versions, conveys a strong intimation of the longsuffering of God,
whose hatred of sin is unchangeable, but whose anger against
transgressors is marked by infinite patience, and does not burst
forth in vengeance every day. John Morrison, in "An Exposition of
the Book of Psalms," 1829.
Verse 11. "God is angry." The original expression here
is very forcible. The true idea of it appears to be, to froth
or foam at the mouth with indignation. Richard Mant,
D.D., 1824.
Verses 11, 12. God hath set up his royal standard in defiance
of all the sons and daughters of apostate Adam, who from his own
mouth are proclaimed rebels and traitors to his crown and dignity;
and as against such he hath taken the field, as with fire and sword,
to be avenged on them. Yea, he gives the world sufficient testimony
of his incensed wrath, by that of it which is revealed from heaven
daily in the judgments executed upon sinners, and those many but of a
span long, before they can show what nature they have by actual sin,
yet crushed to death by God's righteous foot, only for the viperous
kind of which they come. At every door where sin sets its foot, there
the wrath of God meets us. Every faculty of soul, and member of body,
are used as a weapon of unrighteousness against God; so every one
hath its portion of wrath, even to the tip of the tongue. As man is
sinful all over, so is he cursed all over. Inside and outside, soul
and body, is written all with woes and curses, so close and full,
that there is not room for another to interline, or add to what God
hath written. William Gurnall.
Verses 11-13. The idea of God's righteousness must have
possessed great vigour to render such a representation possible.
There are some excellent remarks upon the ground of it in Luther,
who, however, too much overlooks the fact, that the psalmist presents
before his eyes this form of an angry and avenging God, primarily
with the view of strengthening by its consideration his own hope, and
pays too little regard to the distinction between the psalmist, who
only indirectly teaches what he described as part of his own inward
experience, and the prophet: "The prophet takes a lesson from a
coarse human similitude, in order that he might inspire terror unto
the ungodly. For he speaks against stupid and hardened people, who
would not apprehend the reality of a divine judgment, of which he had
just spoken; but they might possibly be brought to consider this by
greater earnestness on the part of man. Now, the prophet is not
satisfied with thinking of the sword, but adds thereto the bow; even
this does not satisfy him, but he describes how it is already
stretched, and aim is taken, and the arrows are applied to it as here
follows. So hard, stiff-necked and unabashed are the ungodly, that
however many threatenings may be urged against them, they will still
remain unmoved. But in these words he forcibly describes how God's
anger presses hard upon the ungodly, though they will never
understand this until they actually experience it. It is also to be
remarked here, that we have had so frightful a threatening and
indignation against the ungodly in no Psalm before this; neither has
the Spirit of God attacked them with so many words. Then in the
following verses, he also recounts their plans and purposes, shows
how these shall not be in vain, but shall return again upon their own
head. So that it clearly and manifestly appears that to all those who
suffer wrong and reproach, as a matter of consolation, that God hates
such revilers and slanderers above all other characters. E. W.
Hengstenberg, in loc., 1845.
Verse 12. "If he turn not," etc. How few do believe
what a quarrel God hath with wicked men? And that not only with the
loose, but the formal and hypocritical also? If we did we would
tremble as much to be among them as to be in a house that is falling;
we would endeavour to "save" ourselves "from this untoward
generation." The apostle would not so have adjured them, so charged,
so entreated them, had he not known the danger of wicked company.
"God is angry with the wicked every day;" his bow is bent, the
arrows are on the string; the instruments for their ruin are all
prepared. And is it safe to be there where the arrows of God are
ready to fly about our ears? How was the apostle afraid to be in the
bath with Cerinthus! "Depart," saith God by Moses, "from the tents of
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, lest ye be consumed in all their sins."
How have the baskets of good figs suffered with the bad! Is it not
prejudicial to the gold to be with the dross? Lot had been ruined by
his neighbourhood to the Sodomites if God had not wrought wonderfully
for his deliverance. Will you put God to work miracles to save you
from your ungodly company? It is dangerous being in the road with
thieves whilst God's hue and cry of vengeance is at their backs. "A
companion of fools shall be destroyed." The very beasts may instruct
you to consult better for your security: the very deer are afraid of
a wounded chased deer, and therefore for their preservation thrust
him out of their company. Lewis Stuckley.
Verse 12. "If he turn not, he will whet his sword,"
etc. The whetting of the sword is but to give a keener edge that it
may cut the deeper. God is silent as long as the sinner will let him;
but when the sword is whet, it is to cut; and when the bow is bent,
it is to kill; and woe be to that man who is the butt. William
Secker.
