1. Nevertheless, my soul is silent towards God. Should the translation I have followed be adopted, the psalm is to be considered as beginning abruptly, in the usual style of compositions of an impassioned kind. Of this we have an instance in Ps.

The particle אך, ach, in the second verse, I would render in the same way as in the first. The believer triumphs in one encounter with temptation only to enter upon another; and here David, who appeared to have emerged from his distress, shows that he had still to struggle with remaining…

3. How long will ye continue mischief? The Hebrew word תהותתו, tehotethu, which I have translated continue, or lengthen out, mischief, is rendered by some, to meditate, or imagine mischief, while others suppose an allusion to the putting forth of the tongue in sign of mockery.

4. Yet they consult to cast him down from his elevation I still would interpret the particle אך, ach, in an adversative sense. David, on the one hand, encouraged himself by determining to rest steadfastly upon the promise of divine favor; but, upon the other, he had before him the machinations of…

5. Nevertheless, my soul, be thou silent before God. Here there may appear to be a slight inconsistency, inasmuch as he encourages himself to do what he had already declared himself to have done.

7. In God is my salvation One expression is here heaped upon another and this apparently because he wished to rein that infirmity of disposition which makes us so prone to slide into wrong exercise.

9. Nevertheless, the sons of Adam are vanity. If we take the particle אך, ach, affirmatively, as meaning surely or certainly, then this verse contains a confirmation of the truth expressed in the preceding verse; and David argues by contrast, that as men are lighter than vanity, we are shut up to…

We might just put together, in a connected form, the particular doctrines which he has singled out for special notice. It is essentially necessary, if we would fortify our minds against temptation, to have suitably exalted views of the power and mercy of God, since nothing will more effectually…