justice, holiness. William Greenhill.
Verse 16. "Snared in the work of his own hands." The
wages that sin bargains with the sinner are life, pleasure, and
profit; but the wages it pays him with are death, torment, and
destruction. He that would understand the falsehood and deceit of
sin, must compare its promises and its payment together. Robert
South, D.D., 1633-1716.
Verse 16. "Higgaion, Selah," that is, as Ainsworth
renders it, "Meditation, Selah:" showing this ought to be seriously
considered of. The word "Higgaion" is again had (Psalm 92:3);
being mentioned among other musical instruments, whereby we may
gather it to be one of them; for there is psaltery, nable, higgaion,
and harp, John Mayer.
Verse 16. "The wicked is snared in the work of his own
hands." Not only do we read it in the word of God, but all
history, all experience, records the same righteous justice of God,
in snaring the wicked in the work of their own hands. Perhaps the
most striking instance on record, next to Haman on his own gallows,
is one connected with the horrors of the French Revolution, in which
we are told that, "within nine months of the death of the queen Marie
Antoinette by the guillotine, every one implicated in her untimely
end, her accusers, the judges, the jury, the prosecutors, the
witnesses, all, every one at least whose fate is known, perished by
the same instrument as their innocent victim." "In the net which they
had laid for her was their own foot taken—into the pit which they
digged for her did they themselves fall. Barton Bouchier, 1855.
Verse 17. The ungodly at death must undergo God's fury and
indignation. "The wicked shall be turned into hell." I have
read of a lodestone in Ethiopia which hath two corners, with one it
draws the iron to it, with the other it puts the iron from it: so God
hath two hands, of mercy and justice; with the one he will draw the
godly to heaven, with the other he will thrust the sinner to hell;
and oh, how dreadful is that place! It is called a fiery lake
(Revelation 20:15); a lake, to denote the plenty of torments in hell;
a fiery lake, to show the fierceness of them: fire is the most
torturing element. Strabo in his geography mentions a lake in Galilee
of such a pestiferous nature that it scaldeth off the skin of
whatsoever is cast into it; but, alas! that lake is cool compared
with this fiery lake into which the damned are thrown. To demonstrate
this fire terrible, there are two most pernicious qualities in it. 1.
It is sulphurous, it is mixed with brimstone (Revelation 21:8), which
is unsavoury and suffocating. 2. It is inextinguishable; though the
wicked shall be choked in the flames, yet not consumed (Revelation
20:10); "And the devil was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone,
where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day
and night forever and ever." Behold the deplorable condition of all
ungodly ones in the other world, they shall have a life that always
dies, and a death that always lives: may not this affright men out of
their sins, and make them become godly? unless they are resolved to
try how hot the hell-fire is. Thomas Watson.
Verse 17. "The wicked shall be turned into hell," etc.
By "the wicked" here we must understand unregenerate persons,
whoever they are that are in a state of unregeneracy. . . . . . That
person is here spoken of as a "wicked" man that "forgets
God," who does not think of him frequently, and with affection,
with fear and delight, and those affections that are suitable to
serious thoughts of God. . . . . To forget God and to be a wicked
person is all one. And these two things will abundantly evince the
truth of this assertion: namely, that this forgetfulness of God
excludes the prime and main essentials of religion, and also includes
in it the highest and most heinous pieces of wickedness, and
therefore must needs denominate the subject, a wicked person. . . . .
. Forgetfulness of God excludes the principal and essential parts of
religion. It implies that a man doth neither esteem nor value the
all-sufficiency and holiness of God, as his happiness and portion, as
his strength and support; nor doth he fear him, nor live in
subjection to his laws and commands, as his rule; nor doth he aim at
the glory of God as his end: therefore every one who thus forgets
God, must certainly be a wicked person. . . . . . . To exclude God
out of our thoughts and not to let him have a place there, not to
mind, nor think upon God, is the greatest wickedness of the thoughts
that can be. And, therefore, though you cannot say of such a one, he
will be drunk, or he will swear, cozen, or oppress; yet if you can
say he will forget God, or that he lives all his days never minding
nor thinking upon God, you say enough to speak him under wrath, and
to turn him into hell without remedy. John Howe, 1630 -
1705.
Verse 17. "The wicked shall be turned into hell."
(Heb.); Lisholah—headlong into hell, down into hell. The
original is very emphatic. Adam Clarke.
Verse 17. All wickedness came originally with the wicked one
from hell; thither it will again be remitted, and they who hold on
its side must accompany it on its return to that place of torment,
there to be shut up for ever. The true state of "nations," and the
individuals of which they are composed, is to be estimated from one
single circumstance; namely, whether in their doings they remember,
or "forget God." Remembrance of him is the well-spring of virtue;
forgetfulness of him, the fountain of vice. George Horne,
D.D.
