Difference between revisions of "Psalms Chapter 109:1-5"

Latest revision as of 21:35, 29 April 2011

100:1-5, 101:1-8, 102:1-11, 102:12-22, 102:23-28, 103:1-5, 103:6-18, 103:19-22, 104:1-9, 104:10-18, 104:19-30, 104:31-35, 105:1-7, 105:8-24, 105:25-45, 106:1-5, 106:6-12, 106:13-33, 106:34-48, 107:1-9, 107:10-16, 107:17-22, 107:23-32, 107:33-43, 108:1-5, 108:6-13, 109:1-5, 109:6-20, 109:21-31, 110:1-4, 110:5-7, 111:1-5, 111:6-10, 112:1-5, 112:6-10, 113:1-9, 114:1-8, 115:1-8, 115:9-18, 116:1-9, 116:10-19, 117:1-2, 118:1-18, 118:19-29,

O.T.Psalms Chapter 119:1-97

Psa 109:1-5
It is the unspeakable comfort of all good people that, whoever is against them, God is for them, and to him they may apply as to one that is pleased to concern himself for them. Thus David here.

I. He refers himself to God's judgment (Psa 109:1): “Hold not thy peace, but let my sentence come forth from thy presence, Psa 17:2. Delay not to give judgment upon the appeal made to thee.” God saw what his enemies did against him, but seemed to connive at it, and to keep silence: “Lord,” says he, “do not always do so.” The title he gives to God is observable: “O God of my praise! the God in whom I glory, and not in any wisdom or strength of my own, from whom I have every thing that is my praise, or the God whom I have praised, and will praise, and hope to be for ever praising.” He had before called God the God of his mercy (Psa 59:10), here he calls him the God of his praise. Forasmuch as God is the God of our mercies we must make him the God of our praises; if all is of him and from him, all must be to him and for him.

II. He complains of his enemies, showing that they were such as it was fit for the righteous God to appear against. 1. They were very spiteful and malicious: They are wicked; they delight in doing mischief (Psa 109:2); their words are words of hatred, Psa 109:3. They had an implacable enmity to a good man because of his goodness. “They open their mouths against me to swallow me up, and fight against me to cut me off if they could.” 2. They were notorious liars; and lying comprehends two of the seven things which the Lord hates. “They are deceitful in their protestations and professions of kindness, while at the same time they speak against me behind my back, with a lying tongue.” They were equally false in their flatteries and in their calumnies.

3. They were both public and restless in their designs; “They compassed me about on all sides, so that, which way soever I looked, I could see nothing but what made against me.” 4. They were unjust; their accusations of him, and sentence against him, were all groundless: “They have fought against me without a cause; I never gave them any provocation.” Nay, which was worst of all, 5. They were very ungrateful, and rewarded him evil for good, Psa 109:5. Many a kindness he had done them, and was upon all occasions ready to do them, and yet he could not work upon them to abate their malice against him, but, on the contrary, they were the more exasperated because they could not provoke him to give them some occasion against him (Psa 109:4): For my love they are my adversaries. The more he endeavoured to gratify them the more they hated him. We may wonder that it is possible that any should be so wicked; and yet, since there have been so many instances of it, we should not wonder if any be so wicked against us.

III. He resolves to keep close to his duty and take the comfort of that: But I give myself unto prayer (Psa 109:4), I prayer (so it is in the original); “I am for prayer, I am a man of prayer, I love prayer, and prize prayer, and practise prayer, and make a business of prayer, and am in my element when I am at prayer.” A good man is made up of prayer, gives himself to prayer, as the apostles, Ac 6:4. When David's enemies falsely accused him, and misrepresented him, he applied to God and by prayer committed his cause to him. Though they were his adversaries for his love, yet he continued to pray for them; if others are abusive and injurious to us, yet let not us fail to do our duty to them, nor sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for them, 1Sa 12:23.

