Psa 140:6-8 | TDavid | STEP | EXPOSITION Verse 6 . I said unto the LORD, Thou art my God. Here was David's stay and hope. He was assured that Jehovah was his God, he expressed that assurance, and he expressed it before Jehovah himself. That had need be a good and full assurance which a man dares to lay before the face of the heart searching Lord. The Psalmist when hunted by man, addressed himself to God. Often the less we say to our foes, and the more we say to our best Friend the better it will fare with us: if we say anything, let it be said unto the Lord. David rejoiced in the fact that he had already said that Jehovah was his God: he was content to have committed himself, he had no wish to draw back. The Lord was David's own by deliberate choice, to which he again sets his seal with delight. The wicked reject God, but the righteous receive him as their own, their treasure, their pleasure, their light and delight. Hear the voice of my supplications, O LORD. Since thou art mine, I pray thee hear my cries. We cannot ask this favour of another man's god, but we may seek it from our own God. The prayers of saints have a voice in them; they are expressive pleadings even when they sound like inarticulate moanings. The Lord can discern a voice in our waitings, and he can and will hearken thereto. Because he is God he can hear us; because he is our God he will hear us. So long as the Lord doth but hear us we are content: the answer may be according to his own will, but we do entreat to be heard: a soul in distress is grateful to any one who will be kind and patient enough to hearken to its tale, but specially is it thankful for an audience with Jehovah. The more we consider his greatness and our insignificance, his wisdom and our folly, the more shall we be filled with praise when the Lord attends unto our cry. EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS Verse 6 . The voice of my supplications . The one safety for simple and unlearned people when assailed by the crafty arguments of heretics and infidels is not controversy, but prayer, a weapon their adversaries seldom use and cannot understand. --Bruno of Aste, 1123. HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS Verse 6 . The language of assurance. The plea for acceptance in prayer. Verse 6-7 . David comforted himself, In his interest in God: "I said ... thou art my God." In his access to God: he had leave to speak to him, and might expect an answer of peace: "Hear", etc. In the assurance he had of help from God, and happiness in him ( ). In the experience he had formerly of God's care of him: "Thou hast covered my head in the day of battle." --Matthew Henry. Verse 6-8 . Three arguments to be pleaded in a prayer for protection. The believer's covenanted property in God. "I said ... thou art my God." The past mercies of God. "Thou hast covered", etc. The impropriety of the wicked being encouraged in their wickedness, Ps 140:8. --J. F. Verse 6-12 . The Consolations of the Believer in Time of Trouble. What he can say. What he can remember. What he is assured of. Verse 6-7,12-13 . Times of Assault, Slander, and Temptation should be special times of Prayer and Faith. David here makes prominent five things. Possession asserted. The Possession: "My God." Opposed to idols. Beloved by self. The Claim published. The Witness selected. Secret. Sacred. Searching. The Occasion chosen. Petition presented. His prayers were frequent. His prayers were full of meaning. His prayers were meant for God. His prayers needed divine attention. Preservation experienced. God had been his Armour bearer. God had guarded his most vital part. God had saved him. God's strength had been displayed. Protection expected. God is a righteous Judge. God is a compassionate Friend. God is a well known Guardian. Praise predicted. Praise assured by gratitude. Praise expressed by words. Praise implied by confidence. Praise practised by communion.

Psalms 140:6-8

EXPOSITION

Verse 6. I said unto the LORD, Thou art my God. Here was David's stay and hope. He was assured that Jehovah was his God, he expressed that assurance, and he expressed it before Jehovah himself. That had need be a good and full assurance which a man dares to lay before the face of the heart searching Lord. The Psalmist when hunted by man, addressed himself to God. Often the less we say to our foes, and the more we say to our best Friend the better it will fare with us: if we say anything, let it be said unto the Lord. David rejoiced in the fact that he had already said that Jehovah was his God: he was content to have committed himself, he had no wish to draw back. The Lord was David's own by deliberate choice, to which he again sets his seal with delight. The wicked reject God, but the righteous receive him as their own, their treasure, their pleasure, their light and delight. Hear the voice of my supplications, O LORD. Since thou art mine, I pray thee hear my cries. We cannot ask this favour of another man's god, but we may seek it from our own God. The prayers of saints have a voice in them; they are expressive pleadings even when they sound like inarticulate moanings.

