Psalm 78 › Explanatory notes and quaint sayings (continued)
Verse 52. — "But made his own people to go forth like sheep." It is not said that they went forth like sheep; but that he made them go forth like sheep. It is not
a description of the character of the people, but a commendation of the providence and goodness of God, by which, afU-r the manner of a good shepherd, he led f'Tth from Egypt his own people with all security, like sheep snatched from the midst of wolves. -Miiscnlus.
Yirse 53. — "They feared not." First, they had no cause for fear, in their departure from Egypt. Though they saw the Egyptians slain, yet against them not even a dog moved its tongue. 2. They were all in sound health. 3. They were enriched With the spoils of the Egyptians. 4. They went forth a great multitude. 5. They supplied themselves with arms. Secondly, they feared not to enter the Red Sea, for the fear started by the approach of Pharaoh was swiftly suppressed. Thirdly, they feared not to wander in the desert for forty years, God going before his pillar. Fourthly, they feared not, though enemies attacked them. — Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 54. — "He brought them to the border of his sanctuary," or holiness; that is, to the holy land; so called in divers respects, but especially because of his sanctuary, the place of his residence; to which he makes all the land to be but as bounds and limits, because of the eminency of that place, the holiness whereof did, as it were, spread to all other parts of the land, as if the whole had been a sanctuary, and consecrated ground. It is therefore to the honour of the whole land, as well as of the sanctuary, that he calleth it "the holy border," a "border of his sanctuary."- Westminster Assembly's Annotations.
Verse 57. — "They were turned aside like a deceitful bow." The eastern bow, which when at rest is in the form of a o, must be recurved, or turned the contrary way, in order to be what is called bent and strung. If a person who is unskilful or weak attempt to recurve and string one of these bows, if he take not great heed it will spring back and regain its quiescent position, and perhaps break his arm. And sometimes I have known it, when bent, to start aside, and regain its quiescent position, to my no small danger, and in one or two cases to my injury. This image is frequently used in the sacred writings; but no person has understood it, not being acquainted with the eastern bow o, which must be recurved or bent the contrary way — »—, in order to be proper for use. If not well made, they will fly back in discharging the arrow. It is said of the bow of Jonathan, "it turned not back," 2 Samuel i. 22, i'nx rtfrj ^, lo nasog achor, " did not twist itself backward." It was a good bow, one on which he could depend. Hosea, chap. vii. 16, compares the unfaithful Israelites to a "deceitful bow; " one that, when bent, would suddenly start aside and recover its former position. \Ve may find the same passage in Jer. ix. 3. And this is pre cisely the kind of bow mentioned by Homer, Odyss. xxi., which none of Penelope's suitors could bend, called Ka^iruXa. r6£a and ayKt\o T<5£a, the crooked bow, in the state of rest; but T^OV *a\li>Tovovt the recurved bow when prepared for use. And of his trial of strength and skill in the bending of the bow of Ulysses, none of the critics and commentators have been able to make anything, because they knew not the instrument in question. On the -r6£ov dip* of Homer I have written a dissertation elsewhere. The image is very correct; these Israelites, when brought out of their natural bent, soon recoiled, and relapsed into their former state. — Adam Clarke.
Verse 57. — "Starting aside like a broken bow " (English Prayer Book): but if a bow breaks, it will not start aside, for the elasticity which should make it start aside will be destroyed. — Stephen Street.
Verse 57. — "They were turned aside like a deceitful bow." When the bow is unbent the rift it hath may be undiscerned, but go to use it by drawing the arrow to the head, and it flies in pieces; thus doth a false heart when put to the trial. As the ape in the fable, drest like a man, when nuts are thrown before her, cannot then dissemble her nature any longer, but shows herself an ape indeed; a false heart betrays itself before it is aware, when a fair occasion is presented for its lust; whereas sincerity keeps the soul pure in the face of temptation. — William Gurnall.
