon this
acclamation, Salvation is the Lord's. Plutarch writeth, that
the Amphictions in Greece, a famous council assembled of twelve