Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 1 · Psalm 28
The Twenty Eighth Psalme.
A Psalm of David.
Paraphrase. The Twenty Eighth Psalm was composed by David in time of his distress, and is a fiducial prayer for deliverance.
1. Unto thee will I cry, O Lord, my rock: be not‖or, deaf foreign silent to me;a. lest†thou be silent, and I be likened. if thou be silent to me, I become like them that goe down into the pit.
O Lord, I have no strength or power to defend my self, but that which wholly descends from thee. To thee therefore I make my humble and most importunate addresse: be thou pleased to hear and answer it gratiously; lest, whilst I call to thee, and am neglected by thee, my enemies begin to insult, and account of me, as of a destitute lost person.
2. Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holyb. oracle.
Lord, answer my petitions, which ardently and solemnly I address unto thee, and so, as thou hast promised graciously to answer them.
3. *Se…se not on me.c.. Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity; which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts.
And let not me be handled in that manner, as wicked unjust oppressors, and treacherous designers are wont to be handled, perishing in their injurious attempts.
4. Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours; give them after the work of their hands, render to them their‖rendring. d.desert.
5. Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up.
For them, it is most just that they should be dealt with as they have dealt, that the same measure that they have meted to others should be meted to them again. That as they have not heeded God, and his actions, and works of providence, but lived in opposition to all his precepts; so he, instead of prospering them as they expect, should remarkably blast all their attempts, and at length utterly destroy them (see note on Psal. x.l.) (But thus sure thou wilt not deal with me, who have kept close to thee in all my undertakings, have dealt uprightly with all, and attempted nothing but what I have thy warrant for.)
6. Blessed be the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications.
On which grounds I come confidently to thee with my request, and am so assured of thy hearing and answering it graciously, that I have nothing to doe, but to acknowledge and magnifie thy mercies, as if they were already poured down upon me, saying,
7. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoyceth, ande. with my song will I praise him.
The Lord of heaven is my only fortification and defence. I placed my full trust in him, and never made applications to any other aids, that humane wisdome might suggest, and I am assured I shall reap the fruit thereof, assistance and deliverance in due season; and therefore I am transported with joy, and cannot chuse but triumph, and exult, and make and sing hymns for the acknowledging of his mercy.
8. The Lord is their strength, and he is the*fortres. of deliveraces. f.saving strength of his anointed.
Those that adhere to God shall certainly be protected by him: he will never fail to come seasonably to the rescue of him, whom he hath by his own appointment advanced to the Kingdome.
9. Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever.
O be thou now pleased to stretch forth thy hand, to rescue thy faithful servants whom thou hast chosen for thy self, to be owned by thee in a peculiar manner: be thou their pastor to take care of them, as of thy flock, and for ever to support them, and raise them up, when they are fallen.
Annotations on Psalm XXVIII.
V. 1. Lest if thou] The Hebrew idiome is here observable. foreignThe words are literally thus, foreign Lest thou be silent, or, hold thy peace from me, (from foreign siluit) foreign (from foreign to speak by parable.) Yet here the adverbe foreign hath no influence on that which immediately follows, for thus the sense bears not, [be not silent, lest thou be silent;] but on that only which is farther off [lest I be likened—] that in the midst being only taken in, in passage to the latter, and is best rendred in sense, lest thou being silent, or lest whilst thou art silent, I be likened. (This idiome frequently occurres in the sacred writings, and will be useful to be remembred from hence.) The Lxxii. render it literally, as it lies in the Hebrew, foreign foreign, lest thou be silent to me, and I be likened; and so the Latine and Syriack also, and so it must be rendred; the other by [if, or, whilst] being the paraphrase, and not the version, and so used only by the Chaldee, which professeth paraphrasing.
