Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/spurgeon/ps11.1

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        SUBJECT.--Charles Simeon gives an excellent summary of
this Psalm in the following sentences:--"The Psalms are a rich
repository of experimental knowledge. David, at the different
periods of his life, was placed in almost every situation in
which a believer, whether rich or poor, can be placed; and in
these heavenly compositions he delineates all the workings of the
heart. He introduces, too, the sentiments and conduct of the
various persons who were accessory either to his troubles or his
joys; and thus sets before us a compendium of all that is passing
in the hearts of men throughout the world. When he penned this
Psalm he was under persecution from Saul, who sought his life,
and hunted him 'as a partridge upon the mountains.' His timid
friends were alarmed for his safety, and recommended him to flee
to some mountain where he had a hiding-place, and thus to conceal
himself from the rage of Saul. But David, being strong in faith,
spurned the idea of resorting to any such pusillanimous
expedients, and determined confidently to repose his trust in
God."

        To assist us to remember this short, but sweet Psalm, we
will give it the name of 'THE SONG OF THE STEDFAST.'

        DIVISION. From #1-3|, David describes the temptation with
which he was assailed, and from #4-7|, the arguments by which his
courage was sustained.

                           EXPOSITION.

        These verses contain an account of a temptation to
distrust God, with which David was, upon some unmentioned
occasion, greatly exercised. It may be, that in the days when he
was in Saul's court, he was advised to flee at a time when this
flight would have been charged against him as a breach of duty to
the king, or a proof of personal cowardice. His case was like
that of Nehemiah, when his enemies, under the garb of friendship,
hoped to entrap him by advising him to escape for his life. Had
he done so, they could then have found a ground of accusation.
Nehemiah bravely replied, "Shall such a man as I flee?" and
David, in a like spirit, refuses to retreat, exclaiming, "_In the
Lord put I my trust; how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to
your mountain_?" When Satan cannot overthrow us by presumption,
how craftily will he seek to ruin us by distrust! He will employ
our dearest friends to argue us out of our confidence, and he
will use such plausible logic, that unless we once for all assert
our immovable trust in Jehovah, he will make us like the timid
bird which flies to the mountain whenever danger presents itself.
How forcibly the case is put! The bow is bent, the arrow is
fitted to the string: "Flee, flee, thou defenceless bird, thy
safety lies in flight; begone, for thine enemies will send their
shafts into thy heart; haste, haste, for soon wilt thou be
destroyed!" David seems to have felt the force of the advice, for
it came home _to his soul_; but yet he would not yield, but would
rather dare the danger than exhibit a distrust in the Lord his
God. Doubtless, the perils which encompassed David were great and
imminent; it was quite true that his enemies were _ready_ to
_shoot privily_ at him; it was equally correct that the very
_foundations_ of law and justice were _destroyed_ under Saul's
unrighteous government: but what were all these things to the man
whose trust was in God alone? He could brave the dangers, could
escape the enemies, and defy the injustice which surrounded him.
His answer to the question, "What can the righteous do?" would be
the counter-question, "What cannot they do?" When prayer engages
God on our side, and when faith secures the fulfillment of the
promise, what cause can there be for flight, however cruel and
mighty our enemies? With a sling and a stone, David had smitten a
giant before whom the whole hosts of Israel were trembling, and
the Lord, who delivered him from the uncircumcised Philistine,
could surely deliver him from King Saul and his myrmidons. There
is no such word as "impossibility" in the language of faith; that
martial grace knows how to fight and conquer, but she knows not
how to flee.

              EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

        Whole Psalm.--The most probable account of the occasion
of this Psalm is that given by Amyraldus. He thinks it was
composed by David while he was in the court of Saul, at a time
when the hostility of the king was beginning to show itself, and
before it had broken out into open persecution. David's friends,
or those professing to be so, advised him to flee to his native
mountains for a time, and remain in retirement, till the king
should show himself more favourable. David does not at that time
accept the counsel, though afterwards he seems to have followed
it. This Psalm applies itself to the establishment of the church
against the calumnies of the world and the compromising counsel
of man, in that confidence which is to be placed in God the Judge
of all.--^W. Wilson, D.D., in loc., 1860.

