Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/3_500_e.lzh/3_526.TXT

Text File | 1995-01-24 | 8KB | 148 lines

\*Ver. 3. \\And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water\\,
&c.] Or, %for then shall he be%, &c. as
Alshech renders the words; and the Hebrew
%vau% is often used for %then% {q}. As \\#Ps 1:1,2\\
describe the man who is blessed, this points at his
blessedness, and shows and proves him to be an happy
man; for he is comparable to a %tree%: not to a dry tree,
or a tree without fruit, or whose fruit is withered, but
to a fruitful tree, a green and flourishing one;
green olive tree, or a palm tree, or a cedar in Lebanon;
to which David compares himself and the righteous,
\\#Ps 52:8 92:12\\; and here such an one is compared
to a tree %planted%; not to one that grows of itself,
a wild tree, a tree of the wood; but to one that is removed
from its native place and soil, and planted elsewhere;
and so designs such who are broken off of
the wild olive tree, and are grafted into the good olive
tree; who are planted in Christ Jesus, and in the
church, the house of the Lord; of which transplantation
the removal of Israel into Canaan's land was an
emblem, \\#Ps 80:8\\; and such a spiritual plantation
is of God the husbandman; whose planting the saints
are efficiently, \\#Isa 55:21 61:3 Mt 15:13\\.
And it is owing to the word, the ingrafted word, \\#Jas 1:21\\,
which is the means of this ingrafture, and to the ministers
of it instrumentally; some of whom plant,
and others water, \\#1Co 3:6,7\\. Moreover, the happy
man before described is like a tree that is situated %by
the rivers of water%, or %divisions% {r} and rivulets of water;
which running about the plants, make them very fruitful
and flourishing; see \\#Eze 31:4\\; and which may
intend the river of the love of God, and the streams
of it, the discoveries and applications of it to regenerate
persons; and also the fulness of grace in Christ,
who is the fountain of gardens, the well of living waters
and streams from Lebanon, to revive, refresh, supply,
and comfort his people, \\#So 4:15\\; as well as the graces of the
spirit of God, which are near the saints, and like
rivers of water flow out of them that believe in Christ, \\#Joh 7:38\\;
to which may be added the word and ordinances of
the Gospel, which are the still waters, to which they
are invited and led, and by which and with which
they are greatly refreshed, and made fruitful. Arama
interprets it of the waters of the law; it is best to
understand it of the Gospel; see \\#Isa 55:1\\; it follows,
\*\\that bringeth forth his fruit in his season\\; and so appears to
be a tree of righteousness, filled with the fruits of
righteousness, the graces of the spirit, and good
works; which are brought forth by him under the
influence of grace, as he has opportunity, and according
to the measure of grace bestowed. His
leaf also shall not wither; neither tree, nor fruit,
nor leaf shall wither, but shall be always green;
which is expressive of the saints' perseverance: the
reasons of which are, they are ingrafted in Christ
the true vine, and abide in him, from whom they
have their sap, nourishment, and fruit, \\#Joh 15:1,2\\; they are
rooted and built up in him, and established in the
faith of him; and so they hold fast the profession of it
without wavering;
\*\\and whatsoever he doth shall prosper\\;
meaning not so much in things temporal, of which
Arama interprets it, for in these the good man does
not always succeed, but in things spiritual: whatever
he does in faith, from love, to the glory of God, and in
 ne name of Christ, prospers; yea, those things in
which he is concerned, that are adverse, and seem for
the present to be against him, in the issue work for
good to him: in short, such a man is blessed with
grace here, and glory hereafter; and therefore must
needs be an happy man.

\*Ver. 4. \\The ungodly [are] not so\\, &c.] They are not
as the good man is; their manner and course of life
are different; they walk in the counsel of ungodly
men, like themselves, and take counsel against the
Lord, his Anointed, and his people: they stand in the
way of sinners, and steer their conversation according
to the course of the world, and sit in the seat of the
scornful; laugh at divine revelation, lampoon the
Scriptures, deride good men, make a jest of religion
and a future state: they have no delight in the law of
the Lord, they cast it away from them, and despise
it; and are so far from a constant meditation on it,
that they never read it, nor so much as look into it,
nor is it ever in their thoughts. They are not like to
a tree, as described in \\#Ps 1:3\\: if they are
like to trees, it is to dry trees, and not green ones, to
trees without any sap, moisture, and verdure, and
which are only fit fuel for the fire; to the trees of the
wood, to wild olive trees; to trees on an heath, in a
desert, in parched land, and not to trees by rivers of
water, but to trees that have no root, and are without
fruit, \\#Jude 1:12\\. And though they may be in a
seeming prosperous condition for a time, may be in
great power, riches, and honour, and spread themselves
like a green bay tree; yet suddenly they are cut
down as the grass, and wither as the green herb; and
even their outward prosperity destroys them; so that
not any thing they have or do in the issue prospers:
and therefore they are not blessed or happy as the
good man is; yea, they are wretched and miserable,
nay, cursed; they are cursed now, and will be hereafter;
they are cursed in their basket and store, their
blessings are curses to them; the law pronounces
them cursed; and they will hear, %go ye cursed%, at
the day of judgment, see \\#Mt 25:41\\. The Vulgate Latin, Septuagint,
and Arabic versions, repeat the words not so, and read
not so the ungodly, not so: which seems to be done for
the confirmation of the truth of it:
\*\\but [are] like the
chaff which the wind driveth away\\; they are like chaff,
which has no root, moisture, greenness, nor fruitfulness;
they have nothing in them solid and substantial;
they are destitute of all that is good; are vain
and empty; without the knowledge of God and Christ;
without faith in Christ and love to him; and are sensual,
not having the spirit, his graces and fruits: they
are like chaff for lightness, vain in their imaginations,
light in their principles, frothy in their words, and unstable
in all their ways: they are never long in any position,
unsettled, disquieted, and tossed to and fro;
and there is no peace unto them: they are like chaff,
useless and unprofitable, nothing worth, fit only for
everlasting burnings, which will be their case. For
when Christ will gather his wheat, the righteous,
which are of value, into his garner, the heavenly
glory, he will burn the chaff, the wicked, with unquenchable
fire. They are now like chaff, driven and
carried about with every wind of doctrine, with divers
and strange doctrines, and entertain every light and
airy notion; and are easily drawn aside and carried
away by the force of their own lusts, and with every
temptation of Satan, who works effectually in then:
and particularly they are like chaff before the wind of
terrible judgments and calamities in this life, and of
the awful judgment hereafter, when they will be
driven away from the presence of the Lord into everlasting
destruction. The metaphor is often used in
this sense; see \\#Job 21:17 Isa 17:13,14 29:3 Ho 13:3\\;
and denotes the secret, sudden, sure,
and easy ruin of the ungodly, which comes upon
them like a whirlwind, in an instant, which they cannot
avoid; and they can no more stand before God
and against him, than chaff before the wind. It follows,

{q} Vid. Noldii Concord. Part. Ebr. p. 308.
{r} \^yglp le\^ %juxta divisiones%; Musculus, Hammond; so Ben Melech.