Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/spurgeon/ps11.4

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                           EXPOSITION.

        David here declares the great source of his unflinching
courage. He borrows his light from heaven--from the great central
orb of deity. The God of the believer is never far from him; he
is not merely the God of the mountain fastnesses, but of the
dangerous valleys and battle plains.

        "_Jehovah is in his holy temple_." The heavens are above
our heads in all regions of the earth, and so is the Lord ever
near to us in every state and condition. This is a very strong
reason why we should not adopt the vile suggestions of distrust.
There is one who pleads his precious blood in our behalf in the
temple above, and there is one upon the throne who is never deaf
to the intercession of his Son. Why, then, should we fear? What
plots can men devise which Jesus will not discover? Satan has
doubtless desired to have us, that he may sift us as wheat, but
Jesus is in the temple praying for us, and bow can our faith
fail? What attempts can the wicked make which Jehovah shall not
behold? And since he is in his holy temple, delighting in the
sacrifice of his Son, will he not defeat every device, and send
us a sure deliverance?

        "_Jehovah's throne is in the heavens_;" he reigns
supreme. Nothing can be done in heaven, or earth, or hell, which
he doth not ordain and over-rule. He is the world's great
Emperor. Wherefore, then, should we flee? If we trust this King
of kings, is not this enough? Cannot he deliver us without our
cowardly retreat? Yes, blessed be the Lord our God, we can salute
him as Jehovah-nissi; in his name we set up our banners, and,
instead of flight, we once more raise the shout of war.

        "_His eyes behold_." The eternal watcher never slumbers;
his eyes never know a sleep. "_His eyelids try the children of
men_:" he narrowly inspects their actions, words and thoughts. As
men, when intently and narrowly inspecting some very minute
object, almost close their eyelids to exclude every other object,
so will the Lord look all men through and through. God sees each
man as much and as perfectly as if there were no other creature
in the universe. He sees us always; he never removes his eye from
us; he sees us entirely, reading the recesses of the soul as
readily as the glancing of the eye. Is not this a sufficient
ground of confidence, and an abundant answer to the solicitations
of despondency? My danger is not hid from him; he knows my
extremity, and I may rest assured that he will not suffer me to
perish while I rely alone on him. Wherefore, then, should I take
the wings of the timid bird, and flee from the dangers which
beset me.

        "_The Lord trieth the righteous_:" he doth not hate them,
but only tries them. They are precious to him, and therefore he
refines them with afflictions. None of the Lord's children may
hope to escape from trial, nor, indeed, in our right minds, would
any of us desire to do so, for trial is the channel of many
blessings.

        'Tis my happiness below
                Not to live without the cross;
        But the Saviour's power to know,
                Sanctifying every loss.
                        * * *
        Trials make the promise sweet;
                Trials give new life to prayer;
        Trials bring me to his feet--
                Lay me low, and keep me there.

        Did I meet no trials here--
                No chastisement by the way--
        Might I not, with reason, fear
                I should prove a cast-away!

        Bastards may escape the rod,
                Sunk in earthly vain delight;
        But the true-born child of God
                Must not--would not, if he might.'

^William Cowper.

Is not this a very cogent reason why we should not distrustfully
endeavour to shun a trial?--for in so doing we are seeking to
avoid a blessing.

        "_But the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul
hateth_:" why, then, shall I flee from these wicked men? If God
hateth them, I will not fear them. Haman was very great in the
palace until he lost favour, but when the king abhorred him, how
bold were the meanest attendants to suggest the gallows for the
man at whom they had often trembled! Look at the black mark upon
the faces of our persecutors, and we shall not run away from
them. If God is in the quarrel as well as ourselves, it would be
foolish to question the result, or avoid the conflict. Sodom and
Gomorrah perished by a fiery hail, and by a brimstone shower from
heaven; so shall all the ungodly. They may gather together like
Gog and Magog to battle, but the Lord will rain upon them "an
overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone:"
#Eze 38:22|. Some expositors think that in the term "horrible
tempest," there is in the Hebrew an allusion to that burning,
suffocating wind, which blows across the Arabian deserts, and is
known by the name of Simoom. "A burning storm," Lowth calls it,
while another great commentator reads it "wrathwind;" in either
version the language is full of terrors. What a tempest will that
be which shall overwhelm the despisers of God! Oh! what a shower
will that be which shall pour out itself for ever upon the
defenceless heads of impenitent sinners in hell! Repent, ye
rebels, or this fiery deluge shall soon surround you. Hell's
horrors shall be your inheritance, your entailed estate, "the
portion of your cup." The dregs of that cup you shall wring out,
and drink for ever. A drop of hell is terrible, but what must a
full cup of torment be? Think of it--a cup of misery, but not a
drop of mercy. O people of God, how foolish is it to fear the
faces of men who shall soon be faggots in the fire of hell! Think
of their end, their fearful end, and all fear of them must be
changed into contempt of their threatenings and pity for their
miserable estate.

