The saint rehearsing his experience of the great Protector's care
There is no good reason to doubt that this is one of David's psalms. Its forms of expression bear the marks of his pen, £ and the "undesigned coincidences "£ between it and the history of his life are both interesting and striking. The old interpreters supposed the psalm to belong to the time when David fled from Saul into the wilderness of Maon; others attribute it to the time of his deliverance from being shut up in Keilah, with which, indeed, it seems well to agree. While, in some respects, the psalm resembles others, yet, in others, it has features exclusively its own. Its title, according to the LXX; is, "For the end, a Psalm of David, of extreme fear" ( ἐκστάσεως). The Vulgate has pro extasi. Under such emotion, it is not to be wondered at if the verses bid defiance to all logical order. There is, however, beneath the surface an order which is full of helpful teaching, by which, when perceived, the beauty of the psalm will stand revealed, as otherwise it could not have been. This order we will seek carefully to follow and to expound.
I. GOD'S SAINTS MAY BE AT TIMES IN EXTREME DISTRESS. The list of troubles here specified is an unusually long one.
1. A net is spread for David (Psalms 31:4).
2. There is a design on his life (Psalms 31:13).
3. Bands of men are conspiring together (Psalms 31:20, Hebrew).
4. His friends forget him (Psalms 31:12).
5. His enemies are guilty of falsehood (Psalms 31:18), reproach (Psalms 31:11), slander (Psalms 31:13).
6. Others unfeelingly flee from him (Psalms 31:11).
7. He is in perplexity (Psalms 31:9).
8. His strength faileth, his bones are consumed, because the consciousness of his own sin adds its bitterness to his woe (Psalms 31:10).
9. His alarm (Hebrew) is so great, that he regards his case as one deserted by God (Psalms 31:22).
Here, surely, is a list of woes longer than most men could reckon up. There are few against whom enemies would take so much trouble to plot! But David was in a high position, and therefore he was a mark to be shot at! Note: The higher our position, and the greater our usefulness, the more likely is it that Satan will aim at us with his fiery darts. The more we disturb him, the more he will disturb us. And, for wise and holy reasons, the Lord may allow a messenger of Satan to buffet £ us.
II. EVEN WHEN IN THE LOWEST DEPTHS, THERE IS NO MISTAKING THE SAINT FOR A SINNER, the believer for an alien, the godly one for a godless man. Scarce any one could have a longer list of woes to enumerate than David had, but yet the saint shines through all.
1. He knows where to flee for protection. (Psalms 31:1, Hebrew.) The way in which he still speaks to God as his God, his strong Rock, etc; is inexpressibly touching. "Be thou my Rock, … because thou art my Rock," is a wonderfully tender appeal to the loving heart of God. Even in the densest darkness the loving child must clasp the Father's hand, and cry, "Father!" Yea, because of the darkness, and the denser it is, the louder and more piercing will be his cry.
2. He knows to whom he flees—even to One who has redeemed him (Psalms 31:5). (For the Scripture usage of this word "redeemed," see Deuteronomy 9:26; Deuteronomy 21:8; 1 Chronicles 17:21; Isaiah 29:22; Jeremiah 31:11; Micah 6:4; Psalms 130:8; Psalms 25:22; Hosea 13:14.) David was one who knew God, not only as a Deliverer from earthly calamity, but as a Redeemer from sin. And he could well put in this as a plea on which to base his petitions. The richest evangelical form of this argument is given in Romans 5:10; Romans 8:32. If God has taught us and drawn us by his Spirit to plead with him, that is the witness of the Spirit to the fact that we are redeemed out of the world.
3. He knows he may tell all his woes to God, just as they are. It has been no small comfort to us in writing these homilies to note, again and again, how the psalmist told God everything, just as he felt it. This we, too, may do, knowing that God will accept the prayer of faith and will bury all its faults.
4. He can absolutely leave all with God, not as one who finds it useless to contend with the inevitable, but as one who can implicitly trust his redeeming God.
III. GOD'S SAINTS CAN SCARCELY END THEIR MOAN ERE THEIR WORDS TURN TO SONG. When the Spirit of God presides at the soul's keyboard, the sounds may at first be in the minor key, hut they will not long continue so. The plaint will be a diminuendo, and will be substituted by a crescendo of joyful song. Hence so many of the psalms which begin woefully end joyfully. There are three several mercies here recorded.
