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Psalm One
Hundred Twenty
Psalm 120
Chapter Contents
The psalmist prays to God to deliver him from false and
malicious tongues. (1-4) He complains of wicked neighbours. (5-7)
Commentary on Psalm 120:1-4
(Read Psalm 120:1-4)
The psalmist was brought into great distress by a
deceitful tongue. May every good man be delivered from lying lips. They forged
false charges against him. In this distress
he sought God by fervent prayer.
God can bridle their tongues. He obtained a gracious answer to this prayer.
Surely sinners durst not act as they do
if they knew
and would be persuaded
to think
what will be in the end thereof. The terrors of the Lord are his
arrows; and his wrath is compared to burning coals of juniper
which have a
fierce heat
and keep fire very long. This is the portion of the false tongue;
for all that love and make a lie
shall have their portion in the lake that
burns eternally.
Commentary on Psalm 120:5-7
(Read Psalm 120:5-7)
It is very grievous to a good man
to be cast into
and
kept in the company of the wicked
from whom he hopes to be for ever separated.
See here the character of a good man; he is for living peaceably with all men.
And let us follow David as he prefigured Christ; in our distress let us cry unto
the Lord
and he will hear us. Let us follow after peace and holiness
striving
to overcome evil with good.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Psalms》
Psalm 120
Verse 4
[4] Sharp arrows of the mighty
with coals of juniper.
Arrows — The wrath and vengeance of the mighty God
which in
scripture is often compared to arrows
and here to coals of juniper
which burn
very fiercely and retain their heat for a long time.
Verse 5
[5] Woe is me
that I sojourn in Mesech
that I dwell in the
tents of Kedar!
Mesech — Mesech and Kedar are two sorts of people often
mentioned in scripture
and reckoned amongst the barbarous nations. But their
names are here to be understood metaphorically. And so he explains himself in
the next verse.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Psalms》
Exposition
Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings
Hints to the Village Preacher
Suddenly we
have left the continent of the vast Hundred and Nineteenth Psalm for the
islands and islets of the Songs of Degrees. It may be well to engage in
protracted devotion upon a special occasion
but this must cast no slur upon
the sacred brevities which sanctify the godly life day by day. He who inspired
the longest psalm was equally the author of the short compositions which follow
it.
TITLE. A SONG OF
DEGREES. We have already devoted a sufficient space to the consideration of
this title in its application to this psalm and the fourteen compositions which
succeed it. These appear to us to be Pilgrim Psalms
but we are not sure that
they were always sung in company; for many of them are in the first person
singular. No doubt there were solitary pilgrims as well as troops who went to
the house of God in company
and for these lonely ones hymns were prepared.
SUBJECT. A certain
author supposes that this hymn was sung by an Israelite upon leaving his house
to go up to Jerusalem. He thinks that the good man had suffered from the
slander of his neighbours
and was glad to get away from their gossip
and
spend his time in the happier engagements of the holy feasts. It may be so
but
we hope that pious people were not so foolish as to sing about their bad
neighbours when they were leaving them
for a few days. If they wished to leave
their houses in safety
and to come home to kind surroundings
it would have
been the height of folly to provoke those whom they were leaving behind by
singing aloud a psalm of complaint against them. We do not know why this ode is
placed first among the Psalms of Degrees
and we had rather hazard no
conjecture of our own. We prefer the old summary of the translators—"David
prayeth against Doeg"—to any far fetched supposition: and if this be the
scope of the psalm
we see at once why it suggested itself to David at the
station where the ark abode
and from which he had come to remove it. He came to
fetch away the ark
and at the place where he found it he thought of Doeg
and
poured out his complaint concerning him. The author had been grievously
calumniated
and had been tortured into bitterness by the false charges of his
persecutors
and here is his appeal to the great Arbiter of right and wrong
before whose judgment seal no man shall suffer from slanderous tongues.
EXPOSITION
Verse
1. In my distress. Slander occasions distress of the most
grievous kind. Those who have felt the edge of a cruel tongue know assuredly
that it is sharper than the sword. Calumny rouses our indignation by a sense of
injustice
and yet we find ourselves helpless to fight with the evil
or to act
in our own defence. We could ward off the strokes of a cutlass
but we have no
shield against a liar's tongue. We do not know who was the father of the
falsehood
nor where it was born
nor where it has gone
nor how to follow it
nor how to stay its withering influence. We are perplexed
and know not which
way to turn. Like the plague of flies in Egypt
it baffles opposition
and few
can stand before it. Detraction touches us in the most tender point
cuts to
the quick
and leaves a venom behind which it is difficult to extract. In all
ways it is a sore distress to come under the power of "slander
the
foulest whelp of sin." Even in such distress we need not hesitate to cry
unto the Lord. Silence to man and prayer to God are the best cures for the evil
of slander.
