we expect his gracious answer, but in this way; so that God's working upon us, is the best earnest of his working for us. He prepares the heart for prayer, by kindling holy desires, and strengthening our most holy faith, fixing the thoughts, and raising the affections, and then he graciously accepts the prayer; he prepares the heart for the mercy itself that is wanting and prayed for; makes us fit to receive it, and use it well, and then gives it unto us. The preparation of the heart is from the Lord, and we must seek unto him for it, (Prov. xvi. 1.) and take that as a leading favour. (2.) What he will do, in answer to prayer, v. 18. [1.] He will plead the cause of the persecuted; will judge the fatherless and oppressed, will judge for them, clear up their innocency, restore their comforts, and recompense them for all the loss and damage they have sustained. [2.] He will put an end to the fury of the persecutors. Hitherto they shall come, but no further; here shall the proud waves of their malice be stayed; an effectual course shall be taken that the man of the earth may no more oppress. See how light the psalmist now makes of the power of that proud persecutor, whom he had been describing in this psalm, and how slightly he speaks of him, now that he had been considering God's sovereignty. First, He is but a man of the earth, a man out of the earth, so the word is; sprung out of the earth, and therefore mean, and weak, and hastening to the earth again. Why then should we be afraid of the fury of the oppressor, when he is but man that shall die, a son of man that shall be as grass? Isa. li. 12. He that protects us, is the Lord of heaven; he that persecutes us, but a man of the earth. Secondly, God has him in a chain, and can easily restrain the remainder of his wrath, so that he cannot do what he would. When God speaks the word, Satan shall by his instruments no more deceive, (Rev. xx. 3.) no more oppress.
In singing these verses, we must commit religion's just, but injured, cause to God, as those that are heartily concerned for its honour and interests, believing that he will, in due time, plead it with jealousy.
PSALM XI.
In this psalm we have David's struggle with, and triumph over, a strong temptation to distrust God, and betake himself to indirect means for his own safety in a time of danger. It is supposed to have been penned when he began to feel the resentments of Saul's envy, and had had the javelin thrown at him once and again. He was then advised to run his country; "No," says he, "I trust in God, and therefore will keep my ground." Observe, I. How he represents the temptation, and perhaps parleys with it, v. 1..3. II. How he answers it, and puts it to silence, with the consideration of God's dominion and providence, (v. 4) his favour to the righteous, and the wrath which the wicked are reserved for, v. 5..7. In time of public fears, when the insults of the church's enemies are daring and threatening, it will be profitable to meditate on this psalm.
To the chief musician.A psalm of David.
1. IN the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? 2. For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. 3. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
Here is,
1. David's fixed resolution to make God his confidence; In the Lord put I my trust, v. 1. Those that truly fear God, and serve him, are welcome to put their trust in him, and shall not be made ashamed of their doing so. And it is the character of the saints, who have taken God for their God, that they make him their Hope: even when they have other things to stay themselves upon, yet they do not, they dare not, stay upon them, but on God only; gold is not their hope, nor horses and chariots their confidence, but God only: and therefore, when second causes frown, yet their hopes do not fail them, because the First Cause is still the same, is ever so. The psalmist, before he gives an account of the temptation he was in to distrust God records his resolution to trust in him, as that which he was resolved to live and die by.
2. His resentment of a temptation to the contrary; "How say ye to my soul, which has thus returned to God as its Rest, and reposes in him, Flee as a bird to your mountain? to be safe there out of the reach of the fowler." This may be taken, either,
(1.) As the serious advice of his timorous friends, so many understand it, and with great probability. Some, that were hearty well-wishers to David, when they saw how much Saul was exasperated against him, and how maliciously he sought his life, pressed him by all means to flee for the same to some place of shelter, and not to depend too much upon the anointing he had received, which, they thought, was more likely to occasion the loss of his head than to save it. That which grieved him in this motion, was, not that to flee now would savour of cowardice, and ill become a soldier, but that it would savour of unbelief, and would ill become a saint, who had so often said, In the Lord put I my trust. Taking it thus, the two following verses contain the reason with which these faint-hearted friends of David backed this advice. They would have him flee, [1.] Because he could not be safe where he was; (v. 2.) "Observe," say they, "how the wicked bend their bow; Saul and his instruments aim at thy life, and the uprightness of thine heart will not be thy security." See what an enmity there is in the wicked against the upright, in the seed of the serpent against the seed of the woman; what pains they take, what preparations they make, to do them a mischief; they privily shoot at them, or in darkness, that they may not see the evil designed, to avoid it, nor others, to prevent it; no, nor God himself, to punish it [2.] Because he could be no longer useful where he was; "For," say they, "if the foundations be destroyed," (as they were by Saul's mal-administration,) "if the civil state and government be unhinged and all out of course," (lxxv. iii.—lxxxii. 5.) "what canst thou do with thy righteousness to redress the grievances? Alas, it is to no purpose to attempt the saving of a kingdom so wretchedly shattered; whatever the righteous can do, signifies nothing." Abi in cellam, et dic, Miserere mei, Domine—Away to thy cell, and there cry, Pity me, O Lord. Many are hindered from doing the service they might do to the public, in difficult times, by a despair of success.
(2.) It may be taken as a taunt wherewith his enemies bantered him, upbraiding him with the professions he used to make of confidence in God, and scornfully bidding him try what stead that would stand him in now. "You say, God is your Mountain; flee to him now, and see what the better you will be." Thus they endeavoured to shame the counsel of the poor, saying, There is no help for them in God, xiv. 6.—iii. 2. The confidence and comfort which the saints have in God, when all the hopes and joys in the creature fail them, are a riddle to a carnal world, and are ridiculed accordingly.
Taking it thus, the two following verses are David's answer to this sarcasm. In which, [1.] He
