3. A dangerous sin. B. D.
Verses 36-38. There is no disputing the fact which gives accuracy to the text, that God was moved by a repentance which had not in it even the elements of godly sorrow for sin; which could not even, by a casual observer, much less by him who searches the heart, have been mistaken for that penitence which supposes an inward and radical change, and, nevertheless, even such a repentance as this sufficed to procure a recompense at the hands of God. Though the sackcloth was on the body and not on the soul; though it was the punishment of the sin and not the sin itself which led to this outward humiliation, God did not turn away from the forced supplication, but vouchsafed the deliverance which was sought at his hands. Yes, God, who never expresses greater abhorrence of any character than that of the hypocrite; God, who rejects nothing more indignantly than outward homage when it is not the index of inward prostration—God may be said to have removed the humiliation of the people as though he could not read their hearts, or as though, having read them, and noted their unsubdued rebellion, he still thought the apparent contrition deserving of some recompense...
If God would not leave the show and semblance of contrition without a recompense, will he be unmindful of real penitence? If many a time turned he his anger away from those who did but flatter him with their mouths, and lied unto him with their tongues, has he nothing in store for those who are humble in spirit, and who come to him with the sacrifice of a broken heart? Oh! the turning away of temporal wrath because idols were outwardly abandoned, this is a mighty pledge that eternal wrath will be averted if we are inwardly stricken, and flee for refuge to the Saviour. God must have eternal good in store for his friends, if even his enemies are recompensed with temporal good. Yes, as I mark the Philistines and the Ammonites oppressing the idolatrous Israelites, and then see the oppressors driven back in return even for heartless service, Oh! I learn that true penitence for sin and true faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ will cause all enemies to be scattered; I return from the contemplation of the backsliding people, emancipated notwithstanding the known hollowness of their vows, I return assured that a kingdom which neither Philistine nor Ammonite can invade, shall be the portion of all who seek deliverance through Christ. Henry Melvill.
Verse 37. Their heart was not right with him. God pleases them when he replenishes themselves with food, not their heart with his graces; therefore they repay him with the mouth, and not with the heart. They are altogether mouth and tongue: but God is all heart and breast. They give words; God gives milk and perfect love. Love does not reach the inner nature of many men, it sticks in the entrance. Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 37. Their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast, etc. This is the ever repeated complain, see Ps 78:8,22. There is no permanence, no stability in the reformation which has been produced. Compare Ho 6:4. J. J. Stewart Perowne.
Verse 38. According to B. Kiddushin 30a, this verse is the middle one of the 5896 Nyqymk, sticoi, of the Psalter. According to B. Maccoth 22b, Ps 78:38, and previously De 28:58-59 29:9, were recited when the forty strokes of the lash save one, which, according to 2Co 11:24, Paul received five times, were being counted out to the culprit. Franz Delitzsch.
Verse 38. He, being full of compassion, etc. When his hand was up, and he giving the blow, he called it back again, as one that could not find it in his heart to do it; and when he did it, he did not stir up all his wrath; he let fall some drops of it, but would not shed the whole shower of it; and he giveth the reason of both, for they are but flesh; and, indeed, his primary scope is to show mercy; and that he afflicts is but upon occasions; and therefore he is provoked, and provoked much before he doth it. As it is natural for the bee to give honey, but it stings; but it stings but by occasion when it is provoked; and this we see to be true in God by experience, who suffers men, and suffers them long; they continue in their sins, and yet he continues in his mercies, and withholds his judgments. John Preston (1587-1628), in "The Golden Sceptre held forth to the Humble."
Verse 38. Forgave is a very inadequate translation of the Hebrew word, which necessarily suggests the idea of expiation as the ground of pardon. Joseph Addison Alexander.
Verse 38. Many a time turned he his anger away. God is provoked every day, yet is he slow to anger. Yea, sometimes when he has determined to bring evil upon a people, and has put himself into a posture of judgment, drawn out the sword, and smitten them; though they cease not to provoke him, he ceaseth to punish them; as a tender father in correcting a rebellious and graceless child, holds his hand sometimes, before the child begs for mercy, and of mere grace forbears: so God did with Israel. Notwithstanding their dissembling with their flattering tongues, and covenant breaking hearts, He forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up his wrath. The words are, He multiplied to turn away his anger: as they multiplied to provoke it, he multiplied to turn it away; and so at length outnumbered their sins with his mercies, that they were not destroyed. John Strickland, in "A Sermon preached before the House of Commons, " entitled "Mercy rejoicing against Judgment." 1645.
Verse 38. He did not stir up all his wrath. His patience is manifest in moderating his judgments when he sends them. Doth he empty his quiver of his arrows, or exhaust his magazine of thunder? No; he could roll one thunderbolt successively upon all mankind; it is as easy with him to create a perpetual motion of lightning and thunder, as of the sun and stars, and make the world as terrible by the one as it is delightful by the other. He opens not all his store; he sends out a light party to skirmish with men, and puts not in array his whole army. He stirs not up all his wrath; he doth but pinch, where he might have torn asunder; when he takes away much, he leaves enough to support us. If he had stirred up all his anger, he had taken away all, and our lives to boot. He rakes up but a few sparks, takes but one firebrand to fling upon men, when he might discharge the whole furnace upon them; he sends but a few drops out of the cloud, which he might make to break in the gross, and fall down upon our heads to overwhelm us; he abates much of what he might do. Stephen Charnock.
Verse 39. A wind that passeth away.
"The secret wheels of hurrying time do give
So short a warning, and so fast they drive,
That I am dead before I seem to live.
And what's a life? a weary pilgrimage,
Whose glory in one day doth fill thy stage
With childhood, manhood, and decrepid age.
And what's a life? the flourishing army
Of the proud summer meadow, which today
Wears her green plush, and is tomorrow hay.
And what's a life? a blast sustained with clothing,
Maintained with food, retained with vile self loathing,
Then weary of itself, again to nothing." Francis Quarles.
