EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

Title.—The LXX referring to the notion of the theme עָלַם, occultavit, render it ὑπὲρ τῶν κρυφίων, for the hidden; and the Latin, pro arcanis; and the rest of the ancient interpreters take the same course; the Chaldee referring it to Coreh, and those that were hidden, i.e., swallowed up, by the earth with him, whilst these sons of Coreh escaped; as if the mention of the sons of Coreh in the title, by whom this song was to be sung, referred the whole Psalm to that story. Accordingly, verse 2, when the Hebrew reads, “Though the earth be removed,” the paraphrase is, “When our fathers were changed from the earth.”—Henry Hammond.

Title.—The title is peculiar, “Upon Alamoth,” suggesting “a choir of virgins,” as if this virgin-choir were selected to sing a Psalm that tells of perils and fears and alarms abounding, in order to show that even the feeble virgins may in that day sing without dread, because of “The Mighty One” on their side.—Andrew A. Bonar.

Title.—“Upon Alamoth,” [To be sung] en soprano.—Armand de Mestral, quoted by Perowne.

Whole Psalm.—We sing this Psalm to the praise of God, because God is with us, and powerfully and miraculously preserves and defends his church and his word, against all fanatical spirits, against the gates of hell, against the implacable hatred of the devil, and against all the assaults of the world, the flesh and sin.—Martin Luther.

Whole Psalm.—Luther and his companions, with all their bold readiness for danger and death in the cause of truth, had times when their feelings were akin to those of a divine singer, who said, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” But in such hours the unflinching Reformer would cheerily say to his friend Melancthon, “Come, Philip, let us sing the forty-sixth Psalm;” and they could sing it in Luther’s own characteristic version:—

Verse 1.—“God is our refuge and strength,” etc. It begins abruptly, but nobly; ye may trust in whom and in what ye please; but God (Elohim) is our refuge and strength. “A very present help.” A help found to be very powerful and effectual in straits and difficulties. The words are very emphatic: עֶזְרָה בְצָרוֹת נִמְצָא מְאֹד, ezrah betsaroth nimtsa meod, “He is found an exceeding, or superlative, help in difficulties.” Such we have found him, and therefore celebrate his praise.—Adam Clarke.

Verse 2.—“Though the earth be removed.” John Wesley preached in Hyde-park, on the occasion of the earthquake felt in London, March 8, 1750, and repeated these words. Charles Wesley composed Hymn 67, Wesley’s Collection, the following lines of which illustrate this verse:—

Verses 2, 3.—The earth thrown into a state of wild confusion, the mountains hurled into the mighty deep, the sea tossed into a tempest, and the everlasting hills drifting on its foaming billows, are the vivid images by which the divine judgments on wicked and persecuting nations are described in the language of the prophets.—John Morison.

Verses 2, 3, 5.—Palestine was frequently subject to earthquakes, as might have been expected from its physical character and situation; and it is a remarkable circumstance, that although all other parts of the land seem to have been occasionally the scene of those terrible convulsions, the capital was almost wholly free from them. Mount Moriah, or the hill of vision, was so called from its towering height, which made it a conspicuous object in the distance. It stands in the centre of a group of hills, which surround it in the form of an amphitheatre, and it was chiefly to this position, under the special blessing of God, that it stood firm and immovable amid the frequent earthquakes that agitated and ravaged the Holy Land.—Paxton’s Illustrations of Scripture.

Verse 3.—“Selah.” See “Treasury of David,” Vol. I., pp. 23, 26, 27; and Vol. II., pp. 224-227.

Verse 4.—“There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God.” What is the river that makes glad the city of God? I answer, God himself is the river, as in the following verse, “God is in the midst of her.” 1. God the Father is the river: “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” Jer. ii. 13. 2. God the Son is the river, the fountain of salvation: “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.” Zech. xiii. 1. 3. God the Spirit is the river: “He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” John vii. 38; iv. 14. What are the streams of this river? Answer—the perfections of God, the fulness of Christ, the operations of the Spirit, and these running in the channel of the covenant of promise.—Ralph Erskine.

