Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/spurgeon/ps7.10

Text File | 1993-03-17 | 13KB | 225 lines

                           EXPOSITION.

        The judge has heard the cause, has cleared the guiltless,
and uttered his voice against the persecutors. Let us draw near,
and learn the results of the great assize. Yonder is the
slandered one with his harp in hand, hymning the justice of his
Lord, and rejoicing aloud in his own deliverance. "_My defence is
of God, which saveth the upright heart_." Oh, how good to have a
true and upright heart. Crooked sinners, with all their
craftiness, are foiled by the upright in heart. God defends the
right. Filth will not long abide on the pure white garments of
the saints, but shall be brushed off by divine providence, to the
vexation of the men by whose base hands it was thrown upon the
godly. When God shall try our cause, our sun has risen, and the
sun of the wicked is set for ever. Truth, like oil, is ever
above, no power of our enemies can drown it; we shall refute
their slanders in the day when the trumpet wakes the dead, and we
shall shine in honour when lying lips are put to silence. O
believer, fear not all that thy foes can do or say against thee,
for the tree which God plants no winds can hurt. "_God judgeth
the righteous_," he hath not given thee up to be condemned by the
lips of persecutors. Thine enemies cannot sit on God's throne,
nor blot thy name out of his book. Let them alone, then, for God
will find time for his revenges.

        "_God is angry with the wicked every day_." He not only
detests sin, but is angry with those who continue to indulge in
it. We have no insensible and stolid God to deal with; he can be
angry, nay, he is angry to-day and every day with you, ye ungodly
and impenitent sinners. The best day that ever dawns on a sinner
brings a curse with it. Sinners may have many feast days, but no
safe days. From the beginning of the year even to its ending,
there is not an hour in which God's oven is not hot, and burning
in readiness for the wicked, who shall be as stubble.

        "_If he turn not, he will whet his sword_." What blows
are those which will be dealt by that long uplifted arm! God's
sword has been sharpening upon the revolving stone of our daily
wickedness, and if we will not repent, it will speedily cut us in
pieces. Turn or burn if the sinner's only alternative. "_He hath
bent his bow and made it ready_." Even now the thirsty arrow
longs to wet itself with the blood of the _persecutor_. The bow
is bent, the aim is taken, the arrow is fitted to the string, and
what, O sinner, if the arrow should be let fly at thee even now!
Remember, God's arrows never miss the mark, and are, every one of
them, "instruments of death." Judgment may tarry, but it will not
come too late. The Greek proverb saith, "The mill of God grinds
late, but grinds to powder."

              EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

        Verse 10.--"_My defence is of God_." Literally, "_My
shield is upon God_," like Ps 62:7|, "My salvation is _upon_
God." The idea may be taken from the armour-bearer, ever ready at
hand to give the needed weapon to the warrior.--^Andrew A. Bonar.

        Verse 11.--"_God judgeth the righteous_," etc. Many
learned disputes have arisen as to the meaning of this verse; and
it must be confessed that its real import is by no means easily
determined: without the words written in italics, which are not
in the original, it will read thus, "God judgeth the righteous,
and God is angry every day." The question still will be, is this
a good rendering? To this question it may be replied, that there
is strong evidence for a contrary one. Ainsworth translates it,
"God _is_ a just judge; and God angrily threateneth every day."
With this corresponds the reading of Coverdale's Bible, "God is a
righteous judge, and God is ever threatening." In King Edward's
Bible, of 1549, the reading is the same. But there is another
class of critics who adopt quite a different view of the text,
and apparently with much colour of argument. Bishop Horsley reads
the verse, "God is a righteous judge, although he is not angry
every day." In this rendering he seems to have followed most of
the ancient versions. The Vulgate reads it, "God is a judge,
righteous, strong, and patient; will he be angry every day?" The
Septuagint reads it, "God is a righteous judge, strong, and
longsuffering; not bringing forth his anger every day." The
Syriac has it, "God is the judge of righteousness; he is not
angry every day." In this view of the text Dr. A. Clarke agrees,
and expresses it as his opinion that the text was first corrupted
by the Chaldee. This learned divine proposes to restore the text
thus, "_êl_ <0410>, with the vowel point _tseri_, signifies God;
_al_ <0408>, the same letters, with the point _pathach_,
signifies _not_." There is by this view of the original no
repetition of the divine name in the verse, so that it will
simply read, as thus restored, "God is a righteous judge, and is
NOT angry every day." The text at large, as is intimated in the
Vulgate, Septuagint, and some other ancient versions, conveys a
strong intimation of the longsuffering of God, whose hatred of
sin is unchangeable, but whose anger against transgressors is
marked by infinite patience, and does not burst forth in
vengeance every day.--^John Morison, in "An Exposition of the
Book of Psalms," 1829.

        Verse 11.--"_God is angry_." The original expression here
is very forcible. The true idea of it appears to be, to _froth_
or _foam at the mouth_ with indignation.--^Richard Mant, D.D.,
1824.

