Psalm 37:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Spurgeon
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 Job Proverbs
Psalm 37
Complete Concise
This psalm is a sermon, and an excellent useful sermon it is,
calculated not (as most of the psalms) for our devotion, but for our
conversation; there is nothing in it of prayer or praise, but it is all
instruction; it is "Maschil—a teaching psalm;" it is an exposition
of some of the hardest chapters in the book of Providence, the advancement of
the wicked and the disgrace of the righteous, a solution of the difficulties
that arise thereupon, and an exhortation to conduct ourselves as becomes us
under such dark dispensations. The work of the prophets (and David was one) was
to explain the law. Now the law of Moses had promised temporal blessings to the
obedient, and denounced temporal miseries against the disobedient, which
principally referred to the body of the people, the nation as a nation; for,
when they came to be applied to particular persons, many instances occurred of
sinners in prosperity and saints in adversity; to reconcile those instances with
the word that God had spoken is the scope of the prophet in this psalm, in
which, I. He forbids us to fret at the prosperity of the wicked in their wicked
ways (v. 1, 7, 8). II. He gives very good reasons why we should not fret at it.
1. Because of the scandalous character of the wicked (v. 12, 14, 21, 32)
notwithstanding their prosperity, and the honourable character of the righteous
(v. 21, 26, 30, 31). 2. Because of the destruction and ruin which the wicked are
nigh to (v. 2, 9, 10, 20, 35, 36, 38) and the salvation and protection which the
righteous are sure of from all the malicious designs of the wicked (v. 13, 15,
17, 28, 33, 39, 40). 3. Because of the particular mercy God has in store for all
good people and the favour he shows them (v. 11, 16, 18, 19, 22-25, 28, 29,
37). III. He prescribes very good remedies against this sin of envying the
prosperity of the wicked, and great encouragement to use those remedies (v. 3-6,
27, 34). In singing this psalm we must teach and admonish one another rightly to
understand the providence of God and to accommodate ourselves to it, at all
times carefully to do our duty and then patiently to leave the event with God
and to believe that, how black soever things may look for the present, it shall
be "well with those that fear God, that fear before him."
A psalm of David.
Verses 1-6
The instructions here given are very plain; much need not be
said for the exposition of them, but there is a great deal to be done for the
reducing of them to practice, and there they will look best.
I. We are here cautioned against discontent at the prosperity
and success of evil-doers (v. 1, 2):
Fret not thyself, neither be thou
envious. We may suppose that David speaks this to himself first, and
preaches it to his own heart (in his communing with that upon his bed), for the
suppressing of those corrupt passions which he found working there, and then
leaves it in writing for instruction to others that might be in similar
temptation. That is preached best, and with most probability of success, to
others, which is first preached to ourselves. Now, 1. When we look abroad we see
the world full of evil-doers and workers of iniquity, that flourish and prosper,
that have what they will and do what they will, that live in ease and pomp
themselves and have power in their hands to do mischief to those about them. So
it was in David's time; and therefore, if it is so still, let us not marvel at
the matter, as though it were some new or strange thing. 2. When we look within
we find ourselves tempted to fret at this, and to be envious against these
scandals and burdens, these blemishes and common nuisances, of this earth. We
are apt to fret at God, as if he were unkind to the world and unkind to his
church in permitting such men to live, and prosper, and prevail, as they do. We
are apt to fret ourselves with vexation at their success in their evil projects.
We are apt to envy them the liberty they take in getting wealth, and perhaps by
unlawful means, and in the indulgence of their lusts, and to wish that we could
shake off the restraints of conscience and do so too. We are tempted to think
them the only happy people, and to incline to imitate them, and to join
ourselves with them, that we may share in their gains and eat of their dainties;
and this is that which we are warned against:
Fret not thyself, neither be
thou envious. Fretfulness and envy are sins that are their own punishments;
they are the uneasiness of the spirit and the rottenness of the bones; it is
therefore in kindness to ourselves that we are warned against them. Yet that is
not all; for, 3. When we look forward with an eye of faith we shall see no
reason to envy wicked people their prosperity, for their ruin is at the door and
they are ripening apace for it, v. 2. They flourish, but as the grass, and as
the green herb, which nobody envies nor frets at. The flourishing of a godly man
is like that of a fruitful tree (Ps. 1:3), but that of the wicked man is like
grass and herbs, which are very short-lived. (1.) They will soon wither of
themselves. Outward prosperity is a fading thing, and so is the life itself to
which it is confined. (2.) They will sooner be cut down by the judgments of God.
Their triumphing is short, but their weeping and wailing will be everlasting.
