Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 1 · Psalm 36
The Thirty Sixth Psalm.
TO the chief Musitian, A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord.
Paraphrase. The thirty sixth Psalm was composed by David in reflection on himself, and his own sincerity and dependance on God, in the time of his distress, (when Saul persecuted him, saith the Syriack and the Arabick;) and it was committed by him to the Praefect of his Musick.
1. The transgression of the wicked saith withina. my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes.
The actions of wicked men are such, so absolutely contrary to Gods laws, and threats, and promises, to all that we know of God, that a man that considers them, cannot choose but resolve, that either they doe not believe at all that there is a God, or that they doe not really and in earnest fear or care for him.
2. For he‖hath smoothed it to him in his own eyes, when his iniquity is ready to be found out, and hated. b.flattereth himselfe in his own eyes, untill his abominable sin be found out.
For committing these sins that God sees, and hates, and abhorres, and is even ready to punish, they think they can put so fair a gloss upon them, that God shall not finde any fault with them. They pretend, forsooth, that they have done nothing amiss, varnishing over the fouler parts of them with some specious colour of pious intentions, &c. And so impudent they are, that they dare do this, flatter God, and pretend to religion, even then when their sin is ready to be found out, and punished by him.
3. The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to‖understand that be may do good. foreign be wise, and to do good.
All their speeches are designed to mischief, and cheat others, and advance and benefit themselves; and for justice or charity, they give over all care or study of them, being so far from the practice of them, that they do not so much as desire to understand what belongs to them.
4. He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil.
They plot, and study, and meditate wayes of wronging others: there is nothing so ill, that they will not adventure on, if it be for their turn: they overcome those aversions, that even corrupt nature hath, to some greater more enormous sins; it will go down with them, if it seem contributive to their interests.
5. Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.
But from all their machinations I have my sure and safe resort to thy goodness and thy fidelity, O Lord; each of which are infinite, and unmeasurable, and shall never fail them that are qualified to receive benefit from them.
6. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains, thy judgements are a great deep: O Lord, thou preservest man and beast.
What thou hast once promised, shall most certainly be performmed; thy faithfulness is unmoveable. What thou pleasest to have done, shall certainly come to pass, though by means unfathomable, and unsearchable, such as no man can give account of. Thy over-ruling and wisely-disposing providence it is, by which all creatures have their being and preservation.
7. How excellent is thy loving kindness, O God? Therefore the children of men‖under the shadow of thy wings shall have confide…ce. foreign put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.
Thy mercy and favour, O Lord, is of all things in the world most highly valuable: and therefore for them that have their hold in it, that have not forfeited their tenure in thy favour, and fatherly providence, they may be most confident, that no evil shall befall them.
8. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.
All the good things of this life shall be in the greatest abundance of satisfaction reacht out unto them; their life shall be filled with pleasures, continually flowing in to them, in all their performances. 'Tis out of an unexhausted magazin, that they are provided for; out of a most fluent stream of divine plenty, that they are filled.
9. For with thee is the fountain of life; and in thy light shall we see light.
God is an ever-flowing spring and vein of all felicity, of this and another life: All the good that any man injoyes, or aspires to, comes only from his free favour and mercy.
10. O continue thy loving kindness unto them that know thee, and thy righteousness to the upright in heart.
The continuance of those comprehends all manner of bliss. O blessed Lord, do not withdraw them from thy servants; make good those exceeding rich promises, which thou hast confirmed to all those that sincerely adhere to thee, and depart not from thee.
11. Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me.
O let not the violence of proud and wicked men be able to do me any hurt.
12. There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down and shall not be able to rise.
And in this I am confident thou wilt hear my prayer; and so I rely on thee for the performance as chearfully, as if they were already subdued, and brought so low, that they should never recover, or make any more assaults upon me.
Annotations on Psalm XXXVI.
V. 1. My heart] For foreign foreignmy heart, the Syriack reads foreign his heart, The wicked man thinks wicke ness in his heart; and the Lxxii. foreign, within himselfe, as reading foreign his heart. But the Chaldee accords with our reading of the Hebrew, in the middle foreign of my heart; and so we have all reason to continue it. And the meaning of it, though somewhat Poetically exprest, will not be obscure. For wickednesse, by a prosopopoeia, is made to speak and declare what are the thoughts of that man wherein it is, viz. that he hath no fear of God before his eyes (i. e. I suppose in Hebrew style, before Gods eyes; as to fear before him, to doe evil in his eyes, and many the like phrases are obvious.) This, saith the Psalmist, it declares in the inner part of my heart; not to my ears, but to my understanding: it saith it in my heart, i. e. gives me reason so to resolve and conclude it.
V. 2. He flattereth] The construction of this v. 2. which is somewhat perplext, may best be cleared by observing the notion of foreign,foreign which we render, flattereth, in the beginning. foreign as it signifies to divide into equal parts, so also it signifies laevigare, to smooth (and so in speech to flatter;) and so in Hiphil it is here taken, and being applied to sin, whether foreign in the former verse, or foreign in this verse, it signifies to put a soft, and smooth, and fair guise on it, as if there were nothing course or rough, nothing amiss in it. Next then, it must be considered to whom foreign foreignto him, refers; which by reason of the double antecedent, the wicked, …nd God, may seem uncertain, but is by our English referred to the wicked himselfe. But the designe of the verse being to prove, that the wicked hath no fear of God before his eyes, and that, as was said, before Gods eyes, it will be most reasonable to interpret foreign of God, he hath smoothed his sin to him, i. e. to God, made it appear very fair and smooth; but this not really, but foreign in his own eyes, foreignto his own thinking. And thus certainly the Lxxii. understood it, who render it paraphrastically foreign, he ha h deal deceitfully before him, i. e. God, hath indeavoured to cheat God, and give him a very fair gloss, and smooth appearance of his sin. And then follows foreign,foreign when his sin is ready to be found out, to be hated; so ל signifies, see Ios. ii. 5. foreign when the gate was ready to be shut: the Syriack renders it most fully, when the time was come that the gate is shut in the evening; and the Arabick, when the gate was to be shut, for it follows, they went out. This is a most perspicuous rendering of those words. The LXXII. have followed the letter very close, foreign, literally rendering the two infinitives by infinitives, but omitting onelyonly the preposition ל in both places, and supplying it by the article foreign, and so leaving it free to be rendered as ל imports, when his sin is ready to be found out, meaning still when God is ready to punish, i. e. to finde out, and hate their iniquity.