Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 1 · Psalm 12
The Twelfth Psalme.
TO the chief Musitian upon ‖the Eight, see Psal. 6.Sheminith, a Psalm of David.
Paraphrase. The twelfth Psalm is spent in meditation of the malice and wickedness of men, and the relief which is to be expected from none but God. It was composed by David, and committed to the Master of his Musick to be sung, or played on the harp of eight strings.
1. Help Lord, for the Godly man ceaseth; for*or, fidelities foreign Lxxii. and so Syr. Lat. Arab. Aethiop. the faithful fail from among the children of men.
It is a sad sight or meditation, to consider how wicked the world grows, very few pious men to be met with any where; so few that one may rely on, or trust, that I have reason to complain, that even truth or fidelity it self is departed out of this earth of ours. And this may well drive one to his one sure hold, the help and assistance of God; on which alone I rely, and in that I rest, and beseech him in his good time to afford it me.
2. They speak vanity†one with another foreign every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and‖with a heart, and a heart, foreign with a double heart do they speak.
Among men there is nothing but falseness and dissimulation; fair words perhaps, but no reality in them.
3. The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things.
But God shall destroy these false deceitful persons, and all such Atheistical designers, which if they can by any policy attain their ends, never apprehend or fear any revenge from God, and make no scruple to profess so;
4. Who have said, with our tongues will we prevail; our lips are†with us, foreign our own, who is Lord over us?
Saying, our tongues shall gain us whatsoever we want, supplie all other defects of right, &c. who can hinder us from making our utmost advantage of these, to acquire whatsoever we can by the use of them? why should we stand so strictly to consider, whether what we say be true or no? So we may advantage our selves by it, to whom should we be accountable for that?
5. For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise*will the Lord say, foreign saith the Lord; I will set him in safetya. ‖he will speak freely to him, or puffe at him, or it shall speak out to him.from him that puffeth at him.
To such Atheistical oppressors and despisers as these God will at length shew forth his power, and just vengeance: the prayers and sighs of the injured, and the loud cry of his proud vaunting oppressors impieties, will excite and raise up the Lord of hosts, to the rescue of the one, and infliction of vengeance on the other. Those that cry to him, and rely on him, he will certainly hear and relieve effectually; or he that scorns his all-seeing eye and just providence, shall be scorned and rebuked by him.
6. The words of the Lord are pure words, as sylver tried in*a crusible, or fining pot foreign a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
This God hath promised, and then there can be no doubt of his fidelity in performing it. The silver that is most perfectly refined, is not freer from dross, than his words from all mixture of deceit. He cannot lie, nor will he ever fail those that relie and trust on him.
7. Thou shaltb. keep them, O Lord, thou shalt†preserve him. preserve‖foreign them from this generation for ever.
He will undoubtedly perform his promise, keep his word inviolable, and so, I am confident, support and defend every godly person from this sort of wicked Atheists, how often, or how confidently soever they shall rise up against him.
8. The wicked walk on every side, when thec. vilest*of the sons of men. men are exalted.
And it shall be matter of observation, and withal of astonishment to wicked men, to be witnesses of this act of Gods justice; to see those whom they most extreamly vilified, to be now exalted by him, and made evidences and instances of his Governing the world, and taking special care of those that depend on him, how vile and abject soever they are in the eyes of men.
Annotations on Psal. XII.
V. 5. Puffeth] Of foreign foreignit is questioned, whether it be the right reading, or no; for all the antient interpreters read it in the first person: foreign say the Lxxii. fiducialiter agam saith the Latine, and I will testifie saith the Chaldee, and foreign I will work salvation openly say the Syriack. And so all these suppose it to be foreign (not foreign) I will— as in the antecedents, the Lord saith, foreign I will rise, and foreign I will set; whereas our English translation, that read and render it in the third person, do 1. suppose a very unusual ellipsis, to be supplied with no less than three words [from him that] and 2. apply the following [foreign him] in the singular to [the poor and needy] both which are in the plural [foreign and foreign] and so cannot accord with it. If we shall take it in the first person, then for the nature of the word, it is acknowledged that foreign foreignsignifies two things: 1. flavit, sufflavit, to blow, and puffe, and so to scorn or despise; and 2. by a metaphor, to speak boldly, freely, confidently, (as sometimes also 'tis simply to speak.) This latter notion some of the ancient interpreters follow: foreign, say the Lxxii. and siducialiter again in eo, the Latine, I will speak or deal boldly with him; and the Chaldee with some change, I will testifie evil against the wicked: the Syriack (as was said) and Arabick express it by addition only of [palam openly] to the precedent phrase [I will work salvation openly.] In either of these rendrings the sense will not be amiss; either I will speak freely to him (i. e. to the unjust Atheistical oppressor, mention'd in the former part of the Psalm) or, I will puffe at him. If the former should be it, then speaking freely to him, must signifie rebuking of him, and that as an act of Gods vindicative justice, which he now promises to execute upon the oppressor, when at the same time he will redeem the oppressed: If the latter, then puffing at him is contemning or scorning his proud language foregoing. And with either of these accord the consequents, The words of the Lord are pure words—i. e. his promises of deliverance to the poor, by rebuking, or contemning the oppressor, are very faithful, such as he will undoubtedly perform. Thus much on supposition, that the word were foreign in the first person. But if we leave this conjecture, and retain foreign in the third person, and render it, he shall rebuke him, or in the first notion, he shall puffe at him (as 'twas Psal. x. 5.) i. e. scorn, or contemn him, then still this will return to the same, if it be so understood as to belong to God; and so it may, if it be in construction connected with foreign, the Lord will say] thus, The Lord will say, I will arise, and set them in safety; he will puffe at him, contemn, and scorn, or rebuke him. But it may also be in the third person, and yet not be referred to the Lord, but perhaps to the immediate antecedent foreign salvation or deliverance, thus foreign I will set him in safety, or give, or work Salvation, foreign It shall speak, or speak aloud to him (so as Hab. ii. 3. foreign it shall speak at the end) i. e. shall give him the effect, and shew him the accomplishment of my promise. This perhaps the antient interpreters saw, (but only thought it more perspicuous and intelligible, to render it not literally in the third, but by way of Paraphrase, in the first person) especially the Syriack, whose rendring [I will work Salvation openly] comes perfectly home to it. And to this fitly connects v. 6. The words of the Lord, &c.
