_The Psalmist exhorteth to praise God: he prayeth for pardon of sin: the history of the people's rebellion, and God's mercy: he concludeth with prayer and praise._ הללויה _halleluiah._ THE first, and the two last verses of this psalm, are given us as David's in 1 Chronicles 16. It is therefore mos... [ Continue Reading ]
BLESSED ARE THEY THAT KEEP JUDGMENT— This seems to be spoken upon a view of what they had suffered from their sins. "Happy they, who, by a constant tenor of obedience, never provoke God to punish!" Mudge.... [ Continue Reading ]
REMEMBER ME, &C.— _Remember me, O Lord, when thou shewest favour to thy people._ Mudge.... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT I MAY GLORY— _That I may sing praises._... [ Continue Reading ]
OUR FATHERS UNDERSTOOD NOT— _Regarded not._ LXX, Mudge, &c. Green renders the last clause, _But rebelled against the Most High at the Red Sea._ See Psalms 78:17.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY WAITED NOT FOR HIS COUNSEL— _They did not wait his providence._ Mudge. The LXX render it, _They did not obey his counsel._... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT SENT LEANNESS INTO THEIR SOUL— _But thinned their numbers by death._ It is literally, _Sent thinness into their life;_ or, _in amidst their life._ Several of the ancient versions, with which Houbigant agrees, read, _Sent satiety_ or _loathing into their souls._ See Psalms 78:30.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY CHANGED THEIR GLORY— That is, their God, who was their glory; as Jeremiah 2:11. Compare Romans 1:23. This passage fully shews that the golden calf was intended as a symbolic representation of Jehovah. See Exodus 32:4.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE HE LIFTED UP HIS HAND— Lifting the hand was the usual form of swearing. As the history observes, that upon their refusing to take possession of the Promised Land, God swore that themselves should perish in the wilderness, but their children should be quietly settled in the possession of it... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN STOOD UP PHINEAS, AND EXECUTED JUDGMENT— The expression, _stood up,_ signifies arising to execute judgment. See Numbers 25:7. The best commentary on this psalm is a reference to the history.... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THAT HE SPAKE UNADVISEDLY— The word _unadvisedly_ is added in the Translation. The original says only that _he spake with his lips:_ the speaking with the lips, being a thing in itself indifferent and innocent, can only be concluded ill from the influence which the preceding words seem to have up... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SACRIFICED THEIR SONS, &C.— It is very certain, that the sacrifices of these gods were indeed as cruel as they are here represented. Philastrius observes expressly, says Mr. Selden, that the Jews sacrificed their sons and daughters to devils, in the valley of Hinnom; and Porphry's testimony is... [ Continue Reading ]
NEVERTHELESS, &C.— _And he beheld when distress was upon them, and he heard their cry._... [ Continue Reading ]
TO BE PITIED— Namely, so as that they did not endeavour their total extirpation. See Judges 13:1. But if this psalm was afterwards enlarged so as to be applied to the time of the Babylonish captivity, as some commentators suppose, then this verse in particular might probably relate to what is mentio... [ Continue Reading ]
_PSALMS 106:47_. AND _GATHER US_— The opinion of those who imagined this psalm to have been made in the time of the captivity of Babylon, Bishop Patrick thinks to have been very weak; for, says he, this verse upon which they ground that conjecture, may have another construction, and mean no more tha... [ Continue Reading ]