PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 3
Alexander Maclaren, 1826-1910 · 128,788 words · 179 reading sections
Fourth Series, 1890-1.
EDITED BY THE REV. W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D. _Editor of "The Expositor"_ BY ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D. _VOLUME III._ PSALM XC.-CL. NEW YORK A. C. ARMSTRONG AND SON 51 EAST TENTH STREET 1894 _Crown_ 8_vo, cloth, price_ $1.50 _each vol._ Colossians. By A. MACLAREN, D.D. St. Mark. By Very Rev. the Dean…
267 wordsSECTION 2Psalm Xc.
The Psalms. By A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. I. 1 and 2 Thessalonians. By JAMES DENNEY, D.D. The Book of Job. By R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D. Ephesians. By Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A. The Gospel of St. John. By Prof. M. DODS, D.D. Vol. II. The Acts of the Apostles. By Prof. STOKES, D.D. Vol. II. 1 Kings. By Ven. Archde…
702 wordsSECTION 3Psalm Xc.
The question of its authorship has a literary interest, but little more. The arguments against the Mosaic authorship, apart from those derived from the as yet unsettled questions in regard to the Pentateuch, are weak. The favourite one, adduced by Cheyne after Hupfeld and others, is that the duration of human life was …
841 wordsSECTION 4Psalm Xc.
The psalmist rises still higher in ver. 4. It is much to say that God's Being is endless, but it is more to say that He is raised above Time, and that none of the terms in which men describe duration have any meaning for Him. A thousand years, which to a man seem so long, are to Him dwindled to nothing, in comparison w…
856 wordsSECTION 5Psalm Xc.
That one note sounds on in solemn persistence through these verses, therein echoing the characteristic Mosaic lesson, and corresponding with the history of the people in the desert. In ver. 7 the cause of their wasting away is declared to be God's wrath, which has scattered them as in panic (Psalm xlviii. 5). The occas…
819 wordsSECTION 6Psalm Xc.
The psalmist believes that God's justice has in store for His servants joys and blessings proportioned to the duration of their trials. He is not thinking of any future beyond the grave; but his prayer is a prophecy, which is often fulfilled even in this life and always hereafter. Sorrows rightly borne here are factors…
415 wordsSECTION 7Psalm Xci.
1 He that sits in the secret place of the Most High, In the shadow of the Almighty shall he lodge. 2 I will say to Jehovah, "My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I will trust." 3 For He, He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler From the pestilence that destroys. 4 With His pinions shall He cover t…
679 wordsSECTION 8Psalm Xci.
The explanation which is given by Delitzsch, Stier, Cheyne and many others takes the psalm to be antiphonal, and distributes the parts among the voices of a choir, with some variations in the allocation. But ver. 1 still remains a difficulty. As it stands it sounds flat and tautological, and hence attempts have been m…
1,136 wordsSECTION 9Psalm Xci.
The assaults of enemies and the devastations of pestilence are taken in vv. 5, 6, as types of all perils. These evils speak of a less artificial stage of society than that in which our experience moves, but they serve us as symbols of more complex dangers besetting outward and inward life. "The terror of the night" see…
940 wordsSECTION 10Psalm Xci.
Finally, God Himself speaks, and confirms and deepens the previous assurances. That He is represented as speaking _of_, not _to_, His servant increases the majesty of the utterance, by seeming to call the universe to hear, and converts promises to an individual into promises to every one who will fulfil the requisite c…
664 wordsSECTION 11Psalm Xcii.
1 Good is it to give thanks to Jehovah, And to harp to Thy name, Most High; 2 To declare in the morning Thy loving-kindness, And thy faithfulness in the night seasons, 3 Upon a ten-stringed [instrument], even upon the psaltery, With skilful music on the lyre. 4 For Thou hast gladdened me, Jehovah, with Thy workin…
900 wordsSECTION 12Psalm Xcii.
