Psalms 25:1–22

Here we have David's professions of desire towards God and dependence on him. He often begins his psalms with such professions, not to move God, but to move himself, and to engage himself to answer those professions. I. He professes his desire towards God: Unto thee, O Lord! do I lift up my soul, Psa 25:1. In the foregoing psalm (Psa 25:4) it was made the character of a good man that he has not lifted up his soul to vanity; and a call was given to the everlasting gates to lift up their heads for the King of glory to come in, Psa 25:1. To this character, to this call, David here answers, "Lord, I lift up my soul, not to vanity, but to thee." Note, In worshipping God we must lift up our souls to him. Prayer is the ascent of the soul to God; God must be eyed and the soul employed. Sursum corda - Up with you hearts, was anciently used as a call to devotion. With a holy contempt of the world and the things of it, by a fixed thought and active faith, we must set God before us, and let out our desires towards him as the fountain of our happiness. II. He professes his dependence upon God and begs for the benefit and comfort of that dependence (Psa 25:2): O my God! I trust in thee. His conscience witnessed for him that he had no confidence in himself nor in any creature, and that he had no diffidence of God or of his power or promise. He pleases himself with this profession of faith in God. Having put his trust in God, he is easy, is well satisfied, and quiet from the fear of evil; and he pleads it with God whose honour it is to help those that honour him by trusting in him. What men put a confidence in is either their joy or their shame, according as it proves. Now David here, under the direction of faith, prays earnestly, 1. That shame might not be his lot: "Let me not be ashamed of my confidence in thee; let me not be shaken from it by any prevailing fears, and let me not be, in the issue, disappointed of what I depend upon thee for; but, Lord, keep what I have committed unto thee." Note, If we make our confidence in God our stay, it shall not be our shame; and, if we triumph in him, our enemies shall not triumph over us, as they would if we should now sink under our fears, or should, in the issue, come short of our hopes. 2. That it might not be the lot of any that trusted in God. All the saints have obtained a like precious faith; and therefore, doubtless, it will be alike successful in the issue. Thus the communion of saints is kept up, even by their praying one for another. True saints will make supplication for all saints. It is certain that none who, by a believing attendance, wait on God, and, by a believing hope, wait for him, shall be made ashamed of it. 3. That it might be the lot of the transgressors; Let those be ashamed that transgress without cause, or vainly, as the word is. (1.) Upon no provocation. They revolt from God and their duty, from David and his government (so some), without any occasion given them, not being able to pretend any iniquity they have found in God, or that in any thing he has wearied them. The weaker the temptation is by which men are drawn to sin the stronger the corruption is by which they are driven by it. Those are the worst transgressors that sin for sinning-sake. (2.) To no purpose. They know their attempts against God are fruitless; they imagine a vain thing, and therefore they will soon be ashamed of it. III. He begs direction from God in the way of his duty, Psa 25:4, Psa 25:5. Once and again he here prays to God to teach him. He was a knowing man himself, but the most intelligent, the most observant, both need and desire to be taught of God; from him we must be ever learning. Observe, 1. What he desired to learn: "Teach me, not fine words or fine notions, but thy ways, thy paths, thy truth, the ways in which thou walkest towards men, which are all mercy and truth (Psa 25:10), and the ways in which thou wouldst have me to walk towards thee." Those are best taught who understand their duty, and know the good things they should do, Ecc 2:3. God's paths and his truth are the same; divine laws are all founded upon divine truths. The way of God's precepts is the way of truth, Psa 119:30. Christ is both the way and the truth, and therefore we must learn Christ. 2. What he desired of God, in order to this. (1.) That he would enlighten his understanding concerning his duty: "Show me thy way, and so teach me." In doubtful cases we should pray earnestly that God would make it plain to us what he would have us to do. (2.) That he would incline his will to do it, and strengthen him in it: "Lead me, and so teach me." Not only as we lead one that is dimsighted, to keep him from missing his way, but as we lead one that is sick, and feeble, and faint, to help him forward in the way and to keep him from fainting and falling. We go no further in the way to heaven than God is pleased to lead us and to hold us up. 3. What he pleads, (1.) His great expectation from God: Thou art the God of my salvation. Note, Those that choose salvation of God as their end, and make him the God of their salvation, may come boldly to him for direction in the way that leads to that end. If God save us, he will teach us and lead us. He that gives salvation will give instruction. (2.) His constant attendance on God: On thee do I wait all the day. Whence should a servant expect direction what to do but from his own master, on whom he waits all the day? If we sincerely desire to know our duty, with a resolution to do it, we need not question but that God will direct us in it. IV. He appeals to God's infinite mercy, and casts himself upon that, not pretending to any merit of his own (Psa 25:6): "Remember, O Lord! thy tender mercies, and, for the sake of those mercies, lead me, and teach me; for they have been ever of old." 1. "Thou always wast a merciful God; it is thy name, it is thy nature and property, to show mercy." 2. "Thy counsels and designs of mercy were from everlasting; the vessels of mercy were, before all worlds, ordained to glory." 3. "The instances of thy mercy to the church in general, and to me in particular, were early and ancient, and constant hitherto; they began of old, and never ceased. Thou hast taught me from my youth up, teach me now." V. He is in a special manner earnest for the pardon of his sins (Psa 25:7): "O remember not the sins of my youth. Lord, remember thy mercies (Psa 25:6), which speak for me, and not my sins, which speak against me." Here is, 1. An implicit confession of sin; he specifies particularly the sins of his youth. Note, Our youthful faults and follies should be matter of our repentance and humiliation long after, because time does not wear out the guilt of sin. Old people should mourn for the sinful mirth and be in pain for the sinful pleasures of their youth. He aggravates his sins, calling them his transgressions; and the more holy, just, and good the law is, which sin is the transgression of, the more exceedingly sinful it ought to appear to us. 2. An express petition for mercy, (1.) That he might be acquitted from guilt: "Remember not the sins of my youth; that is, remember them not against me, lay them not to my charge, enter not into judgment with me for them." When God pardons sin he is said to remember it no more, which denotes a plenary remission; he forgives and forgets. (2.) That he might be accepted in God's sight: "Remember thou me; think on me for good, and come in seasonably for my succour." We need desire no more to make us happy than for God to remember us with favour. His plea is, "according to thy mercy, and for thy goodness-sake." Note, It is God's goodness and not ours, his mercy and not our own merit, that must be our plea for the pardon of sin and all the good we stand in need of. This plea we must always rely upon, as those that are sensible of our poverty and unworthiness and as those that are satisfied of the riches of God's mercy and grace.

Psalm 25:1-3 1. Unto thee, O Jehovah! I have lifted up my soul 2. O my God! I have put my trust in thee; let me not be ashamed; let not mine enemies rejoice over me. 3. Yea, none of those that wait on thee shall be ashamed; but they shall be ashamed that deal falsely without cause. 1. Unto thee, O Jehovah! etc The Psalmist declares at the very outset, that he is not driven hither and thither, after the manner of the ungodly, but that he directs all his desires and prayers to God alone. Nothing is more inconsistent with true and sincere prayer to God, than to waver and gaze about as the heathen do, for some help from the world; and at the same time to forsake God, or not to betake ourselves directly to his guardianship and protection. Those who imagine that David here declares that he had devoted himself entirely to God, as if he had offered up himself in sacrifice, do not properly understand the import of the passage. The meaning rather is, that in order to strengthen the hope of obtaining his request, he declares, what is of the greatest importance in prayer, that he had his hope fixed in God, and that he was not ensnared by the allurements of the world, or prevented from lifting up his soul fully and unfeignedly to God. In order, therefore, that we may pray aright to God, let us be directed by this rule -- not to distract our minds by various and uncertain hopes, nor to depend on worldly aid, but to yield to God the honor of lifting up our hearts to him in sincere and earnest prayer. Moreover, although the verb is properly rendered, I will lift up, yet I have followed other interpreters in changing it into the past tense, I have lifted up By the future tense, however, David denotes a continued act. 2. O my God! I have put my trust in thee. By this verse we learn, (what will appear more clearly afterwards,) that David had to do with men; but as he was persuaded that his enemies were, as it were, the scourges of God, he with good reason asks that God would restrain them by his power, lest they should become more insolent, and continue, to exceed all bounds. By the word trust he confirms what he had just said of the lifting up of his soul to God; for the term is employed either as descriptive of the way in which the souls of the faithful are lifted up, or else faith and hope are added as the cause of such an effect, namely, the lifting up of the soul. And, indeed, these are the wings by which our souls, rising above this world, are lifted up to God. David, then, was carried upward to God with the whole desire of his heart, because, trusting to his promises, he thereby hoped for sure salvation. When he asks that God would not suffer him to be put to shame, he offers up a prayer which is taken from the ordinary doctrine of Scripture, namely, that they who trust in God shall never be ashamed. The reason which is added, and which he here pleads, to induce God to have pity upon him, ought also to be noticed. It is this, that he might not be exposed to the derision of his enemies, whose pride is no less hurtful to the feelings of the godly than it is displeasing to God. 3. Yea, none of those, etc. If these words should be explained in the form of a desire, as if David had said, Let none who wait on thee be put to shame, [553] then, in this verse, he continues his prayer, and extends to all the faithful in common what he had spoken of himself alone. But I am rather inclined to understand the words in a different sense, and to view them as meaning that David shows the fruit of divine grace which should proceed from his deliverance. And there is peculiar force in the word yea; for as he knew that he was seen by many, and that the report of his confidence in God was widely spread, his meaning is, that what shall be done in his person shall extend far and wide, as an example to others, and shall have the effect of reviving and animating all the children of God, on the one hand, and of casting to the ground the arrogance of the wicked, on the other. The words might also be understood in another sense, namely, that David, for the strengthening of his faith, sets before himself a promise which God frequently makes in his word. But the sense in which I have interpreted them seems to be more suitable. By the wicked that deal falsely without cause, he no doubt means especially his enemies. Accordingly, he declares that when he is delivered he will not enjoy exclusively the benefit of it; but that its fruit shall extend to all true believers; just as on the other hand, the faith of many would have been shaken if he had been forsaken of God. In the last clause of the verse, which he puts in opposition to the first, he argues that when the wicked lie confounded, it redounds to the glory of God, because the vaunting in which they indulge in their prosperity is an open mockery of God, while, in despite of his judgment, they break forth more boldly in doing evil. When he adds, without cause, it only tends to show the aggravated nature of the offense. The wickedness of a man is always the more intolerable, when, unprovoked by wrongs, he sets himself, of his own accord, to injure the innocent and blameless. Footnotes: [553] "Que tons ceux qui s'attendant a toy ne soyent point confus." -- Fr.

God's promises are here mixed with David's prayers. Many petitions there were in the former part of the psalm, and many we shall find in the latter; and here, in the middle of the psalm, he meditates upon the promises, and by a lively faith sucks and is satisfied from these breasts of consolation; for the promises of God are not only the best foundation of prayer, telling us what to pray for and encouraging our faith and hope in prayer, but they are a present answer to prayer. Let the prayer be made according to the promise, and then the promise may be read as a return to the prayer; and we are to believe the prayer is heard because the promise will be performed. But, in the midst of the promises, we fine one petition which seems to come in somewhat abruptly, and should have followed upon Psa 25:7. It is that (Psa 25:11), Pardon my iniquity. But prayers for the pardon of sin are never impertinent; we mingle sin with all our actions, and therefore should mingle such prayers with all our devotions. He enforces this petition with a double plea. The former is very natural: "For thy name's sake pardon my iniquity, because thou hast proclaimed thy name gracious and merciful, pardoning iniquity, for thy glory-sake, for thy promise-sake, for thy own sake," Isa 43:25. But the latter is very surprising: "Pardon my iniquity, for it is great, and the greater it is the more will divine mercy be magnified in the forgiveness of it." It is the glory of a great God to forgive great sins, to forgive iniquity, transgression, and sin, Exo 34:7. "It is great, and therefore I an undone, for ever undone, if infinite mercy do not interpose for the pardon of it. It is great; I see it to be so." The more we see of the heinousness of our sins the better qualified we are to find mercy with God. When we confess sin we must aggravate it. Let us now take a view of the great and precious promises which we have in these verses, and observe, I. To whom these promises belong and who may expect the benefit of them. We are all sinners; and can we hope for any advantage by them? Yes (Psa 25:8), He will teach sinners, though they be sinners; for Christ came into the world to save sinners, and, in order to that, to teach sinners, to call sinners to repentance. These promises are sure to those who though they have been sinners, have gone astray, yet now keep God's word, 1. To such as keep his covenant and his testimonies (Psa 25:10), such as take his precepts for their rule and his promises for their portion, such as, having taken God to be to them a God, live upon that, and, having given up themselves to be him a people, live up to that. Though, through the infirmity of the flesh, they sometimes break the command, yet by a sincere repentance when at any time they do amiss, and a constant adherence by faith to God as their God, they keep the covenant and do not break that. 2. To such as fear him (Psa 25:12 and again Psa 25:14), such as stand in awe of his majesty and worship him with reverence, submit to his authority and obey him with cheerfulness, dread his wrath and are afraid of offending him. II. Upon what these promises are grounded, and what encouragement we have to build upon them. Here are two things which ratify and confirm all the promises: - 1. The perfections of God's nature. We value the promise by the character of him that makes its. We may therefore depend upon God's promises; for good and upright is the Lord, and therefore he will be as good as his word. He is so kind that he cannot deceive us, so true that he cannot break his promise. Faithful is he who hath promised, who also will do it. He was good in making the promise, and therefore will be upright in performing it. 2. The agreeableness of all he says and does with the perfections of his nature (Psa 25:10): All the paths of the Lord (that is, all his promises and all his providences) are mercy and truth; they are, like himself, good and upright. All God's dealings with his people are according to the mercy of his purposes and the truth of his promises; all he does comes from love, covenant-love; and they may see in it his mercy displayed and his word fulfilled. What a rich satisfaction may this be to good people, that, whatever afflictions they are exercised with, All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, and so it will appear when they come to their journey's end. III. What these promises are. 1. That God will instruct and direct them in the way of their duty. This is most insisted upon, because it is an answer to David's prayers (Psa 25:4, Psa 25:5), Show me thy ways and lead me. We should fix our thoughts, and act our faith, most on those promises which suit our present case. (1.) He will teach sinners in the way, because they are sinners, and therefore need teaching. When they see themselves sinners, and desire teaching, then he will teach them the way of reconciliation to God, the way to a well-grounded peace of conscience, and the way to eternal life. He does, by his gospel, make this way known to all, and, by his Spirit, open the understanding and guide penitent sinners that enquire after it. The devil leads men blindfold to hell, but God enlightens men's eyes, sets things before them in a true light, and so leads them to heaven. (2.) The meek will he guide, the meek will he teach, that is, those that are humble and low in their own eyes, that are distrustful of themselves, desirous to be taught, and honestly resolved to follow the divine guidance. Speak, Lord, for thy servant hears. These he will guide in judgment, that is, by the rule of the written word; he will guide them in that which is practical, which relates to sin and duty, so that they may keep conscience void of offence; and he will do it judiciously (so some), that is, he will suit his conduct to their case; he will teach sinners with wisdom, tenderness, and compassion, and as they are able to bear. He will teach them his way. All good people make God's way their way, and desire to be taught that; and those that do so shall be taught and led in that way. (3.) Him that feareth the Lord he will teach in the way that he shall choose, either in the way that God shall choose or that the good man shall choose. It comes all to one, for he that fears the Lord chooses the things that please him. If we choose the right way, he that directed our choice will direct our steps, and will lead us in it. If we choose wisely, God will give us grace to walk wisely. 2. That God will make them easy (Psa 25:13): His soul shall dwell at ease, shall lodge in goodness, marg. Those that devote themselves to the fear of God, and give themselves to be taught of God, will be easy, if it be not their own fault. The soul that is sanctified by the grace of God, and, much more, that is comforted by the peace of God, dwells at ease. Even when the body is sick and lies in pain, yet the soul may dwell at ease in God, may return to him, and repose in him as its rest. Many things occur to make us uneasy, but there is enough in the covenant of grace to counterbalance them all and to make us easy. 3. That he will give to them and theirs as much of this world as is good for them: His seed shall inherit the earth. Next to our care concerning our souls is our care concerning our seed, and God has a blessing in store for the generation of the upright. Those that fear God shall inherit the earth, shall have a competency in it and the comfort of it, and their children shall fare the better for their prayers when they are gone. 4. That God will admit them into the secret of communion with himself (Psa 25:14): The secret of the Lord is with those that fear him. They understand his word; for, if any man do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God, Joh 7:17. Those that receive the truth in the love of it, and experience the power of it, best understand the mystery of it. They know the meaning of his providence, and what God is doing with them, better than others. Shall I hide from Abraham the things that I do? Gen 18:17. He call them not servants, but friends, as he called Abraham. They know by experience the blessings of the covenant and the pleasure of that fellowship which gracious souls have with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. This honour have all his saints.

