Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/4_200.lzh/4_236.TXT

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place, and prayed, Mark i. 35. I hoped in thy word;
which is a great encouragement to prayer, the grace
of hope itself is, though a man can only put his
mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope;
and especially when it is grounded on the word of pro-
mise, that God will hear and answer his people, when
they call upon him in a time of trouble: and particu-
larly hope in Christ, the essential Word, is a great en-
couragement; many encouraging arguments to prayer
are taken from the person, office, advocacy, and me-
diation of Jesus Christ, Heb. iv. 14, 16. and x. 19---23.
Ver. 148. Mine eyes prevent the night-watches, &c.]
The Targum is, "the morning and evening watches."
There were three of them; Kimchi interprets it of the
second and third; the meaning is, that the psalmist
was awake and employed in one religious exercise or
another, praying, reading, or meditating; either before
the watches were set, or however before the time that
some of them took place, or at least before they were
.il over. That I might meditate in thy word; he rose
so early, in order to give himself up to meditation on
the word of God; that he might be better instructed
in the knowledge of divine things; that he might have
solace and comfort from thence under his affiictons;
and that he might be better furnished for the work of
prayer; for the more familiar the word of God is to us,
the better able we are to speak to God in his own
language.
Ver. 149. Hear my voice according unto thy loving-
kindness, &c.] Not according to his own merits and
deserts, or works of righteousness done by him, for
the sake of which he did not present his supplications
to God; nor according to his love to him, which often
waxed cold, and he in a poor lukewarm frame of spi-
rit; but according to the loving-kindness of God,
which is always the same, and which is a great encou-
ragement to faith and hope in prayer; that since God
is gracious and merciful, kind and bountiful, plenteous
in mercy, and ready to forgive, on a throne of grace,
and full of love, yea, love itself, invariably the same,
he will hear, and saints shall find grace and mercy to
help them in time of need. 0 Lord, quicken me ac-
cording to thy judgment; either according to his word
of promise, or according to his manner and wonted
method he used towards his people; see ver. 25, 132.
This is a prayer, not for the first work of quickening
grace, or the first implantslion of a principle of spi-
ritual life, which the psalmist had had an experiense
of; but for the reviving of the work and principle in
him, that he might be refreshed and comforted, and
be animated and stirred up to a lively exercise of
grace and performance of duty: finding himself in dead.
and lifeless frames, and not able to quicken himself.
Ver. 150. They draw nigh that follow after mischief,
 &c Or ceil that which is sinful in itself, and in-
jurious to others.Some cannot site unless the do
mischief; they are bent upon it, and proceed from
evil to evil: they are eager in their pursuit of it, as
the huntsman after his sport, to which the allusion
is; though it is to their ruin, even to their death,
Prov. xi. 19. These the psalmist says draw nigh; not
unto God, unless feigntally and with their mouths
only; but to him they drew nigh, to David, in an
hostile way they pursued after him, in order to take
away his life, and they had very near overtaken him,
and were just ready to seize him; his life drew nigh to
those destroyers, and those destroyers drew nigh to
that, so that hewas in great danger; and the more
as these were abandoned creatures, that neither feared
God nor regarded man, as follows: they are far from
thy law; from the knowledge of it, of its equity and
purity; and especially of its spirituality, and of its
power and influence upon their minds; and so far from
subjection and obedience to it; so far from it, that
hey treat it with the utmost contempt, cast it away
tom them and despise it, Rom. viii. 7. Isa. v. 24.
Ver. 151. Thou art near, 0 Lord, &c.] This was
the comfort of the psalmist, that though his enemies
drew nigh with a mischievous design upon him, yet
his God was also near, and nearer than they; he was
near as to relation to him, being his God and Father;
near as to union, the bond of which is his everlasting
love, which can never be dissolved; near as to com-
munion, which he admits all his people to at one
time or another; so that they are said to be a people
near unto the Lord; Psal. cxlviii. 14. and near as to his
gracious presence, and the divine assistance he affords;
he is a present help' in time of need; he is nigh to all
that call on him in truth, and in all things in which
they do call upon him for, Psal. cxiv. 18. Deut. iv. 7.
And all thy commandments are truth; not only the pre-
cepts of the word of God, but his covenant, and the
promises of it; the word which he has commanded to
a thousand generations, Psal. cv. 8. and even the whole
word of God, doctrines and duties; see John xvii. 17.
Ver. l52. Concerning thy testimonies, I have known
of old, &c.] Or, from thy testimonies, I have known
o old a b carefully reading the Scri lures which
~     :Y         '      d'    ~'P     '
testify of God, his mind an will, and frequently me-
ditating on them, he had learned a long time ago,
even from his youth, what follows, that thou hast
founded them for ever; that the things contained in
them are sure and certain, established and-eternal
truths; the moral law and the precepts of it are eter-
nal, and of perpetual obligation; not one jot or tittle of
them shall ever fail; the Gospel, and the truths of it,
are everlasting, and shall ever remain; maugre all the
opposition, craft and cunning, fury and force of men,
to undermine and root them out; see ver.

     \^r\^, % Rzsa.--The Twentieth Part.
Ver. 158. Consider mine aj~iction, and deliver me,
&c.] Or, look upon mine affliction {*}; as in Psal. xxv.
18. The Lord seems as if he did not, when he does
not grant his gracious presence to his people; or does
not arise to the help and deliverance of them so soon
as th'ey desire and expect: but he always sees and be-
holds their afflictions; he cannot do otherwise, since
he is the omniscient God; and not only so, but he i,
the author, appointer, and orderer of them; yea, he

{c} \^hmz\^ iniquitati, V. L. scelus, Tigurine version; so Junius & Tre-
mellius, Piscator, Michaelis.
{d} \^Kytdem\^ ex obtestationibus tuis, Tigurine version; so Cocceius,
Gejerus.
{e} \^har\^ vide, Pagninus Montanus, Musculus, Cocceius; intuere,
Gejerus.