EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

Whole Psalm.—On a survey of this Psalm, it would seem not to admit of a doubt that the speakers are of the race of Israel; and yet expositors for the most part have found much difficulty in so understanding it, in this—the natural sense—so as even to be compelled to abandon it, owing to the impossibility of fixing on any period in the history of that people which would furnish an occasion for it, and verify its language. Thus, it cannot be referred to the times of the Babylonish captivity; for to this it is objected, and with reason, first, that verses 11 and 14 represent the speakers as “scattered among the nations,” and “a byword among the peoples,” whereas their exile was then confined to one country; and, secondly, that in verses 17-21 there is an assertion of faithful adherence to the worship of the true God, which he is called to witness as acquitting the sufferers of having brought the evil on themselves, while that captivity was a punishment of the nation for their apostasy, and especially for the grievous sin of idolatry. And the same objections lie to interpreting it with reference to the times of Antiochus Epiphanes and the Maccabees; beside that, the history of the canon of Scripture is decisive against assigning so late a date to any of the Psalms. Still less can the times of David be looked to for the occasion, since, though religion was then pure, there was, on the other hand, no dispersion of the nation nor any calamity such as to warrant the lamentation, “Thou hast cast us off, and put us to shame.... Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat,” etc. Whence it appeared that there was no alternative but to consider the Psalm as exclusively the language of the Christian church, and, in her primitive days, as the period at once of her greatest purity and suffering.—William de Burgh.

Whole Psalm.—S. Ambrose observes, that in former Psalms we have seen a prophecy of Christ’s passion, resurrection, and ascension, and of the coming of the Holy Ghost, and that here we are taught that we ourselves must be ready to struggle and suffer, in order that these things may profit us. Human will must work together with divine grace.—Christopher Wordsworth.

Verse 1.—“We have heard with our ears,” i.e., we have both heard and heeded it, with utmost attention and affection. It is not a pleonasmus, but an emphasis that is here used.—John Trapp.

Verse 1.—“Our fathers have told us.” Hear this, saith Basil, ye fathers that neglect to teach your children such things as may work his fear and love in them, and faith to rely upon and seek to him in all times of danger. They made their mouths, as it were, books, wherein the mighty deeds of the Lord might be read to his praise, and to the drawing of their children’s hearts unto him.—John Mayer.

Verse 1.—“What work thou didst.” Why only “work” in the singular, when such innumerable deliverances had been wrought by him, from the passage of the Red Sea to the destruction of the hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians? Because all these were but types of that one great work, that one stretching forth of the Lord’s hand, when Satan was vanquished, death destroyed, and the kingdom of heaven opened to all believers.—Ambrose.

Verse 1.—“What work thou didst.” While the songs of other nations sing of the heroism of their ancestors, the songs of Israel celebrate the works of God.—Augustus F. Tholuck.

Verse 1.—Three necessary requirements for learning well: 1. Intention and attention in him who learns, “we have heard with our ears.” 2. Authority in him that teaches, “our fathers have told us.” 3. Love between the teacher and the taught, “our fathers.”—Hugo (Cardinal), quoted in Neale’s Commentary.

Verses 1, 2, 4, 8.—Children are their parents’ heirs; it were unnatural for a father before he dies to bury up his treasure in the earth, where his children should not find or enjoy it; now the mercies of God are not the least part of his treasure, nor the least of his children’s inheritance, being both helps to their faith, matter for their praise, and spurs to their obedience. “Our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, how thou didst drive out the heathen,” etc. (ver. 1, 2); from this they ground their confidence; verse 4: “Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob;” and excite their thankfulness, verse 8: “In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever.” Indeed, as children are their parents’ heirs, so they become in justice liable to pay their parents’ debts; now the great debt which the saint at death stands charged with, is that which he owes to God for his mercies, and, therefore it is but reason he should tie his posterity to the payment thereof. Thus mayest thou be praising God in heaven and earth at the same time.—William Gurnall.

Verse 2.—

The two clauses of this verse stand in regular contrast. The first has the figure of rooting out one kind of tree, and planting another, as the Canaanites were rooted out of Palestine, and Israel was planted in their stead. (Compare Psalm lxxx. 8). The second figure is that of cutting off bad branches, and engrafting others in their place, in the same root, which is Palestine again.—Benjamin Weiss.

Verse 3.—“They got not the land in possession by their own sword.” The Lord’s part in a work is best seen when man’s part, and all that he as an instrument hath done, or could have done in it, is declared null; being considered as separate from God who moved the instruments, and did work by them what he pleased.—David Dickson.

Verse 3.—“Because thou hadst a favour unto them.” Free grace was the fundamental cause of all their felicity. God loved them because he loved them. Deut. vii. 7. He chose them of his love, and then loved them for his choice.—John Trapp.

Verse 3.—God’s love to Israel was free, unmerited, and amazing, and he gave them a land for which they did not labour, and cities which they built not, and vineyards and oliveyards which they planted not. Josh. xxiv. 13. In some cases neither sword nor bow were used, but hornets were the instruments of conquest. Josh. xxiv. 12. Since the fall of Adam all good things in the lot of any mere man are undeserved kindnesses.—William S. Plumer.

Verse 3 (last clause).—The prophet does not suppose any worthiness in the person of Abraham, nor imagine any desert in his posterity, on account of which God dealt so bountifully with them; but ascribes the whole to the good pleasure of God.... Nor does the Psalmist here treat of the general benevolence of God, which extends to the whole human race: but he discourses of the difference which exists between the elect and the rest of the world, and the cause of this difference is here referred to the mere good pleasure of God.—John Calvin.

