1._Give ear, O my people! to my law. _From the close of the psalm, it may with probability be conjectured, that it was written long after the death of David; for there we have celebrated the kingdom erected by God in the family of David. There also the tribe of Ephraim, which is said to have been re... [ Continue Reading ]
3._What we have heard and known. _There seems to be some discrepancy between what the Psalmist had stated in the commencement, when he said that he would speak of great and hidden matters, and what he now adds, that his subject is a common one, and such as is transmitted from one age to another by t... [ Continue Reading ]
4._We will not conceal them from their children in the generation to come. _Some take the verb נכחד, _nechached, _in the _nephil _conjugation, and translate it, _they are not concealed or hidden. _But it ought, according to the rules of grammar, to be resolved thus: — _We will not conceal them from... [ Continue Reading ]
5._He established a testimony in Jacob. _(312) As the reception or approbation of any doctrine by men would not be a sufficient reason for yielding a firm assent to its truth, the prophet proceeds farther, and represents God as the author of what he brings forward. He declares, that the father’s wer... [ Continue Reading ]
6._That the generation to come might know them. _In this verse, the Psalmist confirms what he had said concerning the continued transmission of divine truth. It greatly concerns us to know, that the law was given not for one age only; but that the fathers should transmit it to their children, as if... [ Continue Reading ]
7._That they might set their hope in God. _Here the Psalmist points out the use to which the doctrine which he had stated should be applied. In the first place, the fathers, when they find that on the one hand they are instrumental in maintaining the pure worship of God, and that on the other, they... [ Continue Reading ]
8._And that they might not be as their fathers, a rebellious and provoking generation. _The Psalmist here shows still more distinctly how necessary this sermon was, from the circumstance that the Jews were exceedingly prone to revolt from God, if they were not kept in subjection by powerful restrain... [ Continue Reading ]
9._The children of Ephraim being armed, and shooting with the bow. _The sacred writer sets before us an example of this unfaithfulness in the children of Ephraim. As those who are pertinaciously set upon doing evil are not easily led to repentance and reformation by simple instruction, the punishmen... [ Continue Reading ]
10._They kept not the covenant of God. _This is the reason assigned for the Ephraimites turning their backs in the day of battle; and it explains why the divine assistance was withheld from them. Others, it is true, were guilty in this respect as well as they, but the vengeance of God executed on th... [ Continue Reading ]
11._And they forgat his works. _This shameful impiety is here represented as having originated in ingratitude, inasmuch as they wickedly buried, and made no account of the deliverance wrought for them, which was worthy of everlasting remembrance. Truly it was stupidity more than brutish, or rather,... [ Continue Reading ]
12._He wrought marvellously in the sight of their fathers. _The Psalmist is still to be regarded as condemning the posterity of the Israelites for their guilt; but he very properly, at the same time, begins to speak of the first ancestors of the nation, intimating, that the whole race of them, even... [ Continue Reading ]
15._He clave the rocks in the wilderness. _The Psalmist produces another evidence of the fatherly love by which God testified the greatness of the care which he exercised about the welfare of this people. It is not simply said that God gave them drink, but that he did this in a miraculous manner. St... [ Continue Reading ]
17._Yet they continued still to sin against him. _The prophet, having briefly declared how God, by a continual succession of benefits, had clearly manifested the greatness of his love towards the children of Abraham, now adds, that after having been laid under such deep and solemn obligations to him... [ Continue Reading ]
18._And they tempted God in their heart. _This is the provocation of which mention is made in the preceding verse. Not that it was unlawful for them simply to ask food, when constrained to do so by the cravings of hunger. Who can impute blame to persons, when being hungry, they implore God to supply... [ Continue Reading ]
19._And they spake against God. The prophet had said that they tempted God in their heart; _(327) and now he adds, that they were not ashamed openly to utter with their impure and blasphemous tongues, the impiety which they had inwardly conceived. From this, it is the more abundantly manifest that m... [ Continue Reading ]
21._Therefore Jehovah heard, and was wroth. _This hearing of God implies full and perfect knowledge; and it is a figure taken from earthly judges, who cannot punish criminals until they have become thoroughly acquainted with the cause. He is said to hear his own people, when he shows his favor and m... [ Continue Reading ]
23._But he had commanded the clouds from above. _It is a mistake to suppose that this miracle is related merely in the way of history. The prophet rather censures the Israelites the more severely from the consideration, that although fed to the full with manna, they ceased not to lust after the dain... [ Continue Reading ]
26._He caused an east wind to blow in the heavens. _We have here related how God granted the request of his people. This does not imply that he favourably regarded their fretful desires, but that he showed by the effect that it was in his power to do what they believed it to be impossible for him to... [ Continue Reading ]
The Psalmist expresses this still more clearly, by adding immediately after, (verses 30, 31,) that this pampering proved fatal to them, as if with the meat they had swallowed the flame of the divine wrath. When he says that _they were not estranged from their lust, _this implies, that they were stil... [ Continue Reading ]
32._For all this they still sinned. _It is a common proverb, that fools become wise when the rod is applied to them. Hence it follows, that those who have often been chastised of God, and yet are not thereby brought to repentance and amendment, are utterly to be despaired of. Such was the obstinacy... [ Continue Reading ]
33._And he consumed their days in vanity. _As the Psalmist here speaks of the whole people, as if he had said, that all without exception were speedily consumed, from the least even to the greatest, this might with probability be referred to that most grievous punishment which was confirmed and rati... [ Continue Reading ]
34._When he slew them, then they sought him. _By the circumstance here recorded, it is intended to aggravate their guilt. When under a conviction of their wickedness they acknowledged that they were justly punished, and yet did not with sincerity of heart humble themselves before God, but rather moc... [ Continue Reading ]