Verse 57. — The fourth thing is the deceitful bow, *;sn. ™?$, a slack or warping bow arcus do/i vel dolosus seu fallax (Hebrew) will be sure to deceive the archer that shoots in it; 'twill turn back into belly, as the archer's phrase is; and though he level both his eye and his arrow never so directly to the mark and think confidently with himself to hit it; yet, in the event, the arrow, through the warping of the bow, flies a quite contrary way, yea, and sometimes reflects upon the archer himself. Non semper feriet, quodcunque minabitur arcus, the bow smites not all it threatens, and the ill-fashioned or casting bow will turn in the shooter's hand, and send the arrow sometimes one way and sometimes another way; yea, and sometimes it rebounds into his own sides; or if it be a rotten bow (though otherwise fair to look upon), when an arrow is drawn to the head it breaks in the hand, and deceives the archer. The same thing happeneth when the string of the bow is naughty, and breaks when the arrow is drawn. This is no less than a divine Scripture allegory. Behold, such a fallacious, warping, and rotten bow is man's deceitful heart; his purposes and promises are the arrows that he puts upon the string, the mark he aims at is repentance, to the which (in affliction especially) he looketh with an accurate and intent eye, as though he would repent indeed; but, alas 1 his heart deceives him, as being unsound in God's statutes, Psalm cxix. 80; and hence it is that his promises and pretences do fall at his foot, or vanish in the air as smoke. Thus a deceiving, as well as a deceived heart, turns him aside, Isaiah xliv. 20, as it did those false Israelites: oh, then, look to the secret warpings of your own heart, and seeing you are God's bow, you must be bent by him, and stand bent for him, Zech. ix. 13; thereby you shall be like Jonathan's bow that " never returned empty," 2 Samuel i. 22. — Christopher Ness, in "A Chrystal Mirrour." 1679.
Verses 57 — 59. — Not to be settled in the faith, is provoking to God. To espouse the truth, and then to fall away, brings an ill report upon the gospel, which will not go unpunished. "They turned back, and dealt unfaithfully. When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel." The apostate drops as a windfall into the devil's mouth. — Thomas Watson.
Verse 58. — "High places." Or, altars, chapels, and such like places, to celebrate divine service in, out of the only place which was by him consecrated, and was alone acceptable unto him; or peradventure also dedicated to idols; and were so called, because that they chose out the choicest hills and hillocks for those purposes. — John Diodati.
Verse 59. — "When God heard this." The Psalmist represents the noise of the ill deeds of the people ascending to the ears of the Eternal. — Armand de Mestral, in " Commentaire sur le Livre de Psaumes." 1856.
Verse 60. — It is a heathenish delusion and false confidence to suppose that God is bound to any place or spot, as the Trojans thought because they had the temple of Pallas in their city it could not be taken, and in the present day the manner of the Papists is to bind Christ to Rome and the chair of Peter, and then defiantly maintain " I shall never be moved " (Ps. x. 6). For, they say, the ship of Peter may sink a little, but not altogether. Then the only point that is deficient is this, that they are not the ship of Peter, but rather an East Indiaman with a cargo of Indian apes and such like foreign merchandize, pearls, purple, silk, brass, iron, silver, gold, incense, lead, that they may carry on simony and make merchandize of religion, and deceive the whole world (Rev. xviii. 11 — 24). — Johann Andreas Cramer. 1723—1788.
Verse 61. — "And delivered his strength into captivity," etc. He calls the ark the strength of God, not because the virtue of God was shut up therein, or was so bound to it that he could not, unless through it, be powerful and strong: but because his presence, whose symbol the ark was, had always revealed its virtue and might to Israel, in the perpetual defence and various deliverances of that people. After the same manner he calls it the beauty or glory of God, because God by his own presence declared his glory among the people, and desired that it should be con spicuous by this external symbol. — Mollerus.
Verse 63. — "The fire consumed their young men." "Fire " here may be regarded as an image of destructive war, as in Num. xxi. 28. " For there is a fire gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon: it hath consumed Ar of Moab," etc. — A Ibert Barnes.
Verse 63 (first clause). — When religion is overthrown among God's people, let not the commonwealth think to stand: when God gave his glory unto the enemies' hand, " He gave his people over also unto the sword, and the fire consumed their young men." — David Dickson.
