1._Shout unto God, all the earth _The psalm begins with this general declaration, which is afterwards reduced to particulars. (467) He addresses himself to the whole world, and from this it would seem evident, that he predicts the extent to which the kingdom of God should reach at the coming of Chri... [ Continue Reading ]
3._Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! _Here he proceeds to state the grounds why he would have us to praise God. Many content themselves with coldly descanting to others of his praises, but with the view of awakening and more deeply impressing our hearts, he directs us to address ours... [ Continue Reading ]
4._All the earth shall worship thee. _The Psalmist had good reason for insisting upon this one point again and again. Though all tongues were tuned to the praise of God, they never could adequately extol it; and yet such are the negligence and the perversity of men, that they will scarcely lift one... [ Continue Reading ]
5._Come and see the works of God _An indirect censure is here passed upon that almost universal thoughtlessness which leads men to neglect the praises of God. Why is it that they so blindly overlook the operations of his hand, but just because they never direct their attention seriously to them? We... [ Continue Reading ]
7._He ruleth by his power over the world _The Hebrew word עולם, _olam, _which I have translated _the world, _signifies occasionally _an age, _or _eternity; _(474) but the first sense seems to agree best with the context, and the meaning of the words is, that God is endued with the power necessary fo... [ Continue Reading ]
8_Bless our God, O ye people! _Although calling upon all, without exception, to praise God, he refers particularly to some Divine interposition in behalf of the Church. He would seem to hint that the Gentiles were destined, at a future period, to share the favor now exclusively enjoyed by God’s chos... [ Continue Reading ]
10_For thou, O God! hast proved us _We may read, _Though thou, O God! etc., _and then the passage comes in as a qualification of what went before, and is brought forward by the Psalmist to enhance the goodness of God, who had delivered them from such severe calamities. But there is another object wh... [ Continue Reading ]
13_I will come into thy house with burnt offerings _Hitherto the Psalmist has spoken in the name of the people at large. Now he emphatically gives expression to his own private feelings, and calls upon them, by his example, to engage individually in the exercises of religion, it being impossible tha... [ Continue Reading ]
15_I will offer unto thee burnt-sacrifices of fatlings. _We must suppose the speaker to be either David or one of the more considerable men of the nation, for none in humbler circumstances could have offered rich sacrifices of this kind. It is probable that David was the author of the psalm, and her... [ Continue Reading ]
17._I cried unto him with my mouth _He proves that he owed his safety to Divine interposition, from the circumstance of his having prayed, and in consequence, having sensibly experienced his kindness. Answers to prayer serve in no small degree to illustrate the goodness of God; and confirm our faith... [ Continue Reading ]
20_Blessed be God! who hath not turned away my prayer _He concludes the psalm, as he began it, with thanksgiving, and gives the reason of his not having met with a repulse; or, to take the figurative expression which he employs, of God’s not having _turned away his prayer. _This was, that he had not... [ Continue Reading ]