PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 2
Alexander Maclaren, 1826-1910 · 146,707 words · 199 reading sections
Psalm Lxix.
The last division of this first part (vv. 13-18) begins by setting in strong contrast the psalmist's prayer and the drunkard's song. He is sure that his cry will be heard, and so he calls the present time "a time of favour," and appeals, as often in the Psalter, to the multitude of God's loving-kindnesses and the faith…
731 wordsSECTION 122Psalm Lxix.
But the immediately succeeding section warns us against pushing the Messianic character of the psalm too far, for these fearful imprecations cannot have any analogies in Christ's words (vv. 22-28). The form of the wish in "Let their table become a snare" is explained by remembering that the Eastern table was often a le…
714 wordsSECTION 123Psalm Lxx.[2]
1 _O God_, [be pleased] to deliver me, Jehovah, hasten to my help. 2 Shamed and put to the blush be the seekers after my soul! Turned back and dishonoured be they who delight in my calamity! 3 _Let them turn back_ by reason of their shame who say, Oho! Oho! 4 Joyful and glad in Thee be all who seek Thee! _And "Go…
419 wordsSECTION 124Psalm Lxxi.
[2] Italics show variations from Psalm xl. 1 In Thee, Jehovah, do I take refuge, Let me not be put to shame for ever. 2 In Thy righteousness deliver me and rescue me, Bend Thine ear and save me. 3 Be to me for a rock of habitation to go to continually: Thou hast commanded to save me, For my rock and my fortress …
718 wordsSECTION 125Psalm Xxxi. Psalm Lxxi.
1 In Thee, Jehovah, do I take 1 In Thee, Jehovah, do I take refuge; let me not be ashamed refuge: for ever: Let me not be put to shame In Thy righteousness rescue for ever. me. 2 In Thy righteousness deliver 2 _a_ Bend Thine ear to me and rescue me: me; deliver me speedily. Bend Thine ear and save me. The two v…
756 wordsSECTION 126Psalm Xxxi. Psalm Lxxi.
Vv. 12, 13, are woven out of other psalms. 12 _a_, "Be not far from me," is found in xxii. 11, 19; xxxv. 22; xxxviii. 21, etc. "Haste to my help" is found in xxxviii. 22; xl. 13 (lxx. 1). For ver. 13 compare xxxv. 4, 26; xl. 14 (lxx. 2). With this, as a sort of refrain, the first part of the psalm ends. The second par…
641 wordsSECTION 127Psalm Lxxii.
1 O God, give Thy judgments to the king, And Thy righteousness to the king's son. 2 May he judge Thy people with righteousness, And Thine afflicted with judgment! 3 May the mountains bring forth peace to the people, And the hills, through righteousness! 4 May he judge the afflicted of the people, Save the childr…
869 wordsSECTION 128Psalm Lxxii.
The psalm is not properly a prediction, but a prayer. There is some divergence of opinion as to the proper rendering of the principal verbs,--some, as the A.V. and R.V. (text), taking them as uniformly futures, which is manifestly wrong; some taking them as expressions of wish throughout, which is also questionable; an…
803 wordsSECTION 129Psalm Lxxii.
The perpetuity of the king's reign and of his subjects' peace is the psalmists second aspiration (vv. 5-7). The "Thee" of ver. 5 presents a difficulty, as it is doubtful to whom it refers. Throughout the psalm the king is spoken _of_, and never _to_; and if it is further noticed that, in the preceding verses, God has b…
824 wordsSECTION 130Psalm Lxxii.
With ver. 8 the singer takes a still loftier flight, and prays for the universality of the king's dominion. In that verse the form of the verb is that which expresses desire, but in ver. 9 and following verses the verbs may be rendered as simple futures. Confident prayers insensibly melt into assurances of their own fu…
866 wordsSECTION 131Psalm Lxxii.
The king is represented in ver. 14 as taking on himself the office of Goel, or Kinsman-Redeemer, and ransoming his subjects' lives from "deceit and violence." That "their blood is precious in his eyes" is another way of saying that they are too dear to him to be suffered to perish. This king's treasure is the life of h…
924 wordsSECTION 132Psalm Lxxii.
