Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/4_200.lzh/4_218.TXT

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fled on that account. So the Apostle Paul was a chosen
vessel to bear the ,name of Christ before kings; nor was
he ashamed to speak of him and of his Gospel before
Nero the Roman emperor, Agrippa king of the Jews,
and before Felix and Festus, Roman governors; nor
ashamed of the reproaches and afflictions he endured
on that account.
Ver. 47. And I will delight myself in thy command-
ments, &c.] In perusing and practising them. Which
I have loved; a good man loves the law of God, and
the commandments of Christ, and delights in them
after the inward man.
Vet. 48. My hands also will I lift up unto thy tom-
mandments, which I have loved, &c.] Shewing by such
a gesture his great esteem of them, and affection for
them; stretching out his hands, and embracing them
with both arms, as it were: and thfs being a praying
gesture, 2 Tim. ii. 8, may signify his earnest desire and
request that he might have grace and spiritual strength
to enable him to observe thefn; and it being used in
swearing, Gen. xiv. 22, may express his firm resolu-
tion in the strength of divine grace to keep them; and
the phrase signifying a doing or an attempt to do
any thing, Gee. xli. 44, may denote his practical ob-
servance of the commands, his putting his hand to do
them with all his might. And I will meditate in thy
statutes; and thereby get a better understanding of
them, and be in a better disposition and capacity to
keep them.
     \^z\^, Zxxs.--The Seventh Part.
Ver. 49. Remember the word unto thy servant, &c.]
The word of promise made unto him, concerning
establishing his house and kingdom for ever; which
he desires God would shew himself mindful of in ful-
filling it, and renew and confirm his faith in it, and
give him some fresh assurance of the performance of
it, 2 Sam. vii. 16--29. Not that God ever forgets his
promise, or is unmindful of his word; but so it seems
when he delays the accomplishment of it; and when
unbelief prevails and  doubts arise, and faith is 11ot in
lively exercise; and he has not so clear a view of the
promise, and comfortable assurance of its being per-
formed. Upon which thou hast caused me to hope;
which, when first made, he received in faith, and
hoped and waited for the accomplishment of. A word
of promise is a good ground of hope, let it be on what
account it will; whether it relates to interest in God,
as a covenant God and Father; or to pardon of sin; or
to salvation by Christ; or to fresh supplies of grace
and strength from him; or to eternal life through him:
and the h,ope which is exercised on the promise is not
of a man s self; it is the gift of God, a good hope
through grace; which the Lord, by his spirit and
power, produces, and causes to abound in, or to exer-
cise in a comfortable manner.
Ver. 50. This is my comfort in my affliction, &c.]
David had his afflictions, and so has every good man;
none are without; it is the will and pleasure of God
that so it should be; and many are their afflictions, in-
ward and outw. ard: the word of God is often their
comfort under them, the written word, heard or read;
and especially a word of promise, powerfully applied:
this is putting underneath everlasting arms, and making
their bed in sickness. This either respects what goes
before, concerning the word of promise hoped in, or
what follows: .for thy word hath quickened me; not
.only. had been the means of quickening him when dead
m am, as it often is the means of quickening dead sin-
ners, being the sayour of life unto life; but of reviving
his drooping spirits, when in affliction and distress;
and of quickening the graces of the spirit of God in
him, and him to the exercise of them, when they
seemed ready to die; and .to the fervent and dili-
gent discharge of duty, when listless and backward
to it.
Ver. 51. The proud have had me greatly in derision,
&c.] Profane sinners, proud and haughty scornera,
that make a jest of religion, and scoff at every thing se-
rious and good: these derided the psalmist tbr his piety
and religion, his principles and practices; in which he
was a type of Christ, who was both the song of the
drunkards, and was derided by the proud and haughty
Scribes and Pharisees; as all self-righteous persons
 are, they who trust in themselves, and despise others,
Psal. lxix. II, lo.. Luke xvi. 14. and xviii. 9. Yet
have I not declined from thy law; from walking ac-
cording to it, as a rule of life and conversation; from
professing and maintaining the doctrine of the word,
the truths of the Gospel, he had knowledge and expe-
rience of; and from going on in the ways of God and
true religion he was directed in; and this testimony
the Lord himself gave of him, 1 Kings xiv. 8. and xv.
5. see Psal. xliv. 19.
Ver. 52. I remembered thy judgments of old, 0 Lord,
&c.] Either the judgments of God executed on
wicked men; as the bringing a flood on the world of
the ungodly; tim burning of Sodom and Gomorrah;
the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea;
the cutting off of the Canaanires, and dispossessing
them of their land: or the providential dispensations
of God towards his own people; who sometimes
chastises and corrects them, and brings them very low,
and then raises them up again, as in the case of Job.
These things the psalmist called to remembrance, and
revolved them in his mind, which gave him pleasure
and comfort: and have comforted myself; with such
thoughts as these, that that God, who had cast down
the mighty from their seats, and had scattered the
proud in the imaginations of their hearts, and destroyed
them, could easily rebuke the proud that had him in
derision; and he that had shewn himself so good and
gracious to his people, when brought low, could raise
him out of his afflictions and distresses.
Ver. 53. Itorror hath taken hold upon me, &c.] Trem-
bling, sorrow, and distress, to a great degree, like a
storm, or a blustertug, scorching, burning wind, as the
word {h} signifies, which is very terrible. Because of the
wicked that forsake thy law: not only transgress the
law of the Lord, as every man does, more or less; but
wilfully and obstinately despise it, and cast it behind
their backs, and live in a continued course of disobe-
dience to it; or who apostatize from the doctrine of
the word of God; wilfully deny the truth, after they
have had a speculative knowledge of it, whose punish-

{h \^hpelz\^ "procella", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Schmidt;" horror tanquam procella", Cocceius.