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Psalm One
Hundred Forty-five
Psalm 145
Chapter Contents
David extols the power
goodness
and mercy of the Lord.
(1-9) The glory of God's kingdom
and his care of those that love him. (10-21)
Commentary on Psalm 145:1-9
(Read Psalm 145:1-9)
Those who
under troubles and temptations
abound in
fervent prayer
shall in due season abound in grateful praise
which is the
true language of holy joy. Especially we should speak of God's wondrous work of
redemption
while we declare his greatness. For no deliverance of the
Israelites
nor the punishment of sinners
so clearly proclaims the justice of
God
as the cross of Christ exhibits it to the enlightened mind. It may be
truly said of our Lord Jesus Christ
that his words are words of goodness and
grace; his works are works of goodness and grace. He is full of compassion;
hence he came into the world to save sinners. When on earth
he showed his
compassion both to the bodies and souls of men
by healing the one
and making
wise the other. He is of great mercy
a merciful High Priest
through whom God
is merciful to sinners.
Commentary on Psalm 145:10-21
(Read Psalm 145:10-21)
All God's works show forth his praises. He satisfies the
desire of every living thing
except the unreasonable children of men
who are
satisfied with nothing. He does good to all the children of men; his own people
in a special manner. Many children of God
who have been ready to fall into
sin
to fall into despair
have tasted his goodness in preventing their falls
or recovering them speedily by his graces and comforts. And with respect to all
that are heavy laden under the burden of sin
if they come to Christ by faith
he will ease them
he will raise them. He is very ready to hear and answer the
prayers of his people. He is present every where; but in a special way he is
nigh to them
as he is not to others. He is in their hearts
and dwells there
by faith
and they dwell in him. He is nigh to those that call upon him
to
help them in all times of need. He will be nigh to them
that they may have
what they ask
and find what they seek
if they call upon him in truth and
sincerity. And having taught men to love his name and holy ways
he will save
them from the destruction of the wicked. May we then love his name
and walk in
his ways
while we desire that all flesh should bless his holy name for ever
and ever.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Psalms》
Psalm 145
Verse 14
[14] The LORD upholdeth all that fall
and raiseth up all
those that be bowed down.
All — All that look up to him for help.
Verse 15
[15] The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them
their meat in due season.
All — Of all living creatures.
Wait — Expect their supplies wholly from thy bounty.
Expectation is here figuratively ascribed to brute creatures.
Verse 18
[18] The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him
to
all that call upon him in truth.
Nigh — To answer their prayers.
In truth — With an upright heart.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Psalms》
Exposition
Explanatory Notes and
Quaint Sayings
Hints to the Village
Preacher
This is one of
the alphabetical psalms
composed with much art
and
doubtless
so arranged
that the memory might be aided. The Holy Spirit condescends to use even the more
artificial methods of the poet
to secure attention
and impress the heart.
TITLE. David's
Psalm Of Praise. It is David's
David's very own
David's favourite. It is
David's Praise just as another (Ps 86:1-17) is David's Prayer. It is altogether
praise
and praise pitched in a high key. David had blessed God many a time in
other psalms
but this he regarded as his peculiar
his crown jewel of praise.
Certainly David's praise is the best of praise
for it is that of a man of
experience
of sincerity
of calm deliberation
and of intense warmth of the
heart. It is not for any one of us to render David's praise
for David only
could do that
but we may take David's psalm as a model
and aim at making our
own personal adoration as much
like it as possible: we shall be long before we
equal our model. Let each Christian reader present his own praise unto the
Lord
and call it by his own name. What a wealth of varied praise will thus be
presented through Christ Jesus!
DIVISION. The psalm does
not fall into any marked divisions
but is one and indivisible. Our other
translators have mapped out this song with considerable discernment. It is or a
perfect arrangement
but it will suit our convenience in exposition. David
praiseth God for his fame or glory (Ps 145:1-7)
for his goodness (Ps
145:8-10)
for his kingdom (Ps 145:11-13)
for his providence (Ps 145:14-16)
for his saving mercy (Ps 145:17-21).
EXPOSITION
Verse
1. I will extol thee
my God
O king. David as God's king
adores God as his king. It is well when the Lord's royalty arouses our loyalty
and our spirit is moved to magnify his majesty. The Psalmist has extolled his
Lord many a time before
he is doing so still
and he will do so in the future:
praise is for all tenses. When we cannot express all our praise just now
it is
wise to register our resolution to continue in the blessed work
and write it
down as a bond
"I will extol thee." See how David testifies his
devotion and adherence to his God by the pronoun "my"
how he owns
his allegiance by the title "king"
and how he goes on to declare his
determination to make much of him in his song. And I will bless thy name for
ever and ever. David determined that his praise should rise to blessing
should
intelligently spend itself upon the name or character of God
and should be
continued world without end. He uses the word "bless" not merely for
variation of sound
but also for the deepening and sweetening of the sense. To
bless God is to praise him with a personal affection for him
and a wishing
well to him: this is a growingly easy exercise as we advance in experience and
grow in grace. David declares that he will offer every form of praise
through
every form of existence. His notion of duration is a full one—"for
ever" has no end
but when he adds another" ever" to it he
forbids all idea of a close. Our praise of God shall be as eternal as the God
we praise.
Verse
2. Every day will I bless thee. Whatever the character of the
day
or of my circumstances and conditions during that day
I will continue to
glorify God. Were we well to consider the matter we should see abundant cause
in each day for rendering special blessing unto the Lord. All before the day
all in the day
all following the day should constrain us to magnify our God
every day
all the year round. Our love to God is not a matter of holy days:
every day is alike holy to holy men. David here comes closer to God than when
he said
"I will bless thy name": it is now
"I will bless thee."
This is the centre and kernel of true devotion: we do not only admire the
Lord's words and works
but himself. Without realizing the personality of God
praise is well nigh impossible; you cannot extol an abstraction. And I will
praise thy name for ever and ever. He said he would bless that name
and
now he vows to praise it; he will extol the Lord in every sense and way.
Eternal worship shall not be without its variations; it will never become
monotonous. Heavenly music is not harping upon one string
but all strings
shall be tuned to one praise. Observe the personal pronouns here: four times he
says "I will": praise is not to be discharged by proxy: there must be
your very self in it
or there is nothing in it.
Verse
3. Great is the LORD
and greatly to be praised. Worship
should be somewhat like its object—great praise for a great God. There is no
part of Jehovah's greatness which is not worthy of great praise. In some beings
greatness is but vastness of evil: in him it is magnificence of goodness.
Praise may be said to be great when the song contains great matter
when the
hearts producing it are intensely fervent
and when large numbers unite in the
grand acclaim. No chorus is too loud
no orchestra too large
no psalm too
lofty for the lauding of the Lord of Hosts.
"And
his greatness is unsearchable."
"Still his worth your praise exceeds
Excellent are all his deeds."
Song
should be founded upon search; hymns composed without thought are of no worth
and tunes upon which no pains have been spent are beneath the dignity of divine
adoration. Yet when we meditate most
and search most studiously we shall still
find ourselves surrounded with unknowable wonders
which will baffle all
attempts to sing them worthily. The best adoration of the Unsearchable is to
own him to be so
and close the eyes in reverence before the excessive light of
his glory. Not all the minds of all the centuries shall suffice to search out
the unsearchable riches of God; he is past finding out; and
therefore
his
deserved praise is still above and beyond all that we can render to him.
Verse
4. One generation shall praise thy works to another. There
shall be a tradition of praise: melt shall hand on the service
they shall make
it a point to instruct their descendants in this hallowed exercise. We look
back upon the experience of our fathers
and sing of it; even thus shall our
sons learn praise from the Lord's works among ourselves. Let us see to it that
we praise God before our children
and never make them think that his service
is an unhappy one. And shall declare thy mighty acts. The generations
shall herein unite: together they shall make up an extraordinary history. Each
generation shall contribute its chapter
and all the generations together shall
compose a volume of matchless character. David began with "I"
but he
has in this verse soon reached to an inconceivable multitude
comprehending all
the myriads of our race of every age. The praise of the Lord enlarges the
heart
and as it grows upon us our minds grow with it. God's works of goodness
and acts of power make up a subject which all the eras of human story can never
exhaust. A heart full of praise seems to live in all the centuries in
delightful companionship with all the good. We are not afraid that the incense
will ever cease to burn upon the altars of Jehovah: the priests die
but the
adoration lives on. All glory be unto him who remains the same Lord throughout
all generations.
Verse
5. I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty. 'Tis
fit a king should speak of the majesty of the King of kings. David cannot give
over the worship of God into the hands of others
even though all generations
should undertake to perpetuate it: he must have his own individual share in it
and so he saith
"I will speak." What a speaker! for he no sooner
begins than he heaps up words of honour—"the glorious honour of thy
majesty"
or "the beauty of the honour of thy majesty." His
language labours to express his meaning; he multiplies the terms by which he
would extol Jehovah
his King. Everything which has to do with the Great King
is majestic
honourable
glorious. His least is greater than man's greatest
his lowest is higher than man's highest. There is nothing about the infinite
Lord which is unworthy of his royalty; and
on the other hand
nothing is
wanting to the splendour of his reign: his majesty is honourable
and his
honour is glorious: he is altogether wonderful. And of thy wondrous works. All
the works of God among men are Godlike
but certain of them are specially
calculated to create surprise. Many works of power
of justice
of wisdom
are
wonderful; and his work of grace is wondrous above all. This specially
and all
the rest proportionately
should be spoken of by holy men
by experienced men
and by men who have the ability to speak with power. These things must not be permitted
to pass away in silence; if others do not remember them
representative men
like David must make a point of conversing upon them in private
and speaking
of them in public. Let it be the delight of each one of us according to our
position to speak lovingly of our Lord.
Verse
6. And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts. If
unobservant of other matters these acts of judgment shall seize their attention
and impress their minds so that they must talk about them. Did not men in our
Saviour's day speak of the falling tower of Siloam and the slaughtered
Galileans? Are there not rumours of wars
when there are not even whispers of
other things? Horrible news is sure to spread: under mercies men may be dumb
but concerning miseries they raise a great outcry. The force of dread is a
power which loosens the tongue of the multitude: they are sure to talk of that
which makes the ear to tingle and the hair to stand upright. While they are
thus occupied with "fearsome facts"
such as the drowning of a world
the destruction of the cities of the plain
the plagues of Egypt
the
destruction at the Red Sea
and so forth
David would look at these affairs in
another light
and sing another tune. And I will declare thy greatness.
Those acts which were terrible deeds to most men were mighty deeds
or greatnesses
to our holy poet: these he would publish like a herald
who mentions the titles
and honours of his royal master. It is the occupation of every true believer to
rehearse the great doings of his great God. We are not to leave this to the
common converse of the crowd
but we are personally to make a declaration of
what we have seen and known. We are even bound in deep solemnity of manner to
warn men of the Lord's greatness in his terrible acts of justice: thus will
they be admonished to abstain from provoking him. To fulfil this duty we are
already bound by solemn obligations
and we shall do well to bind ourselves
further by resolutions
"I will—God helping me
I will."
Verse
7. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness.
They shall pour forth grateful memories even as springs gush with water
plenteously
spontaneously
constantly
joyously. The Lord's redeemed people
having been filled with his great goodness
shall retain the happy recollection
of it
and shall be moved often and often to utter those recollections. Not
content with a scanty mention of such amazing love
they shall go on to an
abundant utterance of such abundant favour. It shall be their delight to speak
with one another of God's dealings with them
and to compare notes of their
experiences. God has done nothing stintedly; all his goodness is great
goodness
all worthy to be remembered
all suggestive of holy discourse. Upon
this subject there is no scarcity of matter
and when the heart is right there
is no need to stop from want of facts to tell. Oh
that there were more of
these memories and utterances
for it is not meet that the goodness of the
living God should be buried in the cemetery of silence
in the grave of ingratitude.