Though they hated and persecuted him for his religion, yet he kept close to it; they laughed at him for his devotion, but they could not laugh him out of it. “Let them say what they will, I give myself unto prayer.” Now herein David was a type of Christ, who was compassed about with words of hatred and lying words, whose enemies not only persecuted him without cause, but for his love and his good works (John 10:32); and yet he gave himself to prayer, to pray for them. Father, forgive them.

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 '''[[O.T.Psalms Chapter 119:1-97]]'''
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+Psa 109:1-5<br>
+It is the unspeakable comfort of all good people that, whoever is against them, God is for them, and to him they may apply as to one that is pleased to concern himself for them. Thus David here.
-Psa 108:6-13<br>
+I. He refers himself to God's judgment (Psa 109:1): “Hold not thy peace, but let my sentence come forth from thy presence, Psa 17:2. Delay not to give judgment upon the appeal made to thee.” God saw what his enemies did against him, but seemed to connive at it, and to keep silence: “Lord,” says he, “do not always do so.” The title he gives to God is observable: “O God of my praise! the God in whom I glory, and not in any wisdom or strength of my own, from whom I have every thing that is my praise, or the God whom I have praised, and will praise, and hope to be for ever praising.” He had before called God the God of his mercy (Psa 59:10), here he calls him the God of his praise. Forasmuch as God is the God of our mercies we must make him the God of our praises; if all is of him and from him, all must be to him and for him.
-We may here learn how to pray as well as praise. 1. We must be public-spirited in prayer, and bear upon our hearts, at the throne of grace, the concerns of the church of God, Psa 108:6. It is God's beloved, and therefore must be ours; and therefore we must pray for its deliverance, and reckon that we are answered if God grant what we ask for his church, though he delay to give us what we ask for ourselves. “Save thy church, and thou answerest me; I have what I would have.” Let the earth be filled with God's glory, and the prayers of David are ended (Psa 72:19, 20); he desires no more.
-. We must, in prayer, act faith upon the power and promise of God - upon his power (Save with thy right hand, which is mighty to save), and upon his promise: God has spoken in his holiness, in his holy word, to which he has sworn by his holiness, and therefore I will rejoice, Psa 108:7. What he has promised he will perform, for it is the word both of his truth and of his power. An active faith can rejoice in what God has said, though it be not yet done; for with him saying and doing are not two things, whatever they are with us. 3. We must, in prayer, take the comfort of what God has secured to us and settled upon us, though we are not yet put in possession of it. God had promised David to give him,
+II. He complains of his enemies, showing that they were such as it was fit for the righteous God to appear against. 1. They were very spiteful and malicious: They are wicked; they delight in doing mischief (Psa 109:2); their words are words of hatred, Psa 109:3. They had an implacable enmity to a good man because of his goodness. “They open their mouths against me to swallow me up, and fight against me to cut me off if they could.” 2. They were notorious liars; and lying comprehends two of the seven things which the Lord hates. “They are deceitful in their protestations and professions of kindness, while at the same time they speak against me behind my back, with a lying tongue.” They were equally false in their flatteries and in their calumnies.
-(1.) The hearts of his subjects; and therefore he surveys the several parts of the country as his own already: “Shechem and Succoth, Gilead and Manasseh, Ephraim and Judah, are all my own,” Psa 108:8. With such assurance as this we may speak of the performance of what God has promised to the Son of David; he will, without fail, give him the heathen for his inheritance and the utmost parts of the earth for his possession, for so has he spoken in his holiness; nay, of all the particular persons that were given him he will lose none; he also, as David, shall have the hearts of his subjects, John 6:37.
