PSALM V.
David prayeth, and professeth his study in prayer.—God favoureth not the wicked.—David, professing his faith, prayeth unto God to guide him—and to preserve the godly.
To the chief Musician upon Nehiloth. A Psalm of David.
Give ear to my words, O LORD; consider my meditation.
Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray.
My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.
For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness; neither shall evil dwell with thee.
The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.
But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy; and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.
Lead me, O LORD, in thy righteousness, because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face.
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.
Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels: cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against thee.
But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.
For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.
This Psalm is an earnest prayer against that most destructive pestilence in the church—false teachers: and all ages, from Cain, the first man that was born, the first hypocrite after the creation of Adam, and the first “man of blood,” have had their Cainish saints, their false prophets, their false apostles, and their fanatic spirits; who have taught their own human dreams, and their own traditions for the word of God, and resolutely contended for their own Cainish holiness, ever burning with an insatiable thirst to drink the blood of the Abels, the true saints: and these Christ has called, in his gospel, “vipers.”
It is at the blasphemies of these against God, and their cruelty towards men, that this Psalm strikes; and openly exposes the persons themselves as most virulent hypocrites, in whose doctrine and works there is nothing but outside daubing, nothing but doubting and disquietude, and a whole slaughter-house of consciences. These characters suppress the true word, the doctrine of faith, and the true worship of God; namely, the worship required by the First Commandment: and there is no end to their rage against those that fear God: they cause horrid devastations in the church, and load her with an infinity of injuries.
Against the destructive influence of these, therefore, David prays in this Psalm;—that it would please God to prevent the persecuting and Cain-like counsels of such hypocrites, and all crafty and blood-thirsty characters of the kind, and, amid all this bitter and furious hatred of the world and the devil, and such an infinity of cruelty in all their adversaries, to defend, comfort, prop up, and protect the godly; to confound the hypocrisy of the wicked, to root out all false worship; to cause the true word and the true worship of God to spread and flourish, and to glorify the true church in the face of the false one, under all the outward daubing and show of the latter.
In the last verse, David appends a most glorious promise;—that, although those who truly fear God are cruelly treated by those hypocrites, it shall yet come to pass that the godly shall at length rejoice that their prayers are heard, and shall see the judgments of God openly fall upon the hypocrites and fanatics, and the true church defended and preserved.
This Psalm has reference to the Second and Third Commandments of the Decalogue, and to the first and second petitions of the Lord’s Prayer; where we pray “that the name of the Lord may be sanctified and glorified,” against the pride and gloryings of such hypocrites.
PSALM VI.
David’s complaint in his sickness.—By faith he triumpheth over his enemies.
To the chief Musician, on Neginoth upon Sheminith. A Psalm of David.
O LORD, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed.
My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O LORD, how long?
Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies’ sake.
For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?
I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.
Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.
Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the LORD hath heard the voice of my weeping.
The LORD hath heard my supplication; the LORD will receive my prayer.
Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly.
This Psalm is a prayer full of those mental exercises that are felt under the deepest and most secret temptations which can only be known by experience, because no words can describe them; for they are those feelings under which the saints agonize in those bitter and unutterable conflicts which are wholly unknown to the world: they are those feelings, I say, under which they agonize when struggling with sin, the law, and the wrath and judgment of God: all which are experienced in the hours of darkness, while the devil is horribly tempting and pressing in upon them.
These internal fears and terrors, under which all the godly agonize and sweat, will, of necessity, one day wholly swallow up the hypocrites who are destitute of the word. Here it is, that in the godly, there is an unspeakable conflict of justice with sin; the law, and wrath of God, with a confidence in his mercy; and faith and hope, with desperation and despair; though the godly are at length delivered and saved. These terrors the scripture calls in other places, and especially in the Psalms, “the pains of hell,” and, “the snares of death.”
But this Psalm expressly shews in the end, that the sighs and groans of the godly under these agonizing conflicts, these pains, and these straits of soul, shall surely be heard. This Psalm, therefore, and others like it, open to us a view of the heart of David, and afford the greatest consolation to the godly. For they shew, that, although the saints thus deeply agonize under these straits, and under these terrible and open views of the wrath of God, yet, that these temptations which appear to be infinite and endless, shall surely have an end, and that God will never forsake those who fear him, in their terrors and conflicts with death and hell.