And
shall sing of thy righteousness. They shall say and then sing. And what is the
theme which impels them to leave the pulpit for the orchestra? What do they
sing of? They sing of that righteousness which is the sinner's terror
which
even good men mention with deep solemnity. Righteousness received by gospel
light is in reality the secret foundation of the believer's hope. God's
covenant of grace is our strong consolation
because he who made it is
righteous
and will not run back from it. Since Jesus died as our substitute
righteousness requires and secures the salvation of all the redeemed. This
attribute is our best friend
and therefore we sing of it. Modern thinkers
would fain expunge the idea of righteousness from their notion of God; but
converted men would not. It is a sign of growth in cation when we rejoice in
the justice
rectitude
and holiness of our God. Even a rebel may rejoice in
mercy
which he looks upon as laxity; but a loyal rejoices when he learns that
God is so just that not even to save his own would he consent to violate the
righteousness of his moral government. Few men will shout for joy at the
righteousness of Jehovah
but those who do so his chosen
in whom his soul
delighteth.
Verse
8. The Lord is gracious. Was it not in some such terms that
the Lord revealed himself to Moses? Is not this Jehovah's glory? To all living
men his aspect: he is gracious
or full of goodness and generosity. He treats
creatures with kindness
his subjects with consideration
and his saints favour.
His words and ways
his promises and his gifts
his plans and his poses all
manifest his grace
or free favour. There is nothing suspicious
diced
morose
tyrannical
or unapproachable in Jehovah
—he is condescending and kind. And
full of compassion. To the suffering
the weak
the despondent
he is very
pitiful: he feels for them
he feels with them: he this heartily
and in a
practical manner. Of this pitifulness he is full
so the compassionates freely
constantly
deeply
divinely
and effectually. In fulness in a sense not known
among men
and this fulness is all fragrant sympathy for human misery. If the
Lord be full of compassion there is no in him for forgetfulness or harshness
and none should suspect him What an ocean of compassion there must be since the
Infinite God is full of Slow to anger. Even those who refuse his grace
yet share in long suffering. When men do not repent
but
on the contrary
go
from bad to worse
averse to let his wrath flame forth against them. Greatly
patient and anxious that the sinner may live
he "lets the lifted thunder
drop"
and still bears. "Love suffereth long and is kind"
and
God is love. And of great mercy. This is his attitude towards the
guilty. When men at last repent
find pardon awaiting them. Great is their sin
and great is God's mercy
need great help
and they have it though they deserve
it not; for he is good to the greatly guilty.
Verse
9. The LORD is good to all. No one
not even his fiercest
enemy
can this; for the falsehood would be too barefaced
since the very
existence lips which slander him is a proof that it is slander. He allows his
live
he even supplies them with food
and smooths their way with many forts;
for them the sun shines as brightly as if they were saints
and the rain waters
their fields as plentifully as if they were perfect men. Is not this goodness
to all? In our own land the gospel sounds in the ears of all who care to
listen; and the Scriptures are within reach of the poorest child. It would be a
wanton wresting of Scripture to limit this expression to the elect
as some
have tried to do; we rejoice in electing love
but none the less we welcome the
glorious truth
"Jehovah is good to all."
And
his tender mercies are over all his works. Not "his new covenant
works"
as one read it the other day who was wise above that which is
written
yea
contrary to that which is written. Kindness is a law of God's
universe: the world was planned for happiness; even now that sin has so sadly
marred God's handiwork
and introduced elements which were not from the
beginning
the Lord has so arranged matters that the fall is broken
the curse
is met by an antidote
and the inevitable pain is softened with mitigations.
Even in this sin stricken world
under its disordered economy
there are
abundant traces of a hand skilful to soothe distress and heal disease. That
which makes life bearable is the tenderness of the great Father. This is seen
in the creation of an insect as well as in the ruling of nations. The Creator
is never rough
the Provider is never forgetful
the Ruler is never cruel.
Nothing is done to create disease
no organs are arranged to promote misery;
the incoming of sickness and pain is not according to the original design
but
a result of our disordered state. Man's body as it left the Maker's hand was
neither framed for disease
decay
nor death
neither was the purpose of it
discomfort and anguish; far otherwise
it was framed for a joyful activity
and
a peaceful enjoyment of God. Jehovah has in great consideration laid up in the
world cures for our ailments
and helps for our feebleness; and if many of
these have been long in their discovery
it is because it was more for man's
benefit to find them out himself
than to have them labelled and placed in
order before his eyes. We may be sure of this
that Jehovah has never taken
delight in the ills of his creatures
but has sought their good
and laid
himself out to alleviate the distresses into which they have guiltily plunged
themselves. The duty of kindness to animals may logically be argued from this
verse. Should not the children of God be like their Father in kindness?
Verse
10. All thy works shall praise thee
O LORD. There is a
something about every creature which redounds to the honour of God. The skill
kindness
and power manifested in the formation of each living thing is in
itself to the praise of God
and when observed by an intelligent mind the Lord
is honoured thereby. Some works praise him by their being
and others by their
well being; some by their mere existence
and others by their hearty volition. And
thy saints shall bless thee. These holy ones come nearer
and render
sweeter adoration. Men have been known to praise those whom they hated
as we
may admire the prowess of a warrior who is our foe; but saints lovingly praise
and therefore are said to "bless." They wish well to God; they would
make him more blessed
if such a thing were possible; they desire blessings
upon his cause and his children
and invoke success upon his work and warfare. None
but blessed men will bless the Lord. Only saints or holy ones will bless the
thrice holy God. If we praise Jehovah because of his works around us
we must
go on to bless him for his works within us. Let the two "shalls" of
this verse be fulfilled
especially the latter one.
Verse
11. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom. Excellent
themes for saintly minds. Those who bless God from their hearts rejoice to see
him enthroned
glorified
and magnified in power. No subject is more profitable
for humility
obedience
hope
and joy than that of the reigning power of the
Lord our God. His works praise him
but they cannot crown him: this remains for
holy hands and hearts. It is their high pleasure to tell of the glory of his
kingdom in its justice
kindness
eternity
and so forth. Kingdoms of earth are
glorious for riches
for extent of territory
for victories
for liberty
for
commerce
and other matters; but in all true glories the kingdom of Jehovah
excels them. We have seen a palace dedicated "to all the glories of
France"; but time
eternity
and all space are filled with the glories of
God: on these we love to speak. And talk of thy power. This power
supports the kingdom and displays the glory
and we are sure to talk of it when
the glory of the divine kingdom is under discussion. God's power to create or
to destroy
to bless or to punish
to strengthen or to crush
is matter for
frequent rehearsal. All power comes from God. Apart from him the laws of nature
would be inoperative. His power is the one source of force—mechanical
vital
mental
spiritual. Beyond the power of God which has been put forth
infinite
force lies latent in himself. Who can calculate the reserve forces of the
Infinite? How
then
can his kingdom fail? We hear talk of the five great powers
but what are they to the One Great Power? The Lord is "the blessed and
only Potentate." Let us accustom ourselves to think more deeply and speak
more largely of this power which ever makes for righteousness and works for
mercy.
Verse
12. To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts. These
glorious deeds ought to be known to all mankind; but yet few reckon such
knowledge to be an essential part of education. As the State cannot teach these
holy histories the people of God must take care to do it themselves. The work
must be done for every age
for men have short memories in reference to their
God
and the doings of his power. They inscribe the deeds of their heroes upon
brass
but the glorious acts of Jehovah are written upon the sand
and the tide
of time washes them from present memory; therefore we must repeat the lesson
and yet again repeat it. The saints are the religious instructors of the race;
they ought to be not only the historians of the past
but the bards of the
present
whose duty it is to keep the sons of men in memory of the great deeds
which the Lord did in the days of their fathers and in the old time before
them. Note the contrast between the great deeds of God and the puny sons of
Adam
who have even degenerated from their father
though he was as nothing
compared with his Maker. And the glorious majesty of his kingdom. What a grand
subject! Yet this we are to make known; the publication of it is left to us who
bless the Lord. "The glory of the majesty of his reign." What a
theme! Jehovah's reign as sovereign Lord of all
his majesty in that dominion
and the glory of that majesty! The threefold subject baffles the most willing
mind. How shall we make this known to the sons of men? Let us first labour to
know it ourselves
and then let us make it a frequent subject of discourse
so
shall men know it from us
the Holy Spirit attending our word.
Verse
13. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. His meditation has
brought him near to God
and God near to him: he speaks to him in adoration
changing the pronoun from "his" to "thy." He sees the great
King
and prostrates himself before him. It is well when our devotion opens the
gate of heaven
and enters within the portal
to speak with God face to face
as a man speaketh with his friend. The point upon which the Psalmist's mind
rests is the eternity of the divine throne
—"thy reign is a reign of all
eternities." The Lord's kingdom is without beginning
without break
without bound
and without end. He never abdicates his throne
neither does he
call in a second to share his empire. None can overthrow his power
or break
away from his rule. Neither this age
nor the age to come
nor ages of ages
shall cause his sovereignty to fail. Herein is rest for faith. "The Lord
sitteth King for ever." And thy dominion endureth throughout all
generations. Men come and go like shadows on the wall
but God reigneth
eternally. We distinguish kings as they succeed each other by calling them
first and second; but this King is Jehovah
the First and the Last. Adam in his
generation knew his Creator to be King
and the last of his race shall know the
same. All hail
Great God I Thou art ever Lord of lords!
These
three verses are a reverent hymn concerning "the kingdom of God":
they will be best appreciated by those who are in that kingdom in the fullest
sense
and are most truly loyal to the Lord. It is
according to these verses
a kingdom of glory and power; a kingdom of light which men are to know
and of
might which men are to feel; it is full of majesty and eternity; it is the
benediction of every generation. We are to speak of it
talk of it
and make it
known
and then we are to acknowledge it in the homage directed distinctly to
the Lord himself—as in Ps 145:13. In these three verses Jehovah is adored for
his gracious providence towards men and all other creatures; this fitly follows
the proclamation of his royalty
for we here see how he rules his kingdom
and
provides for his subjects.
Verse
14. The Lead upholdeth all that fall. Read this verse in connection
with the preceding
and admire the unexpected contrast: he who reigns in
glorious majesty
yet condescends to lift up and hold up those who are apt to
fall. The form of the verb shows that he is always doing this; he is Jehovah
upholding. His choice of the fallen
and the falling
as the subjects of his
gracious help is specially to be noted. The fallen of our race
especially
fallen women
are shunned by us
and it is peculiar tenderness on the Lord's
part that such he looks upon
even those who are at once the chief of sinners
and the least regarded of mankind. The falling ones among us are too apt to be
pushed down by the strong: their timidity and dependence make them the victims
of the proud and domineering. To them also the Lord gives his upholding help.
The Lord loves to reverse things
—he puts down the lofty
and lifts up the
lowly. And raiseth up all those that be bowed down. Another deed of
condescension. Many are despondent
and cannot lift up their heads in courage
or their hearts with comfort; but these he cheers. Some are bent with their
daily lead
and these he strengthens. Jesus loosed a daughter of Abraham whom
Satan had so bound that she was bowed down
and could by no means lift up
herself. In this he proved himself to be the true Son of the Highest. Think of
the Infinite bowing to lift up the bowed
and stooping to be leaned upon by
those who are ready to fall. The two "alls" should not be overlooked:
the Lord has a kindly heart towards the whole company of the afflicted.
Verse
15. The eyes of all wait upon thee. They have learned to look
to thee: it has become their nature to turn to thee for all they want. As
children look to a father for all they need
so do the creatures look to God
the all sufficient Provider. It were well if all men had the eye of faith
and
if all waited therewith upon the Lord. And thou givest them their meat in
due season. They wait
and God gives. The thought of this brings God so
near to our poet prophet that he is again speaking with God after the style of
thee and thou. Is it to be wondered at when the Lord is feeding the hungry all
around us
—giving food to all creatures
and to ourselves among them? Like a
flock of sheep the creatures stand around the Lord as their great Shepherd; all
eyes are to his hand expecting to receive their food; nor are they
disappointed
for when the hour comes suitable provender is ready for each
creature. Observe the punctuality of the Lord in giving food at meal time
—in
the season when it is due. This he does for all
and each living thing has its
own season
so that the Lord of heaven is feeding his great flock both by day
and by night
during every moment of time.
