|
1.
|
Truly my soul waiteth (is silent: AV mg.) upon God.
This is admirably illustrated by David’s response to the cursing of
Shimei:
|
|
|
Let him alone, and let him curse, because the Lord hath said
unto him, Curse David” (2 Sam. 16:11).
|
|
See also Psa. 123:2.
|
2.
|
He is my defence. Misgab (59:16,17).
|
|
I shall not be greatly moved surely implies disaster,
but not without remedy.
|
3.
|
How long will ye imagine mischief? The plots of the
rebels.
|
|
Against a man. That is, against one man, David.
Note the emphasis in 2 Sam. 17:1-3, where the rebels are totally consumed with
eliminating the one man David — an amazing tribute to the power of
David’s personality. (Yet notice David’s estimation of
himself, at an earlier time: there is no pride in this man: he is a “dead
dog”, a “flea”, and a “partridge”: 1 Sam. 24:14;
26:20!)
|
|
Ye shall be slain all of you. Would David say this to
include Absalom? This phrase is there by inspiration surely.
|
|
A bowing (leaning: RSV) wall... a tottering fence.
This is precisely how they saw (wanted to see?) David. Contrast the
“rock” of vv. 2,6,7.
|
4.
|
They only consult to cast him down. Absalom’s
council of war: 2 Sam. 17:14; s.w. 15:14 (“bring evil”).
|
|
From his excellency. “Eminence” (RSV), i.e.
the kingship.
|
|
They delight (ratzah: a word often used for an
acceptable sacrifice!) in lies. Character assassination was a part of the
campaign: contrast v. 9.
|
|
They bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly.
Overt blessings, and covert curses. This must have gone on for
a long time before the rebels came out into the open (cp. Psa. 5:6,9;
41:6).
|
|
Selah. And hence the allusions in this psalm to God the
“Rock”.
|
7.
|
My refuge. Why did David flee to Mahanaim, and not to
one of the official cities of refuge? Was this because, technically, he had not
slain anyone? Or was it because he knew himself to be already forgiven (2 Sam.
12:13)?
|
8.
|
Ye people. With particular reference to those who still
stayed loyal to David. The word comes three times in 2 Sam. 17:2,3. Note also:
“a refuge for us”.
|
10.
|
Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery.
The inevitable accompaniment of rebellion — a breakdown of law and
order.
|
|
If riches increase, through the expropriation of
property of those still supporting David (note the relevance of Prov. 1:10-14),
set not your heart upon them; i.e. do not let this loss worry you
unduly.
|
11.
|
God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this. The
extraordinary emphasis (cp. Job 33:14; 40:5) here suggests the words to some
divine oracular pronouncement, when David was in danger of losing his kingdom:
(a) 2 Sam. 8; Psa. 2:4-7; Psa. 60, notes, or (b) His present experience —
through Zadok the seer — perhaps by Urim and Thummim: 2 Sam.
15:27.
|
12.
|
Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy. Here David
climbs higher than “defense” or “refuge” or even
“rock”; instead, he depends on God’s forgiveness of his sins
and on the great promise of 2 Samuel 7: “the sure mercies of
David”.
|
|
For thou renderest to every man according to his work.
God does not operate on this principle towards men of faith like David; if
He did, then all men would perish utterly! But towards faithless sinners like
the rebels, yes, He does! William Kay sums up this verse: God is
“invincible Power to meet the stubborn, or inexhaustible Grace to meet the
penitent”. Compare Prov. 24:12; Jer. 17:10; Matt. 16:27; Rom. 2:6; 1 Cor.
3:8; 2 Tim. 4:14; Rev. 2:23; 20:12,13; 22:12.
|
|
1.
|
My soul waiteth (is silent) was specially true of Jesus
in his trial, when he did not answer the charges being brought against him
(Matt. 27:12,14). Here is the explanation of those silences before his
adversaries: he was praying (cp. Psa. 37:7)! Verse 2 now applies very readily:
“He is my defence; I shall not be moved” (cp.
