Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 2 · Psalm 52 – Psalm 53
The Fifty Second Psalm.
TO the chief Musitian, Maschil, A Psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech.
Paraphrase. The fifty second Psalm was composed by David on occasion of the wicked fact of Doeg, first in accusing, then in slaying Ahimelech the High Priest with all his family, destroying the whole city of the Priests, called Nob, for no other crime but for a respect and charity performed by Ahimelech to David (see 1 Sam. xxii.) It was set to the tune called Maschil, and committed to the Praefect of his Musick.
1. Why boastest thou thy self in mischief, O mighty man? thea. goodness of God endureth continually.
It is a strange matter of pleasure and joy and boasting to a person in power, to be able to mischief those that deserve it least: There is not any sort of pride more irrational, than that of a Doeg, to have killed those whom no body else would kill, 1 Sam. xxii. 17. This is most diametrally opposite to (that which alone is just matter of joy or boasting to any) being like unto God; for he is most eminently good and bountifull, and so continues even to those that provoke him and sin against him.
2. Thy tongue deviseth mischief like a sharp rasor, working deceitfully.
That relation of his to Saul of Ahimelech's civility to me was most maliciously designed, and the effect of it as bloody, as if the tongue that spake it had been a rasor sharpened on purpose to cut the throats of a multitude of most innocent persons.
3. Thou lovest evil more than good, and lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah.
Had it not been as easie for thee to have said somewhat that might have asswaged the Kings displeasure against his own son, and me his son in law? But some men are never pleased with those things which alone yeeld true and durable pleasure, (such are all acts of justice, and charity, and obliging those who deserve it,) but on the contrary are transported with any opportunity of calumniating or supplanting any, be they never so innocent.
4. Thou lovest all devouring words, O thoub. deceitfull tongue.
And such is Doeg: No such pleasure to him, as to be able by one speech, as by a poysonous vapor, to blast a whole multitude, and bring ruine to the whole family and city of the pious high Priest of God.
5. God shall likewise destroy thee for ever; he shall take thee away, and‖or remove thee from the Tabernacle. pluck thee out ofc. thy dwelling-place, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.
As thou hast dealt with the Priests of God, so shall God their just avenger deal with thee. Thou hast calumniated Ahimelech, then fetcht him and his from their place of abode, then destroyed them from serving in the Tabernacle, swept away the Priests whole family, (none but Abiathar escaping thy bloody hands, and that much against thy will also) and let none of them return to their house; and not only so, but hast fallen upon the whole city of Nob, without any pretence of fault of theirs, and put them all to the sword. And God shall undoubtedly plead the cause of his innocent Priests, exclude thee from the priviledge of serving God in the Tabernacle, of receiving benefit by the Priestly office, first excommunicate thee, then bring the same bloody desolation upon thee and all thy family and people, which thou hast executed upon those.
6. The righteous also shall see and fear, and shall laugh at him.
And all that truly fear God shall take notice of this, as a judgment most just, for what he hath now done to the Priests: and as they shall make use of it to impress a due reverence of God and all goodness on themselves and others, and a dread of offending; so shall they make him a name of reproach to all posterity, (by that also deterring all from the like practises) saying,
7. Loe this is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.
Behold the just vengeance of God upon a man that never thought of securing his greatness by Gods protections, never applied himself to duties of piety or justice, never imagined that they would be usefull to his present security, to which only he had an eye, but resolved by wealth and by wicked enterprises to establish and perpetuate his greatness. And now God hath refuted all his vain and false hopes, and brought utter destruction upon him.
8. But I am like a†flourishing foreign green Olive-tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.
Whereas I, to whom his mischief was originally designed, 1 Sam. xxii. 9. have been preserved from suffering any hurt by his malice: from that time to this I have prospered, and increased in strength, and have not fallen into Sauls hands, when he is cast out, v. 5. and shall, I doubt not, enjoy very happily the presence of my God in the Sanctuary (which prediction was eminently fulfilled when the Arke was brought into the city of David the place of his abode.) My condition hath been like that of the Olive tree, which is full of green leaves all the year long; and so have I continued in a flourishing state: whilst he is withered and cut down, and eradicated out of the land of the living, I am fast settled and flourish by the good providence of God over me; and so through the same mercy I trust I shall doe to my lives end.
9. I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it; and I will wait on thy name, for it is good before thy saints.