Verse 40. How oft did they provoke, etc. They provoked God at least ten times (Nu 14:22) during the first two years of their journey through the wilderness: (1) at the Red Sea (Ex 14:11-12): (2) at the waters of Marah (Ex 15:24): (3) in the wilderness of Sin (Ex 16:2): (4) when they kept the manna until the following day (Ex 16:10): (5) when the manna was collected on the Sabbath (Ex 16:27): (6) in Rephidim, where there was no water (Nu 20:2,13): (7) at Horeb when a molten calf was made (Ex 22:1 &c.): (8) at Taberah (Nu 11:1-3): (9) when they lusted for flesh (Nu 11:4): (10) when they murmured at the news brought by the men, who had been sent to search the land (Nu 14:1, &c.) Daniel Cresswell.
Verse 40. How oft. God kept an account how oft they provoked him, though they did not, Nu 14:22: "They have tempted me these ten times." Matthew Henry.
Verse 41. They turned back. As for that expression, wbwvyw, which we translate, and they turned back; that is, say some, to go back again into Egypt, or as others, returned back to their old wont of rebellion; I say, it hath no such meaning here; it is a Hebraism, and should be rendered, they returned and tempted, that is, saepius tentaverunt, they oftentimes tempted him, or they tempted him again. Thomas Froysel, in "Sermons concerning Grace and Temptation." 1678.
Verse 41. Tempted God. This only expresses the fact that men act towards him as if he could be tempted, or in a way fitted to put him to the proof, to provoke his righteous displeasure, and make him proceed against them, as it were just for him actually to do because of their offences. It is not in the least degree opposed to the statement of James—"God cannot be tempted with evil, "which is the the effect that he cannot be influenced by evil, so as to be drawn into it, turned toward it—so as to feel its power or experience its contamination. He is infinitely far removed from it, raised above it, under all its forms. He is so because of the absolute perfection of his being and blessedness. John Adam, in "Exposition of the Epistle of James." 1867.
Verse 41. Limited the Holy One of Israel. They limited either
1. God's power, as above, Ps 78:19-20 . Or,
2. God's will, directing and prescribing to him what to do, and when, and in what manner; and murmuring at him if he did not always grant their particular and various desires. Matthew Poole.
Verse 41. They limited the Holy One of Israel. Here, then, is an awful charge, and mysterious it seems to us as awful. How dreadful that man, the worm, should arrogate to himself that, to say to him that made him, "Thus far shalt thou go and no farther." Amazing, I say, the charge! to contract the dimensions and operations of the Deity. Amazing insolence, to draw a boundary line, beyond which the Creator himself must not pass, to define and prescribe to the Lawgiver of nature himself the pathway of his providence! The turpitude is immense. But we know, my friends, that the crime is not uncommon; and one of the natural results of sin seem to be this,—that the sinful spirit, whether of man or of the lost archangel, unable to shake the firm foundations of the Eternal Throne, amuses its malignity, and seeks a temporary cessation from its withering cares, in putting up barriers on the outskirts and frontiers of the Almighty empire, vainly hoping to annoy the Possessor of the throne they cannot disturb. Affecting words! Do they affect you as they affect me? They turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. Somehow, it seems no combination of words could have been so affecting. They limited God. They limited the Almighty. They limited the Infinite. No! These words have an awful and affecting surge of meaning in them; for wile they describe Him, awful and self contained Being whose essence is eternity and power; whose self existence is declared by the amazing marvels of nature; whose life was essential being. They limited Him—The One in whose being all being was swallowed up and absorbed— The One before whose glance mountains and hills fled away and were not found— The One from everlasting, God; high over all, blessed for ever more. The One to whom all the nations were as the drop of a bucket, and who took up the isles as a very little thing,—Him, they limited. They had known his character as The Holy One; it was all they knew of his character; but it was surrounded with an awfulness more dread than even the solitary power and self repose of Deity. In awful words and meanings they had heard his character proclaimed— The Holy One. Him they limited. Him, whose throne was curtained with the dreadful wings of sinless archangels, crying through the darkness of that ineffable brightness, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty! and whose holiness was asserted even by the disorders of the rolling world. They limited him. More personal, and therefore more wonderful, became the enormity. The generation of their race had testified for Him, the Holy One of Israel; they had beheld the marvels of his holiness and power in Egypt, in the Red Sea; they had heard of the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob; they had heard of him who had spoken to their Captain in the bush burning with fire; they beheld his pillar of fire and cloud; they knew themselves divinely selected and chosen; and him who chose they limited! That which should have ensured their faith became only the fountain of their criminality. E. Paxton Hood.
Verse 41. They limited the Holy One of Israel. God cannot bear it with patience, that we should limit him, either to the time, or manner, or means of help. He complains of the Jews for this presumption, they limited the Holy One of Israel. It is insufferable to circumscribe an infinite wisdom and power. He will work, but when he pleases, and how he pleases, and by what instruments he pleases, and if he please, without instruments, and if he please by weak and improbable, by despised and exploded instruments. Joseph Caryl, in a "Sermon before the House of Commons, "entitled, "The Works of Ephesus."
Verse 41. ( last clause ). This was Israel's sin, and has it not often been ours? Our God is the "Holy One, "and will do what is most for His glory; he is the Holy One of Israel, and will therefore consult his people's welfare. We must not limit his wisdom, for it is infinite; we must not limit his power, for it is omnipotent; we must not limit him to time, for he will display his sovereignty: he will not be tied to walk by our rules, or be bound to keep our time; but he will perform his word, honour our faith, and reward them that diligently seek him. James Smith.
Verse 41. Limited. In the only other place where the Hebrew word occurs ( Ezr 9:4 ), it means to set a mark upon a person, which some apply here, in the figurative sense of stigmatising or insulting. Joseph Addison Alexander.
Verse 41. Limited the Holy One of Israel, or signed him; signed him with a sign, so the Targum; they tempted him by asking a sign of him, as Jarchi interprets it; insisting that a miracle be wrought, by which it might be known whether the Lord was among them or not, Ex 17:7 ; with which compare Mt 15:1 : or they set bounds, so Kimchi, to his power and goodness, saying, this he could do, and the other he could not; see Ps 78:19-20 ; and so men limit the Lord when they fix on a blessing they would have, even that, and not another; and the measure of it, to what degree it should be bestowed on them, as well as the set time when they would have it; whereas the blessing itself, and the degree of it, and the time of giving it, should be all left with the Lord who knows which and what of it is most convenient for us, and when is the best time to bestow it on us. John Gill.
