PSALM LXXVII.
The psalmist sheweth what fierce combat he had with diffidence.—The victory which he had by consideration of God’s great and gracious works.
To the chief Musician to Jeduthun. A Psalm of Asaph.
I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me.
In the day of my trouble I sought the LORD: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.
I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.
Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.
I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search.
Will the LORD cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?
Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore?
Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.
And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.
I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.
I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.
Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God!
Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people.
Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.
The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee: they were afraid: the depths also were troubled.
The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad.
The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook.
Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.
Thou leddest thy people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
This Psalm contains a blessed doctrine: the Psalmist puts forth himself as an example: and the whole is for the consolation of the godly: for the Psalmist describes the unspeakable anguish and sorrow of a heart alarmed at the wrath of God and sin: and he says, verse 4, that he was so overwhelmed with these terrors and sorrows, that he could neither sleep nor speak. And in verses 7–10, he, as it were, repeats all these his feelings of sorrow and dread, saying, “Will God forget to be merciful? Doth his promise fail for evermore”?
But here, as the Psalm saith, lies the greatest and best of all consolations,—you will at once find comfort and deliverance if, casting away from your mind (if you can by any means do it,) all these apprehensions of evils and sorrows, (by which indeed you are distressed in vain,) you turn to the word and works of God, and to the histories of God’s doings and dealings from the beginning of the world: for you will there find that the works and doings of God from the beginning have been these,—to be merciful to and to save and help the sorrowful, the distressed, the destitute, and the afflicted; and to visit, in vengeance, the secure, the proud, the despisers, and the wicked, in the same way as he delivered the Israelites, and destroyed the Egyptians. Hence it is that David says, “Thy way, O God, is in the deep,” and “in the sea:” for God saves in the midst of death and of destruction, when despair is on every side.
Learn this, my Christian brother! This Psalm thus sets forth to us God and the ways of God: that is, how he works, and what he does, in his church and in the saints: and all this is thus written, that we should not despair in perils and afflictions, when we are beyond the reach of all human help: but that rather, casting away all our own apprehensions and distressing thoughts, we should, at, and from that time, begin to trust in God, and to trust in him more and more, waiting for his help.
PSALM LXXVIII.
An exhortation both to learn and to preach the law of God.—The story of God’s wrath against the incredulous and disobedient.—The Israelites being rejected, God chose Judah, Zion, and David.
Maschil of Asaph.
Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old;
Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.
For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;
That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children:
That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God; but keep his commandments:
And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;
And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.
Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.
In the day-time also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.
He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
And they sinned yet more against him, by provoking the Most High in the wilderness.
And they tempted God in their heart, by asking meat for their lust.
Yea, they spake against God: they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?
Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel.
Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation;
Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,
And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them meat to the full.
He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven; and by his power he brought in the south wind.
He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea;
And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.
So they did eat and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;
They were not estranged from their lust: but while their meat was yet in their mouths,
The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.
For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.
Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.
When he slew them, then they sought him; and they returned and inquired early after God:
And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the high God their Redeemer.
Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues:
For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.
But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath:
For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!
Yea, they turned back, and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy:
How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:
And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.
He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.
He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust.
He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore-trees with frost.
He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.
He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;
And smote all the first-born in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:
But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.
He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:
But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:
So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;
And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy’s hand.
He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.
The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.
Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.
Then the LORD awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.
And he smote his enemies in the hinder part: he put them to a perpetual reproach.
Moreover 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.
And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.
He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:
From following the ewes great with young he brought him, to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.
This Psalm, by a glorious instruction, in a long recital of the acts of the children of Israel as examples, from the departure out of Egypt down to David, teaches us to believe and trust in God: showing us, how “very present” God always was to those who believed in him, in all their perils, and even in the midst of death. And, on the other hand, it shows us, how surely and terribly God always visited those who despised his word and departed from him.
For, according to the words of the first commandment, God has, from the beginning, wrought, not only in his own people, but in the Gentiles also; and so he will work down to the world’s end; showing mercy to those that love him, and visiting in judgment those that hate him.
And although the world despises, more unconcernedly than all things else, the threatenings of God and his promises also; yet, nevertheless, God still goes on working, according to the words of his first commandment; and that commandment still prevails over all the kingdoms of the earth; laying prostrate kings, overturning kingdoms, uprooting families, and blotting out mighty names. And, on the other hand, the same commandment still and ever goes on, preserving those in the church of God who love him; lifting up them that are down; succouring the oppressed; feeding the poor, the captives, and the exiles; loosing those that are in prison; raising the dead; and bringing salvation.
