Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 2 · Psalm 59
The Fifty Ninth Psalm.
TO the chief Musitian, Altaschith, Michtam of David, when Saul sent, and they watcht the house to kill him.
Paraphrase. The fifty ninth Psalm was composed on a special occasion, set down 1 Sam. xix. 11. when, after Sauls casting his javelin at David, he fled to his own house, and Saul sent messengers to watch the house in the night, that they might slay him in the morning, but David being by Michals help let down by a window, escaped, v. 20. This Psalm, as the former, was called his jewel, and was set to the tune forementioned (Psal. lvii. a.) and committed to the Praefect of his Musick.
1. Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise up against me.
2. Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from the bloody man.
O thou my most gratious God, mine only Protector and Defender, be thou pleased to interpose thine hand, to rescue me out of the power of my wicked and blood-thirsty enemies.
3. For lo, they ly in wait for my soule: the mighty are gathered against me, not for my transgression, not for my sin, O Lord.
4. They run and prepare without my fault: awake to helpe me, and behold.
Now is a season for this thy special interposition, for the aid and relief of thy all-seeing providence; for now Saul and his servants have designed my death: and though I never in the least provoked him, but, on the other side, have deserved very well of him, yet are they resolved to intrap and catch me, and then to take away my life.
5. Thou therefore, O Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all‖or nations. foreign the heathen, be not mercifull to any wicked transgressor. Selah.
Now therefore, O thou most powerfull God, which canst with the least beck of thine discomfit the strongest forces, and hast promised to watch over thy faithful servants, be thou pleased to shew forth thy just judgments among men, to vindicate the innocent, and to dissipate all obstinate wilfull sinners (see v. 8. and Psal 10.16.) This thou wilt certainly do, who art the upright judge of all the world: and though thou wilt pardon, and accept upon their repentance and amendment, the lapses of thy servants; yet 'tis certain, that even in thy covenant of mercy there is no relief for the wilfull and impenitent: And this abodes most sadly to Saul at this time.
6. They returne at evening; they make a noise like a dogge, and goe round about the city.
As hungry dogges that come home at evening, and are very unquiet, and goe about the walls of the city for C…rrion, dead carcasses cast out thither, or any thing else that may satisfie their hunger; so do the servants of Saul pursue and seek after my life, with the greatest impatience and greediness that is possible.
7. Behold, theyaa. †speak withbelch out with their mouth, swords are in their lips; for,*or who doth hear, or obey foreign Who, say they, doth heare?
All their consu…tations and discourse is to contrive how they may take away my life; and herein they goe on unanimously, no man among them makes conscience of duty, (as if there were never a God in heaven, to observe and punish such injustice and violence.)
8. But thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all‖or nations foreign the heathen in derision.
But thou, O Lord, art a beholder of all their actions, as of all things else that are done in the world: whosoever hath any designe contrary to thee, (see v. 5.) though thou permit him a while, yet in thy season thou shalt disappoint and punish him. This is the method of thy providence over all the people of the world; and thus shalt thou now do in this ease, disappoint and frustrate all them that watch to take away my life.
9. b.‖His strength will I repose on thee, or, his strength will I ward or keep my self from, at thee,Because of his strength will I wait upon thee; for God is my defence.
The God of heaven is the only safeguard and security, the only means of protection I have, or can pretend to; therefore on him only will I depend for relief, or rescue from this danger.
10. The God of†or, his. see note b. my mercy shall prevent me: God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies.
All the good that can ever befall me comes from the meer grace and mercy of God; on that therefore I waite with confidence, and implore with humility, that he will now timely afford it me, and disappo…nt and discomfit mine enemies.
11. c.Slay them not, lest my people forget: scatter them by thy power, and bring them down, O Lord our shield.
As for the manner of it, that must also be referred to the wisdome of thy choise, to doe it in such a way as may have the deepest and most lasting impression on the beholders: and that it will not so probably doe, if thou involve them in one speedy universal slaughter, which, though it may affect the beholders at the time, will be soon forgotten again; but by some more lingring way, scattering them first, and then rendring them the objects of contempt, calling them severally into a very low condition in their dispersions; for that will continue to minde men of this work of thy vengeance, to which all these evils are naturally consequent. And this is the method that thou wilt now use in discomfiting them, and defending me.
12. *The sin of their mouth is the word of their lips, and they shall be takenFord. the sin of their mouth, and the words of their lips, let them e…en be taken in their pride, and for‖perjury foreign cursing and lying which they speak.
This have they justly brought upon themselves by their perjurious falseness and boldness, their maligning and threatening those which never deserved ill of them, and their continual going on, and obstinate impersuasiblenesse therein.
