_A.M. 2989. B.C. 1015._ This Psalm seems to have been composed on occasion of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Chaldeans. The author, after lamenting the calamities of his country, and the insults of his enemies, calls to remembrance the glorious exploits which God had performed i... [ Continue Reading ]
_O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever_ So as to leave us no visible hopes of restitution? _Why doth thine anger smoke?_ That is, why doth it rise to such a degree, that all about us take notice of it, and ask, _What meaneth the heat of this great anger? Deuteronomy 29:24_. Compare Psalms 74:20,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Remember thy congregation_ That is, the Israelites, who are thy church, and whom at the expense of so many miracles, thou didst make thy peculiar people; show by thine actions that thou hast not utterly forgotten and forsaken them; _which thou hast purchased_ Hebrew, קנית, _kanita_, rendered _bough... [ Continue Reading ]
_Lift up thy feet_ This is spoken after the manner of men, and means, Come speedily to our rescue, and do not delay, as men do when they sit or stand still; _unto_ Or rather, _because of, the perpetual desolations_ Namely, those ruins of the city and country, which had lasted so very long, and which... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thine enemies roar_ Make loud outcries; either out of rage and fury against the conquered and captivated Israelites, now in their power; or rather, in the way of triumph for their success and victory. _In the midst of thy congregations_ In the places where thy people used to assemble together for t... [ Continue Reading ]
_A man was famous_, &c. The meaning, according to this translation, is this: The temple was so noble a structure, that it was a great honour to any man to be employed in the meanest part of the work, though it were but in cutting down the trees of Lebanon. And this interpretation is favoured by the... [ Continue Reading ]
_They have cast fire into thy sanctuary_, &c. The Chaldeans first polluted, and then set fire to Solomon's temple, and burned that stately and costly fabric down to the ground. And Antiochus set fire to the gates of the second temple, (1Ma 4:28,) and afterward the Romans razed it from the foundation... [ Continue Reading ]
_We see not our signs_ Those tokens of God's gracious presence with us, which we and our ancestors used to enjoy. _There is no more any prophet_ Either, 1st, Any public teacher. We have few or none left to instruct us in the law of God, and in divine things. Or, 2d, Any extraordinary prophet, who ca... [ Continue Reading ]
_How long shall the adversary reproach_ Namely, _thy name_, (which is expressed in the next clause,) by saying that thou art either unkind to thy people, or unfaithful in thy covenant, or unable to deliver us out of our miseries. _Why withdrawest thou thy hand?_ Why dost thou suspend or forbear the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou didst divide the sea_, &c. “The first part of this verse alludes to that marvellous act of omnipotence which divided the Red sea for Israel to pass over; the second part to the return of its waves upon the heads of the Egyptians, who, like so many sea-monsters, opening their mouths to devour t... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood_ That is, thou didst, by cleaving the rock, make a fountain in it, and a flood or stream to flow from it, for the refreshment of thy people in those dry deserts. _Thou driedst up mighty rivers_ Hebrew, נהרות איתן _rivers of strength._ The Seventy, howeve... [ Continue Reading ]
_The day is thine, the night also is thine_ It is not strange that thou hast done these great and wonderful works, for thou hast made the heavenly bodies, and appointed the vicissitudes of day and night, depending upon them, which is a far greater work. _Thou hast prepared_ Hebrew, הכינות, _hachinot... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou hast set all the borders of the earth_ Thou hast fixed the bounds, both of the habitable world in general, so that the seas, though they do encompass and assault them, yet are not, and never shall be, able to remove them, and of all the countries and people upon earth, whom thou hast confined... [ Continue Reading ]
_Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached thee_ Though we deserve to be forgotten and destroyed, yet remember thyself, and do not suffer thine and our enemies to reproach and blaspheme the name of that great and glorious Being, the Creator and sovereign Lord of the whole world, whom they ought... [ Continue Reading ]
_O deliver not the soul_ That is, the life; _of thy turtle-dove_ That is, thy church; _unto the multitude of the wicked_ Or, to the _wild beast_, as חית, _chajath_, often signifies: or, _to the troop_, namely, of her enemies. As if he had said, Thou hast delivered thy people into captivity; do not d... [ Continue Reading ]
_Have respect unto the covenant_ Made with Abraham, whereby thou didst give the land of Canaan to him, and to his seed for ever; and thou didst further promise, that if thy people were carried away captive into a strange land, and did there humble themselves and pray, and turn unto thee, thou woulds... [ Continue Reading ]
_O let not the oppressed return ashamed_ From thee, and from the throne of thy grace, to which they have recourse in this their distressed condition. “It is for the honour of God that they who apply to him for help should not, by returning without it, suffer shame and confusion in the presence of th... [ Continue Reading ]