EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS (2)

Thus, though I like not their way who are given to allegorise the Scriptures, yet I doubt not but we may make a profitable use of this and many other Scriptures by way of allegory. This being an undeniable truth, which is the ground of it—that the Lord puts forth, as it were, the power of thunder and lightning in the preaching of his Word; these two things are to be marked.—Joseph Caryl.

Verse 6.—“He maketh them also to skip like a calf.” That is to say, he hath made the splinters and broken pieces of trees that have been struck with lightning, to fly up into the air, or when they have been shaken by the wind, storms, or by earthquakes.—John Diodati.

Verse 6.—The original is—

At first sight it might appear that the cedars were still meant, and that Lebanon and Sirion were used by metonymy for the cedars which grew upon them. But, 1. We never hear of cedars growing upon Sirion, or Shenir, or Hermon, for it has all these names; and, 2. There is a parallel passage where this interpretation will hardly answer in Psalm cxiv. Describing the exodus of Israel, it says—

The same verb occurs here, the verb which means “to skip, to dance,” used in Nahum iii. 2, to signify the jolting of chariots, and also in Joel ii. 5. In both these instances, rough motion, accompanied with noise, seems intended. Now, though this may very well be understood as a highly figurative description, as it undoubtedly is, of the usual effects of a thunder-storm; yet it is interesting to compare it with the following passage of Volney, which describes certain phenomena as frequent in Mount Lebanon, which may give a new meaning to the “skipping of the mountains:”—

“When the traveller,” says he, “penetrates the interior of these mountains, the ruggedness of the roads, the steepness of the declivities, the depth of the precipices, have at first a terrific effect; but the sagacity of the mules which bear him soon inspires him with confidence, and enables him to examine at his ease the picturesque scenes which succeed one another, so as almost to bewilder him. There, as in the Alps, he sometimes travels whole days to arrive at a spot which was in sight when he set out. He turns, he descends, he winds round, he climbs; and under the perpetual change of position, one is ready to think that a magical power is varying at every step the beauties of the landscapes. Sometimes villages are seen, ready as it were to slide down the deep declivities, and so disposed that the roofs of the one row of houses serve as a street to the row above. At another time, you see a convent seated on an isolated cone, like Marshaia in the valley of Tigré. Here a rock is pierced by a torrent, forming a natural cascade as at Nahr-el-Leban; there another rock assumes the appearance of a natural wall! Often on the sides, ledges of stones, washed down and left by the waters, resemble ruins disposed by art. In some places, the waters meeting with inclined beds, have undermined the intermediate earth, and have formed caverns, as at Nahr-el-Kelb, near Antoura. In other places, they have worn for themselves subterranean channels, through which flow little rivulets during part of the year, as at Mar Hama. Sometimes these picturesque circumstances have become tragical ones. Rocks loosened or thrown off their equilibrium by thaw or earthquake, have been known to precipitate themselves on the adjacent dwellings, and crush the inhabitants. An accident of this kind, about twenty years ago, buried a whole village near Mar Djordos, so as to leave no trace of its existence. More recently, and near the same spot, the soil of a hill planted with mulberry trees and vines detached itself by a sudden thaw, and, sliding over the surface of the rock which it had covered, like a vessel launched from the stocks, established itself entire in the valley below,”—Robert Murray M’Cheyne.

Verse 7.—“The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire.” By the power of God, the “flames of fire” are “divided” and sent abroad from the clouds upon the earth, in the terrible form of lightning, that sharp and glittering sword of the Almighty, which no substance can withstand. The same power of God goeth forth by his word, “quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,” penetrating, melting, enlightening, and inflaming the hearts of men. Acts ii. 3, Heb. iv. 12.—George Horne.

Verse 7.—“The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire.” The voice of the Lord is here said to divide the flames; literally, to hew out flames, λατομεῖν φλόγας. The Sept. has διακόπτει φλόγα πυρός. In the words of Gesenius, “The voice of Jehovah cutteth out flames of fire, i.e., sendeth out divided flames of fire.” This is (as Theodoret has observed) very descriptive of the divine action at Pentecost, sending forth divided flames, like “tela trisulca,” in the tongues of fire which were divided off from one heavenly source or fountain of flame, and sat upon the heads of the apostles, and which filled them with the fire of holy zeal and love.—Christopher Wordsworth.

Verse 7.—“Divideth the flames of fire.” Marg., cutteth out. The Hebrew word חֹצֵב khatzab means properly to cut, to hew, to hew out; as for example, stones. The allusion here is undoubtedly to lightning; and the image is either that it seems to be cut out, or cut into tongues and streaks—or, more probably, that the clouds seem to be cut or hewed, so as to make openings or paths for the lightning. The eye is evidently fixed on the clouds, and on the sudden flash of lightning, as if the clouds had been cleaved or opened for the passage of it. The idea of the Psalmist is, that the “voice of the Lord,” or the thunder, seems to cleave or open the clouds for the flames of fire to play amidst the tempest.—Albert Barnes.

