This Psalm is a prayer containing the feelings of a heart that fears God; and it persuades, in the most impressive words, such an one, not to dread God’s anger. For those who fear God, are not like the despisers and Epicureans, who are secure and care for nothing that happens; but when calamities fall upon godly men, their first and main concern is to turn to God that smites them, and to make anew their peace with him.
The anger wherewith God chastised his people, at this time, was this: he had taken away from them, for a time, the word; he had diminished the number of those that preached it in truth, and had made few the true prophets, priests and Levites. In addition to which, the peace of the nation was broken by seditions; and many evils prevailed in the state and among the rulers thereof. And this was not all: there came on also the dread and expectation of war, and the want of the necessary provisions of life: for these calamities generally follow, one after the other, when God, according to the first commandment, visits the iniquities of a people.
The Psalmist, therefore, prays that God would be pleased again to preserve the church, and also the nation; again to restore the real ministers of the word, who preached it in truth, and by whom alone God truly speaks unto men.
The Psalmist, therefore, breaks forth with a wonderful burden of heart, as if he had said, ‘O that I might again hear the Lord truly speaking! O that the word of God were again truly preached, lest even the godly should be “turned to folly”’ (or ignorance; that is, lest they should be so broken down and utterly worn out, by the greatness of their afflictions, as not to know what to do.) ‘O that both the worship of God, and the prosperity of our nation, may be restored, and that peace, and concord, and truth, and justice, may flourish among us! that the fruits of the earth, and the produce of the fields and of the vineyards may be blessed; that we may lead a godly life in this our day, and, as St. Paul saith, may “look for the glorious appearing of the great God!”’
PSALM LXXXVI.
David strengtheneth his prayer by the conscience of his religion,—by the goodness and power of God.—He desireth the continuance of former grace.—Complaining of the proud he craveth some token of God’s goodness.
A Prayer of David.
Bow down thine ear, O LORD, hear me; for I am poor and needy.
Preserve my soul, for I am holy: O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee.
Be merciful unto me, O LORD: for I cry unto thee daily.
Rejoice the soul of thy servant: for unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul.
For thou, LORD, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.
Give ear, O LORD, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications.
In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me.
Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O LORD; neither are there any works like unto thy works.
All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O LORD; and shall glorify thy name.
For thou art great, and doest wondrous things, thou art God alone.
Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.
I will praise thee, O LORD my God, with all my heart; and I will glorify thy name for evermore.
For great is thy mercy toward me; and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.
O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul, and have not set thee before them.
But thou, O LORD, art a God full of compassion, and gracious; long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.
O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me: give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid.
Shew me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed; because thou, LORD, hast holpen me, and comforted me.
This Psalm is a supplication, and, as the title shows, a prayer of David: and here you may see that prayer is the highest exercise of faith, and the highest worship of God. Every one knows with what destroying calamities that great man David, that “man after God’s own heart,” was surrounded; and yet you may see, in the book of Kings, that, in his deepest straits and most calamitous afflictions, he calls upon God with all the ardour of his heart against his enemies, Saul, his son Absalom, &c. those instruments of the devil, who so heavily afflicted him.
Behold what an example of prayer for us to follow, this great, this most spiritual man, gives us in the 6th, 9th, 10th and 11th verses. See how fixedly he has before his eyes the first commandment. “O God,” saith he, “who is like unto thee among the gods?” who doeth works like unto thy works? “Thou art great and doest wonderful works; thou art God alone. Thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion and gracious, long-suffering and plenteous in mercy and in truth, unto all that call upon thee.”
Behold here how he calls up and sharpens, as it were, his faith, at a view of the mercy of God! so that, apprehending that mercy and the promise, he goes forth on the assurance, that God is not only powerful and great, and invincible against all the assaults of the devil and of the world, and against all creatures; but that he is also ever present unto the godly, and ever merciful to those that call upon him, and believe in him. And thus, we also ought to apprehend the word of the divine promise of mercy, and cast out of our hearts all doubt, that we may be enabled to call upon him without misgiving.
