Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/spurgeon/ps7.14

Text File | 1993-03-17 | 9KB | 168 lines

                           EXPOSITION.

        In three graphic pictures we see the slanderer's history.
A woman in travail furnishes the first metaphor. "_He travaileth
with iniquity_." He is full of it, pained until he can carry it
out, he longs to work his will, he is full of pangs until his
evil intent is executed. "_He hath conceived mischief_." This is
the original of his base design. The devil has had doings with
him, and the virus of evil is in him. And now behold the progeny
of this unhallowed conception. The child is worthy of its father,
his name of old was "the father of lies," and the birth doth not
belie the parent, for _he brought forth falsehood_. Thus, one
figure is carried out to perfection; the Psalmist now illustrates
his meaning by another taken from the stratagems of the hunter.
"_He made a pit and digged it_." He was cunning in his plans, and
industrious in his labours. He stooped to the dirty work of
digging. He did not fear to soil his own hands, he was willing to
work in _a ditch_ if others might fall therein. What mean things
men will do to wreak revenge on the godly. They hunt for good
men, as if they were brute beasts; nay, they will not give them
the fair chase afforded to the hare or the fox, but must secretly
entrap them, because they can neither run them down nor shoot
them down. Our enemies will not meet us to the face, for they
fear us as much as they pretend to despise us. But let us look on
to the end of the scene. The verse says, he "_is fallen into the
ditch which he made_." Ah! there he is, let us laugh at his
disappointment. Lo! he is himself the beast, he has hunted his
own soul, and the chase has brought him a goodly victim. Aha,
aha, so should it ever be. Come hither and make merry with this
entrapped hunter, this biter who has bitten himself. Give him no
pity, for it will be wasted on such a wretch. He is but rightly
and richly rewarded by being paid in his own coin. He cast forth
evil from his mouth, and it has fallen into his bosom. He has set
his own house on fire with the torch which he lit to burn a
neighbour. He sent forth a foul bird, and it has come back to its
nest. The rod which he lifted on high, has smitten his own back.
He shot an arrow upward, and it has "_returned upon his own
head_." He hurled a stone at another, and it has "_come down upon
his own pate_." Curses are like young chickens, they always come
home to roost. Ashes always fly back in the face of him that
throws them. "As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him" (#Ps
109:17|.) How often has this been the case in the histories of
both ancient and modern times. Men have burned their own fingers
when they were hoping to brand their neighbour. And if this does
not happen now, it will hereafter. The lord has caused dogs to
lick the blood of Ahab in the midst of the vineyard of Naboth.
Sooner or later the evil deeds of persecutors have always leaped
back into their arms. So will it be in the last great day, when
satan's fiery darts shall all be quivered in his own heart, and
all his followers shall reap the harvest which they themselves
have sown.

              EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

        Verse 14.--"_Behold, he travaileth with iniquity_," etc.
The words express the _conception, birth, carriage_, and
_miscarriage_, of a _plot_ against David. In which you may
consider:--(1.) What his _enemies_ did. (2.) What _God_ did. (3.)
What _we all_ should do: his enemies' _intention_, God's
_prevention_, and our _duty_; his enemies' intention, _he
travaileth with iniquity, and conceiveth mischief_; God's
prevention, _he brought forth a lie_; our duty, _behold_. ...
Observe the aggravation of the sin, _he conceiveth_. He was not
put upon it, or forced into it; it was voluntary. The more
liberty we have not to sin, makes our sin the greater. He did not
this in passion, but in cold blood. The less will, less
sin.--^Richard Sibbs.

        Verse 14.--"_He travaileth with iniquity, and hath
conceived mischief_." All note that conceiving is before
travailing, but here travailing, as a woman in labour, goeth
first; the reason whereof is, that the wicked are so hotly set
upon the evil which they maliciously intend, that they would be
immediately acting of it if they could tell how, even before they
have conceived by what means; but in fine they bring forth but a
lie, that is, they find that their own hearts lied to them, when
they promised good success, but they had evil. For their haste to
perpetrate mischief is intimated in the word rendered
"_persecutors_" (verse #13|), which properly signifieth
_ardentes, burning_; that is, with a desire to do mischief--and
this admits of no delay. A notable common-place, both setting
forth the evil case of the wicked, especially attempting anything
against the righteous, to move them to repentance--for thou hast
God for thine enemy warring against thee, whose force thou canst
not resist--and the greedy desire of the wicked to be evil, but
their conception shall all prove abortive.--^J. Mayer, in loc.