II. We are here counselled to live a life on confidence and
complacency in God, and that will keep us from fretting at the prosperity of
evil-doers; if we do well for our own souls, we shall see little reason to envy
those that do so ill for theirs. Here are three excellent precepts, which we are
to be ruled by, and, to enforce them, three precious promises, which we may rely
upon.
1. We must make God our hope in the way of duty and then we
shall have a comfortable subsistence in this world, v. 3. (1.) It is required
that we
trust in the Lord and do good, that we confide in God and conform
to him. The life of religion lies much in a believing reliance on God, his
favour, his providence, his promise, his grace, and a diligent care to serve him
and our generation, according to his will. We must not think to trust in God and
then live as we list. No; it is not trusting God, but tempting him, if we do not
make conscience of our duty to him. Nor must we think to do good, and then to
trust to ourselves, and our own righteousness and strength. No; we must both
trust in the Lord and do good. And then, (2.) It is promised that we shall be
well provided for in this world:
So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily
thou shalt be fed. He does not say, "So shalt thou get preferment,
dwell in a palace, and be feasted." This is not necessary; a man's life
consists not in the abundance of these things; but, "Thou shalt have a
place to live in, and that in the land, in Canaan, the valley of vision, and
thou shalt have food convenient for thee." This is more than we deserve; it
is as much as a good man will stipulate for (Gen. 28:20) and it is enough for
one that is going to heaven. "Thou shalt have a settlement, a quiet
settlement, and a maintenance, a comfortable maintenance:
Verily thou shalt
be fed." Some read it,
Thou shalt be fed by faith, as the just
are said to live by faith, and it is good living, good feeding, upon the
promises.
"Verily thou shalt be fed, as Elijah in the famine, with
what is needful for thee." God himself is a shepherd, a feeder, to all
those that trust in him, Ps. 23:1.
2. We must make God our heart's delight and then we shall have
our heart's desire, v. 4. We must not only depend upon God, but solace
ourselves in him. We must be well pleased that there is a God, that he is such a
one as he has revealed himself to be, and that he is our God in covenant. We
must delight ourselves in his beauty, bounty, and benignity; our souls must
return to him, and repose in him, as their rest, and their portion for ever.
Being satisfied of his loving-kindness, we must be satisfied with it, and make
that our exceeding joy, Ps. 43:4. We were commanded (v. 3) to do good, and then
follows this command to delight in God, which is as much a privilege as a duty.
If we make conscience of obedience to God, we may then take the comfort of a
complacency in him. And even this pleasant duty of delighting in God has a
promise annexed to it, which is very full and precious, enough to recompense the
hardest services:
He shall give thee the desires of thy heart. He has not
promised to gratify all the appetites of the body and the humours of the fancy,
but to grant all the desires of the heart, all the cravings of the renewed
sanctified soul. What is the desire of the heart of a good man? It is this, to
know, and love, and live to God, to please him and to be pleased in him.
3. We must make God our guide, and submit in every thing to his
guidance and disposal; and then all our affairs, even those that seem most
intricate and perplexed, shall be made to issue well and to our satisfaction, v.
5, 6. (1.) The duty is very easy; and, if we do it aright, it will make us easy:
Commit thy way unto the Lord; roll thy way upon the Lord (so the margin
reads it), Prov. 16:3; Ps. 55:22.
Cast thy burden upon the Lord, the
burden of thy care, 1 Pt. 5:7. We must roll it off ourselves, so as not to
afflict and perplex ourselves with thoughts about future events (Mt. 6:25), not
to cumber and trouble ourselves either with the contrivance of the means or with
expectation of the end, but refer it to God, leave it to him by his wise and
good providence to order and dispose of all our concerns as he pleases.
Retreat
thy way unto the Lord (so the Septuagint), that is, "By prayer spread
thy case, and all thy cares about it, before the Lord" (as Jephthah
uttered
all his words before the Lord in Mizpeh, Jdg. 11:11), "and then trust
in him to bring it to a good issue, with a full satisfaction that all is well
that God does." We must do our duty (that must be our care) and then leave
the event with God.
Sit still, and see how the matter will fall, Ruth
3:18. We must follow Providence, and not force it, subscribe to Infinite Wisdom
and not prescribe. (2.) The promise is very sweet. [1.] In general,
"He
shall bring that to pass, whatever it is, which thou hast committed to him,
if not to thy contrivance, yet to thy content. He will find means to extricate
thee out of thy straits, to prevent thy fears, and bring about thy purposes, to
thy satisfaction." [2.] In particular, "He will take care of thy
reputation, and bring thee out of thy difficulties, not only with comfort, but
with credit and honour:
He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light
and thy judgment as the noon-day." (v. 6), that is, "he shall make
it to appear that thou art an honest man, and that is honour enough."