The hardened and unbelieving world do not believe God: nevertheless, this first commandment goes on thus according to the word which it contains, to accomplish God’s will, in things private, and in things public, in this present age, and throughout all the ages to come.
PSALM LXXIX.
The psalmist complaineth of the desolation of Jerusalem.—He prayeth for deliverance, and promiseth thankfulness.
A Psalm of Asaph.
O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.
The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.
Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them.
We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.
How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?
Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.
For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling-place.
O remember not against us former iniquities: let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us; for we are brought very low.
Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name; and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake.
Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? let him be known among the heathen in our sight, by the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed.
Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die:
And render unto our neighbours seven-fold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O LORD.
So we thy people, and sheep of thy pasture, will give thee thanks for ever; we will shew forth thy praise to all generations.
This Psalm is a prayer to God against that future national destruction, which was wrought by the Chaldeans and Antiochus Epiphanes; it is of the same subject-matter as Psalm lxxiv, and therefore it may be set forth by the explication there given. Isaiah has the same prayer against future devastations, chap. 63.
PSALM LXXX.
The psalmist in his prayer complaineth of the miseries of the church.—God’s former favours are turned into judgments.—He prayeth for deliverance.
To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim-Eduth, A Psalm of Asaph.
Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.
Before Ephraim, and Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up thy strength, and come and save us.
Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?
Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure.
Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours; and our enemies laugh among themselves.
Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.
Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land.
The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars.
She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river.
Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?
The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.
Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts, look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine;
And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself.
It is burned with fire; it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.
Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.
So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.
Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts; cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.
This is a prayer against those most bitter and daily enemies, the neighbouring Philistines, Syrians, Moabites, Edomites, &c.: for Jerusalem was situated in the midst of these nations, all enemies, on every side.
This Psalm is appropriate for us against bishops, and monks, and priests, who hate us more bitterly than any Edomite or any Cain. The fathers used this Psalm (such was the state of the church then) against her error-broaching enemies.
PSALM LXXXI.
An exhortation to a solemn praising of God.—God challengeth that duty by reason of his benefits.—God exhorting to obedience; complaineth of their disobedience, which proveth their own hurt.
To the chief Musician upon Gittith, a Psalm of Asaph.
Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.
Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.
Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.
For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.
This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt: where I heard a language that I understood not.
I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.
Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder: I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah.
Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me;
There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god.
I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.
But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.
So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!
I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.
The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever.
He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.
This is the form of a prayer and a solemn song for the people of the Jews, which was sung yearly at the feast of tabernacles, to admonish that people, and to keep them in the true worship of God; namely, that of the first commandment. This Psalm, therefore, like the prophets, in all their great instructions, holds forth and enforces the very words of the first commandment, “I am the Lord thy God: thou shalt have none other gods but me:” that is, thou shalt hold me as thy God, thou shalt cleave unto me, thou shalt trust alone in me; thou shalt not worship, thou shalt not call upon, any other God.
But here the whole world lieth in wickedness, the whole is unclean, the whole is the kingdom of the devil. Not only were the people of the Jews in this state of transgression against the first commandment, but all nations, and all religions, and all worshippers, from the beginning of the world; and they will be the same down to the end of the world. The Israelites were indeed the people of God; they had the prophets, and the godly priests and Levites, continually enforcing on them this great and highest worship of the first commandment in all their preachings: and yet they fell away from this worship. Their mouth ought to have been full of God and the praise of God, but it was full of idolatry, and of idolatrous doctrines and abominations.
Here is the perverseness of the world: they will admire, they will take up with, they will profess, all other kinds of worship, all other forms and kinds of religions and hypocrisies, and they will multiply and adorn them: but they will trample that very glorious worship of the first commandment under foot: that worship the devil cannot bear; that worship he works to extinguish by all the ways and means in his power.
And in the church of God, under the New Testament, this Psalm teaches us the righteousness of faith and of Christ; that we ought to set Christ and his righteousness before and above all works: for our mouth ought to be full of Christ. But we, like the Jews, turn aside to other gods, embracing sometimes these and sometimes those sayings and traditions, each one following the idol imaginations and thoughts of his own heart.