Verse 13. "He hath also prepared for him the instruments of
death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors." It is
said that God hath ordained his arrows against the persecutors; the
word signifies such as burn in anger and malice against the godly;
and the word translated ordained, signifies God hath wrought
his arrows; he doth not shoot them at random, but he works them
against the wicked. Illiricus hath a story which may well be a
commentary upon this text in both the parts of it. One Felix, Earl of
Wartenberg, one of the captains of the Emperor Charles V., swore in
the presence of divers at supper, that before he died he would ride
up to the spurs in the blood of the Lutherans. Here was one that
burned in malice, but behold how God works his arrows against him;
that very night the hand of God so struck him, that he was strangled
and choked in his own blood; so he rode not, but bathed himself, not
up to the spurs, but up to the throat, not in the blood of the
Lutherans, but in his own blood before he died. Jeremiah
Burroughs.
Verse 13. "He ordaineth his arrows," This might more
exactly be rendered, "He maketh his arrows burning." This image would
seem to be deduced from the use of fiery arrows. John Kitto,
1804-1854.
Verse 14. "Behold he travaileth with iniquity," etc.
The words express the conception, birth, carriage and
miscarriage, of a plot against David. In which you may
consider:—(1.) What his enemies did. (2.) What God
did. (3.) What we all should do: his enemies'
intention, God's prevention, and our duty; his
enemies' intention, he travaileth with iniquity, and conceiveth
mischief; God's prevention, he brought forth a lie; our
duty, Behold . . . . . Observe the aggravation of the sin,
he conceiveth. He was not put upon it, or forced into it: it
was voluntary. The more liberty we have not to sin, makes our sin the
greater. He did not this in passion, but in cold blood. The less
will, less sin. Richard Sibbs.
Verse 14. "He travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived
mischief." All note that conceiving is before travailing, but
here travailing, as a woman in labour, goeth first; the reason
whereof is, that the wicked are so hotly set upon the evil which they
maliciously intend, that they would be immediately acting of it if
they could tell how, even before they have conceived by what means;
but in fine they bring forth but a lie, that is, they find that their
own hearts lied to them, when they promised good success, but they
had evil. For their haste to perpetrate mischief is intimated in the
word rendered "persecutors" (verse 13), which properly
signifieth ardentes, burning; that is, with a desire to do
mischief—and this admits of no delay. A notable common-place, both
setting forth the evil case of the wicked, especially attempting
anything against the righteous, to move them to repentance—for thou
hast God for thine enemy warring against thee, whose force thou canst
not resist—and the greedy desire of the wicked to be evil, but their
conception shall all prove abortive. J. Mayer, in loc.
Verse 14. "And hath brought forth falsehood." Every sin
is a lie. Augustine.
Verse 14.
"Earth's entertainments are like those of Jael.
Her left hand brings me milk, her right, a nail."
Thomas Fuller.
Verses 14, 15. "They have digged a pit for us" —and
that low, unto hell— "and are fallen into it themselves."
"No juster law can be devised or made,
Than that sin's agents fall by their own trade."
The order of hell proceeds with the same degrees; though it give a
greater portion, yet still a just proportion, of torment. These
wretched guests were too busy with the waters of sin; behold, now
they are in the depth of a pit, "where no water is." Dives, that
wasted so many tuns of wine, cannot now procure water, not a pot of
water, not a handful of water, not a drop of water, to cool his
tongue. Desideravit guttam, qui non dedit micam . (Augustine
Hom. 7) A just recompense! He would not give a crumb; he shall not
have a drop. Bread hath no smaller fragment than a crumb, water no
less fraction than a drop. As he denied the least comfort to Lazarus
living, so Lazarus shall not bring him the least comfort dead. Thus
the pain for sin answers the pleasure of sin. . . . Thus damnable
sins shall have semblable punishments; and as Augustine of the
tongue, so we may say of any member. . . . If it will not serve God
in action, it shall serve him in passion. Thomas Adams.
Verse 15. "He made a pit, and digged it." The practice
of making pitfalls was anciently not only employed for ensnaring wild
beasts, but was also a stratagem used against men by the enemy, in
time of war. The idea, therefore, refers to a man who, having made
such a pit, whether for man or beast, and covered it over so as
completely to disguise the danger, did himself inadvertently tread on
his own trap, and fall into the pit he had prepared for another.
Pictorial Bible.
Verse 16. That most witty of commentators, Old Master Trapp,
tells the following notable anecdote, in illustration of this
verse:—That was a very remarkable instance of Dr. Story, who,
escaping out of prison in Queen Elizabeth's days, got to Antwerp, and
there thinking himself out of the reach of God's rod, he got
commission under the Duke of Alva to search all ships coming thither
for English books. But one Parker, an English merchant, trading for
Antwerp, laid his snare fair (saith our chronicler), to catch this
foul bird, causing secret notice to be given to Story, that in his
ship were stores of heretical books, with other intelligence that