36._And they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue. _Here they are charged with perfidiousness, because they neither confessed their guilt with sincerity of heart, nor truly ascribed to God the glory of their deliverance. We are not to suppose that they made no acknowledg... [ Continue Reading ]
38._Yet he, being merciful, expiated their iniquity. _To show the more fully that no means had succeeded in bending the Israelites, and causing them to return to a sound state of mind, we are now informed that, although God bare with their multiplied transgressions, and exercised his mercy in forgiv... [ Continue Reading ]
39._And he remembered that they were flesh. _Another reason is now brought forward why God had compassion on the people, which is, his unwillingness to try his strength against men who are so constituted as to live only for a short period in this world, and who then quickly pass away; for the forms... [ Continue Reading ]
40._How often did they provoke him in the desert? _Here the preceding sentence is confirmed, it being declared that, as they had in so many instances provoked God in the wilderness, by the vast accumulation of their sins, (342) they must of necessity have perished a thousand times, had not God as of... [ Continue Reading ]
42._They remembered not his hand. _The sacred writer still continues to upbraid the Israelites; for the simple remembrance of God’s benefits might have restrained them, had they not wilfully and perversely forgotten whatever they had experienced. From this impious forgetfulness proceed waywardness a... [ Continue Reading ]
44._When he turned their rivers into blood. _The Psalmist does not enumerate in their order the miracles by which God gave evidence of his power in the deliverance of his people. He considered it enough to bring to their remembrance the well-known histories of these events, which would be sufficient... [ Continue Reading ]
50._He made a way to his anger. _(352) To take away all excuse from this ungrateful people, whom the most evident and striking proofs of the goodness of God which were presented before their eyes could not keep in their obedience to him, it is here again repeated that the wrath of God overflowed Egy... [ Continue Reading ]
52._And he made his people to go forth like sheep. _The Psalmist again celebrates God’s fatherly love towards the chosen people, whom, as we have elsewhere remarked, he compares to a flock of sheep. They had no wisdom or power of their own to preserve and defend themselves; but God graciously condes... [ Continue Reading ]
53._And he conducted them in safety, and they were not afraid. _This does not imply that they relied on God confidently, and with tranquil minds, but that, having God for their guide and the guardian of their welfare, they had no just cause to be afraid. When at any time they were thrown into conste... [ Continue Reading ]
55._He expelled the heathen from before them; and made them to fall into their part of the inheritance. _These words are an explanation of the concluding sentence of the preceding verse: they describe the manner in which the land of Canaan was acquired, plainly intimating that the Israelites were no... [ Continue Reading ]
56._And they tempted and provoked the Most High God. _Here they are upbraided for having, notwithstanding the many tokens of the divine favor by which they were distinguished, persevered in acting perfidiously: yea, even although God from time to time conferred upon them new benefits, to recover the... [ Continue Reading ]
58._And they provoked him to anger with their high places. _We have here adduced the species of defection by which the Israelites afforded incontestable evidence that they refused to be faithful to God, and to yield allegiance to him. They had been sufficiently, and more than sufficiently warned, th... [ Continue Reading ]
59_God heard it, and was wroth. _The prophet again shows that God, when he found that no good resulted from his long-suffering, which the people abused, yea, even treated with mockery, and perverted as an encouragement to greater excess in sinning, at length proceeded to inflict severe punishments u... [ Continue Reading ]
After it is said that Israel, whom God had loved so much, was become an abomination in his sight, it is added, (verse 60,) that they were bereft of the presence of God, which is the only source of true felicity and comfort under calamities of every kind. God, then, is said _to have abhorred Israel,... [ Continue Reading ]
61._And he delivered his strength into captivity. _In this verse, the same subject is prosecuted: it is declared, that _the strength _of God, by which the Israelites had been shielded and defended, was at that time _in captivity. _Not that his power could only be exerted in connection with the outwa... [ Continue Reading ]
62._And he shut up his people to the sword. _Other parts of the calamity which befell Israel in the time of the high priest Eli are here mentioned. God, in permitting the ark to be carried away, showed that he had withdrawn his favor from them. This was also demonstrated from the fact, that all the... [ Continue Reading ]
65._But the Lord awoke as one asleep. _Some understand this as spoken of the Israelites, implying that the Lord awoke against them; and others, as spoken of their enemies. If the first sense is adopted, it need not excite our surprise, that the Israelites are termed, in the 66th verse, _the enemies... [ Continue Reading ]
67._And he rejected the tabernacle of Joseph. _Those who suppose that the word _enemies, _in the 66th verse, applies to the Israelites, connect these verses with the preceding, and suppose the meaning to be, that the wound which God had inflicted upon them was incurable. But, preferring the other op... [ Continue Reading ]
68._But he chose the tribe of Judah. _The meaning is, that God preferred the tribe of Judah to all the rest of the people, and chose from it a king, whom he might set over all the Israelites as well as the Jews. And he chose _the mountain of Zion, _appointing a certain spot upon it to be the seat of... [ Continue Reading ]
69._And built his sanctuary like high places. _(368) In this verse, what is intimated is simply this, that Mount Zion was singularly beautified; which, however, ought to be referred to the heavenly pattern. It was not the will of God that the minds of his people should be entirely engrossed with the... [ Continue Reading ]
70._And he chose David his servant. _After having made mention of the temple, the prophet now proceeds to speak of the kingdom; for these two things were the chief signs of God’s choice of his ancient people, and of his favor towards them; and Christ also hath appeared as our king and priest to brin... [ Continue Reading ]
71._He took him from following the suckling ewes, etc. _The grace of God is farther commended from the circumstance, that David, who was a keeper of sheep, was made the shepherd of the chosen people and heritage of God. There is an allusion to David’s original condition; but the Spirit of God, at th... [ Continue Reading ]