David here tells us how he was affected as to the proud and wicked
people that were about him. 1. He did not fear their malice, nor was he
by it deterred from his duty: They have forged a lie against me. Thus
they aimed to take away his good name. Nay, all we have in the world,
even life itself, may be brought into danger by those who make no
conscience of forging a lie. Those that were proud envied David's
reputation, because it eclipsed them, and therefore did all they could
to blemish him. They took a pride in trampling upon him. They therefore
persuaded themselves it was no sin to tell a deliberate lie if it might
but expose him to contempt. Their wicked wit forged lies, invented
stories which there was not the least colour for, to serve their wicked
designs. And what did David do when he was thus belied? He will bear it
patiently; he will keep that precept which forbids him to render
railing for railing, and will with all his heart sit down silently. He
will go on in his duty with constancy and resolution: "Let them say
what they will, I will keep thy precepts, and not dread their
reproach." 2. He did not envy their prosperity, nor was he by it
allured from his duty. Their heart is as fat as grease. The proud are
at ease (Ps. cxxiii. 4); they are full of the world, and the wealth and
pleasures of it; and this makes them, (1.) Senseless, secure, and
stupid; they are past feeling: thus the phrase is used, Isa. vi. 10.
Make the heart of this people fat. They are not sensible of the touch
of the word of God or his rod. (2.) Sensual and voluptuous: "Their eyes
stand out with fatness (Ps. lxxiii. 7); they roll themselves in the
pleasures of sense, and take up with them as their chief good; and much
good may it do them. I would not change conditions with them. I delight
in thy law; I build my security upon the promises of God's word and
have pleasure enough in communion with God, infinitely preferable to
all their delights." The children of God, who are acquainted with
spiritual pleasures, need not envy the children of this world their
carnal pleasures.