สดุดี 37:8 วิจารณ์

This psalm is a sermon, and an excellent useful sermon it is, calculated not (as most of the psalms) for our devotion, but for our conversation; there is nothing in it of prayer or praise, but it is all instruction; it is "Maschil - a teaching psalm;" it is an exposition of some of the hardest chapters in the book of Providence, the advancement of the wicked and the disgrace of the righteous, a solution of the difficulties that arise thereupon, and an exhortation to conduct ourselves as becomes us under such dark dispensations. The work of the prophets (and David was one) was to explain the law. Now the law of Moses had promised temporal blessings to the obedient, and denounced temporal miseries against the disobedient, which principally referred to the body of the people, the nation as a nation; for, when they came to be applied to particular persons, many instances occurred of sinners in prosperity and saints in adversity; to reconcile those instances with the word that God had spoken is the scope of the prophet in this psalm, in which, I. He forbids us to fret at the prosperity of the wicked in their wicked ways (Psa 37:1, Psa 37:7, Psa 37:8). II. He gives very good reasons why we should not fret at it. 1. Because of the scandalous character of the wicked (Psa 37:12, Psa 37:14, Psa 37:21, Psa 37:32) notwithstanding their prosperity, and the honourable character of the righteous (Psa 37:21, Psa 37:26, Psa 37:30, Psa 37:31). 2. Because of the destruction and ruin which the wicked are nigh to (Psa 37:2, Psa 37:9, Psa 37:10, Psa 37:20, Psa 37:35, Psa 37:36, Psa 37:38) and the salvation and protection which the righteous are sure of from all the malicious designs of the wicked (Psa 37:13, Psa 37:15, Psa 37:17, Psa 37:28, Psa 37:33, Psa 37:39, Psa 37:40). 3. Because of the particular mercy God has in store for all good people and the favour he shows them (Psa 37:11, Psa 37:16, Psa 37:18, Psa 37:19, Psa 37:22-25, Psa 37:28, Psa 37:29, Psa 37:37). III. He prescribes very good remedies against this sin of envying the prosperity of the wicked, and great encouragement to use those remedies (Psa 37:3-6, Psa 37:27, Psa 37:34). In singing this psalm we must teach and admonish one another rightly to understand the providence of God and to accommodate ourselves to it, at all times carefully to do our duty and then patiently to leave the event with God and to believe that, how black soever things may look for the present, it shall be "well with those that fear God, that fear before him." A psalm of David.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 37 A Psalm of David. This psalm, it is very probable, was written at the same time, and upon the same occasion, with the former; and describes the different states of good and bad men; and is full of exhortations, instructions, and advice to the people of God; intermixed with various encouraging promises. A late learned writer (h) thinks it was written for Mephibosheth's consolation under Ziba's calumny. (h) Delaney's Life of King David, vol. 2. p. 219.

For evildoers shall be cut off,.... Though they flourish for a while, they shall be cut down like the grass or flower of the field, or they shall be cut off as branches from a flourishing tree; they shall be cut off from the earth, and rooted out of it by death or some desolating judgment; see Pro 2:22; and therefore not to be envied and fretted at; but those that wait upon the Lord shall inherit the earth; such who attend his word, worship, and ordinances; obey his commands, trust in his grace and mercy; or, as the Targum, "trust in the word of the Lord"; who wait upon him for the manifestations of himself, for the performance of his promises, for answer of prayer, for supplies of grace, and live in the expectation of the heavenly glory; these shall have for their inheritance, not the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey, which the obedient Jews enjoyed; but either this world and the necessaries of it, which such persons have the promise of, a right unto through Christ, are heirs of, and do enjoy what they do with a blessing; or else the new earth after this, in which only righteous ones, those that wait upon the Lord, and trust in him, will dwell; unless the heavenly country, the good land afar off, is meant, often called an inheritance.

