_An exhortation to a solemn praising of God. God challengeth that duty by reason of his benefits. God, exhorting to obedience, complaineth of their disobedience, which proverb their own hurt._ To the chief musician, upon Gittith: _A Psalm_ of Asaph. _Title._ ףּלאס הגתית על למנצח _lamnatseach al hagg... [ Continue Reading ]
TAKE A PSALM— _Lift up your voices in a psalm,_ or _take up a psalm._ Green.... [ Continue Reading ]
BLOW UP THE TRUMPET, &C.— _Blow up the trumpet on the first day of the month, on the new moon, on the day of our feast._ The feast of the new moon was always proclaimed by the sound of trumpets. The fixing the time of the new moon, for want of astronomical tables, was done in the following manner: t... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS HE ORDAINED IN JOSEPH— _A solemn charge, which he laid on Joseph when he marched out in the face of the land of Egypt. I heard a language I did not know:_ Psalms 81:6. _I removed,_ &c. God is asserting his title to their obedience, from three very remarkable providences towards them: his saving... [ Continue Reading ]
HIS HANDS WERE DELIVERED FROM THE POTS— _His hands from the pots through which they had passed:_ Chandler. See Psalms 68:13.... [ Continue Reading ]
I ANSWERED THEE IN THE SECRET PLACE OF THUNDER— _I spoke to thee in the obscurity of thunder._... [ Continue Reading ]
OPEN THY MOUTH WIDE, &C.— i.e. "I will satisfy thy desires, be they ever so large. Be faithful to me, and I will fill thee with blessings in profusion." The Chaldee reads, _Open thy mouth to the words of the law, and I will fill it with every thing which is good._ Houbigant renders it, _Who have enl... [ Continue Reading ]
THE HATERS OF THE LORD SHOULD HAVE SUBMITTED THEMSELVES— _The haters of the Lord should have lied to him._ "The _enemies of the Lord;_ or, (passively, by a different pointing,) _the hated of the Lord,_ who were at the same time enemies of the Jewish nation should have been obliged to _speak, fawn,_... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SHOULD HAVE FED THEM—WITH THE FINEST OF THE WHEAT— i.e. "He would have blessed thee with such plenty, that in the desarts thou shouldst have found the sweetest refreshments; and, without any care of thine, bees should have laid up honey for thee in the rocks, and holes of trees." In Judaea, the b... [ Continue Reading ]