David, encouraged by the promises he had been meditating upon, here renews his addresses to God, and concludes the psalm, as he began, with professions of dependence upon God and desire towards him. I. He lays open before God the calamitous condition he was in. His feet were in the net, held fast and entangled, so that he could not extricate himself out of his difficulties, Psa 25:15. He was desolate and afflicted, Psa 25:16. It is common for those that are afflicted to be desolate; their friends desert them then, and they are themselves disposed to sit alone and keep silence, Lam 3:28. David calls himself desolate and solitary because he depended not upon his servants and soldiers, but relied as entirely upon God as if he had no prospect at all of help and succour from any creature. Being in distress, in many distresses, the troubles of his heart were enlarged (Psa 25:17), he grew more and more melancholy and troubled in mind. Sense of sin afflicted him more than any thing else: this it was that broke and wounded his spirit, and made his outward troubles lie heavily upon him. He was in affliction and pain, Psa 25:18. His enemies that persecuted him were many and malicious (they hated him), and very barbarous; it was with a cruel hatred that they hated him, Psa 25:19. Such were Christ's enemies and the persecutors of his church. II. He expresses the dependence he had upon God in these distresses (Psa 25:15): My eyes are ever towards the Lord. Idolaters were for gods that they could see with their bodily eyes, and they had their eyes ever towards their idols, Isa 17:7, Isa 17:8. But it is an eye of faith that we must have towards God, who is a Spirit, Zac 9:1. Our meditation of him must be sweet, and we must always set him before us: in all our ways we must acknowledge him and do all to his glory. Thus we must live a life of communion with God, not only in ordinances, but in providences, not only in acts of devotion, but in the whole course of our conversation. David had the comfort of this in his affliction; for, because his eyes were ever towards the Lord, he doubted not but he would pluck his feet out of the net, that he would deliver him from the corruptions of his own heart (so some), from the designs of his enemies against him, so others. Those that have their eye ever towards God shall not have their feet long in the net. He repeats his profession of dependence upon God (Psa 25:20) - Let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in thee; and of expectation from him - I wait on thee, Psa 25:21. It is good thus to hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. III. He prays earnestly to God for relief and succour, 1. For himself. (1.) See how he begs, [1.] For the remission of sin (Psa 25:18): Forgive all my sins. Those were his heaviest burdens, and which brought upon him all other burdens. He had begged (Psa 25:7) for the pardon of the sins of his youth, and (Psa 25:11) for the pardon of some one particular iniquity that was remarkably great, which some think, was his sin in the matter of Uriah. But her he prays, Lord, forgive all, take away all iniquity. It is observable that, as to his affliction, he asks for no more than God's regard to it: "Look upon my affliction and my pain, and do with it as thou pleasest." But, as to his sin, he asks for no less than a full pardon: Forgive all my sins. When at any time we are in trouble we should be more concerned about our sins, to get them pardoned, than about our afflictions, to get them removed. Yet he prays, [2.] For the redress of his grievances. His mind was troubled for God's withdrawings from him and under the sense he had of his displeasure against him for his sins; and therefore he prays (Psa 25:16), Turn thou unto me. And, if God turn to us, no matter who turns from us. His condition was troubled, and, in reference to that, he prays, "O bring thou me out of my distresses. I see no way of deliverance open; but thou canst either find one or make one." His enemies were spiteful; and in reference to that, he prays, "O keep my soul from falling into their hands, or else deliver me out of their hands." (2.) Four things he mentions by way of plea to enforce these petitions, and refers himself and them to God's consideration: - [1.] He pleads God's mercy: Have mercy upon me. Men of the greatest merits would be undone if they had not to do with a God of infinite mercies. [2.] He pleads his own misery, the distress he was in, his affliction and pain, especially the troubles of his heart, all which made him the proper object of divine mercy. [3.] He pleads the iniquity of his enemies: "Lord, consider them, how cruel they are, and deliver me out of their hands." [4.] He pleads his own integrity, Psa 25:12. Though he had owned himself guilty before God, and had confessed his sins against him, yet, as to his enemies, he had the testimony of his conscience that he had done them no wrong, which was his comfort when they hated him with cruel hatred; and he prays that this might preserve him, This intimates that he did not expect to be safe any longer than he continued in his integrity and uprightness, and that, while he did continue in it, he did not doubt of being safe. Sincerity will be our best security in the worst of times. Integrity and uprightness will be a man's preservation more than the wealth and honour of the world can be. These will preserve us to the heavenly kingdom. We should therefore pray to God to preserve us in our integrity and then be assured that that will preserve us. 2. For the church of God (Psa 25:22): Redeem Israel, O God! out of all his troubles. David was now in trouble himself, but he thinks it not strange, since trouble is the lot of all God's Israel. Why should any one member fare better than the whole body? David's troubles were enlarged, and very earnest he was with God to deliver him, yet he forgets not the distresses of God's church; for, when we have ever so much business of our own at the throne of grace, we must still remember to pray for the public. Good men have little comfort in their own safety while the church is in distress and danger. This prayer is a prophecy that God would, at length, give David rest, and therewith give Israel rest from all their enemies round about. It is a prophecy of the sending of the Messiah in due time to redeem Israel from his iniquities (Psa 130:8) and so to redeem them from their troubles. It refers also to the happiness of the future state. In heaven, and in heaven only, will God's Israel be perfectly redeemed from all troubles.

Psalm 25:4-7 4. O Jehovah! make me to know thy ways, and teach me thy paths. 5. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me; for thou art the God of my salvation: I have waited for thee all the day. 6. Remember, O Jehovah! thy tender mercies and thy loving-kindnesses, for they have been from everlasting. 7. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy compassion, and for the sake of thy goodness, O Jehovah! do thou remember me. 4. O Jehovah! make me to know thy ways. By the ways of the Lord, David sometimes means, as we have seen in another place, the happy and prosperous issue of affairs, but more frequently he uses this expression to denote the rule of a holy and righteous life. As the term truth occurs in the immediately following verse, the prayer which he offers up in this place is, in my opinion, to this effect: Lord, keep thy servant in the firm persuasion of thy promises, and do not suffer him to turn aside to the right hand or to the left. When our minds are thus composed to patience, we undertake nothing rashly or by improper means, but depend wholly upon the providence of God. Accordingly, in this place David desires not merely to be directed by the Spirit of God, lest he should err from the right way, but also that God would clearly manifest to him his truth and faithfulness in the promises of his word, that he might live in peace before him, and be free from all impatience. [554] If any one would rather take the words in a general sense, as if David committed himself wholly to God to be governed by him, I do not object to it. As, however, I think it probable, that, under the name of truth in the next verse, he explains what he means by the ways and paths of God, of which he here speaks, I have no hesitation in referring the prayer to this circumstance, namely, that David, afraid of yielding to the feeling of impatience, or the desire of revenge, or some extravagant and unlawful impulse, asks that the promises of God may be deeply impressed and engraven on his heart. For I have said before, that as long as this thought prevails in our minds, that God takes care of us, it is the best and most powerful means for resisting temptations. If, however, by the ways and paths of God, any would rather understand his doctrine, I, nevertheless, still hold this as a settled point, that in the language of the Psalmist there is an allusion to those sudden and irregular emotions which arise in our minds when we are tossed by adversity, and by which we are precipitated into the devious and deceitful paths of error, till they are in due time subdued or allayed by the word of God. Thus the meaning is, Whatever may happen, suffer me not, O Lord, to fall from thy ways, or to be carried away by a wilful disobedience to thy authority, or any other sinful desire; but rather let thy truth preserve me in a state of quiet repose and peace, by an humble submission to it. Moreover, although he frequently repeats the same thing, asking that God would make him to know his ways, and teach him in them, and lead him in his truth, there is no redundancy in these forms of speech. Our adversities are often like mists which darken the eyes; and every one knows from his own experience how difficult a thing it is, while these clouds of darkness continue, to discern in what way we ought to walk. But if David, so distinguished a prophet and endued with so much wisdom, stood in need of divine instruction, what shall become of us if, in our afflictions, God dispel not from our minds those clouds of darkness which prevent us from seeing his light? As often, then, as any temptation may assail us, we ought always to pray that God would make the light of his truth to shine upon us, lest, by having recourse to sinful devices, we should go astray, and wander into devious and forbidden paths. At the same time, we ought to observe the argument which David here employs to enforce his prayer. By calling God the God of his salvation, he does so in order to strengthen his hope in God for the future, from a consideration of the benefits which he had already received from him; and then he repeats the testimony of his confidence towards God. Thus the first part of the argument is taken from the nature of God himself, and the duty which, as it were, belongs to him; that is to say, because he engages to maintain the welfare of the godly, and aids them in their necessities, on this ground, that he will continue to manifest the same favor towards them even to the end. But as it is necessary that our confidence in God should correspond to his great goodness towards us, David alleges it, at the same time, in connection with a declaration of his perseverance. For, by the expression all the day, or every day, he signifies that with a fixed and untiring constancy he depended upon God alone. And, doubtless, it is the property of faith always to look to God, even in the most trying circumstances, and patiently to wait for the aid which he has promised. That the recollection of the divine blessings may nourish and sustain our hope, let us learn to reflect upon the goodness which God has already manifested towards us, as we see that David did in making this the ground of his confidence, that he had found in his own personal experience God to be the author of salvation. 6. Remember, O Jehovah; From this it appears, in the first place, that David was grievously afflicted and tried, so much so that he had lost all sense of God's mercy: for he calls upon God to remember for him his favor, in such a manner as if he had altogether forgotten it. This, therefore, is the complaint of a man suffering extreme anguish, and overwhelmed with grief. We may learn from this, that although God, for a time, may withdraw from us every token of his goodness, and, apparently regardless of the miseries which afflict us, should, as if we were strangers to him, and not his own people, forsake us, we must fight courageously, until, set free from this temptation, we cordially present the prayer which is here recorded, beseeching God, that, returning to his former manner of dealing, he would again begin to manifest his goodness towards us, and to deal with us in a more gracious manner. This form of prayer cannot be used with propriety, unless when God is hiding his face from us, and seems to take no interest at all in us. Moreover David, by having recourse to the mercy or compassion and goodness of God, testifies that he trusts not to his own merit as any ground of hope. He who derives every thing from the fountain of divine mercy alone, finds nothing in himself entitled to recompense in the sight of God. But as the intermission which David had experienced was an obstacle which prevented his free access to God, he rises above it, by the very best remedy -- the consideration, that although God, who from his very nature is merciful, may withdraw himself, and cease for a time to manifest his power, yet he cannot deny himself; that is to say, he cannot divest himself of the feeling of mercy which is natural to him, and which can no more cease than his eternal existence. But we must firmly maintain this doctrine, that God has been merciful even from the beginning, so that if at any time he seem to act with severity towards us, and to reject our prayers, we must not imagine that he acts contrary to his real character, or that he has changed his purpose. Hence we learn for what end it is that the Scriptures every where inform us, that in all ages God has regarded his servants with a benignant eye, and exercised his mercy towards them. [555] This, at least, we ought to regard as a fixed and settled point, that although the goodness of God may sometimes be hidden, and as it were buried out of sight, it can never be extinguished. 7. Remember not the sins of my youth. As our sins are like a wall between us and God, which prevents him from hearing our prayers, or stretching forth his hand to help us, David now removes this obstruction. It is indeed true, in general, that men pray in a wrong way, and in vain, unless they begin by seeking the forgiveness of their sins. There is no hope of obtaining any favor from God unless he is reconciled to us. How shall he love us unless he first freely reconcile us to himself? The right and proper order of prayer therefore is, as I have said, to ask, at the very outset, that God would pardon our sins. David here acknowledges, in explicit terms, that he cannot in any other way become a partaker of the grace of God than by having his sins blotted out. In order, therefore, that God may be mindful of his mercy towards us, it is necessary that he forget our sins, the very sight of which turns away his favor from us. In the meantime, the Psalmist confirms by this more clearly what I have already said, that although the wicked acted towards him with cruelty, and persecuted him unjustly, yet he ascribed to his own sins all the misery which he endured. For why should he ask the forgiveness of his sins, by having recourse to the mercy of God, but because he acknowledged, that by the cruel treatment he received from his enemies, he only suffered the punishment which he justly merited? He has, therefore, acted wisely in turning his thoughts to the first cause of his misery, that he may find out the true remedy; and thus he teaches us by his example, that when any outward affliction presses upon us, we must entreat God not only to deliver us from it, but also to blot out our sins, by which we have provoked his displeasure, and subjected ourselves to his chastening rod. If we act otherwise, we shall follow the example of unskilful physicians, who, overlooking the cause of the disease, only seek to alleviate the pain, and apply merely adventitious remedies for the cure. Moreover, David makes confession not only of some slight offenses, as hypocrites are wont to do, who, by confessing their guilt in a general and perfunctory manner, either seek some subterfuge, or else extenuate the enormity of their sin; but he traces back his sins even to his very childhood, and considers in how many ways he had provoked the wrath of God against him. When he makes mention of the sins which he had committed in his youth, he does not mean by this that he had no remembrance of any of the sins which he had committed in his later years; but it is rather to show that he considered himself worthy of so much the greater condemnation. [556] In the first place, considering that he had not begun only of late to commit sin, but that he had for a long time heaped up sin upon sin, he bows himself, if we may so speak, under the accumulated load; and, in the second place, he intimates, that if God should deal with him according to the rigour of law, not only the sins of yesterday, or of a few days, would come into judgment against him, but all the instances in which he had offended, even from his infancy, might now with justice be laid to his charge. As often, therefore, as God terrifies us by his judgments and the tokens of his wrath, let us call to our remembrance, not only the sins which we have lately committed, but also all the transgressions of our past life, proving to us the ground of renewed shame and renewed lamentation. Besides, in order to express more fully that he supplicates a free pardon, he pleads before God only on the ground of his mere good pleasure; and therefore he says, According to thy compassion do thou remember me When God casts our sins into oblivion, this leads him to behold us with fatherly regard. David can discover no other cause by which to account for this paternal regard of God, but that he is good, and hence it follows that there is nothing to induce God to receive us into his favor but his own good pleasure. When God is said to remember us according to his mercy, we are tacitly given to understand that there are two ways of remembering which are entirely opposite; the one when he visits sinners in his wrath, and the other…