The sterner aspect of Providence is dealt with in the next strophe (vv. 7-9). Some recent signal destruction of evil-doers seems to be referred to. It exemplifies once more the old truth which another psalmist had sung (Psalm xxxvii. 2), that the prosperity of evil-doers is short-lived, like the blossoming herbage, and…
764 wordsSECTION 13Psalm Xcii.
The last part extends the thoughts of ver. 12 to all the righteous. It does not name them, for it is needless to do so. Imagery and reality are fused together in this strophe. It is questionable whether there were trees planted in the courts of the Temple; but the psalmist's thought is that the righteous will surely be…
327 wordsSECTION 14Psalm Xciii.
1 Jehovah is King, with majesty has He clothed Himself, Jehovah has clothed Himself, has girded Himself with strength, Yea, the world is set fast [that] it cannot be moved. 2 Fast is set Thy throne from of yore, From eternity art Thou. 3 The streams, Jehovah, have lifted up, The streams have lifted up their voice…
758 wordsSECTION 15Psalm Xciii.
But there are things in the firm world that are not firm. There are "streams" or perhaps "floods," which seem to own no control, in their hoarse dash and devastating rush. The sea is ever the symbol of rebellious opposition and of ungoverned force. Here both the natural and symbolic meanings are present. And the pictur…
627 wordsSECTION 16Psalm Xciv.
1 God of vengeances, Jehovah, God of vengeances, shine forth. 2 Lift up Thyself, Judge of the earth, Return recompense to the proud. 3 For how long, Jehovah, shall the wicked, For how long shall the wicked exult? 4 They well out, they speak--arrogance, They give themselves airs like princes--all these workers of…
709 wordsSECTION 17Psalm Xciv.
The reiterations in the first two verses are not oratorical embellishments, but reveal intense feeling and pressing need. It is a cold prayer which contents itself with one utterance. A man in straits continues to cry for help till it comes, or till he sees it coming. To this singer, the one aspect of Jehovah's reign w…
653 wordsSECTION 18Psalm Xciv.
Delitzsch and others, who take the oppressors to be foreigners, are obliged to suppose that the psalmist turns in ver. 8 to those Israelites who had been led to doubt God by the prosperity of the wicked; but there is nothing, except the exigencies of that mistaken supposition, to show that any others than the deniers o…
977 wordsSECTION 19Psalm Xciv.
The singer comes closer to his own experience in the next strophe (vv. 16-19), in which he claims his share in these general sources of rest and patience, and thankfully thinks of past times, when he found that they yielded him streams in the desert. He looks out upon the multitude of "evil-doers," and, for a moment, a…
571 wordsSECTION 20Psalm Xcv.
1 Come, let us raise shrill cries of joy to Jehovah, Let us shout aloud to the Rock of our Salvation. 2 Let us go to meet His face with thanksgiving, With songs let us shout aloud to Him. 3 For Jehovah is a great God, And a great King above all gods. 4 In whose hand are the deep places of the earth, And the peak…
893 wordsSECTION 21Psalm Xcv.
But that all-creating Hand has put forth more wondrous energies than those of which heights and depths, sea and land, witness. Therefore, the summons is again addressed to Israel to bow before "Jehovah our Maker." The creation of a people to serve Him is the work of His grace, and is a nobler effect of His power than m…
780 wordsSECTION 22Psalm Xcv.
But before He cast Israel out, He pled with them, as ver. 10_b_ goes on to tell: "He said, 'A people going astray in heart are they.'" He said so, by many a prophet and many a judgment, in order that they might come back to the true path. The desert-wanderings were but a symbol, as they were a consequence, of their wan…
319 wordsSECTION 23Psalm Xcvi.
1 Sing to Jehovah a new song, Sing to Jehovah, all the earth. 2 Sing to Jehovah, bless His name, Publish the glad tidings of His salvation from day to day. 3 Recount among the nations His glory, Among all peoples His wonders. 4 For great is Jehovah, and to be praised exceedingly, Dread is He above all gods. 5 F…
849 wordsSECTION 24Psalm Xcvi.