Verse 41. Limited the Holy One of Israel —mistrust of God's power to effectuate all his graces, to do what is needed in any case for his people, and carry out his purposes for them. The moment I suppose anything cannot be for blessing, I limit God. This is a great sin—doubly, when we think of all he has done for us. The Holy Ghost ever reasons from God's revealed, infinite love to all its consequences. He reconciled; surely he will save to the end. He did not spare his Son; how shall he not give all things? J. N. Darby.
Verse 42. They remembered not his hand, etc. God hates forgetfulness of his blessings. First, because he has commanded that we should not forget them, De 4:9 8:14 . Secondly, because forgetfulness is a sign of contempt. Thirdly, it is the peculiarity of singular carelessness. Fourthly, it springs from unbelief. Fifthly, it is the greatest mark of ingratitude. Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 42. They remembered not his hand, etc. The rallying point of faith in time of trial is the primary manifestation of grace. To an Israelite a remembrance of the deliverance from Egypt is the test of active faith. In like manner, to the tried believer now it is the CROSS that furnishes the outlet of deliverance from the misty darkness with which Satan sometimes is permitted to envelope our conscience, when the Lord had not been kept watchfully before our face. Because Israel forgot that first deliverance, they went on frowardly in the way of evil. Because a Christian sometimes stops short of the Cross in his spiritual conflicts, he fails to defeat the enemy and remains unfruitful and unhappy, until by some special intervention of the great Restorer, he is again brought, in spirit, to that place where God first met him, and welcomed him in Jesus in the fulness of forgiveness and of peace. No intermediate experience, how truthful soever in its character, will meet his case. It is at the cross alone that we regain a thorough right mindedness about ourselves as well as about God. If we would glorify him, we must "hold fast the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end, " Heb 3:14 . Arthur Pridham.
Verse 42. They remembered not his hand, etc. Eaten bread is soon forgotten. Nihil citius senescit quam gratia. Nothing so soon grows stale as a favour. John Trapp.
Verse 43. Zoan, or San, seems to have been one of the principal capitals, or royal abodes, of the Pharaohs ( Isa 19:11,13 Isa 30:4 ): and accordingly the field of Zoan, or the fine alluvial plain around the city, is described as the scene of the marvellous works which God wrought in the time of Moses. John Kitto.
Verses 43-51. Moses wrought wonders destructive, Christ wonders preservative: he turned water into blood, Christ water into wine; he brought flies and frogs and locusts and caterpillars, destroying the fruits of the earth, and annoying it; Christ increased a little of these fruits, five loaves and a few fishes, by blessing them, so that he herewith fed five thousand men: Moses smote both men and cattle with hail, and thunder and lightning, that they died, Christ made some alive that were dead, and saved from death the diseased and sick; Moses was an instrument to bring all manner of wrath and evil angels amongst them, Christ cast out devils and did all manner of good, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, limbs to the lame, and cleansing to the leper, and when the sea was tempestuous appeasing it; Moses slew their firstborn, thus causing an horrible cry in all the land of Egypt; Christ saveth all the firstborn, or by saving makes them so; for thus they are called, Heb 12:23 . John Mayer.
Verse 46. Caterpillar. (>lyox), chasil, is rendered broucos by the LXX, in 2Ch 6:28 , and by Aquila here, and also by the Vulgate in Chronicles and in Isa 33:4 , and is rendered by Jerome here, bruchas, "the chaffer, "which everyone knows to be a great devourer of the leaves of trees. The Syriac in Joe 1:4 2:25 , renders it (arwuru) tzartzooro, which Michaelis, from the Arabic (ruru) tzartzar, a cricket, interprets the mole cricket, which in its grub state, is also very destructive to corn, grass, and other vegetables, by cankering the roots on which it feeds. Editorial note to Calvin in loc.
Verse 46. Caterpillar, In former times, any destructive, crawling creature occurring in cultivated places was thus called; now, by general consent, we restrict the term to the second stage of insects of the Lepidopterous order, namely, butterflies and moths. These caterpillars, by the voracity with which they attack the leaves, the fruit, and sometimes the solid wood of plants and trees, are made conspicuous even to those who are little acquainted with natural history. "Biblical Treasury."
Verse 46. Locust. Their quantity is incredible to all who have not themselves witnessed their astonishing numbers; the whole earth is covered with them for the space of several leagues. The noise they make in browsing on the trees and herbage may be heard at a great distance, and resembles that of an army plundering in secret. The Tartars themselves are a less destructive enemy than these little animals. One would imagine that fire had followed their progress. Wherever their myriads spread, the verdure of the country disappears; trees and plants stripped of their leaves and reduced to their naked boughs and stems, cause the dreary image of winter to succeed in an instant to the rich scenery of spring. When these clouds of locusts take their flight, to surmount any obstacles, or to traverse more rapidly a desert soil, the heavens may literally be said to be obscured with them. F. C., Comte de Volney.
Verse 47. He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost. The grape vine for the rich, and the sycomore fig for the poor, were cut off by the just judgment of God upon the nation. W. Wilson.
Verse 47. The syc o more (not syc a more, for this is altogether different, though, in consequence of a typographical error, often confounded with it in our Bibles) was the name of a tree, common in Egypt, Am 7:14 Lu 19:4 . This tree resembled the mulberry in its leaves, and the fig in its fruit; and on its produce the inferior ranks of people, for the most part, lived. The psalmist refers to but one sort, still he clearly means every kind, of valuable tree. William Keatinge Clay.
