Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 1 · Psalm 26
The Twenty Sixth Psalm.
A Psalm of David.
Paraphrase. The Twenty sixth Psalm was composed by David, as an appeal to God to vindicate his integrity, and deliver him from his enemies.
1. ‖Plead for, or defend me. foreignJudge me, O Lord, for I have walked in mine integrity:†and in the Lord I have trusted, I will not be shaken. I have trusted also in the Lord, therefore I shalla. not slide.
To thee, O Lord, I appeal for patronage and relief; and to qualifie my selfe for so great a dignity, am able only to say this for my selfe, 1. that I have not injured them that invade me, nor by any other wilful prevarication from my duty forfeited thy protection; 2. that I have constantly and immutably reposed my full trust and dependance on thee my onelyonly helper.
2. Examine me, O Lord, and prove me:b. try my reins and my heart.
For these two I humbly offer my selfe to thy divine most exact inspection, and examination, even of my most inward thoughts; and if thou seest good, to thy casting me even into the furnace of affliction, for the approving my sincerity herein.
3. For thy loving-kindness is before mine eyes, and I have walked in thy truth.
What ever thy trials are, this thou wilt certainly finde, that I have never failed to meditate on, delight in, and repose all my trust in thy mercies, and that I have sincerely performed obedience to all thy commandments.
4. I have not sat with*false foreign vain persons, neither‖gone in (see note d.) with flagitious men. will I goe in withc. dissemblers.
My conversation hath not been tainted with the evil examples of the world; I have not been guilty either of falseness or treachery or any manner of base unworthy dealing.
5. I have hated the congregation of evil doers, and†have not sat; set note d. will not sit with the wicked.
On the contrary, I have detested and abhorred all assemblies of those that designe such things, and constantly eschewed entring into any of their consultations.
6. I‖have washt d.will wash mine hands in innocency;†and compast. so will I compass thine altar, O Lord.
I have indeavoured daily so to preserve my thoughts and actions from all impurity, that I might be duly qualified to offer my oblations to thee, with confidence to be accepted of thee:
7. That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works.
To proclaim to all men, in the solemnest manner, thy abundant rich mercies to those that keep close to thee.
8. Lord, I have loved thee. habitation of thy house, and the place*of the tabernacle of thy glory. where thine honour dwelleth.
O what a pleasure hath it alwayes been to me to come, and offer up my prayers before the Ark, the place where thou art graciously pleased to presentiate and exhibite thy self?
9. ‖Ʋnite not foreignGather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men:
This I hope may be ground of assurance to me, that thou writ not deal with me as with wicked and bloody men, that thou wilt not permit me to fall under their fate, to*foreign Lxxii. perish as they doe;
10. In whose hand is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes.
Who designe, and consult, and contrive nothing but injustice, and spare no liberalities that may be useful toward that end.
11. But as for me,†I have walkt, so the Syriack and Lxxii. and Lat. see note d. I will walk in mine integrity. Redeem me, and be mercifull unto me.
Out of such mens power and malice be thou pleased to rescue me, who have never yet forfeited mine integrity.
12. My foot standethf. ‖or in the plain or court.in an even place; in the congregation will I bless the Lord.
I am constant and steady in my adherence and relyance on thee: thou, I know wilt support me, and I will make my most solemn acknowledgements of it to thee. Or, And now what have I to doe, but to offer sacrifice to thee, and bless and praise thee for ever in the publick assembly?
Annotations on Psalm XXVI.
