PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 2
Alexander Maclaren, 1826-1910 · 146,707 words · 199 reading sections
Psalm Lxxxv.
The same idea is further presented in ver. 12, in its most general form. God gives that which is good, both outward and inward blessings, and, thus fructified by bestowments from above, earth yields her increase. His gifts precede men's returns. Without sunshine and rain there are no harvests. More widely still, God gi…
512 wordsSECTION 182Psalm Lxxxvi.
1 Bow down Thine ear, Jehovah, answer me, For I am afflicted and poor. 2 Keep my soul, for I am favoured [by Thee], Save Thy servant, O Thou my God, That trusts in Thee. 3 Be gracious to me, Lord, For to Thee I cry all the day. 4 Rejoice the soul of Thy servant, For to Thee, Lord, do I lift up my soul. 5 For T…
796 wordsSECTION 183Psalm Lxxxvi.
The pleas on which the petitions are grounded are also beautifully wreathed together. First, the psalmist asks to be heard because he is afflicted and poor (compare Psalm xl. 17). Our need is a valid plea with a faithful God. The sense of it drives us to Him; and our recognition of poverty and want must underlie all fa…
831 wordsSECTION 184Psalm Lxxxvi.
The thought of God's sovereign power carries the psalmist beyond remembrance of his immediate outward needs, and stirs higher desires in him. Hence spring the beautiful and spiritual petitions of ver. 11, which seek for clearer insight into God's will concerning the psalmist's conduct, breathe aspirations after a "walk…
727 wordsSECTION 185Psalm Lxxxvi.
The psalm ends with prayer for present help. If God is, as the psalmist has seen Him to be, "full of compassion and gracious," it is no presumptuous petition that the streams of these perfections should be made to flow towards a needy suppliant. "Be gracious to _me_" asks that the light, which pours through the univers…
315 wordsSECTION 186Psalm Lxxxvii.
1 His foundation on the holy mountains, 2 The gates of Zion Jehovah loves More than all the dwellings of Jacob. 3 Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah. 4 I will proclaim Rahab and Babylon as those who know Me: "Behold Philistia and Tyre, with Cush; This one was born there." 5 And of Zion it s…
780 wordsSECTION 187Psalm Lxxxvii.
There can be no doubt as to who is the speaker in ver. 4. The abrupt introduction of a Divine Oracle accords with a not infrequent usage in the Psalter, which adds much to the solemnity of the words. If we regard the "glorious things" mentioned in ver. 3 as being the utterances of earlier prophets, the psalmist has had…
1,048 wordsSECTION 188Psalm Lxxxviii.
Ver. 7 is, on any interpretation, extremely obscure, because so abrupt and condensed. But probably the translation adopted above, though by no means free from difficulty or doubt, brings out the meaning which is most in accordance with the preceding. It may be supposed to flash vividly before the reader's imagination t…
811 wordsSECTION 189Psalm Lxxxviii.
The central portion of the first division is occupied with an expansion of the thought that the psalmist is already as good as dead (vv. 3 _b_-6). The condition of the dead is drawn with a powerful hand, and the picture is full of solemn grandeur and hopelessness. It is preceded in vv. 1, 2, by an invocation which has …
837 wordsSECTION 190Psalm Lxxxviii.
Ver. 7 traces the psalmist's sorrows to God. It breathes not complaint but submission, or, at least, recognition of His hand; and they who, in the very paroxysm of their pains, can say, "It is the Lord," are not far from saying, "Let Him do what seemeth Him good," nor from the peace that comes from a compliant will. Th…
721 wordsSECTION 191Psalm Lxxxviii.
The last part (vv. 13-18) is marked, like the two preceding, by the repetition of the name of Jehovah, and of the allusion to the psalmist's continual prayer. It is remarkable, and perhaps significant, that the time of prayer should here be "the morning," whereas in ver. 1 it was, according to Delitzsch, _the night_, o…
741 wordsSECTION 192Psalm Lxxxix
1 The loving-kindnesses of Jehovah will I sing for ever, To generation after generation will I make known Thy Faithfulness with my mouth. 2 For I said, For ever shall Loving-kindness be built up, The heavens--in them wilt Thou establish Thy Faithfulness, 3 I have made a covenant with My chosen one, I have sworn t…
666 wordsSECTION 193Psalm Lxxxix
38 But Thou, Thou hast cast off and rejected, Thou hast been wroth with Thine anointed, 39 Thou hast abhorred the covenant of Thy servant, Thou hast profaned his crown to the ground. 40 Thou hast broken down all his fences, Thou hast made his strongholds a ruin. 41 All that pass on the way spoil him, He is becom…
685 wordsSECTION 194Psalm Lxxxix
The psalmist begins with announcing the theme of his song--the Loving-kindness and Faithfulness of God. Surrounded by disasters, which seem in violent contradiction to God's promise to David, he falls back on thoughts of the Mercy which gave it and the Faithfulness which will surely accomplish it. The resolve to celebr…
716 wordsSECTION 195Psalm Lxxxix
With ver. 9 the hymn descends to earth, and magnifies God's Power and Faithfulness as manifested there. The sea is, as always, the emblem of rebellious tumult. Its insolence is calmed by Him. And the proudest of the nations, such as Rahab ("Pride," a current name for Egypt), had cause to own His power, when He brought …
734 wordsSECTION 196Psalm Lxxxix
The second part (vv. 19-37) draws out in detail, and at some points with heightened colouring, the fundamental prophecy by Nathan. It falls into two parts, of which the former (vv. 19-27) refers more especially to the promises given to David, and the second (vv. 28-37) to those relating to his descendants. In ver. 19 "…
929 wordsSECTION 197Psalm Lxxxix
The allusions to the ancient promise are completed in vv. 36, 37, with the thought of the perpetual continuance of the Davidic line and kingdom, expressed by the familiar comparison of its duration to that of the sun and moon. Ver. 37 _b_ is best understood as above. Some take the faithful witness to be the moon; other…
739 wordsSECTION 198Psalm Lxxxix
The last three verses (vv. 49-51) urge yet another plea--that of the dishonour accruing to God from the continuance of Israel's disasters. A second "Remember" presents that plea, which is preceded by the wistful question "Where are Thy former loving-kindnesses?" The psalmist looks back on the glories of early days, and…
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.