On the other hand, the prophet, in this Psalm, with a wonderful zeal of spirit, and with the most cutting sharpness and severity, strikes at all the wicked of the world: and, above all, he condemns all secure hypocrites and pharisaical ministers; calling them, notwithstanding their outward appearance of being saints,—“workers of iniquity;” who persecute all afflicted and true Christians with the bitterness of Cain, and cease not to hate them with all the virulence of Satan; adding grief to their grief, and affliction to their affliction.
‘Away with ye,’ saith he, ‘ye hypocrites. I have learnt that I have a God to go to; but ye are ignorant both of God and of his works. Ye know not what an awful weight the wrath of God is, and how great and soul-refreshing a thing the remission of sins, the knowledge of eternal life, and the experience of grace, are. Ye worship God with your mouths and with your lips; ye trust in your own righteousnesses and works, not knowing what God and what sin are; and therefore ye are most cruel and most bitter enemies to the word and true worship of God; in which worship, the greatest and most acceptable sacrifice is a spirit thus pressed into straits and afflicted.’
This Psalm has reference to the First and Second Commandment; it contains the agonizing conflict of faith, and calls upon God against the force of sin and death. And it refers also to the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer; as do also the other supplicatory Psalms. For, to supplicate and pray, is to sanctify and call upon the name of the Lord.
PSALM VII.
David prayeth against the malice of his enemies, professing his innocency.—By faith he seeth his defence, and the destruction of his enemies.
Shiggaion of David, which he sang unto the LORD, concerning the words of Cush the Benjamite.
O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me;
Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.
O LORD my God, if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands;
If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy;)
Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust. Selah.
Arise, O LORD, in thine anger; lift up thyself, because of the rage of mine enemies; and awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded.
So shall the congregation of the people compass thee about: for their sakes, therefore, return thou on high.
The LORD shall judge the people: judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me.
Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins.
My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart.
God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.
If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow and made it ready.
He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors.
Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.
He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.
His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.
I will praise the LORD according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.
This is a prayer against that common and usual blasphemy with which the world accuses the prophets, apostles, and all others who fear God, as being seditious persons, who destroy the peace and general tranquility of the state: as Shimei bitterly upbraided David, when under that heavy affliction in the time of Absalom, calling him a bloody man, and saying that he had invaded the kingdom of Saul, &c. In the same way the Jews accused Christ before Pilate. And in the same way also now do certain hypocrites,—bishops and other enemies, against all conscience, brand the professors of the gospel with the appellation of ‘seditious persons.’
Against all trials of this kind, which are indeed most bitter to bear, the prophet fights by prayer unto God, calling upon God to bear witness to his innocency. And then, to encourage and comfort all that fear God, he shews, that all who thus pray are heard; and he sets forth himself as an example.
Lastly, he threatens a horrid, sudden, and momentary judgment to those hypocrites and tyrants, who thus rage against the godly with the most bitter hatred: and he signifies that all such shall in the end perish like Absalom, who was cut off and died in a new, sudden, and dreadful way, in the midst of his furious career, before he could accomplish that which he had planned.
This Psalm refers to the second precept in the Decalogue, and to the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer.
PSALM VIII.
God’s glory is magnified by his works, and by his love to man.
To the chief Musician upon Gittith. A Psalm of David.
O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength, because of thine enemies; that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers; the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that thou visitest him?