V. 1. Slide] The only difficulty in this verse is, in what sense foreign foreignis to be taken. The verbe foreign signifies to trip, to totter, to be shaken, or moved, to be ready to fall, inconstant, or not able to stand. And it may be applyed either to the subject matter of his hope, that he shall not be cast down by his enemies, forsaken by God, (and that look't on as a reward of his hope;) and so our English understands it, and accordingly infers it with the illative, therefore: Or else it may be applyed to the hope it selfe, or David hoping; and then it signifies the constancy of his unshaken hope; that however God deal with David, he will immutably trust in him. And thus I suppose it is to be understood here, if the words be simply read, as they are in the original, thus, Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in mine integrity, foreign and in the Lord I have trusted, foreign I will not be shaken. Where in his appeal to God he proposeth two things to his trial (examine me— v. 2.) 1. whether he have not continued upright before him; 2. whether he have not, and do not still constantly continue to adhere and depend on him for his protection: which being the two things to qualifie a man for God: audience and acceptance, (sincerity of obedience to, and of trust in God) he may now chearfully appeal to him, and adventure himself to his divine examination. And thus all the antient Interpreters seem to have understood it, none of them interposing the [therefore,] or varying from the simple reading, as our English doth; but, on the contrary, the Arabick interpreting foreign by fearing, (which is the shaking of his hope) I have trusted in the Lord, and will not fear,] have confined it to this sense; and so the Lxxii. foreign, and trusting in the Lord I will not be shaken, or as other copies read, foreign grow weak: the Latine in like manner, (and the Aethiopick) & in Domino sperans non infirmabor, and hoping in the Lord I will not be weakned, i. e. I doe hope, and will continue firme in so doing. To this the learned Castellio hath exprest his sense, Patrocinare, Jehova, qui me innocenter gero, immotam in Jehova fiduciam habens, O Lord take my part, who behave my selfe innocently, having an unmoved trust in the Lord. And considering that it is here his request to God to take his part, that which follows in the rest of the period, must in reason be the recital of the qualifications necessarily required to the hearing of this prayer, rather than the inferring or concluding that God will take his part, i. e. that his prayer shall be heard. And this also appears by v. 3. where, having offered himself to Gods examination, v. 2. for the truth of what he had here pretended, he specifies expresly or instances in these two things; (only by way of foreign, frequent in sacred style, the latter is mentioned first) For thy loving kindness is hefore mine eyes, (there is his unmoved hope) and I have walked in thy truth, (there is his integrity.)
V. 2. Try] The Hebrew foreign foreignsignifies originally so to try, as the metallist doth his gold, by dissolving and melting it. So Psal. Lxvi. 10. thou hast tried me as silver is tried; where the Targum foreign thou hast melted us as the goldsmith melts his silver. So Isa. xLvii. 10. foreign I have melted thee— I have tried thee in the crucible of affliction. And thus the LXXII. renders it here, foreign set on fire; the Latine, Ure, burn; and the Arabick, make to burn. And thus it specially belongs to afflictions, by which, as by fire, such trials are made.
V. 4. Dissemblers] From foreign hiding himself, is foreign here,foreign which therefore literally signifies those that hide themselves; which because all wicked men desire to doe, their actions averting and hating the light, therefore the Lxxii. here render it foreign, and the Latine iniqua gerentes, wicked doers, the Arabick, breakers of the law: and so in sense it is to be rendered, but literally the secret dealers; the greatest wickednesses being those that are most secretly contrived: and accordingly the Chaldee so paraphraseth it, they that hide themselves that they may doe ill.
V. 6. I will wash] That the future tense in Hebrew is frequently taken in the preter tense, is known to all. Here the context requires it to be so, both in v. 5. and 6. being all but an explication, or recital at large of what had been said v. 1. viz. that he had walked in integrity. And therefore as it is v. 3. I have walked in thy truth, and v. 4. I have not sat, and v. 5. I have hated; so in all reason must the futures be rendered in the latter part of those verses, 4. and 5. I have not, foreign(not I will not) goe, and sit. And then by consequence so it must be in this v. 6. I have (not, will, for the future) washt my hands in innocency, and so compast— Now for the phrase,foreign washing hands in innocency, the Lxxii. render it, foreign, i. e. literally, among the guiltlesse; and so the Latine render it, inter innocentes, among the innocent. But this sure signifies no more than the ordinary reading of the Hebrew imports, to wash the hands in token of innocence. This we know was common among the Jews (from Deut. xxi. 6.) in any solemn business of protesting innocency, to wash the hands, as a token of it; and so Pilate did Matth. xxvii. But it particularly belong'd as a ceremony preparative to praying; for unless we come pure to that work, there is no hope to be heard. If I incline to wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear, saith David: and, surely the Lord heareth not sinners, saith the man in the Gospel that was born blinde: and Isa. 1. when you make long prayers, I will not hear, your hands are full of blood; wash you, make you clean: 'Twas therefore a common usage among all the Jews, alwayes to wash before prayers. So saith Aristeas in his History of the Lxxii.p. 890. D. foreign, It is the custome for all the Jews to wash their hands, as oft as they pray to God: whence the Apostle takes that phrase of lifting up holy hands, 1 Tim. ii. 8. (see note b. on that chapter) So in the Yad Tephillah c. 4. §. 