Dumb - Was silent, to testify his humiliation for his sins, and his acceptation of the punishment which he had brought upon himself.
When - When I fall into any misery, they triumph in the accomplishment of their desires.
To halt - just falling into destruction. Before me - I am constantly sensible of thy just hand, and of my sins the cause of it.
Declare - To thee.
Strong - Are thriving and flourishing.
I said - I fully resolved. Take heed - To order all my actions right, and particularly to govern my tongue.
Dumb - Two words put together, expressing the same thing, to aggravate or increase it. I held - I forbear to speak, what I justly might, lest I should break forth into some indecent expressions. Stirred - My silence did not assuage my grief, but increase it.
My end - Make me sensible of the shortness and uncertainly of life, and the near approach of death.
Before thee - If compared with thee, and with thy everlasting duration.
Vain shew - Heb. in a shadow or image; in an imaginary rather than a real life: in the pursuit of vain imaginations, in which there is nothing solid or satisfactory: man in and his life, and all his happiness in this world, are rather appearances and dreams, than truths and realities. Disquieted - Heb. They make a noise, bustling, or tumult, with unwearied industry seeking for riches, and troubling and vexing both themselves and others in the pursuit of them.
Mow Lord - Seeing this life and all its enjoyments are so vain and short. My hope - I will seek for happiness no where but in God.
Remove - Take off the judgment which thou hast inflicted upon me. I am - Help me before I am utterly lost.
Beauty - His comeliness and all his excellencies or felicities. Moth - As a moth consumeth a garment, to which God compares himself and his judgments, secretly and insensibly consuming a people, Isa 51:8.
A stranger - I am only in my journey or passage to my real home, which is in the other world.
No more - Among the living, or in this world.
Pit - Desperate dangers and calamities. Rock - A place of strength and safety. Established - Kept me from falling into mischief.
And fear - Shall stand in awe of that God, whom they see to have so great power, either to save or to destroy.
The proud - Or, the mighty, the great and proud potentates of the world, to whom most men are apt to look and trust. Turn - From God, in whom alone they ought to trust. To lies - To lying vanities, such as worldly power and wisdom, and riches, and all other earthly things, or persons, in which men are prone to trust: which are called lies, because they promise more than they perform.
Many - This verse seems to be interposed as a wall of partition, between that which David speaks in his own person, and that which he speaks in the person of the Messiah, in the following verses.
Sacrifice - These and the following words, may in an improper sense belong to the time of David; when God might be said, not to desire or require legal sacrifices comparatively. Thou didst desire obedience rather than sacrifices, but in a proper sense, they belong only to the person and times of the Messiah, and so the sense is, God did not desire or require them, for the satisfaction of his own justice, and the expiation of mens sins, which could not possibly be done by the blood of bulls or goats, but only by the blood of Christ, which was typified by them, and which Christ came into the world to shed, in pursuance of his father's will, as it here follows, ver.7,8. So here is a prediction concerning the cessation of the legal sacrifice, and the substitution of a better instead of them. Opened - Heb. bored. I have devoted myself to thy perpetual service, and thou hast accepted of me as such, and signified so much by the boring of mine ears, according to the law and custom in that case, Exod 21:5,6. The seventy Jewish interpreters, whom the apostle follows, Heb 10:5, translate these words, a body hast thou prepared me.
Them - These words literally and truly belong to Christ, and the sense is this; seeing thou requirest a better sacrifice than those of the law, lo, I offer myself to come, and I will in due time come, into the world, as this phrase is explained in divers places of scripture, and particularly Heb 10:5, where this place is expressly applied to Christ. Volume - These two words, volume and book are used of any writing, and both express the same thing. Now this volume of the book is the law of Moses, which is commonly and emphatically called the book, and was made up in the form of a roll or volume, as the Hebrew books generally were. And so this place manifestly points to Christ, concerning whom much is said in the books of Moses.