Verse 63. — "Not given to marriage." " Not praised: " viz. they had not been honoured with nuptial songs according to the customs of those times, see Jer. vii. 34; xvi. 9; xxv. 10. The meaning is, they had not been honourably married, because men were grown scarce by reason of the wars, Isai. iv. 1; Jer. xxxi. 22. Or, they had been married without any solemnity, like poor bond-women; or privately, as in the time of public calamities. — John Diodati.
Verse 64. — "Their widows made no lamentation." This implies the extent of the destruction, and is full of meaning to one who has been in an Oriental city, during a plague or other devastating calamity. At first the cry of wailing, which always follows a death in ordinary circumstances, is loud and frequent: but such cries do not increase, but subside, with the increase of the calamity and desolation. Death becomes a familiar object in every house; and every one, absorbed in his own losses, has little sympathy to spare for others. Hence the loudest lamentations cease to be noticed, or to draw condoling friends to the house of mourning; and therefore, as well as from the stupefaction of feeling which scenes of continued horror never fail to produce, a new death is received in silence, or only with sighs and tears. In fact, all the usual observances are suspended. The dead are carried out and buried without mourning ceremonies, and without the presence of surviving friends, by men who make it an employment to take away the dead, on the backs of mules or asses, from the homes they leave desolate. We have seen this. — Kitto's "Pictorial Bible." 1856.
Verse 64. — "Their widows made no lamentation." The meaning is, either 1. That being overwhelmed with sorrow they could not weep; or, 2. That being in captivity amongst the Philistines they were not suffered to lament the death of their husbands; or 3. That dying with grief, they lived not to make any lamentations for them at their funerals; or 4. That they were so taken up and oppressed with their own miseries, and especially with the miseries of the church and people of God in general, that they had not leisure to bewail their husbands; of both which last we have a clear instance in the wife of Phinehas in particular, 1 Sam. iv. 19, 20, who dying, made no mention of her husband. — Arthur Jackson.
Verse 64. — The daughter-in-law of Eli, when she was at once travailing, and in that travail dying, to make up the full sum of God's judgment upon that wicked house, as one insensible of the death of her father, of her husband, of herself, in comparison of this loss, calls her (then unseasonable) son Ichabod, and with her last breath says, " The glory is departed from Israel, the ark is taken." — Joseph Hall.
Verse 65. — "Then the Lord awaked." Know how to understand this and similar passages in Scripture, as to the Lord's sleeping and forgetting his people, Ps. xiii. 1; xliv. 33; Ixxvii. 9. These are not to be understood as to an universal and absolute forgetting and sleep of providence; for God hath not his vacation time; he still holds the reins of government in his hand, all the world over. Neither do they infer an absolute cessation of providence in reference to that object-matter which the Lord to our apprehension seems to forget, and lies dormant; for there is a promotingwork of providence, which we see not, and are not so sensible of for the present, as hath been shewed. Besides, such forgetting and sleep of providence, as it is such, bespeaks the beauty of providence in the way of bringing things to pass. It is so far from inferring an interregnum, or letting fall the sceptre of government, as that it is a glorious demonstration that God orders matters, and that wisely, whilst he seems to forget, and be as one asleep. As the night, as night, falls under the provi dence of God as well as the day, for there are the ordinances of heaven for the night season, Jer. xxxi. 35: so the dark night, when as to matters the Lord seems to sleep, is part and parcel of his all-wise model of government. The seventy years' captivity was a long night of the church's distress; and yet thus it must be according to the ordinance of providence. Jer. xxix. 10. — Thomas Crane.
Verse 65. — "Like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine: " whose spirit and courage is revived and inflamed by a liberal draught of generous wine; which comparison is no more injurious to the Divine Majesty than that of a thief's coming in the night, to which Christ's second coming is compared, 1 Thess. v. 2. — Matthew Pool.
Verse 66. — "He smote his enemies in the hinder parts." This has reference to the Philistines being smitten with hemorrhoids, or piles, whilst the ark was retained a captive by them, 1 Sam. v. 6, 12 The Greek version, as quoted by Suidas
is, he smote his enemies on the back parts of the seat; signifying, he says, a disease modestly expressed. — John Gill.
Verse 67. — The moving of the ark is not the removing of it; Shiloh has lost it, but Israel has not. God will have a church in the world, and a kingdom among men, though this or that place may have its candlestick removed; nay, the rejection of Shiloh is the election of Sion. — Matthew Henry.
