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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

JUAN DE VALDES'
COMMENTARY
ON THE
FIEST BOOK OF THE PSALMS

JIJAN DE YALDES'
OOIMENTAET ON THE
FIRST BOOK OF THE PSALMS:
NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH,
HAVING NEVER BEFORE BEEN PUBLISHED IN ENGLISH.
By JOHN T. BETTS.
APPENDED TO WHICH ARE
THE LIVES OF THE TWIN BROTHERS,
JUAN AND ALFONSO DE YALDES.
By EDWAIID BOEHMEE.

PRIVATELY PRINTED.
1894.

$3 ^ d

Prijited by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.
Edinburgh and London

PREFACE
It is with mournful pleasure that, by the help of sympa
thetic friends, I print this Commentary on the Psalms,
the last of my late husband's many translations of the
works of Juan de Valdes.
This, though the last to be discovered, was the first of the
Commentaries written by Valdds, as is clearly shown in the
beautiful Dedicatory Letter to Giulia Gonzaga, the Duchess
of Trajetto, for whom he wrote this Commentary, which
letter has already been published in the charming collection
of small tractates called "XVII. Opuscules," in the pre
face to which Mr. Betts relates how many valuable MSS.
of Valdes had lain hidden in the Imperial Library at
Vienna more than 300 years, until disinterred by our
friend, Dr. Edward Boehmer, who thus writes of this
Spanish Commentary {Bevista Cristiana, Madrid, 1884,
p. 364) :—
"The MS. is of the i6th century, but it is not in the
author's handwriting. It is in the Imperial Library at
Vienna, forming, doubtless, part of the collection of the
Emperor Maximilian, who long resided in Spain, and had
personal Evangelical proclivities. The MS. is anonymous,
but no one will deny that I rightly attribute this work to
Juan de Valdds. I caused the MS. to be brought to
Strasburg, and invited Don Manuel Carrasco to copy it.
This MS. does not contain either Valdes' Spanish transla
tion of the Psalms from the original Hebrew, or the
Dedicatory Letter, which are found in another MS. pre
served in that same library. The copy from this (other) a

vi PREFACE
MS., which I had caused to be made, I placed at Carrasco's
disposal, so that he was enabled to add the translation
and the Introduction to the Commentary. In the edition
which I published in the year 1880, of the complete
translation of the Psalms by Valdes from the Hebrew, I
embodied only some parts of this Introduction.
" In that edition, I think I have established beyond
doubt that the translation of the Psalms, the MS. of
which is likewise anonymous, must be assigned to Valdes
as its author, an opinion which has since been approved
by Don Marcelino Menendez Pelayo. Notwithstanding
that the name of the lady to whom the translation was
dedicated has been made very illegible, still it is recog
nisable as that of Giulia Gonzaga."
I cannot conclude without acknowledging the great
benefit and pleasure which it has afforded me to be in
any way associated with the reproduction of these works
of the early Spanish Eeformers, and the enjoyment which,
with my dear husband, I have experienced in the friend
ship of Luis Usoz i Eio, Fernando de Brunet, Benjamin
B. Wiffen, and Edward Boehmer, fellow-labourers in the
work. MAKIA BETTS.
Pembdry, Tunbridge Wells,
November 1894.

It is appropriate to commemorate, with the publication
of this posthumous work of John T. Betts by his widow,
all the previous writings of our late friend. It is only by
the translations of Betts that the Spanish Commentaries
and treatises of Juan de Valdes have been made accessible
to a large circle of students, both in England and abroad.
Valdds was his favourite author among the Spanish Ee
formers, and to revive his works we have been collabo
rators for thirty years.
In 1865 John Betts edited his translation of the " CX.
Considerations of Valdds" from my Italian edition. In
1869 Betts published his translation of Dr. Constantino
Ponce de la Fuente's " Confession of a Sinner."
The first volume of my " Bibliothcca Wiffeniana,
Spanish Eeformers of Two Centuries," 1874, containing
the lives of the twin - brothers Valdes, Francisco de
Enzinas and Juan Diaz, is dedicated to John and Maria
Betts, "who both caused this work to be undertaken, and
zealously promoted its execution and publication." How
much also I owed to John Betts with regard to the second
volume of Spanish Eeformers, which appeared in 1883, I
have gratefully acknowledged in the Preface.
Betts translated and printed, in 1881, an essay of mine
on the Holy Spirit and Holy Scripture, occasioned by what
Valdes had said in one of his Considerations. In the same

( viii )
year, my edition of Dr. Constantino's Exposicion del Prvner
Salmo was published by his liberality.
" Seventeen Opuscules of Valdes," translated by him
from the Spanish and the Italian, appeared in 1882. They
contain the Preface to the Commentary on the Psalms
(never printed before in any language, translated by
Betts from Carrasco's copy, taken from my wife's copy of
the Vienna MS.), that on the Epistle of St. Paul to the
Eomans, as also that on St. Paul's First Epistle to the
Corinthians (these Commentaries on the Epistles were
re-edited by Don Luis Usoz i Eio in 1856), and that on
the Gospels (from my edition of the Commentary on St.
Matthew, 1880). Then follow seven doctrinal letters,
edited by myself in the Trataditos, 1880 ; the 109th Con
sideration, taken from his own translation of the " OX.
Considerations ; " and lastly, the tracts which I had
reprinted in 1870, under the title Cinque Trattatelli, the
first of which I had found at a later time in the Spanish
original, and annexed to those Trataditos.
Three of the " XVII. Opuscules," the Consideration, the
Spanish Tratadito, and the fifth Trattatello, upon Christian
Assurance, he reprinted twice. Two of those seven doc
trinal letters had already been inserted in the Friend's
Quarterly Fxaminer — that upon Sickness in 1880, and
that upon Temptation in 188 1 — and were also edited as
separate extracts from that periodical.
The whole "Commentary on St. Matthew's Gospel,"
translated by Betts, appeared in 1882, and at the same
time, separately, " The Sermon on the Mount."
In the next year appeared his translation of Valdes'
Commentaries upon St. Paul's Epistle to the Eomans
and First Epistle to the Corinthians. In 1882 he also
translated Valdds' " Spiritual Milk " into English, which
was revised and reprinted, 1883, in my Octaglott edition,
published at his expense. He annexed my "Lives

( « )
of the Twin-Brothers Valdes " to the " Spiritual Milk "
of 1882, as well as to each of the three Commentaries and
the " Sermon on the Mount," and published it also sepa
rately. For his Introduction to the Lives he translated the
only known autograph letter of Juan de Valdes, written
in Latin, which I had edited in 1882. From the collec
tion of " Comparisons or Similitudes," extracted by me
from the works of Valdes, he translated and printed
many in the "Christian Treasury," 1889. Also in his
Pemhury Monthly Messenger, 1890, he inserted specimens
of his chosen author, on the Fishers of Men (from St.
Matthew) and on Christian Assurance. The last finished
greater work of Betts was the translation of Valdes'
" Commentary on the First Book of the Psalms," fol
lowing the edition of Carrasco, whose copy was published
first in the Revista Cristiana of Madrid, and afterwards
in one volume (Madrid, 1885). In 1893 ^^ translated my
short introduction to my wife's German translation, pub
lished in that year, of the Latin "Memoirs of Enzinas;"
Betts' MS. will be published in the January number
(1895) of the Friend! s Examiner. Thus our deceased
friend, up to his latest days, nobly employed his property,
as well as his knowledge of languages and his gift of dex
terous and eloquent expression for the good cause.
So much for his literary activity. To draw a sketch of
his life, and to give an idea of this uncommonly fascinating
and charming character, I must leave to an abler pen. I
can only say that the blank his loss has made in my life
will never be filled, and that the memory of this generous
heart will always be blessed by myself and my wife, we
having lost in him our warmest and dearest friend.
EDWAED BOEHMER,
Emeritus' Prof essor of Strasburg University.
LiCHTENTHAL, NEAK BaDEN BaDEN.

2)ebicatori5 Xetter
ADDRESSED TO THE MOST ILLDSTBIOUS
LADY GIULIA GONZAGA.
Most Illustbious Lady —
Forasmuch as all men were originally
created in the image and likeness of God, they naturally
desire immortality and eternal life ; and they all under
stand, some by report and by the Scriptures, and others
by revelation and by Divine inspiration, that the way to
immortality and to life eternal is by the path of piety
and righteousness. I mean that only they who are pious
and righteous attain immortality and life eternal, it being
their aim and desire to be pious and righteous. But it
comes to pass that they who understand this by report
and by the Scriptures, deceived by the judgment of
(their) human prudence, as St. Paul says, "perceiving
not the things that are of the Spirit of God," think that
piety and righteousness consist in living virtuously ac
cording to the precepts of human philosophy, and in
supplementing with labours and with corporal exercises,
and with other such like things, that wherein they fall
short in leading a moral life. Whence it is, that dis
trusting their ability to live virtuously, and unwilling to
take the trouble to supplement that in which they fall
short, some men resolve to disregard piety and righteous
ness ; and in making this resolution they labour to per
suade theinselves that there is no God, that there is no
immortality, and that there is no life eternal. These,

xii DEDICATORY LETTER
losing by this resolution that wherein they are superior
to other animals, bring themselves down to their level,
and become like them. From the deceit of human pru
dence it results, moreover, that others, labouring and
wearying themselves in efforts to live virtuously, and
striving to give satisfaction to God for that wherein they
know they fall short in living virtuously, without ever
having the assurance that they have attained the piety
or the righteousness that they aim at, live in continuous
affliction and in terrible wretchedness of mind, ever in
doubt as to that which they most desire, which is to
attain immortality and eternal life. These, were it pos
sible, would wish that there were no God, and that there
were no future life, just as the man who doubts his
righteousness would wish there should be no Judge or
sentence. And these, although they retain their superi
ority over the other animals, never succeed in regaining
that image and likeness of God in which the first man
was created, and thus they neither attain piety nor
righteousness in the present life, nor will they attain
immortality and life eternal, which they naturally desire
and seek.
Moreover, it comes to pass that the man who under
stands by revelation and by Divine inspiration that im
mortality and life eternal are attained by piety and
righteousness, being guided and led by the Holy Spirit,
which, as St. Paul says, "searcheth all things, even the
deep things of God," understands that piety consists in
his holding a good and right opinion of God, resting
assured that all things proceed from Him, and that He
rules and governs them all ; and likewise in his (man's)
bringing himself to be contented with all that God does,
approving of it all as just, as holy, and as good ; being
convinced that in God are mercy, goodness, truth, faith
fulness, and righteousness, and that God takes much
greater care of every one of those who are intent on

DEDICATORY LETTER xiii
piety than does the kindest father of the most obedient
child ; and by the Holy Spirit he knows that righteous
ness consists in man's renunciation and condemnation
of all the righteousnesses that human prudence teaches,
and in his holding to that only which really and effec
tively was executed upon God's own Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ, embracing that and holding it as certain and
reliable, not entertaining the least doubt that through
that righteousness God holds him as righteous, just as
though he had lived in the innocency with which Christ
lived, and as though he had suffered in his person all
that Christ suffered in obeying His eternal and heavenly
Father. Those who understand thus follow the teaching
of the Holy Spirit, by it come to attain true piety and
true righteousness, and thus they come to be assured of
their immortality and of life eternal, therefore they live
with great contentment and satisfaction of mind. These
in the present life begin to regain the image and likeness
of God in the mind, and in the other life they will fully
recover it in the mind ; and will likewise recover it in
the body, being like to God in goodness, truth, faithful
ness, and righteousness, and likewise in being impassible,
incorruptible, and immortal. So that, amongst all men,
only those, who by revelation and by Divine inspiration
attain to know wherein piety and righteousness consist,
come to be pious and to attain what they desire, which
is immortality and life eternal.
Considering all this, and desiring, according to my
feeble ability, to assist your ladyship in this your devo
tion to piety and to righteousness, and therewith also
certain other persons in whom I recognise this same de
vout spirit, and believing that the reading of the Psalms
of David will greatly assist you to become truly pious,
I have turned them into my vernacular, rendering the
Hebrew texts word for word as closely as the Spanish
language will permit; and, occasionally, I have even

xiv DEDICATORY LETTER
allowed the Spanish tongue to speak incorrectly rather
than vary from the Hebrew. This I have done, it appear
ing to me right and proper that things written by the
Holy Spirit should be treated with great reverence. I
have inserted some words of my own, in order that the
text might be brighter, clearer, and more pleasing. These,
that they might be recognised, are written in coloured
ink, designing that they should get the credit that is due
to man's word, establishing the difference there is between
them and those of the Holy Spirit. True it is that the
greater part of the words that are written in coloured ink
are to be understood by implication in the Hebrew text.
Now I would fain have your ladyship know that what
I have done in connection with the Psalms of David I
wished previously to do with the Epistles of St. Paul,
for just as I understand that the reading of David, when
his Divine thoughts and spiritual sentiments have been
well considered and well understood, greatly helps to put
a man in the right road to true piety, which is through
the knowledge of God, and to further in it him who has
already entered upon it, so likewise the reading of St.
Paul, when his Divine thoughts and spiritual sentiments
have been well considered and well understood, greatly
helps to put a man in the right road to true justification,
which is through the knowledge of Christ, and to further
in it him who has already entered upon it ; and I under
stand likewise, that as in order to know God it is first
necessary to know Christ, so in order to enter into piety
and to grow in it, one must first enter into justification
and grow in it. But my purpose has been restrained by
the consideration that the Psalms stand more in need of a
good translation than do the Epistles ; for the former have
been more inaccurately translated in Latin books than are
the latter ; and because, moreover, piety is more natural
to man than justification, I rest assured that a man who,
having been called and chosen of God, stifles ambition.

DEDICATORY LETTER xv
self-esteem, and the pride of life, fully resolving to devote
himself to God and to Christ, will enjoy much more readily
the thoughts and feelings of David than those of St. Paul,
although, as I have stated, justification precedes piety,
a man being first just before he is pious, because he knows
Christ before he knows God.
I indeed purpose, with the blessing of God, to do
that with St. Paul which I have done with David,
in order that your ladyship may better compare the
effects of piety — which, while reading, you will seek in
your own soul — with the effects of justification — which,
while reading in St. Paul, you will seek in him — and
adorn and clothe your mind with the Divine thoughts
and spiritual sentiments which you will find in David
and in St. Paul. And know that amongst David's j
thoughts I note the good and right opinion that David
held of God, and of everything that proceeds from the
Spirit of God ; and the bad but fixed opinion that he
held of man, and of everything that belongs to man ;
what he knew of the providence of God generally and
particularly, of everything affecting those who, being
in the Kingdom of God, are ruled and governed by
God; what he knew of the goodness of God, of His
mercy, of His generosity, of His truth, faithfulness, and
righteousness ; and what he knew of the wretchedness,
vileness, and meanness of man, his vanity, his instability,
falsehood, malignity, impiety, rebellion, iniquity, and de
pravity. And amongst David's sentiments I note his con
fidence in God, his poverty of spirit, his love and his fear
of God, his prayers in the presence of God, his life in the
presence of God, his consciousness of the presence of
God, and, finally, his dependence on God; and I note
this amongst David's sentiments, that he challenges
nothing as attainable from it all but that which is per
sonally experienced. Amongst St. Paul's thoughts I note t^
the good and right opinion which he held of Christ,

v^

sX

xvi DEDICATORY LETTER
recognising in Him consummate obedience to His eternal
Father, much love to man, much righteousness, truth,
goodness, mercy, and pity, great suffering, and great
patience. And I note what he knew of the power and
efficacy of the Holy Spirit, which is attained by believing
in Christ.
(/ Amongst St. Paul's sentiments I note the call to the
grace of the Gospel, justification by faith, peace of con
science, the mortification of all that is flesh and human
prudence by incorporation into the death of Christ, the
government of the Holy Spirit, the assurance of resurrec
tion, of glorification, and of life eternal ; and I note this
amongst the sentiments of St. Paul, that he testifies that
nothing is to be attained from it all but that which is
personally felt and experienced ; for I understand that
Christianity does not consist in knowledge, but in ex
perience. Your ladyship will avail yourself of what has been
already stated to understand my intention in the transla
tion of these Psalms, and to know what is to be your aim
to acquire in the reading of them, and what in the reading
of St. Paul's Epistles. Of what I am now about to state,
your ladyship will avail yourself in order to understand
some things which only affect the text of the Psalms.
Of the titles which the Psalms bear in the Hebrew books
I have only put the name either of the author or of the
singer, or of the person for whom it was composed ; as,
for instance, of David, of Asaph, of the sons of Corah,
&c., leaving everything else, for even the Jews themselves
understand it, one in one way and another in another.
Some persons weary theraselves to discover whether they
are all the Psalms of David, or whether some of them
j have not been composed by other persons, and who these
persons were. Let us leave this curiosity to them, con
tenting ourselves with searching out in the Psalms those
spiritual thoughts and affections which are in them and

DEDICATORY LETTER xvii
let the curious go on seeking out and verifying who they
were that composed them.
For the same reason that I oinitted the titles, I would
fain have omitted that word " Selah," which is placed
at the end of some verses; and I have put it thus in
Hebrew, for I believe it to be effective where it is. It
will serve you as a mark which, when you meet with, you
should stop for a while to consider with what design it
is placed there, without caring to know any further or
other meaning in it. In the second verse of the third
Psalm, I understand, that the word " Selah " reminds
the reader of the disturbance that various thoughts
work on the mind of a godly man in trouble, which, to
divert him from piety, suggest to him that he has no
reason to expect help from God ; and likewise, in the
fourth verse of the same Psalm, where I understand that
the same word reminds the reader of the satisfaction that
the man feels when God answers him, granting him that
which he had supplicated. And this appears to me to
suffice in relation to this word.
Where the most holy name of God occurs in the Heb
rew text, because it has but four letters in Hebrew, the
Greeks call it " tetragrammaton " (the word of four letters) ;
and because the Hebrews hold it to be unlawful to utter
it, they usually read " Adonai " (Lord) ; whilst the
Greeks, following the Hebrew rendering, as I suppose
from their inability to express the meaning of the most
Divine name, translate it "Kvpio';;" the Latins, who
follow the Hebrew rendering, and the Greek translation,
translate it " Dominus." 1 have translated it " SENOE "
(Loed), writing it in capital letters, indicating that it
is of great importance for the understanding of the psalm
to know where the " tetragra.mmaton " is. I have done the
same with the " JA," which is one and the same ; for you
have to know that in this name is almost expressed the
very being of God, who is self-existent, and gives life to

xviii DEDICATORY LETTER
all things that exist and live, as is to be understood from
the reply that God gave to Moses in Exodus iv. In some
places, where it seemed good to me, I have left the word
Jehovah, as it can be written with our letters. But mark,
when you find "LORD" in capital letters, yoii have to
recollect that this is the same name, for it greatly helps
to the intelligence of the Psalm, as it will in that passage
in Psalm ex. i, " The LORD said unto my Lord."
Where you shall find " Lord " written in small letters,
understand that in the Hebrew it is "Adonai," which
signifies lord, master, or patron. For the Hebrew words
FI, Flim, Flohim, which are ordinarily translated God,
are not only attributed to God, but are so likewise to
angels, to kings, to princes, to judges, and to illustrious
persons. Thus, in the fifth verse of the eighth Psalm,
where by " Flohim " some understand angels, others un
derstand God: and in the first verse of Psalm cxxxviii.,
where by " Flim" some understand God, others understand
illustrious personages ; and in the first verse of the fiftieth
Psalm where by " FI " some understand God, others un
derstand strong, illustrious. In reference to those titles I
have observed this rule, that where there was ambiguity,
I have left the same Hebrew word, and where there was
none, I have translated " God." Accept this counsel :
when you shall find the Hebrew word, you may ascribe
it, as I tell you the Hebrews ascribe it, as it shall seem
to you most appropriate.
The Hebrews have three words by which they designate
man — "Ish, Adam, Enosh." The first is almost always
attributed to valiant and noble men, which I have always
rendered " varon," Anglice, "baron," and the second to
common people ; this I have translated " homhre," Anglice,
" man ; " and the third to the wretched. To characterise
them, I have taken away the aspirate and render it His
panic "ombre," possibly Anglicised "the shadow of a
man." Thus, in the second verse of the forty-ninth Psalm,

DEDICATORY LETTER xix
where by the children of "ish," or "baron," are meant
noblemen, and by the children of "Adam," or man, are
meant plebeians, which gives great perspicuity to the
intelligence of the whole Psalm; and as in the fourth
verse of the eighth Psalm, where I first put "ombre,"
Anglice, "low," denoting the man's abjectness; and then
I put "hijo de hombre," son of man, denoting him to be
a common person. This suggestion is profitable for the
comprehension of the Psalms, although this distinction be
not always observed.
The Hebrews are in the habit of putting the future for
the perfect and the perfect for the future. Often do
they use the future of the indicative for the imperative ;
thus they say, "Thou shalt love God," for "Love God."
I state this in order that you may know that you can
accommodate these tenses and these moods to that signi
fication which shall appear best to harmonise with the
whole Psalm. And observe, that the Jews understand
continuity as involved in their future tenses. In the
sixth verse of the fifth Psalm, where it is stated that " the
Lord will abhor," it means, that He has abhorred, that He
does abhor, and that He ever will abhor.
You will likewise observe that in Hebrew the singular
is employed instead of the plural. Thus they write man,
instead of men ; house, instead of houses ; the just man,
instead of just men, &c.
I would likewise have you know that the authorities
quoted from the Psalms in the New Testament conform
more to the Greek text (of the Septuagint) than to the
Hebrew. I tell you this that you may not be astonished
at finding disagreement between those quotations and
these translations ; and these monitions will serve you
as to the text.
Having counselled your ladyship as to what concerns
the understanding of the text, it remains that I counsel
you as to the judgment that has to be exercised to get

XX DEDICATORY LETTER
the spirit of it, so that you may read it as a Christian and
not as a Jewess.
As to the first, you must recollect that the kingdom of
David was a type of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus
Christ ; and bearing this in mind, you go on to verify in
Christ what you read in David, having in some psalms
three things in view — the first, the person of David ; the
second, that of Christ ; and the third, at times yourself,
and at other times the Christian Church. Such will it be
in the second, twenty-second, and sixty-ninth psalms, in
which, more than in any others, you will find many things
that correspond to Christ, whom, in this reading, you
must ever keep in your mind's eye, without ever allowing
it to be diverted from Him ; and should it occasionally
be so, it will be well for the moment to lay the reading
aside, since your aim in it is but Christian and spiritual
edification. Eecall, likewise, to your memory that, as
when we read in the Holy Scriptures God talks with us,
so when we pray we talk with God ; and then you will
recollect that when you read these psalms, God is talking
with you ; and that when you pray over these psalms, you
are talking with God.
And because there are in them many expressions of
hatred to enemies, of desire of vengeance, and of vehe
ment passions, with but little patience in suffering, and
likewise other things that are apparently in little harmony
with the Christian spirit, you will recollect that they were
written in the time of the Law, when the Spirit of God
inspired vengeance, ere Jesus Christ our Lord had come
into the world, who, in slaying the most precious flesh on
the Cross, mortified the vehemence of passion and appetite
in ours. And in order that that which you will here read,
which prompts to vengeance and to vehement passion,
may not awaken in you any vindictive or impatient feel
ing or want of endurance, remember that our days are not
those of the Law but of the Gospel, wherein the Holy

DEDICATORY LETTER xxi
Spirit inspires to pardon injuries, to suffer, and to bear ;
and wherein, as I have stated, Christ, in slaying His own
flesh, has already mortified that of those who, believing
in Him, make themselves His members. The experience_y
of this is recognisable in that there is just as much
mortification in a man as there is true faith — I mean to
say, that where there is faith there is mortification ; and
that where there are vehement passions and worldly and
fleshly appetites there is no faith ; so that vehemence
denotes unbelief and infidelity, whilst mortification de
notes faith and confidence. This proceeds from the fact
that the man who is incorporated by faith into Christ
and into the death of Christ — it is a marvellous thing —
dies also. In those who mortify themselves without faith,
as soon as one passion dies another revives, and thus there
is no perfect mortification in them, however much they
may aim and strive after it. And know that mortifica
tion is imperfect death, as vivification and regeneration
are imperfect resurrection.
Observe, too, that they who were David's enemies,
preventing his assumption of the kingdom of Israel,
obstructed the execution of the will of God, who had
elected and anointed him to be King of Israel ; whence
they were likewise the enemies of God ; and since David
had the Spirit of God, which, according to St. Paul,
"searcheth out the deep things of God," he, it is clear,
invoked against his enemies what he, through the Spirit
of God, understood that God had determined to do with
them. They who pray without the Spirit of God pray
for that which their own spirits desire and seek, for their
own satisfaction. Just as you in this way consider David,
you may consider that the Hebrew nation in these Psalms
prayed against ,their enemies ; adding this, that if the
Christian body increases being persecuted, triumphs being
conquered, and is elevated in being depressed, the Hebrew
nation, on the contrary, increased by persecuting, triumphed

xxii DEDICATORY LETTER
by conquering, and was elevated by depressing other
nations. This consideration serves greatly for all the
Psalms. Should it appear to you that undue attention is paid in
these psalms to outward happiness and grief, to comfort
and to discomfort, you should recollect that they were
written at the period when external comfort and happi
ness were promised as reward for the observance of the
Law, and when external discomfort and misery were
promised as punishment for the transgression of the
Law; and recollecting that you live in times when,
through faith, justification, the Kingdom of God, the
Holy Spirit, resurrection, and life external, in which
true happiness consists, are promised, you will only hold
those to be unhappy who are outside the Kingdom of
God, being without Christ, and those to be happy who
are in the Kingdom of God, and evermore with Christ.
Eefraining, then, from the imitation of David in those
things which were peculiar to the spirit of the Law, and
are alien to the spirit of the Gospel, you will weigh with
great attention his numerous most spiritual and most
Divine affections and thoughts, Which fully correspond
with the spirit of the Gospel. You will go on to compare
the affections of David's mind with your own ; nay, rather
from those affections of David you will go on to discover
and to understand your own, and from David's thoughts
you will go on to form your own. With the Christian
spirit you will aim to get further ; for proceeding to com
pare the effects of piety which you will recognise in
David with the effects of justification which you will
recognise in the Gospel, you will go on to grow in
them both. Finally, considering well those affections
and those thoughts of this most Divine king, you wUl go
on to ask of God to impress such, or more expanded ones,
on your mind, as becomes one who is a member of so
perfect a Head as is the Son of God, our Lord Jesus

DEDICATORY LETTER xxiii
Christ, by whose grace, as well in the reading of this
paper as in every other which you shall read, it will ever
be your aim that faith, which consists in believing in
God's words, and in confiding in the promises of God, may
be increased in your soul ; that hope, which consists in
patiently waiting for the fulfilment of the promises, may
increase ; and that charity, which consists in loving that
which is believed and that which is confided in, may
increase ; for that which is hoped for is resurrection,
immortality, and eternal life, which your ladyship hopes
to enjoy from God, not for your own sake, but by the
goodness and mercy of God, who, to give His kingdom
to His people, executed the rigour of His justice upon
His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom
be glory for ever. Amen.

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS

PSALM I
L 1. — Blessed is tLe man who walketh not in the
counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way
of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of scorners.
2. — But he delighteth in the Law of the Loed,
and he exercises himself in His Law, day and
night. In this psalm, which serves as a preface to the whole
Psalter, David shows the good of godliness and the evil
of ungodliness. In the first verse David calls those
ungodly who are disaffected to God ; he calls those
sinners who proclaim themselves vicious ; and he calls
those scorners who occupy themselves in deriding their
neighbours. And because ungodliness has its seat in
the mind, and that counsel proceeds from the mind, and
because they who proclaim themselves to be vicious,
render those vicious with whom they associate, and be
cause in the seats of scorners, they who occupy them
are ever scornful, these three things being directly
opposed to godliness, I understand David to say, that
blessed is the man who does not fall into them; mean
ing, that only they escape them who follow the counsel
of the godly, who stand and remain in the way of the
righteous, and who sit amongst persons who are spiritual.
A

r

2 PSALM I. I, 2
In saying " iAe man " he means any one.
This verse is referred to in Psalm cxliv. 4.
In the second verse, by the Law he means all Holy
Scripture, which the Jews accepted as the will of God,
whence they loved it and exercised themselves in it;
some at one period found their happiness in it; whilst
others at another found their satisfaction in it ; and thus,
as amongst the Jews, the man who was blessed was
attached to the Law, and constantly exercising himself
in it, he constantly retained it in his memory ; so
amongst Christians the man who is blessed is attached
to the Gospel, and constantly retains it in his memory,
bringing his mind to rely daily more and more on God's
promises in Christ, and daily more to accept the cove
nant and covenants which our Lord Jesus Christ has
established between God and men.
Here it appears to me to be to the point to lay down
the difference which I make between the Law and the
Gospel, since they are two things which must needs be fre
quently alluded to in these expositions. Thus then I say
that the Law contains the covenant or Old Testament
established between God and men, and that the Gospel
contains the covenant or New Testament established
between God and fmen. The Law was founded in the
blood of animals, and the Gospel in the blood of the
Son of God. The Law promised things temporal and
long life, and the Gospel promises things eternal and life
eternal. The Law showed men what they had lost through
Adam, and the Gospel shows them what they have
gained through Christ. The former showed them their
depravity through Adam, and the latter shows them
their restoration through Christ. The former showed
them how death had entered through Adam, whilst the
latter shows how resurrection has entered through Christ.
The former showed them how their affections and appeti(tes

PSALM I. I, 2 3
became depraved and corrupt through Adam's disobedi
ence, whilst the latter shows how they become modi
fied, through Christ's obedience. The former showed
them the natural enmity which they, through Adam,
had towards God and towards all things that are God's,
whilst the latter shows them the gracious friendship which,
through Christ, they have with God and with all things
that are God's. The Law governed a people that were
God's people, limited in number, and it did so outwardly,
whilst the Gospel governs God's people innumerable, and
it does so inwardly. The Law brought men to the
knowledge of themselves, whilst the Gospel brings them
to the knowledge of God — the Law by working, and
the Gospel by believing — the Law put men in posses
sion of the justification of the Law, whilst the Gospel
puts them in possession of resurrection and of life eternal.
The Law begat slaves and inspired fear, whilst the Gospel
begets sons and teaches love. The Law was based upon
works, the Gospel is based upon faith. The Law was
[mere] doctrine, whilst the Gospel is a form of doctrine.
The Law required external worship and services, whilst
the Gospel requires inward worship and services in spirit
and in truth. The Law required men to offer their
property, whilst the Gospel requires them to offer them
selves. The Law promised Christ, whilst the Gospel
presents Him. The Law had for its head Moses, the
servant of God, whilst the Gospel has for its head Christ,
the Son of God ; and finally, in the Law there is the
shadow of the kingdom of God through Christ in the
present life, whilst in the Gospel there is the shadow
of the kingdom of God through Christ in the life
Biternal. _J
Thus in the present life we, who are in the kingdom
of God, walk by faith, per fidem, whilst in the life eternal
we shall walk by sight, per speciem ; now we know God'
as in a glass darkly, per speculum in cenigmate, then we

4 PSALM I. 3-6
shall know Him face to face. So that, just as under the
Law, the Gospel was hidden to such an extent that none
understood it, save those to whom God revealed it, so
under the Gospel eternal life is hidden to such an extent,
that none understand it, save those to whom God reveals
it. And just as all they who kept the Law looked ex
pectantly for the time of the Gospel, but all did not
understand it, so all they who hear the Gospel look
expectantly for eternal life, but all do not understand it;
and this is why I state that eternal life is hidden in the
C Gospel. When I say the Gospel, I do not mean that
) which men write or print with ink upon paper, but that
~\ which God writes and prints upon the hearts of those
whom He calls and elects to His kingdom. It is the
preaching or general publication made throughout the
world, whereby it is notified to men that God has already
executed the rigour of His justice upon the rebellion and
ungodliness of the flesh, on His Son Jesus Christ ; whence
' they may conae in safety to the kingdom of God, accepting
' the righteousness of God executed upon Jesus Christ our
Lord as their own. Where it is to be understood that
because this is the best news that ever came to man, it
is called the Gospel, which signifies the good tidings, or, as
is more commonly said, the good news.
But reverting to the words of David, the words day
and night are to be understood as meaning throughout
his life.
I. 3. — And he shall be like a tree planted by the
rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his
season : his leaf also shall not wither ; and whatso
ever he doeth shall prosper.
4.— The ungodly are not so: but are like the
chaff which the wind driveth away.
5.— Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the

PSALM 1 3-6 5
judgment, nor siuuers in the congregation of the
righteous. 6. — For the Lord knoweth the way of the
righteous : but the way of the ungodly shall
perish. In verse the third, he compares the fruitfulness and
stability of the godly man to a tree planted near streams
and channels of water ; that just as such a tree is kept
green and luxuriant, and in its season produces its natural
fruit, whilst even its leaves are beneficent, so the godly
man, being in the kingdom of God, is kept in godliness,
full of faith, of hope, and of love, is useful and beneficent
in all his engagements, and nothing of his, however small
it may be, is useless ; they are all characterised by their
success, stability, and fruitfulness. By the rivers of water,
I understand the spot where the gardener distributes
streams of water, by all the channels that irrigate the
garden. In verse the fourth, having compared the godly man
to a tree both verdant and luxuriant, he very appositely
compares the ungodly man to chaff which the wind
blows hithef and thither, whereby he indicates his failure,
instability, and sterility.
In verse the fifth he states, that since such are the
facts, the ungodly will never never have pause to be
joyous, or have motive for presumption, or for osten
tation, outward or inward, before men or before God,
when they shall perceive that men sit in judgment upon
them, knowing that they must necessarily form a bad
opinion of them. He states, moreover, that sinners shall
experience no satisfaction in association with the right
eous ; for the goodness of the righteous will expose
their malignity. The application of this verse to the
day of judgment will suggest that they shall not be raised
up, that neither the ungodly nor sinners will in the

6 PSALM 1. 3-6
resurrection rise glorious, as will the godly and the
righteous. In the last verse he lays down the reason whence all
this proceeds. It is because God knows the way of the
righteous, whilst the way of the ungodly shall perish,
where by "way" he understands their mode of life,
their designs, and their habits. Here observe that Holy
Scripture is wont to state that God "knows" that of
which He approves, and which He holds to be good,
conformably with what St. Paul says in i Cor. viii. 3,
" If any man love God, he is known of Sim." I likewise
understand that God knows the way of the righteous ; it
is not subverted or forgotten, it leaves its mark as does
the snail ; whilst the way of the ungodly, because it is
subverted and forgotten, is like the course of a ship
through the water, which, when it has passed, leaves no
trace of its way.

PSALM II
II. 1. — Why do the heathen rage, and the
people imagine a vain thing ?
2. — The kings of the earth set themselves, and
the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord,
and against His anointed, saying,
3. — Let us break their bands asunder, and cast
away their cords from us.
David shows in this psalm how vain, of how little
moment, were the counsels and the machinations which
his adversaries held and devised against him, when
striving to withhold from him the throne of Israel, to
fill which God had selected, called, and anointed him ;
he shows likewise how little did avail and do avail the
malignity, the efforts, and the falsehood of men of the
world to obstruct the spiritual rule of our Lord Jesus
Christ ; to attain which God Himself sent Him into the
world, which is the apprehension of the Apostles them
selves in relation to this psalm, understanding that
David's kingdom was a type of that of Christ. He also
shows us how little have availed and will avail the counsels
which human prudence is constantly devising to divert
those from the kingdom of God, whom God Himself has,
by our Lord J.esus Christ, placed in His kingdom. Whilst
this consideration is more than adequate to give assurance
to every godly Christian, already put in possession of
the kingdom of God, that the enjoyment of the glory of
God, throughout the life eternal, awaits him.

8 PSALM II. 4-7
To attain the true apprehension of this psalm, and to
realise the spiritual fruit there is in it, the pious Chris
tian will first verify it in the person of David, then in
the person of Christ, and afterwards in his own person
and in the Christian Church.
In the first verse, by " the heathen and the people," I
think David to mean the vulgar Jews, who rose in arms
against him, who, I understand him to say, imagined
vanity, because they took up arms against the Divine
counsel, which was labour in vain, forasmuch as they
were destined to fail in attaining their aim.
In the second verse, by " the kings of the earth," and
by " the rulers," he means the great and wealthy amons
the Jewish people who obstructed his rule. Now David
calls himself anointed, because God had anointed him to
be king over Israel. Here it is to be understood that
He whom we call Anointed, the Greeks call Christ and
the Jews Messiah. And as to what he says about the
Lord, it is to be observed that whenever the ungodly
rise in arms against the godly, they offend primarily
against God rather than against the godly ; whence the
godly are wont to dismiss from their minds every affection
of wrath and of vindictiveness, considering that since
God is primarily offended, vengeance is God's and not
theirs. In verse the third, David, when reporting what his
enemies said against him, shows that they held the laws
and ordinances (the pragmatics) of good and pious princes
to be bands and cords ; and the ungodly always hold the
holy life, the honourable and equitable conduct of pious
people, to be bands and cords to them, whence it comes
to pass that they constantly devise their dishonour, their
destruction, and their death.
II. 4. — He that sitteth in the heavens shall
laugh ; the Lord shall have them iu derision.

PSALM II. 4-7 9
5. — Then shall He speak unto them in His
wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure.
6.—^ Yet, saith God, have I set My king upon My
holy, hill of Zion.
7. — I will declare the decree : the Lord hath
said unto me, Thou art My Son ; this day have I
begotten thee.
In verse the fourth he shows how lightly God holds
the counsels of men of the world.
And I understand that He holds them in derision, just
as we deride a man when we see him do something which
we know will issue in his injury.
In the fifth verse, David shows that God not only
derides the ungodly, but that He chastises them in His
anger and wrath, meaning, as Holy Scripture expresses
it, roughly. And it is to be understood that the lan
guage with which God speaks to the ungodly, who are
vessels of wrath, is in the execution of His wrath, whilst
it is with manifestation of mercy towards the godly, who
are vessels of mercy ; so that He speaks angrily to the
ungodly, and mercifully to the godly.
In verse sixth, David makes God speak in fearful
wrath, as though He should say, " Let the ungodly, thy
enemies, do thee their worst, nevertheless what I have
purposed shall be consummated. I have elected thee to
be King of Israel, and king thou shalt be, in spite of
thy enemies." The highest consolation (is this) for per
sons who feel themselves called to the kingdom of God.
By Zion he means Jerusalem, built upon Mount Zion,
and is tantamount to the mount of My holiness, as My
holy hill. And Mount Zion' was holy, and all things
are holy that God selects for Himself and which He
employs. In the seventh verse, I understand that David pub-

lo PSALM II. 8-12
lishes his election and his anointing, stating, that what
time God, by the prophet Samuel, elected him for king,
He adopted him as His son, as though He had then
begotten him. So that by " this day " he means the
very day of his anointing. And in this literal sense do
I understand this difference between David and Christy
that David was begotten son of God the day that God
anointed him for king, and that Christ was begotten
Son of God from the beginning, and before the ages,
" ab initio ex ante scecula." So that David's '' this day "
was in time, whilst Christ's "this day" was ere time
was. I understand, moreover, that with all those whom
God calls to His kingdom, He does the same that He did
with David, saying to them as unto David : " Thou art
My son, this day have I begotten thee."
And I understand that He says it to them, giving
them to feel His call, His election, and His justification.
So that to the pious Christian his " this day," in which
he is begotten Son of God, is the day in which he feels
his, vocation, election, and justification.
II. 8. — Ask of Me, and I shall give thee the
lieathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost
parts of the earth for thy possession.
9. — Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron ;
thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
10. — Be wise now, therefore, 0 ye kings ; be
instructed, ye judges of the earth.
11. — Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with
trembling. 12.— Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye
perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled
but a little. Blessed are all they that put their
trust in him.

PSALM II. 8-12 II
In verse the eighth, I understand that because God
wills that His elect wholly depend upon Him, He wills
that they shall ask of Him what He has determined to
give them, so that having attained it, they may recognise
His bounty. That God gave to David nations and
countries as inheritance, is manifest in Holy Scripture ;
and that He gives them to Christ is manifest in our own
experience, and that He gives them to the pious Chris
tian. St. Paul proves it by saying, " All things are
yours" (i Cor. iii.).
In verse the ninth, saying, " Thou shalt break them ; "
" thou shalt dash them," David shows the power of his
kingdom over the Wicked and over rebels, meaning that
he could dispose of them at his will, whilst he shows
the power of the kingdom of Christ upon the wicked
and upon infidels. These are they, who, stumbling at
Christ's humanity and abjectness, fall, without ever being
able afterwards to rise. And thus it is that these are
they who experience the power of the kingdom of Christ,
in being broken and crushed.
In verse the tenth, David admonished the rulers and
judges in Israel, that not opposing themselves to the
will of God, they should submit themselves to His
government and control. Thus do I understand that,
" be wise and be instructed." And here do I understand
that there is a particular admonition for worldly rulers
and judges not to follow out their own opinions and
counsels, but those to which they shall be led by the
Spirit of God ; and generally for all who are called of
God, whom I understand David to counsel, that severing
themselves from the government of human prudence,
they should allow themselves to be governed by the
Spirit of God.
In verse the eleventh he admonishes those very per
sons to " serve the Lord with fear, and to rejoice with trem-
blirig," whom he had then admonished that they should be

12 PSALM II. 8-12
wise ; as though he should say, " Cease to be hostile
to me, and devote yourselves to follow after God, doing
so, however, with fear, with reverence, and with venera
tion. And under similar feelings rejoice in God." Here
I note that he speaks as a Jew, and as do the Jews,
to whom God gave a spirit of fear, treating them as
servants. And although this fear involved reverence
and veneration, nevertheless it is more characteristic of
the Christian to serve with love and with confidence.
For the spirit which God imparts through Jesus Christ,
His Son, is a filial spirit, one associated with love and
with confidence.
In the last verse, by son, David literally meant hira
self, agreeably with what he had said, " Thou art my
Son." And in saying " Kiss the Son," 1 understand him
to say, when you desire to serve God and to enjoy God,
come and kiss my hand, rendering me, as your king,
obedience. And in saying, "lest He be angry" he means
God. And in saying " ye perish from the way" I under
stood him to say, " Ye must do this, lest you be com
prised in the number of those who, feeling the wrath of
God, wholly stray from the path of godliness."
Here I understand that they who oppose the will of
God, experimentally incur the wrath of God, stray from
the way of godliness, and lose their own way, conform
ably with what is stated in Psalm the first, that " the way
of the wicked shall perish." I understand, moreover, that
the greatest chastisement wherewith God punishes men
in the present life is by causing them to stray from
the way of godliness and to lose their own way.
From the last words of the psalm, I apprehend that,
to be a chUd of God, to be in the kingdom of God, to
be kings, consists in a man's placing his whole confi
dence in God.
Verifying the psalm throughout in the person of
David, and having touched certain points that affect its

PSALM II. 8-12 13
verification in the person of the God-fearing Christian,
and touching upon others that stand connected with its
verification in the person of Christ, it appears to me
that I have opened up the way to the godly Christian,
whereby he may go on in the consideration and verifica
tion of the rest, in harmony with what appears to have
been the views entertained by the Apostles quoting cer
tain verses of this psalm, and in harmony with that
which the Holy Spirit will inspire, and that which is
attained through Jesus Christ our Lord.

PSALM III
III. 1. — Lord, how are they increased that
trouble me ! many are they that rise up against me.
2. — Many there are who ^ay of my soul, There
is no help for him in God. Selah.
3. — But Thou, 0 Lord, art a shield for me :
my glory, and the lifter up of my head (of my
dignity).
The title of this psalm is, " a Psalm of David, when
he fled from Absalom his son," and thus is it given in
the Hebrew books. Its history may be read in 2
Samuel xv.
David's design is to show that in proportion as the
number of his persecutors increased, so much the more
did his confidence increase, that God would deliver him
from them all. Here I consider the difference there is
between the confidence inspired by God and that which
is so by the world. Worldly confidence decreases as
tribulations increase, whilst godly confidence increases the
more that they increase.
The " many," of whom he speaks in verse the first,
that rose up against him, meaning those who, by follow
ing the fortune of his son Absalom, discovered themselves ,
to be his enemies, and "the many" of whom he speaks I l
in verse the second, that " said unto his soul, there is no
help for him in God," meaning that God would neither ' '
deliver nor protect him, I understand to have been the
many despairing thoughts with which he was combated

PSALM III. 1-3 15
and tempted to despair. I understand these to have re
called the affair of Bathsheba, the murder of her husband,
and the words of the Prophet Nathan, in order that he,
adjudging himself to be the enemy of God, might abandon
confidence in God. And considering David in this
struggle, I understand that in all the persecutions, in all
the afflictions, and in all the troubles with which evil
spirits harass men in order to vex them, their aim is to
drag them to distrust God and to despair. And it is
then, that whilst they on the one hand persecute, afflict,
and harass them, they, on the other, tempt them, by
persuading them, that since God permits them to be
thus treated. He does not hold, them to be children, and
that He disregards them, because they are not predestinated
to life eternal ; so that the temptations are always con
current with persecutions, afflictions, and trials. I under
stand, moreover, that in all the temptations or sins with .
which men are tempted by evil spirits, their aim is to
bring them down to this most terrible temptation of
despair and distrust of God. And thus it is, that when
they have pulled a man down into some sin, he is then
immediately tempted to despair, by their reminding him
of that sin, and of all the others which he has committed,
in order that he may resolve to distrust God and to
depart from piety. With this craft they deceived Cain,
and with the same they deceived Judas, and with
the same they wished to deceive Job, and they sought
to deceive David, as he shows in this verse ; but God
upheld them by His Spirit, as He upholds, and will
uphold, all them who are pious. For when He sees them
in persecution, affliction, and trial, and when He sees
them having fallen into some sin or sins, quickly will He
arm them against the most terrible of temptations, by
strengthening them to speak thus, " Although I am per
secuted, afflicted, and tried, and although I have fallen
into great sins, there is no reason why I should distrust

i6 PSALM III. 1-3
.God, since it is a fact, that my vileness neither disparages
nor diminishes the mercy of God ; nay, when I see less
reason to trust, so much the more do I desire to trust,
for I trust in God and not in men. Had I trusted in
men, having offended them, I might have distrusted; but
having trusted in God, I will then trust more when I
shall have offended Him the more, than when I shall see
less reason in myself why I should trust Him."
The Spirit of God strengthens him in this considera
tion, and by it he perseveres in confidence in God.
In the same manner do I understand that God designs
to attract men to confidence in His Divine promises, by
all the prosperity and happiness which He gives them in
the present life. And it is so, that in giving them
prosperity and happiness, He presently makes them feel
the generosity which He exerts towards them, so that by
outward prosperity and happiness God disposes the minds
of the pious and prepares them for inward confidence.
Whence I gather that just as the pious man, in per
secutions, afflictions, and trials,, and also as against his
own sins, is armed against despair and distrust of God,
so likewise does the pious man, in prosperity and happi
ness, purpose thereby to develop himself in piety and in
confidence in God. But I understand that just as the
most terrible and the most cruel temptation with which
a person is tempted is despair and distrust in God, a
result brought about by the , knowledge of himself, so
the highest and most excellent grace with which man
is favoured is confidence in God through the knowledge
of God. And it is thus that the evil spirit, by bringing
the man to know himself, bears him away to perdition
and to eternal death ; whilst the Holy Spirit, by bring
ing the man to, know God and to realise the presence of
God, bears him away to resurrection and to life eternal.
I understand David, favoured with this grace, to speak
thus in verse the third : " Although they be many who

PSALM III. 1-3 17
persecute me to deprive me of the kingdom, and that they
are many who tempt me to dissever myself from piety,
I feel assured, because I cleave to Thee, 0 Lord my God,
as my personal protector and as the defender and up
holder of my royal dignity."
Here I understand that the armour, constituting the
pious Christian's panoply, wherewith, when persecuted
like David and tempted like David, he defends himself,
are his remembrance of his call to Christian piety, to
participation in the justice of God, executed upon Christ
the Son of God, and his recollection that he is in the
kingdom of God, which is ruled and governed by God.
With this armour every pious person comes forth victo
rious out of all persecutions and out of all temptations,
however terrible they may be.
And I understand that God was David's "shield,"
because He protected and defended David in all the
troubles that occurred to him ; and that it was David's
glory that God made him glorious ; and he made his
boast in God's grace that God was the lifter up of his
head, for God maintained him and God increased his
royal dignity, in despite of the numbers who rose up
against him, and in despite of the numbers who strove
to dissever him from piety. And I understand that God
is the " shield " of the pious ; for retaining them in His
kingdom, nothing happens to them fortuitously, whilst
everything occurring to them through Divine Providence
is all for their good, as St. Paul declares in Eom. viii. 28,
which is the glory of the pious, because He justifies
them by the justice executed upon Christ; and they
make their boast of that justice, because it lifts up the
heads of those who are pious; for He, governing them
by His Holy Spirit, upholds them in His kingdom ; He
develops and exalts them in it, in spite of the numbers
who persecute them, and of the numbers who tempt
them.

i8 PSALM III. 4-6
HI. 4. — With my voice will I cry unto the
Lord, and He shall answer me out of His holy hill.
Selah. I understand David to say in verse the fourth, Since
this which I have stated is so, that God is my shield, my
glory, and the lifter up of my head, this also shall be
so, that I will never dissever myself from piety, and
that I will ever recur to Him in- all my necessities,
calling upon Him with my voice ; whilst He, never
turning a deaf ear to my cries, will hear and answer
me, vouchsafing to me that for which I shall pray.
Here I understand that they call upon God with their
voice, who call upon Him feeling their pressing need of
Him, calling themselves and praying themselves for them
selves, and with those words which the sense of their need
puts in their mouth.
God's holy hill has already been declared to be Mount
Zion, whereupon Jerusalem was built. The Jews under
stood that it was from there that God, having been
called upon, answered ; for there was the place of His
dwelling prior to Christ's coming, through whose media
tion it is that the heart of every pious Christian becomes
God's dwelling, where God manifests the glory of His
divinity. There He speaks ; from there He answers ;
for tliere it is that He wills that He be understood, and
from there is it that He wills to be invoked.
I understand the word " selah " in this verse to
denote satisfaction, just as in verse the second it denotes
indignation. III. 5. — I lay me down to sleep, and I awake,
for the Lord sustaineth me.
6. — I will not be afraid of tens of thousands of
people that have set themselves against me round
about.

PSALM III. 7, 8 19
In verses the fifth and sixth, David, in showing the little
impression the persecutions and the temptations where
with he was persecuted and tempted wrought upon him,
and the security and confidence in God with which he
lived, shows us the proper fruit of prayer when the man
prays with his voice, and the proper condition of piety
likewise. I understand that he, as it were, deriding
the numbers who persecuted him, and the numbers who
tempted him by disquieting his mind, states that he not
only did not fear when awake, but that he held himself
to be safe even when asleep ; and that he did so not only
in proportion as the number was greater, not merely of
the men who persecuted him, but even were every man
of them a whole nation. And when he says, " The Loo'd
sustaineth me," it appears as though he replied to the
many thoughts which said to his soul that God would
neither deliver nor protect him.
As though he had said, "Herein you may see how
greatly you are deceived." Now, when David said that,
I am certain that he inwardly realised the presence of
God. III. 7. — Arise, 0 Lord ; save me, 0 my God :
for Thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the
cheek bone ; Thou hast broken the teeth of the
ungodly. 8. — Salvation belongeth unto the Lord : Thy
blessing is upon Thy people. Selah.
Upon verse the seventh, it has to be observed that
Holy Scripture is wont to speak of God as having bodily
attributes, attributing to Him operations that are attri
buted to bodily forms.
It does this, accommodating itself to our capacity.
And when saying, " Thou hast broken," I understand him
to say, Do, Lord, now for me that which Thou usually

20 PSALM III. 7, 8
dost, with those who are my enemies, subverting them
and destroying them. And by David's calling his
enemies the ungodly, I understand that when a man
becomes the enemy of the saints, he becomes the enemy
of God, and is wicked. This privilege of the saints is a
very great one.
I understand the meaning of the last verse to be this :
After all, there is no salvation but that which comes from
God, neither is there any other blessing, save that which
God sends down upon His people. By " God's people"
David understood the Jewish people. I understand
them to be so who are of the kingdom of God, whose
head is the Son of God Himself. By "God's blessing"
David understood the favour of God, promised to ob
servance of the Law ; whilst I understand it to be the
happiness which they en.joy who are in the kingdom of
God, promised, through faith, to those who enter into the
kingdom of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

PSALM IV
IV. 1. — Hear me when I call, 0 God of my
righteousness: Thou hast enlarged me when I was in
distress ; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.
2. — 0 ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my
glory into shame ? Will ye love vanity, and follow
after lies ? Selah.
3. — But know that the Lord hath set apart for
Himself him to whom He hath shewn mercy, as a
vessel of mercy ; the Lord will hear me when I call
unto Him.
4. — Stand in awe, and sin not : commune with
your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
David's design in this psalm is to persuade those who
withheld their consent that he should reign in Israel,
that they but lost time, for that his anointing had been
the will of God, and no caprice of man's ; and that since
such was the fact, God's will must needs be fulfilled in
spite of them all.
In verse the first, I understand him to say, " God of
my righteousness," because that God alone knew that
David's pretensions to reign over Israel were righteous.
After the same manner is God the God of the righteous
ness of the godly, for God only knows their godliness
and their righteousness. How this harmonises with what
Paul says, in Col. iii. 3, " Your life is hid with Clirist in
God."

22 PSALM IV. 1-4
The world condemned Christ as unrighteous, and
similarly it condemns those who imitate Christ as un
righteous ; but God knows the righteousness of Christ
and of His Christians. And that which he says, " When
I was in trouble, Thou didst enlarge me," is equivalent
to his saying. Ever, when I have been in straits, hast
Thou set me at ease, by showing Thyself gracious
unto me.
In verse the second, David speaks to those of high
rank amongst the Israelites, whom he calls the sons of
nobles, tantamount to calling them men of influence. To
these, obstructing his sovereignty, he says that they
aimed at nothing beyond bringing it about, that the
glory of his kingdom should be but disgrace to him, their
motive for acting as they did being because they would
not consent that he should reign over them.
And he says that they "loved vanity, and sought
out lies," meaning that their purposes would fail. Now
this is the style in which they, who are called to the
kingdom of God, speak to men of the world ; and thus
do they hold their counsels to be vain, wherewith they
devise how to prevent their entrance into the kingdom,
and their persevering stay therein.
In verse the third, by the man whom the Lord has
elected as a vessel of mercy, David means himself;
where it is to be noted that the expression, "vessel of
mercy,'' comprises those whom Holy Scripture qualifies as
God's elect, those who are called and favoured of God.
And I understand that David, addressing those same
persons to whom he spoke in verse the second, says to
them: Eest assured that you labour in vain, for it is
a fact that I have not, at any suggestion of my own,
set myself up for king, but God has elected me thereto.
Wherefore, you may weigh whether you can prevent the
accomplishment of His purpose. Whence I gather that
it is the greatest satisfaction to a godly person to con-

PSALM IV. s, 6 23
sider that he was brought to godliness by no personal
caprice, but by the call of God. Whence there springs
up for him that assurance which David held, to wit, that
God will ever hear him when he shall call upon Him,
two things well worthy of being considered.
In verse the fourth, I understand David to counsel
his persecutors that they well consider the works of
God, that they stand in awe when doing so, and that
they should not sin by obstructing them, that they seek
counsel inwardly when lying on their beds, and that
they keep silence; and by silence I understand that,
maintained by those who, if they be grieved and awe
struck at their inability to understand the works of
God, do not blaspheme God by speaking evil of them;
neither are they impious against God by wrongly judging
them. IV. 5. — Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and
put your trust in the Lord.
6. — Many say. Who will shew us any good ?
Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance
upon us.
In verse fifth, I understand David to go on to counsel
his opponents, and to say to them, since you have been
put in fear by the works of God, but that you have not
obstructed them, and since that you have considered
them without having become blasphemers or impious,
come and offer the sacrifices of righteousness ; and trust
not in the sacrifices but in the mercy of God, and thus
you will be righteous and godly.
Where I note two things: the one is to hold the
tongue and be silent, and afterwards to sacrifice; and
the other, that even the pious Jew, when he sacrificed,
trusted not in the sacrifice but in God.
David, when speaking of "sacrifices of righteousness,"

24 PSALM IV. 7, 8
means those sacrifices which the Law commanded that
men should offer to obtain remission of sins and justifi
cation. In Gospel times man then offers sacrifices of
righteousness, when he accepts " the covenant " of justifi
cation by the justice of God executed upon Jesus Christ
our Lord, by making it his own, and by holding himself
to be justified in it and by it. Now he who offers this
sacrifice of righteousness, trusting in God, enters into
the kingdom of God ; he is ruled and governed by God ;
and it is certain that since he has entered into possession
of the kingdom in the present life, he cannot fail of it
in the life eternal ; for, although the soul be severed
from the body, the possession of the kingdom of God goes
on, sustained from the present life until the life eternal.
In verse the sixth, I understand David to direct his
address to God, and to say, " Lord, there are many Jews
unwilling to accept me as king, not from malignity, but
from perplexity of mind, because they do not feel assured
that this acceptance will work beneficially for them;
therefore I pray Thee, Lord, that Thou manifest Thyself
favourable to this my kingdom, and that Thou manifest
the advantage incident to their acceptance of me as their
king." Here I understand two things : the one, that the
infidelity of the human mind will not trust, save in what
it sees ; and the other, that to see the benefit there is in
obeying God, is not in us but in God, who shows us His
presence, giving the eyes of our understanding the ability,
that when we see it we may recognise Him. I mean to
say that when we see the goodness of God, that when
we see His presence and His favour, we may recognise
Him in them all.
IV. 7. — Thou cheerest my heart more than was
theirs at the time that they rejoiced in harvest and
in vintage.
8.— I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep :

PSALM IV. 7, 8 25
for Thou, Lord, only makest me to dwell in
safety. In verse the seventh, I understand David to say. When
I, Lord, see that Thou favourest those amongst this people
who waver and halt, by giving them abundant harvests,
I greatly rejoice, believing that they will thus be assured
of their advantage in accepting me for their king, and
that thus they will accept me. Others understand this
verse otherwise.
By the last verse I am led to consider that only con
fidence in God gives entire and perfect security to the
mind. They who confide in human teaching are ever
restless, and ever live perturbedly.
" To dwell in safety " is equivalent to living in con
fidence. David lived assured that God would set him
king over Israel, and that having done so, He would
uphold him. And the pious Christian lives assured that
God will uphold him in His kingdom in the present life,
and that God will give him His kingdom in the life
eternal. David, confident, showed himself to be strong in piety ;
and the pious Christian, when confiding, shows himself
to be assured of the justification which is derived from
Jesus Christ our Lord.