I delight - This is eminently true, of Christ, and is here observed as an act of heroic obedience, that he not only resolved to do, but delighted in doing the will of God, or what God had commanded him, which was to die, and that a most shameful, and painful, and cursed death. My heart - I do not only understand it, but receive it with heartiest love, delighting both to meditate of it, and to yield obedience to it.
Righteousness - Thy faithfulness. Great congregation - In the most public and solemn assemblies: not only to the Jews, but also to all nations; to whom Christ preached by his apostles, as is observed Eph 2:17. Not refrained - From preaching it, even to the face of mine enemies.
With - hold not - David, having been transported by the spirit of God to the commemoration of the great mystery of the Messiah, he now seems to be led back by the same spirit, to the consideration of his own case.
Taken hold - Mens sins are figuratively said to take hold of them, as an officer takes hold of a man whom he arrests. To look - Unto God or men, with any comfort: I am ashamed and confounded.
Shame - Their sinful and shameful actions.
Make his bed - Give him ease and comfort, which sick men receive by the help of those who turn and stir up their bed, to make it soft and easy for them.
Heal - The soul is said to be healed, when it is pardoned and purged. For - For I acknowledge that I have sinned.
His heart - Even when he is with me, and pretends hearty affection, his heart is devising mischief against me.
Yea - These words were literally fulfilled in David, and yet the Holy Ghost looked farther in them, even to Christ and Judas, in whom they received a fuller accomplishment. Lift up - A phrase implying injury, joined with insolency and contempt; taken from an unruly horse, which kicks at him that owns and feeds him.
Requite - Punish them for their wicked practices; which being now a magistrate, he was obliged to do.
By this - Because hitherto thou hast supported me, and prolonged my days to the disappointment of their hopes.
Settest - Or, hast confirmed me in thy presence, under thine eye and special care: to minister unto thee, as a king over thy people. And in regard of his posterity, the kingdom was established for ever.
Amen - Signifies an hearty assent and approbation, and withal an earnest desire of the thing, to which it is annexed. And as the psalms are divided into five books, so each of them is closed with this word; the first here: the second, Psal 72:19, the third, Psal 89:52, the fourth, Psal 106:48, the last in the end of Psal 150:6, the doubling of the word shews the fervency of his spirit, in this work of praising God.
Panteth - After the enjoyment of thee in thy sanctuary.
Thirsteth - Not after vain useless idols, but after the only true and living God. Appear - In the place of his special presence and publick worship.
Remember - My banishment from God's presence, and mine enemies triumphs. In me - I breathe out my sorrows and complaints to God within my own breast. The multitudes - Israelites, who went thither in great numbers. Holy - day - Or that kept the feast, the three solemn festival solemnities, which they kept holy unto the Lord.
For - Heb. for the salvations of his face, for those supports, deliverances and comforts which I doubt not I shall enjoy both in his presence and sanctuary, and from his presence, and the light of his countenance.
Therefore - Therefore that I may revive my drooping spirits. Remember - I will consider thy infinite mercy and power, and faithfulness. Mizar - From all the parts of the land, to which I shall be driven; whether from the parts beyond Jordan on the east: or mount Hermon, which was in the northern parts.
Deep - One affliction comes immediately after another, as if it were called for by the former. A metaphor taken from violent and successive showers of rain; which frequently come down from heaven, as it were at the noise, or call of God's water spouts.
Command - Will effectually confer upon me. Loving - kindness - His blessings, the effects of his loving - kindness.
As - As a sword, which cutteth the very bones, so painful are their reproaches.
Nation - So he calls the company of his enemies for their great numbers. Man - Probably Achitophel or Absalom.
Send out - That is, actually discover them. Truth - Thy favour, or the light of thy countenance, and the truth of thy promises made to me; or the true - light, the illumination of thy spirit, and the direction of thy gracious providence, whereby I may be led in the right way, to thy holy hill. Hill - Of Zion, the place of God's presence and worship.
My king - The whole people speak as one man, being united in one body.