《》་་《》.....《》་་་《》་...《》་་་་72.་་་་་་་་《》..་་་་་《》་་་《》་. PSALM XII. THIS psalm is ascribed to David, and has the same title as psalm vi. It is supposed to refer to the sad effects of Saul's mal-administration, and of his persecution of David, and of all good men that favoured his cause; by which their number came to be greatly diminished in the land. This circumstance, and the increasing number, and growing wickedness, of the ungodly, are here pathetically lamented. The Psalmist, destitute of human help, implores God's aid, and expresses his reliance on the divine promises; the truth and certainty of which he owns and celebrates. While he exposes and reprobates the flatteries and lies of his persecutors, he comforts himself with an assurance that God would plead the cause of his people, avenge their wrongs, and in due time shew himself the Judge and defender of the upright, who by faith and prayer commit their cause to HIM, and rely on his promise. ་、་ 1 HELP, LORD, because the godly man Doth daily fade away; And from among the sons of men 2 Unto his neighbour ev'ry one Doth utter vanity: They with a double heart do speak, 3 God shall cut off all flatt'ring lips, Tongues that speak proudly thus, Verse 1. Help or save, LORD, for the godly man, the kind or merciful, coaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men, or of Adam. These children, who bore Adam's image in his fallen state only, were destitute not only of true piety, but even of common honesty in their civil intercourse with one another. When Satan, the first king to whom men submit, of whom Saul was evidently a figure, prevails in Christian Israel, the state of society will be similar, vile men will be in power. Verse 2. They speak vanity or falsehood, &c. The last clause, double heart, is on margin, an heart, and an heart, pretending the reverse of what they really covet and intend, and befriending religion only so far as serves their secular views. Can it be expected that those who are perfiious to God, should prove faithful to their neighbour? Even infidels chuse not their dependants should be such; their own image, when thus Jected, never failing to disgust. 4 We'll with our tongue prevail, our lips ́ 5 For poor oppress'd, and for the sighs Saith GOD, and him in safety set, From such as him defy. 6 The words of GoD are words most pure; In earthen furnace, seven times That hath been purify'd. 7 LORD, thou shalt them preserve and keep For ever from this race. Verses 3, 4. The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, &c. The same will be the fate of the tongue that speaketh proud things,-great swelling words of vanity. These two are connected; as those who cringe to superiors, and servilely flatter them, are ever found to carry it imperiously towards their inferiors. But they who attempt to deceive others, will in the end find they have most fatally deceived and disappointed themselves; when truth shall detect their hypocrisy, and discover the hollowness of their pretensions. The enemies of Christ, like those of David, think to prevail by spreading slanders and evil reports; which in the issue recoil upon themselves. They will find to their cost that their lips are not their own, to be so employed; and that there is a Lord over them, who will judge and punish such conduct. Verse 5. For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, &c. Oppression in church or state, when it brings the oppressed to sigh and The LORD may seem for a cry to God, will insure a just retribution. time to overlook this, but he will arise, and make his previous forbearance the more visibly to display the equity of his procedure. He will speak to such characters in wrath, and openly espouse the cause of his sighing oppressed people. Verse 6. The words of the LORD are pure: &c. are without the least mixture of vanity or falsehood; unlike the words of the persons alluded to above. Often have these words been put to the test in the trials of the faithful, especially of Christ; but like silver refined seven times or sevenfold in a crucible of earth, the emblem of good men, they are found to contain no dross, no alloy of fallibility or imperfection. These words are true in their narratives, just and holy in their precepts, full and gracious in their promises, significant and expressive in their institutions-and faithful in their predictions. All the types and figures of scripture are a shadow of good things to come. Compared to the treasures of the word of truth, what are millions of silver and gold! ' Verse 7. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, &c. Some eminent critics refer the relative them to the words or promises mentioned in the preced 8 On each side walk the wicked, when Vile men are high in place. PSALM XIII. In this psalm David prays for deliverance from his deep and long-continued distresses. He expostulates with God respecting his delay in helping him, and the triumph of his enemies; prays for preventing grace, and professes his trust in God, in whose mercy he exults. 