PSALM V
V. 1. — Give ear to my words, 0 Lord; con
sider my meditation.
2. — Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King,
and my God : for unto Thee will I (evermore)
pray. 3. — My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning,
0 Lord ; in the morning will I direct my prayer
unto Thee, and will look up.
All this psalm is one continuous prayer by David to
God, supplicating God's favour and help against those
ungodly ones who were his enemies, and who, being his
enemies, malignantly persecuted him.
In verse the first, I understand that David, distrusting
his ability to give utterance to what he inwardly felt,
does not content himself with asking of God that He
should hear what he was about to say. He solicits that
God should take cognisance of that which he would fain
utter were he but able to express himself. And, I under
stand^ that, in doing so, he asks of God that which God
is wont to grant unto the godly. Of the ungodly.
He neither hears their words, nor does He heed their
thoughts. Saying, in verse the second, " For wnto Thee will I
evermore pray','' I understand him to say, for never relin
quishing godliness, my prayers shall always be addressed
to Thee.In verse the third, I understand David to say. Every

PSALM V. 4-7 27
morning will I cry aloud unto Thee, for every morning
will I set my mind to invoke Thee ; and I shall be on the
look-out, like one upon his watch-tower, expectant of the
reply which Thou wilt give me; and when he says, "in
the morning," I understand him as saying from early morn
ing. So that he intimates perseverance throughout the
day, the whole livelong day.
V. 4. — For Thou art not a God that hath plea
sure in wickedness ; never shall evil dwell with
Thee. 5. — Fools shall not stand in Thy sight : Thou
hat est all workers of iniquity.
6. — Thou shalt destroy them that speak lies :
the Lord will evermore abhor the bloody and
deceitful man.
7. — But as for me, I will come unto Thy house in
the multitude of -Thy mercy ; and in Thy fear will
I worship toward Thy holy temple.
Having in verses 4, 5, and 6 to plead against the
ungodly, he puts God in mind how greatly He is opposed
to ungodliness ; as though David had said, I do not plead
against Thy friends, but against Thine enemies. By the
"bloody man" he means a sanguinary, malicious, and
mean-spirited fellow.
Of verse the seventh, this is the meaning: By Thy
grace, I am not of those whom Thou abhorrest ; adorned
and clad, not with my own virtue, goodness, or holiness,
but with Thy great mercy, will I enter Thy temple, and,
prostrating myself, I will adore Thee there, with that
fear and with that reverence which is due to Thee.
Here I understand, that under the Law, because the
Temple of God was external, so likewise the adoration
that God required was external ; and that under the

28 PSALM V. 8, 9
Gospel, because the Temple of God is inward, so likewise
the worship that God requires is inward. The temple of
God, according to St. Paul, is the Christian's heart ; and
our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us that the worship which
God requires is that it be "in spirit and in truth." I
understand that the Christian worships God in spirit
when he approves of all that God does as holy, just, and
good, therein wholly subjugating and captivating the
judgment of reason and of human prudence ; and I
understand that he worships in truth when there is
nothing feigned or forced in his adoration. So that no
one. can worship in spirit save he who worships in truth,
neither can any one worship in truth save he who wor
ships in spirit.
V. 8. — Lead me, 0 Lord, in Thy righteousness,
because of them that lie in wait for me, mine
enemies ; make Thy way straight before my face.
9. — For there is no faithfulness in their mouth ;
their inward part is very wickedness ; their throat
is an open sepulchre ; they flatter with their
tongue. In verse the eighth, I understand that David asks of
God two things necessary for every godly person, and
most necessary for godliness. The one is that God lead
him in His righteousness. I understand that God rules
and governs him in everything in His righteousness ; so
that the righteousness wherewith God is just, in ruling
and governing those who remit themselves to His govern
ment, may shine forth and be resplendent in him. The
other is, that God make His way straight before him;
he means that God may enlighten the eyes of his reason
and of his human prudence, in such fashion that all
that God does may appear to him to be holy, just, and
good.

PSALM V. 10-12 29
Of these two things, I understand him to ask of God,
that He should do the first, because of those who keep
their eyes upon him. I understand him to mean,
because of those who lie in wait for him ; some being
enemies, whilst others are unfriendly. See, that I, under
the governance of Thy righteousness, may so live that
I can say to all of them, " Which of you convinceth me
of sin ? " (John viii. 46) ; so that they may be confounded
and ashamed to be my enemies ; so that the first
petition affects the outward, and the second the inward.
As though he should say. Control me, 0 Lord, and render
me contented with Thy government.
By the righteousness of God, Holy Scripture means at
times the righteousness wherewith God is righteous,
whilst, at other times, that wherewith He justifies those
that are righteous.
By God's way it means His divine providence, that
wherewith He rules and governs everything ; just as by
man's way it means his habits, his designs, and his life.
That such is the fact I shall go on to demonstrate by
my notes upon David ; and by it am I led to understand
that which is said to the ungodly in Ezek. xviii. 25 :
" And ye have said : The way of the Lord is not equal'; "
and that of St. Paul, in Eom. xi. 33 : "And His ways
are past finding out ; " and thus do I understand many
other passages of Holy Scripture.
In verse ninth, David shows the malignity, both out
ward and inward, of those of whom he speaks in verse
the eighth, who manifest it outwardly by their conversa
tion, it being both wicked and flattering, two indications
of ungodliness ; and the inward, their malignity of mind,
which, vomited forth by their throat, stinks as does a
sepulchral vault newly opened.
V. 10.— Destroy Thou them, 0 God ; let them
fall by their own counsels ; cast them out in the

30 PSALM V. 10-12
multitude of their transgressions ; for they have
rebelled against Thee.
11. — But all those that put their trust in Thee
shall rejoice : they shall ever shout for joy, because
Thou defended them : they also that love Thy
name shall be joyful in Thee.
12. — For Thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous;
with favour wilt Thou crown him ; Thou wilt com
pass him as with a shield.
Saying in verse the tenth, " Let them fall by their own
counsels," he means, may they fail in that which they
plot and devise against me. Here let it be observed,
that if David asked vengeance of God upon his enemies,
he was inspired to ask it by the Spirit of God ; for the
Spirit which God gave under the Law was the Spirit of
vengeance, just as the Spirit which God gives in Gospel
times is the Spirit of love, nothing vindictive, and there
fore it does not inspire vengeance, as did that in the
time of the Law, but to bear and to suffer. Christ made
this difference of spirits very palpable when He said to
His disciples, what time they wished to emulate Elijah,
in Luke ix. 55, "Ye know not of what spirit ye are."
David says that these had rebelled against God, because
they would not accept him as their king after that God
had anointed him as king. And I understand that all
they are rebels to God who will not accept Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, into their minds as their King ; and I
say into their minds, for there are many who accept
Him with their mouth and with outward demonstrations :;
but not with the heart, and this acceptance is worth but
little. In verse the eleventh David means that the ungodly, ¦
having been destroyed, who stood opposed to his rule,
and he peacefully reigning, the godly lived happily and

PSALM V. 10-12 31
contentedly ; for, being under the rule of David, the
Lord's anointed, they would be under God's rule. And
since it is thus true that the godly Jews lived contentedly
under David's rule, how much more contentedly may
we hold that godly Christians do live in the present life
in the kingdom of Christ, and that they will live in the
kingdom of God in the life eternal ?
By " them that love Thy name " he means the godly ;
and by the name of God, Jehovah, which well-nigh sets
forth the being of God, as has been stated in the Pre
face. I understand that they love the name of God
who rejoice that they are in the hands of God, that they
depend upon God, and who recognise their being as of
God's creation, for herein does godliness consist. Not
only do the ungodly not rejoice in this, but they, were
it possible, would fain have no God. It may likewise
be understood that to love His name is to love God
Himself. In the last verse, by blessing of God, I understand the
favour of God ; and I understand that David calls him
self righteous, not on account of his own righteousness,
but on account of that which he had accepted as his
own, which God had revealed, as being about to be
executed upon Jesus Christ our Lord. And I under
stand that, just as the man would be arrogant who
should hold himself to be righteous, not feeling himself
justified by Christ, so likewise is that man humble who
holds himself to be righteous, feeling this justification
in himself. The men who obey the dictates of human
prudence, incapable of making this difference, always
hold him to be arrogant who holds himself to be righte
ous, because they could not hold such opinion of them
selves without arrogance. And this is a common failing
with men, that they never assume concerning others but
what the individual assumes concerning himself. They
who obey the dictates of the Spirit of God recognise

32 PSALM V. IO-I2
humility in the man who holds himself to be righteous
through the justice of God executed upon our Lord Jesus
Christ. What he says, " Thou wilt compass him. Thou wilt
crown him," is tantamount to his saying, "Thou wilt
encircle him round as with a crown." So that the whole
verse being summarised, David says, "Thus too. Lord,
shall they rejoice with Thee who depend on Thee ; when
they shall consider the favours Thou wilt have done me,
whom Thou hast justified ; and when they see that Thou
spontaneously, of Thy mere goodness and munificence,
hast encircled me with Thy favour, so that the wicked
cannot injure me." St. Paul felt himself to be thus
compassed and crowned when he said, " that there could
be nothing that should be able to remove him from the '
kingdom of God, which is through Jesus Christ our Lord"
(Eom. viii. 38, 39).

PSALM VI
VI. 1. — 0 Lord, rebuke me not in Thine anger,
neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure.
2. — Have mercy upon me, 0 Lord ; for I am
weak : 0 Lord, heal me ; for my bones quake with
terror. 3. — My soul is also sore terrified : but Thou, 0
Lord, how long ?
In this psalm it appears that David asked of God that
He should deliver him from a sickness by which he was
so oppressed that he had to keep his bed ; and therefore,
in this psalm, as also in others which Dg,vid composed
upon this same subject, I understand that, because the
godly are aware that bodily sicknesses are brought upon
them by the will and ordinance of God, when they find
themselves sick they immediately recur to God Him
self, that He should heal their sickness. They who are
aliens to godliness, because they believe that sicknesses
come fortuitously, when they find themselves sick, desir
ing forthwith to be healed, recur to doctors and to drugs,
as will be shown more at length in the commentary upon
Psalm xxxviii.
Old Testament saints mourned heavily over bodily
sicknesses, and all the other outward discomforts to which
humanity is subject, because outward bodily welfare was
promised them as their main recompense for observance
of the Law of God ; and they thus held it to be certain
that bodily infirmities were chastisements for transgression
33 c

34 PSALM VI. 4-7
of the Law. New Testament saints do not so grieve
over sicknesses, for bodily circumstances are not promised
them as the main recompense of piety, being merely
promised as accessory recompense, as where Christ says,
Matt. vi. 33, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.''
Nevertheless they feel them, and hold them to be chas
tisements of their weaknesses and frailty, conformably
with that in 1 Cor. xi. 30, " For this cause many are weak
and sickly among you."
I do not understand that David, in the first verse, asks
not to be chastised, but that the chastisement may not be
very rigorous, rude, and harsh ; as though he should say,
I acquiesce. Lord, in Thy chastisement, but let it be in
love, in mercy, and not in anger nor in wrath. To rebuke
is the same as to punish ; so, likewise, anger, wrath, and
passion are synonymous.
In verses the second and third, I note that because
David was confident that God loved him, he sought to
provoke Him to mercy by most affectionately laying
before Him the distress in which he was. David well
knew that his sickness was well known to God ; but he
moreover knew that it is God's will that His people ask of
Him that which He wills to give them, and David bends
to the will of God by revealing to Him his distress;
where I understand that the godly recur to God in their
bodily infirmities, revealing their distress to Him, and
entreating of Him to look upon them ; conformable
herewith is John xi. 3, " Lo ! he ivhom Thou lovest is
sick." To that, " But Tlwu, 0 Lord, how long" add "wilt
Thou chastise me," or something similar ; and David, in
leaving it unexpressed, manifests the feeling with which
he spoke.
VI. 4. — Return, 0 Lord, deliver my soul : save
me for Thy mercy's sake.

PSALM VI. 4-7 35
5. — For in death there is no remembrance of
Thee : in the grave, who shall confess Thee ?
6. — I am w^eary with my groaning ; all the night
make I my bed to swim ; I water my couch with
my tears.
7.— My eyes are consumed because of grief;
mine eneraies make them wax old.
In verse the fourth I understand him to say, Eeturn,
0 Lord, to favour me as Thou wert wont, that I may not
die of this sickness ; deliver me from death, not for my
sake, but for Thine ; not for my godliness, but for Thy
mercy. Here it is to be observed that he says, "Deliver
my soul," meaning, that I may be brought up out of this
sickness, that I may not die of it. It is clear and mani
fest that, in Holy Scripture, by the soul is meant the
life. In verse the fifth it seems that David says to God :
Stay me not, for Thou knowest that after death I shall
not remember Thee ; and that in the grave, or in Hades, for
the Hebrew word signifies both, I shall not confess Thee.
Hezekiah's prayer, reported in Isa. xxxviii. 1 8, is couched
in similar words.
Possibly by these passages both these saints will have
meant that God by their death would not bring it to
pass that tbe nations should remember Him, or that they
should confess Him, whilst He would accomplish both the
one and the other by prolonging their lives. Still, as to
the apprehension of this verse, I complacently confess my
ignora,nce, stating that I do not understand it.
Here it has to be understood that " to confess God " is
to recognise His supremacy; to acknowledge that He
governs everything, and that His government is holy
and just.
In verse sixth, David, desirous of showing how great

36 PSALM VI. 8-IO
was his sickness, and his feelings respecting it, expresses
himself hyperbolically ; he, by exaggeration, states that
which is impossible ; for it is clear that David's tears
were not in their amount such that his bed could swim
in them ; but, by representing them as such, he shows
that they were most abundant. He also shows it by
repeating the same thing in different words, " / make my
hed to swim, I water my cou^h."
In verse seventh, David shows that the pleasure (which
he knew) that his enemies took in seeing him suffer, so
increased his sickness that those mortal indications which
precede death were already visible in his eyes.
VI. 8. — Depart from me, all ye who work vanity :
for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weep
ing- 9. — The Lord hath heard my supplication ; the
Lord hath received my prayer.
10. — All mine enemies shall be ashamed and sore
vexed : they shall return to their wonted sadness,
and there shall they remain ashamed.
By verse the eighth I understand that through the
Holy Spirit David knew his deliverance ; I understand
that it was the Spirit who reminded him that God pro
mises to help those who seek Him with all the heart ;
He caused David to place entire faith in what God
promises ; He assured him of his recovery. Whence I
gather that our prayers are then prompted by the Spirit
of God, when they are based upon the promises of God.
I mean when we base them upon what God has promised
that He will do for those who seek Him.
When he says that " the ungodly work vanity," I under
stand that all their projects fail.
In saying « the voice of my weeping;' I understand that

PSALM VI. 8-IO 37
which I have sought with tears, the spiritual affection
with which they were uttered.
I leave the words of this verse to be considered by
those to whom that shall have occurred which occurred
to David ; I mean those who, under the pressure of
distress, have sought the favour of God ; and who, having
felt themselves favoured, felt abhorrence for everything,
felt alienated from God, which, because they felt so,
they would neither look upon nor retain in their minds ;
for I understand that David in his sickness passed through
all this.
In the two last verses I understand David to say :
Because God hath heard and accepted my prayer, it will
come to pass that in my recovery from this sickness,
all my enemies, who rejoice at my sickness, when they
shall see me in health and delivered from it, shall re
main confounded and alarmed, they shall return to their
wonted gloom, ay, they will remain confounded ; nay,
this is a fact, that the wicked, whenever they consider
the favours with which God favours the righteous, are con
founded, saddened, and alarmed ; just as the righteous,
on the other hand, are by that same consideration led to
rejoice, to be cheered, and to be enamoured of God.
From all this psalm there is this to be gathered — that
it is well for the righteous to recognise their sicknesses
as discipline from God, and to have recourse mainly to
God, in order that He may heal them ; to make the glory
of God their aim in their recovery ; whence proceed
the confusion of the wicked, who are the enemies of God,
and the joy of the righteous, who are the friends of
God, into whose righteousness and friendship they have
entered through Jesus Christ our Lord.

PSALM VII
VII. 1. — 0 Lord my God, in Thee have I put
my trust : save me from all them that persecute
me, and deliver me :
2. — Lest my enemy tear my soul like a lion,
rending it iu pieces, while there is none to deliver.
David's design in this psalm, as appears from the
title which it bears in the Hebrew books, is to plead
with God to favour him as against his persecutors,
amongst whom he indicates one whom I think to be
Saul ; where I revert to observe, that although the
Spirit of God inspired David, a pious Jew, to plead for
favour against his persecutors, and vengeance against his
eneinies, the Spirit of God, which is attained through
Jesus' Christ our Lord, does not inspire vengeance, but
forgiveness. I state this, in order that a Christian, feel
ing moved to ask vengeance, may hold such impulse to
be human, and not suggested by the Holy Spirit ; and
that he may not defend it, by saying, " Since David
asked vengeance, I too can ask for it." For it is a fact
that the Spirit of God moved Old Testament saints to do
many things which in New Testament saints would be
human impulse. This consideration will be applicable
throughout all the Psalter.
Where he states in verse the first, " In Thee have I
trusted," I understand him to say, I, Lord, do that
which concerns me, which is to trust in Thee ; do Thou
that which concerns Thee, that is, to deliver me. Had I
38

PSALM VII. 3-8 39
trusted in myself, or in any created thing, it would have
concerned me to seek out my own remedy ; but placing
my confidence in Thee, it concerns Thee to provide a
remedy for me.
Whence we understand that God cares for those who
confide in Him. Human prudence, affecting piety,
teaches that God cares for those who live holily and
righteously, and it teaches that these alone can confide in
God ; whilst the Holy Spirit teaches that God does care
for those who truly confide in Him, without requiring
other righteousness or other holiness. It is indeed true
that the confidence itself makes the man who confides
just and holy; so that man has not to go in quest, of
righteousness and holiness in order to confide, but of
confidence, in order to attain righteousness and holiness.
In verse the second, by the lion I assuredly think him
to mean Saul ; and by employing these expressions,
" tear my said, and rend it in pieces," he enhances his
enemy's cruelty.
VII. 3. — 0 Lord my God, if I have done this: if
there be iniquity in my hands ;
4. — If I have rewarded evil unto him that was
at peace with me ; yea, I have delivered him that
without cause is mine enemy.
5. — Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take
it ; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth,
and lay mine honour in the dust. Selah.
6. — Arise, 0 Lord, in Thine anger; lift up
Thyself, because of the rage of mine enemies ; and
awake for me to the judgment that Thou hast com
manded. 7.— So shall the congregation of the people com
pass Thee about: for their sakes, therefore, return
Thou on high.

40 PSALM VII. 3-8
8. — The Lord shall judge the people : judge me,
0 Lord, according to my righteousness, and accord
ing to mine integrity, with which I am abundantly
invested. I understand the meaning of verses third, fourth, and
fifth to be this : 0 Lord my God, if ever I have been as
a lion to Saul, in the manner in which he has been so to
me; and if ever my hands have acted as perversely as
have those of Saul ; and if ever I have acted injuriously
to my confederate, as Saul has acted injuriously towards
me, being his confederate ; and if I have made him flee as
an enemy, whom I treated as such, without a cause, as
Saul has made me flee, without my ever having given
him cause to hold me to be his enemy, I acquiesce in
Saul's being my enemy : let him persecute me and take
my life ; let him have his desire, that of spoiling me of
honour and of life.
So that this is a most ingenious way of a man's justi
fying himself against another ; and I understand David
to say. If I ask of Thee, 0 Lord, that Thou shouldest
favour me against Saul, I do not transgress Thy precept
of charity to my neighbour, since I am happy, and should
be content, were I as Saul, that Thou shouldest do to me
what I solicit of Thee that thou shouldest do to him.
I understand " the palms " to be the hands ; and in
saying this, I understand him to refer to what he has
stated in verse the second. David, having justified his
cause in the preceding verses, proceeds in verse the sixth
to ask three things of God : the first, that He should
arise on his behalf, moved by indignation ; the second,
. that He should lift Himself up, meaning, that He should
manifest Himself on David's side, and this, being moved
to do so by those things which they, David's adversaries,
did, whereby God's indignation was moved against them ;
in the third, I understand him to speak thus : Awake, 0

PSALM VII. 9-13 41
Lord, in my favour, agreeably with what Thou hast
ordained ; Thou hast commanded me to confide in Thee,
and hast promised that Thou wilt favour me : Thou seest
that I trust in Thee, it reraains that Thou favour me.
I understand him to say in verse the seventh. The
nations, seeing that Thou favourest me, because I have
trusted in Thee, will also come to trust in Thee ; and
since it is so, that Thou wilt not favour me, merely
to promote my interest, favour me for Thine own glory's
sake. Where I observe that whenever the godly makes
the glory of God his aim, he aims at his own interest ;
and that whenever he aims at his own interest, he aims
at the glory of God, for such is the privilege of true
godliness. For the apprehension of the eighth verse, I consider
that David, the Lord's anointed, sought to rule in Israel,
and that he was raoved by the Spirit of God to do so ;
men of the world, thinking that he was moved by ambi
tion, ill-judged him ; and because it ordinarily happens
that human prudence condemns as bad that which the
Spirit of God approves of as good, and that it ever
obstructs as unjust that which the Spirit of God holds
to be just, I understand David, appealing from human to
Divine judgment, to say. Thus then, becauSe the Lord is
the judge of the universe, I desire that He be ray judge,
since He only knows that I justly demand this kingdom,
and that in striving to attain it I wholly maintain my
integrity. And that superadded clause, with which I am
abundantly invested, is but a pleonastic Hebraisra.
VII. 9. — Oh let the wickedness of the wicked
come to an end ; but establish Thou the righteous :
for the righteous God trieth the heart and reins.
10. — God is my shield. He saveth the upright in
heart.

42 PSALM VII. 9-13
11. — ^God is the righteous judge. He is angry
with the wicked every day.
12. — If He turn not, He will whet His sword;
He hath bent His bow, and made it ready.
13. — He hath also prepared for him the instru
ments of death ; He ordaineth His arrows against
the persecutors.
In verse the ninth I understand David to manifest his
desire that the wicked should be rendered incapable of
doing evil ; for were their malignity to cease, he would
be confirmed by God in the kingdom ; for it would come
to pass that were the wicked, David's enemies, disabled,
the just and pious David would be rendered powerful.
When he says that " God tries the heart and the reins,"
he extols his integrity the more, since he desires to be
judged by such a judge, who not only is informed of all
that is without, but who perfectly understands all that is
within. I understand that godliness or wickedness has
its seat in the heart, and I understand that chaste or
sensual impulses have their seat in the loins, the know
ledge of which is reserved to God alone.
As to verse the tenth, I understand that just as they
who are alien from godliness protect and defend them
selves as best they can by the favour of creatures, so they
who are godly protect and defend themselves by the
favour of God, whose prerogative it is to deliver the
godly, those who are upright in heart, out of the hands of
the ungodly.
In verse the eleventh, David, threatening the ungodly,
feays, Although God for a season dissimulates His wrath,
at last, in His own time, He manifests it, for He is a just
God. For Him to be raoved by anger is tantamount to
being so by indignation. In the following verses it
appears that David says. If Saul does not return to God ;
if he persevere in whetting his sword, and in preparing

PSALM VII. 14-17 43
every other form of weapon wherewith to persecute me
to the death, you will see that persevering in devising
evil and in carrying it into execution, it will come to pass
that he will experience in his own person the evil that
he prepares against me, so that he will both know and
feel how he works to his own injury. In following out
this interpretation, an "if" is to be understood as pre
fixed to each clause of verses twelfth and thirteenth : " IF
he whet," " IF he bend," &c. This reading appears to me to
be good, and I hold it to be better than suppressing the
" if" by reading (as though David should state by way of
menace throughout these verses), " If Saul shall not
repent, God will whet His sword against him," that is,
His justice, &c., with all that follows. By instruments of
death he means arrows, the messengers of death. When
he says, " He will ordain His arrows fm' persecutors," he
means that God will make weapons wherewith to chas
tise the ungodly enemies of the godly.
VII. 14. — Behold, the ungodly travaileth with
iniquity, he conceiveth mischief, and bringeth forth
falsehood. 15. — He makes a pit, and digs it, and he falls
into the hole which he makes.
16.— His mischief shall return upon his own
head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon
his own pate.
1 7.— 1 will praise the Lord according to His
righteousness : I will sing praise to the name of the
Lord most high, even to Jehovah.
In verse the fourteenth he expresses the peculiar
characteristic of wickedness, which is continuously to
devise evil, and then to work it out. In verse the
fifteenth, " by making a pit and sinking it to a great

44 PSALM VII. 14-17
depth," he indicates the deep plots which the wicked
devise against the good. In verse the sixteenth he
repeats in the second part what he had stated in the first;
and it ever is so, that the thief makes the halter with
which he is hanged. By the last verse, I understand
that the godly, who consider these things, confess that
God is just, and magnify the name of God; this is the
most holy name Jehovah, which, as has been said,
expresses the Being of God, for it signifies Essence and
Existence, which the pious Jews taught by the Holy
Scriptures, and by their own experience, recognised in
God ; and pious Christians recognise the same, but more
perfectly, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

PSALM VIII
VIII. 1. — 0 Lord our Lord, how excellent is
Thy name in all the earth ! who hast set Thy
glory above the heavens.
2. — Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings
hast Thou caused strength to proceed, because
of Thine enemies, that Thou mightest quell the
enemy and the avenger.
I understand David's purpose in this psalm to be
to magnify the love that God shows to man, and the
pre-eminent position in which God first placed him at
creation. In verse the first, by " the name of God," I under
stand God Himself ; and I understand God's paramount
excellence to consist, in that He constitutes Himself
the object of fear to the wicked and of love to the
godly. I understand, moreover, that God " has set His glory
above the heavens," because that there He manifests
His might. His existence, and his power ; whilst it
appears to be that frora there He rules and governs
the universe.
From verse the second, I understand that they who
do not believe in God, who deny the particular pro
vidence of God, and who impugn it, are the adversaries
and enemies of God. Now, because the men who ordi
narily fall into these profanities are they who are
armed with human doctrines and sciences, I understand

46 PSALM VIII. 3-9
David's purpose in this verse to be the declaration that,
intending to stop the mouths of these His enemies and
to chastise them, with just cause for so doing, God
constructs a fortress, that is. He fortifies His Being, His
providence, and His justice, in the mouths of raen, who
are ignorant, illiterate, and destitute of education, who
are like children suckling at the breast, whom He con
strains to confess the Being of God, His providence,
and His justice, with all God's other perfections, which
human prudence does not attain to comprehend, no,
nor ever can. In harmony with this interpretation,
our Lord Jesus Christ quoted this verse, as reported in
Matt. xxi. 1 6.
And that Holy Scripture, by babes and sucklings,
understands those whom the world holds to be ignorant,
appears from many places in the New Testament, and
especially from that in Matt. xi. 25 : "Because Thou
hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent and
hast revealed them unto babes," and from that in i Cor.
i. 27 : " The weak of this world hath God chosen,"
No passage from the Old Testament occurs to me
that favours this rendering, save one which is found
in Ps. cxxxi. 2, where David compares himself to the
infant with its mother; wherewith he has occasion to
state that God, prompting the child by natural instinct
to suckle its raother's breast, and to do other things
tending to preserve life, stops the mouths of these Hia
adversaries, who deny his Divine Providence.
I shall not contend with what he says, " to quell (to
repress) the en^my ; " I understand it to be the exposi
tion of what he has said, "because of Thine enemies;"
and I understand that he calls the wicked enemies, and
that he calls them vindictive, because a vindictive mind
is an indication of wickedness.
VIII. 3. — When I consider Thy heavens, the

PSALM VIII. 3-9 47
work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars,
which Thou hast ordained,
4. — (I say) What is. man, that Thou art mindful
of him ? and the son of Adam, that Thou visitest
him ?
5. — For Thou hast made him a little less than
Elohim (a little lower than the angels), and hast
crowned him with glory and honour.
6. — Thou madest him to have dominion over
the works of Thy hands ; Thou hast put all things
under his feet :
7. — Sheep and all oxen, yea, and the beasts of
the field ;
8. — The fowls of the air, and the fishes of the
sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of
the seas.
9. — 0 Lord our Lord, how excellent is Thy
name in all the earth !
In verse the third, I understand that David seeks
highly to extol the consideration, that God makes of
man, and to state that he was brought to the know
ledge of God by his consideration of God's creation of
the heavens, of the sun and of the moon, as of objects
most admirable.
By "fingers " I understand hands ; and by " which
Thou hast ordained," I understand hast created, and hast
adorned, which Thou rulest and governest.
I understand that verse the fourth is to be read as
suggesting something wondrous, understanding it to be
a marvel that God, being so mighty, so high, and so
¦wise, should regard man, being so vile, so miserable, and
so ignoble.Where I understand him to say " inan," and to say

48 PSALM VIII. 3-9
" the son of Adam," treating him ignominiously, the
" son of Adam " is but synonymous with " man," whilst
" to visit him " is synonymous with remembering him ;
his meaning being, Thou lookest upon him, and hast
regard unto him whom Thou rulest and governest.
In verse the fifth, I understand David to say to God,
And yet. Lord, what Thou now dost for raan is but
little, considering what Thou madest him at creation,
creating him in Thine image and likeness ; " and I
understand that David declares what this image and
likeness of God is wherein the first man was created,
stating that God crowned him with glory and honour;
meaning, that these two things were his diadem and
his crown, and that he was arrayed and surrounded
with these, and with the other virtues which Holy
Scripture attributes to God, such as His munificence,
goodness, mercy, justice, truth, faith, fulness, &c. ; and
then telling in the following verses of the superiority
with which God endowed raan over all other creatures;
where I understand that, according to David, and that
likewise according to St. Paul, Eph. iv. 24, Holy
Scripture states that man was created in the image
and likeness of God. I understand that the soodness
o
of God, with all the other virtues that are attributed
to God, and wherein He was superior to all creatures,
shone forth in him.
This I understand to have been the iraage of God
which the first man lost by disobedience to God; and
this is what I understand that we Christians recover
by imitating Christ, and by becoming members of
Christ; and I understand that just as of a man, in
whom we see (repeated) the habits of another, we say
that he resembles hira, and that he is like hira, so God,
having, so to speak, iraplanted His (characteristic) habits
in raan, Holy Scripture states that He implanted His
image and likeness in man ; with the person who shall

PSALM VIII. 3-9 49
desire to contend that David does not here celebrate the
condition in which man was created, but that of his re
generation, against him I will not argue.
The word " Flohim," in verse the fifth, is interpreted
by some in one way and by others in another ; some
render it God, whilst others render it angels ; and in
order that this raay remain ambiguous, prejudicing no
one, I have left the same Hebrew word, by which I
understand God ; and thence I gather, that David shows
in what way God created man in His image and
likeness. " : ¦
By the animals, the birds, and the fishes, which are
mentioned in verses seven and eight, I understand, all
animate creatures, amongst which I understand him to
include the inanimate ; all which I understand God sub
jugated to man ; again I understand, that when man
rebelled against God, the creatures rebelled against him ;
but I understand, that when man returns to obedience
to God, the creatures 'will likewise return to ¦ obedii
ence to man; and thus he recovers both outwardly and
inwardly the iraage and likeness of God, accepting as
his own the justice of God, executed upon Jesus Christ,
our Lord.

PSALM IX
IX. 1. — I will praise Thee, 0 Lord, with my
whole heart ; I will shew forth all Thy marvellous
works. 2. — I will be glad and rejoice in Thee : I will
sing Thy name, 0 Thou most High.
3. — When mine enemies were turned back, they
fell and perished at Thy presence.
4, — For Thou hast maintained my right and my
cause; Thou satest in the throne judging right
eously. 5. — ^Thou hast rebuked the heathen, Thou hast
destroyed the wicked, Thou hast blotted out their
name for ever and ever.
David's design in this psalra is to show himself thank
ful to God for some one of the signal victories which, by
God's grace, he achieved against his enemies. Commen
tators understand the victory to have been that over the
great Philistine, Goliath, which apprehension does not please
me, because, from the tenor of verses thirteen and fourteen,
it appears that David desired to escape with his life, in
order that he might celebrate victory in Jerusalem ; and
when the affair with Goliath took place, Jerusalem was
not renowned, nor do I think that it was then in Jewish
hands ; and therefore I think that the psalm is composed
for some other victory that David achieved after that he

PSALM IX. 1-5 51
had gained Jerusalem, and that he had built it and made
it renowned. In verse the first, I understand David to promise two
things : the one to confess God, and it has already been
stated how this confession has to be understood; and the
other to report all the marvellous things which God had
wrought. Whence I gather that God requires of Hia
people confession and proclamation; that they confess
the mercy of God, and that they preach it amongst the
nations. In verses second, third, and fourth, I understand that
David fulfils the first promise, in that he attributes his
victory to God.
As to verse the second, I understand it to be the
greatest token of godliness for a man to be glad, and to
rejoice in God ; they who are alien to godliness are not
glad, neither do they rejoice with creatures ; whilst the
ungodly, were it possible, would fain that there were no
God. That, " 0 Thou most High," may be understood in one
of two ways : either that he invokes God, or that he says,
I will sing Thy most exalted name in a psalm.
As to verse the third, I understand that when God
wills to favour the godly against the ungodly. He not
only makes the godly to understand that He does favour
them, but He shows the ungodly that He is opposed to
thera ; so that the expression, " at Thy presence," is equi
valent to "feeling Thy presence," as we say that snow
melts in the presence of the sun.
As to verse the fourth, it is to be understood that" God
there vindicates the right and the cause of the godly
against the ungodly, when He chastises the ungodly,
delivering the godly out of their hands. For " God to
sit in the judgment-seat " is equivalent to pass sentence,
and to execute the sentence.
In verse the fifth, I understand David to fulfil the

52 PSALM IX. 6-IO
second promise: he reports the manner in whicTi God
had given him the victory. By " the wicked," commen-I
tators understand Goliath; I understand David's chief
enemy ; and as to God's erasing the names of the wicked;
this will be treated of in the commentary upon Psalm;
xxxvii. IX. 6.— 0 thoii enemy ! hast thou brought de
structions to a perpetual end ? liast thou destroyed'
cities ? has their memorial perished with them ?
7. — But the Lord shall endure for ever : He hath
prepared His throne for judgment :
. 8.— And He shall' judge the world in righteous-
'ness. He shall minister judgment to the people iu
equity. 9. — The" Lord also will be a refuge for the
Oppressed, a refuge in times 'of trouble.
10..-— And they that know Thy name will put
their trust in Thee : for Thou, Lord, hast never
forsaken them that seek Thee.
In verse the sixth I understand David, elated with his
victory, to parade before his enemy's eyes those threat-)
enings with which he had bullied David, showing them'
to have been vain, since they had not been carried out;
and I understand him to take up the very same words
which he had uttered as a menace to the Jewish people;
as though he should say, Nothing of all that thou didst
threaten has come to pass.
In verse the seventh I note that David did not attribute;
this victory to himself, but to the judgment of God ; and
I note, moreover, that it behoves every godly person to
adopt this verse as his own, and when the wicked shall
persecute and maltreat him, to say, I disregard it,, injure

PSALM IX. 1I-16 53
me as much as you will, for God is a just judge, and
always ready and prepared to judge.
Verse the eighth is the confirmation of verse the
seventh. Verse the ninth is a' Divine promise, by which God
proraises that He' will favour and assist every one that is
oppressed : only let hira rernit himself with all his heart
to God, relying upon His promise ; for it is so, that
the promises are only fulfilled to those who believe in
them. By " times of trouble " I understand times of affliction
and of anxiety amongst those whom God favours as His
own people.
In verse the tenth I note two Divine maxims. The
fine, that they alone confide in God who know the name
of God, I mean the reality of God's existence ; and the
other, that it suffices to bring God under obligation
to favour us, that we truthfully seek Him ; and I
understand, that they seek God who recur to Him in
everything, who constantly desire to see His presence,
saying with the bride, " Shew me Thy face " (Cant,
ii. 14).
IX. 11. — Sing ;^raises to the Lord, who dwelleth
in Zion : declare among the people His doings.
12. — When He maketh inquisition for blood. He
remembereth them ; He forgetteth not the cry of
the humble.
13. — Have mercy upon me, 0 Lord ; consider my
trouble which I suffer of them that hate me. Thou
that liftest me up from the gates of death :
14. — That I may shew forth all Thy praise in
the gates of the daughter of Zion : I will rejoice
in Thy salvation.
15. — The heathen have fallen down into the pit

54 PSALM IX. 11-16
that they made : in the net which they hid is their
own foot taken.
16. — The Lord is known by the judgment which
He executeth : the wicked is snared in the work of
his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.
In verse the twelfth, saying, " When He' maketh ivr
quisition for blood," he means by holding inquests upon
the murders perpetrated upon earth, and he states that
whenever God comes to investigate the circumstances
He ever remembers, either the godly, to avenge them,
or the murders perpetrated upon the godly, to punish
thera. In verse the thirteenth, where he says, " Of them that
hate me," I understand those who raake rae suffer; I
understand that David said this, pleading for God's
favour against those who, seeing that God was with him,
wished him ill and abhorred him.
By " the gates of death " I understand death itself ; he
means, "Prevent these from killing me, lest I die under
their hands ; '' and I understand that such was the hatred
that the people had against David, through envy of the
favour which God vouchsafed him, that he ever, even
when retusning God thanks for victory granted, was con
strained to ask of God that He should defend him from
the malignity of those who abhorred hira.
In verse the fourteenth I understand him to speak
thus : The reason, 0 Lord, why I ask of Thee that Thon
shouldest raise me up from the gates of death is that I
may live to proclaim what Thou hast done, acts worthy
to be praised; and this, "in the gates of the daughter
of Zion" means, in the city of Jerusalem, or " in the
gates of Jerusalem," which was built upon Mount Zion.
And what he says, " / will rejoice in Thy salvation," I
understand to be the salvation and life which ThoU wilt
give me.

PSALM IX. 17-20 55
I understand verses fifteen and sixteen to contain what
David desired to sing in the gates of the daughter of
Zion, that is to say, the mode in which God had punished
and destroyed the enemies of His people. Here I note
two things : the one, that the wicked always fall by the
machinations which they devise against the godly ; and
the other, that God is then known as a just judge when
He treats the wicked as they deserve.
When he adds " Higgaion," which means, '' considera
tion," I understand hira to advise every godly person to
retain what he has said evermore in his memory, to the
intent that he may abhor ungodliness yet the more, and
that he may the more apply himself to godliness.
IX. 17. — The wicked shall be turned into Sheol,
and so shall all the nations that forget God.
18. — For the needy shall not alway be forgotten :
neither shall the expectation of the poor perish for
ever. 19. — Arise, 0 Lord ; let not man prevail ; let the
heathen be judged in Thy sight.
20. — Put them in fear, 0 Lord ; that the nations
may know themselves to be but men. Selah !
In verse the seventeenth, I understand David to say,
that just as God had then punished his enemies with
death, casting them into the grave, so will He ever punish
all the wicked, making them to return to the earth from
whence they sprang ; and, " all the nations that forget
God," I understand to be a declaration affecting the un
godly, meaning that they who forget God are ungodly.
By the grave may be understood hell, for the Hebrew
admits of this rendering likewise.
In verse the eighteenth, I understand David to say
that God slays the ungodly, whilst He holds the godly in

56 PSALM IX. 17-20
remembrance. Now all they who are godly, and find
themselves persecuted and maltreated by the ungodly,
ought to take consolation from this statement ; where I
¦understand him to call the godly "the poor and the
¦needy ; " for depending upon God, they have renounced
all the favour that can come to thera from creatures,
holding themselves to be more secure with the favour of
God, as against all the varied forms of man's violence,
than if they were constantly attended by armed men;
and to be more secure, whilst God is their proveditor,
that their necessary food will not fail them, than if
they had their houses crammed with provisions, and this
is the poverty of spirit which I understand to be praised
in the. Gospel.
I understand David, in verse the nineteenth, to suppli
cate of God " that He arise," meaning that He manifest
His favour on behalf of the godly, and that He should not
allow the men to take courage under sense of protec
tion who are up in arms against godliness, but that God
should judge thera, that He conderan them, and that He
punish them. And when he says, " In Thy sight or pre
sence," I think him to mean. Thou rising up and showing
Thyself. The words ",men " ^and " nations " I understand to be
synonymous ; and they are two words which he uses to
rebuke men who are alienated from God.
In the last verse, David entreats of God two things ;
the one, that He may intimidate the ungodly, and I under
stand that He does then intimidate them when He favours
the godly ; and the other, that He bring it to pass that
they who are heathen, wholly disregarding God, may
know how feeble, weak, and miserable they are ; for that
recognising this,, they would not dare to carry out their
ungodly devices, and thus they would not maltreat th§
godly. And I' understand the same of that expression in
this verse, " that the^ nations may knoiv," where I undet-

PSALM IX. 17-20 57
stand that David desired the chastisement of the wicked,
and that his desire was holy and pious ; but the desires
of those who stand connected with the Gospel which
our Lord Jesus Christ brought into the world are
different.

PSALM X
X. 1. — Why standest Thou afar off, 0 Lord?
why hidest Thou Thyself in times of trouble ?
2. — The wicked in his arrogant pride doth
persecute the poor : let them be taken in the
devices that they have imagined.
3. — For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire
and blesseth the covetous ; he blasphemeth the
Lord.
It appears to be David's purpose in this psalm to
pray to God that He should favour the innocence of
the righteous against the malignity of the wicked ; and
in order to raove Him by evidence to do this, the
Psalmist first shows Him the perversity of the wicked
in two things : the one, that they hold no relations with
God, and the others that "they are constantly occupied
in devising, by every possible way and means, how to
injure the righteous. Whence I gather, that if un
godliness consist in these two things, godliness will
consist in their two opposites: in holding a strict
account with God, and in constantly devising how to
act kindly to the righteous ; with no less solicitude than
that exerted by the wicked to do them injury.
Forasmuch as David has stated in the former psalm,
that God succours His people in His own time, I do
not understand that these words, in verse the first,
are uttered complainingly, but suggestively, as though
he should say. It will not be well. Lord, that Thou
58

PSALM X. 4-10 59
shouldest keep aloof, nor that Thou shouldest hide
Thyself, from Thy people, what time they are afflicted.
In what manner He hides Himself, and keeps Himself
aloof at such a season, cannot be understood save by ex
perience ; I mean that none do understand it, save those
who have experienced it ; and that none have experienced
it, save those who have felt the presence of God.
Effectively, spirituality is wholly experiraental, its at
tainments are precisely determined by experience.
The four or five verses that follow, commentators
interpret differently, for in them David speaks so that
the words are ambiguous and their sense doubtful.
But, however understood, they well express the malig
nity of the wicked. That in verse the second, "in
the devices that they have imagined," &c., I understand
as spoken rhetorically. And in saying with what
" arrogant pride," I understand, that evinced when he is
rich and prosperous, when his undertakings have proved
very successful; and that such is the fact has been
amply witnessed in our own experience.
For verse the third, David sets forth these character
istics of the wicked man : the good opinion which he
holds of himself, his praise of those who are like himself,
his blasphemous utterances and feelings against God.
Where I understand three characteristics of the righteous
man opposed to these : he blesses God, he censures
those who are alien to God, and he holds a bad
opinion of himself; ever suspecting himself of evil, I
mean of what he retains of the old Adam ; wherefore
St. Paul, a godly man, said of hiraself, Eom. vii. 8,
" For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, there dwelleth
no good thing."
X. 4. — The wicked, through his arrogant pride,
does not consider, aU his thoughts are that there
is no God.

6o PSALM X. 4-10
¦5.— His ways are always grievous; Thy judg
ments unheeded are far out of his sight : as for
all his enemies, he puffeth at them.
6. — He hath said in His heart, I shall not be
moved ; for never shall I be in advertsity.
7. — His moutli is full of cursing, and deceit,
and fraud ; under his tongue are mischief and
vanity, 8. — He lieth in wait in the lurking places of
the villages, in out of the way places doth he
murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set
against the poor.
9. — He lieth in wait concealed, as a lion in
his den : he lieth in wait to catch the poor : he
doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into
his net.
' 10. — He croucheth, and stoopeth; so that some
of the most wretched poor may fall into his strong
claws.

When David says, in verse the fourth, that " the
does not consider," he means, that he is destitute of con
sideration, that he does whatever he capriciously wills;
and when he says, moreover, that the ungodly man's
thoughts wholly resolve themselves into thinking that
theire is no God, he means, that he trusts that there
is no God, and that he over and over again comes to
this same conclusion.
. In verse the fifth, he sets forth three characteristics
of the wicked : that he constantly, in all .that he does,
develops new fornas of iniquity ; that the judgments
of God never occupy him ; and that he despises all his
enemies. In verse the sixth, David's speaking of the security

PSALM X. 11-13 61
wherein the .wicked live contentedly in their wicked
ness, reminds me of the terrible chastisement wherewith
God punishes ungodliness; it consists in the blindness
which He implants in the mind of the wicked man, so
that not recognising his wickedness he lives securely
in it; St. Paul understood it thus in the first chapter
to the Eomans. And from St. Paul himself I under
stand that God punishes this blindness by plunging
the wicked in hideous and abominable sins ; and I con^
sider that when man has reached this point,, he is in
the abyss of evils.
In verses seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth, David
paints to the life the peculiar characteristics of the
wicked, who, with their mouths and tongues do all the
wrong and damage that they can ; and by unwearying
efforts labour to destroy the feeble, constantly setting
spies upon them, besides looking out in every direction
to find some opportunity of executing their wrongful and
injurious caprices upon them ; and therefore does hei
very appropriately compare the wicked to a lion, for they
arei 'to the righteous what the lion is to other animals,
less powerful than himself.
By his "net," he raeans the snares and deceitful prac
tices with which the wicked is armed ; by th^se counter
marks the righteous may recognise the wicked, and guard
theraselves against them, and then more especially when
they most conceal their wickedness.
X. 11. — He saith in his heart, God hath forgotten;
hidden from His presence, He will never see it! .
12.^Arise, 0 Lord ; O God, lift up Thine hand :
forget not' the humble.
13.— Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God ?
he hath said in his heart, Thou 'wilt not require it.
Verse 1 1 illustrates a common sentiment held by the

63 PSALM X. 14-18
wicked, with which they strengthen their purpose when
they desire, and are deterrained to maltreat the righteous.
It is this, that God keeps no reckoning with thera,
whereby they deny the particular Providence of God.
The foremost tenet held by the wicked is to deny that
there is a God, and the second is to deny God's Provi
dence. David having in the foregoing verses suggested
to God the manifest danger in which the righteous live
amongst the wicked, he in verse 1 2 intercedes for them
with God, reverting to his place for them made in the
first verse. I understand that God then arises when
He makes His presence felt by the saints, and that He
then lifts up His hand when He rigorously punishes the
wicked. In verse 13 David lays it down as a notable blas
phemy against God, that raan should think that God
will not punish his frauds, his raaliciously cunning doings,
his iniquities and ungodly acts. Where I note a third
grade of wickedness : the first is to disbelieve that there is
a God, the second is to think that He takes no care of
the righteous, whilst the third is to be persuaded that
God will not punish wickedness. Human prudence falls
into this third species of wickedness whenever it blindly
pretends to piety. It thinks that it praises God when it
states that He will not require, whilst the Holy Spirit
shows that to feel this concerning God is the greatest
blasphemy against God.
X, 14. — Thou hast seen it; for Thou beholdest
mischief and spite, to requite it with Thy hand :
the poor committeth himself unto Thee ; "Thou art
the orphan's guardian,
15. — Break Thou the arm of the wicked; of the
evil man shalt Thou seek out his wickedness and
find none.

PSALM X. 14-18 63
16. — The Lord is King for ever and ever : the
heathen are perished out of His land.
17. — Lord, Thou hast heard the desire of the
humble ; Thou wilt prepare their heart : may Thine
ear hear ;
18. — To judge the orphan and the distressed,
that man may no more oppress them upon earth.
In verse the fourteenth, where he says, " I'hou hast seen
it," he raeans. Lord, Thou well seest that things are precisely
as I have stated — for it is a fact that Thou considerest
the wrongs and injuries wrought by men, purposing to
punish them by Thy hand executing justice. Thus do I
understand that, " to requite it with Thy hand," whilst that
" the poor committeth himself unto Thee," &c., I under
stand to be a common way of speaking, as though he
should say, the man who finds himself destitute of all
human favour always casts himself upon Thee; and by
that " Thou art the guardian of the orphan," he means
of the person who has no other protector than Thyself.
Where I note that if the man who, at the time that he
remits himself to God, does so with all his heart, finding
no created thing in which to trust, God will protect and
take him up, according to His promise, having regard
only to the man's casting himself upon Him ; what there
fore may they expect from God who remit themselves to
fiod, although they have resources, availing themselves of
which they might obtain favour of the creature ?
In verse the fifteenth I understand Daivid to say to
God, Break Thou, Lord, the might of those who are the
ungodly wicked, and do it so thoroughly, that, inquiring
into their ungodly acts. Thou shalt find none, for that
they disabled shall not have been able to- carry out their
malignant purposes.
In verse the sixteenth, when speaking of " His land^'

64 PSALM X. i4-r8
he means the Land of God, which at that time Was Judea,
for there was God known ; and he appears to say that God
had shown- Himself to the world as King for ever, by His
having destroyed the heathen nations that occupied the
Land of Proniise at the tirae when the Jews went to take
possession of it.
In verse the seventeenth I understand David to say,
Yes, Lord, Thou hast heard what Thy poor saints desire
that Thou shouldest do on their behalf; it but remains
that" Thou prepare their hands, so that they content
themselves with what Thou wilt do for them, remitting
themselves to Thy will in everything; and that Thou,
moreover, keep Thine ears ever attent to hear their
desires. Where I understand that David first asks God
that He should prepare the hearts of the saints, and that
He afterwards should give them gracious audience, for
the heart that is not prepared by the Spirit of God, when
it asks incongruities, is not to be heard, whilst the person
that has this preparation, forasmuch as he always asks
that which is according to the will of God, is always
heard. ,
As to the last verse, I understand that it depend^
upon the preceding one, as though he should say, In
asking of Thee, Lord, that Thou lend Thine ear, in order
that Thon mayest be the judge of the feeble, not leaving
them to the judgment of those who maltreat and afflict
them, and in order that the impious, seeing that Thou
takest the part of the feeble, raay not dare to maltrea|
them in any manner. ""'
And when he says, " upon earth," I understand him
to mean nowhere in the world.
So that the whole design of the psalm is compre
hended in these two last verses; of which this appears to
me to be the right apprehension. Other persons under
stand them otherwise, for the last verse in the Hebrew
text is very ambiguous ; and .for a person to be e;nabled

P^SALM X. 14-18 65
to solve this ambiguity, mere knowledge of the language
is inadequate, for what would be required would be to
have that spirit with which David wrote it ; whilst to
those who are under the Gospel, God does not give the
spirit of David, but that which is attained through our
Lord Jesus Christ.

PSALM XI
XI. 1. — In the Lord put I my trust : how say
ye to my soul, Flee, bird, from your. mountain ?
To comprehend this psalm, it must be understood that
David, seeking by the will of God to be King of Israel,
was cruelly persecuted by Saul, who would not leave him
unmolested, no, not even on the hills, where it seems that
David composed this psalm ; in which, desirous of show
ing those who counselled him that he should retreat from
the mountain to which he had fled to save himself, he said
that he did not place his hope of safety in fleeing from one
place to another, but in God alone, who, if He for a while
refrained from interference, by permitting Saul to perse
cute him, would at length save him from all those dangers,
and establish him in quiet possession of the throne.
Here I understand this, that while Saul lived, David
found opposition in his kingdom of Israel, for which God
had elected and anointed him, and that when Saul died,
David remained in quiet possession. Similarly, it seems
to every one of us, so long as Moses lives in us, that is,
the purpose of justifying ourselves by our works, Christ
encounters opposition in His spiritual kingdom, to attain
which God anointed Hira and sent Him into the world.
Moses dead, Christ remains in quiet possession, being
absolute King and Lord of our hearts. I add this, what
Moses is to those who seek justification by works,
human prudence is to those who disregard justification ;
so that just as it is necessary that Moses should die in

PSALM XI. 2-4 67
those, in order that Christ may reign, so is it necessary
in these, that human prudence should die, in order that
Christ may reign.
Eeverting to the psalm, I state that three classes of
persons present themselves in it to my consideration —
some wholly pious, others wholly impious, whilst there
are those who affect to be pious. I consider in David
the wholly pious ; in Saul, the wholly impious ; and in
those who counselled David that he should flee, I consider
those who affect to be pious. In these I see that, partly
distrusting God, they seek their salvation by their efforts
and diligence. In the impious I see those who always
persecute the pious, such practice being peculiar to
impiety ; whilst I see that the pious hold it to be an
insult to be told that they should seek their salvation by
their efforts and diligence, for they feel that their con
fidence is in God.
In verse the first, I understand David to manifest his
astonishment that men affecting piety should counsel him
to exercise thought as to how he should save his life by
fleeing from the mountain where he was, which appeared
to him strange, because he knew that he trusted in God,
and that God could never fail him.
That expression, "from your mountain," I read paren
thetically, as though he had said : You tell me when seeing
rae upon your hill that I should fiy as a bird ; and I
understand that they called David " a bird," because,
fleeing from Saul, he flew or went over the mountains like
a bird. XL 2. — For Thou seest the wicked bend their
bow, they make ready their arrows upon the string,
that they, being in ambush, may shoot at the up
right in heart.
3. — Why are the foundations to be wholly
sapped ¦? what hath the righteous done ?

68 PSALM XI. 5-7
4. — The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord's
throne is in heaven : His eyes will behold. His
eyelids will examine the children of men.
Verse the second, as I understand it, rehearses the
arguments of those who counselled David that he should
flee, setting before him the danger in which he was,
through the efforts made by his enemies to seize upon
him and to kill him.
By " the wicked" I understand Saul's followers, and by
" the upright in heart " the followers of David ; and when
he says " lying in ambush," I understand treachery, if
possible. In verse the third, I understand David to say to those
who told him to fly, Though I indeed should have utterly
to fall, though the upright be shot, wherein am I to
blame ? And he calls himself " upright," because, in
seeking to occupy the throne of Israel, his aim was a
righteous one, and therefore his persecution was un
righteous. In verse the fourth, I understand David to say to
these same persons : Be of good cheer, Saul has never
succeeded in achieving his purpose ; for it is a fact that
although it appears for the moment that God forgets
me and mine, nevertheless, it is certain that He lives
and holds His judgment-seat in heaven, whence He
judges men, and whence He examines and considers all
their relations. As though he should say. If God in
deed refrain for a while from interfering. He does not
sleep ; let the wicked do what they list, they will have
their deserts after all.
XI. 5. — The Lord trieth the righteous ; and the
wicked, and the man that loveth violence, His
soul hateth.
6. — Upon the wicked He shall rain snares, fire

PSALM XI. 5-7 69
and brimstone, and a horrible tempest : this shall
be the portion of their cup.
7. — For the righteous Lord loveth righteous
ness : therefore He will countenance the up

right

Having stated in verse the fourth that God will
exaraine men, he declares in verse the fifth that this
examination extends over the wicked and over the good,
and he adds, that God abhors those who love violence ;
and by saying " will examine," he means that the exami
nation will be a protracted one ; and by saying His "soul,"
he enhances the abhorrence.
Verse the sixth contains the punishment awaiting the
ungodly and wicked, whom God abhors. This punish
ment, he says, "shall be the portion of their cup," as
though he should say. This will be the portion that awaits
the life they have lived in this world.
By " cup " is understood in Holy Scripture the
measure which will be awarded to every individual : the
cup of the wicked is misery, whilst the cup of the
righteous is happiness ; the cup of the wicked is death
eternal, whilst the cup of the righteous is life eternal.
I understand this to be the meaning of the last verse,
that David, continuing his conversation with those who
affect to be pious, says to them, After all, hold it to
be certain that God is just, and that He will ever favour
truth and rectitude with His countenance ; and when you
feel assured of this, you will cease to fear that Saul will
kill rae. To feel this, as it appears that David felt it,
is to have attained to a high degree in piety; whilst
he that shall not feel this, partly or wholly, may hold
himself to be alienated frora piety. How many persuade
themselves that they have attained to this who are very
far from having attained it ; and it is a motive for the

7° PSALM XI. 5-7
greatest comraiseration, for it is a mortal token for a
sick man to hold himself to be sound ; now I understand
that only they feel this to be so, who have entered into
the Kingdom of God, accepting the justice of God,
executed upon our Lord Jesus Christ.

PSALM XII
XII. 1. — Help, Lord ; for the merciful man
ceaseth; for the loyal, from amongst the sons of
Adam, fail.
2. — The best of them speak vanity, every one
with his neighbour, deceitfully with flattering lips
and with a double heart do they speak.
3. — The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips,
and the tongue that speaketh proud things.
4. — Who have said, With our tongue will we
prevail ; our lips are our own, who is lord over
us? I understand David's aim in this psalm to be a
prayer to God, that He should favour the righteous,
considering the depravity of men, their insolence and
their ungodliness, and the danger in which the few
righteous live amongst the many wicked.
In verse the first, I understand that David, con
sidering himself to be pious, and those with him to
be like himself pious amongst wicked men, addresses
himself in prayer to God, saying : Help, Lord, these
few who are Thine, considering that there is not now
one merciful man to be found amongst men, not one
that upholds truth, loyalty, or fidelity ; where I note,
that he says " amongst the sons of Adam,',' not including
those under this generic expression who belong to the
kingdom of God and are the sons of God ; for these are

72 PSALM XII. 5-8
merciful, being vessels of mercy, and loyal, because they
are pious and just.
In the second verse, he begins to verify what he has
stated; I understand him by the word, loyal (varon),
to indicate the best of the sons of Adam ; and that
a double-hearted way of talking means in Hebrew,
falsely, feignedly, with earnestness of expression but
with duplicity of heart. Such a mode of speaking is
suggested in 1 Chron. xii. 33. He says "flattering
lips" for flattering tongues, that accommodate them
selves to the case of the hearer.
In verse the third, I understand that there is pro
mised, and that David promises to himself the punish
ment of the wicked. When he says, " the Lord will
cut off" he intends action sustained in the past and in
the future ; and I understand that there is in this verse
a promise of the Holy Spirit, giving assurance and peace
to the godly, and a threat that inspires fear and alarm
in the wicked.
In verse the fourth, David rehearses the proud things
of which he has spoken in the forraer verse, as the
conversational topics of the wicked; which are, that
they persuade themselves that they are able to prevail
with their tongues and with their lips, and to recognise
no one as their superior ; whilst, on the other hand, the
godly seek to prevail by the favour of God, as their
Lord, constantly depending upon Him.
XII. 5. — Because of the oppression of the poor,
because of the sighing of the needy, now will. I
arise, saith the Lord ; I will set them in safety,
I will puff at the ungodly.
6. — The words of the Lord are pure words, as
silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven
times.

PSALM XII. 5-8 73
7. — Thou shalt keep them, 0 Lord, Thoii wilt
deliver him [David] from this generation for ever.
8. — The wicked walk on every side, when the
vilest are exalted.
In verse the fifth, I understand David, speaking in
the person of God, to say thus : Moved by the oppres
sion wrought by the wicked upon the poor, and by their
compulsory groans, now will I quickly arise, manifesting
and conferring grace on the righteous. These are
not man's words, but God's ; wherefore this promise
of God is most adequate to comfort the most troubled
and afflicted Christian that can be found upon earth,
provided he can rest assured in his mind that this pro-
, raise concerns him, because he believes in it and personally
confides in it.
What He says, " L will set them in safety," is tanta
mount to His sayiiig, I will deliver them from the hands
of those that afflict them ; and where He says that
He " will puff " at him, I understand Him to state that
which is found in Isaiah xi. 4, that "with the breath of
His lips will He slay the wicked."
In verse the sixth, I understand David to speak to
this effect : These words, though they issue from my
mouth, are God's promises and not mine ; were the pro
mise mine it might be false, "for all men are liars" (Ps.
cxvi. 1 1 ), but being God's word, it is reliable, sure, and
true, for all His promises are so, and all that He says
is so. Whence I take occasion to observe that in all
the writings of men, consideration must be had as to
which are the things that savour of human prudence
and which those that savour of the Spirit of God. He
states that what God promises in His words is as silver
refined, meaning that it is certain, firm, and true.
" Seven times " is equivalent to many times.
In verse the seventh, I understand David to say,

74 PSALM XII. 5-8
Thus then. Lord, it will be certain that 'Ihou wilt
preserve, defend, and ever protect the righteous, and
Thou wilt ever liberate me too frora the snares of this
impious generation. When he says, " Thou wilt deliver
him," David speaks of himself, and when he says, " Thou
wilt preserve them," he speaks of all saints.
In the last verse, I understand David to say that
the wicked walk licentiously on every side, when raen
of vile, low, and vulgar minds are elevated to high
station; by which I understand him to indicate those
whora Saul had around him, as his attendants and his
counsellors ; and that which David states ever proves
to be so, that there is no government more licentious,
vicious, and tyrannous than that which is administered
by such men; whence it greatly concerns princes to
look well to it by what men they rule, and to what
men they commit government, and the adrainistration
of justice. But this concerns those who, erabracing
Christian humility and lowliness, hold it preferable to
be governed than to govern, to be ordered than to
order, that they may the more resemble our Lord Jesus
Christ.

