Sermon 24
Psalm 119:23. Princes also did sit and speak against me: but your servant did meditate in your statutes.
This Psalm expresses David's affection to the word, as the result of all that experience which he had of the comfort and use of it. In the present verse two things: 1. David's trouble. 2. His remedy.
1. His trouble: Princes did sit and speak against me.
2. The remedy that he used: but your servant did meditate in your statutes.
First, the evil with which he was exercised; there are several circumstances produced by way of aggravation of his trouble:
1. Who — Princes also; his trial came not only from the contempt and reproach of base people, spoken of in the former verse; but from Princes also, by whom are meant Saul's courtiers and counselors.
2. How — did sit; not only when occasionally met together in private in their chambers, or at their tables; but when they sat in council, or when they sat together on the seat of judgment, they consulted to ruin him; or upon the throne (where nothing but just and holy should be expected) passed a judicial sentence against him.
3. What — did speak against me; it was not reproach only that troubled him; but the powers of the world gave false sentence against him: to be spoken of as an evil doer is a less temptation than to be condemned as a malefactor.
Secondly, his remedy; where observe,
1. The title he gives himself: but your servant; he speaks modestly of himself in the third person; and fitly does he say, Your servant. We owe duty to a higher Master, when they decree anything contrary to God's word.
2. His practice and exercise: did meditate on your statutes: this is spoken for two reasons:
1. That he was not discouraged by their opposition, but held to his duty; he was maligned for God's word's sake, and yet kept up his respect to the word of God, and never left meditating in it.
2. To show the way of his relief and cure under this trouble, by exercising himself in the word, which in the next verse he shows yielded him a double benefit: comfort and counsel.
1. It was of use to comfort him, and strengthen faith.
2. To direct him that he might keep within the bounds of true obedience; there being in the word of God both sweet promises, and a sure rule.
Observe (1.) from the evil with which he was exercised:
Doctrine. It is many times the lot of God's people, that Princes do sit and speak against them in councils, and upon the throne of judgment.
1. For consulting against them to their ruin. We have instances of a council gathered against Christ (John 11:47): Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man does many miracles. They meet together, and plot the ruin of Christ and his Kingdom; and they were those that were of chief authority in the place. Another instance (Acts 4:27-28): For of a truth against your holy Child Jesus whom you have anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your counsel determined before to be done. There is their agreement to put Christ to death. In the Old Testament Pharaoh and his nobles (Exodus 1:10): Come on, [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that when there falls out any war, they join also to our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. And against Daniel the princes of the Persian Empire consult how to entrap him in the matter of his God (Daniel 6:4-6, etc.).
2. For abusing the throne of judgment and civil courts of judicature, to the molestation of the saints. I shall cite but two places (Psalm 94:12): Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with you, which frames mischief by a law? It is no strange, but yet no small temptation, that the oppression of God's people is marked with a pretense and color of law and public authority, and the mischief should proceed from where it should be remedied, namely, from the seat of justice; so (Matthew 16:17-18), Christ foretells they shall have enemies armed with power and public authority: Beware of men, for they will deliver you to the councils, and they shall scourge you in their synagogues, and you shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake. Not only subordinate, but supreme governors may be drawn to condemn and oppress the godly. In so plain a case, more instances need not.
Reasons of it, on God's part, and on the part of the persecutors.
First, on God's part, he permits it,
1. To show that he can carry on his work, though authority be against him; and that his people do not subsist by outward force, but the goodness of his Providence, and so have the sole glory of their preservation. When the Christian religion came first abroad in the world, not many noble, nor many mighty were called; the powers of the world were against it, and yet it held up the head, and was dispersed far and near. Falsehoods need some outward interest to back them, and the supports of a secular arm; but God's interest does many times stand alone, though God does now and then make kings nursing fathers, and queens nursing-mothers, according to his promise (Isaiah 49:23). Oftentimes the Church is destitute of all worldly props (Micah 5:7): And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarries not for man, nor waits for the sons of men. Indeed, the power of the world is against it, and yet it subsists. Thus it was in the primitive times, there were only a handful of contemptible people that professed the Gospel; yet it got ground daily, not by force of arms, or the power of the long sword, but by God's secret blessing. Ambrose gives the reason why God suffered it to be so, Ne videretur authoritate traxisse aliquos, & veritatis ratio non pompae gratiâ praevaleret: lest this new religion should seem to be planted with power, rather than by its own evidence; and the authority of men should sway more with the world than the Truth of God. There is a wonderful increase, without any human concurrence, as the Lord says, The remnant of his people shall be as a dew from the Lord, that tarries not for man, nor waits for the sons of men. Without man's consent or concurrence. So that God alone has the glory of their preservation.