But bright as are the poet's visions concerning the kingdom, his last gaze is fastened on its king, and he prays that his name may last for ever, and may send forth shoots as long as the sun shines in the sky. He probably meant no more than a prayer for the continual duration of the dynasty, and his conception of the n…
310 wordsSECTION 133Psalm Lxxiii.
1 Surely God is good to Israel, To those who are pure in heart; 2 But I--within a little of turning aside were my feet, All but slipping were my steps. 3 For I was envious of the foolish, When I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4 For they have no bonds [dragging them] to death, And their body is lusty. 5 In th…
662 wordsSECTION 134Psalm Lxxiii.
The introduction (vv. 1, 2) asserts, with an accent of assurance, the conviction which the psalmist had all but lost, and therefore had the more truly won. The initial word "Surely" is an indication of his past struggle, when the truth that God was good to Israel had seemed so questionable. "This I have learned by doub…
907 wordsSECTION 135Psalm Lxxiii.
The next group of verses (vv. 7-10) further describes the unfeeling insolence begotten of unbroken prosperity, and the crowd of hangers-on, admirers, and imitators attendant on the successful wicked. "Out of fat their eye flashes" gives a graphic picture of the fierce glare of insolent eyes, set in well-fed faces. But …
774 wordsSECTION 136Psalm Lxxiii.
Ewald, Delitzsch, and others take all the verses of this group as spoken by the followers of the ungodly; and, unquestionably, that view avoids the difficulty of allotting the parts to different unnamed interlocutors. But it raises difficulties of another kind--as, for instance, those of supposing that these adulators …
723 wordsSECTION 137Psalm Lxxiii.
But faith finds a path where speculation discerns none. The psalmist "went into the sanctuary (literally, sanctuaries) of God," and there light streamed in on him, in which he saw light. Not mere entrance into the place of worship, but closer approach to the God who dwelt there, cleared away the mists. Communion with G…
765 wordsSECTION 138Psalm Lxxiii.
He had all but lost his hold of God; but though his feet had almost gone astray, his hand had been grasped by God, and that strong hold had kept him from utterly falling. The pledge of continual communion with God is not our own vacillating, wayward hearts, but God's gentle, strong clasp, which will not let us go. Thus…
668 wordsSECTION 139Psalm Lxxiv.
1 Why, O God, hast Thou cast us off for ever? [Why] smokes Thine anger against the flock of Thy pasture? 2 Remember Thy congregation [which] Thou didst acquire of old, Didst redeem [to be] the tribe of Thine inheritance, Mount Zion, on which Thou hast dwelt. 3 Lift up Thy steps to the everlasting ruins, The enemy…
829 wordsSECTION 140Psalm Lxxiv.
The psalm begins with a complaining cry to God (vv. 1-3), which passes into a piteous detail of the nation's misery (vv. 4-9), whence it rises into petition (vv. 10, 11), stays trembling faith by gazing upon His past deeds of help and the wonders of His creative power (vv. 12-17), and closes with beseeching God to vind…
1,018 wordsSECTION 141Psalm Lxxiv.
Vv. 10 and 11 are the kernel of the psalm, the rest of which is folded round them symmetrically. Starting from this centre and working outwards, we note that it is preceded by six verses dilating on the profanations of the name of God, and followed by six setting forth the glories of that name in the past. The connecti…
689 wordsSECTION 142Psalm Lxxiv.
In ver. 15 another pregnant expression occurs, which is best filled out as above, the reference being to cleaving the rock for the flow of water, with which is contrasted in _b_ the drying up of the Jordan. Thus the whole of the Exodus period is covered. It is noteworthy that the psalmist adduces only wonders wrought o…
723 wordsSECTION 143Psalm Lxxv.
1 We give thanks to Thee, O God, we give thanks; And [that] Thy name is near, Thy wondrous works declare 2 "When I seize the set time, I, I judge [in] equity. 3 Dissolved [in fear] are earth and its inhabitants: I, I set firm its pillars. Selah. 4 I say to the fools, be not foolish: And to the wicked, Lift not u…
963 wordsSECTION 144Psalm Lxxv.