For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands: thou hast put all things under his feet:
All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
This is a prophecy concerning Christ,—concerning his passion, his resurrection, and his dominion over all creatures; and it is thus that the apostle cites it, Ephes. i. with reference to the kingdom of Christ: where he foretels, that the power and might of his kingdom will be invincible against all enemies, how violent soever they may be in their determination to wreak their vengeance:—that is, that he will be victoriously mighty against all the wise and the powerful of the world, and against all hypocrites and pharisaical saints:—that he will be invincible and victorious, I say, not by arms, nor by mighty forces of horse and foot, but by the word of his gospel; which shall be preached by “babes and sucklings,” (that is, by humble men, men who are weak and contemptible in the sight of the world,) and believed in by his church of poor, afflicted, crying, and complaining creatures:—that this word of the gospel, I repeat, preached and believed in by such poor creatures, shall nevertheless confound all the wisdom of the world, and break and crush under it all the strength of the world, and that no creature power whatever shall impede it in its work and course, but that it shall stand firmer than the heaven, or the sun, or the moon, and shall endure for evermore!
This Psalm pertains to the First Commandment, where God declares that he will be our God: and also to the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer, as I have before observed under Psalm II.
PSALM IX.
David praiseth God for executing of judgment.—He inciteth others to praise him.—He prayeth that he may have cause to praise him.
To the chief Musician upon Muthlabben. A Psalm of David.
I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.
I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou Most High.
When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence.
For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging right.
Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name for ever and ever.
O thou enemy! destructions are come to a perpetual end; and thou hast destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them.
But the LORD shall endure for ever: he hath prepared his throne for judgment;
And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.
The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.
And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.
Sing praises to the LORD, which dwelleth in Zion: declare among the people his doings.
When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth not the cry of the humble.
Have mercy upon me, O LORD; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, thou that liftest me up from the gates of death:
That I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion: I will rejoice in thy salvation.
The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken.
The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.
The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
For the needy shall not alway be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.
Arise, O LORD; let not man prevail; let the heathen be judged in thy sight.
Put them in fear, O LORD; that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah.
This Psalm is a prophecy: its title is “concerning the beautiful youth:” that is, concerning the children that are born anew in Christ, the people of God and the church of God. For the people and sons of God, and his new-born children by faith in Christ, must be conformed to the image of God’s dear Son, Jesus Christ.
Christians and the true sons of God are variously afflicted in the world; and the blood of the innocents is daily shed by the fury and cruelty of Satan, raging against the word and the works of God. These are the flourishing and undefiled youth, the sons and children of God, of whom the title of the Psalm speaks; who are blameless, without rebuke, and babes in the midst of wolves, and among a perverse generation.
This Psalm has its striking descriptions of persons: and the prophecy which it contains is written in the manner of a thanksgiving: and therefore it may be numbered among the consolatory Psalms. For, (as is generally the case with these spiritual canticles and songs,) the Prophet here speaks in his own person, and in that of all the saints also who are afflicted for the word of God’s sake: all of whom give thanks with wonderful sensations of heart, that God does not forsake his own. But God requires, at times, the tears and the blood of the saints: though he preserves and saves his Church, and renders her invincible against sword or fire, and against all the power of enemies temporal or spiritual, nay, in the midst of blood and death; and he raises her up, as it were, from the blood, slaughter, and ashes of the saints, and makes her flourish again and increase the more, in a wonderful manner, in this and that part of the world: so that many, even of the most bitter enemies, have been converted to the faith, and even a Saul has been made a Paul; and sometimes also the judgments of God have fallen on the wicked, and they have perished before the eyes of the godly.
This Psalm has reference to the First Commandment of the Decalogue, and to the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer, as we have observed concerning the preceding Psalm.
PSALM X.
David complaineth to God of the outrage of the wicked.—He prayeth for remedy.—He professeth his confidence.
Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? Why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?
The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth.
The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.
He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.
His mouth is full of cursing, and deceit, and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.
He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily laid against the poor.
He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.
He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.
He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.
Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble.
Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.
Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.
Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none.
The LORD is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land.
LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:
To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.
This Psalm is a fervent prayer, and contains complaints of the deepest concern against Antichrist, that most atrocious enemy of God and the gospel, who will ever assail and lay waste the church, not by force and tyranny only, but with all the πανᴕργίᾳ of Satan, all his frauds and impostures, and with an infinite variety of outside deception and hypocrisy.