Verse
16. Thou openest thine hand
and satisfiest the desire of every
living thing. You alone provide
O Jehovah! Thou doest it liberally
with
open hand; thou doest it easily
as if it were only to open thine hand; thou
doest this at once as promptly as if all supplies were ready to hand. Living
things have needs
and these create desires; the living God has suitable
supplies at hand
and these he gives till inward satisfaction is produced
and
the creature sighs no longer. In spiritual things
when God has raised a
desire
he always gratifies it; hence the longing is prophetic of the blessing.
In no case is the desire of the living thing excited to produce distress
but
in order that it may seek and find satisfaction. These verses refer to natural
providence; but they may equally well apply to the stores of grace
since the
same God is king in both spheres. If we will but wait upon the Lord for pardon
renewing
or whatever else we need
we shall not wait in vain. The hand of
grace is never closed while the sinner lives. In these verses we behold our God
in the realm of his free grace dealing well with his believing people.
Verse
17. The LORD is righteous in all his ways
and holy in all his
works. His ways and works are both worthy to be praised. Jehovah cannot be
unjust or impure. Let his doings be what they may
they are in every case
righteous and holy. This is the confession of the godly who follow his ways
and of the gracious who study his works. Whatever God is or does must be right.
In the salvation of his people he is as righteous and holy as in any other of
his ways and works: he has not manifested mercy at the expense of justice
but
the rather he has magnified his righteousness by the death of his Son.
Verse
19. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: that is
those who reverence his name and his law. Inasmuch as they have respect unto
his will
he will have respect unto their will. They shall have their way for
they have his way in their hearts. A holy heart only desires what a holy God
can give
and so its desire is filled full out of the fullness of the Lord. He
also will hear their cry
and will save them. Divinely practical shall his
nearness be
for he will work their deliverance. He will listen to their
piteous cry
and then will send salvation from every ill. This he will do
himself personally; he will not trust them to angels or saints.
Verse
21. My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD. Whatever
others may do
I will not be silent in the praise of the Lord: whatever others
may speak upon
my topic is fixed once for all: I will speak the praise of
Jehovah. I am doing it
and I will do it as long as I breathe. And let all
flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever. Praise is no monopoly for one
even though he be a David; others are debtors
let them also be songsters. All
men of every race
condition
or generation should unite to glorify God. No man
need think that he will be rejected when he comes with his personal note of
praise; all are permitted
invited
and exhorted to magnify the Lord. Specially
should his holiness be adored: this is the crown
and in a certain sense the
sum
of all his attributes. Only holy hearts will praise the holy name
or
character of the Lord; oh
that all flesh were sanctified
then would the
sanctity of God be the delight of all. Once let the song begin and there will
be no end to it. It shall go on for ever and a clay
as the old folks used to
say. If there were two forevers
or twenty forevers
they ought all to be spent
in the praises of the ever living
ever blessing
ever blessed JEHOVAH. Blessed
be the Lord for ever for having revealed to us his name
and blessed be that
name as he has revealed it; yea
blessed be he above all that we can know
or
think
or say. Our hearts revel in the delight of praising him. Our mouth
our
mind
our lip
our life shall be our Lord's throughout this mortal existence
and when time shall be no more.
EXPLANATORY
NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
This
has been happily characterized as the "new song" promised in Ps
144:9. In other words
it is the song of praise
corresponding to the didactic
penitential
and supplicatory psalms of this series.—Joseph Addison
Alexander.
The
ancient Hebrews declare him happy whoever
in after times
utters this psalm
thrice each day with the mouth
heart
and tongue.—Victorinus Bythner
1670.
The
last six or seven psalms are the Beulah of the book
where the sun shineth
night and day
and the voice of the turtle is heard in the land. Coming at the
close after all the mournful
plaintive
penitential
prayerful
varying notes
they Unconsciously typify the joy and rest of glory.—George Gilfillan.
Title. The praise
of David. Psalms are the praises of God accompanied with Song; psalms are
songs containing the praise of God. If there be praise
but not of God
it is
not a psalm. If there be praise
and praise of God
if it is not sung
it is
not a psalm. To make a psalm there go these three—praise
God's praise
and
song.—Augustine.
Title. It is
observable concerning David's entitling the psalm "The Praise of
David"
that in the original no psalm else beareth such a title. It is
appropriated to it
because this wholly consists of praise; he was elevated
therein to a frame of spirit made up of the pure praise of God
without any
touch of what was particular to himself. It was not thanks
but altogether
praise
and wholly praise.—Thomas Goodwin.
Title. This psalm
which is designated a Tehillah
or a psalm of praise
—a name which has passed
from this psalm to the whole Psalter
which is commonly called Sepher Tehillim
or "Book of Praises
"—is the last of the psalms ascribed to David.
It is remarkable
that although that is the name given to the Psalter (which is
entitled in Hebrew Sepher Tehillim
or Book of Praises)
this is
the only psalm in the whole number which is designated in the title as a Tehillah—a
word derived from the same root as Hallelujah. It seems as if this name Tehillah
had been studiously reserved for the last of David's psalms
in order to
mark more emphatically that all his utterances are consummated in praise.
And this view is more clearly manifested by the circumstance that the word Tehillah
is introduced into the last verse of this psalm
"My soul shall
speak the praise" (tehillah) "of the Lord"
(observe this preparation for Hallelujah
Praise ye the Lord); "and
let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever." As much as to say
that though David's voice was now about to be hushed in this life
yet it would
never be silent in the world to come
and would ever "praise the
Lord"; and as much
also
as to say that his last exhortation should be to
all nations to praise him
"Let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and
ever."—Christopher Wordsworth.
Title. This psalm is
entitled "David's praise." For howsoever the prayers and the
praises (all) in this book
are (for the most part) of David's penning: yet two
there are he hath singled out from the rest
and set his own mark on them as
proper to himself: the 86. Psalm
his Tephilla
David's own Prayer;and
there is here his Tehilla
his own Praise or thanksgiving. As if
he had made the rest for all in common
but reserved these peculiarly for
himself.—Lancelot Andrews.
Whole
Psalm. In regard to its alphabetic structure
it has one peculiarity
viz.
the nun is omitted; the reason of which may be
that (as we have
seen in some other psalms of this structure) by means of that or some other
such omission
we might be kept from putting stress on the mere form of the
composition.—Andrew A. Bonar.
Whole
Psalm. Cassiodorus quaintly remarks that the psalms in which the
alphabetical order is complete
are especially fitted for the righteous in the
Church Triumphant
but those in which one letter is missing
are for the Church
Militant here on earth
as still imperfect
and needing to be purified from
defect.—Neale and Littledale.
Verse
1. I will extol thee
my God
O King. To extol is to set
preeminently on high; to exalt above all others; it is the expression of the
greatest possible admiration; it is letting others know our high opinion of a
person
and endeavouring to win them over to it. The man who has such a high
opinion of another as to induce him to extol him
will not be likely to rest
without bringing forth into prominent observation the object of his praise.—Philip
Bennett Power.
Verse
1. O King; or the King
by way of eminency; the King of
kings
the God by whom kings reign
and to whom I and all other kings owe
subjection and obedience.—Matthew Pool.
Verse
1. O king. The Psalmist in rapt ecstasy seems as though he
saw God incarnate in Christ present to inspire his praise. Christ is our God
and King
to be extolled in the heart
with the mouth
and by the life.—Thomas
Le Blanc.
Verse
1. King. God is King in verity; others are called kings in
vanity.—Martin Geier.
Verse
1. I will bless thy name for ever and ever. The name of God
in Scripture is taken
first
for God himself. The name of a thing is put for
the thing named
Ps 44:5: "Through thee will we push down our enemies:
through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us."
"Through thy name"
that is
through thee. Secondly
the name of God is often in Scripture put for the attributes of God.
Thirdly
the name of God is put for his ordinances of worship. "Go
ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh
where I set my name at the
first" (Jer 12:12)
that is
where I first set up my public worship;
because
as a man is known by his proper name
so is God by his proper worship.
Fourthly
the name of God is that reverence
esteem and honour which angels
and men give unto God. As we know amongst us
the report and reputation
that a man hath among men is a man's name; what men speak of him
that is his
name; such an one hath a good name
we say; such an one hath an ill name
that
is
men speak or think well or ill of such persons. So Ge 6:4. When Moses
describes the giants
he saith
"They were men of renown"; the Hebrew
is
"They were men of name"
because the name of a man is the
character he hath amongst men; as a man is esteemed
so his name is carried
and himself is accepted in the world. So the name of God is that high esteem
those honourable apprehensions
which angels and men have of God; such as the
thoughts and speeches of men are for the celebration of God's glory and praise
such is his name in the world.—Joseph Caryl.
Verse
1. For ever and ever. dez Mlwel
leolam vaed
for ever
onward
in this and the coming world. Expressions of this sort are very
difficult to be translated
but they are
on the whole
well interpreted by
those words of Mr. Addison:—
"Through
all eternity to thee
A joyful song I'll raise;
But oh
eternity's too short
To utter all thy praise!"—Adam Clarke.
Verse
1. For ever and ever. Praise is the only part of duty in
which we at present engage
which is lasting. We pray
but there shall be a
time when prayer shall offer its last litany; we believe
but there shall be a
time when faith shall be lost in sight; we hope
and hope maketh not ashamed
but there shall be a time when hope lies down and dies
lost in the splendour
of the fruition that God shall reveal. But praise goes singing into heaven
and
is ready without a teacher to strike the harp
that is waiting for it
to
transmit along the echoes of eternity the song of the Lamb. In the party
coloured world in which we live
there are days of various sorts and
experiences
making up the aggregate of the Christian's life. There are waiting
days
in which
because Providence fences us round
and it seems as if we
cannot march
we cannot move
as though we must just wait to see what the Lord
is about to do in us and for us; and there are watching days
when it behooves
us never to slumber
but to be always ready for the attacks of our spiritual
enemy; and there are warring days
when with nodding plume
and with ample
armour
we must go forth to do battle for the truth; and there are weeping
days
when it seems as if the fountains of the great deep within us were broken
up; and as though
through much tribulation
we had to pass to heaven in tears.
But these days shall all pass away by and by—waiting days all be passed
warring days all be passed
watching days all be passed; but
"Our
days of praise shall ne'er be past
While life
and thought
and being last
And immortality endures."
—William Morley Punshon
1824-1881.
Verse
1. For ever and ever. To praise God now does not satisfy
devout aspiration
for in this age the worshipper's devotion is interrupted by
sin
fear
sickness
etc.; but in eternity praise will proceed in unbroken
procession.—John Lorinus.
Verses
1-2. I will bless thee for ever and ever
and again
Ps 145:2. This
intimates
1.
That he resolved to continue in this work to the end of his life
throughout his "for ever" in this world.
2.
That the psalms he penned should be made use of in praising God by the church
to the end of time. 2Ch 29:30.
3.
That he hoped to be praising God to all eternity in the other world: they that
make it their constant work on earth
shall have it their everlasting bliss in
heaven.—Matthew Henry.
Verse
2. Every day. Then God is to be blessed and praised in dark
as well as bright days—Johannes Paulus Palanterius
1600.
Verse
2. Every day (in the week) will I bless thee
the Psalmist
seems to signify. As there are "seven spirits" peculiarly existing in
nearness to God
David holds the seven days of the week like seven stars in his
hand
or like a seven branched candlestick of gold
burning every day with his
devotion. He calls the seven days to be as seven angels with trumpets.—Thomas
Le Blanc.