        Whole Psalm.--If one may offer to make a modest
conjecture, it is not improbable this Psalm might be composed on
the sad murder of the priests by Saul (#1Sa 22:19|), when after
the slaughter of Abimelech, the high priest, Doeg, the Edomite,
by command from Saul, "slew in one day fourscore and five persons
which wore a linen ephod." I am not so carnal as to build the
spiritual church of the Jews on the material walls of the
priests' city at Nob (which then by Doeg was smitten with the
edge of the sword), but this is most true, that "knowledge must
preserve the people;" and (#Mal 2:7|), "The priests' lips shall
preserve knowledge;" and then it is easy to conclude, what an
earthquake this massacre might make in the _foundations of
religion_.--^Thomas Fuller.

        Whole Psalm.--Notice how remarkably the whole Psalm
corresponds with the deliverance of Lot from Sodom. This verse,
with the angel's exhortation, "Escape to the mountains, lest thou
be consumed," and Lot's reply, "I cannot escape to the mountains,
lest some evil take me and I die." #Ge 19:17-19|. And again,
"_The Lord's seat is in heaven, and upon the ungodly he shall
rain snares, fire, brimstone, storm and tempest_," with "Then the
Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire out of
heaven:" and again, "_His countenance will behold the thing that
is just_," with "Delivered just Lot ... for that righteous man
vexed his righteous soul with their ungodly deeds." #2Pe
2:7,8|.--^Cassiodorus (A.D., 560) in John Mason Neale's
"Commentary on the Psalms, from Primitive and Medieval Writers,"
1860.

        Whole Psalm.--The combatants at the Lake Thrasymene are
said to have been so engrossed with the conflict, that neither
party perceived the convulsions of nature that shook the ground--

        "An earthquake reeled unheedingly away,
        None felt stern nature rocking at his feet."

From a nobler cause, it is thus with the soldiers of the Lamb.
They believe, and, therefore, make no haste; nay, they can
scarcely be said to feel earth's convulsions as other men,
because their eager hope presses forward to the issue at the
advent of the Lord.--^Andrew A. Bonar.

        Verse 1.--"_I trust in the Lord: how do ye say to my
soul, Swerve on to your mountain like a bird_?" (others, "_O thou
bird_.") Saul and his adherents mocked and jeered David with such
taunting speeches, as conceiving that he knew no other shift or
refuge, but so betaking himself unto wandering and lurking on the
mountains; hopping, as it were, from one place to another like a
silly bird; but they thought to ensnare and take him well enough
for all that, not considering God who was David's comfort, rest
and refuge.--^Theodore Haak's "Translation of the Dutch
Annotations, as ordered by the Synod of Dort, in 1618." London,
1657.

        Verse 1.--"_With Jehovah I have taken shelter; how say ye
to my soul, Flee, sparrows, to your hill_?"  "_Your hill_," that
hill from which you say your help cometh: a sneer. Repair to that
boasted hill, which may indeed give you the help which it gives
the sparrow: a shelter against the inclemencies of a stormy sky,
no defence against our power.--^Samuel Horsley, in loc.

        Verse 1.--"_In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my
soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain_?" The holy confidence of
the saints in the hour of great trial is beautifully illustrated
by the following ballad which Anne Askew, who was burned at
Smithfield in 1546, made and sang when she was in Newgate:--

