Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 4 · Psalm 95
The Ninety Fifth Psalm.
The ninety fifth Psalm is an invitation to all to bless and praise the name of God, and to live obediently before him. 'Tis affirmed to be written by David, Heb. iv. 7. and may probably have been fitted by him, among others here put together, for the solemnity of bringing the Arke to the place of Gods rest, v. 11. and is by the Jews*R. Gaon, Rasi, Kimchi. confest to refer to the duties of the Messias, as we see it applyed, Heb. 3, & 4.
1. O Come, let us sing unto the Lord; let us make a joyfull noise to the rock of our salvation.
Paraphrase. The Lord of heaven is he from whom all our deliverance and strength doth come (see note on Ps. 89. l.) O let us uniformely joyne in praysing and glorifying his name.
2. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyfull noise unto him with Psalms.
Let us make our daily constant addresses to him with all the acknowledgments and expressions of thankfull hearts;
3. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all Gods,
As to him that is the supreme God of heaven and earth, the only supereminent Monarch over all powers and dignities, the Angels his ministers in heaven, and the mightiest Princes his vicegerents upon earth.
4. In his hands are the‖secret parts foreign deep places of the earth; the strength of the hills is his also.
The bowels and bottome of the earth are in his disposal, and (what is emblematically intimated by them) the meanest and lowest men or creatures on the earth are particularly respected and ordered by his providence in all that befalls them here; and so likewise the loftiest and stoutest hills, and the mightiest men in the world are bounded and governed by him.
5. The sea is his, and he made it; and his hands formed the dry land.
It is he that framed the whole orbe of the sea and dry land, and contrived them so, the one in the bowels of the other, that neither should incommodate the other, but both together make up an usefull globe for men and all other creatures to inhabite.
6. O come let us worship, and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
O let us joyntly adore, and praise, and pray unto him, and make the members of our bodies partners and witnesses of the real devotion of our hearts, joyne inward and outward reverence together, even the submissest and lowlyest gestures, to signify and express the sincere humility of our souls, a tribute most due to him who is both Lord and Creator of all.
7. For he is our God, and we are the peoplea. of his†or, dominion pasture and sheep of his hand; To day*or if you will to day hear— b.if ye will hear his voice,
For although we have oft rebelled against him, and so oft deserved his dereliction, and oft smarted for it, yet if now at length we shall be wrought on by his calls and warning, and performe sincere obedience to him, he is most ready to accept us, to take us into his care and protection, and secure us from all our enemies.
8. Harden not your hearts as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness,
9. When your fathers tempted me, proved me,‖or, though they foreign and saw my works.
Our Ancestors, when they had been delivered by him, with the greatest manifestation of his allmighty power, from the hardest oppression and slavery in Aegypt, were yet so unthankfull and obdurate, that they repined and murmured at every turne, ten times one after another, Num. xiv. 22. apostatizing from and rebelling against them; they would not believe and rely on his power, though it were abundantly testified to him by miraculous effects of it, but still required more miracles and assurances of his presence among them, and hereby they most sadly provoked Gods wrath. O let not us, that have so liberally tasted of his power and goodness and long-suffering, and are yet afforded his calls to repentance, imitate these in our ingratitude and impenitence.
10. Fourty years long was I†wearied foreign grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do erre in their hearts, for they have not known my wayes.
11. Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
Those Ancestors of ours for the space of fourty years (wherein God for their sins deteined and perplext them in the wilderness of Sin) did very frequently provoke God to indignation, made him resolve that they were a most stupid, idolatrous people, that preferred the service of the*foreign a people whose idols are in their hearts. Chald. irrational Aegyptian false Gods, and devils, before the obedience and worship of the one true God of heaven and earth; and therefore being as it were tired out with their continued provocations, God at length by an oath obliged himself irreversibly, that of all the many thousands that were listed after their coming out of Aegypt, none, but only Caleb and Joshua, should enter the promised land of Canaan. O let us not offend after their example, lest we follow them in their punishments also, and be denied our part in Gods rest here, the priviledges of the Arke and presence of God among us, in Jerusalem, where he hath promised to rest and dwell for ever, if we do not provoke him to forsake us. (How this was applicable to the Jews under the times of Christ, see note b.)
Annotations on Psalm XCV.