Verse
2. I will bless thee: I will praise thy name. The repetition
intimates the fervency of his affection to this work
the fixedness of his
purpose to abound in it
and the frequency of his performances therein.—Matthew
Henry.
Verse
2. Praise. If we are to define it in words
we may say that
praise is thankful
lowly
loving worship of the goodness and majesty of God.
And therefore we often find the word "praise" joined with
"blessing" and "thanksgiving": but though all three are
akin to each other
they are not all alike. They are steps in a gradual scale—a
song of degrees. Thanksgiving runs up into blessing
and blessing ascends into
praise; for praise comprehends both
and is the highest and most perfect work
of all living spirits.—Henry Edward Manning
1850.
Verse
3. Great is the Lord. If "great" here be
referred to God as a king
then a great king he is in respect of the
breadth of his empire
for all creatures
from the highest angel to the poorest
worm
are under him. "Great" for length; for "his kingdom is an
everlasting kingdom." "Great" for depth; for he rules even in
the hearts of kings
of all men
over rules their thoughts
affections
nothing
is hid from him. And "great" again for height; being "a great
King above all gods"
ruling by his own absolute power and authority;
whereas all other kings have their sword from him
and rule by a delegated and
vicarious power.—William Nicholson.
Verse
3. His greatness is unsearchable. God is so great
that till
Christ revealed the Father
Deity was lost in its own infinity to the
perception of men. He who attempts to navigate an infinite ocean must come back
to his starting point
never being able to cross. So the ancient philosophers
disputing as to the Divine Nature
were baffled by their own ingenuity
they
had to confess that they comprehended nothing of God except that he was
incomprehensible. Without Christ
men can only find out about God that they can
never find him.—Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse
3. (last clause.) The Vulgate renders thus
"Of his
greatness no end." The Hebrew is
"Of his greatness no
investigation." As the classic Greeks would say
avexicniastos
not to
be traced out.—Simon de Muis
1587-1644.
Verse
3. God had searched David through and through (Ps 139:1)
but David
proved he could not search God's greatness.—Martin Geier.
Ver.
3-6. Ps 145:3
4 contain the material of praise
and Ps 145:5
6 the praise
itself. Ps 145:3 states a proposition
and Ps 145:4 gives the amplification.—Hermann
Venema.
Verse
4. One generation shall praise thy works to another
etc. De
4:9 6:7. Fathers teaching their sons the goodness and glory of God. This was a
legal ordinance. The church and its worshippers are collecting praises of
successive generations for the final Hallelujah celebration.—Martin Geier.
Verse
4. One generation shall praise thy works to another. Singular
is exchanged for plural in the Hebrew
"One generation shall praise (sing)
thy works to another
and shall declare (plural) thy mighty acts." Here is
melody first
the antiphony of the choirs responding to each other; then
harmony; all generations will burst into chorus together.—Hermann Venema.
Verse
4. One generation to another. The tradition of praise!
Each generation catches the strains from the last
echoes it
and passes it
along to the next. One generation declares what it has seen
and passes on the
praise to the generation which has not seen as yet the wonders celebrated.—Simon
De Muis.
Verse
4. One generation shall praise thy works to another
etc.
Thus God provides for his Church. When Elijah is carried into heaven
Elisha
must follow in the power and spirit of Elias. When one stream is slid and shed
into the ocean
another circulates from the same ocean through the bowels of
the earth into the springs under the mountains
and refreshes the scorched
plains. When one star sets
another rises to guide the wandering traveller
and
at length the bright morning lamp glitters in the east
and then the glorious
Sun of Righteousness. While the Church sits fainting under a juniper tree in
the wilderness
there shall fly prophets to feed her till the blessed
resurrection of the witnesses. It's our high duty to study present work
and
prize present help
and greatly rejoice when the Lord sends forth
as once he
did
both Boanerges and Barnabas together. Pray for the mantle
girdle
and
blessing of Elijah
for the love of John
and the zeal of Paul
to twine hands
together to draw souls to heaven; till the Beloved comes like a roe or a young
hart upon the mountains of spices; till the shadows flee away; till the day
dawn
and the Day star arise in your hearts.—Samuel Lee
in his Preface to
Row's "Emmanuel
" 1679.
Verse
4. One generation shall praise thy works to another. There is
no phenomenon of human life more solemn than its succession of generations.
"One generation passeth away
another generation cometh." And
as if
to put this in a light as affecting and indelible as possible
the psalmist immediately
adds
"but the earth abideth for ever." A thought that gleams like a
lightning flash across this panorama of life
burning it into the beholder's
brain for ever. Even the rude
gross
material earth
which we were created to
subdue
and upon which we so proudly tread
is represented as having to the
palpable sense this advantage over us. The abiding earth constitutes a little
eternity
compared with the duration of its changing inhabitants. We come into
it
and pass over it
obliterating
perhaps
some footprints in its dust by the
impress of our own
to be in their turn effaced
and then leave it with amazing
rapidity
as a hireling man accomplishes his days.—Henry Allon
1852.
Verse
5. I will speak of the glorious honour
etc. The word which
we here translate "speak"
is considered by Hebrew critics to
include also the idea of "expatiating"
"speaking at
large"; not merely "alluding to incidentally"
but
"entering into particulars"; as though one took delight in speaking
upon the matter in hand. Now there is something very satisfactory in entering
into particulars; we can often gather light upon a great truth by having had
set before us some of the particulars connected with it; we can often
understand what is too high for us
in itself and by itself
by
some examples which bring it within reach of our dull understandings. We are
like men who want to attain a height
who have not wings to fly up to it
but
who can reach it by going up a ladder step by step. Particulars are often like
the rounds of a ladder
little
it may be
in themselves
but very helpful to
us; and to dwell upon particulars is often of use to ourselves; it certainly is
to many with whom we converse. Let us remember
that circumstanced as we are in
our present state
we have no faculties for grasping in its simple grandeur the
glorious honour of the majesty of God. We know most of God from what we know of
his doings amongst the children of men. Hereafter
the Lord's people shall
no
doubt
have much revealed to them of the glorious honour of the majesty of God
which they could now neither bear nor understand; meanwhile they have to know
him chiefly by what he has said and done; and if only our eyes be open
we
shall be at no loss to recognise in these the glorious honour of his majesty.—Philip
Bennett Power.
Verse
5. I will speak
etc. I will "muse" is
better than "speak"
as being the primary and more usual sense of the
Hebrew word. It suggests that these glorious qualities of God's character and
deeds should be not merely talked about and extolled in song
but be deeply
pondered
laid close upon our very heart
so that the legitimate impression may
be wrought into our very soul
and may mould our whole spirit and character
into God's own moral image.—Henry Cowles.
Verse
5. With what a cumulus of glowing terms does Holy Writ seek to
display the excellence of Deity! By these descriptions
those attributes which
are feebly imitated or reflected in what we call good among created
things are declared to exist in God
infinitely
immutably
ineffably.—Martin
Geier.
Verse
5. Thy wonderful works. Heb.: "the words of thy
wonderful works." Thus the Psalmist declares that the records left of
God's olden doings in the history of Israel are very precious. He has heard
them. Moses and Aaron and others spoke them. He delights in them; he will sing
them again on his own harp.—Hermann Venema.
Verses
5-6. Ps 145:5 speaks of God's opera mirabilia; Ps 145:6 of his opera
terribilia. The former delight his saints; the latter terrify the wicked.—John
Lorinus.
Verse
6. And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts.
When men do not mark his works of mercy and bounty the Lord will show unto them
works of justice
that is
terrible works
and give them matter of talking upon
this account.—David Dickson.
Verse
6. (last clause.) To "declare" here means
either in speech or song; not merely to predicate as a fact
but to proclaim
in praise. The Hebrew word has this width of meaning; not merely to declare in
cold utterance
concerning mere history.—Hermann Venema.
Verse
6. Thy greatness. All men are enamoured of greatness. Then
they must seek it in God
and get it from God. David did both.
All history shows the creature aspiring after this glory. Ahasuerus
Astyages
Cyrus
Cambyses
Nebuchadnezzar
were all called the great. Alexander
the Great
when he came to the Ganges
ordered his statue to be made of more
than life size
that posterity might believe him to have been of nobler
stature. In Christ alone does man attain the greatness his heart yearns for—the
glory of perfect goodness.—Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse
6. Thy greatness. Or
according to the written text
greatnesses.
So Aquila and Jerome. The parallelism is decidedly in favour of the plural.—A.
S. Aglen.
Verse
7. There is an extensive and an intensive greatness
and both must
be found in our praises of God. First
an extensive greatness in regard of
their number; we must be frequent and plentiful in the duty: we must "Abundantly
utter the memory of God's great goodness." Secondly
there must be an intensive
greatness in our praises
in regard of the degree
fervour and heat of them.
They must be high
and vehement
fervent
flaming
zealous and affectionate
full of life and rigour; our spirits must be raised
our hearts and tongues
enlarged in the performance of this duty. God's glorious name
as it is in Ne
9:5
"is exalted above all blessing and praise"
above our most
devout and most zealous praises; and therefore surely faint
heartless
and
lifeless praises are so far from reaching him
as that they may seem to be
meant of another
and a lower object. God then is not praised at all if he be
not greatly praised. Weak and dull praises are dispraises; for a person or
thing is not honoured or praised
unless there be some proportion between the
honour and praise and the worthiness of the person or thing honoured and
praised.—Henry Jeanes
in "The Works of Heaven upon Earth
1649.
Verse
7. Abundantly utter. The word contains the idea of boiling or
bubbling up like a fountain. It signifies
a holy fluency about the mercy of
God. We have quite enough fluent people about
but they are many of them idlers
for whom Satan finds abundant work to do. The Lord deliver us from the noise of
fluent women; but it matters not how fluent men and women are if they will be
fluent on the topic now before us. Open your mouths; let the praise pour forth;
let it come
rivers of it. Stream away! Gush away
all that you possibly can. "They
shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness." Do not stop
the joyful speakers
let them go on for ever. They do not exaggerate
they
cannot. You say they are enthusiastic
but they are not half up to the pitch
yet; bid them become more excited and speak yet more fervently. Go on
brother
go on; pile it up; say something greater
grander
and more fiery still I You
cannot exceed the truth. You have come to a theme where your most fluent powers
will fail in utterance. The text calls for a sacred fluency
and I would exhort
you liberally to exercise it when you are speaking on the goodness of God.—C.
H. S.
Verse
7. Too many witnesses of God's goodness are silent witnesses. Men do
not enough speak out the testimonies that they might bear in this matter. The
reason that I love the Methodists—good ones—is
that they have a tongue to their
piety. They fulfil the command of God
—to be fervent in spirit.—Henry Ward
Beecher.
Verse
7.
The
thought of our past years in me doth breed
Perpetual benedictions.
—William Wordsworth
1770-1805.
Verse
7. They shall sing of thy righteousness
or justice.
To sing of goodness
mercy
forgiveness
is natural; but a song of justice
is singular. Here is the beauty of David's praise
that he sees subject of
delight as much in the righteousness of God as in his mercy.—John Lorinus.
Verse
7. They shall sing of thy righteousness. The righteousness of
God
whereby he justifieth sinners
and sanctifieth the justified
and
executeth judgment for his reconciled people
is the sweetest object of the
church's joy.—David Dickson.
Verse
7. Thy righteousness (read in connection with next verse). It
is an easy thing to conceive the glory of the Creator
manifested in the good
of an innocent creature; but the glory of the righteous Judge
manifested in
the good of the guilty criminal
is the peculiar
mysterious wisdom of the
Cross. It is easy to perceive God's righteousness declared in the punishment of
sins; the Cross alone declares "His righteousness for the remission of
sins." It magnifies justice in the way of pardoning sin
and mercy in the
way of punishing it.—John M'Laurin 1693-1754.
Verse
8. The Lord is gracious
etc. The proclamation of the Lord to
Moses (Ex 34:6) is the fountain head of these epithets.—James G. Murphy.
Verse
8. In God there is no passion
only compassion.—Richard Rothe
1799-1867.