 Like as the armed knight,      | On thee my care I cast,
 Appointed to the field,        | For all their cruel spite:
 With this world will I fight,  | I set not by their haste;
 And Christ shall be my shield. | For thou art my delight.
                                |
 Faith is that weapon strong,   | I am not she that list
 Which will not fail at need:   | My anchor to let fall
 My foes, therefore, among      | For every drizzling mist,
 Therewith will I proceed.      | My ship substantial.
                                |
 As it is had in strength       | Not oft use I to write,
 And force of Christe's way,    | In prose, nor yet in rhyme;
 It will prevail at length,     | Yet will I shew one sight
 Though all the devils say nay. | That I saw in my time.
                                |
 Faith in the fathers old       | I saw a royal throne,
 Obtained righteousness;        | Where justice should have sit,
 Which make me very bold        | But in her stead was one
 To fear no world's distress.   | Of moody, cruel wit.
                                |
 I now rejoice in heart,        | Absorbed was righteousness.
 And hope bids me do so;        | As of the raging flood:
 For Christ will take my part,  | Satan, in his excess,
 And ease me of my woe.         | Sucked up the guiltless blood.
                                |
 Thou say'st Lord, whoso knock, | Then thought I, Jesus Lord,
 To them wilt thou attend:      | When thou shall judge us all,
 Undo therefore the lock,       | Hard it is to record
 And thy strong power send.     | On these men what will fall.
                                |
 More enemies now I have        | Yet, Lord, I thee desire,
 Than hairs upon my head:       | For that they do to me,
 Let them not me deprave,       | Let them not taste the hire
 But fight thou in my stead.    | Of their iniquity.

        Verse 1.--"_How say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your
mountain_?" We may observe, that David is much pleased with the
metaphor in frequently comparing himself to a bird, and that of
several sorts: first, to an eagle (#Ps 103:5|), "My youth is
renewed like the eagle's;" sometimes to an owl (#Ps 102:6|), "I
am like an owl in the desert;" sometimes to a pelican, in the
same verse, "Like a pelican in the wilderness;" sometimes to a
sparrow (#Ps 102:7|), "I watch, and am as a sparrow; " sometimes
to a partridge, "As when one doth hunt a partridge." I cannot say
that he doth compare himself to a dove, but he would compare
himself (#Ps 55:6|), "O that I had the wings of a dove, for then
I would flee away, and be at rest." Some will say, How is it
possible that birds of so different a feather should all so fly
together as to meet in the character of David? To whom we answer,
That no two men can more differ one from another, than the same
servant of God at several times differeth from himself. David in
prosperity, when commanding, was like an _eagle_; in adversity,
when contemned, like an _owl_; in devotion, when retired, like a
_pelican_; in solitariness, when having no company, like a
_sparrow_; in persecution, when fearing too much company (of
_Saul_), like a _partridge_. This general metaphor of a _bird_,
which David so often used on himself, his enemies in the first
verse of this Psalm used on him, though not particularising the
kind thereof: "_Flee as a bird to your mountain_;" that is,
speedily betake thyself to thy God, in whom thou hopest for
succour and security.

        Seeing this counsel was both good in itself, and good at
this time, why doth David seem so angry and displeased thereat?
Those his words, "_Why say you to my soul, Flee as a bird to your
mountain_?" import some passion, at leastwise, a disgust of the
advice. It is answered, David was not offended with the counsel,
but with the manner of the propounding thereof. His enemies did
it ironically in a gibing, jeering way, as if his flying thither
were to no purpose, and he unlikely to find there the safety he
sought for. However, David was not hereby put out of conceit with
the counsel, beginning this Psalm with this his firm resolution,
"_In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye then to my soul_," etc.
Learn we from hence, when men give us good counsel in a jeering
way, let us take the counsel, and practise it; and leave them the
jeer to be punished for it. Indeed, corporal cordials may be
envenomed by being wrapped up in poisoned papers; not so good
spiritual advice where the good matter receives no infection from
the ill manner of the delivery thereof. Thus, when the chief
priests mocked our Saviour (#Mt 27:43|), "He trusteth in God, let
him deliver him now if he will have him." Christ trusted in God
never a whit the less for the fleere and flout which their
profaneness was pleased to bestow upon him. Otherwise, if men's
mocks should make us to undervalue good counsel, we might in this
age be mocked out of our God, and Christ, and Scripture, and
heaven; the apostle Jude, verse #Jude 1:18|, having foretold that
in the last times there should be mockers, walking after their
own lusts.--^Thomas Fuller.