        The delightful contrast of the last verse is well worthy
of our observation, and it affords another overwhelming reason
why we should be stedfast, unmovable, not carried away with fear,
or led to adopt carnal expedients in order to avoid trial. "_For
the righteous Lord loveth righteousness_." It is not only his
office to defend it, but his nature to love it. He would deny
himself if he did not defend the just. It is essential to the
very being of God that he should be just; fear not, then, the end
of all your trials, but "be just, and fear not." God approves,
and, if men oppose, what matters it? "_His countenance doth
behold the upright_." We need never be out of countenance, for
God countenances us. He observes, he approves, he delights in the
upright. He sees his own image in them, an image of his own
fashioning, and therefore with complacency he regards them. Shall
we dare to put forth our hand unto iniquity in order to escape
affliction? Let us have done with by-ways and short turnings, and
let us keep to that fair path of right along which Jehovah's
smile shall light us. Are we tempted to put our light under a
bushel, to conceal our religion from our neighbours? Is it
suggested to us that there are ways of avoiding the cross, and
shunning the reproach of Christ? Let us not hearken to the voice
of the charmer, but seek an increase of faith, that we may
wrestle with principalities and powers, and follow the Lord,
fully going without the camp, bearing his reproach. Mammon, the
flesh, the devil, will all whisper in our ear, "Flee as a bird to
your mountain;" but let us come forth and defy them all. "Resist
the devil, and he will flee from you." There is no room or reason
for retreat. Advance! Let the vanguard push on! To the front! all
ye powers and passions of our soul. On! on! in God's name, on!
for "the Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our
refuge."

              EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

        Verse 4.--The infinite understanding of God doth exactly
know the sins of men; he knows so as to consider. He doth not
only know them, but intently behold them: "_His eyelids try the
children of men_," a metaphor taken from men, that contract the
eyelids when they would wistly and accurately behold a thing: it
is not a transient and careless look.--^Stephen Charnock.

        Verse 4.--"_His eyes behold_," etc. God searcheth not as
man searcheth, by enquiring into that which before was hid from
him; his searching is no more but his beholding; he seeth the
heart, he beholdeth the reins; God's very sight is searching.
#Heb 4:13|. "All things are naked and opened unto his eyes,"
_tetrachêlisme'na_ (pf. pass. ptep. of _trachêlizô_ <5136>),
_dissected or anatomised_. He hath at once as exact a view of the
most hidden things, the very entrails of the soul, as if they had
been with never so great curiosity anatomised before
him.--^Richard Alleine, 1611-1681.

        Verse 4.--"_His eyes behold_," etc. Consider that God not
only sees into all you do, but he sees it to that very end that
he may examine and search into it. He doth not only behold you
with a common and indifferent look, but with a searching,
watchful, and inquisitive eye: he pries into the reasons, the
motives, the ends of all your actions. "_The Lord's throne is in
heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men_."
#Re 1:14|, where Christ is described, it is said, _his eyes are
as a flame of fire_: you know the property of fire is to search
and make trial of those things which are exposed unto it, and to
separate the dross from the pure metal: so, God's eye is like
fire, to try and examine the actions of men: he knows and
discerns how much your very purest duties have in them of
mixture, and base ends of formality, hypocrisy, distractedness,
and deadness: he sees through all your specious pretences, that
which you cast as a mist before the eyes of men when yet thou art
but a juggler in religion: all your tricks and sleights of
outward profession, all those things that you use to cozen and
delude men withal, cannot possibly impose upon him: he is a God
that can look through all those fig-leaves of outward profession,
and discern the nakedness of your duties through them.--^Ezekiel
Hopkins, D.D.

        Verse 4.--"_His eyes behold_," etc. Take God into thy
counsel. Heaven overlooks hell. God at any time can tell thee
what plots are hatching there against thee.--^William Gurnall.