1 How long wilt thou forget me, LORD? O how long shall it be that thou Wilt hide thy face from me? 2 How long take counsel in my soul, Still sad in heart, shall I? ing verse, these lively and life-giving oracles. Accordingly, it is rendered in some versions in the neuter plural. The generation from whom these oracles are to be kept for ever, or to the age, (legnolam) are the enemies of David, as a figure of those of Messiah. The two verbs by which this exclusion is expressed are very strong, intimating that the saving knowlege of God's word and promises shall be kept, as by a guard, from the wicked, who die such, till the times of the Restitution of ALL THINGS; that till then they shall not enjoy the blessings promised. This appears to be the real sense, and not what is commonly assigned; the pronoun in both clauses intending the same. Verse 8. The wicked walk on every side, &c. intimating their great numbers, that they filled all places of trust in the reign of Saul, and that they had freedom and safety, when they should have been restrained and punished; that they were bold and secure, going about whither they pleased, while David enjoyed no such liberty, and that they succeeded in their unlawful measures. The term rendered vilest men, is the abstract in the plural, vilenesses; and is derived from a word which signifies a glutton, or drunkard; whence it denotes any vile person. The wicked walk on every side, and vile men are exalted; because it is now their hour, and the power of darkness. But that hour is of short duration, the power of darkness shall be overthrown, and the day of mourning to the righteous be soon over; when the wicked, who now go at large, shall be confined till their bondage, and the Lord's indignation be overpast. Verse 1. How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD, for ever? &c. God is said to forget his people, and to hide his face from them, when he does not interpose for their deliverance in distress. The wicked he will so forget for ever, but not his faithful people. Our Lord cried in the days of his flesh in a similar manner; and appeared to be forgotten for a season, that he might learn to sympathize with those who are so really. How long exalted over me Shall be mine enemy? 3 O LORD my God, consider well, Mine eyes enlighten, lest the sleep 4 Lest that mine enemy should say, And those that trouble me rejoice 5 But I have all my confidence My heart within me shall rejoice 6 I will unto the LORD my God Sing praises cheerfully, Verse 2 How long shall I take counsel, &c? Here the Psalmist inforces his prayer by the consideration of the perplexity of his soul, not knowing where or to whom to turn-his heart felt sorrow expressing itself in sighs and moans-and by the exultation of his enemies over him in his distress. Prayers of faith, so inforced, will obtain an answer of peace. Verse 3. Consider and hear me, O LORD my God; &c. This prayer is suitable for every one; for till the eyes of the mind are enlightened, we are unfit to die. Though the language used applies fitly to recovery from bodily illness; yet is it more expressive when applied to disorders of the inward man. The sleep of sin is more fatal to the latter than the sleep of death is to the former. Verse 4. Lest mine enemy say, &c. When our enemies are God's enemies also, we may in confidence pray, as here, that he would not leave these to triumph in our removal by death, or by the failure of the cause of truth in our hand. The Jews rejoiced when they got Christ-confined in the grave, but their triumph was short; for his speedy resurrection soon blasted all their hopes from that quarter. Verses 5, 6. But I have trusted, &c. Here he expresses not only his past, but also his present exercise, that having trusted in the divine mercy, he continued to do so still. As the words may be rendered in the past or present tense, so what follows may be expressed also in the future, My heart rejoices, or shall rejoice in thy salvation. His declared purpose to sing to the LORD is founded upon his having dealt, and still continued to deal, bountifully with him. This, like other psalms that begin with mournful complaints, ends in Because he hath his bounty shown PSALM XIV. Tuis psalm is repeated in the liiid, to mark the general interest of contents; and in both places it is ascribed to David. If it had a pri ry reference to Absalom's unnatural rebellion, as is supposed, the sa things will apply, with still greater emphasis, to MESSIAH's enemies, those of his people. The state and sufferings of David on that occas when forced to leave his house and capital in the greatest distress, an our blessed Lord, on the gloomy night he crossed, like his type, the br Kedron, and entered on his passion, coincide in too many particulars escape the pious reader of the sacred history. What leads infidels to ny the being, or providence of God, induces the fearers of his name acknowlege and adore both. See 2 Sam. xv. John xviii 1. 1 THAT there is not a God, the fool Doth in his heart conclude: praise, to shew the efficacy of the prayer of faith, in inspiring lively H in the season of affliction; like the dew by night that refreshes the sco ed fields. Verse 1. The fool hath said in his heart,-There is no God: &c. the principles and conduct of David's enemies, we have the corrup of the world, and its enmity against Messiah and his people, describe their leading features. Reading the first clause without the supplem it expresses the language of desire, but not of conviction; whence depravity of the human heart, unrenewed by grace, may be justly in red. But such a wicked and delusive wish gradually operates in proc ing a fond hope of the latter; whence poor sinners act as if there was GOD to inspect their conduct, or call them to a future account. Tho David's enemies were men of this cast; yet is it evident, from Rom. 20, &c. that the apostacy of Jews and Gentiles, and their being both der the guilt and dominion of sin, are truths here intended. The opposers of the gospel in every age, are to be viewed in this lig though they may profess their belief of God's being and providence. term FOOL, in David's and Solomon's writings, always imports a præ cal atheist at least; whence our Lord approves of the judgment of Jews, in making the application of the term to a brother, a crime. does not deny the being of God, which is denoted by the name Jehobut the plurality of his existence, and the universality of his provider the term used here, and Ps. liiid, being ELOHIM, the mighty, govern ones, one in being, yet plural and distinct in subsistence. See Ps. xx 1. and Tit. i. 16. They are corrupt, Heb. they have corrupted, viz. themselves or t ways, and such as they could influence, A foolish, darkened heart is |