First,
It is implied that the righteousness and judgment of good people may, for a
time, be clouded and eclipsed, either by remarkable rebukes of Providence (Job's
great afflictions darkened his righteousness) or by the malicious censures and
reproaches of men, who give them bad names which they no way deserve, and lay to
their charge things which they know not.
Secondly, It is promised that
God will, in due time, roll away the reproach they are under, clear up their
innocency, and bring forth their righteousness, to their honour, perhaps in this
world, at furthest in the great day, Mt. 13:43. Note, If we take care to keep a
good conscience, we may leave it to God to take care of our good name.
Verses 7-20
In these verses we have,
I. The foregoing precepts inculcated; for we are so apt to
disquiet ourselves with needless fruitless discontents and distrusts that it is
necessary there should be precept upon precept, and line upon line, to suppress
them and arm us against them. 1. Let us compose ourselves by believing in God:
"Rest
in the Lord, and wait patiently for him (v. 7), that is, be well reconciled
to all he does and acquiesce in it, for that is best that is, because it is what
God has appointed; and be well satisfied that he will still make all to work for
good to us, though we know not how or which way."
Be silent to the Lord
(so the word is), not with a sullen, but a submissive silence. A patient bearing
of what is laid upon us, with a patient expectation of what is further appointed
for us, is as much our interest as it is our duty, for it will make us always
easy; and there is a great deal of reason for it, for it is making a virtue of
necessity. 2. Let us not discompose ourselves at what we see in this world:
"Fret
not thyself because of him who prospers in his wicked way, who, though he is
a bad man, yet thrives and grows rich and great in the world; no, nor because of
him who does mischief with his power and wealth, and brings wicked devices to
pass against those that are virtuous and good, who seems to have gained his
point and to have run them down. If thy heart begins to rise at it, stroke down
thy folly, and
cease from anger (v. 8), check the first stirrings of
discontent and envy, and do not harbour any hard thoughts of God and his
providence upon this account. Be not angry at any thing that God does, but
forsake that wrath; it is the worst kind of wrath that can be.
Fret not
thyself in any wise to do evil; do not envy them their prosperity, lest thou
be tempted to fall in with them and to take the same evil course that they take
to enrich and advance themselves or some desperate course to avoid them and
their power." Note, A fretful discontented spirit lies open to many
temptations; and those that indulge it are in danger of doing evil.
II. The foregoing reasons, taken from the approaching ruin of
the wicked notwithstanding their prosperity, and the real happiness of the
righteous notwithstanding their troubles, are here much enlarged upon and the
same things repeated in a pleasing variety of expression. We were cautioned (v.
7) not to envy the wicked either worldly prosperity or the success of their
plots against the righteous, and the reasons here given respect these two
temptations severally:—
1. Good people have no reason to envy the worldly prosperity of
wicked people, nor to grieve or be uneasy at it, (1.) Because the prosperity of
the wicked will soon be at an end (v. 9):
Evil-doers shall be cut off by
some sudden stroke of divine justice in the midst of their prosperity; what they
have got by sin will not only flow away from them (Job 20:28), but they shall be
carried away with it. See the end of these men (Ps. 73:17), how dear their
ill-got gain will cost them, and you will be far from envying them or from being
willing to espouse their lot, for better, for worse. Their ruin is sure, and it
is very near (v. 10):
Yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be
what they now are;
they are brought into desolation in a moment, Ps.
73:19. Have a little patience, for
the Judge stands before the door, Jam.
5:8, 9. Moderate your passion,
for the Lord is at hand, Phil. 4:5. And
when their ruin comes it will be an utter ruin; he and his shall be extirpated;
the day that comes shall
leave him neither root nor branch (Mal. 4:1):
Thou
shalt diligently consider his place, where but the other day he made a
mighty figure, but
it shall not be, you will not find it; he shall leave
nothing valuable, nothing honourable, behind. him. To the same purport (v. 20),
The
wicked shall perish; their death is their perdition, because it is the
termination of all their joy and a passage to endless misery.
Blessed are the
dead that die in the Lord; but undone, for ever undone, are the dead that
die in their sins. The wicked are the enemies of the Lord; such those make
themselves who will not have him to reign over them, and as such he will reckon
with them:
They shall consume as the fat of lambs, they shall consume into
smoke. Their prosperity, which gratifies their sensuality, is like the fat
of lambs, not solid or substantial, but loose and washy; and, when their ruin
comes, they shall fall as sacrifices to the justice of God and be consumed as
the fat of the sacrifices was upon the altar, whence it ascended in smoke. The
day of God's vengeance on the wicked is represented as a
sacrifice of the
fat of the kidneys of rams (Isa. 34:6); for he will be honoured by the ruin
of his enemies, as he was by the sacrifices. Damned sinners are sacrifices, Mk.
