PSALM 49 COMMENTARYEDITED BY GLENN PEASE

INTRODUCTION

SPURGEON, "Title. To the Chief Musician, a Psalm for the sons of Korah. This is precisely the same as on former occasions, and no remark is needed.Division. The poet musician sings, to the accompaniment of his harp, the despicable character of those who trust in their wealth, and so he consoles the oppressed believer. The first four verses are a preface; from Psalms 49:5-12 all fear of great oppressors is removed by the remembrance of their end and their folly; Psalms 49:13 contains an expression of wonder at the perpetuity of folly; Psalms 49:14-15 contrast the ungodly and the righteous in their future; and from Psalms 49:16-20 the lesson from the whole is given in an admonitory form. Note the chorus in Psalms 49:2; Psalms 49:20, and also the two Selahs.

ELLICOTT, "This psalm, though didactic, does not altogether belie the promise of lyric effort made in Psalms 49:4. Not only is it cast in a lyrical form, with an introduction and two strophes, ended each by a refrain (see Note, Psalms 49:12), but it rises into true poetry both of expression and feeling. Indeed, it is not as a philosophical speculation that the author propounds and discusses his theme, but as a problem of personal interest (Psalms 49:15-16); hence throughout the composition a strain of passion rather than a flow of thought.

PETT, "This is the last of the Psalms of the sons of Korah (42-49) to be found in this second part. (In the third part see 84-85; 87-88).

The Psalm is addressed to both rich and poor, and is a meditation on wealth. It can be seen as in very close parallel with the Book of Proverbs. It could be called a wisdom Psalm, and gives warning that while wealth may appear desirable in this life, it offers nothing for the next. Then the only question that will count will be as to whether we were right with God.

For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm.

1 Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all who live in this world,

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BARNES, "Hear this, all ye people - That is, What I am about; to utter is worthy of universal attention; it pertains equally to all mankind. The psalmist; therefore calls on all the nations to attend to what he is about to say. Compare the notes at Isa_1:2.

Give ear - Incline your ear; attend. Compare the notes at Psa_17:6. See also Isa_37:17; Isa_55:3; Dan_9:18; Pro_2:2.

All ye inhabitants of the world - The truth to be declared does not pertain exclusively to any one nation, or any one class of people. All are interested in it. The

term here rendered world - - ,cheled means properly duration of life, lifetime; then, life, time, age; and then it comes to denote the world, considered as made up of the living, or the passing generations.

CLARKE, "Hear this, all ye people - The four first verses contain the authors exordium or introduction, delivered in a very pompous style and promising the deepest lessons of wisdom and instruction. But what was rare then is common-place now.

GILL, "Hear this,.... Not the law, as some Jewish writers (l) interpret it, which was not desirable to be heard by those that did hear it; it being a voice of wrath and terror, a cursing law, and a ministration of condemnation and death; but rather

"this news", as the Targum; the good news of the Gospel; the word of "this" ,salvation; the voice from heaven; the word not spoken by angels, but by the Lord

himself: or this wisdom", as Kimchi interprets it; which the psalmist was" ,about to speak of, Psa_49:3; also the parable and dark saying he should attend unto and open, Psa_49:4; and indeed it may take in the whole subject matter of the psalm;

all ye people: not the people of Israel only, but all the people of the world, as appears from the following clause; whence it is evident that this psalm belongs to Gospel times; in which the middle wall of partition is broken down, and there is no difference of people; God is the God both of Jews and Gentiles; Christ is the Saviour and Redeemer of one as well as of the other; the Spirit of God has been poured out upon the latter; the Gospel has been sent into all the world, and all are called upon to hear it;

give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world, or "of time"; so the word is rendered "age", the age of a man, Psa_39:5. The inhabitants of this world are but for a time;

wherefore Ben Melech interprets the phrase by men of time", the" ,inhabitants of time; it is peculiar to the most High to "inhabit eternity", Isa_57:15. Under the Gospel dispensation there is no distinction of places; the Gospel is not confined to the land of Judea; the sound of it is gone into all the world, and men may worship God, and offer incense to his name, in every place; and whoever fears him in any nation is accepted of him.

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HENRY, "This is the psalmist's preface to his discourse concerning the vanity of the world and its insufficiency to make us happy; and we seldom meet with an introduction more solemn than this is; for there is no truth of more undoubted certainty, nor of greater weight and importance, and the consideration of which will be of more advantage to us.

I. He demands the attention of others to that which he was about to say (Psa_49:1, Psa_49:2): Hear this, all you people; hear it and heed it, hear it and consider it; what is spoken once, hear twice. Hear and give ear, Psa_62:9, Psa_62:11. Not only, Hear, all you Israelites, and give ear all the inhabitants of Canaan, but, Hear, all you people, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the world; for this doctrine is not peculiar to those that are blessed with divine revelation, but even the light of nature witnesses to it. All men may know, and therefore let all men consider, that their riches will not profit them in the day of death. Both low and high, both rich and poor, must come together, to hear the word of God; let both therefore hear this with application. Let those that are high and rich in the world hear of the vanity of their worldly possessions and not be proud of them, nor secure in the enjoyment of them, but lay them out in doing good, that with them they may make to themselves friends; let those that are poor and low hear this and be content with their little, and not envy those that have abundance. Poor people are as much in danger from an inordinate desire towards the wealth of the world as rich people from an inordinate delight in it. He gives a good reason why his discourse should be regarded (Psa_49:3): My mouth shall speak of wisdom; what he had to say, 1. Was true and good. It is wisdom and understanding; it will make those wise and intelligent that receive it and submit to it. It is not doubtful but certain, not trivial but weighty, not a matter of nice speculation but of admirable use to guide us in the right way to our great end. 2. It was what he had himself well digested. What his mouth spoke was the meditation of his heart (as Psa_19:14; Psa_45:1); it was what God put into his mind, what he had himself seriously considered, and was fully apprized of the meaning of and convinced of the truth of. That which ministers speak from their own hearts is most likely to reach the hearts of their hearers.

JAMISON, "Psa_49:1-20. This Psalm instructs and consoles. It teaches that earthly advantages are not reliable for permanent happiness, and that, however prosperous worldly men may be for a time, their ultimate destiny is ruin, while the pious are safe in Gods care.

All are called to hear what interests all.

world literally, duration of life, the present time.

K&D 1-4, "(Heb.: 49:2-5) Introduction. Very similarly do the elder (in the reign of Jehoshaphat) and the younger Micha (Micah) introduce their prophecies (1Ki_22:28; Mic_1:2); and Elihu in the Book of Job his didactic discourses (Psa_34:2, cf. Psa_33:2). It is an universal theme which the poet intends to take up, hence he calls

upon all peoples and all the inhabitants of the . Such is the word first of all for this temporal life, which glides by unnoticed, them for the present transitory world itself (vid., on Psa_17:14). It is his intention to declare to the rich the utter nothingness or vanity of their false ground of hope, and to the poor the superiority of their true

ground of hope; hence he wishes to have as hearers both children of the ,common people, who are men and have otherwise nothing distinctive about them,

and , children of men, i.e., of rank and distinction (vid., on Psa_4:3) - rich and

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poor, as he adds to make his meaning more clear. For his mouth will, or shall, utter

not: all sorts of wise , teachings, but: weighty wisdom. Just in like manner !

signifies profound insight or understanding; cf. plurals like , Isa_27:11, #, Ps.

42:12 and frequently, , Jer_22:21. The parallel word ! in the passage before

us, and the plural predicate in Pro_24:7, show that , here and in Pro_1:20; Pro_9:1, cf. Psa_14:1, is not to be regarded, with Hitzig, Olshausen, and others, as another

form of the singular . Side by side with the speaking of the mouth stands (with an unchangeable Kametz before the tone-syllable, Ew. 166, c): the meditation

(lxx ) of the heart, and in accordance therewith the well-thought-out discourse. What he intends to discourse is, however, not the creation of his own brain, but what

he has received. A , a saying embodying the wisdom of practical life, as God teaches men it, presents itself to his mind demanding to be heard; and to this he inclines his ear in order that, from being a diligent scholar of the wisdom from above, he may become a useful teacher of men, inasmuch as he opens up, i.e., unravels, the

divine Mashal, which in the depth and fulness of its contents is a , i.e., an

involved riddle (from , cogn. ,,), and plays the cithern thereby ( of the accompaniment). The opening of the riddle does not consist in the solving of it, but

in the setting of it forth. ., to open = to propound, deliver of a discourse, comes

from the phrase -/.., Pro_31:26; cf. Psa_119:130, where ., an opening, is equivalent to an unlocking, a revelation.