Verses 67, 68. — "Refused." "Chose not." "Chose." As God's love is set out to us, as not independently pitched, but as having all the persons in his eye and having them all in view; so by this also, that he hath not pitched it upon everybody. This is distinct from the former; for an indefinite is not knowing whom he pitched it upon. Now, as he knew whom he pitched upon, so he hath pitched but upon some, not on every one.... If God would love, it was fit he should be free. It is a strange thing that you will not allow God that which kings and princes have the prerogative of, and you will allow it them. They will have favourites whom they will love, and will not love others; and yet men will not allow God that liberty, but he must either love all mankind, or he must be cruel and unjust. The specialness of his love greateneth it, and endeareth it to us. You shall find almost all along the Bible, that when God would express his love, he doth it with a speciality to his own elect, which he illustrates by the contrary done to others.... And you shall find frequently in the Scripture, when he mentioneth his choice of some persons, he holdeth up likewise on purpose his refusing of others.... When he speaks of an election out of the tribes, he contents not himself to say he chose Judah, but he puts in the rejection, the preterition at least, of Joseph. "He refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim: But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved."... He speaks of the times of the judges. The rejection of the ten tribes began to show itself soon; he says, he refused the tabernacle of Ephraim, but he chose Judah. After Solomon's time, they fell to worshipping of calves (let me tell you, it is the declining of election that undoes a nation, when election grows low, and ceases in an age), till at last the ten tribes were cast off, as they are at this day; but the tribe of Judah had election among them....
Though at the first, and for a long time, both were alike his people, yet at last election began to pass a discrimination. Ephraim, or the ten tribes, had at first the advantage of Judah in spirituals; for the ark, the token of God's presence, was committed unto their keeping at Shiloh; the seal of God's worship and ordinances was intrusted to them, and Judah must come up thither, if they would seek the Lord. But Ephraim, for their sinning against that worship, forfeited and lost it, and should therefore have the keeping of it no longer, no, not for ever any more; but Judah had it at Bethlehem, till at last it was fixedly seated in Sion, as " the earth is established " (ver. 69); and this for no other reason than that he had loved them, and out of love had chosen them (ver. 67 — 69). For otherwise Judah was, as well as Ephraim, alike involved in the same guilt of sin which had forfeited it, as ver. 56 — 60 of the Psalm plainly show. " Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies," etc. He speaks it of the whole in those verses, and yet takes the occasion against Ephraim to remove it for ever. Thus, the first are last, and the last first; and those whom God's presence is with for a while, upon some eminent sin God begins to withdraw from them and by degrees, as he did by that people of the ten tribes till at last he cast them off from being a people, but dealt not so with Judah, though these made a forfeiture of their temple and worship, and nation, in the captivity of Babylon, yet God restored all again to greater glory at last. The ground was that in verse 68, " Zion which he loved." — Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 70. — "He took him from the sheepfolds." The art of feeding cattle, and the art of ruling men are sisters, saith Basil. — John Trapp.
Verse 71. — " From following the ewes great with young." A good and steady lamber is of great value to a grazier, but I would advise all graziers to attend to this operation themselves, as few servants will be found to pay that attention which is necessary, or which a master himself would do, and the slightest neglect is, in many cases, followed with the greatest disadvantage. I have attended to the practice of lambing for several years, therefore, trust I am not a novice in it, or incomptent to give a description of it. Many lambs may be lost without its being possible to charge the lamber with neglect or ignorance, though greater attention on his part
might have saved many that otherwise perish The practice of lambing is at times very intricate, and is apt to exhaust the patience of a lamber. Sheep are obstinate, and lambing presents a scene of confusion, disorder, and trouble, which it is -the lamber's business to rectify, and for which he ought always to be prepared:
some of the ewes perhaps leave their lambs, or the lambs get intermixed, and tlu> owes which have lost their lambs run about bleating, while others want assistance These are only a few of the various occurrences which call for the immediate attention of the lamber. — Daniel Price, in " A System of Sheep-grazing and Management." 1809.