I
cried unto the LORD (or Jehovah). The wisest course that he could follow. It is of
little use to appeal to our fellows on the matter of slander
for the more we
stir in it the more it spreads; it is of no avail to appeal to the honour of
the slanderers
for they have none
and the most piteous demands for justice will
only increase their malignity and encourage them to fresh insult. As well plead
with panthers and wolves as with black hearted traducers. However
when cries
to man would be our weakness
cries to God will be our strength. To whom should
children cry but to their father? Does not some good come even out of that vile
thing
falsehood
when it drives us to our knees and to our God? "And he
heard me". Yes
Jehovah hears. He is the living God
and hence prayer to
him is reasonable and profitable. The Psalmist remembered and recorded this
instance of prayer hearing
for it had evidently much affected him; and now he
rehearses it for the glory of God and the good of his brethren. "The
righteous cry and the Lord heareth them". The ear of our God is not deaf
nor even heavy. He listens attentively
he catches the first accent of
supplication; he makes each of his children confess
—"he heard me".
When we are slandered it is a joy that the Lord knows us
and cannot be made to
doubt our uprightness: he will not hear the lie against us
but he will hear
our prayer against the lie.
If
these psalms were sung at the ascent of the ark to Mount Zion
and then
afterwards by the pilgrims to Jerusalem at the annual festivals and at the
return from Babylon
we shall find in the life of David a reason for this being
made the first of them. Did not this servant of God meet with Doeg the Edomite
when he enquired of the oracle by Abiathar
and did not that wretched creature
believe him and betray him to Saul? This made a very painful and permanent
impression upon David's memory
and therefore in commencing the ark journey he
poured out his lament before the Lord
concerning the great and monstrous wrong
of "that dog of a Doeg"
as Trapp wittily calls him. The poet
like the
preacher
may find it to his advantage to "begin low
"for then he
has the more room to rise: the next Psalm is a full octave above the present
mournful hymn. Whenever we are abused it may console us to see that we are not
alone in our misery we are traversing a road upon which David left his
footprints.
Verse
2. Deliver my soul
O Lord
from lying lips. It will need
divine power to save a man from these deadly instruments. Lips are soft: but
when they are lying lips they suck away the life of character and are as
murderous as razors. Lips should never be red with the blood of honest men's
reputes
nor salved with malicious falsehoods. David says
"Deliver my
soul": the soul
the life of the man
is endangered by lying lips; cobras
are not more venomous
nor devils themselves more pitiless. Some seem to lie
for lying sake
it is their sport and spirit: their lips deserve to be kissed
with a hot iron; but it is not for the friends of Jesus to render to men
according to their deserts. Oh for a dumb generation rather than a lying one!
The faculty of speech becomes a curse when it is degraded into a mean weapon
for smiting men behind their backs. We need to be delivered from slander by the
Lord's restraint upon wicked tongues
or else to be delivered out of it by
having our good name cleared from the liar's calumny. And from a deceitful
tongue This is rather worse than downright falsehood. Those who fawn and
flatter
and all the while have enmity in their hearts
are horrible beings;
they are the seed of the devil
and he worketh in them after his own deceptive
nature. Better to meet wild beasts and serpents than deceivers: these are a
kind of monster whose birth is from beneath
and whose end lies far below. It
should be a warning to liars and deceivers when they see that all good men pray
against them
and that even bad men are afraid of them. Here is to the believer
good cause for prayer. "Deliver us from evil"
may be used with
emphasis concerning this business. From gossips
talebearers
writers of
anonymous letters
forgers of newspaper paragraphs
and all sorts of liars
good Lord deliver us!
Verse
3. What shall be given unto thee? What is the expected
guerdon of slander? It ought to be something great to make it worth while to
work in so foul an atmosphere and to ruin one's soul. Could a thousand worlds
be bribe enough for such villainous deeds? The liar shall have no welcome
recompense: he shall meet with his deserts; but what shall they be? What
punishment can equal his crime? The Psalmist seems lost to suggest a fitting
punishment. It is the worst of offences—this detraction
calumny
and slander.