+. They were both public and restless in their designs; “They compassed me about on all sides, so that, which way soever I looked, I could see nothing but what made against me.” 4. They were unjust; their accusations of him, and sentence against him, were all groundless: “They have fought against me without a cause; I never gave them any provocation.” Nay, which was worst of all, 5. They were very ungrateful, and rewarded him evil for good, Psa 109:5. Many a kindness he had done them, and was upon all occasions ready to do them, and yet he could not work upon them to abate their malice against him, but, on the contrary, they were the more exasperated because they could not provoke him to give them some occasion against him (Psa 109:4): For my love they are my adversaries. The more he endeavoured to gratify them the more they hated him. We may wonder that it is possible that any should be so wicked; and yet, since there have been so many instances of it, we should not wonder if any be so wicked against us.
-And, (2.) The necks of his enemies. These are promised, and therefore David looks upon Moab, and Edom, and Philistia, as his own already (Psa 108:9): Over Philistia will I triumph, which explains Psa 60:8, Philistia, triumph thou because of me, which some think should be read, O my soul! triumph thou over Philistia. Thus the exalted Redeemer is set down at God's right hand, in a full assurance that all his enemies shall in due time be made his footstool, though all things are not yet put under him, Heb 2:8.
+III. He resolves to keep close to his duty and take the comfort of that: But I give myself unto prayer (Psa 109:4), I prayer (so it is in the original); “I am for prayer, I am a man of prayer, I love prayer, and prize prayer, and practise prayer, and make a business of prayer, and am in my element when I am at prayer.” A good man is made up of prayer, gives himself to prayer, as the apostles, Ac 6:4. When David's enemies falsely accused him, and misrepresented him, he applied to God and by prayer committed his cause to him. Though they were his adversaries for his love, yet he continued to pray for them; if others are abusive and injurious to us, yet let not us fail to do our duty to them, nor sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for them, 1Sa 12:23.
-. We must take encouragement from the beginnings of mercy to pray and hope for the perfecting of it (Psa 108:10, 11): “Who will bring me into the strong cities that are yet unconquered? Who will make me master of the country of Edom, which is yet unsubdued?” The question was probably to be debated in his privy council, or a council of war, what methods they should take to subdue the Edomites and to reduce that country; but he brings it into his prayers, and leaves it in God's hands: Wilt not thou, O God? Certainly thou wilt. It is probable that he spoke with the more assurance concerning the conquest of Edom because of the ancient oracle concerning Jacob and Esau, that the elder should serve the younger, and the blessing of Jacob, by which he was made Esau's lord, Gen 27:37.
+Though they hated and persecuted him for his religion, yet he kept close to it; they laughed at him for his devotion, but they could not laugh him out of it. “Let them say what they will, I give myself unto prayer.” Now herein David was a type of Christ, who was compassed about with words of hatred and lying words, whose enemies not only persecuted him without cause, but for his love and his good works (John 10:32); and yet he gave himself to prayer, to pray for them. Father, forgive them.
-. We must not be discouraged in prayer, nor beaten off from our hold of God, though Providence has in some instances frowned upon us: “Though thou hast cast us off, yet thou wilt now go forth with our hosts, Psa 108:11. Thou wilt comfort us again after the time that thou hast afflicted us.” Adverse events are sometimes intended for the trial of the constancy of our faith and prayer, which we ought to persevere in whatever difficulties we meet with, and not to faint.
-. We must seek help from God, renouncing all confidence in the creature (Psa 108:12): “Lord, give us help from trouble, prosper our designs, and defeat the designs of our enemies against us.” It is not unseasonable to talk of trouble at the same time that we talk of triumphs, especially when it is to quicken prayer for help from heaven; and it is a good plea, Vain is the help of man. “It is really so, and therefore we are undone if thou do not help us; we apprehend it to be so, and therefore depend upon thee for help and have the more reason to expect it.” 7. We must depend entirely upon the favour and grace of God, both for strength and success in our work and warfare, Psa 108:13.
-(1.) We must do our part, but we can do nothing of ourselves; it is only through God that we shall do valiantly. Blessed Paul will own that even he can do nothing, nothing to purpose, but through Christ strengthening him, Phil 4:13.
-(2.) When we have acquitted ourselves ever so well, yet we cannot speed by any merit or might of our own; it is God himself that treads down our enemies, else we with all our valour cannot do it. Whatever we do, whatever we gain, God must have all the glory.