At the end David prays, “Show me a token for good.” God sometimes permits the wicked to glory for a while, as if they certainly should soon devour the saints, and those that fear him. But God never finally forsakes his people: for here, in the church below, he often delivers the godly, who fear him, out of the greatest perils; yea, out of the very jaws of death; and plainly proves that he is ever present and near his own: for their deliverances plainly show the hand of God. It is for such a token, or sign, as this, that David here prays.
PSALM LXXXVII.
The nature and glory of the church.—The increase, honour, and comfort of the members thereof.
A Psalm or Song for the sons of Korah.
His foundation is in the holy mountains.
The LORD loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah.
I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there.
And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the highest himself shall establish her.
The LORD shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there. Selah.
As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there: all my springs are in thee.
This is a prophecy concerning the kingdom of Christ and the church, in times to come. The Psalmist, after the manner of the prophets, sets before us the future Jerusalem and the future Zion, as if represented in a painting before our eyes: the boundaries of which should be those of the world itself, reaching from east to west, and from north to south; and in which church there should be born men of every nation, kingdom, tribe, and tongue,—Ethiopians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Tyrians, Philistines, &c. and that these should be born in this church, not by a natural birth, but by the word of the gospel.
“Great, excellent, and glorious things shall be spoken and preached in thee, O city of God!” For the gospel is a great and glorious doctrine, the highest of all doctrines, even the word of salvation; hence, as Paul saith, (Phil. i. 10.) the gospel contains, in comparison with the law, “the things that are excellent.” For by the gospel is given to us the knowledge of the counsel and will of God; in what manner God is pacified; how we are delivered from sin, from the power of the devil, and from eternal death; which things neither the law, nor any human philosophy, could teach.
In the last verse also, the Psalm most beautifully sets forth what the highest worship, under the New Testament, should be. “There shall be in thee, (saith the Psalmist,) as the harmonious concert of those playing on instruments;” that is, it is not Moses, or the law, that shall be taught in that city; but the sweet and joyful message of the gospel shall be preached by the ministry of the word, even grace and the remission of sins by Jesus Christ.
PSALM LXXXVIII.
A prayer containing a grievous complaint.
A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite.
O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee.
Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry;
For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.
I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:
Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.
Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.
Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.
Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.
Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon thee; I have stretched out my hands unto thee.
Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah.
Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?
Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.
LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?
I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.
Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.
They came round about me daily like water, they compassed me about together.
Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.
This is a prayer, as in the person of Christ and of all the saints. It contains those mighty feelings and conflicts of heart, which no mortals but those who experience them, can either describe or conceive; I mean those pangs and pains, and that heavy sorrow of spirit, (above all natural distress of body or of mind, and above all natural fear and dread,) when the heart is filled with a sense of the majesty and anger of God, and is alarmed at the nature and end of sin; while God also, as yet, holds off all consolation; and the soul is shaken in the midst of darkness and terror, and, as Christ saith himself, “sifted by the devil like wheat in a sieve;” while the malicious Satan craftily augments the soul’s views of the anger of God, and drives out of sight all hope of mercy and grace.
David here calls these unspeakable terrors of soul, “hell,” “darkness,” “the shadow of death.” “Thou hast cast me (saith he) into the lowest pit, into darkness and the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me; and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves.” And rightly does David describe these pains and terrors by the terms, “death,” “hell,” &c. because this anguish of soul is of the very nature, and power, and poison, and sting of hell and death; for no sooner is the darkness dispersed, by some shining in of divine consolation, than death is no longer death, but we die gladly. And indeed, where such fears and terrors of mind abound and continue, they extend to the body, bring on a paleness and emaciation, and affect the whole man. Paul calls them the “buffetting of Satan,” and “thorns in the flesh;” which has reference to a custom in certain nations of punishing criminals by transfixing their bodies with a certain sharp pointed conical instrument, in the shape of a thorn; and mocking and deriding them in their suffering. And just thus it is that the nations of the world contemptuously call Christ ‘that crucified fellow,’ and the Jews, ‘That fellow that was hanged.’ For the world, in their malice, not only persecute Christ, but also deride and mock his sufferings, and the sufferings of his members. And hence it is David complains thus in this Psalm, “Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.”
PSALM LXXXIX.
The psalmist praiseth God for his covenant, for his wonderful power, for the care of his church, for his favour to the kingdom of David.—Then complaining of contrary events, he expostulateth, prayeth, and blesseth God.