2. That the patience of his people may be put to the utmost probation. When they are exercised with all kinds of trials, not only the hatred of the vulgar, but the opposition of the magistrate, carried on under a form of legal procedure. In the primitive times sometimes the Christians were exposed to the hatred and fury of the people, Lapidibus nos invadit inimicum vulgus: at other times exposed to the injuries of laws, and persecutions carried on by authority against them. There was an uproar at Ephesus against the Christians (Acts 19), and there seemed to be a formal process at Jerusalem (Acts 4). This latter temptation seems to be the more sore and grievous, because God's ordinance, which is magistracy, is wrested to give countenance to malicious designs, and because it cuts off all means of human help, and so patience has [illegible] its perfect work (James 1:4). There are some who glory in suffering the rage and evil word of the vulgar, for they are supposed not to make the wisest choice; but when men of wisdom and power, and such as are clothed with the majesty of God's ordinance, are set against us, then is patience put to the utmost proof; and whether we regard God or man most, and who is the object of our fear, those that have power of life and death temporal, or him that has power of life and death eternal.
3. That his people may be weaned from fleshly dependencies, and doting upon civil powers, and so be driven to depend upon him alone. Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with you, which establish mischief by a law? they gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood. But the Lord is my defense, and my God is the rock of my refuge (Psalm 94:20-22). There would not be such use of faith and dependence upon God, if our danger were not great. It is harder to trust in God with means, than without means. We are beaten out when outward helps fail, otherwise we are apt to neglect God, and then a world of mischief ensues. When the Emperor of the Romans began to favor the Christians, poison was said to be poured into the Church; and in the sunshine of worldly countenance, like green timber they began to warp and cleave asunder; and what religion gained in breadth, it lost in strength and vigor. God's people never live up to the beauty and majesty of their principles so much, as when they are forced immediately to live upon God, and depend upon him for their safety.
4. That their testimony and witness-bearing to God's truths, may be the more public and authentic in the view of the world. This testimony is either to them for their conviction and conversion (Matthew 24:14): And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness to all nations; or against them (Mark 10:18): And you shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. It is for a testimony, and that should comfort them in all their sufferings (Mark 14:9): Verily I say to you, wherever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she has done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. The testimony is more valid, as being confirmed by their courage in troubles; they are principles that they will suffer for; which as it is a warning to the professors of religion that they should own no principles in a time of peace but what they would confirm by their avowed testimony in the extremity of trials; so also it should convince their enemies in case they be put upon this exercise. It is needful that every truth should have a sealed testimony; that is, we should not only vent opinions, but be willing to suffer for them if God should call us out so to do. God has been ever tender of imposing upon the world without sufficient evidence; and therefore would not have his people stand upon their lives and temporal concerns, that thereby they may give greater satisfaction to the world concerning the weight of those truths which they do profess.
Secondly, on the persecutors' part, or the persons molesting; so the causes are:
1. Their ignorance and blind zeal (John 16:2): They shall put you out of their synagogues: indeed the time comes, that whoever kills you, will think that they do God good service. They think it to be an acceptable service to God to molest and trouble those that are indeed his people. Those princes that sat and spoke against David, were not pagans and men of another religion, but of Israel; and it is often the lot of God's people to be persecuted not only by pagans and openly profane men, but even by men that profess the true religion, pseudo-Christians (Revelation 14:13), those that pretend they are for God and his cause, and seem to be carried on with a great zeal, and do not oppose truth as truth, but their quarrel is colored by specious pretenses.
2. Their prejudices lightly taken up against the people of God. Satan is first a liar and then a murderer (John 8:44): You are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father you will do: he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him: when he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar, and the father of it. By lies he brings about his bloody design. Christ was first called a Samaritan, and one that had a devil; and then they did persecute him as such an one. And as was observed before, as Christians of old were covered with the skins of wild beasts, that dogs and lions might tear them the more speedily; so by odious imputations God's people are brought into distaste with the world, and then molested and troubled, represented as a company of hypocrites and unjust dealers; and under that cloak, true religion is undermined. Now in the persecutor this is faulty, because they lightly take up every false suggestion, and so Christians are condemned [illegible], as Justin Martyr complained, because of the common reproach, without any distinct inquiry into their way and practice, Nolunt audire quod auditum damnare non possunt.