Verse 4.—“There is a river,” etc. This is that flood which Ezekiel beheld in vision, the waters that came down from the right side of the house, and rising first to the ancles—then as the prophet passed onward, to the knees—then to the loins—became afterwards a river that he could not pass over; for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over. Shall we see in this, with the angelic doctor, the river of grace which burst forth from Mount Calvary? streams branching off hither and thither, the pelagim of the Hebrew—“to satisfy the desolate and waste ground, and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth.” Job xxxviii. O “fountain of gardens,” “well of living waters,” “streams from Lebanon,” how do you, the “nether springs” of this world, bring to us something of the everlasting loveliness and peace of those “upper springs,” by which the beautiful flock now feed and lie down, none making them afraid! Or with S. Ambrose and S. Bernard, understand the verse of the “river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” And then the rivers of that flood shall indeed “make glad the city of God,” the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, where is the tree of life, that beareth twelve manner of fruits, and yieldeth her fruit every month; that country and that river of which the old liturgies say, “They who rest in the bosom of Abraham are in the tabernacles of joy and rest, in the dwellings of light, in the world of pleasure, in the church of the true Jerusalem, where there is no place for affliction, nor way of sadness, where there are no wars with the flesh, and no resistance to temptation, where sin is forgotten, and past danger is only remembered as a present pleasure.”—Thomas Aquinas, Ambrose, and Bernard, in Neale’s Commentary.

Verse 4.—“There is a river.” The river of God that flows from his throne. No enemy can cut off this stream from the church of Christ. Observe the reference to Isaiah xxxvi. 2; xxxvii. 25, compared with 2 Chron. xxxii. 2-4. These gently flowing, but full streams, are contrasted with the roaring waves of the sea.—T. C. Barth.

Verse 4.—“There is a river,” etc. The allusion is either to the river Kidron, which ran by Jerusalem, or to the waters of Shiloah, which by different courses and branches ran through the city of Jerusalem, and supplied the several parts of it with water, to the joy and comfort of its inhabitants. But the words are to be understood in a figurative sense, as applicable to gospel times; and this river either designs the gospel, the streams of which are its doctrines, which are living waters, that went out from Jerusalem, and which publish glad tidings of great joy to all sensible sinners; or the Spirit and his graces, which are compared to a well and rivers of living water, in the exercises of which the saints have much joy and peace; or else the Lord himself, who is the place of broad rivers and streams to his people, and is both their refreshment and protection; or rather his everlasting love to them is here intended.—John Gill.

Verse 4.—Compared with the waterless deserts around, Judæa and Jerusalem were well watered, and drought pressed more severely on the besiegers than the besieged. The allusion here is to the well-known rill and pool of Siloam. So in Isaiah viii. 6, the blessing of God’s protection is represented by the waters of Siloah, which go softly.—From “The Psalms Chronologically arranged. By Four Friends,” 1867.

Verse 4.—“The city.” The church of God is like a city, 1. Because a city is a place of security. 2. A place of society: what one wants another supplies; they have mutual fellowship. 3. A place of unity, that people may therein live in peace and concord. 4. A place of trade and traffic. Here is the market of free grace: “Ho, every one that thirsteth,” etc. Here is the pearl of great price exposed for sale. 5. A place of freedom, and liberty, freedom from the guilt of sin, wrath of God, curse of the law, present evil world, bondage to Satan, etc., etc. 6. A place of order and regularity; it hath its constitutions and ordinances. 7. A place of rest, and commodious to live in, and thus it is opposed to the wilderness. 8. A place of privileges. 9. A place of pomp and splendour; there is the king, the court, the throne. 10. A place of pleasure and beauty, Psalm xlviii. 2.—Ralph Erskine.

Verse 5.—“God is in the midst of her.” It is the real presence of Christ, and the supernatural power of his Spirit, which makes the church mighty to the conquest of souls. The church spreads because her “God is in the midst of her.” When at any time she has forgotten her dependence on the invisible intercession of her Head, and the gracious energy of his Spirit, she has found herself shorn of the locks of her great strength, and has become the laughing-stock of the Philistines.—William Binnie, D.D.