Psalm 25:8-11 8. Good and upright is Jehovah; therefore will he teach sinners in the way. 9. He will guide the poor in judgment, and will teach the poor [557] his way. 10. All the ways of Jehovah are mercy and truth, to those who keep his covenant and his testimony. 11. For thy name's sake, O Jehovah! be thou merciful to mine iniquity, for it is great. 8. Good and upright is Jehovah. Pausing for a little as it were in the prosecution of his prayer, he exercises his thoughts in meditation upon the goodness of God, that he may return with renewed ardor to prayer. The faithful feel that their hearts soon languish in prayer, unless they are constantly stirring themselves up to it by new incitements; so rare and difficult a thing is it to persevere steadfastly and unweariedly in this duty. And, indeed, as one must frequently lay on fuel in order to preserve a fire, so the exercise of prayer requires the aid of such helps, that it may not languish, and at length be entirely extinguished. David, therefore, desirous to encourage himself to perseverance, speaks to himself, and affirms that God is good and upright, that, gathering new strength by meditating on this truth, he may return with the more alacrity to prayer. But we must observe this consequence -- that as God is good and upright, he stretches forth his hand to sinners to bring them back again into the way. To attribute to God an uprightness which he may exercise only towards the worthy and the meritorious, is a cold view of his character, and of little advantage to sinners, and yet the world commonly apprehends that God is good in no other sense. How comes it to pass that scarcely one in a hundred applies to himself the mercy of God, if it is not because men limit it to those who are worthy of it? No on the contrary, it is here said, that God gives a proof of his uprightness when he shows to transgressors the way; and this is of the same import as to call them to repentance, and to teach them to live uprightly. And, indeed, if the goodness of God did not penetrate even to hell, no man would ever become a partaker of it. Let the Papists then boast as they please of their imaginary preparations, but let us regard this as a sure and certain doctrine, that if God do not prevent men by his grace, they shall all utterly perish. David, therefore, here commends this preventing grace, as it is called, which is manifested either when God in calling us at first renews, by the Spirit of regeneration, our corrupt nature, or when he brings us back again into the right way, after we have gone astray from him by our sins. For since even those whom God receives for his disciples are here called sinners, it follows that he renews them by his Holy Spirit that they may become docile and obedient. 9. He will guide the poor in judgment. The Psalmist here specifies the second manifestation of his grace which God makes towards those who, being subdued by his power, and brought under his yoke, bear it willingly, and submit themselves to his government. But never will this docility be found in any man, until the heart, which is naturally elated and filled with pride, has been humbled and subdued. As the Hebrew word nvym, anavim, denotes the poor or afflicted, and is employed in a metaphorical sense, to denote the meek and humble, it is probable that David, under this term, includes the afflictions which serve to restrain and subdue the frowardness of the flesh, as well as the grace of humility itself; as if he had said, When God has first humbled them, then he kindly stretches forth his hand to them, and leads and guides them throughout the whole course of their life. Moreover, some understand these terms, judgment and way of the Lord, as denoting a righteous and well ordered manner of life. Others refer them to the providence of God, an interpretation which seems more correct, and more agreeable to the context, for it is immediately added, All the ways of Jehovah are mercy and truth. The meaning therefore is, that those who are truly humbled in their hearts, and brought to place their confidence in God, shall experience how much care he has for his children, [558] and how well he provides for their necessities. The terms, judgment and way of the Lord, therefore, are simply of the same import in this place as his government, in the exercise of which he shows that he, as a kind father, has a special interest in the welfare of his children, by relieving them when they are oppressed, raising them up when cast down, cheering and comforting them when sorrowful, and succouring them when afflicted. We perceive, then, by what order God proceeds in the manifestation of his grace towards us. First, he brings us again into the way when we are wandering and going astray from him, or rather, when we are already fugitives and exiles from him, he restrains our frowardness; and whereas we were before froward and rebellious, he now subdues us to the obedience of his righteousness: and, secondly, after he has afflicted and tried us, he does not forsake us; but after he has moulded and trained us by the cross to humility and meekness, he still shows himself to be a wise and provident father in guiding and directing us through life. 10. All the ways of Jehovah. This verse is erroneously interpreted by those who think that the doctrine of the law is here described as true and sweet, and that those who keep it feel it indeed to be so, as if this passage were of the same import as that which was spoken by Jesus Christ, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:30) Such an interpretation is not only strained, but may also be easily disproved by many similar passages in which the expression, The ways of the Lord, is taken in a passive signification, for the paternal manner in which he acts towards those who are his people, in defending and cherishing them; nay, even for his whole conduct in the government and direction of the affairs of this world. The amount of what is said is, that God acts in such a manner towards his people, as that, in all respects, they may find from experience that he is merciful and faithful. David is not here speaking of the character in which God acts towards mankind in general, but what his own children find him to be. We have already seen in Psalm 18:26, that he is stern and severe towards the obstinate and rebellious; and even though he act with kindness towards them, in mercifully exercising forbearance towards them notwithstanding their iniquity, yet we find, that so far from seeking their full enjoyment in him, and trusting to his promises, they have no sense of his goodness. Nay, as soon as any adversity befalls them, they either become passionate and fretful, accuse God of acting cruelly towards them, or else complain that he is deaf to their prayers; and when they enjoy prosperity, they despise and neglect him, and as much as they are able flee from his presence. David, therefore, in speaking of the mercy and faithfulness of God, justly describes them as a treasure peculiar to the godly; as if he had said, We have no reason to be afraid that God will deceive us if we persevere in his covenant. These words, covenant and testimony, are of the same import, unless that the second is added as an explanation of the first. They comprehend the whole doctrine of the law, by which God enters into covenant with his chosen people. 11. For thy name's sake, O Jehovah! As in the original text the copulative and is inserted between the two clauses of this verse, some think that the first clause is incomplete, and that some word ought to be supplied; and then they read these words, Be thou merciful to mine iniquity, etc., as a distinct sentence by itself. And thus, according to their opinion, the sense would be, Lord, although I have not fully kept thy covenant, yet do not on that account cease to show thy kindness towards me; and that mine iniquity may not prevent thy goodness from being extended towards me, do thou graciously pardon it. But I am rather of the opinion of others, who consider that the copulative is here, as it is in many other places, superfluous, so that the whole verse may form one connected sentence. As to the tense of the verb, there is also a diversity of opinion among interpreters. Some render it in the past tense thus, Thou hast been merciful, as if David here renders thanks to God because he had pardoned his sin. But the other interpretation, which is the one more generally received, is also the most correct, namely, that David, in order to obtain pardon, again resorts to the mercy of God as his only refuge. The letter v, vau, which is equivalent to and, has often the force of changing the tense in the Hebrew verbs, so that the future tense is often taken in the sense of the optative. Moreover, I connect this verse with the preceding one in this way: The prophet, having reflected upon this, that God is kind and faithful to those who serve him, now examines his own heart, and acknowledges that he cannot be accounted of their number, unless God grant unto him the forgiveness of his sins; and, therefore, he betakes himself to prayer for pardon: as in Psalm 19:13, after having spoken of the reward which is laid up for the faithful who keep the law, he instantly exclaims, "Who can understand his errors?" Accordingly, although David is not ignorant that God promises liberally to bestow upon those who keep his covenant every thing which pertains to a life of happiness, yet, at the same time, considering how far he is as yet from the perfect righteousness of the law, he does not rest his confidence upon it, but seeks a remedy for the manifold offenses of which he feels himself to be guilty. And thus, in order that God may reckon us of the number of his servants, we ought always to come to him, entreating him, after the example of David, in his fatherly loving-kindness, to bear with our infirmities, because, without the free remission of our sins, we have no reason to expect any reward of our works. At the same time, let it be observed, that in order to show more distinctly that he depends entirely upon the free grace of God, he expressly says, for thy name's sake; meaning by this, that God, as often as he vouchsafes to pardon his people, does so from no other cause than his own good pleasure; just as he had said a little before, in the same verse, for thy goodness' sake. He was also constrained, by a consideration of the magnitude of his offense, to call upon the name of God: for he immediately adds, by way of confession, because mine iniquity is great, or manifold, (for the word rv, rab, may be translated in both ways;) as if he had said, My sins are, indeed, like a heavy burden which overwhelms me, so that the multitude or enormity of them might well deprive me of all hope of pardon; but, Lord, the infinite glory of thy name will not suffer thee to cast me off. Footnotes: [557] "Humbles." -- Fr. "Humble." [558] "Quel soin il ha de ses enfans." -- Fr.