Verse 71. — "From following the ewes great with young." It hath been reported that a learned doctor of Oxford hung up his leathern breeches in his study for a memorial to visitors of his mean original; the truth I avouch not, but history tells us of Agalhocles who arose from a potter to be king of Sicily, and would be served in no other plate at his table but earthenware, to mind him of his former drudgery. 'Twere well if some would remember whose shoes they have cleaned, whose coals they have carried, and whose money they have borrowed, and deal gratefully with their creditors, as the good Lord Cromwell did by the Florentine merchant in the time of Henry the Eighth, when \Volsey* like a butcher forgot the king his master. 'Twas otherwise with holy David, who being in kingly dignity, graciously calls to mind his following the ewes great with young, when now feeding the sheep of Israel. His golden sceptre points at his wooden hook, and he plays the old lessons of his oaten pipe upon his Algum harp, and spreads his Bethlehem tent within his marble palace on Mount Zion. — Samuel Lee.
Verse 71. — "To feed Jacob his people."^ Observe a good shepherd must be humble and faithful, he ought to have bread in a wallet, a dog by a string, a staff with a rod, and a tuneful horn. The bread is the word of God, the wallet is the memory of the word; the dog is zeal, wherewith the shepherd glows for the house of God, casts out the wolves with pious barking, following preaching and unwearied prayer: the string by which the dog is held is the moderation of zeal, and discretion, whereby the zeal of the shepherd is tempered by the spirit of piety and knowledge. The staff is the consolation of pious exhortation by which the too timid are sustained and refreshed, lest they fail in the time of tribulation; but the rod is the authority and power by which the turbulent are restrained. The tuneful horn, which sounds so sweetly, signifies the sweetness of eternal blessedness, which the faithful shepherd gently and often instils into the ears of his flock. — Johannes Paulus Palanterius. 1600.
Verse 72. — In spite of his transgressions, which he always bitterly repented of, and which were therefore blotted out of the Book of God, he remains to all princes and rulers of the earth as the noblest pattern. In perfect inward truth he knew and felt himself to be "King by the grace of God." The crown and sceptre he bore merely in trust from the King of all kings; and to his latest breath he endeavoured with all his earnestness to be found as a genuine theocratic king, who in everything must conduct his earthly government according to the ordinances and directions of God. Therefore the Lord made all that he took in hand prosper, and nothing was clearer to the people than that the Lord was truly with the king. — Frederick William Krummacher, in " David the King of Israel." 1867.
Verse 1. — The duty of attending to God's word. Modes of neglecting the duty; ways of fulfilment; reasons for obedience; evils of inattention.
Verse 2 (first clause). — Preach on the " Parable of the Prodigal Nation," as given in the whole Psalm. — C. A. Davies, of Chesterfield.
Verses 2, 3. — I. Truths are none the worse for being old: " sayings of old." " Old wood," says Lord Bacon, " is best to burn; old books are best to read; and old friends are best to trust." II. Truths are none the worse for being concealed under metaphors: " I will open," etc., " in a parable; " " dark sayings." 1. They lead to more research. 2. They become eventually better known. III. Truths
t This is a curious specimen of mediaeval spiritualising, and is here inserted as such. It is amusing to note that a Tractarian expositor quotes the passage with evidently intense admiration.
are none the worse for being often repeated. 1. They are more tested. 2. They are better testified. — G. R.
Verse 3. — The connection between what we have " heard," and what we have personally " known " in religion.
Verse 4. — I. What is to be made known? " The praises of the Lord; " " his strength and his wonderful works." II. To whom are they to be made known? " To the generations to come." III. By whom? Parents — one generation to another. IV. How made known? 1. By hiding nothing. 2. By declaring everything God has done. — G. R.
Verse 5. — Scriptural tradition, or the heirloom of the gospel.
Verses 5 — 8. — I. Truth once started can never be arrested — verses 5, 6. II. Truth received binds the soul to God — verse 7. III. Truth rejected lights beacons for others — verse 8. — C. D.
Verse 6. — Care for the rising generation and for future posterity.
Verse 7. — Practical philosophy. I. Fix your hope wisely. II. Store the memory richly. III. So shall you guide the actions obediently.
