Psalms 17:14

From men [which are] thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, [which have] their portion in [this] life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid [treasure]: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their [substance] to their babes.

Ver. 14. From men which are thy hand] This, saith one, is David's Litany, From those men, &c., good Lord, deliver me. God's hand they are called, as before God's sword. Titus, son of Vespasian, being extolled for destroying Jerusalem, said, I have only lent God my hand, but he hath done the work.

From men of the world] Heb. From mortals of this transitory world, qui sunt mundani, mundum spirant et sapiunt, the inhabitants of the earth, and of the sea, as opposed to the citizens of the New Jerusalem, Revelation 12:12; such as having incarnated their souls (as that Father speaketh) are of the earth, speak of the earth, and the earth heareth them, John 3:31, mind earthly things only, as if they were born for no other purpose. Terrigenae fratres animam habentes triticeam, as those stall fed beasts in the gospel. A mortuis i.e. impiis qui sunt mortui in vita eorum (R. Gaon).

Which have their portion in this life] And they love to have it so; saying, with the prodigal, "Give me the portion that belongeth to me." They crave it, and they have it, but with a vengeance (Munera magna quidem misit, sed misit in hamo), as the Israelites had quails to choke them, and afterwards a king to vex them, a table to be a snare to them, &c. By the way observe, that wicked men have a right to earthly things (a man must needs have some right to his portion; what Ananias had was his own while he had it, Act 5:4), and it is a rigour to say, they are usurpers. As when the king gives a traitor his life, he gives him meat and drink that may maintain his life; so it is here; neither shall wicked men be called to account at the last day tbr possessing what they had, but for abusing that possession. As for the saints who are heirs of the world, with faithful Abraham, and have a double portion, even all the blessings of heaven and of earth, conferred upon them, though here they be held to strait allowance, let them live upon reversions, and consider that they have right to all, and shall one day have rule of all, Revelation 3:21 Mendicato pane hic vivamus, annon hoc pulchre sarcitur? &c. What though we here were to live upon alms, saith Luther, is there not a good amends made us, in that here we have Christ the bread of life in his ordinances, and shall hereafter have the full fruition of him in heaven? The whole Turkish empire is nothing else but a crust cast by our Father to his dogs; and it is all they are likely to have, let them make them merry with it. Wilt not thou (saith another) be content, unless God let down the vessel to thee, as to Peter, with all manner of beasts of the earth, and fowls of the air, Acts 10:12. Must you needs have first and second course? Difficile est ut praesentibus bonus quis fruatur et futuris; ut hic ventrem illic mentem reficiat, ut de deliciis ad delicias transeat, ut in coelo et in terra gloriosus apparent, saith Jerome, It is a very hard thing to have earth and heaven too, &c. Gregory the Great trembled whensoever he read those words of Abraham to the rich glutton (who thought this life to be his saginary or boar's frank), "Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things," Luke 16:25. "Ye have lived in pleasure upon earth," James 5:5, no fit place for such a purpose. God did not turn you out of one paradise that you should here provide yourselves of another; earth is a place of banishment and bondage. Of the wicked's prosperity here, see Job 21:7,8. See Trapp on " Job 21:7 " See Trapp on " Job 21:8 "

And whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasures] That is, with gold, and other precious things dug out of the earth, saith Aben Ezra; Opimis rebus, saith Junius; with abundance of outward blessings and benefits, saith another; which are called God's hidden treasures, not because they are not seen, but because they are not so well perceived and used Of the ungodly, as were meet; or because the reason of their present plenty of all things is hidden from them, and yet it appears not but shall be made manifest that these fatting ware are but fitting for the slaughter.

They are full of children] Which they send forth as a flock, Job 21:11. See Trapp on " Job 21:11 " Or, their children are full carne porcina, saith the Arabic here, or of worldly wealth, and mountains of money left them by those faithful drudges, their rich but wretched parents and progenitors, whose only care was to heap up hoards of wealth for their posterity.