"These six things doth the Lord hate; yea, seven are an abomination
unto him; a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent
blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift
to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth
discord among brethren." William Greenhill.
Verse 5 ( last clause ). Those whom the Lord hates must
perish. But he hates impenitent sinners, "Thou hatest all workers
of iniquity." Now, who are so properly workers of iniquity as
those who are so eager at it that they will not leave this work,
though they be in danger to perish for it? Christ puts it out of
doubt. The workers of iniquity must perish. Luke 13:27. Those whom
the Lord will tear in his wrath must perish with a witness; but those
whom he hates, he tears, &c. Job 16:8. What more due to such
impenitent sinners than hatred? What more proper than wrath, since
they treasure up wrath? Romans 2:5. Will he entertain those in the
bosom of love whom his soul hates? No; destruction is their portion.
Proverbs 21:15. If all the curses of the law, all the threatenings of
the gospel, all judgments in earth or in hell, will be the ruin of
him, he must perish. If the Lord's arm be strong enough to wound him
dead, he must die. Psalm 68:21. . . . . . . Avoid all that Christ
hates. If you love, approve, entertain that which is hateful to
Christ, how can he love you? What is that which Christ hates? The
psalmist (Psalm 45:7) tells us, making it one of Christ's attributes,
to hate wickedness. . . . . As Christ hates iniquity, so the
"workers of iniquity." You must not love them, so as to be
intimate with them, delight in the company of evil doers, openly
profane, scorners of godliness, obstructors of the power of it. 2
Corinthians 6:14-18. If you love so near relations to wicked men,
Christ will have no relation to you. If you would have communion with
Christ in sweet acts of love, you must have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness, nor those that act them. David
Clarkson, B.D., 1621-1686.
Verse 6. "Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing,"
whether in jest or earnest. Those that lie in jest will (without
repentance) go to hell in earnest. John Trapp.
Verse 6. "Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing,"
etc. In the same field where Absalom raised battle against his
father, stood the oak that was his gibbet. The mule whereon he rode
was his hangman, for the mule carried him to the tree, and the hair
wherein he gloried served for a rope to hang. Little know the wicked
how everything which now they have shall be a snare to trap them when
God begins to punish them. William Cowper, 1612.
Verse 7. "In thy fear will I worship." As natural fear
makes the spirits retire from the outward parts of the body to the
heart, so a holy fear of miscarrying in so solemn a duty would be a
means to call thy thoughts from all exterior carnal objects, and fix
them upon the duty in hand. As the sculpture is on the seal, so will
the print on the wax be; if the fear of God be deeply engraven on thy
heart, there is no doubt but it will make a suitable impression on
the duty thou performest. William Gurnall.
Verse 7. David saith, "In thy fear will I worship toward
thy holy temple." The temple did shadow forth the body of our
Lord Christ, the Mediator, in whom only our prayers and service are
accepted with the Father which Solomon respected in looking towards
the temple. Thomas Manton, D.D., 1620-1677.
Verse 7. "But as for me," etc. A blessed verse this! a
blessed saying! The words and the sense itself, carry with them a
powerful contrast. For there are two things with which this life is
exercised, HOPE and FEAR, which are, as it were, those two springs of
Judges 1:15, the one from above, the other from beneath. Fear
comes from beholding the threats and fearful judgments of God; as
being a God in whose sight no one is clean, every one is a sinner,
every one is damnable. But hope comes from beholding the
promises, and the all-sweet mercies of God; as it is written (Psalm
25:6), "Remember, O Lord, thy loving kindnesses, and thy tender
mercies which have been ever of old." Between these two, as between
the upper and nether millstone, we must always be ground and kept,
that we may never turn either to the right hand or to the left. For
this turning is the state peculiar to hypocrites, who are exercised
with the two contrary things, security and presumption. Martin
Luther.
Verse 9. If the whole soul be infected with such a desperate
disease, what a great and difficult work it is to regenerate, to
restore men again to spiritual life and vigour, when every part of
them is seized by such a mortal distemper! How great a cure doth the
Spirit of God effect in restoring a soul by sanctifying it! To heal
but the lungs or the liver, if corrupted, is counted a great cure,
though performed but upon one part of thee; but all thy inward parts
are very rottenness. "For there is no faithfulness in their mouth;
their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open
sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue." How great a cure is
it then to heal thee! Such as is only in the skill and power of God
to do. Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 9. "Their throat is an open sepulchre." This
figure graphically portrays the filthy conversation of the wicked.
Nothing can be more abominable to the senses than an open sepulchre,
when a dead body beginning to putrefy steams forth its tainted
exhalations. What proceeds out of their mouth is infected and putrid;
and, as the exhalation from a sepulchre proves the corruption within,
so it is with the corrupt conversation of sinners. Robert
Haldane's "Expositions of the Epistle to the Romans," 1835.