Verse 49. By sending evil angels. Evils come uncalled, but not unsent. Are they nor here called angels? they are sent; the word angel means a messenger. Not things only without life, but not living creatures neither, brute, nor men, nor Satan's self can hurt unless God bid. The three days' darkness in Egypt, how came it? "He sent darkness, "saith David. Ps 105:28 . So the hail, thunder, and lightning, the Lord sent them, saith Moses. The frogs, flies, lice, grasshoppers, and caterpillars, that infected Egypt, and the lions that slew the idolaters in Samaria ( 2Ki 17:1-41 ), the text saith of them all, Dominus immisit, the Lord sent them. And for men—"Am I come" (saith Rabshakeh) "without the Lord?" He bade me go. Yea, the devil, the arch evil angel, who seeks to devour, yet must be sent ere he can do ought. The lying spirit in the mouths of the false prophets longed to seduce Ahab; God must first bid; Egredere, go forth, and do so. The use of this is easy without my help: not to fear, doing well; not man, fiend, any creature, can hurt you, God not sending them. But sinning, to fear everything. The weakest creature can quell the mightiest man, if God bid, go. A mouse (saith the poet) will bite a wicked man. Be it proud Herod, great Antiochus; if God but ask the creatures, Quem mittam, which of you shall I send? the worm will answer, Ecce me, send me; I will devour him. And such poor, silly, despicable creatures are some of these evil angels in my text. He sent: what sent he? evil angels, the next thing in this Scripture.
Evil angels? Par dispar, a pair of words which seem not well matched. The latter may say to the former, Quid mihi et tibi, what have I to do with thee? Angels were the best and holiest of God's creatures. They all were good, very good, Moses saith; but angels kat exochn, excellently good. Then is evil here an evil epithet for angels. And is never read but here, and here (some think) not well translated. But the phrase of evil angels hath other meaning here: evil angels, i.e., the angels, i.e., the messengers of evil. It is in the Hebrew, not (Mykalm), but (ykalm); insomuch that some expositors think the psalmist means the words of Moses and Aaron; that they were sent from God to be the messengers of evil, i.e., all of the plagues that God would bring on Egypt. That sense I censure not, but follow not. The Greek Fathers have another—that by the evil angels, are meant the evil spirits. Christ calls them angels too, thee devil's angels. Augustine likes not that sense. The most current exposition is as a Jewish writer speaks: the "evil angels" are the ten several plagues. Richard Clerke. (—1634.)
Verse 49. By sending evil angels among them. That the devil and his angels are so very evil, that for them everlasting fire is prepared, no believer is ignorant: but that there should be sent by means of them an infliction from the Lord God upon certain whom he judgeth to be deserving of this punishment, seemeth to be a hard thing to those who are little prone to consider how the perfect justice of God doth use well even evil things. For these indeed, as far as regardeth their substance, what other person but himself hath made? But evil he hath not made them; yet he doth use them, inasmuch as he is good, conveniently and justly; just as on the other hand unrighteous men do use his good creatures in evil manner: God therefore doth use evil angels not only to punish evil men, as in the case of all those concerning whom the Psalm doth speak, as in the case of king Ahab, whom a spirit of lying by the will of God did beguile, in order that he might fall in war; but also to prove and make manifest good men, as he did in the case of Job. Augustine.
Verse 50. He made a way to his anger. Literally—"weighed a way:" implying that God, in punishing the Egyptians so severely, did nothing but what was just and equitable, when weighed in the balance of right. Pr 4:26 . A. R. Fausset.
Verse 50. He made a way to his anger. As if the psalmist had said, If there were not a way for his anger, that is, for the execution of his anger, he forced his way; though he did not find a way, yet he made one, and fought himself through all difficulties which seemed to oppose the destruction of his enemies. We put in the margin, he weighed a path, he made the path as exact as if he had put it into a balance; the way was fitted to the largeness of his own anger, and it was fitted to the dimensions of their wickedness. Thus he made a way to his anger, both by suiting the way to his anger and by removing all impediments out of the way of his anger. If God will work to save, who shall let it? and if God will work to destroy, who will or what shall let it? Joseph Caryl.
Verse 51. The chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham. The sun of the last day of the sojourn of Israel in Egypt had set. It was the fourth day after the interview with Moses. Pharaoh, his princes, and the priests of his idols would doubtless take courage from this unwonted delay. Jehovah and his ministers are beaten at length, for now the gods of Egypt prevail against them. The triumph would be celebrated in pomps and sacrifices, in feasts and dances. Nothing is more likely than that the banquet halls of Pharaoh at Rameses were blazing with lamps, and that he and his princes were pouring forth libations of wine to their gods, and concerting schemes amid their revelry, for the perpetuation of the thraldom of Israel... Pharaoh Sethos started from his couch that night yelling in fierce and bitter agony, and gnawing at the sharp arrow that was rankling in his vitals, like a wounded lion. His son, his firstborn, his only son, just arrived at man's estate, just crowned king of Egypt, and associated with his father in the care of sovereignty, writhed before him in mortal throes, and died. His transports of grief were reechoed, and with no feigned voice, by the princes, the councillors, and the priest that partook of his revelry. Each one rends his garments and clasps to his bosom the quivering corpse of his firstborn son. On that fearful night "there was a great cry throughout the land of Egypt, "but if we have rightly read its history, the loudest, wildest wail of remorseful anguish would arise from Pharaoh's banquet hall! William Osburn, in "Israel in Egypt." 1856.
Verse 52. But made his own people to go forth like sheep. It is not said that they went forth like sheep; but that he made them go forth like sheep. It is not a description of the character of the people, but a commendation of the providence and goodness of God, by which, after the manner of a good shepherd, he led forth from Egypt his own people with all security, like sheep snatched from the midst of wolves. Musculus.
Verse 53. They feared not. First, they had no cause for fear, in their departure from Egypt. Though they saw the Egyptians slain, yet against them not even a dog moved its tongue. 2. They were all in sound health. 3. They were enriched with the spoils of the Egyptians. 4. They went forth a great multitude. 5. They supplied themselves with arms. Secondly, they feared not to enter the Red Sea, for the fear started by the approach of Pharaoh was swiftly suppressed. Thirdly, they feared not to wander in the desert for forty years, God going before his pillar. Fourthly, they feared not, though enemies attacked them. Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 54. He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, or holiness; that is, to the holy land; so called in diverse respects, but especially because of his sanctuary, the place of his residence; to which he makes all the land to be but as bounds and limits, because of the eminency of that place, the holiness whereof did, as it were, spread to all other parts of the land, as if the whole had been a sanctuary, and consecrated ground. It is therefore to the honour of the whole land, as well as of the sanctuary, that he calleth it, the holy border, a border of his sanctuary. Westminster Assembly's Annotations.