Judgment sharp and crushing would be measured out to it if men were visited for
their transgressions. But what punishment could be heavy enough? What form
shall the chastisement take? O liar
"what shall be given unto thee?"
Or what shall be done unto thee
thou false tongue? How shalt thou be visited?
The law of retaliation can hardly meet the case
since none can slander the
slanderer
he is too black to be blackened; neither would any of us blacken him
if we could. Wretched being! He fights with weapons which true men cannot
touch. Like the cuttlefish
he surrounds himself with an inky blackness into
which honest men cannot penetrate. Like the foul skunk
he emits an odour of
falsehood which cannot be endured by the true; and therefore he often escapes
unchastised by those whom he has most injured. His crime
in a certain sense
becomes his shield; men do not care to encounter so base a foe. But what will
God do with lying tongues? He has uttered his most terrible threats against
them
and he will terribly execute them in due time.
Verse
4. Sharp arrows of the mighty. Swift
sure
and sharp shall
be the judgment. Their words were as arrows
and so shall their punishment be.
God will see to it that their punishment shall be comparable to an arrow keen
in itself
and driven home with all the force with which a mighty man shoots it
from his bow of steel
—"sharp arrows of the mighty". Nor shall one
form of judgment suffice to avenge this complicated sin. The slanderer shall
feel woes comparable to coals of juniper
which are quick in flaming
fierce in
blazing
and long in burning. He shall feel sharp arrows and sharper fires.
Awful doom! All liars shall have their portion in the lake which burneth with
fire and brimstone. Their worm dieth not
and their fire is not quenched.
Juniper coals long retain their heat
but hell burneth ever
and the deceitful
tongue may not deceive itself with the hope of escape from the fire which it
has kindled. What a crime is this to which the All merciful allots a doom so
dreadful! Let us hate it with perfect hatred. It is better to be the victim of
slander than
to be the author of it. The shafts of calumny will miss the mark
but not so the arrows of God: the coals of malice will cool
but not the fire
of justice. Shun slander as you would avoid hell.
Verse
5. Woe is me
that sojourn in Mesech
that I dwell in the tents
of Kedar! Gracious men are vexed with the conversation of the wicked. Our poet
felt himself to be as ill at ease among lying neighbours as if he had lived
among savages and cannibals. The traitors around him were as bad as the
unspeakable Turk. He cries "Woe is me!" Their sin appalled him
their
enmity galled him. He had some hope from the fact that he was only a sojourner
in Mesech; but as years rolled on the time dragged heavily
and he feared that
he might call himself a dweller in Kedar. The wandering tribes to whom he
refers were constantly at war with one another; it was their habit to travel
armed to the teeth; they were a kind of plundering gypsies
with their hand
against every man and every man's hand against them; and to these he compared
the false hearted ones who had assailed his character. Those who defame the
righteous are worse than cannibals; for savages only eat men after they are
dead
but these wretches cat them up alive.
"Woe's
me that I in Mesech am
A sojourner so long;
That I in tabernacles dwell
To Kedar that belong.
My soul with him that hateth peace
Hath long a dweller been;
I am for peace; but when I speak
For battle they are keen.
My soul distracted mourns and pines
To reach that peaceful short
Where all the weary are at rest
And troublers vex no more."
Verse
6. My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. Long
long enough
too long had he been an exile among such barbarians. A peace maker
is a blessing
but a peace hater is a curse. To lodge with such for a night is
dangerous
but to dwell with them is horrible. The verse may apply to any one of
the Psalmist's detractors: he had seen enough of him and pined to quit such
company. Perhaps the sweet singer did not at first detect the nature of the
man
for he was a deceiver; and when he did discover him he found himself
unable to shake him off
and so was compelled to abide with him. Thoughts of
Doeg
Saul
Ahithophel
and the sons of Zeruiah come to our mind
—these last
not as enemies
but as hot blooded soldiers who were often too strong for
David. What a change for the man of God from the quietude of the sheepfold to
the turmoil of court and the tumult of combat! How he must have longed to lay
aside his sceptre
and to resume his crook. He felt the time of his dwelling
with quarrelsome spirits to be long
too long; and he only endured it because
as the Prayer book version has it
he was constrained so to abide.