Verse
8. Of great mercy. Mercy hath misery for its object
and is
that attribute towards which the eyes of a fallen world must necessarily be
turned. The Psalmist hath
accordingly
introduced her last with great pomp and
splendour
seated in her triumphal chariot
and invested with a supremacy over
all the works of God. She is above the heavens
and over all the earth
so that
the whole creation findeth that refuge under the shadow of her wings of which
by reason of man's transgression
it standeth in need.—Samuel Burder.
Verse
9. The Lord is good to all
etc. According to the doctrine of
Christianity
we are not the creatures of a God who takes no care of his
beings
and leaves them to themselves; not the offspring of a father who
disowns his children
who does not concern himself about them
and is
indifferent to their happiness and their misery. No; never has God
according
to that comfortable doctrine
left himself unwitnessed to man; never withdrawn
from him his fatherly providence and love; never abandoned the fortunes of his
feeble
helpless
untutored children
to blind chance or to their own
ignorance. No; from their first progenitor
to his latest posterity
he has
himself provided for their support
their instruction
their guidance
their
progress to higher attainments. He has constantly revealed himself to them m
various ways; constantly shed innumerable benefits on them; sometimes lovingly
correcting
and sometimes bountifully blessing them; has constantly been nigh
to them
and has left them in want of no means for becoming wiser and better.—George
Joachim Zollikofer
1730-1788.
Verse
9. The Lord is good to all
etc. God's pity is not as some
sweet cordial
poured in dainty drops from a golden phial. It is not like the
musical water drops of some slender rill
murmuring down the dark side of Mount
Sinai. It is wide as the whole scope of heaven. It is abundant as all the air.
If one had art to gather up all the golden sunlight that today falls wide over
all the continent
falling through every silent hour; and all that is dispersed
over the whole ocean
floating from every wave; and all that is poured
refulgent over the northern wastes of ice
and along the whole continent of
Europe
and the vast outlying Asia and torrid Africa—if we could in any wise gather
up this immense and incalculable outflow and treasure that falls down through
the bright hours
and runs in liquid ether about the mountains
and fills all
the plains
and sends innumerable rays through every secret place
pouring over
and filling every flower
shining down the sides of every blade of grass
resting in glorious humility upon the humblest things—on sticks
and stones
and pebbles—on the spider's web
the sparrow's nest
the threshold of the young
foxes' hole
where they play and warm themselves—that rests on the prisoner's
window
that strikes radiant beams through the slave's tear
and puts gold upon
the widow's weeds
that plates and roofs the city with burnished gold
and goes
on in its wild abundance up and down the earth
shining everywhere and always
since the day of primal creation
without faltering
without stint
without
waste or diminution; as full
as fresh
as overflowing today as if it were the
very first day of its outlay—if one might gather up this boundless
endless
infinite
treasure
to measure it
then might he tell the height
and depth
and unending
glory of the pity of God! That light
and the sun
its source
are God's own
figure of the immensity and copiousness of his mercy and compassion.—Henry
Ward Beecher
1875.
Verse
9. Even the worst taste of God's mercy; such as fight against
God's mercy taste of it; the wicked have some crumbs from mercy's table. "The
Lord is good to all." Sweet dewdrops are on the thistle as well as on
the rose. The diocese where mercy visits is very large. Pharaoh's head was
crowned though his heart was hardened.—Thomas Watson.
Verse
9. His tender mercies are over all his works. When the
sensible sinner is seeking faith of God
he may plead the largeness of
mercy. God's mercy is like the firmament spread over all this lower world; and
every infirm creature partakes more or less of its influence
according to its
exigence and capacity. True
may he say
I have made myself by sin
the vilest
of all creatures; I am become worse than the beasts that perish; as vile as a
worm
as loathsome as a toad
by reason of the venomous corruption that is in
my heart
and my woeful contrariety to the nature of a holy God. But there is "mercy
over all"
even over such vile and loathsome creatures as these; there
may be some over me
though wrath do now abide on me. Oh
let that mercy
whose
glory it is to stretch itself over all
e reach my soul also! Oh
that the
blessed and powerful influence thereof would p beget faith in my heart!—David
Clarkson.
Verse
9. His tender mercies. The nature and force of the word
Mymxr
is properly the bowels;that is
there are tender mercies in
God (so we term it in the Benedictus). Not of the ordinary sort
slight
and such as pierce not deep
come not far; but such as come de
profundis
from the very bowels themselves
that affect that part
make the bowels relent. And what bowels? Not the bowels of the
common man (for then Mwem had been the right word)
but Mmxr are the bowels of
a parent (so
we said
the word signifies)
and this adds much; adds to mercy
stosgh
natural love;to one strong affection another as strong or
stronger than it.
And
what parent? the more pitiful of the twain
the mother. For Mxr
(the singular of this word) is Hebrew for the womb. So as this
to the
two former addeth the sex; the sex holden to be the more compassionate. Of all
mercies
those of the bowels; and of all bowels
the bowels of a parent;and
of the two parents
those of the mother:such pity as the mother takes of
the children of her womb. Mercies are in God; such mercies are in
God.
"Over
all." It is good news for us that these mercies are in God; but
better
yet
that they are in him with a super—"over." But
best of
all
that that super is a super omnia—"over all." Much
is said in few words to mercy's praise when 'tis said
super omnia. Nihil
supra were much
none above it: but it is written super omnia
above all.
He that saith this leaves no more to say; there is no higher degree; super
omnia is the superlative.
All
that are above are not over. It is not above only
as an
obelisk or Maypole
higher than all about them
but have neither shadow nor
shelter; no good they do! Mercy hath a broad top
spreading itself over
all. It is so above all
as it is over them
too. As the vault of
this chapel is over us
and the great vault of the firmament over
that; the super of latitude and expansion
no less than of altitude and
elevation. And this to the end that all may retire to it
and take covert; it over
them
and they under it. Under it
under the shadow of it
as of
Esay's "great rock in the wilderness"
from the heat:under it
under the shelter of it as of Daniel's "great tree"
from the
tempest. (Isa 32:2 Da 4:11-12).—Lancelot Andrewes.
Verse
10. All thy works shall praise thee
O LORD. It is a poor
philosophy and a narrow religion which does not recognise God as all in all.
Every moment of our lives
we breathe
stand
or move in the temple of the Most
High; for the whole universe is that temple. Wherever we go
the testimony to
his power
the impress of his hand
are there. Ask of the bright worlds around
us
as they roll in the everlasting harmony of their circles
and they shall
tell you of him whose power launched them on their courses; ask of the
mountains
that lift their heads among and above the clouds
and the bleak
summit of one shall seem to call aloud to the snow clad top of another
in
proclaiming their testimony to the Agency which has laid their deep
foundations. Ask of ocean's waters; and the roar of their boundless waves shall
chant from shore to shore a hymn of ascription to that Being
who hath said
"Hitherto shall ye come and no further." Ask of the rivers; and
as
they roll onward to the sea
do they not bear along their ceaseless tribute to
the ever working Energy
which struck open their fountains and poured them down
through the valleys? Ask of every region of the earth
from the burning equator
to the icy pole
from the rock bound coast to the plain covered with its
luxuriant vegetation; and will you not find on them all the record of the
Creator's presence? Ask of the countless tribes of plants and animals; and
shall they not testify to the action of the great Source of Life? Yes
from
every portion
from every department of nature
comes the same voice;
everywhere we hear thy name
O God! everywhere we see thy love! Creation
in
all its length and breadth
in all its depth and height
is the manifestation
of thy Spirit
and without thee the world were dark and dead. The universe is
to us as the burning bush which the Hebrew leader saw: God is ever present in
it
for it burns with his glory
and the ground on which we stand is always
holy.—"Francis" (Viscount Dillon).
Verse
10. Marvellous is it that man is not always praising
since
everything amidst which he dwells is continually inviting praise.—Gregory
the Great.
Verse
10. All thy works shall praise thee
O LORD
etc.
"All" God's "works" do "praise" him
as the
beautiful building praiseth the builder
or the well drawn picture praiseth the
painter: but his "saints bless" him
as the children of prudent and
tender parents rise up and call them blessed. Of all God's works
his saints
the workmanship of his grace
the first fruits of his creatures
have most
reason to bless him.—Matthew Henry.
Verse
10. All thy works shall praise thee
O LORD
etc. There are
two words by which our thankfulness to God is expressed
praising and blessing.
What is the difference? Praise respecteth God's excellences
and blessing
respecteth God's benefits. We may praise a man that never hath done us good
if
he be excellent and praiseworthy; but blessing respecteth God's bounty and
benefits; yet they are often used promiscuously.—Thomas Manton.
Verse
10. And thy saints shall bless thee. The lily lifts itself
upon its slender stem
and displays its golden petals and its glittering ivory
leaves; and by its very existence it praises God. Yonder deep and booming sea
rolls up in storm and tempest sweeping everything before it; and every dash of
its waves praises God. The birds in the morning
and some of them all through
the night
can never cease from praising; uniting with the ten thousand other
voices which make ceaseless concert before the throne. But observe
neither the
flower
nor the sea
nor the bird
praises with intent to praise. To them it is
no exercise of intellect
for they do not know God
and cannot understand his
worthiness; nor do they even know that they are praising him. They exhibit his
skill
and his goodness
and so forth
and in so doing they do much; but we
must learn to do more. When you and I praise God
there is the element of will
of intelligence
of desire
of intent; and in the saints of God there is
another element
namely
that of love to him
of reverent gratitude towards
him
and this turns the praise into blessing. A man is an eminent painter
and
you exclaim
"His pencil is instinct with life." Still
the man is no
friend of yours
you pronounce no blessings on his name. It may be that your
feeling towards him is that of deep regret that such abilities should be united
with so ill a character. A certain person is exceedingly skilful in his
profession
but he treats you unjustly
and
therefore
though you often praise
him for his extraordinary performances
you cannot bless him
for you have no
cause to do so. I am afraid that there might be such a feeling as that of
admiration of God for his great skill
his wonderful power
his extraordinary
justness
and yet no warmth of love in the heart towards him; but in the saints
the praise is sweetened with love
and is full of blessing.—C. H. S.
Verses
10-11. If not only irrational
but inanimate creatures praise God by
giving occasion for his praise; then how much more should men set forth his
praise
who are not only living
but reasonable creatures! And if creatures
without life and reason should provoke mankind in general
as having life and
reason
to praise God; how much more should godly men be provoked by them to
sing his praise
they having not only life
which stars have not; and reason
which birds and beasts have not; but grace
which the most of men have not!
Among visible creatures
men have most reason (because they have reason) to
praise God; and among men gracious men have most reason to praise God
because
they have grace. And therefore as soon as ever David had said
"All thy
works shall praise thee
O LORD"
he adds in the next words
"and
thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom
and
talk of thy power." As if he had said
As all thy works
O Lord
praise thee
so saints (who are the choicest pieces of thy workmanship) have
cause to do it above all: they cannot but be speaking and talking of thy
kingdom and power
which are very glorious.—Joseph Caryl.
Verse
11. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom
etc. The glory
of a kingdom is synonymous with its power. The power of a kingdom consists in
the number of its subjects
and the sufficiency of its revenues to maintain
them. Now
the glory
or the power of God's kingdom
may be inferred from the
difference between it and that of man. There are four points of difference.
First
the kings of this world have but few subjects
with but little
wealth
—not more than the population and riches of one kingdom
or one
province
while God reigns over all angels
all men
all demons; and all wealth
on land
in the sea
or in the air
belongs to him. There is another
difference
that while the kings of this world rule their subjects
they are
still ruled by them
they are dependent on them
could do nothing
without them; and
however abundant their revenues may be
they are generally
in want
nay
even in debt
and
consequently
always calling for fresh
tributes and taxes; but God
while he governs all
is subject to none
because
he needs nobody's help or assistance. Instead of being in want
he abounds in
everything
because he could
in one moment
bring from nothing much more than
he now beholds or enjoys. The third difference is a consequence of the second
while the kings of this world seem so to enjoy their honours and dignities
they are
at the same time
suffering acutely from interior fears
doubts
and cares
which have sometimes been so burdensome
as to cause them to
abdicate altogether. God never suffers such pressure
is subject to no fear
no
misgivings
but reigns absolutely in perfect tranquillity. The fourth
difference
an essential one
is
that the kings of the world reign but for
a time;but God reigneth for ever.—Robert Bellarmine.