This “Man of Sin” is descriptively pourtrayed in the present Psalm;—that he really rages against the body with the sword, ruins and destroys souls by his all-crafty and infinite hypocrisy, and with his sweet poison of false doctrines, and imposing forms of worship; but that he has no concern whatever about teaching any one kindly and with gentleness, nor instructing them seriously unto godliness or true comfort, but has his mouth ever full of cursing and deceit.
This we have manifested in the kingdom of the Pope, and in the tyranny of the Romish-church. All those fulminating and thundering excommunications are mere execrations and cursing, by which he has wished to make himself, and has succeeded in making himself, formidable even to kings, under the false pretence of the apostolic name, and divine authority. And his ‘craft’ and lies are all that infinite and inexplicable variety of hypocrisy and traditions of men; together with all that outward whitewash of holiness, and those deceptive forms of worship, by means of which, and his delusions of masses at one time, and of indulgences at another, this Antichrist ceases not to turn to wicked lucre all things human and divine, under the blasphemous cover and pretext of the name of God.
In the end of the Psalm we have a consolation; which declares that such an abomination shall, in the end of the world, be revealed, and, having been made openly manifest by the sudden judgment of God, shall be rooted out.
This Psalm has reference to the Second Commandment, and to the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer; as have all the Psalms of supplication.
PSALM XI.
David encourageth himself in God against his enemies.—The providence and justice of God.
To the chief Musician, a Psalm of David.
In the LORD put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain?
For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.
If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD’S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.
The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.
Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.
For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.
This Psalm is a complaint against erroneous and fanatical spirits: of which kind are all those who in the present day draw men astray from the pure and true doctrine of faith, and from the true worship of God, (which stands in true faith and the fear of God in the heart,) to hypocrisy, which has always an outward show of something great and wonderful:—these, I say, are the erroneous and fanatics, who thus draw away men like so many birds, and make them fly over to their mountains: that is, make them turn easily over to hypocrisy, and white-wash holiness, which, in outward show, appears to be something great and wonderful, and a firm rock, whereas it is all a thing of nought.
David ascribes to these characters that which is the peculiar characteristic of hypocrites,—that they arrogantly, proudly, and with high looks, despise and deride the truly godly. What, say they, can that righteous one, that fine fellow of a Christian, that poor miserable creature, do?
In the end we have a consolation that God will certainly hear, and regard the afflicted; that he will be present with them, and show them by manifest tokens of his hand that he will not forsake them, and that he will, by horrible judgment, take vengeance on scoffers of this kind; on these pharisees and other enemies of David.
This Psalm has reference to the Second precept of the Decalogue, and to the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer.
PSALM XII.
David, destitute of human comfort, craveth help of God.—He comforteth himself with God’s judgments on the wicked, and confidence in God’s tried promises.
To the chief Musician upon Sheminith, a Psalm of David.
Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.
The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things;
Who have said, with our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?
For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.
The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.
This is a prayer containing a heavy complaint against them, who, introduce human doctrines instead of the word of God, and who, afterwards, by various new traditions and forms of worship disturb the church, and fill all things with a white-wash show of religion, and with the outward daubing of pharisaism and hypocrisy, so that wicked men and hypocrites reign on every side, as the last verse complains. For when human doctrines have once invaded the church, they go on to rage far and wide, and spread in all directions like a cancer; there is no end to their corruption and destructive influence; they take possession of all things and wonderfully vex and torment consciences: so that the number of the true saints and of those that truly fear God is few and small indeed: of this the infinite variety of papistical hypocrisy affords a manifest example.
But we are consoled and comforted under all these afflictions by the consideration that God always raises up in his church, sometimes in this place and sometimes in that, his salvation; that is, his word and gospel; which, while the prophets, apostles, and other ministers throughout the world, boldly and plainly teach against all heresy, they detect and bring to light false doctrines, and overturn all false worship; for where the salvation of God is, (that is, the saving word of Christ and his gospel) it burns up and consumes, like a suddenly-kindled fire, all the chaff and straw of human traditions, and delivers oppressed consciences.