CALVIN, "1.Hear this, all ye people. Whoever may have been the penman of this psalm, it discusses one of the most important principles in divine philosophy, and there is a propriety in the elevated terms designed to awaken and secure attention, with which the Psalmist announces his purpose to discourse of things of a deep and momentous nature. To a superficial view, indeed, the subject might seem trite and common-place, treating, as he does, of the shortness of human life, and the vanity of those objects in which worldly men confide. But the real scope of the psalm is, to comfort the people of God under the sufferings to which they are exposed, by teaching them to expect a happy change in their condition, when God, in his own time, shall interpose to rectify the disorders of the present system. There is a higher lesson still inculcated by the Psalmist that, as Gods providence of the world is not presently apparent, we must exercise patience, and rise superior to the suggestions of carnal sense in anticipating the favorable issue. That it is our duty to maintain a resolute struggle with our afflictions, however severe these may be, and that it were foolish to place happiness in the enjoyment of such fleeting possessions as the riches, honors, or pleasures of this world, may be precepts which even the heathen philosophers have enforced, but they have uniformly failed in setting before us the true source of consolation. However admirably they discourse of a happy life, they confine themselves entirely to commendations upon virtue, and do not bring prominently forward to our view that God, who governs the world, and to whom alone we can repair with confidence in the most desperate circumstances. But slender comfort can be derived upon this subject from the teaching of philosophy. If, therefore, the Holy

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Ghost in this psalm introduces to our notice truths which are sufficiently familiar to experience, it is that he may raise our minds from them to the higher truth of the divine government of the world, assuring us of the fact, that God sits supreme, even when the wicked are triumphing most in their success, or when the righteous are trampled under the foot of contumely, and that a day is coming when he will dash the cup of pleasure out of the hands of his enemies, and rejoice the hearts of his friends, by delivering them out of their severest distresses. This is the only consideration which can impart solid comfort under our afflictions. Formidable and terrible in themselves, they would overwhelm our souls, did not the Lord lift upon us the light of his countenance. Were we not assured that he watches over our safety, we could find no remedy from our evils, and no quarter to which we might resort under them.

The remarks which have been made may explain the manner in which the inspired writer introduces the psalm, soliciting our attention, as about to discourse on a theme unusually high and important. Two things are implied in this verse, that the subject upon which he proposes to enter is of universal application, and that we require to be admonished and aroused ere we are brought to a due measure of consideration. The words which I have translated, inhabitants of the world, are translated by others, inhabitants of time; but this is a harsh mode of expression, however much it may agree with the scope of the psalm. He calls upon all men indiscriminately, because all were equally concerned in the truths which he intended to announce. By sons of Adam, we may understand the meaner or lower class of mankind; and by sons of men, (212) the high, the noble, or such as sustain any pre-eminence in life. Thus, in the outset, he states it to be his purpose to instruct high and low without exception; his subject being one in which the whole human family was interested, and in which every individual belonging to it required to be instructed.

SPURGEON, "Ver. 1-4. In these four verses the poet prophet calls universal humanity to listen to his didactic hymn.Ver. 1. Hear this, all ye people. All men are concerned in the subject, it is of them, and therefore to them that the psalmist would speak. It is not a topic which men delight to consider, and therefore he who would instruct them must press them to give ear. Where, as in this case, the theme claims to be wisdom and understanding, attention is very properly demanded; and when the style combines the sententiousness of the proverb with the sweetness of poesy, interest is readily excited. Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world. "He that hath ears to hear let him hear." Men dwelling in all climes are equally concerned in the subject, for the laws of providence are the same in all lands. It is wise for each one to feel I am a man, and therefore everything which concerns mortals has a personal interest to me. We must all appear before the judgment seat, and therefore we all should give earnest heed to holy admonition which may help us to prepare for that dread event. He who refuses to receive instruction by the ear, will not be able to escape receiving destruction by it when the Judge shall say, "Depart, ye cursed."EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGSWhole Psalm. Strange it is that two Psalms so near together, as this and the

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forty-fifth should, and should alone imitate, or be the forerunners of, two works of David's son; thisEcclesiastes, the formerthe Canticles. J. M. Neale.

COKE, "Title. lamnatseach libnei korach mizmor. The author of this psalm is not known, nor the particular occasion of it. But it seems to be a meditation on the vanity of riches: and the usual haughtiness of those who possess them: As a remedy for this, it sets before them the near prospect of death, from which no riches can save, in which no riches can avail. The author considers the subjects he is treating, as a kind of wisdom concealed from the world, a mystery, an occult science, with respect to the generality of mankind.

WHEDON, "1. People inhabitants of the worldThe subject is of world-wide concern, and the psalmist invites attention accordingly. It would seem by this call that the occasion of the psalm was one in which foreign nations, equally with the Hebrews, had cause to consider the brief and deceptive triumph of wickedness. hheled,) world, here means world with reference to its duration a period) ,of time, age. The psalmists call is upon all the dwellers of this age.

COFFMAN, "A BLESSED PROMISE OF ETERNAL LIFE

Here we have the Old Testament equivalent of the New Testament instructions against the folly of trusting in material riches. Christ's declaration that, "A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of his possessions," as well as his encounter with the Rich Young Ruler, and his parable of the Rich Fool, are doctrinally anticipated in this psalm.

Scholars refer to this psalm as `didactic,' a psalm loaded with teaching or instructions. In some of the psalms, the psalmist is (1) praising God; in others he is (2) prophesying; and in some he is (3) praying; but, "In this one, he is (4) preaching."[1]

In all discussions of the folly of trusting in riches, it should be pointed out that riches are a threatening temptation, not only to their possessors, but to the poor also. "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil," as an apostle noted; and people who are without riches may inordinately desire them, covet them, and commit all kinds of wickedness in order to procure them. Thus, the scriptural warning to all men: (1) let not those who have riches inordinately glory in them or trust them; and (2) let not those of us who are poor inordinately desire them or sinfully seek to possess them.

Yes, there are some wonderful instructions here regarding the folly of trusting in earthly riches; but there is one verse that outweighs all the others in the psalm put together. It is Psalms 49:15.

"But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol; for He will receive me" (Psalms 49:15).

We have made this the title of the psalm. Everything else in it fades into the background, because the glory of this verse shines like the sun at perihelion.

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We shall devote most of our attention to this verse, because it provides the answers, the eternal answers, to all of the great problems encountered in the lives of mortal men, including that of the perplexity arising from the inequalities between the wicked rich and the godly poor.

The date and occasion when the psalm was written are unknown, although the superscription that assigns it to the sons of Korah has caused some to suppose it was written in the times of David, or soon afterwards. Such questions are of little importance.

The organization of the psalm suggested by Addis is as follows.

I. The announcement that a great mystery is about to be revealed (Psalms 49:1-4).

II. The haughty boastfulness of wicked men trusting in untrustworthy riches (Psalms 49:5-8).

III. Those who trust in riches live as if they were immortal, but they all die (Psalms 49:9-12).

IV. Why such conduct is foolish, and why the hope of the godly is preferable (Psalms 49:13-15).

V. Fate of the wicked contrasted with that of the righteous (Psalms 49:16-20).[2]

Addis also identified Psalms 49:12,20 as a refrain and suggested that it would be appropriate to insert it again after Psalms 49:4,8, and Psalms 49:15, just as it already appears after Psalms 49:12 and Psalms 49:20.

Psalms 49:1-4

"Hear this, all ye peoples;

Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world,

Both low and high,

Rich and poor together.

My mouth shall speak wisdom;

And the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.

I will incline mine ear to a parable:

I will open my dark saying upon the harp."

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"All ye peoples ... all ye inhabitants of the earth" (Psalms 49:1). Only a world-shaking truth, significant for every soul who ever lived on earth, could be entitled to such an introduction as this. The revelation of this great truth is not for Jews only, but for all men and all classes of peoples in the whole world.

"Both low and high, rich and poor together" (Psalms 49:2). Spurgeon suggested that all preaching should thus be directed to all ranks and divisions of mankind. "To suit our word for the rich alone is wicked sycophancy; and to aim at pleasing the poor alone is to act the part of a demagogue. Truth must be spoken so as to command the ear of all; and wise men seek to learn that acceptable style."[3]

"A parable ... I will open my dark saying" (Psalms 49:4). The `parable' and the `dark saying' here are the same thing, the truth announced in Psalms 49:15. "Both in Hebrew and in Greek, the words `parable,' and `proverb' are translated from the same word."[4] The meaning here is, "That the psalmist is inspired to make the pronouncement which he is about to utter."[5]

Thus we have three different words applicable to the earthshaking truth to be announced, namely, proverb, parable, and dark saying. We might even call it a riddle or a mystery.

EBC 1-9, "THIS psalm touches the high-water mark of Old Testament faith in a future life; and in that respect, as well as in its application of that faith to alleviate the mystery of present inequalities and non-correspondence of desert with condition, is closely related to the noble Psalms 73:1-28, with Which it has also several verbal identities. Both have the same problem before them-to construct a theodicy, or "to vindicate the ways of God to man"-and both solve it in the same fashion. Both appear to refer to the story of Enoch in their remarkable expression for ultimate reception into the Divine presence. But whether the psalms are contemporaneous cannot be determined from these data. Cheyne regards the treatment of the theme in Psalms 73:1-28, as "more skilful," and therefore presumably later than Psalms 49:1-20, which he would place "somewhat before the close of the Persian period." This date rests on the assumption that the amount of certitude as to a future life expressed in the psalm was not realised in Israel till after the exile.