        Verse 4.--"_His eyes behold, his eyelids try, the
children of men_." When an offender, or one accused for any
offence, is brought before a judge, and stands at the bar to be
arraigned, the judge looks upon him, eyes him, sets his eye upon
him, and he bids the offender look up in his face; "Look upon
me," saith the judge, "and speak up:" guiltiness usually clouds
the forehead and clothes the brow; the weight of guilt holds down
the head! _the evil doer hath an ill look_, or dares not look up;
how glad is he if the judge looks off him. We have such an
expression here, speaking of the Lord, the great Judge of heaven
and earth: "_His eyelids try the children of men_," as a judge
tries a guilty person with his eye and reads the characters of
his wickedness printed in his face. Hence we have a common speech
in our language, such a one _looks suspiciously_, or, _he hath a
guilty look_. At that great gaol-delivery described in #Re 6:16|,
All the prisoners cry out _to be hid from the face of him that
sat upon the throne_. They could not look upon Christ, and they
could not endure Christ should look on them; the eyelids of
Christ try the children of men. ... Wickedness cannot endure to
be under the observation of any eye, much less of the eye of
justice. Hence the actors of it say, "_Who seeth us_?" It is very
hard not to show the guilt of the heart in the face, and it is as
hard to have it seen there.--^Joseph Caryl.

        Verse 5.--"_The Lord trieth the righteous_." Except our
sins, there is not such plenty of anything in all the world as
there is of troubles which come from sin, as one heavy messenger
came to Job after another. Since we are not in paradise, but in
the wilderness, we must look for one trouble after another. As a
bear came to David after a lion, and a giant after a bear, and a
king after a giant, and Philistines after a king, so, when
believers have fought with poverty, they shall fight with envy;
when they have fought with envy, they shall fight with infamy;
when they have fought with infamy, they shall fight with
sickness; they shall be like a labourer who is never out of
work.--^Henry Smith.

        Verse 5.--"_The Lord trieth the righteous_."--Times of
affliction and persecution will distinguish the precious from the
vile, it will difference the counterfeit professor from the true.
Persecution is a Christian's touchstone, it is a _lapis lydius_
that will try what metal men are made of, whether they be silver
or tin, gold or dross, wheat or chaff, shadow or substance,
carnal or spiritual, sincere or hypocritical. Nothing speaks out
more soundness and uprightness than a pursuing after holiness,
even then when holiness is most afflicted, pursued, and
persecuted in the world: to stand fast in fiery trials argues
much integrity within.--^Thomas Brooks.

        Verse 5.--Note the singular opposition of the two
sentences. God hates the wicked, and therefore in contrast he
loves the righteous; but it is here said that he tries them:
therefore it follows that to try and to love are with God the
same thing.--C. H. S.

        Verse 6.--"_Upon the wicked he shall rain snares_."
Snares to hold them; then if they be not delivered, follow fire
and brimstone, and they cannot escape. This is the case of a
sinner if he repent not; if God pardon not, he is in the snare of
Satan's temptation, he is in the snare of divine vengeance; let
him therefore cry aloud for his deliverance, that he may have his
feet in a large room. The wicked lay snares for the righteous.
but God either preventeth them that their souls ever escape them,
or else he subverteth them: "The snares are broken, and we are
delivered." No snares hold us so fast as those of our own sins;
they keep down our heads, and stoop us that we cannot look up: a
very little ease they are to him that hath not a seared
conscience.--^Samuel Page, 1646.

        Verse 6.--"_He shall rain snares_." As in hunting with
the lasso? the huntsman casts a snare from above upon his prey to
entangle its head or feet, so shall the Lord from above with many
twistings of the line of terror, surround, bind, and take captive
the haters of his law.--^C. H. S.

        Verse 6.--"_He shall rain snares_," etc. He shall rain
upon them when they least think of it even in the midst of their
jollity, as rain falls on a fair day. Or, he shall rain down the
vengeance when he sees good, for it rains not always. Though he
defers it, yet will it rain.--^William Nicholson, Bishop of
Gloucester, in "David's Harp Strung and Tuned," 1662.

