Verse 9. " Thy bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word. Selah. Thou didst cleave tlie earth with rivers."
" With nakedness thy bow was made naked." The rest is elliptical, and well supplied in the translation.
The verse hath two parts.
1. A general proposition: " Thy bow was made naked," &c.
2. A particular confirmation of that proposition by instance : " Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers."
1. The proposition holds out two thmgs.
(1.) What God did: " He made his bow qiiite naked."
(2.) The rule he jjroceeded by herein : " According to the oaths of the tribes, even his word,"
The assertion of this verse is not of some particular act or work, as the fomier, but a general head or fountain of those particular works which are enumerated in the following verses.
(1.) A how is a weapon of war, an instrument of death; and being ascribed to God, after the manner of men, holds out his strength, power, might, and efficacy, to do whatever he pleaseth. And this is said to be quite naked. When a man goes about to use his bow, he pulls it out of his quiver,^ and so makes it naked. The exercising of God's power is the making naked of his bow. This he did in all those wonders wherein he stretched out his hand, in bringing his people into the proinised land, here pointed at. And it is said that with nakedness it was made naked, because of those very high dis- pensations and manifestations of his almighty power. This is the making naked of his bow.
(2.) For the rule of this, it is " the oaths of the tribes;" or as afterward, " his word," — the oaths of the tribes, that is, the oaths made to them, — the word he stood engaged to them in. The pro- mise God made by oath unto Abraham, that he would give him the land of Canaan for an inheiitance, even to him and his posterity, Gen. xiii. 1 4-1 7, is here intimated. This promise was often rencAved to him and the following patriarchs. Hence it is called oaths, though but the same promise often renewed : and it had the nature of an oath, because it was made a covenant. Now, it was all for the benefit of the several tribes, in respect of actual possession, and was lastly renewed to them, Exod. iii. 17; hence called "the oaths of the tribes,"
' [The gorytus or bow-case; so explained by Grotius, Drusius, &c. Sir J. Cliar- (lin states, tliat the orieiitsil bows were usually carried in a case of cloth or leatlier attached to the girdle. — llarnier, ii. 513. Vid. Llom. Odys., xxi. 53, 54.]
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not which they sware to the Lord, but that which the Lord sware to them. So afterward it is called his word, — " Thy word." This, then, is the purport of this general proposition, " O Lord, according as thovi promisedst, and engagedst thyself by covenant to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with their posterity, that thou wouldst give them the land of Canaan to be theirs for an inheritance ; so by the dispen- sation of thy mighty power thou hast fully accomplished it." And this he layeth down for the supportment of faith in a time of trouble.
The words would afford many observations ; I shall insist only on one.
XX. Observation. The Lord will cei^tainly make good all his pro- mises arid engagements to his people, though it cost him the making of his boiv quite naked, — the manifestation of his poiver in the tit- most dispensations thereof.
God's workings are squared to his engagements. This is still the close of all gracious issues of providence, — God hath done all accord- ing " as he promised," Josh. xxii. 4; 2 Sam. vii. 21. He brought out his people of old with a mighty hand, with temptations, signs, and Avonders, and a stretched-out arm ; and all because he would keep the oath which he had sworn, and the engagement which he had made to their fathers, Deut. vii. 8. What obstacles soever may lie in the way, he hath done it, he will do it. Take one instance; particular places are too many to be insisted on. It was the purpose of his heart to bring his elect home to himself, from their forlorn condition. This he engageth himself to do, Gen. iii. 15, — assuring Adam of a recovery fi-om the misery he was involved in by Satan's prevalency. This, surely, is no easy work. If the Lord will have it done, he must lay out all his attributes in the demonstration of them to the uttermost. His wisdom and power must bow their shoulders, as it were, in Christ unto it. He was " the power of God, and the wisdom of God;"^ his engaged love must be carried along through so many secret, mysterious marvels, as the angels themselves " desire to look into,"^ and shall for ever adore. Though the effecting of it required that which man could not do, and God could not suffer; yet his wisdom will find out a way, that he shall both do it and suffer it who is both God and man. To make good his engagement to his elect, he spared not his only Son: and in him were hid, and by him laid out, " all the treasures of wis- dom and knowledge."*