Here we have David in sorrow,
1. It is a great sorrow; to that degree, that he weeps rivers of tears; commonly, where there is a gracious heart, there is a weeping eye; in conformity to Christ, who was a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. David had prayed for comfort in God's favour; (v. 135.) now he pleads that he was qualified for that comfort, and had need of it, for he was one of them that mourned in Zion, and they that do so shall be comforted, Isa. lxi. 3.
2. It is godly sorrow. He wept not for his troubles, though they were many, but for the dishonour to God, Because they keep not thy law. Either, because mine eyes keep not thy law, so some. The eye is the inlet and outlet of a great deal of sin, and therefore it ought to be a weeping eye. Or rather, they, those about me, v. 139. Note, The sins of sinners are the sorrows of saints. We must mourn for that which we cannot mend.
18. TZADDI.
137. Righteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgments. 138. Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful.
Here is, 1. The righteousness of God, the infinite rectitude and perfection of his nature: as he is what he is, so he is what he should be, and in every thing acts as becomes him; there is nothing wanting, nothing amiss, in God: his will is the eternal rule of equity, and he is righteous, for he doeth all according to it.
2. The righteousness of his government. He rules the world by his providence, according to the principles of justice, and never did, nor ever can, do any wrong to any of his creatures; Upright are thy judgments, the promises and threatenings are executions of both. Every word of God is pure, and he will be true to it; he perfectly knows the merits of every cause, and will judge accordingly.
3. The righteousness of his commands, which he has given to be the rule of our obedience; "Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded, which are backed with thy sovereign authority, and to which thou dost require our obedience, are exceeding righteous and faithful: righteousness and faithfulness itself." As he acts like himself, so his law requires that we act like ourselves, and like him; that we be just to ourselves and to all we deal with, true to all the engagements we lay ourselves under both to God and man. That which we are commanded to practice is righteous; that which we are commanded to believe is faithful. It is necessary to our faith and obedience that we be convinced of this.
139. My zeal hath consumed me: because mine enemies have forgotten thy word.
Here is, 1. The great contempt which wicked men put upon religion; Mine enemies have forgotten thy words. They have often heard them, but so little did they heed them, that they soon forgot them, they willingly forgot them; not only, through carelessness, let them slip out of their minds, but contrived how to cast them behind their backs. This is at the bottom of all the wickedness of the wicked, and particularly of their malignity and enmity to the people of God; they have forgotten the words of God, else those would give check to their sinful courses.
2. The great concern which godly men show for religion. David reckoned those his enemies who forgot the words of God, because they were enemies to religion, which he had entered into a league with, offensive and defensive. And therefore his zeal even consumed him, when he observed their impieties. He conceived such an indignation at their wickedness as preyed upon his spirits, ate them up, (as Christ's zeal, John ii. 17.) swallowed up all inferior considerations, and made him forget himself. My zeal has pressed or constrained me; so Dr. Hammond reads it, Acts xviii. 5. Zeal against sin should constrain us to do what we can against it in our places, at least, to do so much the more in religion ourselves. The worse others are, the better we should be.
140. Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.
Here is, 1. David's great affection for the word of God; Thy servant loves it. Every good man, being a servant of God, loves the word of God, because it lets him know his Master's will, and directs him in his Master's work. Wherever there is grace, there is a warm attachment to the word of God.
2. The ground and reason of that affection; he saw it to be very pure, and therefore he loved it. Our love to the word of God is then an evidence of our love to God, when we love it for the sake of its purity; because it bears the image of God's holiness and is designed to make us partakers of his holiness. It commands purity; and as it is itself refined from all corrupt mixture, so, if we receive it in the light and love of it, it will refine us from the dross of wordliness and fleshly-mindedness.
141. I am small and despised; yet do not I forget thy precepts.
Here is, 1. David pious, and yet poor. He was a man after God's own heart, one whom the King of kings did delight to honour, and yet small and despised, in his own account, and in the account of many others. Men's real excellency cannot always secure them from contempt; nay, it often exposes them to the scorn of some, and always makes them low in their own eyes. God has chosen the foolish things of the world, and it has been the common lot of his people to be a despised people.
2. David poor, and yet pious; small and despised for his strict and serious godliness; yet his conscience can witness for him, that he did not forget God's precepts. He will not throw off his religion, though it exposed him to contempt, for he knew that was designed to try his constancy. When we are small and despised, we have the more need to remember God's precepts, that we may have them to support us under the pressures of a low condition.
142. Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.
Observe, 1. That God's word is righteousness, and it is an everlasting righteousness; it is the rule of God's judgment, and it is consonant to his counsels from eternity, and will direct his sentence for eternity. The word of God will judge us, it will judge us in righteousness, and by it our everlasting state will be determined. This should possess us with a very great reverence for the word of God, that it is righteousness itself, the standard of righteousness, and it is everlasting in its rewards and punishments.
2. That God's word is a law, and that law is truth. See the double obligation we are under to be governed by the word of God; we are reasonable creatures, and as such we must be ruled by truth, acknowledging the force and power of it. If the principles be true, the practices must be agreeable to them, else we do not act rationally. We are creatures, and therefore subjects, and must be ruled by our Creator; and whatever he commands we are bound to obey as a law. See how these obligations are here twisted, these cords of a man: here is truth brought to the understanding, there to sit chief, and
