Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 5 · Psalm 141
The Hundred Fourty First Psalm.
A Psalm of David. The hundred and forty first is an ardent prayer of Davids for deliverance from his enemies, but first and especially for patience under them, that he be not by their oppositions, or the incitements of others, moved out of his course of meekness, of piety and the other parts of duty incumbent on him. It seems to have been composed (as the next is by the title affirmed to be) on occasion of Sauls persecuting him to the cave of Engedi, 1 Sam. 24.
1. LOrd, I cry unto thee, make haste unto me: give eare unto my voice, when I cry unto thee:
2. Let my prayer be‖directed foreign set forth before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as ana. evening sacrifice.
Paraphrase. O Lord, I am in distresse, and have no other refuge but thee to whom I may resort. To thee therefore I most humbly and ardently address my prayers, in the same manner as thy priests are by thee appointed to address their daily oblations, to atone thee, beseeching thee graciously to accept and answer them, and in thy time to rescue me out of mine enemies hands.
3. Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, and keepb. the†lifting up dore of my lips.
4. *or, My heart shall not incline to an evill word, to contrive devices in impiety,c.Incline not my heart to any evill thing, to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity; and‖I will not partake in their delicacies. let me not eate of their dainties.
Meanwhile, O Lord, grant me thy guidance both for my words and actions: for my words, that whatever their dealings toward me are, I may not be provoked to any speech of rashnesse or impatience or disloyalty toward Saul; and for my actions, that I may not be tempted to any unlawfull practice, that I may not for any appearance of advantage to my selfe thereby, give eare to any evill counsell. My resolutions are firme to the contrary, and how inviting soever the temptations are, I hope I shall never taste of the sweets of them.
5. †Reproach will bruise me that am righteous, and rebuke me, but that poysonous oyle shall not bruise my head; for my prayer shall be in their mischiefs.d.Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness; and let him reprove me, it shall be an excellent oile, which shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities.
6. *Their Judges are left by the sides of the rock, and have heard my words, that they—When theire. judges are overthrown in stony places, they shall hear my words, for they are sweet.
I have been most carefull to preserve my loyalty to Saul, and am not guilty of the least disloyall attempt toward him; yet calumniators have made other representations of me, that I seek his life, &c. and so have incited him to pursue me to death. But how low soever my condition at present be, I am confident they shall not prevail against me to my final ruine. Against their bitterest and most poisonous calumnies, their most mischievous attempts against me, my prayers are a sufficient antidote, and will, I doubt not, avert the mischief from me. When Saul went into the cave, and left his Commanders and followers without by the sides of the cliffe, they were witnesses of my dealing with Saul, and the signal evidences I gave him of mine integrity, sufficient to convince the most inveterate malice and most obstinate calumny, and accordingly so it wrought on Saul himself, 1 Sam. xxiv. 16, 17, 18, 19.
7. Our bones are scattered atf. the‖As one that cuts and slits the earth, our bones are scattered at the mouth of Scheol. graves mouth, as when one cutteth and hewethg. wood upon the earth.
We have been terribly harrast and opprest and persecuted, and now are every minute ready to be destroyed.
8. But mine eyes are unto thee, O God the Lord; in thee is my trust,†or, poure not out, wast not away leave not my soule destitute.
9. Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me, and the grins of the workers of iniquity.
10. Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withall escape.
But, O Lord, on thee is our full affiance & confidence, thy power and thy mercy is our sure refuge; to thee we address our humblest requests, that thou wilt not cast us out of thy care, but preserve us from all the ambushes and treacherous designes that wicked men have laid against us. And this I have full confidence thou wilt doe, bringing mischief on them that designe mischief, and by the same means deliverance to us who are injured by them.
Annotations on Psalm CXLI.
V. 2. Evening sacrifice] The reason why the Evening sacrifice is here named,foreign is rendred by Kimchi, because that supposeth and comprehends the morning sacrifice; but by R. Saadiah, because there is no sin-offering brought after that, all things being then atoned. The Jewish Arab reads, as an accepted or acceptable oblation.