PSALM LXXXII.
The psalmist having exhorted the judges, and reproved their negligence, prayeth God to judge.
A Psalm of Asaph.
God standeth in the congregation of the mighty: he judgeth among the gods.
How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the Most High.
But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.
This is a Psalm of consolation against tyrants, and wicked kings and magistrates, who oppressed the destitute, the fatherless, and the widows. I have given a full commentary on this Psalm, which is now in public; therefore I need not say more upon it here.
PSALM LXXXIII.
A complaint to God of the enemies’ conspiracies.—A prayer against them that oppress the church.
A Song or Psalm of Asaph.
Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God.
For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult; and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.
They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
For they have consulted together with one consent; they are confederate against thee:
The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab and the Hagarenes;
Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines, with the inhabitants of Tyre;
Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah.
Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison;
Which perished at En-dor: they became as dung for the earth.
Make their nobles like Oreb and like Zeeb; yea, all their princes as Zebah and as Zalmunna:
Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.
O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.
As fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire,
So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm.
Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD.
Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:
That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the Most High over all the earth.
This Psalm is a prayer of the same nature as Psalm lxxx. as the same mentioned names of the same nation show, who were bitter enemies unto Israel. The same explanation, therefore, will suffice.
PSALM LXXXIV.
The prophet longing for the communion of the sanctuary, sheweth how blessed they are that dwell therein.—He prayeth to be restored unto it.
To the chief Musician upon Gittith, a Psalm for the sons of Korah.
How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!
My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.
Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.
Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them:
Who passing through the valley of Baca, make it a well: the rain also filleth the pools.
They go from strength to strength; every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.
O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.
Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.
For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.
This is a Psalm of consolation, which breaks forth into the most sweet and powerful expressions, in praise and love of the ministry of the word. “Blessed are they (says David) that dwell in thy house:” that is, they alone are truly blessed, and rest on a sure and eternal consolation, who dwell in thy house and in thy tabernacle: that is, in the place where thy word is taught and heard. For such, as the Apostle saith, (1 Cor. i.) “are increased in all good, and enriched in all wisdom and all knowledge, and with every good gift, so that they can want nothing.” They have all riches.
Wherefore let the world have their rich ones, their powerful ones, and their wise ones, and their consolations in this world; let them trust and glory in their wisdom, their might, their wealth, and their possessions,—my heart triumphs in the living God; that is, I rejoice, and triumph, and glory, with all my heart, that I know God in his word, and that I am of his true church. And I would rather cleave and hold to this poor despised flock of God’s people, to his church of poor afflicted ones, who call upon God in truth; I would rather cleave to them, and hover over them, as a bird over her young in the nest, than live in the most splendid palace of all earthly kings. I had rather sit at the door of the house of the Lord; that is, occupy the lowest place among the people of God, despised and disregarded by the world, than be loaded with all the dainties and riches of the universe, and not belong to the assembly of them that hear, and love, and know the word of God.
This Psalm, therefore, exhorts us rather to suffer ourselves to be torn away from all the riches, honours, consolations and pleasures of the world, than from the house of God. For no riches, nor even kingdoms, can deliver us from sin or death, or from the kingdom of the devil; nor can they overcome, in our hearts, the terrors of hell or of the judgment of God. But God gives, by his word, grace and victory over all these. “He is a sun and a shield” that is, in all darkness and in all afflictions, of every kind, the word of God is a joyful light, a sure consolation, a firm bulwark, and an invincible armour against the violent assault of the devil and of sin: neither of which can the riches or the wisdom of this world vanquish. He, therefore, that hath the word of God hath every thing: he that hath not the word of God hath nothing. O blessed, eternally blessed are they, who thus love and value the word of God! but where are they! how few such are there to be found! for the world is full of mockers and despisers!
PSALM LXXXV.
The Psalmist, out of the experience of former mercies, prayeth for the continuance thereof.—He promiseth to wait thereon, out of confidence of God’s goodness.
To the chief Musician, A Psalm to the sons of Korah.
LORD, thou hast been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.
Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people; thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.
Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger.
Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger towards us to cease.
Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?
Wilt thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee?
Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation.
I will hear what God the LORD will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.
Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land.
Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
Yea, the LORD shall give that which is good: and our land shall yield her increase.
Righteousness shall go before him, and shall set us in the way of his steps.