PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 1
Alexander Maclaren, 1826-1910 · 116,814 words · 157 reading sections
Psalm Xxxii.
The abrupt turn to description of the opposite disposition in ver. 5 suggests a sudden gush of penitence. As at a bound, the soul passes from dreary remorse. The break with the former self is complete, and effected in one wrench. Some things are best done by degrees; and some, of which forsaking sin is one, are best do…
758 wordsSECTION 122Psalm Xxxii.
But now the tone changes into solemn warning against obstinate disregard of God's leading. It is usual to suppose that the psalmist still speaks, but surely "I will counsel thee, with mine eye upon thee," does not fit human lips. It is to be observed, too, that in ver. 8 a single person is addressed, who is most natura…
659 wordsSECTION 123Psalm Xxxiii.
1 Rejoice aloud, ye righteous, in Jehovah, For the upright praise is seemly. 2 Give thanks to Jehovah with harp; With ten-stringed psaltery play unto Him. 3 Sing to Him a new song, Strike well [the strings] with joyful shouts. 4 For upright is the word of Jehovah, And all His work is in faithfulness. 5 He loves…
680 wordsSECTION 124Psalm Xxxiii.
The opening summons to praise takes us far away from the solitary wrestlings and communings in former psalms. Now "The singers lift up their voice, And the trumpets make endeavour, Sounding, 'In God rejoice! In Him rejoice for ever!'" But the clear recognition of purity as the condition of access to God speaks in …
661 wordsSECTION 125Psalm Xxxiii.
The work of creation is set forth in vv. 6-9, as the effect of the Divine word alone. The psalmist is fascinated not by the glories created, but by the wonder of the process of creation. The Divine will uttered itself, and the universe was. Of course the thought is parallel with that of Genesis, "God said, Let there be…
853 wordsSECTION 126Psalm Xxxiii.
If this historical allusion be not recognised, the connection of these verses is somewhat obscure, but still discernible. The people who stand in special relation to God are blessed, because that eye, which sees all men, rests on them in loving-kindness and with gracious purpose of special protection. This contrast of …
557 wordsSECTION 127Psalm Xxxiv.
1 (א) I will bless Jehovah at all times, Continually shall His praise be in my mouth. 2 (ב) In Jehovah my soul shall boast herself, The humble shall hear and rejoice. 3 (ג) Magnify Jehovah with me, And let us exalt His name together. 4 (ד) I sought Jehovah and He answered me, And from all my terrors did He deliv…
727 wordsSECTION 128Psalm Xxxiv.
Whatever be the occasion of the psalm, its course of thought is obvious. There is first a vow of praise in which others are summoned to unite (vv. 1-3); then follows a section in which personal experience and invocation to others are similarly blended (vv. 4-10); and finally a purely didactic section, analysing the pra…
846 wordsSECTION 129Psalm Xxxiv.
The hypothesis of the Davidic authorship gives special force to the great assurance of ver. 7. The fugitive, in his rude shelter in the cave of Adullam, thinks of Jacob, who, in his hour of defenceless need, was heartened by the vision of the angel encampment surrounding his own little band, and named the place "Mahana…
681 wordsSECTION 130Psalm Xxxiv.
The mention of the "fear of the Lord" prepares the way for the transition to the third part of the psalm. It is purely didactic, and, in its simple moral teaching and familiar contrast of the fates of righteous and ungodly, has affinities with the Book of Proverbs; but these are not so special as to require the supposi…
652 wordsSECTION 131Psalm Xxxiv.
The remainder of the psalm runs out into a detailed description of the joyful fate of the lovers of good broken only by one tragic verse (21), like a black rock in the midst of a sunny stream, telling how evil and evil-doers end. In ver. 17, as in ver. 5, the verb has no subject expressed, but the supplement of A.V. an…
600 wordsSECTION 132Psalm Xxxv.
1 Plead my cause, Jehovah, with those who plead against me; Fight with those who fight with me. 2 Grasp target and shield, And stand up in my help, 3 And unsheathe lance and battle-axe (?) against my pursuers; Say to my soul, Thy salvation am I. 4 Be the seekers after my life put to shame and dishonoured; Be the…
681 wordsSECTION 133Psalm Xxxv.