Verse
11. They shall speak...and talk. Joy and sorrow are hard to
conceal; as from the countenance
so from the tongue. There is so much
correspondence betwixt the heart and tongue that they will move at once: every
man therefore speaks of his own pleasure and care; the hunter and falconer of
his game; the ploughman of his team; the soldier of his march and colours. If
the heart were as full of God
the tongue could not refrain from talking of
him: the rareness of Christian communication argues the common poverty of
grace. If Christ be not in our hearts
we are godless; if he be there without
our joy
we are senseless; if we rejoice in him and speak not of him
we are
shamefully unthankful. Every man taketh
yea
raiseth occasion
to bring in
speech of what he liketh. As I will think of thee always
O Lord
so it shall
be my joy to speak of thee often; and if I find not opportunity
I will make
it.—Joseph Hall.
Verse
13. The Kingdom of God is his government of the world. The glory of
it becomes especially conspicuous in this
that he raises the dominion of his
anointed over all the kingdoms of the world: comp. Ps 89:27. "Thy
kingdom is a kingdom of all eternities" (Ps 145:13)
and so must also
the kingdom of thine anointed be an eternal one
and will survive all the
transitory kingdoms of this world
however highly they may puff themselves up.—D.
W. Hengstenberg.
Verse
13. On the door of the old mosque in Damascus
which was once a
Christian church
but for twelve centuries has ranked among the holiest of the
Mahomedan sanctuaries
are inscribed these memorable words: "Thy kingdom
O Christ
is an everlasting kingdom
and thy dominion endureth throughout all
generations." Though the name of Christ has been regularly blasphemed
and
the disciples of Christ regularly cursed for twelve hundred years within it
the inscription has
nevertheless
remained unimpaired by time
and undisturbed
by man. It was unknown during the long reign of Mahomedan intolerance and
oppression; but when religious liberty was partially restored
and the
missionaries were enabled to establish a Christian church in that city
it was
again brought to light
encouraging them in their work of faith and labour of
love.—From John Bate's "Cyclopoedia of Illustrations
" 1865.
Verses
13-14. What we admire in these verses
is their combining the
magnificence of unlimited power with the assiduity of unlimited tenderness. It
is this combination which men are apt to regard as well nigh incredible
supposing that a Being so great as God can never concern himself with beings so
inconsiderable as themselves. Tell them that God lifteth up those that be bowed
down
and they cannot imagine that his kingdom and dominion are unbounded; or
tell them
on the other hand
of the greatness of his empire
and they think it
impossible that he should uphold all that fall.—Henry Melvill.
Verse
14. The LORD upholdeth all that fall
etc. It is noteworthy
how the Psalmist proceeds to exhibit the mightiness of God's kingdom
not by
its power "to break in pieces and bruise"
like the iron legs of the
statue in Nebuchadnezzar's vision (Da 2:40)
but by the King's readiness to aid
the weak. Even a heathen could see that this was the noblest use of power.
Regia
(crede mihi) res est succurrere lapsis.
Ovid.
Ep. de Panto
ii. 9
II.
It is a kingly thing to help the fallen.
—Neale and Littledale.
Verse
14. The LORD upholdeth all that fall
etc. oyekn nophelim
the falling
or those who are not able to keep their feet; the weak. He shores
them up; he is their prop. No man falls through his own weakness merely;
if he rely on God
the strongest foe cannot shake him.—Adam Clarke.
Verse
14. And raiseth up all those that be bowed down
incurvatos.
Many who do not actually fall are reduced to distress that may be even more
painful; for the struggling are greater sufferers than the actually passive.
Men are bowed down physically by infirmity; mentally
by care;
spiritually
by remorse; some are even crushed by all three burdens. For all
such there is help in a Mighty One. But none can help themselves alone: none
are raised but by supernatural interposition—non nisi opitulante Domino.—Martin
Geier.
Verse
14. The LORD upholdeth all that fall. The word here used is a
participle
literally
"The Lord sustaining" that is
the Lord
is a Sustainer or Upholder of all that fall.—Albert Barnes.
Verse
14. And raiseth up all those that be bowed down. Alphonsus
King of Arragon
is famous for helping with his own hand one of his subjects
out of a ditch. Of Queen Elizabeth it is recorded
to her eternal praise
that
she hated (no less than did Mithridates) such as sought to crush virtue
forsaken of fortune. Christ bruises not the broken reed
but upholdeth it
he
quenches not the smoking wick
but cherisheth it.—John Trapp.
Verses
14-19. The Psalmist sets up a splendid argument. Having praised the
kingdom
he goes on to display seven glories peculiar to kings
and
shows that in Jehovah these shine supremely. Ps 145:14-19 contain each a royal
virtue.—John Lorinus.
Verse
15. The eyes of all wait upon thee. God cannot be overmastered
by what is great and enormous
so neither can he overlook what is small and
insignificant. God is that being to whom the only great thing is himself; and
therefore
when
"the eyes of all wait upon him"
the seraph gains
not attention by his gaze of fire
and the insect loses it not through the
feebleness of vision. Arch angels
and angels
and men
and beasts of the
field
and fowls of the air
and fish of the sea
draw equally the regard of
him
who
counting nothing great but himself
the Creator
can pass over as
small no fraction of the creature.—Henry Melvill.
Verse
15. Doth not nature teach you to pray? Ask the brutes
the ravens
lions
etc. (Job 38:41 Ps 147:9 104:27 145:15); not as if these unreasonable
creatures could know and worship God
but because nature hath taught them so
much of this duty as they are capable of and can bear; they have some sense of
their burdens and wants
they groan and cry
and desire to be eased; and the
Lord hearkeneth to this voice and saith
"Now the poor creature is crying
to me
and I will pity it." Ah! shall the beasts in their own way cry to
God
and wilt thou be silent? Hath the Lord elevated thee so far above these
inferior creatures
and fitted thee for the immediate acts of his worship
and
for a higher communion with himself
and wilt thou not serve him accordingly?
Hath he given thee a heart and a spiritual soul
as he hath given the brutes a
sensitive appetite and natural desires
and shall they cry to God with the one
and not thou with the other?—Alexander Pitcairne
1664.
Verse
15. Eyes...wait upon thee. Many dumb beggars have been
relieved at Christ's gate by making signs.—William Seeker.
Verse
15. In agony nature is no atheist
the mind which knows not where to
fly
flies to God.—Hannah More
1745-1833.
Verse
15. The creatures are his
and therefore to be received with
thanksgiving; this our Saviour performed with great rigour and zeal; thus
teaching us
when "looking up to heaven"
that "the eyes of
all" ought
in the most literal sense
"to wait" upon
that Lord "who gives them their meat in due season." ...A
secret sense of God's goodness is by no means enough. Men should make solemn
and outward expressions of it
when they receive his creatures for their
support; a service and homage not only due to him
but profitable to
themselves.—George Stanhope
1660-1728.
Verse
15. While atheism
in its strict signification
namely
that of total
denial of God's existence
is scarcely
if at all
to be found on earth;
atheism
as regards the denial of God's providence
is the espoused creed of
hundreds amongst us. ...Providence
which is confessed in great things
is
rejected in small things; and even if you can work up men to an easy confession
that God presides over national concerns
you will find them withdrawing
individuals from his scrutiny. We bring against this paring down of God's
providence a distinct charge of atheism. If we confess the existence of a God
at all
we read it in the workmanship of the tiniest leaf
as well as in the
magnificent pinnacles of Andes and Alps: if we believe in the providence of God
at all
we must confess that he numbers the hairs of our heads
as well as
marshals the stars of the firmament; and that providence is not universal
and
therefore cannot be godlike
if a sparrow
any more than a seraph
flit away
unregarded. Now
the words before us set themselves most strenuously against
this popular atheism. The whole creation is represented as fastening its gaze
on the universal Parent
and as drawing from his fulness the supply of every
necessity. "The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou give
them their
meat in due season." There is made
you observe
no exception
whatever; the exhibition is simply that of every rank and order of beings
looking to the Almighty
confessing dependence upon him
and standing environed
by his guardianship. So that
in place of anything which approximates to the
abandonment of our creation
the Psalmist asserts a ceaseless attention to its
wants
the suspension of which for an instant would cause chill and darkness
throughout the whole universe.—Henry Melvill.
Verse
15. Thou givest them their meat in due season. The meat which
endures to everlasting life; the flesh of Christ
which is meat indeed; the
doctrines of the gospel
which
as some of them are milk for babes
others are
meat for strong men
or strong meat for experienced believers; and these are
given forth under Christ's direction
by his ministering servants
who are his
wise and faithful stewards
that give to every one of the family their portion
of meat in due season
which is the word fitly spoken; and
when it is so
how
good it is! Lu 12:42 Pr 15:23. This is food convenient for them
given out in
his time
as in the original; either in the Lord's time
when he sees best
or in their time
as the Syriac version
when they most need it
and it
will do them most good.—John Gill.
Verse
15. (second clause.) It is said that God gives them "their
food"
and
"in its season"
for the very variety of
it serves more to illustrate the providence of God. Each has its own way of
feeding
and the different kinds of aliment are designed and adapted for
different uses. David therefore speaks of the food which is particular to them.
The pronoun is not in the plural
and we are not to read in their season
as if
it applied to the animals. The food he notices as given in its season; for here
also we are to notice the admirable arrangements of divine providence
that
there is a certain time appointed for harvest
vintage
and hay crop
and that
the year is so divided into intervals
that the cattle are fed at one time on
grass
at another on hay
or straw
or acorns
or other products of the earth.
Were the whole supply poured forth at one and the same moment
it could not be
gathered together so conveniently; and we have no small reason to admire the seasonableness
with which the different kinds of fruit and aliment are yearly produced.—John
Calvin.
Verse
15. Mr. Robertson told of a poor child who was accustomed to see
unexpected provision for his mother's wants arrive in answer to prayer. The
meal barrel in Scotland is everything to a hungry boy: so he said
"Mother
I think God aye hears when we're scraping the bottom o' the
barrel."—"The Christian."
Verses
15-17. Who can fear that
because God's ways are unsearchable
they may
not be all tending to the final good of his creatures
when he knows that with
the tenderness of a most affectionate parent this Creator and Governor
ministers to the meanest living thing? Who can be disquieted by the
mysteriousness of the Divine dealings when he remembers that they are those of
one who never ceases for a solitary moment to consult the happiness of
whatsoever he hath formed? Who
in short
can distrust God because clouds and
darkness are round about him
when there is light enough to show that he is the
vigilant guardian of every tenant of this earth
that his hand upholds
and his
breath animates
and his bounty nourishes
the teeming hordes of the city
and
the desert
and the ocean? It seems that there is thus a beautiful
though
tacit process of reasoning in our text
and that the seventeenth verse is set
in its proper connection. It is as though David had said
"Come
let us
muse on the righteousness of God. He would not be God if he were not righteous
in all his ways and holy in all his works; and therefore we may be sure that
whatsoever he does is the best that could be done
whether or not we can
discover its excellence."