After a solemn summons to all the world to hear the psalmists utterance of what he has learned by Divine teaching (Psalms 49:1-4), the psalm is divided into two parts, each closed with a refrain. The former of these (Psalms 49:5-12) contrasts the arrogant security of the prosperous godless with the end that awaits them; while the second (Psalms 49:13-20) contrasts the dreary lot of these victims of vain self-confidence with the blessed reception after death into Gods own presence which the psalmist grasped as a certainty for himself, and thereon bases an exhortation to possess souls in patience while the godless prosper, and to be sure that their lofty structures will topple into hideous ruin.

The psalmists consciousness that he speaks by Divine inspiration, and that his message imports all men, is grandly expressed in his introductory summons. The

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very name which he gives to the world suggests the latter thought; for it means-the world considered as fleeting. Since we dwell in so transitory an abode, it becomes us to listen to the deep truths of the psalm. These have a message for high and low, for rich and poor. They are like a keen lancet to let out too great fulness of blood from the former, and to teach moderation, lowliness, and care for the Unseen. They are a calming draught for the latter, soothing when perplexed or harmed by "the proud mans contumely." But the psalmist calls for universal attention, not only because his lessons fit all classes, but because they are in themselves "wisdom," and because he himself had first bent his ear to receive them before he strung his lyre to utter them. The brother-psalmist, in Psalms 73:1-28, presents himself as struggling with doubt and painfully groping his way to his conclusion. This psalmist presents himself as a divinely inspired teacher, who has received into purged and attentive ears, in many a whisper from God, and as the result of many an hour of silent waiting, the word which he would now proclaim on the housetops. The discipline of the teacher of religious truth is the same at all times. There must be the bent ear before there is the message which men will recognise as important and true.

There is no parable in the ordinary sense in the psalm. The word seems to have acquired the wider meaning of a weighty didactic utterance, as in Psalms 73:2. The expression "Open my riddle" is ambiguous, and is by some understood to mean the proposal and by others the solution of the puzzle; but the phrase is more naturally understood of solving than of setting a riddle, and if so, the disproportion between the characters and fortunes of good and bad is the mystery or riddle, and the psalm is its solution.

The main theme of the first part is the certainty of death, which makes infinitely ludicrous the rich mans arrogance. It is one version of

"There is no armour against Fate;

Death lays his icy hand on kings."

Therefore how vain the boasting in wealth, when all its heaps cannot buy a day of life! This familiar thought is not all the psalmists contribution to the solution of the mystery of lifes unequal partition of worldly good; but it prepares the way for it, and it lays a foundation for his refusal to be afraid, however pressed by insolent enemies. Very significantly he sets the conclusion, to which observation of the transiency of human prosperity has led him, at the beginning of his "parable." In the parallel psalm (Psalms 73:1-28) the stager shows himself struggling from the depths of perplexity up to the sunny heights of faith. But here the poet begins with the clear utterance of trustful courage, and then vindicates it by the thought of the impotence of wealth to avert death. The hostility to himself of the self-confident rich boasters appears only for a moment at first. It is described by a gnarled, energetic phrase which has been diversely understood. But it seems clear that the "iniquity" (A.V. and R.V.) spoken of in Psalms 49:5 b is not the psalmists sin, for a reference here to his guilt or to retribution would be quite irrelevant; and if it were the consequences of his own evil that dogged him at his heels, he had every reason to fear, and confidence

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would be insolent defiance. But the word rendered in the A.V. heels, which is retained in the R.V. with a change in construction, may be a participial noun, derived from a verb meaning to trip up or supplant; and this gives a natural coherence to the whole verse, and connects it with the following one. "Pursuers" is a weak equivalent for the literal "those who would supplant me," but conveys the meaning, though in a somewhat enfeebled condition. Psalms 49:6 is a continuance of the description of the supplanters.

They are "men of this world," the same type of man as excites stern disapproval in many psalms: as, for instance, in Psalms 17:14 -a psalm which is closely related to this, both in its portrait of the godless and its lofty hope for the future. It is to be noted that they are not described as vicious or God-denying or defying. They are simply absorbed in the material, and believe that land and money are the real, solid goods. They are the same men as Jesus meant when He said that it was hard for those who trusted in riches to enter into the kingdom of heaven. It has been thought that the existence of such a class points to a late date for the psalm; but the reliance on riches does not require large riches to rely on, and may flourish in full perniciousness in very primitive social conditions. A small elevation suffices to lift a man high enough above his fellows to make a weak head giddy. Those to whom material possessions are the only good have a natural enmity towards those who find their wealth in truth and goodness. The poet, the thinker, and, most of all, the religious man, are targets for more or less active "malice," or, at all events, are recognised as belonging to another class, and regarded as singular and "unpractical," if nothing worse. But the psalmist looks far enough ahead to see the end of all the boasting, and points to the great instance of the impotence of material good-its powerlessness to prolong life. It would be more natural to find in Psalms 49:7 the statement that the rich man cannot prolong his own days than that he cannot do so for a "brother." A very slight change in the text would make the initial word of the verse ("brother") the particle of asseveration, which occurs in Psalms 49:15 (the direct antithesis of this verse), and is characteristic of the parallel Psalms 73:1-28. With that reading (Ewald, Cheyne, Baethgen, etc.) other slight difficulties are smoothed; but the present text is attested by the LXX and other early versions, and is capable of defence. It may be necessary to observe that there is no reference here to any other "redemption" than that of the body from physical death. There is a distinct intention to contrast the mans limited power with Gods, for Psalms 49:15 points back to this verse, and declares that God can do what man cannot. Psalms 49:8 must be taken as a parenthesis, and the construction carried on from Psalms 49:7 to Psalms 49:9, which specifies the purpose of the ransom, if it were possible. No man can secure for another continuous life or an escape from the necessity of seeing the pit-i.e., going down to the depths of death. It would cost more than all the rich mans store; wherefore he-the would-be ransomer-must abandon the attempt forever.

PETT 1-5, "An Appeal To Listen To His Words (Psalms 49:1-5).

The Psalmist commences by making an appeal to all men, both high and low, rich and poor, to listen to his wisdom. Note his recognition that he is speaking mysteries (parables, dark sayings). This would confirm that he expects them to

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see in what he is saying something more than the usual platitudes. For he is in fact indicating that for those who trust God this life is not the end. There is hope beyond the grave. Such glimpses of a future hope are found a number of times in Davidic Psalms (e.g. Psalms 16:10-11; Psalms 17:15; Psalms 23:6) and in Proverbs (Proverbs 11:4; Proverbs 13:14; compare Proverbs 10:2; Proverbs 14:27; Proverbs 14:32; Proverbs 15:24).

Psalms 49:1-5

Hear this, all you peoples,Give ear, all you inhabitants of the world,Both low and high,Rich and poor together.My mouth will speak wisdom,And the meditation of my heart will be of understanding.I will incline my ear to a parable,I will open my dark saying on the harp.For what reason should I fear in the days of evil,When iniquity at my heels compasses me about?His appeal is to all people of all classes. It contains a universal appeal which is characteristic of wisdom literature, but is also found in the prophets (see Micah 1:2). He wants it known that what he has to say applies to everyone. The word for world is an unusual one indicating the transitory nature of the world. And it is the transitory nature of life that is a central idea in the Psalm.

He speaks to both low and high. This is literally both sons of mankind (adam) and sons of men (ish - important men). Thus it is to the common man and also to the distinguished man. It is also to rich and poor. To the rich lest they trust in their riches. To the poor lest they become discontented with their lot. All need to heed his words. None must see themselves as outside their scope.

He explains that his aim is to give wisdom and understanding (literally wisdoms and understandings. The plural indicates the length and breadth of that wisdom and understanding). In other words he is speaking of the deeper things in life. Yet he recognises also that he can only do so in terms of simile and metaphor. He is not speaking of what is commonplace. He thus speaks in comparisons (mashal) and dark sayings (chidah).

I will incline my ear --. He leans forward, as it were, to hear what God has to say, for what he has to say is coming from God..

The word mashal (parable) indicates a comparison, a proverb, a parable, a metaphorical saying, or a poem (Isaiah 14:4). It is illustrative rather than literal. The word chidah (dark saying) indicates an enigma or riddle (Judges 14:12 ff; 1 Kings 10:1), a simile or parable (see Ezekiel 17:2), an obscure utterance, a mystery, a dark saying. For both words used together elsewhere see Psalms 78:2; Proverbs 1:6; Ezekiel 17:2. Certainly one of the great mysteries of life to many was the prosperity of the unrighteous. Why should God allow the unrighteous to prosper, and the truly righteous to go in need? Men often saw only the outward

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trimmings and not the importance of the inner heart which riches could destroy.

