ready to drink in any fine delusion which impostors may invent; and
when these fail, they soon yield to despair, and declare that there
is no good thing in either heaven or earth. The true believer is a
man of a very different mould. His face is not downward like the
beasts', but upward like the angels'. He drinks not from the muddy
pools of Mammon, but from the fountain of life above. The light of
God's countenance is enough for him. This is his riches, his honour,
his health, his ambition, his ease. Give him this, and he will ask no
more. This is joy unspeakable, and full of glory. Oh, for more of the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit, that our fellowship with the Father
and with his Son Jesus Christ may be constant and abiding!
Verse 7. "It is better," said one, "to feel God's favour one hour in
our repenting souls, that to sit whole ages under the warmest
sunshine that this world affordeth." Christ in the heart is better
than corn in the barn, or wine in the vat. Corn and wine are but
fruits of the world, but the light of God's countenance is the ripe
fruit of heaven. "Thou art with me," is a far more blessed cry than
"Harvest home." Let my granary be empty, I am yet full of blessings
if Jesus Christ smiles upon me; but if I have all the world, I am
poor without him.
We should not fail to remark that this
verse is the saying of the righteous man, in opposition to the
saying of the many. How quickly doth the tongue betray the character!
" Speak, that I may see thee!" said Socrates to a fair boy. The
metal of a bell is best known by its sound. Birds reveal their nature
by their song. Owls cannot sing the carol of the lark, nor can the
nightingale hoot like the owl. Let us, then, weigh and watch our
words, lest our speech should prove us to be foreigners, and aliens
from the commonwealth of Israel.
Verse 8. Sweet Evening Hymn! I shall not sit up to watch through
fear, but I will lie down; and then I will not lie awake
listening to every rustling sound, but I will lie down in peace
and sleep , for I have nought to fear. He that hath the wings of
God above him needs no other curtain. Better than bolts or bars is
the protection of the Lord. Armed men kept the bed of Solomon, but we
do not believe that he slept more soundly than his father, whose bed
was the hard ground, and who was haunted by blood-thirsty foes. Note
the word "only" , which means that God alone was his keeper,
and that though alone, without man's help, he was even then in good
keeping, for he was "alone with God." A quiet conscience is a good
bedfellow. How many of our sleepless hours might be traced to our
untrusting and disordered minds. They slumber sweetly whom faith
rocks to sleep. No pillow so soft as a promise; no coverlet so warm
as an assured interest in Christ.
O Lord, give us this calm repose on thee,
that like David we may lie down in peace, and sleep each night while
we live; and joyfully may we lie down in the appointed season, to
sleep in death, to rest in God!
Dr. Hawker's reflection upon this Psalm
is worthy to be prayed over and fed upon with sacred delight. We
cannot help transcribing it.
"Reader! let us never lose sight of the
Lord Jesus while reading this Psalm. He is the Lord our
righteousness; and therefore, in all our approaches to the mercy
seat, let us go there in a language corresponding to this which calls
Jesus the Lord our righteousness. While men of the world, from the
world are seeking their chief good, let us desire his favour which
infinitely transcends corn and wine, and all the good things which
perish in the using. Yes, Lord, thy favour is better than life
itself . Thou causest them that love thee to inherit substance,
and fillest all their treasure.
"Oh! thou gracious God and Father, hast
thou in such a wonderful manner set apart one in our nature for
thyself? Hast thou indeed chosen one out of the people? Hast thou
beheld him in the purity of his nature,—as one in every point Godly?
Hast thou given him as the covenant of the people? And hast thou
declared thyself well pleased in him? Oh! then, well may my soul be
well pleased in him also. Now do I know that my God and Father will
hear me when I call upon him in Jesus' name, and when I look up to
him for acceptance for Jesus' sake! Yes, my heart is fixed, O Lord,
my heart is fixed; Jesus is my hope and righteousness; the Lord will
hear me when I call. And henceforth will I both lay me down in peace
and sleep securely in Jesus, accepted in the Beloved; for this is
the rest wherewith the Lord causeth the weary to rest, and this is
the refreshing."
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Verse 1. "Hear me when I call," etc. Faith is a good
orator and a noble disputer in a strait; it can reason from God's
readiness to hear: "Hear me when I call, O God." And from the
everlasting righteousness given to the man in the justification of
his person: "O God of my righteousness." And from God's
constant justice in defending the righteousness of his servant's
cause: "O God of my righteousness." And from both present
distresses and those that are by-past, wherein he hath been, and from
by-gone mercies received: "Thou hast enlarged me when I was in
distress." And from God's grace, which is able to answer all
objections from the man's unworthiness or ill-deserving: "Have
mercy upon me, and hear my prayer." David Dickson,
1653.
