complains of the malice of those who did thus abuse him; (v. 2.) They bend their bow, and make ready their arrows; and we are told, (lxiv. 3.) what they are, even bitter words, such words as these, by which they endeavour to discourage hope in God, which David felt as a sword in his bones. [2.] He resists the temptation with a gracious abhorrence, v. 3. He looks upon this suggestion as striking at the foundations which every Israelite builds upon; "If you destroy the foundations, if you take good people off from their hope in God, if you can persuade them that their religion is a cheat and a jest, and can banter them out of that, you ruin them, and break their hearts indeed, and make them of all men the most miserable." The principles of religion are the foundations on which the faith and hope of the righteous are built. These we are concerned, in interest, as well as duty, to hold fast against all temptations to infidelity; for if these be destroyed, if we let these go, What can the righteous do? Good people would be undone, if they had not a God to go to, a God to trust to, and a future bliss to hope for.
4. The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. 5. The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked, and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. 6. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. 7. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.
The shaking of a tree (they say) makes it take the deeper and faster root. The attempt of David's enemies to discourage his confidence in God, engages him to cleave so much the closer to his first principles, and to review them, which he here does, abundantly to his own satisfaction, and the silencing of all temptations to infidelity. That which was shocking to his faith, and has been so to the faith of many, was, the prosperity of wicked people in their wicked ways, and the straits and distresses which the best men are sometimes reduced to; hence such an evil thought as this, was apt to arise, Surely it is vain to serve God, and we may call the proud happy; but, in order to stifle and shame all such thoughts, we are here called to consider,
1. That there is a God, a God in heaven; The Lord is in his holy temple above; there he is out of our sight, but we are not out of his. Let not the enemies of the saints insult over them, as if they were at a loss, and at their wit's end: no, they have a God, and they know where to find him, and how to direct their prayer unto him, as their Father in heaven. Or, He is in his holy temple, that is, in his church; he is a God in covenant and communion with his people, through a Mediator, of whom the temple was a type. We need not say, "Who shall go up to heaven, to fetch us thence a God to trust to?" No, the Word is nigh us, and God in the Word; his Spirit is in his saints, those living temples, and the Lord is that Spirit.
2. That this God governs the world; the Lord has not only his residence, but his throne, in heaven, and he has set the dominion thereof in the earth; (Job xxxviii. 33.) for, having prepared his throne in the heavens, his kingdom ruleth over all, ciii. 19. Hence the heavens are said to rule, Dan. iv. 26. Let us by faith see God on his throne, on his throne of glory, infinitely transcending the splendour and majesty of earthly princes; on his throne of government, giving law, giving motion, and giving aim, to all the creatures; on his throne of judgment, rendering to every man according to his works; and on his throne of grace, to which his people may come boldly for mercy and grace; we shall then see no reason to be discouraged by the pride and power of oppressors, or any of the afflictions that attend the righteous.
3. That this God perfectly knows every man's true character; His eyes behold, his eye-lids try, the children of men; he not only sees them, but he sees through them; not only knows all they say and do, but knows what they think, what they design, and how they really stand affected, whatever they pretend. We may know what men seem to be, but he knows what they are, as the refiner knows what the value of the gold is, when he has tried it. God is said to try with his eyes, and his eye-lids, because he knows men, not as earthly princes know men, by report and representation, but by his own strict inspection, which cannot err, or be imposed upon. This may comfort us when we are deceived in men, even in men that we think we have tried, that God's judgment of men, we are sure, is according to truth.
4. That, if he afflict good people, it is for their trial, and therefore for their good, v. 5. The Lord tries all the children of men, that he may do them justice; but he tries the righteous, that he may do them good in their latter end, Deut. viii. 16. Let not that therefore shake our foundations, or discourage our hope and trust in God.
5. That, however persecutors and oppressors may prosper and prevail a while, they now lie under, and will for ever perish under, the wrath of God.
(1.) He is a holy God, and therefore hates them, and cannot endure to look upon them; The wicked, and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth; for nothing is more contrary to the rectitude and goodness of his nature. Their prosperity is so far from being an evidence of God's love, that their abuse of it does certainly make them the objects of his hatred. He that hates nothing that he has made, yet hates those who have thus ill-made themselves. Dr. Hammond offers another reading of this verse; The Lord trieth the righteous and the wicked; (distinguishes infallibly between them, which is more than we can do;) and he that loveth violence hateth his own soul, that is, persecutors bring certain ruin upon themselves, (Prov. viii. 36.) as follows here.
(2.) He is a righteous Judge, and therefore he will punish them, v. 6. Their punishment will be, [1.] Inevitable; Upon the wicked he shall rain snares. Here is a double metaphor, to denote the unavoidableness of the punishment of wicked men. It shall be rained upon them from heaven, (Job xx. 23.) against which there is no fence, and from which there is no escape; see Josh. x. 11. 1 Sam. ii. 10. It shall surprise them, as a sudden shower sometimes surprises the traveller in a summer's day. It shall be as snares upon them, to hold them fast, and keep them prisoners, till the day of reckoning comes. [2.] Very terrible; it is fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest, which plainly alludes to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and very fitly, for that destruction was intended for a figure of the vengeance of eternal fire, Jude 7. The fire of God's wrath, fastening upon the brimstone of their own guilt, will burn certainly and furiously, will burn to the lowest hell, and to the utmost line of eternity. What a horrible tempest are the wicked hurried away in, at death! What a lake of fire and brimstone must they make their bed in for ever, in the congregation of the dead and damned! That is it that is here meant
