Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 2 · Psalm 63
The Sixty Third Psalm.
A Psalm of David when he was in the Wilderness of Judah.
Paraphrase. The sixty third Psalm was composed by David in a condition of great sadness, when not daring to adventure himself in Keilah, which he had rescued from the Philistims, 1 Sam. xxiii. 5.12. he got into strong holds in the wilderness v. 14. viz. the wilderness (not of Idumaea, as the Lxxii. &c. read, but) of Judaea, 1 Sam. xxii. 5. in the forest of Hareth.
1. O God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesha. ‖fainteth, grows di… fighted, is in anguish.longeth for thee, in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
O Gracious Father, I have no other sanctuary but thee; I will make all speed to implore thy mercy; my condition is most sad and deplored; the wide and squalid desert, in which now I am, is the liveliest emblem of it: O that thou wilt please to succour and relieve me.
2. †So as I have seen thee i… th… sanctuary, to see thy strength and glory.To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in theb. sanctuary.
To restore me to that dignity and comfort of serving thee in the Sanctuary, where the Cherubims spreading abroad their wings for a covering, are a signal emblem of thy presence.
3. Because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
That mercy of thine which gives a value to life it selfe, and without which that which is most pretious and desirable is nothing worth. For this, I that have so often tasted, and so know the value of it, shall be for ever obliged to magnify thy blessed name.
4. Thus will I bless thee while I live; I will lift up my hands in thy name.
And this will I do constantly and continually to the end of my life, and in the experience of thy past mercies, make my humblest addresses to thee for all that I can want for the future.
5. My soule shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatnesse; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyfull lips.
And thus, by thy great mercy, shall my life be divided betwixt imploring thy aids, and receiving abundant satisfaction to all my wants, and paying my chearfullest acknowledgements to so liberal a don…r.
6. When I remember thee in my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.
And for this, beside the offerings of the day, frequently repeated, the several divisions, or watches, or hours of the very night shall afford me fit seasons, when after a little repose and sleep, I frequently rouse my selfe, and divert to that more divine and chearful imployment, the meditation of thy manifold mercies toward me:
7. Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoyce.
And thus conclude, to my own unspeakable comfort, and thy honour, that that God which hath thus constantly relieved and supported me, will for ever continue his watchful providence over me, from which as I receive all security, so I am in all reason to returne him continual praise.
8. My soule*hath a… haered, kept close foreign followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.
As I have cordially adhered to my obedience, and faithfull performance of all duty to thee, so hast thou with thine especial care and providence supported me in all my distresses.
9. But those that seek my soule to destroy it, shall goe into the lower parts of the earth.
As for my enemies tha… pursue me with mortal hatred, and desire to take away my life, they themselves shall fall into the destruction they designed to me.
10. Theyc. shall‖poure them out. fall by the sword; †the foxes portion shall they be.they shall be a portion for foxes.
They pursue me to death, as hunters doe their game, and they shall fall by the sword, and be devoured by those wild beasts that others hunt and pursue; or they shall be driven to desolate places, as the most noxious beasts, the foxes (and wolves) are, when they are hunted and pursued.
11. But the King shall rejoyce in God; every one thatd. sweareth by him, shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lyes shall be stopped.
Mean while I shall have all cause to bless and magnify the name of God, and not I only, but every truly pious man, who, as he swears by the name of God, so is most strictly carefull to performe his oaths: whereas on the other side, all false perjurious men shall be destoyed.
Annotations on Psalm LXIII.
V. 1. Longeth] foreign foreignis not elsewhere used in the Bible: 'tis here by the Chaldee paraphrastically rendred foreign desireth, by the Syriack foreign from foreign intuitus est, expectavit, expecteth. The Lxxii. read foreign, as if it were foreign quantum. The fullest rendring of it may be had from the Arabick use of it, among whom, saith Golius, 'tis used not only for the dimness of the eyes, (which the Arabick Grammarians especially interpret of one born blinde) but also for faintnesse: so when Kamus explains it by changing of colour, mutabit colorem, and abiit, vel defecit intellectus, his understanding was gone, or failed; both which change of colour, and failing of understanding, are tokens of faintness, and being in ill condition for want of due nourishment. And so it will here most fitly be rendred (with analogy to the thirsting of the soule foregoing) my flesh fainteth, in a dry and thirsty land &c. But from that other signification of blindness or dimness, it may also here be taken according to that translatitions use mentioned by Alzamachshari, of being in a maze, erring, so as not to know whither to goe, or what to doe. The Jewish Arab here renders it foreign, which agrees with foreign in the notion of changing colour, growing wan, as also of great anguish, being sick at heart.
V. 2. Sanctuary] foreign foreignholiness] is evidently used for the Arke or Sanctuary 1 Ki. viii. 8. compared with 2 Chron. v. 9. And therefore the thing so vehemently here desired by David, is to see (and serve God) in the Sanctuary: And the same is the importance of seeing foreign thy strength and glory, for so both those words are used for the Arke, Psal. Lxxviii. 61. he delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemies hand.
V. 10. Fall] foreign foreignfrom foreign fluxit, effusus est, signifies in Hiphil, they shall cause to be poured out, or shall poure out.) The word is ordinarily applied to water, 2 Sam. xiv. 14. Lam. iii. 49. But here, by the immediate mention of the sword, it is restrained to the effusion of blood, and being in the third person plural, in the active sense, it is after the Hebrew idiome, to be interpreted in the passive sense, they shall poure out by the hand of the sword,] i. e. they shall be poured out by the sword, the hand of the sword being no more than the edge of the sword. As for that which follows, foreign,foreign it may possibly be rendred the portion of foxes they shall be, i. e. they shall be that which so frequently befalls foxes, viz. hated and p…rsued, and destroyed; that which befalls that subtle and noxious creature, shall befall them, to perish by their wickednesse; or they shall be in the same condition with them, driven forth into desolate places, such as foxes use to walke in: so Lam. v. 18. the mountain of Zion is laid desolate, the foxes walke on it; so Jarchi here interprets it; and so the phrase is used Mat. xxiv. 51. foreign— he shall set him his portion with hypocrites, assigne him the same condition that such have. But the portion of foxes] may more probably signify the prey of those wild creatures, there being a sort of larger foxes in those countreys, called usually Jackales, which feed on dead men, and will dig them out of their graves to eat them; and so to be left unburied, or buried at large in the field, will be to be made a portion for such beasts. The Syriack that reads foreign meat to, or for the Foxes, understood it thus, and the Lxxii, and vulgar, foreign, partes vulpium erunt, the foxes portions shall they be, i. e. cast out for these wild beasts to feed on. The Jewish Arab hath another understanding of these two verses; those that seek after my soule to destroy it shall goe down into the lower parts of the earth, i. e. seek into holes and caves after my soule, descend in their search after it under the mountains of the earth, intending to draw it out to the edge of the sword, and make it a portion for foxes.
V. 11. Sweareth] 'Twas an ordinary token of respect to Kings, foreignfor their subjects in swearing to mention their names: so 1 Sam. 1.26. and xx. 3. and 2 Sam. xv. 21. and in several other places. And 'tis Solomon Jarchie's gloss, that this is meant here.