1._Nevertheless, my soul is silent towards God. _Should the translation I have followed be adopted, the psalm is to be considered as beginning abruptly, in the usual style of compositions of an impassioned kind. (409) Of this we have an instance in Psalms 73:0, where the prophet, who had been agitat... [ Continue Reading ]
The particle אך, _ach, _in the second verse, I would render in the same way as in the first. The believer triumphs in one encounter with temptation only to enter upon another; and here David, who appeared to have emerged from his distress, shows that he had still to struggle with remaining difficult... [ Continue Reading ]
3._How long will ye continue mischief? _The Hebrew word תהותתו _, tehotethu, _(412) which I have translated _continue, _or _lengthen out, mischief, _is rendered by some, _to meditate, _or _imagine mischief, _while others suppose an allusion to the putting forth of the tongue in sign of mockery. It h... [ Continue Reading ]
4._Yet they consult to cast him down from his elevation _I still would interpret the particle אך _, ach, _in an adversative sense. David, on the one hand, encouraged himself by determining to rest steadfastly upon the promise of divine favor; but, upon the other, he had before him the machinations o... [ Continue Reading ]
5._Nevertheless, my soul, be thou silent before God. _Here there may appear to be a slight inconsistency, inasmuch as he encourages himself to do what he had already declared himself to have done. His soul was silent before God; and where the necessity of this new silence, as if still under agitatio... [ Continue Reading ]
7._In God is my salvation _One expression is here heaped upon another and this apparently because he wished to rein that infirmity of disposition which makes us so prone to slide into wrong exercise. We may throw out a passing and occasional acknowledgement, that our only help is to be found in God,... [ Continue Reading ]
9._Nevertheless, the sons of Adam are vanity. _If we take the particle אך, _ach, _affirmatively, as meaning _surely _or _certainly, _then this verse contains a confirmation of the truth expressed in the preceding verse; and David argues by contrast, (420) that as men are lighter than vanity, we are... [ Continue Reading ]
10_Trust not in oppression and robbery _We are here taught that there can be no real trusting in God until we put away all those vain confidences which prove so many means of turning us away from him. The Psalmist bids us remove whatsoever would have this tendency, and purge ourselves of every vicio... [ Continue Reading ]
11_God hath spoken once. _The Psalmist considered that the only effectual method of abstracting the minds of men from the vain delusions in which they are disposed to trust, was bringing them to acquiesce implicitly and firmly in the judgment of God. Usually they are swayed in different directions,... [ Continue Reading ]