Verse
7. I am for peace. Properly
"I am peace"; desirous
of peace
peaceful
forbearing
—in fact
peace itself. But when I speak
they
are for war. My kindest words appear to provoke them
and they are at daggers
drawn at once. Nothing pleases them; if I am silent they count me morose
and
if I open my mouth they cavil and controvert. Let those who dwell with such
pugilistic company console themselves with the remembrance that both David and
David's Lord endured the same trial. It is the lot of the saints to find foes
even in their own households. Others besides David dwelt in the place of
dragons. Others besides Daniel have been cast into a den of lions. Meanwhile
let those who are in quiet resting places and peaceful habitations be greatly
grateful for such ease. "Deus nobis haec otia fecit": God has given
us this tranquillity. Be it ours never to inflict upon others that from which
we have been screened ourselves.
EXPLANATORY
NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
TITLE. "A Song
of Degrees". A most excellent song
Tremellius rendereth it; and so indeed
this and the fourteen following are
both for the matter
and for the form or
manner of expression
which is wondrous short and sweet
as the very epigrams
of the Holy Ghost himself
wherein each verse may well stand for an oracle. And
in this sense
"adam hammahalah"
or
a man of degrees
is put for an
eminent or excellent man: 1Ch 17:17. Others understand it otherwise; wherein
they have good leave to abound in their own sense; an error here is not
dangerous.—John Trapp.
Whole
Psalm. In the interpretation of these psalms
which sees in them the
"degrees" of Christian virtues
this psalm aptly describes the first
of such steps—the renunciation of the evil and vanity of the world. It thus
divides itself into two parts.
1.
The Psalmist
in the person of one beginning the grades of virtue
finds many
opponents in the shape of slanderers and ill advisers.
2.
He laments the admixture of evil—"Woe is me".—H.T. Armfield.
Whole
Psalm. It is a painful but useful lesson which is taught by this first
of the Pilgrim Psalms
that all who manifest a resolution to obey the commands
and seek the favour of God
may expect to encounter opposition and reproach in
such a course... This these worshippers of old found when preparing to seek the
Lord in his Temple. They were watched in their preparation by malignant eyes;
they were followed to the house of prayer by the contempt and insinuations of
bitter tongues. But their refuge is in him they worship; and
firmly convinced
that he never can forsake his servants
they look up through the cloud of
obloquy to his throne
and implore the succour which they know that his
children shall ever find there. "O Lord
in this my trouble deliver my
soul".—Robert Nisbet.
Whole
Psalm. The pilgrims were leaving home; and lying lips commonly attack
the absent. They were about to join the pilgrim caravan; and in the excitements
of social intercourse their own lips might easily deviate from truth. The
psalm
moreover
breathes an intense longing for peace; and in this world of
strife and confusion
when is that longing inappropriate? Is it any marvel that
a Hebrew
with a deep spiritual longing for peace
should cry as he started for
the Temple
"Let me get out of all that
at least for a time. Let me be
quit of this fever and strain
free from the vain turbulence and conflicting
noises of the world. Let me rest and recreate myself a while in the sacred
asylum and sanctuary of the God of peace. God of peace
grant me thy peace as I
worship in thy presence; and let me find a bettered world when I come back to
it
or at least bring a bettered and more patient heart to its duties and
strifes".—Samuel Cox.
Verse
1. In my distress I cried unto the Lord
etc. See the
wondrous advantage of trouble
—that it makes us call upon God; and again see
the wondrous readiness of mercy
that when we call he heareth us! Very blessed
are they that mourn while they are travelling the long upward journey from the
Galilee of the Gentiles of this lower world to the heavenly Jerusalem
the high
and holy city of the saints of God.—J.W. Burgon
in "A Plain
Commentary."
Verse
1. In my distress. God's help is seasonable; it comes when we
need it. Christ is a seasonable good... For the soul to be dark
and for Christ
to enlighten it; for the soul to be dead
and Christ to enliven it; for the
soul to be doubting
and for Christ to resolve it; and for the soul to be
distressed
and for Christ to relieve it; is not this in season? For a soul to
be hard
and for Christ to soften it; for a soul to be haughty
and for Christ
to humble it; for a soul to be tempted
and for Christ to succour it; and for a
soul to be wounded
and for Christ to heal it? Is not this in season?—R. Mayhew
1679.