        Verses 11,12.--God hath set up his royal standard in
defiance of all the sons and daughters of apostate Adam, who from
his own mouth are proclaimed rebels and traitors to his crown and
dignity; and as against such he hath taken the field, as with
fire and sword, to be avenged on them. Yea, he gives the world
sufficient testimony of his incensed wrath, by that of it which
is revealed from heaven daily in the judgments executed upon
sinners, and those many but of a span long, before they can show
what nature they have by actual sin, yet crushed to death by
God's righteous foot, only for the viperous kind of which they
come. At every door where sin sets its foot, there the wrath of
God meets us. Every faculty of soul, and member of body, are used
as a weapon of unrighteousness against God; so every one hath its
portion of wrath, even to the tip of the tongue. As man is sinful
all over, so is he cursed all over. Inside and outside, soul and
body, is written all with woes and curses, so close and full,
that there is not room for another to interline, or add to what
God hath written.--^William Gurnall.

        Verses 11-13.--The idea of God's righteousness must have
possessed great vigour to render such a representation possible.
There are some excellent remarks upon the ground of it in Luther,
who, however, too much overlooks the fact, that the Psalmist
presents before his eyes this form of an angry and avenging God,
primarily with the view of strengthening by its consideration his
own hope, and pays too little regard to the distinction between
the Psalmist, who only indirectly teaches what he described as
part of his own inward experience, and the prophet: "The prophet
takes a lesson from a coarse human similitude, in order that he
might inspire terror unto the ungodly. For he speaks against
stupid and hardened people, who would not apprehend the reality
of a divine judgment of which he had just spoken; but they might
possibly be brought to consider this by greater earnestness on
the part of man. Now, the prophet is not satisfied with thinking
of the sword, but he adds thereto the bow; even this does not
satisfy him, but he describes how it is already stretched, and
aim is taken, and the arrows are applied to it as here follows.
So hard, stiff-necked, and unabashed are the ungodly, that
however many threatenings may be urged against them, they will
still remain unmoved. But in these words he forcibly describes
how God's anger presses hard upon the ungodly, though they will
never understand this until they actually experience it. It is
also to be remarked here, that we have had so frightful a
threatening and indignation against the ungodly in no Psalm
before this; neither has the Spirit of God attacked them with so
many words. Then in the following verses, he also recounts their
plans and purposes, shows how these shall not be in vain, but
shall return again upon their own head. So that it clearly and
manifestly appears to all those who suffer wrong and reproach, as
a matter of consolation, that God hates such revilers and
slanderers above all other characters."--^E. W. Hengstenberg, in
loc., 1845.

        Verse 12.--"_If he turn not_," etc. How few do believe
what a quarrel God hath with wicked men? And that not only with
the loose, but the formal and hypocritical also? If we did we
would tremble as much as to be among them as to be in a house
that is falling; we would endeavour to "save" ourselves "from
this untoward generation." The apostle would not so have abjured
them, so charged, so entreated them, had he not known the danger
of wicked company. "_God is angry with the wicked every day_;"
_his bow is bent, the arrows are on the string_; the instruments
for their ruin are all prepared. And is it safe to be there where
the arrows of God are ready to fly about our ears? How was the
apostle afraid to be in the bath with Cerinthus! "Depart," saith
God by Moses, "from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, lest
ye be consumed in all their sins." How have the baskets of good
figs suffered with the bad! Is it not prejudicial to the gold to
be with the dross? Lot had been ruined by his neighbourhood to
the Sodomites if God had not wrought wonderfully for his
deliverance. Will you put God to work miracles to save you from
your ungodly company? It is dangerous being in the road with
thieves whilst God's hue and cry of vengeance is at their backs.
"A companion of fools shall be destroyed." The very beasts may
instruct you to consult better for your security: the very deer
are afraid of a wounded chased deer, and therefore for their
preservation thrust him out of their company.--^Lewis Stuckley.

        Verse 12.--"_If he turn not, he will whet his sword_,"
etc. The whetting of the sword is but to give a keener edge that
it may cut the deeper. God is silent as long as the sinner will
let him; but when the sword is whet, it is to cut; and when the
bow is bent, it is to kill; and woe be to that man who is the
butt.--^William Secker.

        Verse 13.--"_He hath also prepared for him the
instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the
persecutors_." It is said that, God hath ordained his arrows
against the persecutors; the word signifies such as burn in anger
and malice against the godly; and the word translated _ordained_,
signifies God hath wrought his arrows; he doth not shoot them at
random, but he works them against the wicked. Illiricus hath a
story which may well be a commentary upon this text in both the
parts of it. One Felix, Earl of Wartenberg, one of the captains
of the Emperor Charles V., swore in the presence of divers at
supper, that before he died he would ride up to the spurs in the
blood of the Lutherans. Here was one that burned in malice, but
behold how God works his arrows against him: that very night the
hand of God so struck him, that he was strangled and choked in
his own blood; so he rode not, but bathed himself, not up to the
spurs, but up to the throat, not in the blood of the Lutherans,
but in his own blood before he died.--^Jeremiah Burroughs.

        Verse 13.--"_He ordaineth his arrows_." This might more
exactly be rendered, "He maketh his arrows burning." This image
would seem to be deduced from the use of fiery arrows.^--John
Kitto, 1804-1854.

                       HINTS TO PREACHERS.

        Verse 10.--"_Upright in heart_." Explain the character.

        Verse 10.--The believer's trust in God, and God's care
over him. Show the action of faith in procuring defence and
protection, and of that defence upon our faith by strengthening
it, etc.

        Verse 11.--The Judge, and the two persons upon their
trial.

        Verse 11 (second clause).--God's present, daily,
constant, and vehement anger, against the wicked.

        Verse 12.--See "Spurgeon's Sermons," No. 106. "Turn or'
Burn."