Such a "set time" has arrived, as ver. 3 proceeds to declare. Oppression and corruption have gone so far that "the earth and its inhabitants" are as if "dissolved." All things are rushing to ruin. The psalmist does not distinguish between the physical and the moral here. His figure is employed in reference to both orde…
973 wordsSECTION 145Psalm Lxxvi.
And how does the prospect affect the psalmist? It moves him, first, to solemn praise--not only because God has proved Himself by these terrible things in righteousness to be the God of His people, but also because He has thereby manifested His own character as righteous and hating evil. It is no selfish nor cruel joy w…
881 wordsSECTION 146Psalm Lxxvi.
Ver. 5 gives some support to the existing text, by its representation of the stout-hearted foe as "spoiled." They are robbed of their might, their weapons, and their life. How graphically the psalmist sets before the eyes of his readers the process of destruction from its beginning! He shows us the warriors falling asl…
601 wordsSECTION 147Psalm Lxxvii.
1 [I would lift] my voice to God and cry; [I would lift] my voice to God, that He may give ear to me. 2 In the day of my straits I sought the Lord: My hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing; My soul refused to be comforted. 3 [When] I remember God, I must sigh; [When] I muse, my spirit is covered [wi…
698 wordsSECTION 148Psalm Lxxvii.
The psalmist's agitation colours his language, which fluctuates in the first six verses between expressions of resolve or desire (vv. 1, 3, 6) and simple statement of fact (vv. 2, 4, 5). He has prayed long and earnestly, and nothing has been laid in answer on his outstretched palm. Therefore his cry has died down into …
835 wordsSECTION 149Psalm Lxxvii.
The comparison of present national evils with former happiness naturally suggests such questions. Obviously, the casting off spoken of in ver. 7 is that of the nation, and hence its mention confirms the view that the psalmist is suffering under public calamities. All the questions mean substantially one thing--has God …
711 wordsSECTION 150Psalm Lxxvii.
The remainder of the psalm holds fast by that thought of the great deeds of God in the past. It is a signal example of how the same facts remembered may depress or gladden, according to the point of view from which they are regarded. We can elect whether memory shall nourish despondency or gladness. Yet the alternative…
674 wordsSECTION 151Psalm Lxxvii.
The picture in the psalm is most striking. The continuous short clauses crash and flash like the thunders and lightnings. That energetic metaphor of the waters writhing as if panic-struck is more violent than Western taste approves, but its emotional vigour as a rendering of the fact is unmistakable. "Thine arrows went…
422 wordsSECTION 152Psalm Lxxviii.
1 Give ear, my people, to my law, Bow your ear to the sayings of my mouth. 2 I will open my mouth in a parable, I will utter riddles from the ancient days, 3 What we have heard and known And our fathers have told us, 4 We will not hide from their sons, Recounting to the generation to come the praises of Jehovah,…
666 wordsSECTION 153Psalm Lxxviii.
38 But He is compassionate, covers iniquity, and destroys not; Yea, many a time He takes back His anger, And rouses not all His wrath. 39 So He remembered that they were [but] flesh, A wind that goes and comes not again. 40 How often did they provoke Him in the wilderness, Did they grieve Him in the desert! 41 Y…
963 wordsSECTION 154Psalm Lxxviii.
There are no regular strophes, but a tendency to run into paragraphs of four verses, with occasional irregularities. Vv. 1-4 declare the singer's didactic purpose. He deeply feels the solidarity of the nation through all generations--how fathers and children are knit by mystic ties, and by possession of an eternal tre…
789 wordsSECTION 155Psalm Lxxviii.
The group of four verses (13-16) sets forth God's mighty deeds; the next quartet of verses (17-20) tells of Israel's requital. It is significant of the thoughts which filled the singer's heart, that he begins the latter group with declaring that, notwithstanding such tokens of God's care, the people "went on to sin yet…
717 wordsSECTION 156Psalm Lxxviii.
