PSAL. XIV. Which is, Practical Atheists Character.
TWO parts there are of this Psalm.
- 1. The Description of the Practical Atheist, from ver. 1. to 7.
- 2. A Petition for the Church, ver. 7.
1. The Atheist is here noted out to us divers wayes. *
- 1. From his name, Nabal, a Fool, or rather a Churle;1 no natural Fool, but a sinful; a Fool, in what he should be wise.
- 2. His hypocrisie or cunning; He saith, but he will not have it known, 1 'tis to himself; he saith in his heart; he is a close politick Fool. [Ver. 1] 2
- 3. His saying, or his chief and prime principle, There is no God.3
- 4. From his practice, confessing God in his words, for some politick advan∣tages, yet in his works he denies him; for,
2. David demonstrates what he said, three wayes, and convinceth them.
- 1. By the testimony of God himself; for he brings him in as a witness against them, and such a witness that cannot be deceived; for he is,
- 1. An eye-witness; Prospectat, He looks on.1
- 2. He is in Heaven above them, and by that advantage may see all; He looks down from Heaven.
- 3. And all he sees, and is diligent to enquire, [Ver. 2] He looks from Heaven upon the children of men.* Page 32
- 4. * And the end is, to enquire into their Religion, To see if there were any that would understand, and seek after God.
- 2. [Ver. 3] And then he gives his testimony in these general terms; They are all gone aside, * they are all become filthy, there is none that doth good, no not one.
- 3.
1 And then in the next verse, he reckons up two especial sins of which they were guilty, Injustice and Impiety.
- 1. [Ver. 4] Injustice: For they eat up his people as bread.
- 2. 2 Impiety: For they call not upon God.
- 4.
1 Now that his testimony is true, he convinceth them,
- 1. 2 By the light of their own conscience: An non sibi sunt conscii? Have they no knowledge? [Ver. 4] Know they not that all this is true? that they do this and this? 1 Doth not their own heart tell them all this is true?
- 2. By the effect, that which follows an evil conscience, an extream fear and horrour: Trepidarunt, trepidatione; They are alwayes in an extream fear; which shews, that all is not well: They said there was no God: But for all that, 3 their heart tells them, That God is in the Generation of the Righteous, and they shall dearly answer for the eating up of his people.
- 3. [Ver. 5] By a second effect, which is, their scorn and derision of any good coun∣sel, 1 that the man (whom they esteemed poor and contemptible) gave them: If any man who had the fear of God before his eyes, chanc'd to say unto them, 2O my Brethren do not so wickedly, they scoff'd at it, they made a mock at it, and did all they could to shame him for it; if he replied, That God was his Refuge; he, whatever they said to the con∣trary, 'trusted in God: They made light of it, and were apt to return, He trusted in God, [Ver. 6] that he should deliver him, let him deliver him now, * if he will have him: Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his Refuge.
The second part of the Psalm, * contains a Petition for the Church, and an exal∣tation upon the favour exhibited.
- 1. [Ver. 7] He prayes that God would send salvation to his people: 2. And that it be, *Out of Zion, because Christ was set a King upon the holy hill of Zi∣on, that is, the Church. O that the salvation of Israel were out of Zion.
- 2. * For then the consequent would be, the joy and rejoycing of his people for their deliverance from captivity, spiritual and temporal.
When the Lord turneth the captivity of his people, then shall Jacob re∣joyce, and Israel shall be right glad.
The Prayer out of the fourteenth Psalm.
O Most holy and undefiled Majesty, in comparison of whose purity, all o∣ther things are impure, we miserable wretches conceived in sin, and born in iniquity, do confess and acknowledge that we are laden with those fruits growing from that bitter root; and that till we are born again by thy Spirit, we are wholly corrupt in thy sight; the faculties of our souls are very much wounded, [Ver. 1] so foolish we are, and blinded in our understanding, that we labour to perswade our selves, There is no God; no God that knows, cares for, or will judge the actions of men in this World; so averted we are from thée in our wills; that we bear no affection at all to that which is good; though, to compass our own ends, we profess to know thée in words, yet in déeds we deny thée; [Ver. 2] for our lives are corrupt, our works abominable, and such as sends up a stinking savour into thy nostrils; there is not one of us that doth the good thou hast commanded, not a man that understands, as thou hast revealed thy self in thy Word; or séek to honour thée, to fear thée, to put his whole trust Page 33and confidence in thée; not a man that she we that love he ought to his Neigh∣bour.
O Lord, if thou shalt look down from Heaven, [Ver. 3] and shalt set thine eyes to con∣sider the wayes of the children of men, Thou shalt not sée a wise man amongst us; not a man that sets his heart seriously to enquire, and religiously to séek after God: For we are all gone aside, we have béen sway'd by our desires and lusts, and turned from thy wayes to our own; [Ver. 4] we are become unprofitable and filthy, and reprobate to every good work: Wo, wo unto us, which are such workers of iniquity, against the light of our conscience; we have oppres∣sed thy people, and with delight devoured them, as a man would eat bread, dai∣ly, easily, gréedily: No religious Bond is able to restrain us, for that God whom we should call upon, we invoke not; that God whom we should honour, we worship not: Impious wretches we are, and leaving then the Well of living water, we have digg'd to our selves Pits that will hold no water, sacri∣ficing to our own inventions, our own arm, our own net.
For this our wickedness, thy just judgment hath overtaken us, [Ver. 5] and we tremble, and are afraid, lest thou should utterly forsake us; thy presence is in∣déed in the generation and company of the righteous; these thou dost defend, and kéep secure from fear; but our conscience doth so sharply accuse us, and the guilt of our malicious wickedness so far load us, that we have just reason to fear rejection from thy face, and the extreamest of thy wrath and indignation: [Ver. 6] And so much the more, because when thy servants, thy Ministers, of whom the World was not worthy, have given us warning to trust in thée after their ex∣ample, we have laboured to shame them, and derided, and mocked at their counsel.
But O Iust God, [Ver. 6] though thou dost poure out the vials of thy wrath upon the wicked, yet in judgment remember mercy, and deliver thy people; be among the generation of the righteous, protect thy servants by their refuge, and hide them under the shadow of thy wings, till thy anger be over-past.
Send thy Israel salvation out of Zion, that place over which thy Son is King; [Ver. 7] Bring back thy people from Captivity, from the prison and bondage of sin, and from the cruel yoke which the Oppressor hath laid upon their necks; so shall Jacob rejoyce, and Israel shall be glad.
