Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/3_600_e.lzh/3_677.TXT

Text File | 1995-02-02 | 5KB | 110 lines

\\INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 36\\

\*\\<<To the chief Musician, a Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord>>\\.
This title, which the psalmist takes to himself, regards
him not only as a creature, every man being the
servant of the Lord as such, of right, though not in
fact; but as a king, he being a minister of God for
good to good men, and for evil to evil men; and also
may respect him as a renewed man; and it is here used
in opposition to and distinction from the wicked, who
are the servants of sin and Satan, of whom he speaks
in this psalm. The Syriac and Arabic versions in
their titles suggest that this psalm was written when
David was persecuted by Saul, and which is the sense
of some interpreters; but R. Obadiah thinks Ahithophel
is designed by the wicked man in it; and so it
was penned on account of Absalom's rebellion.

\*Ver. 1. \\The transgression of the wicked saith within my
heart\\, &c.] Which is represented as a person speaking
within him; not that the transgression of the wicked
was really in him; sin was in him, and sin of the same
kind and nature with the wicked man's; but he taking
notice of and considering the wicked man's sinful course
of life, and his daring impieties, conceived in his own
mind, and concluded from hence,
\*\\[that there is] no fear
of God before his eyes\\; no reverential affection for him,
but enmity to him; no godly filial fear, but at most
only a slavish fear, a fear of punishment; no holy and
humble fear of him, but pride and wickedness; no
fiducial and obediential fear, but all the reverse;
true worship of him, either internally or externally:
there can be no fear of God in any unregenerate man's,
heart, because it is not of nature, but of grace, and is,
what is implanted at first conversion; there is in some
an appearance of it, where it is not really, whose fear is
taught by the precept of men; and in others there may
be some awe of the divine Being, and trembling at the
thought of a future judgment, arising from the dictates
of nature, the light of revelation, and the enjoyment
of a religious education; but in some there is no fear
of God at all, and they are bold and daring enough to
assert it themselves, as the unjust judge did, \\#Lu 18:4\\.
Such as the atheist, the common swearer,
the debauchee and epicure, who give up themselves to
all manner of wickedness, contemn revelation, despise
the word of God, and regard no day nor manner of
worship; and this notwithstanding the majesty of God,
at whose presence they tremble not, and notwithstanding
the goodness of God, which should induce
them to fear him, and notwithstanding the judgment
of God on others, and even on themselves; see \\#Jer 3:8 Lu 23:40\\;
and notwithstanding the future
awful judgment, which they put far away or disbelieve.
The Targum is, %transgression saith to the wicked within
my heart%; and Jarchi's note upon the text is this,
\*"this text is to be transposed thus, it is in my heart,
"that transgression, which is the evil imagination,
"says to the wicked man, that there should be no fear
"of God before his eyes; and the phrase, %in the midst
"of my heart%, is as if a man should say, so it seems
"to me."\*
\*The Septuagint version, and those that
follow it, render the words thus, %the transgressor said,
that he might sin in himself, there is no fear of God before
his eyes%. Gussetius {b} interprets %before his eyes%,
before the eyes of God himself, who is so good a Being,
that the sinner fears no punishment from him, but will
pardon all his sins.

\*Ver. 2. \\For he flattereth himself in his own eyes\\, &c.]
There are many self-flatterers; some on account of
their worldly estate, that they are out of the reach of
God and men, and regard neither; and that as they
have much goods laid up, they shall enjoy them many
years, and so never think of dying, nor of another
world: others on account of their eternal state, pleasing themselves
with their own purity, goodness, and
righteousness: some flatter themselves either that
their sins are not sins, or they are small ones; or they
are no other than what multitudes commit; or they
are not seen and known, and that God himself sees them
not, or takes no notice of them; and that they shall
go on with impunity, sentence against them being not
speedily executed; and others that there is no God,
will be no judgment, nor future state;
\*\\until his iniquity be found to be hateful\\,
or, %to find his iniquity and
to hate% {c} that which is good, as the word may be rendered;
that is, he flatters himself, or speaks smooth
things to himself, and endeavours to work himself up
into the belief of the above things; that he may find,
embrace, and indulge his lusts with a quiet conscience,
and hate God, good men, and every thing that is good;
the Targum is,
\*"that he may find sins and hate
"doctrine"\*
\*or instruction. Jarchi and Aben Ezra interpret the words another way,
\*"that the holy and blessed
"God may find out his iniquity to hate him;"\*
\*see \\#Ge 44:16\\, which God may be said to do, when he charges
the guilt of sin upon the conscience, and punishes for
it; and exposes both the sinner and his sins to the
world; thereby testifying his hatred of him and his
sins; and which should have been hateful to him, as
they are to all good men.

{b} Ebr. Comment. p. 488.
{c} So. Pagninus.