Verse 8.—“The Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.” That Kadesh-Naphtali is meant, the geographical position of Lebanon would make us believe, though this is not necessary. And, although Syria is much exposed to earthquakes—as, for example, that of Aleppo, in 1822, which was sensibly felt at Damascus—yet it does not seem necessary to imagine anything farther than the usual effects of a thunder-storm. The oaks and forests of verse 9, suit well with the description given of the lower limbs of Lebanon, which abound in “thickets of myrtle, woods of fir, walnut trees, carob trees, and Turkish oaks.” And the rain-torrent of verse 10 is admirably descriptive of the sudden swell of the thousand streams which flow from Lebanon. According to modern travellers, the number of water-courses descending from Lebanon is immense; and the suddenness of the rise of these streams may be gathered from the contradictions in their accounts. The Nahr-el-Sazib is described by one as “a rivulet, though crossed by a bridge of six arches;” by another it is called “a large river.” The Damour (the ancient Tamyras), which flows immediately from Lebanon, is “a river,” says Mandrell, “apt to swell much upon sudden rains; in which case, precipitating itself from the mountains with great rapidity, it has been fatal to many a passenger.” He mentions a French gentleman, M. Spon, who, a few years before, in attempting to ford it, was hurried down by the stream, and perished in the sea. This is one instance of very many in the mountains of Lebanon, where the brook, which is usually nearly dry, becomes all at once an impassable torrent. When Volney looked upon the rivers of Syria in summer, he doubted whether they could be called rivers. But had he ventured to cross them after a thunder-storm, his scepticism would no longer have had room or time to exercise itself, and he would have felt the propriety of the Psalmist’s painting, where he says—

Verse 8.—“The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness.” Great God, I have laboured to escape thee! I sought refuge for my remorse in a retreat where nothing might recall me to my God. Far away from the succours of religion, remote from all the channels which bring to me the waters of grace, apart from all whose reproving witness might restrain me from iniquity; yet even there, Great God, where I believed that I had found an asylum inaccessible to thine eternal mercy, wherein I could sin with impunity, even there, in that wilderness, thy voice arrested me and laid me at thy feet.—J. B. Massillon.

Verse 9.—“The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve.” With respect to the sense conveyed by the common reading, it may be observed, that hinds bring forth their young with great difficulty and pain, “bowing themselves, bruising their young ones, and casting out their sorrows” (Job xxxix. 4, 6); and it therefore heightens the description given of the terrific character of the thunder-storm, when the thunder which is here called “the voice of God” is represented as causing, through the terror which it inspires, the hinds in their pregnant state prematurely to drop their young; although, according to our ideas of poetical imagery, this may not accord so well with the other images in the passage, nor appear so beautiful and sublime as the image of the oaks trembling at the voice of Jehovah.—John Calvin.

Verse 9.—“The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve.” The care and tenderness of God towards beasts turns to his praise, as well as the care which he hath of, and the tenderness which he shows to believers. As it doth exceedingly advance the glory of God, that he takes care of wild beasts, so it may exceedingly strengthen the faith of man that he will take care of him. Doth the Lord take care of hinds? then certainly he takes care of those that particularly belong to him. There is a special providence of God towards these and such like creatures for the production of their young. He—if I may so speak with reverence—shows his midwifery in helping these savage beasts when their pains come upon them. As the Lord takes man, in an eminent manner, “out of the womb” (Psalm xxii. 9), so in a manner he takes beasts out of the womb too. “The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness; the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh;” so we translate it; but the word which we render “shaketh” is the same with that in Job xxxix. 2, which signifieth to bring forth; and hence, some very learned in the Hebrew tongue do not render as we, “The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness,” but “The voice of the Lord maketh the wilderness to bring forth; the Lord maketh the wilderness of Kadesh to bring forth;” which is not to be understood of the vegetative creatures (that’s a truth, the Lord makes the trees of the forest to bring forth both leaves and fruit), but it is meant of animals or living creatures there. And then when he saith, “The voice of the Lord maketh the wilderness to bring forth,” the meaning is, the Lord makes the wild beast of the wilderness to bring forth; which seems to be the clear sense of the place by that which followeth; for the Psalmist having said this in general at the eighth verse, “The voice of the Lord maketh the wilderness to bring forth,” he in the ninth verse gives the special instance of the hind: “The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve.”—Joseph Caryl.

Verse 9.—“The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve.” It is with great propriety, says one of the ancients, that Jehovah demands, “The birth of the hinds dost thou guard?” (Job xxxix. 1), for since this animal is always in flight, and with fear and terror always leaping and skipping about, she could never bring her young to maturity without such a special protection. The providence of God, therefore, is equally conspicuous in the preservation of the mother and the fawn; both are the objects of his compassion and tender care; and, consequently, that afflicted man has no reason to charge his Maker with unkindness, who condescends to watch over the goats and the hinds. It seems to be generally admitted, that the hind brings forth her young with great difficulty; and so much appears to be suggested in the verse, “They bow themselves, they bring forth their young ones, they cast out their sorrows.” But if Pliny, and other naturalists are worthy of credit, divine providence has been graciously pleased to provide certain herbs, which greatly facilitate the birth; and by instinct, he directs the hind to feed upon them, when the time of gestation draws towards a close. Whatever truth there may be in this assertion, we know from higher authority, that providence promotes the parturition of the hind, by awakening her fears, and agitating her frame by the rolling thunder:—“The voice of Jehovah (a common Hebrew phrase, denoting thunder) maketh the hinds to calve.” Nor ought we to wonder, that so timorous a creature as the hind, should be so much affected by that awful atmospheric convulsion, when some of the proudest men that ever existed, have been known to tremble. Augustus, the Roman Emperor, according to Suetonius, was so terrified when it thundered, that he wrapped a seal-skin round his body, with the view of defending it from the lightning, and concealed himself in some secret corner till the tempest ceased. The tyrant Caligula, who sometimes affected to threaten Jupiter himself, covered his head, or hid himself under a bed; and Horace confesses he was reclaimed from atheism by the terror of thunder and lightning, the effects of which he describes with his usual felicity. (Odes, b. i. 34.)—George Paxton’s “Illustrations of Scripture.”