Psalm 69:4

EXPOSITION

Verse 4. They that hate me. Surprising sin that men should hate the altogether lovely one, truly is it added, without a cause, for reason there was none for this senseless enmity. He neither blasphemed God, nor injured man. As Samuel said: "Whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed?" Even so might Jesus enquire. Besides, he had not only done us no evil, but he had bestowed countless and priceless benefits. Well might he demand, "For which of these works do ye stone me?" Yet from his cradle to his cross, beginning with Herod and not ending with Judas, he had foes without number; and he justly said, they are more than the hairs of mine head. Both the civilians and the military, laics and clerics, doctors and drunkards, princes and people, set themselves against the Lord's anointed. "This is the heir, let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours," was the unanimous resolve of all the keepers of the Jewish vineyard; while the Gentiles outside the walls of the garden furnished the instruments for his murder, and actually did the deed. The hosts of earth and hell, banded together, made up vast legions of antagonists, none of whom had any just ground for hating him.

They that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty. It was bad that they were many, but worse that they were mighty. All the ecclesiastical and military powers of his country were arrayed against him. The might of the Sanhedrin, the mob, and the Roman legions were combined in one for his utter destruction: "Away with such a fellow from this earth; it is not fit that he should live," was the shout of his ferocious foes. David's adversaries were on the throne when he was hiding in caverns, and our Lord's enemies were the great ones of the earth; while he, of whom the world was not worthy, was reproached of men and despised of the people.

Then I restored that which I took not away. Though innocent, he was treated as guilty. Though David had no share in plots against Saul, yet he was held accountable for them. In reference to our Lord, it may be truly said that he restores what he took not away; for he gives back to the injured honour of God a recompense, and to man his lost happiness, though the insult of the one and the fall of the other were neither of them, in any sense, his doings. Usually, when the ruler sins the people suffer, but here the proverb is reversed -- the sheep go astray, and their wanderings are laid at the Shepherd's door.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 4. Without a cause. In suffering, let not the mind be disturbed; for the injustice which is done to the innocent in his sufferings, is not laid to the charge of the sufferer, but to his who inflicts suffering... It is well known what Tertullian relates of Socrates, when his wife met him after his condemnation, and addresses him with a woman's tears: "Thou art unjustly condemned, Socrates." His reply was, "Wouldst thou have me justly?" Lorinus.

Verse 4. Then I restored that which I took not away. It was the great and blessed work of our Lord Jesus here upon the earth, to restore what he took not away. In handling this:

1. Show what it is which was taken away, and from whom?
   
2. Wherein it appears that Christ took it not away.
   
3. How he restored it?
   
4. Why he did so?
   
5. Use.

1. What it was which was taken away, and from whom?
   1. There was glory taken from God. Not his essential glory, nor any perfection of his being, for that cannot be taken away; but that glory which shines forth in the moral government of his creatures, and that glory which we are bound to give him.
   2. There was righteousness, holiness, and happiness taken from man also.
      1. There was a loss of righteousness to the guilty sinner;
      2. of holiness to the polluted sinner:
      3. of happiness to the miserable sinner.

1. Wherein it appears that Christ did not take away
   those things from either.
   1. It is plain, as to God, he never took away any glory from him; for he never did anything dishonourable, or offensive to God. John 8:29 ; Isa 50:5 Lu 1:
   3. It is also clear, as to man, that he took not away any righteousness, holiness, or happiness from him. He was not such a fountain of guilt, pollution, and misery, as the first Adam had been, but the contrary.