        Verse 1.--It is as great an offence to make a new, as to
deny the true God. "_In the Lord put I my trust_;" how then "_say
ye unto my soul_" (ye seducers of souls), "_that she should fly
unto the mountains as a bird_;" to seek unnecessary and foreign
helps, as if the Lord alone were not sufficient? "The Lord is my
rock, and my fortress, and he that delivereth me, my God, and my
strength; in him will I trust: my shield, the horn of my
salvation, and my refuge. I will call upon the Lord, who is
worthy to be praised, so shall I be safe from mine enemies."
"Whom have I in heaven but thee," amongst those thousands of
angels and saints, what Michael or Gabriel, what Moses or Samuel,
what Peter, what Paul? "and there is none in earth that I desire
in comparison of thee."--^John King, 1608.

        Verse 1.--In temptations of inward trouble and terror, it
is not convenient to dispute the matter with Satan. David in #Ps
42:11|, seems to correct himself for his mistake; his soul was
cast down within him, and for the cure of that temptation, he had
prepared himself by arguments for a dispute; but perceiving
himself in a wrong course, he calls off his soul from disquiet to
an immediate application to God and the promises, "Trust still in
God, for I shall yet praise him;" but here he is more aforehand
with his work; for while his enemies were acted by Satan to
discourage him, he rejects the temptation at first, before it
settled upon his thoughts, and chaseth it away as a thing that he
would not give ear to. "_In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye
to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain_?" And there are
weighty reasons that should dissuade us from entering the lists
with Satan in temptation of inward trouble.--^Richard Gilpin.

        Verse 1.--The shadow will not cool except in it. What
good to have the shadow though of a mighty rock, when we sit in
the open sun? To have almighty power engaged for us, and we to
throw ourselves out of it, by bold sallies in the mouth of
temptation! The saints' falls have been when they have run out of
their trench and stronghold; for, like the conies, they are a
weak people in themselves, and their strength lies in the rock of
God's almightiness, which is their habitation.--^William Gurnall.

        Verse 1.--The saints of old would not accept deliverances
on base terms. They scorned to fly away for the enjoyment of rest
except it were with the wings of a dove, covered with silver
innocence. As willing were many of the martyrs to die, as to
dine. The tormentors were tired in torturing Blandina. "We are
ashamed, O Emperor! The Christians laugh at your cruelty, and
grow the more resolute," said one of Julian's nobles. This the
heathen counted obstinacy; but they knew not the power of the
Spirit, nor the secret armour of proof which saints wear about
their hearts.--^John Trapp.

        Verse 2.--"_For, lo, the wicked bend their bow_," etc.
This verse presents an unequal combat betwixt _armed power,
advantaged with policy_, on the one side; and _naked innocence_
on the other. First, _armed power_: "_They bend their-bows, and
make ready their arrows_," being all the artillery of that age;
secondly, _advantaged with policy_: "_that they may privily
shoot_," to surprise them with an ambush unawares, probably
pretending amity and friendship unto them; thirdly, _naked
innocence_: if innocence may be termed naked, which is its own
armour; "_at the upright in heart_."--^Thomas Fuller.

        Verse 2.--"_For, lo, the ungodly bend their bow, and make
ready their arrows within the quiver: that they may privily shoot
at them which are true of heart_." The plottings of the chief
priests and Pharisees that they might take Jesus by subtlety and
kill him. They bent their bow, when they hired Judas Iscariot for
the betrayal of his Master; they made ready their arrows within
the quiver when they sought "false witnesses against Jesus to put
him to death." #Mt 26:59|. "_Them which are true of heart_." Not
alone the Lord himself, the only true and righteous, but his
apostles, and the long line of those who should faithfully cleave
to him from that time to this. And as with the Master, so with
the servants: witness the calumnies and the revilings that from
the time of Joseph's accusation by his mistress till the present
day, have been the lot of God's people.--^Michael Ayguan, 1416,
in J. M. Neale's Commentary.