V. 3. Dore] From foreign to draw up, is foreign foreignhere, and so signifies the lifting up: foreign saith the Chaldee, elevation; and so the Jewish Arab, the lifting up of my lips, making it to be of the same root that foreign Isa. xxxviii. 14. which according to him must be, Mine eyes are lifted up on high, from foreign and so Kimchi saith his father interpreted it, that the meaning should be, the words which I take into my lips. So Abu Walid seems to have taken it. From the root foreign is foreign a dore, and that metaphorically applied to the lips, Job xli. 14. Who shall open foreign the dore of his face, i. e. his lips? and so foreign is thought here to be used by Apocope. But although the lips are fitly styled the dore of the face, or the mouth, yet they will not so commodiously be styled foreign the dore of the lips, especially when that other rendring of the Chaldee is so much more agreeable, the lifting up, as that signifies the opening of the lips, or mouth, which is the most obvious and frequent Periphrasis of speaking: Job xi. 5. O that God would speak, foreign and open his lips against thee; and so Job xxxii. 20. I will speak that I may be refresht, I will open my lips— and Psal. li. 15. Open thou my lips— And therefore as the Syriack omits the rendring of this word foreign, and onelyonly reads, set a guard foreign on my lips; so the Lxxii. that have foreign a dore, doe use that with foreign joyned with it, for a Periphrasis of the guard, the rendring of foreign, not of foreign, set, O Lord, a watch on my mouth, and a dore of guard about my lips: and so the Latine and Arabick, ostium circumstantiae, and ostium munitum, a guarded dore to my lips; where 'tis evident the lips are not lookt on as the dore, but the guard, the grace of vigilance and circumspection, that is to be set upon them, and is usefull, as a dore, to keep all close, to keep any thing from coming out that ought to be kept in.
V. 4. To practise wicked works] The Hebrew here read, foreign to machinate machinations in evill; the Lxxii. read, foreign, to pretend pretenses in sins, and so the Jewish Arab, that I should pretend causes with the people that work deceit; noting this to be the manner of wicked men, when they project or contrive iniquity, to project also some specious pretenses of doing it, whereby they much facilitate the practice of it, and hope to gaine impunity, if they prosper not in it. And thus indeed doth the Hebrew foreign,foreign here used signify, seeking occasions, pretenses of doing any thing. But the Chaldee interprets it here by foreign thinking, contriving, and the Syriack by speaking and committing iniquity; and so 'tis not amiss exprest by our English, to practise wicked works. In the end of the verse, for foreign eate of their dainties, from foreign pleasant, delightfull, the Lxxii. read foreign, combine, or, as the Latine, communicabo, communicate with their chosen things, i. e. certainly with the best or fattest of their diet, as foreign is a cram'd foule, and as the Lxxii. Gen. xlix. 15. render the same word foreign by foreign fat. The Chaldee read, foreign— I will not be fed with the song of the house of their feasts, from a notion of foreign, in which the Rabbines use it, for Musick, or Song, and because Musick was a festival ceremony. But the Syriack foreign I will not joyne, or mixe, or, from the notion of foreign for salt, I will not eat salt with them, as foreign Act. 1.4. to eat salt with, is to converse familiarly with them. The onelyonly difficulty in this verse is, whether it be a prayer, or a resolution: and indeed the words will bear either sense, foreign foreignbeing interpretable, in accord with the former verse, in forme of a prayer, Incline not my heart, and yet (as beginning this period) they may as fitly be rendred, my heart shall not incline; and to this the designe of the following verses seems to exact it. The occasion of the Psalm seems to have been that eminent passage of Davids story, to which the title of the next Psalm refers, when he was in the cave, 1 Sam. xxiv. when Saul entred into the cave to cover his feet, and David might have killed him if he would, and was by his servant incited to doe so, but resolved he would not touch the Lords anointed; and when he had cut off the skirt of his garment, his heart smote him for it. To this the verse seems to referr, as a reflexion on that resolution of his, not to joyne with any, on never so advantageous a prospect, in any unlawfull practice, yea though it were to get the instant possession of a Kingdome. And therefore that seems to be the most commodious rendring of it, My heart shall not incline, &c. The Jewish Arab interpreting it as a prayer, saith in a note, that he means not a forcing, but the defending him from his enemies, that his heart might not incline, or bende aside, to busie his thoughts about them, and how to doe, or to think of them, or seek to beware of them.