From the midst of this sad narrative of faithlessness, springs up, like a fountain in a weary land, or a flower among half-cooled lava blocks, the lovely description of God's forbearance in vv. 38, 39. It must not be read as if it merely carried on the narrative, and was in continuation of the preceding clauses. The ps…
734 wordsSECTION 157Psalm Lxxviii.
The two last groups of verses paint God's great mercy in delivering the nation from such misery. The daring figure of His awaking as from sleep and dashing upon Israel's foes, who are also His, with a shout like that of a hero stimulated by wine, is more accordant with Eastern fervour than with our colder imagination; …
279 wordsSECTION 158Psalm Lxxix.
1 O God, [the] heathen have come into Thine inheritance, They have profaned Thy holy Temple, They have made Jerusalem heaps of stones. 2 They have given the corpses of Thy servants [as] meat to the fowls of the heavens, The flesh of Thy favoured Ones to the beasts of the earth. 3 They have poured out their blood …
720 wordsSECTION 159Psalm Lxxix.
A second argument against the Maccabean date is based upon the quotation of ver. 3 in 1 Macc. vii. 16, which it introduces by the usual formula of quotation from Scripture. It is urged that a composition so recent as the psalm would be, if of Maccabean date, would not be likely to be thus referred to. But this argument…
752 wordsSECTION 160Psalm Lxxix.
The closing verse of the strophe (ver. 8) is intimately connected with the next, which we take as beginning the third strophe: but this connection does not set aside the strophical division, though it somewhat obscures it. The distinction between the similar petitions of vv. 8, 9, is sufficient to warrant our recogniti…
691 wordsSECTION 161Psalm Lxxx.
1 Shepherd of Israel, give ear, Thou who leddest Joseph like a flock, Thou that sittest [throned upon] the cherubim, shine forth. 2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up Thy strength, And come for salvation for us. 3 O God, restore us, And cause Thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. 4 Jehovah, God…
733 wordsSECTION 162Psalm Lxxx.
In the first strophe "Shepherd of Israel" reminds us of Jacob's blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh, in which he invoked "the God who shepherded me all my life long" to "bless the lads," and of the title in Gen. xlix. 24, "the shepherd, the stone of Israel." The comparison of the nation to a flock is characteristic of the…
692 wordsSECTION 163Psalm Lxxx.
The urgent question "How long?" is not petulant impatience, but hope deferred, and, though sick at heart, still cleaving to God and remonstrating for long-protracted calamities. The bold imagery of ver. 4 _b_ cannot well be reproduced in translation. The rendering "wilt Thou be angry?" is but a feeble reproduction of t…
774 wordsSECTION 164Psalm Lxxx.
In ver. 12 the miserable contrast of present desolation is spread before God, with the bold and yet submissive question "Why?" The vineyard wall is thrown down, and the vine lies exposed to every vagrant passenger, and to every destructive creature. Swine from the woods burrow at its roots, and "whatever moves on the p…
687 wordsSECTION 165Psalm Lxxxi.
The psalm closes with a vow of grateful adhesion to God as the result of His renewed mercy. They who have learned how bitter a thing it is to turn away from God, and how blessed when He turns again to them, and turns back their miseries and their sins, have good reason for not again departing from Him. But if they are …
713 wordsSECTION 166Psalm Lxxxi.
Olshausen, followed by Cheyne, regards the psalm as made up of two fragments (vv. 1-5 _a_, and 5 _c_-16). But surely the exhortations and promises of the latter portion are most relevant to the summons to the festival contained in the former part, and there could be no more natural way of preparing for the right commem…
932 wordsSECTION 167Psalm Lxxxi.
The Divine Voice begins with recapitulating the facts which the feast was intended to commemorate--namely, the act of emancipation from Egyptian bondage (ver. 6), and the miracles of the wilderness sojourn (ver. 7). The compulsory labour, from which God delivered the people, is described by two terms, of which the form…
959 wordsSECTION 168Psalm Lxxxi.
In vv. 11, 12, the Divine Voice laments the failure of benefits and commandments and promises to win Israel to God. There is a world of baffled tenderness and almost wondering rebuke in the designation of the rebels as "My people." It would have been no cause of astonishment if other nations had not listened; but that …
778 wordsSECTION 169Psalm Lxxxii.
