Bible Commentaries

CONTENTS

The Psalmist is still before the mercy seat at his devotions, The subject is that general one, of the oppression of the wicked, and their triumphs. Deliverance is humbly sought for, and due confidence in divine mercy professed.

Psalms 10:1

From the authority given to us in other parts of Scripture, to interpret, in numberless instances, the Psalms as referring primarily, and in their most important sense, to the person and offices of the Mediator, we may very safely, in places less clear, be upon the lookout for discoveries to the same blessed and profitable purpose. In this Psalm, which is without a title, (and probably, therefore, in the Septuagint translation is joined with the foregoing), we may exercise this inquiry for Jesus to no small advantage. When we hear Jesus on the cross complaining of his Father's desertion, we may be assured that he takes interest in what concerns the Divine withdrawings from his people. And it is both sweet and consolatory to a soul under the Lord's hidings, to recollect, that the great Head, like the members, was so exercised. Mark 15:34.

Here is an awful description in part of the ungodly, as it concerns God's people, how his hatred against God is manifested. There is, there must be, an everlasting and irreconcilable enmity in the seed of the serpent to the seed of the woman. 'I will put', saith God, 'enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed'. Genesis 3:15. Hence the Redeemer saith, Marvel not if the world hate you. John 15:18-19.

Here the picture of the ungodly is finished, and an awful finishing it is. Hatred to God, despising his laws, his ways, his judgments; and, more especially, a bitterness towards that plan of salvation by his Son, which is the wisdom of God, in a mystery: here the malignity of the ungodly most violently manifests itself. And what I would more particularly desire the Reader to remark with me in these observation is, that all this is directed against the person and offices of the Lord Jesus. Here it was the malignity of the serpent first broke out; and here it is that his seed most pointedly show the bitterness of their hatred. So that in the reading of this Psalm, we cannot overlook the interest that Christ hath in it, in what so eminently belongs to the hatred his seed suffer from their connection with him. Precious Jesus! if they called the master of the house Beelzebub, well may they so call them of his household.

Having taken a view of the enemies of God and of his Christ, and of their hatred to him and his people, in these verses a cry is put up, that God would, agreeably to his promise, for the oppression of the poor and the sighing of the needy, arise. Psalms 12:5. Why should the proud thus break down the helpless? Wherefore should the wicked thus blaspheme God? These are strong arguments, and the petitioner finds the comfort of faith in the exercise of them; for in the following verses, with which the Psalmist closeth, he rejoiceth as if the thing was done. The Lord had shown his sovereignty, had heard the prayers of his people, redressed their wrongs, and put their foes to silence.

Nothing can be more beautiful than this close. By strong faith in the divine goodness, though the Psalm began under the deepest sorrow, in the apprehension of God's withdrawing, yet now, taking confidence in the faithfulness of Jehovah, here is full triumph. The cause of Christ, his Church, his redeemed, is God's own cause; and while the Lord Jehovah is preparing mercy for his redeemed, and deliverance from all their enemies, he is preparing their hearts to receive it. And the deliverance shall be so great, their triumphs so complete, and their salvation so finished, that the man of sin shall no more be permitted to oppress them. Hallelujah. Amen.

REFLECTIONS

READER, let you and I pause over this divine Psalm. Whether it be the blessed Mediator, as man's surety, thus pleading concerning his own afflictions, and the afflictions of his people, under the hidings of the Father's countenance; or whether it be the cries of his church, or any individual of the church, thus pleading before the throne; in either sense, we may feelingly remark how heavy, and how grievous the burthen, when exercised saints are under the double distress of the persecutions of the ungodly, and the frowns or hidings of the Lord. "How long, O Lord, how long?" is the cry of his poor, needy, and sorrowful ones, when the enemy triumphs, and our God conceals his face.

But reader, even here, and under the deepest soul-sorrow, let us take comfort, that their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. We cannot run with them to the same excess of riot; we cannot think, much less speak, lightly of our God. They are, as the Apostle speaks, covetous, proud, boasters, implacable, unmerciful. Their wine is the wine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall; their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. Precious Lord Jesus we thank thee for thy distinguishing tokens of grace, even when our souls are most afflicted, and when the enemy triumphs.

Lastly, Reader, under all your exercises, look to Jesus, and never, never forget that the Lord is King forever and ever; and the Heathen are perished out of his land. Yet a little while, and the ungodly shall be cut down as the grass, and be withered even as the green herb; while the righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree, and spread abroad as the cedar in Lebanon. Blessed Jesus! in thy light we shall see light. There is a rest that remaineth for the people of God. Into that rest, which is thyself, thou wilt ere long bring all thy people, and thy ransomed shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads, and they shall obtain joy and gladness; and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.