V. 2. Oracle] From foreign to speak is foreign,foreign used for the place wherein the Arke was, the holy of holies in the Temple, and so proportionably in the Tabernacle, before the Temple was built: so styled not only from the Decalogue, or ten foreign words, which were put into the Arke; but specially because from the midst of the Cherubim, God was wont to give answer to the Priest, when he inquired of ought, and so to speak there. From this use of it 'tis ordinarily styled the oracle, 1 Kin. vi. 5. 16, 19, 20, 22, 30. and viii. 6, 8. in all which the LXXII. retain the Hebrew word, and render it foreign: and so 2 Chron. iii. 15. and iv. 20. and v. 6, 8. onelyonly here they render it foreign, not as the Latine takes it in the notion of Templum, but as foreign foreignmay best be rendred the Tabernacle, (of the notion of foreign see note on Act. xix. e.) or Sanctuary, a part of that, as in the Christian Church foreign is but a part of the foreign or foreign, (by which words foreign the whole Church or Temple is signified) and that part particularly, foreign, in which the table of the holy mysteries is set, called also the foreign or altarplace, as we learn from the Scholiast of Nazianzen foreign. This therefore is the meaning of foreign thy holy Oracle, in this place, (so Symmachus and Aquila read it, foreign oracle) the Tabernacle, or Sanctuary wherein the Arke was placed, toward which they used to pray, and expect Gods answers from thence, viz. the granting of their prayers: as when in matters of doubt they sought to the oracle for the resolution of it, the Priest solemnly gave them responses from thence, called also foreign foreignoracles, answerable to the origination of foreign here, from foreign to speak, (see note on Rom. iii. 1.)
V. 3. Draw] foreign foreignfrom foreign that signifies both to draw and apprehend, will be best rendered here, seize not on me, as he that seizeth on any to carry or drag him to execution. The Syriack reads foreign Number me not with the wicked, seeming to transferre the phrase foreign foreignPsal. xxvi. 9. hither, for so that is to be rendred, number not my soul with sinners. In like manner the LXXII. which there read foreign, destroy me not together with— doe here, after they have literally rendred the Hebrew by foreign, draw not together, adde, foreign, and destroy not together; hereby evidencing, 1. that the phrase here, and [number not] Psal. xxvi. are all one; and 2. that the meaning and full importance of both is, destroy me not with the wicked, or in such manner as the wicked are destroyed.
V. 4. Desert] From foreign to retribute, or render, foreign foreignhere must most probably be rendred, their retribution, or rendering, i. e. according as they have rendred to others. In v. 3. 'tis said, they speak peace to their neighbour, but imagine mischief, i. e. designe the hurt of them that are their neighbours, and deserve no ill of them, and to whom they profess great kindness. This therefore is their foreign their rendring, as much unkindness and rudeness as can be, and that as little expected from them. And then for God to render them their rendering, (which the LXXII. exactly translate foreign, render to them their retribution, and so the Chaldee and Latine) is to deal the like measure to them, to bring mischiefes on them unexpectedly; and this, as the clear explication of what is in the beginning of the verse, give them according to their deeds— And thus it belongs to Davids argument to God in the whole Psalm, that he should not be used as wicked men are used, that as he hath dealt unkindly, or treacherously with none, so he should not be forsaken by God, when he stands in most need of the completion of his promise to him.
V. 7. With my song] In this place the Hebrew being very perspicuous, and void of ambiguity, the LXXII. (and from them the Syriack, Latine, Arabick, and Aethiopick) have very farre departed from it. The account of it is very hard to be given, unlesse we suppose them to have read the words otherwise placed, than now they are. We now read foreign and my heart exults, and in my song I will praise him: but the LXXII. foreign, and my flesh hath reflourished, and from my will I will confesse unto him. Here the onelyonly way of according this vast difference seems most probably this; to suppose foreign and foreign transposed, foreign set fore-most, and lightly changed into foreign,foreign and my flesh, which being joyned with foreign foreignfrom foreign was merry, (and being applied to plants, flourished, or lookt green, and so metaphorically applyed to a body, when it returns to verdure again) ariseth that part of their rendring, foreign, my flesh reflourished. And then foreign foreignthe heart being not unfitly taken for the will, the other two words foreign with my heart will I praise him, will be naturally enough rendered foreign, from my will I will confesse to him; foreign foreignin Hiphil, which we render praise, ordinarily signifying to confess, and that oft taken in the notion of praising.
V. 8. Saving strength] From foreign was strong, and foreign strength, is foreign foreigna strong place, or fortification. foreignSo Jud. vi. 26. build an altar in the top of this (rock, we read but in the margine) strong place. So Dan. xi. 7. and shall enter foreign into the fortress or strong hold; and so it signifies here, and with foreign salvations added to it, must be rendered, the fortress or strong hold of deliverances—