EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

Title.—Abimelech was king of Gath, the same with Achish, 1 Sam. xxi. 20: who either had two names, or this of Abimelech, as it should seem, was a common name to all the kings of the Philistines (see Gen. xx. 2; xxvi. 8); as Pharaoh was to the Egyptian kings and Cæsar to the Roman emperors: the name signifies a father-king, or my father-king, or a royal father; as kings should be the fathers of their country: before him David changed his behaviour, his taste, sense, or reason: he imitated a madman.—John Gill.

Whole Psalm.—(This Psalm is alphabetical). The Alphabetical Psalms, the psalmi abcedarii, as the Latin fathers called them, are nine in number; and I cannot help thinking it is a pity that, except in the single instance of the hundred and nineteenth, no hint of their existence should have been suffered to appear in our authorised version. I will not take it upon me to affirm, with Ewald, that no version is faithful in which the acrostic is suppressed; but I do think that the existence of such a remarkable style of composition ought to be indicated in one way or another, and that some useful purposes are served by its being actually reproduced in the translation. No doubt there are difficulties in the way. The Hebrew Alphabet differs widely from any of those now employed in Europe. Besides differences of a more fundamental kind, the Hebrew has only twenty-two letters for our twenty-six; and of the twenty-two a considerable number have no fellows in ours. An exact reproduction of a Hebrew acrostic in an English version is therefore impossible.—William Binnie, D.D.

Whole Psalm.—Mr. Hapstone has endeavoured to imitate the alphabetical character of this Psalm in his metrical version. The letter answering to F is wanting, and the last stanza begins with the letter answering to R. One verse of his translation may suffice—

Verse 1.—“I will bless the Lord at all times.” Mr. Bradford, martyr, speaking of Queen Mary, at whose cruel mercy he then lay, said, If the queen be pleased to release me, I will thank her; if she will imprison me, I will thank her; if she will burn me, I will thank her, etc. So saith a believing soul: Let God do with me what he will, I will be thankful.—Samuel Clarke’s “Mirrour.”

Verse 1.—Should the whole frame of nature be unhinged, and all outward friends and supporters prove false and deceitful, our worldly hopes and schemes be disappointed, and possessions torn from us, and the floods of sickness, poverty and disgrace overwhelm our soul with an impetuous tide of trouble; the sincere lover of God, finding that none of these affects his portion and the object of his panting desires, retires from them all to God his refuge and hiding place, and there feels his Saviour incomparably better, and more than equivalent to what the whole of the universe can ever offer, or rob him of; and his tender mercies, unexhausted fulness, and great faithfulness, yield him consolation and rest; and enable him, what time he is afraid, to put his trust in him. Thus we find the holy Psalmist expressing himself: “I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.”—William Dunlop.

Verse 1.—S. Basil tells us that the praise of God, once rightly impressed as a seal on the mind, though it may not always be carried out into action, yet in real truth causes us perpetually to praise God.—J. M. Neale’s Commentary.

Verse 2.—“My soul shall make her boast in the Lord.” Not like the boasting of the Pharisee, so hateful in the eyes of God, so offensive in the ears of the humble; for the humble can hear this boasting and be glad, which they would never do if it were not conformable to the rules of humility. Can any boasting be greater than to say, “I can do all things”? Yet in this boasting there is humility when I add, “In him that strengtheneth me.” For though God likes not of boasting, yet he likes of this boasting, which arrogates nothing to ourselves, but ascribes all to him.—Sir Richard Baker.

Verses 2-6.—There is somewhat very striking and pleasing in the sudden transitions, and the change of persons, that is observable in these few verses. “My soul shall boast;” “The humble shall hear;” “I sought the Lord;” “They looked to him;” “This poor man cried.” There is a force and elegance in the very unconnection of the expressions, which, had they been more closely tied by the proper particles, would have been in a great measure lost. Things thus separated from each other, and yet accelerated, discover, as Longinus observes, the earnestness and the vehemency of the inward working of the mind; and though it may seem to interrupt, or disturb the sentence, yet quickens and enforces it.—Samuel Chandler, D.D.

Verse 3.—Venema remarks that after the affair with Achish, we are told in 1 Samuel xxii. 1, “His brethren, and all his father’s house went down to the cave Adullam unto him,” and these, together with those who were in debt, and discontented with Saul’s government, formed a band of four hundred men. To these his friends and comrades, he relates the story of his escape, and bids them with united hearts and voices extol the Lord.—C. H. S.

Verse 4.—“I sought the Lord, and he heard me.” God expects to hear from you before you can expect to hear from him. If you restrain prayer, it is no wonder the mercy promised is retained. Meditation is like the lawyer’s studying the case in order to his pleading at the bar: when, therefore, thou hast viewed the promise, and affected thy heart with the riches of it, then fly thee to the throne of grace, and spread it before the Lord.—William Gurnall.

Verse 4.—“He delivered me from all my fears.” To have delivered me from all my troubles had been a great favour, but a far greater to deliver me from all my fears; for where that would but have freed me from present evil, this secures me from evil to come; that now I enjoy not only tranquility, but security, a privilege only of the godly. The wicked may be free from trouble, but can they be free from fear? No; God knows, though they be not in trouble like other men, yet they live in more fear than other men. Guiltiness of mind, or mind of the world, never suffers them to be secure: though they be free sometimes from the fit of an ague, yet they are never without a grudging; and (if I may use the expression of poets) though they feel not always the whip of Tysiphone, yet they feel always her terrors; and, seeing the Lord hath done this for me, hath delivered me from all my fears, have I not cause, just cause, to magnify him, and exalt his name?—Sir Richard Baker.

