It followed that he surrendered himself entirely to God in all that regarded this life or his death. The passage puts us in possession of the grand distinction between the genuine children of God and those who are hypocrites. They are to be found together in the Church, as the wheat is mingled with the chaff on the same threshing-floor; but the one class abides for ever in the stedfastness of a well-founded hope, while the other is driven away in the vanity of its false confidences.

9. I will praise thee, &c. He concludes the psalm with thanksgiving, and shows that he is sincere in this, by the special acknowledgment which he makes of the fact that this had been the work of God. Such is the corruption of the human heart, that out of a hundred who profess gratitude to God with their lips, scarcely one man seriously reflects upon the benefits which he has received as coming from his hand. David declares, therefore, that it was entirely owing to the divine protection that he had escaped from the treachery of Doeg, and from all his subsequent dangers, and promises to retain a grateful sense of it throughout the whole of his life. There is no religious duty in which it does not become us to manifest a spirit of perseverance; but we need to be especially enjoined to it in the duty of thanksgiving, disposed as we are so speedily to forget our mercies, and occasionally to imagine that the gratitude of a few days is a sufficient tribute for benefits which deserve to be kept in everlasting remembrance. He speaks of joining the exercise of hope with that of gratitude; for to wait on the name of God is synonymous with patiently expecting his mercy even when there is least appearance of its being granted, and trusting in his word, whatever delays there may be in the fulfilment of it. He encourages himself in the belief that his hope will not be vain, by reflecting that the name of God is good before his saints. Some read, because it is good before thy saints; that is, to hope in the divine name, (Ps. cxviii. 8.) But the other reading appears to me to be the most simple and natural, expressing the truth, that God will not frustrate the expectations of his people, because his goodness towards them is always conspicuous. The name of God may be detested

by the wicked, and the very sound of it be sufficient to strike terror into their hearts; but David asserts it to be a sweet name in the experience of all his people. They are here called his meek ones, because, as I have remarked in commenting upon Ps. xvi. 3, they reflect in their character the kindness and beneficence of their Father in heaven.

PSALM LIII.

This psalm being almost identical with the fourteenth, it has not been considered necessary to subjoin any distinct commentary.1

To the chief musician upon Mahalath. 2 A Psalm of David for instruction.

1. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God: they have become corrupt, they have done abominable works: there is none that doeth good.

2. God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. 3. Every one of them has gone back; they have together become filthy there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

1 Some slight differences will be found, on comparison, between this and the 14th psalm; the chief of which is in the 5th verse. For Calvin's explanation of this verse, see vol. i. p. 199. It is not easy to say whether these variations are owing to transcribers, or whether they were made by some prophetic bard, who, during some afflictive period of Jewish history, adapted the 14th psalm, by a few alterations, to circumstances different from those for which it was originally composed. Theodoret is of this last opinion, and refers it to the alarm created by Sennacherib's invasion under the reign of Hezekiah; others think it was written during the captivity-a conjecture which is founded on the last verse, "O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion !"

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2 "What , mahalath, signifies, in the title of this and the 88th psalm, must be uncertain, the word not being found elsewhere. It is most probably the name of an instrument on which the psalm was to be sung; and it may fitly be deduced from, perforavit, or incidit, either from the hollowness of the instrument, or farther, from the holes cut in it; in which respect is ordinarily used for fistula, or tibia, a pipe."—Hammond.

4. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? eating my people as they eat bread :1 they have not called upon God. 5. There were they in great fear where no fear was; for God

hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee : thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them. 6. Who shall give the salvation of Israel out of Zion? When God bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall triumph.

PSALM LIV.

David has recorded in this psalm the prayers which he offered up to God when he heard of his having been betrayed by the Ziphites, and was reduced to a situation of extreme danger. It cannot fail to impress us with a high idea of his indomitable faith, thus to find him calling upon the name of God in the immediate prospect of death.

To the chief musician on Neginoth. A Psalm of David for instruction: when the Ziphites came and said to Saul, Doth not David hide himself with us?