2. The hands are to be washt before prayers. To this belongs the rule of the Jews, that every one should wash, as soon as he rises in the morning, thereby to prepare himself for the reading of the Shemaah, and praying; not accounting him foreign pure or clean, before he hath washt his hands in water: and this in imitation of the Priests ministring in the Sanctuary, who were not to perform any sacred office till they had poured water out of the Laver, (that was set in the Temple to that purpose,) and washt their hands in it. In place of which offices of the Priest, is, say they, the reading of the Shemaah in the morning, and at other times, which belongs to all, and must be prepared for by washing. See Mr. Pococks Miscell. c. 9.p. 388. This then being premised, the only difficulty remaining is, what is meant by incompassing the Altar; foreignthis referring, no doubt, to the Priests officiating or sacrificing, at which time he was wont to goe about the Altar, (as it here follows in the next verse) publishing and telling of all his wondrous works, (in order to which going about the Altar was adapted) praising of God, or praying to him. In reference to this custome of the Priests going about the Altar, it is, that the Lxxii. Psal. xxvii. 6. have these words, foreign, I compast and sacrificed in his Tabernacle a sacrifice of shouting; and the Arabick reads foreign to walke about, to perambulate, rendred by the Latine lustravi, so compassing, as in a lustration. The truth is, the Hebrew foreign foreignin that place signifies round about me, and so is most rightly rendered by the LXXII. foreign (they seem rather to have read it foreign) I compassed: Yet is that mis-rendering of theirs founded in this custome of the Priests going round the Altar, in time of his oblation: And then it being this custome of the Priests washing before his officiating, from whence came the custome of the peoples washing before prayers, the whole verse must thus be understood with reference to the Priests practice, who first washt his hands, and then offered sacrifice, and in offering encompast the Altar. In proportion whereto David willing to express his coming with a pure heart to pray to God, doth it by this similitude of a Priest, that as a Priest washes his hands, and then offers oblation, so had he constantly joyned purity and devotion together; which still belong to the two things mentioned v. 1. and again v. 3. as the qualifications to fit him for Gods patronage. The washing hands in innocency being perfectly all one with walking innocently v. 1. walking in thy truth v. 3. as his compassing Gods Altar, i. e. offering up his prayers in a pious hope and reliance on God, is equivalent with trusting in him v. 1. and having Gods loving-kindness before his eyes, v. 3. And so still the decorum is observed throughout the Psalm, and concludes it again, But as for me, I will walk innocently, v. 11. (there is the former) My foot standeth in an even place, v. 12. and so steady, firme, to signifie the stability of his hope, (there is the latter.)
V. 8. Habitation] The Hebrew foreign foreignhabitation, from foreign to dwell, is here by the Lxxii. rendered foreign comeliness, misreading it, as some think, foreign, by inverting the letters. In another place they render it foreign a cloud, Zach. ii. 13. as if it had been foreign that so signifies. But 2 Sam. ii. 29. they render it foreign eye, as if it were from foreign oculus. And so probably they took it here, the eye signifying also the aspect, wherein consists the foreign or comeliness of any living thing. The Syriack here render foreign ministery; but the Chaldee foreign habitation. The only question can be, whether by habitation of thy house] be meant Davids inhabiting Gods house, as Psal. xxvii. 4. One thing have I desired, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord; or Gods inhabiting it himself. And the latter seems most agreeable, so as the the habitation of thy house, be the house which thou inhabitest, or foreign foreignby apposition, thy habitation-house, as we use in English a mansion-house, i. e. a place for daily habitation, such as the Temple or Tabernacle was to God, having promised to be continually present there. Answerable to which is the latter phrase in the verse, foreign foreignforeign the place of the Tabernacle of thy glory; so 'tis literally to be rendred (foreign Tabernacle, from foreign habitavit) and so the Chaldee reads, and so the Lxxii. foreign, the place of the Tabernacle of thy glory, by glory, as formerly, meaning the Ark which was placed in the Tabernacle.
V. 12. In an even place] From foreign rectus, aequus, planus fuit, foreignis foreign planicies, a plain or valley. So Deut. iii. all the cities foreign of the plain, and the Chaldee foreign. And then 'tis not improbable, the word may here be used for the area, or atrium, the court where the Altar stood, and so bear some analogy with the mention of the Altar v. 6. the habitation of thy house, &c. v. 8. and with the congregation where God is praised, in the end of this verse.