Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings (part 2 of 2)

Verse 35.—We see no force in the observation of Dr. Duns; in fact, if there were not other reasons for preferring the translation given in the following note by Wilson, we should see all the more reason to keep to the bay tree. It was a tree of permanence and of long-continued verdure, and so the prosperous wicked seem to be. They look as if their happiness would be eternal; yet, for all that, those who carefully note the dealings of providence observe with holy wonder that divine justice cuts short their glory, and they perish utterly.—C. H. S.

“I have seen the wicked in great power (terrible, fierce, violent), and spreading himself like a green bay tree” (a tree in its native soil, vigorous, and luxuriant, that had never been transplanted). A striking figure of the ungodly man of the world, firmly rooted in earthly things—his native soil, grown proud and wanton in his prosperity, without fear or apprehension of any reverse.—William Wilson.

Verse 35.—“Like a green bay tree,” which produceth all leaves and no fruit.—Matthew Henry.

Verse 35.—“I have seen the wicked,” saith David, “in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay-tree.” And why like a green bay-tree? Because in the winter, when all other trees—as the vine-tree, fig-tree, apple-tree, &c., which are more profitable trees—are withered and naked, yet the bay-tree continueth as green in the winter as the summer. So fareth it with wicked men: when the children of God, in the storms of persecutions, and afflictions, and miseries, seem withered, and, as it were, dead, yet the wicked all that time flourish, and do appear green in the eyes of the world: they wallow in worldly wealth, but it is for their destruction; they wax fat, but it is for the day of slaughter. It was the case of Hophni and Phinehas: the Lord gave them enough and suffered them to go on and prosper in their wickedness; but what was the reason? Because he would destroy them.—J. Gore’s Sermon at St. Paul’s, 1633.

Verses 35, 36.—

——“To-day he puts forth The tender leaves of hopes, to-morrow blossoms, And bears his blushing honours thick upon him: The third day comes a frost, a killing frost; And—when he thinks, good easy man, full surely His greatness is a ripening—nips his root, And then he falls, as I do.”

William Shakspeare, in Henry VIII.

Verses 36, 37.—The hawk flies high, and is as highly prized, being set upon a perch, vervelled with the gingling bells of encouragement, and carried on his master’s fist; but being once dead and picked over the perch, is cast upon the dunghill as good for nothing. The hen scrapes in the dust, not anything rewarded when she is alive, but being dead, is brought as a choice dish to her master’s table. Thus wicked men are commonly set in high places, and prosper in this life; and good men lie grovelling with their mouths in the dust, as the very underlings of the world; but being once dead, the one is cast into the dungeon of hell, the other advanced to the kingdom of heaven: the one is into Abraham’s bosom, whilst the other is tormented with the devil and his angels.—Thomas Westfield, D.D., 1644.

Verse 37.—“Mark ... and behold.” Herodotus maketh mention of a custom among the Ethiopians to set the dead bodies of their friends in glazed sepulchres, that their proportions might be obvious to the passengers. How needless soever that custom was, ’tis doubtless no more than just that the pious lineaments of their minds who die in the Lord should be presented to the living in the mirrour of art. Indeed, commendation after death is the tribute of a religious life. Good works are jewels not to be locked up in a cabinet, but to be set forth to public view. If Christ would have Mary’s name remembered in the gospel until the world’s end for one box of ointment poured on his head, we cannot imagine that he would have the many pious and charitable deeds of his servants to be buried in oblivion. Consult the Scriptures, and you shall scarce find any godly man laid in his grave without an epitaph of honour. View the fathers, and you shall observe it their practice to honour the death of the good by giving them their deserved praises.—Nathanael Hardy.

Verse 37.—“The perfect man,” etc.—Divines well distinguish of a double perfection, it is absoluta or comparata. That is absolutely perfect, to which nothing (that may be accounted truly good) is wanting; and thus He only is perfectus who is infactus; God, who made all things, and himself is not made, only enjoying an all-sufficient perfection, in and of himself. That is comparatively perfect, in which, notwithstanding some wants, there is a fulness compared with others. Thus every saint is perfect in comparison of the wicked among whom he liveth. In this respect it is said of Noah, “That he was a perfect man in his generations;” his grace compared with the wickedness of the old world well deserving the name of perfection; indeed every upright man is perfect in comparison of them who are openly bad, or but openly good; stained with wickedness, or but painted with holiness. Thus one saint may be perfect if compared with another, the strong Christian in respect of the weak, whom he outstrips in grace and piety: such saints Paul means when he saith, “We speak wisdom among them that are perfect;” that is, such as have attained to greater measures of grace than others. It was said of Benaiah, “He was more honourable than thirty, but he attained not to the first three;” and though no saint can ever attain to the perfections of the first three, the blessed Trinity, yet many saints may be honourable amongst thirty perfect in comparison of those among whom they live.