Verses 7, 8. — On the deceitfulness of the heart, in disregarding providential dispensations in general. — John Jamieson's " Sermons on the Heart," I. 430.
Verse 8. — Stubbornness not steadfastness, or the difference between a natural vice and a gracious quality.
Verse 8. — The false heart (middle clause), with its left hand, " Stubbornness in the wrong " (first clause), and its right hand, " Fickleness in the right " (last clause). — C. D.
Verse 9.— Who were they? What had they? What did they? When did they do it?
Verses 9, 67. — The backsliding of prominent believers. I. The Lord's soldiers: who they were; belonged to God's chosen people; were distinguished by grace. Gen. xlviii. 17 — 20. Strong by God's blessing. Deut. xxxiii. 17. Honourable place among their brethren. Favoured with the tabernacle at Shiloh — verse 60. II. Their equipment: armour defensive and offensive; like that of others who triumphed. III. Their behaviour in battle: to turn back was traitorous, cowardly, dangerous, disastrous, dishonourable. IV. Their punishment — verse 57. Deprived of their special honour. Rev. iii. 11 — C. D.
Verses 12 — 17. — Obstinacy of unbelief. It makes head against God's majesty — verse 17; his gracious providence — verses 14 — 16; his interposing care — verse 13; his avenging justice — verse 12; his distinguishing grace — verses 12 — 16. — C. D.
Verse 14. — The Lord guides his people by being, I. Their shade in prosperity, cooling and calming. II. Their light in adversity, cheering and warming.
Verse 17. — Sin in its progress feeds upon divine mercies to aid its advance, as also every other surrounding circumstance.
Verse 18. — "Meat for their lust." In what respects temporal mercies may be so sought, and so become.
Verses 18 — 21. — The progress of evil. I. They are drawn away by their lust; verse 18. II. Lust having conceived bringeth forth sin: verses 19 — 20. III. Sin being finished bringeth forth death: verse 21. "Their carcases fell." — C. D.
Verse 19. — Unbelief a slander of God
Verses 21, 22. — Evil consequences of unbelief. I. The sin itself: they doubted the ultimate certainty, completeness, and reality of God's salvation from Egypt.
II. The aggravation of it: the object of it was God; they who entertained it were God's people: The aids to faith were overlooked: " though." III. What it led them to; inward sin— verse 18; outward sin — verse 19, etc. IV. What it brought upon them; verse 21. Fiery serpents, etc. — C. D.
Verse. 22. — Unbelief the mother of sorrows.
Verses 39 and 35. — God's memory of his people and their memory of God.
Verse 42. — The day of days. I. The enemy encountered on that day. II. The conflict endured. III. The deliverance accomplished. IV. The joy experienced. — B. D.
Verse 45. — The power of little things when commissioned to plague us.
Verse 47 (last clause). — Sometimes it will not shoot. Sometimes it will. And when it does it misses the mark.
Verse 52. — I. God has a people in the world. II. He brings them away from others. III. He brings them into fellowship with himself. IV. He brings them into fellowship with each other. V. He guides them to their rest.
Verse 55. — Divine supplantings. He supplants the fallen angels in heaven. One nation of earth by another (see all history). The thoughts and affections of the heart in regeneration, &c. — Isaiah Iv. 13. — C. D.
Verses 56, 57. — On the deceitfulness of the heart, with respect to the performance of duty. — J. Jurnieson. 1. 326
On the deceitfulness of the heart, with respect to the omission of duty. — J. Jamieson. I. 353.
Verses 70, 71. — I. David's calling. Two questions present themselves. 1. How was David's shepherd-life an unconscious preparation for his calling? 2. How did the divine summons, when it came, fit him for his mighty destiny? Observe — he was sent back to his flocks. Nothing could train him more perfectly than that waiting. Two great convictions awakened in him then, that formed in him elements of strength. (1.) The belief in a divine leader (see Ps. xxiii.) (2.) The belief in a divine choice. II. Its modern lessons. 1. There is a divine plan in every life. 2. There is a divine vocation for every man. 3. There is a divine Shepherd for every man. — E. L. Hull.
III. Promotion the act of the Divine will, verses 70, 71. IV. Our powers shall be equal to the position to which God promotes us. — C. D