        Verse 2.--"_That they may secretly shoot at them which
are upright in heart_." They bear not their bows and arrows as
scarecrows in a garden of cucumbers, to fray, but _to shoot_, not
at stakes, but men; their arrows are _jacula mortifera_ (#Ps
7|.), deadly arrows, and lest they should fail to hit, they take
advantage of the dark, of privacy and secrecy; they shoot
_privily_. Now this is the covenant of hell itself. For what
created power in the earth is able to dissolve that work which
_cruelty_ and _subtlety_, like Simeon and Levi, brothers in evil,
are combined and confederate to bring to pass? Where subtlety is
ingenious, insidious to invent, cruelty barbarous to execute,
subtlety giveth counsel, cruelty giveth the stroke. Subtlety
ordereth the time, the place, the means, accommodateth,
concinnateth circumstances; cruelty undertaketh the act: subtlety
hideth the knife, cruelty cutteth the throat: subtlety with a
cunning head layeth the ambush, plotteth the train, the
stratagem; and cruelty with as savage a heart, sticketh not at
the dreadfullest, direfullest objects, ready to wade up to the
ankles, the neck, in a whole red sea of human, yea, country
blood: how fearful is their plight that are thus
assaulted!--^John King.

        Verse 3.--"_If the foundations be destroyed, what can the
righteous do_?" But now we are met with a giant objection, which
with Goliath must be removed, or else it will obstruct our
present proceedings. Is it possible that the _foundations of
religion_ should be destroyed? Can God be in so long a sleep,
yea, so long a lethargy, as patiently to permit the ruins
thereof? If he looks on, and yet doth not see these _foundations_
when destroyed, where then is his _omnisciency_? If he seeth it,
and cannot help it, where then is his _omnipotency_? If he seeth
it, can help it, and will not, where then is his _goodness_ and
_mercy_? Martha said to Jesus (#Joh 11:21|), "Lord, if thou hadst
been here, my brother had not died." But many will say, Were God
effectually present in the world with his aforesaid attributes,
surely the _foundations_ had not _died_, had not been
_destroyed_. We answer negatively, that it is impossible that the
_foundations_ of religion should ever be totally and finally
_destroyed_, either in relation to the church in general, or in
reference to every true and lively member thereof. For the first,
we have an express promise of Christ. #Mt 16:18|. "The gates of
hell shall not prevail against it." _Fundamenta tamen stant
inconcussa Sionis_. And as for every particular Christian (#2Ti
2:19|), "Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure,
having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his." However,
though for the reasons aforementioned in the objections (the
inconsistency thereof with the attributes of God's omnipotency,
omnisciency, and goodness), the _foundations_ can never totally
and finally, yet may they partially be destroyed, _quoad gradum_,
in a fourfold degree, as followeth. First, _in the desires and
utmost endeavours of wicked men_.

                          - 1. Hoc velle,
        They bring their -| 2. Hoc agere,
                          - 3. Totum posse.

        If they _destroy_ not the foundations, it is no thanks to
them, seeing all the world will bear them witness they have done
_their best_ (that is, _their worst_), what their might and
malice could perform. Secondly, _in their own vainglorious
imaginations_: they may not only vainly boast, but also verily
believe that they have _destroyed the foundations_. Applicable to
this purpose, is that high rant of the Roman emperor (#Lu 2:1|):
"And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree
from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed." All
the world! whereas he had, though much, not all in Europe, little
in Asia, less in Africa, none in America, which was so far from
being conquered, it was not so much as known to the Romans. But
_hyperbole_ is not a figure, but the ordinary language of pride;
because indeed Augustus had very much, he proclaimeth himself to
have all the world. ... Thirdly, _the foundations may be
destroyed_ as to all outward visible illustrious apparition. The
church in persecution is like unto a ship in a tempest; down go
all their masts, yea, sometimes for the more speed they are
forced to cut them down: not a piece of canvas to play with the
winds, no sails to be seen; they lie close knotted to the very
keel, that the tempest may have the less power upon them, though
when the storm is over, they can hoist up their sails as high,
and spread their canvas as broad as ever before. So the church in
the time of persecution _feared_, but especially _felt_, loseth
all gayness and gallantry which may attract and allure the eyes
of beholders, and contenteth itself with its own secrecy. In a
word, on the work-days of affliction she weareth her worst
clothes, whilst her best are laid up in her wardobe, in sure and
certain hope that God will give her a _holy_ and _happy day_,
when with joy she shall wear her best garments. Lastly, they may
be _destroyed_ in the _jealous apprehensions_ of the best saints
and servants of God, especially in their melancholy fits. I will
instance in no puny, but in a star of the first magnitude and
greatest eminency, even Elijah himself complaining (#1Ki 19:10|):
"And I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it
away."--^Thomas Fuller.