Verse 5.—“God is in the midst of her.” etc. The enemies of the church may toss her as waves but they shall not split her as rocks. She may be dipped in water as a feather, but shall not sink therein as lead. He that is a well of water within her to keep her from fainting, will also prove a wall of fire about her to preserve her from falling. Tried she may be, but destroyed she cannot be. Her foundation is the Rock of Ages, and her defence the everlasting Arms. It is only such fabrics as are bottomed upon the sand, that are overthrown by the wind. The adversaries of God’s people will push at them as far as their horns will go, but when they have scoured them by persecution, as tarnished vessels, then God will throw such wisps into the fire.—William Secker.

Verse 5.—When the Papists were in their ruff, and Melancthon began sometimes to fear lest the infant Reformation should be stifled in the birth, Luther was wont to comfort him with these words: “Si nos ruemus, ruet Christus una, scilicet ille regnator mundi, esto ruat, malo ego cum Christo ruere, quam cum Cæsare stare; that is, If we perish, Christ must fall too (he is in the midst of us), and if it must be so, be it so; I had rather perish with Christ, that great Ruler of the world, than prosper with Cæsar.”—John Collings.

Verse 5.—“And that right early.” Therefore, notice that all the great deliverances wrought in Holy Scriptures, were wrought so early, as to have been brought to pass in the middle of the night. So Gideon, with his pitchers and lamps against the Midianites; so Saul, when he went forth against Nahash, the Ammonite; so Joshua, when he went up to succour Gibeon; so Samson, when he carried off in triumph the gates of Gaza; so also the associate kings, under the guidance of Elisha, in their expedition against the Moabites, when they, according to God’s command, filled the wilderness with ditches, and then beheld their enemies drawn to their destruction, by the reflection of the rising sun upon the water.—Michael Ayguan.

Verse 5.—“Right early.” Rather, with the margin, when the morning appeareth. The restoration of the Jews will be one of the first things at the season of the second advent. It will be accomplished in the very dawning of that day, “when the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing on his wings.”—Samuel Horsley.

Verse 7.—“The Lord of hosts is with us.” There be three sorts of God’s special presence, all which may be justly accounted the church’s privilege. First, his glorious presence, or his presence testified by eminent glory, and the residence thereof. Thus God is said to be in heaven differentially, so as he is not anywhere else; and heaven is therefore called his throne or dwelling place (1 Kings viii. 39); as a king is nowhere so majestically as upon his throne, or in his chair of state; and this is so great a privilege of the church as that she comes not to enjoy it, until she be triumphant in heaven, and therefore is not the presence here intended. Secondly, his gracious presence or his presence testified by tokens of his grace and favour toward a people, whether visible, as in the temple where he chose to place his name, and wherein above all places he would be worshipped, in which respect he is said to dwell between the cherubim (2 Sam. vi. 2); or spiritual tokens of his grace, as assistance and acceptance in the duties of his worship, together with enjoyment and benefit of his ordinances. Thus he is present with his church and people in times of the gospel: “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Matt. xviii. 20. This kind of presence is a privilege of the church militant, that he will be with her in holy and spiritual administrations and ordinances; yet this is not the presence principally intended here. Thirdly, the providential presence, or his presence testified by acts of special providence, wherein the power, wisdom, or any other of God’s attributes are eminently put forth, either by way of assistance or defence for a people. Thus the Lord was present with Israel in the wilderness by the pillar of fire and of a cloud (Exod. xiii. 21): “And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light.” And as this presence was intended for a guide, so was it also for a defence to his people against their enemies, and at which their enemies the Egyptians were troubled. Exodus xiv. 20. By this kind of presence the Lord is with his church militant, in reference to her external regiment, and more especially in her warfare, standing up for her and with her against her enemies; and this is the church’s privilege in these words, “The Lord of hosts is with us.”—John Strickland, B.D. (1601-1670), in a Sermon, entitled, “Immanuel,” 1644.