broken their teeth, and let them say what they will, their toothless
jaws shall not be able to devour him. Rejoice, O believer, thou hast
to do with a dragon whose head is broken, and with enemies whose
teeth are dashed from their jaws!
Verse 8. This verse contains the sum and substance of Calvinistic
doctrine. Search Scripture through, and you must, if you read it with
a candid mind, be persuaded that the doctrine of salvation by grace
alone is the great doctrine of the word of God: "Salvation
belongeth unto the Lord." This is a point concerning which we are
daily fighting. Our opponents say, "Salvation belongeth to the free
will of man; if not to man's merit, yet at least to man's will;" but
we hold and teach that salvation from first to last, in every iota of
it, belongs to the Most High God. It is God that chooses his people.
He calls them by his grace; he quickens them by his
Spirit, and keeps them by his power. It is not of man, neither by
man; "not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy." May we all learn this truth experimentally, for
our proud flesh and blood will never permit us to learn it in any
other way. In the last sentence the peculiarity and speciality of
salvation are plainly stated: "Thy blessing is upon thy
people." Neither upon Egypt, nor upon Tyre, nor upon Ninevah; thy
blessing is upon thy chosen, thy blood-bought, thine
everlastingly-beloved people. "Selah:" lift up your hearts,
and pause, and meditate upon this doctrine. "Thy blessing is upon thy
people." Divine, discriminating, distinguishing, eternal, infinite,
immutable love, is a subject for constant adoration. Pause, my soul,
at this Selah , and consider thine own interest in the
salvation of God; and if by humble faith thou art enabled to see
Jesus as thine by his own free gift of himself to thee, if this
greatest of all blessings be upon thee, rise up and sing—
"Rise, my soul! adore and wonder!
Ask, 'O why such love to me?'
Grace hath put me in the number
Of the Saviour's family:
Hallelujah!
Thanks, eternal thanks, to thee!"
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Title . With regard to the authority of the TITLES, it becomes
us to speak with diffidence, considering the very opposite opinions
which have been offered upon this subject by scholars of equal
excellence. In the present day, it is too much the custom to slight
or omit them altogether, as though added, nobody knows when or by
whom, and as, in many instances, inconsistent with the subject-matter
of the Psalm itself: while Augustine, Theodoret, and various other
early writers of the Christian church, regard them as a part of the
inspired text; and the Jews still continue to make them a part of
their chant, and their rabbins to comment upon them.
It is certainly unknown who invented or
placed them where they are; but it is unquestionable that they have
been so placed from time immemorial; they occur in the Septuagint,
which contains also in a few instances titles to Psalms that are
without any in the Hebrew; and they have been copied after the
Septuagint by Jerome. So far as the present writer has been able to
penetrate the obscurity that occasionally hangs over them, they are a
direct and most valuable key to the general history or subject of the
Psalms to which they are prefixed; and, excepting where they have
been evidently misunderstood or misinterpreted, he has never met with
a single instance in which the drift of the title and its respective
Psalm do not exactly coincide. Many of them were, doubtless, composed
by Ezra at the time of editing his own collection, at which period
some critics suppose the whole to have been written; but the rest
appear rather to be coeval, or nearly so, with the respective Psalms
themselves, and to have been written about the period of their
production. John Mason Good, M.D., F.R.S., 1854.
See title. Here we have the first use of the word
Psalm. In Hebrew, Mizmor, which hath the signification
of pruning, or cutting off superfluous twigs, and is applied to songs
made of short sentences, where many superfluous words are put away.
Henry Ainsworth.
Upon this note an old writer remarks, "Let us learn from this, that
in times of sore trouble men will not fetch a compass and use fine
words in prayer, but will offer a prayer which is pruned of all
luxuriance of wordy speeches."
Whole Psalm. Thus you may plainly see how God hath wrought in
his church in old time, and therefore should not discourage
yourselves for any sudden change; but with David, acknowledge your
sins to God, declare unto him how many there be that vex you and rise
up against you, naming you Huguenots, Lutherans, Heretics, Puritans,
and the children of Belial, as they named David. Let the wicked
idolaters brag that they will prevail against you and overcome you,
and that God hath given you over, and will be no more your God. Let
them put their trust in Absalom, with his large golden locks; and in
the wisdom of Ahithophel, the wise counsellor; yet say you, with
David, "Thou, O Lord, art my defender, and the lifter up of my
head." Persuade yourselves, with David, that the Lord is your
defender, who hath compassed you round about, and is, as it were, a
"shield" that doth cover you on every side. It is he only that
may and will compass you about with glory and honour. It is he that
will thrust down those proud hypocrites from their seat, and exalt
the lowly and meek. It is he which will "smite" your "enemies
on the cheek bone," and burst all their teeth in sunder. He
will hang up Absalom by his own long hairs; and Ahithophel through
desperation shall hang himself. The bands shall be broken, and you
delivered; for this belongeth unto the Lord, to save his from their
enemies, and to bless his people, that they may safely proceed in
their pilgrimage to heaven without fear. Thomas Tymme's "Silver
Watch Bell", 1634.