1 God stands in the congregation of God, In the midst of the gods He judges. 2 How long win ye judge injustice, And accept the persons of wicked men? Selah. 3 Right the weak and the orphan, Vindicate the afflicted and the poor. 4 Rescue the weak and needy, From the hand of the wicked deliver [them]. 5 They know…
774 wordsSECTION 170Psalm Lxxxii.
Our Lord's reference to ver. 6 in John x. 34-38 is, by the present writer, accepted as authoritatively settling both the meaning and the ground of the remarkable name of "gods" for human judges. It does not need that we should settle the mystery of His emptying Himself, or trace the limits of His human knowledge, in or…
681 wordsSECTION 171Psalm Lxxxiii.
1 O God, let there be no rest to Thee, Be not dumb, and keep not still, O God. 2 For, behold, Thy enemies make a tumult, And they who hate Thee lift up the head. 3 Against Thy people they make a crafty plot, And consult together against Thy hidden ones. 4 They say, Come, and let us cut them off from [being] a nat…
828 wordsSECTION 172Psalm Lxxxiii.
The psalm naturally falls into two parts, separated by Selah, of which the first (vv. 1-8) describes Israel's extremity, and the second (vv. 9-18) is its supplication. The psalmist begins with earnest invocation of God's help, beseeching Him to break His apparent inactivity and silence. "Let there be no rest to Thee" …
1,018 wordsSECTION 173Psalm Lxxxiii.
The psalm rises to high poetic fervour and imaginative beauty in the terrible petitions of vv. 13-16. The word rendered "whirling dust" in ver. 13 is somewhat doubtful. It literally means _a rolling thing_, but what particular thing of the sort is difficult to determine. The reference is perhaps to "spherical masses of…
603 wordsSECTION 174Psalm Lxxxiv.
1 How lovely are Thy dwellings, Jehovah of Hosts! 2 My soul longs, yea, even languishes, for the courts of Jehovah, My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. 3 Yea, the sparrow has found a house, And the swallow a nest for herself, where she lays her young, Thine altars, Jehovah of Hosts. My King and my …
677 wordsSECTION 175Psalm Lxxxiv.
The man who thus interpreted his own psalm had no unworthy conception of the relation between outward nearness to the sanctuary, and inward communion with the God who dwelt there. The psalmist's yearning for the Temple was occasioned by his longing for God. It was God's presence there which gave it all its beauty. Beca…
742 wordsSECTION 176Psalm Lxxxiv.
The first part closes with an exclamation which gathers into one all-expressive word the joy of communion with God. They who have it are "blessed," with something more sacred and lasting than happiness, with something deeper and more tranquil than joy, even with a calm delight, not altogether unlike the still, yet not …
711 wordsSECTION 177Psalm Lxxxiv.
Such are the elements of the blessedness of those who seek God's presence; and with that great promise of certain finding of the good and the God whom they seek, the description and the strophe properly ends. But just as the first part prepared the way for the second, so the second does for the third, by breaking forth…
970 wordsSECTION 178Psalm Lxxxv.
But high as is the psalmist's flight of mystic devotion, he does not soar so far as to lose sight of plain morality, as mystics have often been apt to do. It is the man who walks in his integrity who may hope to receive these blessings. "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord"; and neither access to His house nor t…
655 wordsSECTION 179Psalm Lxxxv.
In the first strophe one great fact is presented in a threefold aspect, and traced wholly to Jehovah. "Thou hast turned back the captivity of Jacob." That expression is sometimes used in a figurative sense for any restoration of prosperity, but is here to be taken literally. Now, as at first, the restored Israel, like …
968 wordsSECTION 180Psalm Lxxxv.
The third strophe (vv. 8-13) brings solid hopes, based upon Divine promises, to bear on present discouragements. In ver. 8 the psalmist, like Habakkuk (ii. 1), encourages himself to listen to what God will speak. The word "I will hear" expresses resolve or desire, and might be rendered _Let me hear_, or _I would hear_.…
935 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.