Verse 17.
Hell, their fit habitation, fraught with fire
Unquenchable, the house of woe and pain.
John Milton, 1608-1674.
Verse 17.
Will without power, the element of hell,
Abortive all its acts returning still
Upon itself;. . . . Oh, anguish terrible!
Meet guerdon of self-love, its proper ill!
Malice would scowl upon the foe he fears;
And he with lip of scorn would seek to kill;
But neither sees the other, neither hears—
For darkness each in his own dungeon bars,
Lust pines for dearth, and grief drinks its own tears—
Each in its solitude apart. Hate wars
Against himself, and feeds upon his chain,
Whose iron penetrates the soul it scars,
A dreadful solitude each mind insane,
Each its own place, its prison all alone,
And finds no sympathy to soften pain.
J. A. Heraud.
Verse 18. "For the needy shall not alway be forgotten,"
etc. This is a sweet promise for a thousand occasions, and when
pleaded before the throne in his name who comprehends in himself
every promise, and is indeed himself the great promise of the Bible,
it would be found like all others, yea and amen. Robert Hawker,
D.D., 1820.
Verse 18. "The expectation of the poor shall not
perish." A heathen could say, when a bird, scared by a hawk, flew
into his bosom, I will not betray thee unto thy enemy, seeing thou
comest for sanctuary unto me. How much less will God yield up a soul
unto its enemy, when it takes sanctuary in his name, saying, Lord, I
am hunted with such a temptation, dogged with such a lust; either
thou must pardon it, or I am damned; mortify it, or I shall be a
slave to it; take me into the bosom of thy love for Christ's sake;
castle me in the arms of thy everlasting strength; it is in thy power
to save me from, or give me up into the hands of my enemy; I have no
confidence in myself or any other: into thy hands I commit my cause
myself, and rely on thee. This dependence of a soul undoubtedly will
awaken the almighty power of God for such a one's defence. He hath
sworn the greatest oath that can come out of his blessed lips, even
by himself, that such as thus fly for refuge to hope in him, shall
have strong consolation. Hebrews 6:17. This indeed may give the saint
the greater boldness of faith to expect kind entertainment when he
repairs to God for refuge, because he cannot come before he is looked
for; God having set up his name and promises as a strong tower, both
calls his people into these chambers and expects they should betake
themselves thither. William Gurnall.
Verse 18. As sometimes God is said to hear us in not hearing
us, so we may say he should sometimes deny us if he did not delay us,
It is (saith Chrysostom) like money, which lying long in the bank,
comes home at last with a duck in its mouth, with use upon use; when
money is out a great time, it makes a great return: we can stay thus
upon men, and cannot we, shall not we, stay upon the Lord, and for
the Lord, for a large return? God causeth us by delay to make the
more prayers; and the more we pray, the longer we stay, the more
comfort we shall have, and the more sure we are that we shall have it
in the latter end. Distinguish between denying and delaying. . . . In
God our Father are all dimensions of love, and that in an
infinite degree; infinitely infinite: what if he defer us? so do we
our children, albeit we mean no other but to give them their own
asking, yet we love to see them wait, that so they may have from us
the best things, when they are at the best, in the best time, and in
the best manner: if a mother should forget her only boy, yet God hath
an infinite memory, he nor can, nor will forget us; the expectation
of the waiter shall not fail for ever, that is,
never . Richard Capel.
Verse 19. "Arise, O Lord," etc. What does this mean?
Are we to consider the psalmist as praying for the destruction of his
enemies, as pronouncing a malediction, a curse upon them? No; these
are not the words of one who is wishing that mischief may happen to
his enemies; they are the words of a prophet, of one who is
foretelling, in Scripture language, the evil that must befall them on
account of their sins. Augustine.
Verse 20. "Put them in fear, O Lord," etc. We should
otherwise think ourselves gods. We are so inclined to sin that we
need strong restraints, and so swelled with a natural pride against
God, that we need thorns in the flesh to let out the corrupt matter.
The constant hanging the rod over us makes us lick the dust, and
acknowledge ourselves to be altogether at the Lord's mercy. Though
God hath pardoned us, he will make us wear the halter about our necks
to humble us. Stephen Charnock.
Verse 20. "That the nations may know themselves to be but
men." The original word is (Heb.), enosh; and therefore it
is a prayer that they may know themselves to be but miserable, frail,
and dying men. The word is in the singular number, but it is used
collectively. John Calvin.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
I. The only object of our praise—"thee,
O Lord."
II. The abundant themes of praise—"all