Verse 1. Absalom's faction, like a snowball, strangely
gathered in its motion. David speaks of it as one amazed; and well he
might, that a people he had so many ways obliged, should almost
generally revolt from him, and rebel against him, and choose for
their head such a silly, giddy young fellow as Absalom was. How
slippery and deceitful are the many! And how little fidelity and
constancy is to be found among men! David had had the hearts of his
subjects as much as ever any king had, and yet now of a sudden he had
lost them! As people must not trust too much to princes (Psalm
146:3), so princes must not build too much upon their interest in the
people. Christ the Son of David had many enemies, when a great
multitude came to seize him, when the crowd cried, "Crucify him,
crucify him," how were they then increased that troubled him! Even
good people must not think it strange if the stream be against them,
and the powers that threaten them grow more and more formidable.
Matthew Henry.
Verse 2. When the believer questions the power of God, or his
interest in it, his joy gusheth out as blood out of a broken vein.
This verse is a sore stab indeed. William Gurnall.
Verse 2. A child of God startles at the very thought of
despairing of help in God; you cannot vex him with anything so much
as if you offer to persuade him, "There is no help for him in
God." David comes to God, and tells him what his enemies said of
him, as Hezekiah spread Rabshakeh's blasphemous letter before the
Lord; they say, "There is no help for me in thee;" but, Lord,
if it be so, I am undone. They say to my soul, "There is no
salvation" (for so the word is) "for him in God;" but,
Lord, do thou say unto my soul, "I am thy salvation" (Psalm
35:3), and that shall satisfy me, and in due time silence them.
Matthew Henry.
Verses 2, 4, 8. "Selah." (Heb.) Much has been written
on this word, and still its meaning does not appear to be wholly
determined. It is rendered in the Targum or Chaldee paraphrase,
(Hebrew), lealmin, for ever , or to eternity . In the
Latin Vulgate, it is omitted, as if it were no part of the text. In
the Septuagint it is rendered Diaqalma, supposed to refer to some
variation or modulation of the voice in singing. Schleusner,
Lex. The word occurs seventy-three times in the Psalms, and
three times in the book of Habakkuk (3:3, 9, 13). It is never
translated in our version, but in all these places the original word
Selah is retained. It occurs only in poetry, and is supposed
to have had some reference to the singing or cantillation of the
poetry, and to be probably a musical term. In general, also, it
indicates a pause in the sense, as well as in the musical
performance. Gesenius (Lex.) supposes that the most probable meaning
of this musical term or note is silence or pause , and
that its use was, in chanting the words of the Psalm, to direct the
singer to be silent, to pause a little , while the instruments
played an interlude or harmony. Perhaps this is all that can now be
known of the meaning of the word, and this is enough to satisfy every
reasonable enquiry. It is probable, if this was the use of the term,
that it would commonly correspond with the sense of the passage, and
be inserted where the sense made a pause suitable; and this will
doubtless be found usually to be the fact. But anyone acquainted at
all with the character of musical notation, will perceive at once
that we are not to suppose that this would be invariably or
necessarily the fact, for the musical pauses by no means always
correspond with pauses in the sense. This word, therefore, can
furnish very little assistance in determining the meaning of the
passages where it is found. Ewald supposes, differing from this view,
that it rather indicates that in the places where it occurs the voice
is to be raised, and that it is synonymous with up, higher,
loud , or distinct , from (Hebrew) sal , (Hebrew)
salal, to ascend . Those who are disposed to enquire further
respecting its meaning, and the uses of musical pauses in general,
may be referred to Ugolin, "Thesau. Antiq. Sacr.," tom. xxii.
Albert Barnes, 1868.
Verses 2, 4, 8. Selah, (Heb.) is found seventy-three times in
the Psalms, generally at the end of a sentence or paragraph; but in
Psalm 55:19 and 57:3, it stands in the middle of the verse. While
most authors have agreed in considering this word as somehow relating
to the music, their conjectures about its precise meaning have
varied greatly. But at present these two opinions chiefly obtain.
Some, including Herder, De Wette, Ewald ( Poet. Böcher , i.
179), and Delitzsch, derive it from (Heb.), or (Heb.), to
raise , and understand an elevation of the voice or music;
others, after Gesenius, in Thesaurus , derive it from (Heb.),
to be still or silent , and understand a pause in the
singing. So Rosenmüller, Hengstenberg, and Tholuck. Probably
selah was used to direct the singer to be silent, or to pause
a little, while the instruments played an interlude (so Sept.,
diuqalma or symphony. In Psalm 9:16, it occurs in the expression
higgaion selah , which Gesenius, with much probability, renders