Verse
1. Cried. Heard. The verbs are in the past tense
but do not
refer merely to a past occasion. Past experience and present are here combined.
From the past he draws encouragement for the present.—J.J. Stewart Perowne.
Verse
1. And he heard me. The effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much: Jas 5:16; Zec 13:9. He that prayeth ardently
speeds assuredly (Ps 91:15); and the delayed return of prayer should be
carefully observed and thankfully improved: Ps 66:20.—John Trapp.
Verse
2. Deliver my soul
O Lord
from lying lips
etc. An
unbridled tongue is "vehiculum Diaboli"
the chariot of the Devil
wherein he rides in triumph. Greenhorn doth describe the tongue prettily by
contraries
or diversities: "It is a little piece of flesh
small in
quantity
but mighty in quality; it is soft
but slippery; it goeth lightly
but falleth heavily; it striketh soft
but woundeth sore; it goeth out quickly
but burneth vehemently; it pierceth deep
and therefore not healed speedily; it
hath liberty granted easily to go forth but it will find no means easily to
return home; and being once inflamed with Satan's bellows
it is like the fire
of hell." The course of an unruly tongue is to proceed from evil to worse
to begin with foolishness
and go on with bitterness
and to end in mischief
and madness. See Ec 10:13. The Jew's conference with our Saviour began with
arguments: "We be Abraham's seed
"said they
etc.; but proceeded to
blasphemies: "Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan
and hast a
devil?" and ended in cruelty: "Then took they up stones to cast at
him." Joh 8:33
48
59. This also is the base disposition of a bad tongue to
hate those whom it afflicts: Pr 26:28. The mischief of the tongue may further
appear by the mercy of being delivered from it
for
1.
So God hath promised it (Joh 5:15
21). "God saveth the poor from the
sword
from their mouth
and from the hand of the mighty
"and "thou
shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue
"or from being betongued
as
some render it
that is
from being
as it were
caned or cudgelled with the
tongues of others. "Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence
from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the
strife of tongues" (Ps 31:20); that is
from all calumnies
reproaches
evil speakings of all kinds. God will preserve the good names of his people
from the blots and bespatterings of malicious men
as kings protect their
favourites against slanders and clamours.
2.
So the saints have prayed for it
as David: "Deliver my soul
O Lord
from
lying lips
and from a deceitful tongue."—Edward Reyner.
Verse
2. Deliver my soul
O Lord
from lying lips
etc. In the drop
of venom which distils from the sting of the smallest insect
or the spike of
the nettle leaf
there is concentrated the quintessence of a poison so subtle
that the microscope cannot distinguish it
and yet so virulent that it can
inflame the blood
irritate the whole constitution
and convert day and night
into restless misery; so it is sometimes with the words of the slanderer.—Frederick
William Robertson.
Verse
2. Lying lips bore false witness against him
or with a
"deceitful tongue" tried to ensnare him
and to draw something from
him
on which they might ground an accusation.—George Horne.
Verse
3. What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto
thee
thou false tongue? What dost thou expect
"thou false tongue
"in pleading a bad cause? What fee or reward hast thou for being an
accuser instead of an advocate? What shall it profit thee (as we put it in the
margin); what shalt thou gain by thy deceitful tongue? or (as our margin hath
it again)
"What shall the deceitful tongue give unto thee
"that
thou goest about slandering thy brother
and tearing his good name? Hath thy deceitful
tongue houses or lands to give thee? hath it any treasures of gold and silver
to bestow upon thee? Surely
as itself is so it gives only "Sharp arrows
of the mighty
with coals of juniper" as the next verse intimates... The
tongue indeed will speak often in these cases gratis
or without a fee; but it
never doth without danger and damage to the speaker. As such speakers shoot
arrows
like the arrows of the mighty
and as they scatter coals
like the
coals of juniper
so they usually get an arrow in their own sides
and not only
burn their fingers
but heap coals of fire upon their own heads. Ungodly men
will do mischief to other men purely for mischief's sake: yet when once
mischief is done it proves most mischievous to the doers of it; and while they
hold their brethren's heaviness a profit
though they are never the better
they shall feel and find themselves in a short time much the worse.—Joseph
Caryl.
Verses
3
4. What shall be given? Intimating that his enemy expected some
great reward for his malice against David; but
saith the Psalmist
he shall
have "sharp arrows of the Almighty
with coals of juniper"; as if he
had said
"Whatever reward he have from men
this shall be his reward from
God".—John Jackson
in "The Morning Exercises
"
1661.