The psalm has three parts, all of substantially the same import, and marked off by the conclusion of each being a vow of praise and the main body of each being a cry for deliverance, a characterisation of the enemy as ungrateful and malicious, and a profession of the singer's innocence. We do not look for melodious var…
974 wordsSECTION 134Psalm Xxxv.
The psalmist's consciousness of innocence is the ground of his prayer and confidence. Causeless hatred is the lot of the good in this evil world. Their goodness is cause enough; for men's likes and dislikes follow their moral character. Virtue rebukes, and even patient endurance irritates. No hostility is so hard to tu…
982 wordsSECTION 135Psalm Xxxv.
The reverse of this picture of true sympathy is given in the conduct of its objects when it was the psalmist's turn to sorrow. Gleefully they flock together to mock and triumph. His calamity was as good as a feast to the ingrates. Vv. 15 and 16 are in parts obscure, but the general sense is clear. The word rendered "ab…
684 wordsSECTION 136Psalm Xxxv.
Again recurs the prayer for their confusion, which clearly has no wider scope than concerning the matter in hand. It is no breach of Christian charity to pray that hostile devices may fail. The vivid imagination of the poet hears the triumphant exclamations of gratified hatred: "Oho! our desire!" "We have swallowed him…
313 wordsSECTION 137Psalm Xxxvi.
1 The wicked has an Oracle of Transgression within his heart; There is no fear of God before his eyes. 2 For it speaks smooth things to him in his imagination (eyes) As to finding out his iniquity, as to hating [it]. 3 The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit; He has ceased being wise, doing good. 4 He plot…
1,184 wordsSECTION 138Psalm Xxxvi.
The two strophes of the second division (vv. 5, 6, and 7-9) present the glorious realities of the Divine name in contrast with the false oracle of vv. 1, 2, and the blessedness of God's guests in contrast with the gloomy picture of the "wicked" in vv. 3, 4. It is noteworthy that the first and last-named "attributes" ar…
826 wordsSECTION 139Psalm Xxxvi.
If God is such, what is man's natural attitude to so great and sweet a name? Glad wonder, accepting His gift as the one precious thing, and faith sheltering beneath the great shadow of His outstretched wing. The exclamation in ver. 8, "How precious is Thy loving-kindness!" expresses not only its intrinsic value, but th…
943 wordsSECTION 140Psalm Xxxvi.
Light and life are closely connected. Whether knowledge, purity, or joy is regarded as the dominant idea in the symbol, or whether all are united in it, the profound words of the psalm are true. In God's light we see light. In the lowest region "the seeing eye is from the Lord." "The inspiration of the Almighty giveth …
662 wordsSECTION 141Psalm Xxxvii.
1 (א) Heat not thyself because of the evil-doers; Be not envious because of the workers of perversity 2 For like grass shall they swiftly fade, And like green herbage shall they wither. 3 (ב) Trust in Jehovah, and do good; Inhabit the land, and feed on faithfulness. 4 And delight thyself in Jehovah, And He shall…
665 wordsSECTION 142Psalm Xxxvii.
37 (ש) Mark the perfect, and behold the upright; For there is a posterity to the man of peace. 38 And apostates are destroyed together; The posterity of the wicked is cut off. 39 (ת) And the salvation of the righteous is from Jehovah, Their stronghold in time of trouble. 40 And Jehovah helps them and rescues them…
929 wordsSECTION 143Psalm Xxxvii.
The first portion (vv. 1-9) consists of a series of exhortations to trust and patience, accompanied by assurance of consequent blessing. These are preceded and followed by a dehortation from yielding to the temptation of fretting against the prosperity of evil-doers, based upon the assurance of its transitoriness. Thus…
780 wordsSECTION 144Psalm Xxxvii.
The subsequent precepts bear a certain relation to each other, and, taken together, make a lovely picture of the inner secret of the devout life: "Delight thyself in Jehovah; roll thy way on Him; trust in Him; be silent to Jehovah." No man will commit his way to God who does not delight in Him; and unless he has so com…
754 wordsSECTION 145Psalm Xxxvii.