PSALM XIII
XIII. 1. — How long, 0 Lord, wilt Thou forget
me ? for ever ? How long wilt Thou hide Thy
presence (Thy face) from me ?
This psalra is a prayer to God by David, feeling himself
to be discountenanced and disregarded by God, and find
ing himself to be inferior to his enemies ; and presents
itself, vety opportunely, to the pious Christian for him
to appropriate it, when he shall fail and fin^ himself
in a similar condition ; and although David suggested
outward enemies, the Christian will suggest inward
ones, his affections and appetites, his thoughts, and his
imaginations. When he says in verse the first, " How long wilt Thou
forget me ? " he shows that the forgetfulness was already a
protracted one ; and when he says "for ever ? " he presents
his faith as somewhat tottering. David felt that God
forgot him, for his affairs did not go well, they did not
go as they were wont to go, which they feel who are
attent on piety as was David ; they, who are not attent on
piety, as they have never felt the benefit, so neither do
they feel the injury, nor do they resent it, or complain of
it, as David here feels it and complains of it.
And when he says, "How long wilt Thou hide Thy
presence from me ? " he means, How long wilt Thou dis
countenance me ? It is almost the same for God to hide
His presence from a man as it is to forget him ; for
He hides His presence from the person whom He forgets.

76 PSALM XIII. 2
They who have never felt or seen the presence of God
do not feel the absence, and therefore they never com
plain of it, as David complains ; who I understand had
felt the presence of God, finding himself favoured of God
inwardly and outwardly ; and who had seen the presence
of God, not face to face, as St. Paul says (1 Cor. xiii, 12),
" in a glass darkly," but as they see it who have felt God's
call to Christ, have felt justification through Christ, and
are ruled and governed in the Kingdom of God by the
Spirit of Christ.
Whence I understand there are three modes of know
ledge of God : the first, by report of the creature ; the
second, by especial favour of God, vouchsafed to the man
who is in His kingdom, which causes hira to feel and to
see His presence ; and the third, that which we shall
acquire when we see God face to face in the life eternal.
As when we know a person by the report made of hira to
us by others, then by seeing his portrait, and lastly by
seeing him himself. They who have but the first know
ledge of God always entertain false notions of God, and
for that reason never enter into the way of true piety.
They who have the second knowledge form a good
conception of God, and walk in the path of true piety.
Whence it concerns the true Christian persistently to ask
this knowledge of God, and to ask that it daily may
become clearer and more evident, in order thereby to
mould his notions and to confirm the conceptions which
he should hold of God. And it is so, that this know
ledge mortifies in us all that there is of Adam, whilst it
vivifies in us all that there is of Christ.
XIII. 2. — How long shall I revolve thoughts in
my soul, having daily sorrow in my heart? how
long shall mine enemy be exalted over me ?
I understand David to show in the second verse the

PSALM XIII. 2 77
difficulties into which he was brought by God's with
holding the two Divine favours, the absence of which he
bewailed. In the first place, he says, that his soul was
occupied in revolving counsels ; he means that he was con
stantly seeking out raodes of preserving his life, because
his eneraies occupied themselves in devising how to kill
him. And I think that David did not so much feel the
danger to which he was exposed by the persecution of
his enemies, as he did the having to seek out by his
human prudence ways and means how to deliver him
self from their hands; for it had been his experience
that when God neither forgot him nor hid His presence
from hira, he did not need to avail himself of his
human prudence to deliver himself from the hands of
his enemies, because the Spirit of God led him, ruled
him, and governed him. Here I understand that the
disadvantage to which they are exposed who are left to
the government of their human prudence, is only felt by
those who have experienced the advantage they realised
when ruled and governed by the Spirit of God.
" Daily sorrow," &c., must have the words " how
long " repeated. So that he may say, How long have
I to live in this continuous sadness, which Thy forget
fulness of rae and the hiding of Thy presence cause
my heart, leaving me to the counsels of my human
prudence ?
And when he says, "Shall my enemy be exalted over
me?" I understand. How long shall my enemy be my
superior, be more able and capable than myself, and
have the mastery over me ? David was a godly man,
and whilst he knew that his victories, prosperity, and
successes were due to God's favour to him, he likewise
knew that his being defeated and overcome of his enemies
were due to God's having withdrawn His favour, and
therefore he felt it so much the more. They who are
aliens to piety, and who attribute their victories, pros-

78 PSALM XIII. 3-6
perity, and successes to their good fortune or to their
own prowess and to their own exertions, likewise attri
bute the contrary to their misfortune and to their
mischance, but never to their wickedness or to their for
getfulness of God. Frequently does God permit that His
own people be conquered and overcome by their enemies,
in order that learning what they are without God, they
may know what they are with God, and that thus they
may recognise God when in favour, and that they may
know themselves when out of favour.
XIII. — 3. Consider and answer me, 0 Lord my
God ; lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of
death. 4. Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against
him ; lest my persecutors exult when I falter.
5. But I have trusted in Thy mercy; my heart
rejoiced in Thy salvation.
6. I will sing unto the Lord, because He hath
dealt bountifully with me.
In verses the third and fourth, I understand David to
ask of God three things, and he begs that God should
attend to him for three results, to wit, that God should
remember him, that God should resume relations with
hira, and that God should favour him. He begs of God
that He would answer, meaning that God should grant
him what he entreated, and that He should not turn a
deaf ear to him. Furthermore he begs of God that He
should enlighten his eyes, as though he should say. Ay,
Lord, I have full long experienced what it is to see with
the eyes lightened by human prudence and reason, now
enlighten mine eyes by Thy Spirit. So that, when he
sajsj " Lighten my eyes," it is equivalent to his saying,
Give me Thy Spirit, and by Hira render the eyes of my
soul brilliant, clear, and resplendent.

PSALM XIII. 3-6 79
Whence this effect will result, that I shall not " sleep
the sleep of death ; " he means, — I shall not die when
my enemies shall wish, but when it shall be Thy will.
And when he says, "Lest my enemy say," I understand:
I also entreat this of Thee, in order that my enemy
may never be able to vaunt hiraself in having conquered
or vanquished me. And when he says, "Lest my
persecutors exult," he means that it also would come to
pass from the favour of God, that he never faltering,
his persecutors would not have whereof to boast in having
made him falter.
By faltering, I understand David to mean falling ;
and I understand that the pious Christian then falters
in his tribulations, persecutions, and temptations when,
being terapted to distrust God, he is brought down to
such a point that he is almost led to distrust. This
faltering is most perilous, because he who falters is
just about to fall. Where it is to be understood that
David held it to be certain that if God did not attend
to him, if He did not answer him, if He withheld light
from his eyes, he would die by the hands of his enemies,
whence would result the greatest satisfaction and con-
tentraent to them.
Frora all the four verses I collect this, that it is
as incident to the child of God to regret the favours
which God withholds, and to bewail their loss to God
Himself, and to ask of Him relief in relation to them,
as it is incident to the man of the world to resent the
slights of men, to complain of them to men, and to ask
of them relief in relation to them.
I understand David to speak in the last verse thus :
Although Thou, Lord, forgettest me, although Thou
hidest Thy presence from me, although Thou leavest me
to the control of my huraan prudence, and deliverest
me over to the sadness of my heart, and although my
enemies are superior to me, still I trust in Thy mercy.

8o PSALM XIII. 3-6
that, delivered by Thy grace from the dangers, ray
heart shall rejoice, meditating upon Thy salvation in
ray deliverance. And I feel assured that I shall sing
songs to God, because He will have remunerated or
recompensed my confidence. I understand that the re
muneration or recompense consists in God giving to
the man who trusts in Hira that which he expects to
receive frora Him, because he trusts. I understand,
moreover, that godliness is upheld by confidence. And
it is so, that a man's godliness is relative to his con
fidence in God, and the piety that there is in our prayers
is relative to the confidence we have in God, that He
will fulfil them for us. And I understand that the
fulfilment corresponds to the faith of the petitioner ;
he that does not confide, asks without piety, and does
not get that which he prays for; whilst he that prays
and trusts asks through Jesus Christ our Lord.

PSALM XIV
XIV. 1. — The fool hath said in his heart. There
is no God. They are corrupt, they have done
abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
2. — The Lord looked down from heaven upon
the children of Adam, to see if there were any
that did understand, did know and did seek after
God. 3. — They all are gone aside, they all are become
filthy : there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
I understand it to be David's design in this psalm to
expose the corruption and the depravity of those who
amongst the Israelites were their social leaders ; these,
renouncing piety, tyrannised over the people, and scorned
the righteous counsels by which David aimed at bring
ing the people back to good government; as is usual,
when a good prince desires to rule his subjects by
righteous laws and customs, he finds himself obstructed
by those who have battened and got fat upon the blood
of the people. I understand that they first lost the fear
of God when they renounced and laid aside piety ; they
then lost the sense of shame and regard of public opinion,
after which they audaciously set themselves in opposition
to their kings, princes, and superiors.
In verse the first, by "fool " I understand all those
who, departing from God, cease from piety. These are
thev, of whom he speaks, who do not say with the mouth

82 PSALM XIV. 1-3
that there is no God, because they are ashamed to do so,
but they do so with the heart. He means, that they
persuade themselves that there is no God who chastises
impiety and favours piety ; and he states that, with this
persuasion, they corrupt their style of life and do things
abominable, hideous, and filthy. And I understand, that
God, prostrating, by such actions, those who say in their
heart that there is no God, begins to chastise them for
their impiety, as is said in Ps. x. 13, 14. In saying
" there is none that doeth good" he raeans that the nuraber
of the fools, of the corrupt and of the depraved, was very
great. In verse the second, I understand that David, in order
to render this his consideration more effective, and thus
to hit them the harder whom he involved in it, states
that those very persons, whom he made the subject of
his consideration, were amongst those whom God con
siders ; He, being in heaven, examining them, as though
desirous of finding one who understood what piety in
volves, and who intelligently addressed himseK to seek
God. It has already been stated that they seek God,
who desire to know and to see Him, who say, " Shew me
Thy face."
And I understand, that in saying "the children of
Adam," which is all the same as though he had said
man, he means those who are mere men, not having
attaii;ied the Spirit of God ; of all of whora, he says in
verse the third, that they " are gone aside ; " that having
gone aside, they are depraved, and that being depraved,
there is not one of them that does what he ought. And
I understand that they do as they ought who, considering
God's design in their existence, together with all the
other benefits that God has conferred upon them, exclu
sively occupy themselves, and eraploy all that they
possess, in doing that which they understand to be
the will of God. So that man's depravity consists in

PSALM XIV. 4-5 83
deviating from this obligation, whilst his rectitude consists
in maintaining and in persevering in the discharge of it.
St. Paul quotes this third verse against the Jews in
Eom. iii. 12, to show that they all had corrupted them
selves. Our Latin Bible here introduces three verses, not
to be found either in the Hebrew or Greek.
[Here they follow, copied from the Vulgate : —
" Sepulcrura patens est guttur eorum," Ps. v. 9 ;
" Unguis suis dolose agebant ; venenum aspidum sub labiis
eorura." Ps. cxl. 3.
" Quorura os raaledictione et amaritutine plenum est,"
Ps. X. 7 ; " veloces pedes eorum ad effundendum san-
guinera." Is. lix. 7.
"Oontritio et infelicitas en viis eorura ; et viara pacia
non cognoverunt," Is. ILx. 8 ; " non est timor Dei ante
ocules eorum." Ps. xxxvi. i ; Eom, iii. 13-18.]
" Their throat is an open sepulchre," Ps. v. 9 ; " with
their tongues they acted deceitfully ; the poison of asps
is under their lips." Ps. cxl. 3.
"Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness,"
Ps. X. 7 ; " their feet are swift to shed blood," Is. lix. 7 ;
destruction and misery are in their ways ; and the way of
peace have they not known," Is. lix. 8 ; " there is no fear
of God before their eyes." Ps. xxxvi. i.
[These passages from Isaiah and the Psalms are to be
found embodied in Eomans iii. 13—18.]
XIV. 4. — How is it that all they who work
iniquity will not know ? Who eat up my people
as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord.
5, — There were they (when they got that know
ledge) dreadfully afraid : for God is in the genera^
tion of the righteous.
In the fourth verse, I understand it to be David's

84 PSALM XIV. 6-7
manifest desire that those depraved and corrupt fools
should understand that their maltreatment of God's people
proceeded from the wickedness of their souls.
When he says, " they eat up my people," I understand
that they tyrannise over and rob them. And when he
says, "as they eat bread," &c., he raeans, as readily. And
when he says, that they " call not upon the Lord" I
understand, that they have renounced obligation, that
they have corrupted themselves, and that they are impious,
since they do not depend upon God. The saints are
always animated with this sarae wish, whenever they see
ungodly men, practising wickedness, pretend that they
are pious, and that they practise piety. David, in saying
" my people" raeans the people of Israel.
The fifth verse I understand to depend upon the fourth,
as though he should say : Had the impious known their
impiety, by that knowledge they would have been greatly
terrified whenever the thought occurred to thera to
maltreat the saints; when they reflected that God is in
the generation of the righteous, who, being pious, are
righteous. In saying "generation," he means that they are be
gotten of God, that God has made them pious and
righteous. And I hold it to be certain that whenever
the wicked man maltreats the pious, and that he reverts
to consider what he is doing, he is terrified : and that
if indeed he does not relinquish his design, it is be
cause he obstinately perseveres in it. That expression,
they feared fearfully, "they were dreadfully afraid," is
a Hebraism. XIV. 6. — Ye would fain put to shame the
counsel of the poor man ; because the Lord is his
refuge. 7. — 0 that the salvation of Israel were come
out of Zion ! when the Lord shall bring back the

PSALM XIV. 6-7 85
captivity of Plis people, Jacob shall rejoice, and
Israel shall be glad.
In the sixth versS, I understand that David resumes
his argument with the impious, and that he says to them :
You have already so far renounced obligation, and are so
depraved, that you will persistently persevere in opposing
me in all that I purpose to do and to ordain for the good
government of the people. And this you do because you
see that in ray deliberations I confide, not in that in
which they confide who follow the counsels of human
prudence, but that in which they confide who follow the
counsel of the Spirit of God, who confide in God Himself.
So that by " the poor man," David means himself ; and
by " eoicnsel," he means the mode in which he desired to
govern the kingdom. And by saying " ye fain would put
to shame," or put to confusion, he means : You will per
severe in obstructing, in confounding, and in putting to
shame, by preventing that being carried out from which
you withhold your consent.
Meaning by " the poor man " generally all those who
are pious, what David would say is this : You are such
persons that what you do to me you will ever do to those
who are like me, for it is peculiarly yours to be opposed
to piety ; and therefore, when you see that the poor con
fide in God, and that they remit themselves to God, you
constantly try to put them to shame.
• I understand the last verse to be the expression of
fervent desire upon the part of David, that he might see
all Israel live according to the laws and ordinances by
which he desired that their lives should be regulated.
Thus do I understand that, " 0 that the salvation of Israel
were come out of Zion, ' &c.
By " Zion "he means Jerusalem, where it appears
that he was at the time that he composed this psalm.
And in saying, " When the Lord shall bring hack," &c., I

86 PSALM XIV. 6-7
understand that he felt convinced that this desire of his
would be realised. As though he had said : I see clearly
that I ara unequal to carry out this my purpose ; but I
hold it to be certain that the day will come in which God
will accomplish it ; and it will come to pass, that God, in
delivering His people from the tyranny with which they
are oppressed by those wicked ones, will cause Jacob and
Israel, by whom I understand the saints and the pious,
to have whereof to rejoice and to be glad.
How appropriately this psalra raay be interpreted in
the person of Christ, as directed against those who have
tyrannised over and have oppressed Christians, they being
His people, by obstructing the rule of the Holy Spirit
amongst them, and by having introduced that of human
prudence, I leave to the consideration of those who shall
possess the Spirit, which is attained through Jesus Christ
our Lord.

PSALM XV.
XV. 1. — Lord, who shall abide in Thy taber
nacle ? Who shall dwell in Thy holy hill ?
2. — He that walketh uprightly, and worketh
righteousness, that speaketh the truth in his heart.
3. — He that doth not transgress with his tongue,
nor doth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a
reproach against his neighbour.
It appears to be David's design in this psalm to indicate
the qualities which had to concur in a Jew, to give him
entrance and fellowship in the Tabernacle, which, prior
to the erection of the Temple at Jerusalem, was the
depository of the Ark of the Covenant. Here I under
stand that the quaUties, which the Holy Spirit implants
in one, who belongs to the Kingdom of God, having
entered it through our Lord Jesus Christ, are as much
more perfect than those which the Spirit of God im
planted in one who belonged to the Tabernacle or Temple
of God, as is the quality of the Kingdom of God where he
dwells and lives, who believes in Christ, the Son of God,,
higher than the Tabernacle of God, where he dwelt and
lived, who followed Moses, the servants of God. The Spirit
of God implanted the perfections, which David here indi
cates, in the man who dwelt and lived in the Temple of
God. The Spirit of God implants the perfections, which
St. Paul lays down in i Cor. xiii., in the man, who
dwells and lives in the Kingdom of God, for with these
is he adorned, who, being in grace, is in the Kingdom
87

88 PSALM XV. 4-5
of God. And it is so, that a person is Christian in
proportion as he has those perfections living and perfect
in his soul ; whilst he who fails to possess them, does
not belong to the Kingdom of God, nor is he Christ's,
since it is a fact, that he has not the Spirit of Christ ;
and St. Paul says in Eom. viii. 9, " If any man have
not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His."
In verse the first, by " Tabernacle of God," I under
stand the pavilion, the tent, or Tabernacle, wherein was
the Ark of the Covenant. And by " Thy holy hill," I
understand Mount Zion ; to " abide " is the same as to
repose. In verse the second, he lays down three personal
characteristics which adorned the pious Jew : the obliga
tion of living, as has been stated upon a preceding psalm,
of walking perfectly, of administering justice, and of
speaking truth in the heart; he means, to have heart
and lips in unison, not to speak from heart and heart.
These three ornamental characteristics cannot possibly
exist without piety, whilst they are always united with
piety. In verse the third, three other ornamental characteristics
are specified. He is raodest of speech (thus do I under
stand that clause, " doth not transgress with his tongue "),
He injures no one, he does not, when aware of his neigh
bour's defects, expose them to the public : thus do I
understand that, " take up a reproach," &c. It is peculiarly
the .part of a bad neighbour to publish his neighbour's
defects. XV. 4. — He that is vile or reprobate (before
God) is iu his (the pious Jew's) eyes, abominable,
whilst he honoureth them that fear the Lord, He
sweareth that he will maltreat the vile reprobate,
nor will he change.
5. — He does not lend his money at usurious

PSALM XV. 4-5 89
rates, neither does he accept a bribe against the
innocent. He that acts thus shall never be
moved. In verse the fourth, he lays down three other orna
ments as characterising the pious Jew. The first is, that
the person whom God holds to be malignant and repro
bate, he holds to be vile and contemptible. The second,
that he honours those who fear God. The third; that he
is so constant, that having sworn to maltreat him whom
God holds to be vile, he will not change his purpose.
This third does not appertain to pious Christians, whom
it concerns to do good to all and to injure no one. It
did indeed appertain to pious Jews, nay, they were
inspired by God's Spirit to do so, for thus it pleased God
at that time. In this verse I note two excellencies
attaching to the pious person. The one is, that he knows
who they are whom God despises as impious ; and who
they are, who, being pious, fear God; which knowledge
is never found, but where the Spirit of God is. The
other is, that he is firm and constant in his purposes,
which constancy cannot be perfect where the Spirit of
God is absent. The last words of this verse are rendered
differently by different persons.
The Spanish note hereupon runs thus: "The better
translation is, 'Who hath sworn to his own hurt and
hath not retracted,' meaning that the righteous, though
aware that what he has sworn is to his own prejudice,
carries it out faithfully notwithstanding."
In the last verse he lays down two honourable charac
teristics. The one, that he does not lend money upon
usury, and the other, that he does not accept gifts to his
neighbour's injury. For thus do I understand that,
" He does not accept a bribe as against the innocent."
In the person of the usurer he condemns the avaricious,
and in bribery the judges. Finally, I understand him

90 PSALM XV. 4-5
to conclude that the person, in whom those" honoured
characteristics concur, will never be moved frora the
Tabernacle or Teraple of God. By that word " never "
I think him to mean as long as he lives.
, We have to recognise dwelling and living in the
Teraple of God as having been spiritual happiness amongst
Jews. Whilst happiness amongst Christians is to dwell
and to live perpetually in the Kingdom of God, entering
during the present life into possession of the kingdom,
and continuing in possession throughout the life eternal.
And it is so,. that those who, in the present life, being
called of God to Christ, and being justified by Christ,
enter into the Kmgdora of God, take possession through
Him, and die in possession, God will raise up, and will
place in His kingdom with Jesus Christ our Lord.

PSALM XVI
XVI. 1. — Preserve me, 0 my God : for in Thee
do I put my trust,
2. — My soul, thou hast said unto the Lord,
Thou art my Lord : my goods (my property) extend
not to Thee ;
3. — But to the saints that are in the earth, and
to the excellent, in whom is all my delight,
4. — If they shall multiply their idolatries, and if
they shall hasten after other gods ; their drink-
offerings of blood will I not offer, neither will I
take their names upon my lips.
David appears to have composed this psalra at a
moment when he realised the highest spiritual content
ment. This, as I think, was when God caused him to feel
His presence, and that He allowed Himself to be seen ;
not as we who in this life have died with Christ and
have risen again with Christ shall see Him in the life
eternal, but as God allows Himself to be seen in the
present life, by those whom He has called to Christ, has
justified by Christ, and has begun to control with the
Spirit of Christ.
In verse the first, by saying, "preserve me," he means,
uphold me and preserve to rae that happiness of spirit
with which Thou hast endowed me ; and since it is to
this end that David alleges his confidence, I understand

92 PSALM XVI. 1-4
that that which gives us our greatest hold on God is our
confidence in Him.
In verse the second, the words " my soul " are added,
for although they are not in the Hebrew text, still they
are implied in the feminine form of the Hebrew verb
" Thou hast said." ^ Here it appears that David, having
felt and seen the presence of God, declares that God has
no need of our property. This is what he means by
saying "my goods extend not to Thee," but little can
they profit Thee. Here I understand that until a person
comes to feel and to see this presence of God in some
fashion he holds neither a right nor true opinion of
the Being of God, nor of God's will as it affects man.
And as to this I understand that the first thing which
concerns the person whom God has called is, that he be
attent upon being just, by acceptance as his own of the
justice of God executed upon Jesus Christ. After that,
that he pray that the Holy Spirit raay rule and control
him in the Kingdom of God, and then that God may
make him feel and see His presence.
And because none feel or see this presence save those
who are justified by Christ and controlled by the Holy
Spirit, I understand Christ to have said in John xiv. 6,
" iVb one cometh unto the Father save by Me."
Having stated in verse the second that God has no
need of our property, I understand him to say in verse
the third that he will devote his mind to the employment
of his property, and set his affections upon those saints
and excellent persons who live upon the earth ; as though
he should have said : "That, Lord, which I cannot do to
Thee, I will do to those who are Thine." I think that
"the saints and the excellent" whom David meant were
Jews, who became saints by the election of God, and who
became excellent by the favour of God. And I under-
' Hebrew verbs have one form for the masculine, and another for the
feminine. — Spanish Editor's note.

PSALM XVI. 5-6 93
stand " the saints and the excellent " of the present time, to
be those who are in the Kingdom of God, whom St. Paul
calls " the household of faith," and these became " saints "
by the election of God, and they become " excellent " pro
portionally as they are those of whom Christ said in
Matt. xi. 12, "Tlie kingdom of heaven suffer eth violence,
and the violent take it by force."
Having stated in verse the third that he was about to
employ his property and to devote all his affection to the
saints who lived upon the earth, in verse the fourth he
speaks thus : that if these departed from God by running
into idolatries, he would depart from them. I understand
that to such an extent would he be their friend, and to
such an extent would he lavish his property upon them,
as they should be friends of God, persevering in holiness
and in excellence.
And I understand him to have spoken of idolatries
because the Jewish nation were prone to them. Where
he says, " if they shall multiply,'' he does so, meaning
that he would 'not without adequate reason separate him
self from them. And where he speaks of their " hastening
after other gods," I think him to mean the same thing.
To err and to go astray proceeds from weakness ; but to
multiply error upon error, and to run anxiously and
hurriedly after error, can only proceed from great de
pravity. In saying " drink-offeririgs of blood," I under
stand him to note those who sacrificed human blood.
I'here are those who understand this verse otherwise,
but as to myself this for the present pleases me.
XVI, 5. — The Lord is the portion of mine in
heritance, and of my cup ; Thou wilt maintain my
lot. 6. — The boundary lines have fallen unto me
in pleasant places, mine is an admirable inherit
ance.

94 PSALM XVI. 7-8
By verse the fifth I understand him to say. My obliga
tion to those does not exceed their relative dependence
upon God, for in the present life I am not under obliga
tion save to God, since I have neither sought, nor do
I seek, anything but God, whom I have taken for my
inheritance. It is well to know that these three words,
"inheritance, cup, and lot," which he introduces in this
verse, here signify one and the same thing ; thus I under
stand David to say, I, Lord, have nothing in this world
save Thyself, and since that Thou hast given Thyself to
me, I hold it to be certain that Thou wilt maintain me
in this blissful state.
In the sixth verse I understand David, when praising
his inheritance, his cup and his lot, to say that the
lines had fallen to him in pleasant places, and that the
inheritance assigned him was an admirable one, since*
God was his portion and his inheritance.
And where he speaks of " lines," I understand hira to
refer to the manner in which they who took a province
in the olden time were wont to divide the soil amongst
themselves. XVI, 7, — I will bless the Lord, who shall coun
sel me; my loins too shall instruct me during the
night.^ 8. — 1 have set the Lord always before me;
because He is at my right hand, I shall not
waver. I understand the meaning of the seventh verse to be
this : " I will ever bless God, because He will ever rule
and govern me. He will make my loins teach me piety,
even at night." I understand this teaching to consist in
the thoughts which occupy the minds of those in whom
the Spirit of God dwells when they are alone. For Holy
Scripture is wont to attribute thought to the loins, just

PSALM XVI. 9-1 1 95
as it attributes thought to the heart. I think it to be
analogous to the ascription of raercy to the bowels, to
which in Spanish idiom we ascribe both kindness and
malignity, talking of bowels of kindness and bowels of
malignity. In verse the eighth I understand David to
manifest the assurance which he held that this his happi
ness would be stable and firm. As though he had said :
Having set God as a mirror in which to look at rayself;
ever to look at myself again and again, and ever to
retain hold on His favour, I feel certain that I shall
never fall from this happiness.
Here I understand, that God is then " at our right
hand," when He helps and favours us ; and I understand
that Christ is at the right hand of God because He
holds the highest rank about God.
XVI. 9. — Therefore my heart rejoices and my
glory exults ; my flesh also shall rest in hope.
¦ 10. — For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell ;
neither wilt Thou give up Thy Holy One to see
corruption. 11. — Thou wilt shew me the path of life. In Thy
presence is fulness of joy, and at Thy right hand
there are pleasures for evermore.
Verses nine and ten are quoted in the Acts of the
•Apostles, ii. 27 and xiii. 35, to prove the resurrection
of Christ, shewing that David did not speak these
words of himself, but of Christ ; since, had he spoken
them of himself, they would not have been true, for
it was clear that David had been buried and that
his body had corrupted; according to which appre
hension I have left the word " hell " in the tenth verse,
where according to the Hebrew tongue, one raight have
said the " grave ; " and I have left " corruption " where the

96 PSALM XVI. 9-1 1
Hebrew properly says the pit; and t9,king these two
words to signify the grave and the pit, the meaning
of the two verses will lead David to speak thus : Because
I have God for ray inheritance, and because I am certain
of my stable and firm possession of it, my heart rejoices
and ray glory (my tongue) exults ; and my flesh, severed
from my soul, rests in confldence, for I feel assured that
my life will not end in the grave, and that Thou, Lord,
wilt not deliver me, who am a vessel of mercy, up to
the perpetual contemplation of the pit, meaning, " I hold
it to be certain that in rescuing my body from the grave.
Thou wilt raise me up to the life eternal." According
to which apprehension it raay be understood, that in
God here making David to see and to feel His presence,
is involved, as has been stated, the knowledge of the
resurrection of Christ, of his own, and of that of all
saints ; and that because his own and theirs depends
upon that of Christ ; after this fashion, then, these verses
may indeed be quoted to prove the resurrection of Christ.
By what he says " my glory," some understand my tongue,
and others ray harp, whilst I understand that David
gloried in some marked raanner, whatever shall have
been the cause of it.
As to the last verse, I understand this to be its
meaning : Seeing and feeling. Lord, Thy presence, I
have learned this secret of the resurrection, that it is the
path of life ; for it is a fact, that they who shall depart
this life certain of their resurrection will be raised up.
And I have learned this, moreover, that perfect and true
pleasures consist. Lord, in Thy presence, and that there
are no lasting pleasures, save those which are felt at
Thy right hand, in the enjoyment of Thy favour.
Where I note three things : the first, that they whom
God makes to feel and to see His presence are assured
of their resurrection : the second, that they who are
called of God for Christ, justified by Christ and governed

PSALM XVI. 9-1 1 97
by the Holy Spirit, seeing and feeling the presence of
God in the present life, " as in a glass darkly," they
understand wherein the happiness of the life eternal
consists ; the third, that they who enjoy God's favours,
and realise their standing before God, understand how
it is that the happiness of the life eternal is perpetual,
so that he who shall find himself uncertain as to his
resurrection, uncertain as to that wherein the happiness
of the other life consists, is uncertain as to its perpetuity,
although he have some assurance of it by the Scriptures ;
until that he have it through his having seen and felt it
by the presence of God, he may think that he does not
yet well understand what the benefit is, that we Christians
attain in and through our Lord Jesus Christ.

PSALM XVII
XVII. 1. — Hear, 0 Lord, justice. Hearken to
my cry ; lend Thine ear to my prayer, the utter
ance of guileless lips.
2. — Let my judgment (sentence) come forth
from Thy presence. Let Thine eyes behold the
things that are equal.
3. — Thou hast proved my heart ; Thou hast
visited it at night ; Thou hast refined me. Thou
shalt not find aught to condemn. The expression
of my lips shall never misrepresent my thoughts.
I understand David's intention in this psalm to be
the justification of his cause as between himself and '
his opponents ; and for this reason, he first shows his
innocency and his purity, and then the malignity of his
eneraies, their corruption, and their depravity.
I understand that, in the first verses, David appeals
from the judgment of men to the judgment of God ;
and rightly so too, for that he was a righteous man,
governed by the Spirit of God ; whilst they were men
who, judging with human prudence, were incapable of
judging him favourably, because " the animal man per-
ceiveth not the things which are of the Spirit of God "
(i Cor. ii. 14).
The spiritually minded imitate this appeal, when con
tention arises between them and men of the world ; but
when it arises between them and God, they say with

PSALM XVII. 4-6 99
David, " Enter not into judgment with Thy servant "
(Ps. cxliii. 2).
When he says in verse the first, "Hear justice," I
understand him, " Be Thou, Lord, judge ; " and to that
expression, " guileless . lips," I add. Pronounced by, or the
utterance of.
And in verse the second, when he says, " Let my judg
ment (or sentence) come forth from Thy presence," I under
stand hira to say. Deliver Thou the judgment in my
cause. And by that, " Let Thine eyes behold the things
that are equal," I understand him to say. Examine Thou
with Thine eyes that which is right, just, and good, leave
not Thou the examination of it to those who see with
the eyes of human prudence.
So that this verse may serve as the exposition of
what he says in verse the first : " Hear, 0 Lord, jus
tice," &c.
In verse the third, I understand him to say. Thou
hast already proved my heart and that rigorously, by
visiting it at night ; meaning. Thou hast taken it un
awares, refining it as silver, in the fire ; and Thou
hast neither found, nor shalt Thou find, whereof to con
demn me. This is his meaning : For it is so, that the
expression of my lips shall never be a misrepresentation
of my thoughts; for my thoughts shall ever be what
they hitherto have been^ — like my words : that which my
mouth has stated, I have felt in the heart. Others
understand this verse otherwise.
XVII. 4. — I, contemplating the works of the
destroyer, in the light of Thy word, have meditated
upon his ways,
5. — Hold Thou up my footsteps in Thy paths,
let me not halt in them.
6. — I have called upon Thee, 0 God, because

loo PSALM XVII. 4-6
Thou wilt answer me ; incline Thine ear unto me,
hear what I say.
The fourth verse has different meanings assigned to
it, because it is ambiguous and obscure in the Hebrew.
I understand David to say. Thou, Lord, hast found
me to be what I have stated, for, desirous of preserving
rayself in godliness, I have ever considered the life led
by men of the world, availing rayself in this con
sideration, not of, human prudence,* which is deceitful,
but of the words proceeding from Thy lips, written in
Thy Law, which are certain and true, and which never
deceive. Where I understand it to be a good plan of
preserving godliness, to judge men's works by the rule
of God's word. By "destroyer" he means every one
that is perverse and malignant.
To comprehend verse the fifth, we must recollect what
has been stated, that Holy Scripture is wont to under
stand by the paths of God the Providence of God, just
as by the paths of man it means the works of man.
So likewise it has to be understood that by the steps
and footsteps of man, it means his thoughts, his designs,
and his practices. This being assumed, I understand
David to say. Since Thou then, 0 Lord, hast directed
my thoughts, my designs, and my practices in the right
consideration of Thy Divine Providence, I beseech Thee
to uphold them, and that Thou bring it about that I,
never vacillating in this consideration, may never depart
from godliness. Where I understand that man of him
self is incapable either of walking or upholding hiraself
in the right consideration of the Providence of God,
unless God Hiraself lead and uphold hira in it ; for it
is a fact that human prudence is ever wholly ignorant
of it. I understand, in verse the sixth, that David was per
fectly assured before he began to pray that God was

PSALM XVII. 7-IO loi
prepared to grant him -that which he was about to
supplicate. And I understand that God hears them attentively
who come to pray with this assurance, and grants
them what they ask. They who come to pray doubt
fully and uncertainly are not heard. And I understand
that they only come to pray with assurance who are
led to do so, inspired and drawn by the Spirit of God,
as it is certain that David did, and as do all they who,
led by the Spirit of God, are the children of God.
XVII. 7. — Shew Thy marvellous loviugkindness
(in saving) those who put their trust in Thee, from
those who revolt against Thy right hand.
8.— Keep me as the apple of the eye (the little
daughter of the eye) ; hide me under the shadow
of Thy wings.
9. — From the presence of these wicked ones,
who ruin me ; from my enemies, who prowl around,
laying wait for my life.
10. — Their loins are encased in fat, they, with
their lips, speak proudly.
With relation to verse the seventh, I understand that
God then makes His mercies marvellous when He
multiplies them, and makes them so clear and so mani
fest that they are easily recognisable as the mercies
of God. And by the whole verse I understand David
to say. Thou, Lord, who savest them who trust in Thee,
from the acts of violence done by those who revolt
against Thy right hand, striving to obstruct Thy works,
illustrate Thy mercies, by favouring me against my
enemies and by preserving me in godliness.
The words of verse the eighth are apparently spoken
lovingly, affectionately, distrusting himself and trusting

I02 PSALM XVII. 11-15
in God ; where David speaks of God as having a
bodily form, attributing to Him eyes and wings, as
though he should say. Keep me, 0 Lord, as men keep
the apple of the eye, and as birds keep their little ones,
nestling them under their wings. Whilst in verse the
ninth he states from what it was that he desired to
be kept, from " the presence of these wicked ones," &c. ; he
means. For I would fain be kept out of sight of those
wicked men, who wholly ruin me.
And by saying "my enemies," he declares that he
calls those wicked who were his enemies ; and by saying
" who prowl around, laying wait for my life," he means,
who occupy theraselves in devising how to take away
my life — how to kill me.
Commencing with verse the tenth, David begins to
depict those whom he calls the wicked and his enemies.
In the first place, he says that " their loins are
encased in fat," a mode of expression commonly used
in Castillo ; for it is a fact that when we (Spaniards)
would speak of a raan as being wealthy and beyond
need, we say that his kidneys are irabedded in fat;
and from what follows, it appears to be David's raean-
ing, that riches rendered them insolent who perse
cuted him.
XVII. 11. — They now compass me in my steps :
their eyes are set, devising how they shall cast
down the godly.
12. — Their look is like that of a lion, which
would fain carry off his prey, and like a young
lion squatting in his lurking places.
13.— Arise, 0 Lord, confront him, smite him
down, deliver my soul from the wicked, who is
Thy sword.
14.— From men who arc Thy hand, 0 Lord,

PSALM XVII. 11-15 103
from men of the world, who have their inheritance
during their lives; whilst Thou fillest their belly
with Thy secret stores, their children eat to satiety,
and they leave their wealth to their little ones.
15. — I shall behold Thy presence iu righteous
ness; it will suffice me that I awake in Thy
likeness. In verse the eleventh, when he says that " they com
pass me in my steps," he shows what activity the wicked
exercised against him ; and in saying that " their eyes were
set," devising how to " cast down the godly," he shows the
earnestness with which they persecuted him. Whilst in
verse the twelfth, enhancing still more the activity and
the earnestness with which he was persecuted by his
eneraies, he compares them to a lion, and to a young lion
engaged in hunting for its prey.
In verse the thirteenth he begins to pray to God,
that upsetting his enemies. He should preserve him in
holiness in life. When he says, "Arise, 0 Lord," he
means. Manifest Thine omnipotence, and "confront him,"
is Castilian idiom, interpreting another idiom, a Hebrew
one. He means. Thwart Thou him in the accom
plishment of his design ; and in what he says of
the wicked, " Thy sword," he means the wicked whom
Thou usest as a sword. And it is so that God causes
the wickedness of one wicked man to destroy another
wicked man, and at times He does so to correct a
righteous one.
Throughout these verses he employs the singular
instead of the plural.
The fourteenth verse is to be understood as embody
ing different judgments or sentences. I understand
David to apeak thus : Deliver me, 0 Lord, "from men
who are Thy hand," (and by " Thy hand" he means the

104 PSALM XVII. 11-15
same as he did in the preceding verse by " Thy sword "),
deliver Thou me, I say, from men of this present life,
who get their inheritance in their lifetime (he raeans,
who have no aim beyond living in this life); "whose
bellies Thou fillest with the fruits of the earth " in such
abundance, that they have enough for themselves, for
their children, and for their grandchildren^ I under
stand David's prayer to be, that God should deliver him
from the rich, from men having worldly wealth, the
goods of this present life, who disregarded the future
life, for such men are ever proud and insolent. Whence
I understand that riches are perilous, when disasso
ciated from godliness; I likewise understand David to
call the fruits of the earth God's "secret stores," which,
because they come in the ordinary way, men do not
consider that God has appointed that ordinary way,
and thus they do not understand them as involving
God's providence.
I understand what he says in the last verse, " in
righteousness," to correspond -with what he had said in
verse the first, " Hear the right, 0 Lord." And I under
stand David, assured as to his perseverance in godli
ness, to say. My enemies are and will be such as I
have stated, whilst I, persevering in the righteousness
wherewith Thou justifiest me. Thou giving sentence in
my favour, am sure that I shall realise and see Thy
presence ; and that whilst the wicked shall be satisfied
with the things of this present life, I shall be filled
and satisfied when I shall awake in Thine iraage and
likeness. So that the clauses respond respectively each
to the other.
The presence of God, as has been stated, is felt and
seen by those who are called of God for Christ ; by
those who are already justified by Christ, and who are
governed by the Holy Spirit. They feel it who enjoy
the favour of God and recognise it as being the favour

PSALM XVII. 11-15 105
of God, and see it, as St. Paul says, " in a glass darkly ; "
whilst they wake up and restore the image and likeness
of God in themselves, by striving to be personally very
like to Christ, in order to be very like to God, retaining
this as their sole aim in all their designs and in all
their exercises. And they who, in the present life,
attain to feel and to see the presence of God, and to
reform the iraage and likeness of God in themselves,
live in the highest happiness ; whereby they assure
themselves of the glory which they have to enjoy in
the life eternal with Jesus Christ our Lord.

PSALM XVIII
XVIII. 1. — I will love Thee, 0 Lord, my
strength (my stronghold).
2. — The Lord is my rock, my fortress, my de
liverer, my God, my strength. I wiU trust in Him ;
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my refuge.
3. — I invoked the Lord, to whom be praise, and
I was saved from my enemies.
David's design in this psalm is to be understood from
the title which he gave it, for it runs thus : " Psalm of
David, the servant of the Lord, who spake unto the Lord
all the words of this song, on the day in which the Lord
delivered him from the hands of all his enemies, and from
the hand of Saul."
" Who spake all the words of this song." They are in
the Hebrew books in 2 Samuel xxii., and by them it is to
be understood that David's design, throughout the whole
psalm, is to show himself thankful to God for that which
He had wrought by him, until that He raised him above
all his enemies ; and because this was his design, it
appears that the whole tone of the psalm is the celebra
tion of past events.
By the two first verses, I understand that David, having
gone forth to wars, in which he had experienced God's
help, attributes to God those names which are peculiar
to warfare, those by which he felt himself assisted.
When he says, " / will love Thee," it has, as has been
stated, to be regarded as a continuation ; and when he

PSALM XVIII. 4-6 107
says " the horn of my salvation," I understand that, because
the strength of animals lies in their horns, he means, the
strength that is wont to save him.
Beginning with verse the third, he commences to re
hearse the benefits which he had received from God.
In saying, " To whom he praise," he means, who person
ally deserves all praise, without needing that which men
can render to Him.
And in saying, " / was saved," I understand that his
salvation proceeded from and was the result of his voca
tion. XVIII. 4. — The sorrows of death compassed me,
and terrible floods affrighted me.
5. — The sorrows of the grave compassed me, the
snares of death prevented me.
6. — In my tribulation I called upon the Lord,
and cried unto my God ; from out of His temple
He heard my voice, and my cry came before Him,
even into His ears.
In verses fourth, fifth, and sixth, I understand him
to say that, having frequently been brought into
deadly perils by the fury of his persecutors, what time
they sought to take his life, he had recourse to God, and
that God had succoured him. To strengthen his state
ment, he employs terrible and strange expressions, such
as "the sorrows of death," and "of the grave," meaning
those which are incident to death and to the grave, and
"fioods," or overflow of rivers, and "snares," meaning
that they were very numerous and that they were dan
gerous. In saying, " out of His temple," he means from the place
in which was the Ark of the Covenant, where God mani
fested forth the glory of His Divinity. And I under
stand that their cry comes before God who are moved

'io8 PSALM XVIII. 7-9
and inspired by the Spirit of God, who, when they pray,
feel themselves to be in the presence of God. And I
understand that they who pray thus are always heard ;
the prayers of those who do not pray in the presence of
God, do not enter into the ears of God ; they are not
heard by God. -.
XVIII. 7. — The earth then shakes and trembles ;
the foundations also of the hills are moved, and are
shaken, when He is wroth.
8. — When wroth, smoke goes up out of His nos
trils, and consuming fire out of His mouth ; by it
coals are kindled.
9. — He bows the heavens also and comes down,
and there is darkness under His feet.
Beginning from verse the seventh, I understand it to
be David's design to show the omnipotence of God in
these natural events, he, as a godly man, attributing to
God that which the wicked, and strangers to God, attri
bute only to natural causes ; as though these natural
causes were not ordained by God, and as though He did
not moderate and vary them at His will and pleasure.
Human prudence thinks that the glory of God is more
illustrated when man teaches that God only regards
things that are striking and of world-wide influence, and
that He remits the small and particular to second causes,
whilst the Holy Spirit teaches just the reverse. Now
that the teaching of the Holy Spirit with relation to the
Providence of God is more reliable and true, is witnessed
by the fact that the teaching of human prudence makes
men insolent in prosperity and impatient in adversity ;
whilst the teaching of the Holy Spirit makes men
humble in prosperity and patient in adversity. Inso
lence and impatience stand associated with impiety,
whilst humility aud patience stand associated with piety.

PSALM XVIII. lo-ii 109
So that the teaching of human prudence as to the Provi
dence of God renders men wicked, whilst that of the
Holy Spirit renders them pious. The men who hang to
the one and hold with the other, halt with both feet :
with the lips they confess the teaching of the Holy
Spirit, whilst by their doctrines and their modes of living
they show that, in their heart, they hold with the teach
ing of human prudence.
From verse the seventh, I understand that "earth
quakes" are frequently indications of the wrath of God,
either to terrify the wicked or to chastise those who
receive damage from them.
By verse the eighth, I understand that wishing power
fully to express what God can do instrumentally by the
elements, he attributes to God "nostrils and mouth," assign
ing to Him the affections witnessed in a very angry man.
By " burning coals," I understand storms with hail and
thunderbolts, which seem as though they would set the
earth on fire, and which indeed they do.
In verse the ninth, where it is said, "He hows the
heavens," I understand him to use a style of expression
commonly employed. For it is so, that when we see
some great dense cloud, we say that the heavens lower ;
and when it is stated that " there is darkness under His
feet," I understand God to be elevated above all the
forms of darkness wrought by the clouds, for that God
rides above them all.
XVIII. 10. — He rides upon the cherubim and
flies, He flies upon the wings of the wind,
11. — He sets. His secret place in darkness;
around Him is His tabernacle, dark waters floating
in the clouds of the heavens.
As to the mode in which God rides upon the cheru
bim, as stated in verse the tenth, I do not understand it ;

IIO PSALM XVIII. 12-14
neither does that which they apprehend, who profess that
they do understand it, satisfy me. I indeed understand
what David means in this verse, that God is present in
storms of wind on shore, and also in those on the ocean ;
and by saying, " The wings of the wind" 1 understand it
as enhancing rapidity of movement.
In verse the eleventh, when he speaks of " the secret
place," I understand him to say that darkness withholds
from us the sight of God in tempests. And by saying
that " tfi^e tabernMcle," or throne of God, surrounds the
secret place, I understand him to state that it is from
thence that He executes the rigour of His justice, chas
tising the wicked with thunderbolts and other • things.
And in saying " dark waters," I understand him to ex
pound what he means by "His secret place ; " and when
he speaks of " the clouds of the heavens," I understand him
to mean that the dark waters are the dense clouds borne
along by the wind. I understand that David, by these
words, reverts to show how it is that God is concealed by
the great clouds, created by the waters with which the
clouds are charged. This, David's conception, harmonises
with what is read at the giving of the Law to Moses, that
God spake from a cloud ; and in the report of the conse
cration of Solomon's Temple, which God entered under
the form of a cloud ; and it is precisely conformable with
other passages in the Old Testament, and with some in
the New. The reason why God has manifested Himself
and has spoken to men in clouds may be conjectured,
but I do not know whether it be possible to learn it from
any other than from God Himself ; wherefore I remit my
comprehension of it until that it shall please God to give
me to understand it.
XVIII. — 12. With resplendent brightness before
Him, His clouds sail along charged with hail-stones
and coals of fire (thunderbolts).

PSALM XVIII. 15-17 III
13.— The Lord thundereth in the heavens, and
the Most High uttereth His voice, hail-stones and
coals of fire,
14, — Yea, He launcheth forth His arrows, and
destroys them, He sends lightnings and terrifies
them. In the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth verses, David
proceeds to extol the omnipotence of God, that He,
with the splendour of His presence, even as He allows
Himself to be seen, or withholds Himself from sight,
makes the clouds to move along even as He wills.
By "coals of fire'' 1 understand the forked lightning
that set fire to the earth.
In verse the thirteenth, " the Lord thundereth in the
heavens" is equivalent to. The Lord gives utterance to
His voice ; and in verse the fourteenth, by " arrows " I
understand forked lightnings ; and where He says, " God
destroys and terrifies them," he means the wicked. Where
I understand, that just as the righteous, when exposed to
tempests, are steady and firm, reflecting that these are not
sent to damage them, since they are God's creation, to
whom they each and all of them are wholly submissive,
and by whom they are all controlled, with individual
particular governance, so likewise the wicked, when they
are exposed to earthquakes and to tempests, are per
turbed and alarmed, fearing the injury that may thence
accrue to them. So that exaggerated feeling at such
seasons is an indication of impiety, whilst great self-
possession and firmness under the same circumstances is
an indication of piety.
XVIII. 15. — Then the floods of waters are seen,
the foundations of the world are discovered, at
Thy rebuke, 0 Lord, the blast of the breath of
Thine anger.

112 PSALM XVIII. 15-17
16. — He sent from on high and took me, He
drew me out of mighty waters.
17. — He delivered me from my strong enemy,
and from those who wished me evil because they
prevailed against me.
In verse the fifteenth, David sets forth the effects
wrought by the heavily massed clouds of which he has
spoken, the great indications of tempests, when heavy
rains appear to rend the earth, laying bare her founda
tions. He means the hidden depths.
By saying, " At Thy rebuke, 0 Lord," he reverts to
show the mode in which all these things of which he has
spoken are indications of God's indignation against the
impiety of men of the world ; and when he says, " vnth the
blast of the breath of Thine anger," he shows the ease with
which God does all these things, that man may the better
weigh His omnipotence, which it has been David's design
throughout all these verses to express and to extol.
In verse the sixteenth, I understand David to say :
This same God, who does all these things, is the same
who, from heaven, sent His grace to me, which delivered
me from the raging of my enemies, in which I was in
less peril than were they, who, swept away by the floods
and rising waters of which I have spoken, found them
selves being borne away by them, and beyond all help,
so as to escape from them. Here, by "mighty waters,'' I
understand the overwhelming fury of enemies, as David
himself declares in verse the seventeenth, where by "my
strong enemy " I think him to mean Saul. Now, by say
ing "for they prevailed against me," I apprehend him to
speak thus : God was moved to deliver me from my
enemies because He saw, or when He saw, that they
were more powerful than me. Where I understand that
God suffers the wicked to master the righteous, and that
then He favours them and delivers them,, in. order that

PSALM XVIII. 18-21 113
the favour and the deliverance being the more marked,
the righteous may be more edified and the wicked put
to greater confusion.
XVIII. 18. — In the day of my calamity He
prevented (arranged for) me ; the Lord upheld
me, 19. — He brought me forth into a wide open
place ; He delivered me, because He took pleasure
in me.
20. — The Lord hath rewarded me accordino- to
my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my.
hands hath He recompensed me.
21. — I considered the ways of the Lord and
have not cavilled at my God.
In verse the eighteenth, when the Psalmist says, "He
prevented me," he means. He succoured me when I
was about to perish ; and by " the day of my calamity,"
he means, at the time when I was just about to be
ruined. In verse the nineteenth, when he says, " He brought me
forth into a wide open place," he means. Delivering me
from straits. He refreshed and comforted my mind ; and
by saying, " Because He took pleasure in me," he excludes
all regard to merits, as though he had said, God did this,
not because I deserved it, but because such was His will ;
because He had accepted and taken me for His own, and
had made me a vessel of mercy.
In verse the twentieth, " He recompensed me " is equi
valent to " He rewarded me ; " and " the cleanness of my
hands,'' is equivalent to "my righteousness." Where I
consider God's munificence ; He makes us righteous,
and afterwards He gives us credit for the righteousness ,
which He has given us ; so preserving us in godliness
H

114 PSALM XVIII. 22-26
that, although some traces of weakness may be seen in
us, there is no ungodliness to be seen; and after that
He has given us cleanness, He gives us credit for it.
It is thus that I understand the recompense and the
reward of which David speaks in this verse.
In verse the twenty-first, I understand him to say
that God had delivered him because he had studiously
considered God's works without judging any one of them
impiously. He who studies God's works, exercises
himself in piety ; and, occupied in considering them, he
does not " cavil at " God, and does not wickedly depart
from God, holding them all to be right, he worships
God in the spirit. We have already stated that by
"the ways of the Lord" David means God's works in
providence. XVIIL 22,— For I have had all His judgments
before me, and ever have I loyally k^t His
statutes, 23, — I have been uprigbf before Him, and have
been on my guard ^a;inst my iniquity.
24. — And. the Lord hath rewarded me according
to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of
my hands before His eyes.
25. — ^With the saint. Thou wilt show Thyself
to be holy, 0 Lord ; with the upright, Thou wilt
show Thyself to be perfect.
26.— With the pure. Thou wilt show Thyself to
be pure ; and with the perverse, Thou wilt show
Thyself to be perverse.
In verse the twenty -second, by " His judgments,"
and by " His statutes," he means the Law of God,
concerning which I understand David to say that he

PSALM XVIII. 27-28 115
constantly retained it in his memory, ever meditating
upon it ; to which fact it would seem that he attributes
what he stated before, in the twenty-first verse ; whence
I understand that he who shall continuously study the
will of God, will meditate upon God's providence in
everything, and will never depart from God.
When he says, in verse the twenty-third, " / have been
upright before Him," he means, I have emulated His
perfection. He being perfect as God, whilst I have been
perfect as man. Our Lord Jesus Christ summons us to
this perfection, saying, " Be ye perfect, as your Father in
heaven is perfect."
In saying, " / have been on my guard against my
iniquity," I understand him to mean, I have ever lived
delivered from myself.
Verse the twenty-fourth is expounded in that of the
twentieth verse.
In saying, " Before His eyes," he means that he knows
wherein his righteousness and the cleanness of his hands
is most enhanced, the righteousness being in the integ
rity of the mind, and the cleanness of the hands in the
righteousness of the works.
In verses twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth, I understand
a general axiom, knowledge of a high range, that here
occurred to David. It is this, that the man who is
holy, perfect, and pure holds God to be holy, perfect,
and pure ; whilst the man that is perverse holds God to
be perverse ; that the righteous man holds God to be
holy and righteous, whilst the impious holds Him to be
impious ; so that the judgment which man forms of God
depends upon the character of the man forming it.
XVIII. 27, — For Thou wilt save them who are
despised, whilst Thou wilt bring down haughty
looks.

ii6 PSALM XVIII. 27-28
28. — For Thou hast lighted my candle; the
Lord my God hath resplendently lighted up my
darkness. I understand this to be brought about, as he states in verse
twenty-sixth, from its being habitual with God to favour
and to exalt those whora the world contemns, and to humi
liate those whom the world favours and extols. And since it
is so, that the world always discountenances and despises
the godly, whilst it countenances and extols the ungodly,
it well follows, that the godly hold God to be holy, whilst
the wicked hold Him to be unrighteous.
In verse twenty-eighth, I understand David to attribute
his piety, his righteousness, and his holiness to God,
stating that all the good there was within him was due
to God's having enhghtened, with His Spirit, his reason
and his human prudence, which, without God, are nothing
other than darkness and obscurity.
Here I understand that just as the words of our Lord
Jesus Christ represent the eye as the light of the body, so
likewise man's inward light is reason or human prudence.
And I understand this to be a candle giving no light,
whilst the man is destitute of the Spirit of God ; and I
understand, that it does give light when the Spirit of God
enlightens it. So that Da-vid in saying, "Thou hast lighted
my candle" says. Thou, in giving me Thy Holy Spirit,
hast enlightened my reason and my human prudence,
which had died in Adam's, the first man's, transgression.
And that which he adds, " The Lord my God," &c., I
understand to be expository of what he stated, when
calling .his candle darkness. With this, I understand our
Lord Jesus Christ's teaching in those words, " The light of
the body is the eye," &c. When the eye is bright the
whole body is bright, and when the eye is dark the
whole body is dark ; similarly, when human prudence is
enlightened by the Holy Spirit, the whole inward man is

PSALM XVIII. 29-32 117
lighted up, and when it is dark, without the Holy Spirit,
the whole inward man is dark. I understand, moreover,
that just as the eye serves to enable man to see the light
of the sun, but that he cannot see it,, save by the sun
itself, so human prudence serves to enable him te see
and to know God, but he can neither see nor know
Hira save by God Himself, when God allows Himself to
be seen and known. I understand likewise that as it
would be great folly in any one who should desire and
presume to see the sun by candle-light, trusting to the
clearness of his eyes, so would it be the greatest temerity
in those who should desire to know God by the light of
Scripture and by the persuasion of men. God Himself
must light our candle. He must lighten our darkness
Himself, and, unless He do, all that man knows of God
is mere opinion, mere imagination, which has ever more
falsehood than truth.
XVIII. 29. — For by Thy help have I routed
a host, and by my God have I leaped upon the
wall. 30. — He is God, His way is perfect. What the.
Lord saith is refined (as in a crucible) ; He is the
shield of all those who trust in Him.
31. — For, what other God is there but Jehovah,
and what other strong one is there save our God ?
32. — God Himself hath girded me with valour,
and hath made my way perfect.
In verse the twenty-ninth, David begins to tell what he
by the grace of God had achieved. In saying " by Thy help,"
he means, by Thy favour. When he says, " Have I leaped
upon the wall," he means. Have I taken cities by assault.
In verse the thirtieth he celebrates the perfection of
God, His truth, His omnipotence. He celebrates the

ii8 PSALM XVIII. 33-38
perfection by stating that " What the Lord saith is tried ; "
he means that truth and fidelity pervade it ; and he
celebrates the omnipotence by stating that "He is the
shield of all those who trust in Him." He means that He
defends and protects thera by His oranipotence, not con
senting that other creatures injure them raore than He
for their good perraits and consents to.
In verse the thirty-first he goes on to celebrate the
Being of God by asserting that "there is no other save
our God," where the word "Jehovah" has been left with
out translating it " Lord," as in other places, because it
seems to embody greater vehemence and power.
From verse the thirty-second he goes on to particularise
the benefits which he recognised as proceeding from God.
In saying, "He hath girded me with valour," he means. He
inspired rae with bravery ; and in saying, " Hath made my
way perfect," he means. He makes my life upright.
XVIII. 33.— Making my feet like hinds' feet,
and making me to stand upon my high places.
34. — Teaching my hands to war, I broke a bow
of steel with my arms.
35. — Thou hast given me the shield of Thy salva
tion, and Thy right hand hath upheld me, and with
Thy gentleness hast Thou made me great.
36. — Thou hast safely planted my footsteps, so
that my heels have not slipped.
37. — I followed up my enemies, and I overtook
them, I did not turn until that I had destroyed
them, 38. — I smote them, that they were not able to
rise : they fell beneath my feet.
In verse the thirty-third, where he says, " Making my
feet like hinds' feet," he attributes his activity to the favour

PSALM XVIII. 33-3S 119
of God ; and when he says, " Making me to stand upon my
high places," he means, preserving me and upholding me
in my royal dignity.
In verse the thirty-fourth, when he says, " Teaching my
hands to war" he attributes his skill in warfare and his
strength in fighting to the favour of God, for such was
the strength of his arms that with them he broke a bow
of steel. Of David's strength we read in his history.
Had David not been pious, he would have attributed
these things to his own prowess and to his good con
stitution, as do they who are aliens to piety ; but because
he was pious, he attributed it all to the favour of God,
wherein he truly and effectively recognised it. The pious
Christian, who fights against inward foes skilfully and
with inward strength, will understand all these as illus
trating inward favours, such as are especially connected
with the mind.
In verse the thirty-fifth, I understand God's shield of
salvation to be the -favour with which He saves and
delivers the pious from perils ; whilst I understand " Thy
right hand," and " The shield of Thy salvation " to be
synonymous. And in saying, "Hast made me great," I understand
him to say. Thou hast caused all the things of which I
have spoken to develop and to be augmented in me.
In verse the thirty-sixth, where he says, " Thou hast
safely planted my footsteps," &c., I understand him to
attribute to God the firmness of his footsteps, just as he
has attributed to Him the strength of his arms and the
dexterity of his hands. And I do not understand him to
speak only of his feet, but of his frame, and of all his
works; meaning that he, through God's goodness, had
been strengthened in them all. " That my heels have not
slipped," is equivalent to, " Thou hast safely planted my feet."
By " heels," I understand " feet." That this was the fact, he
goes on to prove in the following verses, saying, "I followed

I20 PSALM XVIII. .39-41
up my enemies, and I overtook them," that is, I destroyed
them, I smote them, and struck them down so that they
could not rise, I trod them under ray feet.
XVIII. 39. — For Thou hast girded me with
strength for the battle, and Thou hast subjected to
me those who rose up against me.
40. — Thou hast given me the backs of mine
enemies, and I routed those too who wished me
evil. 41. — They cried out, but there was none to save
them ; unto the Lord, but He did not answer
them. In verse the thirty-ninth, where he says, "Those who
rose up against me" I think him to mean those Israelites
who would fain have rejected him as king.
In verse the fortieth, where he says, " Thou hast given
me the hacks of my enemies," his meaning is, Thou hast
made my enemies in ffight to turn their backs. He says
the same was done by those "who wished me evil:" I
struck them down, meaning all of them.
In verse the forty-first, where David says of his enemies
that they in their distress "cried out," invoking God, and that
" He did not answer them," he leads me to understand that
there are times when the wicked ask for favour of God,
and I understand that it is not conceded to them, because
they ask without faith, for I think that had they trusted,
though otherwise wicked, they would have been heard as
to that in which they confided. I am led to think thus
by reflecting that there are many who, brought down by
outward circumstances to such an extent that they have
no human favour wherein to confide, nor whence they
'might hope to escape, commend themselves to God, and
God favours them, having solely regard to their trust in

PSALM XVIII. 42-45 121
Hira, and that He has promised His favour to those who
shall ask in faith; thus superlatively great is the privilege
of faith. Herein do I understand the reason why certain
persons who do not manifest that mental piety, nor that
trust in God in spirituals, which would seem needful for
God to hold them of account, so that He should provide for
their bodily wants, are, as it were, miraculously provided
with what is needed to sustain life. And effectively it is
so, that God answers men relatively to the faith with
which they invoke Him. And (this) because the perversity
of the human mind is so great, that it is never brought to
hope the attainment of aught from God beyond that which
it knows, and sees itself to be unable to attain, either by itself
or from any other creature. I understand that to attain
the justification of God, which is through faith in Christ,
greatly assists the man to exercise himself in the reflec
tion, which is indeed truth, that he cannot be justified
either through himself or through the agency of any other
creature. For having this knowledge he will confide, and,
with the confidence, he will attain the justification where
with God justifies those who confide in Him, making the
righteousness of Christ their own.
XVIII. 42. — Then did I grind them small as
dust, driving before the wind, I trampled them as
mud in the streets.
43. — Thou hast delivered me from popular strife.
Thou hast set me as head over the heathen ; a
nation that I knew not serves me.
44.' — As soon as they hear me, they obey. The
children of strangers, from fear of me, tell me lies.
45. — The strangers fade away and quail in the
places where they secrete themselves.
In verse the forty-second, he shows by two very appro
priate similitudes how wholly his enemies were dispirited

122 PSALM XVIII. 46-50
before him ; whilst in verse the forty-third, by "popular
strife" I think him to mean the opposing factions whom
he encountered in his kingdom.
So that by the "nation," I understand the Jewish
one, and by the "heathen," I think that he may mean
those peoples who, not being Jews, were subject to
him. And when saying, " a nation that I knew not serves
me," it is the same as what he stated, " Thou hast set me
as head over the heathen," so that the unknown nation is
identified with the heathen. And I understand, " Iknev:
not" as though he had said. Whom I never took into
consideration, who were not God's people.
And in verse the forty-fourth, where he says, " As soon as
they hear me, they obey" he means, that that people whom
previously he did not know was so obedient to hira, that as
soon as it heard his commands, it was ready to obey them.
When he says, " The children of strangers tell me lies" he
means. They are so subject to me, and I hold them in such
abject fear, that as the timid slave lies to his raaster, so do
they lie unto rae. They, who were not Jews, he calls the
children of strangers. Of these very persons, he says in
the forty-fifth verse, that they were, when disobedient, so
overcorae with fear, that they scarcely held theraselves to
be safe in the places where they secreted themselves.
XVIII. 46. — The Lord liveth, blessed be my rock,
may the God of my salvation be exalted.
47. — AVhen I avenge myself, it is God who gives
me the opportunity of doing so, it is He who sub-
dueth the nations under me.
48. — He it is who hath delivered me from mine
enemies, and hath exalted me above those who rose
up against me. Thou hast delivered me from the
treacherous man.