Verse 5.—“They looked unto him.” The more we can think upon our Lord, and the less upon ourselves, the better. Looking to him, as he is seated upon the right hand of the throne of God, will keep our heads, and especially our hearts, steady when going through the deep waters of affliction. Often have I thought of this when crossing the water opposite the old place of Langholm. I found, when I looked down on the water, I got dizzy; I therefore fixed my eyes upon a steady object on the other side, and got comfortably through.—David Smith, 1792-1867.

Verse 6.—“This poor man cried.” The reasons of crying are, 1. Want cannot blush. The pinching necessity of the saints is not tied to the law of modesty. Hunger cannot be ashamed. “I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise,” saith David (Ps. lv. 2); and Hezekiah, “Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter. I did mourn as a dove” (Isa. xxxviii. 14). “I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation” (Job. xxx. 28). 2. Though God hear prayer, only as prayer offered in Christ, not because very fervent; yet fervour is a heavenly ingredient in prayer. An arrow drawn with full strength hath a speedier issue; therefore, the prayers of the saints are expressed by crying in Scripture. “O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not” (Ps. xxii. 2). “At noon, will I pray, and cry aloud” (Ps. lv. 17). “In my distress I cried to the Lord” (Ps. xviii. 6). “Unto thee have I cried, O Lord” (Ps. lxxxviii. 13). “Out of the depths have I cried” (Ps. cxxx. 1). “Out of the belly of hell cried I” (Jonah ii. 2). “Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock” (Ps. xxviii. 1). Yea, it goeth to somewhat more than crying: “I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard” (Job xix. 7). “Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer” (Lam. iii. 8). He who may teach us all to pray, sweet Jesus, “In the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears” (Heb. v. 7); he prayed with war shouts. 3. And these prayers are so prevalent, that God answereth them: “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his fears” (Ps. xxxiv. 6). “My cry came before him, even into his ears” (Ps. xviii. 6). The cry addeth wings to the prayer, as a speedy post sent to court upon life and death: “Our fathers cried unto thee, and were delivered” (Ps. xxii. 5). “The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth” (Ps. xxxiv. 17).—Samuel Rutherford.

Verse 7.—“The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.” I will not rub the questions, whether these angels can contract themselves, and whether they can subsist in a point, and so stand together the better in so great a number, neither will I trouble myself to examine whether they are in such-and-such a place in their substance, or only in their virtue and operation. But this the godly man may assure himself of, that whensoever he shall want their help, in spite of doors, and locks, and bars, he may have it in a moment’s warning. For there is no impediment, either for want of power because they are spirits, or from want of good will, both because it is their duty, and because they bear an affection in him; not only rejoicing at his first conversion (Luke xv. 10), but, I dare confidently affirm, always disposed with abundance of cheerfulness to do anything for him. I cannot let pass some words I remember of Origen’s to this purpose, as I have them from his interpreter. He brings in the angels speaking after this manner:—“If he (meaning the Son of God) went down, and went down into a body, and was clothed with flesh, and endured its infirmities and died for men, what do we stand still for? Come, let’s all down from heaven together.”—Zachary Bogan.

Verse 7.—“The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him.” This is the first time that, in the Psalter, we read of the ministrations of angels. But many fathers rather take this passage of the “Angel of the Great Counsel,” and gloriously to him it applies.—J. M. Neale.

Verse 7.—“The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him,” etc. By whom may be meant, either the uncreated Angel, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Angel of God’s presence, and of the covenant, the Captain of salvation, the Leader and Commander of the people; and whose salvation is as walls and bulwarks about them, or as an army surrounding them; or a created angel may be intended even a single one, which is sufficient to guard a multitude of saints, since one could destroy at once such a vast number of enemies, as in 2 Kings xix. 35; or one may be put for more, since they are an innumerable company that are on the side of the Lord’s people, and to whom they are joined; and these may be said to encamp about them, because they are an host or army (see Gen. xxxii. 1, 2; Luke ii. 13); and are the guardians of the saints, that stand up for them and protect them, as well as minister to them.—John Gill.

Verse 7.—“The angel of the Lord” is represented in his twofold character in this pair of Psalms, as an angel of mercy, and also as an angel of judgment. Psalm xxxv. 6. This pair of Psalms (the thirty fourth and thirty-fifth), may in this respect be compared with the twelfth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, where the angel of the Lord is displayed as encamping about St. Peter, and delivering him, and also as smiting the persecutor, Herod Agrippa.—Christopher Wordsworth, D.D.

Verse 7.—“Round about.” In illustration of this it may be observed, that according to D’Arvieux, it is the practice of the Arabs to pitch their tents in a circular form; the prince being in the middle, and the Arabs about him, but so as to leave a respectful distance between them. And Thevenot, describing a Turkish encampment near Cairo, having particularly noticed the spaciousness, decorations, and conveniences of the Bashaw’s tent, or pavilion, adds, “Round the pale of his tent, within a pistol shot, were above two hundred tents, pitched in such a manner that the doors of them all looked towards the Bashaw’s tent; and it ever is so, that they may have their eye always upon their master’s lodging, and be in readiness to assist him if he be attacked.”—Richard Mant.