Verses
3
4. The victim of slander
in these heavy complaints he has just
uttered
may be indulging in excess
which pious friends are represented as
coming forward to reprove by reminding him how little a true servant of God can
be really injured by slander. Hence
as in the margin of our Bibles
the psalm
assumes the dramatic form
and represents his fellow worshippers as asking the
complainer: What evil
O servant of God
can the false tongue give to thee!
Nursling of Omnipotence
what can it do to thee... The answer of suffering
nature and bleeding peace still returns: "It is like the sharp arrows of
the mighty
like coals of juniper". An arrow from the bow of a mighty
warrior
that flies unseen and unsuspected to its mark
and whose presence is
only known when it quivers in the victim's heart
not unaptly represents the
silent and deadly flight of slander; while the fire which the desert pilgrim
kindles on the sand
from the dry roots of the juniper
a wood which
of all
that are known to him
throws out the fiercest and most continued heat
is not
less powerfully descriptive of the intense pain and the lasting injury of a
false and malicious tongue.—Robert Nisbet.
Verses
3
4. Coals of juniper
these "shall be given unto thee". As
if he had said
thou shalt have the hottest coals
such coals as will maintain
heat longest
implying that the hottest and most lasting wrath of God should be
their portion. Some naturalists say that coals of juniper raked up in the ashes
will keep fire a whole year; but I stay not upon this.—Joseph Caryl.
Verse
4. Sharp arrows of the mighty
with coals of juniper. The
world's sin is the world's punishment. A correspondence is frequently observed
between the transgression and the retribution... This law of correspondence
seem to be here indicated. Similar figures are employed to express the offence
and the punishment of the wicked. "They bend their tongue like a bow for
lies." "Who whet their tongue like a sword
and bend their bows to
shoot in secret at the perfect." But let the slanderer be upon his guard.
There is another bow besides that in his possession. The arrows are sharp and
burning; and when they are sent from the bow by the arm of Omnipotence
nothing
can resist their force
and in mortal agony his enemies bite the dust. "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."
"God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded; so
shall they make their own tongue fall upon themselves." This train of
thought is also pursued in the illustration of fire. James compares the tongue
of slander to fire. "And the tongue is a fire
a world of iniquity: so is
the tongue among the members
that it defileth the whole body
and setteth on
fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell." Such is the
tongue
and here is the punishment: "Coals of juniper
"remarkable
for their long retention of heat. And yet what a feeble illustration of the
wrath of God
which burns down to the lowest hell! "His lips are full of
indignation
and his tongue as a devouring fire." Liars are excluded from
heaven by a special enactment of the Sovereign; and all of them "shall
have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone
which is the
second death." "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who
among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" With what solemn awe
should we not cry out to the Lord
"Gather not my soul with sinners
nor
my life with bloody mens!"—N. McMichael
in "The Pilgrim
Psalms
" 1860.
Verse
4. Sharp arrows of the mighty. He compares wicked doctrine to
an arrow which is not blunt
but sharp; and moreover which is cast
not of him
that is weak and feeble
but that is strong and mighty; so that there is danger
on both sides
as well of the arrow which is sharp and able to pierce
as also
of him which with great violence hurleth the same.—Martin Luther.
Verse
4. Arrows. Coals of juniper. When the tongue is compared to
"arrows"
there is a reference (according to the Midrash)
to the
irrevocableness of the tongue's work. Even the lifted sword may be stayed
but
the shot arrow may not. The special point to be drawn out in the mention of
"coals of juniper"
is the inextinguishableness of such fuel. There
is a marvellous story in the Midrash which illustrates this very well. Two men
in the desert sat down under a juniper tree
and gathered sticks of it where
with they cooked their food. After a year they passed over the same spot where
was the dust of what they had burned; and
remarking that it was now twelve
months since they had the fire
they walked fearlessly upon the dust
and their
feet were burned by the "coals" beneath it
which were still
unextinguished.—H.T. Armfield.
Verse
4. Coals of juniper. The fire of the Retham burns for a very
long time covered with its ashes; like malignant slander. But the secret
malignity becomes its own terrible punishment.—William Kay.