V. 5. Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness] The Hebrew words foreign foreignare acknowledged very obscure; yet by observing the designe of the Psalm forementioned, and the ambiguity of the word foreign, which signifies reproach as well as mercy, they may receive their explication: for then it will thus readily signify, Reproach will bruise me that am righteous, and rebuke me. Herein there is no difficulty, the like elliptical scheme being elsewhere not rarely met with, Ezech. xxii. 5. foreign they shall mock at thee infamous, i. e. which art infamous, and Jo. viii. 40. foreign &c. ye seek to kill me, a man, i. e. who am a man, &c. Then follows foreign.foreign That foreign signifies poison, as well as head, appears by Deut. xxix. 18. and Jer. ix. 15. Hos. x. 4. Am. vi. 12. and here Psal. lxix. 21. and that it is thought appliable to wine, see Deut. xxxii. 32. Their grapes are grapes of gall, i. e. poisonous, and their clusters are bitter. And then why may it not as fitly be the epithet of oyle, and so signify calumnies or reproach (foreign say the Lxxii. the oyle of the wicked) such as David fell under among Saul's servants, as if he sought the Kings life, &c. But this, saith he, foreign foreignshall not break or bruise mine head, (by that customary scheme of allusion betwixt foreign my head, and foreign poyson, the same word in different senses; here farther exemplified in foreign and foreign and the like) i. e. shall not finally destroy me. So bruising the head signifies Gen. iii. 15. in contradistinction to bruising the heel, which hath not that fatal consequence. That their calumny, though poysonous, and probable to bring ruine on him from the King, should yet not do it, his argument of assurance is, from a sure Antidote to which he had resort, foreign foreignfor my prayer shall be in their mischiefs; i. e. my addresses to God shall be the instrument of preserving me from any real or considerable harme that calumny can do me. For foreign in their mischiefs; (actively, their mischievous designes and enterprises) the Lxxii. reads foreign in their good pleasures, (as from foreign which in Chaldee signifies will;) and it may well enough be borne, by wills meaning their evil designes or attempts. In a place of so much difficulty, it will not be amiss to adde some other conjectures, as, by reteining the usually-received signification of the words, thus, Kindness will bruise me that am righteous, and rebuke me, i. e. work on me more then harsher dealing: Let not oyle on the head, i. e. flattering words, as smooth as oyle powred on the head, break my head; i. e. overcome me to be perswaded or enticed by them: for my prayer shall yet be in or against their mischiefs, i. e. that I may not be intrapped by those mischiefs which they intend when they speak me fairest. Some Jews, by another sense of foreign, would have this the sense, rendring the first words, Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness, and reprove me, the oyle of my head, with which I was anointed for King, shall not remove my head from the stroke of his correction or reproof, but my prayer shall be for them, that God would repay them good, and deliver them from their calamities.
V. 6. When their Judges are overthrown in stony places] This passage also will receive its explication from the story 1 Sam. xxiv. Where Saul seeking David upon the rocks of the wild goats, v. 2. left his captains and followers there on the sides of the rock, whilst he went into the cave to cover his feet. Of them therefore it is here fitly said,foreign their Judges (i. e. the commanders of his army, according to the style known in the book of Judges) are left (so foreign usually signifies) foreign by the sides of the rock (so foreign hand metaphorically signifies:) the Lxxii. reads foreign near or close by the rock. And being there left, it is aptly added, foreign and have heard my words that they are sweet; for so 'tis certain they there heard David expostulate his case with Saul, with those gentle words which melted the inveterate hatred of Saul himself, who upon that Apology then made by David v. 14. dismist his people from all further pursuit of him.
V. 7. Graves mouth] foreign foreignat the mouth of Scheol, is a very full expression of the condition of David and his men in the cave, in which they seemed as it were buried alive, and yet were in so desperate a condition as to be worse then dead.
Ibid. Wood upon the earth] The Hebrew here reads,foreign foreign as one that cuts and slits the earth, (so the Jewish Arab) or upon the earth, and in all probability belongs to the digging or ploughing up the surface of the earth: so the Chaldee render it, as a man that slits and cuts the earth foreign with plough-shares, and so the Syriack, as foreign the share cleaves the earth; and to that sense the Lxxii. also, though not by literal rendring, yet by way of paraphrase, foreign, as the thickness, the crust, i. e. the uppermost clod of the ground is broken in pieces on the earth. And so in all reason we are to render it, not by supposing an Ellipsis, to be supplied by addition of wood; but without any Ellipsis, as he that cuts and slits foreign foreignthe earth, the ב being frequently abundant. And then this is a fit description of a great distress, and very proportionable to Davids then present condition in the cave exprest in the beginning of the verse, by Our bones are scattered at the mouth of Scheol. When a pit is made, the earth that is digged and fetcht out to make the pit, lies in an heap rudely at the mouth of the pit, and that that lies so is ready to tumble into it: Just so, saith the Psalmist, we have been ploughed and harrast out by sharp oppressions, we now lie like earth so digged or ploughed, at the mouth of the great pit, call'd Scheol, i. e. ready to be destroyed.
V. 8. Leave not] From foreign to empty or poure out, is foreign foreignhere in the notion of casting away, pouring out, as that which one cares not for. So the Chaldee render it, foreign poure not out my soule, the Lxxii. foreign take not away, the Syriack foreign cast not off, or away, my soule.