1._Come, let us rejoice before Jehovah_. This psalm is suited for the Sabbath, when we know that the religious assemblies were more particularly convened for the worship of God. It is not individuals among the godly whom he exhorts to celebrate the divine praises in private; he enjoins these to be o... [ Continue Reading ]
3._For Jehovah is a great God_. By these words the Psalmist reminds us what abundant grounds we have for praising God, and how far we are from needing to employ the lying panegyric with which rhetoricians flatter earthly princes. First, he extols the greatness of God, drawing a tacit contrast betwee... [ Continue Reading ]
6._Come ye, let us worship _Now that the Psalmist exhorts God’s chosen people to gratitude, for that pre-eminency among the nations which he had conferred upon them in the exercise of his free favor, his language grows more vehement. God supplies us with ample grounds of praise when he invests us wi... [ Continue Reading ]
7_Because he is our God _While it is true that all men were created to praise God, there are reasons why the Church is specially said to have been formed for that end, (Isaiah 61:3.) The Psalmist was entitled to require this service more particularly from the hands of his chosen people. This is the... [ Continue Reading ]
8._Harden not your heart, as in Meribah _The Psalmist, having extolled and commended the kindness of God their Shepherd, takes occasion, as they were stiffnecked and disobedient, to remind them of their duty, as his flock, which was to yield a pliable and meek submission; and the more to impress the... [ Continue Reading ]
9_When your fathers tempted me, they proved me _The Psalmist insinuates, as I have already remarked, that the Jews had been from the first of a perverse and almost intractable spirit. And there were two reasons which made it highly useful to remind the children of the guilt chargeable upon their fat... [ Continue Reading ]
10._Forty years I strove with this generation _(67) The Psalmist brings it forward as an aggravation of their perverse obstinacy, that God strove with them for so long a time without effect. Occasionally it will happen that there is a violent manifestation of perversity which soon subsides; but God... [ Continue Reading ]
11._Wherefore I have sworn in my wrath _I see no objection to the relative אשר, _asher, _being understood in its proper sense and reading — _To whom I have sworn. _The Greek version, taking it for a mark of similitude, reads, As _I have sworn _But I think that it may be properly considered as expres... [ Continue Reading ]