Verse 57. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow. The eastern bow, which when at rest is in the form of a (1), must be recurved, or turned the contrary way, in order to be what is called bent and strung. If a person who is unskilful or weak attempt to recurve and string one of these bows, if he take not great heed it will spring back and regain its quiescent position, and perhaps break his arm. And sometimes I have known it, when bent, to start aside, and regain its quiescent position, to my no small danger, and in one or two cases to my injury. This image is frequently used in the sacred writings; but no person has understood it, not being acquainted with the eastern bow , which must be recurved or bent the contrary way (1), in order to be proper for use. If not well made, they will fly back in discharging the arrow. It is said of the bow of Jonathan, "it turned not back, " 2Sa 1:22 , (rwxa gwsn al), lo nasog achor, "did not twist itself backward." It was a good bow, one on which he could depend. Hosea, Ho 7:16 , compares the unfaithful Israelites to a deceitful bow; in that, when bent, would suddenly start aside and recover its former position. We may find the same passage in Jer 9:3 . And this is precisely the kind of bow mentioned by Homer, Odyss. 21, which none of Penelope's suitors could bend, called toxon palinonon, the crooked bow, in the state of rest; but toxon palintonon, the recurved bow when prepared for use. And of his trial of strength and skill in the bending of the bow of Ulysses, none of the critics and commentators have been able to make anything, because they knew not the instrument in question. On the toxon yhsiv of Homer I have written a dissertation elsewhere. The image is very correct; these Israelites, when brought out of their natural bent, soon recoiled, and relapsed into their former state. Adam Clarke.
Verse 57. Starting aside like a broken bow (English Prayer Book): but if a bow breaks, it will not start aside, for the elasticity which should make it start aside would be destroyed. Stephen Street.
Verse 57. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow. When the bow is unbent the rift it hath may be undiscerned, but go to use it by drawing the arrow to the head, and it flies in pieces; thus doth a false heart when put to the trial. As the ape in the fable, dressed like a man, when nuts are thrown before her, cannot then dissemble her nature any longer, but shows herself as ape indeed; a false heart betrays itself before it is aware, when a fair occasion is presented for its lust; whereas sincerity keeps the soul pure in the face of temptation. William Gurnall.
Verses 57. The fourth thing is the deceitful bow, (hymr tvq), a slack or warping bow arcus doli vel dolosus seu fallax (Hebrew) will be sure to deceive the archer that shoots in it; it will turn back into belly, as the archer's phrase is; and though he level both his eye and his arrow never so directly to the mark and think confidently with himself to hit it; yet, in the event, the arrow, through the warping of the bow, flies a quite contrary way, yea, and sometimes reflects upon the archer himself. Non semper feriet, quodcunque minabitur arcus, the bow smites not all it threatens, and the ill fashioned or casting bow will turn in the shooter's hand, and send the arrow sometimes one way and sometimes another way; yea, and sometimes it rebounds into his own sides; or if it be a rotten bow (though otherwise fair to look upon), when an arrow is drawn to the head it breaks in the hand, and deceives the archer. The same thing happeneth when the string of the bow is naughty, and breaks when the arrow is drawn. This is no less than a divine Scripture allegory. Behold, such a fallacious, warping, and rotten bow is man's deceitful heart; his purposes and promises are the arrows that he puts upon the string, the mark he aims at is repentance, to the which (in affliction especially) he looketh with an accurate and intent eye, as though he would repent indeed; but, alas! his heart deceives him, as being unsound in God's statutes, Ps 119:80 ; and hence it is that his promises and pretences do fall at his foot, or vanish in the air as smoke. Thus a deceiving, as well as a deceived, heart, turns him aside, Isa 64:20 , as it did those false Israelites: oh, then, look to the secret warping of your own heart, and seeing you are God's bow, you must be bent by him, and stand bent for him, Zec 9:13 ; thereby you shall be like Jonathan's bow that "never returned empty, " 2Sa 1:22 . Christopher Ness, in "A Crystal Mirror." 1679.
Verses 57-59. Not to be settled in the faith, is provoking to God. To espouse the truth, and then to fall away, brings an ill report upon the gospel, which will not go unpunished. They turned back, and dealt unfaithfully. When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel. The apostate drops as a windfall into the devil's mouth. Thomas Watson.
Verse 58. High places. Or, altars, chapels, and such like places, to celebrate divine service in, out of the only place which was by him consecrated, and was alone acceptable unto him; or peradventure also dedicated to idols; and were so called, because that they chose out the choicest hills and hillocks for those purposes. John Diodati.
Verse 59. When God heard this. The psalmist represents the noise of the ill deeds of the people ascending to the ears of the Eternal. Armand de Mestral, in "Commentaire sur le Livre de Psaumes." 1856.
Verse 60. It is a heathenish delusion and false confidence to suppose that God is bound to any place or spot, as the Trojans thought because they had the temple of Pallas in their city it could not be taken, and in the present day the manner of the Papists is to bind Christ to Rome and the chair of Peter, and then defiantly maintain "I shall never be moved" Ps 10:6 . For, they say, the ship of Peter may sink a little, but not altogether. Then the only point that is deficient is this, that they are not the ship of Peter, but rather an East Indiaman with a cargo of Italian apes and such like foreign merchandise, pearls, purple, silk, brass, iron, silver, gold, incense, lead, that they may carry on simony and make merchandise of religion, and deceive the whole world Re 18:11-24 . Johann Andreas Cramer. 1723-1788.
Verse 61. And delivered his strength into captivity, etc. He calls the ark the strength of God, not because the virtue of God was shut up therein, or was so bound to it that he could not, unless through it, be powerful and strong: but because his presence, whose symbol the ark was, had always revealed its virtue and might to Israel, in the perpetual defence and various deliverances of that people. After the same manner he calls it the beauty or glory of God, because God by his own presence declared his glory among the people, and desired that it should be conspicuous by this external symbol. Mollerus.
