Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 5 · Psalm 133 – Psalm 134
The Hundred Thirty Third Psalm.
A Song of Degrees of David. The hundred thirty third is the magnifying the felicities of holy peaceable fraternal communion, and was fitly accommodated to the returne from the captivity, and their uniforme conjunction in the service of God.
1. BEhold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell‖even as one foreign together in unity.
Paraphrase. There is nothing that is more acceptable to God, and matter of greater joy and present delight to the persons themselves, than a peaceable friendly conversation of pious men, with a perfect union of minds, and communion in devotions, and joynt Indeavours of doing, and helping one another to doe, those things that are most excellent.
2. It is like the pretious oyntment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aarons beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments.
It cannot be more fitly compared to any thing than to the unction of Aaron the high-priest of God, the oyntment of a most pretious sort, very fragrant and odoriferous. It was by order to be poured upon his head, and in that plenty, that being so poured, it diffused it self not only on his face and beard, but ran down also upon the upper part or collar of his garments, (see note a.) and this whole ceremony instituted by God himself, thereby to consecrate Aaron and his successors after him to the high-priests office, to offer sacrifice to God, and bless the people. And in all these particulars the proportion holds. This of fraternal charity, union and communion is 1. very pretious, highly valued; 2. very gratefull and wellcome, a pleasant and refreshing spectacle to all beholders, to God, Angels and men; 3. it is so rich and plentifull a grace, that it communicates it selfe to all the meanest persons in the society, not only to superior and more eminent parts, but to every inferior member of the community, making supplies to all sorts of all their wants; and 4. no grace or vertue more signally commanded and recommended by God; or 5. more required to make our prayers acceptable to God, or our offices usefull to others or our selves.
3. As the dew of Hermon,‖that descended and as the dewa. that descended on the mountains of Zion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.
And accordingly God hath promised abundant blessings to those that thus live, all happiness here, and all glory in another world. And in that respect it is most fitly compared to the innumerable drops of dew that fall in a morning upon many several and distant hills, Hermon on one side of Canaan, and Zion on the other; or to that cloud of dew which is seen hanging as such on the highest hills, but dissolves in showrs of rain upon the lower, which cherish and refresh wheresoever they fall; For so doe Gods blessings severally descend in great abundance upon every member of such a peaceable united community, be they in their condition as distant as Hermon and Zion in place, yet the goodness of God finds them out, and rewards them severally, bestowes all benedictions upon them.
Annotations on Psalm CXXXIII.
V. 3. Zion] It is here thought very difficult to resolve what is the meaning of the phrase foreign foreignwhich descended on the hill of Zion. For if it be spoken of the dew of Hermon foregoing, then 'tis not imaginable how that should descend on the hills of Zion, Zion being very distant from Hermon, Zion at Jerusalem, and Hermon on the other side of Jordan, on the utmost part of Canaan toward the East, and so opposed to Tabor, Psal. Lxxxix. 12. as East to West. This hath put some learned men on a conjecture, that foreign Zion here should be changed into foreign Schion, which is another name of Hermon. But this is not found in any antient or later copy, nor yet favoured by any of the antient Interpreters, who uniformely read it Zion, and not Schion; nor hath any the least ground, but that of the nearness of the words, and the conceited difficulty of the matter, that the dew of Hermon should descend on Zion at that distance. But for these, 1. It is most unsafe to use that liberty of conjecture, thereby to change words at pleasure into any that have affinity with them. 2. By this conjecture the difficulty is but changed, not taken away; for it would then be still difficult, and but little more reasonable, to suppose that the dew of Hermon should be said to descend from Hermon upon Schion, i. e. upon it selfe, then that it should from Hermon descend upon the most remote mountain. 'Tis therefore most seasonable to take notice of that which hath here occasioned the difficulty, or seeming improbability of interpreting the words of Zion at Jerusalem. The similitude in the former verse of the oyntment falling directly and by descent from the head to the beard, hath led men to conceit a falling of that in like manner from a higher to a lower place; which indeed cannot in any sense be applied to mount Hermon and the hills of Zion, whereas in the truth this of the dew, were the hills never so near and subordinate one to the other, would still be a similitude unfit for that turne: for dew is not like rain, which streams down from hills to valleys, or from an higher to a lower hill, but remains in the place where it falls, be it high or low. The dew therefore in this place may possibly be set to express onelyonly the plenty of that which is spoken of (as elsewhere the dew of the morning is proportionable to the sand of the sea in respect of the numerousness, see note on Psal. cx. a.) and the blessing and refreshing quality thereof, & so to usher in Gods commanding a blessing and life for evermore, in the end of the verse. If that may be allowed, then the clear way of understanding this passage is, either to sever