Psalm 25:12-15 12. Who is the man that feareth Yehovah, he will teach him, in the way that he should choose. 13. His soul shalt dwell in good, and his seed shall inherit the earth. 14. The counsel [559] of Jehovah is towards them that fear him, that he may make known his covenant to them. 15. Mine eyes are continually towards Jehovah, for he will bring my feet out of the net. 12. Who is the man. By again recalling to his mind the character in which God manifests himself towards his servants, he derives new strength and courage. For we have said, that nothing more readily occurs than a relaxation in earnest and attentive prayer, unless it be sustained by the recollection of God's promises. There can, however, be no doubt, that David both accuses himself, and by entertaining a better hope, takes encouragement to continue in the fear of God. In the first place, by intimating that men are destitute of right understanding and sound judgment, because they yield not themselves to be governed by God with reverence and fear, he imputes it to his own indolence, that by reason of the darkness of his mind, he had wandered so far astray after his own lusts; and yet, on the other hand, he promises himself the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit, if he only yield himself wholly to God, and show that he is willing to learn. Moreover, the interrogatory style of speaking, which he here employs, seems designed to show how few there are who fear God: for, although all men in general pray, and manifest some appearance of piety, yet where is there one among so many who is really in earnest? Instead of this, almost all men indulge themselves in their own drowsiness. The fear of God, therefore, is very rare; and on this account it is that the world, for the most part, continues destitute of the Spirit of counsel and wisdom. Some interpreters render the word choose in the present tense, instead of the future, shall choose; as if it had been said, that God shows the way which he approves, and in which he wishes men to walk. With this interpretation I cannot agree; for, in my judgment, the word choose rather refers to every individual; as if it had been said, Provided we are disposed to fear God, he will not be wanting on his part, but will always direct us by the Spirit of wisdom to choose the right way. When we are called upon to adopt some particular course in life, we find ourselves as it were placed between two ways, and know not which of them to follow; [560] nay, in almost all our affairs we are held in suspense and doubt, unless God appear to show us the way. David therefore says, that although men know not what is right, and what they ought to choose, yet provided they submit to God with pious docility of mind, and are willing to follow him, he will always manifest himself towards them as a sure and faithful guide. As, however, the fear of God is not naturally in us, it were foolish for any man to argue from this place, that God does not begin to take care of men until, by their own previous efforts, they insinuate themselves into his favor, that he may aid them in their pious endeavors. David has just declared, that this grace comes directly from God, when he says that God teaches the transgressors: and now he adds, in the second place, that after men have once been subdued and moulded to meekness of spirit, God still takes them under his charge, guiding and directing them till they are able, by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, to know what is their duty. 13. His soul shall dwell in good. If the supreme felicity of man consists in undertaking or attempting nothing except by the warrant of God, it follows that it is also a high and incomparable benefit to have him for our conductor and guide through life, that we may never go astray. But, in addition to this, an earthly blessing is here promised, in which the fruit of the preceding grace is distinctly shown, as Paul also teaches, "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." (1 Timothy 4:8,) The sum is, that those who truly serve God are not only blessed as to spiritual things, but are also blessed by him as to their condition in the present life. It is indeed true, that God does not always deal with them according to their desires, and that the blessings which they would wish do not always flow in a certain and uniform manner. On the contrary, it often happens that they are tossed with sickness and trouble, whilst the wicked enjoy prosperity. But we must know, that as often as God withdraws his blessing from his own people, it is for the purpose of awakening them to a sense of their condition, and discovering to them how far removed they still are from the perfect fear of God. And yet, in so far as it is expedient for them, they now enjoy the blessings of God, so that, in comparison of worldly men, and the despisers of God, they are truly happy and blessed, because, even in their greatest poverty, they never lose the assurance that God is present with them; and being sustained by this consolation, they enjoy peace and tranquillity of mind. It is indeed true, that all our miseries proceed from this one source -- that by our sins we prevent the divine blessing from flowing down in a uniform course upon us; and yet, amidst such a state of confusion, his grace never ceases to shine forth, so that the condition of the godly is always better than that of others: for although they are not satiated with good things, yet they are continually made to experience a sense of the fatherly favor of God. And to this I am willing to refer the word soul, namely, that, in the reception of the gifts of God, they do not devour them without feeling a sense of their sweetness, but really relish them, so that the smallest competency is of more avail to satisfy them than the greatest abundance is to satisfy the ungodly. Thus, according as every man is contented with his condition, and cheerfully cherishes a spirit of patience and tranquillity, his soul is said to dwell in good. Some interpreters apply this word to dwell or abide to the time of death; but this interpretation is more subtle than solid. The inspired penman rather speaks, as we have already said, of the condition of the present life. [561] He adds, in the second place, by way of illustration, that the posterity of the faithful shall inherit the land, and from this it follows, that God continues to extend his favor towards them. Hence we may again infer, that the death of God's servants does not imply their utter destruction, and that they do not cease to exist when they pass out of this world, but continue to live for ever. It would be absurd to suppose that God would totally deprive of life those for whose sake he does good even to others. As to what is here said, that the children of the saints shall inherit the land, it has been touched upon elsewhere, and it will be shown still more fully on the thirty-seventh Psalm, in what respects, and how this is accomplished. 14. The counsel of Jehovah. The Psalmist here confirms what he had just said in a preceding verse, namely, that God will faithfully discharge the office of a teacher and master to all the godly; and, after his usual manner, he repeats the same sentiment twice in the same verse for the covenant of God is nothing else than his secret or counsel. By the use of the term secret, he means to magnify and extol the excellency of the doctrine which is revealed to us in the law of God. However much worldly men, through the pride and haughtiness of their hearts, despise Moses and the prophets, the faithful nevertheless acknowledge, that in the doctrine which they contain, the secrets of heaven, which far surpass the comprehension of man, are revealed and unfolded. Whoever, therefore, desires to derive instruction from the law, let him regard with reverence and esteem the doctrine which it contains. We are, farther, by this place admonished to cultivate the graces of meekness and humility, lest, in reliance upon our own wisdom, or trusting to our own understanding, we should attempt, by our own efforts, to comprehend those mysteries and secrets, the knowledge of which David here declares to be the prerogative of God alone. Again, since the fear of the Lord is said to be the beginning, and as it were the way that leads to a right understanding of his will, (Psalm 111:10,) according as any one desires to increase in faith, so also let him endeavor to advance in the fear of the Lord. Moreover, when piety reigns in the heart, we need have no fear of losing our labor in seeking God. It is indeed true, that the covenant of God is a secret which far exceeds human comprehension; but as we know that he does not in vain enjoin us to seek him, we may rest assured that all those who endeavor to serve him with an upright desire will be brought, by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, to the knowledge of that heavenly wisdom which is appointed for their salvation. But, in the meantime, David indirectly rebukes those who falsely and groundlessly boast that they are interested in the covenant of God, while they rest merely in the letter of the law, and have no saving impressions of the fear of God. God, it is true, addresses his word indiscriminately to the righteous and the wicked; but men do not comprehend it, unless they have sincere piety; just as Isaiah 29:11, says, that as regards the ungodly, the law is like "a book that is sealed." And, therefore, it is no wonder that there is here made a distinction between those who truly serve God, and to whom he makes known his secret, and the wicked or hypocrites. But when we see David in this confidence coming boldly to the school of God, and leading others along with him, let us know, as he clearly shows, that it is a wicked and hateful invention to attempt to deprive the common people of the Holy Scriptures, under the pretense of their being a hidden mystery; as if all who fear him from the heart, whatever their state or condition in other respects may be, were not expressly called to the knowledge of God's covenant. 15. Mine eyes are continually towards Jehovah. David here speaks of his own faith, and of its perseverance, not in the way of boasting, but to encourage himself in the hope of obtaining his requests, so that he might give himself the more readily and cheerfully to prayer. As the promise is made to all who trust in God, that they shall not be disappointed of their hope, and that they shall never be put to shame, the saints often make this their shield of defense. Meanwhile, David shows to others, by his own example, the right manner of prayer, telling them that they should endeavor to keep their thoughts fixed upon God. As the sense of sight is very quick, and exercises an entire influence over the whole frame, it is no uncommon thing to find all the affections denoted by the term eyes. The reason which immediately follows shows still more plainly, that in the mind of David hope was associated with desire; as if he had said, That in resting his confidence in the help of God, he did so, not in doubt or uncertainty, but because he was persuaded that he would be his deliverer. The pronoun He, it ought to be observed, is also emphatic. It shows that David did not gaze around him in every direction, after the manner of those who, being in uncertainty, devise for themselves various methods of deliverance and salvation, but that he was contented with God alone. Footnotes: [559] "Ou, secret." -- Fr. "Or, secret." [560] "Les gachans lequel prendre." -- Fr. [561] Horsley refers the words to the blessedness of a future state. He reads, "His soul shall rest in bliss;" and has the following note: -- "tlyk, pernoctavit. The words seem to allude to the happy state of the good man's departed soul, while his posterity prosper in the present world." That is, the land of Canaan, which God promised to perpetuate to the obedient Israelites and their …

Psalm 25:16-22 16. Have respect unto me, and pity me, for I am alone and poor. 17. The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring thou me out of my distresses. 18. Look upon mine affliction and my trouble, [562] and take away all my sins. 19. Behold mine enemies, for they are increased; and they hate me with a violent [563] hatred. 20. Preserve my soul, and deliver me, that I may not be ashamed; for I have put my trust in thee. 21. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I have waited upon thee. 22. Do thou, O God! redeem Israel from all his troubles. 16. Have respect unto me. As the flesh is ever ready to suggest to our minds that God has forgotten us, when he ceases to manifest his power in aiding us, David here follows the order which nature dictates, in asking God to have respect unto him, as if he had altogether neglected him before. Now, it appears to me that the words might be explained thus: Have respect unto me, in order to pity me. He accounts it at once the cause and the source of his salvation to be regarded of God; and then he adds the effect of it: for as soon as God, of his own good pleasure, shall vouchsafe to regard us, his hand also will be ready to help us. Again, in order to excite the compassion of God, he sets forth his own misery, expressly stating that he is alone, that is to say, solitary; [564] and then he describes himself as poor. There can be no doubt that, in speaking thus, he alludes to the promises in which God declares that he will be always present with the afflicted and oppressed, to aid and help them. 17. The troubles of my heart are enlarged. In this verse he acknowledges not only that he had to contend outwardly with his enemies and the troubles which they occasioned him, but that he was also afflicted inwardly with sorrow and anguish of heart. It is also necessary to observe the manner of expression which he here employs, and by which he intimates that the weight and number of his trials had accumulated to such an extent that they filled his whole heart, even as a flood of waters bursting every barrier, and extending far and wide, covers a whole country. Now, when we see that the heart of David had sometimes been wholly filled with anguish, we need no longer wonder if at times the violence of temptation overwhelm us; but let us ask with David, that even whilst we are as it were at the point of despair, God would succor us. 18. Look upon mine affliction. By repeating these complaints so frequently, he plainly shows that the calamities with which he was assailed were not some slight and trivial evils. And this ought to be carefully marked by us, so that when trials and afflictions shall have been measured out to us after the same manner, we may be enabled to lift up our souls to God in prayer; for the Holy Spirit has set before our view this representation, that our minds may not fail us under the multitude or weight of afflictions. But in order to obtain an alleviation of these miseries, David again prays that his sins may be pardoned, recalling to his recollection what he had already stated, that he could not expect to enjoy the divine favor, unless he were first reconciled to God by receiving a free pardon. And, indeed, they are very insensible who, contented with deliverance from bodily affliction, do not search out the evils of their own hearts, that is to say, their sins, but as much as in them lies rather desire to have them buried in oblivion. To find a remedy, therefore, to his cares and sorrows, David begins by imploring the remission of his sins, because, so long as God is angry with us, it must necessarily follow, that all our affairs shall come to an unhappy termination; and he has always just ground of displeasure against us so long as our sins continue, that is to say, until he pardons them. [565] And although the Lord has various ends in view in bringing his people under the cross, yet we ought to hold fast the principle, that as often as God afflicts us, we are called to examine our own hearts, and humbly to seek reconciliation with him. 19. Behold mine enemies. In this verse David complains of the number and cruelty of his enemies, because the more the people of God are oppressed, the more is he inclined to aid them; and in proportion to the magnitude of the danger by which they are surrounded, he assists them the more powerfully. The words, hatred of violence, [566] are here to be understood of a cruel and sanguinary hatred. Now, as the rage of David's enemies was so great, that nothing short of his death would satisfy them, he calls upon God to become the guardian and protector of his life; and from this it may be inferred, as I have already said, that he was now placed in extreme danger. The clause which immediately follows, That I may not be ashamed, may be understood in two ways. Some retain the future tense, I shall not be ashamed, as if David felt assured that he was already heard by God, and as the reward of his hope promised himself a gracious answer to his prayers. I am rather inclined to the opposite opinion -- to consider these words as still forming a part of his prayer. The amount of what is stated therefore is, that as he trusts in God, he prays that the hope of salvation which he had formed might not be disappointed. There is nothing better fitted to impart a holy ardor to our prayers, than when we are able to testify with sincerity of heart that we confide in God. And, therefore, it behoves us to ask with so much the greater care, that he would increase our hope when it is small, awaken it when it is dormant, confirm it when it is wavering, strengthen it when it is weak, and that he would even raise it up when it is overthrown. 21. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me. Some are of opinion, that in these words David simply prays that he may be preserved from all mischief, on the ground that he had conducted himself inoffensively towards others, and had abstained from all deceit and violence. Others make the words to contain a twofold subject of prayer, and understand them as including at the same time a desire that God would bestow upon him a sincere and upright purpose of heart; and all this lest he should break forth into revenge, and other unlawful means of preserving his life. Thus the meaning would be: Lord, although my flesh may urge me to seek relief from whatever quarter it may appear, and mine enemies also may constrain me to it by their importunity, yet do thou subdue within me every sinful passion, and every perverse desire, so that I may always exercise over my mind a pure and entire control; and let integrity and uprightness suffice as two powerful means of preserving me. We prefer the first interpretation, because he immediately subjoins a proof of his integrity. Whosoever waits upon God with a meek and quiet spirit, will rather suffer any thing which men can inflict, than allow himself to contend unrighteously with his enemies. In my opinion, therefore, David protests that such was the rectitude of his behavior amongst men, that the persecution of his enemies was wholly unmerited and unjust; and being conscious of having given no offense to any, he calls upon God as the protector of his innocence. But as he has already, in three different places, acknowledged that he was justly visited with affliction, it may seem strange that he should now glory in his integrity. This apparent inconsistency has already been explained in another place, where we have shown that the saints, in respect of themselves, always come into the presence of God with humility, imploring his forgiveness: and yet this does not prevent them from setting forth before him the goodness of their cause, and the justice of their claims. At the same time, in saying that he trusted in God, he only states what indeed is essentially necessary; for, in undertaking our defense, it is not enough that we have justice on our side, unless depending upon his promises, we rely with confidence upon his protection. It often happens, that men of firmness and prudence, even when their cause is good, do not always succeed in its defense, because they confide in their own understanding, or rely upon fortune. In order, therefore, that God may become the protector and defender of our innocence, let us first conduct ourselves uprightly and innocently towards our enemies, and then commit ourselves entirely to his protection. 22. Do thou, O God! redeem Israel. By this conclusion David shows of what character the enemies were of whom he complained. From this it would appear that they were domestic enemies, who, like some disease raging within the bowels, were now the cause of trouble and vexation to the people of God. By the word redeem, which he here employs, we may infer that the Church was at that time oppressed with hard bondage; and, therefore, I have no doubt that in this psalm he alludes to Saul and others who reigned with him in a tyrannical manner. At the same time, he shows that he has respect not merely to his own benefit, but that he comprehends in his prayer the state of the whole realm, just as the mutual communion and connection which subsist among the saints require that every individual, deeply affected by a sense of the public calamities which befall the Church at large, should unite with all the others in lamentation before God. This contributed in no small degree to confirm the faith of David, when, regarding himself as in all things connected with the whole body of the faithful, he considered that all the afflictions and wrongs which he endured were common to himself with them. And we ought to regard it as of the greatest importance, that in accordance with this rule, every one of us, in bewailing his private miseries and trials, should extend his desires and prayers to the whole Church. Footnotes: [562] "Mon souci et travail." -- Fr. marg. "My care and labor." [563] "C'est, cruelle." -- Note, Fr. marg. "That is, cruel." [564] The Hebrew word here used is ychyd, yachid, unus, one, which is not infrequently put, as in this place, for a solitary and desolate person. David was now deserted, desolate, and destitute of all help. The word is used in the same sense in Psalm 22:20, and 35:17 [565] "Cependant que nos pechez demeurent c'est a dire iusaues a ce qu'il les pardonne." -- Fr. [566] The Hebrew words literally rendered are, "With hatred of violence."