Verse 63. The fire consumed their young men. Fire here may be regarded as an image of destructive war, as in Nu 21:28 . "For there is a fire gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon: it hath consumed Ar of Moab, "etc. Albert Barnes.
Verse 63 ( first clause ). When religion is overthrown among God's people, let not the commonwealth think to stand: when God gave his glory unto the enemies' hand, "He gave his people over also unto the sword, and the fire consumed their young men. " David Dickson.
Verse 63. Not given in marriage. Not praised: viz. they had not been honoured with nuptial songs according to the custom of those times; see Jer 7:34 16:9 25:10 . The meaning is, they had not been honourably married, because men were grown scarce by reason of the wars, Isa 4:1 Jer 21:22 . Or, they had been married without any solemnity like poor bondwomen; or privately, as in the time of public calamities. John Diodati.
Verse 64. Their widows made no lamentation. This implies the extent of the destruction, and is full of meaning to one who has been in an Oriental city, during a plague or other devastating calamity. At first the cry of wailing, which always follows a death in ordinary circumstances, is loud and frequent: but such cries do not increase, but subside, with the increase of the calamity and desolation. Death becomes a familiar object in every house; and every one, absorbed in his own losses, has little sympathy to spare for others. Hence the loudest lamentations cease to be noticed, or to draw consoling friends to the house of mourning; and therefore, as well as from the stupefaction of feeling which scenes of continual horror never fail to produce, a new death is received in silence, or only with sighs and tears. In fact, all the usual observances are suspended. The dead are carried out and buried without mourning ceremonies, and without the presence of surviving friends, by men who make it an employment to take away the dead on the backs of mules or asses, from the homes they leave desolate. We have seen this. Kitto's "Pictorial Bible." 1856.
Verse 64. Their widows made no lamentation. The meaning is, either 1. That being overwhelmed with sorrow they could not weep; or, 2. That being in captivity amongst the Philistines they were not suffered to lament the death of their husbands; or, 3. That dying with grief they lived not to make any lamentations for them at their funerals; or, 4. That they were so taken up and oppressed with their own miseries, and especially with the miseries of the church and people of God in general, that they had not leisure to bewail their husbands; of both which last we have a clear instance in the wife of Phinehas in particular, 1Sa 4:19-20 , who dying, made no mention of her husband. Arthus Jackson.
Verse 64. The daughter-in-law of Eli, when she was at once travailing, and in that travail dying, to make up the full sum of God's judgment upon that wicked house, as one insensible of the death of her father, of her husband, of herself, in comparison of this loss, calls her (then unseasonable) son Ichabod, and with her last breath says, "The glory is departed from Israel, the ark is taken." Joseph Hall.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verses 59-72.
1. A gloomy sunset, Ps 78:59-60 .
2. A baleful might, Ps 78:60-64 .
3. A blessed sunrise, Ps 78:65-72 . C. D.
Verse 65. Then the Lord awaked. Know how to understand this and similar passages in Scripture, as to the Lord's sleeping and forgetting his people, Ps 13:1 44:33 77:9 . These are not to be understood as to an universal and absolute forgetting and sleep of providence; for God hath not his vacation time: he still holds the reins of government in his hand, all the world over. Neither do they infer an absolute cessation of providence in reference to that object matter which the Lord to our apprehension seems to forget, and lies dormant; for there is a promoting work of providence, which we see not, and are not so sensible of for the present, as hath been shewed. Besides, such forgetting and sleep of providence, as it is such, bespeaks the beauty of providence in the way of bringing things to pass. It is so far from inferring an interrgnum, or letting fall the sceptre of government, as that it is a glorious demonstration that God orders matters, and that wisely, whilst he seems to forget, and be as one asleep. As the night, as night, falls under the providence of God, as well as the day, for there are the ordinances of heaven for the night season, Jer 31:35 : so the dark night, when as to matters the Lord seems to sleep, is part and parcel of his all wise model of government. The seventy years captivity was a long night for the church's distress; and yet thus it must be according to the ordinance of providence. Jer 29:10 . Thomas Crane.
Verse 65. Like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine: whose spirit and courage is revived and inflamed by a liberal draught of generous wine; which comparison is no more injurious to the Divine Majesty than that of a thief's coming in the night, to which Christ's second coming is compared. 1Th 5:2 . Matthew Poole.
Verse 66. He smote his enemies in the hinder parts. This has reference to the Philistines being smitten with haemorrhoids, or piles, whilst the ark was retained a captive by them, 1Sa 5:6,12 ...The Greek version, as quoted by Suidas, is, he smote his enemies on the back parts of the seat; signifying, he says, a disease modestly expressed. John Gill.
Verse 67. The moving of the ark is not the removing of it; Shiloh has lost it, but Israel has not. God will have a church in the world, and a kingdom among men, though this or that place may have its candlestick removed; nay, the rejection of Shiloh is the election of Sion. Matthew Henry.
Verses 67-68. Refused. Chose not. Chose. As God's love is set out to us, as not independently pitched, but as having all the persons in his eye and having them all in view; so by this also, that he hath not pitched it upon everybody. This is distinct from the former; for an indefinite is not knowing whom he pitched it upon. Now, as he knew whom he pitched upon, so he hath pitched but upon some, not on every one...If God would love, it was fit he should be free. It is a strange thing that you will not allow God that which kings and princes have the prerogative of, and you will allow it them. They will have favourites whom they will love, and will not love others; and yet men will not allow God that liberty, but he must either love all mankind, or he must be cruel and unjust. The specialness of his love, increases it, endears it to us. You shall find almost all along the Bible, that when God would express his love, he doth it with a speciality to his own elect, which he illustrates by the contrary done to others...And you shall find frequently in the Scripture, when he mentions his choice of some persons, he holdeth up likewise on purpose his refusing of others...When he speaks of an election out of the tribes, he contents not himself to say he chose Judah, but he puts in the rejection, the preterition at least, of Joseph. He refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim: But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved. ...He speaks of the times of the judges. The rejection of the ten tribes began to show itself soon; he says, he refused the tabernacle of Ephraim, but he chose Judah. After Solomon's time, they fell to worshipping of calves (let me tell you, it is the declining of election that undoes a nation, when election grows low, and ceases in an age), till at last the ten tribes were cast off, as they are at this day; but the tribe of Judah had election among them...