On the harp. He intends to set it to music. Men will often listen to the wisdom of a song where they would eschew the same words if plainly put.

And the question that he raises is as to why he should fear when evil abounds, and when he is dogged by injustice and sin which threaten to trip him up. David especially, for example, had known what it meant to be on the run, as had Elijah. And they had learned in such experiences to trust in God.

BI, "Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world: both low and high, rich and poor, together.

The inequalities of society

Impressive and instructive that scene in the wood of Senart, when a luxurious Louis, royally caparisoned for hunting, met a wretched peasant with a coffin. For whom? . . . For a poor brother slave, whom your majesty has sometimes noticed slaving in those quarters. What did he die of? . . . Of hunger. The king gave his steed the spur. Sad is it that such a contrast was ever possible on earth, and sadder still that it may yet be witnessed even in this enlightened and philanthropic land. There are other inequalities. I read, not long since, that a Glasgow bank director, convicted of having appropriated half a million sterling, was sentenced to eight months imprisonment; and that on the same day a little half-starved boy, charged with stealing cake worth a halfpenny, was sentenced to fourteen days hard labour and four years in a reformatory. One law for the rich, and another for the poor. These social inequalities have led to much disturbance. Christian divines have abandoned the subject to philosophers, agitators, and would-be reformers. It always has seemed to me that Christianity must have something to say that the world has a right to know; and unless this is done, there never will be a complete mastery of the problem. Social inequality must have arisen from some other kind of inequality. Social inequalities sprang out of the irregularities of human nature. No two men are made alike. Social inequalities are not without relief and compensation in some other kind of inequality. Uneasy is the head that wears a crown, and uneasy the heart of him who owns millions of dollars. The Saviour did not devote His attention to surface measures of reform, but to a new heart, confident that the regeneration of man means the regeneration of society. (G. C. Lorimer, D. D.)

2 both low and high, rich and poor alike:

BARNES, "Both low and high - Those alike of humble and those of exalted

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rank, for it pertains equally to all. On the meaning of the terms employed here, see the notes at Isa_2:9. These truths pertained to the low; that is, to those of humble rank, as teaching them not to envy the rich, and not to fear their power; and they pertained to those of exalted rank, as teaching them not to trust in their riches, and not to suppose that they could permanently possess and enjoy them.

Rich and poor together - As equally interested in these truths; that is, What the psalmist was about to say was adapted to impart useful lessons to both classes. Both needed instruction on the subject; and the same class of truths was adapted to furnish that instruction. The class of truths referred to was derived from the powerlessness of wealth in regard to the things of most importance to man, and from the fact that all which a man can gain must soon be left: teaching those of one class that they should not set their heart on wealth, and should not pride themselves on possessing it, and teaching the other class that they should not envy or fear the possessor of riches.

CLARKE, "Both low and high,.... Or "both the sons of Adam and the sons of men". By the sons of "Adam" are meant the multitude of the people, as Ben Melech explains it; the common people, the meaner sort, the base things of this world; and such are they, generally speaking, who are called by grace under the Gospel dispensation: and by "the sons of men" are meant the princes, nobles, and great men of the earth; men of high birth and illustrious extraction: so Adam is rendered, "the mean man", and "Ish", the word here used, "the great man", in Isa_2:9. And though not many, yet some of this sort are called by grace; and all of them have a peculiar concern in many things spoken of in this psalm; see Psa_49:12;

rich and poor together: these are called upon to hearken to what is after said, that the one may not be elated with and trust in their riches, and that the other may not be dejected on account of their poverty; and seeing both must die, and meet together at the judgment day; and inasmuch as the Gospel is preached to one as to another; and for the most part the poor hear it, receive it, and are called by it.

SPURGEON, "Ver. 2. Both low and high, rich and poor, together. Sons of great men, and children of mean men, men of large estate, and ye who pine in poverty, ye are all bidden to hear the inspired minstrel as he touches his harp to a mournful but instructive lay. The low will be encouraged, the high will be warned, the rich will be sobered, the poor consoled, there will be a useful lesson for each if they are willing to learn it. Our preaching ought to have a voice for all classes, and all should have an ear for it. To suit our word to the rich alone is wicked sycophancy, and to aim only at pleasing the poor is to act the part of a demagogue. Truth may be so spoken as to command the ear of all, and wise men seek to learn that acceptable style. Rich and poor must soon meet together in the grave, they may well be content to meet together now. In the congregation of the dead all differences of rank will be obliterated, they ought not now to be obstructions to united instructions.EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGSVer. 2. In this Psalm David, as it were, summons and divides mankind. In the first verse he summons: "Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world." In the second verse he divides: Both low and high, rich and poor, together. The word in the Hebrew for high is (vya ynb), bene ish, sons of Ish, and

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the word for low is (Mda ynb) bene Adam, sons of Adam. If we should translate the text directly, according to the letter, the words must run, sons of men and sons of men; for, sons of Adam and sons of Ish are both translated sons of men. Yet when they are set together in a way of opposition, the one signifieth low and the other high; and so our translators render it according to the sense, not sons of men and sons of men, but low and high. Junius translates to this sense, though in more words, as well they who are born of mean men, as they who are born of the honourable. Joseph Caryl.HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHERVer. 2.1. The common needs of rich and poor men.2. The common privileges of rich and poor saints.3. Their common service.4. Their common heaven.

ELLICOTT, "(2) Both high and low.The two Hebrew expressions here used, ben-dam and ben-sh, answer to one another much as homo and vir in Latin. The LXX. and Vulg., taking dam in its primary sense, render sons of the soil and sons of men. Symmachus makes the expressions stand for men in general and men as individuals.

Shall be of understanding.The copula supplied by the Authorised Version is unnecessary. The word rendered meditation may mean, from its etymology, muttered thoughts, and it is quite consistent to say, my musings speak of understanding. So LXX. and Vulgate.

WHEDON, "2. Low and highThe classifications of this verse are intended, by mentioning the extreme orders of society, to comprehend all the intermediate ranks also, without exception. They are specifications under the general terms all nations, all inhabitants of the age. See note on Psalms 4:2

3 My mouth will speak words of wisdom; the meditation of my heart will give you understanding.

BARNES, "My mouth shall speak of wisdom - That is, I will utter sentiments that are wise, or that are of importance to all; sentiments that will enable all to take a just view of the subject on which I speak. This indicates confidence in what he was about to utter, as being eminently deserving of attention.

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And the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding - What I reflect on, and what I give utterance to, in the matter under consideration. The idea is, that he had meditated on the subject, as to what was real wisdom in the matter, and that he would now give utterance to the result of his meditations. It was not wisdom in general, or intelligence or understanding as such on which he designed to express the results of his thoughts, but it was only in respect to the proper value to be attached to wealth, and as to the fact of its causing fear Psa_49:5 in those who were not possessed of it, and who might be subjected to the oppressive acts of those who were rich.

GILL, "My mouth shall speak of wisdom,.... Or "wisdoms" (m); of Christ, who is so called, Pro_1:20. He being as a divine Person the wisdom of God, and the only wise God; and having all the treasures of wisdom in him, as man and Mediator: of him the prophet spake, and of him the apostles and all Gospel ministers speak; of the glories of his Person, of the fulness of his grace, and of his wonderful works; especially of that of redemption and salvation by him, in which there is an abounding of wisdom and prudence. Or the Gospel may be meant, and all the truths of it, in which there is a glorious display of divine wisdom; it is the wisdom of God in a mystery; hidden and ancient wisdom; and which, when truly understood, makes a man wise unto salvation; see 1Co_2:6;

and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding; or "understandings" (n); and this is in order to the former; what the heart meditates the mouth speaks. If the heart meditates on understanding, the mouth will speak of wisdom; and a man should think before he speaks, especially the ministers of the Gospel: they ought to meditate on the word of God, the Gospel, and the truths of it, that their profiling may appear to all; that they may understand divine things themselves, and deliver them out to the understanding of others: their concern should be, that through meditation they may have a good treasure of wisdom and knowledge in their hearts, that out of it they may bring forth things pleasant and profitable unto others.