Verse 1. "Hear me." The great Author of nature and of
all things does nothing in vain. He instituted not this law, and, if
I may so express it, art of praying, as a vain and insufficient
thing, but endows it with wonderful efficacy for producing the
greatest and happiest consequences. He would have it to be the key by
which all the treasures of heaven should be opened. He has
constructed it as a powerful machine, by which we may, with easy and
pleasant labour, remove from us the most dire and unhappy
machinations of our enemy, and may with equal ease draw to ourselves
what is most propitious and advantageous. Heaven and earth, and all
the elements, obey and minister to the hands which are often lifted
up to heaven in earnest prayer. Yea, all works, and, which is yet
more and greater, all the words of God obey it. Well known in the
sacred Scriptures are the examples of Moses and Joshua, and that
which James (5:17) particularly mentions of Elijah, whom he expressly
calls æotoäns, a man subject to like infirmities with
ourselves, that he might illustrate the admirable force of prayer, by
the common and human weakness of the person by whom it was offered.
And that Christian legion under Antonius is well known and justly
celebrated, which for the singular ardour and efficacy of its
prayers, obtained the name of keraunoboloz, the thundering
legion. Robert Leighton, D.D., Archbishop of Glasgow, 1611
- 1684.
Verse 2. "O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory
into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing?
Selah." Prayer soars above the violence and impiety of men, and
with a swift wing commits itself to heaven, with happy omen, if I may
allude to what the learned tell us of the augury of the ancients,
which I shall not minutely discuss. Fervent prayers stretch forth a
strong, wide-extended wing, and while the birds of night hover
beneath, they mount aloft, and point out, as it were, the proper
seats to which we should aspire. For certainly there is nothing that
cuts the air so swiftly, nothing that takes so sublime, so happy, so
auspicious a flight as prayer, which bears the soul on its pinions,
and leaves far behind all the dangers, and even the delights of this
low world of ours. Behold this holy man, who just before was crying
to God in the midst of distress, and with urgent importunity
entreating that he might be heard, now, as if he were already
possessed of all he had asked, taking upon him boldly to rebuke his
enemies, how highly soever they were exalted, and how potent soever
they might be even in the royal palace. Robert Leighton,
D.D.
Verse 2. "O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory
into shame?" etc. We might imagine every syllable of this
precious Psalm used by our Master some evening, when about to leave
the temple for the day, and retiring to his wonted rest at Bethany
(v. 8), after another fruitless expostulation with the men of Israel.
And we may read it still as the very utterance of his heart, longing
over man, and delighting in God. But, further, not only is this the
utterance of the Head, it is also the language of one of his members
in full sympathy with him in holy feeling. This is a Psalm with which
the righteous may make their dwellings resound, morning and evening,
as they cast a sad look over a world that rejects God's grace. They
may sing it while they cling more and more every day to Jehovah, as
their all-sufficient heritage, now and in the age to come. They may
sing it, too, in the happy confidence of faith and hope, when the
evening of the world's day is coming, and may then fall asleep in the
certainty of what shall greet their eyes on the resurrection
morning—
"Sleeping embosomed in his grace,
Till morning-shadows flee.
Andrew A. Bonar , 1859
Verse 2. "Love vanity." They that love sin, love
vanity ; they chase a bubble, they lean upon a reed, their hope
is as a spider's web.
"Leasing." This is an old Saxon
word signifying falsehood.
Verse 2. "How long will ye love vanity, and seek after
leasing?" "Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity." This our first
parents found, and therefore named their second son Abel, or vanity.
Solomon, that had tried these things, and could best tell the vanity
of them, he preacheth this sermon over again and again. "Vanity of
vanities, and all is vanity." It is sad to think how many thousands
there be that can say with the preacher, "Vanity of vanities, all is
vanity;" nay, swear it, and yet follow after these things as if there
were no other glory, nor felicity, but what is to be found in these
things they call vanity. Such men will sell Christ, heaven, and their
souls, for a trifle, that call these things vanity, but do not
cordially believe them to be vanity, but set their hearts upon them
as if they were their crown, the top of all their royalty and glory.
Oh! let your souls dwell upon the vanity of all things here below,
till your hearts so thoroughly convinced and persuaded of the vanity
of them, as to trample upon them, and make them a footstool for
Christ to get up, and ride in a holy triumph in your hearts.
Gilemex, king of Vandals, led in triumph
by Belisarius, cried out, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." The
fancy of Lucian, who placeth Charon on the top of a high hill,
viewing all the affairs of men living, and looking on their greatest
cities as little bird's nests, is very pleasant. Oh, the
imperfection, the ingratitude, the levity, the inconstancy, the
perfidiousness of those creatures we most servilely affect! Ah, did