V. 7. His pasture] When the Psalmist useth these two phrases together, foreign foreignpeople of his pasture, and foreign foreignsheep or cattel of his hand, 'tis obvious to discern the seeming impropriety, and withall to cure it, by interchanging the adjuncts, and annexing the hand to the people, and the pasture to the sheep. But it is more reasonable to fetch the explication from the different significations of foreign, as for feeding, so for governing, equally appliable to men and cattel, from whence it is but analogy, that foreign which signifies a pasture, where cattel are fed, should also signify dominion or kingdome, or any kinde of foreign, wherein a people are governed. And then the other part, the sheep of his hand, will be a fit, though figurative expression, the shepheard that feeds, and rules, and leads the sheep, doing it by his hand, which manageth the rod and staff. Ps. xxiii. 4. by which they are administred. The Jewish Arab reads, the people of his feeding, or flock, and the sheep of his guidance.
Ibid. If] foreign,foreign which is here rendred If, is elsewhere oft used for an optative signe, and expression of a wish. So Luk. xix. 42. foreign, If thou knewest, for, O that thou knewest; and Luk. xxii. 42. foreign, If thou wilt, for, O that thou wouldest remove this cup from me. So Exod. xxxii. 32. foreign, If thou wilt, for, O that thou wouldest forgive them. And if so it be here, then the rendring must be, foreign &c. O that to day you would hear his voice, live obedient to him, as people to a Ruler, or sheep to a Pastor. And this may be thought needfull to the making the sense compleat in this verse, which otherwise is thought to hang (though not so fitly) on the eighth verse, and not to be finisht without it. But it may be considered also, whether this verse be not more complete in it selfe, by rendring foreign if, thus, Let us worship, and bow down, and kneel before the Lord our maker; For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and sheep of his hand, if ye will hear his voice to day, (or, as the Jewish Arab reads, sheep of his hand, or guidance to day, i. e. speedily, if ye will hear his voice, perform obedience to him) setting the words in forme of a conditionate promise, thereby to inforce the performance of the condition on our part. The condition to the performance of which they are exhorted v. 6. is paying God the worship and lowly obedience due to him; and the promise secured to them on this performance, that he will be their God, and they his people of his pasture, &c. i. e. that God will take the same care of them that a shepheard of his sheep, preserve them from all enemies, Midianites, Philistims, Canaanites &c. and that though for their rebellions and disobediences against God, they had hitherto been oft disturbed, and not long since the Arke taken by their heathen enemies, yet if now, to day, they shall at length hear Gods voice, and performe this obedience sincerely, they shall also be secured, that their enemies should no more disturb them, their Arke should no more be captive, but enjoy a rest v. 11. with them for ever in Jerusalem. That to this of Jerusalem, the rest spoken of by David referred, as well as to the land of Canaan, in Moses's time, is the observation of Rab. Solomon, foreign to the land of Israel, and also Jerusalem, which is called a rest, as 'tis said, This is my rest for ever, here will I dwell. And so their enjoying this rest of Gods, these priviledges of the Arke and Gods presence among them, was the completion of the promise on Gods part, that he would be their God, and they his people, &c. And according to this sense of this verse, the Apostles discourse seemeth to be framed, Heb. iv. 6, 7. thus, seeing they to whom it was first preached entred not in because of unbelief: Again he limiteth a certain day, saying, To day &c. i. e. notwithstanding all former rebellions, if you will now come in, the promised rest shall be made good to you. Which the Apostle there applies to the Hebrews, under the preaching of the Gospel; not as if it had no completion in Davids time, by the carrying up the Arke to Jerusalem, and Gods resting, and their worshiping him there; but because beyond that, the Psalm had a farther completion in the Messias, (as the Jews themselves, Rab. Kimchi and others confess,) in whom God did much more eminently dwell, then he ever did in the Ark, or Temple at Jerusalem. From whence therefore the Apostle concludes, that there then remained a rest to the people of God, the persecuted Christians, and to all unbelieving Jews, upon condition, if they shall hearken to the voice of God in the preaching of the Gospel. For then notwithstanding all their misbehaviours continued in till that time (of his writing to them that warning) they should yet be Gods people, and enjoy the glorious promises of peace and happiness under the Messiah. In which words, to day if, a farther offer of grace and pardon is made to those Jews, on condition of timely reformation. And so elsewhere, according to these grounds, the Apostle saith, 'twas necessary that the Gospel should first be preached to the Jews, but they then again refusing, it was to depart from them, and be promulgated to the Gentiles, who, in the scheme here used in this verse, are called by Christ other sheep, Jo. x. 16. which are not of this fold, taken in by God into his Church upon their hearing his voice, when the Jews, who, if they would have heard at that time, had still continued his sheep, were cast out, and given over, as lost sheep, for their not hearing.