1. Deliverance. (Romans 8:7, Romans 8:8.) The narrow straits in which David was hedged up gave way, and he had amplitude of room. And sooner or later, in his own time and way, God will deliver the righteous out of the hands of the wicked. £
2. Treasures of goodness laid up. (Romans 8:9.) The thought of this evokes a very shout of praise, as well it may. Let the student compare the three expressions in Romans 8:4, "the net which they have laid privily;" Romans 8:19, "goodness … laid up secretly;" Romans 8:20, "Thou shalt keep them secretly." Is not the antithesis beautiful? The wicked have their nets laid in secret. But God's secrecy of love outwits theirs. He hides the saints in the secret place of his "pavilion," and prepares for them in secret "treasures of goodness," to be brought forth in all their richness as occasion requires. Note: God will be bringing forth from his secret treasury of love to all eternity.
3. Marvellous kindness manifested; and this in a beseiged (Hebrews 5:1-14:21) city(cf Psalms 23:5). At the very moment foes were encamping round him, God ministered such rich loving-kindness as to bear him up and bring him through. So it will ever be. The moment of man's fiercest plots will be that of God's most vigilant care (Psalms 121:4). And within the walls of the thickest dungeon God can minister richest supplies of heavenly food!
IV. SUCH EXPERIENCES WILL LEAD THE SAINTS TO CALL ON THEIR FELLOW-BELIEVERS TO HOPE IN THE LORD, AND TO WAIT FOR HIM. (Romans 8:23, Romans 8:24.) The new experience of God's loving-kindness and care, which is born of such deliverances in answer to prayer, gives believers wondrous vantage-ground in exhorting others to put their whole trust in the Lord. Note:
1. It is an infinite mercy that God's providential care has preserved to us these records of the struggles, the prayers, and the triumphs of his saints.
2. Those who have known the most trouble are those who can afterwards minister most comfort to those who are troubled (2 Corinthians 1:3-5).
3. Let those who have known the depths of sorrow, and who have learnt how God can deliver, make their experience known to others (Psalms 66:16-20).
4. How abundant even now is God's recompense for his people's sorrows, when he thereby gives them such tastes of his love as they could not else have had, and then makes them "sons of consolation"!—C.
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH
Duty and destiny.
Let us place these two texts together, and we shall find that they become the more intelligible and the richer in instruction and comfort.
I. OUR TIMES ARE FIXED BY GOD. We have no choice in the matter, no more than as to when we should be born. God is Sovereign. It is his prerogative to settle all things that concern us. Whatever comes of prosperity or adversity, or joy or sorrow is of his ordering. It is for him to rule, it is for us to trust and to obey.
II. OUR SPIRIT CAN ONLY BE COMMITTED TO GOD BY OUR OWN DEED. We are free. When we act, we express the feelings of our hearts. To commit our spirit to God is to surrender ourselves wholly and for ever to his will. It is only when we know and believe in God's love towards us, that we can joyously do this transcendent thing that will settle our destiny for time and for eternity.
III. IT IS ONLY WHEN WE HAVE IN TRUTH COMMITTED OUR SPIRITS TO GOD, THAT WE CAN TAKE COMFORT FROM THE KNOWLEDGE THAT OUR TIMES ARE IN HIS HAND. We should be careful to put that first which should be first (Matthew 6:33). When the most precious thing is safe, we need not be much concerned as to the lesser things. God has given us the greatest proof of his love, for he has redeemed us; we can therefore with quiet hearts leave to him the ordering of all things that concern us (Romans 5:9, Romans 5:10). "My times are in thy hand;" and it is there I would have placed them if I had the choice (2 Samuel 24:14). "My times are in thy hand;" then come what will of vicissitude and trial, nothing can befall me but what is of the ordering of God. "My times are in thy hand;" therefore I will be content and not fret; I will trust, and not be afraid; I will work, and not be weary in well-doing. I will be patient and hope to the end. knowing that all things work together for good to them that love God." "Into thy hands I commend my spirit." This I did at the first, when the Lord Jesus called me; this I would do evermore during my earthly course, after the example of thy saints; this I would do in the end, as our Lord himself has taught us.—W.F.