Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 2 · Psalm 57
The Fifty Seventh Psalm.
TO the chief Musitian, a.Altaschith, Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul in the Cave.
Paraphrase. The fifty seventh Psalm was composed by David, on occasion of what happened in Sauls pursuing him, 1 Sam. xxiv. when David finding Saul in the Cave, might have killed him if he would, but spared him, and thereby gave him assurance of his friendship (and not, as he had been calumniated, enmity) to him. It was set to the tune of a former Psalm, which began with the words, Destroy me not, and it is (as the former) stiled his jewell (see note on Psal. xvi. a.) in respect of the greatness of the mercy recounted in it. It was committed to the Prefect of his Musick.
1. Be mercifull unto me, O Lord, be mercifull unto me, for my soule trusteth in thee: yea in the shaddow of thy wings will I make my refuge, untill these calamities be overpast.
To thee O Lord I make my most affectionate and humble addresse, relying on thee, reposing my whole trust in thee, neither seeking nor projecting any means of safety to my selfe, save that which consists in thine only aid and protection. Be thou mercifully pleased to afford me this at this time, and continue it, till this persecution be over.
2. I will cry unto God most high, unto God that‖performeth for me foreign performeth all things for me.
The Lord that hath espoused my cause, is a God of might. All that I ever received, hath been from him, my deliverances his immediate vouchsafements; to him therefore now doe I with all chearfull confidence address my supplications.
3. He shall send from heaven and save me‖he hath put to shame. fromb. the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.
When m…licious-minded men are most bitt…rly set against me, even to devour and destroy me utterly, God shall s…nd me relief from his throne, by some means which he shall think fittest to choose for me, by his†so the Chald. Angels, or by his gracious overruling providence, dis…ppointing those that had these bloody designes against me He hath bound himself by promise, and so both his mercy and fidelity are conc…rned in it, and he will make good both unto me.
4. †I ly, or, my soule, I ly among lions, the s…s of men o… set on fire, their teeth.c.My Soul is among Lions, and I lie even among them …hat are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.
My life is in the same dang… as if I were incompast with Lions; vi…ulent …en, such as are continually in flaming and inciting …aul to pu…sue and destroy me, never say any thing but with some bloody designe of bringing mischief upon me.
5. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, let thy glory be above all the earth.
Lord, he thou pleased to res…ue …e out of thi d…nger, and so to magnifie thy own glory over the pride and malice of the greatest men, by discomfiting and frustrating the designes of such.
6. They have prepared a net for my steps, my soule is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst of which they are fallen themselves. Selah.
They have designed very treacherously against me, like fowlers th…t by digging holes, and laying gins or toils in them, insnare the simple unwary bird: and God hath disappointed them in all their designes, brought on them what they had projected against me.
7. My heart is*prepared foreign see 2 Chr. 30.19. Ezr. 7.10. Ps. 10.17. fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing, and give praise.
This is enough to raise and enl…ven, and inspirit any mans heart, to praise and magnifie the mercy of so signal a deliverance. And as there is nothing so fit, so nothing that I shall more readily performe.
8. Awake up my glory, awake Psaltery and Harpe,‖I will awake the morning. I my selfe willd. awake early.
My tongue (see Psal. xvi. note i.) shall begin the hy n, and the instruments of Musick shall follow in a chearfull and melodious note, they shall no longer lie idle, when such eminent mercies exact their acknowledgements, and my heart, whose tribute is most due, and every member of my body, faculty of my soule, and action of my life shall be most diligent in an ea…ly payment of it.
9. I will praise thee, O God, among the people, I will sing unto thee among the nations.
My acknowledgement shall no… e made to thee in private only, but in the midst of the congregation, with the greatest solemnity possible, calling all others to assist me in so weighty a worke.
10. For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth untoe. the†Sky. clouds.
For thou hast in a most eminent manner, made good thy great mercy most undeservedly and gratiously promised to me, and thereby thy fidelity also.
11. Be thou exalted, Lord, above the heavens,*or thy glory is ‖ let thy glory be above all the earth.
Lord, be thou pleased to rescue me out of this present danger, and so to magnify thy own glory over the pride and malice of the greatest men by disappointing and frustrating their designes against me (see v. 5.)
