Davids Harp Strung and Tuned, Book 4 [i.e. 5] · Psalm 119 · Stanza 20
20. RESH.
IN this Section David petitions to God for help in his affliction.The Contents
2. Complains of the multitude of his perſecutors.
3. Laments their condition.
4. And ſhewes his conſtancy and love to Gods Word.
1. David in his affliction prayes to God.David begins with a petition. In afflictions it is ſome comfort to us, to have our caſe known, conſider'd and examined, eſpecially by thoſe that love us, therefore David deſires:
1. Ver. 1 That God would conſider his caſe: Conſider my afflictions; ſo much at leaſt.1To help him.
2. Then that he would help him: Deliver me from my tempting enemies.
3. His Reaſon to perſwade both: For I do not forget thy Law; though I perfectly keep it not, yet I have not caſt it behind my back; I do not forget it, I deſire to keep it: This he could plead with a good conſcience, if not what he had done, yet what he would have done; therefore he could boldly make this requeſt, Deliver me.
4. 2To be his. Advocate.But yet he goes further, and deſires God to be his Advocate; to him he appeals.
1. Plead my cauſe, and deliver me. At the bar of men, a juſt cauſe oftentimes miſcarries for want of a good Advocate, Ver. 2 and is born down by an unjuſt Judge; wherefore I beſeech thee, who art the juſt Judge of the World, take my cauſe in hand, plead it to their faces, and deliver me; Ariſe up for me in the judgment that thou haſt commanded.
2. 3And quicken him.Quicken me according to thy Word: For thy promiſe made in thy Word concerning the reward of good men, and puniſhment of bad, quicken me, put life into me, by refreſhing me by the life of grace, and comforting me with the hope of the life of glory.
2. He beleves he ſhall be heard, becauſe no wicked perſon.Were I a wicked perſon, this I could not hope from thee, nor grace, nor glory, nor help, nor deliverance; I could not be perſwaded, that thou wouldſt either conſider, or plead my cauſe, or paſs any judiciary ſentence in my favour.
1. Ver. 3 From whom ſalvation is far removed.For ſalvation is far from the wicked. In the former Section, he ſaid, They are far from thy Law; of which the conſequent is, That ſalvation is far from them. Gods Law then muſt be kept by him that looks for ſalvarion: If thou wilt enter into life, keep the Commandments, Mat. 19. Do this, and live.
2. And this Davids Reaſon confirms; For they ſeek not thy statutes: Saved they cannot be; Becauſe they ſeek not Gods Law.for they do not ſo much as ſeek to know thy Will, the way of ſalvation; they eſteem it not, make no account of it, and therefore no wonder if th…y ſeek it not; for men ſeek after that they eſteem; this is a ſin, of which a good man is never guilty; tranſgreſs he may, and doth, yet he is alwayes ſeeking what is the mind of God, and will find it if he can, and live thereafter.
3. And yet he deſires merciesIn which, notwithſtanding all his ſeeking and finding he ſtill fails, and comes ſhort, therefore he flies to Gods mercies, with David in this place, Great, or many, Ver. 4 are thy tender mercies, O Lord. Two Epithites he beſtowes on Gods mercies, and we need both.Which are great and many.
1. Great, or many; for our ſins are great and many. Great they are in continuance, they endure for ever; great in extenſion, for they they are above all his works; and alſo many they are: There is his preventing mercy, his ſparing mercy, his pardoning mercy, his renewing mercy, his continuing mercy, his crowning mercy; there is a multitude of them, Pſal. 51.1.
2. And as they are great, ſo are they tender. Racham, loving mercies, 2Tender.and eaſie to be intreated; they flow from his bowels and inward affection, they are miſerationes as well as miſericordiae, pitiful mercies, tender, as is the Matrix of the mother to the infant.
3. Quicken me according to thy judgments. To quicken him.David found the life of grace in him dull'd, deaded, hindred, impugned, therefore ſo often he deſires that God would quicken him.
4. And now he begins to complain; 'tis not without reaſon, He complains of his perſecutors.that I deſire to be quickned, and to have new life put into me; for,
1. Many are my perſecutors, and mine enemies; many Devils, many men, many viſible, more inviſible that go about to mortifie me. Ver. 5
2. And yet I remain conſtant; yet I do not decline to the right hand, But is yet conſtant to Gods Law.nor to the left, I ſwarve not from thy Testimonies. It is no great matter to cleave to the Law of God, when none purſues thee for it, when Authority allowes it, when honour and proſperity followes it. When the Lord gloried of his ſervant Job, remember Satans anſwer, Doth Job ſerve God for naught? &c. But do this and this to him, and he will blaſpheme thee to thy face: But he was deceived; for the more Job was croſs't, the more he cleaved to the Lord; and ſo muſt a good man endure the fiery trial, reſiſt men to blood, never decline or ſwarve.
3. And a ſecond ſtrein of his complaint is, Ver. 6 That theſe men were not only violent againſt him, and malicious, The qualities of his perſecutors. For which he grieved And appeals to God for the Truth of it.but they were injurious to his God.
1. They were Tranſgreſſours; not ſimple ſinners, but workers of iniquity.
2. Now this was it that went near his heart, that his God ſhould be diſhonoured by them, and his Word contemned. I beheld the Tranſgreſſours, and was grieved; ſo before, ver. 139. 143. He took not ſo heavily his own perſecution, as the injury done to God. An admirable Argument it is of love, when the Glory of God, and his Word, is dearer to us than our lives. It was ſo in Eliah, in the Martyrs, in David, that melted away for grief to ſee wickedneſs exalted, and Piety and true Religion trode under foot.
5. This was I ſay an evident Argument of his love, and for probation of it, he appeals to God, deſiring the Lord to conſider it, whether it were ſo or no.