Verse
4. Coals of juniper. We here at Wadf Kinnah found
several Bedouins occupied in collecting brushwood
which they burn into
charcoal for the Cairo market; they prefer for this purpose the thick roots of
the shrub Retham
"Genista raetam" of Forskal
which grows here in
abundance.—Johann Ludwig Burckhardt
1784-1817.
Verse
4. Coals of juniper. At this time we spoke four "ships
of the desert"
bound for Cairo
and loaded with "coals of
juniper"
or
in other words
with charcoal made from the roots or
branches of the ratam
or white broom of the desert
the identical bush referred
to by the sacred writer.—John Wilson
in "The Lands of the Bible
visited and described
" 1847.
Verse
4. By "coals of juniper
"we understand arrows made of
this wood
which when heated possesses the property of retaining the heat for a
long time; and consequently
arrows of this kind
after having been placed in
the fire
would in the hands of the warrior do terrible execution. Some persons
think that this verse is not to be understood as a figurative description of
calumny
but rather of the punishment which God will inflict upon the
calumniator. They therefore regard this as an answer to the question in the
preceding verse: "What shall he give?" etc.—George Phillips.
Verse
5. Woe is me
that I sojourn in Mesech
that I dwell in the tents
of Kedar! Mesech was a son of Japheth; and the name here signifies his
descendants
the Mosques
who occupied that wild mountain region which lies
between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. Kedar
again
was a son of Ishmael;
and the name here signifies his descendants
the wandering tribes
whose
"hand is against every man
and every man's hand against them." There
is no geographical connection between those two nations: the former being upon
the north of Palestine
and the latter upon the south. The connection is a moral
one. They are mentioned together
because they were fierce and warlike
barbarians. David had never lived on the shores of the Caspian Sea
or in the
Arabian wilderness; and he means no more than this
that the persons with whom
he now dwelt were as savage and quarrelsome as Mesech and Kedar. After a
similar fashion
we call rude and troublesome persons Turks
Tartars
and
Hottentots. David exclaims
I am just as miserable among these haters of peace
as if I had taken up my abode with those savage and treacherous tribes.—N.
McMichael.
Verse
5. Woe is me
that I sojourn in Mesech
etc. David exclaims
Alas for me because
dwelling amongst false brethren and a bastard race of
Abraham
he was wrongfully molested and tormented by them
although he had
behaved himself towards them in good conscience. Since then
at the present
day
in the church of Rome
religion is dishonoured by all manner of
disgraceful imputations
faith torn in pieces
light turned into darkness
and
the majesty of God exposed to the grossest mockeries
it will certainly be
impossible for those who have any feeling of true piety within them to lie in
the midst of such pollutions without great anguish of spirit.—John Calvin.
Verse
6. The Arabs are naturally thievish and treacherous; and it
sometimes happens
that those very persons are overtaken and pillaged in the
morning who were entertained the night before with all the instances of
friendship and hospitality. Neither are they to be accused for plundering
strangers only
and attacking almost every person whom they find unarmed and
defenceless
but for those many implacable and hereditary animosities which
continually subsist among them; literally fulfilling the prophecy of Hagar
that "Ishmael should be a wild man; his hand should be against every man
and every man's hand against him".—Thomas Shaw
1692-1751.
Verse
6. Our Lord was with the wild beasts in the wilderness. There are
not a few who would rather face even these than the angry spirits which
alas
are still to be found even in Christian Churches.—Wesleyan Methodist
Magazine
1879.
Verses
6
7. What holy and gentle delight is associated with the very name of
peace. Peace resting upon our bosom
and soothing all its cares: peace resting
upon our households
and folding all the members in one loving embrace: peace
resting upon our country
and pouring abundance from her golden horn peace
resting upon all nations
and binding them together with the threefold cord of
a common humanity
a common interest
and a common religion! The man who hates
peace is a dishonour to the race
an enemy to his brother
and a traitor to his
God. He hates Christ
who is the Prince of peace. He hates Christians
who are
men of peace.—N. McMichael.