3. Their erroneous principle in civil policy: that Christ's kingdom and the freedom of his worshippers is not consistent with civil interests. Whatever has been the matter, worldly rulers have been jealous of Christ's interest and kingdom, as if it could not consist with public safety, and the civil interests of that state and nation where it is admitted; and suggestions of this kind do easily prevail with them. Esther 3:8: It is not for the king's profit to suffer them. And John 11:48: If we let him alone, all men will believe on him, and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. Reason of state is an ancient plea against the interest of religion. In the Roman Empire, though the Christians were inconsiderable as to any public charge, yet they had a jealous eye upon them; Justin Martyr shows the reason of it, 〈in non-Latin alphabet〉, because they were often speaking of a kingdom, though they meant it of the kingdom of heaven, and were far enough from all rebellion.
USE 1. It informs us that we should not measure the verity of religion by the greatness of those that are with it or against it. This was one of the Pharisees' arguments, Do any of the rulers believe in him? (John 7:48) but this people that know not the law, are accursed. Alas! men of authority and great place may be often against God's interest (James 2:1): Have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, in respect of persons. Mark that title that is given to Christ, the Lord of glory; he is able to put glory enough upon his worshippers, though they have nothing of outward pomp and splendor, and not many mighty are called (1 Corinthians 1:26). Many will say they have none of quality to join with them, none but ignorant people: if a man had judged so in the first times, when the Gospel came first abroad in the world, would not Christianity itself have seemed a very contemptible thing? Therefore a simple plain-hearted love to Christ and his truth, whether powers be averse or friendly, is that which is required of us.
2. It reproves those who are soon discouraged even with the reproach which base people cast upon the ways of God. David stood both in the one temptation and in the other, the reproach and contempt of the vulgar, and also when princes sat and spoke against him. But to these we may say as (Jeremiah 12:5): If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how will you contend with horses? If we be such tender milk-sops that we cannot suffer a disgraceful word from the basest of the people, what shall we do when we meet with other manner of conflicts and oppositions in the farther progress of our duty to God? If we are tired out with the disgrace and affronts of these mean ones, and cannot put up a scornful word at their hands without disorder, what shall we do when we are to contest for God's interest with those great and masterly ones that are armed with power and authority, and it may be the advantage of laws against us? Scommata nostra ferre non potes (said the Antiochians to Julian in another case) quomodo feres Persarum tela? God's servants do often receive discouragement from the people, and from authority; but the goodness of their cause, and the favor of God, makes them joyfully persevere.
3. It teaches us what to do when this is not our case. I have treated (as this Scripture has led me) of the oppositions of princes and worldly powers against the people of God; it may be you may judge it unseasonable; but how soon it may be seasonable, you cannot tell, considering the spirit of enmity against the power of godliness. Blessed be God that it is not so seasonable now. But what use shall we now make of it?
1. To bless God when he gives religious rulers, and such as are well affected to religion. It is a fulfilling of his promise (Isaiah 49:23): And kings shall be your nursing-fathers, and queens your nursing-mothers. God's interest in the world is usually weak, and his people like little children had need to be nursed up by the countenance and defense of worldly potentates. Now when they discharge their duty, and do afford patronage and protection, it should be acknowledged to God's glory, in whose hands their hearts are; and the rather by us, because of the iron yoke that was upon us, and those hard task-masters under which we formerly groaned. We have our own discontents, as well as former ages; but because all things are not as we could wish them, shall we be thankful for none? The liberty of religion is such a blessing as we cannot enough acknowledge, and does sufficiently countervail other inconveniences: Oh therefore let us not sour our spirits into an ungrateful frame, by dwelling too much upon our discontents and private dissatisfactions; it is a mercy that the sword of authority is not drawn against religion. When God means good or evil to a nation, he usually dispenses it by their magistrates: if good, then he puts wisdom and grace into the hearts of those that govern, or government into the hands of those that are wise and gracious. When he means evil, he sends them evil magistrates. (Isaiah 19:4): The Egyptians will I give over into the hands of a cruel lord, and a fierce king shall rule over them. But when good governors, it is a mercy, and a presage of good.