        Verse 3.--"_If_." It is the only word of comfort in the
text, that what is said is not _positive_, but _suppositive_; not
thetical, but hypothetical. And yet this comfort which is but a
spark (at which we would willingly kindle our hopes), is quickly
sadded with a double consideration. First, impossible
suppositions produce impossible consequences, "As is the mother,
so is the daughter." Therefore, surely God's Holy Spirit would
not suppose such a thing but what was feasible and possible, but
what either had, did, or might come to pass. Secondly, the Hebrew
word is not the conditional _im, si, si forte_, but _chi, quia,
quoniam_, because, and (although here it be favourably rendered
_if_), seemeth to import, more therein, that the sad case had
already happened in David's days. I see, therefore, that this
_if_, our only hope in the text, is likely to prove with Job's
friends, but a miserable comforter. Well, it is good to know the
worst of things, that we may provide ourselves accordingly; and
therefore let us behold this doleful case, not as doubtful, but
as done; not as feared, but felt; not as suspected, but at this
time really come to pass.--^Thomas Fuller.

        Verse 3.--"_If the foundations_," etc. My text is an
answer to a tacit objection which some may raise; namely, that
the righteous are wanting to themselves, and by their own
easiness and inactivity (not daring and doing so much as they
might and ought), betray themselves to that bad condition. In
whose defence David shows, that if God in his wise will and
pleasure seeth it fitting, for reasons best known to himself to
suffer religion to be reduced to terms of extremity, it is not
placed in the power of the best man alive to remedy and redress
the same. "_If the foundations be destroyed, what can the
righteous do_?" My text is hung about with _mourning_, as for a
funeral sermon, and contains: First, a sad case supposed, "_If
the foundations be destroyed_." Secondly, a sad question
propounded, "_What can the righteous do_?" Thirdly, a sad answer
implied, namely, that they can do just nothing, as to the point
of re-establishing the destroyed foundation.--^Thomas Fuller.

        Verse 3.--"_If the foundations be destroyed_," etc. The
civil foundation of a nation or people, is their laws and
constitutions. The order and power that's among them, that's the
foundation of a people; and when once this foundation is
destroyed, "_What can the righteous do_?" What can the best, the
wisest in the world, do in such a case? What can any man do, if
there be not a foundation of government left among men? There is
no help nor answer in such a case but that which follows in the
fourth verse of the Psalm, "_The Lord is in his holy temple, the
Lord's throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the
children of men_;" as if he had said, in the midst of these
confusions, when as it is said (#Ps 82:5|), "All the foundations
of the earth are out of course_;" yet God keeps his course still,
he is where he was and as he was, without variableness or shadow
of turning.--^Joseph Caryl.

        Verse 3.--"_The righteous_." The righteous indefinitely,
equivalent to the righteous universally; not only the righteous
as a single arrow, but in the whole sheaf; not only the righteous
in their personal, but in their diffusive capacity. Were they all
collected into one body, were all the righteous living in the
same age wherein the foundations are destroyed, summoned up and
modelled into one corporation, all their joint endeavours would
prove ineffectual to the re-establishing of the fallen
foundations, as not being man's work, but only God's work to
perform.--^Thomas Fuller.

        Verse 3.--"_The foundations_." Positions, the things
formerly fixed, placed, and settled. It is not said, if the roof
be ruinous, or if the side walls be shattered, but if the
_foundations_.