Though at the first, and for a long time, both were alike his people, yet at last election began to pass a discontinuation. Ephraim, or the ten tribes, had at first the advantage of Judah in spirituals; for the ark, the token of God's presence, was committed unto their keeping at Shiloh; the seal of God's worship and ordinances was entrusted to them, and Judah must come up thither, if they would seek the Lord. But Ephraim, for their sinning against that worship, forfeited and lost it, and should therefore have the keeping of it no longer, no, not for ever any more; but Judah had it at Bethlehem, till at last it was fixedly seated in Sion, as "the earth is established" Ps 78:69 ; and this for no other reason than that he had loved them, and out of love had chosen them Ps 78:67-69 . For otherwise Judah was, as well as Ephraim, alike involved in the same guilt of sin which had forfeited it, as Ps 78:56-60 of the Psalm plainly show. "Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies, " etc. He speaks it of the whole in those verses, and yet takes the occasion against Ephraim to remove it for ever. Thus, the first are last, and the last first; and those whom God's presence is with for a while, upon some eminent sin God begins to withdraw from them, and by degrees as he did by that people of the ten tribes, till at last he cast them off from being a people; but dealt not so with Judah, though these made a forfeiture of their temple, and worship, and nation, in the captivity of Babylon, yet God restored all again to greater glory at last. The ground was that in Ps 78:68, Zion which he loved. Thomas Goodwin.
Verses 67-68. Refused. Chose not. Chose.
Verse 70. He took him from the sheepfolds. The art of feeding cattle, and the art of ruling men are sisters, saith Basil. John Trapp.
Verse 71. From following the ewes great with young. A good and steady lamber is of great value to a grazier, but I would advise all graziers to attend to this operation themselves, as few servants will be found to pay that attention which is necessary, or which a master himself would do, and the slightest neglect, is, in many cases, followed with the greatest disadvantage. I have attended to the practice of lambing for several years, therefore, trust I am not a novice in it, or incompetent to give a description of it. Many lambs may be lost without its being possible to charge the lamber with neglect or ignorance, though greater attention on his part might have saved many that otherwise perish...The practice of lambing is at times very intricate, and is apt to exhaust the patience of a lamber. Sheep are obstinate, and lambing presents a scene of confusion, disorder, and trouble, which it is the lamber's business to rectify, and for which he ought always to be prepared: some of the ewes perhaps leave their lambs, or the lambs get intermixed, and the ewes which have lost their lambs run about bleating, while others want assistance. These are only a few of the various occurrences which call for the immediate attention of the lamber. Daniel Price, in "A System of Sheep grazing and Management." 1809.
Verse 71. From following the ewes great with young. It hath been reported that a learned doctor of Oxford hung up his leathern breeches in his study for a memorial to visitors of his mean original; the truth I avouch not, but history tells us of Agathocles who arose from a potter to be king of Sicily, and would be served in no other plate at his table but earthenware, to mind him of his former drudgery. It were well if some would remember whose shoes they have cleaned, whose coals they have carried, and whose money they have borrowed, and deal gratefully with their creditors, as the good Lord Cromwell did by the Florentine merchant in the time of Henry the Eighth, when Wolsey (Foxe's Martyrology) like a butcher forgot the king his master. It was otherwise with holy David, who being in kingly dignity, graciously calls to mind his following the ewes great with young, when now feeding the sheep of Israel. His golden sceptre points at his wooden hook, and he plays the old lessons of his oaten pipe upon his Algum harp, and spreads his Bethlehem tent within his marble palace on Mount Zion. Samuel Lee.
Verse 71. To feed Jacob his people. (This is a curious specimen of medieval spiritualising, and is here inserted as such. It is amusing to note that a Tractarian expositor quotes the passage with evidently intense admiration. C. H. S.) Observe, a good shepherd must be humble and faithful, he ought to have bread in a wallet, a dog by a string, a staff with a rod, and a tuneful horn. The bread is the word of God, the wallet is the memory of the word; the dog is zeal, wherewith the shepherd glows for the house of God, casts out the wolves with pious barking, following preaching and unwearied prayer: the string by which the dog is held is the moderation of zeal, and discretion, whereby the zeal of the shepherd is tempered by the spirit of piety and knowledge. The staff is the consolation of pious exhortation by which the too timid are sustained and refreshed, lest they fail in the time of tribulation; but the rod is the authority and power by which the turbulent are restrained. The tuneful horn, which sounds so sweetly, signifies the sweetness of eternal blessedness, which the faithful shepherd gently and often instils into the ears of his flock. Johannes Paulus Palanterius. 1600.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1. The duty of attending to God's word. Modes of neglecting the duty; ways of fulfilment; reasons for obedience; evils of inattention.
Verse 2. ( first clause ). Preach on the "Parable of the Prodigal Nation, "as given in the whole Psalm. C. A. Davies, of Chesterfield.
Verses 2-3.
1. Truths are none the worse for being old: sayings of old. "Old wood, "says Lord Bacon, "is best to burn; old books are best to read; and old friends are best to trust."
2. Truths are none the worse for being concealed under metaphors: I will open, etc., in a parable; dark sayings.
3. Truths are none the worse for being often repeated.
(a) They are more tested.
(b) They are better testified. G. R.
Verse 3. The connection between what we have "heard, "and what we have personally "known" in religion.
Verse 4. A good resolution, and a blessed result. C. D.
Verse 4.
1. What is to be made known? The praises of the Lord; his strength and his wonderful works.
2. To whom are they to be made known? To the generations to come.
3. By whom? Parents—one generation to another.
4. How made known?
(a) By hiding nothing.
(b) By declaring everything God has done. G. R.
Verse 5. Scriptural tradition, or the heirloom of the gospel.
Verses 5-8. Family religion.
1. The fathers' knowledge the children's heritage—Ps 78:5-6.
2. The fathers' fall the children's preservation—Ps 78:7-8.
Verses 5-8.