CALVIN, "3.My mouth shall speak of wisdom The prophet was warranted in applying these commendatory terms to the doctrine which he was about to communicate. It is, no doubt, by plain appeals to observation that we find him reproving human folly; but the general principle upon which his instruction proceeds is one by no means obvious to the common sense of mankind, not to say that his design in using such terms is less to assert the dignity of his subject than simply to awaken attention. This he does all the more effectually by speaking as one who would apply his own mind to instruction rather than assume the office of exhortation. He puts himself forward as an humble scholar, one who, in acting the part of teacher, has an eye at the same time to his own improvement. It were desirable that all the ministers of God should be actuated by a similar spirit, disposing them to regard God as at once their own teacher and that of the common people, and to embrace in the first place themselves that divine word which they preach to others. (213) The Psalmist had another object in view. He would secure the greater weight and deference to his doctrine by announcing that he had no intention to vend fancies of his own, but to advance what he had learned in the school of God. This is the true method of instruction to be followed

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in the Church. The man who holds the office of teacher must apply himself to the reception of truth before he attempt to communicate it, and in this manner become the means of conveying to the hands of others that which God has committed to his own. Wisdom is not the growth of human genius. It must be sought from above, and it is impossible that any should speak with the propriety and knowledge necessary for the edification of the Church, who has not, in the first place, been taught at the feet of the Lord. To condescend upon the words, some read in the third verse, And the meditation of my heart shall speak of understanding But as it were a harsh and improper expression to say that the meditation of the heart speaks, I have adopted the simpler reading.

SPURGEON, "Ver. 3. My mouth shall speak of wisdom. Inspired and therefore lifted beyond himself, the prophet is not praising his own attainments, but extolling the divine Spirit which spoke in him. He knew that the Spirit of truth and wisdom spoke through him. He who is not sure that his matter is good has no right to ask a hearing. And the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding. The same Spirit who made the ancient seers eloquent, also made them thoughtful. The help of the Holy Ghost was never meant to supersede the use of our own mental powers. The Holy Spirit does not make us speak as Balaam's ass, which merely uttered sounds, but never meditated; but he first leads us to consider and reflect, and then he gives us the tongue of fire to speak with power.EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGSNone.HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHERVer. 3. The deep things of God are intended,1. To exercise our minds to understand them.2. To try our faith by believing them"incline" implies a submissive mind.3. To excite our joy as we grasp them"upon the harp."4. To employ our faculties in explaining them to others.

4 I will turn my ear to a proverb; with the harp I will expound my riddle:

BARNES, "I will incline mine ear to a parable - The phrase I will incline mine ear means that he would listen or attend to - as we incline our ear toward those whom we are anxious to hear, or in the direction from which a sound seems to come. Compare Psa_5:1; Psa_17:1; Psa_39:12; Isa_1:2. On the word rendered parable

here mshl - see the notes at Isa_14:4. Compare Job_13:12, note; Job_27:1, note. The word properly means similitude; then, a sentence, sententious saying,

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apophthegm; then, a proverb; then, a song or poem. There is usually found in the word some idea of comparison, and hence, usually something that is to be illustrated by a comparison or a story. The reference here would seem to be to some dark or obscure subject which needed to be illustrated; which it was not easy to understand; which had given the writer, as well as others, perplexity and difficulty. He proposed now, with a view to understand and explain it, to place his ear, as it were, close to the matter, that he might clearly comprehend it. The matter was difficult, but he felt assured he could explain it - as when one unfolds the meaning of an enigma. The problem - the parable - the difficult point - related to the right use, or the proper value, of wealth, or the estimate in which it should be held by those who possessed it, and by those who did not. It was very evident to the author of the psalm that the views of people were not right on the subject; he therefore proposed to examine the matter carefully, and to state the exact truth.

I will open - I will explain; I will communicate the result of my careful inquiries.

My dark saying - The word used here - ch4ydh - is rendered dark speeches in Num_12:8; riddle, in Jdg_14:12-19; Eze_17:2; hard questions in 1Ki_10:1; 2Ch_9:1; dark saying (as here) in Psa_78:2; Pro_1:6; dark sentences, in Dan_8:23; and proverb in Hab_2:6. It does not elsewhere occur. It means properly something entangled, intricate; then, a trick or stratagem; then art intricate speech, a riddle; then, a sententious saying, a maxim; then a parable, a poem, a song, a proverb. The idea here is, that the point was intricate or obscure; it was not well understood, and he purposed to lay it open, and to make it plain.

Upon the harp - On the meaning of the word used here, see the notes at Isa_5:12. The idea here is, that he would accompany the explanation with music, or would so express it that it might be accompanied with music; that is, he would give it a poetic form - a form such that the sentiment might be used in public worship, and might be impressed upon the mind by all the force and power which music would impart. Sentiments of purity and truth, and sentiments of pollution and falsehood also, are always most deeply imbedded in the minds of people, and are made most enduring and effective, when they are connected with music. Thus the sentiments of patriotism are perpetuated and impressed in song; and thus sentiments of sensuality and pollution owe much of their permanence and power to the fact that they are expressed in corrupt verse, and that they are perpetuated in exquisite poetry, and are accompanied with song. Scenes of revelry, as well as acts of devotion, are kept up by song. Religion proposes to take advantage of this principle in our nature by connecting the sentiments of piety with the sweetness of verse, and by impressing and perpetuating those sentiments through associating them with all that is tender, pure, and inspiriting in music. Hence, music, both vocal and that which is produced by instruments, has always been found to be an invaluable auxiliary in securing the proper impression of truth on the minds of people, as well as in giving utterance to the sentiments of piety in devotion.

CLARKE, "I will incline mine ear to a parable - This was the general method of conveying instruction among the Asiatics. They used much figure and metaphor to induce the reader to study deeply in order to find out the meaning. This had its use; it obliged men to think and reflect deeply; and thus in some measure taught them the use, government, and management of their minds.

My dark saying upon the harp - Music was sometimes used to soothe the animal spirits, and thus prepare the mind for the prophetic influx.

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GILL, "I will incline mine ear to a parable,.... In which way of speaking the doctrines of the Gospel were delivered out by Christ, Mat_13:3. Wherefore the prophet, representing his apostles and disciples, signifies that he would listen thereunto, that he might attain to the knowledge thereof, and communicate it to others;

I will open my dark saying upon the harp; the enigmas, riddles, and mysteries of the Gospel, being understood by the ministers of it, are opened and explained in a very pleasant and delightful manner; they are made clear and evident, and are as a lovely song upon a harp; see Eze_33:32.

HENRY, ". He engages his own attention (Psa_49:4): I will incline my ear to a parable. It is called a parable, not because it is figurative and obscure, but because it is a wise discourse and very instructive. It is the same word that is used concerning Solomon's proverbs. The psalmist will himself incline his ear to it. This intimates, 1. That he was taught it by the Spirit of God and did not speak of himself. Those that undertake to teach others must first learn themselves. 2. That he thought himself nearly concerned in it, and was resolved not to venture his own soul upon that bottom which he dissuaded others from venturing theirs upon. 3. That he would not expect others should attend to that which he himself did not attend to as a matter of the greatest importance. Where God gives the tongue of the learned he first wakens the ear to hear as the learned, Isa_50:4.

III. He promises to make the matter as plain and as affecting as he could: I will open my dark saying upon the harp. What he learned for himself he would not conceal or confine to himself, but would communicate, for the benefit of others. 1. Some understood it not, it was a riddle to them; tell them of the vanity of the things that are seen, and of the reality and weight of invisible things, and they say, Ah Lord God! doth he not speak parables? For the sake of such, he would open this dark saying, and make it so plain that he that runs might read it. 2. Others understood it well enough, but they were not moved by it, it never affected them, and for their sake he would open it upon the harp, and try that expedient to work upon them, to win upon them. A verse may find him who a sermon flies. Herbert.

JAMISON, "incline to hear attentively (Psa_17:6; Psa_31:2).

parable In Hebrew and Greek parable and proverb are translations of the same word. It denotes a comparison, or form of speech, which under one image includes many, and is expressive of a general truth capable of various illustrations. Hence it may be used for the illustration itself. For the former sense, proverb (that is, one word for several) is the usual English term, and for the latter, in which comparison is prominent, parable (that is, one thing laid by another). The distinction is not always observed, since here, and in Psa_78:2; proverb would better express the style of the composition (compare also Pro_26:7, Pro_26:9; Hab_2:6; Joh_16:25, Joh_16:29). Such forms of speech are often very figurative and also obscure (compare Mat_13:12-15). Hence the use of the parallel word -

dark saying or, riddle (compare Eze_17:2).

open is to explain.

upon the harp the accompaniment for a lyric.

SBC, "There are two voices always speaking in man, and attempting to govern all other influences in his souldespondency and aspiration. The text points to two principles. (1) There is the bowing before, and hearkening to, the mystery of things,

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the universal, parabolic utterances; and (2) the turning the mystery and the parable into a cheerful song, the dark saying becoming, like the birds song in the covert of the night, a clear stream without sorrow and without care.

I. All Scripture itself is a dark saying on a harp. There is a Divine reticence in the Bible; there is an awful secretiveness. As the voices of music lift us to worlds beyond themselves, so, in an eminent sense, it is with Scripture. It is a manifold unity, like the universe in which we live; nor have we any difficulty in finding how what is suggested and what is revealed are alike a dark saying on the harp.