PSALM XVIII. 46-50 123
49. — Therefore will I gratefully confess Thee
amongst the heathen, 0 Lord, and I will sing unto
Thy name, saying,
50. — He magnifies His repeated deliverances of
His king, and He acts mercifully towards David,
His anointed, and unto his seed for ever.
In verse the forty-sixth, by saying, " The Lard liveth" I
understand him to praise that in God which is peculiar to
God, which is to live, and to impart life to all that hve.
When saying, "Blessed be my rock," he manifests the
desire that God be known for what He is ; because that
being known. He will be praised. He calls God his
stronghold, meaning, that what strength he had came to
him from God ; he also similarly calls Him, " The God of
my salvation" meaning that his salvation and deliverance
from all his eneraies came to him from God. That such is
the fact he proves by verse the forty-seventh, stating that it
was by the favour of God that he was enabled to avenge
himself of them who were his enemies, and that it was by
the sarae favour that he conquered and subjugated nations,
so that he held thera subdued and humbled. This sarae goes
on, and is amplified in verse the forty-eighth, where by
" the treacherous man " I think him to mean Saul ; it may
also be that he uses the singular number instead of the
plural typically, and that he means. Thou hast delivered
me from treacherous men, from liars.
In verse the forty-ninth he promises two things — to con
fess God amongst the heathen, and to sing to His name. I
understand the confession to consist in his clearly and
manifestly stating, that God is He who works all things,
according to His desire and to His will. WhUst " to sing
unto Thy name" I understand to be to celebrate the most
Divine narae of Jehovah in psalms.
To these two promises of David, the pious Christian
¦will add a third. This will be in his mental humiliation

124 PSALM XVIII. 46-50
at the name of Jesus, recognising his justification through
Him, and hoping for his resurrection and his life eternal
through Him. When saying the name of Jesus, I under
stand it of Christ our Lord Himself.
I understand the last verse to contain the confession of
God, and the singing to the name of God, which he pro
mises in the preceding verse.
As though he should say. That which I shall confess
and shall sing is this : that God has wrought great, illus
trious, and brilliant works in delivering me, who am His
elected, and His anointed king; and that in upholding me,
who am David His anointed, in possession of the kingdom,
He exercises mercy; and that He will perpetually exercise
this same mercy towards my descendants. Where I
understand that in his making mention of mercy, he
excludes everything that savours of desert; and that in
saying, " Unto his seed for ever," his design was not to
indicate succession to a kingdom that was temporal and
outward, but to a kingdom spiritual and inward ; in which
the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord,
bom of the seed of David according to the flesh, does
reign and will reign perpetually.

PSALM XIX
XIX. 1. — The heavens tell the glory of God,
and the firmament publishes His handy work.
2. — Day unto day testifieth to power, and night
unto night sheweth knowledge.
3. — Amongst them, there is neither speech nor
words, nor voice heard.
4. — Nevertheless their courses go on over all the
earth, and their teaching to the end of the world.
Amongst them hath He placed a tabernacle for the
sun.
David, in the first part of this psalm, praises the omni
potence and providence of God, from consideration of the
heavens, of what they effect, and of their decorative glory;
and, in the second part, he praises the goodness, truth,
and faithfulness of God, on account of that which is
written in the Law of God.
I understand that these two considerations lead a man
on to the knowledge of God, and to the conception which
he has to form of God. I do not say that they put him
in possession of it, but that they lead him on to it, under
standing that it is Christ's sole prerogative to put him
in possession of it, agreeably with that which He Himself
states in John xiv. 6, " No man cometh unto the Father save
by Me;" whilst the mode in which man is led to the
Father by Christ has been already told in the preceding
psalm. In verse the first, I understand David to state, that

126 PSALM XIX. 1-4
consideration of the marvellously-skilled workmanship,
which there is in the heavens, leads man to know the
glory which has to be rendered to God, who made them ;
and that the consideration of the firmaraent shows of
what His hands are capable. By "firmament" I under
stand the visible heavens; this in Hebrew is called the
expanse, because it is expanded.
In verse the second, I understand David to celebrate
the providence of God, which has ordained the suc
cession of day following upon day and of night upon
night; whereby it seems that the one instructs the other
as to what it has to do ; or, to express it more aptly, that
men raay know by the one what has to be in the other.
In saying, " Testifieth to power,'-' I understand it justifies
the remark; and in saying, "Sheweth knowledge," I under
stand that it instructs, neither the day nor the night, but
raan by the consideration of day and of night.
In verse the third, I understand David to marvel that
the heavens, having " neither speech nor words, nor voice
to he heard," the result should be as he states in verse the
fourth, that they being equally distant from the earth all
over the world, their teaching is felt and understood all
over the world. He means that they so allow raan to
know them by their effects and operations, that they are
considered as having tongues, and as so speaking that
they come to be understood.
And I understand that by way of the more enhancing
the decorative glories of the heavens, he states that God
has placed and located the sun amongst thera, includ
ing, as I think, all the others in him, he being the most
resplendent. This fourth verse is quoted by St. Paul in Eom. x. i8.
I hold him to have done so allegorically, understanding
that just as the omnipotence and providence of God are
known all over the world by the marvellously skilled
workmanship of the heavens, so likewise the justice which

PSALM XIX. s-io 127
God executed upon His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ
our Lord, whereby He determined to justify all who
should accept it for their own, and should confide in it,
has been promulgated all over the world by the Divine
preaching of the Apostles.
XIX. 5, — ^And like a bridegroom rising from his
couch, he rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
6. — His going forth is from the end of the
heavens, and his circuit unto the ends of it. There
is nothing hid from his heat.
In verses fifth and sixth he fully praises the excellence
of the sun, his beauty, and his (apparent) fleetness. He
represents him coming forth in the morning handsome
as the bridegroom when he comes forth from his nuptial
bed, and ready as a spirited runner to run his race.
This coraing forth, he says, is from the east to the west,
so that his heat is felt in all parts of the world : all enjoy
him, and all experience his benficence. For, as our Lord
Jesus Christ says, God manifests His munificence by caus
ing His sun to rise upon the good and upon the wicked.
XIX. 7.— The law of the Lord is perfect, it
converts the soul ; the testimony of the Lord is
sure, it makes the ignorant wise.
8. — The statutes of' the Lord are right, and make
the heart rejoice ; the commandment of the Lord is
pure, and enlightens the eyes,
9, — The fear of the Lord is clean, and abides for
ever ; the judgments of the Lord are true and
righteous altogether,
10, — More desirable are they than gold, yea,
than much fine gold ; sweeter than honey and the
honeycomb.

128 PSALM XIX. 7-IO '
From the seventh verse David begins to praise the good
ness, the truth, and the faithfulness of God, attributes
which render Him loveable.
In verses seventh and eighth, I understand him to
characterise by four names that which is written in the
five books of the Law, assigning to each name its excel
lence, and showing the singular effect attached to each
name. Thus he assigns, perfection to the "law," saying that its
effect is to " convert the soul." He means that when it goes
astray, it brings it back into the right way.
To the " testirnony " it assigns faithfulness, and that its
effect is to "make the ignorant wise." And it is so, that
when an ignorant man considers the attributes of God,
and refiects upon the faithfulness with which God keeps to
that which He has promised, he sets hiraself to confide in
God's promises, and by confiding, he, from an ignorant
man, becomes a wise and prudent one.
To " the statutes " he assigns rectitude and equity, whilst
their effect is to " rejoice the heart." And he calls Holy
Scripture the statutes, for there does God charge every one
with that which it is his duty to do in this present life.
To " the commandment " he assigns purity, and its effect
is to " enlighten the eyes," for it shows men the path in
which they have to walk.
In verse the ninth, I understand by "the fear of God,"
the awful reverence which is due to Him. I understand
the Psalmist to say that this fear " is clean ; " understand
ing that in all other fears there is a commixture of human
affections, whilst purity is found only in this. I under
stand that love is annexed to this fear, just as hatred
is annexed to the fear which is commixed with human
affections. I think that the perpetuity of this reverence
consists in that it is to hold out as long as the Gospel
is preached, and to endure even throughout the life
eternal.

PSALM XIX. 11-14 129
In saying that " the judgments of God are true," I under
stand that in all that God does, in chastising, in pardoning,
and in remunerating, He administers much justice ; and
in saying " are righteous altogether," I understand that they
all are just.
What David says, in the tenth verse, that these are very
" desirable " and very " sweet," is not contradictory of what
St. Peter states, that the Law is a yoke. For it was so, that
while it lasted, it was to the pious what David says, be
cause they therein studied the will of God, and that they
knew thereby that God of His mercy did not take their
sins against it into account ; whilst it was to those who
were aliens to righteousness, and who thought that they
would be rigorously judged and condemned by it, and who
aimed at self -justification by it, what St. Peter represented
it to be.
XIX. 11. — By them also is Thy servant admon
ished, and in their observance there is great reward.
12. — Who can understand his errors ? From my
secret ones cleanse Thou me.
13. — Keep back Thy servant from habitual in
solence ; let it not have dominion over me. Then
shall I be perfect and innocent of much rebellion
before Thee.
14. — Let the words of my mouth and the medi
tation of my heart be conformable to Thy will,
0 Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.
In verse the eleventh, I understand David to say, that
not only were they who were aliens to piety taught by
the Law of God, but that even the godly and they who
had the Spirit of God were so likewise.
I understand that the godly in Gospel times avail them
selves of Scripture to collate and to compare what the
Holy Spirit teaches them by it.

130 PSALM XIX. 11-14
The "great reward " of which David speaks, as involved
in "the observance" of the commandments of God, I under
stand consisted in the faithfulness and welfare which was
promised by the Law; whilst the great reWard which
there is in faith connected with the preaching of the
Gospel, I understand to be justification, the control of
the Holy Spirit, resurrection, and life eternal, which is
promised in the Gospel.
By verse the twelfth, I understand that David, by con
sidering the great reward and repose which he obtained
by fulfilling the Law, was led to know the difficulty there
is in doing so ; this being due to man's errors, which are both
secret and inward, and to the fact that men are so blind
that they are unable to recognise them, and that they are
unable, even with the Law, either to master them or to
comprehend thera ; wherefore he asks God to "cleanse" him
from them, by which he means, that they should not be
reckoned up against him.
In verse the thirteenth, I understand that David goes
on to ask of God that He should not allow him to lapse into
" insolence " of spirit, and that if he should at times fall
into it, that He should not permit him to be overcome
by insolence; for that, were this conceded him, he says
that he would " he perfect and innocent of much rebellion."
Where I understand, that as we by humility become good
subjects and vassals of our God, so by insolence we deny
Him and depart from Him. For it is so, that where there
is insolence there is ungodliness, and that where there is
ungodliness there is insolence. Just as where there is
humility there is godliness, and where there is godliness
there is humility — I mean Christian humility.
In the last verse, I understand David to ask that all which
he has said in this psalm raay be conformable to the will
of God, whom he calls his "strength" and his "Redeemer,"
because his strength came from God, and that it was He
who rescued him from the dangers that presented them-

PSALM XIX. 11-14 131
selves to him. And by that, " the meditation of my heart,"
&c., I understand him to say. Favour Tlfou, Lord, with
Thy presence, not only my words, but even my thoughts,
so that all may be conformable to Thy will. Here I will
add this, that what the Law, the Testimony, the Statutes,
and the Commandments of God were to pious Jews, the
Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord is of itself alone to pious
Christians. I do not say that which is written with ink
upon paper, but that which comes to be stamped upon
their hearts; I mean that which assures them that the
justice of God was executed upon the fiesh of Christ, for
all that which the flesh of all men had, and have, offended,
and shall offend Him ; and therefore that it concerns them
to embrace this faith in this life, and to die holding it in
Christ, certain that since they died with Christ, they will
rise with Christ, and they will live the life eternal with
Christ. In this feeling and in this assurance there is
perfection, there is faithfulness, there is rectitude, and
there is purity. And this assurance and this feeling in
those who possess it, converts their souls, makes them
wiser, rejoices their hearts, and enlightens their eyes;
preserves them perpetually in the filial fear of God, and
shows them that all the judgments of God are just, holy,
and true. The acceptance of the Gospel, which Jesus
Christ, our Lord, published on earth, works all these effects
upon godly minds.

PSALM XX
XX. 1. — The Lord answer thee in the day of
trouble; the name of the God of Jacob protect
thee. 2, — Send thy succour from the sanctuary, thy
help from Zion,
3. — May He remember all thy offerings, and
consume thy holocausts (converting them to ashes).
4. — Give thee thy heart's desire in all thy deli
berations.
It appears that David composed this psalra to cele
brate some victory, in order that the people might use the
psalra in prayer, praying therewith for David hiraself.
In verse the first, by "the day of trouble," he raeans
the time of heartache and of extremity. " The name of
God" has already been defined. I understand that he
raakes mention "of Jacob," because he prevailed when
he wrestled with the angel, on account of which he was
called Israel.
In verse the second, by "sanctuary " and by "Zion," he
means one and the same thing. They are tantamount to
his saying. From the Teraple at Jerusalem. In saying,
" thy succour," he means, that which thou needest.
In verse the third, when he says, " Consume thy holo
causts," he means burn thera with fire from heaven, so
that they be brought to ashes. He says this, because,
under the Law, God occasionally sent fire from heaven

PSALM XX. 5-7 133
that consumed the sacrifice, converting it to ashes, by way
of manifesting His acceptance of it.
The Jews called those sacrifices holocausts where the
whole body of the animal sacrificed was burnt, without
leaving any part of it for the priests. This sacrifice was
held as the most religious, as exceeding every other in
sanctity. The offerings and holocausts of Christians are
those indicated by St. Paul in Eom. xii. 1, " That ye pre
sent your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service." Where I understand it
to be the Christian's duty to offer his body and his mind
to God, mortifying both the one and the other ; I mean,
by reducing the flesh to acquiesce in all the disagreeables
that shall occur to it ; and by reducing the mind to ac
quiesce in whatever ignominy and insults shall occur to
it ; the raan holding himself to be wholly and altogether
dead in the eyes of the world, and alive in the eyes of
God. In verse the fourth, where he says, " Give thee thy heart's
desire in all thy deliberations," he means everything where
upon he should consult and deliberate.
XX. 5. — We will rejoice in Thy salvation, and
in the name of our God will we hoist our colours.
The Lord fulfil all thy petitions.
6. — Now I know that the Lord hath saved
His anointed. He will answer him from the
heavens of His holiness, with the saving prowess
of His right hand,
7. — Some will recur to chariots, whilst others
recur to horses, but we will trust in the name of
the Lord our God.
In verse the fifth, I understand the people to say, God
doing this for thee, " loe will rejoice," for we shall share thy

134 PSALM XX. 8-9
salvation and deliverance, and as a token pf victory, we
" will hoist our colours " in honour of God.
In verse the sixth, where' he says, "Now have I known,"
there is inward assurance of what God purposed doing
for David. Where it says, "His anointed," the Hebrew
says, " His Messiah," and the Greek, " His Christ," which
•words signify unction. David means himself. He says,
" The heavens of His holiness," for His holy heavens ; and
by " the saving prowess of His right hand," he means the
grand demonstrations which God makes of His omni
potence to save and to quicken those whom He wUls to
protect and to quicken.
In verse the seventh, by "some" and by "others," he
means both these and those. His meaning is. Some recur
to their chariots, with which they fought, whilst others will
recur to their horses ; but we will forget our war-chariots
and out chargers, remembering only the Lord our God,
whom we shall hail as the cause of our victories.
XX. 8. — They have stumbled and are fallen,
whilst we rise and stand erect.
9. — Lord, save the king. He will answer us
in the day when we shall call.
In verse the eighth, I understand him to say, they
who recur to chariots and to horses, confiding in thera,
shall "stumble and fall;" whilst we, who recur to God,
confiding in Him, shall be saved and " stand erect."
I think that these three verses, the sixth, seventh, and
eighth, contain what the people should say, when vic
torious, when their colours were to be hoisted to honour
God. In the last verse, I understand that where it says,
" Lo7'd, save," the people are speaking with God, suppli
cating Him to continue His favour to the king. And
where it says, " He will answer us," I understand the

PSALM XX. 8-9 135
people to speak amongst themselves, calling God King,
as though, they had said. It will ever be so, that when
ever we, in prayer, shall ask favour of God, our King,
He will answer us, granting what we supplicate. Here
I understand that if these pious Jews were thus assured
of the favour of God, being but servants, how much more
ought pious Christians, who have obtained adoption as
children by faith in Jesus Christ our Lord, to be assured
of greater favour with and from God ?

PSALM XXI
XXI. 1. — 0 Lord, the king shall rejoice in Thy
strength, and in Thy salvation how exceedingly
shall he exult.
2. — Thou hast given him the desire of his heart,
and hast not denied him what he sought with his
lips. Selah.
3. — For Thou hast prevented him with the best
of blessings, and Thou hast placed a crown of fine
gold upon his head.
4. — He asked life of Thee, and Thou hast given
him length of days, even for evermore.
In the preceding psalra, David teaches his people what
they ought to pray for on his behalf, and how they should
pray to God for him ; just as in this, it would appear that
he teaches them how they should thank God for benefits
already received.
I understand Da-nd, in the first verse, to cause his
people to say, Thus, 0 Lord, shall the king ever have
cause to rejoice in the strength which Thou hast ever
hitherto given him, and wilt give him, and he will ever
have wherein to exult, that Thou, in his necessities, wilt
deliver and wilt save him.
So that in those words, " shall rejoice and shall exult I'
there is to be understood a continuation of that which had
been, was, and would be. 136

PSALM XXI. 1-4 137
A mind steadily intent on the recognition of its bless
ings, as proceeding from God's munificence, is indeed
largely endowed with piety. What ample reason David
had to do that which is stated in the first verse, is shown
in verse the second, since it was a fact, that God had
given him the utmost " desire of his heart," and all that he
had been prompted to ask with his lips. Here I under
stand, that forasmuch as David prayed with the Holy Spirit,
desiring and asking only that which was the will of God,
he obtained all that he desired and asked. And I under
stand that this is the experience of all who pray inspired
by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit praying in them ; He,
knowing the will of God, prays in conformity therewith.
They who pray inspired by their own spirit, because they
desire and ask what their affections and their appe
tites crave, not knowing how to ask, do not obtain what
they ask in prayer, although they loudly say, TJirough
Jesus Christ our Lord. For it is so, that only they ask
through Christ who have the Spirit of Christ, in whom
the Holy Spirit prays, as St. Paul states, in Eom viii. 26,
" The Spirit also helpeth our infirmity ; for we know not
how to pray as we ought ; hut the Spirit Himself maketh
intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered ;
and He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind
of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints,
according to the will of God."
The third and fourth verses show, that it had been so,
that God had given David all that he had been prompted
to desire and to ask. By " the best of blessings," I under
stand favours both good and great. And in saying,
" Thou hast prevented him," I understand that the blessings
anticipated the prayer in which he supplicated them.
The favours were the royal crown, long life, ay, eternal,
endless. This is what may be understood as corresponding
with the Hebrew, expressive of the length of the terra
assigned him by Divine providence.

138 PSALM XXI. 5-8
XXI. 5. — Through Thy salvation, great is his
glory : power and beauty wilt Thou lay upon him,
6. — Seeing that Thou wilt heap blessings upon
him for ever. Thou wilt make him rejoice with the
joy of Thy presence.
7. — For the king trusts in the Lord ; and in his
assurance of the mercy of the Most High he shall
not waver.
8. — Thy hand shall arrest all thine enemies ;
thy right hand shall arrest those who hate thee.
Verse the fifth states that great glory accrued to David
from his having been frequently saved and delivered by
God ; and where it afterwards says, " Thou unit lay upon
him," I apprehend the idea of continuation, that Thou
wilt do as Thou hitherto hast done. " Power " is peculiarly
a regal erablera, whilst I understand him to call personal
dignity " beauty."
In verse the sixth, I understand him to say. This will
be so. Lord, because Thou wilt favour the king -with con
tinuous favours.
Thus do I understand that "Thou wilt heap blessings upon
him for ever," and "Thou, wilt make him to rejoice with
the joy " which they feel who see " Thy presence." They
only can testify as to this joy who have seen the presence
of God, for these only are they who comprehend it. And to
desire to make those capable of comprehending it who have
never tasted it, would be the same as to desire to make
those capable of comprehending the light of the sun who,
having been born blind, stUl are so, or the sweetness of
sugar by those who have never tasted it.
But reverting to the verse, I seera to understand that
from God's favouring David with continuous favours, and
from His making David to rejoice with the joy which they
feel who see the presence of God, that would result which

PSALM XXI. 9-13 139
is stated in the preceding verse, that God invested David
with power and beauty.
In verse the seventh, it is stated that from the confi
dence which David had in God, and in His mercy, would
result his stability and his firmness in piety, and, con
sequently, in royal dignity. Here I understand, that
confidence in God and in His goodness, mercy, and pity
uphold men strongly and firmly in piety. They who do
not confide in God, go on wavering in everything.
And in verse the eighth, "thy hand shall arrest " means,
thou I shalt conquer by thy power. The latter clause of
the verse repeats the sentiment of the former. And in
Saying, " Shall arrest," which is future, the people are to be
understood as saying to David, The very same that thou
hast now done to thy enemies shalt thou ever do, because
thou trustest in God.
XXI. 9. — When thou shalt manifest thy pre
sence, thou wilt put them into a fiery oven. The
Lord shall swallow them up in His wrath, and the
fire shall devour them.
10. — Thou shalt cause their fruit to perish from
off the earth, and their seed from amongst the
children of Adam.
11. — For they devised evil against thee; in
council they plotted that against thee, which they
could not carry out.
12.^Thou wilt make them stand aside, whilst
thou wilt shoot thine arrows at their faces.
13.— Be Thou exalted, 0 Lord, by Thine own
strength; we will sing, and with musical instru
ments, accompanying the voice, we will extol Thy
power. In verse the ninth, it appears that the people say to

I40 PSALM XXI. 9-13
David, When thou shalt present thyself before the
ungodly, thine enemies, thou wilt put them into a fiery
oven, which burns up and consumes all that is within it ;
nay, it shall come to pass that God in His wrath will con
sume them. That "the fire shall devour them," I think to
be equivalent to " the Lord shall swallow them up in His
wrath ; " so that he says, God's chastisement and mode of
chastising them is by fire, inward or outward.
In verse the tenth, the people say to David, that upon
his presenting hiraself before his eneraies, he not only
would cause them to perish, but all their descendants
likewise. I understand "fruit " to be synonymous with " seed,"
and I hold him but to express the same idea when he
speaks of "the earth," as he does when he says, "From
amongst the children of Adam."
In verse the eleventh, it appears that the people say.
Thus shall it befall them, and this through their own
fault, "for they devised evil against thee." It raeans. They
have deliberated how to injure and to damage thee, and
they have "plotted against thee " things which they could
not carry out. '
In verse the twelfth, I understand them to say, that
David wUl hold his enemies so entirely at his disposition,
that he could chastise them at his pleasure, as though
he made them "stand aside," that he could plant him
self before them, and thence launch his " arrows at their
faces." In the last verse, the people call upon God to "exalt
Himself" before the world by exhibiting His power on
David's behalf; and they say, that He doing so, the
people would take occasion to celebrate the deeds wherein
God shonld show His power. His strength, and His omni
potence, with songs accorapanied by musical instruments.
The pious Christian, when reading the Psalms, should
always remember what is stated in the second psalm,

PSALM XXI. 9-13 141
that David's kingdom was a figure of Christ's kingdom ;
and if he go on throughout these psalms to compare one
kingdom with the other, he will find the greatest con
formity between thera, not taking for his guide human
reason, which always goes astray, but the Holy Spirit,
who is obtained by believing in our Lord Jesus Christ.

PSALM XXII
XXII, 1.— My God, my God, why hast Thou
abandoned me ? far from bringing me salvation are
the words of my roaring.
2. — My God, I call upon Thee throughout the
day, yet Thou dost not answer, and throughout
the night I am not silent.
I understand that David composed this psalm when in
the greatest perplexity, which I think- proceeded from
some dangerous sickness that imperiled his life ; whilst
the pleasure which his enemies manifested at the pro
spect of his dying of it, is throughout the psalm pleaded
as an argument why God should favour him. Now, if
any one should doubt whether David be a figure of .
Christ, let him consider Well this psalm, from the
beginning to the end; and he will find the greatest con
formity between them ; for it is so, that David, having
expressed in it the tribulation and affliction in which he
was, expresses with such peculiarity that state in which
Christ found Himself when nailed to the Cross, that it
would seem that David was more intent upon expressing
Christ's agony than his own. In order to well apprehend
David's design in this psalm, three objects must be borne
in mind. The first, David in the agony in which he
shows himself to have been, when he wrote this ; the
second, Christ's crucifixion, the details of which literally
absorb the great part of the psalm ; whilst the third will
lead the reader to reflect upon himself, if he have at any

PSALM XXII. 1-2 143
time felt the absence of God ; and with self-application
of much of the psalm he will perceive, and will well
apprehend its secrets.
In verse the first, that reiterated, " my God, my God," is
affecting. And when he says, " Why hast Thou abandoned
me?" he means. Why dost Thou deprive me of Thy
presence ? And when he says, " Far from my salvation,"
&c., what he means seems to be, I roar, but I see
that the salvation at which I aim is very far from me.
As though he should say, It does not appear that pro
tracted cries and wailings are calculated to attain salvation
for me, or that Thou, moved by them, wilt give it to me.
These words appear to be the expression of some distrust
or of faltering confidence. Where I understand that God
at times reduces His people to such straits, that they
judge themselves to be deserted of God's favour, to such
-an extent that it seems to them that, however much
they may cry. He will not hear them ; but He does
not consent to their severance from piety, for, although
they judge thus, and have this weakness, they do not
cease to cry out and to roar. I think that God reduces
them to this plight, in order that, after He shall have
succoured them, they may humble and abase them
selves, being unable to attribute their help even to
their confidence that they would be helped. I have
made this very same observation upon some other verses.
of David, which will be adduced as I proceed, Christ
having uttered one-half of this verse when on the cross,
brings before my eyes the affliction which He assumed
for my sake.
In verse the second, I understand him to say, 0 Lord,
how can it be that, crying unto Thee day and night, and
never ceasing, that Thou dost not answer me with salva
tion ? And in speaking thus, he shows that he had not
renounced piety though his confidence was weak, nay,
all these words proceed from affectionate feelings.

144 PSALM XXII. 3-8
XXII. 3.— But Thou, Holy One, seated on Thy
throne. Thou hearest the praises of Israel.
4. — Our fathers trusted in Thee, they trusted,
and Thou didst deliver them,
5. — They called upon Thee, and were delivered ;
they trusted in Thee, and were not confounded.
6.' — But I am a worm, a man of no consideration ;
the scorn of men, and the contempt of the people.
7, — All they who see me, laugh at me ; they
curl their lips, they wag their heads, saying,
8. — Hath he turned to the Lord, He will deliver
him ; He will cause him to escape, since He de
lights in him.
In verse the third, I think him to say, I am in the
condition I have stated, whilst " Thou art holy," and sit-
test to listen to the psalms with which the children
of Israel praise Thee, celebrating Thy deliverances. As
though he had said, Since thou art wont to help
others, help me.
Verses fourth and fifth, I understand to' depend upon
the preceding one, as though he should say. The people
of Israel praise Thee, for when their "fathers trusted in
Thee and cried unto Thee, Thou didst deliver them ; " so
that they found no reason why they should be ashamed
of their confidence.
In verse the sixth, I understand him to say. Ay, Lord,
I see, that if Thou dost not deal with me as Thou didst
with our fathers, it is because "I am a worm, and no
man" like thera ; I am " the scorn of men " an object of
contempt to the people. These words are the expression
of the profoundest humility, springing from consummate
self-knowledge. And by that, " The scorn of men," Sue., his meaning may
be, I am such that I disgrace the race of Adam, and

* t

PSALM XXII. 9-14 145
that I discredit Thy people — and taken thus, the humility
would be greater.
But as to what he says in verses seventh and eighth,
I hold the former to be much readier of apprehension
than the latter; for it appears that by them he shows
in what way he was the scorn of men and the contempt
of the people. To " curl the lip " and " to wag the head "
are marks of contempt.
And in saying, "Hath he turned to the Lord" he
means, since he remits himself to God and trusts in
Him, we shall see how God will deliver him out of
this tribulation.
These same marks of contempt were experienced by
our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, exhibited by those
who crucified Him and by those who were the spectators
of the Crucifixion.
And the same or similar ones are experienced by those
who are attent upon piety, who remit themselves to God
and to Christ, who make the justice executed upon our
Lord Jesus Christ their own. Aud they experience
them, as practised by those who persecute and maltreat
them, pretending piety, and by those who witness their
sufferings and punishment. However, although they
imitate David wailing, resenting, and complaining, they
also imitate Christ, resting content, that the will of God
be fulfilled in them ; and thus God does with them as
with David, and as with Christ.
XXII. 9. — Thou art He that took me out of the
womb, Thou art my confidence from the time when
a suckling I hung upon my mother's breast.
10. — Upon Thee have I been cast from the
womb ; from my mother's womb Thou art my God.
11. — Be not Thou far from me, for trouble is
near, for there is no one to help.

146 PSALM XXII. 9-14
12. — Many bulls surrounded me ; they that
surrounded me were as strong as the bulls of
Bashan. 13. — They opened their mouths against me, like
a ravenous and roaring lion,
14. — I am poured forth like waters, and all my
bones are dislocated, my heart is melted like wax
amid mv bowels.
In verses ninth and tenth, I understand David to say.
Although, Lord, I be a worm and no man, still I am Thy
creature ; in Thee have I trusted from my birth, and this
trust have I hitherto upheld.
Here do I understand it to be a great consolation to a
godly person in his trials to think that he is God's
creature, and that as such he depends upon God, who
takes special care of him.
It was David's aim to stimulate God to action by the
two facts stated in verse the eleventh, the presence of
tribulation and the absence of human succour ; as though
he had said, Lord, there is no longer room for hope, for
the peril is imminent, and Thou hast seen that I have
never recurred to human favour, of which I am wholly
destitute. From the twelfth verse, he begins to show it to be a
fact that danger was nigh, nay, so nigh, that his enemies
were already standing around with glaring eyes, awaiting
the moment that his should close.
And I understand that he speaks of the ungodly as
wild beasts ; meaning, that the ungodly lose their char
acter as men and assume that of brutes ; they lose
humanity and assume ferocity ; they wholly lose the
image of God and they assume that of the devil. He
says the dreadful " bulls of Bashkn," for the bulls of that
district were fierce, it is said that they were very savage ;

PSALM XXII. 15, 16 147
just as we in Toledo speak of the fearful bulls of
Jarama. David, in comparing himself to " water poured forth,"
and complaining of the dislocation of his bones, shows
that his affliction was due to bodily infirmity. And when
he speaks of his heart as melting, he shows that the
bodily infirmity affected his heart, and he was justified
in doing so, for health was promised as a recompense for
observance of the Law.
XXII. 15. — My vigour (my moisture) is dried.
up like a bit of burnt clay, and my tongue adheres
to my palate. Thou bringest me down into the'
dust of death.
16. — For I am encircled by dogs, the congrega
tion of the wicked surround me, they have pierced
niy hands and my feet.
In verse the fifteenth, when he says, " My vigour," he
means the strength and energy of my body. Now if
his vigour was dried up like a bit of a burnt clay
vessel, what will the rest of his body have been ?
When he says that his tongue adhered to his palate,
it shows that disease had brought him down into very
bad plight, since such dryness of the mouth indicates
great sickness.
In saying, " Thou bringest me down into the dust of
death," he means, Thou, Lord, dost so exhaust my moisture
as to kill me, as to consume me. Where, I observe that
as a godly man, he understood that his sickness was
from the hand of God ; observing this as well from verses
twelfth and thirteenth, as also from the sixteenth. " I
understand that David's consideration of the pleasure
which his enemies felt at seeing his sickness, and in -the
prospect of his death, increased his sense of sickness.

148 PSALM XXII. 17-24
In saying, " They have pierced my hands and my feet,"
it may be that he meant, nay, they contemplate me as
already crucified. But a better apprehension of it is,
that his mind's eye realised that which was perpetrated
upon the person of Christ, of whom David was the type,
and whom he seems to have contemplated throughout
this psalm. The Jews calumniate us here, and say that
the Hebrew text makes no mention of piercing, and they
allege that it says, " As a lion my hands and my feet."
To whom I answer two things : the one, that it is as
conforinable to the Hebrew text to say, " as a lion "
as to say "pierced," and that they easily may have
corrupted it ; whilst the other .is, let it be read as
they please, indeed applied to Christ. For it is so,
that in saying as a lion, some verb must be added,
and that that which is introduced in our text is aptly
so. So that he says, " As a lion, they have pierced
my hands and my feet." But who may be able to
convince the obstinacy of a mind hardened in false
apprehension ?
XXII. 17. — I could tell all my bones, they come
and stare at me.
18. — They will divide my garments among them,
and upon my dress will they cast lots,
19. — But Thou, 0 Lord, be not far from me ;
O my strength, haste Thee to my help.
20. — Deliver my soul from the sword; that which
alone belongs to me (my life) from the hand of
the dog.
21. — Save me from the lion's jaws, and
from the horns of the unicorn. Answer Thou
me. 22. — I will declare Thy name to my brethren.

PSALM XXII. 17-24 149
in the midst of the congregation will I praise
Thee. 23. — Saying, Ye that fear the Lord, praise
Him. Let all the seed of Jacob glorify Him, let
all the seed of Israel fear Him.
24. — For He hath not despised, neither hath He
abhorred the man that is in abject poverty; neither
hath He hid His presence from Him ; and when
he called upon Him He heard him.
In verse the seventeenth I understand him to say,
I am brought down by my sickness to such extremity
that I could readily count all the bones I have in my
body, whilst my enemies, taking pleasure in my suffering,
stand staring and gloating on me.
In verse the eighteenth, the Jews find nothing to
denounce ; for they express as clearly what transpired
in our Lord Jesus Christ's passion, as though it had been
written after the event. David's meaning appears to be
this, I am nothing but skin and bones, and should I die,
these my enemies, who are glaring upon me, will divide
all that I have amongst them. Which refiection greatly
aggravated David's torment ; whence in verse the nine
teenth he asks help of God, and that it may be given
him promptly.
In verse the twentieth " that which alone belongs to
me " is equivalent to my life. By the " sword," I think
him to mean death, and by the " dog," his enemies.
And in verse the twenty-first, by " lion " and by " uni
corn," I think him to mean those he has called dogs,
that is, his enemies ; that " answer Thou me " I read as
being detached, because it is not combined with the
other. In verse the twenty -second, I understand him to say
to God, 0 Lord, in doing me this grace, it will result in

ijo PSALM XXII. 25-28
Thy glory ; for " / shall declare Thy name amongst " Thy
servants, "' my brethren ; " and " / shall praise Thee," not
only in secret but " in the public congregation." I under
stand the second part of the verse to be the echo of
the first.
In verses the twenty-third and twenty-fourth, I under
stand him to give the very words he would employ in.
celebrating and in praising the name of God in the
presence of the people. That " Jacob " and " Israel " are
synonymous has already been stated. By the abjectly
poor man, David means himself, of whom he here speaks
in the third person.
XXII. 25. — My praise in the great congregation
shall be of Thee : I wiU pay my vows before them
that fear Him (God).
26. — The abject poor shall eat, and shall be filled.
They shall praise the Lord, who seek Him ; your
heart shall live for ever.
27. — All the ends of the earth shall remember
this, and shall be converted unto the Lord, and
all races of men shall reverentially bow before
Thee. 28. — For the kingdom is the Lord's, and as
Lord Ho rules the nations.
In the twenty-fifth verse he again analyses and distri
butes the honour that would result to God from his
deliverance. I understand the "vows" which he states
that he "will pay" to be the promises which he has
made to God, to govern the people of Israel, as a good
and holy king. I understand it thus from what he
says in the verses following, in the twenty-sixth and
twenty-seventh, as though he had said. It shall come

PSALM XXII. 25-28 151
to pass when I reign, that they in the kingdom who
are beaten down shall be favoured and honoured, aud I
will so order it that they who depend upon God shall
have abundant reason to praise Him, for I will cause
them to live contentedly.
I have not attained to understand how to explain
" that hearts live for ever." 1 state that I find nothing
that will entirely satisfy me ; I pray to God that
He may teach me it, if it be for His glory. But
he says. It shall come to pass from this Thy benefit
which Thou wilt do me, that all they who live at the
ends of the earth, remembering it, shall be converted to
Thee, whilst all races shall bow themselves reverently
before Thee, shall adore Thee, and shall recognise Thee
as their Lord. By " the ends of the earth " some under
stand the boundaries of Judea. Here I understand two
things : the one, the purpose which king, prince, or lord
ought to have in the government of his subjects and
vassals. This, expressed in a word, is the glory and
honour of God. The other, that to David, when prophesy
ing the happiness of his reign, it would seem that God
had showed him, not its exterior, but its interior, fulfilled
in the reign of Christ, of which David's reign was the
figure. And it is a fact that, since Christ came into the
world, and that His dominion began to be felt in
the world, the devil has lost the tyrannic power
by which he caused himself to be worshipped as God ;
and throughout the world and by all nations, God
is recognised as Lord, at least outwardly, although
amongst the nations, to some, unwilling to obey
Christ, and others unwilling to imitate Him, God's in
ward dominion is unknown, as is that of Christ's ; which
knowledge is reserved for those who are predestinated
to life eternal.
By verse the twenty -eighth, I understand David to

1,2 PSALM XXII. 29-31
speak thus : What I have stated shall be so, for God
alone must rule, for He is Lord over all the nations;
meaning the universal dominion, and not the particular
one, with which He is Lord and Father of those who,
being His servants and children, depend upon Him, and
are ruled and governed by His Holy Spirit.
XXII. 29. — All they who are fat upon earth
shall eat and shall worship ; all they who go down
into the grave, because their soul shall not live,
they all shall kneel before Him.
30. — The seed shall serve Him ; it shall be
reckoned up by the Lord as a generation (as a
peculiar nation).
31. — They shall come, and they shall declare His
righteousness to a people about to be born, for He
hath done this.
The Hebrew text of the twenty-ninth verse involves
great difficulty. I understand that David, having spoken
of the condition of the poor in his kingdom, proceeds
to tell what that of the rich would be ; he calls them,
" they who are fat upon earth," indicating those who
place their happiness upon the riches of this world.
These are they of whom I think him to say, that they
go down into the dust, meaning that they die like
others. What he says, " their soul shall not live," I understand
as meaning, Not only shall their bodies becorae dust, but
even their souls shall not be quickened in the life eter
nal. I think David to have added this, wishing it to be
understood that they who place their happiness in the
pleasure which this world offers, although they recognise
God as superior, still, forasmuch as they do not take
Him into account, and do not depend upon Him, they

PSALM XXII. 29-31 153
shall not enjoy the kingdom of God in the life to come,
since they do not wish to do so in this life.
In verse the thirtieth, not knowing for certain what
David meant, I understand it just as I do that in
Eomans ix., where it is proved that the promise which
God made to Abraham is fulfilled, not in Abraham's
descendants according to the fiesh, but in Abraham's
descendants according to the spirit ; for it is so, the
promise was specially made in Isaac, born after the
spirit, that is, born according to promise ; so that David
here says : Greater glory will result to God through my
deliverance, for my seed will serve Him, and shall be
classed by God as His generation, and amongst the people
of God. ,
I understand this seed to be Christ, who, with those
who are His merabers, constitute the seed of Abraham ;
whilst they are the seed of David according to the flesh,
for they are raerabers of Christ, the Son of David, and
children of Abraham ; and according to the spirit, for
they imitate the faith of Abraham and the piety of
David, aud they make the righteousness of God executed
upon our Lord Jesus Christ their own.
In the last verse, according to ray apprehension of it,
I understand him to say that the seed which shall be
accounted and " reckoned up as a generation " shall publish
throughout the world, to them who shall at that time be
born, the righteousness with which God justifies men,
which is that preached in the Gospel ; and by what he
says, "for He hath done this," I understand him to say. For
in delivering me I shall preserve mj seed, in order that
Christ may be born of it, upon whom God has executed
the rigour of His justice in such a raanner that He,
ever maintaining justice (he means administering justice),
will justify those who shall believe in Christ. All this
psalm teems with Divine mysteries, with exalted perceji-
tions, and with intimate affections. I have commented

154 PSALM XXII. 29 31
upon those which I have apprehended and understood, re
mitting the reader, however, to examine and search but
more with God's help ; and I promise him, that if he do
so, he will find out many more, provided he have the
Holy Spirit for his guide, who is obtained by faith in
our Lord Jesus Christ.

PSALM XXIII
XXIII. 1. — The Lord is my shepherd, never
shall I suffer want.
2. — He will make me lie down in grassy
pastures. He will lead me to peaceful waters.
David's design in this psalm is to extol the security
and the happiness in which he lived, wholly trusting in
God, and feeling himself ruled and governed by God, the
object of special favours.
This happiness is neither tasted nor understood save
by those who prove it ; and in Gospel times they all
prove it who, making the righteousness of God, that
justice which was executed upon Jesus Christ our Lord,
their own, boldly come and enter into the Kingdom of
God, to be ruled and governed by the Holy Spirit ;
not taking into consideration that whereon they have
offended, but that Christ is the Son of God, and that
God's justice was executed upon Him, for all that which
man would be indebted to the law of righteousness.
They who do not believe this have no part in this
righteousness, and thus they do not enjoy or feel the
happiness which is enjoyed and felt in being in the
Kingdom of God.
In this psalm the pious Christian will keep three
objects in view, the first, David, the second, the sheep,
and the third, himself, in order to well examine himself
whether he is God's sheep, and whether he belongs to the
Kingdom of God ; and the examination will consist in

156 PSALM XXIII, 1,2
comparing his piety with that of David. He will con
sider whether he feels in his own soul what it appears
that David felt in his when he wrote these words.
For to be a sheep of God's (flock), to be in the King
dom of God, does not consist in opinion or in outward
appearance, but in certainty and in inward conscious
ness. In verse the first, I understand that because David
had, as a lad, acted as a shepherd, and had learned all
that concerns a shepherd, and the wants of a sheep,
desiring to show how God had dealt with him, he says
that it was as a shepherd with his sheep.
Christ made the same comparison in John x. 1 1,
saying, " / am the Good Shepherd," where I understand
a notable difference between David and Christ. David
prides himself upon being a sheep, whilst Christ calls
Himself a Shepherd. David was a sheep, forasmuch as
he depended upon God, and was ruled and governed by
G od ; and feeling himself to be a sheep, he was sure that
nothing could betide him which could bring him to want ;
whilst Christ is a Shepherd, for that He has congregated
and brought into one body the sheep of God, who are
scattered over the world ; and that when congregated, they
are fed with His Spirit, being in the fold, which is the
kingdom of God.
The sheep are God's elect, predestined to life eternal ;
whilst congregation is spiritual union, for they are
all members of Christ, so that He and they make one
body, of which He is the head. They who understand
and know the dignity of this body, being members of it,
holding themselves to be God's sheep, and recognising
Christ as their Shepherd, being assured of the omnipot
ence of God, whose sheep they are, and of the dignity
and divinity of Christ, who is their Shepherd, say with
David, " Never shall I suffer want."
In verse the second, David, desiring to show how

157
it will thus be that " he will never suffer want" lays down
two benefits that he will always receive from his shep
herd, abundance of grass and of water.
The grass and water which God's sheep enjoy are
exalted perceptions of God, inspirations, tastes, and inward
feelings. But the sheep has not iu obedience' to the
impulses of appetite to go in quest of this grass and of
this water, but it has to take both the one and the other
when it shall be given to him. For David does not say,
" I lie down and I go," but " He maketh me to lie down
and He leadeth me.''

XXIII. 3. — He will revive my soul. He will
lead me in paths of righteousness, for His name's
sake, 4. — Even when I shall walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for
Thou wilt be with me. Thy staff and Thy crook
they shall console me.
By verse the third, I understand that just as the good
shepherd, if at times a sheep remain behind, being
unable to walk, or if it stray from the way, does not
leave it behind, nor forget it, but waits for it, and puts
it with the others in the way; so does God to the man
whom He once makes His sheep, and admits into His
kingdom. If indeed from frailty he remain behind, or
from forgetfulness or heedlessness he at any time stray
from the kingdom. He does not leave him behind, neither
does He forget him, but He waits for him, and brings
him back to His kingdom.
Thus do I understand that, " He will revive my soul ; "
and I understand by that which He says, " He will lead
me in paths of righteousness" that persevering in the
comparison with the sheep, he means by the sheep-walks

158 PSALM XXIII. 5, 6
and public places in which I am allowed to walk ; whilst
"paths of righteousness" for God's sheep are holiness of
mind and habitual integrity. These are the sheep-walks
for God's sheep.. By saying, "For His name's sake," I
understand for what He is, not for my sake, but for
His own.
In verse the fourth, by "the valley of the shadow of
death,'' he means the valleys which are clad with groves
so dense that it appears to those who have to walk
through them, as though they, at every step, were
assailed by death. To God's sheep, the valleys of the
shadow of death are tribulations, persecutions, and
temptations. He says that, through such places as these His holy
sheep goes without fear, having with him his Shepherd,
armed with staff and crook. I understand God's staff
and crook to be His rule and His government, His
Divine providence. And I understand that, just as His
staff and ci;ook intimidate the unruly sheep, whilst they
comfort the submissive one, so the consideration of Pro
vidence intimidates God's fractious sheep, whilst it con
soles His tractable one. The wicked sheep would fain
rule and control itself, whilst the good sheep rejoices most
in being ruled and governed by God. The wicked sheep
delights in free-will as a splendid endowment, whilst the
good one holds it to be a defect. Now I call those bad
sheep, who make a profession of being Christ's sheep, but
do not follow Christ, the Shepherd ; whilst if in aught
they do follow Him, it is unwillingly, tremblingly, and
fearfully ; not froin love but from interest.
XXIII. 5, — Thou wUt prepare a table before me,
in the presence of those that trouble me. Thou
hast anointed my head with oil. My cup is brimful.
6. — Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

PSALM XXIII. 5, 6 159
all the days of, my life; and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord throughout my days.
In verse the fifth, where he says, " Thou wilt prepare,"
he means continuously. Thou wilt constantly prepare.
By the " table '' I understand abundance of God's gifts,
both spiritual and temporal, as well those that sustain
the body, as those which vivify and enoble and instruct
the soul.
By saying, " in the presence of those that trouble me"
he means, in spite of those who persecute me.
When he says, " Thou hast anointed my head with oil"
I think him to mean, that he had been anointed King of
Israel; and by that which he says, "my cup is brimful,"
I understand. Thou hast done me so many favours, that
I want capacity to retain them ; so that every man's
capacity is his cup. And I understand that David,
ceasing in this verse to speak of himself as a sheep, speaks
of himself as a man whom God had made king.
I understand that in the last verse David promises
himself two things. The one is, that goodness and mercy
would ever attend him ; and the other, that his stay in
the Lord's house would be a protracted one.
The good or "goodness" I think him to attribute to God's
munificence in outward things, and the " mercy " to the
same Divine munificence in inward things ; as though he
should say, I shall always be rich, both in outward and
inward gifts.
By " the house of God," I think him to mean the
tabernacle of God; although it appears to me that the
better apprehension of " / will dwell in the house of the
Lord," is, I will uphold holiness of life in myself.
I confidently hold that these two things are promised
to every devout Christian, he resting assured that God
will ever maintain him in His kingdom, richly endowed
with goodness and mercy. Nay, St. Paul was so assured of

i6o PSALM XXIII. 5,6
this, that he said, " I am persuaded that neither death nor
life, nor angels, nor principalities, &c., shall be able to
separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord" — words truly worthy *of such a sheep,
who knew and understood the goodness and bounty of
his owner, and the vigilance and care and love of his
Shepherd.

PSALM XXIV
A PSALM OP DAVID
XXIV. 1. — The earth is the Lord's, and the
fulness thereof; the world, and they who dwell
therein. 2. — For He hath founded it upon the sea, and
He hath prepared it upon the rivers.
The Jews say, that at the time when God, by revela
tion, raade known to David the site whereon the Temple
should be erected as the depository for the ark of the
covenant, which was then being transported from place
to place, he composed this psalm, in order that it should
be sung to the glory of God, and to the honour of the
people ; and from the words of the psalm, it seems that
their opinion is true.
In verse the first, by "fulness " he means all that with
which the earth teems ; and the same meaning is em
bodied in the second part of the verse which he has
expressed in the first. This deserves great attention
in David, for he does so frequently, when desirous of
enhancing what he states.
In verse the second, 1 understand him to say that he
was justified in calling " the earth the Lord's," since it is
a fact that " He founded it, and hath prepared it upon the
sea and upon the rivers."
The mystery involved in this foundation, and in this
preparation, I have not hitherto attained to, either by

i62 ' PSALM XXIV. 3-5
knowledge, or by inspiration ; but holding what David
states to be most certain, I am led to consider the omni
potence of God, who has built so massive an object as
the earth upon a foundation so wanting in consistency
as water ; and by the consideration of this power of God
does the Psalmist appear to encourage men boldly to
confide in God, seeing that they trust in Him who
worketh everything after the counsel of His own will.
XXIV. 3. — Who shall ascend the mount of the
Lord ? who shall go up into the place of His
holiness ?
4. — He that hath clean hands and a pure heart,
who leadeth neither my soul, nor his own, into
vanity, nor sweareth deceitfully.
5. — He shall receive blessing from the Lord, and
righteousness from the God of his salvation.
In verse the third, I understand him to say, "Shall
ascend and shall go up," and to say " mount" and "place "
because the Temple was erected upon a mount (Zion),
whilst " the place of His holiness " is the same as His holy
place. In verse the fourth, by " clean hands" he means the
cleanliness of outward works ; and by " a pure heart," I
understand purity of thought, and of all that is inward.
As to that which he says, " Who doth not lead my soul
into vanity" different expositions are given of it, for the
Hebrew books have both readings, " my soul " and " his
soul." I think that David, having said that such should
be the actions and such the thoughts of the man who
should stand in the Temple of God, by these words shows
that his words ought to be such, stating that they ought
to be so alien, so far from the oaths which men make
as that they ought not even to say "by my soul" without

PSALM XXIV. 6-IO 163
having cause to do so. With this meaning it will come
to be as well to say " by my soul," as to say " by his
soul." This very thing is confirmed by what follows,
" nor sweareth deceitfully ; " so that three qualifications
have to concur in him who should stand in the Temple
of God — cleanliness in action, purity in the heart, and
control of the tongue.
Three other qualifications must concur in the man who
has to take his stand in the Kingdom of God, entrance to
which is attained through Jesus Christ our Lord ; these
are : faith to accept the covenant, hope to rest assured in
its fulfilment, aud patience to bear when it is delayed,
tempered with love to keep faith and hope in exercise.
In verse the fifth, by " blessing," I understand all that
conduces to the sustenance of the body, and by " righteous
ness " all that pertains to justification of the spirit : which
are two things that God gives, without anxiety or diligence
on their part, to those who depend upon Him, and who
wholly remit themselves to Him. Man is brought with
great difficulty to do this, for he presumes that he is able,
by his own industry and by his own diligence, to attain
both the one and the other.

XXIV. 6. — This is the generation of those who
seek Him, who seek Thy presence, 0 (God of) Jacob.
Selah. 7. — Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates ; and be ye
life up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall enter in.
8. — Who is this King of glory? The Lord,
strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in war.
9. — Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates : and be ye
lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall enter in.

i64 PSALM XXIV. 6-10
10. — Who is this King of glory ? The Lord of
hosts, He is the King of glory.
In verse the sixth, he states that they attain this
" blessing " and this " righteousness " who seek God, and
that they do so who strive to see Him and to know Him.
I understand that they seek God who distrust them
selves, I mean, their ability to attain the sustenance
of their bodies and the justification of their spirits ;
whilst these very persons adopt the right means to see
and to know God, as they see Him and know Him,
whom God has called and justified, and whom He governs
by His Holy Spirit.
By " Jacob" he means God, whom he elsewhere fre
quently calls the God of Jacob.
The four last verses are to be understood as celebrating
the entrance of the ark of the covenant into the Temple
of Jerusalem. He calls the doors "everlasting" ones,
employing a Hebraism, signifying that they would last
very long. He calls God the " King of glory ; " he calls
Him " strong and mighty in war," having present to his
mind the victories which God had given, and was about
to give, to His people Israel.
David, in saying, "Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates,"
speaks to the gates, telling them to give way for the ark
to enter; and because it is understood that God came
with it, he calls it the " King of glory," or the glorious
King. In saying, " Who is this King ? " &c., David makes the
gates to ask the question, whilst he replies by saying, " It
is the Lord, strong," &c. Considering here the ceremonies
with which the ark of the covenant had to be placed in
the Temple, it appears to me to be very mysterious that
God should have permitted that ark to be lost. We men
have such affection for outward things, and that even
for those which have no right to claim it, that we are

PSALM XXIV. 6-10 165
inclined to prize and to esteem them. What would man
not have done for that which had such foundation for
challenging his admiration and esteem ?
In this psalm the pious Christian, keeping his eyes
fixed on the triumph of Christ, when after the final
resurrection of his members He shall have invested them
with life eternal, delivering up the kingdom to His
eternal Father, will call the gates " everlasting " (after our
way of speaking), for they have to last for ever ; he will
call Christ the " King of glory',' and he will call Him
" strong and mighty in war" looking to the inward vic
tories which He has given and which He will give to
His Christian people over human prudence, and over this
world's tyrants, all which they are called to accomplish
by Jesus Christ our Lord.

PSALM XXV
one by DAVID
XXV. 1.— Unto Thee, 0 Lord, will I lift up
my soul.
2. — My God, in Thee have I confided, let me not
be ashamed, neither let my enemies triumph over
me.
This whole psalm is one continuous prayer, in which
David entreats God to pardon him his sins, and to deliver
him from the insane wrath of his enemies. To move God
to do this for him, he states two things : the one, that he
has always confided in Him ; and the other, that although
the fulfilment of that upon which he relied had been
delayed, he had not on that account ceased to trust ;
and this he calls confidence in God. Whence I under
stand, that men by these two things please God, and that
by them they show their dependence upon God, and that
by them are they upheld in piety. They who confide
in creatures are wholly alien to piety, whilst they who
are impatient of trust in God, and who cease to expect
the fulfilment of their desire, and go off to creatures,
offend against piety, which imposes on man the obligation
to confide and to expect.
In verse the first, where he says, " / will lift up" he
suggests the continuation above alluded to. They con
stantly raise their souls to Him who, being dependent
upon God, have their hearts united to Him, who always

PSALM XXV. 3, 4 167
and on every occasion ask His favour. Now those who
are such, whilst they are speaking, the Holy Spirit hears,
and He moves them to commend themselves lo God and
to entreat His favour.
To apprehend properly what David says in the second
verse, I consider thus : a godly person finds himself in
some great difficulty, in which, confiding in God, that He
will raise him up out of it, he does not experience the
fear which creatures do. And should Divine help be
deferred, he nevertheless expects it, and does not cease
to confide. They who are alien to piety, however much
they may feign it, would rejoice were God not to succour
him, in order that they might mock him, when witness
ing his fall into some trouble, in which, were he to fall,
he would be put to shame. I understand that David
found himself in this predicament ; and I understand
that he here supplicated God that He should deliver him
out of it.
XXV. 3. — Neither let any be ashamed, whose
expectation is from Thee ; let them be ashamed
who without cause are faithless to their profession.
4. — Make me, 0 Lord, to know Thy ways ;
teach me Thy paths.
In verse the third, I understand David to ask for all
sa.ints that which he asked for himself; and he asks
against all who are the enemies of godliness, that which
he has asked against those who were his enemies. , So.
that which in the second verse is personal, becomes in
verse the third general.
In " neither let any whose expectation is from Thee : "
the words, " neither let any," are a Hebraism, to be
understood as meaning. Let none of those whose expec
tation is from Thee. And I understand the words, " who

1 68 PSALM XXV. 5-9
without cause are faithless," to mean all those who
cavil against God; now all they do so who, having, in
any way whatever, embraced piety, sever themselves
from it.
In verse the fourth, the word " ways " is synonymous
with " paths ; " whilst by verse the fifth that appears to
be clear and correct which has elsewhere been stated,
that God's ways are His works in providence ; and this
being the fact, although David, as a godly man, always
designed to conform himself to the will of God, he
asked that God should show him the secret counsel
involved in His works, what He purposed by them, in
order that he, David, might hold and judge them to be
good, holy, and just. It was the work of God that St.
Paul should be afflicted with a thorn in the flesh. St.
Paul, not knowing that it was the work of God, besought
Him to deliver him from it ; but when he subsequently
knew that it was the work of God, and understood
the design that God had in it, he acquiesced in it, and
ceased from prayer concerning it. I think that David
besought such knowledge from God in these verses ; and
it is especially sought by those who are governed by
the Holy Spirit, who always desire to know, when they
are moved to pray and to work by the Holy Spirit, and
when by the spirit of man.
XXV. 5. — Lead me in Thy truth, and teach
me, for Thou art the God of my salvation; on
Thee have I daily waited.
6. — Remember, 0 Lord, Thy compassions and
Thy mercies, for they are eternal.
7. — Remember not the sins of my youth, nor
my practical rebellions. According to Thy mercy
remember Thou me, for Thy goodness' sake, 0
Lord.