Annotations on Psalm LVII.
Tit. Altaschith] foreign foreignfrom foreign perdidit, is a form of deprecation [destroy not.] It is foure times used in the titles of the Psalms, in this, and the two next succeeding Lviii. and Lix. and Lxxv. This makes the Chaldees gloss improbable, viz. that it was composed at a time, when he said Destroy me not, for that will not fitly be applicable to any, much less to all of these. 'Tis much more probable that as many other titles of the Psalms, so this was designed to denote the melody or tune to which it was set, the same that had formerly belonged to some Psalm or hymn, beginning with those words, foreign destroy not.
V. 3. The reproach] All the Antient Interpreters make foreign foreigna verb (and so sure it is of the preterperfect tense in Piel) and apply it to God, that he shall deliver David, having shamed or reproached his enemies. So the Chaldee foreign he hath reproached, the Syriack foreign and he shamed or reproached. So before them the Lxxii. foreign, the Vulgar dedit in opprobrium, he gave to reproach, and accordingly the Arabick and Aethiopick. And in all reason so we are to render it, rather then imagine the praefix foreign to be wanting. But another rendring the words are also capable of, foreign he that would swallow me up hath reproach't or rail'd against me.
V. 4. My soule] The rendring of this fourth verse will depend upon the notion of foreign foreignmy soule. This, according to the most usual notion of foreign, signifies no more then I my selfe, and then it may not improbably connect with foreign in the first person my soule, i. e. I lie among Lions: If not so, yet reteining the literal rendring [my soule] that may be taken in the vocative case, as part of a soliloquy, O my soule, I lie— In either of these rendrings the following words will flow readily, foreign foreignthe sons of men are set on fire, foreign &c. their teeth are spears—
V. 8. Awake] foreign from foreign is most fitly to be taken in the transitive sense for exciting or stirring up, and so awakening. So 'tis generally taken, and then foreign being a noun, that signifies the dawning first light of the morning, the phrase foreign foreignwill be best rendred, I will awake the morning, a Poetick strain, imitated by Ovid, and frequent among Poets, Non vigil ales ibi cristati cantibus oris Evoca… auroram, The cock by his crowing calls not up the morning there.
V. 10. The clouds] From foreign comminuit, is the noune foreign foreignthe heaven, from the thinness of the substance thereof. And it seems to be taken not for the aerial part (which contains the Clouds) but the aethereal, which comprehends the Sun, Moon, and Stars. So Psal. Lxxxix. 37. where the Moon is called the faithfull witness foreign in heaven. So v. 6. Who in the heaven foreign shall be compared unto the Lord? meaning the highest heavens, not the clouds. So Isa. xLv. 8. foreign in the plural, Let the heavens distill righteousness, to signifie not the clouds that distill the dew (as the Chaldee there understands, and renders it, foreign and the clouds) but God the Lord, that doth all these things v. 7. so Jer. Li. 9. is lifted up to foreign, where the Chaldee renders foreign the heavens of heavens, or highest heavens. I suppose there in the notion of the highest heavens, though that phrase doe not alwayes signify so (see note on Psal. cxLviii. 4.) And so in this place foreign foreignin the former part of the verse regularly signifies the regions of the aire, frequently called foreign heavens; and then in all reason foreign shall signifie not the same again, but the aethereal regions, and so will best be rendred, Sky, the seat of the Starres: the Chaldee reteineth the same word, only changed into the plural, foreign, heavens, the Syriack al…o, departing from the Lxxii. (which read foreign clouds) render it foreign, to the heavens of heavens. The Jewish Arab renders it foreign from a root differing from the Hebrew only by the change of foreign into foreign, which though not usually found applied to the heavens, yet may well signifie the highest of them, properly signifying heights, as joyned with the name of mountain, the heights or highest tops of the mountains, and that is the peculiar style for the aethereal bodies, foreign heights, and foreign the highest, which makes it reasonable for us to render it Sky, and not Clouds.