II. Man himself is a dark saying on a harp. He is himself a universe of being in which life, and nature, and grace seek to combine in music. Mans soul is written all over with dark sayings. "It pleased God to reveal His Son in me," said the Apostle. Then the handwriting flames round the chambers of the soul; until then the magnificent works of genius are aberrations and insanities; then the harp utters the word of light, and the dark saying on the soul flies before its tone.

III. Providence is a dark saying on a harp. The mysteries of Providence were as startling to David as they are to us, and this very Psalm recites and records them; it did not seem to be a world of highways to the Psalmist, and this is one of the great causes of grief and of the dark sayingsthe world and its sorrows. For the people of God the hour shall come when all dark sayings shall melt on the harp, and life shall no longer represent the burden, but only the bliss, of being.

E. Paxton Hood, Dark Sayings on a Harp, p. 1.

CALVIN, "4.I will incline my ear (214) to a parable The Hebrew word , mashal, (215) which I have translated parable, properly denotes a similitude; but it is often applied to any deep or weighty sayings, because these are generally embellished with figures and metaphors. The noun which follows, , chidoth (216) and which I have rendered an enigma, or riddle, is to be understood in nearly the same sense. In Ezekiel 17:2, we have both the nouns with their corresponding verbs joined together, , chud chedah umshol mashal, the literal translation being, Enigmatize an enigma, and parabolize a parable. I am aware that the reference in this place is to an allegorical discourse, but I have already adverted to the reason why, in Hebrew, the name of enigmas or similitudes is given to any remarkable or important sayings. The Psalmist, when he adds that he will open his dark saying, shows that nothing was farther from his intention than to wrap the subject of his discourse in perplexing and intricate obscurity. The truths of revelation are so high as to exceed our comprehension; but, at the same time, the Holy Spirit has accommodated them so far to our capacity, as to render all Scripture profitable for instruction. None can plead ignorance: for the deepest and most difficult doctrines are made plain to the most simple and unlettered of mankind. I see little force in the idea suggested by several interpreters, of the Psalmist having employed his harp, that he might render a subject in itself harsh and disagreeable more engaging by the charms of music. He would merely follow the usual practice of accompanying the psalm with the harp.

SPURGEON, "Ver. 4. I will incline mine ear to a parable. He who would have others hear, begins by hearing himself. As the minstrel leans his ear to his harp, so must the preacher give his whole soul to his ministry. The truth came to the psalmist as a parable, and he endeavoured to unriddle it for popular use; he

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would not leave the truth in obscurity, but he listened to its voice till he so well understood it as to be able to interpret and translate it into the common language of the multitude. Still of necessity it would remain a problem, and a dark saying to the unenlightened many, but this would not be the songster's fault, for, saith he, I will open my dark saying upon the harp. The writer was no mystic, delighting in deep and cloudy things, yet he was not afraid of the most profound topics; he tried to open the treasures of darkness, and to uplift pearls from the deep. To win attention he cast his proverbial philosophy into the form of song, and tuned his harp to the solemn tone of his subject. Let us gather round the minstrel of the King of kings, and hear the Psalm which first was led by the chief musician, as the chorus of the sons of Korah lifted up their voices in the temple.EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGSVer. 4. I will incline mine ear to a parable, i.e, I will diligently attend, that I may not sing anything ungracefully; a metaphor taken from musicians who bring their ear close to the harp, that they may ascertain the harmony of the sound. Victorinus Bythner.

COKE,"Psalms 49:4. I will incline mine ear to a parable, &c. Much of the eastern wisdom consisted in the understanding of parables, and in the interpretation of dark sayings or riddles: the mysterious cover to this kind of wisdom made it the most high-prized accomplishment; and here, when the Psalmist was to raise and engage the attention of his audience, he promises that he would speak of those things in which the highest wisdom was supposed to consist. He says, he will incline his ear to a parable, and will open his dark saying upon the harp: And indeed, it must be confessed, that in the composition of this psalm, he has made use of every art to render it worthy the subject. See Warburton's Divine Legation, and Numbers 21:27.I will incline or stoop mine ear, refers to the practice of musicians when they tune their instruments, stooping down and listening attentively to the sound.

ELLICOTT, "(4) I will incline mine ear.The psalmist first listens, that he may himself catch the inspiration which is to reach others through his song. It was an obvious metaphor in a nation to whom Gods voice was audible, as it was to Wordsworth, for whom nature had an audible voice:

The stars of midnight shall be dear

To her; and she shall lend her ear

In many a secret place,

Where rivulets dance their wayward round,

And beauty, born of murmuring sound,

Shall pass into her face.

Parable.Heb. mshal, root idea, similitude. It is the term used of Balaams prophecies, and of the eloquent speeches of Job. Hence here proverb-song

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(Ewald), since the psalmist intends his composition for musical accompaniment.

Dark saying.Either from a root meaning to tie, and so a knotty point; or to sharpen, and so a sharp, incisive saying. The LXX. and Vulgate have problem, proposition.

To open the riddle is not to solve it, but to propound it, as we say to open a discourse. (Comp. St. Pauls phrase, opening and alleging.) The full phrase is probably found in Proverbs 31:26, She openeth her mouth with wisdom.

WHEDON, "4. A parableA poem where similitude is used, and things profound and spiritual are made more clear by comparison with things objective and sensible.

Dark sayingThat which lies beyond the realm of sense, particularly revelations or oracles from God. Same as parables, just named.

Upon the harpThat is, poetically. In this form the bards of a people, in the earlier ages, often preserved important matter; (see an instance in Numbers 21:27;) but especially prophets and inspired men commonly delivered their messages in the diction, if not in the rhythm, of poetry.

EXPOSITORS DICTIONARY OF TEXTS, "Listening to God

Psalm 49:4

In this Psalm the subject is the great and dark problem of Divine providence. The Psalmist tells us in his introduction that he will open the dark saying, the riddle on the harp. He pierces through the surface of things to declare the utter vanity of life without God. He tells us frankly that it is not by argument he arrives at this certitude but by inspiration. He has listened to the wisdom that is from above, and so has truth to declare. This is the attitude of a true Teacher, that he is a Learner: opens his ear morning by morning to receive the right impressions. A great preacher used to say that in preaching the thing of least importance was the sermon. I suppose what he meant was that it is not what he says but himself that counts mostthe spiritual atmosphere he creates, the indefinable impression of earnestness and seriousness and conviction. In all prophetic speech there is a subtle spirit which communicates itself to disciples, and which the teacher himself will lose if he forgets his true attitude. It is not what we say, but the spirit of our saying it, and this is true in the final judgment not only of speech but of all life.

I. In the higher reaches of all truth a moment of insight is of more worth than a year of laborious learning. Certainly in religion no door is opened except to those who bend, who wait, who incline their ear. That is why the child is the type of the kingdom of heaven, the mind that is open to the daily lesson, that morning by morning receives its portion, that sweetly accepts the teaching of the Master. The secret of wisdom and power and knowledge is humility. The secret of influence is simplicity. We learn to speak the high language of the soul as a child learns.

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II. There is a moment which came to the prophets and to men called to exceptional work, a moment when the world has dissolved, when the earth has faded, and heaven has opened and reveals the eternal, a moment when in all the universe there seems nothing but God and the human soul. That moment altered the perspective of everything afterwards: they read everything in the light of that moment, and when in the future they were brought up against seemingly impassable difficulties and things that seemed irreconcilable with their faith they simply fell back on God. It is the old story, you say; a plea for faith. Yes, a plea for faith. But be sure you know what faith is before you dismiss it contemptuously. It is to have the ear of a learner, the heart of a child, to listen to the Father"s voice.

III. The highest truths are not reached by analysis. The deepest appeal is not made to logic but to imagination; not to intellect, but to heart. This is true not only in religion, but in everything. To know and love flowers is a simpler and higher thing than to understand the botany of flowers. And to know and love Christ is a simpler and higher thing than to understand Christology. Let us not kill the poet in us for the lack of listening and looking; the poet that dies so young in most of us. We do not find the deep truths of life, they find us. This is how the contemplative life breeds in men a richer Wisdom of Solomon , mellower, sweeter than all worldly activities however varied can achieve. Surrender is the first word and the last word in this process. That surrender is faith.Hugh Black.

BI, "I will open my dark saying upon the harp.