9:49. This is a good reason why we should not envy them their prosperity; while
they are fed to the full, they are but in the fattening for the day of
sacrifice,
like a lamb in a large place (Hos. 4:16), and the more they
prosper the more will God be glorified in their ruin. (2.) Because the condition
of the righteous, even in this life, is every way better and more desirable than
that of the wicked, v. 16. In general,
a little that a righteous man has
of the honour, wealth, and pleasure of this world,
is better than the riches
of many wicked. Observe, [1.] The wealth of the world is so dispensed by the
divine Providence that it is often the lot of good people to have but a little
of it, and of wicked people to have abundance of it; for thus God would show us
that the things of this world are not the best things, for, if they were, those
would have most that are best and dearest to God. [2.] That a godly man's
little is really better than a wicked man's estate, though ever so much; for
it comes from a better hand, from a hand of special love and not merely from a
hand of common providence,—it is enjoyed by a better title (God gives it to
them by promise, Gal. 3:18),—it is theirs by virtue of their relation to
Christ, who is the heir of all things,—and it is put to better use; it is
sanctified to them by the blessing of God.
Unto the pure all things are pure,
Tit. 1:15. A little wherewith God is served and honoured is better than a great
deal prepared for Baal or for a base lust. The promises here made to the
righteous secure them such a happiness that they need not envy the prosperity of
evil-doers. Let them know to their comfort,
First, That
they shall
inherit the earth, as much of it as Infinite Wisdom sees good for them; they
have the promise of the
life that now is, 1 Tim. 4:8. If all the earth
were necessary to make them happy, they should have it. All is theirs, even
the
world, and
things present, as well as
things to come, 1 Co.
3:21, 22. They have it by inheritance, a safe and honourable title, not by
permission only and connivance. When evil-doers are cut off the righteous
sometimes inherit what they gathered.
The wealth of the sinner is laid up for
the just, Job 27:17; Prov. 13:22. This promise is here made, 1. To those
that live a life of faith (v. 9);
Those that wait upon the Lord, as
dependents on him, expectants from him, and suppliants to him,
shall inherit
the earth, as a token of his present favour to them and an earnest of better
things intended for them in the other world. God is a good Master, that provides
plentifully and well, not only for his working servants, but for his waiting
servants. 2. To those that live a quiet and peaceable life (v. 11):
The meek
shall inherit the earth. They are in least danger of being injured and
disturbed in the possession of what they have and they have most satisfaction in
themselves and consequently the sweetest relish of their creature-comforts. Our
Saviour has made this a gospel promise, and a confirmation of the blessings he
pronounced on the meek, Mt. 5:5.
Secondly, That they
shall delight
themselves in the abundance of peace, v. 11. Perhaps they have not abundance
of wealth to delight in; but they have that which is better, abundance of peace,
inward peace and tranquility of mind, peace with God, and then peace in God,
that great peace which those have that love God's law, whom
nothing shall
offend (Ps. 119:165), that abundance of peace which is in the kingdom of
Christ (Ps. 72:7), that peace which the world cannot give (Jn. 14:27), and which
the wicked cannot have, Isa. 57:21. This they shall delight themselves in, and
in it they shall have a continual feast; while those that have abundance of
wealth do but cumber and perplex themselves with it and have little delight in
it.
Thirdly, That God
knows their days, v. 18. He takes particular
notice of them, of all they do and of all that happens to them. He keeps account
of the days of their service, and not one day's work shall go unrewarded, and
of the days of their suffering, that for those also they may receive a
recompence. He knows their bright days, and has pleasure in their prosperity; he
knows their cloudy and dark days, the days of their affliction, and as the day
is so shall the strength be.
Fourthly, That
their inheritance shall be
for ever; not their inheritance in the earth, but that incorruptible
indefeasible one which is laid up for them in heaven. Those that are sure of an
everlasting inheritance in the other world have no reason to envy the wicked
their transitory possessions and pleasures in this world.
Fifthly, That
in the worst of times it shall go well with them (v. 19):
They shall not be
ashamed of their hope and confidence in God, nor of the profession they have
made of religion; for the comfort of that will stand them in stead, and be a
real support to them, in evil times. When others droop they shall lift up their
heads with joy and confidence: Even
in the days of famine, when others
are dying for hunger round about them,
they shall be satisfied, as Elijah
was; in some way or other God will provide food convenient for them, or give
them hearts to be satisfied and content without it, so that, if they should be
hardly bestead and hungry, they shall not (as the wicked do)
fret themselves
and curse their king and their God (Isa. 7:21), but rejoice in God as the
God of their salvation even when
the fig-tree does not blossom, Hab.
3:17, 18.