V. 7. Shalt keep them] 'Tis not ordinarily observed to what the ם in foreign refers.foreign That 'tis a connotation of the whether persons, or things in the plural, that God will keep, there is no doubt; And 'tis ordinarily applyed to the persons. The Chaldee renders it foreign the just; the LXXII. foreign us, and so the Latine, and Arabick, and Aethiopick; the Syriack foreign them, and so our English, them, both there, and in the next words, where yet it is foreign foreignthou shalt keep him, in the singular. But that which removes all difficulty, is to understand the [them] of the words of the Lord, in the praecedent verse, so as foreign to keep, is to observe and performe, foreignwhether statutes, or promises, as ordinarily 'tis used. And then the [him] following, will certainly be the godly, or just man, to whom those words or promises are made. And this may be resolved on to be the meaning of the verse, Thou O Lord; shalt keep, or performe those words, thou shalt preserve the just man from— The Jewish Arabick translator takes a great liberty here, rendring foreign in the latter place, as in the first person plural, and thus expresses the whole verse; O Lord, as thou hast promised to keep them, so keep us from a generation that is thus conditioned.
V. 8. Vilest men] The meaning of this last parcel of the Psalm is very obscure. The LXXII. render it foreign, according to thy height thou hast highly or greatly regarded the sons of men; and from thence the Latine verbatim, save that they have turned foreign thou hast regarded, into multiplicasti thou hast multiplyed. Of this rendring of the LXXII. I suppose this account may be given; 1. that the transcribers mistake foreign for foreign, and that we are to read it foreign, according to the height or degree, wherewith thou hast taken care for the sons of men, or according to the height of the care which thou hast taken— 2. that the LXXII. for foreign foreignread foreign with the change of ר for ז and י for ו This word we finde Psal. xxx. 1. where we rightly render it [thou hast lifted up] but the LXXII. have foreign thou hast taken up, or taken care of, in the sense of foreign to take special care of. And then their meaning is plain, [according to the height wherewith thou hast taken care of the sons of men.] But then still this is nothing to the reading foreign, which now we have. In the next place then, the Chaldee paraphrase renders it, as a blood-sucker which sucks the blood of the sons of men, for foreign,foreign reading foreign as a worm, from a third notion of foreign for vermibus scatet, and understanding by foreign either the vilest parts of the body, to which those blood-suckers are fasten'd, to suck out the corruptest blood, (as the Syriack renders it obscaenities) or possibly taking the word in that notion of foreign, wherein it signifies absorbere, deglutire, as here Abu-Walid and others interpret it for devouring of men. Passing by all these, as remote from the meaning of the place, the plain sense of it will be best gathered, by observing the importance of foreign vilitates, literally, basenesses; but that to be explained by the adjunct, sons of men, so as to signifie the vilest persons; probably not those which are really such, but in the esteem, and repute of men; foreign 1 Cor. vi. 4. those that are despised and made nothing of among them. Such was David, to whom particularly R. Salomo applyes it, who was exalted from a very low and mean condition. And then, whether we read foreign secundum, or juxta exaltationem, or with a light change foreign in exaltando, the sense will be clear, The wicked walk about, or on every side (as those that would view a thing throughly doe use to doe, goe round about, to view it in every appearance of it) at the exalting of the vilest of the sons of men, i. e. when those that are most vilified by them, are by God exalted, and set above them. Thus some Greek Copies render it, foreign, when the mean or vile of the sons of men are exalted. So that now the onelyonly question is, what is meant by the wicked walking round about: foreignand that, I suppose, will best be answered, that by this expression is set out their seeing evidently, & being witnesses of it, and observing withall, and wondring, and perhaps grieving at it, as that which they did not fear, or look for, and now that they see it, finde themselves pitifully defeated; and thus it best agrees with the context, Thou shalt keep, O Lord, &c. from this generation for ever, v. 7. i. e. thou shalt preserve these good men that are thus despised, from their proudest enemies, that thus vilify them; and then follows, The wicked walk on every side— they see and observe and wonder at it, but cannot help it. But if indeed foreign should signifie those that are really base and vile, then the meaning must be, when vile and base persons are exalted, then wicked and injurious men bear all the sway, swarme every where. And this also hath some affinity with the former part of the Psalm v. 1, 2, 3. but doth not so properly connect with the immediate antecedents.