The prayer generalized as to all who wait on God--that is, who expect His favor. On the other hand, the disappointment of the perfidious, who, unprovoked, have done evil, is invoked (compare Sa2 22:9).

On the ground of former favor, he invokes divine guidance, according to God's gracious ways of dealing and faithfulness.

Confessing past and present sins, he pleads for mercy, not on palliations of sin, but on God's well-known benevolence.

upright--acting according to His promise. sinners--the general term, limited by the meek--who are penitent. the way--and his way--God's way of providence.

paths--similar sense--His modes of dealing (compare Psa 25:4). mercy and truth-- (Job 14:1-22), God's grace in promising and faithfulness in performing.

God's perfections of love, mercy, goodness, and truth are manifested (his name, compare Psa 9:10) in pardoning sin, and the greatness of sin renders pardon more needed.

inherit the earth--(compare Mat 5:5). The phrase, alluding to the promise of Canaan, expresses all the blessings included in that promise, temporal as well as spiritual.

The reason of the blessing explained--the pious enjoy communion with God (compare Pro 3:21, Pro 3:12), and, of course, learn His gracious terms of pardon.

A series of earnest appeals for aid because God had seemed to desert him (compare Psa 13:1; Psa 17:13, &c.), his sins oppressed him, his enemies had enlarged his troubles and were multiplied, increasing in hate and violence (Psa 9:8; Psa 18:48).

In conscious innocence of the faults charged by his enemies, he confidently commits his cause to God. Some refer-- integrity, &c.--to God, meaning His covenant faithfulness. This sense, though good, is an unusual application of the terms.

1. “Unto thee, O Lord.”—See how the holy soul flies to its God like a dove to its cote. When the storm-winds are out, the Lord’s vessels put about and make for their well-remembered harbour of refuge. What a mercy that the Lord will condescend to hear our cries in time of trouble, although we may have almost forgotten him in our hours of fancied prosperity. “Unto thee, O Jehovah, do I lift up my soul.” It is but mockery to uplift the hands and the eyes unless we also bring our souls into our devotions. True prayer may be described as the soul rising from earth to have fellowship with heaven; it is taking a journey upon Jacob’s ladder, leaving our cares and fears at the foot, and meeting with a covenant God at the top. Very often the soul cannot rise, she has lost her wings, and is heavy and earth-bound; more like a burrowing mole than a soaring eagle. At such dull seasons we must not give over prayer, but must, by God’s assistance, exert all our power to lift up our hearts. Let faith be the lever and grace be the arm, and the dead lump will yet be stirred. But what a lift it has sometimes proved! With all our tugging and straining we have been utterly defeated, until the heavenly loadstone of our Saviour’s love has displayed its omnipotent attractions, and then our hearts have gone up to our Beloved like mounting flames of fire. 2. “O my God.” This title is more dear and near than the name Jehovah, which is used in the first sentence. Already the sweet singer has drawn nearer to his heavenly helper, for he makes bold to grasp him with the hand of assured possession, calling him, my God. Oh the more than celestial music of that word—“my God!” It is to be observed that the Psalmist does not deny expression to those gracious feelings with which God had favoured him; he does not fall into loathsome mock modesty, but finding in his soul a desire to seek the Lord he avows it; believing that he had a rightful interest in Jehovah he declares it, and knowing that he had confidence in his God he professes it; “O my God, I trust in thee.” Faith is the cable which binds our boat to the shore, and by pulling at it we draw ourselves to the land; faith unites us to God, and then draws us near to him. As long as the anchor of faith holds there is no fear in the worst tempest; if that should fail us there would be no hope left. We must see to it that our faith is sound and strong, for otherwise prayer cannot prevail with God. Woe to the warrior who throws away his shield; what defence can be found for him who finds no defence in God? “Let me not be ashamed.” Let not my disappointed hopes makes me feel ashamed of my former testimonies to thy faithfulness. Many were on the watch for this. The best of men have their enemies, and should pray against them that they may not see their wicked desires accomplished. “Let not mine enemies triumph over me.” Suffer no wicked mouth to make blasphemous mirth out of my distresses by asking “Where is thy God?” There is a great jealousy in believers for the honour of God, and they cannot endure that unbelievers should taunt them with the failure of their expectations from the God of their salvation. All other trusts will end in disappointment and eternal shame, but our confidences shall never be confounded. 3. “Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed.” Suffering enlarges the heart by creating the power to sympathize. If we pray eagerly for ourselves, we shall not long be able to forget our fellow-sufferers. None pity the poor like those who have been or are still poor, none have such tenderness for the sick as those who have been long in ill health themselves. We ought to be grateful for occasional griefs if they preserve us from chronic hard-heartedness; for of all afflictions, an unkind heart is the worst, it is a plague to its possessor, and a torment to those around him. Prayer when it is of the Holy Ghost’s teaching is never selfish; the believer does not sue for monopolies for himself, but would have all in like case to partake of divine mercy with him. The prayer may be viewed as a promise; our Heavenly Father will never let his trustful children find him untrue or unkind. He will ever be mindful of his covenant. “Let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.” David had given his enemies no provocation; their hatred was wanton. Sinners have no justifiable reason or valid excuse for transgressing; they benefit no one, not even themselves by their sins; the law against which they transgress is not harsh or unjust; God is not a tyrannical ruler, providence is not a bondage: men sin because they will sin, not because it is either profitable or reasonable to do so. Hence shame is their fitting reward. May they blush with penitential shame now, or else they will not be able to escape the everlasting contempt and the bitter shame which is the promotion of fools in the world to come. 4. “Shew me thy ways, O Lord.” Unsanctified natures clamour for their own way, but gracious spirits cry, “Not my will, but thine be done.” We cannot at all times discern the path of duty, and at such times it is our wisdom to apply to the Lord himself. Frequently the dealings of God with us are mysterious, and then also we may appeal to him as his own interpreter, and in due time he will make all things plain. Moral, providential and mental forms of guidance are all precious gifts of a gracious God to a teachable people. The second petition, “teach me thy paths,” appears to mean more than the first, and may be illustrated by the case of a little child who should say to his father, “Father, first tell me which is the way, and then teach my little trembling feet to walk in it.” What weak dependent creatures we are! How constantly we cry to the Strong for strength! 5. “Lead me in thy truth, and teach me.” The same request as in the last verse. The little child having begun to walk, asks to be still led onward by its parent’s helping hand, and to be further instructed in the alphabet of truth. Experimental teaching is the burden of this prayer. Lead me according to thy truth, and prove thyself faithful; lead me into truth that I may know its preciousness, lead me by the way of truth that I may manifest its spirit. David knew much, but he felt his ignorance and desired to be still in the Lord’s school; four times over in these two verses he applies for a scholarship in the college of grace. It were well for many professors if instead of following their own devices, and cutting out new paths of thought for themselves, they would enquire for the good old ways of God’s own truth, and beseech the Holy Ghost to give them sanctified understandings and teachable spirits. “For thou art the God of my salvation.” The Three-One Jehovah is the Author and Perfector of salvation to his people. Reader, is he the God of your salvation? Do you find in the Father’s election, in the Son’s atonement, and in the Spirit’s quickening all the grounds of your eternal hopes? If so, you may use this as an argument for obtaining further blessings; if the Lord has ordained to save you, surely he will not refuse to instruct you in his ways. It is a happy thing when we can address the Lord with the confidence which David here manifests, it gives us great power in prayer, and comfort in trial. “On thee do I wait all the day.” Patience is the fair handmaid and daughter of faith; we cheerfully wait when we are certain that we shall not wait in vain. It is our duty and our privilege to wait upon the Lord in service, in worship, in expectancy, in trust all the days of our life. Our faith will be tried faith, and if it be of the true kind, it will bear continued trial without yielding. We shall not grow weary of waiting upon God if we remember how long and how graciously he once waited for us. 6. “Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving-kindnesses.” We are usually tempted in seasons of affliction to fear that our God has forgotten us, or forgotten his usual kindness towards us; hence the soul doth as it were put the Lord in remembrance, and beseech him to recollect those deeds of love which once he wrought towards it. There is a holy boldness which ventures thus to deal with the Most High, let us cultivate it; but there is also an unholy unbelief which suggests our fears, let us strive against it with all our might. What gems are those two expressions, “tender mercies and loving-kindnesses”! They are the virgin honey of language; for sweetness no words can excel them; but as for the gracious favours which are intended by them, language fails to describe them. “When all thy mercies, O my God, My rising soul surveys, Transported with the view, I’m lost In wonder, love and praise.” If the Lord will only do unto us in the future as in the past, we shall be well content. We seek no change in the divine action, we only crave that the river of grace may never cease to flow. “For they have been ever of old.” A more correct translation would be “from eternity.” David was a sound believer in the doctrine of God’s eternal love. The Lord’s loving-kindnesses are no novelties. When we plead with him to bestow them upon us, we can urge use and custom of the most ancient kind. In courts of law men make much of precedents, and we may plead them at the throne of grace. “Faith,” saith Dickson, “must make use of experiences and read them over unto God out of the register of a sanctified memory, as a recorder to him who cannot forget.” With an unchangeable God it is a most effectual argument to remind him of his ancient mercies and his eternal love. By tracing all that we enjoy to the fountain-head of everlasting love we shall greatly cheer our hearts, and those do us but sorry service who try to dissuade us from meditating upon election and its kindred topics. 7 “Remember not the sins of my youth.” Sin is the stumbling-block. This is the thing to be removed. Lord, pass an act of oblivion for all my sins, and especially for the hot-blooded wanton follies of my younger years. Those offences which we remember with repentance God forgets, but if we forget them, justice will bring them forth to punishment. The world winks at the sins of young men, and yet they are not so little after all; the bones of our youthful feastings at Satan’s table will stick painfully in our throats when we are old men. He who presumes upon his youth is poisoning his old age. How large a tear may wet this page as some of us reflect upon the past! “Nor my transgressions.” Another word for the same evils. Sincere penitents cannot get through their confessions at a gallop; they are constrained to use many bemoanings, for their swarming sins smite them with so innumerable griefs. A painful sense of any one sin provokes the believer to repentance for the whole mass of his iniquities. Nothing but the fullest and clearest pardon will satisfy a thoroughly awakened conscience. David would have his sins not only forgiven, but forgotten. “According to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O Lord.” David and the dying thief breathe the same prayer, and doubtless they grounded it upon the same plea, viz, the free grace and unmerited goodness of Jehovah. We dare not ask to have our portion measured from the balances of justice, but we pray to be dealt with by the hand of mercy.

These three verses are a meditation upon the attributes and acts of the Lord. He who toils in the harvest field of prayer should occasionally pause awhile and refresh himself with a meal of meditation. 8. “Good and upright is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.” Here the goodness and the rectitude of the divine character are beheld in friendly union; he who would see them thus united in bonds of perfect amity must stand at the foot of the cross and view them blended in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. It is no less true than wonderful that through the atonement the justice of God pleads as strongly as his grace for the salvation of the sinners whom Jesus died to save. Moreover, as a good man naturally endeavours to make others like himself, so will the Lord our God in his compassion bring sinners into the way of holiness and conform them to his own image; thus the goodness of our God leads us to expect the reclaiming of sinful men. We may not conclude from God’s goodness that he will save those sinners who continue to wander in their own ways, but we may be assured that he will renew transgressors’ hearts and guide them into the way of holiness. Let those who desire to be delivered from sin take comfort from this. God himself will condescend to be the teacher of sinners. What a ragged school is this for God to teach in! God’s teaching is practical; he teaches sinners not only the doctrine, but the way. 9. “The meek will he guide in judgment.” Meek spirits are in high favour with the Father of the meek and lowly Jesus, for he sees in them the image of his only-begotten Son. They know their need of guidance, and are willing to submit their own understandings to divine will, and therefore the Lord condescends to be their guide. Humble spirits are in this verse endowed with a rich inheritance; let them be of good cheer. Trouble puts gentle spirits to their wits’ ends, and drives them to act without discretion, but grace comes to the rescue, enlightens their mind to follow that which is just, and helps them to discern the way in which the Lord would have them to go. Proud of their own wisdom fools will not learn, and therefore miss their road to heaven, but lowly hearts sit at Jesu’s feet, and find the gate of glory, for “the meek will he teach his way.” Blessed teacher! Favoured scholar! Divine lesson! My soul, be thou familiar with the whole. 10. This is a rule without an exception. God is good to those that be good. Mercy and faithfulness shall abound towards those who through mercy are made faithful. Whatever outward appearances may threaten we should settle it steadfastly in our minds that while grace enables us to obey the Lord’s will we need not fear that Providence will cause us any real loss. There shall be mercy in every unsavoury morsel, and faithfulness in every bitter drop; let not our hearts be troubled, but let us rest by faith in the immutable covenant of Jehovah, which is ordered in all things and sure. Yet this is not a general truth to be trampled upon by swine, it is a pearl for a child’s neck. Gracious souls, by faith resting upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus, keep the covenant of the Lord, and, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit, they walk in his testimonies; these will find all things co-working for their good, but to the sinner there is no such promise. Keepers of the covenant shall be kept by the covenant; those who follow the Lord’s commands shall find the Lord’s mercy following them.

This sentence of prayer would seem out of place were it not that prayer is always in its place, whether in season or out of season. Meditation having refreshed the Psalmist, he falls to his weighty work again, and wrestles with God for the remission of his sin. “For thy name’s sake, O Lord.” Here is a blessed, never-failing plea. Not for our sakes or our merits’ sake, but to glorify thy mercy, and to show forth the glory of thy divine attributes. “Pardon mine iniquity.” It is confessed, it is abhorred, it is consuming my heart with grief; Lord forgive it; let thine own lips pronounce my absolution. “For it is great.” It weighs so heavily upon me that I pray thee remove it. Its greatness is no difficulty with thee, for thou art a great God, but the misery which it causes to me is my argument with thee for speedy pardon. Lord, the patient is sore sick, therefore, heal him. To pardon a great sinner will bring thee great glory, therefore for thy name’s sake pardon me. Observe how this verse illustrates the logic of faith, which is clean contrary to that of a legal spirit; faith looks not for merit in the creature, but hath regard to the goodness of the Creator; and instead of being staggered by the demerits of sin it looks to the precious blood, and pleads all the more vigorously because of the urgency of the case.