This just vengeance of God I am obliged to remember and celebrate as long as I live, and what ever my distresses or dangers shall prove, repose my full trust and confidence in God, wait and depend on him for deliverance in his good time. And indeed thus to live by faith, and not by sense, to keep close to this one guard, and secure our tenure in Gods protections by never attempting or admitting ought which may betray and forfeit that hold, but for ever constantly to depend on God in his own way, is that which all pious men have experimented to be the wisest and safest course, and that which will stand in more stead, than all the power assisted also by all the wickedness of men.
Annotations on Psalm LII.
V. 1. Goodness] The first verse is very distantly rendred by the Lxxii. Inst…ad of foreign O mighty man, the benignity of God, as the Chaldee rightly render it, they read, foreign, mighty for wickedness; and the Syriack and Latine &c. follow them in it. To this they seem to have been lead by a second notion of foreign foreign(quite contrary to mercy by way of foreign) for impiety, mercilesness, and also reproach, Lev. xx. 17. it is a wicked or abominable thing. By analogy with which, foreign might be thought to signify that which is to the reproach of God, as indeed the killing of the Priests was, and so not amiss exprest by foreign. But the ordinary acception of foreign is very fit for this place, where the great mercy and benignity of God, and the continuation or constancy thereof in despight of our greatest provocations, Gods bounty even to enemies, is very fitly opposed to Doegs unprovoked cruelty and impiety.
V. 4. Deceitfull tongue] The reading of the Lxxii. here foreign, is resisted by the context; and 'tis not improbable to have been the error of some scribe, the change being so easy from foreign in the vocative case, to which it may be fitly said in the first word, foreign thou hast loved— And thus surely the Latine read it, who have lingua dolosa, in that case: but the Syriack took it in that other, and so read foreign in conjunction with the antecedents, and deceitfull tongues; and so the Arabick and Aethiopick also.
V. 5. Dwelling place] foreign foreignis literally from the Tabernacle, not from thy dwelling place; and so the Lxxii. render it, foreign from the Tabernacle: & though the Latine & Syr. & Arab. have added [tuo thy] yet neither will the Hebrew bear, nor do the Chaldee acknowledg it, who read by way of paraphrase, he shall cause thee to depart foreign from inhabiting in the place of the Schechina, or Taber…acle, the place of Gods presence. And thus Aben-Ezra expounds the Tabernacle of the place where the Arke was. And then the removing from that (so foreign foreignsignifies from foreign transtulit) will be best understood of the censure of Excommunication, which in the last and highest de…ree was Schammatha, delivering up the offender to the hand of heaven, to be cutt off, himself and his posterity; according to that of the Jewish Doctors, who assign this difference between foreign death, and foreign excision, that he that is guilty of death, only himself suffers, not his seed, but excision reacheth both the sinner himself and his posterity, as here it doth.
The Fifty Third Psalm.
TO the chief Musitian upon a.‖the hollow instrument.Mahalath, Maschil, A P…alm of David.
Paraphrase. The fifty third Psalm is very little varied from the xiv. fi…st compos…d by David on occasion of the general revolt in Absoloms rebellion, but now new set to the tune called Maschil, (which probably was the cause of the vari…tions) and accommodated to some other …ccasion, perhaps the first captivity, mentioned v. 6. and committed to the P…aefect of his Musick, to be sung to a Flute, or some other such hollow instrument.
1. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity; there is none that doth good.
See Psal. xiv. 1.
2. God looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.
See Psal. xiv. 2.
3. Every one of them is gone back, they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doth good, no not one.
See Psal. xiv. 3.
4. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God.
See Psal. xiv. 4.
5. There were they in great fear where no fear was: for God hath scattered the bones of them that incamped against thee; thou hast put them to shame because God hath despised them.
God struck them with a suddain consternation, for which there was no visible cause, and so they sled, and were killed in the flight; God being thus pleased signally to interpose his hand for the securing of David, and his disappointing and discomfiting his enemies.
6. †Who shall give from Sion the salvation of Israel?O that the Salvation of Israel were come out of Sion! When God bringeth back the capt…vity of his people, Jacob shall rejoyce, and Israel shall be glad.
See Psal. xiv. 7.
Annotations on Psalm LIII.
Tit. Mahalath] What foreign foreignsignifies in the title of this and the Lxxxviii. Psalm must be uncertain, the word being not elsewhere found. 'Tis most probably the name of an Instrument, on which the Psalm was to be sung; and it may fitly be deduced from foreign perforavit, or incidit, either from the hollowness of the instrument, or farther from the holes cut in it, in which respect foreign is ordinarily used for fistula or tibia, a pipe.