PSALM XXV. 5-9 169
8. — Good and upright is the Lord, therefore
will He instruct sinners in the way.
9. — The poor in spirit will He lead in judgment,
and the poor in spirit will He teach His way.
In verse the fifth, where he says, " Lead me in Thy
truth," I understand him to expound what he has said,
" Make me to know Thy ways ; " as though he had said,
What I desire to know is the truth and faithfulness which
are in Thy works, holding it for certain that that being
known, I shall be content with them all. That God
may do thus with him, he suggests two motives : the
one, that God had been wont to save and deliver him
from the perils which had piesented themselves to him ;
and the other, that David, without surrendering his con
fidence, had always expected the favour of God.
In verse the sixth, when he says, " Thy compassions
and Thy mercies, 0 Lord, are eternal," he means, that ever
of old it had been God's wont to compassionate and to
exercise mercy.
In verse the seventh, I understand him to say,
Eemember not, 0 Lord, anything in me that is mine,
only remember in relation to me that I am Thine, for
Thou hast placed me in the position which I fill. His
own were the sins of his youth, and his own were his
"practical rdbellions" whilst God dealt in mercy and in
goodness with him.
In verse the eighth, I understand that David, feeling
assured that God would grant what he asked, says.
Although I am a sinner, I hold it to be certain that
God will, though not for my sake, yet for His own,
teach me His way ; since He will always teach sinners
like me, who sin not from deceitfulness or impiety, but
from weakness and frailty. To be a sinner but not
impious indicates frailty, whilst to be a sinner and
impious indicates rebellious perversity ; wherefore David

170 PSALM XXV. 10-12
does not say that God will instruct the impious, but
sinners. In verse the ninth, I understand hira to call those
"poor in spirit " whom in the former verse he has called
" sinners," concerning whom I understand him to say, that
God will lead them in the judgment which they have to
form as to the works of God, and that He will teach
them the secrets of His Divine providence, which are
most singular privileges of piety.
XXV. 10. — -All the paths of the Lord are mercy
and truth unto them who keep His covenant and
His testimonies.
11. — Thou wilt, for Thy name's sake, 0 Lord,
pardon my iniquity, for it is great.
12. — Who is the man that feareth the Lord ? he
it is to whom the Lord will shew the way which
He shall choose.
In verse the tenth, by "all the paths of the Lord," 1
understand all the works of His Divine providence, in
all which, I understand hira to say, God exercises raercy
and truth with them who keep His covenant and His
testimonies ; and I understand that, because God does
exercise these with them, hence it is that they understand
them, whilst others neither feel them nor understand them.
I understand the word " covenant" to be synonymous with
" testimonies." God's covenant in the days of David was
the observance of the Law, whilst God's covenant in
the days of the Gospel is the faith which is given in the
general pardon, which is proclaimed to us in the Gospel,
through the justice of God executed upon Christ. This
iaith plants those who believe in the Kingdom of God,
whereby the image and likeness of God is gradually
recovered, aud whereby not only the mercy and goodness

PSALM XXV. 13-16 171
of God is understood and felt, but they who have
accepted the covenant effectively, demonstrate it in
themselves to those who have eyes able to see it ; I
mean that they demonstrate mercy and truth in them
selves. By what he says in verse the eleventh, " For Thy
name's sake," he means. For what Thou art, " 0 Lord ; "
whilst by "iniquity" I understand human malice and
malignity through natural depravity.
By verse the twelfth, I understand that man is in
capable of walking in the right way, unless God Himself
shows it to him ; and I understand that God shows it
to them who reverence Him. That "which He shall
choose " may be attributed to the man who fears God,
or to God Himself; either that which the man shall
choose, or which God shall choose, but this last appears
the more. reliable.
XXV, 13. — His soul shall have tranquil nights,
and his seed shall inherit the earth.
14. — The secret of the Lord is with them that
fear Him, and He will make them to know His
covenant. 15. — My eyes are ever directed to the Lord, for
He shall deliver my feet from the net.
16. — Look Thou upon me and compassionate
me, for I am deserted and miserable.
In verse the thirteenth, he says that the man who has
walked in the right way shall have " tranquil nights," or
shall experience permanent welfare, and that his de
scendants " shall inherit the earth." I do not understand
in what this inheritance consists ; it seems that I might
<'uess at it, but I do not feel assured.
From verse the fourteenth I understand that a man s

172 PSALM XXV. 17-22
attainment in knowledge of God's secrets is relative
to his dependence upon God, to his maintenance of a
close reckoning with Him, and to his submission and
obedience to Hira. I understand this from what Christ
says, Luke x. 2 1 , " Because Thou hast hidden these things
from the wise, and hast revealed them to children," &c.,
and from what St. Paul says, i Cor. ii. i o, " For the Spirit
searcheth all things, even the deep things of God." But I
understand by this verse, that, although God's covenant
is written, only they understand it who comprehend the
secrets of the Lord. Human prudence thinks, by ability
and human industry, to comprehend it; but the more it
fags and labours at it, the less does it understand it.
In verse the fifteenth, I understand from what David
says of himself, that it concerns the godly man to keep
the eyes of his soul " ever directed to the Lord," without
ever diverting them to things of the world. And I
understand that God then delivers our feet " out of the
net," when He extricates us from the snares of ungodly
men and from those of the fiends of hell.
In verse the sixteenth, when he says, " Look Thou upon
me," he means. Favour Thou me ; and by that which he
says, " For I am deserted and miserable," I understand that
God then moves to favour the godly when He sees that
they, being deserted and miserable, wholly distrust
creatures. And this is a marvellous secret and a re
markable thing, that a godly man who is in favour with
creatures ever regards himself as so wanting favour with
them, that he renounces it and will not seek it, putting
himself upon the footing of the man who is utterly
destitute of it. After this fashion do I understand
David to have felt deserted and miserable, although he
was a great King.
XXV. 17.' — The troubles of my heart have
imreased ; bring Thou mc out of my distress.

PSALM XXV. 17-22 173
18. — Look upon my miserj'' and upon my
distress ; aud pardon all my sins.
19.— See how my enemies have multiplied, and
with what malignant hatred they abhor me.
20. — Keep my soul and deliver me, let me not
be ashamed that I have confided in Thee.
21.— Let integrity and uprightness uphold me,
for my expectation is placed on Thee,
22. — Redeem Israel, 0 God, out of all his
troubles. In verse the seventeenth I understand him to show
that his misery and his desertion consisted in that they
who troubled him afflicted hirn to the heart, and that
they daily increased, becoming more numerous.
From verses eighteenth and nineteenth, I understand
that God is moved to succour His people out of com
passion for what they suffer, and by the insolence of
those who persecute and afflict them. By that which
he says, " Pardon my sins," I understand David to have
felt that it was on account of his sins that he was
troubled, afflicted, and persecuted.
From verse the twenty-first I understand that God
upholds in " integrity " and in " uprightness " those who
never distrust Him, and who constantly expect His favour,
without running about to seek favour of creatures.
In the last verse I understand that David, when
interceding with God for Israel, intercedes for himself
and for all those who, being pious, holy, and righteous,
constitute Israel ; and I understand that the " troubles "
in which the Jewish Israel were in the days of David,
were the foreign wars in which they were engaged with
neighbouring nations, and the civil dissensions which
factiously occupied the people.
I also understand that the troubles in which Christian

174 PSALM XXV. 17-22
Israel are involved in Gospel times are the outward
contradictions which they experience from the men with
whom they have to deal and to converse, whilst their
inward troubles they have from their affections and
appetites ; and thus as David entreated God to deliver
His Jewish Israel from the wars and the dissensions by
which they were disquieted, so likewise the devout
Christian will entreat God to deliver Christian Israel
from the contradictions and the assaults with which they
are troubled, adding, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

PSALM XXVI
XXVI. 1. — Judge me, 0 Lord, for I have
walked in my integrity, and in the Lord have I
trusted ; I shall do so without wavering.
2.^Prove me, 0 Lord, and try me, purify my
reins and my heart. ''
3. — For Thy loviugkindness is before my eyes,
and I will walk in Thy truth.
David's design in this psalm is to appeal from the
judgment of man to the judgment of God. I think that
those of the Jewish nation who affected godliness, not
having it, and who followed the judgment of huraan pru
dence unrighteously, condemned David for his hostility to
Saul, never understanding that he was moved by the
Holy Spirit to do all that he did. I understand David
to appeal from this — man's judgment — to the judgment
of God, to whom his innocency was perfectly known.
I understand that the Apostles, affecting piety, and
exercising the same judgment of human prudence, con
demned Mary, because she poured forth the ointment,
it appearing to them that it would have been better to
have sold it and to have given it to the poor. But
Christ, who knew by what spirit the saintly woman was
moved, defended her, without her appeal. Whence I
understand that there are no judgments more false or
more rash than those which men, destitute of piety, but
affecting to possess it, form concerning Divine things ;
for it is so, that deceived by their human prudence,

176 PSALM XXVI. 4-7
they always condemn what God approves, and they
always approve what God condemns. These are ever
mortal enemies to true piety ; these contradict it and
persecute it. St. Paul, before that he received the Holy
Spirit, was one of these ; and these are they of whom
our Lord Jesus Christ said, that they, in killing the
Apostles, think and persuade themselves that they render
great service to God, whilst finally these are ever cere
monious, scrupulous, and superstitious.
In verse the first, where he says, " In my integrity,''
I understand him to mean as to what concerns me,
distinguishing between the perfection that there is in
the works of God from that which there is in those of
men, however saintly and righteous they may be. In
saying, " / have walked," he means, (in which) I have
lived, I have preserved, I have maintained myself. In
the second part of the verse, I understand him to say,
Since I trust in God, I am assured that I shall not
vacillate, neither shall I waver, in piety.
In verses the second and third, I understand David to
assert his inward integrity, constituting it upon his ever
keeping before his eyes the loviugkindness of God,
and living assured of the truth, that God keeps His
promises ; as though he said by these two verses. Lord,
examine me as often as Thou wilt, and Thou shalt find
that I entertain no one of the designs which those my
calumniators think me to have ; for it is so, that if I
pretend to aim at the throne, it is because I confide in
Thy lovingkindness, and in the fact that Thou hast pro-
paised it to me, and not in my own imagination or opinion.
XXVI. 4. — I have not sat with vain persons,
neither have I associated with dissemblers.
5. — I have held the congregation of the per
verse in abhorrence, and never will I sit with the
wicked.

PSALM XXVI. 4-7 177
6. — I willwash my hands in puritj'', and thus,
O Lord, will I walk around Thine altar,
7. — Confessing aloud Thy praise, I will tell of all
Thy marvellous works.
In the fourth and fifth verses, I understand him to
assert his outward integrity, constituting it in his sever
ance from the company of vain and aimless men, and in
his disassociation from evil-doers, for these are they who,
as I apprehend, are "dissemblers;" and likewise in his
abhorrence of the social circles and assemblies of men
who perversely do that which is wrong, and in keeping
himself apart from the company and converse of the
wicked. There are four things which betoken piety and
holiness in the individual possessing them, and I note
that David, in relation to all the four, gives priority to
inward integrity as having precedence over outward ;
and it occurs to me that St. Paul does the same through
out all his Epistles, instructing the man first inwardly
and then outwardly. I note, moreover, that David con
stituted his outward integrity, not in doing, but in
refraining from doing, therein conforming himself to
the Law, which principally consists of prohibitions ;
and I understand that the observance of the Sabbath
consists in refraining from doing.
I understand him in. verse the sixth to say, I am
so free from the sins with which I am slanderously
charged that I am able to "wash my hands in purity,"
and to walk in holiness, as do the priests around Thine
altar. This Jewish ceremony of washing the hands, as
betokening purity of mind, is well known ; it is eqnally
so that the priests, when sacrificing, walked round and
round the altar. So that in saying, " / will walk around
Thine altar," I understand him to declare, I will sacrifice
upon Thine altar. It appears that this sacrifice, of which
M

178 PSALM XXVI. 8-12
he speaks in verse the seventh, consisted in confession
blended with praise. Confession involved the attributing
of all that to God which, the heathen thought, men
wrought by their own power, and thus confession pro
ceeded to the rehearsal of God's marvellous acts.
XXVI, 8.— I, O Lord, have loved Thy house,
Thy residence, the place of the tabernacle of Thy
glory. 9. — Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my
life with bloody men,
10. — Whose hands are always criminal, and
whose right hands are full of bribes,
11. — But I will walk in my integrity; redeem
me and compassionate me.
12. — In rectitude is my standing : amidst con
gregated assemblies will I bless the Lord.
What he states in the second part of verse the eighth
is but a reiteration of what he had stated in the first
part, as though he had said, 0 Lord, together with the
abhorrence which I have towards all those of whom I
have declared my abhorrence, and with my severance
from all those from whom I have declared that I am
severed, I have had, and I have, great delight in being
continuously in Thy holy house, " The place of Thy taier-
nacle." The affection which David felt for God's house was
doubtless great, and he delighted in being continuously
in God's outward Temple, for he was thereunto inspired by
the Holy Spirit, and he followed that holy inspiration ;
and most intense is the affection which pious Christians
feel in being continuously within God's inward temple,
I mean, in being constantly united to God in their
hearts, for the Holy Spirit inspires them thereunto, and

PSALM XXVI. 8-12 179
they follow this inspiration. And I understand that,
just as it was not always permitted to David to be in
the temple of God, although he ever loved it and desired
it, so neither is it always permitted and conceded to
pious Christians to be united to God in their hearts,
although they ever love it and ever desire it. I think
that God does not grant it to them because the inci
dental happiness would be greater than men could
support. It will be granted to them when, stripped of
mortality, they will be clothed upon with immortality
by God.
In verses ninth and tenth, I understand David to suppli
cate of God not to classify him amongst those who live
in sin whilst professing godliness. By " bloody men " he
means murderers, particularly evil-doers ; and by having
" their right hands full of bribes" is meant the taking of
bribes to pervert justice, so that this is addressed to
judges. In verse the eleventh, I understand David to promise
perseverance in the integrity of which he has spoken ;
and in saying, "/ will walk," he means, I will perse
vere ; and the deliverance which he entreats was, as I
understand, from the false judgments held concerning
him. In the last verse I understand David to say, I know
well that my feet have ever walked straightforwardly ;
and recognising this through the favour of God, I will
devote and occupy myself evermore in blessing and
praising God in the congregation of His people, confess
ing the mercies and favours which I shall have received
from Him. It was David's aim by this confession to
show himself grateful to God, because the Spirit of God
inspired him to do so ; and they who taste feel in
their souls the benefit which God has done the human
race through Jesus Christ our Lord, desire and aim to
show themselves grateful, by serving and worshipping

i8o PSALM XXVI. 8-12

God, as St. Paul says that he did, "which was in
spirit and in the gospel of the Son of God Himself.
David's demonstration was suited to the time of the
Law, while St. Paul's demonstration suits that of th?
,Gospel. f

PSALM XXVII
XXVII. 1, — The Lord is my light and my salva
tion, whom shall I f6ar ? The Lord is the strenofth
of my life, of whom shall I be afraid ?
I understand that David composed this psalm upon
one of the many occasions in which he found himself
under pressure, and that his leading purpose in it is to
examine himself and to strengthen himself by the con
siderations which he here adduces, all of which tend to
assure him that, although the danger in which he found
himself was great, yet the demonstrations of love with
which God ordinarily had favoured him, by bringing out
of and delivering him from greater troubles than that
one, were much greater.
In verse the first, David says that God is his " light ; "
I understand him as saying that he was ruled and
governed by God, and that he looked upon things affect
ing him with the eyes of the Spirit of God, and not with
those of human prudence ; and when he says that God
is his " salvation',' I understand him as saying that God
was wont to save and to deliver him from all the dangers
and disasters that occurred to him. And when he says,
" The Lord is the strength of my life" I understand him
as saying that his life and his death will not depend
upon the will ahd caprice of men, or upon the disasters
that come to pass in the world, but only upon the will
of God. Saints who inwardly feel these three things
which David here shows that he inwardly felt, live with

i82 PSALM XXVII. 2, 3
much security in all circumstances affecting them, with
out fear and without disturbance.
XXVII. 2. — When the malignant besieged me
to devour my flesh, these my enemies troubled me,
but they stumbled and fell.
3. — If an army should encamp against me, my
heart shall not fear. ^ war should rise up against
me, in this will I be confident.
In verse the second it appears to me that David says,
I have known that God is " my light, my salvation, and
the strength of my life ; " for when the malignant, seeking
to trouble me, and being my enemies, besieged me, pur
posing to swallow me up alive, they, being taken in their
own snares, fell, and were never able to rise. Thus saying
of them, that " these my enemies troubled me," he expounds
the epithet "malignant," which he applies to them.
His experience, commemorated in the second verse, is,
as I understand, that which strengthens the confidence he
feels in God, which he expresses in the third verse, where
he says that neither an army nor war should make him
afraid ; and the words in this are very emphatic, as though
he had said, I will then trust most in God when I
find myself in the greatest trouble ; then, when, accord
ing to the judgment of human prudence, I shall see
the least ground for confidence. And I understand it
always to be so, that they in whom the Holy Spirit
dwells, then confide most when they find and when
they see least wherein to confide ; doing the contrary
of what is done by those who discourse according to
human prudence,' who then trust least, when the danger
is greatest, and when they see least wherein to confide.
XXVII. 4. — One grace have I asked of the

PSALM XXVII. 4, 5 183
Lord, this will I seek : that I may dwell iu the
house of the Lord all the days of my life, to
behold the Lord in His beauty, and to inquire
iu His temple.
5. — For He will hide me iu His tabernacle in
the evil da}'' : He will secrete me in the hiding-
place of His tabernacle : He will set me up upon
a BOck. In verse the fourth David shows that he had always,
in all his prayers aud in all his designs, asked of God
one sole "grace," and he says that he was determined to
persevere in his supplication for it ; it was this, that the
house of God might be his permanent abode, he means
there, where the Ark of the Covenant was. He says
that he desired this permanent abode, in order that he
might always be enabled to see " the Lord in His beauty,"
and that he might be enabled, by searching out with his
mind in the temple of God, to comprehend His profound
mysteries. The first thing that I understand by this verse is,
that it is sound advice to a spiritual person that he
persist in supplicating one grace of God, never desisting
from entreating it, desiring it, begging for it, and making
it his aim in all his exercises. The second is, that the
best grace that can be sought is to dwell in the house of
God ; I mean, that his heart be perpetually united to God,
even as represented in the preceding psalm. The third
is, that the thing which is to be aimed at in this house
of God is, to see God thus beautiful, sweet, and delightful,
even as the saints see Him when He allows Himself to
be seen and recognised by them. The fourth is, that
he seek in this house of God to get the Holy Spirit to
instruct and teach him in all the truths, and in all the
mysteries of God which can be attained and understood,

i84 PSALM XXVII. 6-8
to the comprehension of which human prudence never
attains; nay, it is so, that when it finds thera written,
it never penetrates nor feels them, although it pretends
to penetrate and feel them.
David, going on to enumerate the privileges of which
he anticipated the enjoyment when in the house of God,
shows, in verse the fifth, the quiet and security with
which he should live being there.
And when he says, " He will secrete me," I understand
it to be a repetition in other words of what he has said,
'• For He will hide me." And I understand that all they
who are ruled and governed by God, are hidden in God's
secret hiding-place, for men cannot injure them, though
they neither know nor understand wherein that im
possibility upon their part consists.
By " the evil day," he means the time of tribulation.
And when he says, " Upon a rock will He set me up" he
means. He shall make me to be as secure as though I
stood upon an elevated fortress.
XXVII. 6. — And now shall my head be lifted
up above my enemies, by whom I am surrounded ;
and I will offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy ;
with shouts I will sing unto the Lord.
7- — Hear my voice, 0 Lord, for I will cry aloud ;
compassionate me and answer me.
8. — Of Thee, in Thy name, hath my heart said.
Seek My presence. Thy presence, Lord, will I
seek. It appears that David says in verse the sixth, not
only will it thus be realised, that I shall dwell in the
house of God, but I ever now see how superior to all
these my enemies by whom I am surrounded does God
already make me. So that I have abundant reason why

PSALM XXVII. 9-12 185
I should offer to God "sacrifices with sho'Uts of joy,"
meaning festive joyous shouts, with songs and with in
strumental music, as contrasted with the sacrifice of justice,
which was with slain animals.
I understand that this assurance was wrought in
David's mind by the favour of God, who showed him
that which was subsequently accomplished. And I
understand that when saints occupy themselves with such
considerations, God vouchsafes them similar favours.
In verse the seventh I understand David to say to
God, I beseech Thee, Lord, effectively to fulfil that of
which Thou hast inwardly given me the assurance.
In verse the eighth I understand him to say, " In Ifhy
name," Lord, doth my heart say unto all men, "Seek My
presence," strive to know Me, and to hold Me ever before
your eyes, remaining united in your hearts with Me.
And he adds, " Thy presence, Lord, will I seek," as
though he had said. My heart, certifying me of what is
Thy will concerning me, I will not be slothful in carry
ing it into execution, nay, I will devote myself to seek
Thy presence, setting my heart upon Thee, and suppli
cating of Thee that Thou suffer Thyself to be seen and
known by me.
I note two things in this verse. The one is, that it
concerns the Christian to listen to what God speaks to
him in his heart ; and the second is, that what God
requires us, whom He calls, to aim at, is to attain the
knowledge of God, that which is by vision and by
revelation. I understand it is to give us this know
ledge that He justifies us ; I understand that it is in
order to accomplish this that He draws us into His
kingdom, and that He governs us by His Spirit ; and it
is in this that I understand eternal life to consist.
XXVII. 9. — Hide not Thy presence from me, do
not repel Thy servant in anger. Thou hast been

1 86 PSALM XXVII. 9-12
my help, do not leave me ; forsake me not, 0 God
of my salvation.
10. — When my father and my mother forsook
me, the Lord took me up.
11.- — Teach me, 0 Lord, Thy way, and guide
me iu a straight path, because of mine enemies.
12. — Deliver me not up to the will of those who
harass me, for false witnesses have risen up against
me, as hath also he who speaks wickedness.
Having stated in verse the eighth that he would seek
the presence of God, it is much to the purpose that he,
in verse the ninth, asks of God Himself that He should
not " hide His presence " irom him, raeaning, that it would
be of no use that he should strive to see and to know
God, and to remain ever united with Him, if God did
not allow Himself to be seen and known. And when he
says, "Do not repel Thy servant in anger," I think him
to mean, If indeed, 0 Lord, Thou shalt at any time put
me, who am Thy servant, away from Thee, hiding Thy
presence frora rae, I supplicate of Thee that it be neither
" in anger " nor in wrath. And he goes on, Since it is so
that Thou throughout the past hast helped, favoured, and
succoured me, I pray Thee, do the same throughout the
future. I understand David, by verse the tenth, to confirm
what he said in verse the ninth, that God had been his
help ; as though he should say, If indeed I have been
forsaken even by my father and by my mother. Thou,
Lord, hast taken me up, hast embraced me, and hast
protected me.
In verse the eleventh, I understand David to say.
Since, 0 Lord, all that I have stated is fact, I sup
plicate of Thee that Thou guide and lead me by Thy
Spirit in everything that pertains to godliness, by the

PSALM XXVII. 13, 14 187
path which Thou approvest, by that which is right and
good; so that, keeping me saintly in life. Thou mayest
ever favour me, for whilst Thou favourest me, my
enemies will never have wherein they shall joy and
rejoice, having conquered and overcome me. As though
he should say, Nay, Lord, wert Thou unwilling to give
me satisfaction in doing this, do it, lest by not doing
it Thou shouldest give satisfaction to those who are my
enemies. When he says, " Guide me," he means the same as
" lead me." And when he says, " a straight path," it is
equivalent to " Thy path." For God's path is a straight
path to those whom He leads and guides.
It might likewise be that by God's path, and by a
straight path, David might understand the safe path that
should deliver him from the danger in which, from verse
the sixth, it appears that he found himself, being sur
rounded by his enemies ; so that he might say, Since
Thou, Lord, hast protected and taken me for Thine own,
deliver me from this peril, guiding me and leading me
by the way, which, because it is Thine, is good and
straight; and this on account of my enemies, in order
that they who persecute me may be frustrated in their
purpose. This second interpretation comes much to the
purpose, for in amplifying his petition he says. Do not
consent, 0 Lord, that I fall into mine enemies' hands, to
be treated capriciously by them ; for I tell Thee that I
am falsely accused, and that every one of them speaks
injuriously of rae. So that in saying, "Deliver me not
up to the will of those who harass me," he means. Do
not subject me or leave me to the caprice, to the will, to
the passion of my enemies.
XXVIL 13.— (I had fainted) had I not believed
that I should see the goodness of the Lord in the
land of the living —

i88 PSALM XXVII. 13, 14
14. — Wait on the Lord, be of good courage,
and He shall strengthen thy heart ; wait thou on
the Lord.
In verse the thirteenth, I understand that the joy
which David inwardly felt, knowing of his deliverance,
led him to say some words and to suppress others,
which were understood. As though he should say,
My matters would have gone ill had I not ever
believed in the promises of God, giving me the assur
ance, that I have eVen in the present life to enjoy
the goodness and favour with which God favours them
who are His. Here I understand that, just as the
assurance which David had of his deliverance, from his
confidence in the promises of God, upheld him in godli
ness, and delivered him and brought him out of the
danger in which he was, so likewise the assurance
which the Christian saint, from his confidence in the
promises of God through Christ, has of , his deliverance,
will uphold him in godliness, and will deliver him and
will bring him out of all the dangers which will occur to
him, and will make him to see the favour of God in the
present life, so far as he is able, and in the life eternal,
as he must.
In the last verse I understand that David, having
experimentally understood how greatly it concerns man
to believe in the promises of God, and to persevere in
such confidence, expecting their fulfilment, mentally
assured that it can never fail him, counsels the man
who confides in God, that although it shall at times
appear to him that God delays the fulfilment of what
He promises, he should never distrust to the extent of
going to seek favour of creatures, but wait for the
favour of God, assured that it cannot • fail ¦ him. Let
him, says he, fortify himself with this assurance ; and to
the man who shall do thus, he- promises that God,

PSALM XXVII. 13, 14 189
favouring him, will strengthen his heart. And I under
stand that the more to impress our minds with this
waiting on the Lord, he reverts to its repetition a second-
time. Here I understand what Isaiah says in chap.
xxviii. 16, " He who believeth, let him not make haste ;" he
means, he who shall believe in spiritual things, let him
not be anxious to see them realised, let him wait with
confidence that God at His time will show them to him.
Of this , they have personal and particular experience,
who, trusting in the Gospel, feel within themselves the
justification, which is attained through Jesus Christ our
Lord.

PSALM XXVIII
XXVIII. 1.— Unto Thee, 0 Lord, will I cry ;
my rock, be not Thou silent unto me ; for if Thou
be silent unto me, I shall be like them that go
down into the pit.
2. — Hear the voice of my supplications, when I
cry unto Thee, when I lift up my hands towards
the Oracle of Thy holiness.
3. — Deliver me not up with the wicked, nor
with those who work iniquity ; who speak peace
with their neighbours, but who are ill-disposed at
heart. , 4. — Render to them according to their work, and
according to the wickedness of their practices;
render to them according to the works of their
hands ; recompense Thou them according to their
desert.
This psalm of David's is one continuous prayer, in
which he pleads with God for himself and for those who
espoused his cause ; and it appears to have been com
posed when in one of those difficult positions in which
he so often found himself when fl.eeing from Saul and
from his adherents.
In verse the first, by " unto Thee will I cry," I under
stand him to say, I will persevere in crying unto Thee.
And when he says, " My rock," he means, To Thee, who
art my defence and shield. Afterwards he prays to

PSALM XXVIII. 1-4 191
God to hear him, and says that if He does not hear him,
he holds himself to be lost and dead, and to be like
those who " go down into the pit" ^ like one of those
whose corpses are hurled down into the pit (which served
as a common grave or burial-place for the poor). Here
I consider that they who are saints, who hold God to
be their shield and defence, feel assured that they are
ruled and governed by the Holy Spirit ; they likewise
feel assured that, were they not controlled by God,
they would be lost ; and I understand that this convic
tion makes them fervent in prayer.
In verse the second, where he says, " When I lift up
my hands," he speaks like a Jew, for those outward signs
of adoration were peculiarly Jewish. The Christian
worships in spirit and in truth. By " the Oracle of Thy
holiness',' he means the place where the Ark of the
Covenant was, where the Divine oracles and the Divine
utterances were heard.
In verse the third, I understand David to plead with
God that he should not be dealt with as the wicked,
and as with those who persistently do wrong, who say
one thing with their lips whilst they purpose another in
their heart, whom God leaves to be controlled by human
prudence, and by what they call second causes. How
inconsistent this is with their welfare the wicked are
never conscious, for they never have experienced the
benefit which they who are in the kingdom of God have
realised, in being controlled by the Holy Spirit ; but
the saints do experience it, and therefore they desire, as
did David, not to fall from it. From this verse I learn
that to feign, to dissimulate, and to walk falsely with our
neighbours, to manifest one thing externally whilst
purposing another in the henrt, is a sign of ungodliness.
^ The pit still existing in "the Hill of Evil Counsel," outside of Jeru
salem, is such a pit ; it is a deep open receptacle, into which the corpses of
the poor are still cast.

192 PSALM XXVIII. 5-7
Human prudence calls them, who dexterously do this,
courtiers. David being, however, a pious Jew, was inspired by
the good Spirit to ask of God the maltreatment of the
wicked, which he requests in verse the fourth ; whilst
Christian saints are inspired by the good Spirit to pray
to God for them, therein imitating our Lord Jesus Christ,
who prayed for those who crucified Him. Let the
Christian saint constantly retain these considerations
present in his mind, so that, whenever he shall feel in
spired to avenge himself, he may know that that inspira-i
tion is not indeed from the Holy Spirit.
XXVIII. 5. — Because they do not consider the
works of the Lord, nor His handiwork, He will
destroy them ; He will not build them up.
6. — Blessed be the Lord, who hath heard the
voice of my supplications.
7. — The Lord is my strength and my shield ; my
heart confided in Him, and I have been succoured ;
therefore, my heart hath rejoiced, and the burden
of my song shall be His praise.
In verse the fifth I understand David to say, that
because they against whom he prayed in the preceding
verse " did not consider the works of the Lord," nor that
which His hands work, both these expressions conveying
the same idea, it would come to pass that, not only
would God not prosper them, but He would wholly
destroy thera ; meaning, that the ungodly, who persecuted
him in order that he should not i;eign over Israel, though
God had anointed him king, had not considered what
God purposed in that anointing ; for had they con
sidered it, and had they known that He purposed mani
festing a sort of picture of the kingdom of the true

PSALM XXVIII. 8, 9 193
Messiah, of our Lord Jesus Christ's kingdom, they would
have ceased from ungodliness, they would have ceased
from persecution. Here I understand, that not to con
sider the works of God is an indication of ungodliness,
and that God Hiraself will destroy those who do not
consider them.
By the words of verse the sixth, I understand David
to have known his deliverance from an extremely
dangerous position. I feel the more assured of this by
the recollection of the experiences which a godly person
goes through when in tribulation. The words of the
seventh verse confirm this very thing : they are all sweet
and loving, uttered with the consciousness of the presence
of God. And when he says, " My heart hath rejoiced," I
understand joy of heart to result from persevering con
fidence in God. And it is a fact that when it occurs
to a pious person in tribulation to lose confidence in
God, and to ask help of creatures, he, when he comes
forth from tribulation, remains sad at heart and dis
contented ; whilst that very sarae person, if he remains
firm in his confidence when under tribulation, expecting
help from God, when he comes forth from tribulation,
remains glad at heart, and remains with so much con
tentment, that with singing he confesses that he has
been helped by God.
8. — The Lord is their strength, and He is the
strength of the deliverances vouchsafed to His
anointed. 9. — Save Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance :
feed them and lift them up for ever.
I think that the eighth verse embodies the song of
praise of which David speaks in the seventh verse,
wherewith he purposed to confess God. It is twofold.

194 PSALM XXVIII. 8,9
The former is the strength wherewith they were
strengthened who were his partisans — it carae to them
from God ; whilst the other, the strength wherewith
David, whom God had anointed to be King of Israel,
delivered himself ' from the dangers which daily pre
sented themselves to him, was likewise from God.
This song is not sung as a heart-melody (I mean, feeling
that this is so certain that God is the strength of the
godly, and that God is the strength of those who, being
Christians, are the Lord's anointed), save by those who
have some experience of it, having inwardly experienced
this strength and this power within themselves. So that
in saying, " The Lord is their strength," &c., he raeans
those who favour my cause, because they are saints.
I understand in relation to these, that being in the
kingdom of Christ and expecting to rise again with
Christ, just as their mortification is imperfect death,
so likewise their vivification is imperfect resurrection,
which will be discussed elsewhere more fully and more
in detail.
In the last verse, I understand him to call that body
of Israelites who followed him " God's people " and '• His
inheritance," for although they did not loUow him bodily,
they did with their sympathies. These were God's
"people" and "inheritance," for they followed the will
of God, and desired its accomplishment. To these he
says. May God save them, by delivering them from the
perils in which they frequently find themselves, and
from the difficulties into which they have fallen,
through Saul's persecutions ; and may He bless them,
by favouring and by prospering them, may He feed
them whilst ruling them, and may He lift them
up, rendering them superior to others. In Gospel
tiraes God's people and inheritance are those who
imitate Christ, who espouse Christ's cause, and who
are good (worthy) members of Christ. God saves

PSALM XXVIII. 8, 9 195
these from everything that betides others. Incident
ally God blesses them with His Divine benediction ;
He feeds and governs them with His Holy Spirit ;
and He lifts them up to life eternal with Jesus Christ
our Lord.

PSALM XXIX
A PSALM OP DAVID
XXIX. 1. — Give unto the Lord, ye sons of
Elim, give unto the Lord glory nnd strength.
2. — Give unto the Lord the glory of His name :
bow down before the Lord iu His beautiful
sanctuary.
David's design in this psalm appears to be an invita
tion to those who are the children of God that they, in
tempests and storms of forked lightning, of thunder, of
rain, and in earthquakes, should recognise the majesty, the
grandeur, and the omnipotence of God, acting otherwise
than do the children of Adam, who under such circum
stances recognise in them but the works of nature,
because they attribute them to second causes ; for the
children of God, when they experience these things,
are neither moved nor perturbed, resting assured that,
since they are the works of God, no injury of any kind
can occur through them to the child, of God ; whilst on
the contrary, the children of Adam, when they experience
these things, are moved and perturbed, for they consider
them to be natural, and they know that at times they
injure individuals. And here I find a singular oppor
tunity for the recognition of the children of God, as
contra-distinguished from the children of Adam — of
those who are godly from the ungodly ; and I under-
ig6

PSALM XXIX. I, 2 197
stand it to be a main element in piety to recognise
the providence of God in these natural phenomena,
whereby He moderates them and stirs them up at
His will and at His pleasure. He moderates them
on behalf of the godly, and He stirs them up, when
He wills, for the chastisement of the wicked, numerous
instances of which are to be found detailed in Holy
Scripture. The expression found in verse the first, " the sons of
Elim," is translated differently by expositors : some render
it, filii procerum, "the sons of the nobility;" others, _;?;w
fortium, "the sons of the brave;" othevs, filii potentum, "the
sons of the mighty ; " others, filii Dei, " the sons of God."
I have thought it best to leave the Hebrew word itself.
And I understand, that just as Holy Scripture, when it
purposes to name men who take no heed of God by
one generic appellation, calls them " sons of Adam ; " so
when it purposes to name those who hold God in their
account in everything, it calls them " sons of Elim ; "
and because they are those who are children of God,
since they are those who, as St. Paul says, " are moved by
the Spirit of God," by the " sons of Elim " I understand
the children of God: these- are illustrious, brave, and
mighty ; and these are they who, in their external
operations, recognise the omnipotence, the grandeur,
and the majesty of God. These are they whom David
summons to make this acknowledgment. The word
"give," which he employs, is synonymous with attribute ;
and to God do they who know Him, attribute glory
and strength ; they recognise His glory and strength in
His omnipotence.
In verse the second, he says, " The glory of His name,"
meaning the glory due unto His name.' And when he
says, "Bow down before the Lord," he means. Worship
with outward demonstrative adoration ; and by " His
beautiful sanctuary " he means the place where the Arif

of the Covenant was ; he calls it so, because it was there
that God manifested forth the glory of His Divinity.
With the godly Christian the place of God's beautiful
sanctuary is his own heart. Thus St. Paul says (i Cor.
iii. 1 6), " The temple of God is holy, which temple are
ye." There the Christian demolishes the judgment and
discourse of human prudence, for he recognises all out
ward things to be the works of God, holding them
all to be holy, just, and good ; and acting thus, he
worships God as a Christian in spirit and in truth.
XXIX. 3. — The voice of the Lord is upon the
waters, the God of glory thundereth. He is Lord
over many waters.
4. — The voice of the Lord is powerful, the voice
of the Lord is grandly beautiful.
5. — The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars,
yea the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.
6. — He maketh them to frisk like a calf:
Lebanon and Sirion (Mount Hermon) like a
young unicorn.
7. — The voice of the Lord breaketh the flames
of fire.
8. — The voice of the Lord maketh the desert to
quake ; the Lord maketh the desert of Kadesh to
quake. From, verse the third he begins to celebrate the glory
of God in these outward things. By " the voice of God "
he means the power of God, His will and His command ;
as though he should say, When you shall experience
floods of rain, thunder, and forked lightning, lightnings,
earthquakes, and storms, feel therein and know the power
of God, His will and His command. It is imperative

PSALM XXIX. 9-1 1 199
that the children of God feel thus, in order that they be
not alarmed nor disturbed by these things, reflecting that
they are wrought by their Father.
In verse the fourth, the word "power" is synonymous
with energy. And associating it with beauty, he means
with charming grandeur.
In verse the fifth he says that the voice of God
" breaketh the cedars," meaning with forked lightning, with
thunderbolts ; and I understand that he instances the
cedars, as being the most excellent among trees ; and
the more to enhance his subject, he says, " The cedars of
Lebanon," because they have the reputation of being finer
than others.
In verse the sixth he says that God " maketh them to
frisk like a calf," &c. I understand him as speaking of
the cedars instanced, meaning, that when struck by
lightning, their fragments fly in all directions. Lebanon
and Sirion (Mount Hermon), were mountains in Judea
whose names were household words amongst the inhabi
tants. When he says God makes them leap " like a young
unicorn," he means, when upheaved by earthquakes. And
thus the former part of this verse refers to the verse
preceding it.
In verse the eighth, in order to enhance his con
sideration the more, he speaks of the " desert of Kadesh,"
where the children of Israel were.
XXIX. 9. — The voice of the Lord maketh the
hinds to calve, and discovereth the w.oods ; and
in His temple doth every one sa}^. Glory.
10. — The Lord is seated upon the flood : and
the Lord is King for ever,
11. — The Lord will give strength unto His
people, the Lord will bless His people with
peace.

2CO PSALM XXIX. 9-1 1
By verse the ninth, I understand that all the animals
which frequent the woods are terrified when exposed to
storms, and that fear affecting the females induces
premature parturition ; and I understand that he
particularly mentions the hinds, because naturalists have
declared that parturition with them is very difficult.
That which is said of " the woods " being " discovered " is
frequently illustrated in the number of trees uprooted by
the winds ; and I think the Psalmist, when he declares
that " in His temple every one says. Glory," to mean that
the pious Jews, when they experienced these tempests,
betook themselves to the Temple to praise God, just as
pious Christians on such occasions cultivate self-possession
in their hearts, which are temples of God, and there they
praise God.
By verse the tenth, I understand David to say that,
whenever there are great floods out, God rides upon them,
presiding over them ; meaning that floods, whenever they
occur, are the work of God, who moderates and controls
them according to His will, even as He did the flood which
was in the days of Noah. Human prudence, refusing to
recognise God in these operations, sets itself to find out
natural reasons for them all. The Holy Spirit generally
recognises God in everything, knowing that not even the
leaf of a tree is moved without the will of God, even as
testified by the Son of God Himself. This consideration
yields great satisfaction to the godly, for they, recognis
ing the will of God in everything that accomplishes its
natural course, rest contented with all that betides them,
whether prosperous or adverse, and render equal thanks
to God for the one and for the other.
In the last verse, I understand him to say that, just
as it is true that God presides over floods, and that God
as "King" will preside "for ever," so likewise it is true
that God, to those who will be His people, will ever give
strength to uphold them in piety, whilst He will also

PSALM XXIX. 9-1 r 201
give them " the blessing of peace ; " he means, God will
favour them with peace. They who are Christians,
and they only are God's people, inwardly recognise these
two things in truth and in power, and their recognition
of them is due to the benefit of the Son of God, Jesus
Christ our Lord.

PSALM XXX
XXX. 1.— I will extol Thee, 0 Lord, for Thou
hast raised me up, and hast not suffered my enemies
to rejoice over me.
2. — 0 Lord my God, I cried unto Thee, and
Thou hast healed me.
3. — 0 Lord, Thou hast brought up my soul from
the grave ; Thou hast quickened me, and thereby
hast delivered me from being numbered with those
who go down to the pit.
By this psalm David manifests his gratitude for the
goodness God had vouchsafed him, in delivering him from
some heavy, dangerous, and mortal sickness. Where I
understand, that just as David, a godly man, recognises
his sickness to be God's discipline, and attributes his
cure to God's goodness, so the ungodly recognise their
sickness as that which occurs fortuitously, and they
attribute their cure to clever doctors and to good medi
cines. David, and they who emulate David's piety, in
sickness principally recur to God, and incidentally to
medical men and to medicines ; and, when cured, they
recur to God only in their thanksgiving ; whilst the
ungodly in sickness principally recur to doctors and to
their medicines, and subordinately to God, and, when
cured, they only thank their doctors and their medicines.
This difference between the godly and the superstitious
and ungodly ought to be well considered.

PSALM XXX. 4-7 203
I understand the meaning of verse the first to be this :
I will extol Thee, 0 Lord, or will magnify Thee in praise,
for Thou hast raised me up, and hast not consented that
they who are my enemies should have whereof to rejoice
in my death. He shows that God, in restoring him to
health, had done three things : He had illustrated His
own name, He had magnified David, and He had taken
away occasion for rejoicing from David's enemies. And
these are three things which always concur in all the
marvellous things which God does.
In verse the second, he shows that the three things of
which he has spoken in verse the first had proceeded
from his having called upon God, supplicating of Him
health, and that God had "healed" him.
In verse the third, the .more to illustrate the glory of
God, he shows that his disease had been a mortal one ; for
he says that God " had brought up his soul from the grave,"
and given him life, when his condition was such, that
the only offlces that man could have rendered him were
the funeral rites. And that expression which speaks of
being numbered " with those who go down to the pit " means
those who are hurled into the grave. See Psalm xxviii. i .

XXX. 4. — Sing unto the Lord, you who have
experienced His mercy, and confess that you
remember His holiness.
5. — For His auger is but for a moment, whilst
His favour is life-long. If weeping last for the
night, singing shall come in the morning.
6. — When in prosperity I said, I shnll never
be moved.'
7. — Lord, by Thy favour hast Thou made my
mountain to stand strong ; for as soon as Thou
didst hide Thy face, I was troubled.

204 PSALM XXX. 4-7
In verse the fourth, he invites those who are vessels
of mercy to unite in thanking God. God's saints are so
united together that the welfare of one affects them all,
just as the welfare of one member of the body affects all
the others ; I state the same of injury. " The remem
brance of His holiness" is equivalent to "His sacred
memory." In verse the fifth, David shows that he learned a secret
in his sickness that is never learned save by experience.
It is this, that the saint ought not to afflict or torment
himself excessively when he feels that he is being dis
ciplined by God in anger, neither ought he to be flushed
with pride or self-negligent when he feels himself the
favoured object of His love ; but he ought to take both
the one and the other as the gift of God, remaining ever
dependent upon God ; so that when he feels the chas
tisement, let him expect favour ere long, and when he
feels the favour, let him be on the watch that chastise
ment do not overtake him when unprepared ; resting
assured that the period of chastisement is very short,
whilst that of favour is very long. For it is so, that
" the anger of God " lasts " hut for a moment," whilst His
favour endures through many lives. This same brevity
of chastisement finds expression in the words " night and
morning." That word here rendered "favour" is the
representative of a Hebrew word tantamount to bene
volence. In the sixth and seventh verses he shows that he
had been deceived, for when he experienced the favour
of God, he thought he should never come to experience
chastisement. And he says that he recognised his illu
sion experimentally : when he says " in my prosperity,"
he means, when I felt peaceful, happy, and contented.
And when saying, "/ shall never be moved," he shows
that he had believed that that happiness would never
fail him. By that expression "My mountain," I think

PSALM XXX. 8-12 205
him to mean my heart, and that he would say thus :
Afterwards I learned that Thou, Lord, hadst implanted
that happiness in my heart, not because of my goodness,
but because that such was Thy pleasure. I learned this
when Thou didst suddenly withdraw Thy presence, and
didst not permit me to see Thee : then I lost all happi
ness, and became afflicted and perturbed with war and
with labours. I feel certain that many spiritual and godly
persons are daily undeceived as to this very illusion. The
most striking thing in connection with it is, that they
are never undeceived until they are so by experience.
XXX. 8.— Unto Thee, 0 Lord, will I cry, to my
Lord wUl I address my prayer,
9. — Saying, What profit is there in my blood, iu
casting me down into the pit? Shall the dust
peradventure confess Thee? shall it peradventure
publish Thy truth ?
10. — Hear, 0 Lord, and have mercy upon me ;
Lord, be Thou my helper.
11. — Thou hast turned my weeping into danc
ing ; Thou hast stripped off my sackcloth, and hast
girded me with joy.
12. — Therefore my glory shall sing to Thee and
shall not be silent : 0 Lord, my God, evermore
will I confess Thee.
In verse the eighth, when he says, " To Thee will I
cry, and address my prayer," I understand him to inti
mate that he will continue to do as he did when sick,
and then purposed doing always.
In the ninth and tenth verses, I understand David
to be referring to the words with which he addressed
God when sick. When he says " in my blood," I under-

2o6 PSALM XXX. 8-12
stand, in my life. As though he had said, Of what use
am I when dead ? And that he was good for nothing
after death, he proves it, by saying that man, made or
converted into dust, will not confess God, neither will
he declare God's truth. This is to be understood .as
it is declared in Psalm vi. 5.
In verse the eleventh, he says that God, hearing his
prayer, has delivered him from sickness, which (deliver
ance) was the conversion of sickness into pleasure, the
stripping off of his mourning, and the clothing of him
with the garments of joy.
In the last verse, having stated what God had done
for him, he proceeds to say that he, too, will do two
things for God. The one, that he will ever celebrate
the name of God with musical instruments, which I
understand him to call " my glory ; " and the other, that
he will confess God's mercies perpetually. Of these
two things wherewith David showed himself thankful
for his restoration to health, one well becomes saints.
This is the confession, the acknowledgment with the
lips and with the heart, that what blessings they have
proceed from the hand of God. Of the other they are
free, being assured by the Son of God Himself that God
is a Spirit, and that as such it is His will that He
be acknowledged, honoured, and adored in spirit and in
truth. In effect, very great are the benefits which we
Christians have received from God, through Jesus Christ
our Lord.

PSALM XXXI
XXXI. 1.— In Thee, 0 Lord, have I trusted,
let me never be confounded. In Thy righteousness
deliver Thou me.
2. — Incline Thine ear unto me, haste Thee to
deliver me. Be Thou unto me as a strong rock,
as an armed hold, to save me.
3. — For Thou art my rock and my fortress, for
Thy name's sake, guide me and lead me.
4. — Deliver Thou me from this net, with which
they would ensnare me, for Thou art my strength.
5. — Into Thy hand do I commend my spirit :
Thou, Lord, the true God, hast redeemed me.
6. — I have abhorred those who regard things
which are but hollow and vain ; as for me, in the
Lord have I trusted.
David, finding hiraself in some very great and marked
trouble, purposes by this psalm to ask God's favour. It
has been suggested that this trouble was that of which
we read in i Sam. xxiii.
In verse the first, where he says, " In Thy righteous
ness," I understand. In the righteousness wherewith Thou
keepest Thy promises ; Thou promisest to succour those
who trust in Thee; I confide, it is righteous (just) that
my confidence should not cause me confusion before men.
Thus do I understand that, " let me never be confounded."
In verse the second, where he says, " Incline Thine

2o8 PSALM XXXI. 7-9
ear unto me," he means. Give me gracious audience.
When he says, " Haste Thee to deliver me," he shows how
urgent was his need.
How " strong " the " rock " and how " armed " the
" hold," which is tantamount to a fortified dwelling, they
know who know God, and they know of how little value
are strong rocks and houses that are provisioned and
fortified to deliver man, unless God save hira, and how
secure that man is whom God protects.
In verse the third, "for Thy name's sake " is equivalent
to " for what Thou art ; " whilst " my rock and my
fortress " is equivalent to " my shelter and my defence."
In verse the fourth, I understand him to call the
devices which they practised to ensnare hira a " net."
That which he says in verse the fifth, "Into Thy
Jiands I commend my spirit," our Lord Jesus Christ
uttered when on the Cross. David's meaning is, Unto
Thee do I remit my life, and to Tliee do I commend it,
trusting that Thou wilt do with me in this emergency
what Thou hast done in previous ones ; that is, deliver
me, redeem me, and rescue me from them. He calls
God " The true God," meaning, that He truthfully keeps
what He proraises.
The meaning of verse the sixth admits of difference
of apprehension. I understand David to say. For this
reason do I remit myself to Thee, for this reason do I
seek to be rescued by Thee, because I have ever trusted
in Thee ; I have abhorred those who, in their difficulties,
have recourse to creatures, with witchcraft and with
superstitious observances, vain things, that have no
foundation in godliness or in natural power.
XXXI. 7. — I will joy and rejoice in Thy
mercy, with which Thou wilt have looked upon
my misery, and wilt have regarded my soul when
in tribulation.

PSALM XXXI. 10-12 209
8. — Thou hast not shut me up in the hands of
the enemy, but hast set my feet at liberty.
9. — Have mercy, 0 Lord, upon me, for I am
under tribulation. Mine eyes are consumed with
grief, yea, my soul and my belly.
In verses the seventh and eighth, I understand him
to say, that God delivering him from that peril, he would
rejoice, not in creatures, but in the mercies of God, and in
the benefits received frora the hand of God. I under
stand that God then looks upon our misery, when seeing
us under extreme pressure, He compassionates us and
delivers us from it.
And I understand that " look upon our misery " is
the same as to take knowledge of our soul when in
tribulation. Men of the world take no knowledge of
their friends when they see them under pressure, whilst
God, as David vouches, then takes the more knowledge
of them. I understand that man is then " shut up in
the hands of the enemy " when he is imprisoned ; and I
understand that when he is free, he' has " his feet set at
liberty," being able to go where he likes.
In verse the ninth, David reverts to supplicate God's
favour, pleading the greatness of his trouble, which was
such that his body was disfigured by it; for his eyes
were consumed with grief, as were also his soul and his
body (belly).
The mode in which " The eyes are consumed with grief "
is readily understood. When he says, " My soul," I think
him to mean my inward man ; and when he says, " My
belly," I think him to mean all my body, so as to include
both the inward and the outward man.
XXXI. 10. — For my life wears away in sadness
and my years in sighing. My strength gives way
o

2IO PSALM XXXI. IO-I2
because of my iniquity, and my bones are con
sumed. 11. — I have become the object of contumely of
all those who trouble me, especially of my neigh
bours, and the terror of my acquaintances. They,
who saw me abroad, fled from me.
12. — I am forgotten, men's hearts are dead to
me, I am like a useless vessel.
-I understand verse the tenth to be a further exposi
tion of the ninth. He says that his life was worn away
and spent " in sadness," and that his years were likewise
consumed " in sighing" meaning that they were cut short.
And when he says, " My strength gives way, because of my
iniquity," I think him to mean that the energy and
vigour of his body were diminished by God's chastise
ments, laid upon him for his iniquity. And when he
says, " My bones are consumed," he means that grief had
penetrated even to his bones.
Such was David's plight when he composed this
psalm ; and I think that but few godly persons will be
found who have not to some extent experienced what
David here says that he felt and realised. This pro
ceeds from the fact that our human nature is so perverse
and refractory that it needs to be roughly treated.
Having stated in the eleventh verse what affliction
he experienced, wrought in him by inward evils, those
which he felt within himself, he proceeds to state what
affliction outward evils wrought upon him, those which
men made him to' feel, men who troubled him, and
amongst them his neighbours, who amused themselves
by insulting him, being, moreover, deserted and avoided
by those who knew him and heard him when he went
out ; all which greatly increased his sense of God's
displeasure. I think there are many ruled and governed

PSALM XXXI. 13-16 211
by the Holy Spirit, who, being poor in spirit and mor
tified in their lives, living as though crucified to the
world, frequently find themselves in this same predica
ment. For it is so, that the very men who persecute
them hold them to be vile and dishonourable ; and they
who know them are afraid of them, for they see that
they do not control themselves in their affairs by the
dictates of human prudence ; whilst they who see them
going to and fro, keep aloof from them, as from some
thing pestiferous, abominable, and contagious. And I
understand that godly persons suffer these persecutions
and these outrages from the hands of men, the majority
of whom, with worldly tact and prudence, affect to be
pious. These know nothing of the spiritual life of saints,
and they are unable to approve of it; but, approving of
their own superstitious life, they proceed to condemn
spiritual life, to persecute, abominate, and avoid it. I
understand that they who bring themselves down to
this fathom the depths of ungodliness ; whence it may be
gathered that superstitious life leads men down to the
lowest grade of impiety.
That which he says in verse the twelfth, " Men's
hearts are dead to me," is an expression wherein he
follows Hebrew idiom ; he means, as though I were dead
and forgotten, so much so that there is no memorial
of me. "A useless vessel " is equivalent to a broken
vessel. XXXI. 13. — For I have heard infamous charges
made by many ; fear compassed me on every side.
When they took counsel together against me, it
was how to take my life.^
^ In the manuscript there is no commentary upon the thirteenth verse,
and the fourteenth is reckoned as the thirteenth. Here the numbers are
changed to prevent confusion.

212 PSALM XXXI. 13-16
14.— In Thee, 0 Lord, do I trust; I said. Thou
art my God.
15. — My times are in Thy hand. Deliver me
from the hands of my enemies and of my per
secutors. 16. — Illustrate Thy presence in relation to Thy
servant ; save me by Thy presence.
In verse the fourteenth, I understand him to say.
Neither the insults of certain persons, nor the persecu
tion of others, have proved adequate, 0 Lord, to sever
me from the confidence with which I expect Thy help ;
and it is so, that I, in my heart, have constantly said,
" Thou art my God," and that, since I am Thine, Thou
canst not fail me. From these words I gather, that they
who do part from the faith which they have in God
cease to hold God to be their God.
In verse the fifteenth, I understand David to show
that his confidence was based upon God's omnipotence,
as though he should say. It was right upon my part, O
Lord, that I should have trusted in Thee, since it is so,
that the days of my life are in Thy hand, and not in
the hands of mine enemies. Thou canst give or take
away life, and not they. So that by " my times " he
means the days of my life.
This consideration is an unique comfort for godly
souls in their tribulations.
In verse the sixteenth, I understand that God then
illustrates His presence in relation to the saints when
He so clearly and openly favours them, that all see that
the favour of God has prevailed on their behalf. So
that for God to " illustrate His presence " is equivalent to
making His favour clear and manifest ; and thus it might
be said that God illustrated His presence to the people of
Israel in bringing them out of Egypt, in carrying them

PSALM XXXI. 17-19 213
through the desert, and in planting them in the Promised
Land ; and that God illustrates His presence to Chris
tians by disenamouring them of the world, and by
enamouring them of Himself, by leading them to re
nounce the government of human prudence, and to
accept that of the Holy Spirit. But of this illustra
tion men only see and understand what they feel and
experience. XXXI. 17. — 0 Lord, let me not be put to con
fusion, because that I have invoked Thee ; let the
wicked be put to confusion ; silence them in the
grave. 18. — Let lying lips be put to silence, those which
speak hard things against the man that is righteous,
doing so arrogantly and contemptuously.
19. — How great is Thy goodness, which Thou
hast reserved for those who fear Thee ; which
Thou hast wrought on behalf of those who trust
in Thee, before the children of Adam.
In verse the seventeenth he speaks thus, It were not
right, 0 Lord, that I, who have trusted in Thee, should
by put to confusion by failing to attain my purpose ; it
were quite right that the wicked should be confounded,
and that they should be as silent as the dead, when they
see what Thou doest for rae. It may be, that in saying
" Silence them in the grave," he may mean. Slay them, and
their mouths will be stopped.
In verse the eighteenth he repeats his request, ex
pressed in the preceding verse, that they may be silenced,
where to "speak hard things arrogantly and contemptu
ously'' is tantamount to speaking with threats, both hard
and violent. David, by " the man that is righteous,"
raeans himself.