Dark sayings

Some minds are darker than a dark saying. Doubt is cloudland; and cloudland presupposes the existence of some degree of light. In complete darkness no cloud is perceived. The time at which a man begins to doubt is the critical point of life. Doubt in a young and inexperienced mind may develop into a demon of free thought. Much depends upon the way in which doubt is treated by the doubter himself, and by his advisers. Doubt is not a thing to be injudiciously dealt with. Take care how you open a dark saying. The dark saying is any question difficult to answer or hard to solve. Notice that David does not say, I will close up my dark sayingI will fold the serpent up in my bosom, and let it sting me. He says, I will open my dark saying. Often enough a mans peace of mind depends upon the way in which he opens his dark saying. Too often he has to open it himself, without sympathy or help from any one. It may save us some disappointment if we settle it as a general rule that a providential thing does not mean a pleasant thing. Tim ultimate end of Providence is the sanctification of the human heart, and it is not probable that God will sanctify us by letting us have our own way. We frequently apply the term Providence loosely. When we reap worldly advantage we say, It is quite providential. When trouble comes we omit the word. The opposite of this is true as a rule. Prosperity will never wean us from this world, but adversity may. When dark sayings trouble us, let us pray to the Father of lights that He may guide us into all truth. We are vexed and mystified by second causes, because we forget that He is the Great First Cause of all. His providence to us is like a piece of tapestry reversed. We see that a hand has been at work, but the threads are massed in confusion. In the day of account we shall see the other side. David further says upon the harp. Musical instruments are called

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instruments of God. It is to the Psalms, not to the Proverbs, that the heavy heart turns for consolation. Even when the harp hangs upon the willows, the spirit of song awakes in sympathy with the loved and lost. It was to the Psalms that the suffering Saviour turned in the hour and power of darkness. The introduction of the Gospel into Europe was marked by the strength of song. At midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God. Who shall say what resolutions, what ardent longings after purity, and peace, and truth, have been breathed into the souls of men by sacred song? In days when liberty of thought was choked by tyranny, when bigotry warped the understanding and suppressed the truth, what was there left to the people but the emotion of a song? The clark saying was opened upon the harp, and stray seeds of sanctity were germinated by the atmosphere of music, though sometimes it was but the music of some distant chime. By the power of song we are transported into a sphere where selfishness and worldliness have no part; a world where nothing defileth or maketh a lie. Man is the only creature who abuses the gift of sound. From him only comes the jarring note. He can only sing the new song in the world to come. (Henry J. Swallow.)

Dark sayings on a harp

My text points to two principles; first, there is the bowing before, and hearkening to, the mystery of thingsthe universal, parabolic utterances; and, second, the turning the mystery and the parable into a cheerful songthe dark saying becoming, like the birds song in the covert of the night, a clear stream, without sorrow and without care. Find the cheerful aspect of solemn things. See how sorrow is rounded by cheerfulness; hearken, and you will be able to give a cheerful response to the most solemn views of life. The greatest mystery of all art, perhaps, is music; the soul that leaps from the mere material chords and pipes, and, whilst it emanates from, plays upon the spirit of man. There is a mystery and a meaning in music we can never either expound or explore; and it is felt that those natures, which are the greatest burden and mystery to themselves, find most the solace of song in the combinations of all great sounds; we have known this, it is not always that in joyfulness of heart we sing. The girl oppressed by some great trial and loss, as she bends over her needle, or goes about her house-work, will sing, and, while she sings, finds unconsciously that her song has been her medicine, and has given to her relief. And something like this is a very general experience. Hence we have poetry for all cultured people, and hymns for holy people; and do we not know what it is to become happy while we sing? Good it is sometimes to utter the dark saying to the harp rather than to others; it composes, allays, and tranquillizes the mind while we utter it. Therefore, says David, I will open my dark saying upon the harp. David was a master of the harp, and we see, plainly enough, that to him life was full of dark sayings, uttered with more or less of clearness, coming upon him with more or less of gloom. His dark sayings are abundant. We have often thought together of that wonderful summary of holy genius, the Book of Psalms. He would seem to have given everything to his harp; everywhere, as in the words of the text before us, he was inclining his ear to a parable. To him, it would seem, nature was a great harp, framed, touched and moved by the finger of God, and every object became jubilant, and even prophetic.

I. All scripture itself is a dark saying on a harp. However you regard it, you must be amazed by its mysterious unity, not less by its mysterious murmursmurmurs as of a distant, infinite sea, or as in a forest we listen to the tones as of strange bells among the far-off boughs. There is a Divine reticence in the Bible; there is aa awful secretiveness. Oh! it is all parable; it is all dark saying! Vainly do I ever think I have exhausted any single word or meaning; it is inspiration and revelation throughout. It

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is a dark saying, for it is inspiration; it is uttered, for it is a revelation.

II. Man himself is a dark saying on a harp. He is himself a universe of being in which life, and nature and grace seek to combine in music. Consider thy nature: how strange that we should be made thus, strange the opposition between sin and conscience, even in the best of men; strange the contradiction between what man effects and what man is. Has not his history through all time been a dark saying? What is this creature we call man? Is he angel, or is he beast, or is he fiend? for there are things he has done which warrant all these translations, read simply from the sensual eye. And what a mistake the life of man seems! And sometimes, how his failures and his inner conflicts seem to boast of him as of a being built out of the pieces of the wreck of the fall.

III. And providence is a dark saying on a harp. The mysteries of Providence were as startling to David as they are to us, and the very psalm whence I take this text recites and records them; it did not seem to be a world of highways to the psalmist; and this is one of the great causes of grief and of the dark sayingsthe world and its sorrows. It is the cry, the incessant cry, Why hast thou made all men in vain? The world is full of dark sayings; it is hieroglyphic all, you feel the incongruity and the contradiction, but you have never felt it so clearly as the Bible has stated it, and especially the psalmists; they perpetuallyAsaph, David and otherssaw and uttered their sense of the solemn discords of this life. There is a picture I have often turned to look at in the chapel in one of the old palaces of France, and I have sometimes looked, as the dear dreamer said, till the water has found its way to my eyes; it is suspended over the altarit is the cloud of eternity, and the Ancient of Days is there, and the Lamb is there, and round the circle the harpers harping with their harpsevery one robed in white, and every brow bound with the crownkings and priests unto God and to the Lamb for ever; every eye fixed on the Lamb, as it had been slain, and every crowned form bearing a harp, and striking it to Him that hath loved. To them were given harps. Why, what does it mean? Oh, it tells how the lost life will regain and be restored to its unity. This is that harp, all the chords of the being one, and for ever one. Then, indeed, may we say, I will praise thee on the harp, O God, my God. (E. Paxton Hood.)

Mysteries set to music

I. The mystery of nature. John Stuart Mills arraignment of created things is too well known to be repeated. A more recent writer is Mr. Laing, who says in his Modern Science and Modern Thought, Is it true that love is creations finest law, when we find this enormous and apparently prodigal waste of life going on; these cruel internecine battles between individuals and species in the struggle for existence; this cynical indifference of nature to suffering? There are approximately 3,600 millions of deaths of human beings in every century, of whom at least 20 per cent., or 720 millions, die before they have attained to clear self-consciousness and conscience. What becomes of them? Why were they born? Axe they natures failures and cast as rubbish to the void? To such questions there is no answer. Perhaps it is wrong to say there is no answer, for considerations exist in plenty which tone down the harsher aspects of natures work. But when this is admitted there remains much that is enigmatical. Now, the effect of this mystery upon some minds is to drive them into pessimism; it is a mystery whose discord is for ever jarring on their ears. Not so with the man who walks by faith. He says, I believe in God, and instantly there is harmony. Nature has mysteries still, but they are set to music.

II. The mystery of suffering. Huxley says, If there is one thing plainer than another,

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it is that neither the pleasure nor the pains of life, in the merely animal world, are distributed according to desert, for it is admittedly impossible for the lower order of sentient beings to deserve either the one or the other. If there is a generalization from the facts of human life which has the assent of thoughtful men in every age and country it is that the violator of ethical rules constantly escapes the punishment he deserves; that the wicked flourishes like a green bay tree while the righteous begs his bread; that the sins of their fathers are visited upon the children; that in the realm of nature ignorance is punished just as severely as wilful wrong; and that thousands upon thousands of innocent beings suffer for the crime or unintentional trespass of one. (Evolution and Ethics, p. 12.)The professors statements are not cast in such a form as to be above challenge, but they may be taken as indicative of the attitude of many towards the problem of suffering. Broken law will explain much of the worlds woe, perhaps more than we are apt to imagine; and the educative influence of suffering is not far to seek. Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress. But after all there remains much that is mysterious; very often moral sequences seem to fail entirely, and the good man dies in his struggles to do right, whilst the prosperous sinner lives to satirize every sound principle of commercial morality. Hence we have the cynic in our midst, and the pessimist is always within shouting distance. But the man who discerns spiritual things after a spiritual manner can feel something more than hard and unexplainable facts in the problem of suffering. God is behind it, he says, and therefore all is well. The mystery has lost its bitterness; it is still a dark saying, but it is a dark saying upon the harp.

III. The mystery of death. Mr. Goldwin Smith looking at death and destruction in all grades of creation says, Our satellite, so far as we can see, is either a miscarriage or a wreck, and if omnipotence and benevolence are to meet it must apparently be at a point at present beyond our ken. Mr. Smith answers himself when he says, so far as we can see. Without God and immortality, the despair of the present generation is the most natural product of mental inquiry; the picture of blighted prospects and incompleted lives stricken down by the hand of death is enough to appal the stoutest heart. But in Christ all mysteries are set to music. It was the superior music of Orpheus which saved him from shipwreck on the sirens shore, and since hope springs eternal in the human breast, Christianity, as a gospel of glad tidings, will always play other tunes than the note of wailing and despair; in the future, as in the past, her better music will be the worlds salvation. (T. S. Knowlson.)