If, by the prudent use of reason, you could cut away the bitter root of indignation, you would remove many other vices along with this, their source. Deceit, suspicion, faithlessness, malice, treachery, rashness, and a whole thicket of evils like these are offshoots of this vice.… It is a malady on the soul, a dark mist over the reason. It brings estrangement from God, forgetfulness of the ties of kindred, cause for a strife, a full measure of disaster. It is a wicked demon coming to birth in our very souls, taking prior possession of our interior, like a shameless tenant, and barring entrance to the Holy Spirit.

Anger destroys not just the ordinary run of people, but even the wise. David warns the wise, saying to them, “Cease from anger,” for once that fire is set alight it will not cease until its flames have consumed you. “Leave aside,” he says, “your rage.” Here is his meaning: nature catches hold of you, it stirs up your feelings, you get excited about some fault, some slight that has offended you, you begin to rage but not to the point where you cannot stop. Drop it. Put an end to it, or it will drag you into sin.

(Vers. 8). If you have overcome the previous passions, anger follows; and therefore Scripture says to you: Cease from anger, and forsake indignation. There are many vices that creep in upon the foolish. Anger is a heavy passion: it often ignites the unwilling; and it drags the willing into madness, so that he may destroy whom he thought to restrain. Stirred up, he often stabs the innocent with a sword. Many have killed friends and brothers out of indignation. Therefore, the wise man says: Anger destroys even the wise (Prov. XV, 1). It is the saying of Solomon, that anger not only destroys any men from among the crowd, but even the wise themselves. And David advises the wise man, saying: Cease from anger; lest when you are inflamed by it, it does not cease until its flame consumes you. Leave, he says, indignation; that is, nature carries you away, emotions move you, someone's fault or offense provokes you to be angry; but not always, so that you do not know how to control it: leave it, set a limit to it, lest it draw you into sin. This is what he said above: Be angry, and do not sin (Psalm 4:5). For he does not encourage you to be angry, but yields to the passion for a time; however, he provides a remedy so that the force of the wound does not spread for too long. Be angry, he says, for it is of your passion. For a physician does not immediately apply medicines to weakness; if pain is burning, he applies soothing remedies to alleviate the pain; if fever is raging, he waits for the right time for a remedy and often withholds drink from those who are thirsty. He does not say: Do not be feverish when the vapors of illness are boiling; but he says: Wait, the fever will cease, the agitation will subside. So also the Prophet could not say to man, whose flesh is excited by various diseases and passions of agitation: Do not be angry; but he says: Cease from anger, and leave off indignation, lest you sin; for anger is a great instigator of sin. Another physician also says: Let not the sun set upon your anger (Ephesians 4:26); lest while you delay for a long time, that one who is accustomed to arouse the heated body with sleep should come, and stir you up, and insert thoughts into you, and immerse himself in the secrets of your heart, saying: Take revenge for your injury, recognize yourself as a man: it belongs to feminine weakness, not to take vengeance. Therefore, the servant ought to have scorned you, the brother deceived you, the friend mocked you; and yet you do not avenge your own insult? It is necessary to proscribe, it is necessary to rise with a sword, and to resolve your pain with the death of your adversary. That man was brave who killed his enemy, deservedly he is praised; because he avenged himself in such a way that another who was ignorant of it might hear, and would not dare to inflict injury on him. By these goads he is further incited, further moved; so that what is written may be fulfilled: Anger destroys even the wise.

"Cease from anger, and forsake wrath" [Psalm 37:8]. Wherefore are you angry? Wherefore is it that, through that passion and indignation, you blaspheme, or almost blaspheme? Against "the man who brings wicked devices to pass, cease from anger, and forsake wrath." Do you not know whither that wrath tempts you on? You are on the point of saying unto God, that He is unjust. It tends to that. "Look! Why is that man prosperous, and this man in adversity?" Consider what thought it begets: stifle the wicked notion. "Cease from anger, and forsake wrath:" so that now returning to your senses, you may say, "My eye is disturbed because of wrath." What eye is that, but the eye of faith? To the eye of your faith I appeal. Thou believed in Christ: why did you believe? What did He promise you? If it was the happiness of this world that Christ promised you, then murmur against Christ; yes! Murmur against Him, when you see the wicked flourishing. What of happiness did He promise? What, save in the Resurrection of the Dead? But what in this life? That which was His portion. His portion, I say! Do you, servant and disciple, disdain what your Lord, what your Master bore?...