12. “What man is he that feareth the Lord?” Let the question provoke self-examination. Gospel privileges are not for every pretender. Art thou of the seed royal or no? “Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.” Those whose hearts are right shall not err for want of heavenly direction. Where God sanctifies the heart he enlightens the head. We all wish to choose our way; but what a mercy is it when the Lord directs that choice, and makes free-will to be good-will! If we make our will God’s will, God will let us have our will. God does not violate our will, but leaves much to our choice; nevertheless, he instructs our wills, and so we choose that which is well-pleasing in his sight. The will should be subject to law; there is a way which we should choose, but so ignorant are we that we need to be taught, and so wilful that none but God himself can teach us effectually. 13. He who fears God has nothing else to fear. “His soul shall dwell at ease.” He shall lodge in the chamber of content. One may sleep as soundly in the little bed in the corner as in the Great Bed of Ware; it is not abundance but content that gives true ease. Even here, having learned by grace both to abound and to be empty, the believer dwells at ease; but how profound will be the ease of his soul for ever! There he will enjoy the “otium cum dignitate;” ease and glory shall go together. Like a warrior whose battles are over, or a husbandman whose barns are full, his soul shall take its ease, and be merry for ever. “His seed shall inherit the earth.” God remembers, Isaac for the sake of Abraham, and Jacob for the sake of Isaac. Good men’s sons have a goodly portion to begin the world with, but many of them, alas! turn a father’s blessing into a curse. The promise is not broken because in some instances men wilfully refuse to receive it; moreover, it is in its spiritual meaning that it now holds good; our spiritual seed do inherit all that was meant by “the earth,” or Canaan; they receive the blessing of the new covenant. May the Lord make us the joyful parents of many spiritual children, and we shall have no fears about their maintenance, for the Lord will make each one of them princes in all the earth. 14. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.” Some read it “the friendship:” it signifies familiar intercourse, confidential intimacy, and select fellowship. This is a great secret. Carnal minds cannot guess what is intended by it, and even believers cannot explain it in words, for it must be felt to be known. The higher spiritual life is necessarily a path which the eagle’s eye hath not known, and which the lion’s whelp has not travelled; neither natural wisdom nor strength can force a door into this inner chamber. Saints have the key of heaven’s hieroglyphics; they can unriddle celestial enigmas. They are initiated into the fellowship of the skies; they have heard words which it is not possible for them to repeat to their fellows. “And he will shew them his covenant.” Its antiquity, security, righteousness, fulness, graciousness and excellence shall be revealed to their hearts and understandings, and above all, their own part in it shall be sealed to their souls by the witness of the Holy Spirit. The designs of love which the Lord has to his people in the covenant of grace, he has been pleased to show to believers in the Book of Inspiration, and by his Spirit he leads us into the mystery, even the hidden mystery of redemption. He who does not know the meaning of this verse, will never learn it from a commentary; let him look to the cross for the secret lies there. 15. “Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord.” The writer claims to be fixed in his trust, and constant in his expectation; he looks in confidence and waits in hope. We may add to this look of faith and hope the obedient look of service, the humble look of reverence, the admiring look of wonder, the studious look of meditation and the tender look of affection. Happy are those whose eyes are never removed from their God. “The eye,” says Solomon, “is never satisfied with seeing,” but this sight is the most satisfying in the world. “For he shall pluck my feet out of the net.” Observe the conflicting condition in which a gracious soul may be placed, his eyes are in heaven and yet his feet are sometimes in a net; his nobler nature ceases not to behold the glories of God, while his baser parts are enduring the miseries of the world. A net is the common metaphor for temptation. The Lord often keeps his people from falling into it, and if they have fallen he rescues them. The word “pluck” is a rough word, and saints who have fallen into sin find that the means of their restoration are not always easy to the flesh; the Lord plucks at us sharply to let us feel that sin is an exceeding bitter thing. But what a mercy is here! Believer, be very grateful for it. The Lord will deliver us from the cunning devices of our cruel enemy, and even if through infirmity we have fallen into sin, he will not leave us to be utterly destroyed but will pluck us out of our dangerous state; though our feet are in the net, if our eyes are up unto God, mercy certainly will interpose.

16. His own eyes were fixed upon God, but he feared that the Lord had averted his face from him in anger. Oftentimes unbelief suggests that God has turned his back upon us. If we know that we turn to God we need not fear that he will turn from us, but may boldly cry, “Turn thee unto me.” The ground of quarrel is always in ourselves, and when that is removed there is nothing to prevent our full enjoyment of communion with God. “Have mercy upon me.” Saints still must stand upon the footing of mercy; notwithstanding all their experience they cannot get beyond the publican’s prayer, “Have mercy upon me.” “For I am desolate and afflicted.” He was lonely and bowed down. Jesus was in the days of his flesh in just such a condition; none could enter into the secret depths of his sorrows, he trod the winepress alone, and hence he is able to succour in the fullest sense those who tread the solitary path. “Christ leads me through no darker rooms Than he went through before; He that into God’s kingdom comes, Must enter by this door.” 17. “The troubles of my heart are enlarged.” When trouble penetrates the heart it is trouble indeed. In the case before us, the heart was swollen with grief like a lake surcharged with water by enormous floods; this is used as an argument for deliverance, and it is a potent one. When the darkest hour of the night arrives we may expect the dawn; when the sea is at its lowest ebb the tide must surely turn; and when our troubles are enlarged to the greatest degree, then may we hopefully pray, “O bring thou me out of my distresses.” 18. “Look upon mine affliction and my pain.” Note the many trials of the saints; here we have no less than six words all descriptive of woe. “Desolate, and afflicted, troubles enlarged, distresses, affliction, and pain.” But note yet more the submissive and believing spirit of a true saint; all he asks for is, “Lord, look upon my evil plight;” he does not dictate or even express a complaint; a look from God will content him, and that being granted he asks no more. Even more noteworthy is the way in which the believer under affliction discovers the true source of all the mischief, and lays the axe at the root of it. “Forgive all my sins,” is the cry of a soul that is more sick of sin than of pain, and would sooner be forgiven than healed. Blessed is the man to whom sin is more unbearable than disease, he shall not be long before the Lord shall both forgive his iniquity and heal his diseases. Men are slow to see the intimate connection between sin and sorrow, a grace-taught heart alone feels it. 19. “Consider mine enemies.” Watch them, weigh them, check them, defeat them. “For they are many.” They need the eyes of Argus to watch them, and the arms of Hercules to match them, but the Lord is more than sufficient to defeat them. The devils of hell and the evils of earth are all vanquished when the Lord makes bare his arm. “They hate me with cruel hatred.” It is the breath of the serpent’s seed to hate; their progenitor was a hater, and they themselves must needs imitate him. No hate so cruel as that which is unreasonable and unjust. A man can forgive one who has injured him, but one whom he has injured he hates implacably. “Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves,” is still our Master’s word to us. 20. “O keep my soul” out of evil, “and deliver me” when I fall into it. This is another version of the prayer, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” “Let me not be ashamed.” This is the one fear which like a ghost haunted the Psalmist’s mind. He trembled lest his faith should become the subject of ridicule through the extremity of his affliction. Noble hearts can brook anything but shame. David was of such a chivalrous spirit, that he could endure any torment rather than to be put to dishonour. “For I put my trust in thee.” And therefore the name of God would be compromised if his servants were deserted; this the believing heart can by no means endure. 21. “Let integrity and uprightness preserve me.” What better practical safeguards can a man require? If we do not prosper with these as our guides, it is better for us to suffer adversity. Even the ungodly world admits that “honesty is the best policy.” The heir of heaven makes assurance doubly sure, for apart from the rectitude of his public life, he enlists the guardian care of heaven in secret prayer: “for I wait on thee.” To pretend to wait on God without holiness of life is religious hypocrisy, and to trust to our own integrity without calling upon God is presumptuous atheism. Perhaps the integrity and uprightness referred to are those righteous attributes of God, which faith rests upon as a guarantee that the Lord will not forfeit his word. 22. “Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.” This is a very comprehensive prayer, including all the faithful and all their trials. Sorrow had taught the Psalmist sympathy, and given him communion with the tried people of God; he therefore remembers them in his prayers. Israel, the tried, the wrestling, the conquering hero, fit representative of all the saints. Israel in Egypt, in the wilderness, in wars with Canaanites, in captivity, fit type of the church militant on earth. Jesus is the Redeemer from trouble as well as sin, he is a complete Redeemer, and from every evil he will rescue every saint. Redemption by blood is finished: O God, send us redemption by power. Amen and Amen.

2. “Unto Thee, O Lord, have I lift up my soul” (ver. 1): with spiritual longing have I lift up the soul, that was trodden down on the earth with carnal longings. “O my God, in Thee I trust, I shall not be ashamed” (ver. 2). O my God, from trusting in myself I was brought even to this weakness of the flesh; and I who on abandoning God wished to be as God, fearing death from the smallest insect, was in derision ashamed for my pride; now, therefore, “in Thee I trust, I shall not be ashamed.”

3. “And let not my enemies mock me.” And let them not mock me, who by ensnaring me with serpent-like and secret suggestions, and prompting me with “Well done, well done,” have brought me down to this. “For all that wait upon Thee shall not be confounded” (ver. 3).

4. “Let them be confounded who do vain things unrighteously.” Let them be confounded who act unrighteously for the acquiring things that pass away. “Make Thy ways, O Lord, known to me, and teach me Thy paths” (ver. 4): not those which are broad, and lead the many to destruction; Matt. vii. 13.

5. “In Thy truth guide me:” avoiding error. “And teach me:” for by myself I know nothing, but falsehood. “For Thou art the God of my salvation; and for Thee have I waited all the day” (ver. 5). For dismissed by Thee from Paradise, and having taken my journey into a far country, Luke xv. 13.

6. “Remember Thy compassions, O Lord” (ver. 6). Remember the works of Thy mercy, O Lord; for men deem of Thee as though Thou hadst forgotten. “And that Thy mercies are from eternity.” And remember this, that Thy mercies are from eternity. For Thou never wast without them, who hast subjected even sinful man to vanity indeed, but in hope; Rom. viii. 20.

7. “Remember not the offences of my youth and of my ignorance” (ver. 7). The offences of my presumptuous boldness and of my ignorance reserve not for vengeance, but let them be as if forgotten by Thee. “According to Thy mercy, be mindful of me, O God.” Be mindful indeed of me, not according to the anger of which I am worthy, but according to Thy mercy which is worthy of Thee. “For Thy goodness, O Lord.” Not for my deservings, but for Thy goodness, O Lord.

8. “Gracious and upright is the Lord” (ver. 8). The Lord is gracious, since even sinners and the ungodly He so pitied, as to forgive all that is past; but the Lord is upright too, who after the mercy of vocation and pardon, which is of grace without merit, will require merits meet for the last judgment. “Wherefore He will establish a law for them that fail in the way.” For He hath first bestowed mercy to bring them into the way.

9. “He will guide the meek in judgment.” He will guide the meek, and will not confound in the judgment those that follow His will, and do not, in withstanding It, prefer their own. “The gentle He will teach His ways” (ver. 9). He will teach His ways, not to those that desire to run before, as if they were better able to rule themselves; but to those who do not exalt the neck, nor lift the heel, when the easy yoke and the light burden is laid upon them. Matt. xi. 30.

10. “All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth” (ver. 10). And what ways will He teach them, but mercy wherein He is placable, and truth wherein He is incorrupt? Whereof He hath exhibited the one in forgiving sins, the other in judging deserts. And therefore “all the ways of the Lord” are the two advents of the Son of God, the one in mercy, the other in judgment. He then attaineth unto Him holding on His ways, who seeing himself freed by no deserts of his own, lays pride aside, and henceforward bewares of the severity of His trial, having experienced the clemency of His help. “To them that seek His testament and His testimonies.” For they understand the Lord as merciful at His first advent, and as the Judge at His second, who in meekness and gentleness seek His testament, when with His Own Blood He redeemed us to a new life; and in the Prophets and Evangelists, His testimonies.

11. “For Thy Name’s sake, O Lord, Thou wilt be favourable to my sin; for it is manifold” (ver. 11). Thou hast not only forgiven my sins, which I committed before I believed; but also to my sin, which is manifold, since even in the way there is no lack of stumbling, Thou wilt be made favourable by the sacrifice of a troubled spirit. [Here our author, as did St. Chrysostom, treats true contrition as completed by pardon, without sacramental absolution.—C.]

12. “Who is the man that feareth the Lord?” from which fear he begins to come to wisdom. “He shall establish a law for him in the way, which he hath chosen” (ver. 12). He shall establish a law for him in the way, which in his freedom he has taken, that he may not sin now with impunity.

13. “His soul shall dwell in good, and his seed shall, by inheritance, possess the earth” (ver. 13). And his work shall possess the stable inheritance of a renewed body.

14. “The Lord is the stay of them that fear Him” (ver. 14). Fear seems to belong to the weak, but the Lord is the stay of them that fear Him. And the Name of the Lord, which hath been glorified throughout the whole world, is a stay to them that fear Him. “And His testament, that it may be manifested unto them.” And He maketh His testament to be manifested unto them, for the Gentiles and the bounds of the earth are Christ’s inheritance.

15. “Mine eyes are ever unto the Lord; for He shall pluck my feet out of the snare” (ver. 15). Nor would I fear the dangers of earth, while I look not upon the earth: for He upon whom I look, will pluck my feet out of the snare.

16. “Look upon me, and have mercy upon me; for I am single and poor” (ver. 16). For I am a single people, keeping the lowliness of Thy single Church, which no schisms or heresies possess.