Mysteries set to music

In seeking to get instruction from the text, we may regard it broadly as inculcating the principle, that the dark problems of the world may be so understood, that instead of leading us to despair they become a source of light and hope and joy.

I. The problem of the divine existence. This is the first of all problemsthe earliest, the most necessary, the most irresistible. Primeval man long ago had to face it as we have to face it to-day. For the savage dwelling in the rude cave, or in the log-hut, reared on piles driven into the ground in the centre of a lonely lake, this was the principal theme of speculation, even as it is still the question which by its vastness wearies the strongest thought, and baffles the keenest insight. The first of all questions is, at the same time, the darkest. Interrogate Nature, and what is it that it tells you? It tells of a first cause, powerful, mighty and omnipotent. It points to a force that is infinite, a wisdom that is transcendent, and a will that is all-dominant. But it speaks of more than this. It speaks of a law that is invariable, relentless and cruel. It has its tale of pain, and suffering, and sorrow, and death. If it glories in the

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sunshine and the rain, it recounts with grief the story of the plague and the earthquake, and the unceasing strife of man, and beast, and earth, and sea, and sky. Over all there is the one necessity, for all there is the same struggle.

II. The problem of the world. How did the world come into being? Is it the result of chance, of fate, of a blind force working how and as it may? No millions of years, no unimaginable stretches of time, can bring the existent out of the non-existent, the intelligent out of the non-intelligent, the cosmos out of the chaos. How, then, can we open this dark saying of the worlds history on the harp? How can we set it to harmony and rhythm and music? There is one way only that I know. Behind the world there is a Divine Person; in the movements and the laws of the world there is a Divine will. All comes from God; all is under His care and governance.

III. The problem of mans life. Taken as he is, and apart from his relation to God, mans life is inexplicable. It is a contradiction, without meaning or purpose. There is in it the high and the low, the pure and the impure, the spiritual and the material. It is divided in interest; it is driven this way and that; and oftentimes it becomes the sport of a power and a fate that are too much for it. But, in the light of the Divine love, and the mediation of Jesus, this enigma of the human life becomes plain.

IV. The progress of humanity. Nation follows nation, kingdoms and dynasties rise and fall, and there seems to be no real progress. Civilizations are more or less relative. We in these last times, notwithstanding our marvellous modern science and discovery, are, in some respects, behind the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, and Romans, or even the Celts and the Scandinavians. Is there any progress then at all as the result of the conflict of the ages? Is life in the main stationary, or does it like a mighty wheel go round and round for ever? The key to this question can alone be found in Christianity. It has already infused new life into the nations, it has re.created their moral standards, and it has given them a pre-eminence which the old Pagan peoples never knew. It has done all this because it has set before men not only an infinite hope, but because it has supplied them with the motive and the power to realize it. It has given them a new ideal, it has also provided them with a new dynamic, or force, by which they can attain the ideal. We need have no fear for the future. Humanity, instead of having become effete and lived its day, is only setting out on the line of infinite progress that stretches before it. Much it has done in the past, much it has achieved in these modern times; but infinitely more will it yet achieve before its course is run. Physically, intellectually, morally, the race has still before it a boundless destiny. (R. Munro, B. D.)

The harp of the godly

I. Why are the words of godly life in scripture called dark sayings?

1. Because they are so far to seek. From the Creator, not the creature; from eternity, not from time.

2. Because they are so little known. The world disregards them.

3. Because they meet with so much repugnance. All the impulses of our depraved nature are averse and hostile to the wisdom that sanetifieth. Oh, how difficult to understand what opposes our hearts propensities!

II. Why are the details of providence in scripture called dark savings?

1. Because the specific designs of Providence are concealed. A man knows not whether in any enterprise, though he has scrutinized his motive and implored Divine direction, he is to fail or succeed. Through his failures may come his truest

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successes.

2. Because the aim of Providence is overlooked (Eph_3:1-21.; Joh_2:1-25.). We fix our eyes on outward things, and call prosperity and adversity after them. That is a bright Providence wherein these abound, and a dark one whereby these are smitten. Now God looks at our souls;their liberty from earthly fetters; their confidence in Divine support; their formation and sustenance of holy purpose; their culture and maturity of moral character.

3. Because the dispensations of Providence inflict pain and distress. What a dark passage leads to conversion!

III. Why may a Christian open these upon the harp?

1. Because God has put a harp into your hands. It would be ungrateful not to use this. Do you ask what this is? I reply, The Gospel in all its plenitude of mercy, remedy, promise, prospect.

2. Because your dark sayings are thus opened, i.e. they become clear and plain. Devotion illuminates the mind. While you are musing the fire kindles and burns.

3. Because every true prayer is a prophecy. The evils it deprecates will assuredly pass away. (W. Wheeler.)

5 Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers surround me

BARNES, "Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil - This verse is designed evidently to state the main subject of the psalm; the result of the reflections of the author on what had been to him a source of perplexity; on what had seemed to him to be a dark problem. He had evidently felt that there was occasion to dread the power of wicked rich men; but he now felt that he had no ground for that fear and alarm. He saw that their power was short-lived; that all the ability to injure, arising from their station and wealth, must soon cease; that his own highest interests could not be affected by anything which they could do. The days of evil here spoken of are the times which are referred to in the following phrase, when the iniquity of my heels, etc.

When the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about - It would be difficult to make any sense out of this expression, though it is substantially the same rendering which is found in the Vulgate and the Septuagint. Luther renders it when the iniquity of my oppressors encompasses me. The Chaldee Paraphrase renders it, why should I fear in the days of evil, unless it be when the guilt of my sin compasses me about? The Syriac renders it, the iniquity of my enemies. The Arabic, when my enemies surround me. DeWette renders it as Luther does. Rosenmuller, when the iniquity of those who lay snares against me shall compass me around. Prof.

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Alexander, when the iniquity of my oppressors (or supplanters) shall surround me.

The word rendered heels here - qb - means properly heel, Gen_3:15; Job_18:9; Jdg_5:22; then, the rear of an army, Jos_8:13; then, in the plural, footsteps, prints of the heel or foot, Psa_77:19; and then, according to Gesenius (Lexicon) a lier in wait, insidiator.

Perhaps there is in the word the idea of craft; of lying in wait; of taking the

advantages - from the verb qab, to be behind, to come from behind; and hence to supplant; to circumvent. So in Hos_12:3, in the womb he held his brother by the heel (compare Gen_25:26). Hence, the word is used as meaning to supplant; to circumvent, Gen_27:36; Jer_9:4 (Hebrew, Jer_9:3) This is, undoubtedly, the meaning here. The true idea is, when I am exposed to the crafts, the cunning, the tricks, of those who lie in wait for me; I am liable to be attacked suddenly, or to be taken unawares; but what have I to fear? The psalmist refers to the evil conduct of his enemies, as having given him alarm. They were rich and powerful. They endeavored in some way to supplant him - perhaps, as we should say, to trip him up - to overcome him by art, by power, by trick, or by fraud. He had been afraid of these powerful foes; but on a calm review of the whole matter, he came to the conclusion that he had really no cause for fear. The reasons for this he proceeds to state in the following part of the psalm.

CLARKE, "The iniquity of my heels - Perhaps akebai, which we translate

my heels, should be considered the contracted plural of akebim, supplanters. The verse would then read thus: Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, though the iniquity of my supplanters should compass me about. The Syriac and Arabic have taken a similar view of the passage: Why should I fear in the evil day, when the iniquity of my enemies compasses me about. And so Dr. Kennicott translates it.

GILL, "Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil,.... This is the principal thing that all are before called to hearken to. This is the wisdom and understanding the psalmist had been meditating upon, and was about to utter; this is the parable he inclined his ear to, and the dark saying he would open; namely, that a saint has nothing to fear in the worst of times; which is a riddle to a natural man. Aben Ezra interprets "the days of evil" of the days of old age, as they are called, Ecc_12:1, which bring on diseases, weakness, and death; in which a good man has no reason to fear; as that he should want the necessaries of life, since they that fear the Lord shall want no good thing; or that he should not hold out to the end, seeing God, who is the guide of youth, is the staff of old age, and carries to hoary hairs, and will never leave nor forsake; and though the wicked man in old age has reason to be afraid of death and eternity at hand, the saint has not; but may sing, on the borders of the grave, "O death! where is thy sting?" &c. 1Co_15:55. Also days in which iniquity abounds, and error and heresy prevail, are days of evil; and though the good man may fear he shall be led aside by the ill example of some, or by the craft of others; yet he need not, since the foundation of God stands sure, and he knows them that are his, and will take