Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 1 · Psalm 30
The Thirtieth Psalm.
‖A Psalm of David, a dedicatory song for an house, or his house.A Psalm and song at the a.dedication of the house of David.
Paraphrase. The Thirtieth Psalm was composed by David to accompany the festival at the dedication of his house, (the building whereof is mentioned 2 Sam. v. 11. soon after the end of his warre with Sauls house, and his being anointed King over Israel) and is the commemoration of his own great troubles and dangers, and Gods rich mercy in delivering him out of them.
1. I will extol thee, O Lord, for thou hast†drawn me up (out of the pit, v. 3.) foreign lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoyce over me.
I will magnifie thy mercy, O Lord, who hast restored me peaceably to the throne, out of a very low and and well-nigh lost condition. When I was made like water spilt upon the earth, and not only so, but as such water again sunk into the pit, v. 3. thou wert then pleased, as it were, to let down the pitcher into that pit, and from those many waters, that there are lost, to recover and gather up one who could not deserve to be esteemed as a drop of the bucket, and so to lift me, and to draw me out of that pit, to inable me to overcome all difficulties, and not suffer mine enemies to prevail against me, who would have triumpht abundantly, if thou hadst not rescued and delivered me out of their hands.
2. O Lord my God, I cryed unto thee, and thou hast healed me.
When I was in distress, I addrest my prayers to thee, and thou gavest me release.
3. O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave; thou hast kept me alive,‖from among the descenders into, or from going down. foreign that I should not goe down to the pit.
It was thy continued aid and protection that still supported me, without which I had certainly been destroyed.
4. Sing unto the Lord, O ye Saints of his, and give thanks for the remembrance of his holiness.
O let this be matter of rejoycing and blessing God to all pious men; let it excite all such to acknowledge and commemorate his fidelity and mercy to all that wait on him.
5. For his anger endureth but ab. moment, in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
When he chastiseth his servants for their sins, this endureth but for a small time, but the effects of his fav ur‖foreign life eternal, Chald. never have any end; he exerciseth them with sadness and light affliction for som… small space, but then presently follow solid and durable joyes.
6. And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.
7. Lord, by thy favour thou hast†establisht strength upon my hill. madec. my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.
When Saul was dead, and I was crowned both over Judah and Israel, in Hebron, and the Arke, the pledge of Gods presence and powerfull assistance, placed and settled in the hill of Sion, I deemed my quiet and prosperity so complete, that I needed not to fear removing out of it. Gods special favour to me had exalted me to the throne, and, as I thought, now secured me in it: But he was pleased for some time to withhold my rest. For as after my first crowning I was seven years together exercised by enemies of the house of Saul, 2 Sam. v. 5. so after this second, other troubles assaulted me; thereby to instruct me, by what tenure it was that I held my security, meerly by his continued favour and mercy toward me.
8. I cryed to thee, O Lord, and unto the Lord I made supplication.
9. What profit is there in my blood when I goe down into the pit? shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?
In this estate I made my moan to God, and besought him, that he would not give me up to the malice of mine enemies, to be destroyed and slaughtered by them, but magnifie in me at once his mercy and his fidelity; the one in preserving my life, and restoring me to peace, the other in performing those promises, which would seem to have been frustrated by my death.
10. d.Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me: Lord, be thou mine helper.
And to that end, that he would now seasonably interpose his hand for my assistance.
11. Thou hast turned for me my mourning intoe. dancing; thou hast‖opened. put off my sack-cloth, and girded me with gladnesse:
And at length my prayer hath been heard, and all my sorrow and affliction exchanged for joy, and a most prosperous condition and establishment in the Kingdome, 2 Sam. v. 12. which is now the more glorious by comparison with my former sadness.
12. To the end that†glory see note on Ps. xvi. 1. myf. glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to thee for ever.
And this obligeth me for ever with soul and tongue to give glory to God, and never to think I have done enough in praising and magnifying his mercy. This therefore shall be my continuall practice, O thou powerfull God, and to me a most gracious Father.
Annotations on Psalm XXX.