Then when he says, "Cease," he assigns the reason for the aforementioned admonition, and this is twofold. One on the part of the one to whom the admonition is given; another on the part of sinners, at "Yet a little while." Regarding the first, he does two things. First, he shows the present danger if one does not heed the admonition; second, the future danger, at "Do not be envious so as to do evil." Where first he puts the danger of sin; second, of punishment, at "For those who do evil." Regarding the danger of punishment, he does two things. First, he sets forth the punishment of the offenders; second, the reward of those who endure, at "But those who wait for the Lord." He says therefore, "Cease from anger." Behold the present danger, because indignation is anger, and anger itself is evil. Eph. 4: "Let all bitterness and anger and indignation and clamor and blasphemy be taken away from you, with all malice." And therefore he says, "Cease from anger": Jas. 1: "The anger of man does not work the justice of God." "And abandon fury." Anger and fury are the same thing; but they differ in degree, because fury is nothing other than anger inflamed: Prov. 27: "Who can bear the rush of an agitated spirit?" Therefore, "Cease from anger" in the heart, "and abandon fury" in deed. "Do not be envious so as to do evil." Behold the future danger of sin. For when someone is indignant over the prosperity of others, he sometimes departs from justice; and therefore he says, "Do not be envious so as to do evil," that is, lest it perhaps lead you into injustice: Mal. 3: "It is vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept his commandments?" "For those who do evil." Behold the future danger of punishment. Note that all sinners do evil. For when someone sins either from weakness or from ignorance, he does not act with malice; but when he sins from deliberate choice, then he acts with malice. The first are easily corrected, but the third with difficulty: Eccl. 1: "The perverse are corrected with difficulty." And therefore he says, "They will be cut off," that is, placed outside the boundaries of justice and goodness: Job 18: "He will drive him from light into darkness, and will remove him from the world." So those who act with malice will be cut off. But "those who wait for the Lord," that is, who are not so indignant as to act with malice, but wait for the future -- they themselves "will inherit the land," namely of the living. For they will possess it by hereditary right, as heirs: Rom. 8: "If children, then heirs." Now that heavenly homeland is called "land" on account of its stability: Eccl. 1: "The earth stands forever." And as Augustine says, just as our earth relates to the heavens, so the higher life of the blessed relates to the higher heaven, namely to God, by whom it is illuminated and made fruitful: Rev. 21: "The glory of God will illuminate it."

A composed and uniform trust in God and a constant course of integrity are urged in view of the blessedness of the truly pious, contrasted in various aspects with the final ruin of the wicked. Thus the wisdom and justice of God's providence are vindicated, and its seeming inequalities, which excite the cavils of the wicked and the distrust of the pious, are explained. David's personal history abundantly illustrates the Psalm. (Psa. 37:1-40) The general sentiment of the whole Psalm is expressed. The righteous need not be vexed by the prosperity of the wicked; for it is transient, and their destiny undesirable.

On הרף (let alone), imper. apoc. Hiph., instead of הרפּה, vid., Ges. ֗75, rem. 15. אך להרע is a clause to itself (cf. Pro 11:24; Psa 21:5; Psa 22:16): it tends only to evil-doing, it ends only in thy involving thyself in sin. The final issue, without any need that thou shouldst turn sullen, is that the מרעים, like to whom thou dost make thyself by such passionate murmuring and displeasure, will be cut off, and they who, turning from the troublous present, make Jahve the ground and aim of their hope, shall inherit the land (vid., Psa 25:13). It is the end, the final and consequently eternal end, that decides the matter.