Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 2 · Psalm 62
The Sixty Second Psalm.
TO the chief Musitian, ‖for foreignto Jeduthun, A Psalm of David.
Paraphrase. The sixty second Psalm is an Eucharistical hymne composed by David, and committed to the Praefect of his Musick, to be sung and plai'd to by instruments after the manner that Heman and Jeduthun were appointed to doe, 1 Chron. xvi. 42.
1. †even to God is my soule silent foreignTruly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation.
All my defense and relief is from God alone; on him will I patiently and chearfully attend for a supply to all my wants.
2. *even he foreignHe is my rock and my salvation, he is my defense, I shall not be greatly moved.
The strength which I have from him gives me security that I shall not be in any great measure deprest by my enemies.
3. How long willa. ye‖use violence, or raise tumults, or calumniate lye imagine mischief against a man?†will ye kill, or be murtherers all of you? ye shall be slain all the sort of you, as a bowing wall, and as a tottering*partition. sense.
How vain then are all the attempts of my slanderous violent rebellious subjects, which are alwayes raising of stirres and tumults, as if all of them combined as one man to take away my life?
4. They only consult to cast him down from his excellency; they delight in lyes: they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah.
All their contrivances and consultations are to pull me from the throne, to wrest the regal power out of my hand; and this traiterous designe they glosse and varnish over with fair flattering language.
5. My soule,‖be thou even silent to— foreign wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from him.
But I will remit my whole cause to God, and attend how he shall please to dispose of me.
6. †even he foreignHe only is my rock and my salvation, he is my defense, I shall not be moved.
Being confident of a certain reliefe and support from him, which will not permit me to be cast down by these men.
7. In God is my salvation and my glory; the rock of my strength and my refuge is from God.
On him only I rely for deliverance, for exaltation, for aid to defend me, and for sanctuary when any distresse surrounds me.
8. Trust in him at all times, ye people, poure out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.
And this will be matter of imitation to all that profess to be his servants, to repose all their trust in him, to*foreign— cast away before him all the elations of your hearts Chald. empty themselves of all secular confidences, and apply themselves in prayer to him, devoutly to beg, and confidently to depend on his relief.
9. Surely‖the sons of Adam foreign men of low degree are vanity, and†the sons of mortal m…n foreign men of high degree are a lye; to be laid in the ballance they are altogether lighter than vanity.
For as for any humane aid, 'tis absolutely vain, sure to fail those that rely on it. The strength of all the men in the world, if not back'd and bless'd by God, is worse and less than nothing, it standeth in no stead, and so disappoints those that depend on it; and that is worse than never to have expected good from it, the frustrated hope being an unhappier condition than that of perfect destitution.
10. Trust not in oppression,*and rapine, become not vaine foreign become not vain in rob…ery; if riches increase, set not your hearts upon them.
He that thinks to gain any advantage or support to himself by riches unlawfully gained, will be sure to be disappointed, to finde his folly, when he e…pects the fruit of his contrivances. Riches are so farre from being valuable when they are ill gotten, that even when they are innocently gained, they must not be relied on (for any other advantages than those which may be hoped for by our liberal dispensing of them.)
11. God hath spoken once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God.
'Twas the first great maxime delivered by God in Mount Sinai, that he only is the great God and ruler of all; and nothing is more vulgarly acknowledged than this: and what can be more contrary to that, man the reposing f trust in any creature? for that is, by interpretation, the deifying it, the communicating to a vain helplesse creature that incommunicable attribute of God.
12. Also unto thee, O, Lord, belongeth mercy; for thou rendrest to every man according to his works.
And because to found our trust, there is more wanting than bare power and ability to relieve (for that, without an assurance of his readiness to doe what he is able, will not secure any) this also we are assured of by that other his great attribute, his infinite unexhausted mercy, which is a special property of our God, by which he hath assured us that he will graciously accept and reward, support and crown every sincere faithfull servant of his, and never fail to relieve and defend those who doe not first forsake and renounce him. See Rom. xi. 6.
Annotations on Psalm LXII.
V. 3. Imagine mischief] foreign foreignis but this once used in the Scripture, and so will not easily be interpreted, but either by the notion which we finde put upon it by the antient Interpreters, or else by the Arabick use of it. The Chaldee render it foreign from foreign to tumultuate. To this also the Syriack agrees, foreign from foreign to stirre up, instigate, incite, or provoke. The Lxxii. likewise read foreign, which the Latine well render irruitis rush in upon; and so all consent to render it, How long will ye raise tumults, use violence &c. The Arabick word is by Golius rendred validè conculcavit, injustus fuit, violentum imperium exercuit, any kinde of violence or injustice. Then for foreign foreignagainst a man, that sure is but a Poeticall expression for against me, i. e. David the speaker, against whom the neighbouring nations raised warre, and his own subjects rebellions. Thus doth Christ oft speak of himselfe, under the title of the son of man, in the third person, and S. Paul 2 Cor. xii. 2. foreign, I knew a man, i. e. undoubtedly himself. Then foreign,foreign from foreign to kill, though by the Interlineary it be rendred interficiemini, in the passive Pual, yet it may more regularly be read, as in Piel actively, only changing the point, - for '. And for that we have sufficient ground, the Eastern Jews reading it with Pathach as in Piel. And then it will agree with the foregoing foreign raising tumult or warre against him, which sure was designed to that end of killing him; and to that best agrees the following resemblance, foreign,foreign as a bending wall, for that is ready to fall upon and kill any that comes under it, but cannot so well be a resemblance of being kill'd: and so again foreign foreigna partition, or sept of wood, or stone, foreign,foreign from foreign driven out, or ready to fall, that may well be lookt on as very dangerous to all that come neer it, and therefore generally is avoided (men goe farre from the reach of it) and so is a fit resemblance to signify him that is ready to kill another. And thus the Chaldee understand it foreign will ye become homicides? so the LXXII. foreign, and the Latine interficitis? will ye kill, or murther? and so the Syriack foreign that ye may kill, as a bending wall— making that the designed end of their tumultuating. This whole passage is thus rendred by Abu Walid. First, foreign he compares with the Arabick foreign with t, not with th, which signifies to multiply words, and so he would have it, according to the use of it in that tongue, to signify speaking much against, backbiting, diffaming, spreading evil reports of, lashing out with your tongues against, for hurt. And the meaning of the whole passage he gives, either according to the reading of Ben Naphtali taking foreign actively, How long will ye prate or speak evil against men? ye would kill them, all of you, like a bending wall, or tottering fence, viz. inclining [or bending, putting your selves forward] with wrong and injustice toward them, and hard words, and false accusations, as a wall ready to fall, incline, to do hurt; or, according to Ben Asher, taking it passively, How long will ye speak evill of men, to doe mischief? (be ye all of you slain, in a parenthesis, by way of imprecation) as a bending wall, and fence ready to fall, and doe mischief. What he thus observes of foreign with t, not th, may have place also with the word as we have it; for the roote with ח th also in Arabick signifies mentiri, to lye, and confusion, injustice, violence, which as well agree to his sense, as that of the root with t.