The third strophe builds on this supremacy of Jehovah, whose dwelling-place is the seat of all things worthy to be admired, the summons to all nations to render praise to Him. It is mainly a variation of Psalm xxix. 1, 2, where the summons is addressed to angels. Here "the families of the peoples" are called on to ascr…
561 wordsSECTION 25Psalm Xcvii.
1 Jehovah is King, let the earth exult, Let many lands be glad. 2 Cloud and deep darkness are round Him, Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of His throne. 3 Fire goes before Him, And devours His enemies round about. 4 His lightnings lighted up the world, The earth saw and trembled. 5 Mountains melted…
672 wordsSECTION 26Psalm Xcvii.
Gladness passes into awe in ver. 2_a_, as the seer beholds the cloud and gloom which encircle the throne. The transcending infinitude of the Divine nature, the mystery of much of the Divine acts, are symbolised by these; but the curtain is the picture. To know that God cannot be known is a large part of the knowledge o…
656 wordsSECTION 27Psalm Xcvii.
The third strophe (vv. 7-9) sets forth the results of the theophany on foes and friends. The worshippers of "the Nothings" (xcvi. 5) are put to confusion by the demonstration by fact of Jehovah's sovereignty over their helpless deities. Ver. 7_a_, _b_, recall Isa. xlii. 17, xliv. 9. As the worshippers are ashamed, so t…
843 wordsSECTION 28Psalm Xcviii.
Therefore, because of this magnificent theophany, and because of its blessed consequences for loving souls, the psalmist ends with the exhortation to the righteous to rejoice. He began with bidding the world be glad. He now bids each of us concentrate that universal gladness in our own hearts. Whether earth obeys Him o…
691 wordsSECTION 29Psalm Xcviii.
The second strophe (vv. 4-6) corresponds to the third of Psalm xcvi.; but whereas there the Gentiles were summoned to bring offerings into the courts of Jehovah, here it is rather the glad tumult of vocal praise, mingled with the twang of harps, and the blare of trumpets and horns, which is present to the singer's imag…
332 wordsSECTION 30Psalm Xcix.
1 Jehovah is King--the peoples tremble; Throned [on] the cherubim--the earth totters. 2 Jehovah in Zion is great, And exalted above all the peoples. 3 Let them praise Thy great and dread name, Holy is He. 4 And the strength of the King loves judgment, Thou, Thou hast established equity, Judgment and righteousne…
1,090 wordsSECTION 31Psalm Xcix.
The third strophe turns to examples drawn from the great ones of old, which at once encourage to worship and teach the true nature of worship, while they also set in clear light Jehovah's holiness in dealing with His worshippers. Priestly functions were exercised by Moses, as in sprinkling the blood of the covenant (Ex…
709 wordsSECTION 32Psalm C.
1 Shout aloud to Jehovah, all the earth. 2 Serve Jehovah with gladness, Come before His face with joyful cry. 3 Know ye that Jehovah He is God, He, He has made us, and His are we, His people and the sheep of His pasture. 4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise, Give thanks to Him, bless His …
711 wordsSECTION 33Psalm Ci.
The call to praise is repeated in ver. 4 with more distinct reference to the open Temple gates into which all the nations may now enter. The psalmist sees, in prophetic hope, crowds pouring in with glad alacrity through the portals, and then hears the joyful tumult of their many voices rising in a melodious surge of pr…
689 wordsSECTION 34Psalm Ci.
The first words of the psalm seem at first sight incongruous with its contents, which are singularly devoid of praise. But they are not meant to refer to the psalm, but declare the singer's purpose for his whole life. If the speaker is a real character, he is a poet-king. Of whom is that singular combination of royalty…
802 wordsSECTION 35Psalm Ci.
From ver. 5 onwards, the king lays down the principles of his public action, and that mainly in reference to bad men. One verse suffices to tell of his fostering care of good men. The rest describes how he means to be a terror to evil-doers. The vices against which he will implacably war are not gross crimes such as or…
409 wordsSECTION 36Psalm Cii.