Verse 4.—“My king;” apparently with a personal application to himself, the poet individually claiming his own place in the covenant between God and his people.—J. J. Stewart Perowne.

Verse 4.—“Thou art my king, O God; command deliverances for Jacob.” If there were no creature, no instrument in the world to help, yet would you not be at a loss in time of need, for he that is on the throne could do it alone. He can do all that ever you need, without any means or instruments. His bare word is sufficient, all-sufficient, for it, whatever it be, how great, how difficult, how impossible soever it seems. Such a power there is even in the word of the great King. There needs no more to deliver you, to deliver his people anywhere, how deep soever plunged, but only the command of him that sits on the throne. If the gospel, the interests of Christ, in these parts of the world, and the dear concerns of our souls, and the souls of posterity, were all as dry bones, in a more forlorn, and hopeless condition than they are, he could make all live with a word. He that is our King, that sits upon the throne, can command life into that which seems as far from living as a dry bone. While he keeps the throne, it is a senseless heart that fails through distrust of his power, even when all visible power and help fail.—David Clarkson.

Verse 5.—“Through thee will we push down our enemies”: literally, “We will toss them in the air with our horn;” a metaphor taken from an ox or bull tossing the dogs into the air which attack him.—Adam Clarke.

Verse 6.—“I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.” By “bow” and “sword,” he meaneth all manner of weapons and warlike instruments whatsoever; and by “saving,” he meaneth delivering from dangers, speaking under the person of one (because all the faithful are but one body), in the name of all the rest.—Thomas Wilcocks.

Verse 6.—“I will not trust in my bow,” etc. I will not trust in my own sword or bow, but in the sword of the Divine Warrior, and in the bow of the Divine Archer, whose arrows are sharp in the heart of his enemies, as described in the next (Psalm xlv. 3-5), which is connected by that imagery with this Psalm, as well as by its inner meaning.—Christopher Wordsworth.

Verse 6.—The less confidence we have in ourselves or in anything beside God, the more evidence have we of the sincerity of our faith in God.—David Dickson.

Verses 6, 7.—The two verses correspond exactly to verse 3. As there, in reference to the past, the salvation was ascribed wholly to God, so here in reference to the future.—E. W. Hengstenberg.

Verse 11.—“Like sheep appointed for meat.” This very strongly and strikingly intimates the extent of the persecution and slaughter to which they were exposed; there being no creature in the world of which such vast numbers are constantly slaughtered as of sheep for the subsistence of man. The constancy of such slaughter is also mentioned in verse 22 as illustrating the continual oppression to which the Hebrews were subject.—Kitto’s Pictorial Bible.

Verse 11.—“Like sheep appointed for meat,” and not reserved for breeding or for wool.—Arthur Jackson.

Verse 12.—“Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price.” The sense is: Thou hast given thy people unto the power of their enemies without trouble, without causing the victory even to be dearly bought, as one who parts with a good for any price, which he despises and hates, desiring merely to get rid of it.—E. W. Hengstenberg.

Verse 12.—“Thou sellest thy people for nought,” etc. Referring to the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, Eusebius says: “Many were sold for a small price; there were many to be sold, but few to buy.”

Verse 12.—“And dost not increase thy wealth by their price.” Thou hast not advanced thy honour and service thereby; for thy enemies do not serve thee more and better than thy people, nor yet so much.—Matthew Pool.

Verse 12 (last clause). Takest no money for them; literally, enhancest not the price of them, as a seller usually does to the buyer.—Daniel Cresswell.

Verse 14.—“Thou makest us a byword;” literally, for a similitude, מָשָׁל stands here, as in the original passage (Deut. xxviii. 37), in the common signification, similitude. The misery of Israel is so great, that people would figuratively call a miserable man a Jew, just as liars were called Cretans; wretched slaves, Sardians. So far are the people from being now “blessed of the Lord” in whom according to the promise, all the heathen are to be blessed.—E. W. Hengstenberg.

Verse 15.—“My confusion is continually before me.” When the visible church is visited with sad calamities, the true members thereof are partakers of the trouble, and sorrow, and shame of that condition.—David Dickson.

Verse 17.—Eusebius, narrating the cruelties inflicted upon the Christians by the Eastern tyrant, Maximinus, says: “He prevailed against all sorts of people, the Christians only excepted, who contemned death and despised his tyranny. The men endured burning, beheading, crucifying, ravenous devouring of beasts, drowning in the sea, maiming and broiling of the members, goring and digging out of the eyes, mangling of the whole body; moreover, famine and imprisonment; to be short, they suffered every kind of torment for the service of God rather than they would leave the worship of God, and embrace the adoration of idols. Women also, not inferior to men through the power of the word of God, put on a manly courage, whereof some suffered the torments with men, some attained unto the like masteries of virtue.”—From “The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius Pamphilus.”

Verse 17.—“Yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.” Although we cannot excuse ourselves from many other sins for which thou hast justly punished us, yet this we must say for ourselves, that through thy grace we have kept ourselves from apostasy and idolatry, notwithstanding all the examples and provocations, rewards proposed and promised, or punishments threatened to induce us thereunto; which we hope thou wilt graciously consider, and not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able to bear.—Matthew Pool.