Charles Spurgeon

I will forever preserve My loving devotion for him, and My covenant with him will stand fast.

“My mercy will I keep for him for evermore. The kings of David's line needed mercy, and mercy prevented their house from utterly perishing until the Son of Mary came.”

If his sons forsake My law and do not walk in My judgments,

“If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments. It was possible, terribly possible, that David's posterity might wander from the Lord; indeed they did so, but what then? Was the mercy of God to pass away from David's seed?—far from it.”

if they violate My statutes and fail to keep My commandments,

“If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments. The dreadful "if" is suggested again, and the sad case is stated in other forms. But if it should be so, what then? Death and rejection? Ah, no; Blessed be God, No!”

I will attend to their transgression with the rod, and to their iniquity with stripes.

“Then will I visit their transgressions with the rod. Not with the sword, not with death and destruction; but still with a smarting, tingling, painful rod. Saints must smart if they sin: God will see to that.”

But I will not withdraw My loving devotion from him, nor ever betray My faithfulness.

“Nevertheless. And a glorious nevertheless too! Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him. O glorious fear killing sentence! This crowns the covenant with exceeding glory. Mercy may seem to depart from the Lord's chosen, but it shall never altogether do so.”

I will not violate My covenant or alter the utterance of My lips.

“My covenant will I not break. It is his own covenant. He devised it, drew up the draft of it, and voluntarily entered into it: he therefore thinks much of it. It is not a man's covenant, but the Lord claims it as his own.”

Once and for all I have sworn by My holiness— I will not lie to David—

“Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. Because he could swear by no greater he swore by himself, and by that peculiar attribute which is his highest glory, being the subject of threefold adoration by all the hosts…”

his offspring shall endure forever, and his throne before Me like the sun,

“His seed shall endure for ever. David's line in the person of Jesus is an endless one, and the race of Jesus, as represented in successive generations of believers, shows no sign of failure.”

like the moon, established forever, a faithful witness in the sky.” Selah

“It shall be established for ever as the moon. The kingdom may wax and wane to mortal eyes, but it shall still abide as long as the moon walks in her silver beauty. And as a faithful witness in heavens.”

Now, however, You have spurned and rejected him; You are enraged by Your anointed one.

“But thou hast cast off and abhorred. The Lord had promised not to cast off the seed of David, and yet it looked as if he had done so, and that too in the most angry manner, as if he loathed the person of the…”

You have renounced the covenant with Your servant and sullied his crown in the dust.

“Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant. The dispensations of providence looked as if there had been a disannulling of the sacred compact, though indeed it was not so. Thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground.”

You have broken down all his walls; You have reduced his strongholds to rubble.

“Thou hast broken down all his hedges. He was no longer sheltered from the slanderous assaults of contemptuous tongues; the awe which should guard the royal name had ceased to separate him from his fellows. The "divinity which doth hedge a king" had departed.”

All who pass by plunder him; he has become a reproach to his neighbors.

“All that pass by the way spoil him. Idle passers by, who have nothing else to do, must needs have a pluck at this vine, and they do it without difficulty, since the hedges are gone.”

You have exalted the right hand of his foes; You have made all his enemies rejoice.

“Thou hast set up the right hand of thy adversaries. Thou hast done it, thou, who hast sworn to give him help and victory, thou hast, instead thereof, sided with his enemies, and lent them thy strength, so that they have gained the supremacy.”

You have ended his splendor and cast his throne to the ground.

“Thou hast made his glory to cease. The brightness of his reign and the prosperity of his house are gone, his fame is tarnished, his honour disgraced. And cast his throne down to the ground.”

You have cut short the days of his youth; You have covered him with shame. Selah

“The days of his youth hast thou shortened. The time of the king's energy was brief, he grew feeble before his time. Thou hast covered him with shame. Shame was heaped upon him because of his premature decay and his failure in arms.”

How long, O LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your wrath keep burning like fire?

“How long, Lord? The appeal is to Jehovah, and the argument is the length of the affliction endured. Chastisement with a rod is not a lengthened matter, therefore he appeals to God to cut short the time of tribulation. Wilt thou hide thyself for ever?”

Remember the briefness of my lifespan! For what futility You have created all men!

“Remember how short my time is. If so brief, do not make it altogether bitter. If thine anger burn on it will outlast this mortal life, and then there will be no time for thy mercy to restore me.”

What man can live and never see death? Can he deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah

“What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? All must die. None of our race can answer to the question here propounded except in the negative; there is none that can claim to elude the arrows of death.”

Where, O Lord, is Your loving devotion of old, which You faithfully swore to David?

“THE LORD had made an Everlasting Covenant with David, ordered in all things and sure, yet that Covenant was not intended to preserve him from trouble. When this Psalm was written, he had been brought very low.”

Where, O Lord, is Your loving devotion of old, which You faithfully swore to David?

“Lord, where are thy former loving kindnesses, which thou swarest unto David in thy truth? Here he comes to grand pleading, hand to hand work with the covenant angel.”

Remember, O Lord, the reproach of Your servants, which I bear in my heart from so many people—

“Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants. By reason of their great troubles they were made a mock of by ungodly men, and hence the Lord's pity is entreated. Will a father stand by and see his children insulted?”

how Your enemies have taunted, O LORD, and have mocked every step of Your anointed one!

“Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O Lord. Here is another forcible point; the scoffers are the Lord's enemies as well as ours, and their reproach falls upon him as well as upon us; therefore we cry for the Lord's interposition.”

Blessed be the LORD forever! Amen and amen.

“Blessed be the Lord for evermore. He ends where he began; he has sailed round the world and reached port again. Let us bless God before we pray, and while we pray, and when we have done praying, for he always deserves it of us.”

Lord, You have been our dwelling place through all generations.

“Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. We must consider the whole Psalm as written for the tribes in the desert, and then we shall see the primary meaning of each verse.”