1 Jehovah, hear my prayer, And let my cry come to Thee. 2 Hide not Thy face from me in the day of my trouble, Bend to me Thine ear, In the day that I call answer me speedily. 3 For my days are consumed in smoke, And my bones are burned like a brand. 4 Smitten like herbage and dried up is my heart, For I have fo…
700 wordsSECTION 37Psalm Cii.
The turns of thought are simple. While there is no clear strophical arrangement, there are four broadly distinguished parts: a prelude, invoking God to hearken (vv. 1, 2); a plaintive bemoaning of the psalmist's condition (vv. 3-11); a triumphant rising above his sorrows, and rejoicing in the fair vision of a restored …
755 wordsSECTION 38Psalm Cii.
The division of ver. 7 is singular, as the main pause in it falls on "am become," to the disruption of the logical continuity. The difficulty is removed by Wickes ("Accentuation of the Poetical Books," p. 29), who gives several instances which seem to establish the law that, in the musical accentuation, there is "an ap…
935 wordsSECTION 39Psalm Cii.
The psalmist anticipates that a rebuilt Zion will ensure a worshipping world. He expresses that confidence, which he shares with Isa. xl.-lxvi., in vv. 15-18. The name and glory of Jehovah will become objects of reverence to all the earth, because of the manifestation of them by the rebuilding of Zion, which is a witne…
770 wordsSECTION 40Psalm Cii.
If the poet was one of the exiles, on whom the burden of the general calamity weighed as a personal sorrow, it is very natural that his glowing anticipations of national restoration should be, as in this psalm, enclosed in a setting of more individual complaint and petition. The transition from these to the purely impe…
801 wordsSECTION 41Psalm Ciii.
The Epistle to the Hebrews quotes vv. 25-27 as spoken of "the Son." Such an application of the words rests on the fact that the psalm speaks of the coming of Jehovah for redemption, who is none other than Jehovah manifested fully in the Messiah. But Jehovah whose coming brings redemption and His recognition by the worl…
859 wordsSECTION 42Psalm Ciii.
The soul thus forgiven and healed is crowned with "loving-kindness and compassions," wreathed into a garland for a festive brow, and its adornment is not only a result of these Divine attributes, but the very things themselves, so that an effluence from God beautifies the soul. Nor is even this all, for the same gifts …
789 wordsSECTION 43Psalm Ciii.
The glorious metaphors in vv. 11, 12, traverse heaven to the zenith, and from sunrise to sunset, to find distances distant enough to express the towering height of God's mercy and the completeness of His removal from us of our sins. That pure arch, the topstone of which nor wings nor thoughts can reach, sheds down all …
801 wordsSECTION 44Psalm Ciii.
If God's loving-kindness is "from everlasting to everlasting," will not His children share in it for as long? The psalm has no articulate doctrine of a future life; but is there not in that thought of an eternal outgoing of God's heart to its objects some (perhaps half-conscious) implication that these will continue to…
471 wordsSECTION 45Psalm Civ.
1 My soul, bless Jehovah, Jehovah my God, Thou art exceeding great, Thou hast clothed Thyself with honour and majesty; 2 Covering Thyself with light as with a garment, Stretching out the heavens like a curtain. 3 Who lays the beams of His chambers in the waters, Who makes clouds His chariot, Who walks on the win…
837 wordsSECTION 46Psalm Civ.
Ver. 1 would be normal in structure if the initial invocation were omitted, and as ver. 35 would also be complete without it, the suggestion that it is, in both verses, a liturgical addition is plausible. The verse sums up the whole of the creative act in one grand thought. In that act the invisible God has arrayed Him…
1,338 wordsSECTION 47Psalm Civ.
With ver. 19 the psalmist passes to the fourth day, but thinks of moon and sun only in relation to the alternation of day and night as affecting creatural life on earth. The moon is named first, because the Hebrew day began with the evening. It is the _measurer_, by whose phases seasons (or, according to some, _festiva…
823 wordsSECTION 48Psalm Civ.
Verses 27-30 mass all creatures of earth and sea, including man, as alike dependent on God for sustenance and for life. Dumbly these look expectant to Him, though man only knows to whom all living eyes are directed. The swift clauses in vv. 28-30, without connecting particles, vividly represent the Divine acts as immed…
701 wordsSECTION 49Psalm Cv.