        Verse 6.--"_Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire
and brimstone, and an horrible tempest_." The strange
dispensation of affairs in this world is an argument which doth
convincingly prove that there shall be such a day wherein all the
_involucra_ and entanglements of providence shall be clearly
unfolded. Then shall the riddle be dissolved, why God hath given
this and that profane wretch so much wealth, and so much power to
do mischief: is it not _that they might be destroyed for ever_?
Then shall they be called to a strict account for all that plenty
and prosperity for which they are now envied; and the more they
have abused, the more dreadful will their condemnation be. Then
it will be seen that God gave them not as mercies, but as
"_snares_." It is said that God "_will rain on the wicked snares,
fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest_:" when he scatters
abroad the desirable things of this world, riches, honours,
pleasures, etc., then he rains "_snares_" upon them; and when he
shall call them to an account for these things, then he will rain
upon them "_fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest_" of his
wrath and fury. Dives, who caroused on earth, yet, in hell could
not obtain so much as one poor drop of water to cool his scorched
and flaming tongue: had not his excess and intemperance been so
great in his life, his fiery thirst had not been so tormenting
after death; and therefore, in that sad item that Abraham gives
him (#Lu 16:25|), he bids him "_remember, that thou, in thy
lifetime, receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil
things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented_." I look
upon this as a most bitter and a most deserved sarcasm;
upbraiding him for his gross folly, in making the trifles of this
life his good things. Thou hast received thy good things, but now
thou art tormented. Oh, never call Dives's purple and delicious
fare _good things_, if they thus end in torments! Was it good for
him to be wrapped in purple who is now wrapped in flames? Was it
good for him to fare deliciously who was only thereby fatted up
against the day of slaughter?--^Ezekiel Hopkins.

        Verse 6.--"_Snares, fire and brimstone, storm and
tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup_." After the
judgment follows the condemnation: pre-figured as we have seen,
by the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah. "_Snares_:" because the
allurements of Satan in this life will be their worst punishments
in the next; the fire of anger, the brimstone of impurity, the
tempest of pride, the lust of the flesh, the lust; of the eyes,
and the pride of life. "_This shall be their portion_;" compare
it with the Psalmist's own saying, "The Lord himself is the
portion of my inheritance and my cup." #Ps 16:5|.--^Cassiodorus,
in J. M. Neale's Commentary.

        Verse 6.--"_The portion of their cup_." Heb., the
allotment of their cup. The expression has reference to the
custom of distributing to each guest his mess of meat.--^William
French and George Skinner, 1842.

        Verse 7.--That God may give grace without glory is
intelligible; but to admit a man to communion with him in glory
without grace, is not intelligible. It is not agreeable to God's
holiness to make any inhabitant of heaven, and converse freely
with him in a way of intimate love, without such a qualification
of grace: "_The righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his
countenance doth behold the upright_;" he looks upon him with a
smiling eye, and therefore he cannot favourably look upon an
unrighteous person; so that this necessity is not founded only in
the command of God that we should be renewed, but in the very
nature of the thing, because God, in regard of his holiness,
cannot converse with an impure creature. God must change his
nature, or the sinner's nature must be changed. There can be no
friendly communion between two of different natures without the
change of one of them into the likeness of the other. Wolves and
sheep, darkness and light, can never agree. God cannot love a
sinner as a sinner, because he hates impurity by a necessity of
nature as well as a choice of will. It is as impossible for him
to love it as to cease to be holy.--^Stephen Charnock.

                       HINTS TO PREACHERS.

        Verse 4.--The elevation, mystery, supremacy, purity,
everlastingness, invisibility, etc., of the throne of God.

        Verses 4,5.--In these verses mark the fact that the
children of men, as well as the righteous, are tried; work out
the contrast between the two trials in their design and result,
etc.

        Verse 5.--"_The Lord trieth the righteous_." I. Who are
tried? II. What in them is tried?--Faith, love, etc. III. In what
manner?--Trials of every sort. IV. How long? V. For what
purposes?

        Verse 5.--"_His soul hateth_." The thoroughness of God's
hatred of sin. Illustrate by providential judgments,
threatenings, sufferings of the Surety, and the terrors of hell.

        Verse 5.--The trying of the gold, and the sweeping out of
the refuse.

        Verse 6. "_He shall rain_." Gracious rain and destroying
rain.

        Verse 6.--The portion of the impenitent.

        Verse 7.--The Lord possesses righteousness as a personal
attribute, loves it in the abstract, and blesses those who
practise it.