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1993-03-15
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EXPOSITION.
Let us now turn our eyes from the wicked council-chamber
and raging tumult of man, to the secret place of the majesty of
the Most High. What doth God say? What will the King do unto the
men who reject his only-begotten Son, the Heir of all things?
Mark the quiet dignity of the Omnipotent One, and the
contempt which he pours upon the princes and their raging people.
He has not taken the trouble to rise up and do battle with
them--he despises them, he knows how absurd, how irrational, how
futile are their attempts against him--he therefore _laughs_ at
them.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.
Verse 4.--"_He that sitteth in the heavens_." Hereby it
is clearly intimated, (1) that the Lord is far above all their
malice and power, (2) that he seeth all their plots, looking down
on all; (3) that he is of omnipotent power, and so can do with
his enemies as he lists. "Our God is in the heavens: he hath done
whatsoever he pleased." #Ps 115:3|.--^Arthur Jackson, 1643.
Verse 4.--"_He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh_,"
etc. Sinners' follies are the just sport of God's infinite wisdom
and power; and those attempts of the kingdom of Satan, which in
our eyes are formidable, in his are despicable.--^Matthew Henry.
Verse 4.--"_He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh_."
They scoff at us, God laughs at them. Laugh? This seems a hard
word at the first view: are the injuries of his saints, the
cruelties of their enemies, the derision, the persecution of all
that are round about us, no more but matter of laughter? Severe
Cato thought that laughter did not become the gravity of Roman
consuls; that it is a diminution of states, as another told
princes; and is it attributed to the Majesty of heaven? According
to our capacities, the prophet describes God, as ourselves would
be in a merry disposition, deriding vain attempts. He laughs, but
it is in scorn; he scorns, but it is with vengeance. Pharaoh
imagined that by drowning the Israelite males, he had found a way
to root their name from the earth; but when at the same time, his
own daughter, in his own court, gave princely education to Moses,
their deliverer, did not God laugh?
Short is the joy of the wicked. Is Dagon put up to his
place again? God's smile shall take off his head and his hands,
and leave him neither wit to guide nor power to subsist ... We
may not judge of God's works until the fifth act: the case,
deplorable and desperate in outward appearance, may with one
smile from heaven find a blessed issue. He permitted his temple
to be sacked and rifled, the holy vessels to be profaned and
caroused in; but did not God's smile make Belshazzar to tremble
at the handwriting on the wall? Oh, what are his frowns, if his
smiles be so terrible!--^Thomas Adams.
Verse 4.--The expression, "_He that sitteth in the
heavens_," at once fixes our thoughts on a being infinitely
exalted above man, who is of the earth, earthly. And when it is
said, "_HE shall laugh_," this word is designed to convey to our
minds the idea, that the greatest confederacies amongst kings and
peoples, and their most extensive and vigorous preparations, to
defeat HIS purposes or to injure HIS servants, are in HIS sight
altogether insignificant and worthless. HE looks upon their poor
and puny efforts, not only without uneasiness or fear, but HE
laughs at their folly; HE treats their impotency with derision.
He knows how HE can crush them like a moth when HE pleases, or
consume them in a moment with the breath of HIS mouth. How
profitable it is for us to be reminded of truths such as these!
Ah! it is indeed "_a vain thing_" for the potsherds of the earth
to strive with the glorious Majesty of Heaven.--^David Pitcairn.
Verse 4.--"_The Lord_," in Hebrew, Adonai, mystically
signifieth my stays, or my sustainers--my pillars. Our English
word "Lord" hath much the same force, being contracted of the old
Saxon word "Llaford," or "Hlafford," which cometh from "Laef," to
sustain, refresh, cherish.--^Henry Ainsworth.
Verse 4.--"_He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh at
them: the Lord shall have them in derision_." This tautology or
repetition of the same thing, which is frequent in the
Scriptures, is a sign of the thing being established: according
to the authority of the patriarch Joseph (#Ge 41:32|), where,
having interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh he said, "And for that
the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing
is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass."
And therefore, here also, "_shall laugh at them_," and "_shall
have them in derision_," is a repetition to show that there is
not a doubt to be entertained that all these things will most
surely come to pass. And the gracious Spirit does all this for
our comfort and consolation, that we may not faint under
temptation, but lift up our heads with the most certain hope;
because "he that shall come will come, and will not tarry." #Heb
10:37|.--^Martin Luther.
HINTS TO PREACHERS.
Verse 4.--God's derision of the rebellious, both now and
hereafter.