2. Good people have no reason to fret at the occasional success
of the designs of the wicked against the just. Though they do bring some of
their wicked devices to pass, which makes us fear they will gain their point and
bring them all to pass, yet let us cease from anger, and not fret ourselves so
as to think of giving up the cause. For,
(1.) Their plots will be their shame, v. 12, 13. It is true
the
wicked plotteth against the just; there is a rooted enmity in the seed of
the wicked one against the righteous seed; their aim is, if they can, to destroy
their righteousness, or, if that fail, then to destroy them. With this end in
view they have acted with a great deal both of cursed policy and contrivance
(they plot, they practice, against the just), and of cursed zeal and fury—
they
gnash upon them with their teeth, so desirous are they, if they could get it
into their power, to eat them up, and so full of rage and indignation are they
because it is not in their power; but by all this they do but make themselves
ridiculous.
The Lord shall laugh at them, Ps. 2:4, 5. They are proud and
insolent, but God shall pour contempt upon them. he is not only displeased with
them, but he despises them and all their attempts as vain and ineffectual, and
their malice as impotent and in a chain;
for he sees that his day is coming,
that is, [1.] The day of God's reckoning, the day of the revelation of his
righteousness, which now seems clouded and eclipsed. Men have their day now.
This
is your hour, Lu. 22:53. But God will have his day shortly, a day of
recompences, a day which will set all to rights, and render that ridiculous
which now passes for glorious.
It is a small thing to be judged of man's
judgment, 1 Co. 4:3. God's day will give a decisive judgment. [2.] The day
of their ruin. The wicked man's day, the day set for his fall, that day
is
coming, which denotes delay; it has not yet come, but certainly it will
come. The believing prospect of that day will enable the virgin, the daughter of
Zion, to despise the rage of her enemies and
laugh them to scorn, Isa.
37:22.
(2.) Their attempts will be their destruction, v. 14, 15. See
here, [1.] How cruel they are in their designs against good people. They prepare
instruments of death,
the sword and
the bow, no less will serve;
they hunt for the precious life. That which they design is
to cast down and
slay; it is the blood of the saints they thirst after. They carry on the
design very far, and it is near to be put in execution: They
have drawn the
sword, and bent the bow; and all these military preparations are made
against the helpless,
the poor and needy (which proves them to be very
cowardly), and against the guiltless,
such as are of upright conversation,
that never gave them any provocation, nor offered injury to them or any other
person, which proves them to be very wicked. Uprightness itself will be no fence
against their malice. But, [2.] How justly their malice recoils upon themselves:
Their sword shall turn into their own heart, which implies the
preservation of the righteous from their malice and the filling up of the
measure of their own iniquity by it. Sometimes that very thing proves to be
their own destruction which they projected against their harmless neighbours;
however, God's sword, which their provocations have drawn against them, will
give them their death's wound.
(3.) Those that are not suddenly cut off shall yet be so
disabled for doing any further mischief that the interests of the church shall
be effectually secured:
Their bows shall be broken (v. 15); the
instruments of their cruelty shall fail them and they shall lose those whom they
had made tools of to serve their bloody purposes with; nay,
their arms shall
be broken, so that they shall not be able to go on with their enterprises,
v. 17.
But the Lord upholds the righteous, so that they neither sink
under the weight of their afflictions nor are crushed by the violence of their
enemies. He upholds them both in their integrity and in their prosperity; and
those that are so upheld by the rock of ages have no reason to envy the wicked
the support of their broken reeds.
Verses 21-33
These verses are much to the same purport with the foregoing
verses of this psalm, for it is a subject worthy to be dwelt upon. Observe here,
I. What is required of us as the way to our happiness, which we
may learn both from the characters here laid down and from the directions here
given. If we would be blessed of God, 1. We must make conscience of giving every
body his own; for
the wicked borrows and pays not again, v. 21. It is the
first thing which the Lord our God requires of us, that we do justly, and render
to all their due. It is not only a shameful paltry thing, but a sinful wicked
thing, not to repay what we have borrowed. Some make this an instance, not so
much of the wickedness of the wicked as of the misery and poverty to which they
are reduced by the just judgment of God, that they shall be necessitated to
borrow for their supply and then be in no capacity to repay it again, and so lie
at the mercy of their creditors. Whatever some men seem to think of it, as it is
a great sin for those that are able to deny the payment of their just debts, so
it is a great misery not to be able to pay them. 2. We must be ready to all acts
of charity and beneficence; for, as it is an instance of God's goodness to the
righteous that he puts it into the power of his hand to be kind and to do good
(and so some understand it, God's blessing increases his little to such a
degree that he has abundance to spare for the relief of others), so it is an
instance of the goodness of the righteous man that he has a heart proportionable
to his estate:
He shows mercy, and gives, v. 21.