Tit. Dedication] The word foreign foreignis generally used in the Titles of Psalms, to denote the Author to be David, and so here may best be joyned in construction, a Psalm of David. Then foreign foreignand foreign foreignbeing joyn'd, and made one word by Maccaph, will be a dedicatory song. All the difficulty is concerning foreign the house. For from foreign to initiate, to instruct, and, by a metaphor, to dedicate a house, is foreign the initiation, dedication, either the consecration of an holy house, or Temple, or the dedication, i. e. initiation, or entring on a common house new buil…, when the owner comes first to dwell in it: For this was wont to be observed and celebrated, as a day of solemnity and festivity; so we see (Deut. xx. 5.) care taken for him that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it, that he shall be permitted to return from the battel, as he that hath betrothed a wife, and not taken her, or planted a vineyard, and not eaten of the fruit of it, custome among the Jews having made every one of these a solemn time of rejoycing. When a man first eats in a new house, say the Jews, he makes a feast and rejoyceth himself. And thus, I suppose, it was with David. When he was quietly seated in the Kingdome of Israel, as well as Judah, and after his taking of Sion, and dwelling in the fort, and calling it the City of David, and building round about from Millo and inward, 2 Sam. v. 9. at length we read that Hiram King of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and Carpenters and Masons, and they built David an house, v. 11. And this being finished, this Psalm may reasonably be thought to have been fitted by him for a festivity, at the foreign (as the Lxxii. render it) the dedication of his house. Thus the succeeding Church of the Jewes have made use of this thirtieth Psalm, at the first injoyment of the fruits of the earth, according to that festival manner prescribed Deut. xxvi. 10. Maimonides tells us, this Psalm was repeated by the Levites, in the Court of the Sanctuary, over those that brought their baskets on their shoulders. And the foreign or dedication of an house was of the same kinde, in a solemn and religious manner of entring on the possession of it. And 'tis not impossible that such dayes might be kept yearly, as the Natales of men and of cities were; and then here will be place for the conjecture of those, which apply this Dedicatory Psalm to Davids victorious return from the danger of Absaloms rebellion. To this the matter of the Psalm fitly agrees, see v. 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11. And the building of a royal Palace having been the effect of his establishment in his Kingdome, 2 Sam. v. 'tis not unlikely the festival remembrance of it should be in a special manner observed, after such an interruption as this rebellion gave it. The Chaldee indeed read foreign the house of the Sanctuary, and to that the Emphasis in the Hebrew foreign the house, inclines, as if David had built some such house as he designed, 2 Sam. vii. 2. But we know he was not permitted by God to doe it, v. 5. but the dignity was reserved for Solomon v. 13. Then indeed at the building of the Temple there was a feast, and song of dedication. Nay, foure such we finde mentioned among the Jews: the first at the building it by Solomon, in Autumn, 1 King. viii. 63. the second in the spring, at the reedifying it by Zorobabel, Ezra vi. 16. the third of the Altar, when Judas Maccabaeus repaired it, after Antiochus's profanation, in the winter, Ioh. x. 2. and the fourth at Herods building the second Temple. But this of Davids here cannot be thought (by way of prophecy) to respect that, unless, as Kimchi fansies, taking order for the future building of the Temple 1 Chron. xxviii. 9. and giving a model of it to Solomon, he gave him also this Psalm for the dedicating it, together with the silver and gold and brass, and other materials for that sacred work. This conjecture of his was not unfit here to be mentioned. But the Psalm more probably belongs to his own house, which he built new at his being peaceably setled in the Kingdome of Israel, as well as Judah, and, as 'tis probable, celebrated with an Anniversary ever after.
V. 5. Moment] From foreign subito motus est, is foreign foreigna moment: but the LXXII. read it foreign anger, either because that is a suddain commotion of the soule, or else taking it for foreign anger; (so the Syriack reads foreign in his anger, in the latter part of the verse) meaning, I suppose, the effects of his anger, chiding, increpation, (as the Syriack foreign is rendred) or other such punishments: for otherwise that there should be foreign, anger in his anger, would have no great sense in it; and yet thus hath the Latine rendred it, ira in indignatione ejus.
V. 7. My mountain] foreign foreign(from foreign mountain) is literally strength in or on my mountain, referring possibly to Sion the hill of David, since the time of the Arks being placed there. For thus is foreign in both the notions, both for praise and strength, applyed to the Schechinah, or presence of God in the Arke or Temple; Psal. xcvi. 6. strength and beauty are in his Sanctuary, and Psal. cxxxii. 8. the Arke of thy strength. And then the setting or establishing strength on that mountain, may be the placing of the Arke there. But the Lxxii. for mountain read foreign, beauty or comeliness: either reading foreign from foreign which signifies that, or else from the affinity of these words both in sound and signification (foreign and foreign mountain and glory) they thought fit to take in the sense of the one, the more fully to paraphrase the other. And thus if applyed only to Davids person, the sense will bear, being in the Hebrew figurative, foreign Thou hast set or establisht strength on my mountain; but in the Lxxii. more clear, foreign (it should be, I suppose, foreign) foreign, thou hast afforded strength to my beauty, made my splendor (or prosperous state v. 7.) firme and durable: which may probably enough be the intire meaning of the phrase, without referring to the Arke; yet was it not amiss to mention the other in the Paraphrase, as the means of his conceived safety.
V. 10. Hear] For foreign foreignhear thou, the LXXII. read foreign hath heard, and so for foreign be thou, foreign thou hast been; and so convert the petition of David, into a report of Gods having granted it, which is the subject of the next verse.
V. 11. Dancing] From foreign to bore, is foreign a pipe, foreignor hollow musical instrument, ordinarily used in singing or dancing, and from thence foreign here for dancing. So the Chaldee renders it, foreign into dancing, and so the Interlinear: and though the copie of the Lxxii. antiently, as well as now, read it foreign, into joy, and so is followed by the Latine, Syriack, and Arabick; yet the conjecture of our learned countrey-man Mr. Nic. Fuller is very probable,l. iii. c. ix. that their original reading was foreign to dancing, not foreign to gladness, the Hebrew word thus exacting, and the conjunction with foreign wailing and lamentation not unfitly agreeing thereto, for to that is opposed, and properly succeedeth dancing, see Mat. xi. 17. To this is here added foreign foreign, literally, thou hast opened my sackcloth. For in time of mourning the manner was to gird it on, so 2 Sam. iii. 3. Rend your clothes, and gird you with sackcloth, Joel i. 13. Gird your selves and lament— and so Isa. xxxii. 11. gird upon your loyns. Instead of that melancholy cincture, gladness here becomes a cincture, as if sorrow, like a conquered enemy, were to be carried in triumph, adding to the glory of the victory, and taken in as an ingredient in our joy.
V. 12. My glory] What is here meant by foreign foreignglory, is somewhat uncertain. The Chaldee render it foreign the honourable of the earth, that they may praise thee; the Syriack read it, as after the verb of the first person, foreign, I will sing to thee glory; but the Lxxii. foreign, that my glory may sing, (and so the Latine, Arabick, and Aethiopick) in the notion of glory, for the tongue or heart of man, praising God, as elsewhere, and here the context directs to interpret it.