214 PSALM XXXI. 20,21
In verse the nineteenth, in the former part of it, I
understand David to magnify the affluence of mercies
which God holds out of sight, and in reserve for those
who practise piety, meaning those of the life eternal, of
which but a taste is realised in this life ; whilst I under
stand him in the latter part to magnify the mercies or
favours which God wrought on behalf of His people the
Jews, which were so brilliant and manifest that he with
great propriety speaks of thera as having been " wrought
before the children of Adam."
When he speaks of the blessings ' of the life eternal
which are hidden in the former part, he magnifies those
blessings of God which were magnified, first by Isaiah,
and afterwards by St. Paul, as being such that man's eye
never witnessed, or his imagination ever conceived aught
like thera. He then, in the latter part, magnifies those
blessings of God which they have been permitted to see
and to comprehend. With relation to the former, I under
stand that they exclusively belong to the godly, whilst,
with reference to the latter, I understand that they are
the coramon property of all who trust in God.
XXXI. 20. — Thou shalt hide them in the secret
of Thy presence from the insolence of man. Thou
shalt hide them in Thy tabernacle from the strife
of tongues,
21. — Blessed be the Lord, who hath wrought
out His astounding mercy to me in a fortified, well-
provisioned city.
When he says, in the twentieth verse, " Thou shalt
hide them in the secret of Thy presence," he appears to say
that God, in making His presence felt by the godly, and
in showing it to them, renders them supremely happy,
from the consideration and assurance that the godly cannot

PSALM XXXI. 20, 21 215
be injured under any circumstances. Here I understand
that there is both a published manifestation of the pre
sence of God, and a secret manifestation of the pre
sence of God. In the published presence of God I place
the miracles which have been wrought by God, such as
those which He wrought amidst the Jews, such as those
which He wrought amongst Christians; I likewise place
thunderbolts, thunder and lightnings, earthquakes, floods,
and other forms of tempest ; as also external and corporal
blessings. In the secret manifestation of the presence of
God I place inward inspirations, the sense of justification,
the control of the Holy Spirit, and profound conceptions
of God.
The sons of Adam do not see these things, whilst the
children of God do see thera. And I understand tbis to
be the secret place in which God hides them.
By "man" I understand any person, be he whora he may.
And I understand that when evil tongues move in de
famation of the good name of the godly, God provides
that it shall not be blackened in the esteem of those with
whom they, to the glory of God, desire to sustain their
credit ; and in this foresight do I understand the hiding-
place of " Thy Tabernacle " to consist : this secret is one
that excites astonishment.
I understand David to have uttered the twenty-first
verse after that God had shown him how, or the manner
in which, he was about to be delivered ; and thus he
speaks of that which was future, as though it had already
happened. For God to render "His mercy astounding "
is, as I understand it, for Him to exercise it so clearly
and so openly, that all must recognise it as His mercy.
And when he says, " In a well provisioned city" I think
him to mean, that God, in raising him out of the misery
in which He was, was about to establish him in a great
city, both strongly fortified and well provisioned ; and it
might be that David meant the grandeur with which God

2i6 PSALM XXXI. 22
was about to establish him in the city of Jerusalem,
where God publicly manifested His astounding mercy to
David. XXXI. 22. — For I said in my haste, I am
banished from Thy sight ; but Thou heardest the
voice of my cries when I called upon Thee.
In verse the twenty-second, I understand David to
show his weakness, in order the more to extol the mercy
which God had exercised towards him, as though he
should say. Tribulation brought me down to such a pitch,
that although I never doubted of God's omnipotence, I
did so question ray strength, my goodness, and my piety,
that I held myself to be abandoned and deserted of God's
favour. But although I was led almost to distrust. Thou,
Lord, seeing that I did not desist from calling upon Thee,
hast not ceased to succour rae.
Where there are two most remarkable things : one
of them is, that because the mind of man is most arrogant,
God wills that His saints shall not attribute the favour
which He does them even to their faith ; when He wills
to favour them He brings them down to such a pitch,
that they well-nigh cease to trust, holding themselves
to be rejected by God. Then it is that He favours and
helps them. I hold it to be certain that the majority
of all those who are devoted to godliness, realise this in
their own experience, having been brought so to do by the
Holy Spirit and not by human effort. The other is, that
although saints are brought to that extremity, of holding
themselves to be rejected, and excluded from the favour
of God, they do not cease to recur to God, still entreating
His favour, whereby they show that they have not given
up godliness. That which he says, "In my haste," I
understand to be equivalent to. In my impatience, when
I wanted courage to persevere, and to wait for help from

PSALM XXXI. 23, 24 217
God, in His favour and in His mercy. Since I see
that impatience in expectation brought David well
night to distrust, I understand that Divine counsel,
" He who believes, let him not make haste," to be most
necessary at all times and on all occasions. As though
he had said, He who believes the promises and stead
fastly trusts in them, although their fulfilment or assur
ance be delayed, let him not make haste, neither let
him be impatient, for he shall see the accomplishment of
his desire.
XXXI. 23. — Love the Lord, all ye the objects
of His mercy. The Lord defends those who
are loyal to Him, and pays off those abundantly
who are insolent.
24. — Be strong, and He shall strengthen your
hearts, all ye who hope in the Lord.
In verse the twenty-third, I understand David to
request, of all who are objects of mercy, to cherish
their love to God. And I understand that, in order
the more to enforce his request, and the more to attract
them to this love, he tells them that there are two
things in God which render Him amiable. The one
is, that He protects and " defends those who are loycd
to Him;" and the other is, that He fully "pays off"
in chastisement those who, being ungodly, " are insolent."
But I hold this to be certain, that ungodliness is never
disassociated from insolence, nor insolence from ungod
liness. In the last verse, David admonishes all who, con
fiding in God, depend upon Him and expect mercy, to
encourage themselves in godliness and in faith ; and
he promises, that in acting thus, God will "strengthen
their hearts." As though he had said, God will treat

2i8 PSALM XXXI. 23, 24
you as He has treated me. Our Lord Jesus Christ
proved His perseverance in this dependence upon God,
when, being nailed to the Cross, He exclairaed, " Into
Thy hands, Father, do I commend My Spirit " (Luke
xxiii. 46).

PSALM XXXII
XXXII. 1, — Blessed is the man whose rebellion
is pardoned, whose sin is covered.
2. — Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord
imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile.
I understand David, in this psalm, to wail over the
fact that God, in chastising him for his sins, with sicknesses
and with other trials, kept him dry and debilitated ;
whilst he himself shows the way by which men may be
delivered from falling into the trouble into which he had
fallen. In the two first verses, I understand David to express
what he considered and thought when he found himself
under chastisement for his sins ; that is, how blessed are
they who, overcome by the sin which they have in their
members, and which they have by nature, yet do not
have that imputed to them by God, wherein they offend
and sin, and since He does not impute it to them, neither
does He chastise them for it. Just as a servant might,
at the time when punished for dishonest practices, say.
How happy are those servants to whom their master does
not impute their dishonest practices to chastise them on
account of them, even as I am chastised. Here I do not
understand him to say that they are blessed who are with
out iniquity, for we all have it ; nor that they are so who
do not fall into rebellion or into sin, for therein we all

220 PSALM XXXII. I, 2
fall more or less ; but that they are so to whora God
does not impute iniquity, whose rebellion and sin He
overlooks. So that the second verse is the exposition of the first,
as though he should say, When I state that "Blessed is
the man whose rebellion is pardoned, and whose sin is
covered," I mean, Blessed is the man to whom God does
not impute that wherein he offends and sins, being led
to do so and overcome by the iniquity and perversity
of his fiesh, that wherewith he was born, and which is
as it were natural to him. So that the iniquity spoken
of in verse the second is, as it were, the fountain and
origin of the rebellion and of the sin spoken of in
verse the first. Thus under rebellion and sin David
comprehends everything wherein man offends, being
overcome by the iniquity which is natural to him, as
also by that which he has personally acquired and in
creased ; and the not taking into account or not im
puting, spoken of in verse the second, is tantamount
to the pardoning and covering, spoken of in verse the
first. And when he says, "In whose spirit there is no
guile," I understand him to say, that in that man's
mind to whom God does not impute iniquity there is no
guile, meaning that there is iniquity in the fiesh, whilst
there is none in the mind ; for if it were in the mind,
it would cease to be mere iniquity, and would become
impiety ; so that David says. Blessed is the man who,
although he has iniquity which leads him to sin, has
not impiety, which blessedness he enjoys when God, not
imputing iniquity to him, overlooks that wherein he
offends and sins, not chastising hira on that account, as
He at that time was chastising David. Now, that the
iniquity which has its seat, not in the mind but in the
flesh, frequently draws men into rebellion and into sin,
constraining them and dragging them into it, as it were

PSALM XXXII. I, 2 221
by the hair of the head, is shown by St. Paul in Romans
vii. ; moreover, that the saints under the Law did not
enjoy the felicity or blessedness here extolled by David,
clearly appears from his narratives and from his conti
nuous complaints and lamentations, in which they are re
presented as being chastised for their sins ; and if they
were chastised for their sins, it is clear that God did impute
them to them, and reckoned them up against thera ; whilst
our own personal experience shows us that the saints under
the Gospel do specially enjoy this felicity and blessedness.
Since then our saints neither complain nor lament over
the afflictions, the evils, or the labours which occur to
them in the present life, because they do not hold them
to be chastisements for their offences or their sins, know
ing and holding it to be certain, nay, inwardly feeling,
that they are not iraputed to or reckoned up against
thera ; they hold them to be means which God employs
to mortify every carnal affection in them, and especially
to disenamour them of the world. So that God chastised
the saints under the Law with temporal punishments for
their offences and sins, placing their iniquity to their
account, because they had the Law which accused them ;
but the saints under the Gospel are not chastised by God
with temporal punishments, because He overlooks that
wherein they offend and sin ; for, as St. Paul says, in
Gal. iii. 13, "Christ has delivered us from the curse of
the Law, being made a curse for us ; " therefore they are
raortified and disenaraoured of the world by bodily trials
and distresses.
The difference there is between chastisement and mor
tification, I mean, as between what God does with one
raan when chastising him, from what He does with another
when mortifying him, is almost the same, that there is
between that which a man vindictively inflicts upon his
slave, for acts of dishonesty practised by him, and that
with which the father visits his son, designing to teach

222 PSALM XXXII. I, 2
him good habits, even as God dealt with the Corinthians,
as reported by Paul in his Epistle. As to eternal punish^
ment, I understand that God has not imputed, nor
does He impute, iniquity, nor that wherein, being
overcome by it, they offend and sin, either to the saints
who were under the Law, or to the saints who were
under the Gospel, because Christ was chastised for thera ;
God's justice having been executed upon His raost pre
cious flesh, for all that wherein the flesh has offended
and does offend. So that, as to eternal bliss or happiness,
the saints under the Law are upon an equality with those
under the Gospel, in that iniquity is not iraputed or
reckoned up against either of them, God acting towards
them as a man does with a servant who has a mania
for thieving, overlooking it, or passing over it in him,
knowing that his petty thefts are not from any malevolent
feeling cherished against his master, but because he is
led and caiTied away to thieve by that evil proclivity
to which he is subject. Where I understand that God,
in pardoning original sin, pardons us all that wherein
we offend and sin, being overcome by that depravity
in which, through original sin, we are born. And I
understand that, because the Law accused the saints of
old in relation to that wherein they transgressed it, they
were chastised with temporal punishments ; whilst because
faith exculpated them, that was not iraputed to them to
their eternal punishment wherein they sinned against
the Law. The saints under the Gospel, having no one
to accuse them, are not chastised with temporal punish
ments ; and I understand that, because faith justifies,
they are not chastised with eternal punishment. St.
Paul, in Eom. iv. 7, 8, quotes these two verses, where
it is his aim to prove that blessedness is associated with
non-imputation, not only to the circumcised but to the
uncircumcised also, showing that Abraham enjoyed it
before he was circumcised.

PSALM XXXII. 3-5 223
XXXII. 3. — Because I kept silence my bones
grew old, daily did I spend my time in groaning.
4. — For Thy hand being day and night laid
heavily upon me, the moisture of my body dried
up as with the drought of summer. Selah.
5. — I confessed my sin unto Thee, and I sought
not to hide my iniquity from Thee. I said, I will
confess my rebellions to the Lord, and Thou hast
pardoned the iniquity of my sin.
In verse the third, I understand David to begin to
set forth the condition in which he was, or had been,
because God had imputed, or reckoned up, his iniquity
against him. Where he says, " Because I kept silence,"
1 understand him to say, Because, when I had sinned, I
did not recur to God to supplicate His forgiveness, it
came to pass, when He chastised me, that not only was
my flesh consumed, but my very bones became prema
turely old and constricted, through the cries and groans
which the sense of punishment continuously extorted from
me ; so that, as long as I refrained frora asking pardon
of God, so long did I cry out, feeling the severity of the
chastisement. I understand verse the fourth to be an exposition
of what he had said in verse the third, " My hones grew
old." As though he said. It is a fact, 0 Lord my God,
that whilst Thy chastising hand was laid day and night
heavily upon rae, the juices of my body were dried up,
as are those things which the heat of summer dries up
and withers.
The saints under the Gospel cannot testify to this ex
perience, for they are not chastised for their sins, although
they indeed are mortified by sicknesses, and by other
forms of trial and distress.
In verse the fifth, I understand David to say, After

224 PSALM XXXII. 6-8
inward consideration " / confessed my sin unto Thee, and
I sought not to hide my iniquity from Thee," whence it
came to pass that Thou, Lord, hast pardoned the sin and
the iniquity, raising from off me Thy chastising hand,
wherewith Thou didst chastise rae for the sin which
Thou hadst reckoned up against rae. So that what
David says is this, that when he confessed hiraself to
God to be a rebel and a sinner, God pardoned hira the
iniquity which had drawn him into rebellion and into
sin. Here I understand it to be the gift of God that a
man should recognise his rebellion, his iniquity, and his
sin. When recognising it, he comes fully disposed to
confess before God that he is rebellious, iniquitous, and
sinful. And I understand the recognition of evil, with
out confession of it, to be chastisement by God, as it
was in the instance of Cain and in that of Judas : both
these recognised their evil, but they did not know the
true medicine with which it is healed.

XXXII. 6. — For this shall every one that is
godly call upon Thee at the time when Thou
mayest be found. Surely the floods of great waters
shall not reach him.
7. — Thou art my hiding-place. Thou shalt keep
me from trouble ; Thou shalt encircle me with
songs of deliverance. Selah.
8. — I will instruct thee, and teach thee the way
in which thou shalt go, I will counsel thee with
Mine eye.
In the sixth verse, I understand hira to say. Under
such circurastances every one who shall be a vessel of
raercy will recur to God. They who are not vessels of
mercy do not, under such circumstances, recur to God,

PSALM XXXII. 6-8 225
but to the creature ; for the Spirit of God only inspires
those who are vessels of raercy to pray to God — nay, the
Spirit Himself intercedes for thera and in them " at the
time when God may he found," which I understand to
be the time in which God grants that for which He is
supplicated. I understand this to be when he who supplicates is in
spired to supplicate ; and here I consider how attentive
man ought to be to Divine inspirations.
In the remainder of the verse I understand David to
promise the person who, under similar circumstances,
shall pray to God, that although trials and temptations
shall come upon him like a torrent or a flood, they, shall
not reach him. I understand this to be what we pray for
when we say, " Lead us not into temptation : " I mean
that I understand this petition to be. Let not temptations
injure us.
In verse the seventh, where David says " Thou art my
hiding-place" I understand him to say that God was his
consolation, his refuge, and his defence, and peculiarly
the place where he in his difficulties went to hide him
self. And I understand that the pious are hid in God
when He manifests His presence to them, and shows them
other inward favours, so that they do not feel the per
secutions of the world ; and the world cannot comprehend
how it is that they do not feel those evils. I understand
it to have been thus that our martyr saints were hidden,
when they mocked those who martyrised them ; and it is
thus that pious persons are hidden who, when wronged,
neither avenge themselves nor cherish resentment. By
" songs of deliverance " he raeans the songs with which he
purposed to celebrate his deliverances ; and when he says,
" Thou slialt encircle me" he suggests how very numerous
those songs would be.
In verse the eighth, I understand David to be speaking
generally, and to address every one. p

226 PSALM XXXII. 9-1 1
When he says, " / will instruct thee and teach thee,"
he means teach thee how to control thyself in the present
life, and when he says, " The way" he means that same
in which I have walked. And in saying, " I will counsel
thee with mine eye" I think him to mean, I will show
thee this way by making it visible to the eye. I under
stand it to be so clear that it requires but a hint for him
to see and to recognise it. Others interpret this other
wise. XXXII. 9. — Be ye not as the horse or as the
mule, without understanding, whose mouth is
restrained with bit aud bridle, lest he come nigh
thee. '
10. — Many griefs shall encompass the wicked,
but the man who trusteth in the Lord shall be
encircled with mercy.
11. — Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, ye right
eous, and shout for joy all ye that are upright in
heart. In verse the ninth, I understand him to advise that
we should not in God's service be hard in (yielding),
" as the horse and mule " are to us, who never obey us but
against their will. Here I understand that those whose
bearing towards God is like that of the horse and of the
mule to man, are ruled and governed by God, however
much it be against their will, by what are called second
causes, to which they are perfectly subject; whilst they
who in their bearing towards God resemble David, are
ruled and governed by God, voluntarily and immediately,
with a control that is both sweet and grateful ; so that
David's counsel is that of the Holy .Spirit.
That which he says, " Come nigh thee," &c., is
difficult to understand : possibly, in the Hebrew, it raay

PSALM XXXII. 9-II 227
mean. May it never occur to thee that thy bearing
towards God be like that of the horse or of the mule
to man.
I understand him, in verse the tenth, having narrated
his own experience, and having gathered therefrom Divine
counsel, to proceed to establish a notable difference be
tween the godly man and the ungodly man. It is this,
that the wicked shall always be encompassed with griefs,
whilst the pious shall always be encompassed and en
circled with mercies. And I understand that this know
ledge caused him to express himself in the words of the
last verse, as though he should say. You who are
righteous and upright in heart have indeed cause to
be glad and rejoice, because you trust in God, and
yield yourselves up to be ruled and governed by Him.
Now, if David, being under the Law, felt this, how
much more ought we, who are under the Gospel, to
feel it ? I say this of those of us who are Christians,
and who have the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ.

PSALM XXXIII
XXXIII. 1. — Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous :
praise becomes the upright.
2. — Acknowledge (confess) the Lord upon the
harp, sing unto Him upon the ten - stringed
psaltery. 3. — Sing unto Him a new song, make it resound
in pleasing tones, jubilantly.
I understand David's design in this psalm to be an
invitation to saints to rejoice in commemorating God,
when they consider on one hand His omnipotence and
His Divine providence, and on the other His mercy,
that which He ever exerts towards those who depend
upon Hira, and who sustain relations with Him, These
considerations never occur to the minds of the ungodly,
for they ignore God's omnipotence, and disallow His
Divine providence, whilst His raercy is unfelt by them.
Whence thoughts of God cause them heaviness and sad
ness, the peculiar indication of impiety.
In verse the first, " the upright " are the sarae as the
righteous, whilst the word " rejoice " is the translation
of a Hebrew word which signifies "joy, rairtb, or re
joicing," expressed in sounds both loud and jubilant.
And I understand him to say, that only they who are
righteous and upright are justified in praising God,
because they delight in God. They who do not delight
in God are not warranted in praising God, nay, in

PSALM XXXIII. 4-9 229
point of fact, they do not praise hira, no, not even when
they think that they do praise Him.
In verses second and third, it is to be observed that
David speaks as a Jew, at the tirae when God was
pleased to be outwardly recognised by songs and by
instrumental music sounding out jubilantly. When he
says " A new song," he means for new favour. St. Peter,
speaking as a Christian to Christians, says (i Pet. iii.
15), "Sanctify God in your hearts;" and St. Paul says,
in Rom. i. 9, " that he worshipped God in spirit and
in the gospel." They both spoke like good disciples of
their Supreme Master, of whora they had learned that
God is a Spirit, who wills that He be adored " in spirit
and in truth " (John iv. 24). These are the songs, and
this is the rausic with which God wills to be recognised
under the Gospel dispensation.
XXXIII. 4. — Declare that the word of the Lord
is right, and that all His works are characterised
by truth.
5. — That He is a lover of riarhteousness and of
judgment, and that the earth is full of the mercy
of the Lord.
6. — That by the word of the Lord were the heavens
made, and all their hosts by the breath of His mouth.
7. — Gathering the waters of the sea together as
a heap, and the depths being the treasuries wherein
they are stored.
8. — That all the earth should fear the Lord ; that
all the dwellers upon earth should stand in awe of
Him. 9. — For He spake, and lo it was done : He com
manded, and it stood fast.
From the fourth verse, I understand that David dictates

230 PSALM XXXIII. 4-9
the " new song " which he has told them to sing, which
I understand him to continue on through verses fifth,
sixth, and seventh. In the first place, he says that " the
word of the Lord is right," meaning that rectitude charac
terises all that proceeds from the mouth of God. Secondly,
he says that " all His works are characterised by truth,"
meaning that there is nothing feigned about them, that
they are all certain, and that they are all true.
By verse the fifth, I understand that " He is a lover
of righteousness," for it is pleasing to God that men
be righteous ; and that " He is a lover of judgment,"
because it is pleasing to Him that men practise justice
by judging justly between men ; and when he declares
that " the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord" he raeans,
that all they who live upon the face of the earth share
His raercy. His goodness, and His munificence.
In verse the sixth, I understand him to magidfy the
omnipotence of God in the creation of " the heavens ; "
where I understand " the breath of His mouth " to be the
same as " the word of the Lord," and by the " hosts " of
the heavens I understand everything contained in them.
In verse the seventh, I understand him to magnify
the mercy and omnipotence of God, illustrated in the
"waters of the sea," which he says God has "gathered
together '' as in a vessel or in a " heap." By " the depths "
he mea,ns the abysses of the sea, which I understand him
to call marine " treasuries," because they are well kept,
or because it seems that the waters are congregated there
as are riches in treasuries.
In verse the eighth, I understand hira to expound in
the second part what he says in the first ; and I under
stand that to "fear the Lord" and to be religious is one
and the same thing. More than that, I think that what
we call religion is expressed in Hebrew " fear ; " so that
the whole of this verse is an adraonition to all who
live in this present life to devote theraselves to religion.

PSALM XXXIII. 10-12 231
But I understand hiin to assign, in verse the ninth, the
reason why they should devote themselves to religion,
by stating that God is so powerful that by His word
alone He was obeyed at creation.
XXXIII. 10. — The Lord frustrates the counsel
of the nations ; thwarting the designs of the peoples.
He renders them vain.
11. — The counsel of the Lord shall stand, for
ever, the designs of His heart from generation to
generation. 12. — Blessed is the nation that hdldeth Jehovah
to be its God, the people that He hath chosen for
His inheritance.
The tenth and eleventh verses correspond. The
former declares that there is but little stability in the
counsels and in the designs formed by men, and that
this is brought about by God, who subverts them and
defeats them, without their understanding how or whence
this occurs to them ; whilst the latter declares the
great stability and firmness there is in the counsels and
designs of God ; for it is so that all that He purposes
and all that He designs attains the end He contem
plated, for there is no one capable of disturbing it or
of impeding it.
The twelfth verse commends the happiness enjoyed by
those who have God for their God and their inheritance.
Here 1 have left the most holy name Jehovah, because it
appears that the certainty and the stability of those who
hold God to be their God is involved in the meaning of
the name.
And when he says,. " The people that He hath chosen
for His inheritance," he may mean that they hold God
to be their God who have taken Him to be their
inheritance, seeking no other elsewhere in this life,

232 PSALM XXXIII. 13-15
save in God; but the Hebrew text is ancient in point
of form, and might mean the people whora He hath
chosen for His inheritance, ¦ which would agree with
what Christ says to Hia disciples (John xv. 1 6), " You
have not chosen Me, hut I have chosen you." However,
the former apprehension appears to me to be preferable,
where I understand him to establish the difference there
is between the people who have chosen God for their
inheritance, and those peoples of the world who hold
creatures to be their inheritance. And I understand
that it was only the Hebrew people who, during the
dispensation of the Law, held God to be their God, and
had elected God for their inheritance ; whilst Christians
are they who, having the Spirit of Christ, and being
members of Christ, are in the kingdom of God.
XXXIII. 13. — The Lord looketh down from
heaven. He beholdeth all the sons of men.
14. — From the prepared place of His habitation
He considers all the dwellers upon earth ;
15. — Forming their hearts alike, and understand
ing; all their actions.
From the thirteenth verse, I understand David to begin
to show wherein their blessedness consists who hold God
to be their God, and who have chosen Him for their
inheritance. Thus he says, that it consists in God's
being in heaven, and in His taking intimate account
of everything that transpires here upon earth, such
constituting the providence of God.
He confirms this same providence in verse the four
teenth, where I understand him to call the heavens God's
" prepared seat," adjusted for Hira. And Scripture inci
dentally states that the heavens are God's seat of habita
tion, because the influences that proceed from heaven are
animated, and produce the earth's phenomena ; upon those

PSALM XXXIII. 16-19 233
influences they depend, and by them are they ruled
and governed. And it appears to be not unbecoming
to say that God dwells in that part which is most
worthy and most excellent, that in effect the earth is
ruled and governed iraraediately by Hira, and that these
inferior things are ruled and governed mediately by
creatures. Frora this generalisation he excepts the
children of God, for they are ruled and governed by the
Spirit of God.
In verse the fifteenth, this same providence of God is
magnifled, wherein it is said that God forms and moulds
" the heaMs of men alike." 1 understand him to say that
He creates them alike, raaking no difference between the
rich and the poor, or between the bond and the free.
And when he says that God " understands all their actions"
he means, that He specially regards all those wrought by
them whom He recognises, and that He sees whereto they
are incidentally directed. And when he says " Alike,"
he means every one of them, excepting no one.
XXXIII. 16.— There is no king saved by the
numbers of his army, nor any valiant man by ex
ceeding valour.
17. — A horse is not to be trusted for safety, nor
will his great strength deliver.
18. — Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them
that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy,
19. — To deliver their souls from death, and to
maintain them in time of famine.
In verses sixteenth and seventeenth, I understand him
to confirm and to ratify what he has stated, where he says,
that if a king be saved from danger, and if a valiant man
protect -himself when assaulted, and if a horse deliver a
man, it is not because the king's army has inherent power
in numbers, neither is it because the valiant man has

234 PSALM XXXIII. 20-22
valour sufficing thereto, still less has the fleetness of the
horse, but it is because God's will concurs and works
marvellously with the army, with the man of valour, and
with the horse, that they deliver and save.
Having celebrated the particular providence of God in
the preceding verses, and having stated that the p9wer
of things is not properly theirs, but communicated by
God, he proceeds, in verse the eighteenth, to the conclu
sion, that the blessedness of the people who hold God to
be their God consists in that God, being He who gives
being, virtue, and life to things, takes especial care of
those who, holding Him to be their God, depend upon
Him, who respect and regard Hira, and who in their
necessities hope to be succoured and favoured by His
mercy, without going to seek succour and favour of crea
tures ; for what he states in verse the nineteenth is a fact,
that the care which God takes of those who hold Him to
be their God is with the design of saving their lives, so
that they are not subject to the disasters to which, in the
present life, those men are subject who do not hold God
to be their God. So that God delivers the lives of those
who hold Him to be their God, by preserving them in
this present life, so that they live as long as has been
ordained :them by Divine Providence, according to the
constitution and bodily strength which has been given
them, respecting which more will.be said hereafter.
I understand that " to maintain them in time of famine"
is tantamount to delivering their lives frora death. I
mean that the difficulty involved in famine, from which
he says that God delivers His people, comprehends every
other difficulty that can be thought of — specifying this,
as that which is most certain and more frequent, because
'life is sustained by food.
XXXIII. 20.— Our soul waiteth for the Lord,
He is our help and our shield.

PSALM XXXIII. 20-22 235
21.— For our heart shalL rejoice in Hira, because
we have trusted in His holy name.
22. — Let Thy mercy, 0 Lord, be upon us, even
as we have hoped in Thee.
I understand that David, in the twentieth verse,
designs to show that he and those who were with him
held God to be their God, and were therefore happy and
blessed. Where he says " Our soul," he means. We all.
And I understand him, in verse the twenty-first, to say
that •' our heart shall rejoice in Him because we have
trusted in His holy name," purposing to show that what
he has stated in the preceding verse was fact, naraely,
that their soul waited upon God, and that God was their
help and their shield. As though he had said. The joy
which we feel in our hearts When commemorating God,
and the confidence which we have in His holy name,
assures us that our souls wait upon God only, and that
we hold Him alone to be our help and our shield. He it
is who protects and defends us, for we have taken Him
to be our God : we have chosen Him for our inheritance,
and He it is who takes care of us and has intimate fellow
ship with us ; and herein does our happiness and our
blessedness consist. Here I understand that a man's
rejoicing in God is a good sign, for it implies that he
holds God to be his God, and that he has chosen God
for his inheritance, and that he therefore is happy and
blessed. I understand the last verse to be, as it were, the con
clusion of the whole pSalm, as though David should say
to God, There remains nothing other, Lord, but that Thy
mercy correspond with our expectation of it. We, hold
ing Thee to be our God, have always hoped in Thy
mercy, without seeking help or favour in our necessities
from creatures, hoping patiently for Thy help and Thy

236 PSALM XXXIII. 20-22
favour. It now remains that Thy raercy respond to our
hope." ^
And when he says " mercy," he raeans that God always
exerts mercy when He helps and favours man. They
who are alien to godliness seek recompenses and rewards,
because they occupy themselves in measuring their merits,
whilst the godly seek mercy, knowing no merits save those
of our Lord Jesus Christ.

PSALM XXXIV
XXXIV, 1. — I will bless the Lord at all times.
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2. — My soul shall make her boast in the Lord.
The lowly shall hear this, and be glad.
3. — 0 magnify the Lord with me, and let us
exalt His name together.
4. — I sought the Lord, and He answered me,
and delivered me from all my fears.
David's design in this psalm is to show, frora his own
personal experience, what care God takes of those who,
relying upon Him, remit theraselves, and all that is theirs,
to Him. The history upon which it is said that he com
posed it, is found in i Samuel xxi.
In verse the first, he asserts his impassioned determina
tion to " bless " God, and repeats in the second clause the
same resolution as that expressed in the first.
In verse the second, where he says, " My soul shall
make her boast in the Lord," he means that he would pride
himself upon, and would make his boast in, the favour
which God had done him in delivering him from the
peril in which he had been. Where I understand that
the godly man practises himself in godliness, when feeling
that, he is aided and helped and favoured of God; he
prides himself upon it, and makes his boast of it, attri
buting the glory to God, and not to himself. Those who*
feel themselves aided, helped, and favoured by creatures,

238 PSALM XXXIV. 5-1 1
when they praise them, praise themselves, for they praise
their own virtue and their own merits. And they feel
themselves favoured of creatures who do not recog
nise God's particular providence : they do not under
stand what piety is. And by what he says, " The lowly
shall hear this," &c., he means that certain pious persons
will exult when informed that God has exercised mercy
towards other pious persons. Whence I gather that it is
the duty of every saint, having obtained mercy, to publish
the fact that he has done so, in order to cheer other saints..
From verse the third I understand that we then "magnify
the Lord" when, by publishing His mercies, we raake many
to know and to esteem them. And I understand him, in
verse the fourth, to confirm what he has stated in verse
the second, that " the lowly shall hear thereof and be
glad." As to the mode in which we are to understand
that the pious seek God, this will be told in the com
mentary upon verse the tenth.
XXXIV. 5. — They shall look unto Him, and
their faces shall be lightened up : they shall not
be put to the blush.
6. — This poor man cried, and the Lord heard
hira, and hath delivered him from all his troubles.
7. — The angel of the Lord encamps (acts as a
sentry) round about them who fear Him, and de
livers them.
8. — Taste and you shall see that the Lord is
good. Blessed is the man who shall trust in Him.
9. — Fear the Lord, ye His saints : for they who
fear. Him never experience want.
10.— Lions do want and suffer hunger, whilst
they who seek the Lord never want anv o-ood
tnincf.

PSALM XXXIV. 5-1 1 239
11. — Come, ye children, hearken unto me, and
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
The words of verse the . fifth are ambiguous. They
may mean that the pious, when seeking God, shall fix
their eyes upon God, and that He will give them Divine
light wherewith they shall come forth out of their troubles ;
so that in having remitted themselves to God they shall
not have whereof to be ashamed before men, with a shame
like that which men experience when they fail in attain
ing what they aim at. , They may likewise mean that
'the pious, when seeking God, will look to David, and
that his experience will enlighten them — David here
Speaking of himself in the third person. And this appre
hension of them appears more conformable with what he
says in the sixth verse, as though he should say, " It will
thus be certain that their faces will not be ashamed ; for
when they consider that a poor fellow like myself called
upon God, and that He answered and delivered him out
of his trouble, they, following his example, will call, and
God will answer them, and will deliver thera from all their
troubles ; and thus they will not, in having remitted
themselves to God, have whereof to be ashamed.
I understand David to say, in verse the seventh, that
the righteous may reasonably rest assured, that they will
never be ashamed of their confidence ; and since it is a
fact that God ever keeps those, who are attent upon
piety, encircled and surrounded by His favour, this His
favour delivers them in all their troubles. So that I
understand " the angel of the Lord " to be the favour of
God. Where he speaks of encampment' the Hebrew word
may be rendered " royal encampment."
In verse the eighth, David states two things which
he had learned by experience.. The one, that "the Lord
is good ; " (and when he says " taste," I understand him
to say that it cannot be believed how good God is, unless

240 PSALM XXXIV. 5-11
one does. taste, feel, and experience it;) whilst the other
consists in the blessedness incident to confidence in God.
Of this happiness or blessedness just so rauch is believed
as is tasted and experienced. And because David had
tasted and experienced it, he, in verse the ninth,
admonishes those who are God's " saints," he means, those
whora God has called and chosen, to be attent upon
godliness, assuring them that they " n,ever experience want "
who are attent upon it. They are attent upon piety who,
assured in their rainds of God's particular providence,
recognise everything as God's ; they remit theraselves
in everything to God ; they renounce the government '
of human prudence, and, laying aside that of the crea
tures, they accept the rule which God in His kingdom
exercises over His saints.
In verse the tenth, David confirms what he has stated
in verse the ninth, that " they who fear the Lord never ex
perience want." As though he had said. Of this you may
rest assured, for it is a fact that it is easier for " lions " to
" suffer want and to hunger " than for those who fear God
to feel the want of anything. " They shall never want
any good thing " is tantamount to " they shall abound in
everything that is good ; " so that nothing that is really
good shall ever fail them. He that would hold " lions "
to be emblematic of rich and mighty men, will under
stand that the poor man who confides in God is better
assured against want than the rich raan who confides in
his riches, I mean, who depends upon thera, expecting
to be maintained and to be sustained by thera in this
present life.
In that expression, " They who seek the Lord," I under
stand those to seek God who, desiring to see Hira and
to know Him, run lovingly after Him, saying, with the
Spouse in the Canticles (ii. 1 4), " Show me Thy face ; "
asking God to make His presence felt by them, to
show Himself to them, and to permit Himself to be

PSALM XXXIV. 12-16 241
known of them in that manner in which He may be
known in the present life. The realisation of the
feeling, sight, and knowledge of this presence of God,
I understand to be the feeling, sight, and knowledge of
the life eternal, not the life as it will be after the
resurrection, but as it were its portrait. Human pru
dence thinks that it seeks God when it goes about
striving to know Him by report of Scripture and by
consideration of the creature, whilst Holy Scripture
teaches that the proper way to seek God is by faith
in Christ; for it is a fact that the believer is justified
by faith, and that justification habilitates him for God
to permit Himself to be seen, felt, and known by him.
I understand that the consideration of this felicity
moved David, in verse the eleventh, to invite to its
enjoyment all those who, being godly, are His children.
When he says, "Hearken unto me," I understand him
to say, Study well what I shall say, and I will teach you
how to sustain yourselves in godliness.
XXXIV. 12.— Who is the man that desireth
life, that fain would live long to see good ?
13. — Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips
from speaking deceitfully.
14. — Depart from evil and do good, seek peace
and follow after it.
15. — The eyes of the Lord will look ,upon the
righteous, and His ears will hearken to their cries.
16. — The face of the Lord will be against those
that do evil, to root out their memory from the
earth. I understand him to declard, in verse the twelfth, who
his children are whom he summons to the teaching which
he wishes to give thera. The word " man "(varon), employed
Q

242 PSALM XXXIV. 12-16
here, means a brave man, for such must the man be who
devotes himself to godliness. To say of a man that " he
would fain live long to see good," is tantaraount to saying
that he desires life. Possibly he means that the man
desires to live in this life and in the other. And I un
derstand that none desire to live in the other life save
those who are predestinated thereunto. I mean that
those alone are they who delight in and feel happy in
there being another life ; and they would not be happy
without it ; but all others would, were it possible, rejoice
in there being no other life, because they are not assured
that it will be well with them there. Whence I hold it
to be the greatest indication of predestination when a
man's mind does not acquiesce in life's being restricted
to this present one, and that he is pleased and delighted
that there is another awaiting hira.
In verses thirteenth and fourteenth David gives advice.
It consists in the severance of the godly man from scan
dalous gossip, in the indulgence of which the tongue
offends both God and neighbours ; that he depart from
all evil, and that he practise all that is good ; that he
devote himself to a peaceful life, and that, having attained
it, he persevere in it. Whereupon I understand that
David instructs the godly man, whose heart already teems
with devotion to God, as to two things which he ought
to avoid, and as to two others to which he ought to ad
here — he ought to avoid scandal and vicious practices,
whilst he ought to adhere to virtuous practices and things
conducing to peace. Hereupon I understand that the
first thing is to have the heart devoted to God, whence it
follows that he " depart from evil," and after that, that he
devote hiraself to practise that which is " good." Human
prudence disregards the heart, and therefore its teaching
is ever directed but to that which is outward.
In verse the fifteenth, it is said that God has such re
gard to the righteous that He always keeps " His eyes "

PSALM XXXIV. 17-20 243
fixed upon them, to protect thenl against maltreatment,
and that " His ears " ever " hearken to their cries."
In the sixteenth verse, by " the face of the Lord " is to
be understood the anger of the Lord, and by " them that
do evil" he means those who persecute righteousness, or
who despise it.
XXXIV, 1 7. — The righteous call upon the Lord,
and He heareth them. He also delivereth them
out of all their troubles.
18, — The Lord is near unto them that have a
broken heart, and He will save those who have a
contrite spirit.
19. — Many are the afflictions by which the righ
teous is surrounded, but the Lord delivereth him
from them all.
20. — He keepeth all his bones, not one of them
shall be broken.
He reverts in verse the seventeenth to speak of the
godly. In verse the eighteenth, the word "broken" ys,
equivalent to " contrite." He means jaded, afflicted,
worried, discouraged. What David here states is prac
tically realised by all godly persons, for it is a fact that
they then experience more of God's favour and pre
sence the more they find theraselves, when jaded,
afflicted, and worried, to be destitute of the favour of
creatures. In verse the nineteenth, he says that, although " the
righteous " is subject to " many afflictions" to many perils,
and to many labours, it matters not, for God will assuredly
" deliver him from them all." I understand that the perils
or afflictions which surround the righteous man are the
contradictions and persecutions of men of the world, the
assaults of his own passions and of his own lusts, as also

244 Psalm xxxiv. 17-20
the wiles and snares of evil spirits. Having well con
sidered these afflictions and these perils, I understand it
to be necessary for the man who has to sustain his per
sonal godliness to have a noble, generous, illustrious, and
Valorous spirit ; for if his be not such, either his mind
will be unequal to bear up against the afflictions, perils,
and labours to which the righteous man is exposed, or
if he set himself to oppose these things when they shall
oppress him, he will abandon piety, and will cease to
be righteous. And when, on the other hand, I cour
sider the abjectness and imbecility of the human mind,
even of the most spirited, I hold it to be certain, tha,t
it is of God's mercy that they who are predestinated
to life eternal, do not weigh the afflictions and perils
to which they expose themselves when they devote
themselves to godliness. And I hold it to be certain
that the same mercy of God, to those same persons who
¦have already devoted themselves to godliness, in the com
munication to them of the Holy Spirit, does give them
noble, generous, illustrious, and valorous spirits wherewith
to pass through afflictions, and wherewith to come forth
:out of labours ; otherwise it would have been irapossible
.for them unaided to persevere in godliness, because of
the abjectness of the human mind.
In verse the twentieth, he dilates upon that which he
has stated in the preceding verse, where by "all his
bones " I understand his whole body. And I think that
he specifies the bones, as they mainly embody the forces
of the body. And that which he says, " Not one of them
shall he broken," has, as I think, relation to the resurrec
tion, when the righteous shall riseglorious, feeling nothing
of what they will' have suffered in the present life.
I think thus, being led to do so by the consideration
that we do not see this verified in the present life — nay,
just the reverse ; we see the righteous martyrised, both
under the Law and under the Gospel

PSALM XXXIV. 21, 22 245
XXXIV. 21.— :Evil shall slay the wicked, and
they who abhor the righteous shall be destroyed.
22. — The Lord redeemeth the soul of His ser
vants, and no one of them that trust in Him shall
be destroyed.
Having set forth in the preceding verses the benefit of
godliness, he sets forth, in the twenty-first verse, the evil
wrought by ungodliness. Here I understand that >" they
who abhor the righteous" are the ungodly, and that their
ungodliness kills and destroys them. And I understand
that were men well to consider that in their being un
godly they are the enemies of God, if they had not
the courage to become godly, neither would they have
the courage to be godless ; whence I think that the wrath
of God and the devil work upon them who are vessels of
wrath, to lead them to devote themselves to ungodliness,
and to maintain them therein ; as it has been stated that
the mercy of God and the Holy Spirit do, to lead those
who are vessels of mercy to devote themselves to godli
ness, and to maintain themselves therein.
In the last verse, I understand that David, seeking to
confirm what he has stated with relation to the favours
which God shows the righteous, says that " He redeemeth
the soul of His servants." What he means is, that He
delivers them from all the perils that occur to them, in
which, had God not succoured them, they would have
lost their lives.
And that which he says that " no one of them who
trust in Him shall be destroyed," I understand as har
monising with what he has stated in the preceding
verse, that " the wicked shall he destroyed." The pious
Christian understands by this redemption that which
our Lord Jesus Christ wrought upon the Cross, content
that God's justice should be executed upon Him for

246 PSALM XXXIV. 21, 22
all that God's servants had to pay ; for all them that have
existed, and ever shall exist — all of whom He has re
deemed from death, habilitating them to attain eternal
life, which they shall enjoy with Jesus Christ our Lord
Himself.

PSALM XXXV
1, — Contend Thou, 0 Lord, with those who
contend with me ; fight against them that fight
against me.
2. — Take up shield and buckler, and stand up
for my help.
3, — Put forth the spear and stop the way of
my persecutors ; say to my soul : I am thy
salvation.
In this psalm, it appears that David, confiding in the
purity of purpose with which he adopted the necessary
measures for attaining the sovereignty of Israel, for which
God had anointed him, begs of God that He constitute
Himself the judge between him and those who were
his enemies, obstructing him in the attainment of the
sovereignty, and unjustly condemning him, because he
pretended to it. And because David evinces a very
vindictive spirit in this psalm, it appears to me to be
right that I should here enlarge upon it somewhat more,
although I have previously touched upon this subject.
Thus, then, I say that, between the spirit with which
the saints under the Law were inspired, ruled, and
governed, and the spirit with which the saints under
the Gospel are inspired, ruled, and governed, I find
amongst other differences this, that the Holy Spirit fre
quently moved and inspired the saints that were under
the Law to vengeance, as it moved Moses, even as we
read in Exodus xxxii. ; although at other times it moved

248 PSALM XXXV. 1-3
and inspired them to gentleness, as it inspired David, when,
having Saul in his power in the cave, he would not kill
him. Now since it was Moses who, with the Law, estab
lished the old covenant between God and man, it appears
that he having been inspired to vengeance, it comes to
pass that those who had Moses' spirit were likewise
inspired to vengeance. The Spirit inspires and moves
the saints under the Gospel to gentleness as a rule, and
we should even say always, were I not reminded of what
St. Peter did to Ananias and to his wife, and of what St.
Paul did to Simon Magus (Acts xiii. 7-12). And since
it was Christ who, with the Gospel, has established the
new covenant between God and men, of whom we read
" that when He was reviled, He reviled not again," and
concerning whom it was prophesied, in Isaiah xiii. 3, " that
He would not break a bruised reed, nor quench smoking
flax," it is pretty clear that they who have the Spirit of
Christ are inspired to do that which Christ was inspired
to do. I say moreover this, that if, when under the dis
pensation of the Law, when the Spirit of God inspired to
vengeance, vengeance prompted by a man's own spirit
was forbidden, how rauch less shall it be allowed under
the dispensation of the Gospel, when the inspiration of
the Spirit of God is wholly opposed to it ? Whence I
understand that it concerns the Christian to divest him
self of every vindictive feeling, even though it shall
appear to him that it affects the glory of God. For it
is a fact that we find but two examples of vengeance in
all the Scriptures of the New Testament ; whilst we find
in them very many which repress vengeance; let that
which St. Luke writes serve for them all, when Christ
rebuked His disciples, saying unto them, " Ye know riot
of what spirit ye are" (Luke ix. 55), words worthy of pro
found consideration.
In the three first verses I understand that David asks
God to take up arms on his behalf, not meaning outward

PSALM XXXV. 4-8 249
material weapons, but inward and immaterial ones, against
those who strove, contended, and fought against him.
Where he says, "Stop the way of my persecutors," I under
stand him, When my enemies shall come against me,
stand Thou forth to stop their way. Others understand
this otherwise.
And where he says, "Say to my soul, I am thy
salvation," I understand him. Make my soul to feel Thy
favour. It appears that David was not content that God
should make his enemies feel that He was opposed to
them, but he desired the personal consciousness that God
was favourable to him. Whence I learn that God's
favours are of two kinds — the 'one when He succours,
not causing the succoured one to feel that it is He who
succourshim; and the other, when He favours and causes
His favour to be felt to be His favour.
XXXV. 4. — Let them be confounded and be
ashamed that seek after my soul. Let them be
turned back and insulted that devise evil against
me. 5. — Let them be as chaff before the wind, and let
the angel of the Lord drive them back.
6. — Let their way be dark and slippery, aud let
the angel of the Lord persecute them.
7. — For without cause have they privily sought
to ensnare me in their pitfall and net ; without
cause have they dug a pit for my soul (life).
8. — Let unforeseen destruction overtake him,
and in the net which he hid, let him be caught ;
let the destruction which he devised take effect
upon himself.
In verse the fourth, I understand David to state what
would result when God should do for him what He had

250 PSALM XXXV. g-12
said. By that, "they that devise evil against me," he
means, those who occupy their thoughts in devising how
they should injure me.
In verse the fifth, I understand him to supplicate that
instability may be the characteristic of the wicked, his
enemies. By " the angel of the Lord," I understand the minister of
the wrath of God.
In verse the sixth, " let their way be dark and slippery,"
means. Let them ever live in darkness and in peril, as do
they who walk in a dark and slippery way, one wherein
they must needs slip and fall
In verse the seventh, he states the reason why he
sought the destruction of his enemies, as though he
should say, I pray against them, because they arm
themselves against ine, without my having done any
thing to move them to do so.
By " their pitfall and net" he raeans the spies and am
buscades which they employed against him. And where
he says, they have dug a pit for my^ soul (life), he means
that they plot and devise how to take away his life.
That which David prays for in verse the eighth, as
against his enemies, would be seen by every one who
should have his eyes well opened, to be carried out against
all the enemies of godliness. And it almost always hap
pens that the wicked fall by the very devices by which
they seek to ruin the righteous. And this same thing is
frequently seen to be realised, even amongst those who are
alien to godliness. Where he in this verse speaks in the
singular, he seems to mean Saul ; but it may likewise be
but the use of the singular instead of the plural.
XXXV, 9, — But my soul shall rejoice in the
Lord, it shall rejoice in His salvation.
10. — All my bones shall say, 0 Lord, who is
like unto Thee, who wilt deliver the poor from

PSALM XXXV. 13-16 251
him that is too strong for him, aye, the poor and
the needy from him that robs him.
11. — False witnesses spring up, they question
me concerning that of which I knew nothing.
12, — They reward me evil for good, to the
bereavement of my soul.
I understand David, in verse the ninth, as suggesting
what would follow when God should have done what he
had asked of Him against the ungodly, his enemies. This
was that he would rejoice, not in considering the evils
brought upon his eneraies, ever an afflicting thought to
the righteous, but in considering God's justice, which is
ever a soothing thought to thera. For so it was, that
Christ, contemplating the catastrophe about to befall
Jerusalem, felt such grief that He wept ; whilst He, when
contemplating the execution of justice at the day of judg
ment, says to the righteous (Luke xxi. 28), " Rejoice and
exult, for your redemption draweth nigh ! "
In verse the tenth, by " all my bones" I understand
all that is within me. And effectively it is so, that when
a man realises that he is delivered from some danger to
which he has been exposed, he joys and rejoices, feeling
joy and pleasure pervading his whole system.
For the true and right apprehension of the verses which
follow, one must needs know the history involved in thera.
But this I do not know, and thus I understand by them
nothing more than their verbal import.
By what he says in verse the twelfth, " to the bereave
ment of my soul," I understand him to say that, because
he had been paid evil for good, his soul felt as bereaved,
dried up, and sterile as do theirs who pass through such
an experience.
XXXV. 13. — But I, when they were sick,
clothed myself with sackcloth, I afflicted my soul

252 PSALM XXXV. 13-16
with fasting, and my prayer revolved into my own
bosom. 14. — My bearing was that of a friend and of a
brother, clad in mourning ; I bowed down like one
who wept at the loss of his mother.
15. — Whilst they, when I was sick, made it a
subject of merriment, gathering themselves to
gether ; the vile gathered themselves together
against me without my being aware of it ; they
were not silent, they clamorously insulted me.
16. — With buffoons, scoffers, and low jesters did
they gnash upon me with their teeth.
In verse the thirteenth, where he says, "/ clothed
myself with sackcloth," he means, I dressed myself in
mourning. And when he says, " My prayer revolved into
my own iosom" I understand his meaning to be. May
that which I supplicated for others betide me. Others
understand this otherwise.
In verse the fourteenth, I understand him as saying
that he, David, had borne himself at times when Saul was
sick, as he would have done had he been his personal
friend or brother'. Here it is to be observed that it was
customary with the Jews to wear mourning when their
relatives or friends fell sick, and that they wore it until
they recovered or died.
In verse the fifteenth, when exposing the malignity of
his enemies' rainds, he enforces his statement by saying
that illness with him was to them a motive for joy ; he
aptly expresses what transpires amongst those who desire
a sick man's death. And I understand it to have been
David's design in these verses to prove that which he
before had stated, that " they reward me evil for good ; "
for that he wept when he saw them sick, whilst they
laughed, when they saw him sick.

PSALM XXXV. 17-21 253
In verse the sixteenth, I understand that he goes on to
tell what the evil was with which they repaid his good,
he says that they associated low villainous fellows with
themselves in scoffing at him and in manifesting their
malevolence. And that, " they did gnash upon me with
their teeth," refers, as I think, to what he says in the
preceding verse, " They ivere not silent." As though he
should say. They were never silent, they never desisted
from malevolently scoffing at me, having vile fellows
therein as their companions.
XXXV. 17.-0 Lord, how long wilt Thou look
on ? rescue my soul from their destructions, and
my only one (my life) from the young lions.
18. — I will praise Thee in the great congrega
tion, before a host will I praise Thee.
19. — Let not my false-hearted enemies rejoice
over me, neither let them who abhor me cause
lessly have occasion to wink with the eye.
20. — For they never will speak peacefully, aud
against those upon earth who are peacefully in
clined will they devise deceitful words.
21. — With their mouths have they gaped against
me, and have exclaimed. Aye, aye, with our own
eyes have we seen it.
In verse the seventeenth, where he says, " Hoiv long wilt
Tho-Lt look on ? " he intimates that the tribulation was one
of long standing. And when he says, " Rescue my soul,"
he means, Deliver or rescue my life. " My only one "
is tantamount to " my life." By what he calls their
" destructions," he means those (plots) which my enemies
devise against rae.
In verse the eighteenth, by " the great congregation " and
by " a host" he means the people of Israel, who' were

254 PSALM XXXV. 22-24
great, for God had by conquest increased their numbers,
and they were mighty through the favour of God, which
strengthened them.
In verse the nineteenth, where he speaks of his "false
hearted enemies',' he raeans those who were hostile to him,
merciless men ; and when he says, " Neither let them have
occasion to wink with the eye',' I think he alludes to that
which occurred when he was unwell, when they who
wished him dead made him their butt, winked at each
other, especially when the sick man was before them.
The Hebrew means, to wink, or to direct attention by a
motion of the eyelids.
In verse the twentieth, I understand David to say. Do
thus, 0 Lord, for shouldest Thou do otherwise, these
fellows will continue to be so insolent that they will con
stantly persecute them who are less powerful, less con
siderable, and less wealthy than themselves, and whom
they stigmatise as contemptible.
In verse the twenty-first, he reverts to the narration
of that which he experienced at the hands of his enemies
in this tribulation of which he is here speaking. , The
exclamations, "Aye, aye',' are expressions of delight or
of triumph, uttered when a man witnesses that injury
wrought on another' which he had desired to see.
And by " with our own eyes have we seen it" we are
to understand the accomplishment of what they desired
to see.XXXV. 22. — Thou, Lord, hast seen, be not
silent. 0 Lord, be not far from me.
23. — Arouse Thee, awake, my God and my
Lord, to my judgment and to my cause.
24. — Judge me according to Thy righteousness,
0 Lord my God, then will they not have whereof
to rejoice over me.

PSALM XXXV. 25-26 255
25.— They will not have to say in their hearts
Just so would we have it ; neither will they have
to say, We have swallowed him up.
26. — They shall be confounded and put to
shame, nay, they all shall be so who take pleasure
in my grief. They shall be clad with con
fusion and shame who magnify themselves against
me.
In verse the twenty-second, where he says, " Thou, Lord,
hast seen," he means that it is precisely as I have said, so
that I need not prove it by testimony.
Verse the twenty-third corresponds with those which
precede it. And when he says, " To my judgment and to
my cause',' he means. To deliver judgment in my cause.
In verse the twenty-fourth, I understand "judge me
according to Thy righteousness" to be tantamount to
saying. Thou, who art the just judge, do Thou judge me.
And where he says, " Then will they not have whereof to
rejoice over me" I understand him to say, I am certain
that, in my being judged by Thee, the result will be
that my enemies will not have to rejoice in my dis
comfiture; for it will come to pass that Thou, giving
judgment in my favour, I shall be glad and they
ashamed. In verse the twenty-fifth, I understand David to
proceed in narrating what the issue would be of God's
delivering judgment in his cause, where "Just so would
we have it" is tantamount to their saying, We are well
pleased, so would we have it. These are modes of express
ing outwardly the satisfaction and content which is felt
inwardly. To say " We have swallowed him up, " is
equivalent to saying. We have conquered and destroyed
him. In verse the twenty-sixth, he says that not only would

256 PSALM XXXV. 27, 28
his enemies not have whereof to rejoice when God delivers
judgment in his cause, but that they would have whereof
to be ashamed and to be grieved. The expression,
" Who magnify themselves against me," is equivalent to.
Those who rejoice at my calamity.
XXXV. 27. — They shall joy and rejoice who
favour my righteous cause, and they shall ever
say. The Lord be magnified, who wills that His
servant be at peace.
28. — And my tongue shall proclaim Thy right
eousness, and Thy praise daily.
Having spoken of the evil which would overwhelmingly
accrue to the wicked frora his prosperity, he proceeds, in
verse the twenty-seventh, to tell of the good which would
abundantly accrue to the righteous. Where he speaks of
those "who favour my righteous cause," he means those
who would rejoice that he should triumph, and thus be
come the peaceful King of Israel. He says what amounts
to the same, in that " Who wills that His servant he at
peace ; " he means, That it is His will that His servant
live at peace, prosperously, happily, and contentedly.
The Jews held all this to be comprehended in the word,
which we translate "peace." With it they salute each other
when they meet, and they eraploy it in every form of
salutation. And having stated what effect his success
would bring to the righteous, he states in the last verse
the effect it would have upon hiraself, where I under
stand, that our tongues then proclaim the righteousness
of God when we declare that God is just. They only
proclaim this truly who hold themselves to be justified
by God, for none other hold God to be just. And they
only hold themselves to be justified by God who under
stand that God's justice was executed upon Christ for all
the offences done in the world against God, both past and

PSALM XXXV. 27, 28 257
future, they accepting and holding this justice as their
own (justification) ; as though they individually had the
sarae personal innocence which Christ had, and had
personally suffered what Christ suffered. But only they
attain this knowledge and this acceptance who are brought
by God to the knowledge of Christ. The others, however
much they may labour and fatigue themselves, ever
remain without the pale; and hence it is that Christ
says, in John vi. 44, " No one can come to Me, unless My
Father draw him."