He is ever merciful,
or every day, or all the day, merciful,
and lends, and sometimes there is
as true charity in lending as in giving; and giving and lending are acceptable
to God when they proceed from a merciful disposition in the heart, which, if it
be sincere, will be constant, and will keep us from being weary of well-doing.
he that is truly merciful will be ever merciful. 3. We must leave our sins, and
engage in the practice of serious godliness (v. 27):
Depart from evil and do
good. Cease to do evil and abhor it; learn to do well and cleave to it; this
is true religion. 4. We must abound in good discourse, and with our tongues must
glorify God and edify others. It is part of the character of a righteous man (v.
30) that his
mouth speaketh wisdom; not only he speaks wisely, but he
speaks wisdom, like Solomon himself, for the instruction of those about him.
His
tongue talks not of things idle and impertinent, but
of judgment,
that is, of the word and providence of God and the rules of wisdom for the right
ordering of the conversation. Out of the abundance of a good heart will the
mouth speak that which is good and to the use of edifying. 5. We must have our
wills brought into an entire subjection to the will and word of God (v. 31):
The
law of God, of his God,
is in his heart; and in vain do we pretend
that God is our God if we do not receive his law into our hearts and resign
ourselves to the government of it. It is but a jest and a mockery to speak
wisdom, and to talk of judgment (v. 30), unless we have the law in our hearts,
and we think as we speak. The law of God must be a commanding ruling principle
in the heart; it must be a light there, a spring there, and then the
conversation will be regular and uniform:
None of his steps will slide;
it will effectually prevent backsliding into sin, and the uneasiness that
follows from it.
II. What is assured to us, as instances of our happiness and
comfort, upon these conditions.
1. That we shall have the blessing of God, and that blessing
shall be the spring, and sweetness, and security of all our temporal comforts
and enjoyments (v. 22):
Such as are blessed of God, as all the righteous
are, with a Father's blessing, by virtue of that
shall inherit the earth,
or
the land (for so the same word is translated, v. 29), the land of
Canaan, that glory of all lands. Our creature-comforts are comforts indeed to us
when we see them flowing from the blessing of God, we are sure not to want any
thing that is good for us in this world.
The earth shall yield us her
increase if God, as
our own God, give us his blessing, Ps. 67:6. And
as
those whom God blesses are thus
blessed indeed (for they shall
inherit the land), so
those whom he curses are cursed indeed; they
shall
be cut off and rooted out, and their extirpation by the divine curse will
set off the establishment of the righteous by the divine blessing and be a foil
to it.
2. That God will direct and dispose of our actions and affairs
so as may be most for his glory (v. 23):
The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord. By his grace and Holy Spirit he directs the thoughts,
affections, and designs of good men. He has all hearts in his hand, but theirs
by their own consent. By his providence he overrules the events that concern
them, so as to make their way plain before them, both what they should do and
what they may expect. Observe, God orders the steps of a good man; not only his
way in general, by his written word, but his particular steps, by the whispers
of conscience, saying,
This is the way, walk in it. He does not always
show him his way at a distance, but leads him step by step, as children are led,
and so keeps him in a continual dependence upon his guidance; and this, (1.)
Because
he delights in his way, and is well pleased with the paths of
righteousness wherein he walks.
The Lord knows the way of the righteous
(Ps. 1:6), knows it with favour, and therefore directs it. (2.) That he may
delight in his way. Because God orders his way according to his own will,
therefore he delights in it; for, as he loves his own image upon us, so he is
well pleased with what we do under his guidance.
3. That God will keep us from being ruined by our falls either
into sin or into trouble (v. 24):
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly
cast down. (1.) A good man may be overtaken in a fault, but the grace of God
shall recover him to repentance, so that he shall not be utterly cast down.
Though he may, for a time, lose the joys of God's salvation, yet they shall be
restored to him; for God shall uphold him with his hand, uphold him with his
free Spirit. The root shall be kept alive, though the leaf wither; and there
will come a spring after the winter. (2.) A good man may be in distress, his
affairs embarrassed, his spirits sunk, but he shall not be utterly cast down;
God will be the strength of his heart when his flesh and heart fail, and will
uphold him with his comforts, so that the spirit he has made shall not fail
before him.
4. That we shall not want the necessary supports of this life
(v. 25):
"I have been young and now am old, and, among all the
changes I have seen in men's outward condition and the observations I have
made upon them,
I never saw the righteous forsaken of God and man, as I
have sometimes seen wicked people abandoned both by heaven and earth; nor do I
ever remember to have seen the seed of the righteous reduced to such an
extremity as to beg their bread." David had himself begged his bread of
Abimelech the priest, but it was when Saul hunted him; and our Saviour has
taught us to except the case of persecution for righteousness' sake out of all
the temporal promises (Mk. 10:30), because that has such peculiar honours and
comforts attending it as make it rather a gift (as the apostle reckons it, Phil.