Verse
7. I am for peace
etc. Jesus was a man of peace; he came into
our world
and was worshipped at his nativity as the Prince of peace: there was
universal peace throughout the world at the time of his birth; he lived to make
peace "by the blood of his cross": he died to complete it. When he
was going out of the world
he said to his disciples
"Peace I leave with
you
my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth
give I unto you. Let
not your heart be troubled
neither let it be afraid": Joh 14:27. When he
was risen from the dead
and made his first appearance to his disciples
he
said unto them. "Peace be unto you": he is the peace maker: the Holy
Ghost is the peace bringer: his gospel is the gospel of peace; it contains the
peace of God which passeth all understanding. "I am for peace: but when I
speak
they are for war". The bulk of the Jewish nation abhorred Christ
they were for putting him to death; to avenge which
the Lord brought the Roman
army against them
and many of them were utterly destroyed. So David literally
was for peace with Saul; yet
when opportunities made way for any negotiations
it was soon discovered Saul was for war
instead of peace
with him. May we see
how this
which is the introductory psalm to those fourteen which follow
styled Songs of Degrees
hath a concern with our Lord Jesus Christ; and that
David the son of Jesse was in many cases a type of him
and several of his
enemies
sorrows
and griefs
forerunning figures of what would befall Messiah
and come upon him. Amen.—Samuel Eyles Pierce.
Verse
7. I am for peace. Good men love peace
pray for it
seek it
pursue it
will give anything but a good conscience for it. Compare Mt 5:9; Heb
7:14: W.S. Plumer. "It is a mark of a pious man
as far as in him
is
to seek peace": Arnesius. "I would not give one hour of
brotherly love for a whole eternity of contention": Dr. Ruffner.
Verse
7. When l speak
they are for war. He spoke with all respect
and kindness that could be; proposed methods of accommodation; spoke reason
spoke love; but they would not so much as hear him patiently; but cried out
To
arms! To arms! so fierce and implacable were they
and so bent on mischief.
Such were Christ's enemies: for his love they were his adversaries; and for his
good words and good works they stoned him; and if we meet with such enemies we
must not think it strange
nor love peace the less for our seeking it in vain.
"Be not overcome of evil"
no
not of such evil as this;
"but"
even when thus tried
still try to "overcome evil with
good".—Matthew Henry.
HINTS TO THE
VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse
1. A reminiscence.
1.
It is threefold; distress
prayer
deliverance.
2.
It has a threefold bearing: it excites my hope
stimulates my petitions
and
arouses my gratitude.
Verse
1.
1.
Special trouble: "In my distress."
2. Special prayer: "I cried unto the Lord."
3. Special favour: "He heard me."—G.R.
Verse
2. The unjustly slandered have
besides the avenging majesty of
their God to protect them
many other consolations
as
1.
The consciousness of innocence to sustain them.
2.
The promise of divine favour to support them: "I will hide thee from the
scourge of the tongue."
3.
There is the consideration to soothe: "Blessed are ye when men shall
revile you and persecute you
"etc.
4.
That a lie has not usually a long life.
5.
There is
lastly
for comfort
the repairing influence of time.—R. Nisbet.
Verse
2. A prayer against slander. We are liable to it; it would do us
great injury and cause us great pain; yet none but the Lord can protect us from
it
or deliver us out of it.
Verse
3. The rewards of calumny. What can they be? What ought they to be?
What have they been?
Verse
3.
1.
What the reviler does for others.
2. What he does to himself.
3. What God will do with him.
Verse
4. The nature of slander and the punishment of slander.
Verse
4.
1.
The tongue is sharper than an arrow.
(a)
It is shot in private.
(b) It is tipped with poison.
(c) It is polished with seeming kindness.
(d) It is aimed at the most tender part.
2.
The tongue is more destructive than fire. Its scandals spread with greater
rapidity. They consume that which other fires cannot touch
and they are less
easily quenched. "The tongue"
says an Apostle
"is a fire...and
setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell". A
fiery dart of the wicked one.—G.R.
Verse
5. Bad lodgings. Only the wicked can be at home with the wicked. Our
dwelling with them is trying
and yet it may be useful
(1)
to them
(2)
to us: it tries our graces
reveals our character
abates our pride
drives us
to prayer
and makes us long to be home.
Verse
5.
1.
None but the wicked enjoy the company of the wicked.
2. None but the worldly enjoy the company of worldlings.
3. None but the righteous enjoy the company of the righteous.—G.R.
Verse
6.
1.
Trying company.
2.
Admirable behaviour.
3.
Undesirable consequences: "When I speak
they are for war".
Verse
7. The character of the man of God. He is at peace. He is for peace.
He is peace. He shall have peace.
Verse
7.
1.
Piety and peace are united.
2. So are wickedness and war.—G.R.
── C.H. Spurgeon《The Treasury of David》