1、it should make us value our psalmody, and forbid us to praise the Lord carelessly. Maschil. An Instructive. Even the malice of a Doeg may furnish instruction to a David. A Psalm of David. He was the prime object of Doegs doggish hatred, and therefore the most fitting person to draw from the incident
2、 the lesson concealed within it. When Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and saith unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech. By this deceitful tale bearing, he procured the death of all the priests at Nob: though it had been a crime to have succoured David as a rebel, they were not in the
3、ir intent and knowledge guilty of the fault. David felt much the villany of this arch enemy, and here he denounces him in vigorous terms; it may be also that he has Saul in his eye. Division. We shall follow the sacred pauses marked by the Selahs of the poet. EXPOSITION Ver. 1. Why boasteth thyself
4、in mischief, O mighty man? Doeg had small matter for boasting in having procured the slaughter of a band of defenceless priests. A mighty man indeed to kill men who never touched a sword! He ought to have been ashamed of his cowardice. He had no room for exultation! Honourable titles are but irony w
5、here the wearer is mean and cruel. If David alluded to Saul, he meant by these words pityingly to say, How can one by nature fitted for nobler deeds, descend to so low a level as to find a theme for boasting in a slaughter so heartless and mischievous? The goodness of God endureth continually. A bea
6、utiful contrast. The tyrants fury cannot dry up the perennial stream of divine mercy. If priests be slain their Master lives. If Doeg for awhile triumphs the Lord will outlive him, and right the wrongs which he has done. This ought to modify the proud exultations of the wicked, for after all, while
7、the Lord liveth, iniquity has little cause to exalt itself. EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS Title. That Maschil means a sacred composition, is evident from Ps 47:7, where the passage which we render, Sing ye praises with understanding, is literally, Sing ye a Maschil, or song of instruction. Th
8、is word occurs as a title in thirteen places; and six times is prefixed to compositions of Davids. In several instances it occurs in consecutive Psalms; i.e., in the 42nd (of which the 43rd is the sequel), the 44th and 45th, the 52nd, 53rd, 54th, and 55th, the 88th and 89th. A circumstance which fav
9、ours the notion that the term was one peculiarly used by some particular editor or collector of a certain portion of the Psalter. John Jebb. Ver. 1. (first clause). Why doth he glory in malice that is mighty? that is, he that in malice is mighty, why doth he glory? There is need that a man be mighty
10、, but in goodness, not in malice. Is it any great thing to glory in malice? To build a house belong to few men, any ignorant man you please can pull down. To sow wheat, to dress the crop, to wait until it ripen, and in that fruit on which one has laboured to rejoice, doth belong to few men: with one
11、 spark any man you please can burn all the crop. What art thou about to do, O, mighty man, what are thou about to do, boasting thyself much? Thou art about to kill a man: this thing also a scorpion, this also a fever, this also a poisonous fungus can do. To this is thy mightiness reduced, that it be
12、 made equal to a poisonous fungus! Augustine. Ver. 1. By mischief is understood not simply what evil he had done, but the prosperity which he now enjoyed, obtained through mischief; as is clear both from the word boasting and from the seventh verse.Formerly he was the chief of Sauls shepherds 1Sa 21
13、:8, but by that wicked destruction of the priests of God by Saul, and the execution of the cruel sentence, he obtained the chief place near to the king 1Sa 22:9. Hermann Venema. Ver. 1. O mighty man. These words may be added by way of irony, as if he had said, A great deal of valour and prowess you
14、have shown in slaying a company of unarmed men, the priests of the Lord, yea, women and children, no way able to resist you or else to imply the ground of his vain boasting, to wit, either his present greatness, as being a man in great place, and of great power with Saul; or the great preferments he
15、 expected from Saul. Arthur Jackson. Ver. 1. The goodness of God endureth continually. He contrasts the goodness of God with the wealth and might of Doeg, and the foundation of his own confidence as widely different from that of Doeg, his own placed upon the goodness of God, enduring for ever and sh
16、owing itself effectual. It is as if he had said, The goodness of God to which I trust, is most powerful and the same throughout all time, and in it I shall at all times most surely rejoice that goodness of God, since now it sustains me, so it will exalt me in its own good time; it therefore is, and