        Verse 14.--"_And hath brought forth falsehood_." Every
sin is a lie.--Augustine.

        Verse 14.--

        Earth's entertainments are like those of Jael,
        Her left hand brings me milk, her right, a nail."

^Thomas Fuller.

        Verses 14,15.--"_They have digged a pit for us_"--and
that low, unto hell--"_and are fallen into it themselves."

        "No juster law can be devised or made,
        Than that sin's agents fall by their own trade."

        The order of hell proceeds with the same degrees; though
it give a greater portion, yet still a just proportion, of
torment. These wretched guests were too busy with the waters of
sin; behold, now they are in the depth of a pit, "where no water
is." Dives, that wasted so many tuns of wine, cannot now procure
water, not a pot of water, not a handful of water, not a drop of
water, to cool his tongue. _Desideravit guttam, qui non dedit
micam_ [Augustine, Hom. 7]. A just recompense! He would not give
a crumb; he shall not have a drop. Bread hath no smaller fragment
than a crumb, water no less fraction than a drop. As he denied
the least comfort to Lazarus living, so Lazarus shall not bring
him the least comfort dead. Thus the pain for sin answers the
pleasure of sin. ... Thus damnable sins shall have semblable
punishments; and as Augustine of the tongue, so we may say of any
member. ... If it will not serve God in action, it shall serve
him in passion.--^Thomas Adams.

        Verse 15.--"_He made a pit and digged it_." The practice
of making pitfalls was anciently not only employed for ensnaring
wild beasts, but was also a stratagem used against men by the
enemy, in time of war. The idea, therefore, refers to a man who,
having made such a pit, whether for man or beast, and covered it
over so as completely to disguise the danger, did himself
inadvertently tread on his own trap, and fall into the pit he had
prepared for another.--^Pictorial Bible.

        Verse 16.--That most witty of commentators, Old Master
Trapp, tells the following notable anecdote, in illustration of
this verse: That was a very remarkable instance of Dr. Story,
who, escaping out of prison in Queen Elizabeth's days, got to
Antwerp, and there thinking himself out of the reach of God's
rod, he got commission under the Duke of Alva to search all ships
coming thither for English books. But one Parker, an English
merchant, trading to Antwerp, laid his snare fair (saith our
chronicler), to catch this foul bird, causing secret notice to be
given to Story, that in his ship were stores of heretical books,
with other intelligence that might stand him in stead. The
Canonist conceiving that all was quite sure, hasted to the ship,
where, with looks very big upon the poor mariners, each cabin,
chest, and corner above-board were searched, and some things
found to draw him further on: so that the hatches must be opened,
which seemed to be unwillingly done, and great signs of fear were
showed by their faces. This drew on the Doctor to descend into
the hold, where now in the trap the mouse might well gnaw, but
could not get out, for the hatches were down, and the sails
hoisted up, which, with a merry gale were blown into England,
where ere long he was arraigned, and condemned of high treason,
and accordingly executed at Tyburn, as he had well deserven.

        Verse 16.--The story of Phalaris's bull, invented for the
torment of others, and serving afterwards for himself, is
notorious in heathen story. ... It was a voluntary judgment which
Archbishop Crammer inflicted on himself when he thrust that very
hand into the fire, and burnt it, with which he had signed to the
popish articles, crying out, "_Oh, my unworthy right hand_!" but
who will deny that the hand of the Almighty was also concerned in
it?--^William Turner in "Divine Judgments by way of Retaliation,"
1697.

                       HINTS TO PREACHERS.

        Verses 14,15,16.--Illustrate by three figures the devices
and defeat of persecutors.