Bible Commentaries

CONTENTS

The Psalmist is here under affliction. He crieth to God. In the conclusion, he takes comfort in the consciousness that his prayer had been heard, and he shall triumph over all his enemies.

To the chief musician on Neginoth upon Sheminith. A Psalm of David.

We may, without the smallest injury to the grand point this Psalm hath in view, I mean, its pointed reference to Christ, look at David as speaking also of his own personal afflictions. David had a large portion of sorrow in himself, in his family and kingdom. But the beauty of the Psalm is as it beholds Christ in his strong crying and tears, when taking upon him our nature, and becoming sin for the church, that the church might be made the righteousness of God in him. If we eye the Redeemer as the sinner's surety, we shall then enter into a right apprehension of what he saith under the divine chastisement for sin. All the cries of Jesus are expressive of this. Hence it is said by him to the Father, reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. Psalms 69:20.

The Reader will not fail to discover Christ in this supplication, when he recollects how Jesus complained in the garden, when he said, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Matthew 26:38. .Reader! think how blessed and accommodating this view of Jesus is to the lesser sorrows of his people! And think also how sure the cries of his people are to be heard by him, when we call to mind that in all things Jesus was made like to his people, that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest; and in that he hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. Hebrews 2:17-18.

When we read this petition as the words of Christ in the flesh, how much strength do we derive from the thought that, if in the long waiting of our souls for the Lord's manifestation, we find Jesus exercised in the same before us, and therefore are in this way also made in conformity to our glorious Head; so by those exercises of the Son of God, we cannot but know that he takes interest in all that we encounter.

Hezekiah made use of this very argument, and a sweet one it is, and proved most successful. Isaiah 38:18.

We need only to compare scripture with scripture, to discover that it is Jesus of whom the prophet here speaks. Psalms 22:1-2. But, Reader! do not hastily pass over this review. Did Jesus cry and groan, and was he weary of it? Whence all this? The answer is at hand: In all this Jesus acted as the sinner's surety. Hence terror beset him on every side: his holy soul was full of horrors and the darkness of death. He sustained all that was the sinner's due, that he might expiate sin by the sacrifice of himself. Hence the surety bleeds, and groans, and dies, that the principal, for whom he suffered, might go free. Hence Jesus trembles, and complains of being forsaken, that his people, his redeemed, might have the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Isaiah 61:3. And was this the cause for which Jesus groaned and died? Oh! love unequalled! Oh! matchless grace! Shall my soul ever lose sight of thee, and of thy love? Shall I ever, by unbelief and disobedience, doubt thy love anymore, thou blessed Jesus?

Reader, do not fail to remark the holy triumph here expressed, and with which the Psalm concludes, as the sure result of covenant love, both as it belongs to our glorious Head, and, in him, to all his members. Who that reads this can overlook the scripture in which the prophetical language of this Psalm, as referring to the person of Jesus, is brought forward as then to be finally fulfilled, in which the very words the master of the house shall say are already recorded, and are exactly the same as here? See Luke 13:27. And who that compares both scriptures, but must immediately be convinced that it is principally with an eye to Jesus this Psalm was written, whatever personal afflictions David Himself, the writer of it, might be exercised with.

REFLECTIONS

MY soul! see, I charge it upon thee this day, see that thy perusal of these precious portions of scripture be all directed to the discovery of him, to whom all the prophets gave witness; that wheresoever in the blessed book of God thy meditations are directed, thou dost search for Jesus as for hidden treasure. He will be found of them that seek him. He will never say (for he hath never said) to any of the praying seed of David, seek ye my face in vain. And oh! thou blessed Holy One of God! wilt thou not now, as in the days that are past, wilt thou not draw nigh to those who desire to draw nigh unto thee, and, by the sweet teachings and influences of thy blessed Spirit, make precious discoveries of all things which are written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning thyself?

My soul! pause one moment longer over this divine Psalm, that contains in its bosom so much of Jesus! Did thy Lord thus groan, thus cry out, and was his precious soul thus deeply exercised, when he stood forth as thy Surety? Did Jehovah thus bruise him, and put him to grief? And in the seasons of these chastisements, did the Father love him with a love that passeth knowledge? Nay, did the Father therefore love him because he laid down his life, and made his soul an offering for sin? Oh! then, learn henceforth how rightly to estimate afflictions. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth; Nay, my soul, recollect, if we endure chastening, God dealeth with us as with sons. Oh Lamb of God! cause me to forget my afflictions in the view of thine. Thou drankest the very dregs of the cup of trembling; that thy redeemed might drink of the cup of salvation. Thou, the glorious Head of thy church, didst take out all the sting of sorrow in the sting of death, which is sin, that thy members might feel no sting in their sorrows, from their interest and union in thee. Hail! thou now risen, exalted, and triumphant Saviour; thou hast now conquered ail thine enemies, and our victory is secured in thine! Even now, in thy strength and righteousness, we bid all workers of iniquity to depart from us; for our persons and prayers are accepted in thee, and ere long we shall sit down with thee in thy throne, even as thou hast overcome, and art sat down with thy Father in his throne. Amen.