48443 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
How long shall I take counsel in my soul,.... Or "put it" (s); to take counsel of good men and faithful friends, in matters of moment and difficulty, is safe and right; and it is best of all to take counsel of God, who is wonderful in it, and guides his people with it; but nothing is worse than for a man to take counsel of his own heart, or only...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Consider [and] hear me, O Lord my God,.... The psalmist amidst all his distresses rightly applies to God by prayer, claims his interest in him as his covenant God, which still continued notwithstanding all his darkness, desertions, and afflictions; and entreats him to "consider" his affliction and trouble, and deliver him out of it; to consider...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; When it is dark, very dark, we get drowsy. Sorrow induces sleep. Remember how the Saviour found the disciples sleeping for sorrow. Therefore David asks for light. Light will help him to keep awake, and he fears to sleep, so he prays, “Lighten mine eyes, lest I...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him,.... Which is an argument God takes notice of; and for which reason he does not give up his people into the hands of their enemies; see Deuteronomy 32:27. The Chaldee paraphrase interprets this of the evil imagination or corruption of nature, and represents it as a person, as the Apostle Paul does...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and these that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. But what a precious “but” this is! You can hear the chain rattle as the anchor goes down to hold the vessel.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But I have trusted in thy mercy,.... The faith, hope, and comfort of the psalmist grew and increased by prayer; from complaining he goes to praying, from praying to believing; he trusted not in himself, not in his own heart, nor in his own righteousness and merits, but in the mercy of God; and not in the bare absolute mercy of God, but in the...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the LORD, because he hath dealt bountifully with me. What a climb there is, in this Psalm, from the abyss of sorrow up to the summit of joy! “I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me.” I hope many of us know what this blessed change...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
I will sing unto the Lord,.... In prayer faith is encouraged, through believing the heart is filled with joy; and this joy is expressed by the lips, in songs of praise to the Lord, ascribing the glory of salvation to him, and giving him thanks for every mercy and blessing of life; because he hath dealt bountifully with me; both in a way of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Psalms 14 To the chief Musician, [a Psalm] of David. The argument of this psalm, according to Theodoret, is Sennacherib's invasion of Judea, when he sent Rabshakeh to Hezekiah, with menaces and curses; upon which Hezekiah implored divine help, and obtained it, and the Assyrian army was destroyed by an angel; of all which he thinks...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The fool hath said in his heart,.... This is to be understood not of a single individual person, as Nabal, which is the word here used; nor of some Gentile king, as Sennacherib, or Rabshakeh his general, as Theodoret; nor of Nebuchadnezzar, nor of Titus, as some Jewish writers (y) interpret it, making one to be here intended, and the other in the...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
It does not appear upon what occasion this psalm was penned nor whether upon any particular occasion. Some say David penned it when Saul persecuted him; others, when Absalom rebelled against him. But they are mere conjectures, which have not certainty enough to warrant us to expound the psalm by them. The apostle, in quoting part of this psalm...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. He was a fool to think it. He was not fool enough, however, to say it except in his heart. Fools have grown more brazen-faced of late; for now, they not only say it in their heart, but they say with their tongues, “There is no God.” Oh, no; I have made a mistake! They do not call them “fools” now;...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
They have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. David represents God looking from the battlements of heaven upon our fallen humanity; and at the time when he looked, he could see none that understood him, or sought...
Spurgeon - Treasury of David - Charles H. Spurgeon
Ver. 1. The fool. The Atheist is the fool preeminently, and a fool universally. He would not deny God if he were not a fool by nature, and having denied God it is no marvel that he becomes a fool in practice. Sin is always folly, and as it is the height of sin to attack the very existence of the Most High, so it is also the greatest imaginable...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men,.... As he did when all flesh had corrupted its way, and before he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, Genesis 6:12. This is said in direct opposition to the atheistic thoughts and reasonings of wicked men, in Psalms 14:1. There is a God, and he takes notice of the children of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
They are all gone aside,.... As bankrupts, having run out their whole stock, and into debt, and have nothing to pay, nor make composition with, and are obliged to abscond, as Adam, Genesis 3:8. The words in Psalms 53:3 are, "everyone of them is gone back"; from God; have revolted from him, and turned their backs upon him, and have gone back from...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. “That was in old Testament times,” says one. If you turn to the Epistle to the Romans, you will find that Paul quotes it as being true in his day. It is always true, and it always will be true, apart from the grace of God: “There is none that...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge?.... Of the being of God, of the nature of sin, and of the punishment due unto it? This question is put either by way of admiration, as Kimchi and Aben Ezra observe; the psalmist, or rather God speaking after the manner of men, wondering that there should be such ignorance and stupidity among men, as...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Are they all so foolish? Psa_14:4. Who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD. They think nothing of God’s people. They could swallow them at a mouthful, they so despise them. Notice, that, whenever a man despises God, he soon despises God’s people; it is only natural that he...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
There were they in great fear,.... This, shows that they had some knowledge of God, and consciousness of guilt, which they endeavoured to banish out of their minds by their fears of punishment; and these fears men of the most atheistic principles cannot get rid of. In Psalms 53:5 it is added, "where no fear was": that is, any cause or reason for...