My Notes
Authors
Matthew Henry - Commentary on the Whole Bible
David here tells us how he was affected as to the proud and wicked people that were about him. 1. He did not fear their malice, nor was he by it deterred from his duty: They have forged a lie against me. Thus they aimed to take away his good name. Nay, all we have in the world, even life itself, may be brought into danger by those who make no conscience of forging a lie. Those that were proud envied David’s reputation, because it eclipsed them, and therefore did all they could to blemish him. They took a pride in trampling upon him. They therefore persuaded themselves it was no sin to tell a deliberate lie if it might but expose him to contempt. Their wicked wit forged lies, invented stories which there was not the least colour for, to serve their wicked designs. And what did David do when he was thus belied? He will bear it patiently; he will keep that precept which forbids him to render railing for railing, and will with all his heart sit down silently. He will go on in his duty with constancy and resolution: “Let them say what they will, I will keep thy precepts, and not dread their reproach.” 2. He did not envy their prosperity, nor was he by it allured from his duty. Their heart is as fat as grease. The proud are at ease (Ps. cxxiii. 4); they are full of the world, and the wealth and pleasures of it; and this makes them, (1.) Senseless, secure, and stupid; they are past feeling: thus the phrase is used, Isa. vi. 10. Make the heart of this people fat. They are not sensible of the touch of the word of God or his rod. (2.) Sensual and voluptuous: “Their eyes stand out with fatness (Ps. lxxiii. 7); they roll themselves in the pleasures of sense, and take up with them as their chief good; and much good may it do them. I would not change conditions with them. I delight in thy law; I build my security upon the promises of God’s word and have pleasure enough in communion with God, infinitely preferable to all their delights.” The children of God, who are acquainted with spiritual pleasures, need not envy the children of this world their carnal pleasures.
71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.
See here, 1. That it has been the lot of the best saints to be afflicted. The proud and the wicked lived in pomp and pleasure, while David, though he kept close to God and his duty, was still in affliction. Waters of a full cup are wrung out to God’s people, Ps. lxxiii. 10. 2. That it has been the advantage of God’s people to be afflicted. David could speak experimentally: It was good for me; many a good lesson he had learnt by his afflictions, and many a good duty he had been brought to which otherwise would have been unlearnt and undone. Therefore God visited him with affliction, that he might learn God’s statutes; and the intention was answered: the afflictions had contributed to the improvement of his knowledge and grace. He that chastened him taught him. The rod and reproof give wisdom.