Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/3_500_e.lzh/3_542.TXT

Text File | 1995-01-25 | 8KB | 158 lines

\*Ver. 3. \\My voice shall thou hear in the morning, O
Lord\\, &c.] These words may be considered either as
expressing the confidence of the psalmist, that the
Lord would hear and answer him, and that in the
morning, every morning, as soon and as often as he
prayed; or that he would hear him early, quickly,
speedily, seasonably, and at the best time; or else
as declaring what he would do in consequence of his
resolution to pray to the Lord in \\#Ps 5:2\\;
he would pray to him every morning: the morning is a
proper time for prayer, both to return thanks to God
for refreshing sleep and rest, for preservation from
dangers by fire, by thieves and murderers, and for renewed
mercies in the morning; as also to pray to God
to keep from evil and dangers the day following; to
give daily food, and to succeed in business and the employments
of life; and for a continuation of every
mercy, temporal and spiritual. God should be served
and sought in the first place; and so to do looks as if
God was with his people, and they with him, when
they awake in the morning. The Targum and Arabic
version consider the words as a petition, and render
them, %Hear {d} in the morning, O Lord, my voice%, or %my
petition%; and so bear the same sense as the other petitions;
\*\\in the morning will I direct [my prayer] unto
thee\\; or %set [it] in order% {e}: not so much respecting the
order of words, the method of prayer, which is sometimes
very broken and confused, and yet regarded by
God; but in allusion either to the show bread, placed
in order on the table, which was typical of Christ's
continual intercession for his people, \\#Ex 40:4\\; or
to the offering of incense and other sacrifices, which
when offered were put in order upon the altar; and
to which prayer is compared, \\#Ps 141:2\\. Or the
words may be rendered, %I will stand before thee in the
morning%, as the Arabic version; or, %I will present unto
thee%, as the Septuagint; that is, myself; see \\#Job 1:6
Ro 12:1\\; though the supplement, %my prayer%, seems
to be a good one; and so the words are supplied by the
Jewish commentators {f};
\*\\and will look up\\; or %out% {g} as
out of a watch tower, \\#Hab 2:1\\; to see if help is
coming, and for an answer of prayer: the phrase is
expressive of hope, expectation, faith, and confidence,
that an answer would be returned; and therefore the
psalmist determines to look upwards to heaven,
whither he directed his prayer, and from whence the
answer must come; and to look out from his watch
tower, where he was waiting for it, and to continue
patiently expecting it till he had it: and the ground
of his confidence were the nature and perfections of
God, particularly his purity and holiness, as appears
from \\#Ps 5:3\\.

\*Ver. 4. \\For thou [art] not a God that hath pleasure in
wickedness\\, &c.] Sin, ungodliness; it is contrary to
his nature, who is holy, just, and good; and to his
will revealed in his law, which is the same with his
nature; and sin is a transgression of it. God is so far
from taking pleasure in sin, that it is the abominable
thing which his righteous soul hates; though this hinders
not his voluntary permission of sin, or his decree
of it; which he has willed, though he does not delight
in it, in order to magnify the riches of his grace aunt
mercy in the salvation of his people: nor is this contrary
to the delight and pleasure which he takes in
the persons of his elect in Christ, though they are sinners
in themselves, and were so when he so loved
them as to give his Son for them, and who died for
them while they were yet sinners; and when he sends
his Spirit to regenerate and sanctify them, and are after
conversion guilty of many sins: for, though he delights
in their persons, he has no pleasure in their sins; nor
is it consistent with the holiness of his nature to take
pleasure in wickedness, let it be committed by whomsoever;
\*\\neither shall evil dwell with thee\\; that is, the
evil man, who continues in a course of wickedness,
and lives and dies in his sins. He has no communion
with God here, nor shall he dwell with him hereafter;
but shall be bid to depart from him, whether he be a
profane sinner openly, Or secretly a wicked professor
of religion. The sense of the psalmist is, that since
they were evil and wicked men, that were risen up
against him, and gave him trouble, he entertained a
strong confidence that God would hear him, for himself
and his friends, whose cause was righteous; and
appear against his enemies, who were wicked and ungodly
men; and this he grounded upon the purity and
holiness of God.

\*Ver. 5. \\The foolish shall not stand in thy sight\\, &c.]
By the %foolish% are meant not such who are so in a
natural, but in a moral sense, wicked and ungodly
men. The Septuagint render the word, %transgressors
of the law%; and the Vulgate Latin version, %the unrighteous%;
and the Arabic version, %they that contradict thy precepts%.
The word {h} used comes from a
root which signifies to %praise%; and may design such
as are praisers of themselves, proud boasters; who
are elated with their own excellencies, with their
wisdom, strength, honours, riches, and righteousness,
and treat all others with contempt; for though they
are unrighteous, yet they trust in themselves that they
are righteous, and despise others, which betrays their
folly; hence the Syriac version renders it, %the proud%;
and the Chaldee paraphrase, %mockers%. And their not
standing in the sight of God denotes his abhorrence
and detestation of them; as when one man abhors
another he cannot endure to look upon him, or bear
to have him in his presence: and it shows that such
shall receive no favour from him; for though, like
proud Haman, they may think themselves his favourites,
and they are the persons the king will delight
to honour; yet to their great mortification they will
find, that a poor Mordecai, a mean despicable believer,
will be preferred unto them. Nor shall they
stand in acceptance and confidence before him at the
day of judgment: they will not be able to stand themselves,
but will call to the rocks and mountains to cover
them; and they will not be suffered lost and, but will
be driven from the presence Of the Lord into everlasting burnings,
\*\\thou hatest all workers of iniquity\\; not
all that have sin in them or do sin, for there are none
without it; but such who give themselves up to work
wickedness, who make it the business of their lives,
and are slaves unto it, living in a continued series and
course of impiety; and this character does not only
belong to openly profane sinners, but to some professors
of religion; see \\#Mt 7:22,23\\; and these are
the objects of God's hatred. Which does not so much
intend any past act of his, the preterition or passing
them by, when he chose others in his eternal purposes;
in which sense the word is used in \\#Ro 9:13\\,
as his continued aversion to them, denying them his
grace and favour, and rejecting them from all nearness
to him and communion with him; and may include
the everlasting punishment of them, by which his
displicency and hatred will be made manifest: and he is
impartial in it, without any respect to persons, high
or low, rich or poor; indignation and wrath, tribulation
and anguish, will come upon every soul of man
that does evil. God's love to his own people was
antecedent to sin, and was placed upon them in Christ,
in whom their persons are always well-pleasing to him;
and though they sinned in Adam, and became actual
transgressors of his law, yet such was his love to their
persons, that he saves them from their sins by the
blood and righteousness of his son.


{d} \^emvt\^ %audi%, Vatablus, Gejerus.
{e} \^Krea\^ %disponam%, Montanus, Michaelis; %praeparabo%, Pagninus,
Musculus; %ordinabo%, Piscator, Gejerus.
{f} Jarchi, Aben Ezra, Kimchi, & Ben Melech in loc.
{g} \^hpua\^ %speculabor%, Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator, Michaelis;
%speculatorus%, Junius & Tremellius.
{h} \^Myllwh\^ %jactitantes%, Gejerus; %insane gloriosi%, Michaelis; so
Ainsworth.