and read by it selfe foreign foreignas the dew of Hermon, i. e, as the dew that lies thick and numerous on the hill called Hermon, and then again to repeat, as the dew which fell on the hills of Zion; or else, joyning them together, to read by apposition, foreign foreignthat descends or falls, i. e. as the dew that falls upon the hills of Zion. Thus 'tis certain, that as the dew falls on Hermon, so it falls on the hills of Zion, yea and at the same time; and though not the same individual drops, yet the same specifical dew, with the same blessing, refreshing quality, and in the like plenty on the one and on the other. And therefore though the literal rendering of the Hebrew be, As the dew of Hermon which fell on the hills of Zion; yet our English, to avoid the mistake to which those words are subject, have not done amiss to make that supply as of an Ellipsis, adding and as the dew, above what is in the Original: without which addition yet the words may very intelligibly be rendred, As the dew of Hermon, which (dew) falls on the hills of Zion, so they be taken in this sense which we have here exprest, the dew which lies in great abundance on Hermon, and yet falls in the like plenty on hills very distant, those of Zion also. Or if we desire to make the resemblance and correspondence between the oyntment and the dew more compleat, it may be observed that Hermon, called foreign, and foreign, from its high top still covered with snow, was one of the greatest land-marks of Palaestine. Now of such hills we know, that the mist or dew of them is rain in lower places, there being no more ordinary indication of future rain, in all countreys, than when the high hills are cap't with a cloud of dew. And so to say this dew of Hermon, or that first formature of rain, which was on the top of that but as a dew, should after fall in shours of rain on the adjacent countrey, will be very intelligible. And then for the choise of Zion for the other terme on which the rain is here supposed to fall, there is this reason of analogy, that the foreign foreignwhich we render skirts of Aarons garment, is by Kimchi and Jarchi affirmed to be the upper part, the collar of his garment, it being neither usefull, nor convenient, nor consequently probable, that the anointing should be so liberal as to run over all his cloaths: and then Zion, by being thus lower then Hermon, will bear a fit analogy with that.
The Hundred Thirty Fourth Psalm.
A Song of Degrees. The hundred thirty fourth is the incouraging the Priests in their constant offices, in the publick worship and praising of God in the Sanctuary, and is the last of those which were accommodated to the returne from the Captivity.
1. BEhold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, which by nighta. stand in the house of the Lord.
Paraphrase. Now is God in an eminent manner to be blessed and praised for all his mercies, that especially of giving liberty for the continual offices of the Temple, of which we were so long deprived, and to which being now restored, all that attend that service by day and night, the Priests in their courses, are obliged most diligently to performe it, and affectionately and devoutly to magnify his holy name,
2. Lift up your hands‖or, in holiness in theb. Sanctuary, and praise the Lord.
Remembring allways, that the ceremony of washing, which is constantly observed herein, is an Emblem of the great sanctity of lives that is required of those that thus wait on the Altar, that offer up any sacrifice to God, especially that of praise and thanksgiving; and that therefore they are most neerly concerned to be thus qualified, whensoever they come to officiate.
3. The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion.
And the great omnipotent Creator and Governor of the whole world, that hath his peculiar blessing residence in Mount Zion, thence to hear and grant the petitions that are made unto him there, bless and prosper, receive, and graciously answer all the requests which his people shall there at any time address unto him.
Annotations on Psalm CXXXIV.
V. 1. Stand] foreign foreignye that stand seems here to have a critical notation, for Aben Ezra observes that the High priest only sat in the Temple, the rest ever stood; which seems to have been imitated in the Primitive Christian Church, that the Bishop should sit, and the inferior Clergy stand.
V. 2. In the Sanctuary] The Hebrew foreign foreignsignifying holiness as well as the holy place, the Temple or Sanctuary, may here be taken in the former sense, the latter having been sufficiently exprest, v. 1. by the house of the Lord (to which also the Lxxii. addes there, above the Hebrew, foreign, in the courts of the house of our God.) For the Priests (which are here spoken to) before their officiating, which is here exprest by lifting up their hands, were obliged to wash their hands, and that washing is stiled foreign sanctification: (see note on Joh. xiii. b. and on Psal. xxvi. d.) And to this referrs the lifting up holy hands, 1 Tim. ii. 8. the bringing this purity to our offices of devotion. Of the Priest we read in Joma c. iii. § 3. that the High Priest on the day of Expiation washes five foreign and ten foreign sanctifications, i. e. five washings of his whole body, and ten washings of his hands and feet. And so here lifting up the hands foreign in or with holiness, or sanctification, will be the lifting up these holy hands, qualifying themselves thus for the discharge of their office, which was signified by their washing before their officiating. The Lxxii. indeed read foreign to the sanctuary, but the Syriack foreign, either to holiness (as their Latine read ad sanctitatem) or to the sanctuary, and so the Jewish Arab; but the Chaldee, to secure this sense, reads foreign, in, or with, holiness to the holy place.