Yes
this may be true
but when we look on the divine dealings what an abyss of dark
waters there is! How unsearchable
how unfathomable are God's judgments! We
admit it; but being previously convinced of God's righteousness
we ought not
to be staggered by what is dark in his dispensations. "True"
you
reply
"but the mind does not seem satisfied by this reasoning; it may be
convincing to the intellect
but it does not address itself to the
feelings." Well
then
pass from what is dark in God's dealing to what is
clear. He is about your path and about your bed; he "preserveth man and
beast"; "his tender mercies are over all his works." Is this a
God of whom to be suspicious? Is this a God to mistrust? Oh! surely if you will
fortify yourselves by such facts as these—"Thou
O Lord
satisfiest the
desire of every living thing"
"The eyes of all wait upon thee;
and thou givest them their meat in due season"—if
I say
you will
fortify your minds by such facts as these
you will be able at all times and in
all circumstances to join heartily in the acknowledgment of the Psalmist—"The
Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works."—Henry
Melvill.
Verse
16.
Thou
openest thy hand of grace
And thou dost satisfy
The wants of all ill every place
Who for thy presence cry.
—Thomas MacKellar
1883.
Verse
16. Thou openest thy hand. This seems as if depicted from a
housekeeper's habit of feeding a brood of chickens and other creatures. She
flings abroad with full and open hand a large supply
not measuring to a grain
just what might be enough.—Martin Geier.
Verse
16. Thou openest thy hand. What an idea does this convey of
the paternal goodness of the great Father of his creation! How opposite
to the conduct of many of his creatures one to another
whose hands and hearts
are slant! What an idea also does it convey of the ease with which the
wants of the whole creation are supplied! Let me pause a moment and think of
their wants. What a quantity of vegetable and animal food is daily consumed in
one town: what a quantity in a large city like London: what a quantity in a
nation: in the whole world! But men do not compose a hundredth part of
"every living thing" I What innumerable wants throughout all animate
nature; in the earth
in the air
in the waters! Whence comes their supply?
"Thou openest thy hand"
and all are satisfied. And can all these
wants be supplied by only the opening of his hand? What then must sin
be
and salvation from it? That is a work of wonderful expense. God openeth his
hand and satisfieth all creation
but he must purchase the Church with his
blood ...In what a variety of ways are our wants supplied. The earth
is fruitful
the air is full of life
the clouds empty themselves upon the
earth
the sun pours forth its genial rays; but the operation of all these
second causes is only the opening of his hand! Nay further: look we to instruments
as well as means? Parents feed us in our childhood
and supply our youthful
wants; ways are opened for our future subsistence; connexions are formed
which
prove sources of comfort; friends are kind in seasons of extremity; supplies
are presented from quarters that we never expected. What are all these but the
opening of his hand? If his hand were shut
what a world would this be! The
heavens brass
the earth iron; famine
pestilence
and death must follow. See
Ps 104:27-29.
Consider
next the term "hand." There is a difference between the hand
and the heart. God opens his hand
in the way of providence
towards his
worst enemies. He gave Nebuchadnezzar all the kingdoms of the earth. But he
opens his heart in the gospel of his Son. This is the better portion of
the two. While we are thankful for the one
let us not rest satisfied in it: it
is merely a hand portion. Rather let us pray with Jabez to be blessed indeed;and
that we might have a Joseph's portion; not only the precious things of the
earth and the fulness thereof
but "the good will of him that dwelt in the
bush!" Thou satisfiest the desire
etc. God does not give grudgingly. It
seems to be a characteristic of the divine nature
both in the natural and
moral world
to raise desires
not with a view to disappoint
but to satisfy
them. O what a consoling thought is this! If there be any desires in us which
are not satisfied
it is through their being self created ones
which is our
own fault; or through artificial scarcity from men's luxury
which is the fault
of our species. God raises no desires as our Creator
but he gives enough to
satisfy them; and none as our Redeemer and Sanctifier but what shall be
actually satisfied. O the wonderful munificence of God! "How great is his
goodness
and how great is his beauty!"—Andrew Fuller.
Verse
16. (second clause). The word nwur
ratson
some render
"desire"
as though he meant that God supplies each kind of
animal with food according to its wish. And a little afterwards we do indeed
find it used in that sense. Others
however
refer it rather to God's feeding
them of his mere good pleasure and kindness; it is not enough to say that our
food is given us by God
unless we add
as in the second clause of the verse
that his kindness is gratuitous
and that there is no extrinsic cause whatever
moving him to provide so liberally for every living creature. In that case the
cause is put for the effect; the various kinds of provision being effects of
his good pleasure—carismata ths caritos
—John Calvin.
Verse
17. The LORD is righteous in all his ways
etc. The ground
upon which praise is here ascribed to God may seem a common one
being in every
one's mouth; but in nothing is wisdom shown more than in holding fast the
truth
that God is just in all his ways
so as to retain in our hearts an
unabated sense of it amidst all troubles and confusions. Though all acknowledge
God to be just
most men are no sooner overtaken by affliction than they
quarrel with his severity: unless their wishes are immediately complied with
they are impatient
and nothing is more common than to hear his justice
impeached. As it is everywhere abused by the wicked imputations men cast upon
it
here it is very properly vindicated from such ungrateful treatment
and
asserted to be constant and unfailing
however loudly the world may disparage
it. It is expressly added
"in all his ways and works"; for we
fail to give God due honour unless we recognise a constant tenor of
righteousness in the whole progress of his operation. Nothing is more difficult
in the time of trouble
when God has apparently forsaken us
or afflicts us
without cause
than to restrain our corrupt feelings from breaking out against
his judgments; as we are told of the Emperor Mauricius in a memorable passage
of history
that seeing his sons murdered by the wicked and perfidious traitor
Phocas
and being about to be carried out himself to death
he cried
out—"Thou art righteous
O God
and just are thy judgments."—John
Calvin.
Verse
17. Holy in all his works. God is good
the absolute and
perfect; and from good nothing can come but good: and therefore all which God
has made is good
as he is; and therefore if anything in the world seems to be
bad
one of two things must be true of it. Either it is not bad
though
it seems so to us; and God will bring good out of it in his good time
and
justify himself to men
and show us that he is holy in all his works
and
righteous in all his ways. Or else—If the thing be really bad
then God did not
make it. It must be a disease
a mistake
a failure
of man's making
or some
person's making
but not of God's making. For all that he has made he sees
eternally; and behold
it is very good.—Charles Kingsky
in "The Good
News of God
" 1878.
Verse
18. The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him. Not
only near by his omnipresence
but to sympathize and favour. He does not leave
praying men
and men who confess his name
to battle with the world alone
but
he is ever at their side. This favour is not for a few of those who invoke him;
but for each one of the pious company. "All" who place themselves
beneath the shield of his glorious name by calling themselves by it
and by
calling upon it in supplication
shall find him to be a very present help in
trouble. "To all that call upon him in truth": for there are
many whose formal prayers and false professions will never bring them into
communion with the Lord. To pray in truth
we must have a true heart
and the
truth in our heart; and then we must be humble
for pride is a falsehood; and
be earnest
or else prayer is a lie. A God of truth cannot be nigh to the
spirit of hypocrisy; this he knows and hates; neither can he be far removed
from a sincere spirit
since it is his work
and he forsakes not the work of
his own hands.
Verse
18. The Lord is nigh. The nearness or remoteness of a friend
is very material and considerable in our troubles
distresses
wants
dangers
etc. I have such a friend and he would help me
but he lives so far off; and I
have another friend that has a great love for me
that is able to counsel me
and to speak a word in season to me
and that in my distress would stand close
to me
but he is so remote. I have a special friend
that did he know how
things stand with me would make my burdens his
and my wants his
and my
sorrows his; but he is in a far country
he is at the Indies
and I may be
undone before I can hear from him. But it is not thus with you
O Christians!
who have a God so nigh unto you
who have the signal presence of God in the
midst of you
yea
who have a God always standing by you
"The Lord stood
by me
" etc. 2Ti 4:17.—Thomas Brooks.
Verse
18. Them that call upon him. To call upon the name of the Lord
implies right faith
to call upon him as he is; right trust
in him
leaning upon him
right devotion
calling upon him as he has
appointed; right life
ourselves who call upon him being
or becoming by
his grace
what he wills. They "call" not "upon the
Lord"
but upon some idol of their own imagining
who call upon him as
other than he has revealed himself
or remaining themselves other than those
whom he has declared that he will hear. For such deny the very primary
attribute of God
his truth. Their God is not a God of truth.—Edward
Bouverie Pusey
1800-1882.
Verse
18. To all that call upon him in truth. Because there is a
counterfeit and false sort of worshipping
and calling upon God
which is
debarred from the benefit of this promise
to wit
when the party suppliant is
not reconciled
nor seeking reconciliation through Christ the Mediator
or is
seeking something not promised
or something for a carnal end
that he may
bestow it on his lusts; therefore he who hath right unto this promise must be a
worshipper of God in faith
and sincere intention; and to such the Lord will
show himself "nigh."—David Dickson.
Verse
18. To call upon God in truth is
first
to repose an implicit
confidence in the faithfulness of his promise
and to look for unlimited
answers to prayer from the riches of his grace in Christ Jesus. But it is also
in the next place
to feel our own urgent need of the things for which we supplicate
and to realize an earnest and unfeigned concern to obtain them. "What
things ye desire when ye pray"
said the Lord
"believe that ye
receive them
and ye shall have them"; and hence we gather
that the
hearty desire
arising out of the consciousness of need
is an integral and
inseparable part of genuine and effectual prayer.—Thomas Dale
1853.
Verses
18-19. God's people are a praying people
a generation of seekers
and
such commonly are speeders. God never said to the seed of Jacob
Seek ye my
face in vain. They seek his face
righteousness and strength
and he is found
of them...The saints alone betake themselves to God and his help
run to him as
their sanctuary; others fly from God's presence
run to the rocks
and the tops
of the ragged rocks
call to the hills and the mountains; but a child of God
goes only and tells his Father
and before him lays open his cause; as good
Hezekiah did
when Rabshakeh came out against him; "O Lord
I am
oppressed
undertake for me"; or the Church (Isa 33:2)
"Be thou our
arm every morning
and our salvation in time of trouble." They only
sensibly need
and so alone crave and implore divine succour; and God will not
suffer his people to lose the precious treasure of their prayers. "The
Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him; he will fulfil their desire
he
will hear their cry"
etc. That God who prepares his people's heart to
pray
prepares also his own ear to hear; and he that promises to hear before we
call
will never deny to hearken when we cry unto him. As Calvin saith:
"Oppressions and afflictions make man cry
and cries and supplications
make God hear."—F. E.
in "The Saint's Ebenezer
" 1667.
Verse
19. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him. This is
for comfort for all poor broken hearts in whom God hath engendered the true desire
of grace. Let such know that the first step to grace is to see they have no
grace; and the first degree of grace is the desire of grace. It is not with the
body as with the soul
if you will be healed you shall be healed. A man may
desire to be healed corporally
and yet his disease continue upon him; but it
is not so with the soul: if thou wilt say
"Christ heal me"
thou
shalt be made whole. If a man have but the true desire of grace it shall be given
him: "Lord
thou hast heard the desire of the humble" (Ps 10:17):
when the poor soul is humbled before God in the sense of the want of grace
and
breathes and desires after it
the Lord will grant such desires: "He
will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry
and
will save them." One said
"the greatest part of Christianity is
to desire to be a Christian." And another said
"The total sum of a
man's religion in this life consists in the true desires of saving grace."
This was the perfection Saint Paul attained unto (Ro 7:18): "To will is
present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not." Saint
Paul we know was the child of God
and one dearly beloved of God; yet that was
the pitch of his godliness; it consisted more in desire than accomplishment.
Canst thou approve by evident and sound arguments that thou hast the true
desires of grace? Then know for thy comfort that the Lord's spirit of grace
hath been moving and stirring in thee: "It is God that worketh in you both
the will and the deed" (Php 2:13)
and that of his good pleasure
not only
of his bounty
from whence he hath bestowed many graces
even upon such as he
will damn afterwards for their accursed abuse of them
with the neglect of the
power thereof. But if God hath set thy will
and the stream of thy affections
and desires
to himself and to grace
it is an evidence of God's good pleasure
from which he did at first elect thee
and gave his Son to redeem thee.—William
Fenner (1560-1640)
in "The Riches of Grace."
