Be men! In courage; not cowards, turning our back on the foe, or giving way in danger, or reproach, or evil days. In solidity; not shifting or shadowy, but immoveable as the rock. In strength; as the man is, so is his strength. Be strong! In wisdom. Foolishness is with childhood, wisdom with manhood. Speak and act with wisdom, as men. In ripeness. The faculties of men are ripe, both for thinking and working. They speak ripe words, think ripe thoughts, plan and execute ripe things. In understanding be men! In all things – what you do, and what you refrain from doing, be men. Act the manly part – let nothing effeminate, luxurious, sickly, childish, puny, little, narrow be seen about you. Christianity makes men, not babes. Adorn the doctrine of Christ by your manliness. In the Church, in the world, in business, in conversation, in prosperity, and adversity, [act] like men! Let no man despise you; and let no man despise the Gospel because of you.
Horatius Bonar

Spurgeon PS1802

Spurgeon PS1802

EXPOSITION.

“_The Lord is my rock and my fortress_.” Dwelling among the crags and mountain fastnesses of Judea, David had escaped the malice of Saul, and here he compares his God to such a place of concealment and security. Believers are often hidden in their God from the strife of tongues and the fury of the storm of trouble. The clefts of the rock of ages are safe abodes. “_My deliverer_,” interposing in my hour of peril. When almost captured the Lord’s people are rescued from the hand of the mighty by him who is mightier still. This title of “_deliverer_” has many sermons in it, and is well worthy of the study of all experienced saints. “_My God_;” this is all good things in one. There is a boundless wealth in this expression; it means, my perpetual, unchanging, infinite, eternal good. He who can say truly “my God,” may well add, “my heaven, my all.” “_My strength_;” this word is really “_my rock_,” in the sense of strength and immobility. My sure, unchanging, eternal confidence and support. Thus the word rock occurs twice, but it is no tautology, for the first time it is a rock for concealment, but here a rock for firmness and immutability. “_In whom I will trust_.” Faith must be exercised, or the preciousness of God is not truly known; and God must be the object of faith, or faith is mere presumption. “_My buckler_,” warding off the blows of my enemy, shielding me from arrow or sword. The Lord furnishes his warriors with weapons both offensive and defensive. Our armoury is completely stored so that none need go to battle unarmed. “_The horn of my salvation_,” enabling me to push down my foes, and to triumph over them with holy exultation. “_My high tower_,” a citadel high planted on a rocky eminence beyond the reach of my enemies, from the heights of which I look down upon their fury without alarm, and survey a wide landscape of mercy reaching even unto the goodly land beyond Jordan. Here are many words, but none too many; we might profitably examine each one of them had we leisure, but summing up the whole, we may conclude with Calvin, that David here equips the faithful from head to foot.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

Verse 2.–“_The Lord is my rock_.” As the rocks that are hard to be clambered unto are good refuges to fly unto from the face of pursuers, so God is the safety of all such as in distress do fly to him for succour.–^Robert Cawdray.

Verse 2.–“_My deliverer_.” He who betook himself to one of these inaccessible retreats, was sometimes obliged by famine to surrender to his enemy, who lay in wait for him beneath; but Jehovah gives him not only security but liberty; not only preserves him, as it were, in an inaccessible retreat, but at the same time enables him to go forth in safety.–^Jarchi.

Verse 2.–“_The horn of my salvation_.” The allusion here is doubtful. Some have supposed the reference to be to the horns of animals, by which they defend themselves and attack their enemies. “God is to me, does for me, what their horns do for them.” Others consider it as referring to the well-established fact, that warriors were accustomed to place horns, or ornaments like horns, on their helmets. The horn stands for the helmet; and “the helmet of salvation” is an expression equivalent to “a saving, a protecting helmet.” Others consider the reference as to the corners or handles of the altar in the court of the tabernacle or temple, which are called its horns. Others suppose the reference to be to the highest point of a lofty and precipitous mountain, which we are accustomed to call its peak. No doubt, in the Hebrew language, horn is used for mountain as in #Isa 5:1|. A very fertile mountain is called a horn of oil. The sense is substantially the same, whichever of these views we take; though, from the connection with “shield” or “buckler,” I am induced to consider the second of these views as the most probable. It seems the same idea as that expressed, #Ps 140:7|, “Thou hast covered,” and thou wilt cover “my head in the day of battle.”–^John Brown.

Verse 2.–“_The horn of my salvation_.” Horns are the well-known emblems of strength and power, both in the sacred and profane writers; by a metaphor taken from horned animals, which are frequently made subjects of comparison by poetical writers, and the strength of which, whether for offence or defence, consists principally in their horns. Bruce speaks of a remarkable head-dress worn by the governors of provinces in Abyssinia, consisting of a large broad fillet, bound upon their foreheads and tied behind their heads, and having in the middle of it a horn, or a conical piece of silver, gilt, about four inches long, much in the shape of our common candle extinguishers. It is called _kirn_ or horn, and is only worn on reviews or parades after victory. He supposes this, like other Abyssinian usages, to be taken from the Hebrews, and is of opinion that there are many allusions to the practice in Scripture, in the expressions, “lifting up the horn,” “exalting the horn,” and the like.–^Richard Mant.

Verse 2.–“_The Lord is my high tower_.” If a man do run to a tower, yet if that be a weak and an insufficient tower, without men and munition, and a ruinous shaken tower; or if a man do make choice of a tower, a strong sufficient tower, yet if in his danger he betake not himself to that tower, but he sit still; or if he sit not still, yet he but only go and walk on easily towards it, he may well be met withal, and a danger may arrest him, surprise him, and cut him off before he get the tower over his head. But the man that will be safe, as he must choose a strong tower, so he must go to, nay, _run_ into that tower. Running will not secure a man unless the tower be strong … David was got unto his _tower_, and in that _tower_ there was thundering ordnance, and David put fire to them by prayer, verse #6|, “In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.” Here David prays and gives fire to the cannon, and what followed? See verses #7,8,13,14|. “Then the earth shook and trembled,” etc. “There went up a smoke out of his nostrils,” etc. “The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.” There were no guns nor ordnance invented and in use in David’s time, and yet David’s prayers being in this tower, did him as good service against his enemies as all the ordnance and cannons in the world have done. David had thundering ordnance, and with them discomfited his enemies long before powder and guns were invented. It is a memorable and well known story of that Christian legion that was in Marcus Aurelius’s army: the enemy being in great straits, those Christian soldiers did by their prayers not only procure rain, by which his languishing army was refreshed, but also obtained hail mixed with thunderbolts against his enemies, upon which he honoured them with the name of _Legio fulminatrix_, the Thundering Legion. They used David’s cannon against the enemy, and discharged that thundering ordnance by their prayers, and that to the confusion of their enemies.–^Jeremiah Dyke’s “Righteous Man’s Tower,” 1639.

Verse 2.–“_My high tower_.” Even as the fowls of the air, that they may escape the nets and snares of the fowlers, are wont to fly up on high; so we, to avoid the infinite snares of innumerable temptations, must fly to God; and lift up ourselves from the corruptions, lying vanities, and deceitful sleights of the world.–^Robert Cawdray.

HINTS TO PREACHERS.

Verse 2.–The many excellences of Jehovah to his people.

Verse 2.–God the all-sufficient portion of his people.–C. Simeon’s Works, Vol. v., p. 85.