37:24).
|
3.
|
A bowing wall... a tottering fence. Apt figures for the
fate of Jerusalem and its people:
|
|
Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to
fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an
instant” (Isa. 30:13, and see the whole section; cp. Job 24:16; Matt.
6:19; 24:43).
|
4.
|
They only consult.
|
|
Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes,
and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called
Caiaphas, and consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill
him. But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the
people” (Matt. 26:3-5; also see vv. 59,60).
|
|
To cast him down from his excellency. Matt. 26:53,68;
27:26.
|
|
They bless with their mouth. Matt. 22:16.
|
8.
|
God is a refuge for us. Bewildered and grief-stricken
disciples associated with Christ in his suffering.
|
11.
|
God hath spoken once... twice. It may be taken as
certain that the Father spoke thus to His Son many times, but on two occasions
He spoke to him especially for the benefit of others: Matt. 17:5; John
12:28.
|
12.
|
For thou renderest to every man according to his work.
Consider the appropriateness of this verse with reference to (a) Christ; (b)
those in Christ; and (c) those rejecting him.
|
|
1.
|
Truly. This unusual Hebrew particle akh
comes six times in this psalm: “truly” once,
“only” four times (vv. 2,4,5,6) and “surely” once (v.
9). It occurs four times in Psa. 39, and hardly anywhere else. It usually
implies: “Nothing but this; there is no alternative.”
|
3.
|
Ye shall be slain all of you. What a contrast with vv.
6,7!
|
4.
|
But they curse inwardly. The Hebrew for
“inwardly” is s.w. Psa. 51:6.
|
8.
|
Pour out your heart before him. Like the blood of the
Passover lamb was poured out at the base of the altar (22:14; 42:4; cp. Lam.
2:11,12). Contrast this openness before God with the secret scheming of v.
4.
|
9.
|
Surely men of low degree are vanity.
“Vanity” (hebel: nothing-ness, a wind, a
“breath”: RV mg.) is the key word in Ecclesiastes. Literally,
“men of Adam are Abel”! Contrast a
“breath” with the “rock” (vv. 2,6,7).
|
|
Men of low degree (adam) ... men of high degree
(ish). This latter phrase comes in 4:2, another “Absalom”
psalm. Also, see 49:2.
|
|
In the balances they will go up (RV). Men of low degree
are nothing, but men of high degree are a “delusion” — because
they are less than nothing! They are not only “weighed in the balances,
and found wanting” (Dan. 5:27). But moreover, when put in the
“scales”, with nothing on the other side, they still
go up! It is true, an ambitious man wants to “go up” in the
world; but hardly in this way!
|
|
“Man’s worthlessness, taken by himself, is so
marked as to defy the force of gravity. Compared with things of substance he is
so unsubstantial as to be almost anti-substantial... We need something like this
to make us aware of what insuperable obstacles lie in the way of success if we
battle alone” (A.D. Norris). Similar estimates of the worth of natural
man: Psa. 39:5,6; 49:20; 103:15,16; Isa. 40:6-8, 15,17; 41:24; 1 Pet.
1:24,25.
|
10.
|
If riches increase:
|
|
Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not
highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us
richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works,
ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a
good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal
life” (1 Tim. 6:17-19).
|
|
A man who sets his heart on riches, even if they are honestly
acquired, is a fool (Luke 12:15-21), and “the prosperity of fools shall
destroy them” (Prov. 1:32).
|
11.
|
Power belongs to God. “For with God all things
are possible” (Mark 10:27) — this in the context of rich men’s
inability to save themselves! “There is no power but of God” (Rom.
13:1). He is in control of human affairs. But it calls for real faith to believe
this. No wonder so many fall back on the easier, but erroneous (because
misinterpreted) philosophy of “Time and chance”.
|
|
Read vv. 9-12a with reference to Barnabas, possibly the
“rich young ruler” (Matt. 19:16-22; Mark 10:17-22; Luke 18:18-23).
Born of high degree, he yet made himself of low degree, and learned not to set
his heart on his riches. God spoke to him once (through Jesus), and twice (Acts
4), and the Holy Spirit (Acts 11:24) taught him that power and also mercy belong
to God.
|