Verse
19. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him. God will
not grant us every desire
that is our mercy; for
1. Some of them are sinful.
David desired to be revenged on Nabal and his innocent family. Jonah desired
Nineveh's ruin. 2. Others would not be for our good. David desired the
life of the child he had by Bathsheba; David also desired the life of Jonathan;
neither of which would have been for his good. Nay
not every righteous
desire. It is a righteous desire for a minister to desire the salvation of
those that hear him. So Paul declared
"I would to God that all that are
here present were altogether such as I am": Ac 26:29. So again
"I
could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren
my kinsmen
according to the flesh": Ro 9:1. David desired to build a house for God
and it was a righteous desire
for God took it well at his hands; yet he did
not grant it. Kings and prophets desired to see the Lord Messiah
and yet did
not see him. How then are we to understand it? Answer. The sum or substance of
their desires shall be fulfilled. What is the main desire of a seaman? that he
may arrive at the haven. So saints will be brought to their desired haven. What
of a pilgrim? See Heb 11:16. So all the desires of a Christian are summed up in
this
That he may eternally enjoy God and be like him. Doubtless there
is great mystery in these things. However
I think it is certain that
when God
raises a spiritual desire in a person
it is often
though not always
with an intention to bestow the object desired.—Andrew Fuller.
Verse
19. (first clause.) God will fulfil the will of those who fear
to disobey his will.—Simon de Muis.
Verse
19. Desire is the largest and most comprehensive word that can
be used; it contains all things in it...Nothing good
nothing necessary:
nothing profitable
but comes under this word "desire." When
God promises to "fulfil the desires of them that fear him"
he
doth promise all good things; desire comprehends all that can be desired.—Ralph
Robinson.
Verse
19. He will hear their cry
etc. A mark of a great king—he
gives willing audience to suppliants.—Johannes Paulus Palanterius.
Verse
19. He will hear and save. How true a description of Christ in
his constant office. He heard Mary Magdalene and saved her. He heard the
Canaanitish woman
and saved her daughter. He heard the cry of the two blind
men and enlightened them. He heard the lepers and cleansed them. He heard the
cry of the dying thief and promised him Paradise. Never has one yet cried to
King Jesus who has not been heard and delivered.—Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse
20. The LORD preserveth all them that love him. They keep him
in their love
and he keeps them by his love. See how these favoured ones have
advanced from fearing the Lord and crying to him
even to loving him
and in
that love they are secure from all danger. Mark the number of "alls"
in these later verses of the Psalm. In each of these God is all in all. But
all the wicked will he destroy. Wickedness is an offence to all holy
beings
and therefore those who are determined to continue in it must be weeded
out. As good sanitary laws remove all creators of pest and plague
so does the
moral government of God mark every evil thing for destruction; it cannot be
tolerated in the presence of a perfectly holy God. What ruins wicked men
frequently become in this life! What monuments of wrath will they be in the
world to come! Like Nineveh and Babylon
and other destroyed places
they shall
only exist to declare how thoroughly God fulfils his threatenings.
Verse
20. The Lord preserveth
etc. God's mercy and God's justice;
he preserves and he destroys. Philip IV of France
surnamed the Beautiful
on
his escutcheon emblazoned a sword and an olive branch
with the motto
Utrumque
i.e. "one or the other." A truly great king is master of either
art—war and peace.—Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse
20. Those who were called "them that fear him" are
now denominated "them that love him."—Simon de Muis.
Verse
20. All the wicked will he destroy. God has so many different
unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world
and sending them to
hell
that there is nothing to make it appear that God had need to be at the
expense of a miracle
or go out of the ordinary course of his providence
to
destroy any wicked man at any moment.—Jonathan Edwards.
Verse
20. All the wicked will he destroy. It must not be overlooked
that this declaration occurs in a song of praise. The whole of the context is
utterly inconsistent with the expression of emotions of anger or revenge.—Speaker's
Commentary.
Verse
20. All the wicked will he destroy. Prayer Book Version
"scattereth abroad."] Like the ruins of a demolished building; or
rather
like an army
which the enemy has completely routed.—William
Keatinge Clay.
Verse
20. Preserveth...destroy. Notice this recurrent the
guardianship of the good implies the destruction of the wicked.—A. S. Aglen.
HINTS TO THE
VILLAGE PREACHER
Verses
1-2. Praise.
1.
Personal praise.
2. Daily praise.
3. Enthusiastic praise.
4. Perpetual praise.
Or:
1.
The attractive theme of the song.
2. The increasing fulness of the song.
3. The unending life of the singer.—C. A. D.
Verses
1-2. The four "I wills" of praise. Praise to the King;
praise to the divine character; praise for all time; praise for all eternity.
Verse
2. Every day; for ever.
1.
Day by day for ever God and I will endure.
2.
Day by day for ever our present relations will continue. He the God
I the
creature; he the Father
I the child; he the blessing
I the blest.
3.
Day by day for ever he shall have my homage.—W. B. H.
Verse
3.
1.
The dignity of man is here implied in his capacity for praising God greatly.
2.
His immortality in his capacity for praising his unsearchable greatness.—G.
R.
Verse
3. (last clause.) The unsearchable greatness of God. Consider
it
1.
As a fact amply demonstrated.
2.
As a rebuke to despondency: see Isa 40:28.
3.
As the stay of a soul oppressed by mysteries.
4.
As indicating a subject for our everlasting study.—J. F.
Verse
4.
1.
Our obligation to past generations.
2. Our duty to generations to come.—G. R.
Verses
5-7. The Antiphon.
1.
To praise God is a personal duty: "I will."
2.
Its right performance will excite others to engage in it: "And men
shall."
3.
The accompaniment of others in praise will react upon ourselves. "And I
will"; "And they shall abundantly"
etc.
4.
Such praise widens and expands a it rolls along. Beginning with God's majesty
and works
it extends to his acts
greatness
goodness
and righteousness.—C.
A. D.
Verses
5-7.
1.
Subjects for praise.
(a)
Divine majesty.
(b) Divine works.
(c) Divine judgments.
(d) Divine greatness.
(e) Divine goodness.
(f) Divine righteousness.
2.
Of whom is it required.
(a)
Personal; "I will speak."
(b) Universal; "men shall speak."—G. R.
Verses
6-7.
1. The
awe struck talk. Silent as to mercies and promises
men must speak when
God's terrible acts are among them.
2. The
bold avowal. One individual declares God's greatness in power
wisdom
truth and grace. This leads others to the same conclusion
and hence—
3. The
grateful outpouring. Many bless the Lord's great goodness in a song fresh
free
constant
joyous
refreshing
abundant
like the gush of a spring.
4. The
select song. They utter goodness but sing of righteousness.
This is a noteworthy topic for a discourse.
Verse
7. See "Spurgeon's Sermons"
No. 1468: "The
Philosophy and Propriety of Abundant Praise."
Verse
8.
1.
Grace to the unworthy.
2. Compassion to the afflicted.
3. Forbearance to the guilty.
4. Mercy to the penitent.—G. R.
Verse
9. The universal goodness of God in no degree a contradiction to the
special election of grace.
Verse
10. See "Spurgeon's Sermons"
No. 1796: "Concerning
Saints."
Verse
11. The glory of Christ's kingdom. The glory of this kingdom is
manifested
1.
In its origin.
2. In the manner and spirit of its administration.
3. In the character of its subjects.
4. In the privileges that are attached to it.—Robert Hall.
Verses
11-12. Talk transfigured.
1.
The faculty of talk is extensively possessed.
2. Is commonly misused.
3. May be nobly employed.
4. Will then be gloriously useful.—C. A. D.
Verses
11-13. To show the greatness of God's kingdom
David observes
1.
The pomp of it. Would we by faith look within the veil
we should "speak
of the glory of his kingdom" (Ps 145:11); "and the glorious majesty
of it" (Ps 145:12).
2.
The power of it. When "they speak of the glory of God's kingdom"
they must "talk of his power"
the extent of it
the efficacy of it.
3.
The perpetuity of it (Ps 145:13). The thrones of earthly princes totter
and
the flowers of their crowns wither
monarchs come to an end; but
Lord
"thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom."—Matthew Henry.
Verse
14. The grace of God in his kindness to the undeserving and the
miserable
who look to him for help.
1.
He "upholdeth all that fall."
(a)
A description
embracing (1) Sinners who have fallen lowest: (2) Backsliders
who have tripped most foully.
(b)
An act implying (1) Pity which draws nigh; (2) Power which places the fallen
upon their feet; (3) Preservation which keeps them standing.
2.
He "raiseth up all those that are bowed down." Consolation for those
who are—
(a)
Bowed down with shame and penitence.
(b) Oppressed with perplexities and cares.
(c) Weighted with a sense of weakness in the presence of onerous duties.
(d) Depressed because of prevailing error and sin around them.—J. F.
Verse
14. Help for the fallible.
1.
Whatever our present position we are liable to fall. Sickness. Loss.
Friendlessness. Sin.
2.
However low we fall we are not below the reach of God's hand.
3.
Within the reach of God's hand we shall experience the action of God's love.
"Upholdeth." "Raiseth up."—C.A.D.
Verses
15-16. Universal dependence and divine support. The Psalmist here
teaches—
1.
The Universality of Dependence amongst creatures: "The eyes of all wait
upon thee." We depend upon God for "life
and breath
and all
things." Entire dependence should beget deep humility.
2.
The Infinitude of the Divine Resources: "And thou givest them their
meat." His resources must be
a)
Infinitely vast.
b) Infinitely various. Both sufficient and adapted for all.
3.
The Timeliness of the Divine Communications: "In due season. "A
reason for patience if his gifts seem delayed.
4.
The Sublime Ease of the Divine Communications: "Thou openest thine
hand"
and the countless needs of the universe are satisfied. An
encouragement to believing prayer.
5.
The Sufficiency of the Divine Communications: "And satisfiest the desire
of every living thing." "God giveth to all liberally." Our
subject urges all men to
(a)
Gratitude. Constant provision should lead to constant thankfulness and
consecration.
(b)
Trust. (1) For temporal supplies. (2) For spiritual supplies. "Grace to
help in time of need" will surely be given to all who look to him.—William
Jones
in "The Homiletic Quarterly"
1878.
Verse
17.
1.
What God declares himself to be.
2. What his people find him to be.
3. What all creatures will ultimately acknowledge him to be.—G. R.
Verses
18-20. Gather from these verses the character of God's people.
1.
They call upon God.
2. They fear God.
3. They have desires towards God.
4. They have answers from God.
5. They love God.
Verse
18. (last clause.) True prayer
in what it differs essentially
from mere formalism.
Verse
18. At the palace gates.
1.
Directions to callers.
(a)
"Call upon him"; let the repetition suggest pertinacity.
(b)
Call "in truth"; sincerely
with promises
in appointed way.
2.
Encouragement for callers. Jehovah is nigh
with his ready ear
sympathizing
heart
and helpful hand.—W. B. H.
Verses
18-19. The blessedness of prayer.
1.
Definition of prayer: "calling upon God."
2.
Variety in prayer: "call
desire
cry."
3.
Essential characteristic of prayer: "truth."
4.
God's nearness in prayer.
5.
Assured success of prayer. "He will fulfil
hear
save."—C. A. D.
Verse
20. Those who love God are preserved from excessive
temptation
falling into sin
despair
apostasy
remorse
famishing; preserved in
trial
persecution
depression
death; preserved to activity
holiness
victory
glory.
Verse
20. Solemn Contrasts.
1.
Between human characters. "Them that love him." "The
wicked."
2.
Between human destinies. "Preserveth." "Destroy."—C. A.
D.
Verse
20. How the love of God is the opposite of wickedness
and wickedness
inconsistent with the love of God.
Verse
21. Individual praise suggests the desire for universal praise. We
like company in a good deed; we perceive the inadequacy of our own song; we
desire others to be happy; we long to see that done which is right and good.
── C.H. Spurgeon《The Treasury of David》