1. Truth once started can never be arrested—Ps 78:5-6.
2. Truth received binds the soul to God—Ps 78:7.
3. Truth rejected lights up beacons for others—Ps 78:8.
Verses 7-8. On the deceitfulness of the heart, in disregarding providential dispensations in general. John Jamieson's "Sermons on the Heart, "I. 430.
Verse 8. Stubbornness not steadfastness, or the difference between a natural vice and a gracious quality.
Verse 8. The false heart ( middle clause ), with its left hand, "Stubbornness in the wrong" ( first clause ), and its right hand, "Fickleness in the right" ( last clause ). C. D.
Verse 9. Who were they? What had they? What did they? When did they do it?
Verses 9, 67. The backsliding of prominent believers.
1. The Lord's soldiers: who they were; belonging to God's chosen people; were distinguished by grace. Ge 48:17-20. Strong by God's blessing. De 33:17. Honourable place among their brethren. Favoured with the tabernacle at Shiloh—Ps 78:60.
2. Their equipment: armour defensive and offensive; like that of others who triumphed.
3. Their behaviour in battle: to turn back was traitorous, cowardly, dangerous, disastrous, dishonourable.
4. Their punishment—Ps 78:57. Deprived of their special honour. Re 3:11. C. D.
Verses 10-11. The gradations of sin: neglecting, rejecting, forgetting God. C. D.
Verses 12-16. God revealed in his deeds. The wonder working God—Ps 78:12-16. The avenging God—Ps 78:12. The interposing God—Ps 78:13. The guiding God—Ps 78:14. The Father God—Ps 78:14-16. C. D.
Verses 12-17. Obstinacy of unbelief. It makes head against God's majesty—Ps 78:17; his gracious providence—Ps 78:14-16; his interposing care—Ps 78:13; his avenging justice—Ps 78:12; his distinguishing grace—Ps 78:12-16. C. D.
Verses 12-17. Prodigies cannot convert the soul. Lu 16:31. C. D.
Verses 15-16. Divine supplies seasonable, plentiful, of the best, marvellous.
Verse 16. Streams from the Rock Christ Jesus.
I. Their source.
2. Their variety.
3. Their abundance.
—B. Davies, of Greenwich.
Verses 12-17. Obstinacy of unbelief. It makes head against God's majesty—Ps 78:17; his gracious providence—Ps 78:14-16; his interposing care—Ps 78:13; his avenging justice—Ps 78:12; his distinguishing grace—Ps 78:12-16. C. D.
Verses 12-17. Prodigies cannot convert the soul. Lu 16:31. C. D.
Verse 17. Sin in its progress feeds upon divine mercies to aid its advance, as also every other surrounding circumstance.
Verses 17-21.
1. They tempted God's patience; Ps 78:17.
2. They tempted God's wisdom; Ps 78:18.
3. They tempted God's power; Ps 78:19-20.
4. They tempted God's wrath; Ps 78:21.
—E. G. Gange, of Bristol.
Verses 18-21. The progress of evil.
1. They are drawn away by their lust: Ps 78:18.
2. Lust having conceived bringeth forth sin: Ps 78:19-20.
3. Sin being finished bringeth forth death: Ps 78:21.
"Their carcases fell." C. D.
Verses 21-22. Evil consequences of unbelief.
1. The sin itself: they doubted the ultimate certainty, completeness, and reality of God's salvation from Egypt.
2. The aggravation of it: the object of it was God; they who entertained it were God's people: The aids to faith were overlooked: "though."
3. What it led them to; inward sin—Ps 78:18; outward sin—Ps 78:19, etc.
4. What it brought upon them; Ps 78:21. Fiery serpents, etc. C. D.
Verse 25. Different kinds of food. Beast's food, Lu 15:16. Sinners' food, Ho 4:8. Formalists' food, Ho 12:1. Saints' food, Jer 15:16 Joh 6:53-57. Angels' food. Christ's food, Joh 4:34. C. D.
Verse 29-31. Dangerous prayers. When lust dictates, wrath may answer. Let grace dictate, and mercy will answer. C. D.
Verses 34-37. The hypocrite's feet, Ps 78:34. The hypocrite's memory, Ps 78:35. The hypocrite's tongue, Ps 78:36. The hypocrite's heart, Ps 78:37. Or, the hypocrite's cloak and the hypocrite's heart. C. D.
Verse 38. ( last clause ) and Ps 78:50 ( first clause ). God's anger as exercised against his people and against his foes. C. D.
Verses 39, 35. God's memory of his people and their memory of God.
Verse 42. The day of days.
1. The enemy encountered on that day.
2. The conflict endured.
3. The deliverance accomplished.
4. The joy experienced. B. D.
Verse 45. The power of little things when commissioned to plague us.
Verse 47. ( last clause ). Sometimes it will not shoot. Sometimes it will. And when it does, it misses the mark.
Verse 52.
1. God has a people in the world.
2. He brings them away from others.
3. He brings them into fellowship with himself.
4. He brings them into fellowship with each other.
5. He guides them to their rest.
Verse 55. Divine supplanting. He supplants the fallen angels in heaven. One nation of earth by another (see all history). The thoughts and affections of the heart in regeneration, etc.— Isa 55:13 . C. D.
Verses 56-57. On the deceitfulness of the heart, with respect to the performance of duty. J. Jamieson. I. 326. On the deceitfulness of the heart, with respect to the omission of duty. J. Jamieson. I. 353.
Verses 59-72.
1. A gloomy sunset, Ps 78:59-60 .
2. A baleful might, Ps 78:60-64 .
3. A blessed sunrise, Ps 78:65-72 . C. D.
Verses 9, 67. The backsliding of prominent believers.
1. The Lord's soldiers: who they were; belonging to God's chosen people; were distinguished by grace. Ge 48:17-20 . Strong by God's blessing. De 33:17 . Honourable place among their brethren. Favoured with the tabernacle at Shiloh— Ps 78:60 .
2. Their equipment: armour defensive and offensive; like that of others who triumphed.
3. Their behaviour in battle: to turn back was traitorous, cowardly, dangerous, disastrous, dishonourable.
4. Their punishment— Ps 78:57 . Deprived of their special honour. Re 3:11 . C. D.
Verses 70-72. Spiritual promotions.