3. Then follows: Neither have I
walked amid great things, nor amid wonderful things that are above
me. It is most dangerous to walk amid mean things, and not to
linger amid wonderful things. God’s utterances are great;
He Himself is wonderful in the highest: how then can the psalmist
pride himself as on a good work for not walking amid great and
wonderful things? It is the addition of the words, which are
above me, that shews that the walking is not amid those things
which men commonly regard as great and wonderful.
For David, prophet and king as he
was, once was humble and despised and unworthy to sit at his
father’s table; but he found favour with God, he was anointed to
be king, he was inspired to prophesy. His kingdom did not make
him haughty, he was not moved by hatreds: he loved those that
persecuted him, he paid honour to his dead enemies, he spared his
incestuous and murderous children. In his capacity of sovereign
he was despised, in that of father he was wounded, in that of prophet
he was afflicted; yet he did not call for vengeance as a prophet might,
nor exact punishment as a father, nor requite insults as a
sovereign. And so he did not walk amid things great and wonderful
which were above him.