Various forms of the contrast between the two classes follow, with considerable repetition and windings. One consideration which has to be taken into account in estimating the distribution of material prosperity is strongly put in vv. 16, 17. The good of outward blessings depends chiefly on the character of their owner…
686 wordsSECTION 146Psalm Xxxvii.
The third section is shorter than the preceding (vv. 23-29), and has, as its centre, the psalmist's confirmation from his own experience of the former part of his antithesis, the fourth section similarly confirming the second. All this third part is sunny with the Divine favour streaming upon the righteous, the only re…
725 wordsSECTION 147Psalm Xxxvii.
The acrostic sequence fails at this point, if the Masoretic text is adhered to. There is evident disorder in the division of verses, for ver. 28 has four clauses instead of the normal two. If the superfluous two are detached from it and connected as one strophe with ver. 29, a regular two-versed and four-claused stroph…
776 wordsSECTION 148Psalm Xxxvii.
Vv. 37, 38, make the Shin strophe, and simply reiterate the antithesis which has moulded the whole psalm, with the addition of that reference to a second generation which appeared in the third and fourth parts. The word rendered in the A.V. and R.V. "latter end" here means posterity. The "perfect man" is further design…
305 wordsSECTION 149Psalm Xxxviii.
1 Jehovah, not in Thine indignation do Thou rebuke me, Nor in Thy hot anger chastise me. 2 For Thine arrows are come down into me, And down upon me comes Thy hand. 3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of Thy wrath There is no health in my bones because of my sin. 4 For my iniquities have gone over my head;…
799 wordsSECTION 150Psalm Xxxviii.
The first part of the psalm is entirely occupied with the subjective aspect of the psalmist's affliction. Three elements are conspicuous: God's judgments, the singer's consciousness of sin, and his mental and probably physical sufferings. Are the "arrows" and crushing weight of God's "hand," which he deprecates in the …
677 wordsSECTION 151Psalm Xxxviii.
This vivid picture of the effects of the sense of personal sin will seem to superficial modern Christianity, exaggerated and alien from experience; but the deeper a man's godliness, the more will he listen with sympathy, with understanding and with appropriation of such piercing laments as his own. Just as few of us ar…
804 wordsSECTION 152Psalm Xxxviii.
Open and secret enemies laying snares for him, as for some hunted wild creature, eagerly seeking his life, speaking "destructions" as if they would fain kill him with their words, and perpetually whispering lies about him, were recognised by him as instruments of God's judgment, and evoked his consciousness of sin, whi…
709 wordsSECTION 153(Two Vols.)
The juxtaposition of consciousness of sin in ver. 18 with the declaration that love of good was the cause of being persecuted, brings out the twofold attitude, in regard to God and men, which a devout soul may permissibly and sometimes must necessarily assume. There may be the truest sense of sinfulness, along with a c…
496 wordsSECTION 154Works By The Same Author.
Expositions of Holy Scripture. By the Rev. ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D., Litt.D., Manchester. Complete in about 30 volumes. Handsomely bound in cloth, 8vo, =7s. 6d.= each volume. To be published also by subscription, six volumes in a series, price =24s.= net per series. _First Series, Six volumes, comprising_:-- The …
341 wordsSECTION 155Works By The Same Author.
_Crown 8vo, cloth, price 5s. each._ A Year's Ministry. FIRST SERIES. _Sixth Edition._ A Year's Ministry. SECOND SERIES. _Sixth Edition._ Christ in the Heart; And other Sermons. _Second Edition._ Week-Day Evening Addresses. _Fourth Edition._ After the Resurrection. _Second Edition._ Last Sheaves. _Second …
392 wordsSECTION 156In The "Expositor'S Bible," First Series.
The Life of David, as Reflected in his Psalms. _Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d._ =The Expositor= says: "Real gems of exposition are found in this slight work, which might be sought in vain from more erudite and ponderous tomes.... We have nothing but admiration and praise for this valuable little reprint." =The Guardian= …
327 wordsSECTION 157*** End Of The Project Gutenberg Ebook The Expositor'S Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 1 ***
Transcriber's Notes: Obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been fixed throughout. Inconsistent hyphenation left as in the original text. Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will be renamed. Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright law means that no on…
192 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.