1:29) than a loss or grievance. But there are very few instances of good men, or
their families, that are reduced to such extreme poverty as many wicked people
bring themselves to by their wickedness. He had not
seen the righteous
forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread. Forsaken (so some expound it);
if they do want God will raise them up friends to supply them, without a
scandalous exposing of themselves to the reproach of common beggars; or, if they
go from door to door for meat, it shall not be with despair, as the wicked man
that
wanders abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? Job 15:23. Nor shall he be
denied, as the prodigal, that
would fain have filled his belly, but no man
gave unto him, Lu. 15:16. Nor shall he grudge if he be not satisfied, as
David's enemies, when they
wandered up and down for meat, Ps. 59:15.
Some make this promise relate especially to those that are charitable and
liberal to the poor, and to intimate that David never observed any that brought
themselves to poverty by their charity. It is
withholding more than is meet
that tends to poverty, Prov. 11:24.
5. That God will not desert us, but graciously protect us in our
difficulties and straits (v. 28):
The Lord loves judgment; he delights in
doing justice himself and he delights in those that do justice; and therefore he
forsakes not his saints in affliction when others make themselves strange to
them and become shy of them, but he takes care that they be
preserved for
ever, that is, that the saint in every age be taken under his protection,
that the succession be preserved to the end of time, and that particular saints
be preserved from all the temptations and through all the trials of this present
time, to that happiness which shall be for ever. He will
preserve them to his
heavenly kingdom; that is a preservation for ever, 2 Tim. 4:18; Ps. 12:7.
6. That we shall have a comfortable settlement in this world,
and in a better when we leave this. That we shall
dwell for evermore (v.
27), and not be
cut off as the
seed of the wicked, v. 28. Those
shall not be tossed that make God their rest and are at home in him. But on this
earth there is no dwelling for ever, no continuing city; it is in heaven only,
that city which has foundations, that the righteous shall dwell for ever; that
will be their everlasting habitation.
7. That we shall not become a prey to our adversaries, who seek
our ruin, v. 32, 33. There is an adversary that takes all opportunities to do us
a mischief, a wicked one that watches the righteous (as a roaring lion watches
his prey) and seeks to slay him. There are wicked men that do so, that are very
subtle (they watch the righteous, that they may have an opportunity to do them a
mischief effectually and may have a pretence wherewith to justify themselves in
the doing of it), and very spiteful, for they seek to slay him. But it may very
well be applied to the wicked one, the devil, that old serpent, who has his
wiles to entrap the righteous, his devices which we should not be ignorant of,—that
great red dragon, who seeks to slay them,—that roaring lion, who goes about
continually, restless and raging, and seeking whom he may devour. But it is here
promised that he shall not prevail, neither Satan nor his instruments. (1.) He
shall not prevail as a field-adversary:
The Lord will not leave him in his
hand; he will not permit Satan to do what he would, nor will he withdraw his
strength and grace from his people, but will enable them to resist and overcome
him, and
their faith shall not fail, Lu. 22:31, 32. A good man may fall
into the hands of a messenger of Satan, and be sorely buffeted, but God will not
leave him in his hands, 1 Co. 10:13. (2.) He shall not prevail as a
law-adversary:
God will not condemn him when he is judged, though urged
to do it by the accuser of the brethren, who
accuses them before our God day
and night. His false accusations will be thrown out, as those exhibited
against Joshua (Zec. 3:1, 2),
The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan! It is God that
justifies, and then
who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's
elect?
Verses 34-40
The psalmist's conclusion of this sermon (for that is the
nature of this poem) is of the same purport with the whole, and inculcates the
same things.
I. The duty here pressed upon us is still the same (v. 34):
Wait
on the Lord and keep his way. Duty is ours, and we must mind it and make
conscience of it, keep God's way and never turn out of it nor loiter in it,
keep close, keep going; but events are God's and we must refer ourselves to
him for the disposal of them; we must wait on the Lord, attend the motions of
his providence, carefully observe them, and conscientiously accommodate
ourselves to them. If we make conscience of
keeping God's way, we may
with cheerfulness wait on him and commit to him our way; and we shall find him a
good Master both to his working servants and to his waiting servants.
II. The reasons to enforce this duty are much the same too,
taken from the certain destruction of the wicked and the certain salvation of
the righteous. This good man, being tempted to envy the prosperity of the
wicked, that he might fortify himself against the temptation,
goes into the
sanctuary of God and leads us thither (Ps. 73:17); there he understands
their end, and thence gives us to understand it, and, by comparing that with the
end of the righteous, baffles the temptation and puts it to silence. Observe,
1. The misery of the wicked at last, however they may prosper
awhile:
The end of the wicked shall be cut off (v. 38); and that cannot
be well that will undoubtedly end so ill. The wicked, in their end, will be cut
off from all good and all hopes of it; a final period will be put to all their
joys, and they will be for ever separated from the fountain of life to all evil.
