PSALM XXXIX. To the chief Musician, even to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David. 1 I SAID, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue : 3 My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: 4 Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; That I may know how frail I am. 5 Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreath; And mine age is as nothing before thee: Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah. 6 Surely every man walketh in a vain show! surely they are disquieted in vain! He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them. 7 And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee. 8 Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish. 9 I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it. 10 Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand. 11 When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, Thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: 12 Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace For I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. 13 O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more IN last Psalm, verses 13, 14, resemble the first verse here, The position. and on this account the two Psalms have been put side by side. But besides, here is one whom we might call "Gershom," for he is a stranger in a strange land, and he is the same speaker (whoever that was) as in the previous Psalm. For, if the one Psalm spoke thus, “I said, I am ready to halt" (ver. 16), this begins with, “I said, I will take heed to my ways;” and if the one spoke of being "dumb with silence” (ver. 14), not less does this in verse 2; and if the one said, verse 15, “In thee do I hope," this also says, verse 7, " My hope is in thee." r The title does not tell us more than that there was a musical The title chorus, in which, perhaps, "Jeduthun" may have been the name. people. of the presiding singer, to whose care it was committed. But The contents. a glance at the contents shews a pilgrim-spirit, one journeying through a world of vanity, and praying at every step to be Christ and his taught and kept in the will of God. Christ, when "learning obedience" and identifying himself with us (as in ver. 12), could use it, supplicating his Father in verse 4; sympathising with our feeble frame in verse 5, “Thou hast given me some handbreadths as the length of my days and my life is as nonexistence before thee;" pronouncing the sentence of "Vanity and Vexation" on all that this world presents, however good and fair to the eye (ver. 6), and in verse 7 turning towards Jehovah, as the only source of bliss. In verses 9, 10, not only can every believer find his own experience, or what should be his experience under trial, but the Lord Jesus also could have used these words. On earth, he said, "Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight," praying at the same time, “If it be possible, let this cup pass." The marred countenance of the Son of Man, in which nothing of the "King in his beauty" could be seen, may be described in the words of verse 11. Like verse 5, this verse is followed by a "Selah," calling for silent thought. But intermixed with all the pilgrim's melancholy laments, do we not recognise his hope and expectation of something better to come? Is not "the vanity” of verse 6, like that of Romans viii. 20, for it is followed up by verse 7, "My hope is in thee." There is "Hope" for this world! its vanity” may give place to reality of bliss. An Israelite, amid Canaan's plenty, could feel this, as 1 Chron. xxix. 15 shews, and as Levit. xxv. 33 had taught them to feel. And is not verse 13 a Samson-like cry (Judges xvi. 28) to be carried through the crisis of a final struggle! The believer and his Lord could find here a most suitable petition. Alexander notices also how full of references to Job is this verse: thus chap. vii. 19, xiv. 6, and x. 20, 21. But "Spare me that I may be refreshed," is a prayer that all in him which sin withered may be renovated, and his sad soul be refreshed with Divine grace. The Psalmist thus describes Christ when on earth, and at the same time every one of his family while passing through this earth to the kingdom. It is, The Righteous One a Pilgrim and a Stranger. PSALM XL. To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 1 I WAITED patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. 2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. 3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. 4 Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, And respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. 5 Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, And thy thoughts which are to us-ward : They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee! If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. 6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required: 7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, 8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea thy law is within my heart. 9 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: Lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. 10 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation : I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great 11 Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord : Let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me. 12 For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have So that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine Therefore my heart faileth me. '13 Be pleased, () Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me. 14 Let them be ashamed and confounded together, that seek after my soul to destroy it Let them be driven backward and put to shame, that wish me evil. 15 Let them be desolate, for a reward of their shame, that say unto me, Aha! aha! 16 Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee. Let such as love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified. 17 But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: Thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God. "I waited, I waited for Jehovah," I did nothing but wait, Christ in it. (Alexander). Here is one who cries, "Lo! I come to do thy The theme. The plan. will, O God." We cannot fail to recognise Messiah here, even if we had not had the aid of the writer of Hebrews x. 5-10. The iniquities he speaks of in verse 12 are all ours* imputed to him. He might say, "And I am a sinner in thy sight, although I never sinned." Christ speaks throughout, so exclusively indeed, that the believer must here take up the words not as his own experience (except where he can follow Christ to gather the spoil), but as the experience of the Captain of Salvation, in fighting that battle which has ended in everlasting triumph. It is only by accommodation that even verses 1-3 can be used by the believer in describing his own case. Christ is the Joseph and Jeremiah of this pit. Read verse 4, and meditate on what He who is the Word suggests-" God's thoughts toward us!" The unnumbered multitude of his thoughts of love to us! The forests with their countless leaves, the grass on every plain and mountain of earth with its numberless blades, the sands on every shore of every river and ocean, the waves of every sea and the drops of every wave of every sea, the stars of heaven-none of these, nor all combined, could afford an adequate idea of “Ilis thoughts toward us !”—“there is no comparison to thee”—nothing wherewith to help out a statement. And the depth of love in every one of these thoughts! Who can sit down and meditate on Redemption's wonders? Who would not be confounded? Now the whole Psalm has this as its theme. From verses 1 to 3, a summary of God's dealings toward the Saviour, ending in the gathering of multitudes to Him as the Shiloh. Verses 4 and 5, adoration of the purposes of God; and from verse 9 to the end, we are made to witness something of the style in which these glorious purposes were carried on to fulfilmont, in the actual coming and suffering of the Saviour. See him obeying; see him proclaiming Jehovah's name in its breadth and fulness, wherever he came, in the villages, towns, cities, the synagogues, the temple, the open air assemblies, “I have proclaimed righteousness, and I will not at any future time restrain my lips." Hear in verse 12 his unutterable groanings, when "sorrowful unto death." Then hear him in * "Noluit enim loqui separatus, qui noluit esse separatus."-August. verse 15 foretelling Israel's desolation, and that of others like them, because of their rejection of Him; while verse 16 pictures to us present "joy and peace in believing," with the ultimate result in the ages to come, in the joy of The Kingdom. It would be endless were we to dwell on the rich and copious. suggestions afforded by almost every verse. It is a manual of the History of Redemption. It is * Messiah exhibited as our once-for-all Sacrifice, and all our Salvation. PSALM XLI. To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 1 BLESSED is he that considereth the poor: The Lord will deliver him in the time of trouble. 2 The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: And thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. 3 The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness. 4 I said, Lord, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee. 5 Mine enemies speak evil of me, when shall he die and his name perish? 6 And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity; His heart gathereth iniquity to itself; when he goeth abroad he telleth it. All that hate me whisper together against me: against me do they devise my hurt. 8 An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him: And now that he lieth he shall rise up no more. 9 Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, Hath lifted up his heel against me. 10 But thou, O Lord, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them. * The much-disputed passage, verse 6," Thou hast dug through my ears,” or "Thou hast prepared ears for me," is rendered from the Septuagint, “A body hast thou prepared for me," in Heb. x. 5; because his taking our human nature was the first and most direct step to his being made servant, like the man whose ears were bored to the door-post. Possibly, too, there is reference to his being a Priest prepared for his office, by having his ears tipt with blood, as Lev. xiv. 14; Exod. xxix. 20. For the Hebrew is scarcely "bored," it is rather "prepared." Alexander says, "The Septuagint version may have been retained as suggesting that the Incarnation of the Son was a pre-requisite to his obedience. |