We must further distinguish of a double perfection, it is extrinseca and intrinseca. Extrinsical perfection so called, because by imputation, is that which every believer is partaker of through the perfect righteousness of Christ, whereby all his imperfections are covered; in this respect the author to the Hebrews tells us, “That by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified;” and S. Paul tells the Colossians that they were “complete in him,” meaning Christ. Indeed omnia Dei mandata tunc facta deputantur, quando id quod non fit ignoscitur: divine commands are then in God’s account fulfilled when our defects for Christ’s sake are pardoned; and the evangelical perfection of a Christian consists not in perfectione virtutum, sed remissione vitiorum, in the completion of our graces, but remission of our sins.

Intrinsical perfection, so called because by inhæsion, is no less rationally than usually thus distinguished, there is perfectio partium et graduum. He is said to be perfect, cui nihil deest eorum quæ ad statum salutis necessaria, who wants no graces that accompany salvation; or he is perfect, cui nihil deest in gradibus gratiarum et virtutum; who is not defective in the measures of those graces; both these are frequently and fitly illustrated by the resemblance of a child, and a grown man; the one whereof hath all the essential and integral parts of a man, the other a complete use and measure of those parts.—Nathanael Hardy.

Verse 37.—“The end.” All wise men affect the conclusion to be best: to ride two or three miles of fair way, and to have a hundred deep and foul ones to pass afterward is uncomfortable; especially when the end is worse than the way. But let the beginning be troublesome, the progress somewhat more easy, and the journey’s end happy, and there is fair amends. “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.” Mark him in the setting out, he hath many oppositions; mark him in the journey, he is full of tribulations; but mark in the conclusion, and the end of that man is peace.—Thomas Adams.

Verse 37.—“The end of that man is peace.” Give me leave to determine what it is to end or die in peace. To end in peace with Euthymius, is to end in pace cogitationis, in peace of mind as it is opposed to doubting. To end in peace with Cyprian, is to end in pace securilatis, in peace of security, as it is opposed to final falling. To end in peace with Origen, is to end in pace conscientiæ, in peace of conscience as it is opposed to despairing. To end in peace with old Irenæus, is to end in pace mortis, in the peace of death as it is opposed to labouring. Again, to end in peace, is to end in pace Dei, in the peace of God which passeth all understanding, i.e., far beyond men’s apprehensions. To end in peace, is to end in pace proximi, in peace with our neighbours, i.e., when no outcries or exclamations follow us. And lastly, to end in peace, is to end in pace sui, in peace with ourselves, i.e., when no distractions or perturbations of mind molest us.—Richard Parre.

Verse 37.—The text may be divided into these two parts. Here is, 1. The godly man’s property; and 2. The godly man’s privilege. His property is perfection; his privilege is peace. Here is the saint’s character and the saint’s crown: he is characterised by uprightness or sincerity, and crowned with peace. Here is the Christian’s way and his end, his motion, and his rest. His way is holiness, his end happiness; his motion is towards perfection and in uprightness; his rest is peace at his journey’s end.—John Whitlock, in a Funeral Sermon entitled, “The Upright Man and his Happy End,” 1658.

Verse 37.—Time would fail me to tell how Christians die, nor can anything save the pen of the recording angel who has stood by their bed of death and borne them to Abraham’s bosom, narrate the unnumbered instances of their delightful departure from the present world, which verify the truth of the Bible. “I could never have believed,” said a dying saint, “that it was so delightful a thing to die, or that it was possible to have such views of the heavenly world as I now enjoy.” The memorable Melancthon, just before he died, chanted in his sleep the words, “I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” He seemed restless, and on being asked by one near him, “Whether there were anything more that he desired?” replied, Aliud nihil nisi cœlum—nothing more, unless it be heaven.—Gardiner Spring.

Verse 37.—To die well be sure to live well; we must not think to have Lazarus’s death, and Dives’s life; like him in Plutarch that would live with Crœsus, as he said, but he would die with Socrates. No, Balaam’s wishes are foolish and fruitless: if you would die well, Christians, you must have a care to live well: qualis vita, finis ita, if you would die quietly, you must live strictly; if you would die comfortably, you must live comformably; if you would die happily, you must live holily. “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace.”—John Kitchin, M.A., 1660.

Verse 38.—“The end of the wicked shall be cut off.” The wicked in this world do easily run up without rub or interruption, many times with acclamations and applause, all the golden steps of honours and preferments; but upon the highest stair they find the most slippery standing, and the top of their earthly felicity is the most immediate and certain descent unto the greatest downfall. They are royally mounted here upon earth, and gallop swiftly over the fair and green plains of plenty and pleasures; but at the end of their race they are overturned horse and man, and tumbled headlong into the pit of destruction. They fairly glide over the sea of this world with full sail, with much calmness and serenity, and richly laden; but in the brightest sunshine, and when they least suspect it, they suddenly and without recovery, sink into the gulf of darkness and desolation.—Robert Bolton.

Verse 40.—“And the Lord shall help them.” He shall, he shall, he shall. Oh, the rhetoric of God! the safety of the saints! the certainty of the promises!—John Trapp.

Luther closes his Exposition of the Psalm with the words, Oh, shame on our faithlessness, mistrust, and vile unbelief, that we do not believe such rich, powerful, consolatory, declarations of God, and take up so readily with little grounds of offence, whenever we but hear the wicked speeches of the ungodly. Help, O God, that we may once attain to right faith. Amen.