This is another of the psalms of Asaph, the last of the group or collection that is found under his name. Compare the Introduction to Psalms 73. The occasion on which this was composed is not certainly known, and cannot now be ascertained. Grotius supposes that it relates to the time of David, and e... [ Continue Reading ]
KEEP NOT THOU SILENCE, O GOD - See the notes at Psalms 28:1. The prayer here is that in the existing emergency God would not seem to be indifferent to the needs and dangers of his people, and to the purposes of their enemies, but that he would speak with a voice of command, and break up their design... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR, LO, THINE ENEMIES MAKE A TUMULT - Are excited; are aroused; are moving in a wild, furious, tumultuous manner, rushing on to the accomplishment of their designs. They come like rolling waves of the sea. See the word used here explained in the notes at Psalms 2:1, where it is rendered, in the tex... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY HAVE TAKEN CRAFTY COUNSEL - The one word translated “have taken crafty” - ערם _‛__âram_ - means properly to make naked; and then, to be crafty, cunning, malignant, 1 Samuel 23:22. It is well rendered here, they have taken crafty counsel. The meaning is, they have made their counsel or their co... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY HAVE SAID, COME, AND LET US CUT THEM OFF ... - Let us utterly destroy them, and root them out from among the nations. Let us combine against them, and overpower them; let us divide their land among ourselves, attaching it to our own. The nations referred to Psalms 83:6 were those which surround... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THEY HAVE CONSULTED TOGETHER WITH ONE CONSENT - Margin, as in Hebrew, heart. There is no division in their counsels on this subject. They have one desire - one purpose - in regard to the matter. Pilate and Herod were made friends together against Christ Luke 23:12; and the world, divided and hos... [ Continue Reading ]
THE TABERNACLES OF EDOM - The tents of Edom; meaning here, the dwellers in those tents, that is, the Edomites. The word tabernacles or tents does not necessarily imply that the nation then led a wandering life, for the word came to signify in process of time a dwelling-place, or a habitation. The Ed... [ Continue Reading ]
GEBAL - The Gebal here referred to was probably the same as Gebalene, the mountainous tract inhabited by the Edomites, extending from the Dead Sea southward toward Petra, and still called by the Arabs _Djebal_. (Gesenius, Lexicon) The word means mountain. Those who are here referred to were a part o... [ Continue Reading ]
ASSUR ALSO IS JOINED WITH THEM - Assyria. Assyria was on the northeast of Palestine. The conspirators had secured, it seems, the aid of this powerful kingdom, and they felt confident of success. THEY HAVE HOLPEN THE CHILDREN OF LOT - The sons, or the descendants of Lot. The margin is, as the Hebrew,... [ Continue Reading ]
DO UNTO THEM AS UNTO THE MIDIANITES - That is, Let them be overthrown and destroyed as the Midianites were. The reference here is to the complete overthrow of the Midianites, as related in Numbers 31. AS TO SISERA - The captain or commander of the army of Jabin, king of Canaan. He was conquered by... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH PERISHED AT EN-DOR - Endor is not particularly mentioned in the history of the transaction in the book of Judges, but it is known that Endor was in the vicinity of Mount Tabor, and there is no improbability in the tradition which has fixed the site of the battle at or near Endor. The word or n... [ Continue Reading ]
MAKE THEIR NOBLES LIKE OREB AND LIKE ZEEB - These were princes or rulers of the Midianites, slain by Gideon, the one on the rock Oreb, and the other at the wine-press of Zeeb. Judges 7:25. The prayer here is, that the enemies who had conspired against the land of Israel might be utterly destroyed.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO SAID, LET US TAKE TO OURSELVES THE HOUSES OF GOD IN POSSESSION - The houses of God here mean the habitations of God, or the places where he dwelt among the people. As there was but one ark, one tabernacle, and one temple, or one place of constituted public worship, this must refer to other place... [ Continue Reading ]
O MY GOD, MAKE THEM LIKE A WHEEL ... - Or rather, like a rolling thing - something that the wind rolls along. The word גלגל _galgal_ - means properly a wheel, as of a chariot, Ezekiel 10:2, Ezekiel 10:6; or a wheel for drawing water from a well, Ecclesiastes 12:6; then, a whirlwind, Psalms 77:19; an... [ Continue Reading ]
AS THE FIRE BURNETH A WOOD ... - The same idea is here presented under another form. No image of desolation is more fearful than that of fire raging in a forest; or of fire on the mountains. As trees and shrubs and grass fall before such a flame, so the prayer is, that they who had combined against... [ Continue Reading ]
SO PERSECUTE THEM - So pursue them; so follow them up. The word “persecute” is now used in a somewhat different sense, as denoting pain or suffering inflicted on account of religious opinion. It means here simply to pursue. WITH THY TEMPEST - With the expressions of thy displeasure; with punishment... [ Continue Reading ]
FILL THEIR FACES WITH SHAME - As those who are disappointed and foiled in their plans - such disappointment and confusion commonly manifesting itself in the face. The prayer here is, that their enemies might be so baffled in their designs - that they might be made so to feel how vain and hopeless we... [ Continue Reading ]
LET THEM BE CONFOUNDED - Let them be ashamed. That is, Let them have that kind of shame and confusion which results from the fact that their plans have not been successful, or that they have been foiled and baffled in their schemes. AND TROUBLED - Disturbed; put to confusion. Let them be troubled a... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT MEN MAY KNOW - That all people may be impressed with the belief that thou art the true and only God. This was the design and aim of the prayer in the psalm. It was that there might be such a manifestation of the power of God; that it might be so evident that the events which had occurred could... [ Continue Reading ]