13. Consume them in thy wrath, consume them that they may not be;†and they shall k…, foreign and let them know that God ruleth in Jacob, unto the ends of the earth. Selah.
And thus shall God certainly deal with them, sending punishment upon punishment till they be quite destroyed; and this in so signal a manner, that all that beh…ld it shall discern Gods judgment in it, and his particular providence in the government of the world.
14. And at evening*they shall return, foreign l…t them return, and let them make a noise like a dogge, and goe round about the city.
Under this judgment of Gods, they shall indeed be what their own voluntary sins had made them before, v. 6. the hunger of the dogge shall be their plague, as the ravenousness hath before been their sin.
15. Let them wander up and down for meat,†if they be not satisfied and continue all night. and e.grudge if they be not satisfied.
A beggarly and indigent, and so an unsatisfied and wearisome condition, shall be their lot, the greatest worldly plague that can fall on any, large appetites, and no possessions or acquests to satisfie them.‖They shall wander, foreign
16. But I will sing of thy power; yea I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble.
Mean while I am eternally obliged to proclaim thy power and might, and withall to make my solemnest acknowledgements of thy favour and goodness to me, and to make this the matter of my daily morning lauds, that in my greatest distress thou hast thus delivered and secured me.
17. Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing: for God is my defense,*God is my mercy, foreign and the God of my mercy.
To thee therefore I thus come, with all the rejoycing of an humble heart, as to one that never fails to relieve, when I want relief, and so eminently to make good his promised bounty toward me.
Annotations on Psalm LIX.
V. 7. Belch] From foreign foreignscaturivit, is the same word used in a metaphorical sense, for pouring out words, as a spring doth water, and simply for speaking, as Psal. LXXVIII. 2. foreign I will utter dark sayings, and Psal. xix. 3. night unto night foreign shall utter a word, and Prov. i. 23. foreign I will declare to you. And so in all reason here foreign they speak with their mouths, and swords are in their lips, i. e. whensoever they speak or say any thing, 'tis some bloody matter or other: and accordingly as the Chaldee retain the Hebrew word, so the Lxxii. read foreign, and the Latine loquentur, they will speak; and the Syriack more expresly foreign the word of their mouth a sword in their lips.
V. 9. Because of his strength] What foreign foreignhere signifies, is somewhat hard to determine. 'Tis literally to be rendred his strength; yet all the antient interpreters, as now we have them, render it, as if it were foreign my strength; foreign my strength, saith the Chaldee, and foreign, my strength, the Lxxii. and the Latine, fortitudinem meam. And so the context may be deemed to require, which joyns it with foreign to thee, as if it were thus to be rendred, my strength will I keep or repose with, or on thee, (taking foreign foreignfrom foreign in the notion of reposuit, as it sometimes signifies) for God is my defence. This interpretation of the phrase is generally pitcht on by the interpreters, save that the Syriack takes a greater liberty of paraphrase, and reads, foreign O God, I will glorifie thee, (upon the same account, I suppose, that Psal. viii. 2. for strength the Lxxii. read foreign praise) by that yet meaning to express the true power of the phrase; the reposing ones strength on God, being indeed the glorifying and blessing him for all the strength one hath. And should this be resolved on to be the sense, the words might yet remain unchanged, as our Hebrew now reads them, foreign his, i. e. Gods strength; thereby meaning that strength which I have from God: in which respect Gods strength and mine are all one: what is mine, as of the receiver, is his, as the donor; and when it is given me, yet it is not so mine, as to cease to be his, but still remains much more properly his than mine, as being free to him to withdraw it when he will; his principally and originally, and in fulness, and mine only derivatively, imperfectly, and dependently from him; I am a tenant at will, to be put out of possession when he pleaseth. And for the seeming incongruity between [his] and [to thee] it is not new, but frequent in the Hebrew, which oft pass from one tense, and from one number, and from one person, to another. The very next words are an example of it, for after God, mentioned in the second person, foreign foreignto thee, follows immediately in the third, for God is my defence. And indeed foreign his strength agreeing so well with God, in the end of the verse, and the sense lying thus, God is my defence, therefore his strength will I repose on thee, i. e. on God, the appearance of incongruity will not be in foreign his strength, but rather in foreign to thee. But neither is that new or strange▪ the transition from one person to another being so very ordinary. In the next verses we have foreign his mercy, with the points of foreign foreignmy mercy, the chere being for the one, and the chetib for the other. And accordingly, of the interpreters, some read the one, some the other, both certainly meaning the same thing; the Chaldee foreign the God of my grace or goodness or mercy, but the Lxxii. foreign, my God his mercy, and so the Latine; but the Syriack in the middle between both, foreign O Lord, thy grace—Thus much hath been said in compliance with