17. “The tribulations of my heart have been multiplied” (ver. 17). The tribulations of my heart have been multiplied by the abounding of iniquity and the waxing cold of love. Matt. xxiv. 12.

18. “See my humility and my travail” (ver. 18). See my humility, whereby I never, in the boast of righteousness, break off from unity; and my travail, wherein I bear with the unruly ones that are mingled with me. “And forgive all my sins.” And, propitiated by these sacrifices, forgive all my sins, not those only of youth and my ignorance before I believed, but those also which, living now by faith, I commit through infirmity, or the darkness of this life.

19. “Consider mine enemies, how they are multiplied” (ver. 19). For not only without, but even within, in the Church’s very communion, they are not wanting. “And with an unrighteous hate they hate me.” And they hate me who love them.

20. “Keep my soul, and deliver me.” Keep my soul, that I turn not aside to imitate them; and draw me out from the confusion wherein they are mingled with me. “Let me not be confounded, for I have put my trust in Thee” (ver. 20). Let me not be confounded, if haply they rise up against me: for not in myself, but in Thee have I put my trust.

21. “The innocent and the upright have cleaved to me, for I have waited for Thee, O Lord” (ver. 21). The innocent and the upright, not in bodily presence only, as the evil, are mingled with me, but in the agreement of the heart in the same innocence and uprightness cleave to me: for I have not fallen away to imitate the evil; but I have waited for Thee, expecting the winnowing of Thy last harvest. [So the dying Jacob, Gen. xlix. 18.—C.]

22. “Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles” (ver. 22). “Redeem Thy people, O God,” whom Thou hast prepared to see Thee, out of his troubles, not those only which he bears without, but those also which he bears within.

Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. Either "in prayer", as the Chaldee paraphrase adds (s); and denotes sincere, affectionate, hearty prayer to God, a drawing nigh to him with a true heart: for unless the heart is lifted up, the lifting up of the eyes or hands in prayer is of no avail; see Lamentations 3:41; or by way of offering to the Lord, as some Jewish writers (t) interpret it; David not only presented his body in public worship, but his soul also as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which was his reasonable service; or else as a "depositum", which he committed into the hands of God, to be under his care and protection; and then the sense is the same with Psalm 31:5 (u); the phrase is sometimes used to express earnest and vehement desire after anything; See Gill on Psalm 24:4; and may here intend the very great desire of the psalmist after communion with God; which is elsewhere by him expressed by panting after him, and by thirsting for him in a dry and thirsty land, Psalm 42:1; the desires of his soul were not to vain things, the vanities and idols of the Gentiles, but to God only, and to the remembrance of his name. (s) So Kimchi & Ben Melech. (t) R. Moseh in Aben Ezra in loc. (u) Midrash Tillim.

O my God, I trust in thee,.... He claims his interest in God, and expresses his faith and confidence in him, in the midst of all his troubles; See Gill on Psalm 7:1; let me not be ashamed; meaning of his trust in God, by being disappointed of the help, deliverance, and salvation from him, which he trusted in him for; and the believer, as he has no reason to be ashamed of God, the object of his trust; so neither of the act of his hope or trust in him; nor shall he; for hope makes not ashamed; see Psalm 119:116, Romans 5:5; let not mine enemies triumph over me; either his temporal enemies, his subjects that were risen up against him; or his spiritual enemies, Satan, and the men of the world, who rejoice and triumph when the saints are forsaken by God; and they are ready to say, as David's enemies did of him, there is no help or salvation for him in God, Psalm 3:2; and when they fall into their hands, or fall by them.

Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed,.... David not only prays for himself, but for other saints, as it becomes the people of God to do; for them they waited on the Lord in public worship, attended his house and ordinances, and waited on him for the discoveries of his love, the enjoyment of his voracious presence, and were looking for his salvation, for the Messiah; for those the psalmist prays, that they might not be ashamed of their expectation and hope, by the delay of those things, or the denial them; let them be ashamed which transgress without cause; or "act treacherously without cause" (w); as David's subjects did, who were risen up in rebellion against him, and acted the perfidious part, contrary to their allegiance, and without any just reason, they not being ruled with rigour, and oppressed; but were guided and governed by him according to the laws of God, in the integrity of his heart, and by the skilfulness of his hands; he being a king that reigned in righteousness, and a prince that decreed judgment: and such are those who are now risen up against our rightful sovereign King George (x), a parcel of perfidious treacherous wretches; some of them who were in the last rebellion, and obtained his father's pardon; others that have partook yearly of his royal bounty, for the instruction of their children; and all have enjoyed the blessings of his mild and gentle government; and therefore are without cause his enemies: and for such we should pray, as David did for his enemies, that they might be ashamed; that they may fail in their attempts and designs, and be brought to deserved punishment; see Psalm 7:4; or "let transgressors be ashamed", and be empty (y); in a state of emptiness and want; lose their wealth, honour, and credit. (w) "qui perfide agunt", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Michaelis; so Amama & Ainsworth. (x) This was written December 2, 1745. (y) "in statu vacuitatis ac egestatis", Gussetius, p. 790.

Show me thy ways, O Lord,.... Either those which the Lord himself took and walked in; as those of creation and providence, in which he has displayed his power, wisdom, and goodness; and which are desirable to be known by his people, and require divine instruction and direction; and particularly his ways of grace, mercy, and truth, and the methods he has taken for the salvation of his people, both in eternity and in time; or those ways which he orders and directs his people to walk in; namely, the paths of duty, the ways of his worship and ordinances; a greater knowledge of which good men desire to have, as well as more grace to enable them to walk more closely and constantly in them; teach me thy paths; a petition the same with the other, in different words.

Lead me in thy truth, and teach me,.... Meaning the word of God, the Scriptures of truth; and the Gospel, which is the word of truth, and truth itself, John 17:17; and the sense is, either that God would lead him by his Spirit more and more into all truth, as contained in his word; or that he would lead him by it and according to it, that he might form his principles and his conduct more agreeably to it, which is the standard and rule of faith and practice: which leading is by teaching; and reasons urged for granting all the above petitions follow, for thou art the God of my salvation; who, in infinite wisdom, contrived scheme and method of it in his Son, and by him effected it, and by his Spirit had made application of it to him: and since the Lord had done such great things for him, he hoped the requests he had made would be granted: he adds, on thee do I wait all the day; or continually, in public and in private, attending to all the duties of religion, yet not trusting in them, but in the Lord; and therefore he entreated he might not be ashamed of his hope and expectation for deliverance and salvation.

Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving kindnesses,.... Not the providential mercy and kindness of God, in the care of him in his mother's womb, at the time of his birth, in his nurture and education, and in the preservation of him to the present time; but the special mercy, grace, and love of God in Christ: the sense of the petition is the same with that of Psalm 106:4; which are expressed in the plural number, because of the largeness and abundance of it, and because of the various acts and instances of it; the Lord is rich and plenteous in mercy, abundant in goodness; his love is exceeding great, and numerous are the ways and methods in which it is declared, both in eternity and in time; and though he can never forget his love, nor the people whom he loves, for they are engraven on his hand, and set as a seal on his heart; yet he sometimes seems, by the conduct of his providence, as if he did not remember it, and had no tender affection for them; and their unbelief is ready to say, the Lord has forgotten to be gracious; and the design of such a petition as this is to entreat a fresh discovery and application of the grace, mercy, and loving kindness of God, and which he allows his people to put him in remembrance of; for they have been ever of old: meaning not only from the time of his birth, and in after appearances of God for him, nor the favours shown to the people of Israel in former times at the Red sea, and in the wilderness and elsewhere, and to the patriarchs from the beginning of the world; but the love of God from everlasting, which appears in the choice of his people in Christ, before the foundation of the world, in the everlasting covenant of grace made with him, and in the setting of him up as the Mediator of it, and in putting his people into his hands, with all grace and spiritual blessings for them before the world began; and which love as it is from everlasting it is to everlasting, and remains invariably the same.

Remember not the sins of my youth,.... Original sin, in which he was born, and the breakings forth of corrupt nature in infancy, he brought into the world with him, together with all the youthful lusts and vanities to which that age is addicted; and sometimes the sins of youth are in some persons remembered by God, and punished in old age; and if not, they are brought to remembrance through the dispensations of Providence: and the people of God are chastised for them then, and are ready to fear it is in a way of wrath; see Job 13:26; which the psalmist here deprecates; for this is not said in order to extenuate his sins, they being but youthful follies, imprudencies, and inadvertencies, sins committed through ignorance, when he had not the knowledge of things he now had; nor as if he had lived so holy a life, that there were no sins of his to be taken notice of but what he had committed in his younger days; but rather this is to be considered as a confession of his having sinned from his youth upwards unto that time, as in Jeremiah 3:25; and therefore entreat, that God would not remember his sins, so as to correct him for them in wrath and hot displeasure; neither the sins he had formerly been guilty of, nor those of a later date; which he next mentions; nor my transgressions; his more notorious and glaring ones; such as murder and adultery, in the case of Uriah and Bathsheba, and which now stared him in the face; and on account of these, and as a chastening for them, this unnatural rebellion of his son's, which was now raised against him, was suffered to befall him, as had been foretold to him, 2 Samuel 12:11; according to thy mercy remember thou me, for thy goodness' sake, O Lord; he pleads no merit nor goodness of his own, but casts himself upon the mercy, grace, and goodness of God; in which he was certainly right; and on that account prayed and hoped for deliverance from his present troubles, and for discoveries of the pardon of his sins unto him, which is what he means by remembering him.

Good and upright is the Lord,.... He is essentially, originally, and independently good of himself in his own nature, and he is providentially good to all his creatures; and he is in a way of special grace and mercy good to his own people: and he is "upright", just in himself, righteous in all his ways and works, and faithful in all his promises; and the consideration of these excellent perfections of his encouraged the psalmist to entertain an holy confidence, that his petitions, respecting instruction and guidance in the ways of the Lord, Psalm 25:4; would be heard and answered, notwithstanding his sins and transgressions; therefore will he teach sinners in the way; such who are in sinful ways, he will teach them by his word and Spirit the evil of their ways, and bring them out of them, and to repentance for them; and he will teach them his own ways, both the ways and methods of his grace, in saving sinners by Christ, and the paths of faith and duty in which he would have them walk; see Psalm 51:13.

The meek will he guide in judgment,.... Or "the miserable" (z) and afflicted; such as see themselves to be wretched and miserable, lost and undone; and cry out, What shall we do to be saved? and who are meek and lowly, are humbled under a sense of their sins, are poor in spirit, and of broken and contrite hearts; these the Lord will guide by his Spirit into the truth, as it is in Jesus; even the great truth of salvation by him; and in the way of his judgments, statutes, and ordinances; and will give them a true judgment and a right discerning of things that differ; and he will lead them on in judgment, or gently; see Jeremiah 10:24; into every truth of the Gospel by degrees, and as they are able to bear them; and the meek will he teach his way; of justifying sinners by the righteousness of his son; for such who are humble and confess their sins and unworthiness, and throw themselves on the mercy of God in Christ, are declaratively justified by the Lord, when the proud boasting Pharisee is an abomination to him. (z) "miseros", Gejerus, Michaelis.

All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth,.... By which are meant, not the paths in which the Lord would have his people walk; though these are good and gracious, right and true; his commandments are not grievous, his yoke is easy, and burden light; his ways are ways of pleasantness, and his paths, paths of peace: but rather the paths in which the Lord himself walks; not his paths of providence, though these are mercy and truth to his own people; every step he takes is in a way of goodness and kindness to them, and in truth and faithfulness to his promises; but the ways and methods he has taken towards the spiritual and eternal salvation of his people; as in his counsels and purposes, in which there is a large display of his grace and mercy; in the choice of them in Christ, as vessels of mercy, and which is of grace, and not of works; in determining to send his Son to die for them, which springs from the tender mercy of our God; in resolving to call them by his grace, and to adopt them into his family, and at last to glorify them; all which proceed from his merciful lovingkindness; and all these, his counsels of old, are faithfulness and truth, since they can never be frustrated, but are always accomplished; as also in his covenant, which springs from grace, is built upon mercy, and contains the sure mercies of David, and is ever fulfilled; the faithfulness of God is engaged to keep it, and its promises are yea and amen in Christ: and likewise the steps he has taken in Christ, the Mediator of the covenant, who is full of grace and truth; "mercy" appears in the mission of him, and redemption by him; and "truth", in fulfilling the promise of him; and both mercy and truth meet together in him: and so they do in the various blessings of grace which come by him; as particularly justification and pardon of sin, in both which there is a display of grace and mercy; and also of the truth of holiness and justice: and the mercy and truth of God appear in these paths of his, unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies; by which are designed, not the covenant of works, and the precepts of the law, which are sometimes called the testimonies of God, because they testify what is his will that should be done: but these are broke, and not kept perfectly by any; nor is it any favour or high privilege to be shown this covenant and the duties of it, as is suggested of the covenant here meant, as appears from Psalm 25:14; wherefore the covenant of grace must be intended, which is made with Christ, and his people in him; and the "testimonies" are the promises of it, which testify of the grace, mercy, truth, and faithfulness of Gods; and the keeping of these is done by faith: faith lays hold on the covenant, its blessings and promises, and claims an interest in them, as David did, 2 Samuel 23:5; see Isaiah 56:4; and it keeps or retains its hold; it will not let go its hold of the covenant and its testimonies, but asserts its interest, even when things are at the worst with it; and it holds fast the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end; and to such all the steps the Lord takes appear to be in mercy and truth.

