7. His mouth with cursing, fraud, deceit, And underneath his tongue there is 8 He closely sits in villages; Against the poor that pass him by 9 He, lion-like, larks in his den; That so a multitude of poor, May by his strong ones fall. 11 He thus hath said within his heart, He hides his countenance, and he only hardens in iniquity. All this may prevail in the heart, while some regard may be paid to religion. Future prosperity is promised from the past; I shall not be moved: because I am not in adversity, as the last clause is read; a very bad rule of calculation. Verse 7. His mouth is full of cursing, &c. The spirit of Antichrist is illustrated by being contrasted with that of Christ and his followers. Verses 8-10. From evil thoughts and their offspring, impious language, the progress is natural to wicked actions. The steps our Lord took to save men, when on earth, are followed by this enemy in plotting their destruction. Under his influence error and iniquity insinuate themselves, diffuse their baneful poison, and destroy the souls of men. For the salvation of mankind, the Lion of the tribe of Judah became a Lamb; but when the wolf assumes sheep's cloathing, it is that he may the more effectually destroy. Those who trust him, will soon find to their cost, that his nature is disguised, but not changed. Verse 11. He hath said &c. He persuades himself that God hath so forgotten his people, that he may attack them with impunity; that he so hides his face, as to take no notice of their sufferings, nor will redress their wrongs. When faith is wanting, or asleep, sin awakes; for no man D 12 O LORD, do thou arise, O God, 13 Why is it that the wicked man 14 Thou hast it seen; for their mischief 15 The arm break of the wicked man, Do thou seek out his wickedness, Until thou findest none.. can venture on the commission of sin, be the temptation ever so great, with a lively impression of God's presence on his mind. Verses 12, 13. Arise, O LORD, &c. This prayer is adapted to the character drawn above; and intreats that God would rescue the humble poor, and turn his hand upon their oppressors; which amounts to a promise that he will. Compare Exod. vii. 5. Isa. v. 25. and ix. 12. &c, The wicked can have no just reason for contemning God in his threatened judgments; and the Psalmist expresses his surprise at such conduct, in the form of question. But he assigns the reason in the last clause, founded on what is put in the wicked's mouth in the 11th verse-Thou wilt not require it. Verse 14. Thou hast seen it, &c. Here he asserts that God surely observes such conduct, to requite it, and that he will approve himself the helper of the poor and fatherless, whose case is too often disregarded among men. Verse 15. Break thou, or thou shalt break the arm of the wicked, &c. The terms being in the singular number, the wicked one is included, no less than his agents, whose power to hurt, and, as we understand it, their inclination, stall one day cease to exist. Seek out, or thou shalt seek out his wickedness, till thou find none, as that is said to be sought for, and not found, which is utterly lost or destroyed, Job xx. 7, 8. Ps. xxxvii. 36. Rev. xvi. 20. and xviii. 21. Will not God realize in his great house what he injoined upon the Jews, the casting out of every particle of the old leaven, the figure of malice and hypocrisy, that all his people may keep the feast. with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, 16 The Lord is king through ages all, The Heathen people from his land 17 O LORD, of those that humble are Thou wilt prepare their heart, and thou 18 To judge the fatherless, and those That man, that is but sprung of earth, May them oppress no more. PSALM XI. THIS psalm is supposed to have been written by David when persecuted by Saul, and forced to flee from place to place for safety. He encourages himself to trust in the LORD his GOD, when some of his attendants advise him to have recourse to some human expedient for safety, 1-3. he expresses his faith in the LORD's unbounded knowledge, power, and presence, as his refuge amidst every danger, 4; assigns the reason why the right Verse 16. The LORD is King for ever and ever; &c. That Messiah is here intended, appears evident, because he is the only everlasting, official King and Father. The expulsion of the nations of Canaan from Judea, may be justly viewed as a pledge of the destruction of all wicked men out of his dominions; yet whatever constituted the kingdoms of this world shall become the restored property of this Universal Monarch, at the Restitution of all things. Verse 17. LORD, thou hast heard, or hearest the desire of the humble; thou wilt prepare, or, thou preparest their heart: thou wilt cause, or, thou causest thine ear to hear. This verse furnishes an antidote to all that venom of persecution, to which the belief and practice of divine truth expose. Does not forgiveness to enemies constitute the desire and prayer of every pious person? And will not God finally gratify this desire in the most perfect manner? The Verse 18. To judge the fatherless and the oppressed &c. i. e. to defend them from enemies, and pass and execute sentence in their favour. man of the earth denotes those who seek and have their portion in it, the men who are often the sword of God's vengeance. The period is coming when such shall no more oppress.