We know from the sacred history that David frequently concealed himself in that part of the wilderness which adjoined to the Ziphites. It appears (1 Sam. xxiii. 19; xxvi. 1) that he was betrayed by them on two different occasions; and he takes notice of the particular circumstances in which the psalm was written, to teach us that we should never despair of divine help even in the worst situation. Surrounded as he was by hostile troops, and hemmed in on every side by apparently inevitable destruction, we cannot but admire the rare and heroical intrepidity which he displayed in committing himself, by prayer, to the Almighty. It might have appeared just as credible that God could bring the dead out of the grave, as that he could preserve him in such circumstances; for it seemed impossible that he should escape from the cave where he was concealed with his life.

1. Save me, O God! by thy name, and judge me by thy strength.

1 "C'est, n'en font non plus de conscience, que de manger un morceau de pain."-Fr. marg. "That is, they have no more scruple in doing this than in eating a morsel of bread."

2 "C'est, son peuple captif."-Fr. marg. "That is, his captive people."

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2. Hear my prayer, O God! give ear to the words of my mouth.

3. For strangers are risen up against me, and the terrible ones have sought after my soul: they have not set God before them. Selah.

1. Save me, O God! As David was at this time placed beyond the reach of human assistance, he must be understood as praying to be saved by the name and the power of God, in an emphatical sense, or by these in contradistinction to the usual means of deliverance. Though all help must ultimately come from God, there are ordinary methods by which he generally extends it. When these fail, and every earthly stay is removed, he must then take the work into his own hands. It was in such a situation that David here fled to the saints' last asylum, and sought to be saved by a miracle of divine power. By appealing, in the second part of the verse, to God as his judge, he asserts his uprightness. And it must strike us all, that in asking the divine protection it is indispensably prerequisite we should be convinced of the goodness of our cause, as it would argue the greatest profanity in any to expect that God should patronize iniquity. David was encouraged to pray for deliverance by the goodness of his cause and his consciousness of integrity; nor did he entertain a single doubt, that on representing this to God he would act the part of his defender, and punish the cruelty and treachery of his enemies.

2. Hear my prayer, O God! The language is expressive of his earnestness. He was led to this fervour of supplication by the extremity of his present circumstances, which is alluded to in the following verse, where he complains of being surrounded by men fierce, barbarous, and unrestrained by a sense of religion. There was no necessity for his informing God of a fact which was already known to him; but he disburdens his own heart by venting the cause of his fear and disquietude. By calling his enemies strangers,1 he seems to

1 For, zairim, strangers, upwards of twenty MSS. have, zoidim, the proud; and this is the sense given by the Chaldee Paraphrast. As the

refer to their barbarity, whether he applied the name to the Ziphites only, or, in general, to the whole army of Saul. Others consider him, in this term, to advert to their degeneracy as children of Abraham; and it is true that the Jews are repeatedly stigmatized by the prophets under this form of expression, when they had cast themselves out of the Church of God by their profligacy or impiety. But in this passage it seems to be used in a different sense. As even enemies are accustomed, in some measure, to respect the ties of kindred and relationship, David would point out to us the monstrous inhumanity of the men who now surrounded him, by the fact that they assaulted him as strangers, as persons who had never known him, or as if he had been born in some distant part of the world. He calls them, also, terrible ones,1 not mighty, or powerful ones, as some have rendered the word; for that falls short of the meaning intended by David, which was, that they were divested of all humanity, and ready to rush upon him like wild beasts. Hence the fear with which he resorted to the protection of God. He adds, that they sought after his soul, to denote that nothing would content their insatiable cruelty but his life. And the better to express the unbridled nature of their fury, he tells us that they had no respect to God. The only thing which could be supposed, in the circumstances, to act as a restraint upon their minds, was the consideration of there being a judge in heaven to whom they were amenable for their conduct; and being insensible to this, what moderation could be expected of them?

4. Behold! God is my helper; the Lord is with them that uphold my soul.

5. He shall reward evil unto mine enemies: cut them off in thy truth.

24,)

Ziphites were Jews, and of the same tribe with David, (Joshua xv. and therefore not, strictly speaking, "strangers," some think that the proud is the true reading. But the Ziphites, as our Author justly observes, may be called "strangers," because they acted towards David the part of strangers and enemies, in seeking to deliver him into the hands of his unjust and cruel persecutor, Saul.

1 Ainsworth reads, "Daunting tyrants." "Terrible dismayers, as Saul and his retinue, whose terror daunted many. See Ps. x. 18."