2. To pity those whose case it is that princes sit and speak against them, as it is of many of the people of God now in the world. When we suffer not by immediate and direct passion, we should suffer by way of fellow-feeling and compassion. It is charged as a great crime, that those that were at ease in Zion, were not grieved for the afflictions of Joseph (Amos 6:6), compared with the first verse. It may be used proverbially, as the butler forgot Joseph when he was well at court; and his brothers did eat bread, and little regard the afflictions of his soul when cast into the pit. But I suppose them literally, because the half tribe of Manasseh was carried captive by Tiglath Pileser, that they did not sympathize with them, propter confractionem Ioseph, for the breach made upon Joseph. God lays affliction upon some of his people, to try the sympathy of others, as on Protestants in Poland, the Emperor's dominions, Savoy, some parts of France, and elsewhere.
3. To be the more strict and holy, and improve this good day of the church's peace. They that are not holy in a time of peace, will not be holy and constant in a time of trouble (Acts 9:33). When the churches had rest, they walked in the fear of God, and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost. When we are not called to passive obedience and suffering, our active obedience should be the more cheerfully performed. Now where is it so? Our fathers suffered more willingly for Christ, than we speak of him. Our inward peace and comfort will cost us more in getting, and therefore we should be the more in service. Oh let us not abuse this rest we have, to the neglect of God, or to vain contentions, as green timber warps and breaks in the sunshine. The contentions of the pastors (says Eusebius) did usher in the trouble, which was Diocletian's Persecution.
4. Here is a caution, and a word of counsel to the princes of the nations, or the heads of the people, that now are met together, and sit in council; oh do not sit and speak against such as are God's people; that is, do not decree anything against them. Some would have the magistrate to do nothing in religion; but that would leave things at a strange loose and disorder; certainly you should at least provide for the liberties of God's people, that they should lead a quiet life in godliness and honesty (1 Timothy 2:2), that they may be secured, and the peace kept, not only as to their civil interests, but while they worship God according to their conscience, which can never be as long as those swarms of libertines are publicly tolerated, which every day increase in number, power, and malice. And again, the great security of magistrates lies in an oath of fealty, which only receives value from religion; therefore the magistrate is concerned in what religion is professed in a nation, as well as in things civil. But now while you interpose in religion, be sure you do not contradict or undermine God's interest; and be not courted by any prepossessions of your own, or the crafty insinuations of others, to oppress by your sentence and suffrage, those that fear God in the land, and do make conscience of their ways. The magistrate's interposing in religion, is to me an unquestionable duty, and yet to be managed with great caution. Psalm 2:10 says: Be wise now therefore, O you kings, and be instructed you judges of the earth. What by natural prejudices against the strict and more severe ways of godliness, what by private whispers and subtle disguises, men may be tempted to oppose Christ's kingdom, cause, and people; therefore they should be wary, as they would be faithful in their places, and love their own souls, to go upon sure clear grounds. You are to promote Christ's service, otherwise you will be answerable for your neglect; and yet you are to take heed, lest while you think you do God service, you subvert not his interest, and so you be answerable for your mistake. To deal more particularly, would be a diversion; I only intend it as a warning, and to show you the necessity of consulting with those who are best able to judge in the case where your duty lies.
2. David's remedy: But your servant did meditate in your statutes.
Doctrine: The best way to ease the heart from trouble that does arise from the opposition of men of power and place, is by serious consulting with God's word.
Because the time will not bear a large prosecution, I shall open the force of this clause in three propositions.
1. A holy diversion is the best way to ease the trouble of our thoughts. Certainly it is not good altogether to pore upon our sorrows; a diversion is a prudent course. David did not merely sit down and bemoan the calamity of his condition, and so sink under the burden, but runs to the word. As husbandmen when their ground is overflowed by waters, make ditches and water furrows to carry it away; so when our minds and thoughts are overwhelmed with trouble, it is good to divert them to some other matter. But every diversion will not become saints, it must be a holy diversion (Psalm 94:19): In the multitude of my thoughts within me, your comforts delight my soul. The case was the same with that of the text, when the throne of iniquity frames mischief by a law; as you shall see here, when he had many perplexed thoughts about the abuse of power against himself. But now where lay his ease in diversion? Would every diversion suit his purpose? No; your comforts, of God's allowance, of God's providing, comforts proper to saints. Wicked men in trouble run to their pot and pipe, and games and sports, and merry company, and so defeat the providence rather than improve it; but David, who was God's servant, must have God's comforts. So elsewhere, when his thoughts were troubled about the power of the wicked, I went into the sanctuary, there I understood their end (Psalm 73:17). He goes to divert his mind by the use of God's ordinances, and so came to be settled against the temptation.