Maschil of Ethan the Ezrahite.
I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.
For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens.
I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant,
Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah.
And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O LORD: thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints.
For who in the heaven can be compared unto the LORD? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD?
God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.
O LORD God of hosts, who is a strong LORD like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round about thee?
Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.
Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm.
The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them.
The north and the south thou hast created them: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name.
Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand.
Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.
Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance.
In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.
For thou art the glory of their strength: and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted.
For the LORD is our defence; and the Holy One of Israel is our king.
Then thou spakest in vision to thy holy one, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.
I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him:
With whom my hand shall be established; mine arm also shall strengthen him.
The enemy shall not exact upon him; nor the son of wickedness afflict him.
And I will beat down his foes before his face, and plague them that hate him.
But my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him; and in my name shall his horn be exalted.
I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers.
He shall cry unto me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.
Also I will make him my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth.
My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.
His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.
If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;
If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments;
Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.
My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
Once have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie unto David.
His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.
It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.
But thou hast cast off and abhorred, thou hast been wroth with thine anointed.
Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant; thou hast profaned his crown, by casting it to the ground.
Thou hast broken down all his hedges; thou hast brought his strong holds to ruin.
All that pass by the way spoil him: he is a reproach to his neighbours.
Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries; thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice.
Thou hast also turned the edge of his sword, and hast not made him to stand in the battle.
Thou hast made his glory to cease, and cast his throne down to the ground.
The days of his youth hast thou shortened: thou hast covered him with shame. Selah.
How long, LORD? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy wrath burn like fire?
Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain!
What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah.
LORD, where are thy former loving-kindnesses, which thou swarest unto David in thy truth?
Remember, LORD, the reproach of thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people;
Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.
Blessed be the LORD for evermore. Amen, and amen.
This is a remarkable prophecy concerning Christ and his kingdom; he speaks of the church or kingdom of Christ, as a “kingdom in the heavens;” in the same manner as Christ himself calls it “the kingdom of heaven.” And though this spiritual kingdom of Christ is here upon earth, yet the Psalmist gloriously describes it as being “in the heavens.”
The Psalmist, indeed, here apprehends the promise made to David concerning Christ; and, opening that promise in a wonderful manner, he describes the riches of this spiritual kingdom. He enforces the everlasting firmness and sureness of that promise; and, taking a stand of heavenly meditation therein, he dwells upon the effectual power of that promise against all the violence of sin, and the malice and accusation of the devil; and here the Psalmist takes up his divine abode; here he fixes his standing; as the apostle hath it, “by faith ye stand:” and he says that this truth of God, this his promise was prepared from everlasting, built up in the fulfilment of God’s purpose of mercy, and firm, and “established in the heavens.”
“Thy faithfulness and truth,” (says the Psalmist,) “are established in the heavens;” that is, a heavenly righteousness is preached by the gospel, which is not placed in us, or in any worthiness or merit of ours; but is out of us, and is the righteousness of Christ, and is imputed, for Christ’s sake, unto all that believe in him: and hence, the promised riches of this kingdom are the gift of the Spirit, and the remission of sins, with all other spiritual blessings: all which are not offered unto us on any condition of the law, or of our works or our merit, but are given unto us freely of God. Salvation, therefore, is not a matter conditional on our works, but freely given unto us for Christ’s sake; that thus all doubting and uncertainty may be taken from our souls; and that we may safely rest, entirely and only on the immutable and immoveable certainty of this truth and promise of God.
The temporal kingdom of the Jews was promised to that people, on condition of a law given to them; that, if they kept that law, nationally, as a people, if they were therein good and obedient, they should be preserved and blessed. And, in the same way also, all the kingdoms of the world are given to their people under a like condition of a law, and, as long as they are good and obedient, God preserves them. But the immense and glorious riches of this spiritual kingdom, the forgiveness of sins, the gift of the Spirit, victory over death and the devil, &c. are promised and held forth without any condition of a law; and, in a word, the remission of sins is promised, freely, not only to those who have done nothing to deserve it, but to those who have done everything to forfeit it. This is a throne, therefore, not of angry and destroying majesty, but of grace alone; and being founded, not on the basis of our good works and merits, but on the rock of the sure and everlasting truth of God, it affords a great and marvellous consolation to the afflicted consciences of sinners.