Verse 9. "Their throat is an open sepulchre." This doth
admonish us, (1) that the speeches of natural unregenerate men are
unsavory, rotten, and hurtful to others; for, as a sepulchre doth
send out noisome savours and filthy smells, so evil men do utter
rotten and filthy words. (2) As a sepulchre doth consume and devour
bodies cast into it, so wicked men do with their cruel words destroy
others; they are like a gulf to destroy others. (3) As a sepulchre,
having devoured many corpses, is still ready to consume more, being
never satisfied, so wicked men, having overthrown many with their
words, do proceed in their outrage, seeking whom they may devour.
Thomas Wilson, 1653.
Verse 9. "Their inward part," etc. Their hearts are
storehouses for the devil. John Trapp.
Verse 10. All those portions where we find apparently prayers
that breathe revenge, are never to be thought of as anything else
than the breathed assent of righteous souls to the justice of
their God, who taketh vengeance on sin. When taken as the words of
Christ himself, they are no other than an echo of the Intercessor's
acquiescence at last in the sentence on the barren fig-tree. It is as
if he cried aloud, "Hew it down now, I will intercede no longer, the
doom is righteous, destroy them, O God; cast them out in (or,
for) the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled
against thee." And in the same moment he may be supposed to
invite his saints to sympathise in his decision; just as in
Revelation 18:20, "Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy
apostles and prophets." In like manner when one of Christ's members,
in entire sympathy with his Head, views the barren fig-tree from the
same point of observation, and sees the glory of God concerned in
inflicting the blow, he too can cry, "Let the axe smite!" Had Abraham
stood beside the angel who destroyed Sodom, and seen how Jehovah's
name required the ruin of these impenitent rebels, he would have
cried out, "Let the shower descend; let the fire and brimstone come
down!" not in any spirit of revenge; not from want of tender love to
souls, but from intense earnestness of concern for the glory of his
God. We consider this explanation to be the real key that opens all
the difficult passages in this book, where curses seem to be called
for on the head of the ungodly. They are no more than a carrying out
of Deuteronomy 27:15-26, "Let all the people say, Amen," and an
entering into the Lord's holy abhorrence of sin, and delight in acts
of justice expressed in the "Amen, hallelujah," of Revelation 19:3.
Andrew A. Bonar, 1859.
Verse 10. ( Or imprecatory passages generally. ) Lord,
when in my daily service I read David's Psalms, give me to alter the
accent of my soul according to their several subjects. In such Psalms
wherein he confesseth his sins, or requesteth thy pardon, or praiseth
for former, or prayeth for future favours, in all these give me to
raise my soul to as high a pitch as may be. But when I come to such
Psalms wherein he curseth his enemies, O there let me bring my soul
down to a lower note. For those words were made only to fit David's
mouth. I have the like breath, but not the same spirit to pronounce
them. Nor let me flatter myself, that it is lawful for me, with
David, to curse thine enemies, lest my deceitful heart entitle mine
enemies to be thine, and so what was religion in David, prove malice
in me, whilst I act revenge under the pretense of piety. Thomas
Fuller, D.D., 1608-1661.
Verse 12. When the strong man armed comes against us, when he
darts his fiery darts, what can hurt us, if God compass us about with
his lovingkindness as with a shield? He can disarm the tempter
and restrain his malice, and tread him under our feet. If God be not
with us, if he do not give us sufficient grace, so subtle, so
powerful, so politic an enemy, will be too hard for us. How surely
are we foiled, and get the worse, when we pretend to grapple with him
in our own strength! How many falls, and how many bruises by those
falls have we got, by relying too much on our own skill? How often
have we had the help of God when we have humbly asked it! And how
sure are we to get the victory, if Christ pray for us that we do
not fail! Luke 22:31. Where can we go for shelter but unto God
our Maker! When this lion of the forest does begin to roar, how will
he terrify and vex us, till he that permits him for awhile to trouble
us, be pleased to chain him up again! Timothy Rogers, 1691.
Verse 12. "As with a shield." Luther, when making his
way into the presence of Cardinal Cajetan, who had summoned him to
answer for his heretical opinions at Augsburg, was asked by one of
the Cardinal's minions, where he should find a shelter, if his
patron, the Elector of Saxony, should desert him? "Under the shield
of heaven!" was the reply. The silenced minion turned round, and went
his way.
Verse 12. "With favour wilt thou compass him as with a
shield." The shield is not for the defence of any particular part
of the body, as almost all the other pieces are: helmet, fitted for
the head; plate, designed for the breast; and so others, they have
their several parts, which they are fastened to; but the shield is a
piece that is intended for the defence of the whole body. It was used
therefore to be made very large; for its broadness, called a gate or
door, because so long and large, as in a manner to cover the whole
body. And if the shield were not large enough at once to cover every
part, yet being a movable piece of armour, the skilful soldier might
turn it this way or that way, to catch the blow or arrow from
lighting on any part they were directed to. And this indeed doth