        Verse 3.--"_Foundations be destroyed_." In the plural.
Here I will not warrant my skill in architecture, but conceive
this may pass for an undoubted truth: it is possible that a
building settled on several entire _foundations_ (suppose them
_pillars_) close one to another, if one of them fall, yet the
structure may still stand, or rather hang (at the least for a
short time) by virtue of the _complicative_, which it receiveth
from such foundations which still stand secure. But in case there
be a total rout, and an utter ruin of all the _foundations_, none
can fancy to themselves a possibility of that building's
subsistence.--^Thomas Fuller.

        Verse 3.--"_What CAN the righteous_?" The _can_ of the
righteous is a limited _can_, confined to the rule of God's word;
they _can_ do nothing but what they _can_ lawfully do. #2Co
13:8|. "For we _can_ do nothing against the truth, but for the
truth: " _Illud possumus, quod jure possumus_. Wicked men can do
anything; their conscience, which is so wide that it is none at
all, will bear them out to act anything how unlawful soever, to
stab, poison, massacre, by any means, at any time, in any place,
whosoever standeth betwixt them and the effecting their desires.
Not so the righteous; they have a rule whereby to walk, which
they will not, they must not, they dare not, cross. If therefore
a righteous man were assured, that by the breach of one of God's
commandments he might restore decayed religion, and re-settle it
_statu quo prius_, his hands, head, and heart are tied up, he
_can_ do nothing, because _their damnation is just who say_ (#Ro
3:8|), "_Let us do evil that good may come thereof_."

        Verse 3.--"_Do_." It is not said, _What can they think_?
It is a great blessing which God hath allowed injured people,
that though otherwise oppressed and straitened, they may freely
enlarge themselves in their thoughts.--^Thomas Fuller.

        Verse 3.--Sinning times have ever been the saints'
praying times: this sent Ezra with a heavy heart to confess the
sin of his people, and to bewail their abomination, before the
Lord. #Ezr 9|. And Jeremiah tells the wicked of his degenerate
age, that "his soul should weep in secret places for their
pride." #Jer 13:17|. Indeed, sometimes sin comes to such a
height, that this is almost all the godly can do, to get into a
corner, and bewail the general pollutions of the age. "_If the
foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do_?" Such
dismal days of national confusion our eyes have seen when
foundations of government were destroyed, and all hurled into
military confusion. When it is thus with a people, "_What can the
righteous do_?" Yes, this they may, and should do, "fast and
pray." There is yet a God in heaven to be sought to, when a
people's deliverance is thrown beyond the help of human policy or
power. Now is the fit time to make their appeal to God, as the
words following hint: "_The Lord is in his holy temple, the
Lord's throne is in heaven_;" in which words God is presented
sitting in heaven as a temple, for their encouragement, I
conceive, in such a desperate state of affairs, to direct their
prayers thither for deliverance. And certainly this hath been the
engine that hath been instrumental, above any, to restore this
poor nation again, and set it upon the foundation of that lawful
government from which it had so dangerously departed.--^William
Gurnall.

                       HINTS TO PREACHERS.

        Verse 1.--Faith's bold avowal, and brave refusal.

        Verse 1.--Teacheth us to trust in God, how great soever
our dangers be; also that we shall be many times assaulted to
make us put far from us this trust, but yet that we must cleave
unto it, as the anchor of our souls, sure and steadfast.--^Thomas
Wilcocks.

        Verse 1.--The advice of cowardice, and the jeer of
insolence, both answered by faith. Lesson--Attempt no other
answer.

        Verse 2.--The craftiness of our spiritual enemies.

        Verse 3.--This may furnish a double discourse. I. _If
God's oath and promise could remove_, what could we do? Here the
answer is easy. II. _If all earthly things fail_, and the very
State fall to pieces, what can we do? We can suffer joyfully,
hope cheerfully, wait patiently, pray earnestly, believe
confidently, and triumph finally.

        Verse 3.--Necessity of holding and preaching foundation
truths.