This, however, never takes place without afflictions, and the cross in various forms. But as gold and silver are proved by the fire, so the true knowledge and purity of the word is not preserved in the church but by means of the truly spiritual and godly, who for the word’s sake are exercised without and within by Satan, with various temptations: for these, like gold, are proved in the fire, and thus grow daily and flourish in the knowledge of the gospel, and the great things of God.
This Psalm refers to the second and third precept of the Decalogue, and to the first and second petition of the Lord’s Prayer.
PSALM XIII.
David complaineth of delay in help.—He prayeth for preventing grace.—He boasteth of divine mercy.
To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and hear me, O LORD my God; lighten mine eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death;
Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.
I will sing unto the LORD, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.
This is a prayer full of the sighings and groanings of an afflicted heart in the hour of darkness, and almost overwhelmed, under that darkness, with the extreme of grief and sorrow, and driven to the greatest strait of mind. Of which sorrow the spirit of sadness himself, the devil, is the author, who casts the unwary into these temptations and perturbations in a moment, when he finds them unarmed with the sword of the Spirit, the word of God; which unarmed state he himself causes by turning away our eyes from the promises and the word of God, to look at the incredible ingratitude and iniquity of the world, at the perplexed variety of offences, and at the greatness of the perils which must be undergone for the sake of God’s word and of his holy name. For it cannot be but that even a man of a sound mind must be thrown into tribulation when he considers with what infernal arts, with what stratagems of deceit, and with what bitter and Cainish hatred, Satan and wicked men oppose themselves to the word of God; and then, what fallings away and what monstrous instances of ingratitude there are among those who pretend to be with us; all which offences Satan raises up through the instrumentality of those who are unwilling to appear not to be followers of godliness.
But the prayer of the church has great power; it breaks through and victoriously overcomes all hatred, all perils, and all snares, how craftily soever they may be laid; and faith is more powerful than any violence or storm of temptation. “This (saith John) is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” And this Psalm gives us an example of that faith which enables us to stand fast in the midst of death, and not to doubt that God is able, and will deliver us from our terrible straits, and comfort us after all our fears; and which teaches to believe that we shall struggle through all our distress victoriously, though it may appear to be endless, if we do but turn ourselves away from all dark and dismal appearances of things, lay hold of that which is true and real, and lift ourselves up against the weight that lays upon us, by resting in the consolation of the word of the Lord: as James saith, “Is any afflicted, let him pray.”
This Psalm also refers to the second precept, and to the first and last petition of the Lord’s Prayer; where we pray “Hallowed be thy name,” and “Deliver us from evil.”
PSALM XIV.
David describeth the corruption of a natural man.—He convinceth the wicked by the light of their conscience.—He glorieth in the salvation of God.
To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt; they have done abominable works; there is none that doeth good.
The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.
They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD.
There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous.
Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the LORD is his refuge.
Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the LORD bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
This Psalm is a prophecy; and it also teaches us, that all human doctrines and works without faith are an abomination in the sight of God; and that the God of all such hypocrites (of which kind are the pope and his papists) is their belly; for they serve their belly, not God or Christ, and devour widow’s houses.
But such hypocrites, although they have always in their mouth the name of God, and boast of the law and the works of the law, know not what the true worship of God is, but always hate and persecute the name and word of God, but the true doctrine, concerning faith and the fear of God, they will not hear.
Against such characters as these we must fight by prayer; which prayer will certainly be heard, as is intimated in the last verse of this Psalm, which promises the kingdom and dominion of Christ. For this Psalm especially strikes at those seemingly holy pharisees, those teachers of the law, who, before the coming of Christ, by enforcing works and the righteousness of the law, were cruel torturers, and tormented men’s consciences. And this Psalm promises that wished-for day of Christ, and the redemption that should be wrought by his coming. For the gospel was revealed from Zion, and the Spirit was poured out upon the apostles at Jerusalem.
This Psalm has reference to the First and Second Commandment: for it gloriously exalts the word of God and promises the day of salvation, that is, of Christ: but it rebukes hypocrites who despise the true worship of God, and his faith and fear, and who serve not God but their own belly. And it refers also to the first and second petition of the Lord’s Prayer: where we pray, “Hallowed be thy name; Thy kingdom come.”