1. Conſider: Vide. No man dare ſay to God, look upon me, And deſires him to conſider it.but he that is perſwaded that God will like him, when he looks upon him; for he that doth evil, hates the light, and flies, as did Adam, that hid himſelf. It is an Argument of a good conſcience, when we dare preſent our heart to God.
2. Conſider how I love: It is not conſider how I perform; the comfort of a Chriſtian while he lives in this body of ſin, is rather in ſincerity, And the love he bears to Gods Law.and fervency of affection, than in the abſolute perfection of his actions; for though he may fail oftentimes in his actions, yet love in his affection ſtill remains.
3. And his love is to the precept. He loves the Law, becauſe it is Gods Law, from a juſt God, and juſt in it ſelf. To love the promiſes of God, is no ſuch great matter; for every man out of that love he bears to himſelf, will be in love with theſe; but to love Gods Law, which is contrary to, and reſtrains our corrupt nature, is a great denial of himſelf, and a manifeſt of true love, ſo it was in David, I love thy precepts.
4. Therefore he petitions again for comfort.And upon this he preſſeth on his Petition: Quicken me, O Lord, according to thy loving-kindneſs: As if he ſaid, Aequum eſt, 'tis but Reaſon thou be kind to me, and quicken me, ſince I grieve for the Tranſgreſſors, and love thy Law.
6. The Encomium of Gods Law; viz.Now for the confirmation of his conſtancy, he concludes with a commendation of Gods Law and Truth: But theſe words are read, or may be tranſlated two wayes, and they will have two ſenſes; for if we read:
1. Thy Word is true from the beginning, then the meaning is, That when in the beginning thou commandeſt Adam, not to touch the forbiden fruit under pain of death, ſince thou haſt verified thy Word, for all men are ſince mortal.
2. But if we read, The beginning of thy Word is true. Caput verbi tui veritas. Vatab. The ſenſe is, Thy words proceed from Truth, as from their Principle and Fountain, and therefore are moſt true; the very garland and head of them is verity.
Two things he attributes to the Word of God, Truth and Righteouſneſs, and they both ſerve very well to his preſent purpoſe, to confirm him in his Petitions and conſtancy, notwithſtanding his many perſecutors.
1. 1Truth.Thy Word is true from the beginning: Which perſwaſion is the mother of all obedience and faith; for therefore we believe and obey it, becauſe we are perſwaded it is true; it begets ſuch an aſſurance in our ſouls, that no temptation or trouble is able to overcome it; upon this St. Peter wiſheth us to rely, becauſe it is a moſt ſure Word, 2 Pet. 1.19. The ſure mercies of David. God will not fail his people, but according to his Word, ſo it ſhall be.
2. 2Eternal juſtice.And every one of thy righteous judgments endure for ever. A reward remains for the righteous, and a puniſhment for the wicked; and with this aſſurance alſo David ſuſtained himſelf againſt the delay of judgment againſt wicked men, viz. A meditation of the eternal righteouſneſs of Gods judgments; he collected, That for the preſent they might be ſpared, but at length they would be puniſhed, ſeeing Gods judgments are everlaſting.
The Prayer.
O Lord, our afflictions at this time are great, and our dangers are great, we humbly therefore beſéech thée to look down from thy holp Heaven, and to conſider our preſent trouble, deliver us, good Lord, from our enemies, for we do not forget thy Law; Ver. 1 though we cannot perform it, yet we have an eſpecial regard to it, and alwayes kéep it in memory, deſiring that our performances might be anſwerable to our deſtres. Thou which art a juſt Iudge, and to whom all judgment doth belong, and to whom I have committed my cauſe, plead my cauſe againſt mine Adverſaries, Ver. 2 and redéem my life from my unjuſt Oppreſſors; according to thy promiſe, quicken and revive my heart, that is very much caſt down by their inſolencies.
Did my heart incline to any evil way, I durſt not appear in thy preſence, or expect ſo great a favour from thée; Ver. 3 for ſalvation is far from the wicked: As they are far from kéeping thy Law, ſo alſo is ſalvation far from them; when they ſéek not, nor eſtéem thy ſtatutes, they cannot expect to be partakers of thoſe promiſes which thou haſt made to them that do ſéek them: But thou, O Lord, knoweſt how I ſéek both them and thée, Ver. 4 and thy mercies are great, tender, and many, to thoſe that fear thy Name, according to theſe then deal with me, and in equity deal with me, that the remainder of my dayes, which yet cannot be many, may be comfortable.
The diſcomforts I have are infinite, men and Devils, Ver. 5 viſible and inviſible enemies on every ſide aſſault me; tentations I méet with on the right hand, and on the left; and yet ſuch is my love to thy Law, Ver. 7 that hitherto I have not declined from thy Teſtimonies: Conſider then, O Lord, how I love thy precepts, and according to thy loving-kindneſs deal with me, and aſſiſt me, and quicken me with thy grace, that no tentation prevail over me. Ver. 6 Let me not be ſeduced by any ill example, and dra…n to tread in the ſteps of wicked men; for whoſe tranſgreſſions my heart is grieved, becauſe they keep not thy Word; Ver. 8 which is a Word of Truth and Righteouſneſs. Never ſuffer me to decline from this Truth, ever cauſe me to rely upon this Righteouſneſs; let me not be ſeduced by Errors, nor be diſcomforted with the proſperity of wicked men, whom, though thou ſpareſt for this preſent, yet will at laſt poure upon them thy full Wols of vengeance, becauſe thy righteous judgments endure for ever. O Lord, get thy honour upon thy enemies, but let the ſure mercies of David never fail thy Church and people, for thy Son Ieſus Chriſts ſake, our only Lord and Saviour. Amen.