the rendrings of the antient interpreters, as we now read them. But there is another notion of the phrase, of which it is capable; as foreign his strength] may be understood of the strength or forces of Saul sent against David to watch the house, in the title of the Psalm, and as foreign may be rendred I will guard, or look to, or beware of, or keep my self from, so as to avoid the danger of this strength of his, & this foreign at, or with, or by flying to thee, i. e. to God, as he is foreign my, i. e. Davids refuge, in the end of the verse. And thus the words most probably signifie, his strength I will ward, or avoid, or beware or take heed of at thee. And if the composure seem harsh or strange, it must be imputed to the poetry, which consists principally in affinity of words or sounds, and light variations, and correspondencies observed betwixt several parts of the composure. Saul sent, foreign and they guarded (in the sense of besieging) the house, in the title of the Psalm, and foreign I will ward (in the sense of taking heed of, or avoiding) his strength, in the end of this first part of this Psalm: And then in correspondence with it, is the conclusion of the latter part of the Psalm, very lightly varied, v. 17. Here the first part of the concluding verse runs foreign, there 'tis foreign. And the latter parts are of the same affinity also, foreign, for God is my defence, the same in both; and only foreign his mercy, changed into foreign my mercy, as foreign his strength, into foreign my strength. Thus much being said for the confirming this interpretation, 'twill now be easie to conform the antient interpretations to it, if only we shall suppose the true original copies of them to have been in the third, not first person, and to have been changed by scribes, on purpose to conform this ninth to the last verse. There indeed 'tis foreign and foreign my strength, and my mercy, as in the interpreters, so in the Hebrew it self: But here in the tenth verse, all copies of the Hebrew have foreign his strength; therefore 'tis reasonable to resolve, that so it was when the interpreters rendred it, and according to that reading their interpretations (being probably by scribes corrupted) ought in reason to be restored, the Chaldee, not foreign my, but foreign his strength—and so the Lxxii. foreign (not foreign but) foreign, his strength will I watch, or ward (the Hebrew foreign, and Greek foreign, frequently signifies cavere sibi, so to observe, as to avoid and keep out of the danger) at, or with, or by betaking my self to thee. And so in the Latine, and other translations, which are more reasonably to be accorded to the Hebrew, then the Hebrew to them.
V. 11. Slay them not] In this place the antients rendrings are very different. The Lxxii. applie the forgetting] to the enemies, slay them not, foreign lest they forget; and so the Latine and Syriack, ne quando obliviscantur, lest they forget. And so the Hebrew may bear;foreign foreign] may be rendred, lest they forget my people, as well as, lest my people forget. The Lxxii. indeed now read, foreign, lest they forget thy Law; and so the Arabick follow them: but that is likely to be an error of some antient scribe, for both the Syriack and Latine, that are wont to follow the Lxxii. read foreign populi mei, my people. But the sense inclines the Hebrew the other way, foreign lest my people foreign forget: the Chaldee addes, in the former part, a word, which renders an account of the latter, slay them not suddenly lest my people forget it. One act of universal slaughter, suddenly at an end, is not apt to have such a durable impression on the beholders, as another more lingering punishment, under which men lie long, pine away and consume, as the scattering here following includes. And so this is to be resolved the due rendring of it.
V. 12. For the sin of their mouth] The clearest rendring of this 12th. verse will be by acknowledging no ellipsis in it, thus, foreign foreignthe sin of their mouth, foreign the word of their lips, or is the word of their lips, i. e. (according to Hebrew idiom) every word of their lips, is the sin of their mouth, so many words, so many sins; (and then follows regularly, foreign and they shall be taken in their pride; this their punishment is the consequent of that their confident habitual going on in sin.) The Syriack have thus paraphrased it, foreign the sin of their mouth, their lips have spoken, i. e. whatsoever their lips have spoken hath been sin; but the Lxxii. more literally, foreign more probably it should be read, in the nominative case, foreign and foreign, and so in the other interpreters which follow them; the Chaldee taking the greater liberty, usual to them, of paraphrasing, instead of rendring the words, foreign, &c. because of the sin of their mouth, &c. which as a paraphrase may be born, but is neither the full, nor proper rendring of it.
V. 15. Grudge] The verb foreign is equivocal, foreignand signifies both pernoctare and querulari, to continue all night, and to growl or murmur: and in both these senses the allusion will here be proper to the returning in the evening, and making a noise like a dog, v. 14. But the construction lying thus [they shall wander for meat foreign, &c. if they be not satisfied, foreign and they shall—] it will be most reasonable to render it in the notion of continuing all night, thus, they shall wander, &c. and continue all night; and so the Chaldee and Syriack by foreign, from foreign pernoctare, appear to have understood it, though the Lxxii. read foreign and shall murmur.