PSALM XXXVI
XXXVI. 1.— The rebellion of the wicked saith
within my inmost heart, that there is no fear of
God before his eyes.
I understand David's design in this psalm to be a
supplication addressed to God, that He should deliver
him from pride and frora ungodliness. And I under
stand that it being the purpose of God's Spirit to move
David to supplicate these two things, the Spirit first
led David to the consideration of the evil there is in
ungodliness, and afterwards to the consideration of the
perfections of God, and finally to prayer. Here I under
stand that, whenever the godly man enters upon such
considerations, he is moved by the Holy Spirit.
In verse the first, I understand David to speak thus :
When I set myself to consider the rebellion of men, the
very rebellion itself seems to say to me and to assure
rae that the ungodly sustain no relations whatever with
God. From this point of view, it appears that he who
is rebellious is ungodly, and that he who is ungodly is
rebellious ; so that, although the words differ, they do not
differ in meaning. Understanding by "rebellion" carnal
malignity through natural depravity, this may well be
the meaning of this verse, expressed by David thus :
From what I experience of personal depravity, I, within
my " inmost heart',' form this judgment, that the ungodly
man holds no relations with God. This view conforms
25S

PSALM XXXVI. 2-4 259
with the letter, and appears to me to be pious, for since
it is a fact that all the godly who feel, as did St. Paul,
the opposition there is between the law that is in their
members to the law of God, they consciously feel that
they are retained under the law of God by the relations
which they hold with God ; whilst they all concur in this,
that since the wicked man lives licentiously, they judge
concerning him that he holds no relation with God, for
that, had he held relation with God, respect for God
would have kept him in obedience to the law of God.
This judgment of the godly is not rash, but well weighed
in the scales of the balance of the law of God, having
regard to the indications of inward personal rebellion,
with which we are all born ; whilst these two scales are
such that they cannot deceive. "
XXXVI. 2. — For the wicked flattereth himself
in his own eyes until his iniquity be found to be
abominable. 3. — The words of his mouth are iniquity aud
deceit, he declines to be taught to do good.
4. — He will devise iniquity upon his bed, he
will persist iu evil courses, he will not abhor evil.
In verse the second, I understand David as speaking
thus : I judge that the wicked holds no relations with
God, for I see that he is very well satisfied with himself.
Here I understand self-love, and the personal satisfaction
that men take in themselves and in their things, to be a
token of impiety. Just as self-abhorrence and the per
sonal discontent which the godly feel, both with them
selves and with their things, is a token of piety ; I mean
with that which is peculiarly their own, because they
recognise depravity and iniquity as wholly pervading it.
St. Paul said (Eom. vii. i8), " For' I know that in me, that

26o PSALM XXXVI. 2-4
is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing ; " and in another
place (Rom. vii. 25), " With my mind indeed I serve the
lavj of God, but with the flesh the law of sin." He, indeed,
boasted and gloried, not in himself, but in his infirmities
and weaknesses, in order the more to illustrate the grace
of God that dwelt in him. This same may be considered
in David, and the same will be felt concerning himself by
every godly person who has begun to divest himself of
self-love, which ever renders men ungodly, just as the
love of God renders them godly. That which he says,
" U7itil his iniquity be found to be abominable," I under
stand thus : From his being self-satisfied, it will come to
pass that he will provoke the wrath of God against him
self, becoming abhorred of God.
In verse the third, I apprehend two countermarks of
wickedness : the one is, that " iniquity " is always found
in the " words " of the wicked. It is certain, that
just " as the mouth of the just is a fountain of life," as
Solomon says, so likewise the mouth of the wicked
is a fountain of death. And our Lord Jesus Christ,
marking the distinction between godliness and wicked
ness, says (Matt. xii. 34), " Out of the abundance of the
heart, the mouth speaketh." The other countermark is,
that the wicked avoids and will not be taught the path
of godliness. They who contradicted Christ were thus
wicked, and they persecuted Him because He spoke of
this path. And they are in the same predicament who
persecute Christ's members when they speak of this path.
In verse the fourth, I consider three countermarks of
ungodliness. The first, that the wicked when alone, " upon
his hed," will constantly "devise iniquity;" the second,
that he through life studies how to do wrong, and persists
in so doing ; whilst the third is that " he will not abhor
evil." If a person desire to examine his heart in order
to learn whether he be righteous or wicked, he will here
find these three countermarks laid down by David where-

PSALM XXXVI. 5-7 261
with to pursue his self-examination. Let him, however,
be on his guard not to exercise eyes blinded with self-love,
which is the first countermark; for if he employ blind
eyes he will remain unconscious of his inward infirmity ;
and should he, exerting clear-seeing ones, find himself com
promised with wickedness, he will recur to the physician
to cure him, which is our Lord Jesus Christ.
XXXVI. 5. — 0 Lord, Thy mercy is heavens
high, and Thy truth reacheth unto the clouds.
6. — Thy righteousness stands immovable as
the mountains of God : Thy judgments are a great
abyss. Thou, Lord, wilt preserve man and beast.
7. — How precious is Thy mercy, 0 God ; there
fore shall the children of Adam trust under the
shadow of Thy wings.
I understand that David, having previously considered
the malignity of the wicked, proceeds, in verse the fifth, to
consider the mercy God exercises when He promises, and
the truthfulness He observes when He fulfils His promises.
And I understand that this consideration begets greater
abhorrence of wickedness and greater love of godliness.
It is likewise to be understood that God exerts mercy
when He does not impute our acts of frailty to us.
In verse the sixth, by " Thy righteousness," I under
stand the justice wherewith God is just ; precisely as by
the goodness of God I understand the goodness where
with God is good. I say the same of truthfulness and
of mercy.
When he compares the righteousness of God to "the
mountains of God" I understand that his aim is to speak
of it as stable and firm. The righteousness of man is un-.
stable and always vacillating.
" The mountains of God" is tantamount to mountains

262 PSALM XXXVI. 8, 9
that are grand and imposing. I understand, moreover,
that he speaks of the "judgments" of God as being a
" great," an unfathomable " abyss," because human prud
ence cannot sound them ; whence it comes to pass, that
it never holds God to be just, nor finds God to be right
eous. By the "judgments " of God, I mean the same as
is commonly understood. I understand David, moreover,
to state that God manifests these perfections, mercy, truth
fulness, and righteousness, herein, that He saves and
maintains in this present life, not only man but also
beast. So that, " Thou wilt preserve " may mean. Thou,
Lord, wilt continue to preserve 'and to maintain the off
spring of both man and beast.
In verse the seventh, I understand him, when extolhng
the excellence of God's " mercy," to say, that because
this mercy of God is only known by raen, they alone
hold, and will hold, God to be. their refuge and their
protection. The brutes, and men who are like them, exert their
ingenuity wherewith to maintain and to protect them
selves, and doing thus they do not confide under the
shadow of God's wings.
XXXVI. 8. — They shall revel in the dainties of
Thy house, and from the river of Thy pleasures
shalt Thou give them to drink their fill,
; 9. — For in Thee is the fountain of life ; with Thy
light shall we see light.
In verse the eighth, he tells those who will trust in
God, that God will give them abundant blessings. Amongst
the Jews, of outward blessings the fruits of the earth
were held to be the chief, and these were coramonly.
recognised by them as God's blessing. Inward blessings
were held to be but accessory, aind as the means of obtaining

PSALM XXXVI. 8, 9 263
outward ones. Amongst Christians, the call to the know
ledge of Christ, justifying faith, the control of the Holy
Spirit, and the feeling and vision of the presence of God,
giving a foretaste of the blessing of the life eternal, are
commonly recognised as God's blessings. External bless
ings are held by them as but accessories for the nourish
ment within them of inward blessings.
In verse the ninth, I understand him to say this. It
will be so, for Thou, Lord, hast jurisdiction over the foun
tain whence all life flows, and it is by Thy light that we
see light. So that,*by "fountain of life," I think David to
mean the sun, conformably to what is said, that it is by
the sun's power that God vivifies all living bodies.
And when he says, " With Thy light shall we see light,"
I understand him to say, With Thy sun, 0 Lord, not only
dost Thou give us bodily life, but with it, as by torches,
dost Thou give us light, wherewith we see created things ;
so that what he may mean is, that we, availing ourselves
of the light of our bodily eyes and of the light of the sun,
see and know the bodily forms of things. This appears
to me to be a right apprehension, and elevating it some
what more, by " the fountain of life " I understand the
Holy Spirit, by whom God vivifies the minds of those to
whom He purposes to raise up and to give eternal life.
By God's light I understand the Holy Spirit Hiraself,
as though David had said. Not only, 0 Lord, do&t Thou
vivify our rainds with Thy Holy Spirit, but with the
same Thou dost enlighten us as with a torch, that we may
see spiritual things, that we may understand them, and
that we may know them. So that what he may mean is,
that we, availing ourselves of the light of our inward
eyes, and of the light of the Holy Spirit, see and know,
not only the spiritual things which are in God, but likewise
the mode of existence, the virtue and the power of things
created. And I confidently think, that if a person attain
to have his inward eyes bright and clear, being enlightened

264 PSALM XXXVI. 10-12
by the light of the Holy Spirit, he will come by degrees-
to know the peculiar mode of existence of things ; and
thus his bodily eyes and the sun will serve to let him see
external form of things, whilst the eyes of the mind and
the Holy Spirit will serve to let him see the inward con
stitution of things.
XXXVI. 10. — Continue Thy mercy to those
who know Thee, and Thy righteousness to those
who are upright in heart,
11. — Let not the foot of pride obtrude itself
upon me, neither let thje hand of the ungodly
harass me. \
12. — There have all they who work iniquity,
fallen. They were cast down and were unable to
rise. In verse the tenth, I understand of David to ask of
God that He "continue His mercy" only to those who
know Him, and His " righteousness " only to those who
"are upright in heart." He means that He continue
His mercy to those with whom He has begun to exercise it,
making them merciful as He is merciful, and making them
righteous as He is righteous; and is tantamount to his
asking of God that He should daily restore His image and
likeness yet more and more in those who, though they do
not know Him, are piGus. Human prudence pretends to
make men merciful, and pretends to make them righteous,
but it can make them neither the one nor the other,
because this is reserved for them only whom God draws to
Christ, and whom He justifies with Christ's righteousness.
Verse the eleventh comprehends to my mind the de
sign of the psalm, in which, as I think, David asks of
God neither to allow him to fall into pride, nor suffer
him to work iniquity. Another interpretation of this

PSALM XXXVI. IO-I2 265
psalm would have it. Do not consent. Lord, that the
proud master me, or that the wicked sever me from Thee.
I understand that he assigns " the foot " to pride, because
the proud man readily moves towards that which is evil,
and runs after it ; and I imderstand that it assigns " the
hand " to wickedness, because the wicked have their hands
prompt and ready to carry out the evil which they devise.
This, however, is but an imagination of raine.
In the last verse, I understand him to say that the
workers of iniquity fall, after such fashion that they
cannot rise again, when the foot of pride enters among
thera, and when the hand of the ungodly distracts them,
being driven, as it were, by these things into perdition.
So that when he says " there," I understand, peculiarly in
this of which 1 speak.
And that, " and they were unable to rise," is worthy of
much consideration, as opposed to the teaching of human
prudence. Here I understand how much godly persons should be
alert against these two plagues, pride and ungodliness,
always entreating of God that they be delivered by Him
from them, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

PSALM XXXVII
XXXVII. 1. — Fret not thyself because of those
who act malignantly, neither envy those who are
evil doers.
2. — For they shall soon be cut down like the
grass, and like the green herb shall they wither.
3. — Trust in the Lord, and do good ; inhabit the
earth, and let thy soul's food be truth.
4. — Delight thou thyself in the Lord, and He
shall give thee that which thy heart craves.
David's design in this psalm appears to be the con
solation of those saints who feel grieved when they
consider the varied forms of prosperity which the wicked
appear to enjoy. This consolation was greatly needed by
the Jews, even by those who were perfect ; for since God
promised outward blessings as a reward for the observ
ance of the Law, the pious must needs have felt irritated
when they saw that they were deprived of them, and
still more so when they contemplated the wicked in the
actual enjoyraent of thera.
This consideration is likewise needed by Christians,
peculiarly by those who are weak, infirm, and iraperfect,
for outward things are not promised to those who seek
the Kingdom of God, save as mere accessories. The
rewards principally promised them are justification, the
Holy Spirit, resurrection, and life eternal.
Here this might be observed, that the perfect, pious
266

PSALM XXXVII. 1-4 267
under the Law, were, as to this, in the same position as
the imperfect pious under the Gospel.
In verse the first, those whom he says " ctct malignantly "
he also calls " evil doers," Speaking to himself, he says,
See to it, that when thou beholdest men, mentally
malignant and of worse lives, prosperous, thou fret not
thereat, nor suffer thyself to be disturbed or moved to
envy thereby.
In verse the second, he lays down consolation the first.
It is this, that the prosperity of the wicked is short
lived, since it is corapared to the grass and to its verdure.
In verse the third, I understand David to commend
four things to the godly man. The first, that he trust
in the Lord ; the second, that he do good ; the third, that
he strive to live upon the face of the earth, occupying
himself otherwise, however, than do the godless ; and the
fourth, that he cultivate truth. Thus do I understand
" let thy soul's food be truth." And I understand that man
ought first to trust in God ere he apply himself to
work ; for they who work before they trust in God, are
necessarily led to confide in their works, a thing most
pernicious to them who do trust in God. These do
good; they live upon the face of the earth; and they
cultivate truth in everything. Whilst they, on the con
trary, who trust in themselves or in creatures are evil
doers, they live disquieted, and cultivate lies and false
hood. I understand, in verse the fourth, that they who cease to
take pleasure in worldly things enjoy God. God is their
delight ; God grants them all they ask of Him, for they
ask but for that which they are inspired by the Holy
Spirit to ask.
" Delight in the Lord " is a mode of expression like that
used, when we tell a man who commands our services,
that he raay rely upon us, meaning that he may confide
in us, without seeking other resources in relation to that

268 PS^LM XXXVII. 5,6
matter about which we give him our assurance. And
when he says, "He shall give thee that which thy heart
craves" it appears that he excludes the prayers that
proceed from the lips and not from the heart; and it
appears to be impossible that they should pray from the
heart who, when they pray, do not understand what they
say in prayer. Had he said, He will give thee all that
thy lips shall utter as requests, they would have some
what to hold to who attach value to prayer merely uttered
by the lips, wholly regardless of the heart.
XXXVII. 5. — Commit thy way unto the Lord,
and confide in Him, and He shall order it.
6. — And He shall bring forth thy righteousness
as the light, and thy judgments as the noonday.
In verse the fifth, when he says " thy way" he means
thy mode of living, and when he says " Commit" he raeans
"remit," so that the tenor of the whole verse is. Do not keep
thy mind intent upon the rule and control of thy prudence
and human reason, but keep it intent upon God's govern
ance ; confide thou in Hira, remitting thyself wholly and
entirely to Him, and I promise thee that He will order
thy things much more to thy mind than thou couldest
ever have desired. Here I understand that they who
keep their minds intent upon themselves and upon
creatures, though they may indeed affect godliness, yet
never attain it, for they do not confide in God, neither
do they remit themselves to God. Whilst I understand
that they who keep their minds intent upon God, although
their walk be not perfect godliness, have attained it,
because they confide in God, and have remitted thein
selves to God. I understand, moreover, that when man
works, depending upon his prudence, his own devices
and his own diligence, he accomplishes nothing; and that

PSALM XXXVII. 7-II 269
when mortifying all these, he leaves it to God to work, he
accomplishes much.
In verse the sixth, I understand him to declare what
God will do for hira who shall remit himself to Him,
leaving it to Him to work. By "thy righteousness," 1
understand the righteousness wherewith thou art right
eous, and by " thy judgments," I understand the faculty
wherewith thou judgest things, or that wherewith the
people judge thee. As though David should say to the
godly man, " If thou leave it to God to work. He will
make thee righteous with a righteousness, not such as
the world approves, which is obscure, but with such as
God approves, which is resplendent; for He will give
thee such a knowledge of things, that the judgment
which thou wilt form of thera shall not be like that
which huraan prudence, deceived by Satan, the prince
of this world, forras, but like that which they form who
have the Holy Spirit." Thus " light " is here used synony
mously with " noonday." This possibly may explain those
words of Christ in John xvi. i, De judicio vero, quia
prineeps hujus mundi jam judicatus, " Of true judgment,
because the prince of this world is already judged," What
Christ means being this : The Holy Spirit will condemn
the world as to the false judgments which it forms of
things, demonstrating that God has declared, both by my
life and by my death, what judgment raen ought to form
of things, measuring them, not with the line and rule of
human prudence, but by that of the Holy Spirit.
XXXVII. 7. — Be silent before the Lord, and
wait for Him ; fret not thyself because of the man
who prospereth in his way, because of the man
who accomplisheth his purposes.
8. — Desist from anger and cease from wrath,
fret not, for thou wilt assuredly injure thyself.

270 PSALM XXXVII. 7-1 1
9. — For the malignant shall be cut off, whilst
they who wait upon the Lord shall inherit the
earth. 10. — For yet a little while, and the wicked shall
not be, aye, thou shalt consider his place, but he
shall not be.
11. — But the meek shall inherit the earth, and
they shall delight themselves in abundant peace.
In verse the seventh, I understand him as saying. If
indeed thou seeth thyself jaded, and seest the wicked
prosperous, murmur not against God, neither call upon
Him to justify Himself in acting thus, nor do thou
complain against Him ; but " be silent ; " let Hira work ;
wait thou to see the issue of His purpose in thy
affliction, and in the prosperity of the wicked. No
human mind, without the Holy Spirit, ever attains to
this. When he speaks of " the man who accomplisheth his
purposes," 1 think him to mean the man of whom he has
said that he "prospereth in his way," whom thou wilt see in
such prosperity that he succeeds in everything he devises,
and is enabled to carry it out.
In verse the eighth, " anger " is pretty nearly the same
thing as " wrath," David counsels the godly man to libe
rate himself frora this passion, for this it is which leads a
man to fret, to mental disorder and agitation. That ex
pression, " thou ujilt assuredly injure thyself" is equivocal
in the Hebrew text, and hence various are the meanings
assigned to it. I undprstand it, fret not, for thou wilt be
led to damage thyself, to become depraved. Whilst I
understand that when a person frets, he does not become
depraved unless he permits himself to be carried away
by resentment, to complain against God, and is thus led
to give up godliness. Thus to avoid resentment one must

PSALM XXXVII. 7-1 1 271
not give way to wrath, and to avoid personal depravity or
injury, one must avoid resentment.
In verse the ninth, I desire thoroughly to understand in
what way evil-doers or the " malignant " will be " cut off"
from the earth ; and in what way the godly, who remit
themselves to God, and who depend upon God, "shall
inherit the earth," And I am led the more earnestly to
desire this, because I see these modes of expression, or these
sentences, repeated in Holy Scripture — nay, to such an
extent, that even Christ says in the Gospel (Matt. v. 5),
" Beati mites quoniam ipsi possidebunt terram" " Blessed
are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." To dwell
upon the earth, to possess the earth, and to " inherit the
earth," is but the expression of the sarae thing in different
words. So likewise, to be " cut off " from the earth, and to
be rooted out of the earth, is the same thing expressed in
different words ; but I do not understand how either the one
or the other can be verified in worldly things, neither do I
understand how it can be referred to the other world, since
it speaks of the earth. In effect, the mysteries of God are
great ; and how little do we men comprehend of them.
The tenth verse is the exposition of the former part of
the ninth verse, whilst the eleventh is the exposition of
the second part of the same verse. The one intimates
that the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, whilst
the other, suggests that the saints shall be most happy on
it. I cannot believe that this was understood, even by
the Jews, as relating to this world. For it is so, that
were this understood, as I have said, it could scarcely be
verified in either one or the other. Although it is true
that the godly are poor in spirit, intent only upon depen
dence on God in everything, and for everything, with
out any dependence whatever upon creatures, that they
live on the face of the earth, not entangling themselves
with other men, and that they live in great peace, yet I do
not think this to be the "peace " to which David alluded.

272 PSALM XXXVII. 12-15
XXXVIL 12. — The wicked plotteth against the
just, and gnasheth his teeth against him.
13. — The Lord shall laugh at him, for He seeth
that his day is coming.
14. — The wicked draw the sword ; they bend
their bow to cast down the poor and needy, to slay
those who walk uprightly,
15. — ^Their sword shall be thrust through their
own hearts, and their bows shall be broken.
In verse the twelfth, he sets forth the diligence
which the wicked exert in devising how they may de
stroy the righteous, and their rabid rancour against
them. I understand, from the teaching of the thirteenth verse,
that God laughs at and holds in derision the devices
which the wicked frame against the righteous, when
He considers the vengeance which awaits them at the
day of judgment; so that by "his da,y," the time is
indicated in which they have to be chastised, just as
the day of the righteous is the time in which he will be
rewarded. In verse the fourteenth, where he says that " the wicked
draw the sword, they hend their how " against the righteous,
he means that they seek, and endeavour, and labour to
destroy them. I understand that the word "poor" is
synonymous with " needy" meaning the wretched and
helpless. And where he says " to slay," &c., he declares
what the wicked purpose, and shows that by "the poor
and needy " he indicates those who live purely, being
upright in heart, so that " those who walk uprightly " are
they who live righteously.
Verse the fifteenth corresponds with the fourteenth,
stating and affirming that the. evil which the wicked
devise against the righteous will recoil upon themselves.

PSALM XXXVII. 16-19 273
XXXVII. 16. — Better to the righteous is scar
city than is abundance to many wicked.
17. — For the arms of the wicked shall be broken,
whilst the Lord upholds the upright.
18. — The Lord knoweth the days of those who
are perfect, and their inheritance shall be ever
lasting. 19. — In the evil time they shall not be con
founded, and in the time of famine they shall be
fed to satiety.
In verse the sixteenth he states that " better to the
righteous is scarcity than is abundance to many wicked ; "
and he confirms this statement, in verse the seventeenth,
by declaring that God will break " the arms" (he means the
resources) " of the wicked," and that He Himself " upholds
the upright," meaning in outward life aud in inward
righteousness. The eighteenth verse is very significant, stating that
" the Lord knoweth the days of the perfect ; " for, according
to the idiom of Holy Scripture, God is said to know that
of which He approves and which He regards as good, as
has been stated in the first psalm, where He says, that
"their inheritance shall he everlasting," Although this
might, according to Hebrew idiom, be understood that they
should retain it as long as they live, still I do not think that
this is his meaning, but that "their inheritance," which
is God Himself, their righteousness, their piety, and their
holiness, shall be sustained throughout the present life as
long as they shall live, and that it shall be sustained and
be perpetuated for evermore in the life eternal.
In verse the nineteenth, he apparently says that the
"everlasting inheritance" of the saints consists in two things.
The first, that " in the evil time " their experience in God's
providence shall be such that they shall never have
s

274 PSALM. XXXVII. 20-22
whereof to be ashamed in having been pious and just.
" The evil time " is by some understood to be the time of
tribulation,- but scarcely could it be proved that such is
the fact. And, therefore, I shall accept " the evil time "
to be the day of judgment, which will be evil to men
generally, although good to saints exceptionally. The
second thing wherein the "inheritance" of the saints
consists, is, as he apparently says, in that God provides
them with food " in the time" or seasons "of famine," God
supplies their needs. I certainly hold that such is literally
his statement. So that one thing affects the interests of
this life, whilst the other affects those of- the life eternal.
XXXVII. 20. — For the wicked shall perish, and
the enemies of the Lord shall be like the fat of
lambs ; they shall consume away, into smoke shall
they consume.
21. — The wicked borroweth but doth not repay,
whilst the righteous commiserates aud gives.
22. — For they whom He blesseth shall inherit the
land, whilst they whom He curseth shall be cut off.
In verse the twentieth, " the wicked " and "the enemies of
the Lord " are synonymous terms, and " tJiey shall perish "
is used synonymously with " they shall consume away." By
" the fat of lambs," he means the intestinal prime, the
grease of which, being little and delicate, readily dissolves.
The repetition of the expression, " they shall consume
away," is derisive. The application of the term " smoke "
is readily apprehended.
From verse the twenty-first, I understand that the
taking of another man's property is an indication of im
piety, whilst the giving away of one's own is an indication
of piety.
Verse the twenty-second involves ambiguity. It may

PSALM XXXVII. 23-24 275
mean that they whom a righteous man shall bless shall
inherit the earth, and that they whom he shall curse,
shall be ejected from it. This would be a great privilege
of piety. It may also be that " they whom He blesseth "
may be attributed to God, and his meaning be, those blessed
by God and those " whom He curseth." I do not know
which of these two teadings I should prefer as being the
better ; however, I incline to the latter.
XXXVII. 23.— The Lord ordereth the footsteps
of a man of spirit (a godly man), aud he will take
pleasure iu his way.
24. — When stumbling, he shall not fall ; for the
Lord upholdeth him with His hand.
In verse the twenty- third, I understand the words,
"footsteps" and "way" as being almost the same thing.
So that it comes to mean that God upholds, directs,
guides and leads into the path of godliness the man who
appeals to Him for help ; so that he will not leave it as
long as he lives ; whilst God, moreover, will "take pleasure"
in his mode of life. Here I understand him to call the
godly man a " man of spirit," for it needs a spirited mind,
a brave mind, to undertake a godly life ; the pusillanimous
are never godly.
In verse the twenty-fourth, it seems that he replies to
what he has said, " The Lord will take pleasure in his
way," for because God upholdeth the righteous with His
hand, though he raay stumble through weakness and
infirmities into sin, he shall not be utterly prostrated.
By " stumbling," the Hebrew word means " to fall," and
by "fall," it means " so to fall, as to be without the power
to rise." I understand the mode in which the righteous
man falls, is not that from which he shall be unable to
rise up again.

276 PSALM XXXVII. 25-31
XXXVIL 25. — I have lived from youth to age,
but I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor
his seed begging bread.
26. — Daily does he shew mercy and lend, whilst
his seed is blessed,
27. — Depart from evil and do good, aad dwell
evermore. 28. — For the Lord loveth judgment, and He
will not forsake His merciful ones, for they are
preserved for ever, whilst the seed of the wicked
is cut off.
29. — The just shall inherit the land, and shall
dwell therein for ever,
30. — The tongue of the righteous shall exercise
itself in speaking wisdom, aye, it shall utter
judgment. 31. — The law of his God shall be in his heart ;
his footsteps shall not slip.
1 hold it to be certain that every truly pious person
will be able to affirm what David affirms in verse the
twenty-fifth. For it is as well amongst the Jews, to
whom it would seem that outward things were promised
as principal reward, as amongst Christians, to whom the
same things are promised as accessory reward, that God
fulfils what He has promised to those who are pious ; He
never forsakes them, neither does He permit them to
suffer such need, that they be constrained to beg.
I understand, by what he says in verse the twenty-
sixth, "his seed is blessed," that God's blessing cleaves
to the descendants of the righteous men ; so great is the
privilege of righteousness.
By verse the twenty-seventh, I am led to observe that

PSALM XXXVII. 25-31 277
he who seeks to devote himself to that which is "good"
must needs first depart from " evil ; " and by " dwell
evermore" I understand David as saying. In departing
from e-vil, and in devoting thyself to do good, I promise
thee that thou shalt live for ever. This " evermore " raay,
taken as a Hebraism, mean, Thou shalt live upon the
face of the earth, and, read otherwise, may mean. Thou
shalt live the life eternal. It may likewise mean. And
thou shalt live as does the man who has to live for
evermore. In verse the twenty-eighth, I understand that, " the
Lord loveth judgment" means that He is pleased to
chastise the wicked and to favour the pious. It has
already been stated that God's " merciful ones " are they
who are vessels of mercy. In the apprehension of that
which he says, that " the wicked is cut off',' I find the
same difficulty as that alluded to in relation to those
who " shall inherit the land." For with relation to
the world, impious Saul is commemorated equally with
pious David, and ungodly Greek and Roman chief
tains are found in historic annals similarly with Jewish
and Christian saints, whilst Holy Scripture says that the
memorials of the ungodly shall be effaced from the earth.
I think that some grand secret is involved herein.
The twenty-ninth verse confirms rae the more strongly
in thinking that we do not well understand how the
"just " have to " inherit the land " and to " dwell therein
for ever," and likewise how " the wicked " have to be " cut
off" from the earth.
In verses the thirtieth and thirty-first, I note these in
dications of piety. The first, that the saint is constantly
speaking about pious and holy things. These are " wis
dom " and "judgment." To say " shall exercise itself"
is equivalent to " it shall speak." The second is that, as
the pious Jew was held to keep the " law of God in his
heart," so the pious Christian is held to keep Christian

278 PSALM XXXVII. 32-38
faith in his heart. The third indication is, that the pious
does not depart frora piety, neither does he vacillate,
nor walk with halting step in following it.
XXXVII. 32. — The wicked man sets a watch
upon the righteous: fain -would he slay hira.
33. — The Lord, however, will not leave him in
his hand ; neither will He condemn him when he
shall be judged.
34. — Wait upon the Lord, and consider His
way, and He shall exalt thee to inherit the
earth ; and thou shalt see when the wicked is
cut off.
35. — I have seen the wicked stout and flourishing,
like the laurel in full leaf.
36. — But he passed awyy, and lo, he was not ;
I sought him, but he could not be found.
37. — Consider the perfect man, and mark the
upright, for the end of that man is peace.
38. — But rebels perish together, the career of
the wicked is brought abruptly to a close.
In verses thirty-second and thirty-third, the Psalmist
says, that although the wicked is constantly seeking, and
that in every possible way (for such is the meaning of
the Spanish word " atalayer "), to slay the righteous, he
will be unable to accomplish it, for God will not permit
the righteous to fall into his hands. Nay, it shall be that
when men condemn the righteous man, the Lord will not
condemn him as wicked. And I understand that by
"wicked," for thus the Hebrew word is simplified, he
really means. He will not brand him with the stigma
of wickedness. Whence I here recognise the same meanino-

PSALM XXXVII. 32-38 279
as in those words of Jesus Christ, where He says, " Fear
not those who kill the body, since they are unable to kill
the soul." Fear not those who condemn you with human
judgments, for their judgments and condemnations cannot
make you wicked, and thus they cannot deprive you of
life eternal. This is the meaning I attach to these two
verses. For were they understood as affecting the external,
the body, I do not see how they could be proved to be
true, seeing that the righteous are put to death daily by
the wicked,' not only under the Gospel dispensation, but
also under that of the Law.
In verse the thirty-fourth, I understand hira to say,
Judge not the works of God with presumptuous rashness,
but wait to see their issue, and therein thou shalt con
sider His righteousness and His judgments; and, act
ing thus, God will "exalt thee," by developing piety in
thee, so that thou shalt come to " inherit the earth," and
thou shalt see how " the wicked '' will be "cut off." Here
I understand that waiting upon God, and meditating
upon the secrets and judgments of His Divine providence,
He exalts and develops us, so that in the day of judg
ment He will make us to inherit the earth, and He will
give us to see the ruin of the wicked.
In verses the thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth, he further
illustrates the ruin of the wicked. Here I think that
God enabled David to state this, viz., what shall happen
at the day of judgment and afterwards by special revela
tion. I understand this to be so, because, as I have
already said, I do not find how it can be understood of
this present life.
In verse the thirty-seventh, I understand David to
advise the godly to strive to be "upright" and "perfect,"
because therefrom will result much peace, happiness,
and prosperity, which I understand begin to be felt
in this present life, and continue throughout the life
eternal.

28o PSALM XXXVII. 39, 40
XXXVII. 39. — For tlie salvation of the right
eous is from the Lord, He is their strength in the
time of trouble.
40. — The Lord shall succour them and deliver
them. He shall deliver them from the ungodly,
and shall save them, because they will have trusted
in Him.
In verse the thirty-ninth, I understand him to say that
the Lord saves " the righteous," and gives thera the mental
energy with which they pass through tribulations. And
I understand that He delivers them from the difficulties
of this life, in order to elevate them to the happiness of
the life eternal.
In the last verse, he confirms what he has stated in the
last but one, nay, throughout the whole psalm, with
relation to the favour which God shows the righteous.
And by what he says, " Because they will have trusted in
Him," I ara led to be confirmed in my assurance that
the peculiar basis of godliness is trust in God. And
hence it is that he who trusts is godly, and the godly
man trusts. This trust is firm and sound in those only
who are justified by the justice executed upon the only
begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord.

PSALM XXXVIII
XXXVIII. 1.— 0 Lord, rebuke me not in Thy
wrath, neither chastise me in Thine anger.
2. — For Thine arrows have fallen on me, and
Thy hand lieth heavily upon me.
This psalm is, throughout it, one continuous prayer of
Da-vid to God, wherein it appears that he asks to be
delivered from an agonising and dangerous disorder with
which he at that time suffered. And from verses the
seventh and eighth, it is to be inferred that the disease
was a wound or abscess in the region of the groin ; and
because he recognises it to be the chastisement for some
sin into which he had fallen, he recurs to God for treat
ment, as one goes for cure to him who wounds.
Here I consider three kinds of sickness in man. One,
that of the body, whilst the other two affect the mind.
Under the first, that which affects the body, I classify all
the forms of disease which attach to man's body, as was
this of which David here complains. For these disorders,
I consider that human prudence has found both doctors
and drugs ; and I understand that these diseases are those
which men feel and those which come horae to them, as
well because the sense of feeling is that which agonises
them, as also because they are messengers of death. The
medical men who treat these diseases are unwontedly
successful if they heal one disorder without creating
another, for the remedies are such that, whilst they benefit
one part, they injure another.

282 PSALM XXXVIII. I, 2
Under the second class of disease, that affecting the
mind, I place the emotions of anger, of envy, of pride, of
ambition, of avarice, and of prodigality ; and I place un
bridled appetites, with all the vices involved in them and
wrought by them. I hold that it is for these sicknesses
that men have their doctors and their medicines. The
medical men are philosophers, legislators, and theologians,
who are all occupied in curing these mental disorders,
which, however, are less palpable than those of the body,
because the sense of feeling is not hurt by them. The
medicines are laws, rules, precepts, statutes, and ordin
ances. These doctors in curing these disorders are wont
in curing one to create another, and decidedly neither
they nor their remedies have ever been able to cure a
man entirely.
The third disease is also of the mind : it is impiety,
with all that stands connected with it. For this disease
human prudence has never found doctors or remedies, for
it neither feels nor knows it ; whilst the other two pro
ceed from this, as from a fountain. Now it is so that,
this being unsound, there is no true or perfect remedy for
the other two. This sickness is discovered by and through
the Law of God, which also indicates the physician,
who is our Lord Jesus Christ : He applies the true specific
for it, which is the faith that embraces and appropriates
the justice that was executed upon Christ Himself as its
own ; and thus curing man of impiety, of iniquity, and
of sin, which is the third class of disease, it renders him
pious, just, and holy.
And because I understand that the second proceeds
from this third, I likewise apprehend that the man cured
of the third feels himself cured of the second ; whence it
comes to pass that the truly pious man in a very short
time mortifies his affections and lusts more than a man
who is not so can do in a much longer period. When the
vassals of a great man rebel against him, because he has

283
rebelled against his lord paramount, so soon as that great
man regains his sovereign's favour, then do his vassals
return to their allegiance. Just so when man is cured
of his impiety, which is rebellion against God, and re
verts to piety, he is cured either wholly, or to a great
extent, of the second disease, which is rebellion of his
affections and of his lusts ; and he is also cured of the
first disease, for he recognises God's will in it, and
neither gives way to grief nor resentment, as other men
are wont to give way to grief and resentment.
As to verse the first, I have already stated, in connection
with the first verse of Psalm the sixth, that to " rebuke "
is the same as to chastise, and that " wrath " is the same
as passion. And I have stated that David does not ask
that he should not be chastised, but that his chastise
ment should not be rigorous.
In verse the second, by " Thine arrows " and by
" Thy hand" he means the chastisement wherewith God
chastised him. And saying "Aave/a^^ew," he means, that
God being on high and he below, God's chastisement
came, down upon him. I have already stated that
saints under the Gospel know that their diseases are not
chastisements for their faults, but for the mortification
of their affections and lusts.
XXXVIII. 3.— Through Thy wrath my flesh
looks wholly changed : on account of my sin my
bones know no rest.
4. — For my iniquities are gone over my head, aud
us a burden they oppress me beyond endurance.
From verse the third, I apprehend that David felt the
grief incident to disease more in his mind than in his
body ; for it was so that the consideration that God in
anger had afflicted him with that. disorder,,, and the recoil

284 PSALM XXXVIII. 5-10
lection of the sin or sins for which he was chastised,
aggravated the disease and disquieted him. This appears
to be the correct meaning and a truthful one. It
appears to me that David would have expressed him
self better thus : Because Thou, Lord, showest Thyself
to me offended, there is nothing sound in me, and
because ray sin stands forth before me, my bones are
disquieted. Here 1 understand that under the Law it was a token
of piety for a man to feel the wrath of God in his bodily
diseases, to feel the weight of his sin, and to wail over
his abjectness and his evil inclinations. Under the
Gospel, I understand it to be a token of piety for a
man to feel, when under bodily disease, his subjection
to the general government controlling other creatures, on
account of his want of confidence in God, and because
he is not wholly in the Kingdom of God, and to know
that God purposes by disease to mortify in him all that he
derives from Adam.
Where he says, in verse the fourth, " My iniquities are
gone over my head" I understand that the disease, which
he recognised as the chastisement of his iniquities, com
promised all the members of the body, so that, had there
been anything higher than the head, they would have
overtopped that. And where he says, "As a burden
they oppress me beyond endurance" he means, more than
I shall be able to bear.
XXXVIII. 5. — My running sores, my corrup
tions, the fruits of my folly, have become putrid :
they stink.
6. — Oppressed and exceedingly exhausted, I wear
mourning day after day.
7. — For my groins are charged with foul wounds,
my flesh is unsightly.

PSALM XXXVIII. 5-IO 285
8. — I am exceedingly debilitated and worn, my
heart is so disquieted that I roar.
9. — Lord, all my desire is before Thee, and my
sighing is not hid from Thee.
10. — My heart panteth, my energy faileth, the
light of my eyes is also gone from me.
In verse the fifth, he sets forth the gravity of his
disease. Where he speaks of " the fruits of my folly," it
is tantamount to his saying. Considering the condition
into which I am brought by my folly, by my insane
folly, and by my irregularities.
As to what he says in verse the sixth, that he wore
mourning, it has been already stated that it was cus
tomary with the Jews to wear mourning when sick.
In verse the seventh, he indicates that the disorder
affected him most in that part of the body whence the
legs act, which we call the groins. He says that
these were in a hateful and offensive state; meaning
the disorder was of such a character as to involve con
tempt and abhorrence.
Where he says, in verse the eighth, " My heart is dis
quieted" I understand that the plight of his heart was
such that it made him " roar" (cry aloud).
And by verse the ninth, he means, that it was unne
cessary for him to tell the Lord what he desired, or why
he sighed, since there is "nothing hid" from Him.
In verse the tenth, he sets forth all the symptoras of a
great, grave, and dangerous disease; as though he had
said, Yes, Lord, the disease has run its course to its
extreme limit. When he speaks of "my energy," he
means his strength and vigour ; and by " the light of my
eyes" is to be understood that his eyesight had failed
him, he had lost his eyes, meaning they were of no use
to him.

286 PSALM XXXVIII. 11-15
XXXVIII. 11. — My friends and my neighbours
stand aloof from my sores, and my nearest rela
tives keep at a distance.
12. — In the meanwhile, they who seek my life
lay snares for me ; they who seek my hurt have
uttered malevolent wickedness, and devise deceit-
fulness unceasingly.
13.^ — But I, like one deaf, will not hear, and,
like one dumb, will not open my mouth.
14. — I shall be as a man who heareth not, aud
as one who hath nothing to say for himself.
15. — For I have waited upon Thee, 0 Lord ;
Thou, 0 Lord my God, wilt answer me.
In verse the eleventh, he adduces a thing which is
wont greatly to aggravate the grief incidental to disease.
This is felt when a man sees himself deserted by his
friends and his acquaintances. I think this to be his
meaning when he says, they "stand aloof from my sores,"
but this is more fully expounded in tbe sequel, where
he says "my nearest relatives keep at a distance." They
can best testify as to this feeling who have suffered with
contagious disorders.
In verse the twelfth, he adduces another thing which
aggravates the grief incident to disease. This is, that
they who wish the sick man ill delight in witnessing his
suff'erings. The meaning of these words is this, They
who wish me dead, strain their wits to the utmost, devis
ing how to kill me. He says that these men spoke evil
of him, and unweariedly persevered in plotting his hurt.
David tells, in the thirteenth verse, what he did, and
what he purposed doing, with those of whom he said that
they spoke evil of him and devised evil concerning him ;
and here teaches all saints what they ought to do under

PS^LM XXXVIII. i6-i 8 287
similar circumstances. That is to be silent, and to let
them both talk and do as they like. This is like
wise taught in the fourteenth verse, where I understand
that God by this disorder mortified David, both in body
and mind. And I understand that saints mortify their
bodies and minds more, by accepting what occurs to
them, with the spirit which David here shows that he
accepted what occurred to him, than by any number of
abstinences, macerations, and instances of self-neglect
that they could invent and inflict upon themselves ; for
the things that happen to them, do so against their will ;
whilst those which they invent and take up themselves,
they do so with their will, which is that which should
principally be mortified, nay, this ought to be wholly
killed and should die first.
From the fifteenth verse, I extract this meaning. For
I, Lord, in my sickness do not run anxiously after
doctors, nor after the medicines which human pru
dence has discovered, for I expect Thee to become ray
physician, and to prescribe my medicines. I hold confi
dently that Thou wilt cure me. In effect, the man
gives proof of great confidence in God who does not run
anxiously after creature help ; who patiently endures,
awaiting the remedy which God will send; and I hold
it to be certain that this patient endurance is never
attained, save by very godly persons, by very holy ones,
by those who are greatly distinguished by the possession
of the Holy Spirit, and who are led by the Holy Spirit
Himself.

XXXVIII. 16. — I said. Let them not rejoice
over me, for when my foot slips, they magnify
themselves against me.
17. — For my mind is prepared for halting, thus
will my grief be ever before me.

288 PSALM XXXVIII. 16-18
18.— For I will declare my iniquity, I will be
sorry for my sins.
I understand David to report, in the sixteenth verse,
what he said and inwardly felt at the time, when he
expected that God would heal him, as though he said,
0 Lord, I say that Thou wilt answer me, granting me
my petition, for I inwardly desired no other venge
ance upon ray eneraies than that they should , not have
whereof to exult over me, through any fall of mine,
whether in my personal deportment or in personal piety.
Such has been my desire, for it has been my constant
experience, that whenever I thus failed, they have magni
fied themselves against me, indulging in overweening pride.
Such were David's ungodly enemies in their bearing
towards him, and such are ever the ungodly enemies
of saints in their bearing towards saints ; and as
was David against his enemies, such were pious Jews
against theirs; and pious Christians ought to be such
against their enemies as was our Lord Jesus Christ
against His.
In verse the seventeenth, I understand him to allege
another motive that was calculated to move God to heal
him ; this is, the obedience with which he was prepared
to rest satisfied, in being permanently lamed by that
disorder. This obedience influenced God greatly ; and
when he says, " 2'hus will my grief he ever before me"
he means, that he would thus be constantly reminded
of his sin.
In verse the eighteenth, I understand him to suggest
another reason why God should cure him. This is the
confession of his iniquity, with the grief he felt at
having offended God. It is with the greatest difficulty
that the human mind is brought to such confession;
and, moreover, anguish for sin is an indication of a godly
mind.

PSALM XXXVIII. 19-22 289
In these verses I note four motives that the godly man
may plead with God, when supplicating Him to cure him
of his disease, and to liberate him from his tribulation.
The first, that he confides in God ; the second, that the
wicked rejoice over his misfortunes; the third, that he
submits to God's will ; and the fourth, that he con
fesses his personal wickedness, and that he regrets it.
When any person being in tribulation finds these four
motives within himself, let his tribulation be what it may,
if he recur to God in prayer, he may rest assured of his
deliverance. XXXVIII. 19. — But my enemies live and are
energetic ; whilst they who abhor me, having ho
reason for doing so, are increased in numbers.
20. — They who return evil for good abhor me,
because I follow after that which is good.
21. — Desert me not, 0 Lord, my God, be not
far from me.
22. — Make haste to succour me, 0 Lord, my
salvation. In verse the nineteenth, I understand David as saying,
I am in the predicament declared by rae ; whilst my
enemies, who are also Thine, are in prosperity. This
indeed awakens strong feeling in a suffering saint. Here,
" they who abhor me, having no reason for doing so," is
equivalent to " my enemies." And it has to be noted that
he first says They "live," meaning, whilst I am dying.
Afterwards he says, They " are energetic," whilst I am
weak ; and then he says, They " are increased in numbers,"
whilst my friends and my acquaintances flee from me.
It appears that these were things which touched him to
the quick. T

290 PSALM XXXVIII. 19-22
In verse the twentieth, by those who " return evil for
good," he means the wicked, for that which is the special
characteristic of the wicked is to do evil to the man who
has done hira good. He says of these, that they abhorred
him, and were ever opposed to him, assigning as a reason,
"Because I follow after that which is good',' because I am
devoted to godliness. This is another practice of ungod
liness, to interfere to the utmost with the man who walks
in the path of godliness.
In the two last verses, and by way of conclusion, David
asks three things of God : that God should " not desert "
hira, that God should " not he far " from him, and that God
should speedily " succour " him — all which things it would
seem , are ever associated. Thus, when God doth not
speedily come to our help when in distress. He seems to
cast us off, and to keep far off from us ; and when He
succours us, we feel His protection and His presence.
David calls God " my salvation," because from God
alone did he expect that bodily healing which he desired ;
and every pious Christian calls God "my salvation," because
he recognises the healing of justification, which he has
attained by believing on onr Lord Jesus Christ.

PSALM XXXIX
XXXIX. 1. — I said, I will take heed to my
ways that I sin not with my tongue. I will put a
muzzle on my mouth when iu the presence of the
wicked. 2. — Silent, as one dumb, I refrained from the
utterance of even that which is good, aud my grief
became keener.
3.— My heart burned within me ; meditation made
the fire burn ; I spake with my tongue.
4. — Saying, 0 Lord, make me to know my end,
and the measure of my days, what it is, and what
is the time appointed me.
It appears that this psalm depends upon the preceding
one, and that Da-vid's intention therein is to ask of God
health, declaring what he went through in his sickness,
and demonstrating man's wretchedness and the shortness
of his life.
In verse the first, by " / said" I understand, purposed;
and by " ways," mode of life ; thus I understand him to
say : Finding myself as sick, as I ara, I have purposed to
look out, to be constantly on my guard, that my tongue
speak no evil. To do this, " I will put a muzzle on my
mouthy I will put a bit in it, whenever I shall find myself
in the presence of an ungodly person. The motive for
this determination was, I think, not to give the wicked

292 PSALM XXXIX. 1-4
cause to jeer at him because he complained, or at God,
who afflicted him, being moved to do so by his (David's)
own words. Here I understand that the pious dissimu
late, and bear their sicknesses without complaint and
without resentment, at least in the presence of those
who are alien to piety, because they are concerned for
the honour of God ; and in order not to feel such disgust
as Job felt, at the replies of those who came to console
him with motives derived from human prudence.
In verse the second, I understand him to say that his
silence was such as of "one dumb',' because he was not
only silent as to that with which he might have scan
dalised the superstitious and given cause to the wicked to
mock, but even as to that which might well have been
said, and which could not have caused either the one effect
or the other. From this great silence, he says it came
to pass that the grief wrought by disease was stirred up,
and becarae more keen.
Where I understand two things. The one, that saints
are inspired to silence, even as to that which is good, in
the presence of those who are wicked, and of those who
are superstitious, conformably to that Divine counsel,
" Give not that which is holy to the dogs " (Matt. vii. 6),
as well because they will profane it, as also lest they
should maltreat you. The other, that grief in sickness is
increased when the sufferer is silent as to his grief, and
hides his feelings; but this is a thing which every one
personally experiences.
In verse the third, I consider two effects proceeding
from silence and from dissimulation when in grief. The
one, that the heart becomes inflamed — it burns', it becomes
heated ; and the other, that the inflammation becomes the
more glowing the more the indi-vidual considers his grief.
Two effects realised by every one in trouble and in grief ;
but not, however, to such a degree as by those who wait on
the Spirit, for these are silent even as to that which is

PSALM XXXIX. 5-8 293
good. "Meditation" is synonymous with consideration.
He means, When I consider my disorder, so much the
more is my suffering inflamed, and the more does it burn.
And that which he says, " / spake with my tongue," I
understand as between him and God. To speak with " the.
tongue," and to speak with the mouth, are raodes of speak
ing to express special power.
In verse the fourth, he tells us what he said. Thus, I
understand hira. Since Thou, 0 Lord my God, art pleased
to deal thus with rae, at least cause me to know the
number of days assigned me by Thy Divine Providence ; for
this being known, my mind will be at rest, and torment
will not be heaped upon torment ; the torment of the fear
of death upon the torment of disease; so that "ivhat
is the time appointed me" is tantamount to. What time
Thou hast appointed that I should live in this present life.
These words bring David's weakness before me, for the
suffering of his disease had increased through silence.
- Had they not proceeded from one who had the Spirit, they
would have savoured of distrust and even of presumption.
However, I understand such words from pious hps are
indeed indications of weakness, but of a loving weakness ;
whilst had they emanated from the lips of those who are
alien to piety, they would have been indications of an
odious obduracy.
XXXIX. 5. — The days which Thou hast assigned
me are as a handbreadth, and my time is well-nigh
nothing before Thee ; every man living is vanity,
Selah, 6. — Surely man walketh in a vain show ; surely
he troubleth himself in vain, heaping up wealth,
whilst he knoweth not who shall gather it,
7. — And now. Lord, what have I hoped for 1 my
hope is in Thee.

294 PSALM XXXIX. 5-8
8. — Deliver me from all my sinful acts of rebel
lion ; expose me not to the scorn of the fool.
In verse the fifth, David complains of the short term
of life given to man, which, he says, is given to him
by the " handbreadth " — not by the yard, not by the length
of a stone's-throw, nor by the league. When he says
" before Thee," 1 understand. When compared with Thy
eternity. By " every man living," I understand every
man in existence.
All that he says in verse the sixth is within the appre
hension of mere human prudence, when it has been in
the school of experience. In the first place, I understand
him to compare man's life to the shadow which, entering
by a window, passes away quickly. I think that " to
vjalk in a vain show" is in appearance and in shadow.
Then he goes on to say that man disturbs and disquiets
hiraself in amassing wealth, knowing that he must needs
leave it behind him, whilst he knows not who will enjoy
it. David notes these two things as being incident to raan,
and as calculated to excite coraraiseration for him.
In verse the seventh, I understand David to say and to
certify that he has neither confided in, nor hoped for, any
other remeidy for his disorders than that provided by God
Himself, renouncing everything that might possibly be
obtained from creature-help. Here I understand that
man always confides in the person whom he loves.
In verse the eighth, I understand David to ask of God
two things. The first, that He "deliver" him from his " sin
ful acts of rebellion ; " and when he says "from all " of them,
I understand them to have been many. By " acts of rebel
lion," he means the sins whereby he had offended God, when
his fiesh had rebelled against the Spirit. The second, that
He should " not expose " him " to the scorn of the fool." David
means that God should heal his infirmity, because, whilst
he was sick, he was scorned and insulted by those who.

PSALM XXXIX. 9-13 295
being godless, were fools. As a matter of fact, the godly
do greatly, feel this scorn when in tribulation, considering
that from it the wicked take occasion to scoff at piety and
at them. XXXIX. 9. — Not a word has escaped my lips ;
I will not open my mouth, because Thou hast done it.
10. — Remove Thy plague from me, that brought
upon me by Thy hand, under which I pine away.
11. — Because of iniquity Thou chastisest a man
with reproofs. Thou consumest all that is admired
in him, as though it were moth-eaten. Assuredly
every man is vanity. Selah.
12. — 0 Lord, hear my prayer, and hearken
unto my cry ; be not Thou deaf to my tearful
sobbing, for I, with Thee, am as a stranger, a
passing stranger, as were all my fathers.
13.— Lift Thy chastising hand from off me,
that I may recover before I go hence, and be no
more. In verse the ninth, I understand him to say. Con
sidering what I suffer through disease is by the will of
God, " not a word has escaped my lips ; I will not open
my mouth ; " meaning, as he has said, not to do so in the
presence of the wicked and of the superstitious.
In verse the tenth, I understand " Thy plague " to
be the same as "that brought upon me by Thy hand."
What he wishes to say is. Do not chastise me further, for
I pine away and am consumed, and there is nothing more
to slay or to mortify in me.
In verse the eleventh, by "reproofs" for "iniquity" I
understand chastisements for sins; and by "man," I
understand every man ; and by " all that is admired in

296 PSALM XXXIX. 9-13
Am," he raeans that which is most prized — his strength
and his energy. So that what David says to God is.
Thou art wont, O Lord, to chastise man for his sins with
diseases and with other things, so that what is most
prized in hira, which is his strength and energy, is en
feebled and consumed. It appears that David was led by
this consideration to understand and to know the misery
and insignificance of man. Since he means every man,
he excludes no one, for in that they are raen they are
vanity. In verse the twelfth, I note the fervent feeling with
which David prayed, for he does not content himself with
saying, " Hear my prayer, 0 Lord ; " He says, " Hearken
unto my cry," and afterwards, " Be not Thou deaf to my
tearful sobbing',' which in effect is the same thing thrice
repeated, but in different words ; and not content with
saying, " I am uiith Thee as a stranger I' he adds " a passing
stranger^ as were all my fathers," here too the meaning is
the same. To grasp the meaning of these words, I under
stand that God is a stranger in this present life ; for He
is unknown to the men who live it ; and not being known.
He is cast out, despised, and contemned like a poor man
in a foreign land. Similarly, the patriarchs, of whom I
understand David to speak as his " fathersl' were strangers
upon this earth. David was the same, so also was Christ,
and so are all true Christians, who are not known in this
world, because their life, as St. Paul saith, " is hidden with
Christ in God." And because they are not known they are
. treated as strangers and as foreigners, being cast out,
despised, and contemned. Whence they severally can say
to God, I, with Thee, am a stranger, and, like my Christ,
but a foreigner. When he says, " With Thee," he means,
I am treated in this world as Thou art.
In the last verse, it seems to me that David strongly
manifests his grief, not wholly expressing what he desires
to say. For here I understand him, by " Lift Thy chastis-

PSALM XXXIX. 9-13 297
ing hand from off me, that I may recover ; " to mean, Do so
before that I, passing away from this present life, have no
time left me in which I may enjoy this mercy. Should
it appear to the pious Christian that David gave way
unduly to his feelings, and that he complained unduly
in his diseases, let this Christian reflect, that if he do not
unduly give vent to his feelings, and that if he do not
unduly complain in his sufferings, it is not because his
perfection is greater than was David's, but because, when
suffering from disease, David felt himself to be under
chastisement for his sins; and when under disease the
Christian does not feel himself to be under chastiseraent,
but knows that he is thereby mortified in the vivacity
of his affections and of his lusts, which are his mortal
enemies. Thinking thus, he will recognise this to be a
blessing from God, through His only begotten Son, Jesus
Christ our Lord.

PSALM XL
XL. 1. — In waiting, I waited for the Lord; and
He inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
2. — He brought me up out of a turbid pit of
miry clay, and lifted up my feet on a rock, and
established my steps.
3.^ — And he hath put a new song in my mouth,
even praise unto our God ;
4. — Many shall see ;ind fear, and shall trust in
the Lord ; and shall say :
5. — Blessed is the man that putteth his con
fidence in the Lord ; and respecteth not the proud,
nor those who turn aside to falsehood.
It appears that the intention of David in this psalm
was to implore God to favour him in sorae necessity.
For this purpose, I understand he recounts the events
which already had passed between hira and God. Whence
I understand in what manner the Spirit moves spiritual
persons to prayer.
In the first verses, "waiting, I waited," signifies great
constancy and perseverance in waiting for the favour of
God, without demeaning himself to ask it of the creature.
And I say without demeaning himself, because it appears
to those alien to piety, that they make themselves con
temptible when they seek the favours of God; so it appears
to the pious that they raake themselves contemptible when
' Valdes divides the third verse into two.
298

PSALM XL. 1-5 299
they ask favours of the creature. And this niay serve as
a notable countermark of piety or impiety to the con
science of every man in the world. If it appear to thee
trivial to ask God to favour thee in necessity, consider
that as most alien to piety ; but if it appear to thee trivial
to ask favours of the creature in thy necessity, consider
that as pious.
" He heard my cry," and " He inclined unto me," mean
the same ; although, by " inclined," I understand the
majesty of God and the lowness of man, since He has to
incline, and to bow down, to hear us. I understand that in
the second verse of the thirty-first Psalm, " Incline Thine
ear," is expressed what is omitted here.
In the second verse, saying, "miry clay," he enhances
the expression, "turbid pit," And saying, "He lifted up
my feet on a rock," he infers what would be the result of
his " steps " being " established," Whence it is to be under
stood that David, wishing to show the greatness of the peril
from which God had delivered him, pictures it as being in
a pool of turbid water, full of clay, not hard, but miry
and fetid, and finding one who raises him out of it with
as much ease as if he had placed his feet on a firm rock,
safe and sound.
That which he says in verse the third follows well after
the second. He calls the song " new," meaning for new
deliverance ; and by saying that the song was "praise unto
our God" I understand hira to mean. My deliverer gave
me cause for singing.
It is ever, as he says in the fourth verse, that many,
seeing what God does for those who confide in Him, and
hope in Him, are also led to reverence God and "trust"
in Him. So that they will "fear" with a religious pious
fear ; because those who fear with an abhorrent fear do
not trust.
In the fifth verse, I understand that such are the words
which those will use who consider how God dealt with David.

y

300 PSALM XL. 6, 7
By " respecteth not the proud," I understand. Do not
follow after the impious to do as they do ; and by " those
who turn aside to falsehood," I understand all those who
go seeking the favour of the creature. Corresponding to
this is the most Divine counsel of St. Paul, " Be not con
formed to this world " (Rom. xii. 2), meaning, because the
men of this world are always drawn to that which is false,
always going after it, do not you live as they do.
XL. 6. — Many, 0 Lord God, are Thy marvel
lous works which Thou hast done, and Thy thoughts
towards us ; they cannot be reckoned up in order
unto Thee. Who can publish and speak of them ?
They are more than can be numbered.
7. — Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire ;
mine ears hast Thou bored ; burnt-offering and
sin-offering hast Thou not required.
Different meanings are given to verse the sixth. I
understand that David, calling upon God, speaks thus to
Him : Thou, Lord, my God, hast done many marvels,
taking special care of men, to sustain and raaintain them,
but scarcely are there any who attribute to Thee such
sustenance and maintenance ; rather are there those who
attribute such to their own cleverness, others to their
diligence, and others to nature : all according as their
human prudence and reason guide and lead them.
I understand him afterwards to show that he was not
capable of publishing and speaking of these things, be
cause they are so numerous that " they are more than can
be numbered," By " marvellous works," I think he means
the miracles and supernatural things which God has
shown to raen ; and by " thoughts," the sustenance and
maintenance needed for ordinary life. And I understand
that, just as much in supernatural as in natural things.

PSALM XL. 6, 7 301
human prudence always finds its own ways and modes,
so as not to direct, order, or attribute them to God : such
is the impiety of the human soul.
In verse the seventh, I understand that David shows
one of the greatest thoughts that God has to men, which
is, that neither " sacrifice " nor " offering," neither " burnt-
offering " nor " sin-offering " are, in themselves, things
which please Him, nor which He requires, but rather
which occupy and maintain in piety, in justice, and in
holiness the Jewish nation.^ I understand that in this
He acts as does a trading merchant, who, setting out for
the East, because he knows that his wife is fond of writing
letters, and making couptets or sonnets, and fearing that
in his absence she raight forget him, and, forgetting hira,
might be unfaithful, asks her not to let a day pass
without writing a sonnet or couplet, or a night without
writing hira a letter of all that she has done in the day.
The merchant did not care for the letters or couplets, but
seemed to be pleased by them, and asked for them, in
order to occupy his wife, and maintain her in uprightness
and in chastity, and keep her ever in reraerabrance of him.
Just in the same way, I understand, God acted with the
Jewish nation. Sacrifice, offering, burnt-offering, and
sin-offering He did not desire, but appeared to care for
them, and demanded them, in order to occupy and keep
that people in piety, justice, and holiness, that they raight
ever reraember Him. According to this interpretation, I
understand that " Mine ears hast Thou bored " is the same
as to say. Thou boldest me in perpetual slavery ; alluding
to what God required in the Law (Exod. xxi. 6), that
when a servant, having served six years, wished to remain
in the house of his master, the master should take him
before the judges, and at a post or a door should bore his
ears as a sign of perpetual servitude. Let him who wishes
1 This allegory is repeated in the 107 th of the no Considerations of
Valdds.

302 PSALM XL. 8-14
to understand the difference between sacrifices, offerings,
burnt-offerings, and sin-offerings read the first chapter of
Leviticus. I shall add this information, that for the word " expia
tion," in the text, the Hebrew gives "sin" (offering),
according to the language of Holy Scripture. " Sin" is the
same as " expiation for sin." This enables us to under
stand St. Paul in Romans -viii. 3 — "for sin condemned
sin." Hence he speaks of Christ "in the likeness of sinful
flesh," inasmuch as He was offered as an expiation for
the sins of men. And in 2 Cor. v. 21, by "Him that
knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf',' he wishes to
affirm that God made Christ, who knew nothing of sin,
"to he sin," meaning an offering for the expiation of
sin, XL. 8. — Then I said : Lo, I come, with the roll
of the book, written of me.
9.— I delight, my God, to do Thy will, yea. Thy
law is withiti my heart.
10. — 1 have preached righteousness in the midst
of the gi'eat congregation ; lo, I have not refrained
my lips, 0 Lord, Thou knowest.
11.' — I have not hid Thy righteousness within
my heart ; I have declared Thy truth and Thy
salvation ; I have not concealed Thy lovingkind
ness and Thy truth from the great congregation.
12. — Withhold not Thou Thy tender mercies
from me, 0 Lord ; let Thy lovingkindness and
Thy truth continually preserve me.
13.— For innumerable evils have compassed me
about, my iniquities have taken hold on me, so
that I cannot look up ; they are more than the
hairs of my head, and my heart faileth me.

PSALM XL. 8-14 303
14. — Be pleased, 0 Lord, to deliver me: Lord,
make haste to help me.
In verse the eighth, I understand that David shows he
had not done as Solomon did, understanding that the
intention of God in commanding him not -to encumber
himself with heathen wives was because they raight lead
hira into idolatry ; and being sure in himself, that if he
encumbered himself with thebi, he would thus fall, not
only into idolatry, but into its attendant unbecoming
conduct (inconveniente). He shows himself rather to
have been an obedient servant, because he so well under
stood the purpose of God in that which He commanded
in the Law, that he gave heed to it.
As to that which he says in verse the ninth, it is as if
the wife of the merchant, understanding the purpose of
her husband, and not wishing to know raore than that,
and holding it for certain that she would not betray him,
determined implicitly to obey him. I understand that he
calls the law " the roll of the hook," because the Jews kept
the parchments, on which were written the five books of
the Law, rolled like judicial records and minutes (of agree
ments). In saying, " written of me," I understand that he
means written about rae, or on my account.
In verse the ninth, I understand that he shows the
purpose for which he presented himself before God with
the books of the Law. This was that he might do the
will of God ; this, he said, was his " delight," and on this
account he set the law of God in his inmost heart.
Whence I understand that David does not bring the law
of God with him to reason, and argue over it, as raany do
with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, but to live
conformably with it. I understand, moreover, that the
pious dehght in the will of God the more it is clear to
them. I also understand that David was not content to carry

304 PSALM XL 8-14
the law of God written on parchment : he carried it im
printed on his heart. And if David, who had the spirit
of Moses, the servant, did thus, what should it not concern
us to do who have the Spirit of Christ, the Son ? I speak
of those who have it ; for of those who have it not, St.
Paul writes, " If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he
is none of His" (Rom. viii. 9). As if he should say,
Those who have not the Spirit of Christ are not Chris
tians. These three verses, the seventh, eighth, and ninth,
are quoted in the Epistle to the Hebrews (x. 5, 6, 7), but
not according to the Hebrew text, which we here interpret,
but according to the Greek, which, in the time of the
Apostles, was much used. I say this in order that the
reader, seeing this interpretation, may not be astonished
and raake objection to it.
The "righteousness" which he says, in verse the tenth,
" / have preached in the great congregation " (meaning
among the Jewish nation), I understand is that with
which God is righteous, according to what he more par
ticularly declares in verse the eleventh and in all the
verses. I understand that God desires those who share
in His " righteousness " to be righteous for Him (for His
glory) ; who share in His " truth," to be truthful for Him ;
who share in His "salvatioti," to have it for Him; who
share in His " lovingkindness," to be vessels of mercy for
Him, publishing and raaking known araong men that in
God there is righteousness, truth, salvation, and loving
kindness. Those who are righteous for (in the sight of)
the world, truthful for the world, having salvation for the
world, and favouring the world, are full of arrogance and
presumption, because they look at their own -virtue and
their own value ; and those who have all these things,
because God has communicated them, are quite humble
and meek, feeling in themselves as St. Paul did, who said,
" By the grace of God, I am what I am."
Frora the twelfth verse I understand that David comes

PSALM XL. 15-18 305
to the purpose of the whole psalm, where he says. Since
nothing, 0 Lord, shall prevent my lips from speaking and
pubUshing Thy righteousness with all Thy other perfec
tions, it is just that Thou shouldst not " withhold from me,"
or deny me, " Thy tender mercies. Thy lovingkindness," nor
" Thy truth," with which I ask to be favoured.
In verse the thirteenth, I understand he says, " 3Iy
iniquities have taken hold on me," because he attributes
his sufferings to his sins, recognising that he was chastened
on their account, conformably to that which I have written
upon Psalm xxxii., that God takes into account the sins of
the saints under the Law, inasmuch as He chastises them
with temporal sufferings. The saints of the Gospel re
cognise in their sufferings that God desires thereby to
mortify and vivify them ; and in no way does He impute
sin to them, for they are "free," as St. Paul says, "from
the curse of the law." By " Z" cannot look up," I under
stand him to mean, I cannot open my eyes to see the evil
into which I have fallen. In saying " My iniquities are
more than the hairs of my head," I understand, are more
numerous. And he enhances his trial by saying, "My
heart faileth me." Asking in the last verse that God
would " make haste," he shows how extreme was the dis
tress in -which he was held. When he says " Be pleased,"
he means, Be content.
XL. 15. — Let them be ashamed and confounded
together who seek after my soul to destroy it.
Let them be driven backwards and injured who
wish me evil.
16. — Let them be desolate for a reward of their
shame who say to me. Aha ! aha !
17. — Let all those who seek Thee rejoice and be
glad in Thee ; let such as love Thy salvation say
continually. The Lord be magnified.