For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity,.... Which to do is one of the promises and blessings of the covenant. The psalmist may have reference to his sin with Bathsheba, as Kimchi observes; since it was foretold to him, that, on account of that sin, evil should arise to him out of his own house, 2 Samuel 12:11; meaning that his son should rise up in rebellion against him; which was now the case, and which, no doubt, brought afresh this sin to his mind; and the guilt of it lay heavy upon his conscience; and therefore he prays for an application of pardoning grace and mercy; or he may have respect to original sin, the sin of his nature, which so easily beset him; the loathsome disease his loins were filled with; the law in his members warring against the law of his mind; and which a view of every actual sin led him to the consideration and acknowledgment of, as did that now mentioned, Psalm 51:4; or, "iniquity" may be put for "iniquities", and the sense be, that he desired a manifestation of the pardon of all his sins; for when God forgives sin, he forgives all iniquities: and David here prays for pardon in a way of mercy, and upon the foot of satisfaction; for he prays that God would "mercifully pardon" (a), as the word signifies; or, according to his tender mercies, blot out his transgressions, and cleanse him from his sins; or that he would be "propitious" (b) to him; or forgive him in a propitiatory way, or through the propitiation of Christ, whom God had set forth in his purposes and promises to be the propitiation for the remission of sins; and therefore he entreats this favour "for his name's sake"; not for his own merits and good works, but for the Lord's sake, for his mercy's sake, or for his Son's sake; see Isaiah 43:25; compared with Ephesians 5:32. The argument or reason he urges is, for it is great; being committed against the great God, against great light and knowledge, and attended with very aggravating circumstances; or "much" (c), he being guilty of many sins; his sins were great, both as to quality and quantity: this seems to be rather a reason against than a reason for the pardon of sin; it denotes the sense the psalmist had of his iniquity, and his importunity for the pardon of it; just as a person, sensible of the violence and malignity of his disease, entreats the physician with the greater eagerness and importunity to do his utmost for him; see Psalm 41:4; or the words may be rendered, "though it is great" (d); so Aben Ezra understands them; "though it is so very heinous and provoking, yet since forgiveness is with thee, and thou hast promised it in covenant, and hast proclaimed thy name, a God gracious and merciful, pardon it;'' unless the words are to be connected, as they are by some Jewish (e) interpreters, with the phrase "thy name's sake, for it is great"; that is, thy name is great, and that it may appear to be so, as it is proclaimed, forgive mine iniquity. (a) "mercifully pardon"; so Ainsworth. (b) Sept. "propitiaberis", V. L. "propitius esto", Musculus. (c) "multum", V. L. "multa", Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version. (d) "quamvis", Gejerus, Schmidt, (e) Vide Abendanae Not. in Miclol Yophi in loc.

What man is he that feareth the Lord? That is, how happy a man is he! and one that fears the Lord is one that has the fear of God put into his heart, as a blessing of the covenant of grace before spoken of; who fears the Lord, not on account of the punishment of sin, but under the influence of the pardon of it, and for his goodness's sake; who loves the Lord, trusts in him, is careful not to offend him, hates sin, and avoids it, and has a strict regard to the worship of God in all its parts and branches, and performs it in fear; or who serves the Lord with reverence and godly fear. The description of this man's happiness follows in this verse and Psalm 25:12, him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose; either which the man that fears God shall choose, which is the way of truth and duty, Psalm 119:30; or the way which God prescribes to him, and is well pleasing in his sight, who teaches to profit, and leads in the way his people should go; and a great happiness it is for a man to have his steps ordered by the Lord and his goings directed by him.

His soul shall dwell at ease,.... Or in "goodness" (f), enjoying an affluence of good things, of spiritual blessings in Christ, in whom he dwells by faith; and where he has peace and safety, amidst all the troubles, afflictions, and exercises, he meets with; and where with godliness he has contentment, which is great gain indeed; for, though he may seem to have nothing, he possesses all things; and has all things given him richly to enjoy, even all things pertaining to life and godliness; and at death, when his soul is separated from his body, it shall enter into rest, and be in perfect peace; it shall lie in Abraham's bosom, and in the arms of Jesus, during the night of the grave, until the resurrection morn, when the body will be raised and united to it, and both will dwell in perfect happiness to all eternity; and his seed shall inherit the earth; that is, those who tread in the same steps, and fear the Lord as he does; these shall possess the good things of this world, which is theirs, in a comfortable way, as their Father's gift, as covenant mercies, and in love; though it may be but a small portion that they have of them; or rather they shall inherit the new heavens and earth, wherein will dwell only righteous persons, meek ones, and such as fear the Lord, Matthew 5:5; and this they shall inherit for a thousand years, and afterwards the land afar off, the better country, the ultimate glory to all eternity. (f) "in bono", Pagninus, Montanus, Musculus, Junius & Tremellius, &c. so Ainsworth.

The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him,.... The secret of his purposes with them; as his purpose according to election; his resolution to redeem his chosen ones by his Son; his design to call them by his grace; his predestination of them to the adoption of children, and eternal life; which are the deep things of God the Spirit of God reveals; and all which are made manifest to them in effectual calling; and the secret of his providences is with them; some are made known to them that fear the Lord before they come to pass; as the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah to Abraham, with many other instances in the Old Testament; see Amos 3:7; and what is the book of the Revelation but a revelation of the secrets of Providence, from the time of Christ and his apostles, to the end of the world? some they observe and take notice of while they are performing, and see the gracious designs of God in them, for their good and his glory; and though some of his ways of Providence are past finding out, and his footsteps are not known as yet; hereafter his judgments will be made manifest, and the whole scene will be opened to the saints, and be clear to their view: the secret of his love, free grace, and favour, is with them, which was in his heart from everlasting, and lay hid in his thoughts, which are as much higher than ours as the heavens are higher than the earth; and which is made manifest in regeneration, and then shed abroad in the hearts of his people: secret communion with God is enjoyed by those that fear him, which is what the world knows nothing of, and the joy that results from it is what a stranger intermeddles not with; the Lord has his chambers and secret places, into which he brings them, and where they dwell. The secret of his Gospel is with them; and the mysteries of it, which were kept secret since the world began; as the mystery of a trinity of Persons in the Godhead; the union of the two natures in Christ; the regeneration of the Spirit; the union of the saints to Christ, and their communion with him; the calling of the Gentiles; the resurrection of the dead; and the change of living saints; and he will show them his covenant: the covenant of grace, which was made with Christ for them from eternity, is made known to them in time, when they are called by the grace of God, and made partakers of the grace of the covenant, then the Lord reveals himself as their covenant God and Father; shows them that his Son is their surety, Mediator, Redeemer, and Saviour; puts his Spirit into them to implant covenant grace in them, to seal up the blessings of it to them, and bear witness to their interest in them, as pardon, justification, and adoption; and to apply the exceeding great and precious promises of it to them.

Mine eyes are ever towards the Lord,.... Not only as the God of nature and providence, for his daily support and supply, in which sense the eyes of all creatures wait upon him; but as his covenant God and Father, having the eyes of his understanding opened to see and know him as such, and the eye of his faith directed to him, to believe in him, and make him his hope and trust; and his eye was single to him; it was to him, and him only, that he looked; and it was constant, it was ever to him, he set the Lord always before him; and such a look was well pleasing to God: it may also respect the lifting up of his eyes to God in prayer for all mercies temporal and spiritual, and his prayer was the prayer of faith; as follows: for he shall pluck my feet out of the net; of the corruption of nature, and the lusts of it, as Aben Ezra interprets it; by which the saints are sometimes ensnared and taken captive, and out of which they cannot make their escape of themselves; but there is a deliverance from it by Jesus Christ their Lord: or out of the temptations of Satan, called his devices, and wiles, and the snares of the devil; and as the Lord knows how to deliver his out of temptations, he does deliver them in his own time; or rather out of the nets and snares laid for him by wicked men; as by his son Absalom, Ahithophel, and others, in which his feet were as a bird in the snare of the fowler; but he believed the net, or snare, would be broken, and he should escape, as he did.

Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me,.... Or "look unto me", or "upon me" (f); which suggests that the Lord had turned himself, and hid his face from him; and expresses a desire that he would look upon him with a look of love and mercy, and arise to help and deliver him out of the hands of his enemies; he pleads no merits nor works of righteousness of his, but casts himself upon the mercy of God; for I am desolate and afflicted; or "alone and poor" (g); not that he was quite alone, and had none with him; for though he was obliged to quit his palace, and the city of Jerusalem, yet he was accompanied by his servants, and a large number of his people; and could not be poor, in a literal sense, being king of Israel; yet he put no trust in men, nor in riches, but wholly depended on the Lord, as if he had none with him, nor anything to subsist with: and his case was indeed very deplorable, and called for pity and assistance; his own son was risen up against him, and the hearts of the men of Israel went after him; and he was obliged to flee from the city, and leave his house and family. (f) "respice ad me", Montanus, Musculus, Junius & Tremellius, &c. (g) "solitarius et pauper", Junius & Tremellius; "et miser", Gejerus, Michaelis; so Ainsworth.

The troubles of my heart are enlarged,.... His enemies being increased, which troubled him; the floods of ungodly men made him afraid; the waters of affliction were come into his soul, and spread themselves, and threatened to overwhelm him: or it may be rendered, as by some, "troubles have enlarged my heart" (h); made him wiser, increased his knowledge and experience; see Psalm 119:67; but the former seems better to agree with what follows; O bring thou me out of my distresses; or "straits" (i); for the enlargement of his troubles was the straitening of his heart; and therefore he applies to the Lord to bring him out of his afflicted circumstances, in which he was penned up, as in a strait place, on every side, and which were such that he could not free himself from; but he knew that God could deliver him. (h) "dilataverunt cor meum", Vatablus; "reddiderunt cor meum latius", Gussetius, p. 786. (i) "ab angustiis meis", Pagninus, Junius & Tremellius; so Musculus, Piscator, Michaelis.

Look upon mine affliction and my pain,.... The "affliction" was the rebellion of his subjects against him, at the head of which was his own son; and the "pain" was the uneasiness of mind it gave him; or the "labour" (k), as the word may be rendered; the toil and fatigue of body he was exercised with, he flying from place to place; and he desires that God would look upon all this with an eye of pity and compassion to him, and arise to his help and deliverance; as he looked upon the affliction of the children of Israel in Egypt, and delivered them, Exodus 3:7; and forgive all my sins; or "lift up", "bear", or "take away" (l), as the word signifies; sins are burdens, and they lay heavy at this time on David's conscience, being brought to mind by the affliction he laboured under, not only his sin with Bathsheba, but all others; and these were on him as a heavy burden, too heavy to bear; wherefore he entreats that the Lord would lift them off, and take them away from him, by the fresh discoveries of pardoning grace to him. The sins of God's people are removed from them to Christ, by his Father, on whom they have been laid by his act of imputation; and he has bore them, and all the punishment due unto them, and, has taken them away, and made an end of them; and through the application of his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice, they are caused to pass from the consciences of the saints, and are removed as far from them as the east is from the west; and this is what the psalmist here desires, and this he requests with respect to all his sins, knowing well that, if one was left upon him, it would be an insupportable burden to him. (k) "laborem meum", Pagninus, Mortanus, Junius & Tremellius, &c. (l) Heb. "tolle", Piscator; "aufer", Michaelis.

Consider mine enemies,.... Or "look" (m) upon them; but with another kind of look; so as he looked through the pillar of fire upon the Egyptians, and troubled them, Exodus 14:24; with a look of wrath and vengeance. The arguments he uses are taken both from the quantity and quality of his enemies, their number and their nature; for they are many; the hearts of the people of Israel, in general, being after Absalom, 2 Samuel 15:12; and so the spiritual enemies of the Lord's people are many; their sins and corruptions, Satan, and his principalities and powers, and the men of this world; and they hate me with cruel hatred; like that of Simeon and Levi, Genesis 49:7; their hatred broke out in a cruel manner, in acts of force and cruelty; and it was the more cruel, inasmuch as it was without cause: and such is the hatred of Satan and his emissaries against the faithful followers of Christ; who breathe out cruelty, thirst after their blood, and make themselves drunk with it; even their tender mercies are cruel, and much more their hatred. (m) "vide", Pagninus, Montanus, Musculus, Cocceius, Michaelis "aspice", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "intuere", Gejerus.

O keep my soul,.... Or "life" (n), which was in danger, his enemies seeking for it; wherefore he applies to God that gave it, and who had hitherto held him in it, to preserve it. God is the keeper of has people in a spiritual sense; they cannot keep themselves from sin, Satan, and the world; but he is able to keep them from falling, and therefore they pray to him that he would keep them; and they have reason to believe they shall be kept by his power, through faith, unto salvation; and deliver me; as out of the hands of his present enemies, so from all evil, from the evils of the world, from the evil one, Satan, from the evil of sin, and out of all affliction and troubles; let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee; See Gill on Psalm 25:2. (n) "animam meam", i.e. "vitam meam", Gejerus.

Let integrity and uprightness preserve me,.... Meaning either his own, as in Psalm 7:8; and then the sense is, either that God would preserve him, seeing he had acted the faithful and upright part in the government of the people of Israel, and they had rebelled against him without a cause; see Psalm 78:72; or that those might be continued with him, that he might not be led aside by the corruptions of his heart, and the temptations of Satan, and by the provocations of his rebellious subjects, to act a part disagreeable to his character, as a man of integrity and uprightness; but that these remaining with him, might be a means of keeping him in the ways of God, Proverbs 13:6; or else the integrity and uprightness of God are designed, which are no other than his goodness and grace to his people, and his faithfulness in his covenant and promises, or his lovingkindness and his truth; see Psalm 40:11; for I wait on thee: in the use of means for deliverance and safety; the Targum is, "for I trust in thy word".

Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles. David was not only concerned for himself, but for the whole nation of Israel, which was involved in trouble through this unnatural rebellion of his son, and many of his subjects; and no doubt he may have a further view to the redemption of the church of God, the spiritual Israel, by the Messiah; and his sense may be, that God would send the promised Redeemer and Saviour, to redeem his people from all their iniquities; from the law, its curses and condemnation; to ransom them out of the hands of Satan, that is stronger than they; and to deliver them from all their enemies, and from death itself, the last enemy, which will put an end to all their troubles, Isaiah 35:10.

not be ashamed--by disappointment of hopes of relief.

in judgment--rightly.

What he asks for himself is the common lot of all the pious.

His trust in God is fixed. net--is frequently used as a figure for dangers by enemies (Psa 9:15; Psa 10:9).

keep my soul-- (Psa 16:1). put my trust--flee for refuge (Psa 2:12).

Extend these blessings to all Thy people in all their distresses. Next: Psalms Chapter 26