After, however, the prophetic Psalmist has described the flower and glory of this kingdom and church of Christ, he deplores, on the other hand, from verse 39, in the most powerful expressions, the desolations and destructions of it: saying, that it shall come to pass that this kingdom, like as the apostle has also foretold, shall be so disturbed and torn to pieces by antichrist, that it shall seem as if God had wholly forgotten his promise unto it; nay, as if, contrary to the word of his promise, he did nothing but show his wrath against this kingdom.
All these things, however, are written for a consolation unto the godly; and especially unto us who, in these last times, have witnessed such abominations of papacy; these things, I say, are written for our comfort and consolation; that we should not be broken-spirited, or terrified, at the multitude and diversity of offences; nor be driven to despair, though wickedness should have the dominion for a time, and though Satan should, as it were, so subvert all things human and divine, that there should seem to be no church of Christ at all, no remains of the kingdom of Christ upon earth. For if you look at the abomination of the Pope, and of Mahomet, which have spread themselves over the whole world, no other appearance is presented than that there is not a vestige of the true church remaining: and yet, it is not wholly blotted or rooted out from the earth; for, under the reign of each abomination and tyranny, there has ever existed a true church of Christ, although greatly despised and greatly oppressed.
PSALM XC.
Moses, setting forth God’s providence, complaineth of human fragility, divine chastisements, and brevity of life.—He prayeth for the knowledge and sensible experience of God’s good providence.
A prayer of Moses, the Man of God.
LORD, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God.
Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.
For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.
Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.
The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.
O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.
Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.
And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us: yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.
This Psalm contains a very great and important doctrine; in which Moses teaches what is the origin and cause of that death to which the whole human race is subject, and the reason why so horrible a punishment was inflicted on the whole race of mortals: the Psalmist saith, it was on account of sin: and the guilt and desert of sin are greater than can be conceived by the human mind, unless God touch the heart with a knowledge of it; and yet, in this sin and guilt, and under this wrath, all the sons of Adam are born.
Moses here opens widely this punishment of sin, and this horrible misery; setting forth the proof of it in the shortness and uncertainty of human life; which life, in addition to this its shortness and uncertainty, is subject also to all kinds of calamity: and, in verse 11, Moses saith that this very unspeakable misery—death, and all other human calamities, as parts of that death, tend, or should lead us, to seek the grace and mercy of God, who alone can deliver us from all these evils,—sin, the slavery of the devil, and death. Hence all the calamities and afflictions of life, and even death itself, the punishment of sin, work together for good unto the elect, and unto those that fear God; that they may, by all things, be humbled, broken down, and crucified, and so, thirst after grace.
“So teach us that we must die,” says Moses, “that we may become wise:” that is, that we may learn to know God and his will aright; for this is what Moses calls “becoming wise.” The wicked, and fools, who are not exercised with afflictions, who number not their days, nor think of death, nor meditate on the misery of life, but remain unexperienced and ignorant of all spiritual things, and are wrapped up in their own hypocrisy, never rightly know God, nor truly seek his help and mercy.
Moses then closes his Psalm with a divinely concluding prayer, “Let thy work appear unto thy servants,” or “Show us thy work, O Lord.” Here, by the work of God, he means deliverance from sin and death; and, in a word, all that deliverance that our fathers expected from that blessed seed, which we have revealed to us in Christ. And again, saith Moses, “O satisfy us early with thy mercy:” and he twice repeats, “Prosper thou the works of our hands:” that is, for the time that we live, direct and prosper thou our whole life: preserve thy true religion and the good government of our nation: guard us from heresies, errors, wars, seditions, and all such evils. This Psalm, therefore, is a short but a most spiritual prayer.
PSALM XCI.
The state of the godly.—Their safety.—Their habitation.—Their servants.—Their friends; with the effects of them all.
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge, and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust; his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day,
Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon-day.
A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold, and see the reward of the wicked.
Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation.
There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the dragon shall thou trample under feet.
Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.
This is a most distinguished jewel among all the Psalms of consolation. The Psalmist highly exalts faith in God, and shews that it is an invincible strength against all evils, and against all the gates of hell.