3o6 PSALM XL. 15-18
18. — And I am poor and needy, yet the Lord
thinketh upon me. Thou art my help and my
deliverer. My God, tarry not.
In the fifteenth verse, by "Seek after my soul," I under
stand. Seek my life, to kill me. And in the sixteenth
verse, I understand "For reward of their shame " to raean
that shame which they seek and labour to bring upon rae.
The exclamation, " Aha ! aha ! " is given in other psalms.
In the seventeenth verse David beseeches God that
those who are intent in piety may ever feel His favour
and His mercy. And I understand that " Such as love Thy
salvation " are those who are content to be ruled and
governed, defended and favoured, by God. These are the
pious, because those alien to piety are content to be ruled
and governed by their human prudence, to be defended
and favoured by the creature.
In the last verse I understand David to call himself
"poor I' because of the misery and trouble in which he
found himself at that time ; and he Calls hiraself "needy,"
because the more he atterapted to sustain and maintain
himself by favour of the creature, the more did he find
himself as in a desert where was nothing but dry sand.
In saying " The Lord thinketh upon me," I understand he
means, I have no need to afflict myself on account of my
misery, nor to weary myself on account of ray poverty ;
on the contrary, I hold myself favoured, both by the one
and the other ; since it is so, that God, having brought
me to and placed me in this situation, takes special and
peculiar care of me ; and He who succours rae in my
necessities is He who will bring me out of them. " My
God, tarry not," is said with loving affection. Here I
understand that God gives always more abundantly that
which David says He gives. In this disposition of soul
consists that poverty of spirit which our Lord Jesus Christ
praises in His Gospel ; and I understand that this poverty

PSALM XL. 15-18 307
never is, and never can be, where the Spirit of God is
not, and that those who have the Spirit of God are ruled
and governed by God ; for Christ having said " Blessed are
the poor in spirit," added, "for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven." Such, then, who are "poor in spirit," or in the
spirit, are in the kingdom of God, being ruled and
governed by God. To this kingdom there is but one
door, which is the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord.

PSALM XLI
XLI. 1. — Blessed is he who considereth (who
interests himself in) the poor, the Lord will deliver
him in the day of trouble.
2. — The Lord will keep him, and will restore
him ; He will bless him upon earth, and will not
deliver him up to the humour of his enemies.
3. — The Lord will sustain him upon the sick
bed ; Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.
David's design in this psalm, as I understand it, is to
ask of God that He should heal some bodily infirmity
under which he was then labouring ; and whilst thus sup
plicating health, he proceeds to say that it is obligatory
upon one saint to act considerately with another, his
fellow-saint, the poor invalid; and to state what they,
who affect to be pious, consider under such circumstances ;
as also what the really pious man, living under the dis
pensation of the Law, when sick, felt as to himself.
Thus, in these three first verses, do I understand David
to lay down the judgment which devout persons ought to
form of other devout persons whom they see in afflic
tion; this is, that God will restore them, that He will
favour them, and deal lovingly with them. Where I
understand that the blessedness of such a person does not
consist in the judgment which he forms concerning the
pious, but in that, because he is pious, he thus judges.
" Who considereth " is equivalent to who weighs, who
thinks upon, who judges. Where he says "poor," he
308

PSALM XLI. 4-9 309
means enfeebled by disease, so that he is rather debili
tated than diseased. By " the day of trouble," he means
the time when the disease most distresses him. By
" The Lord will restore him," the Psalmist means, He
will prolong the days of his life. By "He will bless
him upon earth," he means. He will render him success
ful, happy, and prosperous ; and although he changes
his mode of expression when he says, "will not deliver
him up',' I understand that all these words are what
saints ought to employ in speaking of a sick saint ; that
not only will God heal him, but He will morever deliver
him from the hands of his enemies. By "humour^
he means the desire, the caprice, and the will. By " the
sick hed," he means that on which he suffers. And I
understand that in this he enhances God's benignity, in
that He makes the saint's bed for him by reconciling him
to it, though it be not peaceful but painful. By that
which he says, " Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness,"
I understand that the saint, when sick, by God's blessing
feels neither the hardness nor the roughness of his bed,
as though God himself had, with His own hands, pre
pared, made, and softened it. Here I understand how much
human prudence is self- deceived, when it holds it to be
a mean office for one man to nurse another ; since it
is a fact, as David here shows, that God himself attends
upon the poor man, even so far as to make his bed ; and
since likewise the Son of God says of Himself, that
" He came not to he ministered unto, hut to minister."
It is, in effect, that the men who judge, following the
leadings of their prudence, are deceived in almost every
thing. XLI. 4. — I said. Lord, compassionate me, heal
my soul, for I have sinned against Thee.
5. — My enemies will speak evil of me, saying,
When will he die and his name perish ?

310 PSALM XLL 4-9
6. — If one of them come to see me, he speaks
falsely in his heart, he ruminates vanity, he goes
out and utters it.
7. — All they who hate me combine in sup
pressed murmurs against me ; against me do they
devise evil.
8. — Something fearful hath befallen him, say
they ; there he lieth' prostrate ; never will he rise
up again.
9. — The man, too, who was at peace with me, in
whom I confided, who ate my bread, hath lifted
up his heel a.gainst me.
In verse the fourth, I learn what it behoved the pious
Jew to do when he was sick. The first thing being, that
he should recognise sickness as ha-ving been brought upon
him as chastisement for his sins ; whilst the second was
to recur to God as the true Physician, saying, "Lord, com
passionate me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against
Thee." I understand that it behoves the pious Christian
to recognise in his sickness the relics of Adam's dis
obedience, and, panting to recognise in his recovery the
benefit of Christ's obedience, to say unto God, " Thy will
be done," as appealing from the government of what are
called second causes, unto the government wherewith God
iramediately from heaven governs things, and governs
those who are in His kingdom, making them His children,
and giving them His Holy Spirit.
It may be gathered from the five following verses, that
the judgment which those alien to piety form, when they
look upon a sick saint, is, that he will go on daily from
bad to worse. And I understand that this judgment is
formed by those alien to piety, with a readiness exactly
corresponding to their greater pretensions to piety.

PSALM XLI. 4-9 311
In verse the fifth, where he says, "My enemies will
speak evil of me," he means, They will slander me.
In verse the sixth, where he says, " If one of them come to
see me," I understand. If any of them come to visit me,
he does so speaking insincerely, false-heartedly. That ex
pression, " In his heart he ruminates vanity," I understand
thus : Whilst he is with me, he is occupied in considering
and in devising of what he raay grurable, and as soon as
he gets outside the door, he publishes that which he
de-nsed when with me. That godless men make such
their aim we witness in our daily experience.
In verse the seventh, where he says, " They combine,"
I understand that his enemies banded themselves together
to traduce, and to speak evil of him. "Against me do they
devise evil " is the same as, to my injury or ray damage.
The repetition is by way of enhancement.
Verse the eighth expresses to the letter the judgment
which human prudence forms as to the tribulations,
the sicknesses, and the difficulties which betide those
who lead a spiritual life. First, it concludes that the
disorder is dangerous, and then that it is mortal. Any
thing fearful or terrible is expressed in Hebrew by a
word intimating that it is unbridled, beyond restraint,
licentious. Where it is said, "hath befallen him," I
understand it to have come upon him like a flood; and
by that, " there he lieth prostrate," it is meant that he is on
his death-bed ; as though he had said. His plight is such,
that I promise you he will never rise up again.
In verse the ninth, it appears that David especially
complains of some one, who had been wont to show him
self as his friend, in whom David confided, who, when he
saw David was sick, sedulously sought to injure him. Thus
when he speaks of him as of " the man who was at peace
with me," he means, one with whom he was on peaceful
and friendly terms. And where he says, " hath lifted up
his heel against me," I understand him to say that he went

312 PSALM XLI. 10-13
about, ostensibly as one who cared for him warmly,
yet seeking nevertheless persistently to do him injury;
And I understand that Christ, when quoting this verse
in John xiii. 18, meant, I have not said this of you all,
for it does not apply to all, for one alone of you all will
prove traitor to Me, in order that that Scripture may
be fulfilled which says, " He that eateth bread with me hath
lifted up his heel against Me."
XLI. 10. — Do Thou, Lord, compassionate me ;
raise Thou me up, and I will repay them.
11.^ — In this have I learned that Thou art con
tent with me, because my enemy doth not triumph
over me.
12. — Aye, I shall retain my integrity ; Thou wilt
uphold me, and wilt set me in Thy presence for
evermore. 13. — Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
from age to age.— ^Amen, and Ameu.
In verse the tenth, where he says, " Raise Thou me up,"
he means from his sickness : David desired no other physi
cian than God ; and where he says, " I will repay them," he
means, And I will deal with them as they deserve to be
dealt with.
In verse the eleventh, I understand that David, being
inwardly assured of his restoration to health, accepted
health as an intimation of God's benevolence to him, and
thus he said, I hold this. Thy restoration to me of my
health, to be an assured indication of Thy love to me,
that " Thou art content " with me ; thus my enemies may
despair of finding anything connected with me wherein
they may rejoice.
In verse the twelfth, where he says,- '" / shcdl retain
my integrity y I understand him to suppress the expression

PSALM XLI. 10-13 313
of his triumph, as though he had said. My enemy shall
not triumph, he shall not rejoice ; whilst I shall triumph,
and shall sing, because of " my integrity ; " not indeed
because I still " retain it," for this would not cause me
to triumph, but because Thou hast vouchsafed it unto
me ; and " ITiou wilt uphold me " in this integrity, which
Thou hast given me, and will continually favour me in
causing me to see and to feel " Thy presence."
In that which he says in the last verse, "from age to I
age," I realise a savour of life eternal ; for what David here
desires to say is, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, in
such manner that the blessing may pass on from this age
(or dispensation), about to end, to that other which shall
abide for ever. I understand that our Lord Jesus Christ
comprised this blessing in that which is found in i Peter
iii. 15, "Sanctify the Lord (Christ) in your hearts." .
The Jews, dividing all the Psalms into five books, place J
here the end of the first book.

LIVES
OF THE TWIN BROTHERS
JUAN AND ALFONSO DE VALDES

DANIELrS ROGERIJ EPIGRAMMA IN
TUMULUM JO. JUELLL

DB VAKIARDM EEGIONUM PURIORlBUS THEOIiOGIS.

Pr»dieet a3sidu6 divinum Martyra Tuscus :
CalYtnumq. suum Gallia in astra ferat.
Jactet et eitoUat Germana Melaaethona tellua ;
Lutherum et parili semper honore vehat.
Nee Bucere tuos obliviscatur honores
Bonna, tuo summum nomine nacta decus.
Zuinglius Helve tijs setemiim vwat in oris ;
Et Bullingerum gens Tigurina colat.
Inplyta Sarmaticas sit Alasci fama per urbes :
Boihemis Hussus concelebretur agris.
Clara sit Hemmingi Danis industria terris :
lUustris Scotica Knoxius extet humo,
Valdesio Hispanits scriptore superbiat orbisx
Hyperium et merito carmine Belga citet
Quseq. siii regie nomen doctoris honoretj
In praeceptores sitq. benigna suos.
At Doctore sue te gaudeat Anglia felix,
Vnum pro cunctis teq. Juelle canat.
Extracted from Lawrence^ H%ji,-mphref& "Life and Death of John
Jewell, Bishop of Salisbury," &c. Published by John Day, A.D. 1573.

LIVES

OF THE TWIN BROTHERS

JUAN AND ALFONSO DE VALDES.

EDWARD BOEHMER,
D.D., Ph.D.,
EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF STRASBURG,
CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE SPANISH ACADEMY.

Extracted from the Bibliotheca Wiffeniana, with the Author^ s
Additions on Recent Discoveries of Valdes' Works,

WITH INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR,
JOHN T. BETTS,
Of C. C. C. Oxon. Memder of Lincoln's Inn.

LONDON:
TRUBNER & CO., LUDGATE HIL'L.
1882.

INTEODUCTION.

The Editor, engaged in pubHshing the works of Juan de
Valdes in English, anticipates that the interest of the
public will be concentrated upon Juan exclusively, and
conceives the surprise that will be felt by the reader, who,
desirous of learning the story of our author's life, finds
Professor Boehmer bringing forward the lives of the twins,
which have been so blended and confused by different
writers, that they were held to have failed to present them
distinctly- apart.
The reader has to be informed that these twins were
marvellously like, each to the other, in features, in voice,
and otherwise ; whilst their memory has been mystified by
repeated statements, that the two Christian names Juan
and Alfonso belonged to but one and the same person.
The late Benjamin Wiffen ^ adduced evidence that
they were twins, proving Juan to have been a scholar, a
courtier, a Papal chamberlain,^ and subsequently the most
^ See Life and Writings of Juin de Valdfe by Benjamin B. Wiffen,
with the CX Divine Considerations, translated and published by John T-
Betts. London, Quaritch, 1865.
' The post which Valdes held at the court of Clement VII. will have been
that of " Cameriere d'onore, di spada e cappa," meaning a chamberlain of
honour, a secular, a layman, a post of honour involving no regular duties.
See Moroni's Historico-ecclesiastical Dictionary of Learning upon Papa
Chamberlains. Moroni's Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastical,
vol. vii., Venezia, 1841, p. 48. See Hunadoro's Relazione della corte di
Roma, Venezia, 1671, p. 14; where it is stated that they do not present
themselves at the palace except when they choose ta do so, and that it is
usual for the Popes to send the Cardinal's hat by them to newly-appointed
Cardinals.

vi INTRODUCTION.
infiuential reformer in Italy, and he accepted it as an
historical fact that Juan died at Naples in 1540; whilst
he proved Alfonso to have been from early manhood
Latin Secretary to the Emperor Charles V., and a constant
attendant upon him in all his progresses ; but of his
death Wiffen was without evidence.
We now know that Alfonso's death is vouched by Thomas
Cranmer's despatch to Henry VIIL, given at -length in
the lives now published. It is also certified by his sur
viving brother in the very recently discovered letter of
Juan's.' This letter presents Juan wailing over Alfonso's
death, which, as it for ever settles the question, I hereafter
append, with a notice of it in Professor Boehmer's own
words. Tt testifies to the loving, gentle soul of Juan, and
is in many respects extremely interesting, besides that of
its being the only autograph letter of his extant.
The knowledge of the moral character and of the social
status of these brothers cannot be matter of indifference
to those who read their works, for their position com
manded the best information upon every subject they
discussed, and opportunity was not wasted upon men of
their commanding ability. They not only knew every
thing that transpired, but they understood the facts and
impulses that brought them about. ISToble by birth,
virtuous by discipline, diligent by habit, and the associates
of the choicest spirits upon earth, expectation is naturaUy
led to anticipate much from them, and that expectation is
fully justified. Their secular works, whilst instructive,
are admirable in point of style ; their devotional works,
written amidst superstitious gloom and fierce Inquisitorial
tyranny, blaze with evangelic light. The tone of their
works is charming and ennobling, and their moral repu
tation stamps their statements with authority.
If the character and influence of the works of the
brothers Juan and Alfonso be such as above described, we
may learn what Juan's personal influence was upon his

INTRODUCTION. vii
contemporaries from a statement made by Antonio Carac-
ciolo in his life of Pope Paul IV.^ quoted by Dr. Gibbings.
He says, "that Naples was for the first time infested
with Lutheranism- by German soldiers, of whom 6000
were infantry and 2000 cavalry, but Juan de Valdes
alone, who arrived there in the year 1535, caused, he
conceives, a far greater destruction of souls than had
been effected by these many thousands of military
heretics." What Juan de Valdds was to his personal friends we
may learn from Giacomo Bonfadio's lament upon his
death, expressed in a letter to Pietro Carnesecchi : " Where
shall we go, now Signer Valdes is dead ? This has truly
been a great loss for us and the world, for Signer Valdes
was one of the rare men of Europe, and those writings
he has left on the Epistles of Paul and the Psalms of
David most amply show it. He was, without doubt, in
his actions, his speech, and in all his conduct a perfect
man. With but a particle of his soul he governed his
frail and spare body ; with the larger part, with his pure
understanding, as though out of the body, he was always
raised in the contemplation of truth and of divine things.
I sympathise with Messer Marc' Antonio [Plaminio], for
he loved and admired him above all others." ^
Bonfadio, an accomplished scholar, wrote the annals
of Genoa; statements made in them affecting influential
members of that Eepublic, prompted them by vindic
tive resentment falsely to accuse him before a criminal
tribunal, which sentenced Bonfadio to death ; and he
actually was beheaded.
The abbot Antonio Sambuca, editing Count Mazzu-

1 Vita e Gesti di Giovanni Caraffa cioh di Paolo IV., P.M. In folio,
preserved among the Harl. MSS. Brit. Mus.
' Bonfadio's letter is found in the Aldine edition of the Lettere Volgari
di diversi nobUissimi hvomini. In Vinegia, mdxlv.

Till INTRODUCTION.
chelli's collection of Bonfadio's letters and of his other
compositions in prose and in verse, speaks of Bonfadio
in his preface dedicated to Cardinal Querini, the librarian
of the Vatican, in these terms, " Now under the authority
of your protection do I present to the public Giacomo
Bonfadio's works, he being the glory of scholars and an
honour to my country."
The following extract from Dr. Gibbings is quoted ^ in
order to give the reader a suitable conception of both
Bonfadio's and Valdfe' friend (and Vald,&' pupil), Carne
secchi, who in connection with Valdes is a very impor
tant personage. "Eiguecio Galluz^i,-^ Historiographer-
Eoyal of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, informs us that
Pietro Carnesecchi, the intimate and much-loved friend
of Cardinals Pole, Sadolet, and Bembo, was a member
of a Florentine family of high rank, which had always
followed the fortunes of the Medici. He was appointed
Secretary to Pope Clement VH., one of that illustrious
race, and was afterwards Protonotary to the Apostolic
See. Such superior influence did he exercise as an
administrator^ that it was rumoured and commonly be
lieved that he, and not his patron, wielded pontifical
power. One of his preferments was an abbey in France,
in which country he was countenanced and protected
by Catherine de' Medici, Queen of Henry II. ; he enjoyed
likewise the favour of Cosmo de' Medici, on whom Pope
Pius V. subsequently conferred the title of Grand Duke.
After the death of Clement, being weary of protracted
residence in Eome, or rather from abhorrence of the
abuses of the papal court, which he could no longer
restrain, he retired to his abbacy at Naples, and visited
various cities in Italy, devoting himself exclusively to
^ Report of the Trial and Martyrdom of Pietro Carnesecchi, some time
Secretary to Pope Clement VII. and Apostolic Protonotary : Dublin Vm-,
versity Press, 1856, p. xiii. of Introduction (a highly valued work).
* Storia del Granducato di Toscana Firenze, 1822.

INTRODUCTION. ix
study and to intercourse with learned men. He was
thoroughly conversant with Greek and Latin literature, an
eloquent speaker, and a poet. In France he was greatly
honoured; he was regarded with the utmost esteem;
and in his native land especially he became the light
and centre of all those who sighed and prayed for refom
in the Church. Such a man could not long escape the
vigilance of the Inquisitors; and the criminal process,
now divulged, discloses all the most important particulars
relative to the measures adopted against him for twenty-
one years (from 1546 to 1567)."
Carnesecchi's letters to Giulia Gonzaga, written throucrh
a series of years, and many years before the final process,
were adduced against him as evidence of fact and of
sentiment, establishing his heretical dissent from Papal
doctrine and of opposition to Papal decrees; and they
doubtless served the Inquisitors as their warrant for his
condemnation to the stake.
Carnesecchi was called upon to justify every statement
and sentiment contained in these letters, expressed as
they were in the confidence of friendship, especially those
affecting their mutually dearest friend, Juan de Valdes,
his life and teachings. In relation to these sentiments
Carnesecchi had to show that they admitted of orthodox
interpretation, or failing to do so, the Inquisitors availed
themselves of them, twisting them and perverting them,
as bases of criminal conviction.
Carnesecchi was upon the most intimate terms with
Juan de Valdes, nor was he less intimate with Giulia
Gonzaga after Valdes' death ; this triple cord of mutual
regard was of the strongest. Possibly no man ever lived
that did more by word and by writings to teach another
spiritual truth, than did Valdes for Giulia.
On spiritual subjects Giulia and Carnesecchi were both
Valdes' pupils ; they both proved their spiritual loyalty to
his tea-chings, and their own convictions, by never recanting,
A 2

X INTRODUCTION.
or receding from, them. Carnesecchi went to the stake in
vindication of his ; neither did Giulia prove recreant to
hers ; death alone delivered her from the bloodthirsty tri
bunal before which she had been summoned to appear just
before she expired, death thus saving her " from the evil
to come." Humanity has not been illustrated by three
more exalted personages. Carnesecchi's letters to Giulia
have been rendered historical documents, by embodiment
in Carnesecchi's process ; they reveal the soul of Valdes
so fully, so truthfully, so intimately, that he is thus better
known to us, who study these documents, than he was to
his contemporaries.
I Brought from the archives of the Inquisition at Eome
by a French officer, one of Napoleon's soldiers, in sixty-
six volumes, they are deposited in the library of Trinity
College, Dublin, and the editor has now before him an
extract of Carnesecchi's process, contained in 381 pages of
printed matter, transcribed for the Italian Government,^
and edited by Count Giacomo Manzoni of Lugo.
Here follows Juan de Valdds' only letter, which is thus
introduced by Dr. Boehmer : —
" The following letter has been discovered by Dr. Otto
Waltz, Professor in the University of Dorpat, who sent
me the copy he himself made, and obligingly permitted
me to print it. He will shortly publish with his own
annotations some inedited letters of Alfonso de Valdes
to the same Dantiscus, copied from a Dantiscan collec
tion (in which also was found this letter of Juan de
Valdes). Now, as to Dantiscus, I restrict myself to state.
that he was born in 1483, was three times in Spain, and
died in 1548, Bishop of Ermeland, leaving much Latin
verse, subsequently collected in 1764 into a volume, in
which are found sacred hymns that testify to his piety.
Excepting this letter of Juan de Valdds addressed to that
^ See " Miscellanea di Storia Italiana." In royal 8vo, vol. x., published
at Turin in 1S70.

INTRODUCTION. xi
prelate, we have no other writing in an epistolary form
that is not a religious treatise. This letter is written in
Latin, and is, as far as we know, the only autograph of his
in existence.
" This letter, highly characteristic from its most amiable
and ingenuous tone, furnishes us with some interesting
facts. " Since Juan himself here styles himself Alfonso's
brother and twin, it is no longer possible to deny the fact.
It is of greater importance still that Juan, when giving
his address, states that he will be with the Pope (Clement
VH.) " The letter is written from Bologna ; ^ the original
address still remains. Dantiscus has written in his own
handwriting, ' Letter of Juan de Valdes, dated Bologna,
1 2th January 1533.'
" The red seal is in good preservation.
" Ed. Boehmer.
" Vienna."
Reverendissimo Domino ac doctissimo viro, Domino Joanni
Dantisco, Fpiscopo Culmensi, Serenissimi Polonies
Regis consiliario. Domino meo colendissimo, in Polonia.
Nisi compertum haberem, prsesul amplissirae, tuum
animum, sic sanctissimis atque honestissimis disciplinis
praeditum, ut ab illorum institute, qui non Virtutem sed
fortunam in hominibus diligere solent, penitus abhorreas,
handquaquam hoc negotii essem aggressus, nunc autem
quum meminerim te cum fratre meo Alfonso Valdesio,
qui infEelicissimo quodam fato nobis ereptus est, priusquam
ilium apud Csesarem locum nactus esset, amicitiam iniisse,
non veritus sum meis te Uteris interpellare quibus iutelli-
geres me non seque ad fortunse bona, qu^ mihi ab ipso
fratre testamento relicta sunt, animum adplicuisse, atque
1 See " Lives," p. 4.

xii INTRODUCTION.
ad eorum gratiam ambiendam quos ille vel observabat ut
dominos ac majores, vel diligebat ut amicos, vel amplecte-
batur ut minores, ut eos ego aut venerari ut dominos, aut
observare ut majores, aut diligere ut sequales possim,
iidemque me veluti illius fratrem ac gemellum, cui natura
eadem faciei lineamenta eundemque vocis sonitum est
elargita, amplectantur ac diligant ; licet enim animi dotes,
quae ille dei optimi maximi beneficio erat asseoutus, in me
non seque atque in illo inveniantur, non ideo ab iis, quibus
earns erat frater, sum despiciendus, quando non ut me
mea causa, sed fratris potius me amplectantur peto.
Quum itaque, amplissime prsesul, te ille semper ut ma-
jorem observaverit, tuque Ulum semper ut amicum dile-
xeris amplexatusque sis, sequum erit ut tu hujus erga
eum amoris et benevolentise me hseredem facias, id quod
tum te f ecisse existimabo quum aliquid mihi in quo meum
erga te animum meamque spontaneam servitutem ostendere
possim injunxeris. Cseterum si tam cari amici jactura h,
te aliquid quod chartis commissum sic extorsit, illud,
quidquid fuerit, ad me mittas obsecro, ut hoc amoris tui
symbolo acerbissimum meum dolorem nonnunquam lenire
ac mitigare possim. Ut autem quo literas tuas ad me
mandare debeas, scias, me apud Summum Pontificem futu-
rum scito ; ubi si quid fuerit quod ad te quomodocunque
pertineat, mihi committes id quod mihi quidem honorifi-
centissimum ac jucundissimum erit. Bene vale, amplis
sime prsesul, et me Alfonsi Varldesii loco ama.
BoNONiiE, XII. Jainiuirii mdxxxiii.
Dominationis Tuse Eeverendissimae
subditissimus clientulus
Joannes Valdesius.

INTRODUCTION.

Teaitslation.

To the most reverend and highly learned Master John Dan
tiscus, Bishop of Culm, Counsellor of his most Serene
Majesty the King of Roland, my much-revered Lord, in
Poland.
Had I not the certainty, most honoured master, that
thy mind is so moulded by the most sacred and by the
most virtuous teachings, so as to be wholly averse to the
principles of those, who are wont to love a man, not for
big ability, but for his fortunes, I assuredly should not
have taken this step ; now, however, when I recollect that
thou wert intimate, with my brother, Alfonso Valdes, who
by sad fate has been carried off from us, before that he
attained that post about the Emperor's person, I feel no
hesitation in addressing myself to thee by letter, in order
that thou mightest thereby understand that my mind is
not so intent upon attaining the property bequeathed me
under my brother's will, as upon conciliating their favour,
whom he looked up to as his masters and superiors, or
whom he loved as friends, or whom he cherished as his
inferiors ; that I may be able either to venerate them as
masters, or to look up to them as superiors, or to love
them as equals, and that they also may esteem and love
me, as his twin-brother, to whom nature has given the
same features and the same tone of voice; for if the
intellectual endowments, which he, by the grace of our
good and great God, had acquired, be not found as richly
and copiously in me as in him, I am not on that account
to be despised by those to whom my brother was dear,
for I do not challenge of them that they value me for my
sake, but rather that they should do so for my brother's.
Since, revered master, he ever highly esteemed thee as a
superior, and that thou hast ever loved and valued him as
a friend, it will be just that thou now make me heir of
this thy love and of thy benevolence towards him, and I

xiv INTRODUCTION.
shall then assume that thou wilt have done so, when
thou shalt give me something in charge wherein I may
/be enabled to show my feelings towards thee by readiness
of service. Shouldest thou have felt constrained by the
loss of so dear a friend to commit anything to writing, I
earnestly entreat thee to send it, whatever it may be, to
me, that I may by this token of thy love occasionally
soothe and mitigate my most bitter grief. But in order
that thou mayest know where to address me by letter,
know that I shall henceforth be near the person of the
Pope; where should aught transpire, in any manner affect
ing thine interests, thou wilt commit its management to
me, which will be most honouring and most agreeable
to me..
Fare thee well, most noble President, and love me in
the stead of Alfonso Valdes.
Bologna, i2Ji. January 1533.
Of all clients under thy most reverend
sway I commend myself to thee
as the most submissive JuIn de Valdes."
Don Luis Usoz i, Eio's name must never be forgotten
in association with the revival of Valdes' works, for he
first translated Juan de Valdes' CX. Considerations into
Spanish, publishing them in 1850. This edition ranks
as the ninth in the series of the Eeformistas Antiguos
Espanoles, consisting of twenty volumes edited and issued
by him during twenty-five years. The biographer, when
commemorating Don Luis, the Christian gentleman, the
scholar, the patriot, and the philanthropist, will ever have
to couple the name of his faithful, assiduous, and worthy
friend, coadjutor, and correspondent, Benjamin B. Wiffen,
as the man whose honourable life was spent as his biblio
grapher, in procuring the recondite materials for Don Luis'

INTRODUCTION. xv
use. Valdesian scholars have ever held Don Luis and
Wiffen as inseparably associated in their lifelong work,
the revival of the ancient Spanish Eeformers ; whilst they
who knew their labours more intimately, associate a third
name with theirs, which, if not mentioned here, is with
held from publicity by prudential motives.
The re-prints of the works of Juan de Valdes were
especially intended for the benefit of Spain. Don Luis
embodied this sentiment in his writings, he presented it
in the title-pages of the works he published.
In Wiffen's preface to the History of the death of Juan
Diaz, the last volume of the series, a posthumous volume,
which appeared in September 1865, six weeks after Usoz's
death, he summarises his deceased friend's character thus :
" Don Luis Usoz was a man of sound and exact learning,
of great simplicity and modesty, of genuine truthfulness
both in his life and in his writings. He loved his country,
he lamented its historical decline, and sought its highest
welfare, believing that universal EELIGIOUS liberty, with
the knowledge of the Bible, forms the surest basis of all
civilisation, national, social, and individual."
The translator of Juan de Valdes* works into English,
and their editor, believes Don Luis' effort to have been as
intelligent as it was beneficent, and that the publication
will prove to have been influentially "para hien de Fs-
pana," for the welfare of Spain, and thus impressed, the
editor declares his sole motive for translating and pub
lishing Valdes' works to be his firm belief that they are
eminently calculated to benefit the English-speaking
nations of the world.
The editor's attempt to popularise Valdes' Writings,
by appending Dr. Boehmer's ' Lives ' to every one of his
translations now publishing, wUl be appreciated by every
reader who shall become interested in him and in them ;
and the reader will be led to approve it the more, when
told that but imperfect knowledge is now attainable

xvi INTRODUCTION.
even by researches in the British Museum and in Univer
sity Libraries ; and that -such information as he can get
there "wiU be less definite and less reliable than that now
presented to him.
If Valdes' teachings, restricted by the Inquisition to
manuscript copies, circulated from hand to hand, at the
greatest personal risk to both giver and receiver, availed
in the sixteenth century by their influence on the choicest
spirits of that age, the wisest and the best, to shake the
Papacy, it was by the Holy Spirit's influence that they
did so ; what may we not expect with the same mighty
agency, now that the press issues the Prince Consort's
Life in sixpenny parts, that it issues the New Testament
in several languages at a penny each, and that Christian
gentlemen have began to publish parts of Valdes' minor
works for sale at a penny a copy, approximately two
thousand per cent, cheaper than the cost in the regular
form of publication !
' JOHN T. BETTS.
Pkmbdev, Kent, May 1882.

THE LIVES

JUAN and ALFONSO DE VALDES.

About the beginning of the sixteenth century, Fernando
de Valdes, the hereditary Eegidor of Cuenca in Castile,
had twin-sons born to him, Alfonso and Juan, who, after
careful training, distinguished themselves in Spanish
literature, not only as authors who knew how to write
their own language with classical purity, but also as
religious reformers.
Alfonso was in the suite of the Emperor Charles V. at
his coronation in Aix-la-Chapelle in the year 1520. He
saw, in the burning of Luther's books, in the following
year at Worms, "not the end, but the beginning of a
tragedy." It then appeared to him as impudent upon
the part of the monk of Wittenberg to declare the Pope
to be a heretic and schismatic ; but he nevertheless
found it deplorable that the Pope should stubbornly
oppose the convocation of a General Council, by which
alone the peace of Christendom could be secured. The
impossibility of bringing the Lutheran commotion to an
end without such a Council was persistently urged, at
Worms, by the Emperor's Grand Chancellor Mercurino

1 8 ALFONSO DE VALDES.
da Gattinara.-') Under him we meet Alfonso, in the
year 1524, as an Imperial Secretary of State.
Alfonso de Valdes was a. great admirer of Erasmus,
whose writings, in the original and in translations, as
greatly promoted the reformation in Spain, as they did
everywhere else. At the time when the monks in
that country made a violent attack upon the famous
scholar, and tried to get from the Inquisitor- General
a prohibition of his works, Alfonso generously inter
posed, and employing all his influence in favour of
the great humanist, he succeeded in averting the
proscription. From that time we find Alfonso in cor
respondence with Erasmus. It was presumably Alfonso
Valdes who penned the Imperial answer to Erasmus, in
December 1527, expressing the Emperor's joy on learn
ing, by Erasmus' letter, that the Lutheran phrenzy was
declining, a result brought about by the efforts of Erasmus
himself, who had published able polemical writings against
Luther's servum arbitrium.
On the other hand, Alfonso's name is found subscribed
to Imperial letters of the years 1526 and 1527, addressed
to Pope Clement VII. and to the College of Cardinals,
in which a General Council is most energetically de
manded.^) When Eome was stormed and sacked, in the
year 1527, Alfonso wrote a dialogue, in order to vindicate
the Emperor, and to prove that terrible catastrophe to
have been a retribution upon the sins of the Papal city.
In 1529 he accompanied the Emperor in his progress
through Italy; he attended the Pope's and Emperor's
Congress at Bologna, and he went on with the Court to
the Diet in Germany. Soon after the arrival at Augsburg,
he sent for Melancthon, in order, if possible, to bring
about an understanding with that champion of the Evan
gelicals. The intercourse between these two mild and
' The numbers refer to the notes in the "Bibliotheca Wiffeniana :
Spanish Reformers of Two Centuries." London: Tiiibner, 1874. — Ed.

JUAN de VALDiS. 19
moderate men was a very friendly one, and with the
sovereign Valdes successfully set off the conciliatory and
reasonable tone of the Protestants, and smoothed the way
for a public reading of their Confession in the presence of
the Emperor and of the powers of the realm. For two
years more did he follow Charles through Germany as
his Secretary. It was with pleasure that he saw the
Emperor at the Diet of Eatisbon constrained to yield
greater liberty to the evangelical movement.
In the autumn of 1532 Alfonso de Valdes died at
Vienna. Thomas Cranmer, in a despatch to King Henry
VIIL, dated from Villach, in Carinthia, October 20, 153 2,
teUs of a great infection of the plague, whereof many of
the Fmperor's household died, and among others (Valdes)
Waldesius, a Spaniard, the Fmperor's Chief Secretary, who
enjoyed his singular favour. He was well learned in the
Latin tongue, and partly in the Greek ; and whensoever the
Emperor would have any thing well and exactly done in
the Latin tongue, it was ever put to Waldesius.^)
His brother Juan found more leisure for literary
production. He had spent years absorbed in court-
life and in an insatiable perusal of chivalrous romances,
but impressed by the great religious historic events then
acting on the world's theatre, the Eeformation, the hidden
springs of which his brother could from his own experi
ence explain, he found himself attracted by realities that
affected the- glory of God and the welfare of man.
Shortly after that Alfonso had put his dialogue on the
sack of Eome into circulation, Juan composed another,
entitled " Mercury and Charon." Its tendency is both poli
tical and religious. The author justifies the Emperor ; he
does so with respect to the challenge which he had given
to the King of France to fight him in duel, and he depicts
the then ruinously corrupt condition of the Eomish
Church. He eloquently accomplishes his design, prov
ing both his statements by arguments, evolved in con-

20 JUAN de VALDES.
versations, which the ferryman of the lower world holds
with different personages*) on their way there.
Compromised by this work with the Holy OflBce, the
Inquisition, Juan did not feel himself safe in Spain, and
about the year 1530 he left it for Naples, where the
Spanish Inquisition had not yet been established. In
1531 he went to Eome. In January 1533 we find
him nominated and acting as Chamberlain of the Pope
at Bologna. From thence he wrote to Dantiscus, Bishop
of Culm, an old friend of his brother Alfonso. This
letter is the only Latin document we have of Juan's, and
his only known autograph. The Pope and the Emperor
were at that time both present at Bologna. There
they concluded on February 24th a confederation, by
which the Pope promised to recommend to the Chris
tian princes the convocation of a General Council,
and to accelerate by Papal decision the validity of
Queen Catherine's, the Emperor's aunt's, marriage, she
having been repudiated by her husband, Henry VIIL,
King of England. The Papal decision, withheld untd.
15 34) ^^^ in favour of this unfortunate Queen, whom
Juan de Valdes had vigorously defended in his Dia
logue between Mercury and Charon. It was an act of
courtesy, so much the more refined, as it could not be
done without self-renunciation, that Clement VII. took
the author of this dialogue for his Chamberlain, he
having therein severely criticised this Pope's policy, and
being, moreover, the twin brother of Charles' late Secretary
of State, Alfonso, who had had a very serious altercation
with the Spanish Nuncio. Juan, however, did not stay
long at the Papal Court. Before Clement went to France
in the autumn of the same year, 1533, Valdes returned
from Eome to Naples, after an absence of two years, and
probably never again left this city and its environs.^)
At Naples he wrote in 1533 his Dialogue on Lan
guage, viz., the Spanish language, a work which is ao-

juAn de VALDf:S. 21
knowledged to be of high authority in relation to that
idiom. It was with difficulty that some friends pre
vailed upon him to devote his time to give these speci
mens of his literary studies and principles, for he had
already directed all his efforts to the composition of works
of a devotional and biblical character. Without depreciat
ing the various branches of what is called profane know
ledge, and especially the humaniora, still he had learned
in the school of St. Paul to rank the Gospel, forasmuch
as it affects salvation, far above aU worldly wisdom.
After his return from Eome to Naples he was surrounded
by the choicest spirits of Italy, comprising such men as
Marcantonio Flaminio and Carnesecchi, Ochino and Peter
Martyr Vermiglio. He had also, at that time, for his
pupUs and friends a circle of accomplished women, among
whom stood pre-eminently Giulia Gonzaga, a beauty praised
by Ariosto,*) and whose fame had spread so far, that
Barbarossa, an African corsair, in 1534, disembarked
near Fondi in the Terra di Lavoro, in order to kidnap
her as a present for the Sultan, a fate from which she
narrowly escaped.
During the Emperor's residence at Naples in 1536,
at one and the same time, Ochino preached there the
Lent sermons, with such wondrous power, that the
Emperor said "The stones must cry out;" Peter Martyr
convened assemblies, to whom he admirably expounded
the Scriptures ; whilst Juan de Valdes inspired aE amongst
whom he moved with evangelical spirit. It was then
that Giulia Gonzaga became desirous to learn how tb
live in newness of life, and asked of Valdes the way. His
Christian Alphabet is a dialogue sustained by him and
Giulia, and nothing could better serve to ¦ bring vividly
before us the religious movement then going on around
Valdds, and which, to the greatest extent, originated in
himself. Giulia soon withdrew into a nunnery at Naples,
where, without taking the vows, she found f^ quiet abode.

22 JUAN de VALDES.
and escaped being engulfed in the restless world, the peril,
which a lady of her rank and endowments could in those
days and in that place, scarcely otherwise avoid. The
Alphabet, which Valdes gave her as a primer, composed
with relation to her special personal requirements,') was
soon followed by his expositions of Scripture.
To Giulia Gonzaga he dedicated his own versions of
the Sacred Scriptures, translated from the Hebrew and
from the Greek into Spanish, and for her use did he
write his Commentaries upon them in the samelanguage ;
first the Psalms,*) then all St. Paul's Epistles, exclusive
of that to the Hebrews,^) those of St. Peter, lastly the
Gospel of St. Matthew, and possibly the other Gospels
likewise. Of all these, we have at present but St.
Matthew's Gospel, the Epistle to the Eomans, the first
Epistle to the Corinthians, and his Commentaries upon
those three books. We have his translation of the
Psalms, with his Commentary upon the first book, that
is, from the ist to the 41st Psalm inclusive.
Ancient translations of the Old Testament, from
Hebrew into Spanish, which had never been printed,
existed indeed in the days of Valdes ; but it would seem
that to Juan de Valdes the honour is due of having
been the first person, who undertook to translate the
New Testament from Greek into Spanish.-''')
He, moreover, composed numerous religious treatises in
Spanish. We have a collection of CX Considerations ;
nearly two-thirds of them are but Italian translations.
We have seven of his doctrinal Epistles in the original,
(Spanish), with an eighth in Italian; and of such
epistles he at least wrote thirty. Of his Discourses,
some two or three are known, but only as Italian trans
lations. Of his Questions and Answers, we know that
there were as many as thirty-three, but there is only one
extant, and that is found appended to the Alfabeto, an
Italian ' translation.-" )

J UAn DE'VALDiS. 23
In 1545 Valdes' treatise on Christian Eepen tance, on
Christian Faith, and on Christian Life, together with
four other of his minor works, were printed in
an Italian translation in Eome itself, in the very year
of the opening of the Council of Trent. In this
paper, of which the Spanish original has recently been
printed, he develops the following ideas: that had he had
to prescribe regulations for preaching the Gospel of Christ,
he would have prescribed that repentance should be
preached first; secondly, justification by faith; and thirdly,
connected with this article, the necessity of testifying to
Christian faith by Christian works ; which works, he
says, will be rewarded in the present life by corporeal
and spiritual benefits, and in the future life by graduated
glory. Moreover he suggests, that after three warnings,
the avaricious, the ambitious, the blasphemous, the
gluttonous, the luxurious, the quarrelsome, and those
who seek dishonest gains, and who delight in illicit
plays, and similarly those who are given to vain cere
monies and, superstitious customs, attributing to creatures
and to times and to words more than is becoming, and
than Holy Scripture and Christian faith attribute to
them, should be excommunicated. Then should we
he says, in our own age, see a Christian Church very
similar to that of the Apostolic age. Those, however, he
adds, who are not in this Church, must not think
themselves aliens to it, so long as they like to look at
the Christian life ; they will by prayer and labour get
into it themselves.
Juan has also written a Catechism, instruction for
children. The Spanish is lost, the Italian translation,
recently reprinted, is entitled, Spiritual Milk, and was
translated by Peter Paul Vergerio into Latin,^^) and again
from the Latin, translations were made into German and
Polish.-',^) Towards its close Valdes puts forward those
articles, in which advanced youth is afterwards to be in-

24 JUAN DE VALDJ&S.
structed ; as, for instance, the Lord's Supper and the Most
Holy Trinity.
Valdes' CX Considerations have been translated into
five languages ; they had also beeA retranslated into
Spanish before the originals of thirty-nine of them were
discovered. Three editions have appeared in English.
To the editor of the first English translation, Nicholas
Ferrar, who scrupulously hesitated to publish it, on
account of certain passages in the book, George Herbert
wrote in 1638 : "I wish you by all means to publish it,
for these three eminent things observable therein: First,
that God, in the midst of Popery, should open the eyes
of one to understand and express so clearly and excel
lently the intent of the Gpspel in the acceptation of
Christ's righteousness (as he showeth through all his
Considerations); a thing strangely buried and darkened
by the adversaries, and their great stumbling-block.
Secondly, the great honour and reverence which he
everywhere bears towards our dear Master and Lord,
concluding every Consideration almost with His holy
name, and setting his merit forth so piously, for which
I do so love him, that, were there nothing else, I would
print it, that with it, the honour of my Lord might be
published. Thirdly, the many pious rules of ordering
our life, about mortification, and observation of God's
kingdom within us, and the working thereof, of which
he was a very diligent observer. These three things
are very eminent in the author, and overweigh the
defects (as I conceive), towards the publishing there
of."") To Juan de Valdes' simple evangelical teaching is to
be traced back the book On the Beneflt of Christ. The
first author of it was a monk of the Black Benedictines,
called Don Benedetto, of Mantua, who wrote it in a
monastery of his order near Mount Etna ; then he asked
his friend Marcantonio Flaminio to polish it, in order to

JUAN de VALDES. 25
render it more attractive, and so Flaminio, while leaving
the subject imaltered, remodelled the excellent tract
according to his taste.") It was believed to have been
extirpated by the Inquisition, when it reappeared in
i8S5, reprinted from a copy preserved at Cambridge;
and it readily won the admiring love of all, who love the
Gospel. Many interesting statements on Valdes and the Val
desian movement are given by Carnesecchi, in his depo
sitions before the tribunal of the Inquisition at Eome.^°)
"Although I had known Juan Valdes at Eome in the
time of Pope Clement," ^^) Carnesecchi reports, "I can
not say that I knew him as a theologian before the year
1540 in Naples. For when in Eome, I did not know
that he applied himself to the study of sacred literature,
but I knew him only as a modest and well-bred courtier,
and as such I liked him very much, so that the inter
course and familiarity I afterwards had with him at
Naples was a continuation of our friendship made at
Eome; at Naples, however, the friendship grew to be a
spiritual one, for I found him entirely given up to the
Spirit, and whoEy intent on the study of Holy Scripture.
This, however, would not have, been sufficient with me,
to give him the credit I did, now that the gentiluomo di
^ada e cappa,t'h.e layman and courtier, had, for me, suddenly
become the theologian, had I not observed what a high
place he occupied in the eyes of Fra Bernardino Ochino,
who then was preaching, to the admiration of everybody,
at Naples, and who professed to receive the themes of
many of his sermons from Valdes, from whom he used
to get a note on the evening preceding the morning
on which he was to ascend the pulpit ;^^) and if Fra
Bernardino's opinion had not been in harmony with that
of Flaminio, whom I thought such a prudent and learned
man, that he would not have been imposed upon ; and
so sincere and worthy, that he would not ha-ve wished

26 juAn de valdAs.
to delude others ; especially such a great friend of his as
I was, and on a matter of such importance as religion."^^)
It was by Valdds that Flaminio had been led to the
conviction of justification by faith. ^*) Carnesecchi was
introduced by Valdes himself to Peter Martyr Ver
miglio, who was a great friend of the Spaniard. ^^)
At Naples, Carnesecchi lived in the house of Giulia
Gonzaga.^^) In a letter to her, written almost twenty
years afterwards, in 1559, he acknowledges that he
owed to her mediation the beneficent influence on him
of Valdes' holy teaching and of the intercourse with
this man, whom he knew before Donna Giulia, but
not in such a manner as to derive that benefit from it.^')
Her he expressly thanked, as well that he had been
delivered from superstitious and false religion, and had
placed the hope of his salvation, not in works, but in
faith, as also that he was kept within due limits and
not engulfed by Lutheranism.^^) He believed that those
who differed from the modern Eoman Church in the
article of justification, whilst keeping what he was
persuaded to be the true catholic and apostolic faith,
would be saved.^®) But although he accepted that fun
damental article of the German religious reform, he
disapproved of Luther's separation from the body of the
Catholic Church. That separation he saw especially mani
fested in the disobedience of the head of the Protestants,
by refusing to appear at the Council, and to submit to
its determination, and also by his contumacy against the
Apostolic See. This was likewise Flaminio's view.^")
Nor was Carnesecchi, when accepting the main doctrine
of Luther and of Valdes, aware of those consequences,
which, as he was afterwards told, derived from it, viz.,
" that we do not want the sacrament of penitence, nor
contrition, nor of satisfaction in order to regain grace lost
by mortal sin, nor of purgatory." ^^) Valdes and Flaminio
explained all this to him : justification by faith was

juAn de valdAs. 27
taught, not only by Holy Scripture, but also by all the
' chief doctors of the Church, by Augustine, by Chrysos-
tom, by Bernard, by Origen, by HUary, by Prosper, and
by others. Those doctors, it was true, in their sermons
to the people, extoUed works as necessary to salvation,
but they did so, only lest people should give themselves
over to licentiousness, which had been the case, Carne
secchi stated before his judges, in Germany, and in other
countries, where justification by faith alone had been
freely preached. His friends at Naples asserted, that all
true Christians believed this article, and if not explicitly,
yet implicitly, and if not earlier, it was revealed to them,
at death. When to such subtleties Carnesecchi replied :
that he found it strange that there were so few persons,
who held that faith ; they reminded him of the seven
thousand who had not bent their knees to Baal, and
moreover they said, that that section of modern preachers,
who suppressed that article, was. silenced only by the
same reserve which moved St. Augustine not to preach
on predestination, in order not to scandalise the weak
ones.^^) Valdes taught justification by faith, without
touching upon, and even without hinting at, those conse
quences ; be it, says Carnesecchi, that he did not accept
them, or be it that he dissimulated them, in order not to
scandalise his disciples. ^^) Carnesecchi was also of opinion,
according to Valdes' teaching, that he who felt himself
justified by faith, could count himself among the elect, and
might consequently be sure, or at least greatly confident,
' that he would be saved, if living that life which becomes
a true member of Christ, and if he showed his faith, when
soever he had an opportunity to do it, by his good works
and good habits ; though doing this from gratitude for the
benefit received, and in order to glorify God, and not in
order to acquire eternal life, this being acquired by the
merits of Christ, imputed to the believer. He did not,
however, deny, that grace and justification were, by

28 JUAN de VALDiS.
means of such works, augmented in this life, and higher
degrees of glory acquired in the life to come ; nor that
he who is justified must strive to become just in him
self, as he is just in Christ, acquiring the habit of this
righteousness formally, viz., procuring to have inherent
righteousness through love poured into the heart by the
Holy Spirit, not contenting himself with that righteous
ness which is imputed to him, and of which he partakes
by faith.'*)
Juan de Valdes died in the summer of 1541.^^) His
decease was placid.'*) He was, in his last illness, visited
by the Archbishop of Otranto, his dear friend, who
used to commend his writings and discourses in matters
of religion.'^) When, in 1543, the Archbishop, then a
member of the Council of Trent, and his friend Car
nesecchi, saw each other for the first time after Valdes'
death, and could pass an evening together, at Venice,
they, as it were, vied in expressing their admiration and
praise of that blessed divine.^*)
When Cardinal Pole had declared on his deathbed, in
1558, that he had always held the Pope, and particularly
the then present one, to be the true successor of St. Peter
and the Vicar of Christ, and that he never had dissented
from the Papal will nor from the belief of the Eoman
Church, such a declaration, given in the reign of Paul
IV., was by Carnesecchi deemed superfluous, not to say
scandalous. He and Giulia recollected that Juan de
Valdes had, neither in his testament nor in the discourses
shortly before his death, made any mention of the autho
rity of the Pope or of the succession to the apostolate
of Peter, but had simply testified that he died in the
same faith in which he had lived. Carnesecchi and
Giulia did not question the Pope's succession to Peter's
apostleship, but they believed the successors had got a
more limited authority over the Church than was gene
rally attributed to them, for they interpreted the Eoman

JUAN de VALDis. 29
primacy as indicative of distinction rather than of sway.^^)
Conscious, therefore, of their own dissent from the con
temporary Eomanism upon the article of justification, and
convinced that Pole had entertained their views, they
could not but regret his last declaration, which they
must have considered as apostasy or duplicity, at all
events as a symptom of weakness, upon the part of a
man whose death, at the first news of it, had been de
plored by them as a loss to their circle of more nearly
related fellow- worshippers.*") Vittoria Colonna was once
advised by Pole, in whom she confided as in an oracle,
to believe as if by faith alone she could be saved, and
to work as if her salvation depended upon her works.
Although she did not then succeed to get from him any
more definite opinion on justification,*^) still she gave
him to understand that she knew him to differ from the
views of the Council, when, just at the time that it de
creed that article, he had withdrawn from Trent to a more
salubrious place, on account of a catarrh.*^) In fact, he
acknowledged to Flaminio, that the term merits could
not properly be used of any other person than Christ.*')
From Viterbo, where she lived, as did also Pole, Car
nesecchi and Flaminio, in December 1541, Vittoria ex
pressed thanks to Giulia for having sent to her there
Valdes' Commentary on St. Paul, epistles "so much desired
by those friends, but most by herself, who needed it most;''
Vittoria invited Giulia to eome herself. " Certainly," she
writes, " it would be convenient, that, after being so well
informed on the true celestial fatherland, you revisited a
little your country Lombardy, for you could also help
much." **) Caterina Cibo, Duchess of Camerino, likewise
believed in justification by faith, conforming to Vald&'
doctrine, and had evangelists recommended to her by
Carnesecchi.*') The Cardinals Contarini and Badia
approved of the writings of Juan de Valdds.*^)
Soon after the death of Valdfe, Vermiglio and Ochino

30 JUAN DE VALD£s.
left Italy, where liberty of preaching was no longer left
them. For a short period the press at Venice was stdl
suffered to spread evangelical literature. The Benefit of
Christ was printed there and circulated in tens of thou
sands of copies. About the year of the opening of the
Council of Trent, 1545, several works of Juan de Valdds
were published at Venice. Together with his brother's
dialogue on the sack of Eome, there appeared Juan's
Dialogue between Mercury and Charon, his Christian
Alphabet, and seven of his tracts on the fundamental
doctrines of Christianity.*'') In i 548 such laxity of the
press was stopped. Valdes' Considerations were printed
at Basle, where they appeared in 1550 in Italian. The
Commentaries on the Eomans and on the First Epistle to
the Corinthians were edited in 1556-57 at Geneva.
Juan Perez, the editor of both the Commentaries,
dedicated that on the First Epistle to the Corinthians
to Maximilian, the future Emperor. In this Prince's
library have been preserved the MS. 1 copies of several of
Valdes' works not to be found elsewhere : the Gospel
by St. Matthew, with its Commentary, the translation of
the Psalms, thirty-nine of the CX Considerations, seven
Doctrinal Letters, the treatise on Eepentance, Faith, and
Life, which all of them had to wait three hundred years
before they were printed. Valdes' Commentary on the
first hook of the Psalms, from the first to the forty-first,
in MS. in Spanish, awaits a Meccenas to defray the
expense of its publication. When persecution became
oppressive in the Neapolitan realm, some withdrew
beyond the Alps,**) many recanted, many suffered capital
punishment. Giulia Gonzaga, who strictly kept to the
faith imbibed by the guidance of Valdes and to the
practice recommended her by him,*^) was summoned to
Eome, but God by death mercifully released her from
more painful and fearful experience. She died at her
retreat in the Neapolitan convent, in the year 1566.

JUAn de VALDtS. 31
The Inquisition seized Giulia Gonzaga's papers, and
found amongst them the letters which Carnesecchi,
through a long series of years, had written to her. In
vain he urged that the doctrine of Valdds on justifica
tion could not be considered to have been heretical
until the Council had determined that it was so ; that
high authorities and dignitaries had adhered to it ;
that he himself, ever previously fluctuating in his
mind, had at last acquiesced in what the Council had
ultimately decreed and the Pope had approved.^") He
ingenuously confessed, it is true,, as for the relation of
inherent justice to that which is imputed, that he, not
knowing exactly to discern the difference between the
opinion of Valdds and the determination of the Council,
was not yet quite resolved whether he ought to condemn
Vald&' doctrine on this point or not; but he declared
he would submit to his judges, his intention being en
tirely to conform himself, in this as well as in all other
articles, to the orthodox Catholic faith.'') On some cap
tious question he also reminded them of his not being
a theologian.'^) He was beheaded and burnt in 1567.
Soon every spark of evangelical life within the reach of
the Inquisition was stifled.")

AN EPIGRAM OF DANIEL ROGERS ON THE
DEA TH OF JOHN JE WELL,
BISHOP OF SALISBURY,
Inserted at the end of Lawrence Humphrey's Life and Death of Jeiveil,
published by John Day, a.d. 1573.

ON THE MORE PURE THEOLOGIANS [THE REFORMERS]
OE DIPPEEENT COUNTRIES.

The Italians -svill evermore assert the claims of the divine Martyr
(Peter Martyr Vermiglio).
France may extol her Calvin to the stars.
Germany may boast and pride berself upon Melancthon,
And Luther drag, in the same triumphal car with him :
Neither may Bonn, O Bucer, forget thine honours,
She having, through thy name, gained the highest illustration.
May Zwinglius live for ever on Swiss lips,
Whilst BuUinger's memory shall never die amongst the inhabitants
, of Zurich.
Alasco's fame let it be reno-vmed through Poland :
John Huss be celebrated through Bohemia.
Hemming's intelligent labours, let the Danes acknowledge.
May John Knox's teaching characterise all Scotland.
Of ValdSs, as an author, let all Spain he proud.
Hyperius, let Belgian verse worthily extol.
Let every region honour the name of its own teacher,
And show itself grateful to its own preceptors.
But happy England, may she rejoice in thee, 0 Jewell,
And laud, in one for aU, thee, her own Teacher.

Dalb^e' IReliglous WorFis in jEnallsb.

The Editor has translated all the subjoined works, and
has published them, excepting the Commentaries upon
the Eomans and the Corinthians.
I. "Valdes' XVII Opuscules," his recently discovered
Minor Works. Price 6s.
2. " Valdes' Commentary upon St. Matthew's Gospel,"
with Professor Boehmer's Lives of Judn and Alfonso
de Valdes. Price 7s. 6d.
3. "Valdes' Spiritual Milk; " or. Instruction for the Chil
dren of Christian Parents. Translated from the Italian
(the editio prineeps) most recently discovered by Boeh
mer ; appended to which are his Lives. Price 2s.
4. "Three Opuscules." An extract from Valdes' Minor
Works. Price is.
5- "Valdes' Commentary upon our Lord's Sermon on
the Mount." An extract from "Valdes' Commentary
upon St. Matthew's Gospel," with Boehmer's Lives.
Price 2S. 6d.
6. Professor Boehmer's Lives of the twin brothers, Ju4n and
Alfonso de Valdfe, with Editor's Introduction. Price is.
7. " Valdes' Commentary upon St. Paul's Epistle to the
Romans." Price 7s. 6d.
8. " Valdes' Commentary upon the First Epistle to the
Corinthians." Price 7s. 6d.

Messrs. Trubner & Co., 57 Ludgate Hill, London.

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