The Lord can discern a voice in our waitings, and he can and will hearken thereto. Because he is God he can hear us; because he is our God he will hear us. So long as the Lord doth but hear us we are content: the answer may be according to his own will, but we do entreat to be heard: a soul in distress is grateful to any one who will be kind and patient enough to hearken to its tale, but specially is it thankful for an audience with Jehovah. The more we consider his greatness and our insignificance, his wisdom and our folly, the more shall we be filled with praise when the Lord attends unto our cry.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 6. The voice of my supplications. The one safety for simple and unlearned people when assailed by the crafty arguments of heretics and infidels is not controversy, but prayer, a weapon their adversaries seldom use and cannot understand. --Bruno of Aste, 1123.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 6.

Verse 6-7. David comforted himself,

Verse 6-8. Three arguments to be pleaded in a prayer for protection.

Verse 6-12. The Consolations of the Believer in Time of Trouble.

Verse 6-7,12-13. Times of Assault, Slander, and Temptation should be special times of Prayer and Faith. David here makes prominent five things.

EXPOSITION

Verse 7. O GOD the Lord, the strength of my salvation, thou hast covered my head in the day of battle. When he looked back upon past dangers and deliverances, the good man felt that he should have perished had not the Lord held a shield over his head. In the day of the clash of arms, or of the putting on of armour (as some read it), the glorious Lord had been his constant Protector. Goliath had his armour bearer, and so had Saul, and these each one guarded his master; yet the giant and the king both perished, while David, without armour or shield, slew the giant and baffled the tyrant. The shield of the Eternal is a better protection than a helmet of brass, When arrows fly thick and the battle axe crashes right and left, there is no covering for the head like the power of the Almighty. See how the child of providence glorifies his Preserver! He calls him not only his salvation, but the strength of it, by whose unrivalled force he had been enabled to outlive the cunning and cruelty of his adversaries. He had obtained a deliverance in which the strength of the Omnipotent was clearly to be seen. This is a grand utterance of praise, a gracious ground of comfort, a prevalent argument in prayer. He that has covered our head aforetime will not now desert us. Wherefore let us fight a good fight, and fear no deadly wound: the Lord God is our shield, and our exceeding great reward.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 7. Thou hast covered my head in the day of battle. Hebrew, of armour. For David had never indeed any battle with Saul, but declined it; but Saul often armed against him; but then God's providence covered him as a shield: but the head is only spoken of to set forth his whole body, because that is chiefly aimed at by the enemy, as where the life principally lieth. --John Mayer.

Verse 7. Thou hast covered my head, etc. That is, I had no other helmet or armour but thy Almighty power in the day when I fought with Goliath. 1 Samuel 17:39-40,50. -- Thomas Fenton.

Verse 7. Thou hast covered my head in the day of battle. A captain or prince had always beside him in battle an armour bearer, whose duty it was "to cover his master's head", that is, to ward off with the shield the blows aimed at his head, and which, in the heat of the fight, had escaped his own notice. --Benjamin Weiss.

EXPOSITION

Verse 8. Grant not, O LORD, the desires of the wicked. Even they are dependent upon thee they can do no more than thou dost permit. Thou dost restrain them; not a dog of them can move his tongue without thy leave and license. Therefore I entreat thee not to let them have their way. Even though they dare to pray to their, do not hear their prayers against innocent men. Assuredly the Lord Jehovah will be no accomplice with the malevolent; their desires shall never be his desires; if they thirst for blood he will not gratify their cruelty. Further not his wicked devices They are so united as to be like one man in their wishes; but do rot hear their prayers. Though hand join in hand, and they desire and design as one man, yet do not thou lend them the aid of thy providence. Do not permit their malicious schemes to succeed. The Lord may allow success to attend the policy of the wicked for a time for wise reasons unknown to us, but we are permitted to pray that it be not so. The petition "Deliver us from evil" includes and allows such supplication. Lest they exalt themselves. If successful, the wicked are sure to grow proud, and insult the righteous over whom they have triumphed, and this is so great an evil, and so dishonouring to God, that the Psalmist uses it in his pleading as an argument against their being allowed to prosper. The glory of the wicked is opposed to the glory of God. If God seems to favour them they grow too high for this world, and their heads strike against the heavens. Let us hope that the Lord will not suffer this to be. Selah. Here let us exalt our thoughts and praises high over the heads of self exalting sinners. The more they rise in conceit the higher let us rise in confidence.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 8. His wicked device; which is to destroy me. "Exalt themselves"; not only against me, but against thee also, as if by their power and policy they had frustrated thy design and promise made to me. --M. Pool.