-May the Lord hasten the happy era, and prepare the nations for Messiah's glorious rest among them! Isa. xi. 4, 9, 10. eous, are afflicted; and assures us that oppressors, whatever be their j sent success, are objects of God's abhorrence, 5; describes the fea doom of the ungodly, who shall suddenly be destroyed, 6; and concl with an assurance of God's love to the righteous, and approbatio their conduct. 1 I IN the Lord do put my trust; How is it then that ус Say to my soul, Flée, as a bird, 2 For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, 3 If the foundations be destroy'd, Verse 1. In the LORD put I my trust: &c. Let us in like manner in him in every situation. Whether the last clause was spoken by despo ing friends, who sought his safety; or by his enemies, who meant to press the language of insult, is not obvious. Compared to Saul, might view him as a silly bird, unable to oppose that royal eagle. actually fled to the mountainous country of Judea, for fear of S whence some would render it,-Flee from your mountains, viz. to som reign land for safety. Verse 2. For lo &c. This description of the attempts of the wick destroy him, suits David's friends rather than his enemies, as the 1 would not describe him and his men as upright in heart, nor call th selves wicked. Our blessed Lord often bore such scoffs for his reli on Ged, and particularly, while suspended on the cross. Verse 3. If, for, or when the foundations are destroyed, what car righteous do to remedy this? or Heb. What hath the righteous done, to procure such foreboding destruction? This is supposed to be s en by the same persons, dissuading David from further resistance to measures of his enemies, by the consideration that under Saul's adm tration, piety and justice, fidelity and mercy, these pillars or founda of a state, or kingdom, as they are called, Ps. lxxv. 2, 3. and lxxx were deranged or out of course. But all hope is not lost, while a si faithful man is found to reprove vice and error. and bear testimo truth, which is powerful and will prevail. David's answer implies much. Verse 4. The LORD is in his holy temple, &c. He is in his church. in heaven to receive the appeals of his people, defend their cause, redress their wrongs. When we are told that his eyes behold, and his cy 4 God in his holy temple is, His In heaven is his throne: eyes do see, his eyelids try 5 Men's sons. The just he proves: But his soul hates the wicked man, 6 Snares, fire and brimstone, furious storms, 7 Because the Lord most righteous doth And with a pleasent countenance try the children of men, Heb. the sons of Adam, as he is said, Psalm xxxiii. 13. to behold all the sons of men, or of Adam; which imports much more than a perfect knowlege of their person and actions. His eyes are said to be like a flame of fire, separating the dross from the precious metals. To try the sons of Adam then, must include the purification of their nature; the prospect of which consoled David, and a greater than David, under all that they suffered from the malice and persecution of the wicked. Verse 5. The LORD trieth the righteous; &c. which ascertains the sense of the phrase as applied to the sons of Adam, or the wicked, in the preceding verse. We should admit, that as gold is tried in the fire; so good and bad men are tried in the furnace of adversity, though extended to the latter beyond the grave. Verse 6. Upon the wicked He shall rain &c. There is a plain allusion here to the destruction of the cities of the plain, from which awful event the language is evidently borrowed, Gen. xix. The last clause hath its parallel, Ps. ixxv. 8. The terms employed here by the Psalmist, and in Ps. lxxxiii. 15. denote a tempest that combines in its operation all the elements of nature; which presents to the wicked a most dreadful pros pect in a future state. Verse 7. For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; &c. or as the margin renders it,-The LORD is righteous, he loveth righteousness. This is signed as a add, that it is also a reason why he should totally abolish their wickedness, which is detestable in his sight. As his countenance beholdeth the upright, that is, with complacency and delight, this insures their happiness, and also the recovery of all to a state in which he can take but we may constant study, that we may attain to such a state. |