--- title: "John Wesley's Notes on the Whole Bible" author: "John Wesley" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 145 of 398 url: https://scriptura.si/works/john-wesley-notes-on-the-whole-bible/145/ cite: "John Wesley, John Wesley's Notes on the Whole Bible, section 145. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/john-wesley-notes-on-the-whole-bible/145/" --- # John Wesley's Notes on the Whole Bible *John Wesley* Wesley's short, plain notes on the Old and New Testaments, verse by verse. ## 145. Psalms · 12 of 29 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/john-wesley-notes-on-the-whole-bible/145/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/john-wesley-notes-on-the-whole-bible/145/#p-N [¶0] Continually - God is continually doing good: thou art continually doing mischief. O mighty - He speaks ironically. O valiant captain! To kill a few weak and unarmed persons. [¶1] Deviseth - Expresses what thy wicked mind had devised. Deceitfully - Doeg pretended only to vindicate himself from disloyalty, 1Sam 22:8, but he really intended to expose the priests, to the king's fury. [¶2] Pluck thee - Violently and suddenly as the Hebrew word signifies, from thy house and lands, and all the wages of thy righteousness. Root - Though thou seemest to have taken deep root, yet God shall pluck thee up by the very roots, and destroy thee both root and branch. [¶3] Fear - Reverence God's just judgment. [¶4] The house - In God's church, or among his people. [¶5] Thou hast - Destroyed mine and thine implacable enemies, and established me in the throne, of which I am no less assured, than if it were already done. I will continue in thy way, placing my whole confidence in thy power and goodness, and faithfulness. Before - In the presence of thy saints. [¶6] Scattered - Hath not only broken their bones, their strength, and force, but also dispersed them hither and thither, so as there is no hope of a restoration. Thee - Against my people. Thou - Thou oh Jerusalem, which they besiege. [¶7] Name - By thy own strength. Judge - Plead my cause. [¶8] Strangers - The Zephites, whom, though Israelites, he calls strangers in regard of their barbarous and perfidious carriage. [¶9] Thy truth - Whereby thou art engaged to fulfil thy promises and threatenings. [¶10] Voice - Their clamours and threats, and slanders. Cast - They lay many crimes to my charge. [¶11] The terrors - Deadly terrors; such as seize upon men in the agonies of death. [¶12] Tempest - From the force and fury of mine enemies. [¶13] Destroy - Destroy them by dividing. Tongues - Their speech, as thou didst at Babel, Gen 11:9, their votes, and opinions, and counsels. Which was eminently done among Absalom's followers, 2Sam 17:23. Strife - Injustice and fraud, oppression and contention rule here, instead of that public justice and peace which I established. City - In Jerusalem; which in Absalom's time was a sink of all sins. [¶14] They - Violence and strife. Go about - Do encompass it, as it were a garrison. Walls - In the outward parts, as also in the very midst of it. So that all parts were horribly corrupted. [¶15] Streets - The places of buying and selling, and of public commerce. [¶16] Hated - With a manifest or old hatred. [¶17] Equal - Not in power, but in reputation, for wisdom, and influence upon my people. Guide - Whose counsel I highly prized, and constantly followed. All which agrees to Achitophel. [¶18] Them - All such as pretend to religion, and have manifestly apostatized both from the profession and practice of it. The grave - Cut off by a sudden and violent death. Among them - Heb. in their inwards. Wickedness is deeply rooted in their hearts. [¶19] Evening, &c. - The three stated times of prayer among the Jews. [¶20] He hath - He speaks of a future deliverance, as a thing done, because of the certainty of it. He hath restored me to my former peace and tranquility. For - For there were more with me than against me; even the holy angels whom God employed to defend and deliver me. [¶21] Hear - My prayers. Eternity - Who is eternal, and therefore unchangeable, and almighty. Because - They meet with no crosses nor disappointments. Therefore - Their success makes them go on securely, without any regard to God, or dread of his judgments. [¶22] He - They, the persons last mentioned. [¶23] Burden - All thy crosses, and cares, and fears, lay them upon the Almighty, by faith and prayer. He directs this speech to his own soul, and to all good men in like circumstances. Suffer - As he doth wicked men. Tho' he may for a season suffer them to be shaken, yet not to be overwhelmed. [¶24] Them - The wicked. Not live - But shall be cut off by an untimely and violent death. Trust in thee - And in this confidence I will quietly wait for deliverance. [¶25] Will praise - I will praise the Lord for his word, for his promises of protection and deliverance, made to his people. Flesh - Infirm and mortal men, called flesh by way of contempt, as Psal 78:39 Isa 31:3. [¶26] They gather - After they have severally employed their thoughts against me, they meet together to compare them, and to put them in execution. Hide - They lurk secretly, that they may pry into my most private actions. Steps - That they may find some occasion to reproach me. Soul - Or, life, to take it away. [¶27] Escape - Shall they secure themselves by injurious and malicious practices. The people - These who are mine enemies. [¶28] Wanderings - How I have been hunted from place to place. Put - Regard and pity them. Are they not - But why do I pray to God to do that which he hath already done? [¶29] Thy vows - I had made vows to express my gratitude, and resolve to perform them. [¶30] Walk - That I may serve and glorify thee. The light - ln this life. [¶31] Send forth - Will discover them, by affording his gracious help in pursuance of his promises. [¶32] Lions - Fierce and bloody men. I lie - I have my abode. On fire - From hell. Who are mere fire - brands, breathing out wrath and threatenings, and incensing Saul against me. [¶33] Excited - Glorify thy power, and goodness, and justice, and faithfulness, by my deliverance. Above, &c. - To the highest degree possible. [¶34] Fixed - In a stedfast belief of thy promises. [¶35] My glory - My tongue, the instrument of singing. Awake - I will employ all the powers of my soul and body. [¶36] The people - Among the Israelites, and among the Heathens, as I shall have occasion. [¶37] O congregation - The word seems to point at Saul's judges and counsellors; who met together to consult what they should do against David. Sons of men - So he calls them; to mind them that they were men, and must give an account to God for all their hard speeches. [¶38] Heart - With free choice and consent. Hands - He intimates that they did great wrong under the pretence of justice, and while they seemed exactly to weigh the true proportion between the actions and the recompenses allotted to them, they turned the scale; and pronounced an unjust sentence. Land - Or, in this land, where God is present, and where you have righteous laws to govern you. [¶39] Estranged - From God, and from all goodness. Their very natures are corrupt, even from their birth: they are the wicked offspring of sinful parents. Astray - By actual sins, from their childhood, as soon as ever they were capable of the exercise of reason. [¶40] Poison - Their malicious disposition. [¶41] Not hearken - As they commonly say of the adders, such really are these men: deaf to all my counsels, to their own consciences, and to God's law. Of the charming or enchanting of serpents, mention is made both in other places of scripture, and in all sorts of authors, ancient and modern, Hebrew and Arabick, and Greek and Latin. And particularly the Arabick writers (to whom these creatures were best known) name some sorts of serpents, among which the adder is one, which they call deaf, not because they are dull of hearing, but, as one of them expressly faith, because they will not be charmed. [¶42] Their teeth - Their powerful instruments of doing mischief. [¶43] Melt away - As waters arising from melted snow, which at first run with great force, but are suddenly gone. [¶44] Melteth - Which is quickly dissolved.