2. Among all sorts of holy diversions, none is of such use as God's word. There is matter enough to take up our thoughts, and allay our cares and fears, and to swallow up our sorrows and griefs, to direct us in all straits. In brief, there is comfort there, and counsel there.
1. Comfort, while the word teaches us to look off from men to God, from providence to the covenant, from things temporal to things eternal, from men to God: as Moses feared not the wrath of the King, when he saw him that is invisible (Hebrews 11:27). And (Ecclesiastes 5:8): If you see the oppression of the poor, and violent perversion of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter; for he that is higher than the highest, regards; and there be higher than they. There is a higher Judge that sits in heaven; and if he pass sentence for us when they pass sentence against us, we need to be the less troubled: if he give us the pardon of sins, and the testimony of a good conscience, it is no matter what men say against us. (Psalm 40:4) Blessed is the man that makes the Lord his trust, and respects not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. Is not God able to bear you out in his work? From providence to the covenant: providence is a very riddle, we shall not know what to make of it, till we gather principles of faith from the covenant (Hebrews 13:5): He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. God over-rules all for good (Romans 8:28): We know that all things work together for good to those that love God, to those that are the called according to his purpose. From things temporal to eternal (2 Corinthians 4:17-18): For our light affliction that is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen, are eternal. (Romans 8:18) For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us. A feather or a straw against a talent — a man would be ashamed to compare them together.
2. For counsel: a Christian should not be troubled so much about what he should suffer, as what he should do, that he may do nothing unseemly to his calling and hopes, but be kept blameless to the heavenly kingdom. Now the word of God will teach him how to carry himself in dangers, to pray for persecutors (fire is not quenched with fire, nor evil overcome with evil); how to keep ourselves from unlawful shifts and means, how to avoid revenge, lying, flattering, yielding against conscience, or growing weary of well-doing; that we may not fight against Satan or his instruments by their own weapons, for so we shall be easily overcome. The wicked shall not be so wise to contrive the mischief, as a saint instructed by the word, is how to carry himself under it. (Psalm 119:98) Through your commandments you have made me wiser than my enemies. Malice and policy shall not teach them to persecute, as God's word to carry yourselves in the trouble.
3. The word must not be slightly read, but our hearts must be exercised in the meditation of it. A cursory reading does not work upon us so much as serious thoughts. In all studies, meditation is both the mother and nurse of knowledge, and so it is of godliness; without which, we do but know truths by rote, and hearsay, and talk one after another like parrots; but when a truth is chafed into the heart by deep inculcative thoughts, then it works with us, and we feel the power of it. Musing makes the fire burn, ponderous thoughts are the bellows that blow it up. Eggs come to be quickened by brooding upon them. In a sanctified heart the seeds of comfort by meditation come to maturity; by constant meditation our affections are quickened, this turns the promises into marrow (Psalm 63:5-6): My soul shall be filled as with marrow and fatness, when I meditate on you in the night-watches. It gives more than a vanishing taste which hypocrites have.
USE 1. In all your troubles learn this method, to cure them by gracious means, prayer or meditation. By meditation on the word of God, that will tell you that we are born to trouble, and therefore we should no more think strange to see God's children molested here, than to see a shower of rain fall after a sunshine, or that the night should succeed the day (1 Peter 4:12): Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial, as though some strange thing happened to you. It were strange if otherwise: as if a man were told that his journey lay through a rough stony country, and should pass over a smooth carpet-way. Our way-mark is many tribulations (Acts 14:22): Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of Heaven. God had one Son without sin, none without the cross.
2. That afflictions, though in themselves they are legal punishments, fruits of sin, yet by the grace of God they are medicinal to his people (1 Corinthians 11:32): When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
3. We never advance more in Christianity, than under the cross (Hebrews 12:10): They verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. (Psalm 119:71) It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.
4. Rather undergo the greatest calamities, than commit the smallest sin (Hebrews 11:25): Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
5. That all crosses are nothing to desertions of God, and terrors of conscience (Proverbs 18:14): The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmities: but a wounded spirit who can bear?
6. That a meek suffering conduces much to God's glory (1 Peter 4:14): If you are reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you: for the Spirit of Glory and of God rests upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified: while you do nothing unworthy of his presence in you, and the truth you profess.