(1.) Some instances of the remarkable ruin of wicked people David had himself
observed in this world—that the pomp and prosperity of sinners would not
secure them from the judgments of God when their day should come to fall (v. 36,
35):
I have seen a wicked man (the word is singular), suppose Saul or
Ahithophel (for David was an old man when he penned this psalm),
in great
power, formidable (so some render it),
the terror of the mighty in the
land of the living, carrying all before him with a high hand, and seeming to
be firmly fixed and finely flourishing,
spreading himself like a green
bay-tree, which produces all leaves and no fruit; like a native home-born
Israelite (so Dr. Hammond), likely to take root. But what became of him? Eliphaz,
long before, had learned, when he saw the foolish taking root, to curse his
habitation, Job 5:3. And David saw cause for it; for this bay-tree withered away
as soon as the fig-tree. Christ cursed:
He passed away as a dream, as a
shadow, such was he and all the pomp and power he was so proud of. He was gone
in an instant:
He was not; I sought him with wonder,
but he could not
be found. He had acted his part and then quitted the stage, and there was no
miss of him. (2.) The total and final ruin of sinners, of all sinners, will
shortly be made as much a spectacle to the saints as they are now sometimes made
a spectacle to the world (v. 34):
When the wicked are cut off (and cut
off they certainly will be)
thou shalt see it, with awful adorations of
the divine justice.
The transgressors shall be destroyed together, v. 38.
In this world God singles out here one sinner and there another, out of many, to
be made an example
in terrorem—as a warning; but in the day of judgment
there will be a general destruction of all the transgressors, and not one shall
escape. Those that have sinned together shall be damned together.
Bind them
in bundles, to burn them.
2. The blessedness of the righteous, at last. Let us see what
will be the end of God's poor despised people. (1.) Preferment. There have
been times the iniquity of which has been such that men's piety has hindered
their preferment in this world, and put them quite out of the way of raising
estates; but those that keep God's way may be assured that in due time he will
exalt them, to inherit the land (v. 34); he will advance them to a place
in the heavenly mansions, to dignity, and honour, and true wealth, in the New
Jerusalem, to inherit that good land, that land of promise, of which Canaan was
a type; he will exalt them above all contempt and danger. (2.) Peace, v. 37. Let
all people
mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; take notice of
him to admire him and imitate him, keep your eye upon him to observe what comes
of him, and you will find that
the end of that man is peace. Sometimes
the latter end of his days proves more comfortable to him than the beginning
was; the storms blow over, and he is comforted again, after the time that he was
afflicted. However, if all his days continue dark and cloudy, perhaps his dying
day may prove comfortable to him and his sun may set in brightness; or, if it
should set under a cloud, yet his future state will be peace, everlasting peace.
Those that walk in their uprightness while they live shall enter into peace when
they die, Isa. 57:2. A peaceful death has concluded the troublesome life of many
a good man; and all is well that thus ends everlastingly well. Balaam himself
wished that his death and his last end might be like that of the righteous Num.
23:10. (3.) Salvation, v. 39, 40.
The salvation of the righteous (which
may be applied to the great salvation of which
the prophets enquired and
searched diligently, 1 Pt. 1:10)
is of the Lord; it will be the Lord's
doing. The eternal salvation, that salvation of God which those shall see that
order
their conversation aright (Ps. 50:23), is likewise of the Lord. And he that
intends Christ and heaven for them will be a God all-sufficient to them:
He
is their strength in time of trouble, to support them under it and carry
them through it.
He shall help them and deliver them, help them to do
their duties, to bear their burdens, and to maintain their spiritual conflicts,
help them to bear their troubles well and get good by them, and, in due time,
shall deliver them out of their troubles. He shall deliver them from the wicked
that would overwhelm them and swallow them up, shall secure them there, where
the wicked cease from troubling. He shall
save them, not only keep them
safe, but make them happy,
because they trust in him, not because they
have merited it from him, but because they have committed themselves to him and
reposed a confidence in him, and have thereby honoured him.
Psalm 37:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Spurgeon
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 Job Proverbs
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
Job
Psalm
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Acts
Romans
1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
1 Thessalonians
2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
Philemon
Hebrews
James
1 Peter
2 Peter
1 John
2 John
3 John
Jude
Revelation
Classic Bible CommentariesCourtesy of E-Word Today
Copyright 2000-2009 BibleClassics.com