But there is one discordant note in creation's full-toned hymn, "the fair music that all creatures made." There are sinners on earth; and the last prayer of the psalmist is that that blot may be removed, and so nothing may mar the realisation of God's ideal, nor be left to lessen the completeness of His delight in His …
772 wordsSECTION 50Psalm Cv.
It is a reasonable conjecture that the Hallelujah at the end of Psalm civ., where it is superfluous, properly belongs to this psalm, which would then be assimilated to Psalm cvi., which is obviously a companion psalm. Both are retrospective and didactic; but Psalm cv. deals entirely with God's unfailing faithfulness to…
734 wordsSECTION 51Psalm Cv.
The fundamental fact underlying all Israel's experience of God's care is His own loving will, which, self-moved, entered into covenant obligations, so that thereafter His mercies are ensured by His veracity, no less than by His kindness. Hence the psalm begins its proper theme by hymning the faithfulness of God to His …
946 wordsSECTION 52Psalm Cv.
In vv. 16-22 the history of Joseph is poetically and summarily treated, as a link in the chain of providences which brought about the fulfilment of the Covenant. Possibly the singer is thinking about a captive Israel in the present, while speaking about a captive Joseph in the past. In God's dealings humiliation and af…
703 wordsSECTION 53Psalm Cv.
Ver. 27, according to the existing text, breaks the series of verses beginning with a singular verb of which God is the subject, which stretch with only one other interruption from ver. 24 to ver. 37. It seems most probable, therefore, that the LXX. is right in reading _He_ instead of _They_. The change is but the omis…
764 wordsSECTION 54Psalm Cvi.
1 Hallelujah! Give thanks to Jehovah, for He is good, For His loving-kindness [endures] for ever. 2 Who can speak forth the mighty deeds of Jehovah? [Who] can cause all His praise to be heard? 3 Blessed are they who observe right, He who does righteousness at all times. 4 Remember me, Jehovah, with the favour wh…
738 wordsSECTION 55Psalm Cvi.
47 Save us, Jehovah, our God, And gather us from among the nations, That we may thank Thy holy name, That we may make our boast in Thy praise. 48 Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, From everlasting and to everlasting, And let all the people say Amen. Hallelujah! The history of God's past is a record of cont…
755 wordsSECTION 56Psalm Cvi.
With ver. 6 the theme of the psalm is given forth, in language which recalls Solomon's and Daniel's similar confessions (1 Kings viii. 47; Dan. ix. 5). The accumulation of synonyms for sin witnesses at once to the gravity and manifoldness of the offences, and to the earnestness and comprehensiveness of the acknowledgme…
684 wordsSECTION 57Psalm Cvi.
The third instance is the revolt headed by Korah, Dathan, and Abiram against the exclusive Aaronic priesthood (vv. 16-18). It was rebellion against God, for He had set apart Aaron as His own, and therefore the unusual title of "the holy one of Jehovah" is here given to the high priest. The expression recalls the fierce…
673 wordsSECTION 58Psalm Cvi.
"He said that He would annihilate them" is quoted from Deut. ix. 25. Moses' intercession for the people is here most vividly represented under the figure of a champion, who rushes into the breach by which the enemy is about to pour into some beleaguered town, and with his own body closes the gap and arrests the assault…
670 wordsSECTION 59Psalm Cvi.
The seventh instance is the rebellion at the waters of Meribah (Strife), in the fortieth year (Num. xx. 2-13). The chronological order is here set aside, for the events recorded in vv. 28-31 followed those dealt with in vv. 32, 33. The reason is probably that here Moses himself is hurried into sin, through the people's…
660 wordsSECTION 60Psalm Cvi.
In vv. 44-46 the singer rises from these sad and stern thoughts to recreate his spirit with the contemplation of the patient loving-kindness of God. It persists through all man's sin and God's anger. The multitude of its manifestations far outnumbers that of our sins. His eye looks on Israel's distress with pity, and e…
387 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.