17、will be above me. . Not without emphasis does he say the goodness la of the strong God, a contrast to Doeg the hero, and the ruinous foundation of his fortune. Hermann Venema. HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER Ver. 1. The confidence of faith. 1. The circumstances were distressing. 1. David was misjudged
18、. 2. David exiled. 3. A bad man in power. 4. Gods priests slain. 2. The consolation was abiding. 1. There is a God. 2. He is good. 3. His goodness continues. 4. Good will therefore overcome. 3. The rejoinder was triumphant. Why boasteth thou? 1. The mischief did not touch the main point. 2. It would
19、 be overruled. 3. It would recoil. 4. It would expose the perpetrators to scorn. WORK UPON THE FIFTY-SECOND PSALM CHANDLERS Life of David, contains an Exposition of this Psalm. Vol. 1., pp. 140-143. 2 (PSALMS)Ver. 2. Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs. Thou speakest with an ulterior design. The informati
20、on given was for Sauls assistance apparently, but in very deed in his heart the Edomite hated the priests of the God of Jacob. It is a mark of deep depravity, when the evil spoken is craftily intended to promote a yet greater evil. Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. David represents the false
21、tongue as being effectual for mischief, like a razor which, unawares to the person operated on, is making him bald; so softly and deftly do Oriental barbers perform their work. Or he may mean that as with a razor a mans throat may be cut very speedily, under the pretence of shaving him, even thus ke
22、enly, basely, but effectually Doeg destroyed the band of the priests. Whetted by malice, and guided by craft, he did his cruel work with accursed thoroughness. Ver. 2. Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. Thus our version. But I do not very well understand the prop
23、riety of the tongues devising mischief, and devising it like a sharp razor. But we may easily avoid this harsh comparison by rendering the words: You contrive mischiefs with thy tongue, as with a sharp razor, O thou dealer in deceit: i.e., you contrive with thy smooth and flattering tongue to wound
24、the reputation and character of others, as though thou wast cutting their throats with a smooth razor. Samuel Chandler. Ver. 2. Like a sharp razor, that instead of shaving the hair lances the flesh; or missing the beard cutteth the throat. John Trapp. Ver. 2. The smooth adroit manner of executing a
25、wicked device neither hides not abates its wickedness. Murder with a sharp razor is as wicked as murder with a meat axe or bludgeon. A lie very ingeniously framed and rehearsed in an oily manner, is as great a sin, and in the end will be seen to be as great a folly as the most bungling attempt at de
26、ception. William S. Plumer. None. 3 (PSALMS)Ver. 3. Thou lovest evil more than good. He loved not good at all. If both had been equally profitable and pleasant, he would have preferred evil. And lying rather than to speak righteousness. He was more at home at lying than at truth. He spake not the tr
27、uth except by accident, but he delighted heartily in falsehood. SELAH. Let us pause and look at the proud blustering liar. Doeg is gone, but other dogs bark at the Lords people. Sauls cattle master is buried, but the devil still has his drovers, who fain would hurry the saints like sheep to the slau
28、ghter. Ver. 3. Thou lovest evil more than good. -Thou hast loved evil, he says, more than good, not by simply preferring it, but by substituting it; so that in the stead of good he hath done evil, and that from the inmost love of his soul, bent upon evil; wherefore he does not say that he admitted,
29、but loved evil, not moral only, but physical, for the destruction of his neighbours; so to have loved it, that he willed nothing but evil, being averse to all good. Hermann Venema. Ver. 3. In what cases men clearly love evil more than good. 4 (PSALMS)Ver. 4. Thou lovest. Thou hast a taste, a gusto f
30、or evil language. All devouring words. There are words that, like boa constrictors, swallow men whole, or like lions, rend men to pieces; these words evil minds are fond of. Their oratory is evermore furious and bloody. That which will most readily provoke the lowest passions they are sure to employ
31、, and they think such pandering to the madness of the wicked to be eloquence of a high order. O thou deceitful tongue. Men can manage to say a great many furious things, and yet cover all over with the pretext of justice. They claim that they are jealous for the right, but the truth is they are determined to put do
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