At the very outset, the Psalmist says, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, abideth under the shadow of the Almighty;” and such an one shall say unto the Lord, “Thou art my confidence, my protection, my fortress and my God,” that is, he that believeth and trusteth in God, and rests in his protection,—he shall find, though shaken on every side, by the devil, by sin, by the world, and by various and endless temptations, that the godly are proof and invincible against all these evils; that God is most high over all; that he is Omnipotent; and, in a word, that “greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.”
Towards the conclusion, this Psalm contains, accumulated together, eight or nine promises of grace, which the Psalmist drew out of the first commandment, as out of a fountain. This Psalm, therefore, ought to be set before afflicted souls. 1. The Psalmist says “Because he hath hoped in me, therefore will I deliver him.” 2. “I will set him on high.” 3. “Because he hath called upon me, I will hear him.” 4. “I will be with him in trouble.” 5. “I will deliver him.” 6. “I will set him on high, or glorify him.” 7. “With long life will I satisfy him.” 8. “I will show him my salvation:” that is, that I am “mighty to save!”
And this also is the second Psalm wherein angels are proclaimed as our watchful guardians and protectors: which is a truth very greatly consoling to the really godly, who know with what fury Satan unceasingly assaults the church, and all the saints. This Psalm enumerates four kinds of evils and afflictions, which are to be endured by the saints and those that fear God:
1. “Mighty fear,”—“terror by night.” The scripture frequently represents temptations and afflictions under the figures of darkness and night; and consolations under the figurative descriptions of light and day. The Psalmist, therefore, here sets forth all those horrible instances of hatred, that Cain-like purpose to destroy, (which is ever secretly bound up in the hearts of pharisaic religionists) all those malicious threats, those hostile traps and snares, those created perils, those injuries, and all those other terrible oppositions which Satan ever raises up against the word of God, by nightly fear, or “terror by night.”
2. “The arrow that flieth by day.” By which are meant to be described all those open clamours, reproaches, execrations, and blasphemies, by which tyrants and hypocrites openly attack and condemn the word of God, and the doctrine of Christ. Of this kind are the pope’s bulls, (and truly they are bulls!) and also, the edicts of kings and princes, the virulent and blasphemous books of erroneous disputers, and the writings of erroneous and visionary men, such as the anabaptists, and the like.
3. “The pestilence that creepeth (or walketh) in darkness.” These are the deceits, the crafts, and the artifices of the papists; and the leagues, the covert conspiracies, the secret counsels, by which those enemies consult and plan among themselves in their private conclaves: which clandestine machinations they think they can keep hidden, even from the eyes of God himself; and by all which diabolical means, they plot to destroy and root out the godly and all doctrine that is truly good and saving.
4. “The disease (or contagion, or destruction) that wasteth at noon day.” This is the work of open persecution; whereby these holy Cains, in their unheard-of cruelty and tyranny, shed the blood of the Abels, drive into exile the godly, plunder their substance, and slaughter them by every cruelty of torture; thereby attempting to lay the true church utterly waste, and to leave not a vestige of the true word remaining.
This is my view of the Psalm. I know that St. Bernard gives other interpretations. Let others, therefore, if they can, put forth a better explication than I have done: that my view is simple, and agreeable to the mind and spirit of the prophets, is self-manifest, and proved by experience: for we see and experience daily, that the saints of God are attacked and exercised by these four afflictions for the word’s sake, by means of the devil and by the world. The Holy Spirit, therefore, by this Psalm, revives and strengthens our faith; and by the cluster of promises at the end of the Psalm, the same Holy Spirit quickens and refreshes our hearts with consolation: this Psalm therefore ought to be most acceptable to all the saints.
PSALM XCII.
The prophet exhorteth to praise God, for his great works, for his judgments on the wicked, and for his goodness to the godly.
A Psalm or Song for the Sabbath-day.
It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High:
To shew forth thy loving-kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,
Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltry; upon the harp with a solemn sound.
For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work; I will triumph in the works of thy hands.
O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.
A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.
When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:
But thou, LORD, art most high for evermore.
For, lo, thine enemies, O LORD, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered;
But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.
Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies; and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me.
The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;
To shew that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.