Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/3_600_e.lzh/3_652.TXT

Text File | 1995-02-01 | 8KB | 153 lines

\*Ver. 7. \\Lord, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand\\
\\strong\\, &c.] The psalmist found
himself mistaken, and acknowledges it; that as it was
not owing to his own merit that he enjoyed the prosperity
that he did, so neither was the continuance of
it owing to his goodness, power, and strength, but to
the free grace and favour of God; as the church of
God is compared to a mountain, and the several individuals
of believers are like to Mount Zion, so the
soul of a child of God may be called his mountain,
which is made strong by the Lord as to its state in
Christ, being set on him, the Rock of ages, and sure
foundation, where it is safe and secure; and as to its
grace, whenever it is in any strong exercise, which is
altogether owing to the favour of God, and continues
as long as he pleases;
\*\\thou didst hide thy face, [and]
I was troubled\\; the Lord may hide his face from his
people, and yet their state be safe; their mountain
stands strong in that respect; yet this generally produces
a change of frames; it gives trouble, and faith
and hope become feeble and languid in their acts and
exercises; this shows the changeableness of frames,
that they are not to be depended upon; that they are
entirely owing to the pleasure of God, and that rejoicing
only should be in him: very likely some regard
is had to the affair of Absalom's rebellion, which came
unawares, unthought of, when David was in the greatest
prosperity and security.

\*Ver. 8. \\I cried to thee, O Lord\\, &c.] In his trouble, when the
Lord had hid his face from him, and
he was sensible that he had departed from him: he
was not stupid and unaffected with it; nor did he
turn his back upon God, and seek to others; but
he cried after a departing God, which showed love to
him, and some degree of faith in him, by looking
again towards his holy temple, and waiting upon him
until he returned;
\*\\and unto the Lord I made supplication\\;
in the most humble manner; entreating his
grace and mercy, and that he would again show him
his face and favour.

\*Ver. 9. \\What profit [is there] in my blood\\? &c.]
Should that be shed, and he die by the hands of his
enemies, through divine permission: death is not profitable
to a man's self by way of merit; it does not
atone for sin, satisfy justice, and merit heaven; even
the death of martyrs, and of such who shed their
blood, died in the cause of Christ, and for his sake, is
not meritorious; it does not profit in such sense:
there is profit in no blood but in the blood of Christ,
by which peace is made, pardon procured, and redemption
obtained. Indeed death is consequentially
profitable to good men; it is an outlet of all sorrows
and afflictions, and the inlet of joy and happiness; it
is the saints' passage to heaven, and upon it they are
immediately with:Christ, and rest from their labours:
nor is there profit in the blood of the saints to them
that shed it; for when inquisition is made for it,
vengeance will be taken on them who have shed it,
and blood will be given them to drink, as will be particularly
to antichrist: nor is there any profit in it to
the Lord himself; which seems to be what is chiefly
designed, since it is used by the psalmist as an argument
with him in prayer, that he might not be left by
him, and to his enemies, so as to perish, since no
glory could accrue to God by it from them; they
would not give him thanks for it, but ascribe it to
themselves, and say their own hand had done it; so
far, the psalmist suggests, would his death be from
being profitable to God, that it would rather be a loss

to the interest of religion; since he had not as yet
fully restored religion, and settled the pure worship
of God in order, and made the preparations for the
building the house of God he intended. God may
be glorified in the death of his people; either by their
dying in the faith of interest in him; or by suffering
death for his name's sake; but, in a strict sense, there
is nothing either in life or death in which man can be
profitable unto God; see \\#Job 22:2,3 35:7,8\\;
some understand this of life; because the life is in the
blood: as if the sense was, of what advantage is life
to me? it would have been better for the if I had
never been born, had had no life and being at all, if 1
must for ever be banished from thy presence, and go
down to the pit of hell, which they suppose is designed
in the following phrase;
\*\\when I go down to the pit\\;
though the grave seems rather to be meant, and the
former sense is best;
\*\\shall the dust praise thee\\? that
is, men, whose original is dust, being reduced to dust
again, as the body at death, when laid in the grave,
and corrupted there, is; this lifeless dust cannot praise
the Lord: the soul indeed dies not with the body;
nor does it sleep in the grave with it; nor is it unemployed
in heaven; but is continually engaged in the high
praises of God: but the sense of the psalmist is, that
should he die, and be buried, and be reduced to dust,
he should no more praise the Lord in the land of the
living, among men, to the glory of divine grace and
goodness; so that this revenue of his glory would be
lost. Shall it declare thy truth? either the truth of
the Gospel, which lies in the word of God; or rather
the faithfulness of God in the performance of his promises; see
\\#Ps 40:10 Isa 38:18,19\\.

\*Ver. 10. \\Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me\\,
&c.] By lifting up the light of his countenance again
upon him; by manifesting and applying his pardoning
grace to him, and by delivering him out of all his afflictions;
\*\\Lord, be thou my helper\\; in this time of
trouble; for he knew that vain was the help of man;
and he was entirely in the right to betake himself to
the Lord, who was able to help him, when none else could.

\*Ver. 11. \\Those hast turned for me my mourning into
dancing\\, &c.] This, with what follows, expresses
the success he had in seeking the Lord by prayer and
supplication; there was a sudden change of things,
as it often is with the people of God; sometimes they
are mourning by reason of sin, their own and others;
or on account of afflictions; or because of spiritual
decays; or through the temptations of Satan; or, as
it was the case of the psalmist now, because of the
hidings of God's face; but this mourning is exchanged
for joy and gladness when the Lord discovers his pardoning
love, revives his work in their souls, takes off
his afflicting hand from them, rebukes the tempter,
and delivers out of his temptations, and shows himself,
his grace and favour;
\*\\thou hast put off my sackcloth\\;
which was used in mourning for relations, and
in times of calamity and distress, and as a token of
humiliation and repentance, \\#Ge 37:34 Es 4:1 Jon 3:8\\;
\*\\and girded me with gladness\\; by
these phrases the same thing is signified as before;
see \\#Isa 61:3\\.

\*Ver. 12. \\To the end that [my] glory may sing praise to thee, and
not\\ \\be silent\\, &c.] Meaning either his soul, the more noble
and glorious part of him; or the members of his body,
his tongue, which is the glory of it, and with which
he glorified God; see \\#Ps 16:9\\; compared with \\#Ac 2:26\\,
this was the end that was to be answered by
changing the scene of things; and which was answered;
\*\\O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever\\;
to the end of life, as long as he had a being, and to
all eternity, \\#Ps 104:33\\. Jerom interprets the whole
psalm of the resurrection of Christ.